bodies of Danish troops, whom they quartered in different parts of the country. These mercenaries had attained to such a height of luxury, according to the old English writers, that they combed their hair once a day, bathed themselves once a week, and, by these arts, then esteemed effeminate, had rendered themselves so agreeable to the fair sex, that they debauched the wives and daughters of the English, and had dishonoured many families. To those insults was added the treachery of their conduct upon every threatened invasion, as they still showed their attachment to their own countrymen, against those among whom they were permitted to reside. These were motives sufficient, in that barbarous age, for a general massacre; and Ethelred, by a policy incident to weak princes, embraced the cruel resolution of putting them all to the sword. This plot was carried on with such secrecy, that it was executed in one day, and all the Danes in England were destroyed without mercy. But this massacre, so perfidious in the contriving, and so cruel in the execution, instead of ending the long miseries of the people, only prepared the way for greater calamities.

While the English were congratulating each other upon their late deliverance from an inveterate enemy, Sweyn king of Denmark, who had been informed of their treacherous cruelties, appeared off the western coasts with a large fleet, meditating slaughter, and furious with revenge. The English vainly attempted to summon their forces together; treachery and cowardice still operated to dispirit

their troops, or to dissipate them. To these miseries a dreadful famine was added, partly from the bad seasons, and partly from the decay of agriculture. For a while they supposed that the Danish devastations would be retarded by the payment of thirty thousand pounds, which the invaders agreed to accept; but this, as in the former cases, afforded but a temporary relief. For a while they placed some hopes in a powerful navy, which they found means to equip; but this was soon divided and dispersed, without doing them any service. Nothing therefore now remained, but their suffering the just indignation of the conqueror, and undergoing all the evils that war, inflamed by revenge, could inflict. During this period, a general consternation, together with a mutual diffidence and dissension, prevailed. Cessations from these calamities were purchased, one after another, by immense sums, but as they afforded only a short alleviation of the common distress, no other resource remained at last than that of submitting to the Danish monarch, of swearing allegiance to him, and giving hostages as pledges of sincerity. Ethelred was obliged to fly into Normandy, and the whole country thus came under the power of Sweyn, his victorious rival.

[1013.]

The death of Sweyn, which happened about six weeks after, seemed to offer a favourable opportunity of restoring Ethelred to the throne, and his subjects to their liberties. Accordingly he seized it with avidity but his misconduct was incurable;

and his indolence, credulity, and cowardice, obstructed all success. At length, after having seen the greatest part of the kingdom seized by the inşulting enemy, after refusing to head his troops to oppose them, he retired to London, where he ended an inglorious reign of thirty-seven years by a natural death, leaving behind him two sons, the elder of whom, Edmund, succeeded to his crown and his misfortunes.

EDMUND, his son and successor, received [1016.] the surname of IRONSIDE, from his hardy opposition to the enemy; but this opposition seemed as ineffectual to restore the happiness of his country as it was to continue him in the possession of the throne. He was opposed by one of the most powerful and vigilant monarchs then in Europe; for Canute, afterwards surnamed the Great, succeeded Sweyn as king of Denmark, and also as general of the Danish forces in England. The contest between these two monarchs was therefore managed with great obstinacy and perseverance; the first battle that was fought appeared indecisive; a second followed, in which the Danes were victorious but Edmund still having interest enough to bring a third army into the field, the Danish and English nobility, equally harassed by these convulsions, obliged their kings to come to a compromise, and to divide the kingdom between them by treaty. Canute reserved to himself the northern parts of the kingdom; the southern parts were left to Edmund: but this prince being mur

dered about a month after the treaty by his two chamberlains, at Oxford, Canute was left in peaceable possession of the whole kingdom.

CANUTE, though he had gratified his ambition in obtaining possession of the English crown, yet was obliged at first to make some mortifying concessions; and, in order to gain the affections of the nobility, he endeavoured to gratify their avarice. But as his power grew stronger, and his title more secure, he then resumed those grants which he had made, and even put many of the English nobles to death, sensible that those who had betrayed their native sovereign would never be true to him. Nor was he less severe in his exactions upon the subordinate ranks of the people, levying at one time seventy-two thousand pounds upon the country, and eleven thousand more upon the city of London only.

Having thus strengthened his new power by effectually weakening all who had wealth or authority to withstand him, he next began to show the merciful side of his character. Nor does it seem without just grounds that he is represented by some historians as one of the first characters in those barbarous ages. The invectives which are thrown out against him by the English writers seem merely the effect of national resentment, or prejudice, unsupported by truth. His first step to reconcile the English to his yoke, was, by sending back to Denmark as many of his followers as he could safely spare. He made no distinction between the English and Danes in the administration of justice, but

restored the Saxon customs in a general assembly of the kingdom. The two nations thus uniting with each other, were glad to breathe for a while from the tumult and slaughter in which they had involved each other; and, to confirm their amity, the king himself married Emma, the sister of Richard, duke of Normandy, who had ever warmly espoused the interests of the English.

Canute, having thus settled his power in England beyond the danger of a revolution, made a voyage to Denmark, as his native dominions were attacked by the king of Sweden. In this expedition Godwin, an English earl, was particularly distinguished for his valour, and acquired that fame which laid a foundation for the immense power he acquired during the succeeding reigns. In another voyage he made to Denmark, he attacked Norway; and, expelling Olave from his kingdom, annexed it to his own empire. Thus, being at once king of England, Denmark, and Norway, he was considered as the most warlike and potent prince in Europe; while the security of his power inclined his temper, which was naturally cruel, to mercy.

As his reign was begun in blood, he was, towards the end of it, willing to atone for his former fierceness by acts of penance and devotion. He built churches, endowed monasteries, and appointed revenues for the celebration of mass. He even undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, where he remained a considerable time; and, besides obtaining from the pope some privileges for the English school erected there, he engaged all the princes