223 ERA THE ELEVENTH. THE LIFE OF ALFRED THE GREAT. THE FOUNDATION OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY; AND THE RISE OF THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 1. ALFRED is the first of our Anglo-Saxon kings whose history can be read with much pleasure or advantage. The early period of our national annals is singularly obscure and uncertain, and what is known of it is chiefly filled up with the scanty details of battles and contentions between the rival tribes, who endeavoured to gain a superiority over each other by war or murder. "This history," says Hume, "abounds in names, but is extremely barren of events," and our great poet Milton observes, that "the skirmishes of kites and crows as much merit a particular narrative, as the confused transactions and battles of the Saxon Heptarchy." It is not until we arrive at the age of Alfred, that we meet with any prince whose life constitutes a very remarkable era in English history. The nation to which Alfred belonged was one, however, that had long been settled in this country before it gave birth to so great a prince. Its origin may be traced to the northern parts of Germany, and the Cimbrian Chersonesus, a contracted territory, forming the present Duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein. Under the reign of Valentinian (A.D. 371) the Saxons attacked the maritime provinces of Gaul; and in order to oppose their inroads the Romans appointed an officer, whom they called Count of the Saxon shore. By degrees they became more formidable, and, from being at first little better than roving pirates, at last took possession of large tracts of country on the bor ders of the Rhine. Distinguished always by their valour and love of liberty, the Saxons, Angles, or Jutes (for by all these names they were known) acquired a settlement in this island as early as the year 450. Perceiving, after their easy triumph over the Scots and Picts, to which the Britons had invited them, that they might subdue the Britons themselves with the same facility, they lost no time in effecting and securing their conquest over Vortigern, Vortimer, and Ambrosius successively. The kingdom of Hengist was thus established in Kent, and fixed at Canterbury, where he governed about forty years; dying in or near to the year 488, and leaving his newly-acquired dominions to his posterity. 2. The next of the Saxon kingdoms founded in this country was that of Ella, another northern adventurer, who at length fixed himself in Sussex and Surrey (A.D. 477). Eighteen years later Cerdic and his son Kenric, with another band of these rovers, gained a footing in the western part of this island, and were therefore called the West Saxons. Several desperate battles were fought with the Britons at this time, who made a more courageous resistance than they had hitherto done to the progress of the invaders. They even called in to their aid, on this occasion, the renowned king Arthur, prince of the Silures, or of South Wales, whose matchless valour stopped the progress of the Saxons for awhile, but could not wrest from them their conquests over the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight. By successive inroads of the same race from Germany, the natives of Britain were at last overpowered, and driven into the remote fastnesses of Cornwall and Wales; but a remnant escaped to Armorica, and gave their name to what is now a province of France, formerly known as Bretagne, Brittany, or the lesser Britain. It was thus that, winning their way by slow steps and painful efforts, the Saxons advanced from the north, from the east, and from the south, till at length their victorious banners were united in the centre of the island. A hundred and fifty years after the invasion of Hengist, their conquests were nearly completed by the parcelling out of the greater part of the island into seven kingdoms, which have been called the Saxon Heptarchy. But it was not until the tenth century that Cornwall was conquered by Athelstan. The kingdoms thus acquired by the Saxons had no stability, and were subject to perpetual changes. Among the seven or eight petty sovereigns who ruled over the island, domestic feuds and jealousies were continually springing up, and their acknowledgment of one who bore the title of Britwalda, as a sort of superior over the rest, was an empty honour, which often gave rise to disputes and wars. These differences were, after more than two centuries and a half of strife, terminated by Egbert, king of Wessex, becoming sufficiently powerful to subdue or control the remaining six or seven chiefs, and to unite the several kingdoms of the Heptarchy or Octarchy under his dominion (A.D. 827). 3. Egbert was the sole descendant of the first Saxon conquerors who subdued Britain; the descendants of all the other royal families having become extinct by war or other causes. He was also a distinguished warrior, having been trained in the school of the greatest monarch and hero of the age, Charlemagne, at whose court he was residing in honourable exile when called home to mount the throne of Wessex. All these circumstances contributed to give him that ascendancy which he at length acquired over the Anglo-Saxon nation. His supremacy was also acknowledged over a portion of Wales and of the low country of Scotland. The government of some of the former kings of the Heptarchy could scarcely be said to have been yet abolished, as they were termed the lesser kings, and acted the part of deputies, or rulers of the provinces. But by this time, or even as early as the year 800, the seven kingdoms had already merged into three; for Kent, Essex, and East Anglia were all swallowed up in Mercia; Northumbria had engrossed to itself Deira and Bernicia; and Wessex united to itself Sussex, with all its dependencies. To some of these states Egbert allowed the privilege of electing a king, who paid him tribute, and was dependant upon him. Thus, after about four hundred years from the first arrival of the Saxons, England became a kingdom, of nearly the same extent as that which is now properly so called; and its customs, laws, and institutions, civil and religious, were with little variation everywhere the same. A union in government laid the first foundation for the future greatness of a people, who readily paid their allegiance to a monarch commanding general homage, by the splendour of his victories, the vigour of his administration, and the superior nobility of his birth. 4. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom had, long before this time, emerged in some degree from that state of barbarity which belonged to it in the days of Hengist and Horsa. From the year 597, Christianity had been restored in our island by the mission of Augustine the monk, assisted by the zeal of Queen Bertha; and Elthebert king of Kent had become its first convert. Thirty-seven years after, or A.d. 634, the faith of Christ had made a steady progress throughout our land, and was everywhere subverting idolatry; and thus, long before the Heptarchy, the Anglo-Saxons of the plains, not less than the Britons among the hills (who had always retained their Christianity and its institutions from the days of the Apostles), were become believers in the Gospel. The Pagan religion had, however, deeply imprinted its characters upon their language and customs, and has not become entirely effaced even in the present day. Some deities of the Saxons have their names still kept up among us in the days of the week, and the principal festival of the year. They worshipped the Sun, thence our Sunday; the Moon, thence our Monday; Tuysco, thence our Tuesday; Woden, the Mars of the Romans, thence Wednesday; Thor, the Jupiter of the ancients, thence our Thursday; Frigga, their Venus, hence Friday, and Seater or Saturn, thence our Saturday. Our term Easter was also originally a Saxon goddess, whose festival was kept in April. 5. Under the reign of Egbert, a new prospect was opened of national prosperity; and it might have been expected that a people united under the same form of religion, and under one monarch, would be prosperous and happy. But this prospect was interrupted by the dangers with which the country was threatened from the inroads of foreign enemies, who were now disposed to make the Saxons their prey, just as these had done the Britons before them. Egbert was scarcely beginning to enjoy the reward of his courage and prudence, when the Danes appeared in the Isle of Sheppey. These northern pirates, who assumed the title of Sea-kings, and who lived by violence and plunder, had now fixed their desires upon obtaining possession of this country. As early as the year 787, they had landed a force in Holy Island, and in 795 they appeared in Northumberland; after which they returned periodically and with increased numbers. As long, however, as Egbert lived, their successes were but trifling, and purchased at a dear rate. A large body of them, who had landed in thirty-five ships, he met and defeated with great slaughter near Charmouth in Dorsetshire (A.D. 833), and a second victory of a still more decisive kind he gained over them at Hengistdown, still called Hengsdon, near the town of Callington in Cornwall (A.D. 835). 6. By keeping a vigilant watch along the coast, and by the energy of his measures, Egbert was enabled during his lifetime to preserve his kingdom from sustaining any very serious injury. But after his death (A.D. 836) his feeble successor Ethelwolf, who displayed more talents for governing a convent than a kingdom, made but feeble efforts to resist the Danes. During this reign, they continued their system of predatory warfare on the coast of England, with various degrees of success, keeping the country in a continual state of alarm, and from the nature of their operations generally deriving some advantage. Their vessels were small, and ran easily up the creeks and rivers where they drew them ashore; and having formed an intrenchment round them which they guarded with part of their number, the remainder scattered themselves everywhere, and carrying off the inhabitants, cattle, and goods, they hastened to their ships and quickly disappeared. Such was their general plan of warfare. But at length they ventured upon the bolder measure of endeavouring to obtain a settlement in the Isles of Thanet and of Sheppey, by taking up their winter quarters in these places; and notwithstanding that they were repulsed and defeated on more than one occasion during this reign, they still maintained their ground, burning the cities of London and Canterbury, and marching into the heart of Surrey (A.D. 853). 7. When the crown devolved, at the death of Ethelwolf, after an inglorious reign, upon Ethelred his third son, A.D. 866 (the two elder brothers having died before him), he found that he had succeeded to a kingdom torn by intestine divisions, and more than ever in danger from the Danes. The Anglo-Saxon monarchy existed only in name. It was in reality broken up into four principalities, breathing a |