FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
en difficult for AEthelred to overpower the ealdormen even if he had had no other enemies to deal with. Unluckily for him, new swarms of Danes and Norwegians had already appeared in England. They began by plundering the country, without attempting to settle in it. In =991= Brihtnoth, Ealdorman of the East Saxons, was defeated and slain by them at Maldon. AEthelred could think of no better counsel than to pay them 10,000_l._, a sum of money which was then of much greater value than it is now, to abstain from plundering. It was not necessarily a bad thing to do. One of the greatest of the kings of the Germans, Henry the Fowler, had paid money for a truce to barbarians whom he was not strong enough to fight. But when the truce had been bought Henry took care to make himself strong enough to destroy them when they came again. AEthelred was never ready to fight the Danes and Norwegians at any time. In =994= Olaf Trygvasson, who had been driven from the kingship of Norway, and Svend, who had been driven from the kingship of Denmark, joined forces to attack London. The London citizens fought better than the English king, and the two chieftains failed to take the town. 'They went thence, and wrought the greatest evil that ever any army could do, in burning, and harrying, and in man-slaying, as in Essex, and in Kent, and in Sussex, and in Hampshire. And at last they took their horses and rode as far as they could, and did unspeakable evil.' The plunderers were now known as 'the army,' moving about where they would. AEthelred this time gave them 16,000_l._ He got rid of Olaf, who sailed away and was slain by his enemies, but he could not permanently get rid of Svend. Svend, about the year =1000=, recovered his kingship in Denmark, and was more formidable than he had been before. Plunderings went on as usual, and AEthelred had no resource but to pay money to the plunderers to buy a short respite. He then looked across the sea for an ally, and hoped to find one by connecting himself with the Duke of the Normans. 4. =The Norman Dukes. 912--1002.=--The country which lies on both sides of the lower course of the Seine formed, at the beginning of the tenth century, part of the dominions of Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks, who had inherited so much of the dominions of Charles the Great as lay west of a line roughly drawn from the Scheldt to the Mediterranean through the lower course of the Rhone. Danes and Norwegians, know
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
AEthelred
 

kingship

 

Norwegians

 
greatest
 
enemies
 
London
 

driven

 

Denmark

 

strong

 

plunderers


plundering
 
country
 

dominions

 

Charles

 

formidable

 

resource

 

unspeakable

 

horses

 

Plunderings

 

sailed


permanently
 

recovered

 

moving

 
connecting
 

Franks

 
inherited
 
Simple
 

formed

 

beginning

 

century


Mediterranean

 

Scheldt

 
roughly
 
respite
 

looked

 
Norman
 

Normans

 

necessarily

 

abstain

 

greater


barbarians

 

Germans

 
Fowler
 

settle

 
Brihtnoth
 
Ealdorman
 

attempting

 

appeared

 
England
 

Saxons