1899.] on King Alfred. 81 



Alfred is among the lineal ancestors of the kings of England since 

 the Conquest. It would be curious to know how Alfred liked finding 

 so young a stepmother crowned as his father's queen, but we have no 

 information whatever about their personal relations. There is uo 

 doubt that Alfred's elder brothers did not like it at all. After 

 iEthelwulf's death Judith married — to the scandal of all good 

 Christian men, and according to the ancient custom of the heathen 

 Saxons * — his eldest surviving son iEthelbald, whether willingly or not 

 we do not know. She left England at his death in 860. 



There must have been supposed grounds of policy for iEthelwulf's 

 marriage with Judith, but the immediate effect was a risk of civil 

 war at home, which ^Ethelwulf avoided only by subordinating himself 

 to his son iEthelbald. This iEthelbald, seemingly a masterful and 

 violent man, continued to reign over Wessex for two years after his 

 father's death ; he died in 860, and was succeeded by his brother 

 iEthelberht, who had already been under-king of Kent. In iEthel- 

 berht's time the Danes took Winchester. The next brother, iEthelred, 

 followed him as king in 866. 



Alfred was now a man, and fit to take his part in war and counsel. 

 The course of events had brought him very near the throne. Just 

 at this time the Danes — men of Denmark, not merely Northmen — 

 established themselves in East Anglia, and made themselves masters 

 of Northumbria. In 868 iEthelred and Alfred helped the Mercians 

 to drive an invading Danish host back upon its base at Nottingham. 

 There the Danes could defy an enemy who knew nothing of fortifica- 

 tion or siege works. Englishmen had — not for the last time — failed 

 to follow the progress made in the art of war on the Continent. 

 Peace was made, apparently without any terms of indemnity or 

 security. In that same year Alfred married ; we have no particular 

 account of his wife, Ealhsvvith, but we know that she was the mother 

 of wise and valiant children. Meanwhile, we read of famine and 

 sickness in Wessex. Next year the Danes rode — for great part 

 of them were now mounted — to York ; the year after they were at 

 Thetford and overcame and slew Edmund, King of the East Angles, 

 whose death won him a long posthumous life of glory as a martyr 

 and saint.f Another movable army made spoil of Croyland, Peter- 

 borough and Ely. 



In 871 came the attack on Wessex, which iEthelred and Alfred 

 must have been expecting. Early in the year the Danes seized the 

 stronghold of Eeading, sent out plundering parties, and fortified 

 themselves by running an earthwork across from the Thames to the 

 Kennet. A foraging detachment was defeated at Englefield, a few 

 miles to the south-west. A few days afterwards iEthelred and 



* Kemble, i Saxons in England,' ii. 407. 



t What was it that made St. Edmund a popular hero, demanding, so to speak, 

 prompt beatification ? One suspects something amounting to deliberate self- 

 sacrifice, for what immediate purpose is unknown. 



Vol. XVI. (No. 93.) a 



