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06 - King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott · King Alfred of England

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Speaker 1: Chapter five of King Alfred of England. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Ryan Cherick. King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott,
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Speaker 1: Chapter five, State of England. Having thus brought down the
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Speaker 1: narrative of Alfred's early life as far and as fully
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Speaker 1: as the records that remain enable us to do so,
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Speaker 1: we resume the general history of the national affairs by
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Speaker 1: returning to the subject of the depredations and conquests of
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Speaker 1: the Danes, and the circumstances connected with Alfred's accession to
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Speaker 1: the throne. To give the reader some definite and clear
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Speaker 1: ideas of the nature of this warfare, it will be
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Speaker 1: well to describe in detail some few of the incidents
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Speaker 1: and scenes which ancient historians have recorded. The following was
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Speaker 1: one case which occurred. The Danes, it must be promised,
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Speaker 1: were particularly hostile to the monastery's religious establishments of the
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Speaker 1: English Saxons. In the first place, they were themselves pagans,
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Speaker 1: and they hated Christianity. In the second place, they knew
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Speaker 1: that these places of sacred seclusion were often the depositories
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Speaker 1: selected for the custody or concealment of treasure, And besides
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Speaker 1: the treasures which kings and potentates often placed in them
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Speaker 1: for safety, these establishments possess utensils of gold and silver
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Speaker 1: for the service of the chapels, and a great variety
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Speaker 1: of valuable gifts, such as pious saints or penent sinners,
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Speaker 1: were continually bequeathing to them. The Danes were consequently never
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Speaker 1: better pleased than when sacking an abbey or a monastery.
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Speaker 1: In such exploits, they gratified their terrible animal propensities, both
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Speaker 1: of hatred and love, by the cruelties which they perpetrated
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Speaker 1: personally upon the monks and nuns, and at the same
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Speaker 1: time enriched their coffers with the most valuable spoils. A
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Speaker 1: dreadful tale is told of one company of nuns, who,
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Speaker 1: in the consternation and tear which they endured the approach
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Speaker 1: of the vand of Danes, mutilated their faces in a
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Speaker 1: manner too horrid to be described. As the only means
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Speaker 1: left to them for protection against the brutality of their foes,
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Speaker 1: they followed in adopting this measure the advice and the
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Speaker 1: example of the Lady Superior, it was effectual. There was
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Speaker 1: a certain abbey called Crowland, which was in those days
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Speaker 1: one of the most celebrated in the island. It was
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Speaker 1: situated near the southern border of Lincolnshire, which lies on
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Speaker 1: the eastern side of England. There is a great shallow
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Speaker 1: bay called the Wash on the eastern shore, and it
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Speaker 1: is surrounded by a broad tract of low and marshy land,
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Speaker 1: which is drained by long canals and traversed by roads
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Speaker 1: built upon embankments, dikes skirt the margins of the streams,
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Speaker 1: and windmills are engaged in perpetual toil to raise the
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Speaker 1: water from the fields into the channels by which it
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Speaker 1: is conveyed away. Crowland is at the confluence of two
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Speaker 1: rivers which flows slug through this flat, but beautiful and
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Speaker 1: verdant region. The remains of the old abbey still stand,
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Speaker 1: built on piles driven into the marshy ground, and they
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Speaker 1: form at the present time a very interesting mass of ruins.
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Speaker 1: The year before Alfred ascended to the throne, the abbey
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Speaker 1: was in all its glory, and on one occasion it
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Speaker 1: furnished two hundred men who went out under the command
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Speaker 1: of one of the monks named Friar Jolly to join
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Speaker 1: the English armies and fight the Danes. The English army
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Speaker 1: was too small, notwithstanding this desperate effort to strengthen it.
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Speaker 1: They stood, however, all day in a compact band, protecting
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Speaker 1: themselves with their shields from the arrows of the foot
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Speaker 1: soldiers of the enemy, and with their pikes from the
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Speaker 1: onset of the cavalry. At night, the Danes retired as
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Speaker 1: if giving up the contest. But as soon as the Saxons,
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Speaker 1: now released from their positions of confinement and restraint, had
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Speaker 1: separated a little and began to feel somewhat more secure,
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Speaker 1: their implacable foes returned again and attacked them in separate
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Speaker 1: masses and with more fury than before. The Saxons endeavored
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Speaker 1: in vain to either to vend themselves or escape as
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Speaker 1: fast as their commrades were killed. The survivors stood upon
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Speaker 1: the heaps of the slain to gain what little advantage
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Speaker 1: they could from so slight an elevation. Nearly all at
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Speaker 1: length were killed. A few escaped into a neighboring wood,
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Speaker 1: where they lay concealed during the day following, and then
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Speaker 1: when the darkness of the succeeding night came to enable
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Speaker 1: them to conceal their journey. They made their way to
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Speaker 1: the abbey to make known the anxious inmates of it
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Speaker 1: the destruction of the army, and to warn them of
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Speaker 1: the imminence of their impenting danger to which they were
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Speaker 1: now exposed. A dreadful scene of consternation in terror ensued.
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Speaker 1: The affrighted messengers told their tale, breathless and way worn,
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Speaker 1: at the door of the chapel, where the monks were
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Speaker 1: engaged at their devotions. The aisles were filled with exclamations
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Speaker 1: of alarm and disparaging lamentations, with the abbot, whose name
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Speaker 1: was Theodore, immediately began to take measures suited to the emergency.
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Speaker 1: He resolved to retain at the monastery only some aged
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Speaker 1: monks and a few children, whose utter defenselessness he thought
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Speaker 1: would disarm the ferocity and vengeance of the Danes. The
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Speaker 1: rest only about thirty, however, in number, nearly all brethren,
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Speaker 1: having gone out under friar jolly in the great battle,
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Speaker 1: were put on board a boat to be sent down
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Speaker 1: the river. It seems at first view a strange idea
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Speaker 1: to send away the vigorous and strong and keep the
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Speaker 1: infirm and helpless at the scene of danger. But the
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Speaker 1: monks knew very well that all resistance was vain, and
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Speaker 1: that consequently their greatest safety would lie in the absence
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Speaker 1: of all appearance of the possibility of resistance. The treasures
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Speaker 1: were sent away too, with all the men. They hastily
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Speaker 1: collected all the valuables together, the relics, the jewels, and
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Speaker 1: all of the gold and silver plate which could be
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Speaker 1: easily removed, and placed them in a boat, packing them
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Speaker 1: as securely as their haste and trepidation allowed. The boats
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Speaker 1: glided down the river till they came to a lonely
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Speaker 1: spot where an anchorite or soda hermit lived in solitude.
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Speaker 1: The men and the treasures were to be entrusted to
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Speaker 1: his charge. He concealed the men in the thickets and
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Speaker 1: other hiding places in the woods, and buried the treasures.
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Speaker 1: In the meantime, As soon as the boats and the
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Speaker 1: party of monks which accompanied them had left the abbey,
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Speaker 1: the abbot Theodore and the old monks that remained with
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Speaker 1: him urged on the work of concealing that part of
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Speaker 1: the treasures which had not been taken away. All of
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Speaker 1: the plate which could not be easily transported, and a
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Speaker 1: certain very rich and costly table employed for the service
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Speaker 1: of the altar, and many sacred and expensive garments used
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Speaker 1: by the higher priests of their ceremonies had been left behind,
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Speaker 1: as they could not be easily removed. These, the abbot
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Speaker 1: and the monks concealed in the most secure places that
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Speaker 1: they could find, and then clothing themselves in their priestly robes,
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Speaker 1: they assembled in the chapel and resumed their exercises of devotion.
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Speaker 1: To be found in so sacred a place and engaged
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Speaker 1: in so holy an avocation would have been a great
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Speaker 1: protection from any Christian soldierly, but the monks entirely misconceived
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Speaker 1: the nature of the impulses by which human nature is governed,
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Speaker 1: in supposing that it would have any restraining influence upon
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Speaker 1: the pagan Danes. The first thing the ferocious marauders did
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Speaker 1: on breaking into the sacred prescincts of the chapel was
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Speaker 1: to cut down the venerable habit at the Altar in
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Speaker 1: his securdial robes, and then to push forward the work
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Speaker 1: of slaying every other inmate of the abbey, feeble and helpless,
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Speaker 1: as they were only one was saved. This one was
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Speaker 1: a boy about ten years old. His name was Turgar.
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Speaker 1: He was a handsome boy and one of the Danish
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Speaker 1: chieftains who struck with his countenance and air in the
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Speaker 1: midst of the slaughter and took pity on him. The
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Speaker 1: chieftain's name was Count Sidrap. Sidroc drew Turgar out of
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Speaker 1: the immediate scene of danger and gave him a Danish garment,
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Speaker 1: directing him at the same time to throw aside his
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Speaker 1: own and then to follow him wherever he went and
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Speaker 1: keep close to his side as if he were a Dane.
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Speaker 1: The boy, relieved from his terrors by the hope of protection,
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Speaker 1: obeyed implicitly. He followed Sidroc everywhere, and his life was saved.
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Speaker 1: The Danes, after killing all the others, ransacked and plundered
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Speaker 1: the monastery, broke open the tomes of their search for
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Speaker 1: concealed treasures, and after taking all that they could discover,
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Speaker 1: they set the edifices on fire wherever they could find
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Speaker 1: woodwork that would burn, and went away, leaving the bodies
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Speaker 1: slowly burning in the Grand and Terrible funeral pile. From Croland.
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Speaker 1: The marauders proceeded, taking Turgar with them to another large
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Speaker 1: and wealthy abbey in the neighborhood, which they plundered and destroyed,
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Speaker 1: as they had the Abbey of Crowland. Sidroc made Turgar
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Speaker 1: his own attendant, keeping him always near him. When the
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Speaker 1: expedition had completed their second conquest, they packed the valuables
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Speaker 1: which they had obtained from both abbeys and wagons, and
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Speaker 1: moved towards the south. It happened that some of these
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Speaker 1: wagons were under a Count Sidroc's charge, and were in
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Speaker 1: the rear of the line of march. In passing a ford,
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Speaker 1: the wheels of one of the rear wagons sank in
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Speaker 1: the muddy bottom, and the horses, in attempting to draw
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Speaker 1: the wagon out, became entangled and rested. While Sidroc's whole
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Speaker 1: attention was engrossed by this difficulty, Turgar contrived to steal
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Speaker 1: away unobserved. He hid himself in a neighboring wood, and,
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Speaker 1: with a degree of sagacity and discretion remarkable in the
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Speaker 1: buoy of his years, he contrived to find his way
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Speaker 1: back to the smoking ruins of his home at the
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Speaker 1: Abbey of Crowland. The monks who had gone away to
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Speaker 1: seek concealment at the cell of the Anchorite had returned
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Speaker 1: and were at work among the smoking ruins, saving what
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Speaker 1: they could from the fire, and gathering together the blackened
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Speaker 1: remains of their brethren for interment. They chose one of
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Speaker 1: the monks that had escaped to succeed the abbot who
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Speaker 1: had been murdered, repaired so far as they could their
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Speaker 1: ruined edifices, and mournfully resumed their functions as a religious community.
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Speaker 1: Many of the tales which the ancient chroniclers tell of
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Speaker 1: those times are romantic and incredible. They may have arisen,
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Speaker 1: perhaps in the first instance, in exaggerations of incidents and
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Speaker 1: events which really occurred, and were then handed down from
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Speaker 1: generation to generation by oral tradition till they found historians
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Speaker 1: to record them. The story of the Martyrdom of King
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Speaker 1: Edmund is of this character. Edmund was a sort of
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Speaker 1: king over one of the nations of the Anglo Saxons
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Speaker 1: called East Angles, who, as their name imports, occupied a
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Speaker 1: part of the eastern portion of the island. Their particular
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Speaker 1: hostility to Edmund was awakened, according to the story, in
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Speaker 1: the following manner, there was a certain bold and adventurous
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Speaker 1: dame named Lothbrook, who one day took his falcon on
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Speaker 1: his arm and went out alone in a boat on
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Speaker 1: the Baltic Sea or in the straits connecting it with
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Speaker 1: the German Ocean, intending to go to a certain island
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Speaker 1: and hunt. The falcon is a species of hawk which
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Speaker 1: they were accustomed to train in those days to attack
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Speaker 1: and bring down birds from the air, and falconry was,
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Speaker 1: as might have been expected, a very picturesque at exciting
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Speaker 1: species of hunting. The game which Lothbruck was going to
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Speaker 1: seek consisted of the wild fowl which frequents, sometimes in
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Speaker 1: vast numbers, the cliffs and shores of the islands of
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Speaker 1: those seas. Before he reaches hunting ground, however, he was
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Speaker 1: overtaken by a storm, and his boat was driven by
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Speaker 1: it out to sea. Accustomed to all sorts of adventures
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Speaker 1: and dangers by sea and by land, and skilled into
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Speaker 1: every operation required in all possible emergencies, Lothbrook contrived to
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Speaker 1: keep his boat before the wind and to bail out
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Speaker 1: the water as fast as he came in, until at length,
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Speaker 1: after being driven entirely across the Germans, he was thrown
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Speaker 1: upon the English shore, where, with his hawk still upon
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Speaker 1: his arm. He safely landed, he knew that he was
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Speaker 1: in the country of the most deadly foes of his
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Speaker 1: nation and race, and accordingly sought to conceal rather than
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Speaker 1: to make known his arrival. He was, however, found after
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Speaker 1: a few days wandering up and down in a solitary wood,
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Speaker 1: and was conducted together with his hawk, to King Edmund.
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Speaker 1: Edmund was so much pleased with his air and bearing,
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Speaker 1: and so astonished at the remarkable manner of which he
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Speaker 1: had been brought to the English shore, that he gave
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Speaker 1: him his life, and, soon discovering his great knowledge and
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Speaker 1: skill as a huntsman, he received him into his own
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Speaker 1: service and treated him with great distinction and honor. In
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Speaker 1: addition to his hawk, Lothbroke had a greyhound, so that
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Speaker 1: he could hunt with the king in the fields as
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Speaker 1: well as through the air. The greyhound was very strongly
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Speaker 1: attached to his master. The King's chief huntsman at this
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Speaker 1: time was Bjorn, and Bjorn soon became very envious and
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Speaker 1: jealous of Lothbrook on account of his superior power and skill,
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Speaker 1: and of the honorable distinction which they had procured for him.
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Speaker 1: One day, when they two were hunting alone in the
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Speaker 1: woods with their dogs. Bijorn killed his rival and hid
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Speaker 1: his body in a thicket. Bijorn went home, his own
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Speaker 1: dogs following him, while the greyhound remained to watch mournfully
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Speaker 1: over the body of his master. They asked Bjorn what
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Speaker 1: was to become of Lothbrok, and he replied that he
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Speaker 1: had gone off into the wood the day before, and
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Speaker 1: he did not know what had become of him. In
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Speaker 1: the meantime, the greyhound remained faithfully watching at the side
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Speaker 1: of the body of his master, until hunger compelled him
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Speaker 1: to leave his post. In search of food. He went home,
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Speaker 1: and as soon as his wants were supplied, he returned
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Speaker 1: immediately to the wood again. This he did several days,
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Speaker 1: and at length, his singular conduct attracting attention. He was
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Speaker 1: followed by some of the king's household, and the body
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Speaker 1: of his murdered master was found. The guilt of the
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Speaker 1: murder was, with little difficulty brought home to Bjorn, and
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Speaker 1: as an appropriate punishment for his cruelty to an unfortunate
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Speaker 1: and homeless stranger, the king condemned him to be put
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Speaker 1: on board the same boat in which the ill fated
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Speaker 1: lothbrook had made his perilous voyage, and pushed out to
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Speaker 1: see the winds and storms, entering, it seems, into the plain, and,
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Speaker 1: influenced by the same principles of poetical justice as had governed,
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Speaker 1: the King drove the boat with its terrified mariner back
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Speaker 1: again across the mouth of the Baltic, as they had
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Speaker 1: brought Lothbrook to England. The boat was thrown upon the
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Speaker 1: beach on Lothbrook's family domain. Now Lothbrook had been in
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Speaker 1: his own country a man of high rank and influence.
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Speaker 1: He was of royal descent and had many friends. He
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Speaker 1: had two sons, men of enterprise and energy. And it
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Speaker 1: so happened that the landing of Bjorn took place so
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Speaker 1: near to them that the Tidings soon came to their
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Speaker 1: ears at the father's boat, and the hands of a
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Speaker 1: Saxon stranger had arrived on the coast. They immediately sought
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Speaker 1: out the stranger and demanded what had become of their father. Bjorn,
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Speaker 1: in order to hide his own guilt, fabricated a tale
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Speaker 1: of Lothbrooks having been killed by Edmund, the king of
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Speaker 1: theast Angles. The sons of murdered Lothbrook were incensed at
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Speaker 1: this news. They aroused their countrymen by calling upon them
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Speaker 1: everywhere to aid them in revenging their father's death. A
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Speaker 1: large naval force was accordingly collected, and a formidable descent
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Speaker 1: made upon the English coast. Now, Edmund, according to the story,
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Speaker 1: was a humane and gentle minded man, much more interested
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Speaker 1: in deeds of benevolence and of piety than in warlike
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Speaker 1: undertakings and exploits, and he was very far from being
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Speaker 1: well prepared to meet this formidable foe. In fact, he
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Speaker 1: saw refuge in a retired residence called Hengel's Dude. The Danes,
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Speaker 1: having taken some Saxons captive in a city which they
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Speaker 1: had sacked at the destroyed, compelled them to make known
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Speaker 1: the place of the king's retreat. Hinquar, the captain of
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Speaker 1: the Danes, sent him a summons to come and surrender
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Speaker 1: both himself and all the treasures of his kingdom. Edmund refused.
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Speaker 1: Hinquar then laid siege to the palace and surrounded it,
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Speaker 1: and finally his soldiers, breaking in, put Edmund's attendants to
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Speaker 1: death and brought Edmund himself bound into Hinquar's presence. Hinquar
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Speaker 1: decided that the unfortunate captive should die. He was accordingly
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Speaker 1: first taken to a tree and scourged. Then he was
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Speaker 1: shot at with arrows, until, as the account states, his
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Speaker 1: body was so full of the arrows that remained in
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Speaker 1: the flesh that there seemed to be no room for more.
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Speaker 1: During all this time, Edmund continued to call upon the
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Speaker 1: name of Christ, as if finding spiritual refuge and strength
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Speaker 1: in the red mirror in this hour of extremity. And
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Speaker 1: although these ejaculations afforded doubtless a great support and comfort
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Speaker 1: to him, only served to irritate, to the perfect frenzy
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Speaker 1: of exasperation his implacable pagan foes. They continued to shoot
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Speaker 1: arrows into him until he was dead, and then they
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Speaker 1: cut off his head and went away, carrying the dissevered
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Speaker 1: head with them. Their object was to prevent his friends
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Speaker 1: from having the satisfaction of inturning it. With the body.
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Speaker 1: They carried it to what they supposed a sufficient distance,
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Speaker 1: and then threw it off into the wood by the wayside,
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Speaker 1: where they supposed it could not easily be found. As soon, however,
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Speaker 1: as the Danes had left the place, the affrightened friends
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Speaker 1: and followers of Edmund came out by degrees from their
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Speaker 1: retreats and hiding places, they readily found the dead body
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Speaker 1: of their sovereign, as it lay, of course, where the
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Speaker 1: cruel deed of his murder had been performed. They saw,
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Speaker 1: with the mournful and anxious steps here and there all
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Speaker 1: around for the head, until at length, when they came
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Speaker 1: into the wood where it was lying, they heard, as
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Speaker 1: the historian who recorded these events gravely testified, a voice
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Speaker 1: issuing from it, calling them and directing their steps by
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Speaker 1: the sound. They followed the voice, and having recovered the
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Speaker 1: head by means of this miraculous guidance, they buried it
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Speaker 1: with the body. It seems surprising to us that reasonable
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Speaker 1: men should so readily believe such tales as these, But
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Speaker 1: there are in all ages of the world certain habits
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Speaker 1: of belief in conformity to which the whole community go together.
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Speaker 1: We all believe whatever is in harmony with or analogous
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Speaker 1: to the general type of faith prevailing in our own generation.
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Speaker 1: Nobody could be persuaded now that the dead head could speak,
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Speaker 1: or a wolf changes nature to protect it. But thousands
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Speaker 1: will credit a fortune teller, or believe that a mesmerized
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Speaker 1: patient can have a mental perception of scenes and occurrences
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Speaker 1: a thousand miles away. There was a great deal of
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Speaker 1: superstition in the days when Alfred was called to the throne,
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Speaker 1: and there was also with it great deal of genuine,
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Speaker 1: honest piety. The piety and the superstition io were inextricably
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Speaker 1: intermingled and combined together. They were all Catholics, then yielding
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Speaker 1: an implicit obedience to the Church of Rome, making regular
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Speaker 1: contributions in money to sustain the papal authority, and looking
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Speaker 1: to Rome as the great and central point of Christian
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Speaker 1: influence and power, and the object of supreme veneration. We
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Speaker 1: have already seen that the Saxons had established a seminary
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Speaker 1: at Rome, which King Ethelwulf, Alfred's father rebuilt and re endowed.
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Speaker 1: One of the former Englo Saxon kings two had given
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Speaker 1: a grant to one penny from every house in the
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Speaker 1: kingdom to the successors of Saint Peter at Rome, which tax,
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Speaker 1: though nominally small, produced a very considerable sum in the aggregate,
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Speaker 1: exceeding for many years the royal revenues of the King
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Speaker 1: of England. It continued to be paid down to the
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Speaker 1: time of Henry Deighth, when the reformations swept away that
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Speaker 1: and all the other national obligations of England Catholic Church together.
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Speaker 1: In the age of Alfred, however, there were not only
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Speaker 1: these public acts of acknowledgment recognizing the people's supremacy, but
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Speaker 1: there was a strong tide of personal and private feeling
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Speaker 1: of veneration and attachment to the Mother Church, of which
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Speaker 1: it is hard for us, in the present divided state
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Speaker 1: of Christendom to conceive the religious thoughts and affections of
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Speaker 1: every pious heart throughout the realm centered in Rome. Rome
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Speaker 1: Io was the scene of many miracles by which the
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Speaker 1: imaginations of the superstitious and of the truly devout were excited,
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Speaker 1: which impressed them with an idea of power in which
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Speaker 1: they felt a sort of confiding sense of protection. This
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Speaker 1: power was continually interposing, now in one way and now
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Speaker 1: in another, to protect virtue, to punish crime, and to
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Speaker 1: testify to the impious and to the devout, to each
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Speaker 1: inappropriate way, that their respective deeds were the objects, according
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Speaker 1: to their character, of the pleasure or of the approbation
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Speaker 1: of Heaven. On one occasion, the following incident is said
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Speaker 1: to have occurred. The narration of it will illustrate the
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Speaker 1: ideas of the time. A child of about seven years
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Speaker 1: old named Kennelum succeeded to the throne in the Anglo
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Speaker 1: Saxon line. Being too young to act for himself, he
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Speaker 1: was put under the charge of a sister, who was
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Speaker 1: to act as a regent until the boy became of age.
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Speaker 1: The sister, ambitious of making the power thus delegated to
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Speaker 1: her entirely her own, decided on destroying her brother. She
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Speaker 1: commissioned to hire murderer to perpetrate the deed. The murderer
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Speaker 1: took the child into a wood, killed him, and hid
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Speaker 1: his body in a thicket in a certain cow pasture
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Speaker 1: at a place called Klint. The sister then assumed the
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Speaker 1: scepter in her own name and suppressed all inquiries in
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Speaker 1: respect to the fate of her brother, and his murder
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Speaker 1: might have remained forever undiscovered had it not been miraculously revealed.
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Speaker 1: At Rome. A white dove flew into a church there
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Speaker 1: one day and let fall upon the altar of Saint Peter,
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Speaker 1: a paper on which was written in Anglo Saxon characters
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Speaker 1: in Clint, Kalbach Canlem King Biarn Liath under thorn head.
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Speaker 1: The read for a time, nobody could read the writing
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Speaker 1: at length, and Anglo Saxon saw it and translated it
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Speaker 1: into Latin, said the Pope, and all others could understand it.
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Speaker 1: The Pope then sent a letter to the authorities in England,
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Speaker 1: who made search and found the body. But we must
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Speaker 1: end these digressions which we have indulged thus far, in
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Speaker 1: order to give the reader some distinct conception of the
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Speaker 1: ideas and habits of the time, and proceed in the
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Speaker 1: next chapter to relate the events immediately connected with Alfred's
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Speaker 1: accession to the throne. End of chapter five. Recording by
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Speaker 1: Ryan Jerick