The Story of LondonWheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin)
History
The Story of London
Wheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin)
London (England) -- History
In 1010 Ethelred took shelter in London, and in 1013 Sweyn again
attacked the city without success, but having conquered a great part of
England the Londoners submitted to him, and Ethelred fled to Normandy.
After Sweyn's death, in 1014, Ethelred was invited to return to England,
as the country was not willing to receive Sweyn's son Cnut as its King.
When Ethelred returned to England he was accompanied by another Olaf
(Anlaf Haroldson) who succeeded by a clever manoeuvre in destroying
the wooden London Bridge, and taking the city out of the hands of the
Danes. The story is told in Snorro Sturleson's _Heimskringla_ (The
Story of Olaf the Holy, the son of Harold): 'Olaf covered the decks of
his ship with a roof of wood and wicker work to protect them from the
stones and shot which were ready to be cast at them by the Danes. King
Olaf and the host of the North-men rowed right up under the bridge, and
lashed cables round the poles that upheld the bridge, and then they fell
to their oars and rowed all the ships down stream as hard as they might.
The poles dragged along the ground, even until they were loosened under
the bridge. But inasmuch as an host under weapons stood thickly arrayed
on the bridge, there were on it both many stones and many war-weapons,
and the poles having broken from it, the bridge broke down by reason
thereof, and many of the folk fell into the river, but all the rest
thereof fled from the bridge, some into the city, some into Southwark.
And after this they made an onset on Southwark and won it. And when the
towns-folk saw that the River Thames was won, so that they might not
hinder the ships from faring up into the land, they were afeard, and
gave up the town and took King Ethelred in.'[10]
The later life of Olaf was one of adventure. He was driven by Cnut from
his kingdom of Norway, and took shelter in Sweden. Here he obtained
help, and in the end regained his throne. At the Battle of Sticklestead
he was defeated and slain (1030). His body was hastily buried, but was
afterwards taken up, and, being found incorrupt, was buried in great
state in a shrine at Drontheim. He was canonized, and several English
churches are dedicated to him. There are four parishes bearing the name
of St. Olave in London, one of the churches is in Tooley Street which
also preserves the name of St. Olave in a curiously corrupted form.
After this Ethelred succeeded in driving Cnut out of England back to
Denmark. Of this success Freeman enthusiastically wrote: 'That
true-hearted city was once more the bulwark of England, the centre of
every patriotic hope, the special object of every hostile attack.'[11]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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