The Saxon kings of the South of England several times attacked the
island with their accustomed unsparing ferocity: particularly
Cerdic, in 530, who replaced the slaughtered British by a colony of
his own countrymen; and Ceadwalla of Murcia, who having seized it
in 686, was so incensed at the idolatry of the inhabitants, that he
resolved at first to extirpate them, and repeople the island with
_Christians!_ but at the intercession of bishop Wilfred, great
numbers saved their lives by submitting to be baptized.

In the ninth and following centuries the island suffered, in common
with the neighbouring coast, from the predatory visits of the
Danes. For a time indeed they were checked by the great Alfred, who
wholly captured or destroyed one large fleet, laden with the spoils
of Hampshire and the Wight: but under the weak and disordered
reigns of his successors, the northern pirates seem to have taken
possession of this defenceless spot as often as they pleased; and
after making it a depot for the plunder of the adjacent counties,
and living freely on the inhabitants, sometimes wantonly burned
towns and villages at their departure.

The island was also severely harrassed by some of the rebellious
Saxon nobles in the reign of Edward the Confessor; but after the
Norman Conquest, its tranquillity was not materially disturbed till
the year 1346, when a party of French landed at St. Helen's; they
were soon repulsed by the islanders, though the warden, Sir
Theobald Russell, was amongst the slain. About this time a variety
of excellent regulations were made by the inhabitants for their
better security: the landholders were by their tenures bound to
defend the castle of Carisbrooke for 40 days at their own charges;
the county of Devon sent for its defence 76 men-at arms, and the