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Home Alfred and the Danes Alfred and the Danes; Part 5 |
Alfred and the Danes; Part 5The wisdom of these precautions was shown when, at the end of his reign, Alfred had to meet a fresh invasion of Danes led by Hastings, "the worst man that ever was born". Alfred's new army was able to storm the Danish camp on the Lea, to shatter another force at Buttington in Montgomery, and finally by a great stroke to blockade and capture the Danish fleet in a narrow part of the river Lea. In 897 the Danes gave up the game and made off to join their kinsmen in Normandy, where we shall hear of them again. In England, for the present, they had found that, as a Norse poet sang:"They got hard blows instead of shillings, And the axe's weight instead of tribute", and they judged it best to leave Alfred alone. Alfred deserves to be remembered for what he did to keep his realm safe, yet no less honour is due for what he did to make it well governed. He set in order the laws, and took such good care that the reeves and aldermen should enforce them, that in later days when troubles came again men longed for the "laws of King Alfred". From his youth up he had been a scholar, always anxious to learn, and ready to teach. It was his wish that every freeborn youth "should abide at his book till he can well understand English writing ". That his people should have books to read in English, he translated from the Latin not only books on religion - the Consolation of Boethius and the Pastoral of Pope Gregory - but also books on history and geography, Bede's History of the Church and Orosius' History and Geography. At times, too, he did more than translate; he added to the books whatever seemed interesting to himself. Thus he put into Orosius' book the accounts of two voyages northwards to the White Sea and eastwards along the Baltic, made by Othere and Wulfstan, whom Alfred had himself sent out. Even more valuable than his translations was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which Alfred caused to be written and perhaps himself helped to write. This chronicle, which begins its story with the coming of the English, and was continued year by year from Alfred's time, is the best record we have for what happened before the Norman Conquest; it is the oldest history in its own tongue possessed by any nation in Europe; and by causing it to be written Alfred became the father of English prose, just as Caedmon had been the father of English poetry. A king who was so fond of learning was sure to attract scholars to his court. Nor did Alfred neglect the Church. The plunderings of the Danes had left churches in ruins and monasteries desolate. He gave largely from his own income to rebuild them; he even went further, setting up an abbey for monks at Athelney to commemorate God's mercies to him there, and another religious house for nuns at Shaftesbury. His own daughter did not disdain to be Head of this. Further, the churchmen themselves were in nearly as evil plight as the churches. At the beginning of his reign Alfred tells us that even south of the Humber there were "few priests who could render his service-book into English", while in the north the state of the church was still worse. Thanks to Alfred's efforts this ignorance was amended. He took care to choose good bishops and trusted them to make the lower clergy do their duty. However we look at Alfred, whether as a warrior, as a statesman, as a lawgiver, as a scholar, as a reformer, he appears equally great. Yet with all his greatness he kept all through his life the nature of a modest and simple man. "I desire," said he in his latest days, "to leave to them that come after me a remembrance of me in good works. So long as I have lived I have striven to live worthily." None can doubt that the task which this great king set himself was nobly done. |
Chronology |
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