By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 25 
that, (says the Chronicle) they grudged him. In the winter of 
that year they advanced after Twelfth-night from the central 
part of England into Wessex, and took up their quarters at Chip- 
penham. From this place, they over-ran the country, driving the 
people out; Alfred himself they forced to take refuge in the wild 
country (as it then was) about Athelney, below Glastonbury. 
Now, as Chippenham, from the nature of the case, could not 
have been at that time a place of any size, what could induce the 
Danish army to come here? The answer seems very simple: they 
wished to catch the king at home. Here was his residence, in the 
middle of the royal demesne just described. That he did live here 
there is proof. His sister, thelswitha, was married at this place 
to the king of central England, then called Mercia; and, (says the 
Latin authority), the nuptials were celebrated with royal splendour, 
“in the villa regia, which is called Cippenham.”? 
Some topographical writers upon Wiltshire, without duly con- 
sidering the previous state of things, have been misled by these 
two words “villa regia,” to describe Chippenham as having been 
at that time “a considerable city, one of the strongest and finest 
towns in England!” I cannot flatter your local vanity by con- 
firming that statement. There is in this immediate neighbour- 
hood, it is true, a highly respectable town, which, for some reason 
or other, assumes the privilege of bestowing upon its suburb the 
exalted title of “the City” ; but Chippenham is more modest than 
Melksham: and though, if any manor in England had a fair right 
to dignity of title, arising from connection with the Crown, this 
certainly had; still, looking at the plain circumstances of the case, 
though a royal residence, it is simply absurd to suppose it to have 
been what we usually understand by a royal city. In the remote 
days now alluded to, it was only a humble “Chepyng-ham,” or 
market-village. But, being the king’s own estate and residence, 
it would naturally be a point of chief attraction to a Danish 
army, whose first object would be, above all things, to pounce 
upon the crown itself. Further, as a military position, for winter 
1 Leland Coll. III. 280. Ex Chronico Mariani Scotti. 
