George Philip Baker - The fighting kings of Wessex
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Emerging from the mists of legend at the time of the fall of Rome in the fifth century, the Saxon kings attempted to build a new kingdom around their own province of Wessex in southwestern England; strongly emphasizing a collapse of civilization theme, the author of this classic volume shows that Saxon England and Viking Scandinavia did not exist in isolation from the rest of Europe.
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Great Britain--History--Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066, Anglo-Saxons--England--Wessex--Kings and rulers--Biography, Danes--England--Wessex--Kings and rulers--Biography, Wessex (England)--Kings and rulers--Biography, Great Britain--History, Military--449-106
publication date
:
1996
lcc
:
DA135.B24 1996eb
ddc
:
942.01/6
subject
:
Great Britain--History--Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066, Anglo-Saxons--England--Wessex--Kings and rulers--Biography, Danes--England--Wessex--Kings and rulers--Biography, Wessex (England)--Kings and rulers--Biography, Great Britain--History, Military--449-106
Page i
The Fighting Kings of Wessex
Page ii
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Page iii
The Fighting Kings of Wessex
A Gallery of Portraits
G. P. Baker
COMBINED BOOKS Pennsylvania
Page iv
Disclaimer: Some images in the original hard copy book are not available for inclusion in the netLibrary eBook.
Originally published by G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., London in 1931.
Combined Books edition, 1996.
All rights reserved.
For information, address: Combined Books, Inc. 151 East 10th Avenue Conshohocken, PA 19428
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baker, G.P. (George Philip), 1879-1951. The fighting kings of Wessex / G.P. Baker. p. cm. ISBN 0-938289-63-2 (hc : alk. paper).ISBN 0-938289-64-0 (pb.) 1. Great BritainHistoryAnglo-Saxon period, 449-1066. 2. Anglo -SaxonsEnglandWessexKings and rulersBiography. 3. Danes -EnglandWessexKings and rulersBiography. 4. Wessex (England) -Kings and rulersBiography. 5. Great BritainHistory, Military -449-1066. 6. Wessex (England)History, Military. I. Title. DA135.B24 1996 96-7109 942.01'6dc20 CIP
Printed in the United States of America.
Page v
Preface
Since the outbreak of the Great War of 1914 the modern civilized man has seen a terrifying possibility before him, such as his father and grandfather never dreamed ofthe possibility of the collapse of civilization. The most brilliant success of the war was not won on the battlefield. It was won in the counting-houses and exchanges of the world; and it consisted in the skill and address with which civilization was steered through the dangers of economic collapse. Nothing at one time seemed likelier than that all our currencies might grow meaningless, all our credit begin to vanish and all our commercial relations become impossible. Civilized man flattered himself that the slaughter of millions of men was the really serious feature of the war. But civilization can survive far greater slaughters. What civilization cannot survive is economic disaster. Financial and commercial organization is the rainbow spell which holds together the irridescent enchantment of the civilized life. Once it failsthe whole thing has gone like a dream. And we were face to face with a possibility that this might happen.
It has, of course, happened in the past, as every student of history knows. The gulf which cuts us off from Roman civilization was just such a failure of economic function as this. The reader who blenches at the thought of reading a history of the Dark Ages may be reassured. He is not going to read of any "battle of kites and crows." He is going to survey the last occasion on which civilization actually did break down. There are two interesting features in such a survey. One is the way in which an old and powerful civilization can vanish; the other is the method by which a new civilization begins.
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It is the latter process which possesses the more serious and permanent interest for us: for this beginning of a new civilization is the perfect moment when we can see the absolutely fundamental principles at work. In every later stage of growth they are hidden; at the present day they are lost amid the tremendous complexity which baffles all direct analysis. But in their beginning, there they are, isolated and visible.
The principles which govern the formation and evolution of civilization are not to be found by abstract theorizing. There is no Euclid of politics. They are to be found by examining the actual processes by which our world began and grew. History, not philosophy, is the original source from which correct political ideas may be derived. The apparatus of the philosophical sciences is only the means by which we test and verify our knowledge. And a clear acquaintance with these principles would save many men from disastrous errors, from disappointed hope and unnecessary frustration.
A full discussion of such things would mean not one, but a hundred volumes. The object of the present book is more modest. It is to illustrate a limited thesis: namely, that the kingship of England is not an organ of the State, created by a pre-existent body-politic to fulfil diverse functions of government, but is the original force which created the body-politic. The history of kingship in England consists of the actions by which successive kings first of all created the human community known as the English nation, and then, in the face of continually increasing difficulty, moulded it step by step until the nation which they had thus created took over the work of its own government and became, as we say, "self-determining" or self-governed; though it only determined itself to be what they had made it.
There are other examples of the same process; for
Page vii
instance, the Athenian and the Roman states, and the French nation. Kingship is the origin of every political state; and the most interesting political problem which awaits solution is whether the process by which a state repudiates its kings and takes charge of its own destiny is an advance towards a higher political condition or is a sign of decay and death. Hitherto the advocates of the former opinion have had the advantage of numbers and skill in stating their case. And yet one of the most successful states in the world's historythe Romanactually went back to a modified form of kingship; and in every case in which special creative work has been imperative, men have resorted to improvised varieties of the personal rule of which kingship is the supreme type: that is, to dictatorship.
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