Ancient_and_modern_York_a_guide

12 ANCIENT AND
its magnificence and splendour all over the world." York
was amply repaid for all it lost of Roman grandeur ; and
has for ages heen able to boast the possession of a gem
which has no peer,—which we need not fear to leave
alone,
" For the comparison
Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Borne
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come!"
The ravages of the Danes and the intestine strife of the
rival princes during the Heptarchy, present a monotonous
history of disorder, which can be passed by in silence,
with the observation that York was the scene of many of
their bloodiest struggles ; and was swept by alternate
devastators.
When Egbert became king of all England, having
united by conquest the seven kingdoms, a.d. 827, he still
allowed to the Northumbria the power of electing a king,
who paid tribute to him; but Edred, in 951, had himself
inaugurated king of Northumbria, at a Witenagemot (the
original of our parliaments), at which Wulstan, the 16th
archbishop of York, presided, and then reduced North
umbria from a kingdom to an earldom. Osulph was the
first earl or alderman ; and York was still the chief city.
King Edgar, surnamed the wise, upon the death of
Osulph, further sub-divided the earldom. Deira, or
Yorkshire, was assigned to Earl (Mac. The other divi
sion was accorded to Earl Eadulf Evilchild ; and both
chieftains were " girt with swords."*
We find it recorded in the Saxon Chronicle, that in
1055 " died Earl • Siward, at York ; and his body lies
within the minster, at Galmanho,\ which he had himself
ordered to be built and consecrated in the name of God
and St. Olave, to the honour of God and all his saints."
This Siward is invested with more than ordinary interest,
from the fact, that his character has been sketched by
* Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Hist,
t Now Marygate. Bootham bar was formerly called Galinanrhithc.