Part 3

=39. The Heathen Rout and Loss.=[87]--But here I must inform those who are ignorant of the fact that the field of battle was not equally advantageous to both parties, since the heathen had seized the higher ground, and the Christian array was advancing up-hill. In that place there was a solitary low thorn-tree, which I have seen with my own eyes, and round this the opposing forces met in strife with deafening uproar from all, the one side bent on evil, the other on fighting for life, and dear ones, and fatherland. When both armies had fought bravely and fiercely for a long while, the heathen, being unable by God’s decree longer to endure the onset of the Christians, the larger part of their force being slain, betook themselves to shameful flight. There fell one of the two heathen kings and five ealdormen; many thousand of their men were either slain at this spot or lay scattered far and wide over the whole field of Ashdown. Thus there fell King Bagsecg, Ealdorman Sidroc the Elder and Ealdorman Sidroc the Younger, Ealdorman Osbern, Ealdorman Fræna, and Ealdorman Harold; and the whole heathen army pursued its flight, not only until night, but until the next day, even until they reached the stronghold[88] from which they had sallied. The Christians followed, slaying all they could reach, until it became dark.

=40. Battle of Basing.=[89]--After[90] fourteen days had elapsed King Æthelred and his brother Alfred joined their forces, and marched to Basing[91] to fight with the heathen. Having thus assembled, battle was joined, and they held their own for a long time, but the heathen gained the victory, and held possession of the battle-field. After this fight, another army of heathen came from beyond sea, and joined them.

=41. Æthelred’s Death.=[92]--That same year, after Easter, the aforesaid King Æthelred, having bravely, honorably, and with good repute governed his kingdom five years through many tribulations, went the way of all flesh, and was buried in Wimborne Minster,[93] where he awaits the coming of the Lord and the first resurrection with the just.

=42. Alfred comes to the Throne; Battle of Wilton.=[94]--That same year the aforesaid Alfred, who had been up to that time, during the lifetime of his brothers, only of secondary rank, now, on the death of his brother, by God’s permission undertook the government of the whole kingdom, amid the acclamations of all the people; and indeed, if he had chosen, he might easily have done so with the general consent whilst his brother above named was still alive, since in wisdom and every other good quality he surpassed all his brothers, and especially because he was brave and victorious in nearly every battle. And when he had reigned a month almost against his will--for he did not think that he alone, without divine aid, could sustain the ferocity of the heathen, though even during his brothers’ lifetimes he had borne the calamities of many--he fought a fierce battle with a few men, and on very unequal terms, against all the army of the heathen, at a hill called Wilton, on the south bank of the river Wiley,[95] from which river the whole of that shire is named; and after a severe engagement, lasting a considerable part of the day, the heathen, seeing the whole extent of the danger they were in, and no longer able to bear the attack of their enemies, turned their backs and fled. But, shame to say, they took advantage of their pursuers’ rashness,[96] and, again rallying, gained the victory and kept the battle-field. Let no one be surprised that the Christians had but a small number of men, for the Saxons as a people had been all but worn out by eight battles in this selfsame year against the heathen, in which there died one king, nine chieftains, and innumerable troops of soldiers, not to speak of countless skirmishes both by night and by day, in which the oft-named Alfred, and all the leaders of that people, with their men, and many of the king’s thanes, had been engaged in unwearied strife against the heathen. How many thousand heathen fell in these numberless skirmishes God alone knows, over and above those who were slain in the eight battles above mentioned.

=43. Peace made.=[97]--In that same year the Saxons made peace with the heathen, on condition that they should take their departure; and this they did.

=44. The Heathen winter in London.=[98]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 872, being the twenty-fourth of King Alfred’s life, the aforesaid army of heathen went to London, and there wintered; and the Mercians made peace with them.

=45. The Heathen winter in Lindsey.=[98]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 873, being the twenty-fifth of King Alfred’s life, the oft-named army, leaving London, went into Northumbria, and there wintered in the shire of Lindsey; and the Mercians again made peace with them.

=46. The Danes in Mercia.=[99]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 874, being the twenty-sixth of King Alfred’s life, the above-named army left Lindsey and marched to Mercia, where they wintered at Repton.[100] Also they compelled Burgred, King of Mercia, against his will to leave his kingdom and go beyond sea to Rome, in the twenty-second year of his reign. He did not live long after his arrival at Rome, but died there, and was honorably buried in the Colony of the Saxons,[101] in St. Mary’s church,[102] where he awaits the Lord’s coming and the first resurrection with the just. The heathen also, after his expulsion, subjected the whole kingdom of Mercia to their dominion; but, by a miserable arrangement, gave it into the custody of a certain foolish man, named Ceolwulf, one of the <king∮s> thanes, on condition that he should peaceably restore it to them on whatsoever day they should wish to have it again; and to bind this agreement he gave them hostages, and swore that he would not oppose their will in any way, but be obedient to them in every respect.

=47. The Danes in Northumbria and Cambridge.=[103]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 875, being the twenty-seventh of King Alfred’s life, the above-mentioned army, leaving Repton, separated into two bodies, one of which went with Halfdene into Northumbria, and having wintered there near the Tyne, and reduced all Northumbria to subjection, also ravaged the Picts and the people of Strathclyde.[104] The other division, with Guthrum,[105] Oscytel, and Anwind, three kings of the heathen, went to Cambridge, and there wintered.

=48. Alfred’s Battle at Sea.=[106]--In that same year King Alfred fought a battle at sea against six ships of the heathen, and took one of them, the rest escaping by flight.

=49. Movements of the Danes.=[107]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 876, being the twenty-eighth year of King Alfred’s life, the oft-mentioned army of the heathen, leaving Cambridge by night, entered a fortress called Wareham,[108] where there is a monastery of nuns between the two rivers Froom , in the district which is called in Welsh Durngueir,[109] but in Saxon Thornsæta,[110] placed in a most secure location, except on the western side, where there was a territory adjacent. With this army Alfred made a solemn treaty to the effect that they should depart from him, and they made no hesitation to give him as many picked hostages as he named; also they swore an oath on all the relics in which King Alfred trusted next to God,[111] and on which they had never before sworn to any people, that they would speedily depart from his kingdom. But they again practised their usual treachery, and caring nothing for either hostages or oath, they broke the treaty, and, sallying forth by night, slew all the horsemen [horses?] that they had,[112] and, turning off, started without warning for another place called in Saxon Exanceastre, and in Welsh Cairwisc, which means in Latin ‘The City ,’ situated on the eastern bank of the river Wisc,[113] near the southern sea which divides Britain from Gaul, and there passed the winter.

=50. Halfdene partitions Northumbria.=--In that same year Halfdene, king of that part of Northumbria, divided up the whole region between himself and his men, and settled there with his army.

=51. Division of Mercia.=[114]--The same year, in the month of August, that army went into Mercia, and gave part of the district of the Mercians to one Ceolwulf,[115] a weak-minded thane of the king; the rest they divided among themselves.

=52. The Danes at Chippenham.=[116]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 878, being the thirtieth of King Alfred’s life, the oft-mentioned army left Exeter, and went to Chippenham, a royal vill, situated in the north of Wiltshire, on the east bank of the river which is called Avon in Welsh, and there wintered. And they drove many of that people by their arms, by poverty, and by fear, to voyage beyond sea, and reduced almost all the inhabitants of that district to subjection.

=53. Alfred in Somersetshire.=--At that same time the above-mentioned King Alfred, with a few of his nobles, and certain soldiers and vassals, was leading in great tribulation an unquiet life among the woodlands and swamps of Somersetshire; for he had nothing that he needed except what by frequent sallies he could forage openly or stealthily from the heathen or from the Christians who had submitted to the rule of the heathen.[117]

=54. The Danes defeated at Cynwit.=[118]--In that same year the brother[119] of Inwar[120] and Halfdene, with twenty-three ships, came, after many massacres of the Christians, from Dyfed,[121] where he had wintered, and sailed to Devon, where with twelve hundred others he met with a miserable death, being slain, while committing his misdeeds, by the king’s thanes, before the fortress of Cynwit,[122] in which many of the king’s thanes, with their followers, had shut themselves up for safety. The heathen, seeing that the fortress was unprepared and altogether unfortified, except that it merely had fortifications after our manner, determined not to assault it, because that place is rendered secure by its position on all sides except the eastern, as I myself have seen, but began to besiege it, thinking that those men would soon surrender from famine, thirst, and the blockade, since there is no water close to the fortress. But the result did not fall out as they expected; for the Christians, before they began at all to suffer from such want, being inspired by Heaven, and judging it much better to gain either victory or death, sallied out suddenly upon the heathen at daybreak, and from the first cut them down in great numbers, slaying also their king, so that few escaped to their ships.

=55. Alfred at Athelney.=[123]--The same year, after Easter, King Alfred, with a few men, made a stronghold in a place called Athelney,[124] and from thence sallied with his vassals of Somerset to make frequent and unwearied assaults upon the heathen. And again, the seventh week after Easter, he rode to Egbert’s Stone,[125] which is in the eastern part of Selwood Forest (in Latin ‘Great Forest,’ and in Welsh Coit Maur). Here he was met by all the neighboring folk of Somersetshire and Wiltshire, and such of Hampshire as had not sailed beyond sea for fear of the heathen; and when they saw the king restored alive, as it were, after such great tribulation, they were filled, as was meet, with immeasurable joy, and encamped there for one night. At daybreak of the following morning, the king struck his camp, and came to Æglea,[126] where he encamped for one night.

=56. Battle of Edington, and Treaty with Guthrum.=[127]--The next morning at dawn he moved his standards to Edington,[128] and there fought bravely and perseveringly by means of a close shield-wall against the whole army of the heathen, whom at length, with the divine help, he defeated with great slaughter, and pursued them flying to their stronghold. Immediately he slew all the men and carried off all the horses and cattle that he could find without the fortress, and thereupon pitched his camp, with all his army, before the gates of the heathen stronghold. And when he had remained there fourteen days, the heathen, terrified by hunger, cold, fear, and last of all by despair, begged for peace, engaging to give the king as many designated hostages as he pleased, and to receive none from him in return--in which manner they had never before made peace with any one. The king, hearing this embassage, of his own motion took pity upon them, and received from them the designated hostages, as many as he would. Thereupon the heathen swore, besides, that they would straightway leave his kingdom; and their king, Guthrum, promised to embrace Christianity, and receive baptism at King Alfred’s hands--all of which articles he and his men fulfilled as they had promised. For after [129] weeks Guthrum, king of the heathen, with thirty[130] men chosen from his army, came to Alfred at a place called Aller, near Athelney, and there King Alfred, receiving him as a son by adoption, raised him up from the holy font of baptism. On the eighth day, at a royal vill named Wedmore, his chrism-loosing[131] took place. After his baptism he remained twelve days with the king, who, together with all his companions, gave him many rich gifts.[132]

=57. The Danes go to Cirencester.=[133]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 879, which was the thirty-first of King Alfred’s life, the aforesaid army of heathen, leaving Chippenham, as they had promised, went to Cirencester, which is called in Welsh Cairceri, and is situated in the southern part of the kingdom of the Hwicce,[134] and there they remained one year.

=58. Danes at Fulham.=[135]--In that same year a large army of heathen sailed from beyond sea into the river Thames, and joined the greater army. However, they wintered at Fulham, near the river Thames.

=59. An Eclipse.=[136]--In that same year an eclipse[137] of the sun took place between nones and vespers, but nearer to nones.

=60. The Danes in East Anglia.=[138]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 880, which was the thirty-second of King Alfred’s life, the oft-mentioned army of heathen left Cirencester, and went to East Anglia, where they divided up the country and began to settle.

=61. The Smaller Army leaves England.=[139]--That same year the army of heathen, which had wintered at Fulham, left the island of Britain, and sailed over sea to East Frankland, where they remained for a year at a place called Ghent.

=62. The Danes fight with the Franks.=--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 881, which was the thirty-third of King Alfred’s life, the army went further on into Frankland, and the Franks fought against them; and after the battle the heathen, obtaining horses, became an army of cavalry.

=63. The Danes on the Meuse.=[140]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 882, which was the thirty-fourth of King Alfred’s life, the aforesaid army sailed their ships up into Frankland by a river called the Meuse, and there wintered one year.

=64. Alfred’s Naval Battle with the Danes.=[141]--In that same year Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, fought a battle at sea against the heathen fleet, of which he captured two ships, and slew all who were on board. Two commanders of the other ships, with all their crews, worn out by the fight and their wounds, laid down their arms, and submitted to the king on bended knees with many entreaties.

=65. The Danes at Condé.=[142]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 883, which was the thirty-fifth of King Alfred’s life, the aforesaid army sailed their ships up the river called Scheldt to a convent of nuns called Condé, and there remained one year.

=66. Deliverance of Rochester.=[143]--In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 884, which was the thirty-sixth of King Alfred’s life, the aforesaid army divided into two parts: one body of them went into East Frankland, and the other, coming to Britain, entered Kent, where they besieged a city called in Saxon Rochester, situated on the east bank of the river Medway. Before the gate of the town the heathen suddenly erected a strong fortress; but they were unable to take the city, because the citizens defended themselves bravely until King Alfred came up to help them with a large army. Then the heathen abandoned their fortress and all the horses which they had brought with them out of Frankland, and, leaving behind them in the fortress the greater part of their prisoners on the sudden arrival of the king, fled in haste to their ships; the Saxons immediately seized upon the prisoners and horses left by the heathen; and so the latter, compelled by dire necessity, returned the same summer to Frankland.

=67. Alfred’s Naval Battle at the Mouth of the Stour.=[144]--In that same year Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, shifted his fleet, full of fighting men, from Kent to East Anglia,[145] for the sake of spoil. No sooner had they arrived at the mouth of the river Stour than thirteen ships of the heathen met them, prepared for battle; a fierce naval combat ensued, and the heathen were all slain; all the ships, with all their money, were taken. After this, while the victorious royal fleet was reposing,[146] the heathen who occupied East Anglia assembled their ships from every quarter, met the same royal fleet at sea in the mouth of the same river, and, after a naval engagement, gained the victory.

=68. Death of Carloman, of Louis II, and of Louis III.=[147]--In that same year also, Carloman, King of the West Franks, while engaged in a boar-hunt, was miserably slain by a boar, which inflicted a dreadful wound on him with its tusk. His brother Louis, who had also been King of the Franks, had died the year before. Both these were sons of Louis,[148] King of the Franks, who also had died in the year above mentioned, in which the eclipse of the sun took place.[149] This Louis was the son of Charles,[150] King of the Franks, whose daughter Judith[151] Æthelwulf, King of the West Saxons, took to queen with her father’s consent.

=69. The Danes in Old Saxony.=[152]--In that same year a great army of the heathen came from Germany[153] into the country of the Old Saxons, which is called in Saxon Eald-Seaxum. To oppose them the same Saxons and Frisians joined their forces, and fought bravely twice in that same year.[154] In both these battles the Christians, by God’s merciful aid, gained the victory.

=70. Charles, King of the Alemanni.=[155]--In that same year also, Charles, King of the Alemanni, received with universal consent the kingdom of the West Franks, and all the kingdoms which lie between the Tyrrhene Sea and that gulf[156] situated between the Old Saxons and the Gauls, with the exception of the kingdom of Armorica.[157] This Charles was the son of King Louis,[158] who was brother of Charles, King of the Franks, father of Judith, the aforesaid queen; these two brothers were sons of Louis,[159] Louis being the son of Charlemagne, son of Pepin.

=71. Death of Pope Marinus.=[160]--In that same year Pope Marinus, of blessed memory, went the way of all flesh; it was he who, for the love of Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and at his request, generously freed the Saxon Colony in Rome from all tribute and tax. He also sent to the aforesaid king many gifts on that occasion, among which was no small portion of the most holy and venerable cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ hung for the salvation of all mankind.

=72. The Danes break their Treaty.=[161]--In that same year also the army of heathen which dwelt in East Anglia disgracefully broke the peace which they had concluded with King Alfred.

=73. Asser makes a New Beginning.=[162]--And now, to return to that from which I digressed, lest I be compelled by my long navigation to abandon the haven of desired rest,[163] I propose, as far as my knowledge will enable me, to speak somewhat concerning the life, character, and just conduct, and in no small degree concerning the deeds, of my lord Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, after he married the said respected wife of noble Mercian race; and, with God’s blessing, I will despatch it concisely and briefly, as I promised, that I may not, by prolixity in relating each new event, offend the minds of those who may be somewhat hard to please.

=74. Alfred’s Maladies.=[164]--While his nuptials were being honorably celebrated in Mercia, among innumerable multitudes of both sexes, and after long feasts by night and by day, he was suddenly seized, in the presence of all the people, by instant and overwhelming pain, unknown to any physician. No one there knew, nor even those who daily see him up to the present time--and this, sad to say, is the worst of all, that it should have continued uninterruptedly through the revolutions of so many years, from the twentieth to the fortieth year of his life and more--whence such a malady arose. Many thought that it was occasioned by the favor and fascination of the people who surrounded him; others, by some spite of the devil, who is ever jealous of good men; others, from an unusual kind of fever; while still others thought it was the _ficus_,[165] which species of severe disease he had had from his childhood. On a certain occasion it had come to pass by the divine will that when he had gone to Cornwall on a hunting expedition, and had turned out of the road to pray in a certain church in which rests Saint Gueriir [and now also St. Neot reposes there],[166] he had of his own accord prostrated himself for a long time in silent prayer--since from childhood he had been a frequent visitor of holy places for prayer and the giving of alms--and there he besought the mercy of the Lord that, in his boundless clemency, Almighty God would exchange the torments of the malady which then afflicted him for some other lighter disease, provided that such disease should not show itself outwardly in his body, lest he should be useless and despised--for he had great dread of leprosy or blindness, or any such complaint as instantly makes men useless and despised at its coming. When he had finished his praying, he proceeded on his journey, and not long after felt within himself that he had been divinely healed, according to his request, of that disorder, and that it was entirely eradicated, although he had obtained even this complaint in the first flower of his youth by his devout and frequent prayers and supplications to God. For if I may be allowed to speak concisely, though in a somewhat inverted order, of his zealous piety to God--in his earliest youth, before he married his wife, he wished to establish his mind in God’s commandments, for he perceived that he could not abstain from carnal desires[167]; and because he saw that he should incur the anger of God if he did anything contrary to His will, he used often to rise at cockcrow and at the matin hours, and go to pray in churches and at the relics of the saints. There he would prostrate himself, and pray that Almighty God in His mercy would strengthen his mind still more in the love of His service, converting it fully to Himself by some infirmity such as he might bear, but not such as would render him contemptible and useless in worldly affairs. Now when he had often prayed with much devotion to this effect, after an interval of some time he incurred as a gift from God the before-named disease of the _ficus_, which he bore long and painfully for many years, even despairing of life, until he entirely got rid of it by prayer. But, sad to say, though it had been removed, a worse one seized him, as I have said, at his marriage, and this incessantly tormented him, night and day, from the twentieth to the forty-fifth year of his life. But if ever, by God’s mercy, he was relieved from this infirmity for a single day or night, or even for the space of one hour, yet the fear and dread of that terrible malady never left him, but rendered him almost useless, as he thought, in every affair, whether human or divine.