BOOK

IV.

897.

evidence of Alfred's military talents than his triumph over the armies which had harassed the first part of his reign.

NOTWITHSTANDING the vigilance and ability of Alfred, it was impossible that such a dangerous contest could have existed without great detriment to his people. 65 The ravages and depopulation caused by Hastings and his associates, in their persisting invasion and extensive movements, are spoken of very strongly by the Chroniclers. But the miseries of this warfare were exceeded by the dreadful calamity which attended its conclusion. A pestilence which raged for three years filled the nation with death; even the highest ranks were thinned by its destruction."

THE Sovereignty of Alfred was not only established over the Anglo-Saxons 67, but even the Cymry in Wales acknowledged his power, and sought his alliance. The rest of his life was tranquil. He continued to prosecute all his plans for the improvement of his shipping and the defence and education of his kingdom. His reputation increased with his life. All sought his friendship, and none in vain. He gave land and money to those who desired them, and his personal friendship to those who aspired to it. All experienced that

65 The exclamation of the monk of Worcester is forcible: “O quam crebris vexationibus, quam gravibus laboribus, quam diris et lamentalibus modis, non solum a Danis, qui partes Angliæ tunc temporis occupaverant, verum etiam ab his Satanæ filiis tota vexata est Anglia," p. 334. Matt. West. has copied it, p. 348.

66 Some of the noblemen who perished are named in Sax. Chron. p. 97.; and Flor. Wig. 335.

67 In 836 Alfred besieged London (Ethelw. 846.), rebuilt it with honour, made it habitable, and subjected it to Ethelred's dominion. It is added, that all the Anglo-Saxons, not under the dominion of the Danes, submitted to Alfred. Flor. Wig. 322. Sax. Chron. 88.

XI.

897.

love, vigilance and protection, with which the king CHAP. defended himself, and those attached to him.68 But at last the progress of human destiny deprived the world of its then most beneficent luminary. After a life of the most active utility, he was taken from the world, on the 26th day of October, in the year 900 or 901.69 His great character has been praised by many 70, but, by none more than it has merited. Its best panegyric will be an impartial consideration of it, under three divisions, of his intellectual, moral, and political exertions.

68 Asser, 50.

69 The year of his death is variously given. Matt. West. 350. Ing. 28.; and Rad. Dic. 452.; place it in 900. The Sax. Chron. 99. ; Malms. 46.; Mailros, 146.; Florence, 336. Petrib. Ch. 2. affix it to the year 901. So Hen. Silgrave, MSS. Cleop. A. 12. and others. He was buried at Winchester, in the abbey he had founded there; but his remains were removed by Henry I. to the new abbey in the meadows at Hyde, on the northern quarter of the city, and laid under the high altar. This building was destroyed at the Reformation, and what is left of Alfred's body now lies covered by modern buildings or buried in the ruins of the old.' Rev. C. Townshend's Winchester, p. 17.

70 Alfred has been highly extolled by foreigners. The following extracts show the opinions of a Frenchman and German on his character:- Je ne sçais s'il y a jamais eu sur la terre un homme plus digne des respects de la posterité qu'Alfred le grand, qui rendit ces services à sa patrie, supposé que tout ce qu'on raconte de lui soit veritable. - Voltaire, Essai sur les Mœurs, vol. xvi. c. 26. p. 473. ed. 1785. "But as the greatest minds display themselves in the most turbulent storms on the call of necessity, so England has to boast, among others, her Alfred; a pattern for kings in a time of extremity, a bright star in the history of mankind. Living a century after Charlemagne, he was, perhaps, a greater man in a circle happily more limited." Herder's Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man, p. 547, 548. The celebrated Mirabeau, in a Discours Préliminaire, published under his name, to a translation of Mrs. Macauley's History, draws with a liberality that does him credit, a parallel between Alfred and Charlemagne, and gives the superiority to the Anglo-Saxon.

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