671. “East-Centingas.” Chron.
672. That is, if Rochester, with the strange diocese which modern arrangements have attached to it, can any longer be looked upon as a Kentish bishopric.
673. Flor. 1009. “Rex ... multis millibus armatorum instructus, et, ut totus erat exercitus, mori vel vincere paratus.” But the Chronicles guarantee only the devotion of the army, not that of its leader.
674. The Chronicles say only “Ac hit wæs þa þuruh Eadric ealdorman gelet, swa hit gyt æfre wæs.” Florence describes the meaning of this “letting;” “Insidiis et perplexis orationibus ne prœlium inirent, sed ea vice suos hostes abire permitterent, modis omnibus allaboravit.”
675. One can hardly conceive that the movements of the Danes were at all regulated by Lent and Easter; yet the language of our authority seems to imply it.
676. Chronn. in anno. The Danes are met by “Ulfcytel mid his fyrde.” We then read, “sona flugon East-Engle. Þa stod Grantabricscir fæstlice ongean.” The treason of Thurcytel and the names of the slain also come from the Chronicles. Florence adds the name of the place, Ringmere, which occurs also in the confused accounts in the Sagas. See Appendix HH and TT.
677. See Appendix SS.
679. See Appendix OO.
680. “Man,” according to the familiar German idiom; it is impossible to modernize the English without it, unless the whole force were to be lost.
681. Heafodman = Captain, like the German Hauptmann.
682. “And þonne hi tó scipon ferdon, þonne sceolde fyrd ut éft ongean þæt hi up woldan; þonne ferde seo fyrd ham, and þonne bí wæron be easton þonne heold man fyrde be westan, and þonne hí wæron be suðan, þonne wæs ure fyrd be norðan. Þonne bead man eallan witan to cynge, and man sceolde þonne rædan hu man þisne eard werian sceolde. Ac þeah mon þonne hwæt rædde, þæt ne stód furðon ænne monað. Æt nextan næs nan heafodman þet fyrde gaderian wolde, ac ælc fleah swa hí mæst mihte, ne furðon nan scír nolde oþre gelæstan æt nextan.”
683. The Chronicles and Florence give the names. William of Malmesbury, though professing to be at least half an Englishman, is too dainty to copy the uncouth names of English shires. “Cum numerentur in Anglia triginta duo pagi, illi jam sedecim invaserant, quorum nomina propter barbariem linguæ scribere refugio.” (ii. 165.)
684. The Chronicles reckon Hastings, “Hæstingas,” as distinct from Sussex.
685. Chron. and Flor. Wig. in anno. Thietmar, who, for a time, becomes an authority of some value, is amusing in the way in which he brings in English affairs (vii. 26, ap. Pertz, iii. 847). “Audivi sæpius numero, Anglos, ab angelica facie, id est pulcra, sive quod in angulo istius terræ siti sunt, dictos, ineffabilem miseriam a Sueino, Haraldi filio, immiti Danorum rege, perpessos esse, et ad id coactos, ut qui prius tributarii erant principis apostolorum Petri ac sancti patris eorum Gregorii spirituales filii, immundis canibus impositum sibi censum quotannis solverent, et maximam regni suimet partem, capto ac interemto habitatore, tunc hosti fiducialiter in habitandam inviti relinquerent.” This last clause reads more like a description of the settlement of Guthrum than of anything that happened in Swegen’s time.
686. “Ealle þas ungesealða us gelumpon þurh unrædes.” Is there an allusion to the name of Æthelred, and is this the origin of his nickname of Unready? See above, p. 261.
687. It is suggested by Lappenberg, ii. 175.
688. The last entry is in 991 (see above, p. 284). The next is in 1033. Yet these Chronicles are rather lavish than otherwise of notices of English affairs.
689. Brut y Tywysogion, 1011. “One year and one thousand and ten was the year of Christ, when Menevia was devastated by the Saxons, to wit, by Entris and Ubis.” Annales Camb. 1012. “Menevia a Saxonibus vastata est, scilicet Edris et Ubis.” Ann. Menevenses, 1011 (Angl. Sacr. ii. 648). “Menevia vastatur a Saxonibus, scilicet Edrich et Umbrich.” Here at last we get Eadric’s right name; who Ubis or Umbrich may have been it is vain to guess.
690. On the siege of Canterbury and martyrdom of Ælfheah, see Appendix PP.
691. The signatures of Godwine of Rochester seem to extend from 995 to 1046. Professor Stubbs (Reg. Sac. Angl. 17, 18) seems uncertain whether they belong to one man or two. The famous Odo held the see of Bayeux for as long a time.
692. Will. Malms, ii. 184. But see Wharton’s note to Osbern, Anglia Sacra, ii. 124. Ælfheah’s sojourn at Glastonbury seems doubtful. He was a monk at Bath, and he probably was Abbot there. (Flor. Wig. 984.) It should be remembered that Bath was then an independent abbey. See vol. iv. p. 421.
693. See Appendix PP.
694. Pelting people with bones at dinner seems to have been an established Danish custom. It is allowed as the punishment of certain lesser offences by Cnut’s “Witherlags Ret.” Swegen Aggesson, ap. Langebek, iii. 148. See also a mythical story in Saxo, 115.
696. On Thurkill’s conduct, see Appendix NN.
698. See Encomium Emmæ, i. 2, and Appendix NN.
699. Encomium Emmæ, i. 4.
700. Compare the saying of Thurkill just before; he will give any quantity of gold and silver, anything except his ship, to redeem the life of Ælfheah.
701. Compare the description of the splendid ship given by Godwine to Harthacnut, Flor. Wig. 1040. Archbishop Ælfric also leaves King Æthelred his best ship with its accoutrements. Cod. Dipl. iii. 351.
703. He “soon” (sona) submitted, say the Chronicles; “sine cunctatione” says Florence. William of Malmesbury (ii. 176) makes the most of it; “Non quod in illorum mentibus genuinus ille calor, et dominorum impatiens, refriguerit, sed quod princeps eorum Uhtredus primus exemplum dederit.”
705. “Sibi lectos auxiliarios de deditis sumens,” says Florence. This seems also implied in the words of the Chronicles; “And hé þá wende syððan suðweard mid fulre fyrde.” Fyrd means the legal military array of an English district; the Danish army is always here.
706. The Chronicles distinctly mark the geographical limit of his ravages; “And syððan hé com ofer Wætlinga stræte, hi wrohton þæt mæste yfel þe ænig here don mihte.”
707. Flor. Wig. “Suis edictum posuit, videlicet, ut agros vastarent,” &c.
708. William of Malmesbury (ii. 177), in the middle of his confused narrative of this reign, lavishes a vast amount of fine writing on this siege of London. The drowning of the Danes in the Thames is attributed to the valour of the citizens, with which it clearly had nothing to do. His character of the Londoners does not badly describe that of the English generally; “Laudandi prorsus viri, et quos Mars ipse collata non sperneret hasta, si ducem habuissent.” But the Londoners had a leader, only William throughout refuses to name any honourable act of Thurkill.
709. Florence ventures to say, “Æthelredus ... muros viriliter defendit.”
710. See Appendix QQ.
711. Compare Thucydides’ comment (iv. 12) on the battle at Pylos, where the natural parts of the Lacedæmonians and the Athenians were reversed in the like way; ἐς τοῦτό τε περιέστη ἡ τύχη ὥστε Ἀθηναίους μὲν ἐκ γῆς τε καὶ ταύτης Λακωνικῆς ἀμύνεσθαι ἐκείνους ἐπιπλέοντας, Λακεδαιμονίους δὲ ἐκ νεῶν τε καὶ ἐς τὴν ἑαυτῶν πολεμίαν οὖσαν ἐπ’ Ἀθηναίους ἀποβαίνειν.
712. The Chronicles distinctly make Emma and her sons go at two different times, and they rather imply that Emma went of her own accord. “Seo hlæfdige wende þa ofer sǽ to hire broðor Ricarde and Ælfsige abbod of Burh mid hire; and se cyning sende Ælfun bisceop mid þam æðelingum Eadwearde and Ælfrede ofer sǽ.” Florence and William mix up the two things together, but this trait in Emma’s character should not be forgotten.
713. William of Malmesbury (ii. 177), seemingly to avoid naming Thurkill, confuses everything. He makes Æthelred fly secretly from London to Southampton, and thence to the Isle of Wight. He there holds a synod of Bishops and Abbots (see Appendix OO), makes a long speech to them, and sends Emma and the children across. Roger of Wendover tells the same story, only without mentioning the Bishops. William of Jumièges (v. 7) has a romance about Æthelred bringing over some hidden treasures which he kept concealed at Winchester. He fancies that Æthelred was living there, whereas the city was in the power of Swegen. William, by this secret flight of Æthelred, at least avoids this absurdity.
714. Roger of Wendover sends him across with a hundred and forty “milites.” For a minute and highly-coloured version of the whole story, see Mr. St. John, ii. 34.
715. Chron. 1013. “Þa bead Swegen ful gyld and metsunge to hís here ðóne winter, and Þurkyl bead þæt ylce to ðam here þé læg æt Grenawíc, and for eallon þam hí heregodon swa oft swa hí woldon.”
717. The epithet of Great however, in Danish annals, belongs not to him but to his grandson Swegen Estrithson. Chron. Roskild. ap. Langebek, i. 378.
718. See Appendix QQ.
719. “Clericos,” says Florence; for Saint Eadmund’s was then held by secular priests. It was Cnut who first placed monks there.
720. Florence calls it “generale placitum,” the same name which he applies to the “mycel gemót,” the “magnum placitum,” of the next year.
721. “Magno cruciatus tormento, tertio nonas Februarii miserabili morte vitam finivit.”
722. “Swegen geendode his dagas,” says the Chronicle, not a very usual expression. It is applied two years afterwards to Æthelred, and, long before, under 946, to the first Eadmund.
723. “Animam remittendo cœlestibus,” says the Encomiast (i. 5); “diro corporis cruciatu ad tartara transmissus,” says Roger of Wendover (i. 449).
724. The Encomiast (i. 3 et al.) has more to tell of Harold than other writers. He makes Harold the younger brother, which seems odd. Harold is not mentioned by Saxo, but his name is found in the Danish chronicles. According to the Chronicle of Eric (Lang. i. 159), the Danes deposed Harold and elected Cnut, then deposed Cnut, on account of his frequent absences from Denmark, and restored Harold, on whose death Cnut finally succeeded. In the Knytlinga Saga, c. 8, Harold dies before Swegen.
725. The Knytlinga Saga seems (Johnstone, 101) to make him only ten years old in 1008; but nothing can be made of its chronology.
726. Chron. “And cwædon þat him nan hlaford leofra nære þonne heora gecynda hlaford [in the Canterbury Chronicle cyne-hlaford], gif he hi rihtlicor healdan wolde þonne he ær dyde.”
727. Flor. Wig. 1014. “Promittens se ... in omnibus eorum voluntati consensurum consiliis acquieturum.”
728. Florence says only, “Principes se non amplius Danicum regem admissuros in Angliam unanimiter spoponderunt.” But the Chronicles say expressly, “æfre ælcne Deniscne cyning utlah of Englalande gecwædon.”
730. §§ 36, 37, 38. “And wíse wǽran worold-witan þe tó god-cundan rihtlagan worold-laga settan, folce tó steóre, and Crist and cyninge gerihtan þá bóte, þár man swá scolde manega for neóde gewildan tó rihte.”
“Ac on þám gemótan, þeáh rǽdlice wurðan on namcúðan stowan, æfter Eádgares líf-dagum, Cristes lage wanodan, and cyninges lage lytledon.”
“And þa man getwǽmde, þæt ǽr wǽs gemǽne Criste and cyninge on woroldlícre steóre, and á hit weorð þé wyrse for Gode and for worlde; cume nú to bóte, gif hit God wille.” Cf. § 43, where the three Kings are named.
732. Northern tradition assigns to Olaf Haraldsson, afterwards Saint Olaf, a share in this campaign on the English side. But the account, like most of the accounts in the sagas, is utterly unintelligible. See Appendix VV.
733. The comment of the Chronicler is remarkable; “And wearð þæt earme folc þus beswicen þurh hine.” Cnut betrayed them to Æthelred!
734. The Chronicles say twenty-one, Florence, thirty thousand. Henry of Huntingdon follows the Chronicles.
735. See Appendix NN.
736. Chron. and Flor. in anno. Henry of Huntingdon introduces the fact with the words, “Addidit autem Dominus malis solitis malum insolitum.”
737. On the children of Æthelred see Appendix SS.
739. See the Chronicles in the years 571 and 777.
740. See above, p. 316, and Appendix GG, and the curious story recorded in the charter of Æthelred, 995, in Cod. Dipl. vi. 128. We there hear of the church of Saint Helen, which has vanished in later times, and we get the name of “Winsige, præpositus on Oxonaforda.”
741. Chron. in anno. “þæt mycel Gemót.” Flor. Wig. “Magnum placitum.” W. Malms. “Magnum concilium.” The one Charter (Cod. Dipl. vi. 167) of this year, and therefore probably of this Gemót, is a grant to Bishop Beorhtwold (Brihtwold) of Sherborne of lands at Chilton in Berkshire, formerly held by Wulfgeat, who was disgraced and his property confiscated in 1006.
742. The Five Boroughs with the addition of York and Chester. Such at least is the probable conjecture of Lingard, i. 296.
743. If Eadric was now restored to his old office of Ealdorman of the Mercians, Oxford would be a town in his government, and the duty of hospitality towards the Witan from other districts would naturally fall upon him. See above, p. 327.
744. The marriage of Eadmund and his establishment in the North are recorded by the Chronicles and by Florence, but more fully by William of Malmesbury. As his details in no way contradict, but in some degree explain, the account in the Chronicles, I do not scruple to follow him.
745. “Visam concupivit, concupitæ communionem habuit,” says William. That the “communio” was a lawful marriage is clear from the distinct words of the Chronicles and from William’s own words afterwards. The presence of Ealdgyth at Oxford suggests a question whether the Witan usually brought their wives with them to these assemblies. The question is not a frivolous one, as it bears on another, namely the time which meetings of this sort usually lasted.
All the Chronicles speak of Eadmund’s wife as Sigeferth’s widow, and Florence gives her the name of Ealdgyth. But in the will of Wulfric (Cod. Dipl. vi. 149) we find an Ealdgyth wife of Morkere. Is there a mistake of any kind, or did the brothers marry wives bearing the same name?
746. I speak vaguely, because William of Malmesbury surely goes too far when he speaks of “comitatus Sigeferdi, qui apud Northanhimbros amplissimus erat.”
747. Was this submission willing or unwilling? The Chronicles are neutral. “Gerad sona ealle Sigeferðes áre and Morcores; and þæt folc eal to him beah.” Florence says, “Terram Sigeferthi et Morkeri invasit, ac populum illarum sibi subjugavit.” But William has, “Comitatum ... suapte industria vendicavit, hominibus ejusdem provinciæ in obsequium ejus facile cedentibus.”
748. The Roskild Annals (Langebek, i. 376) make Eadmund imprison Cnut and Olaf of Norway (who is here said to have accompanied Swegen); but who, in other accounts (see Appendix VV), was vigorously fighting on the English side. They escape from prison and fly to Bremen, where Archbishop Unwan baptizes them. For this writer’s wonderful succession of the English Kings, see also Appendix VV.
749. Encomium Emmæ, ii. 2.
750. The presence of Harold is asserted by Thietmar, vii. 28.
751. This is the version of the Encomiast, ii. 3. See Appendix NN.
752. Enc. Emmæ, ii. 4.
753. Chron. Rosk. ap. Lang. i. 376.
754. Enc. Emmæ, ii. 4. “In tanta expeditione nullus inveniebatur servus, nullus ex servo libertus, nullus ignobilis, nullus senili ætate debilis. Omnes enim erant nobiles, omnes plenæ ætatis robore valentes.” When nobles were so plentiful, one is tempted to ask in what nobility consisted?
755. “Be norðan,” say the Chronicles.
756. See Appendix NN.
757. They crossed “cum multo equitatu,” says Florence; “mid his here” say the Chronicles, only the Peterborough and Canterbury manuscripts (one of which, Canterbury, omits the words “mid his here”) add “clx. scipa.” Do they mean that Cnut sailed up the Thames? The other reading is distinctly preferable.
758. Here is a distinct allusion to the various passages in the laws of this reign, denouncing penalties on those who fail to attend the royal muster. See above, p. 337.
759. The Chronicles mention the ravaging without assigning any cause; Florence adds, “quia adversus Danorum exercitum ad pugnam exire noluerunt.” William of Malmesbury sets forth the policy of this severe course at some length.
760. “Bea þa for nede,” say the Chronicles; William of Malmesbury again expands at some length. Simeon (X Scriptt. p. 80) makes Cnut summon Uhtred to submit, to which summons the Earl returns a spirited reply. But after Æthelred’s death he yielded. The chronology is wrong, as Uhtred certainly submitted before Æthelred’s death, but the facts are likely enough.
761. His extent of territory is well marked by William of Malmesbury; “Commendatis West-Saxonibus, et Merciorum parte quam subjecerat, ducibus suis, ipse in Northanhimbros profectus.” London probably protected Essex. We hear nothing of East-Anglia, but see Appendix NN.
762. The murders of Uhtred and Thurcytel are mentioned in the Chronicles; Florence adds the name of Thurbrand. The other details come from the tract of Simeon before quoted. The share of Eadric in the business comes from one version of the Chronicles.
763. The Earl thus appointed appears as Yric, Egricus, Iricius, Hyrc. Yet Mr. Thorpe not only, in his edition of Florence, invests Eadric himself with the earldom, but thrusts—without any sign of interpolation—this erroneous statement into the text of his translation of Lappenberg (ii. 186), whereas, in the original (452), Lappenberg is silent about the fate of Uhtred altogether. On the past history of Eric, see the Saga of Olaf Haraldsson, c. 13; Laing’s Heimskringla, ii. 192.
764. The Chronicles seem to place Eadmund’s departure for London after the submission of Uhtred, Florence places it before. William says, “Ita subjectis omnibus, Edmundum, per semetra fugitantem, non prius persequi destitit [Cnuto] quam Londoniam ad patrem pervenisse cognosceret.”
765. William adds, “usque post pascha quievit, ut cum omnibus copiis urbem adoriretur.”
766. On all the points of the Double Election, see Appendix TT.
767. “Unanimi consensu,” says Florence.
768. See Appendix SS.
769. This surname is not only found in the Latin writers, but also in the poem in the Chronicles on the return of Eadmund’s son Eadward in 1057;
770. On the order of events in the war of Cnut and Eadmund, see Appendix VV.
771. The date is fixed in the Chronicles, “to þam gangdagum;” so in Florence, “circa rogationes.”
772. The first ditch is recorded in the Chronicles, which say expressly, “Hi ða dulfon áne mycle díc on suð healfe.” William of Malmesbury (ii. 18o), though he places the work later, after the battle of Sherstone, speaks of the other ditch which surrounded the city, reaching no doubt from the river to the river again; “fossa etiam urbem, qua fluvio Tamensi non alluitur, foris totam cinxerat.” That these are not two descriptions of the same ditch appears from the account in Florence, which takes in both; “in australi parte Tamensis magnam scrobem foderunt, et naves suas in occidentalem plagam pontis traxerunt; dein urbem alta lataque fossa et obsidione cingentes,” &c. &c. I therefore, with Lappenberg (ii. 188), understand the story as I have told it in the text; the phrase “traxerunt” (so in the Chronicles “drogon”) seems to mean that the ships were towed along the new-made canal.
773. Flor. Wig. “In West-Saxoniam abierunt propere, et regi Eadmundo Ferreo-Lateri spatium congregandi exercitum non dedere, quibus tamen ille cum exercitu quem in tantillo spatio congregaret, Dei fretus auxilio, audacter in Dorsetania occurrit.” On “Dorsetania” see Appendix VV.
774. The scene of Eadmund’s battle “æt Peonnan wið Gillingahám” (Chron.), “in loco qui Peonnum vocatur, juxta Gillingaham” (Flor.), is undoubtedly Pen Selwood. I am far from being so certain whether the spot “æt Peonnum” (Chron. 658), where Cenwealh defeated the Welsh, is the same, or another of the Pens in the same county. The word Pen (head) is a specimen of the Celtic names which still survive in the local nomenclature of this Teutonized, but not purely Teutonic, district. Close to Pen Selwood, “Pen Pits” and a neighbouring encampment called Orchard Castle supply good primæval studies. The latter is not unlike a miniature model of the more renowned hill of Senlac.
775. “Æfter middansumere,” say the Chronicles; Florence adds that the first day of the battle was “Lunæ dies.”
776. “Ælmær Dyrling,” “Ælmarus Dilectus.” Florence alone adds, “Algarus filius Meawes,” and implies, still more distinctly than the Chronicles, that Ælfmær and Ælfgar, as well as Eadric, were bound to Eadmund by some special tie—“qui ei auxilio esse debuerunt.”
777. Flor. Wig. “Optimum quemque in primam aciem subducit, cæterum exercitum in subsidiis locat.” We must remember these tactics when we come to the great fight of Senlac.
779. “Strenui militis et boni imperatoris officia simul exsequebatur” (so Il. iii. 179, ἀμφότερον βασιλεύς τ’ ἀγαθὸς κρατερός τ’ αἰχμητής), says Florence, who grows eloquent on Eadmund’s exploits. This praise must have been common to every general of those days who deserved to be called a general at all; yet it is often recorded to the special honour of particular commanders, as we shall find it in a very marked way of both Harold and William. William of Malmesbury (Hist. Nov. ii. 34) speaks in the same way of Earl Robert of Gloucester; “Ubicumque commode fieri posse videbat, et militis et ducis probe officium exequebatur.” Yet Abbot Suger, in his life of Lewis the Fat (c. 20; Duchesne, Scriptt. Franc. iv. 304), blames his own hero because “ultra quam deceret majestatem, miles emeritus militis officio, non regis, singulariter decertabat.” So Orderic (885 D) says of William of Flanders, “ipse ducis et militis officio plerumque fungebatur unde a caris tutoribus pro illo formidantibus crebro redarguebatur.”
780. On this incident, see Appendix VV.
781. Fl. Wig. “Ut naturalem dominum [no doubt cyne-hláford] requisivit illum.”
782. Ib. “Exercitu vice tertia congregato.” The armies seem always to disperse after an action, whether a victory or a defeat. I conceive that the local levies, like the Highlanders ages afterwards, returned home after each battle, while the immediate following of the King or Ealdorman largely remained with him. An invader had the advantage that all his troops were comitatus; the Danes had no means of going back to their houses and families.
783. Flor. Wig. “Rex Eadmundus Ferreum Latus exercitum fortem de tota Anglia quarto congregavit.”
784. I adopt the description of William of Malmesbury, evidently a fragment of a ballad; “Fluvius ille Rofensem urbem præterfluens, violentus et rapaci gurgite minax, mœnia pulcra lavat.”
785. See above, p. 45. Was it any confused remembrance of this fact which led the Encomiast (see Appendix VV) to make Cnut’s army winter in Sheppey now?
786. On the site of Assandun see Appendix VV.
787. The battle of Assandun in several points suggests that of Senlac, and the details given of Assandun help to explain several questions connected with the later fight. Henry of Huntingdon preserves some very valuable hints on this head.
788. Hen. Hunt. “Loco regio relicto, quod erat ex more inter draconem et insigne quod vocatur Standard.” The full importance of this passage will be seen at a later stage of my history. The West-Saxon Dragon figures prominently in Henry’s narrative of the battle of Burford in 752 (see above, p. 38). In Saxo (p. 192) the dragons become eagles, but this is clearly only by way of being classical, as one Tymmo, a valiant Dane from Zealand, figures as aquilifer on the other side, when he surely ought to have been corvifer.