In oldest England

Preface

To-day all we know about the men and women who lived in oldest England we learn from the manuscripts which their scribes wrote. From these writings we know many facts of their time and many things about their manner of living. But we need more than facts, we need imagination to realize fully how people lived a thousand or more years ago. The men and women who dwelt in oldest England were the ancestors of the English people of to-day. They Avere not their great-grandfathers, however, nor yet their great-great-grandfathers. One would need to repeat the word *'great" twenty or thirty times before one arrived at a name which reached far enough back to apply to the Englishmen who lived in England in the times of King Alfred. But though these founders of the English race lived so many generations ago, it would be a great mistake to think of them as altogether savage and uncivilized. They knew nothing about electricity and steam engines and airships, and many other remarkable inventions that we know about. It is well to remember, however, that the real test of a people's civilization is not to be found in the amount of machinery they possess, but in the thoughts and affections which go to make up their characters. And different as the surroundings of their lives were from our own, as one comes to

vii

PREFACE

know these Englishmen of oldest England better, one sees that after all they were laying the foundations of character which Englishmen to-day are still building upon. They were learning" how to live peaceably and justly with each other, how to conquer the bad sides of their natures and how to cultivate the good. They never learned to do this completely, but for that we dare not judge them harshly, since their descendants to-day still have many lessons of charity and justice to learn. The world grows better slowly but surely, and a thousand years in the life of a nation is not a long time. It is well, therefore, that we should know as much about the past of our race as we can, and that we should go back in our study of its history as far as possible. For the more we know about the past, the more certainly we shall be able to judge of the present and to plan for the future.

The illustrations at the heads of chapters which represent scenes from country life for the various seasons of the year are reproduced from an English manuscript of the eleventh century, as are several illustrations in the text. The colored illustrations are reproduced by permission from the excellent historical pictures by Mr. H. J. Ford.

New York^ 19 12.

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Table Of Contents

CHAPTER TAGE

Preface . vii

I. How THE English Came to England i

II

If the first Teutonic invaders of Britain who came over in the time of Hengest and Horsa were given their proper name, they would have to be called pirates, for pirates they were to all intents and purposes. They came to Britain with no other intention than to carry off as much plunder as possible. They knew^ no law except the law of might, and a rich people who were weak, like the Britons, seemed fair game to them. At first, when they had filled their ships with booty, they sailed back to their old homes on the Continent, there to enjoy it. After a time, however, it occurred to them that they might take the lands of the Britons as well as their other possessions, and so they changed from mere marauders and plunderers to permanent settlers in the country.

As they settled down in their new homes, the English brought over with them all the customs and habits with which they had been familiar in north Germany. They paid very little attention to the Britons, except to drive them out or to make slaves of them, and consequently, although the Britons were much more highly civilized than were these first barbarous English, the English learned very little from them. The Romans had built large towns, with high brick or stone walls around them, and in these towns they had cultivated all the arts and luxuries of town life. But the English did not like to live in towns. Like their ancestors in the German forests, they preferred to live scattered and apart, wherever a spring or a grove or an open field or some other natural advantage struck their fancy. Thus the old Roman towns fell into neglect and soon became waste and desolate. It was only after a long time that some of them, like the town of Chester, where the Roman walls are still to be seen, were occupied again; but most of the old Roman towns were deserted and abandoned, and if they have not completely disappeared, have left only scanty ruins to mark their sites.

Neither did the early English use brick and stone in building their houses, as the Romans had done. The first English houses were rudely and roughly constructed, not because the English could not have had better houses, but because it had not yet occurred to them that they needed better. The roof was covered with a thatch, and since all the rest of the building was made of wood, and since the fire was built right in the center of the room, with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape, burning down was the usual fate of old English houses. This, however, was not such a terrible disaster, since it was comparatively easy to build another house. There was not a great deal of difference between the houses of the rich and the poor, and the house of a king or a prince differed from that of a man in more humble station mainly in being somewhat larger. Luxuries were not to be had among the earliest English, no matter how rich or powerful you were.

The early English did not like to live close together, but instead each family, or a small group of families,

A Saxon House went off by itself to the place it liked best. In building homes for themselves these separate families, or small tribes, arranged everything about a main central building called ''the hall." Li the hall the men feasted and boasted of their deeds of prowess and listened to the songs of their minstrels. Every family or tribe had at its head a leader, or atheling, as he was called, who was the lord of the hall and who was followed wherever he went by his supporters and those who helped in the defense of his home. These followers of the atheling were usually 3^ounger and unmarried warriors, and they were known as the atheling's companions or thanes. Now, when these companions were not off with the atheling fighting, they lived in the hall, sleeping or hunting, or otherwise amusing themselves by day, and feasting and drinking and listening to the songs of the minstrel by night. Fox the serious business of these thanes was fighting, and that was the only work in life which they considered equal to their dignity. It was the duty of the atheling to see to it that they were provided with food and clothing, as well as with sword and shield and coat of linked mail, and all the other necessities of a well-armed soldier. The atheling is thus often called by the poets "the dispenser of treasure," or ''the giver of rings," since in the very earliest times the money of the English was not made into coins, but was twisted into rings or bracelets. The atheling's throne was for the same reason called ''the gift-stool," and there was no worse reputation for an atheling to have than that of being stingy. On the other hand, the atheling's companions had certain standards which they also had to live up to. Above all they must be brave and must follow their atheling wherever he led them. The greatest disgrace that could befall an atheling's companion was to come out of a battle alive in which his leader had been slain. It was the thane's duty to fight beside his atheling as long as his atheling was living, and after that to continue fighting to avenge his atheling's death and to keep him company t6

IN OT.DKST KNGT.AND to the bitter end on the field of battle. Thus it hai> pened that in early English times a fight to the finish meant a fight which could end only with the extermination of one of the two sides. ''Now that my lord has fallen," says one of the heroes in the poem on the Battle of Maldon, ''steadfast warriors at home shall not twit me with words, saying that I turned from the battle ; but the weapon shall take me, the steel with its

Feasting in the Hall point." And thus these warriors fought on, until one after the other fell, and all lay, as the poem says, "thane-like beside their lord."

The hall was the center of the early Englishman's home, and around it were clustered various buildings for the use of the other members of his tribe or family. There was first of all the bower, in which the atheling's wife lived with her attendant women, as the atheling and his companions lived in the hall. Then there were other buildings in which the slaves and servants dwelt, stables for the horses, cattle and swine, storehouses for the grain and other food, and all the many buildings and implements which people need when they have only themselves to depend on for the necessities of life. The whole group of buildings, hall, bower, slave quarters, and all, was then surrounded by a stockade, with an entrance gate, to protect it against sudden attack, and the whole was called "a town." Now the word town meant first of all merely a stockade, and the earliest English towns consisted of nothing more than the group of buildings belonging to an atheling's household. Only gradually and slowly, as a number of people came to live together within the same stockade, did anything like our modern notion of a town or city come into being.

Within the stockade v^'hich surrounded the atheling's buildings, it was an interesting and varied life which the people lived. The chief work of the atheling and his companions, as has been said, was to do the fighting for the family, and when they were not away on some expedition, they spent their time at home enjoying themselves in the hall. But the other people of "the town" had plenty to do to provide themselves and the warriors with food and clothine and other necessary things. They had to care for the cattle and other live stock on the atheling's lands ; they had to till the soil, spin the flax into linen and the wool into cloth, bake the bread and roast the meat, and above all, brew the ale which was needed in such quantities for the nightly feasts that took place in the great hall. Everything had to be done at home, for i8 there were no markets to go to and no stores with obHging keepers eager to exchange their wares for money. In fact, there was very Httle money of any kind in the country, and if you were an atheHng's thane, you fought for your atheHng not mainly for money, but for your place in the hall at the atheling's table; and if you were a poor man or a slave, you toiled for the atheling, again not for payment in

Anglo-Saxon Carriages money, but for bed and board and protection from other athelings, and for the little share of the luxuries of life that might happen to come to such humble people.

Usually an atheling gained his position because he was an exceptionally strong and brave man. It was easy for a good leader to gather a number of companions about him, and then he was ready to go out in search of the place where he wanted to live. If he found somebody else already living there, then it was a question as to which of the two was the stronger.

Having- chosen or seized a place in which to settle, gradually the atheling built up his town and prepared to defend it against all other athelings. It did not take the English long to realize, however, that this way of living, whereby each atheling was completely independent and self-protecting, was not the best way. They soon found out that strength comes from union, and that they needed some rules and laws by which to govern themselves. They accordingly did two things ; they established a parliament, or a legislature, which they called ''the meeting of the wise men," and they elected kings for themselves. Now the kings that were chosen were elected by the free consent of the athelings, and it was usually the most powerful of the athelings who was selected to be king. The king did not have any absolute power, but he could do only what the meeting of the wise men permitted him to do. And if at any time his conduct was not satisfactory to the wise men, they could remove the king from office and elect another atheling in his place. The king was usually a rich man with towns at various places, and he consequently traveled about a good deal, living now at one of his towns and now at another.

In the earliest times the English had a large number of kings. Any group of athelings who wanted to do so could come together and elect a king, the athelings thus becoming the thanes of the king. Then the king and his thanes could go out and fight against other kings; if they were successful, thus extending the bounds of their kingdom, or, if they were defeated, extendino- the bounds of the other kind's kinedoni. In this way gradually the smaller kingdoms were united to the larger and stronger. One of the first strong kingdoms to be formed was the kingdom of Kent, where the English first landed. Another was the kingdom of the \\'est Saxons, south of the river Thames. To the north of the Thames a number of kingdoms were formed, the largest being the kingdom of Northumbria, which was sometimes divided into two kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia. Another kingdom north of the Thames was the kingdom of Mercia, and still another was known as East Anglia. At times the king of one of these kingdoms becoming stronger than the kings of the other countries, the rest pledged a kind of obedience to the strong king. But there w-as continual fighting and rivalry, and now one king and now another got the upper hand. For three centuries after the English first came to England this state of affairs existed, until finally Egbert, the grandfather of King Alfred, who was king of the West Saxons, gained a control over the other kings of England which really amounted to something. Gradually as the other kings died, no one was elected to succeed them, and beginning with King Alfred the English have had not many kings, but one king. Thus in Alfred's time the whole country was united into one, and all people who called themselves English acknowledged the authority of one king. Alfred's laws were also acknowledged by all the English, and so at last these English who had started out practically as lawless pirates, each independent of the other, in the end banded together and worked out a s}stcm of law and government which has remained in force, changing and growing, to the present day.

When the English came to England they brought little with them besides their ships, their swords and their shields. They brought no books and no means of making books. For writing was to them practically an unknown art. They could carve runic letters on tablets of wood, or on stone, or on the blade of a sword, but no one ever thought of sitting down and writing a book with a pen. Instead of written books, however, they had spoken books. The minstrels could tell long stories about the deeds of the older heroes of the race, how Beowailf killed the dragon, and how this hero was slain here and that one there. This was the only kind of history they knew. Men remembered what their fathers had told them, and thus from father to son the lore of the folk was passed on by word of mouth. Not the least important part of this lore was the religion which the English brought with them to England. This was a religion which for generations had been practiced by the Teutons in the forests of Germany. It was a heathen religion, and instead of one God, it worshiped at the altars of many gods. One of the greatest of these gods was named Thor, the god of w^ar. The English gave him a special day, and that is how the fifth day of the week gets its name, Thor's da}^ Another powerful god was named Woden, and he also gives his name to a day of the w^eek, Woden's day becoming Wednesday. The Teutons also worshiped a goddess named Freia, and from her name we get the word Friday. In the same way the name Tuesday comes from the name of a heathen god.

But these are only a few of the many Teutonic gods and goddesses. Ahnost every spring and every grove was supposed to have its own special divinity. The early English were very simple and childlike in their faith ; almost like savages, they believed that spirits dwelt in trees and stones and in all the forms of nature. Priests were chosen to care for the ceremonies of their religion, but these ceremonies were all simple and rude. Among others, there was this great difference between the priests of the heathen religion and the priests of the Christian religion with which the English were soon to become acquainted, that the heathen priests were not learned men themselves, and so could not become teachers and leaders of the people as the Christian priests later became. The temples and altars which the first English consecrated for the uses of their heathen religion were likewise very rude affairs. These places of worship were probably not much more than little wooden huts, very roughly and crudely ornamented. In these temples the shrines or altars were placed, and the whole was surrounded by a kind of fence, forming thus a sacred inclosure. The heathen English had two main purposes in worshiping their gods. The first was the wish to pacify them because the worshipers were afraid of them. They thought of their gods as powerful beings who, when angry, brought about all sorts of loss and misfortune. By all means, therefore, it was advisable to keep on the safe side of the gods. The second purpose which they had in worshiping

J their gods was to get something out of them. Being very powerful, the gods could give very rich gifts, if they felt so inclined. If you wished your fields to raise big crops, you must make an offering to the gods who had charge of fields and crops. When your bees were about to swarm, it was advisable to intercede with the gods of the bees that the swarm mig-ht not

Saxon Horsemen

go too far from home. If some of your cattle had strayed away or had been stolen, the gods were to be called upon to help bring them back again. If you had a sudden pain in the side, you might know that an evil spirit of some kind had lodged itself there. Whatever happened the heathen English were convinced that some god or other had a hand in it, and the main uses of their religion were to ward off the anger of these gods and to secure their good will. Half-civilized as they were at the time of their first coming to England, the English were not altogether without good qualities. They were fond of fighting, and were not much troubled by scruples of conscience when they saw a chance to gain possession of their enemies' property. But they were brave as lions and loyal to each other, and they followed their leaders faithfully and unselfishly. They knew little about books and writing or about the deeper mysteries of life. But the reason for this was that they had had very little opportunity of learning. And when, with the coming of the Roman missionaries to England, they were finally given the chance to learn and to work out better ways of living, the readiness with which they accepted the new teaching proves that their minds were prepared for it. By the end of the second century after they had come to England as a wild and barbarous race, the English had accepted Christianity and had developed a peaceful and settled government of their own. And by the end of the third century they began to send forth from their schools teachers, like Bede and Alcuin, who w^ere not only known in England, but whose fame was equal to that of any of the great men of Europe in that day.

Ill

HOW THE ENGLISH BECAME CHRISTIANS

On a certain day something over a hundred years after the EngHsh had settled in England, and when Rome was again mistress of herself, though now shorn of much of her greatness through the loss of her colonies, a thoughtful but kindly looking man might have been seen wandering through the streets of the Eternal City. He was humbly dressed, like a monk, but wherever he passed he was followed by glances of love and veneration. In his aimless wanderings, he finally came to the market place of the city. The square was filled with buyers and sellers, and where the walks were not crowded with people, they were blocked with great heaps of merchandise from all corners of the earth. But apparently this monk had not come to the market to buy. He amused himself by glancing at the display of wares which the merchants had cunningly set out to catch the eye, but none were cunning enough to tempt him to the desire of possession.

26 IX OLDEST ENGLAND

At length, however, the monk came to something in the market which did arrest his attention. He came to that part of the market where slaves were sold, and there was a dealer with a group of slave boys whom he was offering up for sale. The monk stopped and gazed pityingly at the boys. They were all strong, sturdy lads, with fair complexions, light yellow hair, and the bluest of blue eyes, in every way different from the brown cheeks and brown eyes and black hair that one usually saw in the streets of Rome. The monk looked at the boys kindly for some time, and then he turned to the dealer and asked him what religion these boys followed. When the dealer told him that they were heathen, then the monk sighed and said: ''Alas, that the prince of darkness should have power over such bright faces!" And then he said to the dealer, "What is the name of the race to which they belong?" "They are Angles," the dealer answered. And then the monk, playing on the words, said, "They are well named Angles, for they have Angels' faces. And what is the name of the country from which they come?" The dealer replied, "Their country is called Deira."* Now this word looks as though it was made up of the two Latin words, cicy meaning "from," and ira, meaning "wrath." But of course it is not, and the resemblance is merely accidental. "Good again," replied the monk, who of course spoke in Latin, "their country is called Deira, because they shall be saved from wrath, and be

* This was the name of one of the kingdoms of northern England.

brought into God's mercy. And now tell me, what is their king's name?" "His name is Alle," was the dealer's answer. And at that the monk, still playing on words, cried out, ''Then shall his people learn to sing Alleluia in honor of God their Creator." Having learned all the slave-dealer could tell him about the pretty English boys, the monk passed on his way, but not, as will be seen, to forget what he had just heard and beheld.

Now the name of this monk was Gregory, and he was a well-known person in Rome. Though now he dressed himself in the poorest of garments and ate but the plainest of fare, this had not always been the kind of life he had lived. For he was the son of a rich and noble Roman, and in his youth had taken great pleasure in adorning himself with costly silks and satins and with all manner of precious jewels. But suddenly his eyes were opened to the poverty and sorrow that surrounded him on every side. With Gregory to see w^as to act, and straightway he turned all his riches to the service of the poor and to the building of monasteries where monks might be trained for the service of God and of man. Gregory himself went to live in one of these monasteries, and he was as simple in his life and as earnest in good works as the humblest of them all. Every day he provided a dinner for twelve poor men, himself waiting on the men and caring for their needs ; and a legend tells us that one time Gregory found thirteen at his table, and that day he had an angel as his guest.

As he walked along the streets of the city Gregory could not put the picture of the poor slave boys out of his mind, and for days he thought of them continually. At last he went to the Pope of Rome, whose name was Pelagius, and begged that he might be allowed to go as a missionary to these distant and benighted English. After much persuasion, Pelagius finally gave his consent, and Gregory prepared to set out. Gregory had already started on his w^ay, and w^as outside the city before the Romans heard of his departure. When the news had spread abroad, how^- ever, they were so troubled and grieved that they came in great excitement to the Pope and, declaring that Rome could not spare so wise and helpful a person as Gregory in these times of suffering and danger, they begged that Gregory might be called back to the city. Messengers were quickly sent after Gregory, and, obedient to the commands of the Pope, gave up his mission and returned to Rome. As it happened, not long after this Pelagius died, and then Gregory himself w^as made Pope, being the first Roman Pope of that name.

At the time w^hen Gregory w^as chosen for this high honor, Rome was suffering greatly from sickness and famine, and all of Gregory's attention w-as taken up with the care of his people. As soon, however, as he could free himself somewhat from these burdens, Gregory's thoughts returned to his old plan of establishing a mission among the English. As he w^as now^ Pope, it was of course impossible for him to go in person, and the best he could do therefore was to send somebody in his place. The person he chose to be his missionary to the English was Augustine. A number of other monks were appointed to go with Augustine and to help him in his mission. It was in the early spring of 596 that this little band of teachers and preachers set out from Rome on their long journey. They traveled slowly overland, as was the custom in those days, and it was not until after Easter of the year 597 that they set foot on English soil. They landed on the island of Thanet, the very island where, a century and a half before, Hengest and Horsa had first touched British shores with the first ships bearing Englishmen to England.

Augustine had a very good reason for choosing the island of Thanet as his first landing place in England. For this island belonged to the kingdom of Kent, which at this time was ruled by King Ethelbert, and Augustine hoped that King Ethelbert would lend a willing ear to his message. The reason for his hope was the fact that King Ethelbert, although a heathen, was apparently only a lukewarm heathen, since he had married a Christian wife. Her name was Bertha, and she was the daughter of the King of Paris. When Ethelbert married Bertha he agreed that she should be free to practice her own religion, and he of course claimed the same right for himself. Queen Bertha had made no attempt to persuade the English to give up their heathen gods, but Augustine now counted on her help in getting a favorable hearing from King Ethelbert.

As soon as Augustine had landed on Thanet, he sent a messenger to the mainland, to the town of Canlerbury, which was the capital of the kingdom of Kent, annonncing- to Ethelbert that strangers had come to his land, bearing an important and precious message from Rome. In answer to this the King sent back word that Augustine and his men should remain on the island of Thanet, and that they would be supplied with all they needed. Several days later Ethelbert and his counselors crossed over to Thanet from the mainland to hear the message that had been brought to them. Ethelbert knew that they had come to tell him about a God who was different from the English gods, and fearing they might try to use some magic arts on him, he demanded that the meeting should be held in the open air, where there could be no chance of deception. Augustine readily agreed to this, and when all had been arranged, he began and preached to Ethelbert, explaining to him all the whole story of the creation of the world by God and of its redemption by Christ, and expounding the many other details of the Christian religion as it was then taught by the Church of Rome. When he had finished, Ethelbert answered very discreetly and wisely. "Many fair things you have told us," said he, ''and beautiful are the promises of this religion ; but what you say is all strange and new to us, nor do we yet understand the proofs of its truth. We cannot therefore give up our old religion and our gods, which we have worshiped for so long, without further knowledge. But since you have come all this long way to tell us what you believe to be true, we will not receive you unkindly. You shall have a place to live in and all your wants shall be supplied; and, furthermore, you shall be free to bring over to your religion any one that you can persuade to come by your teaching." Then Augfustine and his followers were taken over to the mainland, and a place was assigned to them in Canterbury where they might live and teach any who wanted to hear them. So simple and so earnest were these missionaries in their teaching and preaching that soon many came to listen to their words, and after a time Ethelbert himself, having consulted with his counselors and having learned more fully what the new religion meant, decided to accept the teaching of Augustine. He was baptized on the first day of June, in the year in which the missionaries came to England, and with him a great number of his people accepted the new faith. Straightway with Ethelbert's help Augustine set to work to organize the church in England, and Augustine himself was made Archbishop of the English. That was the beginning of Christian teaching in England, and from that day to this there has always been an Archbishop of Canterbury at the head of the English Church.