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

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Speaker 1: Chapter seven of King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox according all LibriVox accordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Ryan Cherock. King Alfred
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Speaker 1: of England by Jacob Abbot, Chapter seven reverses. The historians
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Speaker 1: say that Alfred was very unwilling to assume the crown
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Speaker 1: when the death of Ethelred presented it to him. If
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Speaker 1: it had not been an object of ambition or desire,
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Speaker 1: there probably would have been a rival claimant whose right
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Speaker 1: would perhaps prove superior to his own. Since it appears
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Speaker 1: that one or more of the brothers who reigned before
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Speaker 1: him left a son whose claim to the inheritance, if
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Speaker 1: the inheritance had been worth claiming, would have been stronger
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Speaker 1: than that of their uncle. The son of the oldest
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Speaker 1: son takes precedence always of the brother, for hereditary rights
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Speaker 1: like water never move laterally so long as they can
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Speaker 1: continue to descend. The nobles, however, and chieftains, and all
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Speaker 1: the leading powers of the Kingdom of Wessex, which was
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Speaker 1: the particular kingdom which descended from Alfred's ancestors united to
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Speaker 1: urge Alfred to take the throne. His father had indeed
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Speaker 1: designated him as the successor of his brothers by his will.
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Speaker 1: Though how far a monarch may properly control by his
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Speaker 1: will the disposal of his realm is a matter of
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Speaker 1: great uncertainty. Alfred yielded at length to these solicitations, and
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Speaker 1: determined on assuming the sovereign power. He first went to
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Speaker 1: Wimborne to attend the funeral solemnities which were to be
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Speaker 1: observed at his royal brother's burial. He then went to Winchester, which,
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Speaker 1: as well as Wimborne, is in the south of England,
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Speaker 1: to be crowned and anointed king. Winchester was, even in
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Speaker 1: those early days a great ecclesiastical center. It was for
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Speaker 1: some time the capital of the West Saxon Realm. It
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Speaker 1: was a very sacred place, and the crown was there
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Speaker 1: placed upon Alfred's head with the most imposing and solemn ceremonies.
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Speaker 1: It is a curious and remarkable fact that the spots
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Speaker 1: which were consecrated in those early days by the religious
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Speaker 1: establishments of the times have preserved in almost every case
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Speaker 1: their sacredness to the present day. Winchester is now famed
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Speaker 1: all over England for its great cathedral Church and the
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Speaker 1: vast religious establishment which has its seat there, the annual
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Speaker 1: revenues and expenditures of which far exceed those of many
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Speaker 1: of the states of this Union. The income of the
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Speaker 1: bishop alone was for many years double that of the
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Speaker 1: salary of the President of the United States. The Bishop
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Speaker 1: of Winchester is widely celebrated therefore all over England, for
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Speaker 1: his wealth, his ecclesiastical power, the architectural grandeur of the
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Speaker 1: cathedral Church, and the wealth and importance of the College
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Speaker 1: of Ecclesiastics over which he resides. It was in Winchester
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Speaker 1: that Alfred was crowned. As soon as the ceremony was performed,
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Speaker 1: he took the field, collected his forces, and went to
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Speaker 1: meet the Danes again. He found the country in a
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Speaker 1: most deplorable condition. The Danes had extended and strengthened their positions.
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Speaker 1: They had got possession of many of the towns, and
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Speaker 1: not content with plundering castles and abbeys, they had seized
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Speaker 1: lands and were beginning to settle upon them, as if
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Speaker 1: they intended to make Alfred's new kingdom their permanent abode.
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Speaker 1: The forces of the Saxons, on the other hand, were
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Speaker 1: scattered and discouraged. There seemed no hope left to them
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Speaker 1: of making head against their pestifers invaders. If they were defeated,
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Speaker 1: their cruel conquerors showed no moderation and no mercy in
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Speaker 1: their victory, and if they conquered, it was only to
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Speaker 1: suppress for a moment one horde, with a certainty of
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Speaker 1: being attacked immediately by another, more recently arrived and more
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Speaker 1: determined and relentless than those before them. Alfred succeeded, however,
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Speaker 1: by means of the influence of his personal character, and
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Speaker 1: by the very active and efficient exertions that he made
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Speaker 1: in concentrating what forces remained and in preparing for a
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Speaker 1: renewal of the contest. The first great battle was fought
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Speaker 1: at Wilton. This was within a month of his accession
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Speaker 1: to the throne. The battle was very obstinately fought. At
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Speaker 1: the first onset, Alfred's troops carried all before them, and
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Speaker 1: there was every prospect that he would win the day.
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Speaker 1: In the end, however, the tide of victory turned in
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Speaker 1: favor of the Nanes, and Alfred and his troops were
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Speaker 1: driven from the field. There was an immense loss on
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Speaker 1: both sides. In fact, both armies were for the time
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Speaker 1: pretty effectually disabled, and each seems to have shrunk from
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Speaker 1: a renewal of the contest. Instead, therefore, of fighting again,
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Speaker 1: the two commanders entered into negotiations. Hubba was the name
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Speaker 1: of the Danish chieftain. In the end, he made it
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Speaker 1: treaty with Alfred, by which he agreed to retire from
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Speaker 1: Alfred's dominions and leave him in peace, provided that Alfred
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Speaker 1: would not interfere with him and his wars in any
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Speaker 1: other part of England. Alfred's kingdom was Wessex. Besides Wessex
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Speaker 1: there was Essex, Mercia and Northumberland. Hubba and his Danes,
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Speaker 1: finding that Alfred was likely to prove too formidable an
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Speaker 1: antagonist for them to easily subdue, thought it would be
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Speaker 1: most prudent to give up one kingdom out of the four,
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Speaker 1: on conditions of not having Alfred to contend in their
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Speaker 1: depredations upon the other three. They accordingly made the treaty,
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Speaker 1: and the Danes withdrew. They evacuated their posts and stronghold
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Speaker 1: in Wessex and went down the Thames to London, which
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Speaker 1: was in Mercia, and there commenced the new course of
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Speaker 1: conquest and plunder, where they had no such powerful foes
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Speaker 1: who oppose them. Bututhrid was the king of Mercia. He
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Speaker 1: could not resist Hubba and his Danes alone, and he
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Speaker 1: could not now have Alfred's assistance. Alfred was censored very
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Speaker 1: much at the time, and had been condemned often sense
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Speaker 1: for having thus made a separate peace for himself and
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Speaker 1: his own immediate dominions, and abandoned his natural allies and
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Speaker 1: friends the people of the other Saxon kingdoms, to make
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Speaker 1: a peace with savage and relentless Pagans on the express
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Speaker 1: condition of leaving his fellow Christian neighbors at their mercy,
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Speaker 1: has been considered eugenerous, at least if it was not unjust.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, those who vindicate his conduct maintained
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Speaker 1: that it was his duty to secure the peace and
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Speaker 1: welfare of his own realm, leaving other sovereigns to take
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Speaker 1: care of theirs, and that he would have done very
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Speaker 1: wrong to sacrifice the property and lives of his own
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Speaker 1: immediate subjects to a mere point of honor, when it
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Speaker 1: was utterly out of his power to protect them, and
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Speaker 1: his neighbors too however this may be. Bututhred, finding he
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Speaker 1: could not have Alfred's aid, and that he could not
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Speaker 1: protect his kingdom by any force which he could himself
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Speaker 1: bring into the field, tried negotiations too, and he succeeded
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Speaker 1: in buying off the Danes with money. He paid them
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Speaker 1: a large sum on condition of their leaving his dominions
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Speaker 1: finally and forever, and not coming to molest him anymore.
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Speaker 1: Such a measure as this is always a very desperate
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Speaker 1: and hopeless one. Buying off robbers or beggars, or false
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Speaker 1: accusers or oppressors of any kind, is only to encourage
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Speaker 1: them to come again after a brief interval under some
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Speaker 1: frivolous pretexts, with fresh demands or new oppressions, that they
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Speaker 1: may be bought off again with higher pay at least.
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Speaker 1: Butthrid found it so. In this case. Hubba went northward
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Speaker 1: for a time into the Kingdom of Northumberland, and after
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Speaker 1: various conquests and plunderings there, he came back again into
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Speaker 1: Mercia on the plea that there was a scarcity of
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Speaker 1: provisions in the northern Kingdom and he was obliged to
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Speaker 1: come back. Bututhrid bought him off again with a larger
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Speaker 1: sum of money. Ubbas scarcely left a kingdom this time,
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Speaker 1: but spent the money with his army in carousing and excesses,
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Speaker 1: and then went to robbing and plundering as before. Bututhrid,
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Speaker 1: at last, reduced to despair and seeing no hope of
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Speaker 1: escape from the terrible pest with which his kingdom was infested,
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Speaker 1: abandoned the country and escaped to Rome. It received him
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Speaker 1: as an exiled monarch in the Saxon School, where he
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Speaker 1: soon after died. A prey to grief and despair, the
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Speaker 1: Danes overturned what remained of Bututhred's government. They destroyed a
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Speaker 1: famous mausoleum, the ancient burial place of the Mercian kings.
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Speaker 1: This devastation of the abodes of the dead was a
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Speaker 1: sort of recreation, a savage amusement to vary the more
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Speaker 1: serious and dangerous excitements. Attending their contests with the living,
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Speaker 1: they found an officer of Butrid's government name Kowulf, who,
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Speaker 1: though a Saxon, was willing, through his love of place
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Speaker 1: and power, to accept the office of king in subordination
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Speaker 1: to the Danes and hold it at their disposal, paying
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Speaker 1: an annual tribute to them. Kaowulf was excricated by his countrymen,
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Speaker 1: who considered him a traitor. He in his turn, oppressed
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Speaker 1: and tyrannized over them. In the meantime, a new leader
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Speaker 1: with a fresh horde of Danes had landed in England.
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Speaker 1: His name was half Deen. Half Deen came with a
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Speaker 1: considerable fleet of ships, and after landing his men and
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Speaker 1: performing various exploits in encountering various adventures in other parts
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Speaker 1: of England, he began to turn his thoughts towards Alfred's dominions.
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Speaker 1: Alfred did not pay particular attention to Halfden's movement at first,
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Speaker 1: as he supposed that his treaty with Hubbah had bound
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Speaker 1: the whole nation of the Danes not to encroach upon
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Speaker 1: his realm, whatever they might do. In respect to the
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Speaker 1: other Saxon kingdoms. Alfred had a famous castle at Wareham,
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Speaker 1: on the southern coast of the island. It was situated
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Speaker 1: on a bay which lies in what is now at Dorsetshire.
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Speaker 1: The castle was the strongest place in his dominions. It
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Speaker 1: was garrison and guarded, but not with any special vigilance,
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Speaker 1: as no one expected an attack upon it. Halfden brought
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Speaker 1: his fleet to the southern shore of the island, and
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Speaker 1: organizing an expedition there. He put to sea, and before
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Speaker 1: anyone suspected his design, he entered the bay surprised and
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Speaker 1: attacked Wareham Castle and took it. Alfred and the people
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Speaker 1: of his realm were not only astonished and alarmed at
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Speaker 1: the loss of the castle, but they were filled with
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Speaker 1: indignation at the treachery of the Danes and violating their
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Speaker 1: treaty by attacking it. Halfden said, however, that he was
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Speaker 1: an independent chieftain, acting in his own name, and was
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Speaker 1: not bound at all by any obligations entered into by Hubbah.
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Speaker 1: There followed after this a series of contests and truces,
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Speaker 1: during which treacherous wars alternated was still more treacherous and
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Speaker 1: elusive periods of peace, neither party on the whole gaining
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Speaker 1: any decided victory. The Danes at one time, after agreeing
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Speaker 1: upon a cessation of hostilities, suddenly fell upon a large
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Speaker 1: squadron of Alfred's horse who, relying on the truce, were
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Speaker 1: moved across the country. Too much off their guard, the
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Speaker 1: Danes dismounted and drew off the men, and seized the
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Speaker 1: horses and thus provided themselves with cavalry, a species of
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Speaker 1: force which is obvious they could not easily bring and
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Speaker 1: any ships which they could construct across the German Ocean.
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Speaker 1: Without waiting for Alfred to recover from the surprising consternation
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Speaker 1: which this unexpected treachery occasioned, the newly mounted troop of
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Speaker 1: Danes rode rapidly along the southern coast of England till
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Speaker 1: they came to the town of Exeter. Its name was
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Speaker 1: in those days ex Ancestor. It was then, as it
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Speaker 1: is now, a very important town. It has since acquired
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Speaker 1: a mournful celebrity as a place of refuge and the
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Speaker 1: scene of suffering of Queen Henrietta Maria, the mother of
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Speaker 1: Charles the Second. The loss of this place was a
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Speaker 1: new and heavy cloud over Alfred's prospects. It placed the
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Speaker 1: whole southern coast of his realm in the hands of
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Speaker 1: his enemies, and seemed to betrend for the whole interior
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Speaker 1: of the country a period of hopeless and intermediable calamity.
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Speaker 1: It seems, too, from various unequivocal statements and illusions contained
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Speaker 1: in the narratives of the times, that Alfred did not
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Speaker 1: possess during the period of his reign the respect and
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Speaker 1: affection of his subjects. He is accused, or rather not
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Speaker 1: directly accused, but spoken of, as it generally known, to
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Speaker 1: be guilty of many faults which alienated the hearts of
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Speaker 1: his countrymen from him and prepared them to consider his
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Speaker 1: calamities as the judgments of heaven. He was young and ardent,
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Speaker 1: full of youthful impetuosity and fire, and was elated at
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Speaker 1: his elevation to the throne. And during the period while
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Speaker 1: the Danes left him in peace under the treaties he
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Speaker 1: had made with Hubbah, he gave himself up to pleasure,
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Speaker 1: and not always to innocent pleasure. They charged him too,
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Speaker 1: with being tyrannical and oppressive in his government, being so
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Speaker 1: devoted to gratifying his own ambition and love of personal indulgence,
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Speaker 1: that he neglected his government, sacrificed the interest in the
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Speaker 1: welfare of the subjects, and exercised his regal powers in
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Speaker 1: a very despotic and arbitrary manner. It is very difficult
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Speaker 1: to decide at this late day how far the disposition
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Speaker 1: to find fault with Alfred's early administration of his government
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Speaker 1: arose from or was aggravated by the misfortunes and calamities
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Speaker 1: which befell him. On the one hand, it would not
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Speaker 1: be surprising if young and arduous and impetuous, as he
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Speaker 1: was at this period in his life, he should have
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Speaker 1: fallen into the errors and faults which youthful monarchs are
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Speaker 1: very prone to commit on being suddenly raised to power.
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Speaker 1: But then, on the other hand, men are prone in
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Speaker 1: all ages of the world, and most especially in such
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Speaker 1: rude and uncultivated times as these were, to judge military
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Speaker 1: and governmental action by the sole criterion of success. Thus,
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Speaker 1: when they found that Alfred's measures, one after another failed
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Speaker 1: in protecting his country, that the impending calamities burst successively
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Speaker 1: upon them, notwithstanding all Alfred's efforts to avert them, it
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Speaker 1: was natural that they should look at and exaggerate his
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Speaker 1: faults and charge all their national misfortunes to the influence
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Speaker 1: of them. There was a certain Saint Neote, a kinsman
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Speaker 1: and religious councilor of Alfred, the history of whose life
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Speaker 1: was afterward written by the Abbot of Crolan, the monastery
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Speaker 1: whose destruction by the Danes was described in a former chapter.
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Speaker 1: In this narrative, it is si that Neote often rebuked
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Speaker 1: Alfred in the severest terms for his sinful course of life,
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Speaker 1: predicting the most fatal consequences if he did not reform,
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Speaker 1: and using language which only a very culpable degree of
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Speaker 1: remissness and irregularity could justify you. Glory, said he one day,
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Speaker 1: when addressing the King and your pride and power, and
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Speaker 1: are determined and obdurate in your iniquity, but there is
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Speaker 1: a terrible retribution in store for you. I entreat you
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Speaker 1: to listen to my counsels, amend your life, and govern
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Speaker 1: your people with moderation and justice instead of tyranny and oppression.
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Speaker 1: And thus avert if you can, before it is too late,
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Speaker 1: the impending judgments of Heaven. Such language as this is
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Speaker 1: obvious that only a very serious dereliction of duty on
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Speaker 1: Alfred's part could call for or justify. But whatever he
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Speaker 1: may have done to deserve it, his offenses were so
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Speaker 1: fully expiated by his subsequent sufferings, and he atoned for
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Speaker 1: them so nobly too, by the wisdom, the prudence, the
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Speaker 1: faithful and devoted patriotism of his later career, that mankind
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Speaker 1: have been disposed to pass by the faults of his
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Speaker 1: early years, without attempting to scrutinize them too closely. The
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Speaker 1: noblest human spirits are always, in some periods of their existence,
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Speaker 1: or in some aspects of their characters, strangely weakened by
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Speaker 1: the infirmities and frailities, and deformed by sin. This is
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Speaker 1: human nature. We like to imagine that we find exceptions
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Speaker 1: and to see specimens of moral perfection in our friends
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Speaker 1: or in the historical characters whose general course of action
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Speaker 1: we admire. But there are no exceptions. To err into
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Speaker 1: sin at some times and in some ways is the common,
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Speaker 1: universal and inevitable lot of humanity. At the time when
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Speaker 1: Haften in his followers seized Wareham Castle and Exeter, Alfred
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Speaker 1: had been several years upon the throne, during which time
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Speaker 1: these derelictions from duty took place, so far as they
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Speaker 1: existed at all. But now alarmed at the eminence of
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Speaker 1: impending danger which threatened not only the welfare of his people,
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Speaker 1: but his own kingdom and even his life. For one
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Speaker 1: Saxon monarch had been driven from his dominions, as we
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Speaker 1: have seen, and had died a miserable exile at Rome.
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Speaker 1: Alfred aroused himself in earnest to the work of regaining
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Speaker 1: his lost influence among his people and recovering their alienated affections.
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Speaker 1: He accordingly, as his first step, convened a great assembly
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Speaker 1: of the leading chieftains and noblemen of the realm, and
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Speaker 1: made addresses to them, in which he urged upon them
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Speaker 1: the eminence of the danger which threatened their common country,
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Speaker 1: and pressed them to unite vigorously and energetically with him
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Speaker 1: to contend against their They must make great sacrifices, he said,
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Speaker 1: both of their comfort and ease, as well as their wealth,
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Speaker 1: to resist successfully so imminent a danger. He summoned them
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Speaker 1: to arms, and urged them to contribute the means necessary
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Speaker 1: to pay the expense of a vigorous prosecution of the war.
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Speaker 1: These harangues, and the ardor and determination which Alfred manifested
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Speaker 1: himself at the time of making them, were successful. The
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Speaker 1: nation aroused itself to new exertions, and for a time
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Speaker 1: there was a prospect that the country would be saved.
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Speaker 1: Among the other measures to which Alfred resorted in this
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Speaker 1: emergency was the attempt to encounter the Danes upon their
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Speaker 1: own element, by building and equipping a fleet of ships
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Speaker 1: with which to proceed to see in order to meet
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Speaker 1: an attack upon the water certain new bodies of invaders
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Speaker 1: who were on their way to join the Danes already
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Speaker 1: on the island, coming as a rumour said along the
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Speaker 1: sat In attempting to build up a naval power, the
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Speaker 1: greatest difficulty always is to provide seamen. It is much
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Speaker 1: easier to build ships than to train sailors. To man
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Speaker 1: his little fleet, Alfred had to enlist such half savage
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Speaker 1: foreigners as could be found in the ports, and even pirates,
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Speaker 1: as was said, whom he induced to enter his service,
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Speaker 1: promising them pay and such plunder as they could take
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Speaker 1: from the enemy. These attempts of Alfred to build and
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Speaker 1: man of fleet are considered the first rude beginnings for
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Speaker 1: which the present vast edifice of British naval power took
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Speaker 1: its origin. When the fleet was ready to put the sea,
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Speaker 1: the people thronged the shores, watching its movements with the
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Speaker 1: utmost curiosity and interest, earnestly hoping that it might be
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Speaker 1: successful in its contest with the more tried and experienced
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Speaker 1: armaments with which it would have to contend. Alfred was
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Speaker 1: in fact successful in the first enterprises which undertook with
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Speaker 1: his ships he encountered a fleet of the Danish ships
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Speaker 1: in the channel and defeated them. His fleet captured moreover,
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Speaker 1: one of the largest of the vessels of the enemy,
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Speaker 1: and with what would be thought in our day unpardonable cruelty,
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Speaker 1: they threw the sailors and soldiers whom they found on
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Speaker 1: board into the sea and kept the vessel. After all. However,
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Speaker 1: Alfred gained no conclusive and decisive victory over his foes.
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Speaker 1: They were too numerous, too scattered, and too firmly seated
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Speaker 1: in the various districts of the island, of some of
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Speaker 1: which they had been in possession for many years. Time
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Speaker 1: passed on, Battles were fought, Treaties of peace were made,
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Speaker 1: oaths were taken, hostages were exchanged, and then, after a
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Speaker 1: very brief interval of repose, hostilities would break out again,
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Speaker 1: each party bitterly accusing the other of treachery. Then the
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Speaker 1: poor hostages would be slain first by one party, and
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Speaker 1: afterward in retaliation by the other. In one of these
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Speaker 1: temporary and elusive pacifications, Alfred attempted to bind the Danes
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Speaker 1: by Christian oaths, their customary mode of binding themselves in
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Speaker 1: cases where they wished to impose a solemn religious obligation
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Speaker 1: was to swear by a certain ornament which they wore
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Speaker 1: upon their arms, which is called in the chronicles of
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Speaker 1: those times a bracelet. What its form and fashion was
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Speaker 1: we can not now precisely know, but it is plain
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Speaker 1: that they attached some superstitious and perhaps idolatrous associations of
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Speaker 1: sacredness to it. To swear by this bracelet was to
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Speaker 1: place themselves under the most solemn obligation that they could assume. Alfred, however,
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Speaker 1: not satisfyed with this pagan sanction, made them, in confirming
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Speaker 1: one treatise, swear by the Christian relics, which were certain
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Speaker 1: supposed memorials of Our Saviour's crucifixion, or portions of the
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Speaker 1: bodies of dead saints miraculously preserved, and to which the
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Speaker 1: credulous Christians of the day attached an idea of sacredness
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Speaker 1: and awe scarcely less superstitious than that which their pagan
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Speaker 1: enemies felt for the bracelets on their arms. Alfred could
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Speaker 1: not have supposed that these treacherous covnters, since they would
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Speaker 1: readily violate the faith plighted in the name of what
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Speaker 1: they revered could be held by what they hated and despised.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps he thought that though they would be no more
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Speaker 1: likely to keep the new oath than the old, still
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Speaker 1: that their violation of it, when it occurred, would be
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Speaker 1: in itself a great crime, that his cause would be
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Speaker 1: subsequently strengthened by their thus incurring the special and unmitigated
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Speaker 1: displeasure of Heaven. Among the Danish chieftains with whom Alfred
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Speaker 1: had thus continually to contend in this early part of
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Speaker 1: his reign, there was one very famous hero whose name
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Speaker 1: was He invaded England with a wild aboard, which attended
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Speaker 1: him for a short time, but he soon retired into France,
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Speaker 1: where he afterward greatly distinguished himself by his prowess and
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Speaker 1: his exploits. The Saxon historians say that he retreated from
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Speaker 1: England because Alfred gave him such a reception that he
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Speaker 1: saw that it would be impossible for him to maintain
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Speaker 1: his footing there. His account of it was that one day,
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Speaker 1: when he was perplexed with doubt and uncertainty about his plans,
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Speaker 1: he fell asleep and dreamed that he saw a swarm
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Speaker 1: of bees flying southward. This was an omen and he
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Speaker 1: regarded it, indicating the course which he ought to pursue.
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Speaker 1: He accordingly embarked his men on board his ships again
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Speaker 1: and crossed the Channel, and sought successfully in Normandy, a
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Speaker 1: province in France, the Kingdom and the home which, either
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Speaker 1: on account of Alfred or of the Bees, he was
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Speaker 1: not to enjoy in England. The cases, however, in which
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Speaker 1: the Danish chieftains were either entirely conquered or finally expelled
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Speaker 1: from the kingdom were very few. As years passed on,
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Speaker 1: Alfred found his army diminishing and the strength of his
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Speaker 1: kingdom wasting away. His resources were exhausted, his friends had disappeared,
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Speaker 1: his towns and castles were taken, and at last, about
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Speaker 1: eight years after his coronation at Winchester as monarch of
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Speaker 1: the most powerful of the Saxon kingdoms, he found himself
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Speaker 1: reduced to the very last extreme of destitution and distress.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter seven recording by Ryan Cherock