by some ascribed to him, are of a much more ancient date. The care of Alfred for the encouragement of learning did not a little tend to improve the morals and restrain the barbarous habits of the people. When he came to the throne, he found the English sunk into the greatest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from the continued disorders of the government, and from the ravages of the Danes. He himself complains, that on his accession, he knew not one person south of the Thames who could so much as interpret the Latin service. To remedy this deficiency, he invited over the most celebrated scholars from all parts of Europe; he founded, or at least re-established, the university of Oxford, and endowed it with many privileges. He gave in his own example, the strongest incentives to study. He usually divided his time into three equal portions; one was given to sleep, and the refection of his body, diet, and exercise; another to the dispatch of business; and the third to study and devotion. He made a considerable progress in the different studies of grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, architecture, and geometry. He was an excellent historian, he understood music, and was acknowledged to be the best Saxon poet of the age. He left many works behind him, many of which remain to this day. He translated the pastoral of Gregory I. "Boetius ❝ de Consolatione, and Bede's Ecclesiastical History into the Saxon language. Sensible that his illiterate subjects were not much susceptible of speculative instruction, he endeavoured to convey his morality by parables and stories, and is said to have translated from the Greek the fables of sop. Nor did he even neglect the more mechanical arts of life. Before his time, the generality of the people chiefly made use of timber in building. Alfred raised his palaces of brick, and the nobility

by degrees began to imitate his example. He introduced and encouraged manafactures of all kinds; and no inventor or improver of any ingenious art was suffered to go unrewarded. Even the elegancies of life were brought to him from the Mediterranean; and his subjects, by seeing these productions of the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the virtues of justice and industry, by which alone they could be procured. It was after a glorious reign of twenty-nine years thus spent, in the ad

vancement of his subjects happiness, that A. D. he died in the vigour of his age and the 901. full enjoyment of his faculties, an example to princes, and an ornament to human nature. To give a character of this prince would only be to sum up those qualities which constitute perfection. Even virtues seemingly opposite, were happily blended in his disposition; persevering, yet flexible; moderate, yet enterprizing; just, yet merciful; stern in command, yet gentle in conversation. Nature also, as if desirous that such admirable qualities of mind should be set off to the greatest advantage, had bestowed on him all bodily accomplishments, vigour, dignity, and an engaging open countenance. In short, historians have taken such delight in describing the hero, that they have totally omitted the mention of his smaller errors, which doubtless he must have had in consequence of his humanity.

Alfred had by his wife Ethelswitha, the daughter of a Mercian earl, three sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Edmund, died without issue, during his father's life-time. His third son, Ethelward, inherited his father's passion for letters, and lived a private life. His second son, Edward, succeeded him on the throne.

EDWARD was scarce settled on the throne, when his pretensions were disputed by Ethelwald, his

cousin german, who raised a large party among
the Northumbrians to espouse his cause.
At first
his aims seemed to be favoured by fortune; but he
was soon after killed in battle, and his death thus
freed Edward from a very dangerous competitor.
Nevertheless, the death of their leader was not suf-
ficient to intimidate his turbulent adherents. Du-
ring the whole of this prince's reign, there were
but few intervals free from the attempts and insur-
rections of the Northumbrian rebels. Many were
the battles he fought, and the victories he won;
so that, though he might be deemed unequal to
his father in the arts of peace, he did not fall short
of him in the military virtues. He built several
castles, and fortified different cities. He reduced
Turkethill, a Danish invader, and obliged him to
retire with his followers. He subdued the East
Angles, and acquired dominion over the Northum-
brians themselves. He was assisted in these con-
quests by his sister Ethelfleda, the widow of
Ethelbert, earl of Mercia, who, after her husband's
death, retained the government of that province.
Thus, after Edward had reduced the whole king-
dom to his obedience, and began his endeavours to
promote the happiness of his people, he was pre-
vented by death from the completion of his de-
sign.

To him succeeded ATHELSTAN, his
A. D..

natural son, the illegitimacy of his birth 925. not being then deemed a sufficient obstacle to his inheriting the crown. To this prince, as to the former, there was some opposition made in the beginning. Alfred, a nobleman of his kindred, is said to have entered into a conspiracy against him, in favour of the legitimate sons of the deceased king, who were yet too young to be capable of governing themselves. Whatever his attempts might have been, he denied the charge,

and offered to clear himself of it by oath before the pope. The proposal was accepted; and it is asserted, that he had scarce sworn himself innocent, when he fell into convulsions, and died three days after. This monarch received also some disturbance from the Northumbrian Danes, whom he compelled to surrender; and resenting the conduct of Constantine, the king-of Scotland, who had given them assistance, he ravaged that country with impunity, till at length he was appeased by the humble submissions of that monarch. These submissions, however, being extorted, were insincere. Soon after Athelstan had evacuated that kingdom, Constantine entered into a confederacy with a body of Danish pirates, and some Welch princes who were jealous of Athelstan's growing greatness. A bloody battle was fought near Brunsburg, in Northumberland, in which the English monarch was again victorious. After this success, Athelstan enjoyed his crown in tranquillity, and he is regarded as one of the ablest and most active of the Saxon kings. During his reign, the Bible was. translated into the Saxon language; and some alliances also were formed by him with the princes on the continent. He died at Gloucester, after a reign of sixteen years, and was 941. succeed by his brother EDMUND.

A. D.

EDMUND, like the rest of his predecessors, met with disturbance from the Northumbrians on his accession to the throne; but his activity soon defeated their attempts. The great end therefore which he aimed at during his reign, was to curb the licentiousness of this people, who offered to embrace Christianity as an atonement for their offences. Among other schemes for the benefit of the people, he was the first monarch who by law instituted capital punishments in England. Remarking that fines and pecuniary mulcts were

too gentle methods of treating robbers, who were in general men who had nothing to lose, he enacted, that, in gangs of robbers, when taken, the oldest of them should be condemned to the gallows. This was reckoned a very severe law at the time it was enacted; for among our early ancestors, all the penal laws were mild and merciful. The resentment this monarch bore to men of this desperate way of living was the cause of his death. His virtues, abilities, wealth and temperance, promised him a long and happy reign; when, on a certain day he was solemnizing a festival in Gloucestershire, he remarked that Leof, a notorious robber, whom he had sentenced to banishment, had yet the boldness to enter the hall where he was dining, and to sit at the table among the royal attendants: Enraged at this insolence, he commanded him to leave the room; but on his refusing to obey, the king, whose temper was naturally choleric, flew against him, and caught him by the hair. The ruffian, giving way to rage also on his side, drew a dagger, and lifting his arm, with a furious blow stabbed the monarch to the heart, who fell down on the bosom of his murderer. The death of the assassin, who was instantly cut to pieces, was but a small compensation for the loss of a king, loved by his subjects, and deserving their esteem.

The late king's sons were too young to succeed him in the direction of so difficult a government as that of England; his brother EDRED was therefore appointed to succeed, and, like his predecessors, this monarch found himself at the head of a rebellious and refractory people. The Northum brian Danes, as usual, made several attempts to shake off the English yoke; so that the king was at last obliged to place garrisons in their most considerable towns, and to appoint an English governor over them, who might suppress their insurrec