Scandinavian-Britain

THE DOWNFALL OF THE DANELAW 175Asbjorn, once an earl in England, attacked Kent andEast Anglia without success;it was not until theyentered the Humber that they met with a welcome.They were joined by the people, and by Waltheof, sonof the famous Siward and now earl of Northampton.At York the native townsfolk received them gladly,and the two Norman castles, together with a greatpart of the city, were destroyed after severe fighting.But when this was done, the English dispersed andthe Danes went back to their ships. There seems tohave been no attempt to establish the independenceof Northumbria ;one is led to suppose that jealousiesleft them without a leader or a programme. The oneman who had a programme was William. Headvanced slowly northward ;wasted Staffordshire,part of the old Danelaw ;attacked the Danes inLindsey, forcing them into Holderness ;marched byPontefract to York, and then effected the great devastationof the north. William next devastated thecounty of Durham, the sacred land of St. Cuthbert,which even the Vikings in their fiercest days hadspared. Then marching against Chester he ravagedCheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire.In the winter he bribed Asbjorn and his Danes toleave, partly by allowing them to plunder Lindseyas they pleased. Ten years later the terrible reprisalsof bishop Odo for the murder of bishop Walcher inDurham added to the desolation ; though, after sucha tale, one may ask what more could be added?And when in Domesday we still find Scandinaviannames among the landholders, and later we still find