Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

E NG [ 57 ] ENG
Kn^bncl, bad confequenc.es at another time, the fear of the
DznoS' kept every thing quiet for the prefent. Thefe
^ ‘ ' barbarians had fume how or other conceived fuch hojjes
of enriching themielves by the plunder of England,
that they fearce ever failed of paying it an annual vifit.
The Englith hiftorians tell us, that they met with
many fevere repulfes and defeats j but on the whole it
uppe-ars that they had gained ground: for in 851 a
body of them took up their winter-quarters in Eng¬
land. Next year they received a ilrong reinforcement
of t heir countrymen in 350 veffels 5 and advancing from
the iih- of Thanet, v/here they had ftationed them-
felves, they burnt the cities of London and Canter¬
bury. Having next nut to flight Briehtric the go¬
vernor of ATercia, they marched into the heart of Surry,
htynng waft' the whole country through which they
piaffed.
Ethel wolf, though naturally little fitted for military
enterprig-.s, was now obliged to take the field. He
marched again ft the Hanes at the head of the Weft
Saxons, and gamed,an indeexfive and bloody victory
over lib enemies. i he Danes ftiii maintained their
< uHment in the ifle of Thanet. They syere attacked
by Ealher and Huda, governors of Kent and Surry ;
both of whom tiiey defeated and killed. Afterwards
they removed to the ille of Shepey, where they took
up their winter-quarters, with a defign to extend their
ravages the next year.
i he deplorable Hate of the kingdom did not hinder
Ethel wolf from making a pilgrimage to Rome, whither
he carried his fourth and favourite fon Alfred, then
only fix years of age. He pafiTed a twelvemonth in that
city \ made prefents to the principal eccleliaftics there j
and made a grant of 300 mancufes (a filver coin about
the weight of our half-crown) annually to the fee of
Rome. One-third of tins was to fupport the lamps of
St Peter’s, another thofe of St Paul’s, and the third
was for the Pope iftnifelf. In his return to England,
Ethel wolf manned Judith, daughter of the emperor
Charles the Bald 5 but when he landed, he found him-
folf deprived of his kingdom by his fon Ethelbald.
1 bat prince aflumed the government of Athenian’s
dominions, who was lately dead; and, with many of
Ethelwolf’s nobles, formed a defign of excluding him
from the throne altogether, on account of his weakneftes
and fuperftitions. Ethelwoif, however, delivered the
people from the calamities of a civil war, by dividing
the kingdom with his fon. He gave to Ethelbald the
government of the weftern, and referred to himfelf that
H tlie eaftern, part of the kingdom. Immediately after
this, he fummoned the ftates of the whole kingdom,
and conferred cm the clergy a perpetual donation of
tithes, for which they had long contended, and which
had been the fubjea; of their fermons for feveral
centuries.
This concefiion was deemed fo meritorious, by the
Englifh, that they now thought them {'elves fare of the
favour of heaven ; and therefore neglefted to ufe the
natural nreans for their fafety which they might have
done. 'They even agreed, that, notwithftanding the
defperate fituatjon of affairs at prefent, the revenues
of the church ihould be exempted from all burdens
though impofed for the immediate fecurity and defence
; EtHelwolf di^d two years after he
itad made the above-mentioned grant, and left the
Vol. VIn. Part 1.
kingdom to hxs two eldelt funs Ethelbald and Ethel- Englacti.
bert. Both thefe princes died in a few years, and left ' T
the Kingdom to Ethered their brother, in the year -A t-E JS66.
866. ^ 4s
1 he whole courfe of Ethcred’s reign was difturbed Ethcred,
by the irruptions of the Danes. The king defended
himfelf againft them with great bravery, being feconded
in ail his military enterprifes by his younger brother
Alfred, who afterwards afeended the throne. In this
reign, the Hanes firft landed among the Eaft Angles.
That people treacheroufly entered into an alliance
with’,the common enemy; and furniftxed them with
horfes, which enabled them to make an irruption into
Northumberland. There they feized upon the city of
V ork. Ofbricht and riEila, two Northumbrian princes
uo attempted to refeue the city, were defeated and
killed. Encouraged by this fuccefs, the Hanes pe¬
rn txated into the kingdom of IVIercia, took up their
winter-quarters at Nottingham, and thus threatened
the kingdom with a final iubje&ion. From this poll,
however, they were diilodged by Ethered and Alfred’
who forced them to retire into Northumberland. Their
reftlefs and favage difpofition, however, did not fuffer
them to continue long in one place. They broke into
EHt Anglia; defeated and took prifoner Edmund the
cributary king of that country, whom they afterwards
murdered ; and committed everywhere the moft bar¬
barous ravages. In 871, they advanced to Reading;
from whence they infefted the neighbouring country
by their incurfions. The Mercians, defirous of reco¬
vering their independency, refufed to join Ethered with
their fotces ; fo that he was obliged to march anainit
the Hanes, attended only by the Weft Saxons,° who
were his hereditary fubjecls. Several actions enfued,
in which the Hanes are laid to have been unluccefiful;
but being continually reinforced from their own coun¬
try, they became every day more and more formidable
to the Englifh. Huring the confufion and diftrefs in
which the nation was now neceffarily involved, King
Ethered died of a wound lie had received in an aflion
wilh the Hanes; and left to his brother Alfred the
kingdom almoft totally fubdued by a foreign power. ^r,
Alfred^ who may properly be called the founder of Alfred the
t ie Englilh monarchy, afeended the tlxrone in the year Great.
Sy i, being then only 22 years of age. His great vir¬
tues and filming talents laved his country from ruin,
v alt li leemed almoft unavoidable. His exploits an‘ainft
the Danes, his clangers and diftreffes, are related under
the article Alfred. Having fettled the nation in a
much better manner than could have been expedited, he
died in 901, leaving the kingdom to his fecond’fon
Edward the Elder.
The beginning of this monarch’s reign was difturbed Edwinithe
by thofe mteftine commotions from which the wife and Elder,
politic Alfred had taken fo much pains to free the na¬
tion. Ethelwald, fon to King Ethelbert, Alfred’s
elder brother, claimed a right to the throne. Having
armed his partifans, he took poffeffion of Winburne,
where he feemed determined to hold out to the laft
extremity. On the approach of Edward, however
with a powerful army, he firft fled into Normandy, and
afterwards into Northumberland. He hoped to find
the Northumbrians ready to join him, as moft of them
Wcve Hanes, lately fubdued by Alfred, and very im¬
patient of peace. The event did not difappoint his ex*
H pe (Rations.