CHAPTER XV.
THE RECOVERY OF THE NORTH.
The history of the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh consists entirely of the continued contest between the West Saxons and the Scandinavians.

It falls naturally into three periods.

The first is that of the English reaction, when the West Saxon kings, Eadward and AEthelstan, gradually reconquered the Danish North by inches at a time.
The second is that of the Augustan age, when Dunstan and Eadgar held together the whole of Britain for a while in the hands of a single West Saxon over-lord.

The third is that of the decadence, when, under AEthelred, the ill-welded empire fell asunder, and the Danish kings, Cnut, Harold, and Harthacnut, ruled over all England, including even the unconquered Wessex of AElfred himself.
At AElfred's death, his dominions comprised the larger Wessex, from Kent to the Cornish border at Exeter, together with the portion of Mercia south-west of Watling Street.

The former kingdom passed into the hands of his son Eadward; the latter was still held by the ealdorman AEthelred, who had married AElfred's daughter AEthelflaed.