garrisons, while the other two were by turns engaged in military service and in the cultivation of the land. 892 A.D. 13. So, in 892, when there was a fresh invasion by Danes, who crossed from France, led by Hasting, Alfred was well prepared to meet them. Hasting landed in Kent, crossed into Essex, and obtained aid from the Danes of East Anglia. They marched right across Mercia into Wales, expecting, no doubt, to get the assistance of the Welsh ; but Æthelred, Alfred's son-in-law, followed them, and defeated them with great slaughter at Buttington (Montgomeryshire) in 894. Driven from their stronghold at Chester the following year, the Danes returned to Essex. Alfred and Æthelred marched against them. Their skiffs crowded the Lea; but Alfred, by digging a trench beside the river, shallowed the stream, and caused the Danish vessels to run aground, when they fell an easy prey to his troops. This drove the pirates back to France. The rest of Alfred's reign was peace. He died in 901, aged fifty-two, and was succeeded by his son Edward, surnamed "The Elder." 895 A.D. Where did they go, on surrendering? QUESTIONS.-1. Who began to be | What place did the Danes seize in 876? troublesome in Egbert's time? Who were the Danes? When had they begun to attack England? Where did they attack it now? With whom did they ally themselves? Where did Egbert defeat them? When? 2. Who succeeded Egbert? What occurred in Æthelred's time? In what position was Wessex at his death? 3. When did the Danes conquer East Anglia? How did they treat the King? Who assumed the crown? What kingdom was next attacked? In 4. When did Alfred succeed? what position was Wessex then? What was at stake? On what did the issue depend? For what had Alfred hitherto been remarkable? 5. What at first made Alfred's people discontented? What was the result of the Battle of Wilton? What induced the Danes to withdraw from Wessex? Where did they then carry their ravages ? What influence did they gain in Mercia? How did they deal with Northumbria ? 7. What story is told of him in his retirement? Where was his hidingplace? How long did he remain there? For what were his nobles secretly preparing? 8. What induced Alfred to resolve on an immediate stroke? How is he said to have gained knowledge of the Danish plans and position? Where did he summon his friends? What battle was fought? Who gained the victory? 9. What peace followed? To what did the Danes agree? What were they allowed to hold? Who held the rest of Mercia? What line separated the Danish portion of England from the English portion? What was the Danish portion called? What was the Mercian part of it called? 10. What difference was there between the Danish settlement and the English one? Why was this? To what did Alfred devote the years of peace? 6. Of what use was Alfred's fleet? What literary works did he himself 1. WHILE Edward was King, a host of Norsemen, led by Rolf the Ganger,1 settled in the country of the Franks. Charles the Simple, King of the West Franks, in 912, gave A.D. 66 Rolf a piece of land at the mouth of the Seine for him912 self and his followers, on condition that the Norsemen should become Christians and cease ravaging the Frankish coasts. Rolf and his son added greatly to their territory, which came to be called Normandy, or the land of the Norsemen." From Rolf and his followers were descended William, Duke of Normandy, and the Normans who conquered England in 1066. But long before that time the Normans had become Frenchmen; for it is remarkable that the Teutonic settlers in France, unlike the Teutonic settlers in Britain, gave up their own speech for that of the natives. 2. After the death of Æthelred of Mercia, in 911, his widow Æthelfled ruled with great vigour. She made a determined effort to recover the Five Boroughs from the Danes; and after five years' fighting she had captured Derby and Leice918 ster, when she died, 918. Her brother Edward took the government of Mercia into his own hands, and continued the struggle with the Danes. In this he was A.D. 924 A.D. so successful, that in 924 he was acknowledged as Overlord by all England, and even by the Scots and by the Welsh of Strathclyde and Wales. Thus Edward was not only Overlord of the English-as Edwin and Offa and Egbert had been—but Overlord of all Britain. He was the first to assume the title of King of England ; but shortly after achieving this greatness, he died, in 925. 937 A.D. 3. Æthelstan, Edward's son, was barely seated on the throne when the Northumbrians and the North Welsh revolted. Both revolts were soon quelled; but a more formidable rising occurred in 937, when the Scots, the North Welsh, and the English Danes, joined Anlaf of Denmark, who appeared with a great fleet in the Humber. Æthelstan marched against the allies, and defeated them in a great battle at Brunanburh.1 Edmund I., his half-brother and successor, secured the friendship of the Scots by granting them Strathclyde2 or Cumbria. He was stabbed at the supper-table by a robber whom he had banished six years before. 946 A.D. 4. Edred, Edmund's brother, was chosen to succeed him, because Edmund's sons, Edwy and Edgar, were considered too young3 to reign. On Edred's death, however, Edwy, his nephew, succeeded him, 946. Edwy quarrelled with Dunstan, a powerful churchman whom Edmund had made Abbot of Glastonbury, and banished him from his court and kingdom. Mercia and Northumbria again revolted, and made Edgar, the King's brother, their King. Dunstan was recalled to Mercia by Edgar, who became King of Wessex, 1 Brunanburh.-Said to have been in Lincolnshire; but there is no certainty as to the locality. As, however, the invaders entered the country by the Humber, and as they would naturally march southwards, the battle is most likely to have been fought in Lincolnshire. century its southern boundary was Morecambe Bay and the river Lune. The district south of the Solway was called Cumbria, or Cumberland; that north of it was called Reged. In the eleventh century the name Cumberland was applied to the whole of Strathclyde. 2 Strathclyde. As the English States 3 Too young. At this time the law spread over the country, the limits of of primogeniture (by which the eldest this district were gradually narrowed. born is entitled to succeed) was not alIn the seventh century it extended from ways followed. Practically, the Witan the upper part of the Great Ouse (mod-(Witena-gemót, or council of wise ern Northamptonshire) to the north of men ") elected from the Royal Family the Clyde in Scotland. In the tenth the Prince most fit to rule also, on his brother's death. In a few years Dunstan was made Archbishop of Canterbury and Prime Minister. 5. In order to break the power of Northumbria, Edgar, by Dunstan's advice, divided it into three portions. Lothian, between the Forth and the Tweed, was given to the King of Scots, and formed the nucleus of the Anglo-Scottish kingdom. The remainder was divided into two Earldoms,-the one from the Tweed to the Tees (Northumbria), the other from the Tees to the Humber (Deira or Yorkshire). Dunstan strove to foster strict monasticism in England, and to make the Church supreme in the government of the country. His policy alienated the secular clergy as well as the freemen. 978 A.D. 6. The contest between Dunstan and the national clergy came to a crisis in 978, during the reign of Æthelred II. The latter claimed the right to marry, which the Church of Rome refused to permit. The Witan met at Calne in Wiltshire to discuss the disputed points; and while Dunstan was appealing to Heaven for vengeance against his opponents, who were all collected at one end of the room, the joists gave way beneath the national party, and the prelate's enemies were hurled to the earth in a heap of dead and wounded. It has been said that he had caused the beams to be half sawn through, previous to the assembly of the Witan. Famine and plague cast a gloom over the land, which grew deeper two years later, when the Danes renewed their ravages. At the same time, Mercia and Northumbria, where the Danish element in the population was large, again broke with Wes sex. 7. Ethelred, who was surnamed "the Unready,"—that is, the improvident or foolish,-tried to get rid of the Danes by buying them off. For this purpose he levied a tax called Dane-geld, amounting to twelve pence in the year upon each hide of land for all classes except the clergy; but this foolish policy had no other effect than to bring the pirates back to the English shores. They returned in 997 in greater numbers than ever, and harassed Wessex for five years. They were again bought off, and each time this was repeated their demands increased. Many of them did not actually go away, but settled in Wessex as peaceful citizens. 8. Æthelred, in his folly, devised the mad scheme of a general massacre of the Danes in Wessex. The bloody deed was perpetrated ruthlessly on the festival of St. Brice. Nov. 13, Burning with rage, Sweyn (Swegen), King of Den- 1002 mark, whose sister Gunhild was among the slain, burst A.D. upon the coasts; and, returning again and again, during four years, took a terrible revenge. He returned in 1013, determined to conquer England. Mercia and Northumbria joined him, and then Wessex was reduced A.D. to the direst straits. At last Oxford and Winchester 1013 fell before the invaders. Sweyn was proclaimed King at Bath, and soon after at London. Æthelred fled to the Isle of Wight, and thence to Normandy, the native place of Emma, his second wife. Sweyn died three weeks afterwards, at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, leaving his conquests to his son Canute1 (Cnut). But the English having recalled Æthelred, supported him so vigorously that Canute was forced in turn to abandon the island. 9. Æthelred, now triumphant, provoked renewed incursions by repeated murders of his Danish subjects; and his untiring foe, Canute, once more landed in England. 1016 The Dane was pushing towards the capital, leaving a track of blood and ashes behind him, when Æthelred died. He was succeeded by Edmund, his eldest son. A.D. 10. Edmund II., surnamed "Ironside," struggled bravely for seven months to secure the throne of his father, during which London was assaulted twice, without success, by the Danes under Canute. But at last, after a meeting at Olney, an island in the Severn, where, some writers say, a duel was fought between the rivals,-they agreed to a division of the 1017 kingdom; Edmund holding the counties south, the A.D. Dane those north of the Thames. The Dane-geld was to be levied in both districts alike, but was to be applied to the support of the Danish fleet. A month after this agreement Edmund died, and Canute was acknowledged as King from one end of England to the other. QUESTIONS.-1. Where did the Norse- | Who was their leader? What was their settle during Edward's reign? settlement by-and-by called? men 1 Canute.-Pronounce Că-noot'. Who |