signature appears is perhaps in 988 (K. C. D. 666) and with the title oi primus, his
brothers not being mentioned ; but if so, Ethelred must have married very young.
On his not succeeding to the throne instead of his brother Eadmund see Freeman's
Norman Conquest, vol. i. 3rd edition, 1877, Appendix SS. p. 685. Elfric, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury 990-1005. Wulstan, Archbishop of York 1003-1023.
Ethelric, Bishop of Sherborne 1002-1009. Elfwold, Bishop of Crediton 988-1008.
Elphege (more correctly perhaps spelt ^Ifeah), Bishop of Winchester 984-1005.
Elfstan, Bishop of Wells 990-1012. Alfun or Elfwin, Bishop of London 1004-
1012. Godwin, Bishop of Lichfield 1004-1008. Ordbryht, Bishop of Sussex
(i.e. Selsey) 989-1009. The above dates are taken from the valuable Registrutn
Sacrum Anglicanum. As to the ealdormen and earls the material for identification
is very slight, as there are often more than one bearing the same name. Probably
Alfric was the ealdorman slain at the battle of Assandun in 1016, while Leofwyne
was probably ealdorman of the Huiccas, who seems to have succeeded to Mercia
in 1017, &c. &c. There are few if any names in the list which are not also found
elsewhere about this date. Finally the second Indiction agrees with the date of 1004.
L



146 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

to a charter, when the copyists have combined signatures to the con-
firmation charter and those of the original into one series.

In giving William of Malmesbury's account of the foundation of
S. Frideswide's \ in the Gesia Po7itificum, the continuation of the
passage was omitted. It is continued as follows : —

' In the time of King Ethelred, however, when the Danes, being con-
demned to death, had taken refuge in the monastery, they as well as
the buildings, were through the insatiable rage of the English destroyed
by fire. But soon the repentance of the king caused to be built for
them a purified shrine and a restored m.onastery; their lands were
given back, and fresh possessions added ^.'
When William of Malmesbury treats the subject in his history of
the kings, he makes a singular error. He has transferred the burning
of the church with the Danes in it to some nine years after the date of
the charter (which it will be remembered recites the event as having
already taken place), and further connects the burning of S. Frideswide
with an event which took place in Oxford of another kind, which will
have to be discussed later on. The passage runs : —

'The year following [i.e. 1015] a great council of Danes and of
English assembled at Oxford, and there the king [Ethelred] com-
manded Sigeferd and Morcard, the chief nobles amongst the Danes,
to be killed, under a pretence of treason which had been charged
against them by the treachery of Edric. Deceiving them by his
friendly advances, he had enticed them into his private chamber (tri-
clinium), and when they had been made to drink deeply by his
servants, who were expressly charged to this eff'ect, he put an end to
their lives. The reason of this murder was said to be that he desired
their property. Their servants were determined to revenge the death
of their lords, but were repulsed by force, and driven into the tower
of the church of S. Frideswide. And as they could not turn them out,
they were burnt by fire. But soon, by the King's penitence, the stain
was blotted out ; the holy place was repaired. I have read this in
writing, which is preserved in the Archives of that Church as a proof
of the fact ^.'
It must first be claimed that there are not likely to have been two
burnings of the same church from Danes taking refuge there, within so
short a period, and both recorded in the archives. We have moreover
a copy of the very charter to which William of Malmesbury refers, and
which he duly quotes in his Gesta Pontificum, and that clearly ascribes
the burning to the massacre on S. Brice's day. It is therefore obviously
' See ante, p. 94. The few words connecting the two passages are repeated.

* W. Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificutti Angl. lib. iv. § 78. Rolls Series, 1870,
p. 316. See Appendix A, § 30.

* W. Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Angl. lib. ii. § 179, Eng. Hist. Society's ed.
London, 1840, vol. i. p. 297. Appendix A, § 44.



OXFORD DURING THE DANISH INVASION. 147

a blunder on his part in taking or reading the notes which he made
for his history. But though it is a blunder, the passage ought not to
be at once dismissed. It shows so admirably how a chronicler com-
piles his Chronicle. He has (as will be shown afterwards) an account
of two thanes being enticed by Eadric into a chamber and slain.
How was this to be connected with the burning of a number of Danes
in the tower of the church ? His ingenuity is admirable : he invents
the fact of the servants of the thanes desiring to avenge the deaths of
their two lords, and that it was these who took refuge in the tower
and so were burnt. It shows how cautious one ought to be in ac-
cepting the additions to the original chronicles made by successive
chroniclers.

Henry of Huntingdon does not mention Oxford in recounting the
circumstance of the massacre of the Danes, probably not having seen
the S. Frideswide charter; but he writes as follows : —

' The king being elated with pride, secretly ordered all the Danes
to be treacherously murdered on one and the same day, that is to say
on the festival of S. Britius. And of this piece of wickedness, 7 in my
youth heard some 'very old people speak, how the King sent secret letters
to each city, in accordance with which, on the same day and at the
same hour, the English either killed all the Danes who were unpre-
pared, with swords, or having suddenly seized them burned them
with tire ^.'
It is not improbable that the story he had heard of the massacre
was the Oxford story, as it will be shown further on that he had a
friend in Oxford who might have told him of the tradition of the place.
The burning by fire was at least a very rare form of capital punish-
ment at this time, even if any example could be found; but the Danes
being burned in the tower of S. Frideswide would be just the kind of
story which would be handed down with horror, and which would
become transformed into the shape in which Henry narrates it.

It is very singular that, so far as has been observed, no other
example of a single massacre on S. Brice's Day has been recorded
than this one at Oxford, and it will be seen that we only obtain that
through the chance circumstance of the charter of King Ethelred
having been preserved. It is perhaps too much to hope that Oxford
was the only place w'here the edict was put into force.

Having seen the manner in which William of Malmesbury compiles
his Chronicle, there is no reliance to be placed upon the detail which
he gives of the Danes having taken refuge in a tower, which differs

^ Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, Rolls Series, 1879, p. 174.
Appendix A, § 45.



148 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

from that given in the charter. It is quite possible that S. Frideswide
had a tower, and it is just possible it may have been of wood, and so
easily burnt ; but it is more likely that the Danes had taken refuge in the
church itself, as a place of sanctuary : if this were so, the fury of the
mob would pay no attention to it ; they would throw torches on the
boarded roof, covered perhaps with wooden shingles, which would soon
catch alight, and falling down within the walls of the church, would
either suffocate the fugitives, or compel them to rush out and meet
their fate.

At any rate it was a horrible as well as discreditable business, and
it is a great misfortune that Oxford was the scene of such an event,
and the more so as it is the only place we find connected with the
edict ; it is, too, only the second event which has brought Oxford
prominently forward in history.

How far the events of the next few years may have been the results of

the revenge to which the Danes would be naturally aroused, cannot be

determined; nor is it known whether Exeter had been the scene of

crime like Oxford or not. Certain however it is, that early the next year

Exeter was entered by the Danes, and, as would appear, through the

treachery of the reeve appointed by the Norman Lady Emma, Ethelred's

second wife. The ealdorman iElfric, pretending illness at a critical

moment, also treacherously allowed the Danes, under the command of

Sweyn, to sack Wiltun and Salisbury and to return safely to their ships.

In East Anglia, however, matters went differently, when the following

year Sweyn landed on the coast ; but Ulfkytel seems not to have

been able to assemble the whole country, and so they got away

again, though with no plunder, as it would appear, but with great loss

of men. In the year 1005 all we find recorded is that a great famine

spread over the land; but in 1006 the Danes came again from the 1

Isle of Wight, straight up Hampshire, and so to their old quarters at

Reading. The few words of the Chronicle are as eloquent as brief: —

' 1006. And then at the midwinter they went to their ready farm :

out through Hampshire into Berkshire to Reading, and there they did

their old wont; they lighted their war beacons wherever they went.

Then went they to Wallingford, and that all burned ; and were then

one day in Cholsey ; and they went then along jEscesdun to Cwichelms-

hloewe, and there abode as a daring boast ; for it had been often said

that if ever they should reach Cwichelmshloewe they would never

again get to the sea. Then they went homewards another way\'

One hundred and thirty-five years had elapsed since the Danes

came to Reading on the occasion already recorded. History so far

' Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, C, D, E, sub anno. Appendix A, § 46.



OXFORD DURING THE DANISH INVASION. 149

repeated itself that, then and now, they aimed at making themselves
masters of that long range of Berkshire hills known as J^^scesdun, to
which reference has already frequently been made, and reaching
Cwichelmshloewe, the central spot marked by the clump of trees,
which is so prominent an object on the horizon, as seen by any one
mounting to the top of Cumnor hill \

In 871 they failed to reach the coveted spot. In 1006, as far as
we can judge, they marched thither without hindrance. Now there
was no ealdorman ^thelwulf to bar the road at Englefield — no army
surrounding their fortress at Reading, through which they had to
cut their way — no Alfred and -^thelred to meet them in the early
dawn, when they had gained the top of the hill, and then to disperse
Ihem in all directions ^ There was still an ^thelred ruling, but how
diflferent a king! If on that morning in 871 the Danes had gained
a start along the Icknield Way, they would have reached Cwichelms-
hloewe before the English caught them up, and the results might
have been very different. In 1006 all we hear of ^Ethelred the Second
is, that he was away in Shrewsbury, probably little recking of the ruin
which his long-continued policy of procrastination, compromise, and
finally retreat, was bringing upon the country.

On this occasion the Danes did not cross the Thames. They had
probably no means with them ; and further, having found their ' ready
farm ' at Wallingford and Cholsey, had as much as they could carry
away with them over the hills ' another way ' — that is, they avoided
Reading ; but in their journey southward they still had to fight a
small army on crossing the river Kennet before they reached the sea.

After this the same policy is again followed. To quote the words
of the chronicler, ' then was there so great awe of the Danish army
that no man could think or devise how they should be driven out
from the land, or this country held against them ; for they had cruelly
marked every shire in Wessex with burning and with harrying.'
Then we read that the king sent to the army and ' directed it to be
made known to them that he would there should be peace between
them, and that tribute should be paid and food given them.' At one
moment fighting recklessly, at the next offering terms — no wonder
that the successive years saw increasing numbers coming to this

^ It is necessary to walk a short distance along the road past the brick-kilns,
to where it bifurcates, one branch leading into Cumnor village ; the whole range of
yEscesdun, stretching as far as the White-horse Hill, here bursts into view bounding
the southern horizon. The clump of trees marking Cwichelmshloewe is seen on the
left; that seen in the distance on the far right, and due west, is the clump on the
top of the old 'burh ' at Faringdon. * See mite, p. 114.



150 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

country. England, having lost its prestige, every northern nation
found men who thought it worth their while to come over ; for pro-
bably the term ' Denisc ' and ' heathen army ' included more than the
inhabitants of the little island of Denmark. In 1007, thirty-six thou-
sand pounds was paid to the army, and Eadric, who had been one of
the worst of the counsellors, by whom the ' unready ' king was ' coun-
selled,' was promoted to high office in the kingdom, and made ealdor-
man of Mercia. This was another step in the wretched policy of the
king ; and in its results, as will be seen, it concerns Oxford.

In 1009 an attempt seems to have been made to meet the Danes
on their landing and a really vigorous policy to be initiated. But
again Eadric counselled the king, and his brother Brihtric accused
Wulfnoth the South Saxon of treason ; under pretence of seizing him,
he kept the ships away that should be doing service to the country.
The Danes came, some landing on the eastern coast, some on the
southern. Those who came to the latter ravaged Hampshire and
Berkshire — 'as their wont is,' writes the contemporary chronicler.
Thurkill's army, which had found comfortable winter quarters in Kent,
after S. Martin's Mass day ' fought against London, but praise be to
God that it yet stands sound.'

The Chronicle continues : —

1009. ' And then, after Midwinter, they took an upward course, out
through Chiltem, and so to Oxford, and burned that town, and then
took their way, on both sides of the Thames, towards their ships ^'

The several chroniclers who follow the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle do not
vary the story materially.

Florence of Worcester, making the date loio, writes: —

* In the month of January the army of the Danes, leaving their
ships, go to Oxford through the woods of Chihern, and sack the town,
and set it on fire, and so in going back they carry on their ravages on
both sides of the Thames ^.'

Henry of Huntingdon merely says, 'After Christmas the Danes
went by Chiltern to Oxford, returning to their ships after they had
burned it'; and Simeon of Durham and Roger of Hoveden follow
Florence of Worcester verbatim.

The army of the Danes had, after their attack upon London, which

' The extract is from Chron. C. Chron. A, now written by later hands, has
become very meagre, and Chron. B ceases entirely with the year 977. Chrons.
D and E follow the above with little variation. Appendix A, § 47.

^ Florence of Worcester, Chronicon, printed in Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 586.
Appendix A, § 48.



OXFORD DURING THE DANISH INVASION. 151

had proved a failure, marched up the Thames. The usual route was
on the southern side, but they marched along an unusual route, thus
avoiding Reading, and over the Chiltern hills. In all probability the
rush upon Oxford was sudden ; and it will be observed that Florence
of Worcester paraphrases the words ' out through Chiltern ' by per
saltum qui dicitur Chiltern. Instead of the few scattered woods which
we now see on the sides of the Chiltern Hills, there was probably
a kind of belt of continuous woodland, making a vast forest, which
would have concealed their movements ^. Whether from having seen
the spot, or from the description of those who had, the paraphrase of
Florence brings before us the secrecy and suddenness of the raid.
The Mercian ealdorman, as might have been expected, remained
inactive. No resistance seems to have been offered at Dorchester, or
anywhere along the route, and therefore they made straight for Oxford.
The danger of such incursions had been foreseen by Edward the Elder
a century previously, but it is probable that Ethelred's ' unready ' rule
had allowed the fortifications to be neglected, and the chief defences,
which were perhaps of wood, to become decayed. The Danish
march, as said, was probably so rapid that no time was left for fresh
preparations, and thus Oxford easily fell a prey to the invader. The
burning of the town was no doubt part of a consistent policy of the
Danes. They had treated Wallingford so, as has been seen, a few
years previously, and the action is described as ' is their wont.' And the
reason was this : — the principle of buying them oflf once established,
they raised their terms of course as high as they could, and it materially
helped the assessment of the terms to show, now and then, what
extensive damage they could inflict when not paid to keep away.

The following year the same work went on ; but in East Anglia
Ulfkytel was still ealdorman. The Danes evidently met with a firm and
well- sustained resistance there, instead of unprepared and hasty
sorties, or abject submission, or disgraceful bribes to go away. But
again Ulfkytel, as in 1004, was overpowered by numbers : had there
been but a few more such vigorous and determined men, England
would have been easily saved. The army again visited Oxfordshire ;
but as Oxford^ had been burnt and plundered the year previously, they
probably left it alone now, and passing out into Buckingham they
marched over fresh ground, 'down the Ouse to Bedford, and so

^ Amongst the good deeds of Leofstan, Abbot of St. Albans in Edward the Con-
fessor's time, was the making of a road through Chiltern, which, on account of so
much woodland, was infested by gangs of robbers who were a terror to the neigh-
bourhood, and rendered travelling, except in large armed companies, impossible.
{Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, Rolls Series, 1867, p. 59.)



152 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

onwards to Tempsford, ever burning as they went. Then went they
again to their ships with their booty.' The Chronicle proceeds
with a few words which bring vividly before us the indecision and
incompetency of Ethelred to rule a kingdom : —

' And when they had gone to their ships, then should the force have
again gone out to oppose them if they would land : then the force
went home ; and when they were east, then was the force held west ;
and when they were south, then was our force north. Then were
all the witan summoned to the king, and they should then advise how
this country could be defended. But though something was then
resolved, it stood not even for a month ; at last there was not a chief
man who would gather a force, but each fled as he best might ; nor
even at last would any shire assist another ^'
The heart-rending scenes which followed when tribute was not
paid, are here and there briefly described by the Chronicle. The
Archbishop of Canterbury, Elphege, whom we commemorate in our
Prayer Book calendar, was one who made a stand, and was given over
to the vengeance of the mob. We read the same year of the traitor
Eadric presiding over the chief Witan in London, while the Arch-
bishop was carried off ' and smitten with bones and horns of oxen till
one of them struck him with an iron axe on the head, so that with the
blow he was struck down.' Eadnoth, our Bishop of Dorchester, and
^Ifhun, Bishop of London, are recorded to have secured the body
and buried it in S. Paul's Minster. For each step backwards on the
part of the rulers of the kingdom, counselled by Eadric, the enemy
made a step forward, and in 1013 the climax came. Sweyn arrived,
and all the country seems to have submitted to him, one county after
the other. First all the towns in the old Danelaw on the east and
north of Wsetling Street, and then the Northumbrians, then the people
of the five boroughs. The Chronicle continues : —

* Id 3. And after he came over Waetling Street, they wrought the

most evil that any army could do. He then went to Oxford, and the

townsmen immediately submitted and gave hostages ; and thence to

Winchester, and they did the same ^.'

Florence of Worcester, followed almost verbatim by Roger of

Hoveden, substitutes the following : —

' While his men were acting thus and raving Hke wild beasts, he
(Suanus) came to Oxford, and obtained that city sooner than he
thought, and having taken hostages, hastened to Winchester ^'

' From Chronicles C, D, E. Appendix A, § 49.
^ From Chronicles C, D, E, and F. Appendix A, § 50.

^ Florence of Worcester, Chronicon, printed in Moii. Hist. Brit. p. 588. Ap-
pendix A, § 51.



OXFORD DURING THE DANISH INVASION. 153

Henry of Huntingdon slightly varies the original also, but the sub-
stance is the same, and William of Malmesbury copies the event in this
abridged form : —

* Soon coming to the southern districts, Sweyn obliged the men of
Oxford and Winchester to obey his laws \'
This shows, perhaps, to what an abject state the kingdom had been
brought. Before the victorious march of Sweyn the people seem to
have been cowed, and to submit rather than fight. Oxford could
hardly have been yet built up again ; for though erections of wood, or
of lath and plaster, which no doubt were the materials of most of the
buildings, did not take so long as stone, the people were probably poor,
and it would have taken them some three or four years to restore the
whole of the town. However this may be, it appears they did not wish
to risk any second burning of the town. They had suffered much from
Thurkill's army, and they did not see any better chance of being able
to resist Sweyn's ; besides, they had probably no men, or no defences
which could resist the incursions, and so they yielded ' sooner than
Sweyn expected.'

On Sweyn's death, in 10 14, there seemed to be some chance for
retrieving England's disaster. The Witan sent after King Ethelred
saying, ' No lord was dearer to them than their natural lord, if he
would rule them better than he had before done.' In his reply he
promised to amend all those things which they all abhorred ; still he
seems in the last two years of his life to have shown no amendment
at all. The same year as his promise, Cnut is allowed to deceive the
people of Lincolnshire, and later on the army which lay at Greenwich —
the scene of Elphege's murder — was paid twenty-five thousand pounds.
The year following we read that the great council of the nation is
held at Oxford, possibly because London was not safe ; and an event
occurred there which is thus narrated.

*A. D. 1015. In this year was the great meeting at Oxford; and
there the ealdorman Eadric insnared Sigeferth and Morkere, the chief
thanes in the Seven Burghs. He enticed them into his chamber, and
therein they were foully slain. And the king then took all their pos-
sessions, and ordered Sigeferth's relict to be taken and brought to
Malmesbury. Then after a little space Eadmund, ^theling, went
thither and took the woman against the King's will and had her for
his wife.

' Then before the nativity of S. Mary (Sept. 8) the ^theling went
thence from the west, north to the Five Burghs, and immediately took

* William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Angl., lib. ii. § 177. Eng. Hist. Society's
ed. vol. i. p. 178. Appendix A, § 52.



154 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

possession of all Sigeferth's and Morkere's property, and all the folk
submitted to him^,'
Again Florence of Worcester follows closely in the wake of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and this in turn is copied almost verbatim by
Simeon of Durham and Roger of Hoveden : —

' This year, when there was a great council (placitum) held at
Oxford, the perfidious ealdorman " Edric Streon " treacherously re-
ceived into his chamber the most powerful and honourable thanes
amongst the Seven-borough men, namely Sigeferth and Morcar, sons
of Earngrim, and ordered them to be secretly killed: and King
Ethelred took their possessions and ordered Aldgitha the widow of
Sigeferth to be taken to Malmesbury : and while she was kept there,
there came thither Eadmund ^Etheling, and against the will of his father
he took her in marriage; and between the feast of the Assumption
(Aug, 15) and the Nativity of S. Mary (Sept. 8) he went to the Five-
boroughs and invaded the land of Sigeferth and Morcar, and made
their people his subjects'-.'
Henry of Huntingdon narrates the circumstance, but does not say