is generally dethroned by usurpation, till it ceases to be Athelstan. enviable. Pasquitan, count of Vannes, and also Gurvaint, the count of Rennes, who has obtained by his bravery a ray of fame, because all was gloom around him, caballed against Salomon, and destroyed him.72 The revolters then fought for the undivided sovereignty, and both perished in 877.73

ALAIN, brother of Pasquitan, succeeded at Vannes; and Judichail, son of Erispoe's daughter, at Rennes. Their civil discord was overawed by a Northman invasion. They united for the time; but in 878, Judichail, too eager for glory, fought alone with the enemy and perished. Alain, with better collected strength, conquered them, with decisive slaughter, and was acknowleged the sovereign of all Bretagne.74 He reigned till 907 with splendour and tranquillity. He attained the surname of the Great; but not great from overpowering intellect, or mighty achievements; not great because he was a giant, but because his countrymen were dwarfs.

We now approach the incident which has connected the history of Bretagne with the reign of Athelstan. After Alain's death, one passing cloud has shaded the affinity of his successor; but we find Gurmhailon, called the monarch of Bretagne, living in amity with Rivalt the count of Vannes, and Mathuedoi, the count of Poher.76

72 Lob. 66. Gurvaint, called by Regino, Vurfandus, challenged Hastings. See Regino's detailed account in 874, p. 43.

79 Lob. 67, 68.

74 Annales Metenses Bouquet, viii. p. 71.: they state, that out of 15,000 Northmen, with whom Alain fought, 400 only escaped. Le sejour ordinaire d'Alain le grand estoit au Chateau de Rieux pres de Redon. 1 Lob. 70.

75 Some make him son of Alain; some of Pasquitanus. He was evidently the superior prince, because Mathuedoi mesme a recours a lui pour faire confirmer les donations qu'il fait aux Eglises, Lob. p. 70. The Chronicle of Nantz states, that the sons of Alain the Great minime patris, vestigia sequentes omnino defecti fuerunt. 8 Bouquet, 276.

76 There may be some foundation for the remark of Daniel: -" Il semble mesme que depuis la mort du duc Alain prince valliant il y avoit une espece d'Anarchie, et que les contes du Pais s'etoient rendus maistres chacun dans leur canton," p. 221.; but there is not foundation for his pertinacity in maintaining the courtly proposition: "Que ce duché etoit toujours tributaire de la France, et sujet a l'hommage." Ib.

222

Athelstan.

The Bretons fly to Athelstan.

APPENDIX TO BOOK VI. CHAP. II.

MATHUEDOI had married the daughter of Alain the Great; but the throne of Alain was suddenly swept away by the furious torrent of the Northmen, now becoming Normans under Rollo, who in the beginning of the tenth century burst upon Bretagne with desolation and ruin. No exertion could check its approaches: it overwhelmed the sovereignty and the people with destruction, and Mathuedoi escaped to England with his family, and was received by Athelstan as already mentioned.

CHAP. III.

EDMUND the Elder.

ATHELSTAN having left no children, his brother CHAP. Edmund succeeded at the age of eighteen.'

III. Edmund

941.

ANLAF, the Northumbrian prince, who had the Elder. fought the battle of Brunanburh against Athelstan, renewed his competition with Edmund. The Anglo-Danes of Northumbria encouraged his hopes; they invited him from Ireland, and appointed him their king."

COLLECTING a great armament, he sailed to York, and thence marched towards Mercia, to wrest the crown of England from the head of Edmund. 3 He assaulted Tamworth. Edmund, whom the Saxon song styles "the lord of the English—the protector of his relations-the author of mighty deeds," armed on the hostility, and marched against Anlaf to the "way of the White Wells, and where the broad stream of the Humber flowed."4

So

1 Flor. Wig. 350.; Sax. Chron. 114.; Al. Bev. 110.; Ing. 29. The Sax. Chron. Tib. B. 4. dates Athelstan's death in 940. Tib. B. 1.

2 Malmsb. 53. Flor. Wig. 350. The MS. Saxon Chronicle, Tib. B. 4. has this passage, which is not in the printed one: "941, hep Nopchýmbna aluzon hipa zetɲeopatha Anlar of Yplande him to cinze zecupon."

3 Matt. West. 365.

4 The first paragraph of the reign of Edmund, in the Saxon Chronicle, is obviously an extract from a poem:

P. 114.

BOOK VI. Edmund

941.

EDMUND had less abilities or less fortune than Athelstan; or the power of the Anglo-Danes had the Elder. increased, for Anlaf was victorious at Tamworth." But the Anglo-Saxon government had been so fortified by the wise administration of three able sovereigns, that the first successes of Anlaf could not overwhelm it. At Leicester, the king surrounded the invader and his friend Wulfstan, the ambitious and turbulent archbishop of York; but they burst at night out of the city. A battle ensued, in which the skill and activity of an earl, whose daughter he had married, gave to Anlaf the palm of victory, after a day of conflict. 7

6

THESE defeats inclined Edmund to listen to the negotiation of the archbishops of Canterbury and York. A peace was concluded between the princely rivals, on terms highly honourable to Anlaf, but less creditable to Edmund. To Anlaf was surrendered all that part of England which extended north of Watling-street. Edmund contented himself with the southern regions. But a condition, still more humiliating to the Anglo-Saxons, was added: -whoever survived the other was to be the

J

5 I have seen this fact no where mentioned but in the MS. Saxon Chronicle, Tiberius, B. 4. " 943, Dep Anlar abpæc Tamepupthe micel pæl gefeol on ægchra hand tha denan size ahton J micele hepe huthe mid him apez læddon. Thæp par Wulfnun genumen on thæpe hepzunze. Hoveden hints, that he advanced to Tamwrde, and plundered, p. 423.; but neither mentions the Danish victory, nor the capture of Wulfrun.

6 This incident appears only in the MS. Saxon Chronicle, Tib. B. 4. It is not in the printed one, nor in Matthew, nor Florence, nor Hoveden, nor Huntingdon, nor Malmsbury, nor Ethelwerd, nor Ingulf. The passage in the MS. Chronicle is thus: "Der Eadmund cyning ýmbræt Anlar cýning J Wulfrtan apcebircop on Leznacearupe J he hy zepylbon meahte næpe tha hi on niht ut ne ætburston of thæpe byniz."

7 Matt. West. 365.

8

III.

monarch of the whole. It happened that Anlaf CHAP. died in the following year; but he must have had Edmund great power, or great talents capable of creating power, to have established for himself so near a chance of the crown of England.

THE death of Anlaf removed a perilous competitor, and Edmund availed himself of the casualty to recover the possession of Northumbria." He also terminated the dangerous independence of the five cities which the Danes had long occupied on the northern frontiers of Mercia and East Anglia. These were Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Stamford, and Lincoln. The preceding kings seem to have suffered the Danes to retain them; but "the heir of the warriors of Edward 10" adopted a new policy. He expelled the Northmen, and peopled them with Saxons." Two fleeting kings attempted, but in vain, to be permanent in Northumbria.

EDMUND extended his conquests to Cumbria, in 946: with the help of the king of South Wales, he ravaged the little kingdom; he cruelly blinded the two sons of Dunmail, who reigned there, and gave it to Malcolm of Scotland, on condition of defending the north of the island against invaders. "

12

8 Matt. West. 365. Hoveden, 423., admits the peace, but omits the last condition. So Mailros, 148., and Sim. Dun. 134.

9 Matt. West. 365.; the Saxon Chron.; Mailros, and others, place Anlaf's death at this time.

10 So the Saxon Chronicle styles him in a passage, which seems to be a part of an Anglo-Saxon song.

Wizzendpa hleoapena Espander.

11 Huntingdon, p. 355.

Sax. Chron. 114.

12 Matt. West. 366. The condition in the Saxon Chronicle, which dates the event in 945, is, that Malcolm should be his mid pyphta both on sea and land, p. 115. The Welsh Chronicle places it in 944: "Ac y diffeithwyt Strat-clut y gan y saesson." "Strat-clut was ravaged by the Saxons." MS. Cleop. b. v. The MS. Cleop. states the death of Edwal and Elissed against the Saxons.

941.

946.