No More Learning

Death was now removing friends
as well as foes, and the loss of Herman of Cologne (February 1055)
was a real blow to the Emperor. His successor was Anno, a man not of
noble birth, a pupil at Bamberg and Provost at Goslar. At Ivois (May
1056) the Emperor met for the third time his namesake of France, and
the matter of Lorraine made the meeting a stormy one, so much so that
Henry of France challenged Henry of Germany to single combat. On
this the Emperor withdrew in the dead of night. But in Germany itself
the disaffected were returning to obedience; not only those who had con-
spired but Godfrey himself made submission. On the North-East the
Lyutitzi were again in arms, and even as Henry was turning northwards
against them a great defeat on the Havel and Elbe had made the
matter serious, the more so as the Margrave William had been slain. To
disaster was added famine, and when all this had to be faced Henry was
smitten with illness. Hastily he tried to ensure peace for his son : he
compensated all whom he had wronged: he set free Beatrice and Matilda :
all those at his court confirmed his son's succession and the boy was com-
mended to the special protection of the Pope, who was at the death-bed.
Then 5 October 1056 Henry died: “with him," said men afterwards, “died
order and justice. ” His heart was taken to its real and fitting home in
Goslar, while his body rested beside Conrad's at Spires.
The East and North-East throughout Henry's reign had called forth
his full energy, and their story is in very large part the story of two
men-the Slav Duke Godescalc and the Bohemian Duke Bratislav.
The Bohemian duke was the illegitimate son of Duke Udalrich. When
still quite young, “most beautiful of youths and boldest of heroes,”
he had shewn energy in his reconquest of Moravia from the Poles, and
romance in his carrying off the Countess Judith, sister of the Franco-
nian Margrave Otto the White of Schweinfurt, of royal blood.
CH. XII.


## p. 300 (#346) ############################################

300
Břatislav of Bohemia
Břatislav, fresh from his Moravian conquests, had fallen in love with
the reported beauty of Judith “fairer than all other maidens beneath
the sun,” whose good father and excellent mother had confided her to
the convent at Zuinprod (Schweinfurt), “to learn the Psalter. ” Bratislav,
desiring her as bride, preferred action to asking; for “ he reflected on
the innate arrogance of the Teutons, and on the swollen pride with which
they ever despise the Slav people and the Slav tongue. ” So he carried
her off by night, on horseback ; and, lest the Germans should wreak
vengeance on Bohemia, took her to Moravia.
Břatislav could be as unswervingly faithful as he was audacious and
vigorous. His friendship or enmity meant everything to Henry in
Bohemia, much elsewhere. Yet, since he was naturally a man of strong
ambitions, it was not friendship that he offered.
He had begun his career as the ally of Conrad (against the Poles);
and had held Moravia under the joint overlordship of his father and the
Emperor. But on his succession to Bohemia in 1037, his horizon was
bright with promise. Poland had fallen from aggressive strength into
disunion and civil war; the German rulers were absent in Italy. Břa-
tislav saw his opportunity to take vengeance on Poland for old wrongs,
and to ensure Bohemia's permanent freedom from the Empire.
In unhappy Poland, Mesco, son of Boleslav the Mighty, had died
in 1034, leaving a boy, Casimir, under the guardianship of his German
mother, Richessa. While Mesco lived divisions had been fomented
and Poland at last partitioned by the Emperor Conrad. Now, first
the duchess, and later on her son, when a man, were forced to fly
before the violence of the Polish nobles—the duke (says the Polish
Chronicle), lest he should avenge his mother's injuries. Casimir wandered
through Russia and Hungary, and finally reached Richessa in Germany.
Meanwhile Poland was given over to chaos. « Those were lords who
should be slaves ” says the same chronicle, "and those slaves who should
be lords. ” Women were raped, bishops and priests stoned to death.
Upon the distracted country fell all its neighbours, including “those
three most ferocious of peoples, the Lithuanians, Pomeranians and
Prussians. ”
Břatislav seized his chance. Sending the war-signal round Bohemia,
he fell “ like a sudden storm” upon Poland " widowed of her prince. ”
In the South, he took and burnt Cracow, rilling her of her ancient
and precious treasures. Up to the North he raged, razing towns and
villages, carrying off Poles by hundreds into slavery. He finally ended
his career of conquest and slaughter by solemnly transferring, from their
Polish shrine at Gnesen to Prague, the bones of the martyred apostle,
Adalbert.
While these things were happening Henry became Emperor. In the
very year of his accession he prepared an expedition against Bohemia,
which did not mature. Herman of Reichenau tells of envoys who came


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Bohemian wars
301
to Henry, in the midst of his preparations for war, bringing with them
Břatislav's son as a hostage ; and of a promise made by Bratislav that he
himself would soon come to pay homage. This might well, for the time,
seem sufficient.
It was in the year 1040 that the first important expedition was
launched against Bohemia. Břatislav's intentions were by this time quite
clear; for he had, in the interval, not only demanded from Rome the
erection of Prague into an archbishopric, a step which meant the severing
of the ecclesiastical dependence of Bohemia upon Germany, but had also
formed an alliance with Peter, the new King of Hungary, who had
signalised the event by winter raids over the German frontiers.
The wrongs of Poland and of Casimir, and the danger to Germany,
were reasons amply justifying Henry's interventions. Preliminary nego-
tiations probably consisted in Henry's ultimatum demanding reparation
to Poland, and the payment of the regular tribute to Germany. On
Bratislav's refusal, the expedition was launched, but failed (August, 1040).
Henry, humiliated for the moment, was not defeated. He “kept his
grief deep in his heart,” and the Bohemian overtures were rejected, as
we have seen. Even before this refusal, the Bohemians and their ally,
Peter of Hungary, were already raiding the frontier.
In 1041 the German forces, which were “ very great," advanced
more cautiously, and Henry, breaking his way into the country in the rear
of its defending armies, found the country-side living as in the midst of
peace. It was in August. For six weeks the German forces lived at ease, the
rich land supplying them plentifully with corn and cattle. Then, burning
and destroying all that was left, and devastating far and wide, “with the
exception of two provinces which they left to their humbled foes,” the
armies towards the end of September moved to the trysting-place above
Prague. Meanwhile Austrian knights, under the leadership of the young
Babenberger prince, Leopold, made a successful inroad from the South.
Břatislav, unable to protect his land, made ineffectual overtures.
Then he was deserted by his own people. The Archbishop of Prague,
Severus, had been appointed by Udalrich in reward for his skill in catering
for the ducal table. This traitor now led a general desertion. The
Bohemians promised Henry to deliver their duke bound into his hands.
Břatislav perforce made an unqualified surrender. He renounced the
royal title, so offensive to German ears ; he promised full restitution to
Poland ; he gave his duchy into Henry's hands. In pledge of his faith he
sent as hostages his own son Spitignev and the sons of five great
Bohemian nobles. These, if Břatislav failed, Henry might put “to any
death he pleased. ” Henry at last accepted his submission.
Břatislav himself built a way back to Bavaria for the booty-laden
invaders; and a fortnight later he himself appeared at Ratisbon, and
there before the king and assembled princes and many of his own
chieftains, “barefooted, more humiliated now than formerly he had been
CH, XII.


## p. 302 (#348) ############################################

302
Bratislav submits
exalted,” offered homage to Henry. His duchy was restored to him, with
half the tribute remitted; he was moreover confirmed in the possession
of Silesia, seized from the Poles, and then actually in his hands. His
own splendid war-horse which Břatislav offered to Henry, with its saddle
“completely and marvellously wrought in gold and silver," was given, in
the duke's presence, to Leopold of Austria, the hero of the expedition.
Once having sworn fealty, Břatislav maintained it loyally until the
close of his life; and his advice on military matters was of great
service to Henry. The re-grant of Breslau and the Silesian towns to
Poland in 1054 was, however, a great strain even on his loyalty; and in
spite of Henry's award, he recovered the lost cities for a time from
Casimir, by force of arms, in the following year. Thence he would have
proceeded to Hungary, but on his way he died. His successor, Spitignev,
although his succession was ratified by Henry, plunged into a riot of
animosity against everything German, expelling from Bohemian soil
every
man and woman of the hated nation, rich, poor and pilgrim.
Duke Casimir of Poland played throughout a less prominent part
than his vigorous neighbour. Affairs at home kept him fully occupied ;
while his close early connexion with Germany, and the memory of the
partition of Poland by Conrad, would further deter him from any
thought of imitating his father Mesco, who, like Boleslav, had claimed
the title of King.
Of his part in events between 1039 and 1041 we know little. With
500 horse, he went to Poland, where he was “gladly received"; he
slowly recovered his land from foreigners; and finally (1047) overcame the
last and greatest of the independent Polish chiefs, Meczlav of Masovia.
He had secured the greater part of his inheritance; it remained to
recover Silesia, seized by Bratislav in 1039 and confirmed to the Bohemian
duke by Henry.
It is in 1050 that serious trouble first threatened. In this year,
Casimir was definitely accused of “usurping” land granted by Henry to
Břatislav; as well as of other, unrecorded, misdemeanours against the
Empire. Henry actually prepared an expedition against him, and war
was averted only by the illness of the Emperor and the alacrity and
conciliatory spirit shewn by Casimir. Coming to Goslar of his own free
will, he exculpated himself on oath of the charge of aggression against
Bohemia, and consented to make the reparation demanded for the acts
of which he was duly judged guilty by the princes. Thence he returned
home with royal gifts.
Strife however continued between Casimir and Břatislav; and at
Whitsuntide 1054 both dukes were summoned before Henryat Quedlinburg.
It is plain that in the meantime Casimir had made good his hold on
Breslau ; for the town and district are now confirmed to him by Henry,
under condition (according to the Bohemian Chronicler) of annual


## p. 303 (#349) ############################################

Casimir of Poland
303
tribute to Bohemia. The dukes departed “reconciled. ” In the following
January Břatislav died, having apparently again temporarily seized
Silesia. Peace was eventually ratified between Poland and Bohemia by
the marriage of Casimir's only daughter to Bratislav's successor.
In spite of the wanderings of his youth, and the long years spent in
conflict, Casimir was a scholar (he is said to have addressed his troops in
Latin verse! ) and a friend of monks among whom he had been trained.
That he was himself a monk at Cluny is a later legend. His last years
were spent in the peaceful consolidation through Church and State of
what he had so hardly won. He died soon after Henry, in 1058.
a
The affairs of Hungary in the years 1040-1045 group themselves
around King Peter, driven from his realm by the Magyar nobles and
restored, but in vain, by Henry. His aid to Břatislav in the first years
of Henry's reign had been prompted more by youthful insolence than
by any fixed anti-German feeling. He was a Venetian on his father's
side and on succeeding his uncle St Stephen in 1039, had promised him
to maintain his widow Gisela, sister of Henry II, in her possessions, but
after a year or so he broke his faith and she fell into poverty. This
marks the time when, along with Bratislav, he began his raids into
Germany.
Two such raids, in 1039 and 1040, had been successful, when a rebellion
drove him from his realm into Germany. The new government was anti-
German and inclined towards paganism, while the new king, Obo, was
chosen from among the Magyar chiefs. Peter came, as we have seen, to
Henry as a suppliant in August 1041. But Burgundian troubles forced
Henry to put Hungary aside and Obo himself began hostilities. “Never
before did Hungary carry off so great a booty” from the duchy of
Bavaria as now, although a gallant resistance was offered by the
Margrave Adalbert of Babenberg, founder of the Austrian house, and
his warlike son Leopold. At Easter 1042 Obo was crowned as king.
The puppet-king set up by Henry in his first counter-expedition (1042)
was at once expelled, but in 1043, as we saw, Henry obtained solid gain;
the land from the Austrian territory to the Leitha and March was by
far the most lasting result of all his Hungarian campaigns. The boundary
thus fixed remained, but the Hungarian crown could not be brought
into any real dependence. A third expedition (1044) restored Peter as a
vassal, but by autumn 1046 he had fallen, to disappear in prison amid
the depths of Hungary. His cousin Andrew, an Arpad, took his throne.
He dexterously used the renascent Paganism, although it was covered
over with a veneer of Christianity, and he did not wish for permanent
warfare with his greater neighbour. Apologetic envoys gave Henry an
excuse for delay and for two years Hungary was left alone. Then the
peace was disturbed by Henry's restless uncle, Gebhard of Ratisbon, who
(1049) made a raid into Hungary.
CH, XII.


## p. 304 (#350) ############################################

304
Kings of Hungary
>
>
In 1050, following raid and counter-raid, Henry “grieving that
Hungary, which formerly, by the plain judgment of God, had owned his
sway, was now by most wicked men snatched from him," called the
Bavarian princes together at Nuremberg, which ancient city now for the
first time appears in history. The defence of the frontiers was urged
upon them, and next year the Emperor himself invaded Hungary with
an army gathered from all his duchies and tributary peoples. Dis-
regarding Andrew's offer, he entered Hungary by the Danube, but when
he had to leave his boats he was entangled in the marshes and fighting
had small result. The Altaich annalist dismisses the campaign as
"difficult and very troublesome. "
”
Shortly afterwards, however, Andrew seems to have made some sort of
agreement, but in 1052 Henry had again to make an expedition, though
“of no glory and no utility to the realm. ” Pressburg was besieged for
two months before it fell. Then once more came an agreement, made this
time by the Pope's mediation. It was only of short duration: Kuno, the
exiled Duke of Bavaria, was in arms against Henry and urged Andrew
to war. Carinthia was invaded (1054) and the Hungarians returned
rejoicing with much booty. The Bavarians themselves forced Kuno into
quietness: Henry was busy in Flanders. Thus, inconclusively, ends the
story of his relations with Hungary: German supremacy, in fact, could
not be maintained.
The darkness in which the great king died was a shadow cast from
the fierce and pagan lands beyond the Elbe and the Oder.
The Slavs of the North-East were a welter of fierce peoples, whose
hands were of old against all Christians, Dane, German or Pole. Here
and there a precarious Christianity had made some slight inroad; but, in
general, attempts at subjugation had bred a savage hatred for the name
of Christian.
The task of Christian civilisation, formerly belonging to the German
kings, was now taken up by Pole and Dane as rivals, in a day of able
rulers and of nations welded together by their new faith. Boleslav the
Mighty of Poland, an enthusiastic apostle of Christianity, had subdued
the Pomeranians and Prussians. After his death his nephew, Knut of
Denmark, made his power felt along the Baltic as far as, and including,
Pomerania. This extension of his sway was rendered easier by the alliance
with Conrad in 1025 and resulted in ten years' peace. But 1035, the year
of Knut's death, saw a general disturbance and one of the most savage
of recorded Slav incursions.
Among the many Wendish tribes it is necessary to distinguish be-
tween the Slavs on the Baltic beyond the Lower Elbe, Obotrites and
others, and the inland Slavs beyond the Middle Elbe, the Lyutitzi? The
former were more accessible to both Germans and Danes, and as they
1 See Map 26a in vol. 11.


## p. 305 (#351) ############################################

The Wends
305
lived under princes were partly Christianised and partly though uneasily
subject to Germany. But the Lyutitzi, wild and free communities living
under elected rulers, were a more savage people. They might be useful
as allies against the Poles, whom they hated more than they did the
Germans under the tolerant Conrad, but there could be for them nothing
approaching even semi-subjection. With them in the years preceding
Henry's accession direct conflict had arisen through the avarice of the
Saxons, upon whom Conrad had thrown the responsibility of defence.
Repeated raids followed and Henry's first trial in arms was against them.
Then a campaign in 1036, followed by great cruelty on Conrad's part
enforced quiet, which lasted until the end of Henry's reign.
The other Slavs, those of the Baltic, had dealings with the Dukes of
Saxony and the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, rather than with the
Emperor. Archbishop Albrand (1035–1045) built in Hamburg a strong
church and palace as a refuge from Slav raids; Duke Bernard II followed
his example with another stronghold in the same city; duke and bishop
attended to their respective duties, one of exacting tribute and the other of
evangelisation. But there was frequent restlessness and grumbling at
tribute demanded by the Duke and episcopal dues demanded by the Bishop
of Oldenburg which, until 1160 when the see of Lübeck was founded, was
the episcopal centre for the Obotrites; also, when Adalbert(1045) succeeded
Albrand, duke and archbishop fell into strife. Bernard looked upon
Adalbert as a spy in Henry's service; Adalbert strove to free his see from
ducal encroachments. He finished the stone fortifications of Bremen as a
protection against Bernard rather than against the Slavs: he added to
those of Hamburg, and as further defence built a fortress on the banks of
the Elbe, which its garrison made into a robber hold until the outraged
inhabitants destroyed it.
In spite of large schemes for a province with more suffragans, Adalbert
did little for the Slavs. It was neither archbishop nor Saxon duke who
maintained peace among these Slavs of the Elbe, but Duke Godescalc.
This remarkable noble was studying at Lüneburg when his father, an
Obotrite prince, was murdered for his cruelty by a Saxon. Godescalc at
once renounced Christianity and learning alike, and at the head of a horde
of Lyutitzi set out to avenge his father's death. Suddenly his heart
smote him for the woe and death he was dealing out: he gave
himself
up to Duke Bernard, who sent him into Denmark. There he took service
with Knut and went with him to England. After the deaths of Knut and
his sons he came home. He found the Obotrites suffering from a heavy
defeat at the hands of Magnus of Norway, in which the family of Ratibor,
their leading chief, had been all slain. He was able to regain his father's
place and the leadership of the Obotrites. He extended his power as far as
the country of the Lyutitzi, and the wide district of the Bremen diocese
“ feared him as a king” and paid him tribute. With the neighbouring
Christian rulers, Scandinavian and German, he kept up a vigorous friend-
a
a
a
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XII.
20


## p. 306 (#352) ############################################

306
Duke Godescalc
ship. It was he who bore the burden of keeping peace, and shortly before
Henry's death we find him, the Saxon duke and the Danish king in
allied expedition against the Lyutitzi. To the Church, which stood for
civilisation, he was also a friend. He established monasteries and canons
regular in Lübeck, Oldenburg and elsewhere. Throughout the land he
built churches and to their service he summoned missionary priests who
“freely did the work of God"; like Oswald in Northumbria he travelled
with them and often acted as interpreter. “Had he lived,” says the
chronicler," he would have brought all the pagans to the Christian faith. "
He survived Henry some ten years, being murdered in 1066.
The peace imposed by Conrad upon the Lyutitzi was twice broken under
Henry. In 1045 he had to lead an expedition against them, but they
promptly submitted and returned to tribute. When ten years later they
again broke bounds, Henry sent against them William of the Nordmark
and Count Dietrich. At Prizlava, where a ruined castle still overlooks the
confluence of Havel and Elbe, the Margrave was ambushed, and both he
and Dietrich fell. These tidings reached Henry before his death, and
with it the frontier troubles grew more intense.
To this great King and Emperor there has sometimes been ascribed
a conscious attempt at a restoration of the Empire of Charlemagne,
limited geographically but of world-wide importance through its control
of the Western Church from its centre, Rome. But there is little real
trace of such a conception on Henry's part, save in the one feature of
that ordered rule which was inseparably bound up with Charlemagne's
Empire. Too much has been sometimes made of Henry's attitude towards
Cluny, and of his marriage with Agnes of Poitou and Aquitaine, as
paving the way for the acquisition of France. But this is a mere con-
jecture based upon a wish to reconcile later German ideals with the work
of one of their greatest kings. He did use the sympathy of the Church,
and especially of Cluny, in Burgundy, as a help towards the stability of
ordered imperial rule, and that was all. It was no new and subtle scheme
but an old-established procedure; a piece of honest policy, not a cynical
design to trap France by means of piety. Henry's mind was, it is true,
pre-occupied with the Middle Kingdom, but there is no trace of any
endeavour to pave the way for an eventual re-union under the sceptre of
his heirs of the whole Carolingian Empire. There is, however, far stronger
basis for the belief that he meant an imperial control over the Papacy
than that he aimed at an eventual supremacy over France.
For it is plain that Henry not only un-made and made Popes, but
that he accepted the offer of the Patriciate in the belief that it meant
control over papal elections, and that he secured from the Romans a
sworn promise to give to himself and to his heir the chief voice in all
future elections. Whatever the exact force of the Emperor's control, the
promise meant that no one could be Pope except with his approval. It
.


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Henry's aims
307
put the Roman see almost, if not quite, into the position of a German
bishopric. And Henry used the power placed in his hands. Whether the
Romans would ever have revolted against Henry's choice we do not know,
for his wisdom never put them to the test. But what worked well under
Henry at a time when churchmen and statesmen had roughly the same
practical aims, although maybe divergent theories, might not work well
under a less high-minded ruler under whom Church and State had grown
into divergent ideals.
Henry did not aim at imperial aggrandisement; he did not wish to
lower the Papacy any more than he wished to conquer France. He was
a lover not of power but of order, and order he meant to guard. More-
over he was a man of fact and actuality: he respected law, he respected
custom : they must, however, be law and custom that had worked and
would work well. He shewed this in his dealings with the Papacy: he
shewed it in his dealings with the tribal duchies in Germany.
When it
is a case of giving a duke to Bavaria, although custom was absolutely
on the side of Bavaria in electing its duke, he ignored custom and
nominated. He flouted the Bavarian's right of election, not because he
thought little of law and custom but because he was concerned with the
practical enforcement of order. It was so too with abbots and monas-
teries ; sometimes he allowed free election, sometimes he simply nomi-
nated. He was guided by the circumstances, and by the state of the
monastery: he always aimed at a worthy choice but cared little how it
came about, and corrupt monks were little likely to elect a reforming
abbot.
In Germany with its tribal duchies he had no settled policy. A few
months after Conrad's death Henry himself was Duke of Swabia, Bavaria
and Carinthia, as well as king. He followed his father's policy in uniting
the duchies with the Crown unless he saw good reason for the contrary.
Hence he gave away one great duchy after another when it seemed good.
He gave Bavaria to Henry of Luxemburg when it was threatened by
Obo of Hungary; Swabia to the Lorrainer Otto when Godfrey was
troubling the neighbouring Lorraine. And he did not fear to raise
houses that might become rivals in the Empire if they served the present
use. It was so with his patronage of Luxemburgers and of Babenbergs.
And yet it must be confessed that Henry's dealings with the duchies
were not happy. Bavaria and Carinthia he left largely hostile to the
Crown. Lorraine was torn by rebellion because in the case of Godfrey
Henry had misjudged his man. Personal genius was lacking, too, in his
dealings with the border-land states, although with Bohemia and Hungary
he could claim success. And in Burgundy, if anywhere, he did succeed.
Upon internal order he had set his heart. We recall his “Declarations
of Indulgence" and the “ peace undreamt of through the ages” which
followed. Yet the peace was itself precarious, though his example was
fruitfully followed afterwards; and Germany, breathing awhile more
CH. XII.
202


## p. 308 (#354) ############################################

308
Henry's character
peacefully during recurring “Landfrieden," had cause to bless the day at
Constance.
In himself he seems to have lacked breadth and geniality: with
humble fidelity he took up the task of his inheritance: his single-minded-
ness and purity of character are testified to by all: there were great men
whom he chose out or who trusted him: Herman of Cologne, Bruno of
Toul (Leo IX), Peter Damiani. Yet he could fail with great men as
with smaller: Leo IX towards the end, and Wazo of Liège he misjudged;
the difficult Godfrey of Lorraine, whom he failed to understand, wellnigh
wrecked his Empire. It was this personal weakness that made him, in his
last years, fall below his own high standard, unable to cope with the
many difficulties of his Empire. He seems weary when he comes to die.
Germany looked back to him, not for the good that he had done, but
for the evil which came so swiftly when his day was over.
In Germany he did not build to stand. One great thing he did to
change history, and in doing it he raised up the power that was to cast
down his son and destroy his Empire. His tomb and his monument
should be in Rome.


## p. 309 (#355) ############################################

309
CHAPTER XIII.
THE VIKINGS.
The term Viking is a derivative of the Old Norse Vik, a creek, bay
or fjord, and means one who haunts such an opening and uses it as a base
whence raids may be made on the surrounding country. The word is
now commonly applied to those Norsemen, Danes and Swedes who harried
Europe from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in such phrases as
“the Viking age," "Viking civilisation,” is used in a still wider sense as a
convenient term for Scandinavian civilisation at a particular stage in its
development. It is in this larger sense that the term is used in the
present chapter, covering the activities of the Northmen in peace as well
as in war. The term Viking in its narrower sense is no more descriptive
of this age than “ Buccaneering” would be of the age of Elizabeth. .
Except along the narrow line of the Eider, Scandinavia has no land-
boundaries of importance and is naturally severed from the rest of Europe.
Though known to Greek and Roman geographers and historians, it was
almost entirely unaffected by Roman civilisation. It was not till the
Scandinavian peoples were driven by stress of circumstance to find fresh
homes, that they found that the sea instead of dividing them from the
rest of Europe really furnished them with a ready and easy path of attack
against those nations of North-West Europe who had either neglected
or forgotten the art of seamanship.
The history of the Teutonic North from the middle of the sixth to
the end of the eighth century is almost a blank, at least in so far as
history concerns itself with the record of definite events. During the
first half of the sixth century there had been considerable activity in
Denmark and Southern Sweden. About the year 520 Chocilaicus, King
of the Danes, or, according to another authority, of the Getae (i. e. Götar)
in South Sweden, made a raid on the territory of the Franks on the Lower
Rhine, but was defeated and slain by Theudibert, son of the Frankish king
Theodoric, as he was withdrawing from Frisia with extensive plunder.
This expedition finds poetic record in the exploits of Hygelac, King of
the Geats, in Beowulf. Some forty years later there is mention of them
in Venantius Fortunatus's eulogy of Duke Lupus of Champagne. They
a
a
CH. XI.


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310
Causes of Viking activity
were now in union with the Saxons and made a raid on Western Frisia,
but were soon driven back by the Franks. From this time until the first
landing of Vikings near Dorchester (c. 787), the earliest attacks on the
coast of France against which Charles the Great made defence in 800,
and the first encounter between the Danes and Franks on the borders of
Southern Denmark in 808, we know almost nothing of the history of
Scandinavia, at least in so far as we look for information in the annals or
histories of the time.
The story of these two hundred years has to some extent been pieced
together from scraps of historical, philological and archaeological evi-
dence. Professor Zimmer shewed that it was possible, that the attacks of
unknown pirates on the island of Eigg in the Hebrides and on Tory
Island off Donegal, described in certain Irish annals of the seventh
century, were really the work of early Viking invaders, and that the
witness of Irish legends and sagas tends to prove that already by the end
of the seventh century Irish missionaries were settled in the Shetlands and
Faroes, where they soon came into contact with the Northmen. Evidence
for the advance from the other side, of the Northmen towards the West
and South, has been found by Dr Jakobsen in his work on the place-names
of the Shetlands. He has shewn that many of these names must be due
to Norse settlements from a period long before the recognised Viking
movements of the ninth century. Archaeological evidence can also be
adduced in support of this belief in early intercourse between Scandinavia
and the islands of the West. Sculptured stones found in the island of
Gothland shew already by 700 clear evidence of Celtic art influence.
Indeed archaeologists are now agreed that in the eighth century and
even earlier there were trade connexions between Scandinavia and the
West. Long before English or Irish, Franks or Frisians, knew the
Northmen as Viking raiders, they had been familiar with them in peace-
ful mercantile intercourse, and it is probable that in the eighth century
there were a good number of Scandinavian merchants settled in Western
Europe. Their influence on the trade of the West was only exceeded
by that of the Frisians, who were the chief trading and naval power of
the seventh and eighth centuries, and it is most probable that it was the
crushing of Frisian power by Charles Martel in 734 and their final sub-
jection by Charles the Great towards the close of the eighth century
which helped to prepare the way for the great Viking advance.
About the year 800 the relations between the North and West
Germanic peoples underwent a great change both in character and extent.
We find the coasts of England, Ireland, Frisia and France attacked by
Viking raiders, while on the southern borders of Denmark there was
constant friction between the kings of that country and the forces of the
Empire. The question has often been asked: What were the causes of
this sudden outburst of hostile activity on the part of the Northmen?
Monkish chroniclers said they were sent by God in punishment for the


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Early raids on England and Ireland
311
a
sins of the age ; Norman tradition as preserved by Dudo and William of
Jumièges attributed the raids to the necessity for expansion consequent
on over-population. Polygamy had led to a rapid increase of population,
and many of the youth of the country were driven forth to gain fresh
lands for themselves elsewhere. Polygamy does not necessarily lead to
over-population, but polygamy among the ruling classes, as it prevailed
in the North, means a large number of younger sons for whom provision
must be made, and it is quite possible that stress of circumstance caused
many such to visit foreign lands on Viking raids. Of the political condition
of the Scandinavian countries we know very little at this time. We hear
however in Denmark in the early years of the ninth century of long
disputes as to the succession, and it is probable that difficulties of this
kind may have prompted many to go on foreign expeditions. In Norway
we know that the growth of the power of Harold Fairhair in the middle
portion of the ninth century led to the adoption of a Viking life by many
of the more independent spirits, and it is quite possible that earlier
efforts towards consolidation among the petty Norwegian kings may have
produced similar effects. Social and political conditions may thus have
worked together, preparing the ground for Scandinavian activity in the
ninth century, and it was perhaps, as suggested above, the destruction
of Frisian power which removed the last check on the energy of the
populous nations of the North.
The first definite record of Viking invasion is probably that found in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (s. a. 787), which tells of the coming of Danish
ships to England in the days of Beorhtric, King of Wessex. They
landed in the neighbourhood of Dorchester and slew the king's reeve.
Certain versions of the Chronicle call them ships of the Northmen and
tell us that they came from “Herethaland. ” There can be little doubt that
this is the West Norwegian district of Hörthaland, and that “ Northmen"
here, as elsewhere in the Chronicle, means Norwegians? . The term
“ Danish” is probably generic for Scandinavian, the chronicler using the
name of the nationality best known to him. In June 793 the church at
Lindisfarne was destroyed, and a year later the monastery of St Paul at
Jarrow. In 795 Vikings landed in Skye and visited Lambay Island off
Dublin, and in 798 the Isle of Man. These invaders were certainly
Norse, for the Irish annalists mention expressly the first arrival of the
Danes in Ireland in 849, and draw a rigid distinction between the Nor-
wegian or “white” foreigners and the Danish or "black" ones.
England was not troubled again by Viking raiders until 835, but the
attacks on Ireland continued almost without cessation.
lona was
72
1
Attempts have been made to identify Herethaland with the district of Har-
desyssel in Jutland and to prove that these Northmen were Danes, but the weight
of evidence seems to the present writer to be all in favour of the identification with
Hörthaland. The name Hiruath commonly given to Norway by Gaelic writers is
another version of the same name,
CH. XIII,


## p. 312 (#358) ############################################

312
The Danish kingdom
destroyed in 802; by 807 the invaders had penetrated inland as far as
Roscommon, and four years later they had made their way round the
west coast of Ireland as far as Cork. In 821 the Howth peninsula was
plundered and during the next few years the rich monasteries of North Ire-
land were destroyed. By the year 834 the Northmen had visited nearly
the whole of the island and no place was safe from their raids. About this
time there came a change in the character of the attacks in that large
fleets began to anchor in the loughs and harbours and estuaries with
which the coast of Ireland abounds. Thence they made lengthy raids
on the surrounding country, often staying the whole winter through,
instead of paying summer visits only as they had done hitherto. At
the same time they often strengthened their base by the erection of
forts on the shores of the waters in which they had established them-
selves.
When the Viking raids were resumed in England in 835 it is fairly
certain that they were the work of Danish and not of Norwegian
invaders. The Norsemen had found other fields of activity in Ireland,
while the Danes who had already visited the chief estuaries of the Frankish
coast now crossed to England. At first their attacks were directed
towards the southern shores of Britain, but by 841 they had penetrated
into Lindsey and East Anglia. London and Rochester were sacked in
842. In 851 the Danes wintered in Thanet and four years later they
stayed in Sheppey. The Danish fleet in this year numbered some 350
ships. It was probably this same fleet, somewhat reduced in numbers,
which in 852 sailed round Britain and captured Dublin. With the
winterings in Thanet and Sheppey the Viking invasions of England had
reached the same stage of development as in Ireland. We have passed
from the period of isolated raids to that of persistent attacks with a
view to permanent conquest.
The mainland of Western Europe was also exposed during these
years
to attacks of a twofold character. In the first place, trouble arose
on the boundary between Southern Denmark and Frankish territory owing
to the desire of the Danish kings to extend their authority southward :
in the second, constant raids were made along the whole of the shores of
Europe from Frisia to Aquitaine.
The friction between the Danes and their neighbours on the south
was continuous through the last years of the eighth and the greater part
of the ninth century. Charles the Great by his campaigns against the
Saxons and Nordalbingians had advanced towards the Danish boundary
on the Eider, and the Danes first gave offence in 777 when their king
Sigefridus (Old Norse Sigurðr) gave shelter to the Saxon patriot Widukind.
Gradually the Frankish power advanced, and in 809 a fort was established
at Itzehoe (Esesfeld) on the Stör, north of the Elbe. The Danes also made
advances on their side and in 804 their king Godefridus (O. N. Guðröðr)
collected a fleet and army at Slesvík (Schleswig). In 808 after a successful


## p. 313 (#359) ############################################

Preaching of Christianity
313
campaign against the Obotrites, a Slavonic people in modern Meck-
lenburg, he constructed a boundary wall for his kingdom, stretching
from the Baltic to the Eider. He received tribute not only from the
Obotrites but also from the Nordalbingians and Frisians. He was pre-
paring to attack Charles the Great himself when he died suddenly by the
hand of a retainer in 810. There can be little doubt that this Godefridus
is to be identified with the Gotricus of Saxo Grammaticus and Guðröðr
the Yngling of Scandinavian tradition. If that is so, Guðröðr-Gode-
fridus was slain in Stifla Sound (probably on the coast of Vestfold), and
was king not only of Denmark, but also of much of Southern Norway,
including Vestfold, Vingulmörk, and perhaps Agðir, as well as of Verm-
land in Sweden.
Later events confirm the evidence for the existence of a Dano-
Norwegian kingdom of this kind. In 812 a dispute as to the succession
arose between Sigefridus, “nepos” to king Guðröðr, and Anulo (O. N.
Óli), “nepos” to a former king Herioldus (O. N. Haraldr) or Harold
(probably the famous Harold Hyldetan slain at the battle of Bravalla).
Both claimants were slain in fight but the party of Anulo were victorious.
Anulo's brothers, Harold and Reginfredus (O. N. Ragnfröðr), became joint
kings, and soon after we hear of their going to Vestfold, “the extreme
district of their realm, whose people and chiefs were refusing to be made
subject to them. ” Fortune fluctuated between Harold and the sons of
Godefridus during the next few years, but Harold secured the support of
the Emperor when he accepted baptism at Mayence in 826, with his wife,
son and nephew. After his baptism he returned to Denunark through
Frisia, where the Emperor had granted him Riustringen as a retreat in
case of necessity. An attempt to regain Denmark was frustrated, and
Harold probably availed himself of his Frisian grant during the next few
years. The next incident belongs to the year 836, when Horic (O. N.
Hárekr), one of the sons of Godefridus, sent an embassy to Louis the
Pious denying complicity in the Viking raids made on Frisia at that time,
and these denials continued during the next few years. In 837
Hemmingus (O. N. Hemmingr), probably a brother of Harold, and himself
a Christian, was slain while defending the island of Walcheren against
pirates. These two incidents are important as they tend to shew that
the Vikiny raids were rather individual than national enterprises and
that there was an extensive peaceful settlement of Danes in Frisia. In
addition to the grant of Riustringen the Emperor had assigned (826)
another part of Frisia to Roric (O. N. Hrærekr), a brother of Harold, on
condition that he should ward off piratical attacks.
It was during these years that the influence of Christianity first made
itself felt in Scandinavia. The earliest knowledge of Christianity
probably came, as is so often the case, with the extension of trade.
Danes and Swedes settled in Friesland and elsewhere for purposes of
trade, and either they or their emissaries must have made the “ white
CH. XIII.


## p. 314 (#360) ############################################

314
St Anskar
Christ” known to their heathen countrymen. The first definite mission
to the North was undertaken by St Willibrord at the beginning of the
eighth century. He was favourably received by the Danish king
Ongendus (O. N. Angantýr), but his mission was without fruit. In 822
Pope Paschal appointed Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, as his legate
among the northern peoples. He undertook a mission to Denmark in
823 and made a few converts. But it was in 826, when King Harold was
baptised and prepared to return to Denmark, that the first opportunity
of preaching Christianity in Denmark really came. With the opportunity
came the man, and Harold was accompanied on his return by Anskar, who
more than any other deserves to be called “Apostle of the Scandinavian
North. ” Leaving his monastery at Corvey (Corbie) in Saxony, and filled
with zeal to preach the gospel to the heathen, Anskar made many converts,
but Harold's ill-success in regaining the sovereignty injured his mission
in Denmark and, two years later, at the request of the Swedes themselves,
he preached the gospel in Sweden, receiving a welcome at Birca (Björkö)
from the Swedish king Bern (O. N. Björn). After a year and a half's mission
in Sweden, Anskar was recalled and made Archbishop of Hamburg and
given, jointly with Ebbo, jurisdiction over the whole of the northern
realms. Gautbert was made first bishop of Sweden and founded a church
at Sigtuna, but after a few years' work he was expelled in a popular
rising Little progress was made in Denmark. No churches were
established, but Anskar did a good deal in training Danish youths in
Christian principles at his school in Hamburg.
Anskar's position became a very difficult one when the lands from which
his income was derived passed to Charles the Bald, and still more so when
the seat of his jurisdiction was destroyed by the Danes in 845. Louis
the German made amends by appointing him to the bishopric of Bremen,
afterwards united to a restored archbishopric of Hamburg. Anskar
now set himself to the task of gaining influence first with King Horic,
and later with his successor Horic the Younger. He was so far success-
ful that the first Christian church in Denmark was established at Slesvík,
followed soon after by one at Ribe. He also concerned himself with
Sweden once more, gaining authority for his mission by undertaking
embassies from both Horic and Louis. He obtained permission for the
preaching of Christianity and continued his activities to the day of his
death in 865. Anskar had done much for Christianity in the North.
His own fiery zeal had however been ill supported even by his chosen
followers, and the tangible results were few. Christianity had found a
hearing in Denmark and Sweden, but Norway was as yet untouched. A
few churches had been built in the southern part of both countries, a
certain number of adherents had been gained among the nobles and
trading classes, but the mass of the people remained untouched. The
first introduction of Christianity was too closely bound up with the
political and diplomatic relations of Northern Europe for it to be


## p. 315 (#361) ############################################

Viking raids on Frankish territory
315
otherwise, and the episcopal organisation was far more elaborate than
was required.
With the death of Louis the Pious in 840 a change took place in
the relations between Danes and Franks. In the quarrels over the
division of the Empire Lothar encouraged attacks on the territory of
his rivals. Harold was bribed by a grant of the island of Walcheren
and neighbouring district, so that in 842 we find him as far south as the
Moselle, while Horic himself took part in an expedition up the Elbe
against Louis the German. In 847 when the brothers had for the time
being patched up their quarrels, they stultified themselves by sending
embassies to Horic, asking him to restrain his subjects from attacking
the Christians. Horic had not the power, even if he had the desire, but,
fortunately for the Empire, Denmark was now crippled by internal
dissensions. This prevented any attack on the part of the Danish
nation as a whole, but Viking raids continued without intermission.
The first sign of dissension in Denmark appeared in 850, when Horic
was attacked by his two nephews and compelled to share his kingdom
with them. In 852 Harold, the long-exiled King of Denmark, was slain
for his treachery to Lothar, and two years later a revolution took place.
We are told that after twenty years' ravaging in Frankish territory
the Vikings made their way back to their fatherland, and there a dispute
arose between Horic and his nephew Godurm (O. N. Guðormr). A dis-
astrous battle was fought and so great was the slaughter that only one
boy of the royal line remained. He became king as Horic the Younger.
Encouraged by these dissensions, Roric and Godefridus, brother and son
respectively to Harold, attempted in 855 to win the Danish kingdom
but were compelled to retire again to Frisia. Roric was more successful
in 857 when he received permission from Horic to settle in the part of
his kingdom lying between the sea and the Eider, i. e. perhaps in North
Frisia, a district consisting of a strip of coast-line between the town of
Ribe and the mouth of the Eider, with the islands adjacen
We have now carried the story of the relations between Denmark
and her continental neighbours down to the middle of the ninth
century, the same period to which we have traced the story of the Viking
raids in England and Ireland. Before we tell the story of the trans-
formation which those raids underwent just at this time, we must say
something of Viking attacks on the maritime borders of the Continent.
The first mention of raids on the coast of Western Europe is in 800,
when Charles the Great visited the coast-line from the Somme to the Seine
and arranged for a fleet and coast-guard to protect it against Viking
attacks. In 810, probably under direct instruction from the Danish
king Godefridus, a fleet of some 200 vessels ravaged Frisia and its
islands. Once more Charles the Great strengthened his feet and the
guarding of the shores, but raids continued to be a matter of almost
yearly occurrence. The Emperor Louis pursued the same policy as his
CH. XIII.


## p. 316 (#362) ############################################

316
The Vikings in Spain
father, nevertheless by 821 the Vikings had sailed round Brittany and
sacked monasteries in the islands of Noirmoutier and Rhé. From 814-
833 attacks were almost entirely confined to these districts, and it is
possible that these Vikings had their winter quarters in Ireland, where
they were specially active at this time. At any rate it was to Wexford
that one of these feets returned in 820. The later years of Louis's
reign (from 834) were troubled ones.