The early Scandinavian Vikings settle on the coast of Scotland
and elsewhere—Great skill as seamen—Discovery of ancient ship,
and of other early relics—Incursions of the Saxons and Angles
into Britain; and its state soon afterwards—London—Accession
of Offa, A.D. 755—Restrictions on trade and commerce—Salutary
regulations—Charlemagne’s first treaty of commerce with England,
A.D. 796—Extension of French commerce, A.D. 813—Commerce of
England harassed by the Danes—Their ships, and the habits of
their owners—Increase of the Northern marauders—Language of the
Northmen still spoken by mariners in the North—Accession of
Alfred the Great, A.D. 871: his efforts to improve navigation,
and to extend the knowledge of geography—Foundation of a royal
and commercial navy—His voyages of discovery and missions to
the East—Reign of Edward the Elder, A.D. 901-25, and of his son
Athelstan, A.D. 925-41—Edgar’s fleet, and his arrangements for
suppressing piracy—The wisdom of his policy—Ethelred II., A.D.
979-1016—Sufferings of the people—Charges on vessels trading to
London—Olaf, king of Norway, his ships, and those of Swein—Love
of display—Mode of navigating—Canute, A.D. 1016—Reduction of
the English fleet—Prosperity of commerce—Norman invasion, A.D.
1066—Number of vessels engaged, and their form—State of trade
and commerce—Exports—Manufactures—Wealth—Imports—Taxation—London
specially favoured—Chester specially burdened—State of the people
at the time of the Conquest.
[Sidenote: The early Scandinavian Vikings settle on the coast of
Scotland, and elsewhere.]
Among the numerous tribes which overran Europe during the third,
fourth, and fifth centuries, it would not be easy to give to any one
a position of superiority over the others in the theory and practice
of maritime commerce. Requiring wider fields for their energy, and a
soil more suited for a superabundant population than could be found
amidst the barren mountains of Scandinavia or in the northern portions
of Germany, the first object of most of them, as was the case with
the Goths and Vandals, was, doubtless, to obtain greater means of
subsistence. But desolate hills, and a string of small islands along a
deeply indented coast, with deep and narrow water between them and the
mainland, afforded a natural home for the Vikings’ tribe; while the
mainland itself became available as a great sea-fortress for countless
fleets.
By the physical structure of the country, there run out from a solid
centre of mountain-land a multitude of rocks, like great prongs, with
deep gulfs between them filled from the sea. These are the celebrated
Fiords, which send branches or inlets through the mountains on either
side, some of them longer than the longest sea lochs of the West
Highlands of Scotland. Except in the few places where large rivers
make deltas of silt, the rocks run sheer down into deep water, so that
vessels can lie close to the land in the smallest crevices or bays.
The entrances to wide stretches of fiord are sometimes so narrow, and
consequently so easily defended, that the people speak of the stones
rolling from the tops of the high rocky banks, and bounding across the
water, so as to strike the opposite shore. It was of little consequence
to the Vikings that the soil around them was hard and barren, for the
value to them of that soil was in protection, not in produce. The only
articles they required for home industry were the timber, iron, and
pitch, for the building of their vessels, and the fish which abounded
in their narrow seas. All their other wants were provided by plunder
from the industrious and affluent communities of other lands.
In the Hebrides and the sea-lochs of the Highlands they found harbours
of retreat the same in character, though not in greatness, as those
they left behind them; and we may fairly suppose that it was for
these, not necessarily for any temptation in the prospect of plunder,
that those districts were frequented by them. Hence it was that the
Orkney and other Northern Isles, and even a great part of the north of
Scotland, came in hand more naturally to the monarch ruling in Norway
than to the king of the Scots.
When we find these sea-rovers in the north-west of Scotland and in
Ireland, it becomes obvious, and is confirmed by facts, that they took
the north-east coast of Scotland and the northern islands in their way.
As the Shetland Islands are not more than two hundred miles distant
from the mouths of two of their greatest fiords—the Hardanger and the
Sogne, it may be inferred that these islands, or Caithness, was their
first landfall, where they could swarm off to the Faroes or Iceland, on
the one side, or to Scotland, England, and Ireland, on the other.
[Sidenote: Great skill as seamen.]
As the Vikings must have been thorough seamen, with a great capacity
in the handling of their vessels, it is to be regretted, for the sake
of arts and inventions, that we have not a fuller knowledge of the
details of their craft, and of their method of working them. With,
perhaps, the exception of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians, their
achievements in navigation were on a scale unknown in the world
of ancient history. Whether or not they were the first discoverers
of Vinland (or North America), they quickly found their way to the
Mediterranean, and were known on every European coast from Iceland to
Constantinople. Their rapid movements directly across wide, stormy
oceans show a start in seamanship passing at once beyond the capacity
of the earlier navigators who crept along the shore. Their ordinary
galleys were adapted to the Mediterranean, where they were used down
to the seventeenth century. They had small square sails merely to get
help from a stern wind, their chief mode of propulsion being oars; but
it may be reasonably supposed that the Vikings, when they performed,
as they so often did, the feat of sailing from their place of retreat
straight across a stormy ocean, and of pouncing unexpectedly on the
opposite shore, had made considerable advance in the rigging and
handling of sailing vessels.
From incidental allusions in the Sagas, it is believed that a fleet
fitted out for fighting and plunder was accompanied by lumber ships
to carry slaves for the drudgery work, provisions, munitions, and
perhaps the heavier portion of the plunder. As to the size of their
light narrow war ships, it has been calculated by an ardent and skilful
student of the habits of the Norsemen, that one favourite vessel, “the
Long Serpent,” must have been above a hundred feet in length.[464]
The monk of the Irish house of St. Gall, who tells the story of
Charlemagne weeping when he saw a pirate fleet in the Mediterranean,
also tells how the emperor’s acute eye at once detected, from the
build and swiftness of the vessels, that their purpose was not trade
but mischief.[465]
[Sidenote: Discovery of ancient ship and of other early relics.]
Some remarkable discoveries in Denmark have revealed recently the
remains of a plank-built boat sufficiently complete to admit of the
entire reconstruction of the vessel as it floated. If we compare this
vessel (see page 336) with the accounts of the hide-covered coracles
which carried the Scots from Ireland, or with the lumbering canoe
cut out of the solid wood, such as may still be seen on the lakes of
Bavaria, we obtain at a glance the measure of the high capacity of
those who built the vessels for the Vikings. The Northern antiquaries
have fixed her date as “the early iron age,” probably about the
fifth century. Close examination has led to the conclusion that she
was entirely a row-boat, with no arrangement for help from canvas;
“yet it is seventy-seven feet long, measured from stem to stern, and
proportionally rather broad in the middle.”[466]
It immediately recalls the light handy boats of smaller size still used
on the Norwegian coast, and in the Shetlands; and its structure is so
thoroughly adapted to a union of lightness, speed, and strength, that
it has been compared with the class of vessels now called clippers.
[Illustration: ANCIENT DANISH VESSEL.]
There are peculiarities in its structure, testifying to the abundance
both of material and skilled labour. The timber or heavy planks, for
instance, instead of being sawn into boards of equal thickness—or
thinness—throughout, are cut thin where thinness was desirable, but
thick at points of juncture, that they may be mortised into the
cross-beams and gunwale, instead of being merely nailed. The vessel has
two bows, or rather is alike at bow and stern, with thirty rowlocks,
and it is noticed that these, along with the helm, are reversible,
so as to permit the vessel to be rowed with either end forward.[467]
The gunwale rises with the keel, at each extremity, into a high beak
or prow, a notable feature of the Norwegian boats of the present day.
The build is of the kind technically called “clinker,” each plank
overlapping that immediately below, from the gunwale to the keel: in
the peat-moss containing these remains many other testimonies to wealth
and industrial civilization, especially to boat-building, were found.
It is alike interesting and instructive to trace the progress of these
northern tribes, and the mechanical means at their disposal which
enabled them to construct vessels which could in safety navigate
distant seas, for there can be no doubt that these wild adventurers,
barbarous as they undoubtedly were, became, in the hands of Providence,
useful instruments for saving from extinction a large portion of the
human race, who, under the Roman rule in the later days of its folly,
had become unable to maintain their position either as independent
nations, or as provinces of the imperial city. Surely it was good for
mankind that the Goths and Vandals became masters of Rome, when Rome in
her last decay could no longer govern herself.
[Sidenote: Incursions of the Saxons and Angles into Britain;]
Nor was the change of people to the disadvantage of Britain. Though
not to the same extent, the Romanized Britons had imbibed the vices
of their rulers, and were too effeminate to defend the lands the
Romans had, in their extremity, abandoned. The coming of a new race,
the Saxons and Angles of Schleswig, was needed to revive the energies
of a population who had not been able to drive back the far more
barbarous Picts, though, for a long time, under the Anglo-Saxon rule,
also, commercial enterprise in Britain remained at a low ebb. For
a while, indeed, even the faint light of learning, which remained
when the Romans left, appears to have been almost extinguished by
the long-continued and bloody wars which, during this gloomy period,
depopulated the country and desolated the cities of Britain.
[Sidenote: and its state soon afterwards.]
Almost everything that is known of the state of Britain, and of its
commerce and manufactures, from the time of its evacuation by Rome till
the commencement of the eighth century, is derived from the ancient
biographies of the Saints, then the chief, if not the sole, histories
of the Western world; and faint indeed is the glimmering of light
which these writers throw upon the state of navigation during those
periods.[468] From these writers we get the story of the first Saxon
expedition, together with the traditional tales of Hengist and Horsa,
and of the fifteen hundred men, and the three long vessels or “ships”
they came in. No reliance can, however, be placed, as Mr. Kemble has
shown, on this statement; nor is it likely that the vessels of the
northern pirates were superior to those Saxon craft already noticed, in
which, on their second expedition, the Saxons are said to have landed
seventeen thousand men on the shores of Britain.
[Sidenote: London.]
Indeed, the accounts of the internal state of Britain and Ireland
during that portion of the dark ages to which we now refer, so far as
regards its trade and manufactures, are of the most meagre description;
and the little we do find is rather in the form of incidental notices
in books devoted to other objects than commerce or science. For
instance, it is merely to an incidental remark of the venerable
Bede[469] that we are indebted for the earliest notes of London after
the abdication of the Romans. Speaking of the East-Saxons, at the
commencement of the seventh century, he says that “their metropolis
is the city of London, which is situated on the bank of the aforesaid
river (Thames), and is the mart of many nations resorting to it by sea
and land;” adding that “King Ethelbert built the church of St. Paul,
in the city of London, where he and his successors should have their
episcopal see.”
That the Britons then possessed no naval force fitted to compete with
the Saxons is clear, from the fact that their contests with them were
invariably carried on by land, and that no effectual resistance by sea
was offered to the vast numbers of Saxons and Angles who poured into
the island. It is, indeed, not improbable that the Romans, when they
assumed the government of Britain, discouraged the inhabitants from
the creation of a fleet, which might endanger their possession of the
island, a fact which would naturally account for the inferiority of the
Britons when matched against invaders, who, from the nature of their
previous lives, were more at home on the sea than on land.
[Sidenote: Accession of Offa, A.D. 755.]
One only of the kings of the Heptarchy, Offa of Mercia,[470] exerted
himself to resuscitate the declining trade and commerce of Britain.
Offa, having in view the raising of a naval force to defend his
dominions, encouraged his subjects to fit out ships, and to carry goods
in their own bottoms instead of trusting for transport to so large an
extent as they had hitherto done, to the vessels of foreign nations.
But his praiseworthy efforts were only transient in their character.
Some of the English traders who resorted to the continent (including
Rome and Venice), in order to evade payment of the customs exacted
from them in their transit through France, pretended to be pilgrims on
their journey to the imperial city, whose baggage was exempted from
duties. This attempt to evade the duties was discovered, and reported
to Charlemagne by his collectors of customs; the payment of the duties
was enforced, and the goods of the English merchants, consisting
chiefly of works in gold and silver, for which English workmen were
then famous, and which were in great demand in Italy,[471] were seized
and confiscated until the pleasure of the emperor was known. The
merchants appealed to Offa for redress, who, by way of retaliation,
laid an embargo upon the French shipping frequenting his ports. Thus
differences arose between Charlemagne and Offa which continued for
some years, and thus the improvement in commerce which, since the time
of the Roman dominion in Britain, had been well-nigh extinguished,
was nipped almost in its bud. These differences, combined with the
incessant wars then waged between the Anglo-Saxons and their remote
ancestors, the Danes and Norwegians or Northmen, for the supremacy of
the Northern Ocean, prevented for the time all hope of any permanent
improvement in the maritime commerce of Britain.
[Sidenote: Restrictions on trade and commerce.]
Nor, indeed, did the laws of the Saxon kings afford much encouragement
to the development of trade. Those of Kent, which were considered as
patterns for the other kingdoms, enacted that if any Kentish Saxon
should buy anything in London, and bring it into Kent, he should have
two or three honest men, or the Portreeve (the chief magistrate of
the city), present at the bargain.[472] By the same laws, no man was
allowed to buy anything above the value of twenty pence, except in a
town, and in the presence of a magistrate or some other trustworthy and
responsible witness. Similar, and even greater restraints were imposed
on bartering one commodity for another. In fact, during a considerable
period of time, no bargain could be contracted without the personal
presence of some principal person or chief magistrate as a witness; a
restrictive system, which may have been necessary when few, if any, of
the traders could write, and disputes were frequent and inevitable, but
which, like some laws of much more recent times, seriously retarded the
progress of commerce. It is curious to note that the origin of every
protective or restrictive law, even from the infancy of commerce, has
proposed for its object the securing individual profits or the supposed
safety of the revenue. At this period of English history the king
claimed a portion of the price of all goods imported or sold within his
dominions above the value of twenty pence; a practice which we learn,
from an entry in Domesday, prevailed till after the Norman invasion.
It is there stated that a certain per centage of everything bought or
sold in the borough of Lewes was to be paid to the Portreeve (royal tax
collector), and especially the sum of fourpence for every man sold as a
slave within its boundaries.[473]
[Sidenote: Salutary regulations.]
The limited trade of the Saxons was, however, regulated by some
salutary provisions, such as that preventing the execution of bargains
and sales on Sundays, on which day the people were, without exception,
expected to assemble for the performance of their religious duties.
The contests, on these grounds, between the clergy and people were as
violent then as now, but with this difference, that modern legislation
strikes at the humble retailer, whereas in those days the great
merchant was equally compelled to obey the law. Not that we are to
suppose that no trade was done clandestinely under the guise of these
Religious Assemblies—the origin, no doubt, at least partially, of the
Statute Fairs of later ages—but this is certain, that bargains, though
planned and discussed, could not be completed till the next “lawful”
day.
[Sidenote: Charlemagne’s first treaty of commerce with England, A.D.
796.]
But though the maritime commerce of England made little progress till
the reign of Alfred the Great, there can be no doubt that it derived
various advantages from the impulse given to that of the neighbouring
country of France by the exertions of Charlemagne, as that wise and
able monarch is justly deemed to have laid the foundations of French
trade with distant countries. Nowhere do we find a more striking
instance of his _tact_ than is displayed in his letter to Offa, with
the object of renewing the commercial relations between France and
England:[474]
“Charles by the grace of God, king of the Franks and Lombards, and
patrician of the Romans, to our venerable and most dear brother Offa,
king of the Mercians, greeting. First, we give thanks to Almighty God
for the sincere Catholic faith, which we see so laudably expressed
in your letters. Concerning the strangers, who, for the love of God
and the salvation of their souls, wish to repair to the thresholds of
the Blessed Apostles, let them travel in peace without any trouble.
Nevertheless, if any are found among them not in the service of
religion but in pursuit of gain, let them pay the established duties
at the proper places. We also will, that merchants shall have lawful
protection in our kingdom according to our command; and if they are in
any place unjustly aggrieved, let them apply to us or our judges, and
we shall take care that ample justice be done to them.”
[Sidenote: Extension of French commerce, A.D. 813.]
It is, further, no small evidence of the effect produced by the
energetic rule of Charlemagne that, only a few years later, the
merchants of Lyons, Marseilles, and Avignon, confiding in his power
and fame, and in the friendship between him and Harún-al-Rashíd,
whose ships were then supreme in the Mediterranean, made a joint plan
for sending vessels twice a year to Alexandria, whither no Christian
vessels had adventured since it came into the possession of the
Muhammedans. The spices of India and the perfumes of Arabia were then
for the first time brought direct to their own port of Marseilles by
the merchants of France, and one of the most ancient trades was thus
re-opened.[475] From Marseilles these goods were conveyed by one of the
inland continental routes we have already described, up the Rhône and
the Saône, then re-embarked on the Moselle for the Rhine, and, by means
of this latter river, distributed through Germany and the northern
countries.
[Sidenote: Commerce of England harassed by the Danes.]
[Sidenote: Their ships, and the habits of their owners.]
Nor can we doubt that England would have followed where France had
so cleverly led the way, but for the ruin caused by the ceaseless
incursions of the Danes, who, having effected their first landing on
the island of Thanet,[476] soon made good other settlements in the
northern and eastern portions of Britain whence they were never wholly
expelled till the Norman conquest. As a maritime people the Danes
equalled, if they did not surpass, all the nations or tribes of the
north of Europe, and possessed, even at this early period of their
history, vessels superior and more varied than any of their northern
competitors, and rivalling all others for many centuries afterwards.
These vessels were chiefly distinguished by the name of Drakers and
Holkers; the former of which has been supposed to have derived its name
from the figure of a dragon on its bows. These and other vessels are
said to have carried the ancient Danish flag of the raven at the top of
their masts.
The _Holker_ was originally a small boat, hollowed out of the trunk of
a tree, but in process of time the word “hulk” was used evidently for
vessels of larger dimensions, adapted for the conveyance of troops, and
even for landing them with facility on a beach; hence it is probable
that it bore much resemblance to the ordinary barge. But this name
was first applied to light vessels used for exploring purposes, or
for “scouts,” and other swift craft engaged in carrying despatches.
The Danes and most of the other Scandinavian nations had also another
kind of vessel they called Snekkar (serpent), apparently shorter in
proportion to her breadth, and therefore not unlike the ordinary Dutch
merchant galliot of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.[477]
Nature furnished abundance of materials to the mariners of the north
for the building of their vessels; indeed, to this day, the primeval
forests of Norway and Sweden supply vast quantities of timber, for
ship-building and other purposes, to the European markets. The outfit
of these vessels seems to have been singularly inexpensive—even
provisions were supplied to them but scantily—their commanders being
constantly in the habit of landing in the course of their passage to
replenish their limited stock of meat, wine, and beer. Indeed this
practice became a constant tax upon the people of the countries they
visited, and whom they but too frequently pillaged of their whole stock
of provisions. Nor was this all: it was customary in Sweden and Norway
to compel the people of the maritime districts to hold in readiness
a stated number of ships for the use of the king and, nominally, for
purposes of defence: these vessels were, however, not unfrequently
used for warlike and predatory expeditions, a custom which doubtless
led to many of the unwarrantable attacks, whereby England and other
parts of Europe were in succession, and for many ages, laid waste. From
this marauding and unconquerable race, the daring and hardy sailors
of England had their descent; and the adventures of this progeny of
the Scandinavians, in more recent times, show that they have retained
for many ages the adventurous, and too often lawless, spirit of their
ancestors.
[Sidenote: Increase of the northern marauders.]
[Sidenote: Language of the Northmen still spoken by mariners in the
North.]
The piratical expeditions of the Northmen were more easily suppressed
in France than in England, where, among the numerous islands contiguous
to her coasts, their vessels could take refuge. Thus Wales suffered
severely from their marauding attacks; the island of Anglesey was more
than once pillaged by them; while, in Ireland, they long held the
ports of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork. A Danish king resided
in Dublin and in Waterford; and the invaders preserved their warlike
spirit and predatory habits long after the remaining portions of the
kingdom had acquired peaceful habits.[478] The Scandinavian language
survived the independence of the Northern pirates; and, centuries
after these had ceased to dominate the seas, a Norse dialect was still
spoken. Even to this day remnants of this original language remain in
the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, and is often used among the seafaring
population, especially for the ordinary nautical expressions employed
on board of their ships.
[Sidenote: Accession of Alfred the Great, A.D. 871:]
[Sidenote: his efforts to improve navigation, and to extend the
knowledge of geography.]
When Alfred ascended the throne, he found England overrun by the Danes,
so that for a short time he was obliged to dissemble and to conceal
himself, with the few faithful subjects who had not deserted him. In
his retreat, however, he was the better able to arrange future plans,
as he at once perceived that without an effective maritime force his
island must be ever at the mercy of every piratical adventurer. He
accordingly determined to meet the enemies of England on the sea,
and having studied the best models of the Danes, and added many
improvements of his own, his efforts were in the end completely
successful. His galleys are said to have been twice as long as those of
the enemy, and to have carried sixty oars. They were also loftier and
better built, and proved of much greater speed.[479]
Alfred, who, by the attention he devoted to maritime pursuits, has
justly earned the title of the “Father of the British Navy,” was
also the first native of Britain who made an attempt to extend the
science of geography. Having obtained information from Ohthere, a
Norwegian,[480] and from other sources, of the Baltic Sea and adjacent
countries stretching to the extreme northern regions of Europe, he
corrected many of the prevailing errors of geographers. Ohthere, who
had coasted along the country of the Fins, now known as Lapland, and
had passed the North Cape and penetrated into the bay where Archangel
now stands, speaks of the vast abundance of whales and seals along that
northern coast, and gives a description of the mode of life of the
natives, which is not unlike that of the ancient Scythians. They brewed
no ale; mead was the ordinary drink of the poorer classes; while the
rich drank a species of liquor prepared from the milk of goats.
[Sidenote: Foundation of a royal and commercial navy.]
But though Alfred was successful in raising, after four years’ labour,
six small vessels, with which he put to sea and overcame seven of the
Danish ships, capturing one and driving back the rest, intestine
troubles compelled him for a considerable time to neglect maritime
affairs: after some years, however, having induced those of the Danes
whom he had brought under subjection to embrace Christianity, he
assigned them lands in the kingdom of the East Angles, and made it
their interest to defend that portion of Britain with which, from their
own repeated descents upon it, they were most familiar. These newly
settled people possessed many vessels, were skilled in ship-building,
and excellent mariners, and thus aided him effectually in fitting out
a powerful fleet with which he encountered, with varied success, the
Danish ships who still claimed the dominion of the northern seas.
Many of his subjects were likewise persuaded to acquire the art of
navigation, to study for themselves the best mode of conducting naval
warfare, and to devote their attention to commercial and maritime
pursuits, which, while they increased the number of merchant vessels,
laid at the same time the surest foundation for the creation and
maintenance of a royal navy.
The exertions of his people were so energetically supported by their
king, that at length a fleet was raised sufficiently powerful to guard
the sea coast, and protect the foreign trade of the country. Nor were
the defences of the sea-port towns, and especially those of London,
where the chief commercial wealth of the country had been collected
and stored, forgotten.[481] In addition to these judicious measures,
he introduced new manufactures, and discovered new articles of growth
which, if exported, would prove a considerable source of profit to
those merchants who undertook their shipment to other countries. It
was by such means, by liberal and wise laws, and by well conceived
arrangements for the best development of the natural resources of
England, that he greatly increased the wealth of his people, and laid
the foundation of that powerful royal and commercial navy, which,
through many vicissitudes, has continued, though often neglected, to be
the pride and boast of the English people.
[Sidenote: His voyages of discovery and missions to the East.]
Nor, indeed, was this all. Alfred, also, sent out ships on voyages of
discovery to the south as well as to the north; and, having opened
communications with the patriarch of Jerusalem, obtained from him much
information on various important subjects, which ultimately proved of
great value to his people: moreover, if William of Malmesbury can be
relied on, he sent Sighelm, bishop of Sherbourne, with many gifts to
the Nestorian Christians of St. Thomas, at Maliapur, on the Coromandel
coast, and received from them in return various products of Indian
growth and manufacture.[482]
To Alfred the Great, England also owes the first attempt to secure a
more speedy and equal distribution of justice by the division of the
kingdom into hundreds and tithings, combined with a careful survey
of the whole country, known as the “Book of Winchester,” the model
probably of the later and still more famous Domesday Book. The laws
of the Anglo-Saxons were also revised, and a code was formed with
selections from the best of those of other nations. The wisdom and the
justice of Alfred first raised England out of the darkness of one of
the darkest ages, and secured for her a position at sea she had never
previously held; and, though a thousand years have since passed away,
we cannot but think that those statesmen who are now devoting their
attention to the commercial and maritime interests of their country
would do well to study the policy of Alfred at a period of bigotry,
superstition, and ignorance, when piracy at sea, and plunder on land,
afforded a large source of remunerative employment to the people.
[Sidenote: Reign of Edward the Elder, A.D. 901-925, and of his son
Athelstan, A.D. 925-941.]
His son Edward followed his example in the care he bestowed on his
fleet; and, though much of his time was occupied in constructing
castles to keep back the ever encroaching Danes, he was able to equip
and to maintain during his reign one hundred ships to protect trade
and guard the coasts. But his son, Athelstan, displayed even greater
anxiety to increase the power of his fleet, being at the same time the
first English monarch who, by his laws, made trade a road to honour.
One of these laws enacted, that if any merchant or mariner successfully
accomplished three voyages on the high seas with a ship and cargo
of his own, he should thenceforth be advanced to the dignity of a
Thane and entitled to all the privileges attaching to his rank; and
he, at the same time, established mints in such towns as enjoyed any
considerable amount of foreign trade, with the necessary provisions
to ensure the purity and just weight of the coins issued.[483]
These salutary laws and other prudent regulations had the effect of
considerably improving trade during his reign.
William of Malmesbury has preserved the record of a gift by Harold,
king of Norway, to Athelstan, about the year 931, of a ship adorned
with a golden prow, having a purple sail, and armed with a complete
bulwark of shields. A similar arrangement of shields may be seen on
many of the ships delineated on the Bayeux tapestry.[484]
[Sidenote: Edgar’s fleet, and his arrangements for suppressing piracy.]
From the death of Athelstan to the accession of Edgar, there are no
incidents in connection with shipping or commerce worthy of record.
Edgar, however, greatly increased the royal navy; nay, the monkish
writers of the period assert that he had three or four thousand
vessels, an exaggeration not requiring refutation.[485] Edgar, besides
living in considerable splendour, spent large sums of money on
monastic foundations; hence the only historians of his day took care
to sound his praises with their highest notes. The more effectually
to repress the ravages of the Danes, he is said to have divided
his fleet into three divisions, and to have sent each squadron to
separate stations, thus, for the first time, stationing his ships in
a systematic manner along the English coasts, so as to guard against
surprise, and protect the merchantmen trading with his seaports.
Nor was he satisfied with the mere organization of his plans. Every
summer he himself visited the fleets, making excursions from station
to station, and by his vigilance kept the sea from being disturbed by
marauders, thereby greatly contributing to the strength of his kingdom.
[Sidenote: The wisdom of his policy.]
But though he has been credited with numerous victories, nay even with
the complete subjugation of Ireland, it is clear that his policy was
really one of peace and progress, and that he was anxious to maintain
peace as the best safeguard for progress by the maintenance of a
force sufficient for that purpose, rather than by increasing it to
such dimensions as might have overawed his neighbours and rendered it
an aggressive one. To be prepared for war is undoubtedly a guarantee
for peace; but a naval force exceeding what is necessary for the
protection of its shores and commerce is dangerous to the nation which
has created it, as other nations then naturally increase their forces,
and a rivalry in arms arises, with war for its probable result. Edgar
evidently knew where to draw the line, and having secured the safety
of his dominions from foreign aggression, he devoted his attention to
the improvement of his internal affairs. Thus, to facilitate commerce,
all money coined in the kingdom was decreed to be of one kind in its
relative value,[486] so far as regards receipts and payments; and
the Winchester measures were fixed as the standard of all measures
throughout the country. Many restrictions were enforced as to the
method of transacting business; and no one was permitted to buy or
sell except in the presence of two or more witnesses. Every member of
a tithing was required, if he went to a distant market, to inform the
borst-holder, not merely what he intended to purchase or dispose of,
but on his return to declare into what transactions he had entered.
Restrictions, however, which would be ruinous to modern commerce may
have been necessary in its infancy.
[Sidenote: Ethelred II., A.D. 979-1016. Sufferings of the people.]
The annals of the long and disastrous reign of Ethelred II. afford but
one continued picture of rapine and plunder. “The Danish and Norwegian
robbers,” remarks Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce,[487] “now
united, and led by Swein, king of Denmark, and Olaf Trygvason, who
afterwards became king of Norway, spread the horrors of slaughter,
captivity, and desolation over all the country. After wasting the
lands, and utterly extinguishing cultivation and industry, they
compelled the miserable people to bring in provisions for their
subsistence; and they moreover extorted in the name of tribute, as the
price of peace, but in reality the premium for invasion, the enormous
sums of ten thousand pounds of silver in the year 991, sixteen thousand
pounds in 1007, and forty-eight thousand pounds in 1012. After
which the greatest part of the country sunk under the power of the
Danes.”[488] Nor was this all. London itself was burnt; extraordinary
inundations prevailed in different parts of the country, followed by
contagious disorders destructive of both man and beast.
[Sidenote: Charges upon vessels trading to London.]
Yet amid all the desolations of this unhappy reign, some attention was
paid to maritime and internal commerce, and a law was passed commanding
every proprietor of 310 hides[489] of land to furnish a ship for the
protection of the State; the result being a larger naval force than
had ever been collected before.[490] Fresh regulations were also made
with reference to the coasting trade. Boats arriving at Billingsgate
were required to pay a toll of a halfpenny, a penny, or four pennies,
according to their size and build. Each vessel with wood left one piece
as toll or tribute; boats with fish coming to London bridge (first
mentioned, according to Spelman, in the reign of Ethelred)[491] paid
either one halfpenny, or one penny, according to their size. Foreign
merchants from Rouen, Flanders, and Liege, frequenting the Port of
London with their ships and manufactures, were in some respects
privileged, but were still required to pay the duties, and forbidden
to “forestall the market to the prejudice of the citizens.” At Easter
and Christmas the German merchants,[492] resident in the city, were
further required to pay for the privilege of trading two pieces of grey
cloth and one piece of brown cloth, ten pounds of pepper, five pairs
of gloves, and two casks of wine. The larger description of vessels
engaged at this period in the foreign trade, appear to have discharged
their cargoes on the Middlesex shore at wharves or jetties, between
the Tower and London bridge, while the smaller craft lay above bridge,
chiefly in the Fleet river near the port of Ludgate, where many of the
merchants then resided. Within the limits of the Fleet to the west,
and of Billingsgate to the east, were to be found the warehouses and
dwellings of all the traders, and the chief portion of London was then,
and, indeed, for two or three centuries after the Conquest, embraced
within those limits.
[Sidenote: Olaf, king of Norway, his ships, and those of Swein.]
Olaf, who had given so much trouble to Ethelred, having by his
piratical excursions gained considerable knowledge of the wants of
various countries, endeavoured on his accession to the crown of Norway
to encourage commerce in his own country. With this object he founded
Nidaros, now known as Drontheim, and made it an emporium for trade. He
also built various ships of war, larger than had ever been seen in the
Northern seas. One of these, the Dreki, or “Dragon,” is described as
having a hull one hundred and eleven feet in length, with thirty-four
benches or thwarts for rowers. Her head and stern were finely adorned
with carved work, elaborately gilt, and from the description of her
which has been preserved, she must have resembled in many respects
the state galleys of the Italian republics during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, thus showing very considerable advancement in the
science of ship-building among the nations of the north.[493]
Some record has also been preserved of the ships with which Swein,
the father of Canute, made a descent in A.D. 1004 on the coasts of
Norfolk. Each vessel had a high deck, and their prows were ornamented
with figures of lions, bulls, dolphins, or men, made of copper gilt;
at their mast-heads were vanes in the shape of birds with expanded
wings to show the quarter whence the wind blew. Swein’s own ship, also
called “the Great Dragon,” is said to have been built in the form of
the animal whose name it bore; its head forming the prow, and its tail
the stern. It bore also a standard of white silk, having in the centre
a raven with extended wings and open beak, which had been embroidered
by three of that monarch’s sisters.[494]
[Sidenote: Love of display.]
Nor need we suppose that there was much exaggeration in the chronicles
describing these and other ships of that time. It was evidently a
period when gorgeous displays were not uncommon. Only a few years
later, Earl Godwin, to appease the wrath of Hardicanute, presented him
with a ship, the prow of which was richly decorated with gold;[495] and
Macpherson has recorded how the step-father of Olaf, though usually a
plain man and good farmer, would, on state occasions, dress himself
in “breeches or trousers of Cordovan leather, and clothes made of
silk, with a scarlet cloak over them. His sword,” remarks the same
writer,[496] “was richly adorned with carving in gold, and his helmet
and spurs were gilded. His horse had a saddle embellished with golden
ornaments, and a bridle shining with gold and gems.”[497]
It is probable that such decorations were not unfrequently the prizes
of piracy rather than of fair trade: for, though some of the people
of the southern portions of Norway are said to have been considerable
traders to England, Ireland, Saxony, Flanders, and Denmark, yet their
attachment to trade in no way interfered with occasional amusements
of a very different kind, or with quartering themselves during the
winters on the countries of the Christians. Nor were they particular
in their objects of plunder. In the periodical fairs of Germany, which
were established about this period, a large portion of the merchandise
brought to them for sale consisted of slaves of both sexes; ordinary
slaves of either sex realizing about a mark, or eight ounces of
silver, while three times that sum was frequently given, at these
northern fairs, for female slaves who were “fair in form and beautiful
in countenance.” Helmold relates that he saw seven thousand Danish
slaves at one time exposed for sale in the market at Mecklenburg.[498]
[Sidenote: Mode of navigating.]
Long before the compass was known, the seamen of Norway, like the
ancient mariners of the Island of Ceylon, regulated their track through
the ocean by the flight of birds set free from on board their vessels;
a proof that, in regions of the world far removed from each other,
the same primitive practices prevailed. It is related of Flok,[499]
a famous Norwegian navigator, that when about to set out from
Shetland[500] to Iceland, he took with him some crows on board of his
ship. Under the impression that he had made considerable progress in
his voyage, he liberated one of these birds, which, seeing land astern,
flew for it; whereby Flok, considering that he was nearer Shetland or
Faroe “than any other land, kept on his course for some time, and then
sent out another crow, which, seeing no land at all,” returned to the
vessel. At last, as he conceived, having accomplished the greatest part
of his voyage, a third crow was set at liberty, which seeing land ahead
immediately flew for it, and Flok, following his guide, fell in with
the east end of the island of Iceland.
[Sidenote: Canute, A.D. 1016. Reduction of the English fleet.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1031.]
Happily, the accession of Canute to the throne of England had put a
stop to the cruel wars so long waged between the Danes and English, and
commerce once more began to flourish; the influence and dread of this
prince being so great, that he found it unnecessary to maintain more
than forty[501] ships at sea to protect his coasts and his maritime
commerce, a number which was afterwards reduced to sixteen.[502]
Indeed, so far from entertaining any apprehensions of an inclination to
revolt among the English, he frequently made voyages to the Continent,
once proceeding even as far as Rome, where he met the Emperor Conrad
II. and other princes, from whom he obtained, for all his subjects,
whether merchants or pilgrims, a complete exemption from the heavy
tolls usually exacted on their visits to that city.[503] Canute,
indeed, by his conquest of Norway, represented in his own person both
the English whom he had subjugated, and the Danes, who had been their
constant and persevering rivals, thus uniting under one sovereignty all
the maritime nations of the north.
[Sidenote: Prosperity of commerce.]
Under such favourable circumstances as these, the trade and shipping
of England could hardly fail to prosper, although there are no records
left whereby we can measure their extent or character. But as Canute
materially increased the number of mints[504] throughout the kingdom,
and as the merchants of London had become sufficiently powerful to
be the chief instruments in placing his son Harold upon the throne
at his death,[505] it may be inferred that the mercantile community,
while requiring a greater amount of currency for the conduct of their
business, had likewise become an important element in the State. It is
further recorded, that the merchants of London, with the _seamen_ of
that city, many of whom had probably become Thanes, mingled with the
nobility and performed a leading and conspicuous part at the coronation
of Harold at Oxford, who soon afterwards increased the wages of the
sailors of his fleet, giving to each of them eight mancusses[506]
(2_l._ 16_s._ 8_d._) annually; but when Hardicanute increased his navy
to seventy-two ships,[507] a further advance was required to be made in
the wages of the seamen, who were discontented with the remuneration
they received.
[Sidenote: Norman invasion, A.D. 1066.]
During the short period of the restoration of the Saxon monarchy the
Danes resumed their marauding expeditions; but, after ravaging the
coasts of Wales and Sussex, they were repulsed with great slaughter
by the English under Harold II., who was however less successful in
resisting the Norman invasion under William the Conqueror, whose
accession constitutes a new era in the commercial and maritime, as well
as in the political and general, history of Britain.
[Sidenote: Number of vessels engaged, and their form.]
The stories as to the number of vessels under the orders of the
Conqueror on this memorable expedition are very conflicting. Some
writers have asserted that the total number amounted to no less than
three thousand, of which six or seven hundred were of a superior order,
the remainder consisting chiefly of boats temporarily built, and of the
most fragile description. Others place the whole fleet at not more than
eight hundred vessels of every sort, and this number is likely to be
the nearest to the truth. There are now no means of ascertaining their
size; but their form may be conjectured from the representations of
these vessels on the famous roll of tapestry still preserved at Bayeux,
from which the following has been copied.[508]
[Illustration]
It is related that when William meditated his descent upon England,
he ordered for that purpose “large ships” to be constructed at his
seaports, collecting, wherever they could be found, smaller vessels or
boats to accompany them. But even the largest must have been of little
value, as the whole fleet were by his orders burned and destroyed as
soon as he landed with his army, so as to cut off all retreat and to
save the expense of their maintenance.[509]
Those of our readers who have visited the north of Scotland, during
the herring-fishery season, will readily notice the resemblance to
the traditional form of the war vessels of the Saxons in the eleventh
century exhibited by the larger boats owned by the present Wick or
Lerwick fishermen. But as we have more than once had occasion to
observe, though we are greatly indebted to antiquaries for their
researches, the few drawings of ancient vessels preserved are scarcely
objects of instruction. Even the vessels on the Bayeux tapestry give us
little that is definite, and we can hardly infer from them more than
that we see in them an ideal but imperfect representation of the boats
which were hastily constructed for William the Norman; while we may at
the same time feel sure that the Saxon and Danish ships in ordinary
use must have been stronger and better adapted to encounter stormy
weather and rough seas than the vessels of a similar size and class
in the Mediterranean. All details respecting them must, however, be
conjectural; and a drawing of one class, even if accurate, may give as
faint an impression of ships of another class, as the collier of to-day
would afford of a modern Indiaman or Ocean-Steamer.
Nor, indeed, is it likely that the Conqueror’s fleet included many
ships of a superior class or size, as we know that the great bulk, if
not the whole of them, were built or collected, and fitted between the
first of January and the latter end of August. Norman writers of the
period state that their merchant vessels or transports were in length
about three times their breadth, sometimes propelled by oars, but
generally by sails: their galleys appear to have been of two sorts,
the larger, occasionally called galleons, carrying in some instances
sixty men, well armed with iron armour, besides the rowers. The smaller
galleys, which are not specially described, doubtless resembled ships’
launches in size, but of a form enabling them to be propelled at
considerable speed. Besides these, the Normans would appear to have
also used, for purposes of war, small light boats covered with leather
resembling those already described.[510]
[Sidenote: State of trade and commerce.]
It is almost as difficult to arrive at any sound conclusion with regard
to the actual state of trade and commerce in England at the time of
the Conquest as it is with regard to the shipping. Agriculture, which
had been in so flourishing a state under the Roman government, that
large shipments of corn were frequently made to the Continent, had
been much neglected during the long wars between the Britons, Saxons,
and Danes; and there is no instance on record of any export of grain
of any sort during the whole period of the Anglo-Saxon rule. On the
other hand, in unfavourable seasons, the Britons did not grow enough
for themselves, though the country must have been thinly peopled, and,
consequently, but too frequently suffered severely from famine. In the
account of the sales of church property and of other estates, many
records of which are still extant,[511] we find that land even of the
best quality seldom realized a higher price than five pounds[512] of
silver for a hide of land, showing that while the people must have been
widely scattered few persons were in opulent circumstances.
[Sidenote: Exports.]
Wool was however produced to a considerable extent, the rich pastures
of England having furnished from the earliest ages ample food for large
flocks of sheep. By the eighth law of King Edgar, the highest price
which could be taken for wool was somewhat less than three-fourths
of a penny for a pound; and though there is no positive information
on the subject, the Flemings, who were then and for some centuries
afterwards the chief manufacturers of fine woollen goods for the whole
of Europe, must have bought wool largely in the markets of England,
and carried it away to be spun and woven in their own country. Lead
was frequently used for the roofs of churches and other buildings; and
from the records in Domesday Book it is clear that, during the reign
of Edward the Confessor, there were iron works in the neighbourhood of
Gloucester, of a date perhaps as early as the Roman colonization.[513]
Although there is no account of the exportation of any metals in the
age now under consideration, it is reasonable to suppose that the
demand at home and abroad for lead, tin, and iron, could never have
wholly ceased, and that they must have formed a considerable part of
the few exports during the Anglo-Saxon period.[514]
Horses, it may be presumed, were sometimes exported, as King
Athelstan made a law against carrying any out of the kingdom except
as presents.[515] The natives of Britain, too, were not unfrequently
exported to the Continent and even to Rome, the handsome figures of
these female slaves naturally attracting much attention. The merchants
of Bristol and of Northumberland appear to have been the chief dealers
in this inhuman traffic, the former finding in Ireland the readiest and
the largest market for their slaves.[516]
[Sidenote: Manufactures.]
Concerning the ordinary description of manufactures, the meagre
chronicles of the period furnish little information. We find,
however, that Northumberland was then comparatively famous, as it
has been ever since, for the manufacture of glass, while the English
jewellers and workers in gold surpassed those of most other nations.
Nor were the women of England less famous for their taste and skill
in the embroidering of silk of various colours interspersed with
threads of gold and silver. So famous, indeed, were they in this
description of work, that when William the Conqueror sent to his
patron, Pope Alexander II., the banner of Harold wrought for him
by them, it was remarked that “it might be greatly admired even in
Constantinople,”[517] then the wealthiest and most refined city of
the world; and similar presents made by him to the church of Caen in
Normandy are said to have been “such as strangers of the highest rank,
who had seen the treasures of many noble churches, might look upon them
with delight; and even the natives of Greece and Arabia, if they were
to travel thither, would be equally charmed with them.”[518]
[Sidenote: Wealth.]
At this early period there must have been a considerable amount of
accumulated wealth in England, to have enabled Canute to have expended
the vast sums he is said to have done on his pilgrimage to Rome, or to
have allowed Edward the Confessor to build the Abbey of St. Peter’s at
Westminster, and many other churches, at an enormous expense. Nor do
the resources of his treasury appear to have been drained by all this
expenditure; for the quantity of money the Conqueror took from Harold
enabled him to be, in the words of his biographer, “incredibly liberal”
to the Church of Rome;[519] moreover, that some of the nobles had great
wealth, may be inferred from the present of Earl Godwin to Hardicanute
already alluded to, together with the other rich gifts which he
bestowed upon the Church.[520]
[Sidenote: Imports.]
But the governing class and the great ecclesiastics must have had
in those days the bulk of the wealth of the country in their hands;
indeed, the limited extent of trade, and the character of the imports
of the period, demonstrate plainly that such was the case. Silk,
and similar expensive articles of dress, precious stones, perfumes,
and other oriental luxuries, purchased in the ports of Italy or at
Marseilles, are, with one or two extraordinary exceptions, the only
items the historians of the period record as having been brought from
foreign countries: these exceptions, strange to relate, consisted of
portions of legs, arms, fingers, and toes, supposed to have belonged
to canonized saints. It is almost impossible now to conceive that such
articles constituted, at any period of English history, important items
of her imports. There is, however, no doubt of the fact; and so high
in estimation were such remains held, that Egelnoth, archbishop of
Canterbury, is said[521] to have purchased at Paris, on his return from
Rome, an arm of St. Augustine for one hundred talents of silver and one
talent of gold; while Elfsig, abbot of Peterborough, gave no less than
five thousand pounds of silver for a headless body, which some knavish
dealer had pronounced to be that of a distinguished saint.[522]
[Sidenote: Taxation.]
[Sidenote: London specially favoured.]
By the records of Domesday, nearly all the cities and boroughs of
England appear to have been, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, the
property of the king, or of some noble to whom the inhabitants looked
for protection and paid a rent or borough-mail. London, Winchester,
York, and Exeter alone enjoyed exemptions from taxes imposed on other
cities of the kingdom. London was afterwards especially favoured by
the Conqueror, who, recognizing the great importance of that city,
endeavoured to conciliate the goodwill of the inhabitants by a charter,
which not merely confirmed all the privileges they had previously
possessed, but enjoined that “every child should be his father’s heir
after his death.” To William the City owes the jurisdiction of the
Thames,[523] the conservancy of which is even now to some extent in its
hands, the Lord Mayor being still _ex-officio_ chairman of the present
board for that purpose. The inhabitants, or burgesses of London, also
enjoyed the highly-prized privilege of hunting in the extensive chases
of Chiltern, Middlesex, and Surrey, which, with the conservancy over
the Thames, was confirmed by subsequent charters, and especially by
that of Henry I.
[Sidenote: Chester specially burdened.]
It is clear that the taxes imposed on the seaport as well as
inland towns, were not arranged by any systematic law. Thus, for no
especial reason that can now be discerned, Chester was taxed far
more heavily than any other city in the reigns of both William I.
and his predecessor, Edward. Dover again paid 18_l._ annually, but
the burgesses, who were required to provide twenty ships, carrying
twenty-one men each, for fifteen days in the year, were exempted from
all tolls throughout the country. Sandwich was placed on a similar
footing, but only paid 15_l._ per annum. In Southwark, the king claimed
a duty on all vessels entering the “dock,” and levied a toll on those
that used the strand for the delivering or loading of their cargoes.
Colchester paid two marks of silver, and also, as a composition for the
rent of six pennies on every house, 15_l._ 5_s._ 4_d._, of which 4_l._
was paid by the coiners. Yarmouth, which had seventy burgesses, was
taxed to the extent of 27_l._ by toll to the king and earl. In Ipswich
there were eight hundred and eight burgesses paying custom to the king,
but the amount is not stated.
No determinate principle can now be discerned why such dues were
exacted, small towns being in many cases required to pay more than
others of double their size. In some places the taxes were paid in
produce or merchandise—as, for instance, at Gloucester, where, besides
36_l._ levied in toll, the inhabitants had to contribute twelve gallons
of honey, and one hundred iron rods to the king’s ships, together
with a few other petty customs. Again, Leicester had also to provide
honey, and twelve burgesses to supply the king’s army, and four horses
to carry arms and stores to London when any maritime expedition was
about to sail from the Thames. In Shrewsbury the king levied a tax
of ten shillings on the marriage of every maid, and twenty shillings
on that of every widow, besides numerous taxes upon the people in
the shape of services or customs; and in Hereford, the king had one
hundred and three tenants, including six blacksmiths, who performed
certain services in lieu of rents, while the burgesses had, among other
burdens, to provide “a bear, and six dogs for the bear.” At Sandwich,
forty thousand herrings were demanded for the use of the monks of the
neighbourhood.[524]
[Sidenote: State of the people at the time of the Conquest.]
In many places, the records of Domesday show that considerable portions
of the inhabitants were too poor to pay any taxes. Thus, in Norwich,
while six hundred and sixty-five are rated among the burgesses, there
are no less than four hundred and eighty heads of families who had no
means of contributing. Notices are also preserved of the number of
houses at that time in a state of decay or disuse: thus, at Winchester,
whole streets and many churches were in a state of ruin; in Thetford,
there were one hundred and twenty houses empty; in Ipswich, more than
three hundred and twenty-eight falling to decay. In Chester, once so
flourishing and so heavily taxed, there were, soon after the Conquest,
two hundred and five houses lying waste; while, in York, four hundred
houses were so much decayed, as to pay only one penny each, or even
less; five hundred and forty were waste, and paid nothing; and one
hundred and forty-five were occupied by Frenchmen, who were relieved
from the tax.
But while poverty and oppressive taxation ground down the masses of the
people, the nobles abandoned themselves to the excesses of gluttony,
drunkenness, and promiscuous concubinage, frequently not scrupling to
consign the objects of their lust, and even their own offspring, to
the miseries of slavery, for paltry sums of money to be squandered in
wretched folly. Learning was almost at as low an ebb as it had been at
the commencement of the reign of Alfred; while the middle classes, with
some, though few, exceptions, were, in many respects, no better than
the nobles, and trade and commerce languished and declined. Such was
the state of things in England when the Norman conqueror landed on its
shores.[525]
FOOTNOTES:
[464] Laing’s Transl. of the Heimskringla, p. 135.
[465] Monach. Sangall. De rebus Caroli Magni ap. Muratori. Antiq. v. 1.
[466] Full details of this, and of two other less perfect vessels
discovered about the same time, at Thorsbjerg and Nydam, in S. Jutland,
are given in the very interesting work by Mr. C. Engelhardt, entitled
“Denmark in the early Iron Age,” Lond. 4to. 1866. From the frontispiece
of this work the accompanying plate has been taken. Special attention
has been called to it by Mr. J. H. Burton, to whose “History of
Scotland” we are indebted for some of the notices of the Scandinavians.
[467] We have also a record of the discovery in England of two very
ancient oak boats of considerable size. The first was found in 1822,
in a deserted bed of the River Rother, near Matham, in Kent, and has
been fully described in the Archæol. vol. xx. p. 553. This boat, which
was sixty-three feet long by fifteen feet broad, appears to have been
half-decked, and to have had at least one mast. It had been caulked
with moss. The second was found in 1833, at North Stoke, near Arundel,
in what was formerly a creek running into the River Arun. This boat,
which was made of the half of a single oak-tree, hollowed out like a
canoe, was thirty-five feet four inches long, and four feet six inches
broad. It is now preserved in the British Museum, having been presented
to that institution by the Earl of Egremont.—_Vide_ Archæol. vol. xxvi.
[468] St. Patrick flourished from A.D. 432, the year of his mission to
England, to 493; St. Brigit, about 500; and St. Columba, from 522-97.
The venerable and more trustworthy Bede, who mentions Horsa by name
(Eccles. Hist. i. c. 15), lived at a much later period, A.D. 750.
[469] Bede, ii. 3.
[470] The kingdom of Mercia comprised the midland and western counties.
[471] Muratori, Antiq. v. 12.
[472] Laws of Hlothar and Eadric, ap. Schmid’s Anglo-Sax. Laws, c. 1-5,
p. 11. Leipsig, 1858.
[473] Scriptores Brit. Gale, p. 762.
[474] William of Malmesbury, s. 17, and M. Paris Vit. Offæ.
[475] Macpherson, i. p. 251; and compare Monach. Sangall, i. c. 13, ap.
Muratori, Antiq. v. 1.
[4765] This first Danish invasion is said to have taken place A.D. 753.
Macpherson, i. p. 247; and Chronic. Augustin, ap. Twysden.
[477] Sir H. Nicolas (“Hist. Roy. Navy,” i. p. 10) states that the
Snekkar, or Serpent, was manned by twenty rowers. See also Depping,
“Hist. des Exped. Maritimes des Normands.” i. 71-73.
[478] Macpherson, in his “Annals of Commerce,” vol. i. p. 254, says
that “the Norwegians and Danes, under the names of Ostmen (_i.e._
eastern men), Gauls, Gentiles, Pagans, &c., were the chief, or rather
the only commercial, people in Ireland, and continued for several
centuries to carry on trade with the mother countries, and other places
on the west coast of Europe, from their Irish settlements.”
[479] See Saxon Chronicle A.D. 897, Florence of Worcester; Simeon of
Durham, the Chronicle of Melros; and Pauli, “Life of Alfred,” p. 212.
[480] Pauli, “Life,” &c., p. 178.
[481] If Asser is correct in his statements, London had been almost
destroyed by the Danes just before the accession of Alfred.—Asser,
“Vit. Alfred,” p. 51.
[482] William of Malmesbury, Gest. Reg. Angl. 24, a. Some of the
jewels of curious manufacture which Bishop Sighelm brought home were
to be seen among the treasures of the church at Sherbourne; and Asser
says that King Alfred one morning gave him a silk robe, and as much
frankincense (incense) as a man could carry; from which it may be
inferred that, after the visit of Sighelm, a trade was opened out
between England and India, or with other countries of the East, where
frankincense was produced or stored. For the Christians in Malabar,
see a curious story in the “Legenda Aurea;” in Buchanan’s “Christian
Researches;” in the Journal of Bishop Heber; and in Thomas’s “Prinsep’s
Indian Essays,” vol. ii. p. 214. Sighelm, who had previously been sent
to Rome by King Alfred, is thought by Pauli to have been a layman, as
his name is not found in the episcopal registers of Sherbourne.—Life of
Alfred, p. 146.
[483] Thorpe, “Ancient Laws of England,” p. 31; and Macpherson, vol. i.
pp. 266-268. There is another order of Ethelred, “that the ships of war
should be ready every year at Easter.”—Ancient Laws, p. 137.
[484] William of Malmesbury, i. p. 215.
[485] The Saxon Chronicle gives to his predecessor, Edward the Elder,
a fleet of some hundreds of ships, but this number is evidently too
indefinite for any historical purpose. (Sax. Chron. A.D. 911.) If the
charter granted to Worcester by this king in A.D. 964 be genuine, which
Kemble doubts (Cod. Diplom. Ævi Saxon. ii. 404), he would seem to have
been the first English monarch who claimed the “sovereignty of the sea.”
[486] Bp. Wilkins, “Leg. Saxon.” p. 78. Nearly eighty mints of Edgar’s
money are known. Hawkins’s “Silver Coins of England,” p. 57.
[487] Vol. i. p. 275. A list of all these Danish invasions may be
consulted in Sir H. Nicolas’s “Hist. Royal Navy,” vol. i. pp. 10-28.
[488] This was the well-known tax called “Dane geld,” imposed,
apparently for the first time, about A.D. 991; see also Saxon Chron.,
A.D. 994, 1002, 1007. Stow, p. 114, ed. 1600.
[489] Mr. Kemble, in an elaborate chapter on the “Hide,” has determined
that it was probably a little less than 100 statute acres of arable
land. (“Anglo-Saxons,” vol. i. c. 4, p. 88-121.) It is clear, however,
that the word was often used for a much smaller, though indefinite
extent of land. In Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (_in voc._ Hyde)
many examples are quoted, showing that it was popularly held to be as
much land as “could be tilled in a year by one plough.”
[490] Saxon Chron., A.D. 1009.
[491] London Bridge is noticed in the Saxon Chronicle under A.D. 1016,
The first stone bridge is said to have been commenced, A.D. 1176, and
finished, A.D. 1209.—Stow’s Survey, pp. 50, 52, 682.
[492] Then called “Emperor’s men,” the forerunners, probably, of the
“Merchants of the Steel-yard.” See also Brompton, p. 897, quoted by
Macpherson, p. 277, and “Ancient Laws,” p. 127; Prynne, “Annales,” p.
105.
[493] Snorro, “Hist. Olaf. Trygv.” cc. 124-8.
[494] “Heimskringla,” vol. ii. p. 125. Cf. Reginæ Emmæ Encomium, ap.
Script. Rer. Normann. pp. 166, 170.
[495] “Florence of Worcester,” p. 623, who calls the vessel a “trierem.”
[496] “Annals of Commerce,” vol. i. p. 279.
[497] It may not be generally known that a considerable number of the
charters and deeds preserved in the collections of the British Museum,
and of the libraries of the Bodleian and of Magdalen College at Oxford,
bear seals impressed with ancient Roman, and occasionally with Greek,
gems, all, or nearly all, of which are now lost.
[498] Thorkelin’s “Essay on the Slave Trade,” pp. 4-9.
[499] Arngrim Jonas. For the story of the Singhalese sailors, see Plin.
H. N. vi. 83.
[500] The Shetland as well as the Orkney Islands were then in the
possession of the Norwegians, and Sutherland, the most northern portion
of Great Britain, obtained this title as the land to the south of the
Orkneys.
[501] Saxon Chron. A.D. 1018.
[502] This fact is mentioned, incidentally, in the Saxon Chronicle
under the reign of Hardicanute, A.D. 1039.
[503] William of Malmesbury gives a letter from Canute to the English
nobility stating his success in this matter, ii. c. 11.
[504] See Ruding, “Annals of the Coinage of England,” and Hawkins,
“Silver Coins of England.” No other English king had so many mints, at
least 350 of the names of his moneyers having been preserved.
[505] Saxon Chron., A.D. 1036.
[506] Saxon Chron., A.D. 1039-40. A mancus was worth about seven
shillings and a penny, sterling. Spelman (p. 387) has pointed out that
accounts differ as to whether we are to read here mancusses or marks,
and that these two denominations of money were sometimes interchanged.
[507] Saxon Chron., A.D. 1039.
[508] It will be observed that in this, as in other boats, in the
tapestry, the steersman holds the sheet in his left hand. The man at
the masthead may indicate the sailor whom Wace (who heard the story
from his father) says William sent aloft to look out.—Will. Poict., p.
199.
[509] Mr. Freeman, who has recently and most fully examined every
record relating to the Norman invasion, states that he finds the
largest number of ships recorded to have amounted to 3000, the smallest
to 693. Most of the ships were gifts from the great barons or prelates.
Thus, W. Fitz-Osborn gave 60; the Count de Mortain, 120; the Bishop of
Bayeux, 100; while the finest of all, that in which William himself
came over, was presented to him by his Duchess Matilda, and was called
the “Mora.” (E. A. Freeman, “Norman Conquest,” vol. iii. c. 15, pp
376-1381. 1869.) Sir H. Nicolas has examined at considerable length the
evidence of the Bayeux Tapestry, pp. 63-66.
[510] Judging from the records of the chronicles of the period, it
seems that William the Conqueror had not at any time a fleet capable of
competing with those of the Northmen, who appear to have made descents
on the coasts much as they had done in earlier years. Cf. Saxon
Chronicle for the years 1069, 1070, 1083; and Selden, “Mare Clausum,”
c. xxv.
[511] See the histories of Ramsey and Ely, and others.
[512] No data exist from which we can calculate with any certainty the
value of a pound of silver in the Conqueror’s reign.
[513] Pliny states that lead was found so abundantly on the surface in
Britain, that a law was passed to limit the supply. H. N. xxxiv. 49;
cf. also Wright’s “Uriconium,” pp. 6, 7, 8.
[514] Matthew Paris, Hist. p. 570. Camden, Britan. p. 134.
[515] Wilkins, “Leges Anglo-Saxon,” p. 52.
[516] William of Malmesbury, i. c. 3. Wharton, “Angl. Sacr.” ii. p.
258. According also to Bede, it appears that the sight of English
slaves in the market-place at Rome first led Gregory to think of
evangelizing the country.—Hist. Eccles. ii. c. 1.
[517] William of Poictiers, p. 216.
[518] Ibid. Muratori, Antiq. v. coll. 404, 405.
[519] William of Poictiers, chaplain to William the Conqueror, speaks
of his rich gifts to Rome, p. 206.
[520] William of Malmesb. p. 43.
[521] Ibid. p. 42.
[522] Saxon Chron. The list of relics preserved (till quite recently)
in the Escurial in Spain, would satisfy the wildest curiosity of any
owner of a “rag and bone shop.” Cf. also W. of Malmesb. De Pontif. 5.
Bede, Hist. Abbat. Weremouth.
[523] Thom. Chron. ap. Twysden, ed. 1793.
[524] For these and other references to Domesday, see Macpherson, i.
pp. 293-7, and i. pp. 303-7.
[525] The above particulars are derived from the records of Domesday,
which were, however, never completed for several of the northern
counties, possibly owing to the great northern up-rising against
William the Conqueror. It is also remarkable that there are no
notices of London and Winchester in the Conqueror’s Domesday. (See
Spelman’s Gloss, s. v. Domesday, and Ayloffe’s Calendar, p. xviii.)
For Winchester, there was a separate register known as the “Winchester
Book.” A portion of the _original_ survey, with the title of
“Inquisitio Eliensis” (from which that in Domesday has been _reduced_)
has been recently discovered in the British Museum, and will shortly
be published, under the direction of the Royal Society of Literature,
by Mr. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, Librarian to the Society, and late of the
Dep. of MSS., British Museum.