The History of England, Volume I From Egbert through Edward the Martyr Alfred
by David Hume
This prince gave very early marks of those great virtues and shining
talents, by which, during the most difficult times, he saved his
country from utter ruin and subversion. Ethelwolf, his father, the
year after his return with Alfred from Rome, had again sent the young
prince thither with a numerous retinue; and a report being spread of
the king’s death, the pope, Leo III., gave Alfred the royal unction
[h]; whether prognosticating his future greatness from the appearances
of his pregnant genius, or willing to pretend, even in that age, to
the right of conferring kingdoms. Alfred, on his return home, became
every day more the object of his father’s affections; but being
indulged in all youthful pleasures, he was much neglected in his
education; and he had already reached his twelfth year, when he was
yet totally ignorant of the lowest elements of literature. His genius
was first roused by the recital of Saxon poems, in which the queen
took delight; and this species of erudition, which is sometimes able
to make a considerable progress even among barbarians, expanded those
noble and elevated sentiments which he had received from nature [i].
Encouraged by the queen, and stimulated by his own ardent inclination,
he soon learned to read those compositions; and proceeded thence to
acquire the knowledge of the Latin tongue, in which he met with
authors that better prompted his heroic spirit, and directed his
generous views. Absorbed in these elegant pursuits, he regarded his
accession to royalty rather as an object of regret than of triumph
[k]; but being called to the throne, in preference to his brother’s
children, as well by the will of his father, a circumstance which had
great authority with the Anglo-Saxons [l], as by the vows of the whole
nation, and the urgency of public affairs, he shook off his literary
indolence, and exerted himself in the defence of his people. He had
scarcely buried his brother, when he was obliged to take the field in
order to oppose the Danes, who had seized Wilton, and were exercising
their usual ravages on the countries around. He marched against them
with the few troops which he could assemble on a sudden; and giving
them battle, gained at first an advantage, but by his pursuing the
victory too far, the superiority of the enemy’s numbers prevailed, and
recovered them the day. Their loss, however, in the action, was so
considerable, that, fearing Alfred would receive daily reinforcement
from his subjects, they were content to stipulate for a safe retreat,
and promised to depart the kingdom. For that purpose they were
conducted to London, and allowed to take up winter quarters there;
but, careless of their engagements, they immediately set themselves to
the committing of spoil on the neighbouring country. Burrhed, King of
Mercia, in whose territories London was situated, made a new
stipulation with them, and engaged them, by presents of money, to
remove to Lindesey, in Lincolnshire, a country which they had already
reduced to ruin and desolation. Finding therefore no object in that
place, either for their rapine or violence, they suddenly turned back
upon Mercia, in a quarter where they expected to find it without
defence; and fixing their station at Repton in Derbyshire, they laid
the whole country desolate with fire and sword. Burrhed, despairing
of success against an enemy whom no force could resist, and no
treaties bind, abandoned his kingdom, and flying to Rome, took shelter
in a cloister [m]. He was brother-in-law to Alfred, and the last who
bore the title of king in Mercia.
[ [h] Asser. p. 2. W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 2. Ingulph. p. 869.
Simeon Dunelm. p. 120, 139. [i] Asser. p. 5. M. West. p. 167. [k]
Asser. p. 7. [1] Ibid. p. 22. Simeon Dunelm. p. 121. [m] Asser. p.
8. Chron. Sax. p. 82. Ethelward, lib. 4. cap. 4.]
The West Saxons were now the only remaining power in England; and
though supported by the vigour and abilities of Alfred, they were
unable to sustain the efforts of those ravagers, who from all quarters
invaded them. A new swarm of Danes came over this year under three
princes, Guthrum, Oscitel, and Amund; and having first joined their
countrymen at Repton, they soon found the necessity of separating, in
order to provide for their subsistence. Part of them, under the
command of Haldene, their chieftain [n], marched into Northumberland,
where they fixed their quarters; part of them took quarters at
Cambridge, whence they dislodged in the ensuing summer, and seized
Wereham, in the county of Dorset, the very centre of Alfred’s
dominions. That prince so straitened them in these quarters, that
they were content to come to a treaty with him, and stipulated to
depart his country. Alfred, well acquainted with their usual perfidy,
obliged them to swear upon the holy relics to the observance of the
treaty [o]; not that he expected they would pay any veneration to the
relics; but he hoped, that, if they now violated this oath, their
impiety would infallibly draw down upon them the vengeance of Heaven.
But the Danes, little apprehensive of the danger, suddenly, without
seeking any pretence, fell upon Alfred’s army; and having put it to
rout, marched westward, and took possession of Exeter. The prince
collected new forces, and exerted such vigour, that he fought in one
year eight battles with the enemy [p], and reduced them to the utmost
extremity. He hearkened however to new proposals of peace; and was
satisfied to stipulate with them, that they would settle somewhere in
England [q], and would not permit the entrance of more ravagers into
the kingdom. But while he was expecting the execution of this treaty,
which it seemed the interest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, he
heard that another body had landed, and having collected all the
scattered troops of their countrymen, had surprised Chippenham, then a
considerable town, and were exercising their usual ravages all around
them.
[ [n] Chron. Sax. p. 83. [o] Asser. p. 8. [p] Ibid. The Saxon
Chronicle. p. 82, says nine battles. [q] Asser. p. 9. Alur. Beverl.
p. 104.]
This last incident quite broke the spirit of the Saxons, and reduced
them to despair. Finding that, after all the miserable havoc which
they had undergone in their persons and in their property; after all
the vigorous actions which they had exerted in their own defence; a
new band, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, had disembarked among
them; they believed themselves abandoned by Heaven to destruction, and
delivered over to those swarms of robbers, which the fertile north
thus incessantly poured forth against them. Some left their country
and retired into Wales, or fled beyond sea: others submitted to the
conquerors, in hopes of appeasing their fury by a servile obedience
[r]. And every man’s attention being now engrossed in concern for his
own preservation, no one would hearken to the exhortations of the
king, who summoned them to make, under his conduct, one effort more in
defence of their prince, their country, and their liberties. Alfred
himself was obliged to relinquish the ensigns of his dignity, to
dismiss his servants, and to seek shelter, in the meanest disguises,
from the pursuit and fury of his enemies. He concealed himself under
a peasant’s habit, and lived some time in the house of a neat-herd,
who had been intrusted with the care of some of his cows [s]. There
passed here an incident, which has been recorded by all the
historians, and was long preserved by popular tradition; though it
contains nothing memorable in itself, except so far as every
circumstance is interesting which attends so much virtue and dignity
reduced to such distress. The wife of the neat-herd was ignorant of
the condition of her royal guest; and observing him one day busy by
the fire-side in trimming his bows and arrows, she desired him to take
care of some cakes which were toasting, while she was employed
elsewhere in other domestic affairs. But Alfred, whose thoughts were
otherwise engaged, neglected this injunction; and the good woman, on
her return, finding her cakes all burnt, rated the king very severely,
and upbraided him, that he always seemed very well pleased to eat her
warm cakes, though he was thus negligent in toasting them [t].
[ [r] Chron. Sax. p. 84. Alured Bever. p. 105. [s] Asser. p. 9.
[t] Ibid M. West, p. 170.]
By degrees, Alfred, as he found the search of the enemy become more
remiss, collected some of his retainers, and retired into the centre
of a bog, formed by the stagnating waters of the Thone and Parret, in
Somersetshire. He here found two acres of firm ground; and building a
habitation on them, rendered himself secure by its fortifications, and
still more by the unknown and inaccessible roads which led to it, and
by the forests and morasses with which it was every way environed.
This place he called Aethelingay, or the Isle of Nobles [u]; and it
now bears the name of Athelney. He thence made frequent and
unexpected sallies upon the Danes, who often felt the vigour of his
arm, but knew not from what quarter the blow came. He subsisted
himself and his followers by the plunder which he acquired; he
procured them consolation by revenge; and from small successes he
opened their minds to hope, that, notwithstanding his present low
condition, more important victories might at length attend his valour.
[ [u] Chron. Sax. p. 65. W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4 Ethelward, lib.
4. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 26.]
Alfred lay here concealed, but not inactive, during a twelvemonth,
when the news of a prosperous event reached his ears, and called him
to the field. Hubba, the Dane, having spread devastation, fire, and
slaughter over Wales, had landed in Devonshire from twenty-three
vessels, and laid siege to the castle of Kenwith, a place situated
near the mouth of the small river Tau. Oddune, Earl of Devonshire,
with his followers, had taken shelter there; and being ill supplied
with provisions, and even with water, he determined, by some vigorous
blow, to prevent the necessity of submitting to the barbarous enemy.
He made a sudden sally on the Danes before sun-rising; and taking them
unprepared, he put them to rout, pursued them with great slaughter,
killed Hubba himself; and got possession of the famous REAFEN, or
enchanted standard, in which the Danes put great confidence [w]. It
contained the figure of a raven, which had been inwoven by the three
sisters of Hinguar and Hubba, with many magical incantations, and
which, by its different movements, prognosticated, as the Danes
believed, the good or bad success of any enterprise [x].
[ [w] Asser. p. 10. Chron. Sax. p. 84. Abbas Rieval, p. 395
Alured Beverl. p. 105. [x] Asser. p. 10.]
When Alfred observed this symptom of successful resistance in his
subjects, he left his retreat; but before he would assemble them in
arms, or urge them to any attempt, which, if unfortunate, might, in
their present despondency, prove fatal, he resolved to inspect himself
the situation of the enemy, and to judge of the probability of
success. For this purpose he entered their camp under the disguise of
a harper, and passed unsuspected through every quarter. He so
entertained them with his music and facetious humours, that he met
with a welcome reception; and was even introduced to the tent of
Guthrum, their prince, where he remained some days [y]. He remarked
the supine security of the Danes, their contempt of the English, their
negligence in foraging and plundering, and their dissolute wasting of
what they gained by rapine and violence. Encouraged by these
favourable appearances, he secretly sent emissaries to the most
considerable of his subjects, and summoned them to a rendezvous,
attended by their warlike followers, at Brixton, on the borders of
Selwood forest [z]. The English, who had hoped to put an end to their
calamities by servile submission, now found the insolence and rapine
of the conqueror more intolerable than all past fatigues and dangers;
and, at the appointed day, they joyfully resorted to their prince. On
his appearance, they received him with shouts of applause [a]; and
could not satiate their eyes with the sight of this beloved monarch,
whom they had long regarded as dead, and who now, with voice and looks
expressing his confidence of success, called them to liberty and to
vengeance. He instantly conducted them to Eddington, where the Danes
were encamped; and taking advantage of his previous knowledge of the
place, he directed his attack against the most unguarded quarter of
the enemy. The Danes, surprised to see an army of English, whom they
considered as totally subdued, and still more astonished to hear that
Alfred was at their head, made but a faint resistance, notwithstanding
their superiority of number, and were soon put to flight with great
slaughter. The remainder of the routed army, with their prince, was
besieged by Alfred in a fortified camp to which they fled; but being
reduced to extremity by want and hunger, they had recourse to the
clemency of the victor, and offered to submit on any conditions. The
king, no less generous than brave, gave them their lives; and even
formed a scheme for converting them from mortal enemies into faithful
subjects and confederates. He knew that the kingdoms of East Anglia
and Northumberland were totally desolated by the frequent inroads of
the Danes, and he now proposed to repeople them, by settling there
Guthrum and his followers. He hoped that the new planters would at
last betake themselves to industry, when, by reason of his resistance,
and the exhausted condition of the country, they could no longer
subsist by plunder; and that they might serve him as a rampart against
any future incursions of their countrymen. But before he ratified
these mild conditions with the Danes, he required that they should
give him one pledge of their submission, and of their inclination to
incorporate with the English, by declaring their conversion to
Christianity [b]. Guthrum and his army had no aversion to the
proposal; and without much instruction, or argument, or conference,
they were all admitted to baptism. The king answered for Guthrum at
the font, gave him the name of Athelstan, and received him as his
adopted son [c].
[ [y] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4. [z] Chron. Sax. p. 85. [a] Asser.
p. 10. Chron. Sax. p. 85. Simeon Dunelm. p. 128. Alured Beverl. p.
105. Abbas Rieval, p. 354. [b] Chron. Sax. p. 85. [c] Asser. p. 10.
Chron. Sax. p. 90.]
[MN 880.] The success of the expedient seemed to correspond to
Alfred’s hopes: the greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in
their new quarters: some smaller bodies of the same nation, which were
dispersed in Mercia, were distributed into the five cities of Derby,
Leicester, Stamford, Lincoln, and Nottingham, and were thence called
the Fif or Five-burghers. The more turbulent and unquiet made an
expedition into France, under the command of Hastings [d]; and, except
by a short incursion of Danes, who sailed up the Thames, and landed at
Fulham, but suddenly retreated to their ships on finding the country
in a posture of defence, Alfred was not for some years infested by the
inroads of those barbarians [e].
[ [d] W. Malm. lib. 2. c. 4. Ingulph. p. 26. [e] Asser. p. 11.]
The king employed this interval of tranquillity in restoring order to
the state, which had been shaken by so many violent convulsions; in
establishing civil and military institutions; in composing the minds
of men to industry and justice; and in providing against the return of
like calamities. He was, more properly than his grandfather, Egbert,
the sole monarch of the English, (for so the Saxons were now
universally called,) because the kingdom of Mercia was at last
incorporated in his state, and was governed by Ethelbert, his brother-
in-law, who bore the title of Earl: and though the Danes, who peopled
East Anglia and Northumberland, were for some time ruled immediately
by their own princes, they all acknowledged a subordination to Alfred,
and submitted to his superior authority. As equality among subjects
is the great source of concord, Alfred gave the same laws to the Danes
and English, and put them entirely on a like footing in the
administration both of civil and criminal justice. The fine for the
murder of a Dane was the same with that for the murder of an
Englishman; the great symbol of equality in those ages.
The king, after rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London [f],
which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Ethelwolf,
established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom. He
ordained that all his people should be armed and registered; he
assigned them a regular rotation of duty; he distributed part into the
castles and fortresses which he built at proper places [g]; he
required another part to take the field on any alarm, and to assemble
at stated places of rendezvous; and he left a sufficient number at
home, who were employed in the cultivation of the land, and who
afterwards took their turn in military service [h]. The whole kingdom
was like one great garrison; and the Danes could no sooner appear in
one place, than a sufficient number was assembled to oppose them,
without leaving the other quarters defenceless or disarmed [i].
[ [f] Asser. p. 15. Chron. Sax. p. 88. M. West. p. 171. Simeon
Dunelm. p. 131. Brompton, p. 812. Alured Beverl. ex edit. Hearne, p.
106. [g] Asser. p. 18. Ingulph. p. 27. [h] Chron. Sax. p. 92, 93.
[i] Spellman’s Life of Alfred, p. 147. edit. 1709.]
But Alfred, sensible that the proper method of opposing an enemy who
made incursions by sea, was to meet them on their own element, took
care to provide himself with a naval force [k], which though the most
natural defence of an island, had hitherto been totally neglected by
the English. He increased the shipping of his kingdom both in number
and strength, and trained his subjects in the practice, as well of
sailing as of naval action. He distributed his armed vessels in
proper stations around the island, and was sure to meet the Danish
ships either before or after they had landed their troops, and to
pursue them in all their incursions. Though the Danes might suddenly,
by surprise, disembark on the coast, which was generally become
desolate by their frequent ravages, they were encountered by the
English fleet in their retreat; and escaped not, as formerly, by
abandoning their booty, but paid, by their total destruction, the
penalty of the disorders which they had committed.
[ [k] Asser. p. 9. M. West. p. 179.]
In this manner Alfred repelled several inroads of these piratical
Danes, and maintained his kingdom, during some years, in safety and
tranquillity. A fleet of a hundred and twenty ships of war was
stationed upon the coast; and being provided with warlike engines, as
well as with expert seamen, both Frisians and English, (for Alfred
supplied the defects of his own subjects by engaging able foreigners
in his service,) maintained a superiority over these smaller bands
with which England had so often been infested [l]. [MN 893.] But at
last Hastings, the famous Danish chief, having ravaged all the
provinces of France, both along the seacoast and the Loire and Seine,
and being obliged to quit that country, more by the desolation which
he himself had occasioned, than by the resistance of the inhabitants,
appeared off the coast of Kent with a fleet of 330 sail. The greater
part of the enemy disembarked in the Rother, and seized the fort of
Apuldore. Hastings himself, commanding a fleet of eighty sail,
entered the Thames, and fortifying Milton in Kent, began to spread his
forces over the country, and to commit the most destructive ravages.
But Alfred, on the first alarm of this descent, flew to the defence of
his people, at the head of a select band of soldiers, whom he always
kept about his person [m]; and gathering to him the armed militia from
all quarters, appeared in the field with a force superior to the
enemy. All straggling parties whom necessity, or love of plunder, had
drawn to a distance from their chief encampment, were cut off by the
English [n]; and these pirates, instead of increasing their spoil,
found themselves cooped up in their fortifications, and obliged to
subsist by the plunder which they had brought from France. Tired of
this situation, which must in the end prove ruinous to them, the Danes
at Apuldore rose suddenly from their encampment, with an intention of
marching towards the Thames, and passing over into Essex: but they
escaped not the vigilance of Alfred, who encountered then at Farnham,
put them to rout [o], seized all their horses and baggage, and chased
the runaways on board their ships, which carried them up the Colne to
Mersey, in Essex, where they intrenched themselves. Hastings, at the
same time, and probably by concert, made a like movement; and
deserting Milton, took possession of Bamflete, near the Isle of
Canvey, in the same county [p], where he hastily threw up
fortifications for his defence against the power of Alfred.
[ [1] Asser. p. 11. Chron. Sax. p. 86, 87. M. West. p. 176. [m]
Asser. p.19. [n] Chron. Sax. p. 92. [o] Ibid. p. 93. Flor. Wigorn,
p. 595. [p] Chron. Sax. p. 93.]
Unfortunately for the English, Guthrum, prince of the East Anglian
Danes, was now dead; as was also Guthred, whom the king had appointed
governor of the Northumbrians; and those restless tribes, being no
longer restrained by the authority of their princes, and being
encouraged by the appearance of so great a body of their countrymen,
broke into rebellion, shook off the authority of Alfred, and yielding
to their inveterate habits of war and depredation [q], embarked on
board two hundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter in the
west of England. Alfred lost not a moment in opposing this new enemy.
Having left some forces at London to make head against Hastings and
the other Danes, he marched suddenly to the west [r]; and falling on
the rebels before they were aware, pursued them to their ships with
great slaughter. These ravagers, sailing next to Sussex, began to
plunder the country near Chichester; but the order which Alfred had
every where established, sufficed here, without his presence, for the
defence of the place; and the rebels, meeting with a new repulse, in
which many of them were killed, and some of their ships taken [s],
were obliged to put again to sea, and were discouraged from attempting
any other enterprise.
[ [q] Ibid. p. 92. [r] Ibid. p. 93. [s] Chron. Sax. p. 96. Flor.
Wigorn. p. 596.]
Meanwhile, the Danish invaders in Essex, having united their force
under the command of Hastings, advanced into the inland country, and
made spoil of all around them; but soon had reason to repent of their
temerity. The English army left in London, assisted by a body of the
citizens, attacked the enemy's intrenchments at Bamflete, overpowered
the garrison, and having done great execution upon them, carried off
the wife and two sons of Hastings [t]. Alfred generously spared these
captives; and even restored them to Hastings [u], on condition that be
should depart the kingdom.
[ [t] Chron. Sax. p. 94. M. West. p. 178. [u] M. West. p. 179.]
But though the king had thus honourably rid himself of this dangerous
enemy, he had not entirely subdued or expelled the invaders. The
piratical Danes willingly followed in an excursion any prosperous
leader who gave them hopes of booty; but were not so easily induced to
relinquish their enterprise, or submit to return, baffled and without
plunder, into their native country. Great numbers of them, after the
departure of Hastings, seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of
the Thames; and having left a garrison there, they marched along the
River, till they came to Boddington, in the county of Gloucester;
where, being reinforced by some Welsh, they threw up intrenchments,
and prepared for their defence. The king here surrounded them with
the whole force of his dominions [w]; and as he had now a certain
prospect of victory, he resolved to trust nothing to chance, but
rather to master his enemies by famine than assault. They were
reduced to such extremities, that, having eaten their own horses, and
having many of them perished with hunger [x], they made a desperate
sally upon the English; and though the greater number fell in the
action, a considerable body made their escape [y]. These roved about
for some time in England, still pursued by the vigilance of Alfred;
they attacked Leicester with success, defended themselves in Hartford,
and then fled to Quatford, where they were finally broken and subdued.
The small remains of them either dispersed themselves among their
countrymen in Northumberland and East Anglia [z], or had recourse
again to the sea, where they exercised piracy, under the command of
Sigefert, a Northumbrian. This freebooter, well acquainted with
Alfred’s naval preparations, had framed vessels of a new construction,
higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the English; but the
king soon discovered his superior skill, by building vessels still
higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the Northumbrians; and
falling upon them while they were exercising their ravages in the
west, he took twenty of their ships, and having tried all the
prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates, the common enemies
of mankind.
[ [w] Chron. Sax. p. 94. [x] Ibid. M. West. p. 179. Flor. Wigorn.
p. 596. [y] Chron. Sax. p. 95. [z] Chron. Sax. p. 97.]
The well-timed severity of this execution, together with the excellent
posture of defence established every where, restored full tranquillity
to England, and provided for the future security of the government.
The East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes, on the first appearance of
Alfred upon their frontiers, made anew the most humble submissions to
him; and he thought it prudent to take them under his immediate
government, without establishing over them a viceroy of their own
nation [a]. The Welsh also acknowledged his authority; and this great
prince had now, by prudence, and justice, and valour, established his
sovereignty over all the southern parts of the island, from the
English channel to the frontiers of Scotland; when he died [MN 901.],
in the vigour of his age and the full strength of his faculties,
after a glorious reign of twenty-nine years and a half [b]; in which
he deservedly attained the appellation of Alfred the Great, and the
title of Founder of the English Monarchy.
[ [a] Flor. Wigorn. p. 598. [b] Asser. p. 21. Chron. Sax. p. 99.]
The merit of this prince, both in private and public life, may with
advantage be set in opposition to that of any monarch or citizen which
the annals of any age or any nation can present to us. He seems
indeed to be the model of that perfect character, which, under the
denomination of a sage or wise man, philosophers have been fond of
delineating, rather as a fiction of their imagination, than in hopes
of ever seeing it really existing: so happily were all his virtues
tempered together; so justly were they blended; and so powerfully did
each prevent the other from exceeding its proper boundaries. He knew
how to reconcile the most enterprising spirit with the coolest
moderation; the most obstinate perseverance with the easiest
flexibility; the most severe justice with the gentlest lenity; the
greatest vigour in commanding with the most perfect affability of
deportment [c]; the highest capacity and inclination for science, with
the most shining talents for action. His civil and his military
virtues are almost equally the objects of our admiration; excepting
only, that the former, being more rare among princes, as well as more
useful, seem chiefly to challenge our applause. Nature also, as if
desirous that so bright a production of her skill should be set in the
fairest light, had bestowed on him every bodily accomplishment, vigour
of limbs, dignity of shape and air, with a pleasing, engaging, and
open countenance [d]. Fortune alone, by throwing him into that
barbarous age, deprived him of historians worthy to transmit his fame
to posterity; and we wish to see him delineated in more lively
colours, and with more particular strokes, that we may at least
perceive some of those small specks and blemishes, from which, as a
man, it is impossible he could be entirely exempted.
[ [c] Asser. p. 13. [d] Ibid. p. 5.]
But we should give but an imperfect idea of Alfred’s merit, were we to
confine our narration to his military exploits, and were not more
particular in our account of his institutions for the execution of
justice, and of his zeal for the encouragement of arts and sciences.
After Alfred had subdued, and had settled or expelled the Danes, he
found the kingdom in the most wretched condition; desolated by the
ravages of those barbarians, and thrown into disorders, which were
calculated to perpetuate its misery. Though the great armies of the
Danes were broken, the country was full of straggling troops of that
nation, who, being accustomed to live by plunder, were become
incapable of industry, and who, from the natural ferocity of their
manners, indulged themselves in committing violence, even beyond what
was requisite to supply their necessities. The English themselves,
reduced to the most extreme indigence by these continued depredations,
had shaken off all bands of government; and those who had been
plundered today, betook themselves next day to a like disorderly life,
and, from despair, joined the robbers in pillaging and ruining their
fellow-citizens. These were the evils for which it was necessary that
the vigilance and activity of Alfred should provide a remedy.
That he might render the execution of justice strict and regular; he
divided all England into counties; these counties he subdivided into
hundreds; and, the hundreds into tithings. Every householder was
answerable for the behaviour of his family and slaves, and even of his
guests, if they lived above three days in his house. Ten neighbouring
householders were formed into one corporation, who, under the name of
a tithing, decennary, or fribourg, were answerable for each other’s
conduct, and over whom one person, called a tithingman, headbourg, or
borsholder, was appointed to preside. Every man was punished as an
outlaw who did not register himself in some tithing. And no man could
change his habitation, without a warrant or certificate from the
borsholder of the tithing to which he formerly belonged.
When any person in any tithing or decennary was guilty of a crime, the
borsholder was summoned to answer for him; and if he were not willing
to be surety for his appearance, and his clearing himself, the
criminal was committed to prison, and there detained till his trial.
If he fled, either before or after finding sureties, the borsholder
and decennary became liable to inquiry, and were exposed to the
penalties of law. Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the
criminal; and if that time elapsed without their being able to find
him, the borsholder, with two other members of the decennary, was
obliged to appear, and, together with three chief members of the three
neighbouring decennaries, (making twelve in all,) to swear that his
decennary was free from all privity both of the crime committed, and
of the escape of the criminal. If the borsholder could not find such
a number to answer for their innocence, the decennary was compelled by
fine to make satisfaction to the king, according to the degree of the
offence [f]. By this institution, every man was obliged from his own
interest to keep a watchful eye over the conduct of his neighbours;
and was in a manner surety for the behaviour of those who were placed
under the division to which he belonged: whence these decennaries
received the name of frank-pledges.
[ [f] Leges St. Edw. cap. 20. apud Wilkins, p. 202.]
Such a regular distribution of the people, with such a strict
confinement in their habitation, may not be necessary in times when
men are more inured to obedience and justice; and it might perhaps be
regarded as destructive of liberty and commerce in a polished state;
but it was well calculated to reduce that fierce and licentious people
under the salutary restraint of law and government. But Alfred took
care to temper these rigours by other institutions favourable to the
freedom of the citizens; and nothing could be more popular and liberal
than his plan for the administration of justice. The borsholder
summoned together his whole decennary to assist him in deciding any
lesser difference which occurred among the members of this small
community. In affairs of greater moment, in appeals from the
decennary, or in controversies arising between members of different
decennaries, the cause was brought before the hundred, which consisted
of ten decennaries, or a hundred families of freemen, and which was
regularly assembled once in four weeks for the deciding of causes [g].
Their method of decision deserves to be noted, as being the origin of
juries; an institution admirable in itself, and the best calculated
for the preservation of liberty and the administration of justice that
ever was devised by the wit of man. Twelve freeholders were chosen,
who, having sworn, together with the hundreder, or presiding
magistrate of that division, to administer impartial justice [h],
proceeded to the examination of that cause which was submitted to
their jurisdiction. And beside these monthly meetings of the hundred,
there was an annual meeting, appointed for a more general inspection
of the police of the district; for the inquiry into crimes, the
correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of every person
to show the decennary in which he was registered. The people, in
imitation of their ancestors, the ancient Germans, assembled there in
arms; whence a hundred was sometimes called a wapentake, and its court
served both for the support of military discipline, and for the
administration of civil justice [i].
[ [g] Leg. Edw. cap. 2. [h] Foedus Alfred. and Gothurn. apud
Wilkins, cap. 3. p. 47. Leg. Ethelstani, cap. 2. apud Wilkins, p. 58.
LL. Ethelr. § 4. Wilkins, p. 117. [i] Spellman, IN VOCE Wapentake.]
The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county-court,
which met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consisted of
the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in the
decision of causes. The bishop presided in this court, together with
the alderman; and the proper object of the court was the receiving of
appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of such
controversies as arose between men of different hundreds. Formerly,
the alderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but
Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility
dangerous and independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county,
who enjoyed a co-ordinate authority with the former in the judicial
function [k]. His office also empowered him to guard the rights of
the crown in the county, and to levy the fines imposed; which in that
age formed no contemptible part of the public revenue.
[ [k] Ingulph. p. 870.]
There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts to
the king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equity
and great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, he
was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England. He was
indefatigable in the despatch of these causes [l]; but finding that
his time must be entirely engrossed by this branch of duty, he
resolved to obviate the inconvenience, by correcting the ignorance or
corruption of the inferior magistrates, from which it arose [m]. He
took care to have his nobility instructed in letters and the laws [n].
He chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for
probity and knowledge: he punished severely all malversation in office
[o]: and he removed all the earls, whom he found unequal to the trust
[p]; allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till
their death should make room for more worthy successors.
[ [1] Asser. p. 20. [m] Ibid. p. 18, 21. Flor. Wigorn p. 594.
Abbas Rieval, p. 355. [n] Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Brompton. p. 811.
[o] Le Miroir de Justice, chap. 2. [p] Asser. p. 20.]
The better to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice,
Alfred framed a body of laws; which, though now lost, served long as
the basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin
of what is denominated the COMMON LAW. He appointed regular meetings
of the states of England twice a year in London [q]; a city which he
himself had repaired and beautified, and which he thus rendered the
capital of the kingdom. The similarity of these institutions to the
customs of the ancient Germans, to the practice of the other northern
conquerors, and to the Saxon laws during the Heptarchy, prevents us
from regarding Alfred as the sole author of this plan of government;
and leads us rather to think, that, like a wise man, he contented
himself with reforming, extending, and executing the institutions
which he found previously established. But, on the whole, such
success attended his legislation, that every thing bore suddenly a new
face in England: robberies and iniquities of all kinds were repressed
by the punishment or reformation of the criminals [r]: and so exact
was the general police, that Alfred, it is said, hung up, by way of
bravado, golden bracelets near the highways; and no man dared to touch
them [s]. Yet, amidst these rigours of justice, this great prince
preserved the most sacred regard to the liberty of his people; and it
is a memorable sentiment preserved in his will, That it was just the
English should for ever remain as free as their own thoughts [t].
[ [q] Le Miroir de Justice. [r] Ingulph. p. 27. [s] W Malmes. lib.
2. cap. 4. [t] Asser. p. 24.]
As good morals and knowledge are almost inseparable in every age,
though not in every individual; the care of Alfred for the
encouragement of learning among his subjects was another useful branch
of his legislation, and tended to reclaim the English from their
former dissolute and ferocious manners: but the king was guided in
this pursuit, less by political views, than by his natural bent and
propensity towards letters. When he came to the throne, he found the
nation sunk into the grossest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from
the continued disorders in the government, and from the ravages of the
Danes: the monasteries were destroyed, the monks butchered or
dispersed, their libraries burnt; and thus the only seats of erudition
in those ages were totally subverted. Alfred himself complains, that
on his accession he knew not one person, south of the Thames, who
could so much as interpret the Latin service; and very few in the
northern parts, who had reached even that pitch of erudition. But
this prince invited over the most celebrated scholars from all parts
of Europe; he established schools every where for the instruction of
his people; he founded, at least repaired, the university of Oxford,
and endowed it with many privileges, revenues, and immunities; he
enjoined by law all freeholders possessed of two hides [u] of land or
more, to send their children to school for their instruction; he gave
preferment both in church and state to such only as had made some
proficiency in knowledge: and by all these expedients he had the
satisfaction, before his death, to see a great change in the face of
affairs; and in a work of his, which is still extant, he congratulates
himself on the progress which learning, under his patronage, had
already made in England.
[ [u] A hide contained land sufficient to employ one plough. See H.
Hunt. lib. 6. in A. D. 1008. Annal. Waverl. in A.D. 1083. Gervase of
Tilbury says, it commonly contained about 100 acres.]
But the most effectual expedient, employed by Alfred, for the
encouragement of learning, was his own example, and the constant
assiduity with which, notwithstanding the multiplicity and urgency of
his affairs, he employed himself in the pursuits of knowledge. He
usually divided his time into three equal portions: one was employed
in sleep, and the refection of his body by diet and exercise; another
in the despatch of business; a third in study and devotion; and that
he might more exactly measure the hours, he made use of burning tapers
of equal length, which he fixed in lanterns [w]; an expedient suited
to that rude age, when the geometry of dialling, and the mechanism of
clocks and watches, were totally unknown. And by such a regular
distribution of his time, though he often laboured under great bodily
infirmities [x], this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six
battles by sea and land [y], was able, during a life of no
extraordinary length, to acquire more knowledge, and even to compose
more books, than most studious men, though blessed with the greatest
leisure and application, have, in more fortunate ages, made the object
of their uninterrupted industry.
[ [w] Asser. p. 20. W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 870. [x]
Asser. p. 4, 12, 13, 17. [y] W. Malm. lib. 4. cap. 4.]
Sensible that the people, at all times, especially when their
understandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are not
much susceptible of speculative instruction, Alfred endeavoured to
convey his morality by apologues, parables, stories, apophthegms,
couched in poetry; and besides propagating among his subjects former
compositions of that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue [z], he
exercised his genius in inventing works of a like nature [a], as well
as in translating from the Greek the elegant fables of Aesop. He also
gave Saxon translations of Orosius’s and Bede’s histories; and of
Boethius concerning the consolation of philosophy [b]. And he deemed
it nowise derogatory from his other great characters of sovereign,
legislator, warrior, and politician, thus to lead the way to his
people in the pursuits of literature.
[ [z] Asser. p. 13. [a] Spellman, p. 124. Abbas Rieval, p. 355.
[b] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4. Brompton, p. 814.]
Meanwhile, this prince was not negligent in encouraging the vulgar and
mechanical arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closer,
connexion with the interests of society. He invited, from all
quarters, industrious foreigners to repeople his country, which had
been desolated by the ravages of the Danes [c]. He introduced and
encouraged manufactures of all kinds; and no inventor or improver of
any ingenious art did he suffer to go unrewarded [d]. He prompted men
of activity to betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into
the most remote countries, and to acquire riches by propagating
industry among their fellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion
of his own revenue for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he
constantly employed in rebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces,
and monasteries [e]. Even the elegancies of life were brought to him
from the Mediterranean and the Indies [f]; and his subjects, by seeing
those productions of the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the
virtues of justice and industry, from which alone they could arise.
Both living and dead, Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than
by his own subjects, as the greatest prince after Charlemagne that had
appeared in Europe during several ages, and as one of the wisest and
best that had ever adorned the annals of any nation.
[ [c] Asser. p. 13. Flor. Wigorn. p. 588. [d] Asser. p. 20. [e]
Asser. p. 20. W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 4. [f] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap.
4.]
Alfred had, by his wife, Ethelswitha, daughter of a Mercian earl,
three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Edmund, died without
issue, in his father’s lifetime. The third, Ethelward, inherited his
father’s passion for letters, and lived a private life. The second,
Edward, succeeded to his power; and passes by the appellation of
Edward the Elder, being the first of that name who sat on the English
throne.
