Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

event roused them to renounce the world altogether.

CHAP.

IV.

856.

sition.

IN Selwood Forest the revolters first assembled in strength. The king's absence favoured the His deposcheme; and as his devotion to the Roman see, combined with the prospect of a stripling's succession, to the prejudice of brothers, who to priority of birth added maturity of age, may have diminished the general loyalty; so the circumstances of his marriage concurred, fortunately for the conspirators, to complete his unpopularity. When Ethelwulph returned, he found the combination too powerful to be resisted; but the nobles of all Wessex would not permit him to be absolutely dethroned; they promoted an accommodation between the two parties, on the plan, that Ethelbald should be put in possession of West Saxony, the best portion of the monarchy, and that Ethelwulph should be contented with the eastern districts which Ethelstan had enjoyed. The king, averse to war, and perhaps intimidated by the strength of his opponents, submitted to the proposition.30

38 Asser, 9. He remarks that occidentalis pars Saxoniæ semper orientali principalior est, ibid.

39 There is a complimentary letter of Lupus, a French abbot, to Ethelwulph, still existing, soliciting him to be at the expence of covering the church of his monastery with lead. In this he speaks of the good opinion which had spread of Ethelwulph's government, and of the reputation he had acquired by his exertions against the enemies of Christianity, alluding to his victories over the Northmen. Epist. Lupi Bib. Mag. vol. iii. p. 625.

CHAP. V.

The Reigns of ETHELBALD and ETHELBERT.-ALFRED's Education.

BOOK BY wresting the sceptre of Wessex from the hand IV. of his father, Ethelbald gained a very short interval 856-860. of regal pomp. The old king survived the disap

pointment of his hope and the diminution of his power but two years, and Ethelbald outlived him scarcely three more. Ethelwulph, by his will, left landed possessions to three of his sons; and it is a proof of his placable disposition, that Ethelbald was one; the others were Ethelred and Alfred ; the survivor of the three was to inherit the bequest.1 His other son, his daughter, and kinsmen, and also his nobles, partook of his testamentary liberality. His will displayed both the equity and the piety of his mind.2

SOON after Ethelwulph's decease, Ethelbald married his widow, Judith, in defiance of religious institutions and the customs of every Christian state.3

See Alfred's will, published by Mr. Astle, which recites this ¿evise.

2 He ordered throughout all his lands, that in every ten manors one poor person, either a native or a foreigner, should be maintained in food and clothing, as long as the country contained men and cattle. He left the pope an hundred mancusses, and two hundred to illuminate St. Peter's and St. Paul's churches at Rome on Easter eve and the ensuing dawn. Asser, 13.

3 Asser, 23. But this author, and they who follow him, are wrong in stating that this was against the custom of the pagans; for Eadbald, king of Kent, had done the same in 616; and the Saxon Chronicle, in mentioning that event, says, he lived "on hechenum theape spa, that he hærbe hir fæben lape to pive," p. 26.

IV.

On the exhortations of Swithin, he is represented CHAP. to have dismissed her, and to have passed the remainder of his short life in reputation and justice.* He died in 860.

856.

third mar

riage.

SOME time after the death of Ethelbald, Judith Judith's sold her possessions in England, and returning to her father, lived at Senlis with regal dignity. Here she was seen by Baldwin, surnamed the Arm of Iron, whom she married. He was descended from the count, who had cultivated and occupied Flanders." The pope reconciled him with the king of France, her father, who gave to Baldwin all the region between the Scheld, the Sambre, and the sea, and created him count of the empire, that he might be the bulwark of the French kingdom against the Northmen."

BALDWIN built Bruges in 856, as a fortress to coerce them, and died in 880, having enjoyed his honours with peculiar celebrity.

860.

ON the death of Ethelbald, the kingdom of Wessex became the possession of Ethelbert, his Ethelbert

[blocks in formation]

5 Annales Bertiniani Bouquet, tom. vii. p. 77.-The Genealogia comitum Flandriæ scripta seculo 12, says, A. 792, Lidricus Harlebecensis comes videns Flandriam vacuam et incultam et nemorosam occupavit eam. Ibid. p. 81., he was the great grandfather of Baidwin. Previous to Baldwin, Flanders was in the hands of foresters, Espinoy's Recherches, p. 5.

The pope's letters to Charles, and his queen, Hermentrudes, are in Mirai opera diplomatica, i. p. 132. Hincmar's letter to the pope, stating what he had done in obedience to his order, is in the same work, p. 25. The pope hints to Charles, that if his anger lasted, Baldwin might join the Northmen.

7 Meyer Annales Flandriæ, 13. For the same purpose, Theodore was made the first count of Holland at this time, ibid.

8 The author of the Life of S. Winnoc, written in the eleventh century, says, Flanders never had a man his superior in talent and warlike ability, 7 Bouquet, p. 379.

accedes

BOOK brother, who had been already reigning in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.

IV.

860.

In his days, the tranquillity of England was again endangered; a large fleet of the northern vikingr suddenly appeared off Winchester, and ravaged it; but as they were retiring with their plunder, they were overtaken and chased to their ships by the earls of Hampshire and Berkshire.

THEIR Commander led them from England to France; with above 300 ships they ascended the Seine, and Charles averted their hostilities from his own domains by money. The winter forbidding them to navigate the sea, they dispersed themselves along the Seine and the adjacent shores in different bands. Such incursions induced the Flemings to build castles and fortified places.10

IN 864, they wintered in Thanet. While the Kentish men were offering money, to be spared from their ravages, they broke from their camp at night, and ravaged all the east of the country. Ethelbert was, like his brother, taken off premaHis death. turely, after a short, but honourable reign of six years, and was buried in Shireburn." He left some children 12, but Ethelred, his brother, acceded in their stead.

866.

it

9 Annales Bertiniani. One expression of these annals is curious: says, that the Northmen divided themselves, secundum suas sodalitates, as if they had been an union of different companies associated for the expedition.

10 Ob tam furibundas septentrionalium barbarorum incursiones Flandri in suis pagis castellis que munitiones facere ceperunt. Meyer. Ann. Fland. 12.

11 Asser, 14.

12 They are mentioned in Alfred's will.

About this time, Ruric,

a prince of the Waregi, obtained the empire of Russia, and fixing his seat at Novogardia, which he adorned with buildings, occasioned all Russia to have that name. Chronicon Theod. Kiow, cited by Langb. i. p. 554.

CHAP.

V.

866.

Alfred's

youth and

DURING the reigns of his brethren, Alfred was quietly advancing into youth and manhood. When an illustrious character excites our attention, it is natural to inquire whether any unusual circumstances distinguished his early years. This curiosity education. arises, not from the expectation of beholding an extraordinary being, acting to astonish us in the features and dress of infancy, because it is probable, that in the beginning of life no indications of future greatness appear. Healthy children are in general sprightly; and the man destined to interest ages by his mature intellect, cannot be distinguished amid the universal animation and activity of his delighted play-fellows. But as the evolution of genius, and its luxuriant fertility, depend much upon the accidents of its experience, it becomes important to notice those events which have occurred to an illustrious individual, during the first periods of life, that we may trace their influence in producing or determining the tendencies of his manly character, and in shaping his future fortunes. The minds of all men, in every portion of their lives, are much actuated by the impressions received, and by the ideas retained from their preceding experience. As the events of childhood affect its future youth, those of its youth influence its manhood, and that also impresses its subsequent age. Hence they who wish to study the formation of great characters must attentively consider the successive circumstances of their previous stages of life.

THE first years of Alfred's life were marked by incidents unusual to youth. When he was but four years old, he was sent by his father to travel by land through France, and over the Alps to Rome, accompanied with a large retinue. He was brought

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »