He was victorious, as we know,
and at Ethandune not only broke his pagan foes, but dragged Guthrum,
their leader, to baptism. And in his capital he made and kept the only
record we have of the Dark Ages in England, the "Saxon Chronicle,"
begun in Wolvesey Palace; founded the famous nunnery of St Mary to the
north-east of the Cathedral in the meads; and provided for the
foundation, by Edward his son, of the great New Minster close by, where
his bones at last were to be laid. The three great churches with their
attendant buildings must have been the noblest group to be seen in the
England of that day. Thus Winchester flourished more than ever secure
in its position as capital, so that Athelstan, we read, established
there six mints, and Edgar, reigning there, made "Winchester measure"
the standard for the whole kingdom: "and let one money pass throughout
the king's dominions, and let no man refuse; and let one measure and
one weight pass, such as is observed at London and Winchester."
Such was Winchester at the beginning of the ninth century; before the
end of that century she was to suffer violence from the Danes; and in
the first years of the tenth century to fall with the rest of England
into their absolute power, and to see a Danish king, Canute, crowned in
her Cathedral.
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