145 



ALFRED. 



ALFRED. 



146 



the northern extremity of the island, and reached the Bristol Channel. 

 On receiving this intelligence, Alfred immediately marched across the 

 country to Exeter ; and he soon rid that city of its assailants, who, 

 sailing away to the east, attacked Chichester, but were there driven 

 off by the inhabitants. Meanwhile, Hastings had got out of the 

 Swale, and, having been joined by his countrymen from the Isle of 

 Mersey, had sailed up the Thames, and was devastating Mercia ; but 

 Alfred was soon after them, and pursued them till they threw them- 

 selves into a fortress at Buttington on the Severn, whence, after being 

 penned up Tor some weeks and reduced to extremities, they endea- 

 voured to cut their way out by a desperate sally, in which some 

 thousands were slain and driven into the river. Hastings however and 

 a small number escaped to the coast of Essex, where they were joined 

 by a large force of East Anglians and Northumbrians, and whence 

 they soon after marched across the island in a new direction, and took 

 possession of the town of Chester ; but to this point too they were 

 followed by Alfred, and, after ravaging part of North Wales, they 

 returned by a circuitous route through Northumbria and East .Anglia 

 to the Isle of Mersey, where they wintered. Here also they appear 

 to have lain quiet during the whole of the year 895, watched by 

 Alfred, who, by digging new canals for the river, is said to have 

 drawn off the water from their ships, which were moored in the Lea, 

 so that they were left iinmoveable, and had to be abandoned. But in 

 the summer of 896 they again suddenly left the east coast, and, taking 

 their way through Mercia, fixed themselves at Bridgenorth in Shrop- 

 shire, and, though blockaded by Alfred, maintained their ground there 

 throughout the following winter. The strength and hopes of the 

 invaders however were now nearly worn out Their leader Hastings 

 indeed appears to have withdrawn to France before this time, and the 

 long contest which Alfred had to sustain was terminated in 897 by the 

 dispersion of some and the capture of others of a number of Danish 

 vessels which attempted to plunder the coast of Wessex. He sent out 

 against them, the Sr.xon Chronicle tells us, ships of war of a new con- 

 struction, neither like those of the Danes nor the Frisians, but twice 

 as long, and also higher, some of them holding sixty rowera or more. 

 Those of the Danish sailors, it is said, that fell into his hands he 

 treated as pirates, sending them to instant execution. 



After the Danes were thus got rid of, a depopulating pestilence 

 ravaged the country for three years ; and the lapse of this space, 

 unmarked by any other memorable events, also brought the life of 

 Alfred to a close. He died on the 28th of October, most probably jn 

 the year 901, although one account gives 900 and another 899 as the 

 year ; nor is there any documentary or other evidence by which the 

 matter can be absolutely determined. By his queen Alswitba he is 

 said to have had four sons: Edmund, who died in the lifetime of his 

 father ; Edward, who succeeded him on the throne ; Athelstan, of 

 whom little or nothing is known ; and Ethelward, who became a 

 scholar : and three daughters : Ethelfleda, married to Ethelred, earl 

 of Mercia ; Ethelgora, who became abbe.-s of the monastery of Athel- 

 ney, founded by her father ; and Elfreda or Ethelawitha, who married 

 Baldwin the Bald, earl of Flanders. 



Putting out of view the imputations already noticed, which refer 

 exclusively to the first few years of his reign, and, rightly considered, 

 rather set off and enhance the conquest over himself which he after- 

 wards achieved, the lustre of Alfred's character, both as a man and as 

 a king, is without spot or shade. He is charged with no vice ; and, 

 besides the cheerful and unpretending exhibition of all the ordinary 

 virtues in his every-day life, the untoward circumstances in which he 

 was placed, and the afflictions with which he was tried, were con- 

 tinually striking out from his happy nature sparks and flashes of the 

 heroic and sublime. He triumphed over pain as he had triumphed over 

 passion ; his active exertions in arms, and his unintermitted labours 

 of every other kiud, were carried on while he was suffering under the 

 torment and debility of a disease which never left him, and which 

 probably at last brought him to hi* grave. The field in which he 

 acted was limited and obscure ; but that too makes part of his glory ; 

 for of all the rulers who have been styled ' the Great,' there is no one 

 to whom the epithet has been given with more general acclamation 

 than to this king of the West Saxons. His fame transcends that of 

 inn-t conquerors, although he won it all by what he did for his own 

 subjects and within his own petty principality ; but probably no king 

 ever did more for his country than Alfred, at least if we measure 

 what he accomplished by his means and his difficulties. His preserva- 

 tion of it from conquest by the Northmen in the latter part of his 

 reign was perhaps as great an achievement as his previous recovery of 

 its independence when all seemed to be lost, and the foreigner had 

 actually acquired the possession of the soil ; the latter contest at least 

 was much the more protracted one, and appears to have called for and 

 brought out more of Alfred's high qualities his activity, his vigilance, 

 his various military talent, his indomitable patience and endurance, 

 his spirit of hope that nothing could quench, as well as his mere 

 valour. That contest with Hastings too was marked by several 

 generous actions on the part of Alfred, not admitting of notice in a 

 brief outline, which displayed the magnanimity of his character in 

 the strongest light. Nor let it be said that Alfred's heroic efforts 

 after all proved ineffectual, inasmuch as Englnnd notwithstanding was 

 at last subjugated by those Danish invaders whom he twice drove off : 

 this did not happen till after more than a century of independence 



Bioo. DIV. VOL. I. 



and freedom obtained by his exertions ; and at any rate his success, 

 even if the Anglo-Saxons had preserved their liberties for a much 

 shorter time, would still have given to the history of the world one 

 of its most precious possessions, another example of persevering 

 courage and strength of heart winning the battle over the darkest and 

 most disastrous circumstances. This was a lesson of hope and encou- 

 ragement which those who came after him could never lose by any 

 change of fortune. The actual improvements in the department of 

 the national defence for which his country was indebted to Alfred 

 were the already mentioned commencement of the royal navy, various 

 improvements in the building of ships, the protection of the coast by 

 (it is said) no fewer than fifty forts or castles erected in the course of 

 his reign on the most exposed or otherwise important points, and the 

 establishment of a regular order of military service, according to 

 which one half of the male population of the proper age was called 

 to the field and the other allowed to remain at home in turns, instead 

 of the whole, as formerly, being obliged to serve for a limited time. 

 In this way the demands both of war and of agriculture were pro- 

 perly provided for. Alfred has been commonly represented as a great 

 innovator in the civil institutions of the Anglo-Saxons ; bat it is 

 probable that he attempted little, if anything, more in this depart- 

 ment than the restoration of the old laws and establishments of police, 

 which had fallen into inefficiency in the confusions and troubles that 

 preceded his reign. The body of laws which professes to be of his 

 enactment consists almost entirely of a selection from those of Ethel- 

 bert of Kent, Ina of Wessex, Offa of Mercia, and other preceding 

 kings, with the addition of some portions of the Mosaic code. 

 Ingulfus and other later writers attribute to him the division of the 

 country into shires, hundreds, and tithings, and the establishment of 

 a system which made every man in some degree responsible for the 

 peace of his district and for the conduct of every other inhabitant ; 

 but it is in the highest degree probable that all this, in so far as it 

 does or ever did actually exist, is of much earlier origin. We may 

 however believe that Alfred maintained a strict and efficient police in 

 his dominions, without taking literally what is asserted by William of 

 Malrnesbury, that a purse of money or a pair of golden bracelets 

 would in the time of this king remain for weeks exposed in the high- 

 way without risk of depredation. It may also bo true, as Ingulfus 

 relates, that he first appointed a justiciary, or special officer for the 

 hearing of causes in every shire ; dividing the authority which had 

 formerly resided in a single governor between that functionary and 

 the viscount or sheriff. But that Alfred, as has often been said, was 

 the founder or inventor of trial by jury, is certainly an erroneous 

 notion ; the jury trial of the Anglo-Saxons was altogether a different 

 thing from what is now known by that name, and was also undoubtedly 

 much more ancient than the time of Alfred. The most important of 

 Alfred's patriotic services, and those at the same time of which we 

 have the best evidence, consist in what he did for the literature of his 

 country, and the intellectual improvement of his subjects. In addition 

 to the establishment of schools in all the 'principal towns, having him- 

 self at the late age of 39 began the study of Latin under the direction 

 of some of the learned men whom he invited to his court from all 

 parts Grimbold or Qrimbald of St. Omer and John of Corvei from 

 the continent, as well as Asser from St. David's in Wales, and Pleg- 

 mund, \Verferth, and others from Mercia he did not rest satisfied 

 till he had turned his new acquirements to account by translating into 

 the popular tongue such treatises as he conceived to be best suited for 

 his countrymen. The following translations by Alfred have come 

 down to us : 1. The Pastorale, or Liber Pastoralia Curse, of Pope 

 Gregory the Great, a directory or manual of instruction for bishops 

 and other clergymen. Of this all that has been printed is Alfred's 

 highly curious and interesting preface. It is given in Latin in various 

 editions of Asser, and in other works ; and, with an English trans- 

 lation, in Mr. Wright's 'Biographia Britannica,' 8vo, London, 1842. 

 " When I thought," says Alfred, in the conclusion of this preface (to 

 adopt Mr. Wright's rendering), "how the learning of the Latin 

 language before this was decayed through the English people, though 

 many could read English writing, then I began, among other divers 

 and manifold affairs of this kingdom, to translate into English the 

 book which is named in Latin Pastoralis, and in English Herdsman's 

 Book, sometimes word for word, sometimes meaning for meaning, as 

 I learnt it of Plegmund my archbishop, and of Asser my bishop, and 

 of Grimbold my presbyter, and of John my presbyter. After I had 

 thus learnt it so that I understood it as well as my understanding 

 could allow me, I translated it into English ; and I will send ono copy 

 to each bishop's see in my kingdom," &c. 2. Tue treatise of Boethius, 

 entitled ' Do Consolatioue Philosophise.' Alfred's translation of this 

 work is throughout very free, and contains many additions to tho 

 original a fact which, we believe, was first noticed by Mr. Turner, 

 who has given an ample analysis of the performance in his ' History 

 of the Anglo-Saxons.' The following is the proo3mium or preface to 

 the Boethius, as translated by Mr. Cardale : " Alfred, king, was 

 translator of this book, and turned it from book Lathi into English, 

 as it now is done. Sometimes he set word by word, sometimes 

 meaning of meaning, as he the most plainly and most clearly could 

 render it, for the various and manifold worldly occupations which 

 often busied him both in mind and in body. The occupations are to 

 us very difficult to be numbered which in his days came upon, (jh 



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