A.D. 851. In this year the heathen men first remained over the winter, and in the same year came three hundred and fifty ships into the mouth of the Thames, and broke into Canterbury and London, and put to flight Beorhtwulf, King of Mercia. A.D. 867. In this year the heathen army went from East Anglia over the mouth of the Humber to York ... and there was immense slaughter of the Northumbrians, some within York, and some without, and the survivors made peace with the heathen army. These records show that the history of the fifth and sixth centuries was being repeated at the close of the eighth century, and during the ninth. They tell us of the inroads of a new race of free-booters, men of Northern Europe—coming from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden—men among whom was a passionate love of the sea and an overwhelming desire for the plunder of other lands. Sea-pirates they are now often called, but we must remember that among them what we should call piracy was looked upon as the most honourable career in life. Each year as Spring came round these Danish sea-rovers would gather together their men, take advantage of the north-east winds, and sail away to Britain, or the northern coast of France, or even to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and return laden with plunder on the coming of Autumn. One thing the records which have been quoted make very clear. In 787 ‘first came three ships of the Northmen’; less than fifty years later King Egbert of Wessex was fighting against the crews of thirty-five vessels; and in 851 the fleet of ships entering the Thames numbered no fewer than three hundred and fifty. What does this astonishing increase in numbers mean? It can mean only one thing—that the Northmen found their marauding expeditions to England profitable. England, in other words, was worth plundering. In fact, England was so prosperous a country, and its churches and monasteries contained such treasures of gold and silver, that the Northmen found it worth their while to build more ‘long-ships’—as their ships of war were called—in order that they might plunder it more completely. * * * * * But as time passed away the Northmen came not merely to plunder and return home, but to seek new homes in the fertile lands of Britain. In later records we find mention of peace being made between the Angles and the Danes without the fighting of a battle:— A.D. 872. In this year went the heathen army into Northumbria. They also took up winter quarters at Torksey, and the Mercians made peace with the invaders. A.D. 876. In this year Healfdene divided the Northumbrian land, and the Danes gave themselves up to ploughing and tilling the land.