Nothing has been said of Iceland, which was one great field of Scan-
dinavian activity in the ninth and tenth centuries.
dinavian activity in the ninth and tenth centuries.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
The best evidence of this is to be found perhaps in
the fact that it is in all probability to the ninth and tenth centuries
that we owe the poems of the elder Edda, the main source of our
knowledge of Old Norse mythology and cosmogony. It is true, no doubt,
that in some of these poems we find a note of detachment, touches of
irony and even of burlesque, which remind us that the belief in the old
gods is passing away, but in the great body of those which deal with
the world of the Aesir, there is no question of fading beliefs or of
insincere statement. The greater number of the Vikings were undoubted
heathen, and like the impious Onlafbald when defying the power of
St Cuthbert would have sworn by their great gods Thor and Othin.
When the Danes made peace with Alfred in 876 they swore an oath on
the holy ring, which would be found on the altar of every heathen
temple : such a ring sacred to Thor was taken by the Irish from a
temple in Dublin in 996. There was a grove sacred to Thor just north
CH, XIII.
## p. 330 (#376) ############################################
330
Christianity and heathendom
of Dublin and place-names throughout the British Isles and in Normandy
bear witness to the worship of this god. At the same time, in religion
as in everything else, the Vikings shewed themselves very ready to seize
new ideas and, more especially, to avail themselves of any advantages
which adhesion to the Christian religion might give. Scandinavian
merchants settled in the various European countries were often “prime-
signed,” i. e. received the sign of the cross, preliminary to baptism, which
raised them to the rank of catechumens and enabled them to live in
trading and social intercourse with Christians, while they did not
necessarily proceed to the full renunciation of their heathen faith. Even
in the ninth century, when the Danes were fighting the Norsemen
in Ireland, we hear how they invoked the aid of St Patrick, thinking
that he must take vengeance on those who had done him such
injury. When victorious they gave him large offerings, for “the Danes
were a people with a certain piety, whereby they could refrain from
flesh and from women for a time. ” As was to be expected in a time of
transition from one faith to another, superstition was rife and more
than once the Viking hosts fell a prey to it. When the army of Ragnarr
Loðbrók was besieging Paris in 845 his followers were attacked by a
mysterious sickness : prayer to the heathen gods was unsuccessful, but
when, on the advice of a Christian prisoner, they prayed to his God,
wisely abstaining at the same time from flesh and mead, the plague was
removed. The blending of the old and new is happily illustrated in the
sepulchral stones of the Isle of Man and Gothland: here we have stones
in the shape of a cross, or with the sign of the cross on them, decorated
with scenes from Valhalla or with an inscription praying at the same time
for the repose of the dead man's soul and that God may betray those who
betrayed him. More than once do we hear of men who believed neither
in the heathen gods nor in Christ and had faith in nought but their own
strength: the nickname “the godless” is by no means unfrequent
among the settlers in Iceland. Throughout the period, however,
Christianity made steady advance : by the year 921 we find the Vikings
sparing hospitals and churches when sacking Armagh; the great king
Olaf Cuaran, who died in 981, spent his old age as a monk in Iona; at
one time in the tenth century the primates of York and Canterbury were
both of Scandinavian family, and in the later tenth and early eleventh
centuries the Roman Church had no more faithful sons than the
Normans.
Their general philosophy of life was that every man must rely on
himself and his own wisdom; he must place no reliance on others, least
of all upon women. The great aim in life is to attain fame and fair
speech from men after death. Though their beliefs were strongly tinged
with fatalism, this brought no weakening of character or gloom of out-
look. “ Joyous and happy must every man be until death comes upon
him,” is the counsel of Hávamál, and the highest ideal of the end of life
## p. 331 (#377) ############################################
Ideals of life and material civilisation
331
for the hero is found in the picture of Ragnarr Loðbrók who when
tortured in the snake-pit goes laughing to his death. With their
enemies the Vikings had an evil reputation for cunning and deceit, but
the incidents cited in illustration (such as the feigned desire for baptism
on the part of a dying leader, which led to the capture of Luna, and
the frequent mention of feigned retreats) hardly support this: the
enemy were outwitted rather than deceived. Two common but widely
different aspects of Viking character are reflected in the portraiture of
their two chief gods; on the one side Othin (Odin), whose common
epithets are “the wise, the prudent, the sagacious," on the other, Thor,
endowed with mighty strength, but less polished and refined. The
besetting sins of the Vikings were too great love of wine and women.
The rich vine-lands of the Rhine were ceded to the Vikings at their
special request, in 885, and one of the best known examples of Viking
cruelty is the murder of Archbishop Aelfheah (Alphege) at a drunken orgie
in 1012, when he was pelted to death with the skulls of oxen slaughtered
for the feast. Many are the references to their immorality. Wandering
from country to country they often had wives in each and polygamy pre-
vailed, at least among the leaders. From Ireland in the west to Russia in
the east the same story is told. In Ireland we hear of what would seem to
be harems for women, while in Russia we are told of the Grand Duke
Vladimir, great grandson of Rurik, the founder of the Russian kingdom,
that he had more than 800 concubines, Such excesses were unknown in
Scandinavia itself. Legitimate wives were esteemed and took part in
the national life to an unusual extent. Women at times took part in
fighting, and heroic figures are found in the sagas and other historical
records : such are Ota (Auðr), the wife of Turgeis, who, as a völva or pro-
phetess, gave audience on the high altar at Clonmacnois, and Auðr the
Deep-minded, wife of Olaf the White, whose figure stands out clear among
the early settlers in Iceland.
In outward appearance the Vikings were marked by a love of “purple
and fine raiment. " Foreign, and more especially English, clothing was
much sought after, and when in 968 the Irish plundered Limerick we
hear how they carried off from the Norsemen “their choicest possessions,
their beautiful foreign saddles, their gold and silver, their woven cloths of
every kind and colour, their silk and satin raiment, beauteous and
variegated, both scarlet and green. ” From John of Wallingford we
learn how much attention the Vikings paid to the care of the body,
indulging in Sabbath baths and daily hair-combing. The graves of the
period have often yielded rich finds of ornaments in silver and bronze,
and the geographical distribution of the famous Viking brooches, oval
and convex in shape, can be used as an index of the extent of the
conquests of the Northmen. The style of decoration is that derived
from the interweaving of heads and limbs of animals which is found in
Northern Europe in the preceding age, but the influence of Irish art is
:
CH. XIII.
## p. 332 (#378) ############################################
332
Ships
now often discernible, more especially in the use of spiral and interlacing
designs. English and Carolingian influences are also to be traced. The
same style of ornamentation is to be found in the memorial stones,
as for example in the famous Jellinge stone at the tomb of Gorm the
Old in Jutland. Their houses were wooden but often richly decorated
with carvings and tapestries. In the latter half of the tenth century we
hear how the house of Olaf the Peacock in Iceland was decorated with
scenes from the legends of gods and heroes, such as the fight of Loki
and Heimdallr, Thor's fishing, and Balder's funeral. Traces of tapestry
hangings are found in grave-chambers. The dead chief was often buried
in his ship, and ship-graves have been found not only in Norway but also
at Groix in Brittany. In Denmark grave-chambers of wood seem to
take the place of ship-graves.
Of their ships we know a good deal both from the sagas and from
archaeological finds. The Oseberg ship is a vessel for time of peace and
coast-navigation only, but in the Gokstad ship we have an example of
the ordinary war vessel. It dates from about 900, is of oak, clinker-
built, with seats for 16 pairs of rowers, 78 ft. long and 16 ft. broad
amidships, with the rudder at the side. The gunwale was decorated
with shields painted alternately black and gold, and there was a single
sail. In the course of the Viking period their size was greatly increased
and in the famous dragon- and snake-boats of Olaf Tryggvason and
Knut the Great we hear of 34 and even 60 pairs of oars. The trading
vessels probably differed very little from those of war, just as the line
of division between merchant and Viking was often a very thin one.
Time and again we read how, when merchants visited a foreign land,
they arranged a definite time for the conclusion of their business and
agreed after that to treat each other as enemies. The most remarkable
feature about the Vikings as sailors was the fearless way in which they
crossed the open sea, going boldly on such stormy journeys as those to
the Hebrides and Ireland, to Greenland, and even to Vinland or America.
Hitherto, seamen both in peace and war had confined themselves as
much as possible to coasting voyages. The sea was indeed their element,
and the phrase which William of Malmesbury uses (quoting probably
from an old poem) when describing the failure (after four days' trial) on
the part of Guðfrið of Northumbria to settle down at the court of King
Aethelstan, “he returned to piracy as a fish to the sea,” is probably as
true as it is picturesque.
The chief trading centres in Scandinavia itself were Skiringssalr on
the Vík in Norway, Hedeby-Slesvík in Denmark, Bjørkø, Sigtuna and
Lund in Sweden, besides a great market in Bohuslän on the Götaelv where
the three kingdoms met. The chief articles of export were furs, horses,
wool and flesh: those of import would consist chiefly in articles of luxury,
whether for clothing or ornament. The slave-trade also was of the highest
importance: one incident may be mentioned for the vivid light which it
## p. 333 (#379) ############################################
Trade and Social organisation
333
sheds on the international character of Viking trade. Once, in the market
on the Götaelv, the Icelander Höskuldr bought a female slave from the
merchant Gille (a Celtic name), surnamed the Russian (because of his
journeys to that country). The slave proved to be an Irish king's
daughter made captive by Viking raiders. The Scandinavian countries,
like Rome, are very rich in Anglo-Saxon coins, and though many of these
must represent our Danegeld, the fact that they are most frequent in
Eastern Sweden, on the shores of Lake Mälar and in the neighbourhood
of the great waterways connecting Sweden and the Baltic, but above all on
the islands of Öland and Gothland, whence, in all probability, very few of
the Viking raiders came, would seem to shew that there was extensive
peaceful intercourse with England in Viking days. Yet more interesting
are the frequent finds of Oriental coins. They first made their way to
Scandinavia about the end of the ninth century, and are most common
in Sweden. There can be no doubt that the vast majority of these coins
reached Sweden overland through Russia, where extensive finds of
Arabian coins mark the route along which trade at that time travelled
from Asia to the north. The greater number of these coins were
minted at Samarcand and Bagdad.
In social organisation the Viking communities were aristocratic. !
The famous answer of the followers of Rollo when asked who was their
lord: “We have no lord, we are all equal,” was essentially true, but
with their practical genius the Vikings realised that leadership was
necessary if any military success was to be gained, and we find through-
out their history a series of able leaders, sometimes holding the title of
jarl, but, if of royal birth, commonly known as kings. That the title
did not have its full modern connotation is evident from their numbers
and from the frequency with which they changed. When, however, the
Vikings established permanent settlements, hereditary kingship became
common, and royal houses bore sway in Dublin and other Irish towns :
thence a hereditary line of kings was introduced into Northumbria. The
rulership of Normandy was hereditary and so possibly was the kingship
in East Anglia, but in the districts grouped round the Five Boroughs
the organisation was of a different kind, the chief authority resting with
the Lawmen. We find frequent mention of these Lawmen both in
Scandinavia itself and in those countries where Scandinavian influence
prevailed. Originally men skilled in the law, who could state and interpret
it when required, they often presided in the Thing or popular assembly
and represented the local or provincial community as against the king
or his officers, though they do not themselves seem to have exercised
judicial functions. They are usually mentioned in the plural number
and probably acted as a collective body. In England and the Western
Islands they attained a position of yet greater importance. In Man and
the Hebrides they became actual chieftains and are mentioned side by
side with the kings, while it is probable that they were the chief judicial
а
>
CH, XIII.
## p. 334 (#380) ############################################
334
Influence in Ireland
authorities in the aristocratic organisation of the Five Boroughs and other
parts of the Danelaw. They were usually twelve in number, and their
presence may be definitely traced in Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York
and Chester. The office would seem as a rule to have been hereditary.
The influence of the Vikings varied from country to country, not
only according to the political and social condition of the lands in which
they settled, but also to some extent according to the nation from which
they came. In Ireland the settlements were chiefly Norse, though there
is some evidence for the presence of Danes in Cork and Limerick. Here
their influence was concentrated in certain important towns on the coast
(Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and the two already mentioned) and
the districts immediately surrounding them. Scandinavian influence on
Irish place-names is confined almost entirely to these localities and to
the harbours and islands which must from time to time have given shelter
to their fleets. Intermarriage between the Irish and the Norse settlers
began at a very early date, and interesting evidence of it is found in the
large numbers of Irish names in the genealogies of the chief Icelandic
families preserved in Landnamabók. Such intermarriage was frequent,
but the strength of the clan system would seem to have enabled the races
to continue distinct. Norse words are very rare in Irish, and even when
the old Norse kingdoms were shorn of their glory and reduced to
dependence, the “Ostmen,” as they were called, remained an entirely
distinct element in the community, and frequent mention is made of
them in the records of the great towns. They still survived at the time
of the English conquest, and often both claimed and received privileges
entirely different from those accorded to the natives or to the English
settlers. In Ireland as in other countries there is no doubt that the
Vikings did much harm to religion and to learning, but at the same
time they strengthened town-life and developed trade. For many years
the trade of Ireland was largely in Scandinavian hands.
Norse influence in Scotland was great, but varied much from place to
place. The Orkneys and Shetlands are thoroughly Norse. They formed
part of the Norwegian kingdom till 1468, and Norse speech lingered
on until the close of the eighteenth century. Place-names are almost
entirely of Norse origin and the dialect is full of Norse words. In the
system of landholding the udallers are an interesting survival of the
old Norse freeholders, whose óðal was held on precisely the same free
tenure as the Scotch udal. The Hebrides were also largely influenced
.
by the Vikings, and it was not till 1266 that Magnus Hákonson
renounced all claims of Norway to the islands and to Man. Place-
nomenclature both in the names of the islands themselves and of their
physical features shews a strong Norse element, and there are many Norse
words in the Gaelic of the islands and of the mainland. These words
have undergone such extensive changes and corruption in a language so
different from their original source that their recognition is a difficult
a
## p. 335 (#381) ############################################
Influence in Scotland, Man and the Isles
335
problem. There is at present perhaps a danger of exaggerating this
element, the existence of which was long overlooked. Similarly, affinities
have been traced between Scandinavian and Gaelic popular tales and
folk-lore, but this evidence is of doubtful value to the student of
history. As was to be expected, the chief traces of Viking influence on
the mainland are to be found in the modern counties of Sutherland (the
district south of the Orkneys was so called by the Norsemen), Caithness,
Ross and Cromarty, which were for a long time under the authority of
the Orkney earls, and in Galloway, which was naturally exposed to attacks
from the powerful Norse settlements in Man. The name of this district
(perhaps derived from Gall-Gaedhil) possibly bears witness, as we have
seen, to the mixed race resulting from their presence, and the evidence of
place-names confirms it. In the history of Scotland, as a whole, it is
to be remembered that it was the weakening of Pictish power under
Norse attack which paved the way for the unification of the land under
the rule of Kenneth Mac Alpin.
The Isle of Man bears many and deep marks of its Norse occupa-
tion. Here as in the Hebrides the occupation was long and continuous.
Attacked by Vikings from the early years of the ninth century, it came
first under the rule of the kingdom of Dublin and then of the earls of
Orkney. The successors of Godred Crovan, who conquered the island in
1079, took the title of king and were kings both of Man and the Isles
(i. e. the Hebrides). The chief witnesses to Norse rule are the Manx legal
system and the sculptured stones scattered about the island. The highest
executive and legislative authority in the island (after the Governor) is
still the Tynwald Court, whose name goes back to the Old Norse þingvöllr
(the open plain where the popular assembly met), and the House of Keys,
which is the oldest division of the court, consisted originally of 24 mem-
bers (a duodecimal notation which constantly recurs in Scandinavian law
and polity) chosen by co-option and for life, the office being generally, as
a matter of fact, hereditary. These men who have the “ keys of the law”
in their bosom resemble closely the Lawmen, of whom mention has
already been made. All laws to be valid must still be announced from
the Tynwald Hill, which corresponds to the lögberg or law-hill in the
Icelandic allthing. When the assembly is held the coroner “fences the
court” against all disturbance or disorder, just as in the old Norwegian
Gula-thing we hear of vé-bönd or sanctuary-ropes drawn around the
assembly. Of the sculptured stones we have already spoken more than once:
suffice it to say here that in addition to runic inscriptions they often give us
pictorial representations of the great scenes in myth and legend, such as
the fight of Odin with Fenrir's Wolf and the slaying of the serpent Fafnir
by Sigurðr. In many ways Man is the district of the British Isles in
which we can get closest to the life of the old Viking days.
Cumberland and Westmorland stand somewhat apart from the rest of
England in the matter of Viking influence, for they were fairly certainly
CH. XIII.
## p. 336 (#382) ############################################
336 Influence in Northumbria and the Five Boroughs
colonised by Norsemen from Man and the islands. The greater number
of the place-names are purely Scandinavian and the local dialects are full
of terms of similar origin. It is probable that such parts of Lancashire
as shew Viking influence, viz. Furness and Lancashire north of the
Ribble, should be grouped with these districts; south of that river their
influence on place-nomenclature is slight, except on the coast, where we
have evidence of a series of Viking settlements extending to and including
the Wirral in Cheshire. A twelfth-century runic inscription survives at
Loppergarth in Furness, and the Gosforth cross in Cumberland bears
heathen as well as Christian sculptures. The parallel existence of hundred
and wapentake and the carucal assessment in Domesday warn us that we
must not underrate the importance of Norse influence.
The Scandinavian kingdom of Northumbria must have been much
smaller than the earlier realm of that name. Northumberland shews
but few traces of Viking influence, and it is not till we reach Teesdale
that it becomes strongly marked. From here to the Humber place-
nomenclature and dialect, ridings and wapentakes, carucates and duo-
decimal notation in the Domesday assessments, bear witness to their
presence from the shores of the North Sea right up to the Pennines.
For the extent and character of the Viking settlements in the district
of the Five Boroughs we have not only the usual (and often somewhat
unsatisfactory) tests of place-names and dialects, ancient and modern,
but also a far more accurate index in the facts recorded in the Domesday
assessment of the eleventh century. For the northern counties this is
largely non-existent or too scanty to be of any great value, but here it
has its usual fulness of detail. The chief tests derived from this source
with their respective applications are as follows: (1) The use of the
Danish “ wapentake"
wapentake ” as the chief division of the county in place of
the English “ hundred. " This is found in Derbyshire (with one ex-
ception on its southern border), Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (with
certain exceptions along the sea-coast which have a curious and unex-
plained parallel in the Domesday divisions of Yorkshire), Leicester-
shire, Rutland and one district of Northamptonshire now included in
Rutland. (2) The assessment by carucates in multiples and sub-
multiples of twelve, which is characteristic of the Danelaw, as opposed
to that by hides arranged on a decimal system. This we find in the shires
of Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester and Rutland (with the above
exception). In the two N. E. hundreds of Northamptonshire there are also
traces of a duodecimal assessment. (3) The use of the ore of 16d. instead
of that of 20d. is found in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and
Lancashire. In Leicestershire we are told on the other hand that the
ore was of 20d. (4) In Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire (and
Yorkshire) we have traces of the use of the Danish “ long” hundred
(= 120), e. g. the fine for breaking the king's peace is £8 (i. e. 120 ores).
These tests establish Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (Lincoln
a
## p. 337 (#383) ############################################
Influence in East Anglia
337
and Stamford), Leicestershire and (probably) the whole of Rutland
(Stamford), as belonging to the Five Boroughs, and place-names confirm
this evidence. The counties to the west and south answer none of the
tests, and there is only a slight sprinkling of Danish names in Stafford-
shire and Warwickshire on their eastern borders. Northamptonshire
furnishes a difficulty. Except in the extreme north-east it fails to pass
our tests, but Danish place-nomenclature is strongly evident, though it
shades off somewhat to the S. W. It resembles Danish East Anglia rather
than the district of the Five Boroughs, and it is possible that the boundary
of Guthrum's kingdom, which is only carried as far as Stony Stratford
in the peace of Alfred and Guthrum, really ran along Watling Street for
a few miles, giving two-thirds of that county to the East Anglian realm '.
While the judicial authority was in the hands of the Lawmen in the Five
Boroughs, we hear at the same time of jarls in these towns and in North-
ampton and other places, who lead their forces to war and sign royal
charters and documents. Probably to the Danes we owe the organisa-
tion of the modern counties of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln
(and Stamford), Northampton, Bedford, Cambridge and Hertford.
In East Anglia the tests which we used for the Five Boroughs fail,
and we are left with the boundaries of Guthrum's kingdom, certain
evidence from place-names, and other miscellaneous facts. A few holmes
in Bedfordshire, some holmes, biggins and tofts in Hertfordshire, Cam-
bridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, a “ Danish” hundred in Hertfordshire,
are almost all the evidence from place-names. Essex shews a few,
Suffolk more traces of Danes on the coast, and the latter county has
some traces inland, especially in the north. Norfolk is strongly Danish,
even if we overlook the doubtful “ thorpes,” which are so abundant here.
The Historia Eliensis and other documents tend to shew the presence of
a strong Danish element in the population and social organisation of the
district around Cambridge. As a whole, however, the Viking impress
on East Anglia is much less deep than on Mercia. The difference
rests probably on a difference of original organisation, but it is im-
possible now to define it.
Other features of interest in our social system due to Viking influence
may be observed from a study of Domesday and other authorities.
Attention has often been called to the number of freeholders in the
Danelaw, and it would seem that Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Norfolk
more especially had not been feudalised to any great extent before the
Norman conquest. In the other counties the influence of southern
custom is more apparent. The “holds ” of Northumbria, who rank next
after the earls, and the “drengs" of Cumberland, Westmorland, North-
umberland and Durham, are undoubtedly of Scandinavian origin. The
2
9
1 The Welland is so natural a border that it is very unlikely English authority
really came north of it. The hides must remain an unexplained difficulty.
22
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XIII.
## p. 338 (#384) ############################################
338
Influence on law and society
,
“socmen,” a class of free peasants, are most numerous in the Five
Boroughs and East Anglia and are only found sporadically in other
places.
Our legal system shews again and again the influence of Scandinavian
law and custom. The word “law” itself is a Scandinavian term in
contrast to the English “doom. " We have already mentioned the
Lawmen: still more interesting are the “Twelve senior thanes” of
Aethelred's laws for the Five Boroughs enacted at Wantage in 997.
They have to come forward in the court of every wapentake and to
swear that they will not accuse any innocent man or conceal any guilty
one. The exact force of this enactment has been a matter of dispute,
but there can be little doubt that (in the words of Vinogradoff) such a
custom "prepared the way for the indictment jury of the twelfth century. "
“
In criminal law the Danes introduced a new conception of crime. The
idea of honour in the relationship of members of a military society to
one another led to the appearance of a group of crimes whose perpe-
trators are branded as nithings, men unworthy of comradeship with
others and, more especially, with their fellow warriors. In the general
life of the nation the Danes placed an effective check on learning and
literature except during the heroic activities of Alfred the Great, but on
the other hand we probably owe to them an extensive development
of town-life and of trade and the revival of English naval power. Dis-
astrous as were the Danish wars, there can be little doubt that the
Danish settlements were for the ultimate good of the nation.
In the Frankish Empire the only permanent settlement was in
Normandy. Scandinavian influence was strong in Frisia and the lower
basin of the Rhine (Dorestad was the centre of their commercial activity),
but there is no question of influence on law, social organisation or
government. In Normandy on the other hand we have a powerful and
almost independent State with a full Viking organisation. The history
of the Normans does not belong to this chapter. Suffice it to say here
that perhaps more than any other of the Vikings they shewed themselves
readily able to assimilate themselves to their surroundings, and they were
soon Gallicised; nevertheless law and custom, dialect and place-names,
still shew their presence clearly.
Of Scandinavian influence in Eastern Europe little can be said owing
to our lack of knowledge. Attempts have been made to distinguish Scan-
dinavian elements in the old Russian law and language but without any
very definite results, and we must confine ourselves to the points men-
tioned earlier.
Nothing has been said of Iceland, which was one great field of Scan-
dinavian activity in the ninth and tenth centuries. It was discovered in
the middle of the ninth century and soon settled, first by some Norsemen
who left their native land under stress of the same conditions as drove
others to find fresh homes for themselves in the British Isles and else-
## p. 339 (#385) ############################################
The Northmen in Europe generally
339
a
where, and secondly by other Norsemen (with a considerable admixture
of Irish blood) from the Western Islands, who left their settlements there
when Harold Fairhair forced them into submission after the battle of
Hafrsfjord. In Iceland, Scandinavian law and custom had fullest and freest
play for their own development, and we must draw freely on the rich
treasures of later Icelandic poetry and prose for our knowledge of the
history and civilisation of the Viking age, but Iceland itself lies on the
extreme confines of Europe and plays practically no part in the develop-
ment of Scandinavian influence in Europe in the tenth and eleventh
centuries.
Iceland however points for us the moral of Viking civilisation, that
when left to develop on its own lines, it ended too often only in
social and political anarchy. It is seen at its best when it came into
contact with older and richer civilisations. From them it gained stability
and strength of purpose, while to them it gave life and vigour when
they were fast becoming effete.
CH, XIII,
22-2
## p. 340 (#386) ############################################
340
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND.
a
When Offa died in 796, the consolidation of central and south-eastern
England into an orderly state under a stable dynasty had continued long
enough to make it seem improbable that the work would have to be done
a second time. The Mercian kingdom was still far from comprising all
England. Wessex and Northumbria were still independent. But in
both states the rulers had accepted Mercian brides, and neither seemed
sufficiently strong to thwart Mercia's further expansion. Nor was internal
faction apparently to be feared. Offa's death brought the crown to
Ecgfrith his only son; but though this prince died within a few months
of his accession leaving no heir, no struggle arose over the vacant throne.
The Mercian witan arranged the succession peaceably among them-
selves, their choice falling on the aetheling Coenwulf, a member of the
royal kindred who seems to have been only distantly related to Offa.
This orderly election, if compared with the faction fights which regularly
disgraced Northumbria under similar circumstances, is in itself good
evidence of the political progress made by Mercia in the eighth century,
and Coenwulf's subjects may fairly have looked forward to a further
expansion taking place under his leadership.
At Coenwulf's accession the ruler of Wessex was Beorhtric, a weak
man who had married Eadburh, Offa's third daughter, and who was
almost a Mercian vassal. Of his reign (786–802) little of note is
recorded except that it was disturbed one summer by the landing of
rovers coming from Hörthaland in Norway on the coast of Dorset. This
is the first recorded appearance in England of the so-called Vikings, a
most ominous event as the future was to prove. In the Norse sagas
the word vikinger means a free buccaneer of any nationality, and the
phrase “to go in viking” denotes freebooting as opposed to trading
voyages, both being regarded as equally honourable activities. Not only
England but all Western Europe was soon to rue their advent. One
other event of Beorhtric's days had far-reaching consequences. In con-
junction with Offa he drove into exile an aetheling called Ecgbert, whose
father Ealhmund had for a time been under-king in Kent (784-786).
This Ecgbert was destined to return and become the ancestor of
England's future kings.
.
## p. 341 (#387) ############################################
Anarchy in Northumbria. Coenwulf of Mercia
341
In Northumbria in Offa's closing years we also hear of piratical
raids. In June 793 heathen men, whether Danish or Norse cannot
be decided, ravaged the church at Lindisfarne and captured many of
the monks to sell as slaves. Next summer they came again and attacked
Wearmouth and Jarrow where Bede had spent his days. These inroads
however did not continue, nor can they have disturbed the Northumbrians
very much. For the magnates of Bernicia and Deira for many years
past had been flying at each other's throats with wearisome monotony.
Harryings and burnings had become the rule, and king after king had
met with deposition or a violent death. Aethelred, son of Moll, held
the throne when the heathen ships appeared. He had married Offa's
second daughter, and, like Beorhtric, may be regarded as almost Offa's
vassal; but the alliance had brought him little strength. In 796 he
was murdered at Corbridge on Tyne. His immediate successor reigned
for only twenty-seven days, and then fled making way for Eardwulf,
a prince whose reign of ten years (796–806) is merely a chronicle of
plunderings and executions ending in his deposition. Clearly it is
useless to peer into the gloom and turmoil of the North in these days.
One event only seems of importance as it affected the ultimate position
of the boundary of England. It was in these years that the Galloway
bishopric of Whithern (Candida Casa), hitherto subject to York,
came to an end, the Picts of this district throwing off their subjection
to the English and uniting with the British kingdom of Strathclyde.
Coenwulf ruled over Mercia for a full quarter of a century (796–821).
On the whole he shewed himself a man of resource and energy; but his
reign was not without its difficulties, and he seems to have been unable
to reap any advantage either from the want of enterprise of the West
Saxons or from the chaos which reigned among the Northumbrians. In
his days nothing occurred to alter the balance of power in England.
Mercia remained the leading state ; nor is there any record of attacks on
its coasts by sea rovers. The king's first recorded activity is a war
against the North Welsh, which led to a battle at Rhuddlan. We learn
this from the Annales Cambriae. As this campaign was followed up
later in his reign by another against the South Welsh, it may be useful
at this point to say a few words about the general condition of Wales
in the years that followed the building of Offa's celebrated boundary
dyke. Our information is scanty, but sufficient to prove that the land
was subdivided into many chieftaincies or so-called “ kingdoms. " The
most important tribal units, counting from North to South were
(1) Gwynedd or North Wales (in Latin Venedotia), (2) Powys, (3) Cere-
digion (Cardigan), (4) the promontory of Dyfed (in Latin Demetia),
(5) Ystrad Tywi (the Vale of the Towy), (6) Brycheiniog (Brecknock),
(7) Morgannwg (Glamorgan), and (8) Gwent (Monmouthshire). The
traditional primacy or overlordship over these and many other smaller
units lay with the kings of Gwynedd, whose territories comprised the
a
CH. XIV.
## p. 342 (#388) ############################################
342
Wales in the eighth century. Nennius
vales of the Clwyd and Conway, the promontory of Lleyn, the fastnesses
of Snowdon and Cader Idris, and the comparatively fertile plains of the
Isle of Môn, not yet known as Anglesey, their “principal seat” being at
Aberffraw, a small port near Holyhead, whose history goes back to the
days of Cadwalader, the contemporary of Oswy. But the superiority of
the house of Cunedda, from whom Cadwalader descended, was often
merely honorary, and it had long been challenged by princes of South
Wales, the Dextralis pars Britanniae, as the Welsh termed it. In this,
the more spacious and less mountainous half of Wales, a fairly strong
principality, later to be known as Deheubarth, was emerging out of
conquests made by Seisyll of Ceredigion at the expense of Dyfed, Ystrad
Tywi and Brycheiniog. The larger part of these districts in the course
of the eighth century were tending to unite under one chief, and already
in Offa's day men regarded Dinefwr on the Towy, some fifteen miles
east of Carmarthen, as a principal seat or capital, the possession of
which carried with it the primacy of South Wales.
For judicial and fiscal purposes most of the tribal units were sub-
divided into “cantrefs” of very varying sizes, but on the average
rather larger than the English hundreds, each of which in theory was
built up of a hundred “ trefs” or hamlets. For ecclesiastical purposes
there were yet other divisions. Out of the many monastic churches
founded in the sixth century four had come to stand out as the most
important and had become centres of episcopal organisation. These
were Bangor and Llanelwy, otherwise St Asaph, in Northern Wales,
Llandaff in Morgannwg, and Mynyw (in Latin Menevia), otherwise
St David's, in Dyfed. The Welsh Church, too, no longer held aloof
from Rome as in earlier days. About 768 it had adopted the Roman
Easter, led by Elbodug, a monk of Caer Gybi or Holyhead, and a
student of Bede's works. To Wales this peaceful revolution meant as
much as the decision come to at Whitby had meant for England a
hundred years earlier. With the acceptance of the Roman date for
Easter, Wales threw itself open to the influence of the Continent, and
not only so, but also to greatly increased intercourse of a non-military
character with the English kingdoms. At the date of the fight at
Rhuddlan, Elbodug was still living. He died about 809, “ chief bishop
in the land of Gwynedd. " Among his disciples was Nennius, famed as
the editor of the Historia Brittonum, from which come so many of the
folk tales concerning Arthur and the first coming of the Saxons into
Britain. Nennius seems to have lived in Deheubarth, probably near the
borders of Brycheiniog. He was writing just about the time that
Coenwulf ascended the Mercian throne, and his book soon acquired a
considerable popularity, not only in Wales, but also in England, Ireland,
and Brittany. Nennius wrote shocking Latin, and complains that in-
cessant wars and pestilence had dulled the senses of the Britons; but
his work, puzzle-headed as it is, shews that the monasteries of Wales still
## p. 343 (#389) ############################################
Coenwulf and Archbishop Wulfred. Beornwulf 343
had some learning. He himself refers to Isidore, Jerome, Prosper, and
Eusebius, and there are also other indications that some of the Welsh
monks of his day were acquainted with parts of the writings of Ovid and
Cicero, with Eutychius the grammarian, and Martianus Capella.
The Mercian attack on Wales in 796 was not pressed very far, as
Coenwulf soon had other work to do in repressing a rebellion which
broke out in Kent. The leader of this revolt was Eadbert Praen,
presumably a descendant of the old Kentish kings. For two years he
had some success, and then Coenwulf captured and blinded him, and set
up his own brother Cuthred instead as under-king of Kent. But this was
not all. During the revolt Archbishop Aethelheard had remained loyal
to the Mercian cause, in spite of the affront that Offa had put upon the
see of Canterbury in 786. Rather than yield to the rebels he had
gone into exile, and there exists a letter to the Kentish leaders in which
Alcuin pleads for his restoration. In return for this loyal conduct
Coenwulf not only restored him to his rights, but agreed with him to
undo Offa's work and suppress the recently erected Mercian archbishopric.
Aethelheard accordingly journeyed to Rome to lay the matter before
Pope Leo III, and having obtained his approval called a synod together
at Clovesho in 803 which promulgated the deprivation of Archbishop
Higbert and the restoration of the old metropolitan rights of Canter-
bury. It might have been expected that after this the old alliance
between Tamworth and Canterbury would have been effectively restored,
but it was not so. Archbishop Aethelheard died in 805, and was suc-
ceeded by a Kentish man named Wulfred, an ambitious prelate who
resented Mercian control and desired independence for Kent. He soon
quarrelled with Coenwulf over questions of property, especially over
the nunnery of Minster in Thanet and over the important estate of
Harrow in Middlesex. The trouble is said to have extended over six
years and to have led to appeals to the Papacy, while it is certain that
the archbishop shewed his independence by coining money which does
not bear any king's name. These turmoils and Welsh campaigns take up
the remainder of Coenwulf's reign ; but it must not be supposed that he
was altogether unmindful of the claims of the Church. Existing land-
books shew that he was a benefactor to Worcester, and he is also credited
with the foundation of Winchcombe Abbey. There is also some evidence
that about 813 Wulfred was attempting monastic reforms at Canterbury!
Coenwulf died in 821, it is said at Basingwerk in Flint, still occupied
with plans for extending the Mercian frontier westwards from Chester to
the Conway. His successor was his brother Ceolwulf, who continued the
Welsh policy with success, capturing the fort of Deganwy near Llandudno
and overrunning Powys. Ceolwulf's accession, however, was not un-
challenged, and two years later we find him deposed in favour of a
duke called Beornwulf. We are quite in the dark as to Beornwulf's
Birch, Cart. Sax. , No. 342.
CH. XIV,
## p. 344 (#390) ############################################
344
Ecgbert of Wessex. Conquest of Cornwall
origin and the reasons for his elevation to the throne, but we may
suspect the hand of Archbishop Wulfred in the background. For
shortly afterwards we find Beornwulf making grants to Wulfred, and
the abbess Cwenthryth, Coenwulf's daughter, compelled to resign
Harrow to the see of Canterbury. The dispute about the succession
between Ceolwulf and Beornwulf marks the beginning of evil days for
Mercia. The unity and solidity, which had appeared so well established
under Offa, disappears; the Mercian magnates fall a prey to faction,
and almost as it were in the twinkling of an eye the supremacy of
Mercia is wrecked for ever.
It is time now to turn again to the affairs of Wessex. When
Beorhtric died in 802, poisoned, so the tale goes, by his wife, the West
Saxon witan saluted as their king that Ecgbert whom Offa and Beorhtric
had driven out of England. The choice was most happy; for Ecgbert
was a man of experience, who had spent some time in Frankland, and
possibly witnessed Charlemagne's Saxon campaigns. He had returned
to Wessex about 799, but not before he had marked how the great
Frank administered his kingdom. His elevation to the throne clearly
meant a less dependent Wessex and so was distasteful to the Mercians.
At any rate on the very day of Ecgbert's election the men of the Hwicce
took horse and crossed the Upper Thames at Kempsford near Cirencester
led by Aethelmund, a Gloucestershire magnate whose estates lay at
Deerhurst and Berkeley. They were met by a West Saxon alderman
named Weoxtan with the levies of Wiltshire. In the fight which
ensued both leaders were killed, but the Mercians had to retreat, after
which Ecgbert had several years of peace for organising his kingdom.
We know nothing of his acts as an administrator, but in 814 we find
him imitating Coenwulf and engaged in expanding his borders westwards
at the expense of the Welsh of Cornwall. As the Chronicle puts it,
“he laid waste West Wales from eastward to westward," and thence-
forth apparently held it as a ducatus or dukedom annexed to his regnum
or kingdom of Wessex, but not wholly incorporated with it. Thus arose
that Welsh-speaking duchy or earldom of Cornwall, which almost ever
since has formed a quasi-royal appanage in the hands of Ecgbert's suc-
cessors, and which maintained its distinct nationality to the eighteenth
century. The exact stages of its reduction to submission cannot be
followed. We only know that in 825 the West Welsh were once more
in arms and that Ecgbert again put them down and, as a later document?
phrases it, “ disposed of their territory as it seemed fit to him, giving a
tenth part of it to God. ” In other words he incorporated Cornwall
ecclesiastically with the West Saxon diocese of Sherborne, and endowed
Ealhstan, his fighting bishop, who took part in the campaign, with
an extensive Cornish estate consisting of Callington and Lawhitton,
both in the Tamar valley, and Pawton near Padstow. One is naturally
Crawford Charters, No. VII.
1
## p. 345 (#391) ############################################
Battle of Ellandun.
Ecgbert conquers Kent
345
a
led to ask, were these three properties really equivalent to a tenth of all
Cornwall ; for if so, it is very noteworthy to find such large estate units
already evolved as early as 825. All that can be said in answer is that
the evidence of Domesday Book, written 260 years later, does not alto-
gether bear out this conclusion, but yet is more in harmony with it than
might have been expected ; for that survey credits these three properties
with 130 ploughlands, which is about an eighteenth part of the total
ploughlands recorded for all Cornwall. At any rate, then, we may
regard this gift as transferring a very considerable stretch of land, and
its effect would be to open up West Wales not a little to English influ-
ences. Little, however, seems actually to have been done in the way
of
settling West Saxon colonists in the country, if we may judge from the
sparsity of the English type of place-name everywhere but in the Tamar
valley. The rest of Cornwall remains to this day a land of trefs,"
that is to say, of petty hamlets, bearing such names as Trenance,
Tregony and Trevelyan, of which quite a handful are required to form
a parish, although this is not called after any one of them, but by the
name of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. Nor would it seem
were new local divisions introduced by the conquerors. The so-called
Cornish shires, such as Pydershire or Wivelshire, seem to be really the
old Welsh “ cantrefs. ” The term “shire ” must however have been
applied to them almost from the first conquest ; for King Alfred's
will only sixty years later has an allusion to “Streatnet on Triconshire,”
that is to say to Stratton near Bude in Triggshire.
The settlement of Cornwall was hardly effected when news came that
the Mercians had again invaded Wiltshire. Ecgbert thereupon led his
army eastwards and came up with Beornwulf's forces at Ellandun, a
village near Swindon now called Nether Wroughton, but as late as
the fourteenth century known as Elynton! A pitched battle ensued
in which the Mercians were completely routed. This victory must be
regarded as a turning point in England's development, for it led to
a permanent alteration of the balance of power in England in favour
of the West Saxons. To follow up his advantage, Ecgbert at once
despatched his son, Aethelwulf, accompanied by Bishop Ealhstan,
against Kent, a district which he could claim with some show of reason
as he was the son of Ealhmund. Aethelwulf's march was as successful as
his father's. Baldred, the Kentish under-king, appointed by Mercia, soon
fled northwards over the Thames, and thereupon, as the chronicle has it,
the men of Kent and Surrey submitted to Wessex, admitting that
“they had been wrongly forced from Ecgbert's kin. ” Sussex and Essex
a few weeks later followed suit ; and finally the East Anglians also rose,
and re-established their independence of Mercia, by attacking Beornwulf
from the east and slaying him in battle.
No series of events could well be more dramatic than the successive
1 Feudal Aids v. 207 ; Domesday Book, 1. 65 b. Elendune.
CH. XIV.
## p. 346 (#392) ############################################
346
Ecgbert overthrows Mercia. Wiglaf restored
disasters which brought about the collapse of Mercia in 825. Wessex
and Mercia, as it were, changed parts. Within a year the Mercian
kingdom dwindled to half its former size, while Wessex expanded so
that it may be regarded henceforth as including all England south of
the Thames. Kent, it is true, still retained its individuality in the
hands of Ecgbert's son, as an under-kingdom enjoying its own special
customs, and as the chief seat of church government; but its affairs were
nevertheless directed from Winchester, and the archbishops of Canterbury
could no longer look to Tamworth for protection, but were brought
much more under West Saxon influences.
For the Mercians the immediate question after 825 was, could they
maintain their independence or must they accept Ecgbert as an overlord.
They evidently went on with the struggle, but their new king, Ludeca,
fared no better than Beornwulf. He fell in battle in 827 with five of
his dukes. Wiglaf then succeeded, but likewise made no headway, and
soon fled into exile. Meantime Ecgbert, with the help of the East
Anglians, overran the Midlands at will, and for the moment was acclaimed
lord of all men south of the Humber. In 829 he even projected an
attack on Northumbria, and led his army to Dore, a frontier village in
the Peak district. The Northumbrian king at this time was Eanred
(808–840). He came to Dore and apparently bought off Ecgbert's
hostility with offers of homage and perhaps of tribute. Too much has
sometimes been made of these episodes
. They have even been treated
as marking the unification of England under a single overlord, but cer-
tainly they had no such result. Ecgbert's position in Mercia was really
precarious, and the very next year we find Wiglaf restored to his
kingdom. Patriotic West Saxon tradition in later days liked to picture
Ecgbert as a “ Bretwalda” worthy to be classed with Edwin and Oswy
and the other ancient heroes who in Bede's pages stood pre-eminent as
wielding an imperium before the rise of Mercia ; but eulogy must not be
mistaken for sober history. It would seem, on the contrary, that
Ecgbert's power soon waned, and that Wiglaf's restoration was due to a
Mercian revival. The Wessex chronicle gives no hint that Ecgbert was
active in Mercia after 830, nor do any Mercian notables attest his
landbooks. It has indeed been suggested that the Aethelstan, who
ruled East Anglia in Ecgbert's later years, was one of his sons, but this is a
guess incapable of proof and hardly in harmony with the independence
admittedly enjoyed by the East Anglians shortly afterwards.
Ecgbert's last years are of interest not because of any growth of
unity in England but because they witnessed the re-appearance of the
Vikings and the consequent rise of a new and grave danger for all the
English kingdoms. All through the first quarter of the ninth century
Scandinavian long-ships had been harrying Western Scotland and
Ireland, coming by way of the Faroe islands and the Orkneys. Beginning
in 795 with attacks on Skye, they had in 802 come south to Iona and
## p. 347 (#393) ############################################
Ecgbert and the Danes. Accession of Aethelwulf 347
Donegal and thence spread east and west along the coasts of Ulster
and Connemara. By 825 they had fairly encircled Ireland and plun-
dered most of its shrines. In England, on the other hand, no raids are
heard of for forty years after the attacks on Lindisfarne and Jarrow in
Offa's days, and it was not till 834 that the danger re-appeared as the
result of the establishment of Danish exiled chieftains in Frisia, as the
Netherlands were then called, by Louis the Pious. In that year con-
siderable fleets set out from Denmark and the North to attack the
Frankish Empire, and coming to the mouths of the Rhine burnt the im-
portant Frisian trading ports of Dorestad and Utrecht.
The general
situation on the Continent is dealt with in other chapters. Here
we have only to note that a detachment of this force also came to
England and entering the Thames ravaged the island of Sheppey. Two
years later the Frisian provinces were again attacked and the town of
Antwerp sacked. Again a small detachment came across to England.
This time the raiders landed in Dorset, and Ecgbert himself met them at
Charmouth not far from Lyme Regis. The Vikings had only 35 ships,
with crews about 1200 strong, but the fight none the less went against
the king, and the victors gained the impression that Wessex was worth
attacking. At any rate in 838 there arrived a larger fleet which came
to land in Cornwall. Once more Ecgbert marched to meet the raiders
to find that the Cornish had risen to join them. Victory, however, lay
with the English, the allied Danes and Welsh being put to flight at
Hinxton Down, a moor on the west bank of the Tamar near Callington.
As a result it would appear that a bishop, definitely subject to Canter-
bury, was shortly afterwards appointed for Cornwall in the person of one
Kenstec, whose see was placed in the monastery of Dinnurrin! . This
was Ecgbert's last achievement. He died in the summer of 839.
The accession of his son Aethelwulf, which almost corresponds in
point of time with the death of Louis the Pious and the break-up of the
Carolingian Empire on the Continent, introduces a new phase into
English affairs. Hitherto the main thread of English history has been
concerned with the rivalries between the English kingdoms and with the
gradual growth of civilisation and a tendency to union under the
auspices of the Church. But for the next forty years internal progress
ceased, and as in Frankland, so in England, the one constant feature of
the times was the ceaseless struggle which every province in turn had to
wage against Danish invaders. In 839 the Viking raids could still be
regarded as merely a passing inconvenience, and the English people
hardly realised the full extent of the danger which threatened them ;
but from that date the raids grew more persistent and better organised
year by year, and it soon became apparent that the object of the invaders
was not merely plunder but the complete conquest of the country.
1 Birch, Cart. Sax. , No. 527. Can the latter part of Din-uurrin represent Guerür,
the name of the saint buried at St Neots ? Asser, c. 74.
CH. XIV.
the fact that it is in all probability to the ninth and tenth centuries
that we owe the poems of the elder Edda, the main source of our
knowledge of Old Norse mythology and cosmogony. It is true, no doubt,
that in some of these poems we find a note of detachment, touches of
irony and even of burlesque, which remind us that the belief in the old
gods is passing away, but in the great body of those which deal with
the world of the Aesir, there is no question of fading beliefs or of
insincere statement. The greater number of the Vikings were undoubted
heathen, and like the impious Onlafbald when defying the power of
St Cuthbert would have sworn by their great gods Thor and Othin.
When the Danes made peace with Alfred in 876 they swore an oath on
the holy ring, which would be found on the altar of every heathen
temple : such a ring sacred to Thor was taken by the Irish from a
temple in Dublin in 996. There was a grove sacred to Thor just north
CH, XIII.
## p. 330 (#376) ############################################
330
Christianity and heathendom
of Dublin and place-names throughout the British Isles and in Normandy
bear witness to the worship of this god. At the same time, in religion
as in everything else, the Vikings shewed themselves very ready to seize
new ideas and, more especially, to avail themselves of any advantages
which adhesion to the Christian religion might give. Scandinavian
merchants settled in the various European countries were often “prime-
signed,” i. e. received the sign of the cross, preliminary to baptism, which
raised them to the rank of catechumens and enabled them to live in
trading and social intercourse with Christians, while they did not
necessarily proceed to the full renunciation of their heathen faith. Even
in the ninth century, when the Danes were fighting the Norsemen
in Ireland, we hear how they invoked the aid of St Patrick, thinking
that he must take vengeance on those who had done him such
injury. When victorious they gave him large offerings, for “the Danes
were a people with a certain piety, whereby they could refrain from
flesh and from women for a time. ” As was to be expected in a time of
transition from one faith to another, superstition was rife and more
than once the Viking hosts fell a prey to it. When the army of Ragnarr
Loðbrók was besieging Paris in 845 his followers were attacked by a
mysterious sickness : prayer to the heathen gods was unsuccessful, but
when, on the advice of a Christian prisoner, they prayed to his God,
wisely abstaining at the same time from flesh and mead, the plague was
removed. The blending of the old and new is happily illustrated in the
sepulchral stones of the Isle of Man and Gothland: here we have stones
in the shape of a cross, or with the sign of the cross on them, decorated
with scenes from Valhalla or with an inscription praying at the same time
for the repose of the dead man's soul and that God may betray those who
betrayed him. More than once do we hear of men who believed neither
in the heathen gods nor in Christ and had faith in nought but their own
strength: the nickname “the godless” is by no means unfrequent
among the settlers in Iceland. Throughout the period, however,
Christianity made steady advance : by the year 921 we find the Vikings
sparing hospitals and churches when sacking Armagh; the great king
Olaf Cuaran, who died in 981, spent his old age as a monk in Iona; at
one time in the tenth century the primates of York and Canterbury were
both of Scandinavian family, and in the later tenth and early eleventh
centuries the Roman Church had no more faithful sons than the
Normans.
Their general philosophy of life was that every man must rely on
himself and his own wisdom; he must place no reliance on others, least
of all upon women. The great aim in life is to attain fame and fair
speech from men after death. Though their beliefs were strongly tinged
with fatalism, this brought no weakening of character or gloom of out-
look. “ Joyous and happy must every man be until death comes upon
him,” is the counsel of Hávamál, and the highest ideal of the end of life
## p. 331 (#377) ############################################
Ideals of life and material civilisation
331
for the hero is found in the picture of Ragnarr Loðbrók who when
tortured in the snake-pit goes laughing to his death. With their
enemies the Vikings had an evil reputation for cunning and deceit, but
the incidents cited in illustration (such as the feigned desire for baptism
on the part of a dying leader, which led to the capture of Luna, and
the frequent mention of feigned retreats) hardly support this: the
enemy were outwitted rather than deceived. Two common but widely
different aspects of Viking character are reflected in the portraiture of
their two chief gods; on the one side Othin (Odin), whose common
epithets are “the wise, the prudent, the sagacious," on the other, Thor,
endowed with mighty strength, but less polished and refined. The
besetting sins of the Vikings were too great love of wine and women.
The rich vine-lands of the Rhine were ceded to the Vikings at their
special request, in 885, and one of the best known examples of Viking
cruelty is the murder of Archbishop Aelfheah (Alphege) at a drunken orgie
in 1012, when he was pelted to death with the skulls of oxen slaughtered
for the feast. Many are the references to their immorality. Wandering
from country to country they often had wives in each and polygamy pre-
vailed, at least among the leaders. From Ireland in the west to Russia in
the east the same story is told. In Ireland we hear of what would seem to
be harems for women, while in Russia we are told of the Grand Duke
Vladimir, great grandson of Rurik, the founder of the Russian kingdom,
that he had more than 800 concubines, Such excesses were unknown in
Scandinavia itself. Legitimate wives were esteemed and took part in
the national life to an unusual extent. Women at times took part in
fighting, and heroic figures are found in the sagas and other historical
records : such are Ota (Auðr), the wife of Turgeis, who, as a völva or pro-
phetess, gave audience on the high altar at Clonmacnois, and Auðr the
Deep-minded, wife of Olaf the White, whose figure stands out clear among
the early settlers in Iceland.
In outward appearance the Vikings were marked by a love of “purple
and fine raiment. " Foreign, and more especially English, clothing was
much sought after, and when in 968 the Irish plundered Limerick we
hear how they carried off from the Norsemen “their choicest possessions,
their beautiful foreign saddles, their gold and silver, their woven cloths of
every kind and colour, their silk and satin raiment, beauteous and
variegated, both scarlet and green. ” From John of Wallingford we
learn how much attention the Vikings paid to the care of the body,
indulging in Sabbath baths and daily hair-combing. The graves of the
period have often yielded rich finds of ornaments in silver and bronze,
and the geographical distribution of the famous Viking brooches, oval
and convex in shape, can be used as an index of the extent of the
conquests of the Northmen. The style of decoration is that derived
from the interweaving of heads and limbs of animals which is found in
Northern Europe in the preceding age, but the influence of Irish art is
:
CH. XIII.
## p. 332 (#378) ############################################
332
Ships
now often discernible, more especially in the use of spiral and interlacing
designs. English and Carolingian influences are also to be traced. The
same style of ornamentation is to be found in the memorial stones,
as for example in the famous Jellinge stone at the tomb of Gorm the
Old in Jutland. Their houses were wooden but often richly decorated
with carvings and tapestries. In the latter half of the tenth century we
hear how the house of Olaf the Peacock in Iceland was decorated with
scenes from the legends of gods and heroes, such as the fight of Loki
and Heimdallr, Thor's fishing, and Balder's funeral. Traces of tapestry
hangings are found in grave-chambers. The dead chief was often buried
in his ship, and ship-graves have been found not only in Norway but also
at Groix in Brittany. In Denmark grave-chambers of wood seem to
take the place of ship-graves.
Of their ships we know a good deal both from the sagas and from
archaeological finds. The Oseberg ship is a vessel for time of peace and
coast-navigation only, but in the Gokstad ship we have an example of
the ordinary war vessel. It dates from about 900, is of oak, clinker-
built, with seats for 16 pairs of rowers, 78 ft. long and 16 ft. broad
amidships, with the rudder at the side. The gunwale was decorated
with shields painted alternately black and gold, and there was a single
sail. In the course of the Viking period their size was greatly increased
and in the famous dragon- and snake-boats of Olaf Tryggvason and
Knut the Great we hear of 34 and even 60 pairs of oars. The trading
vessels probably differed very little from those of war, just as the line
of division between merchant and Viking was often a very thin one.
Time and again we read how, when merchants visited a foreign land,
they arranged a definite time for the conclusion of their business and
agreed after that to treat each other as enemies. The most remarkable
feature about the Vikings as sailors was the fearless way in which they
crossed the open sea, going boldly on such stormy journeys as those to
the Hebrides and Ireland, to Greenland, and even to Vinland or America.
Hitherto, seamen both in peace and war had confined themselves as
much as possible to coasting voyages. The sea was indeed their element,
and the phrase which William of Malmesbury uses (quoting probably
from an old poem) when describing the failure (after four days' trial) on
the part of Guðfrið of Northumbria to settle down at the court of King
Aethelstan, “he returned to piracy as a fish to the sea,” is probably as
true as it is picturesque.
The chief trading centres in Scandinavia itself were Skiringssalr on
the Vík in Norway, Hedeby-Slesvík in Denmark, Bjørkø, Sigtuna and
Lund in Sweden, besides a great market in Bohuslän on the Götaelv where
the three kingdoms met. The chief articles of export were furs, horses,
wool and flesh: those of import would consist chiefly in articles of luxury,
whether for clothing or ornament. The slave-trade also was of the highest
importance: one incident may be mentioned for the vivid light which it
## p. 333 (#379) ############################################
Trade and Social organisation
333
sheds on the international character of Viking trade. Once, in the market
on the Götaelv, the Icelander Höskuldr bought a female slave from the
merchant Gille (a Celtic name), surnamed the Russian (because of his
journeys to that country). The slave proved to be an Irish king's
daughter made captive by Viking raiders. The Scandinavian countries,
like Rome, are very rich in Anglo-Saxon coins, and though many of these
must represent our Danegeld, the fact that they are most frequent in
Eastern Sweden, on the shores of Lake Mälar and in the neighbourhood
of the great waterways connecting Sweden and the Baltic, but above all on
the islands of Öland and Gothland, whence, in all probability, very few of
the Viking raiders came, would seem to shew that there was extensive
peaceful intercourse with England in Viking days. Yet more interesting
are the frequent finds of Oriental coins. They first made their way to
Scandinavia about the end of the ninth century, and are most common
in Sweden. There can be no doubt that the vast majority of these coins
reached Sweden overland through Russia, where extensive finds of
Arabian coins mark the route along which trade at that time travelled
from Asia to the north. The greater number of these coins were
minted at Samarcand and Bagdad.
In social organisation the Viking communities were aristocratic. !
The famous answer of the followers of Rollo when asked who was their
lord: “We have no lord, we are all equal,” was essentially true, but
with their practical genius the Vikings realised that leadership was
necessary if any military success was to be gained, and we find through-
out their history a series of able leaders, sometimes holding the title of
jarl, but, if of royal birth, commonly known as kings. That the title
did not have its full modern connotation is evident from their numbers
and from the frequency with which they changed. When, however, the
Vikings established permanent settlements, hereditary kingship became
common, and royal houses bore sway in Dublin and other Irish towns :
thence a hereditary line of kings was introduced into Northumbria. The
rulership of Normandy was hereditary and so possibly was the kingship
in East Anglia, but in the districts grouped round the Five Boroughs
the organisation was of a different kind, the chief authority resting with
the Lawmen. We find frequent mention of these Lawmen both in
Scandinavia itself and in those countries where Scandinavian influence
prevailed. Originally men skilled in the law, who could state and interpret
it when required, they often presided in the Thing or popular assembly
and represented the local or provincial community as against the king
or his officers, though they do not themselves seem to have exercised
judicial functions. They are usually mentioned in the plural number
and probably acted as a collective body. In England and the Western
Islands they attained a position of yet greater importance. In Man and
the Hebrides they became actual chieftains and are mentioned side by
side with the kings, while it is probable that they were the chief judicial
а
>
CH, XIII.
## p. 334 (#380) ############################################
334
Influence in Ireland
authorities in the aristocratic organisation of the Five Boroughs and other
parts of the Danelaw. They were usually twelve in number, and their
presence may be definitely traced in Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York
and Chester. The office would seem as a rule to have been hereditary.
The influence of the Vikings varied from country to country, not
only according to the political and social condition of the lands in which
they settled, but also to some extent according to the nation from which
they came. In Ireland the settlements were chiefly Norse, though there
is some evidence for the presence of Danes in Cork and Limerick. Here
their influence was concentrated in certain important towns on the coast
(Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and the two already mentioned) and
the districts immediately surrounding them. Scandinavian influence on
Irish place-names is confined almost entirely to these localities and to
the harbours and islands which must from time to time have given shelter
to their fleets. Intermarriage between the Irish and the Norse settlers
began at a very early date, and interesting evidence of it is found in the
large numbers of Irish names in the genealogies of the chief Icelandic
families preserved in Landnamabók. Such intermarriage was frequent,
but the strength of the clan system would seem to have enabled the races
to continue distinct. Norse words are very rare in Irish, and even when
the old Norse kingdoms were shorn of their glory and reduced to
dependence, the “Ostmen,” as they were called, remained an entirely
distinct element in the community, and frequent mention is made of
them in the records of the great towns. They still survived at the time
of the English conquest, and often both claimed and received privileges
entirely different from those accorded to the natives or to the English
settlers. In Ireland as in other countries there is no doubt that the
Vikings did much harm to religion and to learning, but at the same
time they strengthened town-life and developed trade. For many years
the trade of Ireland was largely in Scandinavian hands.
Norse influence in Scotland was great, but varied much from place to
place. The Orkneys and Shetlands are thoroughly Norse. They formed
part of the Norwegian kingdom till 1468, and Norse speech lingered
on until the close of the eighteenth century. Place-names are almost
entirely of Norse origin and the dialect is full of Norse words. In the
system of landholding the udallers are an interesting survival of the
old Norse freeholders, whose óðal was held on precisely the same free
tenure as the Scotch udal. The Hebrides were also largely influenced
.
by the Vikings, and it was not till 1266 that Magnus Hákonson
renounced all claims of Norway to the islands and to Man. Place-
nomenclature both in the names of the islands themselves and of their
physical features shews a strong Norse element, and there are many Norse
words in the Gaelic of the islands and of the mainland. These words
have undergone such extensive changes and corruption in a language so
different from their original source that their recognition is a difficult
a
## p. 335 (#381) ############################################
Influence in Scotland, Man and the Isles
335
problem. There is at present perhaps a danger of exaggerating this
element, the existence of which was long overlooked. Similarly, affinities
have been traced between Scandinavian and Gaelic popular tales and
folk-lore, but this evidence is of doubtful value to the student of
history. As was to be expected, the chief traces of Viking influence on
the mainland are to be found in the modern counties of Sutherland (the
district south of the Orkneys was so called by the Norsemen), Caithness,
Ross and Cromarty, which were for a long time under the authority of
the Orkney earls, and in Galloway, which was naturally exposed to attacks
from the powerful Norse settlements in Man. The name of this district
(perhaps derived from Gall-Gaedhil) possibly bears witness, as we have
seen, to the mixed race resulting from their presence, and the evidence of
place-names confirms it. In the history of Scotland, as a whole, it is
to be remembered that it was the weakening of Pictish power under
Norse attack which paved the way for the unification of the land under
the rule of Kenneth Mac Alpin.
The Isle of Man bears many and deep marks of its Norse occupa-
tion. Here as in the Hebrides the occupation was long and continuous.
Attacked by Vikings from the early years of the ninth century, it came
first under the rule of the kingdom of Dublin and then of the earls of
Orkney. The successors of Godred Crovan, who conquered the island in
1079, took the title of king and were kings both of Man and the Isles
(i. e. the Hebrides). The chief witnesses to Norse rule are the Manx legal
system and the sculptured stones scattered about the island. The highest
executive and legislative authority in the island (after the Governor) is
still the Tynwald Court, whose name goes back to the Old Norse þingvöllr
(the open plain where the popular assembly met), and the House of Keys,
which is the oldest division of the court, consisted originally of 24 mem-
bers (a duodecimal notation which constantly recurs in Scandinavian law
and polity) chosen by co-option and for life, the office being generally, as
a matter of fact, hereditary. These men who have the “ keys of the law”
in their bosom resemble closely the Lawmen, of whom mention has
already been made. All laws to be valid must still be announced from
the Tynwald Hill, which corresponds to the lögberg or law-hill in the
Icelandic allthing. When the assembly is held the coroner “fences the
court” against all disturbance or disorder, just as in the old Norwegian
Gula-thing we hear of vé-bönd or sanctuary-ropes drawn around the
assembly. Of the sculptured stones we have already spoken more than once:
suffice it to say here that in addition to runic inscriptions they often give us
pictorial representations of the great scenes in myth and legend, such as
the fight of Odin with Fenrir's Wolf and the slaying of the serpent Fafnir
by Sigurðr. In many ways Man is the district of the British Isles in
which we can get closest to the life of the old Viking days.
Cumberland and Westmorland stand somewhat apart from the rest of
England in the matter of Viking influence, for they were fairly certainly
CH. XIII.
## p. 336 (#382) ############################################
336 Influence in Northumbria and the Five Boroughs
colonised by Norsemen from Man and the islands. The greater number
of the place-names are purely Scandinavian and the local dialects are full
of terms of similar origin. It is probable that such parts of Lancashire
as shew Viking influence, viz. Furness and Lancashire north of the
Ribble, should be grouped with these districts; south of that river their
influence on place-nomenclature is slight, except on the coast, where we
have evidence of a series of Viking settlements extending to and including
the Wirral in Cheshire. A twelfth-century runic inscription survives at
Loppergarth in Furness, and the Gosforth cross in Cumberland bears
heathen as well as Christian sculptures. The parallel existence of hundred
and wapentake and the carucal assessment in Domesday warn us that we
must not underrate the importance of Norse influence.
The Scandinavian kingdom of Northumbria must have been much
smaller than the earlier realm of that name. Northumberland shews
but few traces of Viking influence, and it is not till we reach Teesdale
that it becomes strongly marked. From here to the Humber place-
nomenclature and dialect, ridings and wapentakes, carucates and duo-
decimal notation in the Domesday assessments, bear witness to their
presence from the shores of the North Sea right up to the Pennines.
For the extent and character of the Viking settlements in the district
of the Five Boroughs we have not only the usual (and often somewhat
unsatisfactory) tests of place-names and dialects, ancient and modern,
but also a far more accurate index in the facts recorded in the Domesday
assessment of the eleventh century. For the northern counties this is
largely non-existent or too scanty to be of any great value, but here it
has its usual fulness of detail. The chief tests derived from this source
with their respective applications are as follows: (1) The use of the
Danish “ wapentake"
wapentake ” as the chief division of the county in place of
the English “ hundred. " This is found in Derbyshire (with one ex-
ception on its southern border), Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (with
certain exceptions along the sea-coast which have a curious and unex-
plained parallel in the Domesday divisions of Yorkshire), Leicester-
shire, Rutland and one district of Northamptonshire now included in
Rutland. (2) The assessment by carucates in multiples and sub-
multiples of twelve, which is characteristic of the Danelaw, as opposed
to that by hides arranged on a decimal system. This we find in the shires
of Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester and Rutland (with the above
exception). In the two N. E. hundreds of Northamptonshire there are also
traces of a duodecimal assessment. (3) The use of the ore of 16d. instead
of that of 20d. is found in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and
Lancashire. In Leicestershire we are told on the other hand that the
ore was of 20d. (4) In Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire (and
Yorkshire) we have traces of the use of the Danish “ long” hundred
(= 120), e. g. the fine for breaking the king's peace is £8 (i. e. 120 ores).
These tests establish Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (Lincoln
a
## p. 337 (#383) ############################################
Influence in East Anglia
337
and Stamford), Leicestershire and (probably) the whole of Rutland
(Stamford), as belonging to the Five Boroughs, and place-names confirm
this evidence. The counties to the west and south answer none of the
tests, and there is only a slight sprinkling of Danish names in Stafford-
shire and Warwickshire on their eastern borders. Northamptonshire
furnishes a difficulty. Except in the extreme north-east it fails to pass
our tests, but Danish place-nomenclature is strongly evident, though it
shades off somewhat to the S. W. It resembles Danish East Anglia rather
than the district of the Five Boroughs, and it is possible that the boundary
of Guthrum's kingdom, which is only carried as far as Stony Stratford
in the peace of Alfred and Guthrum, really ran along Watling Street for
a few miles, giving two-thirds of that county to the East Anglian realm '.
While the judicial authority was in the hands of the Lawmen in the Five
Boroughs, we hear at the same time of jarls in these towns and in North-
ampton and other places, who lead their forces to war and sign royal
charters and documents. Probably to the Danes we owe the organisa-
tion of the modern counties of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln
(and Stamford), Northampton, Bedford, Cambridge and Hertford.
In East Anglia the tests which we used for the Five Boroughs fail,
and we are left with the boundaries of Guthrum's kingdom, certain
evidence from place-names, and other miscellaneous facts. A few holmes
in Bedfordshire, some holmes, biggins and tofts in Hertfordshire, Cam-
bridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, a “ Danish” hundred in Hertfordshire,
are almost all the evidence from place-names. Essex shews a few,
Suffolk more traces of Danes on the coast, and the latter county has
some traces inland, especially in the north. Norfolk is strongly Danish,
even if we overlook the doubtful “ thorpes,” which are so abundant here.
The Historia Eliensis and other documents tend to shew the presence of
a strong Danish element in the population and social organisation of the
district around Cambridge. As a whole, however, the Viking impress
on East Anglia is much less deep than on Mercia. The difference
rests probably on a difference of original organisation, but it is im-
possible now to define it.
Other features of interest in our social system due to Viking influence
may be observed from a study of Domesday and other authorities.
Attention has often been called to the number of freeholders in the
Danelaw, and it would seem that Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Norfolk
more especially had not been feudalised to any great extent before the
Norman conquest. In the other counties the influence of southern
custom is more apparent. The “holds ” of Northumbria, who rank next
after the earls, and the “drengs" of Cumberland, Westmorland, North-
umberland and Durham, are undoubtedly of Scandinavian origin. The
2
9
1 The Welland is so natural a border that it is very unlikely English authority
really came north of it. The hides must remain an unexplained difficulty.
22
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XIII.
## p. 338 (#384) ############################################
338
Influence on law and society
,
“socmen,” a class of free peasants, are most numerous in the Five
Boroughs and East Anglia and are only found sporadically in other
places.
Our legal system shews again and again the influence of Scandinavian
law and custom. The word “law” itself is a Scandinavian term in
contrast to the English “doom. " We have already mentioned the
Lawmen: still more interesting are the “Twelve senior thanes” of
Aethelred's laws for the Five Boroughs enacted at Wantage in 997.
They have to come forward in the court of every wapentake and to
swear that they will not accuse any innocent man or conceal any guilty
one. The exact force of this enactment has been a matter of dispute,
but there can be little doubt that (in the words of Vinogradoff) such a
custom "prepared the way for the indictment jury of the twelfth century. "
“
In criminal law the Danes introduced a new conception of crime. The
idea of honour in the relationship of members of a military society to
one another led to the appearance of a group of crimes whose perpe-
trators are branded as nithings, men unworthy of comradeship with
others and, more especially, with their fellow warriors. In the general
life of the nation the Danes placed an effective check on learning and
literature except during the heroic activities of Alfred the Great, but on
the other hand we probably owe to them an extensive development
of town-life and of trade and the revival of English naval power. Dis-
astrous as were the Danish wars, there can be little doubt that the
Danish settlements were for the ultimate good of the nation.
In the Frankish Empire the only permanent settlement was in
Normandy. Scandinavian influence was strong in Frisia and the lower
basin of the Rhine (Dorestad was the centre of their commercial activity),
but there is no question of influence on law, social organisation or
government. In Normandy on the other hand we have a powerful and
almost independent State with a full Viking organisation. The history
of the Normans does not belong to this chapter. Suffice it to say here
that perhaps more than any other of the Vikings they shewed themselves
readily able to assimilate themselves to their surroundings, and they were
soon Gallicised; nevertheless law and custom, dialect and place-names,
still shew their presence clearly.
Of Scandinavian influence in Eastern Europe little can be said owing
to our lack of knowledge. Attempts have been made to distinguish Scan-
dinavian elements in the old Russian law and language but without any
very definite results, and we must confine ourselves to the points men-
tioned earlier.
Nothing has been said of Iceland, which was one great field of Scan-
dinavian activity in the ninth and tenth centuries. It was discovered in
the middle of the ninth century and soon settled, first by some Norsemen
who left their native land under stress of the same conditions as drove
others to find fresh homes for themselves in the British Isles and else-
## p. 339 (#385) ############################################
The Northmen in Europe generally
339
a
where, and secondly by other Norsemen (with a considerable admixture
of Irish blood) from the Western Islands, who left their settlements there
when Harold Fairhair forced them into submission after the battle of
Hafrsfjord. In Iceland, Scandinavian law and custom had fullest and freest
play for their own development, and we must draw freely on the rich
treasures of later Icelandic poetry and prose for our knowledge of the
history and civilisation of the Viking age, but Iceland itself lies on the
extreme confines of Europe and plays practically no part in the develop-
ment of Scandinavian influence in Europe in the tenth and eleventh
centuries.
Iceland however points for us the moral of Viking civilisation, that
when left to develop on its own lines, it ended too often only in
social and political anarchy. It is seen at its best when it came into
contact with older and richer civilisations. From them it gained stability
and strength of purpose, while to them it gave life and vigour when
they were fast becoming effete.
CH, XIII,
22-2
## p. 340 (#386) ############################################
340
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND.
a
When Offa died in 796, the consolidation of central and south-eastern
England into an orderly state under a stable dynasty had continued long
enough to make it seem improbable that the work would have to be done
a second time. The Mercian kingdom was still far from comprising all
England. Wessex and Northumbria were still independent. But in
both states the rulers had accepted Mercian brides, and neither seemed
sufficiently strong to thwart Mercia's further expansion. Nor was internal
faction apparently to be feared. Offa's death brought the crown to
Ecgfrith his only son; but though this prince died within a few months
of his accession leaving no heir, no struggle arose over the vacant throne.
The Mercian witan arranged the succession peaceably among them-
selves, their choice falling on the aetheling Coenwulf, a member of the
royal kindred who seems to have been only distantly related to Offa.
This orderly election, if compared with the faction fights which regularly
disgraced Northumbria under similar circumstances, is in itself good
evidence of the political progress made by Mercia in the eighth century,
and Coenwulf's subjects may fairly have looked forward to a further
expansion taking place under his leadership.
At Coenwulf's accession the ruler of Wessex was Beorhtric, a weak
man who had married Eadburh, Offa's third daughter, and who was
almost a Mercian vassal. Of his reign (786–802) little of note is
recorded except that it was disturbed one summer by the landing of
rovers coming from Hörthaland in Norway on the coast of Dorset. This
is the first recorded appearance in England of the so-called Vikings, a
most ominous event as the future was to prove. In the Norse sagas
the word vikinger means a free buccaneer of any nationality, and the
phrase “to go in viking” denotes freebooting as opposed to trading
voyages, both being regarded as equally honourable activities. Not only
England but all Western Europe was soon to rue their advent. One
other event of Beorhtric's days had far-reaching consequences. In con-
junction with Offa he drove into exile an aetheling called Ecgbert, whose
father Ealhmund had for a time been under-king in Kent (784-786).
This Ecgbert was destined to return and become the ancestor of
England's future kings.
.
## p. 341 (#387) ############################################
Anarchy in Northumbria. Coenwulf of Mercia
341
In Northumbria in Offa's closing years we also hear of piratical
raids. In June 793 heathen men, whether Danish or Norse cannot
be decided, ravaged the church at Lindisfarne and captured many of
the monks to sell as slaves. Next summer they came again and attacked
Wearmouth and Jarrow where Bede had spent his days. These inroads
however did not continue, nor can they have disturbed the Northumbrians
very much. For the magnates of Bernicia and Deira for many years
past had been flying at each other's throats with wearisome monotony.
Harryings and burnings had become the rule, and king after king had
met with deposition or a violent death. Aethelred, son of Moll, held
the throne when the heathen ships appeared. He had married Offa's
second daughter, and, like Beorhtric, may be regarded as almost Offa's
vassal; but the alliance had brought him little strength. In 796 he
was murdered at Corbridge on Tyne. His immediate successor reigned
for only twenty-seven days, and then fled making way for Eardwulf,
a prince whose reign of ten years (796–806) is merely a chronicle of
plunderings and executions ending in his deposition. Clearly it is
useless to peer into the gloom and turmoil of the North in these days.
One event only seems of importance as it affected the ultimate position
of the boundary of England. It was in these years that the Galloway
bishopric of Whithern (Candida Casa), hitherto subject to York,
came to an end, the Picts of this district throwing off their subjection
to the English and uniting with the British kingdom of Strathclyde.
Coenwulf ruled over Mercia for a full quarter of a century (796–821).
On the whole he shewed himself a man of resource and energy; but his
reign was not without its difficulties, and he seems to have been unable
to reap any advantage either from the want of enterprise of the West
Saxons or from the chaos which reigned among the Northumbrians. In
his days nothing occurred to alter the balance of power in England.
Mercia remained the leading state ; nor is there any record of attacks on
its coasts by sea rovers. The king's first recorded activity is a war
against the North Welsh, which led to a battle at Rhuddlan. We learn
this from the Annales Cambriae. As this campaign was followed up
later in his reign by another against the South Welsh, it may be useful
at this point to say a few words about the general condition of Wales
in the years that followed the building of Offa's celebrated boundary
dyke. Our information is scanty, but sufficient to prove that the land
was subdivided into many chieftaincies or so-called “ kingdoms. " The
most important tribal units, counting from North to South were
(1) Gwynedd or North Wales (in Latin Venedotia), (2) Powys, (3) Cere-
digion (Cardigan), (4) the promontory of Dyfed (in Latin Demetia),
(5) Ystrad Tywi (the Vale of the Towy), (6) Brycheiniog (Brecknock),
(7) Morgannwg (Glamorgan), and (8) Gwent (Monmouthshire). The
traditional primacy or overlordship over these and many other smaller
units lay with the kings of Gwynedd, whose territories comprised the
a
CH. XIV.
## p. 342 (#388) ############################################
342
Wales in the eighth century. Nennius
vales of the Clwyd and Conway, the promontory of Lleyn, the fastnesses
of Snowdon and Cader Idris, and the comparatively fertile plains of the
Isle of Môn, not yet known as Anglesey, their “principal seat” being at
Aberffraw, a small port near Holyhead, whose history goes back to the
days of Cadwalader, the contemporary of Oswy. But the superiority of
the house of Cunedda, from whom Cadwalader descended, was often
merely honorary, and it had long been challenged by princes of South
Wales, the Dextralis pars Britanniae, as the Welsh termed it. In this,
the more spacious and less mountainous half of Wales, a fairly strong
principality, later to be known as Deheubarth, was emerging out of
conquests made by Seisyll of Ceredigion at the expense of Dyfed, Ystrad
Tywi and Brycheiniog. The larger part of these districts in the course
of the eighth century were tending to unite under one chief, and already
in Offa's day men regarded Dinefwr on the Towy, some fifteen miles
east of Carmarthen, as a principal seat or capital, the possession of
which carried with it the primacy of South Wales.
For judicial and fiscal purposes most of the tribal units were sub-
divided into “cantrefs” of very varying sizes, but on the average
rather larger than the English hundreds, each of which in theory was
built up of a hundred “ trefs” or hamlets. For ecclesiastical purposes
there were yet other divisions. Out of the many monastic churches
founded in the sixth century four had come to stand out as the most
important and had become centres of episcopal organisation. These
were Bangor and Llanelwy, otherwise St Asaph, in Northern Wales,
Llandaff in Morgannwg, and Mynyw (in Latin Menevia), otherwise
St David's, in Dyfed. The Welsh Church, too, no longer held aloof
from Rome as in earlier days. About 768 it had adopted the Roman
Easter, led by Elbodug, a monk of Caer Gybi or Holyhead, and a
student of Bede's works. To Wales this peaceful revolution meant as
much as the decision come to at Whitby had meant for England a
hundred years earlier. With the acceptance of the Roman date for
Easter, Wales threw itself open to the influence of the Continent, and
not only so, but also to greatly increased intercourse of a non-military
character with the English kingdoms. At the date of the fight at
Rhuddlan, Elbodug was still living. He died about 809, “ chief bishop
in the land of Gwynedd. " Among his disciples was Nennius, famed as
the editor of the Historia Brittonum, from which come so many of the
folk tales concerning Arthur and the first coming of the Saxons into
Britain. Nennius seems to have lived in Deheubarth, probably near the
borders of Brycheiniog. He was writing just about the time that
Coenwulf ascended the Mercian throne, and his book soon acquired a
considerable popularity, not only in Wales, but also in England, Ireland,
and Brittany. Nennius wrote shocking Latin, and complains that in-
cessant wars and pestilence had dulled the senses of the Britons; but
his work, puzzle-headed as it is, shews that the monasteries of Wales still
## p. 343 (#389) ############################################
Coenwulf and Archbishop Wulfred. Beornwulf 343
had some learning. He himself refers to Isidore, Jerome, Prosper, and
Eusebius, and there are also other indications that some of the Welsh
monks of his day were acquainted with parts of the writings of Ovid and
Cicero, with Eutychius the grammarian, and Martianus Capella.
The Mercian attack on Wales in 796 was not pressed very far, as
Coenwulf soon had other work to do in repressing a rebellion which
broke out in Kent. The leader of this revolt was Eadbert Praen,
presumably a descendant of the old Kentish kings. For two years he
had some success, and then Coenwulf captured and blinded him, and set
up his own brother Cuthred instead as under-king of Kent. But this was
not all. During the revolt Archbishop Aethelheard had remained loyal
to the Mercian cause, in spite of the affront that Offa had put upon the
see of Canterbury in 786. Rather than yield to the rebels he had
gone into exile, and there exists a letter to the Kentish leaders in which
Alcuin pleads for his restoration. In return for this loyal conduct
Coenwulf not only restored him to his rights, but agreed with him to
undo Offa's work and suppress the recently erected Mercian archbishopric.
Aethelheard accordingly journeyed to Rome to lay the matter before
Pope Leo III, and having obtained his approval called a synod together
at Clovesho in 803 which promulgated the deprivation of Archbishop
Higbert and the restoration of the old metropolitan rights of Canter-
bury. It might have been expected that after this the old alliance
between Tamworth and Canterbury would have been effectively restored,
but it was not so. Archbishop Aethelheard died in 805, and was suc-
ceeded by a Kentish man named Wulfred, an ambitious prelate who
resented Mercian control and desired independence for Kent. He soon
quarrelled with Coenwulf over questions of property, especially over
the nunnery of Minster in Thanet and over the important estate of
Harrow in Middlesex. The trouble is said to have extended over six
years and to have led to appeals to the Papacy, while it is certain that
the archbishop shewed his independence by coining money which does
not bear any king's name. These turmoils and Welsh campaigns take up
the remainder of Coenwulf's reign ; but it must not be supposed that he
was altogether unmindful of the claims of the Church. Existing land-
books shew that he was a benefactor to Worcester, and he is also credited
with the foundation of Winchcombe Abbey. There is also some evidence
that about 813 Wulfred was attempting monastic reforms at Canterbury!
Coenwulf died in 821, it is said at Basingwerk in Flint, still occupied
with plans for extending the Mercian frontier westwards from Chester to
the Conway. His successor was his brother Ceolwulf, who continued the
Welsh policy with success, capturing the fort of Deganwy near Llandudno
and overrunning Powys. Ceolwulf's accession, however, was not un-
challenged, and two years later we find him deposed in favour of a
duke called Beornwulf. We are quite in the dark as to Beornwulf's
Birch, Cart. Sax. , No. 342.
CH. XIV,
## p. 344 (#390) ############################################
344
Ecgbert of Wessex. Conquest of Cornwall
origin and the reasons for his elevation to the throne, but we may
suspect the hand of Archbishop Wulfred in the background. For
shortly afterwards we find Beornwulf making grants to Wulfred, and
the abbess Cwenthryth, Coenwulf's daughter, compelled to resign
Harrow to the see of Canterbury. The dispute about the succession
between Ceolwulf and Beornwulf marks the beginning of evil days for
Mercia. The unity and solidity, which had appeared so well established
under Offa, disappears; the Mercian magnates fall a prey to faction,
and almost as it were in the twinkling of an eye the supremacy of
Mercia is wrecked for ever.
It is time now to turn again to the affairs of Wessex. When
Beorhtric died in 802, poisoned, so the tale goes, by his wife, the West
Saxon witan saluted as their king that Ecgbert whom Offa and Beorhtric
had driven out of England. The choice was most happy; for Ecgbert
was a man of experience, who had spent some time in Frankland, and
possibly witnessed Charlemagne's Saxon campaigns. He had returned
to Wessex about 799, but not before he had marked how the great
Frank administered his kingdom. His elevation to the throne clearly
meant a less dependent Wessex and so was distasteful to the Mercians.
At any rate on the very day of Ecgbert's election the men of the Hwicce
took horse and crossed the Upper Thames at Kempsford near Cirencester
led by Aethelmund, a Gloucestershire magnate whose estates lay at
Deerhurst and Berkeley. They were met by a West Saxon alderman
named Weoxtan with the levies of Wiltshire. In the fight which
ensued both leaders were killed, but the Mercians had to retreat, after
which Ecgbert had several years of peace for organising his kingdom.
We know nothing of his acts as an administrator, but in 814 we find
him imitating Coenwulf and engaged in expanding his borders westwards
at the expense of the Welsh of Cornwall. As the Chronicle puts it,
“he laid waste West Wales from eastward to westward," and thence-
forth apparently held it as a ducatus or dukedom annexed to his regnum
or kingdom of Wessex, but not wholly incorporated with it. Thus arose
that Welsh-speaking duchy or earldom of Cornwall, which almost ever
since has formed a quasi-royal appanage in the hands of Ecgbert's suc-
cessors, and which maintained its distinct nationality to the eighteenth
century. The exact stages of its reduction to submission cannot be
followed. We only know that in 825 the West Welsh were once more
in arms and that Ecgbert again put them down and, as a later document?
phrases it, “ disposed of their territory as it seemed fit to him, giving a
tenth part of it to God. ” In other words he incorporated Cornwall
ecclesiastically with the West Saxon diocese of Sherborne, and endowed
Ealhstan, his fighting bishop, who took part in the campaign, with
an extensive Cornish estate consisting of Callington and Lawhitton,
both in the Tamar valley, and Pawton near Padstow. One is naturally
Crawford Charters, No. VII.
1
## p. 345 (#391) ############################################
Battle of Ellandun.
Ecgbert conquers Kent
345
a
led to ask, were these three properties really equivalent to a tenth of all
Cornwall ; for if so, it is very noteworthy to find such large estate units
already evolved as early as 825. All that can be said in answer is that
the evidence of Domesday Book, written 260 years later, does not alto-
gether bear out this conclusion, but yet is more in harmony with it than
might have been expected ; for that survey credits these three properties
with 130 ploughlands, which is about an eighteenth part of the total
ploughlands recorded for all Cornwall. At any rate, then, we may
regard this gift as transferring a very considerable stretch of land, and
its effect would be to open up West Wales not a little to English influ-
ences. Little, however, seems actually to have been done in the way
of
settling West Saxon colonists in the country, if we may judge from the
sparsity of the English type of place-name everywhere but in the Tamar
valley. The rest of Cornwall remains to this day a land of trefs,"
that is to say, of petty hamlets, bearing such names as Trenance,
Tregony and Trevelyan, of which quite a handful are required to form
a parish, although this is not called after any one of them, but by the
name of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. Nor would it seem
were new local divisions introduced by the conquerors. The so-called
Cornish shires, such as Pydershire or Wivelshire, seem to be really the
old Welsh “ cantrefs. ” The term “shire ” must however have been
applied to them almost from the first conquest ; for King Alfred's
will only sixty years later has an allusion to “Streatnet on Triconshire,”
that is to say to Stratton near Bude in Triggshire.
The settlement of Cornwall was hardly effected when news came that
the Mercians had again invaded Wiltshire. Ecgbert thereupon led his
army eastwards and came up with Beornwulf's forces at Ellandun, a
village near Swindon now called Nether Wroughton, but as late as
the fourteenth century known as Elynton! A pitched battle ensued
in which the Mercians were completely routed. This victory must be
regarded as a turning point in England's development, for it led to
a permanent alteration of the balance of power in England in favour
of the West Saxons. To follow up his advantage, Ecgbert at once
despatched his son, Aethelwulf, accompanied by Bishop Ealhstan,
against Kent, a district which he could claim with some show of reason
as he was the son of Ealhmund. Aethelwulf's march was as successful as
his father's. Baldred, the Kentish under-king, appointed by Mercia, soon
fled northwards over the Thames, and thereupon, as the chronicle has it,
the men of Kent and Surrey submitted to Wessex, admitting that
“they had been wrongly forced from Ecgbert's kin. ” Sussex and Essex
a few weeks later followed suit ; and finally the East Anglians also rose,
and re-established their independence of Mercia, by attacking Beornwulf
from the east and slaying him in battle.
No series of events could well be more dramatic than the successive
1 Feudal Aids v. 207 ; Domesday Book, 1. 65 b. Elendune.
CH. XIV.
## p. 346 (#392) ############################################
346
Ecgbert overthrows Mercia. Wiglaf restored
disasters which brought about the collapse of Mercia in 825. Wessex
and Mercia, as it were, changed parts. Within a year the Mercian
kingdom dwindled to half its former size, while Wessex expanded so
that it may be regarded henceforth as including all England south of
the Thames. Kent, it is true, still retained its individuality in the
hands of Ecgbert's son, as an under-kingdom enjoying its own special
customs, and as the chief seat of church government; but its affairs were
nevertheless directed from Winchester, and the archbishops of Canterbury
could no longer look to Tamworth for protection, but were brought
much more under West Saxon influences.
For the Mercians the immediate question after 825 was, could they
maintain their independence or must they accept Ecgbert as an overlord.
They evidently went on with the struggle, but their new king, Ludeca,
fared no better than Beornwulf. He fell in battle in 827 with five of
his dukes. Wiglaf then succeeded, but likewise made no headway, and
soon fled into exile. Meantime Ecgbert, with the help of the East
Anglians, overran the Midlands at will, and for the moment was acclaimed
lord of all men south of the Humber. In 829 he even projected an
attack on Northumbria, and led his army to Dore, a frontier village in
the Peak district. The Northumbrian king at this time was Eanred
(808–840). He came to Dore and apparently bought off Ecgbert's
hostility with offers of homage and perhaps of tribute. Too much has
sometimes been made of these episodes
. They have even been treated
as marking the unification of England under a single overlord, but cer-
tainly they had no such result. Ecgbert's position in Mercia was really
precarious, and the very next year we find Wiglaf restored to his
kingdom. Patriotic West Saxon tradition in later days liked to picture
Ecgbert as a “ Bretwalda” worthy to be classed with Edwin and Oswy
and the other ancient heroes who in Bede's pages stood pre-eminent as
wielding an imperium before the rise of Mercia ; but eulogy must not be
mistaken for sober history. It would seem, on the contrary, that
Ecgbert's power soon waned, and that Wiglaf's restoration was due to a
Mercian revival. The Wessex chronicle gives no hint that Ecgbert was
active in Mercia after 830, nor do any Mercian notables attest his
landbooks. It has indeed been suggested that the Aethelstan, who
ruled East Anglia in Ecgbert's later years, was one of his sons, but this is a
guess incapable of proof and hardly in harmony with the independence
admittedly enjoyed by the East Anglians shortly afterwards.
Ecgbert's last years are of interest not because of any growth of
unity in England but because they witnessed the re-appearance of the
Vikings and the consequent rise of a new and grave danger for all the
English kingdoms. All through the first quarter of the ninth century
Scandinavian long-ships had been harrying Western Scotland and
Ireland, coming by way of the Faroe islands and the Orkneys. Beginning
in 795 with attacks on Skye, they had in 802 come south to Iona and
## p. 347 (#393) ############################################
Ecgbert and the Danes. Accession of Aethelwulf 347
Donegal and thence spread east and west along the coasts of Ulster
and Connemara. By 825 they had fairly encircled Ireland and plun-
dered most of its shrines. In England, on the other hand, no raids are
heard of for forty years after the attacks on Lindisfarne and Jarrow in
Offa's days, and it was not till 834 that the danger re-appeared as the
result of the establishment of Danish exiled chieftains in Frisia, as the
Netherlands were then called, by Louis the Pious. In that year con-
siderable fleets set out from Denmark and the North to attack the
Frankish Empire, and coming to the mouths of the Rhine burnt the im-
portant Frisian trading ports of Dorestad and Utrecht.
The general
situation on the Continent is dealt with in other chapters. Here
we have only to note that a detachment of this force also came to
England and entering the Thames ravaged the island of Sheppey. Two
years later the Frisian provinces were again attacked and the town of
Antwerp sacked. Again a small detachment came across to England.
This time the raiders landed in Dorset, and Ecgbert himself met them at
Charmouth not far from Lyme Regis. The Vikings had only 35 ships,
with crews about 1200 strong, but the fight none the less went against
the king, and the victors gained the impression that Wessex was worth
attacking. At any rate in 838 there arrived a larger fleet which came
to land in Cornwall. Once more Ecgbert marched to meet the raiders
to find that the Cornish had risen to join them. Victory, however, lay
with the English, the allied Danes and Welsh being put to flight at
Hinxton Down, a moor on the west bank of the Tamar near Callington.
As a result it would appear that a bishop, definitely subject to Canter-
bury, was shortly afterwards appointed for Cornwall in the person of one
Kenstec, whose see was placed in the monastery of Dinnurrin! . This
was Ecgbert's last achievement. He died in the summer of 839.
The accession of his son Aethelwulf, which almost corresponds in
point of time with the death of Louis the Pious and the break-up of the
Carolingian Empire on the Continent, introduces a new phase into
English affairs. Hitherto the main thread of English history has been
concerned with the rivalries between the English kingdoms and with the
gradual growth of civilisation and a tendency to union under the
auspices of the Church. But for the next forty years internal progress
ceased, and as in Frankland, so in England, the one constant feature of
the times was the ceaseless struggle which every province in turn had to
wage against Danish invaders. In 839 the Viking raids could still be
regarded as merely a passing inconvenience, and the English people
hardly realised the full extent of the danger which threatened them ;
but from that date the raids grew more persistent and better organised
year by year, and it soon became apparent that the object of the invaders
was not merely plunder but the complete conquest of the country.
1 Birch, Cart. Sax. , No. 527. Can the latter part of Din-uurrin represent Guerür,
the name of the saint buried at St Neots ? Asser, c. 74.
CH. XIV.
