50.  How Britain got the Name of England.

In making himself supreme ruler over the entire English population of Britain, Egbert laid the foundations of what was finally to become the “Kingdom of England.”  Several causes contributed to this change of name.  We can trace the process step by step.  First, the people of Kent and the great council held at Whitby (SS42, 48) laid the cornerstone of the National Church; next, the people of Wessex furnished the National Overlord (S49); finally, the preponderance of the people called Angles (S37) furnished the National Name of Angle-Land or England.

It is a fact worthy of notice, in this connection, that from Egbert as a royal source every subsequent English sovereign (except the four Danish Kings, Harold II, and William the Conqueror) has directly or indirectly descended down to the present time. (See Table of Royal Descent in the Appendix, p. xlii.)

51.  Alfred the Great.

Of these sovereigns the most conspicuous during the period of which we are writing was Alfred.  He was a grandson of Egbert (S49).  He was rightly called Alfred the Great, since he was the embodiment of whatever was best and bravest in the English character.  The keynote of his life may be found in the words which he spoke at the close of it, “So long as I have lived, I have striven to live worthily.”

52.  Danish Invasion.

When Alfred came to the throne (871) the Danes, or Northmen, as they were often called, were sweeping down upon the country.  A few months before he became King, he had aided his brother in a desperate struggle with them.  In the beginning, the object of the Danes was to plunder, later, to possess, and finally, to rule over the country.  They had already overrun a large portion of England and had invaded Wessex or the country of the West Saxons. (See map facing p. 30.) Wherever their raven flag appeared, destruction and slaughter followed.

53.  The Danes or Northmen destroy the Monasteries.

These terrible pirates despised Christianity.  They scorned it as the weak religion of a weak people.  They hated the English monasteries most of all and made them the especial objects of their attacks (SS43, 45, 46).  Many of these institutions had accumulated wealth, and some had gradually sunk into habits of laziness, luxury, and other evil courses of life.  The Danes, who were full of the vigorous virtues of heathenism, liked nothing better than to scourge those effeminate vices of the cloisters.

From the thorough way in which they robbed, burned, and murdered, there can be no doubt that they enjoyed their work of destruction.  In their helplessness and terror, the panic-stricken monks added to their usual prayers, this fervent petition:  “From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us!” The power raised up to answer that supplication was Alfred the Great.

54.  Alfred’s Victories over the Danes:  the White Horse.