POLITICAL HISTORY 



were returning in two divisions, as though to attack London, they 

 were met by the news that a force was gathered against them in 

 London. The northern division therefore crossed the Thames at Staines, 

 and both went back through Surrey to their ships to spend Lent in 

 repairing them, but Middlesex was again ravaged during the year. 17 In 

 Edmund Ironside's campaign against Cnut in 1016 the last of his four 

 great battles was fought at Brentford. Edmund had set out to recover 

 Wessex from the Danes after he had been chosen king by the citizens of 

 London. He had gained two victories at Penselwood and at Sherston, but 

 while he was collecting fresh forces Cnut had laid siege to London. 

 Edmund with his reinforcements marched along the north bank of the 

 Thames 18 and won a third battle, which compelled the Danes to raise the 

 siege and flee to their ships. Two days later he defeated them for a 

 fourth time, and drove them in flight across the Thames. 19 Apparently 

 a great number of the English pressed the pursuit in advance of their 

 main body, and in their eagerness to spoil the enemy were by their own 

 carelessness drowned in the river. This battle did not finally disperse the 

 enemy, however, for as soon as Edmund had departed into Wessex, 

 London was again besieged, ' but Almighty God saved it.' 2 



Middlesex is not mentioned in the list of shires whose troops 

 mustered at Hastings, but the sheriff of the Middle Saxons, the Staller 

 Esegar, played a prominent part as leader of the London contingent. 81 

 He was wounded in the battle, and was carried back to London to con- 

 duct its defence against the Conqueror. William marched westward 

 from Southwark to Wallingford, and then northward to Berkhampstead, 

 in order that his triumphant progress might isolate London, and bring it 

 to submission rather by intimidation than by direct attack. When his 

 army entered Middlesex from the north-west London had already come 

 to terms, so that though the northern districts round Enfield, Edmonton, 

 and Tottenham suffered from the passage of his army, yet his march was 

 on the whole peaceful. 22 



The Norman Conquest brought perhaps less change to Middlesex 

 than to any county. It is said that William gave to Geoffrey de Mande- 

 ville all the lands which had been held by the Staller Esegar, 23 and 

 apparently Geoffrey occupied much the same position with regard to 

 London and Middlesex as was filled by the Staller before the Con- 

 quest. His son and heir, William de Mandeville, was made Constable of 

 the Tower. 24 The greater part of the land in Middlesex had been, and 

 continued to be, in ecclesiastical hands. The king held no manor in the 



17 jingl.-Sax. Chnn. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 115 ; Freeman, op. cit. i, 377. 



18 Flor. Wore. op. cit. 1 76. ' Exercitus vice tertia' congregate." 



19 Hen. of Hunt. Hist. A*gl. (Rolls Ser.), 183 ; Freeman, op. cit. i, 426. 

 10 Angl.-Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, n6. 



" Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, i, 32 ; Freeman, op. cit. iii, 486. 



21 Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 307 ; cf. Flor. Wore. Chnn. (Engl. Hist. 

 Soc.), i, 228. See an interesting article on the subject by F. Baring, 'The Conqueror's Footprints in 

 Domesday,' Engl. Hist. Rev. 1898. 



13 Waltham Chnn. de Indentione (ed. Stnbbs), cap. xiv. 



14 Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. (Soc. de 1'Histoire de France), iv, 1 08. 



2 17 3 



