Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/21

 men who sang and played ballads to while away the tedious hours. It was from the nobles and bishops that the Witangemot was chosen, which had great power in choosing the king, in making laws and treaties, and governing the people. In olden times every freeman had a right to a voice in making the laws; but now this was impossible, and it fell to the king and his Witan to do all the governing.

7. Danish Conquest.—This was the state of the English people in Dunstan’s time. Dunstan did not remain the king’s minister long after Edgar died, for a quarrel having arisen in the church about the right of the clergy to marry, Dunstan, who favored an unmarried clergy, retired to Canterbury, and a few years later died.

The next king after Edgar was another Edward, and then came Ethelred, rightly called the Unready or ‘‘Uncounselled,” because he would not take good advice. In Edgar’s time the Danes from Denmark and Norway were kept off, but now, Ethelred being a weak king, they landed in great numbers, and once more the land was plundered and the people murdered. Ethelred tried to buy them off, but this only brought them back in greater numbers. Then Ethelred married Emma of Normandy, hoping that her people would help him against the Danes. At last he had a great many of them treacherously murdered on St. Brice’s Day, 13th November, 1002. But this only made matters worse, for among the slain was the sister of the Danish king, Swegen or Sweyn. To revenge his sister, Swegen came over with a large army, and Ethelred fled to Normandy. Sweyn died, but his son Cnut, a still more terrible enemy, continued the war. When Ethelred died in 1016, his son Edmund Ironsides fought so bravely and well that Cnut agreed to divide England with him. Edmund, however, died, and then Cnut became king of all the country.

8. Danish Rule.—Cnut, although cruel in his earlier days, ruled justly and mildly after he became king. He governed by the English laws, and tried to stop the trade in slaves that went on between Bristol and Ireland. English and Danes alike obeyed him, and for eighteen years the troubled land had peace. His reign came to an end in 1036.

Cnut had married Emma of Normandy, Ethelred’s widow, and