Meanwhile certain important changes had occurred. The conquest had been the slow expulsion of a Christian race by a purely heathen race, and the country had returned to something of its old iso lation with regard to the rest of Europe. But before the close of the 6th century Christianity had secured a footing in the S. E. of the island. Ethelbert, King of Kent and suzerain over the kingdoms S. of the Humber, married a Christian wife, Bertha, daughter of Charibert of Sois sons, and this event led indirectly to the coming of St. Augustine. The conversion of Kent, Essex, and East Anglia was followed by that of Northumberland and then by that of Mercia, of Wessex, of Sussex, and lastly of Wight, the contest between the two religions being at its height in the 7th century. The legal and political changes immediately consequent on the adoption of Christianity were not great, but there resulted a more intimate relation with Europe and the older civili zations, the introduction of new learning and culture, the formation of a written literature, and the fusion of the tribes and petty kingdoms into a closer and more lasting unity than that which could have been otherwise secured.
The kingdom, however, was still kept in a state of disturbance by the attacks of the Danes, who had made repeated incursions during the whole of the Saxon period, and about half a century after the unification of the kingdom became for the moment masters of nearly the whole of England. But Alfred the Great, who had ascended the throne in 871, de feated the Danes at Ethandune (887). Guthrum, their king, embraced Chris tianity, became the vassal of the Saxon king, and retired to a strip of land on the E. coast including Northumbria and called the Danelagh. The two imme diate successors of Alfred, Edward (901 925) and Athelstan (925-940), the son and grandson of Alfred, had each to direct his arms against these settlers of the Danelagh. The reigns of the next five kings, Edmund, Edred, Edwy, Edgar, and Edward the Martyr, are chiefly re markable on account of the conspicuous place occupied in them by Dunstan, who was counsellor to Edmund, minister of Edred, treasurer under Edwy, and su preme during the reigns of Edgar and his successor. It was possibly due to his policy that from the time of Athelstan till after the death of Edward the Martyr (978 or 979), the country had comparative rest from the Danes. Dur ing the 10th century many changes had taken place in the Teutonic constitution. Feudalism was already taking root; the king's authority had increased; the folk land was being taken over as the king's personal property; the nobles by birth, or earldormen, were becoming of less im portance in administration than the nobility of thegns, the officers of the king's court. Ethelred (978-1016), who succeeded Edward, was a minor, the gov ernment was feebly conducted, and the incursions of the Danes became more frequent and destructive. A general
massacre of them took place in 1002. The following year Sweyn invaded the kingdom with a powerful army and as sumed the crown of England. Ethelred was compelled to take refuge in Nor mandy; and though he afterward re turned, he found in Canute an adversary no less formidable than Sweyn. Ethelred left his kingdom in 1016 to his son Ed mund, who displayed great valor, but was compelled to divide his kingdom with Canute; when he was assassinated in 1017, the Danes succeeded to the sovereignty of the whole.
Canute (Knut), who espoused the widow of Ethelred, obtained the name of Great, not only on account of his per sonal qualities but from the extent of his dominions, being master of Denmark and Norway as well as England. In 1035 he died, and in England was followed by the other two Danish kings, Harold and Hardicanute, whose joint reigns lasted till 1042, after which the English line was again restored in the person of Edward the Confessor. Edward was a weak prince, and in the latter years of his reign had far less real power than his brother-in-law Harold, son of the great earl Godwin. On Edward's death in 1066 Harold accordingly obtained the crown. He found a formidable opponent in the second cousin of Edward, William of Normandy, who instigated the Danes to invade the N. countries, while he, with 60,000 men, landed in the S. Harold vanquished the Danes, and hastening southward met the Normans near Has tings, at Senlac, afterward called Battle. Harold and his two brothers fell (Oct. 14, 1066), and William (1066-1087) im mediately claimed the government as lawful King of England, being subse quently known as William I., the Con queror. For some time he conducte3 the government with great moderation; but being obliged to reward those who had assisted him, he bestowed the chief offices of government on Normans, and divided among them a great part of the country. The revolts of the native English which followed were quickly crushed, conti nental feudalism in a modified form was established, and the English Church re organized under Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury.
At his death, in 1087, William II., commonly known by the name of Rufus, the conqueror's second son, obtained the crown, Robert, the eldest son, receiving the Duchy of Normandy. In 1100, when William II. was accidentally killed in the New Forest, Robert was again cheated of his throne by his younger brother Henry (Henry I.), who in 1106 even wrested from him the Duchy of Nor mandy. Henry's power being secured, he entered into a dispute with AnseIm the primate, and with the Pope, concerning the right of granting investiture to the clergy. He supported his quarrel with firmness, and brought it to a favorable issue. His reign was also marked by the suppression of the greater Norman nobles in England. In 1135 he died in Normandy, leaving behind him only a daughter, Matilda.