while every freeman, however small his holding, must serve in the fyrd. A simple rotation of service converted the occasional levy into a standing army. The king divided his host into two parts. One half remained at home, while the other half served in the field, a sufficient number of men being reserved to defend the cities. With this force, the king marched from London to Exeter and back again to London, driving the Vikings from their fastnesses and burning their ships when they came ashore. The harvesters were protected as they gathered the crops, and the king's troops stood guard while the townsmen rebuilt their walls. "Thanks be to God," cries the Chronicler, "the army had not utterly broken up the Angle race." With disciplined and reliable troops at his service, Alfred was more than a match for the invaders and drove them from the land; but the Vikings were still masters of the Channel and ready to swoop down upon any undefended point. Realizing that these attacks must be forestalled, the king commanded great ships to be built after a model of his own devising. They were longer and steadier and at the same time swifter than the "keels" of the Danes. In 897 the little navy Proverbs of Green, PP. 53, 54. Source-Book, pp. 17-20. put boldly out to sea and drove the Viking fleet from the south coast. The Work of Alfred. Alfred rescued Saxon civilization when he confined the Danes beyond the Thames and defended the coast against further devastating inroads. He laid foundations for the lasting supremacy of the English when he built a navy and organized a permanent military force. Thereafter the king of Wessex was the rallying-point of the defence. Long after the house of Cerdic had ceased to reign, Alfred was hailed as England's shepherd, England's darling, England's comforter. He is the only one in the long line of English kings who has been honored with the title of "the Great." For Government. The war against the Danes was not Alfred's best service to the land he ruled. Under his wise direction, a stable government was established for the kingdom south of the Thames. The realm was administered in districts called shires. For each shire, an alderman was appointed who was held responsible for the execution of the law and the levying of troops in the king's service. The sheriff represented the king in the local courts, declaring the law and defending the royal interests. From the decision of the shire court, a man who felt himself injured might appeal to the king. Alfred was accustomed to inquire into the wisdom of the sentences rendered in his name, and to call to account judges who through ignorance or favor had failed to enforce the right. Asser tells us how eagerly these officers set to work to study the law, and how bitterly they lamented that they had not been properly taught in their youth when learning would have been easier. Their task was rendered a difficult one by the confused and conflicting character of Anglo-Saxon law. The ancient customs had been reduced to writing, and promulgated as laws by the early kings, but changing circumstances had brought new forms into vogue, while 1 Each shire corresponds to an early settlement, and the shire-moot to the folk-moot of a former kingdom; e.g. Kent, Sussex, Dorset, Somerset, much of the old usage was inapplicable. Alfred under- The laws of Alfred represent the best wisdom of the Anglo-Saxons, but they seem barbaric when compared with modern legislation. Penalties were not so much preventive as retaliatory. Every crime had its price, and injuries must be atoned for by the payment of wer-gild (blood- Wer-gild. money). "If a man strike out another's eye let him pay 60 shillings." "If a man strike out another's tooth in the front of his head, let him make amends for it with 8 shillings; if it be the canine tooth, let 4 shillings be paid as amends. A man's grinder is worth 15 shillings." This was rough justice, but it had the effect of checking crime, and was perhaps the only means of affording protection to the weak in this age of violence. The wer-gild marks an important advance on the custom of blood-feud prevailing among the Celts. The family of an injured man was still bound to exact vengeance, not, however, in blood, but in silver. The law determined the money equivalent of the wrong; the king enforced the penalty. The methods used to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused were still primitive. If a man could bring a sufficient number of neighbors' to swear that he had not committed the offence, he went free. Failing this, he must undergo the ordeal, appealing to God to vindicate the right. For Literature. Alfred was a king by birth and a soldier 1 This form of trial was known as "compurgation." Green, Alfred's In by force of circumstances, but nature intended him for a student. Not all the engrossing cares and anxieties of that long struggle with the Danes could thwart his scholar's purpose. Asser tells us that it was the king's custom "both night and day and amid his many other occupations of mind and body, either himself to read books or to listen whilst others read them." He yearned to give to his people the treasures of knowledge he found in the ancient writings. Under the ardent impulse given by the Irish missionaries, the monasteries of Northumbria had been centres of learning, but they had suffered severely during the Danish inroads. Many houses had been sacked and burned, and the brethren scattered. Knowledge of Latin, the literary tongue, had well-nigh perished. Alfred writes mournfully of the lost troduction to books and treasures. "So clean was learning now fallen off among the English race, that there were very few (priests) on this side of the Humber that were able to understand their service in English, or even to turn an epistle from Latin into English; and I think that there were not many beyond the Humber. So few were there of them that I cannot think of even one south of the Thames when I first took the kingdom." Alfred did what he could to repair this damage by rebuilding churches and convents and founding schools. The School of the Angle Race at Rome was "freed" by Anglo-Saxon Pope Marinus, at his request, "from all tribute and tax.” Learned men were summoned to his court from all parts of England, from Wales, and from the Continent.1 Pastoral Care. Chronicle. For the instruction of laymen the king determined to translate into Anglo-Saxon, the unlettered speech of the people, the most useful books he knew. The Psalms, Gospels, and other portions of the Bible had been already translated. Alfred chose the Consolation of the philosopher Boethius, the Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory, the Universal History of Orosius, and the Ecclesiastical His 1 eg. Plegmund, an Anglo-Saxon; Asser, a Welshman; Grimbald, a Frank; John of Saxony, a German. 2 By the monks of Lindisfarne. |