CHAPTER II

Scandinavian settlements, Britain and NormandyScandinavian settlements, Britain and Normandy

This lull in the activities of the sea-kings gavethe western rulers an opportunity to regain much that had been lost. In England the expansion of Wessex which had begun in the days of Alfred was continued under his successors, until in Edgar's day one lord was recognised from the Channel to the Forth. But with Edgar died both majesty and peace. About 980 the viking spirit was reawakened in the North. The raven banner reappeared in the western seas, and soon the annals of the West began to recount their direful tales. Among all the chiefs of this new age, one stands forth pre-eminent, Sweyn with the Forked Beard, whose remarkable achievement it was to enlist all this lawless energy for a definite purpose, the conquest of Wessex.

In 979 Ethelred the Ill-counselled was crowned king of England and began his long disastrous reign. If we may trust the Abingdon chronicler, who, as a monk, should be truthful, England was duly warned of the sorrows to come. For "in that same year blood-red clouds resembling fire were frequently seen; usually they appeared at midnight hanging like moving pillars painted upon the sky." The King was a mere boy of ten summers; later writers could tell us that signs of degeneracy were discovered in the prince as early as the day of his baptism. On some of his contemporaries, however, he seems to have made a favourable impression. We cannot depend much on the praises of a Norse scald who sang in the King's presence; but perhaps we can trust theEnglish writer who describes him as a youth of "elegant manners, handsome features, and comely appearance."[33]

That Ethelred proved an incompetent king is beyond dispute. Still, it is doubtful whether any ruler with capabilities less than those of an Alfred could have saved England in the early years of the eleventh century. For Ethelred had succeeded to a perilous inheritance. In the new territorial additions to Wessex there were two chief elements, neither of which was distinctly pro-Saxon: the Dane or the half-Danish colonist was naturally hostile to the Saxon régime; his Anglian neighbour recalled the former independence of his region as Mercia, East Anglia, or Northumbria, and was weak in his loyalty to the southern dynasty. The spirit of particularism asserted itself repeatedly, for it seems unlikely that the many revolts in the tenth century were Danish uprisings merely.

It seems possible that Ethelred's government might have been able to maintain itself after a fashion and perhaps would have satisfied the demands of the age, had it not been that vast hostile forces were just then released in the North. These attacked Wessex from two directions: fleets from the Irish Sea ravaged the Southwest; vikings from the East entered the Channel and plundered the southern shores. It is likely that in the advance-guard of the renewed piracy,Sweyn Forkbeard was a prominent leader. We have seen that during the last years of Harold's reign, there were trouble and ill-feeling between father and son. These years, it seems, the undutiful prince spent in exile and piratical raids. As the Baltic would scarcely be a safe refuge under the circumstances, we may assume that those seven years were spent in the West.[34]

In the second year of Ethelred's reign the incursions began: "the great chief Behemoth rose against him with all his companions and engines of war."[35]In that year Chester was plundered by the Norsemen; Thanet and Southampton were devastated by the Danes. The troubles at Chester are of slight significance; they were doubtless merely the continuation of desultory warfare in the upper Irish Sea. But the attack on Southampton, the port of the capital city of Winchester, was ominous: though clearly a private undertaking it was significant in revealing the weakness of English resistance. The vikings probably wintered among their countrymen on the shores of the Irish Sea, for South-western England was again visited and harried during the two succeeding years.

For a few years (983-986) there was a lull in theoperations against England. The energies of the North were employed elsewhere: this was evidently the period of Styrbjörn's invasion of Sweden and Sigvaldi's attack on Norway with the desperate battles of Fyris River and Hjörunga Bay. But, in 986, viking ships in great numbers appeared in the Irish Sea.[36]Two years later a fleet visited Devon and entered Bristol Channel. It is probable that Norman ships took part in this raid; at any rate the Danes sold English plunder in Normandy.

In 991, the attack entered upon a new phase. Earlier the country had suffered from raids in which no great number of vikings had taken part in any instance; now they came in armies and the attack became almost an invasion. That year a fierce battle was fought near Maldon[37]in Essex where one of the chief leaders of the vikings was an exiled Norwegian prince, Olaf Trygvesson, who four years later restored the Norwegian throne. It is likely, therefore, that the host was not exclusively Danish but gathered from the entire North.

The fight at Maldon was a crushing defeat for the English and consternation ruled in the councils of the irresolute King. Siric, the Archbishop ofCanterbury, and two ealdormen were sent as an embassy to the viking camp to sue for peace. A treaty was agreed to which seems to imply that the host was to be permitted to remain in East Anglia for an undefined time. The vikings promised to defend England against any other piratical bands, thus virtually becoming mercenaries for the time being. In return Ethelred agreed to pay a heavy tribute and to furnish provisions "the while that they remain among us."[38]Thus began the Danegeld which seems to have developed into a permanent tax in the reign of Canute.

The next year King Ethelred collected a fleet in the Thames in the hope of entrapping his new allies; but treason was abroad in England and the plan failed.[39]The following year the pirates appeared in the Humber country; here, too, the English defence melted away. After relating the flight of the Anglian leaders, Florence of Worcester adds significantly, "because they were Danes on the paternal side."[40]

The next year (994) King Sweyn of Denmark joined the fleet of Olaf and his associates and new purposes began to appear. Instead of seekingpromiscuous plunder, the invaders attempted to reduce cities and strongholds. Once more the English sued for peace on the basis of tribute.[41]Sweyn evidently returned to Denmark where his presence seems to have been sorely needed. For two years England enjoyed comparative peace. The energies of the North found other employment: we read of raids on the Welsh coast and of piratical expeditions into Saxony; interesting events also occurred in the home lands. To these years belong the revolt of the Norsemen against Earl Hakon, and perhaps also the invasion of Denmark by Eric the Victorious.

Thirty years of power had developed tyrannical passions in the Norwegian Earl. According to the sagas he was cruel, treacherous, and licentious. Every year he became more overbearing and despotic; every year added to the total of discontent. Here was Sweyn Forkbeard's opportunity; but he had other irons in the fire, and the opportunity fell to another. About 995 a pretender to the Norse throne arrived from the West,—Olaf Trygvesson, the great-grandson of Harold Fairhair.

Our earliest reliable information as to Olaf's career comes from English sources; they tell of his operations in Britain in 991 and 994 and the circumstances indicate that the intervening years were also spent on these islands. While in England he was attracted to the Christian faith,a fact that evidently came to be known to the English, for, in the negotiations of 994, particular attention was paid to the princely chieftain. An embassy was sent to him with Bishop Alphege as leading member, and the outcome was that Olaf came to visit King Ethelred at Andover, where he was formally admitted to the Christian communion, Ethelred acting as godfather.[42]

At Andover, Olaf promised never to come again to England "with unpeace"; the Chronicler adds that he kept his word. With the coming of spring he set out for Norway and never again saw England as friend or foe. We do not know what induced him at this time to take up the fight with Hakon the Bad; but doubtless it was in large measure due to urging on the part of the Church. For Olaf the Viking had become a zealous believer; when he landed in Norway he came provided with priests and all the other necessaries of Christian worship. It is not necessary to tell the story of the Earl's downfall,—how he was hounded into a pig-sty where he died at the hands of a thrall. Olaf was soon universally recognised as king and proceeded at once to carry out his great and difficult purpose: to christianise a strong and stubborn people (995).[43]

As to the second event, the invasion of Sweyn's dominions by the King of Sweden, we cannot be sosure, as most of the accounts that have come down to us are late and difficult to harmonise. Historians agree that, some time toward the close of his reign, King Eric sought revenge for the assistance that the Danish King had given his nephew Styrbjörn in his attempt to seize the Swedish throne. The invasion must have come after Sweyn's accession (986?) and before Eric's death, the date of which is variously given as 993, 995, 996.[44]If Eric was still ruling in 994 when Sweyn was absent in England, it is extremely probable that he made use of a splendid opportunity to seize the lands of his enemy. This would explain Sweyn's readiness to accept Ethelred's terms in the winter of 994-995.[45]

After the death of King Eric, new interests and new plans began to germinate in the fertile mindof Sweyn the Viking. Late in life the Swedish King seems to have married a young Swedish woman who is known to history as Sigrid the Haughty. Sigrid belonged to a family of great wealth and prominence; her father Tosti was a famous viking who had harvested his treasures on an alien shore. Eric had not long been dead before wooers in plenty came to seek the hand of the rich dowager. So importunate did they become that the Queen to get rid of them is said to have set fire to the house where two of them slept. Olaf Trygvesson was acceptable, but he imposed an impossible condition: Sigrid must become a Christian. When she finally refused to surrender her faith, the King is said to have stricken her in the face with his gauntlet. The proud Queen never forgave him.

Soon afterwards Sigrid married Sweyn Forkbeard who had dismissed his earlier consort, Queen Gunhild, probably to make room for the Swedish dowager. We do not know what motives prompted this act, but it was no doubt urged by state-craft. In this way the wily Dane cemented an alliance with a neighbouring state which had but recently been hostile.[46]

The divorced Queen was a Polish princess of an eminent Slavic family; she was the sister of Boleslav Chrobri, the mighty Polish duke who later assumed the royal title. When Gunhild retired to her native Poland, she may have takenwith her a small boy who can at that time scarcely have been more than two or three years old, perhaps even younger. The boy was Canute, the King's younger son, though the one who finally succeeded to all his father's power and policies. The only information that we have of Canute's childhood comes from late and not very reliable sources: it is merely this, that he was not brought up at the Danish court, but was fostered by Thurkil the Tall, one of the chiefs at Jomburg and brother of Earl Sigvaldi.[47]The probabilities favour the accuracy of this report. It was customary in those days to place boys with foster-fathers; prominent nobles or even plain franklins received princes into their households and regarded the charge as an honoured trust. Perhaps, too, a royal child would be safer among the warriors of Jomburg than at the court of a stepmother who had employed such drastic means to get rid of undesirable wooers. The character of his early impressions and instruction can readily be imagined: Canute was trained for warfare.

When the young prince became king of England Thurkil was exalted to a position next to that of the ruler himself. After the old chief's death, Canute seems to have heaped high honours on Thurkil's son Harold in Denmark. We cannot be sure, but it seems likely that this favour is to be ascribed, in part, at least, to Canute's affection for his foster-father and his foster-brother.

In those same years another important marriage was formed in Sweyn's household: the fugitive Eric, the son of Earl Hakon whose power was now wielded by the viking Olaf, had come to Denmark, where Sweyn Forkbeard received him kindly and gave him his daughter Gytha in marriage. Thus there was formed a hostile alliance against King Olaf with its directing centre at the Danish court. In addition to his own resources and those of his stepson in Sweden, Sweyn could now count on the assistance of the dissatisfied elements in Norway who looked to Eric as their natural leader.

It was not long before a pretext was found for an attack. Thyra, Sweyn's sister, the widow of Styrbjörn, had been married to Mieczislav, the Duke of Poland. In 992, she was widowed the second time. After a few years, perhaps in 998, Olaf Trygvesson made her queen of Norway. Later events would indicate that this marriage, which Olaf seems to have contracted without consulting the bride's brother, was part of a plan to unite against Sweyn all the forces that were presumably hostile,—Poles, Jomvikings, and Norsemen.[48]

The saga writers, keenly alive to the influence of human passion on the affairs of men, emphasise Sigrid's hatred for Olaf and Thyra's anxiety to secure certain possessions of hers in Wendland as important causes of the war that followed. Each is said to have egged her husband to the venture, though little urging can have been needed in either case. In the summer of 1000, a large and splendid Norwegian fleet appeared in the Baltic. In his negotiations with Poles and Jomvikings, Olaf was apparently successful: Sigvaldi joined the expedition and Slavic ships were added to the Norse armament. Halldor the Unchristian tells us that these took part in the battle that followed: "The Wendish ships spread over the bay, and the thin beaks gaped with iron mouths upon the warriors."[49]

Sweyn's opportunity had come and it was not permitted to pass. He mustered the Danish forces and sent messages to his stepson in Sweden and to his son-in-law Eric. Sigvaldi was also in the alliance. Plans were made to ambush the Norse King on his way northward. The confederates gathered their forces in the harbour of Swald, a river mouth on the Pomeranian coast a little to the west of the isle of Rügen. Sigvaldi's part was to feign friendship for Olaf and to lead him into the prepared trap. The plan was successfully carried out. A small part of King Olaf's fleet was lured into the harbour and attacked from allsides. The fight was severe but numbers prevailed. Olaf's own ship, the famousLong Serpent, was boarded by Eric Hakonsson's men, and the King in the face of sure capture leaped into the Baltic.[50]

The Larger Aarhus Stone—The Sjælle Stone (Runic monument raised to Gyrth, Earl Sigvaldi's brother.)

The victors had agreed to divide up Norway and the agreement was carried out. Most of the coast lands from the Naze northwards were given to Earl Eric. The southern shores, the land from the Naze eastwards, fell to King Sweyn. Seven shires in the Throndhjem country and a single shire in the extreme Southeast were assigned to the Swedish King; but only the last-mentioned shire was joined directly to Sweden; the northern regions were given as a fief to Eric's younger brother Sweyn who had married the Swede-king's daughter. Similarly Sweyn Forkbeard enfeoffed his son-in-law Eric, but the larger part he kept as his own direct possession.[51]

The battle of Swald was of great importance to the policies of the Knytlings. The rival Norse kingdom was destroyed. Once more the Danish King had almost complete control of both shores of the waterways leading into the Baltic. Danishhegemony in the North was a recognised fact. But all of Norway was not yet a Danish possession—that ambition was not realised before the reign of Canute. And England was still unconquered.

DANISH COINS FROM THE REIGN OF CANUTE, MINTED AT ODENSE, VIBORG, HEATHBY.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Saxo Grammaticus,Gesta Danorum, 321.[2]The saga writers call the members of the Danish dynasty the Knytlings, from its foremost representative Canute (Knut).[3]Saxo,Gesta Danorum, 318.[4]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 71-72.[5]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 293.[6]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 15.[7]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 28-29.[8]Ibid., 72.[9]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 335-336. Saxo,Gesta Danorum, 338. Saxo places the ordeal in the reign of Harold's successor.[10]Adamus,Gesta Hammenburgensis Ecclesicæ Pontificum, ii., c. 26.[11]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 322-324.[12]Snorre,Saga of Hakon the Good, cc. 3, 4, 5, 10.[13]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, c. 15. See also Munch,Del norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 53.[14]Thietmar,Chronicon, ii., c. 20.[15]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 24, 26-28.[16]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 340-341.[17]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 35-52.[18]Gesta Danorum, 327.[19]Adamus,Gesta, ii., c. 26. Saxo,Gesta, 332.[20]Gesta, ii., cc. 3, 26.[21]Gesta, 325.[22]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 78 ff.[23]The American shores were evidently too far distant for successful colonisation; but the visits to the far West clearly did not cease with the journeys of Leif and his associates. Vineland is mentioned in a runic monument from the eleventh century which records an expedition to the West that seems to have ended disastrously:"They came out [upon the ocean] and over wide stretches [of land] and in need of dry clothes for changes and of food toward Vineland and over icy wastes in the wilderness. Evil may deprive one of good fortune so that death comes early."This inscription, which is the earliest document that mentions the New World, was found at Hönen in South-eastern Norway. The original has been lost, but copies are extant. The translation is from Bugge's rendering into modern Norse. (Norges Historie, I., ii., 285.)[24]Bugge,Vihingerne, i., 135 ff.[25]"All along the Irish coast from Belfast to Dublin and Limerick there still remains an unbroken series of Norse place names, principally the names of firths, islands, reefs, and headlands, which show that at such points the fairway has been named by Northmen."Norges Historie, I., ii., 87; see also pp. 73-76. (Bugge.)[26]Of this process and its results Normandy furnishes the best illustration. The population of Rollo's duchy soon came to be a mixture of races with French as the chief element, though in some sections, as the Cotentin and the Bessin, the inhabitants clung to their Scandinavian speech and customs for a long time. Steenstrup,Normannerne, i., 175-179.[27]Simeon of Durham,Opera Omnia, ii., 393. The area varied at different periods; but the earlier Danelaw seems to have comprised fifteen shires. See Steenstrup,Normannerne, iv., 36-37.[28]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iv., 40-43.[29]Saga Book of the Viking Club, VI., i., 23 (Bugge). See also Collingwood,Scandinavian Britain, 109. The federation was later enlarged till it included Seven Boroughs.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1015.[30]The Danish antiquarian Worsaae found more than four hundred Norse place names in Yorkshire alone. While his list cannot be regarded as final, it will probably be found to be fairly correct. The subject of English place names has not yet been fully investigated. Recent studies are those by F.M. Stenton,The Place Names of Berkshire(Reading, 1911), H.C. Wyld and T.O. Hirst,The Place Names of Lancashire(London, 1911), and F.W. Moorman,The Place Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire(Leeds, 1910).[31]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iii., 228.[32]Historians of the Church of York, i., 454.[33]Historians of the Church of York, i., 455. For a fragment of a lay in praise of Ethelred seeCorpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., iii.[34]Saxo gives the period as seven years (Gesta, 337). But his account is confused and unreliable; seven must be taken as a round number. Still, the period between the renewal of the raids in England and Sweyn's accession covers nearly seven years.[35]Historians of the Church of York, i., 455.[36]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iii., 221.[37]The English were led by the East Anglian ealdorman Byrhtnoth, whose valour and death are told in what is perhaps the finest poem in Old English literature. See Grein-Wülker,Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, i., 358-373.[38]For the treaty see Liebermann,Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i., 220-225.[39]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 992, 993. As the betrayer, Alfric, had a part in the treaty-making of the year before, he may have looked on the new plans as dishonourable.[40]Chronicon, i., 150-151.[41]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 994.[42]Taranger,Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske, 125.[43]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 47-50.[44]Steenstrup favours the earlier date (Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 371); Munch sees reasons for a later year (Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 102).[45]That serious business was awaiting Sweyn in his own country is evident from two runic inscriptions that have been found in the Jutish borderland: the Heathby (or Vedelspang) Stone and the Danework Stone. The former was raised by "Thorolf, Sweyn's housecarle" in memory of a companion "who died when brave men were besieging Heathby." The second was raised by Sweyn himself in memory of Skartha, his housecarle, "who had fared west to England but now died at Heathby." The expedition to the West may have been the one that Sweyn undertook in 994. One stone mentions the siege of Heathby, but Heathby was destroyed shortly before 1000. The siege therefore probably dates from 995 or one of the following years; but whether the enemy was a part of Eric's forces cannot be determined. For the inscriptions see Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 113, 117.[46]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 43, 60-61, 91.[47]Flateyarbók, i., 203.[48]Snorre tells us (Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, c. 92) that Thyra had fled from her husband, who is mistakenly called Boleslav, and had come as a fugitive to Olaf's court. So attractive did she prove to the sympathetic King that he promptly married her. The account is evidently largely fiction; there seems to have been a good understanding between Olaf and Boleslav when the Norse Beet came south in 1000. In the account given above I have followed Bugge (Norges Historie, I., ii., 271).[49]Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., 101 (Vigfusson's translation).[50]The chief authorities on the battle of Swald are Snorre and Adam of Bremen. There seems also to be an allusion to the fight in an inscription on a runic monument, the Aarhus Stone, which was raised by four men, presumably warriors, in memory of a comrade "who died on the sea to the eastward when the kings were fighting." Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 133[51]Norges Historie, I., ii., 285-286.

[1]Saxo Grammaticus,Gesta Danorum, 321.

[2]The saga writers call the members of the Danish dynasty the Knytlings, from its foremost representative Canute (Knut).

[3]Saxo,Gesta Danorum, 318.

[4]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 71-72.

[5]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 293.

[6]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 15.

[7]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 28-29.

[8]Ibid., 72.

[9]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 335-336. Saxo,Gesta Danorum, 338. Saxo places the ordeal in the reign of Harold's successor.

[10]Adamus,Gesta Hammenburgensis Ecclesicæ Pontificum, ii., c. 26.

[11]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 322-324.

[12]Snorre,Saga of Hakon the Good, cc. 3, 4, 5, 10.

[13]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, c. 15. See also Munch,Del norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 53.

[14]Thietmar,Chronicon, ii., c. 20.

[15]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 24, 26-28.

[16]Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 340-341.

[17]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 35-52.

[18]Gesta Danorum, 327.

[19]Adamus,Gesta, ii., c. 26. Saxo,Gesta, 332.

[20]Gesta, ii., cc. 3, 26.

[21]Gesta, 325.

[22]Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 78 ff.

[23]The American shores were evidently too far distant for successful colonisation; but the visits to the far West clearly did not cease with the journeys of Leif and his associates. Vineland is mentioned in a runic monument from the eleventh century which records an expedition to the West that seems to have ended disastrously:"They came out [upon the ocean] and over wide stretches [of land] and in need of dry clothes for changes and of food toward Vineland and over icy wastes in the wilderness. Evil may deprive one of good fortune so that death comes early."This inscription, which is the earliest document that mentions the New World, was found at Hönen in South-eastern Norway. The original has been lost, but copies are extant. The translation is from Bugge's rendering into modern Norse. (Norges Historie, I., ii., 285.)

"They came out [upon the ocean] and over wide stretches [of land] and in need of dry clothes for changes and of food toward Vineland and over icy wastes in the wilderness. Evil may deprive one of good fortune so that death comes early."

This inscription, which is the earliest document that mentions the New World, was found at Hönen in South-eastern Norway. The original has been lost, but copies are extant. The translation is from Bugge's rendering into modern Norse. (Norges Historie, I., ii., 285.)

[24]Bugge,Vihingerne, i., 135 ff.

[25]"All along the Irish coast from Belfast to Dublin and Limerick there still remains an unbroken series of Norse place names, principally the names of firths, islands, reefs, and headlands, which show that at such points the fairway has been named by Northmen."Norges Historie, I., ii., 87; see also pp. 73-76. (Bugge.)

[26]Of this process and its results Normandy furnishes the best illustration. The population of Rollo's duchy soon came to be a mixture of races with French as the chief element, though in some sections, as the Cotentin and the Bessin, the inhabitants clung to their Scandinavian speech and customs for a long time. Steenstrup,Normannerne, i., 175-179.

[27]Simeon of Durham,Opera Omnia, ii., 393. The area varied at different periods; but the earlier Danelaw seems to have comprised fifteen shires. See Steenstrup,Normannerne, iv., 36-37.

[28]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iv., 40-43.

[29]Saga Book of the Viking Club, VI., i., 23 (Bugge). See also Collingwood,Scandinavian Britain, 109. The federation was later enlarged till it included Seven Boroughs.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1015.

[30]The Danish antiquarian Worsaae found more than four hundred Norse place names in Yorkshire alone. While his list cannot be regarded as final, it will probably be found to be fairly correct. The subject of English place names has not yet been fully investigated. Recent studies are those by F.M. Stenton,The Place Names of Berkshire(Reading, 1911), H.C. Wyld and T.O. Hirst,The Place Names of Lancashire(London, 1911), and F.W. Moorman,The Place Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire(Leeds, 1910).

[31]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iii., 228.

[32]Historians of the Church of York, i., 454.

[33]Historians of the Church of York, i., 455. For a fragment of a lay in praise of Ethelred seeCorpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., iii.

[34]Saxo gives the period as seven years (Gesta, 337). But his account is confused and unreliable; seven must be taken as a round number. Still, the period between the renewal of the raids in England and Sweyn's accession covers nearly seven years.

[35]Historians of the Church of York, i., 455.

[36]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iii., 221.

[37]The English were led by the East Anglian ealdorman Byrhtnoth, whose valour and death are told in what is perhaps the finest poem in Old English literature. See Grein-Wülker,Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, i., 358-373.

[38]For the treaty see Liebermann,Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i., 220-225.

[39]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 992, 993. As the betrayer, Alfric, had a part in the treaty-making of the year before, he may have looked on the new plans as dishonourable.

[40]Chronicon, i., 150-151.

[41]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 994.

[42]Taranger,Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske, 125.

[43]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 47-50.

[44]Steenstrup favours the earlier date (Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 371); Munch sees reasons for a later year (Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 102).

[45]That serious business was awaiting Sweyn in his own country is evident from two runic inscriptions that have been found in the Jutish borderland: the Heathby (or Vedelspang) Stone and the Danework Stone. The former was raised by "Thorolf, Sweyn's housecarle" in memory of a companion "who died when brave men were besieging Heathby." The second was raised by Sweyn himself in memory of Skartha, his housecarle, "who had fared west to England but now died at Heathby." The expedition to the West may have been the one that Sweyn undertook in 994. One stone mentions the siege of Heathby, but Heathby was destroyed shortly before 1000. The siege therefore probably dates from 995 or one of the following years; but whether the enemy was a part of Eric's forces cannot be determined. For the inscriptions see Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 113, 117.

[46]Snorre,Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 43, 60-61, 91.

[47]Flateyarbók, i., 203.

[48]Snorre tells us (Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, c. 92) that Thyra had fled from her husband, who is mistakenly called Boleslav, and had come as a fugitive to Olaf's court. So attractive did she prove to the sympathetic King that he promptly married her. The account is evidently largely fiction; there seems to have been a good understanding between Olaf and Boleslav when the Norse Beet came south in 1000. In the account given above I have followed Bugge (Norges Historie, I., ii., 271).

[49]Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., 101 (Vigfusson's translation).

[50]The chief authorities on the battle of Swald are Snorre and Adam of Bremen. There seems also to be an allusion to the fight in an inscription on a runic monument, the Aarhus Stone, which was raised by four men, presumably warriors, in memory of a comrade "who died on the sea to the eastward when the kings were fighting." Wimmer,De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 133

[51]Norges Historie, I., ii., 285-286.

During the five years of rivalry between Olaf and Sweyn (995-1000), England had enjoyed comparative peace. Incursions, indeed, began again in 997; but these were clearly of the earlier type, not invasions like the movements led by Olaf and Sweyn. Who the leaders were at this time we do not know; but the Northern kings were in those years giving and taking in marriage and busily plotting each other's destruction, so we conclude that the undertakings continued to be of the private sort, led, perhaps, by Norse chiefs who had found life in Norway uncongenial after King Olaf had begun to persecute the heathen worshippers.

The English had now come to realise the importance of the upper Irish Sea as a rendezvous for all forms of piratical bands; and the need of aggressive warfare at this point was clearly seen. Accordingly, in the year 1000, Ethelred collected a fleet and an army and harried the Norse settlementsin Cumberland and on the Isle of Man. The time was opportune for a movement of this sort, as no reinforcements from the North could be expected that year. The expedition, however, accomplished nothing of importance; for the fleet that Ethelred had hoped to intercept did not return to the western waters but sailed to Normandy.[52]Ethelred was angry with Duke Richard of Normandy for sheltering his enemies, and proceeded to attack his duchy with his usual ill success.[53]

Nevertheless, the hostilities terminated favourably for Ethelred, as the Norman duke offered his beaten enemy not only peace, but alliance. Recent events in the North may have caused Richard to reflect. The diplomacy of Sweyn, culminating in the partition of Norway, had made Denmark a state of great importance. Sweyn's designs on England were probably suspected; at any rate, Normandy for the moment seemed willing to support England. In early spring, 1002, the bond was further strengthened by a marriage between Ethelred and Duke Richard's sister Emma, who later married her husband's enemy, the Danish Canute. That same year England was once more rid of the enemy through the payment of Danegeld.[54]

The prospects for continued peace in England were probably better in 1002 than in any otheryear since the accession of Ethelred. But toward the end of the year, all that gold and diplomacy had built up was ruined by a royal order, the stupidity of which was equalled only by its criminality. On Saint Brice's Day (November 13), the English rose, not to battle but to murder. It had been planned on that date to rid the country of all its Danish inhabitants. How extensive the territory was that was thus stained with blood, we are not informed; but such an order could not have been carried out in the Danelaw. In justification of his act, Ethelred pleaded that he had heard of a Danish conspiracy, directed not only against his own life, but against the lives of the English nobility as well.

It is likely that, when England bought peace earlier in the year, a number of the vikings remained in the land, intending, perhaps, to settle permanently; such arrangements were by no means unusual. The massacre of Saint Brice's may, therefore, have had for its object the extermination of the raiders that came in 1001. But these were not the only ones slain: among the victims were Gunhild, King Sweyn's sister, and her husband, the ealdorman Pallig.[55]It is probable that Pallig, though a Saxon official, was a Dane living among the Danes in some Scandinavian settlement in South-western England.[56]We are told thatEthelred had treated him well, had given him lands and honours; but he did not remain faithful to his lord; only the year before, when the vikings were in Devon, he joined them with a number of ships. Pallig no doubt deserved the punishment of a traitor, but it would have been politic in his case to show mercy. If he was, as has been conjectured from the form of his name, connected with the family of Palna Toki, the famous Danish archer and legendary organiser of the Jomburg fraternity, he was bound to Sweyn by double ties, for Palna Toki was Sweyn's reputed foster-father.[57]

Sweyn Forkbeard at once prepared to take revenge for the death of his kinsfolk. The next year (1003), his sails were seen from the cliffs of the Channel shore. But before proceeding to the attack, he seems to have visited his Norman friend, Duke Richard the Good. For some reason, displeasure, perhaps, at the shedding of noble Scandinavian blood on Saint Brice's Day, the duke was ready to repudiate his alliance with hisEnglish brother-in-law. The two worthies reached the agreement that Normandy should be an open market for English plunder and a refuge for the sick and wounded in the Danish host.[58]Evidently Sweyn was planning an extended campaign.

Having thus secured himself against attacks from the rear, Sweyn proceeded to Exeter, which was delivered into his hands by its faithless Norman commander Hugo.[59]In the surrender of Exeter, we should probably see the first fruit of the new Danish-Norman understanding. From this city the Danes carried destruction into the southern shires. The following year (1004), East Anglia was made to suffer. Ulfketel, the earl of the region, was not prepared to fight and made peace with Sweyn; but the Danes did not long observe the truce. After they had treacherously attacked Thetford, the earl gathered his forces and tried to intercept Sweyn's marauding bands on their way back to the ships; but though the East Anglians fought furiously, the Danes escaped. The opposition that Sweyn met in the half-Danish East Anglia seems to have checked his operations. The next year he left the land.[60]

The forces of evil seemed finally to have spent their strength, for the years 1007 and 1008 were on the whole comparatively peaceful. Those same years show considerable energy on the partof the English: in the Pentecostal season, May, 1008, the King met his "wise men" at Eanham, and a long legislative enactment saw the light.[61]It was hoped that by extensive and thorough-going reforms the national vigour might be restored. Among other things provisions were made for an extensive naval establishment, based on a contribution that grew into the ship money of later fame. A large number of ships were actually assembled; but the treacherous spirit and the jealous conduct of some of the English nobles soon ruined the efficiency of the fleet; the new navy went to pieces at a moment when its service was most sorely needed. For in that year, 1009, a most formidable enemy appeared in the Channel: the vikings of Jom had left their stronghold on the Oder and were soon to re-establish themselves on the Thames.[62]

For about two decades Sigvaldi ruled at Jomburg; but after the battle of Swald he disappears from the sagas: all that we learn is that he was slain on some expedition to England. Perhaps he was one of the victims of Saint Brice's (1002); or he may have perished in one of the later raids. His death must, however, be dated earlier than 1009; for in that year his brother Thurkil came to England, we are told, to take revenge for a slain brother.[63]

Thurkil's fleet appeared at Sandwich in July. Associated with the tall Dane was a short, thick-set Norwegian, Olaf the Stout, a young viking of royal blood who later won renown as the missionary King of Norway and fell in war against Canute the Great. In August came a second fleet, under the leadership of Eglaf and Heming, Thurkil's brother. The fleets joined at Thanet; this time nearly all the southern counties had to suffer. The host wintered on the lower Thames and during the winter months plundered the valley up as far as Oxford. Ethelred tried to cut off its retreat but failed.[64]

During the Lenten weeks the vikings refitted their ships, and on April 9, 1010, they set sail for East Anglia. Ulfketel was still in control of that region and had made preparations to meet the invader. On May 5, the Danes met the native levies at Ringmere in the southern part of Norfolk. The fight was sharp, with final victory for the sea-kings. The English sources attribute the outcome to the treasonable behaviour of Thurkil Mareshead, who was evidently a Dane in Ulfketel's service. The Norse scalds ascribe the result to the valour of Olaf the Stout, who here won the "sword-moot" for the seventh time.[65]

During the remaining months of the year and all through the following summer, the vikings rode almost unresisted through Southern England, plundering everywhere. Finally the King and the "wise men" began to negotiate for peace on the usual basis. But so often had Danegelds been levied that it was becoming difficult to collect the money and the payment was not so prompt as the vikings desired. In their anger they laid siege to Canterbury, and, after a close investment of twenty days, by the assistance of an English priest were enabled to seize the city. Many important citizens were held for ransom, among them the Archbishop Alphege, who remained a prisoner for nearly six months. His confinement cannot have been severe; the Prelate was interested in the spiritual welfare of the Scandinavian pirates, and seems to have begun a mission among his keepers. But he forbade the payment of a ransom, and after a drunken orgy the exasperated Danes proceeded to pelt him to death with the bones of their feast. Thrym, a Dane whom he had confirmed the day before, gave him the mercy stroke.[66]

During the closing days of the archbishop's life, an assembly of the magnates in London had succeeded in raising the tribute agreed upon, 48,000 pounds. Not merely were the invaders bought off,—they were induced to enter Ethelred's service as mercenaries; there must have beenreasons why it would be inadvisable to return to Jomburg. The English King now had an army of some four thousand or perhaps five thousand men, a splendid force of professional warriors led by the renowned viking Thurkil the Tall. According to William of Malmesbury, they were quartered in East Anglia,[67]which seems plausible, as Wessex must have been thoroughly pillaged by 1012.

When the year 1013 opened, there were reasons to hope that the miseries of England were past. For a whole generation the sea-kings had infested the Channel and the Irish Sea, scourging the shores of Southern Britain almost every year. Large sums of money had been paid out in the form of Danegeld, 137,000 pounds silver, but to little purpose: the enemy returned each year as voracious as ever. Now, however, the pirate had undertaken to defend the land. The presence of Danish mercenaries was doubtless an inconvenience, but this would be temporary only. It was to be expected that, as in the days of Alfred, the enemy would settle down as an occupant of the soil, and in time become a subject instead of a mercenary soldier.

But just at this moment, an invasion of a far more serious nature was being prepared in Denmark. In the councils of Roeskild Sweyn Forkbeard was asking his henchmen what they thought of renewing the attack on England. The question suggested the answer: to the King's delight favourablereplies came from all. It is said that Sweyn consulted his son Canute with the rest; and the eager youth strongly urged the undertaking.[68]This is the earliest act on Canute's part that any historian has recorded. In 1012, he was perhaps seventeen years old; he had reached the age when a Scandinavian prince should have entered upon an active career. His great rival of years to come, Olaf the Stout, who can have been only two years older than Canute, had already sailed the dragon for six or seven years. It is likely that the young Dane had also experienced the thrills of viking life, but on this matter the sagas are silent. But it is easy to see why Canute should favour the proposed venture: as a younger son he could not hope for the Danish crown. The conquest of England might mean not only fame and plundered wealth, but perhaps a realm to govern as well.

The considerations that moved the King to renew the attempts at conquest were no doubt various; but the deciding factor was evidently the defection of Thurkil and the Jomvikings. An ecclesiastic who later wrote a eulogy on Queen Emma and her family discusses the situation in this wise:

Thurkil, they said, the chief of your forces, O King, departed with your permission that he might take revenge for a brother who had been slain there, and led with him a large part of your host. Now that herejoices in victory and in the possession of the southern part of the country, he prefers to remain there as an exile and a friend of the English whom he has conquered by your hand, to returning with the host in submission to you and ascribing the victory to yourself. And now we are defrauded of our companions and of forty ships which he sailed to England laden with the best warriors of Denmark.[69]

So the advice was to seize, the English kingdom as well as the Danish deserter. No great difficulty was anticipated, as Thurkil's men would probably soon desert to the old standards.

The customs of the Northmen demanded that an undertaking of this order should first be approved by the public assembly, and the Encomiast tells us that Sweyn at once proceeded to summon the freemen. Couriers were sent in every direction, and at the proper time the men appeared, each with his weapons as the law required. When the heralds announced the nature of the proposed undertaking—not a mere raid with plunder in view but the conquest of an important nation—the host gave immediate approval.

In many respects the time was exceedingly favourable for the contemplated venture. A large part of England was disposed to be friendly; the remainder was weak from continued pillage. Denmark was strong and aggressive, eager to follow the leadership of her warlike king. Sweyn'solder son, Harold, had now reached manhood, and could with comparative safety be left in control of the kingdom. Denmark's neighbours in the North were friendly: Sweyn's vassal and son-in-law controlled the larger part of Norway; his stepson, Olaf, ruled in Sweden. Nor was anything to be feared from the old enemies to the south. The restless vikings of Jom were in England. The lord of Poland was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Empire. The Saxon dynasty, which had naturally had Northern interests, no longer dominated Germany; a Bavarian, Henry II., now sat on the throne of the Ottos. In the very year of Sweyn's invasion of England, the German King journeyed to Italy to settle one of the numberless disputes that the Roman see was involved in during the tenth and eleventh centuries. He remained in Italy till the next year (1014), when the victorious Pope rewarded him with the imperial crown.

Something in the form of a regency was provided for the Danish realm during Sweyn's absence. Harold seems to have received royal authority without the royal title. Associated with him were a few trusted magnates who were to give "sage advice," but also, it seems, to watch over the interests of the absent monarch.[70]A part of the host was left in Denmark; but the greater part of the available forces evidently accompanied the King to England.

About midsummer (1013), the fleet was ready to sail. The Encomiast, who had evidently seen Danish ships, gives a glowing description of the armament, which apart from rhetorical exaggeration probably gives a fairly accurate picture of an eleventh-century viking fleet of the more pretentious type. He notes particularly the ornamentation along the sides of the ships, bright and varied in colours; the vanes at the tops of the masts in the forms of birds or of dragons with fiery nostrils; and the figureheads at the prows: carved figures of men, red with gold or white with silver, or of bulls with necks erect, or of dolphins, centaurs, or other beasts. The royal ship was, of course, splendid above all the rest.[71]

The customary route of the Danish vikings followed the Frisian coast to the south-eastern part of England, the shires of Kent and Sussex. Ordinarily, the fleets would continue the journey down the Channel, plundering the shore lands and sending out larger parties to harry the interior. Sweyn had developed a different plan: Wessex was to be attacked from the old Danelaw. Following the ancient route, his ships appeared at Sandwich on the Kentish coast early in August. Sandwich was at this time a place of considerable importance, being the chief port in Southern England.[72]Here Sweyn and Canute remained for a few days, but soon the fleet turned swiftly northwards up the eastern coast to the Humber. Sweyn enteredand sailed up this river till he came to the mouth of the Trent, which stream he ascended as far as Gainsborough. Here his men disembarked and preparations were made for the war.

Sweyn had evidently counted on a friendly reception in the Scandinavian settlements of the Danelaw, and he was not disappointed. Recruits appeared and his forces increased materially. Uhtred, the earl of Northumbria, who was probably of Norse ancestry, soon found it to his advantage to do homage to the invader. Sweyn's lordship was also accepted by "the folk of Lindsey, and afterwards by the folk in the Five Boroughs, and very soon by all the host north of Watling Street, and hostages were given by every shire."[73]In addition to hostages, Sweyn demanded horses and provisions for the host.

The summer was probably past before Sweyn was ready to proceed against Ethelred. But finally, some time in September or a little later, having concluded all the necessary preliminaries, he gave the ships and the hostages into the keeping of his son Canute, and led his mounted army southward across the Midlands with Winchester, the residence city of the English kings, as the objective point. So long as he was still within the Danelaw, Sweyn permitted no pillaging; but "as soon as he had crossed Watling Street, he worked as great evil as a hostile force was able." The Thames was crossed at Oxford, which citypromptly submitted and gave hostages. Winchester, too, seems to have yielded without a struggle. From the capital Sweyn proceeded eastward to London, where he met the first effective resistance.

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