ALFRED'S - Final Victory -

The Old English Chronicle , commonly referred to as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was started by King Alfred and covers a period until the death of Stephen . The Danish invaders began to fling themselves on the English shore after fourteen years of peace .This time the final victory was with Alfred, whose son and grandsons completely established the supremacy of the House of Wessex over England.

An. DCCC.XCII. (DCCC.XCIII.) In this year the great army, of which we long before spoke, came again from the east kingdom westward to Boulogne, and was there shipped, so that they in one voyage made the transit, with horses and all ; and they came up to the mouth of the Limen with two hundred and fifty ship. The mouth is in the east of Kent, at the east end of the great wood which we call Andred. The wood is, from east to west, one hundred and twenty miles long or longer, and thirty miles broad. The river, of which we before spoke, flows out front the world. On the river they towed up their ships as far as the weald. four miles from the outward mouth, and there stormed a work; within the fastness a few countrymen were stationed, and it was only half constructed. Then, soon after that, came Haesten with eighty ships into the Thames' mouth, and wrought him a work at Middleton (Milton), and the other army one at Appledore.

An. DCCC.XCIV. In this year, that was a twelve-month after they had wrought a work in the east kingdom, Northumbria and East Anglia had given oaths to king Aelfred, and East Anglia six hostages; and yet, against the compact, as often as the other armies with all their force went out, then they went out, either with them or on their side. And then king Aelfred gathered his force and went until he encamped between the two armies the nearest where he had room, for wood-fastness and water-fastness, so that he might reach either, if they would seek any field. Then after that, they went through the weald in bands and troops, on whichever side was then without a force. And they also were sought by other bands, almost every day, or by night, both from the (king's) force and also from the burghs. The king had divided his force into two, so that they were constantly half at home, half abroad, besides those men who held the burghs. The whole army did not come out of their quarters oftener than twice; one time, when they first came to land, before the (king's) force was assembled the other timer when they would go from their own quarters.

They had then taken a great booty, and would convey it northwards over the Thames into Essex towards the ships. The (king's) force then rode before them, and fought against them at Farnham, and put the army to flight, and rescued the booty and they fled over the Thames without any ford and then up by the Colne to an island. The (royal) army then beset them there from without, for the longest time that they had provisions but they had their stayed their appointed time and consumed their provisions and the king was their on his march thitherwards with the division which was advancing with himself. Then he was thitherwards and the other force was homeward, and the Danish remained there behind, because their king had been wounded in the fight, so that he could not be conveyed. Then those who dwelt with the Northumbrians and with the East Angles gathered some hundred ships, and went south about, and besieged a work in Devonshire by the north sea and those who went south about besieged Exeter. When the king heard that, he turned west towards Exeter with all the force, save a very powerful body of the people eastwards. These went on until they came to London, and then, with the townsmen and with the aid which came to them from the west, marched east to Benfleet. Haesten was then come there with his army, which had previously sat at Middleton (Milton) and the great army also was come thereto, which had before sat at the mouth of the Limen, at Appledore. Haesten had before wrought the work at Benfleet, and was then gone out harrying, and the great army was at home. They then marched up and put the army to flight, and stormed the work, and took all that there was within, as well money as women and children, and brought all to London; and all the ships they either broke in pieces, or burned, or brought to London, or to Rochester, and Haesten's wife and his two sons were brought to the king, and he restored them to him, because one of them was his godson, the other the ealdorman Aethered's. They had been their sponsors before Haesten came to Benfleet, and he had given them oaths and hostages; and the king had also given much money, and so likewise, when he gave up the boys and woman. But as soon as they came to Benfleet, and had wrought the work, he harried on that end of his realm which Aethered his gossip had to defend; and again, a second time, he had arrived on a plundering expedition on that same kingdom, when his work was taken by storm.

When the king turned west with his force towards Exeter, as I before said, and the army had beset the burgh, when he had arrived there they went to their ships. While he was busied in the west against the army there, and both the armies had formed a junction at Shoebury in Essex, and there wrought a work, they then went both together up along the Thames, and a great increase came to them, both from the East Angles and the Northumbrians. They then went up along the Thames, until they reached the Severn, then up along the Severn. Then the ealdorman Aethered, and the ealdorman Aethelm, and the ealdorman Aethelnorth, and the king's thanes, who were then at home in the works, gathered together, from every town east of the Parret, as well west as east of Selwood, as also north of the Thames and west of the Severn and also some part of the North Welsh race. When they were all gathered together, they followed after the army to Buttington on the bank of the Severn, and there beset them on every side in a fastness. When they had sat there many weeks on the two sides of the river, and the king was west in Devon against the naval force, they were distressed for want of food, and had eaten a great part of their horses, and the others had died of hunger; they then went out to the men who were encamped on the east side of the river, and fought against them, and the Christians had the victory. And there was Ordheh, a king's thane, slain, and also many other king's thanes were slain; and of the Danish there was a very great slaughter made and the part that came away then was saved by flight. When they came into Essex to their work and to their ships, the remnant gathered again a great army from the East Angles and from the Northumbrians, before winter, and committed their wives and their ships and their chattels to the East Angles, and went at one stretch, by day and night, until they arrived at a desolated city in Wirrall, which is called Legaceaster (Chester). Then could the force not overtake them before they were within the work; they however beset the work from without for two days, and took all the cattle which was there without and slew the men that they might intercept outside of the work, and burned all the corn, and with their horses consumed it on every plain. And that was a twelvemonth after they had come over sea hither.
An. DCCC.XCV. And then soon after that, in this year, the army went from Wirrall, because they could not abide there, into Wales; that was because they had been deprived both of the cattle and of the corn which they had obtained by plunder. When they had again wended out of North Wales with the booty which they had there taken, they went over Northumberland and East Anglia, so that the (king's) force could not reach them, until they came into the eastward part of the East Saxons' land, to an island that is out in the sea, which is called Mersey. And when the army which had beset Exeter again turned homewards, they harried on the South Saxons near Chichester, and the townsfolk put them to flight and slew many hundreds of them, and took some of their ships. Then, in the same year, before winter, the Danish who sat in Mersey towed their ships up the Thames and then up the Lea. This was two years after they had come over the sea hither.

An. DCCC.XCI. In the same year the forementioned army had wrought a work on the Lea, twenty miles above London. Then, in the summer after, a great number of the townspeople, and also of the other folk, went until they came to the Danish work, and were there put to flight, and some four king's thanes slain. Then afterwards, during harvest, the king encamped in the neighbourhood of the town, while the people reaped their corn, so that the Danish might not deprive them of the crop. Then one day the king rode up by the river and observed where the river might be obstructed so that they might not bring out their ships. And they then did so; they wrought two works on the two sides of the river. When they bad actually begun the work, and had encamped thereby, then the army perceived that they could not bring out their ships. They then abandoned them and went over land, until they arrived at Quatbridge (Bridge). That was three years after they had come hither over sea to the month of the Limen.

An. DCCC.XCVII. Then the summer after, in this year, the army went, some to East Anglia, some to Northumbria; and they who were moneyless got themselves ships, and went south over sea to the Seine. Thanks be to God, the army had not utterly broken up the Angle race; but they were much more broken in those three years, by a mortality of cattle and men; most of all thereby, that many of the king's most excellent thanes that were in the land died in those three years: of these one was Swithulf, bishop of Rochester, and Ceolmund, ealdorman of Kent, and Beorhtulf, ealdorman of the East Saxons, and Wulfred, ealdorman of Hampshire, and Ealhheard, bishop of Dorchester, and Eadulf, a king's thane in Sussex, and Beornulf, wick-reeve at Winchester, and Ecgulf, the king's horse-thane, and many also besides these, although I have named the most eminent. In the same year the armies from the East Angles and Northumbrians harassed the West Saxons' land very much, on the south coast, by predatory bands; (though) most of all by the long-ships (aescas), which they had built many years before. Then king Aelfred commanded long-ships to be built against them, which were full nigh twice as long as the others; some had sixty oars, some more; they were both swifter and steadier, and also higher than the others ; they were sliapen neither as the Frisian nor as the Danish, but as it seemed to himself that they might be most useful. Then on a certain time in the same year there came six ships to Wight, and did there much evil, both in Devon and elsewhere on the seashore.

Then the king commanded (his men) to go thither with nine of the new ships and they blockaded against them the mouth into the outer sea. They then went with three ships out against them, and three lay high up in the mouth, in the dry: the men were gone off on shore. They then took two of the three ships at the outward mouth, and slew the men, and the one escaped, in which also the men were killed, save five, who came away because the ships of the others were aground. They were also aground very inconveniently; three were aground on the side of the deep on which the Danish ships were aground, and all the others on the other side, so that not one of them could get to the others. But when the water had ebbed many furlongs from the ships, then the Danish went from the three ships to the other three which had been left by the ebb on their side, and they then fought there. There were slain Lucumon the king's reeve, and Wulfhard the Frisian, and Aebbe the Frisian, and Aethelhere the Frisian, and Aethelferth the king's companion, and of all the men, Frisian and English sixty-two, and of the Danish a hundred and twenty. But then the flood came to the Danish ships before the Christians could shove theirs out; and they therefore rowed away out; they were then so damaged that they could not row round the South Saxons' land, for there the sea cast two of them on land, and the men were led to the king at Winchester, and he commanded them to be there hanged; and the men who were in the one ship came to East Anglia sorely wounded. In the same summer no less than twenty ships, with men and everything perished on the south coast. In the same year died Wulfric the king's horse-thane, who was also Welsh-reeve.

An. DCCCC.I. In this year died Aelfred son of Athulf (Aethelwulf), six nights before All-hallowmass (Oct. 26th). He was king over all the Angle race, except part that was under the dominion of the Danes; and he held the kingdom one year and a half less than thirty winters . And then Edward his son succeeded to the kingdom .