IV. A. D. apply themselves to learning or to quit their offices. CHAP. To facilitate these great purposes, he made a regular foundation of an University, which with great reason is believed to have been at Oxford. 896. Whatever trouble he took to extend the benefits of learning amongst his subjects, he showed the example himself, and applied to the cultivation of his mind with unparalleled diligence and success. He could neither read nor write at twelve years old; but he improved his time in such a manner, that he became one of the most knowing men of his age, in geometry, in philosophy, in architecture, and in musick. He applied himself to the improvement of his native language; he translated several valuable works from Latin; and wrote a vast number of poems in the Saxon tongue with a wonderful facility and happiness. He not only excelled in the theory of the arts and sciences, but possessed a great mechanical genius for the executive part; he improved the manner of ship-building; introduced a more beautiful and commodious architecture, and even taught his countrymen the art of making bricks, most of the buildings having been of wood before his time; in a word, he comprehended in the greatness of his mind the whole of government and all its parts at once; and what is most difficult to human frailty, was the same time sublime and minute. Religion, which in Alfred's father was so preju A. D. BOOK dicial to affairs, without being in him at all inferiII. our in its zeal and fervour, was of a more enlarged and noble kind; far from being a prejudice to his 896. government, it seems to have been the principle, that supported him in so many fatigues, and fed like an abundant source his civil and military virtues. To his religious exercises and studies he devoted a full third part of his time. It is pleasant to trace a genius even in its smallest exertions; in measuring and allotting his time for the variety of business he was engaged in. According to his severe and methodical custom, he had a sort of wax candles, made of different colours, in different proportions, according to the time he allotted to each particular affair; as he carried these about with him wherever he went, to make them burn evenly, he invented horn lanthorns. One cannot help being amazed, that a prince, who lived in such turbulent times, who commanded personally in fifty-four pitched battles, who had so disordered a province to regulate, who was not only a legislator but a judge, and who was continually superintending his armies, his navies, the traffick of his kingdom, his revenues, and the conduct of all his officers, could have bestowed so much of his time on religious exercises and speculative knowledge ; but the exertion of all his faculties and virtues seemed to have given a mutual strength to all of them. Thus all historians speak of this prince, whose IV. whose whole history was one panegyrick; and CHAP. whatever dark spots of human frailty may have adhered to such a character, they are entirely hid A. D. in the splendour of his many shining qualities and 896. grand virtues, that throw a glory over the obscure period, in which he lived, and which is for no other reason worthy of our knowledge. The latter part of his reign was molested with new and formidable attempts from the Danes; but they no longer found the country in its former condition; their fleets were attacked; and those, that landed, found a strong and regular opposition. There were now fortresses, which restrained their ravages, and armies well appointed to oppose them in the field; they were defeated in a pitched battle; and after several desperate marches from one part of the country to the other, every where harassed and hunted, they were glad to return with half their number, and to leave Alfred in quiet to accomplish the great things he had projected. This prince reigned twenty-seven years, and died at last of a disorder in his bowels, which had afflicted him, without interrupting his designs, or souring his temper, during the greatest part of his life. A. D. 897. BOOK Edward. 900 HIS CHA P. V. Succession of Kings from Alfred to Harold. IS son Edward succeeded; though of less learning than his father, he equalled him in his political virtues; he made war with success on the Welsh, the Scots, and the Danes, and left his kingdom strongly fortified, and exercised, not weakened, with the enterprises of a vigorous reign. Because his son Edmund was under age, the crown was set on the head of his illegitimate offspring, Athelstan. Athelstan. His, like the reigns of all the princes 925. of this time, was molested by the continual incursions of the Danes; and nothing but the succession of men of spirit, capacity and love of their country, which providentially happened at this time, could ward off the ruin of the kingdom. Such Athelstan was; and such was his brother Edmund, who reigned five years with great reputation, but was at length, by an obscure ruffian, assassinated in his own palace. Edred, his bro947. ther, succeeded to the late monarchy; though he had left two sons, Edwin and Edgar, both were passed by on account of their minority. But on this prince's death, which happened after a troublesome Edmund. 942. Edred. Edwin. 957. V. A. D. 957. troublesome reign of ten years, valiantly supported CHAP. against continual inroads of the Danes, the crown devolved on Edwin of whom little can be said, because his reign was short, and he was so embroiled with his clergy, that we can take his character only from the monks, who in such a case are suspicious authority. Edgar, the second son Edgar. of king Edmund, came young to the throne; but 959. he had the happiness to have his youth formed, and his kingdom ruled, by men of experience, virtue, and authority. The celebrated Dunstan was his first minister, and had a mighty influence over all his actions. This prelate had been educated abroad, and had seen the world to advantage. As he had great power at Court by the superiour wisdom of his counsels, so by the sanctity of his life he had great credit with the people, which gave a firmness to the government of his master, whose private character was in many respects extremely exceptionable. It was in his reign, and chiefly by the means of his minister Dunstan, that the monks, who had long prevailed in the opinion of the ge nerality of the people, gave a total overthrow to their rivals, the secular clergy. The secular clergy were at this time for the most part married, and were therefore too near the common modes of mankind to draw a great deal of their respect; their character was supported by a very small portion of learning, and their lives were not such as people |