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her he, nor his brothers, nor, probably, even his father had ever exercised. The only district which was in strictness ceded was Essex; and it was a heavy loss that London remained for some years longer a Danish city. But the gains far outweighed the losses; and we can but ask in wonder what were the causes of so great a change. Some light is gained when we have realised that Alfred at Athelney was not burning cakes, but organising victory. Then, too, he had good helpers. We have seen what Odda did in Devonshire; and Ethelwerd lays stress on the co-operation of AEthelnoth, the ealdorman of Somerset, in the dark days of Athelney. There is nothing like work in common for a great cause, in face of great difficulties, for cementing friendship, and perhaps it is to these days that Werferth of Worcester looks back when in one of his charters he speaks of AEthelnoth as 'the friend of us all.'
But after all, the greatest of all human causes of success is contained in those words of the Chronicler already quoted, 'they were fain of him.' The personality of Alfred was beginning to tell, and to rally to itself all that was worthiest in the nation. It has been compared, not unaptly, to the resurrection of France under Joan of Arc.
? 72. For the next few years Alfred had comparative peace, the Danes being mostly occupied on the Continent. There was a small, but successful, naval engagement in 881 or 882, and in 884 a body of the enemy landed in Kent and laid siege to Rochester, throwing up their usual fortifications round their own positions. But the besieged defended themselves successfully till Alfred came with the fyrd, and the besiegers were in their turn besieged, and withdrew, possibly by agreement, to the Continent once more, leaving their prisoners, and the horses which they had brought with them from over seas, in Alfred's hands. The appearance of their kinsmen in Kent seems to have been too much for the loyalty of the Danes in East Anglia. 'They broke the peace with King Alfred.' Alfred at once sent his fleet from Kent, where it had no doubt been supporting his operations at Rochester, across the broad estuary of the Thames, and at the mouth of the Stour, between Essex and Suffolk, the English defeated and captured a fleet of sixteen sail; but on their way back were met by a superior fleet of East Anglian Danes, and defeated in their turn. It will be remembered that it is in reference to this defeat that the earlier writer in Simeon of Durham gives us the wonderful story based on the corrupt reading in Asser of 'dormiret' for 'domum iret.'
It had an immense effect upon Alfred's position, and made him more clearly than ever the head of the nation. 'There submitted to him the whole Angle-kin that was not in subjection to the Danes.' The city was restored and fortified, and committed to the care of Alfred's son-in-law, AEthelred, whom soon after 878 he had made ealdorman of the part of Mercia which fell to him by the settlement of that year. Once, in 851, under Berhtwulf, the Danes had captured London; they had occupied it in 872 under Burgred; it had fallen to their share at the division of Mercia in 877. But never again, after Alfred's restoration of it, was it ever forcibly captured by them or by any other foreign host. Alfred is rightly called the second founder of London.
Once more, for a few years, Alfred had peace. In 889 or 890 his old enemy and god-son, Guthrum-Athelstan of East Anglia, died. How far he had really become a Christian we cannot tell. In spite of his baptism Ethelwerd uncharitably dismisses him below: 'he breathed out his soul to Orcus.' But for the present the Danes of East Anglia made no movement.
? 74. In 892 the final storm burst on England; but the result was only to show the strength of the system which Alfred had built up during the years of peace. The splendid annals 893-7 , in which, as has been said, we seem to hear the very voice of Alfred himself, and beside which, as the same authority declares, 'every other piece of prose not in these Chronicles merely, but throughout the whole range of extant Saxon literature, must assume a secondary rank,' give us some insight into the reforms which Alfred had effected.
To counteract the standing weakness of citizen-armies, which made them liable to melt away at the critical moment, when their short term of service was expired, he divided the fyrd into two divisions, which were to relieve one another at fixed intervals, 'so that always half were at home, and half on service.' This measure is particularly interesting, as it may have been suggested to Alfred by his studies in Orosius, where a similar institution is attributed to the Amazons, and in Alfred's translation is described in language very similar to that of the Chronicle.
Besides the two alternating divisions of the fyrd, the Chronicle enumerates 'the men who were bound to keep the burgs.' If the Danes had taught the Saxons the importance of mobility when in movement, they had no less surely taught them the importance of fortifications when stationary. In the first place the towns were encouraged to fortify themselves--we have a very interesting document, unfortunately without date, which tells how AEthelred of Mercia, and his wife, AEthelflaed, lady of the Mercians, 'bade work the burg at Worcester for the protection of all the people'; while in 898 there was a formal conference at Chelsea between Alfred, AEthelred, AEthelflaed, and Archbishop Plegmund on the fortifications of London. But besides this, fortified camps were erected at strategic points. The important document known as the burghal hidage, which is only a very little later than Alfred's reign, seems to show that certain districts were appurtenant to these burgs, while 'the men who were bound to keep the burgs' would possibly hold their lands by a tenure analogous to that known under the feudal system as 'castle-guard.' Asser also insists strongly on the importance which Alfred attached to the construction of 'castella' or 'arces' ; though he also shows that Alfred had considerable difficulty in getting his subjects to adopt this novel mode of defence. It would seem then that, in creating the famous lines of forts by which Edward and AEthelflaed secured the country which they won from the Danes, they were but carrying out the policy of their father.
It seems to have been part of Alfred's military policy to increase considerably the number of thanes, by conferring the privileges, and enforcing the obligations of thanehood on all owners of five hides of land, an estate analogous to the later knight's fee. This would give the king a nucleus of highly equipped troops, whom he could moreover call out on his own authority, without going through the form of consulting the Witan. It can hardly be a mere accident that, whereas in the records of Alfred's reign, the only mention of king's thanes hitherto has been in connexion with the minor military operations of the great 'year of battles,' 871, in the annals 894-7 they are mentioned no less than six times.
These annals also furnish abundant evidence of that increased mobility of the English forces which we have already noticed. They also show
That the English had learned not only to make fortifications, but to storm them. After this preamble we return to the history of Alfred's last contest.
? 75. On November 1, 891, Arnulf, king of the Eastern Franks, had defeated the Northmen in a brilliant engagement on the Dyle, which freed the interior of Germany for ever from these foes. This, and the famine which prevailed on the Continent in 892 in consequence of an exceptionally severe winter, disgusted them with their continental quarters; and in the autumn of 892 a fleet of 250 sail put forth from Boulogne, and entered the mouth of the then navigable river Lymne, drew their ships four miles up the river, and, after capturing an unfinished fort, entrenched themselves at Appledore. Shortly after, a smaller detachment of eighty ships under Haesten sailed into the estuary of the Thames, entered the Swale, and fortified itself at Milton. In view of these new encampments on English soil, Alfred, early in 893 , exacted oaths from the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes, with hostages in addition from the latter, that they would take no part with the invaders. This is the first time that we have had mention of any dealings of Alfred with the Northumbrian Danes, and it shows what new possibilities were opening before him; while, on the other side, the important part which, in spite of their oaths, the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes took in the following struggle, and the fact that the new invaders brought their wives and children with them, prove that this was no mere predatory raid, but a deliberate and concerted attempt to conquer England. Alfred with his fyrd took up a position between the two Danish camps, so as to watch them both. Numerous small skirmishes took place, but no general engagement. Meanwhile Alfred was negotiating with the smaller body of Danes at Milton; whom he may have thought to detach by making a separate agreement with them. Haesten entered into negotiations, and even allowed his two sons to be baptised, Alfred himself and AEthelred of Mercia acting as sponsors. But on the part of Haesten the negotiations were only a blind; if indeed they had not been originally proposed by him with this object. While they were in progress, he ordered the Danes at Appledore to send their ships round to Benfleet in Essex, and themselves to break out in force, and marching through Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire, cross the upper Thames, and then, turning eastwards, regain their ships at Benfleet, to which he himself now crossed, threw up a fortification, and occupied himself with harrying the districts, which had been ceded to Alfred by the settlement of 885 . This plan was put into execution. But though the Danes at Appledore succeeded in breaking out, they were pursued by the fyrd under Alfred's eldest son Edward, which overtook them , compelled them to fight a general engagement at Farnham, in which the Danes were defeated, and driven in confusion across the Thames, and up the Hertfordshire Colne, where they took refuge in an island called Thorney, which the fyrd proceeded to blockade. Unfortunately at this crisis the term of service of Edward's division of the fyrd expired, and their provisions being exhausted they were forced to raise the blockade.
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