aid of Kudar, King of Chuton, a province of Tartary, on the confines of
China, and that prince marched to join him with fifty thousand horse.
Strengthened by this alliance, he crossed, with the confederate armies,
the river Gaon, which was five parasangs from Balak, and opposed himself
to the camp of Mahmud. That monarch immediately drew up his army in
order of battle, giving the command of the centre to his brother, the
noble Nasir, supported by Abu-Nasir, governor of Gorgan, and by
Abdallah, a chief of reputation in arms. The right wing he committed to
the care of Alta Sash, an old experienced officer, while the left was
the charge of the valiant Arsallah, a chief of the Afghans. The front of
his line he strengthened with five hundred chain-elephants, with open
spaces behind them, to facilitate their retreat in case of a defeat.
The King of Kashgar posted himself in the centre, the noble Kudir led
the right, and Taghi the left. The armies advanced to the charge. The
shouts of warriors, the neighing of horses, and the clashing of arms
reached the broad arch of heaven, while dust obscured the face of day.
Elak, advancing with some chosen squadrons, threw the centre of Mahmud's
army into disorder. Mahmud, perceiving the enemy's progress, leaped from
his horse, and, kissing the ground, invoked the aid of the Almighty. He
then mounted an elephant-of-war, encouraged his troops, and made a
violent assault upon Elak. The elephant seizing the standard-bearer of
the enemy, folded his trunk around him and tossed him aloft in the air.
He then surged forward like a mountain removed from its base by an
earthquake, and trod the enemy under his feet like locusts. When the
troops of Ghazni saw their King forcing his way alone through the
enemy's ranks they rushed forward with headlong impetuosity and drove
the enemy with great slaughter before them. Elak, abandoned by fortune
and his army, turned his face to fly. He crossed the river with a few of
his surviving friends, never afterward appearing in the field to dispute
the victory with Mahmud.
The King after this triumph marched two days after the runaways. On the
third night a great storm of wind and snow overtook the Ghaznian army in
the desert. The King's tents were pitched with much difficulty, while
the army was obliged to lie in the snow. Mahmud, having ordered great
fires to be kindled around his tents, they became so warm that many of
the courtiers began to take off their upper garments; when a facetious
chief, whose name was Dalk, came in shivering with the cold, at which
the King, observing, said: "Go out, Dalk, and tell the Winter that he
may burst his cheeks with blustering, for here we value not his
resentment." Dalk went out accordingly, and, returning in a short time,
kissed the ground, and thus addressed the King: "I have delivered the
King's message to Winter, but the Surly Season replied that if his hands
cannot tear the skirts of Royalty and hurt the attendants of the King,
yet he will so use his power to-night on his army that in the morning
Mahmud will be obliged to saddle his own horses."
The King smiled at this reply, but it presently rendered him more
thoughtful and he determined to proceed no farther. In the morning some
hundreds of men and horses were found to have perished with the cold.
Mahmud at the same time received advices from India, that Zab Sais, the
renegade Hindu, had thrown off his allegiance, and, returning to his
former religion, expelled all the officers who had been appointed by the
King, from their respective departments. The King immediately determined
to punish this renegade, and with great expedition advanced toward
India. He sent on a part of his cavalry in front, which, coming
unexpectedly upon Zab Sais, defeated him and brought him prisoner to the
King. The rebel was fined four lacs of rupees, of which Mahmud made a
present to his treasurer, and made Zab Sais a prisoner for life.
Mahmud, having thus settled his affairs in India, returned in autumn to
Ghazni, where he remained for the winter in peace. But in the spring of
the year A.H. 399 Annandpal, sovereign of Lahore, began to raise
disturbance in Multan, so that the King was obliged to undertake another
expedition into those parts, with a great army, to correct the Indians.
Annandpal, hearing of his intentions, sent ambassadors everywhere to
request the assistance of the other princes of Hindustan, who considered
the extirpation of the Moslems from India as a meritorious and political
as well as a religious action.
Accordingly the princes of Ugin, Gualier, Callinger, Kannoge, Delhi, and
Ajmere entered into a confederacy, and, collecting their forces,
advanced toward the heads of the Indus, with the greatest army that had
been for some centuries seen upon the field in India. The two armies
came in sight of one another in a great plain near the confines of the
province of Peshawur. They remained there encamped forty days without
action: but the troops of the idolaters daily increased in number. They
were joined by the Gakers, and other tribes with their armies, and
surrounded the Mahometans, who, fearing a general assault, were obliged
to intrench themselves.
The King, having thus secured himself, ordered a thousand archers to the
front, to endeavor to provoke the enemy to advance to the intrenchments.
The archers accordingly were attacked by the Gakers, who,
notwithstanding all the King could do, pursued the retreating bowmen
within the trenches, where a dreadful scene of carnage ensued on both
sides, in which five thousand Moslems in a few minutes were slain. The
enemy's soldiers being now cut down as fast as they advanced, the attack
grew weaker, when suddenly the elephant which carried the Prince of
Lahore, who was chief in command, took fright at the report of a gun
(_sic_), and turned tail in flight.
This circumstance struck the Hindus with a panic, for, thinking they
were deserted by their general, they immediately followed the example.
Abdallah, with six thousand Arabian horse, and Arsallah, with ten
thousand Turks, Afghans, and Chilligis, pursued the enemy for two days
and nights; so that twenty thousand Hindus were killed in their
flight--in addition to the great multitude that fell on the field of
battle.
Thirty elephants, with much rich plunder, were brought to the King, who,
to establish the faith, marched against the Hindus of Nagrakot, breaking
down their idols and destroying their temples. There was at that time,
in the territory of Nagrakot, a strong fort called Bima, which Mahmud
invested after having destroyed the country round about with fire and
sword. Bima was built by a prince of the same name, on the top of a
steep mountain; and here the Hindus--on account of its strength--had
deposited the wealth consecrated to their idols in all the neighboring
kingdoms; so that in this fort, it was said, there was a greater
quantity of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls than ever had been
collected in the royal treasury of any prince on earth.
Mahmud invested the place with such expedition that the Hindus had not
time to send troops into it for its defence--the greater part of the
garrison having been sent to the field. Those within consisted, for the
most part, of priests, who being adverse to the bloody business of war,
in a few days solicited permission to capitulate. Their request being
granted, they opened the gates and fell upon their faces before Mahmud,
who with a few of his officers and attendants immediately entered and
took possession of the place.
In Bima were found: seven hundred thousand _dinars_; seven hundred
maunds of gold and silver plate; forty maunds of pure gold in ingots;
two thousand maunds of silver bullion, and twenty maunds of various
jewels set, which had been collecting from the time of Bima. With this
immense treasure the King returned to Ghazni, and in the year A.H. 400
held a magnificent festival, where he displayed to the people his wealth
in golden thrones, and in other rich receptacles, in a great plain
without the city of Ghazni; and after the feast every individual
received a princely gift.
In the following year Mahmud led his army toward Ghor. The native prince
of that country, Mahomet of the Sur tribe of Afghans, with ten thousand
troops, opposed him. The King, finding that the troops of Ghor defended
themselves in their intrenchments with such obstinacy, commanded his
army to make a feint of retreating, to lure the enemy out of their
fortified camp, which manoeuvre proved successful. The Ghorians, being
deceived, pursued the army of Ghazni to the plain, where the King,
facing round with his troops, attacked them with great impetuosity.
Mahomet was taken prisoner and brought to the King; but in his despair
he had taken poison, which he always kept under his ring, and died in a
few hours. His country was annexed to the dominion of Ghazni. Some
historians affirm that neither the sovereigns of Ghor nor its
inhabitants were Mussulmans till after this victory; while others of
good credit assure us that they were converted many years before, even
so early as the time of the famous Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet.
Mahmud, in the same year, was under the necessity of marching again to
Multan, which had revolted; but having soon reduced it, and cut off a
great number of the chiefs, he brought Daud, the son of Nazir, the
rebellious governor, prisoner to Ghazni, and imprisoned him in the fort
of Gorci for life.
In the year A.H. 402, the passion of war fermenting in the mind of
Mahmud, he resolved upon the conquest of Tannasar, in the kingdom of
Hindustan. It had reached the ears of the King that Tannasar was held in
the same veneration by idolaters as Mecca was by the Mahometans; that
there they had set up a great number of idols, the chief of which they
called Jug Sum. This Jug Sum, they pretended to say, existed when as yet
the world existed not. When the King reached the country about the five
branches of the Indus, he desired that--according to the treaty that
existed between himself and Annandpal--he should not be disturbed by his
march through that country. He accordingly sent an embassy to Annandpal,
advising him of his intentions, and desiring him to send guards for the
protection of his towns and villages, which he, the King, would take
care should not be molested by the followers of his camp.
Annandpal agreed to this proposal, and prepared an entertainment for the
reception of the King, issuing an order for all his subjects to supply
the royal camp with every necessary of life. In the mean time he sent
his brother with two thousand horse to meet the King and deliver this
message:
"That he was the subject and slave of the King; but that he begged
permission to acquaint his Majesty that Tannasar was the principal place
of worship of the inhabitants of that country; that if it was a virtue
required by the religion of Mahmud to destroy the religion of others, he
had already acquitted himself of that duty to his God in the destruction
of the temple of Nagracot; but if he should be pleased to alter his
resolution against Tannasar, Annandpal would undertake that the amount
of the revenues of that country should be annually paid to Mahmud, to
reimburse the expense of his expedition: that besides, he, on his own
part, would present him with fifty elephants, and jewels to a
considerable amount."
The King replied: "That in the Mahometan religion it was an established
tenet that the more the glory of the Prophet was exalted, and the more
his followers exerted themselves in the subversion of idolatry, the
greater would be their reward in heaven; that therefore it was his firm
resolution, with the assistance of God, to root out the abominable
worship of idols from the land of India: why then should he spare
Tannasar?"
When this news reached the Indian king of Delhi, he prepared to oppose
the invaders, sending messages all over Hindustan to acquaint the rajahs
that Mahmud, without any reason or provocation, was marching with an
innumerable army to destroy Tannasar, which was under his immediate
protection: that if a dam was not expeditiously raised against this
roaring torrent, the country of Hindustan would soon be overwhelmed in
ruin, and the tree of prosperity rooted up; that therefore it was
advisable for them to join their forces at Tannasar, to oppose with
united strength the impending danger. But Mahmud reached Tannasar before
they could take any measure for its defence, plundered the city and
broke the idols, sending Jug Sum to Ghazni, where he was soon stripped
of his ornaments. He then ordered his head to be struck off and his body
to be thrown on the highway. According to the account of the historian
Hago Mahomet of Kandahar, there was a ruby found in one of the temples
which weighed four hundred and fifty miskals!
Mahmud, after these transactions at Tannasar, proceeded to Delhi, which
he also took, and wanted greatly to annex to his dominions, but his
nobles told him that it was impossible to keep the rajahship of Delhi
till he had entirely subjected Multan to Mahometan rule, destroyed the
power and exterminated the family of Annandpal, Prince of Lahore, which
lay between Delhi and the northern dominions of Mahmud. The King
approved of this counsel, and immediately determined to proceed no
further against that country, till he had accomplished the reduction of
Multan and Annandpal. But that prince behaved with so much policy and
hospitality that he changed the purpose of the King, who returned to
Ghazni. He brought to Ghazni forty thousand captives and much wealth, so
that that city could now be hardly distinguished in riches from India
itself.
CANUTE BECOMES KING OF ENGLAND
A.D. 1017
DAVID HUME
(After the success of King Alfred over the Danes in the last quarter of
the ninth century, England enjoyed a considerable respite from the
invasions of the bold ravagers who had caused great suffering and loss
to the country. This immunity of England seems to have been partly due
to the fact that the Danish adventurers had gained a foothold in the
north of France, where they found all the employment they needed in
maintaining their establishments. Under the reign of Edward the
Elder--chosen to succeed Alfred--the English enjoyed an interval of
comparative peace and industry. During this time and under the following
reigns, known as those of the Six Boy-Kings, the social side of life had
an opportunity to develop from a semi-barbarous to a more civilized
state. The bare and rough walls of hall and court were screened by
tapestry hangings, often of silk, and elaborately ornamented with birds
and flowers or scenes from the battlefield or the chase. Chairs and
tables were skilfully carved and inlaid with different woods and, among
the wealthier nobility, often decorated with gold and silver. Knives and
spoons were now used at table--the fork was to come many long years
later; golden ornaments were worn; and a variety of dishes were
fashioned, often of precious metals, brass, and even bone. The bedstead
became a household article, no longer looked upon with superstitious
awe; and musical instruments--principally of the harp pattern--began to
find favor in their eyes, and were passed round from hand to hand, like
the drinking-bowl, at their rude festivals.
But toward the end of a century following the victories of Alfred the
Danes again threatened an invasion, and in 981-991 they made several
landings, in the latter year overrunning much territory. King Ethelred
[the "Unready"] procured their departure by bribery, which led the Danes
to repeat their visit the next year, following it up by a descent in
force under King Sweyn of Denmark and Olaf of Norway. They defeated the
English in battle and ravaged a great part of the country, exacting as
before ruinous contributions from the already impoverished people. After
the siege and taking of London, 1011-1013, the flight of the cowardly
Ethelred to the court of Normandy, the sudden death of Sweyn, who had
been but a few months before proclaimed King of England, and the return
of Ethelred to his throne, Canute, the son of Sweyn, claimed the crown
and ravaged the land in the manner and custom of his race. The
complications and strife engendered by the rival claims of the Dane and
Edmund ["Ironside"], son of Ethelred, and which ended in the triumph of
Canute and the complete subjugation of England, are hereinafter narrated
by Hume, the English historian.)
The Danes had been established during a longer period in England than in
France; and though the similarity of their original language to that of
the Saxons invited them to a more early coalition with the natives, they
had hitherto found so little example of civilized manners among the
English that they retained all their ancient ferocity, and valued
themselves only on their national character of military bravery. The
recent as well as more ancient achievements of their countrymen tended
to support this idea; and the English princes, particularly Athelstan
and Edgar, sensible of that superiority, had been accustomed to keep in
pay bodies of Danish troops, who were quartered about the country and
committed many violences upon the inhabitants. These mercenaries had
attained to such a height of luxury, according to the old English
writers, that they combed their hair once a day, bathed themselves once
a week, changed their clothes frequently; and by all these arts of
effeminacy, as well as by their military character, had rendered
themselves so agreeable to the fair sex that they debauched the wives
and daughters of the English and dishonored many families. But what most
provoked the inhabitants was that, instead of defending them against
invaders, they were ever ready to betray them to the foreign Danes, and
to associate themselves with all straggling parties of that nation.
The animosity between the inhabitants of English and Danish race had,
from these repeated injuries, risen to a great height, when Ethelred
(1002), from a policy incident to weak princes, embraced the cruel
resolution of massacring the latter throughout all his dominions. Secret
orders were despatched to commence the execution everywhere on the same
day, and the festival of St. Brice, which fell on a Sunday, the day on
which the Danes usually bathed themselves, was chosen for that purpose.
It is needless to repeat the accounts transmitted concerning the
barbarity of this massacre: the rage of the populace, excited by so many
injuries, sanctioned by authority, and stimulated by example,
distinguished not between innocence and guilt, spared neither sex nor
age, and was not satiated without the tortures as well as death of the
unhappy victims. Even Gunhilda, sister to the King of Denmark, who had
married Earl Paling and had embraced Christianity, was, by the advice of
Edric, Earl of Wilts, seized and condemned to death by Ethelred, after
seeing her husband and children butchered before her face. This unhappy
princess foretold, in the agonies of despair, that her murder would soon
be avenged by the total ruin of the English nation.
Never was prophecy better fulfilled, and never did barbarous policy
prove more fatal to the authors. Sweyn and his Danes, who wanted but a
pretence for invading the English, appeared off the western coast, and
threatened to take full revenge for the slaughter of their countrymen.
Exeter fell first into their hands, from the negligence or treachery of
Earl Hugh, a Norman, who had been made governor by the interest of Queen
Emma. They began to spread their devastations over the country, when the
English, sensible what outrages they must now expect from their
barbarous and offended enemy, assembled more early and in greater
numbers than usual, and made an appearance of vigorous resistance. But
all these preparations were frustrated by the treachery of Duke Alfric,
who was intrusted with the command, and who, feigning sickness, refused
to lead the army against the Danes, till it was dispirited and at last
dissipated by his fatal misconduct. Alfric soon after died, and Edric, a
greater traitor than he, who had married the King's daughter and had
acquired a total ascendant over him, succeeded Alfric in the government
of Mercia and in the command of the English armies. A great famine,
proceeding partly from the bad seasons, partly from the decay of
agriculture, added to all the other miseries of the inhabitants. The
country, wasted by the Danes, harassed by the fruitless expeditions of
its own forces, was reduced to the utmost desolation, and at last
submitted (1007) to the infamy of purchasing a precarious peace from the
enemy by the payment of thirty thousand pounds.
The English endeavored to employ this interval in making preparations
against the return of the Danes, which they had reason soon to expect. A
law was made, ordering the proprietors of eight hides of land to provide
each a horseman and a complete suit of armor, and those of three hundred
and ten hides to equip a ship for the defence of the coast. When this
navy was assembled, which must have consisted of near eight hundred
vessels, all hopes of its success were disappointed by the factions,
animosities, and dissensions of the nobility. Edric had impelled his
brother Brightric to prefer an accusation of treason against Wolfnoth,
governor of Sussex, the father of the famous earl Godwin; and that
nobleman, well acquainted with the malevolence as well as power of his
enemy, found no means of safety but in deserting with twenty ships to
the Danes. Brightric pursued him with a fleet of eighty sail; but his
ships being shattered in a tempest, and stranded on the coast, he was
suddenly attacked by Wolfnoth, and all his vessels burned and destroyed.
The imbecility of the King was little capable of repairing this
misfortune. The treachery of Edric frustrated every plan for future
defence; and the English navy, disconcerted, discouraged, and divided,
was at last scattered into its several harbors.
It is almost impossible, or would be tedious, to relate particularly all
the miseries to which the English were henceforth exposed. We hear of
nothing but the sacking and burning of towns; the devastation of the
open country; the appearance of the enemy in every quarter of the
kingdom; their cruel diligence in discovering any corner which had not
been ransacked by their former violence. The broken and disjointed
narration of the ancient historians is here well adapted to the nature
of the war, which was conducted by such sudden inroads as would have
been dangerous even to a united and well-governed kingdom, but proved
fatal where nothing but a general consternation and mutual diffidence
and dissension prevailed. The governors of one province refused to march
to the assistance of another, and were at last terrified from assembling
their forces for the defence of their own province. General councils
were summoned; but either no resolution was taken or none was carried
into execution. And the only expedient in which the English agreed was
the base and imprudent one of buying a new peace from the Danes, by the
payment of forty-eight thousand pounds.
This measure did not bring them even that short interval of repose which
they had expected from it. The Danes, disregarding all engagements,
continued their devastations and hostilities; levied a new contribution
of eight thousand pounds upon the county of Kent alone; murdered the
Archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to countenance this exaction;
and the English nobility found no other resource than that of submitting
everywhere to the Danish monarch, swearing allegiance to him, and
delivering him hostages for their fidelity. Ethelred, equally afraid of
the violence of the enemy and the treachery of his own subjects, fled
into Normandy (1013), whither he had sent before him Queen Emma and her
two sons, Alfred and Edward. Richard received his unhappy guests with a
generosity that does honor to his memory.