spend and be put to trauell But of all that euer I knew in Essex Denis and Mainford excelled till Iohn of Ludlow aliàs Mason came in place vnto whome in comparison they two were but children for this last in lesse than thrée or foure yeares did bring one man among manie else-where in other places almost to extreame miserie if beggerie be the vttermost that before he had the shauing of his beard was valued at two hundred pounds I speake with the least and finallie feeling that he had not sufficient wherwith to susteine himselfe and his familie and also to satisfie that greedie rauenour which still called vpon him for new fées he went to bed and within foure daies made an end of his wofull life euen with care and pensiuenesse After his death also he so handled his sonne that there was neuer shéepe shorne in Maie so néere clipped of his fléece present as he was of manie to come so that he was compelled to let awaie his land bicause his cattell stocke were consumed and he no longer able to occupie the ground But hereof let this suffice in stéed of these enormities a table shall follow of the termes conteining their beginnings and endings as I haue borrowed them from my fréend Iohn Stow whose studie is the onelie store house of antiquities in my time and he worthie therefore to be had in reputation and honour A man would imagine that the time of the execution of our lawes being little aboue one quarter or not fullie a third part of the yeare and the appointment of the same to be holden in one place onelie to wit neere London in Westminster and finallie the great expenses emploied vpon the same should be no small cause of the staie and hinderance of the administration of iustice in this land but as it falleth out they prooue great occasions and the staie of much contention The reasons of these are soone to be conceiued for as the broken sleeue dooth hold the elbow backe and paine of trauell cause manie to sit at home in quiet so the shortnesse of time and feare of delaie dooth driue those oftentimes to like of peace who otherwise would liue at strife and quickelie be at ods Some men desirous of gaines would haue the termes yet made shorter that more delaie might ingender longer sute other would haue the houses made larger and more offices erected wherein to minister the lawes But as the times of the tearmes are rather too short than too long by one returne a péece so if there were smaller roomes and fowler waies vnto them they would inforce manie to make pawses before they did rashlie enter into plée But sith my purpose is not to make an ample discourse of these things it shall suffice to deliuer the times of the holding of our termes which insueth after this manner A perfect rule to know the beginning and ending of euerie terme with their returnes HIlarie terme beginneth the three and twentieth daie of Ianuarie if it be not sundaie otherwise the next daie after and is finished the twelfe of Februarie it hath foure returnes Octabis Hilarij Quind Hilarij Crastino Purific Octabis Purific ¶ Easter terme beginneth seuentéene daies after Easter endeth foure daies after the Ascension daie and hath fiue returnes Quind Pasch. Tres Paschae Mense Paschae Quinque Paschae Crast. Ascention ¶ Trinitie terme beginneth the fridaie after Trinitie sundaie and endeth the wednesdaie fortnight after in which time it hath foure returnes Crast. Trinitatis Octabis Trinitatis Quind Trinitatis Tres Trinitatis ¶ Michaelmasse terme beginneth the ninth of October if it be not sundaie and ending the eight and twentith of Nouember it hath eight returnes Octabis Michael Quind Michael Tres Michael Mense Michael Crast. anima Crast. Martini Octa. Martini Quind Martini Note also that the escheker which is Fiscus or aerarum publicum principis openeth eight daies before anie terme begin except Trinitie terme which openeth but foure daies before And thus much for our vsuall termes as they are kept for the administration of our common lawes wherevnto I thinke good to adde the lawdaies accustomablie holden in the arches and audience of Canturburie with other ecclesiasticall and ciuill courts thorough the whole yeare or for somuch time as their execution indureth which in comparison is scarselie one halfe of the time if it be diligentlie examined to the end each one at home being called vp to answer may trulie know the time of his appearance being sorie in the meane season that the vse of the popish calendar is so much reteined in the same and not rather the vsuall daies of the moneth placed in their roomes sith most of them are fixed and palter not their place of standing Howbeit some of our infected lawiers will not let them go awaie so easilie pretending facilitie and custome of vsage but meaning peraduenture inwardlie to kéepe a commemoration of those dead men whose names are there remembred Michaelmas terme S. Faith S. Edward S. Luke Simon Iu. All Soules S. Martin Edmund Katharine S. Andrew Conception of the virgin Marie ¶ It is to be remembred that the first daie following euerie of these feasts noted in each terme the court of the arches is kept in Bow church in the forenoone And the same first daie in the afternoone is the admeraltie court for ciuill and seafaring causes kept in Southwarke where iustice is ministred execution doone continuallie according to the same The second daie following euerie one of the said feasts the court of audience of Canturburie is kept in the consistorie in Paules in the forenoone And the selfe daie in the afternoone in the same place is the prerogatiue court of Canturburie holden The third day after anie such feast in the forenoone the consistorie court of the bishop of London is kept in Paules church in the said consistorie and the same third daie in the afternoone is the court of the delegates and the court of the Quéenes highnesse commissioners vpon appeales is likewise kept in the same place on the fourth daie Hilarie terme S. Hilarie S. Wolstan Conuersion of S. Paule S. Blase S. Scolastic S. Valentine Ashwednes S. Matthie S. Chad. Pepet Fel. S. Gregorie Annūciation of our Ladie Note that the foure first daies of this terme be certeine and vnchanged The other are altered after the course of the yeare and sometime kept and sometime omitted For if it so happen that one of those feasts fall on wednesdaie commonlie called Ashwednesdaie after the daie of S. Blase so that the same lawdaie after Ashwednesdaie cannot be kept bicause the lawdaie of the other feast dooth light on the same then the second lawdaie after Ashwednesdaie shall be kept and the other omitted And if the lawdaie after Ashwednesdaie be the next daie after the feast of S. Blase then shall all and euerie court daies be obserued in order as they may be kept conuenientlie And marke that although Ashwednesdaie be
put the seuenth in order yet it hath no certeine place but is changed as the course of Easter causeth it Easter terme The fiftéenth daie after Easter S. Alphege S. Marke Inuention of the crosse Gordian S. Dunstan Ascension daie ¶ In this terme the first sitting is alwaie kept the mondaie being the fiftéenth daie after Easter and so foorth after the feasts here noted which next follow by course of the yeare after Easter and the like space being kept betwéene other feasts The rest of the lawdaies are kept to the third of the Ascension which is the last day of this terme And if it happen that the feast of the Ascension of our Lord doo come before anie of the feasts aforesaid then they are omitted for that yeare And likewise iâ— anie of those daies come before the fiftéenth of Easter those daies are omitted also Trinitie terme Trinitie sundaie Corpus Christi Boniface bish S. Barnabie S. Butolph S. Iohn S. Paule Translat Thomas S. Swithune S. Margaret S. Anne Here note also that the lawdaies of this terme are altered by meane of Whitsuntide and the first sitting is kept alwaies on the first lawdaie after the feast of the holie Trinitie and the second session is kept the first lawdaie after the idolatrous and papisticall feast daie called Corpus Christi except Corpus Christi daie fall on some day aforenamed which chanceth sometime and then the fitter daie is kept And after the second session account foure daies or thereabout and then looke which is the next feast day and the first lawdaie after the said feast shall be the third session The other law daies follow in order but so manie of them are kept as for the time of the yeare shall be thought méet It is also generallie to be obserued that euerie daie is called a lawdaie that is not sundaie or holie daie and that if the feast daie being knowne of anie court daie in anie terme the first or second daie following be sundaie then the court daie is kept the daie after the said holie daie or feast Of prouision made for the poore Chap. 10. THere is no common-wealth at this daie in Europe wherin there is not great store of poore people and those necessarilie to be relieued by the welthier sort which otherwise would starue and come to vtter confusion With vs the poore is commonlie diuided into thrée sorts so that some are poore by impotencie as the fatherlesse child the aged blind and lame and the diseased person that is iudged to be incurable the second are poore by casualtie as the wounded souldier the decaied householder and the sicke person visited with grieuous and painefull diseases the third consisteth of thriftlesse poore as the riotour that hath consumed all the vagabund that will abide no where but runneth vp and downe from place to place as it were séeking worke and finding none and finallie the roge and strumpet which are not possible to de diuided in sunder but runne too and fro ouer all the realme chéefelie kéeping the champaine soiles in summer to auoid the scorching heat and the woodland grounds in winter to eschew the blustering winds For the first two sorts that is to saie the poore by impotencie and the poore by casualtie which are the true poore in deed and for whome the word dooth bind vs to make some dailie prouision there is order taken through out ouerie parish in the realme that weekelie collection shall be made for their helpe and sustentation to the end they should not scatter abroad and by begging here and there annâ—ie both towne and countrie Authoritie also is giuen vnto the suffices in euerie countie and great penalties appointed for such as make default to that the intent of the statute in this behalfe be trulie executed according to the purpose and meaning of the same so that these two sorts and sufficientlie prouided for and such as can liue within the limits of their allowance as each one will doo that is godlie and well disposed may well forbeare to rome and renge about But if they refuse to be supported by this benefit of the law and will rather indeuour by going to and fro to mainteine their idle trades then are they adiudged to be parcell of the third sort and so in stéed of courteous refreshing at home are often corrected with sharpe execution and whip of iustice abroad Manie there are which notwithstanding the rigor of the lawes prouided in that behalfe yeeld rather with this libertie as they call it to be dailie vnder the feare and terrour of the whip than by abiding where they were borne or bred to be prouided for by the deuotion of the parishes I found not long since a riote of these latter sort the effect whereof insueth Idle beggers are such either through other mens occasion or through their owne default By other mens occasion as one waie for example when some couetous man such I meane as haue the cast or right veine dailie to make beggers inough wherby to pester the land espieng a further commoditie in their commons holds and 〈◊〉 dooth find such meanes as thereby to wipe manie out of their occupiengs and turne the same vnto his priuate gaines Herevpon it followeth that although the wise and better minded doo either forsake the realme for altogether and seeke to liue in other countries as France Germanie Barbarie India Moscouia and verie Calecute complaining of no 〈◊〉 to be left for them at home doo so behaue themselues that they are worthilie to be accompted among the second sort yet the greater part commonlie hauing nothing to staie vpon are wilfull and there vpon doo either prooue idle beggers or else continue starke théeues till the gallowes doo eat them vp which is a lamentable case Certes in some mans iudgements these things are but trifles and not worthie the regarding Some also doo grudge at the great increase of people in these daies thinking a necessarie brood of cattell farre better than a superbluous augmentation of mankind But I can liken such men best of all vnto the pope and the diuell who practise the hinderance of the furniture of the number of the elect to their vttermost to the end the authoritie of the one vpon earth the deferring of the locking vp of the other in euerlasting chaines and the great gaines of the first may continue and indure the longer But if it should come to passe that any forren inuasion should be made which the Lord God forbid for his mercies sake then should these men find that a wall of men is farre better than stackes of corne and bags of monie and complaine of the want when it is too late to séeke remedie The like occasion caused the Romans to deuise their law Agraria but the rich not liking of it and the couetous vtterlie condemning it as rigorous and vnprofitable neuer ceased to practise disturbance till it was quite abolished But to proceed with my
driuen after the Sarons had made a full conquest of the other which we now call England although the pristinate integritie thereof be not a little diminished by mixture of the Latine and Saxon speaches withall Howbeit manie poesies and writings in making whereof that nation hath euermore delited are yet extant in my time wherby some difference betwéene the ancient and present language may easilie be discerned notwithstanding that among all these there is nothing to be found which can set downe anie sound and full testimonie of their owne originall in remembrance whereof their Bards and cunning men haue béene most slacke and negligent Giraldus in praising the Britons affirmeth that there is not one word in all their language that is not either Gréeke or Latine Which being rightly vnderstanded and conferred with the likenesse that was in old time betwéene the Celts the British toongs will not a little helpe those that thinke the old Celtish to haue some fauour of the Gréeke But how soeuer that matter standeth after the British speach came once ouer into this Iland sure it is that it could neuer be extinguished for all the attempts that the Romans Saxons Normans and Englishmen could make against that nation in anie maner of wise Petigrées and genealogies also the Welsh Britons haue plentie in their owne toong insomuch that manie of them can readilie deriue the same either from Brute or some of his band euen vnto Aeneas and other of the Troians and so foorth vnto Noah without anie maner of stop But as I know not what credit is to be giuen vnto them in this behalfe although I must néeds confesse that their ancient Bards were verie diligent in there collection and had also publike allowance or salarie for the same so I dare not absolutelie impugne their assertions sith that in times past all nations learning it no doubt of the Hebrues did verie solemnelie preserue the catalogs of their descents thereby either to shew themselues of ancient and noble race or else to be descended from some one of the gods But Stemmata quid faciunt quid prodest Pontice longo Sanguine censeri aut quid auorum ducere turmas c. Next vnto the British speach the Latine toong was brought in by the Romans and in maner generallie planted through the whole region as the French was after by the Normans Of this toong I will not say much bicause there are few which be not skilfull in the same Howbeit as the speach it selfe is easie and dâ—lectable so hath it peruerted the names of the ancient riuers regions cities of Britaine in such wise that in these our daies their old British denominations are quite growne out of memorie and yet those of the new Latine left as most vncertaine This remaineth also vnto my time borowed from the Romans that all our déeds euidences charters writings of record are set downe in the Latine toong though now verie barbarous and therevnto the copies and court-rolles and processes of courts and leets registred in the same The third language apparantlie knowne is the Scithian or high Dutch induced at the first by the Saxons which the Britons call Saysonaec as they doo the speakers Sayson an hard and rough kind of speach God wot when our nation was brought first into acquaintance withall but now changed with vs into a farre more fine and easie kind of vtterance and so polished and helped with new and milder words that it is to be aduouched how there is no one speach vnder the sunne spoken in our time that hath or can haue more varietie of words copie of phrases or figures and floures of eloquence than hath our English toong although some haue affirmed vs rather to barke as dogs than talke like men bicause the most of our words as they doo indéed incline vnto one syllable This also is to be noted as a testimonie remaining still of our language deriued from the Saxons that the generall name for the most part of euerie skilfull artificer in his trade endeth in Here with vs albeit the H be left out and er onlie inserted as Scriuenhere writehere shiphere c for scriuener writer and shipper c beside manie other relikes of that spéech neuer to be abolished After the Saxon toong came the Norman or French language ouer into our countrie and therein were our lawes written for a long time Our children also were by an especiall decrée taught first to speake the same and therevnto inforced to learne their constructions in the French whensoeuer they were set to the Grammar schoole In like sort few bishops abbats or other clergie men were admitted vnto anie ecclesiasticall function here among vs but such as came out of religious houses from beyond the seas to the end they should not vse the English toong in their sermons to the people In the court also it grew into such contempt that most men thought it no small dishonor to speake any English there Which brauerie tooke his hold at the last likewise in the countrie with euerie plowman that euen the verie carters began to wax wearie of there mother toong laboured to speake French which as then was counted no small token of gentilitie And no maruell for euerie French rascall when he came once hither was taken for a gentleman onelie bicause he was proud and could vse his owne language and all this I say to exile the English and British speaches quite out of the countrie But in vaine for in the time of king Edward the first to wit toward the latter end of his reigne the French it selfe ceased to be spoken generallie but most of all and by law in the midst of Edward the third and then began the English to recouer and grow in more estimation than before notwithstanding that among our artificers the most part of their implements tooles and words of art reteine still their French denominations euen to these our daies as the language it selfe is vsed likewise in sundrie courts bookes of record and matters of law whereof here is no place to make any particular rehearsall Afterward also by diligent trauell of Geffray Chaucer and Iohn Gowre in the time of Richard the second and after them of Iohn Scogan and Iohn Lydgate monke of Berrie our said toong was brought to an excellent passe notwithstanding that it neuer came vnto the type of perfection vntill the time of Quéene Elizabeth wherein Iohn Iewell B. of Sarum Iohn Fox and sundrie learned excellent writers haue fullie accomplished the ornature of the same to their great praise and immortall commendation although not a few other doo greatlie séeke to staine the same by fond affectation of forren and strange words presuming that to be the best English which is most corrupted with externall termes of eloquence and sound of manie syllables But as this excellencie of the English toong is found in one and the south part of this Iland so
Going by Portland and the point thereof called the Rase we sailed along by the Shingle till we came by saint Katharins chappell where we saw the fall of a water that came downe from Blackdéene Beaconward by Portsham and Abbatsburie Thence we went to another that fell into the sea neere Birton and descended from Litton by Chilcombe then vnto the Bride or Brute port a pretie hauen and the riuer it selfe serued with sundrie waters It riseth halfe a mile or more aboue Bemister and so goeth from Bemister to Netherburie by Parneham then to Melplash and so to Briteport where it taketh in two waters from by east in one chanell of which one riseth east of Nettlecourt and goeth by Porestoke and Milton the other at Askerwell and runneth by Longlether From hence also our Bride going toward the sea taketh the Simen on the west that commeth by Simensburge into the same the whole streame soone after falling into the sea and leauing a pretie haue not The next port is the Chare serued with two rits in one confluence beneath Charemouth The cheefe head of this riuer is as Leland saith in Marshwood parke and commeth downe by Whitechurch the other runneth by west of Wootton and méeting beneath Charemouth towne as I said dooth fall into the sea Then came we to the Cobbe and beheld the Lime water which the townesmen call the Buddle which commeth about thrée miles by north of Lime from the hils fleting vpon Rockie soile and so falleth into the sea Certes there is no hauen héere that I could sée but a quarter of a mile by west southwest of the towne is a great and costlie iuttie in the sea for succour of ships The towne is distant from Coliton about fiue miles And heere we ended our voiage from the Auon which conteineth the whole coast of Dorcester or Dorcetshire so that next we must enter into Summerset countie and see what waters are there The first water that we méet withall in Summersetshire is the Axe which riseth in a place called Are knoll longing to sir Giles Strangwaie néere vnto Cheddington in Dorsetshire from whence it runneth to Mosterne Feborow Claxton Weiford bridge Winsham foord and receiuing one rill from the east by Hawkechurch and soone after another comming from northwest by Churchstoke from Wainbroke it goeth to Axeminster beneath which it crosseth the Yare that commeth from about Buckland by Whitstaunton Yarecombe Long bridge Stockeland Kilmington bridge where it receiueth a brooke from by south that runneth by Dalwood and so into the Axe From hence our Axe goeth to Drake Musburie Culliford but yer it come altogither at Culliford it méeteth with a water that riseth aboue Cotleie and goeth from thence by Widworthie Culliton and there receiuing a rill also procéedeth on after the confluence aboue Culliford bridge into the Axe and from thence hold on togither into the maine sea whereinto they fall vnder the roots of the winter cliffes the points of them being almost a mile in sunder The most westerlie of them called Berewood lieth within halfe a mile of Seton But the other toward the east is named White-cliffe of which I saie no more but that in the time of Athelstane the greatest nauie that euer aduentured into this Iland arriued at Seton in Deuonshire being replenished with aliens that sought the conquest of this Iland but Athelstane met and incountered with them in the field where he ouerthrew six thousand of his aforesaid enimies Not one of them also that remained aliue escaped from the battell without some deadlie or verie gréeuous wound In this conflict moreouer were slaine fiue kings which were interred in the churchyard of Axe minster and of the part of the king of England were killed eight earles of the chéefe of his nobilitie and they also buried in the churchyard aforesaid Héervnto it addeth how the bishop of Shireburne was in like sort slaine in this battell that began at Brunedune neere to Coliton and indured euen to Axe minster which then was called Brunberie or Brunburg The same daie that this thing happened the sunne lost his light and so continued without anie brightnesse vntill the setting of that planet though otherwise the season was cléere and nothing cloudie As for the hauen which in times past as I haue heard hath béene at Sidmouth so called of Sidde a rillet that runneth thereto and likewise at Seton I passe it ouer sith now there is none at all Yet hath there béene sometime a notable one albeit that at this present betweene the two points of the old hauen there lieth a mightie bar of pibble stones in the verie mouth of it and the riuer Axe is driuen to the verie east point of the hauen called White cliffe Thereat also a verie little gull goeth into the sea whither small fisherbotes doo oft resort for succour The men of Seton began of late to stake and make a maine wall within the hauen to haue changed the course of the Axe and almost in the middle of the old hauen to haue trenched through the Chesill thereby to haue let out the Axe to haue taken in the maine sea but I heare of none effect that this attempt did come vnto From Seton westward lieth Coliton about two miles by west northwest whereof riseth the riuer Colie which going by the aforesaid towne passeth by Colecombe parke and afterward falleth betweene Axe bridge and Axe mouth towne into the Axe riuer By west of Bereworth point lieth a créeke serued so farre as I remember with a fresh water that commeth from the hilles south of Soutleie or Branscombe Sidmouth hauen is the next and thither commeth a fresh water by S. Maries from the said hils that goeth from S. Maries aforesaid to Sidburie betweene Saltcombe Sidmouth into the maine sea By west of Auterton point also lieth another hauen and thither commeth a pretie riueret whose head is in the Hackpendon hilles and commeth downe first by Upauter then by a parke side to Mohuns Auter Munketon Honniton Buckewell and north of Autrie receiueth a rill called Tale that riseth northwest of Brodemburie in a wood and from whence it commeth by Pehemburie Uinniton and making a confluence with the other they go as one betwéene Cadde and Autrie to Herford Luton Collaton Auterton Budeleie and so into the sea On the west side of this hauen is Budeleie almost directly against Otterton It is easie to be seene also that within lesse space than one hundred yeers ships did vse this hauen but now it is barred vp Some call it Budeleie hauen of Budeleie towne others Salterne port of a little créeke comming out of the maine hauen vnto Salterne village that hath in time past béene a towne of great estimation The Exe riseth in Exemore in Summersetshire néere vnto Exe crosse and goeth from thence vnto Exeford Winsford and Extun where it receiueth a water comming from Cutcombe
the water there beginneth to be called Hulne as I haue said alreadie From hence also it goeth through Beuerleie medowes and comming at the last not farre from an arme led from the Hulne by mans hand and able to beare great vessels almost to Beuerleie towne which in old time either hight or stood in Deirwald vntill Iohn of Beuerleie whom Leland nameth out of an old author to be the first doctor or teacher of diuinitie that euer was in Oxford and as it should séeme also by an ancient monument yet remaining to be of an hostell where the vniuersitie college now standeth therefore they write him Somtime fellow of that house began to be of fame of whom it is called Beuerleie as some affirme to this daie In déed all the countrie betwéene the Deirwent the Humber was sometime called Deira and the lower part Caua Deira in respect of the higher soile but now it is named the east Riding But what is this to my purpose The Hulne therefore being come almost to Beuerleie towne méeting thereabout also with the Cottingham becke comming from Westwood by the waie it hasteth to Kingston vpon Hulne or Hull and so into the Humber without anie maner impeachment The Fowlneie riseth about Godmanham from whence it goeth by Wighton Hareswell Seton Williams bridge and soone after spreading it selfe one arme called Skelfleet goeth by Cane Cawseie to Brownefléet and so into the Ouze The other passeth by Sandholme Gilberts dike Scalbie chappell Blacketoff and so into the aforesaid Ouze leauing a verie pretie Iland which is a parcell as I heare of Walding fen more though otherwise obscure to vs that dwell here in the south The Darwent riseth in the hilles that lie west of Robin Whoodes baie or two miles aboue Aiton bridge west from Scarborow as Leland saith and yer it hath run farre from the head it receiueth two rilles in one bottome from by west which ioine withall about Longdale end Thence they go togither to Broxeie and at Hacknesse take in another water comming from about Silseie Afterward it commeth to Aiton then to Haibridge and there crosseth the Kenford that descendeth from Roberteston After this also it goeth on to Potersbrumton where it taketh in one rill as it dooth another beneath running from Shirburne and the third yet lower on the further banke that descendeth from Brumton From these confluences it runneth to Fowlbridge Axbridge Yeldingham bridge so to Cotehouse receiuing by the waie manie waters yéelding great plentie of delicate samons to such as fish vpon the same Leland reckoning vp the names of the seuerall brookes numbreth them confusedlie after his accustomed order The Darwent saith he receiueth diuerse streames as the Shirihutton The second is the Crambecke descending from Hunderskell castell so called Tanquam à centum fontibus or multitude of springs that rise about the same and goeth the Rie which comming out of the Blackemoore passeth by Riuers abbeie taking in the Ricoll on the left hand then the Seuen the Costeie and Pickering brooke The Seuin also saith he riseth in the side of Blacke-moore and thence goeth by Sinnington foure miles from Pickering and about a mile aboue a certeine bridge ouer Rie goeth into the streame The Costeie in like sort springeth in the verie edge of Pickering towne at a place called Keld head and goeth into the Rie two miles beneath Pickering about Kirbie minster Finallie Pickering water ariseth in Blackemoore and halfe a mile beneath Pickering falleth into Costeie meeting by the way with the Pocklington becke and an other small rill or two of whose names I haue no knowledge Hitherto Leland But in mine opinion it had béene far better to haue described them thus Of those waters that fall into the Darwent beneath Cotehouse the first commeth from Swenton the second from Ebberston the third from Ollerston the fourth from Thorneton Pickering and the fift on the other side that commeth thither from Wintringham For so should he haue dealt in better order and rid his hands of them with more expedition referring the rest also vnto their proper places But to procéed after mine owne maner Being past Cotehouse yer the Darwent come at Wickham it crosseth the Rie which riseth of two heads and ioining west of Locton they run through Glansbie parke Finallie receiuing the Costeie it méeteth at the last with an other streame increased by the fals of six waters and more yer it come into the Darwent The most easterlie of these is called Seuen and riseth as is aforesaid in Blackemoore from whence it goeth by Sinnington Murton Normanbie Newsound How and so into the Rie The second named Dou hath his originall likewise in Blackemoore and descending by Rasmore Keldon and Edston where it receiueth the Hodgebecke that commeth by Bernesdale Kirkedale Welburne it goeth to Sawlton and there taketh in first the Ricoll that goeth by Careton and whereof Ridall as some thinke but falslie doth séeme to take the name Then Fesse which riseth aboue Bilisdale chappell and méeteth with the Rie at the Shaking bridge from whence they go togither vnder the Rie bridge to Riuis abbeie and thence after it hath crossed a becke from the west through a parke of the earle of Rutlands to Newton Muniton and so to Sawton or Sawlton as I doo find it written Here also it taketh in the Holbecke brooke that commeth thithex from by west by Gilling castell and Stangraue from whence it goeth on to Brabie next into the Seuen then into the Rie and so into the Darwent which from thence dooth run to Wickham Being past Wickham it méeteth with a water that commeth thereinto from Grinston to Setterington at southeast and thence it goeth on the Malton and Malton where the prouerbe saith that a bushell of rie and an other of malt is woorth but six pence carie awaie whilest you may so as you can kéepe them from running through the sarkes Sutton Wellam Furbie and Kirkeham receiuing by the waie one rill on the one side and an other on the other whereof this commeth from Burdfall that other from Conisthorpe From Kirkeham it goeth to Cramburne and Owsham bridge crossing by the waie an other brooke comming from saint Edwards gore by Faston then to Aldbie Buttercram aliàs Butterham bridge Stamford bridge Kexbie bridge Sutton Ellerton Aughton Bubwith Wresill Babthorpe and so into the Ouze wherewith I finish the description of Darwent sauing that I haue to let you vnderstand how Leland heard that an arme ran some time from the head of Darwent also to Scarborow till such time as two hils betwixt which it ran did shalder and so choke vp his course The Fosse a slow streame yet able to beare a good vessell riseth in Nemore Calaterio that is Galters wood or Cawood among the wooddie hilles and in his
neither regarding either maners or obedience doo oftentimes come to confusion which if anie correction or discipline had béene vsed toward them in youth might haue prooued good members of their common-wealth countrie by their good seruice and industrie I could make report likewise of the naturall vices and vertues of all those that are borne within this Iland but as the full tractation herof craueth a better head than mine to set foorth the same so will I giue place to other men that list to take it in hand Thus much therefore of the constitutions of our bodies and so much may suffice How Britaine at the first grew to be diuided into three portions Cap. 21. AFter the comming of Brutus into this Iland which was as you haue read in the foresaid treatise about the yeare of the world 2850 or 1217 before the incarnation of Christ although Goropius after his maner doo vtterlie denie our historie in this behalfe he made a generall surueis of the whole Iland from side to side by such means to view and search out not onelie the limits and bounds of his dominions but also what commodities this new atchiued conquest might yéeld vnto his people Ferthermore finding out at the last also a conuenable place wherin to erect a citie he began there euen the verie same which at this daie is called London naming it Trenouanton in remembrance of old Troie from whence his ancestors proceeded and for which the Romans pronounced afterward Trinobantum although the Welshmen doo call it still Trenewith This citie was builded as some write much about the tenth yeare of his reigne so that he liued not aboue fiftéene yeares after he had finished the same But of the rest of his other acts attempted and doone before or after the erection of this citie I find no certeine report more than that when he had reigned in this Iland after his arriuall by the space of foure and twentie yeares he finished his daies at Trenouanton aforesaid being in his yoong and florishing age where his carcase was honourablie interred As for the maner of his death I find as yet no mention thereof among such writers as are extant I meane whether it grew vnto him by defect of nature or force of gréeuous wounds receiued in his warres against such as withstood him from time to time in this Iland and therefore I can saie nothing of that matter Herein onelie all agree that during the time of his languishing paines he made a disposition of his whole kingdome diuiding it into three parts or portions according to the number of his sonnes then liuing whereof the eldest excéeded not eight and twentie yeares of age as my coniecturs giueth me To the eldest therefore whose name was Locrine he gaue the greatest and best region of all the rest which of him to this daie is called Lhoegres among the Britons but in our language England of such English Saxons as made conquest of the same This portion also is included on the south with the British sea on the est with the Germane Ocean on the north with the Humber and on the west with the Irish sea and the riuers Dee and Sauerne whereof in the generall description of this Iland I haue spoken more at large To Camber his second sonne he assigned all that lieth beyond the Sauerne and Dee toward the west which parcell in these daies conteineth Southwales and Northwales with sundrie Ilands adiacent to the same the whole being in maner cut off and separated from England or Lhoegria by the said streams wherby it séemeth also a peninsula or by-land if you respect the small hillie portion of ground that lieth indifferentlie betweene their maine courses or such branches at the least as run and fall into them The Welshmen or Britons call it by the ancient name still vnto this day but we Englishmen terme it Wales which denomination we haue from the Saxons who in time past did vse the word Walsh in such sort as we doo Strange for as we call all those strangers that are not of our nation so did they name them Walsh which were not of their countrie The third and last part of the Iland he allotted vnto Albanact his yoongest sonne for he had but three ill all as I haue said before whose portion séemed for circuit to be more large than that of Camber and in maner equall in greatnesse with the dominions of Locrinus But if you haue regard to the seuerall commodities that are to be reaped by each you shall find them to be not much discrepant or differing one from another for what soeuer the first second haue in plentie of corne fine grasse and large cattell this latter wanteth not in excéeding store of fish rich mettall quarries of stone and abundance of wild foule so that in mine opinion there could not be a more equall partition then this made by Brute and after the aforesaid maner This later parcell at the first tooke the name of Albanactus who called it Albania But now a small portion onelie of the region being vnder the regiment of a duke reteineth the said denomination the rest being called Scotland of certeine Scots that came ouer from Ireland to inhabit in those quarters It is diuided from Lhoegres also by the Solue and the Firth yet some doo note the Humber so that Albania as Brute left it conteined all the north part of the Iland that is to be found beyond the aforesaid streame vnto the point of Cathnesse To conclude Brute hauing diuided his kingdome after this maner and therein contenting himselfe as it were with the generall title of the whole it was not long after yer he ended his life and being solemnelie interred at his new citie by his thrée children they parted each from other and tooke possession of their prouinces But Scotland after two yeares fell againe into the hands of Locrinus as to the chiefe lord by the death of his brother Albanact who was slaine by Humber king of the Scithians and left none issue behind him to succéed him in that kingdome After what maner the souereigntie of this I le dooth remaine to the princes of Lhoegres or kings of England Chap. 22. IT is possible that some of the Scotish nation reading the former chapter will take offense with me for meaning that the principalitie of the north parts of this I le hath alwais belonged to the kings of Lhoegres For whose more ample satisfaction in this behalfe I will here set downe a discourse thereof at large written by diuerse and now finallie brought into one treatise sufficient as I thinke to satisfie the reasonable although not halfe enough peraduenture to content a wrangling mind sith there is or at the leastwise hath beene nothing more odious among some than to heare that the king of England hath ought to doo in Scotland How their historiographers haue attempted to shape manie coloured
dominion Coell the sonne of this Marius had issue Lucius counted the first christian king of this nation he conuerted the three archflamines of this land into bishopriks and ordeined bishops vnto ech of them The first remained at London and his power extended from the furthest part of Cornewall to Humber water The second dwelled at Yorke and his power stretched from Humber to the furthest part of all Scotland The third aboded at Caerleon vpon the riuer of Wiske in Glamorgan in Wales his power extended from Seuerne through all Wales Some write that he made but two and turned their names to archbishops the one to remaine at Canturburie the other at Yorke yet they confesse that he of Yorke had iurisdiction through all Scotland either of which is sufficient to prooue Scotland to be then vnder his dominion Seuerus by birth a Romane but in bloud a Briton as some thinke and the lineall heire of the bodie of Androgeâ—s sonne of Lud nephue of Cassibelane was shortlie after emperour king of Britons in whose time the people to whom his ancester Marius gaue the land of Cathnesse in Scotland conspired with the Scots receiued them from the Iles into Scotland But herevpon this Seuerus came into Scotland and méeting with their faith and false harts togither droue them all out of the maine land into Iles the vttermost bounds of all great Britaine But notwithstanding this glorious victorie the Britons considering their seruitude to the Romans imposed by treason of Androgeus ancestor to this Seuerus began to hate him whome yet they had no time to loue and who in their defense and suertie had slaine of the Scots and their confederats in one battell thirtie thousand but such was the consideration of the common sort in those daies whose malice no time could diminish nor iust desert appease Antoninus Bassianus borne of a Briton woman and Geta borne by a Romane woman were the sonnes of this Seuerus who after the death of their father by the contrarie voices of their people contended for the crowne Few Britons held with Bassianus fewer Romans with Geta but the greater number with neither of both In the end Geta was slaine and Bassianus remained emperour against whom Carautius rebelled who gaue vnto the Scots Picts and Scithians the countrie of Cathnesse in Scotland which they afterward inhabited whereby his seison thereof appeareth Coill descended of the bloud of the ancient kings of this land was shortlie after king of the Britons whose onelie daughter and heire called Helen was married vnto Constantius a Romane who daunted the rebellion of all parts of great Britaine and after the death of this Coill was in the right of his wife king thereof and reigned in his state ouer them thirtéene or fouretéene yeares Constantine the sonne of this Constance and Helen was next king of Britons by the right of his mother who passing to Rome to receiue the empire thereof deputed one Octauius king of Wales and duke of the Gewisses which some expound to be afterward called west Saxons to haue the gouernment of this dominion But abusing the kings innocent goodnesse this Octauius defrauded this trust and tooke vpon him the crowne For which traitorie albeit he was once vanquished by Leonine Traheron great vncle to Constantine yet after the death of this Traheron he preuailed againe and vsurped ouer all Britaine Constantine being now emperor sent Marimius his kinsman hither in processe of time to destroie the same Octauius who in singular battell discomfited him Wherevpon this Maximius as well by the consent of great Constantine as by the election of all the Britons for that he was a Briton in bloud was made king or rather vicegerent of Britaine This Maximius made warre vpon the Scots and Scithians within Britaine and ceassed not vntill he had slaine Eugenius their king and expelled and driuen them out of the whole limits and bounds of Britaine Finallie he inhabited all Scotland with Britons no man woman nor child of the Scotish nation suffered to remaine within it which as their Hector Boetius saith was for their rebellion and rebellion properlie could it not be except they had béene subiects He suffered the Picts also to remaine his subiects who made solemne othes to him neuer after to erect anie peculiar king of their owne nation but to remaine vnder the old empire of the onelie king of Britaine I had once an epistle by Leland exemplified as he saith out of a verie ancient record which beareth title of Helena vnto hir sonne Constantine and entreth after this manner Domino semper Augusto filio Constantino mater Helena semper Augusta c. And now it repenteth me that I did not exemplifie and conueigh it into this treatise whilest I had his books For thereby I might haue had great light for the estate of this present discourse but as then I had no mind to haue trauelled in this matter neuerthelesse if hereafter it come againe to light I would wish it were reserued It followeth on also in this maner as it is translated out of the Gréeke Veritatem sapientis animus non recusat nec fides recta aliquando patitur quamcunque iacturam c. About fiue and fourtie yeares after this which was long time after the death of this Maximius with the helpe of Gouan or Gonan and Helga the Scots newlie arriued in Albania and there created one Fergus the second of that name to be there king But bicause they were before banished the continent land they crowned him king on their aduenture in Argile in the fatall chaire of marble the yéere of our Lord foure hundred and two and twentie as they themselues doo write Maximian sonne of Leonine Traheron brother to king Coill and vncle to Helene was by lineall succession next king of Britons but to appease the malice of Dionothus king of Wales who also claimed the kingdome he maried Othilia eldest daughter of Dionothus and afterwards assembled a great power of Britons and entered Albania inuading Gallowaie Mers Annandale Pentland Carrike Kill and Cuningham and in battell slue both this Fergus then king of Scots and Durstus the king of Picts and exiled all their people out of the continent land wherevpon the few number of Scots then remaining a liue went to Argile and there made Eugenius their king When this Maximian had thus obteined quietnesse in Britaine he departed with his cousine Conan Meridocke into Armorica where they subdued the king and depopulated the countrie which he gaue to Conan his cousine to be afterward inhabited by Britons by the name of Britaine the lesse and hereof this realme tooke name of Britaine the great which name by consent of forren writers it keepeth vnto this daie After the death of Maximian dissention being mooued betweene the nobles of Britaine the Scots swarmed togither againe and came to the wall of Adrian where this realme being diuided in manie factions they ouercame one
But as the number of churches increased so the repaire of the faithfull vnto the cathedrals did diminish whereby they now become especiallie in their nether parts rather markets and shops for march â—dize than solemn places of praier wherevnto they were first erected Moreouer in the said cathedrall churches vpon sundaies and festiuall daies the canons doo make certeine ordinarie sermons by course wherevnto great numbers of all estates doo orderlie resort and vpon the working daies thrise in the wéeke one of the said canons or some other in his stéed dooth read and expound some péece of holie seripture wherevnto the people doo verie reuerentlie repaire The bishops themselues in like sort are not idle in their callings for being now exempt from court and councell which is one and a no small péece of their felicitie although Richard archbishop of Canturburie thought otherwise as yet appeareth by his letters to pope Alexander Epistola44 Petri Blesensis where he saith Bicause the cleargie of his time were somewhat narrowlie looked vnto Supra dorsum ecclesiae fabricant peccatores c they so applie their minds to the setting foorth of the word that there are verie few of them which doo not euerie sundaie or offener resort to some place or other within their iurisdictions where they expound the scriptures with much grauitie and skill and yet not without the great mistaking and contempt of such as hate the word Of their manifold translations from one sée to another I will saie nothing which is not now doone for the benefit of the flocke as the preferment of the partie fauoured and aduantage vnto the prince a matter in time past much doubted of to wit whether a bishop or pastor might be translated from one sée to another left vndecided till prescription by roiall authoritie made it good For among princes a thing once doone is well doone and to be doone oftentimes though no warrant be to be found therefore They haue vnder them also their archdeacons some one diuerse two and manie foure or mo as their circuits are in quantitie which archdeacons are termed in law the bishops eies and these beside their ordinarie courts which are holden within so manie or more of their seuerall deanries by themselues or their officials once in a moneth at the least doo kéepe yearelie two visitations or synods as the bishop dooth in euerie third yeare wherein he confirmeth some children though most care but a litle for that ceremonie in which they make diligent inquisition and search as well for the doctrine and behauiour of the ministers as the orderlie dealing of the parishioners in resorting to their parish churches and conformitie vnto religion They punish also with great seueritie all such trespassers either in person or by the pursse where permutation of penance is thought more gréeuous to the offendor as are presented vnto them or if the cause be of the more weight as in cases of heresie pertinacie contempt and such like they referre them either to the bishop of the diocesse or his chancellor or else to sundrie graue persons set in authoritie by vertue of an high commission directed vnto them from the prince to that end who in verie courteous maner doo sée the offendors gently reformed or else seuerlie punished if necessitie so inforce Beside this in manie of our archdeaconries we haue an exercise latelie begun which for the most part is called a prophesie or conference and erected onelie for the examination or triall of the diligence of the cleargie in their studie of holie scriptures Howbeit such is the thirstie desire of the people in these daies to heare the word of God that they also haue as it were with zealous violence intruded themselues among them but as hearers onelie to come by more knowledge through their presence at the same Herein also for the most part two of the yoonger sort of ministers doo expound ech after other some péece of the scriptures ordinarilie appointed vnto them in their courses wherein they orderlie go through with some one of the euangelists or of the epistles as it pleaseth the whole assemblie to choose at the first in euerie of these conferences and when they haue spent an houre or a little more betwéene them then commeth one of the better learned sort who being a graduat for the most part or knowne to be a preacher sufficientlie authorised of a sound iudgement supplieth the roome of a moderator making first a breefe rehearsall of their discourses and then adding what him thinketh good of his owne knowledge wherby two houres are thus commonlie spent at this most profitable méeting When all is doone if the first speakers haue shewed anie peece of diligence they are commended for their trauell and incouraged to go forward If they haue béene found to be slacke or not sound in deliuerie of their doctrine their negligence and error is openlie reprooued before all their brethren who go aside of purpose from the laitie after the exercise ended to iudge of these matters and consult of the next speakers and quantitie of the text to be handled in that place The laitie neuer speake of course except some vaine and busie head will now and then intrude themselues with offense but are onelie hearers and as it is vsed in some places wéekelie in other once in foureteene daies in diuerse monethlie and elsewhere twise in a yeare so is it a notable spurre vnto all the ministers thereby to applie their bookes which otherwise as in times past would giue themselues to hawking hunting tables cards dice tipling at the alehouse shooting of matches and other like vanities nothing commendable in such as should be godlie and zealous stewards of the good gifts of God faithfull distributors of his word vnto the people and diligent pastors according to their calling But alas as sathan the author of all mischéefe hath in sundrie manners heretofore hindered the erection and maintenance of manie good things so in this he hath stirred vp aduersaries of late vnto this most profitable exercise who not regarding the commoditie that riseth thereby so well to the hearers as spekers but either stumbling I cannot tell how at words and termes or at the least wise not liking to here of the reprehension of vice or peraduenture taking a misliking at the slender demeanours of such negligent ministers as now and then in their courses doo occupie the roomes haue either by their owne practise their sinister information or suggestions made vpon surmises vnto other procured the suppression of these conferences condemning them as hurtfull pernicious and dailie bréeders of no small hurt inconuenience But hereof let God be iudge vnto whome the cause belongeth Our elders or ministers and deacons for subdeacons and the other inferiour orders sometime vsed in popish church we haue not are made according to a certeine forme of consecration concluded vpon in the time of king Edward the sixt by
alienation 1800 ducats at the least but in my time it paieth vnto hir maiesties cofers 768 pounds ten shillings ten pence halfe penie farthing In this sée there was a bishop sometime called Iohn Bruton vpon whome the king then reigning by likelihood for want of competent maintenance bestowed the keeping of his wardrobe which he held long time with great honour as his register saith A woonderfull preferment that bishops should be preferred from the pulpit to the custodie of wardrobes but such was the time Neuerthelesse his honorable custodie of that charge is more solemnlie remembred than anie good sermon that euer he made which function peraduenture he committed to his suffragane sith bishops in those daies had so much businesse in the court that they could not attend to doctrine and exhortation Lichefield wherevnto Couentrie was added in the time of Henrie the first at the earnest sute of Robert bishop of that see hath Staffordshire Darbishire part of Shropshire and the rest of Warwikeshire that is void of subiection to the sée of Worcestershire It was erected in the time of Peada king of the south Mercians which laie on this side the Trent and therein one Dinas was installed about the yeare of Grace 656 after whom Kellac first then Tunher an Englishman succéeded this later being well learned and consecrated by the Scots In the time of the bastard I wot not vpon what occasion one Peter bishop of this sée translated his chaire to Chester and there held it for a season whereby it came to passe that the bishops of Lichfield were for a while called bishops of Chester But Robert his successor not likeing of this president remooued his chaire from Chester to Couentrie and there held it whilest he liued whereby the originall diuision of the bishoprike of Lichfield into Lichefield Chester and Couentrie dooth easilie appeare although in my time Lichfield and Couentrie be vnited and Chester remaineth a bishoprike by it selfe It paid the pope at euerie alienation 1733 florens or as some old bookes haue 3000 a good round summe but not without a iust punishment as one saith sith that anno 765 Edulfe bishop there vnder Offa king of Mercia would by his helpe haue bereaued the archbishop of Canturburie of his pall so did in déed vnder pope Hadrian holding the same vntill things were reduced vnto their ancient forme Before the time also of bishop Langton the prebends of this see laie here and there abroad in the citie where the vicars also had an house of which this honest bishop misliked not a little for sundrie causes wherefore he began their close and bestowed so much in building the same and pauing the stréets that his hungrie kinsmen did not a little grudge at his expenses thinking that his emptie cofers would neuer make them gentlemen for which preferment the freends of most bishops gaped earnestlie in those daies King Iohn was the greatest benefactor vnto this sée next vnto Offa and it is called Lichfield Quasi mortuorum campus bicause of the great slaughter of christians made there as some write vnder Dioclesian Howbeit in my time the valuation thereof is 703 pounds fiue shillings two pence halfepenie farthing a summe verie narrowlie cast by that auditor which tooke it first in hand Oxford hath Oxfordshire onelie a verie yoong iurisdiction erected by king Henrie the eight where in the time of quéene Marie one Goldwell was bishop who as I remember was a Iesuit dwelling in Rome and more conuersant as the constant fame went in the blacke art than skilfull in the scriptures and yet he was of great countenance amongst the Romane monarchs It is said that obseruing the canons of his order he regarded not the temporalities of that sée but I haue heard since that he wist well inough what became of those commodities for by one meane and other he found the swéetnesse of 354 pounds sixtéene shillings thrée pence halfe penie yearelie growing to him which was euen inough if not too much for the maintenance of a frier toward the drawing out of circles characters lineaments of imagerie wherein he was passing skilfull as the fame then went in Rome and not vnheard of in Oxford Elie hath Cambridgshire and the I le of Elie. It was erected 1109 by Henrie the first being before a rich and wealthie abbeie One Heruie also was made bishop there as I haue found in a register belonging sometime to that house being translated from Bangor Finallie it paid to the pope at euerie alienation 7000 ducats as the registers there do testifie at large Albeit that in my time I find a note of 2134 pounds sixteene shillings thrée pence halfe penie farthing whose disme ioined to those of all the bishopriks in England doo yéeld yearelie to hir maiesties coffers 23370 pounds sixtéene shillings thrée pence halfe penie farthing whereby also the huge sums of monie going out of this land to the court of Rome dooth in some measure appéere Ethelwold afterward bishop of Winchester builded the first monasterie of Elie vpon the ruines of a nunrie then in the kings hands howbeit the same house whereof he himselfe was abbat was yer long destroied by enimies and he in lieu of his old preferment rewarded by king Edgar with the aforesaid bishoprike from whence with more than lionlike boldnesse he expelled the secular préests and stored with moonkes prouided from Abandune néere Oxford by the helpe of Edgar and Dunstane then metropolitane of England There was sometime a greeuous contention betwéene Thomas Lild bishop of this see and the king of England about the yeare of Grace 1355 which I will here deliuer out of an old record because the matter is so parciallie penned by some of the brethren of that house in fauour of the bishop for that I was also abused with the same in the entrance thereof at the first into my chronologie The blacke prince fauoring one Robert Stretton his chapleine a man vnlearned and not worthie the name of a clearke the matter went on so farre that what for loue and somewhat else of a canon of Lichfield he was chosen bishop of that see Herevpon the pope vnderstanding what he was by his Nuncio here in England staied his consecration by his letters for a time and in the meane season committed his examination to the archbishop of Canturburie and the bishop of Rochester who felt and dealt so fauourablie with him in golden reasoning that his worthinesse was commended to the popes holinesse to Rome he goeth Being come to Rome the pope himselfe apposed him and after secret conference vtterlie disableth his election till he had prooued by substantiall argument and of great weight before him also that he was not so lightlie to be reiected Which kind of reasoning so well pleased his holinesse that Ex mera plenitudine potestatis he was made capable of the benefice and so returneth into England when he came home this bishop being in the kings
Ancaâ—â—tes Bibroci and Kentishmen and such like But 〈◊〉 the seuerall places where most of them laie are not yet verie perfectlie knowne vnto the learned of these daies I doo not meane to pronounce my iudgement vpon such doubtfull cases least that in so dooing I should but increase coniectures and leading peraduenture the reader from the more probable intangle his mind in the end with such as are of lesse value and things nothing so likelie to be true as those which other men haue remembred and set downe before me Neither will I speake oughts of the Romane partitions limits of their legions whose number and place of abode except of the Uictorian and Augustane is to me vtterlie vnknowne It shall suffice therfore to begin with such a ground as from whence some better certeintie of things may be deriued and that is with the estate of our Iland in the time of Alfred who first diuided England into shires which before his daies and since the comming of the Saxons was limited out by families and hidelands as the Britons did the same in their time by hundreds of townes which then were called cantreds as old records doo witnesse Into how manie shires the said Alfred did first make this partition of the Iland it is not yet found out howbeit if my coniecture be anie thing at all I suppose that he left not vnder eight and thirtie sith we find by no good author that aboue fifteene haue beene added by anie of his successours since the time of his decease This prince therefore hauing made the generall partition of his kingdome into shires or shares he diuided againe the same into lathes as lathes into hundreds and hundreds into tithings or denaries as diuers haue written and maister Lambert following their authorities hath also giuen out saieng almost after this maner in his description of Kent The Danes saith he both before in the time of king Alfred had flocked by the sea coasts of this Iland in great numbers sometimes wasting and spoiling with sword and fire wheresoeuer they might arriue and somtime taking great booties with them to their ships without dooing anie further hurt or damage to the countrie This inconuenience continuing for manie yéeres togither caused our husbandmen to abandon their tillage and gaue occasion and hardinesse to euill disposed persons to fall to the like pillage as practising to follow the Danes in these their thefts and robberies And the better to cloake their mischeefe withall they feigned themselues to be Danish pirats and would sometime come a land in one port and sometime in another driuing dailie great spoiles as the Danes had doone vnto their ships before them The good king Alfred therefore who had maruellouslie trauelled in repelling the barbarous Danes espieng this outrage and thinking it no lesse the part of a politike prince to root out the noisome subiect than to hold out the forren aduersarie by the aduise of his nobilitie and the example of Moses who followed the counsell of Iethro his father in law to the like effect diuided the whole realme into certeine parts or sections which of the Saxon word Schyran signifieng to cut he termed shires or as we yet speake shares or portions of which some one hath fortie miles in length as Essex and almost so manie broad Hereford foure twentie in length and twentie in breadth and Warwike six and thirtie in length c and some of them also conteine ten twelue thirteene sixtéene twentie or thirtie hundreds more or lesse as some hundreds doo sixteene twentie thirtie fortie fiftie or sixtie townes out of which the king was alwaies to receiue an hundred able men to serue him in the warres or a hundred men able to be pledges and ouer each of the portions he appointed either an earle or alderman or both to whome he committed the gouernement of the same These shires also he brake into lesser parts whereof some were called lathes of the word Gelathian which is to assemble togither other hundreds for that they enioied iurisdiction ouer an hundred pledges and other tithings bicause there were in each of them to the number of ten persons whereof euerie one from time to time was suertie for others good abearing He prouided also that euerie man should procure himselfe to be receiued into some tithing to the end that if anie were found of so small and base a credit that no man would become pledge or suertie for him he should foorthwith be committed to prison least otherwise he might happen to doo more harme abroad Hitherto master Lambert By whose words we may gather verie much of the state of this Iland in the time of Alfred whose institution continued after a sort vntill the comming of the Normans who changed the gouernement of the realme in such wise by bringing in of new officers and offices after the maner of their countries that verie little of the old regiment remained more than the bare names of some officers except peraduenture in Kent so that in these daies it is hard to set downe anie great certeintie of things as they stood in Alfreds time more than is remembred and touched at this present Some as it were roming or rouing at the name Lath doo saie that it is deriued of a barne which is called in old English a lath as they coniecture From which spéech in like sort some deriue the word Laistow as if it should be trulie written Lath stow a place wherein to laie vp or laie on things of whatsoeuer condition But hereof as yet I cannot absolutelie be satisfied although peraduenture some likelihood in their iudgements may séeme to be therein Other vpon some further consideration affirme that they were certeine circuits in euerie countie or shire conteining an appointed number of townes whose inhabitants alwaies assembled to know and vnderstand of matters touching their portions in to some one appointed place or other within their limits especiallie whilest the causes were such as required not the aid or assistance of the whole countie Of these lathes also as they saie some shires had more some lesse as they were of greatnesse And M. Lambert séemeth to be of the opinion that the léets of our time wherein these pledges be yet called Franci plegij of the word Free burgh doo yeeld some shadow of that politike institution of Alfred But sith my skill is so small in these cases that I dare not iudge anie thing at all as of mine owne knowledge I will not set downe anie thing more than I read least I should roue at randon in our obscure antiquities and reading no more of lathes my next talke shall be of hundreds The hundred and the wapentake is all one as I read in some and by this diuision not a name appertinent to a set number of townes for then all hundreds should be of equall quantitie but a limited iurisdiction within the compasse whereof were an hundred
scourge the poorest doo soonest tast sith they are least able to prouide themselues of better I will not saie that this extremitie is oft so well to be seene in time of plentie as of dearth but if I should I could easilie bring my triall For albeit that there be much more ground eared now almost in euerie place than hath beene of late yeares yet such a price of corne continueth in each towne and market without any iust cause except it be that landlords doo get licences to carie corne out of the land onelie to kéepe vp the peeces for their owne priuate gaines and ruine of the common-wealth that the artificer and poore laboring man is not able to reach vnto it but is driuen to content himselfe with horssecorne I meane beanes peason otes tares and lintels and theerfore it is a true prouerbe and neuer so well verified as now that hunger setteth his first foot into the horsse manger If the world last a while after this rate wheate and rie will be no graine for poore men to feed on and some catterpillers there are that can saie so much alreadie Of bread made of wheat we haue sundrie sorts dailie brought to the table whereof the first and most excellent is the mainchet which we commonlie call white bread in Latine Primarius panis wherof Budeus also speaketh in his first booke De asse and our good workemen deliuer commonlie such proportion that of the flower of one bushell with another they make fortie cast of manchet of which euerie lofe weigheth eight ounces into the ouen and six ounces out as I haue béene informed The second is the cheat or wheaton bread so named bicause the colour therof resembleth the graie or yellowish wheat being cleane and well dressed and out of this is the coursest of the bran vsuallie called gurgeons or pollard taken The raueled is a kind of cheat bread also but it reteineth more of the grosse and lesse of the pure substance of the wheat and this being more sleightlie wrought vp is vsed in the halles of the nobilitie and gentrie onelie whereas the other either is or should be baked in cities good townes of an appointed size according to such price as the corne dooth beare and by a statute prouided by king Iohn in that behalfe The raueled cheat therfore is generallie so made that out of one bushell of meale after two and twentie pounds of bran be sisted and taken from it wherevnto they ad the gurgeons that rise from the manchet they make thirtie cast euerie lofe weighing eightéene ounces into the ouen and sixteene ounces out and beside this they so handle the matter that to euerie bushell of meale they ad onelie two and twentie or thrée and twentie pound of water washing also in some houses there corne before it go to the mill whereby their manchet bread is more excellent in colour and pleasing to the eie than otherwise it would be The next sort is named browne bread of the colour of which we haue two sorts one baked vp as it cōmeth from the mill so that neither the bran nor the floure are anie whit diminished this Celsus called Autopirus panis lib. 2. and putteth it in the second place of nourishment The other hath little or no floure left therein at all howbeit he callech it Panem Cibarium and it is not onlie the woorst and weakest of all the other sorts but also appointed in old time for seruants slaues and the inferiour kind of people to féed vpon Herevnto likewise bicause it is drie and brickle in the working for it will hardlie be made vp handsomelie into loaues some adde a portion of rie meale in our time whereby the rough drinesse or drie roughnes therof is somwhat qualified then it is named miscelin that is bread made of mingled corne albeit that diuerse doo sow or mingle wheat rie of set purpose at the mill or before it come there and sell the same at the markets vnder the aforesaid name In champeigne countries much rie and barleie bread is eaten but especiallie where wheat is scant and geson As for the difference that is betwéene the summer and winter wheat most husbandmen know it not sith they are neither acquainted with summer wheat nor winter barleie yet here and there I find of both sorts speciallie in the north and about Kendall where they call it March wheat and also of summer rie but in so small quantities as that I dare not pronounce them to be greatlie common among vs. Our drinke whose force and continuance is partlie touched alreadie is made of barleie water and hops sodden and mingled togither by the industrie of our bruers in a certeine exact proportion But before our barleie doo come vnto their hands it susteineth great alteration and is conuerted into malt the making whereof I will here set downe in such order as my skill therein may extend vnto for I am scarse a good malster chiefelie for that forreine writers haue attempted to describe the same and the making of our beere wherein they haue shot so farre wide as the quantitie of ground was betwéene themselues their marke In the meane time beare with me gentle reader I beséech thée that lead thee from the description of the plentifull diet of our countrie vnto the fond report of a seruile trade or rather from a table delicatelie furnished into a mustie malthouse but such is now thy hap wherfore I praie thée be contented Our malt is made all the yeare long in some great townes but in gentlemens and yeomens houses who commonlie make sufficient for their owne expenses onelie the winter halfe is thought most méet for that commoditie howbeit the malt that is made when the willow dooth bud is commonlie worst of all neuerthelesse each one indeuoureth to make it of the best barleie which is steeped in a cesterne in greater or lesse quantitie by the space of thrée daies and three nights vntill it be throughlie soked This being doone the water is drained from it by little and little till it be quite gone Afterward they take it out and laieng it vpon the cleane floore on a round heape it resteth so vntill it be readie to shoote at the root end which maltsters call Comming When it beginneth therefore to shoot in this maner they saie it is come and then foorthwith they spread it abroad first thicke and afterward thinner and thinner vpon the said floore as it commeth and there it lieth with turning euerie daie foure or fiue times by the space of one and twentie daies at the least the workeman not suffering it in anie wise to take anie heat whereby the bud end should spire that bringeth foorth the blade and by which ouersight or hurt of the stuffe it selfe the malt would be spoiled and turne small commoditie to the bruer When it hath gone or béene turned so long vpon the
Howbeit at the last they fell generallie to allow of suppers toward the setting of the sunne in all places bicause they would haue their whole familie to go to meat togither and wherevnto they would appoint their guests to come at a certeine length of the shadow to be perceiued in their dials And this is more to be noted of antiquitie that if anie man as Plutarch saith did féed before that time he incurred a note of reprehension as if he had beene gluttonous and giuen vnto the bellie 8. Sympos 6. Their slaues in like sort were glad when it grew to the tenth foot for then were they sure soone after to go to meat In the scripture we read of manie suppers few dinners onelie for that dining was not greatlie vsed in Christs time but taken as a thing latelie sproong vp when pampering of the bellie began to take hold occastoned by idlenes and great abundance of riches It is pretie to note in Iuuenal how he taunteth Marius for that he gaue himselfe to drinke before the ninth houre of the daie for thinking three houres to be too little for the filling of his bellie he began commonlie at eight which was an houre too soone Afterwards when gurmandise increased yet more amongst the Romans and from them was dispersed vnto all nations vnder their subiection it came to passe that six houres onlie were appointed to worke and consult in and the other six of the daie to feed and drinke in as the verse saith Sex horae tantùm rebus tribuantur agendis Viuere post illas littera Zetha monet Wherevnto Maximus Planudes except my memorie faile me addeth this scholie after his maner saieng that from morning vnto noone which is six of the clocke after the vnequall accompt each one dooth trauell about his necessarie affaires that being doone he betaketh himselfe to the refreshing of his bodie which is noted and set downe by the Gréeke letters of the diall wherewith the Romane horologies were marked as ours be with their numerall letters whereby the time is described for those which point 7 8 9 and 10 are written with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being ioined yéeld 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in English signifieth so much as liue as if they should meane eat that thou maist liue But how Martial diuided his daie and with him the whole troope of the learned wiser sort these verses following doo more euidentlie declare Prima salutantes atque altera 〈…〉 Exercet raucos tertia causidicos In quintam varios extendis Roma labores Sexta quies lassis septima finis erit Sufficit in nonam nitidis octaua palestris Imperat extructos frangera nona thoros Hora libellorum decima est Eupheme meorum Temperat Ambrosias cum tua cura dapes Et bonus aethereo laxatur Nectare Caesar IngentÃque tenet pocula parca manu Tunc admitteiocos gressu timet ire licenti Ad matutinum nostra Thaleia Iouem Thus we sée how the ancient maner of the Gentils was to féed but once in the daie and that toward night till gluttonie grew on and altered this good custome I might 〈◊〉 remember also their maner in pulling off their shooes when they sat downe to meat whereof Martial saith Deposui soleas affertur protinus ingens Inter lactucas oxygarmúque liber c. And Tullie also remembreth where he saith Seruum à pedibus ad te misi which office grew of the said custome as Seruus ad limina did of kéeping the doore though in most houses both these were commonlie one mans office also Ad pocula of attending on the cup. But bicause the good writers of our time haue obserued these phrases and such like with their causes and descriptions in their infinite and seuerall treatises I shall not need to discourse anie farther vpon them With vs the nobilitie gentrie and students doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleuen before noone and to supper at fiue or betweene fiue and six at afternoone The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelue at noone and six at night especiallie in London The husbandmen dine also at high noone as they call it and sup at seuen or eight but out of the tearme in our vniuersities the scholers dine at ten As for the poorest fort they generallie dine and sup when they may so that to talke of their order of repast it were but a néedlesse matter I might here take occasion also to set downe the varietie vsed by antiquitie in their beginnings of their diets wherin almost euerie nation had a seuerall fashion some beginning of custome as we doo in summer time with salets at supper and some ending with lettice some making their entrie with egs and shutting vp their tables with mulberies as we doo with fruit and conceits of all sorts Diuerse as the old Romans began with a few crops of rue as the Uenetians did with the fish called Gobius the Belgies with butter or as we doo yet also with butter and egs vpon fish daies But wheras we commonlie begin with the most grosse food and end with the most delicate the Scot thinking much to leaue the best for his meniall seruants maketh his entrance at the best so that he is sure therby to leaue the worst We vse also our wines by degrees so that the hotest commeth last to the table but to stand vpon such toies would spend much time and turne to small profit wherfore I will deals with other things more necessarie for this turne Of their apparell and attire Chap. 7. AN Englishman indeuoring sometime to write of our attire made sundrie platformes for his purpose supposing by some of them to find out one stedfast ground whereon to build the summe of his discourse But in the end like an oratour long without exercise when he saw what a difficult péece of worke he had taken in hand he gaue ouer his trauell and onelie drue the picture of a naked man vnto whome he gaue a paire of sheares in the one hand and a peece of cloth in the other to the end he should shape his apparell after such fashion as himselfe liked sith he cuold find no kind of garment that could please him anie while togither and this he called an Englishman Certes this writer otherwise being a lewd popish hypocrite and vngratious priest shewed himselfe herein not to be altogether void of iudgement sith the phantasticall follie of our nation euen from the courtier to the carter is such that no forme of apparell liketh vs longer than the first garment is in the wearing if it continue so long and be not laid aside to receiue some other trinket newlie deuised by the fickle he aded tailors who couet to haue seurall trickes in cutting thereby to draw fond customers to more expense of monie For my part I can tell better how to inueigh against this enormitie than describe anie certeintie of our attire sithence such is our mutabilitie that
we haue now at Westminster Wherefore Edmund gaue lawes at London Lincolne Ethelred at Habam Alfred at Woodstock and Wannetting Athelstane in Excester Grecklade Feuersham Thundersleie Canutus at Winchester c other in other places whereof this may suffice Among other things also vsed in the time of the Saxons it shall not be amisse to set downe the forme of their Ordalian law which they brought hither with them from beyond the seas out of Scithia and vsed onelie in the triall of guiltie and vnguiltinesse Certes it conteined not an ordinarie procéeding by daies and termes as in the ciuill and common law we sée practised in these daies but a short dispatch triall of the matter by fire or water whereof at this present I will deliuer the circumstance as I haue faithfullie translated it out of an ancient volume and conferred with an imprinted copie latelie published by M. Lambert and now extant to be read Neuerthelesse as the Scithians were the first that vsed this practise so I read that it was taken vp and occupied also in France in processe of time yea and likewise in Grecia as G. Pachymerus remembreth in the first booke of his historie which beginneth with the empire of M. Paleologus where he noteth his owne sight and vew in that behalfe But what stand I herevpon The Ordalian saith the aforesaid author was a certeine maner of purgation vsed two waies wherof the one was by fire the other by water In the execution of that which was doone by fire the partie accused should go a certeine number of pases with an hot iron in his hand or else bare footed vpon certeine plough shares red hot according to the maner This iron was sometime of one pound weight and then was it called single Ordalium sometimes of thrée and then named treble Ordalium and whosoeuer did beare or tread on the same without hurt of his bodie he was adiudged giltlesse otherwise if his skin were scorched he was foorthwith condemned as guiltie of the trespasse whereof he was accused according to the proportion and quantitie of the burning There were in like sort two kinds of triall by the water that is to say either by hot or cold and in this triall the partie thought culpable was either tumbled into some pond or huge vessell of cold water wherein if he continued for a season without wrestling or strugling for life he was foorthwith acquited as guiltlesse of the fact wherof he was accused but if he began to plunge and labour once for breath immediatlie vpon his falling into that liquor he was by and by condemned as guiltie of the crime Or else he did thrust his arme vp to the shoulder into a lead copper or caldron of seething water from whence if he withdrew the same without anie maner of damage he was discharged of further molestation otherwise he was taken for a trespasser and punished accordinglie The fierie maner of purgation belonged onelie to noble men and women and such as were frée borne but the husbandmen and villaines were tried by water Wherof to shew the vnlearned dealing and blind ignorance of those times it shall not be impertinent to set foorth the whole maner which continued here in England vntill the time of king Iohn who séeing the manifold subtilties in the same by sundrie sorcerous and artificiall practises whereby the working of the said elements were restreined did extinguish it altogither as flat lewdnesse and bouerie The Rubrike of the treatise entereth thus Here beginneth the execution of iustice whereby the giltie or vngiltie are tried by hot iron Then it followeth After accusation lawfullie made and three daies spent in fasting and praier the priest being clad in all his holie vestures sauing his vestiment shall take the iron laid before the altar with a paire of tongs and singing the hymne of the three children that is to saie O all ye workes of God the Lord and in Latine Benedicite omnia opera c he shall carie it solemnelie to the fire alreadie made for that purpose and first saie these words ouer the place where the fire is kindled whereby this purgation shall be made in Latine as insueth Benedic Domine Deus locum istum vt sit nobis in eo sanitas sanctitas castitas virtus victoria sanctimonia humilitas bonitas lenitas plenitudo legis obedientia Deo patri filio spiritui sancto Haec benedictio sit super hunc locum super omnes habitantes in eo In English Blesse thou O Lord this place that it may be to vs health holinesse chastitie vertue and victorie purenesse humilitie goodnesse gentlenesse and fulnesse of the law and obedience to God the father the sonne and the holie ghost This blessing be vpon this place and all that dwell in it Then followeth the blessing of the fire Domine Deus pater omnipotens lumen indeficiens exaudi nos quia tu es conditor omnium luminum Benedic Domine hoc lumen quod ante sanctificatum est qui illuminasti omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum vel mundum vt ab eo lumine accendamur igne claritatis tuae Et sicut igne illuminasti Mosen ita nunc illumina corda nostra sensus nostros vt ad vitam aeternam mereamur peruenire per Christum c. Lord God father almightie light euerlasting heare vs sith thou art the maker of all lights Blesse O Lord this light that is alreadie sanctified in thy sight which hast lightned all men that come into the world or the whole world to the end that by the same light we may be lightned with the shining of thy brightnesse As thou diddest lighten Moses so now illuminate our hearts and our senses that we may deserue to come to euerlasting life through Christ our c. This being ended let him say the Pater noster c then these words Saluum fac seruum c. Mitte ei auxilium Deus c. De Sion tuere eum c. Dominus vobiscum c. That is O Lord saue thy seruant c. Send him helpe O God from thy holie place c. Defend him out of Sion c. Lord heare c. The Lord be with you c. The praier Benedic Domine sancte pater omnipotens Deus per inuocationem sanctissimi nominis tui per aduentum filij tui atque per donum spiritus paracleti ad manifestandum verum iudicium tuum hoc genus metalli vt sit sanctificatum omni daemonum falsitate procul remota veritas veri iudicij tui fidelibus tuis manifesta fiat per eundem Dominum c. In English Blesse we beséech thee O Lord holie father euerlasting God through the inuocation of thy most holie name by the comming of thy sonne and gift of the holie ghost and to the manifestation of thy true iudgement this kind of mettall that being hallowed and all fradulent practises of
but little skill to procéed in the same accordinglie it shall suffice to set downe some generall discourse of such as are vsed in our daies and so much as I haue gathered by report and common heare-saie We haue therefore in England sundrie lawes and first of all the ciuill vsed in the chancerie admeraltie and diuerse other courts in some of which the seuere rigor of iustice is often so mitigated by conscience that diuerse things are thereby made easie and tollerable which otherwise would appeare to be méere iniurie and extremitie We haue also a great part of the Canon law dailie practised among vs especiallie in cases of tithes contracts of matrimonie and such like as are vsuallie to be séene in the consistories of our bishops and higher courts of the two archbishops where the exercise of the same is verie hotlie followed The third sort of lawes that we haue are our owne those alwaies so variable subiect to alteration and change that oft in one age diuerse iudgements doo passe vpon one maner of case whereby the saieng of the poet Tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis may verie well be applied vnto such as being vrged with these words In such a yeare of the prince this opinion was taken for sound law doo answer nothing else but that the iudgement of our lawiers is now altered so that they saie farre otherwise The regiment that we haue therefore after our owne ordinances dependeth vpon thrée lawes to wit Statute law Common law Customarie law and Prescription according to the triple maner of our trials and iudgments which is by parlement verdict of twelue men at an assise or wager of battell of which the last is little vsed in our daies as no appeale dooth hold in the first and last rehearsed But to returne to my purpose The first is deliuered vnto vs by parlement which court being for the most part holden at Westminster néere London is the highest of all other consisteth of three seuerall sorts of people that is to saie the nobilitie cleargie and commons of this realme And thereto is not summoned but vpon vrgent occasion when the prince dooth see his time and that by seuerall writs dated commonlie full six wéekes before it begin to be holden Such lawes as are agreed vpon in the higher house by the lords spirituall and temporall and in the lower house by the commons and bodie of the realme whereof the conuocation of the cleargie holden in Powles or if occasion so require in Westminster church is a member there speaking by the mouth of the knights of the shire and burgesses remaine in the end to be confirmed by the prince who commonlie resorteth thither of custome vpon the first and last daies of this court there to vnderstand what is doone and giue his roiall consent to such statutes as him liketh of Comming therefore thither into the higher house and hauing taken his throne the speaker of the parlement for one is alwaies appointed to go betwéene the houses as an indifferent mouth for both readeth openlie the matters there determined by the said thrée estates and then craueth the princes consent and finall confirmation to the same The king hauing heard the summe and principall points of each estatute brieflie recited vnto him answereth in French with great deliberation vnto such as he liketh Il nous plaist but to the rest Il ne plaist whereby the latter are made void and frustrate That also which his maiestie liketh of is hereby authorised confirmed euer after holden for law except it be repealed in anie the like assemblie The number of the commons assembled in the lower house beside the cleargie consisteth of ninetie knights For each shire of England hath two gentlemen or knights of greatest wisedome and reputation chosen out of the bodie of the same for that onelie purpose sauing that for Wales one onlie is supposed sufficient in euerie countie whereby the number afore mentioned is made vp There are likewise fourtie and six citizens 289 burgesses and fourtéene barons so that the whole assemblie of the laitie of the lower house consisteth of foure hundred thirtie and nine persons if the iust number be supplied Of the lawes here made likewise some are penall and restraine the common law and some againe are found to inlarge the same The one sort of these also are for the most part taken strictlie according to the letter the other more largelie and beneficiallie after their intendment and meaning The Common law standeth vpon sundrie maximes or principles and yeares or termes which doo conteine such cases as by great studie and solemne argument of the iudges sound practise confirmed by long experience fetched euen from the course of most ancient lawes made farre before the conquest and thereto the déepest reach and foundations of reason are ruled and adiudged for law Certes these cases are otherwise called plees or action wherof there are two sorts the one criminall and the other ciuill The meanes and messengers also to determine those causes are our writs or bréefes whereof there are some originall and some iudiciall The parties plaintiffe defendant when they appeare procéed if the case doo so require by plaint or declaration barre or answer replication reioinder and so by rebut surre but to issue and triall if occasion so fall out the one side affirmatiuelie the other negatiuelie as common experience teacheth Our trials and recoueries are either by verdict and demourre confession or default wherein if anie negligence or trespasse hath béene committed either in processe and forme or in matter and iudgement the partie grieued may haue a writ of errour to vndoo the same but not in the same court where the former iudgement was giuen Customarie law consisteth of certeine laudable customes vsed in some priuat countrie intended first to begin vpon good and reasonable considerations as gauell kind which is all the male children equallie to inherit and continued to this daie in Kent where it is onelie to my knowledge reteined and no where else in England It was at the first deuised by the Romans as appeareth by Caesar in his cōmentaries wherein I find that to breake and daunt the force of the rebellious Germans they made a law that all the male children or females for want of males which holdeth still in England should haue their fathers inheritance equallie diuided amongst them By this meanes also it came to passe that whereas before time for the space of sixtie yeares they had put the Romans to great and manifold troubles within the space of thirtie yeares after this law made their power did wax so feeble and such discord fell out amongst themselues that they were not able to mainteine warres with the Romans nor raise anie iust armie against them For as a riuer runing with one streame is swift and more plentifull of water than when it is drained or drawne into manie branches so the
their capacities and moulds It shall not be amisse therefore to begin at the nauie of Xerxes of which ech meane vessell as appéereth by Herodot was able to receiue two hundred and thirtie souldiers and some of them thrée hundred These were called triremes and were indéede gallies that had thrée rowes of ores on euerie side for the word Nauis is indifferentlie applied so well to the gallies as ship as to the conuersant in histories is easie to be found In old time also they had gallies of foure rowes fiue rowes six seauen eight nine twelue yea fifteene rowes of ores on a side iudge you then of what quantitie those vessels were Plinie lib. 7. noteth one Damasthenes to be the first maker of the gallies with two rowes called biremes Thucidides referreth the triremes to Ammocles of Corinthum the quadriremes were deuised by Aristotle of Carthage the quinquiremes by Nestchthon of Salamina the gallie of six rowes by Xenagoras of Syracusa from this to the tenth Nesigiton brought vp Alexander the great caused one to be made of twelue Ptolomeus Soter of fiftéene Demetrius the sonne of Antigonus of thirtie Ptolom Philad of fortie Ptol. Triphon of fiftie all which aboue foure were none other in mine opinion than vnweldie carts and more seruing for pleasure and to gaze vpon than anie vse in the wars for which they should be deuised But of all other I note one of fortie rowes which Ptolo. Philopater builded conteining 200 and eightie cubits in length and eight and fortie cubits in breadth it held also foure thousand ores foure hundred mariners and three thousand souldiers so that in the said vessell were seauen thousand and foure hundred persons a report incredible if truth and good testimonie did not confirme the same I must needs confesse therefore that the ancient vessels far exceeded ours for capacitie neuerthelesse if you regard the forme and the assurance from perill of the sea and therewithall the strength and nimblenesse of such as are made in our time you shall easilie find that ours are of more value than theirs for as the greatest vessell is not alwaies the safest so that of most huge capacitie is not alwaies the aptest to shift and brooke the seas as might be seene by the great Henrie the hugest vessell that euer England framed in our times Neither were the ships of old like vnto ours in mould and maner of building aboue the water for of low gallies in our seas we make small account nor so full of ease within sith time hath ingendred more skill in the wrights and brought all things to more perfection than they had in the beginning And now to come vnto our purpose at the first intended The nauie of England may be diuided into three sortes of which the one serueth for the warres the other for burden and the third for fishermen which get their liuing by fishing on the sea How manie of the first order are mainteined within the realme it passeth my cunning to expresse yet sith it may be parted into the nauie roiall and common fleete I thinke good to speake of those that belong vnto the prince and so much the rather for that their number is certeine well knowne to verie manie Certes there is no prince in Europe that hath a more beautifull or gallant sort of ships than the quéenes maiestie of England at this present and those generallie are of such exceeding force that two of them being well appointed and furnished as they ought will not let to encounter with thrée or foure of those of other countries and either bowge them or put them to flight if they may not bring them home Neither are the moulds of anie forren barkes so conuenientlie made to brooke so well one sea as another lieng vpon the shore in anie part of the continent as those of England And therefore the common report that strangers make of our ships amongst themselues is dailie confirmed to be true which is that for strength assurance nimblenesse and swiftnesse of sailing there are no vessels in the world to be compared with ours And all these are committed to the regiment and safe custodie of the admerall who is so called as some imagine of the Gréeke word Almiras a capiteine on the sea for so saith Zonaras in Basilio Macedone Basilio Porphyriogenito though other fetch it from Ad mare the Latine words another sort from Amyras the Saracen magistrate or from some French deriuation but these things are not for this place and therefore I passe them ouer The quéenes highnesse hath at this present which is the foure and twentith of hir reigne alreadie made and furnished to the number of foure or fiue and twentie great ships which lie for the most part in Gillingham rode beside thrée gallies of whose particular names and furnitures so far foorth as I can come by them it shall not be amisse to make report at this time The names of so manie ships belonging to hir maiestie as I could come by at this present The Bonaduenture Elizabeth Ionas White Beare Philip and Marie Triumph Bull. Tiger Antlope Hope Lion Victorie Marie Rose Foresight Swift sute Aid Handmaid Dread nought Swallow Genet Barke of Bullen Achates Falcon. George Reuenge It is said that as kings and princes haue in the yoong daies of the world and long since framed themselues to erect euerie yeare a citie in some one place or other of their kingdoms and no small woonder that Sardanapalus should begin finish two to wit Anchialus and Tharsus in one daie so hir grace dooth yearelie build one ship or other to the better defense of hir frontiers from the enimie But as of this report I haue no assured certeintie so it shall suffice to haue said so much of these things yet this I thinke worthie further to be added that if they should all be driuen to seruice at one instant which God forbid she should haue a power by sea of about nine or ten thousand men which were a notable companie beside the supplie of other vessels apperteining to hir subiects to furnish vp hir voiage Beside these hir grace hath other in hand also of whom hereafter as their turnes doo come about I will not let to leaue some further remembrance She hath likewise thrée notable gallies the Spéed well the Trie right and the Blacke gallie with the fight whereof and rest of the nauie roiall it is incredible to saie how greatlie hir grace is delighted and not without great cause I saie sith by their meanes hir coasts are kept in quiet and sundrie forren enimies put backe which otherwise would inuade vs. The number of those that serue for burden with the other whereof I haue made mention alreadie and whose vse is dailie séene as occasion serueth in time of the warres is to mée vtterlie vnknowne Yet if the report of one record be anie thing at all to be credited there are 135 ships that exceed 500 tun topmen vnder 100
viewed and wherein the compasse of the verie wall with the places where the gates stood is easie to be discerned the like also is to be séene at a place within two miles south of Burton called the Borow hils In these therefore and such like and likewise at Euolsburg now S. Neots or S. Needs and sundrie other places especiallie vpon the shore and coasts of Kent as Douer Rie Romneie Lid c is much of their coine also to be found and some péeces or other are dailie taken vp which they call Borow pence Dwarfs monie Hegs pence Feirie groats Iewes monie by other foolish names not woorthie to be remembred xsAt the comming of the Saxons the Britons vsed these holds as rescues for their cattell in the daie and night when their enimies were abroad the like also did the Saxons against the Danes by which occasions and now and then by carieng of their stones to helpe forward other buildings néere at hand manie of them were throwne downe and defaced which otherwise might haue continued for a longer time and so your honour would saie if you should happen to peruse the thickenesse and maner of building of those said wals and borowes It is not long since a siluer saucer of verie ancient making was found néere to Saffron Walden in the open field among the Sterbirie hils and eared vp by a plough but of such massie greatnesse that it weighed better than twentie ounces as I haue heard reported But if I should stand in these things vntill I had said all that might be spoken of them both by experience and testimonie of Leland in his Commentaries of Britaine and the report of diuerse yet liuing I might make a greater chapter than would be either conuenient or profitable to the reader wherefore so much onelie shall serue the turne for this time as I haue said alreadie of antiquities found within our Iland especiallie of coine whereof I purposed chiefelie to intreat Of the coines of England Chap. 25. THe Saxon coine before the conquest is in maner vtterlie vnknowne to me howbeit if my coniecture be anie thing I suppose that one shilling of siluer in those daies did counterpeise our common ounce though afterward it came to passe that it arose to twentie pence and so continued vntill the time of king Henrie the eight who first brought it to thrée shillings and foure pence afterward our siluer coine vnto brasse copper monies by reason of those inestimable charges which diuerse waies oppressed him And as I gather such obscure notice of the shilling which is called in Latine Solidus so I read more manifestlie of another which is the 48 part of a pound and this also currant among the Saxons of our Ile so well in gold as in siluer at such time as 240 of their penies made vp a iust pound fiue pence went to the shilling and foure shillings to the ounce But to procéed with my purpose After the death of K. Henrie Edward his sonne began to restore the aforesaid coine againe vnto fine siluer so quéene Marie his successour did continue his good purpose notwithstanding that in hir time the Spanish monie was verie cōmon in England by reason of hir mariage with Philip king of Spaine After hir decease the ladie Elizabeth hir sister and now our most gratious quéene souereigue and princesse did finish the matter wholie vtterly abolishing the vse of copper and brasen coine and conuerting the same into guns and great ordinance she restored sundrie coines of fine siluer as péeces of halfepenie farding of a penie of three halfe pence péeces of two pence of thrée pence of foure pence called the groat of six pence vsuallie named the testone and shilling of twelue pence whereon she hath imprinted hir owne image and emphaticall superscription Our gold is either old or new The old is that which hath remained since the time of king Edward the third or béene coined by such other princes as haue reigned since his deceasse without anie abasing or diminution of the finesse of that metall Therof also we haue yet remaining the riall the George noble the Henrie riall the salut the angell and their smaller peeces as halfes or quarters though these in my time are not so common to be séene I haue also beheld the souereigne of twentie shillings and the peece of shirtie shillings I haue heard likewise of péeces of fortie shillings three pounds fiue pounds and ten pounds But sith there were few of them coined and those onelie at the commandement of kings yearelie to bestow where their maiesties thought good in lie of new yeares gifts and rewards it is not requisit that I should remember them here amongst our currant monies The new gold is taken for such as began to be coined in the latter daies of king Henrie the eight at which time the finesse of the mettall began to be verie much alaied is not likelie to be restored for ought that I can see and yet is it such as hath béene coined since by his successors princes of this realme in value and goodnesse equall and not inferiour to the coine and currant gold of other nations where each one dooth couet chiefelie to gather vp our old finer gold so that the angels rials and nobles are more plentifullie seene in France Italie and Flanders than they be by a great deale within the realme of England if you regard the paiments which they dailie make in those kinds of our coine Our peeces now currant are of ten shillings fiue shillings and two shillings and six pence onelie and those of sundrie stamps and names as halfe souereigns equall in weight with our currant shilling whereby that gold is valued at ten times so much siluer quarters of souereigns otherwise called crownes and halfe crownes likewise angels halfe angels and quarters of angels or if there be anie other in good sooth I know them not as one scarselie acquainted with any siluer at all much lesse then God it wot with any store of gold The first currant shilling or siluer péeces of twelue pence stamped within memorie were coined by K. Henrie the eight in the twentith yeare of his reigne those of fiue shillings and of two shillings and six pence the halfe shilling by king Edward the sixt but the od péeces aboue remembred vnder the groat by our high and mightie princesse quéene Elizabeth the name of the groat penie two pence halfe penie and farding in old time the greatest siluer monies if you respect their denominations onelie being more ancient than that I can well discusse of the time of their beginnings Yet thus much I read that king Edward the first in the eight yeare of his reigne did first coine the penie and smallest péeces of siluer roundwise which before were square and woont to beare a double crosse with a crest in such sort that the penie might easilie be broken either into halfes or
brawne which is a kind of meat not vsuallie knowne to strangers as I take it otherwise would not the swart Rutters and French cookes at the losse of Calis where they found great store of this prouision almost in euerie house haue attempted with ridiculous successe to rost bake broile frie the same for their masters till they were better informed I haue heard moreouer how a noble man of England not long since did send ouer an hogshead of brawne readie sowsed to a catholike gentleman of France who supposing it to be fish reserued it till Lent at which time he did eat thereof with verie great frugalitie Thereto he so well liked of the prouision it selfe that he wrote ouer verie earnestlie with offer of great recompense for more of the same fish against the yeare insuing whereas if he had knowne it to haue beene flesh he would not haue touched it I dare saie for a thousand crownes without the popes dispensation A fréend of mine also dwelling sometime in Spaine hauing certeine Iewes at his table did set brawne before them whereof they did eat verie earnestlie supposing it to be a kind of fish not common in those parties but when the goodman of the house brought in the head in pastime among them to shew what they had eaten they rose from the table hied them home in hast ech of them procuring himselfe to vomit some by oile and some by other meanes till as they supposed they had clensed their stomachs of that prohibited food With vs it is accounted a great péece of seruice at the table from Nouember vntill Februarie be ended but chéeflie in the Christmasse time With the same also we begin our dinners ech daie after other and because it is somewhat hard of digestion a draught of malueseie bastard or muscadell is vsuallie droonke after it where either of them are conuenientlie to be had otherwise the meaner fort content themselues with their owne drinke which at that season is generallie verie strong and stronger indéed than in all the yeare beside It is made commonlie of the fore part of a tame bore set vp for the purpose by the space of a whole yere or two especiallie in gentlemens houses for the husbandmen and farmers neuer franke them for their owne vse aboue thrée or foure moneths or halfe a yéere at the most in which time he is dieted with otes and peason and lodged on the bare planks of an vneasie coat till his fat be hardened sufficientlie for their purpose afterward he is killed scalded and cut out and then of his former parts is our brawne made the rest is nothing so fat and therefore it beareth the name of sowse onelie and is commonlie reserued for the seruing man and hind except it please the owner to haue anie part therof baked which are then handled of custome after this manner The hinder parts being cut off they are first drawne with lard and then sodden being sodden they are sowsed in claret wine and vineger a certeine space and afterward baked in pasties and eaten of manie in stéed of the wild bore and trulie it is verie good meat the pestles may be hanged vp a while to drie before they be drawne with lard if you will and thereby prooue the better But hereof inough and therefore to come againe vnto our brawne the necke peeces being cut off round are called collars of brawne the shoulders are named shilds onelie the ribs reteine the former denomination so that these aforesaid péeces deserue the name of brawne the bowels of the beast are commonlie cast awaie because of their ranknesse and so were likewise his stones till a foolish fantasie got hold of late amongst some delicate dames who haue now found the meanes to dresse them also with great cost for a deintie dish and bring them to the boord as a seruice among other of like sort though not without note of their desire to the prouocation of fleshlie lust which by this their fond curiositie is not a little reuealed When the bore is thus cut out ech peece is wrapped vp either with bulrushes ozier péeles tape inkle or such like and then sodden in a lead or caldron togither till they be so tender that a man may thrust a brused rush or soft straw cleane through the fat which being doone they take it vp and laie it abroad to coole afterward putting it into close vessels they powre either good small ale or béere mingled with veriuice and salt thereto till it be couered and so let it lie now and then altering and changing the sowsing drinke least it should wax sowre till occasion serue to spend it out of the waie Some vse to make brawne of great barrow hogs and séeth them and sowse the whole as they doo that of the bore and in my iudgement it is the better of both and more easie of digestion But of brawne thus much and so much may seeme sufficient Of wild and tame foules Chap. 2. ORder requireth that I speake somewhat of the foules also of England which I may easilie diuide into the wild tame but alas such is my small skill in foules that to say the truth I can neither recite their numbers nor well distinguish one kind of them from another Yet this I haue by generall knowledge that there is no nation vnder the sunne which hath alreadie in the time of the yere more plentie of wild foule than we for so manie kinds as our Iland dooth bring foorth and much more would haue if those of the higher soile might be spared but one yeare or two from the greedie engins of couetous foulers which set onlie for the pot purse Certes this enormitie bred great trouble in K. Iohns daies insomuch that going in progresse about the tenth of his reigne he found little or no game wherewith to solace himself or exercise his falcons Wherfore being at Bristow in the Christmas insuing be restreined all maner of hawking or taking of wildfoule throughout England for a season whereby the land within few yeares was throughlie replenished againe But what stand I vpon this impertinent discourse Of such therefore as are bred in our land we haue the crane the bitter the wild tame swan the bustard the herron curlew snite wildgoose wind or doterell brant larke plouer of both sorts lapwing teele wigeon mallard sheldrake shoueler pewet seamew barnacle quaile who onelie with man are subiect to the falling sickenesse the notte the oliet or olife the dunbird woodcocke partrich and feasant besides diuerse other whose names to me are vtterlie vnknowne and much more the taste of their flesh wherewith I was neuer acquainted But as these serue not at all seasons so in their seuerall turnes there is no plentie of them wanting whereby the tables of the nobilitie and gentrie should séeme at anie time furnisht But of all these the production of none is more maruellous in my mind than that of the
couered with streined canuasses vpon a soft fire wherby and by the weight that is laied vpon them they are dried and pressed into cakes and then bagged vp for the benefit of their owners In good yeeres we gather foure score or an hundred pounds of wet saffron of an acre which being dried dooth yeeld twentie pounds of drie and more Whereby and sith the price of saffron is commonlie about twentie shillings in monie or not so little it is easie to sée what benefit is reaped by an acre of this commoditie towards the charges of the setter which indeed are great but yet not so great as he shall be thereby a looser if he be anie thing diligent For admit that the triple tillage of an acre dooth cost 13 shillings foure pence before the saffron be set the clodding sixtéene pence the taking of euerie load of stones from the same foure pence the raising of euerie quarter of heads six pence and so much for clensing of them besides the rent of ten shillings for euerie acre thirtie load of doong which is woorth six pence the load to be laid on the first yéere for the setting three and twentie shillings and foure pence for the paring fiue shillings six pence for the picking of a pound wet c yea though he hire it readie set and paie ten pounds for the same yet shall he susteine no damage if warme weather and open season doo happen at the gathering This also is to be noted that euerie acre asketh twentie quarters of heads placed in ranks two inches one from an other in long beds which conteine eight or ten foot in breadth And after thrée yeeres that ground will serue well and without compest for barleie by the space of eightéene or twentie yéeres togither as experience dooth confirme The heads also of euerie acre at the raising will store an acre and an halfe of new ground which is a great aduantage and it will floure eight or ten daies togither But the best saffron is gathered at the first at which time foure pounds of wet saffron will go verie neere to make one of drie but in the middest fiue pounds of the one will make but one of the other because the chiue waxeth smaller as six at the last will doo no more but yéeld one of the dried by reason of the chiue which is now verie leane and hungrie After twentie yeeres also the same ground may be set with saffron againe And in lieu of a conclusion take this for a perpetuall rule that heads comming out of a good ground will prosper best in a lighter soile and contrariwise which is one note that our crokers doo carefullie obserue The heads are raised euerie third yeare about vs to wit after Midsummer when the rosse commeth drie from the heads and commonlie in the first yéere after they be set they yéeld verie little increase yet that which then commeth is counted the finest and greatest chiue best for medicine and called saffron Du hort The next crop is much greater but the third exceedeth and then they raise againe about Walden and in Cambridge shire In this period of time also the heads are said to child that is to yéeld out of some parts of them diuerse other headlets whereby it hath béene séene that some one head hath béene increased though with his owne detriment to three or foure or fiue or six which augmentation is the onlie cause whereby they are sold so good cheape For to my remembrance I haue not knowne foure bushels or a coome of them to be valued much aboue two shillings eight pence except in some od yéeres that they arise to eight or ten shillings the quarter and that is when ouer great store of winters water hath rotted the most of them as they stood within the ground or heat in summer parched and burnt them vp In Norffolke and Suffolke they raise but once in seuen yéeres but as their saffron is not so fine as that of Cambridge shire and about Walden so it will not cake ting nor hold colour withall wherein lieth a great part of the value of this stuffe Some craftie iackes vse to mix it with scraped brazell or with the floure of Sonchus which commeth somewhat neere indeed to the hue of our good saffron if it be late gathered but it is soone bewraied both by the depth of the colour and hardnesse Such also was the plentie of saffron about twentie yeeres passed that some of the townesmen of Walden gaue the one halfe of the floures for picking of the other and sent them ten or twelue miles abroad into the countrie whilest the rest not thankfull for the abundance of Gods blessing bestowed vpon them as wishing rather more scarsitie thereof because of the kéeping vp of the price in most contemptuous maner murmured against him saieng that he did shite saffron therewith to choake the market But as they shewed themselues no lesse than ingrat infidels in this behalfe so the Lord considered their vnthankfulnesse gaue them euer since such scarsitie as the greatest murmurers haue now the least store and most of them are either worne out of occupieng or remaine scarse able to mainteine their grounds without the helpe of other men Certes it hath generallie decaied about Safton Walden since the said time vntill now of late within these two yeares that men began againe to plant and renew the same because of the great commoditie But to procéed When the heads be raised and taken vp they will remaine sixteene or twentie daies out of the earth or more yea peraduenture a full moneth Howbeit they are commonlie in the earth againe by saint Iames tide or verie shortlie after For as if they be taken vp before Midsummer or beginning of Iulie the heads will shirnke like a rosted warden so after August they will wax drie become vnfruitfull and decaie And I know it by experience in that I haue carried some of them to London with me and notwithstanding that they haue remained there vnset by the space of fortie dais and more yet some of them haue brought foorth two or thrée floures a peece and some floures thrée or fiue chiues to the greeat admiration of such as haue gathered the same and not béene acquainted with their nature and countrie where they grew The crokers or saffron men doo vse an obseruation a litle before the comming vp of the floure and sometime in the taking vp at Midsummer tide by opening of the heads to iudge of plentie and scarsitie of this commoditie to come For if they sée as it were many small hairie veines of saffron to be in the middest of the bulbe they pronounce a fruitfull yeare And to saie truth at the cleauing of ech head a man shall discerne the saffron by the colour and sée where abouts the chiue will issue out of the root Warme darke nights swéet dews fat grounds chéeflie the chalkie and mistie mornings are verie good
most places they descend no lower than the halfe quarter or quarter of the houre and from whence they proceed vnto the houre to wit the foure and twentith part of that which we call the common and naturall daie which dooth begin at midnight and is obserued continuallie by clockes dialles and astronomicall instruments of all sorts The artificiall varietie of which kind of ware is so great here in England as no place else in mine opinion can be comparable therein to this I le I will not speake of the cost bestowed vpon them in perle and stone neither of the valure of mettall whereof they haue béene made as gold siluer c and almost no abbeie or religious house without some of them This onelie shall suffice to note here as by the waie that as antiquitie hath delighted in these things so in our time pompe and excesse spendeth all and nothing is regarded that bringeth in no bread Of vnequall or temporall houres or daies our nation hath no regard and therefore to shew their quantities differences and diuisions into the greater and the lesser whereof the later conteineth one vnequall houre or the rising of halfe a signe the other of a whole signe which is in two houres space wherof Marke seemeth to speake cap. 15 c 25 as the rest of the euangelists yea and he also ibid. vers 33 doo of the other Matth. 27 e 45 Luke 23 e 44 Iohn 19 b 14 it should be but in vaine In like sort wheras the elder Aegyptians Italians Bohemians latter Atheniens and Iews begin their daie at the sun set ouer night the Persians Babylonians Grecians and Noribergians at the sun rising ech of them accompting their daies and nights by vnequall houres also the elder Atheniens Arabians Dutchmen Umbers Hetrurians and Astronomers at high noone and so reckon from noone to noone we after Hipparchus and the latter Aegyptians or to speake more properlie imitating the Roman maner vsed in the church there of long time choose the verie point of midnight from whence we accompt twelue equall houres vnto middaie insuing and other twelue againe vnto the aforesaid point according to these verses Manè diem Graeca gens incipit astrasequentes In medio lucis Iudaeis vespere sancta Inchoat ecclesia media sua tempora nocte And this is our generall order for the naturall daie Of the artificiall we make so farre accompt as that we reckon it daie when the sun is vp and night when the sun leaueth our horizon Otherwise also we diuide it into two parts that is to saie fore noone and after noone not regarding the ruddie shining burning and warming seasons of thrée vnequall houres a péece which others séeme to diuide into spring time summer autumne and winter in like curious manner and whereof I read these verses Solis equi lucis dicuntur quatuor horae Haec rubet haec splendet haec calet illa tepet Indéed our physicians haue another partition of the daie as men of no lesse learning no doubt than the best of forren countries if we could so conceiue of them And herein they concurre also with those of other nations who for distinction in regiment of our humors diuide the artificiall daie and night in such wise as these verses doo import and are indéed a generall rule which ech of them doth follow Tres lucis primas noctis tres sanguinis imas Vis cholerae medias lucis sex vendicat horas Dátque melam primas noctis tres lucis imas Centrales ponas sex noctis phlegmatis horas Or thus as Tansteter hath giuen them foorth in his prelections A nona noctis donec sit terita lucis Est dominus sanguis sex inde sequentibus horis Est dominans cholera dum lucis nona sit hora Post niger humid inest donec sit tertia noctis Posthaec phlegma venit donec sit nona quietis In English thus in effect Three houres yer sun doo rise and so manie after blud From nine to three at after noone hot choler beares the swaie Euen so to nine at night swart choler hath to rule As phlegme from thence to three at morne six houres ech one I saie In like sort for the night we haue none other parts than the twilight darkenight midnight and cocks crowing wheras the Latins diuide the same into 7 parts as Vesper or Vesperugo as Plautus calleth it as Virgil vseth the word Hesper the euening which is immediatlie after the setting of the sun Crepusculum the twilight which some call Prima fax because men begin then to light candles when it is betwéene daie and night light and darkenesse or properlie neither daie nor night Concubium the still of the night when ech one is laid to rest Intempestum the dull or dead of the night which is midnight when men be in their first or dead sléepe Gallicinium the cocks crowing Conticinium when the cocks haue left crowing Matutinum the breach of the daie and Diluculum siue aurora the ruddie orenge golden or shining colour séene immediatlie before the rising of the sun and is opposite to the euening as Matutinum is to the twilight Other there are which doo reckon by watches diuiding the night after sun setting into foure equall parts Of which the first beginneth at euening called the first watch and continueth by thrée vnequall houres and so foorth vntill the end of the ninth houre whereat the fourth watch entreth which is called the morning watch bicause it concurreth partlie with the darke night and partlie with the morning and breach of the daie before the rising of the sun As for the originall of the word houre it is verie ancient but yet not so old as that of the watch wherof we shall read abundantlie in the scriptures which was deuised first among souldiors for their better safegard and change of watchmen in their camps the like whereof is almost vsed among our seafaring men which they call clearing of the glasse and performed from time to time with great héed and some solemnitie Here vnto the word Hora among the Grecians signified so well the foure quarters of the yéere as the foure and twentith part of the daie and limits of anie forme But what stand I vpon these things to let my purpose staie To procéed therefore Of naturall daies is the wéeke compacted which consisteth of seauen of them the fridaie being commonlie called among the vulgar sort either king or worling bicause it is either the fairest or foulest of the seauen albeit that I cannot ghesse of anie reason whie they should so imagine The first of these entreth with mondaie whereby it commeth to passe that we rest vpon the sundaie which is the seauenth in number as almightie God hath commanded in his word The Iews begin their wéeke vpon our saturdaie at the setting of the sun and the Turks in these daies with the
people of the citie and countrie togither in Calabria for so the place was called where they met and shew them by a custome how manie daies were from the said calends to the nones what feasts were to be celebrated betwéene that and the next change Their order is retrograde because that after the moneth was halfe expired or the moone past the full they reckoned by the daies to come vntill the next change as seuentéene daies sixtéene daies fourtéene daies c as the Gréekes did in the latter decad onelie for they had no vse of calends The verie day therefore of the change is called Calendae dedicated to Iuno who thereof was also called Calendaris At the first also the fasts or feast daies were knowne by none other meanes vnto the people but by the denunciation of the priests as I said vpon this daie till Flauius Scriba caused them to be written published in their common calenders contrarie to the will and meaning of the senat for the ease and benefit of the people as he pretended The nones commonlie are not aboue foure or six in euerie moneth and so long as the nones lasted so long did the markets continue and therefore they were called Nonae quasi Nundinae In them also were neither holiedaies more than is at this present except the day of the purification of our ladie no sacrifice offered to the gods but each one applied his businesse and kept his market reckoning the first day after the calends or change to be the fourth or sixt daie before the faire ended Some thinke that they were called Nonae of the word Non quia in ijsdem dij non coluntur For as Ouid saith Nonarum tutelae deo caret or for that the nones were alwaies on the ninth daie before the ides other because Nundina dea was honored the ninth day before the ides albeit I suppose rather that Nundina dea a goddesse far yoonger than the name of Nonae tooke hir name of the nones whereon it was a custome among the Romans Lustrare infantes ac nomina maribus imponere as they did with their maid children vpon the eight but howsoeuer this be sure it is that they were the mart daies of euerie moneth wherin the people bought sold exchanged or battered and did nothing else The ides are so named of the Hethruscan word Iduare to diuide and before that Cesar altered the calender they diuided the moneth commonlie by the middest But afterward when he had added certeine daies the reto therby to make it agrée to the yéere of the sunne which he intruded about the end of euerie moneth bicause he would not alter the celebration of their vsuall feasts whereof the chiefe were holden alwaies vpon the day of the ides then came they short of the middest sometime by two or thrée daies In these therefore which alwaies are eight the merchants had leisure to packe vp and conueie their merchandize to pay their creditors and make merie with their friends After the ides doo the calends follow but in a decreasing order as I noted as the moone dooth in light when she is past the full But herein lieth all the mysterie if you can say so manie daies before the next change or new moone as the number there expressed dooth betoken as for 16 calends so manie daies before the next coniunction c as is aboue remembred Of these calends I meane touching their number in euerie moneth I find these verses insuing Ianus Augustus denas nouémque December Iunius Aprilis September ipse Nouémber Ter senas retinent Februs bis octo calendas Iulius October Mars Maius epta decémque In English thus December Iune and August month full nineteene calends haue Septemb Aprill Nouemb and Iune twise nine they doo desire Sixteene foule Februarie hath no more can he well craue October Maie and Iulie hot but seuenteene door require In like maner doo the nones and ides Sex Maius nonas October Iulius Mars Quatuor at reliqui dabit idus quilibet octo To Iulie Mars October Maie six nones I hight The rest but foure and as for ides they keepe still eight Againe touching the number of daies in euerie moneth Iunius Aprilis Septémque Nouémque tricenos Vnumplus reliqui Februs tenet octo vicenos At si bissextus fuerit superadditur vnus Thirtie daies hath Nouember Aprill Iune and September Twentie and eight hath Februarie alone and all the rest thirtie and one but in the leape you must ad one Our yeare is counted after the course of the sunne and although the church hath some vse of that of the moone for obseruation of certeine mooueable feasts yet it is reducible to that of the sunne which in our ciuill dealings is chieflie had in vse Herein onelie I find a scruple that the beginning thereof is not vniforme and certeine for most of our records beare date the 25 of March and our calenders she first of Ianuarie so that with vs Christ is borne before he be conceiued Our sundrie officers also haue sundrie entrances into their charges of custome which bréedeth great confusion whereas if all these might be referred to one originall and that to be the first of Inuarie I doo not thinke but that there would be more certeintie and lesse trouble for our historiographers notaries other officers in their account of the yere In old time the Atheniens began their yeare with the change of the moone that fell néerest to the enterance of the sunne into the crab the Latines at the winter solstice or his going into the goat the Iewes in ciuill case at the latter equinoctiall and in ecclesiasticall with the first They of Calecute begin their yeare somewhere in September but vpon no daie certeine sith they first consult with their wisards who pronounce one day or other thereof to be most happie as the yeare goeth about and therewith they make their entrance as Osorius dooth remember who addeth that vpon the eleuenth calends of September they haue solemne plaies much like to the idoll games that they write in leaues of tree with a pencill in stead of paper which is not found among them Some of the old Grecians began their yere also in September but sith we seeke herein but for the custome of our countrie onelie it shall be enought to affirme that we make our account from the calends or first of Ianuarie and from the middest of the night which is Limes betwéene that and the last of December whereof this maie suffice I might speake of the Cynike yeare also in this place for the ease of our English readers sometime in vse amongst the Egyptians which conteineth 1460 common yeares whose beginning is alwaies reckoned from the rising of the lesser dog The first vse thereof entered the selfe yeare wherin the Olimpiads were restored And forsomuch as this nation hath no vse of intercalation at the end of euerie 1460 yeares they added an whole yeare of intercalation because
certeine materiall titles added at the head of euerie page of the said historie it is a thing of no difficultie to comprehend what is discoursed and discussed in the same Wherein sith histories are said to be the registers of memorie and the monuments of veritie all louers of knowlege speciallie historicall are aduisedlie to marke among other points the seuerall and successiue alterations of regiments in this land whereof it was my meaning to haue made an abstract but that the same is sufficientlie handled in the first booke and fourth chapter of the description of Britaine whereto if the seuenth chapter of the same booke be also annexed there is litle or no defect at all in that case wherof iustlie to make complaint Wherfore by remitting the readers to those I reape this aduantage namelie a dischage of a forethought purposed labour which as to reduce into some plausible forme was a worke both of time paine and studie so seeming vnlikelie to be comprised in few words being a matter of necessarie and important obseruation occasion of tediousnes is to and fro auoided speciallie to the reader who is further to be aduertised that the computations of yeares here and there expressed according to the indirect direction of the copies whense they were deriued and drawne is not so absolute in some mens opinion as it might haue beene howbeit iustifiable by their originals Wherin hereafter God prolonging peace in the church and common-welth that the vse of bookes may not be abridged such diligent care shall be had that in whatsoeuer the helpe of bookes will doo good or conference with antiquaries auaile there shall want no will to vse the one and the other And yet it is not a worke for euerie common capacitie naie it is a toile without head or taile euen for extraordinarie wits to correct the accounts of former ages so many hundred yeares receiued out of vncerteinties to raise certeinties and to reconcile writers dissenting in opinion and report But as this is vnpossible so is no more to be looked for than may be performed and further to inquire as it is against reason so to vndertake more than may commendablie be atchiued were fowle follie Abraham Fleming THE FIRST BOOKE of the historie of England ·HONI· SOIT· QVI· MAL· Y· PENSE· Who inhabited this Iland before the comming of Brute of Noah his three sonnes among whom the whole earth was diuided and to which of their portions this Ile of Britaine befell The first Chapter WHat manner of people did first inhabite this our country which hath most generallie and of longest continuance béene knowne among all nations by the name of Britaine as yet is not certeinly knowne neither can it be decided frō whence the first inhabitants there of came by reason of such diuersitie in iudgements as haue risen amongst the learned in this behalfe But sith the originall in maner of all nations is doubtfull and euen the same for the more part fabulous that alwaies excepted which we find in the holie scriptures I wish not any man to leane to that which shall be here set downe as to an infallible truth sith I doo but onlie shew other mens coniectures grounded neuerthelesse vpon likelie reasons concerning that matter whereof there is now left but little other certeintie or rather none at all To fetch therefore the matter from the farthest and so to stretch it forward it séemeth by the report of Dominicus Marius Niger that in the beginning when God framed the world and diuided the waters apart from the earth this I le was then a parcell of the continent and ioined without any separation of sea to the maine land But this opinion as all other the like vncerteinties I leaue to be discussed of by the learned howbeit for the first inhabitation of this I le with people I haue thought good to set downe in part what may be gathered out of such writers as haue touched that matter and may séeme to giue some light vnto the knowledge thereof First therefore Iohn Bale our countrieman who in his time greatlie trauelled in the search of such antiquities dooth probablie coniecture that this land was inhabited and replenished with people long before the floud and that time in the which the generation of mankind as Moses writeth began to multiplie vpon the vniuersall face of the earth and therfore it followeth that as well this land was inhabited with people long before the daies of Noah as any the other countries and parts of the world beside But when they had once forsaken the ordinances appointed them by God and betaken them to new waies inuented of themselues such loosenesse of life ensued euerie where as brought vpon them the great deluge and vniuersall floud in the which perished as well the inhabitants of these quarters as the residue of the race of mankind generallie dispersed in euerie other part of the whole world onelie Noah his familie excepted who by the prouidence and pleasure of almightie God was preserued from the rage of those waters to recontinue and repaire the new generation of man vpon earth AFter the flood as Annius de Viterbo recordeth and reason also enforceth Noah was the onlie monarch of all the wrold and as the same Annius gathereth by the account of Moses in the 100. yeare after the flood Noah diuided the earth among his thrée sonnes assigning to the possession of his eldest sonne all that portion of land which now is knowne by the name of Asia to his second sonne Cham he appointed all that part of the world which now is called Affrica and to his third sonne Iaphet was allotted all Europa with all the Iles therto belonging wherin among other was conteined this our Ile of Britaine with the other Iles thereto perteining IAphet the third son of Noah of some called Iapetus and of others Atlas Maurus because he departed this life in Mauritania was the first as Bodinus affirmeth by the authoritie and consent of the Hebrue Gréeke Latine writers that peopled the countries of Europe which afterward he diuided among his sonnes of whom Iuball as Tarapha affirmeth obteined the kingdome of Spaine Gomer had dominion ouer the Italians and as Berosus and diuers other authors agrée Samothes was the founder of Celtica which conteined in it as Bale witnesseth a great part of Europe but speciallie those countries which now are called by the names of Gallia and Britannia Thus was the Iland inhabited and peopled within 200 yéeres after the floud by the children of Iaphet the sonne of Noah this is not onlie prooued by Annius writing vpon Berosus but also confirmed by Moses in the scripture where he writeth that of the offspring of Iaphet the Iles of the Gentiles wherof Britain is one were sorted into regions in the time of Phaleg the sonne of Hiber who was borne at the time of the
at large concluding in the end that the said passage of this prince into France is verie likelie to be true and that he named a parcell of Armorica lieng on the south and in manner vpon the verie loine after his owne name and also a citie which he builded there Britaine For saith he it should séeme by Strabo lib. 4. that there was a noble citie of that name long before his time in the said countrie whereof Plinie also speaketh lib. 4. cap. 7. albeit that he ascribe it vnto France after a disordered maner More I find not of this foresaid Brute sauing that he ruled the land a certeine time his father yet liuing and after his decease the tearme of twelue yeares and then died and was buried at Caerbranke now called Yorke LEill the sonne of Brute Greeneshield began to reigne in the yeare of the world 3021 the same time that Asa was reigning in Iuda and Ambri in Israell He built the citie now called Carleil which then after his owne name was called Caerleil that is Leill his citie or the citie of Leill He repaired also as Henrie Bradshaw saith the citie of Caerleon now called Chester which as in the same Bradshaw appeareth was built before Brutus entrie into this land by a giant named Leon Gauer But what authoritie he had to auouch this it may be doubted for Ranulfe Higden in his woorke intituled Polychronicon saith in plaine wordes that it is vnknowen who was the first founder of Chester but that it tooke the name of the soiourning there of some Romaine legions by whome also it is not vnlike that it might be first built by P. Ostorius Scapula who as we find after he had subdued Caratacus king of the Ordouices that inhabited the countries now called Lancashire Cheshire and Salopshire built in those parts and among the Silures certeine places of defense for the better harbrough of his men of warre and kéeping downe of such Britaines as were still readie to moue rebellion But now to the purpose concerning K. Leill We find it recorded that he was in the beginning of his reigne verie vpright and desirous to sée iustice executed and aboue all thinges loued peace quietnesse but as yeares increased with him so his vertues began to diminish in so much that abandoning the care for the bodie of the common-wealth he suffered his owne bodie to welter in all vice and voluptuousnesse and so procuring the hatred of his subiects caused malice and discord to rise amongst them which during his life he was neuer able to appease But leauing them so at variance he departed this life was buried at Carleil which as ye haue heard he had builded while he liued LUd or Ludhurdibras the sonne of Leill began to gouerne in the yeare of the world 3046. In the beginning of his reigne hée sought to appease the debate that was raised in his fathers daies and bring the realme to hir former quietnesse and after that he had brought it to good end he builded the towne of Kaerkin now called Canterburie also the towne of Caerguent now cleped Winchester and mount Paladour now called Shaftsburie About the building of which towne of Shaftsburie Aquila a prophet of the British nation wrote his prophesies of which some fragments remaine yet to be seene translated into the Latine by some ancient writers When this Lud had reigned 29. yeares he died and left a sonne behind him named Baldud BAldud the sonne of Ludhurdibras began to rule ouer the Britaines in the yeare of the world 3085. This man was well séene in the sciences of astronomie and nigromancie by which as the common report saith he made the hot bathes in the citie of Caerbran now called Bath But William of Malmesburie is of a contrarie opinion affirming that Iulius Cesar made those bathes or rather repaired them when he was here in England which is not like to be true for Iulius Cesar as by good coniecture we haue to thinke neuer came so farre within the land that way forward But of these bathes more shall be said in the description Now to procéed This Baldud tooke such pleasure in artificiall practises magike that he taught this art throughout all his realme And to shew his cunning in other points vpon a presumptuous pleasure which he had therein he tooke vpon him to flie in the aire but he fell vpon the temple of Apollo which stood in the citie of Troinouant and there was torne in péeces after he had ruled the Britaines by the space of 20. yeares LEir the sonne of Baldud was admitted ruler ouer the Britaines in the yeare of the world 3105 at what time Ioas reigned in Iuda This Leir was a prince of right noble demeanor gouerning his land and subiects in great wealth He made the towne of Caerleir now called Leicester which standeth vpon the riuer of Sore It is written that he had by his wife thrée daughters without other issue whose names were Gonorilla Regan and Cordeilla which daughters he greatly loued but specially Cordeilla the yoongest farre aboue the two elder When this Leir therefore was come to great yeres began to waxe vnweldie through age he thought to vnderstand the affections of his daughters towards him and preferre hir whome he best loued to the succession ouer the kingdome Whervpon he first asked Gonorilla the eldest how well she loued him who calling hir gods to record protested that she loued him more than hir owne life which by right and reason should be most déere vnto hir With which answer the father being well pleased turned to the second and demanded of hir how well she loued him who answered confirming hir saiengs with great othes that she loued him more than toong could expresse and farre aboue all other creatures of the world Then called he his yoongest daughter Cordeilla before him and asked of hir what account she made of him vnto whome she made this answer as followeth knowing the great loue and fatherlie zeale that you haue alwaies borne towards me for the which I maie not answere you otherwise than I thinke and as my conscience leadeth me I protest vnto you that I haue loued you euer and will continuallie while I liue loue you as my naturall father And if you would more vnderstand of the loue that I beare you assertaine your selfe that so much as you haue so much you are worth and so much I loue you and no more The father being nothing content with this answer married his two eldest daughters the one vnto Henninus the duke of Cornewall and the other vnto Maglanus the duke of Albania betwixt whome he willed and ordeined that his land should be diuided after his death and the one halfe thereof immediatlie should be assigned to them in hand but for the third daughter Cordeilla he reserued nothing Neuertheles it fortuned that one of the princes
report that he builded thrée temples one to Mars at Perth in Scotland another to Mercurie at Bangor and the third to Apollo in Cornewall Of Riuallus Gurgustius Sysillius Iago and Kinimacus rulers of Britaine by succession and of the accidents coincident with their times The seuenth Chapter RIuallus the sonne of Cunedag began to reigne ouer the Britaines in the yeare of the world 3203 before the building of Rome 15 Ioathan as then being king of Iuda and Phacea king of Israel This Riuall gouerned the Iland in great welth and prosperitie In his time it rained bloud by the space of thrée daies togither after which raine ensued such an excéeding number and multitude of flies so noisome and contagious that much people died by reason thereof When he had reigned 46 yeares he died and was buried at Caerbranke now called Yorke In the time of this Riuals reigne was the citie of Rome builded after concordance of most part of writers Perdix also a wizard and a learned astrologian florished and writ his prophesies and Herene also GUrgustius the son of the before named Riuall began to gouerne the Britaines in the yeare after the creation of the world 3249 and after the first foundation of Rome 33 Ezechias reigning in Iuda This Gurgustius in the chronicle of England is called Gorbodian the sonne of Reignold he reigned 37 yeares then departing this life was buried at Caerbranke now called Yorke by his father SYsillius or after some writers Syluius the brother of Gurgustius was chosen to haue the gouernance of Britaine in the yere of the world 3287 and after the building of Rome 71 Manasses still reigning in Iuda This Sysillius in the English chronicle is named Secill He reigned 49 yeares and then died and was buried at Carbadon now called Bath IAgo or Lago the cousin of Gurgustius as next inheritor to Sysillius tooke vpon him the gouernement of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3336 and after the building of Rome 120 in whose time the citie of Ierusalem was taken by Nabuchodonozar and the king of Iuda Mathania otherwise called Zedechias being slaine This Iago or Lago died without issue when he had reigned 28 yeares and was buried at Yorke KInimacus or Kinmarus the sonne of Sysillius as some write or rather the brother of Iago began to gouerne the land of Britain in the yere of the world 3364 and after the building of Rome 148 the Iewes as then being in the third yeare of their captiuitie of Babylon This Kinimacus departed this life after he had reigned 54 yeares and was buried at Yorke Of Gorbodug and his two sonnes Ferrex and Porrex one brother killeth another the mother slaieth hir sonne and how Britaine by ciuill warres for lacke of issue legitimate to the gouernment of a monarchie became a pentarchie the end of Brutes line The eight Chapter GOrbodug the sonne of Kinimacus began his reigne ouer the Britains in the yeare after the creation of the world 3418 from the building of the citie of Rome 202 the 58 of the Iews captiuitie at Babylon This Gorbodug by most likelihood to bring histories to accord should reigne about the tearme of 62 yeares and then departing this world was buried at London leauing after him two sonnes Ferrex and Porrex or after some writers Ferreus and Porreus FErrex with Porrex his brother began iointlie to rule ouer the Britaines in the yeare of the world 3476 after the building of Rome 260 at which time the people of Rome forsooke their citie in their rebellious mood These two brethren continued for a time in good friendship and amitie till at length through couetousnesse and desire of greater dominion prouoked by flatterers they fell at variance and discord whereby Ferrex was constreined to flée into Gallia and there purchased aid of a great duke called Gunhardus or Suardus and so returned into Britaine thinking to preuaile and obteine the dominion of the whole Iland But his brother Porrex was readie to receiue him with battell after he was landed in the which battell Ferrex was slaine with the more part of his people The English chronicle saith that Porrex was he that fled into France at his returne was slaine and that Ferrex suruiued But Geffrey of Monmouth Polychronicon are of a contrarie opinion Matthew Westmonasteriensis writeth that Porrex deuising waies to kill Ferrex atchiued his purpose and slue him But whether of them so euer suruiued the mother of them was so highlie offended for the death of him that was slaine whom the most intierlie loued that setting apart all motherlie affection she found the meanes to enter the chamber 〈◊〉 him that suruiued in the night season and as he slept the with the helpe of his maidens slue him and cut him into small péeces as the writers doo affirme Such was the end of these two brethren after they had reigned by the space of foure to fiue yeares After this followed a troublous season full of cruell warre and seditious discord wherby and in the end 〈◊〉 for the space of fiftie yeares the monarchie or sole gouernement of the Iland became 〈…〉 that is it was diuided betwixt fiue kings or rulers till Dunwallon of Cornewall ouercame them all Thus the line of Brute according to the report of most writers tooke an end for after the death of the two foresaid brethren no rightfull inheritor was left aliue to succéed them in the kingdome The names of these fiue kings are found in certeine old pedegrées and although the same be much corrupted in diuers copies yet these vnder named are the most agréeable But of these fiue kings or dukes the English chronicle alloweth Cloton king of Cornewall for most rightfull heires There appeareth noâ— any 〈◊〉 certeine by report of ancient author how long this variance continue 〈◊〉 amongst the Britains 〈◊〉 but as some say it lasted for the space of 51 yeres coniectyring so much by 〈…〉 recorded in Polychron who saith 〈…〉 till the beginning of the reigne of Dunwallon Mulmucius who began to gouerne 〈◊〉 the time that Brute first entred Britaine about the space of 703 thrée yeares ¶ Here ye must note that there is difference amongst writers about the suppâ—tation and account of these yeares Insomuch that some making their reckoning after certeine writers and finding the same to varie aboue thrée C. yeares are brought into further doubt of the truth at the whole historie but whereas other haue by â—aligent search tried out the continuance of euerie gouernors reigne and reduced the same to a likelihood of some conformitie I haue thought best to follow the same leauing the credit thereof with the first authors The pentarchie 1 Rudacus 2 Clotenus 3 Pinnor 4 Staterus 5 Yewan king of Wales Cornewall Loegria Albania Northumberland The end of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE of the Historie of England Of Mulmucius the first king of Britaine who was crowned with
may we the more boldlie procéed in this our historie In this season that Cassibellane had roiall gouernment héere in Britaine Caius Iulius Cesar being appointed by the senat of Rome to conquer Gallia was for that purpose created consull and sent with a mightie army into the countrie where after he had brought the Galles vnto some frame he determined to assaie the winning of Britaine which as yet the Romans knew not otherwise than by report The chiefest cause that mooued him to take in hand that enterprise was for that he did vnderstand that there dailie came great succours out of that I le to those Galles that were enimies vnto the Romans And though the season of that yéere to make warre was farre spent for summer was almost at an end yet he thought it would be to good purpose if he might but passe ouer thither and learne what maner of people did inhabit there and discouer the places hauens and entries apperteining to that I le Héerevpon calling togither such merchants as he knew to haue had traffike thither with some trade of wares he diligentlie inquired of them the state of the I le but he could not be throughlie satisfied in anie of those things that he coueted to know Therefore thinking it good to vnderstand all things by view that might apperteine to the vse of that warre which he purposed to follow before he attempted the same he sent one Caius Uolusenus with a gallie or light pinesse to surucie the coasts of the I le commanding him after diligent search made to returne with spéed to him againe He him selfe also drew downewards towards Bullenois from whence the shortest cut lieth to passe ouer into Britaine In that part of Gallia there was in those daies an hauen called Itius Portus which some take to be Calice and so the word importeth an harbourgh as then able to receiue a great number of ships Unto this hauen got Cesar all the ships he could out of the next borders parties and those speciallie which he had prouided and put in a readinesse the last yeare for the warres against them of Uannes in Armorica now called Britaine in France he caused to be brought thither there to lie till they should heare further In the meane time his indeuour being knowne and by merchants reported in Britaine all such as were able to beare armour were commanded and appointed to repaire to the sea side that they might be readie to defend their countrie in time of so great danger of inuasion ¶ Cesar in his commentaries agréeth not with our historiographers for he writeth that immediatlie vpon knowledge had that he would inuade Britaine there came to him ambassadours from diuers cities of the I le to offer themselues to be subiects to the Romans and to deliuer hostages Whome after he had exhorted to continue in their good mind he sent home againe and with them also one Comius gouernor of Artois commanding him to repaire vnto as manie cities in Britaine as he might and to exhort them to submit themselues to the Romans He maketh no mention of Cassibellane till the second iournie that he made into the I le at what time the said Cassibelane was chosen as ye shall heare to be the generall capteine of the Britains and to haue the whole administration of the warre for defense of the countrie but he nameth him not to be a king Howbeit in the British historie it is conteined that Cesar required tribute of Cassibelane and that he answered how he had not learned as yet to liue in seruage but to defend the libertie of his countrie and that with weapon in hand if néede were as he should well perceiue if blinded through couetousnesse he should aduenture to séeke to disquiet the Britains Caius Volusenus discouereth to Caesar his obseruations in the I le of Britaine he maketh haste to conquere it the Britains defend their countrie against him Caesar after consultation had changeth his landing place the Romans are put to hard shifts the Britains begin to giue backe the courage of a Roman ensigne-bearer a sharpe encounter betweene both armies The eleuenth Chapter CAius Uolusenus within fiue daies after his departure from Cesar returned vnto him with his gallie and decalred what he had séene touching the view which he had taken of the coasts of Britan Cesar hauing got togither so manie saile as he thought sufficient for the transporting of two legions of souldiers after he had ordered his businesse as he thought expedient and gotten a conuenient wind for his purpose did embarke himselfe and his people and departed from Calice in the night about the third watch which is about three or foure of the clocke after midnight giuing order that the horssemen should take ship at an other place 8 miles aboue Calice and follow him Howbeit when they somewhat slacked the time about ten of the clocke in the next day hauing the wind at will he touched on the coast of Britaine where he might behold all the shore set and couered with men of warre For the Britains hearing that Cesar ment verie shortlie to come against them were assembled in armour to resist him and now being aduertised of his approch to the land they prepared themselues to withstand him Cesar perceiuing this determined to staie till the other ships were come and so he lay at anchor till about 11 of the clocke and then called a councell of the marshals and chiefe capteines vnto whome he declared both what he had learned of Uolusenus and also further what he would haue doone willing them that all things might be ordered as the reason of warre required And because he perceiued that this place where he first cast anchor was not méete for the landing of his people sith from the heigth of the cliffes that closed on ech side the narrow créeke into the which he had thrust the Britains might annoy his people with their bowes and dartes before they could set foote on land hauing now the wind and tide with him he disanchored from thence and drew alongst the coast vnder the downes the space of 7 or 8 miles and there finding the shore more flat and plaine he approched néere to the land determining to come to the shore The Britains perceiuing Cesars intent with all spéed caused their horssemen and charets or wagons which Cesar calleth Esseda out of the which in those daies they vsed to fight to march forth toward the place whither they saw Cesar drew and after followed with their maine armie Wherefore Cesar being thus preuented inforced yet to land with his people though he saw that he should haue much a doo For as the Britains were in redinesse to resist him so his great and huge ships could not come néere the shore but were forced to kéepe the déepe so that the Romane soldiers were put to verie hard shift
as well for a conuenient wind as for other incidents certeine daies at length when the weather so changed that it serued his purpose he tooke the sea hauing with him fiue legions of souldiers and about two thousand horssemen he departed out of Calice hauen about sun setting with a soft southwest wind directing his course forward about midnight the wind fell so by a calme he was carried alongst with the tide so that in the morning when the day appéered he might behold Britaine vpon his left hand Then following the streame as the course of the tide changed he forced with â—ares to fetch the shore vpon that part of the coast which he had discouered and tried the last yeere to be the best landing place for the armie The diligence of the souldiers was shewed héere to be great who with continuall toile droue foorth the heauie ships to kéepe course with the gallies so at length they landed in Britaine about noone on the next day finding not one to resist his comming ashore for as he learned by certeine prisoners which were taken after his comming to land the Britains being assembled in purpose to haue resisted him through feare striken into their harts at the discouering of such an huge number of ships they forsooke the shore and got them vnto the mountaines There were in deed of vessels one and other what with vittellers those which priuat men had prouided and furnished foorth for their owne vse being ioined to the ordinarie number at the least eight hundred saile which appeering in sight all at one time made a wonderfull muster and right terrible in the eies of the Britains But to procéed Cesar being got to land incamped his armie in a place conuenient and after learning by the prisoners into what part the enimies were withdrawne he appointed one Quintus Atrius to remaine vpon the safegard of the nauie with ten companies or cohorts of footmen and three hundred horssemen and anon after midnight marched foorth himselfe with the residue of his people toward the Britains and hauing made 12 miles of way he got sight of his enimies host who sending downe their horssemen and charets vnto the riuer side skirmished with the Romans meaning to beate them backe from the higher ground but being assailed of the Romane horssemen they were repelled tooke the woods for their refuge wherein they had got a place verie strong both by nature and helpe of hand which as was to be thought had béene fortified before in time of some ciuill warre amongst them for all the entries were closed with trées which had béene cut downe for that purpose Howbeit the souldiers of the 7 legion casting a trench before them found meanes to put backe the Britains from their defenses and so entring vpon them droue them out of the woods But Cesar would not suffer the Romans to follow the Britains bicause the nature of the countrie was not knowne vnto them and againe the day was farre spent so that he would haue the residue thereof bestowed in fortifieng his campe The next day as he had sent foorth such as should haue pursued the Britains word came to him from Quintus Atrius that his nauie by rigour of a sore and hideous tempest was gréeuouslie molested and throwne vpon the shore so that the cabels and tackle being broken and destroied with force of the vnmercifull rage of wind the maisters and mariners were not able to helpe the matter Cesar calling backe those which he had sent foorth returned to his ships and finding them in such state as he had heard tooke order for the repairing of those that were not vtterlie destroied and caused them so to be drawne vp to the land that with a trench he might so compasse in a plot of ground that might serue both for defense of his ships and also for the incamping of those men of warre which he should leaue to attend vpon the safegard of the same And bicause there were at the least a fortie ships lost by violence of this tempest so as there was no hope of recouerie in them he saw yet how the rest with great labour and cost might be repaired wherefore he chose out wrights among the legions sent for other into Gallia and wrote ouer to such as he had left there in charge with the gouernment of the countrie to prouide so manie ships as they could and to send them ouer vnto him He spent a ten daies about the repairing of his nauie and in fortifieng the campe for defense thereof which done he left those within it that were appointed there before and then returned towards his enimies At his comming backe to the place where he had before incamped he found them there readie to resist him hauing their numbers hugelie increased for the Britains hearing that he was returned with such a mightie number of ships assembled out of all parts of the land and had by general consent appointed the whole rule and order of all things touching the warre vnto Cassiuellane or Cassibelane whose dominion was diuided from the cities situat néere to the sea coast by the riuer of Thames 80 miles distant from the sea coast This Cassibellane before time had bin at continuall warre with other rulers and cities of the land but now the Britains moued with the comming of the Romans chose him to be chiefe gouernour of all their armie permitting the order and rule of all things touching the defense of their countrie against the Romans onelie to him Their horssemen and charets skirmished by the waie with the Romans but so as they were put backe oftentimes into the woods and hills adioining yet the Britains slue diuers of the Romans as they followed anie thing egerlie in the pursute Also within a while after as the Romans were busie in fortifieng their campe the Britains suddenlie issued out of the woods and fierselie assailed those that warded before the campe vnto whose aid Cesar sent two of the chiefest cohorts of two legions the which being placed but a little distance one from another when the Romans began to be discouraged with this kind of fight the Britains therewith burst through their enimies and came backe from thence in safetie That daie Quintus Laberius Durus a tribune was slaine At length Cesar sending sundrie other cohorts to the succour of his people that were in fight and shrewdlie handled as it appéered the Britains in the end were put backe Neuerthelesse that repulse was but at the pleasure of fortune for they quited themselues afterwards like men defending their territories with such munition as they had vntill such time as either by policie or inequalitie of power they were vanquished as you shall sée after in the course of the historie Howbeit in fine they were ouer-run and vtterlie subdued but not without much bloudshed and slaughter The Romans heauie armor their great hinderance the maner of the Britains fighting in warre their incounter with
their enimies their discomfiture the worthie stratagems or martiall exploits of Cassibellane the Troinouants submission to Caesar and their sute touching Mandubratius manie of the Britains are taken and slaine of the Romans The xv Chapter IN all this maner of skirmishing and fight which chanced before the campe euen in the sight and view of all men it was perceiued that the Romans by reason of their heauie armour being not able either to follow the Britains as they retired or so bold as to depart from their ensignes except they would runne into danger of casting themselues awaie were nothing méete to match with such kind of enimies and as for their horssemen they fought likewise in great hazard bicause the Britains would oftentimes of purpose retire and when they had trained the Romane horssemen a litle from their legions of footmen they would leape out of their charrets and incounter with them on foot And so the battell of horssemen was dangerous and like in all points whether they pursued or retired This also was the maner of the Britains they fought not close togither but in sunder and diuided into companies one separated from another by a good distance and had their troopes standing in places conuenient to the which they might retire and so reléeue one another with sending new fresh men to supplie the roomes of them that were hurt or wearie The next day after they had thus fought before the campe of the Romans they shewed themselues aloft on the hills and began to skirmish with the Romane horssemen but not so hotlie as they had doone the day before But about noone when Cesar had sent foorth thrée legions of footemen and all his horssemen vnder the leading of his lieutenant Caius Trebonius to fetch in forrage they suddenlie brake out on euerie side and set vpon the forragers The Romans so far foorth as they might not breaking their arraie nor going from their ensignes or guidons gaue the charge on them and fiercelie repelled them so that the horssemen hauing the legions of footemen at their backs followed the Britains so long as they might haue the said legions in sight readie to succour them if need were by reason whereof they slue a great number of the Britains not giuing them leasure to recouer themselues nor to staie that they might haue time to get out of their charrets After this chase and discomfiture all such as were come from other parties to the aid of their fellowes departed home after that day the Britains aduentured to fight against Cesar with their maine power and withdrawing beyond the riuer of Thames determined to stop the enimies from passing the same if by anie meanes they might and whereas there was but one foord by the which they might come ouer Cassibellane caused the same to be set full of sharpe stakes not onlie in the middest of the water but also at the comming foorth on that side where he was lodged with his armie in good order readie to defend the passage Cesar learning by relation of prisoners which he tooke what the Britains intended to doo marched foorth to the riuer side where the foord was by the which his armie might passe the same on foot though verie hardlie At his comming thither he might perceiue how the Britains were readie on the further side to impeach his passage and how that the banke at the comming foorth of the water was pight full of sharpe stakes and so likewise was the chanell of the riuer set with piles which were couered with the water These things yet staied not Cesar who appointing his horssemen to passe on before commanded the footemen to follow The souldiers entring the water waded through with such spéed and violence nothing appéering of them aboue water but their heads that the Britains were constreined to giue place being not able to susteine the brunt of the Romane horssemen and the legions of their footemen and so abandoning the place betooke them to flight Cassibellane not minding to trie the matter anie more by battell sent awaie the most part of his people but yet kept with him about a foure thousand charretmen or wagoners and still watched what waie the Romans tooke coasting them euer as they marched and kept somewhat aside within the couert of woods and other combersome places And out of those quarters through which he vnderstood the Romans word passe he gathered both men and cattell into the woods thicke forrests leauing nothing of value abroad in the champion countrie And when the Roman horssemen did come abroad into the countrie to séeke booties he sent out his charrets vnto the knowne waies and passages to skirmish with the same horssemen so much to the disaduantage of the Romans that they durst not straie farre from their maine armie Neither would Cesar permit them least they might haue béene vtterlie distressed by the Britains to depart further than the maine battels of the footemen kept pace with them by reason whereof the countrie was not indamaged by fire and spoile but onlie 〈◊〉 the armie marched In the meane time the Troinouants which some take to be Middlesex Essex men whose citie was the best fensed of all those parties and thought to be the same that now is called London sent ambassadours vnto Cesar offering to submit themselues vnto him and to obeie his ordinances and further besought him to defend Mandubratius from the iniuries of K. Cassibellane which Mandubratius had fled vnto Cesar into France after that Cassibellane had slaine his father named Imanuentius that was chiefe lord and king of the Troinouants and so now by their ambassadors the same Troinouants requested Cesar not onelie to receiue Mandubratius into his protection but also to send him vnto them that he might take the gouernment and rule of their citie into his hands Cesar commanded them to deliuer vnto him 40 hostages and graine for his armie and therewith sent Mandubratius vnto them The Troinouants accomplished his commandements with all spéed sending both the appointed number of hostages and also graine for the armie And being thus defended and preserued from iniurie of the souldiers the people called Cenimagni Segontiaci Ancalites Bibroci and Cassi submitted themselues vnto Cesar by whom he vnderstood that the towne of Cassibellane was not far from the place where he was then incamped fensed with wooddes and marishes into the which a great number of people with their cattell and other substance was withdrawne The Britains in those daies as Cesar writeth called that a towne or hold which they had fortified with anie thicke combersome wood with trench and rampire into the which they vsed to get themselues for the auoiding of inuasion Cesar with his legions of souldiers therfore marched thither and finding the place verie strong both by nature and helpe of hand assaulted it on two partes The Britains defending their strength a while at length not able longer to endure the
the sharpe points of the Romans weapons and the force of them by whom they had so often béene put to flight In manie legions saith he the number is small of them that win the battell Their glorie therefore should be the more for that they being a small number should win the fame due to the whole armie if they would thronging togither bestow their weapons fréelie and with their swoords and targets preasse forward vpon their enimies continuing the slaughter without regard to the spoile they might assure themselues when the victorie was once atchiued to haue all at their pleasures Such forwardnesse in the souldiers followed vpon this exhortation of the couragious generall that euerie one prepared himselfe so readilie to doo his dutie and that with such a shew of skill and experience that Suetonius hauing conceiued an assured hope of good lucke to follow caused the trumpets to sound to the battell The onset was giuen in the straits greatlie to the aduantage of the Romans being but a handfull in comparison to their enimies The fight in the beginning was verie sharpe and cruell but in the end the Britains being a let one to another by reason of the narrownesse of the place were not able to susteine the violent force of the Romans their enimies so that they were constreind to giue backe and so being disordered were put to flight and vtterlie discomfited There were slaine of the Britains that day few lesse than 80000 thousand as Tacitus writeth For the straits being stopped with the charrets staied the flight of the Britains so as they could not easilie escape and the Romans were so set on reuenge that they spared neither man nor woman so that manie were slaine in the battell manie amongst the charrets and a great number at the woods side which way they made their flight and manie were taken prisoners Those that escaped would haue fought a new battell but in the meane time Uoadicia or Bonuica deceassed of a naturall infirmitie as Dion Cassius writeth but other say that she poisoned hir selfe and so died because she would not come into the hands of hir bloodthirstie enimies There died of the Romans part in this most notable battell 400 and about the like number were grieuouslie hurt and most pitifullie wounded Penius Posthumus maister of the campe of the second legion vnderstanding the prosperous successe of the other Romane capteins because he had defrauded his legion of the like glorie and had refused to obeie the commandements of the generall contrarie to the vse of warre slue himselfe After this all the Romane armie was brought into the field to make an end of the residue of the warre And the emperour caused a supplie to be sent out of Germanie being 2000 legionarie souldi ers and 8 bands of aids with 1000 horssemen by whose comming the bands of the ninth legion were supplied with legionarie souldiers and those bands and wings of horssemen were appointed to places where they might winter and such people of the Britains as were either enimies or else stood in doubt whether to be friends or enimies in déed were persecuted with fire and sword But nothing more afflicted them than famine for whilest euerie man gaue himselfe to the warre and purposed to haue liued vpon the prouision of the Romans and other their enimies they applied not themselues to tillage nor to anie husbanding of the ground and long it was yer they being a fierce kind of people fell to embrace peace by reason that Iulius Cassicianus who was sent into Britaine as successor to Catus fell at square with Suetonius and by his priuat grudge hindered the prosperous successe of publike affaires He sticked not to write to Rome that except an other were sent to succéed in the roome that Suetonius did beare there would be no end of the warres Herevpon one Polycletus which sometime had béene a bondman was sent into Britaine as a commissioner to surueie the state of the countrie to reconcile the legat and procurator also to pacifie all troubles within the I le The port which Polycletus bare was great for he was furnished with no small traine that attended vpon him so that his presence seemed verie dreadfull to the Romans But the Britains that were not yet pacified thought great scorne to see such honorable capteins and men of warre as the Romans were to submit themselues to the order of such a one as had béene a bondslaue In what state the Iland stood whiles Aruiragus reigned the dissolute and loose gouernement of Petronius Turpilianus Trebellius Maximus and Victius Volanus three lieutenants in Britaine for the Romane emperours of Iulius Frontinus who vanquished the Silures The xiiij Chapter IN place of Suetonius was Petronius Turpilianus who had latelie béene consull appointed to haue the gouernance of the armie in Britaine the which neither troubling the enimie nor being of the enimie in anie wise troubled or prouoked did colour slouthfull rest with the honest name of peace and quietnesse and so sat still without exploiting anie notable enterprise AFter Turpilianus Trebellius Maximus was made lieutenant of Britaine who likewise with courteous demeanous sought to kéepe the Britains in rest rather than by force to compell them And now began the people of the I le to beare with pleasant faults and flattering vices so that the ciuill warres that chanced in those daies after the death of the emperour Nero at home might easilie excuse the slouthfulnesse of the Romane lieutenants Moreouer there rose dissention amongest their men of warre which being vsed to lie abroad in the field could not agrée with the idle life so that Trebellius Maximus was glad to hide himselfe from the sight of the souldiers being in an vprore against him till at length humbling himselfe vnto them further than became his estate he gouerned by waie of intreatie or rather at their courtesie And so was the commotion staied without bloudshed the armie as it were hauing by couenant obteined to liue licentiouslie and the capteine suertie to liue without danger to be murthered NEither Uictius Uolanus that succéeded Maximus whilest the time of the ciuill warres as yet endured did trouble the Britains vsing the same slacknesse and slouth that the other lieutenants had vsed before him and permitted the like licence to the presumptuous souldiers but yet was Uolanus innocent as touching himselfe and not hated for anie notable crime or vice so that he purchased fauour although authoritie wanted But after that the emperour Uespasianus had subdued his aduersaries and atteined the imperiall gouernment as well ouer Britaine as ouer other parts of the world there were sent hither right noble capteins with diuers notable bands of souldiers and Petilius Cerialis being appointed lieutenant put the Britains in great feare by inuading the Brigants the mightiest nation of all the whole Iland and fighting manie battels and some right bloudie with those people he subdued a great part
were so that the same was verie sore disquieted and vexed by tempest and rage of weather Wherevpon finding no great let or hinderance by the enimies he builded certeine castels and fortresses which he placed in such conuenient stéeds that they greatlie annoied his aduersaries and were so able to be defended that there was none of those castels which he builded either woon by force out of the Romans hands or giuen ouer by composition for feare to be taken so that the same beeing furnished with competent numbers of men of warre were safelie kept from the enimies the which were dailie vexed by the often issues made foorth by the souldiers that laie thus in garrison within them so that where in times past the said enimies would recouer their losses susteined in summer by the winters aduantage now they were put to the woorse and kept backe as well in the winter as in the summer In the fourth summer after that Agricola was appointed vnto the rule of this land he went about to bring vnder subiection those people the which before time he had by incursions and forreies sore vexed and disquieted and therevpon comming to the waters of Clide and Loughleuen he built certeine fortresses to defend the passages and entries there driuing the enimies beyond the same waters as it had beene into a new Iland In the fift summer Agricola causing his ships to be brought about and appointing them to arriue on the north coasts of Scotland he passed with his armie ouer the riuer of Clide and subdued such people as inhabited those further parts of Scotland which till those daies had not beene discouered by the Romans And bicause he thought it should serue well to purpose for some conquest to be made of Ireland if that part of Scotland which bordereth on the Irish seas might be kept in due obedience he placed garrisons of souldiers in those parties in hope verelie vpon occasion to passe ouer into Ireland and for the more easie aduancement of his purpose therein he interteined with honourable prouision one of the kings of Ireland which by ciuill discord was expelled and driuen out of his countrie In déed Agricola perceiued that with one legion of souldiers and a small aid of other men of warre it should be an easie matter to conquer Ireland and to bring it vnder the dominion of the Romans which enterprise he iudged verie necessarie to be exploited for better kéeping of the Britains in obedience if they should sée the iurisdiction of the Romans euerie where extended and the libertie of their neighbours suppressed In the sixt summer of Agricola his gouernment he proceeded in subduing the furthermost parts of Scotland northwards causing his nauie to kéepe course against him by the coast as he marched foorth by land so that the Britains perceiuing how the secret hauens and créekes of their countries were now discouered and that all hope of refuge was in maner cut off from them were in maruellous feare On the other part the Romans were sore troubled with the rough mounteins and craggie rocks by the which they were constreined to passe beside the dangerous riuers lakes woods streicts and other combersome waies and passages The danger also of them that were in the ships by sea was not small by reason of winds and tempests and high spring tides which tossed and turmoiled their vessels verie cruellie but by the painfull diligence of them that had béene brought vp and inured with continuall trauell and hardnesse all those discommodities were ouercome to their great reioising when they met and fell in talke of their passed perils For oftentimes the armie by land incamped so by the shore that those which kept the sea came on land to make merrie in the campe and then ech one would recount to others the aduentures that had happened as the manner is in semblable cases The Britains of Calenderwood assalt the Romans vpon aduantage bloudie battels fought betwixt them great numbers slaine on both sides the villanous dealing of certeine Dutch souldiers against their capteins and fellowes in armes the miserie that they were driuen vnto by famine to eate one another a sharpe conflict betweene the Romans and Britains with the losse of manie a mans life and effusion of much bloud The xvij Chapter THe Britains that inhabited in those daies about the parts of Calenderwood perceiuing in what danger they were to be vtterlie subdued assembled themselues togither in purpose to trie the fortune of battell whereof Agricola being aduertised marched foorth with his armie diuided in three battels so that the enimies doubting to trie the matter in open field espied their time in the night and with all their whole puissance set vpon one of the Romane legions which they knew to be most féeble and weake trusting by a camisado to distresse the same and first sleaing the watch they entred the campe where the said legion laie and finding the souldiers in great disorder betwixt sléepe and feare began the fight euen within the campe Agricola had knowledge of their purposed intent and therefore with all spéed hasted foorth to come to the succours of his people sending first his light horssemen and certeine light armed footmen to assaile the enimies on their backs and shortlie after approched with his whole puissance so that the Romane standards beginning to appéere in sight by the light of the daie that then began to spring the Britains were sore discouraged and the Romans renewing their force fiercelie preassed vpon them so that euen in the entrie of the campe there was a sore conflict till at length the Britains were put to flight and chased so that if the mareshes and woods had not saued them from the pursute of the Romans there had beene an end made of the whole warre euen by that one daies worke But the Britains escaping as well as they might and reputing the victorie to haue chanced not by the valiancie of the Romane soldiers but by occasion and the prudent policie of their capteine were nothing abashed with that their present losse but prepared to put their youth againe into armour and therevpon they remooued their wiues and children into safe places and then assembling the chiefest gouernours togither concluded a league amongst themselues ech to aid other confirming their articles with dooing of sacrifice as the manner in those daies was The same summer a band of such Dutch or Germaine souldiers as had béene leuied in Germanie sent ouer into Britaine to the aid of the Romans attempted a great and woonderfull act in sleaing their capteine and such other of the Romane souldiers which were appointed to haue the training and leading of them as officers and instructors to them in the feats of warre and when they had committed that murther they got into thrée pinesses and became rouers on the coasts of Britaine and incountring with diuerse of the Britains that were readie to defend their countrie from
how they had sped nor one suffered to liue after anothers death either to reuenge their ruine or to lement their losse Thus were the limits of the Romane empire preserued at that time in Britaine which should séeme to be about the yéere of our Lord 399. ¶ Thus were the Romans as commonlie in all their martiall affaires so in this incounter verie fortunate the happie issue of the conflict faling out on their side And strange it is to consider and marke how these people by a celestiall kind of influence were begotten and borne as it were to prowesse and renowme the course of their dealings in the field most aptlie answering to their name For as some suppose the Romans were called of the Gréeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieng power and mightinesse and in old time they were called Ualentians A valendo of preuailing so that it was no maruell though they were victorious subduers of forren people sithens they were by nature created and appointed to be conquerors and thereof had their denomination What the poet Claudianus saith of the state of Britaine in the decaie of the Romane empire of the Scots and Picts cruellie vexing the Britains they are afflicted by inuasion of barbarous nations the practise of the Saxons of the Scots first comming into this Iland and from whence the Scotish chronographers noted for curiositie and vanitie The xxxv Chapter AFter this in the time of the emperour Honorius the Scots Picts and Saxons did eftsoones inuade the frontiers of the Romane prouince in Britaine as appéereth by that which the poet Claudianus writeth in attributing the honour of preseruing the same frontiers vnto the said emperour in his booke intituled Panegerycus tertij consulatus which fell in the yéere 396 as thus Ille leues Mauros nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit Scotúmque vago mucrone secutus Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus vndas Et geminis fulgens vtróque sub axe tropheis Tethyos alternae refluas calcauit arenas The nimble Mores and Picts by right so cald he hath subdude And with his wandring swoord likewise the Scots he hath pursude He brake with bold couragious oare the Hyperborean waue And shining vnder both the poles with double trophies braue He marcht vpon the bubling sands of either swelling seas The same Caladianus vpon the fourth consulship of Honorius saith in a tetrastichon as followeth Quid rigor aeternus caeli quid frigora prosunt Ignotúmque fretum maduerunt Saxons fuso Orcades incaluit Pictonum sanguine Thule Sootorum cumulos fleuit glacialis Hyberne What lasting cold what did to them the frostlie climats gaine And sea vnknowne be moisted all with bloud of Saxons slaine The Orknies were with bloud of Picts hath Thule waxed warme And ysie Ireland hath bewaild the heaps of Scotish harme The same praise giueth he to Stilico the sonne in law of Honorius and maketh mention of a legion of souldiers sent for out of Britaine in the periphrasis or circumlocution of the Gotish bloudie warres Venit extremis legio praetenta Britannis Quae Scoto dat fraena truci ferróque notatas Perleget exanimes Picto moriente figuras A legion eke there came from out the farthest Britains bent Which brideled hath the Scots so sterne and marks with iron brent Vpon their liuelesse lims doth read whiles Picts their liues relent He rehearseth the like in his second Panegerycus of Stilico in most ample and pithie manner insuing Inde Calidonio velata Britannia monstro Ferro Picta genas cuius vestigia verrit Caerulus OceanÃque aestum mentitur amictus Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus inquit Muniuit Stilico totam quum Scotus Hybernam Mouit infesto spumauit remige Thetis Illius effectum curis ne bella timerem Scotica ne Pictum tremerem ne littore toto Prospicerem dubijs venturum Saxona ventis Then Britaine whom the monsters did of Calidone surround Whose cheekes were pearst with scorching steele whose garments swept the ground Resembling much the marble hew of ocean seas that boile Said She whom neighbour nations did conspire to bring to spoile Hath Stilico munited strong when raisd by Scots entice All Ireland was and enimies ores the salt sea fome did slice His care hath causd that I all feare of Scotish broiles haue bard Ne doo I dread the Picts ne looke my countrie coasts to gard Gainst Saxon troops whom changing winds sent sailing hitherward Thus maie it appéere that in the time when the Romane empire began to decaie in like manner as other parts of the same empire were inuaded by barbarous nations so was that part of Britaine which was subiect to the Romane emperors grieuouslie assailed by the Scots and Picts and also by the Saxons the which in those daies inhabiting all alongst the sea coasts of low Germanie euen from the Elbe vnto the Rhine did not onelie trouble the sea by continuall rouing but also vsed to come on land into diuerse parts of Britaine and Gallia inuading the countries and robbing the same with great rage and crueltie To the which Sidonius Apollinaris thus alludeth writing to Namatius The messenger did assuredlie affirme that latelie ye blew the trumpet to warre in your nation and betwixt the office one while of a mariner and another while of a souldier wasted about the crooked shores of the ocean sea against the fléet of the Saxons of whome as manie rouers as ye behold so manie archpirats ye suppose to sée so doo they altogither with one accord command obeie teach and learne to plaie the parts of rouers that euen now there is good occasion to warne you to beware This enimie is more cruell than all other enimies He assaileth at vnwares he escapeth by forseeing the danger afore hand he despiseth those that stand against him he throweth downe the vnwarie if he be followed he snappeth them vp that pursue him if he flée he escapeth Of like effect for proofe hâ—ereof be those verses which he wrote vnto Maiorianus his panegyrike oration following in Latine and in English verse Tot maria intraâ—â—â— duce te longéque remotas Sole sub occiduo gentes victricia Caesar Signa Calidonios transuexit ad vsque Britannos Fuderiâ— quanquam Scotum cum Saxone Pictum Hostesquaesiuit quem iam natura vetabat Quâ—erere plus homines c. So manie seas Lontred haue and nations farre by west By thy conduct and Caesar hath his banners borne full prest Vnto the furthest British coast where Calidonians dwell The Scot and Pict with Saxons eke 〈◊〉 though he subdued fell Yet would he enimies seeke vnknowne whom nature had forbid c. ¶ Thus much haue we thought good to gather out of the Romane and other writers that ye might perceiue the state of Britaine the better in that time of the decaie of the Romane empire and that ye might haue occasion to marke by the waie how not onelie the Scots but also the Saxons
After him succéeded a sonne whom he left behind him who being attentiue rather to defend than to inlarge his kingdome neuer set foot out of his fathers bounds during the space of 24 yéeres in the which he reigned About thrée yéeres after the deceasse of Hengist a new supplie of men of warre came out of Germanie vnto the aid of Ella king of Sussex who hauing his power increased besieged the citie of Andredescester which was verie strong and well furnished with men and all things necessarie The Britains also assembling togither in companies greatlie annoied the Saxons as they lay there at â—â—ege laieng ambushes to destroie such as went abroad and ceassing not to giue alarums to the campe in the night season and the Saxons could no sooner prepare them selues to giue the assalt but the Britains were readie to assaile them on the backs till at length the Saxons diuiding themselues into two companies appointed the one to giue the assalt and the other to incounter with the armie of the Britains without and so finallie by that meanes preuailed tooke the citie and destroied man woman and child Neither so contented they did also vtterlie race the said citie so as it was neuer after that daie builded or readified againe The east Angles kingdome beginneth the arriuall of Cerdic and Kenric with fiue ships of warre in this land he putteth the Britains to flight the west Saxons kingdom begineth Vter Pendragon made king of Britaine the etymon of his name he taketh Occa and Osca the two sonnes of Hengist prisoners how Hector Boetius varieth from other chronographers in the relation of things concerning Pendragon he falleth in loue with the duke of Cornewalls wife killeth him and marieth hir Occa and Osca escape out of prison they freshlie assault the Britains they are both slaine in a foughten field the Saxons send and looke for aid out of Germanie Pendragon is poisoned The tenth Chapter MOreouer in the daies of the afore-named Aurelius Ambrosius about the yeare of our Lord 561 the kingdome of the east Angles began vnder a Saxon named Uffa This same kingdome conteined Northfolke and Suffolke hauing on the east and north parts the sea on the northwest Cambridgeshire and on the west saint Edmunds ditch with a part of Hertfordshire and on the southside lieth Essex At the first it was called Uffines dominion and the kings that reigned or the people the inhabited there ware at the first named Uffines but at length they were called east Angles FUrthermore about the yeare of our Lord 495 and in the eight yeare after that Hengist was dead one Cerdicus and his sonne Kenricus came out of Gerrmanie with fiue ships and landed at a place called Cerdicshore which as some thinke is called Yermouth in Northfolke He was at the first receiued with battell by the Britains but being an old skilfull warriour he easilie beate backe and repelled the inconstant multitude of his enimies and caused them to flée by which good successe he procured both vndoubted assurance to himselfe for the time to come and to the inhabitants good and perfect quietnes For they thinking good neuer after to prouoke him more by resistance submitted themselues to his pleasure but yet did not he then giue himselfe to slouthfull rest but rather extending his often atchiued victories on ech side in the 24 yeare after his comming into this land he obteined the rule of the west parts thereof and gouerned there as king so that the kingdome of the west Saxons began vnder the said Cerdicus in the 519 of Christ as after shall be shewed ¶ Thus ye maie sée that Aurelius Ambrosius did succéed Uortigerne and reigned in the time supposed by the British histories as before is alledged the land euen in his daies was full of trouble and the old inhabitants the Britains sore vexed by the Saxons that entred the same so that the Britains were dailie hampered and brought vnder subiection to the valiant Saxons or else driuen to remooue further off and to giue place to the victors But now to procéed with the succession of the British kings as in their histories we find them registred which I deliuer such as I find but not such as I doo wish being written with no such colour of credit as we maie safelie put foorth same for an vndoubted truth After that Aurelius Ambrosius was dead his brother Uter Pendragon whome some call Aurelius Uterius Ambrosianus was made king in the yeare of our Lord 500 in the seuenth yeare of the emperour Anastasius and in the sixtéenth yeare of Clodoueus king of the Frenchmen The cause why he was surnamed Pendragon was for that Merline the great prophet likened him to a dragons head that at the time of his natiuitie maruelouslie appeared in the firmament at the corner of a blasing star as is reported But others supposed he was so called of his wisedome and serpentine subiltie or for that he gaue the dragons head in his banner This Uter hearing that the Saxons with their capteins Occa or Otta the sonne of Hengist and his brother Osca had besieged the citie of Yorke hasted thither and giuing them battell discomfited their power and tooke the said Occa and Osca prisoners From this varieth Hector Boetius in his chronicle of Scotland writing of these dooing in Britaine for he affirmeth that the counterfeit moonke which poisoned Aurelius Ambrosius was suborned and sent to woorke that feat by Occa and not by his brother Pascentius and further that about the selfesame time of Aurelius his death his brother Uter Pendragon lay in Wales not as yet fullie recouered of a sore sicknesse wherewith of late he had béene much vexed Yet the lords of Britaine after the buriall of Aurelius Ambrosius came vnto him and crowned him king and though he was not able to go against the Saxons which as then by reason of Aurelius Ambrosius his death were verie busie and more earnest in pursuing the warre than before yet an armie was prepared and sent foorth with all conuenient spéed vnder the leading of one Nathaliod a man neither of anie great ancient house nor yet of skill in warlike affaires The noble men were nothing pleased herewith as misliking altogither the lacke of discretion in their new king doubted sore least in time to come he would haue more delight to aduance the men of base degrée than such as were descended of noble parentage Yet because they would not put the state of the common wealth in danger through anie mutinie they agréed to go foorth with him in that iournie Occa had aduertisement giuen him by certeine letters sent to him from some close friends amongest the Britains of the whole matter and therefore in hope of the better spéed he hasted foorth to incounter the Britains and so the whole armie comming within sight of the other they prepared to the battell and shortlie after buckling togither the Britains were soone
discomfited by reason that one of their chiefest capteins called Gothlois disdaining to be at the appointment of Nathaliod got him vp to the next hill with the next battell which he led leauing the other Britains in all the danger which they séeing began by by to flée There died no great number of the Britains except those that were killed in the fight for Occa mistrusting what Gothlois meant by his withdrawing aside would not suffer the Saxons to follow the chase but in the night following Gothlois got him awaie and rested not till he was out of danger Occa then perceiuing himslefe to haue the vpper hand sent an herald vnto king Uter with a certeine message threatning destruction to him and to his people if he refused to doo that which he should appoint Uter perceiuing what disloialtie rested in the harts of his owne subiects agréed that the matter might be committed to eight graue and wise courrestors foure Britains and foure Saxons which might haue full power to make an end of all controuersies and variances depending betwixt the two nations Occa was likewise contented therewith wherevpon were named on either part foure persons of such wisedome knowledge and experience as were thought meetest for the ordering of such a weightie matter So that by the arbitrement award and doome of those eight persons authorised thereto a league was concluded vpon certeine articles of agreement amongst the which the chiefest was that the Saxons from thencefoorth should quietlie inioy all that part of Britaine which lieth fore against the Almaine seas the same to be called euer after Engistlaund and all the residue should remaine to the Britains as their owne rightfull and ancient inheritance Thus far Hector Boetius But now to returne vnto Uter according to that we find in the British histories and to procéed after our owne historians we find that when he had vanquished the Saxons and taken their two chiefeteins prisoners in processe of time he fell in loue with a verie beautifull ladie called Igwarne or Igerna wife to one Gorolus or Gorlois duke of Cornewall the which duke he slue at length neere to his owne castell called Diuulioc in Cornewell to the end that he might inioy the said ladie whome he afterwards maried and begot on hir that noble knight Arthur and a daughter named Amie or Anna Occa and Osca escaping also out of prison assembled eftsoones a poer of Saxons and made warre against the Britains whereof Uter hauing aduertisement prepared to resist them and finallie went himselfe in person against them and at saint Albans as some write gaue them battell and slue them both in the field By that which Polydor Virgil writeth it should séeme that Germane the bishop of Auxerre came into Britaine in the daies of this Uter by whose presence the Britains had victorie against the Saxons as before ye haue heard after which victorie both rested from troubling either other for a time The Saxons as it were astonied with that present miracle the Britains not following their good successe shortlie after fell at discord amongst themselues which finallie brought them to vtter decaie as after shall appeare But the Saxons desirous to spoile the Britains of the whole possession of that part of the Ile which they held whereas they accounted the cities and townes of small strength to be defended they got them to an high mounteine called Badon hill which Polydor supposeth to be Blackamore that lieth néere to the water of Theise which diuideth the bishoprike of Durham from Yorkeshire hauing at the mouth thereof an hauen méet to receiue such ships as come out of Germanie from whence the Saxons looked for aid hauing alreadie sent thither for the same The Britains being thereof aduertised made hast towards the place and besieged it on euerie side They also laie the sea coasts full of souldiers to kéepe such of the enimies from landing as should come out of Germanie The Saxons kept themselues for a certeine space aloft vpon the high ground but in the end constreined through want of vittels they came downe with their armie in order of battell to the next plaines and offering to fight the battell was anon begun which continued from the morning till far in the day with such slaughter that the earth on euerie side flowed with bloud but the Saxons susteined the greater losse their capteins Occa and Osca being both slaine so that the Britains might séeme quite deliuered of all danger of those enimies but the fatall destinie could not be auoided as hereafter may appeare And thus was the slaughter made of the Saxons at Badon hill whereof Gyldas maketh mention and chanced the same yeare that he was borne which was in the 44 yeare after the first comming of the Saxons into this land the yeare of Grace 492 15 indiction About the same time Uter departed out of this life saith Polydor so that this account agréeth nothing with the common account of those authors whome Fabian and other haue followed For either we must presuppose that Uter reigned before the time appointed to him by the said authors either else that the siege of Badon hill was before he began to reigne as it should séeme in déed by that which Wil. Malmesburie writeth thereof as hereafter shall be also shewed Finallie according to the agréement of the English writers Uter Pendragon died by poison when he had gouerned this land by the full terme of 16 years was after buried by his brother Aurelius at Stoneheng otherwise called Chorea Gigantum leauing his sonne Arthur to succéed him ¶ Here ye must note that the Scotish chronicles declare that in all the warres for the more part wherein the Britains obteined victorie against the Saxons the Scots aided them in the same warres and so likewise did the Picts but the same chronicles doo not onelie varie from the British writers in account of yeares but also in the order of things doone as in the same chronicles more plainelie may appeare namelie in the discourse of the accidents which chanced during the reigne of this Uter For whereas the British histories as ye haue heard attribute great praise vnto the same Uter for his victories atchiued against the Saxons and their king Occa whome he slue in battell and obteined a great victorie the Scotish writers make other report affirming in deed that by the presence of bishop Germane he obteined victorie in one battell against them but shortlie after the Britains fought againe with the Saxons and were discomfited although Occa in following the chase ouer rashlie chanced to be slaine after whose deceasse the Saxons ordeined his sonne named also Occa to succéed in his place who to make himselfe strong against all his enimies sent into Germanie for one Colgerne the which with a great power of Dutchmen came ouer into this our Britaine and conquered by Occas appointment the countrie of Northumberland situate
tuus ira tua à ciuitate ista de domo sancta tua quoniam peccauimus Alleluia That is to say We beseech thee ò Lord in all thy mercie that thy furie and wrath may be taken from this citie and from thy holie house for we haue sinned Praise be to thee ô Lord. After they were receiued into Canturburie they began to follow the trade of life which the apostles vsed in the primitiue church that is to say exercising themselues in continuall praier watching and preaching to as manie as they could despising all worldlie things as not belonging to them receiuing onelie of them whome they taught things necessarie for the sustenance of their life liuing in all points according to the doctrine which they set forth hauing their minds readie to suffer in patience all aduersities what so euer yea and death it selfe for the confirming of that which they now preached Herevpon manie of the English people beléeued and were baptised hauing in great reuerence the simplicitie of those men and the swéetenesse of their heauenlie doctrine There was a church néeree to the citie on the east part thereof dedicated to the honor of saint Martine and builded of old time whilest the Romans as yet inhabited Britaine in the which the quéene being as we haue said a christian vsed to make hir praiers To this church Austine and his fellowes at their first comming accustomed to resort and there to sing to praie to saie masse to preach and to baptise till at length the king being conuerted granted them licence to preach in euerie place and to build and restore churches where they thought good After that the king being persuaded by their doctrine good examples giuing and diuers miracles shewed was once baptised the people in great numbers began to giue eare vnto the preaching of the gospell and renouncing their heathenish beléefe became christians in so much that as Gregorie remembreth there were baptised ten thousand persons in one day being the feast of the natiuitie of our Sauiour 597 and the first indiction ¶ Some write how this should chance toward the latter end of Augustines daies after he was admitted to preach the gospell amongst them that inhabited about Yorke as some write which affirme that the said number of ten thousand was baptised in the riuer of Suale which as W. Harison saith cannot be verified because of the indiction and death of Gregorie But to procéed Religion is not to be inforced but perswaded and preached Augustine is made archbishop of England Gregorie informeth Augustine of certeine ordinances to be made and obserued in the new English church as the reuenewes of the church to be diuided into foure parts of liturgie of mariage of ecclesiasticall discipline and ordeining of bishops trifling questions obiected by Augustine to Gregorie fellow helpers are sent ouer to assist Augustine in his ministerie he receiueth his pall reformation must be doone by little and little not to glorie in miracles the effect of Gregories letters to K. Ethelbert after his conuersion to christianitie The xx Chapter KIng Ethelbert reioised at the conuersion of his people howbeit he would not force anie man to be baptised but onelie shewed by his behauiour that he fauored those that beléeued more than other as fellow citizens with him of the heauenlie kingdome for he learned of them that had instructed him in the faith that the obedience due to Christ ought not to be inforced but to come of good will Moreouer he prouided for Augustine and his fellowes a conuenient place for their habitation within the citie of Canturburie and further gaue them necessarie reuenewes in possession for their maintenance After that the faith of Christ was thus receiued of the English men Augustine went into France and there of the archbishop of Arles named Etherius was ordeined archbishop of the English nation according to the order prescribed by Gregorie before the departure of the said Augustine from Rome After his returne into Britaine he sent Laurence a priest and Péeter a moonke vnto Rome to giue knowledge vnto Gregorie the bishop how the Englishmen had receiued the faith and that he was ordeined archbishop of the land according to that he had commanded if the woorke prospered vnder his hand as it had doone He also required to haue Gregories aduice touching certeine ordinances to be made and obserued in the new church of England Wherevpon Gregorie sending backe the messengers wrote an answere vnto all his demands And first touching the conuersation of archbishops with the clergie and in what sort the church goods ought to be imploied he declared that the ancient custome of the apostolike see was to giue commandement vnto bishops ordeined that the profits and reuenewes of their benefices ought to be diuided into foure parts whereof the first should be appointed to the bishop and his familie for the maintenance of hospitalitie the second should be assigned to the clergie the third giuen to the poore and the fourth imploied vpon repairing of temples And whereas in the church of Rome one custome in saieng masse or the liturgie was obserued and another custome in France concerning such church seruice Gregorie aduised Austine that if he found anie thing either in the church of Rome either in the church of France or in anie other church which might most please the almightie God he should diligentlie choose it out and instruct the church of England now being new according to that forme which he should gather foorth of the said churches for the things are not loued for the places sake but the places for the things sake Also for punishing of such as had stolen things out of churches so néere as might be the offendor should be chastised in charitie so as he might know his fault and if it were possible restore the thing taken away And touching degrées in mariage Englishmen might take to their wiues women that touched them in the third and fourth degrée without reprehension and if any vnlawfull mariages were found amongst the Englishmen as if the sonne had maried the fathers wife or the brother the brothers wife they ought to be warned in anie wise to absteine and vnderstand it to be a gréeuous sinne yet should they not for that thing be depriued of the communion of the bodie and bloud of our Lord least those things might séeme to be punished in them wherein they had offended before their conuersion to the christian faith by ignorance for at this season the church saith he correcteth some things of a feruent earnestnesse suffreth some things of a gentle mildnes and dissembleth some things of a prudent consideration and so beareth and winketh at the same that oftentimes the euill which she abhorreth by such bearing and dissembling is restreined and reformed Moreouer touching the ordeining of bishops he would they should be so placed that the distance of place might not
as thornes and brambles before that the church was begun to be builded there in this king Ethelberts daies ¶ Thus the faith of Christ being once begun to be receiued of the English men tooke woonderfull increase within a short time In the meane season by the helpe of king Ethelbert Augustine caused a councell to be called at a place in the confines of the Westsaxons which place long after was called Austines oke where he procured the bishops or doctors of the prouinces of the Britains to come before him Among the Britains or the Welshmen christianitie as yet remained in force which from the apostles time had neuer failed in that nation When Augustine came into this land he found in their prouinces seuen bishops sée and an archbishops sée wherein sat verie godlie right religious prelats and manie abbats in the which the Lords flocke kept their right order but because they differed in obseruing the feast of Easter and other rites from the vse of the Romane church Augustine thought it necessarie to mooue them to agrée with him in vnitie of the same but after long disputation and reasoning of those matters they could not be induced to giue their assent in that behalfe Augustine to prooue his opinion good wrought a miracle in restoring sight to one of the Saxon nation that was blind The Britains that were present mooued with this miracle confessed that it was the right waie of iustice and righteousnesse which Augustine taught but yet they said that they might not forsake their ancient customs without consent and licence of their nation Wherevpon they required another synod to be holden whereat a greater number of them might be present This being granted there came as it is reported seuen bishops of the Britains and a great number of learned men speciallie of the famous monasterie of Bangor whereof in those daies one Dionoth was abbat who as they went towards that councell came first to a certeine wise man which liued amongst them an heremits life and asked his aduise whether they ought to forsake their traditions at the preaching of Augustine or not who made this answer If he be the man of God follow him Then said they How shall we prooue whether he be so or not Then said he The Lord saith take vp my yoke and learne of me for I am méeke humble in hart if Augustine be humble and meeke in hart it is to be beléeued that he also beareth the yoke of Christ and offereth it to you to beare but if he be not méeke but proud it is certeine that he is not of GOD nor his woord to be regarded And how shall we sée and perceiue that said they Find meanes said he that he maie first come to the place of the synod with those of his side and if he arise to receiue you at your comming then know that he is the seruant of God and obey him but if he despise you and arise not towards you whereas you be more in number let him be despised of you They did as he commanded and it chanced that when they came they found Augustine sitting in his chaire whom when they beheld straightwaies they conceiued indignation and noting him of pride laboured to reprooue all his saiengs He told them that they vsed manie things contrarie to the custom of the vniuersall church and yet if in thrée things they would obeie him that is to say in kéeping the feast of Easter in due time in ministring baptisme according to the custome of the Romane church in preaching to the Englishmen the woord of life with him his fellowes then would he be contented to suffer all other things patientlie which they did though the same were contrarie to the maners and customs of the Romane iurisdiction But they flatlie denied to doo anie of those things and gaue a plaine answer that they would not receiue him for their archbishop for laieng their heads togither thus they thought If he refuse now to arise vnto vs how much the more will he contemne vs if we should become subiect to him Unto whom as it is said Augustine in threatening wise told them afore hand that if they would not receiue peace with their brethren they should receiue warre of the enimies if they would not preach to the Englishmen the waie of life they should suffer punishment by death at the hands of them which thing in deed after came to passe as in place conuenient shall be expressed After this in the yéere of our Lord 604 the archbishop Augustine ordeined two bishops that is to say Melitus at London that he might preach the woord of God to the Eastsaxons which were diuided from them of Kent by the riuer of Thames and Iustus in the citie of Rochester within the limits of Kent AT that time Sabert reigned ouer the Eastsaxons but he was subiect vnto Ethelbert king of Kent whose nephue he was also by his sister Ricula that was married vnto king Sledda that succéeded after Erchenwine the first king of the Eastsaxons and begat on hir this Sabert that receiued the faith After that Augustine had ordeined Melitus to be bishop of London as before is said king Ethelbert builded as some write the church of saint Paule within the same citie where the same Melitus and his successors might keepe their sée And also for the like purpose he builded the church of saint Andrew the apostle at Rochester that Iustus and his successors might haue their sée in that place according to Augustines institution he bestowed great gifts vpon both those churches endowing them with lands and possessions verie bountifullie to the vse of them that should be attendant in the same with the bishops Finallie Augustine after he had gouerned as archbishop the church of Canturburie by the space of 12 yéeres currant departed this life the fiue and twentieth of Maie and was buried first without the eitie néere to the church of the apostles Peter and Paule whereof mention is made before bicause the same church as yet was not finished nor dedicated but after it was dedicated his bodie was brought into the church and reuerentlie buried in the north I le there He ordeined in his life time Laurence to be his successor in the sée of Canturburie of whome ye shall heare hereafter ¶ Thus haue ye heard in what maner the Englishmen were first brought from the worshipping of false gods and baptised in the name of the liuing God by the foresaid Augustine as we find in Beda and other writers Now we will returne to other dooings chancing in the meane time amongst the people of this I le Ceowlfe or Ceoloulph gouerneth the Westsaxons Ceorlus king of Mercia Edelfride king of the Northumbers and Edan king of the Scots ioine in battell Edan is discomfited Edelfride subdueth the citizens of Chester the deuout moonks of Bangorpraie for safetie from the swoord of the
the faith by the preaching of Birinus king Kinigils is baptised he maketh Birinus bishop of Dorcester Penda king of Mercia maketh war against the christian kings of the Westsaxons both sides after a bloudie battell fall to agrement Ercombert the first English king that destroied idols throughout the whole land he ordeineth Lent why English men became moonks and English women nunnes in monasteries beyond the seas why Penda king of Mercia enuieth vertuous king Oswald he is assaulted slaine in battell and canonized a saint after his death The xxix Chapter NOw will we after all these differing discourses of the British chronologers approch and draw as néere as we can to the truth of the historie touching Oswald king of the Northumbers of whom we find that after he had tasted of Gods high fauour extended to himwards in vanquishing his enimies as one minding to be thankefull therefore he was desirous to restore the christian faith through his whole kingdome sore lamenting the decay thereof within the same and therefore euen in the beginning of his reigne he sent vnto Donwald the Scotish king with whome he had béene brought vp in the time of his banishment the space of 18 yéeres requiring him to haue some learned Scotishman sent vnto him skilfull in preaching the word of life that with godly sermons and wholesome instructions he might conuert the people of Northumberland vnto the true and liuing God promising to interteine him with such prouision as apperteined At his instance there was sent vnto him one Corman a clerke singularlie well learned and of great grauitie in behauiour but for that he wanted such facilitie and plaine vtterance by waie of gentle persuading as is requisite in him that shall instruct the simple onelie setting foorth in his sermons high mysteries and matters of such profound knowledge as the verie learned might scarselie perceiue the perfect sense and meaning of his talke his trauell came to small effect so that after a yéeres remaining there he returned into his countrie declaring amongst his brethren of the cleargie that the people of Northumberland was a froward stubborne and stiffe-harted generation whose minds he could not frame by anie good meanes of persuasion to receiue the christian faith so that he iudged it lost labour to spend more time amongst them being so vnthankfull and intractable a people as no good might be doone vnto them Amongst other learned and vertuous prelats of the Scots there chanced one to be there present at the same time called Aidan a man of so perfect life that as Beda writeth he taught no otherwise than he liued hauing no regard to the cares of this world but whatsoeuer was giuen him by kings or men of wealth and riches that he fréelie bestowed vpon the poore exhorting other to doo the like This Aidan hearing Cormans woords perceiued anon that the fault was not so much in the people as in the teacher and therefore declared that as he thought although it were so that the people of Northumberland gaue no such attentiue eare vnto the preaching of that reuerend prelate Corman as his godlie expectation was they should haue doone yet might it be that his vttering of ouer manie mysticall articles amongst them farre aboue the capacitie of the vnderstanding of simple men was the cause why they so lightlie regarded his diuine instructions whereas if he had according to the counsell of Saint Paule at the first ministred vnto their tender vnderstandings onelie milke without harder nourishments he might happilie haue woone a farre greater number of them vnto the receiuing of the faith and so haue framed them by little and little to haue digested stronger food And therefore he thought it necessarie in discharge of their duties towards God and to satisfie the earnest zeale of king Oswald that some one amongst them might be appointed to go againe into Northumberland to trie by procéeding in this maner afore alledged what profit would thereof insue The bishops hearing the opinion of Aidan and therewith knowing Cormans maner of preaching iudged the matter to be as Aidan had declared and therevpon not onelie allowed his woords but also willed him to take the iournie vpon him sith they knew none so able with effect to accomplish their wished desires in that behalfe Aidan for that he would not seeme to refuse to take that in hand which he himselfe had motioned was contented to satisfie their request and so set forward towards Northumberland and comming thither was ioifullie receiued of king Oswald who appointed him the I le of Lindesfarne wherein to place the see of his new bishoprike This Aidan in one point varied from the vse of the new begun church of England that is to say touching the time of obseruing the feast of Easter in like maner as all the bishops of the Scots and Picts inhabiting within Britaine in those daies did following therein as they tooke it the doctrine of the holie and praise-woorthie father Anatholius But the Scots that inhabited the south parts of Ireland alreadie were agréed to obserue that feast according to the rules of the church of Rome Howbeit Aidan being thus come into Northumberland applied himselfe so earnestlie in praier and preaching that the people had him within short while in woonderfull estimation chiefelie for that he tempered his preachings with such swéet and pleasant matter that all men had a great desire to heare him insomuch that sometime he was glad to preach abroad in churchyards bicause the audience was more than could haue roome in the church One thing was a great hinderance to him that he had not the perfect knowledge of the Saxon toong But Oswald himselfe was a great helpe to him in that matter who being desirous of nothing so much as to haue the faith of Christ rooted in the harts of his subiects vsed as an interpretor to report vnto the people in their Saxon toong such whole sermons as Aidan vttered in his mother toong For Oswald hauing béene brought vp as ye haue hard in Scotland during the time of his banishment was as readie in the Scotish as he was in the Saxon toong The people then seeing the kings earnest desire in furthering the doctrine set foorth by Aidan were the more inclined to heare it so that it was a maruellous matter to note what numbers of people dailie offred themselues to be baptised insomuch that within the space of seuen daies as is left in writing he christened 15 thousand persons of the which no small part forsaking the world betooke themselues to a solitarie kind of life Thus by his earnest trauell in continuall preaching and setting foorth the gospell in that countrie it came to passe in the end that the faith was generallie receiued of all the people and such zeale to aduance the glorie of the christian religion dailie increased amongst them that no where could be found greater Heerevpon were no small number of
now receiued the christian faith when he should returne into his countrie required king Oswie to appoint him certeine instructors and teachers which might conuert his people to the faith of Christ. King Oswie desirous to satisfie his request sent vnto the prouince of the Middleangles calling from thence that vertuous man Cedda and assigning vnto him another priest to be his associat sent them vnto the prouince of the Eastsaxons there to preach the christian faith vnto the people And when they had preached taught through the whole countrie to the great increase and inlarging of the church of Christ it chanced on a time that Cedda returned home into Northumberland to conferre of certeine things with bishop Finnan which kept his sée at Lindesherne where vnderstanding by Cedda the great fruits which it had pleased God to prosper vnder his hands in aduancing the faith among the Eastsaxons he called to him two other bishops and there ordeined the foresaid Cedda bishop of the East saxons Héerevpon the same Cedda returned vnto his cure went forward with more authoritie to performe the woorke of the Lord building churches in diuerse places ordeined priests and deacons which might helpe him in preaching and in the ministerie of baptising speciallie in the citie of Ithancester vpon the riuer of Pent and likewise in Tileburge on the riuer of Thames Whilest Ced was thus bufle to the great comfort and ioy of the king and all his people in the setting forward of the christian religion with great increase dailie procéeding it chanced thorough the instigation of the deuill the common enimie of mankind that king Sigibert was murthered by two of his owne kinsmen who were brethren the which when they were examined of the cause that should mooue them to that wicked fact they had nothing to alledge but that they did it bicause they had conceiued an hatred against the king for that he was too fauourable towards his enimies and would with great mildnesse of mind forgiue iniuries committed against him such was the kings fault for the which he was murthered bicause he obserued the commandements of the gospell with a deuout hart Notwithstanding in this his innocent death his offense was punished wherein he had suerlie transgressed the lawes of the church For whereas one of them which slue him kept a wife whome he had vnlawfullie maried and refused to put hir away at the bishops admonition he was by the bishop excommunicated and all other of the christian congregation commanded to absteine from his companie This notwithstanding the king being destred of him came to his house to a banket and in his comming from thence met with the bishop whome when the king beheld he waxed afraid and alighted from his horsse and fell downe at his féet beséeching him of pardon for his offense The bishop which also was on horssebacke likewise alighted and touching the king with his rod which he had in his hand as one something displeased and protesting as in the authoritie of a bishop spake these words Bicause saith he thou wouldst not absteine from entring the house of that wicked person being accurssed thou shalt die in the same house and so it came to passe Suidhelme king of the Eastsaxons he is baptised the bishoplike exercises of Ced in his natiue countrie of Northumberland Ediswald K. of Deira reuerenceth him the kings deuout mind to further and inlarge religion the maner of consecrating a place appointed for a holie vse the old order of fasting in Lent bishop Ced dieth warre betweene Oswie and Penda Oswie maketh a vow to dedicate his daughter a perpetuall virgine to God if he got the victorie he obteineth his request and performeth his vow she liueth dieth and is buried in a monasterie the benefit insuing Oswies conquest ouer his enimies the first second and third bishops of Mercia the victorious proceeding of king Oswie prince Peada his kinsman murthered of his wife The xxxij Chapter AFter Sigbert succeeded Suidhelme in the kingdome of the Eastsaxons he was the son of Sexbald and baptised of Ced in the prouince of the Eastangles at a place of the kings there called Rendlessham Ediswald king of the Eastangles the brother of king Anna was his godfather at the fontsone Ced the bishop of the Eastsaxons vsed oftentimes to visit his countrie of Northumberland where he was borne and by preaching exhorted the people to godlie life Wherevpon it chanced that king Ediswald the son of king Oswald which reigned in the parties of Deira mooued with the fame of his vertuous trade of liuing had him in great reuerence and therefore vpon a good zeale and great deuotion willed him to choose foorth some plot of ground where he might build a monasterie in the which the king himselfe and others might praie heare sermons the oftener and haue place where to burie the dead The bishop consenting to the kings mind at length espied a place amongst high and desert mounteins where he began the foundation of a monasterie afterwards called Lestinghem Wherefore meaning first of all to purge the place with praier fasting he asked leaue of the king that he might remaine there all the Lent which was at hand and so continuing in that place for that time fasted euerie daie sundaie excepted from the morning vntill euening according to the maner nor receiued anie thing then but onlie a little bread and a hens eg with a little milke mixt with water for he said that this was the custome of them of whome he had learned the forme of his regular order that they should consecrate those places vnto the Lord with praier and fasting which they latelie had receiued to make in the same either church or monasterie And when there remained ten daies of Lent yet to come he was sent for to the king wherefore he appointed a brother which he had being also a priest named Cimbill to supplie his roome that his begun religious woorke should not be hindered for the kings businesse Now when the time was accomplished he ordeined a monasterie there appointing the moonks of the same to liue after the rules of them of Lindesferne where he was brought vp Finallie this bishop Ced comming vnto this monasterie afterwards by chance in time of a sicknesse died there and left that monasterie to the gouernance of another brother which he had named Ceadda that was after a bishop as afterwards shall be shewed There were foure brethren of them and all priests Ced Cimbill Ceulin and Ceadda of the which Ced and Ceadda were bishops as before is said About the same time Oswie king of Northumberland was sore oppressed by the warres of Penda king of Mercia so that he made great offers of high gifts and great rewards vnto the said Penda for peace but Penda refused the same as he that meant vtterlie to haue destroied the whole nation of Oswies poeple so that Oswie turning himselfe to seeke
Westsaxons and shortlie after slaine of the Eastangles as before ye haue heard Then one Ludicenus or Ludicanus was created king of Mercia and within two yeeres after came to the like end that happened to his predecessor before him as he went about to reuenge his death so that the kingdome of Britaine began now to réele from their owne estate and leane to an alteration which grew in the end to the exection of a perfect monarchie and finall subuersion of their particular estates and regiments After Ludicenus succeeded Wightlafe who first being vanquisht by Egbert king of Westsaxosn was afterwards restored to the kingdome by the same Egbert and reigned 13 yeeres whereof twelue at the least were vnder tribute which he paied to the said Egbert and to his sonne as to his souereignes and supreame gouernours The kingdome of Northumberland was brought in subiection to the kings of Westsaxons as before is mentioned in the yéere of our Lord 828 and in the yéere of the reigne of king Egbert 28 but yet béere it tooke not end as after shall appéere Ethelwulfus otherwise called by some writers Athaulfus began his reigne ouer the Westsaxons in the yéere 837 which was in the 24 yéere of the emperor Ludouicus Pius that was also K. of France in the tenth yéere of Theophilus the emperor of the East about the third yéere of Kenneth the second of that name king of Scots This Ethelwulfe minding in his youth to haue béene a priest entered into the orders of subdeacon and as some write he was bishop of Winchester but howsoeuer the matter stood or whether he was or not sure it is that shortlie after he was absolued of his vowes by authoritie of pope Leo and then maried a proper gentlewoman named Osburga which was his butlers daughter He was of nature courteous and rather desirous to liue in quiet rest than to be troubled with the gouernment of manie countries so that contenting himselfe with the kingdome of Westsaxons he permitted his brother Adelstan to inioy the residue of the countries which his father had subdued as Kent and Essex with other He aided Burthred the king of Mercia against the Welshmen and greatlie aduanced his estimation by giuing vnto him his daughter in mariage But now the fourth destruction which canced to this land by forren enimies was at hand for the people of Denmarke Norway and other of those northeast regions which in that season were great rouers by sea had tasted the wealth of this land by such spoiles and preies as they had taken in the same so that perceiuing they could not purchase more profit anie where else they set their minde to inuade the same on ech side as they had partlie begun in the daies of the late kings Brightriâ—e and Egbert The perfecution vsed by those Danes séemed more gréeâ—ous than anie of the other persecutions either before or sithens that time for the Romans hauing quicklie subdued the land gouerned it noblie without seeking the subuersion thereof The Scots and Picts onelie inuaded the north parts And the Saxons seeking the conquest of the land when they had once go it they kept it and did what they could to better and aduance it to a flourishing estate The Normans likewise hauing made a conquest granted both life and ancient lawes to the former inhabitants but the Danes long time and often assailing the land on euerie side now inuading it in this place and now in that did not at the first so much couet to conquer it as to spoile it nor to beare rule in it as to waste and destroie it who if they were at anie time ouercome the victors were nothing the more in quiet for a new nauie and a greater armie was readie to make some new inuasion neither did they enter all at one place nor at once but one companie on the east side and an other in the west or in the north and south coasts in such sort that the Englishmen knew not whether they should first go to make resistance against them This mischiefe began chieflie in the daies of this king Ethelwulfe but it continued about the space of two hundred yeeres as by the sequele of this booke it shall appéere King Ethelwulfe was not so much giuen to ease but that vpon occasion for defense of his countrie and subiects he was readie to take order for the beating backe of the enimies as occasion serued and speciallie chose such to be of his counsell as were men of great experience and wisedome Amongst other there were two notable prelats Suithune bishop of Winchester and Adelstan bishop of Shireborne who were readie euer to giue him good aduise Suithune was not so much expert in worldlie matters as Adelstan was therefore chieflie counselled the king in things apperteining to his soules health but Adelstan tooke in hand to order matters apperteining to the state of the commonwealth as prouiding of monie and furnishing foorth of men to withstand the Danes so that by him manie things were both boldlie begun and happilie atchiued as by writers hath béene recorded He gouerned the sée of Shireborne the space of 50 yéeres by the good counsell and faithfull aduise of those two prelats King Ethelwulfe gouerned his subiects verie politikelie and by himselfe and his capteins oftentimes put the Danes to flight though as chance of warre falleth out he also receiued at their hands great losses and sundrie sore detriments In the first yéere of his reigne the Danes arriued at Hampton with 33 ships against whome he sent earle Wulhard with part of his armie the which giuing battell to the enimies made great slaughter of them and obteined a noble victorie He sent also earle Adelhelme with the Dorsetshire men against an other number of the Danes which were landed at Portesmouth but after long fight the said Adelhelme was slaine and the Danes obteined the victorie In the yéere following earle Herbert fought against the Danes at Merseware and was there slaine and his men chased The same yeere a great armie of Danes passing by the east parts of the land as through Lindsey Eastangle and Kent slue and murthered an huge number of people The next yéere after this they entered further into the land and about Canturburie Rochester and London did much mischiefe King Ethelwulfe in the fift yéere of his reigne with a part of his armie incountred with the Danes at Carrum the which were arriued in those parties with 30 ships hauing their full fraught of men so that for so small a number of vessels there was a great power of men of warre in so much that they obteined the victorie at that time and put the king to the woorse About the tenth yéere of king Ethelwulfs reigne one of his capteins called Ernwulfe and bishop Adelstan with the Summersetshire men and an other capteine called Osred with the Dorsetshire
bodie of saint Thomas in India Sighelmus the bishop of Shireborne bare the same and brought from thence rich stones and swéet oiles of inestimable valure From Rome also he brought a péece of the holy crosse which pope Martinus did send for a present vnto king Alfred Moreouer king Alfred founded three goodlie monasteries one at Edlingsey where he liued sometime when the Danes had bereaued him almost of all his kingdome which was after called Athelney distant from Taunton in Sumersetshire about fiue miles the second he builded at Winchester called the new minster and the third at Shaftesburie which was an house of nuns where he made his daughter Ethelgeda or Edgiua abbesse But the foundation of the vniuersitie of Oxford passed all the residue of his buildings which he began by the good exhortation and aduise of Neotus an abbat in those daies highlie estéemed for his vertue and lerning with Alfred This worke he tooke in hand about the 23 yéere of his reigne which was in the yéere of our Lord 895. So that the vniuersitie of Cambridge was founded before this other of Oxford about 265 yeeres as Polydor gathereth For Sigebert king of the Eastangles began to erect that vniuersitie at Cambridge about the yéere of our Lord 630. King Alfred was learned himselfe and giuen much to studie insomuch that beside diuerse good lawes which he translated into the English toong gathered togither and published he also translated diuerse other bookes out of Latine into English as Orosius Pastorale Gregorij Beda de gestis Anglorum Boetius de consolatione philosophiae and the booke of Psalmes but this he finished not being preuented by death So this worthie prince minded well toward the common wealth of his people in that season when learning was little estéemed amongst the west nations did studie by all meanes possible to instruct his subiects in the trade of leading an honest life and to incourage them generallie to imbrace learning He would not suffer anie to beare office in the court except he were lerned and yet he himselfe was twelue yéeres of age before he could read a word on the booke and was then trained by his mothers persuasion to studie promising him a goodlie booke which she had in hir hands if he would learne to read it Herevpon going to his booke in sport he so earnestlie set his mind thereto that within a small time he profited maruellouslie and became such a fauorer of learned men that he delighted most in their companie to haue conference with them and allured diuerse to come vnto him out of other countries as Asserius Meneuensis bishop of Shirborne Werefridus the bishop of Worcester who by his commandement translated the bookes of Gregories dialogs into English Also I. Scot who whiles he was in France translated the book of Dionysius Ariopagita intituled Hierarchia out of Gréeke into Latine and after was schoolemaister in the abbeie of Malmesburie and there murthered by his scholers with penknâ—ues He had diuerse other about him both Englishmen strangers as Pleimond afterward archbishop of Canturburie Grimbald gouernor of the new monasterie at Winchester with others But to conclude with this noble prince king Alured he was so carefull in his office that he diuided the 24 houres which conteine the day and night in thrée parts so that eight houres he spent in writing reading and making his praiers other eightâ—â— emploied in relieuing his bodie with meat drinke and sléepe and the other eight he bestowed in dispatching of businesse concerning the gouernement of the realme He had in his chapell a candle of 24 parts whereof euerie one lasted an houre so that the sexton to whome that charge was committed by burning of this candle warned the king euer how the time passed away A little before his death he ordeined his last will and testament bequeathing halfe the portion of all his goods iustlie gotten vnto such monasteries as he had founded All his rents and reuenues he diuided into two equall parts and the first part he diuided into thrée bestowing the first vpon his seruants in houshold the second to such labourers and workemen as he kept in his works of sundrie new buildings the third part he gaue to strangers The second whole part of his reuenues was so diuided that the first portion thereof was dispersed amongst the poore people of his countrie the second to monasteries the third to the finding of poore scholers and the fourth part to churches beyond the sea He was diligent in inquirie how the iudges of his land behaued themselues in their iudgements and was a sharpe corrector of them which transgressed in that behalfe To be briefe he liued so as he was had in great fauour of his neighbours highlie honored among strangers He maried his daughter Ethelswida or rather Elstride vnto Baldwine earle of Flanders of whome he had two sonnes Arnulfe and Adulfe the first succéeding in the erledome of Flanders and the yoonger was made earle of Bullogne The bodie of king Alured was first buried in the bishops church but afterwards because the Canons raised a fond tale that the same should walke a nights his sonne king Edward remoued it into the new monasterie which he in his life time had founded Finallie in memorie of him a certeine learned clarke made an epitath in Latine which for the woorthinesse thereof is likewise verse for verse and in a maner word for word translated by Abraham Fleming into English whose no litle labor hath béene diligentlie imploied in supplieng sundrie insufficiences found in of this huge volume NObilitas inhata tibi probitatis honorem Nobilitie by birth to thee ô Alfred strong in armeâ— Armipotens Alfrede dedit probita que laborem Of goodnes hath the honor giuen and honor toilesome harmes Perpetuúmque labor nomen cul mixta dolorâ— And toilesome harmes an endlesse name wâ—ose ioâ—es were alwaies mext Gaudia semper erant spes semper mixta timori With sorow and whose hope with feare was euermore perplexe Si modo victor eras ad crastina bella pauebas If this day thou wert conqueror the next daies warre thou dredst Si modo victus eras in crastina bella parabas If this day thou wert conquered to next daies war 〈◊〉 spedst Cui velâ—es sudore iugi cul sica cruore Whose clothing wet witâ— dailie sweâ—â— whose blade with bloudie staine Tincta â—ugi quantum sit onusâ—egnare probarunt Do praâ—e how great a burthan tiâ— in roialtie to raine Non fuit immensi quisquam per climata mundi There hath not beene in anie part of all the world so wide Cui tot in aduet sis vel respirare liceret One that was able breath to take and troubles such abide Nec tamen aut ferro contritus ponere ferrum And yet with weapons wearie would not weapons lay aside Aut gladio potuit vitae fimisse labores Or with the sword the â—oile
somnesse of life by death diuide Iam post transactos regni vitaeque labores Now after labours past of realme and lie which he did spend Christus ei fit vera quies sceptrúmque perenne Christ is â—o him true quietnesse and scepter void of end In the daies of the foresaid king Alured the kingdome of Mercia tooke end For after that the Danes had expelled king Burthred when he had reigned 22 yeares he went to Rome and there died his wife also Ethelswida the daughter of king Athulfe that was sonne to king Egbert followed him and died in Pauia in Lumbardie The Danes hauing got the countrie into their possession made one Cewulfe K. thereof whome they bound with an oth and deliuerie of pledges that he should not longer kéepe the state with their pleasure and further should be readie at all times to aid them with such power as he should be able to make This Cewulfe was the seruant of king Burthred Within foure yeares after the Danes returned and tooke one part of that kingdome into their owne hands and left the residue vnto Cewulfe But within a few yeares after king Alured obteined that part of Mercia which Cewulfe ruled as he did all the rest of this land except those parcels which the Danes held as Northumberland the countries of the Eastangles some part of Mercia and other The yeare in the which king Alured thus obteined all the dominion of that part of Mercia which Cewulfe had in gouernance was after the birth of our Sauiour 886 so that the foresaid kingdome continued the space of 302 yeares vnder 22 kings from Crida to this last Cewulfe But there he that account the continuance of this kingdome onelie from the beginning of Penda vnto the last yeare of Burthred by which reckoning it stood not past 270 yeares vnder 18 or rather 17 kings counting the last Cewulfe for none who began his reigne vnder the subiection of the Danes about the yeare of our Lord 874 where Penda began his reigne 604. The Eastangles and the Northumbers in these daies were vnder subiection of the Danes as partlie may be perceiued by that which before is rehearsed After Guthrun that gouerned the Eastangles by the terme of 12 yeares one Edhirike or Edrike had the rule in those parts a Dane also and reigned 14 yeares and was at length bereued of his gouernement by king Edward the sonne of king Alured as after shall appeare But now although that the Northumbers were brought greatlie vnder fooâ— by the Danes yet could they not forget their old accustomed maner to stirre tumults and rebellion against their gouernours insomuch that in the yeare 872 they expelled not onelie Egbert whome the Danes had appointed king ouer one part of the countrie as before you haue heard but also their archbishop Wilfehere In the yeare following the same Egbert departed this life after whome one Rigsig or Ricsige succéeded as king and the archbishop Wolfehere was restored home In the same yeare the armie of Danes which had wintered at London came from thence into Northumberland and wintered in Lindseie at a place called Torkseie and went the next yeare into Mercia And in the yeare 975 a part of them returned into Northumberland as before ye haue heard In the yeare following Ricsig the king of Northumberland departed this life after whome an other Egbert succéeded And in the yeare 983 the armie of the Danes meaning to inhabit in Northumberland and to settle themselues there chose Guthrid the sonne of one Hardicnute to their king whome they had sometime sold to a certeine widow at Witingham But now by the abuise of an abbat called Aldred they redéemed his libertie and ordeined him king to rule both Danes and Englishmen in that countrie It was said that the same Aldred being abbat of holie Iland was warned in a vision by S. Cuthberd to giue counsell both to the Danes and Englishmen to make the same Guthrid king This chanced about the 13 yeare of the reigne of Alured king of Westsaxons When Guthrid was established king he caused the bishops sée to be remoued from holie Iland vnto Chester in the stréet and for an augmentation of the reuenues and iurisdiction belonging thereto he assigned and gaue vnto saint Cuthbert all that countrie which lieth betwixt the riuers of Teise and Tine ¶ Which christian act of the king liuing in a time of palpable blindnesse and mistie superstition may notwithstanding be a light to the great men and péeres of this age who pretend religion with zeale and professe in shew the truth with feruencie not to impouerish the patrimonie of the church to inrich themselues and their posteritie not to pull from bishoprikes their ancient reuenues to make their owne greater not to alienate ecclesiasticall liuings into temporall commodities not to seeke the conuersion of college lands into their priuat possessions not to intend the subuersion of cathedrall churches to fill their owne cofers not to ferret out concealed lands for the supporte of their owne priuat lordlines not to destroy whole towneships for the erection of one statelie manour not to take and pale in the commons to inlarge their seueralles but like good and gratious common-wealth-men in all things to preferre the peoples publike profit before their owne gaine and glorie before their owne pompe and pleasure before the satisfieng of their owne inordinate desires Moreouer this priuiledge was granted vnto saint Cuthberts shrine that whosouer fled vnto the same for succour and safegard should not be touched or troubled in anie wise for the space of thirtie seuen daies And this fréedome was confirmed not onelie by king Guthrid but also by king Alured Finallie king Guthrid departed this life in the yeare of our Lord 894 after he had ruled the Northumbers with much crueltie as some say by the terme of a 11 yeares or somewhat more He is named by some writers Gurmond and also Gurmo thought to be the same whome king Alured caused to be baptised Whereas other affirme that Guthrid who ruled the Eastangles was he that Alured receiued at the fontstone William Malmesburie taketh them to be but one man which is not like to be true After this Guthrid or Gurmo his sonne Sithrike succeeded and after him other of that line till king Adelstane depriued them of the dominion and tooke it into his owne hands Edward succeedeth his father Alured in regiment he is disquieted by his brother Adelwold a man of a defiled life he flieth to the Danes and is of them receiued king Edwards prouision against the irruptions and forraies of the Danes Adelwold with a nauie of Danes entreth Eastangles the Essex men submit themselues he inuadeth Mercia and maketh great wast the Kentishmens disobedience preiudiciall to themselues they and the Danes haue a great conflict king Edward concludeth a truce with them he maketh a great slaughter
conuenient age was made a nun A third example of his incontinencie is written by authors and that is this It chanced on a time that he lodged one night at Andeuer and hauing a mind to a lords daughter there he commanded that she should bee brought to his bed But the mother of the gentlewoman would not that hir daughter should be defloured and therefore in the darke of the night broughtinto a nunrie and clad hir in a nuns weed he tooke one of hir maidseruants and laid hir in the kings bed she being both faire proper and pleasant In the morning when the day began to appeare she made hast to arise and being asked of the king why she so hasted That I may go to my daies worke if it please your grace quoth she Herewith she being staied by the king as it were against hir will she fell downe on hir knées required of him that she might be made frée in guerdon of hir nights worke For saith she it is not for your honor that the woman which hath tasted the pleasure of the kings bodie should anie more suffer seruitude vnder the rule and appointment of a sharpe rough mistresse The king then being mooued in his spirits laughed at the matter though not from the heart as he that tooke great indignation at the dooings of the dutchesse and pitied the case of the poore wench But yet in fine turning earnest to a iest he pardoned all the parties and aduanced the wench to high honor farreshe might be made frée in guerdon of hir nights aboue those that had rule of hir afore so that she ruled them willed they nilled they for he vsed hir as his paramour till he maried the foresaid Alfred For these youthfull parts namelie for the rauishing of Wilfride which though she were no nun yet the offense seemed verie heinous for that he should not once touch anie woman shadowed vnder that habit he greatlie displeased Dunstane so that by him he was put to his seuen yéeres penance and kept from the crowne till the 12 yeere of his reigne or more For some write that he was not crowned nor annointed king till the 30 yeere of his age which should be about the 13 or 14 yeere of his reigne by that account sith he entred into the rule of the kingdome about the 16 yéere of his age In déed one author witnesseth that he was consecrated at Bath on a Whitsunday the 13 yéere of his reigne and that by Dunstane archbishop of Canturburie and Oswold archbishop of Yorke But some which suppose that he was consecrated king immediatlie vpon the death of Edridus affirme that he was crowned and annointed king by the archbishop Odo Dunstane as then remaining in exile from whence he was immediatlie reuoked by Edgar and first made bishop of Worcester as hath beene said and after the decease of Odo was aduanced to be archbishop of Canturburie But by some writers it appeareth that Dunstane was reuoked out of exile immediatlie vpon partition of the realme betwixt Edwin and Edgar which chanced in the yéere 957 by the rebellion of thewas consecrated king immediatlie vpon the death people of Mercia others as before ye haue heard and that in the yéere following the archbishop Odo died after whome succéeded Alfin bishop of Winchester who also died the same yeere that king Edward deceased as he went to fetch his pall from Rome and then Brighthelme bishop of Dorchester was elected archbishop But bicause he was not able to discharge so great an office by K. Edgars commandement he was forced to giue place to Dunstane Toward the latter end of king Edgars daies the Welshmen mooued some rebellion against him Wherevpon he assembled an armie and entering the countrie of Glamorgan did much hurt in the same chastising the inhabitants verie sharpelie for their rebellious attempts Amongst other spoiles taken in those parties at that time by the men of war the bell of saint Ellutus was taken away and hanged about a horsses necke and as hath béene reported in the after noone it chanced that king Edgar laid him downe to rest wherevpon in sleepe there appeared Toward the latter end of king Edgars daies the one vnto him and smote him on the breast with a speare By reason of which vision he caused all things that had béene taken away to be restored againe But within nine daies after the king died Whether anie such thing chanced or that he had anie such vision it forceth not But truth it is that in the 37 yéere of his age after he had reigned 16 yéeres and two moneths he departed this life the 8 day of Iulie and was buried at Glastenburie This Edgar is highlie renowmed of writers for such princelie qualities as appeared in him but chieflie for that he was so beneficiall to the church namelie to moonks the aduancement of whome he greatlie sought both in building abbeies new from the ground in reparing those that were decaied also by inriching them with great reuenues and in conuerting collegiat churches into monasteries remoouing secular priests and bringing in moonks in their places There passed no one yéere of his reigne wherin he founded not one abbeie or other The abbeie of This Edgar is highlie renowmed of writers for Glastenburie which his father had begun he finished The abbeie of Abington also he accomplished and set in good order The abbeies of Peterborough Thornie he established The nunrie of Wilton he founded and richlie endowed where his daughter Edith◠was professed and at length became abbesse there To be briefe he builded as the chronicles record to the number of 40 abbeies and monasteries in some of which he placed moonks and in some nuns By his example in those daies other nobles as also prelates This Edgar is highlie renowmed of writers for some of the laitie did begin the foundation of sundrie abbeies and monasteries as Adelwold bishop of Winchester builded the abbeie of Elie and as some say Peterborough Thornie though they were established by the king as before is mentioned Also earle Ailewin at the exhortation of the same bishop Adelwold builded the abbeie of Ramsey though some attribute the dooing thereof vnto Oswold the archbishop of Yorke and some to king Edward the elder To conclude the religious orders of moonks and nuns in these daies florished and the state of secular priests was smallie regarded insomuch that they were constreined to auoid out of diuerse colleges and to leaue the same vnto moonks as at Worcester and Winchester where in the new monasterie bicause the kings liued not in such sort as was then thought requisite the prebends were taken from them and giuen to vicars But when the vicars were thought to vse themselues no better but ratherEdward the elder worse than the other before them they were likewise put out and moonks placed
this daughter of duke William was departed this life before the comming of these ambassadors and that Harold therevpon thought himselfe discharged of the oth and couenants made to duke William and therefore sent them away with such an vntoward answer But howsoeuer it was after the departure of these ambassadors king Harold doubting what would insue caused his ships to be newlie rigged his men of warre to be mustered and spéedilie put in a readinesse to the end that if anie sudden inuasion should be made and attempted by his enimie he might be able to resist them ¶ About the same time also and vpon the 24 of Aprill whilest Harold was making prouision to withstand the Norman force there appeared a blasing starre which was séene not onelie here in England but also in other parts of the world and continued the space of seuen daies This blasing starre might be a prediction of mischéefe imminent hanging ouer Harolds head for they neuer appeare but as prognosticats of afterclaps To be resolutelie instructed herein doo but peruse a treatise intituled A doctrine generall of comets or blasing starres published by a bishop of Mentz in Latine and set foorth in English by Abraham Fleming vpon the apparition of a blasing starre séene in the southwest on the 10 of Nouember 1577 and dedicated to the right worshipfull sir William Cordell knight then maister of hir maiesties rolles c. Earle Tostie afflicteth his brother Harold on sea and land he taketh the repulse and persuadeth Harfager king of Norweâ—e to attempt the conquest of England against Harold Harfager Tostie with their powers arriue at Humber they fight with the Northumbers vnder the conduct of Edwine and Marchar and discomfit them Harold leuieth an armie against them the rare valiantnes of a Norwegian souldior Harfager and Tostie slaine in battell the Norwegians are foiled and flie Harolds vnequall and parciall diuiding of the spoile he goeth to Yorke to reforme things amisse The ninth Chapter WHilest Harold desirous to reteine and verie loth to let go his vsurped roialtie had crackt his credit with the duke of Normandie and by his lewd reuolting from voluntarie promises ratified with solemne othes had also kindled the fire of the dukes furie against him it came to passe that the proud and presumptuous man was to begin withall vexed in his owne flesh I meane his owne kinred For Tostie the brother of king Harold who in the daies of king Edward for his crueltie had béene chased out of the realme by the Northumbers returning out of Flanders assembled a nauie of ships from diuers parts to the number of 60 with the which he arriued in the I le of Wight there spoiled the countrie and afterward sailing about by the coasts of Kent he tooke sundrie preies their also and came at the last to Sandwich so that Harold was now constreined to appoint the nauie which he had prepared against the Normans to go against his brother earle Tostie Whereof the said Tostie being aduertised drew towards Lindsey in Lincolnshire and there taking land did much hurt in the countrie both with sword and fire till at length Edwine earle of Mercia and Marchar earle of Northumberland aided with the kings nauie chased him from thence and caused him to flie into Scotland not without some losse both of his men and ships This trouble was scarse quieted but streightwaies another came in the necke thereof farre more dangerous than the first For Tostie perceiuing that he could get no aid in Scotland to make anie account of sailed forth into Norweie and there persuaded Harold Harfager king of that realme to saile with an armie into England persuading him that by meanes of ciuill dissention latelie kindled betwixt the king and his lords which was not so it should be an easie matter for him to make a conquest of the whole realme and reigne ouer them as his predecessors had done before Some authors affirme that Harold king of Norwey tooke this enterprise in hand of his owne mind and not by procurement of Tostie saieng that Tostie méeting with him in Scotland did persuade him to go forward in his purposed busines and that the said Harold Harfager with all conuenient spéed passed foorth with a nauie of 300 saile entered into the riuer of Tine where after he had rested a few daies to refresh his people earle Tostie came also with his power according to an appointment which should be made betweene them They ad furthermore that they sailed forth alongst the coast till they arriued in the mouth of Humber then drawing vp against the streame of the riuer Owse they landed at length at a place called Richhall from whence they set forward to inuade the countrie néere vnto Yorke on the north-side of the citie they fought with the power of the Northumbers which was led by the earls Edwine and Marchar two brethren and there discomfited and chased them into the citie with great slaughter and bloudshed Harold king of England being aduertised of this chance made the more hast forward for he was alreadie in the field with his armie intending also to come towards his enimies so that vpon the fift day after he came to Stamford bridge finding there the said king Harfager and Tostie readie imbattelled he first assailed those that kept the bridge where as some writers affirme a Norwegian souldier with his axe defended the passage mauger the whole host of the Englishmen and slue fortie of them or more with his axe might not be ouercome till an Englishman went with a boat vnder the said bridge and through and hole thereof thrust him vp into the bodie with his speare yet Matt. West saith that he was slaine with a dart which one of king Harold his seruants threw at him so ended his life Which bridge being woone the whole host of the Englishmen passed ouer and ioined with their enimies and after a verie great and sore battell put them all to flight In this conflict Harold Harfager king of the Norwegians was slaine so was Tostie the king of England his brother besides a great number of other as well in the battell as in the chase neither did the Englishmen escape all frée for the Norwegians fought it out a long time verie stoutlie beating downe and killing great numbers of such as assailed them with great courage and assurance The residue of the Norwegians that were left to keepe their ships vnder the guiding of Olaue sonne to the king of Norwaie and Paule earle of Orkneie after they vnderstood by their fellowes that escaped from the field how the mater went with Harfager and Tostie they hoised vp their sailes and directed their course homewards bearing sorowfull newes with them into their countrie of the losse of their king and ouerthrow of all his people Some write that
686. And so the Britains had continuance of the gouernement of this land the space of 1794 yéeres Then was the realme of Britaine an heptarchie that is diuided into seuen kingdoms And Britaine receiued the faith of Christ in the 7 yéere of the reigne of king Lucius which was in the 187 yéere after the birth of Christ. ¶ Next after the Britains entered the Saxons in the third yéere of king Uortiger and in the yéere of our Lord 450 and they gouerned vntill the last yéere of king Athelstane which was in the yéere of Christ 938. So that the time of the Saxons first entrance into this realme and the time of their regiment was the space of 487 yéeres ¶ Howbeit in the time of their gouernement that is to say in the 9 yéere of king Britricus which was in the yéere of our Lord 387 the Danes entred into this land spoiling and persecuting the people therin most gréeuouslie At the last Sweno or Swaine the Dane obteined possession roiall in the yéere of Grace 1012 whose time of regiment lasted about three yéeres After whom his sonne Canutus succéeded and reigned 19 yéeres After him Harold his sonne who ruled thrée yeeres and after him Hardicnute the sonne of Canutus whose gouernement continued but thrée yeeres This Hardicnute was the last king of the Danes at which time the Danes were expelled and hunted out of the realme which was in the yeere of our Lord 1042. So that it may appeare by this collection that the Danes ruled as kings in this land by the space of 28 yéeres Hereby also it is euident that from the time of the first entrance of the Danes into this realme vntill their last expulsion riddance was 255 yéeres ¶ Finallie the Normans entred this land likewise and conquered the same as before is expressed in the yéere of our Lord 1067 which is since vntill this present yéere of our Lord 1585 drawing néere to the number of 600 and od yéeres Now let these alterations of regiments be remembred touching the which read a notable animaduersion in the description of Britaine pag. 28 29 and teach vs that therein the iudgements of God reuealed themselues to speciall purposes And whatsoeuer hath béene mentioned before either concerning the subuersion of people the desolation of prouinces the ouerthrow of nobles the ruine of princes and other lamentable accidents diuerslie happening vpon sundrie occasions let vs I say as manie as will reape fruit by the reading of chronicles imagine the matters which were so manie yéeres past to be present and applie the profit and commoditie of the same vnto our selues knowing as one wisely said Post sacram paginam chronica viâ—um veritatis typum gerere that next vnto the holie scripture chronicles doo carit credit But now to the sequele and first to duke William of Normandie Thus farre the historie of England from Noah and his sonnes c to William duke of Normandie Hereafter followeth a chronologicall continuation beginning at the first yeere of the said dukes reigne ouer this land vntill the 25 yeere of the Queenes most excellent maiestie Elizabeth c whose daies God in mercie prolong like the daies of heauen in peace and prosperitie c. Wil. Conqu Wil. Rufus Henricus 1. Stephanus Henricus 2. Richardus 1. Ioannes Henricus 3. Eduardus 1. Eduardus 2. Eduardus 3. Richardus 2. Henricus 4. Henricus 5. Henricus 6. Eduardus 4. Eduardus 5. Richardus 3. Henricus 7. Henricus 8. Eduardus 6. Phil. Mar. Elisabeth Loydus Lelandus Prisius Stous Holinshedius Lambardus Morus Camdenus Thinnius Hallus Vocalis aliâs Hookerus Graftonus Foxius Harrisonus Hardingus Gildas Staniherstus Beda Neuillus Flemingus Parkerus Noah first diuided the earth among his sonnes The diuision of the earth not yet certeinâ—ie knowne Uariance among the writers about the diuision of the earth The earth diuided into fiue parts whereas Belforrest hath but foure in Prefat lib. 4. Cape di bonâ— Speranzae The formâ— of the fift part Unto what portion Britaine is referred How Britaine lieth from the maine The longitude and latitude of this I le Longest day The compasse of Britaine The 〈◊〉 Promontories of Britaine The distaÌ„ce from the maine Dis Samothes Neptimus Marioticus The first conquest of Britaine Britaine vnder the Celts 341. yeares Neptune God of the sea The maner of dressing of ships in old time Lestrigo Ianigenes were the posteritie of Noah in Italie Neptune had xxxiii sonnes Lomnimi Geriones Galathea Galates or Kelts Bergion Pomponius Mela cap. de Gallia Strabo lib. 4. Yet Timeus Ephorus and some of the Grecians know the name Britannia as appeareth also by Diodorus c before the comming of Cesar. Of this opinion is Belforest lib. 3. cap. 44. Samotheans Britains Chemminits Romans Scots Picts Of the Picts The hurt by forren aid Danes The Normans The cause of the conquest by the Normans Archbishop of Can. exiled and the rest of the French Erle Goodwine slandered by the French writers The miserie of the English vnder the French The cause of our miserie In this voiage the said Harald builded Portaschith which Caradoch ap Griffin afterward ouerthrew and killed the garrison that Harald left therein * Esay 30. vers 25. Antheus Lucane lib. 4. in fine Corineus Gomagot Cap. 6. vers 5. Anti. li. 1. â—â— cap. 13. verse 33 34. Deut. 3. vers 11. Og of Basan Cap 17. ver 4 5 6. Goliah Cap. 21. ver 26 17 c. De ciuitate Dei lib. 15. cap. 9. Iohannes Boccacius A carcase discouered of 200. cubits Mat. Westmon Iohannes Leland Mafieus Lib. 14. Triuet Mat. West Hector Boet. Geruasius Tilberiensis Sir Thomas Eliot Leland in Combrit Richard Grafton The Symmetrie or proportion of the bodie of a comelie man Syluester Gyraldus Constans fama Gallorum Briat In vita Seriorij de Antheo Philostrate Lib. 7. Trallianus A mouth of sixteene foot wide A counterfect made of a monstrous carcase by one tooth taken out of the head This man was more fauorable to this monster than our papists were to the bodies of the dead who tare them in peeces to make money of them Grandiáque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris Vis vnita fortior est eadem dispersa Cap. 3 36. 4. Esd. cap. 5. British Small difference betweene the British and Celtike languages British corrupted by the Latine and Saxon speeches The Britons diligent in petigrees Latine The Saxon toong The French toong The helpers of our English toong Englishmen apt to learne any forren toong The Cornish toong Scottish english The wild Scots Redshanks Rough footed Scots Irish scots Irish speech Britaine at the first one entire kingdome Wales diuided into three kingdomes Gâ—inhed Venedotia Anglesei Arfon Merioneth Stradcluyd or Tegenia Powisy Bangor Mailrosse Fowkes de Warren Helene Mellent The originall of Fitz-Henries Demetia Cair Maridunum Pictland Scotland Picts Scots Kent Henghist South sax Esta Eastsaâ— Erkenwiin Westsax Cerdiic Brennicia alià s Northumberland Ida. Deira
began his reigne ouer the Britains about the yeare of our Lord 180 as Fabian following the authoritie of Peter Pictauiensis saith although other writers seeme to disagrée in that account as by the same Fabian in the table before his booke partlie appeareth wherevnto Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis affirmeth that this Lucius was borne in the yeare of our Lord 115 and was crowned king in the yeare 124 as successor to his father Coillus which died the same yeare being of great age yer the said Lucius was borne It is noted by antiquaries that his entrance was in the 4132 of the world 916 after the building of Rome 220 after the comming of Cesar into Britaine and 165 after Christ whose accounts I follow in this treatise This Lucius is highlie renowmed of the writers for that he was the first king of the Britains that receiued the faith of Iesus Christ for being inspired by the spirit of grace and truth euen from the beginning of his reigne he somewhat leaned to the fauoring of Christian religion being moued with the manifest miracles which the Christians dailie wrought in witnesse and proofe of their sound and perfect doctrine For euen from the daies of Ioseph of Arimathia and his fellowes or what other godlie men first taught the Britains the gospell of our Sauiour there remained amongest the same Britains some christians which ceased not to teach and preach the word of God most sincerelie vnto them but yet no king amongst them openlie professed that religion till at length this Lucius perceiuing not onelie some of the Romane lieutenants in Britaine as Trebellius and Pertinax with others to haue submitted themselues to that profession but also the emperour himselfe to begin to be fauorable to them that professed it he tooke occasion by their good example to giue eare more attentiuelie vnto the gospell and at length sent vnto Eleutherius bishop of Rome two learned men of the British nation Eluane and Meduine requiring him to send some such ministers as might instruct him and his people in the true faith more plentifullie and to baptise them according to the rules of christian religion ¶ The reuerend father Iohn Iewell sometime bishop of Salisburie writeth in his replie vnto Hardings answer that the said Eleutherius for generall order to be taken in the realme and churches héere wrote his aduice to Lucius in maner and forme following You haue receiued in the kingdome of Britaine by Gods mercie both the law and faith of Christ ye haue both the new and the old testament out of the same through Gods grace by the aduise of your realme make a law and by the same through Gods sufferance rule you your kingdome of Britaine for in that kingdome you are Gods vicar Herevpon were sent from the said Eleutherius two godlie learned men the one named Fugatius and the other Damianus the which baptised the king with all his familie and people and therewith remoued the worshipping of idols and false gods and taught the right meane and waie how to worship the true and immortall God There were in those daies within the bounds of Britaine 28 Flamines thrée Archflamines which were as bishops and archbishops or superintendents of the pagan or heathen religion in whose place they being remoued were instituted 28 bishops thrée archbishops of the christian religion One of the which archbishops held his sée at London another at Yorke and the third at Caerleon Arwiske in Glamorganshire Unto the archbishop of London was subiect Cornewall and all the middle part of England euen vnto Humber To the archbishop of Yorke all the north parts of Britaine from the riuer of Humber vnto the furthest partes of Scotland And to the archbishop of Caerleon was subiect all Wales within which countrie as then were seuen bishops where now there are but foure The riuer of Seuern in those daies diuided Wales then called Cambria from the other parts of Britaine Thus Britaine partlie by the meanes of Ioseph of Arimathia of whome ye haue heard before partlie by the wholesome instructions doctrines of Fugatius and Damianus was the first of all other regions that openlie receiued the gospell and continued most stedfast in that profession till the cruell furie of Dioclesian persecuted the same in such sort that as well in Britaine as in all other places of the world the christian religion was in manner extinguished and vtterlie destroied There be that affirme how this Lucius should build the church of saint Peter at Westminster though manie attribute that act vnto Sibert king of the east Saxons and write how the place was then ouergrowne with thornes and bushes and thereof tooke the name and was called Thorney They ad moreouer that Thomas archbishop of London preached read and ministred the sacraments there to such as made resort vnto him Howbeit by the tables hanging in the reuestrie of saint Paules at London and also a table sometime hanging in saint Peters church in Cornehill it should séeme that the said church of saitn Peter in Cornehill was the same that Lucius builded But herein saith Harison anno mundi 4174 dooth lie a scruple Sure Cornell might soone be mistaken for Thorney speciallie in such old records as time age euill handling haue oftentimes defaced But howsoeuer the case standeth truth it is that Lucius reioising much in that he had brought his people to the perfect light and vnderstanding of the true God that they néeded not to be deceiued anie longer with the craftie temptations and feigned miracles of wicked spirits he abolished all prophane worshippings of false gods and conuerted all such temples as had béene dedicated to their seruice vnto the vse of christian religion and thus studieng onlie how to aduance the glorie of the immortall God and the knowledge of his word without seeking the vaine glorie of worldlie triumph which is got with slaughter and bloudshed of manie a giltlesse person he left his kingdome though not inlarged with broder dominion than he receiued it yet greatlie augmented and inriched with quiet rest good ordinances and that which is more to be estéemed than all the rest adorned with Christes religion and perfectlie instructed with his most holie word and doctrine He reigned as some write 21 yeares though other affirme but twelue yeares Againe some testifie that he reigned 77 others 54 and 43. Moreouer here is to be noted that if he procured the faith of Christ to be planted within this realme in the time of Eleutherius the Romane bishop the same chanced in the daies of the emperour Marcus Aurelius Antonius and about the time that Lucius Aurelius Commodus was ioined and made partaker of the empire with his father which was seuen yéere after the death of Lucius Aelius Aurelius Uerus and in the 177 after the birth of our Sauiour Iesus Christ as by some chronologies is easie to be collected For Eleutherius began to gouerne the sée of
Rome in the yéere 169 according to the opinion of the most diligent chronographers of our time and gouerned fiftéene yeeres and thirtéene daies And yet there are that affirme how Lucius died at Glocester in the yéere of our Lord 156. Other say that he died in the yere 201 and other 208. So that the truth of this historie is brought into doubt by the discord of writers concerning the time and other circumstances although they all agrée that in this kings daies the christian faith was first by publike consent openlie receiued and professed in this land which as some affirme should chance in the twelfe yéere of his reigne and in the yéere of our Lord 177. Other iudge that it came to passe in the eight yeere of his regiment and in the yéere of our Lord 188 where other as before is said alledge that it was in the yéere of the Lord 179. Nauclerus saith that this happened about the yeare of our Lord 156. And Henricus de Herfordea supposeth that it was in the yéere of our Lord 169 and in the nintéenth yéere of the emperor Marcus Anfonius Uerus and after other about the sixt yéere of the emperor Commodus But to conclude king Lucius died without issue by reason whereof after his deceasse the Britains fell at variance which continued about the space of fiftéene yéeres as Fabian thinketh howbeit the old English chronicle affirmeth that the contention betwixt them remained fiftie yéeres though Harding affirmeth but foure yéeres And thus much of the Britains and their kings Coilus and Lucius Now it resteth to speake somewhat of the Romans which gouerned here in the meane while After that Agricola was called backe to Rome the Britains and namelie those that inhabited beyond Tweed partlie being weakned of their former strength and partlie in consideration of their pledges which they had deliuered to the Romans remained in peace certeine yéeres The Britains after the deceasse of Lucius who died without issue rebell against the Romans the emperor Adrian comming in his owne person into Britaine appeaseth the broile they go about to recouer their libertie against the Romans but are suppressed by Lollius the Romane lieutenant the vigilantnesse or wakefulnesie of Marcellus and his policie to keepe the souldiers waking the Britains being ruled by certaine meane gentlemen of Perhennis appointing doo falselie accuse him to the emperor Commodus he is mangled and murthered of his souldiers The xx Chapter IN the meane time the Romane lieutenant Cneus Trebellius that succéeded Iulius Agricola could no foresee all things so preciselie but that the souldiers waxing vnrulie by reason of long rest fell at variance among themselues and would not in the end obey the lieutenant but disquieted the Britains beyond measure Wherefore the Britains perceiuing themselues sore oppressed with intollerable bondage and that dailie the same incresed they conspired togither vpon hope to recouer libertie and to defend their countrie by all meanes possible and herewith they tooke weapon in hand against the Romans and boldlie assailed them but this they did yet warilie and so that they might flie vnto the woods and bogs for refuge vpon necessitie according to the maner of their countrie Herevpon diuers slaughters were commited on both parties and all the countrie was now readie to rebell whereof when the emperour Adrian was aduertised from Trebellius the lieutenant with all conuenient speed he passed ouer into Britaine and quieted all the I le vsing great humanitie towards the inhabitants and making small account of that part where the Scots now inhabit either bicause of the barrennesse thereof or for that by reason of the nature of the countrie he thought it would be hard to be kept vnder subiection he deuised to diuide it from the residue of Britaine and so caused a wall to be made from the mouth of Tine vnto the water of Eske which wall conteined in length 30 miles After this the Britains bearing a malicious hatred towards the Romane souldiers and repining to be kept vnder the bond of seruitude eftsoones went about to recouer libertie againe Whereof aduertisement being giuen the emperour Pius Antoninus sent ouer Lollius Urbicus as lieutenant into Britaine who by sundrie battels striken constreined the Britains to remaine in quiet and causing those that inhabited in the north parts to remooue further off from the confines of the Romane prouince caised another wall beyond that which the emperor Adrian had made as is to be supposed for the more suertie of the Romane subiects against the inuasion of the enimies But yet Lollius did not so make an end of the warrs but that the Britains shortlie after attempted afresh either to reduce their state into libertie or to bring the same into further danger WHerevpon Marcus Antonius that succéeded Pius sent Calphurnius Agricola to succéed Lollius in the gouernement of Britaine the which easilie ouercame and subdued all his enimies After this there chanced some trouble in the daies of the emperour Commodus the son of Marcus Antonius and his successor in the empire for the Britans that dwelled northwards beyond Adrians wall brake through the same and spoiled a great part of the countrie against whom the Romane lieutenant for that time being come foorth gaue them battell but both he and the Romane souldiers that were with him were beaten downe and slaine With which newes Commodus being sore amazed sent against the Britains one Ulpius Marcellus a man of great diligence and temperance but therewith rough and nothing gentle He vsed the same kind of diet that the common souldiers did vse He was a captaine much watchfull as one contented with verie little sléepe and desirous to haue his souldiers also vigilant and carefull to kéepe sure watch in the night season Euerie euening he would write twelue tables such as they vsed to make on the lind trée and deliuering them to one of his seruants appointed him to beare them at seuerall houres of the night to sundrie souldiers whereby supposing that their generall was still watching and not gone to bed they might be in doubt to sléepe And although of nature he could well absteine from sléepe yet to be the better able to forbeare it he vsed a maruellous spare kind of diet for to the end that he would not fill himselfe too much with bread he would eat none but such as was brought to him from Rome so that more than necessitie compelled him he could not eat by reason that the stalenesse tooke awaie the pleasant tast thereof and lesse prouoked his appetite He was a maruellous contemner of monie so that bribes might not mooue him to doo otherwise than dutie required This Marcellus being of such disposition sore afflicted the Britains and put them oftentimes to great losses through fame wherof Cōmodus enuieng his renowme was after in mind to make him away but yet spared him for a further purpose and suffered him