were at last terrified from assembling
their forces for the defence of their own province. General councils
were summoned; but either no resolution was taken, or none was carried
into execution. And the only expedient in which the English agreed, was
the base and imprudent one of buying a new peace from the Danes, by the
payment of forty-eight thousand pounds.

{1011.} This measure did not bring them even that short interval of
repose which they had expected from it. The Danes, disregarding all
engagements, continued their devastations and hostilities; levied a new
contribution of eight thousand pounds upon the county of Kent alone;
murdered the archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to countenance
this exaction; and the English nobility found no other resource than
that of submitting everywhere to the Danish monarch, swearing allegiance
to him, and delivering him hostages for their fidelity. Ethelred equally
afraid of the violence of the enemy, and the treachery of his own
subjects, fled into Normandy, {1013} whither he had sent before him
Queen Emma, and her two sons, Alfred and Edward. Richard received his
unhappy guests with a generosity that does honor to his memory.

{1014} The king had not been above six weeks in Normandy, when he heard
of the death of Sweyn, who expired at Gainsborough, before he had time
to establish himself in his new-acquired dominions. The English prelates
and nobility, taking advantage of this event, sent over a deputation to
Normandy, inviting Ethelred to return to them, expressing a desire of
being again governed by their native prince, and intimating their hopes
that, being now tutored by experience, he would avoid all those errors
which had been attended with such misfortunes to himself and to his
people. But the misconduct of Ethelred was incurable; and on his
resuming the government, he discovered the same incapacity, indolence,
cowardice, and credulity, which had so often exposed him to the insults
of his enemies. His son-in-law Edric, notwithstanding his repeated
treasons, retained such influence at court, as to instil into the king
jealousies of Sigefert and Morcar, two of the chief nobles of Mercia.
Edric allured them into his house, where he murdered them; while
Ethelred participated in the infamy of the action, by confiscating their
estates, and thrusting into a convent the widow of Sigefert. She was a
woman of singular beauty and merit; and in a visit which was paid her,