Council at York ordained divers things relating to the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom among which he divided the Earldom of Oswulph Earl of Northumberland late deceased into two for the King was not willing to bestow so great a Part of the Kingdom on any as an Inheritance lest the Northumbers should again aspire to their antient Liberty wherefore he bestowed that Part of Northumberland lying between the Humber and the Theys upon Earl Oslac girding him with the Sword of that Earldom But from Theys to Mireferth being the Sea-coast of Deira he bestowed upon Earl Eadulf sirnamed Ethelwald and thus the two Kingdoms became two Earldoms and so continued all the times of the English-Saxon Kings under their Gift and Jurisdiction whilst Lothian lying open to the Incursions of the Scots was of no great concern to our Kings BUT Keneth K. of Scotland receiving a high Character of the Generosity of K. Edgar from the two Earls above-mentioned desired the King 's safe Conduct to come to London to visit him which being granted the said two Earls conducted him thither where he was honourably received by K. Edgar who often conversing friendly and familiarly with Keneth he then represented to K. Edgar that Lothian appertained to him as his Right having been long possessed by the Kings of Scotland as their Inheritance but the King not being willing to do any thing that he might afterwards repent of referred the Determination of this Affair to his great Council where the chief Men of the Kingdom would not assent to part with it unless under a Homage to be yielded by the K. of Scotland to the K. of England and that too only because all Access to that Country was very difficult and its Government of little or no Profit Whereupon K. Keneth assented to this Demand and so received it under that Condition did Homage for it accordingly promising likewise many other things as that the People should still remain under the English Name and Language which continues to this day and so the old Quarrel about Lothian was now happily determined tho some new ones were often started Thus the King of Scots became Feudatary to King Edgar on this occasion whence you may observe how the Scotish Nation became Masters of Lothian where Edinburgh the Capital City of the Kingdom is seated and which City continued in the Hands of the English as Mr. Camden well observes from an antient Manuscript he there cites till the Reign of K. Indulf viz. till about Anno Dom. 960. You may add this to the Laws of King Edgar at the end of his Reign p. 14. This King is also related by William of Malmesbury to have made a Law to restrain excessive drinking of great Draughts by which Law it was ordained that no Man under a great Penalty should drink at one Draught below certain Pins that were ordered to be fixt within the sides of the Cups or Goblets for that purpose Pag. 72. I confess I was so far misled by the Authority of the Saxon Annals and Matth. Westminster as to believe that Siward mentioned under Anno 1043. had been consecrated Arch-bishop of Canterbury but being now satisfied of the contrary and having given good Reasons against it in the Introduction p. 115 116. that Relation of William of Malmesbury from these words l. 20. of which Author may be thus altered That tho he was designed Successor to this Arch-bishop and to that end was consecrated his Corepiscopus i. e. his Coadjutor yet that notwithstanding he was soon after deposed for his Ingratitude in defrauding the weak old Man of his necessary Maintenance But that this also was a mistake in this Author see the Introduction p. 115 116. Thus much I thought fit to advertise the Reader since I had rather confess my own involuntary Mistakes than put another to the trouble of shewing them to the World but however since I do not pretend to be infallible if any Person of greater Skill in our English Histories will take the pains to shew the World any other Errors or Omissions I have been guilty of in this Work I shall be â—o far from taking it ill that for the publick Satisfaction they shall be mended 〈◊〉 the next Edition THE General History OF BRITAIN NOW CALLED ENGLAND As well Ecclesiastical as Civil BOOK I. From the Earliest Accounts of TIME to the First Coming of JULIUS CAESAR SINCE I design with God's Permission to write and digest the most Remarkable Things and Transactions that have occurred in this Kingdom from the earliest Accounts of Time I shall follow Venerable Bede as well as other Historians in first giving a brief Description of this Island Britain the largest of all the Europaean Islands and one of the biggest in this Habitable Globe is scituate between 50 Degrees 16 Minutes and 59 Degrees 30 Minutes North Latitude the whole Isle lying in length from Dunsby-Head the most Northerly Promontory of Scotland to Dover the space of near Six hundred Miles yet is the Climate more mild and temperate than could be expected in so Northerly a Scituation the Winds from the Seas encompassing it on all sides so tempering the Air that it is neither so cold in Winter nor yet so hot in Summer as the opposite Continents of France Germany and the Low-Countries and also by the Indulgence of Heaven as well as the Fertility of its Native Soil it is plentifully furnished with all Things necessary for Human Life It was anciently called by the Greeks Albion but whether from a Giant of that Name feigned to be the Son of Neptune after the Fabulous Humour of those Times in giving Names to Countries from Giants and Heroes or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to Festus signifies White since this Island is on many sides of it encompassed with Rocks of that Colour or else from the Phoenician word Alp which signifies High or from Alben which in the Hebrew Tongue signifies White is uncertain and therefore needless to be insisted on too much As for the Name of Britain which Nennius and divers other British Writers derive from Brutus whom they likewise call Brito but others of them from the British words Pryd Cain i. e. Forma candida a white Form it seems too far fetch'd and besides we do not find that the Natives of this Isle ever called it Britain Mr. Camden derives it from the Welsh word Brith which signifies Painted for the ancient Britains used to paint themselves of a pale blewish Colour with Glastum or Woad and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Greek signifies a Region or Country But this Etymology has this Inconvenience in it that it is derived from too far different Languages and besides it seems very improbable that such an Accidental Custom as that of painting their Bodies should give a Name to the whole Island as well as its Inhabitants Nor does this word Brith signifie in the Welsh Tongue Painted but rather
in those dark Times for near 500 Years following as the Reverend Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Salisbury has learnedly proved in his Preface to his Translation of the aforesaid Treatise of Lactantius NOR did the Monks fail of finding their Account in this Design since nothing contributed more than this and such like Legends to the worshipping of the Reliques of Saints and going on Pilgrimages to their Tombs Which Superstition how much it advanced the worldly Power and Grandeur of the Clergy of those Times he must be a great Stranger to the Ecclesiastical as well as Civil History of those Ages not to understand HAVING now I hope gone through all those things I thought necessary to advertise the Reader of I have little else remaining but to ask his Pardon for not adding in the Margin some short Notes or Contents of what is in the Body of the Work which tho I confess several Historians have done yet I thought it might very well be spared here First Because in my Opinion it spoils the Beauty of the Margin and besides this Volume being written in an exact Chronological Order it will be very easy for the Reader if he will but please to remember near the Year about which any thing he would find happened to satisfy himself in the Matter he would know by turning over but two or three Pages and further the Years of our Lord standing in Roman Figures in the Margin do in many Places fill that Space which those Contents usually take up But if these Reasons by some may not be thought sufficient a good Friend of mine has been at the Pains for your sake as well as my ease to make an exact Table to the whole Work by which I am confident you cannot miss readily finding out any thing whatsoever you have a desire to be satisfied in that is contained in this Volume either as to Persons Places or Things I have endeavoured to make this History as diverting as I could by variety of Matter as also by inserting into it whatsoever Relations I met with in our old Historians that were not utterly improbable and therefore I hope the Reader will not be uneasy because all the parts thereof are not kept up alike pleasant and agreeable since the dryness of the Matter and the barrenness of those few Authors I find in some Periods will not always equally afford it any more than it can be expected that in a long Journey it should be alike pleasant Travelling through dark and narrow Lanes as over a free and open Champaign THERE is one thing more I must needs stand obliged to you in for your Pardon and that is the many Errata's you will find in the first four Books for being out of Town when near half of it was wrought off I could not supervise it my self and though I committed the Correction of those Sheets to a Person on whom I could as I have done before safely rely for his Ability and Faithfulness in the discharge of that Trust yet no Man is able to judg of the Author's Sense so well as himself nor consequently to mend it if any where too Obscure or Mistaken and I cannot as I would answer so well for the Care of my Amanuensis in his Writing or Pointing and I must add this also that some Printers are not always so careful as they should be to amend their own Faults tho never so exactly Corrected by those to whom their Sheets were entrusted for that Purpose THE General Introduction TO THE Whole Work SINCE the late Learned Doctor Howell and Doctor Brady the former in his Second and Third Parts of his General History of the World and the latter in his General Preface and First Book of his Compleat History of England have given us a large Account of the Political Government and Laws in this Part of our Island we now call England during the time of the Roman Emperors as also of our English-Saxon Kings as far as the Norman Conquest this Undertaking of Mine would look very imperfect if I should not in some measure follow their Method and prefix before it something of the like nature I have therefore made bold to borrow from Mr. Selden and those other Authors who have written on this Subject whatsoever I thought was necessary to carry on the same Design and also added those Things that I found they have either omitted or mistaken and which required more largely to be treated of in order to render this Work as useful as possible I could for a matter of so great Importance TO begin then with the Government of the Britains before the Arrival of Julius Caesar into this Island Of which we have scarce any Account but what can be gathered from Geoffrey of Monmouth which is so uncertain and fabulous that there is little reliance upon what he says save that in the general it was governed by Kings and often canton'd into several Kingdoms for that it was ever under one Monarch as he frequently affirms I have very good reason to doubt it being not only contrary to the Genius and Custom of the British Nation where all the Male Issue inherited alike to suffer the Eldest Son to go away with the whole Inheritance but likewise it is directly opposite to Caesar's Account of this Island when he came first hither which he says he found divided into several distinct Principalities and States BUT if any Part of Geoffrey's Relation be true that is most likely to be so which he gives us of the Laws of Molmutius viz. THAT the Temples of the Gods had this Privilege That whatever guilty Persons should fly to them they should be secure from their Prosecutors because we find that Custom very antient not only amongst the Greeks and Romans but indeed all other Nations the Jews not excepted NEXT That the publick Ways leading to the said Temples and the Cities wherein they were should be free and safe And LASTLY That such a Proportion of Land should maintain so many Ploughs for the Encouragement of Husbandry which was very natural in a Countrey where not only the Soil but the Laziness of the Inhabitants rendrâ—d it more apt for Grazing than Tillage BUT I cannot forbear observing how little stress is to be laid on Geoffrey's Account of the Laws of those British Princes since he has the Confidence to tell us of another Sett of Laws supposed to be made by Queen Martia which he says being afterwards translated by King Alfred out of the British Langâ—age were by him inserted into his Body of Saxon Laws under the Title of Meâ—rchen-Lage The Falshood of which Derivation Mr. Camden has very well discovered by shewing That this Word had not its Original from Queen Martia but from the Saxon Word Mearc signifying a Limit or Boundary from whence the Mercian Kingdom had its Name and was so called from its Situation as being circumscribed by the other Kingdoms of the Heptarchy BUT as for the British
much to be found material 〈◊〉 either of them but what was in the other Histories before published though this must be allowed in their Commendation that they are both of them especially the former commonly right in their Châ—onologiâ—â— and the latter has given us a choice Collâ—ction of the Antient Câ—ins of the Roman Emperors as well as of the English Saxon Kings anâ— has been also more exact than any othâ—r Writer in his Account of their Wives and Issue AND as for those who wrote in the Time of K. Charles the First viz. Mr. Daniel and Sir Richard Baker the Relations they have afforded us of those Kings are rather short Abstracts of their Reigns than just Histories it not being their Design to write at large of that Period we here treat of BVT since the Restoration of K. Charles the Second there are several who have undertaken this Province the first of whom was Mr. Milton and it must be acknowledged that he wrote this English Saxon History with Judgment though not with that 〈◊〉 and â—â—â—ctness as we may see he did his other Works of a different Nature since either through want of Opportunity to consult Antient Manuscripts several of which have been published since he wrote or else by not making use of those Authors he might have had and by confining himself too much to the relating of Military Matters and almost wholly neglecting Ecclesiastical Affairs or looking into those things which he by way of Contempt called Cathedral Registers as also by omitting the giving us any Account of the Anâ—ient Saxon Laws and Original Constitutions of this Kingdom he has thereby rendred that Work much more dry and imperfect than otherwise no doubt it would have been from such a Pen as his THE next that succeeded him in this Labour was Mr. Sammes who had a fair Opportunity of improving his History by amending Mr. Milton's Omissions but instead of this by indulging himself too much in the Relation of and giving Credit to Geoffrey of Monmouth and White that called himself Basingstoke their old Stories and by making long and unnecessary Excursions on the Antiquity and Original of the Greeks Romans and Saxons as likewise of their Religion and Manners things altogether foreign to this Subject tho he hath shewn a great deal of Reading yet having been all the while very short in that which ought to have been the main Business of his History he hath thereby spoiled a Noble Design 'T IS true the Learned Dr. Howell in the second and third Volumes of his General History hath given us a faithful Account of the Affairs of Britain from the Coming in of the Romans as far as the Norman Conquest and hath also a very elaborate Discourse of their Civil Policy and Laws and had that Work been done by it self and not involved in such large Volumes but written in a more Chronological Method and had he not laid the History of each Kingdom of the English Saxon Heptarchy separately and apart which makes him often guilty of divers unnecessary Repetitions that Work would have proved much more useful than now it is which being observed by many others besides my self hath caused a certain Clergy-man as I hear to undertake the Epitomizing of that whole Work which would be very useful to those ordinary Readers who cannot well purchase these larger Volumes BVT since these Learned and Ingenious Authors have in some Point or other here mentioned been deficient in this Vndertaking I found it requisite for the making a full and compleat History of the Affairs contained in this Volume rather wholly to erect a new Edifice than to be at the Trouble of altering of theirs and therefore have thought it necessary to draw this Work afresh from the same Originals from which they had taken theirs To which I have also added several other material Passages that either they wanted the Happiness of seeing or else would not be at the Pains and Expence I have been at to peruse not but that I must own my self much beholding to them for divers Choice Remarks and Observations which not to be thought guilty of Plagiary I have noted in the Margin by the Initial Letters of their Names and have likewise sometimes taken their Translations of a few diverting Legends or Stories to spare my self the Trouble of making them anew and even these I have also compared with the Originals and corrected the Stile as well as the Sense in divers Places BVT I cannot here omit taking notice among other Writers of the first Part of Dr. Brady's compleat History of England which tho it comprehends the same Period of Time as this we now present you with yet seeing he hath there rather chosen to give us an Account of the Political Government and Laws of the German and English Saxons than to write an Entire History of those Times I beg his Pardon if I do not take it as to that part for so compleat a History as he is pleased to intitle it however it must be confessed he hath taken much Pains and shewn a great deal of reading in that Volume and I could have wished I might have been able to say he had been also as careful of the just Rights and Liberties of his Country which he has done all he can to depress as he has been in asserting an Imaginary Right of Lineal Succession in our Kings long before the Conquest and that before that time as well as after the Commons had no Representatives in Parliament both which Assertions we shall make bold to examine in our ensuing Introduction And tho I have otherwise a great Value for his Learning yet I hope neither he himself nor any one else who has a real Concern for the publick Good will take it amiss if I differ from him where the Truth of our History as well as our Antient Laws and Constitutions will justify me in contradicting some Assertions which he has with so great an Assurance published to the World AND thus having acquainted you with the Defects of these Writers in their several Vndertakings and the Reasons why it was necessary to compile a new History I shall now shew you what Method I have followed and what Authors I have made use of in the Performance of it AS for the first Book it is no other than an Epitome of Geoffrey of Monmouth's pretended British History and if it had not been more for the Diversion of the younger sort of Readers and that the Work would have been thought by some others to be imperfect without it I should have been much better satisfied in wholly omitting it yet I hope it will neither prove tedious nor unuseful since it may sometimes be of Advantage to know Legends as well as true History or else which way can one tell how to pass a just Censure on them NOR can we positively affirm that every thing contained in that Book of his is absolutely false for he being a Person well
Books into which I have divided this Volume I will now proceed to acquaint you with the rest of my Authors from whom I have collected it nor will I give you only their Names which has been done by so many already but a brief Censure of them and their Works and in what Time they wrote being such as lived either before or after the Conquest Of the former sort there are but few since from Bede to Asser. Menev. there flourish'd no general Historian for William of Malmsbury himself confesses that after Bede all liberal Studies more and more declining those that followed spent their Lives in Idleness or Silence yet during even that Period there were some Writers of this kind viz. certain Monks in the greater Monasteries whose business it was to set down in short by way of Annals the most remarkable Passages of their own Times in their own Language nay Learning was in that King's Reign fallen to so low an Ebb that even King Alfred tells us in his Preface to the Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral That in the beginning of his Reign there were few on this side Humber who could understand their own Prayers much less turn a piece of Latin into English and where then were our supposed flourishing Vniversities AND I shall here begin with Asserius Menevensis who was so called because he was a Monk of Menevia or St. Davids This was he who being sent for by King Alfred out of Wales assisted him in his Studies and besides taught his Children and others of the Nobility Latin after this King Alfred sent him with others to fetch Grimbald out of Flanders into England and after the Schools were opened at Oxford the latter there professed Divinity and the former Grammar and Rhetorick as you may find in the Annals of Hyde cited in the ensuing History THIS Monk being Learned above the Age in which he lived first wrote the Annals that go under his Name which having long continued in the Cottonian and other Libraries in Manuscript have been lately published by the Learned Dr. Gale in his last Volume of Historians printed at Oxon. After these Annals it is certain Asser also wrote the whole History of King Alfred's Life under the Title of de Gestis Regis Aelfredi which were first published by the Reverend Arch-bishop Parker in Saxon Characters according to the Copy now in the Cottonian Library and was also again put out by Mr. Camden in another Edition at Frankford But it must be confessed there is some difference between these two Copies concerning the Vniversity of Oxford which is taken notice of in this Work in its proper Place but that the Annals abovementioned were written before his History of King Alfred's Life is plain for he there refers you to those Annals which he has also inserted in the Life almost word for word But tho the former of these is continued to the Death of King Alfred and the latter as far as the 14th Year of the Reign of K. Edward the Elder yet it is evident that he himself wrote neither the one nor the other after the Year 893 being the 45th of King Alfred's Age and this appears from the Life it self in which the Author particularly mentions it nor could he extend the Annals any farther because they were written before he wrote the Life This I observe to let the Reader understand that whatever he finds farther in the Annals or Life the Substance of both which I have given him in this Volume were continued by some other Hand and as for the Annals they sufficiently declare it for towards the latter end under Anno Dom. 909. you may meet with this Passage hoc Anno Asserius Episcopus Scireburnensis obiit which was no other than our Author himself yet this must be farther observed of him that he was so extreamly negligent in his Account of Time that he begins the first Year of King Alfred's Reign sometimes at one Year of our Lord and sometimes at another so that no Man can tell by him when it commenced BVT why he left off Writing so many Years before King Alfred died and never finish'd his Life though he survived him nine Years I confess I know not unless being preferred about the Time when he had finish'd it to the Bishoprick of Shireburne he left the King's Service and going to reside at his own See had other Business on his Hands than Writing And that the same Asser who taught King Alfred was also by him made Bishop of Shireburne appears from this King's Preface to the Saxon Translation of St. Gregorie's Pastoral in which he tells you he was assisted by Plegmund his Archbishop and Asser his Bishop to whom the said King in his Will after the Archbishop and some other Bishops bequeathed a 100 Marks by the Title of Asser Bishop of Shireburne from whence it is manifest that the same Person who was King Alfred's Instructor was also Bishop of Shireburne which Bishoprick was certainly bestowed on him after he had done Writing since tho he mentions the Abbeys of Banwell Ambresbury and Exceter to have been bestowed upon him by the King yet he is utterly silent of his being made Bishop which he would not surely have omitted if he had been then so preferred but how long he held this Bishoprick we can say little positively because we do not find when it was first given him but as for the time of his Death not only the Annals that go under his Name but the Saxon Chronicle also places it under Anno 909. So that I think there can be no reasonable cause to doubt of that BVT what should lead such a careful Chronographer as Florence of Worcester into so great a Mistake as to place this Bishop's Death under Anno 883 I know not unless he had some other Copies of the Saxon Annals by him than are now extant but the Fasti of the Saxon Kings and Bishops publish'd by Sir H. Savil at the end of William of Malmesbury and other Writers are guilty of the like Mistake making this Asser to have succeeded Sighelm Bishop of Shireburn and to have died Anno 883 whereas it appears from our Annals that Sighelm whom William of Malmesbury makes to be the same Person with the Bishop abovementioned this very Year carried King Alfred's Alms to Rome and afterwards went himself as far as India however this Mistake of Florence as also the pretended Authority of our Welsh Chronicle hath as I suppose led divers other Learned Men and particularly Bishop Godwin and Arch-bishop Usher into a Belief of two Assers both Bishops the one of whom died Anno 883 and the other to have been Arch-bishop of St. Davids and to have succeeded Novis who according to the Chronicle of that Church publish'd in the 2d Volume of Anglia Sacra died Anno 872 and there immediately follows under Anno 909 Asserius Episcopus Britanniae fit which must certainly be an Errour in
his History of the Church of Durham who has interspersed many excellent Passages concerning the same Northern Story Here likewise we may add the Chronicle of the Abbey of Mailross which tho wrote by the Abbot of Dundraimon was certainly collected out of some much antienter Annals of that Monastery which was then destroyed and these together with the last mentioned Authors have helped us to make up the Succession of the Northumbrian Kings after Eardulf that was expelled his Kingdom Anno 806. from whom our common Writers suppose there was an Interregnum for the space of above sixty Years tho by those above-named it appears to have been otherwise as you may see in the Tables at the end of the last Book AFTER these flourished William of Malmesbury who finished his History in the Reign of King Stephen but certainly he began it long before viz. in the Reign of Henry the First To which Learned Monk being one of the best Writers both for Judgment and Stile of that Age I must own my self obliged for the best and choicest Passages in this Volume TO him succeeded Henry Arch-Deacon of Huntington who wrote a History of the Kings of England as well before as after the Conquest and retiring to Rome lived there for some time for that purpose He deduced his History almost to the end of K. Stephen and writing most commonly by way of Annals transcribed many things out of Florence of Worcester and was of that great Reputation that Geoffrey of Monmouth who was his Cotemporary recommends the English History to be written by his Pen as he does the British to be continued by Caradoc of Lancarvon who wrote a Welsh Chronicle as far as his own Time the Substance whereof I have here likewise given you as it was put out by Dr. Powell to which I have also added several remarkable Passages that were designed in a new Edition of the same Work to be published from the Manuscripts of the Learned Antiquary Mr. Robert Vaughan by Mr. Ellis late of Jesus College in Oxon but which were never finished And I have likewise inserted divers choice Notes that I gathered from another Manuscript of the same Author's relating to the Chronology and Actions of the British Princes which he wrote for the Satisfaction of the Lord Primate Usher and from him is now in my Possession And I suppose no Ingenious British Antiquary will think this Performance unnecessary since he will here find the Substance of all that is contained in Caradoc's Chronicle together with a great many considerable Additions from the Manuscripts abovementioned as also some others gathered from two MS. Copies of the Chronicles of Wales the one in the Cottonian Library the other in the Exchequer written at the end of one of the Volumes of Doomesday for the perusal of which I stand obliged to the Reverend Dr. Gale H. Huntingdon was followed by Rog. Hoveden a secular Priest of Oxford and was Domestick Clerk or Secretary to Henry the Second he seems to have chiefly transcribed from Simeon of Durham as to the Affairs before the Conquest as he does from William of Malmesbury and other Authors as well as his own Observations for those that occur'd afterwards to his own Time continuing his History to the beginning of King John's Reign THE next we come to are those Authors contained in that noble Volume called the Decem-Scriptores such as Ailred Abbot de Rievalle who wrote concerning the Kings of England so far as King Henry the 2d in whose Time he lived as also concerning the Life and Miracles of Edward the Confessor from whom I have taken divers memorable Passages relating to the Life of that King as well as to his Predecessors omitting his Fables and Legends in which he does too much abound AFTER him follows Radulphus de Diceto Dean of St. Pauls London who flourished in the Reign of King John about the Year 1210. he was esteemed a very accomplished Historian and an indefatigable Collector in his Time of things not only before but after the Conquest I have also taken some few Passages from William Thorn a Monk of Canterbury who wrote an entire History of the Affairs of his own Monastery of St. Augustin down to the beginning of King Richard the Second in whose Reign he lived AFTER whom we had for a long time no printed Historians of the Times before the Conquest till that in the Decem-Scriptores which goes under the Name of John Brompton Abbot of Jorvaulx in Richmondshire tho Mr. Selden has shewn us in his Preface to that Volume that he was rather the Purchaser than Author of this Chronicle which he left to his own Abbey he is supposed to have lived in the time of Edward the Third but the History concludes with the Death of Richard the First BVT the said Reverend Dr. Gale farther observes of him That he intended to continue Geoffrey of Monmouth as appears in the Preface and in Col. 1153. as also that he took much from Benedictus Abbas still in Manuscript in the Cottonian Library and not from Roger Hoveden for where a Fault or Omission is found in Benedictus the same is here found also but not so in Hoveden e. g. Benedictus wanted the Seal of the King of Sicily and so did Bromton till it was added from some other Copy and not out of Hoveden for the Seals differ and some Copies of Hoveden have it not at all And tho the Compiler of this History seems to have lived in the Time of Richard I. as himself seems to intimate yet Col. 967. it mentions Richard the Third which must have been added to continue down the Genealogy of our Kings as is often done in antient Chronicles by some later Hand But the Learned Doctor farther supposes this Chronicle to have been written by one John Brompton who as the Doctor found in an old Manuscript Year-Book or Collection of Reports of the Reign of King Edward the First was a Justice Itinerant about that Time which Conjecture is also confirmed by his careful inserting the Antient Saxon Laws into this Chronicle This as it was not done by any before him so neither does it savour of the Monk THIS is the more worthy taking notice of because Sir William Dugdale hath omitted this John Brompton in his Catalogue of Judges Itinerant at the end of his Origines Juridiciales TO this Historian succeeds Henry de Knyghton Canon of Leicester who wrote his History de Eventibus Angliae beginning with King Edgar and ending with the Reign of Richard the Second BVT the Reader may be pleased to take notice that in these two last Authors are found many Passages which are in none of the more Antient Writers and since most of them relate to Customs and Terms that had their Original after the coming in of the Normans therefore they may with good Reason be suspected to have been borrowed from some common Stories or Traditions that then passed up and down for current NOR can
we here omit several other Pieces of less Bulk and Note published since that Volume last mentioned containing the Chronicles and Histories of divers Cathedrals and Abbeys such as are the Annals of the Abbey of Winchester c. which have been published from the Cottonian and other Libraries in Monasticon Anglicanum and the first Volume of Anglia Sacra lately published by the late Learned and Industrious Mr. Wharton TO these likewise may be added the Histories of the Monasteries of Ely and Ramsey as also of Glastenbury by William of Malmesbury from whom we have taken several Things not only relating to that Abbey but the General History of England nor can I omit the History of John of Wallingford whom Matthew Paris mentions in his Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans as the 21st Abbot of St. Albans he wrote the History of the Kings of England as far as the 42d of King Henry the Third the first Part of which down to the Norman Conquest hath been published in the aforesaid last Volume at Oxford by the Learned Dr. Gale From all which last mentioned tho mingled with abundance of Monkish Trash we have here and there excerpted several excellent Remarks WE have also sometimes made use of Ranulph Higden his Polychronicon who was a Monk of Chester the first Part of which is published also by the said Dr. Gale as far as the Conquest and Matthew a Monk of Westminster his Flores Historiarum these Authors being Cotemporaries and collecting to the Reign of Edward the Third from all the rest of the Antient Writers abovementioned I have seldom used but as subsidiary Helps when the Passages they relate are not to be found any where else several other Authors they borrowed from being now lost or very rare to be met with HAVING now done with our printed Authors I proceed to those that continue still in Manuscript in the Bodleian and Cottonian Libraries and also in those of Lambeth Gresham's College and the Heraulds Office such as are John of Tinmouth his Historia Aurea Johannes Castorius in English Beaver his History of the Kings of England and John Rouse of Warwick his Collections on the same Subject together with above forty or fifty nameless Authors which I have perused to see what I could find in any of them that had not been taken notice of by others but how little they have answered in my Expectations the small Additions I have made from them I hope will satisfy the unprejudiced Reader and for any that are otherwise if they please to take the same Pains that I have done I wish their Labours may be better requited BVT as for the Extracts of Ecclesiastical Canons and Laws which I have inserted at the end of divers King's Reigns I have faithfully transcribed them ou◠of Sir Henry Spelman's first Volume of British Councils and Mr. Lambard's Archaionomia under their respective Years and have also compared and corrected them in a great Part from the Manuscript Notes of the Learned Junius at the end of the Cambridg Edition of Bede which is in the Bodleian Library or else by another Latin Manuscript Version of the Industrious Mr. Somner's And I do not know of any other Saxon Laws unless there be some of King Cnute's which remain as yet in Manuscript untranslated in the Bodleian Library as also in the Hands of Dr. Gale as I am well informed I hope they may be one day added to a new Edition of Mr. Lambard's most useful Work THVS having gone through all the chiefest English Historians both in Print and Manuscript that I know of relating to the Times before the Conquest which I think are as many and of as good Credit as any Countrey in Europe can shew in the like space of Time it may be expected I should say something in their Vindication since I find they have been attacked in a post-humous Treatise long since written by a Learned Civilian Sir Thomas Craig in Latin in answer to what Mr. Hollingshead has published concerning the Homage that was due from the Kings of Scotland to those of England and is lately translated into English by the Ingenious Mr. Ridpath and as I shall here faithfully give you his Arguments against the Antiquity and Credit of our Writers so I hope I shall return such Answers to them as will satisfy all impartial Readers HIS first Objection is That from the Death of Bede whose Credit he says he will every where preserve entire the English have no certain History nor Writer to the Reign of King Henry the First except that Fragment of Ethelwerd's for says he I do not acknowledg that Fragment of Ingulphus who preceded Ethelwerd twenty Years as an History nor Asserius Menevensis who wrote only concerning the Transactions of his own King Alfred And lest he should be thought to affirm any thing rashly He brings William of Malmesbury to witness the Matter saying That all the Memorials of Transactions from the Death of Bede to his own Time which was in the Reign of Henry I. about 1142. were utterly lost nor was there any who followed that Study or indeavoured to pursue the thread of History till himself NOW to give an Answer to this Learned Advocate and take him Point by Point as he goes on in the first Place I am sorry to find a Person otherwise every ways Able and Skillful in his own Profession so ignorant in our English Historians since if he had not been so he could not have committed almost as many Mistakes as he hath wrote Lines for in the first Place he calls Ingulph and Ethelwerd two Fragments whereas if he had been pleased to have looked upon either of them he would have found them entire Pieces so far as they went and we call Polybius Diodorus Siculus Salust Livy Historians not Fragments altho each of them be imperfect only the Edition that was then published of Ingulph wanted the Laws of William the Conqueror and some few Sheets at the Conclusion which have been since added AND whereas he says that Ingulph preceded Ethelwerd twenty Years he is so far from being in the right of that that the direct contrary is true for Ingulph lived and wrote above one hundred Years after Ethelwerd had finished his History with King Edgar's Reign whose Eulogy he only gives us in barbarous Verse AND as for what the Advocate says concerning William of Malmesbury he much misrepresents the Sense of this Author who does not affirm that there were no Memorials from the Death of Bede to his Time but the contrary for he mentions the Saxon Annals in his Proem in these words Sunt sanè quaedam vetustatis Indicia patrio Sermone chronico more per annos Domini ordinata also in his Book de Antiquitate Glastoniae published by Dr. Gale as above he citeth them as good Authority Tradunt Annales bonae credulitatis c. Nay Sir Thomas Craig himself I suppose through Forgetfulness has allowed
for want of a better Expression signified the Study of the Law and therefore the word SAPIENTES and WITES where-ever he meets with them in our Saxon Laws or Great Councils must forsooth sigâ—ify Lawyers or Judges And his Design in it is evident that he might thereby confound the Law-makers with the ordinary Counsellors or Advisers whom those Law-makers might often imploy in the drawing of the Laws but he is indeed at last so modest as to tell us That at this day the Judges and King's Counsel and other great Lawyers that sit in the Lord's House are assistant to the Parliament when there is occasion But that he would here as well as elsewhere insinuate that no body else had any more right to appear there than they you may see more plainly in his Notes to his Compleat History of England where upon the words Sapientes or Witen made use of in the Saxon Laws he says That if they only signified Men skilled in the Laws then were none of the Temporal Nobility present at the making of those Laws unless perhaps they were the Lawyers meant by that word as being many of them Judges and Justiciaries at that time But yet he is at last forced with Justice in the same place to acknowledg upon the words that Witan Sapientes or wise Men must be taken for or meant of the Bishops and Nobility or else they were not present at the making of these Laws which no Man can believe that considers how many Ecclesiastical Laws there are amongst them and Laws relating to the Worship of God and a holy Life that were never made without at least the Advice of the Bishops IT is well my Lords the Bishops were concern'd here or else sure he would never have been so free as to make the word Witan signify not only great Lawyers but Divines too and thus by the same liberty of paraphrasing studia Sapientiae may signify the Study of Divinity BUT enough of these Trifles for the Author himself hath some Lines above in the same Notes granted as much as I can desire because he confesses That in our Saxon Laws the Sapientes or Witan were divers times taken for the whole Baronage or Nobility as I may so say And in this sense it is used in the 49 th Chapter of the Preface to Alured's Laws And I desire the Doctor to shew me any Instance out of the Saxon Laws or Annals if he can where the words Witan or Witena-Gemot are used in any other sense But what was the true meaning of that word Baronage we shall reserve to another place it suffices at present to let you see he owns they were somewhat more than great Lawyers and that it comprehended others besides Noble-men by Birth I shall prove by and by IN the mean time I shall shew by what Words and Phrases the Witena Gemot consisting of these Wites is called in the Latin Version of our Annals as also of our Historians who have wrote in the same Language IN the first of these it is rendered Concilium PROCERVM how truly I have said somewhat in the Preface by Florence of Worcester in his Version of the same Annals it is commonly render'd Concilium PRIMATVM and sometimes but more rarely PROCERVM But when this Author would distinguish the Laity from the Clergy at these Assemblies he words it thus ARCHIEPISCOPOS EPISCOPOS ABBATES Angliae OPTIMATES sometimes thus EPISCOPOS DVCES nec non PRINCIPES OPTIMATES Gentis Angliae AS for the Signification of all these Words I shall give it you anon only thus much may be agreed upon that besides the Arch-bishops Bishops and Abbots the chief or best Men of England were present and assisted at these Councils and who as appears by the Subscriptions to several Saxon Councils and Charters were either the Ealdormen who writ themselves in Latin sometimes Sub-Reguli but more often Duces or Comites of whom we have already spoken enough But this I would have remembred that the Office of Ealdormen not being then hereditary it was bestowed for Merit and Nobility by Blood was no necessary Condition to it since their Places in this great Assembly were only ratione Officii and not by Right of Inheritance as at this day THE next Order whose Subscriptions we find at the Conclusion of such Councils and Charters are the Thanes the highest Degree of which was called Thanus Regius the King's Thane because he held immediately of him and tho I grant it answered the Title or Dignity of the greater Barons after the Norman Conquest yet however neither Mr. Selden nor any other Learned Antiquary that I know of does any where exclude the two other Degrees of Thanes viz. the Middle and Lesser from appearing and having places in those great and general Councils as well as the chief Thanes themselves AND besides these we find at the end of several Charters others who write themselves Milites who I suppose ought to be rendered Knights but whether they were Thanes that held by any Military Tenure or such as held their Lands in Allodio that is freely under no Services I will not here take upon me to determine THESE are the only Degrees mentioned at the end of those Councils and Charters above-mentioned BUT perhaps it will now be told me that according to my own shewing there were no Commons summoned to these Assemblies since neither in the Titles before those Councils nor at the Conclusions of them is there any mention made of this Order of Men now called Commons distinct from that of the Bishops and great Noble Men and therefore from hence Dr. Brady in his Answer to Mr. Petyt will have none but Bishops and great Noble-men to have had any thing to do there and to make this seem the more plausible he renders that great Council where Plegmund Arch-bishop of Canterbury together with King Edward the Elder presided viz. CONCILIVM MAGNVM EPISCOPORVM ABBATVM FIDELIVM PROCERVM POPVLORVM IN PROVINCIA GEWISORM c. in these words A great Council of the Bishops Abbots Tenants in Capite or Military Service Noble-men and People in the Province of the West-Saxons AND here before I go any further I would desire the Doctor to answer these two Questions FIRST By what Authority he here translates the word Fideles Tenants in Capite or Military Service since I am sure he is not able to prove from any History or Record that this Tenure had any being in England at that time SECONDLY How he can make it out that the word Proceres always signifies great Noble-men by Birth without which Supposition all he is able to say on this Subject will fall to the Ground BUT the Doctor thinks he has a great Advantage from what Archbishop Parker says in the same Page EDWARDVS REX SYNODVM PRAEDICTAM NOBILIVM ANGLORVM CONGREGAVIT CVI PRESIDEBAT PLEGMVNDVS i. e. King Edward called the foresaid Synod of the English
great Easiness and Remissness in Discipline and thereupon by the Appointment and Assent of his Barons he caused him to retire to the Cure of his former Church of Dorchester By which it is evident that this Author living in the Reign of Henry the Third was very well satisfied that the Temporal as well as the Spiritual Barons were concerned in this Deprivation I was likewise from the Authority of the Saxon Annals as also of William of Malmesbury about to have here also added the Deprivation of one Siward who is reported by the Annals An. 1043. to have been privately Consecrated to the See of Canterbury with the King 's good liking by Arch-bishop Eadsige and who then laid down that Charge and of which Siward William of Malmesbury farther tells us that he was afterwards deprived for his Ingratitude to Arch-Bishop Eadsige in denying him necessary Maintenance but since there is no such Person as this Sâ—â—ard in the Catalogues of the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and that upon a more nice Examination I find in the Learned Mr. Wharton's Treatise De Successione Archiepis Cantuar. that this Siward who was also Abbot of Abingdon was never Consecrated Arch-Bishop but only Chorepiscopus or Substitute to Arch-bishop Eadsige who was then unable to perform his Function by reason of his Infirmities which upon a review of this Passage in William of Malmesbury I find also confirmed by him in calling him no more than Successor Designatus and who being put by for his Ingratitude was preferred no higher than to be Bishop of Rochester but this is denied by the abovecited Mr. Wharton who says expresly that this Siward Abbot of Abingdon and Substitute to the Arch-bishop was never Bishop of that See but died at Abingdon of a long Sickness before Arch-Bishop Eadsige So much I thought fit to let the Reader know because in this History under Anno 1043 being deceived by the express words of the Annals I have there made this Siward to have been Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and deprived for his Ingratitude to his Predecessor which I am upon better Consideration now convinced to have been a Mistake I shall conclude with our Saxon Annals which under the Year 1052. relate that Earl Godwin having in a Great Council held at London purged himself and his Sons of the Crimes laid to their Charge and being thereupon restored Arch-Bishop Robert the Norman his Enemy having just before fled away into his own Country was not only by a Decree of this Council banisâ—ed but also deprived of his Arch-bishoprick and Stigand then was advanced to that See in his stead which certainly was done by the same Authority as deprived the former and if so then I think none can deny but that Power might also have deprived any other inferior Bishop and yet we do no where find there was any Schism in England among the Clergy at that Time because these two Primates of the Church had been deprived without their own Consent by the Lay as well as Spiritual part of the Great Council HAVING now finished all I had to say concerning the Power of the King and the Witena-Gemote in Ecclesiastical Matters I would not be thought to assert that they have the like Authorities in Matters of meer Spiritual Cognizance since I am very well satisfied of the Primitive Institution of the Episcopal Order from the first Preaching of Christianity in the Time of the Romans to the Restoration of it in this Island upon the Conversion of the Saxons which is not liable to be abrogated by any Temporal Power and which has been continued among the Britains or Welsh without any Interruption from thence even to our own Times BUT as for the Ecclesiastical Power it was at first settled under the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York who had then no Jurisdiction or Preheminence the one over the other the former being Primate of the Southern as the latter was of the Northern parts of England only I cannot but observe that the Church of St. Martin's without the City of Canterbury was till after the Conquest the See of a Bishop called in Latin Core Episcopus who always remaining in the Countrey supplied the Absence of the Metropolitan that for the most part followed the Court and that as well in governing the Monks as in performing the Solemnities of the Church and in exercising the Authority of an Arch-Deacon AND no doubt had also the Episcopal Powers of Ordination and Confirmation or else he could have been no Bishop I observe this to let you see that the English were not then so strictly tied up as not to allow of more than one Bishop in one City BUT since I have chiefly designed to speak of Civil Affairs I shall not here meddle with the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Bishops or their Courts or the Officers belonging to them but will leave them to those to whose Province it does more peculiarly appertain HAVING thus dispatched what I had to say concerning the Synods and Great Councils of the Kingdom in the Saxon Times I shall in the next Place treat of the English Laws before the Conquest and they were of two kinds viz. either the particular Customs or Laws of the several divisions of the Kingdom in which those Customs were in use or else such Additions to or Emendations of them as were made from time to time by the Great Council of the whole Kingdom concerning the Punishment of Crimes the manner of holding Men to their good Behaviour or relating to the Alteration of Property either in Lands or Goods with divers other particulars for which I refer you to the Laws themselves as I have extracted them from Sir Henry Spelman and Mr. Lambard their Learned Collections and some concerning each of these particulars I have given you in the following Work BUT to shew you in the first place the Original of the Saxon Customary Laws they were certainly derived from each of the Great Nations that settled themselves in this Island before the Heptarchy was reduced into one Kingdom but indeed after the Danes had settled themselves here in England we find they were divided into these three sorts of Laws in the beginning of Edward the Confessor's Reign according to the several parts of the Kingdom wherein they prevailed as 1. MERCHEN-LAGE or the Mercian Law which took place in the Counties of Glocester Worcester Hereford Warwick Oxon Chester Salop and Stafford 2. WEST-Saxon-Lage or the Law of the West-Saxons which was in use in the Counties of Kent Sussex Surrey Berks Southampton Somerset Dorset Devon and Cornwal I mean that part of it which spoke English the rest being governed by their own i. e. the British Laws 3. DANE-Lage or the Laws which the Danes introduced here into those Counties where they chiefly fixed viz. in those of York Derby Nottingham Leicester Lincoln Northampton Bucks Hertford Essex Middlesex Suffolk and Cambridg BUT as for Cumberland Northumberland and
Book at a certain rate and not arbitrary 127 Folcland what it was 118-120 Folcmote the same with the County-Court 83 Fornication its Punishment 125 Franc Pledg what 8 France its antient Kings the manner of their Succession 69 Friburg or Tithing-Court its Institution and Business 80 81 G. GAvelkind 118 119 General of the King's Forces his Antiquity 72 Antient German Laws 35 c. Government of Britain before the arrival of Jul. Caesar very uncertain 29. During the time of the Romans 31-34 Vnder the Saxons 34 c. Of the Antient English Saxons rather Aristocratical than Monarchical pag. 39 H. HAgulstad Richard an account of him and his History 15 Heir its antient Signification 53 54. His Right to Lands and Goods 122 Saxon Heptarchy vid. Kingdoms Heretoch what that Office was 74 Heriots to whom due 122 Higden Ranulph his Polychronicon 17. Our Historians in English a brief Censure of them 5 6 7 Historians in Latin an Account and Censure of their Works 7-18 The Holde what 74 Homage from the Scotish Kings to those of England how far to be credited 19 20 Hoveden Roger an Account of his Works 16 Dr. Howel his Mistake in making the first Saxon Kings absolute Monarchs 39 Hundred-Court what 80 Huntingdon Henry an Account of him 16 I. INtestates their Goods how antiently to be divided 121 122 Introduction its Design 127 Joseph of Arimathea his preaching the Gospel in England fabulous 24 Judgments inflicted for several Offences 125 126 Grand-Juries how antient 123 Jury-men their Number to be Twelve in the English-Saxon Times 123 Jus Haereditarium its Signification 53 K. KEntish Kings their Succession 42 43 Kings of Britain not despotic but often elected 30 Kings at first no better than Generals in War in Peace they had little or no Power pag. 38 Saxon Kings not absolute or by Conquest 39 40 Kings of the Saxons at first elected 39-41 The manner of their Succession to the Crown ib. 66. Their losing their Crowns otherways sometimes than by Death 68 c. The King in what sense he is said to make Laws 108 English Saxon Kings what kind of Supremacy they exercised in Ecclesiastical Affairs 108 c. Kingdoms of the English-Saxons how many erected in this Island 34 35 L. LAnds in England all held under the three great Services called in Latin Trinoda necessitas 120 Lathes what 80 Laws British 29 German 35-38 Ecclesiastical by whom 108-113 Saxon Customary Laws their Original and how many sorts of them 117 118. Reduced into one Body by ◠Edward the Confessor ib. Their Civil Laws concerning Lands 118 Legislative Power in whom it resided under the English Saxon Kings 105-108 M. MAiming c. how punishable antiently 126 Malmesbury William his Character 15 Manslaughter and Murder their distinction ibid. Mercian Kings their Succession 45 Milites what sort of Men 90 Monasteries how far taken notice of in the ensuing History 24 Monmouth Geoffery a Censure of his Work 7 Mulcts the difference betwixt this word and Fines 126 127 Murder its Punishment in the English-Saxon Times pag. 126 N. NObiles Angli who they antiently were 91 Northumbrian Kings their Succession 44 O. OFfences of several sorts with their Penalties 125 126 Optimates who they were 92 Ordeal what and what the Trial 123 124 Ordinaries at first had nothing to do in Administrations 122 Ordinary People how they were called in the Saxon Times 121 Original of the first English Saxon Kings 38-41 Original Contract 70 c. Osbern Author of the Lives of St. Dunstan and St. Alphege 14 P. PArliament the Original of this Great Assembly 86. The same with the antient Witena-Gemots and Mycel Synoth 86. which met thrice every Year ex more ibid. Perjury Saxons utter Enemies to it and their Punishment of it 126 127 Plebs Vulgus their Signification 99 100 Populus Populi must signify the Commons in the Saxon Laws and Charters ibid. to 102 Portgereses or Port Reves their Antiquity 96 The antient Prerogatives of our English Kings 67 68. to pardon 67 127. They could not debase the Money nor give away their Crown-Lands without the Consent of the Common Council of the Kingdom 126 127 Primates Principes Proceres what they were 90 92 Probate of Wills 122. how long a matter of Civil Cognizance 122 123 Procuratores Patriae who they wer◠pag. 95 Punishments among the English Saxons their several sorts 125 126 Q. SEveral Questions for Dr. Brady to answer 99 100 R. DE Rationabili parte Bonorum the Writ grounded at Common Law and on what Custom 122 Robbery how punishable 126 Romans their Government in Britain 31-33 S. SAbaoth-breaking its Punishment 125 Sacrilege its Punishment 125 Sapientes who they were 96 Saxons not at first govern'd by Kings 38 English Saxons whence deriv'd 35. Their Government rather Aristocratrical than Monarchical 39 South-Saxons their Kingdom 34 43 Saxon-Tenures 121 Scandal how punishable 126 Senatores Gentis Anglorum who they were 92 93 The Scire-mote or Sheriffs-tourn what 82 83 Sheriff his antient Office 75 Sithcundman what 78 Slaves or Servants among the English-Saxons and what Power their Lords had over them 79 80 Free Socmen what they were with their Privileges 78 Studia Sapientiae sometimes tho rarely taken for the Study of the Law 88 Succession of the English-Saxon Kings whether hereditary or elective 38-65 Swearing and Cursing rarely known in the Saxon Times 125 Mycel Synoth what 86 T. TEnants in England how many sorts under the Saxon-Kings 118 119. In antient Demesne who 121 Thane his Title and Dignity 75 76 136. Their several sorts ibid. Thanes of London who 96 Trinoda necessitas what 120 Thefts small ones their Punishments 126 The Tourn of the Sheriff 83 Trespasses upon Lands and Goods how punishable 126 A Tithing or Decennary what 81 Tithes granted à Rege Baronibus Populo 100 Treason its Punishment 125 126 Trials the several sorts among the English-Saxons 123 124 125 The Trihing Court what it was 80 V. VIcarius Britanniae what he was 32 Villanus its Signification 120 121 Voyer dire what 125 W. WAllingford John an Account of him 17 Mr. Washington's Observations on the King's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 108-113 West-Saxon Kings their Succession 47-65 The Form of their Crowns and Titles 66 67. Often deposed 69 70 Witena Gemote or Great Council by what other Names it is called in our antient Histories 90 Wites or Witan among the English-Saxons its Signification did not mean only Lawyers 88. For what they were established in the Great Councils 41 War or Peace in whom the Power 68 Will the antientest observed before the Conquest when 122 Wiregilds what 67 68 126 Worcester Florence his Character and an Account of his Chronicle 17 ERRATA In the Preface PAge 5. line 5. for be would read would be P. 17. l. 4. f. Greshams r. Gresham Ibid. l. 45. del in P. 23. l. 3. f. Ilcombil r. Ilcombkil P. 23. l. 14. f. that r. whither ib. f.
never r. ever P. 24. l. 15. f. no r. any Introduction PAge 31. line 17. for longer read long Ib. l. 18. f. which r. and ib. r. enjoyed it P. 34. l. 27. del for a long time after P. 86. l. 13. del the Comma's in the Margin beginning at from whence you may observe and ending at well observes P. 89. l. 15. f. word r. words Ibid. l. 32. f. upon r. that Ib. del that P. 96. l. 29. f. Longobardarum r. Longobardorum P. 97. l. a. f. Crihtan r. Crihtan i. e. Knights P. 105. l. 38. f. consist r. reside ADDENDA CORRIGENDA SINCE this Volume was printed off coming to a more strict View of the whole Work than I could make when it was in loose Sheets I think fit to make some few Additions and Corrections as in these following Particulars BOOK IV. Pag. 195. The Consecration of Erkenwald Bishop of London being set down twice viz. in the beginning of Anno 675. and again at the end of that Year and was forgot to be struck out in the Page above-mentioned those first three Lines and half beginning at Line 23. may be struck out and that Relation referred to p. 196. at the end of the Year where it is already and you may read it in these words This Year also according to Matth. of Westminster for Bede does not give us the time when it was done Erkenwald a younger Son to Anna King of the East Angles was by Theodore the Arch-bishop consecrated Bishop of London he being in great Reputation for the Sanctity of his Life as having before he came to be a Bishop c. Read the rest as in the Print P. 198. Queen Etheldrithes being twice married and never lain with having been already mentioned p. 193. you may strike out part of three Lines in p. 198. beginning at Line 48. at who yet remained and ending line 51. with but she and then read it thus Wife of King Egfrid above-mentioned this Lady tho twice married still remaining a Virgin died at last c. BOOK V. Pag. 312. line ult The Continuation of Asser's Chronicle published by Dr. Gale having put this Action of Prince Ethelwald's there mentioned under the Year 904. and Florence of Worcester making him come as far as Crecanford now Crayford in Kent from the different Names of which Places and Years I supposed that this Action was not the same with that related in the Year 905. but upon better Consideration I am now satisfied that either Florence's Copy of the Annals or his Transcriber were mistaken and that Crecanford and Bradenewood mentioned by him under 905 and Creccagelade and Braeden set down in the Annals under the same Year are both the same Places setting aside the difference of the Years so that this is also but one and the same Action and therefore I rather now chuse to follow the printed Copies of the Saxon Annals and place the whole under Anno 905. therefore you may strike out the last Line of pag. 312. beginning at after as also the four first Lines of pag. 313. ending with so returned home P. 265. After the Reign of Ethelwulf Anno 855. add this that follows That about these Times the Scotish Kings held the Low-lands of Scotland as Tributaries to the Kings of Northumberland take this Relation from Lessely Bishop of Rosse's History of Scotland in the Reign of King Donald V. where he tells us that the Picts who had been lately conquered and expelled Scotland having hid themselves in Northumberland and the Neighbouring Countries combined with the Britains and Saxons to recover their Liberties who being thus confederated invaded Scotland whereupon King Donald gathering together his Army met them near Jetburgh and joining Battel with them put them to flight with which Success the King and his Men growing insolent and secure spent the Night following in Luxury and Drinking without keeping any Guard or observing Military Discipline of which the Enemies who it seems fled not far gaining Intelligence and laying hold of this Opportunity set upon them about Midnight and slew near 20000 Scots being then as it were buried in Wine and Sleep King Donald himself being also taken Prisoner and to purchase his Liberty was forced to give up all the Countries lying between the River Cluyde and Sterling to the Britains and Saxons and farther obliged himself and his Successors to the Annual Payment of a Sum of Money in Name of a Tribute and that then in the sixth Year of his unhappy Reign the English-Saxons in Memory of this Victory rebuilt the ruined Castle of Sterling and fortified the Bridg of Forth where they erected a Cross of Stone as a Monument of their Victory on which were engraven these barbarous Latine Verses Anglos à Scotis separat Crux ista remotis Arma hic stant Bruti stant Scoti sub hac Cruce tuti BUT in the mean time the Picts who were the Authors of this Scotish Slaughter were so far from being thereby restored to their Country that they were quite expell'd by the Saxons out of Britain THIS Relation Hector Boetius gives you much more prolix and makes King Osbern who reigned in Northumberland to have commanded the English-Saxons at the great Battle above-mentioned THE same Author likewise shews us in the Reign of K. Gregory Anno 872. how the Britains came to be driven out of Cumberland which they had till then enjoy'd viz. That the Britains having by the Assistance of the Danes expelled the Scots from divers Territories endeavoured also by secret Treacheries to drive them yet further but being surprized by K. Gregory were by him quite expelled Cumberland and Westmorland as a Punishment for having violated their Faith with him Pag. 313. l. 18. After East-Angles add this And Bromton's Chronicle in this Year further adds That Ethelwald having passed the Thames at Crekelade to Brithenden and marched as far as Brandenstoke now Bradenstoke in Wiltshire so that as Mr. Camden well observes our Modern Historians have been much mistaken in making that Place to be Basingstoke in Hampshire BOOK VI. Pag. 8. l. 1. You may strike out the three remaining Lines after Dunstan for I am satisfied upon better Consideration that the Assertion therein contained is not true as I have prov'd in the Introduction p. 71 72. Pag. 12. l. 8. After the words freely forgave him add this That the Low-lands of Scotland continued under the Dominion of the Kings of England till the Reign of King Edgar we have the express Testimony of John of Wallingford Abbot of St. Albans who wrote his Chronicle in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Third and before ever the Dispute concerning any Homage being due for the whole Kingdom of Scotland was raised which began not till the time of K. Edward the First This Author thus relates it in the beginning of the Reign of King Edgar viz. that about Anno Dom. 964 that King summoning the Northumbrian Barons i. e. Thanes to a
that Gildas as do divers other later Authors supposes the Gospel to have been first preached in the Island though by whom is also unknown no ancient Church-Historian making any mention of it And indeed there is much difference in the Accounts of latter Writers about it some attributing it to St. James the Son of Zebedee some of the Modern Greek Ecclesiastical Writers to Simon Zelotes or St. Peter others of them to St. Paul who is said to have Ordain'd one Aristobulus afterwards a Martyr to be a Bishop in Britain as you may see at large in the first Chapter of Archbishop Usher's Antiquities of the British Churches But though he there understands those Passages in Gildas where he speaks of Christ the true Sun 's affording his Rays i. e. the Knowledge of his Precepts to this Island then shivering with Icy Cold as if it referr'd to the very first Preaching of the Gospel in the Reign of Tiberius yet the learned Dr. Stillingfleet now Lord Bishop of Worcester hath very ingeniously shewn us in his learned Work called Origines Britanicae that the Word intereà in the mean time with which Gildas begins this Discourse is to be referred to the Times before-mention'd by him viz. that fatal Victory over Boadicia and the Britains by Suetonius Paulinus and the Slavery they afterwards underwent in Nero's Reign So that the Doctor supposes Gildas to speak of a double Shining of the Gospel one more general to the Roman World the other more particular to this Island The former he says was in the End of Tiberius's Reign the latter was interea in the time that is between Plautius's coming over in the Time of Claudius and the abovementioned Battel between Boadicia and Suetonius and this the Dr. thinks to be most probably the Time which Gildas has there pitched upon for the first Preaching of the Gospel in this Island Since therefore there is so great a difference between those Authors who have taken upon them exactly to assign the time when it was first Preached as you may find by the Citations given us by the said Archbishop it were to no purpose croud this History with those uncertain Relations and therefore I shall refer you to the said Learned Work if you shall desire any further Satisfaction To which period of Time may be also referred the Story of Joseph of Arimathaea's and his Twelve Companions coming to Preach the Gospel in Britain which thô it wholly depends upon some Legends and Traditions of the Monks of the Abbey of Glastenbury for no such thing is to be found in Gildas Nennius or any ancient British Author yet since they have been so commonly receiv'd it deserves a particular Notice thô the said Archbishop in the Book but now cited also tells us That he believes those Stories to be not antienter than the coming in of the Normans as smelling plainly of the Superstition of those latter Ages For Will. of Malmsbury in his Treatise concerning the Antiquities of the Church of Glastenbury is the first that mentions it when drawing its History from the Apostles he relates that St Philip coming into France to Preach the Gospel of Christ and being willing to spread it further chose Twelve of his Disciples over whom he set his dear Friend Joseph of Arimathaea and sent them to Preach the Word in Britain and that coming over hither in the Sixty-third Year after Christ's Passion he faithfully Preach'd the Gospel but a British King whom he does not name hearing things so new and unusual utterly refus'd to hearken to their Preaching nor would change the Traditions of his Forefathers yet because they came from far and shew'd great Simplicity of Life he granted them a certain Island to inhabit encompassed with Woods and Marshes called by the Inhabitants Iniswitriâ— where by a Vision of the Angel Gabriel they built a small Church making the Walls with Wattles in Honour of God and the Virgin Mary where these Twelve Holy Men spent their Time in Devotions to God and the Blessed Virgin by Fasting and Praying These things he says he had received from a Charter of St. Patrick's as also from the Writings of the Antients but that Charter is by the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet prov'd to be a meer Forgery of the Monks of Glastenbury And as for ancient Writers thô Malmsbury there cites Freculphus as an Author who relates Philip's sending Joseph hither yet the Archbishop there shews us that this Author whom Malmsbury cites had only taken a Passage from Isidore's Book concerning the Fathers of both Testaments But in both those Authors it is only thus That Philip Preached Christ to the Gauls and Converted many Barbarous Nations lying near the Sea to the Knowledge of the Gospel but says not one word of Joseph's coming hither So that thô Cardinal Baronius hath placed this coming over of Joseph in his Annals and says That he took it from a Manuscript History of England which was in the Vatican Library yet the Archbishop proves in another Place that History to have been written in Modern Times So that all the Romish Writers on this Subject have barrow'd their Legends one from another as the first of them did from our William of Malmsbury The said Archbishop there likewise tells us as does also Sir Henry Spelman in the First Volume of his British Councils That in their time there was kept at Wells in the House of Sir Thomas Hughs Knight a brazen Plate which was formerly fastned to a Pillar of Glassenbury Church wherein was Engraven this Story with divers Additions too long to be here set down Therefore I refer you to the said Authors Works where you may find it word for word with the draught of it as it was taken from the Original where you may also see that he there conclude from the modernness of the Character as well as divers other Circumstances in the Inscription it self that it could not be above Three Hundred Years old and so plainly betrays the Forgery of those Monks who set it up and contriv'd the Story of St. David's Hand being pierced through with our Saviour's Finger as it stands related in the said Inscription But whosoever is not satisfied with this that is here set down but desires farther Satisfaction in the uncertainty of this Story of Joseph of Arimathaea may if they please consult the said Doctor 's above-cited Treatise where you will find all the Authorities that have been further made use of for this Story learnedly confuted The short Reign of Galba affords us nothing relating to British Affairs no more than that of Otho only that during this last Emperor's Reign Tacitus relates That whilst Trebellius Maximus govern'd Britain he â—ell into the Hatred and Contempt of his Army for his sordid Covetousness and that this Aversion against him was heightned by Roscius Caelius Legate of the Twentieth Legion an old Enemy of his insomuch that oftentimes by flight and hiding himself he escaped
Lindisfarn where he was with his Clergy and there he was Abbot with his Monks who all belong to the Care of the Bishop where he was also succeeded by divers other Bishops till that Church being destroyed by the Danes the Bishop's See was removed to Durham I need say no more upon this Subject but shall refer the Reader to the said Learned Bishop's Dissertation to prove that no other Church-Government but Episcopal was ever setled amongst the Scots Picts or Saxons upon their Conversion to Christianity But that we may return again to our Saxon Annals Adda King of Bernicia dying this Year as Florence of Worcester and Mâ—tthew of Westminster relate one Glappa reigned in his stead two Years but who he was or how descended these Authors do not tell us The same Year died Maelgwn Guineth King of the Britains after five Years Reign over all that part of Britain that was left them This is according to the account of that Learned Antiquary Mr. Robert Vaughan thô Mat. of Westminster Dr. Powell and Sir John Price make him to have began his Reign long after viz. the former of these in 581 and the latter in 590 both which Opinions the said Mr. Vaughan Learnedly confutes in a Manuscript I have now in my possession but who succeeded Maelgwn Guineth as King of all the Britains since the Welsh Annals are silent I shall be so too for as to those Successors which Geoffery hath given him I have already said sufficient to destroy his Credit in this matter and Will of Newberie's Censure of him is not less sharp than true That concerning the Successors of Arthur he does not lie with less Impudence when he gives them the Monarchy of all Britain even to the 7th Generation The next year Ceawlin and Cutha his Brother beginning a Civil War fought with King Ethelbert and drove him back into Kent and killed two of his Commanders Oslac and Cnebba at Wibbendon now Wimbledon in Surrey This King Ethelbert as Will. of Malmesbury observes was in the beginning of his Reign a Scorn to the Neighbouring Princes for being beaten in one or two Battels he could scarce defend his own Territories But when in his riper Years he learned more Experience in War in a short time he brought under his Subjection all the Nations of the English-Saxons except the Northumbrians and that he might also gain the Friendship of Foreigners he became allied to the King of the Franks by the Marriage of Bertha his Daughter But of this King we hear no more for many years till his Conversion to the Christian Faith Glappa King of Bernicia dying Theodwulf succeeded him for one year But then he also deceasing Frâ—othwulf reigned after him for seven or eight years more We are beholding for the Succession of these two Kings to Florence of Worcester and Rog. Hoveden being omitted by all other Authors they are also more exact in distinguishing this Kingdom from that of Deira most of the rest confounding them together Cuthwulf the Brother of Ceawlin as it is in H. Huntington fought against the Britains at Bedicanford now Bedford and took four Towns viz. Lugeanburh now Loughborough in Leicestershire or else Leighton in Bedfordshire and Eglesburh now Ailesbury in Bucks with Bennington and Egonesham now called Bensington and Enisham in Oxfordshire About this time as is supposed for the Year is not set down in the Saxon Annals nor any other Historian began the Kingdom of the East-Angles under Vffa the Eighth from Woden tho it seems there were before him divers other petty Saxon Princes who had invaded and fixed themselves in the Countries we now call Norfolk and Suffolk for in one Copy of Matth. of Westminster which Mr. Twine had seen tho it be not found in our printed ones he saith That Anno 527. the Pagans came out of Germany and took possession of the Countrey of the East-Angles and tormented the Christians with all sorts of Cruelty but it seems this Vffa in Strength and Policy overpowering the rest of those Petty Princes got himself made sole King and governed with that Glory that H. Huntingdon tells us the Kings descended from him were called Vffings though how long he reigned is uncertain only that dying he left the Crown to Titul or Titillus his Son of whom likewise nothing is recorded and therefore Will. of Malmesbury takes no notice of these two Princes The first he speaks of is Redwald the Tenth from Woden whom he calls the greatest King of the East-Angles but since his Reign began after this Period I shall reserve the speaking further of him to the next Book To return to the Saxon Annals This year Ceawlin and Cuthwin his Son fought with and slew three British Kings viz. Commail Candidan and Farinmaile at a place which is called Deorham now Durham in Gloucestershire and then took three Cities Glewancester now Glocester Cirencester and Bathoncester now Bathe Who these three Kings were is very doubtful some suppose the first and second of them to be Cuniglasus and Aurelius Conan both mentioned by Gildas but for the third I cannot tell what to make of him there being no such King mentioned in any of the old British Chronicles so all that we can guess is that he was some Petty Prince whose Name is wholly omitted in the Welsh Annals or else mistaken in ours From the time of this Battel the Britains or Welshmen as the English call them being driven into that rough and mountainous Countrey we now call Wales lying beyond the Rivers of Dee and Severn made fewer Invasions into what we call England This year as the Welsh Chronicle called Triades relates being an Ancient Manuscript written near 1000 years ago the Battel of Arderydd was fought on the Borders of Scotland between Aeddan Vradog i. e. the Treacherous and Guendelew Son of Keidiaw British Princes of the North Parts of Britain on the one side and Reiderch-hoel i. e. the Liberal a British King of Cumberland on the other side and that upon a very slight occasion a Lark's-Nest and two Dogs In which Battel Guendelew was slain though his men fought and skirmish'd with the other Britains for Six Weeks to revenge his Death After which Fight Aedan being there overcome fled into the Isle of Man The like Story is related by Hector Boethius concerning the Battel between Aedan King of the Scots and the Picts upon the like occasion so that either the Scots borrowed it from the British History or else this had it from them though the former be the most likely But how this can agree with our Saxon Annals who make Adda King of Bernicia to have died Ten Years before I know not one of them must certainly be mistaken since there was but one King of Northumberland who was called Adda This year or the next King Freothwulf dying Theodoric the Son of Ida according to Florence of Worcester and Matth. Westminster
time resigned his Kingdom was become a Monk and so used his Interest with King Cenered whom he had appointed King in his stead that he promised to obey the Pope's Decrees not long after which the Bishop likewise sent an Abbot with a Priest to King Alfred desiring his leave to return home and to deliver him the Pope's Letters and the Decrees which had been made on his behalf which Messengers thô the King civily received yet he plainly told them That he would do them any other Favour but that it was in vain to trouble him any further in this matter because whatever the Kings his Predecessours together with his Councellours as also the late Arch-Bishop Theodore had already judged and what he himself together with the present Arch-Bishop and all the Bishops of the British Nation had lately Decreed That he was resolved never to alter for any Letters sent as they said from the Apostolick See so the Messengers returning without any success the Bishop continued where he was for some Years but the King it seems repented at last of this harsh Resolution and would have altered it as you will hereafter find I have been the more exact in this transaction of Bishop Wilfrid's because it has never been as yet published in English before and it also gives us a great light into the Affairs of the Church at this time and lets us know that the Kings of Northumberland did not then think themselves bound to observe the Pope's Decrees thô made upon Appeals to Rome if they were contrary to a General Synod or Council of the whole Nation About this time thô it be not mentioned in Bede nor in the Saxon Chronicle Ina King of the West-Saxons summoned a great Council or Synod of all the Bishops with the Great and Wise Men of his Kingdom which because it is the first Authentick great Council whose Laws are come to us entire I shall set down the Title of it as it is recited in the First Volume of Sir H. Spelman's British Councils it begins thus Ina by the Grace of God King of the West-Saxons by the Council and Advice of Cenred my Father and Hedde and Erkenwald my Bishops with all my Ealdermen and sage Ancients of my People as also in an Assembly of the Servants of God have Religiously endeavoured both for the health of our Soul and the common preservation of our Kingdom that right Laws and true Judgments be Founded and â—stablished throughout our whole Dominions and that it shall not be Lawful for the time to come for any Ealderman or other Subject whatever to transgress these our Constitutions I have also given you an Extract of the chief of those Laws as far as they relate to any thing remarkable either in Church or State referring you for the rest to the Laws themselves 1. If a Servant do any Work on a Sunday by Command of his Master he shall be free and the Master shall be amerced Thirty Shillings but if he went about the Work without his Master's privity he shall be beaten or redeem the penalty but a Freeman if he work on that Day without the Command of his Master shall loose his Freedom or pay 60 Sihillings if he be a Priest his penalty shall be double 2. The portion or dues of the Church shall be brought in by the Feast of St. Martyn he that payeth them not by that time shall be amerced Forty Shillings and besides pay twelve times their value 3. If any guilty of a capital Crime shall take refuge in a Church he shall save his Life and yet make recompence according to Justice and Equity if one deserving Stripes run to a Church the Stripes shall be forgiven him 4. If any one Fight within the King's House or Palace he shall forfeit all his Goods and it shall be at the pleasure of the King whether he shall have his Life or not he that Fights in a Church shall pay 120 s. in the House of an Alderman or other sage Nobleman 60 s. whosoever shall Fight in a Villager's House paying Scot shall be punished 30 s. and shall give the Villager 6 s. and if any one Fight in the open Field he shall pay 120 s. 5. He that on his own private account shall revenge an injury done to him before he hath demanded publick Justice shall restore what he took away and besides forfeit 30 Shillings 6. If a Robber be taken he shall lose his Life or redeem it according to the estimation of his Head we call Robbers to the Number of Seven or Eight Men from that number to Thirty Five a band all above an Army 7. If a Country Boor having been often accused of Theft if he be at last taken he shall have his Hand or Foot cut off 8. If any one Kill another's Godfather or God-Son the satisfaction shall be according to his Quality and Circumstances let the compensation due to the Relations and that due to the Lord for the loss of his Man be both alike and let the one encrease according to the Circumstances of the Person just as the other doth but if he were the King's Godson let him make satisfaction to the King as well as the Relations but if his Life was taken away by a Relation then let the Money due to the Godfather be diminished as it useth to be when Money is paid to the Master for the Death of his Servant If a Bishop's Son be killed let the penalty be half so much From which Laws we may observe that our Saxon Ancestors were strict observers of the Lord's day and would not permit any servile Work to be done thereon Secondly that the superstition of Sanctuaries was very ancient in England as well as elsewhere Thirdly That Theft Murder and all sorts of Crimes were then redeemable by pecuniary Mulcts either to the King or to the Friends of the party slain or wrong'd or else by loss of Limbs but there is one Law behind that is very remarkable That if any English Man who hath lost his Freedom do afterwards Steal he shall be hang'd on the Gallows and no Recompence made to his Lord if any one Kill such a Man he shall make no recompence on that account to his Friends unless they redeem him within a Twelve Month. Where it appears that no English Freeman could then be hang'd for any fault but Treason thô that is not express'd in these Laws but as for the last clause in these Laws That if the Son of a Bishop be killed the penalty should be half whereby some would prove that Bishops were then Married it is a mistake for by those words are only meant a Bishop's Spiritual Son or Godson and not his Natural or Conjugal Son This Year the Kentishmen made a League with King Ina and gave him Thirty Thousand Pounds to obtain his Friendship because they had before burnt Moll his Brother Also Withred began to Reign over the Kingdom of Kent and
Plunder and Spoil But of this we shall speak more in due time and shall now proceed in our History where we left off in our last Book Egbert the only surviving Prince of the Blood-Royal of the West Saxon Kings as great Nephew to Ina by his Brother Inegilds being arrived in England was now ordained King as Ethelwerd expressly terms his Election But since Asser in his Annals places this King 's coming to the Crown under Anno 802. as does Simeon of Durham and also Roger Howden from an Ancient piece of Saxon Chronologie inserted at the beginning of the first Book of his first part and this account being also proved by that great Master in Chronology the now Lord Bishop of Litchfield to be truer then that of the Saxon Annals or Ethelwerd by divers Proofs too long to be here Inserted I have made bold to put this King 's coming to the Crown two Years backwarder then it is in the last Book thô I confess the former Account in the Saxon Annals would have made a more exact Epocha Also about this time as appears from the ancient Register of St. Leonard's Abbey in York cited in Monast. Anglican viz. ' That Anno Dom. 800 Egbert King of all Britain in a Parliament at Winchester by the consent of his People changed the Name of this Kingdom and commanded it to be called England Now thô by the word Parliament here used it is certain that this Register was writ long after the Conquest yet it might be transcribed from some more ancient Monument since Will. of Malmesbury tells us of this King tho' without setting down the time that by the greatness of his Mind he reduced all the Varieties of the English Saxon Kingdoms to one uniform Empire or Dominion which he called England though others perhaps more truly refer it towards the latter end of his Reign as you will find when we come to it This Year Eardulf King of the Northumbers led his Army against Kenwulf King of Mercia for harbouring his Enemies who also gathering together a great Army they approached to each other when by the Advice of the Bishops and Noblemen of England as also by the Intercession of the chief King of the English by whom is meant King Egbert who then passed under that Title They agreed upon a lasting Peace which was also confirmed by Oath on both sides This we find in Simeon of Durham's History of that Church and in no other Authour About this time also St. Alburhe Sister to King Egbert founded a Benedictine Nunnery at Wilton which was long after rebuilt by King Alfred and augmented by King Edgar for Twenty Six Nuns and an Abbess The same Year the Moon was Eclipsed on the 13 Kal. Jan. and ' Beormod was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester About this time in Obedience to a Letter from Pope Leo III. who at the desire of Kenwulf King of the Mercians had Two Years since restored the See of Canterbury to its ancient Primacy was held the Third Synod at Cloveshoe by â—rch bishop Ethelward and 12 Bishops of his Province whereby the See of Canterbury was not only restored to all its ancient Rights and Priviledges but it was also forbid for all times to come upon Pain of Damnation if not repented of for any Man to violate the Rights of that ancient See and thereby to destroy the Unity of Christ's Holy Church then follow the Subscriptions of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and of 12 other Bishops of his Province together with those of many Abbots and Presbyters who never Subscribed before but without the Subcriptions of the King or any of the Lay Nobility Which plainly shews it to have been a meer Ecclesiastical Synod and no great Council of the Kingdom as you may see at large in Sir H. Spelman's 1 Vol of Councils the Decree of which Synod also shews that the Church of England did not then conceive the Authority of the People alone sufficient to disanul what had been solemnly Decreed in a great Council of the Kingdom as was the Removal of the Primacy from Canterbury to Litchfield The next Year According to our Annals Ethelheard Arch-bishop of Canterbury deceased and Wulfred was consecrated Arch-bishop in his stead and Forther the Abbot dyed The same Year also Deceased Higbald Bishop of Lindisfarne 8 o Kal Julii and Eegbert was Consecrated to that See 3 o Ides Junii ' This Year Wulfred the Arch bishop received his Pall. Cuthred King of Kent deceased as did also Ceolburh the Abbess and Heabyrnt the Ealdorman This Cuthred here mentioned was as Will. of Malmesbury informs us he whom Kenulph King of the Mercians hath made King of Kent instead of Ethelbert called Pren. This Year the Moon was Eclipsed on the Kal. of September and Eardwulf King of the Northumbers was driven from his Kingdom and Eanbryth Bishop of Hagulstad Deceased Also this Year 2 o Non Junii the sign of the Cross was seen in the Moon upon Wednesday in the Morning and the same Year on the Third Kal. Septemb. a wonderful Circle was seen round the Sun This Eardwulf above-mentioned is related by Simeon of Durham to have been the Son of Eardulf the first of that Name King of Northumberland and after Ten Years Reign to have been driven out by one Aelfwold who Reigned Two Years in his stead During these Confusions in the Northumbrian Kingdom Arch-Bishop Usher with great probability supposes in his Antiquitat Britan. Eccles. that the Picts and Scots Conquered the Countries of Galloway and Lothian as also those Countries called the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the Friths of Dunbritain and Edenburgh And that this City was also in the possession of the English Saxons about an Hundred Years after this I shall shew in due order of time and that our Kings did long after maintain their claim to Lothian shall be further shewn when I come to it But that all the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the English Saxon Tongue was spoken were anciently part of the Bernician Kingdom the English Language as well as the Names of places which are all English Saxon and neither Scotish nor Pictish do sufficiently make out The Sun was Eclipsed on the 7th Kal. of August about the Fifth Hour of the Day This Year as Sigebert in his Chronicle relates King Eardulph above-mentioned being expelled his Kingdom and coming for Refuge to the Emperour Charles the Great was by his Assistance restored thereunto but since neither the Saxon Annals nor Florence nor yet any of our English Historians do mention it I much doubt the Truth of this Relation thô it must be also acknowledged that it is inserted in the ancient French Annals of that time and recited that this King's Restitution was procured by the Intercession of the Pope's and Emperour's Legates who were sent into England for that purpose This Year according to Mat. Westminster Egbert King of the West
same Invasion mentioned by Mat. Westminster under An. 811. This Year Leo that worthy and Holy Pope deceased and Stephanus succeeded in the Popedome but Florence of Worcester more rightly places the Death of this Pope Two Years later Pope Stephanus deceased and Pascalis was consecrated Pope in his stead and the same Year the School or College of the English Nation 〈◊〉 Rome was burnt But Mat. Westminster does more rightly place the Death of Pope Stephanus the Year following At this time was held the Synod at Calcuith under Wilfred Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Kenulph King of the Mercians who was there present but the Decrees being wholly Ecclesiastical I pass them by and refer the curious to Sir H. Spelman's 1. Volume of Councils only shall here take notice of this one passage that now Bishops Abbots and Abbesses were first forbid by the Seventh Canon of this Synod to alien their Lands committed to their trust in Fee or for longer time then one Life and that with the consent of the House Cenwulf King of the Mercians deceased and Ceolwulf began to Reign in his stead also Eadbyrht the Ealderman dyed But the Saxon Annals do here omit that which is very remarkable that not Ceolwulf but Kenelm Son to King Kenwulf being a Child of Seven Years Old succeeded his Father under the tutelage of his Sister Quendride who being tempted by a wicked Ambition of Reigning was by her made away and thereby he obtained the Name of a Martyr The manner of which thô it is certainly but a Legend I shall to divert the Reader relate out of Will of Malmesbury and Mat. Westminster This young Prince was committed by his Sister to an Attendant on purpose to be made away who carrying him into a Wood under pretence of Hunting cut off his Head and threw his Body into a Thicket of Bushes his Sister presently seizing the Kingdom straitly forbad all inquiry to be made after her lost Brother But sure it was Miraculous That a thing done so privately in England should be first known at Rome but so it came to pass by Divine Revelation for upon the Altar of St. Peter a White Dove let fall a certain Paper which discovered both the Death of King Kenelm and also the place of his Burial which being Written in Golden Letters was thus In Clent Cow-batch Kenelme King Bearne lieth under a Thorne heaved bereaved Which being in Saxon may be thus Translated into English Rhime In Clent-cow-pasture under a Thorne Of Head bereft lies Kenelme King Born But it seems the Characters were so hard to be read that all the Roman Clerks there present attempted in vain at the Pope's Command to read this writing but an English Man by chance standing by whom to make the Miracle the greater Mat. Westminster reading Angelus instead of Anglus calls an Angel and Translating this writing into Latin caused the Pope by an Epistle sent by him on purpose to give notice to the English Kings of their Martyr'd Country-man whose Body being thus Miraculously discovered was in a great Assembly of Clerks and Nobles taken out of the hole where it was laid and carried to Winchelcombe in Gloucester-shire and there buried in the Church of that Abbey which his Father had founded which after some time brought no small profit to that Monastery by frequent Pilgrimages made to the Tomb of this little Saint But now my hand is in pray take all the rest of the Story When the Body of this Young Prince was brought home the Murdress his Sister being vexed with the Singing of those Clerks and Laicks that attended the Corps and looking out of her Chamber Window in pure Spite repeated the Psalm backward which they then Sung thereby to disturb the Harmony of the Chorus but as the same Authour adds whilest she was thus singing both her Eyes fell out of her Head upon the Psalter she held in her Hands and the Psalter it self set in Silver and besmeared with the Blood of her Eyes being then to be seen gave a pregnant Testimony of her Crime as well as punishment yet it seems Will. of Malmesbury knew nothing of this Legend of the finding the Body but only says it was discovered by Miraculous Rays of a vast Light which shining all Night over the place where it lay was the occasion of its being found out but no matter for the manner both of them being alike credible This is enough if not too much of this Boy King and Martyr And this is certain that his unnatural Sister did not enjoy the Fruits of her wicked Ambition long for Ceolwulf Brother to King Kenwulf succeeded in the Kingdom thô he likewise Reigned but little more than one Year For the next Year he was deprived of his Kingdom as Ingulphus relates by one Bernulph an Ambitious Man of great Riches and Power thô no way related to the Blood Royal. ' This Year Two Ealdermen were slain Burkelm and Muca but who these were our Annals do not acquaint us There was also this Year held a Synod at Cloveshoe under King Beornwulf and Arch-Bishop Wilfred whose Constitutions relating wholly to Ecclesiastical Affairs you may find in Sir H. Spelman's 1. Vol. The only Civil Business was that of the Abbess Cendrythe's being forced to make satisfaction to Archbishop Wilfred by rendering 100 Manses or Farmes for the wrongs which King Cenwulf her Father had done to the Church of Canterbury This Cendrythe is the same with Quendrithe or Quendrida as she was called by our Latin Authors who made away her Brother K. Kenelme as you have already heard and who to Expiate for the Death of her Brother since she could not be a Queen had professed her self a Nun and was now an Abbess There was a Fight between the Britains and Devonshire Men at Gafulford now Camelford in Cornwall and Florence of Worcester tells us That the Britains were slain by those of Devonshire The same Year also according to our Annals Ecbriht King of the West-Saxons and Beornwulf King of the Mercians fought at Ellendune supposed to be Wilton near Salisbury where Ecbriht obtained the Victory a great slaughter being there made after which King Ecbright sent Aethelwulf his Son and Ealstan his Bishop and Wulfheard his Ealderman with a great Army into Kent where they forced King Baldred to Fly over Thames into the Northern parts then the Kentishmen and those of Surry together with the South-Saxons and East-Saxons submitted themselves to King Egbert which last Nation had been unjustly wrested from his Family and had as Florence relates for the space of several Years been subject to Kings that were strangers the same Year also the King of the East-Angles together with the whole Nation beseeched King Ecbriht to grant them Peace and be their Protector for fear of the Mercians And the same Year the East-Angles slew Beornwulf King of the Mercians because as Mat. Westminster relates he challenged their Kingdom
Arch-Bishop for in the next Year it is thus corrected viz. This Year Ceolnoth was Elected and Consecrated Arch-Bishop and Feologild the Abbot deceased ' And the Year following Ceolnoth the Arch-BP received his Pall from Rome This Year certain Heathens or Pagans wasted Sceapige now the Isle of Sheppey in Kent But since this is the first time that these Heathens are mentioned in the Saxon Annals it is fit we should tell you a little more exactly who they were and from whence they came for they were indeed no other than that Nation which was before in our Saxon Annals called Northmanna and sometimes Deanscan i. e. Danes the Etymology of which Name since I find writers are so divided about I will not take upon me to determine not that all these People came out of that Country which is at this day called Denmark for it is impossible that so narrow a Region thô you should likewise include whatsoever that Kingdom did then or does now enjoy upon the Continent of Swedeland and Jutland could ever send out such vast Shoales of People as for near Two Thousand Years before the Norman Conquest over-ran and destroyed France the Low Countries and also this Island but you may from what has been already said observe that H. Huntington in the Prologue to his Book above cited does besides the Danes add also the Norwegians together with the Goths Swedes and Vandals to have been those Nations which for so many Years wasted England and that he did not deliver this without Book but had sufficient Authority for what he wrote I shall further make out from the Testimony of those Writers who lived in that very Age when these Nations first infested those parts of Europe For Eginhart who was Son-in-Law and Chancellour to Charles the Great thus writes in his History of that Prince which I shall here faithfully Translate In like manner the Danes and Sweones with those whom we call Normans do possess the Northern Shore of Scandinavia together with all the Islands adjoyning to it whil'st the Sclavi with divers other Nations inhabit the Southern Coasts but the Norwegans or rather Northern Men for so they are called by the Swedes because they lye more Northerly than the greater part of that Nation and indeed all those that inhabit Scanzia are by those People of Europe that lye more remote with very good reason called in the German Tongue i.e. Northland Men. Next to Eginhart Adam of Bremen who lived about Two Hundred Years after does not only insert these very words of the aforesaid Authour but also adds this further that the Danes and Swedes with the other Nations beyond the River Danabius are by the French Historians all called Normans so likewise Albertus Abbot of Stade who wrote about the Year 1250 says likewise that the Danes and other Nations who lived beyond Denmark are all called Normans from which Authorities the learned Grotius in his Prolegomena to his Gothic History lays it down as an undeniable Truth that whatever we find among any writers of that Age concerning the Normans does rightly belong to the Swedes who were then one of the greatest and most powerful of those Northern Nations that were all then called by one general Name of Normans But as for their Religion I need say no more of it since I have already told you in the beginning of the Third Book that all those Nations had the same common Deities viz. Woden and Thor c. whose Names I have there already set down to which last Deities as Ubbo Emmius relates they before any great exepedition sacrificed a Captive by knocking out his Brains and smearing their Faces in his Blood immediately marched against their Enemies but that they were extreamly given to Witchcraft and Inchantments all their own Authours relate which would be too tedious here to repeat since you will meer with some Instances of it in the following History But to return again to our Annals This Year is very remarkable for King Egbert encountred Thirty Five Ships of Danish Pyrates at Carrum now called Charmouth in Dorsetshire where there was a great slaughter but the Danes kept the Field whereby we may guess that they had the advantage yet it seems before this time even in this very Year the Danes had been vanquished and put to flight at Dunmouth now called Tinmouth from whence having now spoiled the Isle of Sheppey they Sail'd to Charmouth above-mentioned This shews us as Will. of Malmesbury well observes the Instability of all Worldly grandeur for now King Egbert being arrived at the height of Empire met with this unlooked for Enemy who harrassed him and his Posterity for divers Generations And thô in this Sea Fight last mentioned he had the better for the greater part of the Day yet towards Night he lost the Victory thô by the help of it he retreated and so saved the disgrace of an entire defeat this was the only time that Fortune ceased to favour King Egbert's Undertakings This Year also according to our Annals Herefrith Bishop of Winchester and Wigen or Sighelm Bishop of Scirborne and also Two Ealdormen Dudda and Osmund deceased The same Year was held that General Council of the whole Kingdom at London at the Feast of St. Augustin the English Apostle Egbert King of West Saxony and Withlaf King of the Mercians with both the Arch-Bishops and all the other Bishops and Chief Men of England being present at which besides a Consultation how to restrain the Invasion of the Danes the Privileges and Concessâ—ons of the said King Withlaf to the Monastery of Croyland were also confirmed by the said Council and were subscribed to by King Withlaf and both the Arch-Bishops and most of 〈◊〉 Bishops of England The next Year a great Fleet of Danes landed amongst the Western Welsh i. e. Cornishmen who being joyned with them in a League against King Egbert offered him Battle which he accepting of streight ways marched against them with his whole Army and at Hengestdune now Hengston in Cornwal put both the Britains and Danes to flight and as Mat. Westminster adds freed his Kingdom at this time from the Invasion of those barbarous Enemies King Egbryht departed this Life having Reigned Thirty Seven Years and Seven Months but the Annals must needs be mistaken either in the time of his Reign or else in the Year of his Death for if he began to Reign Anno Dom. 800 and Reigned Thirty Seven Years and an half it is evident he must have dyed Anno Dom. 838 the Printed Copy of Will of Malmesbury places his Death Anno Dom. 837 and another reading in the Margin in 838 but Florence of Worcester places it according to the Annals in 836. This King as the same Authour relates governed his Subjects with great Clemency and was as terrible to his Enemies and for Nine Years Reigned Supream King over all Britain Before his Death he is
Article is That it is agreed that the Limits of K. Alfred's Land are first upon the Thames then proceed they to the River Lee as far as his Fountain then straight to Beaford and then along the River Ouse as far as Watling-street which I suppose is thus to be understood that K. Alfred did hereby grant him East-England and Essex so that the bounds of these Kings Dominions were first the Thames then the River Lee as far as Harford whereabouts it arises Then from Harford to Bedford all along Watling-street and then from Bedford all along the Ouse to the Sea The Second Article appoints the value of a Man slain whether English or Dane to be four Marks of pure Gold and the Redemption of each Four hundred Shillings But if the King's Servant or Thane was accused of Man-slaughter the Third Article proceeds That he then should be tried by Twelve other of the King's Servants or in ease he was not the King's Servant but belonged to some inferiour Lord he should be tried by eleven of his Equals and by one of the King's Servants The same Order was taken in all Suits which exceeded four Marks but in case he refused to undergo this Trial his Fine was to be encreased threefold The Fourth appoints Vouchers for the Sale of Men Horses or Oxen. The Fifth and Last Ordains That none from either Army should pass to the other without Leave and in case it be by way of Traffick such shall find Sureties for their good Behaviour that the Peace may not be broken This was the League it self with some other Articles needless to be here recited the Preface to which declares That it was made betwixt the two Kings Aelfred and Gythrum so the Saxon Original by Consent of all the Wise Men of the English and of all those that inhabited East England and that not only in behalf of themselves but of their Posterity This sufficiently shews that the Eastern Parts of England then belonged to the Danes yet Polydore Virgil calling this King by the Name of Gormon vehemently contends that he had not that Country bestowed upon him Krantzius also denies that this Gormon was converted to the Faith yet confesses that about this time one Froto was converted But whatever they write this League sufficiently evinceth the Distinction of their Territories and the Testimoy of Asser is uncontrollable as to his Baptism who lived himself at this very time not to mention that the Saxon Annals also affirm the same thing After which follow the Ecclesiastical Laws said in their Title to be made between King Alfred and King Gythrum as they are to be found in Abbot Brompton's Chronicle The First of which is That the Danes and English should Love and Serve the true GOD alone and Renounce Paganism And in the next place That if any should Renounce his Christianity and Relapse to Paganism then he should pay his Weare Wite and Lashlite according to what he had done The Third Law is That if any in Holy Orders shall either Fight Perjure himself or commit Fornication let him likewise make Amends by the like Penalties above-mentioned and likewise make Satisfaction to GOD according to the Canons of the Church and also give a Pledge or Security to do so no more Note That the Weare Wite and Lashlite above-mentioned were all of them Fines or Mulcts which the Danes and English were to pay according to the value of their Heads as hath been already shewn but as for the last of these Words Mr. Somner in his Glossary supposes it to be purely Danish and signified no more than the two former Words but was so called in relation to the Danes alone who were to undergo it after which follow several Constitutions against the Offences of Clergy-men against committing Incest and with-holding of Tythes and Romescot or Peter-pence in all which Offences a Dane was to pay the like Weare and Wite with an English-man as also against Buying Selling and Working on the Lord's Day in which Cases if a Freeman wrought upon Holy-days he was to lose his Liberty or pay his Wite but if he were a Servant or Villain he was to satisfie it with his Skin i. e. by Whipping or pay his Head-Gild but if a Master compelled his Servant to work upon Holy-days he was to pay his Lashlite as the Danes and his Wite as the English did that is according as he was a Dane or an English-man which sufficiently justifies Mr. Somner's Sense of that Word The rest of these Laws being against divers other Offences as against violating the Fasts of the Church against making Ordeal or taking an Oath on Sundays or Fast-days Not that this Ordeal or Trial by a hot Iron or boyling Water in case the Person was accused of a Crime was to be used unless there was no direct Proof against him The rest of the Laws are against putting any Man to Death upon a Sunday as also against Witches Perjured Persons and Common Whores all which Persons were to be banished the Country But the last Law saving one is a sort of Cruel Mercy for thereby if a Man had lost any of his Members for any Crime and survived the same four Nights it was afterwards lawful with the License of the Bishop for any one to give him Help and Assistance which it seems before that time it was not lawful to do But the Reader may further from the Title of these Laws observe the Subjection or Dependence which King Gytrum then had upon K. Alfred at that time for King Gytrum and his Danes gave their Consent to them in a Common-Council of the Kingdom in the same manner as the Kings of Mercia and of the East Angles were wont to do in the General Council of the West Saxon Kingdom in acknowledgment of its Superiority over them as may be proved by divers Examples and if this King Gytrum could have made Laws by his own Authority he might have called a Council of his own to do so which we do not find he ever did having received his Kingdom wholly from the Bounty of King Alfred Also about the Year last mentioned King Alfred new built the Town of Shaftsbury as appears by an old Inscription cited by Mr. Camden out of an old Manuscript Copy of William of Malmesbury then belonging to the Lord Burghley which Inscription was in that Author's time to be seen in the Chapter-house of that Nunnery which was built at this place by this King some Years after The Pagans entred further into France where the French fought with them and as it is supposed were routed for here the Danes found Horses enough to mount the greatest part of their Men. This Year the Danes sailed up the Maese now the Meuse into Frankland and there stayed another Year The same Year also King Aelfred sailing out with his Fleet fought against four Danish Pirat Ships and took two of their Men and the other two the
Leprosie or Blindness or else some worse Distemper which often makes Men unuseful or despised but by Praying to God in a certain Church in Cornwal where St. Neot lay buried and near which the King came by chance to Hunt he was relieved of that Pain which tho this Authour does not tell us what it was yet it seems to have been somewhat proceeding from the stoppage of the Humours in the lower Parts and which our Authour calls the Ficus or Emerhoids I shall now in the next place shew you how this King spent his time as well in his private as publick Affairs as the same Author hath related it by which the Reader will be better enabled to frame a true Character of this most Pious Learned and Magnanimous Prince King Alfred notwithstanding his frequent hindrances not only by the Danish Wars but also his bodily Infirmities was always mindful of the Affairs of State thô at spare times he used Hunting for his Recteation and to oversee and direct his Artificers Huntsmen and Faulkners He built also his Houses much more Magnificent than those of his Predecessors and at leisure times was wont to read English Saxon Books and learn Verses in the same Tongue by heart so that he never failed when he was alone to imploy himself well And for the better performance of his Duty he vowed to bestow half his time as far as his occasions and Infirmities would permit in God's Service And because it was impossible to know how the Hours of the Day and Night past when often by reason of the Clouds the Sun could not be seen no Clocks being then invented he began to think how he might distinguish the Hours by Night as well as by Day and at last by his own ingenious contrivance he ordered Six Wax-Tapers to be made of equal length and bigness so that each Taper being divided into Inches and every Inch marked out upon the Taper by this means those Six Tapers being set up one after another before the Reliques of the Saints which he still carried with him gave a constant and certain Light during the whole Twenty four Hours both by Night and by Day But when sometimes by reason of the Wind which came in at the Windows or Doors of the Chappel or thorough the Chinks of the Walls or the Cloth of his Tents the Tapers were made to burn out sooner than they were used to do at other times he first found out the Invention of making Lanthorns of Cow's Horns cut into thin Plates whereby no Wind could wast the Tapers so that by this Invention none of them burnt out sooner than another Afterwards he endeavoured to perform his former Vow in dedicating half his time to God so that he was wont not only to hear Mass every day but also to repeat his Prayers Psalms and other Nocturnal Offices having made a Collection out of David's Psalms for his own private use which being with certain Prayers written in a small Book he always carried about with him in his Bosom he likewise used to frequent the Church in the Night time and there alone to say his Prayers He was also very liberal in his Alms to Strangers as well as his own People treating all sorts of Men with great Gentleness and Affability he would often hear the Scriptures read by his own Servants and also Prayers read by Strangers when he came to any place by chance He loved his Bishops and all the Clergy very well as also his Earls Noblemen and Servants expressing his affection in Educating their Sons in his own Family and by causing them to be constantly instructed in Letters and good Manners with the same care as if they had been his own Children Yet for all this the King was not satisfied but was sorry that God had not made him more capable of true Wisdom as well as Liberal Arts admiring Solomon for nothing more than that despising Riches and Worldly Glory and desiring of God Wisdom he thereby obtained not only those outward things but this Request too over and above Thus our King imitated the Bee which rising early gathers Honey from all sorts of Flowers So whatever was rare that he had not in his own Kingdom he fetched from abroad for about this time God favouring his Pious Desires sent him Werfriht after Bishop of Worcester one very well skilled in the Holy Scriptures who by this King's Command Elegantly and exactly Translated the Dialogues of Pope Gregory out of Latin into the English Saxon Tongue and after him Plegmond a Mercian who was afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury a Venerable Man and indued with all true Knowledge to whom we may also add Aethelstan and Werwulf Priests and the King's Chaplains These learned Men above-mentioned King Aelfred had sent for out of Mercia whose Erudition as it daily encreased the King's Love to it so his greedy Thirst after it could never be satisfied for Night and Day as often as he had leisure he Commanded some or other to read to him for he was never without one of them near him whereby he obtain'd a general Knowledge of almost all sorts of Books nor was he contented with those he found at home but he sent Messengers into France to procure new Masters fetching from thence one Grimbald a Priest and Monk a worthy Man and an excellent Chanter and one well skilled in all Secular as well as Ecclesiastical Learning as also John another Priest and Monk throughly versed in all manner of Litterature by whose assistance as the King's Mind became much inlarged so in Requital he Honour'd and Enrich'd them And here I may likewise add what some other Authors have written concerning these two last Learned Persons by whose assistance he first Founded the University of Oxford as hath been already related for John Rouse in his History of the Kings of England hath wrote of these two Monks that Grimbald was sent for from his Monastery in Flanders then counted part of France as John was from his of St. Bertin at St. Omers this is that John commonly call'd Scotus and Erigena thô from whence he borrowed this last Name I shall not determine since the Learned differ so much about it 't was he Translated Dionisius his Hierarchia out of Greek into Latin which is now publish'd by the Learned Dr. Gale About the same time Asser also relates that he was sent for by the King from the Western or furthest Parts of Britain that is from St. David's in Wales and being kindly received by him he earnestly entreated him to leave whatever he had on the other side of Severne and Dedicate himself wholly to his Service but he could not promise that for above six Months in the Year standing engaged the other six to reside at his own Monastery for the Abbot and Monks there hoped that by his Interest with the King they might better avoid those Troubles and Injuries From King Hemeid who had often spoiled that
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
wrote but the wonder will be much abated when we consider that he had the King's Purse at his command besides those of other people who then looked upon such Works as meritorious But to return to our Annals Elfeage whose sirname was Goodwin succeeded Athelwald and was consecrated 14. Kal. Novemb. but was enthron'd at Winchester at the Feast of St. Simon and Jude R. Hoveden tells us he was first Abbot of Bathe and then Archbishop of Canterbury but at last was killed by the Danes being a man of great Sanctity of Life Also the same year Howel ap Jevaf Prince of North-Wales came into England with an Army where he was fought with and slain in Battel but the place is not mentioned This Howel having no Issue his Brother Cadwalhan succeeded him This year according to the Saxon Annals Aelfric the Ealdorman was banish'd the Land Mat. Westminster stiles him Earl of Mercia and says he was Son to Earl Alfure but neither of them inform us of the Crime for which he suffered that Punishment King Ethelred laid waste the Bishoprick of Rochester and also there was a great Mortality of Cattel in England William of Malmesbury and R. Hoveden do here add much light to our Annals That the King because of some Dissentions between him and the Bishop of Rochester besieged that City but not being able to take it went and wasted the Lands of St. Andrew i. e. those belonging to that Bishoprick but being commanded by the Archbishop to desist from his Fury and not provoke the Saint to whom that Church is dedicated the King despised his Admonition till such time as he had an Hundred Pounds sent to him and then he drew off his Forces but the Archbishop abhorring his sordid Covetousness is there said to have denounced fearful Judgments against him though they were not to be inflicted till after the Archbishop's death This year as the Welsh Chronicles relate Meredyth Son to Owen Prince of South-Wales entred North-Wales with what Forces he could raise and slew Cadwalhon ap Jevaf in a Fight together with Meyric his Brother and conquered the whole Countrey to himself Wherein we may observe how God punished the wrong which Jevaf and Jago did to their eldest Brother Meyric who being disinherited had his eyes put out for first Jevaf was imprisoned by Jago as Jago himself was by Howel the Son of Jevaf and then this Howel and his Brethren Cadwalhon and Meyric were slain and lost their Dominions This year Weedport that is Watchet in Somersetshire was destroyed by the Danes About this time as appears by the Charter in the Monast. Angl. p. 284. the Abby of Cerne in Dorsetshire was founded by Ailmer Earl of Cornwall near to a Fountain where it was said that St. Augustine had formerly baptized many Pagans And where also long after Prince Edwold Brother to St. Edmund the Martyr quitting his Countrey then over run by the Danes lived and died an Hermit But it seems from the Manuscript History of Walter of Coventry this Abby was only enlarged by this Earl Ailmer having been built some years before by one Alward his Father a Rich and Powerful Person in those Parts Goda a Thane was killed and there was a great Slaughter But the same Author last mentioned writing from some other Copy of Annals relates this Story another way That this Goda being Earl of Devonshire together with one Strenwald a valiant Knight marching out to fight the Danes they were both there killed but there being more of them destroyed than of the English the latter kept the field But to return to our Annals This year Dunstan that Holy Archbishop exchanged this Terrestrial Life for a Heavenly one and Ethelgar Bishop of Selsey succeeded him but lived not long after viz. only One Year and Three Months This is that Great Archbishop called St. Dunstan who was the Restorer of the Monkish Discipline in England and who made a Collection of Ordinances for the Benedictine Order by which he thought the Rule of that Order might be more strictly observed in all the Monasteries of England Edwin the Abbot I suppose of Peterborough deceased and Wulfgar succeeded him The same year also Bishop Syric was consecrated Archbishop in the room of Ethelgar abovementioned and afterwards he went to Rome to obtain his Pall. This man is commonly written Siricins but his Name in English Saxon was Syric or Sigeric About this time according to the Welsh Chronicle Meredyth Prince of North Wales destroyed the Town of Radnor whilst his Nephew Edwin or as some Copies call him Owen the Son of Eneon assisted by a great Army of English under Earl Adelf spoiled all the Lands of Prince Meredyth in South-Wales as Cardigan c. as far as St. Davids taking Pledges of all the Chief Men of those Countries whilst in the mean time Prince Meredyth with his Forces spoiled the Countrey of Glamorgan So that no place in those parts was free from Fire and Sword Yet at last Prince Meredyth and Edwin his Nephew coming to an agreement were made Friends But whilst Meredyth was thus taken up in South-Wales North-Wales lay open to the Danes who about this time arriving in Anglesey destroyed the whole Isle This year Gipiswic was wasted by the Danes this was Ipswich in Suffolk and shortly after Brightnoth the Ealdorman was slain at Maldune All which mischief Florence of Worcester tells us was done by the Danes whose Captains were Justin and Guthmund when the Person abovementioned fighting with them at Maldon there was a great multitude slain on both sides and the said Earl or Ealdorman was slain there so that the Danes had the Victory The same year also according to the Annals it was first decreed that Tribute should be paid to the Danes because of the great Terror which they gave the Inhabitants of the Sea-Coast The first Payment was Ten thousand Pounds and it is said Archbishop Syric first gave this Counsel To which also R. Hoveden adds That Adwald and Alfric the Ealdormen join'd with him in it but which as William of Malmesbury well observes served only to satisfy for a time the Covetousness of the Danes and being a thing of infamous example a generous Mind would never have been prevailed upon by any violence to have submitted to for when the Danes had once tasted the sweetness of this Money they never left off exacting still more so long as there was any left but they now met with a weak and unwarlike Prince most of whose Nobility were no better than himself and so as the same Author farther observes they were fain to buy off those with Silver who ought to have been repell'd with Iron This year Oswald that blessed Archbishop of York departed this life as also did Ethelwin the Ealdorman The former of them Simeon of Durham tells us had the year before consecrated the Abby Church of Ramsey which the latter had newly founded and
or Imposition He had also complained to the Pope that his Archbishops paid vast Sums of Money before they could obtain their Palls which Grievance was by the Pope's Decree taken off All these Immunities procured from the Pope the Emperor Rodolph King of France and all other Princes throughout whose Territories he travelled were confirmed by Oath under the Testimonies of Four Archbishops and Twenty Bishops with an innumerable Company of Dukes and other Noblemen there present Then follows a Thanksgiving to Almighty God for giving him such Success in what he had undertaken After this he desires it might be published to all the world that having devoted his Life to Godâ—s service he resolved to govern the People subject to him in all Piety Justice and Equity And in case any thing blameworthy had been done by him in his Youth by the help of God he was now ready to make full amends for it Therefore he charges all his Ministers whatsoever as well Sheriffs as others That for fear of him they should not pervert Justice because there was no necessity that Money should be raised by any unjust exactions And at last after great Asseverations how much he studied the Profit and Conveniency of his People he adjures all his Ministers before he arrived in England that they should procure all Dues to be paid according to the ancient Custom as the Alms of the Plow the Tythes of all Cattel brought forth in the same year Peter-Pence in August with the Tythes of Corn and at Martinmass the First fruits of the same called Curcescot or Cyrescot i.e. Money given to the Church in case this was not paid before his Return he threatens severely to animadvert upon every one according to the Laws William of Malmesbury further adds That at his Return he was as good as his word for he commanded all the Laws which had been made by former English Kings and chiefly by Ethelred his Predecessor to be observed under great Penalties for the true observation whereof our Kings says he are at this very day sworn under the name of the Good Laws of King Edward not that he only ordain'd them but because he observed them So that from hence we may take notice That Kings who have the least of Hereditary Title if they mean to reign happily ought in Policy as well as Conscience to observe the Laws of that Kingdom to which they have been advanced without any Right of Blood But to return again to our Annals they further tell us That upon the King's return from Rome where it seems he staid not long after he marched into Scotland and there King Malcolm became subject to him with two other Kings of the Isles called Maelbaerth and Jehmarc The same year also Robert Earl of Normandy went to Jerusalem and there died and William who was afterwards King of England began to reign being an Infant From whence we may plainly see that the Cottonian Copy of these Annals was wrote in the form we have them after the Conquest and though the other Copies do not expresly call him King of England yet they give him the Title of King William which is all one About this time as the Welsh Chronicles relate the Irish Scots invaded South-Wales by the means of Howel and Meredyth the Sons of Edwin above-mentioned who hired them against Rythaerch ap Jestyn the Usurping Prince of that Countrey whom by the assistance of these Scots they slew in Battel and by that means got the Government of South-Wales which they ruled jointly but with small quiet for the Sons of Rythaerch gathered together a great number of their Father's Friends to revenge his death with whom Prince Howel and Meredyth meeting at Hyarthwy after a long Fight routed them and made them fly but the year following Prince Meredyth himself was slain by the Sons of Conan ap Sitsylt Brother to Prince Lewelyn to revenge their Father's death whom Meredyth and his Brother Howel had slain This year appeared a strange kind of Wild-Fire such as no man ever remembred and did a great deal of mischief in divers places The same year also deceased Aelfsige Bishop of Winchester and Aelfwin the King's Chaplain succeeded in that See Merehwit Bishop of Somersetshire i. e. Wells deceased and was buried at Glastingabyrig ' Aetheric the Bishop died the Annals tell us not of what See But Simeon of Durham and R. Hoveden add That Malcolm King of Scots died this year to whom succeeded Mactade The same Authors farther tell us That King Cnute before his Death appointed Swane his Eldest Son to be King of Norway and Hardecnute his Son by Queen Aemma to be King of Denmark and Harold his Son by Aelgiva a Hampshire Lady to be King of England after himself This year King Cnute deceased at Scaeftesbyrig and was buried at the new Monastery at Winchester having been King of England almost twenty years There is no King that can deserve a more various Character than this since none who came in so roughly after govern'd more mildly He was naturally Cruel and very Ambitious and stuck not at any thing to gain a Kingdom as appears by his dealing with his Predecessor's Children and Brothers but more particularly with Olaf King of Norway whom Simeon of Durham relates to have been turn'd out of it by the secret Practices and Bribes which he liberally bestow'd upon the Great and Factious men of that Kingdom but however toward his latter end he reigned both prudently and moderately and we may say of him what a Roman Author does of one of his Emperors That it had been well for this Kingdom if he had never reign'd at all or else had continued longer none of his Sons resembling him either in Valour or Wisdom But to let you see that this King was really sensible before his death of the Vanity of Worldly Empire I shall to divert the Reader give you this story of him out of H. Huntington who thus relates it viz. That King Cnute being once at Southampton caus'd his Royal Seat to be plac'd on the shore while the Tide was coming in and with a Majestick Air said thus Thou Sea belongest to me and the Land whereon I sit is mine nor hath any one unpunished resisted my Commands I charge thee therefore come no further upon my Land neither presume to wet the Feet of thy Sovereign Lord. But the Sea as before came rowling on and without any Reverence at all not only wet but dashed him whereupon the King quickly rising up bade those that were about him to consider the weak and bounded Power of Kings and how none indeed deserved that Title but He whose Eternal Laws both Heaven and Earth and Seas obey A Truth so evident of it self that were it not to shame his Court-Flatterers who would not else be convinced Cnute needed not to have gone wet-shod home From thenceforth he would never afterwards wear his Crown but commanded it to
lying Northward from the Thames together with the City of London and Hardecnute enjoy all the Southern Provinces But Hardecnute having received his share of the Kingdom went into Denmark where making unnecessary delays Harold seized the whole Kingdom to himself Which is in part confirmed by an Ancient Manuscript Chronicle in the Cottonian Library which relates That Harold King of the Northumbrians and Mercians was elected King of all England and Hardecnute because he staid in Denmark was cast off To which may be added certain old Manuscript Annals now in the same Library part of which is supposed to be written by Henry of Huntington That Harold was elected by the Chief Men of the East-Angles i. e. the Danes of that Countrey together with the Londoners so that he usurped the Kingdom of his Brother Hardecnute being then in Denmark And Simeon of Durham relates That by the Consent of the Great Men of England Harold began to reign as true and just Heir but not so indisputably as King Cnute his Father had done because Hardecnute who was a truer Heir than he was then expected yet that in a short time the Kingdom became divided after the same manner as Ingulph hath related But it seems very unlikely that Hardecnute if he had been chosen King of any part of England would have left it and gone over into Denmark before he was well settled at home It is therefore more likely what Florence of Worcester asserts That Harold was at first elected King only of the Mercians and Northumbers Hardecnute being to enjoy all the rest but that not coming out of Denmark in due time Harold got himself chosen King of the whole Kingdom the year following But leaving this matter concerning Hardecnute's Succession which must be confessed is much in the dark the Author last mentioned does say That Harold after he had obtained the Royal Dignity sent his Guards speedily to Winchester and there tyrannically seized on the greater part of the Treasures of the King his Father which had been bequeathed by Cnute to the Queen his Mother-in-Law But I cannot omit taking notice of the most Cruel and Bloody Treatment of Prince Alfred Brother to King Edward and his Followers which because many of our Best and most Ancient Historians as well Printed as Manuscript refer to this year and that too not long after King Harold's coming to the Crown I shall here set down since it seems most likely to have happened now rather than at any other time For though our Authors differ much about it yet seeing most of the Ancient Manuscript Annals in the Cottonian Library as also that old Treatise called Encomium Emmae being a Panegyrick wrote on that Queen by a Monk of her own time agree in relating the Circumstances of this horrid Action I shall from thence transcribe this following Account of it viz. That King Harold seeking by Treachery how to get those two young Princes Sons to the late King Ethelred into his power forged a Letter in the Name of Queen Emma their Mother inviting them into England wherein personating her she seemed to chide them gently for their delay in not coming over to look after their own concerns seeing they could not but know that it procured the daily confirming of the Usurper in his power who omitted no arts or means whatsoever to gain the chief Nobility over to his Party yet also assures them that the English Nation had much rather have one of them to be their King and in conclusion desires they would come as speedily and as privately as they could to consult with her what course was best to be taken This Letter was sent to the Princes then in Normandy by an express Messenger with Presents also as from their Mother which they joyfully receiving returned word by the same hand That one of them would be with her shortly naming both the Time and Place Alfred who was the younger for so it was thought best at the appointed time with a few Ships and some small number of Normans about him appeared on the Coast and no sooner came ashore but fell into the Snare that Earl Godwin had laid for him being sent on purpose to betray him and being cajoll'd into a belief that he was sent for by the King then at London he was in the way met at Guilford by Earl Godwin who with all seeming Friendship at first kindly entertained him but in the night surprized the Prince and made him Prisoner with all his Company most of whom in all about Six hundred men were put to various kinds of cruel deaths and being twice decimated every Tenth man suffered without mercy The Prince was brought to London and by the King sent bound to Ely and had his eyes put out as soon as he landed there and being delivered to the Monks to be kept died soon after in their Custody but whether of the Pain or Grief or some other Indisposition is left uncertain Yet though this Author makes no mention of Prince Edward his Brother's coming over with him but rather asserting the contrary that he never came at all however several other Historians will have this Prince to have either come over then or some time before and that being with his Mother when his Brother was thus treated she immediately sent him back into Normandy which I must confess seems very improbable since Harold had it then in his power to destroy them both But though it is certain that this unfortunate Prince was made away yet since our Annals are wholly silent in it there is nothing about which our Historians so much vary as concerning the time when it was done William of Malmesbury and Bromton place it after the death of Harold and before the coming over of Hardecnute when they say that Prince Alfred arrived with some expectations of the Kingdom but the former plainly confesses that he related this story only upon common fame yet because the Chronicles i. e. the Saxon Annals are silent he will not affirm it for truth so it seems he had never seen the above-mention'd Encomium Emmae But that Prince Alfred was made away by the means of Earl Godwin we shall further make out when we come to the Reign of King Edward the Confessor And the reason that some of our Historians give for Godwin's cruel usage of Prince Alfred whilst he let his Brother escape is that Godwin was afraid of the High Spirit and Wit of this young Prince because he knew that if ever he came to be King he would never be governed by him nor marry his Daughter both which he hoped for from Edward in case he should be chosen King by his means as afterwards happen'd This whether true or not I will not determine yet it suits well enough with the Interest of that Politick Earl I shall say no more of this only we cannot but hence observe the great Uncertainty of Traditional Accounts though of no long standing
the Meat should be taken away untouched from such as were invited than that those who were not invited should complain for want of Victuals whereas saith he the custom of our time is either out of Covetousness or as they pretend because their people cannot eat for Great Men to allow their Followers but one Meal a day which shews that the custom of Set Suppers hath had divers Vicissitudeâ— being not commonly used in England in Great Mens Families at the time when H. Huntington wrote and therefore is an English Custom prevailing since that time the Norman Fashions being then most used John Rouse also in his Manuscript Treatise de Regibus Ang. already cited relates That the day of King Hardâ—cnute's Death was in his time kept by the English as an Holiday being called Hock-Wednesday on which they danced and drew Cords cross the way as they do in several Parishes in England even at this day to stop people till they will pay them some Money King Edward called the Confessor BEfore King Hardecnute was buried all the People chose Edward Aethâ—ling King at London who reigned as long as God permitted him But William of Malmesbury with greater probability says That this King did not come to the Crown without some difficulty for when he had received the News of his Brother Hardecnute's Death he was in great perplexity what was most advisable for him to do at last after mature deliberation he thought it the safest course to trust his Fortune to Earl Godwin's Advice who being sent for to a friendly Conference for some time he was considering whether he should come to him or not but at length he agreed to speak with him and upon the Enterview Edward was about to lay himself at his Feet but that he would by no means suffer Then the Prince earnestly desired he would assist him in his safe return to Normandy when immediately Godwin gave him this unexpected answer That he had better live gloriously King of England than dye ignominiously in Exile That the Crown did of Right belong to him as Son of Ethelred and Grandchild of Edgar That he was one of mature Age inur'd to Labour and who had learnt by experience how to order Publick Affairs with Justice and had been taught by his own late Afflictions how to remove and prevent the Miseries of the People That to bring this about there would be no great Obstacle for if he would but trust himself to him he should find that his Interest was very powerful in the Nation and that Fortune would be favourable to his just Pretensions and if he would accept of the Royal Dignity he was confident there would be none to oppose it but on condition that he would establish a firm Friendship with him and his Family by promising to prefer his Sons and marry his Daughter that then he should soon find himself a King Edward's case at this time was such as not to reject so fair Proposals but rather agree to any Conditions and comply with the present state of Affairs whatsoever therefore Godwin required he promised and swore to perform Now the Earl was a Man fitted by Nature for managing such an Intrigue having a very smooth and plausible Tongue so Eloquent that he could move and charm the Affections of the People insinuate into them whatsoever he pleased and bring them entirely over to his Interest and Service Upon this he procures a Great Council to be summoned at Gillingham some Copies have it at London and there he influenced some by his own Authority gain'd over others by his Promises and those who were inclined before to Prince Edward's Cause he fully settled and confirmed to his Party the rest that made opposition being over-power'd were first of all turn'd out of their Places and then banished the Land The Annals of the Abby of Winchester printed in the Monast. Ang. from the Manuscript in the Cottonian Library not only agree with William of Malmesbury in this Relation but are also much more particular viz. That Prince Edward coming to Godwin one morning in disguise to London fell at his Feet begging him to preserve his Life but the Earl taking him up promised to use him like his Son and also gave him farther Encouragements and Assurance so that Edward returning again to Winchester to his Mother Godwin shortly after summoned all the Great Men of the Kingdom to meet there to consult about making a New King Then these Annals proceed to relate the manner of this Election Viz. That Earl Godwin raising the Prince from the place where he sate at his feet being then incognito having his Hood over his Face said thus Behold your King This is Prince Edward the Son of King Ethelred and Queen Emma This is He whom I Elect c. and so first did him Homage Then after some Debates among themselves they all at last consented to his Election so that if it displeased any there they durst not shew their Discontent since Earl Godwin would have it so and Edward being thus Elected was not long after crown'd at Westminster Which is also confirmed by an Ancient Chronicle in the Cottonian Library already cited ending with this Prince which saith That Hardecnute being dead Eadward was advanced to the Crown by the endeavours chiefly of Earl Godwin and Living Bishop of Worcester Bromton's Chronicle farther adds That at this Grand Council all the Great Men of England agreed and swore with one consent That no Danes should reign over them any more because of the great Affronts and Contempts they had received from that Nation For they held the English in such servile subjection That if an Englishman had met a Dane upon a Bridge he was obliged to stand still till the other had passed by and if he had not bowed to the Dane he was sure to be well basted for his neglect so that as soon as King Hardecnute was dead the English drove all the Danes out of the Kingdom But notwithstanding the great happiness the English now received by having a King of their own Nation yet it seems This year was unfortunate for the Intemperance of the Season which as our Annals relate destroyed the Fruits of the Earth so that a great number of Cattel died Also about this time Aelf Abbot of Burgh deceased and Arnwi a Monk was chosen Abbot being a mild and good man About the same time also according to the Welsh Chronicle Prince Conan the Son of Jago who had fled into Ireland to save his life and coming now over from thence being assisted with the Forces of Alfred the Danish King of Dublin entred North-Wales by surprize took Prince Griffyth Prisoner and was carrying him away to his Ships But the people of the Countrey hearing of it they immediately rose and pursued the Irishmen and at last overtaking them rescued their Prince and made a great flaughter among them the rest with much difficulty got to their Ships and returned with
do not now know and others Northward to a Castle of Archbishop Rodbert's who together with Bishop Vlf and all their Party going out at the East Gate I suppose of London kill'd and wounded many young men who I suppose went about to seize them thence they went directly to Ealdulphe's Naese now the Nesse-Point in Essex where the Archbishop going on board a small Vessel left his Pall and Bishoprick behind him as God would have it since he had attain'd that Honour without God's Approbation From all which Transactions we may draw these Observations That all this Contest between the King and Earl Godwin seems to have been chiefly from the two great Factions that of the Normans whom the King brought over with him and that of his English Subjects and which happening under a Weak and Easy King that had neither the Prudence nor Courage to keep the Balance even it produced this Pyratical War made by Earl Godwin and his Sons to force the King to restore them to their Estates All which not only shews the great Power of this Earl and his Partizans but also that those who have the Command at Sea may force a King of England to what Terms they please It is also evident that these Annals were wrote by some Monk of the English Party who was wholly of Earl Godwin's side But to return again to them Then was appointed a Great Council without London where all the Earls and Chief Men then in England were present and there Earl Godwin pleaded for himself and was acquitted before the King and the whole Nation and affirmed that he and Harold his Son with the rest of his Children were innocent of the Crimes whereof they stood accused Whereupon the King received the Earl and his Sons with all those of his Party into his full Grace and Favour restoring him to his Earldom and whatsoever else he before enjoyed as likewise to every one his own again And then too the King restored to the Queen his Wife who had been before sent away whatsoever she had been possessed of but Archbishop Rodbert and all the Frenchmen were outlaw'd and banish'd because they were those who had been the chief Incendiaries of this Quarrel between the King and the Earl and Bishop Stigand was then made Archbishop of Canterbury Though our Annals are in the Relation of what passed at this Great Council much more particular than most of our Historians yet in the Account of this War between the King and Earl Godwin there are some things to be further taken notice of as what Simeon of Durham relates That Earl Harold when he came out of Ireland first entred the Mouth of Severne and there spoiled the Coast of Somersetshire plundering both the Towns and Countrey round about and then coming back to his Ships loaden with Prey he presently sail'd round Penwithstâ—ot i. e. the Land's-End and met his Father as you have heard before and when it was told King Edward that Earl Godwin was come to Sandwic he commanded all those who had not revolted from him to make haste to his Assistance but they delay'd so long their coming up that in the mean while Godwin with his Fleet sail'd up the River Thames as far as Southweork and there lay till the Tide but yet not without sending Messengers to some of the chief Citizens of London whom he had before drawn over to his Party by fair Promises and so far prevailed with them that they absolutely engaged themselves to be at his service and do whatever he would command them Then all things being thus prepared the next Tide they weighed Anchor and sail'd Southward up the Stream no body opposing them on the Bridge From whence we may observe that those Ships he had were only small Galleys with Masts to be taken up and down at pleasure much like our Huoys at this day Then came the Earl's Land-Army and flanking themselves all along the side of the River made a very thick and terrible Body insomuch that he turned his Fleet toward the Northern Shore as if he were resolved to have encompassed that of the King's which it seems then lay above-Bridge over-against London And though He had at that time both a Fleet and a Numerous Land-Army of Foot-Soldiers yet they being all English abhorred to fight against their own Kinsfolks and Countreymen and therefore the wiser sort of both sides laid hold on this Opportunity and became such powerful Mediators between the King and the Earl as made them mutually to strike up a Peace and so dismiss their Armies The next day the King held a Great Council and restored Earl Godwin and his Sons to their former Honours and Estates except Sweyn who being prick'd in Conscience for the Murther of his Cousin Beorn was gone from Flanders barefoot as far as Jerusalem and in his return homeward died in Lycia of a Disease contracted through extreme Cold. A firm Concord and Peace being thus concluded both the King and the Earl promised right Law i. e. Justice to all people and banished all those Normans that had introduced unjust Laws and given false Judgments and committed many Outrages upon the English though some of them were permitted to stay as Robert the Deacon and Richard Fitzscrob his Son-in-Law as also Alred the Yeoman of the King's Stirrup Anfred sirnamed Cocksfoot and some others who had been the King's greatest Favourites and always faithful to him and the People all the rest were sent away and amongst them was also William Bishop of London but he being a good honest man was called back again in a short time Osbern sirnamed Pentecost from whom the Castle above-mention'd was so called and his Companion Hugh surrender'd their Castles and by the License of Earl Leofric passing through his Earldom of Mercia went into Scotland and were there kindly received by King Macbeth Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour refers that Relation in Bromton's Chronicle to this Great Council held this very year in which the manner of King Edward's Reconciliation with Earl Godwin is more particularly set down viz. That the King having summoned a Great Council as soon as he there beheld Earl Godwin immediately accused him before them all of having betrayed and murthered his Brother Prince Alfred in these words Thou Traytor Godwin I accuse thee of the Death of Alfred my Brother whom thou hast traitorously murthered and for the Proof of this I refer my self to the Judgment of Curiae Vestrae i. e. your Court. Then the King proceeded thus ' You most Noble Lords the Earls and Barons of the Kingdom where note That by Barons are to be understood Thanes for they were one and the same before the Conquest You who are my Liege-men being here assembled have heard my Appeal as also the Answer of Earl Godwin I will that you now give a Right Sentence between us in this my Appeal and afford due Justice therein Then the Earls and Barons having maturely debated
what they knew would please their Masters would have passed him over without this Story and have given him a fairer Character His first Wife was the Sister of King Cnute by whom he had a Son but in his Infancy happening to mount an unruly Horse that was presented him by his Grandfather he was run away with into the Thames and there drowned His Mother was kill'd by Thunder which as then was believed fell upon her as a Judgment on the account of her great Cruelty for she made a Trade of selling handsome English Boys and Girls into Denmark After her Death Earl Godwin married another Wife and by her had Six Sons viz. Harold Sweyn Wined Tosti Gyrth and Leofwin His Earldom of West-Seaâ— was given to his Son Harold and the Earldom that Harold had before viz. Essex was conferred on Alfgar the Son of Leofric Earl of Mercia which is also confirmed by our Annals And the same year according to Simeon of Durham Rees the Brother of Griffyn King of South-Wales being taken Prisoner for the many Insolences he had committed against the English was by the Command of King Edward put to death at a place called Bulendun and his Head sent to the King then lying at Gloucester on the Vigil of Epiphany But this is omitted in the Welsh Chronicles as commonly every thing is that makes to the disadvantage of their own Nation This year Leo that Holy Pope of Rome deceased and Victor was elected in his stead And there was also so great a Murrain of all sorts of Cattel in England that none could ever remember the like And now according to the Welsh Chronicles Griffyth the Son of Ratherch ap Justin raised a great Army both of Strangers and others against Griffyth Prince of North Wales who delaying no time but getting all the Forces of that Countrey together and meeting the other Griffyth fought with him and slew him on the place though none of these Chronicles have told us where that was This was the last Rebellion or Welsh Civil War that happened in this Prince's Reign The same year according to Simeon of Durham and Roger Hoveden Siward that Valiant Earl of Northumberland at the Command of King Edward being attended with a powerful Army and a strong Fleet marched into Scotland to restore Malcolm the Right Heir to the Crown of that Kingdom where joining Battel with Macbeth the then Usurping King of Scots many both of that Nation and of the Normans who took their part were slain and the Earl put the Usurper to flight But in this Battel the Earl's Son and several of the English and Danes were slain H. Huntington further adds That when the News was brought to the Earl of the Death of his Son he presently asked Whether he had received the Wound behind or before And being told it was before he only replied I am glad to hear that for so it became my Son to dye He says also That this Son of his whom he does not name had been sent into Scotland before his Father and was there killed and that Earl Siward did not subdue Macbeth till the second Expedition in which he differs from all the rest of the English and Scotish Historians Buchanan indeed acknowledges that this Prince Malcolm having taken Refuge in the Court of England obtain'd of King Edward the Assistance of Ten thousand men under the Conduct of Earl Siward and that the rest were raised for him by Macduf and others of his Party that took Arms on his behalf But John Fordun in his History writes much more improbably and though he allows that King Edward offered Malcolm an Army sufficient to place him on the Throne yet that he refused it with Thanks and only took Earl Siward of all the English Lords along with him as if this Earl's single Might though he was a Man of great Strength and Stature signified any thing against the Forces of Macbeth unless he had also brought a powerful Army along with him Mat. Westminster also adds That Scotland being thus conquered by the Forces of King Edward he bestowed it upon King Malcolm to be held of himself But since this is not found in any of our Ancient Historians and this Author does not acquaint us from whence he had it I do not look upon it as worthy of any great Credit About this time according to Simeon Aldred Bishop of Worcester was sent Ambassador to the Emperor with Noble Presents and being received with great Honour by him as likewise by Herman Archbishop of Cologne he staid in Germany a whole year to prevail with the Emperor on the King's behalf to send Ambassadors into Hungary to bring back Prince Edward the King's Cousin Son of King Edmund Ironside into England The same year also according to the Latin Copy of the Annals ' Was a Battel at Mortimer in Normandy But though they do not tell us by whom it was fought yet from others we learn it was between William Duke of Normandy and the King of France where the former obtain'd a most signal Victory This year Siward Earl of Northumberland deceased and the King gave that Earldom to Tostig Son of Earl Godwin Of this Siward's death our Historians give us divers remarkable Circumstances That being near his End by a Bloody-Flux he said He was asham'd to dye thus like a Beast so causing himself to be compleatly Armed and taking his Sword in his hand as if he would have fought even Death it self he in this Posture expired as he supposed like a Man of Honour King Edward not long after this summoned a Witena Gemot or Great Council seven days before Midlent wherein Earl Aelfgar was outlaw'd upon a Charge of being a Traytor to the King and the whole Nation and of this he was convicted before all there assembled Then Earl Aelfgar went to the Castle of Prince Griffyn in North-Wales and the same year they both together burnt the City of Hereford with the Monastery of St. Aethelbert once King of the East-Angles whose Bones were here enshrin'd This Earl had the greater reason to do what he did having been unjustly banish'd as most of our Historians write Simeon of Durham is somewhat larger in his account of this Affair and says That this Earl Aelfgar first went to Ireland and there procuring Eighteen Pyrate-Ships sail'd with them into Wales to assist Prince Griffyn against King Edward where joining with the Welshmen they laid waste the Countrey about Hereford with Fire and Sword against whom was sent that Cowardly Earl Rodolph King Edward's Sister's Son who gathering an Army and meeting with the Welshmen about two miles from that City he commanded the Englishmen contrary to their custom to fight on Horseback but so soon as they were ready to join Battel Rodulph with all his Frenchmen ran away which the English seeing quickly followed By which you may see that it is no new thing for a Cowardly General to make Cowardly Soldiers The
the English being now full had provoked the Divine Vengeance for that the Priests despising God's Law treated Holy Things with corrupt hearts and polluted hands and not being true Pastors but Mercenaries exposed the Sheep to the Wolves seeking the Wool and the Milk more than the Sheep themselves That the Chief Men of the Land were Infidels Companions of the Thieves and Robbers of their Countrey who neither feared God nor honoured his Law to whom Truth was a Burthen Justice a Maygame and Cruelty a Delight And that therefore since neither the Rulers observed Justice nor the Ruled Discipline the Lord had drawn his Sword and bent his Bow and made it ready for that he would shew this People his Wrath and Indignation by sending Evil Angels to punish them for a year and a day with Fire and Sword But when the King replied to them That he would admonish his People to repent them of the evil of their ways and doings and then he hoped God would not bring these dreadful Judgments upon them but would again receive them into his Mercy To this they answered That now it could not be because the hearts of this people were hardened and their eyes blinded and their ears stopped so that they would neither hear those that would instruct them nor be advised by those that should admonish them being neither to be terrified by his Threatnings nor melted by his Benefits And the King asking them when there would be an end of all these Judgments and what comfort they might be like to receive under all these great afflictions those holy men only answered him in a Parable of a certain Green Tree that should be cut down and removed from the Root about the distance of Three Acres and when without any human hand the Tree should be restored to its Ancient Root and flourish and bear Fruit then and not till then was there any Comfort to be hoped for But this Author's application of the Tree that was to be cut down to the English-Saxon Royal Family's being for a time destroyed and its Separation to the distance of three Acres to Harold and the two first Norman Kings and its Restitution again to King Henry the first by his marrying of Queen Mathildis and its flourishing again in the Empress her Daughter and then its bearing Fruit to the Succession of Henry the second do sufficiently shew that great part of this Vision was made and accommodated for the Reigns of these Princes William of Malmesbury indeed recites the same Vision though in fewer words but without any Interpretation of the Parable But be this Vision true or false I think we may have reason to pray to God that neither our Clergy nor Laity by falling into the like wicked and deplorable state above described may ever bring the like Judgments upon this Nation But when the Queen Robert the Lord Chamberlain and Earl Harold who are said to have been present at the Relation of this Vision seemed very much concern'd Archbishop Stigand received it with a Smile saying That the good Old Man was only delirous by reason of his Distemper But says Malmesbury we have too dearly tried the Truth of this Vision England being now made the Habitation of Strangers and groaning under the Dominion of Foreigners there being says he at this day i. e. at the time when he wrote no Englishman either an Earl a Bishop or an Abbot but Strangers devour the Riches and gnaw even the very Bowels of England neither is there a prospect of having any End of these Miseries This it seems was written in the beginning of the Reign of Henry the First and before he had seen the more Happy Times that succeeded in that of Henry the Second when the Abbot above-mentioned tells us That England had then a King of the Ancient Blood Royal as also Bishops and Abbots of the same Nation with many Earls Barons and Knights who as being descended both from the French and English Blood were an Honour to the One and a Comfort to the Other But to come to the Death and Last Words of this most Pious King The Abbot above-mentioned gives us an Excellent Discourse which he made before his Death recommending the Queen to her Brother and the Nobility there present and highly extolling her Chastity and Obedience who though she appeared publickly his Wife yet was privately rather like a Sister or Daughter desiring of them That whatsoever he had left her for her Jointure should never be taken from her He also recommended to them his Servants who had followed him out of Normandy and that they should have their free choice either of returning home to their own Countrey or staying here After which he appointed his Body to be buried in St. Peter's Church at Westminster which he had so newly dedicated and so having received the Blessed Eucharist and recommended his Soul to God he quietly departed this Life having reigned Three and twenty Years Six Months and Seven and twenty Days It is very observable That this Abbot does not tell us that he said any thing concerning who should be his Successor whereas many of the Monks of those Times make him to have bequeathed the Crown at his Death to his Cousin William Duke of Normandy and Ingulph further says That King Edward â—â—me years before his Death had sent Robert Archbishop of Canterbury as an Ambassador to him to let him know that he had design'd him his Successor both because he was of his Blood and also Eminent for his Virtue What Pretences the Duke might have to the Crown by the latter I know not but it is certain the former could give him no Title to it since all the Relation that was between King Edward and Duke William was by Queen Emma who was Mother to the King and Aunt to the Duke so that it is evident on the score of this Relation that Duke William could have no pretence by Blood to the Crown of England But it is very suspicious that this Story of Archbishop Robert's being sent into Normandy upon this Errand was but a Fiction since he sate but three years in that See before his Expulsion and that happened near ten years before after which King Edward sent over for his Cousin Edward sirnamed The Outlaw to make him his Heir King Edward being dead they made great haste to bury him for his Funerals were performed the next day with as great Solemnity as the shortness of that time would admit of but it was sufficient that all the Bishops and Nobility of the Kingdom attended his Body to the Grave in the Church aforesaid where his Tomb is at this day to be seen behind the Altar and his Body was afterwards preserved in a Rich Shrine of Gold and Silver till the Reign of Henry the Eighth As for the Character which the Writers of the following Age give this Prince it is such as they thought was due to One whom they took to be
Deanry the Peace was broken The thirty sixth Article directs how that after a man is killed as a Thief or a Robber if any Complaint be made by his nearest Relation to the Justice that the man was wrongfully put to death and lies buried among Thieves and that such Relations offer to make it good in such case they shall first give security for so doing and then it follows in what manner the Party slain may be cleared in his Reputation and what satisfaction shall be made to his Friends for it in case it appears he was killed unjustly These are the Laws which bear the Name of Edward the Confessor though they are not properly so because many of them were made long before his time and there are so many things in the Latin Original which are rather Explanations of Laws than Laws themselves that they more truly seem to have been collected and written by some ignorant Sciolist or pretender about Henry the First 's time For though Roger Hoveden hath given us this Collection of those Laws which we now have yet it is plain that there was no Original of them extant at the time when Hoveden wrote nor long before or else he need not have told us that King William the Conqueror in the fourth year of his Reign summoned so many Noble and Wise Men of the English Nation only to enquire into and acquaint him what those Laws were But Bromton's Chronicle gives us a short History of the several Laws that had been used in England and tells us of three sorts of Laws then in use viz Merchenlage West-Saxonlage and Danelage and that King Edward made one Common Law out of them all which are called the Laws of King Edward to this day yet of these he gives us no more than the bare Explanation of some Words or Terms frequently used in them but without setting down any of the Laws themselves which whether he did out of ignorance or on purpose I will not determine though the former is most likely seeing he had before given us all the Laws he could meet with of the precedent English-Saxon Kings So that when the Reader hears the Laws of St. Edward so much talked of and so much contended for after the Conquest he must not understand these here set down to have been the only Laws above-mentioned For those are but some parts of them recited and commented upon by after-Writers And indeed these Laws were first said to be the Laws of Edward the Confessor after the Normans coming over not because King Edward made them but renewed the observance of them as William of Malmesbury expresly tells us of one of those that King Cnute also revived being in substance the same with that formerly ordained by King Alfred Commanding every one above Twelve years old to be entred into some Decenary Tything or Hundred But Bracton also ascribes it to King Edward So likewise this Interpolator or Noter himself tells you That those Laws of St. Edward so much desired and at length obtained from William the Conqueror were ordained in the time of King Edgar his Grandfather but after his death were laid aside for sixty eight years but because they were just and honest King Edward revived them and delivered them to be observed as his own By these and other circumstances we may gather That the whole Body of these Laws we have now recited were such as were approved and confirmed by King Edward who was a Prince of great Mercy and Indulgence to his People so that such written Laws as were in force in his time and such Customs as had been all along observed in the Saxon times and had been still kept on foot in his days were after the Norman Conquest when both the People of the Norman as well as English Extraction so earnestly contended for their Liberties called by the name of the Laws of St. Edward thereby being indeed meant the English-Saxon Laws which then received Denomination from him being in effect the last King of that Race and one whose Memory the People reverenced in an especial manner for the high Reputation he had gained for his great Sanctity and Clemency to his Subjects King HAROLD KING Edward's Funerals being over our Annals proceed to tell us how that Earl Harold succeeded in the Kingdom as King Edward had appointed and that the People elected him to that Dignity as also that he was anointed King on the Feast of Epiphany but he held the Kingdom only forty weeks and one day Thus the Laudean or Peterburgh Copy relates it being written by some Monk that favour'd King Harold's Title to the Crown But R. Hoveden with other of the English Writers tell us expresly That King Edward being buried Earl Harold whom the King had before his decease declared his Successor being by all the Chief Men of England elected to the Throne was the same day anointed King by Aldred Archbishop of York Which is also confirmed by the Manuscript Chronicle of one Henry de Silgrave who wrote about the Reign of King Edward the First and is now in the Cottonian Library And the relation of this Affair being found no where else I shall here recite leaving the Credit thereof to the Reader 's Judgment which is thus That King Edward lying on his Death-bed Earl Harold came to him and desired him to appoint him for his Successor to which the King replied That he had already made Duke William his Heir But the Earl and his Friends still persisting in their Request the King turning his Face to the Wall replied thus When I am dead let the English make either the Duke or the Earl their King Which if true shews that it was but a Consent in part and was also extorted from him But this Relation being found in no other Author I shall not pass my word for the Truth of it But William of Malmesbury and such Writers as prefer the Title of King William tell another story and say That King Harold on the very day of the King's Funeral having extorted an Oath of Fidelity from the Chief Men snatch'd up the Crown of his own accord although the English say it was bequeathed him by King Edward which yet he says he believes to be rather asserted by them out of partiality than by any true judgment or knowledge of the thing H. Huntington does not mention any such Election of Harold but says on the contrary that divers of the English would have advanced Edgar Aetheling to be King But Ingulph is more cautious and does not determine one way or other of this matter only says in general That the day after the King's Funeral Harold wickedly forgetting his Oath which he had formerly made to Duke William intruded himself into the Throne and was solemnly Crowned by Alred Archbishop of York As for Edgar Aetheling the only surviving Male of the Ancient Royal Family he was but Young and being a Stranger born had neither
Makes War upon his Brother Cadelh Prince of South-Wales and destroys his Countries Id. p. 299. Submits himself and all his Subjects to King Alfred's Dominion Id. p. 306 307. His Decease and Issue Id. p. 316. Pitying the distressed condition of the Northern Britains gave them great part of Cheshire to dwell in if they could beat out the Saxons thence Id. p. 317. After a bloody Fight with the Saxons obtains a compleat Victory over them Ibid. Andate the Goddess of Victory among the Britains l. 2. p. 48. Andover a Town not far from Winchester in Hampshire l. 6. p. 10. Anciently called Andefer Id. p. 25. Andragatius Maximus his General kills the Emperor Gratian near the Bridge of Singidunum and establishes his Master in his usurped Empire l. 2. p. 95. And hearing of the ill news of Maximus casts himsâ—lf headlong out of a Ship being then at Sea and so drowns himself Id. p. 96. Andredswood in Kent and Sussex is in length from East to West at least One hundred and twenty Miles and in breadth Thirty containing all that which is called the Wilde of Kent l. 5. p. 299. St. Andrew's Church at Rochester built by Ethelbert King of Kent l. 4. p. 160. Angild the Forfeiture of the whole value of a man's Head and that Hand which stole was to be cut off unless redeemed l. 5. p. 297. Angles supposed to be derived from the Ancient Cimbri l. 3. p. 123. Anglesey anciently called Mona l. 2. p. 46. and Manige l. 6. p. 28. The whole Isle subdued by Godfred the Son of Harold the Dane Id. p. 7 20. Destroyed by the Danes Id. p. 23. And by King Ethelred's Fleet Id. p. 28. They cast off Meredyth and receive Edwal ap Meyric for their Prince Id. p. 24. Anglia Sacra publish'd by the Learned Mr. Wharton l. 4. p. 166. Anlaff Son of Syhtric King of Northumberland flies into Ireland l. 5. p. 332. Supposed the Son of Syhtric His getting into Athelstan's Camp in the disguise of a Musician and the Observations he made there Id. p. 335. His ravaging and wasting the Countries where-ever he came the Battel he had with King Edmund and the Agreement between them both at last His marrying Alditha the Daughter of Earl Orme Id. p. 343. Called Olaf a Dane and Norwegian by Extract who had been expelled in the time of King Athelstan the Kingdom of Northumberland but being some time after recalled by those Rebels he was again expelled by King Edmund who added that Countrey to his own Dominions Id. p. 343 344. Returns again in King Edred's time and with joy is restored to his Kingdom by the People three years after they expel him a third time and set up Eric for their King Id. p. 350. Another of this Name Son to the King of Dublin comes with a great Fleet into Yorkshire or Lincolnshire and lands but he is miserably beaten by King Athelstan Id. p. 334 335. Anlaff or Unlaff King of Norway the Ravages he commits and where l. 6. p. 24 25. Is brought with great honour to King Ethelred After Baptism he returned into his own Countrey Id. p. 25. Anna King of the East-Angles enriches Cnobsbury Monastery with Noble Buildings and Revenues l. 4. p. 180. Is slain in fight by King Penda together with his whole Army Id. p. 185. His youngest Son Erkenwald wâ—s made Bishop of London Id. p. 196. Annals Saxon first collected and written in divers Monasteries of England l. 4. p. 151. The Cottonian Copy of them in the Form we now have them was wrote after the Conquest l. 6. p. 56. Antenor with his Trojans joining Brute their Expedition and the Accidents that befel them l. 1. p. 9. Anwulf Son of Baldwin Earl of Flanders sent Ambassador from Hugh King of the French to King Athelstan to demand his Sister in Marriage l. 5. p. 339. Aper kills Numerianus and is killed by Dioclesian l. 2. p. 83. Appeals none to the King in Suits unless Justice can't otherwise be had l. 6. p. 13. Appledore anciently called Apuldre or Apultre in Kent l. 5. p. 299 300. Arbogastes General to Eugenius sets him up in the Empire of the West against Valentinian the Second but his Master being overcome by Theodosius and put to death he soon after made himself away l. 2. p. 97. Arcadius Emperor of the East Eldest Son to Theodosius Id. ib. Archbishop its Title not known here in the time of Lucius l. 2. p. 69. His ancient Power as Governor of the Church of England l. 2. p. 210. None but Monks made Archbishops of Canterbury l. 5. p. 333. Brythelme resigns at the Command of the King and whole Nation l. 6. p. 2. When the Churches of Wales first owned the Archbishop of Canterbury's Superiority l. 6. p. 21. Archenfield in Herefordshire anciently called Yrcingafield l. 5. p. 319. Archigallo for his Tyranny is deposed by his Nobles but restored to it by the kind Artifice of his Brother l. 1. p. 14. Arch-pyrate anciently did not signify a Robber but one skill'd in Sea-Affairs or a Seaman derived from Pyra which in the Attick Tongue was as much as Craft or Art l. 6. p. 9. Arderydd a Battel fought there on the Borders of Scotland l. 3. p. 146. Areans removed by Theodosius from their stations but who these were is unknown l. 2. p. 93. Ariminum the Council called there by Constantius l. 2. p. 89. Our Bishops sent to it and what was done there Id. p. 90. Arles in Gallia the Council there when held and what British Bishops were sent to it l. 2. p. 88. Is made the Imperial Seat of Constantine and called Constantia it was besieged by Gerontius but he was hinder'd from taking it l. 2. p. 103. Armorica now Britain in France l. 1. p. 13. l. 5. p. 287. A Fleet prepared for the Armorican War l. 2. p. 25. The people there refuse to accept Charles King of the Almans for their King l. 5. p. 287. Armour whence arose the Custom of hanging up the Armour of Great Men in Churches as Offerings made to God for the Honour they had gained to themselves or Benefit to their Countrey through his Assistance and Blessing l. 6. p. 57. Army a Lawful one raised by the King for the Defence of the Nation called anciently by the name of Fyrd l. 6. p. 60. Arnulf the Emperor with the Assistance of the French Saxon and Bavarian Horse put the Danish Foot to flight l. 5. p. 298. Arnwy Abbot of Burgh resigns his Dignity by reason of his ill state of health and with the King's License and the Consent of the Monks confers it upon another Monk of that Abbey l. 6. p. 84. Arrian Heresy when it first infested Britain l. 2. p. 106. Arthur what he was King of who was his Father and the many considerable Victories he gained over the Saxons and when he carried the Picture of Christ's Cross and of the Virgin Mary on his back l. 3. p. 134 135. He besieges
Châ—rlâ—s King of the Franks l. 4. p. 231. Sardica the Council there when called the Bishops of Britain assisted aâ— it l. 2. p. 89. Sarum Old called in the British times Searebyrig l. 3. p. 142. Or Syrbyrig is burnt by King Sweyn l. 6. p. 30. Saturninus Seius in Antoninus Pius his time had the Charge of the Roman Navy on the British shore l. 2. p. 68. Saxon Annals first collected and writâ—en in divers Monasteries of England l. 4. p. 151. Saxons English at first so very illiterate that it is much doubted whether they had the use of Letters and Writing among them or not l. 3. p. 113. Were sent for to repel the Scots and Picts Id. p. 117. Had the Isle of Thanet given them for their Habitation Id. p. 118. Came from three valiant Nations of Germany Id. p. 118 119 120 121. What Countrey Old Saxony was Id. p. 118 119. Great Disputes about the Name of Saxons Id. p. 121 123 124. Their Religion and Victory over the Picts Id. p. 124 125. Break League with the Britains their Confederates and over-run almost the whole Island Id. p. 126. By Vortimer are forced to return into Germany and never durst return hither till after his death Id. p. 128. Obtain a great Victory over Nazaleod who was slain in the Battel and they remained undisturbed a long time after l. 3. p. 134. Are beaten by the Britains at Wodensburg in Wiltshire Id. p. 148. Were strict Observers of the Lord's-Day l. 4. p. 209. A great Battel between them and the Britains where the King of North-Wales was slain Id. p. 241. The English-Saxons suffer'd no Nation to out-go them in Deceit and all manner of Wickedness and therefore they at last met with the Judgments of God in the Wrath of men l. 5. p. 247. Commanded to be called English-men by a Law of King Egbert Id. p. 255. A great Sea-fight among the Ancient Saxons of Germany supposed with the Danes the former getting the Victory twice Id. p. 287. Are driven out of Wales by the Northern Britains into Mercia Id. p. 317. Utterly rout and put to flight the Scots Irish and Danes Id. p. 334. Saxony Old called Northalbingia its Extent and Bounds l. 3. p. 118. Saxulph or Sexwulf a Monk to his care is committed the finishing of the Abbey of Medeshamsted though Peadda and Oswy had laid the Foundation and gone a good way through it l. 4. p. 186 187. Is ordained by Archbishop Theodore Bishop of the Mercians in the room of Winfrid who was deposed Id. p. 194. Parted with the Church of Hereford to Putta Bishop of Rochester who is said to be expelled from thence Id. p. 196. Scapula Vid. Ostorius Sceapige now the Isle of Sheppy in Kent wasted by the Heathens or Pagans l. 5. p. 255. The Danes take up their Winter-quarters there Id. p. 262. Sceorstan perhaps Shire-stone for the place is supposed to be a Stone that parts now the Four Counties of Oxfordshire Gloucestershire Worcestershire and Warwickshire l. 6. p. 45. Sceva a Roman Soldier his incredible Valour l. 2. p. 29. School erected for the Instruction of Youth by King Sigebert l. 4. p. 179. Supposed to give Being to the University of Cambridge but without ground Id. Ib. Or Colledge of the English Nation at Rome burnt l. 5. p. 251. Whom it were that Alfred obliged to keep their Sons at School until fifteen years of Age Id. p. 297. Scotch Historians extend the Limits of King Kened's conquering the Picts too far l. 5. p. 259. Scotland anciently called Albania North-West to the Mountains of Braid-Albain and its Extent l. 2. p. 83 98. Said to be conquered by the Forces of King Edward the Confessor l. 6. p. 86. The Low-lands long in the possession of the Kings of England l. 5. p. 260. Scots came into this Nation out of Ireland l. 1. p. 4 5. Came into Ireland in the Fourth Age of the World Id. p. 7. Scoti sometimes called Hiberni because they first came out of Ireland l. 2. p. 84. They with the Picts make cruel Incursions and lay waste all places near the Borders of Britain Id. p. 90. The first Roman Author that mentions them is said to be Ammianus Marcellinus but St. Jerome has given a much more Ancient Passage of them which he translated out of Porphyry the Greek Philosopher who wrote an Age before Id. p. 91. Are owned by some Antiquaries to be planted in Ireland in the time of Claudian Id. p. 94 95. And Picts continually wasted the Roman Territories Id. p. 95. Their Incursions in the beginning of Honorius his Reign Id. p. 97 98. They miserably harass'd the Britains till speedy Supplies were sent them by the Romans Id. p. 106. The Scots Conversion to Christianity Id. p. 109 110. Were sometimes used for Irish-men sometimes for Native Scots Id. p. 110. And Picts landing in Britain in shoals on the Romans deserting it l. 3. p. 114. Ever acknowledged Bishops necessary for ordaining others in the Ministry l. 3. p. 144. Per Universam Scotiam that is throughout all Ireland l. 4. p. 166 189. The Scots in Britain regain their Liberty and enjoy it for Six and forty years after Id. p. 202. Who Inhabited Britain practised no Treachery against the English Nation when Bede finished his History Id. p. 221. Three Scots come from Ireland to King Alfred resolving to lead the Life of Pilgrims l. 5. p. 298. The first time any of their King 's made Submission to the English was in King Edward the Elder 's Reign l. 5. p. 323 324. Are miserably routed with their King Constantine by Athelstan and his Army Id. p. 334 335 336. Submit themselves to King Edred and their King Swears Fidelity to him Id. p. 349. Are overcome by Uthred the Valiant Son of Waltheof Earl of the Northumbers and the Reward he received of King Ethelred for his Bravery l. 6. p. 27. Scriptures the Reading of them Decreed in the Second Council at Cloveshoe to be more constantly used in Monasteries and the Creed and Lord's Prayer to be learn'd in English l. 4. p. 225. Sea Those that have the Command there may force a King of England to what terms they please l. 6. p. 81. Seals Edward the Confessor was the first English King we meet with that affixed any to his Charters l. 6. p. 98. The Island of Seals Vid. Seolefeu Sebba Vid. Siger Sebbi King of the East-Saxons becomes a Monk and soon after dies l. 4. p. 210. Sebert the Son of Richala King of the East-Saxons receives Baptism and causes St. Paul's to be Built at London l. 4. p. 159. Founds the Church and Abbey of Westminster Id. p. 166. His Death Id. p. 168. A most Learned and Christian Prince Id. p. 175. Secington anciently Seccandune in Warwickshire l. 4. p. 227. Security to be given by all Servants for their good Abearing and all others of ill Fame to have it given for them l. 5. p. 346. Every one of Twelve Years