Scandinavian-Britain

THE FIVE BOROUGHS IOQor 886, and set over it his son-in-law ^Ethelred, whoheld it until 912; after which his widow yEthelflsed,the Lady of the Mercians, ruled it. At her death, in919, King Eadward took the province into his ownhands.The north-eastern part of Mercia was divided in877 among such of Halfdan's veterans as had notreceived land in Northumbria the year before. Thisdistrict, though at first under Halfdan's influence, wasnot previously, and later on ceased to be, a part ofthe Northumbrian realm. After the treaty betweenAlfred and Guthorm-/Ethelstan, its southernmost partwas north of Stony Stratford, where the East Anglianand Saxon boundaries met on Watling Street. In itswidest extent it must have included the present countiesof Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Rutland andLincoln, with the greater part of Northamptonshireand parts of Stafford and Cheshire.But as Mr. Round has shown, not even all thisthe Danesdistrict was in the full sense settled by(Feudal England^ p. 69). Their land-measurement,by carucates, applies in Domesday to Nottingham,Leicester, Derby, Rutland and Lincoln, but not tothe rest of the territory: there is even a differencebetween Leicestershire and the more thoroughlyDanish districts, for its lands are not reckoned inhundreds of twelve carucates, although Leicester itselfwas a thoroughly Danish town. On the other hand,part of Warwickshire had some Danish colonies, suchas Rugby, which is south-west of Watling Street. In aword, the Danes did not care to spread themselves