WAREHAM : ITS INVASIONS AND BATTLES. 95 



from William de Waimuta to the Abbey of Lyra, but there 

 is no mention of a Mint. Neither in the lands and profits 

 of industries in Wareham, presented by Hawis, Countess of 

 Gloucester ; Galfred de Castello, Prior of Wareham ; and 

 Robert de novo Burgo, to Bindon Abbey, to which house 

 they were great benefactors. Having seen another reason \\hy 

 Wareham was continually "a bone of contention," we return 

 to the invasions. 



In 988 the Danes came by water and again attacked the town, 

 and ravaged the country ; but the people were without a leader, 

 and there appears to have been some negligence on the part of the 

 Saxon authorities. After the dastardly murder of King Edward at 

 Corfe Castle, Ethelred was crowned King of England, and he, 

 amongst other idiotic actions unworthy his exalted station, bribed 

 the Danes to cease their ravages. When he resolved upon a general 

 massacre his acts of folly reached a climax ; the reception of the 

 secret letter, said to have been delivered at Corfe Castle, and the 

 barbarity with which the Danes were massacred at the base of the 

 Castle, form a story of deep interest. Sweyne, King of Denmark, 

 who is credited with demolishing the walls of Dorchester, and 

 Canute, afterwards King of England, came, not to plunder, but to 

 be avenged for the monstrous outrage ; and the revenge upon the 

 unfortunate Saxons was not less cruel and bloody than the massacre. 

 For a period "all Southern England was alight with the blaze of 

 burning towns," and Wareham did not escape. Canute appears to 

 have made Wareham his headquarters for awhile, penetrating by 

 the river Frau to the heart of Dorset, then, after having plundered 

 and destroyed Cerne Abbas, he returned to W T areham, sailing hence 

 to Brownsea. The number of ruined houses testified as to how 

 severely Wareham suffered ; St. Mary's seems to have been partially, 

 the Nunnery wholly, destroyed and obliterated from the history of 

 our ancient town. Canute, according to Hutchins, when he divided 

 the kingdom, kept Wessex to himself ; and this would perhaps 

 account for his seeking the seclusion of Shaftesbury Abbey in his 

 declining days. 



