Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/19

 Alfred now tried to improve the condition of his people, and to give them good laws.

3. Alfred’s Government.—Among other good things that Alfred did, he collected the old laws of the English and added others from the Ten Commandments and the laws of Moses, and these he put in force. He built monasteries and schools and sought to fill them with pupils under wise and learned teachers. He translated books, which were then written in Latin, into English, and so may be said to be the Father of English literature.

Not content with trying to educate his people, he took great care that they should be taught to defend themselves against the Danes. He divided his men into two bodies, one to go out to fight against the Danes, if needful, and the other to guard the homes of the people. He also built ships to keep the Danes away from the shore, and thus began the English navy. His time was always fully occupied, one portion being given to sleep, another to prayer, and a third to work. Thus it was that Alfred, although often ill and troubled by wars and invasions, did more for his people and his kingdom than most kings who have ruled in England.

4. Alfred’s successors.—Alfred died in 901, and was succeeded by his son Edward (the Elder). Edward, his sons Athelstan, Edmund, Edred, and his grandson Edwy, gradually but surely won back the Danelagh from the Danes, until in 959, an English king, once more ruled over all England, and both English and Danes became subjects of Edgar the Peaceable, Edwy’s brother. By this time the Danes and the English were much alike. They were of the same hardy race, and though their languages differed somewhat, they easily learned to talk with one another. The Danes had become Christians while in England, and had lost much of their rudeness and love of fighting and plundering. We, to-day, can tell where they lived by the names of towns they founded, these nearly always ending in ‘‘by.” Thus Grimsby, Derby, and Kirkby, are places of Danish origin, while towns whose names end in “ham” or ‘‘ton” are English towns.

5. Dunstan.—Edgar did not really rule England, that was the work of a great man in his reign, Archbishop Dunstan. It was Dunstan’s task to make the English and Danes live peaceably together, and this he did by allowing the Danes to keep their own