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Some minor changes to the text are noted at [the end of the book].

THE
CHILD’S PICTORIAL
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

DEATH OF LLEWELLYN.
DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

THE CHILD’S

PICTORIAL

HISTORY OF ENGLAND;

FROM THE

EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME.

BY MISS CORNER,

AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, GREECE, ROME, FRANCE,
SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL.

From the Thirteenth London Edition.

PHILADELPHIA:

HENRY F. ANNER’S,

48 NORTH FOURTH STREET

1853.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by

H. F. ANNERS.

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States,
in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA:

STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES,

No. 9 Sansom Street.

PREFACE
TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

A juvenile history of England has long been needed in our primary schools.

Those already prepared, and in use, are written in a style entirely beyond the capacities of young children, and too comprehensive in detail.

“History for children ought to be told in their own simple language, or it fails to interest them; while all that is unfitted for childish ears, or unsuited to a childish understanding, should be carefully omitted; at the same time, it is essential to avoid making false or imperfect impressions by an injudicious brevity.”

Philadelphia, 1853.

The Publisher invites the attention of those engaged in tuition, to the following reviews, selected from a large number, recommendatory of Miss Corner, as an historian for the school-room:

“Miss Corner is an excellent historian for the school-room; she narrates with fluency and clearness, and in a concise and lively manner.”—London Spectator.

“It is written with clearness and simplicity, the principal events are accurately and briefly described, and the whole is well adapted to the comprehension of young persons.”—London Atlas.

“Miss Corner is concise in matter, yet perspicuous in style, delicate in narration, yet accurate in record, comprehensive in reference, yet simple in arrangement.”—Devonport Independent.

“Miss Corner writes intelligently and fluently, with much ease and winning grace.”—London Magazine of Arts and Sciences.

“The beauty of composition throughout the writings of Miss Corner is singular and fascinating.”—London Sun.

“This meritorious work is written in a very easy and agreeable style, perfectly adapted to the capacities of the young persons for whom it is intended.”—London Times.

“Miss Corner has acquired a deserved celebrity for the singularly-attractive and intelligible manner she has in narrating history.”—London Critic.

Contents.

CHAPTER I.
THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

ANCIENT BRITONS.

1. Would you not like to read about your own country, and to know what sort of people lived in it a long while ago, and whether they were any thing like us? Indeed, they were not; neither was England, in ancient times, such as it is now.

2. There were no great cities, no fine buildings, no pleasant gardens, parks, or nice roads to go from one place to another; but the people lived in caves, or in the woods, in clusters of huts, which they called towns.

3. The country was not then called England, but Britain; and its inhabitants were called Britons. They were divided into many tribes; and each tribe had a king or chief, like the North American Indians; and these chiefs often went to war with one another.

4. Some of the tribes lived like savages, for they had no clothes but skins, and did not know how to cultivate the land: so they had no bread, but got food to eat by hunting animals in the forests, fishing in the rivers, and some of them by keeping herds of small hardy cattle, and gathering wild roots and acorns, which they roasted and eat.

5. But all the Britons were not equally uncivilized, for those who dwelt on the south coasts of the island, had learned many useful things from the Gauls, a people then living in the country now called France, who used to come over to trade with them, and with many families of Gauls who had at various times settled amongst them.

6. They grew corn, brewed ale, made butter and cheese, and a coarse woollen cloth for their clothing. And they knew how to dye the wool of several colors, for they wore plaid trowsers and tunics, and dark colored woollen mantles, in shape like a large open shawl.

7. Perhaps you would like to know what they had to sell to the Gauls; so I will tell you. Britain was famous for large dogs; and there was plenty of tin; and the South Britons sold also corn and cattle, and the prisoners which had been taken in war, who were bought for slaves; and you will be sorry to hear that many of the ancient Britons sold their children into slavery.

8. They carried these goods in carts, drawn by oxen, to the coast of Hampshire, then crossed over to the Isle of Wight, in light boats, made of wicker, and covered with hides or skins, in shape something like half a walnut shell.

9. The merchants from Gaul met them in the Isle of Wight; and as they brought different kinds of merchandise to dispose of, they managed their business almost entirely without money, by exchanging one thing for another.

10. The Britons were very clever in making things of wicker work, in the form of baskets, shields, coated with hides, boats, and chariots, with flat wooden wheels.

11. These chariots were used in war, and sharp scythes were fixed to the axles of the wheels, which made terrible havoc when driven through a body of enemies.

12. But I shall not say much about the wars of the ancient Britons, or their mode of fighting; as there are many things far more pleasant to read of, and more useful to know.

13. At that time, which is about one thousand nine hundred years ago, the country was almost covered with forests; and when the people wanted to build a town, they cleared a space for it by cutting down the trees, and then built a number of round huts of branches and clay, with high pointed roofs, like an extinguisher, covered with rushes or reeds.

14. This was called a town; and around it they made a bank of earth, and a fence of the trees they had felled; outside the fence, they also dug a ditch, to protect themselves and their cattle from the sudden attacks of hostile tribes.

15. As to furniture, a few stools or blocks of wood to sit upon, some wooden bowls and wicker baskets to hold their food, with a few jars and pans of coarse earthenware, were all the things they used; for they slept on the ground on skins, spread upon dried leaves, and fern, or heath. Their bows and arrows, shields, spears, and other weapons, were hung round the insides of their huts.

16. The Britons were not quite ignorant of the art of working in metals; for there was a class of men living among them who understood many useful arts, and were learned, too, for those times, although they did not communicate their learning to the rest of the people.

17. These men were the Druids, or priests, who had much more authority than the chiefs, because they were so much cleverer; therefore the people minded what they said.

18. They made all the laws, and held courts of justice in the open air, when they must have made a very venerable appearance, seated in a circle on stones, dressed in long white woollen robes, with wands in their hands, and long beards descending below their girdles.

19. The ignorant people believed they were magicians, for they knew something of astronomy, and of the medicinal qualities of plants and herbs, with which they made medicines to give the sick, who always thought they were cured by magic.

20. Some of the Druids were bards, that is poets, and musicians; others taught young men to become Druids; and some of them made a great many useful things out of the metals that were found in the mines.

21. You will perhaps wonder where the Druids gained all their knowledge. I cannot tell you; but many learned men think that the first Druids came from India or Persia, as the religion they taught was very similar to that of the Persians and Hindoos.

22. They did not believe in the true God, but told the people there were many gods, and that they were in trees and rivers, and fire, which they worshipped for that reason.

23. They had no churches, but made temples, by forming circles of large stones, of such immense size that nobody can guess how they were carried to the places where they stood, for there are some of them still remaining.

24. They used to hold several religious festivals in the course of the year, when all the people made holiday, and the bards played on their harps and sang, and there was plenty of feasting, and merry making; and they used to light bonfires, and make an illumination by running about with torches in their hands, for they believed that a display of fire was pleasing to their gods; and so you see that our custom of having fireworks, and illuminations, and bonfires, on days of public rejoicing, is as old as the time of the ancient Britons.

25. The Druids had a great deal to do on those days; for they used to go to their temples and say prayers, and sacrifice animals for offerings to their false gods; and on New Year’s Day, they walked in procession to some old oak tree to cut the mistletoe that grew upon it, for this was one of their religious ceremonies; and the oldest Druid went up into the tree to cut the plant, while the rest stood below singing sacred songs, and holding their robes to catch the boughs as they fell; and crowds of men and women stood round to see them.

26. But I must make an end of this chapter about the ancient Britons, and tell you how the Romans came and conquered the country, and made quite a different place of it.

QUESTIONS.

3. What was England called in ancient times?

4. How did the Britons resemble the American Indians?

5. Describe the tribes that were most civilized.

7. With whom did they trade, and in what commodities?

8. How and where was their trade carried on?

10. For what manufacture were the Britons famous?

13. How did they build a town?

15. Describe the furniture of their habitations.

17. Who were the Druids?

18. Tell me what you know about them.

19. Mention the different employments of the Druids.

21. Where is it supposed the first Druids came from?

25. Describe their temples.

CHAPTER II.
THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.

LANDING OF JULIUS CÆSAR.

1. The Romans, about the time of the birth of Christ, were the richest, the most powerful, and the cleverest people in the world. Rome was a grand city, and there were many other fine cities in Italy belonging to the Romans, who knew how to build handsome houses, and make beautiful gardens, besides being excellent farmers.

2. They had elegant furniture, and pictures, and marble statues; and they were well educated, and wrote a great number of books in Latin, for that was their language, and many of those books are used in our schools to this day.

3. They had large armies, and had conquered a great many countries, when Julius Cæsar, a great Roman General, brought an army to Britain, about fifty years before the birth of our Saviour, to try to conquer the Britons also; but thousands of British warriors went down to the sea shore, by Dover cliffs, to fight the Romans as soon as they landed; and they took a great many war chariots with them, and fought so bravely, that after two or three battles, Cæsar offered to make peace with them, and go away, if their princes would pay tribute to the Roman government; which they consented to do.

4. However, the Romans thought no more about Britain for nearly a hundred years, when they came again, and went to war in earnest with the natives, who at length were obliged to submit to them; and Britain became a part of the Roman Empire, just as India is at this time a part of the British Empire.

5. Now this was a good thing for the Britons, although they did not then think so; for as soon as they left off fighting, the Romans began to teach them all they knew, and to make a much better place of Britain than it had ever been before.

6. As soon as a part of the country was conquered, some great man was sent from Rome to govern it, and to make the people obey the Roman laws.

7. Then other great men came to live here, and brought their families and furniture and plate from Rome; and built fine houses, and planted gardens, with flowers and fruit trees, and vegetables, that were never seen here before, for they brought the roots and seeds and young trees with them.

8. At first, the Roman governors made the Britons pay very heavy taxes; not in money, for they had none; but they were obliged to give a part of their cattle, and corn, and metals, or any thing else they had; and to work with the Roman soldiers at building, making roads, draining the watery lands, and cutting down trees, to make room for houses and gardens.

9. They did not like this, and one of the tribes, named the Iceni, who lived in that part of Britain which is now called Norfolk and Suffolk, determined to make another effort to drive the Romans out of the country.

10. You will be surprised to hear that they were headed by a woman; but there were queens among the Britons as well as kings; and the king of the Iceni being dead, his widow Boadicea governed in his stead.

11. She encouraged her people to rebel against their new rulers, and led them to battle herself, mounted in a chariot, and armed like a warrior; but the Romans won the battle, and the brave but unfortunate queen put an end to her own life.

12. After this, there was another long war, which lasted till all the South British tribes were subdued, and the Roman government established all over the country, except the north part of Scotland.

13. It was lucky for the Britons that a very good Roman, named Agricola, was made governor about this time, for he behaved so kindly that they began to like the Romans, and to wish to live as they did, and to know how to do all the clever things they could do.

14. I should tell you that all the Roman soldiers were educated as engineers and builders, surveyors, and cultivators of land, and when not actually engaged in fighting, they were employed daily for four hours in some such out-of-door labour or occupation; so, when the war was over, they were set to work to improve the country, and the Britons had to help them.

15. They made good hard broad roads, paved with stones firmly cemented together, and set up mile stones upon them.

16. The Romans had built London during the war, and given it the name of Augusta, but the houses were almost all barracks for the soldiers and their families, so that it was not nearly so handsome as York and Bath, and many other cities that they built in place of the old British towns.

17. The Britons, who had never seen any thing better than their own clay huts, must have been quite astonished at the fine houses constructed by the Romans; who also built, in every city, temples, theatres, and public baths, with large rooms for people to meet in, like a coffee house.

18. Then, in each town, was a market place for people to buy and sell goods, and the Romans taught the Britons generally to use money, which was more convenient than taking things in exchange.

19. The Romans were excellent farmers, as I said before; so they shewed the natives how to manage their land better than they had done, and how to make many useful implements of husbandry.

20. By cutting down the forest trees, which they used in building, they obtained more land for cultivation, and grew so much corn that there was more than enough for the people in Britain, so that a great deal was sent every year to the Roman colonies in Germany.

21. By degrees, the Britons left off their old habits, and those above the lowest rank wore the Roman dress, spoke the Roman language, and adopted the manners and customs of their conquerors, who treated them as friends and equals.

22. There were schools opened in all the towns, where British and Roman boys were instructed together, and the former were all brought up to serve in the Roman armies; for there were no more wars among the British princes; who held the same rank as before, but paid tribute to the Roman governor, and were under his authority, as many of the princes of India are now under the authority of the English Governor General in India.

23. The Britons had to pay a great many taxes, but they likewise enjoyed many rights, for the Roman laws were much better laws than those of the Druids, which were made for barbarians, and not for civilized people, such as the Britons had now become.

24. You will, perhaps, wonder what the Druids were about all this time. The Romans did not approve of their religion, so they put an end to it very soon, after they came here; but what became of the Druids, is not exactly known.

25. It is supposed that many of them were killed by the Romans in the isle of Anglesea, where the chief Druid always resided; and that all the rest fled to Scotland, or the Isle of Man.

26. The Romans, however, were themselves heathens, when they first settled in Britain, and worshipped a number of false gods; but their gods were different from those of the Druids, and the rites and ceremonies of their religion were different too.

27. But, in course of time, many of the Romans became Christians, and Christianity was taught in Britain, where the heathen temples were converted into Christian churches, and the Britons, as well as the Romans, at length learned to worship the one true God.

28. The Romans had kept possession of Britain for more than three hundred years, when it happened that great armies of barbarians went to fight against Rome, and all the soldiers were sent for, to try to drive them away again; so that this country was left unprotected, for it was the Roman soldiers who had kept enemies from coming here.

29. The Britons hoped they would come back again, as they did more than once; but affairs got worse and worse at Rome, so the rulers there sent word to the British princes, that they did not wish to keep the island any longer, therefore the Britons might consider themselves a free people. But was freedom a blessing to them? I think we shall find it was not.

QUESTIONS.

3. By whom was Britain first invaded?

4. When did the Romans again appear?

5. Was this conquest a good or bad thing for the Britons, and why?

8. What occasioned the revolt of the Iceni?

10. Who headed the insurrection, and what were its consequences?

13. Who was Agricola?

14. How were the Roman soldiers employed in time of peace?

15. Tell me of the improvements made in Britain by the Romans.

25. What became of the Druids?

28. When and why did the Romans leave Britain?

CHAPTER III.
THE SAXON HEPTARCHY.

A SAXON SHIP.

1. It is now time to tell you something about the Picts and Scots. They were the people of Scotland, and were called by the Romans Caledonians, which meant men of the woods, because they were very rude and fierce, and lived among woods and wilds.

2. They had always been sad enemies to the Britons; but the Romans had kept them away, and the good governor Agricola built a row of strong forts, all across their country, and placed soldiers in them, to make the Caledonians keep on the other side.

3. However, they sometimes managed to break through; so the Emperor Severus, who was here from the year 207 to 211, had a stone wall built across that narrow part, where Northumberland joins Cumberland, and it was so strong, that parts of the banks and forts are still remaining.

4. But when all the Roman soldiers were gone, the Picts and Scots began to come again, and robbed the people of their corn and cattle, and stole their children for slaves, and did a great deal of mischief.

5. Now, if the British princes had agreed among themselves, and joined together to drive out these terrible foes, things might have gone on very well; but they were foolish enough to quarrel, and go to war with one another; while some of the captains, who wanted to be princes, got a number of soldiers to help them, and took possession of different places, where they called themselves kings, and made the people obey them.

6. They did not continue the good Roman laws; nor elect magistrates to keep order in the cities, as used to be done while the Romans were here; and tillage was neglected, because the farmers were afraid their crops would be destroyed, so that numbers of people died of famine.

7. There were still many Romans in Britain, who were not soldiers but were settled here, most of them having married into British families; and there were a great number of people who were Britons by birth, but whose ancestors had been Romans; and all these were desirous that the country should still be governed by the Roman laws, and formed what was called the Roman party.

8. But there was a British party also, that wanted to do away with the Roman laws altogether, and not to let the Romans have any thing to do with ruling the country; so each of these parties elected a king.

9. The Britons chose a prince named Vortigern; and the Romans chose one called Aurelius Ambrosius; and there was war between them.

10. Then Vortigern, the British king, thought it would be a good thing to get some other brave people to join his party, that he might be able to overcome his rival, as well as to drive away the Picts and Scots; so he proposed to some of the British chiefs that they should ask the Saxons to come and help them, and they thought it would be a good plan.

11. The Saxons inhabited the north of Germany, and parts of Holland and Denmark, which were then poor and barren countries.

12. Many of their chiefs were pirates, that is, they lived by going out on the seas to fight and plunder; nor did they think it wicked so to do; but, on the contrary, imagined it was brave and noble.

13. Two of them, Hengist and Horsa, happened to be cruising near the British coast, when they received a message from Vortigern; who made a bargain with them, and offered to give them the little island of Thanet, if they would come with all their men, to assist him in driving out the Picts and Scots.

14. Thanet is that part of Kent where Margate is now situated, but was then separated by an arm of the sea, so that it was a small island, standing alone, nearly a mile from the coast.

15. The Saxons were very ready to come, for they knew that Britain was a pleasant, fertile country, and hoped to get some of it for themselves; but they did not let the Britons know they thought of doing so.

16. Hengist and Horsa were very brave, and their men were well armed, so they soon forced the Picts and Scots to retreat to their own country; and shortly afterwards they went to the Isle of Thanet, which they fortified, and many more Saxons came there to them.

17. I cannot tell you how the affairs of the Britons went on, or what became of Vortigern; but this I can tell you, that the Saxons soon began to quarrel with the people of Kent, and fought with them, and having driven most of them away, took the land for themselves, and began to live there.

18. The chief who made this conquest, was Esca, the son of Hengist, who called himself king of Kent, which, from that time, was a small Saxon kingdom, for the Britons never won it back again.

13. Then other chiefs, hearing how Esca had succeeded, got together bands of soldiers, and landed in different parts of the country, to try to gain kingdoms also; but they did not all come at once, and their conquests were made by such slow degrees, that the wars lasted more than one hundred and fifty years; so you may guess how hard the Britons fought in defence of their liberty.

20. We can learn but very little about those unhappy times, for the few histories that were then written were mostly destroyed in these long wars; and though songs were composed by the bards or poets, which the people used to learn and teach to their children, these songs were not all true.

21. They were mostly about the wars, and the brave British chiefs who defended the country against the Saxons; and if you should ever hear anybody speak of king Arthur, and the knights of the Round Table, you may remember that he is said to have been one of those chiefs; and, if we may believe the tale, killed four hundred Saxons with his own hand in one battle.

22. Those who made the story about him, say that the nobles of his court were all so equal in bravery and goodness, that he had a large round table made for them to feast at, that no one might sit above another; so they were called knights of the Round Table. But let us return to our history.

23. The Saxons went on making one conquest after another, till, at last, they were in possession of the whole country; where very few of the natives were left, for most of those who had not been killed in the wars, had fled into Gaul, or taken refuge among the Welsh mountains; so from this time we shall hear no more of the Britons, but must look upon the Saxons as the people of England.

24. I told you how Esca had established the little kingdom of Kent. Well, in the course of the wars, six more kingdoms had been formed in the same manner, by different Saxon chiefs, so that, by the time the conquest was completed, there were seven kingdoms in Britain, namely, Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia, Northumbria, Wessex, and Mercia; and this division of the country among seven kings, was called the Saxon Heptarchy.

25. The Saxons were not clever people, like the Romans, but were rough and ignorant, and cared for nothing but fighting; so while the wars were going on, they ruined and destroyed all the beautiful and useful works that had been done in the Roman times; for they did not understand their value, and only thought it was a fine thing to destroy all that belonged to their enemies.

26. But the works of the Romans were very strong; for even now, when workmen are digging in London, and different parts of the country, they sometimes find Roman walls, and pavements, and foundations of houses, that show what good architects the Romans were.

27. When the Saxons had got possession of the whole country, you may perhaps suppose they would be quiet and contented, but this was not the case; for as long as there were separate kingdoms, they were continually at war with each other, and the principal cause of disagreement was, that, among the kings, there was always one called the Bretwalda, or ruler of Britain, who had some degree of authority over the rest; but as any one of them might be raised to this dignity, it was a constant source of quarrels and warfare, until, at length, the weaker kingdoms were overcome by the more powerful ones, and there was but one king over the whole country, which then took the name of Angleland or England, from a particular tribe of people called the Angles, who came here in great numbers with the Saxons.

28. I dare say you did not know before how Britain came to be called England; and you would be very much amused to hear how many of the places in it, came by their present names.

29. We will take for example Norfolk and Suffolk, which, with Cambridge, formed the kingdom of East Anglia, and was conquered by the Angles. Now these Angles consisted of two tribes, who divided their conquest between them, one tribe settling in the north part, the other in the south; so that they were called North folk, and South folk, and thus came the names of the two counties.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who were the Caledonians?

4. How did they molest the Britons?

6. What was the state of the country at this time?

7. What was the Roman party?

8. What was the British party?

10. Who was Vortigern, and what did he do?

11. Tell me something about the Saxons.

16. Who were Hengist and Horsa, and how did they assist the Britons?

23. What did the Saxons do after this?

24. What was the Heptarchy?

25. How was the country changed by the wars?

27. How was the Heptarchy destroyed?

CHAPTER IV.
MANNERS OF THE SAXONS.

ANCIENT SAXONS.

1. I am now going to tell you what sort of people the Saxons were, and how they lived after they were quite settled in England; for you ought to know all about them, as they were our own ancestors, and made a great many of our laws; and their language was English too, although it has so much altered that you would hardly know it for the same.

2. The Saxons were not Christians when they first came here; but their religion was different from that of both the Druids and heathen Romans; for they worshipped great images of stone or wood, that they made themselves, and called gods; and from the names of their gods and goddesses, our names of the days of the week are derived.

3. At length, the bishop of Rome, who was called the Pope, sent some good men to persuade the Saxons to leave off praying to wooden idols, and to worship the true God.

4. These missionaries first went to Ethelbert, king of Kent, who was then Bretwalda, and reasoned with him, so that he saw how wrong he had been, and not only became a Christian himself, but let the missionaries go and preach among the people, who were baptized in great numbers, and taught to believe in God and Jesus Christ.

5. The missionaries were all priests or monks; and some of them lived together in great houses called monasteries, which they built upon lands given them by the kings and nobles, on which they also raised corn, and fed sheep and cattle.

6. They had brought from Rome the knowledge of many useful arts, which they taught to the people, who thus learned to be smiths and carpenters, and to make a variety of things out of metal, wood and leather, which the Saxons did not know how to make before.

7. Then the priests could read and write, which was more than the nobles, or even the kings could do; and they used to write books, and ornament the pages with beautiful borders, and miniature paintings; and the books, thus adorned, are called illuminated manuscripts.

8. Still the Saxons, or English, as I shall henceforth call them, were very rough and ignorant as compared with the Romans.

9. Their churches and houses, and even the palaces of the kings, were rude wooden buildings, and the cottages of the poor people were no better than the huts of the ancient Britons.

10. The common people were almost all employed in cultivating the land, and lived in villages on the different estates to which they belonged; for the Saxon landlords were not only the owners of the land, but of the people also; who were not at liberty, as they are now, to go where they pleased; neither could they buy land for themselves, nor have any property but what their lords chose. I will tell you how it was.

11. The Saxon lords had divided all the land amongst themselves, and had brought from their own countries thousands of ceorls, or poor people, dependent on them, to be their labourers.

12. Each family of ceorls was allowed to have a cottage, with a few acres of land, and to let their cattle or sheep graze on the commons, for which, instead of paying rent, they worked a certain number of days in each year for their lord, and, besides, gave him a stated portion of those things their little farms produced; so that whenever they killed a pig, they carried some of it to the great house; and the same with their fowls, eggs, honey, milk and butter; and thus the chief’s family was well supplied with provisions by his tenants, some of whom took care of his sheep and herds, cultivated his fields, and got in his harvests.

13. Then there were always some among them who had learned useful trades, and thus they did all the kinds of work their masters wanted.

14. Yet, with all this, the poor ceorls generally had enough for themselves, and some to spare, which they sold at the markets, and thus were able to save a little money.

15. Their cottages were round huts, made of the rough branches of trees, coated with clay, and thatched with straw. They had neither windows nor chimneys; but a hole was made in the roof to let out the smoke from the wood fire, kindled on a hearth in the middle of the room; and they used to bake their barley-cakes, which served them for bread, on these hearths, without any oven.

16. They made a coarse kind of cloth for clothing from the wool of their sheep, a part of which was also given to their lord, and was used to clothe the servants of his household, for the rich people got a finer cloth for themselves, which was brought from other countries.

17. Great men usually wore white cloth tunics that reached to the knee, with broad coloured borders, and belts round the waist. They had short cloaks, linen drawers and black leather shoes, with coloured bands crossed on their legs, instead of stockings. The common people wore tunics of coarse dark cloth, and shoes, but no covering on the legs.

18. But I must tell you something more about these country folks, who, at the time, formed the great mass of the English population. They were, strictly speaking, in bondage, for they could not leave the place where they were born, nor the master they belonged to, unless he gave them their freedom; they were obliged to serve as soldiers in war time, and when the land was transferred to a new lord, the people were transferred with it.

19. All they had might at any time be taken from them, and their sons and daughters could not marry, without consent of their lord.

20. Yet these people considered themselves free, because they could not be sold like the slaves; for I ought to tell you there was a lower class of bondmen, called thralls, and there were regular slave markets where they were bought and sold.

21. A landowner could sell a thrall just as he could sell an ox; but he could not sell a vassal tenant, or, as they were called in the Saxon times, a ceorl, or churl, without the estate to which he belonged. The thralls were employed to do the hardest and meanest work, and had nothing of their own.

22. The houses of the great men were very like large barns, and each house stood on an open space of ground, enclosed by a wall of earth and a ditch, within which there were stacks of corn, sheds for the horses and cattle, and huts for the thralls to sleep in.

23. The principal room was a great hall, strewed with rushes, and furnished with long oak tables and benches.

24. The windows were square holes crossed with thin laths, called lattices, and the fire-place was a stone hearth in the middle of the earthen floor, on which they used to burn great logs of wood, and let the smoke go out at a hole in the door.

25. But the great people often had merry doings in these halls, for they were fond of feasting, and used to sit at the long wooden tables, without table cloths, and eat out of wooden platters or trenchers with their fingers.

26. Boiled meats and fish, usually salted, were put on the table in great wooden dishes, but roast meats were brought in on the spits on which they were cooked, and handed round by the thralls, to the company, who helped themselves with knives which they carried at their girdles.

27. There was plenty of ale, and among the richest, wine also, which they drank out of horn cups; and when the meats were taken away, they used to drink and sing, and play on the harp, and often had tumblers, jugglers, and minstrels to amuse them.

28. Then the visitors used to lie down on the floor to sleep, covered with their cloaks; for very few people had bedsteads, and the only beds were a kind of large bags, or bed-ticks, filled with straw, and blocks of wood for pillows.

29. Such were the rough manners of our Saxon forefathers, who were, however, in some respects a good sort of people, and you will be sorry for them by and by, when you read how the Normans came, and took away their lands, and made slaves of them. But I must first tell you what happened in the Saxon times, after the Heptarchy was broken up, and there was only one king of England.

QUESTIONS.

4. How were the Saxons converted to Christianity?

6. By what means did they learn many useful arts?

8. What was the condition of the common people?

15. Describe the cottages of the poor.

16. How did the Saxons dress?

21. What were ceorls? and what were thralls?

22. Describe the house of a Saxon chief.

CHAPTER V.
THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT.

ALFRED THE GREAT.

1. It was nearly 380 years after the first Saxons came here with their two pirate chiefs, Hengist and Horsa, that England began to have only one king.

2. There were still some other princes, who bore that title, but they had so little power, that they could hardly be called kings; so that a brave prince, named Egbert, who conquered the last kingdom of the Heptarchy, is usually called the first king of England.

3. The civil wars were thus, for a time, ended; but it seemed as if the English were never to be long at peace, for they now had some terrible enemies to contend with, who kept the country in constant alarm.

4. These were the Danes who came from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and were almost the same people as the Saxons; for they spoke the same language, followed the same customs, and lived by piracy, as the Saxons did in former times.

5. I have not room to tell you of half the mischief they did in England. Sometimes they would land suddenly from their boats in the night, when the affrighted people were awakened by a cry of, “the Danes! the Danes!” and, starting up, perhaps, beheld their villages in flames; and, as they ran in terror from their cottages, were either killed or dragged away to the pirate vessels, with the cattle and any thing else that could be found, and made slaves.

6. Egbert had fought a battle with them in Cornwall, and forced them to depart; but, during the reign of Ethelwulf, the next king, and three of his sons, they not only attacked the towns and villages on the sea-coast, but used to seize the horses and ride about the country in search of plunder.

7. They broke into the monasteries, where the people often put their money and jewels for safety; and if the inmates made any resistance they would set the building on fire.

8. Then they set up fortified camps, in many places; that is, a number of tents, arranged together, like a town surrounded with a wall and ditch; and thus a great many of the Danes established themselves in the country, and conquered all the northern part of it. This was the sad state of affairs when Alfred the Great came to the throne.

9. I dare say you have heard of this good prince, who was the youngest and favorite son of king Ethelwulf, for he was the cleverest and best. His mother, being an accomplished lady, tried to teach all her sons to read; but none of them would learn except Alfred, who afterwards went to Rome to study Latin, and learn to write, so that he was a good scholar for those times.

10. His three brothers had all reigned in turn, and were all dead by the time he was twenty-two years old, therefore he was then heir to the crown; but, instead of being able to think about the best way of governing the country, he was obliged to get together as many soldiers as he could, and go out with them to fight the Danes.

11. There was no regular army then, as there is now; but, when the king wanted soldiers, he sent to all the noblemen and landholders in the kingdom, who were obliged to come themselves and bring so many men with them, according to the size of their estates, some on horseback, some on foot, and all well armed.

12. You must remember that people could not buy land then for money, nor have it for paying rent; but large estates were given to the thanes and nobles by the king, on condition that they should perform certain services for him; and you have already seen how the vassals of the nobles held their little farms on similar terms.

13. This was called the feudal system, which means, holding land for services instead of rent; and the person holding the land was called the vassal of him to whom it belonged, whether rich or poor; so the nobles were the vassals of the king, and the ceorls were the vassals of the nobles.

14. I think you now understand what the feudal system was, therefore I shall proceed with the history of Alfred the Great.

15. The war had gone on for several years, and the king was so unfortunate that, at last, he was obliged to hide himself in a woody marsh in Somersetshire, called the Isle of Athelney, because it was surrounded by bogs and rivers.

16. The Danes were then in pursuit of him; and, one time, fearing to be taken prisoner, he got some man to let him keep his cows, or pigs, I do not know which; so that, if the Danes happened to see him, they might not guess who he was.

17. I dare say, you have heard the story of this peasant’s wife scolding Alfred one day, for letting some cakes burn, which she had left to bake on the hearth, whilst she was out; but she did not know that he was the king, or, of course, she would not have taken that liberty.

18. At last, Alfred heard there were many chiefs and noblemen, with their vassals, ready to join him again; so he determined to try another battle, but thought it would be prudent first to learn what was the real strength of the enemy.

19. Now the Danes, like the Saxons, were fond of good cheer, and liked to have songs and music to make them merry while they were feasting; and this put it into Alfred’s head to go into their camp disguised as a harper, for he could play the harp and sing very well.

20. So away he went, with his harp at his back, and, when he came there, the Danish chiefs had him called into their tents, and made him sit down and play to them, and gave him plenty to eat and drink.

21. Then he heard them talking about king Alfred, and saying, they supposed he was dead, as he did not come to fight them, so they need think of nothing but enjoying themselves; and thus he discovered they were not prepared for a battle, and were almost sure to be defeated, if taken by surprise.

22. He, therefore, left the camp as soon as he could, and sent a message to his friends to meet him in Selwood Forest, also in Somersetshire, with all the men they could muster; and, when they were all come, he put himself at their head, and, marching suddenly down upon the Danes, fought and won a great battle at Ethandune, a place in Gloucestershire, now called Woeful Danes’ Bottom, from the terrible slaughter of the Danes there.

23. But there were a great many Danes in England who had not been engaged in this battle, and who had possession of almost all the northern part of the country; so the king wisely considered that it would be much better to induce them to settle peaceably in the country as friends, rather than prolong those dreadful wars, which had already caused so much misery.

24. He therefore proposed to the Danish chief that, if he would promise to keep at peace, he should have a wide tract of country, which had been desolated by these wars, all along the east coast, from the river Tweed to the river Thames, for himself and his people, to be called the Dane land; so Guthrun, the Danish chief, accepted the offer, and parcelled the land out amongst his followers, who settled there with their vassals, and lived the same manner as the Saxons.

25. You may think how glad the people were that the wars were over, and the king was very glad too, for he now had time to do what was more pleasant to him than fighting, which was, to do all the good he could for the country. He thought the best way to defend it against its enemies was to have good ships to keep them from landing; but, as the English did not know much about ship-building, he sent for men from Italy to teach them, and also had models of ships brought that they might see how they were constructed, and men were taught to manage them, so that England, for the first time, had a navy.

26. These ships were called galleys, and were worked both with oars and sails; they were twice as long as those of the Danes, and stood higher out of the water.

27. While some workmen were making ships, others were employed in rebuilding of the towns and villages that had been burned down by the Danes; and the king ordained that there should be schools in different parts of the kingdom, where noblemen’s sons might be educated, for he had found the benefit of learning himself, and thought it a sad thing that all the great men should be so ignorant as they were.

28. You may, perhaps, wonder why so good a man as Alfred should only think of having the great people taught to read; but reading would have been of no use to the common people, as the art of printing was unknown, and there were no books but those written by the monks or nuns, which were so expensive that none but very rich people could afford to have even two or three of them.

29. The principal school founded by king Alfred was at Oxford, which was then a small, poor place, with a monastery, and a few mean wooden houses for the scholars to live in, very different from the present grand university, and the masters, who were all churchmen, and called learned clerks, resided in the monastery.

30. Alfred, with the help of some good and clever men, whom he consulted in every thing, made some very wise laws, and obliged the people to obey them, by having courts of justice held in the principal cities, regularly once a month; for nobody had thought much about law or justice either, while the wars were going on, so that there was need of some very strict regulations to restore good order, without which there can be neither happiness nor comfort any where.

31. Under the good government of Alfred the Great, England enjoyed more peace and prosperity than it had known since the days of the Romans; and as his son and grandson both endeavoured to follow his example, the influence of his wisdom was felt long after his death, which happened when he was about fifty years old, in the year 900.

QUESTIONS.

2. Who was called the first king of England?

4. Who were the Danes?

8. How did they establish themselves in the country?

10. Who went to war with them?

11. How was an army raised in those times?

12. What was the feudal system?

15. What happened to Alfred?

22. What was the battle of Ethandune?

24. How did Alfred make friends of the Danes?

26. How was a navy first formed?

29. Which of our universities was founded by Alfred the Great?

CHAPTER VI.
FROM THE DEATH OF ALFRED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CANUTE AND HIS COURTIERS.

1. Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward, who was a very good king, though not so clever as his father. He built walls round a great many of the towns, to defend them in case the Danes should come again; for, although so many of them were living quietly in the country, those who did not live here were still enemies, and the resident Danes were always ready to join their countrymen.

2. But they could not do much mischief while Edward was king, or in the reign of his brave son Athelstan, who was almost as great a prince as Alfred himself.

3. He knew that commerce was one of the best things in the world for any country, so he had more ships built, and sent them to trade with foreign countries; and he said that, when any man had made three voyages in a vessel of his own, he should be made a Thane; which was the same as knighting a gentleman in these days.

4. There were no stores in England at this time, but the people bought every thing they wanted at markets and fairs; and they used to salt a great deal of their meat and fish, that it might keep a long time.

5. In buying and selling, they sometimes used slaves and cattle, instead of money, a man slave being worth a pound of silver, and an ox worth a quarter of a pound, which was called five shillings, as a shilling was the twentieth part of a pound in weight.

6. If a nobleman, therefore, wanted to buy any thing of two pounds value, he could pay for it with two of his thralls, or eight oxen, and the seller was obliged to take them; but he could sell them again directly; for I am sorry to say there were slave markets in England till some time after the Norman Conquest.

7. Athelstan had a good deal of fighting to do, for the people of the Daneland revolted, and he was obliged to lead his soldiers into their territory, to bring them to order; and then he had to march against Howel, the Prince of Wales, who was defeated in battle, when Athelstan nobly gave him back his dominions, saying, “There was more glory in making a king than in dethroning one.”

8. I shall not mention all the kings that reigned after Athelstan, because there were many of them who did nothing that is worth telling about; but I must speak of a great churchman, named Dunstan, who was Archbishop of Canterbury, and, for several reigns, ruled the whole country, for the kings and nobles were obliged to do just as he pleased.

9. He was a very clever man, and so good a worker in metals that he made jewellery and bells, and gave them to some of the churches, which was considered an act of piety; for it was about this time that bells began to be used in England, and they were highly valued.

10. Dunstan persuaded the kings and rich noblemen, to rebuild the monasteries that had been plundered and destroyed by the Danes, and endow them with lands; so that, at last, nearly one-third of all the landed property in the kingdom belonged to the clergy.

11. There was a king named Edgar, the fourth after Athelstan, who did many useful things for the country; and, among others, he thought of a plan to destroy the wolves, which were so numerous in all the forests, that the people were in constant alarm for the safety of their sheep, and even of their little children.

12. Edgar, therefore, ordered that each of the princes of Wales, who had to pay tribute to the kings of England, should send, instead of money, three hundred wolves’ heads every year; so they were obliged to employ huntsmen to go into the woods to kill those dangerous animals, which were so generally destroyed in a few years that they have seldom been found in England ever since.