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ETHELRED. 187

accustomed to keep in pay bodies of Danishtroops, who were quartered about the country,and committed many violences upon the inhabit-ants. These mercenaries had attained to such aheight of luxury , according to the old Englishwriters ”, that they combed their hair once aday, bathed themselves once a week , changedtheir cloaths frequently ; and by all thesearts of effeminacy , as well as by their mili-tary character , had rendered themselves soagreeable to the fair sex , that they debauchedthe wives and daughters of the English , anddishonoured many families. But what mostprovoked the inhabitants, was, that, instead ofdefending them against invaders , they were everready to betray them to the foreign Danes , andto associate themselves with all straggling partiesof that nation. The animosity, between theinhabitants of English and Danish race, had,from these repeated injuries, risen to a greatheight ; when Ethelred, from a policy incidentto weak princes , embraced the cruel resolutionof massacring the latter throughout all hisdominions ". Secret orders were dispatched tocommence the execution every where on thesame day; and the festival of St. Brice, which fellon a Sunday , the day on which the Danes usuallybathed themselves , was chosen for that purpose.It is needless to repeat the accounts transmitted

Wallingford, p. 547.

See note [ D d at the end of the volume.

CHAT

III.

1002.

Nov. 13.

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