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
adds further That the Queen Mother to these Princes caused them to be buried under a great heap of Stones and thereby gave Name to the Town of Stone in Staffordshire I thought good to take notice of this Romance because a greater Author viz. Mr. Camden himself hath also thought fit to put it into his Britannia from the Authority of a Manuscript Book once belonging to the Abby of Peterburgh But it is time to look back upon Ecclesiastical Affairs for now according to William of Malmesbury one Adhelm a Monk began to build the Abby of Malmesbury having before obtained a License for so doing together with a Grant of certain Lands called Madulfsburgh from Lutherius Bishop of Winchester the Place being so called from one Maildulf a Scotch Monk and Philosopher under whom Aldhelm had formerly studied who died at this Place where Maildulf had also begun a small Monastery but the few Monks that were there had no Means to subsist but by Alms until such time as this Aldhelm built it anew and got it Endowed by the Charity of Ethelred King of the Mercians Ceadwalla and Ina Kings of the West Saxons with other Noble Benefactors So that it soon became one of the greatest and richest Monasteries in England being at first called Madunesburg and afterwards Malmesbury About the same time also according to the old Book of the Abby of Abingdon in the Cottonian Librarie the Abby of Abingdon was founded by one Hean Nephew to Cissa a Petty Prince under Kentwin King of the West Saxons in Wiltshire and Berkshire the Place at first was called Sheovesham and the Foundation was for no more than an Abbot and 12 Monks but was afterwards much increased by the Charity of succeeding Kings being rebuilt by Abbot Ordgar in the Reign of King Edgar having been burnt and destroyed by the Danes in the time of King Alfred This Year also according to Bede Arch-Bishop Theodore consecrated Erkenwald Bishop of London who was in great Reputation for his Sanctity having before he came to be Bishop founded two Monasteries the one for Ethelburg his Sister at Berking the other for himself at Chertesey in Surrey This Year Escwin Bishop of the East Saxons departed this Life and Hedda took the Bishoprick of that Province and Centwin succeeded in the Kingdom of the West Saxons which Centwin was Son to Cynegils and he the Son of Ceolwulf Also Ethelred King of the Mercians wasted Kent Of which Expedition H. Huntington further relates That this King made War against Lothair King of Kent but he fearing that Valour so Hereditary to the Mercian Family kept out of sight and durst not meet him whereupon the King of Mercia destroyed the City of Rochester and passing through the Kingdom of Kent carried away a great deal of Spoil Bede adds further That he destroyed both Churches and Monasteries without any regard to Religion and so spoiled the Church and Palace of Rochester that Putta the Bishop of that See was forced to retire to Sexwulf Bishop of the Mercians and from him receiving the Possession of a certain Church there ended his Days in Peace This Putta is by Florence of Worcester and William of Malmesbury made the first Bishop of Hereford which Church it seems Sexwulf parted with to him thô Bede does not expresly mention it Also Eadhed was now ordained Bishop in the Province of Lindisse which King Egfrid had lately conquered from Wulfher King of the Mercians But when Ethelred Successour to Wulfher recovered that Province this Bishop retiring from Lindisse governed the Church of Ripon The same Year also Osric a petty Prince of this Country built a Nunnery at Bath which was afterwards turned to a House of Secular Canons but King Edgar turned them out and placed Benedictines in their Places This Year being the Eighth of the Reign of Egfrid King of Northumberland according to Bede and the Saxon Annals there appeared a Comet which continued 3 Months and arising toward Morning carried with it a large Tail like a Pillar in which Year also as Bede relates there arose a great Contention between King Egfrid and Bishop Wilfrid who was expell'd his Bishoprick and two others substituted in his Room over the Northumbrian Nation to wit Bosa who Governed the Province of Deira and Fatta that of Bernicia the former having his Episcopal See at the City of York and the other at Hagulstad being both of them preferred from being Monks Stephen Heddi the Author of St. Wilfrid's Life above-mentioned as also Will. of Malmesbury relate the Quarrel between King Egfrid and the Bishop to have proceeded from the Envy and Ill-will of Erminburge his Queen she making the King jealous of his Secular Glory and Riches and the great Retinue that followed him whereupon the King resolved to be rid of him so that presenting Theodore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with great Gifts they perswaded him to come into that Province and together with three Bishops he brought with him who were not of the Northern Diocess they not only condemned but deprived Bishop Wilfrid being absent whereupon the Bishop went to the King and the Arch-Bishop and asked them What was the Reason that without any Crime alledged they had robbed him of his Estate that was given him by former Kings for God's sake But if this Author may be credited they gave him a very trifling Answer saying That they found no Fault in him yet would not alter what had been Decreed against him Whereupon the Bishop by the Consent of the rest of his Fellow-Bishops of his Province appealed to Rome But certainly these Bishops could not at that time be many for there were then no more in this Province than Lindisfarne and Whitern in the Picts Country Towards Rome he went the next Year but in his way thither landing in Frizeland he stayed there all that Winter converting the People of that Province And then proceeding in his Journey to Rome the Spring following where arriving he applied himself to the Pope and presented him with a Petition which being read before Pope John and the Synod at Rome he was by the said Pope and all the Bishops there present being 150 in Number Decreed to be restored to his Bishoprick but he could never prevail so far as to get this Council's Decree to be received as long as King Egfrid lived The same Year Bishop Wilfrid returning into England was received by Beorthwald Nephew of Ethelred King of the Mercians who then governed part of that Kingdom under his Uncle who hearing of it his Wife being the Sister of King Egfrid commanded Beorthwald immediately to dismiss him from whence he went to Centwin King of the West Saxons where staying but a little while he was also driven from thence because the Queen was Sister of Queen Erminburge Thus Stephanus Heddy in his Life of Bishop Wilfrid relates but it is to be doubted with too much Partiality on
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
him that was so injured THE highest Offence against Man alone was Treason and the Punishment for this Offence I find set down in the 4 th Law of K. Alfred to this effect viz. That if any one by himself or any other Person should attempt against the King's Life he should lose his Life and Goods or in case he will purge himself he was to do it according to the Valuation of the King's Head But in this the King had no greater a Prerogative than divers other of his Subjects for the same Law doth inform us That it ordained in all Judgments concerning other Men whether Noble or Ignoble whosoever should Conspire against his Lord should lose both his Life and Estate or else pay the Valuation of his Lord's Head I come next to the Coining and Clipping of Money which was not originally such an Offence as was punish'd by Death for the first Law that made it so was that of Ethelred whereby it is left to the King's discretion either to fine or put to Death such Merchants as imported false Money and all Port-Reeves of Towns who should be Accessary to it were made liable to the same but for all this it was not even after the Conquest punishable by Death but amputation of the Right Hand and Privy-Members AS for Murder or killing a Man with Malice prepensed it was by the Preface to King Alfred's Laws punishable by Death And this and the former Law concerning Treason will help us to interpret in what Cases the Wiregilds or Mulcts that we find so frequently mentioned in the Saxon Laws were to be paid for the Life of a Man and particularly that Law of King Athelstan which sets the Rate of these Wiregilds according to the Quality of the Person slain from the King to the Peasant that is when the Party was Killed in some sudden Fray or Quarrel without any Malice forethought THIS I take notice of to obviate the Error of some who suppose that all Murder even of the King himself was redeemable by Money which was not allowed in any Cases but those we account Man-slaughter at this Day and shews the Antiquity of that distinction between Man-slaughter and Murder which is now almost peculiar to England and arose at first from the Proneness of our Nation to Fewds and sudden Quarrels tho the like Custom is also to be found in the Antient Frisian and German Laws if you will take the Pains to consult them But as for Bloodshed Striking Maiming Wounding Dismembring c. they were all of them punishable by Mulcts or Fines as you will see in the Laws of King Alfred and other Places in this Volume I proceed in the next Place to Robbery and Burglary which by the Laws of King Ina were punishable by Death only the Thief was admmitted sometimes to redeem it according to the Estimation of his Head and that I suppose was left to the discretion of the Judg either to deny or allow But for all other less Thefts they were redeemable by Fines And the Laws of Edward the Confessor limited that Punishment of Death to Thefts of twelve Pence in value or above AND Trespasses of a less Nature upon Lands and Goods were to be punished by the Criminal's making Satisfaction to the injured Party and his paying a certain Fine besides to the King which by King Alfred's Law was set at five Shillings and in his Time other Actions were likewise used such as we call Actions upon the Case and the Plaintiff not only recovered Damages for Trespasses done to Possessions and Goods but also Costs for Injuries in Point of Scandal and Defamation in case the Complainant specially declare that he was thereby disabled or injured in his Preferment and made Proof of the same much like to the Forms of our Pleadings now AS for Perjury which I have hitherto omitted tho in strict Method it should have been mentioned before as a Sin against both God and Man the Saxons were utterly Enemies to it and punished it with perpetual discredit of their Testimony and sometimes with Banishment or with grievous Fines to the King and Mulcts to the Judg. For that difference I find observed in those Days between Fines and Mulcts tho the more Antient Times used them for one and the same for I often find pars Muâ—ctae Regi In all these Matters where any Interest was vested in the Crown the King had the Prerogative of Pardon yet always a Recompence was saved to the injured Party besides the Security of the Good-behaviour for Time to come as the case required THESE Mulcts for all these Offences were set down in a Book which was the Rule and Standard of the Judge's Sentence And it is called in the Preface to the Laws of King Edward the Doom or judgment-Judgment-Book and Composition was to be made and Satisfaction given according to what was laid in this Judicial or Doom-Book THIS shews that Fines were then set out and appointed by Law and were proportioned not only according to Mens Offences but Abilities of what they were able to pay and were not in those Times left to the Arbitrary Wills and Humours of the Judg to ruin Mens Fortunes and Families and imprison their Persons during Life perhaps only for a small Offence in a rash Word or unmalicious Deed. I confess this Introduction is longer than I first intended it but herein I hope the Reader will excuse me since I have presented him with a true Scheme of the Antient English-Saxon Government and Laws as well Ecclesiastical as Civil relating to the just Prerogatives of the King as also to the true Rights and Liberties of the People and this I have done for two Ends first to inform those of our own Nation as well as Strangers that this Government before the pretended Conquest agreed in the most material parts of it with those of the same Gothick Model all over Europe and that if we do still labour to preserve our Antient Constitution when most of our Neighbours have either lost or given up theirs I think we do deserve Commendation more especially since both Prince and People may have found an equal Interest and Happiness in it AND secondly to shew that neither the Danish nor Norman Invasions called by some Conquests have at all altered it in any of the Substantial parts of our Government or Laws notwithstanding what some Men have so strenuously advanced to the contrary out of what designs they themselves best know AS for what I have here laid down if any thing appears either new or of suspicious Credit I desire to be no farther believed than the Reasons and Authorities I have here produced will justify me and therefore shall leave the Reader to make what Judgment he pleases of it which if it doth not suit with mine I shall not take it amiss since I am sufficiently sensible how much Mens Opinions depend on their present
faithful Historian had given us as exact an account of the Actions of these other Lieutenants that were sent into Britain during the Reign of this Emperour and his Successours then we might have had a compleat History of those times But we are now at so great an uncertainty that we cannot tell who it was to whom Agricola resigned his Command only we read in Suetonius of one Salustius Lucullus to have been Legate of Britain in the days of this Emperour but nothing can be found of any others or of him more than that he was slain by Domitian for giving his own name to a â—ort of Spears which he had invented But this seems more certain that not long after Agricola's departure the Britains recovering fresh Strength and Courage under the Conduct of Arviragus rebelled against the Romans as some gather from that Speech which Frabricius Veiento is supposed by Juvenal to speak in flattery of Domitian Omen habes inquit magni clarique triumphi Regem aliquem capies aut de temone Britanno Excidet Arviragus See the Mighty Omen see He cries of some Illustrious Victory Some Captive King thee his new Lord shall own Or from his British Chariot headlong thrown The proud Arviragus come tumbling down Dion also mentions C. N. Trebellius to have governed Britain though in what time is uncertain but Tacitus in his Proem to his First Book of Histories speaks of Britain as though formerly Conquer'd but as then lost which though it might be true yet that it was again recovered is also as certain since during the Reigns of the succeeding Emperours we find Britain as far as the Friths of Dunbritton and Edinburgh entirely reduced into the form of a Roman Province which was not governed by any particular Praetor or Proconsul but was esteemed Praesidialis that is under the immediate protection and Eye of the Emperour and held by his Garisons and thus it continued as long as Britain remained a Member of the Roman Empire But about the end of Domitians Reign Arviragus is supposed by Geoffrey to have deceased and that his Son Marius called by the British Historians Meurig succeeded him I have no more to observe during the Reign of Domitian than that in his time Claudia Rufina a British Lady was the Wife of Pudens a Senator and she is famous in that Elegant Epigram of Martial for her Beauty Wit and Learning but more excellent was she for her profession of Christianity if she were the same Woman St. Paul mentions in his Second Epistle to Timothy as some of our English Historians have though without any great certainty asserted for it is certain that St. Paul wrote this Epistle to Timothy in the Reign of Nero and therefore it is not likely that this Claudia should be found for her Beauty in the latter end of the Reign of Domitian or else of Trajan above Twenty Years after since by that time she must certainly have been a Woman of more Years than Beauty The short Reign of the Emperour Nerva affords us nothing of certainty concerning the Affairs of Britain only that in his Reign as also in that of Trajan his Successour There were great Commotions in this Island which may be also gathered out of Spartianus's History But in the Reign of this Emperour the Britains are said by him to have Revolted yet were soon reduced again to Obedience To his Reign we may also refer that War which Geoffrey of Monmouth mentions to have been made by Roderick King of the Picts who aiding the Caledonians was overcome and Slain by this King Marius above mentioned which Victory although it be only related by this Historian Yet Arch-bishop Usher in his above cited Work does not think it unlikely since William of Malmesbury before ever Geoffrey had published his History makes mention of this Marius in these words There is in the City of Luguballia now called Carlisle a Room Arch'd with Stone which can neither by Weather or Fire be destroyed the Country is called Cumberland and the Inhabitants Cumbri and in the Front of this Room there is to be Read this Inscription Marii Victoriae but though Mr. Cambden speaking of this place says he has found it written Marti Victori in some Copies yet those could not be true as being quite contrary to Malmesbury's meaning who presently after adds What this should mean I much doubt unless perhaps some part of the Cymbrians planted themselves in these parts after they had been driven out of Italy by Marius But Ranulph of Chester in his Polychronicon doth thus rectifie this mistake of Malmesbury As who not having seen the British History attributed this Inscription to Marius the Roman when it indeed belonged to Marius the British King This Battel is supposed to have been fought in the great Moore now called Stanmore in Westmoreland as a Monk of Malmesbury in the Book called Eulogium hath written We have nothing to Remark in the Reign of Trajan unless it is what Geoffrey of Monmouth relates to have been performed in Britain in his time Which I shall here give you The publick ways saith he Trajan repaired by Paâ—ing them with Stone or raising Causeways even such places as were wet and boggy or by grubbing and clearing such as were rough and over grown with Bushes and Woods making Bridges over Rivers where the way was too long where by râ—ason of some steep Hill the way was difficult he turned it aside through more level places or if it ran through Forrests Wastes and Deserts by drawing it from thence through places inhabited Aelius Hadrian succeeded his Unkle Trajan in the Empire he was also a Spaniard and these two were the First Emperours who were not by birth Romans he differed from Trajan in his policy of extending the Empire and rather to imitate Augustus his Rule in restraining its limits to render it stronger and more united in so much that he excluded on the East all Armenia Media Persia and Mesopotamia being the Conquests of Trajan yet excepted Britain alone from this retrenchment which Province he by no means would part with although he somewhat streightned it as shall be shewn by and by Under him Julius Severus was Lieutenant an excellent Soldier and upon that account called away to suppress the Jews then in Rebellion After his departure the Britains till then kept in had entirely revolted had not Hadrian made a Journey hither in the Second Year of his Empire being then thrice Consul where he reformed many things and seems by Force of Arms to have reduced the Britains to Obedience as Mr. Camden well observeth from a piece of Money of his Coyning where there is the Figure of that Emperor with Three Soldiers on the Reverse whom he judges to represent the Three Legions of which the Roman Army in Britain then consisted and under them this Inscription EXER BRITANNICUS and another of the same Prince with this Motto RESTITUTOR
Lindisfarn where he was with his Clergy and there he was Abbot with his Monks who all belong to the Care of the Bishop where he was also succeeded by divers other Bishops till that Church being destroyed by the Danes the Bishop's See was removed to Durham I need say no more upon this Subject but shall refer the Reader to the said Learned Bishop's Dissertation to prove that no other Church-Government but Episcopal was ever setled amongst the Scots Picts or Saxons upon their Conversion to Christianity But that we may return again to our Saxon Annals Adda King of Bernicia dying this Year as Florence of Worcester and Mâ—tthew of Westminster relate one Glappa reigned in his stead two Years but who he was or how descended these Authors do not tell us The same Year died Maelgwn Guineth King of the Britains after five Years Reign over all that part of Britain that was left them This is according to the account of that Learned Antiquary Mr. Robert Vaughan thô Mat. of Westminster Dr. Powell and Sir John Price make him to have began his Reign long after viz. the former of these in 581 and the latter in 590 both which Opinions the said Mr. Vaughan Learnedly confutes in a Manuscript I have now in my possession but who succeeded Maelgwn Guineth as King of all the Britains since the Welsh Annals are silent I shall be so too for as to those Successors which Geoffery hath given him I have already said sufficient to destroy his Credit in this matter and Will of Newberie's Censure of him is not less sharp than true That concerning the Successors of Arthur he does not lie with less Impudence when he gives them the Monarchy of all Britain even to the 7th Generation The next year Ceawlin and Cutha his Brother beginning a Civil War fought with King Ethelbert and drove him back into Kent and killed two of his Commanders Oslac and Cnebba at Wibbendon now Wimbledon in Surrey This King Ethelbert as Will. of Malmesbury observes was in the beginning of his Reign a Scorn to the Neighbouring Princes for being beaten in one or two Battels he could scarce defend his own Territories But when in his riper Years he learned more Experience in War in a short time he brought under his Subjection all the Nations of the English-Saxons except the Northumbrians and that he might also gain the Friendship of Foreigners he became allied to the King of the Franks by the Marriage of Bertha his Daughter But of this King we hear no more for many years till his Conversion to the Christian Faith Glappa King of Bernicia dying Theodwulf succeeded him for one year But then he also deceasing Frâ—othwulf reigned after him for seven or eight years more We are beholding for the Succession of these two Kings to Florence of Worcester and Rog. Hoveden being omitted by all other Authors they are also more exact in distinguishing this Kingdom from that of Deira most of the rest confounding them together Cuthwulf the Brother of Ceawlin as it is in H. Huntington fought against the Britains at Bedicanford now Bedford and took four Towns viz. Lugeanburh now Loughborough in Leicestershire or else Leighton in Bedfordshire and Eglesburh now Ailesbury in Bucks with Bennington and Egonesham now called Bensington and Enisham in Oxfordshire About this time as is supposed for the Year is not set down in the Saxon Annals nor any other Historian began the Kingdom of the East-Angles under Vffa the Eighth from Woden tho it seems there were before him divers other petty Saxon Princes who had invaded and fixed themselves in the Countries we now call Norfolk and Suffolk for in one Copy of Matth. of Westminster which Mr. Twine had seen tho it be not found in our printed ones he saith That Anno 527. the Pagans came out of Germany and took possession of the Countrey of the East-Angles and tormented the Christians with all sorts of Cruelty but it seems this Vffa in Strength and Policy overpowering the rest of those Petty Princes got himself made sole King and governed with that Glory that H. Huntingdon tells us the Kings descended from him were called Vffings though how long he reigned is uncertain only that dying he left the Crown to Titul or Titillus his Son of whom likewise nothing is recorded and therefore Will. of Malmesbury takes no notice of these two Princes The first he speaks of is Redwald the Tenth from Woden whom he calls the greatest King of the East-Angles but since his Reign began after this Period I shall reserve the speaking further of him to the next Book To return to the Saxon Annals This year Ceawlin and Cuthwin his Son fought with and slew three British Kings viz. Commail Candidan and Farinmaile at a place which is called Deorham now Durham in Gloucestershire and then took three Cities Glewancester now Glocester Cirencester and Bathoncester now Bathe Who these three Kings were is very doubtful some suppose the first and second of them to be Cuniglasus and Aurelius Conan both mentioned by Gildas but for the third I cannot tell what to make of him there being no such King mentioned in any of the old British Chronicles so all that we can guess is that he was some Petty Prince whose Name is wholly omitted in the Welsh Annals or else mistaken in ours From the time of this Battel the Britains or Welshmen as the English call them being driven into that rough and mountainous Countrey we now call Wales lying beyond the Rivers of Dee and Severn made fewer Invasions into what we call England This year as the Welsh Chronicle called Triades relates being an Ancient Manuscript written near 1000 years ago the Battel of Arderydd was fought on the Borders of Scotland between Aeddan Vradog i. e. the Treacherous and Guendelew Son of Keidiaw British Princes of the North Parts of Britain on the one side and Reiderch-hoel i. e. the Liberal a British King of Cumberland on the other side and that upon a very slight occasion a Lark's-Nest and two Dogs In which Battel Guendelew was slain though his men fought and skirmish'd with the other Britains for Six Weeks to revenge his Death After which Fight Aedan being there overcome fled into the Isle of Man The like Story is related by Hector Boethius concerning the Battel between Aedan King of the Scots and the Picts upon the like occasion so that either the Scots borrowed it from the British History or else this had it from them though the former be the most likely But how this can agree with our Saxon Annals who make Adda King of Bernicia to have died Ten Years before I know not one of them must certainly be mistaken since there was but one King of Northumberland who was called Adda This year or the next King Freothwulf dying Theodoric the Son of Ida according to Florence of Worcester and Matth. Westminster
succeeded him in the Kingdom of Bernicia Aella still reigning in Deira This Theodoric and his Sons according to the Ancient Author of the English-Saxon Genealogies at the end of Nennius lately put forth by Dr. Gale fought with Vrbgen or Vrien King of Cumberland and his Sons with various Success who besieged Theodoric in the Isle of Medcant now Turne Island until by the means of Morgant a Prince of the same Countrey who envied his Valour Vrien was in that Expedition murthered by his own men But the Succession of these Kings of Northumberland is very obscure and uncertain For the Author of the abovecited Genealogies makes one Freodguald to have succeeded this Theodoric or Deoric as he calls him but whether he was the same with Freothwulf mentioned by Florence is hard to determine and after this Freodguald who reigned seven years one Hussa is said to have succeeded who reigned seven years likewise but whether in Deira or Bernicia he does not say in which he is also followed by Rog. Hoveden in his Prologue to his History but the Succession of these Kings having no certain Time assigned them I can only set them down as I find them Here is a large Gap left in the Saxon Annals where nothing occurs further of English Affairs for seven years To supply which we must have recourse to the British Affairs in those Countries we now call Wales Where to shew you the Uncertainty of the British Chronology According to Matthew of Westminster Malgo or Magoclunus whom the Welsh Annals call Mael Guineth was elected King of all the Britains of Wales having been long before King of North-Wales as the word Gwineth in the Welsh Tongue signifies And Humphrey Lloyd in his Fragment of the Description of Wales from an Ancient Book of British Laws thus gives us the manner of his Election After the Saxons had obtained the Kingdom and Crown of London upon the Expulsion of the Britains all the People of Wales met at the mouth of the River Dee to Elect a King and thither came the men of Gwineth or North-Wales the men of Powis-land the men of Dehaubarth Glamorgan and divers other Countries who all elected Mael Gwineth King Whom Geoffry of Monmouth fables to have been King not only of all this Island but also to have conquered Ireland Iceland Gothland Norway Denmark and the Orcades a story so ridiculous that the very telling it is a sufficient Confutation And all this he collects from those words of Gildas wherein he calls him the Island-Dragon and a driver out of many Tyrants and because to express his great wickedness he says He was drunk with the Wine of Sodom Geoffry will needs conclude him to have been guilty of Sodomy This Prince is supposed to have reigned as Supreme King of Wales about six years Ceawlin King of the West-Saxons and Cutha fought against the Britains at a place called Frethanleag now Frethern in Gloucestershire where Cutha was slain yet Ceawlin now took many Towns with great Treasures and other Spoil and so returned home As H. Huntington relates the Britains had at first the better but Ceawlin having sent for fresh Recruits overcame the Conquerors William of Malmesbury mentions a Son of Ceawlin's of the same Name to have been killed before his face but either the Copy he had of these Annals differed from those we have left us or else he was no other than this Cutha here mentioned who was his Brother About this time began the Kingdom of the Mercians according to H. Huntington and Matth. of Westminster whose first King was Crida or Creoda this though the last erected yet was one of the largest of the English Saxon Kingdoms and was also one of the last that was conquered by the West-Saxons This Year also according to the Welsh Annals happened a great Slaughter of the Britains of the North for now Gurgi and Fredur two British Princes being Brothers and Twins the Sons of Oliver Gosgard Vawr i. e. Oliver with the great Train a Prince of Cumberland fought with Aedda or Adda the Saxon King of Northumberland at a place called Caergrew where both the Brothers were slain many of their men treacherously deserting them the Night before the Battel ' This year Aella King of Deira died after 30 years Reign and Athelric succeeded him and reigned 5 years over all Northumberland having as Will. of Malmesbury relates obtained the Kingdom in his Old Age his Youth being spent in a very narrow Fortune yet having according to Florence of Worcester's Account reigned two years over Bernicia in Aella's time And this year also according to Matth. of Westminster this Athelric for so I suppose it should be and not Ethelfrid who had not yet begun to reign married Acca Daughter to Aella King of Deira and on her got seven Sons whose Names he there gives us Also this year in the Welsh Annals as well as those of Vlster Constantine is mention'd to be converted to the Lord whom Archbishop Vsher understands to have been that wicked Constantine King of Devonshire and Cornwall whom Gildas has before inveighed against and who at this time being now bereft of his Wife and Children was also weary of his Kingdom and therefore went privately into Ireland and there building a Monastery took upon him the Habit of a Monk as John of Tinmouth in his Life of St. David relates And this Constantine Hector Boethius in his Scotish History will have to have been sent over by a certain Irish Bishop to preach the Gospel to the Scots and being by them martyr'd to have been some Ages after canonized for a Saint But this sounds like a Legend since the Scots had been long before converted by St. Patrick to the Christian Faith This year there was a great and bloody Battel fought at Wodensbeorge now called Wodensburg a little Village in Wiltshire between the Britains and the Saxons though it is not here said who were the Generals on either side only H. Huntington tells us that the Britains having drawn up their Army after the Roman manner and the Saxons charging them boldly but confusedly there followed a sharp Battel in which GOD gave the Victory to the Britains for the Saxons being wont to have the better in all their Wars being now grown more careless were vanquished and the whole Army almost destroyed which as W. of Malmesbury relates happened through the English joining with the Britains against him though of what Countrey the English were he does not tell us so that Ceawlin being driven out of his Kingdom and Ceolric Son to his Brother Cuthwalf obtaining it reigned five years Ceawlin being thus expell'd after 31 years Reign was forced to take Refuge in some other Kingdom but whether in this Island or else beyond Sea our Histories are silent He had been a little before the greatest and most powerful of all the English-Saxon Kings his Atchievements being a Wonder to the English and
till then a Terror to the Welsh or British About this time Geoffry of Monmouth makes Careticus above mentioned to have succeeded Malgo who perhaps was the same with Mael Gwineth in the Kingdom of the Britains whom he describes to have been a lover of Civil Wars and to be hateful to God and all the Britains so that the Saxons seeing his weakness invited Gormund an African King out of Ireland to Invade England with Six thousand Africans who joining with the Saxons invaded the Territories of Careticus and beating him in many Battels at last besieged him in the City of Cirencester which being taken and burnt he again joined Battel with Careticus and forced him to fly beyond Severne into Wales and then Gormund destroying all the Neighbouring Cities never left till he had destroyed the whole Island from Sea to Sea and so for a time obtained the Supreme Dominion of the whole Kingdom But of these Kings Gareticus and Garmund since not only the most Authentick Welsh Chronicles but the Saxon Annals are wholly silent I suppose them to have been only Romances and invented by Geoffrey to fill up this Gap in his British History not that I will deny that one Gormund a Danish King might reign in Ireland about this time but that he ever reigned in England is utterly false no other Historian but himself and those that borrow from him making any mention of it This year Gregory was made Bishop of Rome Ceawlin late King of the West Saxons died in Banishment and the same year died Cwichelm his Brother together with Cryda King of the Mercians to whom succeeded his Son Wipha or Wippa and Ethelfred began also to reign over both the Northumbrian Kingdoms being the Son of Ethelric the Son of Ida. This Prince did not only defend his own Territories but also invaded and seized those of others But the third year after was very remarkable For now Pope Gregory sent Augustine into Britain with many Monks to preach the Word to the English Nation As for the British Affairs we have but little more to remark ever since the Death of Maelgwin Gwineth for the space of 24 years only we find in the Book of Landaffe that about this time Tudric King of Glamorgan who was still Victorious is said to have exchanged his Crown for an Hermitage till going in Aid of his Son Mouric whom the Saxons had reduced to great extremity taking up Arms again he defended him against them at Tinterne by the River Wye but he himself received a Mortal Wound But about the end of this Century as Geoffry of Monmouth relates when the Britains could not agree for 24 years who should be their Governor at last they chose Cadwan Prince of North Wales to be King of all the Britains but the year of this Election is not set down by Geoffry nor is this Prince mentioned by any other British Author or Chronicle before he wrote But I shall defer speaking farther of this Prince till I come to the next Book Ceolwulf began to reign over the West-Saxons who making continual Wars all his time fought sometimes against the other English-Saxons sometimes against the Britains or else against the Picts and Scots but what is more remarkable this year Augustine the Monk with his Companions arrived in Britain But before I conclude this Period I cannot omit taking some further notice of the Civil as well as Ecclesiastical Affairs in that part of Britain now called Wales where the Remainders of Christianity in this side of our Island were now wholly confined Bangor in the North and Caer-Leon upon Vsk in South-Wales being the chief Places for Learning as well as Religion the last of these being also the See of an Archbishop where was likewise a College of Philosophers of which as Alex. Elsebiensis relates Dubritius Archbishop of that City was the Founder who resigning his Bishoprick became an Anchoret in the Isle of Bardsey to whom succeeded David afterwards Sainted who flourished about the year 509 and is said to have been Uncle by the Mother's side to King Arthur he removed the Episcopal See from Caer-Leon to Menevia now called St. David's in Pembrockshire Nor can I pass by several Learned and Holy Men among the Britains of this Age as first Daniel the most Pious Bishop of Bangor Cadocus Abbot of Lancarvan in Glamorganshire whose Life is written by John of Tinmouth In the same Age also flourished Iltutus a Pious and Learned Man of that Countrey to whom we may also add Sampson his Scholar consecrated Bishop by Dubritius Successor to St. David this Sampson was afterwards Archbishop of Dole in Britain having upon his leaving Britain carried away the Pall along with him as hath been already mentioned Not to omit Patern and Petroc the former a Preacher at Llan Patern in Cardiganshire and the other in Cornwal besides Congal Abbot of Bangor and Kentigern the famous Bishop of Ellwye in North-Wales as also Asaph his Scholar and Successor in the same See now from him called St. Asaph to whom I may also add Taliessen the famous British Poet whose Verses are preserved to this day All these flourished from the beginning till the middle of the Sixth Century which now as much abounded in Learned and Pious Men as the former Age was wanting of them Thus omitting Fables we have given you a View of whatever we find can be relied on for Truth transacted in Britain since the Romans first conquered and then forsook it Wherein we may observe the many Miseries and Desolations brought by Divine Providence on a wicked and perverse Nation driven when nothing else would reform them out of a Rich Countrey into a Mountainous and Barren Corner by Strangers and Heathens So much more intolerable in the Eye of Heaven is the dishonouring the Christian Faith and Religion by Unchristian Works than downright Infidelity Yet am I not of Bede's Opinion That the Britains omission to preach the Gospel to the English-Saxons though they inhabited the same Island was any of their crying Sins since it was not to be expected that they could either Preach or the Saxons would ever Receive the Gospel from those who were their utter Enemies and had taken their Countrey from them by Violence Yet God was not wanting to this Nation but appointed other Preachers to convert it to the Christian Faith which how it was brought about shall be the Subject of the ensuing Book The End of the Third Book Least the Names of the English-Saxon Kings which have been in tâ—â— former Book set down promiscuously according to the Years in which they began to reign should render their Succession perplexed and hard to be remembred I have from the Saxon Annals Florence of Worcester and Mat. Westminster placed the several Kingdoms of the Saâ—â—n Heptarchy together with their Kings in a Chronological Order as far as the End of this Period viz. Anno Dom. 597. Note The Years in
relates Swebriht King of the East-Saxons died this Year Eadbriht or Egbert the Son of Eatta who was the Son of Leodwald began to Reign in the Kingdom of the Northumbers and held it One and Twenty Years Egbert Arch-Bishop of York was his Brother who were both buried in the City of York in the same Church-Porch But it there is an over-sight in these Annals for this Eadbriht above mentioned must be the same with Eadbriht under the former Year This Year also according to Simeon of Durham Swebright King of the East-Saxons died Ceolwulf late King of Northumberland died this Year according to Mat. Westminster in the Monastery of Lindisfarne Also as Simeon of Durham relates Nothelm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased but the Saxon Annals defer his Death two Years longer This Year Acca Bishop of Hagulstad deceased who as the same Author relates was had in great Reverence not only during his Life but also after his Decease for his great Sanctity and supposed Miracles King Ethelred deceased and Cuthred his Cousin succeeded in the Kingdom of the West Saxons and held it 16 Years This King made sharp War against Ethelbald King of the Mercians and that with various Success as H. Huntington tells us sometimes making Peace and then again renewing the War This Year also Nothelm the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased and Cuthbriht was Consecrated in his stead as was also Dun Bishop of Rochester after the Death of Eadulph ' This Year also the City of York was burnt together with the Monastery as Simeon has it Now was held the great Synod at Cloveshoe where were present Ethelbald King of the Mercians and Cuthbert the Arch-Bishop with many other wise Men. Where this Cloveshoe was is now very uncertain since the Name is wholly lost some suppose it to have been Cliffe in Kent near Gravesend but it is not likely that Ethelbald being now the chief King of England would permit this Council to have been held out of his own Dominions so that others suppose it to have been Abingdon in Berkshire which was anciently called Secvesham where as the old Book of that Abbey tells us was anciently a Royal Seat of the Kings and where there used to be great Assemblies of the People concerning the arduous Affairs of the Mercian Kingdom But thô we are more certain of the Decrees of this Council than of the Place where it was held yet since it was a meer Ecclesiastical Synod and no great Council of that Kingdom and that its Decrees were chiefly made in Confirmation of the Charter of King Withred concerning free Elections to Monasteries in Kent according to the Directions of the Archbishop of Canterbury I shall refer you to the Canons themselves as they are to be found in the Decem Scriptores and Sir H. Spelman's British Councils and shall only take notice of this one that now Bishops were first ordered to visit their Diocesses once a Year This Year Ethelbald King of the Mercians and Cuthred King of the West Saxons fought against the Britains H. Huntington tell us That these two Kings now joyning their Forces brought two great Armies into the Field against the Welsh-men who not being able to defend themselves were forced to flie leaving great Spoils behind them so both the Kings returned home Victorious According to Florence of Worcester Wilfred the second Bishop of York of that Name died after he had fate 30 Years Also this Year according to the Annals Daniel resigned the Bishoprick of Winchester being worn out by Age and Hunferth succeeded him and they say the Stars seemed to fall from Heaven But Simeon of Durham calls them with more probability such Lightnings as those of that Age had never before seen About this time also according to Simeon there happened a great Fight between the Picts and the Britains I suppose he means those of Camberland for no other Britains lay near the Picts This year Bishop Daniel above-mentioned deceased after he had been 43 years Bishop ' This year Selred King of the East-Saxons was slain But by whom or which way is not here said This Selred was Sirnamed The Good and reigned 38 years Switheard King of the East-Angles dying Elfwold succeeded him as the Chronicle of Mailros relates This Year also was held the second Council at Cloveshoe under Cuthbert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury there being present beside the Bishops Abbots and many Ecclesiasticks Ethelbald King of the Mercians with his chief Men and Ealdermen In which besides many Decrees concerning the Unity of the Church and for promoting Peace which you may see at large in Sir H. Spelman's First Volume of Councils and after the reading of Pope Zachary's Letters to the People of England to live more continently These among other Decrees were likewise passed viz. 1. That the Reading of the Holy Scriptures be more constantly used in Monasteries 2. That Priests receive no Reward for baptizing Children or for other Sacraments 3. That they learn the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in English and are likewise to understand and interpret into their own Tongue the Words of Consecration in the Celebration of Mass and also of Baptism c. This year Cynric Aetheling that is Prince of the Blood-Royal of the West Saxons was slain and Eadbriht King of Kent died after six Years Reign and Ethelbryht the Son of King Withred succeeded him This Cynric was he whom H. Huntington relates to be Son of Cuthred King of the West Saxons who thô young in Years was a great Warriour for his time yet perished in a sudden Sedition of his own Souldiers but where he does not say Simeon affirms That Elfwald King of the East Angles now dying Hunbeanna and Albert divided that Kingdom between them but what relation they had to the late King he does not tell us This year Cuthred King of the West Saxons in the 12th Year of his Reign fought against Ethelune that couragious Ealderman H. Huntington calls him a bold Earl who moved Sedition against his Lord and thô he were inferiour in the number of his Souldiers yet maintained the Fight a great while by his sole Courage and Conduct but while he was ready to get the Victory a Wound he then unfortunately received so disabled him and disheartened his Men that the King's being the stronger as well as the juster Side did thereby prevail Also the same Year according to Simeon of Durham and the Chronicle of Mailros Eadbert King of Northumberland led Kynwulf Bishop of Lindisfarne Prisoner to the City of Beban who it seems had some ways rebelled against him for he then also caused the Cathedral Church of Lindisfarne to be besieged The same Year as Bede's Continuator relates Eadbert King of Northumberland made War upon the Picts and subdued all the Country of Kyle with other Territories joyning them to his own Dominions This Year according to the Saxon Annals King
Arch-Bishop for in the next Year it is thus corrected viz. This Year Ceolnoth was Elected and Consecrated Arch-Bishop and Feologild the Abbot deceased ' And the Year following Ceolnoth the Arch-BP received his Pall from Rome This Year certain Heathens or Pagans wasted Sceapige now the Isle of Sheppey in Kent But since this is the first time that these Heathens are mentioned in the Saxon Annals it is fit we should tell you a little more exactly who they were and from whence they came for they were indeed no other than that Nation which was before in our Saxon Annals called Northmanna and sometimes Deanscan i. e. Danes the Etymology of which Name since I find writers are so divided about I will not take upon me to determine not that all these People came out of that Country which is at this day called Denmark for it is impossible that so narrow a Region thô you should likewise include whatsoever that Kingdom did then or does now enjoy upon the Continent of Swedeland and Jutland could ever send out such vast Shoales of People as for near Two Thousand Years before the Norman Conquest over-ran and destroyed France the Low Countries and also this Island but you may from what has been already said observe that H. Huntington in the Prologue to his Book above cited does besides the Danes add also the Norwegians together with the Goths Swedes and Vandals to have been those Nations which for so many Years wasted England and that he did not deliver this without Book but had sufficient Authority for what he wrote I shall further make out from the Testimony of those Writers who lived in that very Age when these Nations first infested those parts of Europe For Eginhart who was Son-in-Law and Chancellour to Charles the Great thus writes in his History of that Prince which I shall here faithfully Translate In like manner the Danes and Sweones with those whom we call Normans do possess the Northern Shore of Scandinavia together with all the Islands adjoyning to it whil'st the Sclavi with divers other Nations inhabit the Southern Coasts but the Norwegans or rather Northern Men for so they are called by the Swedes because they lye more Northerly than the greater part of that Nation and indeed all those that inhabit Scanzia are by those People of Europe that lye more remote with very good reason called in the German Tongue i.e. Northland Men. Next to Eginhart Adam of Bremen who lived about Two Hundred Years after does not only insert these very words of the aforesaid Authour but also adds this further that the Danes and Swedes with the other Nations beyond the River Danabius are by the French Historians all called Normans so likewise Albertus Abbot of Stade who wrote about the Year 1250 says likewise that the Danes and other Nations who lived beyond Denmark are all called Normans from which Authorities the learned Grotius in his Prolegomena to his Gothic History lays it down as an undeniable Truth that whatever we find among any writers of that Age concerning the Normans does rightly belong to the Swedes who were then one of the greatest and most powerful of those Northern Nations that were all then called by one general Name of Normans But as for their Religion I need say no more of it since I have already told you in the beginning of the Third Book that all those Nations had the same common Deities viz. Woden and Thor c. whose Names I have there already set down to which last Deities as Ubbo Emmius relates they before any great exepedition sacrificed a Captive by knocking out his Brains and smearing their Faces in his Blood immediately marched against their Enemies but that they were extreamly given to Witchcraft and Inchantments all their own Authours relate which would be too tedious here to repeat since you will meer with some Instances of it in the following History But to return again to our Annals This Year is very remarkable for King Egbert encountred Thirty Five Ships of Danish Pyrates at Carrum now called Charmouth in Dorsetshire where there was a great slaughter but the Danes kept the Field whereby we may guess that they had the advantage yet it seems before this time even in this very Year the Danes had been vanquished and put to flight at Dunmouth now called Tinmouth from whence having now spoiled the Isle of Sheppey they Sail'd to Charmouth above-mentioned This shews us as Will. of Malmesbury well observes the Instability of all Worldly grandeur for now King Egbert being arrived at the height of Empire met with this unlooked for Enemy who harrassed him and his Posterity for divers Generations And thô in this Sea Fight last mentioned he had the better for the greater part of the Day yet towards Night he lost the Victory thô by the help of it he retreated and so saved the disgrace of an entire defeat this was the only time that Fortune ceased to favour King Egbert's Undertakings This Year also according to our Annals Herefrith Bishop of Winchester and Wigen or Sighelm Bishop of Scirborne and also Two Ealdormen Dudda and Osmund deceased The same Year was held that General Council of the whole Kingdom at London at the Feast of St. Augustin the English Apostle Egbert King of West Saxony and Withlaf King of the Mercians with both the Arch-Bishops and all the other Bishops and Chief Men of England being present at which besides a Consultation how to restrain the Invasion of the Danes the Privileges and Concessâ—ons of the said King Withlaf to the Monastery of Croyland were also confirmed by the said Council and were subscribed to by King Withlaf and both the Arch-Bishops and most of 〈◊〉 Bishops of England The next Year a great Fleet of Danes landed amongst the Western Welsh i. e. Cornishmen who being joyned with them in a League against King Egbert offered him Battle which he accepting of streight ways marched against them with his whole Army and at Hengestdune now Hengston in Cornwal put both the Britains and Danes to flight and as Mat. Westminster adds freed his Kingdom at this time from the Invasion of those barbarous Enemies King Egbryht departed this Life having Reigned Thirty Seven Years and Seven Months but the Annals must needs be mistaken either in the time of his Reign or else in the Year of his Death for if he began to Reign Anno Dom. 800 and Reigned Thirty Seven Years and an half it is evident he must have dyed Anno Dom. 838 the Printed Copy of Will of Malmesbury places his Death Anno Dom. 837 and another reading in the Margin in 838 but Florence of Worcester places it according to the Annals in 836. This King as the same Authour relates governed his Subjects with great Clemency and was as terrible to his Enemies and for Nine Years Reigned Supream King over all Britain Before his Death he is
to what intent having been so lately there before we know not any more than what the King did there unless to repair the English School or Colledge for Youth that had been lately burnt but it is certain he stayed abroad near a Year and in his Return home Charles Sirnamed The Bald King of the Franks gave him his Daughter to Wife who was called Leotheta in French Judith and so together with her he returned into England But as Asser relates there was in the mean time an infamous Conspiracy framed in the Western Parts of England for Prince Aethelbald the King 's eldest Son and Ealchstan Bishop of Scirborne and Aeanwulf Earl of Somerset had plotted together that King Aethelwulf at his Return Home should never be received into his Kingdom most Men laid this to the Charge of this Bishop and Earl only thô many do chiefly attribute it to the Perverseness of this young Prince who was also very obstinate in other Wickedness So the King his Father returning from Rome Prince Ethelbald together with his Councellors contrived this great Villany viz. to expell the King from his own Kingdom thô God would not permit it to take effect neither did all the Noblemen of England consent to it yet lest so great a Mischief should happen that the Father and Son making War on each other the whole Nation should be engaged in mutual Slaughter by the wonderful Clemency of the King and with the Consent of all his Nobility the Kingdom which was before united became now divided between the Father and the Son the Eastern Countries being allotted to the former and the Western to the latter but where the Father ought indeed by Right to have Reigned there Ruled this Rebellious and Undutiful Son for the Western part of the England was always accounted before the Eastern King Ethelwulf therefore coming back from Rom◠the whole Nation as it ought highly rejoyced at his return and would if he had pleased have expelled his wicked Son Aethelbald with all his Adherents out of the Kingdom but the King would by no means suffer it using great Clemency and Prudence lest the Kingdom might thereby be endangered All this Disturbance seems to have been raised by his Son and his Faction because of his marrying this new Wife whom notwithstanding having now brought over with him he placed by him on the Royal Throne as long as he lived without any Dispute or Opposition from his Nobles thô says this Author the Nation of the West Saxons did not permit the Queen to sit by the King or to be called Queen which Custom our Ancestors relate to have proceeded from a certain wicked Queen called Eadburga the Wife of King Bryhtric whose Story Asser in his Annals as also in his De Gestis Alfredi hath given us at large where speaking of the Occasion of this severe Law he tells us it proceeded from the wicked Carriage of that Queen already mentioned at the end of the former Book who abusing her Husband's Affections by untrue Accusations took away many Men's Lives and being hated by the English after that King's Decease they made that Law now mentioned William of Malmesbury and Mat. Westminster do assure us That King Ethelwulf lived but two Years after his return from Rome during which time he thought not only of the World to come but also what should happen in this after his Decease and therefore lest his Sons should quarrel among themselves after his Death he commanded his Testament to be written Asser calls it an Hereditary or Commendatory Epistle in which he ordained his Kingdom should be divided between the two eldest Sons as also his own proper Inheritance between all his Sons and Daughters and near Kinsmen but for his Money he ordered it to be divided between his Sons and his Nobles and what was left to be employed for the good of his Soul to which end he ordained That his Successours throughout all his own Hereditary Lands should maintain out of every Ten Families one Poor Person either Native or Stranger with Meat Drink and Apparel always provided that the Land did not then lie waste but was cultivated by Men and Cattle It is also to be noted That this Grant was wholly different from that of Tythes thô Bromton's Chronicle hath confounded them together and made them all one he also ordered to be sent every Year to Rome 300 Mancuses which William of Malmesbury renders Marks thô what the Sum was is uncertain but it was to be equally distributed between the Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul to provide Lights on Easter Eve and of this 300 Marks the Pope was to have 100 to himself These Grants are supposed by Sir Henry Spelman to have been made in a general Council of the whole Kingdom but after this time we find no more of them for many Years by reason of the frequent Invasions of the Danes But not long after King Ethelwulf died and was buried at Winchester having reigned 20 Years and 5 Months for the Saxon Annals which allow him but 18 Years and an half are certainly mistaken This Year also according to Florence of Worcester Humbert the Bishop anointed that Glorious Martyr Edmund King of the East Angles being then but 15 Years old at a Town called Buram being then the Royal Seat But having no Account of King Edmund's Pedigree or of the Place of his Birth from any of our English Historians you must be content with what Johannes Anglicus of Tinmouth hath told us or in his Legend of Saints called Sanctilogium of this King and Martyr viz. That he was the Son of one Alemond a Nobleman of the Blood Royal of the East Angles who having fled for fear of King Offa into Old Saxony out of which his Family first came had there by his Wife called Cywara a Son whom he named Edmund the pretended Miracles of whose Birth I purposely omit This Prince having been instructed in all Christian and Moral Duties lived in Germany to the 14th Year of his Age and upon his return into England was so acceptable to the East Angles that he was by them Elected King and till his Death continued in the quiet Possession of that Kingdom without any opposition of King Ethelwulf or any of his Sons then Kings of the West Saxons to whose Dominions that Kingdom of the East Angles had lately been made subject and hence it may be reasonably inferred that it was by King Ethelwulf's Consent that Edmund being returned out of Germany took Possession of that Kingdom Being thus made King and by reason of his tender Age not esteeming himself capable of managing the Affairs of the Nation he willingly submitted them and himself to the Direction of the said Bishop of the East Angles by whom he was Crowned and by whose Councel and Direction he behaved himself as became a Prince endued with all Kingly Virtues so that during his Reign his principal Care was to repair
Friends not only to marry her but also to fulfil the Covenants made between them and shall also engage to maintain her After that the Bridegroom is to declare what he will give his Bride besides that which she formerly made choice of with his good liking if she survive him In case they so agree it provides that after his Decease she shall have the one half of all his Estate and if they have a Child betwixt them the whole till such time as â—he marry again Then when they have agreed on all things the Kindred of the Bride shall contract her to him and engage for her Honesty and at the same time they shall give Caution for the Celebration of the Marriage The rest being not very material I omit and have only set down these to let the Reader see the Antiquity of Covenants before Marriage and of Bonds for the performance of them as also of Jointures the Thirds of the Estate not being then settled by Law as Dower by what I can find Having now finished the Reign of King Edmund I have no more to observe but that though he left two Sons by the Queen his Wife viz. Edwi and Edgar yet notwithstanding his Brother Edred succeeded to him as Next Heir for so Ethelwerd as well as Florence of Worcester stiles him King EDRED THIS year according to our Annals Eadred Aetheling after his Brother's Decease was made King and presently reduced all Northumberland under his Obedience Upon which the Scots also swore to perform whatever he would require of them But the Manuscript Life of St Dunstan written by a Monk of those times and which is now in the Cottonian Library is much more particular concerning this King's Succession saying That King Edmund being slain Eadred took the Kingdom succeeding to his Brother as his Heir Which is also confirmed by Florence of Worcester who says That Edred being Next Heir to his Brother succeeded him And Ethelwerd gives us the reason of it more fully That he succeeded him quippe ejus Haeres because he was Next Heir And Simeon of Durham further adds That this King was Crowned at Kingston by Odo Archbishop of Canterbury H. Huntington and Mat. Westminster give us the Particulars of this War against the Northumbers and Scots more at large viz. That he subdued the Northumbrians with a powerful Army they refusing to submit to his Dominion and that the Scots thereupon being afraid submitted themselves to him without any War at all and that the King of the Scots swore Fidelity to him It seems here by Ingulph that this Submission of the Northumbers was wrought by the means of Turketule Chancellor to King Edred and afterwards Abbot of Croyland who was now sent Ambassador to the Northumbers to reduce them to their Duty which he upon his Arrival at York performed with that Prudence and Diligence that he brought back the Archbishop and all the People of that City to their former Allegiance But R. Hoveden places the Oath taken by the Northumbrians under this year and that Wulstan Archbishop of York and all the Northumbrian Lords swore Fealty to King Edred in a Town called Tadencliff though they did not long observe it Under this year most of the Welsh Chronicles place the death of that Worthy Prince Howel Dha and say That he left his four Sons Owen Run Roderic and Edwin his Heirs of all his Territories in South-Wales But as for North Wales it returned to the two Sons of Edwal Voel called Jevaf and Jago because Meyric their Elder Brother was not thought fit to govern These as being of the Elder House would have had the Supreme Government of all Wales which being denied them by the Sons of Howel caused great and long Wars between them Yet nothwithstanding other of the Welsh Chronicles place the death of Howel Dha much later for they make him Contemporary with our King Edgar as shall be shewn when we come to the History of his Reign in the next Book Also the same year according to R. Hoveden King Edred being much provoked by the Treachery of the Northumbers laid all Northumberland waste in which devastation the Monastery of Ripun which had been built by Bishop Wilfrid was burnt But our Annals defer this Rebellion of the Northumbers to the year following When Anlaf again returned into the Countrey of the Northumbers This is also confirmed by Florence of Worcester and H. Huntington viz. That King Edred being returned into the Southern parts of the Kingdom Anlaf who had been formerly expell'd the Kingdom of Northumberland reâ—urned thither with a great Navy and being received with joy by the people was again restored to his Kingdom About this time Jago and Jevaf Princes of North-Wales entred South-Wales with a great and powerful Army against whom came over the Eldest Son of Howel with his Brethren and fought a Battel at the Hills of Carne where Jevaf and Jago obtained the Victory And the year following the same Princes twice invaded South-Wales and spoiled Dyvet and slew Dunwallon Lord thereof And to place these Welsh Wars together in the year 952. the said Sons of Howel Dha gathered their Forces together against Jevaf and Jago and entred their Countrey as far as the River Coâ—â—y where they fought a cruel bloody Battel at a place called Gwrhustu or Llanrwst Multitudes being slain on both sides as Edwin the Son of Howel Dha with other Welsh Princes and the Sons of Howel being vanquish'd Jevaf and Jago pursued them as far as Curdigan destroying their Countrey with Fire and Sword This year according to the Annals Aelfeag Bishop of Winchester deceased at the Feast of St. Gregory The Northumbers again expelled King Anlaf and set up Eric the Son of Harold for their King This is the same with Eric mentioned by Hoveden who yet did not immediately enter upon the Throne as that Author supposes till Anlaf had been expell'd but Florence of Worcester and the Chronicle of Mailrosse place the expulsion of Anlaf and the setting up of Eric two years sooner and perhaps with better reason For the same year according to Hoveden King Edred made Wulstan Archbishop of York close Prisoner at Witharbirig because he had been often accused to him upon divers accounts Yet Will. Malmesbury tells us expresly it was for favouring or conniving at his Countreymen in their late Rebellion But after he had kept him a long time in Prison he thought fit to pardon him out of reverence to his Function And the year following the Chronicle of Mailrosse relates that Archbishop Wulstan being set free was restored to his Episcopal Function at Doncacester But this is certain King Edred could not have done this till after Eric had been driven out as this Author more truly reckons tho our Annals do it the next year saying That The Northumbers drove out King Eric and King Eadred again possessed himself of that Kingdom With which also H.
But tho the King's violence to Abbot Dunstan and the Monks is by no means to be justified yet this rudeness to the King and pressing upon his privacy and carrying him by force out of the Room from his Mistress or Wife for some Historians tell us that he had been privately married to her can as little be excused So that no wonder if a young King and an enraged Woman did all they could to revenge so great an Affront Yet it seems by the same Author of St. Dunstan's Life that Archbishop Odo was severely revenged on this Lady for he not only sent Armed men to take her out of the Court by force but also branded her with a hot Iron on the Cheeks to take off the King's Affections from her and then caused her to be sent into Ireland but whether this was done by the Great Council of the Kingdom or by his own Authority I do not find But it seems upon her return thence again being on her way to the King the said Archbishop's Officers met her and cut her Hamstrings so that not being able to stir she is supposed to have died not long after of this cruel Treatment But however this did not happen immediately but some time after for this Year all the People North of Humber together with the Mercians as far as the River Thames rose against King Edwi with an intention to expel him the Kingdom for his violence done to the Monks so that as Osborne in the Life of Dunstan relates he was forced to fly with his Adulteress to the City of Glocester But Florence of Worcester and Simeon of Durham are more particular in this Relation saying that the Mercians and Northumbrians hating and despising King Edwi for his Evil Government deserted him and having deposed him they elected his Brother Prince Edgar King over them which it seems was also confirmed by the Common Council of the Kingdom for the above-cited Author of the Life of St. Dunstan saith it was done by the Common Consent of all the Wise men of the Kingdom So that Edwi having no more left him than the Kingdom of the West Saxons for his share the River Thames was made the Boundary between their two Kingdoms Henry de Knighton out of some Ancient Chronicles then preserved in the Abbey of Legcester here farther relates That after the Expulsion of King Edwi for his Evil Life and the Enormous Deeds which he committed against the Church the Throne was vacant for above a year and many Murthers and Robberies and other Mischiefs were committed in the Kingdom for want of Government till some Good men of the Clergy and Laity seeking God by frequent Prayers heard at last a Voice from Heaven commanding them to Crown Prince Edgar being yet a Youth their King which they immediately obeyed But this sounds like a Monkish Legend only to enhance the Excellency of King Edgar's Reign which with them must owe its Original to no less an Author than Heaven it self but no other Historians mention any such thing but agree that King Edwi was never deprived of more than the Kingdoms of Mercia and Northumberland and there was no Vacancy of the Throne that Division being made presently upon the aforesaid Defection of the People of these Kingdoms and immediately confirmed by an Act of the Witena Gemote as hath been already related But however it happened King Edwi was forced to rest contented with this unequal division since not having the good-will of his Subjects it was well he could keep what he had From whence we may observe how dangerous a thing it was for Princes to provoke the Ruling Part of the Priests and People of those times who could so easily turn the hearts of their Subjects against them Our Annals though they are very short in this Relation yet confirm the deposing of King Edwi viz. That this Year Edgar Atheling took upon him the Kingdom of the Mercians and also adds That not long before Wulstan Archbishop of York deceased Although the printed Copy of the Saxon Annals place the Death of King Edwi under the year 957 yet it appears by the Manuscript Laudean Copy of these Annals as also by Florence of Worcester that he died not till this very year for we cannot otherwise make up the space of near four years which all our Historians allow to this King's Reign Of whom they give us this Character That though he was extraordinary Handsome yet he abused that Comeliness of his Person by his excessive Lust and yet we do not hear of above one Mistress he kept and that too whom he was either married to or else lived withal like a Wife But it is no wonder if he have a very bad Character of them when the Monks his Enemies are the only persons that have given it to us But H. Huntington who was a Secular Priest and no Monk is more moderate by telling us that this King did not uncommendably hold the Scepter But when in the beginning of his Reign his Kingdom began to flourish an Untimely Death put a stop to those happy Expectations from him His Body was buried at Winchester with his Uncle's And with this King's Reign I shall also put a Period to this Book lest it should swell beyond a due proportion The End of the Fifth Book THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK VI. Containing the General History of England from the Reign of King EDGAR to the Death of King HAROLD being One hundred and seventeen Years King EDGAR I Have begun this Period with this Prince's Reign for though it does not exactly divide the Space of Time between King Egbert and the coming in of King William sirnamed the Conqueror into two equal parts yet will it much better suit with the Proportion of the Books into which we have divided this Period Besides King Edgar by again reuniting the Kingdom and enjoying by his Valour as well as his good Fortune a happy and peaceable Reign though he was not the first Prince who took upon him the Title of Monarch of all Albion or England as hath been already shewn yet since all the Kings of this Island did willingly submit themselves to his Dominion he seems to have best deserved that Title of any I can find King Edwy being now dead as our Annals have related King Edgar his Brother began to reign not only over the Mercians and Northumbers but also over all the West-Saxon Kingdom that is as the Manuscript Author of St. Dunstan's Life relates he succeeded in his Brother's Kingdom as Heir and was elected by the Clergy as well as Laity over both Kingdoms Which is also confirmed by Florence of Worcester and R. Hoveden who expresly tells us he was elected King by the whole English Nation in the Sixteenth Year of his Age So that as the Annals observe In his days all things succeeded prosperously God giving him Peace as long as he lived
vers'd in the History of his own Countrey could not but give us all he knew concerning it though interspersed with so many notorious Fables of his own which he seemeth to have interwoven the better to connect those broken Remains of old Times But since no Man can easily at this distance distinguish Truth from Falshood he ought to be dealt with as we do with those who would impose counterfeit Coin upon us in refusing the whole Sum where the greatest part of it is so plainly discernable to be false HERE by the way I must ingenuously own a small Mistake I have committed in the first Book of this Volume where speaking somewhat in Defence of this Author that he was not the first Inventor of the Story of Brutus it being also found in Nennius who lived long before him and from whom I then supposed Henry of Huntingdon to have borrowed it I now perceive upon better Information that Geoffrey and H. Huntingdon were not only Cotemporaries but the latter in that part of his English History still in Manuscript viz. in the Second of his Epistle dedicated to one Gwarin a British or Welsh Nobleman confesses that in his Journey to Rome staying some time by the Way at the Abbey of Bec he there found a large Book of this Geoffrey's whom he also calls Arthur who had copiously and diligently wrote the British History though in the common printed Copies we find no more than that travelling to the Place abovementioned he had there met with a certain Volume in which were divers things relating to the British History not before known but yet without naming the Author THIS I thought good to advertise the Reader of because those Sheets were wrought off before ever I was sensible of my Mistake AS for my second Book I can only tell you it is a true and just Translation of the British History from all the Greek and Roman Authors I could meet with that have treated of it from whom also I have given you a Description of the Manners and Customs of the Antient Britains and tho I grant this has been already attempted by one Daniel Rodgers whose Papers are in the Cottonian Library and is fully performed by Mr. Camden in his Introduction to his Britannia and likewise by Mr. Speed before his History yet I have my self compared them with the Originals and added some Remarks which I thought were further necessary to be known I have begun this Part with Caesar's Relation as I found it in his Commentaries concerning his two Expeditions into Britain and have ended with the last of the Greek and Roman Historians viz. Zosimus Orosius and Aurelius Victor AND whereas others who have undertaken this Province have used the Liberty of Epitomizing or enlarging those Passages they have cited from the Greek and Latin Authors I have thought fit faithfully to translate them except in some of their long-winded Orations which to avoid Prolixity I thought it better to abridg as not believing those Orations to have been deliver'd in those Circumstances in which they are now dress'd AND tho I do not pretend to have added much to what Mr. Camden and Mr. Milton have already collected from those Writers relating to the History of Britain yet I hope I have from several Verses of the Poet Claudian as also by the Assistance of those great Masters in Antiquity the Lord Primate Usher the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet now Lord Bishop of Worcester and Dr. Lloyd now Lord Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield not only illustrated but settled divers things relating to that part of our Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Affairs not commonly taken notice of before IN the beginning of the third Book I have from Mr. Sheringham's Treatise De Origine Gentis Anglorum as also from other Authors given you in order to our English Saxon History a more Exact Account of the Original of those Nations which when they came over into England were comprehended under the General Name of Saxons than hath been hitherto published in our own Language AFTER which I have given you a Relation of the Manner of their coming over hither and the Ground and Occasion of their quarrelling with the Britains from Gildas Bede and Nennius BVT as for the Time of their erecting themselves into an Heptarchy since it is not to be learnt from Bede who is wholly silent of what the Saxons did here from their first entrance to the Propagation of Christianity which he made it his Business chiefly to treat of I have taken it from the Saxon Annals as well as other later Authors that have mentioned any thing of it though as to the whole Period of Time contained in this Book it must be confessed it was when Letters were not in use amongst them and therefore could only be convey'd down by Tradition which makes us here be beholding to the Annals abovementioned or to some Antient Memoirs which tho now lost were certainly seen by those Writers who have gathered from them INDEED I was somewhat perplexed what Method to take in digesting the History of seven concurring Kingdoms since which way so ever I engaged I found it attended with some Inconveniences WILLIAM of Malmesbury and several other Authors as well in Latin as English I know thought it best to give us this History digested under each respective Kingdom apart but then there is this Exception against that way of Writing that without Chronological Tables or frequent turning backward and forward one cannot understand the Synchronisms of the several Kings Reigns or the Time wherein they lived so as to compare them with others their Cotemporaries BESIDES which there is also a necessity of an unnecessary Repetition of the same Wars or Transactions as well under the History of the King that made as of him who suffered that Invasion this appeareth in Speed and Dr. Howel 'T is true Mr. Speed thought of a good Method to help this by supposing so many successive Monarchs to have been always in England from the Time of Hengest to K. Egbert under whose several Reigns he also reduces whatsoever Actions happened in the rest of all the other subordinate Kings then Regnant This I confess had been a very good Expedient to avoid the Difficulties abovementioned were it as just as it seems specious but upon Examination it will be found that tho Bede as well as the Saxon Annals have given us a Series of all those Supream Kings whom some of the Modern Writers are pleased to call Monarchs yet as I have sufficiently shewn in this ensuing History they could by no means deserve that Title since it may be clearly seen by any one who will peruse Mr. Speed that there were sometimes Intervals of ten or twenty Years before such a victorious Prince could make all the rest by the Terror of his Arms submit themselves to him which yet they never all did till the Reign of King Egbert without preserving entire all their Royal Rights and Prerogatives over
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
Judges or Magistrates Where tho he confounds the King's Judges and Counsellors whose Presence there was not absolutely necessary as not being any constituent Parts or Members thereof with the Bishops Aldermen and Thanes without whose Consent no Laws could be made yet he grants us enough in reckoning other Thanes and Magistrates to have had Places there besides the King 's and who I conceive had a Right to appear there without any particular Summons to each of them and sure all these were not Tenants in Capite NOW having laid down and I hope established a true Notion what sort of Men then constituted the greater part of the Wittena-Gemotes of those Times I come to the next Degree or Order of Men who then most properly represented the Commons of England viz. the Deputies of Cities and Great Towns and tho I confess these are not ordinarily mentioned in any of the Antient Saxon Laws or Charters yet that they were comprehended sometimes under the Title of Procuratores I am very well satisfied as appears from the Annals of Winchelcomb wherein there is a Charter of Kenwulf King of the Mercians bearing date Anno Dom. 811. where all the Orders of Men summoned to be present at that Assembly are thus particularly recited by that King viz. Merciorum Optimates Episcopos Principes Comites PROCVRATORES meósque propinquos nec non Cuthredum Regem Cantuariorum átque Suthredum Regem Oriental Saxon. cum omnibus qui Testes nostris Synodalubus conciliabulis aderant NOW I would be gladly informed by any Man well conversant in Antiquity what the word Procuratores could here signify after Comites unless it were the Deputies or Representatives of the Cities and Towns of Mercia THE like word is also found in a Charter of King Athelstan's dated Anno 931. of certain Lands granted to the Abbey of Abington which Charter is entred in the great Register that belonged to that Abbey and is now in the Cottonian Library and concludes thus Haec Charta in Villa Regali quae Aetwelope nuncupatur Episcopis Abbatibus Ducibus patriae Procuratoribus Regiâ dapsilitate ovantibus perscripta est BY which Patriae Procuratoribus abovementioned I know not what else can be understood but the Deputies or Representatives of the Cities and Chief Towns who then sent Members to those General Councils THO of what sort of Men these Procuratores or Deputies of Cities and Towns then consisted I confess it is hard at this distance of Time to determine when the Original Records of those Councils wherein they appeared are lost and that we have so obscure a mention made of them in the Saxon Laws and Charters But if I may take the Liberty to guess there were not so many Citizens chosen for each City as at this Day but only their Chief Magistrates Rulers or Aldermen which were single Persons and not many for there was then but one Alderman in a Town or else such as were called Port-Gerefas now Port-Reves in divers Places who might appear for them of Course or be constantly Chosen on purpose but if the Charter of King Athelstan abovecited be true as I see no reason to question its Authority it appears that the ordinary Boroughs were then represented by two Burgesses in Parliament as at this Day BUT that these as well as the Magistrates and most considerable Citizens might then all pass and be included under the General Name of Witan or Wites called in Latin Sapientes I have the Authority of the Learned Du Fresne who in his Glossary assures us that antiently among the Lombards Sapientes in Italia appellabantur Civitatum Primarii quorum consilio Respublicae gerebantur i. e. that among the Lombards in Italy the Chief Citizens were called Wise-Men by whose Counsel publick Affairs were transacted and for this he cites Hieron Rubeus who in his History of Ravenna under Anno 1297. hath this remarkable Passage concerning these Sapientes says he Sed longè anteà illud nomen obtinuit in aliis Longabardarum civitatibus ut colligere licet ex Ottone Acerbo Morena in Historia Rerum Lundevetium which Authority tho fetch'd as far as Italy is very pertinent to prove the same Title to have been in use among the English Saxons of the same Age with the Lombards since as Grotius hath learnedly proved in his Preface to his Gothic History the Lombards were but one Stirp or Tribe of those Antient Gothes from whom as I have already proved in the beginning of the third Book of this Volume the English Saxons were also derived BUT that these Citizens of Cities in those Times might deserve the Name of Wites or Sapientes as well for their Prudence as Riches appears from the Charter of K. Edward the Confessor in the great Chartulary of the Abby of Westminster now to be seen in the Cottonian Library which begins thus Edward Cing gret Willem and Leodtan Aelfy Porte-Reven and alle mine Burh-Thanes on LVNDEN Frindlic this tho Saxon yet being so near the English of our own Times I need not translate only I desire the Reader to take notice that the Citizens of London were then so considerable as in this Charter to have had the Title of Thanes as they were often called Barones de London in our Antient Historians after the Conquest AND as for the City of Canterbury in those Times it had not only a Chief Magistrate called in Latin Praepositus in Saxon Port-Gerefa as Mr. Somner in his Antiquities of Canterbury informs us but also in the same Place he has given us a Saxon Deed written some Years before the Conquest and containing an Exchange of certain Lands and Houses in that City made between the Family i. e. Monks of the Cathedral Church and the Crihtan of that City being Merchants or Chapmen and you have already seen that a Merchant having thrice passed the Seas was accounted equal to a Thane and can any one then reasonably doubt that Persons of that Wealth and Dignity were not capable of being chosen Representatives of their Cities in the Saxon Great Councils NOR can I forbear citing before I close up this Subject that remarkable Authority out of Sulcardus's Manuscript Chartulary of the Abby of Westminster where there is entred a Charter of King William the First bearing date An. Dom. 1071. And after the King had subscribed his own Name to it with the Sign of the Cross there are added many of the Bishops Abbots and Temporal Nobility and then instead of cum multis aliis this Clause is subjoined viz. Multis praetereà illustrissimìs Virorum personis Regni Principibus diversi Ordinis omissis qui huic Confirmationi piissimo affectu Testes Fautores fuerunt Hii autèm illo tempore à Regiâ potestate è deversis Provinciis Vrbibus ad Vniversalem Synodum pro causis cujuslibet Christianae Ecclesiae audiendis tractandis ad praescriptum Celeberrimum Coenobium quod Westmonasterium
never r. ever P. 24. l. 15. f. no r. any Introduction PAge 31. line 17. for longer read long Ib. l. 18. f. which r. and ib. r. enjoyed it P. 34. l. 27. del for a long time after P. 86. l. 13. del the Comma's in the Margin beginning at from whence you may observe and ending at well observes P. 89. l. 15. f. word r. words Ibid. l. 32. f. upon r. that Ib. del that P. 96. l. 29. f. Longobardarum r. Longobardorum P. 97. l. a. f. Crihtan r. Crihtan i. e. Knights P. 105. l. 38. f. consist r. reside ADDENDA CORRIGENDA SINCE this Volume was printed off coming to a more strict View of the whole Work than I could make when it was in loose Sheets I think fit to make some few Additions and Corrections as in these following Particulars BOOK IV. Pag. 195. The Consecration of Erkenwald Bishop of London being set down twice viz. in the beginning of Anno 675. and again at the end of that Year and was forgot to be struck out in the Page above-mentioned those first three Lines and half beginning at Line 23. may be struck out and that Relation referred to p. 196. at the end of the Year where it is already and you may read it in these words This Year also according to Matth. of Westminster for Bede does not give us the time when it was done Erkenwald a younger Son to Anna King of the East Angles was by Theodore the Arch-bishop consecrated Bishop of London he being in great Reputation for the Sanctity of his Life as having before he came to be a Bishop c. Read the rest as in the Print P. 198. Queen Etheldrithes being twice married and never lain with having been already mentioned p. 193. you may strike out part of three Lines in p. 198. beginning at Line 48. at who yet remained and ending line 51. with but she and then read it thus Wife of King Egfrid above-mentioned this Lady tho twice married still remaining a Virgin died at last c. BOOK V. Pag. 312. line ult The Continuation of Asser's Chronicle published by Dr. Gale having put this Action of Prince Ethelwald's there mentioned under the Year 904. and Florence of Worcester making him come as far as Crecanford now Crayford in Kent from the different Names of which Places and Years I supposed that this Action was not the same with that related in the Year 905. but upon better Consideration I am now satisfied that either Florence's Copy of the Annals or his Transcriber were mistaken and that Crecanford and Bradenewood mentioned by him under 905 and Creccagelade and Braeden set down in the Annals under the same Year are both the same Places setting aside the difference of the Years so that this is also but one and the same Action and therefore I rather now chuse to follow the printed Copies of the Saxon Annals and place the whole under Anno 905. therefore you may strike out the last Line of pag. 312. beginning at after as also the four first Lines of pag. 313. ending with so returned home P. 265. After the Reign of Ethelwulf Anno 855. add this that follows That about these Times the Scotish Kings held the Low-lands of Scotland as Tributaries to the Kings of Northumberland take this Relation from Lessely Bishop of Rosse's History of Scotland in the Reign of King Donald V. where he tells us that the Picts who had been lately conquered and expelled Scotland having hid themselves in Northumberland and the Neighbouring Countries combined with the Britains and Saxons to recover their Liberties who being thus confederated invaded Scotland whereupon King Donald gathering together his Army met them near Jetburgh and joining Battel with them put them to flight with which Success the King and his Men growing insolent and secure spent the Night following in Luxury and Drinking without keeping any Guard or observing Military Discipline of which the Enemies who it seems fled not far gaining Intelligence and laying hold of this Opportunity set upon them about Midnight and slew near 20000 Scots being then as it were buried in Wine and Sleep King Donald himself being also taken Prisoner and to purchase his Liberty was forced to give up all the Countries lying between the River Cluyde and Sterling to the Britains and Saxons and farther obliged himself and his Successors to the Annual Payment of a Sum of Money in Name of a Tribute and that then in the sixth Year of his unhappy Reign the English-Saxons in Memory of this Victory rebuilt the ruined Castle of Sterling and fortified the Bridg of Forth where they erected a Cross of Stone as a Monument of their Victory on which were engraven these barbarous Latine Verses Anglos à Scotis separat Crux ista remotis Arma hic stant Bruti stant Scoti sub hac Cruce tuti BUT in the mean time the Picts who were the Authors of this Scotish Slaughter were so far from being thereby restored to their Country that they were quite expell'd by the Saxons out of Britain THIS Relation Hector Boetius gives you much more prolix and makes King Osbern who reigned in Northumberland to have commanded the English-Saxons at the great Battle above-mentioned THE same Author likewise shews us in the Reign of K. Gregory Anno 872. how the Britains came to be driven out of Cumberland which they had till then enjoy'd viz. That the Britains having by the Assistance of the Danes expelled the Scots from divers Territories endeavoured also by secret Treacheries to drive them yet further but being surprized by K. Gregory were by him quite expelled Cumberland and Westmorland as a Punishment for having violated their Faith with him Pag. 313. l. 18. After East-Angles add this And Bromton's Chronicle in this Year further adds That Ethelwald having passed the Thames at Crekelade to Brithenden and marched as far as Brandenstoke now Bradenstoke in Wiltshire so that as Mr. Camden well observes our Modern Historians have been much mistaken in making that Place to be Basingstoke in Hampshire BOOK VI. Pag. 8. l. 1. You may strike out the three remaining Lines after Dunstan for I am satisfied upon better Consideration that the Assertion therein contained is not true as I have prov'd in the Introduction p. 71 72. Pag. 12. l. 8. After the words freely forgave him add this That the Low-lands of Scotland continued under the Dominion of the Kings of England till the Reign of King Edgar we have the express Testimony of John of Wallingford Abbot of St. Albans who wrote his Chronicle in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Third and before ever the Dispute concerning any Homage being due for the whole Kingdom of Scotland was raised which began not till the time of K. Edward the First This Author thus relates it in the beginning of the Reign of King Edgar viz. that about Anno Dom. 964 that King summoning the Northumbrian Barons i. e. Thanes to a
Council at York ordained divers things relating to the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom among which he divided the Earldom of Oswulph Earl of Northumberland late deceased into two for the King was not willing to bestow so great a Part of the Kingdom on any as an Inheritance lest the Northumbers should again aspire to their antient Liberty wherefore he bestowed that Part of Northumberland lying between the Humber and the Theys upon Earl Oslac girding him with the Sword of that Earldom But from Theys to Mireferth being the Sea-coast of Deira he bestowed upon Earl Eadulf sirnamed Ethelwald and thus the two Kingdoms became two Earldoms and so continued all the times of the English-Saxon Kings under their Gift and Jurisdiction whilst Lothian lying open to the Incursions of the Scots was of no great concern to our Kings BUT Keneth K. of Scotland receiving a high Character of the Generosity of K. Edgar from the two Earls above-mentioned desired the King 's safe Conduct to come to London to visit him which being granted the said two Earls conducted him thither where he was honourably received by K. Edgar who often conversing friendly and familiarly with Keneth he then represented to K. Edgar that Lothian appertained to him as his Right having been long possessed by the Kings of Scotland as their Inheritance but the King not being willing to do any thing that he might afterwards repent of referred the Determination of this Affair to his great Council where the chief Men of the Kingdom would not assent to part with it unless under a Homage to be yielded by the K. of Scotland to the K. of England and that too only because all Access to that Country was very difficult and its Government of little or no Profit Whereupon K. Keneth assented to this Demand and so received it under that Condition did Homage for it accordingly promising likewise many other things as that the People should still remain under the English Name and Language which continues to this day and so the old Quarrel about Lothian was now happily determined tho some new ones were often started Thus the King of Scots became Feudatary to King Edgar on this occasion whence you may observe how the Scotish Nation became Masters of Lothian where Edinburgh the Capital City of the Kingdom is seated and which City continued in the Hands of the English as Mr. Camden well observes from an antient Manuscript he there cites till the Reign of K. Indulf viz. till about Anno Dom. 960. You may add this to the Laws of King Edgar at the end of his Reign p. 14. This King is also related by William of Malmesbury to have made a Law to restrain excessive drinking of great Draughts by which Law it was ordained that no Man under a great Penalty should drink at one Draught below certain Pins that were ordered to be fixt within the sides of the Cups or Goblets for that purpose Pag. 72. I confess I was so far misled by the Authority of the Saxon Annals and Matth. Westminster as to believe that Siward mentioned under Anno 1043. had been consecrated Arch-bishop of Canterbury but being now satisfied of the contrary and having given good Reasons against it in the Introduction p. 115 116. that Relation of William of Malmesbury from these words l. 20. of which Author may be thus altered That tho he was designed Successor to this Arch-bishop and to that end was consecrated his Corepiscopus i. e. his Coadjutor yet that notwithstanding he was soon after deposed for his Ingratitude in defrauding the weak old Man of his necessary Maintenance But that this also was a mistake in this Author see the Introduction p. 115 116. Thus much I thought fit to advertise the Reader since I had rather confess my own involuntary Mistakes than put another to the trouble of shewing them to the World but however since I do not pretend to be infallible if any Person of greater Skill in our English Histories will take the pains to shew the World any other Errors or Omissions I have been guilty of in this Work I shall be â—o far from taking it ill that for the publick Satisfaction they shall be mended 〈◊〉 the next Edition THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK I. From the Earliest Accounts of TIME to the First Coming of JULIUS CAESAR SINCE I design with God's Permission to write and digest the most Remarkable Things and Transactions that have occurred in this Kingdom from the earliest Accounts of Time I shall follow Venerable Bede as well as other Historians in first giving a brief Description of this Island Britain the largest of all the Europaean Islands and one of the biggest in this Habitable Globe is scituate between 50 Degrees 16 Minutes and 59 Degrees 30 Minutes North Latitude the whole Isle lying in length from Dunsby-Head the most Northerly Promontory of Scotland to Dover the space of near Six hundred Miles yet is the Climate more mild and temperate than could be expected in so Northerly a Scituation the Winds from the Seas encompassing it on all sides so tempering the Air that it is neither so cold in Winter nor yet so hot in Summer as the opposite Continents of France Germany and the Low-Countries and also by the Indulgence of Heaven as well as the Fertility of its Native Soil it is plentifully furnished with all Things necessary for Human Life It was anciently called by the Greeks Albion but whether from a Giant of that Name feigned to be the Son of Neptune after the Fabulous Humour of those Times in giving Names to Countries from Giants and Heroes or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to Festus signifies White since this Island is on many sides of it encompassed with Rocks of that Colour or else from the Phoenician word Alp which signifies High or from Alben which in the Hebrew Tongue signifies White is uncertain and therefore needless to be insisted on too much As for the Name of Britain which Nennius and divers other British Writers derive from Brutus whom they likewise call Brito but others of them from the British words Pryd Cain i. e. Forma candida a white Form it seems too far fetch'd and besides we do not find that the Natives of this Isle ever called it Britain Mr. Camden derives it from the Welsh word Brith which signifies Painted for the ancient Britains used to paint themselves of a pale blewish Colour with Glastum or Woad and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Greek signifies a Region or Country But this Etymology has this Inconvenience in it that it is derived from too far different Languages and besides it seems very improbable that such an Accidental Custom as that of painting their Bodies should give a Name to the whole Island as well as its Inhabitants Nor does this word Brith signifie in the Welsh Tongue Painted but rather
Names of his Kings and their Course of Succession in many Places but also referring them in particular to the Years of the World in which he supposes them to have Reigned adding also the Years of their Reigns where-ever he thought Geoffrey to be deficient but without vouchsafing to give us the Names of any Authors from whence he took them So that since we have indeed no better Authorities than Geoffrey himself I shall not go about to Confute the Faults that might be found in the Chronology which Mr. White has given us of these Kings Reigns though it were no hard Matter to shew diverse Absurdities in it But this much is evident from the disagreement of these Authors about the Names of their Kings and the Years of their Reigns that they had nothing but their own Fancies to rely upon for what they wrote whence proceeds so great a Confusion in this part of their British History that no Body can certainly conclude any thing from hence unless that they were all mistaken Nor is it only the uncertainty of Kings Names and Successions that we here find fault with but the great Improbability I might say Impossibility of divers Matters of Fact related by Geoffrey of Monmouth in this History of the British Kings As for Instance that of King Ebrane's sending his Thirty Daughters to find Husbands in Italy which Story plainly took its rise from the Sabines denying their Daughters to those People which Romulus many Years after got together Not to mention the Story of Morindus's being devoured by a Sea-Monster whereas neither our Seas nor Rivers do now or ever did afford any such noxious Creatures divers other more improbable Relations because I would not tire the Reader with such Fooleries I have here omitted Besides all which the very Names of many of these Kings such as Jaco which is the same with James in English Molmutius Morindus as also Archigallo Gorbonian Ennianus Geruntius Fulgentius Androgeus Archimalus Rodianus sufficiently betray some a Phoenician some a Grecian and some a Roman Original and could never be derived from the British Oâ—iginals Lastly There is great difference between this part of the British History especially from Elidure to Lud and all other Histories for whereas these commonly are barren of particular Transactions in their beginning and afterwards enlarge themselves still more and more the further they proceed This History is quite contrary and the farther we go the more confused we find the Succession of their Kings and the less there is Recorded of their Actions for from Elidure to Lud there are Nine and Twenty Kings of whom nothing almost is Recorded but their bare Names and which is also very remarkable from this Elidure Geoffrey makes no mention of the Years of their Reigns What we find of this kind hath been added by those that writ long after him who have done it very preposterously allowing not above Ten Years one with another to Thirty Kings which are supposed to have Reign'd in about Two Hundred Years so that if there were any Truth in this History it seems more rational to believe these Kings not to have succeeded each other but many of them to have bin Contemporary Rulers of particular Provinces of this Island I shall therefore conclude this Part of the History with Mr. Milton's Words concerning these Kings Thus far have we gone relying upon the Credit of Geoffrey of Monmouth and his Assertors though for the Reasons above-mentioned I have not thought it beside my Purpose to relate what I have found whereto I neither oblige the Belief of other Persons nor shall over-hastily subscribe my own Yet granting these things not to have been true but invented by the Author above-mentioned yet since even Romances as well as true Histories may furnish us with Observations sufficient to Instruct us not only in the Humours and Passions of Mankind but also in the Causes as well as Effects of human Actions And since Ambition Lust and the Desire of Revenge are commonly in their turns the Motives that incite Princes as well as private Men to Transgress the Laws of Reason let us look back and survey some of the most remarkable Actions of those Princes whose History we have here cited From those frequent Divisions we here read to have been made of the Kingdom between several Brothers we may learn that the Britains had no Notion of any Right in the Eldest Brother to Command over all the Rest no not after they became Christians the Welch Princes still dividing their Territories among all their Sons alike though we may see the Inconvenience of this Course by their making War upon each other about their particular Shares Whence we may conclude that Sovereignty ought to be left undivided and the more Shares there are in it the more Causes there are of Civil Wars and Divisions nor have any prov'd more fatal than those among Brothers of which we have sufficient Examples not only in this but other Histories From so many Kings being depos'd for their Tyranny we may observe that the ancient Britains though under a Monarchy yet did not think themselves oblig'd to suffer their Kings by becoming Tyrants to make their People Slaves but knew how to cast off that Yoke when it grew insupportable Lastly from Cassibelan's being made a King by the People for his Valour and Worth it plainly appears that if the Kingdom were then Hereditary yet the Estates did then reserve a Power to themselves during the Minority of the Right Heir to place in the Throne that Prince of the Blood-Royal who was like to prove most able to defend them either against Foreign or Domestick Enemies as this Prince in the War with Caesar evidenced to the World I have made bold to add these few political Observations that the Reader as well as my self may profit somewhat by Reading a History otherwise so dry and uninstructive THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK II. Containing the Annals of ENGLAND from the First Landing of JULIUS CAESAR to the Romans Total Desertion thereof being about Four Hundred and Ninety Years HAVING in the former Book deduced the Succession of British Kings as well as I was able from Brute to the Beginning of the Reign of Cassibelan in whose Time Caesar Landed in Britain and having hitherto wandred through divers Ages of Fictions or Uncertainties at best like a Man in a dark Night who knows not well whether he is in or out of his Road yet is still forced to Travel on till Day-light overtake him So we having hitherto gone forward though in the dark are at last arrived at a Period which will give us a more certain Light into our British History though no Roman or Greek Historian did ever undertake to write a History on purpose concerning this Island during all the time that the Roman Emperors govern'd here either in Person or by their Lieutenants For those Authors that are
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
he readily granted taking along with him as an assistant not Lupus but his Scholar Severus who being ordained Bishop of Triers then preached the Gospel to the Germans as soon as it was divulg'd that Germanus was come over one Elaphius a Principal Magistrate of that Country brought a Youth a Son of his the Sinews of one of whose Legs had been long shrunk up and desired Germanus that he would restore them who granting his request immediately upon his stroaking the place with his hand his Leg was restored as the other whereupon both the Priests and the People who had followed Elaphius to the place being astonished at the Miracle were again confirm'd in the Catholick Faith which was followed by an admonition Germanus made them to amend their errours but the Authors of this apostacy being by the sentence of them all banished the Island were delivered up to the Bishops to be carry'd into the Continent that so the People might quietly enjoy the benefit of this Reformation who for the future persisted in the true Faith But after this the Britains being again pressed and over power'd by fresh invasions of the Scots and Picts King Vortigern called a Council to consider what was to be done and where they might best seek assistance to repel these frequent and cruel Invasions of the said Nations whereupon all his Councellours together with the King being as it were blinded found out such a defence as indeed proved the destruction of their Country which was that the Heathen Saxons who were then hateful both to God and Man and whom when absent they fear'd almost as bad as Death it self should be sent for to repel these Northern Nations which seems to have been ordained by Divine providence to take vengeance on so wicked a People as the event more evidently prov'd Though at present the Council seem'd very specious because the Saxons were then a Nation who were very terrible to all others this Council being thus approved of Ambassadours are immediately sent into Germany representing to the Saxons the Britains request and promising them very advantagious Conditions if they would come over to their assistance Witichindus an ancient German Writer in his History De gestis Saxonum represents these Ambassadours making a long Speech wherein they promised an absolute subjection to the Saxons but this being not at all likely nor agreeable to the British account of it I omit only this is certain that the Saxons were very well pleased with this Proposal and their Country being then overcharged with People beyond what it was able to bear immediately yeilding to this request made what haste they could to come away and being as it is said chosen out by Lot were put on board Three long Ships or Vessels called in their Language Chiules under the conduct of Two Captains Hengist and Horsa being Brothers and descended from that ancient Woden from whom almost all the Royal Families of the Saxons derive their descent These leaders together with their followers arriving in Britain at a place called afterwards Towne 's Fleet are welcomed with great joy and applause both of the Prince and People the Isle of Thanet where they landed being given them for their habitation and a League was made with them on these Conditions that the Saxons fighting for and defending the Country against Foreign Enemies should receive their Pay and Maintenance from those for whom they Fought this is said to have happen'd in the beginning of the Reign of the Emperour Martian and in the Four and Twentieth Year of Pharamond first King of the French Anno Dom. 149 as the Saxon Chronicle and almost all our Historians agree What the number was of these Saxon Auxiliaries now brought over is not related in the Saxon Annals or any other but certainly they could not be above 1500 since they all came over in Three Ships and 500 Men was as much as one of those small Vessels could well be supposed to carry But before I proceed further in this History 't is fit we should give some account of the Name Original and Manners of this Great and Warlike Nation of the Saxons whose Posterity enjoy this Kingdom to this very day Bede in the first place tells us that these People came from Three Valiant Nations of Germany viz. the Saxons Angles and Jutes from which latter were derived the Kentish Men and the Inhabitants of the Isle of Wight and of the Province lying over against the said Isle now called Hampshire and which was afterwards part of the Kingdom of the West Saxons was also Peopled by the same Nation From the Saxons that is the Country which was then called old Saxony came the East Saxons South Saxons and West Saxons and from the Angles that is that Country which is called Angulus and which lyes between the Countries of the Jutes and Saxons are derived the East Angles the Middleland Angles or Mercians together with the whole Nation of the Northumbrians that is those Northern People which live beyond the River Humber so far Bede But Ethelwerd one of our most ancient Historians in his Chronicle tells us more plainly that Old England is feared between the Saxons and the Jutes having for its Capital City that which is called in the Saxon Tongue Sleswic but by the Danes Heathaby and that Britain taking its Name from its Conquerors is now called England But as for the Bounds and Extent of Old Saxony there is a great difference between the Writers about it yet that it bordered upon Old England they all agree Arch-bishop Usher supposes Old Saxony to be that Country that beginning with the River Ellis is extended towards the North and was afterwards called Northalbingia being bounded in its lower parts by the Rivers Albis Billa and Trava and in its upper by the Rivers Eidora and Slia for Ptolemy appoints the same Southern Bounds to his Saxons placing them between the Bounds of the River Albis and Calusus or Trava which runneth by Lubec but the Northern bounds Egenhardus hath given us in his Annals in the Year of our Lord 808 where speaking of Godefrid King of Denmark he sets it out thus He resolved to fortifie the Limits of his Kingdom which looked towards Saxony with a deep Trench in such a manner as that from that Eastern Bay of the Sea which they call Ostersalt as far as the Western Ocean this Trench should defend all the Northern Banks of the River Eidor And Adam of Bremen in his Treatise concerning the Situation of Denmark and other Northern Nations divides Denmark from the Inhabitants of Saxony whom he calls North Elbings by the River Eidor of which Transelbian Saxons in another Book he reckons up three Nations The first of Dithmars lying upon the Ocean whose chief Church was Mildenthrope the second Holsteiners through which runs the River Sture whose chief Church was Scolenfield the third who were more noble are called Stormars
this Table do not always follow the Printed Text of the Saxon Annâ—â— since the Copies often differ sometimes one year and sometimes more and then I have always followed that which I thought to be the best Account The Succession of British Kings is accâ—â—â—ing to the Account I received from the Most Reverend Father in God Humphrey Lord Bishop of Bangor 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 Kâ—â—gs of Northumberland in the Provinces called Anno Dom. Kings of the East-Angles Anno Dom. Kings of Mercia Anno Dom. Kings of the Britains         〈…〉 Bernicia Anno Dom. Deira       457 Hengist reigned 31 years               445 Vortiger                 454 Vortimer his Son his Father being Deposed 488 Aesk or Oric his Son 24 years 491 Aella reigned 24 years             458 Vortiger again restored after the Death of his Son 512 Otha or Oisc his Son 20 years               465 Aurelius Ambrosius made General of the Britains Vortiger still living 532 Ermenric his Son 29 years 515 Cissa reigned uncertain how many years 519 Cerdic reigned 15 years 527 Erkenwin or Escwin 〈◊〉 Ida Son of Eoppa reigned over both Kingdoms 12 years       481 Aurelius chosen King after the Death of Vortiger     534 Cynric his Son reigned 26 years  Sigebert 〈◊〉 Adda or Odda his Son reigned 5 years 559 Aella the Son of Yffi reigned near 30 years          After whom reigned divers Kings whose Names are not to be found in our Annals or Historians   535 Swithelm 〈◊〉 Clappa 7 years    Uffa reigned uncertain how long   508 Nazaleod or Nathanleod Chief King of the Britains who whether he was not the same with Aurelius Ambrosius is doubtful 561 Ethelbert his Son   560 Ceawlin his Son 31 years   〈◊〉 Theodwulf 1 year                 〈◊〉 Freothwulf 7 years   578 Titylus or Tytila his Son reigned uncertain too how long           587 Sledda 9 years 〈◊〉 Theodoric 7 years     585 Crida or Creoda how long he reigned is uncertain  Here follows an Inter-regnum of about six years         〈◊〉 Aethelric 2 years                 These two last were Sons of Ida and rul'd here whilst Aella reigned in Deira 589 Edwin his Son who being soon expell'd by Aethelfrid King of Bernicia reigned over both Kingdoms 14 years till Edwin was again restored     515 K. Arthur reigned twenty seven years     591 Ceolric his Kinsman 5 years    This Aethelric last mention'd began also to reign over both these Kingdoms after the death of Aella and reigned in all 5 years      Wippa or Pybba his Son the like 542 After whose Death followed Nine years Interregnum            593 Redwald his Son   551 Mailgwin Gwined was elected King of all the Britains     597 Ceolwulf 14 years 596 Seaber◠〈◊〉 Aethelfred his Son reigned 24 over both Kingdoms      Ceorl the like 586 Mailgwin died after whom was a 17 years Interregnum THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK IV. From the Preaching of the Christian Religion by AUGUSTINE the Monk to ECBERT the first Chief or Supreme King of ENGLAND containing Two Hundred and Three Years THIS Fourth Period will give us a new and more pleasant Prospect of the Affairs of Britain For as the Gospel of Christ did now dispel that Egyptian Darkness of Paganism under which it had so long laboured so together with Christianity Human Learning and consequently the Art of composing Histories or Annals entred also with it the Monasteries which were not long after founded being then the only Universities in which the Liberal Arts and Sciences were in those times chiefly taught and professed which though it was not without a great mixture of that Gothic Barbarism that had then overspread all Europe and even Italy it self yet was it sufficient in some measure to instruct men not only in Divine but Civil Knowledge the Monks of that Age possessing the greatest share of Learning and being almost the only Historians as well as Divines Therefore we must be beholding to them for what Accounts we have not only of the Ecclesiastical but Civil Affairs of those Times for Bede our first English Historian was himself a Monk And the Saxon Annals which we here give you were first collected and written in divers Monasteries of England and to which is to be ascribed that difference which is found between the Copies of that Chronicle as to the Dates of Years and other Matters for before there was scarce any thing remembred by Tradition but the great Wars and Battels fought by the Saxon Kings against the Britains so after the Monks came to commit things to writing they began to make us understand somewhat of their Civil Constitutions and the Acts of Peace as well as War tho it must be confessed they are not so exact in the former as they might and ought to have been minding more the relating of Visions and Miracles which they supposed to have happen'd and been done in those times for the Confirmation of some new Doctrines then not fully received Yet however I doubt not but from those Remains they have left us both the Constitution of their Governmâ—nt and the manner of the Succession of their Kings may be clearly made out of both which in the former Period we were wholly ignorant But for this we are chiefly beholding to those English-Saxon Laws that are left us which were made by the Sâ—preme Aâ—thority of each Kingdom â—n their Wittenâ— Geâ—ot Myceâ— Gemot or great Counâ—il which we now caâ—â— a Parliament from which times most of the Laws made in those Councils were carefully preserv'd and would have been convey'd to us more entire had it not been for the loss of so many curious Monuments of Antiquity at the suppression of Monasteries in the Reign of King Henry VIII But since it must be confessed that it was to the Learning which Christianity brought in that we owe
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
4 years   796 Kenwulf one of the Blood-Royal tho far remote 24 years           795 Osbald 27 days and then deposed               795 Eardulf 10 years       794 Cuthred as his Tributary          Edmund sirnamed the Martyr     THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK V. From the beginning of the Reign of King EGBERT to that of King EDGAR Being the space of One Hundred Fifty Six Years and an Half THE English Saxons having after their Conquest of so great 〈◊〉 part of Britain and the expulsion of the Natives into Wales and Cornwall erected Seven and if we reckon Deira and Bernicia as distinct Eight different Kingdoms in this part of our Island that naturally followed which always attends a Warlike People canton'd out into many small independant principalities viz. constant disputes about the borders of their respective Territories or else a strife for the Mastery who should be Chief and Domineere most over the rest from whence besides divers other accidental occasions of Quarrels sprang Civil Wars incident to neighbouring Nations no ways divided but by Rivers or other less certain boundaries which never ceased until what had been begun by King Egbert's Predecessours was finish'd by himself and his Successours who at length united all those Kingdoms into one to the lasting quiet and happiness of the English Nation which to set forth shall be the subject of this present Period For though there had been before Egbert many chief or Principal Kings several of whom Bede as also the Saxon Annals have mentioned who by the sole power of their Arms succeeded each other in that Title yet did it never so properly belong to any one as to King Egbert with whose Reign we shall begin this Book since he was not satisfied as others had been before him with the bare acknowledgments and submissions of the other remaining Kings but having subdued most of them he laid their Kingdoms to his own leaving only those of the Mercians Northumbrians and East-Anglâ—s to be held by their respective Princes as Tributaries to his Crown in which state they continued till the Invasion and Conquest of the Danes wholly swallowed up all those Principalities and that after their expulsion by King Alfred and his Son Edward the Elder these Kingdoms became again united to the rest of their Dominions under the General name of England But since the Invasion of the Danes also happened in the beginning of this Period 't is fit we say something of it both as to its Causes and Instruments by which it was performed in the doing of which I shall make use of H. Huntington's words in the Prologue to his Fifth Book wherein he tells us That the Invasion of the Danes was much the fiercest and most câ—uel that ever was felt in this Island for the Romans althô they subdued Britain to their Empire yet used their Victory with moderation and made those they conquered partakers of the Roman Laws and Civility and as for the Invasion of the Picts and Scots which followed the decay of the Roman Empire in Britain though it fell severely upon the Northern Parts yet was it not of any long continuance or of any general extent being soon stopt by the more predominant Power and Valour of the English-Saxons who as you have already heard conquering this Kingdom by degrees though they drove out the ancient Inhabitants who refused to submit to them yet we do not find but that they spared the lives of all those that became their Vassals and having Conquered the Country they not only repaired the ancient Towns and Cities but likewise built many new ones and governed the Kingdom by their own Laws and Constitutions Lastly the Normans who succeeded the Danes in subduing this Nation yet granted not only Life and Liberty to the vanquished but also permited them the use of their ancient Laws and Customs whereas the Danes wasted and spoiled this whole Island for a long time together by frequent Incursions exempting no places Sacred or Prophane from Spoil or Ruin so that sparing neither Age nor Sex they seemed for a long time not so much to design the Conquest as Destruction of tâ—e English Nation till at last King Knute obtaining the Crown of Englaâ—d after the Death of King Edmund Sir-named Irâ—nside by restoring iâ—â— ancient Laws and Liberties made some amends for the continual spoils and depredations of himself and his Predecessours If therefore you do but consider the frequent Invasions of that Barbarous People how they often landed in several places at once thereby not only dividing the Forces of the English-Saxons but also so distracting their Commanders that they could not tell which way to March against them you may hence observe that next to the Providence and Mercy of God nothing but the extraordinary Valour and Conduct of those Kings whose Great and Noble Actions we shall here relate could have preserved this Nation from being totally subdued long before nor could they ever bring it under their Power till they met with a Prince who fell very short of his Ancestors as well in Prudence and Valour as in the chiefest thing of all the love of his Subjects But as for the causes which provoked the wrath of God to bring this dreadful Judgment upon the English Nation the same Author gives us this probable Account viz. That in the Primitive Church of England Religion shined with so great a Lustre that divers Kings and Queens together with many of the great Men and Bishops undertook Monastick Vows as you have already heard but in process of time all Virtue and Piety so far declined that the English Saxons suffered no Nation to exceed them in deceit and all manner of wickedness which chiefly appears in the precedent as well as following History of the Northumbrian Kings in which you will find that all Orders and Degrees of Men were guilty of so great Treachery and Rebellion that nothing was a greater disgrace than Piety and Innocence which was looked upon as a just occasion to be made away wherefore it was no wonder if God thought fit to send upon them whole swarms of cruel Nations which destroyed all before them to wit the Danes or Norwegians together with the Swedes and Vandals These from the latter end of the Reign of King Egbert to the beginning of the Reign of William the First being above Two Hundred and Thirty Years never gave this Island any long respite from their Invasions So that it seems it was not the Nation of the Danes alone properly so called who were the cause of this Destruction but a mixture of divers of these Northern Nations who joyning together proposed at first to themselves no other design but
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
of Age to give it by Oath and for what l. 6. p. 58. Selred King of the East-Saxons l. 4. p. 214. Sirnamed the Good Reigned Thirty eight year and then slain but is unknown how or by whom Id. p. 225. Sempingham in Lincolnshire anciently called Sempigaham l. 5. p. 261. Seneca only in his Books a Philosopher his Extortion on the Britains l. 2. p. 47. Seolefeu that is The Island of Seals afterwards called Selsey where Wilfrid Founded a small Monastery l. 4. p. 198. Sermon the first that is to be found at any King's Coronation by whom and to whom made l. 6. p. 70. Serpents strange ones seen in the Province of the South-Saxons l. 4. p. 230. Servants none to receive another Man's Man into his Family without leave first had of his Master the Penalty of doing the contrary l. 5. p. 341. To give Security for their good Abearing Id. p. 346. Who Desert their Lord in Battel what they Forfeit and to whom l. 6. p. 60. Sester that is a Horse-Load of Wheat Sold in Hardecnute's time for Fifty five Pence and more l. 6. p. 66 72. Severn the River from whence it came to be so called l. 1. p. 10. Severus the Emperor makes War against Pescenius Niger and slays him then sends Messengers to dispatch Albinus and the effect thereof l. 2. p. 72 73. Puts Laetus Severus to Death for his Treachery Id. Ib. Makes an Expedition into Britain and the issue of it Id. p. 74 75. How he Treats his Son Baffianus that twice attempted to kill him Id. p. 75 76. Makes a Wall cross the Island from Sea to Sea One hundred thirty two Miles in length and from thence he receiv'd the Stile of Britannicus Id. p. 76. This Wall was built in the same place where Adrian's was before Id. p. 100. His Death and Funeral Pile and Character Id. p. 77 78. Severus Alexander succeeds Heliogabolus having been before declared Caesar by the Senate his Actions in this Island l. 2. p. 80. Is slain by some of his own Army Id. Ib. Severus Germanus his Scholar being Ordained Bishop of Triers preaches the Gospel to the Germans l. 3. p. 117. Seward Abbot of Croyland conceals Withlaf King of Mercia from the Displeasure of King Egbert in the Cell of the Holy Virgin Etheldrith Daughter of King Offa till a perfect Reconciliation was made l. 5. p. 254. Sexburga Governs the Kingdom of the West-Saxons for a year as being left to her by King Cenwalch her Husband Her Character l. 4. p. 192. Shaftsbury first called Paladur afterwards Septonia by whom Built l. 1. p. 10. New built by King Alfred l. 5. p. 285 298 307. Called in Saxon Scaeftesbyrig l. 6. p. 20. Shaving of Crowns and about the manner of it l. 4. p. 216. Sheovesham or Secvesham Abby Vid. Abingdon Shepholme a little Island in the Mouth of Severne anciently called Bradanrelic Florence calls it Reoric l. 5. p. 319. Sheriffs their Antiquity and Appointment by King Alfred l. 5. p. 291. Sherwood-Forest anciently called Walewode l. 5. p. 321. Ships a great Tax raised by Harold for setting out Sixteen Sail which highly incensed the minds of the English l. 6. p. 65. Sixty two Sail had another Tax of Eight Marks to be paid the Rowers Id. p. 66. Shireburne anciently called Westwude l. 4. p. 214. Shiremotes to be held Twice every Year and who to be present thereat l. 6. p. 13. Shropshire anciently called Scrobbesbyrigscire l. 6. p. 32. Sicga dies who killed the good King Oswald or Alfwold as one Historian says by his own hands l. 4. p. 236 238. Sigebert succeeds his Brother Eorpenwald in the Kingdom of the East-Angles he was Baptized in France whither he had been Banished and by Bishop Foelix his assistance erects a School to Instruct Youth and two Years after Resigns his Kingdom to his Cousin Egric and became a Monk l. 4. p. 179. Is forced out of his Monastery by the East-Angles to encourage the Soldiers against Penda King of the Mercians where he is killed Id. p. 181. Is made a Christian at the persuasion of King Oswy Id. p. 184. And at last wickedly Murthered by whom and upon what occasion Id. p. 188 189. Sigebert Cousin to Cuthred succeeds him in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons is Deposed by Cynwulf and the Great Council for his Cruelty and Injustice and at last a certain Hog-herd ran him through and killed him l. 4. p. 226. Sigeferth a petty King of some Province makes himself away and is Buried at Wilton l. 6. p. 4. Another of the same Name a Danish Thane Treacherously slain and his Goods seized on and his Beautiful Widow secured by King Ethelred Id. p. 40. Siger and Sebba who succeed Swidhelm in the Kingdom of the East-Saxons their relapse from the Christian Faith into Idolatry but soon again they renounced their Apostacy l. 4. p. 190. Sigeric Vid. Syric Sihtric a Danish King of Northumberland is Married to Edgitha the Sister of King Athelstan his professing himself a Christian though he relapsed soon after and Died the next year l. 5. p. 330. Another of this Name King of Ireland and the Isles adjacent Id. p. 334. Silures their Complexion Swarthy and they had Curled Hair like the Spaniards l. 1. p. 4. The Inhabitants of the now South-Wales l. 2. p. 42. Their Name ought wholly to be extinguished and why Id. p. 45. Are wasted by many small Incursions Id. p. 46. Simony the first Example of it in the English Church l. 4. p. 191. Vid. Wini. Singin a Captain over the Worcestershire-men kills Constantine King of the Scots l. 5. p. 335 336. Sithicundmon esteemed equal to a Thane by the Valuation of his Head l. 5. p. 342. Slaves The Common People of England were not such Slaves in Alfred's time as some late Writers would fain make them l. 5. p. 294 295. Snottingaham the Town taken and Commanded to be Repaired and Garison'd by King Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 324. Soldier the Discovery made by One and yet his Fidelity at the same time to a Prince to whom he had formerly taken a Military Oath l. 5. p. 335. He that deserts his Lord or fellow Soldier what he Forfeits and to whom l. 6. p. 60. Somerton taken by Ethelbald from the West-Saxons l. 4. p. 221. Was anciently a great Town and Castle that gave Name to that Countrey which is now called Somersetshire Id. p. 222. Southampton was anciently called Hamtun l. 5. p. 258. Destroyed by Danish Pyrates when l. 6. p. 20. South-Saxons when this Kingdom began l. 3. p. 132. Are Converted by the Preaching of Wilfrid l. 4. p. 198. Their Province which had belonged to the Diocess of Winchester is made an Episcopal See Id. p. 214. South-Shoebury in Essex anciently called Sceobyrig where the Danes built a Castle l. 5. p. 300. Southumbers that is the Mercians l. 4. p. 210 212. South-Wales the Seat of War a long while for the Supremacy between Jevaf and
of her Husbands enjoy her and at last with much ado obtained Leave of this King to quit his Palace and retire into a Nunnery which perverting of the Ends of Marriage was counted a great piece of Sanctity in those Times But the Monastery above-mentioned being burnt and destroyed by the Danes Anno 870 was afterwards re-edified by King Edgar as shall be in due time more particularly related Also Egbright King of Kent deceased and Lothair his Brother succeeded him This Year also according to Bede Bosa Bishop of Dunmoc being deprived by reason of his Infirmities two Bishops viz. Acca and Bedwin were placed in that Diocess one of whom had his See at Dunmoc now Dunwich in Suffolk and the other at Helmham in Norfolk ' This Year Aescwin began to Reign over the West Saxons Here also follows his Pedigree needless to be repeated for William of Malmesbury remarks no more of him than that he was supposed to be the next of the Royal Line as being the great Nephew of Cynegils by his Brother Cuthgils The same Year as Bede tells us in his Lives of the Abbots of Wiremuth and Girwy Abbot Benedict I suppose from his Episcopal Actions Sirnamed Biscop having before come over with Arch-Bishop Theodorus was by him made Abbot of the Monastery of St. Peter in Canterbury which he 2 Years after resigning and Adrian that great Scholar succeeding him he went again to Rome and then returning into Britain brought along with him many Books of Divine Knowledge and then applying himself to Egfrid King of Northumberland he obtained of him as much Land as served 70 Families lying near the Mouth of the River Wir in the Bishoprick of Durham where he began a Monastery in Honour of St. Peter but before it was finished he went into France and from thence brought Masons who built the Church of Stone after the Roman fashion and the Work being near finished he sent into the same Country for Artificers who understood the making of Glass which till then had been unknown in Britain wherewith he glazed the Windows of the Church and Monastery he had there built and thereby taught the English Nation the Art of Glass-making which says my Author hath proved so useful in making of Lamps for Churches and also other Vessels so necessary for divers Uses And because this Island nor yet France it self could then afford all the Ornaments requisite for the Altar he took care to fetch them from Rome whither he went for that purpose from whence again returning he brought a great many choice Books of all sorts together with divers Relicks of Saints and curious Pictures with which he adorned the Church he had built and he likewise received a Bull from Pope Agatho whereby the Monastery also by the Consent and License of King Egfrid was freed from all Secular Servitude But some time after Simeon of Durham says 8 Years King Egfrid being very well satisfied with what Benedict had done bestowed as much more Land upon him as then maintained 40 Families for the building of another Monastery at a Place called Girwy now Tarro◠near the Mouth of the River Tine which was built in Honour of St. Paul when also by reason of his frequent Absence and Employment in other Affairs he appointed one Easterwine his Kinsman Abbot of that of St. Peter and Ceolfrid a Monk of the same Monastery over that of S. Paul in which Charges they continued several Years under his Inspection till at last after the decease of Easterwine and another Abbot called Sigfrid Ceolfrid above-mentioned was made Abbot of both Monasteries which he Governed many Years untill He resigning that Charge went to end his Days at Rome but died by the way in France These Transactions thô happening in the space of about 40 Years I have here put together that you may have at once the History of these two ancient and famous Monasteries in the latter of which Bede himself the Author of this Account lived and died a Monk as shall be related hereafter About this time also thô Bede does not set down the Year Arch-Bishop Theodore deposed Winfrid Bishop of the Mercians for some Canonical Disobedience and ordained Sexwulf Abbot of Medeshamsted in his Room But to return to the Annals This Year Wulfher the Son of Penda and Aescwin Son of Genwulf fought at Bedanheafde and also King Wulfher deceased the same Year Where that Place was is uncertain thô some suppose it to be Bedwin in Wiltshire lying near Berkshire H. Huntington describes this Battle to have been very sharp but that the Mercian King inheriting his Father's and his Grandfather's Courage was somewhat superior yet that both Armies were terribly shattered and many Thousands slain on both Sides on which our Author makes this just Reflection That from hence it is worth while to observe how Vile the Actions of Men and how Vain those Wars are which Princes call Glorious Undertakings for when these Kings had brought so great a Destruction upon their own Nations both of them survived not long after For according to Florence's Chronicle King Wulfher deceased this Year having destroyed the Worship of Idols throughout his Kingdom and caused the Gospel to be preached in all Places of his Dominions and Ethelred his Brother succeeded him in the Kingdom whom William of Malmesbury describes to have been more famous for Devotion than Fighting unless when he shewed his Courage in a notable Expedition against Kent or else when he met and repell'd Egfrid King of Northumberland and forced him to return home recovering from him all Lindsey which Wulfher had taken away before thô with the loss of his Brother Edwin in that Expedition after which he spent all the rest of his Life in Peace About this time also according to Math. Westminster for Bede hath not set down the Years Erkenwald younger Son of Anna King of the East Angles was by Arch-Bishop Theodore ordained Bishop of London being a Man of great Worth and Piety This Year also according to Florence King Wulfher was first baptized but the Saxon Annals mention no such thing and therefore I wonder from whence he had it for it is quite contrary to what Bede relates concerning his being Baptized long before or else How could he be Godfather to Edelwalch King of the West Saxons who was Baptized near 20 Years before But I suppose Florence had it from some old Monkish Legend if not from the Roman Martyrology it self in which is related that incredible Story of King Wulfher's murdering of his two Sons Ulfwald and Rufin with his own Hands because they had been instructed in the Christian Faith by Ceadda Bishop of Litchfield And Mr. Stow in his Chronicle having found the same Story in an old Ledger-Book of that Church hath thought fit to insert it into his History placing the Year of their Suffering in Anno 668 when all our Historians do at that time relate him to have been a Christian. But this Book