London and the Kingdom - Volume I | Page 7

Winchester. When it came to a question of trade
regulation, then London took precedence of Winchester. "Let one
measure and one weight pass, such as is observed at London and at
Winchester,"(21) enacted King Edgar, whose system of legislation was
marked with so much success that "Edgar's Law" was referred to by
posterity as to the old constitution of the realm.
(M15)
In the meantime, the country had been invaded by a fresh enemy, and
the same atrocities which the Briton had suffered at the hands of the
Saxon, the Saxon was made to suffer at the hands of the Dane. London
suffered with the rest of the kingdom. In 839 we read of a "great
slaughter" there;(22) in 851 the city was in the hands of the enemy, and
continued to remain at the mercy of the Danes, so much so, in fact, that
in 872 we find the Danish army taking up winter quarters within its
walls, as in a city that was their own.(23)
(M16)
It was now, when the clouds were darkest, that Alfred, brother of King
Ethelred, appeared on the scene, and after more than one signal success
by land and sea, concluded the treaty of Wedmore (A.D. 878)(24) by
which a vast tract of land bounded by an imaginary line drawn from the
Thames along the river Lea to Bedford, and thence along the Roman
Watling Street to the Welsh border, was ceded to the enemy under the
name of Danelagh. The treaty, although it curtailed the Kingdom of
Wessex, and left London itself at the mercy of the Danes, was followed
by a period of comparative tranquillity, which allowed Alfred time to
make preparations for a fresh struggle that was to wrest from the enemy

the land they had won.
(M17)
The Danes, like the Angles and the Jutes before them, set little store by
fortifications and walled towns, preferring always to defend themselves
by combat in open field, and the Roman wall of the City was allowed
to fall still further into decay. In the eyes of Alfred on the other hand,
London, with its surrounding wall, was a place of the first importance,
and one to be acquired and kept at all hazards. At length he achieved
the object of his ambition and succeeded in driving out the Danes, (A.D.
883 or 884).(25)
(M18)
Whilst the enemy directed their attention to further conquests in France
and Belgium, Alfred bent his energies towards repairing the City walls
and building a citadel for his defence--"the germ of that tower which
was to be first the dwelling place of Kings, and then the scene of the
martyrdom of their victims."(26) To his foresight in this respect was it
due that the city of London was never again taken by open assault, but
successfully repelled all attacks whilst the surrounding country was
often devastated.
Nor did Alfred confine his attention solely to strengthening the city
against attacks of enemies without or to making it more habitable. He
also laid the foundation of an internal Government analagous to that
established in the Shires. Under the year A.D. 886, the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle(27) records that "King Ælfred restored London; and all the
Anglo race turned to him that were not in bondage of the Danish men;
and he then committed the burgh to "the keeping of the aldorman
Æthelred." In course of time the analogy between shire and city
organization became more close. Where the former had its Shiremote,
the latter had its Folkmote, meeting in St. Paul's Churchyard by
summons of the great bell. The County Court found its co-relative in
the Husting Court of the City; the Hundred Court in the City
Wardmote.(28)

(M19)
For the next ten years Alfred busied himself founding a navy and
establishing order in different parts of the country, but in 896 he was
compelled to hasten to London from the west of England to assist in the
repulse of another attack of the Danes. Two years before (894) the
Danes had threatened London, having established a fortification at
Beamfleate or South Benfleet, in Essex, whence they harried the
surrounding country. The Londoners on that occasion joined that part
of the army which Alfred had left behind in an attack upon the fort,
which they not only succeeded in taking, but they "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."(29) Nor was this all: Hasting's
wife and his two sons had been made prisoners, but were chivalrously
restored by Alfred.
(M20)
The Danes, however, were not to be daunted by defeat nor moved from
their purpose by the generous conduct of Alfred. In 896 they