il away. They could only be attacked
on land, and some time would pass before the Ealdorman who ruled the
district could gather together not only his own war-band, but the
fyrd, or levy of all men of fighting age. When at last he arrived at
the spot on the coast where the pirates had been plundering, he often
found that they were already gone. Yet, as time went on, the Northmen
took courage, and pushed far enough into the interior to be attacked
before they could regain the coast. Their first landing had been in
=787=, before the time of Ecgberht. In Ecgberht's reign their attacks
upon Wessex were so persistent that Ecgberht had to bring his own
war-band to the succour of his Ealdormen. His son and successor,
AEthelwulf, had a still harder struggle. The pirates spread their
attacks over the whole of the southern and the eastern coast, and
ventured to remain long enough on shore to fight a succession of
battles. In =851= they were strong enough to remain during the whole
winter in Thanet. The crews of no less than 350 ships landed in the
mouth of the Thames sacked Canterbury and London. They were finally
defeated by AEthelwulf at Aclea (_Ockley_), in Surrey. In =858=
AEthelwulf died. Four of his sons wore the crown in succession; the two
eldest, AEthelbald and AEthelberht, ruling only a short time.

4. =The Danes in the North.=--The task of the third brother,
AEthelred, who succeeded in =866=, was harder than his father's.
Hitherto the Northmen had come for plunder, and had departed sooner or
later. A fresh swarm of Danes now arrived from Denmark to settle on
the land as conquerors. Though they did not themselves fight on
horseback, they seized horses to betake themselves rapidly from one
part of England to the other. Their first attack was made on the
north, where there was no great affection for the West Saxon kings.
They overcame the greater part of North-humberland. They beat down the
resistance of East Anglia, and, fastening its king, Eadmund, to a
tree, shot him to death with arrows. His countrymen counted him a
saint, and a great monastery arose at Bury St. Edmunds in his honour.
Everywhere the Danes plundered and burnt the monasteries, because the
monks were weak, and their houses were rich with jewelled service
books and golden plate. They next turned upon Mercia, and forced the
Mercian under-king to pay tribute to them. Only Wessex, to which the
smaller eastern states of Kent and Sussex had by this time been
c