Book 2, Chapter 4, 857 AD to 878 AD – Destruction of Croyland Abbey
During these troublous times, Ethelbert died and was succeeded by his brother Ethelred in 866. In the first year of his reign over the now restricted and weakened kingdom, no fewer than nine battles were fought with the Danes, who, having established themselves in Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia, and being masters of the Isle of Thanet appeared bent upon subduing the entire country. In six battles, although the Anglo Saxons suffered greatly, the Danish losses were immense, yet their ranks were speedily filled up by the new arrivals, who brought as eager an appetite for plunder as their precursors, and whose vengeance became the more inflamed in proportion to the slaughter of their brethren.
Ethelred continued embroiled in deadly strife during his short reign of five years, but of his personal character and the other events in his reign, scanty information exists, the history of that period treating chiefly of the spoliation of monasteries and nunneries, and of the sufferings endured by their inmates, matters which chiefly interested the chroniclers of ensuing generations. Indeed, much obscurity rests over the history of the country during the reigns of these three sons of Ethelwulf, but of the reign of his fourth son, Alfred, sufficient is known to afford a clear insight into the condition of the country.
Chapter 4, Reign of Ethelbald
His Stepmother Judith and Her Descendants
Chapter 4, Destruction of Croyland Abbey
Numerous Battles between the Danes and the Saxons
Accession of Ethelred
Chapter 4, Alfred the Great
Chapter 4, Fresh Troubles with the Danes
Chapter 4, Treaty between him and Guthrun
Treaty between him and Guthrun
English History 