The Leading Facts of English History Part 5

Long after Alfred's death, St. Dunstan, then Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the English Church, set out to push forward the work begun by the great King. He labored to accomplish three things. First, he sought to establish a higher system of education; secondly, he desired to elevate the general standard of monastic life; finally, he tried to inaugurate a period of national peace and economic progress.

He began his work when he had control of the abbey of Glas...o...b..ry, in the southwest of England. He succeeded in making the school connected with that abbey the most famous one in the whole kingdom (S45). He not only taught himself, but, by his enthusiasm, he inspired others to teach. He was determined that from Glas...o...b..ry a spirit should go forth which should make the Church of England the real educator of the English people. Next, he devoted himself to helping the inmates of the monasteries in their efforts to reach a truer and stronger manhood. That, of course, was the original purpose for which those inst.i.tutions had been founded (S45), but, in time, many of them had more or less degenerated. Every athlete and every earnest student knows how hard it is to keep up the course of training he has resolved upon. The strain sometimes becomes too great for him. Well, the monk in his cell had found out how difficult it was for him to be always faithful to his religious vows. St. Dunstan roused these men to begin their work anew. He re-created monasticism in England, making it stricter in discipline and purer in purpose.

Last of all, the Archbishop endeavored to secure greater freedom from strife. He saw that the continued wars of the English were killing off their young men--the real hope of the country--and were wasting the best powers of the nation. His influence with the reigning monarch was very great, and he was successful, for a time, in reconciling the Danes and the English (SS53, 56). It was said that he established "peace in the kingdom such as had not been known within the memory of man." At the same time the Archbishop, who was himself a skillful mechanic and worker in metals,[1] endeavored to encourage inventive industry and the exportation of products to the Continent.

He did everything in his power to extend foreign trade, and it was largely through his efforts that "London rose to the commercial greatness it has held ever since."[2] Because of these things, one of the best known English historians,[3] speaking of that period, declares that Dunstan "stands forth as the leading man in both Church and State."

[1] The common people regarded his accomplishments in this direction with superst.i.tious awe. Many stories of his skill were circulated, and it was even whispered that in a personal contest with the Evil One, it was the foul fiend and not the monk who got the worst of it, and fled from the saint's workshop, howling with dismay.

[2] R. Green's "English People."

[3] E. A. Freeman's "Norman Conquest," I, 65.

61. New Invasions; Danegeld (992).

With the close of Dunstan's career, a period of decline set in. The Northmen began to make fresh inroads (S53). The resistance to them became feeble and faint-hearted. At last a royal tax, called Danegeld, or Dane money (992), was levied on all landed property in England in order to buy off the invaders. For a brief period this cowardly concession answered its purpose. But a time came when the Danes refused to be bribed to keep away.

62. The Northmen invade France.

The Danish invasion of England was really a part of a great European movement. The same Northmen who had obtained so large a part of the island (S56) had, in the tenth century, established themselves in France.

There they were known as Normans, a softened form of the word "Northmen," and the district where they settled came to be called from them Normandy. They founded a line of dukes, or princes, who were destined, in the course of the next century, to give a new aspect to the events of English history.

63. Sweyn conquers England; Canute[1] (1017-1035).

Early in the eleventh century Sweyn, the Dane, conquered England (1013), and "all the people," says the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (S99), "held him for full king." He was succeeded by his son Canute (1017).

He could hardly be called a foreigner, since he spoke a language and set up a government differing but little from that of the English.

[1] "c.n.u.t," a shortened form of Canute.

After his first harsh measures were over he sought the friendship of both Church and people. He gave the country peace. Tradition reports that he rebuked the flattery of courtiers by showing them that the inrolling tide is no respecter of persons; he endeavored to rule justly, and his liking for the monks found expression in his song:

"Merrily sang the monks of Ely As c.n.u.t the King was pa.s.sing by."

64. Canute's Plan; the Four Earldoms.

Canute's plan was to establish a great northern empire embracing Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England. To facilitate the government of so large a realm, he divided England into four districts,--Wess.e.x, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria--which, with their dependencies, embraced the entire country. (See map facing p. 38.)

Each of these districts was ruled by an earl[1] invested with almost royal power. For a time the arrangement worked well, but eventually discord sprang up and imperiled the unity of the kingdom. After Canute's death two of his sons divided England between themselves; both were bad rulers.

[1] Earl ("chief" or "leader"): a t.i.tle of honor and of office. The four earldoms established by Canute remained nearly unchanged until the Norman Conquest, 1066.

65. Restoration of the Saxon or English Kings; Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).

On the occasion of the Danish conqueror Sweyn (S63), Ethelred II, the English King, sent his French wife Emma back to Normandy for safety.

She took her son, Prince Edward, then a lad of nine, with her. He remained at the French court nearly thirty years, and among other friends to whom he became greatly attached was his second cousin, William, Duke of Normandy.

The oppressive acts of Canute's sons (S64) excited insurrection (1042), and both Danes and English joined in the determination to restore the English line. They invited Prince Edward to accept the crown. He returned to England, obtained the throne, and pledged himself to restore the rights of which the people had been deprived.

By birth King Edward was already half Norman; by education and tastes he was wholly so.

It is very doubtful whether he could speak a word of English, and it is certain that from the beginning he surrounded himself with French favorites, and filled the Church with French priests. Edward's piety and blameless life gained for him the t.i.tle of "the Confessor," or, as we should say to-day, "the Christian."

He married the daughter of G.o.dwin, Earl of Wess.e.x, the most powerful n.o.ble in England. G.o.dwin really ruled the country in the King's name until his death (1053), when his son Harold (S67) succeeded him as earl.

66. Edward the Confessor builds Westminster Abbey.

During a large part of his reign the King was engaged in building an abbey or monastery at the west end of London, and hence called the Westminster.[2] He had just completed and consecrated this great work when he died, and was buried there. We may still see a part of the original building in the crypt or bas.e.m.e.nt of the abbey, while the King's tomb above is the center of a circle of royal graves.

[2] Minster: a name given originally to a monastery; next, to a church connected with a monastery; but now applied to several large English cathedrals.

Mult.i.tudes made pilgrimages to King Edward's tomb, for the Pope had enrolled him among the saints. Even now a little band of devoted Catholics gather around his shrine every year. They go there to show their veneration for the virtues and the piety of a ruler who would have adorned a monastery, but had not breadth and vigor to fill a throne.

67. Harold becomes King (1066).

On his deathbed, King Edward, who had no children, recommended Harold, Earl of Wess.e.x, as his successor (S65). But the Normans in France declared Edward had promised that his cousin William, Duke of Normandy (S65), should reign after him. The Witan, or National Council of England (S81), chose Harold. That settled the question, for the Council alone had the right to decide who should rule over the English people. Harold was soon afterward crowned (January 16, 1066).

68. Duke William prepares to invade England (1066).

William, Duke of Normandy, was getting ready for a hunting expedition when the news was brought to him of Harold's accession (S67). The old chronicler says that the Duke "stopped short in his preparations; he spoke to no man, and no man dared speak to him." Finally he resolved to appeal to the sword and take the English crown by force.

During the spring and summer of that year, he occupied himself in fitting out a fleet to invade England, and his smiths and armorers were busy making lances, swords, and coats of mail. The Pope favored the expedition and presented a banner blessed by himself, to be carried in the attack; "mothers, too, sent their sons for the salvation of their souls."

69. The Expedition Sails (1066).

William sailed on his great expedition in the autumn with a fleet of several hundred vesseles and a large number of transports. The Duke's ship, with the consecrated banner at the masthead, led the fleet.

His army consisted of archers and cavalry. Its strength has been variously estimated at from 14,000 men up to 60,000. They were partly his own subjects, and partly hired soldiers, or those who joined for the sake of plunder. William also carried a large force of smiths and carpenters, with timber ready cut and fitted to set up a wooden castle.

70. William lands at Pevensey.

The next day the fleet anch.o.r.ed at Pevensey, on the south coast of England, under the walls of an old Roman fortress which had stood, a vacant ruin, since the Saxons stormed it nearly six hundred years before. (See map facing p. 38.) Tradition says that as William stepped on sh.o.r.e he stumbled and fell flat with his face downward.

"G.o.d preserve us!" cried one of his men; "this is a bad sign." But the Duke, grasping the pebbles of the beach with both his outstretched hands, exclaimed, "Thus do I seize the land!"

71. King Harold in the North.

There was, in fact, no power to prevent him from establishing his camp, for King Harold (S67) was in the north quelling an invasion headed by the King of the Norwegians and his brother Tostig, who hoped to secure the throne for himself. Harold had just sat down to a victory feast, after the battle of Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, when news was brought to him of the landing of William.

It was this fatal want of unity in England which made the Norman Conquest possible. If Harold's own brother, Tostig, had not turned traitorously against him, or if the north country had stood squarely by the south, Duke William might have found his fall on the beach an omen full of disaster.

72. What Duke William did after Landing.

As there was no one to oppose him, William made a fort in a corner of the old Roman wall at Pevensey (S70), and then marched to Hastings, a few miles farther east, where he set up a wooden castle on that hill where the ruins of a later stone castle may still be seen. Having done this, he pillaged the country in every direction.

73. Harold marches to meet William.

King Harold, having gathered what forced he could, marched to meet William at a place midway between Pevensey and Hastings, about five miles back from the coast. Harold had the advantage of a stockaded fort he had built; William, that of a body of cavalry and archers, for the English fought on foot with javelins and battle-axes mainly. The Saxons spent the night in feasting and song, the Normans in prayer and confession; both were eager to fight.

74. The Great Battle of Hastings, 1066.

On the morning of the 14th of October the fight began. It lasted until dark, with heavy loss on both sides. At length William's strategy carried the day, and Harold and his brave followers found to their cost that then, as now, it is "the thinking bayonet" which conquers. The English King was slain and every man of his chosen troops with him. A monk who wrote the history of the period of the Conquest, says that "the vices of the Saxons had made them effeminate and womanish, wherefore it came to pa.s.s that, running against Duke William, they lost themselves and their country with one, and that an easy and light, battle." Doubtless the English had fallen off in many ways from what hey had been generations earlier; but the record at Hastings shows that they had lost neither strength, courage, nor endurance, and a harder battle ws never fought on British soil.