obtained fresh hostages, Canute left one of his Chiefs in the government of the country, and retreated to his ships.

About this crisis Ethelred closed, by death, a calamitous reign of thirty-seven years. Edmund (surnamed Ironside) his son, a brave and gallant prince, succeeded him. But the fortune of his country was too low to be retrieved. After various conflicts, in which Canute was generally successful, Edmund, anxious for a decided blow, assembled all his forces, and met the enemy at Assingdon, or Ashdown, in Essex, Yielding to the advice of the notorious traitor Edric, it was the fate of this brave but unfortunate prince to be totally defeated, The flower of the English nobility fell;* and, amongst them, the faithful Ulf ketel, who had so often signalized himself in his country's defence.† Edmund, still buoyed up by hope, made new exertions in favour of his country. He speedily raised another army; and, desirous of sparing the blood of his subjects, he challenged Canute to single combat. The challenge was accepted, and the rival princes met, in the Isle of Olney. In an interval of the combat, Canute, whose strength began to fail, proposed to settle the quarrel, by a division of the kingdom. Edmund cheerfully acceded to the suggestion; and East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, were awarded as the portion of Canute, Edmund did not long survive the new arrangement. He perished in the same year, by assassination.‡

Canute, now the sole sovereign of the kingdom, committed the government of East Anglia to the care of Turchill, whose

* "Four remarkable barrows, still remaining, and called Bartlow Hills, were thrown up in commemoration of this engagement; and Canute ordered a church to be erected, in which prayers might be offered for the souls of those who fell:* this is supposed to be Bartlow Church, which stands near the hills, and has a round tower, after the Danish manner."-YATES's Bury, p. 63.

↑ "This nobleman was one of the most generous benefactors to the monastery of St. Edmund: he presented to the royal saint and martyr Redgrave, Rougham, and eight other extensive and valuable manors.”—Ibid.

↑ Whether Edmund were assassinated, solely at the suggestion of Edric, or whether that traitor undertook to effect his death, in compliance with the wishes of Canute, is a point undetermined in history.

"Cannte, after obtaining the decisive victory at Assendune, or Ashdown, built a church in that place; which was afterwards consecrated by Ulstan, Archbishop of York. SIM. Dunelm, fol, 177, SLAVELEY'S History of Churches, p. 133,"

valour had greatly contributed to the subjugation of the country. Thus Turchill was the fifth Earl of East Anglia from the time of Edgar. The date of his death is uncertain; but, from the jealousy of his superior, or for some misconduct of which he had been guilty, he was banished by Canute in 1021. Harold, the son of Godwin, afterwards King of England, succeeded Turchill as Earl of East Anglia; and, when Harold was invested with the government of Wessex, Kent, &c. Alfgar, the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, became Earl of East Anglia.

The character of Canute is not without stain; but he possessed many great and noble qualities; and, in the latter periods of his life, he appears to have been anxious to atone for the crimes of his earlier days. He performed a pilgrimage to Rome; and whilst there, he confirmed all the grants of his predecessors to the English College, in that capital. He also obtained certain privileges for the English churches, some advantages for those who visited the tombs of the apostles, and an exemption from toll, for the English, in passing through Italy. To the town and monastery of Bury, he was a noble benefactor. On his return from Rome, he applied himself to the dedication of a magnificent church, in honour of St. Edmund, the foundation of which had previously been laid by Bishop Ailwin. “The church," observes Mr. Yates, "occupied twelve years in building; and, upon its completion, was consecrated by Agelnothus, Archbishop of Canterbury, on St. Luke's day, A. D. 1032, and dedicated to the honour of Christ, St. Mary, and St. Edmund. The royal saint and martyr was deposited in a noble shrine, splendidly adorned with jewels and precious ornaments; and the reverence and veneration paid to his sacred memory, already very productive to the monks, was daily extended by the increasing fame and magnificence of the monastery. Canute, in addition to his grants and benefactions, honoured the church with his personal donations. He offered his own crown at the tomb of the martyr; and this illustrious example

was, in after ages, followed by succeeding monarchs, who bowed with adoration at the shrine of the martyr, and loaded it with multitudes of rich gifts and oblations."*

Amongst other privileges which the royal charter of Canute confirmed to the Abbot and monastery of Bury, was that of receiving the annual tribute, paid for the support of the royal army and navy, under the denomination of Censum Danis, or Danegelt, by all who inhabited the town, and a mile round it.†

Harold, the second son of Canute, ascended the throne of England, in the year 1035; and, in 1040 he was succeeded by Hardicanute, his younger brother.- Hardicanute, who reigned only two years, was another great friend to the monks. This prince, "anxious to tread in the steps of his pious parent, inflamed with the love of the Uncreated Father, and rejoicing in the protection and honour of the glorious martyr, St. Edmund, with the approbation and concurrence of the clergy and princes of his realm, confirmed and ratified the exemption of the abbot and convent [of Bury] from all ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority; with all their other immunities and privileges'; and added this dreadful denunciation upon all who should rashly despise this decree, and dare to violate its authority by infringing the power and authority of the Abbot, that they should suffer excommunication, and be condemned to the punishment of eternal fire with Judas Iscariot; and, moreover, should pay into the king's exchequer thirty talents of gold.'-This fine was several ages after, in consequence of this grant, actually levied upon William, Bishop of Norwich."§

Edward, surnamed the Confessor, the surviving son of Ethelred, was chosen as the successor of Hardicanute, in 1042. This prince appears to have inherited an ample portion of the imbecility of his royal parent; and, though his long reign of twenty-four years, was not so calamitous as that of Ethelred, it was distinguished by a number of domestic

YATES'S Bury, p. 72.

↑ "Regist. Sacrist. BATTELEY, p. 128."

+ Ibid.

§ YATES'S Bury, p. 74.

dissentions, and petty squabbles, of which the aspiring family of Godwin assiduously took advantage. He performed, however, one popular act-that of removing the onerous and offensive tax of Danegelt.-This sovereign first granted to the abbot of Bury the privilege of coining at a mint established within the precincts of the monastery.*

Harold, the son of Godwin, assumed the regal honours, in 1066; but it was his fate to resign them, with his life, to the more fortunate William of Normandy, at the fatal battle of Hastings, in the same year.

William's division of the County of Suffolk, after his settlement on the throne, with other circumstances, will be treated of in the succeeding chapter.

"In the historical records of Bury Abbey, this monarch has obtained distinguished notice; and in grateful acknowledgement of liberal benefactions, the monks have bestowed on him the epithets Sanctus et Inclitus.'

"When Edward the Confessor visited Bury,* so great was his veneration for the royal saint and martyr, that he was accustomed to perform the last mile of his journey on foot, as a common pilgrim; giving, on his approach to the holy place, this open testimony of his humility and devotion.

"The sagacious monks did not fail to employ, beneficially to their community, the opportunity afforded them by the friendship of a king so strongly imbued with the pions liberality of the times.

"In the first year of his reign the King came to Bury on St. Edmund's day; and the next morning seeing the young monks eating barley bread, inquired of Abbot Baldwin, why these young men of his kinsman (as he was pleased to call St. Edmund) were no better fed; 'because,' replied the Abbot, our possessions are too weak to maintain them with stronger food.'

“Ask what yon will,' said the King, and I will give it you, that they may be better provided for, and better enabled to perform the service of God.' The Abbot, having consulted with his monks, asked of the King the manor of Mildenhall, with its appurtenances; and the jurisdiction of the eight hundreds and a half with all the royalties, afterwards called the franchise. The King observed, that his request was indiscreet, because the grant of these liberties would involve him and his successors in continual trouble; that he would willingly have granted him three or four manors, if he had required them; and would, out of respect to his kinsman, grant this request, however indiscreet.†

"Whatever credit this story may obtain, the Abbot was certainly constituted Lord of the Franchise, by Edward the Confessor; but the charters, purporting to be his, preserved in the Registers, do not seem to carry all the marks of authenticity that might be expected in originals of that age."

CHAP. V.

Landholders in Suffolk, after the Conquest.-Guader's Conspiracy-William Rufus.-The Earls Bigod.-Henry II. -Defeat of Bigod's army, at Fornham.-The taking of Norwich, by Bigod,-Destruction of Bigod's Castles, at Ipswich and Walton,-Barons' War, in the reign of King John.-Wat Tyler's Rebellion.-Pretended Earl of Warwick.-Kett's Rebellion.-Queen Mary.-Queen Elizabeth's Progress.-Civil Wars, in the reign of Charles II.

WILLIAM of Normandy, on ascending the throne of England, was far from finding himself safely or quietly seated. In many places, the natives formed insurrections against him: the Danes, too, were not satisfied that so fine a country should be wrested from their grasp; and, at times, the English malcontents, and the Danes, made common cause against the new sovereign.

Perceiving that he could never be secure, till the English should be deprived of the means of exciting commotions against him, William determined to divest the nobility of. their possessions. For this measure, he had a double motive: it would reduce his enemies to a state of poverty, and thus render them incapable of further annoying him; and, what was of equal importance, it would enable him to reward his followers, to whose exertions and assistance he had been indebted for the conquest of the country, As soon, therefore, as he had the power, he made a new appropriation of all the landed property in the kingdom.* The manors in the County

"It was not only the English nobility that were the sufferers by the Conqueror's new plan. The clergy met with no better quarter. The Saxon kings had granted to several Bishops and Abbots lands exempted from all military service, denouncing in