CHAPTER VII.
OF THE CITY UNDER THE ENGLISH MONARCHS.
Edward the Elder having possession of this city, held it peaceably
to his death, which happened in the year 925, (fn. 1) and then left it, with
his kingdom, of which this was part, to
Ethelstane, or Adelstane, his son, who was a valiant and wise
prince in all his actions; he brought this land into one entire monarchy, (fn. 2) and utterly expelled the Danes, and quieted the Welshmen.
During his reign this city flourished in peace, having continually increased ever since its submission to his father Edward; he reigned
about sixteen years, and dying in the year 941, (fn. 3) left his crown to
Edmund, his brother, a man of great virtue, and strict justice; in
his days the peace and prosperity of this place continued; he died
in 946. This King, to shew his love to God, and bounty to his
church, first gave the town of St. Edmund's-Bury, with the liberty
thereof wholly to that martyr, and to the monks that then served at
his altars. (fn. 4) After his death,
Edred, or Eldrede, his brother, was crowned king of this realm,
and immediately news was brought him, that the Northumbrian
Danes revolted, whom he reduced again to their former obedience:
after which, in the year 951, Wolstan Archbishop of York, who had
encouraged this sedition, was committed to prison, because he had been
often, and was now daily accused of commanding many citizens and
burgesses of Thetford to be slain, in revenge of the Abbot Adelme,
who was unjustly slain by them; (fn. 5) but a year after he was delivered,
and restored to his see. Edred died in the year 955, and was succeeded by his nephew,
Edwin, or Edwy, the eldest son of Edmund, late King of England, who reigned four years, and was succeeded by
Edgar, his brother, in the year 959, who was so great a prince,
that being feared of all men, he lived in peace his whole life, which
got him the name of Edgar the Peaceable; he favoured the Danes
(by means of Odo Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a Dane) more
than was agreeable to the advantage of his subjects, (fn. 6) for there was
scarce a street in England but Danes dwelt in it, among the Englishmen, who, by continual conversing with them, who were naturally
great drinkers, habituated themselves so much to that vice, that the
King was forced to make a law for setting nails in cups of a certain
measure, marked for that purpose, that none should drink more than
was assigned him. From the time that this city and the East-Anglian
provinces had been under the English monarchs, they were governed
by an Earl, appointed by the King; and at this time Alwyn, (fn. 7) or
Edelwyn, the Alderman, kinsman to King Edgar, was Earl of EastEngland, and consequently governour of this place. It seems Edgar
always favoured the Angles, (fn. 8) on account of Ethelfled the Fair, his
first wife, who was the daughter of an East-Anglian duke named
Ordmar, by whom he had Edward, who succeeded him at his death
in 975. This
Edward was sirnamed the Martyr, (fn. 9) because he was barbarously
slain, by procurement of his step-mother, and by reason of the many
miracles (fn. 10) which, as Fabian tells us, were shewn at his grave. In his
time there was a hard contest between Alpher, or Elpher, Earl of
Mercia, who restored the secular priests that had been wrongfully
expulsed in King Edgar's time, from their prebends and benefices, to
make way for the monks whom that King favoured; for this Earl
and the other temporal lords of Mercia destroyed the abbies that
King Edgar had built in Mercia, and restored the priests, with their
wives, to their monasteries. (fn. 11) But Edelwyn, or Alwyn, Earl of the
East-Angles, and Alfred his brother, with Brighnode Earl of Essex,
withstood this, and assembling an army, by force maintained all the
monks in their monasteries, within the country of the East-Angles;
upon this many councils were held, as at Winchester, at Kyrthling in
East-England, &c. but by the craft of Dunstan and the monks, the
priests, (fn. 12) notwithstanding the justice of their cause, had their suit
dashed, and the monks held possession of their monasteries. This
King being murdered in the year 978, (fn. 13) was succeeded by
Ethelred, (fn. 14) commonly called the Unready, his brother-in-law, for
whose sake his mother Alfrede murdered King Edward, wherefore he
never could get the good will of his people; in the third year of his
reign, viz. 981, (fn. 15) the Danes who had lived as peaceable inmates with
the English, finding the King slothful and unactive, began to stir, and
inviting from home more forces, who arrived in seven ships upon the
Kentish coast, they spoiled all that country, which success encouraged them so much, that, soon after, they landed at so many places
at once, that the English could not tell where to encounter them first;
however, Goda Earl of Devonshire attacked them in the west, and got
the victory with the loss of his life; and in the year 991, Brightnod
Earl of Essex met Justin and Guthmund, (who with their army
had spoiled Ipswich,) and gave them battle at Maldon, but was overcome; and immediately after, the King, by the advice of his lords,
agreed to pay them 10,000l. on condition they should quietly depart
the realm; which money he levied upon his subjects, by assessing
every hundred at a certain sum, and the hundreds raised their proportions according to the number of hides (fn. 16) contained in them; this
was called Danegeld, or Danegylt, and was first 1s. on every hide,
afterwards 2s. This, though it appeased them for the present, was
only an encouragement to them to return again, and accordingly
the next year they came with a greater force, against which the King
prepared a navy, and made Edrick, or Alfride, Earl of Mercia, whom
he had lately recalled from banishment,) admiral of it; but that old
traitour could not prove true, for he not only sent word to the Danes,
that they might escape, but soon after turned to their side, as indeed did the most part of those that the King employed, they
being near allied in blood to them, by which means the Danes so
far prevailed, that, in 994, the King was forced to give them 16,000l.
more, as a composition for peace, upon which Anlaf (fn. 17) King of the
Norwegians promised never after to make war in this land, and being
baptized, the King stood godfather, after which he returned into his
country, and kept his promise faithfully; but this was not an end of
the Danish war, for others of that nation sprang up, and entered the
land the year following, and forced the King to another composition
of 20,000l. and so every year more and more, till it came at last to
40,000l. by which means the land was robbed of all its coin, and the
English brought so low, that they were fain to till the ground, while
the idle Danes eat the fruit of their labour, abusing the wives and
daughters of their hosts where they lay; and yet in every place (out
of fear) they were called by the natives Lord Danes, which afterwards
became a word of derision, and as such is still continued in our language, a Lurdan signifying with us a lazy, lubberly fellow.
In this miserable condition the King, being too weak to attempt
any thing by force, invented a desperate stratagem, which in the end
proved the destruction of the Saxon royal blood, and conquest of the
land to another nation, and for this purpose he sent secret commissions to every place in his realm, commanding that at an appointed
time they should murder all the Danes that were among them; the
time set was the 13th of November, in the year of our Lord 1002, being St. Bricius, or Brice's day; this was executed with such rigour,
that in Oxford, where the frighted Danes took sanctuary, in St. Frideswide's church, the English regarding neither place nor person, set
it on fire, and burnt it with the Danes therein. And now one would
think that England had quite shook off the Danish yoke, but it happened the contrary, the doers of it soon after repenting it; for this
news no sooner reached Denmark, but it added to their former ambition, the desire of revenge, and made them more inveterate against
the English, than they had ever been heretofore; and the very next
year, their King, Swain, (fn. 18) who had before been always a great friend
to England, entered the land, razed Exeter to the ground, and did all
the mischief that he possibly could, to revenge the deaths of Gunhild,
his sister, and Palingus, a Danish earl, her husband, and their son,
who were all Christians, and laid in hostage upon conditions of
peace, and yet were slain in the Danish massacre. Upon this, the
King raises an army, makes Edrick his favourite, whom he had created Duke of Mercia, and married to Edgyth his daughter, his chief
general, who, for all his great favour, betrayed him to the Danes,
who after this hearing that the King in person designed to give him
battle, left the land, and took shipping again. But the next year,
viz. 1004, Swain returned, and came with his fleet up to Norwich, to
which city the sea at that time came, as the Saxon Chronicle (fn. 19) plainly
proves, and burned and entirely destroyed the city, murdering its
inhabitants, and wasting the adjacent country; upon this, Ulfketyl,
Usketel, or Ulfketel, who was then Earl of the East-Angles, and resided at Thetford, (as the Earls generally did, called there a council
of the East-Anglian nobles, who came to the resolution of buying
their peace of the Danes, before they came thither, or did any damage to the neighbouring country, and their reason for so doing was,
because they came upon them so much on a sudden, that they had
not time to raise an army against them; upon this, they went and
made peace with them, notwithstanding which, they left their ships
privately, and bent their course directly to Thetford, wasting the
country all the way. As soon as Ulfketel heard it, he sent to the men
of the country, that they should burn their ships, but they either
could not, or dare not, so that they came hither without any opposition, and burnt and destroyed this city also, and wasted the country
hereabouts, slaying many, and committing all manner of villanies; (fn. 20)
but to revenge such a breach of truce, and the destruction of his noble
city, this valiant Earl got together what power he could, and assaulted
the Danish host, as they returned to their ships, and slew a great
number of them, (fn. 21) but could not maintain the fight, his enemies so
much outmatching him in number of men, and so he was forced to
retreat honourably, and the enemies kept on their way to their ships;
and the year following Swain was forced to return to Denmark with
all his fleet, by reason of the great famine that then sorely oppressed
the land, so that he could not find sustenance for his army. The
Saxon Chronicle speaking of this invasion, tells us, that after Swain
had sacked Norwich, though he had made peace with Earl Ulfketel,
yet without any regard to it, he marched to Theodford, which as soon
as the Earl knew, he dispatched a messenger to order his ships to be
burned, but the country neglected that advice; in the mean time, he
got together what force he could, as quick and privately as possible,
but in three weeks after they had sacked Norwich they entered this
city, and staying one night in it, wasted and burnt it, but in the
morning as they returned to their ships, Earl Ulfketel and his forces
met them, and joined battle, in which there was great slaughter on
both sides, and many of the East-Anglian nobles were slain; (fn. 22) but if
all the forces of the Angles had been there, the Danes had never returned again, as was agreed by all that were there present. In the
year 1005, Swain having increased his navy, recruited his men, and
filled his ships with provision, returned again, and landed at Sandwich, wasted the country, and wintered in the Isle of Wight; and in
Christmas time landed in Hampshire, and passed through it into
Berkshire, &c. making clean work wherever he came, for what they
could not carry away, they burnt, killing the owners; upon which,
the west-country people got together, and gave them battle, in 1006,
but being overcome, the King was obliged to make peace with them,
on condition to pay them tribute and find them provision, to which
they agreed, and so the English wholly maintained them; and the
year after, the King paid them 30,000l. tribute, upon which they departed in seeming friendship with the English; but the next year, viz.
1009, in harvest time, a great fleet of their ships landed at Sandwich,
conducted by three Danish princes, Turkil, or Turketel, Hening, and
Anlaf, and went to Canterbury, and had sacked it, had not the citizens
redeemed it for 1000l.; thence they went to the Isle of Wight, and
after that, over-run Sussex and Hampshire; King Ethelred finding no
truth in their promises, nor quiet in his land, was resolved to venture
once for all, and commit his cause to God, and the chance of war:
and having gathered together his power, and coming suddenly upon
the unprepared Danes, he had made an end of the quarrel, and destroyed them all, had not Earl Edrick, his son-in-law, that wicked
traitour, with many lies, (invented only to put him in fear,) persuaded
him from fighting. Upon this, they made their escape, returned into
Kent, and wintering upon the Thames, they refitted their fleet, and
often vainly attempted the city of London. The next year, viz. 1010,
after Easter, they sailed about the coast, and landed at Ipswich, which
they plundered and burned, and marched to Rengmore or Ringmere,
where they knew Earl Ulfketel was with his forces, and there, on
Ascension day morning, being the 5th of May, joined battle; the
men of Norfolk and Suffolk fled at the first onset, but Ethelstan, who
married the King's eldest daughter, and the Cambridgeshire men
whom he led, fought valiantly to their great honour, and had no
thoughts of quitting the field, till one Turketel, sirnamed Myranheafor
or Mireneheved, (fn. 23) whose father was a Dane, first began to fly, upon
which the enemy got the advantage; in this battle were slain Ethelstane, the King's son-in-law, Oswi, his son, Wulfric, son of Leofwine,
and many other noblemen, besides a great number of common people.
After this, for three months together, they went up and down the
country, wasting and destroying all wherever they came, in Norfolk,
Suffolk, the borders of Huntingtonshire, Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire, and the Fens there, where they got exceeding riches, by the
spoil of the great and wealthy abbies, such as Ely, &c. in those Fens,
and after this they returned hither, and the third time destroyed
and burned the city of Theodford, whence they went to Cambridge,
which met with the same fate, and so passing through the pleasant
mountain country of Balsham, they cruelly murdered the people,
without respect to age, sex, or degree, and going through Essex, came
again to their ships in the Thames; but they staid not long there,
for in 1011, the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and
thirteen more being wasted and destroyed, about the feast of St.
Mathew they besieged Canterbury, which the citizens defended twenty
days, and then it was betrayed to them; here they took Archbishop
Elphege, whom they afterwards murdered, with another Bishop named
Godwin, and Abbot Leofwyn, and Alfword, the King's Bailiff, and
having got what riches they could, they burnt the city, after they
had tithed the people by an inverted order, slaying all the nines, and
saving the tenths only, so that of all the monks there were but
four saved, and of the people 4800, whereby it appears there were
killed 43,200 persons; such was the cruelty of the Danes and their
leader Turkill, who became governour of this city.