men accused of any Crime till they have first made satisfaction By this it appears how ancient in this Nation the Custom is of calling a Servant by the word used for the whole Species of Mankind a Phrase in use as well with the Romans and others more ancient as with modern people The twenty fourth is concerning Traffick and in confirmation of former Laws ordains That if a man buy any thing with witness which another man challenges for his own the Seller shall make it good and secure the bargain whether he be Bond or Free But on the Lord's day no Market shall be held under penalty or forfeiture of the Wares and a Mulct of 30 shillings besides The next thing that follows at the end of these Laws relating to the Civil State is the Valuation of mens Heads which we have often heard mentioned by these Laws but never yet to what it particularly amounted First then saith the Text The valuation of the King's Head according to the English Common Laws is thirty thousand Thrymses whereof fifteen thousand are properly the value of his Head the rest being due to the Kingdom so that the latter fifteen belonged to the Nation the former to his Kindred An Archbishop's and Earl's Weregild as the Saxons called the valuation of his Head is fifteen thousand Thrymses A Bishop's and Ealdorman's eight thousand A General 's of an Army or an High Marshal's four thousand Thrymses The valuation of a Spiritual Thane or Priest as also of a Temporal Thane was two thousand Thrymses That of a Countreyman or Câ—orl by the Danish Law was 267 Thrymses But if a Welshman grow so rich as to maintain a Family have Land and pay a yearly Rent to the King he shall be valued at 120 shillings if he possess half a Hide of Land at 80 shillings If he have no Land yet if he be a Freeman the value of his Head shall be seventy shillings If a Ceorl or Countreyman be so wealthy as to possess five Hides of Land in case he be killed the price or value of his Life shall be two thousand Thrymses but if he come to have a Corslet an Helmet and a Gilt Sword tho he have no Land he shall be accounted a Sithcundmon and if his Children or Grandchildren shall grow so rich as to possess five Hides of Land all their Posterity shall be reckoned as so many Sithcundmen and be valued at two thousand Thrymses The Mercians value a Countreyman at two hundred shillings a Thane at twelve hundred They are wont to equal the single value of the King's Head with six thousand Thanes that is thirty thousand Sceats for so much is the value of the King's Head and as much more must be paid as a recompence for his death the value of his Head belongs to his Kindred and the compensation of his Death to the people He that is valued at 1200 shillings his Oath shall be of the same esteem as those of six Countreymen for where such an one is slain six Countreymen would satisfy over and above for the value therefore the value of him and all them shall be the same By the English Law the Oaths of a Priest and a Thane are of the like esteem By these valuations of Heads from the highest to the lowest Rank we may perceive that in those Ancient Times Punishments consisted rather in Mulcts than in Blood contrary to our present Custom whereby small Offences in comparison especially if reiterated are become Capital which whence it hath proceeded whether from this consideration that Crimes in latter Ages do more abound or from other reasons is not evident As for the Sithcundmon mentioned in this Law Mr. Somner derives this word from Syth or Gethysa an Equal or Companion and cund kind and Mon man so that he seems to have been one equal to a Thane King EDMUND NOT long after King Athelstan's Decease Prince Edmund his Brother succeeded him at the Age of Eighteen Years and reigned Six Years and an half This year according to the Annals King Edmund Lord of the English and the Protector of his Subjects invaded Mercia on that side where the River Humber and the Way of the White Fountain divide the Countrey he there took in five Cities viz. Ligoracester now Leicester Lindcolne now Lincoln and Snotingaham Stanford and Deorby which were all before under the power of the Danes being forced to submit to them having been long under their Tyrannical Yoke This seems very strange for most of those places are mentioned to have been before recovered from the Danes by King Edward his Father and how they could be conquered again in the time of so great a Warrier as King Athelstan was I could not understand were it not explained by other Authors The same year King Aeadmund received King Anlaf to Baptism and some time after he likewise received King Reginald at his Confirmation This year also King Anlaf deceased and Richard the Elder took upon him the Dukedom of Normandy and governed it 52 years But R. Hoveden and Mat. Westminster from what Authority I know not relate That this Anlaf the Dane above-mentioned and Norwegian by Extract who had been in the time of King Athelstan expell'd the Kingdom of Northumberland about this time landed in Yorkshire with a great Fleet resolving to subdue the whole Kingdom of England and marching Southward besieged Northampton but not succeeding there he marched back to Tamworth where having wasted the Countrey round about came at last to Legacester now Westchester which when King Edmund heard of he march'd with a powerful Army and met him at that City and having fought with him most part of the day the two Archbishop of Canterbury and York seeing the great Danger and Hazard the Kingdom was then in made an Agreement betwixt the two Kings That Anlaf should possess that part of England lying North of Watlingstreet and King Edmund that part which lay South of it and that the Survivor of them should quietly enjoy the whole Kingdom and thereupon Anlaf married Alditha the Daughter of Earl Orme by whose Counsel and Assistance he obtained the late Victory But William of Malmesbury tells this Story somewhat different viz. That about this time the Northumbers rebelling recalled this Anlaf out of Ireland whom they made their King but whom nevertheless King Edmund conquered and at last expell'd the Kingdom and so once again added Northumberland to his own Dominions which shews the great uncertainty of the History of these times But R. Hoveden and Mat. Westminster do further add That when this Anlaf had not long after his Marriage spoiled and burned the Church of St. Balther and had burnt Tiningaham by the just Judgment of God he miserably ended his Life but without telling us by what means And they both further relate That Anlaf the Son of Sihtric after this reigned again over the Northumbers and was this year expelled that Kingdom by King
and instead thereof engaged the Prince of Wales to send him a Yearly Tribute of so many Wolves Heads in lieu of that Tribute which the said Prince performed till within some Years there being no more Wolves to be found either in England or Wales that Tribute ceased But to proceed with our Annals This Year deceased Aelfgar Cousin to the King and Earl also of Devonshire whose Body lies buried at Wilton Sigeferth likewise here called a King though he was indeed no more than Vice-King or Earl of some Province now made himself away and was buried at Winborne The same Year was a great Mortality of Men and a very Malignant Feaver raged at London Also the Church of St. Pauls at London was this Year burnt and soon after rebuilt and Athelmod the Priest went to Rome and there died I have nothing else to add that is remarkable under this Year but the Foundation of the Abby of Tavistock by Ordgar Earl of Devonshire afterwards Father-in-law to King Edgar though it was within less than fifty years after its foundation burnt down by the Danes in the Reign of King Ethelred but was afterwards rebuilt more stately than before This Year Wolfstan the Deacon deceased and afterwards Gyric the Priest These I suppose were some men of remarkable Sanctity in that Monastery to which this Copy of these Annals did once belong The same Year also Abbot Athelwald received the Bishoprick of Winchester and was consecrated on a Sunday being the Vigil of St. Andrew The second year after his Consecration he repaired divers Monasteries and drove the Clerks i. e. Canons from that Bishoprick because they would observe no Rule and placed Monks in their stead He also founded two Abbies the one of Monks and the other of Nuns and afterwards going to King Edgar he desired him to bestow upon him all the Monasteries the Danes had before destroyed because he intended to rebuild them which the King willingly granted Then the Bishop went to Elig where St. Etheldrith lieth buried and caused that Monastery to be rebuilt and then gave it to the care of one of his Monks named Brightnoth and afterwards made him Abbot of the Monks of that Monastery where there had been Nuns before Then Bishop Athelwald went to the Monastery which is called Medeshamstead which had also been destroyed by the Danes where he found nothing but old Walls with Trees and Bushes growing among them but at last he spied hidden in one of these Walls that Charter which Abbot Headda had formerly wrote in which it appeared that King Wulfher and Ethelred his Brother had founded this Monastery and that the King with the Bishop had freed it from all secular servitude and Pope Agatho had confirmed it by his Bull as also the Archbishop Deus Dedit Which Charter I suppose is that the Substance of which is already recited in the Fourth book Anno 656. and which I have there proved to be forged for the Monks had then a very fair opportunity to forge that Charter and afterwards to pretend they found it in an old Wall But letting that pass thus much is certain from the Peterburgh Copy of these Annals That the said Bishop then caused this Monastery to be rebuilt placing a new Set of Monks therein over whom he appointed an Abbot called Aldulf Then went the Bishop to the King and shewed him the Charter he had lately found whereby he not only obtained a new Charter of Confirmation of all the Lands and Privileges formerly granted by the Mercian Kings but also many other Townships and Lands there recited as particularly Vndale with the Hundred adjoining in Northamptonshire which had formerly been a Monastery of it self as may be observed in the account we have already given of the Life of the Archbishop Wilfrid The King likewise granted That the Lands belonging to that Monastery should be a distinct Shire having Sac and Soc Tol and Team and Infangentheof which terms I shall explain in another place the King there also grants them a Market with the Toll thereof and that there should be no other Market between Stamford and Huntington and to the former of these the King also granted the Abbot a Mint But as for the Names of the Lands given together with the Limits and the Tolls of the Market there mentioned I refer the Reader to the Charter it self Then follows the Subscription of the King with the Sign of the Cross and next the Confirmation of the Archbishop of Canterbury with a dreadful Curse on those that should violate it as also the Confirmation of Oswald Archbishop of York Athelwald Bishop of Winchester with several other Bishops Abbots Ealdormen and Wisemen who all confirmed it and signed it with the Cross This was done Anno Dom. 972. of our Lord's Nativity and in the sixteenth year of the King's Reign which shews this Coppy of the Annals to be written divers years after these things were done as does also more particularly that short History concerning the Affairs of this Abby and the Succession of its Abbots for many years after this time As how Abbot Adulf bought many more Lands wherewith he highly enriched that Monastery where he continued Abbot till Oswald Archbishop of York deceased and he succeeded him in the Archbishoprick and then there was another chosen Abbot of the said Monastery named Kenulph who was afterwards Bishop of Winchester he first built a Wall round the Monastery and gave it the name of Burgh which was before called Medeshamested but he being sometime after made Bishop of Winchester another Abbot was chosen from the same Abby called Aelfi who continued Abbot fifty years He removed the Bodies of St. Kyneburge and St. Cynesuith which lay buried at Castra and St. Tibba which lay entomb'd at Rehala i. e. Ryal in Rutlandshire and brought them to Burgh and dedicated them to St. Peter keeping them there as long as he continued Abbot I have been the more particular in the Account of this so Ancient and Famous Monastery as having been the Episcopal See of the Bishops of Peterburgh almost ever since the Dissolution of that Abby in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth This Year also according to Simeon of Durham King Edgar married Ethelfreda the Daughter of Ordgar Earl of Devonshire after the Death of her Husband Ethelwald Earl of the East-Angles Of her he begot two Sons Edwald and Ethelred the former of whom died in his Infancy but the latter lived to be King of England But before he married this Lady it is certain he had an Elder Son by Elfleda sirnamed The Fair Daughter of Earl Eodmar of whom he begot King Edward called the Martyr But whether King Edgar was ever lawfully married to her may also be doubted since Osbern in his Life of St. Dunstan says That this Saint baptized the Child begotten on Ethelfleda the King's Concubine with whom also agrees Nicholas Trevet in his Chronicle though I confess the Major
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
Horses whereof two with Furniture and two without two Swords four Spears and as many Shields one Helmet one Corslet and fifty Mancuses of Gold The Herriot of an inferior Thane an Horse with Furniture and Arms or amongst the West-Saxons the Sum of Money that is paid called Halfange in Mercia and East-England two Pounds But amongst the Danes the Herriot of a King's Thane who hath free Jurisdiction is four Pounds and if he be nearer to the King his Herriot is two Horses whereof the one with Furniture and the other without a Sword two Spears as many Targets and fifty Mancuses of Gold But the Herriot of a Thane of the lowest condition is two Pounds This word Herriot or as the true Saxon word is written Herëgeate signifies Furniture for War given by the Vassal to his Lord probably at first designed for the driving away Thieves and Robbers which abounded when the Danish or Northern Nations so frequently invaded the Land For though the word Here does in the Saxon Language signify an Army yet it is in our Saxon Authors when without composition generally taken in the worst sense for Invaders and Spoilers A Lawful Army collected by the King for the defence of the Nation being called by the name of Fyrd The seventy first requires Widows to continue in Widowhood for the space of Twelve Months and then permits them to marry If a Woman marry before her Twelve Months be out she shall lose her Dower with all that her Husband left her which is to come in such case to the next of kin and he that marries her shall pay the value of his Head to the King or to whomsoever he assigns it The seventy fifth Law deprives him of Life and Estate who either in an Expedition by Land or Sea deserts his Lord or his Fellow-Soldier and in such case the Lord is to have back the Land he gave him or if it was Bocland it goes to the King But in case any one dye in Fight in the presence of his Lord either at home or abroad his Herriot shall be remitted and his Children shall succeed both to his Goods and Lands and equally divide them The seventy sixth gives him liberty that hath defended his Land and cleared it from all doubts and incumbrances in the Sciregemote or County-Court to possess it quietly whilst he lives and to leave it to whom he pleases when he dies From whence we may observe that before the Conquest men might bequeath their Lands by their Last Will. The seventy seventh gives liberty to every man to hunt in his own Grounds but forbids all men under a Penalty to meddle with the King's Game especially in those places which he had fenced by Privilege By those places thus privileged he means those which afterwards the Normans called Forests being Ground Desart and Woody lying open to the King 's Deer not fenced about with any Hedge or Wall but circumscribed and privileged or as here he words it fenced with certain Bounds Laws and Immunities under Magistrates Judges Officers c. Concerning these Forests the King published certain Constitutions Thirty four in number which you may see at large in Sir Hen. Spelman's Glossary tit Foresta But because he mentions them not in this nor any other of his Laws they seem to have been made afterwards But the Thirtieth Article is therein almost the very same with this Law forbidding all men to meddle with his Game and yet permitting them to hunt in their own Grounds sine Chasea but what that signifies unless it be following their Game out of their own Grounds I will not take upon me to determine King HAROLD sirnamed Harefoot NOT long after the Death of King Cnate our Annals relate That there was a great Witena Gemot or Council of the Wise Men held at Oxnaford where Earl Leofric and almost all the Thanes on the East part of Thames with the Seamen of London chose Harold for King of all England whilst his Brother Hardecnute was in Denmark But Earl Godwin and all the Great Men of the West-Saxons withstood it as much as they could though they were not able to prevail against them Then was it also decreed That Elgiva or Emma the Mother of Hardecnute should reside at Winchester with the Domesâ—ick Servants of the late King and should possess all West-Saxony where Earl Godwin was Governor or Lord Lieutenant It is said also by some concerning this King Harold that he was the Son of King Cnute and of Aelgiva the Daughter of Aelfhelm the Ealdorman but that seems scarce probable to many however he was full or Real King of all England That which gave cause to this suspicion was as Florence of Worcester and Radulph de Diceto relate That this Aelgiva not being able to have Children by King Cnute commanded the Son of a certain Shoomaker then newly born to be brought to her and feigning a formal Lying in to have imposed upon the credulous King her Husband that she was really brought to bed of a Son which if true shews that it is no new or strange thing for a Queen of England to impose a supposititious Birth upon the King her Husband and the whole Nation But this Contention about the Election of Harold gives us great reason to doubt the Truth of the Relation in Simeon of Durham and other Authors of this Harold's being appointed by his Father's Will to succeed in the Kingdom of England such a Nomination or Recommendation seldom or never failing to be observed by the States of the Kingdom without any dispute at the Election of a New King And besides Queen Aemma his Mother who had then the greatest power with King Cnute would sure much rather have had her own Son Hardecnute to have succeeded him in the Kingdom of England than Harold at best supposed to be her Husband's Son by another Woman So that if Harold was now chosen King it is most likely that it was not in pursuance of King Cnute's Will but purely from the prevailing Faction of the Danes and Londoners who as William of Malmesbury tells us were by their long conversation with them become wholly Danish in their Inclinations But if Ingulph may be believed who lived as well before as after the Conquest there was then so great a Dispute about the Election of a King that many fearing a Civil War would ensue it caused multitudes of people to quit their Habitations and betake themselves into Waterish and Fenny Places where they thought the Enemy could not or would no easily pursue them and particularly to the Monastery of Croyland where they caused such a disturbance that the Monks of that place could neither meet in the Church nor in the Refectory When at last to avoid the Effusion of Christian Blood it was agreed at the aforesaid Council at Oxnaford That the Kingdom should be divided between the two Brothers Harold and Hardecnute so that the former should have all the Countries
very well skill'd in the Holy Scriptures sent to King Alfred out of Mercia l. 5. p. 305 306. West-burgh a Monastery in Worcestershire l. 5. p. 253. West-Chester Vid. Chester Westminster Church and Abbey founded by King Sebert Mellitus the Bishop dedicating it to St. Peter l. 4. p. 166. But being destroyed by the Danes it had ever since lain in Ruins till Edward the Confessor built it anew and had it re-consâ—crated l. 6. p. 93 94 95. The Legend of this Church her having been anciently consecrated by St. Peter Id. p. 93. Charter of Endowment and Privileges of this Church confirmed by the Great Council The Greatest and Noblest of any Foundation in England Id. p. 94. West-Saxons when this Kingdom first began l. 3. p. 133. Were conquered by Cerdic and his Sâ—ns Id. Ib. Who first took upon them the Title of the Kings of the West-Saxons and at last they overcome all the other six Kingdoms Id. p. 136. They fight with Ivor and are put to flight Id. p. 145. Cut off Sebert's three Sons who were all Heirs to the East-Saxon Kingdom l. 4. p. 168 169. Their Conversion by the preaching of Byrinus an Italian Id. p. 179. Anciently called Gewisses Id. Ib. Bishop of the West-Saxons that is of Dorchester Id. p. 203. Their Royal Standard a Golden Dragon Id. p. 226. Are forced to maintain the Danes and what Money they give them besides l. 6. p. 25. Submit to King Cnute and give him Hostages and likewise provide Horses for his Army Id. p. 41. Westwude since called Shireburne l. 4. p. 214. Whalie in Lancashire anciently called Wealaege where a bloody Battel was fought and with whom l. 4. p. 241. Wheat at what rate sold in Hardecnute's time Vid. Sester Whipping a Punishment to be inflicted only on Villains l. 5. p. 285. Whitby in Yorkshire anciently called Streanshale l. 4. p. 189. Whitchurch in Hampshire anciently called Whitcircan l. 6. p. 28. Whitsand an ancient Port Five hundred years before Caesar's time l. 2. p. 31. About the Fourteenth Century was made unserviceable being stopp'd up by the Sands Id. Ib. Wibbendon now Wimbledon in Surrey l. 3. p. 145. Wiccon now Worcestershire l. 4. p. 242. l. 5. p. 247. Widow to remain so a Twelvemonth by King Cnute's Law and if she marry within that time to lose her Dower and all that her Husband left her l. 6. p. 60. Wigbryht Bishop of the West-Saxons goes to Rome about the Affairs of the English Church l. 5. p. 251. Wigheard the Presbyter sent to Rome there to be made Archbishop of Canterbury but died almost as soon as he arrived there l. 4. p. 195 205. Wight is brought under subjection by Titus Vespatian l. 2. p. 41. The Isle anciently called Vecta l. 2. p. 84. Is conquered by Cerdic and Cynric who bâ—stow it on Stufe and Withgar Nephews to the former l. 3. p. 138. Is taken by Wulfher King of Mercia l. 4. p. 188. Received at last the Christian Faith though upon hard terms l. 4. p. 203. The Danes quartering here made it their old Sanctuary l. 6. p. 27 31. Wightred confirms all the Privileges of the Monks of the Church of Canterbury by a Charter under his Hand l. 4. p. 163. Wigmore in Herefordshire anciently called Wigingamere l. 5. p. 321. Wilbrode an English Priest converts several Nations in Germany to the Christian Faith is ordained by the Pope Archbishop of the Frisons l. 4. p. 211. His Episcopal See was the famous Castle anciently called Wiltaburg now Utrecht Id. p. 211 212. Wilfreda a Nun taken out of a Cloyster at Wilton by King Edgar by whom he had a Beautiful Daughter that was afterwards Abbess of the said Monastery l. 6. p. 3 12. St. Wilfrid Bishop of York when he caused the Rule of St. Benedict to be observed in England l. 4. p. 167 168. Wilfrid Abbot chosen unanimously by Oswi's Great Council Bishop of Lindisfarne and how he came to lose it upon his refusing Consecration here at home l. 4. p. 190. Is sent into France to be ordained Id. p. 192. A great Contention between King Egfrid and him so that he was expell'd his Bishoprick Id. p. 196. He appeals to Rome and what the success thereof Id. p. 197. By his preaching converts the South-Saxons Id. p. 198. Receives of Ceadwallo as much Land in the Isle of Wight as maintain'd 300 Families Id. p. 203. Is recalled home by King Alfred and restored in a General Synod to his Sees of York and Hagulstad Id. p. 204 213. Is a second time expelled by Alfred and why Id. p. 205 206. Three times deprived the first time unjustly but whether so the other two is doubtful His Decease at Undale and Burial at Ripon in Yorkshire Id. p. 214 215. His Character Is the first Bishop in that Age that ever used Silver Plate Id. p. 215. An Account of his building the Monastery of Ripon l. 5. p. 350. The second Bishop of York of that name his Death l. 4. p. 224. Wilfrid or Wulfred consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in the room of Ethelward deceased and the next year received his Pall l. 5. p. 248. Goes to Rome about the Affairs of the British Church Id. p. 251. His Death and the different Account who succeeded him Id. p. 255. William the Son of Robert Duke of Normandy by Harlotte his Concubine afterwards King of England to whom recommended whilst his Father made his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem l. 6. p. 54. When he began to reign in Normandy Id. p. 56. The great Battel at Vallesdune in Normandy upon his account Id. p. 74. His coming over into England and noble Reception here with Edward's promising to make him his Successor Id. p. 79. Takes the City of Man l. 6. p. 89. Sets Harold at liberty who was detained by the Earl of Ponthieu contracts Friendship with and betroths his Daughter to him Id. p. 92. Harold promises upon King Edward's death to deliver up Dover-Castle to him and procure his Succession to the Throne Id. Ib. Could have no pretence to the Crown of England by Blood Id. p. 96 97. His great Preparations to invade England and the reasons why first acquainting the Pope with his Design and receiving his Answer with the account of his craving Aid of his People and Neighbour Princes Id. p. 107 108 109. His coming over and landing at Pevensey and Preparations for a Battel but first sends a Monk to Harold with Proposals which he by no means would hearken to Id. p. 110 111. The manner how he drew up his Army in order to fight him Id. p. 112. By seeming to retreat he gets the Victory wherein Harold is slain Id. p. 212 213. Having got Harold's Standard which was curiously embroider'd he sends it to the Pope Id. p. 113. Sends Harold's Body as soon as it was found to his Mother Id. p. 114. Wills Last Vid. Testament Wilton near Salisbury supposed anciently to be Ellendune where a great Battel was fought between
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
grant to have been a very credulous trivial Writer and to have vented a great many Fables Thirdly That thô William of Malmesbury and H. Huntington both make mention of this Arthur and his Victories over the Saxons yet that the latter took all he has written concerning him from Nennius as the former did either from him or else from some Monkish Legends in the Abby of Glastenbury and that he knew no more of this Arthur above 500 Years ago when he wrote his History than we do at this day Lastly That the pretended History of Geoffâ—ry of Monmouth hath made such incredible Romances concerning this Prince's Actions and Conquests not only in Britain but in France Scotland Ireland Norway and other Countries as are sufficient to shock the Credit of his whole History It being a likely matter that he who could not maintain his own Country should have Forces and Leisure sufficient to conquer the Kingdoms of so many Foreign Princes To each of which Objections we shall return these Answers That in the first place as to Gildas his not mentioning him it is at the best but a Negative Argument since it is evident that he did not design any exact History of the Affairs of his Country but only to give a short Account of the Causes of the Ruine of it by the Scots Picts and Saxons the chief of which he ascribes to GOD's Vengeance upon the Britains for their great Wickedness and corruption of Manners nor does he mention any Kings or Commanders of those Times except Vortigern and Aurelius Ambrosius As for Nennius thô what is objected against him be true yet since he lived near 300 Years after Arthur's Death as appears by the Preface to his History it is highly probable he set down what he there wrote if not from some other more ancient Writers yet at the least from the general Tradition of his Country-men at that time who can never be supposed to have been able to forge this whole Story of K. Arthur and the Battles he fought and thô it be true that the Saxon Annals make no mention of this King yet if these were also written from Traditions long after these Things were done being not put into the Form we now have them till long after the Saxons became Christians it is no wonder if there be no mention made of him especially since they could not do it without Recording to Posterity the many Defeats he gave them but notwithstanding this divers of our best and most ancient English Historians as Radulphus de Diceto and Thomas Rudburn do mentiâ—n King Cerdio's fighting divers Battles with King Arthur But as for William of Malmesbury and H. Huntington thô it might be true they neither of them knew any thing of them but what they had from Nennius or the Legends of Glastenbury yet are not the ancient Registers of that Monastery to be wholly slighted as false since King Arthur was there buried But William of Malmesbury in his Book of the Antiquities of that Church makes King Arthur to have begun his Reign over the Britains in the Tenth Year of King Cerdic in which he is also followed by Ran. Higden in Polychronicon and Joh. Tinmuth in his Golden History and thô the Tomb of King Arthur was not found in the time of William of Malmesbury yet was it some Years after discovered about the end of the Reign of Henry the Second as Giraldus Cambrensis relates at large both in his Book De Institutione Principis and in his Speculo Ecclesiastico where he gives a large Account of the manner of finding his Coffin which was made out of a solid Oak as also of the largeness of his Bones which he saw and handled together with an Inscription upon a Leaden Cross of about a Foot long fixed to the lower side of a broad Stone laid three Foot above the Coffin on which was inscribed this Epitaph Hic jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arthurus in Insula Aualonia which Cross being preserved in the Monastery of Glastenbury till Leland's time he saw and took a Copy of it and is the very Inscription which Mr. Camden hath given us the Draught of in his Britannia But as for the last Objection thô it be true what William of Malmesbury very well observes that the Britains had vented a great many Fables of him yet he still acknowledges him to have been a Prince more worthy to be celebrated in true Histories than Romances and thô it must be confessed that the Stories the Welsh had then made of him encouraged Geoffery of Monmouth to write those incredible Fables of his Conquests yet does it not therefore follow that all that is written of him must be Lies since a true History may be corrupted and yet the Substance of it remain true But whoever desires to see more in justification of the History of King Arthur how much of it is true and what most likely to be false may if they please consult Dr. Stillingfleet's Antiquities of the British Churches But to return to our Saxon Annals in which for the space of 7 Years there is nothing at all mentioned until the time When Cerdic and Cenric fought against the Britains in a place called Cerdics-Leah To which Year also H. Huntington refers the beginning of the East-Saxon Kingdom by Erchenwin the Son of Offa. He seems to be the only Prince who is derived from one Saxnat and not from Woden thô of this Prince they tell us nothing except his Name and Pedigree relating neither the Number of his Forces the Place of his Landing nor so much as the least Encounter he had with the Britains In the same Obscurity we might have also passed over Sledda his Son had he not married Ricicla Daughter of Emerick King of Kent and Sister to Ethelbert the first Christian King so that this Kingdom being at first Tributary to that of Kent and then to that of the Mercians never came to be very considerable thô it had London the chief City of England under its Dominion But in the Year· 530 Cerdic and Cenric conquered the Isle of Wight and slew a great many Men in Withgarabyrig But 4 Years after Cerdic King of the West-Saxons died and Cenric his Son succeeded him and Ruled 26 Years These two Kings bestowed the Isle of Wight on Stuf and Withgar who were Nephews to Cerdic This according to H. Huntingdon happen'd in the time of Justinian the Emperour Offa King of Kent dying his Son Ermeric succeeded him Ran. Higden places it thô falsly An. 544. This Year the Sun was Eclipsed the 14th of the Calends of March from early in the Morning to the third Hour i. e. till nine of the Clock And the Year following The Sun was again Eclipsed the 12th of the Calends of June and the Stars shewed themselves for near half an hour after nine in the Morning But to take a View of the British History
to what intent having been so lately there before we know not any more than what the King did there unless to repair the English School or Colledge for Youth that had been lately burnt but it is certain he stayed abroad near a Year and in his Return home Charles Sirnamed The Bald King of the Franks gave him his Daughter to Wife who was called Leotheta in French Judith and so together with her he returned into England But as Asser relates there was in the mean time an infamous Conspiracy framed in the Western Parts of England for Prince Aethelbald the King 's eldest Son and Ealchstan Bishop of Scirborne and Aeanwulf Earl of Somerset had plotted together that King Aethelwulf at his Return Home should never be received into his Kingdom most Men laid this to the Charge of this Bishop and Earl only thô many do chiefly attribute it to the Perverseness of this young Prince who was also very obstinate in other Wickedness So the King his Father returning from Rome Prince Ethelbald together with his Councellors contrived this great Villany viz. to expell the King from his own Kingdom thô God would not permit it to take effect neither did all the Noblemen of England consent to it yet lest so great a Mischief should happen that the Father and Son making War on each other the whole Nation should be engaged in mutual Slaughter by the wonderful Clemency of the King and with the Consent of all his Nobility the Kingdom which was before united became now divided between the Father and the Son the Eastern Countries being allotted to the former and the Western to the latter but where the Father ought indeed by Right to have Reigned there Ruled this Rebellious and Undutiful Son for the Western part of the England was always accounted before the Eastern King Ethelwulf therefore coming back from Rom◠the whole Nation as it ought highly rejoyced at his return and would if he had pleased have expelled his wicked Son Aethelbald with all his Adherents out of the Kingdom but the King would by no means suffer it using great Clemency and Prudence lest the Kingdom might thereby be endangered All this Disturbance seems to have been raised by his Son and his Faction because of his marrying this new Wife whom notwithstanding having now brought over with him he placed by him on the Royal Throne as long as he lived without any Dispute or Opposition from his Nobles thô says this Author the Nation of the West Saxons did not permit the Queen to sit by the King or to be called Queen which Custom our Ancestors relate to have proceeded from a certain wicked Queen called Eadburga the Wife of King Bryhtric whose Story Asser in his Annals as also in his De Gestis Alfredi hath given us at large where speaking of the Occasion of this severe Law he tells us it proceeded from the wicked Carriage of that Queen already mentioned at the end of the former Book who abusing her Husband's Affections by untrue Accusations took away many Men's Lives and being hated by the English after that King's Decease they made that Law now mentioned William of Malmesbury and Mat. Westminster do assure us That King Ethelwulf lived but two Years after his return from Rome during which time he thought not only of the World to come but also what should happen in this after his Decease and therefore lest his Sons should quarrel among themselves after his Death he commanded his Testament to be written Asser calls it an Hereditary or Commendatory Epistle in which he ordained his Kingdom should be divided between the two eldest Sons as also his own proper Inheritance between all his Sons and Daughters and near Kinsmen but for his Money he ordered it to be divided between his Sons and his Nobles and what was left to be employed for the good of his Soul to which end he ordained That his Successours throughout all his own Hereditary Lands should maintain out of every Ten Families one Poor Person either Native or Stranger with Meat Drink and Apparel always provided that the Land did not then lie waste but was cultivated by Men and Cattle It is also to be noted That this Grant was wholly different from that of Tythes thô Bromton's Chronicle hath confounded them together and made them all one he also ordered to be sent every Year to Rome 300 Mancuses which William of Malmesbury renders Marks thô what the Sum was is uncertain but it was to be equally distributed between the Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul to provide Lights on Easter Eve and of this 300 Marks the Pope was to have 100 to himself These Grants are supposed by Sir Henry Spelman to have been made in a general Council of the whole Kingdom but after this time we find no more of them for many Years by reason of the frequent Invasions of the Danes But not long after King Ethelwulf died and was buried at Winchester having reigned 20 Years and 5 Months for the Saxon Annals which allow him but 18 Years and an half are certainly mistaken This Year also according to Florence of Worcester Humbert the Bishop anointed that Glorious Martyr Edmund King of the East Angles being then but 15 Years old at a Town called Buram being then the Royal Seat But having no Account of King Edmund's Pedigree or of the Place of his Birth from any of our English Historians you must be content with what Johannes Anglicus of Tinmouth hath told us or in his Legend of Saints called Sanctilogium of this King and Martyr viz. That he was the Son of one Alemond a Nobleman of the Blood Royal of the East Angles who having fled for fear of King Offa into Old Saxony out of which his Family first came had there by his Wife called Cywara a Son whom he named Edmund the pretended Miracles of whose Birth I purposely omit This Prince having been instructed in all Christian and Moral Duties lived in Germany to the 14th Year of his Age and upon his return into England was so acceptable to the East Angles that he was by them Elected King and till his Death continued in the quiet Possession of that Kingdom without any opposition of King Ethelwulf or any of his Sons then Kings of the West Saxons to whose Dominions that Kingdom of the East Angles had lately been made subject and hence it may be reasonably inferred that it was by King Ethelwulf's Consent that Edmund being returned out of Germany took Possession of that Kingdom Being thus made King and by reason of his tender Age not esteeming himself capable of managing the Affairs of the Nation he willingly submitted them and himself to the Direction of the said Bishop of the East Angles by whom he was Crowned and by whose Councel and Direction he behaved himself as became a Prince endued with all Kingly Virtues so that during his Reign his principal Care was to repair
it would not be better if the Law were so at this day since it would not only prevent the too great Favour of Juries in some Cases but also their over-Severity in others by often giving either very small or else excessive Damages according as the Plaintiff or Defendant is more or less known to them or that they have a greater or less Kindness for them There was likewise made in the same Synod divers Ecclesiastical Canons some of which taken from amongst the Civil Ones I shall here likewise set down The first is concerning the Immunities of the Churches by which it is ordained That if a Man guilty of any little Crime flie to a Church which does not belong to the King or the Family of a private Person he shall have three Nights to provide for himself unless in the mean time he can make his Peace But if any Man within that Term shall inflict upon him either Bonds or Blows he shall pay the Price of his Head according to the Custom of the Country and also to the Ministers or Officers of the Church 120 Shillings for violating the Peace thereof The next Law but one is likewise to the same effect whereby is granted to every Church consecrated by the Bishop the like Peace and if any Offender shall flie to it none shall take him thence for seven Days if any Man shall presume to do so he shall be culpable of breaking the King's and Churche's Peace If the Officers shall have need of their Church in the mean time he shall be put into another House which has no more Doors than the Church only the Elder i.e. Presbyter of that Church shall take Care he have no Meat given him But if he will surrender himself and his Arms to his Enemies he shall be kept thirty Nights and then be delivered up to his Kinsmen Also whosoever shall flie to a Church for any Crime which he hath not yet confess'd if he shall there make Confession of it in God's Name half the Penalty shall be remitted to him From whence you may observe the Antiquity and Design of Sanctuaries in England which were not then as they were afterwards abused being at first only intended for Places where Offenders might stay for a time 'till they could agree with their Adversaries or Prosecutors as well as they could since almost all Crimes whatever were redeemable with pecuniary Mulcts in those days The 5th Law is that if one shall steal any thing out of a Church he must restore the value and also forfeit as belongs to an Angild the meaning of which you may see in the next Law The 6th Law is That if any one shall steal on the Sunday or on Christmas or Easter or Ascension-days the Forfeiture should be as belongs to an Angild i. e. the whole value of his Head Also the Hand with which he stole was to be cut off But if he would redeem his Hand it should be permitted him to compound for it according as it should appertain to his Were i. e. the Price of his Head Besides which Laws Alfred Abbot of Rieval in his Geneal Regum Angliae mentions another Law of this King 's whereby every Freeman of the Kingdom having two Hides of Land was obliged to keep his Sons at School 'till they were 15 Years of Age that so they might become Men of Understanding and live happily for said the King in this Law a Man Free-born and unlettered is to be regarded no otherwise than a Beast or a Man void of Understanding The 12th is concerning the Breach of the Peace by Priests If a Priest kill any one he should be taken and all his Estate confiscated and also the Bishop should degrade him and put him out from the Church unless his Lord would obtain his Pardon by the Price of his Head The rest being concerning the Penalties for the Violation of Nuns I omit I have been the more particular in the reciting of these Laws of King Alfred as well Ecclesiastical as Civil that the Reader may see the Penalties that were inflicted upon Offenders in that Age and how different they were from ours But to return to our Annals This Year Beocca the Ealderman carried the Alms of the West-Saxons as well as the King 's to Rome Also Queen Aethelswith who was the Sister of K. Aelfred and Widow of Burhed King of Menia died in her Journey thither whose Body was buried at Pavia And the same Year Aethered Archbishop of Canterbury and Aethelwald the Ealderman deceased in the same Month. About this time also according to Asser King Alfred built two Monasteries the one for Men at Ethelingaie now Athelney that is The Isle of Nobles where he had before lain so concealed and the other for Nuns at Shaftsbury where he made Algiva his own Daughter Abbess endowing them both with great Revenues ' This Year none went to Rome unless two ordinary Messengers whom the King sent with Letters yet nevertheless Florence of Worcester affirms the King Commanded all the Bishops and Religious Men of England to Collect the Alms of the Faithful in order to sen◠them to Rome and Jerusalem And The next Year according to the same Annals Beornhelm Abbot of the West Saxons carried those Alms to Rome and also Goarun or Gythrum King of the Normans i.e. Danes deceased and being God-Son to King Aelfred his Christian Name was Ethelstan this was he who possessed the Country of the East-Angles after the Death of King Edmund Also the same Year the Danes left the River Seine and came to Sand-Laudan which place lyes between the Bretons and the French but the Bretons fighting with them obtained the Victory and drove them into a River where many of them were drown'd This Year also the Annals relate That Plegmond was Elected by God and all his Holy Men to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury thô Florence of Worcester places it and that more rightly under the Year before The Danes again Invaded the Eastern Franckland and Arnulf the Emperour being assisted by the French Saxons and Bavarian Horse fought with the Danish Foot and put them to flight Also Three Scots came now to King Alfred from Ireland in one Boat made of Hides having quitted their Country because they would live the Life of Pilgrims i. e. a Wandring Life for God's sake not being solicitous about any place wherefore they had brought only one Week's Provision with them and after about Seven Days being at Sea landing in Cornwall they were presently brought to King Alfred their Names were Dubslane Macbeth and Maelinmun also Swifneh who was chief Preacher amongst the Irish Scots deceased The same Year after Easter appeared a Comet This Year after Eight Years Intermission the Kingdom became again infested worse than ever by a fresh Invasion of the Danes for their Army above-mentioned being driven by the Emperour Arnwulf out of France marched Westward to Bunnan now Boloign where taking
one Egwinna a Lady the Daughter of a Nobleman whose Name though William of Malmesbury does not tell us because he says he had not found it in writing yet the Chronicle ascribed to Abbot Bromton tells us a long and improbable Story of the getting and Birth of this Prince which being no where else to be found as I know of I shall here give you That in the Reign of King Aelfred when his Son Edward was young there was in a Village of the West-Saxons the Daughter of a certain Shephard called Egwinna who falling asleep dreamed that the Moon shone out of her Womb so bright that all England was enlighten'd by its Splendor This Dream she told to a Grave Matron that had been Nurse to several of the King's Children Upon this she takes her into her house and educates her as carefully as if she had been her own Daughter instructing her so to demean her self as might become a Person both of Birth and Breeding In process of time it happen'd that Prince Edward the King 's Eldest Son passing upon some occasion through this Town thought himself obliged in Honour and Good Nature to visit his Nurse by which means he got sight of this Maid and she being exceeding beautiful fell passionately in love with her and by his violent Importunity he got her Consent to lye with him and by one Night's Lodging she proved with Child and being afterwards delivered of a Son in respect to the Mother's Dream the Father gave him the Name of Athelstan which signifies The most Noble If this Story be true that he married this Woman without the Consent of his Father and kept the Marriage private the Authors above-cited had good cause to suppose her to have been rather his Concubine than his Queen though there be also other Historians who make her to have been his Lawful Wife But thus much is more certain That King Edward had Prince Ethelward above-mentioned by his Wife Aelfleda the Daughter of Earl Aethelem as also another Son called Edwin of the manner of whose Death William of Malmesbury says he cannot certainly tell us but gives us an exact account of what became of all the rest of his Children He had also by her six Daughters viz. Edelfleda Edgiva Ethelhilda Ethilda Edgitha and Elgiva of whom the first and third vowed their Virginity to God and both of them lye buried by their Mother in the Monastery of Winchester as for Edgiva her Father bestowed her upon Charles King of France and for Ethilda her Brother King Athelstan bestowed her in Marriage upon Hugo a King or Prince of the French and Edgitha and Elgiva their Brother sent to Henry the German Emperor the Second of which he married to Otho his Son and the Elder to a certain Duke near the Alpes King Edward also begot of his Third Wife Edgiva Edmund and Edred who both reigned successively after their Brother King Athelstan as also two other Daughters Eadburga and Edgiva the former became a Nun but the latter being a great Beauty was bestowed in Marriage by her Brother Athelstan on Lewis Prince or Duke of Aquitain But King Edward had so well bred all his said Daughters from their Infancy that they were wont all of them to bestow their leisure time upon good Letters and after that were wont to exercise both their Distaff and the Needle and in this manner they passed the first years of their Virginity Likewise his Sons were so inured to Learning that not being rude and ignorant in Knowledge they became like Plato's Philosophers fit to Govern the Common-wealth as our Author handsomly expresses it This King seems by his History to have been a Prince of great Mildness and Humility as well as Courage which appears by this Story but tho it be not found in any of our Historians is yet related by Walter Mape in his Nugis Curialium in Manuscript as follows That when K. Edward the Elder came to Austelin I suppose that which we now call Aust where is a Ferry to pass out of Somersetshire into Wales Lewelyn Prince of North-Wales came to Bethesley about a Treaty of Peace he refused first to cross the Severne but when King Edward heard it he took Boat and rowed towards him but the Prince being then by the Water-side when he saw him and knew who he was he cast off the Rich Robe he then had on which he had provided for that meeting and entring the River breast-high taking hold of the end of the Boat submissively said Most Sage King thy Humility hath overcome my Insolence and thy Wisdom triumph'd over my Folly Come pray Sir get upon this Neck which I like a Fool as I am have lifted up against thee and thus enter that Land which thy benign Clemency hath made this day thine own So taking the King upon his Shoulders and setting him on shore he made him to sit down upon his own Royal Robe and putting his own hands between the King 's there did him Homage But this Circumstance only serves to bring all the rest of this Story into question for it is certain this Ceremony of doing Homage was not in use till after the coming in of the Normans Besides the Welsh Chronicles mention no such thing nor can I find any Prince either of North or South Wales called Lewelyn at that time till Anno 1015 in the Reign of King Cnute above a hundred year after the death of King Edward the Elder but perhaps the Story may be true being told by Tradition though the Name of the Prince may be mistaken and Lewelyn put instead of Howel who was now King of South-Wales and in whose Territories this Action must have happen'd But whether this Relation be true or false we may from it draw this Observation That it is not always Wisdom in Princes to insist too nicely upon Circumstances especially in Ceremony but that sometimes to recede from them may tend to the greater Advantage of that Prince that doth it King ATHELSTAN THE same year not long after King Edward's decease the Saxon Annals tell us That Aethelstan was elected King by the Mercians and afterwards Crowned at Kingstune upon Thames being then a Royal Town Note He was crowned in the midst of the Town upon a Scaffold built on purpose whereon the Ceremony of the Coronation was performed in the open view of all men by Athelm Archbishop of Canterbury with great Acclamations of the People Also St. Dunstan was born and Wulfhelme was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury upon the Death of Athelm From whence you may observe the Mercians had not yet lost their Ancient Right of chusing their own King and no doubt but the West-Saxons did so likewise though it be not particularly express'd in the Annals For an Ancient Manuscript Chronicle in the * Cottonian Library says only Electus est in Regem And you may also hence observe That the King's Consecration or Coronation is placed as a different
never sought to hoard up Money for himself but bestowed whatever he got either upon those Servants he found faithful to him or else upon Monasteries No wonder then if he won the hearts of all the Monks who were the only Historians of those times Now also as Florence relates Wulfhelm Archbishop of Canterbury deceasing Odo Bishop of Wells succeeded him This Man was of a Danish Race whose Parents had come over hither in King Alfred's Reign but their Son had been first a Soldier under him and then turning Priest was at last by King Athelstan's Recommendation made a Bishop but having never been a Monk and none but Monks having been hitherto made Archbishops of Canterbury he for a long time refused it till at last he was persuaded to go over into France and there taking upon him the Habit of a Monk and returning home was immediately consecrated Archbishop This Man was a Prelate of great Sanctity according to those times and a severe Exactor of Ecclesiastical Discipline as you will find hereafter This year also according to the Annals Bishop Byrnstan above-mentioned deceased at Winchester And the following year ' Bishop Elfeage succeeded him in that Bishoprick About this time according to William of Malmesbury King Athelstan drove the Welsh out of Exeter and built new Walls about it and then founded a Monastery of Benedictines which was afterwards changed upon the removal of the Bishop's See from Credition to this City into a Dean and Secular Chanons as shall be shewn in due time But after two years The War was again renewed between King Athelstan and Constantine King of Scots and a great Battle followed of which our Annals give us contrary to their custom a Poetical if not a Romantick Relation which to translate verbatim would be ridiculous but the Substance of it is thus That this year King Athelstan and his Brother Eadmund Aetheling overcame the Scots in Battel about Brunanburh now Bromrige in the County of Northumberland as Cambden supposes breaking through their Works and killing many of their Noblemen so that both Armies fighting from Sun-rising to Sun-set there perished a great multitude of Scots Irish and Danes For it seems by Florence of Worcester that another Anlaf Son to the King of Dublin being excited by his Father-in Law King Constantine had sail'd up the River Humber with a great Fleet and landing King Athelstan and his Brother Edmund met them with a powerful Army at the place above-mentioned and if so it could not be in Northumberland as Mr. Cambden supposes but rather in Yorkshire or Lincolnshire But to proceed with our Annals the Success of this Fight was That the English-Saxons towards the latter end of the day utterly routed and put to flight the Enemies Forces and pursued them as long as day-light lasted so that in that place there fell no less than five Kings besides seven other Commanders on Anlaf's side not reckoning those of the Naval Forces and the Scots Fleet who were kill'd without number so that Anlaf was forced to save his Life by going on board his Ships with a small Company as also one Froda by flight returned into his own Countrey This Froda was it seems some Norman or Danish Commander who came to assist Anlaf Neither could King Constantine brag much of the success of this Fight among his Relations for they most of them fell that day in Battel the King leaving his Son dead upon the Spot behind him having received many Wounds Nor could King Anlaf himself boast of much better good fortune for they had all reason enough to repent their having tried the Valour of these English Princes And not only the Scotch but Irish King with great difficulty got home to Difiline now Dublin in Ireland But King Athelstan and the Prince his Brother return'd home with Honour and Glory into their own Countrey leaving their Enemies Carcasses to be devoured by the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Field insomuch that there never was a greater Slaughter in this Island mentioned by Historians since the time that the English-Saxons conquered this part of Britain So far you have from the Peterburgh Copy of these Annals but that in the Cottonian Library says no more than that This year King Athelstan and King Eadmund his Brother led their Army to Brunanburgh and there fighting with Anlaf by the help of Christ obtained the Victory But having given you a short Relation of this Battel from the Saxon Annals who only relate the Success of this Fight without giving us any Causes or other Circumstances of it I shall both from Ingulph as also from William of Malmesbury give you a more perfect Account of it which is thus Constantine King of the Scots being exasperated by the late Invasion made in his Kingdom joined with Anlaf the Son of Sihtric whom Florence more probably supposes to have been not this Sihtric but some other of his name who was King of Ireland and the Isles adjacent and had married the Daughter of King Constantine who also drew in Eugenius Prince of Cumberland with great Forces which he had raised out of several Countries to their Assistance and after near four years preparation they invaded England by the River Humber and passed through the Countrey to a place called Brunanburgh or Bruneford Athelstan all this time feigning a Retreat on purpose that he might obtain some better advantage against them as some write or as others that they â—eing fearful to grapple with him Anlaf perceiving with whom he had to do puts off his Royal Habit and becomes a Spy upon him in the Disguise of a Musician attending with an Harp in his Hand at Athelstan's Tent by which means he was easily admitted into the King's Presence diverting them by his Musick till such time as they having eaten and drank sufficiently they began to debate seriously about the Work they had in hand and he all the while made what Observation he could at last when he had received his Reward and was commanded out of the Tent he scorning to carry the Money away with him hid it in the Earth which a certain Soldier who had formerly served him taking notice of thereby came to know him and after he was gone acquainted the King who he was but being blamed for not giving him more timely notice the Soldier excused it as having formerly taken a Military Oath in Anlaf's Service affirming that had he betrayed Anlaf he himself to whom now he was in the same Relation might have expected no better Fidelity but however he advised King Athelstan to remove his Tent into another place This Advice was looked upon as good and wholsome and indeed how seasonable it proved very shortly appeared for a certain Bishop coming to the Camp that night pitched his Tent in the same place when Anlaf with a design to destroy the King assaulted that part of the Camp being ignorant of what had passed
year according to Florence King Athelstan founded the Abby of Middleton in Dorsetshire to expiate the Death of his Brother Prince Edwin whom through false suggestions he had destroy'd as you have already heard About this time also according to the Welsh Chronicle Howel Dha Prince of South-Wales and Powis after the death of Edwal Voel his Cousin Prince of North-Wales took upon him the Government of all Wales the Sons of Edwal being then in Minority This Howel made that Excellent Body of Laws that go under his Name and which you may find in Sir H. Spelman's first Volume of Councils This Prince for his Discreet and Just Government not only made himself highly beloved but also rendred his Memory very glorious to After-Ages But it seems King Athelstan did not long survive this Victory for as our Annals relate he deceased this year on the 6 th Kal. Novemb. just Forty years after the death of King Alfred his Grandfather having reigned Fourteen Years and Ten Months But there is certainly an Error in this Account for either this King must have reigned a year less or else the King his Father must have died a year sooner than our Annals allow him and perhaps with greater Certainty for Florence of Worcester places his Death in Anno Dom. 924. Nor can we before we finish this King's Life omit taking notice That Bromton's Chronicle and other Modern Writers do place the long Story of the Danes invading England in this King's Reign and that one Guy Earl of Warwick returning home by chance from the Holy Land in the Habit of a Pilgrim just when King Athelstan was in great distress for a Champion to fight with one Colebrand a monstrous Danish Gyant whom the King of the Danes had set up to fight with any Champion the English King should bring into the field that Earl Guy accepted this Challenge and without being known to any man but the King fought the Gyant near Winchester and killing him the Danes yielded the Victory whilst Earl Guy privately retired to a Hermitage near Warwick and there living a Hermit's life ended his days But though John Rouse in his Manuscript Treatise de Regibus Anglorum places this Action under Anno 926 as soon as ever King Athelstan came to the Crown and that Tho. Rudburne in his History of Winchester says That this Gyant 's Sword being kept in the Treasury of the Abby of Winchester was shewn in his time yet since neither the Saxon Annals nor any other Ancient Historian mention any Invasion of the Danes in this King's Reign nor any thing of such a Combat it ought to be looked upon as a Monkish Tale only fit for Ballads and Children But since the Monks are very profuse in the Praises of this Prince I will give you William of Malmesbury's Character of him That as for his Person he did not exceed the ordinary Stature being of a slender Body his Hair as he had seen by his Reliques was Yellow that as for his Natural Temper and Disposition he was always kind to God's Servants i. e. the Monks for there was scarce a Monastery in England but what had been adorned by him with Buildings Books or Reliques And though he was grave and serious amongst his Nobles yet was he affable to the Inferior sort often laying aside the Majesty of a King to converse the more freely with ordinary men This made him as much admired by his Subjects for his Humility as he was fear'd by his Enemies and Rebels for his Invincible Courage and Constancy An Eminent Instance of this was in that he compell'd the Kings of North-Wales for some time standing out to meet him at Hereford and submit themselves to him I wish our Author had told us the Year when it was done since our Annals have wholly omitted it for tho Ran. Higden in his Polychronicon has put it under Anno 937 and also relates from Alfred of Beverly that this King restored both Constantine King of Scots and Hoel King of the Britains to their Kingdoms saying It was more glorious to make a King than to be one yet I do not see any Authority for it But this is agreed upon by all That Athelstan did about that time enter Wales with a powerful Army and effected what no King had ever presumed to think of before for he imposed a Yearly Tribute upon those Kings of Twenty Pounds in Gold and Three hundred Pounds in Silver and Twenty five thousand Head of Cattel Yet the Laws of Howel Dha appointed the King of Aberfraw to pay yearly to the King of London no more than Sixty six Pounds for a Tribute besides Hawks and Hounds John of Wallingford makes this King the first who reduced all England into one Monarchy by his Conquest of Northumberland Cumberland and Wales yet that he was in his own nature a Lover of Peace and whatever he had heard from his Grandfather or observed in his Father he put in practice being Just in his Judgments and by a happy conjunction of many Virtues so beloved by all men that to this day Fame which is wont to be too severe to the Faults of Great Men can relate nothing to his prejudice William of Malmesbury also gives us a short Account of his Life and Actions from his very Childhood wherein he tells us That this Prince when he was but a Youth was highly beloved by his Grandfather King Alfred insomuch that he made him a Knight girding him with a Belt set with Precious Stones and whereat hung a Golden-hilted Sword in a Rich Scabbard after which he was sent to be bred under his Uncle Ethelred Earl of Mercia to learn all those Warlike Exercises that were befitting a Young Prince Nor does he only relate him to have been Valiant but also competently Learned as he had been informed from a certain old Author he had seen who compared him to Tully for Eloquence though as he rightly observes the Custom of that Age might very well dispense with that Talent and perhaps a too great Affection to King Athelstan then living might excuse this Author 's over-large Commendations But this must be acknowledged that all Europe then spoke highly in his Praise and extoll'd his Valour to the Skies Neighbouring Kings thinking themselves happy if they could purchase his Friendship either by his Alliance or their Presents Harold King of Norway sent him a Ship whose Stern was Gilded and its Sails Purple and the Ambassadors by whom he sent it being Royally received in the City of York were rewarded with Noble Presents Hugh King of the French sent Anwulf Son of Baldwin Earl of Flanders Grandson to King Edward by Aethelswine his Daughter as his Ambassador to demand his Sister in Marriage who when in a Great Assembly of the Nobility at Abingdon he had declared the Desires of this Royal Woer besides Noble Presents of Spices and Precious Stones especially Emeralds such as had never been seen in England before
had given him with her Then Vthred married Siga the Daughter of Styre the Son of Vlfelme The King marched into Cumerland i. e. Cumberland and laid it almost waste but neither our Annals nor any other Author tell us wherefore he made this War nor upon whom it was made but John Fordon in his Scotch History gives us this Account of it That King Ethelred having paid great Tributes to the Danes sent to Malcolm then Prince of Cumberland under Gryme King of the Scots commanding him that he should make his Subjects of Cumberland pay part of this Tribute as well as the rest of the People of England which he denying sent the King word That neither he nor his Subjects ought to pay any Tribute but only were obliged to be ready at the King's Command to make War together with the rest of the Kingdom whenever he pleased for he said it was much better to fight manfully than only to buy Liberty with Money For this cause as well as for that the King affirmed that the Prince of Cumberland favoured the Danes King Ethelred invaded that Countrey and carried away great spoils from thence but presently after the two Princes being reconciled they entred into a firm Peace for ever after But to proceed with our Annals After the King had thus wasted Cumberland he commanded his Ships to sail round by Legceaster i. e. Chester to meet him there but they could not do it by reason of the contrary Winds so they wasted the Island Manige now called Anglesey for the Danish Fleet was turned this Summer upon the Dukedom of Normandy But the next year Their Fleet being now returned into England there arose great Troubles in this Island by reason of this Fleet which every where spoiled the Countries and burnt the Towns and landing they marched in one day as far as Aetheling gadene which is supposed to be Alton in Hampshire but there the Forces of that County marched against and fought with them and there Aethelweard the King 's High Sheriff and Leofric Gerif of Whitcircan i. e. Whitchurch in Hampshire and Leofwin the King's High-Sheriff and Wulfer the Bishop's Thane and Godwin the Gerif were all slain at Weorthige the place is now unknown as also Aelfsige the Bishop's God-son and of all sorts of men Eighty one yet many more of the Danes were slain there though indeed they kept the Field of Battel But from thence their Fleet sail'd toward the West until they came to Devonshire where met him Pallig with what Ships he could gather together He had revolted from King Ethelred divers times notwithstanding his Faith plighted to him and though the King had largely rewarded him both with Lands and Money Then they burnt Tengton i. e. Taunton and many other good Towns more than we can now name which being done there was a League clapt up with them After this they went to Exanmuthan i. e. Exmouth from whence they marched in one day to Peanhoe now Pen in Somerset-shire where Cola the King's High-Sheriff and Eadsig the King's Gerif met them with what Forces they could but they were put to flight and many of them slain and the Danes kept the Field so the next morning they burnt the Towns of Peanho and Clistune or Clifton and several other good Towns Then the Danes returned to the Isle of Wight and there one morning burnt the Town of Weltham with divers other Villages and presently after a League was made with them and they hearken'd to Terms of Peace But the Laudean and Cottonian Copies differ very much from that of Cambridge in the telling of this story for they make the Danes to have first sailed up the River Exe as far as Eaxcester and to have besieged the City but not being able to take it they raised the Siege and then marched all over the Countrey killing and destroying whatever they met with and that then a strong Army of the Devonshire and Somersetshire men fought with them at Peanho with the success above-mentioned The rest differs but little from the Printed Copy but this last relation seems most likely to be true The year following it was decreed by the King and his Wise Men That a Tribute should be paid to the Danish Fleet and Peace should be concluded with them upon condition that they would cease from doing mischief Then the King sent Leofsig the Ealdorman to the Fleet who treated with them on the behalf of the King and his Council of Wise Men proposing that they would be content with Provisions and Money which they agreed to Then not long after they paid them Four and twenty thousand Pounds In the mean time Leofsig the Ealdorman killed Aelfric the King 's High Sheriff upon which the King banished the other the Kingdom And the Lent afterwards came hither Aelgiva Daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy to be married to the King The same Summer Eadulf Archbishop of York deceased And this year also the King commanded all the Danes in England to be slain at the Feast of St. Brice because it was told the King that they endeavoured to deprive him and all his Great and Wise Men of their lives and to seize the Kingdom to themselves without any opposition Matthew of Westminster casts the Odium of this Action from the King and lays it upon one of his Evil Counsellors whom he calls Huena General of the King's Forces â—o manage the chief Affairs of the Kingdom He seeing the Insolencies of the Danes and that after the late Agreement they were grown insupportable to the Kingdom for they violated the Wives and Daughters of Persons of Quality and committed divers other Injuries not to be endured Thereupon he came in great seeming trouble to the King making most dismal Complaints of these unspeakable Outrages at which the King was so incensed that by the Counsel of the said Huena he sent private Letters into all parts of the Kingdom commanding all his Subjects without exception That upon a certain Day they should every where privily set upon the Danes and without mercy cut them off In these Letters was also signified that the Danes had a design to deprive him of his Life and Kingdom and to destroy all the Nobility in order to bring the whole Island under their subjection And thus the Danes who a little before by a League solemnly sworn on both sides had been admitted quietly to inhabit among the English were most treacherously and barbarously murthered not many of them escaping even the very Women were put to death and their Children's Brains dash'd out against the Walls particularly at London when this Bloody Decree was to be executed many of the Danes fled into a certain Church of that City but for all that it proved no Sanctuary to them for they were all there cruelly murthered even at the very Altar H. Huntington moreover adds That he himself being a Child had heard it from certain Old Men that by the King's Command
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.
by Dioclesian Id. p. 87. Died at York Ibid. Vid. Constantine the Great Cloveshoe a Synod appointed to be assembled there once a year l. 4. p. 193. The Great Synod where were present Ethelbald the Mercian King and Archbishop Cuthbert where the place was is uncertain several Supposals and Conjectures about it Id. p. 224. The second Council held here and what was decreed in it Id. p. 225. The third Council held here under King Kenwulf and what was transacted therein Id. p. 243. l. 5. p. 248. A Synod held here under King Beornwulf and Archbishop Wilfrid whose Constitutions wholly relate to Ecclesiastical Affairs l. 5. p. 253. Another Synodal Council held here by Beornwulf c. wherein some Disputes about Lands between Heabert Bishop of Worcester and the Monastery of Westburgh are determined Ibid. Cnobsbury a Town wherein Fursaeus by the help of King Sigebert erects a Monastery which afterwards Anna King of the East-Angles richly endows l. 4. p. 180. Cnute having obtained the Crown of England restores its ancient Laws and Liberties l. 5. p. 246. Builds a Noble Monastery at Beadricesworth now St. Edmundsbury whither the Body of Edmund the Martyr was removed some time before l. 5. p. 323. Is chosen King by all the Danish Fleet and Army after the Death of his Father Sweyn l. 6. p. 39. Puts the Hostages on Shore at Sandwich that were given to his Father but first cuts off their Hands and Noses Ibid. Plunders all about Wiltshire Dorsetshire and Somersetshire c. and Aedric and the West-Saxons Submission to him Id. p. 40 41 42. Is chosen King by several of the Bishops Abbots and Noblemen of England upon which he comes up with his Fleet to Greenwich to besiege London and the Battels he fought with King Edmund and those that espoused his Interest Id. p. 45 46 47. A Peace concluded on between him and Edmund Ironside with an Account of the Particulars of it Id. p. 47 48. The Council he summoned to London about making him King of all England and setting aside his Children and Brethren from the Kingdom of the West-Saxons Id. p. 49. When he began his Reign divides all England into four Parts or Governments râ—serving West-Saxony to himself Id. p. 50. Marries Emma Widow of the King his Predecessor and the Reason of State for it Goes to Denmark to subdue the Vandals carrying along with him an Army of English and Danes the former behaving themselves so bravely against the Enemy that after that Battel he had the English in as much esteem at his own Native Subjects Holds a Great Council at Cyrencester and what is â—ransacted therein Id. p. 51. A Parliament called by him at Winchester and who present and what decreed therein l. 6. p. 52. Founds the Monastery of Beadricesworth where a Church had been built before and endows it which was one of the Largest and Richest in England Ibid. Goes again into Denmark with his Fleet and engages with the Swedes both by Land and Sea the latter getting the Victory Two years after he drives Olaf out of Norway and conquers it for himself Ranishes Hacun a Danish Earl his Nephew by Marriage under pretence of an Embassy Id. p. 53. Agrees with Robert Duke of Normandy That King Ethelred's two Sons should have half the Kingdom peaceably during his life Gives the Port of Sandwich to Christ-Church in Canterbury with all the Issues c. And founds a Monastery for Benedictines in Norfolk called St. Bennet's in Holme Id. p. 54. Goes to Rome and what he does there he declares in a Letter he sent upon his return from thence into England to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York Id. p. 55. Goes into Scotland and there King Malcolme becomes subject to him Before his Death he appoints Swayn his Eldest Son King of Norway Hardecnute his Son by Queen Emma King of Denmark and Harold his Son by Elgiva King of England after him Id. p. 56 61. Dies at Shaftsbury and is buried at the new Monastery of Winchester having reigned almost Twenty Years His Character A pretty Story about the sense he had of the Vanity of Worldly Empire Id. p. 57. The Laws he ordains with the Consent of his Wise Men at Winchester Id. p. 57 58 59 60. His Laws afterwards confirm'd and renew'd by King Edward the Confessor at the Request of the Northumbers Id. p. 90. Coelestine the Pope sends Palladius the Bishop to the Scots to confirm their Faith l. 2. p. 109 110. Cogidunus held several British Cities of Ostorius Scapula as Tributary to the Roman Empire l. 2. p. 41. Coifi chief of King Edwin's Idol Priests consents to receive the Christian Religion confessing his own to be good for nothing l. 4. p. 173. Burns the Idol Temples and demolishes the Altars of his former Gods Id. p. 174. Coil the Son of Marius succeeds him in Britain loves the Romans and is honoured by them and governs the Kingdom long and peaceably l. 2. p. 67. Dies towards the end of Marcus Aurelius the Emperor's Reign Id. p. 68. Coinage King Athelstan's Law That no Money be coined out of some Town no embasing to be of the Coin under Forfeiture of the loss of the Hand c. l. 5. p. 340. Though not Treason in King Ethelred's time yet punishable at the King's discretion either by Fine or Death l. 6. p. 44. Vid. Money Colchester anciently called Colnaceastre taken from the Danes by the men of Kent Surrey and Essex and the neighbouring Towns The Wall rebuilt and all ruinous places repaired by the Command of King Edward the Elder l. 5. p. 322. Coldingham the Monastery Vid. Monastery of Coludesburgh Coleman Bishop of Lindisfarne departs to Scotland and upon what account l. 4. p. 189. Coludesburgh a great Monastery of Monks and Nuns together called afterwards Coldingham in the Marches of Scotland burnt and how l. 4. p. 198 199. Columba the Priest or Presbyter comes out of Ireland to preach the Word of God to the Northern Picts and receives the Island of Hy to build a Monastery in l. 3. p. 143. Comets one appeared in King Egfrid's time that continued three Months carrying with it every morning a large Tail like a Pillar l. 4. p. 196. Another in Ethelheard's time l. 4. p. 220. One appeared some time after Easter in the year 891. l. 5. p. 298. Another appeared about the time of Queen Ealswithe's Death Id. p. 313. Another was seen in the year 995. l. 6. p. 26. A dreadful one appeared which was visible in all these parts of the world Id. p. 106. Commodus succeeds his Father Marcus Aurelius in the Empire l. 2. p. 68. In his Reign the Britains and other Countries were much infested with Wars and Seditions Id. p. 70. Makes Helvius Pertinax Lieutenant in Britain but was soon dismissed of his Government there Id. p. 70 71 He was odious to the Commonwealth because of his Vices by which he not only destroyed it but disgraced himself Id. p. 71.
upon her the Habit of a Nun at Were-well a Nunnery which she had lately founded and also builds another at Ambresbury Id. p. 20. Ethelfrid a Prince most skilful in War though utterly ignorant of the Christian Religion l. 4. p. 171. Ethelgar Bishop of Selsey succeeds Archbishop Dunstan in the See of Canterbury enjoys it but a Year and Three Months and then dies l. 6. p. 22. Ethelheard his Kinsman succeeds Ina in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons l. 4. p. 219. Fights with and worsts Oswald Aetheling the Son of Aethelbald and forces him to flee l. 4. p. 220. Ethelheard Vid. Aethelheard The Abbot is elected Archbishop of Canterbury upon the Death of Janbryht l. 4. p. 236. Calls a Synod that confirms all things relating to the Church which had been made before the King Withgar Id. p. 241. Goes to Rome to obtain his Pall Id. p. 242. Ethelnoth Ailnoth or Egelnoth a Monk and Dean of Canterbury is consecrated Archbishop of that See by Wulstan Archbishop of York l. 6. p. 51. Goes to Rome and is honourably received by Pope Benedict who put on his Pall with his own hands Id. p. 53. Consecrates Aelfric Archbishop of York at Canterbury and translates the Reliques of Aelfeage his Predecessor from London to Canterbury Id. Ib. A Letter sent to him by Cnute upon his Return from Rome of what he did there Id. p. 55. His Decease Id. p. 65. Ethelred Brother to Wulfher succeeds him in the Kingdom of Mercia his notable Expedition into Kent and recovering all Lindsey from Egfrid and his Fame for Devotion l. 4. p. 195 196. Wastes Kent destroys Rochester and carries away a great deal of Spoil Id. p. 196. A Battel fought and Peace made on condition that this King should pay Egfrid a Pecuniary Mulct Id. p. 198. His Charter to the Monastery of Medeshamsted justly suspected of Forgery Id. p. 200 201. He receives Bishop Wilfrid with great Honour Id. p. 206. Resigns his Kingdom passing by his Son Ceolred whom he had by his Wife Osgilde to his Cousin-German Cenered Son of his Brother Wulfher and himself turns Monk Id. p. 212. Ethelred the Son of Moll is chosen by the Northumbrians for their King in the room of Alhred whom they had expelled from York l. 4. p. 230 236. Is expelled the Land for causing three of his Nobles to be treacherously slain by two of the same Order Id. p. 231. Is again restored to the Kingdom upon Osred's being driven out Id. p. 236 239. Betroths Elfreda the Daughter of King Offa Id. p. 237. Is slain by his own People and said deservedly as having been the Death of Osred his Predecessor Id. p. 239 240. Ethelred the Ealdorman deceases a famous Commander at first but a Monk in the City of York when he died l. 4. p. 240. Ethelred Son to Eanred succeeds his Father in the Kingdom of Northumberland is driven out from his Kingdom but soon after restored to it and about three years after is slain l. 5. p. 260. Ethelred Son of King Ethelwulf reigned in Kent as also over the East and South-Saxons l. 5. p. 265. Began his Reign in West-Saxony after his Brother Ethelbert's Decease Id. p. 267. Makes with his Brother Aelfred a great Slaughter of the Danes at Reading Id. p. 275. Deceases and is buried in the Monastery of Winburne in Dorsetshire but whether slain in Battel or died a Natural Death of the Plague which then reigned is uncertain though this latter is the more probable Id. p. 276. An Account of his Children Ibid. Ethelred Bishop of Wiltunscire is elected Archbishop of Canterbury upon the Decease of Ceolnoth his Predecessor l. 5. p. 274. His Death Id. p. 298. Ethelred Duke or Ealdorman of Mercia and Elfleda his Wife by their Care is Leicester repaired l. 5. p. 314. By their command Caer-Legion that is now Westchester is repaired Id. p. 315. His Decease Id. p. 316. Ethelred Brother to Edward the Martyr elected King and crowned being a lovely Youth l. 6. p. 19. He rather distressed than governed the Kingdom for Seven and thirty years His aversion to Wax-Lights and for what reason Ibid. Lays waste the Bishoprick of Rochester because of some Dissentions between him and the Bishop His sordid Covetousness Id. p. 21 22. A weak and unwarlike Prince and most of the Nobility as bad as himself His Fleet designed to encompass that of the Danes but he was betrayed by Aelfric one of his Admirals who went over to them Id. p. 23. Commands the Eyes of Aelfric's Son to be put out and for what Id. p. 24. Calls a Council who agree upon reading the Pope's Letters to the King to send Ambassadors to the Marquis of Normandy to treat of Peace He receives King Anlaff with great Honour who promises never to insest the English Nation more Id. p. 24 25. Sends for the valiant Son of Waltheof Earl of the Northumbers and for a Reward of his Bravery in overcoming the Scots gives him not only his Father's Countrey but adds to it that of Yorkshire Id. p. 27. Lays Cumberland almost waste because the Prince thereof denied to bear his share in the Tribute paid to the Danes Id. p. 28. Aelgiva Daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy comes hither to be married to the King Id. p. 29. At the instigation of Huena one of his Evil Counsellors he commands all the Danes in England to be slain at the Feast of St. Brice because he was told that they endeavoured to deprive him and all his Great Men of their Lives and to seize the Kingdom for themselves Ibid. The Calamities that befel him and his Kingdom hereupon by the coming over King Sweyn from Denmark with a mighty Fleet Id. p. 30. His Displeasure against two Noblemen depriving one of all his Honours and putting out the eyes of the other Id. p. 31. Enters into several Treaties of Peace with the Danes and pays them Tributes in Money as well as Maintenance and Provision but nothing did long oblige them Id. p. 25 29 32 Perceiving his error in the want of a good Fleet commands over all England That out of every Hundred and ten Hides of Land a Ship should be built c. But his Fleet is much destroyed either by Tempest or Fire Id. p. 33. Is betrayed and hindred from falling upon the Danes when his whole Army had hemm'd them in and were just ready to give them Battel His Forces too signified but little to him for when the Enemy went East they were sure to be taken up in the West c. Id. p. 34. He demands of the Londoners full Pay and Victuals for his Army and is in such distress by Sweyn that he is forced to send his Wife and Children into Normandy and afterwards to go thither himself where he tarried till Sweyn died But upon his return to his own Kingdom he is received on conditions to govern them better that he had done before and then is again solemnly crowned at Westminster Id.
p. 38 39. But he was not very long mindful of his Promise to his Subjects Id. p. 40. Through his Cowardice or Ill Fortune he was constantly attended with ill success Id. p. 41. He is called THE UNREADY and justly by our English Historians His Decease and Burial at St. Paul's Church in London Id. p. 42. His Character and excellent Laws Id. p. 19 42 43. The Issue he had by his Queen Id. p. 38 42. Ethelwald succeeds his Brother Etheler in the Kingdom of the East-Angles l. 4. p. 186. His Death and who succeeds him Id. p. 190. Ethelwald Earl of the East-Angles by what Trick he got Ethelfreda for his Wife from King Edgar but which cost him his Life l. 6. p. 9 10. Ethelward the Third Synod at Cloveshoe was held undâ—r him and twelve Bishops of his Province and what was therein transacted The next year he dies l. 5. p. 248. Ethelwerd King Alfred's Youngest Child bred up at Oxford his Death and Issue l. 5. p. 311. Was learned above that Age. He was buried at Winchester Id. p. 324. Ethelwin Vid. Edwin and Ethelwin Ethelwold Bishop by King Edgar's Command turns out the Chanons at Winchester and places Benedictines in their rooms l. 4. p. 181. His Decease when Id. p. 223. Ethelwold sirnamed Moll when he began to reign over the Northumbers Slays Duke Oswin in a Fight at Edwinscliffe l. 4. p. 228. Is murthered by the Treachery of Alhred who succeded him Id. p. 229. Ethelwulf the Son succeeds Egbert in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons who gave him good Advice how he might be happy in his Kingdom l. 5. p. 257 258. Comes to the Crown by virtue of his Father's Testament His Education and Tutors during his Elder Brother's life His Character and what Kingdoms he made over to Athelstan his Son Id. p. 258. Fights against Five and thirty Danish Ships at Charmouth Id. p. 251. A Son called Aelfred is born to him by Osberge his Wife Id. p. 261. He and Ethelbald his Son with the Forces of the West-Saxons fight with the Pagan Danes and make a greater slaughter of them than ever before Ibid. Assisting Burhred makes the men of North-Wales subject to him Id. p. 262. His Famous and Solemn Grant of Tythes throughout his Kingdom Id. p. 262 263. Goes to Rome carrying Aelfred his Son along with him Id. p. 263. In his return marries Leotheta the Daughter of Charles the Bald King of the Franks Ibid. A most infamous Conspiracy is formed in the West of England against him on the account of his new Wife Id. p. 263 264. Divides the Kingdom which was before united with the Consent of all his Nobility between him and his Son Ethelbald And to prevent Quarrels between his Sons he orders by his Will how his Kingdom should be enjoyed amongst them l. 5. p. 264. By his Last Will grants Corrodies for the Maintenance of Poor People a Yearly Allowance of Three hundred Mancuses to Rome and one hundred of them to the Pope His Death and Burial at Winchester after he had reigned Twenty Years Id. p. 264 265. St. Swithune Bishop of Winchester and Alstan Bishop of Shireborne were this King 's two Principal Counsellors in all Affairs Id. p. 267. Evesham-Abbey concerning the Forging of the Charters about it l. 4. p. 216 217. Is repaired by Leofric with the Consent of his Lady Godiva l. 6. p. 72. Eugenius set up against Valentinian the second by Arbogastes the former's General but he was soon after put to death by Theodosius l. 2. p. 97. Eugenius Prince of Cumberland assists Anlaff against King Athelstan l. 5. p. 334 335. The Scotch call him King of Deira and own he died in this Battel Id. p. 336. Evil Councils bring all the Miserie 's imaginable on a Nation l. 6. p. 23 27 32 35. Europe first peopled by the Posterity of Japhet either from one Alanus supposed to have been his Grandson or from Gomer his Son l. 1. p. 4. Eustatius Earl of Boloigne Edward the Confessor's Brother-in-Law with his Retinue entring Dover and resolving to quarter where they pleased was resisted by the Townsmen upon which ensued a great deal of Bloodshed on both sides l. 6. p. 76. Eutherius Archbishop of Arles Augustine and the Monks recommended to his Care and Protection l. 4. p. 153. Ordains Augustine Archbishop of the English Nation Id. p. 154. Excommunication had in King Withred's time no other Temporal punishment than a pecuniary Mulct l. 4. p. 211. Exeter anciently Exancester Besieged and where King Alfred pursued the Danes l. 5. p. 300 306. The removal of the See from Crediton to this City l. 5. p. 333. Is made a Bishops See instead of Credington in Cornwal at the request of Pope Leo l. 6. p. 78. Exmouth anciently called Exanmuthan l. 6. p. 28. F FAith the first People that were ever Executed by any Christian Prince for meer matters of Faith l. 2. p. 96. False News the spreaders of it against the Government to be punished with loss of Tongue or to Redeem themselves by the value of their Head and to be of no credit afterwards l. 5. p. 294. Famine a dreadful one about the Year CCCCXLVI in Britain l. 3. p. 115. Another among the South-Saxons wherein multitudes of the poorer People perished daily it being said not to have rained in that Countrey for Three years before l. 4 p. 198. A cruel one followed strange Prodigies in the Countrey of Northumberland Id. p. 238. A little after the Death of King Edgar a very great Famine happened l. 6. p. 15 16. In Ethelred the Unready's time so great a Famine raged as England never underwent a worse Id. p. 31. And in the Reign of Edward the Confessor there was another so great here that a Sester of Wheat was sold for Sixty Pence and more Id. p. 72. Farrington in Berkshire anciently called Fearndune where King Edward the Elder died l. 5. p. 324. Fealty or Fidelity the Oath required by Law to be taken by all Persons to King Edmund l. 5. p. 346. King of the Scots Swears Fidelity to King Edmund and all the Northumbrian Lords do the same Id. p. 349. Two joint Princes of North-Wales upon his Grant of it to them Swear Fealty to Edward the Confessor and likewise to Earl Harold l. 6. p. 90. Fee or Feuds the first footsteps of Military Feuds afterwards so much in use amongst the Goths Normans and other Nations l. 2. p. 80. Fee-tayl-Estate much more Ancient than the Thirteenth of Edward the First appears by the Thirty seventh Law of King Alfred concerning Bockland l. 5. p. 295 296. Feologild the Abbot his being said to be chosen Archbishop of Canterbury but certainly a mistake His Death l. 5. p. 255. Fergus the Son of Erk bringing great Supplies of the Scots from Ireland and Norway they came to recover their Countrey With a Relation of Fergus his Action l. 2. p 98. King of the Scots is slain in Battel and by whom
Id. p. 102. Fernham the place where King Alfred fought with the Danes and put them to flight l. 5. p. 300. Festidus a Learned British Bishop if not an Archbishop l. 2. p. 107 Fidelity vid. Fealty Fighting the Punishment of such as do so either in the King's House Church or Earldorman's Nobleman's or Villager's House or in the open Field l. 4. p. 208. The Punishment of those in Holy Orders if they chance to fight l. 5. p. 284. The Law against Fighters in the King's Palace and the punishment of an Offender that flies Id. p. 293 295. No Fyhtwite or Manbote that is Fine for Fighting or Killing to be Remitted Id. p. 347. Finan a Bishop calling to him Two other Bishops Ordains Cedda Bishop over the East-Saxons l. 4. p. 184. Fines vid. Pecuniary Fines and Mulcts Finkley in the Bishoprick of Durham and Kingdom of the Northumbers anciently called Pynchanhale or Finekanhale where a General Synod Assembled l. 4. p. 236. Fire great mischief done thereby at London Winchester and other places l. 4. p. 229. Vid. London and Winchester First-Fruits vid. Tythes Five Burghs not known where but somewhere in Northumberland l. 6. p. 37 40. Flanders what we now call so was anciently accounted part of France or Frankland l. 5. p. 283. Flattery notorious in Two of King Leir's Daughters to their Father l. 1. p. 11. Of the Bishops Ealdormen and Chief Men throughout the Kingdom about making Cnute upon the Death of Edmund Ironside King of all England to the Exclusion of his Children and Brethren l. 6. p. 49. Fleet set out against the Danes but continually delayed from doing any good l. 6. p. 27 33. Out of so many Hydes of Land to build a Ship in order to set out a great Fleet against the Danes Id. p. 33. Absolutely necessary for an Island to maintain a Powerful Fleet Id. p. 35. Foelix a Bishop Preached the Faith of Christ to the East-Angles he was a Burgundian and the first Bishop in Dunwich in Suffolk l. 4. p. 179. Folemote Strangers to be brought before the King's Officers there by the Merchants that so their Numbers might be known and they forthcoming upon occasion l. 5. p. 294. The Punishment of striking therein before the King 's Ealdorman Id. p. 295. If any Absent himself thrice he is to be Punished as Contumacious to the King and in case of refusal to do right all he hath is to be seized and he to give security for his appearance Id. p. 341. Folcstone in Kent anciently called Folcestane where Earl Godwin took all the Ships he could find l. 6. p. 80. Foreign-Tongue where it prevails generally speaking it is reckoned half a Conquest l. 6. p. 98. Forests are priviledg'd places fenced in with certain Bounds Laws and Immunities under Magistrates Judges Officer's c. for the King's Service and Game l. 6. p. 60. Forfeitures those the King challenges as due to himself in the County of West-Saxony l. 6. p. 58. Formosus the Pope sends Letters to England threatning Excommunication and his Curse to King Edward the Elder and all his Subjects for suffering the Province of the West-Saxons to be Seven years without Bishops l. 5. p. 313. A notable Error either in the Date of these Letters or of the Name of the Pope Id. p. 314. Fornication if any one in Holy Orders commit it what his Punishment l. 5. p. 284 346. vid. Adultery Framarius King of the Almans sent by the Emperor Valentinian into Britain though with no higher a Command than that of a Tribune c. l. 2. p. 94. France how early it became the most Civilized of those Gothic and German Nations that had some Ages before settled themselves in this part of Europe l. 4. p. 243. Frank-pledges the Antiquity of them no Norman Invention as some People pretend l. 6. p. 14. Franks the Kingdom so called divided by Earnwulf Charles the Gross his Brother's Son into Five parts and each King to Govern under Earnwulf and where their several Kingdoms were fixed l. 5. p. 290. Freemen no English Freeman could in the Saxon times be hanged for any Crime but Treason l. 4. p. 209. Every one to find Sureties that he shall do right if accused l. 6. p. 42. Every one to enter himself into some Hundred or Tything Id. p. 58. Freodguald Succeeds Theodoric in the Kingdom of Bernicia l. 3. p. 146. Freothwulf Reigned in Bernicia Seven or Eight years l. 3. p. 145. His Decease Id. p. 146. Frethanleage now Fretherne in Gloucestershire l. 3. p. 147. Friburg that is Barons to have their Dependants forth-coming or to answer for them upon any complaint l. 6. p. 102. Friesland Old the Gospel first preached there and by whom l. 4. p. 211. The English-Saxons derived from the Frisians l. 3. p. 120. Frisians assist the ancient Saxons of Germany against the Danes in a Sea-fight l. 5 p. 287. Frithestan when he was Ordained and took the Bishoprick of Winchester l. 5. p. 314.315 Edward the Elder 's Charter of Confirmation of the Priviledges of Cambridge directed to this Frithestan then Chancellor and Doctor but the Charter is grievously suspected Id. p. 318. His Decease Id. p. 331. Frithogithe Queen of the West-Saxons went with Forthere Bishop of Shireburne to Rome l. 4. p. 223. Frithwald Bishop of Wytherne died when he was Consecrated and how long he continued a Bishop l. 4. p. 228. Fugitives King Edward the Elder 's Law against them l. 5. p. 325 326. What the Forfeiture of relieving or harbouring any l. 6. p. 58. Fullenham now Fulham not far from London l. 5. p. 283. Furfeus or Fursee comes out of Ireland to preach the Gospel to the East-Angles and converts many people l. 4. p. 180. G GAcon Bishop of Landaff the First of the Welsh-Bishops that was consecrated by an Archbishop of Canterbury l. 6. p. 21. Gaini anciently the Country about Gainsborough in Yorkshire l. 5. p. 269. Gainsborough in Lincolnshire anciently called Gegnesburgh l. 6. p. 37 39. Galgacus Chief of the Britains in Authority and Birth makes a Noble Oration to his Army l. 2. p. 60. Their utter Overthrow and Flight Id. p. 62 63. Galienus Pub. Licinius Emperor in his Father Valerian's life-time The Empire had been quite ruined through his Excesses and Carelessness had not the Thirty Tyrants as they are called undertaken its Defence l. 2. p. 81. Is at last slain by the Treachery of three of his own Captains Ibid. Gallio of Ravenna sent against Bonifitius in Africa but the year before he was sent into Britain upon their earnest soliciting the Romans the second time for Supplies which in all probability were brought hither in the beginning of the Reign of Valentinian the third l. 2. p. 105 106. Game None in hunting to meddle with the King's Game l. 6. p. 60. Gavelkind That old Custom or Tenure first set up in Wales and the great mischief it occasioned l. 5. p. 250. Gaule upon composition delivered up to the
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
there l. 4. p. 162. Another of this name consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury at Rome is sent into Britain Id. p. 191. Makes a thorough Visitation of his Province Id. Ib. Calls a Synod of all the Bishops and Great Men at Hartford Id. p. 193. His Death and Burial Id. p. 205. Theodoric the Son of Ida reigns in Bernicia l. 3. p. 146. Theodosius sent as General by Valentinian to put a stop to the Incursions on the Britains made by several barbarous Nations l. 2. p. 92. Returns to London victorious having recovered the Plunder and Captives and establishes a firm Peace for a long time l. 2. p. 92 93. A Plot contrived against him by Valentinus of Pannonia but he and the Conspirators being seized are commanded to be put to death Id. p. 93. Is received by the Emperor with great Commendations on his being recalled to Rome after he had left Britain in Peace Id. p. 94. Theodosius the Son created by Gratian his Partner in the Empire Id. p. 95. Undertakes his Quarrel against Maximus the Tyrant who seizes him and orders him to be beheaded Id. p. 96. Restores Valentinian the second to the Empire of the West and overcomes Eugenius the Usurper who was deservedly put to death Id. p. 97. Takes the whole Empire to himself both of East and West His death Id. Ib. Theodwulf King of Bernicia for one year and then dies l. 3. p. 146. Theomantius or Tenantius succeeds Cassibelan by the general applause of the people l. 2. p. 36. In his Reign Octavius obtains the Empire of Rome Id. Ib. Tholouse taken by the Goths l. 2. p. 104. St. Thomas called an Indian Apostle because he there suffered Martyrdom l. 5. p. 286. Thunore a Thane cruelly murthers the two Sons of Ermenred l. 4. p. 180 185. Thurkyll appointed Earl over east-East-England by King Cnute l. 6. p. 50. Is banished by King Cnute but the Crime for which is uncertain though said for being a principal Promoter of Archbishop Aelfeage's Murther Id. p. 52. Thyra King Aethelred's Daughter married to Gormun King of the Danes whose Son by her was Sweyn the Father of King Cnute l. 5. p. 276. Tiberius succeeds Augustus in the Empire and is given up to Ease and Luxury which made him rather have thoughts of contracting than enlarging the Bounds thereof In his time the Britains paid their usual Customs and Tolls for those Commodities they transported to the Romans into Gaul and what they took in exchange from them l. 2. p. 37. Tilabury now called Tilbury near the River Thames l. 4. p. 184. Tinmouth anciently called Dunmouth where the Danes were vanquished l. 5. p. 256. Tiowulfingeeaster a City near the River Trent but where is not known l. 4. p. 175. Titulus or Titillus Son of Uffa King of the East-Angles l. 3. p. 145. Tobias the Bishop dies at Rochester a very Learned man in that Age l. 4. p. 219. Tocester in Northamptonshire anciently called Tofeceaster l. 5. p. 321 322. Torswick anciently Tursige in Lindsey part then of the Northumbrian Kingdom l. 5. p. 277. Tostige Son of Earl Godwin to whom Edward the Confessor gave the Earldom of Northumberland l. 6. p. 86. His Earldom depopulated by Malcolme King of Scots Id. p. 89. The Northumbers rise against him and set him aside and chuse Morchar for their Earl Id. p. 90. His Banishment and what the occasion of it Id. p. 91 92. His Invasion and endeavours to dethrone his Brother Harold with the Ravages he committed up and down the Sea-Coasts Id. p. 106. Joins the King of Norway's Fleet and lands in Yorkshire with them but they are both slain by Harold at Staenford-Bricge Id. p. 109. Tower of London said to be first founded by Belinus l. 1. p. 13. Tradition an uncertain Guide in Matters of Fact l. 3. p. 114. Traffick King Edward the Elder 's Law about it confirming the Fourth Article of the League made between his Father and Guthrun the Dane appointing Vouchers to make good the Sale of any thing l. 5. p. 284 325. Atheltan's Law forbidding any Commutati-of Goods unless in the presence of such as are thereby appointed Id. p. 340 341. Trajan the Emperor soon reduces the Britains that Revolted against him l. 2. p. 66. Paved the publick ways with Stone and raised Cause-ways c. Id. Ib. Transmarine-Nations are the Scots from the North-West and the Picts from the North and why this Name is given to them l. 2. p. 99. Transportation a Law for it as to such and such Criminals though the King should Pardon them as to Life and Member l. 6. p. 102. Traytor Elfgar was so to the King and the whole Nation l. 6. p. 86. Treasure-Trove all to be the King 's unless found in a Church and then too it was the King's if it were Gold but if Silver then he to have one half and the Church the other l. 6. p. 101. Trebellius Maximus Vid. Maximus Trekingham a place so called from Three Danish Kings being Buried there l. 5. p. 270. Triades an Antient Welsh Chronicle so called written near a Thousand Years ago l. 3. p. 146. Tribute Caesar appoints how much should be paid by the Britains to the People of Rome l. 2. p. 35. It ceases during the Residence of Kynobelin at Rome Id. p. 36. Is suspected to be paid in Kynobelin's time by a Coin of his Id. p. 37. A great one is imposed upon North-Wales annually by King Athelstan l. 5. p. 338. War is made upon North-Wales by King Edgar for non-payment of Tribute from the King of Aberfraw to the King of London l. 6. p. 3 4. Ten thousand pounds decreed to be paid to the Danes for the Terror they gave the Inhabitants of the Sea-Coasts but yet this did not long satisfy their Covetousness Id. p. 23. Sixteen thousand pounds Tribute given them beside their maintenance Id. p. 25. Another of Twenty four thousand pound paid them and provision likewise Id. p. 29. Another of Thirty thousand pounds paid them and to find them Provisions during their stay Id. p. 32. And another both of Provisions and Money to make Peace with them which they soon after broke Id. p. 35. Vid. Danegelt Triers The Seat of Maximus his Usurped Empire l. 2. p. 95. Trinobantes submit to Caesar sending him Forty Hostages and Corn for his Army l. 2. p. 34. Moved to Rebel by the Cruelty of the Romans Id. p. 47 48. Triumphal Honours and Ornaments bestowed on C. Sidius though he had never been Consul for Routing the Britains l. 2. p. 39. Given to Flavius Vespatian and two Sacerdotal Dignities with the Consulship and why Id. p. 41. Conferre'd on Agricola By Titus Vespatian for his great Atchievements Id. p. 57. Conferre'd on Agricola And by Domitian with the Honour of a Statue Id. p. 63. Troops or Companies by the Saxons called Hlothe by the Laws of King Ina the Number that constituted one was above thirty The Mulcts payable by those that killed in Troops
bloody slaughter on both sides l. 6. p. 31. University of Paris by whose means erected Alcuinus an Englishman reading there Logick Rhetorick and Astronomy l. 4. p. 244. Of Oxford and Cambridge Vid. their particular Heads Unust King of the Picts Vid. Eadbert King of Northumberland Vortigern is chosen King by the Britains l. 3. p. 116. By the Advice of his Council he sent for the Heathen Saxons to repel the Scots and Picts Id. p. 117. Falls passionately in Love with Rowena Hengest's daughter Id. p. 125. Marries her and is divorced from his former Wife Id. p. 126. The story of his taking his own Daughter to Wife and having a Son by her is all unlikely Id. p. 127 128. Is deposed and Vortimer his Son is chosen King by the British Nobles Id. p. 128. Is restored wages War with the Saxons but by the Treachery of Hengest is taken Prisoner and for his Ransom gives up East-Sex Middlesex and Sussex Id. p. 129. Uncertain what at last became of him but was again deposed and thought to be burnt in his Castle by his Successor Aurelius Ambrosius Id. p. 131. Vortimer obtainâ— a great Victory over the Saxons l. 3. p. 128. Drives them into Germany for all his lifâ—time Id. Ib. Dies supposed by Poyson of his Mother-in-Law Rowena's Procurement Id. p. 129. Vortipore King of that part of South-Wales called Demetia l. 3. p. 139. Urbgen or Urien King of Cumberland and his Sons fight with Theodoric and his Sons and where l. 3. p. 146. Urbicus Lollius drives back the Brigantes draws another Wall beyond that of Hadrian and keeps out the Incursions of the Northern Britains l. 2. p. 68. Urgeney Bishop of St. David's is slain by the Danes l. 6. p. 27. Urych Merwin King of the Britains slain at the Battel of Ketell l. 5. p. 260. Uscfrea a Son of King Edwin's l. 4. p. 176. Usurers not to continue in the Kingdom but if any were convicted to forfeit their Goods and be look'd on as outlaw'd l. 6. p. 102. Uther Pendragon look'd on by the British Antiquaries as a mere imaginary King l. 3. p. 133. Uthred his Bravery against the Scots and the Reward he met with for it from King Ethelred casts off his Wife but gives her back her Fortune and marries another one Sigâ— l. 6. p. 27. Submits with all his Northumbrian Kingdom to King Sweyn the Dane and the mischiefs he his Son and their Army did both there and where ever they went Id. p. 37 38. He with Edmund Etheling plunders all places where ever they come Id. p. 41. But at last submits to Cnute and though he gave Hostages was soon after slain and some say by Cnute's Orders Id. Ib. Utrecht in the Gallick Tongue Trajectum in the old Language Wiltaburg l. 4. p. 212. Vulgar or Common People the Care the English-Saxons had of the Persons and Chastity of their meanest Subjects l. 5. p. 293 294. W WAda a Rebel in chief in Northumberland that leads out the Conspirators to Battel against King Eardwulf at Billingahoth near Whalie in Lancashire l. 4. p. 241. Wakes or Parish Feasts their Antiquity in several parts of England l. 6. p. 99. Wales anciently called Cambria by some supposed to come from the King Ina's marrying Gualla the Daughter of Cadwallader King of the Britains but it is certainly a notorious Falshood l. 4. p. 220. Their Chief Lords of any Countrey there called Kings Id. p. 241. Kings of Cardigan Divet and Powis died in one year Id. p. 243. The several Princes of Wales were perpetually weakning each other with Civil Wars which the English observing at last reduced them all under their Dominion l. 5. p. 279 280. Great Commotions there between Jevaf and Jago and their Children after them sevâ—ral Countries being thereby spoiled l. 6. p. 16 20 21 22. Laws concerning the Inabitants of the Mountains of this Countrey Id. p. 44. A great Revolution happen'd there from the fickleness of the Nation Id. p. 64. The last Civil War or Rebellion there that happen'd in Edward the Confessor's Reign Id. p. 85. Is called Brytland and subdued by E. Harold and E. Tostige Id. p. 89. Wall That which Severus built from Sea to Sea 132 miles in length which procured him the stile of Britannicus l. 2. p. 76. Is repaired and fortified with Castles c. by Carausius Id. p. 84. Built cross the Island between the two Seas or Streights called then Glotta and Bodotria now the Friths of Edinburgh and Dunbritton with Turf instead of Stone Id. p. 99 100. A Description of the other Wall of Stone Id. p. 100. Wall-brook whence it had its name l. 2. p. 85. Waltham-Abbey the Foundation of it and the story of the Crucifix brought thither and the Miracles said to be effected by it l. 6. p. 89. King Harold is buried in the Abbey-Church there Id. p. 144. Wall-Town near the Picts-Wall anciently called Admurum l. 4. p. 184. Wanating now Wantige in Berkshire l. 5. p. 261. l. 6. p. 43. Warewell now Harwood Forest l. 6. p. 10. Warham in Dorfetshire formerly Werham a strong Castle of the West-Saxons is taken and destroyed by the Danes together with the Nunnery there l. 5. p. 278. Warwick anciently called Caer-Gaurvie supposed to be built by Gurgwint l. 1. p. 13. And Weringwic l. 5. p. 316. l. 6. p. 41. Watchet in Somersetshire anciently called Weced l. 5. p. 319. And Weedport destroyed by the Danes l. 6. p. 22 26. Wax-Tapers hated by King Ethelred because of his Mother 's unmercifully beating him with one and for what reason l. 6. p. 19. Wectij or Wiccij now Worcester l. 4. p. 160 197.230 The same Shire also anciently called Wiccon l. 4. p. 242. l. 5. p. 247. Vid. the City and County of Worcester Wedesbury in Staffordshire anciently supposed to be called Wearbyrig l. 5. p. 316. Weland River in Northamptonshire on the side of Rutland anciently called Weolade l. 5. p. 322. Welsh the Chronicle called Triades l. 3. p. 140. Manuscript of Britain the Credit of it arraign'd by a late Romish Writer l. 4. p. 162. Are forced to quit all the plain Countrey bâ—tween Severne and Wye and to retire to the Mountains l. 4. p. 231. Western-Welsh that is Cornish-men where a great Fleet of Danes landed l. 5. p. 257. The Welsh beaten by Igmond the Dane Id. p. 303. Are forbid to come into England or the English to enter Wales l. 6. p. 44. Raise some Insurrections in Harold's time and upon what account Id. p. 65. A Law that no Welshman should pass over Offa's Ditch on pain of death Id. Ib. And on the Penalty of losing his Right Hand Id. p. 115. Vid. Britains Build a Castle in Herefordshire upon the Lands of Earl Sweyn and what ensued thereupon Id. p. 77. Wenbury in Devonshire by the Saxons called Wicganbeorch a place where Earl Ceorle with his Forces fights the Pagan Danes and gets the Victory l. 5. p. 261. Werfriht Bishop of Worcester one
England and sojourned with the most Holy and Religious Monks in the City of Winchester Helmestan Abbot of the said Cathedral Church and the Venerable Swithune Praepositus i. e. Bishop of the same who had been before in Professione sacrae Theologiae in Studio Canterbriggiensi Cathedratus i. e. Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge had often relieved him during the many Hardships he suffered in his Banishment with special Favour he desired always should be acknowledged If we were assured that this Epistle was Genuine it would advance the Antiquity of this University far higher than the time we are now treating of and would make it Ancienter than the time of King Alfred in the latter end of whose Reign St. Swithune sate Bishop of Winchester But since we have not the Originals but only Citations from these ancient Pieces I shall not take upon me to determine of their Validity but leave that as also this Authors Credit to the Reader 's Judgment But to return to our Annals This Year Egbriht the innocent Abbot was slain on the 16th Kal. of July a little before the Summer Solstice and about three Days after Aethelfleda sent an Army against the Welsh which took Brecenanmere supposed to be either Brecknock Castle or else some place near it and there she took the King's Wife and about thirty four Prisoners The Danes marching now on Horseback after Easter from Hamtune i. e. Northampton and Lygraceaster now Leicester slew many Men at Hocneratune now Hoocnorton in Oxfordshire and the places adjoyning and as soon as they had returned home again they sent out another Company of Robbers which marched towards Ligtune most likely to be Leighton in Bedfordshire but the People of that Country being forewarned of their coming fought with them and not only put them to flight but also recovered whatsoever they had taken away so that they left a great many of their Horses and Arms behind them Now a great Fleet sailed from the Southern Parts of Armorica under the Command of two Earls Ohtor and Rhoald and sailing about toward the East entred the Mouth of the River Severne and there spoiled all the Coasts of North Wales toward the Sea as far as they could and they also took Cumeleac the Welsh Bishop in Yrcingafield now Archenfield in Herefordshire and carried him Prisoner to their Ships but King Edward within some time Ransomed him for Forty Pounds but after this the Danes quitting their Ships marched again towards Yrcingafeild where the Men of Hereford and Gleawcester and the neighbouring Towns fought them and put them to flight and there slew Rhoald and a Brother of Earl Ohtor's with a great part of their Army and drove them into a certain Wood where they besieged them till they made them give Hostages to depart out of King Edward's Kingdom But at last it seemed advisable for the King to place a good Guard from the South part of the Mouth of Severne and from the West of Wales toward the East as far as the River Avon that so the Danes might not Land any more on that side nevertheless leaving their Ships they stole away privately by Night in two Companies to plunder the one to Weced now Watchet in Somersetshire and the other to Portlocan now Portlochbay in the same County but they were routed in both places insomuch that few of them escaped alive unless it were those who swam off to their Ships Then they besieged an Island at Bradanrelic Florence calls it Reoric which is supposed to be a little Island now called Shepholm in the Mouth of Severne where they were in such great want of Victuals that many died with Hunger because they could get no Provisions there After this they went to Deomed supposed to be South Wales from whence they passed into Ireland All this happened in Autumn And the same Year a little before Martinmass King Edward marched with his Army to Buckingaham and there stayed a Month building two Forts on each side the River Ouse before he parted thence Thurkytel the Danish Earl owned him for his Lord as also all their chief Commanders and almost all their Noblemen who were at Bedanford now Bedford with many of them that belonged to Hamptune This Year also Ethelfleda Lady of the Mercians before Whitsontide took the Town of Deorby where within the Gates were killed four Thanes who were very dear to her Also we read in the Collections of that Learned Antiquary Mr. Lambert and by him given to the Cottonian Library that it is found in an Ancient Chronicle once belonging to the Monastry of Rochester and collected by one Edmund de Hadenham That this Year the Lady Elfleda by the Assistance of the King her Brother besieged the City of Canterbury and taking it slew a great many Danes that were therein King Edward marching with his Army to Bedanford about Martinmass had the Town surrendred to him and then all the Inhabitants who were his Subjects returned thither and there he stayed a Month and before he departed he commanded a Castle to be built there on the South-side of the River After this King Edward went to Maeldune now Maldon and rebuilt the Town and saw it fortified whilst he was there Also Earl Thurkytel passed over into France by K. Edward's Leave and Convoy with all those Danes that would follow him as likewise Aethelfleda brought under her Dominion the Town of Legracester now Leicester and a great many of the Danes belonging to that place became subject to her as also those who were at York nay some of them confirmed it both with an Oath and by giving of Hostages that they would continue so but as soon as this was done she departed this Life twelve days before Midsummer at Tammeworth it being the Eighth Year of her Government over the Mercians after her Husband's Death with great Moderation and Justice Her Body lies buried at Gleawcester in the East Isle of St. Peter's Church This Lady's Death is placed in our printed Annals under the Year 918 and that more rightly for the Cottonian Copy of these Annals is certainly mistaken in putting the Death of this Princess two Years later than this viz. 920. though they all agree in Substance viz. that she died at Tamworth about a Fortnight before Midsummer and that thereupon King Edward going thither the whole Nation of the Mercians submitted to him But whenever this Princess died she was certainly a Woman of great Virtue Prudence and Courage and truly resembled her worthy Father King Alfred as far as the Difference of Sex would permit But to return again to our Annals The same Year the Daughter and Heir of Ethered Lord of the Mercians called Aelfwinna whom her Mother had left her Heir was deprived by the King of that Dominion and she was about three weeks before Christmas brought into West-Seax John Bevour who calls himself Castoreus in his Manuscript History of the Kings
of England gives us a very good Reason if true why the King dealt thus severely with this young Princess his Niece which was this That Aelfwinna not making the King her Uncle whom her Mother had appointed her Guardian privy to her Designs had contracted a Mariage with Reginald King of the Danes Whereupon King Edward to prevent his Enemy entred the Country of Mercia and took it into his own Hands and also carried the said Lady away with him The same Author likewise reporteth That about this time Leofred a Dane and Griffyth ap Madoc Brother-in-Law to the Prince of West-Wales came from Ireland with a great Army to Snowdon in Caernarvonshire and designing to bring all Wales and the Marches thereof to their subjection over-ran and subdued all the Countrey as far as Chester before ever King Edward had Intelligence of their Arrival whereat he was very much offended but being loath to trouble his Subjects in that behalf he made a Vow That he and his Sons with their own people would be revenged on Leofred and Griffyth and thereupon he came to Chester and took the City from them After this he made two Divisions of his Army whereof he and his Son Athelstan led the first and Edmund and Edred the second and followed them with such Celerity that he overtook them at the Forest of Walewode now Sherwood where Leofred and Griffyth set upon him so fiercely that the King at the beginning was in some distress until Prince Athelstan stepped in between his Father and Leofred and gave the Dane such a Wound in the Arm that it disabled him from holding his Spear whereupon he was soon taken and committed to the Custody of Athelstan In the mean time Prince Edmund and Edred encountering with Griffyth slew him and brought his Head to their Father Upon that Athelstan caused Leofred to be beheaded likewise and so both their Heads were set up together on the top of the Tower of Chester and Edward and his Sons returned home with a great Triumph But it appears by the Age of Prince Edmund when he came to the Crown that this Relation concerning himself and his Brother Edred's commanding part of their Father's Army cannot be true for he was not above Four years old when King Edward his Father died and not above Eighteen when he began to reign This year according to our Annals King Edward commanded his men to go to the Town of Tofeceaster now Tocester in Northamptonshire and to rebuild it after which the same year about Lent he commanded the Town of Wigingamere now Wigmore in Herefordshire to be rebuilt But the same Summer between Whitsuntide and Midsummer the Danes of Hamptune i. e. Northampton as was said before and Ligeracester and those that lay Northward broke the Peace and marched to Tofeceaster and assaulting the Town a whole day hoped to take it but those that were within defending it until such time as more men could come to their assistance the Danes were forced to leave the Town and march'd off After this they often went out by night to plunder and falling upon those that were unprovided took a great many men and much Cattle between Barnewoode and Eglesbyrig the former of which was Barnwood Forest near Bury-hill and the latter Alisbury both in Buckinghamshire About the same time the Danes of Huntandune i. e. Huntington and the East-Angles marched out and built a Castle at Temsford where they settled themselves for they had left that at Huntandune supposing that from thence they might recover a greater share of the Countrey and so they march'd till they came to Bedanford but the men who were within it going out to meet them killed great numbers of them putting the rest to flight After this a great Army of Danes being got together advanced to the Town of Wiggingamere and stormed it for most part of the day but those who were within defending it very well they were forced to leave the Town and retreat carrying away with them all the Cattel they found thereabouts After this also the same Summer there were great Forces assembled of King Edward's Subjects from the Towns round about Temesford whither they went and laying close Siege to the Town they at length took it and kill'd a Danish King and Taglosse an Earl and Mannan his Son together with his Brother and all those who defended the Town From which time according to Florence the Danish Power did by little and little decrease and that of the English increase But this Author places all these actions of this year under Anno 917. The same year a great many men assembled together in Autumn as well from Kent Surry and Essex as from the neighbouring Towns and marching to Colneceaster i.e. Colchester assaulted that City till they took it and all the Plunder they found in it and killed all the men except those that escaped over the Wall After which also the same Autumn a great Army of Danes were got together with the East-Angles both Land-Soldiers and Pyrates whom they had invited to their assistance hoping thereby to revenge the Defeat they had lately received wherefore they went directly to Maeldune and besieged that Town till such time that more men coming to its assistance the Danes were forced to quit it and retreat but the men who were within it together with those that came to their assistance overtaking the Danes killed many hundreds of the Land-men as well as Pyrates not long after which King Edward marched with an Army of South-Saxons to Passenham i. e. Pasham in Northamptonshire and there continued till the Town of Tofeceaster could be encompassed with a Stone-Wall where Earl Thurferth and the chief Commander of the Danish Forces that belonged to Hamtune with all towards the North as far as Weolade that is the River Weland accepted King Edward for their Lord and Protector but about the time that the King's Army was to return home he sent out fresh Forces to the Town of Huntandune who repaired and rebuilt it in those places that were destroyed according to the King's Command so that all the people of that Countrey that ramained alive surrendred themselves to King Edward and sought his Peace and Protection Likewise this very year before Martinmass the King marched with an Army of West-Saxons to Colneceaster and rebuilt the Wall and repaired all places which were ruinous Then many as well of the East-Angles as also of the East-Saxons who were before under the Danish Dominion and had been so for above thirty years now delivered themselves up to the King and also all the Danish Army in East-England swore Allegiance to him promising to do whatever he thought good and to defend his Subjects as well by Sea as by Land but the Army that belonged to Grantanbyrig i. e. Cambridge did by themselves chuse the King for their Lord and Patron confirming it by their Oaths as he had appointed him This year also Sytric the Danish King