POLITICAL HISTORY 



They settled at Repton in 874, and from there subdued the whole of the 

 surrounding country, 15 destroying and plundering Tamworth and Stafford. 



When the Treaty of Wedmore put an end for a time to this ruinous 

 war, Watling Street may be taken as the practical boundary between the 

 Danelaw and Alfred's dominion. 18 Staffordshire therefore was divided 

 between the two, the northern and central portions going to the Danes, the 

 southern to Alfred. How far did the Danes fill up the district assigned to 

 them ? This unfortunately is a question which as yet we have not sufficient 

 materials to answer definitely. Our best guide is that of place-names, the 

 commonest Danish terminations being 'by,' 'thorpe,' and 'toft,' and according 

 to this test the Danes hardly left any permanent trace in Staffordshire. 



The contest soon broke out again. The Danes, thrown back from the 

 Continent by a great defeat at Louvain, turned their attention to England 

 with renewed vigour, and were assisted by their brethren of the Danelaw. 

 A terrible internal struggle was waged all along the boundary, Watling 

 Street, 17 and must have involved Staffordshire. 



However, a deliverer was at hand. In 910 Edward the Elder met the 

 Danes at Tettenhall, 18 and defeated them, and from this time the Viking host 

 was steadily pushed eastwards. The chief credit for the conquest of Danish 

 Mercia must be given to Edward's ' manlike sister,' Ethelfleda, the ' lady of 

 the Mercians.' The daughter of a Mercian princess and married to one who 

 was probably connected with the royal line of Offa, she is one of the most 

 capable women in English history. After her husband's death in 911 she 

 won the ' love and loyalty of the Mercian people in an astonishing degree 

 and wielded the warlike resources of the Midland Kingdom with wonderful 

 energy and success.' 19 Her plan of campaign was to build a ' burh ' in the 

 hostile territory and hold it against all comers till the surrounding country 

 was entirely subdued. 



In the year 9 i 3 



God granting, Ethelfleda, lady of the Mercians, went with all the Mercians to Tnmworth, 

 and built the burh there in the early summer, and before the following Lammas (Aug. i) 

 that at Stafford. Then in the year after this that at Eddisbury in the early summer. 20 



The short time occupied in the building shows that the burhs must have 

 been of very elementary construction. The burhs at Tamworth and Stafford 

 are an excellent instance of the military genius of this warlike woman, as they 

 blocked the way along the Trent and Watling Street, which the Danes 

 used in order to effect a junction with their Irish brethren at Chester. 



Ethelfleda died at the Tamworth burh which she had built, in 918, and 

 was buried at Gloucester. 21 Her precise relationship with her royal brother 

 Edward is hard to define. She fought, made treaties, and governed with 

 apparently entire independence, but she is always described as ' lady,' never 

 as ' queen.' Probably Edward was her ' mund bora,' 23 or protector, and 



11 Angl.-Sax. Chron (Rolls Ser.), ii, 63. " Hodgkin, op. cit. i, 315. " Ibid, i, 309. 



" Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 77. Symeon of Dur. Hist. Reg. 112 (Rolls Ser.), and Flor. of Wore. 

 Chron. i, izo, say 911. 



** Hodgkin, op. cit. i, 321. 



K Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 78-9. Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), i, 443, says she 

 restored Tamworth and the tower at Stafford, no doubt referring to the fact that they had lain in ruins 

 since 874. 



11 Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 81. " Hodgkin, op. cit. i, 322- 3. 



219 



