The more turbulent and unquiet made an expedition into France, under the
command of Hastings;[*] and except by a short incursion of Danes, who
sailed up the Thames, and landed at Fulham, but suddenly retreated to
their ships, on finding the country in a posture of defence, Alfred was
not for some years infested by the inroads of those barbarians.[**]
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 26.]
[** Asser. p. 11.]
The king employed this interval of tranquillity in restoring order to
the state, which had been shaken by so many violent convulsions; in
establishing civil and military institutions; in composing the minds of
men to industry and justice; and in providing against the return of like
calamities. He was, more properly than his grandfather Egbert, the sole
monarch of the English, (for so the Saxons were now universally called,)
because the kingdom of Mercia was at last incorporated in his state,
and was governed by Ethelbert, his brother-in-law, who bore the title of
earl; and though the Danes, who peopled East Anglia and Northumberland,
were for some time ruled immediately by their own princes, they all
acknowledged a subordination to Alfred, and submitted to his superior
authority.
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