58 AXÎÎALS OP BOGEB DB HOVEDEN. A.D 896. orders, he first appointed John to be abbat, a priest and monk, and an ancient Saxon by birth ; the other a noble monastery also near the east gate of Sceaftesbrig," he erected for the reception of nuns, and over it he appointed as abbess his own daughter Ethelgiva, a virgin consecrated to God. These two monasteries he enriched with possessions in land, and riches of every kind. In the year 888, Ethelfrid, archbishop of Canterbury, departed ' this life, and was succeeded by Plegmund. In the year 889, king Guthrum, whom, as I have previously mentioned, king Alfred raised from the font, giving bim the name of Ethelstan, departed this life. He, with his people, dwelt in East Anglia, and was the first who held and possessed that province, after the martyrdom of the king Saint Edmund. In the year 890, AVulpher, archbishop of York, died, in the thirty-ninth year of his archiepiscopate. In the year 892, Hasting, the pagan king, entered the mouth of the Thames, with eighty piratical ships, and threw up fortifications at Middletun.18 In the year 893, Cuthred, king of jSorthumbria, died. The pagans of Northumbria ratified the peace with Alfred by oath. In the year 894, the pagans brought their ships up the river Thames, and after that, up the river Lige,'s and began to throw up their fortifications near the river, at the distance of twenty miles from London. In the year 895, in summer time, a great part of the citizens of London, and a considerable number from the neighbouring places, attempted to destroy the fortifications which the pagans had constructed ; but on their making a stout resistance, the Christians were put to flight, and four of the thanes of king Alfred slain. In the year 896, the army of the pagans in East Anglia and Northumbria, collecting plunder by stealth on the coast, grievously laid waste the land of the "West Saxons, and especially by using long and swift ships, which they had built many years before. To oppose them, by order of king Alfred ships were constructed, twice as long, sharp, and swift, and not so high,20 by the onset of which, the said ships of the 17 Shaftesbury. 18 Milton, near Gravesend. 19 Probably the same as the Limen or Rother, in Rent. 20 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says they were higher.