ALT 



agaiiifl Haftings (H;icft(;n), and the other Danes, lie maixlicd 

 fudJeiily to the Weft ; and, falling on tht rebels before they 

 were aware, piirfued them to their (hips with great flaiighter. 

 The enemy, failinj' ,next to Suflcx, began to phinder the 

 country near Chiciiefter ; hut the order which Alfred had 

 every where eftabliflied fulTiced here, witlmut his prefcnce, 

 for the defence of the place ; and the rebels-, meeting with 

 a new rcpulfe, in which many of them were killed, and fome 

 of their Ihips taken, were olHged again to put to fea. They 

 now failed to join Haflings, the Daiiifli chief, at Bcamfleet, in 

 Efrex,who, thus [lrcngthencd,and encouraged by the abfence 

 of the king, ravaged all the lands lielonging to Alfred in 

 INIercia. The troops which the king had left in London for 

 the fecurity of that place, now, in turn, took their advan- 

 tage of the abfence of the Danifli chief on ids incurfions in 

 tlie Mercian diftrift, fuddenly attacked Beainfleet, and car- 

 ried the place by ftorm, in which they found Haftings's wife 

 and his two for.'?, who had been lately baptized. Thel'e 

 they made prifoners, and ient to Alfred; who, with a grcat- 

 r.efs of foul unparallelled in thofe times, returned them 

 to HalHngs, witii this meifage, " I make no war upon 

 women and chriftians." HalHngs, returning from his p;l- 

 lag'ng expedition, gave up all for loll, and once more 

 fued tor peace ; which Alfred, with his ufual clemency, 

 granted, on his giving frefli hoftages for his fidelity in time 

 to come. 



Before Alfred had time to recruit himfelf, another Danifh 

 leader, whofe name was Laf, came with a great army out of 

 Northumberland, and dellroycd all before him. Having 

 invaded North Wales, plundering or dellroying every thing, 

 this army divided itfelf, one body returning to Northumber- 

 land, the other marching into Efl'ex, and taking poflclhon 

 of a fmall ifland called Merefeg (Merfey ). Here, however, 

 they did not long remain ; for, having parted, fome failed 

 up the river Thames, and others up the Lea-Road ; where, 

 drawing up their ibips, they built a fort not far from Lon- 

 don, which proved a great reilraint upon the citizens, who 

 went in a body and attacked it, but were repulfed with great 

 lofs. This obliged the king, when harvcft-time came, to 

 encamp with a body of troops in the neighbourhood of the 

 city, in order to cover the reapers from the incurfions of tiic 

 Danes. Riding one day by the fide of the river Lea, a 

 thought ftruck him, that by narrowing the channel and 

 cutting fome trendies, and thus turning the courfe of the 

 ilream, he might render the Danifh (hips ufelefs, by leaving 

 them on dry ground. This was promptly executed ; the 

 pagans, ftruck with altonifhment and difmay, quitted their 

 ihips and camp, and fled to Quatford, where thev were 

 finally broken and iabdued. Such of the Danilh (hips as 

 could be got off, the Londoners carried into their own road ; 

 the rell they burnt and deftroyed. 



The Danes, ever unquiet, in a (hort time began again to 

 invade the territories of the Weft Saxons, both by land and 

 £ea ; but their chief enterprifes were in the way of piracy, 

 under the command of Sigefert, a Northumbrian, who, well 

 acquainted with Alfred's naval preparations, had framed 

 veflels of a new conftruftion, higher, larger, and Iwifter 

 than the Englifh ; but the king, improving on his invention, 

 caufed a number of gallies to be built with all poflible ex- 

 pedition, of ftill greater bulk, fwifter in failing, and loftier 

 rlian thofe of the Danes, fome of them carrying 60 rowcra. 

 ^V'ith thefe, falHng upon the enemy while they were exer- 

 cifing their ravages in the Weft, he took twenty of their 

 fiiips ; and, having tried all the prifoners at Winchefter, he 

 giiee judgmcvu that they fcould be hanjjed as piratical mur- 



VOL. 1. 



A L F 



derers and enemies of the human nee. The well-timed f?- 

 veiitv of this execution, together with the excellent pollurc 

 of defence every where eftal)li(hed, reftored complete tran. 

 quillity in Englar.d for the three remaining years of Alfred'* 

 roign, which he chiefly employed in cftablifhing and rcgu. 

 lating his government for the iecurity of hiniieli and his 

 fucctilbrs, and the eafe and benefit of the people at large. 



" His mighty genius (fays Sir \^'. Blacklloiic) prompted 

 him to undertake a moll great and ncccfiary work, whidi 

 he is faid to have executed in as mafterly a manner. 

 No lefs than to new-model the conftitutiou ; to re-build 

 it on a plan that (hould endure for ages ; and out of 

 its old difcorjant materials, which were heaped \ipoii 

 each other iu a vaft and rude irregularity, to form 

 one uniform and wcU-connefted whole. This he cf- 

 feded, by r-duc!ng the whole kingdom under one regular 

 and giadual lubordination of government, wherein each man 

 was anfwerable to his immediate fHperior for his own con- 

 dudl and that of his neareil neighbours : for to him we owe 

 that raafter-piece of iudici.il polity, the fubdivifion of Eng- 

 land into tithings and hundreds, if not into counties ; all 

 under the influence and aduiiniftration of one fupreme ma- 

 giftrate, the king : in whom, as in a general refervoir, all 

 tiie executive autliority of the law was lodged, and iiom 

 whom juftiee was difperfed to every part of the nation by 

 diftinct, yet communicating, duc\s and channels ; which 

 wife inftitulion has been preferved for near a tlioufand years 

 unchanged, from Alfred's to the prtfent time. He alio, 

 like another Theodoiius, colleAed the various cuftoms that 

 he found difperfed in the kingdom, and reduced and digeiled 

 them into one uniform fyftem or code of laws, in his 80m- 

 bcc, or liba' jud'.djlis. This he compiled for the ufe of the 

 court-baron, hundred and county-court, the court-leet, and 

 fnerilf's tourn ; tribunals which he ellabh(hed for •the trial 

 of all caufes civil and criminal, in the very diftricls wherein 

 the complaint arofe : all of them fubjedi, however, to be 

 infpefted, controlled, and kept within the bounds of the uni- 

 verfiJ or common law, by the king's own courts ; which 

 were then itinerant, being kept in the king's palace, and re- 

 moving with his houfehold in thofe royal progreiTes which 

 he continuallymade from one endof the kingdom to the other. 

 The Danifh invafion and conqucft, which introduced new 

 foreign cuftoms, was a fevere blow to this noble fabric : but 

 a plan, fo excellently concerted, could never be long thrown 

 afide. So that, upon the expulfion of thefe intruders, the 

 Englifh returned to their ancient law ; retaining, however, 

 fome few of the cuftoms of their late vifitants ; which went 

 under the name of Dane-Lage : as the code compiled by 

 Alfred was called the Weli-Saxon-Lage ; and the local 

 conftitutions of the ancient kingdom of Mercia, which ob- 

 tained in the counties neareil to Wales, and probably 

 abounded with many Britidi cuftoms, were called the Mer- 

 cen-Lage. And thefe three laws were, about the begin- 

 ning of the eleventh century, in ufe in different counties of 

 the realm : the provincial polity of counties, and their fub- 

 divifions, having never been altered or difcontinued through 

 all the (liocks and mutatiuns of government, from the time 

 of its firft iuftitution ; though tlie laws and cuftoms there- 

 in ufed, have often (uffered conhdernble changes.'' 



Than Alfred, no man could be a more abfolute monarch ; 

 for, befides that he was the legal inheritor of the crown, he 

 had won it by his fword, having fought 56 fet battles by 

 fea and land (eight of them in one year), and enlarged his 

 dominions beyond what anv of his anccftors poffefTed. But, 

 thoUjih thus abfolute, he foon fltewed, that hedefired not to 

 4 O cilablidi 



