ortunate Boadicea perished in the revolt which she had so rashly
raised. The Saxons came after the Romans, and took possession of the
land. Saxon proprietors compelled the people, whose lives they spared,
to till the very lands on which their fathers had lived under the Roman
Government or their own chiefs. Pagan worship was reintroduced; but when
Sigberht, the son of Redwald, King of East Anglia, reigned, he sent to
France for Christian ministers, and one of them, Felix, a Burgundian,
landed at Felixstowe, and there commenced his Christian labours. Felix
was held in high repute by the Bishops in other parts of the kingdom.
His opinions were quoted and revered. The diocese was large, and the
fourth Bishop divided it into two parts, the second Bishop being planted
at North Elmham, in Norfolk. In 955 the see was again united, when
Erfastus, the twenty-second Bishop, removed to Thetford. A little while
after the Bishop's residence was removed to Norwich, and there it has
ever since remained; but the land was not long permitted to remain in
peace. In 870 a large party of Danes marched from Lincolnshire into
Suffolk, defeated King Edmund, near Hoxne, and, as he would not become an
idolater, shot him to death with arrows. Bury St. Edmunds still
preserves the name and fame of one of the most illustrious of our
Anglo-Saxon martyrs. King Alfred, with a policy worthy of his sagacity,
made Guthrum, the Danish governor of Suffolk, a Christian, and continued
him in his rule. The Danes in East Anglia were then an immense army, and
thus at once they were turned from foes into friends. Guthrum was
baptized, and it is to be hoped was all the better for it. At any rate,
he returned to Suffolk and divided many of the estates which had been
held by Saxon proprietors killed in war. He died in peace, and had a
fitting funeral at Hadleigh. The children of those Danish soldiers were
dangerous friends, and too frequently betrayed the Saxons. Blood is
thicker than water, and as each succeeding band of Danish adventurers
landed on our eastern coast, they were welcomed by such followers of
Guthrum as had settled in Suffolk as friends and allies. Nevertheless,
the Danes found the conquest of the island impossible. Divine
Providence, Mr. Hollingsworth tells us, did not suffer the Saxon race to
be vanquished by those who were connected with them by blood.
Nevertheless, the struggle was long and severe. The two races were
equally matc