Names of successive bishops occur ; a London mint was founded in the 7th century; but there is little light thrown into the dark ness in which London was engulfed till Bede, writing about 730, draws an unexpected picture of London as the "mart of many nations resorting to it by sea and land." The overlordship of the kingdom of the East Saxons passed successively from Kent to Wessex, to Northumbria, to Mercia, back to Wessex, and again to Mercia, all of which indicates a period of considerable dis turbance. London, "a royal town," was under Coenwulf the cap ital of Mercia in 796, and so remained until in 827 the Saxon kingdoms became united under Egbert, King of Wessex, who established his authority over all England.
The 9th century was an active period of Danish raids which were to disturb England for a century and a half. London fre quently recurs in the brief incisive passages of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle." A fight with the Danes, with great slaughter, occurred in 839 ; in the mid-century the city appears to have been intermittently in Danish hands; and it was the Danes whom Al fred attacked when in 886 he occupied London (gesette Lundun burg—presumably restored its ruinous defences). A governor for London was found in Ethelred, and in the more restful period it enjoyed while England was under Alf red's strong rule London's overseas commerce developed, and the city and port rose to a place of first importance in the kingdom. Evil days returned after Alfred's death in 899.
The tangled record of London in the loth century is one of repeated raids by the warlike Scandinavians. While the surround ing country was harried and plundered, London for the greater part maintained its independence. The city had thrice been destroyed by fire in the 7th and 8th centuries, and was again burnt in 982. Olaf and Sweyn, with 94 ships, besieged it in 994, but the Londoners offered stout and successful resistance. "In wrath and sorrow" the invaders sailed away. The first decade of the i i th century witnessed several attacks, and in 1009 the city was in great jeopardy from the invading army of the Norse earl, Thurkhill. "Glory be to God," says the pious chronicler, "it yet standeth sound." A gallant defence against the Danes was maintained in 1013, but later that year the city fell to Sweyn. Independence was restored under Ethelred, who on Sweyn's death next year was elected king by the English. King Olaf of Norway gave his aid to them, and one of the most charming of Icelandic Sagas describes a battle fought at London bridge.
On Ethelred's death in 1016, the gemot in London chose his son, Edmund Ironside, as king, though the country outside Lon don had accepted Sweyn's son, Canute. London was again be sieged; the citizens repulsed successive attacks, and under Ed mund re-conquered the neighbouring country. Edmund's reign,
however, lasted but seven months, and on his death all England acknowledged Canute as king. The Londoners had no alter native but to "make a truce with the army and buy themselves a peace." London paid tribute to Canute of L10,500, a sum that indicates its importance and, despite the constant hostilities, its wealth, for it represented one-eighth of the payment made by the whole of England. Under that far-sighted monarch peace was assured, London's commerce rapidly developed, and the city definitely established its predominant position in national affairs.
A renewed period of unrest followed Canute's death in 1035. Edward, afterwards known as the Confessor, was chosen king in 1042 by the people assembled in London. In his reign Norman influence strongly permeated the Government. Duke William of Normandy paid England a visit, and according to his subsequent claim, Edward's oath that he should succeed to the kingdom was confirmed by the gemot of London, but evidence of this is want ing. The election of Harold as king at the Confessor's death in Jan. 1066 was a denial of Duke William's pretensions. London sent its hosts to the field of Hastings on Oct. 14, where they fought under the leadership of Ansgar the Stallar, guarding the king's person and standard. In this place of peril it is probable that few of them survived the defeat and rout. William wasted the country through which his army passed, but purposely avoided London, though a detached force of Normans burnt Southwark. His march brought William to Berkhamsted, where he camped, and there in December, two months of ter his victory, he received from a representative body of ecclesiastics and eldermen the submission of London.
Norman and Plantagenet.—Norman London starts with a definite act, the grant by the Conqueror to the citizens of a charter. A narrow strip of parchment 6in. in length, it bears no date. In 1927 A. H. Thomas, Clerk of the Records at Guildhall, skilfully pieced together fragments of a wax seal originally at tached to the document, and it proved to be King William's second Great Seal ; but all probabilities suggest that the grant was made at Berkhamsted or in London immediately after the submission, the formal warrant being delayed. The charter is remarkable in its terms : William, King, greets William, Bishop, and Gosfregdh, Portreeve, and all the burgesses within London, French and English, friendly. And I give you to know that I will that ye be all those laws worthy that ye were in King Eadvvard's day. And I will that every child be his father's heir after his father's day, and I will not suffer that any man offer you any wrong. God help you.