sanguinary conflict, in which but very few Danes escaped the sword.

This victory freed the country from its ravagers till about 860, when the Danes renewed their invasions, and being continually reinforced by fresh bodies from beyond sea, they were enabled to obtain a permanent settlement in England in the reign of Ethelred the First; though not till they had fought many desperate battles with that Sovereign, and with the great Alfred, his brother. In the year 872, Alfred having recently succeeded to the Crown, was constrained to make a treaty with the Danes, who retiring to London, which they had again taken in the late wars, made it a a place of arms, and garrisoned it.

During the following ten or twelve years, all the resources of Alfred's genius were brought into exertion by Danish perfidy and rapine; yet, after many struggles, and various success, he at length obtained a decided superiority. This was principally accomplished by the creation of a fleet, with which he frequently chased the foe from his shores, or overwhelmed them in the deep. To this measure of the truest policy, he united the further one of securing the interior of the kingdom, by building or repairing castles and walled towns; and knowing the importance of London, both from its extent and situation, he forced it to surrender, after a short siege, about the year 884. Immediately afterwards, he repaired and strengthened the fortifications, and having also erected some additional buildings, he conferred the government of the City, with extraordinary powers, on his son-in-law, Ethelred, whom he at the same time made Earl of Mercia.*

In the subsequent wars of Alfred's reign, the Londoners behaved with exemplary bravery; yet nothing material is recorded of their City. In 894, the wife and two sons of the Danish chief, Hastings, were brought prisoners to London, by the "citizens and others,"

* Asser. Flor. Wor. Malms. de Gest. Reg. Ethelred is supposed to have held London in fee, as, after his death, it was delivered up, with Oxford, by his widow, the Princess Elfleda, to her brother, King Edward.

others," from Beomfleote, (now South Benfleet,) in Essex, where Hastings had erected a castle, which Earl Ethelred reduced; and in 896, when Alfred had forced the Danes to abandon their fleet, by diverting the current of the river Lea, "so that where shippes before had sayled, now a smal boate could scantly rowe,"+ all the Danish vessels that were preserved after the stream had been restored to its former channel, were brought round to this City.

There cannot be a doubt but that London was now greatly advanced in maritime consequence, though it had not yet risen to the dignity of a Metropolis. That period, however, was fast approaching; for King Athelstan, who succeeded Edward the Elder in 925, had a Palace in London; though the principal residence of the Saxon Monarchs was still at Winchester. Its comparative greatness, indeed, may in some degree be estimated by the laws of Athelstan respecting coinage, which, after commanding that ‘no man coin but in a town,' &c. ordain, that "In Canterbury there shall be seven minters; at Rochester, three; at London, eight; at Winchester, six; at Lewis, two; at Hastings, one; at Chichester, one; at Hampton, two; at Werham, two; at Exeter, two; at Shaftesbury, two; and at every other town, one." The direct inference from this record is, that the trade and population of London were then greater than at any other of the places enumerated.

In 945, as appears from Brompton's Chronicle, Edmund the First, the brother and successor of Athelstan, convoked a Wittenagemot in London, for the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs; in 961, a malignant fever carried off a great number of the inhabi tants; and in 982, the whole City was almost destroyed by a casual fire. This latter accident happened in the fourth of King Ethelred the Second; in whose disastrous reign London was several times assaulted by the Danes, yet the assailants were always repulsed by the determined bravery of the inhabitants.

The

+ Ibid.

* Stow's Annals, p. 104.

Bromp. Sax. Chron. Sim. Dun. Flor. Wor.

The incapacity of its sovereigns is the greatest curse to which a country can be subject when exposed to invasion. Ethelred, whom posterity has stigmatized by the epithet of the Unready, with a policy as unwise as cowardly, sought to buy off the preda tory incursions of the Danes, by presenting them with large sums of money; and for this purpose he even established that oppressive rate called Dane-gelt: this tax appears to have been imposed in a national council, or Wittena-gemot, assembled at London,* where Ethelred usually resided.

The general and barbarous massacre of the Danes during an interval of peace, in November, 1002, deprived the nation altogether of even the short-lived security that had been obtained by these wretched expedients. Sweyn, King of Denmark, in the fell spirit of revenge for the death of his sister, Gunilda, who was among the number put to death under the cruel orders of Ethelred, carried fire and desolation for three successive years through almost every part of the Island; and when, at length, he had partly satiated his vengeance, and returned to Denmark, the work

of

For the payment of the Dane-gelt, every hide of land in the kingdom was taxed twelve-pence yearly; and as the whole number of hides was computed to be 243,600, the produce of the tax, at one shilling, was 12,100 Saxon pounds; which was equal in quantity of silver to about 36,5401. sterling, and equivalent in efficiency to about 400,0001. according to the present value of money. At different periods Danegelt was raised from one up to seven shillings the hide of land, according to the exigencies of the government, or rather, to the rapacity or generosity of the reigning Prince. While the Danish visits were annually repeated, the Saxon Sovereign could put little into his coffers of the surplus of the tax, as the whole, and sometimes more, was expended in fighting or bribing the invaders; but when the government of the country became Danish, Dane-gelt became one of the principal sources of revenue to the Crown. Edward the Confessor remitted it wholly; but it was levied again under William the Norman, and William Rufus: it was once more remitted by Henry the First, and at length finally, by King Stephen, seventy years after the Conquest.

Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, Vol. I. and Rapin's Hist. Vol. I. p. 119, note.

of destruction was still continued by fresh bodies of his countrymen. The calamities spread through the land by these sanguinary invaders, were augmented by domestic treason, and by the weakness of Ethelred, who having lost nearly the whole of his dominions except London, once more resorted to the measure of bribing the Danes to quit the kingdom; and this they agreed to do, on receiving the enormous sum, at that period, of 48,0001.

This new sacrifice was attended only by a short respite; for in the same year, 1013, Sweyn entered the Humber with a powerful fleet, and having overrun all the northern and midland parts of the country, he advanced southwards, and invested London, where Ethelred had taken refuge. The citizens bravely defended themselves; and Sweyn being ill-provided with necessaries for a long siege, drew off into Wessex, to pursue his accustomed ravages. Meeting with no opposition, he marched a second time towards London, and, whilst making preparations to re-invest it with additional vigor, he was informed that Ethelred, who dreaded to fall into the hands of his mortal foes, had retired to Nor. mandy with all his family. Thus deserted by their Prince, the Londoners, to avert the menaced destruction, opened their gates to the Danes; and shortly afterwards Sweyn was proclaimed King of England, no one daring to dispute his assumption of that dignity.

On the death of Sweyn, and the accession of Canute his son, in the following year, 1014, the English resolved to attempt to free themselves from bondage; and London, as it had been the last to submit, so also was it among the first to throw off the yoke of servitude. Ethelred was recalled; and Canute was impelled in his turn to quit the kingdom; though to this step he was partly induced by events in Denmark, where Harold, his younger brother, having been left regent, had possessed himself of the throne.

Ethelred, to whom adversity had not taught wisdom, still continued to disregard the interests of his subjects, and the general murmur emboldened Canute to hasten his preparations for a new invasion. Landing at Sandwich in 1016, that warlike chief found his conquests facilitated by the treachery of Edric Streon, Duke of Mercia, who deserted to the Danes with a large force; and all

the

the address of Prince Edmund was unable to retrieve the disorders generated by the imbecility of Ethelred, his father, who, under pretence of sickness, kept himself shut up in London. On one occasion only could he be induced to take the field; but, over come by his fears, he again hastened to secure himself within the walls of the City, whither the mortified Edmund was soon obliged to join him with the remainder of his dispersed forces. Ethelred, now the object of general scorn, soon afterwards fell sick in reality, and dying in a short time, was succeeded by the gallant Edmund, who was crowned in London amidst the fervent acclamations of the citizens.

The increased importance of London at this eventful period, rendered it a principal object of Canute's efforts; and he thrice besieged it in the course of the year 1016, though every time without success. On his first attack, Edmund was absent in the west; "but the brave resistance of the citizens giving Edmund time to throw in succours from the other side of the Thames, Canute saw himself obliged to raise the siege. Having thus lost his aim, he used many stratagems to surprize the enemy, or draw him off from London; and this last project succeeding, he went and laid siege a second time to the City." It was probably on this occasion, that Canute "caused a broad and deep cut, or canal, to be made through the marshes on the south side of the river Thames, in order to carry his ships to the west of the bridge, that he might invest the City on all sides, to prevent supplies from entering, and to facilitate its reduction." The facility with which Edmund

Rapin's Hist. Vol. I. p. 125.

+ Maitland's Lond. p. 26, Edit. 1739. The course of the trench dug by Canute, is stated by Maitland, from his own observation and inquiries, to have had its outfall at the great Wet Dock below Rotherhithe,' and to have been carried across the Deptford road near the bottom of Kent Street towards Newington Butts, and thence by Kennington 'through the Spring Garden at Vauxhall,' to its influx with the Thames 'at the lower end of Chelsea Reach. To this it has been objected,

that