The governors of one province refused to march
to the assistance of another, and were at last terrified from assembling
their forces for the defence of their own province. General councils
were summoned; but either no resolution was taken, or none was carried
into execution. And the only expedient in which the English agreed, was
the base and imprudent one of buying a new peace from the Danes, by the
payment of forty-eight thousand pounds.
{1011.} This measure did not bring them even that short interval of
repose which they had expected from it. The Danes, disregarding all
engagements, continued their devastations and hostilities; levied a new
contribution of eight thousand pounds upon the county of Kent alone;
murdered the archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to countenance
this exaction; and the English nobility found no other resource than
that of submitting everywhere to the Danish monarch, swearing allegiance
to him, and delivering him hostages for their fidelity. Ethelred equally
afraid of the violence of the enemy, and the treachery of his own
subjects, fled into Normandy, {1013} whither he had sent before him
Queen Emma, and her two sons, Alfred and Edward.
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