Appendix, p. xlii.)

51. Alfred the Great.

Of these sovereigns the most conspicuous during the period of which we
are writing was Alfred. He was a grandson of Egbert (S49). He was
rightly called Alfred the Great, since he was the embodiment of
whatever was best and bravest in the English character. The keynote
of his life may be found in the words which he spoke at the close of
it, "So long as I have lived, I have striven to live worthily."

52. Danish Invasion.

When Alfred came to the throne (871) the Danes, or Northmen, as they
were often called, were sweeping down upon the country. A few months
before he became King, he had aided his brother in a desperate
struggle with them. In the beginning, the object of the Danes was to
plunder, later, to possess, and finally, to rule over the country.
They had already overrun a large portion of England and had invaded
Wessex or the country of the West Saxons. (See map facing p. 30.)
Wherever their raven flag appeared, destruction and slaughter
followed.

53. The Danes or Northmen destroy the Monasteries.

These terrible pirates despised Christianity. They scorned it as the
weak religion of a weak people. They hated the English monasteries
most of all and made them the especial objects of their attacks (SS43,
45, 46). Many of these institutions had accumulated wealth, and some
had gradually sunk into habits of laziness, luxury, and other evil
courses of life. The Danes, who were full of the vigorous virtues of
heathenism, liked nothing better than to scourge those effeminate
vices of the cloisters.

From the thorough way in which they robbed, burned, and murdered,
there can be no doubt that they enjoyed their work of destruction. In
their helplessness and terror, the panic-stricken monks added to their
usual prayers, this fervent petition: "From the fury of the Northmen,
good Lord deliver us!" The power raised up to answer that
supplication was Alfred the Great.

54. Alfred's Victories over the Danes: the White Horse.

After repeated defeats Alfred finally drove back these savage hordes,
who thought it a shame to earn by sweat what they could win by blood.

In these attacks Alfred led one half the army and his brother Ethelred
led the other. They met the Danes at Ashdown Ridge in Berkshire.
(See map facing p. 32.) While Ethelred stopped to pray for success,
Alfred, under the banner of the "White Horse,"--the common standard of
the English at that tim