not, unfortunately, bear critical examination. That it should have been
so long believed and so often told is, however, eloquent as to the
reputation he acquired as a boy. Some have even doubted if he could
read, but in his journey to Rome he learned Latin—at least it is more
probable that he knew Latin than that he was ignorant of it. He was
certainly desirous, during his scanty leisure from warfare, to further
the cause of learning by all means in his power. His monks at Athelney
and his nuns at Shaftesbury were expressly devoted to the labours of the
scriptorium, and when we observe the number of the books which, in spite
of the Danes, were produced in England in the course of the eighth and
ninth centuries, we are forced to the conclusion that the powers of the
time were unanimously in favour of the art of writing. We may, indeed, go
much further than this. After a careful comparison, such as may be made
in the British Museum, or any other great public library, we are forced
to the conclusion that no country in Europe at that time could boast of
the production of such beautiful books, filled with such skilful writing
and illustrated with such exquisite pictures, as England in the reign
of King Alfred. A well-known manuscript (Addl. MSS. 34, 890) produced
by the monks of Alfred’s own monastery at Winchester, or the volume of
Gospels and other readings written without illustrations at Canterbury,
cannot be surpassed in all the qualities which we admire in manuscripts.
Italy itself could do nothing even approaching the _Psychomachia_ of
Prudentius, probably written at Shaftesbury in the ninth century. It is
filled with figures representing the soul in conflict with evil. They
are wrongly described as “tinted,” but the figures and their draperies
are drawn in two colours, in outline, in a manner which would not
surprise us on a Greek vase of the best period. We admire in a relief by
Donatello, or a fresco by Giotto, similar art, centuries later. Of the
same period, or earlier, is a book reciting the names of the benefactors
of Lindisfarne—St. Cuthbert was Alfred’s special patron—in which the
lettering is partly in black, partly in gold, worthy of a _Liber Vitæ_.
In many volumes we see such an initial as that which figures in the story
mentioned above, among them copies of Beowulf’s or Cædmon’s poems, such
as might very well answer to the book of old songs which Alfred’s mother
was said to have shown him. (Cottonian MSS. Vit. A. xv.)
The famous _Benedictional_ written for Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester,
some fifty years after Alfred’s time, may be taken to show us to what
perfection this art was brought. The style is that to which the artists
of his time were tending. Here and there, among older books, we may
trace features which occur in this sumptuous volume, both among the
figure-subjects and among the ornaments. Sir Digby Wyatt, an excellent
judge, is enthusiastic on the manuscript, yet fails to appreciate the
figure-subjects, because they show “little classical influence.” I am
not inclined to find fault on that account. The opinion of a learned
antiquary of the last generation, John Gage, should have great weight.
He looked upon the _Benedictional_ as the culmination of the art of the
Anglo-Saxon school; and John Young Ottley expressed himself in equally
eulogistic terms about the manuscript, which is in the collection of
the Duke of Devonshire and which was fully described and in great part
engraved by the Society of Antiquaries in 1832 (_Archæologia_, vol.
xxiv.) Ottley points out its chief claim on our admiration thus: “You
desire from me a few words on the illuminations in St. Æthelwold’s
Benedictionary, with my opinion of their merits as works of art. I
feel honoured by the request, and comply with it the more willingly as
I can honestly say that I think them in the highest degree creditable
to the taste and intelligence of this nation at a period when in most
parts of Europe the fine arts are commonly believed to have been at
a very low ebb.” Farther on, Ottley speaks of “the justness of the
general proportions of the figures.” He especially praises some little
angels holding scrolls, which, he says, “have so much gracefulness and
animation, are so beautifully draped, and so well adapted in their
attitudes to the spaces they occupy, that I hardly know how to praise
them sufficiently.”
The mechanical part of the work should be carefully examined. It
shows—and not it alone, but many early books as well—that in the time
of Alfred artists could command the help of artificers who knew how to
make vellum fit for the most delicate painting and writing; that colours
were produced worthy of the vellum for which they were prepared; that
gold-beating and gilding with the leaf had been carried to a perfection
never since surpassed. Godeman, the monk, afterwards, in 970, abbot of
Thorney, who wrote the book, must have been born during the reign of
Alfred, or soon after, and learned his art from the writers of the great
king who, in his English translation of the Pastoral of Gregory, remarks
feelingly on the destruction wrought by the Danes, and how before their
incursions “the churches throughout Britain were filled with treasures
and books.”
FOOTNOTES
[1] We still have, at Llantwit Major, the beautiful monument set up by
one of the kings who thus made submission, Howel, son of Ris. The Latin
is not as good as the decoration of the monument: _ni nomine di patris et
spiritus santdi anc crucem houelt properabit pro anima res patris eus_.
The monument is a singularly beautiful “wheel” cross with broad stem.
It has long been broken in two. It lies on the ground in the remarkable
western portion of the double church at Llantwit.
[2] Possibly meaning an Englishman who was not a Wessex man.
[3] The mancus was more than the third of a pound.
[4] In 959, Alfsin, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in the Alps on his way
for the pall, overcome by the snow and the cold.
[5] A hundred years before Alfred’s time, Alcuin of York wrote to Bishop
Remedius of Coire, to beg him to let his messenger pass through the
mountains to Italy without payment of the heavy tolls.
[6] Canute’s descriptive letter is given by Florence, under the year
1031. The argument used by Wilfrith at Whitby, and by Aldhelm in writing
to the Britons, had been brought to bear on the king. “I learned from
wise men that the holy Apostle Peter received of the Lord great power
of binding and loosing, and is the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom,
and thus I held it mightily useful to seek diligently his more special
patronage with the Lord.”
[7] We learn this from William of Malmesbury, Aldhelm’s own monastery.
William reports Alfred as saying that no one in any age equalled Aldhelm
in poetry, for he could make a poem, compose an air, and aptly either
sing or recite. A street-song common in Alfred’s time was composed by
Aldhelm. See also p. 81.
[8] A marginal note in the Cotton MS. remarks that this disposes of the
story of a school of literature at Oxford at that time. An interpolation
in Asser credits this school with the high approval of Germanus in A.D.
430.
[9] See also note on p. 76.
[10] In the form of treaty as it has come down to us, there is no mention
of Christianity, except so far as this, that it is confirmed by an oath
for themselves and their “successors born and unborn who love God’s mercy
and ours.” The tradition probably mixes up the simple terms of peace with
the events that followed, and treats those events as the fulfilment of
conditions.
[11] Nothing is said of her training in needlework. The skill of the
Saxon ladies was great. There is contemporary evidence of this in the
tapestry-work figures of the stole of Frithestan, now in the Chapter
Library at Durham, worked under the direction of Alfred’s daughter-in-law
Ælflæd, between 910 and 915. A Latin inscription states that _Ælflæd
ordered it to be made for the pious Bishop Frithestan_. The most gorgeous
cope seen by Anselm at the Council of Bari in 1098 had been a Canterbury
vestment in Canute’s time.
[12] Frithestan’s stole is a wonderful example of weaving in gold-wire,
beaten flat like narrow tape. It is woven with selvedged openings
for the insertion of the prophets, etc., these figures being made in
tapestry-work.
[13] This is variously stated.
[14] Here as elsewhere we may suppose that the various races in these
islands are meant. The list of countries given under the fourth head is
probably a sufficient guide to the meaning of the phrase.
[15] A mediæval editor proposes to read Hiberiæ instead of Hiberniæ,
Spain instead of Ireland. But the English Chronicle tells of a visit to
Alfred in 891 of three Scots, that is, Irishmen, smitten with the desire
to wander. A later Chronicle assigns their departure from their own land
to the death of their favourite teacher Swifneh. He was known as the most
wise, or most skilled, of the Scots, and the English Chronicle mentions
his death. His beautiful Celtic grave slab is at Clonmacnoise. The close
connection which existed between the early Anglo-Saxons and the Irish
schools of learning had now ceased.
[16] We have lost the sense of paganism in the names of our days, but it
comes out quaintly in the Saxon form, _on thone Halgan Thunres dæg_.
[17] Still called in Yorkshire, as in Alfred’s Ecclesiastical Law,
gang-days.
[18] Even of the famous scholar Aldhelm, 200 years before, it was said
that when he became bishop he was absorbed, as the manner of bishops was,
in the secular cares of his position.
[19] His translation of this book is much closer to the original than is
the case with his History (Bede), Geography (Orosius), and Philosophy
(Boethius).
[20] Perhaps a desk and pointer. See Professor Earle’s remarks in this
volume.
[21] The words in the Saxon will are _sec man eac on cwicum ceape_; in
the Latin will, _imploretur deus viventi pretio_.
[22] Saxon, _swa hit beon mæge_; Latin, _quantum fieri possit_.
[23] in Shropshire, and not to be identified with Boddington in
Gloucestershire.
[24] Now Quatford, in Shropshire, like their former stronghold at
Buttington.
[25] The manuscripts of Alfred’s _Orosius_ are in the Cottonian
collection and in the Lauderdale MS. They were used by Hakluyt. The work
was first edited by Daines Barrington and Reinhold Foster in 1773; and in
1855 a literal English translation, with a facsimile, and the Anglo-Saxon
text, were published by the Rev. Joseph Bosworth, D.D.
[26] It is a noted character of this book that while it contains much
that is acceptable to the Christian spirit and nothing that is repugnant
to it, there is not a word in it which might not have been written by a
pagan of the sixth century who had inherited the influences of centuries
of Christianity. Those who desire to know more about Boethius, and
the various ancient translations of his last work, and his influence
upon mediæval thought, and the controversies of which he has been the
occasion, should consult _Boethius, An Essay_, by Hugh Fraser Stewart,
M.A.; Blackwood and Son, 1891.
[27] The only one to be compared with it is the _History of Early
Frankish Christianity_, by Gregory, the Bishop of Tours, with which,
indeed, it has been compared by Canon Bright, and the comparison is made
in a generous spirit.
[28] _König Ælfred und seine Stelle in der Geschichte Englands_, von
Dr. Reinhold Pauli, Berlin, 1851. _The Life of Alfred the Great._
Translated from the German of Dr. R. Pauli. To which is appended Alfred’s
Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius. With a literal English translation, etc.
London, 1853. (Bohn’s Antiquarian Library.)
[29] _King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon Version of Boethius_, etc. By the Rev.
Samuel Fox, M.A., 1864. (Bohn’s Antiquarian Library.) This book will
continue to be in request, because of the translation which faces the
Anglo-Saxon text.
[30] The characters Þ þ and Ð ð are of identical value, meaning TH th.
[31] _King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care_, with
an English translation, etc. By Henry Sweet, Esq., Balliol College,
Oxford, 1871 and 1872. (Early English Text Society.)
[32] My excuse for using an obsolete word is that it is Alfred’s own, and
I could not do without it. Moreover, I was fortified by the hope that
some poet might adopt it and revive its transitival use.
[33] It is said that a critical edition, based upon the three
manuscripts, is in preparation by Herr Hans Hecht.
[34] This bizarre composition was published by Dr. Krebs in _Anglia_,
iii. (1880).
[35] Yet there is a later edition proceeding from the press, by Dr.
Schipper, Professor of English at Vienna.
[36] A chapter from a work in preparation, reprinted here, with some
omissions and alterations, from the _Law Quarterly Review_.
[37] There is more authority for this short form than for the fuller
Witena-Gemót (not witenágemot as sometimes mispronounced by persons
ignorant of Old-English inflexions).
[38] Such a court, after the Conquest, was that which restored and
confirmed the rights of the see of Canterbury on Penenden Heath: but it
was held under a very special writ from the king.
[39] The common form of reference in Domesday Book.
[40] _Æthelr._ ii. 9.
[41] There is a curious French variant of the cold-water ordeal in which
not the accused person, but some bystander taken at random, is immersed:
I do not know of any English example.
[42] The cold-water ordeal was apparently most feared; see the case of
Ailward, _Materials for Hist. St. Thomas_, i. 156, ii. 172; Bigelow,
_Plac. A.-N._ 260. For a full account, see Lea, _Superstition and Force_.
[43] See more in Neilson, _Trial by Combat_, an excellent and most
interesting monograph.
[44] Cases from D. B. collected in Bigelow, _Plac. A.-N._ 40-44, 61. Even
under Henry II. we find, in terms, such an offer, but it looks, in the
light of the context, more like a rhetorical asseveration—in fact the
modern “j’en mettrais ma main au feu”—than anything else: _op. cit._ 196.
[45] The so-called laws of Edward the Confessor, an antiquarian
compilation of the twelfth century largely mixed with invention, do not
even profess to be actual dooms of the Confessor, but the customs of his
time collected by order of William the Conqueror.
[46] The modern forms of these words, _thane_ and _churl_, have passed
through so much change of meaning and application that they cannot be
safely used for historical purposes.
[47] There were minor distinctions between ranks of free men which are
now obscure, and were probably no less obscure in the thirteenth century:
they seem to have been disregarded very soon after the Conquest.
[48] Blackstone, _Com._ iv. 203.
[49] _Wite_ was probably, in its origin, rather a fee to the court for
arranging the composition than a punishment. But it is treated as penal
from the earliest period of written laws. In the tenth century it could
mean pain or torment; see C. D. 1222 _ad fin._
[50] See the customs of Chester, D. B. i. 262 b, extracted in Stubbs,
_Sel. Ch._
[51] Ælf. 36. The statement is rather obscure. One is tempted to suppose
that an accident of that kind had happened to some well-known person at
the king’s court.
[52] Ælf. 23.
[53] See Holmes, _The Common Law_, 7-12.
[54] See especially Edg. iv. 6-11.
[55] Ælf. 19.
[56] Ælf. 13.
[57] Maitland, _Domesday Book and Beyond_, 106.
[58] Ælf. 43.
[59] See C. D. 226 compared with 256.
[60] A strictly accurate statement in few words is hardly possible. See
the section “Book-land and Folk-land” in Maitland, _Domesday Book and
Beyond_, p. 244 _sqq._
INDEX
Æstel, the, 192, 195
Africa, description of, 164
Alfred regains his kingdom, 17, 18
as law-giver, 22-26
permanence of his work, 32
personal appearance of, 33
as king, 41
legendary and real, 42, 43
army, 45
accession to throne, 46, 133
visit to Rome, 58, 172
portrait of a king, 61, 62
writings of, 63, 64
life work, 66
mother of, 71
parentage, 71, 72
his youth, 76
as a musician, 81
his laborious life, 88-90
translations of books, 100-104
religious views, 107
will of, 110, 203
military tactics, 118
first campaign, 129
marriage, 129
campaigns against Hasting and the “Great Army,” 145-147
as a geographer, 151
selection of books for the people, 177-181
minor literary works, 199-202
as architect, writer, musician, 243
Anglo-Saxon dooms, 222
justice, 218
landholding, 234-239
life, 209
women, 7, 8
Anglo-Saxons, gods of, 3-5
manners and customs of, 7-10
Ashdown, battle of, 118
Basing, battle of, 133
Bede, literary works of, 180
Bede’s _History_, 198
_Benedictional_, 255
Boethius’s _Consolation of Philosophy_, 30, 178, 183
extract from Sedgefield edition, 185, 186
Britons of Cornwall and Wales, 58, 59
Burhs, 142
Candle-clocks, invention of, 91
Canute on pilgrimages to Rome, 74
Capital punishment, 228
Castles built by Alfred, 250
Church, Alfred’s relation to the, 63
_City of God_, Orosius’s, 177
Code of Alfred, 174-176
Courts of bishops and great men, 212
_Cura Pastoralis_, 179, 180
translation of, 187
Danes, Alfred’s feelings towards, 83
baptism of, 85
first appearance of, 11
second invasion of, 55
wars of, 15
Danish Conquest, 15
invasion, 46-50
_Dialogues_ of Gregory the Great, 180
Ealhswith, 129
Ecclesiastical Laws, 97-99
Eddington, battle of, 118
Edmund the Martyr, 130
Education of Alfred’s children, 87, 88
of children, Alfred’s views on, 188
Embassies to foreign parts, 95, 96
England in Alfred’s time, map of, 2
Ethelred, death of, 133
Ethelwulf’s will, 73
Europe, summary of inhabitants, 154-156
Final judgment in court, 220
Foreign discoveries, 59, 60
Fortification of towns, 141, 143
Gregory the Great, 179
Gregory’s treatise, 105
Guthrum, King of Danes, 50
treaty with, 55
Haddeby, 160
_Hierdebóc_, 187-192
Hyde Abbey, Register of, 110
Income, distribution of, 92
John the Scot, 108
Kingdom, settlement of, 54
King, portrait of, by Alfred, 61, 62
King’s peace, 228
Kriegs Spiel, 16
Laws, code of, compiled, 53
Learning, encouragement of, 60, 61
introduced, 90
Letter to bishops, 189-192
Life work of Alfred, 66
Literature fostered by Alfred, 29
London fortified, 19, 20
restoration of, 57
Map of Alfred’s England, 2
Manual, formation of Alfred’s, 94
Military tactics of Alfred, 118
Monasteries, foundation of, 93, 94
rebuilt, 26, 27
Monument to Alfred, reasons for, 36
Naval forces, state of, 123-125
Navy, development of, 135, 140
foundation of, 52
Oath, in court of law, 214-217
Oht-here, voyage of, 157-160
Orosius, Paulus, 152, 177
Payments for convenience, 225, 231
Peace of 878, 139
Pilgrimages to Rome, 75
Property law, 231, 232
Religion of the tribes, 3-5
Religious bequests by Alfred, 112
Rome, Alfred’s connection with, 28
communication with, 86
Slaves, freedom of, 113
of Anglo-Saxons, 223-225
St. Cuthbert, 15
St. Lawrence, Bradford-on-Avon, 248
State of English defences, 119-123
Stone masonry, 248
Thegnhood increased, 143, 144
Viking raids, 125-129, 135-139
Vikings, invasion of, 55
Voyages of Oht-here and Wulfstan, 157-160
Walls of London restored by Alfred, 245, 247
Wergild, payment of, 233
Will of Alfred, 110, 203
of Ethelwulf, 73
Witenagemot, 31, 32, 211
Women of Anglo-Saxons, 7, 8
Writings of Alfred, 63, 64
Wulfstan, voyage of, 160, 161
York, battle of, 128
_Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh._
THE THOUSANDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF
KING ALFRED THE GREAT
1901
King Alfred died (according to the accustomed authorities) in October 901
A.D., and it is proposed to hold in 1901, the Thousandth Anniversary of
his Death, a NATIONAL COMMEMORATION of the King to whom this Empire owes
so much in many various ways. The antiquity of the Monarchy still held
by his descendants has no parallel in Europe, and the traditions which
have gathered round his name are those of religion, learning, defence,
seamanship, law, and culture. It is hoped that all who use our mother
tongue will join, without distinction of creed, race, nation, or party,
in honour to one who was both Hero and Saint.
Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen
has been pleased to signify her approval of the proposal.
It is decided that the City of Winchester, which was the Capital of
Wessex, the Royal Residence and Burial Place of the King, shall occupy a
prominent position in the celebration.
_The National Commemoration & Memorial._
At a Meeting convened by the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion House on
the 18th of March 1898, the LORD MAYOR in the Chair,
It was proposed by the BISHOP OF LONDON, seconded by the Rt. Hon. J.
BRYCE, M.P., and unanimously resolved, that: “The Thousandth Anniversary
of the Death of King Alfred, which occurs in October 1901, should be
celebrated by a National Commemoration.”
Among the speakers at the Mansion House, when a National Memorial was
also decided on, and the Committee appointed, were the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, Lord Wantage, Sir Frederick
Pollock, Bart., the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Clifford, Professor Burrows, Mr.
Louis Dyer (representing the Chicago Historical Society), and several
others.
The Committee appointed—
_Chairman_—The Right Hon. THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
_Treasurer_—The Right Hon. Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., M.P.
_Honorary Secretary_—Mr. ALFRED BOWKER (Mayor of Winchester, 1897-8).
Their Worships the Mayors of Cities and Boroughs.