incarnation 876, being the twenty-eighth year of King Alfred’s life,
the oft-mentioned army of the heathen, leaving Cambridge by night,
entered a fortress called Wareham,[108] where there is a monastery of
nuns between the two rivers Froom <and Tarrant>, in the district which
is called in Welsh Durngueir,[109] but in Saxon Thornsæta,[110] placed
in a most secure location, except on the western side, where there was
a territory adjacent. With this army Alfred made a solemn treaty to the
effect that they should depart from him, and they made no hesitation
to give him as many picked hostages as he named; also they swore an
oath on all the relics in which King Alfred trusted next to God,[111]
and on which they had never before sworn to any people, that they
would speedily depart from his kingdom. But they again practised their
usual treachery, and caring nothing for either hostages or oath, they
broke the treaty, and, sallying forth by night, slew all the horsemen
[horses?] that they had,[112] and, turning off, started without warning
for another place called in Saxon Exanceastre, and in Welsh Cairwisc,
which means in Latin ‘The City <of Exe>,’ situated on the eastern bank
of the river Wisc,[113] near the southern sea which divides Britain
from Gaul, and there passed the winter.
=50. Halfdene partitions Northumbria.=--In that same year Halfdene,
king of that part of Northumbria, divided up the whole region between
himself and his men, and settled there with his army.
=51. Division of Mercia.=[114]--The same year, in the month of August,
that army went into Mercia, and gave part of the district of the
Mercians to one Ceolwulf,[115] a weak-minded thane of the king; the
rest they divided among themselves.
=52. The Danes at Chippenham.=[116]--In the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 878, being the thirtieth of King Alfred’s life, the
oft-mentioned army left Exeter, and went to Chippenham, a royal vill,
situated in the north of Wiltshire, on the east bank of the river
which is called Avon in Welsh, and there wintered. And they drove
many of that people by their arms, by poverty, and by fear, to voyage
beyond sea, and reduced almost all the inhabitants of that district to
subjection.
=53. Alfred in Somersetshire.=--At that same time the above-mentioned
King Alfred, with a few of his nobles, and certain soldiers and
vassals, was leading in great tribulation an unquiet life among the
woodlands and swamps of Somersetshire; for he had nothing that he
needed except what by frequent sallies he could forage openly or
stealthily from the heathen or from the Christians who had submitted to
the rule of the heathen.[117]
=54. The Danes defeated at Cynwit.=[118]--In that same year the
brother[119] of Inwar[120] and Halfdene, with twenty-three ships, came,
after many massacres of the Christians, from Dyfed,[121] where he had
wintered, and sailed to Devon, where with twelve hundred others he met
with a miserable death, being slain, while committing his misdeeds,
by the king’s thanes, before the fortress of Cynwit,[122] in which
many of the king’s thanes, with their followers, had shut themselves
up for safety. The heathen, seeing that the fortress was unprepared
and altogether unfortified, except that it merely had fortifications
after our manner, determined not to assault it, because that place is
rendered secure by its position on all sides except the eastern, as
I myself have seen, but began to besiege it, thinking that those men
would soon surrender from famine, thirst, and the blockade, since
there is no water close to the fortress. But the result did not fall
out as they expected; for the Christians, before they began at all to
suffer from such want, being inspired by Heaven, and judging it much
better to gain either victory or death, sallied out suddenly upon the
heathen at daybreak, and from the first cut them down in great numbers,
slaying also their king, so that few escaped to their ships.
=55. Alfred at Athelney.=[123]--The same year, after Easter,
King Alfred, with a few men, made a stronghold in a place called
Athelney,[124] and from thence sallied with his vassals of Somerset
to make frequent and unwearied assaults upon the heathen. And again,
the seventh week after Easter, he rode to Egbert’s Stone,[125] which
is in the eastern part of Selwood Forest (in Latin ‘Great Forest,’ and
in Welsh Coit Maur). Here he was met by all the neighboring folk of
Somersetshire and Wiltshire, and such of Hampshire as had not sailed
beyond sea for fear of the heathen; and when they saw the king restored
alive, as it were, after such great tribulation, they were filled, as
was meet, with immeasurable joy, and encamped there for one night. At
daybreak of the following morning, the king struck his camp, and came
to Æglea,[126] where he encamped for one night.
=56. Battle of Edington, and Treaty with Guthrum.=[127]--The next
morning at dawn he moved his standards to Edington,[128] and there
fought bravely and perseveringly by means of a close shield-wall
against the whole army of the heathen, whom at length, with the divine
help, he defeated with great slaughter, and pursued them flying to
their stronghold. Immediately he slew all the men and carried off all
the horses and cattle that he could find without the fortress, and
thereupon pitched his camp, with all his army, before the gates of the
heathen stronghold. And when he had remained there fourteen days, the
heathen, terrified by hunger, cold, fear, and last of all by despair,
begged for peace, engaging to give the king as many designated hostages
as he pleased, and to receive none from him in return--in which manner
they had never before made peace with any one. The king, hearing this
embassage, of his own motion took pity upon them, and received from
them the designated hostages, as many as he would. Thereupon the
heathen swore, besides, that they would straightway leave his kingdom;
and their king, Guthrum, promised to embrace Christianity, and receive
baptism at King Alfred’s hands--all of which articles he and his men
fulfilled as they had promised. For after <three>[129] weeks Guthrum,
king of the heathen, with thirty[130] men chosen from his army, came to
Alfred at a place called Aller, near Athelney, and there King Alfred,
receiving him as a son by adoption, raised him up from the holy font
of baptism. On the eighth day, at a royal vill named Wedmore, his
chrism-loosing[131] took place. After his baptism he remained twelve
days with the king, who, together with all his companions, gave him
many rich gifts.[132]
=57. The Danes go to Cirencester.=[133]--In the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 879, which was the thirty-first of King Alfred’s life, the
aforesaid army of heathen, leaving Chippenham, as they had promised,
went to Cirencester, which is called in Welsh Cairceri, and is situated
in the southern part of the kingdom of the Hwicce,[134] and there they
remained one year.
=58. Danes at Fulham.=[135]--In that same year a large army of heathen
sailed from beyond sea into the river Thames, and joined the greater
army. However, they wintered at Fulham, near the river Thames.
=59. An Eclipse.=[136]--In that same year an eclipse[137] of the sun
took place between nones and vespers, but nearer to nones.
=60. The Danes in East Anglia.=[138]--In the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 880, which was the thirty-second of King Alfred’s life,
the oft-mentioned army of heathen left Cirencester, and went to East
Anglia, where they divided up the country and began to settle.
=61. The Smaller Army leaves England.=[139]--That same year the army of
heathen, which had wintered at Fulham, left the island of Britain, and
sailed over sea to East Frankland, where they remained for a year at a
place called Ghent.
=62. The Danes fight with the Franks.=--In the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 881, which was the thirty-third of King Alfred’s life, the
army went further on into Frankland, and the Franks fought against
them; and after the battle the heathen, obtaining horses, became an
army of cavalry.
=63. The Danes on the Meuse.=[140]--In the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 882, which was the thirty-fourth of King Alfred’s life, the
aforesaid army sailed their ships up into Frankland by a river called
the Meuse, and there wintered one year.
=64. Alfred’s Naval Battle with the Danes.=[141]--In that same year
Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, fought a battle at sea against the
heathen fleet, of which he captured two ships, and slew all who were on
board. Two commanders of the other ships, with all their crews, worn
out by the fight and their wounds, laid down their arms, and submitted
to the king on bended knees with many entreaties.
=65. The Danes at Condé.=[142]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation
883, which was the thirty-fifth of King Alfred’s life, the aforesaid
army sailed their ships up the river called Scheldt to a convent of
nuns called Condé, and there remained one year.
=66. Deliverance of Rochester.=[143]--In the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 884, which was the thirty-sixth of King Alfred’s life, the
aforesaid army divided into two parts: one body of them went into East
Frankland, and the other, coming to Britain, entered Kent, where they
besieged a city called in Saxon Rochester, situated on the east bank
of the river Medway. Before the gate of the town the heathen suddenly
erected a strong fortress; but they were unable to take the city,
because the citizens defended themselves bravely until King Alfred
came up to help them with a large army. Then the heathen abandoned
their fortress and all the horses which they had brought with them out
of Frankland, and, leaving behind them in the fortress the greater
part of their prisoners on the sudden arrival of the king, fled in
haste to their ships; the Saxons immediately seized upon the prisoners
and horses left by the heathen; and so the latter, compelled by dire
necessity, returned the same summer to Frankland.
=67. Alfred’s Naval Battle at the Mouth of the Stour.=[144]--In that
same year Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, shifted his fleet, full of
fighting men, from Kent to East Anglia,[145] for the sake of spoil. No
sooner had they arrived at the mouth of the river Stour than thirteen
ships of the heathen met them, prepared for battle; a fierce naval
combat ensued, and the heathen were all slain; all the ships, with all
their money, were taken. After this, while the victorious royal fleet
was reposing,[146] the heathen who occupied East Anglia assembled their
ships from every quarter, met the same royal fleet at sea in the mouth
of the same river, and, after a naval engagement, gained the victory.
=68. Death of Carloman, of Louis II, and of Louis III.=[147]--In that
same year also, Carloman, King of the West Franks, while engaged in a
boar-hunt, was miserably slain by a boar, which inflicted a dreadful
wound on him with its tusk. His brother Louis, who had also been King
of the Franks, had died the year before. Both these were sons of
Louis,[148] King of the Franks, who also had died in the year above
mentioned, in which the eclipse of the sun took place.[149] This
Louis was the son of Charles,[150] King of the Franks, whose daughter
Judith[151] Æthelwulf, King of the West Saxons, took to queen with her
father’s consent.
=69. The Danes in Old Saxony.=[152]--In that same year a great army
of the heathen came from Germany[153] into the country of the Old
Saxons, which is called in Saxon Eald-Seaxum. To oppose them the same
Saxons and Frisians joined their forces, and fought bravely twice in
that same year.[154] In both these battles the Christians, by God’s
merciful aid, gained the victory.
=70. Charles, King of the Alemanni.=[155]--In that same year also,
Charles, King of the Alemanni, received with universal consent the
kingdom of the West Franks, and all the kingdoms which lie between the
Tyrrhene Sea and that gulf[156] situated between the Old Saxons and the
Gauls, with the exception of the kingdom of Armorica.[157] This Charles
was the son of King Louis,[158] who was brother of Charles, King of the
Franks, father of Judith, the aforesaid queen; these two brothers were
sons of Louis,[159] Louis being the son of Charlemagne, son of Pepin.
=71. Death of Pope Marinus.=[160]--In that same year Pope Marinus, of
blessed memory, went the way of all flesh; it was he who, for the love
of Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and at his request, generously
freed the Saxon Colony in Rome from all tribute and tax. He also sent
to the aforesaid king many gifts on that occasion, among which was no
small portion of the most holy and venerable cross on which our Lord
Jesus Christ hung for the salvation of all mankind.
=72. The Danes break their Treaty.=[161]--In that same year also the
army of heathen which dwelt in East Anglia disgracefully broke the
peace which they had concluded with King Alfred.
=73. Asser makes a New Beginning.=[162]--And now, to return to that
from which I digressed, lest I be compelled by my long navigation
to abandon the haven of desired rest,[163] I propose, as far as my
knowledge will enable me, to speak somewhat concerning the life,
character, and just conduct, and in no small degree concerning the
deeds, of my lord Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, after he married
the said respected wife of noble Mercian race; and, with God’s
blessing, I will despatch it concisely and briefly, as I promised, that
I may not, by prolixity in relating each new event, offend the minds of
those who may be somewhat hard to please.
=74. Alfred’s Maladies.=[164]--While his nuptials were being honorably
celebrated in Mercia, among innumerable multitudes of both sexes, and
after long feasts by night and by day, he was suddenly seized, in the
presence of all the people, by instant and overwhelming pain, unknown
to any physician. No one there knew, nor even those who daily see him
up to the present time--and this, sad to say, is the worst of all, that
it should have continued uninterruptedly through the revolutions of so
many years, from the twentieth to the fortieth year of his life and
more--whence such a malady arose. Many thought that it was occasioned
by the favor and fascination of the people who surrounded him; others,
by some spite of the devil, who is ever jealous of good men; others,
from an unusual kind of fever; while still others thought it was the
_ficus_,[165] which species of severe disease he had had from his
childhood. On a certain occasion it had come to pass by the divine will
that when he had gone to Cornwall on a hunting expedition, and had
turned out of the road to pray in a certain church in which rests Saint
Gueriir [and now also St. Neot reposes there],[166] he had of his own
accord prostrated himself for a long time in silent prayer--since from
childhood he had been a frequent visitor of holy places for prayer and
the giving of alms--and there he besought the mercy of the Lord that,
in his boundless clemency, Almighty God would exchange the torments of
the malady which then afflicted him for some other lighter disease,
provided that such disease should not show itself outwardly in his
body, lest he should be useless and despised--for he had great dread
of leprosy or blindness, or any such complaint as instantly makes men
useless and despised at its coming. When he had finished his praying,
he proceeded on his journey, and not long after felt within himself
that he had been divinely healed, according to his request, of that
disorder, and that it was entirely eradicated, although he had obtained
even this complaint in the first flower of his youth by his devout and
frequent prayers and supplications to God. For if I may be allowed to
speak concisely, though in a somewhat inverted order, of his zealous
piety to God--in his earliest youth, before he married his wife, he
wished to establish his mind in God’s commandments, for he perceived
that he could not abstain from carnal desires[167]; and because he saw
that he should incur the anger of God if he did anything contrary to
His will, he used often to rise at cockcrow and at the matin hours,
and go to pray in churches and at the relics of the saints. There he
would prostrate himself, and pray that Almighty God in His mercy would
strengthen his mind still more in the love of His service, converting
it fully to Himself by some infirmity such as he might bear, but not
such as would render him contemptible and useless in worldly affairs.
Now when he had often prayed with much devotion to this effect,
after an interval of some time he incurred as a gift from God the
before-named disease of the _ficus_, which he bore long and painfully
for many years, even despairing of life, until he entirely got rid of
it by prayer. But, sad to say, though it had been removed, a worse
one seized him, as I have said, at his marriage, and this incessantly
tormented him, night and day, from the twentieth to the forty-fifth
year of his life. But if ever, by God’s mercy, he was relieved from
this infirmity for a single day or night, or even for the space of
one hour, yet the fear and dread of that terrible malady never left
him, but rendered him almost useless, as he thought, in every affair,
whether human or divine.
=75. Alfred’s Children and their Education.=[168]--The sons and
daughters whom he had by his wife above-mentioned were Æthelflæd, the
eldest, after whom came Edward, then Æthelgivu, then Ælfthryth, and
finally Æthelward--besides those who died in childhood. The number of
...[169] Æthelflæd, when she arrived at a marriageable age, was united
to Æthelred,[170] Ealdorman of Mercia. Æthelgivu, having dedicated her
maidenhood to God, entered His service, and submitted to the rules
of the monastic life, to which she was consecrate. Æthelward, the
youngest, by the divine counsel and by the admirable foresight of the
king, was intrusted to the schools of literary training, where, with
the children of almost all the nobility of the country, and many also
who were not noble, he was under the diligent care of the teachers.
Books in both languages, namely, Latin and Saxon, were diligently
read in the school.[171] They also learned to write; so that before
they were of an age to practise human arts, namely, hunting and other
pursuits which befit noblemen, they became studious and clever in the
liberal arts. Edward and Ælfthryth were always bred up in the king’s
court, and received great attention from their tutors and nurses; nay,
they continue to this day, with much love from every one, to show
humbleness, affability, and gentleness towards all, both natives and
foreigners, while remaining in complete subjection to their father.
Nor, among the other pursuits which appertain to this life and are
fit for noble youths, are they suffered to pass their time idly and
unprofitably without liberal training; for they have carefully learned
the Psalms[172] and Saxon books, especially Saxon poems, and are in the
habit of making frequent use of books.
=76. Alfred’s Varied Pursuits.=[173]--In the meantime, the king, during
the wars and frequent trammels of this present life, the invasions
of the heathen, and his own daily infirmities of body, continued to
carry on the government, and to practise hunting in all its branches;
to teach his goldsmiths[174] and all his artificers, his falconers,
hawkers, and dog-keepers; to build houses, majestic and rich beyond
all custom of his predecessors, after his own new designs; to recite
the Saxon books, and especially to learn by heart Saxon poems,[175]
and to make others learn them, he alone never ceasing from studying
most diligently to the best of his ability. He daily attended mass
and the other services of religion; recited certain psalms, together
with prayers, and the daily and nightly hour-service; and frequented
the churches at night, as I have said, that he might pray in secret,
apart from others. He bestowed alms and largesses both on natives and
on foreigners of all countries; was most affable and agreeable to all;
and was skilful in the investigation of things unknown.[176] Many
Franks, Frisians,[177] Gauls, heathen,[178] Welsh, Irish,[179] and
Bretons,[180] noble and simple, submitted voluntarily to his dominion;
and all of them, according to their worthiness,[181] he ruled, loved,
honored, and enriched with money and power, as if they had been his
own people.[182] Moreover, he was sedulous and zealous in the habit of
hearing the divine Scriptures read by his own countrymen, or if, by
any chance it so happened that any one arrived from abroad, to hear
prayers in company with foreigners. His bishops, too, and all the
clergy, his ealdormen and nobles, his personal attendants and friends,
he loved with wonderful affection. Their sons, too, who were bred up in
the royal household, were no less dear to him than his own; he never
ceased to instruct them in all kinds of good morals, and, among other
things, himself to teach them literature night and day. But as if he
had no consolation in all these things, and suffered no other annoyance
either from within or without, he was so harassed by daily and nightly
sadness that he complained and made moan to the Lord, and to all who
were admitted to his familiarity and affection, that Almighty God had
made him ignorant of divine wisdom and of the liberal arts; in this
emulating the pious, famous, and wealthy Solomon, King of the Hebrews,
who at the outset, despising all present glory and riches, asked wisdom
of God, and yet found both, namely, wisdom and present glory; as it
is written, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you.’[183] But God, who is always
the observer of the thoughts of the inward mind, the instigator of
meditations and of all good purposes, and a plentiful aider in the
formation of good desires--for He would never inspire a man to aim at
the good unless He also amply supplied that which the man justly and
properly wished to have--stirred up the king’s mind from within, not
from without; as it is written, ‘I will hearken what the Lord God will
say concerning me.’[184] He would avail himself of every opportunity
to procure assistants in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings
after wisdom, that he might attain to what he aimed at; and, like a
prudent bee,[185] which, rising in summer at early morning from her
beloved cells, steers her course with rapid flight along the uncertain
paths of the air, and descends on the manifold and varied flowers of
grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which most pleases her, and
bearing it home, he directed the eyes of his mind afar, and sought that
without which he had not within, that is, in his own kingdom.[186]
=77. Alfred’s Scholarly Associates: Werfrith, Plegmund, Æthelstan,
and Werwulf.=[187]--But God at that time, as some consolation to the
king’s benevolence, enduring no longer his kindly and just complaint,
sent as it were certain luminaries, namely, Werfrith,[188] Bishop
of the church of Worcester, a man well versed in divine Scripture,
who, by the king’s command, was the first to interpret with clearness
and elegance the books of the _Dialogues_ of Pope Gregory and Peter,
his disciple, from Latin into Saxon, sometimes putting sense for
sense; then Plegmund,[189] a Mercian by birth, Archbishop of the
church of Canterbury, a venerable man, endowed with wisdom; besides
Æthelstan[190] and Werwulf, learned priests and clerks,[191] Mercians
by birth. These four King Alfred had called to him from Mercia, and he
exalted them with many honors and powers in the kingdom of the West
Saxons, not to speak of those which Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop
Werfrith had in Mercia. By the teaching and wisdom of all these the
king’s desire increased continually, and was gratified. Night and
day, whenever he had any leisure, he commanded such men as these to
read books to him--for he never suffered himself to be without one of
them--so that he came to possess a knowledge of almost every book,
though of himself he could not yet understand anything of books, since
he had not yet learned to read anything.