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From The Annals of Roger de Hoveden, Comprising the History of England and of Other Countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, Translated from the Latin with Notes and Illustrations by Henry T. Riley, Esq., Volume I, London: H.G. Bohn, 1853; pp. 80-89.
In the year 992, being the fifth year of the indiction, on the day before the calends of March, being the second day of the week, Saint Oswald, the archbishop departed this life before the feet of the poor, where, according to his usual custom, he was performing the Divine command,1 in the manner he had previously predicted, and attained the joys of the kingdom of heaven; he was buried in the church of Saint Mary, at Worcester, which he himself had erected from the very foundation. He was succeeded by Adulph, the venerable abbat of Medeshampstead;2 and not long after the death of the blessed father Oswald, duke Ethelwin, of illustrious memory, the friend of God, departed this life, and was honorably buried at Ramesege.3
In the year 993, the above-mentioned army of the Danes took Bebbanburgh,4 and carried off all they could find in it. After this, they directed their course to the mouth of the river Humber, and, having burned many towns and slain many persons in Lindesey and Northumbria, took considerable booty. Against them a great number of the people of the district collected with all haste; but when they were about to engage, the leaders of the army, whose names were Frana, Frithegist, and Godewin, because, on the fathers’ side, they were of Danish origin, betrayed their followers, and were the first to set the example of flight.
In the year 994, Anlaf, the king of the Norwegians, and Sweyn, the king of the Danes, arrived at London, on the day of the Nativity of Saint Mary, with ninety-four galleys, and
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immediately attempted to force an entrance and burn it: but by the aid of God and of His Mother, they were repulsed by the citizens, with no small loss to their army. Thereupon, being exasperated with rage and sorrow, on the same day they betook themselves thence, and first in Essex and in Kent, and near the sea-shore, and afterwards in Sussex and in the province of Southampton, they burned houses, laid waste the fields, and without respect to sex or age destroyed a very great number of people with fire and sword, and carried off a large amount of spoil; at last, having obtained horses for themselves, furiously raging, they traversed many provinces to and fro, and spared neither the female sex nor yet the innocent age of infants, but, with the ferocity of wild beasts, consigned all to death.
Upon this, king Egelred, by the advice of his nobles, sent ambassadors to them, promising that he would give them tribute and provisions, on condition that they should entirely put an end to their cruelty. Assenting to this request of the king, they returned to their ships, and then the whole of the army assembled together at Southampton and passed the winter there. The provisions were provided for them by the whole of Wessex; and by the whole of England the tribute, which amounted to sixteen pounds, was paid. In the meantime, by the command of king Egelred, Elphege, the bishop of Winchester, and the noble duke Ethelwald, proceeded to king Anlaf, and, having given hostages, brought him with great honor to the royal town of Andeafaran,5 where the king was staying.
He was honorably received by the king, who caused him to be confirmed by the bishop, and, adopting him as his son, presented him with royal gifts, on which he promised king Egelred that he would no more come with an army to England; and, after this, he returned to the ships, and at the approach of summer returned to his own country, and carefully adhered to his promise.
In the year 995, Aldune, the bishop, removed the body of Saint Cuthbert from Cestre,6 to Dunholm.7
In the year 996, Elfric was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury.
In the year 997, the army of the Danes, which had remained
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in England, having sailed round Wessex, entered the mouth of the river Severn, and at one time laid waste South Britain;8 at another, Cornwall; at another, Wesedport, in Devonshire; and, burning a vast number of towns, put multitudes of people to the sword; and after this, again going round Penwithsteort9 up to the mouth of the river Tamar, their ships having coasted along Devonshire and Cornwall, they disembarked from their ships, leaving them behind, and, there being no one to prevent them, continued their conflagrations and slaughter as far as Lideford.10 In addition to this, they burned the monastery of the primate, Ordulf, which is called Taustoke,11 and, laden with great booty, made their way back to their ships, and wintered at that place.
In the year 998, the above-named army of the pagans, leaving the mouth of the river which is called Frome, repaired again to Dorsetshire, and, after their usual manner, betook themselves to plundering; and, as often as they took up their quarters in the Isle of Wight,12 levied supplies upon Sussex and the province of Southampton. Against such an outburst as this, forces were often gathered together; but, as often as the English were about to engage in battle, either through treachery or some misfortune, they turned their backs and left the victory in the hands of the enemy.
In the year 999, the army of the pagans so often mentioned, entering the mouth of the river Thames, passed up the river Meodewege,13 as far as Rochester, and for a few days laid strict siege to it, upon which, the people of Kent, uniting together to repel them, had a severe engagement with them; but, after many had been slain on both sides, the Danes remained masters of the river. After this, taking horse, the Danes laid waste almost the whole of the western coast of Kent. On hearing of this, Egelred, the king of the English, by the advice of his
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principal men, collected together both a fleet and a land force. But, in the end, neither the land nor the naval force effected anything for the public good, beyond harassing the people, wasting money, and arousing the vengeance of the enemy.
In the year 1000, the above-mentioned fleet of the Danes invaded Normandy. Egelred, king of the English, laid waste the lands of the Cumbrians. He gave orders to his fleet, that, sailing round the north of Britain, it should meet him at a place named; but, being prevented by the violence of the winds, it was unable to do so. However, it laid waste the island which is called Monege.14
In the year 1001, the above-mentioned army of the pagans, returning from Normandy into England, entered the mouth of the river Exe, and shortly after commenced the siege of the city of Exancester; but, while attempting to destroy the walls, they were repulsed by the citizens, who manfully defended the city. Upon this, being greatly incensed, after their usual manner, they wandered through Devonshire, burning towns, ravaging the fields, and slaughtering the people; and, in consequence, the men of Devonshire and Somerset uniting together, gave them battle at a place which is called Penhou.15 But the English, by reason of the small number of their soldiers, were not able to cope with the multitude of the Danes, and took to flight; whereon, the enemy having made a great slaughter, gained the day. After this, taking horse, throughout almost the whole of Devonshire they committed worse excesses than before, and, having collected much booty, returned to their ships. After this, they turned their course to the Isle of Wight; and, for a long time, there being no one to resist them, occupied themselves in plundering as usual, and raged to such a degree against the people with the sword, and against the houses with fire, that no fleet would dare to engage with them at sea, and no army by land. In consequence, the sadness of the king was far from slight, while the people were afflicted with incredible sorrow.
In the year 1002, Egelred, king of the English, having held a council with his chief men, thought proper to make peace with the Danes, and to give them provisions and tribute to appease them, in order that they might cease from their
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evil-doings. For this purpose duke Leofsy was sent to them, who, on coming, asked them to receive the supplies and the tribute; whereupon they willingly received his embassy, and acceding to his request, fixed the amount of tribute that should be paid them for keeping the peace. And, not long after this, the sum of twenty-four pounds was paid them.
In the meantime, the same duke Leofsy slew Easig, a nobleman, the king’s high steward, for which reason, the king being inflamed with anger, banished him from the country. In the same year King Egelred took to wife Emma, called in Saxon Elfgiva, the daughter of Richard, the first duke of the Normans. In this, the twenty-fifth year of the reign of king Egelred, and the fifteenth of the indiction, on the seventeenth day before the calends of May, being the fourth day of the week, Ardulph, archbishop of York, the abbats, priests, monks, and religious men being there assembled, raised the bones of Saint Oswald, the archbishop, from the tomb, and placed them, with due honor, in a shrine which he had prepared; and not long after this, that is to say, on the day before the nones of May, he himself died, and was buried in the church of Saint Mary, at Worcester, being succeeded by the abbat Wulstan.
In this year, also, king Egelred ordered all the Danes who lived in England, both great and small, and of either sex, to be slain, because they had endeavoured to deprive him and his chief men of kingdom and life, and to reduce the whole of England under their dominion.
In the year 1003, by reason of the carelessness and treachery of Hugh, the Norman earl, whom queen Emma had appointed over Devonshire, Sweyn, king of the Danes, entered the city of Exeter by storm and sacked it, destroying the walls from the eastern as far as the western gate, and filling16 his ships with much spoil. After this, while he was laying waste the province of Wiltshire, a stout army manfully assembled from the provinces of Southampton and Wiltshire, and went up with fixed determination to fight against the enemy; but when the armies were so near that the one could see the other, Alfric, the above-named earl, who was at the time in command of the English, forthwith had recourse to his old
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devices,17 and, pretending illness, began to vomit, saying that a severe fit of illness had come upon him, and that in consequence he was unable to fight with the enemy.
When the army saw his inertness and timidity, in sorrow they turned away from the enemy without fighting, making good the ancient adage — “When the leader trembles in battle, all the other soldiers become still more fearful.” Sweyn, on observing the irresoluteness of the English, led his army to Wilton, and spoiled and burned it; in like manner, he also ravaged Salisbury, and then returned to his ships.
In the year 1004, Sweyn, king of the Danes, coming with his fleet to Norwich, laid it waste and burned it. Upon this, Ulfketel, duke of East Anglia, a man of great activity, as Sweyn had come unawares, and he had had no time for collecting an army against him, after taking counsel with the chief men of East Anglia, made peace with him; but he, breaking the treaty the third week after, secretly stole forth from the ships with his forces, and attacking Theodford,18 laid it waste, and after staying in it one night, burned it at daybreak. On learning this, duke Ulfketel gave orders to some men of the province to break up the ships of the enemy; but they were either afraid to do so, or neglected to obey his commands. He himself, however, as soon as he possibly could, having secretly collected an army together, boldly advanced against the enemy; and, on their return to the ships with an unequal number of soldiers, he met them, and had a most severe engagement with them; and many on both sides being slain, the most noble men of East Anglia fell, and the Danes escaped with difficulty. But if the full forces of the East Anglians had been present, the Danes could have never regained their ships; as, indeed, they themselves bore witness that they had never experienced in England a more severe and hard-fought battle than that in which duke Ulfketel had engaged with them.
In the year 1005, a severe and dreadful famine afflicted England. For this reason Sweyn, king of the Danes, returned to Denmark, with the intention of returning before long.
In the year 1006, Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury, departed this life, and was succeeded by Elphege, bishop of Winchester, who was succeeded in his bishopric by Kenulph. In the
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month of July an innumerable fleet of Danes arrived in England, and entered the port of Sandwich, and ravaging all places with fire and sword, first in Kent and then in Sussex, collected a very large quantity of spoil. On this, king Egelred assembled an army in Mercia and Wessex, and resolved to fight manfully with them; but they would under no circumstances engage with him openly; but frequently committed their ravages, now in one place, and now in another, immediately, after their usual manner, retreating to their ships; and in this way, throughout the autumn, they harassed the army of the English.
At length, on the approach of winter, as they were returning homeward with enormous booty, they repaired to the Isle of Wight, and remained there until the Nativity of our Lord;19 on the approach of which, as the king was at that period staying in the province of Shrewsbury, they made way through the province of Southampton to Berkshire, and burned Reading, and Wallingford, and Ceolesy,20 with a great number of men. Moving thence, they passed Easterdune21 and came to Cwichelmelow;22 returning from there by another road, the pirates provoked the natives of the place to battle, and at once engaging with them, put them to flight, and then retreated to the ships with the booty they had taken.
In the year 1007, by the advice of his chief men, Egelred, king of the English, sent ambassadors to the Danes, and told them that he was willing to give them sustenance and tribute, on condition that they should desist from their ravages, and keep a lasting peace with him; to this request they consented, and from that time, provisions, and a tribute of thirty-six thousand pounds, were given to them from the whole of England. In this year, also, king Egelred made a certain Edric, whose surname was Streone, duke of the Mercians; who, although he had Edgitha the king’s daughter in marriage, was still frequently found, by his shifting craftiness, to be a perfidious traitor to his country, and a public enemy, as will appear in the sequel; at last, in the reign of king Canute, he received a worthy reward for his treachery.
In the year 1008, Egelred, king of the English, ordered for
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every one hundred and ten hides of land, one galley to be built, and for every nine,23 a coat of mail and a helmet to be provided, and gave directions that ships should be built with all speed throughout the whole of England. These being prepared, he put on board of them picked soldiers, with provisions, and that they might protect the extremities of his kingdom from the incursions of the foreigners, collected them at the port of Sandwich. At this period, Brithric, the brother of the perfidious duke Edric Streone, a slippery, ambitious, and haughty man, unjustly accused before the king, Wulnoth,24 a thane of the South Saxons, who shortly after took to flight to avoid being seized, and having obtained nine vessels, committed numerous ravages near the sea-shore.
But when word was brought to the royal fleet, that if any one wished, he might easily take him; Brithric, having collected eighty galleys, set out to give him chase; however, after he had sailed for some time with a fair wind, on a sudden a most violent tempest arose, and wrecked and shattered his ships, and threw them ashore; where they were shortly after burnt by Wulnoth. On this being known, the king with his chieftains and nobles returned home. But by his orders the fleet repaired to London, and thus this mighty labour of the people was wasted.
In the year 1009, the Danish earl Turkill came with his fleet to England, and afterwards, in the month of August, another innumerable fleet of the Danes, the chiefs of which were Hemming and Ailaf, came to the Isle of Tenedland,25 and without delay united with the aforesaid fleet, after which both of them entered the harbour of Sandwich, and the men disembarking, hastily attacked the city of Canterbury, and began to storm it; but shortly after, the citizens of Canterbury, with the people of East Kent, suing for peace, obtained their request, and gave them, in consideration of a treaty of peace, three thousand pounds.
Upon this they returned to their ships, and steered their course to the Isle of Wight, and after that, according to their usual practice, frequently collected spoil in Sussex and in the
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province of Southampton, in the neighbourhood of the sea-shore, and burned a great number of towns. On this, king Egelred collected an army throughout all England, and stationed it in the provinces adjoining the sea, as a protection against their incursions; but for all this, the enemy did not cease committing ravages in all quarters, according to the situation of the places. But upon one occasion, when they had made a descent for plunder at a greater distance than usual from the sea, and were returning laden with spoil, the king, attended by many thousands of armed men, got before them, prepared, as was all his army, to conquer or die.
But the perfidious duke Edric Streona,* his son-in-law, used his endeavours in every way, both by treachery and ambiguous speeches, that they might not engage, but for that time let the enemy escape. To this he persuaded the king, and prevailed, and, like a traitor to his country, rescued the Danes from the hands of the English, and allowed them to escape; on which, taking a different direction, with great joy they returned to their ships. After the feast of Saint Martin, they arrived in Kent, and chose their winter quarters on the river Thames, and collected provisions in Essex and other provinces that were adjoining either bank of the river. They also frequently attacked the city of London, and endeavoured to take it, but were repulsed by the citizens, not without some little loss to themselves.
In the year 1010, the above-mentioned army of the Danes, in the month of January, disembarking from their ships, came through the forest which is called Cyltern,26 into Herefordshire, and after laying it waste ravaged it with flames, and on their return collected booty on both banks of the river Thames. When they had been informed that an army was collected against them at London, and was about to engage with them, a part of the army passed over to the southern side of the river, at a place which is called Stane,27 and having united and enriched themselves with abundance of spoil, proceeded through Surrey, and then returned to their ships, which during the season of Lent, while they were staying in Kent, they refitted.
After Easter, they came to East Anglia, and having disembarked near Gipeswic,28 marched to a place which is called Rigmere, where they had learned that duke Ulfketel was
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encamped with his army, and fought a severe battle with him on the third day before the nones of May. But while the battle was being hotly contested, the East Angles turned their backs, a certain thane of the king, a man of Danish origin, Turketel, surnamed Merenheauod, being the first to begin the flight; but the men of Cambridgeshire, manfully fighting, made a stout resistance, till at last, being overpowered, they took to flight.
1 In washing the feet of the poor.
2 Peterborough.
3 Ramsey.
4 Bamborough.
5 Andover.
6 Chester-le-Street.
7 Durham.
8 South Wales.
9 Of this place Lambarde says: “The country that lieth next the point of Cornwall is to this day called Penwith; and, therefore, the Saxons adding ‘steort,’ which signifyeth a last of a region or promontory that runneth narrow into the sea, called that cape Penwithsteort.”
10 A town in Devonshire, on the river Tamar.
11 Tavistock.
12 As a sample of the state of the text, this passage is thus printed: “Et quotiescunque invecta jacuit de Suthsaxonia, et Suthamtunensi provinciâ sibi victum accepit.”
13 Medway.
14 Mona, or Man.
15 Penhoe; a place either in Somersetshire or Dorsetshire.
16 “Reperiit” is evidently a mistake for “replevit.”
17 “Arces,” a mistake for “artes.”
18 Thetford.
19 Christmas Day.
20 Cholsey.
21 Ashdown, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
22 The same place that is also called Ceolesy; it is four miles from Wallingford, in Berkshire.
23 Roger of Wendover and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle say, “for every eight.”
24 The father of Earl Godwin. He was accused of treason.
25 Thanet.
26 Chiltern.
27 Staines.
28 Ipswich.
* Streone or Streona? Not only is the name spelled both ways in this text, but translators and modern authorities vary between the two forms. Stubbs is consistent in the English notes in the margins of his Latin edition of Hoveden in using Streone and does not comment on the varying spellings of the name in the text. In most later texts and articles about him his name is spelled Streona. I have left both forms as they appear in the text to show the uncertainty that existed for Hoveden and/or his copyists.