THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN
With the capture of Chester (Chap. VII) Ecberght's conquest of Mercia
was complete. Northumbria, Kent, and East Anglia also submitted to him.
But neither Ecberght nor the kings that came after him were to be
allowed to enjoy the blessings of peace, for a new and terrible enemy
now appeared on our shores.
In the ninth century, the coasts of Britain were ravaged by the Northmen
or Vikings, those
Wild sea-wandering lords
Who sailed in a snake-prowed galley with a terror of twenty swords.
The word Vikings or 'wickings' means creek-men, from a Scandinavian word
'wick', 'a creek'. These Scandinavian and Danish sea-pirates left their
homes in the bays and fiords of North-West Europe, and made raids upon
Britain and the neighbouring lands more at first from greed of plunder
than with any idea of conquest. Large numbers of Danes landed on our
eastern coasts and ravaged the midlands. Under their leader Hasting or
Hastein, they seized and occupied the city of Chester. We can imagine
the hasty flight of the monks, for the abbeys and churches were always
the first objects of attack by these heathen invaders. You will read
elsewhere how King Alfred finally saved the greater part of England
from the Danes and converted their leaders to Christianity.
The little village of Plemstall (or Plegmundstall), near Chester,
reminds us of Plegmund, a Saxon hermit, who took refuge here to escape
the Danes. Plegmund had been a friend and tutor of King Alfred. When
Alfred's work was done, and peace made with the Danes, he called
Plegmund from his lonely retreat in the marshes of the Gowy to be
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Meanwhile, the Scandinavians had sailed round the north and west coasts
of Scotland, plundering the rich monasteries that had been built by S.
Patrick and his followers, and making new homes for themselves in the
Isle of Man and in Ireland. Towards the end of the ninth century they
crossed into Wales and sailed up the Dee to the walls of Chester, drawn
thither perhaps by the report of the wealth of the great church that had
been built on the banks of the river. But they found only a deserted
city in ruins, and retired to the shores of Wirral, where they settled
and tilled the land, and devoted themselves to the more peaceful
pursuits of agriculture.
In the Wirral peninsula many of the names of the villages still show
their Scandinavian origin. Thus Shotwick means the south wick or creek.
This village stands at the edge of a strip of land that has been
recovered from the sea. In early times, boats could run along the creek
right up to the rising ground where now stands the village church.
An interesting name survives in the little hamlet of Thingwall, situated
almost in the centre of the Wirral. Thingwall is the field where the
'thing', that is the tribe, assembled to divide the land and to dispense
justice. You will recognize the same word in the town of Dingwall in the
North of Scotland, and at the present day 'thing' is the Norwegian and
Danish name for Parliament.
The ending '-by' in the villages Kirby, Irby, Raby, Frankby, and Helsby,
is the Danish name for a township, and we see the word in our modern
word 'by-laws', that is town laws. You will not find this ending in the
names of villages in any other parts of Cheshire.
[Illustration: NORSE HOG-BACK, WEST KIRBY]
In the museum in the old school-house by the churchyard at West Kirby
you may see a stone, which, from its shape, antiquaries call a
'hog-back'. The hog-back was a tombstone or grave-slab that marked the
burial-place of some Scandinavian chief. The carved ornamentation as
well as its shape is like that of other similar stones that have been
found in the parts of Britain where the Northmen settled. The stone
gives you some idea of the homes from which these pirates came, for the
carved oval shapes represent little wooden tiles; and the interlaced
lines are the wattles or osiers of which their huts were made. The
heathen Scandinavian liked his place of burial to be as much like home
as possible, which may be taken as a proof that he did not think that
his soul would perish along with his body. In the same museum is another
stone with a head shaped like a wheel, which is also the work of the
Vikings.
We are, fortunately, able to tell almost the exact time at which the
settlements in the Wirral were made. We read in an old chronicle that in
the year 900 A.D. Alfred's daughter Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians,
granted lands in Wirral to one Ingimund who had been driven out of
Ireland. This lady, Ethelfleda, fortified Chester and rebuilt the walls
which had lain in ruins since the departure of the Romans. Perhaps
Ingimund and his followers had already become Christians during their
stay in Ireland. If they had not, we may be sure that Ethelfleda did as
her father had done in his treaty with the Danes, and insisted on their
becoming Christians in return for being allowed to settle in Cheshire.
It was in the reign of Alfred that many English counties or shires first
received their modern names. Cheshire or Chester-shire, like
Staffordshire and Warwickshire, took its name from the chief city or
fortress which dominated the district and protected it from the ravages
of the Danes.
Alfred also ordered an English history to be written, in which the chief
events of each year were recorded. This Old English Chronicle, as it is
called, was kept up in the reigns of the successors of Alfred, and is
the principal source of our knowledge of England under the Anglo-Saxon
kings.
The Chronicle tells us that, in order to prevent any fresh landing of
Danes, Ethelfleda built a castle or 'burh' at Runcorn at the head of the
estuary of the Mersey. The very site of her castle has now disappeared,
for 'Castle Rock', upon which it was built, was destroyed when the Ship
Canal was made.
Another fortress was erected by Ethelfleda on Eddisbury Hill, the
highest point of Delamere Forest, where, probably, there was a large
camp in British times. Her brother Edward, who succeeded Alfred as King
of England, also fortified Thelwall on the Mersey, as an inscription on
the gable of an inn at Thelwall tells us. For the next twenty years he
carried on a vigorous war against the Danes of the 'Five Boroughs',
Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln. But in many parts
Saxon and Dane had already settled down side by side, the Danes
abandoned the worship of their heathen gods Odin and Thor, and received
the Gospel of Christ, and in the next century a Danish king was
destined to rule over all the land and to advance greatly the cause of
Christianity.
Edward's work was done when he received the homage of the chief kings of
Britain, and made the royal house of Wessex supreme. In the year 924, as
you may read in the English Chronicle, 'then chose him for father and
lord the King of Scots ... and all those who dwell in Northumbria
whether English or Danes, and also the King of the Strathclyde Welsh.'
Chester appears to have rapidly risen in importance, largely no doubt
owing to its central position, and to have become a great and populous
city. The walls were extended beyond the limits of the ancient Roman
city, and a new fortress built where the present 'Castle' of Chester now
stands, to guard the road over the river.
Henceforth, the city was kept in a state of defence by a custom which
bound every 'hide' in the shire to provide a man at the town-reeve's
call to keep its walls and bridge in repair. A considerable trade with
the seaports of Ireland followed, largely it is to be feared in
connexion with the slave traffic, and the city became a favourite resort
of the English kings. Coins were minted here in the reign of Athelstan.
Athelstan must often have been in Cheshire, for this favourite grandson
of King Alfred was brought up by the Lady of Mercia, and no doubt
learned from her the ways of a strong and wise ruler. When Athelstan
became king he was attacked by the King of the Scots and the Danes of
Ireland. A great battle was fought, perhaps on Cheshire soil, and the
English Chronicle breaks out into a wonderful song of victory.
Athelstan King
Lord among Earls,
He with his brother,
Gained a lifelong
Glory in battle,
Slew with the sword-edge,
There by Brunanburh ...
* * * * *
Bow'd the spoiler,
Bent the Scotsman,
Fell the ship-crews
Doom'd to the death.
All the field with blood of the fighters
Flow'd, from when first the great
Sun-star of morningtide,
Lamp of the Lord God
Lord Everlasting
Glode over earth till the glorious creature
Sank to his setting.
Brunanburh has been thought by some writers of history to be the village
of Bromborough in Wirral. We cannot be sure of this, but some day
perhaps the land will give up its secret, when some labourer's spade
shall dig up the javelins and the war-knives of the defeated Northmen.
'Edgar's field' is supposed to mark the site of the palace of one of the
greatest of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of England. It is related that in the
year 973, Edgar the 'Peacewinner' visited Chester, and received there
the submission of many tributary kings. He assembled an imposing fleet
of ships on the Dee, and was rowed from his palace to the minster of S.
John's by six under-kings, the King of Scots, the King of Cumberland,
the King of Man, and three Welsh princes, he himself taking the helm as
being their head-king. 'Those who come after me', he said, 'may indeed
call themselves kings, since I have had such honour.'
Guided by his chief adviser, the good Archbishop Dunstan, Edgar also did
much to increase the power and influence of the Church. He gave a
charter in 958 to the church of S. Werburga, and endowed it richly with
lands. The English Chronicle thus speaks of him:
He upreared God's glory
and loved God's law
and bettered the public peace
more than the kings
who were before him
within man's memory.
God also him helped
that kings and earls
gladly to him bowed
and were submissive
to all that he willed.
In Edgar's reign we first hear of the division of the shire into
'hundreds' for the trial and punishment of evildoers. Why this name was
chosen is not quite clear, but the Hundred probably denoted a collection
of a hundred homesteads or hamlets. The Hundred had its 'moot' or
assembly of freemen, held near some sacred spot or conspicuous landmark.
In Cheshire some of them, Bucklow for instance, took their names from
the ancient 'lows' or burial-places.
Early in the eleventh century fresh invasions of Danes took place, and
in 1016 Cnut Dane became King of England. Cheshire formed a portion of a
great earldom, embracing the whole of Mercia and governed by Earl
Leofric. Cnut, who during his reign visited Rome and had there learnt
much about church building, was a generous friend to the churches,
rebuilding those that had suffered in the wars and erecting many new
ones. The church of S. Olave or Olaf, in the south-eastern part of the
city of Chester, probably owes its foundation to him, for the name shows
that there was a Danish settlement in the city. The city itself was
governed at this time, like other Danish cities, by twelve 'lagmen' or
lawmen who presided over its law-courts.
Leofric, not to be outdone by his master Cnut, almost entirely rebuilt
the church of S. Werburga in 1057, and if we may judge from the
memorials of his work which he has left in other cities of his earldom,
much of the new church was probably built of stone. It is doubtful
whether he lived to see the completion of his work. In any case, before
many years had passed, the church was again enlarged on a still grander
scale and by a greater race of church builders than any that had gone
before them.