Identifier: countiesofenglan01ditc (find matches)
Title: The counties of England, their story and antiquities
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson), 1854-1930
Subjects: Great Britain -- History England -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : G. Allen
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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of Mercia was split up into divisions,each shire being named after its chief town. So the actualboundaries of the county were determined, and the districtwas called the Shire of Oxford. Edward the Elder at last checked the ravages of theDanes, and for a time the land had peace. Kirtlingtonwas the scene of a great council in 977, when there wasa great concourse of thanes and bishops. At the closeof the century the Danes renewed their plundering.Ethelred the Unready tried to buy them off, and thenin 1002 on St. Brices Day ordered their massacre.Oxford was the scene of a terrible slaughter. The Danes 1 Some of these ruined towns were Brackley, Stean, near Banbury,Madmarston, King.s Sutton, Chippins; Warden, Stone Green, Hanwell,Burton Dasset, and Chilj^rove. Oxfordshire 353 took refuge in the church of St. Frideswides Monastery,which was set on fire, so that they perished miserably.Their compatriots soon found revenge, and ravaged thecountry and sacked and burnt Oxford. It seems to have
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cv/ty Font in which Edward the Confessor is saidto have been baptized. recovered speedily, for a council was held there in 1015,on which occasion Sigefrith and Morkere, two Danishchieftains, were secretly murdered. Edmund Ironsidesshared their fate a few years later. Gemots were heldVol. I. A2 354 Oxfordshire at Oxford in 1018 and 1036, and here Harold died.Edward the Confessor was an Oxfordshire man, havingbeen bom at Islip, where his mother Emma happened tobe staying, and where there was probably a palace. Thefont in which it was believed that this monarch wasbaptised has been removed to Middleton Stoney, but thestyle of its architecture disproves the truth of the legend.He recognised the place of his birth by bequeathing it tohis Abbey of Westminster. An important council washeld at Oxford in 1065 to decide about the usurpationof Northumbria by Tostig. King Harold decided infavour of Morkere, and this led to the alliance of Tostigwith Hardrada, the battle of Stamford Bridge, thesub

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