Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd [224]
The Viking attack had been a bitter blow to the ambitious monarch. For the seven troubled years of his reign Alfred had tried to give the rich lands of Wessex the security needed to undertake the great projects for which his heart and spirit yearned: the building of churches, the restoration of monasteries and schools, the revival in Wessex of the great Latin culture that had in past generations made the northern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia amongst the noblest in Europe.
“We have our examples,” he would urge men like Aelfwald, “both in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the past and at the Frankish court across the sea.” Two generations before the great Frankish Emperor Charlemagne’s court had been the most sophisticated centre of culture since the collapse of the western Roman Empire and Alfred was anxious to emulate it. But the invasions of the Vikings in the north, and a lack of ambition in the south had left the whole island in a state of cultural decline and the task he had set himself was huge.
None of his plans could be accomplished – his new kingdom would be stillborn – if he could not protect Wessex from the heathen marauders.
“There is so much to do. Our towns need to be fortified. We need ships to patrol the coast,” he would remind his thanes. “As for the army . . .”
The Anglo-Saxon fyrd, the armed levy of the thanes and their men from every shire and hundred, was an unwieldy and inefficient force. Each lord was only under obligation to perform a certain number of days fighting each year; it was hard to persuade the farmer warriors to fight outside their own shires, and often even loyal churls would suddenly leave to see to their harvests. In trying to make this a cohesive force against the freebooting Viking horde, Alfred was up against formidable obstacles. As for the fixed defences, the fortified towns known as burghs were the first consistent defensive systems since Roman times, and they were only just beginning to be prepared. Eventually, when it was complete, every settlement in Wessex would be within twenty miles of a burgh.
“We need four men for every pole of defended wall,” he had said. “That’s about a man every five feet. And if you reckon a hide of land supports one man, then we must assign land to support each burgh, according to the length of its walls.”
This was the beginning of the English system of Burghal Hideage which designated land for the support of each defended Saxon town. Wilton, whose walls would be over a mile around, was allotted 1400 hides.
He had tried also to plan a naval system to protect the coast and designed a sixty oar ship to act as a model for his new fleet.
But all these preparations were incomplete and the surprise attack in midwinter had found him powerless. His ambitious plans now seemed close to ruin.
“So here I am, hiding like a criminal in the marshes,” he said ruefully to the party from Sarum as they gathered round.
The news that came in during the following days was not encouraging. As further parties arrived with news, it became clear that the Vikings had free run of the whole kingdom.
“They could partition Wessex as they already have Mercia,” Earldorman Wulfhere confided grimly to the thane. “Then the whole island would be Danelaw.”
Although Aelfwald did not greatly care for Wulfhere or want to admit such a thing, he knew that unless they could mount an astounding offensive from the marshes, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom would be finished for ever.
But Alfred was firm. “In the spring,” he promised them, “when we can rally our people, we will hit back.”
Two days after his arrival, Aelfwald received news that Aelfwine had been killed at Twyneham, and that young Osric was dead as well. The thane sought out the carpenter and his family and gave them comfort. Of the trouble between the young monk and the boy neither he, nor the carpenter, ever had any idea.
To his remaining sons he said:
“Now we have your brother to avenge. Nor shall we forget Osric or Port’s family. They are our people too.”
Three weeks passed. The force in the marshes slowly