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A49552
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An introduction to the history of England comprising the principal affairs of this land, from its first planting, to the coming of the English Saxons : together with a catalogue of the British and Pictish kings / by Daniel Langhorne.
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Langhorne, Daniel, d. 1681.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing L395; ESTC R13965
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103,983
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214
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Royal Prophet Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest wickedness Ps 45.7 therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows And again according to the same Royal Prophet Ps 72.1 Give the King thy Judgments O God c. for he said not the Judgments nor the Righteousness of Caesar For the King's Sons are the Christian Nations and people of the Realm who live and abide in the Kingdom under your Protection and Peace according to the Gospel Mat. 23.37 even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings The Nations and people of Britain are your people whom however divided you ought to gather into one to reclaim to Concord and Peace and the Faith and Law of Christ and to the Holy Church to cherish maintain or to lead by hand protect govern and always defend them from injurious and malitious Folks and from their Enemies Eccl. 10.16 Wo to the Kingdom whose King is a Child and whose Princes eat in the morning I do not term a King a Child for Infant-age but for Folly Iniquity and Madness according to the Royal Prophet Ps 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes By Eating we understand Gluttony by Gluttony Luxury by Luxury all filthy perverse and wicked things according to King Solomon Into a malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin Rex dicitur à Regendo non à Regno A King hath his name from his Ruling not from his Kingdom As long as you govern well you shall be a King which if you do not the Name of King will not be evidenced in you and you will lose that Name which God forbid Almighty God grant you so to govern the Kingdom of Britain that you may reign for ever with him whose Vicegerent you are in the said Realm This Letter was written in the year one Hundred seventy nine when the Emperour Commodus was Consul with Vespronius and is to be seen in Lambard's Archaeonomia Printed at London in the years 1560 and 1644 among Edward the Confessor's Laws and in a Copy of our old Laws written in Edward the fourths time now kept in Sr. John Cotton's famous Library and likewise in an Ancient Manuscript Chronicle called Brutus and Breton William Harrison hath inserted it into his description of Britain Lib. 1. c. 9. having translated it into English out of sundry ancient Copies Theon Bishop of London is said to have built St. Peter's Church in Cornhil London with the help of Ciranus the King 's Cup-bearer which Lucius liberally endowed and made it to be the Episcopal Sea for the Diocess of London But Fagan and Dwywan not confining their endeavours only to Lucius his Kingdom converted the greatest part of Britain with the assistance of Elvan and Medwin of whom the former had been made a Bishop at Rome the other a Doctor as Johannes Tinmuthensis and Capgrave in the life of Dubricius and an old Tract concerning the first state of the Church of Landaffe assirm meaning Presbyter or Priest as I suppose by Doctor for the title of Doctor doth not appear to have been so ancient in the Church in the sence wherein it hath been since used Divers other Bishopricks are reported to have been erected about this time as York Carleon upon Vske Winchester Gloucester Congresbury Landaffe and other places Philippus Berterius and Archbishop Vsher of Armagh take York to have been the Metropolis of Britain at that time as being a Roman Colony and honoured with the Emperour's Palace and the Praetorium of Britain in regard whereof Spartianus terms it by way of Excellency In vita Severi The City And in the Council of Arles Eborius of York subscribed before Restitutus of London He that in the year one Thousand four hundred and sixty wrote the History of the Archbishops of York makes Fagan the first Archbishop of that Sea but Harrison in his description of Britain saith Lib. 1. cap. 7. that one Theodosius was Bishop there in the time of Lucius who might be so indeed in the latter end of Lucius his Reign after Fagan's death The Church of Winchester being finished in the fifth year of Lucius his Conversion viz. in the year one Hundred and eighty was then Dedicated by Fagan and Dwywan at which time also one Devotus was made Abbot of the Monastery which the King had founded for certain Monks professing the Egyptian Rule of St. Mark And about the same time was also founded the renowned Abbey of Bangor And now the Northern men are up in arms again and passing Lollius his Fence were come as far as Adrian's Wall which they broke down putting most of the Soldiers that defended it with their commander to the sword and entring the Province wasted and spoiled it at their pleasure against whom Vlpius Marcelius was sent who valiantly beat them back to their own homes and governed the country with such same and reputation that the Emperour Commodus whose Vices were as notorious as his Lieutenant's Virtues fearing the growth of his Credit with the Romans in an envious mood sent him Letters of Discharge After his departure the Army which he had kept in excellent Discipline fell to mutinying and civil Dissensions the Officers abusing and defrauding the common Soldiers whereupon fifteen Hundred of them went to Rome and complained against the Emperour's grand Favourite Perennis as the cause of those and many other distempers in the State for which he was put to death Yet did not this compliance so appease the British Army but that they would have set up another Emperour and Helvins Pertinax who here succeeded in the Lieutenancy endeavouring to suppress their insolency by severe means provoked them to an Insurrection in which divers were slain and himself left for dead whereupon he was glad for his own safety to get himself revoked In his place came Clodius Albinus who so worthily demeaned himself that Commodus either for fear or favour honoured him with the Title of Caesar which yet he accepted not but upon a false report of the Emperour's death having in a set speech discovered himself to be better affected to the old Government of the Senate and Consuls than to Monarchical Empire he was commanded to resign to Junius Severus But Pertinax suceeding Commodus was not long after murdered by the Praetorian Guards who sold the Empire to Didius Julianus who enjoyed his Purchase but a very little time being soon after slain by Septimius Severus This Emperour to keep Albinus who during the late Broils had made bold to keep his place from attempting any thing against him during his Wars with Pescennius Niger created him his Caesar which he now accepted as having a greater esteem for him than for Commodus But Niger being defeated and slain Severus falls to practising the death of his new Caesar and therein failing proclaims him Traitour and publick Enemy and comes in person
of no other Husband but Aetius as judging none but him a fit Match for his Relict Aetius himself received no hurt in this combat yet loth to hazard his friends too far against the whole Army of Italy retired and dismissing them betook himself to a private life in the Countrey but understanding that one who owed him an old grudge plotted to murder him he privately speeded to Rome and from thence by Dalmatia to Pannonia then possessed by the Hunnes with whose help he recovered the Emperour's favour and his former Command displacing Sebastian Boniface's Son-in-Law who then held it and being advanced to the Dignity of a Patrician returned into Gaul The Britans did not make a right improvement of Germans victory but lost both Courage and Virtue when they lost the sight of the two Bishops relapsing to their old courses of Debauchery and Dissension being as Gildas describes them as eager and prompt to Civil Broils as they were backward and heartless against Foreigners This encouraged their Enemies to prosecute the War more furiously in which after some variable successes they so prevailed at length that they forced the Britans in many places to quit their Towns and Cities and flee to the Woods not daring to till their Grounds because they durst not hope to reap and then arose a cruel Famine both here and in divers other parts of Europe so that these people had nothing to keep them alive but what they got by robbing one another and by Hunting And here De Gest Scot. lib. â— cap. 1. because John Maior and others wonder that the Britans should be unable to deal with the Picts and Scots it will not be amiss to consider the sundry Drainings and numerous Levies made of them for the service of the Emperours in their Wars abroad Learned Camden hath observed out of Ancient Inscriptions and the Book called Notitia Provinciarum That these Companies underwritten served the Romans in their Wars and were here and there dispersed over their Provinces which also were from time to time evermore supplied out of Britain Ala Britannica Milliaria Ala quarta Britonum in Aegypto Cohors prima Aelia Britonum Cohors tertia Britonum Cohors septima Britonum Cohors vigesima sexta Britonum in Armenia Britanniciani sub magistro peditum Invicti Juniores Britanniciani Exculcatores Jun Britan inter auxilia Palatina Britones cum magistro Equitum Galliarum Invicti Juniores Britones intra Hispanias Britones Seniores in Illyrico besides the several forementioned Colonies transported by Constantius Chlorus Constantine the Great Maximus and the Last Constantine who settled in Armorica and are by Procopius called Arboricans for Armoricans and are commended by him and Zosamus for valiantly asserting and maintaining their Liberty when the rest of Gaul was overrun by Barbarians Nor were the Provincials only thus exhausted but sometimes too the Northern Britans were drawn into the Roman Service For among the Palatine Aids within Caul were reckoned Attecotti juniores Galiicani and Attecotti Honoriani seniores and within Italy Attecotti Honoriani juniores Which people so weakning themselves to pleasure the Emperours became an easier prey to the intruding Scots It appears then that the loss of this Island was a great damage to the Romans who bore sway here above four hundred and sixty years from Julius Caesar's Conquest to the last Constantine and so highly esteemed that they called it the Roman Isle and Romania and the Roman Language was grown so familiar among them that Gildas calls the Latin Tongue his own Language In all which time the Britans had Kings of their own reigning in some part of the Land which no other European Province of the Empire had And this may be further said for the credit of our Britans That when the Barbarous Nations like an inundation broke into the Roman Empire all the other Provinces never endeavoured to assert in the way of war or opposition either their ancient reputation or their Native Liberties but suffered themselves to be won lost fought for and again recovered by their quarrelsome Masters as if they had no Title to their own Countrey but were born to follow the fortunes of all Pretenders only this people stood up for themselves and when stored with a new stock of vigorous Youth contested bravely not only with the Picts and Scots but with the Saxons too though much more potent Enemies But at this time as I said the Britans were in a very low condition which William of Malmes bury Lib. 1. de Reg. having spoken of Maximus and Constantine thus describes When the Tyrants had left none in the Countrey but half Barbarians none in the Cities and Towns but such as wholly gave themseves to Belly-cheer Britain destitute of all Protection by her vigorous young men bereaved of all exercise and practice of good Arts became exposed for a long time to the greedy and gaping jaws of the hordering Nations Aetius was at this time Captain General of the Forces of the Empire and Consul the third time with Symmachus in the year four hundred forty six to whom the Distressed Britans send their Ambassadors with a pitious mournful Letter superscribed To Aetius thrice Consul the Groans of the Britans and after a few words thus The Barbarians drive us to the Sea the Sea puts us back to the Barbarians between these two sorts of Death we either have our Throats cut or are drowned The Brave Roman affords them pity but can spare no Succours not daring to diminish his Forces because Attila the Hunne that Scourge and Terrour of the World then threatned the Empire with a terrible Invasion The Britans therefore thus disappointed of their last hopes oppressed with War and Famine were many of them fain to yield themselves Slaves to the raging Foes meerly to get some food were it never so little to comfort and refresh their poor hungry Souls But there were some Nobler Spirits left who betaking themselves to the Mountains Grots and desert woody Forrests made from thence a worthy resistance Some fortunate Successes brought them more companions so that having their numbers pretty well increased with such as meer Despair made valiant they adventured to sight their Enemies in plain field and giving them sundry overthrows chased them out of the Countrey Having thus happily disburthened the Land of those Spoilers they enter into consultation about preserving it for the future and knowing that it would not be long before their Enemies returned again they resolved to choose among themselves one supreme King for management of their succeeding Affairs both military and civil to whom all the other Roytelets should be subordinate Hereupon they elect Vortigern Prince of Ewias not the best but the greatest man among them one whose vices were in some sort compensated by the virtues of his Sons who in all probability were the chief Instruments of their so late Deliverance By this surcease of Hostility the desolate peoples sore of Famine was perfectly