went to destroy the Idol Temples the People at first thought him mad because it was not lawful for their Priests either to bear Arms or ride on Horse-back But as soon as Coifi came to the Idol Temple he commanded those that came with him to burn and utterly destroy it and the place where it stood was shewn in Bede's time lying not far from York Eastward near the River Darwent being then called Godmundingham where this Priest by thus demolishing the Altars of his former Gods made some Amends for his teaching Men to adore them But the Year following King Edwin with all his Noblemen and a great many common People of his Kingdom received Baptism the King himself being baptized at York on Easter Day in the Church of St. Peter which he had commanded with all speed to be built of Wood for that purpose in which City he also settled the Episcopal See Paulinus being the first Bishop there but not long after the King had received Baptism he himself took care to build a large and noble Church of Stone round about the former which was still left standing till the other was finished but before the Walls of it could be raised the King being killed left the Work to be perfected by Oswald his Successor So Paulinus continued during all the rest of this King's Reign which was about the space of 6 Years to preach the Word of GOD in that Kingdom in which Church there were also baptized divers others of Note as Osfrid and Eadfrid the Sons of King Edwin both which his former Wife Quenburga the Daughter of Ceorle King of Mercia had brought forth in their Banishment There were likewise afterwards baptized divers others of the King's Children by his last Queen who not long after dying were buried in York Minster Besides these there were baptized Iffi the Son of Prince Osrid and several other Noblemen and it is reported that the People's Desires to receive Baptism were then so fervent that when on a time Paulinus came with the King and Queen to a certain Town of the King 's called Adefrin he there spent a Month in doing nothing else but Catechising and Baptizing those that came to him from far and near to that end for after his Instructing them they were strait baptized in the River Gleni which he made use of as being convenient for that purpose These Things were transacted in the Province of Bernicia but in that of Deira where he used to remain most commonly with the King he baptized in the River of Swale for in that present Infancy of the Church Oratories and Fonts were not yet erected But in the Country of Done he built a Church which was burnt not long after by the Pagans when they killed King Edwin These Things thô happening in several Years Bede here relates all at once But to return to Civil Affairs This Year Cynegils and Cwichelm Kings of the West-Saxons fought with Penda King of Mercia at Cirencestâ—r where also a League was made between them H. Huntington is larger in the Relation of this Fight and tells us that when both Armies had fought from Morning till Sun-set neither of them giving Ground the next Morning perceiving they should be both ruined if they stood another Fight they treated of a Peace and so parted Friends It were to be wished that the Monkish Writers who have left us the only Relations of these Wars would also have told us the particular Causes and Grounds on which they were madâ— for want of which we are left to guess in general that Revenge or Ambition the common Incentives to War among Princes did also produce these we now treat of but within two Years after as the Saxon Annals relate Eorpwald King of the East-Saxons was baptized This Bede relates to have been done by the Persuasion of King Edwin who after the Death of Redwald had the Kingdom of the East-Angles voluntarily delivered up to him by the People of that Province but he out of Gratitude to his old Benefactor permitted his Son Eorpwald quietly to hold that Kingdom tho as his Tributary who now casting away his Idols was baptized together with many of his Subjects His Father King Redwald had been also baptized in Kent by the means of King Eadbald tho in returning home he was again perverted by his Wife and some others of her Superstition from the true Faith so that he had at once in the same Temple one Altar for Christ and another for Devils But King Eorpwald not long after his receiving the Faith was slain by one Richbert a Heathen but who he was or why he did it is not told us so that the Kingdom for three years returned to Paganism until Sebert Brother to the last King a most Learned and Christian Prince obtained the Crown who whilst his Brother lived being banished into France did there receive Baptism of which as soon as he began his Reign he made his Subjects also Partakers But to this Prince we shall speak more largely anon About this time Paulinus also preached the Word to the Province of Lindissi now Lincolnshire and converted the Governor of Lincoln whose Name was Blecca with all his Family to the Christian Faith In which City he built a Church of Stone of curious Workmanship whose Roof being fallen down either by length of Time or Hostile Incursions the Walls were only standing in Bede's time And concerning the Propagation of the Christian Faith in this Province a certain Priest and Abbot of the Monastery of Barteneu told Bede That he himself was baptized by the Bishop Paulinus together with a great Multitude of people in the River Trent near a City then called Tiowulfingceaster where it was we know not King Edwin being present of whom Bede also tells us That in his time a Woman with a Child in her hand might have gone from Sea to Sea and that the King at certain Fountains near the Highways caused Drinking-Pots of Brass to be set upon Posts for the refreshment of Travellers which none either out of Love or Fear would presume to meddle with he also caused to be carried before him when he went through the streets a sort of Banner which the Romans called Tufa and which the English then called a Tuff About this time too Pope Honorius succeeded Boniface in the Roman See and as soon as he heard that the Nation of Northumbers had received the Christian Faith by the Preaching of Paulinus he sent him an Archiepiscopal Pall together with Exhortatory Letters to King Edwin persuading him to persevere in the Faith which he had received which Letter you may find at large in Bede wherein it also appears that Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury and Paulinus of York had this Trust lodged jointly in them That whensoever one of them died the Survivor should immediately consecrate another Archbishop in his stead for not long before Archbishop Justus deceasing Honorius had been elected 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
Historian l. 3. p. 114. l. 4. p. 151. Lived and died a Monk in the Monastery of St. Paul at Girwy now Yarrow l. 4. p. 194. Where born and bred his course of Life and Writings which gave him the Title of Venerable Id. p. 222. Own'd himself beholding to Nothelm when a Presbyter of the Church of London for divers Ancient Monuments relating to the English Church Id. p. 223. Bedicanford now Bedford where Cuthwulf fought against the Britains and the Towns he took from them l. 3. p. 146. Surrendred to King Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 320. Belinus Son of Dunwallo said to make the four great Ways or Streets that run cross the Kingdom and not the Romans built the Gate called Belin's gate our now Billingsgate and said to be the first Founder of the Tower of London l. 1. p. 13. Bells The first Tuneable Ring of Bells in England was in Croyland-Monastery set up there by Abbot Turketule l. 6. p. 12. Benedict the Father of all the Monks in what year he died but long before his death he founded his Order in Italy l. 4. p. 167. Sirnam'd Biscop made Abbot of the Monastery of St. Peter in Canterbury Id. p. 194. His Death with some short account of his Life Id. p. 205. Consecrated Pope upon the death of Stephanus expell'd and who made Pope in his room l. 6. p. 88. Benedictines the Monks of that Order l. 4. p. 167 168. Placed in the Nunnery at Bathe by King Edgar Id. p. 196. Turn out the Sicular Chanons at Worcester Id. p. 200. The Abbey of Winchelcomb in Gloucestershire by whom founded for 300 of these Monks Id. p. 242. St. Dunstan made a Collection of Rules for this Order l. 6. p. 22. Vid. Monks and Chanons Secular St. Bennet's in Holme a Monastery founded by King Cnute in Norfolk for Benedictines l. 6. p. 54. Bennington now called Bensington l. 3. p. 145. A Battel fought there between Cynwulf and Offa and who got the better l. 4. p. 230. Beonna Abbot of Medeshamsted leases Lands to Cuthbright upon Condition Id. Ib. Beormond when consecrated Bishop of Rochester l. 5. p. 248. Beorne when he was King over the East-Angles l. 4. p. 228. Beorne the Ealdorman burnt in Seletune by the Governors of Northumberland l. 4. p. 231. Beorne King Edmund's Huntsman murthers Lothbroke one of the Danish Royal Family l. 5. p. 272 273. Beorne Earl Cousin to Earl Sweyn how made away by him on Shipboard and where buried l. 6. p. 75. Beornred when he usurped the Kingdom of the Mercians l. 4. p. 227. Burnt the fair City of Cataract in Yorkshire and he himself is burnt the same year Id. p. 229. Beornwulf or Bertwulf or Beorthwulf King of the Mercians and Archbishop Wilfrid held two Synods at Clovesho Fought with Egbert and was beaten and afterwards slain by the East-Angles l. 5. p. 253. Was routed with his whole Army by the Danes Id. p. 261. Held the Council of Kingsbury who were present at it and what done there Id. Ib. His Death and who succeded him Id. p. 262. Berferth Son of Bertwulf King of Mercia wickedly slays his Cousin Wulstan l. 5. p. 261. Berkshire anciently called Bearrockshire l. 5. p. 274. l. 6. p. 32. Bernicia and Deira two Kingdoms of Northumberland united into one l. 4. p. 178. All the Low-Lands of Scotland as far as the English-Saxon Tongue was spoken were anciently part of the Bernician Kingdom l. 5. p. 249. Bertha the King of the Franks's Daughter married to King Ethelbert l. 3. p. 145. Brought a Bishop over with her to assist and strengthen her in the Faith l. 4. p. 153. Bertulf King of the Mercians honourably receives Egbert King of the Northumbers and Wulfher Archbishop of York whom the Northumbers had expell'd l. 5. p. 277. Beverlie in Yorkshire anciently called Derawnde l. 4. p. 202. Beverstone in Gloucestershire anciently Byferstane l. 6. p. 77. Billingsgate the ancient Port of London and what Customs to be paid there upon unlading l. 6. p. 43. Vid. Belinus Birds A great Fight and Slaughter of Birds in the Air l. 4. p. 192. Birth Supposititious Vid. Harold the Son of Cnute Birthwald Archbishop of Canterbury who succeeded Theodore was buried in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul l. 4. p. 162. Formerly an Abbot of Raculf now Reculver in Kent near the Isle of Thanet but not consecrated Archbishop till nigh three years after his Election His Character Id. p. 205. He and King Alfred held a Synod about Bishop Wilfrid who was therein excommunicated Id. p. 206. Is reconciled to the Bishop tho King Alfred is not so Id. p. 207. His Death being worn out with Age and Infirmities Id. p. 220. Bishops how to be ordained in the English Church l. 4. p. 156. How to behave themselves towards one another and towards those that are not under their Authority Id. p. 157. Of London to be chosen by his own Synod but to receive the Pall from the Pope Id. p. 157 158. When the Primitive Christian Temper had not left the Bishops of the Roman Church Id. p. 159. Two Bishops in one Diocess viz. One had his See at Dunmoc now Dunwich in Suffolk and the other at Helmham in Norfolk l. 4. p. 193. By a Bishop's Son was meant his Spiritual not Conjugal Son for they were not married in the Saxon times Id. p. 209. Ordered in the Synod of Clovesho to visit their Diocesses once a year l. 4. p. 224. Five Bishops ordained in one day by Archbishop Plegmund and over what Sees but it was by the Authority of the King and his Council l. 5. p. 314. Blecca with all his Family converted to the Christian Faith builds a Stone-Church of curious Workmanship in Lincoln l. 4. p. 175. Blood When it rained Blood for three days together l. 1. p. 12. l. 4. p. 202. Milk and Butter turned into somewhat like Blood l. 4. p. 202. The Moon appeared as it were stained with Blood for a whole hour l. 4. p. 222. Boadicia the Wife of Prasutagus a British Lady of a Royal Race violated with Stripes and her Daughters ravished l. 2. p. 47. Being left a Widow she raised an Army and makes a gallant Speech to them l. 2. p. 49 50. But being overcome and her Army utterly routed she poisons her self Id. p. 50. Bocland King Alfred's Thirty seventh Law concerning it l. 5. p. 295 296. Edward the Elder 's second Law of any one's denying another man his Right therein l. 5. p. 325. That is Land conveyed to another by Deed to whom it was forfeitable l. 6. p. 58 60. Bodotria Vid. Glotta Boetius Hector his great Error concerning the last War between the Romans and the Britains l. 2. p. 101 102. Bolanus Vid. Vectius Bonagratia de Villa Dei his Epistle to the Black Monks of England Wherein is shewn the Antiquity of the University of Cambridge l. 5. p. 318. Bondland that is the Ground of Bondmen or Villains l. 4. p. 230.
and Orders of Men were to be found in every one of those Kingdoms To begin with Sweden and Denmark and then go on to the Kingdom of Germany now called the Empire and so into France and from thence into Spain among all the petty Kingdoms that then composed that Monarchy taking Portugal if you please into the Account you will find that the Estates of all those Kingdoms as representing the whole Body of the same consisted of the Clergy Nobility and Deputies of Cities and great Towns which is briefly comprized by this single Verse of Gonterus an old German Poet concerning the Estate of the Empire in his Time Praelati Proceres missisque potentibus Vrbes SECONDLY How it happened that in all the Kingdoms of the English-Saxon Heptarchy the first Founders of which came out of Frizeland Westphalia Holstein and Jutland the like Great Councils consisting of the King the Clergy and Nobility came to be instituted in each of them For as to the Representatives of Cities and Towns in England since the Framers of the abovementioned Hypothesis deny their appearance here I shall say nothing as yet THIRDLY Whether it be probable that without a General Agreement of Laws and Manners with those People of Germany from whence these English-Saxons came they should by a sort of Natural and Unaccountable Sympathy fall of themselves into the very same Political Form and Constitution FOVRTHLY Whether Princes were above a thousand Years ago so much more Ignorant of the Arts of Government and so little Ambitious of Riches and Power that they should all agree within a Century of Years to set up one uniform Model of Government and admit the People into a share of their Power especially into that Grand Prerogative of laying Taxes which most Princes now do all they can to perform by their own absolute Will FOR as to that of understanding their Subjects Grievances they might either not take notice of them at all or else if they would might have found out a more easy Method to come to the Knowledg of them than by Summoning the Clergy Nobility and People of a whole Kingdom at once to acquaint them therewith FIFTHLY How it came to pass that in all those Countries so long as they continued Elective the States exercised the same Power of Deposing their Kings for Tyranny or Male-Administration Does this look like a precarious and dependent Power And LASTLY Whence happen'd it that in France and England and I believe I could shew the same in other Countries too the Estates of the Kingdom met twice in the Year according to Custom at a certain Time and Place without any Summons from the King NOW when the Gentlemen who maintain the Hypothesis above-mentioned shall return a fair and satisfactory Answer to these Queries I shall not only willingly submit to their Judgments but give them my Thanks for their better Information but till then I think it is much more agreeable to good Sense as well as Matter of Fact to maintain that those Orders and Degrees of Men that did constitute the Great Councils were more Antient than Kingly Government nay Christianity it self among them as appears by those Testimonies I have produced out of Bede and other Authors from all whom it plainly appears that the first Princes in all those Governments were originally Elected of which I hope I have given undeniable Instances out of our own as well as Foreign Histories and certainly that which gives Being to a Thing must be prior in Nature to that which is produced from it HAVING now done with the Original I shall next proceed to the Constituent Parts of this Mycel-Synoth or Wittena-Gemot the last of which words is derived from the Saxon word Wites or Witen i.e. Sapientes or Wise-Men and tho Dr. Brady in his Glossary will have this word mostly to signify Noblemen or Great Lawyers yet I do not find he brings any good Authority for his so doing For granting it is true Wite signifies a Wise-Man however it no ways proves that all Wisemen must be Lawyers much less that those Lawyers were Noblemen and since he himself does not extend this Wisdom only to Knowledg in the Laws I need not say any more to it AS for the rest of his Authorities in this Page whereby he would prove that divers things were done by the Decrees of these Wisemen or Lawyers they sufficiently answer themselves since it appears even by his own shewing that these Sapientes were the Bishops Abbots Aldermen and Thanes and when he makes it out that every one of these Orders of Men were Noblemen or Lawyers I shall come over to his Opinion AS for what he says in the next Page where he gives us the Interpretation of those words of Bede Principibus Consiliariis by Ealdormannum and Witum they are yet less to the purpose since a Man might be a very good Counsellor and yet at the same Time no great Lawyer BUT the Author's seeming stabbing Proof is out of Asser in his Life of King Alfred Who admiring the Ignorance of his Earls and Praefects commanded them either forthwith to lay down their Places of Judicature or else to apply themselves SAPIENTIAE Studiis to the Study of Knowledg or of the Law Here we see again says he who had the Title of SAPIENTES namely the Judges that is the COMITES PRAEPOSITI MINISTRI or Thegnes for these last were the Seminary of Nobility or Great Officers Civil Military and Ecclesiastick amongst the Saxons NOW I desire the Reader to observe that admitting we should take the word Studia SAPIENTIAE here for the Knowledg of the Law does it therefore follow that all that studied it must be Lawyers by Profession when it is very certain that the Study of the Law was not then nor long after a Trade as it is now since all the Freeholders or Thegnes afterwards called Barons were as well as Ealdormen required to have a competent Knowledg of the Laws of their Country or else how could they either plead their own or try each others Causes in the Hundred and County-Courts as they are in the Laws of K. Henry 1. recited to have done before the Profession of Counsellors came up Or how could they sit and judg Causes in the County-Court or Folc-mote when every Thegne or Gentleman in the County was capable of being chosen Sheriff and of sitting Judg in those Courts many Ages before the Office of an Vnder-Sheriff was heard of AND as for the Auctuary to the 35 th Law of Edward the Confessor wherein the HERETOCHS are called BARONES NOBILES insignes SAPIENTES there can be nothing urged less to purpose for then according to the Doctor they must have had all great Titles and have been chosen Generals in War and Leaders of Armies and Pray why because they were SAPIENTES i. e. Great Lawyers But the Doctor had the good luck to find once in his Life that Studia Sapientiae
dicitur convocati i. e. Besides many other very Eminent Persons and Chief Men of the Kingdom of divers Orders being omitted who with most pious Affection were Witnesses and Approvers to this Confirmation and these were summoned at that Time by the Royal Authority from divers Provinces and Cities to the General Synod held at the Famous Abby of Westminster for the hearing and determining of the Causes of each Christian Church THIS is an Authority which seemed so convincing that Sir William Dugdale hath made use of it in his Origines Juridiciales to prove the Antiquity of the Commons of England in Parliament yet Dr. Brady in the Conclusion of his Answer to Mr. Cook 's Argumentum Antinormanicum accuses that Gentleman of being both Ignorant and Mistaken in the meaning of Cities and Provinces and the Persons that came from them whom he indeed would have to be not any Representatives of Counties and Cities but only Deans Arch-Deacons and other dignified Persons and Church-Officers as well of the Laity as Clergy who were summoned by the King to this Synod from Provinces and Cities to advise and inform the King of the Conveniency of the Places whither the Bishops Sees then about to be removed from Villages to Cities were to be transferred BUT since there is not one word in this Charter said of any such Thing and that Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary renders the word Provincia for a County and not a Bishop's See I my self not now having leisure to pursue such Niceties shall refer the Curious for their farther Satisfaction to the eighth Dialogue of Bibliotheca Politica where they may read whatsoever he has said against it sufficiently answered THESE are the only Authorities I shall make use of at this Time to prove that the Cities and Boroughs had then their Delegates or Representatives in the Saxon Witena-Gemotes I will now conclude this Point with the Judgment of that Learned Antiquary Mr. Lambard who certainly understood the Constitution of this Antient Government as well at least if not better than Dr. Brady and he tells us THAT whereas in the beginning of each Law viz. those made by the Saxon Kings he there mentions all the Acts are said to pass from the King and his Wise Men both of the Clergy and Laity in the Body of the Laws each Statute being thus And it is the Advice of our Lord and his Wise-Men So as it appears that it was then a received Form of Speech to signify both the Spirituality and the Laity that is to say the greater Nobility and the less or Commons by this one word Witan i. e. Wise-men NOW as those written Authorities do undoubtedly confirm our Assertion of the Continuance of this manner of Parliament so is there also unwritten Law or Prescription that doth no less infallibly uphold the same For it is well known that in every Quarter of the Realm a great many Boroughs do yet send Burgesses to the Parliament which are nevertheless so antient and so long since decayed and gone to nought that it cannot be shewed that they have been of any Reputation at any time since the Conquest and much less that they have obtained this Privilege by the Grant of any King succeeding the same So that the Interest which they have in Parliament groweth by an antient Usage before the Conquest whereof they cannot shew any beginning which thing is also confirmed by a contrary Usage in the self-same thing for it is likewise known that they of Antient Demesne do prescribe in not sending to the Parliament for which reason also they are neither Contributors to the Wages of the Knights of Shires neither are they bound by sundry Acts of Parliament tho the same be generally penn'd and do make no Exceptions of them But there is no antient Demesne saving that only which is described in the Book of Doomsday under the Title of Terra Regis which of necessity must be such as either was in the Hands of the Conqueror himself who made the Book or of Edward the Confessor that was before him And so again if they of antient Demesnes have ever since the Conquest prescribed not to elect Burgesses to Parliament then no doubt there was a Parliament before the Conquest to the which they of other Places did send their Burgesses I shall here crave leave to add one Record tho after the Conquest in Confirmation of what Mr. Lambard hath here learnedly asserted for that several Boroughs claimed to send Members to Parliament by Prescription in the beginning of the Reign of Edward the Third appears by a Petition put in to that King An. 17 Edw. 3. wherein the Burgesses of the Town of Barnstaple in Devonshire set forth that it being a free Borough had by Charter from King Athelstan among other Privileges a right of sending two Burgesses to all Parliaments for the said Borough upon which the King and his Council ordered a Writ of Inquiry which certainly would never have been done if Dr. Brady's Notion were true that the Cities and Boroughs never sent any Representatives to Parliament but once in the 49 th of Hen. 3. and then no more till the 18 th of Edward the First which was but a little above 50 Years to the time of this Petition which being within the Memory of so many then living the King and his Council would never have ordered a Writ of Inquiry about such a vain and idle Pretence FROM all which I think it may safely be concluded that this Learned Antiquary above-mentioned I mean Mr. Lambard did not without good Authority believe that not only the Great Lords or Peers but also the Inferiour Nobility and Representatives of Cities and Towns were included under the word Witan and likewise that those Places claimed that Privilege by Prescription I shall therefore desire the Doctor that when he writes next upon this Subject he will please to crave in Aid some Gentlemen of the Long Robe of his Opinion to help him to answer this Argument of Mr. Lambard from general Prescription as also what hath been already said concerning this matter in the same Dialogue of Bibliotheca Politica above-mentioned beginning at pag. 483 and ending at pag. 593 inclusively and if he can then with his Assistances prove all our antient Lawyers to have been mistaken in this memorable Point I shall own my self to have been so too But I desire this may be taken notice of that no Prescription whatsoever in Law can be laid of later Date than the first Year of King Richard the First which began almost fourscore Years before the 49 th of Hen. 3. when he fancies the Commons were first summoned to Parliament BUT that I may be as brief as I can I shall reduce what I have further to say upon this Head to a few Queries As FIRST Whether in all the Kingdoms of Europe of the Gothic Model beginning with Sweden and Denmark and ending with Scotland there can
be shewn any of them wherein the Cities and Great Towns either had not or at least not till of Modern Times their particular Representatives in the Common Councils or Assemblies of the Estates in those Kingdoms SECONDLY Why in England alone whose King was not more Absolute than in other Neighbouring Kingdoms and which was framed after the same Gothic Constitution its Cities and antient Boroughs which were in those Times very considerable for Strength Trade and Wealth and guarded by so many Laws made in the Saxon Times should not be thought considerable enough to have any Delegates in the Common Council of the Kingdom till so long after the Conquest as the 49 th of Hen. 3. which if we may believe the Doctor was also intermitted from that time for above the space of twenty Years till the 18 th of King Edward the First BESIDES which I would also propose these farther Queries concerning the Antiquity of the Commons in general As FIRST If Clerus and Populus signify in our Antient Authors the Clergy and Laity which the Doctor asserts and I will not oppose then I would ask him why the same word Clerus including the inferiour Clergy viz. Deans Arch-deacons c. as well as the superiour viz. Arch-bishops and Bishops c. assembled in our Great Councils or Synods the word Populus must not be allowed the same Latitude of Signification and extend to the Gentry or less Nobility together with the chief Citizens and Burgesses by a like Parity of Reason unless he can make it out that Clerus must be understood in a very comprehensive sense and Populus in a very contracted and narrow one only to mean Great Lords and Noblemen of the higher Rank SECONDLY I would desire to know of him what the words Populus and Populi shall signify when put after and distinct from the words Proceres Optimates Senatores or Senatus c. when these words occur in several antient Charters of our English-Saxon Kings as well as Historians that make any mention of the Great Councils unless they mean the People or Commons distinct from the Great Lords Of which I shall here set down a few Instances out of many both from Charters Laws and Historians THE first whereof is found in the Charter of King Ethelred containing a Grant and Confirmation of several great Privileges to the Monastery of Wolverhampton which concludes in these words Haec Decreta sunt Sigerici Archiepiscopi in placito corà m Rege Ethelredo Eboracensi Archiepiscopo omnibus Episcopis Abbatibus Regionis Britanniae seu Senatoribus Ducibus Populo Terrae THE next is the third Charter of King Edward the Confessor to the Abbey of Westminster made in a Great Council of the Kingdom which was held in the last Year of his Reign and concludes thus Hanc igitùr Chartam meae Donationis Libertatis in die Dedicationis praedictae Ecclesiae recitari jussi corà m Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus omnibus Optimatibus Angliae omnÃabque Populo audiente vidente NOW from both these Charters it seems evident that by the word Populus the Representatives of Cities and Boroughs are here meant and understood who were present at the sealing of them as well as the greater Nobility viz. the Senators Ealdormen and Earls and the lesser Nobility viz. the Thanes or Freeholders included under the Title of Optimates since the meer Vulgar or Mob could never be admitted into the Place of the Great Council as Witnesses to the solemn reading and sealing of those Charters MY third Instance shall be that famous Law concerning the Grant of Tithes by King Ethelwolf Anno Dom. 855. which is cited in the Laws of Edward the Confessor and confirmed by King William the First under the Title de Apibus de aliis minutis Decimis wherein it is thus expressed Haec scilicet these Tithes concessa sunt à Rege Baronibus Populo Here it is plain that the word Populus must signify a distinct Order or Degree of Men from that of the Barones THIS Law of King Edward the Confessor being urged by Mr. Petyt in his Rights of the Commons asserted the Doctor passes over in silence but when the ingenious Author of Argumentum Anti-Normanicum makes use of the same Authority the Doctor can no longer contain himself but in his Answer to that Book tells him after an insulting diminutive Reflection upon his Person that He thinks this Law was made in King Edward's days and was piping-hot when the Conqueror came in but he says it will prove otherwise upon Examination of it and also doubtful whether there was ever such a Law or not made by a Saxon Monarch or King For after the Law hath enumerated the manner of Tithing in very many things both great and small requiring an exact Tenth to be paid for most of them it says That he which detains the Tenth if need be may be forced to Payment by the Justice of the Bishop and King and then immediately follow these words Haec autèm praedicavit Beatus Augustinus concessa sunt à REGE BARONIBVS POPVLO Sed posteà Instinctu Diaboli multi eam viz. decimam detinuerunt c. These things St. Augustine preached up and they were granted by the King Barons and People c. THE rest of the Latin he there cites being not to the Point in Dispute I pass over yet I cannot but observe that from hence the Doctor believes he hath got a notable Advantage over him for he thus proceeds HENCE 't is evident that these Concessions of Tithes were made in the time of St. Augustine Arch-bishop of Canterbury sent hither from Rome in the Reign of Ethelbert King of Kent for the words concessa sunt à REGE BARONIBVS ET POPVLO can relate to no other than the words immediately preceding haec enim praedicavit Beatus Augustinus And the words next following them do also prove the same sed posteà Instinctu Diaboli Multi eam detinuerunt c. which was after they were granted by the King Barons and People so that this was at most but the Confirmation of a Law made by King Ethelbert and how and by what words the Legislators were expressed near 500 Years after the Law made and how they were rendred in Latin after the coming in of the Normans transiently and without Design to give an Account of them cannot be of much Value to prove who they were and that the Laws of King Edward were made or at least translated into Norman Latin after the Conquest appears by the words Comites Barones Milites Servientes Servitium Villanus Catalla manutenere all Norman words and not known here till their coming hither He that will assert any thing from a single uncouth Expression in one Case and upon one Occasion only brings but a slender Proof for what he says THESE are the Doctor 's own words which I have transcribed almost Verbatim that
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
Alba then King of Italy to be provided with Husbands because he had heard that the Sabines would not give their Daughters in Marriage to the Latins which is so very ridiculous that it needs no Confutation This Prince dying after he had reign'd about Forty Years left the Kingdom to Brute Sir-named Greenshield from the colour of his Target he revenged those Indignities which had been put upon his Father by Brunchild Prince of Hannonia or Hainault Conquering him near the banks of the Scaldis i. e. the Scheld but the modern names of Hainault and Brunchild sufficiently betray the Novelty of this Fable He hath the Character of an Excellent Prince Just Merciful and a most exact observer of his Word and reigned Twelve Years to whom succeeded Leil his Son who built the City of Carlisle in the Days of Solomon after called by the Romans Lugubalia and did also repair Caerleon now called Chester he was a good Prince till the latter end of his days when falling into several Vices he occasioned great dissentions in the Kingdom which did not end with his life but after he had reigned Twenty five Years left the Kingdom to Rudhudibras or Hudibras who compos'd the disturbances begun in his Fathers days and studying nothing more than to strengthen and adorn his Kingdom built several Cities as Caerkin now Canterbury likewise Caer Guent now Winchester as also Mount Paladur after Septonia or Shaftsbury and having reigned Twenty nine Years was succeeded by Bladud his Son who is said to have been skill'd in Magick and thereby to have found out those Medicinal Waters now called the Bath where he also built a City called Caer Baden he is said to be a Man of a good Invention and having made himself Wings to flye fell down from the Temple of Apollo in Trinovant and broke his Neck having governed Britain Twenty Years To him succeeded Leir his Son who built Caer Leir now called Leicester He had only Three Daughters Gonnilla Râ—gana and Cordiella his darling but in his old Age being jealous of their Affections he called them before him and demanded that they would give him some assurance of their Love the two Eldest called Heaven and Earth to witness that they loved him Ten thousand times dearer than their own Souls and that they were not able to Express their infinite kindness for him and at last concluded their flatteries with horrid Oaths and asseverations of their Sincerity but Cordiella the Youngest though having before her Eyes the present reward of an easie flattery yet could not be moved from giving him this downright honest Answer Father saith she my Love toward you is as my Duty bids What should a Father seek What can a Child promise more They who pretend beyond this flatter This short Answer not at all satisfied the old suspicious King for he shewed his resentments by his neglect of her and the suddain advancement of her Sisters Marrying Regana to the Duke of Cornwall and Gonarilla to the Duke of Albania reserving no portion at all for Cordiella but it so happen'd that Aganippus a Prince of Gaul however he came by this Greek Name hearing of her Vertue and Beauty desired her in Marriage to whom she was welcome without any other Dower but her own Vertues King Leir having thus disposed of his two Eldest Daughters and dividing half his Kingdom between them they within some time by their subtile practices work him out of all so that he was forced to sojourn with his Daughters by turns who being set on by their Husbands put so many affronts and Indignities upon him needless here to be recited that in the end he was constrained to leave the Realm and take refuge with Cordiella This rejected Daughter received him with all the Duty and Affection imaginable and then appeared the difference between the down-right Love of some Children to their Parents and the over talkative obsequiousness of others while the hopes of a large Inheritance obliges their Tongues to Express more Duty than ever they mean to perform but what was more significant than Words she assisted her Father with powerful aids and in Person went to revenge his wrongs So that bringing a great Army into Britain she destroyed his Enemies and restored him to his Crown which he held but for the space of Two Years whose Reign in all is computed to be about Forty Years and then dying left the Throne to Cordilla who Governed the Kingdom for Five Years but in the mean time her Husband Aganippus dying Morgan and Cunedage her Nephews by her Sisters Gonorilla and Regana disdaining to be under the Government of a Woman rebelled against her and so prevailed that they took her Prisoner but she being a Woman of a high Spirit slew her self rather than to live under their Tyranny Whereupon Cunedage and Morgan possessing the whole Government divided the Island between them to Morgan fell Albania to Cunedage all the Land on this side Humber Morgan not being content with his Portion Invaded his Brother but being driven by him into Wales and there Slain gave the Name of Glan-Morgan to that Country Cunedage now Ruling alone built many Temples to his Gods and dying was buried at Trinovant after he had Ruled Thirty three Years to whom succeeded Rivallo the Son of Cunedage in his time it rain'd Blood for Three Days together from whose Putrefaction Noisom and Venemous Flies were bred which in Swarms infested the whole Land and brought great Contagion both upon Men and Beasts He after he had Ruled Forty six Years was succeeded by Gurgust his Son of whom nothing is recorded worth mentioning he is said to have Reign'd Thirty seven Years Nor is there more left of Jago his Nephew Nor yet of Sillius or Sicillius thô how related to the former is not said But to him after Forty nine Years Reign succeeded Kâ—nemare said to be Brother of Jago of whom there is nothing Recorded but that he was Buried at York To whom succeeded Gorâ—odug the Son of Kinemare he is noted for Tyranny But dying he left behind him two Sons Ferrex and Porrex who Reigning joyntly at first did within a few Years begin to contend who should have the whole Kingdom in which Contention after a great Battle Fought between them Ferrex was Slain whose Death affected his Mother with so great a Grief that transported by Revenge she by the help of her Maidens Slew her other Son Porrex whilst he was a Sleep an unheard of Example and too strange to be true After his Death the Blood Royal of Brute being extinguished by his Death there happned cruel Wars so that the Kingdom was rent into five parts one Pinnor made himself King of Loegria or England Stator seized Albania Rudock Cambria and Cloten Cornwall But as to the fifth division the Story is silent this Pentarchie is supposed to have lasted above Fifty Years the Kingdom in the mean time being miserably harrassed by Civil Wars until Dunwallo Molmutius Son
of Cloten King of Cornwall excelling in Valour and Comliness of Person by subduing the other four Princes reduced the whole Island again into a Monarchy and is said to be the First in Britain that wore a Crown of Gold and therefore by some reputed the first King But what he got by Force he managed with great Prudence and Moderation Enacting several excellent Laws which Geoffrey says were translated into Latin by Gildas and in Saxon afterwards by King Alfred But since no such work of his is any where extant I shall not give them so much Credit as to recite them though Mr. Selden hath not thought them unworthy of a place in his learned Treatise called Janus Anglorum But this King after he had governed Forty Years died and was buried at Tâ—inovant to whom succeeded his two Sons Belinus and Brennus who after some Controversies divided the Kingdom between them Brennus being to have all that lay North of Humber and Bâ—linus the rest but the Younger being not long so contented did upon new designs Sail into Norway and enter into a League with Elsing King of that Country and Married his Daughter which Belinus hearing of did in his absence dispossess him of his Kingdom Brennus with a Fleet of Norwegians makes toward Britain but is encounter'd by Guithlac a Danish King who laying claim to his Bride pursued him at Sea and being there vanquish'd in a Fight was forced to get away with a few Ships but Brennus nevertheless recollecting his shattered Navy landed in Albania and gave Battle to his Brother who totally routed him and forced him to fly into Gaul with no more than one single Vessel But Belinus being now rid of his Brother turns his Thoughts to Arts of Peace and amongst other things they reckon his making the Four great Ways or Streets which are still to be seen to run cross the Kingdom which they will have him and not the Romans to have first laid Brennus in the mean while having been kindly received by Seguinus King of Armorica now Britagn in France and having Married his Daughter was by him assisted with a powerful Army to regain his Kingdom and Landing in Britain was now ready to give Battel to his Brother when their Mother Conwenna mediated between them and so perswaded them that embracing each other they were perfectly reconciled so that going to Trinovant they resolved to turn their united Forces on Foreign Parts and then Sailing into Gaul the Author tells us that under these two not only all that Country but also Italy was Conquered as you may find in the Roman Authors If those were Britains and not Gauls which took Rome which is not worth our while to Dispute Some say that Belinus went not into Gaul with his Brother or if he did that he soon returned After which he made it his Business to adorn his Kingdom Building some Cities of which Caer-Uske now Caer-Leon upon Uske was one and he also adorn'd Trinovant with a Gate called to this Day Belin's Gate having a Tower on the Top of it at the Foot of which he made a Harbour for Ships He is also said to be the first Founder of the Tower of London After he had Reigned Twenty-six Years died and his Body being burnt on a Funeral Pile his Ashes were put in a golden Urn and placed on the Top of the Tower that he himself had Built Gurguint Sirnamed Brabtruc his Son succeeded him in whose Reign the Danes refused the Payment of the Tribute which had bin imposed by Belinus when their King Guithlac being driven by force of Weather upon the Coast of Northumberland was made a Prisoner nor could be set free without an Engagement to pay Tribute for himself and Successors which being now denied Gurguint now Sailed into Denmark and by force of Arms obliged the Danes to renew their Treaty and received Homage of their King and Chief Nobility and then Embarqued again for Britain In his return he met with a Fleet of Thirty Sail about the Isle of Orkeney these he encountred and having taken their Captain Bartholain he demanded of him what he was and the Reason of his coming into those Parts Bartholain answered that he and his Followers were named Balences being banished from Spain their Country with their Wives and Children and thereupon had put to Sea to seek out new Habitations whereupon it is said this King assigned them Ireland being a Place not then Peopled This King is supposed to have Built Caer-Werith or Lancaster Caer-Peris or Portchester in Hampshire and Caer-Gaurvie now Warwick where he was buried after he had Reigned Nineteen Years to whom succeeded Guintelin his Son he was a Prince Learned Prudent and of singular Justice and Moderation he is said to have had a Wife of as great Vertue named Martia to whom Geoffrey falsly Attributes the making of the Laws called Merceuenlage which was indeed so called not from her but but from the Mercians by whose Kings they were first enacted This King is also said to have Reigned Twenty-six Years and was succeeded by Sicilius the II. his Son being about Seven Years of Age but under the Government of his Mother Martia he is supposed to have Reign'd Fifteen Years Seven under the Tuition of his Mother and Eight after his full Age and having given all the Signs of a hopeful Prince he was suddenly snatched away by Death and then the Crown fell to Kimarus the Son of Sicilius but he being of a wild and ungovernable Temper and wholly given up to all manner of Exorbitances was killed in the Woods in pursuit after his Game some say by an Ambush others by wild Beasts He Reigned but three Years then Elanius or Danius his Brother succeeded This King was not Inferior to his Predecessor in Wickedness of Life insomuch that some make them the same Person so exactly did these two Princes correspond in their Vices He held the Scepter about Ten Years the succeeded his Son Morvidus or Morindus by a Concubine a Man of great strength and Comeliness as to the Qualities of his Mind he was Liberal but withal exceeding Passionate In his Days the Moriani or rather Morini a People of Gaul Landing in Northumberland with Fire and Sword wasted that Country which Morindus hearing of with all Expedition gathered his Forces and with long and wearifom Marches made up to them and in one Baâ—tel utterly defeated them and then put all the Prisoners to Death with exquisite Torments but not long after hearing of an hideous Monster which coming out of the Irish Sea seized and devoured many that lived near the Shore The King beholding the lamentable Destruction of his Subjects fought the Monster himself the Contest held for a while doubtful but at last the Monster prevailed and devoured the King This is said to have happened in the Ninth Year of his Reign to whom succeeded Gorbonian his eldest Son a religious Prince which he evidenced to the World by repairing decay'd Temples
grant to have been a very credulous trivial Writer and to have vented a great many Fables Thirdly That thô William of Malmesbury and H. Huntington both make mention of this Arthur and his Victories over the Saxons yet that the latter took all he has written concerning him from Nennius as the former did either from him or else from some Monkish Legends in the Abby of Glastenbury and that he knew no more of this Arthur above 500 Years ago when he wrote his History than we do at this day Lastly That the pretended History of Geoffâ—ry of Monmouth hath made such incredible Romances concerning this Prince's Actions and Conquests not only in Britain but in France Scotland Ireland Norway and other Countries as are sufficient to shock the Credit of his whole History It being a likely matter that he who could not maintain his own Country should have Forces and Leisure sufficient to conquer the Kingdoms of so many Foreign Princes To each of which Objections we shall return these Answers That in the first place as to Gildas his not mentioning him it is at the best but a Negative Argument since it is evident that he did not design any exact History of the Affairs of his Country but only to give a short Account of the Causes of the Ruine of it by the Scots Picts and Saxons the chief of which he ascribes to GOD's Vengeance upon the Britains for their great Wickedness and corruption of Manners nor does he mention any Kings or Commanders of those Times except Vortigern and Aurelius Ambrosius As for Nennius thô what is objected against him be true yet since he lived near 300 Years after Arthur's Death as appears by the Preface to his History it is highly probable he set down what he there wrote if not from some other more ancient Writers yet at the least from the general Tradition of his Country-men at that time who can never be supposed to have been able to forge this whole Story of K. Arthur and the Battles he fought and thô it be true that the Saxon Annals make no mention of this King yet if these were also written from Traditions long after these Things were done being not put into the Form we now have them till long after the Saxons became Christians it is no wonder if there be no mention made of him especially since they could not do it without Recording to Posterity the many Defeats he gave them but notwithstanding this divers of our best and most ancient English Historians as Radulphus de Diceto and Thomas Rudburn do mentiâ—n King Cerdio's fighting divers Battles with King Arthur But as for William of Malmesbury and H. Huntington thô it might be true they neither of them knew any thing of them but what they had from Nennius or the Legends of Glastenbury yet are not the ancient Registers of that Monastery to be wholly slighted as false since King Arthur was there buried But William of Malmesbury in his Book of the Antiquities of that Church makes King Arthur to have begun his Reign over the Britains in the Tenth Year of King Cerdic in which he is also followed by Ran. Higden in Polychronicon and Joh. Tinmuth in his Golden History and thô the Tomb of King Arthur was not found in the time of William of Malmesbury yet was it some Years after discovered about the end of the Reign of Henry the Second as Giraldus Cambrensis relates at large both in his Book De Institutione Principis and in his Speculo Ecclesiastico where he gives a large Account of the manner of finding his Coffin which was made out of a solid Oak as also of the largeness of his Bones which he saw and handled together with an Inscription upon a Leaden Cross of about a Foot long fixed to the lower side of a broad Stone laid three Foot above the Coffin on which was inscribed this Epitaph Hic jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arthurus in Insula Aualonia which Cross being preserved in the Monastery of Glastenbury till Leland's time he saw and took a Copy of it and is the very Inscription which Mr. Camden hath given us the Draught of in his Britannia But as for the last Objection thô it be true what William of Malmesbury very well observes that the Britains had vented a great many Fables of him yet he still acknowledges him to have been a Prince more worthy to be celebrated in true Histories than Romances and thô it must be confessed that the Stories the Welsh had then made of him encouraged Geoffery of Monmouth to write those incredible Fables of his Conquests yet does it not therefore follow that all that is written of him must be Lies since a true History may be corrupted and yet the Substance of it remain true But whoever desires to see more in justification of the History of King Arthur how much of it is true and what most likely to be false may if they please consult Dr. Stillingfleet's Antiquities of the British Churches But to return to our Saxon Annals in which for the space of 7 Years there is nothing at all mentioned until the time When Cerdic and Cenric fought against the Britains in a place called Cerdics-Leah To which Year also H. Huntington refers the beginning of the East-Saxon Kingdom by Erchenwin the Son of Offa. He seems to be the only Prince who is derived from one Saxnat and not from Woden thô of this Prince they tell us nothing except his Name and Pedigree relating neither the Number of his Forces the Place of his Landing nor so much as the least Encounter he had with the Britains In the same Obscurity we might have also passed over Sledda his Son had he not married Ricicla Daughter of Emerick King of Kent and Sister to Ethelbert the first Christian King so that this Kingdom being at first Tributary to that of Kent and then to that of the Mercians never came to be very considerable thô it had London the chief City of England under its Dominion But in the Year· 530 Cerdic and Cenric conquered the Isle of Wight and slew a great many Men in Withgarabyrig But 4 Years after Cerdic King of the West-Saxons died and Cenric his Son succeeded him and Ruled 26 Years These two Kings bestowed the Isle of Wight on Stuf and Withgar who were Nephews to Cerdic This according to H. Huntingdon happen'd in the time of Justinian the Emperour Offa King of Kent dying his Son Ermeric succeeded him Ran. Higden places it thô falsly An. 544. This Year the Sun was Eclipsed the 14th of the Calends of March from early in the Morning to the third Hour i. e. till nine of the Clock And the Year following The Sun was again Eclipsed the 12th of the Calends of June and the Stars shewed themselves for near half an hour after nine in the Morning But to take a View of the British History
afraid least by the Miracles that were now wrought his Mind might be puffed up by vain Glory Therefore that he ought still to remember that when the Disciples returning from their preaching with joy said to their Heavenly Master Lord in thy name the Devils be subject unto us they presently received a rebuke rejoyce not for this but rather rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven Bede also tells us That Pope Gregory about this time sent King Ethelbert many noble Presents together with a Letter full of good Advice and Instructions Exhorting him to cultivate that Grace which he had received by the especial providence of God to make haste to propagate the Christian Faith among his Subjects to increase the fervency of his own Faith by furthering their Conversion to destroy the Worship of Idols to establish the Manners of his Subjects in the purity of Life by Exhorting Encouraging and Correcting them and by shewing himself as Example of good Works that so he may find his Reward in Heaven Then proposing to him the Example of Constantine the Emperour who had freed the Common-Wealth from Idols to the Worship of our LORD Jesus Christ advising him to hearken to and perform the good Advice which should be given him by Augustine the Bishop and that he should not be troubled in Mind if he should see any Terrours or Prodigies from Heaven contrary to the ordinary course of the Seasons as Tempests Famine and the like since the Lord had already foretold that such things should happen before the end of the World then concludes with wishing a more perfect Conversion of the whole Nation and that God would preserve and perfect him in the Grace he had begun and after a course of many Years would receive him into the fellowship of the Saints above These Letters bear the same date with the former and so must be wrote in the same Year I have dwelt the longer on these things to let you see that the primitive Christian Temper had not yet left the Bishops of the Roman Church thô infected with some Superstitions Let us now return to our Civil History from which we have so long digressed About this time when Ethelbert and his People were wholly taken up in Acts of Piety Ethelfrid still govern'd the Kingdom of Northumberland who being a Warlike Prince and most ambitious of Glory had wasted the Britains more than any other Saxon King of his time winning from them divers large Territories which he either made Tributary or planted with his own Subjects whence Adian as Bede or Aedan or Aegthan as the Saxon Chronicle calls him growing Jealous of Ethelfred's great Success came against him with a great and powerful Army to a place called Degsa-stan or Degstan and was there routed losing most of his Men but in this Battel Theobald the Brother of Ethelfrid was slain that part or wing of the Army which he commanded being unfortunately cut off yet nevertheless the loss was so great on the Scotish side that no King of the Scots durst any more in hostile manner march into Britain to the time that Bede wrote his History which was above a Hundred Years after He also tells us That this happned in the first Year of the Reign of the Emperour Phocas Buchanan in his Scotch History writes that this Ethelfrid assisted by Keawlin whom he mistiles King of the East instead of the West-Saxons had before this time fought a Battel with this Adian wherein Cutha Keawlin's Son was slain but neither the Saxon Chronicle nor any of our English Historians mention any such thing for this Cutha as appears by the said Chronicle was slain in the Year 584. fighting against the Welsh The number of Christians beginning now to multiply not only in Kent but other Countries Augustine found it necessary to ordain two other Bishops Mellitus and Justus sending Mellitus to Preach the Gospel to the Kingdom of the East Saxons which was divided from that of Kent by the River Thamesis over which Nation Sebert the Son of Richala the Sister of K. Ethelbert then Reigned thô under his Authority for he had then the supreme command over all the Nations of the English Saxons as far as the Banks of Humber but when this Province had by the preaching of Mellitus received the Gospel of Christ K. Sebert also baptized Ethelbert caused the Church of St. Paul to be built at London where Mellitus and his Successours should fix their Episcopal See But as for the other Bishop Justus Augustine ordained him Bishop in the Kingdom of Kent of a certain little City then called Rofcaester now Rochester being about Twenty Miles from Canterbury in which King Ethelbert built the Church of St. Andrew and bestowed good endowments on it Hitherto Augustine had laboured only to convert Infidels but now he took upon him by vertue of his Archiepiscopal or rather Legatine Authority which the Pope had conferr'd upon him over all the Bishops of Britain properly so called to make a general Visitation of his Province and coming as far as the borders of Wales being assisted by the power of King Ethelbert he summoned all the British Bishops of the adjoyning Provinces to a Synod at a place called in Bede's time Augustines Ake or Oak then Scituate on the confines of the Wecti now the Diocess of Worcester and the West Saxons supposed to be somewhere on the edge of Worcester-shire and began to perswade them by brotherly Admonitions that they would maintain the Catholick Unity and also joyn in the work of Preaching the Gospel to the Infidel Nations For there was then a great difference between them about the Rule of keeping Easter which Bede tells us The Britains did not keep at a right time but observed it from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Day of the Moon which Computation is continued in a Cycle of Eighty Four Years which account being somewhat obscure I shall for the clearing of it set down what the learned Bishop of St. Asaph hath given us upon this subject in his Historical Account of Church Government already cited in the last Book where he takes notice that this Cycle of Eighty Four Years which was also called the Roman Account so lately as in Pope Leo's Time the Scots and South Picts used the same Cycle from the time of their Conversion and so did the Britains without any manner of alteration but about Eighty Years after the rending in pieces of the Roman Empire the Romans having left off the use of that Cycle took up another of Nineteen Years which though it was better in many respects yet was new in these Parts and made a great difference from the former and when the Romans had used this new Cycle another Eighty Years coming then to have to do with these Northern Nations who were yet ignorant of it they would needs impose the use of it upon them as a necessary condition of their
Cuthred fought against the Britains But of this the Welsh Chronicles are silent as well as other Authors The same Year also being the 12th Year of his Reign King Cuthred fought against Aethelbald King of the Mercians at Beorgford now Burford in Oxfordshire and there put him to flight But H. Huntington gives us this Battle more at large That King Cuthred being not any longer able to bear the Insolencies and Impositions of that proud King Ethelbald took Arms and met him with an Army in the Field preferring his Liberty before his Life being encouraged by Earl Ethelune above-mentioned who it seems was now cured and reconciled to the King relying upon whose Courage and Council he resolved to undertake this War but Ethelbald as a King of Kings had brought along with him besides his own Mercians the Kentish Men with the East Angles and Saxons which made all together a very great Army and being both drawn up on the Spot they approached each other whilst Earl Athelune marching before the West Saxons carried the Royal Standard being a Golden Dragon and in the beginning of the Battle challenging him to a single Combat there slew the Standard-bearer of the Enemy upon which a great Shout being given Cuthred's Souldiers were very much encouraged then both Armies engaging there followed a great and bloody Fight of which our Author gives us a long and pompous Relation Pride and Ambition says he inciting the Mercians and fear of Servitude provoking the West Saxons to fight it to the last but wherever Earl Ethelune charged the Enemies he with the force of his invincible Battle-Axe destroyed all before him but at last K. Ethelbald and the Earl meeting they fought together with great Obstinacy and Resolution till GOD who resisteth the Proud so discouraged this King that he turned his Back and fled whilst his Men still fought on yet at last they were all routed nor from that time to the day of his Death did GOD give him any more Success Cuthred King of the West Saxons departed this Life and according to Simeon Sigebert his Cousin succeeded him Also Cyneheard succeeded in the Bishoprick of Winchester after Hunferth and the same year the City of Canterbury was burnt This Year was very remarkable for now as our Annals inform us Cynwulf with the Wife and Noble Men of the West Saxons deprived King Sigebert of the whole Kingdom for his Cruelty and Injustice except Hampshire which he kept for some time until he slew one Cumbran an Ealderman who had continued longest with him so that at last Sigebert was driven into Andred's Wood where he remained till such time as a certain Hogheard ran him through with a Lance at Pruutes-Flood and thereby revenged the Death of Cumbran the Ealderman This King Cynwulf often overcame the Britains in Fight but after he had governed the Kingdom about 30 Years he was slain by Cyneheard Aetheling brother to Sigebert as shall be shewn hereafter H. Huntington is very particular in the Reasons and manner of King Sigebert's Deposition and tells us That being puff'd up with the good Succâ—ss of his Predecessours he grew intollerable to his Subjects for he had oppressed them by all manner of ways and wrested the Laws for his own Advantage insomuch that this Cumbran one of his noblest Earls at the Desire of the People represented their Grievances to this cruel King who because he perswaded him that he should govern them more gently and thereby become more beloved both by God and Man he presently commanded him to be slain and so daily increased in his Tyranny till in the beginning of his Second Year the Great Men and People of the whole Kingdom being gathered together by the Provident Deliberation and Unanimous Consent of them All he was expell'd the Kingdom and Cinewulf a notable young Man of the Blood Royal was Elected King in his room This is the first Example we have in our English History of the Solemn Deposition of a King by the Authority of the Great Council of the Kingdom concerning whom our Author bids us remark the manifold Justice and Providence of God how sometimes it doth not only recompence Kings according to their Merits in the World to come but also in this for oftentimes setting up Wicked Kings for the Deserved Punishment of their Subjects he lets some of them Tyrannize a great while that so a wicked People might be punished and the King becoming more wicked may be tormented for ever as may be seen in Aethelbald King of Mercia above-mentioned whilst God cuts others short by a speedy Destruction lest his People being oppress'd by too great Tyranny should not be able to subsist under it so that the immoderate Wickedness of a Prince does often accelerate his Punishment The same Year according to Caradoc's Chronicle published by Dr. Powel Conan Tindaethwy Son of Rodri Molwynoc began his Reign over the Britains in Wales This Year also according to the Saxon Annals Aethelbald King of the Mercians was slain at Seccandune now Secington in Warwickshire after he had reigned 41 Years and then Beornred usurped the Kingdom and held it but a little while and that with great Trouble for the same year King Offa expelled Beornred and taking Possession of the Throne held it 39 Years but his Son Egberth no more than 140 Days This Offa was the Son of Thincerth and he the Son of Eanwulf The rest of his Pedigree as far as Woden I omit Abbot Bromton's Chronicle farther adds concerning the Death of King Ethelbald That he was slain in a Fight at the Place above-mention'd yet was it not by the Enemy but by the Treachery of this Beornred Ingulph in his History of Croyland tells us That King Ethelbald having founded the Abby of Ripendune now Repton in Derbyshire being the most famous of that Age was there buried and also of this Beornred whom he calls a Tyrant that he did not long enjoy his Usurpation for it seems he was not of the Blood Royal of the Mercian Kings but when he was Expelled Offa succeeded him by the General Consent of the Nobles of Mercia but Mat. Westminster who puts the Succession of King Offa two Years later is more particular in this Transaction and relates That this Beornred governing very Tyrannically the whole Nation of the Mercians rose up against him so that both the Nobility and Commons joyning together under the Conduct of Offa a valiant young Man Nephew to the late King Aethelbald they expelled Beornred the Kingdom and then Offa by the General Consent of the Clergy and Laity of that Kingdom was crowned King This was that King Offa who afterwards became a Terrour to all the Kings of England Eadbert King of Northumberland and Unust King of the Picts brought an Army against the City Alkuith which the Britains delivered upon Conditions This is from the Authority of Simeon of Durham and lets us see that this City now in Scotland was then in the Hands
of the Northern Britains This year Eadbert King of the Northumbers was shorn a Monk and Ofwulf his Son succeeded him yet Reigned but one Year being slain by the Treachery of his own Servants on the 9th of the Kal. August following thô without any just Cause as I can find Concerning this Eadbert Simeon of Durham in his History of that Church tells us That after he had reigned 21 Years and ruled his Kingdom with great Wisdom and Courage so that all his Adversaries being either overcome by force or else submitting themselves to him the English Pictish and Scotish Kings not only maintained Peace and Friendship with him but rejoyced to do him Honour so that the Fame of his Grandeur spreading as far as France King Pipin not only made a League with him but sent him great Presents and the Kings his Neighbours when he was about to resign the Crown had him in that Esteem that they offered him part of their own Dominions on Condition that he would not lay down his Charge but he refused it and resigned his Kingdom to Usulf his Son Also about this time according to the British Chronicles there was a great Battle fought at Hereford between the Britains and the Saxons where Dyfnwal ap Theodore was slain But they do not tell us who obtained the Victory This Year Cathbert Arch Bishop of Canterbury deceased having fate Arch-Bishop 18 Years Also according to Florence about this time Swithred reigned over the East and Osmund over the South Saxons as also Beorne was King over the East Angles This Year Bregowin was consecrated Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at the Feast of St. Michael and Ethelwold Sirnamed Moll began to reign over the Northumbers and at last resigned the Crown ' Ethelbryght King of Kent deceased he was the Son of King Wythred Of this King William of Malmesbury records nothing remarkable but that the City of Canterbury was burnt in his Reign Ceolwulf also late King of Northumberland departed this Life the same Year dying a Monk in the Isle of Lindisfarne But Simeon of Durham prolongs his Life 4 Years longer This Year was a very sharp Winter and Ethelwald Moll King of Northumberland slew Duke Oswin at Edwinsclife on the Eighth of the Ides of August But thô who this Duke was our Annals do not tell us yet Simeon of Durham and Roger of Hoveden relate he was one of those Great Northumbrian Lords that rebelled against the King who gained the Victory over him and those Rebels that took his part ' This Year deceased Bergowine the Arch-Bishop above-mentioned But if he sate 4 Years as these Annals affirm he could not have died till the Year following in which also Janbryht who is also called Lambert was now consecrated Arch-Bishop of Canterbury about 40 Days after Christmas Also Frithwald Bishop of Witherne died on the Nones of May he had been Consecrated in York on the 18th Kalends of September in the Reign of Ceolwulf and sate Bishop 29 Years and then Piyhtwin or Pechtwin was Consecrated Bishop of Witerne at Aelfet on the 16th Kal. of August ' Janbryht the Arch-Bishop received his Pall This was as Florence of Worcester informs us from Pope Paul I. ' This Year also as Simeon of Durham relates there was much Mischief done by Fire at London Winchester and other Places ' Alhred King of Northumberland began to reign and reigned Eight Years Ethelwold Moll having now by Death quitted that Kingdom The manner of which is given us more perfectly by William of Malmesbury and Roger Hoveden viz. That Ethelwold lost the Kingdom of Northumberland at Winchan-hea 1 o Kal. November being murder'd by the Treachery of this Albred who succeeded him and was also of the Race of Ida being his Great Nephew The same Year also according to William of Malmesbury Offa King of the Mercians envying the Greatness of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury did by most noble Presents made to the Pope obtain a Pall for the See of Lichfield that is That it should be for the future an Arch-Bishoprick and that all the Bishops of the Provinces of the Kingdom of Mercia and the East Angles should be subject to it and this he not only gained notwithstanding the Opposition and Remonstrances of Arch-Bishop Jambert to the contrary but also bereaved the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury of all its Lands which lay within the Mercian Territories which Injustice continued during the whole Reign of King Offa till Kenulph his Successour by the Intercession of Eanbald then Arch-Bishop of York restored the See of Canterbury to its ancient Rights This Year deceased Egbert Arch-Bishop of York 13 o Kal. Sept. who sate Bishop 36 Years This is he who was Base Brother to the King of the same Name and regained the Pall to his See after it had been without it ever since the time of Paulinus He also built a Noble Library at York which was then counted one of the best in Europe for William of Malmesbury relates that Alcuin the greatest Scholar of his time once told the Emperour Charles That if he would give him such Books of exquisite Learning as he had in his own Country by the Pious Industry of his Master Arch-Bishop Eghert then he would instruct and send him back some young Men who should carry over the choicest Flowers of the English Learning into France According to Simeon of Durham Albert was now ordained Arch-Bishop of York ' Eadbert the Son of Eatta deceased on 14 o Kal. September This Eadbert had been formerly King of Northumberland and according to Simeon of Durham died 10 Years after his taking the Habit of a Monk and was buried at York Also this Year as the Welsh Chronicles acquaint us by the means of Flbodius that Learned and Pious Bishop of North Wales it was decreed in a General Synod of the British Nation That Easter should be kept after the Custom of Rome so that all Differences between that Church and the British now ceased ' Charles King of the Franks began his Reign for Pepin his Father died this Year as R. Hoveden informs us Also the fair City of Cataract in Yorkshire was burnt by Bâ—ornred the Mercian Tyrant and He also perished by Fire the same Year This Year according to Simeon of Durham and R. Hoveden Offa King of the Mercians subdued the Nation of the Hestings by force of Arms but who these People were or where they inhabited no Author informs us Mr. Lambert in his Glossary at the end of the Decem Scriptores will have them to be Danes but I see no reason for it here since the Danes were not then settled in England ' This Year died Milred the Bishop Florence says he was Bishop of the Wiccii that is of the Diocess of Worcester and was in great Reputation for his Sanctity This Year Albert Arch-Bishop of York received his Pall from Pope Adrian as Simeon informs us
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
Plunder and Spoil But of this we shall speak more in due time and shall now proceed in our History where we left off in our last Book Egbert the only surviving Prince of the Blood-Royal of the West Saxon Kings as great Nephew to Ina by his Brother Inegilds being arrived in England was now ordained King as Ethelwerd expressly terms his Election But since Asser in his Annals places this King 's coming to the Crown under Anno 802. as does Simeon of Durham and also Roger Howden from an Ancient piece of Saxon Chronologie inserted at the beginning of the first Book of his first part and this account being also proved by that great Master in Chronology the now Lord Bishop of Litchfield to be truer then that of the Saxon Annals or Ethelwerd by divers Proofs too long to be here Inserted I have made bold to put this King 's coming to the Crown two Years backwarder then it is in the last Book thô I confess the former Account in the Saxon Annals would have made a more exact Epocha Also about this time as appears from the ancient Register of St. Leonard's Abbey in York cited in Monast. Anglican viz. ' That Anno Dom. 800 Egbert King of all Britain in a Parliament at Winchester by the consent of his People changed the Name of this Kingdom and commanded it to be called England Now thô by the word Parliament here used it is certain that this Register was writ long after the Conquest yet it might be transcribed from some more ancient Monument since Will. of Malmesbury tells us of this King tho' without setting down the time that by the greatness of his Mind he reduced all the Varieties of the English Saxon Kingdoms to one uniform Empire or Dominion which he called England though others perhaps more truly refer it towards the latter end of his Reign as you will find when we come to it This Year Eardulf King of the Northumbers led his Army against Kenwulf King of Mercia for harbouring his Enemies who also gathering together a great Army they approached to each other when by the Advice of the Bishops and Noblemen of England as also by the Intercession of the chief King of the English by whom is meant King Egbert who then passed under that Title They agreed upon a lasting Peace which was also confirmed by Oath on both sides This we find in Simeon of Durham's History of that Church and in no other Authour About this time also St. Alburhe Sister to King Egbert founded a Benedictine Nunnery at Wilton which was long after rebuilt by King Alfred and augmented by King Edgar for Twenty Six Nuns and an Abbess The same Year the Moon was Eclipsed on the 13 Kal. Jan. and ' Beormod was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester About this time in Obedience to a Letter from Pope Leo III. who at the desire of Kenwulf King of the Mercians had Two Years since restored the See of Canterbury to its ancient Primacy was held the Third Synod at Cloveshoe by â—rch bishop Ethelward and 12 Bishops of his Province whereby the See of Canterbury was not only restored to all its ancient Rights and Priviledges but it was also forbid for all times to come upon Pain of Damnation if not repented of for any Man to violate the Rights of that ancient See and thereby to destroy the Unity of Christ's Holy Church then follow the Subscriptions of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and of 12 other Bishops of his Province together with those of many Abbots and Presbyters who never Subscribed before but without the Subcriptions of the King or any of the Lay Nobility Which plainly shews it to have been a meer Ecclesiastical Synod and no great Council of the Kingdom as you may see at large in Sir H. Spelman's 1 Vol of Councils the Decree of which Synod also shews that the Church of England did not then conceive the Authority of the People alone sufficient to disanul what had been solemnly Decreed in a great Council of the Kingdom as was the Removal of the Primacy from Canterbury to Litchfield The next Year According to our Annals Ethelheard Arch-bishop of Canterbury deceased and Wulfred was consecrated Arch-bishop in his stead and Forther the Abbot dyed The same Year also Deceased Higbald Bishop of Lindisfarne 8 o Kal Julii and Eegbert was Consecrated to that See 3 o Ides Junii ' This Year Wulfred the Arch bishop received his Pall. Cuthred King of Kent deceased as did also Ceolburh the Abbess and Heabyrnt the Ealdorman This Cuthred here mentioned was as Will. of Malmesbury informs us he whom Kenulph King of the Mercians hath made King of Kent instead of Ethelbert called Pren. This Year the Moon was Eclipsed on the Kal. of September and Eardwulf King of the Northumbers was driven from his Kingdom and Eanbryth Bishop of Hagulstad Deceased Also this Year 2 o Non Junii the sign of the Cross was seen in the Moon upon Wednesday in the Morning and the same Year on the Third Kal. Septemb. a wonderful Circle was seen round the Sun This Eardwulf above-mentioned is related by Simeon of Durham to have been the Son of Eardulf the first of that Name King of Northumberland and after Ten Years Reign to have been driven out by one Aelfwold who Reigned Two Years in his stead During these Confusions in the Northumbrian Kingdom Arch-Bishop Usher with great probability supposes in his Antiquitat Britan. Eccles. that the Picts and Scots Conquered the Countries of Galloway and Lothian as also those Countries called the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the Friths of Dunbritain and Edenburgh And that this City was also in the possession of the English Saxons about an Hundred Years after this I shall shew in due order of time and that our Kings did long after maintain their claim to Lothian shall be further shewn when I come to it But that all the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the English Saxon Tongue was spoken were anciently part of the Bernician Kingdom the English Language as well as the Names of places which are all English Saxon and neither Scotish nor Pictish do sufficiently make out The Sun was Eclipsed on the 7th Kal. of August about the Fifth Hour of the Day This Year as Sigebert in his Chronicle relates King Eardulph above-mentioned being expelled his Kingdom and coming for Refuge to the Emperour Charles the Great was by his Assistance restored thereunto but since neither the Saxon Annals nor Florence nor yet any of our English Historians do mention it I much doubt the Truth of this Relation thô it must be also acknowledged that it is inserted in the ancient French Annals of that time and recited that this King's Restitution was procured by the Intercession of the Pope's and Emperour's Legates who were sent into England for that purpose This Year according to Mat. Westminster Egbert King of the West
as his own ever since the time that King Offa took it but now the Mercians tried to recover it by Force The same Year was also held another Synodal Council at Cloveshoe for the Kingdom of Mercia under K. Beornwulf and Wilfred Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Bishops and Chief Men of that Kingdom wherein some disputes about Lands between Heabert Bishop of Worcester and a certain Monastery called Westburgh were determined This Year Ludican King of the Mercians and five of his Ealdermen were slain and Wiglaf began to Reign in his stead Ingulf and Will of Malmesbury tell us That this Ludican was Kinsman to the last mentioned King Beornwulf and leading an Army against the East-Angles to revenge his Death was there overcome and Slain and that both these Tyrants were justly removed who had not only made Kings without any Right but had also by their imprudence been the occasion of the destruction of the Military Forces of that Kingdom which had till then proved Victorious and that thereupon one Withlaf being before Ealderman of Mâ—rcia was by the consent of all the People created King whose Son Wimond had Married Alfleda the Daughter of Ceolwulf the late King This King Withlaf Reigned thirteen Years as Tributary to King Egbert as shall be further related anon The Moon was Eclipsed on Christmass day at Night and the same Year King Egbryht subdued the Kingdom of Mercia and all the Country that lay South of Humber He was the Eighth King who Ruled over all Britain but the First who had so great a Command was Aella King of the South Saxons the Second was Ceaâ—lin King of the West-Saxons the Third was Aethelbryght King of Kent the Fourth was Redwald King of the East Angles the Fifth was Edwin King of Northumberland the Sixth was Oswald who succeeded him the Seventh was Oswi the Brother of Oswald and the Eight was Egbryght King of the West-Saxons who not long after led an Army against the Northumbers as far as Dore which place is supposed to have been in York-shire beyond the River Hâ—mber but the Northumâ—ers offering him Peace and due Subjection they parted Friends From which passage in the Saxon Annals it is apparent that this Supream Dominion of one English King over all the rest was no new thing Bede having taken notice of it long before yet did they not therefore take upon them the Title of Monarchs any more than Egbert who now succeeded them in that Power thô most of our Historians who have written the Saxon History in English have but without any just reason given them that Title which could not properly belong to Kings who had divers others under them with the like Regal Jurisdiction within their own Territories not but that King Egbert was in a more peculiar manner the Supream King of England because by his Absolute Conquest of the Kingdoms of Kent and of the South and East Saxons he was the greatest King who had hitherto Reigned in England all the rest of the Kings that remained Reigning by his permission and paying him Tribute a power which never had been exercised by any other King before him But to return to our History it seems that King Egbert was so highly displeased with the Mercians for setting up a King without his consent that Ingulf and Florence of Worcester tell us That as soon as ever Withlaf was made King before he could raise an Army he was expell'd his Kingdom which Egbert added to his own but Withlaf being search'd for by Egbert's Commanders through all Mercia he was by the industry of Seward Abbot of Croyland concealed in the Cell of the Holy Virgin Etheldrith Daughter of King Offa and once the Spouse of Ethelbert King of the East Angles where King Withlaf found a safe retreat for the space of Four Months until such time as by the Mediation of said Abbot Seward he was reconciled to King Egbert and upon promise of the payment of an Yearly Tribute permitted to return to his Kingdom in Peace which is by him acknowledged in that Charter of his that Ingulf hath given us of his Confirmation of the Lands and priviledges of the Abbey of Croyland It was made in the Great Council of the whole Kingdom in the presence of his Lords Egbert King of West-Saxony and his Son Ethelwulf and before the Bishops and great Men of all England Assembled at the City of London to take Counsel against the Daniâ—h Pyrats then infesting the English Coasts And in the Year 833 as you shall see when we come to that Year This Restoration of King Withlaf to his Kingdom is also mentioned in the Saxon Annals of the next Year where it is said That Withlaf again obtained the Kingdom of the Mercians and Bishop Ethelwald deceased also the same Year King Egbryht led an Army against the Northern Britains and reduced them absolutely to his Obedience For it seems they had again rebelled Now likewise as Mat. Westminster relates King Egbert vanquished Swithred King of the East-Saxons and drove him out of his Kingdom upon whose expulsion the West Saxon Kings ever after possest that Kingdom Now according to the same Authour King Egbert having subdued all the South Parts of England led a great Army into the Kingdom of Northumberland and having grievously wasted that Province made King Eandred his Tributary which is also confirmed by Will of Malmesbury who relates that the Northumbers who stood out the last fearing least this King's anger might break out upon them now giving Hostages submitted themselves to his Dominion but they continued still under Kings of their own as you will further find To this Year I think we may also refer that great Transaction which the Annals of the Cathedral Church of Winchester printed in Monast. Angl. from an ancient Manuscript in the Cottonian Library place under the Year following viz. That King Egbert having thus subdued all the Kingdoms above-mentioned and forced them to submit to his Dominions called a great Council at Winchester whereto were summoned all the Great Men of the whole Kingdom and there by the General Consent of the Clerus Populus i. e. the Clergy and Laity King Egbert was crowned King of Britain And at the same time he Enacted That it should be for ever after called England and that those who before were called Jutes or Saxons should now be called English â—en And this I could not omit because thô William of Malmesbury and other Historians agree of the Matter of Fact yet I think this the truest and most particular Account of the Time and manner when it was performed Also this Year Wilfred the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased and Feologild the Abbot was Elected Arch-Bishop 7 Kal. Maij. and was Consecrated 5. Id. Junij being Sunday and dyed the 3. Kal. Sept. after But here is certainly a mistake in this Copy of the Annals for it was not Feologild but Ceolnoth who was then chosen
yet there might very well have been before that time a publick School or Studium as it was then call'd where the Liberal Arts were taught as for the other Objection of the improbability of the old Scholars falling out with the new Professors in the very first Year of the Institution of the University that is as soon as ever they came thither this may be also answered by supposing that those Annals were written many Years after the Death of King Alfred from a Common received Tradition and so this transaction might have been dated there or Four Years later than it really happened as John Rouse in his Manuscript History of the Kings of England also places it I confess there is one Objection which I wish I could Answer and that is How Gildas and Nennius could study at Oxford when the latter was not so much as Born till about the Conclusion of this or Beginning of the following Century and much less the Former when even by the best Accounts of those Times the Pagan Saxons were then Masters of that part of England Having said thus much concerning the Antiquity of that Famous University to which I owe my Education I shall not trouble my self with enquiry into the Reality of those supposed Ancient Schools of Creeklad and Leacklade which the Monkish writers suppose to have been anciently called Greeklade and Latinelade the latter of which Derivations thô Mr. Camden justly explodes yet he seems to have more Veneration for the former since in the place from whence I have transcribed the above-cited Quotations he also tells us That the Muses were transported to Oxford from Creeklade now a small Town in Wilt-shire All the Authority for which that I know of beside uncertain Tradition depends upon the Credit of a Manuscript lately in the Liberary of Trinity Hall in Cambridge and is cited by Mr. Wheelock in his Notes upon Bede where speaking of Theodorus Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he says That he held or maintained Schools in a Village near the Water which is called Greekislake but Mr. Somner in his Learned Glossary hath given us a much more likely Derivation of this place viz. from the Old Saxon Word Creek signifying a River or Torrent running either into some River or else into the Sea and Gelad which signified an emptying for it was anciently written Crecca Gelade and not Greeklade as some would now write it This Year the Pagans passing under the Bridge of Paris and from thence by the Seine up the River Meterne now called Marne as far as Cazii now Choisy and which Florence says signified a Royal Village where and at Jona a place we know not they staid Two Years also the same Year Deceased Charles the Grosse King of the Franks but Earnwulf his Brother's Son had expell'd him out of his Kingdom six Weeks before his Death after which it was divided into five Parts over whom were set five Kings but this partition was with Earnewulf's good leave for they all promised to Govern under him because none of them was Heir on the Fathers side besides himself alone therefore Earnwulf fixed the Seat of his Kingdom in the Countries lying on the East side of the Rhine whilst Rodâ—lf took the middle or inward part of the Kingdom and Odo or Otto the Western Part and Beorngar and Witha called in Latine Beringarius and Wido held Lombardy and all the Countries on that side the Mountains all which Kingdoms they held with much Discord Fighting two great Battles and wasting those Countries till such time as each of them had expell'd the other from his Kingdom also the same Year Ethelelm the Ealdorman carried the Alms of King Alfred and the West Saxons to Rome This was the Benevolence called Peter Pence which is here justly termed an Alms and not a Tribute as Modern Popish Writers have termed it But to return to our own Domestick Affairs Asser above-mentioned informs us that the Kingdom being now pretty well at quiet from the Danes the King began to mind his Civil Government to repair his Cities and Castles and also to build others in the most necessary places altering the whole face of the Country into a much better form and having walled several Towers and Castles he made them defensible against the Pagans Nor was he less careful in the Political Affairs of his Kingdom for divers of his own Subjects having under the name of Danes committed great Spoils and Rapines these the King resolving to punish and restrain from these Excesses he first of all divided all the Provinces of England into Counties and those again into Hundreds and Tythings so that every Legal Subject should dwell in some Hundred or Tything whereby if any were suspected of Robbery and being thereof Condemned or absolved by his Hundred or Tything they should either undergo due punishment or else if Innocent be acquitted But the Governours of Provinces who were before called Vice Domini and in English Saxon Geriffs he divided into two Offices That is into Judges whom we now call Justices and into Sheriffs who do yet retain that name and by the Kings care and industry in a short time there was so great a Tranquility through out the whole Kingdom that if a Traveller had happen'd to have lost a Bag of Money in the High-way he might have found it again untouched the next day And Bromton's Chronicle relates That thô there were Gold Bracelets hung up at the parting of several High-ways yet Justice was so strictly executed that no Man durst presume to touch them But in the Distribution of his own Family he followed the Example of King Solomon for dividing it into Three Companies or Bands he set a Chief over each of them so that every Captain with his Band performed his Service in the King's Palace for the space of one Month and then going with his Company to his own Estate he looked after his private Affairs for Two Months and so did each of them in their Order which Rotation of Officers this King observed all the rest of his Reign And to this Year also Sir H. Spelman refers that Great Council wherein King Alfred made those Laws that go under his Name in which after a Preface wherein he first recites and confirms the Ten Commandments as also divers other Laws which are set down in Exodus and Leviticus he concludes to this effect That whatsoever he found worthy of Observation either in the time of K. Ina his Kinsman or Offa King of the Mercians or of Ethelbert the first Christened King he had gathered them all together and committed those to writing which he thought most deserving omitting others which he judged less convenient in doing of which he had taken the Advice and had the Consent of his Wise-Men and having revised the Laws of those Princes he transcribed such of them as he liked into his own and by the Consent of the said Wise-men he thereof made a Collection and
men accused of any Crime till they have first made satisfaction By this it appears how ancient in this Nation the Custom is of calling a Servant by the word used for the whole Species of Mankind a Phrase in use as well with the Romans and others more ancient as with modern people The twenty fourth is concerning Traffick and in confirmation of former Laws ordains That if a man buy any thing with witness which another man challenges for his own the Seller shall make it good and secure the bargain whether he be Bond or Free But on the Lord's day no Market shall be held under penalty or forfeiture of the Wares and a Mulct of 30 shillings besides The next thing that follows at the end of these Laws relating to the Civil State is the Valuation of mens Heads which we have often heard mentioned by these Laws but never yet to what it particularly amounted First then saith the Text The valuation of the King's Head according to the English Common Laws is thirty thousand Thrymses whereof fifteen thousand are properly the value of his Head the rest being due to the Kingdom so that the latter fifteen belonged to the Nation the former to his Kindred An Archbishop's and Earl's Weregild as the Saxons called the valuation of his Head is fifteen thousand Thrymses A Bishop's and Ealdorman's eight thousand A General 's of an Army or an High Marshal's four thousand Thrymses The valuation of a Spiritual Thane or Priest as also of a Temporal Thane was two thousand Thrymses That of a Countreyman or Câ—orl by the Danish Law was 267 Thrymses But if a Welshman grow so rich as to maintain a Family have Land and pay a yearly Rent to the King he shall be valued at 120 shillings if he possess half a Hide of Land at 80 shillings If he have no Land yet if he be a Freeman the value of his Head shall be seventy shillings If a Ceorl or Countreyman be so wealthy as to possess five Hides of Land in case he be killed the price or value of his Life shall be two thousand Thrymses but if he come to have a Corslet an Helmet and a Gilt Sword tho he have no Land he shall be accounted a Sithcundmon and if his Children or Grandchildren shall grow so rich as to possess five Hides of Land all their Posterity shall be reckoned as so many Sithcundmen and be valued at two thousand Thrymses The Mercians value a Countreyman at two hundred shillings a Thane at twelve hundred They are wont to equal the single value of the King's Head with six thousand Thanes that is thirty thousand Sceats for so much is the value of the King's Head and as much more must be paid as a recompence for his death the value of his Head belongs to his Kindred and the compensation of his Death to the people He that is valued at 1200 shillings his Oath shall be of the same esteem as those of six Countreymen for where such an one is slain six Countreymen would satisfy over and above for the value therefore the value of him and all them shall be the same By the English Law the Oaths of a Priest and a Thane are of the like esteem By these valuations of Heads from the highest to the lowest Rank we may perceive that in those Ancient Times Punishments consisted rather in Mulcts than in Blood contrary to our present Custom whereby small Offences in comparison especially if reiterated are become Capital which whence it hath proceeded whether from this consideration that Crimes in latter Ages do more abound or from other reasons is not evident As for the Sithcundmon mentioned in this Law Mr. Somner derives this word from Syth or Gethysa an Equal or Companion and cund kind and Mon man so that he seems to have been one equal to a Thane King EDMUND NOT long after King Athelstan's Decease Prince Edmund his Brother succeeded him at the Age of Eighteen Years and reigned Six Years and an half This year according to the Annals King Edmund Lord of the English and the Protector of his Subjects invaded Mercia on that side where the River Humber and the Way of the White Fountain divide the Countrey he there took in five Cities viz. Ligoracester now Leicester Lindcolne now Lincoln and Snotingaham Stanford and Deorby which were all before under the power of the Danes being forced to submit to them having been long under their Tyrannical Yoke This seems very strange for most of those places are mentioned to have been before recovered from the Danes by King Edward his Father and how they could be conquered again in the time of so great a Warrier as King Athelstan was I could not understand were it not explained by other Authors The same year King Aeadmund received King Anlaf to Baptism and some time after he likewise received King Reginald at his Confirmation This year also King Anlaf deceased and Richard the Elder took upon him the Dukedom of Normandy and governed it 52 years But R. Hoveden and Mat. Westminster from what Authority I know not relate That this Anlaf the Dane above-mentioned and Norwegian by Extract who had been in the time of King Athelstan expell'd the Kingdom of Northumberland about this time landed in Yorkshire with a great Fleet resolving to subdue the whole Kingdom of England and marching Southward besieged Northampton but not succeeding there he marched back to Tamworth where having wasted the Countrey round about came at last to Legacester now Westchester which when King Edmund heard of he march'd with a powerful Army and met him at that City and having fought with him most part of the day the two Archbishop of Canterbury and York seeing the great Danger and Hazard the Kingdom was then in made an Agreement betwixt the two Kings That Anlaf should possess that part of England lying North of Watlingstreet and King Edmund that part which lay South of it and that the Survivor of them should quietly enjoy the whole Kingdom and thereupon Anlaf married Alditha the Daughter of Earl Orme by whose Counsel and Assistance he obtained the late Victory But William of Malmesbury tells this Story somewhat different viz. That about this time the Northumbers rebelling recalled this Anlaf out of Ireland whom they made their King but whom nevertheless King Edmund conquered and at last expell'd the Kingdom and so once again added Northumberland to his own Dominions which shews the great uncertainty of the History of these times But R. Hoveden and Mat. Westminster do further add That when this Anlaf had not long after his Marriage spoiled and burned the Church of St. Balther and had burnt Tiningaham by the just Judgment of God he miserably ended his Life but without telling us by what means And they both further relate That Anlaf the Son of Sihtric after this reigned again over the Northumbers and was this year expelled that Kingdom by King
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
well as on the Holidays themselves as also in Parishes when the Feast of the Saint to whom the Church is dedicated is kept so that if any one come devoutly to the Celebration thereof he was to have security in going staying and returning home and besides in many other cases too long here to set down From whence we may observe the Antiquity of those Parish Feasts called in several parts of England Wakes The fourth appoints That where ever the King's Justice or any other Person shall hold Civil Pleas if the King's Deputy or Attorney comes thither to open any Cause concerning Holy Church that shall be first determined for it is just God be served before all others The fifth ordains That whosoever holds any thing of the Church or hath his Mansion on the Church's Land he or they shall not be compell'd to plead out of the Ecclesiastical Courts for Contumacy or otherwise nay though he forfeit unless Justice be wanting in those Courts which says the Law God forbid By which all the Tenants of the Church were exempted from pleading or appearing at the King's Courts which though a strange and unreasonable Privilege yet it seems it continued in the time of William the First The sixth confirms the Laws of Sanctuaries ordaining That no man shall be taken out of any Church to which he hath fled for any offence unless it be by the Bishop or his Officers The like Privilege is also allowed to the Priest's House provided it stand upon the Ground of the Church but if a Thief went out of the Sanctuary to rob he was to forfeit that Privilege The seventh leaves those to the Justice of the Bishop who violate the Peace of Holy Church and if any Offender shall despise his Sentence either by flying or contemning it and Complaint thereof be made to the King after forty days he shall give Pledges to reconcile himself to God the King and the Church and if he cannot be found he shall be outlaw'd and if then he be found and can be laid hold on he shall be delivered up to the King if he defends himself he shall be slain For from the day of his Outlawry he is said in English to have Wulfsheofod i.e. a Wolfs-head or as we now commonly say in Latin gerere Caput Lupinum This is the common Law of all Outlaws The eighth and ninth appoint what things small Tythes should be paid out of and recites that they had been granted long before a Rege Baronibus Popâ—lo that is by the King the Barons and the People And though the word Barons was not commonly used till the time of King William the First when these Laws were drawn up in the form we now have them upon an Inquisition granted to the Ancient and Wise Men of all the Counties in England as Rog. Hoveden informs us yet is this but a Recital of the Ancient Law of Tythes in the Dialect of those times when the word Baron came to be used instead of Thane The tenth appoints after what manner the Ordeal or Judgment by Fire or Water should be executed by the Bishop's Officer and the King's Justice upon those that deserved it From which you may observe that this Law of Ordeal was in force some time after the coming in of the Normans This Law also ordains in what Cases and over what Persons the Courts Baron should have Jurisdiction but it being somewhat large I refer you to it The Eleventh again reinforces the payment of Romescot or Peter-pence which iâ— denied the King's Justice shall compel the payment because it is the King 's Alms. From whence we may observe how much those Romish Writers are mistaken who will needs make these Peter-pence to have been a Tribute from the Kings of England to the Pope The twelfth shews what Danegelt was and on what occasion it was first imposed That the payment of Danegelt was first ordained because of the frequent Invasions of the Danish Pyrates to repress which there was Twelvepence imposed upon every Hide of Land throughout England to be paid yearly Which also shews us about what time these Laws were collected into the form we now have them by this Clause viz. That the Church was excused from this payment until the time of William Rufus who as is here recited asking an Aid of his Barons for the obtaining Normandy from his Brother then going to Jerusalem there was granted to him not by any standing Law but only for the present necessity Four Shillings upon every Hide of Land the Church not excepted The thirteenth sets forth That the Peace of the King is manifold as sometimes it is given by his own hand which the English call Cyninges honde sealde gryth This Protection was granted not only to Persons but Places also by way of Privilege as likewise to Churches or Churhmen within their own Walls as appears by the League betwixt King Edward and Guthrum in which it is termed Cyninges honde gryth Another sort of Peace was on the Coronation-day which lasted eight days that at Christmass which held also eight days and so on the Feast of Easter and Whitsuntide Another sort was given by his Brief or Letters and another there was belonging to the Four great Highways viz. Watlingstreet Foss Hickenildstreet and Ermingstreet whereof two are extended to the Length and two to the Breadth of the Kingdom Another still there was belonging to the Rivers of Note which conveyed Provisions to Towns and Cities From whence it appears that this Peace of the King was a Priâ—ilege or Exemption granted to Persons not to be sued or answer at Law in any Action â—rought against them during certain solemn and stated Times and in certain of the most famous and frequented Highways of the Kingdom The fourteenth declares That all Treasure prove should be the King 's unless it were found in a Church or Church-yard in which case if it were Gold it was all the King 's but if Silver one half was to go to him and another to the Church The fifteenth treateth of Murther and declares if any one was murthered the Murtherer should be enquired after in the Village or Town where the Body was found and if he was discovered to be delivered up to the King's Justice within eight days after the Fact committed and in case he could not be found a month and a day was allowed for search after him within which term if he could not be seiz'd on forty six Marks were to be collected out of that Town and if it was not able to pay so much then the Hundred was liable to make it good And forasmuch as this Payment could not be made in the Towns and great inconveniences arose the Barons i.e. the Freeholders of the County took care that six and forty Marks should be paid out of the Hundred which being seal'd up with the Seal of some one Baron of the County they were to be sent to the Treasurer and by
of Land to one Wulfred By the Assistance of King Aethelwulf made North-Wales subject to him Marries Aethelwulf's Daughter with great Solemnity l. 5. p. 261 262. Is forced by the Danes to desert his Kingdom and pass the Seas to Rome where not long after he died and was buried at the English College in the Church of St. Mary Id. p. 277. Byrinus an Italian coming hither by his Preaching converts the West-Saxons and had a City in Oxfordshire conferred on him to fix his Episcopal See in l. 4. p. 179. Baptizes Cuthred at Dorchester being a Prince of the Blood-Royal Id. p. 180. Byrnstan consecrated Bishop of Winchester and how long he held it l. 5. p. 331. His Death and Burial at Winchester Id. p. 332 333. C CAdelh Prince of South-Wales is fallen upon by his Brother Anarawd who grievously spoils his Countries l. 5. p. 299. Second Son to Rodoric the Great and Father to Howel Dha his Decease Id. p. 315. Cadocus Abbot of Lancarvan in Glamorganshire His Life written by John of Tinmouth l. 3. p. 149. Cadwallader his supposed Journey to Rome l. 3. p. 145. The last King of the Britains His death l. 4. p. 190 191. Cadwallo King of the Britains an Account of his being routed and killed l. 4. p. 177. Cadwallo and Ceadwalla these two Names are confounded together by the British Historians Id. p. 204. Cadwallo supposed to be Edwal sirnamed Ywrch and for what reason Id. p. 205. Cadwallo succeeds his Father Cadwan in the Kingdom of Britain Id. p. 171. Is overcome by Edwin and flies to Ireland but returning afterwards he beats Penda and they joining together fight Edwin and slay him and rout his whole Army He is in Profession a Christian but in his Actions shews himself worse than a Pagan Id. p. 176. Cuts off Osric on a sudden and all his Army and basely kills Eanfrid Id. p. 177. Cadwan Prince of North-Wales is chose King of all the Britains l. 3. p. 149. Caedmon the English-Saxon Poet what he wrote and what he printed l. 4. p. 199. Caerialis Petilius sent hither as soon as Vespatian was acknowledged in Britain as his Lieutenant He had inured Agricola to Labours and Dangers l. 2. p. 54. Caer-Leon upon Usk in South-Wales an Archiepiscopal See l. 3. p. 149. Caesar's landing in Britain in the Reign of Cassibelan a small Inland Prince l. 1. p. 19. l. 2. p. 33. His Account of the Inhabitants their Religion and Manner of living l. 2. p. 21. The Pretences he made for his Expedition hither l. 2. p. 24. But first he sends Ca. Volusenus to make his Observations of the Countrey and then upon on his Arrival Ambassadors come to him from divers Princes and States of this Island promising Obedience to the Roman Empire Id. p. 25. He had no great cause to boast of his first Expedition and why l. 2. p. 29. Most of his Horse were cast away in a violent Storm therefore goes into Italy resolving to make another Descent upon them and orders new Ships to be built and directs after what Model whereupon six hundred such were built besides eight and twenty Gallies Id. p. 30. Setting sail again for Britain and landing he fought and conquered the next day he had news That by a great Tempest rising that night forty of his Ships had fallen foul upon one another and were lost and the rest much shatter'd Id. p. 31 32. His care about the remainder and directions for others to be built His Engagements with the Britains and their various successes Id. p. 32 33 34. His description of a British Town Id. p. 35. Makes Cassibelan submit and give Hostages to him and then goes over to the Continent and at his Return to Rome he offers to Venus a Breast-plate covered with British Pearl Id. Ib. Calais never used for a Port until Philip Earl of Buloigne built and walled the Town l. 2. p. 31. Calcuithe the troublesome Synod there where Archbishop Janbryht lost part of his Province to the See of Litchfield l. 4. p. 233 235. The Nicene Creed and the Seven first General Councils received and confirmed in it and many Canons made concerning Matters of Religion and Ecclesiastical Discipline Id. p. 233. There were two distinct Sessions of it Id. p. 234. It was supposed to be held in the Kingdom of Mercia Ibid. A Synod held there under Wilfrid Archbishop of Canterbury and Kenwulf King of the Mercians l. 5. p. 251. Caledonians make great Preparations for War in shew more than in reality against Agricola l. 2. p. 58. But they were miserably routed by his Forces Id. p. 59. Rodorick King of the Picts aids them but is slain by Marius Id. p. 66. Caligula Caius the Magnificent Letters he sent to Rome l. 2. p. 37. Marches his Army to the Belgick Shore and his foolish Bravado after he had put a little to Sea in a Galley and then returned to Land carrying the Shells that he and his Army had gathered on the shore to Rome and his Galleys and demands a Triumph but the Senate refused it and at last he was murthered Id. p. 38. Camalodunum now Maldon in Essex where Andraste supposed to have been the Goddess of Victory had a Temple l. 2. p. 24. On the Reverse of Kynobelin's Coin is CAM signifying Camalodunum which was his Royal Seat Id. p. 37 40. Taken by Claudius who obtaining a Victory over the Britains left them to the Government of Plautius Id. p. 40. Cambden's History in Latin commended highly by this Author l. 2. p. 20. Cambria Vid. Wales Cambridge anciently called Caer-grant and Grant-Chester l. 1. p. 14. Grantbridge l. 5. p. 272 322. l. 6. p. 34. Quatbridge l. 5. p. 302. And Grantecester l. 5. p. 318. Lay in the Kingdom of the East Angles and had no University or School there in the time of King Alfred l. 4. p. 179 180. The Antiquity of this University illustrated l. 5. p. 318. All their former Privileges confirmed by King Edward the Elder 's Charter to them for ever to endure by a perpetual Right Id. p. 317 318. Improbable that it should have continued an University during the Danish Wars under the Possession of Three Danish Kings but this Edward did restore the University Id. p. 318. Is burnt by the Danes with Oxford likewise and then all Studies ceased at both places till about 1133. from which time the Scholars have continued at both Universities l. 6. p. 34 35. Camelford in Cornwall anciently Gafulford where was a Battel fought between the Britains and Devonshire-men the latter getting the Victory l. 5. p. 253. Candida Casa Vid. Witerne Candidus a Presbyter whom the Pope sent to receive and dispose of the Church's Revenues in France l. 4. p. 153. Canterbury anciently called Caerkin by whom it was first pretended to be built l. 1. p. 10. And Cantwic l. 5. p. 259. The Metropolis of King Ethelbert's Kingdom appointed for the Residence of Augustine and his Monks l. 4. p. 153
154. When the See remained void for four years l. 4. p. 189. The Ancient Power of the Archbishop of this See as Governor of the Church of England when under the Power of the Pope in Ecclesiastical Matters l. 4. p. 209 210. The City is burnt Id. p. 226 228. The Violence done to it by removing the See from thence to Litchfield Id. p. 234 235. Is restored to its ancient Rights which it had been deprived of by King Offa's taking away all its Lands which lay within the Kingdom of Mercia Id. p. 229 235. By the See of Litchfield's being made an Archbishoprick no more were under this Jurisdiction than the Bishops of London Winchester Rochester and Shireburne Id. p. 235. Forbid on pain of Damnation if not repented of for any one hereafter to violate the Rights of this Ancient See l. 5. p. 248. Is taken by the Danes who then routed Beorthwulf the King of the Mercians and his whole Army Id. p. 261. And is retaken by the Lady Aethelfleda with the Assistance of the King her Brother wherein a great many Danes were killed Id. p. 320. Humbly beseeches a Peace of the Danes which at the Price of Three thousand Pounds is concluded l. 6. p. 33. Is besieged again and taken by the Treachery of the Danes Id. p. 35 36. Caractacus and Togodumnus the Sons of Kynobelin overcome by the Romans l. 2. p. 39. His Engagement with Ostorius Scapula and the Success of it Id. p. 42 43. Though he was taken Prisoner yet his Fame was celebrated as far as Italy Id. p. 43. His Manly Procession at Rome and the Noble Speech he made to Caesar His Pardon and Acknowledgment Id. p. 44. Caradoc or Cradoc Son to Gryffin Prince of South-Wales his barbarous Cruelty and Ill Usage both of the House of Harold Earl of West-Saxony and of his Servants l. 6. p. 93. Carausius a man of mean Parentage who through all Military degrees advanced himself to be Governor of Bononia now Buloigne c. takes on him the Imperial Purple and makes Maximilian to conclude a Peace and yield him up Britain making the Picts his Confederates l. 2. p. 83. Repairs the Pict's-Walls with Castles c. and at last is slain by the Treachery of Allectus Id. p. 84. Carehouse in Northumberland supposed to be Caere in the time of the Saxons l. 4. p. 215. Careticus succeeds Malgo in the Kingdom of the Britains His Character l. 3. p. 148. Carlisle built by Leil in the days of Solomon l. 1. p. 10. Was afterwards by the Romans called Lugubalia Ib. l. 2. p. 66. Carron a River which had its name from Carausius where it is l. 2. p. 84. Carrum now Charmouth in Dorsetshire where a Battel was fought between Egbert and the Danes and the latter kept the field l. 5. p. 256. Another Battel sought there between Ethelwulf and the Danes Id. p. 259. Cartismandua Queen of the Brigantes to whose fidelity Caractacus having committed himself she delivered him up bound to the Roman Victors l. 2. p. 43. Despises her Husband Venutius and a Civil War arising between them the issue of it Id. p. 45 46. Carus Marc. Aurel succeeds Probus in the Empire and invading the Persians dies suddenly l. 2. p. 83. He created his Son Carinus Caesar and gave him the Charge of Britain and the rest of the Western Provinces Is slain by Dioclesian Ibid. Cassibelan by his worthy Demeanour so wrought upon the people that he easily got the Kingdom for himself l. 1. p. 16. But he was not sole King of this Island only a small Inland Prince l. 2. p. 33. In his Reign Caesar landed in Britain but he engaging with him and his Romans was forced to submit to Caesar and to give him Hostages l. 1. p. 19. l. 2. p. 33 34 35. After the departure of the Romans he is said to reign ten years which time he spent in taking revenge on the Citâ—es and States that had revolted from him during his Wars with Caesar Id. p. 36. Cassiterides these Western Islands were so called by the Greeks l. 1. p. 2 3. Castinus sent into Spain by Honorius against the Vandals l. 2. p. 105. Castor the Worthiest Man in Severus his Court and Chief of his Bed-Chamber the same as Lord-Chamberlain with us l. 2. p. 75. Castra Exploratorum a place in Cumberland l. 2. p. 81. Cataract a fair City in Yorkshire burnt by Beornred the Mercian Tyrant l. 4. p. 229. Cattle that are brought into a Town and said to be found how to be disposed of and who to have the Custody of them l. 6. p. 103. Caedda is consecrated Bishop of Litchfield l. 4. p. 189 195. Renews his Ordination according to the Catholick Rites Id. p. 191. Is deprived of his Bishoprick as being unduly elected Id. p. 192. His Death and Character called by us at this day St. Chad Id. p. 193. Ceadwalla Vid. Cadwallo with whom he is confounded as he is also with Cadwallader l. 3. p. 145. l. 4. p. 204. Subdues the Petty Princes of the West-Saxons and takes the Kingdom to himself according to Bede Id. p. 193. Succeeds to the Kingdom of the West-Saxons after the death of Kentwin He was the Grandson of Ceawlin by his Brother Cutha Id. p. 202. Subdues the Isle of Wight and gives the fourth part of his Conquests to God Id. p. 203. He and Moll his Brother waste Kent l. 4. p. 203 204. Goes to Rome and is there baptized by Pope Sergius by the name of Peter but dies soon after and is buried in the Church of St. Peter Id. p. 204 205. Ceawlin and Cutha fight with and drive Ethelbert into Kent l. 3. p. 145 146. And Cuthwi kill three other Kings and take there three Cities Id. p. 145. Fights against the Britains and takes away several Towns from them but is driven out of his Kingdom after one and thirty years reign His Banishment and Character Id. p. 147 148. His Death in Exile Id. p. 149. Vid. Cuthwulf Ceawlin King of the West-Saxons and Ethelfrid fight with Adian wherein Cutha Ceawlin's Son is slain l. 4. p. 159. Ceawlin the second King of the West-Saxons that ruled over all Britain l. 5. p. 254. Cedda ordained a Bishop over the Nation of the East-Saxons l. 4. p. 184. Baptizes Swidhelm King thereof in the Province of the East-Angles Id. p. 189. Cendrythe an Abbess is forced to make satisfaction to Archbishop Wilfrid for the wrongs that King Kenwulf her Father had done to the Church of Canterbury l. 5. p. 253. The same with Quendride where see more of her Cenered King of Mercia or Southumbers succeeds Ethelred by his own appointment who himself resigned and turned Monk l. 4. p. 207 212. Cenwall or Cenwalch succeeds his Father Cynegils in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons and being soon after driven out of it by Penda King of the Mercians he retires to Anna King of the East-Angles and there receives Baptism l. 4. p. 181.
of the Lands and Privileges of Croyland Monastery in a Great Council Id. p. 254. Of King Berthwulf to the Abbey of Croyland confirmed under the Rule of St. Benedict in a Great Council of the Kingdom at Kingsbury Id. p. 261. Of King Edgar about his subduing the greatest part of Ireland with the City of Dublin and to be Lord of all the Isles as far as Norway doubtless fictitious l. 6. p. 12. By an Extract from King Cnute's Charter preserved in the Evidences of that Church the Port of Sandwich is given to Christ-Church in Canterbury with all the Issues c. Id. p. 54. Of King Cnute's to the Monastery of St. Edmundsbury grants and confirms all its Lands and Privileges The Beginning of it somewhat remarkable Ibid. Of the Foundation of the Monastery of Coventry ratified by the Charter of King Edward and a Bull of Pope Alexander Id. p. 72. Of Edward the Confessor to confirm the Foundation of Waltham-Abbey Id. p. 89. The Curia or Great Council of the Kingdom confirm his Charter of Endowment of the Monastery of Westminster part of which is there set down Id. p. 94. Charters and other Writings when they began to be made after the French way Id. p. 98. Chastity Queen Etheldrith though twice married yet would not suffer either of her Husbands to know her l. 4. p. 198 199. An Heroick Example of it in the Abbess of Coldingham Nunnery in Yorkshire l. 5. p. 269. King Edgar perhaps loved it in others though he did not mucâ— practise it himself l. 6. p. 11. Edward the Confessor highly extols his Wife for her Chastity Id. p. 96. Cherbury in Shropshire anciently called Cyricbyrig l. 5. p. 316. Chertsey in Surrey anciently called Ceortesige l. 6. p. 6. Chester anciently called Legions l. 4. p. 164. Legacester l. 5. p. 301. l. 6. p. 8. Concacestre l. 5. p. 286. Called also Caerlegion l. 5. p. 315. And Cunaeceaster l. 6. p. 26. The Place where the Danes took up their Quarters against King Alfred's Forces which made them suffer great extremities l. 5. p. 301. Repaired by the Command of Earl Ethelred and his Wife Ethelfleda Id. p. 315. The Heads of Leofred a Dane and Gryffyth ap Madoc set up on the top of the Tower there Id. p. 321. The Province much spoiled and ruined by the Norwegian Pyrates l. 6. p. 20. Chichester the Bishop's See was formerly at Selsey l. 4. p. 198. Anciently Cisseancester in Sussex where the Danes carried their Prey from Alfred l. 5. p. 300. The Bishoprick was called that of the South-Saxons l. 6. p. 88. Chiltern the Woody Countrey of Bucks and Oxfordshire anciently called Clytern l. 6. p. 34. Chipnam Vid. Cippenham Choisy anciently Cazii signifies a Royal Village it is in France l. 5. p. 290. Christianity first preached in this Island when and by whom l. 2. p. 51 52. When and by whom first preach'd in Germany l. 4. p. 211. Christ-Church in Canterbury had the Port in Sandwich given to it by King Cnute with all the Issues and Profits c. l. 6. p. 54. Chrysanthius the Son of Marcian a Novatian Bishop supposed to be sent into Britain by Theodosius as his Lieutenant l. 2. p. 97. Church Pope Gregory's Determination concerning the Customs of the Church l. 4. p. 156. When their Dues ought to be brought in and the Punishment for Non-Payment of them A Sanctuary to those that fly to it who are guilty of a Capital Crime The Punishment those are to undergo that fight in a Church Id. p. 208. Withred's great care of the Churches in Kent Id. p. 210 211. Are freed from all Publick Payments and Tributes whatsoever Id. p. 212. With how bright a Lustre Religion shined in the Primitive Church l. 5. p. 24â— Alfred's Law entituled The Immunity of the Church Id. p. 292 296 297. The Forfeiture for stealing any thing from thence Id. p. 297. How necessary it was in ancient times for Princes themselves to be blindly obedient to the Discipline of it l. 6. p. 3. Edgar's Law concerning the Immunities of the Church l. 6. p. 13. When Churches in Wales began to acknowledge the Superiority of the Archbishops of Canterbury Id. p. 21. The Original of Coat-Armour its being hung up in Churches from whence supposed Id. p. 57. In all Courts of Civil Pleas Causes concerning Holy Church were to be first determined Id. p. 99. Those that hold of the Church not to be compelled to plead out of the Ecclesiastical Courts unless Justice be wanting there Ibid. The Law concerning those who violate the Peace of it Ibid. When the Church was not excused from paying of Danegelt Id. p. 100. In what cases the Church was to have one Moiety of Treasure-trove Id. p. 101. Cimbric Chersonese now called Jutland l. 3. p. 121. Cimerii and Cimbri derived from Gomer by whom the Ancient Gallia waâ— first inhabited l. 1. p. 4. Cippenham now Chipnam in Wiltshire l. 5. p. 262 283. Cirencester the City besieged taken and burnt and by whom l. 3. p. 148. Civilis sent for by Theodosius to govern Britain as Vice-Praefect l. 2. p. 93. Civil War between Cartismandua and Venutius l. 2. p. 45 46. Between Otho and Vitellius Id. p. 53. Claudia Rufina Wife of Pudens a Senator of Rome l. 2. p. 66. Vid. Rufina Claudian his Verses in De Bello Getico supposed to be designed for the second Departure of the Roman Legions l. 2. p. 101. Claudius the Emperor as he was coming to invade the Britains had twice like to have been cast away by Foul Weather but at last obtains a Victory over them and at his Return to Rome the Senate decree him a Triumph and Annual Games with two Triumphal Arches l. 2. p. 39 40. Lived about three years after his sending Aulus Didius into Britain His Death supposed of Poyson given him by his Wife Agrippina Id. p. 45. A Temple dedicated to him looked on as a Badge of their Eternal Slavery Id. p. 47. Claudius Marc. Aurel. Flav. elected Emperor Gallienus being slain performed several great Actions and dies suddenly l. 2. p. 82. Clergy the British Gildas his Character and Reproof of them l. 3. p. 140. May marry if out of Holy Orders and that they cannot otherwise contain Great care was to be had of their Stipends to make them more diligent in Service And of their Hospitality l. 4. p. 155. To receive no Reward for baptizing or for the other Sacraments Id. p. 225. Several Constitutions made against their committing Offences l. 5. p. 284 285. Their Goods and Possessions established to them by Edward the Confessor's Laws l. 6. p. 99. Chlodius Balbinus Vid. Balbinus Chlorus Constantius adopted Caesar by Maximinian is sent by him against Carausius l. 2. p. 83. Fires his own Ships that so his Soldiers might have no hopes left them of Safety but in Victory Id. p. 84. Chuses the Empire of the Western Provinces whereof Britain was one and puts a stop to the Persecution here raised
p. 280. Hinguar their Captain with Twelve Hundred Men slain near the Castle of Kenwith Id. p. 281. Are signally beaten by King Aelfred so as to desire Peace on Conditions Id. p. 282 283. The Laws made between them and King Aelfred in a Common Council of the Kingdom acknowledging his Superiority over them Id. p. 285. Besiege the City of Rochester build a strong Fort before the Gates of it but however they are forced to retire and go to their Ships Id. p. 286. One Fleet of theirs beaten by King Alfred another meeting him on his Return home prove too hard for him The Peace lately made with King Alfred broke by the Danes of East-England Id. p. 286 287. Beaten by the Bretons and by Arnulf the Emperor Id. p. 298. Infest the Kingdom for Three years worse than ever their landing in Kent and their various Successes Id. p. 298 299 300 301 302. Fight at Holme with the Kentish-men and their success l. 5. p. 312 313. Break their League with King Edward the Elder afterwards are beaten by the English in Staffordshire Id. p. 315 316. Commit great Ravage and Slaughter in Oxfordshire and several other Countries but often worsted Id. p. 319 321. Their power beginning to decrease and that of the English to increase Id. p. 321 322. Burn Tavistock in less than Fifty years after it was founded l. 6. p. 4. With the Welshmen that assisted them routed by Howel ap Jevaf their Pyrates destroy Southampton and commit great Ravage there They land in Cornwal and Burn the Church and Monastery of St. Petroc Id. p. 20. They land in Dorsetshire and spoil the Isle of Portland Id. p. 21. Destroy Weedport that is Watchet in Somersetshire Id. p. 22. As likewise the whole Isle of Anglesey and the Town of Ipswich in Suffolk Id. p. 23. Several Tributes paid them and yet those did not long satisfy their Covetousness Id. p. 25 29 32. Their Fleet escape by flight from being encompassed by King Ethelred's Id. p. 23. Come hither again with Ninety three Ships and ravaging several Countries Id. p. 24 25. Maintained by the West-Saxons and received a great Tribute besides Id. p. 25. Take much plunder from the Welsh Cornwal and Devonshire c. Id. p. 26 27. And the Spoils Burnings and Desolations they made where-ever they came Id. p. 28.29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 45 46 47 74. Leagues made with them but they never regarded them long Id. 28 31. King Ethelred commands all the Danes that could be found in England to be slain with the reason why which was most barbarously put in Execution especially at London but not long after it was bloodily revenged Id. p. 29 30 31. They insolently demand greater Tribute of the King and Kingdom l. 6. p. 35. Two thousand of them perish by divers inward Torments Their submission to King Ethelred upon Conditions Id. p. 36 37. Upon a Peace with Edmond Ironside they take up their Winter-Quarters at London Id. p. 48. They and the English are reconciled and united at Oxford at a Great Council Id. p. 51. At the Election of Edward the Confessor the Great Council agreed and Swore That no Danes should Reign over them any more and why Id. p. 70. Lothen and Yrling Danes with Five and twenty Ships landing at Sandwic commit great havock and carry off abundance of Booty Id. p. 74. Daniel the Learned and most Pious Bishop of Bangor in what Age he lived among the Britains l. 3. p. 149. Daniel being worn out by Age resigns the Bishoprick of Winchester to Hunferth l. 4. p. 224. His Death after he had been Three and forty years a Bishop Id. p. 225. Darwent a River near York not far from which stood an Idol-Temple called Godmundingham in King Edwin's time l. 4. p. 174. David afterwards Sainted succeeds Dubritius in the Archbishoprick of Caer-Leon l. 3. p. 149. Is said to have been Uncle by the Mother side to King Athur Ibid. St. Davids destroyed by the Danes who slew Urgeney the Bishop of that See l. 6. p. 27. Deadly Feuds vid. Quarrels Death None to Die for small offences but Mercy to be shewn to such Criminals by King Cnute's Law l. 6. p. 58. He that dies in fight c. his Heriot shâ—ll be remitted and his Children shall equally divide his Goods and Lands between them Id. p. 60. Decennary every one of Twelve years old to be entered into it l. 6. p. 58 104. Decianus Catus solicited by the Romans here to send them some Assistance against the Iceni and Trinobantes l. 2. p. 47 48. Decimation a very strange one indeed which the Danes made both of the Monks and Laity so that but One out of Ten persons was kept alive l. 6. p. 36. Decius Scil. Quintus Trajanus a great Enemy to Christianity he raised the Seventh Persecution l. 2. p. 81. Defamation punishable by cutting out the Tongue of the Party or redeeming it with the Value of his Head l. 6. p. 13. Degradation of a Priest for Murther as well as Confiscation of all his Estate unless his Lord will obtain his Pardon by the Price of his Head l. 5. p. 297. Degsa-stan or Degstan where Adian jealous of Ethelfrid's great Success came against him with a powerful Army but was routed l. 4. p. 159. Deira a Kingdom in Northumberland whose Kings were generally named Ella l. 4. p. 152. And Bernicia united into one Kingdom in Oswald's time Id. p. 178. Demetae that is South-Welshmen l. 3. p. 139 Vid. Venedoti Denulp Bishop of Winchester his Education Advancement and Death l. 5. p. 315. Deomed supposed to be South-Wales l. 5. p. 319. Deorham now Durham in Gloucestershire l. 3. p. 146. Deposition the first Instance of it by the Authority of the Great Council l. 4. p. 227. Alhred deposed by the Common Council and Consent of his own Subjects Id. p. 230. Of Edwi confirmed by the Common Council of the Kingdom l. 5. p. 354. Sparsim Deprivation of Bosa Bishop of Dunmoc and for what l. 4. p. 193. Derawnde now called Beverley in Yorkshire l. 4. p. 202. Desertion he that deserts his Lord or Fellow-Soldier either by Land or Sea in an Expedition is deprived both of Life and Estate l. 6. p. 60. Devils-Ditch formerly divided the Mercian Kingdom from that of the East-Angles l. 4. p. 239. l. 5. p. 313. Devise of Lands by Will Vid. Testament Deusdedit the Pope grants Adrian the Abbot of Canterbury a Privilege concerning the free Election of the Abbot of that Monastery l. 4. p. 165. Deusdedit consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury and was the first English Monk that had ever been chosen Archbishop of that See and the first Bishop consecrated but by one he changed his Name to this having before been called Fridona or Fridon l. 4. p. 186. His Death Id. p. 189. Dicul an Irish or Scotch Monk that lived in a little Monastery at a place called Bosenham with five or six Brethren in great
Devotion l. 4. p. 198. Didius Aulus a Roman Praetor sent Lieutenant into Britain in the room of Ostorius his Engagements and Success there l. 2. p. 45. Difilina Vid. Dublin Dinoth Abbot of Bangor instructed how to know whether Augustine's Preaching were of God by a Holy man that led the life of an Anchoret l. 4. p. 161 162. Diocesses five made out of two at a Great Council held by Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 313. Dioclesian chose Emperor by the Eastern Army makes Marc. Aurel. Maximinianus his Associate in the Empire nominates Galerius Caesar constrains them to divorce their Wives and to marry their Daughters l. 2. p. 83. His Persecution of his obedient and harmless Christian Subjects Id. p. 85. Dionotus Duke of Cornwall Geoffrey of Monmouth's story of him l. 2. p. 96. v. 102. Domitian succeeds Titus Vespasian his Brother l. 2. p. 57. Secretly designs the Ruin of Agricola through jealousy that the Glory of a private man should eclipse that of his Prince Id. p. 63. Causes it to be reported That the Province of Syria should be bestowed on Agricola Ibid. p. 64. Dorinea since Dorchester in Oxfordshire a City anciently though now but a poor Countrey Town l. 4. p. 179. Dover the Sedition there of the Townsmen against Eustatius Earl of Boloigne how it arose and how it ended l. 6. p. 76 77. Dower Where a Widow marries before her Twelve-month is expired she loses it and who is to have it and all that her Husband left her l. 6. p. 60. Draganus an Irish Bishop refuses to eat upon his coming over hither with Laurentius Archbishop of Canterbury and why l. 4. p. 166. Drinking Bonosus a Hard Drinker having hang'd himself for being vanquished by the Emperor Probus occasioned that sharp Saying Here hangs a Tankard l. 2. p. 82. Brass Pots set upon Posts at Fountains near the Highways for the use of Travellers to drink out of l. 4. p. 175. Edgar's Law to restrain excessive drinking of great Draughts Vid. Addenda p. 136. Druids their great Authority Doctrine and Gods l. 2. p. 23 24. Dublin in Ireland anciently called Difiline l. 5. p. 334. Dubritius Archbishop of Caer-Leon upon Usk in South-Wales Founder of the College of Philosophers there l. 3. p. 149. Resigned his Bishoprick and became an Anchoret in the Isle of Bardsey Ibid. Duduc Bishop of Somersetshire that is Wells his Decease and who is his Successor l. 6. p. 88. Dulcitius a famous Commander with Civilis sent for to Britain by Theodosius and an Account of their Expedition l. 2. p. 93. Dun consecrated Bishop of Rochester after the Death of Eardulph l. 4. p. 224. Dunbritton in Scotland anciently called Alcluid l. 2. p. 101. When it was destroyed by the Danes l. 5. p. 277. Dunmoc a Town in the Kingdom of the East-Angles but destroyed by the Danes l. 5 p. 274. Vid. Dunwich St. Dunstan an Account of his Birth l. 5. p. 329. Then Abbot of Glastenbury when King Edmund conferr'd divers large Privileges upon that Monastery Id. p. 345. King Edred commits the chief Treasures of his Kingdom to his care to be kept at his Abbey Id. p. 351. Is banished out of England by King Edwi and the occasion of it with his Retirement thereupon to a Monastery in Flanders Id. p. 353. Is chosen Bishop of Worcester by the General Consent of a Great Council and afterwards made Archbishop of Canterbury l. 6. p. 2. The Miracles that the Monks relate were done by him as his Harp hanging against the Wall and a whole Psalm being audibly plaid upon it without any hand touching it c. but above all his taking the Devil by the Nose with a Pair of Red Hot Tongs till he made him to roar again Id. p. 3. A great Propagator of Monkery many Monasteries either new built or new founded in his time Exercised Ecclesiastical Discipline without respect of persons witness the Penance he made King Edgar submit to Ibid. As soon as made Archbishop he went to Rome and there obtained his Pall Id. p. 6. Could never endure Ethelfreda Edgar's Queen and the reason why Id. p. 10. Narrowly escapes being killed when the Floor fell down at the Council at Calne in Wiltshire Id. p. 17. He and Oswald c. crown Ethelred the Brother of Edward the Martyr St. Dunstan's Prediction of this King Ethelred Id. p. 19. His Decease He restores the Monkish Discipline in England and makes a Collection of Ordinances for the Benedictine Order l. 6. p. 22. A Relation of his having erected in his life-time a small Monastery at Westminster for Twelve Monks which was vastly augmented by Edward the Confessor Id. p. 93. Dunwallo Molmutius reduces this Island from a Pentarchy in which it was before into a Monarchy l. 1. p. 12. Dunwich in Suffolk Foelix founded his Episcopal See here l. 4. p. 179. Anciently called Dunmoc l. 4. p. 193. And Domue Id. p. 242. Durham the City about what time built and a Church there dedicated to St. Cuthbert by whom erected l. 6. p. 26. Is besieged by Malcolme King of the Scots with a very great Army Id. p. 27. Durstus King of the Picts is slain in Battel and the particular Account of it l. 2. p. 102. Duty to Parents a pretty remarkable Instance of it in one of King Leir's Daughters named Cordiella if it were true l. 1. p. 11. E EAdbald Ethelbert's Son who succeeded him in the Kingdom of Kent His wicked Reign l. 4. p. 168. His Incestuous Marriage upon what account he renounced Id. p. 169. Gives Ethelburga his Niece in Marriage to King Edwin upon condition that she should enjoy the Christian Religion Id. p. 171. He and Archbishop Honorius receive her with great Honour Id. p. 176. Dies after he had reigned Five and twenty years leaving two Sons Id. p. 180. Eadbald the Bishop departs from the Northumbers l. 4. p. 240. Eadbert or Egbryht King of Northumberland marries Cuthburge Sister to King Ina but they are both made to leave each other's Bed l. 4. p. 218. He is forced to fly into Surrey to the South-Saxons and upon what occasion Ibid. Ceolwulf surrenders his Kingdom again to him and he reigned One and twenty years Id. p. 223. Leads Kynwulf Bishop of Lindisfarne Prisoner to the City of Beban who it seems had some way rebelled against him Id. p. 225. His War against the Picts subduing all the Countrey of Kyle c. and joining them to his own Dominions Ibid. And Unust King of the Picts bring an Army against the City Alkuith which was delivered by the Britains upon Conditions Id. p. 227. Is shorn a Monk and Oswulf or Usulf his Son succeeds him after he had reigned One and twenty Years with great Wisdom and Courage insomuch that Pepin King of France not only made a League with him but sent him great Presents Id. p. 228. Dies Ten Years after his taking the Monastical Habit and is buried at York Id. p. 229. Eadbert or
whereby he converted many of the Britains then Subject to the West-Saxons Id. p. 213. Naitan King of the Picts concerns himself about the Celebration of Easter and it is appointed to be kept on the First Sunday after the First Full Moon that follows the Vernal Equinox l. 4. p. 216. Decreed to be kept after the Custom of Rome in a General Synod of the British Nation Id. p. 229. Ordinances touching the Keeping of Easter made at the Second Council of Pinchinhale Id. p. 242 East-Saxons the beginning of this Kingdom 〈◊〉 Erchenwin the Son of Offa according to H. Huntington l. 3. p. 13â— It had London the Chief City of England under its Dominion Ibid. This Kingdom was divided from that of Kent by the River Thames c. l. 4. p. 159. Upon the Death of Sebert his Three Sons whom he left Heirs to the Kingdom all relapse to Paganism and great part of the Nation with them Id. p. 168. But between Thirty and Forty years after at the Instance of King Oswy they again receive the Christian Faith Id. p. 184. Eatta Bishop of the Province of Bernicia had his Episcopal See at Hagulstad l. 4. p. 197. Reckoned to be a very Holy Man Id. p. 215. Ebba a Queen is Converted and Baptized in the Province of the Wectij but what Queen Bede says not l. 4. p. 197. Ebba Abbess of Coldingham-Nunnery in Yorkshire an Heroine Example of Chastity in her and all her Sisters l. 5. p. 269. Eborius Bishop of the City of Eboracum is sent with others to the Council of Arles in Gallia as one of the Deputies for the rest of the Bishops of Britain l. 2. p. 88. Eclipses of the Sun one from early in the Morning till Nine a Clock another where the Stars shewed themselves for near half an hour after Nine in the Morning l. 3. p. 138. Of the Sun which was so great that it 's whole Orb seemed as it were covered with a black Shield Another of the Moon appearing first as stained with Blood which lasted a whole hour and then a Blackness following it returned to its own Colour l. 4. p. 222. One of the Moon From the Cock Crowing till the morning Id. p. 240. One of the Moon In the Second hour of the night 17. Kal. Feb. Id. p. 242. One of the Moon On the 13th Kal. of January l. 5. p. 248. One of the Moon And on the Kal. of September l. 5. p. 248. Of the Sun on the 7th Kal. of August about the fifth hour of the day Id. p. 249. Of the Moon on Christmas-day at night Id. p. 254. Of the Sun About the sixth hour of the day on the Kal. of October Id. p. 260. Of the Sun For one whole hour Id. p. 283. One of the Moon appeared Id. p. 313. Eddobeccus is dispatched away by Constans to the Germans with an Account of Gerontius his Revolt l. 2. p. 103. Edelwalch King of the West-Saxons when he was baptized l. 4. p. 195. Gives Wilfrid Commission to convert and baptize in his Province Id. p. 197. Edgar Son of Edmund and Elgiva afterwards King his Birth l. 5. p. 344. Is elected by the Mercians and Northumbrians their King and confirmed so by the Common Council of the Kingdom Id. p. 354. On the death of his Brother Edwi is elected by the Clergy and Laity King of the West-Saxons and though he was not the first yet he was the best that deserved the Title of First Monarch of all England l. 6. p. 1. And so he stiles himself in his Charter to the Abbey of Glastenbury Id. p. 9. His great Charity and the Nation 's happiness under him Id. p. 2 11. Seven years Penance is imposed upon him by Archbishop Dunstan part of which was That he should not wear his Crown all that time and that for taking a Nun out of a Cloyster and then debauching her Id. p. 3. Harasses North-Wales with War till he forces a Peace upon this Condition That the Tribute in Money should be turned into that of so many Wolves-Heads yearly Id. p. 3 4 11. Grants a New Charter of Confirmation with divers additional Endowments of Lands and Privileges to the Monastery of Medeshamsted Id. p. 5. Marries Ethelfreda or Elfreda Daughter of Ordgar Earl of Devonshire and his Issue by her Id. p. 5 6. Hath an Elder Son by Elfleda sirnamed The â—air Daughter of Earl Eodmar who is called afterwards Edward the Martyr but doubtful whether he was married to her or not Id. p. 6. Places Nuns in the Monastery of Rumsey in Hampshire commands all the Countrey of Thanet to be laid waste and for what reason Ibid. Causes the Chanons to be driven out of all the greatâ—r Monasteries in Mercia and Monks to be put in their places Id. p. 7. Is crowned King in the ancient City of Ackmanceaster called Bathan by the Inhabitants with Remarks about his Coronation then for he was crowned before And founds a new Church at Bangor dedicating it to the Virgin Mary Id. p. 7 8. Six Kings make League with him promising upon Oath their Assistance both by Sea and Land An Account who they were and of his Fleet at West-Chester where they all met him He is the first that was truly Lord of our Seas Id. p. 8. His Death and Burial at Glastenbury and Character The great Kindnesses he shewed to Ethelfreda's first Husband's Son Id. p. 9 10 11. A mighty Lover of the Fair Sex Id. p. 3 5 6 9 10 11. A Famous Instance of his great Courage and Strength though but little of Stature Id. p. 11. His Charter about having subdued all Ireland c. much suspected to be fictitious With this King fell all the Glory of the English Nation Id. p. 12. The Laws he made with the Council by the Consent of his Wise-Men Id. p. 12 13 14. Great Dissention amongst the Nobility after his Death about the Election of a New King Id. p. 15. Edgar sirnamed Aetheling the Son of Prince Edward by Agatha Id. p. 49. Edgar Aetheling how he was put by from the Throne though the only surviving Male of the Ancient Royal Family l. 6. p. 105 106. Is proposed to be made King upon Harold's Death but his Party were not prevalent enough to carry it Id. p. 115 116. Edgitha Daughter of King Egbert is first bred up under an Irish Abbess and then made Abbess her self of the Nunnery of Polesworth l. 5. p. 257. Another of this Name King Athelstan's Sister her Marriage with Sihtric the Danish King of Northumberland and being afterwards a Widow she became a Nun at Polesworth Her Character and the False Story of the Scots upon her Id. p. 330. Edgitha or Editha Daughter of Earl Godwin married to Edward the Confessor a Lady not only Beautiful and Pious but Learned above her Sex in that Age l. 6. p. 72 73 96. An improbable Story of her causing Gospatrick to be murthered upon the Account of her Brother Tostige l. 6. p. 90.
Subscribes King Edward's Charter of Endowment of the Abbey of Westminster Id. p. 94. Vid. more in Tit. Edward the Confessor Edinburgh anciently called Mount-Agned built by Ebrank the Son of Manlius l. 1. p. 10. In the Possession of the English-Saxons when and how long l. 5. p. 249. Editha Daughter to King Edgar by Wilfreda whom he took out of a Cloyster at Wilton and who was afterwards Abbess of the said Nunnery l. 6. p. 3 12 20. Edmund the Martyr anointed King of the East-Angles by Bishop Humbert at fifteen years of Age at Buram then the Royal Seat l. 5. p. 265. An Account of his Pedigree Education living in Germany Return into England and Election to the Kingdom which as well as himself he submitted to the direction of Bishop Humbert his Reign Fourteen Years in Peace and his Glorious End of Martyrdom Ibid. p. 273. Fighting with the Danes they slew him and wholly conquer that Kingdom Id. p. 269 273. A particular Account both of his Life and Martyrdom Id. p. 272 273 274. Had a Church and Monastery erected to his Memory Id. p. 274 323. Edmund Prince Son to Edward the Elder the relation of his commanding part of his Father's Army with his Brother Edred cannot be true for he was but Four Years old when his Father died l. 5. p. 321. A great Benefactor to the Church built over the Tomb of King Edmund the Martyr Id. p. 323. He and his Brother Athelstan overcome the Scots about Bromrige in the North Id. p. 334. Succeeds his Brother Athelstan in the Kingdom at eighteen years of Age. Invades Mercia and forces Leicester Lincoln Nottingham Stamford and Derby all then under the Power of the Danes to submit to him The Battel he had with Anlaff and the Agreement made at last between these two Kings Id. p. 343. Conquers Anlaff expels him the Kingdom of Northumberland and adds it to his own Dominions Ibid. p. 344. Subdues the whole Countrey of Cumberland giving it to Malcolme King of Scots upon this Condition That he should assist him both by Sea and Land Id. p. 344. Sends Ambassadors to Prince Hugh of France to restore King Lewis His decease and the manner of it His Burial at Glastenbury with his great Benefaction to that Abbey He stiles himself in his Charter King of the English and Governor and Ruler of the other Nations round about Id. p. 345. The Laws he made in the Great Council he held at London Id. p. 346 347 348. The Legend of St. Edmund's Ghost stabbing King Sweyn the Dane l. 6. p. 39 40. Edmund a Son of King Alfred born before Prince Edward commonly called the Elder is crowned King by his Father 's Appointment in his Life-time but dying before him he was buried in the Abbey-Church of Winchester l. 5. p. 311. Edmund Aetheling marries the Widow of Sigeferth who was lately murthered against his Father's Will upon the Fame of her Beauty and Virtue And invades all the Countrey where her Husband's Lands lay l. 6. p. 40. His Expedition against Cnute and Aedric of little service to him and why Id. p. 41. Is Elected King by all the Great and Wise Men then at London together with the Citizens upon his Father's decease though he held it but a short time and that with great difficulty He is called Ironside for his Strength both of Body and Mind and born of a Concubine Id. p. 45. The several Battels he fought with Cnute and his Party Id. p. 45 46 47. His Prudence not to be commended though his Courage and Constancy were praise-worthy Id. p. 46. Concludes a Peace with King Cnute and the Particulars of it Id. p. 47 48. His Decease being murthered and Burial at Glastenbury with his Grandfather King Edgar Id. p. 48 49. His Children Edward and Edmund excluded from the Kingdom of the West-Saxons and by whom They were sent to the King of Sweden to be made away but he generously conveyed them to Solyman King of Hungary to be educated where Edmund died Id. p. 49. St. Edmundsbury anciently called Badricesworth where King Cnute built a Noble Monastery l. 5. p. 323. Is given by King Edmund with divers other Lands to build a Church and Monastery in Memory of St. Edmund the Martyr Id. p. 345. For ever exempt from all Jurisdiction of the Bishops and Earls of that Countrey by Parliament according to the MS. l. 6. p. 52. Edred an Abbot of Northumberland made a certain Youth sold to a Widow at Withingham whom he redeemed King and by that means the Church got all that Countrey now called the Bishoprick of Durham l. 5. p. 286. Edred Brother to King Athelstan and Edmund takes upon him the Title of First Monarch l. 5. p. 331. Is made King and the manner of his Succession Crowned at Kingston reduces all Northumberland under his Obedience and upon their relapse lays the whole Country waste Id. p. 349 350. Their continual Rebellions against him and his regaining that Kingdom Id. p. 350. The First King of England that stiled himself Rex Magnae Britanniae as appears by a Charter of his to the Abbey of Croyland Id. p. 351. Dies in the Flower of his Age of what his Character and Issue Id. p. 351 352. Edric vid. Aedric Edwal ap Meyric is received by the Inhabitants of the Isle of Anglesey for their Prince he was the right Heir of North-Wales routs Meredith in a set Battel l. 6. p. 24. But is slain in Battel by Sweyne the Son of Harold the Dane Id. p. 25. Edwal Ugel that is the Bald Succeeds his Father Anarawd and is stiled by Historians Supreme King of all Wales l. 5. p. 316. Edwal Ywrch Son of Cadwallader Prince of Wales began to Reign upon his Father's supposed Journey to Rome l. 3. p. 145. Conjectured to be Cadwallo by Dr. Powel and Mr. Vaughan l. 4. p. 205. Edward the First commonly called the Elder the Son of King Alfred when he began his Reign he was Elected by all the Chief Men of the Kingdom l. 5. p. 311. Meets with a great Disturbance at his first entrance to the Crown from Aethelwald his Cousin-German Ibid. p. 312. Builds new Towns and repairs Cities that had been before destroyed Id. p. 312. Has great Battels with the Danes but at last he overcomes them all calls a great Council though the place where is not specified but wherein Plegmund presided which appoints Bishops over each of the Western-Counties and makes Five out of Two Diocesses Id. p. 313. Subdues East-Sex East-England and Northumberland with many other Provinces which the Danes had long before been possessed of Id. p. 314 315. Very much wasts Northumberland with his Army and destroys many Danes Id. p. 315. Takes the Cities of London and Oxenford into his own hands Commands the Town of Hertford to be New Built Builds and Fortifies another Town at Witham near Maldon in Essex Id. p. 316. Confirms to the Doctors and Scholars of Cambridg by Charter all
as conjectured l. 1. p. 16. Cadwallo's being in a Brass Statue set over Ludgate false l. 4. p. 177. Ludican King of the Mercians and five of his Ealdormen slain by the East-Angles and upon what occasion l. 5. p. 253. Lugeanburh now Loughburrow in Leicestershire or Leighton in Bedfordshire l. 3. p. 145. Lupicinus sent into Britain by Julian to compose the Troubles there raised by the Scots and Picts l. 2. p. 90. Lupus Bishop of Troyes and Germanus Bishop of Auxerre sent to confirm Britain in the Catholick Faith l. 2. p. 107. Lupus Virius had the Government of the Northern parts of Britain but buys a Peace of the Meatae He gives an Account to Severus of the state of Affairs here l. 2. p. 74. Was left by the Antonini their Lieutenant in Britain Id. p. 79. M MAccuse King of Man and several other Islands l. 6. p. 9. Macrinus Opilius makes away Caracalla and is chosen Emperor by the Army l. 2. p. 79. Maelgwn Gwineth elected King of the Britains in Wales and the manner of it l. 3. p. 146 147. His Decease Id. p. 148. Vid. Malgo. Magnentius slays Constans and keeps the Western Empire from Constantius for three years and then not longer being able to contest it kills himself at Lyons l. 2. p. 89. Maildulf a Scotch Monk and Philosopher l. 4. p. 195. Maims and Wounds King Alfred's Law concerning them l. 5. p. 296. Malcolm King of Scots receives from King Edmund the whole Countrey of Cumberland upon condition to assist him both by Sea and Land l. 5. p. 344. And to attend him at several great Feasts in the year when he held his Common-Council and for that end divers Houses were assigned him to lye at by the way Id. p. 345. Receives Sweyn and gives him free Quarter for fourteen years l. 6. p. 26. Wastes the Province of the Northumbers and besieges Durham Id. p. 27. Another of the same Name becomes subject to King Cnute upon his going thither and three years after dies Id. p. 56. A Third of this Name enters Northumberland and depopulates the Earldom of Tostige formerly his sworn Brother Id. p. 89. Maldon in Essex anciently Maldune rebuilt and fortified by King Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 320. Malgo or Malgoclunus in Welsh Mailgwn Gwineth King of North-Wales or else of the Northern parts of Britain l. 3. p. 139. Called by Gildas the Island-Dragon accused of Sodomy and of murthering the King his Uncle Id. p. 140. Professes himself a Monk but afterwards breaks his Vow and reigns as Supreme or Sole King of the Britains Id. p. 142. The time he reigned afterwards and his Death Id. p. 144. Mallings in Sussex the Mannor given by Baldred King of Kent to Christ-Church in Canterbury but being afterwards taken away it was confirmed by the Common-Council of the Kingdom under King Egbert l. 5. p. 257. Malmesbury the Abbey begun to be built by one Adhelm l. 4. p. 195. Greatly endowed and by whom Id. p. 196. l. 5. p. 329 339. King Athelstan's great Liberality to this Abbey where he was buried Id. p. 339. A Nun is taken from hence by King Edgar and deflowred l. 6. p. 4. Anciently called in Saxon Mealdelnesbyrig Id. p. 40. Man the City taken by William Duke of Normandy l. 6. p. 89. Man the Isle whither Aedan fled from the Borders of Scotland after he was beaten l. 3. p. 147. Destroyed by Sweyn the Son of Harold the Dane l. 6. p. 25. Manchester in the Kingdom of Northumberland anciently called Manigeceaster is rebuilt and fortified with a Garison at the Command of King Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 324. Mancuses what Sum of Money now uncertain but by Ethelwulf's last Will he orders Three hundred to be sent every year to Rome for such and such Uses and One hundred of them for the Pope himself l. 5. p. 264 265. Mandubratius desires to be relieved from the Injuries of Cassibelan l. 2. p. 34. Who thereupon is forbid by Caesar further to molest him Id. p. 35. Is not restored to the Kingdom of the Trinobantes whereupon he attends Caesar to Rome and is there entertained as King of Britain and a Friend to the Roman Commonwealth Id. p. 36. Manslaughter Vid. Murther Marcellus Ulpius sent to stop the Rebellion of the Britains in Commodus his Reign a man not to be corrupted by Money but severe in his Conversation l. 2. p. 70. Marcus Aurelius Vid. Aurelius Marcus is Elected Emperor by the British Army but they soon took him off he not answering their expectations l. 2. p. 102. Margaret Daughter of Edward the Son of Edmund Ironside is married to Malcolm King of Scotland l. 6. p. 49. Mariage concerning the manner and Rights thereof with Covenants the Antiquity of them and of Bonds for Performance l. 5. p. 348. Widows not to marry within the Twelve-Months after their Husbands decease and what they forfeit if they do l. 6. p. 60. Marinus the worthy good Pope sends some Wood of the Holy Cross unto King Alfred l. 5. p. 286. His Decease and freeing the English School at Rome from all Tax and Tribute Id. p. 287. Marius called by our British Writers Meurig succeeds his Father Arviragus and slays Roderick King of the Picts who aided the Caledonians l. 2. p. 66. His Death about what year of our Lord leaving the Kingdom to his Son Coil Id. p. 67. St. Martin an old ruinous Church without the City of Canterbury now St. Pancrace l. 4. p. 163. Martinus a Prefect endeavours to stab Paulus but missing his Pass runs his Sword into his own Body His good Character l. 2. p. 89. Martinus the Pope sends some of the Wood of the Holy Cross to King Alfred and what reâ—urn he makes again l. 5. p. 286. Martyrdom that of St. Alban's a particular Account of it l. 2. p. 85. Of several other Christians at Litchfield and Winchester Id. p. 86. Maserfield now called Oswestre in Shropshire l. 4. p. 180. Maxentius The Tyrant overthrown near Rome by Constantine l. 2. p. 87. Maximinian said to Command the Roman Legion in Britain the Fabulous story of him l. 2. p. 101 102. Marcus Aurelius Maximinianus Associate in the Empire with Dioclesian adopted Constantius Chlorus Caesar constrains him to put away his Wife and to Marry his Daughter is forced to conclude a Peace with Carausius and to yield him up Britain l. 2. p. 83. Maximinus Julius succeeds Alexander Severus but being condemned by the Senate is slain by the Soldiers l. 2. p. 80. Maximus Pupienus Vid. Balbinus Maximus Trebellius hath the Province of Britain delivered to him l. 2. p. 51. Falls into the Hatred and Contempt of his Army for his sordid Covetousness and the Aversion heightned by Roscius Coelius Id. p. 53. Maximus General of the Roman Armies assumes the Imperial Purple drives back and subdues the Scots and Picts l. 2. p. 91. Makes Triers the seat of his Usurped Empire sends Andragathius as his General against
Horses whereof two with Furniture and two without two Swords four Spears and as many Shields one Helmet one Corslet and fifty Mancuses of Gold The Herriot of an inferior Thane an Horse with Furniture and Arms or amongst the West-Saxons the Sum of Money that is paid called Halfange in Mercia and East-England two Pounds But amongst the Danes the Herriot of a King's Thane who hath free Jurisdiction is four Pounds and if he be nearer to the King his Herriot is two Horses whereof the one with Furniture and the other without a Sword two Spears as many Targets and fifty Mancuses of Gold But the Herriot of a Thane of the lowest condition is two Pounds This word Herriot or as the true Saxon word is written Herëgeate signifies Furniture for War given by the Vassal to his Lord probably at first designed for the driving away Thieves and Robbers which abounded when the Danish or Northern Nations so frequently invaded the Land For though the word Here does in the Saxon Language signify an Army yet it is in our Saxon Authors when without composition generally taken in the worst sense for Invaders and Spoilers A Lawful Army collected by the King for the defence of the Nation being called by the name of Fyrd The seventy first requires Widows to continue in Widowhood for the space of Twelve Months and then permits them to marry If a Woman marry before her Twelve Months be out she shall lose her Dower with all that her Husband left her which is to come in such case to the next of kin and he that marries her shall pay the value of his Head to the King or to whomsoever he assigns it The seventy fifth Law deprives him of Life and Estate who either in an Expedition by Land or Sea deserts his Lord or his Fellow-Soldier and in such case the Lord is to have back the Land he gave him or if it was Bocland it goes to the King But in case any one dye in Fight in the presence of his Lord either at home or abroad his Herriot shall be remitted and his Children shall succeed both to his Goods and Lands and equally divide them The seventy sixth gives him liberty that hath defended his Land and cleared it from all doubts and incumbrances in the Sciregemote or County-Court to possess it quietly whilst he lives and to leave it to whom he pleases when he dies From whence we may observe that before the Conquest men might bequeath their Lands by their Last Will. The seventy seventh gives liberty to every man to hunt in his own Grounds but forbids all men under a Penalty to meddle with the King's Game especially in those places which he had fenced by Privilege By those places thus privileged he means those which afterwards the Normans called Forests being Ground Desart and Woody lying open to the King 's Deer not fenced about with any Hedge or Wall but circumscribed and privileged or as here he words it fenced with certain Bounds Laws and Immunities under Magistrates Judges Officers c. Concerning these Forests the King published certain Constitutions Thirty four in number which you may see at large in Sir Hen. Spelman's Glossary tit Foresta But because he mentions them not in this nor any other of his Laws they seem to have been made afterwards But the Thirtieth Article is therein almost the very same with this Law forbidding all men to meddle with his Game and yet permitting them to hunt in their own Grounds sine Chasea but what that signifies unless it be following their Game out of their own Grounds I will not take upon me to determine King HAROLD sirnamed Harefoot NOT long after the Death of King Cnate our Annals relate That there was a great Witena Gemot or Council of the Wise Men held at Oxnaford where Earl Leofric and almost all the Thanes on the East part of Thames with the Seamen of London chose Harold for King of all England whilst his Brother Hardecnute was in Denmark But Earl Godwin and all the Great Men of the West-Saxons withstood it as much as they could though they were not able to prevail against them Then was it also decreed That Elgiva or Emma the Mother of Hardecnute should reside at Winchester with the Domesâ—ick Servants of the late King and should possess all West-Saxony where Earl Godwin was Governor or Lord Lieutenant It is said also by some concerning this King Harold that he was the Son of King Cnute and of Aelgiva the Daughter of Aelfhelm the Ealdorman but that seems scarce probable to many however he was full or Real King of all England That which gave cause to this suspicion was as Florence of Worcester and Radulph de Diceto relate That this Aelgiva not being able to have Children by King Cnute commanded the Son of a certain Shoomaker then newly born to be brought to her and feigning a formal Lying in to have imposed upon the credulous King her Husband that she was really brought to bed of a Son which if true shews that it is no new or strange thing for a Queen of England to impose a supposititious Birth upon the King her Husband and the whole Nation But this Contention about the Election of Harold gives us great reason to doubt the Truth of the Relation in Simeon of Durham and other Authors of this Harold's being appointed by his Father's Will to succeed in the Kingdom of England such a Nomination or Recommendation seldom or never failing to be observed by the States of the Kingdom without any dispute at the Election of a New King And besides Queen Aemma his Mother who had then the greatest power with King Cnute would sure much rather have had her own Son Hardecnute to have succeeded him in the Kingdom of England than Harold at best supposed to be her Husband's Son by another Woman So that if Harold was now chosen King it is most likely that it was not in pursuance of King Cnute's Will but purely from the prevailing Faction of the Danes and Londoners who as William of Malmesbury tells us were by their long conversation with them become wholly Danish in their Inclinations But if Ingulph may be believed who lived as well before as after the Conquest there was then so great a Dispute about the Election of a King that many fearing a Civil War would ensue it caused multitudes of people to quit their Habitations and betake themselves into Waterish and Fenny Places where they thought the Enemy could not or would no easily pursue them and particularly to the Monastery of Croyland where they caused such a disturbance that the Monks of that place could neither meet in the Church nor in the Refectory When at last to avoid the Effusion of Christian Blood it was agreed at the aforesaid Council at Oxnaford That the Kingdom should be divided between the two Brothers Harold and Hardecnute so that the former should have all the Countries
lying Northward from the Thames together with the City of London and Hardecnute enjoy all the Southern Provinces But Hardecnute having received his share of the Kingdom went into Denmark where making unnecessary delays Harold seized the whole Kingdom to himself Which is in part confirmed by an Ancient Manuscript Chronicle in the Cottonian Library which relates That Harold King of the Northumbrians and Mercians was elected King of all England and Hardecnute because he staid in Denmark was cast off To which may be added certain old Manuscript Annals now in the same Library part of which is supposed to be written by Henry of Huntington That Harold was elected by the Chief Men of the East-Angles i. e. the Danes of that Countrey together with the Londoners so that he usurped the Kingdom of his Brother Hardecnute being then in Denmark And Simeon of Durham relates That by the Consent of the Great Men of England Harold began to reign as true and just Heir but not so indisputably as King Cnute his Father had done because Hardecnute who was a truer Heir than he was then expected yet that in a short time the Kingdom became divided after the same manner as Ingulph hath related But it seems very unlikely that Hardecnute if he had been chosen King of any part of England would have left it and gone over into Denmark before he was well settled at home It is therefore more likely what Florence of Worcester asserts That Harold was at first elected King only of the Mercians and Northumbers Hardecnute being to enjoy all the rest but that not coming out of Denmark in due time Harold got himself chosen King of the whole Kingdom the year following But leaving this matter concerning Hardecnute's Succession which must be confessed is much in the dark the Author last mentioned does say That Harold after he had obtained the Royal Dignity sent his Guards speedily to Winchester and there tyrannically seized on the greater part of the Treasures of the King his Father which had been bequeathed by Cnute to the Queen his Mother-in-Law But I cannot omit taking notice of the most Cruel and Bloody Treatment of Prince Alfred Brother to King Edward and his Followers which because many of our Best and most Ancient Historians as well Printed as Manuscript refer to this year and that too not long after King Harold's coming to the Crown I shall here set down since it seems most likely to have happened now rather than at any other time For though our Authors differ much about it yet seeing most of the Ancient Manuscript Annals in the Cottonian Library as also that old Treatise called Encomium Emmae being a Panegyrick wrote on that Queen by a Monk of her own time agree in relating the Circumstances of this horrid Action I shall from thence transcribe this following Account of it viz. That King Harold seeking by Treachery how to get those two young Princes Sons to the late King Ethelred into his power forged a Letter in the Name of Queen Emma their Mother inviting them into England wherein personating her she seemed to chide them gently for their delay in not coming over to look after their own concerns seeing they could not but know that it procured the daily confirming of the Usurper in his power who omitted no arts or means whatsoever to gain the chief Nobility over to his Party yet also assures them that the English Nation had much rather have one of them to be their King and in conclusion desires they would come as speedily and as privately as they could to consult with her what course was best to be taken This Letter was sent to the Princes then in Normandy by an express Messenger with Presents also as from their Mother which they joyfully receiving returned word by the same hand That one of them would be with her shortly naming both the Time and Place Alfred who was the younger for so it was thought best at the appointed time with a few Ships and some small number of Normans about him appeared on the Coast and no sooner came ashore but fell into the Snare that Earl Godwin had laid for him being sent on purpose to betray him and being cajoll'd into a belief that he was sent for by the King then at London he was in the way met at Guilford by Earl Godwin who with all seeming Friendship at first kindly entertained him but in the night surprized the Prince and made him Prisoner with all his Company most of whom in all about Six hundred men were put to various kinds of cruel deaths and being twice decimated every Tenth man suffered without mercy The Prince was brought to London and by the King sent bound to Ely and had his eyes put out as soon as he landed there and being delivered to the Monks to be kept died soon after in their Custody but whether of the Pain or Grief or some other Indisposition is left uncertain Yet though this Author makes no mention of Prince Edward his Brother's coming over with him but rather asserting the contrary that he never came at all however several other Historians will have this Prince to have either come over then or some time before and that being with his Mother when his Brother was thus treated she immediately sent him back into Normandy which I must confess seems very improbable since Harold had it then in his power to destroy them both But though it is certain that this unfortunate Prince was made away yet since our Annals are wholly silent in it there is nothing about which our Historians so much vary as concerning the time when it was done William of Malmesbury and Bromton place it after the death of Harold and before the coming over of Hardecnute when they say that Prince Alfred arrived with some expectations of the Kingdom but the former plainly confesses that he related this story only upon common fame yet because the Chronicles i. e. the Saxon Annals are silent he will not affirm it for truth so it seems he had never seen the above-mention'd Encomium Emmae But that Prince Alfred was made away by the means of Earl Godwin we shall further make out when we come to the Reign of King Edward the Confessor And the reason that some of our Historians give for Godwin's cruel usage of Prince Alfred whilst he let his Brother escape is that Godwin was afraid of the High Spirit and Wit of this young Prince because he knew that if ever he came to be King he would never be governed by him nor marry his Daughter both which he hoped for from Edward in case he should be chosen King by his means as afterwards happen'd This whether true or not I will not determine yet it suits well enough with the Interest of that Politick Earl I shall say no more of this only we cannot but hence observe the great Uncertainty of Traditional Accounts though of no long standing