Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/67

TO 1016.] by the advice of his council, employed the money in fitting out a powerful fleet, the command of which was given to Buthric, the brother of the new Duke of Mercia. This measure obliged the enemy to retire.

Buthric was no sooner in command than he used his authority to ruin Ulnoth, a noble who was his enemy, and began to accuse him of crimes to the king, who lent but too willing an ear to his rival. Finding his ruin determined upon, Ulnoth persuaded nine of the captains of the fleet to put to sea with him, which they did, plundering the English coasts, and committing fearful ravages. The admiral, incensed at his escape, set out with eighty ships to give him chase; but a terrible storm arising, he lost a great part of them, and the rest fell into the hands of Ulnoth. Thus was the fleet, which should have been the safeguard of the kingdom, lost and destroyed.

Taking advantage of this state of affairs, the Danes, who had their spies both in the court and country of England, prepared another expedition. Two fleets arrived in the kingdom—one in East Anglia, under Turkil; and the second in the Isle of Thanet, commanded by two leaders, Kemsig and Anlaff. They attacked the city of Canterbury, and would, doubtless, have destroyed it, had not the inhabitants ransomed it at an enormous sum.

Whilst the Danes were pillaging Kent, Ethelred drew an army together to oppose their ravages; and as soon as he was ready, he posted himself between them and their ships to prevent their embarking and carrying off their booty. Probably, he might have executed his project, and perhaps gained considerable advantage, considering the superiority of his forces, if Edric had not found means to relieve the Danes. The traitor, perceiving their danger, represented to the king, his father-in-law, that it would be more advantageous to let them retire, than hazard a battle, which might prove fatal to him; and this pernicious advice made such impression on the weak-minded monarch, that he offered them to march by, with all their plunder, unmolested. But instead of sailing for Denmark, as it was expected, they threw themselves into the Isle of Thanet; from which, during the whole winter, they made incursions into the neighbouring counties, and even made several attempts upon London; in which, however, they were always repulsed. During this period, Ulfkytel, Duke of East Anglia, willing once more to try the fortune of a battle in the defence of his territory, had the misfortune to be overthrown.

Hitherto the Danes wanted cavalry, on account of the difficulty of transporting horses from Denmark; but as soon as they were in possession of East Anglia, a country abounding with horses, they mounted part of their troops, and by that means extended their conquests. Shortly after, they subdued Essex, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Devonshire, whilst Ethelred, who had scarce anything left, kept himself shut up in London, without daring to take the field and stop their progress. In all the above-named counties, London and Canterbury were the only places in the king's power. But at length they attacked the last so vigorously, that they took, plundered, and reduced it to ashes; and Elphegus, the archbishop, being taken prisoner, was afterwards murdered by these barbarians at Greenwich, to which place, the station of their ships, they had brought him prisoner. In the old church of Greenwich, on the top of the partition wall between the nave of the church and the chancel, was formerly the following inscription:—"This church was erected and dedicated to the glory of God, and the memory of St. Alphage, Archbishop of Canterbury, here slain by the Danes, because he would not ransom his life by an unreasonable sum of money. An. 1012." He was first buried at St. Paul's in London, and afterwards removed to Canterbury. He was honoured as a martyr, and stands in the Roman Martyrology on the 19th of April.

Such was the helpless condition to which the country was reduced that no terms were thought too burdensome to rid it of the invaders, to whom £48,000 were ultimately paid on condition that they quitted England, which they did, taking with them an enormous amount of booty.

But scarcely had they ratified this treaty, when Sweyn entered the Humber with a powerful fleet, and threatened the whole kingdom with desolation and ruin. As this prince found the country unprovided with troops, and unable to defend itself, he quickly became master of Northumbria and East Anglia. But these conquests not satisfying his ambition, he took hostages of all the principal towns, and leaving his son Canute to command the newly conquered counties, he advanced southward, and on a sudden laid siege to London, where Ethelred was shut up. Though he was but ill provided with necessaries to besiege in form a place of such importance, he imagined the citizens would be terrified at his menaces; but finding they were not moved by them, he desisted from his enterprise, and passed on and ravaged the western parts of Wessex, where he found no opposition to his arms. However, as he could not be satisfied whilst London was out of his power, he resolved to besiege it once more; but whilst he was preparing for the siege with greater precaution than before, he had information of Ethelred's departure from thence. This unfortunate prince, ever dreading to fall into the hands of an enemy he had so cruelly injured, and perceiving himself unsafe in England, retired into Normandy with all his family; upon which the Londoners resolved to submit to the King of Denmark, to whom all the rest of the kingdom was now subject; and shortly after this Sweyn was proclaimed King of England without any opposition, no one in the kingdom daring to dispute his title.

It does not appear that Sweyn was ever crowned. His first act of sovereignty was to levy a heavy tax to pay his Danish troops, by whose assistance he had conquered England. At all events, his reign was brief; some writers say that he was poisoned, other writers that he died of a cold: the monkish historians pretend that he was killed by a St. Edmund, formerly King of East Anglia, with a lance, in order to save the town and monastery in which his canonised bones lay from being plundered by the invaders.

On the death of Sweyn, Canute, his son, was proclaimed king; but their common danger had given something like energy and combination to the councils of the English. They recalled Ethelred from his exile in Normandy, and pledged themselves to support him on the throne against the Danes, whose government was arbitrary, cruel, and oppressive.

Ethelred at first was unwilling to trust to their promises, being apprehensive of a design to deliver him into the hands of his enemies; but being encouraged by the reception his son met with, whom he had sent before to sound the people's