who did gloriously extend the kingdom of the Franks, and did govern it
happily for forty-seven years. He died at the age of seventy years, in
the year of the Lord, 814, in the seventh year of the Indication, on
the fifth of the Kalends of February.”
This crypt was opened two hundred years afterwards by the Emperor Otho
III., when he found the remains of Charlemagne, as described above. A
huge black flagstone now lies under the dome, bearing the inscription,
“Carolo Magno,” and it is supposed to cover the entrance to the tomb of
Charlemagne. Over it hangs a large golden candelabrum which the Emperor
Barbarossa gave to burn above the grave. In the time of Barbarossa, the
church enrolled the name of the great emperor in its Calendar as St.
Charlemagne.
No sovereign ever rendered greater service to the civilized world
than Charlemagne, by stopping in the north and south the flood of
barbarians and Arabs, Paganism and Islamism. This was his great
success, and although he ultimately failed in founding a permanent
empire which should exist in unity and absolute power after his death,
though at one time he seemed to be Cæsar, Augustus, and Constantine
combined, his death ended his empire; but he had opened the way for
the Christian religion and human liberty to establish other and more
lasting governments. The illustrious French writer, Guizot, thus sums
up the life and achievements of Charlemagne. “Great men are at one and
the same time instruments and free agents in a general design which
is infinitely above their ken, and which, even if a glimpse of it be
caught, remains inscrutable to them,—the design of God towards mankind.
Charlemagne had this singular good fortune, that his misguided attempt
at imperialism perished with him, whilst his salutary achievement, the
territorial security of Christian Europe, has been durable to the great
honor, as well as great profit, of European civilization.”
ALFRED THE GREAT.
849-901 A.D.
“An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”
POPE.
STORY and song have immortalized the romantic traditions regarding the
early inhabitants of the British realm, and although many of them are
no doubt fabulous tales, the romantic history of Alfred the Great would
be robbed of much of its weird fascination if no mention were made of
these fantastic but charming traditions. King Alfred’s reign was eight
hundred years after the Christian Era. Authentic history takes us back
through those eight hundred years to the time of Julius Cæsar and his
invasion of Great Britain, and traditions carry us still farther back,
for eight hundred years more, to the days of Solomon.
There is a story that at the close of the Trojan war, which we have
described in the life of Agamemnon, Æneas landed in Italy with a
company of Trojans. They settled near the spot upon which Rome was
afterwards built. One day, while Brutus, the great-grandson of Æneas,
was hunting in the forests, he accidentally killed his father with an
arrow. Brutus, fearing evil consequences from this terrible accident,
fled from Italy. Going to Greece, he collected a band of Trojans, and
they made war upon a king named Pandrasus. Brutus conquered this king
but promised to make peace with him if he would agree to provide a
fleet of ships for Brutus, and give him his daughter in marriage. This
Pandrasus did, and Brutus sailed with his bride and fleet, until they
arrived at a deserted island, upon which they found the ruins of a city
and an ancient temple of Diana, where there still remained an image of
the goddess.
[Illustration: ALFRED]
The story goes that Brutus consulted this oracle of Diana, and received
the following answer:—
“Far to the West, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies;
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old.
Now void, it fits thy people; thither bend
Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting home.”
Brutus followed this direction, and proceeded westward through the
Mediterranean Sea. He arrived at the Pillars of Hercules, which was the
name given in those days to the Rock of Gibraltar, and then he turned
northward and coasted along Spain. At length they arrived on the shores
of Britain. They found the island covered with rich verdure, and in the
forests were many wild beasts and the remnants of a race of giants.
Brutus and his forces drove the wild beasts into the mountains of Wales
and Scotland, and killed the giants, and seized upon the island as
their own. Many wild adventures are told of his successors, down to the
time of the invasion of Julius Cæsar. Such is the story in brief of the
early Britons.
After the conquest by Cæsar, the Romans retained possession of the
island for four hundred years. During this time there were many
rebellions in the various provinces, until at last the Britons
submitted to their sway. Now another enemy advanced against this
picturesque island. The Picts and Scots, hordes of lawless barbarians,
who inhabited the mountains of Ireland and Scotland, made continual
expeditions for plunder into the fair land of the Britons. At length
one of the Roman emperors named Severus, visited the island of Britain,
and endeavored to conquer the Picts and Scots. It was at this time
that the famous Wall of Severus was built. The wall extended across
the island, from the mouth of the Tyne on the German Ocean, to the
Solway Frith, nearly seventy miles. This wall was a good defence
against the barbarians, as long as Roman soldiers remained to guard
it. But about two centuries after the time of Severus, the Roman
soldiers were required by their own government at home, and the Britons
were left to fight with the Picts and Scots alone. During this time
another brave and warlike race had arisen. The Anglo-Saxons had now
become powerful sea-rulers on the German Ocean and Baltic Sea. They
delighted in storms and tempests, and cared not whether it was summer
or winter when they sailed the seas, so brave and fearless were they.
They would build small vessels of osiers, covering them with skins,
and in these frail boats they courageously sailed amidst the rough
winds and foaming surges of the German Ocean, in search of conquest
and wild adventure. If they fought they conquered, and if they pursued
their enemies they were sure to overtake them, and if they retreated
they successfully made their escape. Neither winds, waves, nor enemies
could quell this adventurous and brave race, which was fast rising into
power and renown. They were clothed in loose and flowing garments, and
wore their hair long, floating about their shoulders. They had much
skill in fabricating arms of superior workmanship, which gave them a
great advantage over their enemies. The landing of a few boat-loads of
these determined and fearless Anglo-Saxons, on a small island near
the mouth of the Thames, was an event which marks an important epoch
in English history, as it was the real beginning of British greatness
and power. The names of the commanders who headed the expedition of the
Anglo-Saxons which first landed in Britain, were Hengist and Horsa.
They were brothers. The island where they landed was called Thanet.
The name of the king of Britain at this time was Vortigern. When the
Anglo-Saxons arrived, his kingdom was distracted by the constant
incursions of the Picts and Scots. In this danger, Vortigern appealed
to the Anglo-Saxons for help. He offered to give them a large tract
of territory in the part of the island where they had landed, if they
would aid him in his contest with his enemies. Hengist and Horsa
agreed to this proposal, and they thereupon engaged in battle with the
Picts and Scots, and defeated them, and they were driven back to their
mountains in the north. The Anglo-Saxons now established themselves in
the part of the island assigned to them, and it is related that Hengist
gave his daughter Rowena in marriage to King Vortigern, to strengthen
the alliance more closely. At last the Britons became alarmed at the
increasing power of the Anglo-Saxons, and the result was a fierce
contest. It is related that King Vortigern, with three hundred of his
officers, were invited by Hengist to a feast, and a quarrel having
arisen, an affray occurred in which the Britons were all killed, except
Vortigern who was taken prisoner, and was only ransomed by ceding three
whole provinces to his captors.
The famous King Arthur, whose Knights of the Round Table have been so
celebrated in fable and song, was a king of the Britons during these
wars between his people and the Saxons. He is said to have performed
marvellous exploits of strength and valor. He was of prodigious size,
and undaunted courage. He slew giants, killed the most ferocious wild
beasts, gained many splendid victories, and is said to have made long
expeditions into foreign countries, once even going to Jerusalem on
a pilgrimage to obtain the Holy Cross. He was afterwards killed in a
combat with his nephew, who had gained the affections of Arthur’s wife
during his absence. Arthur had been a deadly enemy of the Saxons. He
fought twelve great pitched battles with them, in every one of which
he gained the victory. It is related that he killed with his own hand,
four hundred and seventy men in one of these contests. The landing of
the Saxons, under Hengist and Horsa, is supposed to have been in the
year 449. It was more than two hundred years after this before the
Britons were entirely subdued, and the Saxon power became supreme. In
one or two centuries more the Saxons had, in their turn, to meet an
implacable and powerful enemy. These new invaders were the Danes.
The territory of Britain was divided into seven or eight Saxon
kingdoms, each under a separate king. This power is known in history
as the Saxon Heptarchy. The Danes were not exclusively the natives of
Denmark. They came from all the shores of the Northern and Baltic Seas.
They were a race of bold naval adventurers, as the Saxons themselves
had been two or three centuries before. They were banded together in
large hordes, each ruled by a chieftain, called a sea-king. One of the
most famous of these sea-kings was named Ragnar Lodbrog. His father was
a prince of Norway, and Ragnar had married a Danish princess, and had
acquired a sort of right to a Danish kingdom, which right was disputed
by one Harald. The Franks aided Harald in this contest, and Ragnar was
defeated. But he now brought the other sea-kings under his control,
and raising a large force, he invaded France, and landing at Rouen he
marched to Paris. The king of the Franks finding himself completely in
his power, bought off the sea-kings by paying a large sum of money,
and Ragnar and his hordes returned to the Baltic Sea with riches and
wide renown for their daring adventures. Ragnar afterwards invaded
Spain, and finally grew bold enough to attack the Anglo-Saxons on the
island of Britain. For this contest, Ragnar had prepared two enormous
ships, and, filling them with picked men, he sailed down the coast of
Scotland until he reached Northumbria. Here he encountered a large
force of Saxons under their king Ella. A terrible struggle ensued.
Ragnar was defeated and taken prisoner, and was afterwards put to death
in a barbarous manner by the Saxons. They filled a den with poisonous
snakes, and drove the captive Ragnar amongst these horrid reptiles,
by whose venomous fangs he was killed. In 851 a large horde of Danes
landed on the island of Thanet, and afterwards advanced boldly up the
Thames. They plundered London and Canterbury, and marched thence into
one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, called Mercia. Although the Danes were
there defeated by a large force of Saxons, new hordes were continually
arriving, and becoming more formidable. At length an immence force
of Danes landed, under the command of Guthrum and Hubba. This horde
was led by eight kings and twenty earls. Hubba was one of Ragnar’s
sons, and many of the horde were his relatives and friends, who swore
vengeance for his cruel death. It was at this time that young Alfred
appears prominently upon the scene of English history.
[Illustration: THE NORTHMEN INVADING FRANCE.]
Alfred was the youngest child of Ethelwolf, king of the West Saxons.
Under Egbert, the father of Ethelwolf, the kingdoms of the West Saxons
had been united; and Egbert is called king of the English, he having
given the name of Anglia to the whole kingdom.
When young Alfred was five years old, his father sent him to Rome to
see the Pope, and to be anointed by him as king of the West Saxons;
as Ethelwolf intended to pass over his elder sons and give his throne
to his favorite son Alfred. This journey was made with great pomp and
splendor; and a large train of nobles and ecclesiastics accompanied
the young prince, who was received with splendid entertainments as he
passed through France. Two years after this journey, Alfred’s father
Ethelwolf determined himself to go to Rome, and his favorite son
accompanied him. Ethelwolf placed his elder sons in command of his
affairs at home, and with a magnificent retinue crossed the channel,
and landed in France on his way to Rome. King Ethelwolf and Prince
Alfred were received with great distinction by King Charles of France,
and after a short stay in the French court they proceeded to Rome. The
king of England carried most costly presents to the Pope. Ethelwolf
had been educated for the monastery, as he was a younger son, but the
death of his father and elder brother placed him on the throne instead
of in an ecclesiastical office. Therefore his religious inclinations
were always very strong, and this pilgrimage to Rome was made as a
religious ceremony as well as for political objects, and his offerings
were very magnificent. One gift was a crown of pure gold, weighing four
pounds. Another was a sword richly mounted in gold. There were also
many vessels of gold and silver, and several robes richly adorned. King
Ethelwolf also distributed money to all the inhabitants of Rome; giving
gold to the nobles and clergy, and silver to the people. So great was
his munificence, and so magnificent was his courtly retinue, that this
visit attracted universal attention, and made the little Alfred, on
whose especial account the journey was performed, an object of great
interest. King Ethelwolf remained a year at Rome, to give young Alfred
the benefit of the advantages of the schools which had been established
there. As they returned home through France, King Ethelwolf was married
to the young daughter of the king of France, Princess Judith, who was
only twelve or fourteen years of age. The mother of Alfred had died
about three years before, and although this marriage occasioned much
trouble in the kingdom of Ethelwolf, the young bride Judith was a kind
and affectionate stepmother to Alfred, who was at this time about eight
years of age. The story is related, that on one occasion Judith was
showing Alfred and his older brothers a manuscript of some Saxon poems.
Although much care had been bestowed upon the education of Alfred, he
could not yet read. Indeed, very few even of the princes or kings in
those days ever learned to read. Reading was considered as a necessary
art, only for those who were to become professional teachers. Alfred
expressed so much delight in this manuscript, which was beautifully
illuminated with hand drawings, that Judith promised the volume to the
one who should first learn to read it. Alfred’s brothers, although much
older, did not aspire to this honor, and Alfred made such diligent
use of his time, that with the help of his teachers he was soon able
to read the poems fluently, and so claimed and received the prize.
About two years after, the father of Alfred died, and Judith became
the wife of Ethelbald, the eldest brother of Alfred, who succeeded
to the throne. He died soon after, however, and Judith returned to
France, where she married a Flemish noble, whom her father afterwards
made Count of Flanders. We cannot stop to trace the life of Judith any
farther, but we must mention that Alfred the Great afterwards gave his
daughter Elfrida in marriage to the second count of Flanders, who was
the eldest son of Judith. Through this marriage the English sovereigns
trace their descent from Alfred the Great.
There is a strange story connected with the youth of Alfred, which is
best given in the quaint language of one of the biographers of this
good and brave king. “As he advanced through the years of infancy and
youth, his form appeared more comely than those of his brothers, and
in look, speech, and manners he was more graceful than they. He was
already the darling of the people, who felt that in wisdom and other
qualities he surpassed all the royal race. Alfred, then, being a youth
of this fair promise, while training himself diligently in all such
learning as he had the means of acquiring, and especially in his own
mother tongue and the poems and songs which formed the chief part of
Anglo-Saxon literature, was not unmindful of the culture of his body,
and was a zealous practiser of hunting in all its branches, and hunted
with great perseverance and success. But before all things he was
wishful to strengthen his mind in the keeping of God’s commandments;
and finding that worldly desires and proud and rebellious thoughts
which the devil, who is ever jealous of the good, is apt to breed in
the minds of the young, were likely to have the mastery of him, he
used often to rise at cock-crow in the early mornings, and repairing
to some church or holy place, there cast himself before God in prayer,
that he might do nothing contrary to His holy will. But finding himself
still hard tempted, he began at such times to pray, as he lay prostrate
before the altar, that God in his great mercy would strengthen his
mind and will by some sickness, such as would be of use to him in
the subduing of his nature, but would not show itself outwardly, or
render him powerless or contemptible in worldly duties, or less able
to benefit his people. For King Alfred from his earliest years held in
great dread leprosy and blindness, and every disease which would make a
man useless or contemptible in the conduct of affairs. And when he had
often, and with much fervor, prayed to this effect, it pleased God to
afflict him with a very painful disease, which lay upon him with little
respite until he was in his twentieth year. At this age he became
betrothed to her who was afterwards his wife, Elswitha, the daughter
of Ethelred, the Earl of the Gaini in Mercia. Alfred, then, at that
time being on a visit to Cornwall for the sake of hunting, turned aside
from his sport, as his custom often was, to pray in a certain chapel
in which was buried the body of St. Guerir. There he entreated God
that he would exchange the sickness with which he had been up to that
time afflicted for some other disease, which should in like manner not
render him useless or contemptible. And so, finishing his prayers, he
got up and rode away, and soon after perceived within himself that he
was made whole of his old sickness. So his marriage was celebrated in
Mercia, to which came great numbers of people, and there was feasting
which lasted through the night as well as by day. In the midst of which
revelry Alfred was attacked by sudden and violent pain, the cause of
which neither they who were then present, nor indeed any physician
in after years, could rightly ascertain. At the time, however, some
believed that it was the malignant enchantment of some person amongst
the guests; others, that it was the special spite of the devil; others
again, that it was the old sickness come back on him, or a strange kind
of fever. In any case, from that day until his forty-fourth year he
was subject to this same sickness, which frequently returned, giving
him the most acute pain, and, as he thought, making him useless for
every duty. But how far the king was from thinking rightly in this
respect, those who read of the burdens that were laid upon him, and
the work which he accomplished, can best judge for themselves.” Such
is this quaint account of Alfred’s religious devotion, and his patient
endurance of suffering.
According to the will of Ethelwolf, the father of Alfred, Ethelbald,
his eldest son, was to retain the throne of Wessex until his death,
when he should be succeeded by his two youngest brothers, Ethelred
and Alfred, in succession; while Ethelbert, the second son, should be
king of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. His estates and other property were
divided amongst his children. From 858 until 860 Ethelred and Alfred
lived in Kent with their brother Ethelbert. Upon the death of Ethelbald
in 860, Ethelred and Alfred both waived their rights, and allowed
Ethelbert to ascend the throne of Wessex. In 866 Ethelbert also died,
and Ethelred now became the sovereign, and Alfred the crown prince.
Alfred was very fond of study, and also very devout, as the above
description from the old annals shows. During his youth he had gathered
together the Services of the Hours, called _Celebrationes Horarum_,
with many of the Psalms, which he had written in a small handbook that
he always carried with him; and on battle-field, or exiled in the wild
forests, or ruling the nation as a proud king, this little book of
devotion was always within reach, and constantly perused.
Within six weeks after his marriage he was called to arms by the
invasion of the Danes, already mentioned, under Guthrum and Hubba;
and within a few short months his brother Ethelred had been killed in
battle, he himself had become king, and nine pitched battles had been
fought in his own kingdom of Wessex under his leadership.
To understand more clearly the character of the Danes, a slight
description of their weird and fantastic religious ideas is necessary.
Woden was the chief figure in their ancient mythology. He was the
god of battles, “who giveth victory, who re-animates warriors, who
nameth those who are to be slain.” This Woden had been an inspired
teacher as well as a conqueror, and had given to these wild Northmen a
Scandinavian alphabet, and songs of battle. Their traditions related
that Woden had led them from the shores of the Black Sea to the fiords
of Norway, the far shores of Iceland. Having departed from them, he
drew their hearts after him, and lived ever after in Asgard, the garden
of the gods. There in his own great hall, Valhalla, the hall of Odin,
he dwelt. And it was believed that the brave slain in battle should be
permitted to go to Valhalla, and feast there with the mighty Odin.
There were also supposed to be other gods in this hall of Valhalla.
Chief of these was Balder, the sun-god, white, beautiful, benignant;
and Thor, the thunder-god, with terrible smiting hammer and awful
brows, engaged mainly in expeditions into Jotun land, a chaotic world,
the residence of the giants, or devils, known as frost, fire, tempest,
and the like. Thor’s attendant was Thealfi, or manual labor. This
thunder-god was described to be full of unwieldly strength, simplicity,
and rough humor. There was supposed to be a tree of life also in the
unseen world,—Igdrasil, with its roots in Hela, the kingdom of death,
at the foot of which sit the three Nornas, known as the past, present,
and future. They also believed that there would some day be a struggle
of the gods and Jotuns, or dwellers in the chaotic world, and that
at last the gods, Jotuns, and Time himself would all sink down into
darkness, from which in due season there should issue forth a new
heaven and a new earth, in which a higher god and supreme justice shall
at last reign.