wont to meet him as he came from School and took delight to pose him in Verses and would also passing from Grammar argue with him in Logick in which she was well skill'd and when she had done would order her Waiting-Woman to give him some Money But as King Edward had till now deferr'd the performance of his Promise in marrying this Lady ever since he came to the Crown so it had been no great matter whether he had married her or not because he never enjoyed her But notwithstanding the temptation of so fair a Lady he not only kept his own Virginity inviolable but also persuaded her to do the like and this as the Abbot of Rieval in his Life relates he did not do out of any hatred to her Father as is commonly reported by several of our other Historians but because the English Nobility being desirous that one from his Loins should succeed him had importun'd him to marry which he could not well refuse for then the secret Resolution of his dying a Virgin would have been disclosed therefore he wedded her both to secure himself against her Father as also to make the Virtue of his Continence appear more conspicuous which as this Author tells us was no Secret being then divulged and believed all over England and divers Censures passed concerning the motives why he did so The same year Brightwulf Bishop of Scirebone deceased who had held that Bishoprick Thirty eight years and Hereman the King's Chaplain succeeded to that Bishoprick Also Wulfric was consecrated Abbot of St. Austin's at Christmas with the King 's good Consent because of the great Bodily Infirmity of Aelfstan the former Abbot This year deceased Living Bishop of Devonshire i.e. of Exeter and Leofric the King's Chaplain succeeded thereunto The same year Aelfstan Abbot of St. Augustin's in Canterbury deceased and also Osgot Glappa the Danish Earl was expelled England The same year likewise according to Simeon of Durham and William of Malmesbury Alwold Bishop of London who had been before Abbot of Evesham being by reason of his great weakness unable to perform his Episcopal Function would have retired to his old Monastery but the Monks not permitting it he resented it so ill at their hands that taking away all the Books and other Ornaments which he had conferred upon them and retiring to the Abby of Ramsey he bestowed them all upon them and there within a short time after ended his days and then King Edward made one Robert a Norman Monk Bishop of London Also the same year the Noble Matron Gunhilda Niece to King Cnute was banished England together with her two Sons This year likewise in a great Council held at London as Florence relates Wulmar a Religious Monk of Evesham was chosen Abbot of that Monastery and was ordained the 4 th of the Ides of August following About this time according to the Welsh Chronicles Prince Griffâ—th having ruled in Peace ever since the last great Battel above-mentioned till now the Gentlemen of Ystrad Towy did by Treachery kill a Hundred and forty of his best Soldiers so that to revenge their deaths the Prince destroyed all those Countries Grymkitel Bishop of the South-Saxons i. e. Selsey deceased as did also the same year Aelfwin Bishop of Winchester and Stigand who was before Bishop in the North-East parts i. e. of Helmham succeeded in that See And Earl Sweyn the Son of Godwin went over to Baldwin Earl of Flanders to Brycge and staid there all Winter and at Summer departed being it seems at that time in disgrace at Court for deflow'ring an Abbess whom he loved This year Aethelstan Abbot of Abbandune deceased to whom succeeded Sparhafock a Monk of St. Edmundsbury Whence you may observe that the Abbots were at that time seldom chosen out of Monks of the same Abby Also this year Bishop Syward deceased and then Archbishop Eadsige retook that Bishoprick Which is contrary to what William of Malmesbury hath already related The same year likewise Lothen and Yrling Danes came to Sandwic with Twenty five Ships and there landing committed great havock and carried away abundance of Booty as well of Gold as Silver so that no man can tell how great it was From whence they sailed about Thanet and attempting there to commit the like Outrages the people of that Countrey vigorously resisted them and hindred their landing and so made them to direct their course towards Essex where they committed the like Barbarities carrying away all the men they could lay hold on and then passing over into the Territories of Earl Baldwin and there selling all their Plunder they sail'd towards the East from whence they came Also the same year according to Simeon of Durham Harold sirnamed Hairfax Brother to the late King Olaf having put Sweyn King of Denmark to flight subdued that Kingdom King Sweyn being thus driven out of his Countrey sent Ambassadors to King Edward desiring his Assistance with his Fleet against the King of Norway which Earl Godwin much approved of but the rest of the Great Men dissuading him from it nothing was done but the King of Norway dying soon after Sweyn recovered his Kingdom But Florence of Worcester places this Transaction two years later but which of them is in the right I will not dispute Also this year according to our Annals as well as other Authors was the great Battel of Vallesdune in Normandy between Henry King of France and the Nobility of that Dukedom because they refused to receive William the Bastard for their Duke But when he afterwards got them into his power he beheaded some of them and others he banished I have mentioned this to let you see with how great difficulty this young Duke who was afterwards King of England was settled in that Dutchy which he could never have obtained without the Protection and Assistance of the King of France About this time also the Welsh Chronicles tell us South-Wales was so infested by the Danish Pyrates that the Sea-Coasts were almost quite deserted The same year or else in 1048 as it is in the Cottonian Copy of the Annals was held the great Synod or Council at St. Remy where were present Pope Leo and the Archbishop of Burgundy i. e. of Besanson tho they are here mentioned as two several Archbishopricks as also the Archbishop of Treves and Remes with many other Wise Men both of the Clergy and Laity and thither King Edward sent Bishop Dudoce and Wulfric Abbot of St. Augustine's with Abbot Aelfwin that they might acquaint the King what was there decreed concerning the Christian Faith This year King Edward sail'd to Sandwic with a great Fleet and there met Earl Sweyn who came with seven Ships at Bosenham i.e. Bosham in Sussex where he made a League with the King and received a Promise from him to be restored to all his possessions but Earl Harold his Brother and Beorne very much opposed him saying He was utterly unworthy
we here omit several other Pieces of less Bulk and Note published since that Volume last mentioned containing the Chronicles and Histories of divers Cathedrals and Abbeys such as are the Annals of the Abbey of Winchester c. which have been published from the Cottonian and other Libraries in Monasticon Anglicanum and the first Volume of Anglia Sacra lately published by the late Learned and Industrious Mr. Wharton TO these likewise may be added the Histories of the Monasteries of Ely and Ramsey as also of Glastenbury by William of Malmesbury from whom we have taken several Things not only relating to that Abbey but the General History of England nor can I omit the History of John of Wallingford whom Matthew Paris mentions in his Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans as the 21st Abbot of St. Albans he wrote the History of the Kings of England as far as the 42d of King Henry the Third the first Part of which down to the Norman Conquest hath been published in the aforesaid last Volume at Oxford by the Learned Dr. Gale From all which last mentioned tho mingled with abundance of Monkish Trash we have here and there excerpted several excellent Remarks WE have also sometimes made use of Ranulph Higden his Polychronicon who was a Monk of Chester the first Part of which is published also by the said Dr. Gale as far as the Conquest and Matthew a Monk of Westminster his Flores Historiarum these Authors being Cotemporaries and collecting to the Reign of Edward the Third from all the rest of the Antient Writers abovementioned I have seldom used but as subsidiary Helps when the Passages they relate are not to be found any where else several other Authors they borrowed from being now lost or very rare to be met with HAVING now done with our printed Authors I proceed to those that continue still in Manuscript in the Bodleian and Cottonian Libraries and also in those of Lambeth Gresham's College and the Heraulds Office such as are John of Tinmouth his Historia Aurea Johannes Castorius in English Beaver his History of the Kings of England and John Rouse of Warwick his Collections on the same Subject together with above forty or fifty nameless Authors which I have perused to see what I could find in any of them that had not been taken notice of by others but how little they have answered in my Expectations the small Additions I have made from them I hope will satisfy the unprejudiced Reader and for any that are otherwise if they please to take the same Pains that I have done I wish their Labours may be better requited BVT as for the Extracts of Ecclesiastical Canons and Laws which I have inserted at the end of divers King's Reigns I have faithfully transcribed them ou◠of Sir Henry Spelman's first Volume of British Councils and Mr. Lambard's Archaionomia under their respective Years and have also compared and corrected them in a great Part from the Manuscript Notes of the Learned Junius at the end of the Cambridg Edition of Bede which is in the Bodleian Library or else by another Latin Manuscript Version of the Industrious Mr. Somner's And I do not know of any other Saxon Laws unless there be some of King Cnute's which remain as yet in Manuscript untranslated in the Bodleian Library as also in the Hands of Dr. Gale as I am well informed I hope they may be one day added to a new Edition of Mr. Lambard's most useful Work THVS having gone through all the chiefest English Historians both in Print and Manuscript that I know of relating to the Times before the Conquest which I think are as many and of as good Credit as any Countrey in Europe can shew in the like space of Time it may be expected I should say something in their Vindication since I find they have been attacked in a post-humous Treatise long since written by a Learned Civilian Sir Thomas Craig in Latin in answer to what Mr. Hollingshead has published concerning the Homage that was due from the Kings of Scotland to those of England and is lately translated into English by the Ingenious Mr. Ridpath and as I shall here faithfully give you his Arguments against the Antiquity and Credit of our Writers so I hope I shall return such Answers to them as will satisfy all impartial Readers HIS first Objection is That from the Death of Bede whose Credit he says he will every where preserve entire the English have no certain History nor Writer to the Reign of King Henry the First except that Fragment of Ethelwerd's for says he I do not acknowledg that Fragment of Ingulphus who preceded Ethelwerd twenty Years as an History nor Asserius Menevensis who wrote only concerning the Transactions of his own King Alfred And lest he should be thought to affirm any thing rashly He brings William of Malmesbury to witness the Matter saying That all the Memorials of Transactions from the Death of Bede to his own Time which was in the Reign of Henry I. about 1142. were utterly lost nor was there any who followed that Study or indeavoured to pursue the thread of History till himself NOW to give an Answer to this Learned Advocate and take him Point by Point as he goes on in the first Place I am sorry to find a Person otherwise every ways Able and Skillful in his own Profession so ignorant in our English Historians since if he had not been so he could not have committed almost as many Mistakes as he hath wrote Lines for in the first Place he calls Ingulph and Ethelwerd two Fragments whereas if he had been pleased to have looked upon either of them he would have found them entire Pieces so far as they went and we call Polybius Diodorus Siculus Salust Livy Historians not Fragments altho each of them be imperfect only the Edition that was then published of Ingulph wanted the Laws of William the Conqueror and some few Sheets at the Conclusion which have been since added AND whereas he says that Ingulph preceded Ethelwerd twenty Years he is so far from being in the right of that that the direct contrary is true for Ingulph lived and wrote above one hundred Years after Ethelwerd had finished his History with King Edgar's Reign whose Eulogy he only gives us in barbarous Verse AND as for what the Advocate says concerning William of Malmesbury he much misrepresents the Sense of this Author who does not affirm that there were no Memorials from the Death of Bede to his Time but the contrary for he mentions the Saxon Annals in his Proem in these words Sunt sanè quaedam vetustatis Indicia patrio Sermone chronico more per annos Domini ordinata also in his Book de Antiquitate Glastoniae published by Dr. Gale as above he citeth them as good Authority Tradunt Annales bonae credulitatis c. Nay Sir Thomas Craig himself I suppose through Forgetfulness has allowed
King of the Mercians fought against Kenwulf King of the West-Saxons at the Siege of Bensington Castle But Kenwulf being worsted was forced to flee and so Offa took the Castle Now Janbryht the Archbishop deceased and Ethelheard the Abbot was elected Archbishop Also Osred King of the Northumbers was betray'd and driven out of his Kingdom and Ethelred the Son of Ethelwald Sirnamed Mull reigned after him or rather was again restored to the Kingdom having reigned there before as hath been already shewn But Simeon of Durham adds farther that this Osred the late King of this Kingdom having been also shaven a Monk against his Will escaped again out of the Monastery into the Isle of Man But the next Year As Simeon relates Oelf and Oelfwin Sons of Alfwold formerly King of Northumberland were drawn by fair Promises from the Principal Church of York and afterwards at the Command of King Ethelred cruelly put to Death at Wonwalderemâ—re a Village by the great Pool in Lancashire now called Winanderemere Also about this time according to the same Author one Eardulf an Earl being taken and brought to Ripun was there Sentenced by the said King to be put to Death without the Gate of the Monastery whose Body when the Monks had carried to the Church with solemn Dirges and placed under a Pavilion was about Midnight found alive But this Relation is very imperfect for it neither tells us how he escaped Death nor how he was conveyed away though we find him five Years after this made King of Northumberland This Year as Simeon of Durham and Mat. Westminster relate Charles King of France sent certain Synodal Decrees into England in which alas for with great Grief our Author speaks it were found many inconvenient things and altogether contrary to the true Faith For it had been decreed in a Council at Constantinople by more than Three Hundred Bishops that Images ought to be adored which the Church of God does say they wholly abominate Then Albinus that is our Alcuin wrote an Epistle wherein he proved it by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures to be utterly Unlawful and this he offered together with the Book it self to the King of France on the behalf of all our Bishops and Great Men and this Letter of Alcuinus is thought to have wrought such an effect on the Synod of Francfort assembled about two Years after that the Worship of Images was therein solemnly condemned From which it is evident that Image-Worship as now practised in the Greek and Roman Churches was not then received in England And this Year also according to the same Author Osred late King of Nortbumberland being deceived by the Oaths of some great Men returned privately from the Isle of Man when his Souldiers deserting him and being taken Prisoner by King Ethelred he was by his Command put to Death at a Place called Aynsburg but his Body was buried at the famous Monastery at the mouth of Tine and the same Year King Ethelred betrothed Elfrede the Daughter of King Offa. In whom also there was found as little Faith as Mercy for this Year according to our Annals Will. of Malmesbury and Mat. Westminster Ethelbert the Son of Ethelred King of the East-Angles notwithstanding the disswasions of his Mother going to the Court of King Offa in order to Wooe his Daughter was there slain by the wicked instigations of Queen Quendrith so that out of an Ambition to seize his Kingdom Offa was perswaded to make him away but by what means it is not agreed The Annals relate him to have been beheaded But the same Annals and Florence of Worcester agree That his Body was buried in the Monastery at Tinmouth But the Chronicle ascribed to Abbot Bromton as also Mat. Westminster have given us long and Legendary Accounts of the Death of this Prince and the latter of these as well as other Monks who were favourers of this King Offa would have this Murther to be committed without this King's knowledge and Mat. Westminster has a long Story about it but not all probable especially since the King was so well pleased with the Fact when it was done that he presently seized the Kingdom of this poor Murthered Prince and added it to his own Dominions This Year as Mat. Paris and his Namesake of Westminster relate King Offa was warned by an Angel to remove the Reliques of St. Alban into a more noble Shrine and so either for this cause or else which is more likely to expiate the several Murthers he had committed began to build a new Church and Monastery in honour of St. Alban and thither removing his Bones into a Silver shrine all gilt and adorned with precious Stones he placed them in the new Church that he had built without the Town where as the Monks pretended they wrought great Miracles This King having made a journey on purpose to Rome obtained of Pope Adrian to have him Canonized King Offa also conferred upon this Monastery very great Privileges and vast Possessions all which he confirmed by his Charter which you may find in the first Volume of Monast. Anglic. as that also Anno. Dom. 1154. One Nicholas having been first a Servant in this Abbey and afterwards was Bishop of Alba Elected Pope by the name of Adrian IV he by his Bull ordained that as St. Alban was the first Martyr of England so this Abbot should be the first in Dignity of all the Abbots in England and Pope Honorius did by a Bull in the Year 1118 not only ratifie all the Privileges made and confirmed by former Popes but also granted to the Abbot and his Successours Episcopal Rights together with the Habit and that he and his Monks should be exempt from all Jurisdiction to the Bishop of Lincoln with other Exemptions too long here to be set down Also this Year there appeared strange Prodigies in the Country of Northumberland which mightily terrified the People of that Province viz. immoderate Lightnings there were also seen Meteors like fiery Dragons flying in the Air after which signs followed a cruel Famine and a little after the same Year 6 o Idus Jan. certain Heathens i.e. Danes miserably destroyed the Church of God in Lindisfarne committing great Spoils and Murthers Simeon of Durham says These Danes not only pillaged that Monastery but killing divers of the Friers carried away the rest Captive sparing neither Priests nor Laymen This Year also Sicga died he who killed the good King Alfwold who now as Roger Hoveden relates slew himself And the same Year according to Florence of Worcester Ethelard was ordained Arch-Bishop of York and as Simeon of Durham relates the same Year died Alric Third Son to Withred King of Kent after a long Reign of Thirty Four Years in whom ended the Race of Hengist Thenceforth as Will. of Malmesbury observes whomsoever Wealth or Faction advanced took on him the Title of King of that Province This Year both Pope Adrian
Edgar was certainly a very Great and Heroick Prince yet questionless that Charter which makes him to have subdued the greatest part of Ireland with the City of Dublin and to be Lord of all the Isles as far as Norway is fictitious and nothing but a piece of Monkish Forgery no Author of that Age making mention of any such thing and instead of a Great Warrior he is usually stiled Edgar the Peaceable for he never made any Foreign Wars that we can learn However such was his mighty Fame that if he did not go himself to Foreigners they came to him out of Saxony Flanders Denmark and other places Though William of Malmesbury observes their coming over did much detriment to the Natives who from the Saxons learned Rudeness from the Flemings Effeminacy and from the Danes Drunkenness the English being before free from those gross Vices and contented themselves to defend their own with a natural Simplicity and not given to admire the Customs and Fashions of other Nations Hereupon the Monk tells us he is deservedly blamed in Story for his too great Indulgence to Strangers This Noble Prince died when he had Reigned about Sixteen Years in the very flower of his Age being scarce Two and thirty years old and with him fell all the Glory of the English Nation scarce any thing henceforth being to be heard of among them but Misery and Disorder He had by Egelfleda sirnamed the Fair the Daughter of Earl Ordmer it 's uncertain whether his Wife or Concubine a Son named Edward who succeeded him By Wilfrida the Nun he had a Daughter named Editha who was also a Nun as hath been already related And by Elfreda the Daughter of Duke Ordgar a Son called Edmund who died five years before his Father and another called Ethelrede who reigned after him but was wholly unlike him in Prudence and Courage I have nothing else to add that is considerable under this year but the death of the Noble Turketule Abbot of Croyland whom from Chancellor to King Edred was at his own desire by him made Abbot He repaired and much enriched that Abby after its being ruined by the Danes and was the first that by adding to the Two Great Bells of that Monastery Six more made the first Tuneable Rings of Bells in England as Ingulph at the end of the account he gives of his Life informs us But before I dismiss this King's Reign it is fit I give you a short account of the chief Laws he made which since neither the time nor place of their enacting are any where mention'd I refer to this place The Preface of these Laws is thus This is the Decree or Law which King Edgar made with the counsel or consent of his Wites or Wisemen for the Honour of God the Confirmation of his Royal Dignity and for the Good of his People The Laws themselves begin with some Ecclesiastical Canons the first of which is concerning the Immunities of the Church and about paying Tythes out of the Lands of the Thanes as well as of those of Ceorles or Countrey-men The Second is concerning payment of Tythes and First fruits as well where a Thane had a Church with a Burying-place as also where he had not The Third appoints the times the Tythes should be paid at and what Remedy was to be had in case they were not paid at the time when they were due The Fourth ordains at what time of the year Peter-pence should be paid and the Penalty that should be incurred by those that should neglect to pay them in accordingly The last ordains every Sunday to be kept holy and to begin at Three a Clock in the Afternoon on Saturday and to end at break of day on Monday upon the penalty appointed by the Judiciary Book From which last Law you may observe how early keeping the Sunday like the Jewish Sabbath began in England Then follow the Secular or Temporal Laws The First of which enjoins that every man poor or rich enjoy the benefit of the Law and have equal Justice done him and for Punishments he would have them so moderated that being accommodated to the Divine Clemency they may be the more tolerable unto men The Second forbids Appeals to the King in Suits except Justice cannot otherwise be obtained And if a man be oppressed he may betake himself to the King for relief and in case a Pecuniary Mulct be inflicted for a fault it must not exceed the value of the man's head The Third imposes a Mulct of an Hundred and twenty Shillings to the King upon a Judge that passes an unjust Sentence against any man except such Judge will take his Oath that he did it not out of any malice but only from Unskilfulness and Mistake in Judgment and in such case he is to be removed from his Place except he can obtain favour of the King longer to retain it and then the Bishop of the Diocess is to send the Mulct imposed upon him to the King's Treasure The Fourth commands That whosoever maliciously shall defame another man whereby he receives any damage either in his Body or Estate so that the defam'd Party can clear himself of those Reports and prove them false then the Defamer's Tongue shall either be cut out or he shall redeem it with the value of his Head The Fifth is to the same effect as in another Law we have formerly cited commanding every one to be present at the Gemote or Assembly of the Hundred and further ordains That the Burghmotes or Assemblies of the great Towns or Cities be held thrice a year and the Shiregemotes or general Meeting of the whole County twice whereat were to be present the Bishop and the Ealdorman the one to teach the people God's Law and the other Man's From whence you may observe the Antiquity of our Charges at our Assizes and Sessions which no doubt do succeed those Discourses which the Ealdorman and Bishop then made to the people upon the subjects above-mentioned The Sixth requires that every man find Sureties for his Good Behaviour and in case any one commit a Crime and fly for it the Sureties should undergo what should be laid upon him If he stole any thing and be taken within a Twelvemonth he should be brought to Justice and then the Sureties should receive back what they had paid on his account Hence we may also take notice not only of the Antiquity of Frank-Pledges which had been long before instituted by King Alfred but also the continuation of this Law by King Edgar from whence it appears that it was no Norman invention introduced to keep under the English Commonalty as some men have without any just cause imagined The Seventh ordains That when any one of evil report is again accused of a Crime and absents himself from the Gemotes or publick Meetings some of the Court shall go where he dwells and take Sureties for his Appearance if they may be had but
him to govern as a Conqueror From which also you may observe the flourishing Trade and Wealth of that City in those days since it could even at that time pay above a Seventh of this excessive Taxation Then also a great part of the Danish Army return'd into Denmark and only forty Ships remain'd with King Cnute the Danes and English were likewise now reconciled and united at Oxnaford Bromton says it was done at a Great Council or Parliament at Oxford where King Cnute ordained the Laws of King Edgar i. e. of England to be observed The same year also Aethelsige Abbot of Abbandune deceased and Aethelwin succeeded him This year King Cnute returned into Denmark and there stayed all the Winter Bromton's Chronicle says he went over to subdue the Vandals who then made War against him and carried along with him an Army both of English and Danes the former being commanded by Earl Godwin set upon the Enemies by surprize and put them to flight after which the King had the English in as much as esteem as his own Danish Subjects But the year following He returned into England and then held a Mycel Gemot or Great Council at Cyrencester where Ethelward the Earldorman was outlaw'd The same year also King Cnute went to Assandune the place where he had before fought the great Battel with King Edmund and there caused a Church to be built of Lime and Stone for the souls of those men that had been slain there Which being as R. Hoveden relates consecrated in the King's presence by Wulstan Archbishop of York and divers other Bishops was committed to the care of his Chaplain whose Name was Stigand Also Archbishop Living deceased and Ethelnoth a Monk and Dean of Canterbury was consecrated Bishop by Wulstan Archbishop of York But before we proceed farther I will give you some account of the Affairs of Wales in these times Where after the death of Kynan or Conan the Usurping Prince of South-Wales above-mentioned Lewelyn Prince of North-Wales had according to Caradoc's Chronicle possessed himself of South-Wales and had for some years governed both those Countries with great Peace and Prosperity so that from the North to the South Sea there was not a Beggar in the whole Countrey but every man had sufficient to live of his own insomuch that the Countrey grew daily more and more populous But this year produced a notable Impostor for a certain Scot of mean Birth came now into South-Wales and called him self Run or Reyn as the Manuscript Copies have it the Son of Meredyth ap Owen late Prince of Wales as you have already heard Upon which the Nobility of that Countrey who loved not Lewelyn set up this Run or Reyn to be their Prince But Lewelyn hearing of it assembled all the Forces of North-Wales and marched against this Run who had now also got all the strength of South-Wales together and going as far as Abergwily i. e. the mouth of the River Gwily there waited the coming of Lewelyn but when he arrived and both Armies were ready to join Battel Run full of outward confidence encouraged his men to fight yet no sooner was the Battel begun but this Impostor soon discovered what he was by withdrawing himself pâ—â—â—ly out of the fight whereas on the contrary Lewelyn like a Couragious Prince standing in the Head of his Army called out aloud for this base Scot Run who durst so belye the Blood of the British Princes Both Armies then meeting fought for a while with great Courage and Malice to each other but it seems the South-Wales men being not so resolute in the Quarrel of this Impostor as those of North-Wales were to defend the Right of their Lawful Prince the latter being also encouraged by the Speeches and Prowess of their Prince put the former to the Rout and pursued this Run so closely that he had much ado to escape Prince Lewelyn having got thus a great deal of Spoil return'd home and for a short time govern'd these Countries in Peace But to return to our Annals This year about Martinmass King Cnute outlaw'd i. e. banished Earl Thurkyl But they tell us not the Crime Yet William of Malmesbury makes it a Judgment for being the principal Promoter of the Murther of Archbishop Aelfeage and that as soon as he return'd into Denmark he was killed by some Noblemen of that Nation This year also according to an Old Manuscript belonging to St. Edmundsbury and cited by the Lord Chief Justice Coke in the Preface to the 9 th Book of his Reports King Cnute held a Parliament at Winchester wherein were present the two Archbishops and all the other Bishops as also many Ealdormen and Earls with divers Abbots together with a great many Knights and a vast multitude of People and there in pursuance of the King's desires it was decreed That the Monastery of St. Edmund the King should be free and for ever exempt from all Jurisdiction of the Bishops and Earls of that Country But Sir H. Spelman here very well observes that this Manuscript could be no Ancienter than the Reign of Henry the Third because the word Parliament was not in use before that time Though thus much is certain That King Cnute the year before founded this Monastery afterwards called St. Edmundsbury but then known to the Saxons by the name of Beadrichesworth where there had been a Church built before and King Edward the Elder in the year 942 had also given several Lands to it and upon which Foundation King Cnute had lately built and endowed the said Abby which was one of the Largest and Richest in all England Lewelyn ap Sitsylt Prince of Wales but a short time enjoyed the fruits of his late Victory for this year the Welsh Chronicles tell us he was slain by Howel and Meredyth the Sons of Prince Edwin or Owen above-mentioned who yet did not succeed in the Principality for Jâ—go Son to Edwal late Prince of Wales was now advanced to the Throne as Lawful Heir having been long debarr'd of his Right But it seems he could not do the like in South-Wales which one Rytheric ap Justin seiz'd upon and held by force This year King Cnute sail'd with his Fleet to the Isle of Wight but upon what account our Annals do not shew us Also Archbishop Aethelnoth went to Rome and was there received by Pope Benedict with great Honour who put on his Pall with his own hands and being so habited celebrated Mass as the Pope commanded him and then after he had dined with him return'd home with his Benediction Also Leofwin the Abbot who had been unjustly expell'd from the Monastery of Elig was his Companion and there cleared himself of those Crimes of which he had been accused before the Pope the Archbishop and all the Company that were there present testifying on his behalf Wulstan Archbishop of York deceased and Aelfric succeeded Edelnoth the Archbishop consecrating him at Canterbury Also this
this matter among themselves some were for giving Judgment for the King but others differed from them saying That Earl Godwin had never been obliged to the King by either Homage Service or Fealty and therefore could be no Traytor to him and besides that he had not kill'd the Prince with his own hands But others replied That no Earl Baron nor any other Subject of the King could by Law wage Battel against him in his Appeal but ought upon the whole matter to submit himself to the King's Mercy and offer him reasonable Amends Then Leofric Earl of Chester who was an upright and sincere man both with respect to God and the world spoke thus Earl Godwin who next to the King is indeed a Person of the best Quality in England cannot deny but that by his Counsel Alfred the King's Brother was killed and therefore my opinion is That both he himself and his Sons and Twelve of us Earls that are his Friends and Kinsmen should appear humbly before the King each of us carrying as much Gold and Silver as he can bold in his Arms and offering it to him most humbly supplicate for his Pardon and then the King should remit to the Earl all Rancor and Anger whatsoever against him and having received his Homage and Fealty peacebly restore him to all his Lands To this the Assembly agreed and those that were appointed loading themselves with Treasure after the manner aforesaid went unto the King shewing him the order and manner of their Judgment which he being unwilling to contradict complied with and so ratified whatever they had before decreed This tho written a long time after the Conquest as appears by the Words there used viz. Parliament Baron Homage and Fealty yet it might be true in the main as being transcribed out of some Ancient Records of the Great Councils of those times which are now lost and if so would be a Notable Precedent of the large Authority of the Witena Gemot or Great Council of the Nation not only in assenting to new Laws but also of their Judicial Authority in giving Judgment upon all Suits or Complaints brought before them as well in Appeals between Subject and Subject as also where the King himself was a Party and if Authentick would also shew not only that this Tenure of the King by Homage and Fealty was in use before the Conquest but also according to the Judgment of this Great Council that there was no Allegiance due by Birth nor until a man had actually performed his Homage or sworn Fealty to the King and lastly that a satisfaction made by Money was looked upon as sufficient for the Death even of the King 's own Brother Yet to deal ingenuously with the Reader notwithstanding this fair story Bromton himself seems to doubt the truth of it for after he hath there told us from some nameless Author that Earl Godwin out of fear of some of the English Nobility who had sworn to be revenged of him for the murther of Prince Alfred retired into Denmark during the Reign of King Hardecnute but returning in the beginning of King Edward's Reign he appeared at a Parliament at London where the King impeached him of the Death of his Brother in the manner as you have already heard and if so this could not fall out as Mr. Selden supposes in this Great Council after this last return of Earl Godwin which happen'd not in the beginning but the middle of this King's Reign With which Relation also agree two Ancient Chronicles in French written in the time of Edward the Third and are both in the Cottonian Library And Bromton himself acknowledges that according to most Authors Earl Godwin never went into Denmark at all nor left England during the Reign of King Hardecnute so that this Transaction if it ever happen'd at all seems most likely to have fell out in the Reign of King Hardecnute when that King charged Earl Godwin with his Brother's Death and made him redeem it with a great Present as we have above told you But to conclude this year From the Peterburgh Copy of these Annals it appears that about this time Arnwy Abbot of Burgh resigned his Dignity by reason of his bad Health and conferred it with the King's License and the Consent of the Monks upon Leofriâ— a Monk of that Abby But Abbot Arnwy lived eight years after During which time Abbot Leofric so adorned that Monastery with rich Guildings that it was called the Golden Burgh he also endowed it very much with Lands as well as other Treasures This year according to Florence of Worcester Griffyn Prince of Wales entring England spoiled great part of Hâ—refordshire against whom many Inhabitants of that County marched together with the Norman Garison of Hereford Castle but Prince Griffyn meeting with them killed a great many and putting the rest to flight carried away a great deal of Booty This year Earl Godwin deceased 17 th Kal. of May and was buried in the Old Monastery of Winchester Of the manner of whose Death though our Annals are silent yet I shall here set down what I find concerning it by almost all our Historians and it is thus That King Edward celebrating the Feast of Easter at Winchester or at Windsor as some will have it Earl Godwin as his Custom was sitting at Table with him was suddenly seized with so violent a Distemper that it struck him speechless and made him fall off from the Chair on which he sate and his Three Sons Harold Tosti and Gyrth being present they immediately removed him into the King's Chamber hoping it was but a sudden Fit and would be speedily over but he lay in that languishing condition four days and died on the fifth This is the account of his Death to which the Norman Monks and such as write in favour of them add other Circumstances which shew either his Guilt or their Malice since they relate That mention being made by somebody at the King's Table of Alfred his late Brother he thereupon looked very angrily at Earl Godwin when he to vindicate himself told King Edward He perceived that upon the least mentioning of that Prince he cast a frowning Countenance upon him But saith he let not God suffer me to swallow this Morsel if I am guilty of any thing done either toward the taking away his Life or against your Interest After which words being presently choaked with the Bit he had just before put into his Mouth he sunk immediately down and never recovered more But let the manner of his death be as it will he was a Man of an Active and Turbulent Spirit not over-nicely conscientious either in getting or keeping what he could not to be excused for his too much forcing his Sovereign to whatever he listed But had he not been so great a Lover of his Countrey and an Enemy to Strangers those that wrote in the Norman times and who durst not write any thing but
Ailesbury in Buckinghamshire anciently called Eglesbyrig l. 5. p. 321. Ailmer Earl of Cornwal Founder of the Abbey of Cerne in Dorsetshirâ— l. 6. p. 22. Ailnoth Vid. Ethelnoth Ailwin the Ealdorman Founder of the Abbey of Ramsey l. 6. p. 6 7. Akmanceaster an Ancient City called Bathan by the Inhabitants l. 6. p. 7. Alan King of Armorica receives Cadwallader l. 4. p. 190. Alan Earl of Britain so great an Assistant to William Duke of Normandy that after his Conquest he made him Earl of Richmond and had great part of the Countrey thereabouts given him l. 6. p. 109. Alaric King of the Goths takes Rome l. 2 p. 104. St. Alban an Account of his Martyrdom l. 2. p. 85 86. The Miracles thereat Ibid. p. 107 108. Is privately buried that Age being ignorant of the virtue of keeping Saints Relicks Id. p. 86. Offa is warned by an Angel to remove his Relicks to a more Noble Shrine He builds a new Church and Monastery in honour of him who was after canonized l. 4. p. 237. As he was the first Martyr of England so the Abbot thereof ought to be the first in Dignity of all the Abbots in England Ib. p. 238. Pope Honorius ratified the Privileges formerly granted and gave to this Abbot and his Successors Episcopal Rights together with the Habit c. Jd. Ib. St. Albans anciently called Verulam where a Great Council was held by King Offa Id. p. 239. Albania now Scotland Northwest of the Mountains of Braid-Albain and its extent l. 2. p. 83 98. Albert ordained Archbishop of York l. 4. p. 229. Receives his Pall for the Archbishoprick from Pope Adrian Id. p. 230. Albinus Chlodius made Lieutenant of Britain by Commodus the Emperor who would have created him Caesar and permitted him in his presence to wear the Purple Robe but he refused them then yet afterwards assumed the Titles and Honour and died in asserting his Right to the Imperial Purple l. 2. p. 71 73. Is dismissed from the Government of Britain but retained it under both Pertinax and Didius Julianus Takes upon him the Title of Caesar under Severus had Statues erected and Money coin'd with his Image Forced the Messengers sent by the Emperor to dispatch him by Torture to confess the Design Id. p. 72. But is obliged at last to run himself through with his own Sword Id. p. 73. Alburge Sister to King Egbert Foundress of a Benedictine Nunnery at Wilton l. 5. p. 248. Alcluid now called Dunbritton in Scotland l. 2. p. 101. Is destroyed by the Danes l. 5. p. 277. Alchmuid Son to Ethelred King of Northumberland being taken by the Guards of King Eardulf is slain by his Command l. 4. p. 243. Alchmund Bishop of Hagulstade his Decease l. 4. p. 232. Alcuin or Albinus writes an Epistle wherein he proves Image-Worship utterly unlawful l. 4. p. 237. At his Intercession the Northumbrian Kingdom is spared from Ruin Id. p. 240. Goes into France and is much in favour with Charles the Great whom he taught the Liberal Arts and by his means the University of Paris is erected His Death and Character Id. p. 244. Aldhelm made Bishop of Shireburn and by whom l. 4. p. 213. A Catalogue of his Works given us by Bede Id. p. 213 214. His Death and Character Id. p. 214. Aldred Bishop of Worcester by his Intercession makes Sweyn's Peace with Edward the Confessor and goes with Bishop Hereman to the great Synod assembled at Rome l. 6. p. 75. Is sent Ambassador to the Emperor with Noble Presents to prevail with him to send Ambassadors into Hungary to bring back Prince Edward the King's Cousin Son of King Edmund Ironside into England Id. p. 86. His rebuilding the Church of St. Peter in Gloucester and going on Pilgrimage through Hungary to Jerusalem Id. p. 88. Is made Archbishop of York and goes with Earl Tostige to Rome where he receives his Pall Ibid. Crowns Harold King of England Id. p. 105. Aldune Bishop of Lindisfarne removes the Body of St. Cuthbert from Chester after a hundred years lying there to Durham and there builds a small Church dedicating it to him l. 6. p. 26. Alehouses how anciently these have been here with the Consequences thereof viz. quarrelling and breaking of the Peace l. 6. p. 43. Alemond Father to Edmund the King and Martyr whom he had by his Wife Cywara in old Saxony l. 5. p. 265. Alfleda Daughter to Ceolwulf King of the Mercians is married to Wimond Son of Withlaff an Ealdorman there who is afterwards made King by the Consent of the People l. 5. p. 253. Alfred King of Northumberland would not alter the Judgment against Bishop Wilfrid for any Letter from the Pope l. 4. p. 207. Deceases at Driffield and on his Death-bed repents of what he had done towards the Bishop Id. p. 212 213. Alfred King of the West-Saxons was the fifth Son of King Aethelwulf Id. p. 258. When born of Osberge his Mother at Wantige in Berkshire l. 5. p. 261. Is anointed King by the Pope as a Prophetical Presage of his future Royal Dignity Id. p. 262 265. Married to Alswitha the Daughter of Aethelred the Ealdorman of the Gaini l. 5. p. 269. He with his Brother Ethelred made a great slaughter of the Danes Id. p. 275. By the general Consent of the whole Kingdom is advanced to the Throne Id. p. 276. Fights with the Danes and the various success of his Fortune Ibid. Fights at Sea against seven of their Ships and takes one the rest escaping Id. p. 277. Is forced to make Peace with them and what Hostages they give him to depart the Kingdom but upon breach of Oath he puts them all to death The Danes make another Peace with him but did not long observed it Id. p. 278. Leads an uneasy Life upon their account beiâ—g forced to hide and lurk among the Woody parts of Somersetshire Id. p. 280. His excessive Charity to a poor man in the midst of his own Extremity Id. p. 280 281. Goes into the Danish Army in the habit of a Countrey Fidler discovers their weakness and by that means obtain a signal Victory over them Id. p. 282. Delivers the Kingdom of the East-Angles up to Guthrune and the League made between them setting out the Extent of each other's Territories Id. p. 283 284. The Subjection or Dependance the Danes shew'd to this King by their consenting to the Laws made in a Common-Council of the Kingdom Id. p. 285. Fights against four Danish Pyrate-ships takes two the other two surrender Id. p. 285 286. Pope Martinus sends some of the Wood of our Lord's Cross to him and in return he sends to Rome the Alms he had vowed Id. p. 286. Setting upon the Danish Pyrates with his Fleet takes them all with great Spoils and kills most of their men but returning home and meeting with another Fleet of them they prove too hard for him Id. p. 286 287. Takes the City of London from the Danes who had kept it
Devotion l. 4. p. 198. Didius Aulus a Roman Praetor sent Lieutenant into Britain in the room of Ostorius his Engagements and Success there l. 2. p. 45. Difilina Vid. Dublin Dinoth Abbot of Bangor instructed how to know whether Augustine's Preaching were of God by a Holy man that led the life of an Anchoret l. 4. p. 161 162. Diocesses five made out of two at a Great Council held by Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 313. Dioclesian chose Emperor by the Eastern Army makes Marc. Aurel. Maximinianus his Associate in the Empire nominates Galerius Caesar constrains them to divorce their Wives and to marry their Daughters l. 2. p. 83. His Persecution of his obedient and harmless Christian Subjects Id. p. 85. Dionotus Duke of Cornwall Geoffrey of Monmouth's story of him l. 2. p. 96. v. 102. Domitian succeeds Titus Vespasian his Brother l. 2. p. 57. Secretly designs the Ruin of Agricola through jealousy that the Glory of a private man should eclipse that of his Prince Id. p. 63. Causes it to be reported That the Province of Syria should be bestowed on Agricola Ibid. p. 64. Dorinea since Dorchester in Oxfordshire a City anciently though now but a poor Countrey Town l. 4. p. 179. Dover the Sedition there of the Townsmen against Eustatius Earl of Boloigne how it arose and how it ended l. 6. p. 76 77. Dower Where a Widow marries before her Twelve-month is expired she loses it and who is to have it and all that her Husband left her l. 6. p. 60. Draganus an Irish Bishop refuses to eat upon his coming over hither with Laurentius Archbishop of Canterbury and why l. 4. p. 166. Drinking Bonosus a Hard Drinker having hang'd himself for being vanquished by the Emperor Probus occasioned that sharp Saying Here hangs a Tankard l. 2. p. 82. Brass Pots set upon Posts at Fountains near the Highways for the use of Travellers to drink out of l. 4. p. 175. Edgar's Law to restrain excessive drinking of great Draughts Vid. Addenda p. 136. Druids their great Authority Doctrine and Gods l. 2. p. 23 24. Dublin in Ireland anciently called Difiline l. 5. p. 334. Dubritius Archbishop of Caer-Leon upon Usk in South-Wales Founder of the College of Philosophers there l. 3. p. 149. Resigned his Bishoprick and became an Anchoret in the Isle of Bardsey Ibid. Duduc Bishop of Somersetshire that is Wells his Decease and who is his Successor l. 6. p. 88. Dulcitius a famous Commander with Civilis sent for to Britain by Theodosius and an Account of their Expedition l. 2. p. 93. Dun consecrated Bishop of Rochester after the Death of Eardulph l. 4. p. 224. Dunbritton in Scotland anciently called Alcluid l. 2. p. 101. When it was destroyed by the Danes l. 5. p. 277. Dunmoc a Town in the Kingdom of the East-Angles but destroyed by the Danes l. 5 p. 274. Vid. Dunwich St. Dunstan an Account of his Birth l. 5. p. 329. Then Abbot of Glastenbury when King Edmund conferr'd divers large Privileges upon that Monastery Id. p. 345. King Edred commits the chief Treasures of his Kingdom to his care to be kept at his Abbey Id. p. 351. Is banished out of England by King Edwi and the occasion of it with his Retirement thereupon to a Monastery in Flanders Id. p. 353. Is chosen Bishop of Worcester by the General Consent of a Great Council and afterwards made Archbishop of Canterbury l. 6. p. 2. The Miracles that the Monks relate were done by him as his Harp hanging against the Wall and a whole Psalm being audibly plaid upon it without any hand touching it c. but above all his taking the Devil by the Nose with a Pair of Red Hot Tongs till he made him to roar again Id. p. 3. A great Propagator of Monkery many Monasteries either new built or new founded in his time Exercised Ecclesiastical Discipline without respect of persons witness the Penance he made King Edgar submit to Ibid. As soon as made Archbishop he went to Rome and there obtained his Pall Id. p. 6. Could never endure Ethelfreda Edgar's Queen and the reason why Id. p. 10. Narrowly escapes being killed when the Floor fell down at the Council at Calne in Wiltshire Id. p. 17. He and Oswald c. crown Ethelred the Brother of Edward the Martyr St. Dunstan's Prediction of this King Ethelred Id. p. 19. His Decease He restores the Monkish Discipline in England and makes a Collection of Ordinances for the Benedictine Order l. 6. p. 22. A Relation of his having erected in his life-time a small Monastery at Westminster for Twelve Monks which was vastly augmented by Edward the Confessor Id. p. 93. Dunwallo Molmutius reduces this Island from a Pentarchy in which it was before into a Monarchy l. 1. p. 12. Dunwich in Suffolk Foelix founded his Episcopal See here l. 4. p. 179. Anciently called Dunmoc l. 4. p. 193. And Domue Id. p. 242. Durham the City about what time built and a Church there dedicated to St. Cuthbert by whom erected l. 6. p. 26. Is besieged by Malcolme King of the Scots with a very great Army Id. p. 27. Durstus King of the Picts is slain in Battel and the particular Account of it l. 2. p. 102. Duty to Parents a pretty remarkable Instance of it in one of King Leir's Daughters named Cordiella if it were true l. 1. p. 11. E EAdbald Ethelbert's Son who succeeded him in the Kingdom of Kent His wicked Reign l. 4. p. 168. His Incestuous Marriage upon what account he renounced Id. p. 169. Gives Ethelburga his Niece in Marriage to King Edwin upon condition that she should enjoy the Christian Religion Id. p. 171. He and Archbishop Honorius receive her with great Honour Id. p. 176. Dies after he had reigned Five and twenty years leaving two Sons Id. p. 180. Eadbald the Bishop departs from the Northumbers l. 4. p. 240. Eadbert or Egbryht King of Northumberland marries Cuthburge Sister to King Ina but they are both made to leave each other's Bed l. 4. p. 218. He is forced to fly into Surrey to the South-Saxons and upon what occasion Ibid. Ceolwulf surrenders his Kingdom again to him and he reigned One and twenty years Id. p. 223. Leads Kynwulf Bishop of Lindisfarne Prisoner to the City of Beban who it seems had some way rebelled against him Id. p. 225. His War against the Picts subduing all the Countrey of Kyle c. and joining them to his own Dominions Ibid. And Unust King of the Picts bring an Army against the City Alkuith which was delivered by the Britains upon Conditions Id. p. 227. Is shorn a Monk and Oswulf or Usulf his Son succeeds him after he had reigned One and twenty Years with great Wisdom and Courage insomuch that Pepin King of France not only made a League with him but sent him great Presents Id. p. 228. Dies Ten Years after his taking the Monastical Habit and is buried at York Id. p. 229. Eadbert or
of their Ancestors do advance even these young Men to the Degree and Honour of being a chief Man FROM hence we may observe that all Nobility among the antient Germans was at first Military as being derived from the Noble and Valiant Acts of their Ancestors in War and thence proceed all the present Ensigns of it videlicet the Shield on which our Coats of Arms are now depicted as also the Helmet and Crest that stand for an Ornament over them for until some Brave and Worthy Act was performed it was not lawful among the Germans for a young Warriour to paint any Device upon his Shield which was only Personal to himself and extended not to his Posterity THE fifth is That Dotem non Vxor Marito sed Vxori Maritus offert viz. THE Husband settles a Dower upon the Wife and not vice versâ the Wife upon the Husband Which shews the Antiquity of Doweâ— among the Germans and English-Saxons and as Mr. Selden upon this Law observes it was called antiently MORGANGHEB among them THE sixth shews that Accisis Crinibus nudatam adulteram coram propinquis expellit domo Maritus ac per omnem vicum verbere agit viz. FOR Adultery the Husband turned the Wife out of his House in the presence of her Relations having first cut off her Hair and being then strip'd whip'd her through the Town BUT the Severity of this Punishment if ever it was in use here was quite abolished by the English-Saxons as you will find from the Laws about it THE seventh is that Haeredes successoresque sui cuique Liberi nullum Testamentum viz. EVERY Man's Heirs and Successors are his Children and no Testament is allowed BUT in this the English-Saxon Law differed much from those of the Germans for it was lawful in England for Men of Quality to dispose of their Land by Will if they pleased provided it were Bocland that is Free-Tenure grantable by Deed as you may find by some Laws in the ensuing Volume otherwise in Lands held in Socage every Man's Sons inherited all alike But this law was changed after the Conquest and no Will could be made of Lands held by Military Service but they descended entirely to the eldest Son which Law continued so low as the Reign of King Henry the 8 th when the Statute was first made which gives the Tenant by Knights Service Power to bequeath his Estate by Will provided there were enough left to perform the Service THE eighth says that Suscipere Inimicitias seu patris seu propinqui quà m amicitias necesse est viz. IT is absolutely necessary to continue the Enmities of a Father or near Kinsman as well as Friendships FROM whence as Mr. Selden well observes arose those Family-Quarrels called in the North of England DEADLY FEUDS which you will also find mentioned in the ensuing Collection of Saxon Laws and which are continued in Scotland even to this Day BUT to proceed with Tacitus he says Nec implacabiles durant Luitur enim etiam homicidium certo Armentorum as Pecorum numero recipÃtque satisfactionem universa Domus viz. THAT they do not remain implacable for the Homicide is recompensed with a certain Number of great and small Cattel and the whole Family thereupon receives Satisfaction THIS Custom continued long not only among the Germans but also English-Saxons The Price of Blood being to be redeemed at a certain Rate according to each Man's Condition which you will hereafter often find in the said Laws to be mentioned under the Title of WIREGILD and in the Laws of King Aethelstan you will meet with the particular Prices of each Man's Head from the Clown even to the King himself the Estimation of whose Life is likewise there set down thô at a much higher Rate as it ought to be than that of other Mens But of this we shall speak more anon THE ninth Law bears that Frumenti modum Dominus aut pecoris aut vestis Colono injungit viz. THE Lord of the Soil prescribes to the Husbandman what quantity of Corn Cattel or Clothes he shall pay him FROM whence we may take notice of the Antiquity of Rent reserved upon Farms which was chiefly in Provision and not in Money as it continued for a long Time after the Conquest here in England and remains so in Scotland even to this Day HAVING thus done with the Laws we shall next descend to the People who practised them The antient Saxons as Adam of Bremen from Einhardus relates were like the Germans divided into these four sorts viz. Noblemen Freemen Slaves that were Manumized and lastly those that continued Slaves But Nithardus speaking of his Time makes them but of three sorts scilicet Ethelings Frilingues and Lazzi that is Noblemen Freemen and Slaves and it was established as a Law among them that none of these should transgress the Bounds of their own Condition by matching with those who were either a Degree above or below them THIS Custom was also long observed in England after the Conquest and gave Original to those Statutes of Mag. Char. and Merton by which the Lord was to lose the Benefit of his Wardship in case he married the Ward to his Disparagement that is To the Daughter of a Villain or a Tradesman in case that the Kindred complained of it BUT before we come to treat of the several Degrees of People abovementioned it is fit we should say something of the Head of the Saxon Common-Weal viz. their King who though he was chosen in all the Kingdoms of the Heptarchy out of the Blood-Royal of Woden their first Leader of this Gothick Colony into Europe as appears by their Pedigree at the end of the Book yet were they at first no better than Generals in War and in time of Peace they had little or no Power as we may see in Bede FOR he speaking of the Province of the Hither i. e. East Frizeland from whence he supposes our Saxon Ancestors to have come and to which the two Hewalds the White and the Black went to preach the Gospel and were there martyr'd for their Pains he hath this remarkable Passage Non enim habent Regem iidem antiqui Saxones sed Satrapas plurimos suae Genti praepositos qui ingruente Belli Articulo mittunt aequalitèr sortes quemcunque sors ostenderit hunc tempore Belli Ducem omnes sequuntur huic obtemperant peracto autèm Bello rursum aequalis potentiae omnes fiunt Satrapae i. e. For the Antient Saxons says he have no King but several Noblemen of their own Nation set over them who on the breaking out of any War cast Lots and on whomsoever the Lot happened to fall all the People during that War follow and obey him as their General but when the War was over and at an end all these Lords again became of equal Power AND it is likewise very observable that neither Bede nor any other German Author who relates the Story of
his Son-in-Law whom he denotes by this Title Ethelredo Principi meae Militiae THE other viz. the Great Civil Officer was that of Chancellour so called from the barbarous Latin word Cancellare from his cancelling or striking out what he pleased in Men's Grants and Petitions And as for his Power we find it thus expressed in Ingulf upon K. Edward the Elder 's having made his Cousin Turketule Chancellor Quaecúnque negotia temporalia vel spiritualia Regis Judicium expectabant illius consilio tam sanctae fidei tam profundi ingenii tenebatur omnia tractarentur tractata irrefragabilem sententiam sortirentur from whence we may observe that the King did not only in that Age determine Civil but Spiritual Causes too in his own Person and had his Chancellor for his Assistant in his Judgments which being so given irrefragabilem sententiam sortirentur i.e. they obtained an uncontroulable Sentence beyond which there then lay no Appeal and this I suppose was done in that great Court we now call the King's Bench for as for the Court of Chancery in Causes relating to Equity Sir Edward Coke tells us in his 4 th Institutes that there are no Precedents of it before the Reign of King Henry VI. BUT that it was the business of the Chancellor to draw up the King's Charters and also to sign them before the Conquest you will find at the end of the last Charter of King Edward the Confessor to the Abbey of Westminster in the first Volume of Sir H. Spelman's Councils where Aelfgeat a Notary signs it vice Reynbaldi Regis Edwardi Cancellarii THE next Degree was that of Ealdorman which was not only Titular as to the Person but an Office and signified as you will find all along in our Annals those great Magistrates under the King who being called in Latin Subreguli Principes Consules in some of our Antient Charters and sometimes in Saxon Cynings i.e. petty Kings had the subordinate Government of Cities Counties and often too of whole Provinces in all Affairs both Civil and Military and were of much greater Power before King Alfred's Reign than afterwards for whereas before his Time they had the chief Authority in all Places belonging to their Jurisdiction they seem after the word Eorle came in use with the Danes to have lost much of their Power tho they still retained the Title And it is observed by Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary that he who was called the Ealdorman of the County signified in the Laws of King Athelstane something between the Earl and the Sheriff and therefore seems to have been him who under the Earl governed the County or Province and was his Deputy or Judg in the County Court in his Absence For in those Laws the Value of an Arch-bishop and Earl's Head is set at fifteen thousand Thrimsaes whereas the Bishop's and Ealdorman's was but at eight thousand YET notwithstanding this Title did not cease to be esteemed very honourable many Years after that Time for we find in Camden's Britannia that the Tomb of Ailwin founder of the Abby of Ramsey was inscribed with the Title of Ealdorman of all England which as Mr. Selden says could only mean that he was somewhat like the Antient Chief Justiciary of England or Chief Director of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom or Viceroy Regiae dignitatis consors nominis or half Cyning as the Book of Ramsey has it NOT but that this word was also of a much more inferior Signification seeing we find frequent mention in the Laws of Edward the Confessor as well as in those Kings immediately after the Conquest of Aldermannus Hundredi seu Wapentachii as also of Aldermannus Civitatis vel Burgi whence the Title of our present Aldermen of Cities and great Towns are derived tho of a far different Signification as well as a much later Institution and this I suppose happened by reason of the Paucity of words in the Saxon Tongue which called Grave Men distinguished by any Office or Dignity by the Title of Ealdormen because they were at first bestowed on Men of elder Years tho afterwards as the Auctuary to King Edward's Laws informs us they were not so stiled propter senectutem cum quidam Adolescentes essent sed propter sapientiam Therefore I cannot forbear taking notice that whereas Bede speaking of K. Oswald's sending ad Majores natu Scotorum to the Elders of the Scots for Bishops King Alfred in his Translation of Bede calls them the Ealdormen of the Scots that is the Great or Chief Men of that Nation I must here beg the Reader 's Pardon for a Mistake I have committed in the rendring of that Passage into English in the ensuing History for not having the Saxon Version by me but only a Latin Copy when I wrote it nor having then consulted Mr. Selden to whom I confess my self much beholden for this Criticism I have there translated the words Majores Natu Scotish Bishops because I thought it most proper for them to be sent to about an Affair concerning Religion I have no more to say on this Head only that I have left this word Ealdorman so often used in our Annals untranslated for tho I grant he is frequently stiled Dux or Comes in Latin yet it would not bear being rendred Duke or Earl in English because that those Titles are not only very different but were unknown in our Saxon Tongue till many Years after that Government was setled in England I come now to the Title Earl or Eorle which being altogether Danish was not commonly used here till the Reign of King Cnute tho we now and then find it mentioned in our Annals before his Time but as for its Power and Authority it being much what the same with that of Ealdorman abovementioned I think I need say no more of it only that neither of them were then Hereditary nor descended to Sons or Brothers tho they often continued in the same Family when the King was pleased so to confer it And both the Title and the Office were liable to be forfeited upon any great Male-Administration as you will find in divers Instances in this Book THE next Title and Office I shall mention is that of Heretoch which was wholly Military and as Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary supposes was the same with that of the Holde or Commander in War mentioned in the Laws of King Athelstan because his Wiregild is made equal to that of a High-Gerife viz. four thousand Thrymsa's THIS Heretoch seems to have been somewhat like our Lord-Lieutenant of a County at this Day and was chosen for some extraordinary Occasion as upon a sudden Invasion or Expedition against the Scots or Welshmen Which being over their Commission also ceased but they themselves were still had in high Esteem and Honour if they had prudently and couragiously discharged that great Trust. And as the
dicitur convocati i. e. Besides many other very Eminent Persons and Chief Men of the Kingdom of divers Orders being omitted who with most pious Affection were Witnesses and Approvers to this Confirmation and these were summoned at that Time by the Royal Authority from divers Provinces and Cities to the General Synod held at the Famous Abby of Westminster for the hearing and determining of the Causes of each Christian Church THIS is an Authority which seemed so convincing that Sir William Dugdale hath made use of it in his Origines Juridiciales to prove the Antiquity of the Commons of England in Parliament yet Dr. Brady in the Conclusion of his Answer to Mr. Cook 's Argumentum Antinormanicum accuses that Gentleman of being both Ignorant and Mistaken in the meaning of Cities and Provinces and the Persons that came from them whom he indeed would have to be not any Representatives of Counties and Cities but only Deans Arch-Deacons and other dignified Persons and Church-Officers as well of the Laity as Clergy who were summoned by the King to this Synod from Provinces and Cities to advise and inform the King of the Conveniency of the Places whither the Bishops Sees then about to be removed from Villages to Cities were to be transferred BUT since there is not one word in this Charter said of any such Thing and that Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary renders the word Provincia for a County and not a Bishop's See I my self not now having leisure to pursue such Niceties shall refer the Curious for their farther Satisfaction to the eighth Dialogue of Bibliotheca Politica where they may read whatsoever he has said against it sufficiently answered THESE are the only Authorities I shall make use of at this Time to prove that the Cities and Boroughs had then their Delegates or Representatives in the Saxon Witena-Gemotes I will now conclude this Point with the Judgment of that Learned Antiquary Mr. Lambard who certainly understood the Constitution of this Antient Government as well at least if not better than Dr. Brady and he tells us THAT whereas in the beginning of each Law viz. those made by the Saxon Kings he there mentions all the Acts are said to pass from the King and his Wise Men both of the Clergy and Laity in the Body of the Laws each Statute being thus And it is the Advice of our Lord and his Wise-Men So as it appears that it was then a received Form of Speech to signify both the Spirituality and the Laity that is to say the greater Nobility and the less or Commons by this one word Witan i. e. Wise-men NOW as those written Authorities do undoubtedly confirm our Assertion of the Continuance of this manner of Parliament so is there also unwritten Law or Prescription that doth no less infallibly uphold the same For it is well known that in every Quarter of the Realm a great many Boroughs do yet send Burgesses to the Parliament which are nevertheless so antient and so long since decayed and gone to nought that it cannot be shewed that they have been of any Reputation at any time since the Conquest and much less that they have obtained this Privilege by the Grant of any King succeeding the same So that the Interest which they have in Parliament groweth by an antient Usage before the Conquest whereof they cannot shew any beginning which thing is also confirmed by a contrary Usage in the self-same thing for it is likewise known that they of Antient Demesne do prescribe in not sending to the Parliament for which reason also they are neither Contributors to the Wages of the Knights of Shires neither are they bound by sundry Acts of Parliament tho the same be generally penn'd and do make no Exceptions of them But there is no antient Demesne saving that only which is described in the Book of Doomsday under the Title of Terra Regis which of necessity must be such as either was in the Hands of the Conqueror himself who made the Book or of Edward the Confessor that was before him And so again if they of antient Demesnes have ever since the Conquest prescribed not to elect Burgesses to Parliament then no doubt there was a Parliament before the Conquest to the which they of other Places did send their Burgesses I shall here crave leave to add one Record tho after the Conquest in Confirmation of what Mr. Lambard hath here learnedly asserted for that several Boroughs claimed to send Members to Parliament by Prescription in the beginning of the Reign of Edward the Third appears by a Petition put in to that King An. 17 Edw. 3. wherein the Burgesses of the Town of Barnstaple in Devonshire set forth that it being a free Borough had by Charter from King Athelstan among other Privileges a right of sending two Burgesses to all Parliaments for the said Borough upon which the King and his Council ordered a Writ of Inquiry which certainly would never have been done if Dr. Brady's Notion were true that the Cities and Boroughs never sent any Representatives to Parliament but once in the 49 th of Hen. 3. and then no more till the 18 th of Edward the First which was but a little above 50 Years to the time of this Petition which being within the Memory of so many then living the King and his Council would never have ordered a Writ of Inquiry about such a vain and idle Pretence FROM all which I think it may safely be concluded that this Learned Antiquary above-mentioned I mean Mr. Lambard did not without good Authority believe that not only the Great Lords or Peers but also the Inferiour Nobility and Representatives of Cities and Towns were included under the word Witan and likewise that those Places claimed that Privilege by Prescription I shall therefore desire the Doctor that when he writes next upon this Subject he will please to crave in Aid some Gentlemen of the Long Robe of his Opinion to help him to answer this Argument of Mr. Lambard from general Prescription as also what hath been already said concerning this matter in the same Dialogue of Bibliotheca Politica above-mentioned beginning at pag. 483 and ending at pag. 593 inclusively and if he can then with his Assistances prove all our antient Lawyers to have been mistaken in this memorable Point I shall own my self to have been so too But I desire this may be taken notice of that no Prescription whatsoever in Law can be laid of later Date than the first Year of King Richard the First which began almost fourscore Years before the 49 th of Hen. 3. when he fancies the Commons were first summoned to Parliament BUT that I may be as brief as I can I shall reduce what I have further to say upon this Head to a few Queries As FIRST Whether in all the Kingdoms of Europe of the Gothic Model beginning with Sweden and Denmark and ending with Scotland there can
Westmoreland I suppose they are omitted in this Catalogue because in the Times not long before the Conquest the first was under the Power of the Scots and consequently under their Laws as the two latter were under that of their own Earls who ruled those Counties as Feudatary Princes under the Kings of England tho thus much is certain that the Danish Laws took Place there as well as in Yorkshire BUT after King Edward the Confessor came to the Crown he reduced the whole Kingdom under one General for thus says Ranulph Higden as he is cited by Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary Tit. Lex Ex tribus his Legibus Sanctus Edwardus unam Legem Communem edidit quas Leges Sancti Edwardi usque hodie vocant Brompton says the like Iste Supradictus Rex Sanct. Ed. Conf. dictus est Edwardus Tertius qui Leges Communes Anglorum Genti tempore suo ordinavit quia proantè Leges nimìs partiales editae fuerant But Roger Hoveden carries them up higher in his History of Henry the Second for he says Quod istae Leges primùm inventae institutae erant tempore Edgari Avi sui sed postquam Edwardus venit ad Regnum Consilio Baronum Angliae Legem per 48. Annos sopitâ—m excitavit excitatam reparavit reparatam decoravit decoratam confirmavit confirmata verò vocata est Lex Edwardi Regis non quià ipse invenisset eam prius sed cum praetermissa fuerat Oblivioni penitùs data è Diebus Avi sui Edgari qui primus Inventor ejus fuisse dicitur usque ad sua tempora quià justa honesta erant è profundo Abysso extraxit eam revocavit ut suam observandam tradidit But the true Reason why it is called the Common Law is because it is the Common or Municipal Law of this Kingdom so that Lex Communis or Jus Patriae is all one with Lex Patriae or Jus Patrium and it is also called the Common Law in other Countries as Lex Communis Norica Burgundica Lombardica c. And from this latter they were so called by William the First in his Confirmation of them HAVING now given you the Original of our Laws in General we will next proceed to shew you what they were in particular as far as they concern those two great Branches of all Municipal Laws viz. the Civil or the Criminal The former oâ— which concerns Lands and Goods and the latter the Nature and Punishments of Criminal Offences TO begin with the former as far as it concerns Lands I shall satisfy my self with what Dr. Brady hath with great Industry and Exactness extracted in the first part of his Compleat History of England out of those Learned Authors you will find there cited in the Margin which is as follows Mr. Somner says there were but two sorts of Tenures here in the Saxon times before the Conquest Bocland and Folkland to which two all other sorts of Land might be reduced Bocland as Lambard says was Free and Hereditary and was a Possession by Writing the other without That by Writing was possessed by the Free or Nobler sort that without called Folkland was holden by paying Annual Rent or performance of Services and was possessed by the Rural People Rusticks Colons or Clowns in those Times these Writings were called in Latin Libelli Terrarum Landboc's and Telligraphia and Livery and Seizin was then made and given by delivery of a Turf taken from the Land with the Writings This was called Terra Testamentalis hereditaria Land Inheritable and devisable by Will unless the first Purchaser or Acquirer by Writing or Witness had prohibited it and then it could not be sold or disposed of from the nearest Kindred This Bocland was of the same Nature with Allodium in Doomsday holden without any Paiments nor chargeable with Services to any Lord or Seignory and though the Name was almost quite lost yet the thing remained under the Name of Allodium and the Lands possessed by the Allodiarii frequently mentioned in Doomsday I have been the more exact in putting down this Passage because it plainly proves from the learned Doctor 's own shewing that if the greatest part of the Lands before the Conquest held by Men of any Quality were Bocland and that this Bocland was the same as he grants with Lands held in Allodio and I have already proved that such Lands were held without any Paiments or Services other than such publick Taxes as were imposed by the Great Council of the Kingdom that is Danegelt with such other Duties as all Lands whatsoever were liable to then is it also as evident that these Lands which were far the greatest part of the Lands in the Kingdom were not held by Knight's Service and consequently their Owners could not be Tenants in Capite as this Author is pleased in other Places to suppose and therefore these Tenants in Allodio could never be so represented by such Military Persons as that they alone could either make Laws for them or lay Taxes on their Estates without their Consents either by themselves or Representatives in the Great Councils or Parliaments of those Times and therefore such free Tenants must have either appeared for themselves in Person or have chosen others to represent them AND if any Man doubt whether these Lands held in Allodio were before the Conquest the greatest part of the Lands of the Kingdom I must refer them for their Satisfaction to Mr. Somners and Mr. Taylor 's Treatises upon Gavelkind as also to Mr. Lambard's Discourse of the Customs of Kent at the end of his Perambulation of that County who there fully prove that the Antient Bocland descending to all the Male Issue alike was not meer Socage Tenure but Allodial 2 dly That this was the general Tenure of all Lands not held by Knights Service before the Conquest as well Gavelkind as others and that not only at the Common Law but confirmed by divers Saxon Kings as by that Law of King Edmund Si quis intestatus obierit Liberi ejus haereditatem aequalitèr dividant So likewise by the 68 th and 75 th Laws of King Cnute as also by those of Edward the Confessor confirmed by William the Conqueror Cap. 36. And therefore Mr. Somner in his said Treatise of Gavelkind farther proves that this was a Liberty left to the Kentish Men by William the Conqueror when all the rest of England changed its Antient Tenure and Mr. Taylor in his History of Gavelkind Chap. 6 7 8. hath proved this to have been a general Custom not only in Kent but in Wales and several parts of England I shall not any further pursue what the Doctor has said of Lands holden by Military Service before the Conquest or of the Herriots or Reliefs that were due upon them which were payable out of the Feudal Lands of the Ealdormen middle and less Thanes but shall refer
you to the Laws of King Cnute and those of the Confessor the former of which you will find at the end of his Reign in the ensuing Volume wherein is set down what the Heirs of each of those Feudatary Tenants were to pay to their Lords at the Death of their Ancestors BUT that these could not be near all the Lands of England appears by what hath been already said of Lands held in Allodio And I have known some Learned Antiquaries who have not without good Cause believed that all Tenure by Knight-Service in England was derived from the Danes and Norwegians who upon their Conquests and settling here first brought in that sort of Tenure out of Denmark and Norway from whence the English Saxon Kings might by Degrees impose it upon several Lands by them granted to their Ealdormen or Earls and chief Thanes by Military or Knights Service who likewise granted them to their inferiour Thanes under the like Tenures and yet it would have been very unreasonable that such inferior Thanes should have so far been deprived of their antient English Freedom as that the Earls and King's Thanes should have it in their Power to make what Laws and impose what Taxes they pleased upon them as their under Tenants without their Consent AND if meer Tenure alone could have done this I would fain know why the English Kings before the Conquest by the same reason might not as well have made Laws and taxed their Tenants in Capite without their Consent as these could have done their Tenants that held under them But this is altogether false in Matter of Fact as all the Histories of those Times shew Danegelt it self being first imposed by the Consent of the King and his Wites as appears by the Saxon Annals NOT but that I grant all the Lands of England were then held under those three great Services called in Latin Trinoda Necessitas viz. 1. Expedition that is the finding of Men to defend the Kingdom in case of Invasion 2. The Repair of Bridges and 3. Fortifying of Castles from which even Lands granted to the Church were not exempted as appears by the Charters to several Monasteries But these were Services due and to be performed by the Common Law and Custom of the Kingdom and did not concern one sort of Tenure more than another I have no more to observe concerning this Bocland but that it passed by Deed called by Ingulphus Chirographa until the Confessor's time and was confirmed by the Subscriptions of the Fideles or Subjects there present with golden Crosses and some other holy Marks only this methinks ought not to be passed over that the Ceremony of Livery or Seizin of Lands is very antient as appears by the Charter of Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons preserved among the Evidences belonging to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the Year DCLXXXVII made to Theodore then Arch-bishop of that See of certain Lands with this Subscription Ad cumulum autèm Confirmationis ego Cedwalla Cespitem terrae praedictae supèr sanctum Altare Salvatoris posui propriâ manu pro ignorantia Literarum signum sanctae Crucis expressi subscripsi that is For the farther Confirmation thereof I Ceadwalla have put this said Turf of Earth upon the holy Altar and for want of Learning have with my own Hand made and subscribed the Sign of the holy Cross. The like also hath Camden out of a Patent made by Withered King of Kent to a Nunnery in the Isle of Thanet So much for Bocland CONTRARY to which was that called Folkland which Sir Henry Spelman says was Terra popularis scilicet quae jure communi possidetur vel sine scripto that is Land belonging to the ordinary sort of People which they enjoyed of common Right without any Writings or Deeds as we see in Copy-hold Lands at this day for which the Tenants have seldom any other Evidences than the Copy of the Court-Rolls of the Mannor which Copy-hold Lands were antiently either held by Sockmen that is Free-men holding by the Plow to perform mean and villain Services or else by those who were Villains appendant to the Mannor THESE might be ousted of their small Estates at the Will of the Lord which a Farmer could not be so long as he honestly performed his Services and these were they who after the Conquest were called Tenants in Antient Demesne either of the King or of some other Lord as you will find in the old Natura Breviam OF the like sort also as Dr. Brady very well informs us were Lands and Possessions mentioned by other Names in our Saxon Laws as Gaffolland Rent-Land or Farm-Land Foedus Alured and Guthr c. 2. Gafogyldenhus an House yielding or paying Rent or Gable LL. Inae c. 6. There are also mentioned Inland or the Lords Demesnes which he kept in his own Hands and Neatland which is called Vtland or Outland in Byrthric's Will Terra Villanorum and was let out to Country-men or Villagers Aegder of Thegnes inlandge of Neatland i. e. either of the Lords or Thanes Inland or Demesnes or else the Country-mans Villagers or Villan's Land Gafolland Neatland and Vtland as Mr. Somner truly informs us were opposed to Inland or Demesne-Lands and were Lands granted out for Rent or Service or both and reducible to Folkland and 't is very probable they were the same or of the same Nature for that in the Laws where they are mentioned it appears they were always occupied by Ceorls Churles Country-men Colons or Clowns by Gebures Boors Rustics Plough or Husbandmen or by Neates and Geneates Drudges Villanes or Villagers These three Saxon words being almost of the same Signification tho very different in Sound were always applied to the ordinary sort of People called by us Folk at this day Thus far the Doctor which I will not contradict tho he here makes all Ceorles Men to have been meer Drudges which was not so since those that held Land by Socage-Services were as free as to all things else from the Power of their Lords as our Tenants are at this day BUT I desire by the way that this may not be unobserved that I can no where find the word Colonus used for a Husbandman or Clown in any of our antient Saxon Laws tho Sir Henry Spelman gives us some Examples of the use of it in the German Laws there signifying Liberi Ecclesiastici quos Colonos vocant and the King had also his Coloni but this learned Author supposes that these Coloni answered our Sockmen who were certainly Freemen and not Villains Nor did Villanus signify a Villain but a Country-man or Villager in general till after the Conquest and then it was not from the Latin but French Idiom that a Villain came to signify a Slave or Drudg HAVING now given you what I thought fit to say concerning the several Tenures and ways of Conveyance of Lands in the
Book at a certain rate and not arbitrary 127 Folcland what it was 118-120 Folcmote the same with the County-Court 83 Fornication its Punishment 125 Franc Pledg what 8 France its antient Kings the manner of their Succession 69 Friburg or Tithing-Court its Institution and Business 80 81 G. GAvelkind 118 119 General of the King's Forces his Antiquity 72 Antient German Laws 35 c. Government of Britain before the arrival of Jul. Caesar very uncertain 29. During the time of the Romans 31-34 Vnder the Saxons 34 c. Of the Antient English Saxons rather Aristocratical than Monarchical pag. 39 H. HAgulstad Richard an account of him and his History 15 Heir its antient Signification 53 54. His Right to Lands and Goods 122 Saxon Heptarchy vid. Kingdoms Heretoch what that Office was 74 Heriots to whom due 122 Higden Ranulph his Polychronicon 17. Our Historians in English a brief Censure of them 5 6 7 Historians in Latin an Account and Censure of their Works 7-18 The Holde what 74 Homage from the Scotish Kings to those of England how far to be credited 19 20 Hoveden Roger an Account of his Works 16 Dr. Howel his Mistake in making the first Saxon Kings absolute Monarchs 39 Hundred-Court what 80 Huntingdon Henry an Account of him 16 I. INtestates their Goods how antiently to be divided 121 122 Introduction its Design 127 Joseph of Arimathea his preaching the Gospel in England fabulous 24 Judgments inflicted for several Offences 125 126 Grand-Juries how antient 123 Jury-men their Number to be Twelve in the English-Saxon Times 123 Jus Haereditarium its Signification 53 K. KEntish Kings their Succession 42 43 Kings of Britain not despotic but often elected 30 Kings at first no better than Generals in War in Peace they had little or no Power pag. 38 Saxon Kings not absolute or by Conquest 39 40 Kings of the Saxons at first elected 39-41 The manner of their Succession to the Crown ib. 66. Their losing their Crowns otherways sometimes than by Death 68 c. The King in what sense he is said to make Laws 108 English Saxon Kings what kind of Supremacy they exercised in Ecclesiastical Affairs 108 c. Kingdoms of the English-Saxons how many erected in this Island 34 35 L. LAnds in England all held under the three great Services called in Latin Trinoda necessitas 120 Lathes what 80 Laws British 29 German 35-38 Ecclesiastical by whom 108-113 Saxon Customary Laws their Original and how many sorts of them 117 118. Reduced into one Body by ◠Edward the Confessor ib. Their Civil Laws concerning Lands 118 Legislative Power in whom it resided under the English Saxon Kings 105-108 M. MAiming c. how punishable antiently 126 Malmesbury William his Character 15 Manslaughter and Murder their distinction ibid. Mercian Kings their Succession 45 Milites what sort of Men 90 Monasteries how far taken notice of in the ensuing History 24 Monmouth Geoffery a Censure of his Work 7 Mulcts the difference betwixt this word and Fines 126 127 Murder its Punishment in the English-Saxon Times pag. 126 N. NObiles Angli who they antiently were 91 Northumbrian Kings their Succession 44 O. OFfences of several sorts with their Penalties 125 126 Optimates who they were 92 Ordeal what and what the Trial 123 124 Ordinaries at first had nothing to do in Administrations 122 Ordinary People how they were called in the Saxon Times 121 Original of the first English Saxon Kings 38-41 Original Contract 70 c. Osbern Author of the Lives of St. Dunstan and St. Alphege 14 P. PArliament the Original of this Great Assembly 86. The same with the antient Witena-Gemots and Mycel Synoth 86. which met thrice every Year ex more ibid. Perjury Saxons utter Enemies to it and their Punishment of it 126 127 Plebs Vulgus their Signification 99 100 Populus Populi must signify the Commons in the Saxon Laws and Charters ibid. to 102 Portgereses or Port Reves their Antiquity 96 The antient Prerogatives of our English Kings 67 68. to pardon 67 127. They could not debase the Money nor give away their Crown-Lands without the Consent of the Common Council of the Kingdom 126 127 Primates Principes Proceres what they were 90 92 Probate of Wills 122. how long a matter of Civil Cognizance 122 123 Procuratores Patriae who they wer◠pag. 95 Punishments among the English Saxons their several sorts 125 126 Q. SEveral Questions for Dr. Brady to answer 99 100 R. DE Rationabili parte Bonorum the Writ grounded at Common Law and on what Custom 122 Robbery how punishable 126 Romans their Government in Britain 31-33 S. SAbaoth-breaking its Punishment 125 Sacrilege its Punishment 125 Sapientes who they were 96 Saxons not at first govern'd by Kings 38 English Saxons whence deriv'd 35. Their Government rather Aristocratrical than Monarchical 39 South-Saxons their Kingdom 34 43 Saxon-Tenures 121 Scandal how punishable 126 Senatores Gentis Anglorum who they were 92 93 The Scire-mote or Sheriffs-tourn what 82 83 Sheriff his antient Office 75 Sithcundman what 78 Slaves or Servants among the English-Saxons and what Power their Lords had over them 79 80 Free Socmen what they were with their Privileges 78 Studia Sapientiae sometimes tho rarely taken for the Study of the Law 88 Succession of the English-Saxon Kings whether hereditary or elective 38-65 Swearing and Cursing rarely known in the Saxon Times 125 Mycel Synoth what 86 T. TEnants in England how many sorts under the Saxon-Kings 118 119. In antient Demesne who 121 Thane his Title and Dignity 75 76 136. Their several sorts ibid. Thanes of London who 96 Trinoda necessitas what 120 Thefts small ones their Punishments 126 The Tourn of the Sheriff 83 Trespasses upon Lands and Goods how punishable 126 A Tithing or Decennary what 81 Tithes granted à Rege Baronibus Populo 100 Treason its Punishment 125 126 Trials the several sorts among the English-Saxons 123 124 125 The Trihing Court what it was 80 V. VIcarius Britanniae what he was 32 Villanus its Signification 120 121 Voyer dire what 125 W. WAllingford John an Account of him 17 Mr. Washington's Observations on the King's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 108-113 West-Saxon Kings their Succession 47-65 The Form of their Crowns and Titles 66 67. Often deposed 69 70 Witena Gemote or Great Council by what other Names it is called in our antient Histories 90 Wites or Witan among the English-Saxons its Signification did not mean only Lawyers 88. For what they were established in the Great Councils 41 War or Peace in whom the Power 68 Will the antientest observed before the Conquest when 122 Wiregilds what 67 68 126 Worcester Florence his Character and an Account of his Chronicle 17 ERRATA In the Preface PAge 5. line 5. for be would read would be P. 17. l. 4. f. Greshams r. Gresham Ibid. l. 45. del in P. 23. l. 3. f. Ilcombil r. Ilcombkil P. 23. l. 14. f. that r. whither ib. f.
all Ireland for so it was then commonly called for near Four Hundred Years after this and he therein complains of Draganus an Irish Bishop who coming over hither would not so much as Eat in the same House with him at which time also Laurentius wrote Letters not only to his fellow Bishops in Ireland but also to the British Clergy in Wales to the same purpose as the former but how well he succeeded therein the present time says Bede declares about which Year also Mellitus Bishop of London was sent to Rome to confer with Pope Boniface concerning the necessary Affairs of the English Church when the Pope held a Synod at Rome with the Bishops of Italy concerning the Life and Conversation of the Monks where he sate with them This Synod was held in the Eighth Year of Emperour Phocas and the Bishop at his return brought back the Decrees of that Council together with the Pope's Letters to Arch-Bishop Laurence and all the Clergy as also to King Ethelbert and the whole English Nation This Year also Sebert King of the East-Saxons Founded the Church and Abbey of Westminster and Mellitus the Bishop Dedicated it to St. Peter thô for what Order of Monks is uncertain since they were driven out after the Death of Sebert by his Successours who continued Pagans for many Years after This Year according to Florence Ceolwulf dying Cynegils began to Reign over the West Saxons for Thirty One Years being the Son of Ceolric who was the Son of Cutha who as we have heard was slain fighting against the Britains some Years before Cynegils and Cwichelme fought against the Britains at Beamdune now Bindon in Dorsetshire and there slew Two Thousand and Forty Six Men which Battel H. Huntington thus describes The Saxon and British Troops being drawn up in Battel Array the Fight immediately began when the Britains fearing the weight of the Saxon Battel Axes and long Launces turn'd their backs and fled so that the Saxons obtain'd the Victory without any great loss on their side and he also agrees pretty near in the number of the slain with our Saxon Annals This Cwichelme here mentioned is by Will of Malmesbury said to be Brother of Cynegils and to be by him taken as his Partner in the Royal Power But Florence of Worcester and Mat. Westminster do make Cwichelme to have been the Son of Cinegils thô the former Opinion be the more likely but let it be either of them it is certain that they were both of them Stout and good natured Persons who governed with that mutual Love and Concord as it was a wonder to the Age in which they liv'd so ought it to be an example to all future times Thô the Cathedral of Christ Church in Canterbury had been already built about Twenty Years yet it seems the Monastery adjoyning to it was not founded till this Year as appears not only from the Manuscript above mentioned once belonging to the Monastery of St. Augustine but also from Will of Malmesbury that in the time of Arch-Bishop Laurence and about this very Year that it was first replenished with Monks as appears by a Letter of Pope Boniface to King Ethelbert whereby he approves of and confirms the Foundation of the said Abby by the said Arch-Bishop which Letter though Will. of Malmesbury had promised to recite yet being by him forgot or else ommitted in our Printed Copies is to be found at large in the said Manuscript concerning which Monastery the afore-cited Author farther adds That though some had said that Arch-Bishop Aelfric had thrust out the Clerks i. e. secular Chanons out of that Church and had placed Monks in their rooms yet was it not at all probable since it appeared by the said Epistle of Pope Boniface that there had been Monks in the Church of St. Saviour from the first foundation of that Monastery in the time of Arch-Bishop Laurence who succeeded St. Augustine But it hath been denyed by Cardinal Baronius in his Annals as also by some later Antiquaries of what Order these Monks were whom Augustine and Laurentius placed in these two Monasteries above mention'd and that a late ingenious Authour in his Preface to a Treatise called Notitia Monastica hath questioned whether they were of the Benedictine Order since he rather supposes That the Benedictine Rule was scarce heard of in England till some Hundreds of Years after and never perfectly observed till after the Conquest but he should have done well to have told us what other Order they were of since the general Tradition in most of the Ancient English Monasteries of the Benedâ—ctine Order was That they had observed that Rule from their first foundation And the Saxon Annals under the Year 509 do expresly affirm That St. Benedict the Father of all the Monks dyed that Year And he had long before his Death founded his Order in Italy and of which Augustine himself is supposed to have been and though I also acknowledge that all the ancient Monasteries of England were not at first of that Order since those that were founded in the Kingdom of Northumberland by the Bishops Aidan and Coleman followed the same Rule with the Monks of Ireland and Scotland viz. That of St. Basil which all the Eastern Monks did then and do to this day observe yet even these did about an Hundred Years after quit that Rule and follow the more Modern one of St. Benedict and therefore Stephen Heddie in his Life of St. Wilfred Bishop of York lately published by the learned Dr. Gale hath expresly told us That the said Bishop returning home into his own Country i. e. the Kingdom of Northumberland and carrying along with him the Rule of St. Benedict very much improved the Constitutions of God's Churches by which he meant the Monasteries of those Parts And therefore the Chronology once belonging to the Abby of St. Augustine's in Canterbury printed in the Decem scriptores after Will. Thornes Chronicle under Anno 666 upon very good grounds thus observes That this Year Bishop Wilfred caused the Rule of St. Benedict to be observed in England That is in the North Parts into which he then went for if that Rule had not been observed in the Southern Parts before How could it be said that he carried it out from thence along with him but to conclude there having been a dispute among the Roman Catholicks beyond the Seas about Seventy Years ago concerning this matter some of them affirming that all the ancient English Monks before the Conquest were of the Order of St. Equitus or else of some other Order whereupon those of the Benedictine Order wrote over to our Antiquaries in England viz. Sir Robert Cotton Sir H. Spelman Mr. Camden and Mr. Selden appealing to their Judgment herein From whom they received a Letter under all their Hands wherein they expresly certified that there was never any such Order as that of St. Equitus and further
his Province and as Bede tells us surveyed all Things and ordained Bishops in fit Places and those Things which he found less perfect than they should be he by their Assistance corrected among which when he found fault with Bishop Ceadda as not having been rightly Consecrated he humbly and modestly replied If you believe that I have not rightly undertook the Episcopal Charge I willingly quit it since as I never thought my self worthy so I never consented to accept it but in obedience to the Commands of my Superiours But the Arch-Bishop seeing his Humility answered That he would not have him lay aside his Episcopacy and so he again renewed his Ordination according to the Catholick Rites From whence it appears that this Arch-Bishop then thought the Ordination of the English and Scotish Bishops who differed from the Church of Rome as to the time of keeping Easter to be Uncanonical and for this reason Bede here also tells us That Bishop Wilfrid was sent into France to be Ordained But as for this Bishop Ceadda Florence of Worcester informs us That he was now also deprived of his Bishoprick and Wilfrid restored to it as having been unduly Elected thereunto which thô Bede doth not tell us in express Words yet he confirms it in the very next Chapter where he tells us That Jaruman Bishop of the Mercians being now dead King Wulfher did not ask Arch-Bishop Theodorus to Ordain a new One but only desired of King Oswi that Bishop Ceadda the Brother of Cedda should be sent to him to take that Charge who lived privately at his Monastery of Lestinghen where he was then Abbot Wilfrid then not only Governing the Diocess of York and all the Northumbers but also Picts as far as King Oswi's Dominions extended But to return again to the Saxon Annals This Year King Ecgbert gave to Basse the Priest Reculf where he built a Monastery This was afterwards called Reculver in Kent Oswi King of Northumberland died xv Kal. Martij and was buried at Streanshale Monastery and Ecverth or Egfrid his Son reigned after him also Lothaire Nephew of Bishop Agelbert took upon him the Episcopal Charge over the West Saxons and held it 7 Years Arch-Bishop Theodorus Consecrated him He whom these Annals call Lothair was the same with Leutherius Bishop of Winchester Bede tells us further of King Oswi That being worn out with a long Infirmity he was so much in love with the Roman Rites that if he had recovered of the Sickness of which he died he had resolved to go to Rome and end his Days at the Holy Places having engaged Bishop Wilfrid to be the Guide and Companion of his Journey promising him no small Rewards for his Pains ' This Year was a great slaughter of Birds H. Huntington renders it a great Fight of Birds which seems to have been some remarkable Combat of Crows or Jackdaws in the Air of which we have several wonderful Relations in our Histories Mat. Westminster relates that the strange Birds seemed to flie before those of this Country but that many Thousands were killed This next Year Cenwalch King of the West Saxons died and Sexburga his Wife held the Kingdom after him for one Year Of whom William of Malmesbury gives this Account That this King dying left the Kingdom to Sexburga his Wife nor did she want Spirit or Courage to discharge all the Functions of a King for she straitways began to raise new Forces as also to keep the Old to their Duty to govern her Subjects with moderation and to keep her Enemies in awe and in short to do such great Things that there was no Difference but the Sex between Her and a King But as she aimed at more than Feminine Undertakings so she left this Life when she had scarce Reigned a Year about But Mat. Westminster says she was expelled the Kingdom by the Nobles who despised Female Government But what Authority he had for this I know not for I do not find it in any other Author whereas if what William of Malmesbury says of her be true it was not likely they should Rebel against so good a Governess who seems to have been the perfect Pattern of an Excellent Queen After the Death of King Cenwalch and as I suppose Queen Sexburga likewise Bede relates That the Great Men or Petty Princes of that Kingdom divided it among them and so held it for 10 Years in which time Eleutherius Bishop of the West Saxons i. e. of Winchester dying Heddi was Consecrated by Arch-Bishop Theodorus in his stead in whose time those Petty Princes being all subdued Ceadwalla took the Kingdom but this does not agree with the Saxon Annals About this time thô Bede does not set down the Year King Egfrid of Northumberland waging War with Wulfher King of Mercia won from him all the Country of Lindsey About this time also died Ceadda Bishop of Litchfield according to Ran. Higden's Polychron but Bede does not tell us the time of his Death thô he mentions it and there gives a large Account of the great Humility and Piety of that good Bishop and of the Pious End he made He is called by us at this day St. Chad. This Year Egber◠King of Kent deceased according to Bede's Epitome who as says Math. Westminster gave part of the Isle of Thanet to build a Monastery to explate the Murder of his Cousins whom he had caused to be slain as you have already heard The same Year was a Synod of all the Bishops and great Men of England held at Heartford now Hartford which Synod as Bede tells us was called by Arch-Bishop Theodorus where Wilfred Bishop of York with all the rest of the Bishops of England were either in Person or by their Deputies as Florence relates and in which divers Decrees were made for the Reformation of the Church the first and chiefest of which was That Easter should be kept on the first Lord's Day after the Fourteenth Moon of the First Month i. e. 〈◊〉 which thô it had been before appointed by the Synod at Streanshale above-mentioned yet that being not looked upon as a General Council of the whole Kingdom it was now again renewed the rest of them concerning the Jurisdictions of the Bishops and the Priviledges and Exemptions of Monasteries I pass over and refer you to Sir H. Spelman's First Volume of Councils for farther satisfaction But I cannot omit that it was here first Ordained That thô Synods ought to be held twice a Year yet since divers Causes might hinder it therefore it seem'd good to the whole Council that a Synod should be assembled once a Year at a place called Cloveshoe This Year also the Saxon Annals relate That Etheldrethe late Wife to Egfrid King of Northumberland founded the Monastery of Ely in which she her self became the first Abbess She as Bede tells us had been twice married but would never let either
Abbess deceased at Streanshale now Whitby in York-shire which she her self had Founded she was Grand Niece to King Edwin and having been converted by Paulinus had been almost ever since her Conversion a professed Nun first in the Monastery of Cale in France and was afterwards Abbess of divers Nunneries in England being esteemed a Lady of great Sanctity and Knowledge At this Monastery of Strean-shale which was then for Men as well as Women lived Caedmon the English Saxon Poet who is supposed by Bede to have been once Divinely inspired in his sleep to make Verses in his own Tongue upon the Creation of the World and ever after kept that faculty upon other Divine Subjects there are divers of his Paraphrases in Saxon Verse still extant upon several Stories in Genesis and Exodus but very hard to be understood by reason of the Obsoleteness of the Saxon Dialect They have been Printed at Oxford by the Learned Junius About this time also according to Florence the Kingdom of the Mercians became divided into five Diocesses and Tulfride a learned Monk of the Abbess Hilda's Monastery was elected first Bishop of Worcester but dyed before his Ordination But the ancient Chronicle of the Church of Worcester now in the Cottonian Library relates the Church of Worcester to have been first founded by Atheâ—red King of the Mercians and Theodore Bishop of Canterbury one Bosel being made the first Bishop of that See and sate therein Eleven Years There was then also founded a Colledge of secular Canons which so continued as the Chapter of this Church till Anno Dom. 991 when Bishop Oswald turned them out and put in Benedictine Monks in their Rooms About the same time also one Oswald Nephew to King Ethelred founded a College for Secular Canons at Pershore in Worcestershire which continued till King Edgar and Bishop Oswald Anno 984. brought in Benedictine Monks in their Places I may also add under this Year that pretended Bull of Pope Agatho's Privileges together with the Charter of this K. Ethelred which is reciâ—â—d in the Peterbâ—rgh Copy of the Saxon Annals under Anno. 675 and is there related to have been about the same time confirmed in the Council at Heathfield above-mentioned whereby were grâ—nted to the Monastery of Mâ—deshaâ—isâ—e ad divers greâ—t Immâ—nities which Bull does not only confirm aâ—d those Privileges formerly granted by Pope Vitalian but there is also further added this that the Abbot should be the Pope's Legat over the whole Isle of Britain and that whatsoever Abbot was elected by the Monks should be immediately consecrated by the Archbishop of Câ—nterbury with divers other Things too tedious here to relate Which 〈◊〉 being recited in the Council above-mentioned was by thâ—m estâ—blished and confirmed which being done the King is said to have made a Speech reciting all the Lands he had given to the said Monastery and then having subscribed the Charter the Queen Adrian the Pope's Legat and all the Bishops and Abbots whose Names are there mentioned did so likewise under drâ—â—dful Curses upon those that should violate the Privileges above-mentioned But notwithstanding the so exact Recital and supposed Confirmation of this Charter in the Council above-mentioned we have very great Reason to suspect this Bull as also the Charter it self to have been forged long after by the Monks of Peterburgh for in the first place the Privileges granted to this Abbey do not only exceed any that had been granted by the Pope to any Monastery in England but also were such as we do not find it ever enjoy'd as particularly that of their Abbot's being the Pope's ordinary Legate all over this Island which had been such a Diminution of the Rights of the Archbishop of Canterbury as he would nover have so easily paâ—s'd over And besides all which the Names of the Bishops who are put to this Charter do not at all agree with the Circumstances of Time for first it is certain that Wilfred is here styled Archbishop of York which Title he never took upon him being then no more but a Bishop under the Jurisdiction of Archbishop Theodore and by whom he at this Time stood deprived and was not present at this Council nor did return this Year from Rome as this Copy of the Annals makes him to have done but was indeed returned from thence near three Years before being at this Time converting the South-Saxons â—s hath been already related Neither was Putta Bishop of Rochester or Waldhere Bishop of London at the time when this Council was held though their Names are also put to this Charter for the former had been dead eleven Years before and one Quiehelme was then Bishop of that See as appears by the Catalogue of the Bishops in Sir H. Spelman's Fasâ—â— at the end of the Volume of English Writers after Bede nor was the latter then Bishop of London but Erkenwald who was elected to that See above fifteen Years before and continued in it 'till after the Reign of King Ina who began not to reign 'till Anno 688 so that upon the whole matter I take this Charter to be a notorious piece of Forgery This Year Trumbrith was consecrated Bishop of Hagulstad and Trumwin Bishop of the Picts This was the Bishoprick of Wyterne called in Latin Candida Casa which at that time as Bede testifies belonged to the Kingdom of Northumberland and also Centwin King of the West-Saxons put the Britains to flight as far as the Sea H. Huntington says That he also wasted all their Country with Fire and Sword but the Welsh Chronicle of Caradoc translated by H. Lloyd relates That this Year Kentwin King of the West-Saxons gathered a great Company of his Nation together and came against the Britains who seem'd ready to receive the Battle but yet when both Armies appeared in sight of each other they were not all desirous to fight for they fell to a friendly composition and agreement viz. That Ivor should take Ethelburga to Wife who was Cousin to Kâ—ntwin and quietly enjoy all that he had got during the Reign of Ivor but of this our English Histories are silent This Year the Nunnery of St. Peter in Glocester was founded by Osriâ— then a petty Prince or Governour under Ethelred King of the Mercians but was afterwards King of the Northumbers This Monastery thô it had the honour of having Three Queens successively Abbesses of it was destroyed by the Danes but afterwards was re-edified for Benedictine Monks by Aldred Bishop of Worcester Anno 1058. This Year also according to Bede Egfrid King of Northumberland sent a great Army into Ireland under one Bert or Bryt his General who miserably wasted that innocent Nation which had been always friendly to the English which Character perhaps might have been due to them in Bede's time and did not so much as spare the Churches or Monasteries but the Islanders as far as they were able repel'd Force with Force and invoked the Divine
held it Thirty Three Years William of Malmesbury makes him to have been Elected King by the General Consent of his Subjects and that he did not deceive their expectation in governing them well The Saxon Chronicle here also proceeds and gives us his Pedegree which being not to our purpose I omit only you may take notice that he was the Son of one Ecbert and not of the last King that Reigned As soon as ever he was made King he commanded a Great Council to be summoned at a place called Becanceld which though it be somewhere in Kent yet no body certainly knows where it lay unless it were Beckanham which lies near Surry at which Council Withred Himself was present as also the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester and with them all the Abbots and Abbesses together with many Wise and Prudent Men who were there assembled that they might all take Council about the repairing of the Churches in Kent then the King began to speak thus I will That all Churches and Monasteries which have been given and endow'd for God's Glory in the Days of the Faithful Kings my Predecessours shall remain so to God's Honour for ever Therefore I Withred being an Earthly King yet moved by the Heavenly one have learnt from our Ancestours that no Lay-man ought to have right to meddle with any Church or any of those things that belong to it Wherefore we do firmly Decree and appoint and in the Name of the Omnipotent God and all his Saints do straitly forbid all the Kings our Successours with all Ealdermen i. e. Governours or Judges and other Laymen to exercise any Lordship or Dominion over those Churches and their possâ—ssions which either I or my Predâ—cessours have given for the Honour of Christ and our Lady St. Mary and all the Saints but when it shall happen that a Bishop or any Abbot or Abbess shall depart this Life let it be told the Arch-Bishop that by his command one may be chosen who is most worthy Moreover let the Arch-Bishop make good tryal of his Life who shall be elected to so Holy a Function neither let any one be Elected or Consecrated without the consent of the Arch-Bishop for as it is the King's duty to appoâ—nt Ealdermen Sheriffs and Judges so it is the Arch-Bishop's to Govern the Church of God and to take care of it as also to appoint and elect Bishâ—ps Abbots and Abbesses Presbyters and Deacons as also to Consecrate Coâ—firm and Instruct them by his good Precepts and Example least any of God's Flock should wonder out of the way and perish This passage being found in the Cottonian Copy of the Saxon Annals I thought good to insert as a Monument of the ancient power of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as Governour of the Church of England though then under the power of the Pope in Ecclesiastical Matters These are the chief heads of this famous Council not do the other Copies in Sir H. Spelman's Collection differ much from this in the Saxon Annals only there follows the Subscriptions of King Wythred and Werburge his Queen who Subscribed for her self and the Prince her Son then follow those of the Bishops and Abbots and after them of Five Abbesses of that Kingdom which shews them to have been present at this Council but whether as consenters or voters or else as bare witnesses I shall not determine but it is observable that their Names are written not only before all the Presbyters but also before Botred a Bishop though of what Diocess is not specified But to return to Civil affairs About this time also as Bede relates though no Historian hath given us the Year Sebbi King of the East-Saxons being fitter for a Bishop than a King and being at last taken with a great bodily Infirmity preferred a private Life before a Crown and took upon him the Habit of a Monk with the Benediction of Waldhere then Bishop and Successour to Erkenwald in the See of London so this pious King after he had bestowed a great Sum of Money in Charity soon departed this Life leaving his Sons Sighard and Senfrid to succeed him This Year the Southumbers that is the Mercians killed Ostrythe the Wife of Ethelred their late King and the Sister of King Egfrid H. Huntington calls it a vile Wickedness but would not or could not give us the reason why they did so nor what punishment was inflicted upon them for it This Year likewise was held the Council of Berghamsted in Kent Bertwald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Gibmund Bishop of Rochester and all the Ecclesiastical Order of that Kingdom together with all the Lay or Military Men being there assembled by the Common and Unanimous Assent of All they decreed these Laws should be added to the Laws and Customs of the Kentish Men the Constitutions of this Council are called in the Saxon Title the Judgments or Doomes of King Wightred But thô they relate chiefly to Ecclesiastical Matters yet I shall here insert some of the chief of them The First Law is That the Church shall be free and enjoy her own Judgments Rents and Pensions and that Prayer be made for the King and his Commands obeyed not of necessity or Compulsion but out of good will Secondly If any Military Man called there a Gesithcund-man in the Saxon Original shall after this Council is ended despising the King's Law and the Judicial Sentence of the Bishop's Excomunication be taken in Adultery let him pay to his Lord an 100 Shillings By which Law it appears there was at this time Knights Service in England and also that slighting of Excomunication had no further Temporal Penalty than a pecuniary Mulct And that it was to the Lord of whom he held his Land That he was to pay it appears by the next Law by which it is appointed that if the Adulterer were a Country Man or Villager called there Ceorlesman he shall pay Fifty Shillings to his Lord yea thô he do Pennance for that Sin Thirdly If on Saturday in the Evening after the Sun is set or on Sunday Evening after the same time a Servant shall at the Command of his Master do any work let his Master redeem the offence with paying Eighty Shillings Fourthly If a Layman kill a Theif let him lye without any Wiregild that is without making any satisfaction to the Friends of the party slain This Year also the Picts slew Bert the Ealderman H. Huntington ascribes this to the Curse of the Irish Nation whose Churches he had in the late Invasion destroyed for as King Egfrid Invading the Country of the Picts was there cut off so entering their Country to revenge the Death of his Master he was likewise slain Mat. Westminster calls this Ealderman Brithric Earl of the Northumbers but from what Authority I know not I shall conclude this Century with a very remarkable Transaction out of Bede that happen'd about the latter end of it Egbert an English Priest living
relates Swebriht King of the East-Saxons died this Year Eadbriht or Egbert the Son of Eatta who was the Son of Leodwald began to Reign in the Kingdom of the Northumbers and held it One and Twenty Years Egbert Arch-Bishop of York was his Brother who were both buried in the City of York in the same Church-Porch But it there is an over-sight in these Annals for this Eadbriht above mentioned must be the same with Eadbriht under the former Year This Year also according to Simeon of Durham Swebright King of the East-Saxons died Ceolwulf late King of Northumberland died this Year according to Mat. Westminster in the Monastery of Lindisfarne Also as Simeon of Durham relates Nothelm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased but the Saxon Annals defer his Death two Years longer This Year Acca Bishop of Hagulstad deceased who as the same Author relates was had in great Reverence not only during his Life but also after his Decease for his great Sanctity and supposed Miracles King Ethelred deceased and Cuthred his Cousin succeeded in the Kingdom of the West Saxons and held it 16 Years This King made sharp War against Ethelbald King of the Mercians and that with various Success as H. Huntington tells us sometimes making Peace and then again renewing the War This Year also Nothelm the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased and Cuthbriht was Consecrated in his stead as was also Dun Bishop of Rochester after the Death of Eadulph ' This Year also the City of York was burnt together with the Monastery as Simeon has it Now was held the great Synod at Cloveshoe where were present Ethelbald King of the Mercians and Cuthbert the Arch-Bishop with many other wise Men. Where this Cloveshoe was is now very uncertain since the Name is wholly lost some suppose it to have been Cliffe in Kent near Gravesend but it is not likely that Ethelbald being now the chief King of England would permit this Council to have been held out of his own Dominions so that others suppose it to have been Abingdon in Berkshire which was anciently called Secvesham where as the old Book of that Abbey tells us was anciently a Royal Seat of the Kings and where there used to be great Assemblies of the People concerning the arduous Affairs of the Mercian Kingdom But thô we are more certain of the Decrees of this Council than of the Place where it was held yet since it was a meer Ecclesiastical Synod and no great Council of that Kingdom and that its Decrees were chiefly made in Confirmation of the Charter of King Withred concerning free Elections to Monasteries in Kent according to the Directions of the Archbishop of Canterbury I shall refer you to the Canons themselves as they are to be found in the Decem Scriptores and Sir H. Spelman's British Councils and shall only take notice of this one that now Bishops were first ordered to visit their Diocesses once a Year This Year Ethelbald King of the Mercians and Cuthred King of the West Saxons fought against the Britains H. Huntington tell us That these two Kings now joyning their Forces brought two great Armies into the Field against the Welsh-men who not being able to defend themselves were forced to flie leaving great Spoils behind them so both the Kings returned home Victorious According to Florence of Worcester Wilfred the second Bishop of York of that Name died after he had fate 30 Years Also this Year according to the Annals Daniel resigned the Bishoprick of Winchester being worn out by Age and Hunferth succeeded him and they say the Stars seemed to fall from Heaven But Simeon of Durham calls them with more probability such Lightnings as those of that Age had never before seen About this time also according to Simeon there happened a great Fight between the Picts and the Britains I suppose he means those of Camberland for no other Britains lay near the Picts This year Bishop Daniel above-mentioned deceased after he had been 43 years Bishop ' This year Selred King of the East-Saxons was slain But by whom or which way is not here said This Selred was Sirnamed The Good and reigned 38 years Switheard King of the East-Angles dying Elfwold succeeded him as the Chronicle of Mailros relates This Year also was held the second Council at Cloveshoe under Cuthbert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury there being present beside the Bishops Abbots and many Ecclesiasticks Ethelbald King of the Mercians with his chief Men and Ealdermen In which besides many Decrees concerning the Unity of the Church and for promoting Peace which you may see at large in Sir H. Spelman's First Volume of Councils and after the reading of Pope Zachary's Letters to the People of England to live more continently These among other Decrees were likewise passed viz. 1. That the Reading of the Holy Scriptures be more constantly used in Monasteries 2. That Priests receive no Reward for baptizing Children or for other Sacraments 3. That they learn the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in English and are likewise to understand and interpret into their own Tongue the Words of Consecration in the Celebration of Mass and also of Baptism c. This year Cynric Aetheling that is Prince of the Blood-Royal of the West Saxons was slain and Eadbriht King of Kent died after six Years Reign and Ethelbryht the Son of King Withred succeeded him This Cynric was he whom H. Huntington relates to be Son of Cuthred King of the West Saxons who thô young in Years was a great Warriour for his time yet perished in a sudden Sedition of his own Souldiers but where he does not say Simeon affirms That Elfwald King of the East Angles now dying Hunbeanna and Albert divided that Kingdom between them but what relation they had to the late King he does not tell us This year Cuthred King of the West Saxons in the 12th Year of his Reign fought against Ethelune that couragious Ealderman H. Huntington calls him a bold Earl who moved Sedition against his Lord and thô he were inferiour in the number of his Souldiers yet maintained the Fight a great while by his sole Courage and Conduct but while he was ready to get the Victory a Wound he then unfortunately received so disabled him and disheartened his Men that the King's being the stronger as well as the juster Side did thereby prevail Also the same Year according to Simeon of Durham and the Chronicle of Mailros Eadbert King of Northumberland led Kynwulf Bishop of Lindisfarne Prisoner to the City of Beban who it seems had some ways rebelled against him for he then also caused the Cathedral Church of Lindisfarne to be besieged The same Year as Bede's Continuator relates Eadbert King of Northumberland made War upon the Picts and subdued all the Country of Kyle with other Territories joyning them to his own Dominions This Year according to the Saxon Annals King
Plunder and Spoil But of this we shall speak more in due time and shall now proceed in our History where we left off in our last Book Egbert the only surviving Prince of the Blood-Royal of the West Saxon Kings as great Nephew to Ina by his Brother Inegilds being arrived in England was now ordained King as Ethelwerd expressly terms his Election But since Asser in his Annals places this King 's coming to the Crown under Anno 802. as does Simeon of Durham and also Roger Howden from an Ancient piece of Saxon Chronologie inserted at the beginning of the first Book of his first part and this account being also proved by that great Master in Chronology the now Lord Bishop of Litchfield to be truer then that of the Saxon Annals or Ethelwerd by divers Proofs too long to be here Inserted I have made bold to put this King 's coming to the Crown two Years backwarder then it is in the last Book thô I confess the former Account in the Saxon Annals would have made a more exact Epocha Also about this time as appears from the ancient Register of St. Leonard's Abbey in York cited in Monast. Anglican viz. ' That Anno Dom. 800 Egbert King of all Britain in a Parliament at Winchester by the consent of his People changed the Name of this Kingdom and commanded it to be called England Now thô by the word Parliament here used it is certain that this Register was writ long after the Conquest yet it might be transcribed from some more ancient Monument since Will. of Malmesbury tells us of this King tho' without setting down the time that by the greatness of his Mind he reduced all the Varieties of the English Saxon Kingdoms to one uniform Empire or Dominion which he called England though others perhaps more truly refer it towards the latter end of his Reign as you will find when we come to it This Year Eardulf King of the Northumbers led his Army against Kenwulf King of Mercia for harbouring his Enemies who also gathering together a great Army they approached to each other when by the Advice of the Bishops and Noblemen of England as also by the Intercession of the chief King of the English by whom is meant King Egbert who then passed under that Title They agreed upon a lasting Peace which was also confirmed by Oath on both sides This we find in Simeon of Durham's History of that Church and in no other Authour About this time also St. Alburhe Sister to King Egbert founded a Benedictine Nunnery at Wilton which was long after rebuilt by King Alfred and augmented by King Edgar for Twenty Six Nuns and an Abbess The same Year the Moon was Eclipsed on the 13 Kal. Jan. and ' Beormod was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester About this time in Obedience to a Letter from Pope Leo III. who at the desire of Kenwulf King of the Mercians had Two Years since restored the See of Canterbury to its ancient Primacy was held the Third Synod at Cloveshoe by â—rch bishop Ethelward and 12 Bishops of his Province whereby the See of Canterbury was not only restored to all its ancient Rights and Priviledges but it was also forbid for all times to come upon Pain of Damnation if not repented of for any Man to violate the Rights of that ancient See and thereby to destroy the Unity of Christ's Holy Church then follow the Subscriptions of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and of 12 other Bishops of his Province together with those of many Abbots and Presbyters who never Subscribed before but without the Subcriptions of the King or any of the Lay Nobility Which plainly shews it to have been a meer Ecclesiastical Synod and no great Council of the Kingdom as you may see at large in Sir H. Spelman's 1 Vol of Councils the Decree of which Synod also shews that the Church of England did not then conceive the Authority of the People alone sufficient to disanul what had been solemnly Decreed in a great Council of the Kingdom as was the Removal of the Primacy from Canterbury to Litchfield The next Year According to our Annals Ethelheard Arch-bishop of Canterbury deceased and Wulfred was consecrated Arch-bishop in his stead and Forther the Abbot dyed The same Year also Deceased Higbald Bishop of Lindisfarne 8 o Kal Julii and Eegbert was Consecrated to that See 3 o Ides Junii ' This Year Wulfred the Arch bishop received his Pall. Cuthred King of Kent deceased as did also Ceolburh the Abbess and Heabyrnt the Ealdorman This Cuthred here mentioned was as Will. of Malmesbury informs us he whom Kenulph King of the Mercians hath made King of Kent instead of Ethelbert called Pren. This Year the Moon was Eclipsed on the Kal. of September and Eardwulf King of the Northumbers was driven from his Kingdom and Eanbryth Bishop of Hagulstad Deceased Also this Year 2 o Non Junii the sign of the Cross was seen in the Moon upon Wednesday in the Morning and the same Year on the Third Kal. Septemb. a wonderful Circle was seen round the Sun This Eardwulf above-mentioned is related by Simeon of Durham to have been the Son of Eardulf the first of that Name King of Northumberland and after Ten Years Reign to have been driven out by one Aelfwold who Reigned Two Years in his stead During these Confusions in the Northumbrian Kingdom Arch-Bishop Usher with great probability supposes in his Antiquitat Britan. Eccles. that the Picts and Scots Conquered the Countries of Galloway and Lothian as also those Countries called the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the Friths of Dunbritain and Edenburgh And that this City was also in the possession of the English Saxons about an Hundred Years after this I shall shew in due order of time and that our Kings did long after maintain their claim to Lothian shall be further shewn when I come to it But that all the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the English Saxon Tongue was spoken were anciently part of the Bernician Kingdom the English Language as well as the Names of places which are all English Saxon and neither Scotish nor Pictish do sufficiently make out The Sun was Eclipsed on the 7th Kal. of August about the Fifth Hour of the Day This Year as Sigebert in his Chronicle relates King Eardulph above-mentioned being expelled his Kingdom and coming for Refuge to the Emperour Charles the Great was by his Assistance restored thereunto but since neither the Saxon Annals nor Florence nor yet any of our English Historians do mention it I much doubt the Truth of this Relation thô it must be also acknowledged that it is inserted in the ancient French Annals of that time and recited that this King's Restitution was procured by the Intercession of the Pope's and Emperour's Legates who were sent into England for that purpose This Year according to Mat. Westminster Egbert King of the West
as his own ever since the time that King Offa took it but now the Mercians tried to recover it by Force The same Year was also held another Synodal Council at Cloveshoe for the Kingdom of Mercia under K. Beornwulf and Wilfred Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Bishops and Chief Men of that Kingdom wherein some disputes about Lands between Heabert Bishop of Worcester and a certain Monastery called Westburgh were determined This Year Ludican King of the Mercians and five of his Ealdermen were slain and Wiglaf began to Reign in his stead Ingulf and Will of Malmesbury tell us That this Ludican was Kinsman to the last mentioned King Beornwulf and leading an Army against the East-Angles to revenge his Death was there overcome and Slain and that both these Tyrants were justly removed who had not only made Kings without any Right but had also by their imprudence been the occasion of the destruction of the Military Forces of that Kingdom which had till then proved Victorious and that thereupon one Withlaf being before Ealderman of Mâ—rcia was by the consent of all the People created King whose Son Wimond had Married Alfleda the Daughter of Ceolwulf the late King This King Withlaf Reigned thirteen Years as Tributary to King Egbert as shall be further related anon The Moon was Eclipsed on Christmass day at Night and the same Year King Egbryht subdued the Kingdom of Mercia and all the Country that lay South of Humber He was the Eighth King who Ruled over all Britain but the First who had so great a Command was Aella King of the South Saxons the Second was Ceaâ—lin King of the West-Saxons the Third was Aethelbryght King of Kent the Fourth was Redwald King of the East Angles the Fifth was Edwin King of Northumberland the Sixth was Oswald who succeeded him the Seventh was Oswi the Brother of Oswald and the Eight was Egbryght King of the West-Saxons who not long after led an Army against the Northumbers as far as Dore which place is supposed to have been in York-shire beyond the River Hâ—mber but the Northumâ—ers offering him Peace and due Subjection they parted Friends From which passage in the Saxon Annals it is apparent that this Supream Dominion of one English King over all the rest was no new thing Bede having taken notice of it long before yet did they not therefore take upon them the Title of Monarchs any more than Egbert who now succeeded them in that Power thô most of our Historians who have written the Saxon History in English have but without any just reason given them that Title which could not properly belong to Kings who had divers others under them with the like Regal Jurisdiction within their own Territories not but that King Egbert was in a more peculiar manner the Supream King of England because by his Absolute Conquest of the Kingdoms of Kent and of the South and East Saxons he was the greatest King who had hitherto Reigned in England all the rest of the Kings that remained Reigning by his permission and paying him Tribute a power which never had been exercised by any other King before him But to return to our History it seems that King Egbert was so highly displeased with the Mercians for setting up a King without his consent that Ingulf and Florence of Worcester tell us That as soon as ever Withlaf was made King before he could raise an Army he was expell'd his Kingdom which Egbert added to his own but Withlaf being search'd for by Egbert's Commanders through all Mercia he was by the industry of Seward Abbot of Croyland concealed in the Cell of the Holy Virgin Etheldrith Daughter of King Offa and once the Spouse of Ethelbert King of the East Angles where King Withlaf found a safe retreat for the space of Four Months until such time as by the Mediation of said Abbot Seward he was reconciled to King Egbert and upon promise of the payment of an Yearly Tribute permitted to return to his Kingdom in Peace which is by him acknowledged in that Charter of his that Ingulf hath given us of his Confirmation of the Lands and priviledges of the Abbey of Croyland It was made in the Great Council of the whole Kingdom in the presence of his Lords Egbert King of West-Saxony and his Son Ethelwulf and before the Bishops and great Men of all England Assembled at the City of London to take Counsel against the Daniâ—h Pyrats then infesting the English Coasts And in the Year 833 as you shall see when we come to that Year This Restoration of King Withlaf to his Kingdom is also mentioned in the Saxon Annals of the next Year where it is said That Withlaf again obtained the Kingdom of the Mercians and Bishop Ethelwald deceased also the same Year King Egbryht led an Army against the Northern Britains and reduced them absolutely to his Obedience For it seems they had again rebelled Now likewise as Mat. Westminster relates King Egbert vanquished Swithred King of the East-Saxons and drove him out of his Kingdom upon whose expulsion the West Saxon Kings ever after possest that Kingdom Now according to the same Authour King Egbert having subdued all the South Parts of England led a great Army into the Kingdom of Northumberland and having grievously wasted that Province made King Eandred his Tributary which is also confirmed by Will of Malmesbury who relates that the Northumbers who stood out the last fearing least this King's anger might break out upon them now giving Hostages submitted themselves to his Dominion but they continued still under Kings of their own as you will further find To this Year I think we may also refer that great Transaction which the Annals of the Cathedral Church of Winchester printed in Monast. Angl. from an ancient Manuscript in the Cottonian Library place under the Year following viz. That King Egbert having thus subdued all the Kingdoms above-mentioned and forced them to submit to his Dominions called a great Council at Winchester whereto were summoned all the Great Men of the whole Kingdom and there by the General Consent of the Clerus Populus i. e. the Clergy and Laity King Egbert was crowned King of Britain And at the same time he Enacted That it should be for ever after called England and that those who before were called Jutes or Saxons should now be called English â—en And this I could not omit because thô William of Malmesbury and other Historians agree of the Matter of Fact yet I think this the truest and most particular Account of the Time and manner when it was performed Also this Year Wilfred the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased and Feologild the Abbot was Elected Arch-Bishop 7 Kal. Maij. and was Consecrated 5. Id. Junij being Sunday and dyed the 3. Kal. Sept. after But here is certainly a mistake in this Copy of the Annals for it was not Feologild but Ceolnoth who was then chosen
Edmund But it seems R. Hoveden and Mat. Westminster make this latter Anlaf a quite different person from the former who is supposed to have reigned in Ireland whereas this was the Son of Sihtric late King of Northumberland and whom we shall meet with again more than once in the following History But John of Walingford's Chronicle makes this King whom he calls Olaf a Norwegian whom the Northumbers had called in and bestowed upon him the Title of King and under him rebelled against K. Edmund As for this Reginald her mentioned in our Annals I suppose he is the same whom H. Huntington calls King of York because he had conquered the Countrey But tho the History of these Transactions are very short and obscure yet that which has been already related from these Authors will serve to explain what would have been otherwise in the dark viz. how the Cities and Towns above-mentioned now came to be recovered from the Danes as having been taken by their King Anlaf aforesaid This year Queen Aelgiva was brought to Bed of Prince Edgar afterwards King as Florence relates Yet she lived not long after but died the year following according to Ethelward's Chronicle King Edmund reduced all the Countrey of Northumberland under his own Dominion expelling thence the two Kings Anlaf the Son of Sihtric and Reginald the Son of Guthferth But Ethelwerd relates this action to have been done by this King's Lieutenants viz. Bishop Wulstan and the Ealdorman of Mercia whose Name he does not give us only that these two expelled certain Deserters viz. Reginald and Anlaf out of the City of York and reduced it wholly under this King's Power John of Wallingford also makes this Anlaf to be the King's Nephew and different from Anlaf the Norwegian King Eadmund subdued the whole Countrey of Cumberland and gave it to Malcolme King of Scots upon condition that he should assist him in his Wars both by Sea and Land For the Reader is to observe that hitherto the Britains though much disturbed by their Neighbours the Picts Scots and English had ever since the coming in of the Saxons still there continued a distinct Principality and after several of them had been wearied out they retired into North Wales and there erected the Colony of Straetcluyd as we formerly said though the History and Succession of these Kings are wholly lost unless it be such scattered Remains as we have given you in the former Book But Mat. Westminster though under the next year adds that which is very unlikely to be true that King Edmund conquered this Countrey by the Assistance of Lewellyn Prince of Wales and put out the Eyes of the two Sons of Dunmaile King of that Province though what he adds further appears somewhat more probable That he granted it to the King of Scots upon this condition viz. To defend the North-parts of England from the Invasion of Enemies both by Sea and Land To which Bromton's Chronicle adds likewise That he was also to attend the King of England at several Great Feasts in the year when he held his Common Council and that the King of Scots had for that end several Houses assigned him to lye at by the way Also this year Mat. Westminster relates that King Edmund gave one of his Royal Towns then called Beadricesworth with divers other Lands to build a Church and Monastery in Memory of St. Edmund the Martyr whose Body was there enshrin'd This year likewise as Florence relates King Edmund sent Ambassadors to Prince Hugh of France for the Restitution of King Lewis whereupon the said Prince held a Solemn Council with all the Chief Men of the Kingdom concerning it But not long after King Edmund deceased at the Feast of St. Augustin having held the Kingdom Six Years and an half But the Laudean or Peterburgh Copy of these Annals as also Ethelwerd's Chronicle place the Death of this King Anno Dom. 948 which without doubt is the truest Account So that he died in the very Flower of his Age being not yet Five and twenty years old But we shall give you the manner of his Death from William of Malmesbury as well as from other Authors since he met with such an End the like to which I have not read of any other Prince taking all the Circumstances together And thus we find it He having made a Great Entertainment at a place called Pucklekirk upon the Holiday of St. Augustin Archbishop of Canterbury for all his Nobility and Chief Men and there spying towards the end of Dinner a certain Notorious Thief called Leof sitting at the Table whom he had before banished commanded Leon his Sewer to lay hold on him But the Thief not only resisted him but was also like to have killed the Sewer Whereupon the King leaping from the Table and going to rescue him out of the Villain 's hands and having now laid hold on him and thrown him on the ground he twisted his hands in his hair upon which the Thief pulling out a Dagger stabbed the King who lay upon him into the Breast so that he immediately expired but the King's Servants presently coming in soon cut the Villain to pieces though some of them were first wounded by him The King's Body was thereupon carried to Glastenbury and there buried and the Town wherein he was killed was bestowed on the same Monastery to sing Masses for his Soul To this Place the Prince as well as his Brother was a great Benefactor as appears by his recited Charter in William of Malmesbury whereby he confers divers large Privileges upon that Abby of which St. Dunstan was then the Abbot And it is also to be observed that He there stiles himself in the beginning of his Charter Edmund King of the English and Governor and Ruler of the other Nations round about and says That with the Advice and by the Consent of his Chief Men and for the Remission of his Sins He made that Grant to the Church of St. Mary at Glastenbury This Charter bore date Anno 944. in Letters of Gold and was written at the end of a Book of Gospels which he had given to the same Church most curiously bound So that it is no wonder if he had the good words of the Monks though he might also very well deserve them yet this last Action speaks him to have been extremely transported with Passion thus to debase the Majesty of a King in going about to seize a common Malefactor with his own hands and indeed he paid too dear for thus acting below his Character This King made divers good Laws which since the Title does not recite in what year they were made I have referred to this place some of which I shall here give you translated from the Latin Copies in Abbot Bromton's Chronicle as well as from Mr. Lambard's Collection In the Preface of which we are told That at the solemn Feast of Easter the King had held a Great
Huntington agrees tho he places it a year sooner relating That then the Northumbers being weary of the Government of this Eric did as easily cast him off as they had before lightly received him and calling in Edred they again placed him on the Throne though this does not accord with William of Malmesbury his Account that King Edred expell'd Eric by force and wasted all that Kingdom with fire and sword After which the Northumbrians being wholly subdued were no more governed by Kings but Earls a Catalogue of which Roger Hoveden hath there given us as far as the Conquest King Edred having been as Malmesbury informs us long tormented with frequent Convulsions in several parts of his Body being admonished by Archbishop Dunstan of his approaching death did not only bear that affliction with Patience but spending his time in acts of Devotion made his Palace a School of all Vertues and being at length consumed by a tedious long sickness he according to the Annals departed this life at the Feast of St. Clement in the very flower of his Age to the great grief of all his Subjects after having Reigned Nine Years and an half But the Manuscript life of St. Dunstan already cited is much more particular as to the Disease he died of viz. that not being able to swallow his Meat he could only eat Broth so that being wasted away he died This Relation of King Edred's not being able to swallow his Meat gave occasion to John of Wallingford absurdly to tell us in his Chronicle not long since Printed that King Edred having his Teeth fallen out by reason of Old Age could not Chew his Meat and the Broths they made for him were not sufficient to keep him alive and so he died of Hunger But this is altogether as true as the story that follows not only in this Author but in most other Monkish Writers of the History of those times from the Relation of the above-cited Author of St. Dunstan's Life that St. Dunstan hearing how dangerously Ill the King was and making haste to Visit him before he died as he rode on the way thither there came a Voice from Heaven which cried aloud to him King Edred is now dead at which all present being astonished the poor Horse upon which St. Dunstan was then Mounted immediately fell down dead But William of Malmesbury though he mentions this story of the Voice yet is so wise as to pass by the death of the Horse being sensible it was a Pill too large to be easily swallowed As for the Character of this King the Monkish Writers of those times give him that of a most Vertuous and Pious Prince and as to his Valour William of Malmesbury saith he was not inferior in Magnanimity to either of his Brothers he was also the first King of England who as I can find stiled himself Rex Magnae Britanniae King of Great Britain in a Charter to the Abbey of Croyland recited by Ingulphus as also in another Charter to the Abbey of Reculver in Monast. Anglic. he stiles himself Totius Albionis Monarchus i. e. Monarch of all England In which Stile he was also followed by his Nephew King Edgar from whence we may observe That King James was not the first who took upon him the Title of King of Great Britain though as being also King of Scotland he did much better deserve it than the former But as for King Edred he could not fail of the good will of the Monks since the same Manuscript Author of St. Dunstan's Life relates That he put such great confidence in that Holy Abbot that he committed the chief Muniments and Treasures of his Kingdom to his Care to be kept at his Abby of Glastenbury and that as the King lay on his Death-bed St. Dunstan was then carrying them back to him to be disposed of as he should think fit but he just before received the News of his death as you have already heard Nor did this King die without Issue as many believe for Mr. Speed proves the contrary from certain ancient Charters Cited by him at the end of this King's Life wherein you will find that his Two Sons Elfrid and Bertfrid were Witnesses to them tho they did not Succeed their Father but Edwi Son to his Elder Brother Edmund King EDWI IMmediately after King Edmund's decease our Annals tell us Edwig Son to the late King Edmund and Elgiva began his Reign and he banisht St. Dunstan out of England This King as all our Historians agree was crowned at Kingston by Odo Archbishop of Canterbury but William of Malmesbury gives us the cause of this Disgrace of St. Dunstan to this effect That this King being a Youth of great Beauty and amorous above his years was mightily in love with a young Lady his near Kinswoman whom he fain would have married but the Bishops and Nobles of his Kingdom were utterly averse to it not only because of the nearness of their Relation but because she had none of the best Reputation as to her Chastity But though William of Malmesbury gives us all the rest of this Story yet I shall rather chuse to take it from the Manusâ—ript Life of St. Dunstan who lived about the same time and out of which that Author borrowed it and it is thus That on the very day that by the common Election of all the chief Men of England Edwig was anointed King after the Coronation-Dinner was over he and the chief Bishops and Nobility being retired into a private Room there treating of the Great Affairs of the Kingdom the King perhaps at that Critical Juncture being weary of their company stole into the Apartment of this Beautiful Lady to enjoy some pleasurable moments with her which the Nobility hearing of they highly resented it but none would adventure to bring him back only Abbot Dunstan and a Bishop whose Name was Cynesius the King's Cousin went boldly into the Chamber where they found him with his Crown off his head lying between the Mother of this Lady and her Daughter upon which they not only reproved him but putting on his Crown again and taking him by the hand they pulled him away from them and carried him back by force into the Room where his Nobles were but Athelgiva for it seems so was this Lady sometimes called being highly provoked at this Affront did not fail to exasperate the King against Dunstan so that in revenge he banished him the Kingdom who thereupon as R. Hoveden relates retired to a Monastery in Flanders Nor did the King's Resentments stop here but out of hatred to Dunstan he not only turned the Monks out of Glastenbury but out of divers of the greatest Monasteries in England where also as William of Malmesbury words it his own Abbey was turned into a Stable for Clerks that is Secular Chanons were put in their places not only there but in all other Abbeys where the Monks were expelled
the King concealed his Anger but was resolved by another Stratagem to over-reach him And the better to effect what he intended he one day told him pleasantly that at such a time he would come and see whether his Wife was so fair as she was represented to be This unexpected Surprize so exceedingly struck him that he earnestly begg'd of her to consult his Preservation by putting on her worst Cloaths and deforming her self by what other means she thought best for she had now perceived that instead of a King she had married a Subject though an Earl which raised such a Female Indignation in her that against the coming of King Edgar she dressed her self in the most Gay and Charming manner her Pride and Resentment to be thus cheated could devise which had such powerful effects upon him that his Love being so much the more inflamed as it had been so long defrauded he for a Blind appointed a day of hunting in the Forest called Warewell now Harwood Forest and there slew Athelwold with a Dart. The Earl's Son coming by when the Fact was just committed and looking upon his Father's dead Body the King asked him How he liked this Game To which he answered That whatsoever pleased the King ought not to displease him With which flattering Reply the King 's angry Mind was so appeased that he ever after highly favoured the Youth and expiated the Crime committed upon the Father by the great kindness he shewed to the Son But aâ— Ancient Manuscript called Brutus now in the Archbishop's Library at Lambeth relates the latter end of this Story somewhat more for King Edgar's Reputation which since I meet with no where else I shall here give you It is That King Edgar not long after sending this Athelwold now made an Earl to secure the Coast of Northumberland against the Danes then like to invade it as he was in his way thither he was set upon by certain unknown Soldiers who there slew him but whether by the King's Order or no is not said As soon as the Earl was dead the King made Love to his fair Widow and marrying her caused her to be crowned Queen though it much displeased Archbishop Dunstan who could never after this endure her But William of Malmesbury adds that to expiate the Murther of her first Husband she built a Nunnery in the place where he was slain Another thing laid to this charge and which shews him to have been more constant in his Love than could be expected from a Young Prince so universally addicted as he was to the Fair Sex of which you have several Instances in Story one of them here shall suffice It seems coming one time to Andover a Town not far from Winchester he would have had the enjoyment of a certain Ealdorman's Daughter mightily celebrated for her Beauty and commanded her to be brought to his Bed The Mother of the Virgin not daring flatly to deny yet abhorring to be a Bawd to her own Daughter resolved to put a Trick on him by the favour of the Night and so sent a Waiting-Maid she had in her room one that was Handsome enough and not Unwitty as she quickly made to appear for as soon as it was morning she offering to get up the King asked her Why she would make such haste from him She replied she could no longer have the Happiness of his Company because her Lady had set her some Work to do He startling at this wonder'd what she meant for he did not in the least question but that his Bedfellow had been the Earl's real Daughter she then most passionately besought him to set her free from the hard and cruel Service of her Lady as a Reward for her lost Virginity But the King being confounded at his disappointment was for some time divided between Compassion for the poor Maid and Anger at his being thus abused but at last he put it off with a Jest and setting her free carried her along with him and loved her to that degree that he kept himself to her alone until such time as he married Elfreda above-mentioned These were the Stories commonly told in those days of King Edgar and of which more noise had been made by the Monks if he had not built so many Monasteries which stopp'd their mouths from saying much ill of one so devoted to their Order and who perhaps admired Chastity in others though he could not practise it himself But it 's certain England highly flourished under his Government being a Man so truly answering Homer's Description of a King that not only secured his people from Foreign Enemies but Savage Beasts by laying a Yearly Tribute of Three hundred Wolve's Heads on the Prince of Wales as hath been already related What his Employment was in Summer we have already seen in Winter he hunted but in the Spring he usually rode a kind of Circuit round the Kingdom to administer Justice to his People and take care that his Officers did the like He was small of Stature and Slender yet of such mighty Courage and Strength that he would challenge the most Robust to wrestle with him forbidding them to spare him out of respect to his Person It happen'd one time that Kened King of the Scots came to his Court to whom as Matthew Westminster relates he gave Rich Presents with the whole Countrey of Lothian on condition that he and his Successors at his Festivals should come and attend on the Kings of England when they sate Crowned besides he assign'd certain Lodgings for them by the way which to ease them in their Journey were till the time of King Henry the Second held by the Kings of Scotland This Kened as he once sate at his Cups with his Courtiers said jestingly to them It was very strange that so many Provinces should obey such a Little Contemptible Figure of a Man as this Edgar was These Words soon reach'd the King's ears upon which he presently sends for Kened and as if he had a mind to consult him about some Important Affair carries him into a Wood where none being present besides themselves he delivers into his hands one of the two Swords he had brought along with him and then tells him That as they were now alone so they had a very good opportunity to try their Strength and Skill and therefore he was resolved to have it forthwith determined which of them ought to Rule and which to Obey commanding him not to stir a foot but decide the Controversy with him for it was a base and pitiful thing for a King to vapour loud at a Feast and not to be as forward to shew his Courage at a Fray Kened being struck out of countenance at these words fell down at his feet and earnestly begged his Pardon for what he had spoken in Jest without any design of Malice in the least Upon which the King being as Generous as he was Couragious freely forgave him But though this King
if they cannot get them then they should take him alive or dead and seize on all his Estate whereof the Complaining Party having received such a share as should satisfy him the one half of the remainder shall go to the Lord of the Soil and the other half to the Hundred And if any of that Court being either akin to the Party or a stranger to his Blood refuse to go to put this in execution he should forfeit 120 shillings to the King And farther That such as are taken in the very act of stealing or betraying their Masters should not be pardoned during life The Eighth and last ordains That one and the same Money should be current throughout the King's Dominions which no man must refuse and that the measure of Winchester should be the Standard and that a Weigh of Wool should be fold for half a Pound of Money and no more The former of those is the first Law whereby the Private Mints to the Archbishops and several Abbots being forbid the King's Coin was only to pass But to return to our Annals Ten days before the Death of King Edgar Bishop Cyneward departed this life King EDWARD sirnamed the Martyr KING Edgar being dead as you have now heard Prince Edward succeeded his Father though not without some difficulty for as William of Malmesbury and R. Hoveden relate the Great Men of the Kingdom were then divided Archbishop Dunstan and all the rest of the Bishops being for Prince Edward the Eldest Son of King Edgar whilst Queen Aelfreda Widow to the King and many of her Faction were for setting up her Son Ethelred being then about Seven Years of Age that so she might govern under his Name But besides the pretence was which how well they made out I know not That King Edgar had never been lawfully married to Prince Edward's Mother Whereupon the Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald with the Bishops Abbots and many of the Ealdormen of the Kingdom met together in a Great Council and chose Prince Edward King as his Father before his Death had ordained and being thus Elected they presently Anointed him being then but a Youth of about Fifteen Years of Age. But it seems not long after the Death of King Edgar though before the Coronation of King Edward Roger Hoveden and Simeon of Durham tell us that Elfer Earl of the Mercians being lustily bribed by large Presents drove the Abbots and Monks out of the Monasteries in which they had been settled by King Edgar and in their places brought in the Clerks i.e. Secular Chanons with their Wives but Ethelwin Ealdorman of the East-Angles and his Brother Elfwold and Earl Brythnoth opposed it and being in the Common Council or Synod plainly said They would never endure that the Monks should be cast out of the Kingdom who contributed so much to the Maintenance of Religion and so raising an Army they bravely defended the Monasteries of the East-Angles so it seems that during this Interregnum arose this Civil War about the Monks and the above-mentioned Dissention amongst the Nobility concerning the Election of a new King But this serves to explain that Passage in our Annals which would have been otherwise very obscure viz. That then there was viz. upon the Death of King Edgar great Grief and Trouble in Mercia among those that loved God because many of his Servants that is the Monks were turned out till God being slighted shewed Miracles on their behalf and that then also Duke Oslack was unjustly banished beyond the Seas a Nobleman who for his Long Head of Hair but more for his Wisdom was very remarkable And that then also strange Prodigies were seen in the Heavens such as Astrologers call Comets and as a Punishment from God upon this Nation there followed a great Famine Which shews this Copy of the Annals was written about this very time And then the Author concludes with Aelfer the Ealdorman's commanding many Monasteries to be spoiled which King Edgar had commanded Bishop Athelwold to repair All which being in the Cottonian Copy serves to explain what has been already related But the next year ' Was the great Famine in England as just now mentioned About the same time according to Caradoc's Chronicle Aeneon the Son of Owen Prince of South-Wales destroyed the Land of Gwyr the second time This year after Easter was that great Synod at Kirtlingtun which Florence of Worcester and R. Hoveden call Kyrleing but where that place was is very uncertain Florence places it in East-England but Sir H. Spelman acknowledges that he does not know any place in those parts that ever bore that name but supposes it to have been the same with Cartlage now the Seat of the Lord North But had not Florence placed it in East-England that Town whose name comes nearest to it is Kyrtlington in Oxfordshire which is also the more confirmed by that which follows in these Annals viz. That Sydeman the Bishop of Devonshire i. e. of Wells died here suddenly who desired his Body might be buried at Krydeanton his Episcopal See but King Edward and Archbishop Dunstan order'd it to be carried to St. Maâ—ies in Abingdon were he was honourably Interr'd in the North Isle of St. Paul's Church Therefore it is highly probable that the place where this Bishop died was not far from Abingdon where he was buried as Kirtlington indeed is But what was done in this Council can we no where find only it is to be supposed that it was concerning this great Difference between the Monks and the Secular Chanons as the former Council was The same year also were great Commotions in Wales for Howel ap Jevaf Prince of North-Wales with a great Army both of Welsh and Englishmen made War upon all who defended or succoured his Uncle Jago and spoiled the Countries of Lhyn Kelynnoc Vawr so that Jago was shortly after taken Prisoner by Prince Howel's men who after that enjoyed his part of the Countrey in peace Nor can I here omit what some of our Monkish Writers and particularly John Pike in his compendious Supplement of the Kings of England now in Manuscript in the Cottonian Library relates That there being this year a Great Council held at Winchester again to debate this great Affair concerning the turning out of the Monks and restoring the Secular Chanons and it being like to be carried in their favour a Crucifix which then stood in the room spoke thus God forbid it should be so This amazing them they resolved to leave the Monks in the condition they then were But whether these words were ever spoke at all or if they were whether it might not be by some person that stood unseen behind the Crucifix I shall leave to the Reader to determine as he pleases Next year all the Grave and Wise Men of the English Nation being met about the same Affair at Calne in Wiltshire fell down together from a certain Upper Room where they were assembled
year the same Archbishop translated the Reliques of St. Aelfeage his Predecessor from London to Canterbury The King himself as William of Malmesbury tells us removed them with his own hands paying them all due Veneration and further adds that his Body remain'd as uncorrupt as if he had been but lately kill'd Richard the Second Duke of Normandy died and Richard his Son ruled after him one year and then Rodbert his Brother succeeded him and ruled eight years This year King Cnute sail'd with his Fleet into Denmark to a Plain near the Holy River but where that was I know not and there came against him Wulf and Eglaf with a very powerful Army out of Sweden both by Land and Sea and many on King Cnute's side were there killed both Danes and English the Swedes keeping the field of Battel After which Cnute returning into England I find no mention made of any Action here in any Author for the two succeeding years But then King Cnute sail'd with fifty Ships of English Thanes into Norway and drove King Olaf out of that Countrey and conquer'd it for himself Bromton's Chronicle relates That this Olaf being a Soft and Easy Prince was already in a manner driven out by his own Subjects and so Cnute only went as it were to receive the Kingdom from the Nobility and People who submitted themselves presently to him ' King Cnute came back into England And as R. Hoveden adds upon his Return banished Hacun a Danish Earl that had married his Niece Gunhilda who was his Sister's Daughter sending him away under pretence of an Embassy for the King was afraid lest otherwise he might deprive him both of his Kingdom and Life King Olaf return'd again into Norway to regain his Right but the People rising up against him he was there slain This is he who was afterwards canoniz'd under the Title of King Olaf the Martyr About this time as Guil. Gemeticensis and John of Walingford do both relate Robert Duke of Normandy pitying the long Exile of his Nephews Edward and Alfred sent Ambassadors to King Cnute requiring him to restore them to their Right but he not at all valuing his threatning sent the Ambassadors back with a Repulse whereat the Duke conceiving great indignation assembled his Nobles and by their Advice caus'd a great Navy to be prepar'd which in a short time came to Anchor at Fescam then the Duke with his Army put to Sea but by Tempest was driven into the Isle of Guernsey and so shatter'd that he was forced to return home where they were detain'd a long time by contrary Winds which was an extreme mortification to him But not long after Ambassadors came over to him from King Cnute signifying That he was contented to resign to the Young Princes half the Kingdom which they should peaceably enjoy during his life and that was not like to be long for he then laboured under a languishing Distemper Wherefore the Duke thought good for some time to defer his Expedition till he should be come back from Jerusalem whither he had vowed to undertake a Pilgrimage And when he had recommended to Robert Archbishop of Rouen and other Nobles his Son William then a Child of Seven Years old and received from them Assurances of their Fidelity to him he began the said Voyage and having perform'd it as he was returning homewards the next year he fell sick and died about the Alpes But of this William his Son by Harlotte his Concubine 〈◊〉 not only succeeded his Father but was also afterwards King of England as you shall hear when we come to his Reign This year as soon as King Cnute return'd into England he gave the Port of Sandwic to Christ's Church in Canterbury with all the Issues and Profits arising from thence on both sides the Haven according to an Extract from his Charter preserved among the Evidences of that Church and that as far as when the Tide of Flood was highest and a Ship lying near the Shore a man could from thence cast a little Axe on land so far the Christ-Church Officers should receive all Rights and Dues This year also according to Monast. Angl. King Cnute founded another Monastery for Benedictines in Norfolk which from its being seated in a Woody Place was called by St. Bennet's in Holme the Lands and Scite of which Abby being by King Henry the VIII th after the Dissolution of the Monasteries exchanged with the Bishop of Norwich for other Lands he is the only Bishop of England who has still the Title of an Abbot Also under this year I find a Charter in the Manuscript Copy of Florence of Worcester in the Bodleian Library made to the Monastery of St. Edmundsbury granting and confirming all its Lands and Privileges the beginning of which Charter being somewhat remarkable I shall here recite Cnute Rex Totius Albionis Insulae aliarumque Nationum adjacentium in Cathedra Regali promotus cum Consilio Decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Abbatum Comitum omniumque meorum Fidelium elegi sanciendum perpetuo stabilimento ab omnibus confirmandum quod Monasterium quod Badriceswerde nuncupatur c. which is also printed from the Original at the end of Mr. Petyts Treatise of the Rights of the Commons c. King Cnute having performed these great Deeds of Charity and Devotion not long after in the same year as our Annals inform us ' began his Journey to Rome But since our Annals do not tell us what he did there I shall give it you in short from his own Letter as I find it in William of Malmesbury which upon his return from Rome he wrote and sent into England by Living Abbot of Tavistock and begins thus Cnute King of Denmark Norway and all Swedeland to Ailnoth or Egelnoth the Metropolitan and to Alfric of York with all the Bishops and Primates and to the whole English Nation as well Noblemen as Plebeians Health Wherein he gives an account of his Journey as also the reason of his undertaking it then how honourably he was received at Rome and what he had there negotiated for the benefit of his Subjects Then he gives Directions and Commands to his Officers to do all Justice and Right to the People in his Absence a thing to which he resolved on as he says long before but never could till now accomplish what he had designed for the Pardon of his Sins and the Safety of all his Subjects he further signifies that he was received by all the Princes who at that time were with Pope John solemnizing the Feast of Easter with extraordinary Respect and Honour but especially by Conrade the German Emperor that he had dealt with them all about the concernments of his people both English and Danes that their Passage to Rome might be more free and open and had obtained that as well Merchants as others should with all safety pass and repass without any Toll
the Meat should be taken away untouched from such as were invited than that those who were not invited should complain for want of Victuals whereas saith he the custom of our time is either out of Covetousness or as they pretend because their people cannot eat for Great Men to allow their Followers but one Meal a day which shews that the custom of Set Suppers hath had divers Vicissitudeâ— being not commonly used in England in Great Mens Families at the time when H. Huntington wrote and therefore is an English Custom prevailing since that time the Norman Fashions being then most used John Rouse also in his Manuscript Treatise de Regibus Ang. already cited relates That the day of King Hardâ—cnute's Death was in his time kept by the English as an Holiday being called Hock-Wednesday on which they danced and drew Cords cross the way as they do in several Parishes in England even at this day to stop people till they will pay them some Money King Edward called the Confessor BEfore King Hardecnute was buried all the People chose Edward Aethâ—ling King at London who reigned as long as God permitted him But William of Malmesbury with greater probability says That this King did not come to the Crown without some difficulty for when he had received the News of his Brother Hardecnute's Death he was in great perplexity what was most advisable for him to do at last after mature deliberation he thought it the safest course to trust his Fortune to Earl Godwin's Advice who being sent for to a friendly Conference for some time he was considering whether he should come to him or not but at length he agreed to speak with him and upon the Enterview Edward was about to lay himself at his Feet but that he would by no means suffer Then the Prince earnestly desired he would assist him in his safe return to Normandy when immediately Godwin gave him this unexpected answer That he had better live gloriously King of England than dye ignominiously in Exile That the Crown did of Right belong to him as Son of Ethelred and Grandchild of Edgar That he was one of mature Age inur'd to Labour and who had learnt by experience how to order Publick Affairs with Justice and had been taught by his own late Afflictions how to remove and prevent the Miseries of the People That to bring this about there would be no great Obstacle for if he would but trust himself to him he should find that his Interest was very powerful in the Nation and that Fortune would be favourable to his just Pretensions and if he would accept of the Royal Dignity he was confident there would be none to oppose it but on condition that he would establish a firm Friendship with him and his Family by promising to prefer his Sons and marry his Daughter that then he should soon find himself a King Edward's case at this time was such as not to reject so fair Proposals but rather agree to any Conditions and comply with the present state of Affairs whatsoever therefore Godwin required he promised and swore to perform Now the Earl was a Man fitted by Nature for managing such an Intrigue having a very smooth and plausible Tongue so Eloquent that he could move and charm the Affections of the People insinuate into them whatsoever he pleased and bring them entirely over to his Interest and Service Upon this he procures a Great Council to be summoned at Gillingham some Copies have it at London and there he influenced some by his own Authority gain'd over others by his Promises and those who were inclined before to Prince Edward's Cause he fully settled and confirmed to his Party the rest that made opposition being over-power'd were first of all turn'd out of their Places and then banished the Land The Annals of the Abby of Winchester printed in the Monast. Ang. from the Manuscript in the Cottonian Library not only agree with William of Malmesbury in this Relation but are also much more particular viz. That Prince Edward coming to Godwin one morning in disguise to London fell at his Feet begging him to preserve his Life but the Earl taking him up promised to use him like his Son and also gave him farther Encouragements and Assurance so that Edward returning again to Winchester to his Mother Godwin shortly after summoned all the Great Men of the Kingdom to meet there to consult about making a New King Then these Annals proceed to relate the manner of this Election Viz. That Earl Godwin raising the Prince from the place where he sate at his feet being then incognito having his Hood over his Face said thus Behold your King This is Prince Edward the Son of King Ethelred and Queen Emma This is He whom I Elect c. and so first did him Homage Then after some Debates among themselves they all at last consented to his Election so that if it displeased any there they durst not shew their Discontent since Earl Godwin would have it so and Edward being thus Elected was not long after crown'd at Westminster Which is also confirmed by an Ancient Chronicle in the Cottonian Library already cited ending with this Prince which saith That Hardecnute being dead Eadward was advanced to the Crown by the endeavours chiefly of Earl Godwin and Living Bishop of Worcester Bromton's Chronicle farther adds That at this Grand Council all the Great Men of England agreed and swore with one consent That no Danes should reign over them any more because of the great Affronts and Contempts they had received from that Nation For they held the English in such servile subjection That if an Englishman had met a Dane upon a Bridge he was obliged to stand still till the other had passed by and if he had not bowed to the Dane he was sure to be well basted for his neglect so that as soon as King Hardecnute was dead the English drove all the Danes out of the Kingdom But notwithstanding the great happiness the English now received by having a King of their own Nation yet it seems This year was unfortunate for the Intemperance of the Season which as our Annals relate destroyed the Fruits of the Earth so that a great number of Cattel died Also about this time Aelf Abbot of Burgh deceased and Arnwi a Monk was chosen Abbot being a mild and good man About the same time also according to the Welsh Chronicle Prince Conan the Son of Jago who had fled into Ireland to save his life and coming now over from thence being assisted with the Forces of Alfred the Danish King of Dublin entred North-Wales by surprize took Prince Griffyth Prisoner and was carrying him away to his Ships But the people of the Countrey hearing of it they immediately rose and pursued the Irishmen and at last overtaking them rescued their Prince and made a great flaughter among them the rest with much difficulty got to their Ships and returned with
of those Favours the King had promised him so he had only four days allowed him to go back again to his Ships In the mean time a Report was brought to the King That a Fleet of Enemies were landed on the Coast of the East-Angles and there taking of Prey Then Earl Godwin sail'd about toward the East with two of the King's Ships one of which his Son Harold commanded and the other Earl Totsige his Brother and also Two and forty Sail of the people of the Countrey Then was Earl Harold with the King's Ships driven by a Storm into Pevensee and there detain'd by contrary Winds but within two days after Earl Sweyn came thither and had Conference with his Father Earl Godwin and Earl Beorne whom he intreated to accompany him to the King at Sandwic and there use their interest to make his Reconciliation with him but whilst they were on their way Sweyne begged of Beorne his Cousin that he would go back along with him to his Ships saying He feared lest his men would desert him unless he speedily returned whereupon complying with him they went back to the place where the Ships rode and there Sweyn was very importunate with him to go on Ship-board but he utterly refusing that the Mariners bound him and then put him into a Pinnace and so carried him on board by force then hoisting up Sail they steered Eastward to Axamutha and there kept him till they had made him away Then they took his Body and buried it in a certain Church but afterwards his Relations and the Mariners of London came and digging up his Body carried it with them to the old Church of Winchester where they buried it near his Uncle King Cnute Then Sweyn sailing Eastward towards Flanders staid there a whole Winter in Brycge with Earl Baldwin's good leave The same year deceased Eadnoth Bishop in the North parts and one Vlf was consecrated Bishop in his stead This year was a great Council held at London in Midlent and there were sent out Nine Ships well mann'd with Seamen Five only being left in Port also this very year Earl Sweyn return'd into England For Aldred Bishop of Worcester had by his Intercession made his Peace with the King The same year was a Great Synod assembled at Rome whither King Eadward sent the Bishops Hereman and Aldred who arrived there on Easter-Eve after which the Pope held a Synod at Vercelle whither was sent Bishop Vlf who was afterwards like to be deprived because he could not perform his Function as he ought had he not paid a good round Sum of Money This year also deceased Eadsige the Archbishop 4 o Kal. Novemb. King Edward now appointed Rodbyrd Bishop of London to be Archbishop of Canterbury in Lent who immediately went to Rome to obtain his Pall Then the King bestowed the Bishoprick of London on Sparhafoc Abbot of Abbandune and gave that Abby to Bishop Rothulf his Kinsman About the same time the Archbishop returning from Rome the day before the Vigil of St. Peter was Installed in the Episcopal Throne at Christ-Church on St. Peter's Day Then came to him Sparhafoc with the King's Letters and Seal commanding that he should consecrate him Bishop of London but the Archbishop refusing it said The Pope had forbad him to do it After which the Abbot return'd to the Archbishop and desired his Episcopal Orders but he peremptorily denied them saying The Pope had strictly charged him not to do it Then the Abbot went to London and held the Bishoprick nothwithstanding all that Summer and the Autumn following Then Eustatius Earl of Boloigne the King's Brother-in-Law came from beyond the Seas and having been with the King and told him his Business he return'd homewards and when he came to Canterbury he refreshed himself and his Company and so went on to Dofra i. e. Dover but when he was within a Mile of this side thereof he and his Retinue put on their Breast-plates and so entred the Town As soon as they were come thither they took up their Quarters in what Houses they liked best but one of his Followers resolving to quarter in the House of an Inhabitant there whether he would or no because he told him he should not he wounded him whereupon the Master killed him At which News Earl Eustatius being very much incensed mounted to Horse with all his Followers and setting upon the Good Man of the House killed him even within his own doors and then going into the Town they killed partly within and partly without more than Twenty men But the Townsmen to be even with them killed Nineteen of their men and wounded many more Upon this Earl Eustatius making his Escape with a few Followers went to the King and told him what had happen'd so much as made to his purpose at which the King being highly provoked with the Townsmen sent Earl Godwin and commanded him to march to Dofra in a Hostile manner for Eustatius had only insinuated to the King as if what had happen'd had been wholly through the Townsmens fault though indeed it was quite otherwise But the Earl was very unwilling to go into Kent because he looked on it as an odious thing for him to destroy his own people For as William of Malmesbury farther relates he plainly saw the King was imposed on and had passed sentence upon them when he had only heard one side And indeed the Earl was much concerned to see Strangers find greater favour with the King than his own Subjects for Eustatius had got a Friend near the King who had very much exasperated him against them therefore though the King continually press'd Earl Godwin to go into Kent with an Army to be revenged of the men of Dofra yet he still declined it which much displeased the King yet nevertheless the Earl's Proposal seem'd but just and reasonable That the Officers of the Castle who it seems had a hand in this business should be first summoned to answer in the King 's Curia or Court concerning this Sedition and that if they could clear themselves there they might be discharged but if not that they might make satisfaction to the King and the Earl with their Bodies and Estates for Earl Godwin told the King that it would seem very unjust to condemn those unheard whom he ought chiefly to protect and defend And so far no doubt the Earl was in the right and behaved himself like a true Englishman in thus declining to execute the King's unjust Commands though not in what he did afterwards But to return again to our Annals The King hereupon summoned all his Chief and Wise Men to appear at Gloucester a little after the Feast of St. Mary for the Welshmen had in the mean time built a Castle in Herefordshire upon the Lands of Earl Sweyn and had done a great deal of mischief to the King's Liege-People in the Neighbourhood Then Earl Godwin with Sweyn and Harold his Sons met
Victory being thus easily obtained the Prince and the Earl entred Hereford and having killed seven of the Chanons that defended the doors of the Church they burnt it together with the Monastery above-mention'd with all the Reliques of St. Aethelbert and the Rich Ornaments that were in it and so having slain divers of the Citizens and carried away great Numbers of them Prisoners they returned home laden with Booty But as soon as the King was acquainted with it he presently commanded an Army to be raised through all England which being mustered at Gloucester He appointed the Valiant Earl Harold to be Commander in chief who obeying the King's Orders immediately pursued Prince Griffyn and Earl Aelfgar and entring the Borders of Wales pitched his Camp beyond Straetdale as far as Snowdon but they who knew him to be a Brave and Warlike Commander not daring to engage him fled into South-Wales which Harold perceiving left there the greater part of his men with Orders to fight the Enemy if they could come at them and with the rest he returned to Hereford which he fortified by drawing a new Trench about it But whilst he was thus employed the two Captains on the contrary side thinking it best for them to make Peace sent Messengers to him and at last procuring a Meeting at a place called Byligeseage a firm Peace and Friendship was there concluded in pursuance whereof Earl Aelfgar sent his Ships to Chester till they could be paid off and he himself went up to the King from whom he received his former Earldom Henry Emperor of the Germans now died and Henry his Son succeeded him This is only mentioned in the Latin Copy of these Annals But the same year according to Simeon of Durham and R. Hoveden Leofgar who was lately ordained Bishop of Hereford in the room of Bishop Athelstan deceased being together with his Clerks and the Sheriff Agelnoth set upon by Griffyn Prince of Wales at a place called Glastbyrig and was there slain with all his followers after which Aldred Bishop of Worcester to whom the King had committed the Bishoprick of Hereford as also the Earls Leofric and Harold mediated a Peace between King Edward and the said Griffyn This year Edward Aetheling Son to King Edmund returned into this Kingdom together with his Children and shortly after deceased whose Body lies buried in St. Paul's Church at London Also Pope Victor now dying Stephanus Abbot of Mountcassin was consecrated in his stead But the Cottonian Copy of these Annals as also Florence of Worcester place the death of this Pope under the year preceding Earl Leofric also deceased and Aelfgar his Son received the Earldom which his Father enjoyed This is that Leofric Earl of Mercia who together with his Wife Godiva built the rich and stately Monastery of Coventry as hath been already related in which Church he was buried He died this year in a good Old Age whose Wisdom and Counsel was often profitable to England This year Pope Stephanus deceased and Benedict was consecrated in his stead This Pope sent the Pall to Archbishop Stigand Upon whom William of Malmesbury is here very sharp saying That Stigand was so intolerably Covetous that he held both the Bishoprick of Winchester and that of Canterbury at the same time but could never obtain the Pall from the Apostolick See until this Benedict an Intruder as he calls him sent it to him either as first being brib'd by Money or else because as is observed evil men love to favour one another The same year also according to the Annals deceased Heacca Bishop of the South-Saxons i. e. of Chichester and Archbishop Stigand consecrated Aegelric a Monk of Christ-Church Bishop of that See as also Syward the Abbot Bishop of Rochester Also this year according to Simeon of Durham and Florence of Worcester Earl Aelfgar was the second time banished by King Edward but by the help of Griffyn Prince of Wales and of a Norwegian Fleet which came to his assistance he was soon restored to his Earldom again though it was by force In so deplorable a condition was this poor King Edward that those of his Nobility who were strong enough to make any Resistance were sure to be pardoned The same year also according to the above-mentioned Authors Aldred Bishop of Worcester having newly rebuilt the Church of St. Peter in Gloucester went on Pilgrimage through Hungary to Jerusalem as says Simeon of Durham which no English Archbishop or Bishop was ever known to have done before This year Nicholaus Bishop of Florence was made Pope and Benedict was expell'd who was Pope before him Kynsige Archbishop of York deceased the xi Kal. Jan. and Bishop Ealdred succeeded in that See This was that Aldred Bishop of Worcester who had been lately at Rome Also Walter was now made Bishop of Hereford And in the Latin Copy of the Annals it is related That Henry King of France now dying Philip his Son succeeded him This year also deceased Duduc Bishop of Somersetshire i. e. Wells and Gisa was his Successor The same year also deceased Bishop Godwin at St. Martins vii Id. Martii Also Wulfrick Abbot of St. Augustine's in Canterbury deceased in the Easter Week xiv Kal. Maii. Which News being brought to the King he appointed Aethelsige a Monk of the old Church at Winchester to be Abbot who was consecrated by Archbishop Stigand at Windlesore i. e. Windsor at the Feast of St. Augustine And this year according to Simeon of Durham Aldred Archbishop of York went with Earl Tostige to Rome and there received his Pall from Pope Nicholaus But in the mean time Malcolm King of Scots entred Northumberland and depopulated the Earldom of Tostige formerly his sworn Brother This year according to the Latin Copy of our Annals the City of Man was taken by William Duke of Normandy Also about this time Earl Harold afterwards King of England founded the Abby of the Holy Cross at Waltham in Essex so called from a certain Crucifix said to be found by a Vision to a Carpenter at a place called Montacute which Crucifix being brought to Waltham and many Miraculous Stories told there of it one Tovi the Stallere or Chief Standard-Bearer to King Cnute built here a Church for two Priests to keep it which place coming into the hands of Earl Harold he built this Church anew together with a Noble Monastery for a Dean and Twelve Secular Chanons which in the time of Henry the Second were turned to Chanons Regular This Abby being richly endow'd the Foundation was confirmed by King Edward as may be seen by his Charter bearing date Anno 1062. All which appears from an Ancient Manuscript History of the Foundation of this Abby now in the Cottonian Library This year according to our Annals Earl Harold and Earl Tostige his Brother marched with a great Army both by Land and Sea into Brytland i. e. Wales and subdued that Countrey
well as on the Holidays themselves as also in Parishes when the Feast of the Saint to whom the Church is dedicated is kept so that if any one come devoutly to the Celebration thereof he was to have security in going staying and returning home and besides in many other cases too long here to set down From whence we may observe the Antiquity of those Parish Feasts called in several parts of England Wakes The fourth appoints That where ever the King's Justice or any other Person shall hold Civil Pleas if the King's Deputy or Attorney comes thither to open any Cause concerning Holy Church that shall be first determined for it is just God be served before all others The fifth ordains That whosoever holds any thing of the Church or hath his Mansion on the Church's Land he or they shall not be compell'd to plead out of the Ecclesiastical Courts for Contumacy or otherwise nay though he forfeit unless Justice be wanting in those Courts which says the Law God forbid By which all the Tenants of the Church were exempted from pleading or appearing at the King's Courts which though a strange and unreasonable Privilege yet it seems it continued in the time of William the First The sixth confirms the Laws of Sanctuaries ordaining That no man shall be taken out of any Church to which he hath fled for any offence unless it be by the Bishop or his Officers The like Privilege is also allowed to the Priest's House provided it stand upon the Ground of the Church but if a Thief went out of the Sanctuary to rob he was to forfeit that Privilege The seventh leaves those to the Justice of the Bishop who violate the Peace of Holy Church and if any Offender shall despise his Sentence either by flying or contemning it and Complaint thereof be made to the King after forty days he shall give Pledges to reconcile himself to God the King and the Church and if he cannot be found he shall be outlaw'd and if then he be found and can be laid hold on he shall be delivered up to the King if he defends himself he shall be slain For from the day of his Outlawry he is said in English to have Wulfsheofod i.e. a Wolfs-head or as we now commonly say in Latin gerere Caput Lupinum This is the common Law of all Outlaws The eighth and ninth appoint what things small Tythes should be paid out of and recites that they had been granted long before a Rege Baronibus Popâ—lo that is by the King the Barons and the People And though the word Barons was not commonly used till the time of King William the First when these Laws were drawn up in the form we now have them upon an Inquisition granted to the Ancient and Wise Men of all the Counties in England as Rog. Hoveden informs us yet is this but a Recital of the Ancient Law of Tythes in the Dialect of those times when the word Baron came to be used instead of Thane The tenth appoints after what manner the Ordeal or Judgment by Fire or Water should be executed by the Bishop's Officer and the King's Justice upon those that deserved it From which you may observe that this Law of Ordeal was in force some time after the coming in of the Normans This Law also ordains in what Cases and over what Persons the Courts Baron should have Jurisdiction but it being somewhat large I refer you to it The Eleventh again reinforces the payment of Romescot or Peter-pence which iâ— denied the King's Justice shall compel the payment because it is the King 's Alms. From whence we may observe how much those Romish Writers are mistaken who will needs make these Peter-pence to have been a Tribute from the Kings of England to the Pope The twelfth shews what Danegelt was and on what occasion it was first imposed That the payment of Danegelt was first ordained because of the frequent Invasions of the Danish Pyrates to repress which there was Twelvepence imposed upon every Hide of Land throughout England to be paid yearly Which also shews us about what time these Laws were collected into the form we now have them by this Clause viz. That the Church was excused from this payment until the time of William Rufus who as is here recited asking an Aid of his Barons for the obtaining Normandy from his Brother then going to Jerusalem there was granted to him not by any standing Law but only for the present necessity Four Shillings upon every Hide of Land the Church not excepted The thirteenth sets forth That the Peace of the King is manifold as sometimes it is given by his own hand which the English call Cyninges honde sealde gryth This Protection was granted not only to Persons but Places also by way of Privilege as likewise to Churches or Churhmen within their own Walls as appears by the League betwixt King Edward and Guthrum in which it is termed Cyninges honde gryth Another sort of Peace was on the Coronation-day which lasted eight days that at Christmass which held also eight days and so on the Feast of Easter and Whitsuntide Another sort was given by his Brief or Letters and another there was belonging to the Four great Highways viz. Watlingstreet Foss Hickenildstreet and Ermingstreet whereof two are extended to the Length and two to the Breadth of the Kingdom Another still there was belonging to the Rivers of Note which conveyed Provisions to Towns and Cities From whence it appears that this Peace of the King was a Priâ—ilege or Exemption granted to Persons not to be sued or answer at Law in any Action â—rought against them during certain solemn and stated Times and in certain of the most famous and frequented Highways of the Kingdom The fourteenth declares That all Treasure prove should be the King 's unless it were found in a Church or Church-yard in which case if it were Gold it was all the King 's but if Silver one half was to go to him and another to the Church The fifteenth treateth of Murther and declares if any one was murthered the Murtherer should be enquired after in the Village or Town where the Body was found and if he was discovered to be delivered up to the King's Justice within eight days after the Fact committed and in case he could not be found a month and a day was allowed for search after him within which term if he could not be seiz'd on forty six Marks were to be collected out of that Town and if it was not able to pay so much then the Hundred was liable to make it good And forasmuch as this Payment could not be made in the Towns and great inconveniences arose the Barons i.e. the Freeholders of the County took care that six and forty Marks should be paid out of the Hundred which being seal'd up with the Seal of some one Baron of the County they were to be sent to the Treasurer and by
Duke William being return'd without any satisfactory Answer from King Harold the Duke employed the rest of the year in preparing all things necessary for his Expedition hiring Soldiers out of his own Countrey with large Pay and inviting Strangers from abroad with greater Allowances so that upon the Muster of his Forces he found that they did not only excel in strength of Body and height of Stature but also the chief Commanders and Captains of them were as remarkable for their Valour as for their Experience and Conduct Also his Bishops and Abbots strove with the Nobility who should by their liberal Contributions most advance this Enterprize But that the Duke might not prejudice the Equity of his Cause by precipitation he sent Ambassadors to Pope Alexander who did with great Eloquence set forth the Justice of the War which their Prince was going to undertake and that Harold not only had broken his Oath with him but refused to give him any Satisfaction either because that now he was a Crown'd Head or else that he distrusted his Cause Whereupon the Pope taking into his serious consideration this weighty matter approved of the Enterprize and sent the Duke a Consecrated Banner as an Omen of Victory which when the Duke had received he called a Great Council of his Nobility at Lillebone to ask all their Opinions in this great Affair and when they had all encouraged his Undertaking by great Promises of Assistance he appointed an Assessment for his Fleet and Army according to their several respective Estates and so they departed home till the time appointed for a General Rendezvouz But Mr. Cambden from the Authority of some Ancient Norman Writers I have not yet met with makes this Enterprize much more difficult than our Historians commonly do as that though he found his Chief Officers to whom he communicated his Design very chearful and resolute to follow him yet all the Skill lay how to bear the Charge of so great a War for when in an Assembly of all the States of Normandy a Subsidy was propounded their Answer was That in the late War against the French their Wealth was so much exhausted that if a new War should happen they should scarce be able to hold and defend their own and therefore that they were more obliged to look after the Defence of their own than to think of Invading the Territories of others That this intended War though never so just yet did not seem so necessary at that time as it was apparently hazardous and that besides the Normans were not by their Allegiance bound to Military Service in Foreign Parts Neither could they by any means be brought to grant a General Tax although William Fitz-osbern a man in high favour with the Duke and as gracious among the People endeavoured what he could to effect it and to draw in others by his own example promised to set out forty Ships at his own proper Charges Duke William then perceiving he could not bring this about in a Publick Meeting went another way to work and therefore sends for the wealthiest men of his Dutchy severally one by one to come to him then he speaks them fair and desires them to contribute somewhat toward this War Whereupon as if they had strove who should most largely assist their Prince they promised him liberally and he causing to be presently registred whatsoever they had promised it amounted to a vast Sum more than most men could reasonably ever have believed This Affair being thus dispatch'd he next craves Aid of the Princes his Neighbours to wit of the Earls of Anjou Poictou Maine and Bretaigne unto these he promised large Tracks of Land and great Possessions in England But how much each of these Princes contributed to this Expedition is not known tho as for Alan Earl of Bretaigne he certainly was so great an Assistant to Duke William that he was after this Conquest of King Harold made Earl of Richmond and had great part of the Country thereabouts given him by William when he came to be King to be held by Knights Service And for the rest of the Princes above-mentioned it is certain that they permitted Duke William to raise great store of men in their Territories who being headed by divers Noble Volunteers of those Countries at their own Charges afterwards enjoyed great Possessions in England as a Reward of their Services Duke William also made his Addresses to Philip King of France and went in Person to solicite his Assistance in this intended War against Harold voluntarily offering that King that in case he would assist him and that he thereby became victorious to hold England of him as his Vassal which King Philip refused to accept thinking it against the interest of France to make the Duke of Normandy greater than he was already who now began not to be so pliant to his Interests as he thought the many Obligations which Duke William owed the King his Father required Therefore as the growing Greatness of a Neighbouring Prince was then is and will ever be suspected by him who is his Rival in Power and Empire so King Philip was so far from giving the Duke any Assistance that he wholly dissuaded him from this Enterprize which nevertheless he vigorously pursued notwithstanding this discouragement But leaving Duke William to his Warlike Preparations we will return into England where our Annals tell us That Earl Tostige had been met upon the Northern Coast with three hundred Norwegian Ships commanded by Harold King of Norway to whom when he had joined those he had with them they all sail'd up the Humber till they came as far as York where the Earls Brothers Morcar and Eadwin met and fought them but it seems the King of Norway gain'd the Victory Ingulph is more express in this affair and says that Harold King of Norway sail'd up the River Ouse as far as York where the Fleet being left under a strong Guard they landed and stormed York and soon plundered it and slew many of the poor Inhabitants But the two Earls abovementioned having gotten together a small Recruit of ill-arm'd Countreymen were easily routed and according to our Annals when King Harold heard of it he immediately marched against the King of Norway and meeting him at Staenford-briâ—ge in Yorkshire there fought and slew that King with Earl Tostige his own Brother Ingulph adds That the Norwegians made a very stout resistance great multitudes of them being slain together with their Chief Commanders so that King Harold obtain'd an entire Victory only Prince Olave Son to Harold King of Norway and Paul Earl of Orcades were permitted quietly to return home with twenty Ships But before I dismiss this Relation I cannot omit a remarkable Example of one single Norwegian who standing upon the Bridge above-mentioned killed more than forty Englishmen with his Battel-Axe making good his Post against the whole Army till three a Clock in the Afternoon and then one going in
forced to retire beyond 〈…〉 her Brother of Normandy for safety Id. p. 38. Aelgiva a Hampshire Lady Daughter of Aelfhelm the Ealdorman one of Cnute's Wives bore him Harold whom before his death his Father appointed to be King of England after him l. 6. â— 56. But the Story seems a littlâ— improbable for it is said she was barren and therefore â—â—etenâ—ing a Big-Belly imposed on the credulous King a Supposititious Birth viz. the Son of a Shoemaker then newly born Id. p. 61. In the English-Saxon is the same with Emma in the Norman-French Dialect the Widow of King Cnute who was banished England by King Harold Id. p. 64. Aella with his three Sons slew a great many of the Britains and possessed themselves of all the Sea-Coast of Sussex l. 3. p. 132. He and Ciffa receiving fresh Supplies besieged Anâ—redesceaster and â—ook it by force and put all the Britains to the Sword Ibid. His Death Id. p. 136. Is said to be the first that ruled all over Britain l. 5. p. 254. Aella King of Deira l. 3. p. 147. A general Name given to the Kings of Deira l. 4. p. 152. His Death l. 3. p. 148. Aella a Tyrant and Usurper made King of that Countrey by the Northumbers who had expelled Osbryht newly before who was their lawful King l. 5. p. 267. Aelmer an Archdeacon betrays Canterbury to the Danes l. 6. p. 35 36. Aemilianus Emperor of Rome but three Months l. 2. p. 81. Aeneon Vid. Eneon Aescasdune now called Aston near Wallingford l. 4. p. 182 188. l. 5. p. 275. Aescwin reigns over the West-Saxons is supposed to be the next of the Royal Line l. 4. p. 194. Son of Cenwulf the Battel he fought and with whom His Death Id. 195 198. Aescwin Bishop of the East-Saxons his Death and who succeeded him l. 4. p. 196. Aesk also called Oisk and Osric Hengest's Son began his Reign when and how long he continued it l. 3. p. 132. His Death Id. p. 136. Aestel the signification of it uncertain l. 5. p. 304. Aethelbald King of the Mercians held it forty years l. 4. p. 217. His Pedigree Ibid. Took Somerton and was that great and powerful King as not to be ashamed of committing Uncleanness even with Consecrated Nuns Id. p. 221 222. Made all the rest of the Provinces of England and their Kings subject to him as far as the Humber l. 4. p. 222. Wasted the Countrey of Northumberland and carried away with him great Spoil Id. p. 223. His War with Cuthred King of the West-Saxons and the various success of it Id. p. 224 226. Slain at Seccandune in Warwickshire and buried in Ripendune Abbey which he himself had founded Id. p. 227. Aethelbald Son of Ethelwulf King of the West-Saxons and his Father made a greater slaughter of the Danes than ever was done before l. 5. p. 261. Forms a most wicked Conspiracy in the West of England against his Father upon the account of his new Wife and so gets the Kingdom divided betwixt his Father and him which before was united l. 5. p. 263 264. Vid. Ethelbald Aethelbryght Vid. Ethelbert Aethelburga returns by Sea into Kent with Paulinus the Archbishop and is received with great Honour by King Eadbald and Archbishop Honorius l. 4. p. 176. Destroys the Castle of Taunton-Dean in Somersetshire and for what reason Id. p. 218. Aethelfleda King Alfred's Eldest Daughter married to Eadred or Ethelred King of the Mercians l. 5. p. 311. Vid. Ethelfleda Aethelgiva Vid. Algiva Aethelheard the Bishop dies at York l. 4. p. 232. Vid. Ethelheard Aethelred Vid. Ethelred Aethelswithe Queen Sister to King Alfred and Widow of Burhred King of Mercia dies in her Journey to Rome l. 5. p. 298. Aethelwald Edward the Elder 's Cousin-German rebels against him and going over to the Danish Army they joyfully received him for their King He takes a Nun out of the Monastery of Winburn and marries her but going over to France to raise new Recruits King Edward seizes her and brings her back again l. 5. p. 312. Returns from France and with a mighty Army coming into Kent gets much Plunder there and then ravages over other Countries but at last is killed in fight Id. p. 313. Aethelwald Abbot received the Bishoprick of Winchester and is consecrated His many good Works and what Monasteries he repaired and built l. 6. p. 4 21. Was Father of the Monks His Decease Id. p. 21. Aethelwulf Vid. Ethelwulf Aetius somewhat recovered the Credit of the Roman Empire in Gaul l. 2. p. 106. Received doleful Latters from the Britains imploring Assistance l. 3. p. 115. Expecting a War with Attila King of the Huns Ibid. Agatha the Queen of Hungary's Sister is married to Prince Edward Son to Edmund Ironside l. 6. p. 49. Agatho the Pope his Bull to the Abbey of Medeshamstead supposed to be forgâ—d long after by the Monks of Peterburgh l. 4. p. 200. Agelbert Bishop of Kent but turned out and wherefore l. 4. p. 181 182. Left King Cenwalch and took the Bishoprick of Paris l. 4. p. 182 188. Vid. Aegelbyerth Agricola sent into Britain in Vespasian the Emperor's time as his Lieutenant Almost cut 's off the whole Nation of the Ordovices Going with his men to subdue Mona the Island sues for Peace and delivers â—t self up to him Increases his Fame by his Successes and Moderation l. 2. p. 55. His wise Conduct both in his own Family and in Britain Id. p. 56. Brought here in fashion the Roman Language Garb and Gown No Castle of his ever taken by force Rewarded with Triumphal Ornaments His farther Conquests Places Garisons in that part of Britain that lay over-against Ireland Id. p. 57. Carries on the War both by Sea and Land and overcomes the Caledonians Id. p. 58 59. Which is confessed to be more owing to his own Conduct than the Courage of the Roman Soldiers Id. p. 59. His Speech to his Soldiers and after what manner he ordered the Battel against Galgacus Id. p. 61. Overthrows and puts the Britains to flight His Ruin secretly designed by his Prince Id. p. 62 63. How at his Return he is received at Rome Accused to Domitian but acquitted Oftâ—n near his Ruin as well by his own Virtues as by the Vices of others The Proconsulship of Africa seemingly offered to him void by the Death of Civica Id. p. 64. His Death whether by Poyson or otherwise uncertain He carried the Roman Eagles to the utmost Bounds of Britain Id. p. 65. He was the Son of Severian a Pelagian Bishop Id. p. 107. Agrippina presiding over the Roman Ensigns l. 2. p. 44. Aidan a Scotch Bishop desires Edwin to remember his Vision and Promise and become a Christian l. 4. p. 173. Is sent to Oswald to ground his Subjects in the Christian Faith from the Monâ—stery of the Isle of Hye Id. 177 178. His Character being an excellent Pattern for succeeding Bishops and Clâ—rgymen to follow Id. p. 178. His Death Id. p. 182 183.
Glastenbury and for what reason Id. Ib. Commands in Person at the great Battel of Badon Hill which is said to be the twelfth Battel he had fought with them Id. p. 136. He began his Reign over the Britains in the tenth year of King Cerdic Id. p. 137. Objections against his ever being a King in Britain answered His Death but the manner uncertain his Burial at Glastenbury His Tomb found about the end of the Reign of Henry the Second and the many Fables the Britains invented of him Id. p. 136 137 138. Arviragus doubtful whether any such person but if there was he lived in the Reign of Domitian l. 2. p. 56. Under his Conduct the Britains receive fresh Strength and Courage Id. p. 65. Is supposed to have deceased towards the end of Domitian's Reign Id. p. 66. Arwald King of the Isle of Wight his two Sons executed by the Order of Ceadwalla but were first made Christians by Baptism by Abbot Reodford l. 4. p. 203. Arwan a River where uncertain but several Conjectures about it l. 6. p. 46. Asaph Scholar to Kentigern and his Successor in the See of Ellwye in North-Wales now from him called St. Asaph l. 3. p. 149. Asclepiodotus Praefect to Constantius his Slaughter of the Franks and Victory over London l. 2. p. 84 85. Ashdown in Essex called in the Saxon times Assandum l. 6. p. 46 47. Cnute builds a Church here to pray for the Souls that were slain in the Battel he had fought there with Edmund Ironside he consecrates and bestows it Id. p. 51. Assault upon any one the Punishment of it by King Alfred's Law l. 5. p. 292 295. Asser Bishop of Shireburne his Decease l. 5. p. 286 315. Assize-charges the Antiquity of them l. 6. p. 13. Asterius Bishop of Genova ordains Byrinus an Italian l. 4. p. 179. Ataulphus takes Tholouse sometime after the Death of Alaric l. 2. p. 104. Athelgiva Mistress or Wife to King Edwi for it is variously reported the story of her l. 5. p. 353. The Revenge that was taken on her by Odo Archbishop of Canterbury Her being sent into Ireland from the King with her Return and Death Id. p. 354. Athelm Archbishop of Canterbury performed the Office of Athelstan's Coronation His Death l. 5. p. 329. Athelney in Somersetshire anciently called Aetheling-gaige l. 5. p. 282 298. That is the Isle of Nobles where Alfred had lain concealed Id. p. 298. A Monastery built there by King Alfred for Monks of divers Nations Id. p. 298 307. Athelric King of all Northumberland reigned two years over Bernicia married Acca Daughter to Aella King of Deira l. 3. p. 148. Athelstan slain in fight by Hungus King of the Picts with the assistance of Ten thousand Scots sent him by Achaius King of that Countrey all an idle story l. 5. p. 250. Who this Athelstan was 't is supposed none knows Ibid. Athelstan supposed to be Natural Son to King Ethelwulf often mentioned in this History but our Writers are silent as to his Death l. 5. p. 258. Fought with the Danes at Sea and routed them taking nine Ships and patting the rest to flight Id. p. 261. Athelstan Son to Edward the Elder commanding one Division of his Father's Army against Leofred a Dane and Griffyth ap Madoc the Success thereof l. 5. p. 321. The Name signifies The most Noble Appointed by his Father's Testament to succeed him in the Kingdom not born of the Queen but of one Egwinna l. 5. p. 326 327. His Election by the Mercians and the manner of his Coronation Id. p. 329. Marries his Sister Edgitha to Sihtric a Danish King of Northumberland with an account of him and his Death Id. p. 330. Adds the Kingdom of Northumberland to his own Id. Ib. 331. His seven years Penance on the account of his Brother Edwin's being drowned Id. p. 331 332. The great Victory he obtained over the Scots and what was the occassion of his warring with them He demolishes the Castle the Danes had fortified at York and taking great Booty there distributes it among his Soldiers Drove the Welsh cut of Exeter and built new walls about it Id. p. 332 333. The great Victory he gain'd over the Scotch Irish and Danes Id. p. 334 335 336. Took Cumberland and Westmorland from the Scots and recovered Northumberland from the Danes Pawn'd his Knife at the Altar as he went to make War against the Scots promising to redeem it at his return with Victory Founded the Abbey of Middleton in Dorsetshire and upon what account Reign'd fourteen years and tâ—n months and then died at Gloucester Id. p. 337. Is said to be the first that reduced all England into one Monarchy Imposeth a Yearly Tribute upon Constantine King of the Scots and Howell King of the Britains of 20 l. in Gold and 300 l. in Silver and 25000 Head of Cattel Id. p. 337 338. The Rich Presents were sent to him from divers Kings Id. p. 339. Made many good Laws and some of the most remarkable may be seen in p. 339 340 341. Buried in the Abbey of Malmesbury bred up under his Uncle Ethelred Earl of Mercia His Character Id. p. 329 338 339. Athelwald King of the South-Saxons had the Isle of Wight given him by Wulfher l. 4. p. 188. Is slain by Ceadwalla who seized on his Province Id. p. 203. Athelward Vid. Ethelward Athelwold Vid. Ethelwald Attacotti who these were that Ammianus joins with the Scoti has very much perplexed the Modern Criticks l. 2. p. 91 92. Atticus Vid. Aurelius Augusta that ancient City now called London l. 2. p. 92. Augustine sent into Britain with many Monks to preach the Gospel l. 3. p. 148. His Arrival in Britain in the year 597. Id. p. 149. l. 4. p. 153. How he came to be sent and the Accidents that happen'd to him by the way with his Landing in the Isle of Thanet on the East part of Kent l. 4. p. 152 153. Residence appointed by King Ethelbert's Order for him and his Monks at Canterbury which was the Metropolis of his Kingdom How his preaching to him and his Nobles there was received Id. p. 154. Ordained Archbishop of the British Nation and by whom as also his sending to the Pope to desire his Opinion about certain Questions Wherein is seen the state of Religion in the Western Church at his coming over Id. p. 155. Rebuilt an old Church first erected by the Christian Romans appointing it a See for himself and his Successors Id. 154 157. Had an Archiepiscopal Pall sent him with power to ordain twelve Bishops l. 4. p. 157 158. His Legantine Authority over all the Bishops of Britain Id. p. 160. Summons a Synod at Augustine's Ake or Oak in Worcestershire Ib. p. 161. His miraculous Cure of a Blind Man upon which the Britains believed his Doctrine to be true Id. Ib. His Death and place of his Burial Id. p. 162 165. His Prediction on the Britains fulfilled Id. p. 164. Supposed to be of
him And after Caesar's departure till the time of Claudius they were free from the Roman Yoke Id. p. 35 36. They send Ambassadors into Gallia to Augustus to beg Peace and begin to learn the Roman Arts of Flattery c. Id. p. 36 37. Victory obtained over them by Claudius his Clemency towards them for which they build him a Temple and adore him as a God Id. p. 40. Their Victory over Catus Decianus and the Romans in the absence of Paulinus Suetonius and Cruelty to the Roman Wives and Virgins Id. p. 48 49. Learnt the Vices of the Romans are overcome by Agricola Id. p. 51 55 56 57 58 59. Would not own themselves beaten by the Courage of the Roman Soldiers but by the Conduct of their General Id. p. 59. They get together Thirty thousand strong on the Grampion Hills and are resolved to fight him again but are miserably beaten and put to flight Id. p. 59 60 61 62 63. Recovering fresh Strength and Courage under the Conduct of Arviragus revolt against the Emperor Trajan but are soon reduced again l. 2. p. 65 66. Would have entirely rovolted from Hadrian after Julius Severus his departure had not Hadrian in the second year of his Empire made a Journey hither and by force of Arms reduced them Id. p. 67. The South-Britains within Hadrian's Wall enjoy the Privilege in Antoninus Pius his time of being free Citizens of Rome Id. p. 67 68. Raise new Commotions in Marcus Aurelius Antoninus his time who succeeds Antoninus Pius From Lucius till the time of Dioclesian they maintain the Christian Faith without disturbance Id. p. 68. Under the Power of the Romans in Lucius his time or what remained unconquered were absolutely Heathen and Barbarous at the time of his supposed Conversion Id. p. 69. Much infested with Wars and Seditions in Commodus his Reign They mutiny against Perennis and send Fifteen hundred Soldiers into Italy to let Commodus the Emperor know that Perennis had conspired against him endeavouring to make his Son Emperor Id. p. 70. Come flocking in to Constantius Chlorus against Allectus Id. p. 84. Suffer Persecution here under Dioclesian the Emperor Id. p. 85. Revolt against the Emperor Constantine but are subdued Id. p. 87 88. Renounce all further Obedience to the Roman Empire Id. p. 104. The first Supplies sent to them were between the Death of Maximus and the setting up of Gratianus Municeps and when the second Id. p. 105 106. Their Endeavours to get the Roman Protection in Valentinian the Third's time Id. p. 106. Would by no means receive the Pelagian Doctrine Id. p. 107. Their Victory over the Picts and Saxons and by what means Id. p. 108. Their doleful Letters to Aetius the Emperor's Lieutenant in Gaul for Assistance And their Wickedness both in Clergy and Laity Id. p. 115. Their leaving Kent and flying in great fear to London l. 3. p. 129. Their Victory over the Saxons through their Carelessness Id. p. 148. Believe Augustin's Doctrine to be from God from his Miraculous Cure of a Blind Man l. 4. p. 161. In Bede's time it was their custom to set at nought the Religion of the English-Saxons Id. p. 176. Fight with Kenwalc King of the West-Saxons at Peonnum but put to flight by him and pursued as far as Pedridan l. 4. p. 188. Deliver the City of Alkuith upon Conditions to Eadbert King of Northumberland and Unust King of the Picts l. 4. p. 227. A great Battel between them and the Saxons at Hereford l. 4. p. 228. And at Ruthin where Caradoc ap Gwin King of North-Wales was slain Id. p. 241. And another between them and the Devonshire men where the former were-routed l. 5. p. 253. Suffer a great slaughter from Hinguar and Hubba Id. p. 281. Obtain a Victory over the Danes and driving them into a River drown many of them Id. p. 298. Northern Britains much infested by the Incursions of the Danes Saxons and Scots Id. p. 317. Ever since the coming in of the Saxons had continued a distinct Principality in the North and retiring into North-Wales had there erected the Colony of Straetcluyd Id. p. 344. Britains of Armorica settled there long before ours were driven out by the Saxons l. 3. p. 127. British Church sent divers Bishops to the Council of Arles in Gallia l. 2. p. 88. Enjoyed perfect Peace till the Arrian Heresy over-ran the whole world Id. p. 105. All differences cease between this Church and that of North-Wales and how effected l. 4. p. 229. Brixstan in Somersetshire anciently called Ecbyrth-stan lying on the East-side of Selwood-Forest l. 5. p. 282. Brockmaile the Protector and Defender of the Britains l. 4. p. 164. Bromrige in the County of Northumberland anciently called Brunanburh l. 5. p. 334 335. Bruerne Brocard resenting the Injury King Osbryht had done him in lying with his Wife goes over to Denmark to complain of it and gets a great Army to come from thence who revenge the Affront by the King's death l. 5. p. 268 269. Brun-Albin or Drum-Albin that is the Ridge of Scotland l. 2. p. 98. Brute and his Successors their History How he consults the Oracle and the Answer it returned l. 1. p. 7 8. He divides the Kingdom to his Three Sons the Eldest to have Loegria now England the Second Cambria now Wales and the Third Albania now Scotland Id. p. 9. Bryghtwald takes the Bishoprick of Wiltonshire l. 6. p. 31. Bryghtwulf Bishop of Scireborne deceases after he had held the Bishoprick eight and thirty years Id. p. 73. Brythelme Bishop of Wells made Archbishop of Canterbury but being found not fit for so great a Charge by the Command of the King and whole Nation he retired and went to his former Church l. 6. p. 2. Buchanan his Mistakes About Severus his Wall l. 2. p. 76 77. About The last Wall which he will have built in Scotland Id. p. 100 101. About The last War between the Romans and the Britains Id. p. 101 102. About Achaius King of Scots having reigned 32 years c. l. 5. p. 250. About King Athelstan's Parricide Id. p. 335. Budington in Shropshire anciently called Butdigingtune l. 5. p. 301. Buloigne the Portus Ictius and ancient Gessoriacum from whence the Romans most commonly passed into Britain l. 2. p. 31 40. Buoy in the Nore supposed anciently to be called Northmuthe l. 6. p. 80. Burford in the Saxon times called Beorgford in Oxfordshire l. 4. p. 226. Burgh an Abbey which Leofric the Abbot of it so adorned with Rich Gildings that it was called the Golden Burgh c. l. 6. p. 84. Burghmotes to be held Thrice a Year and who to be present thereat l. 6. p. 13. Burhred Burherd or Beorhed King of Mercia fights with the Britains and kills their King Enters North-Wales with great Power and destroys Anglesey and slays Meyric l. 5. p. 261. Succeeds Beorthwulf and present at the Agreement made by Ceolred Abbot of Medeshamsted and his Monks of a Lease
Sister sent over to the Emperor Henry to whom she had been before Betrothed and was kindly received by him for some time till she was accused of Adultery and how her Honour was vindicated at last be her little Page Id. p. 66 67. But it made her forsake her Husband and retire into a Monastery for all her life afeer Id. p. 67. The Noble Matron was Banished England with her Two Sons Id. p. 73. Gunhildis a Beautiful Young Lady Sweyn's Sister Beheaded and bore her death with great bravery having seen her Husband and her Son slain before her face l. 6. p. 37. Gurgi a British Prince Son of Gliver Gosgard Vawr a Prince of Cumberland l. 3. p. 147. Gurguint in his Reign the Danes refused to pay him the Tribute which had been imposed by Belinus l. 1. p. 13. Guthfrith or Godfred Son to Syhtric a Danish King of Northumberland succeeds his Father there but was soon expelled by Athelstan who added those Dominions to his own l. 5. p. 330. Flie into Scotland and raises a Rebellion against Athelstan but he makes him submit to him The Civil Treatment Athelstan gives him and his Revolt from him afterwards Id. p. 331 332 333. Guthlac first a Monk then a professed Anchoriâ—e builds a Cell at Croyland the incredible Miracles told of him l. 4. p. 216. A Monastery founded in honour of him by Ethelbald King of the Mercians who was then lately deceased Id. p. 218. The Danes break open his Tomb and those of the Princes there buried and finding no plunder set the Church on fire and burn their dead bodies l. 5. p. 271. Guthrun Gythram or Gorman their Leader or King was promised by the Danes to become a Christian and accordingly King Alfred was his Godfather at his Baptism l. 5. p. 283 284 298. The Kingdom of the East-Angles delivered up to him Id. p. 283. The League between King Alfred and him as also the Secular and Ecclesiastical Laws that were made then by them Id. p. 283 284 285. His Christian Name Ethelstan called King of the Normans his Decease l. 5. p. 298. He died Ten years before King Alfred therefore no Ecclesiastical Laws could be made between him and Edward the Elder who was Alfred's Son and Successor Id. p. 326. Guy Earl of Warwick returning from the Holy Land in a Pilgrim's Habit Fights one Colebrand a Monstrous Danish Giant near Winchester and kills him and retiring to a Hermitage near Warwick there ends his days l. 5. p. 337 338. Gwgan King or Prince of Cardigan his death some say he was drowned by misfortune l. 5. p. 277. Gwido Earl of Ponthieu detains Earl Harold Prisoner but soon sets him at Liberty by the Command of William Duke of Normandy l. 6. p. 92. Gwyn or Gwyr a Countrey in North-Wales subdued by Eneon Son of Owen Prince of South-Wales l. 6. p. 6. Is destroyed a second time by the same Person Id. p. 16. Gwyneth that is North-Wales l. 3. p. 147. l. 5. p. 317. Gyrth King Harold's Youngest Brother his excellent Advice to him not to fight in Person against Duke William rejected which cost Harold his Life l. 6. p. 111. H HAcun a Danish Earl Banished England under pretence of an Ambassy by King Cnute who was afraid of him and why l. 6. p. 53. Hadrian Aelius a Spaniard succeeds his Uncle Trajan in the Empire his Politicks l. 2. p. 67. Comes over into Britain and reduces the Inhabitants he builds a wall of Eighty Miles in lâ—ngth cross the Island Id. p. 67 76. Haefe supposed to be Hatfield in Northumberland l. 4. p. 215. Halfdene Marches with one half of the Danish Army into the Kingdom of Northumberland and there soon conquers the whole Countrey spoiling as far as Galloway l. 5. p. 277 315. Divides that Kingdom amongst his People from whence they date their Reign there Id. p. 278. Is slain by King Alfred Id. p. 286. Hamtun that is now Southampton where Wulfheard the Ealdorman fights with a Fleet of Three and thirty Danish Pyrates and obtains a signal Victory over them l. 5. p. 258. Hardecnute Son to King Cnute by Queen Emma is appointed by his Father to be King of Denmark l. 6. p. 56. But is Decreed in the Great Council at Oxnaford upon the fierce disputes of the contending Parties That this Kingdom should be divided between Harold and him and Hardecnute to enjoy all the Southern Provinces but he never did all the time of his Brother Harold Id. p. 62. He being at Harold's Death in Bruges with his Mother is invited by the Chief Men of England to come over and receive the Crown which he accordingly did with all possible convenience and so is Elected King The several Taxes he raises His Consecration His revenging the Injury Harold did to his Mother and sending his Sister Gunhilda to the Emperor Henry to whom she had been before Betroth'd and the Feast he first kept for her Nuptials Id. p. 66. Is incensed against Bishop Lifing and Earl Godwin for the Death of his Half-Brother Alfred and how the business was made up and he reconciled to them Id. p. 67. Plunders and Burns the City and wastes the County of Worcester and upon what account Deceases at Lambeth and is Buried in the New Monastery of Winchester His Character A Holyday kept to his remembrance Id. p. 68. Harold King of Norway his Present to King Athelstan of a Ship whose Stern was Gilded and it's Sails Purple l. 5. p. 339. Harold Son to King Cnute by Aelgiva he appoints to be King of England after him l. 6. p. 56. Is Chosen King by the Great Council held at Oxnaford though opposed by the Great Men of the West-Saxons upon the pretence of a Supposititious Birth and the Disputes rise so high about the Election that many fearing it would issue in a Civil War left their Habitations upon it Id. p. 61 62. Sends a Guard to Winchester and Tyrannically seizes on his Father's Treasures there which he had bequeathed to the Queen his Mother-in-law Id. p. 62. Dies at Oxnaford and is Buried at Westminster how long he Governed England Id. p. 65. The Tax he raised for setting out Sixteen Sail of Ships whereof every Port was to bear their proportion incenses the minds of the English against him His Character and the reason of his being called Harefoot l. 6. p. 65. His Body is dug up by Hardecnute's Order his Head cut off and flung into the Thames buâ— afterwards taken up by Fishermen and Buried in St. Clement's Curch-yard Id. p. 66. Harold sirnamed Hairfax King of Norway and Brother to King Olaf putting Sweyn King of Denmark to flight subdues that Kingdom but dying soon after Sweyn recovers it again l. 6. p. 74. Harold Son of Earl Godwin the Quarrel that arose between Edward the Confessor and his Father his Brother Sweyn and him and how he is forced to fly into Ireland for Protection l. 6. p. 75 77 78. Returns from Ireland and kills and
the King's Game under a penalty l. 6. p. 60. Huntington anciently called Huntandune l. 5. p. 321. Is repaired and rebuilt in those places that had been destroyed by the Command of King Edward the Elder Id. p. 322. Hussa Succeeds Freodguald in the Kingdom of Bernicia l. 3. p. 146. Hyde and Abbey called by this Name near Winchester l. 5. p. 318. Hye an Island that had always a Bishop residing in it l. 3. p. 143 144. The Monks of Hye Converted by Egbert to the Right Faith in making them to observe Easter Orthodoxly as also the Ecclesiastical Tonsure l. 4. p. 217. I JAgo and Jevaf Princes of North-Wales raise great and long Wars to get the Supreme Government of all Wales as being of the Elder House to the Sons of Howel l. 5. p. 349 350. Civil Wars between them Jago keeping his Brother Prisoner by force for near six years l. 6. p. 6. Jevaf restored to his Liberty by his Son Howel and Jago driven out of the Countrey but by Edgar's mediation with Howel his Uncle was restored to what he held in Jevaf's time Id. p. 7. Great Commotions in Wales upon these Princes and their Sons accounts and the issue thereof Id. p. 16 20 21 22 23. Jago Son to Edwal a Prince of Wales is advanced to the Throne as lawful Heir but could not be admitted to South-Wales Id. p. 53. His Soldiers deserting him he is slain in Battel by Griffyth ap Lewelin Id. p. 64. Janbryht also called Lambert Consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury received the Pall l. 4. p. 228 229. Lost part of his Province to the See of Litchfield Id. p. 233. His Death and who succeeded him Id. p. 236. Japhet very probable that Europe was Peopled by his Posterity l. 1. p. 4. From him originally descended the Saxons that first came into Britain l. 3. p. 121. Iberi were the Spaniards by whom the Southern part of Britain was Peopled l. 1. p. 4. Icanho supposed to be Boston in Lincolnshire where one Bottulf began to build a Monastery l. 4. p. 185. Iceni those who inhabited Suffolk Norfolk Camebridge and Huntingtonshire l. 2. p. 42. Their being overcome by Ostorius Scapula Id. Ib. Are turned out of their ancient Estates and treated like Slaves Id. p. 47. With the Trinobantes rise up in Arms against the Romans to deliver themselves from their hated servitude Id. p. 47 48. Ida the first that took upon him the Title of King of the Northumbrian Kingdom who had Twelve Sons partly by Wives partly by Concubines with his Sons he came into Britain and landed at Flensburgh with Forty Ships and built Bamborough Castle in Northumberland l. 3. p. 142. He hath the Character of being a very Gallant Man but dies within a few years Id. p. 143. Idel a River on the Mercian Border now in Nottinghamshire l. 4. p. 170 171. Idols Their Temples Pope Gregory would not have pulled down but a-new Consecrated l. 4. p. 158. Coisi Burns and utterly destroys the Idol Temples l. 4. p. 173 174. Are destroyed at Earcombert's Command throughout his Kingdom of Kent Id. p. 180. Jerne that is according to the Scottish Writers the Province of Strathern l. 2. p. 98. Jerusalem the Temple there laboured though in vain to be rebuilt by Alypius a Heathen l. 2. p. 90. Jews all that were in the Kingdom to be under the Protection of the King l. 6. p. 102. Iffi the Son of Prince Osfrid received Baptism l. 4. p. 174 176. Dies in France under King Dagobert's Tuition in his Infancy Id. p. 176. Igmond the Dane with a great Number of Soldiers Lands in the Isle of Anglesey where they obtain a Victory over the Welsh-men who gave them Battel l. 5. p. 303. Ilford near Christ-Church in Hampshire seated in the New Forest called Itene in English-Saxon perhaps it anciently went by the Name of Ityngaford l. 5. p. 314. Iltutus a Pious and Learned Britain of Glamorganshire l. 3. p. 149. Images not introduced into the English-Saxon Church at the foundation of the Abbey of Evesham by Edwin Bishop of Worcester as is pretended by some l. 4. p. 216 217. Image-Worship the Church of God wholly abominated as practised in the Greek and Roman Churches and was not then receiv'd in England l. 4. p. 236 237. Impostor a notable Scotch one who called himself Run sets up for Prince of South-Wales but he and his Army soon put to the Rout l. 6. p. 52. Ina King of the West-Saxons builds a Monastery at Glastenbury endows it with divers Lands and exempts it from all Episcopal Jurisdiction Reigns Seven and thirty years goes to Rome and there Dies l. 4. p. 204 218 219 220. The Son of Kenred the Son of Ceolwald when he took the Kingdom but without any Right of Successive Descent Id. p. 205. Summons the first Authentick Great Council whose Laws are come to us entire Id. p. 208 209. The Kentish-men enter into a League with him and give him Thirty thousand Pounds for his Friendship and why Id. p. 209. And Nun his Kinsman fight with Gerent King of the Britains Id. p. 215. And Ceolred fight a bloody Battel at Wodensburgh in Wiltshire Id. p. 217. Fights with the South-Saxons and slays Eadbert Aetheling whom before he had banished Id. p. 218. Romescot is conferred on the Bishop of Rome first by him but if so it must be with the Consent of the Great Council of the Kingdom Id. p. 219. A Great Example of his Magnanimity and Justice Piety and Devotion Id. p. 219 220. His being King of Wales as well as England and his marrying Guala the Daughter of Cadwallader King of the Britains a groundless and fabulous story Id. p. 220. Indian Apostles St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew were so called because they were there martyr'd l. 5. p. 286. Indians their deadly Feud against all the Kindred of one that murthers any of them l. 5. p. 347. Ingerlingum the place where King Oswin was treacherously murthered and where afterwards a Monastery was built l. 4. p. 182 183. Ingild the Brother of King Ina his Death l. 4. p. 218. Ingwar a Danish Captain who held London is slain by King Alfred l. 5. p. 286. Inquest Grand the Antiquity of Trials by them of more than twelve men l. 6. p. 43. Intestates how the Goods of those who dye so are to be distributed l. 6. p. 59. Inundation a mighty one about Greenwich that drowned both many People and Towns l. 6. p. 39. Invasion Of the Romans upon the Britains an Account thereof as also of that of the Picts and Scots and then of the English-Saxons after that of the Danes and lastly of the Normans Ep. Dedic l. 5. p. 246. John of Beverlie first he was Bishop of Hagulstad then of York l. 4. p. 202 213 215. He was Bishop Three and thirty Years and Eight Months then dies and is buried at Beverlie and afterwards canonized by the name of St. John of Beverlie Id. p. 218. John
in Britain and from a Heathen Temple was turned into a Christian Church l. 4. p. 157. It had been before the Old ruinous Church of St. Martin without the City of Canterbury Id. p. 163. Papinian the Great Lawyer helping Geta to Govern the South part of this Island l. 2. p. 75. Bassianus would have had him wrote a Defence of his Murthering his Brother Geta but his sharp reply to him cost him his Life Id. p. 79. Pardon Vid. Prerogative Paris the University there when first Erected by whom and by what means l. 4. p. 244. The Danes passing up the River Seine take up their Winter-Quarters there l. 5. p. 287. Parish-Feasts in several parts of England to this day Their Antiquity l. 6. p. 99. Parker the Archbishop Author of the Latin History de Antiquitate Ecclesiae Anglicanae l. 4. p. 165. Parliament King Ethelbert confirms there all the Charters of Endowment on Christ-Church and that of St. Pancrace in Canterbury l. 4. p. 163. Parliament Men to have no Injury done them but the Party shall be Fined for it Ibid. Egbert changed the Name of this Kingdom into that of England by the Consent of his Parliament held at Winchester l. 5. p. 247. Where the Great Men of the Kingdom were wont of course to attend at the King's Court to Consult and Ordain what was good and necessary for the Common-Weal Id. p. 261. Paschalis the Pope succeeds Stephanus and is Consecrated l. 5. p. 251. Pasham in Northamptonshire anciently called Passenham l. 5. p. 322. Patern a Preacher at Llan Patern in Cardiganshire l. 3. p. 149. Paulinus a Roman Consecrated by Justus to be Bishop of the Northumbers l. 4. p. 171. Is sent as a Spiritual Guide and Guardian with Ethelburga to the Court of King Edwin where he is Instructed in the Principles of the Christian Faith Id. p. 172. Converts his Chief Idol-Priest and several of the Nobles Is the first Bishop of York Edwin settling the Episcopal See there Spent a Month at Adefrin in doing scarce any thing else but Catechising and Baptizing Id. p. 173 174. Converts Blecca the Governor of Lincoln with all his Family to the Faith Has an Archiepiscopal Pall sent him by Pope Honorius and be Ordains one of that Name Archbishop of Canterbury Id. p. 175. Takes on him the care of the Church of Rochester Id. p. 176. His Death at Rochester and who succeeded him Id. p. 181. St. Paul's Church at London is caused to be Built by King Sebert l. 4. p. 159. Burnt in the Reign of King Edgar and soon after Rebuilt l. 6. p. 4. Paulus a Notary sent into Britain a Malicious Inquisitor and his great Oppressions there l. 2. p. 89. He is Burnt alive by the Command of Julian the Emperor Ibid. Peace of the King Alfred's Law concerning the keeping it and the Punishment in breaking it l. 5. p. 292 295. All People bound to keep the Peace l. 6. p. 58. Stated times and days appointed for the more strict observance of it l. 6. p. 99. Or Protection granted to Persons and Places and at certain times and it is manifold as the particulars there shew Id. p. 100. What this was to free Persons from Id. p. 101. Those who have it not to injure others under a double Penalty the particular Mulcts or Penalties of those who violate it Id. p. 103. Vid. Pledge Protection Suretyship Peace or League agreed on and confirmed by Oath between Eardulf King of the Northumbers and Kenwulf King of Mercia by the Intercession of King Egbert l. 5. p. 248. Concluded on Hostages and Oaths being mutually exchanged between Edmund Ironside and King Cnute with the particularities of it l. 6. p. 47. made between Edward the Confessor and Earl Godwin Id. p. 81 82 83. Vid. League Peadda Son of Penda desiring Alfreda the Daughter of Oswy to his Wife and not being able to obtain her unless he turned to the Christian Faith he voluntarily accepted it l. 4. p. 183 184. Held the Province of South-Mercia divided from the Northern by the River of Trent to be held as Tributary to the Northumbrian Kingdom At last is slain by the Treachery of his Wife Id. p. 186. Pecuniary Fines Vid. Punishments Pedidan or Pendrid's Mouth the River Parret in Somersetshire where a great Battel was fought between these and the Dorsetshire-men and the Danes l. 5. p. 260 301. Pelagius a British Monk when he first broached his Heresy l. 2. p. 107. The Britains being averse to receive it send for Bishops out of France and a publick Disputation was agreed on between them and the Hereticks and the success the Bishops had Ibid. Vid. Heresy Pen in Somersetshire by the Saxons called Peanhoe and Peonnan l. 6. p. 28 45. Penda King of the Mercians is overcome by Cadwallo l. 4. p. 176. Fights a great Battel with Oswald who is therein slain Id. p. 180. Hates and despises those professing the Christian Faith whom he found not to live answerably to it Id. p. 184. His Death with the manner how Id. p. 185. Had been the Death of Four or Five Christian Kings in Battel Ibid. Pentarchy when the Kingdom was rent into it l. 1. p. 12. Pentecost-Castle where is not known l. 6. p. 81. Took it's Name from one Osbern Sirnamed Pentecost Id. p. 82. Penvahel in the Pict's Tongue in English Penvellum where l. 2. p. 100. Pepin King of the Franks makes a League with Eadbert King of Northumberland and sends him great Presents l. 4. p. 228. His Death Id. p. 229. Perennis in highest Power with Commodus the Emperor sets only men of the Equestrial Order to Command the British Army their Complaint and his Punishment l. 2. p. 70. Perjury if any in Holy Orders Perjure themselves what the Punishment l. 5. p. 284. No Credit to be given to any one that is Perjured c. Id. p. 325. Some justly punished for it by being put to Death l. 6. p. 49. Pertinax Helvius made Lieutenant of Britain by Commodus but not long enjoys it l. 2. p. 70 71. Created Emperor but within Three Months is slain by the Praetorian Bands l. 2. p. 72. Pestilence Vid. Plague Peter a Monk and Lawrence sent by Augustine to the Pope and about what Message l. 4. p. 155. Vid. Lawrence A Presbyter first Abbot of the Monastery towards the East not far from the City of Canterbury Id. p. 157. Is drowned going on a Message into France Id. Ib. Peterburgh Abbey an Account of its Foundation with the form and manner of erecting it as also its Consecration l. 4. p. 186 187. Peter-pence viz. a Penny to be paid to the Bishop of Rome from every House in the Kingdom first given by King Ina but the truth of it suspected unless granted by the Mycel-Synod or Great Council of the Kingdom l. 4. p. 219. A perpetual Tribute granted by King Offa to the Pope out of Every house in his Kingdom but however the Kingdom was not made Tributary to him