Part 6

In 1566, seven years after Amy's death, Dudley's marriage with the queen was debated by the Privy Council, when it was reported to them that Appleyard, had in a moment of irritation against Leicester, said he had not been satisfied with the verdict, but for the sake of Dudley had covered the murder of his sister. Appleyard was cited to appear and explain his words to the Privy Council, which he did by saying that he did not hold Dudley guilty, but thought it would not be difficult to find out the guilty parties. Here says Mr. Froude, if Appleyard spoke the truth, there is no more to be said: the conclusion seems inevitable, that though Dudley was innocent of direct influence, the unhappy lady was sacrificed to his ambition and made away with by persons who hoped to profit by Dudley's elevation to the throne. "If Appleyard spoke the truth," says Mr. Froude--I will however quote from a letter found by Canon Jackson at Longleat. It is from a Berkshire gentleman to Mr. John Thynne of Longleat, dated June 9th, 1567. After mentioning other matters, he continues, "On Friday in the Star-Chamber, was Appleyard brought forth, who shewed himself a malytyous beast, for he dyd confesse the accused my Lord of Leicester only of malyes, and he hath byn about it these three years, and now, because he could not go through with his business to promote, he fell into this rage against my lord and would have accused him of three things. 1st, of kyllyng his wyf. 2nd, of sending the Lord Derby to Scotland. 3rd, for letting the queen of marriage. He craved pardon for all these things. My Lord Keeper answered in King Henry VII. days there was one lost his ears for slandering the Chief Justice; so as I think his ende will be the pillory."

Mr. Froude therefore is answered by this letter. Appleyard did not speak truth, but as early as 1567, and even three years earlier, the libel is traced to have originated with him from personal motives of disappointment and revenge. He acknowledged himself a liar, but whether this retraction was from fear of the Star Chamber cannot be ascertained; at any rate the private opinion of Sir Henry Neville was that he merited the pillory. He must have been a contemptible rascal in any case, for even if the libel was true and fear caused him to retract, this was no excuse for his conduct on the occasion of his sister's funeral. This he attended, and in the procession bore a banner of arms. Sir Henry Neville must have judged and described him correctly. Taking the evidence into consideration, I must certainly express my own impression is that whatever may have been Leicester's faults, and they were many, or whatever crimes may be charged against him, he was at any rate guiltless of any intent to make away with his wife Amy. Even if Dudley were shielded in his evil doings by his court influence, would this have also affected public opinion in the country? I am of opinion that at that time his court popularity would have militated rather unfavourably than otherwise for him. Yet what do we find is the case? Within four years of his wife's death, he is elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Steward of the Boroughs of Abingdon, Wallingford, and Reading, all within easy distance of Cumnor Place, where his wife Amye was found dead at the foot of the stair, as some said foully murdered. Had he a hand, direct or indirect, in such a crime, or had suspicion then attached to him, I venture to affirm neither Oxford University nor the electors of these Boroughs would have so honoured him. The nominations must have been practically a declaration of confidence in his innocence. Poor Amy Robsart's death was indeed a sad one, but at least we may conclude that it was not hastened by neglect nor accomplished by violence on the part of her husband. In spite of all attempts to assert this truth, the story of her romance will live, and continue to add a pathetic interest to the quiet Berkshire village which preserves her memory.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Harl. 6395, Plut. xlix, g.]

Alfred the Great.

BY W.H. THOMPSON.

"You are a writer and I am a fighter, but here is a fellow Who could both write and fight, and in both was equally skilful!" --_Longfellow._

This terse, but sincere and enthusiastic eulogium, on the memory of Julius Cæsar by that stout Puritan, Captain Miles Standish, comes instinctively to the mind, as one contemplates the life of good King Alfred. It is not given to many to be alike famous as sovereign, warrior, lawgiver, and author; but such was Alfred, the first of England's great monarchs. If it is the "cunning," the knowing, or able man, as Carlyle tells us, who is the "king" by Divine right; here was the Saxon king _par excellence_. His lineage was of the most ancient and illustrious; his father Ethelwulf traced his descent from the most renowned of the Saxon heroes, and his mother Osburga was descended from famous Gothic progenitors. Born at the royal manor of Vanathing (Wantage) in the year 849, the youngest of Ethelwulf's four legitimate sons, he was his father's darling, the fairest and most promising of all his boys. This is doubtless the explanation of the fact that, whilst yet a mere child, he accompanied his sire on a pilgrim journey to Rome. How far this pilgrimage and the impressions which he received from his sojourn in what was still the greatest and most civilized city in Europe, may have influenced his after-life and character it is impossible to say; but the earliest story related of Alfred treats of his aptitude for learning and his love for poetry and books. He learned to read before his elder brothers, and even before he could read he had learned by heart many Anglo-Saxon poems, by hearing the minstrels and gleemen recite them in his father's hall. And his passionate love for letters never forsook him.

Much, however, as he might have preferred it, there was another life than that of the mere student and scholar laid up in store for this noble Saxon. One after another his three elder brothers, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, occupied the throne, and it was on the death of the last named, in 871, in the twenty-second year of his age, that reluctantly Alfred had to shut up his books, and take up the sceptre and the sword. He now comes before us as

(1). The warrior king.

Never did English monarch ascend the throne in darker days. Recently, it is true, the Saxons had come off victors against the Norsemen in one bloody field--the battle of Ashdune, near Reading,--but this dearly bought victory had in turn been succeeded by a series of discomfitures and defeats, the pagan armies having received fresh and continued re-inforcements. It was in one of these sanguinary conflicts that Ethelred received the wound which, though not immediately fatal, was yet the cause of his death. It was a period of prolonged devastation, misery, and rapine. Nine pitched battles were fought in the course of one short year, and the minor skirmishes were innumerable; the internecine conflict being conducted with the most savage ferocity. Prisoners were never spared, unless it was to extort a heavy ransom; and the countryside was everywhere given up to fire and sword. It is not surprising that Alfred, although already distinguished for his military valour, had not sought the crown. Kingship in those times was no sinecure.

Dark, however, as were the clouds when Alfred came to the throne, still gloomier days were in store. The Norsemen, already masters of all Northumbria, had also practically reduced the kingdom of Mercia; and they were now especially directing their attention to Wessex, the country of the West Saxons. With varying success Alfred confronted the enemy during the opening years of his reign; but he soon discovered that, though he might make treaties with his perfidious foes, they never dreamed of permanently abiding by them; and if he succeeded in withstanding them one year, like fresh clouds of locusts, new re-inforcements appeared on the scene, every spring and summer, from Scandinavia. In the depth of winter (A.D. 878), when it was not anticipated that they would pursue their military operations, the Danes made a sudden irruption into Wiltshire and the adjoining shires, and so utterly discomforted the Saxons, that Alfred, almost wholly deprived of his authority, was driven with a small but trusty band of followers, and his old mother Osburga, into Athelney, a secluded spot at the confluence of the Thone and the Parrett, surrounded by moors and marshes, which served at once for his concealment and his defence. Great were the hardships which Alfred here endured; his life was that of an outlaw. For daily sustenance he largely depended upon chance and accident, hunting the wild-deer, and even seizing by force the stores of the enemy. It is of this period of terrible privation that the oft-told tale of the good-wife's cakes is related. Yet all his misfortunes neither damped his courage, nor subdued his energy.

A most curious and interesting momento of this time has come down to us. The king wore an ornament, probably fastened to a necklace, made of gold and enamel, which being lost by him at Athelney, was found there entire and undefaced in the seventeenth century. It is now preserved at Oxford in the Ashmolean Museum. The inscription which surrounds the ornament: "ALFRED HET MEH GEWIRCAN" (Alfred caused me to be worked) affords the most authentic testimony of its origin.

But meanwhile the men of Wessex had gained a signal victory. Bjorn-Ironside and Hubba, who attempted to land in Devonshire, were killed with many of their followers; and the news reaching Alfred in his seclusion at Athelney, he forthwith determined upon bolder operations. Disguising himself as a glee-man or minstrel, he stole into the camp of the Danes, and was gladly received by the rude viking chiefs as one who increased their mirth and jollity. And so skillfully did Alfred maintain his disguise, that none suspected that he was merely playing a part. He was enabled to learn what he desired, the strength and position of the Norsemen; and having ascertained this, he returned to Athelney, unscathed and unharmed.

He now began to gather an army around him, and it was not long before he felt himself strong enough to confront the foe. Sallying forth, he met the Danes at a spot called Ethandune (probably Eddindon, near Westbury), and, after a murderous conflict, the English were left masters of the field. Though victorious, however, Alfred could not altogether expel the Danes. He was obliged to cede an extensive territory to the invaders and to Guthrun, their leader; viz., from the mouth of the Lea to its source, thence to Bedford, and along the Ouse to Watling Street, or the ancient Roman road; and this territory, together with Northumbria, became henceforth known by the name of the Danelagh, or Danelaw.

In East Anglia, and in the portions of Essex and Mercia thus ceded, the Danes settled and established themselves, not as enemies, but as vassals to Alfred. They appear to have become tired of their life of barbarism. Guthrun also embraced Christianity, and the treaty which he made with the English he maintained with integrity. In Northumbria, whilst the English had been induced to accept the Danish Guthred as their sovereign, Guthred, in turn, acknowledged the suzerainty of Alfred as his superior lord. He also continued true and faithful.

Thus Alfred, although he did not succeed in totally subjugating the Danes, by following up the signal advantage he gained at the battle of Ethandune, accomplished great things. In the course of seven years after his restoration, he was acknowledged as paramount monarch of Britain south of the Humber; Mercia was virtually under his dominion, and Wessex, the wealthiest and best favoured portion of the island, entirely, as well as in name, was under his royal sway.

Yet, whilst he had made peace with the Norse who had settled in England, Alfred had by no means come to the end of his troubles. The Saxon Chronicle records a series of constantly recurring attacks from the sea-roving Danes, who continued to harass the coasts. Into the details of these it is unnecessary to enter. But having once become the master of England, Alfred never relaxed his vigilance; he had London strongly fortified, and constructed a navy. One of the greatest feats of his later life was his victory over the famous Hasting, ablest of all the sea-kings; whose rout was so complete that he was pleased to escape from England with his life. The campaign against Hasting was the last great military achievement of our Saxon hero.

(2). The poet and scholar.

Not only was Alfred the first warrior, but he was also the foremost scholar in his dominions. This may be easily gathered from Asser's interesting memoirs. The King was an elegant poet, and wrote numbers of Saxon ballads, which were sung or recited in all parts of the country. In his original poems, the extent of his knowledge is not more surprising than the purity of his taste, and the simple yet classical beauty of his style. It is highly probable that Alfred diligently studied the Latin tongue between his twelfth and eighteenth years, and that he had a few Latin books with him during his Athelney seclusion. He was accustomed to say that he regretted the imperfect education of his youth, and the want of proper teachers, which barred his intellectual progress. But whatever the difficulties he may have had to surmount (and it is almost impossible to exaggerate them), the fact remains that his literary works shew a proficiency in the classic tongue, which appears almost miraculous in a prince in that dark age. It was probably shortly after making peace with Guthrun, that he invited Asser, the learned monk of St. David's, to his court, to assist him in his studies. Asser was a scholar after Alfred's own heart. The monk tells us that the King's first attempt at translation was made upon the Bible, a book which no man ever held in greater reverence than did the princely student. Asser and the King were engaged in pleasant conversation, and it so chanced that the monk quoted a passage from the Bible with which Alfred was much struck. At Asser's request the King called for a clean skin of parchment, and this being folded into fours, in the shape of a little book, the passage from the Scriptures was written upon it in Latin, together with other good texts. The monarch, setting to work upon these passages, translated them into the Saxon speech. This was the beginning of his translation of the Bible.

Nothing is more astonishing in the story of the the great Englishman than that he could find time for literary occupations; but he was steady and persevering, and rigidly systematic. When not in the field against the Norsemen, his rule was, eight hours for sleep, eight for the affairs of state, eight for study and devotion. His mind was ever open to receive fresh information. He took a continued delight in obtaining the details and particulars of strange and foreign lands. Before Alfred, nothing was practically known of the greater outside world by the Anglo-Saxons. But the King drew around him a number of bold and adventurous spirits, men, who had travelled far, and he revelled in the stories which they recited of their own experiences, and the information which they had gleaned of still more remote lands, which they themselves had not seen. One of these was Othere, who had been far north into the Arctic circle, another was Wulfstan, who took a voyage round the Baltic, and gathered many strange and interesting facts concerning those climes. All the information which he collected, the King committed to writing in the plain mother tongue, and in enlarging the text of the Spanish chronicler, Orosius, whose work he translated, he introduced the voyages of Othere and Wulfstan.

Having heard stories of the east, possibly from Johannes Scotus, who came to his court, and who had been in the far and distant Orient; and learning that there were colonies of Christians settled on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, Alfred decided to send out his trusted friend, Swithelm, Bishop of Sherburn, to India. Probably his motives were mixed feelings of devotion for Christianity, and a desire for increased geographical knowledge. Anyhow the stout-hearted churchman set out on this, what in those days must have been a tremendous journey; one which then had probably never been made by any other Englishman before. What is more, he succeeded in reaching India and returning safely back again, bringing with him presents of spices and gems. Thus was Alfred's fame increased, and the existence of England made known, probably for the first time, in that empire where to-day the Saxon holds sovereign sway.

No Englishman of the Saxon period, except the venerable Bede, can be compared with Alfred for the extent and excellence of his writings. His works may be classified into two divisions; translations from the Latin, and original works in the mother tongue. Of the first the chief were, (1) Orosius' History; (2) St. Gregory's Pastorals; (3) St. Gregory's Dialogues; (4) Bede's History; (5) Boethiv's Consolations of Philosophy; (6) Laws of the Mercians; (7) Asser's Sentences; (8) The Psalms of David. Of the second, (1) An Abridgement of Laws of the Trojans, the Greek, the Britons, the Saxons, and the Danes; (2) Laws of the West Saxons; (3) Institutes; (4) A book against unjust Judges; (5) Sayings of the Wise; (6) A book on the fortunes of Kings; (7) Parables and Jokes; (8) Acts of Magistrates; (9) Collection of Chronicles; (10) Manual of Meditations.

(3). The Law-giver.

Great as he truly was as a warrior, it was in the arts of peace that Alfred pre-eminently excelled. In every interval of repose allowed by his Norsemen foes, he occupied his mind in devising means for the improvement of the moral and physical condition of the people. He introduced the use of stone for building purposes and taught them how to erect houses such as he had seen in Rome and Milan. He never rebuilt a town without giving it a good capacious school, and he was also a great founder and restorer of churches and monasteries. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that he occupied himself largely with matters pertaining to legislation. Whenever he re-edified a town, he gave the people rules for re-modelling their municipal institutions, thus training them for self-government. As will be perceived from the list given above, his original writings were largely made up of abridgements of laws and the like. Of course there had been legal codes in existence in England before the days of Alfred. Ethelbert, King of Kent; Ina, King of Wessex; Offa, King of Mercia; besides other, had promulgated codes of law, or dooms; but all law and order had been destroyed during the dark times of the Danish inroads. Alfred collected the codes of his predecessors, and without apparently adding much of his own, compiled a very intelligible and consistent system of laws, which he submitted to the Witenagemot for sanction. Alfred was not a great advocate of innovation; as he states, he thought it better to allow an old law to stand in force, even if it were somewhat defective, rather than endanger the respect for constituted authority. His ideal was simplicity of construction, combined with impartiality of administration. According to Asser, he exercised vigilant supervision over the judges; the courts were improved, and a general legal reform took place all round. With that religiousness characteristic of the man, and recognising that if all the divine laws were duly observed, there would be but little necessity for those of human origin, he opened his code with the ten commandments, a selection from the Mosaic precepts, and clauses of the first apostolic councils. "Do these," he said, "and no other doom-book will be needed."

In summing up Alfred's character it would not be fair to seek to hide his faults. His was not that ideal perfection which some of his panegyrists would have us believe. He had his faults and failings, some of which adhered to him during the whole of his life. He continued, for instance, more fond of warfare than was consistent with the duty of a Christian monarch. Still, he possessed within him the only germs of real improvement, a consciousness of his own imperfections and insufficiency. And when we compare him with his contemporaries, after making all allowance for his shortcomings, still the true greatness of his character remains untouched. His achievements stand out all the more markedly, when it is considered that all his bodily and mental activities were carried on under the depressing influences of constant ill-health and physical pain. About the age of twenty, he was affected with an inward malady, the nature of which was beyond the knowledge of the physicians of the times. This disease never quitted him, it haunted him life long.

Whatever his minor faults may have been, no monarch who has had the title of "Great" attached to his name, has ever been more worthy of it. All historians combine in representing him as one of the noblest sovereigns that ever wore a crown. The shepherd of his people, "the darling of the English;" whose praises the Laureate has lately sung, the industrious prince, expired in the month of November, 901, on the festival of S.S. Simon and Jude, in the fifty-third year of his age, and was buried at Winchester, in a monastery he himself had founded. His memory is still preserved at his native place, Wantage. The site of the royal palace of the Wessex kings is pointed out in the High Garden, and a magnificent statue of "England's darling," executed by Count Gleichen in Sicilian marble has been presented to the town by Lord Wantage, and erected in the Market Place. Alfred's laurels will not fail while England lasts.

The Guilds of Berkshire.

BY THE REV. P.H. DITCHFIELD. M.A., F.S.A.

In studying the history of our progress and civilization, we find no subject more interesting than the nature and constitution of certain associations which have played no small part in the making of England--the ancient guilds. At one time they exercised almost universal sway, and in small country villages, as well as in the towns and cities, there were few who did not belong to some guild. We find in them the origin of many of the privileges and institutions which we now enjoy; from them arose the municipal corporations of our towns; and by them were our trade and commerce protected in times of lawlessness and oppression.

The whole subject of the early history of guilds is shrouded in obscurity. What was the origin of the early religious guilds; how the frith guilds came into existence; the relation of the merchant guilds to the craft guilds; how far the government of the town was placed in the hands of the former; and when the merchant guild became the sole governing body, the forerunner of the municipal corporation--all these are questions, the answers to which can only be conjectured.