Scandinavian-Britain

THE FIVE BOROUGHS I I 7the Saxons ;in which two kings, two jarls and otherleading men were slain. When ealdorman ^thelreddied, his widow ^Ethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians,continued his policy of building forts to protect English\5 Mercia,and the war against East Anglia naturally]the Five Boroughs more and more into conflict \:drew with the growing Anglo-Saxon power.On St.John the Baptist's day of 918 (Florence ofWorcester), the Northampton and Leicester Danesattacked the fort at Towcester, and, failing to stormit, raided Buckinghamshire. But when Colchesterwas taken and the kingdom of East Anglia cameto an end, the resistance of the Five Boroughsweakened. Early in 919 Leicester made voluntarysubmission to the Lady of the Mercians, and evenYork offered adherence to her. In April King Eadwardmarched to Stamford, built a fort on the south bankof the Welland, and received the submission of theneighbourhood. Thence he went to Nottingham,which had been captured by his troops ;he repairedthe fortifications "and stationed both English andDanes therein."This is the beginning of a new policy. The king otWessex became actual and personal lord of a mixedpopulation of Angles and Danes. It was no longer aquestion of mutual slaughter, but of a modus vivendi ;the Danes were already there, and after thirty years'possession they had taken root in the soil. But asthe earlier part of this war had been a war of extermination,driving the Danes from the southern counties,the change in attitude is noteworthy. The southern