ompletely annexed, retained its independence.

5. =AElfred's Struggle in Wessex. 871--878.=--In Wessex AEthelred strove
hard against the invaders. He won a great victory at AEscesdun
(_Ashdown_, near Reading), on the northern slope of the Berkshire
Downs. After a succession of battles he was slain in =871=. Though he
left sons of his own, he was succeeded by AElfred, his youngest
brother. It was not the English custom to give the crown to the child
of a king if there was any one of the kingly family more fitted to
wear it. AElfred was no common man. In his childhood he had visited
Rome, and had been hallowed as king by Pope Leo IV., though the
ceremony could have had no weight in England. He had early shown a
love of letters, and the story goes that when his mother offered a
book with bright illuminations to the one of her children who could
first learn to read it, the prize was won by AElfred. During AEthelred's
reign he had little time to give to learning. He fought nobly by his
brother's side in the battles of the day, and after he succeeded him
he fought nobly as king at the head of his people. In =878= the Danish
host, under its king, Guthrum, beat down all resistance. AElfred was no
longer able to keep in the open country, and took refuge with a few
chosen warriors in the little island of Athelney, in Somerset, then
surrounded by the waters of the fen country through which the Parret
flowed. After a few weeks he came forth, and with the levies of
Somerset and Wilts and of part of Hants he utterly defeated Guthrum at
Ethandun (? _Edington_, in Wiltshire), and stormed his camp.

[Illustration: Gold jewel of AElfred found at Athelney. (Now in the
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.)]

6. =The Treaty of Chippenham, and its Results. 878.=--After this
defeat Guthrum and the Danes swore to a peace with AElfred at
Chippenham. They were afterwards baptised in a body at Aller, not far
from Athelney. Guthrum with a few of his companions then visited
AElfred at Wedmore, a village near the southern foot of the Mendips,
from which is taken the name by which the treaty is usually but
wrongly known. By this treaty AElfred retained no more than Wessex,
with its dependencies, Sussex and Kent, and the western half of
Mercia. The remainder of England as far north as the Tees was
surrendered to the Danes, and became known as the Danelaw, because
Danish and not Saxon law prevailed in it. Beyond the Tees Bernicia
maintained its independence un