The British nation a history / by George MWrong . ose assailed were prepared to meetsuch attacks. Only, indeed, when these Northmen (Normans) werethemselves supreme in England and in important parts of Franceand Italy did the attacks wholly cease.] England was long divided into a number of smallstates, sometimes at war with each other and with varyingboundaries: the traditional seven kingdoms (the He^jtar-ch^ were not permanent divisions. Xorthuml^ria, witliits two sections of Bernicia and Deira, held from about 39 40 THE BllITISn NATION 600 to 735 the chief i)hice and claimed supremacy, bnt w
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . ose assailed were prepared to meetsuch attacks. Only, indeed, when these Northmen (Normans) werethemselves supreme in England and in important parts of Franceand Italy did the attacks wholly cease.] England was long divided into a number of smallstates, sometimes at war with each other and with varyingboundaries: the traditional seven kingdoms (the He^jtar-ch^ were not permanent divisions. Xorthuml^ria, witliits two sections of Bernicia and Deira, held from about 39 40 THE BllITISn NATION 600 to 735 the chief i)hice and claimed supremacy, bnt washumbled first by its neighbour Mercia and then by theattacks of a new generation of sea-rovers fromtlie north. Before 800 the Danes began tofind out the attractions of England and theweaicness of its people, who had almost aban-doned the sea. The invaders flat-bottomedboats were so light in draft that they took them far upthe rivers into the interior, and, upon landing, their usual The dividedcoudition ofEngland andthe finalsupremacy Danish, hk \ikixi,, Hoat. practice was to seize the available horses, so as to be ableto move rapidly and to retire quickly. At first they weremere robbers and destroyers, Avho burned towns and vil-lages and desolated large areas; but they were shrewdenough to see that England was a better country thantheir own, and in time they resolved to conquer and toliold it. The English were quarrelling among , King of ]\Iercia, Avho died in TOO, tried to reach afinal division of England into three kingdoms—>«orthum-))ria in the north, Mercia in the midlands, and Wessex inthe soutli and west. Eor a time it seemed as if this^arrangement would endure, but Xorthumbria was alreadyweak, and Wessex, proving stronger tluni tlie others, wasable under Egbert, to humble ilercia in S29, and to takethe first place. Her remoteness made her less subject to
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