CHARACTER OF ALFRED'S REIGN.
Perhaps the chief aspect in which King Alfred's character has
attracted the attention of mankind, is in the spirit of humanity and
benevolence which he manifested, and in the efforts which he made
to cultivate the arts of peace, and to promote the intellectual and
social welfare of his people, notwithstanding the warlike habits to
which he was accustomed in his early years, and the warlike influences
which surrounded him during all his life. Every thing in the outward
circumstances in which he was placed tended to make him a mere
military hero. He saw, however, the superior greatness and glory of
the work of laying the foundations of an extended and permanent power,
by arranging in the best possible manner the internal organization
of the social state. He saw that intelligence, order, justice, and
system, prevailing in and governing the institutions of a country,
constitute the true elements of its greatness, and he acted
accordingly.
It is true, he had good materials to work with. He had the Anglo-Saxon
race to act upon at the time, a race capable of appreciating and
entering into his plans; and he has had the same race to carry them
on, for the ten centuries which have elapsed since he laid his
foundations. As no other race of men but Anglo-Saxons could have
produced an Alfred, so, probably, no other race could have carried
out such plans as Alfred formed. It is a race which has always been
distinguished, like Alfred their great prototype and model, for a
certain cool and intrepid energy in war, combined with and surpassed
by the industry, the system, the efficiency, and the perseverance with
which they pursue and perfect all the arts of peace. They systematize
every thing. They arrange--they organize. Every thing in their hands
takes form, and advances to continual improvement. Even while the
rest of the world remain inert, they are active. When the arts and
improvements of life are stationary among other nations, they are
always advancing with _them_. It is a people that is always making new
discoveries, pressing forward to new enterprises, framing new laws,
constituting new combinations and developing new powers; until now
after the lapse of a thousand years, the little island feeds and
clothes, directly or indirectly, a very large portion of the human
race, and directs, in a great measure, the politics of the world.
Whether Alfred reasoned upon the capacities of the people whom he
ruled, and foresaw their future power, or whether he only followed the
simple impulses of his own nature in the plans which he formed and the
measures which he adopted, we can not know; but we know that, in fact,
he devoted his chief attention, during all the years of his reign,
to perfecting in the highest degree the internal organization of his
realm, considered as a great social community. His people were in a
very rude, and, in fact, almost half-savage state when he commenced
his career. He had every thing to do, and yet he seems to have had no
favorable opportunities for doing any thing.
In the first place, his time and attention were distracted, during his
whole reign, by continued difficulties and contentions with various
hordes of Danes, even after his peace with Guthrum. These troubles,
and the military preparations and movements to which they would
naturally give rise, would seem to have been sufficient to have
occupied fully all the powers of his mind, and to have prevented him
from doing any thing effectual for the internal improvement of his
kingdom.
Then, besides, there was another difficulty with which Alfred had to
contend, which one might have supposed would have paralyzed all his
energies. He suffered all his life from some mysterious and painful
internal disease, the nature of which, precisely, is not known, as the
allusions to it, though very frequent throughout his life, are very
general, and the physicians of the day, who probably were not very
skillful, could not determine what it was, or do any thing effectual
to relieve it. The disease, whatever it may have been, was a source of
continual uneasiness, and sometimes of extreme and terrible suffering.
Alfred bore all the pain which it caused him with exemplary patience;
and, though he could not always resist the tendency to discouragement
and depression with which the perpetual presence of such a torment
wears upon the soul, he did not allow it to diminish his exertions, or
suspend, at any time, the ceaseless activity with which he labored for
the welfare of the people of his realm.
Alfred attached great importance to the education of his people. It
was not possible, in those days, to educate the mass, for there were
no books, and no means of producing them in sufficient numbers to
supply any general demand. Books, in those days, were extremely
costly, as they had all to be written laboriously by hand. The great
mass of the population, therefore, who were engaged in the daily toil
of cultivating the land, were necessarily left in ignorance; but
Alfred made every effort in his power to awaken a love for learning
and the arts among the higher classes. He set them, in fact, an
efficient example in his own case, by pressing forward diligently in
his own studies, even in the busiest periods of his reign. The spirit
and manner in which he did this are well illustrated by the plan he
pursued in studying Latin. It was this:
He had a friend in his court, a man of great literary attainments and
great piety, whose name was Asser. Asser was a bishop in Wales when
Alfred first heard of his fame as a man of learning and abilities, and
Alfred sent for him to come to his court and make him a visit. Alfred
was very much pleased with what he saw of Asser at this interview, and
proposed to him to leave his preferments in Wales, which were numerous
and important, and come into his kingdom, and he would give him
greater preferments there. Asser hesitated. Alfred then proposed to
him to spend six months every year in England, and the remaining six
in Wales. Asser said that he could not give an answer even to this
proposal till he had returned home and consulted with the monks and
other clergy under his charge there. He would, however, he said, at
least come back and see Alfred again within the next six months, and
give him his final answer. Then, after having spent four days in
Alfred's court, he went away.
The six months passed away and he did not return. Alfred sent a
messenger into Wales to ascertain the reason. The messenger found
that Asser was sick. His friends, however, had advised that he should
accede to Alfred's proposal to spend six months of the year in
England, as they thought that by that means, through his influence
with Alfred, he would be the better able to protect and advance the
interests of their monasteries and establishments in Wales. So Asser
went to England, and became during six months in the year Alfred's
constant friend and teacher. In the course of time, Alfred placed
him at the head of some of the most important establishments and
ecclesiastical charges in England.
One day--it was eight or nine years after Alfred's victory over
Guthrum and settlement of the kingdom--the king and Asser were engaged
in conversation in the royal apartments, and Asser quoted some Latin
phrase with which, on its being explained, Alfred was very much
pleased, and he asked Asser to write it down for him in his book. So
saying, he took from his pocket a little book of prayers and other
pieces of devotion, which he was accustomed to carry with him for
daily use. It was, of course, in manuscript. Asser looked over it to
find a space where he could write the Latin quotation, but there was
no convenient vacancy. He then proposed to Alfred that he should make
for him another small book, expressly for Latin quotations, with
explanations of their meaning, if Alfred chose to make them, in the
Anglo-Saxon tongue. Alfred highly approved of this suggestion. The
bishop prepared the little parchment volume, and it became gradually
filled with passages of Scripture, in Latin, and striking sentiments,
briefly and tersely expressed, extracted from the writings of the
Roman poets or of the fathers of the Church. Alfred wrote opposite to
each quotation its meaning, expressed in his own language; and as he
made the book his constant companion, and studied it continually,
taking great interest in adding to its stores, it was the means
of communicating to him soon a very considerable knowledge of the
language, and was the foundation of that extensive acquaintance with
it which he subsequently acquired.
Alfred made great efforts to promote in every way the intellectual
progress and improvement of his people. He wrote and translated books,
which were published so far as it was possible to publish books in
those days, that is, by having a moderate number of copies transcribed
and circulated among those who could read them. Such copies were
generally deposited at monasteries, and abbeys, and other such places,
where learned men were accustomed to assemble. These writings of
Alfred exerted a wide influence during his day. They remained in
manuscript until the art of printing was invented, when many of them
were printed; others remain in manuscript in the various museums of
England, where visitors look at them as curiosities, all worn and
corroded as they are, and almost illegible by time. These books,
though they exerted great influence at the time when they were
written, are of little interest or value now. They express ideas
in morals and philosophy, some of which have become so universally
diffused as to be commonplace at the present day, while others would
now be discarded, as not in harmony with the ideas or the philosophy
of the times.
One of the greatest and most important of the measures which Alfred
adopted for the intellectual improvement of his people was the
founding of the great University of Oxford. Oxford was Alfred's
residence and capital during a considerable part of his reign. It is
situated on the Thames, in the bosom of a delightful valley, where
it calmly reposes in the midst of fields and meadows as verdant and
beautiful as the imagination can conceive. There was a monastery at
Oxford before Alfred's day, and for many centuries after his time acts
of endowment were passed and charters granted, some of which were
perhaps of greater importance than those which emanated from Alfred
himself. Thus some carry back the history of this famous university
beyond Alfred's time; others consider that the true origin of the
present establishment should be assigned to a later date than his
day. Alfred certainly adopted very important measures at Oxford for
organizing and establishing schools of instruction and assembling
learned men there from various parts of the world, so that he soon
made it a great center and seat of learning, and mankind have been
consequently inclined to award to him the honor of having laid the
foundations of the vast superstructure which has since grown up on
that consecrated spot. Oxford is now a city of ancient and venerable
colleges. Its silent streets; its grand quadrangles; its churches, and
chapels, and libraries; its secluded walks; its magnificent, though
old and crumbling architecture, make it, even to the passing traveler,
one of the wonders of England; and by the influence which it has
exerted for the past ten centuries on the intellectual advancement of
the human race, it is really one of the wonders of the world.
Alfred repaired the castles which had become dilapidated in the wars;
he rebuilt the ruined cities, organized municipal governments for
them, restored the monasteries, and took great pains to place men
of learning and piety in charge of them. He revised the laws of the
kingdom, and arranged and systematized them in the most perfect manner
which was possible in times so rude.
Alfred's personal character gave him great influence among his people,
and disposed them to acquiesce readily in the vast innovations and
improvements which he introduced--changes which were so radical and
affected so extensively the whole structure of society, and all the
customs of social life, that any ordinary sovereign would have met
with great opposition in his attempt to introduce them; but Alfred
possessed such a character, and proceeded in such a way in introducing
his improvements and reforms, that he seems to have awakened no
jealousy and to have aroused no resistance.
He was of a very calm, quiet, and placid temper of mind. The crosses
and vexations which disturb and irritate ordinary men seemed never to
disturb his equanimity. He was patient and forbearing, never expecting
too much of those whom he employed, or resenting angrily the
occasional neglects or failures in duty on their part, which he well
knew must frequently occur. He was never elated by prosperity, nor
made moody and morose by the turning of the tide against him. In
a word, he was a philosopher, of a calm, and quiet, and happy
temperament. He knew well that every man in going through life,
whatever his rank and station, must encounter the usual alternations
of sunshine and storm. He determined that these alternations should
not mar his happiness, nor disturb the repose of his soul; that he
would, on the other hand, keeping all quiet within, press calmly and
steadily forward in the accomplishment of the vast objects to which he
felt that his life was to be given. He was, accordingly, never anxious
or restless, never impatient or fretful, never excited or wild; but
always calm, considerate, steady, and persevering, he infused his
own spirit into all around him. They saw him governed by fixed and
permanent principles of justice and of duty in all that he planned,
and in every measure that he resorted to in the execution of his
plans. It was plain that his great ruling motive was a true and honest
desire to promote the welfare and prosperity of his people, and the
internal peace, and order, and happiness of his realm, without any
selfish or sinister aims of his own.
In fact, it seemed as if there were no selfish or sinister ends that
possessed any charms for Alfred's mind. He had no fondness or taste
for luxury or pleasure, or for aggrandizing himself in the eyes of
others by pomp and parade. It is true that, as was stated in a former
chapter, he was charged in early life with a tendency to some kinds
of wrong indulgence; but these charges, obscure and doubtful as they
were, pertained only to the earliest periods of his career, before the
time of his seclusion. Through all the middle and latter portions of
his life, the sole motive of his conduct seems to have been a desire
to lay broad, and deep, and lasting foundations for the permanent
welfare and prosperity of his realm.
It resulted from the nature of the measures which Alfred undertook to
effect, that they brought upon him daily a vast amount of labor as
such measures always involve a great deal of minute detail. Alfred
could only accomplish this great mass of duty by means of the most
unremitting industry, and the most systematic and exact division of
time. There were no clocks or watches in those days, and yet it was
very necessary to have some plan for keeping the time, in order that
his business might go on regularly, and also that the movements and
operations of his large household might proceed without confusion.
Alfred invented a plan. It was as follows:
He observed that the wax candles which were used in his palace and in
the churches burned very regularly, and with greater or less rapidity
according to their size. He ordered some experiments to be made, and
finally, by means of them, he determined on the size of a candle which
should burn three inches in an hour. It is said that the weight of wax
which he used for each candle was twelve pennyweights, that is, but
little more than half an ounce, which would make, one would suppose, a
_taper_ rather than a candle. There is, however, great doubt about the
value of the various denominations of weight and measure, and also of
money used in those days. However this may be, the candles were each a
foot long, and of such size that each would burn four hours. They were
divided into inches, and marked, so that each inch corresponded with a
third of an hour, or twenty minutes. A large quantity of these candles
were prepared, and a person in one of the chapels was appointed to
keep a succession of them burning, and to ring the bells, or give the
other signals, whatever they might be, by which the household was
regulated, at the successive periods of time denoted by their burning.
As each of these candles was one foot long, and burned three inches in
an hour, it follows that it would last four hours; when this time
was expired, the attendant who had the apparatus in charge lighted
another. There were, of course, six required for the whole twenty-four
hours. The system worked very well, though there was one difficulty
that occasioned some trouble in the outset, which, however, was not
much to be regretted after all, since the remedying of it awakened the
royal ingenuity anew, and led, in the end, to adding to Alfred's other
glories the honor of being the inventor of _lanterns_!
The difficulty was, that the wind, which came in very freely in those
days, even in royal residences, through the open windows, blew the
flames of these horological candles about, so as to interfere quite
seriously with the regularity of their burning. There was no glass
for windows in those days, or, at least, very little. It had been
introduced, it is said, in one instance, and that was in a monastery
in the north of England. The abbot, whose name was Benedict, brought
over some workmen from the Continent, where the art of making glass
windows had been invented, and caused them to glaze some windows in
his monastery. It was many years after this before glass came into
general use even in churches, and palaces, and other costly buildings
of that kind. In the mean time, windows were mere openings in stone
walls, which could be closed only by shutters; and inasmuch as
when closed they excluded the light as well as the air, they could
ordinarily be shut only on one side of the apartment at a time--the
side most exposed to the winds and storms.
Alfred accordingly found that the flame of his candles was blown by
the wind, which made the wax burn irregularly; and, to remedy the
evil, he contrived the plan of protecting them by thin plates of horn.
Horn, when softened by hot water, can easily be cut and fashioned into
any shape, and, when very thin, is almost transparent. Alfred had
these thin plates of horn prepared, and set into the sides of a box
made open to receive them, thus forming a rude sort of lantern, within
which the time-keeping candles could burn in peace. Mankind have
consequently given to King Alfred the credit of having invented
lanterns.
Having thus completed his apparatus for the correct measurement
of time, Alfred was enabled to be more and more systematic in the
division and employment of it. One of the historians of the day
relates that his plan was to give one third of the twenty-four hours
to sleep and refreshment, one third to business, and the remaining
third to the duties of religion. Under this last head was probably
included all those duties and pursuits which, by the customs of the
day, were considered as pertaining to the Church, such as study,
writing, and the consideration and management of ecclesiastical
affairs. These duties were performed, in those days, almost always by
clerical men, and in the retirement and seclusion of monasteries, and
were thus regarded as in some sense religious duties. We must conclude
that Alfred classed them thus, as he was a great student and writer
all his days, and there is no other place than this third head to
which the duties of this nature can be assigned. Thus understood, it
was a very wise and sensible division; though eight hours daily for
any long period of time, appropriated to services strictly devotional,
would not seem to be a wise arrangement, especially for a man in the
prime of life, and in a position demanding the constant exercise of
his powers in the discharge of active duties.
Thus the years of Alfred's life passed away, his kingdom advancing
steadily all the time in good government, wealth, and prosperity. The
country was not, however, yet freed entirely from the calamities
and troubles arising from the hostility of the Danes. Disorders
continually broke out among those who had settled in the land, and, in
some instances, new hordes of invaders came in. These were,
however, in most instances, easily subdued, and Alfred went on with
comparatively little interruption for many years, in prosecuting the
arts and improvements of peace. At last, however, toward the close of
his life, a famous Northman leader, named Hastings, landed in England
at the head of a large force, and made, before he was expelled, a
great deal of trouble. An account of this invasion will be given in
the next chapter.