Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/34

 evidently took no part in political matters. The system of defence worked out by Eadgar must have perished at this time, which was naturally a period of disorganisation. A worthless favourite named Æthelsine appears to have exercised considerable influence over the young king, and to have led him to commit and to sanction many acts of oppression (, Codex Dipl. p. 700). By his advice Æthelred laid claim to an estate belonging to the bishopric of Rochester, some violence ensued, and in 986 Æthelred laid siege to Rochester; he was unable to take it, and ravaged the lands of the see. Dunstan interfered on behalf of the bishop, and, when the king disregarded his commands, paid him a hundred pounds of silver to purchase peace, declaring his contempt for Æthelred's avarice, and prophesying that evil would shortly come on the nation. It is probable that by this date Æthelred had been some time married to his first wife, Ælfgifu [see under ]. From 980 to 982 several descents were made on different parts of the coast by the Danes and Northmen. Southampton, Thanet, and Cheshire were ravaged; the coasts of Devon and Cornwall suffered severely, and a raid was made on Portland. To these years may perhaps be referred the story that Swend, the future king of Denmark, came over to England as a fugitive, and no doubt as the leader of a viking expedition, that Æthelred treated him as an enemy, and that he was hospitably received by the Scottish king ( ii. c. 32). These attacks were made simply for the sake of plunder; they ceased for a while after 982, and when they were renewed took a more dangerous form, for the invaders began to settle in the country. In 988 they landed in Somerset, but were beaten off after a sharp struggle. An invasion of a more formidable kind was made in 991 by a Norwegian force under King Olaf Tryggvason, Justin, and Guthmund; Ipswich was plundered, and the ealdorman Brihtnoth [q. v.] was defeated and slain at Maldon in Essex. Then Archbishop Sigeric, Æthelweard [see under ], the ealdorman of the western provinces, and another West-Saxon ealdorman, named Ælfric, offered to purchase peace of the Northmen, and promised to pay them ten thousand pounds of silver. So large a sum could not be raised quickly, and the Northmen threatened to ravage Kent unless they were paid. Sigeric obtained the money to make up the deficiency from Æscwig, bishop of Dorchester, and pledged an estate to him for repayment (, Codex Dipl. p. 689). The treaty was accepted by the king and the witan, and was concluded with the Norwegian leaders (Ancient Laws, p. 121). This was the first time that the disastrous policy was adopted of buying off the invaders. Unworthy as the step was, it is sometimes condemned too hastily. It was not taken consciously as an escape from the duty of defending the land; the men who made, and the king and the counsel who ratified, the treaty could not have done so with the expectation that other payments of a like kind would follow, and their action must be judged by itself. It was a moment of supreme danger, for the whole of the south of the country lay open to the enemy, and the three men who bore rule over it may well have thought that as no troops were ready their first duty was to save the people from impending destruction. And the money was not paid with the idea that the Norwegians would in return leave England; the treaty as made by Æthelred distinctly contemplates their remaining; each party, for example, was to refrain from harbouring the Welsh, the thieves, and the foes of the other. In fact, the king, by the advice of the archbishop and the two West-Saxon ealdormen, bought the alliance of Olaf and his host against all other enemies. War was actually going on with the Welsh, and their prince, Meredydd, was in alliance with the Northmen, whose help he had hired (Brut, ann. 988, 991; Norman Conquest, i. 313). And Æthelred can scarcely have failed to take into account the probability of a Danish invasion, and if so, he and his advisers may have flattered themselves with the hope of dividing their foes, and keeping off the Danes by the help of the Northmen (Conquest of England, p. 375). Even allowing that such a hope was certain to fail, time was gained by the treaty, and if it had been used in vigorous and sustained preparations for defence, the advice of the archbishop and the ealdormen might have turned out well. Unfortunately the kingdom was found defenceless again and again, and Æthelred and his nobles, having once got rid of immediate danger by a money payment, bought peace of the Danes on other occasions when they must have been fully aware of the folly of what they were doing. According to William of Malmesbury Æthelred made another treaty this year. He had causes of complaint against the Norman duke, Richard the Fearless; the ports of Normandy afforded convenient anchorage to the Scandinavian pirates, and it is not unlikely that they found recruits among the duke's subjects. War seemed imminent, and Pope John XV undertook the office of mediator. A peace was made which provided that neither should receive the enemies of the other, nor even the