Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/392



Johnson. He gradually made a reputation as a political writer, and in 1745 received a pension of 200l. a year from the Pelham government. So considerable was his influence, and so unscrupulous were his political opinions, that he asked for and was granted a renewal of his pension by the Bute government in 1762. In 1763 he published his first book, a 'Complete List of the English Peerage.' In spite of revision by noblemen this work is inaccurate. His next work was a 'History of England from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to 1688,' 4 vols., Lond. 1744-51, which was the first attempt to base history on parliamentary records. About 1764-7 he published, along with certain collaborators 'eminent in this branch of literature,' 'A General History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Time,' in twelve volumes; this was favourably noticed in the 'Critical Review,' as it was said, by the author himself. In 1767 appeared 'A General History of Scotland,' 10 vols. 8vo. It is painstaking and vigorous, but inaccurate, particularly in the early periods. Probably his most noted book was his 'Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar' (1770), which reached numerous editions, and was translated into French in 1801. Besides translations from Quintilian (1756) and Cicero (1744-54-55-58), he also wrote 'The Friends,' a sentimental history, in two volumes (1754), and 'Remarks on English Tragedy' (1757). Guthrie is more than once referred to by Johnson in terms of some respect. He died on 9 March 1770, and was buried in Marylebone.

[Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen; Boswell's Life of Johnson.]  GUTHRUM or GUTHORM (d. 890) was one of the leaders of a Danish host which, encamping near Reading in 871, waged a stubborn warfare with King Æthelred and his successor Ælfred throughout that year and the next; attacked Northumbria in 873; conquered Mercia in 874 ; and in the spring of 875 split into two divisions, one of which returned with Halfdene to Northumbria, while the other, led by 'the three kings Guthorm, Oskytel, and Amund,' marched from Repton to Cambridge, and thence in 876 sailed round the coast to Wareham. Ælfred bought their assent to a treaty whereby they swore to quit his realm; but as many of them as could find horses stole away by night to Exeter, and it was not until he had starved them into surrender that the whole Danish host again 'gave him hostages and sware mickle oaths and held good peace' (877). After spending the summer in Mercia, Guthrum withdrew to winter at Gloucester; here he was joined by reinforcements, and early in 878 he appeared at the head of all his forces at Chippenham. His march took Wessex completely by surprise, and the Danes overran the whole country east of Selwood, while Ælfred retired into Somerset. But in May 878 he defeated them in a pitched battle at Ethandun (Edington, Wiltshire), and a fortnight's siege of their camp starved them into surrender. By a treaty made at Wedmore, Guthrum pledged himself to become a Christian and to withdraw from Ælfred's kingdom; and that kingdom, as we know from after events, was now defined so as to exclude the Danes from all England south of Thames and west of Watling Street, as far north as the Ribble and as far east as the sources of the Don, the Derwent, and the Soar'. Of the territory thus left to the Danes, the portion which fell to Guthrum was East Anglia, i.e. the old kingdom so called, with the addition of Essex, London, and the district on the northern bank of the Thames as far as (but not including) Oxford, and apparently 'the old East-Anglian supremacy over the southern districts of the Fen.' About three weeks after the treaty was made, Guthrum came to Ælfred at Aller, near Athelney, 'and the king was his godfather in baptism, and his chrism-loosing was at Wedmore; and he was twelve days with the king, and he greatly honoured him and his companions with gifts.' When, therefore, Guthrum's host, after a year spent in peace at Cirencester, went into East Anglia 'and settled the land and parted it among them' (880), they went to set up a professedly Christian realm. Guthrum himself, if later chroniclers may be trusted, speedily sought a new field for action across the Channel, and took a leading part in the great fight at Saucourt, 881 (Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, in Rer. Gall. Scriptt. ix. 58 B; cf. Chron. Centul., ib. viii. 273 E). In 885 he broke the treaty of Wedmore by allowing his followers to join their brethren from over sea in a fresh attack upon Wessex; they were, however, worsted in the struggle, and next year Guthrum submitted to a new 'frith' whereby the western half of Essex, with London, was given up to Ælfred (, Anc. Laws, i. 66, 67, fol. ed.) Guthrum's baptismal name was Æthelstan; he was probably the 'king called Æthelstan,' who, according to the saga of Harald Haarfager, had 'at this time taken the kingdom of England,' i.e. about 883-93, and who is said to have sent an embassy to the Norwegian king and received envoys from him 'in London' (, Heimskringla, transl. Laing, i. 308-10). In a Norman tradition he appears under the disguise of 'the most Christian 