arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closer
connection with the interests of society. He invited, from all quarters,
industrious foreigners to re-people his country, which had been
desolated by the ravages of the Danes.[*] He introduced and encouraged
manufactures of all kinds, and no inventor or improver of any ingenious
art did he suffer to go unrewarded.[**] He prompted men of activity to
betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into the most remote
countries, and to acquire riches by propagating industry among their
fellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion of his own revenue
for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he constantly employed in
rebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces, and monasteries.[***]
Even the elegances of life were brought to him from the Mediterranean
and the Indies;[****] and his subjects, by seeing those productions of
the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the virtues of justice and
industry, from which alone they could arise. Both living and dead,
Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than by his own subjects,
as the greatest prince, after Charlemagne, that had appeared in Europe
during several ages, and as one of the wisest and best that had ever
adorned the annals of any nation.

[* Asser. p. 13. Flor. Wigorn. p. 588.]

[** Asser. p. 20.]

[*** Asser. p. 20. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]

[**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]

Alfred had, by his wife Ethelswitha, daughter of a Mercian earl, three
sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Edmund, died without issue,
in his father's lifetime. The third, Ethelward, inherited his father's
passion for letters, and lived a private life. The second, Edward,
succeeded to his power, and passes by the appellation of Edward the
Elder, being the first of that name who sat on the English throne.

EDWARD THE ELDER.

This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, though
inferior to him in knowledge and erudition,[*] found immediately on his
accession, a specimen of that turbulent life to which all princes, and
even all individuals, were exposed, in an age when men, less restrained
by law or justice, and less occupied by industry, had no aliment for
their inquietude out wars, insurrections, convulsions, rapine, and
depredation.

[* W. Malms, lib. ii cap. 4, Hoveden, p. 421.]

Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King Ethelbert, the elder
brother of Alfred, insiste