parishes spoke English. Theodore was the first archbishop whom
all the English church obeyed. He taught sacred and secular
literature, the books of holy writ, ecclesiastical poetry,
astronomy, arithmetic, and sacred music. The learned
ecclesiastical life flourished in monasteries. Theodore
discourage slavery by denying Christian
burial to the kidnapper and forbidding the sale of children over
the age of seven. Hilda, a noble's daughter, became the first nun
in Northumbria and abbess of one of its monasteries. There she
taught justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity. Several
monks taught there later became bishops. Kings and princes often
asked her advice.

Kings were selected from the royal family by their worthiness.
Vikings made several invasions in the ninth century for which a
danegeld tax on land was assessed on everyone every ten to twenty
years. It was stored in a strong box under the King's bed. King
Alfred the Great unified the country to defeat them. He
established fortifications called "burhs", usually on hill tops
or other strategic locations on the borders to control the main
road and river routes into Wessex. The burhs were the first
towns. They were typically walled enclosures with towers and
several wooden thatched huts and a couple of churches inside.
Earthen oil lamps were in use. The land area protected by each
burh became known as a "shire". The country was called
"Angle-land", which later became "England".

Alfred gathered together fighting men who were at his disposal,
which included ealdormen's hearthband (men each of whom had
chosen to swear to fight to the death for their earldorman, and