Monastery and Diocess by the Expulsion of its Bishops as he had done the Archbishop Novis our Author's Kinsman for he also tells us that both at this time and long before all the Countries on the South part of Britain did then belong to King Aelfred's Dominions Hemeid with all the Inhabitants of South Wales and Rodri with his six Sons having subjected themselves to his Empire Howel also the Son of Rice King of Gleguising Brochmail and Fermail Kings of Guent being oppressed by the Tyranny of Eadred Earl of the Mercians desired of the King that he would please to take the Dominion over them and be their Protector against their Enemies Also Helised the Son of Teudyr King of Brechonoc being kept under by the power of the said Sons of Rodri sought the Protection of the King as did Anarawd the Son of Rodi together with his Brethren who all at last forsaking the friendship of the Northumbers by which they had received no advantage but rather damage came to the King desiring his favour and were honourably received by him Prince Anarawd being enriched with many great gifts submitted himself to the King's Dominion together with all his Subjects promising to be obedient in all things to his Royal Pleasure neither did they desire the King's Friendship in vain for those who loved to encrease their power obtained it those who desired Money had it those who only sought his Friendship enjoy'd it but all of them did partake of his kindness and protection as far as the King was able to defend them Then our Author further adds That after he had been with the King Eight Months he gave him a grant of Two Monasteries called Ambresbyri in Wiltshire and Banuwelle together with all that was there adding these words That he had not now given these small things but in order to bestow greater on him for some time after he gave him also Exancester now Exeter with all the Lands that belonged to it in West Saxony and Cornwal besides other daily presents too long here to recite which he says he does not relate out of vain Glory but to set forth this King's Liberality Note That by Excester he means only the Abbey Which also as well as his Piety was very great for the King had now order'd two Monasteries to be built the one at Aethelingey the place of his Retreat above-mentioned putting Monks therein of divers Nations because he could then find no Gentlemen nor Freemen of his own Country that would undertake a Monastic Life the other Monastery he built near the East-Gate of Shaftsbury for an Habitation for Nuns over which he made his own Daughter Aethelgova Abbess placing many Noble Virgins there to serve God with her in a Monastic Life All which being finished he then considered how he might further add to what he had already done and therefore being stirred up by the Divine Grace he Commanded his Officers to divide all his Yearly Revenues into two equal parts the first of which he allotted to secular Affairs distributing it to skillful Artificers and Architects who came to him from all parts far and near whom he discreetly rewarded giving every Man according to his Merit And the other half he dedicated to God which he Commanded his Officers to divide likewise into four parts so that one part should be discreetly bestowed upon poor Men of all Nations that came to him a second part was to be reserved for the two Monasteries which he had founded a third for that School which he had made up of many considerable persons of his own Nation as well as Foreigners And which is supposed to have been the University of Oxford And the fourth part was to be sent some Years to the Monasteries in West Saxony and Mercia and other Years to the Churches and Monks serving God in Britain France Cornwall and Northumberland nay as far as into Ireland to each of them by turns according to his present Abilities Nor did he only thus dedicate one half of his Revenues but also one half of the Labours of his Body and Mind to God's Service as hath been already declared Nor was he less exact in all things else he undertook for he was the Great Patron of the Oppressed whose Cause and Defence he almost alone supported having very little assistance from others since almost all the Powerful and Great Men of that Kingdom rather addicted themselves to Secular then Divine imployments and pursued every one his own private Interest without any consideration to the Common good but the King in his Judgments studied the advantage as well of the meaner sort as of the Noble or Great the latter of which did often times in the publick Assemblies of the Ealdormen and Sheriffs pertinaciously quarrel among themselves so that none of them would scarce allow any thing that was adjudged by the said Magistrates in their Courts to be Right and by reason of these obstinate dissentions divers of them were compell'd to appeal to the King which also both sides often desired to do for they found that he diligently enquired into all the Judiciary Sentences that were given throughout his Kingdom and if he found any injustice in them he forthwith sent for the Judges before whom such false Judgments were given and either by himself or else by some trusty Commissioners had those Judges examin'd to know the reason wherefore they had given such unjust Sentences and then enquired whether they had done this through Ignorance or else for Love Hatred or Fear or else for lucres sake but if the Judges protested and it was also found upon Examination that they had passed such Sentence because they were able to judge no better in the Cause then would the King with great moderation reprove their Ignorance and Unskilfulness telling them He wondred much at their presumption in taking upon them the Office of a Judge without having first duly studied the Laws and therefore enjoyned them either to lay down their Imployments or else mmediately to apply themselves to study them with more care Which when they had heard they took this reproof for sufficient punishment and betook themselves to study with all their might so that most of all the Ealdormen who were illiterate from their Youth rather desired to learn the Laws thô with labour then lay down their Imployments but if any one through Age or great incapacity could not profit in those studies he made either his Son or some near Kinsman read to him English Saxon Books when ever he had time repenting that he had not employed his Youth in those Studies and esteeming those Young Men Fortunate who could now be more happily instructed n all Liberal Arts. So far Asser hath given us a particular Account of this King's Life and Conversation both in publick and private But if Andrew Horne in his Book call'd The Mirrour of Justices a great part of which is supposed to be collected from divers ancient Saxon
their own Subjects AND besides this Power owing its Original wholly to Force and not to a Lineal Succession or Election over the rest of those Princes upon whom it was usurped was without any Just or Legal Right and consequently lasted no longer than the Success or at farthest the Life-time of such a Conquering Prince and then it was for a time Extinct until some other of the Seven by the like success of his Arms could set up for the same Power and Greatness SO that at length we found that the best way of Writing this History was to follow the plain and natural Method of our Saxon Annals not only as the most easy for our selves but also for the Reader AND tho perhaps an Objection may be made against this Method viz. That the crowding of so many different Actions done in several Places and under several Kings renders the Work perplexed and difficult to be remembred which I grant is in part true yet to obviate this I have at the end of each of the ensuing Books except the last presented you with exact Chronological Tables not only of the Names of all the Kings contained under each Period but also in what Year of our Lord they began and ended their Reigns so that the Reader by casting his Eye upon any one of them may easily find what Kings lived and reigned together and consequently in which of their Reigns any Action related in the History was performed And now TO come to the fourth Book Bede being the most antient Author that gives us an Account of what was done in this Period and out of whom the Saxon Annals themselves have borrowed almost the greatest part of what they relate concerning those early Times of Christianity I have therefore wholly confined my self to him without having recourse to these Annals or any other unless it be where I find they relate any Action of which he has been wholly silent But in this Period I cannot but mention Stephen Eddi or Heddi a Monk who as Bede tells was one of the first Masters for Singing in the Northumbrian Churches and having been invited by Wilfred Archbishop of York out of Kent for that purpose had so great a Veneration for his Memory that he wrote his Life in Latin in a Stile somewhat better than could be expected from that Age this Treatise having continued in Manuscript in the Library of Sir Jo. Cotton and also of that of Salisbury has lately been published by the Learned Dr. Gale in his last Volume of English Writers and to which I must own my self beholding for many choice Passages relating to the Ecclesiastical as well as Civil State in those Times this Author flourish'd cotemporary with Bede in the Reign of Osric King of Northumberland and died about Anno. Dom. 720. BVT indeed as for the last forty Years or thereabouts viz. from the Time when Bede ceased to write which was Anno Dom. 637. we have been forced to make use of the Annals or else of those of later Writers that have made any Additions to them WHICH Annals since I found them the Store-house or Repository from whence most if not all of our Latin Historians as well those that wrote before as since the Conquest have borrowed the earliest Accounts of our English Saxon Affairs I have by the advice of Persons of much greater Learning and Judgment than my self rather chose to translate and give you them almost entire as I find them in the Edition lately published than to do as most other Writers cite them at second Hand not that I have omitted setting down whatsoever any other Authors have added to these Annals by way of Improvement or Illustration WHEREFORE to avoid stuffing my Margins with unnecessary Quotations I desire my Reader once for all to observe that wheresoever he shall find the Lines Comma'd unless they be before some Speeches or Laws they always denote the Saxon Annals whether expresly mentioned or not as also in all other places tho not Comma'd where no other Writer is cited BVT if some think I have inserted too many Names of Authors into the Body of this History and that it had been better omitted there and put into the Margin or bottom of the Pages to this I answer that intending faithfully to translate these Annals and to make such frequent use of them as I have done there could be no way to distinguish them from other Writers but either by Letters in the Margin or else by setting them in a different Character But as the former would have been a constant and unsightly clog to the Margin so the other would have looked as unhandsome in the Body and especially at the latter end of the Work where these Annals alone take up several whole Pages AND tho in my Citations of Authors I have seldom quoted the Page yet having taken what I write from those who have wrote in a Chronological Method the Reader by turning to the Years of our Lord may easily find what he looks for making some small allowance for different Accounts and where other Authors have not taken that Course I have there quoted the Chapter or Book and in matters of greater Moment the very Page BVT that even the Annals themselves do vary from each other in Account of Time often one and sometimes two or three Years that is to be ascribed either to the fault of the several Amanuenses or else to the different Calculations of those Monks who drew them up in the Form we now have them as any may easily perceive that will give himself the Trouble to compare the various Readings of the several Copies of these Annals lately published at Oxford by the Ingenious Mr. Edmund Gibson IN the fifth and sixth Books as I have endeavoured faithfully to translate the same Annals so I have also used that Liberty as not slavishly to confine my self to the very Words themselves when either the Obscurity or Vncouthness of the Phrase would not bear a literal Translation but I thought I could give them a better turn AND here as also in the two preceding Books I have often added by way of Illustration to the Text the present proper Names of Places in a Parenthesis immediately after the obsolete Saxon ones as also the Titles of the Ealdormen or Earls Bishops and Abbots out of Florence of Worcester and other Authors where the Annals have only given their bare Names without telling us to what Places they belonged and here likewise I would note That in all Saxon words where the Letter C is made use of it is always pronounced like K there being no K in that Language And as for the Saxon Names of Men made use of in the Annals I have as near as I could faithfully kept to the Saxon Original tho they often differ very much in their way and manner of spelling them from that of those Latin Authors that translate them HAVING thus given you a short Account of the several
extant only write of the Affairs of Britain occasionally and as they stood intermix'd with other Parts of the Roman History Hence we find that they rarely mention the Affairs of Britain but by the bye when an Expedition occasioned by some fresh Rebellion or sudden Commotion oblig'd them either to come in Person or to send Forces over hither Nor is there any Author except Tacitus in his Life of Agricola who expresly treats of the whole Government or Actions of any one Lieutenant of all those that govern'd here whence it is that we have so imperfect an Account of the Civil State of this Island or what particular Laws were made for the Government of it whilst it continued part of the Roman Empire farther than we may pick up from some Laws dispersed here and there in the Code and Digest or else from the Notitiae of the Roman Empire To which may be also added that which is yet worse than all the rest the great Loss Civil Knowledge has undergone by the perishing of so many excellent Histories both in Greek and Latin so that whoever pleases to survey them will find of those few that remain scarce one of them is come to us entire but has lost some considerâ—ble Part or other All which if we had them together would without doubt make a Compleat Roman History of this Island which now it is impossible to perform having nothing left us during several Emperors Reigns but some lame Epitomes or immethodical Lives in the Historiae Augustae This I premise that you should not wondeâ— if you find such large gaps in this Period as to things perform'd in Britain during several Successions of Roman Emperors So that if it were not for some old Altars and votive Inscriptions that have been dug up of late Years in divers Places of this Island we could not certainly have known any further than by guess that those Emperors whose Names are there mentioned had any thing to do here and as for Geoffrey of Monmouth and those few Modern Writers who take upon them to treat of these Matters they are so false and uncertain that they are rarely to be relied upon and indeed never to be made use of but when we are at a loss for any other Account of those Times So that this as I suppose hath bin the Reason why some of our late English Historians for want of other Matter have stuffed out their Histories not only with what the Roman Emperors did in Gaul or Britain but all the other Parts of the Roman Empire where they had occasion to make Wars which is indeed rather to give a General History of the then known World than of one single Island or Province But since I intend to confine my self only to write of such Actions as were perform'd within the compass of this Isle either by the Roman Emperors or their Lieutenants during the time they govern'd here I shall rather chuse sometimes to leave a gap in the Story it self than to write Things foreign and impertinent to the Subject I am to treat of And indeed I could willingly have forborn Writing this Part of the History at all since it hath been done already by Mr. Camden in Latin and Mr. Milton in English who have scarce omitted any thing which is worth the Collecting out of the Greek and Latin Historians that was necessary to compleat this Period Therefore were it not for leaving too great a Chasm in our intended Work I could very willingly have excused my self from so ungrateful a Task in which I confess it is hard to equal and much more to exceed such great Authors But since I find there is a Necessity in order to render the History entire to give an Account of what was done in this Island during the Roman Empire I shall perform it as well as I am able But that I may follow Caesar's Example give me leave from him as well as other Greek and Roman Authors to give you a short Account of the Religion and Manners of the antient Britains as well in Caesar's Time as some Ages after before we say any thing of his Expedition hither That Great Man in the Fifth Book of his admirable Commentaries tells us that in his Time there were in Britain a vast number of Men and Cattel the Houses thick and built almost like to those of the Gauls that they used Copper or Iron-Plates weighed by a certain Standard instead of Money That they counted it against their Religion so much as to taste of a Hare Hen or Goose. And a little after proceeds thus Of all People those which inhabit Kent were most human neither differ'd much from the Gallick Customs The more Inland People for the most part sowed no Corn but lived upon Milk and Flesh being cloathed with Skins But all the Britains stain'd themselves with Woad which made them of a blewish colour and thereby of a more terrible aspect in Battel They wore long Hair but shav'd all the rest of their Bodies besides the upper Lip Ten or twelve Men had Wives among them in common chiefly Brethren with Brethren and even Parents with their Children but the Children that were got by them were looked upon as theirs by whom those Women were taken in Marriage As for their manner of Fighting I shall leave that to be related when I come to Julius Caesar's War in Britain Strabo in his Geography tells us That the Britains exceeded the Gauls in Stature he having seen some of them at Rome who were half a Foot higher than the tallest Men there but that they were looser made He says farther That they were like the Gauls in Disposition but more simple and barbarous so that some of them knew not how to make any Cheese though they abounded in Milk and that divers of them were ignorant of dressing Gardens as well as other Parts of Husbandry That they had many distinct Governments among them their Woods serv'd them instead of Cities for with Trees cut down when they had inclos'd a large Circle they build themselves Cottages and Stables for their Cattle within it though for no very long time Diodorus Siculus describes the Britains to be Aborigines and living after the Manner of the Antients and in Fight using Chariots like the Greek Heroes in the Trojan War that they made their Houses for the most part of Reeds or Wood that they laid up their Corn in the Ear in Granaries from whence they fetch'd as much as would serve for one Day 's Use that they were simple and uncorrupt in their Manners Strangers to the Craft and Subtilty of that Age and liv'd content with very mean Diet and Apparel remote from Riches and Luxury that attends them and that the Isle abounded in a multitude of Men who were subject to divers Kings and Princes Pomponius Mela in his Treatise de Scitu Orbis relates That Britain produced much People and divers Kings but that they were all rude
Britains under the Name of Hesus as also Camulus as Mr. Camden proves from a Coin of Cunobelin of which he gives us the Draught being a Man's Head with an Helmet on it and with these Letters CAMU The next God of the Britains was Apollo Worshipped by them under the Name of Beleus or Belinus as appears by a Passage of Julius Capitolinus in his Life of Maximin He is also suppos'd to have bin called Belatucadrus there being divers Altars and Inscriptions dug up of late Years out of the Earth all of them with this Title DEO BELATUCADRO which Name seems to be deriv'd from the Assyrian God Bel or Belus As for Goddesses they Worshipped Diana under the Name of Camma Another Goddess the Britains had who is call'd by Dion Andraste or Andrate and is suppos'd to have bin the Goddess of Victory she had a Temple at Camalodunum now Maldon in Essex As for their Sacrifices though they were most often Beasts at sometimes they also Sacrific'd Men as Caesar expresly tells us and Tacitus relates That it was usual for the Britains to consult the Gods by the Entrails of Men Pliny also tells us That the Misletoe growing upon an Oak being cut with many Ceremonies was made use of in all their Sacrifices and other Religious Rites and also says that Britain in his time did so Superstitiously cultivate Magick Arts and that with so many Ceremonies that they might have communicated it even to the Persians themselves These are the chief Things which antient Authors have left us concerning the British Customs and Manners relating either to their Religious Civil or private Life which if it seem tedious to you may be passed by So I now come to my main Design and give you Caesar's own Account of his first Invasion of Britain out of the Fourth and Fifth Books of his Commentaries Julius Caesar having now subdued most part of Gallia and quieted the Germans and stopped their Incursions into his Province resolv'd on an Expedition into Britain his Pretences were these That the Britains had underhand sent Supplies to the Cities of Armorica who the Year before had revolted from his Obedience and had joined with the rest of Gaul in a general and dangerous Rebellion and not only so but that they had received into their Protection the Bellovaci his Enemies who had fled to them for aid These Caesar there assigns as the Causes to justifie this Invasion But though these were the seeming Causes that moved Caesar to this sudden Expedition yet certainly a Soul so great as his could not be tempted by the mean hopes of getting the British Pearls to so dangerous a War as Suetonius in the Life of Caesar supposes though he mentions his comparing their weight and largeness by poising them in his Hand yet I will not deny but he might even propose the getting of these as a Bait to encourage his Souldiers in this Enterprize By his past as well as future Actions we may guess that besides Glory his main Design in Invading Britain was to inure his Souldiers to Hardship and to accustom them to the most uncouth and barbarous Enemies that they might not be afterwards terrified at the most dangerous Enterprizes but wholly depend upon his Fortune and Conduct Caesar therefore although Summer was almost spent and Winter coming on very early in the Northern Parts of Gaul yet resolved to pass over into Britain and if the time of the Year should not suffer him to make War yet he thought it might be to good purpose if he should but Land upon the Island and understand the Natures of the Inhabitants and come to know the chief Places Harbors and Accesses to it all which he says were as yet unknown to the Gauls for besides Merchants no Body commonly went thither and even to those scarce any thing was known besides the Sea-coast and those Countries which were opposite to Gallia Therefore though the Merchants were called together from all Parts yet could he not understand what Nations they were that inhabited it nor what sort of War they made nor what customs they used nor what Ports were fitting to receive a Fleet of great Ships Though by the way this seems very strange if it were true as they of Rhemes told Caesar that Divitiacus King of the Soissons had a little before held Britain also under his dominion besides the Belgian Colonies which he affirms to have named and Peopled many Provinces there as also what he tells us in the Sixth Book of his Commentaries that those who desired to know the Druids Discipline went thither Yearly on purpose to learn it But be this as it will he thought it necessary before he exposed his own person to send Ca. Volusenus thither with one Galley to discover these things commanding him to return as soon as this could be effected whilst he with all his Forces marched towards the Country of the Morini now the Province of Picardy Because thence was the shortest cut into Britain hither he draws together his Ships from all parts of the neighbouring Provinces as also that Fleet which he had built last Summer for the Armorican War in the mean time when his design was made known being carried over by the Merchants into Britain Ambassadours came to him from divers Princes and States of this Island who promised to give Hostages and to obey the Roman Empire All which being heard Caesar as largely promising and exhorting them to continue still in that mind sent them back and with them Comius of the Atribates now called the Country of Arras whom upon the conquest thereof he had made King and of whose Courage and Fidelity Caesar was very well assured him he enjoyns that he should go to as many of the States as he could and perswade them to come into the Roman Interest and should also inform them that he himself would speedily come over thither But Volusenus having only surveyed the Country at a distance which was all he could do since he durst not go out of his Ship nor trust himself with these Barbarians on the Fifth day return'd to Caesar and related to him whatsoever he had there observed Caesar having settled the Morini by taking Hostages of them then gathered together about Eighty Ships of burthen which he judged sufficient for the transporting of two Legions but all his Gallies he distributed to his Quaestor and Lieutenants there were also Eight Ships of burthen more which lay Wind bound at a place Eight Miles distant so that they could not reach the same Port These he appointed for the Horse the rest of the Army he committed to Q. Titus Sabinus and L. Aurunculus Cotta with orders to march into the Country of the Menapii and into those Towns of the Morini from whence Ambassadours had not yet come to him But P· Sulpicius Rufus his Lieutenant he commands to keep the Port with a sufficient Garrison All things being thus dispatched and having now got a fair
BRITANNIAE but the greatest work done by him in this Island was the building of a Wall Fourscore Miles in length cross the Island from Solway Frith upon the Irish Seas to the Mouth of Tine by New Castle on the German Ocean laying the Foundation thereof with huge Piles and Stakes driven deep into the Earth and fastned together in manner of a strong Rampire or Mound this he did to keep out the Caledonians from infesting the Roman Province who could not it seems be contained within those farther Fortifications raised by Agricola between Glota and Bodotria now the Friths of Edinburgh and Dun Britton by which the Northern and more Barbarous Britains had more room to inhabit and quitting those colder Countries inclosed only the warmer and richer parts of the Island by which means the bounds of the Empire as well in Britain as the East were reduced to more convenient compass In the Reign of this Emperour Priscus Licinius was also Propraetor or Lieutenant in this Island as appeareth by an Antient Inscription lately found near this Wall which mentions this Licinius to have been not only Propraetor of Britain but also before of Capadocia and to have been Praefect over the Fourth Legion as also to have been honoured with a Military Banner by Hadrian in his Jewish Expedition as may be seen at large in this Inscription in Mr. Camden's Britannia I have nothing to add in this Reign relating to Britain more than that Geoffrey of Monmouth makes King Marius to have dyed about the Year of our Lord 132 and to have left the Kingdom to his Son Coil who loved the Romans and was honoured by them so that paying his Tribute and receiving their protection he filled up a long and peaceable Reign governing Britain many Years To Hadrian succeeded Antoninus Pius at whose first coming to the Throne that Law was made whereby all the Subjects of the Roman Empire were made free Citizens of Rome by which Edict the Southern Britains within Hadrians's Wall as well as other Provinces enjoyed that Priviledge but the Brigantes ever least patient of Foreign Servitude breaking in upon Genoani which Camden guesses ought to be read Guinethia or North Wales then part of the Roman Province were with the loss of much of their Territory driven back by Lollius Urbicus Lieutenant here who drew another Wall made of Earth and Piles beyond the former Wall of Adrian and as Mr. Camden proves from Capitolinus extending it self between the Friths of Dunbritton and Edinburgh kept out the Incursions of the Northern Britains for these Atchievements this Emperor received the Sir Name of Britannâ—cus thô the War was managed by his Lieutenant it is also recorded in the Digest that Seius Saturninus had then the charge of the Roman Navy on the British Shore Marcus Aurelius Antoninus called also the Philosopher succeeded Antoninus Pius having been before by him adopted and declared Caesar in whose Time Britain impatient of Foreign Subjection again raised new Commotions for the appeasing whereof Calphurnius Agricola was sent Lieutenant the Sir-name of Agricola no doubt was terrible to the Britaâ—ns who could not but remember the great overthrows they had received formerly under a General of that Name and indeed these Commotions lasted not long after his arrival but seemed to have been ended with Fortunate success for which it is likely there was made that Inscription Ingratititude to the Syrian Goddess which has been of late Years dug up out of the Earth near Adrian's now called the Picts Wall but this is more certain that the glory of having dispatched this War so soon is by Fronto the Roman Orator ascribed to this Prince in a Panegyrick made in his Praise where he tells him that although sitting at home in his Pallace at Rome he had given Commission to another General for the War yet like the Pilot of a Galley sitting at the Stern and guiding the Helm he deserved the Honour of the whole Expedition Nothing else is recorded of Britain during Antoninus his Reign saving that Helvius Pertinax afterwards Emperour was employ'd in these Wars being called hither from his Service against the Parthians and here for some time afterwards remained Lieutenant About the end of this Emperours Reign according to Geoffrey Coil the Tributary King of the Britains dying left his Son Lucius for his Successor who by Nennius is called Lhes and Sir-named by the Britains Lever Maur that is the Great Light To Marcus Aurelius succeeded Commodus his Son having before been made partner of the Empire with his Father in the beginning of whose Reign King Lucius above mentioned is by Bede supposed to have sent to Eleutherius then Bishop of Rome desiring that by his means he might be made a Christian the relation you may find more at large in Arch-Bishop Ushers De Brit. Eccles. Ant. from the old Book of Landaffe which relates this King sent Two Embassadours to the Pope beseeching him that by his means he might be made a Christian and he did not long after obtain his request and so the Britains till the time of Dioclesian maintained the Christian Faith without any disturbance this is the Account which Bede hath given us though there are other but more Modern Historians that take upon them to give a much different and larger relation of this matter and do not only take upon them to tell us the Message but also who where the Messengers that carried it The old Book of Landaffe as also divers other Monkish-writers call them Eloanus and Medwinus but Will. of Malemsbury in his Antiquities lately printed at Oxford of the Monastery of Glastenbury calls them Faganus and Deravianus and others Faganus and Damianus yet though they differ about the Names of these Men they all agree that these being sufficiently instructed in the Christian Faith and Baptized were sent back to Preach the Gospel here who at their return converted King Lucius and his whole Kingdom to Christianity but as for the story it self it is thought by several learned Men to be of very suspicious Credit for thô Bede places Lucius his writing to the Pope in the Year of our Lord 156 and in the Reign of Marcus Antoninus Verus and Aurelius Commodus his Brother yet it is certain from the best accounts in Chronology that neither Antoninus then succeeded to the Empire nor was Eleutherius chosen Pope till near Twenty Years after that time and besides all this there is so great a difference amongst our Historians as well Antient as Modern about this matter that Arch Bishop Usher has given us above Twenty different accounts some whereof differ from this of Bede as also from each other some Twenty some Thirty Years nay some Forty and others near Fifty Years only this must be acknowleged that they all agree that such an Embassie was sent by Lucius in the Papacy of Eleutherius and that the Pope returned such an answer
any other Writer and the Age also being become very Corrupt and Ignorant during the frequent Wars and Revolutions that happen'd in this part of the Island It is not to be expected that we should be able to set down the Names of any Bishops or others Remarkable in this last Age for Piety or Learning So having given as good an Account as I am able and as the broken History of those Times will allow of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire in Britain and the State of Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil during the space of near 490 Years that the Romans had to do here I shall in the next Book give you a Prospect of the lamentable State of this part of Britain after the departure of the Romans and that the Britains had set up Princes of their own Nation The End of the Second Book THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK III. From its Desertion by the Romans to the Preaching of Christianity by AUGUSTINE the Monk being One hundred Sixty two Years BEING now come to the Third Period of this First Volume it is fit we say somewhat by way of Introduction before so great a Change as you will here find to have followed the Desertion of Britain by the Romans For with the Roman Empire fell also what before were chiefly Roman Learning Valour Eloquence and Civility and consequently History too which is but the Product of these all which at first encreasing by means of the Roman Power and Encouragement did also diminish and decline upon its Departure till it was at last quite extinct by the coming in of the Pagan Saxons and the long cruel Wars they made upon the Britains as you may observe from the barbarous Latin of Gildas and Nennius which are the only Authentick British Historians that are now extant As for the English Saxons they were at first so illiterate that it is much doubted whether they had the use of Letters and Writing among them or not since we have no Histories or Annals of their Times elder than their receiving Christianity for thô there are some few Stones to be found in England inscribed with the ancient Runick Characters as appears from the late English Edition of Mr. Camden's Britannia yet that they are wholly Danish Monuments and made after the time of their Conversion I need only refer you to the Inscriptions themselves as they are to be found in the said Britannia with the Additions that follow it so that it ought not to seem strange that the Saxon Annals are so short and obscure in many places and that the Relations of Things done before the entrance of Christianity among them are contradictory to each other in point of Time and other Circumstances since they were only delivered by Memory and Tradition which must be acknowledged for a very uncertain Guide in Matters of Fact as well as of Doctrine Nor is this Uncertainty to be found only in the Saxon Chronicles but also in those of the Britains of that Age since from the Reign of King Vortigern to that of Cadwalladar is indeed the darkest and most confused part of all the British or Welsh History Hence it is that we are forced in this Period not only to make use of Authors who lived long after the Things they treat of were done but also are otherwise of no great Credit such as Nennius and Geoffery of Monmouth whom we sometimes make use of for want of those of better Authority As for the English Saxon History we have nothing more ancient than Bede and the Saxon Chronicle which we shall here give you almost entire since it seems to be writ faithfully as far as it goes yet being only Annals extracted out of Bede as far as he goes they barely relate the Succession of their Kings with their chief Wars and Actions without expressing the Grounds or Causes of either or giving us any Account of their particular Laws and original Constitutions so that I confess they cannot prove so Instructive to Humane Life as is required of a just History Britain being thus deserted by the Romans as you have seen in the last Book with an intention to return no more and having caused the Britains to rebuild the Wall in the manner already related the Scots and Picts thô in Manners differing from each other yet still unanimous to rob and spoil hearing that the Roman Forces were withdrawn landed in Shoals out of their Curroghs or Leathern Vessels in which they passed over that part of the Irish Sea which lying next Britain is called by Gildas The Scythic Vale these upon the Assurance that the Romans would never return becoming more bold than ever took possession of all the Northern Parts even from the outmost Bounds of the Land as far as the Wall already mentioned in the mean time the Guards which were placed upon it to defend it being cowardly in Fight and unable to fly stood trembling on the Battlements keeping their Stations day and night to little or no purpose whilst the Enemy from below with long Hooks pluck'd them down and dashed them against the Ground thus preventing by a speedy Death those languishing Torments which attended their Country-men and Relations In short both the Wall and the Towns adjoyning to it being deserted the Inhabitants saved themselves by flight which yet could not long secure them for the Enemy pursuing them a fresh Slaughter quickly followed more bloody than the former and which was worse than all the rest being tormented with Famine to get Subsistence they fell upon and robbed each other for they who came from the North as may probably be supposed and had fled from the Enemy being unable to pay for their Quarters when they came into the Southern Parts seized what they could find from whence rose Discords and Quarrels among them and thence Civil Wars for this Nation as Gilda◠observes thô feeble in repressing Foreign Enemies yet in home-bred Quarrels was very bold and obstinate But whilst they thus for some Years wore themselves out with continual Acts of mutual Hostility the Famine grew General upon all so that those half-starved Men that remained were forced to maintain their Lives with what they could get by Hunting so that at last the miserable Remnants of this afflicted People having now no other Remedy left were constrained to write doleful Letters to Aetius then the Emperour's Lieutenant in Gaul directed To Aetius thrice Consul the Groans of the Britains wherein they thus complain The Barbarians drive us to the Sea whilst the Sea driveth us back to the Barbarians between these two sorts of Deaths we must be either slain or drown'd What Answer they received is uncertain but Gildas expresly tells us That they received no Assistance by those Letters because Aetius then expected a War with Attilla King of the Huns. And indeed about these Times a terrible
afraid least by the Miracles that were now wrought his Mind might be puffed up by vain Glory Therefore that he ought still to remember that when the Disciples returning from their preaching with joy said to their Heavenly Master Lord in thy name the Devils be subject unto us they presently received a rebuke rejoyce not for this but rather rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven Bede also tells us That Pope Gregory about this time sent King Ethelbert many noble Presents together with a Letter full of good Advice and Instructions Exhorting him to cultivate that Grace which he had received by the especial providence of God to make haste to propagate the Christian Faith among his Subjects to increase the fervency of his own Faith by furthering their Conversion to destroy the Worship of Idols to establish the Manners of his Subjects in the purity of Life by Exhorting Encouraging and Correcting them and by shewing himself as Example of good Works that so he may find his Reward in Heaven Then proposing to him the Example of Constantine the Emperour who had freed the Common-Wealth from Idols to the Worship of our LORD Jesus Christ advising him to hearken to and perform the good Advice which should be given him by Augustine the Bishop and that he should not be troubled in Mind if he should see any Terrours or Prodigies from Heaven contrary to the ordinary course of the Seasons as Tempests Famine and the like since the Lord had already foretold that such things should happen before the end of the World then concludes with wishing a more perfect Conversion of the whole Nation and that God would preserve and perfect him in the Grace he had begun and after a course of many Years would receive him into the fellowship of the Saints above These Letters bear the same date with the former and so must be wrote in the same Year I have dwelt the longer on these things to let you see that the primitive Christian Temper had not yet left the Bishops of the Roman Church thô infected with some Superstitions Let us now return to our Civil History from which we have so long digressed About this time when Ethelbert and his People were wholly taken up in Acts of Piety Ethelfrid still govern'd the Kingdom of Northumberland who being a Warlike Prince and most ambitious of Glory had wasted the Britains more than any other Saxon King of his time winning from them divers large Territories which he either made Tributary or planted with his own Subjects whence Adian as Bede or Aedan or Aegthan as the Saxon Chronicle calls him growing Jealous of Ethelfred's great Success came against him with a great and powerful Army to a place called Degsa-stan or Degstan and was there routed losing most of his Men but in this Battel Theobald the Brother of Ethelfrid was slain that part or wing of the Army which he commanded being unfortunately cut off yet nevertheless the loss was so great on the Scotish side that no King of the Scots durst any more in hostile manner march into Britain to the time that Bede wrote his History which was above a Hundred Years after He also tells us That this happned in the first Year of the Reign of the Emperour Phocas Buchanan in his Scotch History writes that this Ethelfrid assisted by Keawlin whom he mistiles King of the East instead of the West-Saxons had before this time fought a Battel with this Adian wherein Cutha Keawlin's Son was slain but neither the Saxon Chronicle nor any of our English Historians mention any such thing for this Cutha as appears by the said Chronicle was slain in the Year 584. fighting against the Welsh The number of Christians beginning now to multiply not only in Kent but other Countries Augustine found it necessary to ordain two other Bishops Mellitus and Justus sending Mellitus to Preach the Gospel to the Kingdom of the East Saxons which was divided from that of Kent by the River Thamesis over which Nation Sebert the Son of Richala the Sister of K. Ethelbert then Reigned thô under his Authority for he had then the supreme command over all the Nations of the English Saxons as far as the Banks of Humber but when this Province had by the preaching of Mellitus received the Gospel of Christ K. Sebert also baptized Ethelbert caused the Church of St. Paul to be built at London where Mellitus and his Successours should fix their Episcopal See But as for the other Bishop Justus Augustine ordained him Bishop in the Kingdom of Kent of a certain little City then called Rofcaester now Rochester being about Twenty Miles from Canterbury in which King Ethelbert built the Church of St. Andrew and bestowed good endowments on it Hitherto Augustine had laboured only to convert Infidels but now he took upon him by vertue of his Archiepiscopal or rather Legatine Authority which the Pope had conferr'd upon him over all the Bishops of Britain properly so called to make a general Visitation of his Province and coming as far as the borders of Wales being assisted by the power of King Ethelbert he summoned all the British Bishops of the adjoyning Provinces to a Synod at a place called in Bede's time Augustines Ake or Oak then Scituate on the confines of the Wecti now the Diocess of Worcester and the West Saxons supposed to be somewhere on the edge of Worcester-shire and began to perswade them by brotherly Admonitions that they would maintain the Catholick Unity and also joyn in the work of Preaching the Gospel to the Infidel Nations For there was then a great difference between them about the Rule of keeping Easter which Bede tells us The Britains did not keep at a right time but observed it from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Day of the Moon which Computation is continued in a Cycle of Eighty Four Years which account being somewhat obscure I shall for the clearing of it set down what the learned Bishop of St. Asaph hath given us upon this subject in his Historical Account of Church Government already cited in the last Book where he takes notice that this Cycle of Eighty Four Years which was also called the Roman Account so lately as in Pope Leo's Time the Scots and South Picts used the same Cycle from the time of their Conversion and so did the Britains without any manner of alteration but about Eighty Years after the rending in pieces of the Roman Empire the Romans having left off the use of that Cycle took up another of Nineteen Years which though it was better in many respects yet was new in these Parts and made a great difference from the former and when the Romans had used this new Cycle another Eighty Years coming then to have to do with these Northern Nations who were yet ignorant of it they would needs impose the use of it upon them as a necessary condition of their
assistance to revenge their quarrel which happen'd the next Year as the same Authour relates For This Year not long before the Death of King Egfrid that Holy Man Cuthbert was by the same King ordered to be ordained Bishop of Lindisfarne thô he was at first chosen to be Bishop of Hagulstaed instead of Trumbert who had been before deposed from that Bishoprick yet because Cuthbert liked the Church of Lindisfarne better in which he had so long convers'd Eatta was made to return to the See of Hagulstad to which he was at first ordained whilest Cuthbert took the Bishoprick of Lindisfarne But I shall now give you from Bede a farther account of the Life of this good Bishop he had been first bred in the Monastery of Mailross and was afterwards made Abbot of the Monastery of Lindisfarne retiring from whence he had for a long time lived the Life of an Anchorite in the Isle of Farne not far distant but when there was a great Synod assembled King Egfrid being present at a place called Twiford near the River Alne where Arch-Bishop Theodore presiding Cuthbert was by the general consent of them all chosen Bishop who when he could not by any Messages or Letters be drawn from his Cell at length the King himself with Bishop Trumwin and other Noble and Religious Persons sailed thither where they at last after many intreaties prevailed upon him to go with them to the Synod and when he came there thô he very much opposed it yet he was forced to accept the Episcopal Charge and so was consecrated Bishop the Easter following and after his Consecration in imitation of the blessed Appostles he adorned his calling by his good Works for he constantly taught the People commited to his Charge and incited them to the love of Heaven by his constant Prayers and Exhoâ—tations and which is the chief part of a Teacher whatsoever he Taught he himself first practised so having lived in this manner about Two Years being then sensible that the time of his Death or rather of his future Life drew near he again retired to the same Island and Hermitage from whence he came The same Year also King Egfrid rashly lead out his Army to destroy the Province of the Picts thô his Friends and principally Bishop Cuthbert did all they could to hinder it and having now entred the Country he was brought before he was aware by the feigned flight of his Enemies between the streights of certain inaccessible Mountains where he with the greatest part of his Forces he had brought with him were all cut off in the Fortieth Year of his Age and the Fifteenth of his Reign And as the Year aforegoing he refused to hear Bishop Cuthbert who diswaded him from invading Ireland which did him no harm so Bede observes it was a just Judgment upon him for that Sin that he would not hear those who would then have prevented his Ruine From this time the Grandeur and Valour of this Kingdom of the Northumbers began to decline for the Picts now recovered their Country which the English had taken away and the Scots that were in Britain with some part of the Britains themselves regain'd their Liberty which they did enjoy for the space of Forty Six Years after when Bede wrote his History But Alfred Brother to this King succeeding him quickly recovered his Kingdom thô reduced into narrower bounds He was also a Prince very well read in the Holy Scriptures The same Year as the Saxon Annals relate Kentwin King of the West-Saxons dying Ceadwalla began to Reign over that Kingdom whose Pedegree is there inserted which I shall refer to another place and the same Year also died Lothair King of Kent as Bede relates of the Wounds he had received in a Fight against the South Saxons in which Edric his Brother Egbert's Son Commanded against him and reigned in his stead This Year also according to the Annals John was consecrated Bishop of Hugulstad and remained so till Bishop Wilfrith's return but afterwards Bishop Bosâ— dying John became Bishop of York but from thence many Years after retired to his Monastry in Derawnde now called Beverlie in York-shire This Year it rained Blood in Britain and also Milk and Butter were now turned into somewhat like Blood You are here to take notice that this Bishop John above mentioned is the famous St. John of Beverlie of whom Bede in the next Book tells so many Miracles But our Annals do here require some farther Illustration for this Ceadwalla here mentioned was the Grandson of Ceawlin by his Brother Cutha who being a Youth of great hopes was driven into Banishment by his Predecessour and as Stephen Heddi in Bishop Wilfrid's Life relates lay concealed among the Woods and Desarts of Chyltern and Ondred and there remained for a long time till raising an Army thô Bede does not say from whence he slew Aldelwald King of the South-Saxons and seized upon his Province but was soon driven out by two of that King's Captains viz. Bertune and Autune who for some time kept that Kingdom to themselves the former of whom was afterwards slain by the same Ceadwalla when he became King of the West-Saxons but the other who reigned after him again set it free from that servitude for many Years from whence it happen'd that all that time they had no Bishop of their own for when Wilfrid return'd home they became subject to the Bishop of the West-Saxons that is of Dorchester which return as the Author of Wilfrid's Life relates happen'd this Year being the Second of King Alfred's Reign who then invited him home and restored him to his Bishoprick as also to his Monastery at Rypun together with all his other Revenues according to the Decree of Pope Agatho and the Council at Rome above mentioned all which he enjoyed till his second Expulsion as you will hear in due time After Ceadwalla had obtain'd the Kingdom he subdued the Isle of Wight which was as yet infected with Idolatry and therefore this King resolved to destroy all the Inhabitants and to Plant the Island with his own Subjects obliging himself by a Vow althô he himself as it is reported was not yet baptized that he would give the Fourth part of his Conquests to God which he made good by offering it to Bishop Wilfrid who was then come thither by chance out of his own Country The Island consisted of about Two Thousand Families and the King bestowed upon this Bishop as much Land there as then maintained Three Hundred Families the Care of all which the Bishop committed to one of his Clerks named Bernwin his Sisters Son who was to Baptize all those that would be saved Bede also adds That amongst the first Fruits of Believers in that Island there were two Royal Youths Brothers who were the Sons of Arwald late King thereof who having hid themselves for fear of King Ceadwalla were at last discovered and by
it is to this Year we are to refer the great Council which Bede tells us was held in the Kingdom of the West Saxons in which after the Death of Bishop Hedda the Bishoprick of that Province became divided into two one whereof was conferred on Daniel who held it at the time when Bede wrote his History and the other was bestowed upon Aldhelm above-mentioned then Abbot of Malmesbury who was now made Bishop of Shireburn and when he was only an Abbot did at the Command of a Synod of the whole Nation write an excellent Book against that Errour of the Britains in not keeping Easter at the due time whereby he converted many of those Britains which were then subject to the West Saxons to the Catholick Observation thereof Of whose other Works likewise Bede gives us there a Catalogue being a Person says he admirable in all Civil as well as Ecclesiastical and Divine Learning and as William of Malmesbury further informs us was the first of the English Saxons who wrote Latin Verses with a Roman Genius There is here in the Saxon Annals a Gap for the space of 3 Years in which I think we may according to H. Huntington's Account place what Bede relates in the Chapter and Book last cited viz. That Daniel and Aldhelm yet holding their Sees it was ordained by a Synodal Decree That the Province of the South Saxons which had hitherto belonged to the Diocess of Winchester should now be an Episcopal See and have a Bishop of its own and so Ceadbert who was then Abbot of the Monastery of Selsey was consecrated first Bishop of that Place who dying Ceolla succeeded in that Bishoprick but he likewise dying some Years before Bede wrote his History that Bishoprick then ceased This Year the Saxon Annals began with the Death of Bishop Aldhelm whom it calls Bishop of Westwude for so Shireburne was then called after whom one Forther took the Bishoprick and this year Ceolred succeeded in the Kingdom of the Mercians for now Kenred King of the West Saxons went to Rome and Offa with him and Kenred remained there to his Live's end and the same year Bishop Wilferth or Wilfred deceased at Undale his Body was brought to Rypon in Yorkshire This is the Bishop whom King Egferth long since forced to go to Rome There being divers Things put very close together under this Year they will need some Explanation This Offa here mentioned was as Bede and William of Malmesbury relate the Son of Sigher King of the East Saxons who being a young Man of a sweet Behaviour as well as handsom Face in the Flower of his Youth and highly beloved by his People and having not long before succeeded to the Kingdom after Sighard and Senfrid above-mentioned he courted Keneswith the Daughter of King Penda whom he desired to marry but it seems not long after their Marriage she over-perswaded him to embrace a Monastick Life so that he now went to Rome for that End And Bede tells us expresly that both these Kings left their Wives Relations and Countries for Christ's sake But to this Offa succeeded Selred the Son of Sigebert the Good in the Kingdom of the East Saxons H. Huntington proposes King Offa as a Pattern to all other Princes to follow and makes a long Exhortation to them to that purpose as if a King could not do GOD better Service nor more Good to Mankind by well-governing his People than by renouncing the World and hiding his Head in a Cell But such was the Fashion or rather Humour of that Age and the Affairs as well as Consciences of Princes being then altogether Govern'd by Monks it is no wonder if they extoll'd their own Profession as the only One wherein Salvation could certainly be obtained But since I have already given you from Bede and Stephen Heddi a large Account of Bishop Wilfred's Life and Actions above-mentioned I shall not need to add any more to it He was certainly a Man who had tried all the Vicissitudes of an adverse as well as a prosperous Fortune having been no less than three times deprived of his Bishoprick the first time unjustly but whether we may say the same of both the other seems doubtful for let his Friends say what they will it is evident he was at first deprived for opposing a very good Design viz. That of dividing the Northumbrian Kingdom into more Diocesses and he having the rich Monastery of Hagulstad under his Charge would not permit it to be made a Bishoprick thô the Diocess was more than he could well manage and this seems to have been the true Original of that great Quarrel between him and the two Kings Egfrâ—d and Alfred as you have already heard so it should seem the Wrong pretended to have been done him was none at all or else such holy Men as St. Cuthbert St. John of Beverlie and Eatta are described to be would never have accepted of the Bishopricks of York and Hagulstad during the time of his Deprivation and it is very strange that two Arch-Bishops successively with the greater part of the Bishops of England should have agreed to his Deprivation if there had not been great Cause for it nor would so holy and knowing a Woman as the Abbess Hilda have been so much against him had not there been some substantial Reason to justifie it but he had the Pope on his side who always encouraged Appeals to Rome and then it was no wonder if he prevailed but he was certainly a Prelate of a high Spirit and great Parts and who building a great many Monasteries by the Benevolence of the Kings and Princes of that Time and himself thô a Bishop being Abbot of two of them at once it was no wonder if he grew very rich which together with his high way of Living being the first Bishop of that Age who used Silver Vessels it procured him the Envy of those Princes but he was a grand Patron of the Monks and therefore it is not to be wondred at if they cried him up for a Saint of whom the Writer of his Life which he Dedicates to Acca his Successour relates too many Miracles to be believed raising the Dead cuting the Lame being very ordinary Feats but the Monks being the only Writers of that Age we must be contented with what Accounts they will give us thô thus much must be acknowledged in his Commendation That he converted great Multitudes to the Christian Faith and caused the Four Gospels to be written in Letters of Gold But having given you this Account of Bishop Wilfred's Life it is fit I say somewhat further of his Death concerning which the Author above-mentioned tells us That having lived 4 Years in Peace after his last Restitution he at last went to visit the Monasteries which he had founded in the South Parts of England where he was received by his Abbots whom he had put in with great Joy till coming to a Monastery which
of their Vessels set upon Three English Ships which lay on the dry ground and Fighting with them there slew Lucomon the King's Admiral and Wulfherd Aebba and Aethelerd being all Frizelanders who it seems then served in the King's Fleet so that of the Frisons and English there were slain Sixty Two of the Danes One Hundred and Twenty But the Tide returning the Danish Ships got away before the English could have out theirs at Sea thô they were so shatter'd that they could scarce reach the Coast of Sussex for two of them were ran on Shore and the Men being brought to the King at Winchester he Commanded them all to be Hang'd But those who were in the Third Ship being very much wounded with great difficulty reached East-England The same Year there perished no less than Twenty of their Ships together with the Seamen near the Southern Coast and then also Wulfred Master of the King's Horse Deceased who was a British or Welsh Gerefe or Governour Aethelm Ealdorman of Wiltshire deceased Nine days before Midsummer and the same Year also Aealhstan Bishop of London dyed This Year according to the Welsh Chronicle Igmond the Dane with a great number of Soldiers Landed in the Isle of Man or Anglesey where the Welshmen gave him Battle at a place called Molerain or Meilon wherein we may suppose the Danes got the Victory for their Chronicle says nothing to the contrary and besides Merwy Son to Rodri King of Powis was there slain Also now King Alfred Deceased six days before the Feast of All Saints He was King over all the English Nation except what was under the power of the Danâ—s But since we are come to the end of this King's Life I shall here give you Florence of Worcester's Character of â—him viz. That Famous and Victorious Warriour King Alfred the Defender of Widows and Orphans the most skillful of all the Saxon Poets who excelled in Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance being as Discreet and Diligent in hearing of Causes and giving Judgments as he was devout in the Service of God was also most Liberal and affable to all Men so that for these Vertues he was highly beloved by his Subjects now died of an Infirmity under which he had long laboured whose Body lies buried in the new Monastery of Winchester in a stately Tomb of Porphyrie But I shall from Asser's History of this King's Life and Actions give you a larger account of him from his Infancy He was as you have already heard born Anno Dom. 849 and had been twice at Rome but after his last Return together with his Father He tells us He was bred up at Court with the great Care and Affection both of his Father and Mother who loved him above the rest of his Brothers because he was not only more Witty and Handsome but also of a sweeter Disposition and it had been well if he could have improved his own excellent Parts by Humane Learning for to his great regret afterwards by the extream fondness of his Parents or by the negligence of those who had the care of his Education he remained till the Twelfth Year of his Age without so much as being taught his Letters only having an excellent Memory he learned by heart several Saxon Poems being repeated to him by others for he had a great and natural Inclination to Poetry as our Authour himself had often observed and as an instance of the quickness of his Parts gives us this Account That one Day when his Mother shewed him and the rest of his Brothers a certain fine Book in Saxon Verse with which they were very well pleased he being taken with the beauty of the Capital Letters at the beginning of it she promised to give it to him that should soonest understand and get it by heart which Alfred undertaking to do he carried it to his Master and not only learned to Read it but also got it without Book and so repeating it to his Mother had the Book given him for his pains after this he also learned the Daily Office and then some Psalms and Prayers by heart which being writ together in a Book he still carried in his Bosome for his daily use But alas England could not then supply him with any fit Tutors in the Liberal Arts which he often complained was one of the greatest hindrances in his Life that at the time when he had most leasure to learn he had no Masters that could teach him and afterwards when he grew more in Years he was troubled with incessant Pains both Night and Day the causes of which were unknown to Physicians but when he came to be King he was then taken up with the cares of the Government and how to resist the Invasions of the Danes so that he had but little time for Study yet notwithstanding all these impediments from his very Child-hood to the day of his Death he never ceased to have an insatiable desire after knowledge insomuch that he did not only at leisure times learn himself but also communicated that learning to others by translating into the English Saxon Tongue Orosius's Roman and Bede's Ecclesiastical Histories the latter of which Versions is Printed but the former is still in Manuscript in the Library of Corpus Christi Coll. Oxon. as also in other places he had likewise begun to Translate the Psalms of David but was prevented by Death from making an end of it But to how low an Ebb Learning was then reduced by the frequent Wars and devastations of the Danes King Alfred himself tells us in his Preface to St. Gregorie's Pastoral that learning was so decay'd in the English Nation that very few Priests on this side of Humber could understand the Common Service of the Church and he knew none South of Thames who could turn an ordinary piece of Latine into English though things were now somewhat better yet that he himself had turn'd this Book into English by the help of Arch-Bishop Plegmond with Grimbald and John his Priests and had sent one of them to every Bishops See in the Kingdom with an Aestel as the Saxon Word is or Stilus as in the Latin Version upon each Book of fifty Mancuses in value charging them in God's Name neither to take away that Aestel from the Book nor any of those Books out of the Church seeing it was uncertain how long there would continue such Learned Bishops as now God be Thanked were in all parts of this Kingdom But how this can consist with the supposed Relation out of Asser concerning the flourishing state of Learning at Oxford before that King 's Founding the University I do not understand But in the Twentieth Year of his Age as soon as he was Married that Distemper took him which held him till about his Fortieth Year the cause whereof being unknown to his Physicians it was supposed by some that he was bewitched and it was so sharp that he feared the
these Princes that here met him from William of Malmesbury Florence of Worcester and other Authors who increase their Number to Eight Thousand which being so glorious for our Nation I shall here set down at large This King was the first who was truly Lord of our Seas for every Summer saith William of Malmesbury immediately after Easter commanding his Ships from every Shore to be brought into one collected Body he sailed usually with the Eastern Fleet to the Western part of the Island and then sending it back sailed with the Western Fleet unto the Northern and thence with the Northern he returned to the Eastern Coasts sailing in this manner quite round the Island being exceeding diligent to prevent the Incursions of Pyrates and couragious in the defence of his Kingdom against Foreigners and diligent in the training up of himself and his People for Military Employments Each of these Fleets as we are told consisted of One thousand and two hundred Ships and these also very stout ones for those times So that the number of all must have amounted to Three thousand and six hundred Sail as some of our Author expresly relate but others Four thousand Vessels and there are some also that add to these Three a Fourth Fleet by which means the Number will be increased to Four thousand and eight hundred Sail as may be seen in Mathew Westminster To sustain which Charge besides the private Contributions of his Subjects he had also in the latter end of his Reign Six Petty Kings under him who were bound by Oath to be ready at his Command to serve him both by Sea and Land which Oath they took at Chester as the Annals relate where he had given them order to meet him as he sailed about the North of Britain with a great Navy Their Names are Kened or Kineth King of the Scots Malcolm King of Cumberland who at this time it seems were so called though as we said the Cumbrians had now thrown off that Title and taken that of Earls Maccuse Lord of the Isles with five Princes of Wales the Names of whom were Dusnal Griffyth Huuald Jacob and Judethil who all meeting him at his Court at Chester to set forth the Splendor and Greatness of his Dominion one day he went into a Galley and caused himself to be rowed by these Petty Princes he himself holding the Stern and steering the Vessel along the River Dee was waited on by all his Nobles in another Barge so he sailed to the Monastery of St. John Baptist where an Oration being made to him in the same State and Pomp he retutned to his Palace Where when he arrived he is said to have told his Nobles about him That then his Successors might boast themselves to be truly Kings of England when they should be like him attended by so many Princes his Vassals as Florence of Worcester and William of Malmesbury relate it As for these Petty Kings above-mentioned Maccuse by the said Florence Matthew of Westminster and R. Hoveden is called a King of Man and many other Islands but William of Malmesbury stiles him an Arch-pirate by which word a Robber is not to be understood but as Asser and others of that Age use that Appellation one skilled in Sea Affairs or a Seaman so called from Pira which in the Attique Tongue signifies a Craft or Art but afterward it came to be applicable only to such as without any Right infested the Seas Another of the Kings and that of Wales was Huual or Hewal who tho he be not placed the first in order yet if we follow the account of some Authors must have been the chief of them all the Prince to whom all the rest performed Obedience The Book of Landaff bids us take notice that at the same time with Edgar lived Howel Dha and Morgan Heu which two yet were the Subjects of King Edgar But in this either that Author or the Chronicle of Caradoc must be mistaken who places the Death of Howel Dha under the year 948 And therefore it is more likely that the Howel here mentioned was not Howel Dha but Howel the Son of Jevaf who had the year before expell'd his Uncle and taken upon himself the Principality of Wales notwithstanding his Father was then alive But as for all the rest of these Welsh Princes I do not know how to make them out from their Chronicles which give no account of this Action only I take Dufnal to be the Son of Howel Dha and as Matthew of Westminster says was then Prince of South-Wales As for Jacob and Judethel I suppose they must have been the same with Jevaf and Jago as they are called in the Welsh Chronicles But as for this Prince Gryffith I can find none such among any of the Welsh Princes ruling at that time But to return to our Annals This year Eadgar King of the English changed this frail Life for another more Glorious on the 18 th day of July But his Body was buried with great Solemnity at the Abby of Glastenbury to which he himself had been a great Benefactor as appears by his Charter recited at large by William of Malmesbury in his Treatise of the Antiquity of that Monastery in which Charter he also stiles himself Totius Britanniae Basileus i. e. King of all Britain But since our Historians are so very large and full in their Commendations of his Prince as that he was most Religious Valiant and Wise and exceeded all his Predecessors except King Alfred and King Athelstan it will not I hope be amiss to shew you how partial these Monks were to the Memory of this Prince who though they will needs have to be a Saint because the either built or repaired so many Monasteries yet was certainly if the same Monkish Writers are to be believed guilty of as great Excesses of Lust and Cruelty as any of his Predecessors for William of Malmesbury tells us that Ordgar Duke of Devonshire had a Daughter named Elfreda fam'd for an extraordinary Beauty which caus'd the King to have great Inclinations for her upon the bare Report made of her to him but to be more certain he sent a Knight called Athelwold his Confident to see her resolving to marry her if she were found to be handsome as she was reported Athelwold made haste and got a sight of her wherewith he was so smitten that he concealed the Errand on which he came and resolved to obtain her for himself which being easily done he lessened her to the King as a Woman but very ordinary and of so small a Stature as would misbecome his Royal Bed so that he married her with the King's consent whose Thoughts were now diverted to other Objects But at last the Earl's Enemies discovered the Intrigue and told the King how he had deceived him and whom the more to enrage they omitted no words whereby to set out and enhance the extraordinary Beauty of the Lady Upon which
Books into which I have divided this Volume I will now proceed to acquaint you with the rest of my Authors from whom I have collected it nor will I give you only their Names which has been done by so many already but a brief Censure of them and their Works and in what Time they wrote being such as lived either before or after the Conquest Of the former sort there are but few since from Bede to Asser. Menev. there flourish'd no general Historian for William of Malmsbury himself confesses that after Bede all liberal Studies more and more declining those that followed spent their Lives in Idleness or Silence yet during even that Period there were some Writers of this kind viz. certain Monks in the greater Monasteries whose business it was to set down in short by way of Annals the most remarkable Passages of their own Times in their own Language nay Learning was in that King's Reign fallen to so low an Ebb that even King Alfred tells us in his Preface to the Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral That in the beginning of his Reign there were few on this side Humber who could understand their own Prayers much less turn a piece of Latin into English and where then were our supposed flourishing Vniversities AND I shall here begin with Asserius Menevensis who was so called because he was a Monk of Menevia or St. Davids This was he who being sent for by King Alfred out of Wales assisted him in his Studies and besides taught his Children and others of the Nobility Latin after this King Alfred sent him with others to fetch Grimbald out of Flanders into England and after the Schools were opened at Oxford the latter there professed Divinity and the former Grammar and Rhetorick as you may find in the Annals of Hyde cited in the ensuing History THIS Monk being Learned above the Age in which he lived first wrote the Annals that go under his Name which having long continued in the Cottonian and other Libraries in Manuscript have been lately published by the Learned Dr. Gale in his last Volume of Historians printed at Oxon. After these Annals it is certain Asser also wrote the whole History of King Alfred's Life under the Title of de Gestis Regis Aelfredi which were first published by the Reverend Arch-bishop Parker in Saxon Characters according to the Copy now in the Cottonian Library and was also again put out by Mr. Camden in another Edition at Frankford But it must be confessed there is some difference between these two Copies concerning the Vniversity of Oxford which is taken notice of in this Work in its proper Place but that the Annals abovementioned were written before his History of King Alfred's Life is plain for he there refers you to those Annals which he has also inserted in the Life almost word for word But tho the former of these is continued to the Death of King Alfred and the latter as far as the 14th Year of the Reign of K. Edward the Elder yet it is evident that he himself wrote neither the one nor the other after the Year 893 being the 45th of King Alfred's Age and this appears from the Life it self in which the Author particularly mentions it nor could he extend the Annals any farther because they were written before he wrote the Life This I observe to let the Reader understand that whatever he finds farther in the Annals or Life the Substance of both which I have given him in this Volume were continued by some other Hand and as for the Annals they sufficiently declare it for towards the latter end under Anno Dom. 909. you may meet with this Passage hoc Anno Asserius Episcopus Scireburnensis obiit which was no other than our Author himself yet this must be farther observed of him that he was so extreamly negligent in his Account of Time that he begins the first Year of King Alfred's Reign sometimes at one Year of our Lord and sometimes at another so that no Man can tell by him when it commenced BVT why he left off Writing so many Years before King Alfred died and never finish'd his Life though he survived him nine Years I confess I know not unless being preferred about the Time when he had finish'd it to the Bishoprick of Shireburne he left the King's Service and going to reside at his own See had other Business on his Hands than Writing And that the same Asser who taught King Alfred was also by him made Bishop of Shireburne appears from this King's Preface to the Saxon Translation of St. Gregorie's Pastoral in which he tells you he was assisted by Plegmund his Archbishop and Asser his Bishop to whom the said King in his Will after the Archbishop and some other Bishops bequeathed a 100 Marks by the Title of Asser Bishop of Shireburne from whence it is manifest that the same Person who was King Alfred's Instructor was also Bishop of Shireburne which Bishoprick was certainly bestowed on him after he had done Writing since tho he mentions the Abbeys of Banwell Ambresbury and Exceter to have been bestowed upon him by the King yet he is utterly silent of his being made Bishop which he would not surely have omitted if he had been then so preferred but how long he held this Bishoprick we can say little positively because we do not find when it was first given him but as for the time of his Death not only the Annals that go under his Name but the Saxon Chronicle also places it under Anno 909. So that I think there can be no reasonable cause to doubt of that BVT what should lead such a careful Chronographer as Florence of Worcester into so great a Mistake as to place this Bishop's Death under Anno 883 I know not unless he had some other Copies of the Saxon Annals by him than are now extant but the Fasti of the Saxon Kings and Bishops publish'd by Sir H. Savil at the end of William of Malmesbury and other Writers are guilty of the like Mistake making this Asser to have succeeded Sighelm Bishop of Shireburn and to have died Anno 883 whereas it appears from our Annals that Sighelm whom William of Malmesbury makes to be the same Person with the Bishop abovementioned this very Year carried King Alfred's Alms to Rome and afterwards went himself as far as India however this Mistake of Florence as also the pretended Authority of our Welsh Chronicle hath as I suppose led divers other Learned Men and particularly Bishop Godwin and Arch-bishop Usher into a Belief of two Assers both Bishops the one of whom died Anno 883 and the other to have been Arch-bishop of St. Davids and to have succeeded Novis who according to the Chronicle of that Church publish'd in the 2d Volume of Anglia Sacra died Anno 872 and there immediately follows under Anno 909 Asserius Episcopus Britanniae fit which must certainly be an Errour in
Also this Year the Body of St. Wihtburh was found at Durham entire and uncorrupt after she had been dead 55 Years And the same Year according to Roger Hoveden Osâ—ald who had been before King of Northumberland died an Abbot and was buried in York Minster and Alred the Ealderman who slew King Aethelred was also killed by one Thormond in Revenge of the Death of his Lord. Also the Moon was Eclipsed in the second Hour of the Night 17 o Kal. Feb. Also this Year Beorthric or Brihtrick King of the West Saxons deceased As also Worre an Ealderman Then also Ecgbriht began to Reign over the West Saxons and the same Day or Year as Florence of Worcester hath it Aethelmond Ealderman of Wiccon that is Worcestershire pass'd the River Severne at Cynesmeresford suppose to be Kemsford in Glocestershire and there met him Weoxton the Ealdormen with the Wiltshire Men who gained the Victory I cannot find in any Author the occasion of this Quarrel only that it was fought between these Earls one of the West Saxons and the other of the Mercians but such Bickerings we often meet with in these Writers and so related are of no more use to Human Life than to Chronicle the Skirmishes of Crows or Jack daws flocking together and Fighting in Air. The same Year is very remarkable because as our Annals relate Charles the Great was first made Emperour and saluted Augustus by the Romans he then condemned those to Death who had before outraged Pope Leo but by the Pope's Intercession they were pardoned as to Life and only banished but Pope Leo himself anointed him Emperour Also this Year according to the Welsh Chronicles Publisht by Arthen ap Sitsilt King of Cardigan and Run King of Divet and Cadel King of Powâ—s all three died Now also according to Florence and Simeon Alchmaid Son to Ethelred late King of Northumberland being taken by the Guards of K. Eardulf was by his Command slain but without telling us any Reason why Also about this time according to Sir H. Spelman's First Volume of Councils was held the Third Council of Cloveshoe under Kenwulf King of the Mercians and Athelherd or Ethelhard Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Bishops Ealderman Abbots and other Dignified Persons of that Province in which few Things were transacted concerning the Faith only the Lands of a certain Monastery called Cotham which had been given by Ethelbald King of the Mercians to the Monastery of St. Saviours's in Canterbury and had been upon the Embezeling the Deeds unjustly taken away by King Kenwulph but he now repenting of it desired they should be restored whereupon Cynedrith his Daughter then Abbess of that Monastery gave the said Arch-Bishop other Lands in Kent there mentioned in exchange for the same But since I am come to the Conclusion of this Period I cannot omit giving you a fuller Account of the Character and Death of Brithric King of the West Saxons and of the Succession of Egbert who afterwards became the Chief or Supreme King of this Kingdom and to whom all those Kings that remained were forced to become Tributary As for King Britric he is noted by Will of Malmesbury to have been more desirous of Peace than War and to that end courted the Friendship of Foreign Princes to have been easie to his Subjects in such Things as did not weaken his Government yet being jealous of Prince Egbert who afterwards succeeded him he forced him to flee to King Offa for Refuge but upon the coming of certain Ambassadours to Treat of a Marriage between King Brithric and the Daughter of King Offa he retired into France till that King was made away by the means of his Wife Aeadburga the Daughter of King Offa who having prepared a Cup of poisoned Wine for one of his Favourites whom she hated the King coming in by chance tasted of it and so pined away After whose Death Asser in his Annals relates That when this Queen could live no longer among the English being so hated by them for her violent and wicked Actions she went into France where she was kindly Entertained by Charles the Great and there making that Emperour many great Presents for which he bidding her chuse whom she would have for a Husband himself or his Son she foolishly chose his Son whereupon the Emperour laughing said If thou hadst chosen me thou shouldest have had my Son but now thou shalt have neither A just Return for her desiring to marry one so much younger than her self So the Emperour put her into a Monastery where she lived for some Years as an Abbess but being Expelled thence for her Incontinency she wandred about with only one Servant and begged her Bread in Pavia in Italy till she died But as for Egbert above mentioned when he had been for about three Years banished into France where as William of Malmesbury tells us he polished the Roughness of his own Country Manners the French Nation being at that time the most Civilized of any of those Gothic and German Nations who had some Ages before as hath been already related settled themselves in this side of Europe But upon the Death of King Brihtric without any Issue as the same Author relates he was recalled by the Nobility of the West Saxon Kingdom and being there ordained King reigned with great Glory and Honour exceeding all the English Saxon Kings that went before him as shall be declared in the ensuing Book But before I conclude this I cannot forbear mentioning a Learned English-man who flourished about this time called Alcuinus or Albinus who going into France was in great Favour with Charles the Great whom he taught the Liberal Arts and by his means erected the University of Paris where he read Logic Rhetoric and Astronomy being the most Learned Man of all the English-men if not of all others in his Time He died Abbot of St. Martins at Tours which that King bestowed upon him He wrote elegantly in Verse as well as Prose considering the Age he lived in as appears by his Poem De Pontificibus Sanctis Ecclesiae Eboracencis lately Published by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Gale in his last Volume of English Historians So having arrived to the end of this Period I shall in the next Book shew how King Egbert obtained not only the Crown of the West Saxon Kingdom but also the Supreme Dominion of the English Nation The End of the Fourth Book A Continuation of the Succession of the English-Saxon Kings contaiâ—ed in the former Book from the Saxon Annals Florence of 〈◊〉 and Simeon of Durham Note That the last King of each Column in the former Table is again repeated in this that the 〈◊〉 the better see how the Series is continued This Account differs sometimes from the Annals some few Years wherein they are certainly mistakâ—n The Chronology of the Kings of Wales is according to the Account of Mr Robert Vaughan and 〈◊〉 Maâ—uscript Welsh Châ—onicle
at the end of domesday-Domesday-Book Anno Dom. Kings of Kent Anno Dom. Kings of the South-Saxons Anno Dom. Kings of the West-Saxons Anno Dom. Kings of the East-Saxons Aâ—no Dâ—m Kings of Northumberland Anno Dom. Kings of the East-Angles Anno Dom. Kings of Mercia Anno Dom. 〈…〉 560 Ethelbert reigned 56 years   597 Ceolwulf reigned 14 years 566 Sebert 47 years  Ethelfrid reigned 24 years over both Kingdoms 599 Eorpwald or Earpenwald  Ceorl 658 〈…〉 616 Eadbald or Ethelbald his Son 24 years     617 Sexred Seward and Sigebert being brothers 6 years â—17 Edwin Son of Aella reigned likewise over both 17 years but he being slain they became again divided for then in 636 Sigebert the Great         611 Cynegils and     638 Egric his Cousin 627 Penda a Prince of the Royal Blood reigned 30 years   640 Ercombert his Son 24 years  In the Succession of this Kingdom we find a great Chasm until 613 Cwichelm his Son who lived not long but Cynegils reigned 31 years     643 Anna Nephew to Redwald   660 〈…〉 664 Egbriht his Son 9 years     623 Sigebert the little their Cousin 25 years  Deira  Bernicia 654 Ethelthere his Brother   634 〈…〉 673 Lothair his Brother 12 years       â—34 Osric Son to Alfrid reigned one year 634 Eanfred Son to Ethelfrid late King reigned one year 656 Aethelwald his Cousin 655 Peada his Son one year after whom   685 Eadric a Stranger to the Royal Line 680 Ethelwalch or Athelwald who being slain in Battel by Ceadwalla he for some time added that Kingdom to his own till he was driven out by Bertune and Autune two Commanders of the late King Ethelwalch's These divided the Kingdom between them after whom followed divers Kings who being obscure we know not their Names until one 643 Kenewalch his Son 648 Sigebert the Good     664 Aldwulf Son to Ethelhere 656 Oswie King of Northumberland held that Kingdom three years but he being expell'd 665 〈…〉     672 Sexburge his Queen 661 Swithelme his Brother 2 years  Then these being both slain in the same year 683 Aelfwold his Brother     686 Wittred Waebberd these also usurped not being of the Blood-Royal and reigned at once       â—34 Oswald Brother to Eanfrid reigned over both Kingdoms 9 years who being also slain 690 Beorne one of another Family   668 〈…〉     674 Aeskwine Cousin to the late King reigned 2 years 663 Sigher and Sebba Cousins the former reigned a small time the latter 30 years    Note That under An. 749. Sim. of Durham and the Chronicle of Mailross make Hunbean and Albert to have succeeded Aelfwold and divided the Kingdom between them But since Mat. Westm. calls them Beorna and Athelbert I take this Hunbean to be the same with Beorne above-mâ—ntioned and Athelbert to be the same with             â—42 Oswie Brother to Oswald reigned in Bernicia 9 years 644 Oswin Son to Osric reigned in Deira until after 7 years reign being slain by   659 Wulfher Son to Penda was made King   694 Wightred who restored the Royal Line and dying left three Sons that all reigned one after another viz.   676 Centwine Son to Cynegils reigned 9 years         675 Ethelred his Brother 39 Brother 39 years       685 Ceadwalla three years and an half 693 Sigehard and Swenfred 7 years 651 Oswie last mention'd he then united both these Kingdoms into one and so they afterwards continued He reigned 28 years   704 Kenred Cousin 5 years   727 Ethelbert who reign'd 22 years   688 Ina his Cousin reign'd 39 years 700 Offa reigned 9 years 670 Egfrid or Egfert Son to Oswie reigned 15 years   709 Ceolred Son of Ethelred 9 years   749 Eadbert 11 years               760 Alric in whom the Royal Line being extinct sev'ral strangers were advanced to the Throne viz.   728 Aethelheard his Kinsman reigned 14 years and an half 709 Selred his Cousin reigned 37 years and an half 685 Alfred his Brother 20 years     700 〈…〉         705 Osred Son to Alfred 11 years   719 Ethelbald the Proud his Cousin tho far remote 36 years           716 Kenred Son of Cuthelm 2 years     720 〈…〉       746 Swithred 718 Osric Brother to Kenred 11 years           741 Cuthred his Cousin  After whose death as Florence tells us few Kings reigned over the East-Saxons for the same year in which the South-Saxons and Kentish-men submitted themselves to King Egbert the East-Saxons did so likâ—wise 729 Ceolwulf Cousin to Kenred 8 years       764 Heahbert and Sigared these reigned at once and divided the Kingdom between them 725 Aldwin who being slain by Ina King of the West-Saxons he by conquering this Kingdom added it to his own     737 Eadbert 21 years 749 Ethelred Son to Aethelwald who after the death of Beorne reigned alone tho the time when is uncertain 755 Beornred an Usurper half a year 752 〈…〉     754 Sigebert his Cousin 13 years   758 Osulph his Son 1 year               759 Ethelwald sirnamed Moll 6 years   756 Offa Nephew to Ethelbald 40 years       755 Cynewulf reigned 29 years   765 Alhred Great Grandson to Ida 16 years     755 〈…〉 778 Egfert another Usurper       774 Ethelred or Ethelbert Son to Moll 4 years       786 Eadbert or Ethelbert sirnamed Praen taken Prisoner by Kenwulf King of the Mercians who bestowed this Kingdom upon   784 Brihtric his Cousin 18 years   778 Alfwold 11 years  Aethelbert Son to Ethelred murther'd by K. Offa who seized his Kingdom after whom were many Kings of small note for 61 years until 796 Egfert his Son about half a year       802 Egbert his Cousin though far remote   789 Osred his Nephew Son to Alred 1 year 793              790 Ethelred or Ethelbert again restored