The Coming of the Sea-Rovers
Historical Note
IN the ninth century England was harassed by wild bands
of Viking sea-rovers who came in their dragon-prowed
ships, as the Saxons themselves had come three
centuries before, looted the seacoast towns, and made
off with their plunder. Finding the booty plentiful and
the danger slight, they returned again and again in
ever-increasing numbers. These raiders came from
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the islands of the Baltic;
but the English called them all Danes. In 866-68, they
overpowered East Anglia and the southern part of
Northumbria. Convents, churches, and schools were swept
away, the inhabitants were almost exterminated, and it
began to seem probable, as many of the English thought,
that the land would some day be given over to wild
beasts.
In 871, Alfred the Great came to the throne. After a
desperate struggle with the invaders he succeeded in
checking their advance, and, giving them the land they
had already conquered, he set to work to upbuild and
strengthen the remainder of his kingdom. In a few
generations the Danes had become loyal Englishmen, and
by the middle of the tenth century all England,
Scotland, and Wales paid homage to Edgar, the
Anglo-Saxon king.
But evil times were ahead. The weak rule of Edgar's
successor,!Ethelred the Unready, tempted the Vikings
to pay England another visit, and in 980, Olaf
Trygvason of Norway and Sweyn (Svend of the Forked
Beard) of Denmark invaded the country. After
thirty-four years of alternate warfare and bribery (ten
to forty-eight thousand pounds of silver a year were
paid to the invaders), Sweyn was acknowledged King of
England. He was succeeded by his son Knut, or Canute, a
wise ruler who conciliated the English by his
moderation. The mighty Scandinavian empire which he had
held together with a firm hand fell to pieces after his
death, and in 1042 the English crown reverted to the
Anglo-Saxon line in the person of Edward the Confessor,
who was succeeded in 1060 by Harold, Earl of Wessex.
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