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IV.

BOOK Lodbrog, to initiate his son, Biorn, in the habit of piracy 16 that he possessed the virtues of a vikingr, intrepidity, activity, and ferocity, is evinced by the office which Ragnar assigned him.

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He fulfilled his military duty with distinguished courage; for he led his young pupil into a collision with the Franks. To detail his successful depredations against this powerful nation" would be to repeat much of those descriptions with which our annals abound.

CHARLES at last bought off his hostility, and the ambitious Northman is said to have formed the bold hope of conquering, for his master, the imperial dignity. To accomplish this project, he sailed to Italy 18, and, mistaking the city Luna" for Rome,

16 Hastings had been the nutritius of Biorn. Ord. Vital. p. 458. Snorre gives a similar instance, in Olaf Helga's history. This prince first began piracy at the age of twelve, under the tuition of Ran, his foster-father. Hastings is also mentioned by his contemporary Odo, an abbot of Clugny, in his account of St. Martin. 7 Bib. Mag. Pat. p. 637.

17 For his actions, see Gemmeticensis Hist. lib. ii. c. 5. p. 218. Dudo, lib. i. c. 1. p. 63. Ord. Vitalis, lib. iii. p. 458. The chronicles cited by Du Chesne, p. 25. and 32. of his Hist. Norm. Scriptores. The authorities vary much as to the year of the attack. Some place it in 843, others in 851.

18 Chron. Turonense, p. 25.

Du Chesne, Script. Norm. Chron. Floriac. p. 32. ibid. Dudo, p. 64. Gemmet. 220.

19 Luna is mentioned in Strabo, p. 339. It is thus noticed by Condamine in his Tour to Italy in 1757: " In passing from Genoa to Lerici on board a felucca, I entered the gulf of Specia, where I saw a spring of fresh water in the midst of the sea. This gulf, on the borders of which are seen the ruins of the ancient city Luna, destroyed by the Saracens, forms the most beautiful and the largest port of the Mediterranean, and perhaps of the whole world. It is of this port that Silus Italicus said,

66 6

Quo nos spatiosior alter
Innumeras cepisse rates et claudere portum.'

L. 8. v. 481.

It comprehends within its sweep, and in its bay, several other ports; two naval armaments may lie there at anchor without seeing each other."

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he attacked and obtained it. The geographical CHAP. error, and his ignorance of the country, occasioned him to return. But the scheme evinces the largeness of ambition, and prospect, to which the fame and actions of Ragnar was expanding the Northman mind.

He landed again in France20, and from him and others renewed destruction became its fate. The government was weak, and the country factious. Sometimes the assailants were bought off. Sometimes the rivers were fortified to prevent their ingress.2 A general assembly of the powerful chiefs was in one year convened, to provide an united defence 23; and an edict was afterwards passed, awarding death to all who should give breast-plates, arms, or horses, to Northmen, even though it was to procure their own redemption. 24 But the particular actions of Hastings are not now to be traced, because, though the chronicles of France abound with depredations, they often omit the name of the commanding adventurer.

He appears to us, however, twice by name in the HE annals of Regino. Once in the year 867, as com

20 Dudo, p. 65. The Gesta Normannorum does not state when they returned from Italy, but mentions that, in 869, part returned to Italy, p. 3.

21 In 869, Charles gave them 4000 pounds of silver, and raised this sum by exacting six denarii from every manso ingenuili et de servili tres et de accolis unus et de duobus hospitibus unus et decima de omnibus quæ negotiatores videbantur habere. Gesta Norman. Du Chesne, p. 3. So in 870, they obtained a great donation of silver, corn, wine, and cattle, p. 4., &c.

22 Ann. Bertiniani, an. 864.

23 In Junio 864, celebrantur Comitia Pistensia quo regem et proceres traxerat generalis necessitas instituendi munitiones contra Normannos. Capit. Reg. ap. 1 Lang. 558.

24 Capit. Reg. ap. 1 Lang. 558. When the Pope Nicolaus cited the bishops of France, they excused themselves on account of the Northmen. 1 Lang. 568.

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26

BOOK pelled to fortify himself in a church, sallying from which, he destroyed Count Robert the Strong, who has been called the greatest captain which France then had. Again, in the year 874, as hovering about Bretagne, and accepting a defiance from a celebrated Breton warrior, whose courage excited his admiration, and averted or deterred his hostility. 27

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IN 879 he was in England, as before mentioned, at Fulham; but as he received no co-operation from Godrun, whom Alfred had wisely pacified, he sailed to Ghent, and joined vigorously in those furious assaults by which the kingdom of France was for thirteen years again desolated, and endangered.29

DEFEATED at length by the imperial forces, Hastings marched to Boulogne, and constructing there a large fleet, he determined to try his fortune against Alfred in England. Perhaps weary of a life of wandering warfare, he now hoped to extort an English kingdom, or to be chosen king of the Anglo-Danes, as no chieftain of the North

25 Regino, p. 481. Pistor. Script. Germ.

26 Cet fut ainsi que perit alors Robert le Fort le plus grand capitaine qu'il y eust alors en France. Daniel, Hist. de France, vol. ii. p. 99.

27 Regino, p. 55.

28 It is Malmsbury who has affixed his name to this incident. Asser and others mention the arrival at Fulham, and the departure. Malmsbury says, "Cæteri ex Danis qui Christiani esse recusassent, cum Hastingo mare transfretaverunt ubi quæ mala fecerunt indiginæ norunt." p. 43.

29 During this period they were once defeated by Louis: a song, in the ancient Teutonic language, written at the time, on this victory, still exists. Their siege of Paris, and its defence in 886, is narrated in a curious poem of Abbo, who was in the scene of action, and who has transmitted to us a full description of the incident. It is in Du Chesne; and 2 Langb. 76-106.

30 Ethelwerd.

men was then surviving of equal celebrity with CHAP. himself.

FIFTEEN years had now elapsed since Alfred's restoration, and he had employed the interval in executing every scheme which his active wisdom could form, for the improvement and protection of his people. His activity in defeating this attempt is a remarkable feature in a character so contemplative. The sudden invasion of Hastings compelled him to abandon literature and ease, for an unremitted exertion of sagacity and courage, in the decline of his life, and towards the end of his reign.

HASTINGS attacked Alfred with peculiar advantages. As the Northmen were in possession of Northumbria and East Anglia, he had only to contend against the strength of Wessex and its dependencies. Godrun was dead 31; whose friendship with Alfred might have counteracted his invasion. If his countrymen in England declined to assist him by their active co-operation, he was sure of their neutrality, and he relied on their secret connivance. He shaped his operation in conformity to this political situation. By not landing in East Anglia and Northumbria, he avoided the means of exciting their jealousy; and by directing his fleet to Kent, he was enabled to profit from their vicinity. If he were defeated, they might afford him a shelter; if successful, they could immediately assist. On these occasions we must also recollect, that the assailing force did not merely consist of those who at first invaded. The landing actually made, usually drew to the enterprise many of the

31 He died 890. Sax. Chron. p. 90.

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BOOK independent bands that were floating about. may have been from these supplies that Hastings continued the struggle so long.

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Two hundred and fifty vessels sailed to the south-west coast of Kent, and landed near Romneymarsh, at the eastern termination of the great wood or weald of Anderida. 32 They drew up their ships to the weald, four miles from the outward mouth of the river, and there attacked and mastered a fortification which the peasants of the country were constructing in the fens. They built a stronger military work at Apuldre, on the Rother, and ravaged Hampshire and Berkshire. 33

SOON afterwards, Hastings himself appeared with the division he had selected to be under his own command, consisting of eighty ships, in the Thames. He navigated them into the East Swale, landed at Milton, near Sittingbourn, and threw up a strong intrenchment, which continued visible for ages.

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THIS distribution of his forces was judicious. The two armies were but twenty miles asunder, and could therefore act separately, or combine for any joint operation which prudence or exigency should direct. The vicinity of their countrymen in Essex secured them from any attacks on the right, and the sea was their frontier on the left. The fertile districts in the east part of Kent became their spoil without a blow; and thus Hastings secured an ample supply, and a safe position, which courage and policy might convert into a kingdom.

32 The Saxon Chronicle says, they landed at Limine muthan, p.91. This authority describes this wood as then being 120 miles long from east to west, and 30 broad.

33 Sax. Chron. 92. Ethelw. 846. Matt. West. 345.

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