

Till-: STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Sussex, 

 n the 



3 

 imme- 



.Ited a more 



intimat i the older 



of new learning 



and cultur. ti of a written liter- 



- ami petty 



kingdom- . nd more la-ting unity 



iiat which could have been otherwise 

 seen: 



kingdom, however, was still kept in a 

 y the attacks of the Danes. 



who 1: .ted ineur.-ions during the 



whole of the Saxon period, and about half a 

 T the unitieation of the kingdom 

 the inoini-nt ma.-ters of nearly tin- 

 whole of Kngland. Hut the genius of. Alfred the 

 who had ascended the throne in 871, 

 by the defeat of the 

 Kthandune (878). Guthrum, their 

 'nhraced Christianity, became the vassal 

 of the Saxon kirn:, and retired to a strip of 

 land on ti "ast including Northum- 



bria and called the Danelagh. The two im- 

 medi:r -ors of Alfred, Edward (901 



1 Athel-tan <<)2.V910). the son and grand- 

 son of Alt red. both vigorous and able rulers, had 

 each in turn to direct his arms against these set- 

 : the Danelagh. The reigns of the next 

 live kin-:-. Edmund] Edred, Edwy, Edgar, and 

 Kdward the .Martyr, are chiefly remarkable on 

 the conspicuous plaqp occupied in 

 them by Dunstan. who was counsellor to Ed- 

 mund, mini.-ter of Kdred, treasurer under Edwy, 

 .preme during the reigns of Edgar and his 

 -T. It was possibly due to his policy 

 that from the time of Athelstan till after the 

 death of Kdward the Martyr (978 or 979) the 

 country had comparative rest from the Danes. 

 During the Tenth Century many changes had 

 taken place in the Teutonic constitution. Feu- 

 dalism w&t already taking root; the king's 

 authority had increased; the folkland was being 

 taken over as the king's personal property; the 

 by birth, or ealdormen, were becoming of 

 less importance in administration than the nobil- 

 ity of the-n-. the officers of the king's court. 

 I. "t heh 1016), who succeeded Edward, 



minor, the government was feebly con- 

 and no united action being taken against 

 heir incur-ion- became more frequent 

 and destructive. Animosities between the Kng- 

 1 the Danes who had settled among them 

 e daily more violent, and a general mas- 

 sacre of the lattei took place in lOOJ. The iol- 

 owini: - n invaded the kingdom with a 



powerful army and assumed the crown of Kng- 

 land. Kthelred wa- compelled to take refuge 

 and though he afterward- re- 

 turne i : in Canute an adversary no less 



: :ble than Sweyn. Kthelred left 'his king- 

 dom in lOlli to i imnnd, who displayed 

 valor, but was compelled to divide his 

 m with Canute; ami when he was assas- 

 i in 1017, the Danes succeeded to the 

 sever* Me whole. 



Canute (Knut), who espoused the widow of 



Kthelred. that he might reconcile his new sub- 

 . obtained the name of (ireat, not only on 

 int of his personal qualities, but from the 

 :it of his dominions, being master of Den- 

 mark and Norway as well as Kngland. In 10:5.~> 

 he died, and in Kngland was lollowed by two 

 other Danish kings, Harold and llanlicanute, 

 whose joint reign- lasted till lOll', after which 

 the Knglish line was again restored in the person 

 of Kdward the Conte--or. Kdward was a weak 

 prince, and in the latter years of his reign had 

 far less real power than his brother-in-law Har- 

 old, son of the great earl Godwin. On Kdward's 

 death in KHiti Harold accordingly obtained the 

 crown. He found, however, a formidable oppo- 

 nent in the second-cousin of Kdward, William of 

 Normandy, who instigated the Danes to invade 

 the northern counties, while he, with 60,000 men, 

 landed in the south. Harold vanquished the 

 Danes, and hastening southward met the Nor- 

 mans near Hastings, at Senlac, afterwards called 

 Battle. Harold anol his two brothers fell (Octo- 

 ber 14, 1066), and William (1066-87) immediately 

 claimed the government as lawful King of 

 England, being subsequently known as William 

 I., the Conqueror. For some time he conducted 

 the government with great moderation; but 

 being obliged to reward those who had assisted 

 him, he bestowed the chief offices of the govern- 

 ment upon Normans, and divided among them 

 a great part of the country. The revolts of the 

 native English which followed were quickly 

 crushed, continental feudalism in a modified 

 form was established, and the English Church 

 reorganized under Lanfranc as Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. 



At his death, in 1087, William II., commonly 

 known by the name of Rufus, the conqueror's 

 second son, obtained the crown, Robert, the 

 el. lest son, receiving the duchy of Normandy. 

 In 1 100, when William II. was accidently killed 

 ' in the New Forest, Robert was again cheated 

 of his throne by his younger brother Henry 

 (Henry I.), who in 1106 even wrested from him 

 the duchv of Normandy. Henry's power being 

 secured, he entered into a dispute with Anselm 

 the primate, and with the pope, concerning the 

 right of granting investure to the clergy. He 

 supported his quarrel with firmness, and prought 

 it to a not unfavorable issue. His reign was 

 also marked by the suppression of the greater 

 Norman nobles in England, whose power (like 

 that of many continental feudatories) threatened 

 to overshadow that of the king, and by the sub- 

 stitution of a class of lesser nobles. In 11. V> he 

 died in Normandy, leaving behind him only a 

 daughter, Matilda. 



By the will of Henry I. his daughter Majud or 

 Matilda, wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of 

 Anjou, and frequently styled the Empress 

 Matilda, because she had first been married to 

 Henry V., Emperor of Germany, was declared 

 his successor. But Stephen, son of the Count of 

 Blois, and of Adela, daughter of William the 

 Conqueror, raised an army in Normandy, landed 

 in England, and declared himself king. After 

 years of civil war and bloodshed an amicable 

 arrangement was brought about, by which it 

 jjeed that Stephen should continue to 

 during the remainder of his life, but that 



