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Alfred the West Saxon, King of English Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027953888 /S3 BOUGHT WITH THB«INC FROM th:^ SAGE ENDOWMENT the; gift o^ Benrg HI. %nt 1891 Saintly %ivc8 Edited by R. F. Horton, M.A. Alfred the West Saxon King of the English Frontispiece^. The Traditional Portrait of Alfred the Great. This conception of Alfred's features is probably at least 200 years old. It appears in one of the Bodlean prints with this legend: Alfredus Saxonuvt Rex, Coll. Universitatis Oxon. Fvndalvr. Ciica A. Chr. 877. Hujus Suinmi Regis ^Efigiem a Taiula in Btbl. Bodkiana /ulUuii Reverendo viro Nathan Wciiwri'll, S.T-R. Nathan Wetherell was Master of University :from 1764-1808, but the original to which he refers cannot be traced. Alfred the West Saxon King of the EngHsh DUGALD MACFADYEN, M.A. (J^ametime ExM^itioner in Modem History on ihs Foundation of Merton Colleg4, Ox/orS} WITH PORTRAIT AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 1901 LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO. NEW YORK : E. P. DUTTON & CO. M ; The Author's Apology This book was undertaken at the request of a friend who found himself prevented under doctor's orders from preparing a Life of King Alfred for this series in time for the millenary celebration of his reign. Though undertaken to oblige someone else, it has been finished to please myself, and to gratify my reverence and liking for the hero of the book. It has fallen to me, during the twelve months while the book was in preparation, to work much among squalid and sordid scenes and under anxieties unusually oppressive and depressing and it has been a pleasure to me beyond my own expectation and power to explain, to find myself at the beginning or end of the day in Alfred's strenuous and inspiring company ; to forget the burdens of a present warfare in watching Alfred wage his ; to see him battling against enemies within and without, and compelled in the interests of order and truth to wrestle for mastery as much viii The Author's Apology with his own friends as with the untoward circum- gave stances of his time ; and to recall how he "to meanest issues fire of the Most High." If the reading of this story gives to anyone a tithe of the pleasure which the writing of it has given—a very improbable supposition,—or enables someone to discover or to find again the attraction of King Alfred's personality, the ambitious aim entertained by the Editor of the series will not be wholly missed. Though the book has been confessedly a by- work, and has, no doubt, defects which would have been avoided had it come from a master hand, disciplined by previous work on this period, it aims at being faithful to the data accepted by the best informed and most recent students of King Alfred's time and work. It makes no pretension to expert Anglo-Saxon scholarship, but it is hoped that it may be found to be scholarly in the larger sense of discriminating between truth ahd legend, and of stating the facts of Alfred's life in an order and proportion which should make the whole narrative neither false nor unfair to the impression left by the great king on his own and subsequent gener- ations. The Author's Apology ix It is impossible to write history without rethink- ing it, and in that process the introduction of a personal equation is inevitable. For this and other reasons it cannot be said too often that the best way to read Early English History is to read it in the English Chronicle and the earliest obtain- able records. The language of a period is itself a part of the period, a crystallised expression of its spirit, so that through the very words and turns of expression used, we get a feeling for the men who used them. The further the author is from the time of which he writes, thelsmore do we lose this particular clue to understanding an age. But to many the want of continuity and consecutive thought, and the absence of familiar categories and processes of thinking in early authors, will always be an insuperable difficulty. Short of the originals, the next best thing is a record which, while arranging the original materials in an orderly fashion, shall let as much of them be seen as possible. This, however inadequately, has been attempted in this book. Wherever possible, quota- tions have been given in preference to working over the originals and putting them into another dress. It has been one of the pleasures of this work d X The Author's Apology (or should it be play?) that I have received help from many sources which I now have the satis- faction of acknowledging. Mr F. York Powell, Regius Professor of History in the University of Oxford, has been unfailingly patie'nt, suggestive, and prompt in the help he has given. The Rev. A. H. Johnson, M.A. of All Souls College, Oxford, has kindly read the proofs and made some suggestions. Mr Milward, the Librarian of tlie Hanley Public Library, has spared no pains in* obtaining from other libraries books required t6 supplement the somewhat meagre historical equipjnent of our local library; and there are others who would not wish to be mentioned publicly to whom I am equally indebted. DUGALD MACFADYEN. Hanley, Deceviber 1900. Contents Book I. —Origins. CHAPTER I. The Child and his Forbears . 3 II. Education and the Origin of Ideas 15 III. The Court of the Pope 29 IV. The Court of the Emperor . 37 V. The Inward Man 51 Book II. —Engle-land or Daneland .'' I. The Coming of the Danes 61 II. Under the Hammer of Thor 89 III. Alfred King 112 IV. The Hour of Darkness 129 V. The Turn of the Tide 146 Book III. —The Service of the People and the Service of God. I. The Sower 169 II. Men of War 190 III. Peacemakers 207 IV. Men of Work 221 § 1. The Work of Kmd 221 § 2. Art 227 § 3. Builders 235 § 4. Ships 246 V. Men of Prayer . 251 VI. Laws 273 VII. Strangers . 293 VIII. The King as Bookman 310 Book IV.—The Triumph and Passing of Alfred. I. War and Peace . 337 II. The Shadow of a Great NaMe 355 Summary of Dates and Events for Reference . 367 • Index . • • -371 List of Illustrations Traditional Portrait (Photogravure)J Frontispiece Outline Map of England before the . page 60 Coming of the Danes . White Horse Hill (Berks.) . facing page loi Count Gleichen's Statue, Wantage . „ 188 (From a photograph by T. REViELEV.) King Alfred's Jewel ... „ 229 Coins of Alfred .... „ 233 St Michael's Tower, Oxford . „ 239 Coin with Moneyer's Name . page 250 Ruins of Hyde Abbey, Winchester . facing page 254 (From a photograph by W. T. Green.) Page from the Shepherd's Book . „ 264 Ruins of Wolvesey Abbey . „ 338 (From a photograph by W. T. Green.) Hyde Abbey Church ... ,j 355 (From a photograph by W. T. Green.) Supposed Resting-place of Alfred's Bones „ 366 (From a photograph by W. T. Green.) Book 3 Origins — Chapter I The Child and his Forbears " The iirst duty of every man who would be; great is to choose good ^parents." The Note-Book. Alfred! ^^s the fifth son of ^thelwulf, King of Wessex, and Osburh his first wife. He was born in the royal vill of Wantage in Berlishire, in the year 849 A.D. The town has Tiow, in its wide market-place, broad streets, and small houses, the aspect of a well-bred country town of the last century. It has commemorated its chief title to fame by a fine but imaginative statue of Alfred in the market-place. The only other mark which Alfred's association with the place has left is the name of a field at the top of the town, known to local tradition as King Alfred's meadow. Of Alfred's father we know enough to see that some of the characteristics of the great king were hereditary. .(Ethelwulf had the reputation of lean- ing to the contemplative, rather than the active, ^ The modern form of the name is so general, that it would be pedantic to return to the older and more correct spelling, Alfred. 3 : 4 The Child and his Forbears side of life. Roger de Hoveden agserts roundly that he had been Bishop of Winchester, until, being compelled by necessity,^ he was made king. His father Ecgberht had thought him over-fond of churchmen as councillors. But there is no evi- dence of lack of vigour in his actual conduct of the kingship. He fought agaittst the invading hosts of the Northmen when he was under-king in Kent, and after he had succeeded to Ecgberht's throne he helped to inflict on one pirate host at Aclea^ a crushing defeat. It was said that more Danes fell there than had ever fallen on English ground before " Men fell like corn in harvest-tide, in botR these mighty hosts," There was a side of .(Ethelwulfs character with which his Witan [Wise Men] probably had little sympathy. Possibly through his tutor and later friend, Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, he came under the spell which the name of Rome, exercised in the Middle Ages on all who did not come too near it. He put aside the many claims of his kingdom to make time for a pilgrimage to the city of St Peter and St Paul, which was to the mediaeval Christian all that Mecca is to the Mahommedan.
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