Conquest帝国征程(5)

Anglo-Saxon England was no stranger to invasions. Viking raids had been part of life for a century, but since the days of Alfred the Great, it was a country stable enough to be able to soak them up. The longboats came and went, but still the king's law ran shires. His churches and abbeys were built more beautifully than ever, and a town that would one day be called London was beginning to grow and prosper on the banks of the Thames. And then one invasion succeeded where the others had failed, and there was a Viking on the throne. His name was Canute, the man we remember for trying to hold back the tides. And while he turned Anglo-Saxon England into part of his vast maritime empire, he went out of his way to change nothing.

对于侵略，盎格鲁撒克逊英格兰并不陌生。维京海盗的劫掠已融入其生活长达一个世纪，但自从阿尔弗雷德大帝时代之后，对这足够稳定的国家而言，这些已无关痛痒。维京战船时时来犯，却未能动摇王令于全国的威信，国王的教堂和修道院建得比往日更加美丽。一个日后被称为伦敦的小镇，也开始在泰晤士河畔兴盛繁荣起来。在不断入侵失败后，终于迎来了一次成功。一个维京海盗登上了王位，他名叫卡纽特（卡纽特大帝(995－1035)英格兰、丹麦、挪威及部份瑞典的维京国王），在人们的印象中他是一个能力挽狂澜的人，尽管他将盎格鲁撒克逊人的英格兰，变成了他庞大海洋帝国的一部分，但他并没有刻意去改变什么。