Then became the dread of the army so
great, that no man could think or discover how they could be driven
out of the land, or this land maintained against them; for they had
every shire in Wessex sadly marked by burning and by plundering. Then
the king began earnestly with the witan to consider what might seem
most advisable to them all, so that this land might be saved, before
it was utterly destroyed. Then the king and his witan decreed, for the
behoof of the whole nation, though it was hateful to them all, that
they needs must pay tribute to the Danish army. Then the king sent to
the army, and directed it to be made known to them that he would that
there should be a truce between them, and that tribute should be paid,
and food given them. And then all that they accepted, and then were
they victualled from throughout the English nation."--Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, Bohn's Edition.

xiii This is copied almost verbatim from the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle.

xiv The account is taken almost verbatim from Florence of
Worcester.

xv Children of Ethelred.

By his two wives--(1) Aelfleda--(2) Emma, Ethelred had fourteen
children, of whom only four or five have been mentioned in this
narrative, or are of importance to the student--Edmund Ironside and
his brother Edwy (chapter 25), by Aelfleda, and Alfred and Edward by
Emma--the last well known in history as Edward the Confessor, and
introduced in Chapter XIX. of this tale. The following genealogical
table from Edgar to the children of Edmund may be of use. It will be
remembered that the lineage of the present royal house passes through
the last-named son of Edmund Ironside to Egbert:

Edgar
* Edward the Martyr, d. 979.
* Ethelred the Unready, d. 1016.
+ Edmund Ironside, 1016.
o Edmund.
o Edward, who became the great-grandfather of Henry the
Second.
+ Edwy.
+ Elgitha.
+ Alfred, 1036.
+ Edward the Confessor, 1066.

xvi Sceorstan.

Antiquarians differ much about the site of this famous battle. Sharp
thinks it was near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, and Thorpe, in his
notes to "Florence of Worcester," says--"May not Chimney be the spot,
a hamlet in Oxfordshire, in the parish of Bampton-in-the-Bush, near
the edge of Gloucestershire, the name of Chimney being merely a
translation, introduced after the Norman Conquest, of Sceorstan, which
may probably have owed its origin to a Saxon house or hall,
con