tam Scotiae quam Angliae confirmatum est Quod si aliquis temerarius infringere audebit magnae pecuniae damno obnoxius erit perpetuo Anathematis gladio ab ecclesiâ seperabitur as Richard Prior of Hagustald records Anno Domini 708 Egwin Bishop of Worcester procured king Kenred and Offa by their Charters to grant and confirm many Lands and Privileges to the Abbey of Evesham which Pope Constantine likewise ratified by his subscription at Rome as well as these kings in the presence of many Archbishops Bishops Princes and Nobles of divers Provinces who commended and approved their Charters and Liberality In pursuance whereof Pope Constantine writ a Letter to Brithwald Archbishop of Canterbury to summon Concilium totius Angliae a Council of all England to wit of the Kings Bishops Religious persons of Holy Orders Optimatesque Regni cum proceribus suis with the Nobles and great men of the Realm who being all assembled together in the name of the Lord The Archbishop should in their presence read the Charters of these Kings and the Popes confirmation of them that they might be confirmed by the favour and assent of the Clergy and the people and consecrated with their Benediction Whereupon king Kenred and Offa after their return from Rome assembled a General Council in a place called Alne where both the Archbishops Brithwald and Wilfrid with the rest of the Bishops Nobles and these two Kings were present wherein Donationes omnes confirmatae sunt all these their Donations and Charters were confirmed and likewise in another Synod at London An. 712. A most pregnant evidence that these kings Charters and Donations though ratified by the Pope himself were not valid nor obligatory to their successors or people without their common consent to and confirmation of them in a general Parliamentary Council of the Prelates Nobles Clergy and Laity even by the Popes and these kings own confessions and practice in that age In the year of our Lord 716. Ethelbald king of Mercians by his Charter gave to God the blessed Virgin Saint Bartholomew Kenulphus the whole Isle of Croyland to build a Monastery and confirmed it to them for ever free from all Rent and secular services inde Chartam suam in praesentia Episcoporum Procerumque Regni sui securam statuit all his Bishops and Nobles of his Realm assenting to and ratifying this Charter of his both with the subscriptions of their names and sign of the Cross as well as the King that so it might be firm and irrevocable being his demesne Lands which Charter is at large recorded in the History of Ingulphus About the year of Christ 720. some fabulously write that king Ina took Guala daughter of Cadwallader last king of the Britons to wife with whom he received Wales and Cornwal and the blessed Crown of Britain Whereupon all the English that then were took them wives of the Britons race and all the Britons took them wives of the illustrious blood of the English and Saxons which was done Per commune Concilium et assensum omnium Episcoporum ac Principum Procerum Comitum et omnium Sapientum Seniorum et populorum totius Regni aâ—â—embled together in a 〈◊〉 Parliamentary Council Et per praeceptum Regis Inae whereby they became one Nation and Peoplâ— Afâ—er which they all called that the Realm of England which before was called the Realm of Britain and they all ever after stood together united in one for common profit of the Crown of the Realm and with a unanimous consent most fiercely fought against the Danes and Norwegians and waged most cruel wars with them for the preservation of their Country Lands and Liberties An. 705. King Ina by his Royal Charter granted and confirmed many Lands to the Abbey of Glastonbury endowing that Abbey and the Lands thereto belonging with many large and great Privileges exempting them from all Episcopal Jurisdiction and from all regal exactions and services which are accustomed to be excepted and reserved to wit from Expedition and building and repairing of Castles or Bridges from which they should inviolably remain free and exempted and from all the promulgations and perturbations of Arch-Bishops and Bishops which privileges were formerly granted and confirmed by the ancient Charters of his Predecessors Kenewalcus Kentwin Ceadwalla and Baldred This Charter of his was made and ratified by the consent and subscription not only of king Ina himself but also of Queen Edelburga king Baldred Adâ—lard the Queens Brother consentientibus etiam omnibus Britanniae Regibus Archiepiscopis Episcopis Ducibus atgue Abbatibus all the Kings Archbishoâ—s Bishops Dukes and Abbots of Britain consenting likewise thereunto many of which subscribed their names unto it being assembled in a Parliamentary Council for that end King Ina In the year 727. travelling to Rome built there a school for the English to be instructed in the faith granting towards the maintenance of the English Scholars there a penny out of every house within his Realm called Romescot or Peterpence to be paid towards it every year All which Things and Tax That they might continue firm for perpetuity Statutum est generaâ—l decreco c. were confirmed by a general decree of a Parliamentary Council of his Realm then held for that purpose of which before more largely In the year of our Lord 742. There was a Great Parliamentary Council held at Clovesho or Clyffe where Ethelbald King of Mercia sate President with Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury the rest of the Bishops sitting together with them diligently examined things necessary concerning Religion and studiously searched out of the antient Creeds and institutions of the holy Fathers how things were ordered according to the rule of equity in the beginning of the Churches birth in England whiles they were inquiring after these things and the antient privileges of the Church at last there came to their hands the Liberty and Privileges which King Withred had granted to the Chuâ—ches in Kent which being read before all by King Ethelbalds command they were all very well pleased therewith and said unanimously That there could not be found any so noble and so prudent a Decree as this formerly made touching Ecclesiastical Discipline and therefore Hoc ab omnibus firmari sanxerunt decreed that it should be confirmed by them all Whereupon King Ethelbald for the salvation of his soul and stability of his kingdom confirmed and subscribed with his own munificent hand That the Liberty Honour Authority and security of Christs Church in all things should be denied by no person but that it should be free from all secular services with all the lands pertaining thereunto except Expedition and building of Bridge and Castle And like as the said King Withred himself ordained those privileges should be observed by him and his so he and this Council commanded they shall continue irrefragably and immutably
Bedford Huntindon Northampton Lincoln Nottinghaem and after that Northumberland Which Edmond being informed of returned to London to his Father and Earl Uhtred returning home being compelled by necessity repaired to Cnute and submitted himself to him with all the Northumbrians making a Peace with him and giving him hostages for performance thereof and for his and their fidelity Not long after Uhtred and Turketel Earls of Northumberland were both treacherously slain by Turebrand a Dane by Cnutes command or Commission Which done Cnute made one Hirc some stile him Egric Earl of Northumberland in his place and then returned with all his army to his Ships in triumph a little before the feast of Easter with a very great booty Not long after King Ethelred born to troubles and mischief after manifold labours vexations treacheries and incessant tribulations ended his wretched life in London where he died May 9th Anno 1016. being there buried in St-Pauls Church finding rest in his Grave by death which he could never find in his Throne all his life having attained it by Treachery and his Brothers Soveraigns murder whose Ghost as Malmesbury and others write did perpetually vex and haunt him all his reign and made him so subject to and fearfull of plots and treacheries that he knew not whom to trust nor ever deemed himself secure even in the midst of his oft raised Armies Nobles People though ready to adventure their Lives for his defence I have related these Passages of the Danish wars and invasions during Ethelreds reign more largely than I intended 1. Because on the Englishmens parts they were meerly defensive of their Native Country King Laws Liberties Properties Estates Lives against forein Invaders and Uâ—urpers 2ly Because they more or less relate to my forementioned Propositions touch-the fundamental Rights Liberties Properties of the English Nation 3ly Because they shew forth unto us the true original grounds causes motives necessities and manner of granting the very first Civil Tax and Tribute mentioned in our Histories by the King and his Nobles in their General Councils to the Danish invaders to purchase peace and the true nature use of our antient Danegelt and rectifie some mistakes in our common late English Historians Immediately after King Ethelreds decease Episcopi Abbates Duces et quique Nobiliores Angliae in unum congregati as Wigorniensis Hoveden Simâ—â—n Dunelmensis Radulphus de Diceto Bromton Or Maxima pars Regni tam Clericorum quam Laicorum in unum congregati as Matthew VVestminster Or Proceres Regni cum Clero as Knyâ—htâ—n expresses it Pari consensu in Dominum et Regem Canntum eligere All the Bishops Abbots Dukes and Nobles of England and the greatest part of the chief Clergy and Laity assembled together in a kind of Parliamentary Council by unanimous consent elected Cnute for their Lord and King notwithstanding their solemn Vow and Engagement but the year before never to suffer a Danish King to reign over them Whereupon thev all repaired to Cnute to Southampton omnemque Progeniem Regis Ethelredi coram illo abhorrentes et abnegando repudiantes as Wigorniensis Huntindon Knyghton and others record and there in his presence abhorring and utterly renouncing and abjuring all the Progeny of King Ethelred they submitted themselves and swore fealty to him as to their only King and Soveraign he reciprocally then swearing unto them That he would be a faithfull Lord unto them both in things appertaining to God and the World which our Historians thus express Quibus ille juravâ—t quod secundum Deum secundum seculum fidelis illis foret Dominus Only the City of London and part of the Nobles then in it unanimously chose and cryed up Ed. Ironside King Ethelreds 3. son by Elgina his first Wife Daughter to Duke Thored as Speed and others relate though Matthew Westminster and others register his birth Non ex Emma Regina sed ex quadam ignobili foemina generatus qui utique matris suae ignobilitatem generis mentis ingenuitate corporis streuuit te redintegrando redemit After Edmonds election he was crowned King by Liuing Archbishop of Canterbury at Kingston upon Thames where our Kings in that age were usually crowned No sooner was he thus advanced to the Regal dignity but he presently marched undauntedly into VVest-Sex and being there received by all the People with great gratulation and joy he most speedily subjected it to his Dominion Which being divulg'd in other parts many Counties of England deserting Cnute voluntarily submitted themselves unto him such is the fickleness of the People unconstancy of worldly power and affairs Cnute in the mean time to be revenged of the Londoners for making Edmond King marched to London with his whole Army and Fleet besieged and blocked up the City with his Ships drawn up the Thames on the West-side of the Bridge and then drew a large and deep trench round about the City from the Southside of the River whereby he intercepted all ingress and egress to the Citizens and others whom he shut up so close that none could go in or out of the City and endeavoured by many strong assaults to force it but being still repulsed by the Citizens who valiantly defended the walls he left off the siege with great confusion and loss as well as dishonor Thence he marched with his Army into Dorsetshire to subdue it Where King Edmond meeting him with such forces as he could suddenly raise gave him battel at Penham near Gillingham where after a bloudy and cruel encounter he put Cnute and his Army to flight and slew many of them Not long after they recruiting their forces both Armies meeting at Steorstan King Edmond resolving there to give Cnute battel placed the most expert and valiantest of his Souldiers in the front and the rest of the English who came flocking in to him he kept for a reserve in the rear Then calling upon every of them by name he exhorted and informed them That they now fought for their Country for their Children for their Wives for their Houses and Liberties inflaming the minds of his Souldiers with his excellent Speeches in this battel with the Enemy he exercised the Offices of a valiant Soldier and good General charging very couragiously But because that most persidious Duke Edric Almar and Algar and others of the great men who ought to have assisted him with the Inhabitants of Southampton VViltshire and innumetable other English joyned with the Danes the battel continued all day from morning to night with equal fortune till both sides being tired out and many of each party slain the night constrained them to march one from another But their bloud not being cold the next day they buckled together again with no less courage than before till at last in the very heat of the battel the most perfidious Duke Edric perceiving the Danes like to be totally routed and the English in great forwardness of victory cut off the
of his Kingdom shed much blood For ne came to the Crown by the slaughter of King Bernred forementioned deposed and slain by him for his usurpation Tyranny and Mis-government then he invaded and slew with his own hand Alrick King of Kent routed his forces and reduced that kingdom under his own After this marching from South to North even beyond Humber he made Havock of all that stood in his way Whence returning in Triumph he set upon the West-Saxons and vanquished them forced their king Kenwolf to fly into Wales to the Britons for aid then enâ—red into Wales routed their King Marmodius for breaking his Truce made a great slaughter of the Britons after ten years prosperous wars to conquer others returned victoriously into his own territories After his return thither to compleat his bloody Tragedies Ethelbert King of East-Angles coming upon solemn invitation to his Court in great state to marry his Daughter was there treacherously murdered by his Wife Quendreda's solicitation and practice with his privity and consent who caused a deep pit to be digged in his Bed chamber under his Chair of State or Bed into which he falling was there treacherously murdered and his head cut off by Gaymbertus who presented it all bloody to King Offa who to colour the business seeming to be sorrowfull for this murder shut himself up in his Chamber and there fasted 8 days space but then sending a great Army into the Kingdom of this murtherea Prince seised on united it to his own Empire But Gods exemplary vengeance pursued this hainous bloody Treachery notwithstanding all his feigned magnified Saintship and works of Charity and Piety for within one year after this bloody fact committed both Queendreda Offa and their Son Egfrid the only joy and pride of his Parents all died and his very kingdom it self was translated from the Mercians to the West-Saxons whom he had conquered and oppressed O that all men of blood and unjust invaders of others Crowns Realms Possessions by war bloodshed and Treachery would seriously consider this President with all others of this nature both at home and abroad collected to their hands by Sir Walter Raughly in his excellent Preface before his famous History of the World About the year of Christ 797. Cynwolfe or Kenulph King of West-Saxons held a Council wherein he with his Bishops unacum caterva Satraparum and likewise with a great company of his Nobles there assembled writ a Letter to Lullus Bishop of Mentz touching some matters of Religion then in Debate In the year 798. the third of King Kenulph his Proposit 5 6. reign there was a great Parliamentary Synod assemat Anno. 798. Pinchamhalch wherein Eanbaldus or Embaldus Archbishop of Yorksate President with very many wise and great Men by whose Wisdom and Justice the Kingdom of Northumberland was then much advanced and renowned Who after they had debated many things concerning the benefit of holy Church and profit of all the Provinces of the People of Northumberland the observation of Easter and of Divine and secular Laws the increase of Gode service and the honours and necessities of the servants of God rehearsed and ratified the faith of the 5 first General Councils concerning the Trinity in brief and pithy expressions fit now to be revived in these times of Heresie and Blasphemy The same year there was another Great Council held at Bacancold wherein Kenulph King of Mercians sate President Athelardus Archbishop of Canterbury 17 other Bishops sundry Abbots Arch-deacons and other fit persons being there likewise present Wherein by the command of Pope Leo it was decreed That from thenceforth no Laymen should exercise Dominion over the Lords Inheritance and Churches but that they should be governed by Holy Canons and the Rules of their first founders and possessors under pain of Excommunication and that Christ-church in Canterbury should be restored to its antient Metropolitan Jurisdiction Which all the Prelates and Abbots confirmed with their Subscriptions And this year this King consecrated the Church of Winchelcumbe endowing it with great gifts and possessions in a kind of Parliamentary Assembly of 13 Bishops and 10 Dukes where he manumitted and set free at the high Altar Edhert King of Kent surnamed Pren whom he had taken prisoner in Battel Moreover Eanbaldus Archbishop of York this year assembled a Synod at Finâ—hale most likely for the assistance of Eardulfus King of Northumberland against Duke Wadus and other Conspirators who rose up against him whom he vanquished and utterly routed after a long and bloody battle at Bilingeho where many were slain on both sides which History Matthew Westminster couples with this Synod An. 798. King Kenulph in the year 799. By the consent of his Bishops and Princes at the request of Athelardus Archbishop of Canterbury restored to Christ-Church in Canterbury four parcels of Land which king Offa had formerly taken from it and gave to his Servants free from all secular service and Regal Tribute ratifying this restitution by his Charter signed with the Cross that it might remain inviolable by their concurrent assent There was a Provincial Council held at Clovesho or Clyffe In the year of our Lord 800. by Kenulf king of Mercians Athelwerdus Archbishop of Canterbury and all the Bishops Dukes Abbots cujuscunque dignitatis viros and men of all sorts of aignity where after some inquiry how the Catholique Faith was kept and Christian Religion practiced amongst them The Lands which king Offa and king Kenulph had forcibly taken away from Christ-Church with the Nunnery of Cotham and the Hides of Land called Burnam were Synodali Judicio by the Judgement of the Council restored to Christ-Church Et omnium voce Decretum est and It was decreed by the voice of all the Council upon sight of the Books and Deeds there produced before them by the Archbishop that it was just Cotham should be restored to Christ-Church being given to it by King Aethelbald by his Charter of which it had for a long time unjustly been spoiled notwithstanding the frequent complaints made by Archbishop Bregwin and Iambert in every of their Synods In hoc Concilio annuente ipso Rege Athelardus recuper avit dignitates possessiones quas Offa Rex Merciorum abstuler at Iamberto writes Gervasius After which the Archbishop in this Council made this Exchange with Cynedritha then Abbess of Cotham that she and her successors should enjoy all the Lands and Nunnery of Cotham in lieu whereof she should give to him one hundred and ten Hydes of Land in Kent lying in Fleot Tenaham and Creges together with all the writings thereto belonging which exchange was made before confirmed and attested by this Noble Synod that so no Controversie might arise between them their Heirs and Successors or King Offa 's in future times concerning the same but that they might peaceably injoy them without interruption for ever And moreover the Archbishop gave
Cantâ—rbury who was vexed with this disease openly counselled Divina negotia deberi primitus proponi sic humana negotia Christi suffragante gratia finem prosperum posse sortiri Assentientibus universis c. That Dtvine businesses ought first of all to be proposed and so humane business through the suffrage of Christs grace might obtain a prosperous end All assenting thereunto when Lord Siward then Abbot of Croyland was inquired for because in Councils and Synods for his great eloquence and holy Religion he had been as it were a divine interpreter for many years and the most gratious Expositor and Promotor of innumerable businesses of the whole Clergy who by reason of his great old age was not present but by Frier Askillus his fellow Monk he excused his absence with a most humble Letter by the burden of his long old age King Bertulph himself remembring the former complaint of the Church of Croyland openly related before the Council the Injuries frequently done to the Lord Abbot Siward and to his Monastery of Croyland by the foolish fury of their Adversaries and commanded that Remedy should be provided and Decreed by common advice When as therefore this business was in agitation amongst them Petitio Domini Siwardi the first Petition I meet with of this Nature to and in our Parliamentary Councils and the Petition of the Lord Abbot Siward concerning the same delivered by the foresaid Frier Askillus had run from hand to hand of the Prelates and Nobles of the whole Council and one advised one thing another another Lord Ceolnoth Archbishop of Canterbury cried out with a loud voice that he was healed of his disease and perfectly recovered by the merits of the most holy Confessor of Christ most blessed Guthlac whose businesses were then handling in their hands likewise many other most potent men in the said Council cryed out as well Prelates as Nobles that they had been sick of that disease but now by Gods Grace and the merits of most holy Guthlac they felt no pain in any of their Members through the said malady And all of them presently bound their Consciences with a most strict vow to visit the most sacred Tomb of most holy Guthlac at Croyland with devout pilgrimage so soon as they could Wherefore our Lord King Bertulf commanded the Bishop of London who was then accounted the best Notary and most eloquent speaker who being moreover touched with the same disease now predicated with greatest joy that he was healed to take the Privileges of Croyland into his hands and that he should insist to honour his Physicitian S. Guthlac with his hand writing prout consilium statueret as the Council should ordain which also was done Therefore in the Subscriptions of the Kings Charter afore-mentioned the Archbishop of Canterbury Ceolnoth confesseth himself whole and sound St. Swithin Bishop of Winchester rejoyceth concerning the Lords Miracles Alstan Bishop of Sherburn and Orkenwald of Lichenfeld give thanks for the successes of the Church and Rethunus Bishop of Leicester professeth himself a Servant to St. Guthlac so long as he lived Unniversique Concilii Optimates And all the Nobles of the Council with a most ardent affection yeelded obedience to the Kings benevolent affection towards St. Guthlac In all things From all which precedent passages in these two Councils it is apparent First That the Parliamentary Councils of that Age consisted only of the King spiritual and temporal Lords and Peers without any Knights of Shires or Burgesses of which we find no mention in this or any other former or succeeding Councils in the Saxons times though sometimes Wise-men of inferior quality both of the Clergie and Laity were particularly summoned to them without any popular election by the Kings special direction for their advice 2ly That all Divine and Ecclesiastical matters touching God Religion and the Church and all affairs of the Realm of publique concernment relating to war or peace were debated consulted of setled in Parliamentary Councils 3ly That the businesses of God and the Church were therein usually first debated and setled before the affairs of the kingdom of which they ought to have precedency 4ly That all private grievances injuries and oppressions done by the King his Officers or other private persons to the Church or other men were usually complained of and redressed in Parliamentary Councils by the advice and judgement of the King and Peers and that either upon the parties Petition setting forth his grievances or a relation made thereof by the King or some other Prelate or Nobleman before the whole Council 5ly That what could not be redressed in one great Council was in the next succeeding Council revived and redressed according to the merits of the cause 6ly That no Peer nor Member of the great Council might absent himself in those times but upon just and lawfull excuse which he ought humbly to signifie to the King and Council by a special Messenger and Letter as Abbot Siward did here 7ly That all Members of the Council had free liberty of Debate and Vote in all businesses complained of or proposed to them and a negative as well as an affirmative voice 8ly That all businesses then were propounded and debated before all the Council and resolved by them all not in private Committees 9ly That our Kings in those days in Cases of necessity could not lawfully seise their subjects monies and plate against their wills to raise Soldiers to resist invading fore in Enemies but only borrow them by their free consents and held themselves bound to restore or recompence the monies lent or taken by them in such exigencies with thankfull acknowledgment 10. That our Kings in that age could not grant away their Crown lands create or inlarge Sanctuaries or exempt any Abbies from Taxes and publique payments or impose any publique Taxes on their Subjects but by Charters or grants made and ratified in and by their great Councils Anno 854. King Aethelulf gave the tenth part of his Realm to God and his Saints free from all secular services exactions and Tributes by this Charter made and confirmed by the advice and free assent of all the Bishops and Nobles throughout the Realm then assembled in a Great Council to oppose the invading plundering Danes Regnante in perpetuum domino nostro Jesu Christo in nostris temporibus bellorum incendia direptiones opum nostrarum vastantium crudelissimas hostium barbarorum paganorumque gentium multiplices tribulationes asfligentium usque ad internecionem cernimus tempota incumbere periculosa Quamobrem ego Aethelulfus Rex Occidentalium Saxonum cum Consilio Episcoporum ac Principum meorum Consilium salubre arque uniforme reme iam assirmavi ut aliquam portionem Terrae meae Deo beatae Mariae omnibus sanctis Iure perpetuo possidendam concedam Decimam scilicet partem terrae meae ut sit tuta muâ—eribus et libera ab omnibus servitiis
he died at London not Oxford about the Feast of St. Andrew as if he had died of a naturall death but the generality of Writers agree he was murdered at Oxford ambiguum quo casu extinctus writes Malmesbury the common fame being he was murdered by Edric as aforesaid And bromton who recites all three opinions concludes thus Sed primus modus videliceâ— quod rex Edmundus ad requiem naturae sedens proditione dicti Edrici occisus fuit verâ—or allis et autenticior habetur The Author of the Encomium of Emma concurring with Marianus subjoynes this Observation touching his short reign and speedy death That God c. minding his own doctrine That a kingdom divided in it self cannot long stand and pitying the English took away Edmond lest if the Kings had continued long together they should have both lived in danger and the Realm in continual trouble His reign continued onely seven moneths in which time he fought seven or eight battels in defence of his Country People and their Liberties besides his single Duel with Cnute and by his untimely death the English Saxon Monarchy was devolved to the Danes who by Treachery and the Sword for three descents depriâ—ed the English Saxons of the Crown and Kingdom through divine retaliation as they had unjustly by treachery and the Sword dispossess'd and disinherited the Britons thereof about 450 yeares before as Henry Huntindon Bromton Radulphus Cistrensis Mr. Fox Speed and others observe The Sinnes of the Saxons grown now to the full writes Speed and their dreggs as it were sunk to the bottom they were emptied by the Danes from their own vessels and their bottles broken that had vented their red and bloudy wines in lieu whereof the Lord gave them the cup of wrath whose dreggs he had formerly by their own hands wrung out upon other Nations For the Saxons that had enlarged their Kingdomes by the bloud of the Britons and built their nests high upon the Cedars of others as the Prophet speaketh Habbak 2. committed an evil covetousness to their own habitations and were stricken by the same measure that they had measured to others when as the Danes often attempting the Lands invasion and the subversion of the Eâ—glish Estate made way with their Swords through all the Provinces of the Realm and lastly advanced the Crown upon their own helmets which they wore only for three Successions CHAP. IV. Comprising a Summary Collection of all the Parliamentary Great Councils Synods Historical Passages Proceedings Lawes relating to the Fundamental Liberties Franchises Rights Government of the People and other remarkables under our Danish Kings Cnute Harold and Harde-Cnute from the year of our Lord 1017. till the first year of King Edward the Confessor Anno 1042. With some brief Observations on the same IMmediately after the murder of King Edmond Ironside King Cnute the Dane Anno 1017. taking possession of the whole Realm of England was solemnly crowned King at London by Living Archbishop of Canterbury succeeding in the Realm of England Non successione haereditaria sed Armorum violentia as William Thorne observes Injuste quidem Regnum ingressus sed magna civilitate et fortitudine vitam componens writes William of Malmsbury Whereupon the better to fortifie his Military Title with a seeming publick Election by the Nobles and Nation in a Parliamentary Council and their open disclaimer and renunciation of any Right or Title either in King Edmonds Sons or Brethren to the English Crown to settle it in perpetuity on himself and his posterity he commanded all the Bishops Dukes Princes and Nobles of the English Nation to be assembled together at London in a Parliamentary Council Where when they were all met together in his presence he most craftily demanded of them as if he were ignorant Who were the Witnesses between him and Edmond Ironside when they made their agreement and division of the Kingdom between them What manner of conference there then was between him and Edmond concerning his Brethren and Sons Whether it was agreed that it should be lawfull for Edmonds Brethren or Children to reign in the kingdom of the West-Saxons after his death by any special reservation or agreement between them in case Edmond should die in his life-time Whom he had designed to be his Heir Whom he had appointed to be guardians to his Sons during their infancy And what he had commanded concerning his Brothers Alfred and Edward To which they all answering both falsly and slatteringly said That they did most certaiâ—ly know King Edmond neither living nor dying had commended or given no part of his kingdom to his Brethren and they did likewise know that it was King Edmonds will that Cnute should be the Gardian and Protector of his Sons and of the Realm untill they were of age to reign calling God himself to witnesse the truth hereof O the strange temporizing falsity treachery perjury of men in all ages But though they thus called God to witness yet they gave a false testimony and fraudulently lyed preferring a lye before the truth being forgetfull of justice unmindfull of nature unjust witnesses rising up against Innocency and betrayers of their own bloud and Country when as they all well knew that Edmond had designed his Brethren to be his heirs and appointed them to be Guardians of his children thinking by this their false testimony to please King Cnute to make him more mild and gracious to them and that they should receive great rewards from him for the same After their answers to those Interrogatories to ingratiate themselves further with Cnute though they were sworn before to Edmond and his Heirs and were Native Englishmen yet they there all took a solemn Oath of Allegiance to Cnute swearing to him That they would and did chuse him for their King humbly obey him et Exercitui Uectigalia dare and would give Tributes to his Army And having received a pledge from Cnutes naked hands with Oathes from the Princes and Nobles of the Danes Cnute reciprocal Oaths from them and all the people they ratified a mutual Covenant and League of Peace with reciprocal Oaths between both Nations reconciling and abandoning all publick enmities between them They likewise swore that they would cast off banish and wholly reject King Edmonds Brothers Sons and Family In pursuance whereof they there presently Fratres et filios Edmondi Regis omnino despexerunt cosque Reges esse negaverum unum autem ex ipsis praedictis Clitonibus Edwinum egregium et reverendissimum Edmundi Regis germanum Ividem cum consilio pessimo exulem esse debere coustituerunt as Roger de Hoveden Abbot Ethelred Wigorniensis and others at large record the Story The discord treacherous falshood disloyal proceedings of the English Nation then towards one another the English royal line is thus elegantly set forth by Abbot Ailred a lively Character of our age Externisque
towards London But when they came to Guild-down Godwin said to Alfred Look round about thee on thy right hand and left and behold what a kingdom shall be subjugated to thy Dominion Upon which Alfred giving thanks to God presently promised that if it happened he should be crowned King He would constitute such Laws as should be pleasing and acceptable both to God and Man Which words were no sooner uttered but the Traytor Godwin commanded all his men to apprehend Alfred and to slay all the Normans that came with him in his company and after that to carry Alfred into the Isle of Ely and there to put out both his eys and to pull out his bowels which they accordingly executed as aforesaid And so died this innocent Alfred right heir to the Crown through the Treason of wicked Godwin When the Lords of England heard thereof and how Alfred that should have been their King was put to death through the false Treason of Godwin against their wills they were wonderfull sorrowfull and wroth and swore before God and Man that he should die a worser Death than did Edric which destroyed his Lord Edmond Ironside and would immediately have put him to death but that the Traytor fled and escaped into Denmark and there continued 4. yeares and more and lost all his Lands Rents Goods and Chattels in England confiscated in the mean time for this his Treason These Historians though they somewhat vary in the time and occasion of Prince Alfreds death yet they all agree in the substance of his and of his Norman Souldiers and Campanions treacherous barbarous murders by the joynt or separate treacherie of Earl Godwin and his son Harold Which how fatal it proved to them both by Gods avenging Justice you shall hear in its due place and what divine vengeance it drew at last on the whole English Nation religious and judicious Mr. John Fox informes us in these words This cruel fact of Godwin and his men against the innocent Normans whether it came of himself or of the Kings setting on seemeth to me to be the cause why the justice of God did shortly after avenge the quarrel of these Normans in conquering and subduing the English Nation by William the Conquerour and the Normans which came wiâ—h him For so just and right it was that as the Normans coming with a natural English Prince were murdered of English men so afterwards the Englishmen should be slain and conquered by the Normans coming with a forein King being none of their natural Country After the banishment of Queen Emma out of and murder of Prince Alfred in England Harde-Cnute delaying the time in Denmark and deferring his coming in o England thereupon Harold formerly King only of the Mercians and Northumbrians that he might reign over all England in the year 1037. A Principibns et omni Populo Rex eligitnr was elected King by all the Nobles and People Harde-Cnutus verò quia in Denmarchia manscrat et ad Anglian ut rogabatur venire distulit penitus abjicitur as Florentius Wigorniensis Simeon Dunelmensis Hoveden Bromton Radulphus de Diceto and others inform us After which King Harold degenerating from Cnute his Father in all things took no care at all either of military or civil affairs nor of his own Courtly honour doing only his own will and contrary to his royal estate going more willingly on foot of which he was so swift that he was named Harefoot than riding on Horseback In his dayes there were rendred and paid to 16 Ships from every Port not In-land Towns 8. marks of Silver as in the time of his Father as Henry Huntindon records to which John Speed subjoynes This Dane seeing his hazards prevented sought to secure himself and wâ—th 16 Ships of the Danish Fleet kept the Seas which continued ever in a readiness and wafted from port to port to the maintenance whereof he charged the English with great payments to their no little grudge and reviling whereby he lost the love of his Subjects before it had taken root in their hearts Neither held he long those disloyal courses for that his speedy death did cut off the infamy of a longer life he dying at Oxford where he was elected King without wife or children to survive his person or revive his name when he had reigned only 4. years and as many moneths Anno 1040. Upon the deâ—th of h Harold Proceres tam Anglorum quam Danorum in unum concordantes sententiam the Nobles both of the English and Danes assembling together in a Parliamentary Council and concording in one opinion sent Embassadours to Harde-Cnute then at Bruges in Flanders visiting Queen Emma his Mother where he had made great preparation of ships and land-forces to recover the Crown of England which belonged to him both by birth and compact from his brother Harold beseeching him to make hast into England and to take possession of the Crown thereof Whereupon he immediately consenting to the Counsel of the Nobles came speedily into England with 60 as some or 40 ships as others write furnished with Danish Souldiers and Mariners where he was received with great joy elected King both by the English and Danes and solemnly crowned ar London by Elnothus Archbishop of Canterbury Soon after he commanded Alfric Archbishop of Yorke Earl Godwin and others to digg up the interred corps of his brother King Harold out of his grave in London and his head to be cut off by the hangman and then both head and corps to be thrown into the Common sink and after that into the Thames And that partly in revenge of the injuries done by him to his Mother Queen Emma in banishing and spoiling her of her money and jewels against all right and justice and partly for his unjust invasion of the Crown of England but in truth as a just retaliation of his barbaâ—ous cruelty to Prince Alfred and his Normans For whose treacherous inhumane slaughter King Harde-Cnute deprived Alfred Bishop of Worcester of his Bishoprick whose hands were said to have been in Alfreds bloud And for which murder he likewise looked with an evil eye upon Earl Godwin compelling him to an Oath of Purgation touching the same Whereupon Godwin by his own Oath and the Oaths os most of the Nobles of the Realm his compurgators swore though most falsly That Prince Alfreds eyes were not put out nor he murdered as aforesaid by his Counsel or consent but what was done therein was only by the command of King Harold which he durst not resist Notwithstanding which Oath to purchase his peace with Harde-Cnute he presented him with a most rich and royal present to wit with a Ship whose stern was of gold with 80 Souldiers placed therein all uniformly and richly suited having on their heads gilt Burgonets on their armes bracelets of Gold on their bodies Habergeons Swords Battel-axes Targets and other arms after the Danish fashion all
acquired by war blood conquest treachery and the English and Norwegian royal lines restored to their rights and Crowns again What persons then in their right sences would impiously spend much treasure levied on the oppressed people by violence rapin uncessant Taxes Excises or shed much human Christian blood to purchase other mens Crowns Kingdoms which are not only full of cares and troubles but so unstable short and momentary in their fruition as is most evident by the Danish Intruders CHAP. V. Containing a Brief Historicall Collection of all the Parliamentary Councils State-Assemblies Historicall Passages and Proceedings that concern the Fundamentall Liberties Priviledges Rights Properties Laws and Government of the Nation under the reign of King Edward the Confessor from the year of our Lord 1042. to 1066. wherein he died KING Harde-Cnute being sodainly taken out of this world without issue by divine Justice on the 6 day of Iune Anno 1042. thereupon the Earls and Barons of England immediately after his death assembled together in a Great Council about the election of a New King Wherein OMNES ANGLORUM MAGNATES ad invicem tractantes DE COMMVNI CONCILIO ET JURAMENTO STATUERUNT QUOD NUNQUAM TEMPORIBUS FUTURIS ALIQUIS DACUS SUPER EOS IN ANGLIA REGNARET hoc maximâ— pro contemptibus quos Angli à Danis saepiuâ— acceperunt c. as the Chronicle of Bromton others informe us All the Nobles of the English treating together decreed by common advice which they ratified with an oath THAT IN TIMES TO COME NEVER ANY DANE or person of the Danish blood SHOULD REIGN OR BE KING OVER THEM IN ENGLAND ANY MORE disclaiming all Danish subjection that especially for the contempts which the English had very often received from the Danes For if a Dane had met an Englishmâ—n upon any bridge the Englishman must not be so hardy to move a foot but stand stâ—ll till the Dane was passed quite ever it And moreover if the Englishmen had not bowed down their heads to doe reverence to the Danes they should presently have undergoâ—e great punishments and stripes Whereupon King Harde-Cnute being dead the English rising up against them drove all the Danes being then without a King and Captaine out of the Realm of England who speedily quâ—tting the land never returned into it afterwards And here we may justly stand still a while and contemplate the admirable retaliating justice of God upon our Danish usurping Kings and their Posterity King Cnute as you heard before caused the temporizing English Bishops Nobles and Barons assembled in a Parliamentary Council against their oaths of allegiance to King Ethelred Edmund Ironside and their heirs no less then twice one after another to renounce cast off and abjure their regall Posterity to make them incapable of the Crowne of England and settle the inheritanceâ— of it upon him and his Danish blood Anno 1016. and 1017. And now in little more then twenty years after all the English Prelates and Nobles assembled in Council of their own accords by a solemn Decree and Oath abjure renâ—unce and eternally disinherit all the Danish blood-royall of the Crown of England and restore the Saxon English royall line to that soveraignty which they had formerly disclaimed such are the vicifâ—itudes of divine Justice and providence worthy our observation in these wheeling times wherein we live when no man knoweth what changes of like nature one day or year may bring forth The English putting their Decree for cashiering all the Danes in execution turned the mout of all the Castles Forts Garrisons Cities Villages thâ—oughout England as well those of the Royall and Noble blood as the vulgar sort and forced them to depart the Realm as they had formerly banished the English Princes and Nobles Procâ—reâ— igitur Anglorum â—am DACORUM DOMINIO LIBERATI The Nobles therefore of Engl. being thus freed from the Danes dominion for so much of God of his mercy and providence who is the maker of heirs thought good after the wofull captivity of the English Nation to grant them some respite of deliverance in taking away the Danish Kings without any issue left behinde them who reigning here in England kept the English people in miserable subjection about the space of 28 years and from their first landing in the time of King Brictâ—icus wasted and vexed this land for the space of 255 years their Tyranny now coming to an end by the death of Harde Cnute they thereupon assembling together in a great Council with a generall consent elected Prince Edward surnamed the Confessor the youngest and onely surviving son of King Ethelred for their King who ANNUENTE CLERO ET POPULO LONDONIIS IN REGEM ELIGITUR as Mat. Westminster relates whereupon Edward being then in Normandy where he had long lived in exile being a man of a gentle and soft spirit more appliable to other mens counsels then able to trust his own naturally so averse from all war bloodshed that he wished rather to continue all his life long in a private exiled estate then by war or blood to aspire to the Crown the Lords sent messengers to him to come over and take peaceable possession of the Kingdome of England they having chosen him for their King advising him to bring with him as few Normans as he could and they would most faithfully establish him in the throne Edward though at first he much doubted what course to stear somewhat mistrusting the treachery and inconstancy of the fickle headed English yet at last upon the importunity of the messengers who informed him melius esse ut vivat gloriosus in Imperio quà m ignominiosus moriaâ—ur in exiliâ— JURE EI COMPETERE REGNUM aevo maturo laboribus defaecato sciâ—â—ti administrare principatum per aetatem severè miserias Provinciâ—lium pro pristina aequitate temperare c. and upon putting in sufficient pledges and an oath given for his security he came into England with a small train of Normans where he was joyfully received by the Nobles and people Nec mora Gilingeam or rather Londoniam CONGREGATO CONCILIO rationibus suis explicitis regem effecit Dominio palam ab omnibus dato as Malmsbury or electus â—st in Regem ab omni populo as Huntindon and others expresse it After which on Easter day Apr 2. 1043. he was solemnly crowned King at Winchester with great pomp by Eâ—dsi Arch-bishop of Canterbury by the unanimouâ— consent of the Archbishops Bishops Nobles Clergie and people of England to their great joy and content without the least opposition war or blood-shed after 25 yeares seclusion from the Crown by the Danish usurpers Our Historians generally record that Bryghtwold a Monk of Glastenbury afterwards first Bishop of Wilton when King Cnute had banished and almost extinguished the whole royal issue of the English race almost past any possibility or probability of their restitution to the Crown which he had forcibly invaded
him and would not consent to set up Edgar though right heir 10. That after good deliberation all the Nobles Prelates Londoners and others who first appeared for Edgar with the greatest part of the Clergy people of the English Nation without the least fight or resistance or before any siege or summons from him together with Prince Edgar himself voluntarily went out and submitted themselves sware faith and allegeance to him as their Soveraign at Berkhamsted and after that joyfully received him with highest acclamations as their lawfull King at his entry into London 11. That all the Prelates Clergy and Nobility soon after without any coercion upon his foresaid right and Title freely elected and solemnly crowned him as their lawfull King in a due and accustomed manner and then did Homage and swore new Allegiance afresh unto him as their rightful Soveraign 12. That he took the Ordinary Coronation Oath of all lawfull Kings to mainitan and defend the rights persons of all his people to govern them justly c. as became a good King which a King claiming by meer conquest would never do All these particulars are undeniable Evidences that Duke William never made the least pretence claim or title to the Crown and Realm of England only as an absolute Conqueror of the Nation but meerly by Title as their true and lawfull King by designation adoption and cognation seconded with the Nobles Prelates Clergy and peoples unanimous election And although it be true that this Duke ejected Harold and got actual possession of the Throne and Kingdom from him by the sword as did Aurelius Ambrosius and others before and King Henry the 4. Edward the 4. Henry the 7. with others since his reign yet that neither did nor could make him a King by conquest only no more than these other Princes seeing the end of this warr was not against the whoie English Nation the greatest part where of secretly abbetted his interest but only against the unjust Usurper and Intruder King Harold and his adherents not to create a Title to the Realm by his and their Conquest but to remove a Usurper who invaded it without and against all right and to gain the actual possession thereof by arms from which he was unjustly withheld by force against those pretended lawfull Titles which he made So that he got not the Right Title but only the actual possession of the Crown by his Sword not as a universal Conqueror of the Realm without right or Title but as if he had been immediate heir and lawfull Successour to the Confessor who designed him to succeed him For fuller confirmation whereof I shall here subjoin these ensuing proofs 1. King William himself at his very Coronation in London as Mr Cambden informs us said That the kingdom was by Gods providence appointed and by vertue of a gift from his Lord and Cosen King Edward the glorious granted unto him and that this most bounteous King Edward had by adoption ordained him his heir in the kingdom of England 2ly In his Charter to the Church of Westminster he resolves us much in direct terms where he recites In ore gladii Regnum adeptus sum Anglorum devictâ— Haroldo rege Cum suis complicibus qui mihi Regnum cum providentia Dei destinatum beneficio concessionis Domini Cognati mei gloriosi Edwardi CONCESSUM conati sunt auferre c. So that his Title was from Edward though his possession by the sword 3ly In the very Title of his Laws published in the 4th year of his reign which he was so far from altering that he both by Oath and Act of Parliament ratified confirmed all the Laws and Customs of the Realm used in the Confessors time and before presented by a Grand Enquest unto him out of every County of England upon Oath without any alteration praevarication or diminution he stiles himself or is stiled by the Collector of these Laws HEIR AND COSEN TO Edward the Confessor even in the ancient Manuscript which Sir Henry Spelman hath published Incipiunt Leges S. Edwardi Regis quas in Anglia tenuit quas WILLIELMUS HAERES cognatus suus POSTEA CONFIRMAVIT To which I shall likewise subjoyn the words of the Charter of his Sonn King Henry the 1. Anno 1108. translating the Abbey of Ely into a Bishoprick wherein he gives his Father William the self-same Title Ego Henricus providente divina clementia Rex Anglorum Normannorum Dux Willielmi magni Regis filius QUI EDWARDO REGI HAEREDITARâ—O JURE SUCCESCIT IN REGNUM renouncing all Title by conquest and claiming only as Heir to King Edward by Hereditary right 4ly Earl William himself in none of his Charters Writs Speeches Writings ever stiled himself a Conquerour of England nor laid claim to the Crown and Realm of England by Conquest after his inauguration which Title of Conqueror was afterwards out of the flattery or ignorance of the times given unto him by others Therefore the words which the History of St. Stephens in Caen in Normandy reports he used at his last breath The Regal Diadem which none of my Predecessors ever wore I got and gained by the Grace of God only I ordain no man heir of the Kingdom of England which all our Historians unanimously contradict affirming that he ordained VVilliam Rufus his second son particularly to succeed him in it at his death upon which Title only he enjoyed it but I commend the same to the eternal Creator whose I am in whose hands are all things For I became not possessor of so great honour by any hereditary right but by an humble conflict and with much effusion of blood I took it from the perjured King Harold and after I had either slain or put to flight his favourits and Servants I subdued the kingdom to my self must either be reputed false and fabulous as most esteem them or else have this construction that he gained the actuall possession of it against Harold and his adherents only by the Sword and that he had not an hereditary right thereto as next heir by descent to the Crown but only by adoption from and as heir by donation to King Edward as next of kin by the Mothers side which he made his only Title 5ly Those antient English Historians who first gave him the name of Conquerour did it not in a strict proper sence as if he were a meer universal Conquerour of the Nation disposing of all mens Estates persons and the Laws of the Realm at his pleasure for that he never did but only as one who gained the actual possession thereof from a perjured Usurper and his forces by strength of arms conquering them by open battel in the field but still claiming it by gift contract and designation from King Edward as his Kinsman as an heir who forcibly outs a disseisor and intruder comes in by Title and Inheritance only though he gains the possession by force This is
The Third Part of a Seasonable Legal and Historical VINDICATION Of the good old Fundamental Liberties Franchises Rights Properties Laws Government of all ENGLISH FREEMEN With a Chronological Collection of their strenuous Defences by wars and otherwise of all Great Parliamentary Councills Synods and chief Laws Charters Proceedings in them of the publike revolutions of State with the sins and vices occasioning them and the exemplary Judgements of God upon Tyrants Oppressors perjured perfidious Traitors Rebels Regicides Usurpers during the reigns of our Saxon and Danish Kings from the year of our Lord 600. till the Coronation of William the Norman Anno 1066. Collected out of our antientest and best Historians With brief usefull observations on and from them By William Prynne Esq a Bencher of Lincolns Inne Jer. 22. 15. c. Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in Cedar did not thy Father eat and drink and do judgement and justice and then it was well with him But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy Covetousness and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to do it Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jâ—hoiakim King of Judah They shall not lament for him saying ah my Brother or ah his glory He shall be buried with the burial of an Asse drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem Write ye this man childless for noman of his seed shall prosper sitting on the Throne of David and ruling any more in Judah Xenophon Memorabilium l. 1. p. 718. Quid autem vis Legum eversio An non cum fortior imbecilliorem non persuadendo sed vim inferendo cogit Ergo quaecunque Tyrannus non persuasis civibus praescribit atque ut illi faciant cogit aliena sunt a lege Quaecunque verò pauci multitudine non persuasa sed rerum potentes scribunt illa omnia videntur Vis potius esse quam Lex LONDON Printed by Francis Leach 1657. To the Ingenuous Unprejudiced READER I Here present thee with The Third part of a seasonable Legal and Historical Vindication of the good old Fundamental Liberties Franchises Rights Properties Laws Government of all English Freemen with A Chronological Collection of their Strenuous Defences by Wars and otherwise of all the Great Parliamentary Councils Synods chief Laws Charters and other Proceedings in them the great fatal Publick Revolutions Invasions Wars National Sinnes occasioning them and the exemplary Judgements of God upon Tyrants Oppressors Perjured persons Rebells Traytors Regicides Usurpers under our Saxon and Danish Kings since the year of Christ 600. till the Coronation of King William the Norman anno 1066. with some Short Observations of mine own here and there subjoined for the Readers benefit and instruction A work neither unseasonable for nor unsutable unserviceable to our present times worthy the serious perusal of all who profess themselvs trons of the Publique Fundamental Rights Liber-Paties Laws Properties Government of the English Nation or studious of our old Parliamentary Councils Acts Laws Charters Proceedings or of our English History From which intelligent wise Christian Readers by observing the Providences Judgements Proceedings of God towards our ancestors and others for their national personal crying bloody sins in former ages may probably conjecture what Tragical Judgements Events our whole Nation in general many transcendent Delinquents in particular have now just cause to fear and expect for their exorbitant iniquities equalling or exceeding any in those former ages unless their speedy real sincere repentance reformation and Gods infinite mercy ward them off True it is that the infallible certainty of future contingent judgements and events national or personal are known only to God himself who changeth the times seasons removeth Kings and setteth up Kings pulleth down one and setteth up another roots up pulls down destroyes builds plants Nations Kingdomes Cities Families Persons at his pleasure doing whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven earth the Sea all deep places and amongst all the Inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hands nor say unto him What dost thou Yet notwithstanding wise intelligent Christians by a serious trutination and comparing of the Judgements of God expresly threatned against and usually inflicted upon Nations or Persons for such and such transgressions in precedent generations may probably conjecture predict what severe exemplary punishments our late present transcendent wickednesses outragious crimes are like to draw down upon our impenitent secure perjured sinfull Nation and the hairy scalps of all those Grand Offenders who go on still in their exorbitant trespasses though they deem themselves advanced above the reach of any Powers or Tribunalls which may pull them down and execute justice on them answerable to their bloody crimes and violences there being an higher than the highest who is both able and resolved to execute vengeance on them in his due season as well as on all Notorious grand Offenders in former ages though never so many if their repentance prevent it not It was Davids profession to God though a victorious King General and Man of War My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements O that this were the present temper of our secure Nation and all the sinners warriours and Grandees in it in this fearless stupid age wherein though we commit wickedness with both hands our tongues doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory and we all proclaim our sins like Sodome and hide them not yet Gods judgements are far above out of our sight and we all say in our hearts like those secure Atheists mentioned in the Psalmist we shall never be moved we shall never be in adversity God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see nor require it Yea notwithstanding all Gods threats curses against his late severe punishments of our National personal sins We blesse our selves and say in our hearts we shall have peace though we walk in the imaginations of own hearts to add drunkennesse to thirst quite forgetting what follows thereupon The Lord will not spare such men but the anger of the Lord and his jealously shall smoke against them and all the curses that are written in his book shall lie upon them the Lord shall blot out their names from lunder heaven Let therefore the contemplation of the National Personal judgements of God upon our Ancestors here recorded for those crimes of w ch we are now as deeply guilty as they were then awaken us from our present Let hargy lest we be sodainly destroyed and that without remedy and teach us all this Gospel lesson Rom. 11. 20 21. Be not high minded but fear for if God spared not the naturall branches heretofore or of late take heed lest he also spare not thee Rumor de Vâ—teri faciet futura timeri The fourth Section of the third chapter which begins this third part should have been printed
from these remote obscure times to ages next ensuing in the like or some other Chronological method But if any out of disaffection to the work or diversity from me in opinion shall deem these Collections useless or superfluous I hope they will give me leave to make the selfsame Apology for my self and them as our most judidicus Historian t William of Malmesbury long since made for himself and his Historical collections Et quidem erunt multi fortassis in diversis Regionibus Angliae qui quaedam aliter ac ego dixi se dicant audisse vel legisse Veruntamen si recto aguntur judicio non ideo me censorio expungent stilo Ego enim veram Legem secutus Historiae nihil unquam poâ—ui nisi quod à sidelibus relatoribus vel scriptoribus addidici Porro quoquo modo haec se habeant privatim ipse mihi sub ope Christi gratulor quod continuam Anglorum Historiam ordinaveram vel solus vel primus at least wise in this kind Si quis igitur post me scribendi de talibus munus attentaverit mihi debeat collectionis gratiam sibi habeat electionis materiam Quod superest munus meum dignanter suscipite ut gaudeam grato cognitoris arbitrio qui non erravi eligendi judicio Thus craving the Benefit of thy Prayers for Gods Blessing on these my publications for the common liberty weale and Benefit of the Nation I commend both them and thee to Gods tuition and benediction WILLIAM PRYNNE Lincolns Inne December 6. 1656. A Seasonable Legal and Historical Vindication of the good old Fundamental Liberties Rights and Laws of England Chapter 3. Section 4. Comprehending a brief Collection of all the most observable Parliamentary Councils Synods Conventions Publique Contests Debates Wars Historical Proceedings Passages Records relating to the fundamental Liberties Franchises Rights Customs and Government of the People under our English Saxon Kings from the year of our Lord 600 till the death of King Edmund Ironside and reign of Cnute the Danish King Anno Dom. 1017. with some brief Observations on and from the same IN the former Section I have presented you with a general brief Account of our first English Saxon Christian Kings limited Power and Prerogative being obliged to govern their English-Saxon Subjects not arbitrarily but justly according to their known Laws and totally disabled to alter repeal any old or enact any new Laws to impose any publique Taxes Tallages Imposts Customs whatsoever on their people upon any real or pretended necessity to make any War Peace or to alienate the Lands or ancient Revenues of their Crowns to any pious publique or private uses whatsoever without the common consent of their Nobles and Wisemen in general Parliamentary Councils together with a Summary of the Laws of Ethelbert the first Christian Saxon King wholly pretermitting the Names Acts Kingdoms of our first Pagan Saxon Usurpers rather than lawfull Kings who though many and great in their generations were very speedily brought to nothing their Kingdoms begun erected by blood conquest and meer power of the Sword standing not long unshaken by civil wars among themselves each King envying his equals greatness and seeking to inlarge his own Dominions upon the next In which Combustions few or none of them came to the Grave in due time but were either slain in war or treacherously murdered in Peace or expelled their Realms by or forced to resign their Crowns to others after all their former prosperous successes and reigns wholly spent in Wars Troubles Seditions Rebellions Rapines affording nothing worthy memory for their peoples good the Kingdoms settlement or imitation of Posterity Whence Henry Huntindon in the close of the 2 Book of his Histories p. 320 hath this Observation concerning them very seasonable for our present times Vide igitur Lector perpende quanta Nomina quam cito ad nihilum devenerint Attende quaeso stude cum nihil hic duret ut adquiras tibi regnum substantiamillam quae non deficiet Nomen illud honorem qui non pertransibit monimentum illud claritatem quae nullis saeculis veterascet Hoc praemeditare summae prudentiae est acquirere summae caliditatis adipisci summae faelicitatis I shall now in this Section proceed in my intended Chonological Method to their next succeeding Christian Saxon Kings reigns in England till the reign of King Cnute the Dane Anno Domini 1017. It is recorded of Aethelbert the first Christian Saxon King of Kent that keeping the Feast of our Saviours Nativity at Canterbury with his Queen Eadbald his Son Arch-Bishop Augustine and the Nobles of the Land he there held a Parliamantary Council with them on the 5. of January in the year of our Lord 605. Which Thomas Sprot thus expresseth in the Language of his age rather than of that Convocato ibidem communi Concilio tam Cleri quam Populi dic quinto Januarii he did then and there Omnium singulorum approbatione consensu as he relates or cum consensu Venerabilis Archie â—iscopi Augustini Ac Principum meorum cum Aedbaldi filii mei aliorumque Nobilium optimatum meorum Consilio as his Charters recite give grant and confirm to the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Canterbury for ever sundry Lands pretious Utensils Privileges and Immunities by his Charters made and ratified in this Council In which it is most probable he likewise made those Judicial Decrees and Laws with the advice of his Wise men for the benefit of his people in his own Country Saxon Language Which our venerable Beda William of Malmesbury Huntindon Bromton and others mention only in the general and Bishop Enulph hath registred to posterity in his famous manuscript intituled Textus Roffensis of which I have given you some account before Section 3. p. 50 51 52. on which you may reflect In the year of Christ 627 Paulinus perswading Edwin King of Northumberland to become a Christian to avod eternal torments and to be made a partaker of the Kongdom of Heaven The King answered That he was both willing and ought to receive the faith which he taught but he ought first to confer with his Friends Princes and Counsellors concerning it that so if they concurred in judgement with him they might all be baptized together Assembling therefore his Wisemen and advising with them he demanded severally of them all What that Doctrine which they never heard of till then and that new worship of God which was preached by Paulinus seemed to them To whom Coyfi the chief of the Priests presently answered Do thou consider O King what that Religion is which is now preached to us I profess unto thee that which I have most certainly learned that the Religion we have hitherto imbraced hath no virtue at all in it whereupon it remains that if those new things which are now preached unto us shall appear to thee upon
in all things And if any of our Successors Kings Bishops or Princes shall attempt to infringe this wholsom Decree let him render an account to Almighty God in that terrible day But if any Earl Priests Clerk Deacon or Monk shall resist this Decree let him be deprived of his degree and sequestred from the participation of the body blood of the Lord and alienated from the kingdom of God unless he shall amend with due satisfaction what he hath unjustly done through the evil of Pride Anno 747. There was another Parliamentary Council held at Clovesho or Clyffe under king Ethelbald where the king himself with Cumbert Archbishop of Canterbury eleven other Bishops cum Principibus et Dutibus with the Princes and Dukes were present In this Council were some Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons made the last whereof was for Prayers to be publikely made for Kings and Princes incessantly that the People might live a Godly and peaceable life under their pious protection In this Council king Ethelbald renewed and enlarged his former Grant of Privileges to the Churches recited at large in the Marginal Authors the sum whereof is this Plerumque contingere solet pro incertâ futurotum temporum vicissitudine ut ea quae prius multorum fidelium personarum testimonio consilioque roborata fuissent ut fraudulenter per contumaciam plurimorum machinamentis simulationis sine ullâ consideratione rationis periculose dissipata essent nisi auctoritate Literarum testimonio Cyrographorum aeternae memoriae inserta sint Quapropter Ego Ethelbaldus Rex Merciorum pro amore caelestis patriae hanc donation em me vivente concedo Ut omnia Monasteria Ecclesiae Regni mei A publicis vectigalibus ab omnibus operibus oneribusque absolvantur nisi in instructionibus Arcium vel Pontium quae nulli unquam possint laxari as Ingulph renders it or as other Copies ' nisi sola quae communiter fruenda sint omnique populo edicto Regis facienda jubentur id est instructionibus Pontium vel necessariis defensionibus Arcium contra â—ostes non sunt renuendaâ— Sed nec hoc praetermittendum est cum necessarium constat Ecclesiis Dei. Praeterea habeant famuli Dei propriam Libertatem in proficuis Sylvarum in fructu Agrorum in captura piscium nec munuscula praebeant Regi vel Principibus nisi voluntaria sed liberi Domino serviant in contemplatione pacificâ per totum regnum meum usque in aevum Sed cunctas rribulationes quae nocere vel impedire possint in Domo Dei omnibus Principibus sub meâ potestate degentibus demittere auferre praecipio Quatenus sublimitas Regni mei prosperis successibus polleat in terris meritorum manipuli multipliciter maturescant in coelis Qui vero haec benigna mentis intentione atque in-laesâ cogitatione custodierit aeternâ claritate coronetur ornetur glorificetur Si quis hoc quod absit cujuslibet personae tyrannica cupiditate instinctus contrà hanc donationis chartulam saeculari potentiâ fretus venire nititur sit sub Anathemate Judae Proditoris Domini nostri Jesu Christi Ad confirmandum verò hoc nostrae beneficentiae munus Hi Testes adfuerunt Nostri Magistrarus Optimates et Duces fidelissimique amici concesserunt et scripserunt Then follow the subscriptions of the King Bishops and Nobles with Ego his statutis consentiens subscripsi confirmandoque signum crucis aravi In this Council amongst other Synodal Decrees subscribed by the Bishops It was decreed That the Feasts of St. Gregory the Pope and St. Augustine the English Apostle should be perpetually observed with greatest solemnity King Ethelbald with his Nobles being there present and approving it In the year of Grace 752. Cuthred king of the West-Saxons being unable to endure the proud Exactions and insolencies of king Ethelbald for vindicaâ—ion of his own and his peoples Liberty from his oppressions raised an Army and fought a bloody Battel with him at Beorford where through Gods assistance who giveth grace to the Humble and resisteth the Proud he routed him and his whole Army and after An. 755. slew him in a second battel he disdaining to fly by the Treachery of Bernred his Captain the chief Author of his death King Cuthred deceasing Sigibert his kinsman who succeeded him growing insolent and proud by his Predecessors great successes became intollerable to his Subjects treating them very ill in every kind Depraving or altering the Laws of his Ancestors for his own private Lucre and exercising exactions and cruelties upon his Subjects setting aside all Laws Whereupon his faithfull Counsellor Earl Cumbra ovingly admonishing him to govern his people more mildly and justly that so he might become amiable to God and men he was so incensed with him that he commanded him most wickedly to be stain and became more cruel and Tyrannical to his people than before The Peers and Commons hereupon seeing their Laws and Liberties thus violated and their Estates and Lives every day in danger being incensed into fury assembling themselves together did all unamimously rise up in Arms against him and upon mature prudent deliberation by the unanimous consent of all expelled him the Kingdom for his Tyranny and mis-government Upon which Sigebert flying into the woods for shelter like a forlorn person was there slain by Cumbra his Swine-herd in revenge of his Masters murder Florentius Wigorniensis relates that after his expulsion from the Realm by the Nobleâ— for the multitude of his unjust deeds Kenulphus allotted him the County of Hampshire for his maintenance until he slew Earl Cumbra such was the Charity and Humanity of those times even to an expelled deposed Tyrannical King now quite out of date with whom Ethelwerdus Hist l. 2. c. 17. and Polychronicon l. 5. c. 24. accord Some of our Historians especially Ethelwerdus and Wigorniensis relate that Kenulphus usurped the Crown by meer force of Arms first drawing the Nobles and People to rise up against and expell Sigebert for his exorbitant actions and the multiâ—ude of his unjust deeds and then usurping the Throne being not of the blood Royal as Malmesbury relates though of a Noble family But they all unanimously record that he came to a miserable end upon this occasion When he had reigned 31 years with honour and good success being puffed up therewith and fearing lest Kineardus Sigiberts Brother who began to be potent should revenge his Brothers death upon him and dispossess him or his posterity of the Crown he banished and compelled him to depart his Kingdom Who thereupon giving way to the time voluntarily fled out of his Dominions But soon after secretly drawing together through private Conventicles a band of desperate men he found an opportunity to fall upon Kenulphus when he went with a few followers to visit his Paramore at Merton where he besetting the House round slew the King with all his followers The
fame of which Act coming to his Nobles and Souldiers not far from the place They upon Exhortation of Esric the chiefest of them not to let pass the death of their Lord unrevenged to their notorious and perpetual infamy furiously encountred Keneardus and his Complices and notwithstanding all their fair promises of Mony preferments to them and all intreaties after a sharp bloody incounter put them all to the sword with the loss of some of their own lives Ecce quomodo Dei Iustitia non solum futuro saeculo verum etiam in isto digna meritis manifesto judicio recompensat c. Add Henry Huntindon Roger Hoveden John Bromton Malmesbury and others as a Corollary to this History of Sigibert and Kenulphus Which all Traitors Tyrants and Usurpers treading in their exorbitant footsteps may do well advisedly to consider In the year of our Lord 758. The people of the Realm of Mercia rising up against their King Bernred because he governed them not by just Laws but by Tyranny assembled all together in one as well Noble as Ignoble and Offa being their Captain they expelled him out of the Kingdom and then by the unanimous consent of all as well Clergy as people they crowned Offa King This Bernred as Malmesbury Speed and Simeon Dunelmensis write treacherously murthered King Ethelbald his Soveraign whose General he was and thereupon usurping his Throne and turning a Tyrant as most Usurpers do was in the very first year of his usurped reign expelled the Realm and soon after slain by Offa and so dignum finem insidiarum tulit being Author necis of his Sovereign King Ethelbald à suis tutoribus fraudulentèr interfectus as our Historians observe A good Memento for other Traitors and Usurpers treading in his footsteps Qui Regnum Tyrannus invasit per modicum tempus in parvâ laeritiâ jocunditate tenens Regnum cum vitâ perdidit as Wigorniensis writes of him The English complaining to King Offa in the year 775. of the great exactions in forein parts under Charls the Emperour they being then at variance so as their trading and merchandize was every where prohibited in both their Realms thereupon King Offa by gifts sent to the Emperour obtained this Grant and Privilege from him for his Subjects That all Pilgrims passing through his Dominions to Rome for piety and devotion sake alone should have free and peaceable passage without any molestation or Tribute That all Merchants and others in the company of Pilgrims passing only for gain not devotion should pay only a certain established Tribute in fitting places That all English Merchants and Traders should have lawfull protection by his command within his Realm and if in any place they were vexed with unjust oppression that upon complaint to him or his Judges they should have full justice done unto them In the year 780. Aethâ—â—red or Adelred king of Northumberland was deposed by his Subjects after he had reigned 3 years and quite driven out of his Realm by his Nobles who the next year after assaulted and burnt a certain Consull or Earl being their justice in his own house plus aequo saevientem for tyrannizing beyond the Bounds of Law and Right I shall not insist upon the manifold Insurrections of these Northumberlanders against their kings nor their disloyal depositions expulsions Murders of most of them upon pretended oppressions and Exorbitancies in Government rather than â—eal nor on the strange general bloody frequent depredations wars devastations Plagues Judgements Invasions by Danes Normans Scots and others inflicted justly on them for the same by Divine Justice more than on all other parts of this Iland since I have touched some of them before and shall glance at more of them hereafter all which the studious may read at leisure in Maslmesbury Huntindon Hoveden Aethelwerdus Matthew Westminster Bromton Florentius Wigorniensis Simeon Dunelmensis Radulphus de Diceto Polychronicon Holinshed Speed and others Only I shall give you the sum of them about this age in the words of Simeon Dunelmensis and Richardus Hagulstaldensis Crudelis exinde Barbarorum manus innumeris navibus in Angliam transvecta omnia quaqua versum depopulans Northunhymbrorum autem provincias atrocius devastans omnes Ecclesias omnia Monasteria ferro incendio delevit adeo ut nullum pene Christianitatis signum post se discedens reliquerit Monachi qui loci reverentia confidentes remanserunt de Ecclesiâ extracti alii in mare sub hostibus submersi alii Captivi abducti alii detruncati alii aliis tormentis miserabiliter affecti omnes simul interiêrunt Et indè prosiliens flammâ et ferro in exterminium omnia duxit c. After which sad successive devastations for sundry years by the Danes they were so totally depopulated and extirpated by Famine Sword and Pestilence by the Normans An. 1069. that the whole Country was reduced into a desolate Wilderness without an inhabitant and lay untilled for nine years space bestiarum tantum latronum latibula being only Dens of Beasts and Theeves And how many times it hath been wasted depopulated with fire and sword since this by the Scots and what barbarous cruelties they have exercised therein you may read in the Continuation of Simeon Dunelmensis by the Prior of Hagustald col 264. in Historia Ricardi Prioris Hagustaldensis de Gestis Regis Stephani bello Standardi col 315 316. and other Chronicles since that time The Lord in Mercy divert the like judgements from that Northern part and the whole kingdom now for the like transgressions of a later date In the year of Christ 787. as most account Pope Adrian sent Legates into England to confirm the faith which Augustine had preached who being honourably received both by the Kings Clergy and People thereupon held a great Parliamentary Council at Calchut Chalchuthe or Cealtide as Henry Huntindon stiles it In this Council Offa king of Mercians and Kenulphus king of West-Saxons with all their Ecclesiastical and secular Princes Nobles Elders Bishops Abbots were present who all subscribed and consented to the Ecclesiaestical and Temporal Laws and Canons therein made and published being 20 in Number The principle whereof relating to my Theam I have formerly recited In this Parliamentary Council King Offa caused Egfrid his eldest son to be solemnly crowned King who from thenceforth reigned with him And in it Jambertus or Lambert Archbishop of Canterbury much against his will resigned part of his Arch-Bishoprick to the Arch-bishop of Litchfield by the command and power of King Offa who envying the power and Pride of the Archbishop of Canterb. deprived him in this Council notwithstanding all Jamberts appeals to Pope Adrian of all Lands and Jurisdiction within his Realm of Mercia erecting a new Arch-bishoprick at Litchfield to which he subjected all the Bishops of Mercia being then six in number ill by another Council they were reunited of
unto Cynedrytha the Monastery called Pretanege which king Egfrid gave to him his heirs Which proves the Great Councâ—ls and Synods in that age to be Parliaments and that they judicially restored Lands unjustly taken away by Kings upon complaint examination and due proof made thereof as well as inquired of errors and abuses in Religion In this Councill conceive iâ— was that Kenulph with his Bishops Dukes et omni sub nostra Ditione Dignatis gradu compiâ—ed and sent a Letter to Pope Leo the third promising obedience to his commands requesting that the ancient Canons might be observed and the Jurisdiction and Power of the See of Canterbury which King Osta and Pope Adrian had diminished and divided into two Provinces or Archbishopricks might be restored and united again thereto to avoid Scisms and craving the Popes answer to these their requests which he returned in a special Letter to the King restoring to Athelardus and his successors the Bishopricks substracted from his Province with the Metropolitan Jurisdiction over them as amply as before Hereupon in the year 802. or thereabouts there was another Parliamentary Council assembled at Clovesho wherein the Archbishoprick of Litchfield was dissolved the See of Canterbury restored to its former plenary Metropolitical Jurisdiction according to Pope Leo his Decree By the advice and Decree of the whole Council which commanded in the name of God That no Kings nor Bishops nor Princes neque ullius Tyrannicae potestat is Homines should diminish the honour of the Metropolitical See or presume to divide it in any particle whatsoever under pain of an Anathema Maranatha which Decree the Archbishop with 12 other Bishops subscribed and ratified with the sign of the Cross as they formerly did in the Council of Bechanceld An. 798. And in this Council divers controversies concerning the Lands Limits and Jurisdictions of other Bishops Bishopricks were likewise decided and setled as you may therein read at large Eadburga Daughter to King Offa married Brithric King of the West-Saxons proud of her parentage and match she grew so ambitious insolent and Tyrannical that she became odious not only to all the Prelates Nobles and Courtiers but to the people likewise For being incited with malice and tyranny she usually accused and execrated to the King all the Nobles of the Realm Ordinaries Bishops and Religious persons and so overcame him by her flatteries that those whom she began to accuse aut vitâ aut Regno privaret she would either deprive of Life or banish them the Realm and if she could not obtain this from the King against them she accustomed to destroy them privily with poison At last An. 802. She preparing poison to destroy a rich and noble Favourite of the Kings whom he extra ordinarily lov'd so as she could not banish or destroy him by her false accusations the King casually drinking of the Poison contrary to her intention as well as his Favourite they were both therewith suddenly poisoned and destroyed Wherewith this wicked woman being tetrified fled with all her invaluable Treasures beyond the Seas to Charles the Great who for her Lasciviousness in making choice of his Son for her Husband before himself though much inamoured with her transcendent beauty thrust her into a Monastery where soon after she abusing her body by uncleaness in lying with a lewd man was expelled thence forced to beg her bread and ended her days in extreme misery A just judgement of God both upon a Tyrannical Queen and unrighteous King seduced to banish and condemn his Nobles and Subjects unjustly by her solicitations For this her most hainous crime the West-Saxons ordained a Law to the Grand prejudice of all their succeeding Queens That none of them should have either Title Majesty or place of Royalty or Queen Non enim West-Saxones Reginam vel juxta Regem sedere vel Reginae appellatione insigniri patiuntur propter malitiram Eadburgae quae virum suum Brithicum veneno perdidit juxta Regem sedens omnes Regni Nobiles accusare solebat quos accusare non potuit potu eos venenifero necare consuevit Itaque pro Reginae maleficio omnes conjuraverunt quod nunquam se regnare permitterent qui in praedictis culpabilis inveniretur as William of Malmesbury Asserius Menevensis Matthew Westminster Florentius Wigorniensis and others out of them relate There was a Parliamentary Synod or Council held at Celichith in the year 816. at which not only Wulfred Archbishop of Canterbury with all his Suffragan Bishops but likewise Kenulf king of Mercians with his Princes Dukes and Nobles and sundry Abbots Priests Deacons and other sacred Orders were present wherein they enacted 11 Constitutions the 6th whereof was this in substance That the Judgements and Decrees of Bishops made in Synods should not be infringed but remain firm and irrefragable being ratified with the sign of the holy Cross by the Kings and Nobles Subscriptions unless perchance the King or Princes deemed the subscriptions of their Antecessors of no force and feared not to reform or cease from this error which shall rest and bring a Curse on them and their heirs The 7th That no Bishops Abbots or Abbesses shall alienate or part with the Lands writings and evidences of their Churches and Monasteries which they are intrusted to keep nisi rationabilis causa poposcit adjuvari contra invasionem famis Depraedationem Exercitus ad Libertatem obtinendam which causes they reputed reasonable In the year of our Lord 822. there was a Parliamentary Council assembled at Clovesho wherein Beornulph King of Mercians sate President at which Wulfred Archbishop of Canterbury with the rest of the Bishops Abbots omniumque dignitatum Optimatibus Ecclesiasticarum scilicet saecularium personarum were present debating things both concerning the benefit and regulation of the Church and defence and safety of the Realm the proper subjects of our present English Parliaments as these words import Utilitatem necessitatem Ecclesiarum Monasterialisque vitae Regulam et observantiam stabilitatem quoque Regni pertractanter In this Parliamentary Council the Proceedings in 3 precedent Councils touching the Complaints of the Archbishops of Canterbury of the Injuries done unto them in taking away the Lands of the Church by their Kings and Officers with the proceedings thereupon are at large recited which I shall here transcribe because generally unknown to most and best difcovering the proceedings of our antient Parliamentary Councils in Cases of this nature of any Council I have met with in that Age and those which next proceeded or succeeded it All the said persons in the said Council sitting down quietly together it was inquired by them quomodo quis cum Justitia sit tractatus seu quis injustè sit spoliatus In what manner any one had been handled with justice or if any one had been unjustly spoiled Whereupon amids other things there acted and spoken it was shewed
That Archbishop Wulfred by the mis-information and enmity and violence and avarice of king Kenulph had suffered many injuries and was most unjustly deprived of his just dominations as well by those things which were done unto him amongst us here in England as by those things which were brought against him to the See Apostolick by the procurement of the foresaid King Kenulph by which accusations and discords not only the fore-named Archbishop but also the whole English Nation for almost six years space was deprived of its primordial authority and of the Ministry of sacred Baptism Above all these things the said king Kenulph at a certain time with his Council coming to the City of London appointed a day with great indignation wherein the Archbishop should come unto him whither when he came the King commanded that relinquishing all his goods he should speedily depart out of England without hopes of returning any more neither by the command of our Lord the Pope neither by the intreaties of the Emperour nor of any other person unless he would consent to his will in demising to him a farm of 300 Hides of Land called Leogenesham and moreover would give to the said King one hundred and twenty pounds in money This reconciliation the said Wulfred refusing long contradicted and when the friends of the man of God and Nobles of the King who loved him very much perceived the rapacity and violence of the King they importuned the Archbishop that he would consent to the Kings will upon this condition that the King should relinquish the difference which he had raised between the Pope and Archbishop by his Messengers and should restore to the said Father all the power and dignity which belonged to the said Primates See according to the authority which his Predecessors most amply enjoyed in former time But if the King could not do this that he should then restore the mony and Land which he exacted of the Arohbishop to him again Upon this condition therefore the said reverend Father gave his assent But nothing of the aforesaid condition was performed For three whole years after the said agreement he remained deprived of the power which his predecessors and himself had before that difference over Suthmenstre as well in pasture mony vestments as obedience which belonged to the Metrapolitical See But after the death of King Kenulf when Beornulf reigned the said Archbishop Wulfred invited Abbess Kenedrytha Heir and Daughter of King Kenulf to the foresaid Council whither when she came the Archbishop complained in the audience of all the Council of the injuries and troubles offered and done to him and to Christs Church by her Father and required reparation from her if it were Just Then all the Council found it to be Iustice et hoc unanimi consenm Decrevit and Decreed it by a unanimous consent That all those things which her Father had taken away from the Archbishop she ought justly to restore unto him and to give him so much again for reparation And moreover should restore all the use or profit the foresaid Father had lost in so long a space which she humbly promised to do It seemed good therefore to king Beornulf with his Wisemen for friendship sake most diligently to make a reconciliation and amends for the said Lands between the heirs of King Kenulf and thc Archbishop and because this pleased the king and he humbly intreated it out of Love and Friendship to the King the Archbishop consented thereto for the heirs of the said king Kenulf often desired to have the said Father to be their Patron and intercessor And they intreated him with humble devotion that for a full reconciliation he would receive in four places one hundred Hides of Land to wit Herges and Herfording Land Wamdelea and Gedding Then the Archbishop for the love of God and the amiable friendship of Beornulf consenred to this accord upon this condition that the foresaid Abbess should deliver to the said Archbishop the foresaid Lands of one hundred Hides with the Books which the English â—all Landbor and with the same liberty which he had before for a perpetual inheritnace Whereupon king Beornulf with the testimony of the whole Council proclaimed it to be altogether free But this Agreement was not all this time ratified because after these things the promise remained unfulfilled for 12 Moneths for three Hides or tenements of the foresaid Lands were detained and the Books of 47 tenements to wit the Book of Bockland the Book of Wambelea and also the Book of Herfocdingland But in the year following she the said Ahbess desired a Conference with the foresaid Archbishop who at that time was in the Country of the Wicii at a place called Ostaveshlen where he held a Council where when she had found the man of God she confessed her folly in delaying her former agreement upon which the Archbishop with great sweetness shewed that he was altogether free from the foresaid agreement and that of her part there were many things wanting which she ought to have restored but she being brought before the Councill greatly blushing humbly promised that she would restore all those things that were wanting and with a willing mind restored to the Archbishop the Books of certain Lands which before she had not promised with the Lands adjudged to him as Sir Henry Spelmans Margent supplies the defect in the same Council She likewise added thereto a farm of 4 tenements in Hevgam for his favour likewise She gave to the Archbishop 30 Hide land or tenements in Cumbe with a Book of the said Lands that a firm and stable friendship and accord might remain between all the heirs of King Kenulâ—f and the Archbishop To all which things the Archbishop gave his consent upon this Condition that the names of the aforesaid Lands should be rased quite out of the Ancient Privileges which belong to Wincelcumbe lest in after times some controversie should be raised De hoc quod Synodali authoritate decretum est et signo crucis firmatum concerning this which was ended by authority of the Council and confirmed with the sign of the Ctoss By this and the precedent Councils of Clovesho it is apdarent first That the Injustice Rapine and oppression of our Saxon Kings themselves was then examined and redressed in and by our Parliamentary Councils 2ly That Tittles to Lands Jurisdictions Privileges unjustly taken from the Church and other men by our kings or other great persons and complaints touching the same were usually heard determined and redressed in the great Parliamentary Councils of that Age upon complaints made thereof and that to and before the whole Council not to any private Committees not then in use 3ly That restitution reparations and damages in such Cases were usually awarded in such Parliamentary Councils not only against the Kings Parties that did the wrong but likewise against their heirs as here against Abbess Cenedritha Daugher and heir to king
which sums I never find paid by his Successors as he prescribed by his Will and Charter too because not confirmed by his great Parliamentary Councils of Prelates and Nobles as his forcited Charter and Peter-pence likewise granted by him were upon this occasion as some record that he being in Rome and seeing there outlawed men doing penance in bonds of Iron purchased of the Pope that Englishmen after that time should never out of their Country do penance in Bonds About the year of our Lord 867. Osbrith King of Northumberland as Bromton records residing at York as he returned from hunting went into the house of one of his Nobles called Bruern Bocard to eat who was then gone to the Sea-coasts to defend it the Ports against Theeves and Pirates as he was accustomed His Lady being extraordinarily beautifull entertained him very honorably at dinner The K. enamored with her beauty after dinner taking her by the hand leads her into her Chamber saying he would speak with her in private and there violently ravished her against her will which done he presently returned to York but the Lady abode at her house weeping and lamenting the deeds of the King whereby she lost her former colour and beauty Her Husband returning and finding her in this sad condition inquired the cause thereof wherewith she fully acquainting him he thereupon cheered her up with comfortable words saying that he would not love her the lesse for it since her weakness was unable to resist the Kings power and vowed by Gods assistance speedily to avenge himself her of the King for this indignity Where upon being a Noble and very potent man of great Parentage he called all his kinsmen and the chief Nobles of his Familie to him with all speed and acquainted them with this dishonour done to him by the king saying he would by all means be avenged thereof and by their Counsel and Consent they went all together to York to the king who when he saw Bruern called him courteously to him But he guarded with his kinred and friends presently defying the King resigned up to him his Homage Fealty Lands and what ever he held of him saying that he would never hold any thing of him hereafter as of his Lord And so without more words or greater stay instantly departed and taking leave of his friends went speedily into Denmark and complained to Codrinus king thereof of the Indignity done by King Osbrith to him and his Lady imploring his aid and assistance speedily to revenge it he being extracted out of his Royal blood The king and Danes hereupon being exceeding glad that they had this inducing cause to invade England presently gathered together a great Army to revenge this Injury done to Bruern being of his Blood appointing his two Brothers Inguar and Hubba most valiant Souldiers to be their Generals who providing Ships and other Necessaries transported an innumerable Army into England and landed them in the Nothern parts This being the true Cause why the Danes at this time invaded England in this manner In the mean time the Parents kindred and Friends of Bruern expelled and rejected King Osbrith for this Injury done to him and his Lady râ—fusing to hold their Lands of or to obey him any longer as their Soveraign and advanced one Ella to be King though none of the Royal bloud Our other Historians who mention not this fact of Osbrith and occasion of these Danes arival to revenge it write that the Danes upon their Landing marched to the City of York wasting all the Country before them with fire and Sword unto Tinmouth At that time they write by the Devilsinstinct there was a very great discord raised between the Northumberlanders Sicut semper populo qui odium incurrerit evenire solet For the Northumberlanders at that time had expelled their lawfull King Osbrith out of the Realm and advanced one Ella a Tyrant not of the Royal bloud to the Regal Soveraignty of the Kingdom By reason of which division the Danes taking York ran up and down the Country filling all places with bloud and Grief wasting and burning all the Churches and Monasteries far and near leaving nothing standing but the Walls and ruines of them pillaging depopulating and laying waste the whole Country In which great necessity and distress the Northumberlanders reconciling their two Kings Osbrith and Ella one to another gathered a great Army together against the Danes which their two Kings and eight Earls marched with to York where after a long fight with various success both the said Kings with most of the Northumberlanders were all slain April 11. Anno. 867. The City of York consumed with fire and the whole Kingdom made tributarie to the Danes Simeon Dunelmensis relates that both these kings had violently sacrilegiously taken away certain Lands from S. Cuthberts Church in Durham for Osbrit had by a sacrilegious attempt taken away Wirce wood and Tillemouth and Ella Billingham Heclif and Wigeclif Creca from S. Cuthbert tandem cum maximâ parte suorum ambo praefati Reges occubuerunt Injurias quas Ecclesiae sancti Cuthberti aliquando irrogaverant vitâ privati regno persolverurt Which the Author of the History of St. Cuthbert observes and records more largely as a punishment of their sacrilegious Rapine The Danes hereupon made Egbert king of Northumberland as a Tributary and Viceroy under them Sic Northumbria bellico jure obtenta barbarorum dominium multo post tempore pro conscientiâ libertatis Ingemuit writes Malmesbury de Gestis Regum Angliae l. 2. c. 3. p. 42. These rebellious Northumberlanders about 7 years after uno conspirantes consilio expelled Egbert the Realm by unanimous consent together with Archbishop Wilfer making one Richius King in his Place the Danes both then and long after possessing and wasting their Country and slaughtering them with fire and sword as the Marginal Historians record more then any other parts of the Iland by a just divine punishment for their manifold Treasons Seditions Factions Rebellions against and Murders of their Soveraigns In the year 868. a great Army of these victorious plundering Danes marched out of the Kingdome of Northumberland to Nottingham which they took and there wintered Whereupon Beorred or Brithred King of Mercians Onmesque ejusdem gentis Optimates and all the Nobles of that Nation assembled together Where the King Consilium habuit cum suis Comitibus comilitonibus omni populo sibi subjecto Quasitèr inimicos bellicâ virtute exuperaret sive de Regno expelleret held a Council with his Earls and fellow Souldiers and all the people subject to him how he might vanquish these Enemies with military power or drive them out of the Realm By whose advice he sent Messengers to Ethelred King of the West-Saxons and to his Brother Elfrid humbly requesting them that they would assist and joyn with him against the Danish Army which
Religion foâ— which also if there be need we think it not unprofitable to die Therefore as thy proud cruelty hath begun after the servants slaughter cut thou the Kings throat because the King of Kings seeing these things will translate me into Heaven there to reign eternally The Messenger departing the King commanded his Souldiers to run to their Arms affirming that it was a worthy thing to fight both for their Faith and Country â—est they should prove deserters of their Realm and betrayers of the people And being incouraged by Bishop Humbert his Nobles and fellow Souldiers he marched against the Enemy and near Thedford fought a bloody battel with the Danes from morning to night the place being all dyed red with the blood of the slain At which grievous sight King Edmund was much grieved not only for the great slaughter of his own Souldiers fighting for their Country native liberty the faith of Jesus Christ so already Crouned with Martyrdome But likewise for the death of the Barbarous Infidels sent down to Hell in great numbers which he overmuch lamented After which battel retiring to Hegelsdun with his forces that were left he immutably resolved in his mind never to fight battel wâ—th the Enemies more saying only this that it was necessary that he alone should die for the People and not the whole Nation perish Soon after Hinguars Army being recruted by the access of Hubba to him with ten thousand men he marched to Hegelsdun and surrounded it that none might escape thence Whereupon King Edmund flying to the Church and casting down his temporal Armes humbly prayed the Father Son and Holy Ghost to give him constancy in his passion Then the Danish Souldiers seising on him brought him from the Church before Hinguar by whose command he was tyed to a tree hard by cruelly whipped a long time then shot through with Darts wherewith his Body was stuck full after which being taken from the tree his Head was cut off from his Body with a bloody sword by the Barbarous Executioner appointed for that purpose and so he died a most glorious Martyr for his Kingdom Country Subjects and Religion to whose memory a famous Monastery was after built Of which William of Malmesbury de Gestis Regum l. 2. c. 13. p. 89. gives this Relation Quibus Artibus Edmundus ita sibi omnis Britanniae devinxit incolas ut beatum se in primis astruat qui Coenobium illius vel nummo vel valenti illustraret Ipsi quoque Reges aliorum Domini servos se illius gloriantur coronam ei regiam missitant magno si uti volunt redimentes commercio Exactores vectigalium qui alibi Bacchantur fas nefasque juxta metientes ibi supplices citra â—ossa um sancti Eâ—mundi litigationes sistunt experti multorum paenam qui perseverandum putarunt which I wish our Tax-Exactors and Excisers would now remember Whiles the Danes were thus wasting the Kingdoms of Northumberland and the East-Saxons with Fier and Sword and martyring King Edmund x Beorred king of Mercians was busied in warring against the Britains who infested the Western parts of his Realm But hearing the Danes had invaded the Eastern part of his Kingdom he came to London and gathering a great Army together marching with it through the Eastern quarters of his Realm he applyed the whole Isle of Ely to his Exchequor taking into his hands all the lands formerly belonging to the Monastery of Medehamsted lying between Stamford Huntindon and Wisebeck assigning the Lands more remote lying scattered through the Country to his Souldiers The like he did with the Lands of the Monastery of St. Pega of Rikirk retaining certain of them to himself and giving some of them to his Souldiers And the like did he with the Lands of all other Monasteries destroyed totally by the Danes whose Lands by Law eschâ—ated to the Crown and those Lords whose predecestors foundeâ— and endowed them by the slaughter and chasing away of all the Monks Nuns burning of the Monasteries whose Lands thereupon were resumed and confiscated to the Kings Exchequer Et cum caetera Monasteria per Danorum ferocitatem funditus destructa Regali fisco fuerant ascripta denuo et assumpta omnibus Monachis eorum necatis perditis seu penitus fugatis as Ingulphus informs us of the Reason yet many of the Monks of Croyland escaping the Danes fury and returning soon after thither again electing a new Abbot and repairing their Monastery by degrees as well as that exigency would permit thereupon they enjoyed the sight of the whole Abby and the Isle of Croyland with the self same Liberties and Privileges they had from the beginning dischardged from all secular services during all the time of this their desolation the Danish wars till the time of its restoration after that till Ingulphus time as he records Notwithstanding because many of the Monks were slain and the Abby burnt down demolished by the Danes King Beorred thereupon seised some of their lands into his own hands gave other of their Lands more remote from the Abby to his stipendiary Soldiers And although venerable Abbot Godric took very much paines frequently demanding restitution of them both from King Beorred his Souldiers and very often shewed the Charters of the Donors the confirmations of former Kings together with his own proper Charter to this Kings yet he received always nothing but empty words from him them whereupon he at last utterly despaired of their restitution Perceiving therefore the overmuch malice of the times et Militiam Regis Terrarum cupidissimam and the Kings Militia and Soldiers most covetous of Lands he resolved with himself in conclusion to passe by these Royal Donations Surdo Tempore in a deaf time being over-glad rejoycing that the Kings grace had granted the whole Island lying round about the Monastery unto it free and discharged from all Regal exactions much more specially to him then at that time which had not happened to many other Monasteries There departed therefore at that time from the Monastery of Croyland these possessions which never returned to this present day The Mannor of Spalding given to Earl Adelwulfe with all its appurtinances The Mannor of Deeping given to Langfer a Knight or Souldier and the Kings Baker with all its appurtenances The Mannor of Croxton given to Fernod a Knight or Souldier the Kings Ensign-bearer with all its appurtenances The Mannors of Kerketon and Kimerby in Lindesy with all their appurtenances given to Earl Turgot but Bukenhale and Halington then appropriated to the Exchequer were afterwards restored to the said Monastery by the Industry of Turketulus Abbot of Croyland and the gift of most pious King Edred the Restorer of them with 12 other Mannors named by Ingulf belonging to Croyland quas Rex Beorredus Fisco suo assumserat Which King Beorred had then assumed in his Exchequor After which
Soveraign Jurisdiction of the Crown This King by appointing Hundreds and Tithings throughout the Realm with Constables and Tithing men who were to take sureties or pledges for the good behaviour of all within their Jurisdictions or else the hundred to answer all offences injuries therein committed both to the party and king caused such a general peace throughout the Realm and such security from Robbers and plunderers even in those times of war That he would hang up golden bracelets in the High-ways and none durst touch them and a â—irâ— might have travelled safely laden with Gold from one end of the Realm to the other without any violence Matthew Westminster and Florence of Worcester record That he spent a great part of his time in Compositione legum Quibus Milvorum Rapacitatem Reprimeretur simplex â—â—denum de otio firmaretur And amongst many other mâ—morable acts of his Justice as he frequently examined the Judgements and Proceedings of his Judges and Justices severely checking them when they gave any illegal Judgement against Law and Right meerly out of Ignorance of which they were to purge themselves by Oath that they could judge no better so he severely punished them when they thus offended out of Corruption Partiality and Malice Andrew Horn in his Mirrour of Justices records That he hanged up no less than 44 of his Judges and Justices in one year as Murtherers and Capital Offenders princicipally for their false judgements in condemning and executing sundry of his people against Law without any lawfull tryal by their Peeres or Verdict and Iudgement by a sworn Iury or upon in sufficient evidence or for Crimes not Capital by the Laws The names of these Judges with their several offeâ—ces you may read at large in Horn. Had those pretended Judges of a new edition who of late arraigned condemned executed the King Nobles Gentlemen and Freemen of England in strange new arbitrary Courts of high Iustice without any legal Indictment and Tryal by a sworn Jury of their peers and many of them for offences not Capital by any known Lawes or Statutes of the Realm and upon very slender evidence lived in this Just Kings reign they might justly fear he would have hanged them all up as Murtherers and Capital Malefactors as well as these 44 Judges not altogether so peccant in this kind as they this form of tryal by sworn Juries of their Peers then in use being since confirmed by the Great Charters of King John and King Henry the 3 some hundreds of subsequent Statutes and the Petition of Right not known in Alfreds days I find in the Preface to King Alfreds Laws of which Laws Abbot Ethelred gives this true encomium Leges Christianissimas scripsit promulgavit in quibus fides ejus et devotio in deum sollicitudo in subditos misericordia in pauperes Iusticia ciâ—ca omnes cunctis legentibus pateâ— this observable passage That the Apostles elders assembled in a Synod at Jerusalem Acts 15. in their Epistle to the Churches of the Gentiles to abstain from things offered unto Idols added this Summary of all Laws And what ye would not to be done to your selves that doe ye not to others from which one precept it sufficiently appeareth unicuique ex aequo jus esse reddendum that right or Law is of Justice to be rendred to every one neither will there be need of any other Law or Law-book whatsoever if he who sits Judge upon others shall only remember this that he would not himself should pronounce any other sentence against others than what he would should be passed against himself in their Case But when the Gospel was propagated many Nations and amongst them the English embraced the faith of Gods word there were then held some Assemblies and Councils of Bishops and other most illustrious Wise men throughout the World and likewise in England and these being throughly instructed by Gods mercy did now first of all Impose a pecuniary Mulct upon Offenders and without any Divine Offence delegated the Office of exacting it to Magistrates leave being first granted Only on a Traitor and Deserter of his Lord or King they decreed that this Milder punishment by pecuniary Mulcts was not to be inflicted because they thought just that such a man was not at all to be spared both because God would have Contemners of him unworthy of all mercy and likewise because Christ did not at all compassionate them who put him to death but appointed the King to be honoured above all others These therefore in many Councils singulorum scelerum paenas constituerum ordained the punishments of every kind of offences and commitâ—ea them to writing From whence it is apparent First That all capital coporal and pecuniary Mulcts and penalties for any civil or Ecclesiastical offences whatsoever inflicted on the Subjects of this Realm in that and all former ages since they embraced the Gospel were only such as were particularly defined and prescribed by their Parliamentary Councils and the Laws therein enacted and not left arbitrary to the King Judges or Magistrates as it appears by the forecited passages of Beda Malmesbury Huntindon and Bromton concerning King Ethelberts Laws part 2. p. 50. by the Laws of King Ina Lex 2 3 4 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 21 22 25 26 27 30 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 46 47 48 49 54 57 58 64 73 75 76 80. more specially by the Laws of King Alfred himself Lex 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 17 20 21 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 38 39 40 41 42 44 45 46 48 51. with the Laws of our other Saxon kings prescribing particular fines pecuniary corporal and capital punishments for all sorts of offences and injuries to avoid all arbitrary proceedings and censures in such Cases 2ly That no imprisonment Corporal Capital or pecuniary Mulcts or punishments whatsoever justly might or legally ought to be then inflicted upon any Malefactors or Trespassers whatsoever but when where and for such offences only as the known Parliamentary and common Laws then in force particularly warranted and prescribed which penalties and Laws could not be altered nor abrogated but by Parliamentary Councils only 3ly That Common right and Justice were then to be equally dispensed to all men by our Kings Judges and other Magisttates according to the Laws then established in such sort as they would have them administred to themselves in the like Cases 4ly That wilfull Traitors and Deserters of their lawfull Lords Soveraigns were not to be spared or pardoned by the Laws of God or Men nor yet punished only with sines but put to death without Mercy Wherce this Law was then enacted by king Alfred and his Wisemen Lex 4. Si quis vel ger se veâ— susceptam vel suspectam â—ersonam De morte Regis tradet vitae suae reus sit et
The first moity was for Pious uses which he subdivided into three parts The first parcel he bestowed in Almes to relieve the poor both at home and in forein parts The second he bestowed on Religious Houses and Persons The third he gave towards the maintenance of Schools Scholars Doctors and learned Men of all sorts resorting to and liberally rewarded by him according to their merits The other moity was for civil uses which he likewise divided into 3 equal portions The first he gave unto his Souldiers whom he divided into 3 Squadrons The first Squadron which were Horse waited one month on him at his Court as his Life-guard whiles the other two were imployed in military expeditions in the Field And when their month expired they all returned from the wars and then another new Company succeeded them And when their Month was ended they returning to their Houses the other Company succeeded them And so they successively kept their monthly courses during all his Reign being one month in actual service and two months at home about their own affairs The second part he gave to his Workmen and Artificers of all sorts skilfull in all Worldly affairs The third part he gave to Strangers in Royal Gifts and Presents and that as well to the Rich as Poor Besides he had a very great Care Ne à Vicecomitibus et Ministris pauperes opprimereâ—tur et indebitis exactionibos gravarentur That the poor people should not be oppressed by Sheriffs and other Officers nor burthened with unjust Exactions or Contributions Yea by his large Almes and Gifrs he sent to Rome he procured the English School to be fréed from all Taxes and Tributes by the Popes special Bull. And we never read he imposed the least publick Tax upon his Subjects during all his wars and Exigences by his own Regal Power upon any pretext of publick Necessity Danger Defence or Safety of the Realm against the Numerous Invading plundering Danish forces both by Sea and Land Which our late and present Aegyptian Tax-masters may do well to consider In the year of our Lord 894. this King Alfred and Guthurn the Dane gave to the Church of St. Cutbert in Durham all the Lands between Weor and Tyne for a perpetual Succession free from all Custome and secular Services with all Customes Saca and Socua and infaugtheof thereunto belonging with sundry other Privileges which they ordained to be perpetually observed Non solum Anglorum sed et Danorum consentiente et collaudante exercitu by the consent and approbation of the ARMY not only of the English but Danes also Has Leges haec Statuta which proves that it was done by a Parliamentary Counsell then held in both their Armies Quicunquâ— quolibet nisu Infringere praesumpserint eos in perpetuum nisi emendaverint Gehennae Ignibus puniendos anathematizando Sententia omnium contradidit I pretermit the Welsh Synods held under the Bishops of Landaff during King Alfreds Reign as Sir Henry Spelman conjectureâ— in whom the Reader may peruse them where in the Bishop of Landaff and his Clergy excommunicated some of their petty Welsh Kings for Murder Perjury violating the Churches Patrimony and Injuring the Bishops family who upon their Repentance and Reconciliation gave all of them some parcels of Land to the Church of Landaff The rather because I conceive them fabulous there being no such form of Excommunication used in those daies as Sir Henry Spelman proves nor any such Episcopal Synods held in England under King Alfred himself The barbarous Danes having throughout all England with fire and sword utterly wasted and destroyed all Cities Towns Castles Monasteries Churches put most of the Bishops Abbots Clergy to the Sword and almost quite deleted the knowledge of Learning and Religion out of the whole Nation insomuch that there were very few spiritual persons on this side Humber who could either understand the Common prayers in the English tongue or translate anywriting out of latine into English yea so few that there was not so much as one man on the South-side of the Thames that could do it till King Alfred after his Conquest of the Danes in the latter part of his Reign restored Learning and Religion again by Degrees as this King himself records in expresse terms in his Epistle to Bishop Wulsug by way of Preface to his own Translation of Gregories Pastorals into the English Saxons Language King Alfred deceasing his Son Edward surnamed the Elder succeeding his Father in the year of Christ 901 thereupon Prince Aethelwald his Uncles Son aspiring to the Crown without the consent of the King and Nobles of the Realm seised upon Oxlie and Winburne whereupon King Edward marching with his Armie against him to Bath he fled from Winburne to the Danes in Northumberland for assistance who being glad thereof they all make him King and Prince over all their Kings and Captains Whereupon they invading Essex and Mercia King Ed. raised a great Army chased them into Northumberland and harrowed the whole Country to the Lakes of Northumberland where the Kentishmen remaining contrary to the Kings Command and Messengers sent to them after the retreat of the rest of the Army The Danish Army upon this advantage setting upon them they gallantly defending themselves slew their new King Aethelwald with King Eorit and sundry of their chief Commanders and many of their Souldiers though they lost the field This King and Edelfled his Sister Queen of Mercians to prevent the frequent eruptions plunders the Danes repaired many old ruinated Towns and built many new ones in convenient places which they replenished with Souldiers to protect the Inhabitants and repell the Enemies whereby the Common people weâ—e so incouraged and became such good Souldiers that if they heard of the Enemies approach they would fight and rout them Rege etiam Ducibus inconsultis in certamen ruerent eisque semper numero scientia praeliandi praestarent ita hostes contemptui militâ—bus Regi risui erant as Malmesbury writes The Country people themselves fighting with the Danes at Ligetune put them to flight recovered all the prey they had taken and likewise the Danes Horses as they likewise did in some other parts Amongst other places this King repaired the walls of Colchester put warlike men in it certum eis stipendium assignavit and assigned them a certain stipend as Mat Westm records neither he nor other our Historians making mention of assigned wages to any other Garrisons or Souldiers in that age At last the Danes in most places throughout England perceiving King Edwards power and wisdom submitted themselves unto him elected him for their King and Patron and swore homage and fealty to him as likewise did the Kings of Scotland Northumberland and Wales In the year of Grace 905. This King Edward assembled a Synod of the Senators of the English Nation as Malmesbury or a great Council of Bishops Abbots and faithfull people
as Matthew Westminster and others stile it in the Province of the Gewisii which by reason of the Enemies incursions had been destitute of a Bishop for 7 years space Whereupon the King and Bishops in this Council taking good advice made this wholsom constitution That instead of 2 Bishops whereof one had his Sea at Winchester the other at Schireburn 5 Bishops should be created ne Grex Domini absque cura Pastorali luporum incursionibus quateretur Whereupon they in this Council elected 5 Bishops to wit Frithstan for Winchester Athelin for Schireburn Aedulfe for Wells Werstan for Crideton and Herstan for Cornwal assigning them their several Sees and Diocess and two other Bishops for Dorchester and Cirencester all consecrated by Archbishop Plegmond at Canterbury in one day Wil. of Malmesb. and some others write that this Council was summoned upon the Letter of Pope Formosus who excommunicated king Edward with all his Subjects for suffering the Bishopricks of Winton and Scireburn to be void for 7 years space together But this must needs be a great mistake since Pope Formosus was dead ten years before this Council and before these Bishopricks became void and his pretended Epistle to the Bishops of England makes no mention at all of the king as Sir Henry Spelman well observes In the year 906. king Edward made a Peace and firm agreement with the Danes of Northumberland and East-England at Intingford when as some think he and Guthurn the Dane reconfirmed the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws formerly made and ratified by his Father King Alfred and Guthurn But Guthurn dying in the year 890 full eleven years before this Edward was king could not-possibly ratifie these Laws at the time of this Accord being 16 years after his decease as the Title and Prologue to those Laws in Mr. Lambard and Spelman erroneously affirm wherefore I conceive that this confirmation of these Laws was rather made in the year 921. when all our Historians record that after king Edward Anno 910. had sent an army into Northumberland against the perfidious and rebellious Danes slain and taken many of them Prisoners and miserably wasted their Country for 4 days space for breaking their former Agreement with him after his Sister Aegelfled An. 919. had forced the Danes at York to agree and swear that they would submit to her and her Brothers pleasure in all things and after Edward had vanquished the other Danes Scotch and Welsh in many Battles thereupon in the yeat 921. the king of Scots with all his Nation Stredded king of Wales with all his people et Regnaldus or Reginaldus Reginald King of the Danes with all the English and Danes inhabiting Northumberland of which Reginald then was King comming to King Edward An. 921. submitted themselves unto him elected him for their Father and Lord and made a firm Covenant with him And therefore I conjecture that Guthurnus in the Title and Preface of these Laws is either mistaken or else mis-written for Reginaldus then King of these Northern Danes who had no King in the year 906 that I can read of in our Historians Abbot Ethelred gives this Encomium of this Kings transcendent modesty and justice Rex Edwardus vir mansuetus et pius omnibus am abilis et affabilis adeò omnium in se provocabat affectum ut Scotti Cumbri Walenses Northumbri et qui remanserant Daci eum non tà m in Dominum ac Regem quam in Patrem eum omni devotione eligerent Tanta dehinc Modestia regebat Subditos tanta Justitia inter proximum et proximum judicabat ut contra veritatem non dico nihil velle sed nec posse videretur unde fertur quibusdam iratus dixisse dico vobis si possem vicem vobis redidissem Quid non posset Rex in Subditos Dominus in Servos Potens in infirmos Dux in milites Sed quicquid non dictabat aequitas quicquid veritati repugnabat quicquid non permittebat Justitia quicquid Regiam mansuetudinem non decebat Sibi credebat impossibile I wish all our modern domineering Grandees would imitate his presidential Royal Example Yet I read of one injurious Act done by him After the decease of his renowned Sister Elfleda Queen of Mercia Anno 920. he dis-inherited her only Daughter Alfwen or Elwyn his own Neece of the Dominion of all Mercia who held that Kingdom after her Mother seising and Garrisoning Tamesworth and Nottingham first and then disseising her of all Mercia uniting it to his own Realms and removing her thence into West-Sex Magis â—urans an utiliâ—èr vel in utilitèr Quan an juste vel injustè Writes Henry Humingdon which innrious action Si violanda sit fides regni causâ violanda will not excuse The Chronicle of Bromton records that King Edward as he inlarged the bounds of his Kingdom more than his Father So Leges condidit he likewise made Laws to govetn it which are there registred to Posterity in two parcels as made at several times but in what year of his Reign this was it informs us not The first of these Laws declaring his zeal to publick Justice according to the Laws then in Force is this Edwardus Rex mandat et praecipit omnibus Praefectis et Amicis suis ut Justa judicia judicent quam rectiora possint Et in judiciali Libro stant nec parcant nec dissimulent pro aliqua Re Populi Rectum et jus publicum recitare et unum quodque placitum terminum habeat quando peragatur quod tunc recitabitur The first Chapter of the second part of his Laws intimates that they were made by his Wtse men assembled in a Parliamentary Council at Exeter witness the contents thereof Edwardus Rex admonuit Omnes Sapientes quando fuerunt Exoniae ut investigarent simul et quaererent quomodo pax eo rum melior esse possit quà m anteà fuit quia visumest ei quod hoc impletum sit aliter quam deceret et quam aute à praecepisset Inquisivit it aque qui ad emendationem velint redire et in societate permanere quâ ipse sit et amare quod amat et nolle quod nolit in Mari in Terrâ Hoc est tunc Ne Quisquam rectum difforceat alicui Siquis hoc faciat emendet sicut supra dictum est In his first Laws then either made or rehearsed prima vice 30 s. secundâ similitèr ad tertiam vicem 120 s. Regi The last Chapter being the VIII in Bromtons translation but the XI in the Saxon Coppy is this Volo ut omnis Praepositus habeat Gemotum an Hundred Court semper ad quatuor hebdomadas et efficiat ut omnis homo rectum habeat et omne placitum capiat terminum quando perveniat ad finem Siquis hoc excipiat emendet sicut antè dictum est King Edward deceasing Aethelstan his eldest Son designed by his Fathers Will to succeed him was
vices more extorbitant in some degrees than Edwins which yet our former Monkish Historians blanch or excuse was the Malice of Dunstan and Odo the Pillars and Oracles of the Monkish Clergy who stirred up the Merciaus and seditious rebellious Northumbrians against him to set up Edgar in his stead who was totally devoted to them and Dunstan by whose Counsels he was afterwards wholy guided and built no less than 47 new Monasteries for the Monks besides all those he repaired intending to build three more had he lived to make them 50 compleat and likewise cast out the secular and maried Priests out of all Monasteries and Churches unless they would become Monks replenishing all Monasteries Churches with Monks alone They likewise inform us that the true causes of kings Edwins banishing Dunstan ejecting the Monks and seising their Lands and Treasures was That Dunstan had so bewitched Edmund Edward Athelstan and Aedred his Predecessors with the love of Monkery as that they not only took violently from maried Priests their livings to erect monasteries but also lavishly wasted much of their own Royal Treasures Lands and Revenues upon them which they should have rather employed in resisting the common Enemies of God and their Country the Danes whereupon Edwin perceiâ—ing that all the wealth of the Land was crept into Monasteries not only refrained to bestow more on them but recalled divers of those prodigal Gifts his Predecessors had granted them which the Monks refusing to render upon demand he seized upon them by armed Officers as having indeed cheated his Predecessors and defrauded the Kingdom of them They adde hereunto that King Edrid had committed all his chief Houshold-stuft Plate Records and the Treasures of all the Realm with all the Magazines he had gotten to Dunstans custody and â—aid them up in the Monastery at Glastonbury yea he committed his Kingdom body and Soul unto him So as all was wholly in Dunstans power who alone managed all the publick affairs of the Realm and exercised Regal Authority And when King Edred in his sicknesse demanded all his Housholdstuff Jewels Monies and Treasures from him Dunstan pretending to fetch them before he returned with them Dustan heard a voice as our Monkish Writers fable that Edred was dead in the Lord and thereupon detained them in his and his Monks custody being unwilling to part with them to young King Edwin his Successor whereupon he seised on them by force as of right belonging to him and expelled Dunstan with his Monks And so much the rather because Dunstan presumed most impudently and violently to rush into his Bed-chamber and pull him out forcibly thence on the very day of his Coronation contrary to all Christian and Princely Modesty from the embraces of his beautifull and beloved Alfgina which some Monks and these Historians report to be his lawfull wife not his Concubine and not content therewith he excited Odo Archbishop of Canterbury publickly to divorce her from him some say for consanguinity only and others for other Reasons Whereupon the king betaking himself to his Concubines Odo suspended him from the Church excommunicated all his Concubines caused one of them whom the king best affected to be violently fetched out of the Court with armed Men branded her in the forehead with an hot Iron and then banished her into Ireland After which she returning into England Odo apprehended her the second time and cut off her Sinews at the Hock-bone All which intollerable Affronts so incensed Edwin that he banished and spoyled Dunstan with his Monks as aforesaid and threatned Odo with severe punishments none others in the Realm but these daring then to oppose him hereupon they formerly and then bearing the greatest sway by way of revenge and to prevent Edwins further fury against them stirred up the Mercians and Northumbrians to reject him and that in a tumultuous manner by force of Arme in which Uproar Edgar gained possession of half his Kingdom Matthew Parker and Sir Henry Spelman out of him subjoyns that by these civil dissentions raised between King Edwin and his Brother Edgar they much weakned the forces of the Realm in many set Battels fought between them till at last Edgar getting the better Convocato ad Branfordiam Regni concilio Fratris Edwini acta et decreta rescendit Assemblong a Council at Brandford he repealed all the Acts and Decrees of his Brother King Edwin restored to the Churches and Monasteries the Treasures he had taken from them recalled Dunstan from his former banishment and made him first Bishop of Worcester then of London and last of all of Canterbury Henry de Knyghton a Canon of the Abbey of Leicester relates out of the History of Leicester Abbey That Edwin being expulsed and shamefully thrust out of his kingdom for his evil life and exoroitant actions done against the Church the Monarchy of England continued void above a year Whereupon many murders and wickednesses were committed and infinite mischiefs happened amonst the people for want of Government until holy men both of the Clergy and People deeply affected therewith humbled themselves and uncessantly repented of their sins and prayed day and night to God that he would hear them and mercifully relieve them in so great necessity giving them such a King who might govern the Realm of England in such fort as might redound to the honour of God and profit of the Realm That God beholding their prayers from on high in the night silence this voice was heard from God That they should crown Edgar King though but then a youth who rejoyced with this Divine Oracle most likely by the Monks and Dunstans Legerdemain the Divine Oracle that uttered it speedily advanced Edgar to be King being but 16 years old and so he was elected and crowned King by a divine Oracle which never hapned to any King of England in former times Upon Edgars Coronation and Dunstans restitution An. 959. K. Edwin reigning in a decayed Estate living in little Esteem and without being desired for very grieâ— thereof as some write he died after he had for 4 years space Libidinosè simul Tyrannicè lustfully and also Tyrannically depressed the Realm of England Others affirm that he was deprived both of his Life and Kingdom by the Rebellion of his Subjects But his Monkish Opposites record that he was taken away by an untimely Death by Gods Just Judgement in the year of our Lord 959. Whereupon his Brother Edgar ab omni populo electus being elected king by all the people united the kingdom into one and obtained the intire Monarchy of the Realm the kings of Cumberland Scotland and Wales voluntarily submitting and doing homage to him without any effusion of blood or war King Edgar About the year of our Lord 963. contrived the death of Earl Ethelwald who as some Authors aver against his trust had cheated him of Elfrida only Daughter of Ordgarus Duke of Devonshire the Paragon of her Sex by disparaging
her beauty to the king and marrying her to himself After which the king being extraordinarily ravished with the true reporr and sight of her transcendent beauty thereupon as Bromtons Chronicle relates statim post octo dies RexParliamentum suum apud Sarisberiam convocavit Ubi cunctis suis Proceribus congregatis de custodia terrae Northumbriae qualiter contra ingressum Danorum melius posset custodiri tractaverunt inter quos Ethelwolfus ad Custodiam Eboraci patriae adjacentis in illo erat Concilio deputatus A clear Evidence That Matters of defence against Common Enemies and Guardians of the Sea-coasts against the Danes Invasions were then debated and setled by the King and his Nobles in Parl. then usually summoned by our Kings for that end Hereupon Earl Ethelwolfe travelling through the Forrest of Werewell towards his new VVardship was there cruelly assaulted and murdered by some unknown armed persons there placed in ambuscado by the king as was commonly reported and as some relate by king Edgar himself who shot him through with an Arrow as they were there hunting together The slain Earls Bastard-Son being there present beholding his dead Corps the king demanded of him how such a hunting pleased him who answered very well my Lord and King for that which pleaseth you ought not to displease me which answer so pacified this kings swelling mind that he loved no person more entirely all his life than this Young man Tyrannici facti offensam in Patrem sedulitate Regiâ in filium allevans writes Malmesbury This being done the king with great joy bringing Alfrida to London there espoused her and the same day both of them wore a golden Crown adorned with pretious pearls on their heads Hereupon Archbishop Dunstan the next morning boldly rushing into the kings Bedchamber whiles they were both in Bed together demanded of the king what Woman he hadlying in bed with him who answered that it was his Queen Dunstan by way of rebuke replyed That he could not marry or retain her as his wife without offending God and the Laws of the Church because he had been Godfather to her Son often admonishing the king that he would put her away and be divorced from her VVhich he by reason of his ardent love towards her and unsatiable lust with her would by no means hearken to Anno 964. King Edgar heating of a Nun of incomparable beauty in the Monastery of Wilton named Wilfrida a Dukes Daughter took her out of the Nunnery and frequently admitted her to his Bed VVich being commonly blazed abroad Arch-bishop Dunstan understanding of it with great passion and indignation of mind came to the king who seeing the Archbishop arose from the Royal Throne to take him by the hand and give him place But Dunstan refused to take him by the hand and with a stern countenance bending his Browes spake thus unto him Thou that hast not feared to corrupt a Virgin espoused to Christ presumest thou to touch the consecrated hands of a Bishop Thou hast defiled the Spouse of thy Maker and thinkest thou by flattering service to pacifie the Friend of the Bridegroom No Sir his Friend will not I be who hath Christ for his Enemy c. The king terrified with these and other thundering words of Dunstan and compuncted with inward repentance for his perpetrated sin fell down at Dunstans feet Weeping who raising him up again from the ground began to relate unto him the hainousness of the fact And finding the king ready to undergoe what ever satisfaction he should lay upon him injoyned him this following Penance for 7 years space That during these seven years he should wear no Ctown That he should fast twice every VVeek That he should liberally distribute the Treasures left him by his Ancestors to the poor That he should build a Monastery of Nuns at Shastesbury That as he had robbed God of one Virgin through his transgression so should he again restore many to him in time to come Moreover That he should expel Clerks of evil lives meaning secular Priests who had VVives and Children out of Churches and place Covents of Monks in their room That he should enact just Laws such as were acceptable to God and command the people to observe them through all parts of the Realm VVhich the king promising effectually to perform was thereupon absolved and vigorously set himself to execute what he had promised Hereupon in the year 966. King Edgar founded the Monastery of Hyde near Winchester filled it with Monks endowed them with large privileges and possessions exempting them from all secular services whatsoever but these â—rata expeditione Pontis Arcisve constructione praescribed several Laws and Canons for the Monks thereof to observe made by advice and consent of his Bishops and Nobles and ratified by his Royal Charcer subscribed by himself his two sons Prince Edmund and Edward his Queen Grandmother both the Archbishops 9 Bishops 5 Abbots 3 Dukes and sundry others with the sign of the Cross annexed to their names In which Charter there is this solemn curse donounced against all the infringers and perverters thereof Si quis autem hanc nostram Donationem in aliud quam constituimus transferre voluerit privatus consortio sanctae Dei Ecclesiae aeternis Barathri incendiis lugubris jugiter cum Juda Christi proditore ejusque complicibus puniatur si non satisfactione emendaverit congrua quod contra nostrum deliquit decretum The same year King Edgar by his regal Charter recorded at large by Abbot Ingulphus confirmed all the Lands and Privileges of the Abby of Croyland formerly granted and confirmed to them by King Edred and his Nobles in the presence of both the Archbishops aâ— the Bishops and Nobles assembled in a Council at London who ratified it with their fubscriptions the sign of the Cross and a solemn excommunication denounced by the two Archbishops and three Bishops more in Pauls Church London in the presence of King Edgar his Prelates and Nobles in Octavis Pentecostes against all Infringers of this Charter and of their Liberties About the year 967 as some or 969. as others compute King Edgar in a Great Senate or Council by advise of his Wisemen enacted divers civil Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons for the Government of the State and Church thus presaced Leges quas or hoc est Institutum quod Edgarus Rex freqenti Senatu Consilio Sapientum snorum ad Dei gloriam Regiae Majestatis ornamâ—â—tum et Reipublicae utilitatem sancivit or constituit The 7 and 8 of his secular Laws in the Latin but 1 2 3. in the Saxon Copy I shall only transcribe Hoc est institutio secularis quam volo per omnia teneri Volo ut omnis homo sit dignus juris publici â—auper et dives quicunque sit et eis justa judicia judicentur Et sit in emendationibus remissio venialis apud Deum Et apud
sublunary things The self same year Anno 970. b King Edgar by his Charter granted and confirmed sundry Lands and Privileges to the Monastery of Medeshamsted formerly demolished by the Danes which Bishop Aethelwold had repaired and named Burgh perpetually exempting it from all Episcopal jurisdiction yoak and exaction Quatenus nec Rex nec Comes nec Episcopus praeter Christianitatem attinentium Parochiarum nec Vicecomes nec ulla alia major minorve persona ulla dominatione occupari praesum at excepta moderata expeditione Pontis Arcisve constructione VVhich Charter was ratified by the kings own subscription both the Archbishops sundry Bishops Abbots Dukes and other chief Officers and the sign of the Cross after each of their Names In the year 973. King Edgar after his seven years penance expired on the Feast of Pentecost in the 30th year of his age was solemnly Crowned and consecrated King and wore his Crown with great glory at Akemancester alias Bath both the Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald with all the rest of the Bishops of England ac Magnatibus universis and all the Nobles being there present at his Coronation and received the accustomed Gifts usually given to the Nobles being at such inaugurations Soon after the same year this King with a very great Fleet and Army sayling round about the Northern parts of England came to Westchester where his eight tributary Kings or Vice-royes namely Kyneth king of Scots Malcome King of Cumberland Marcus king of Man and many other Ilands and the other 5 kings of Wales Dufnall Siferth Howel Iames and Iuchill met him as he had commanded them and swore allegiâ—nce to him in these words That they would be faithfull and assisting to him both by Land and Sea Which done he on a certain day entred with them into a Barge and placing them at the Oares himself took the Helm and steered the Barge very skilfully whiles they rowed it down the River of Dec from his Palace to the Monastery of St. John Bapist on the other side all his Dukes and Nobles following and accompanying him in other Barges where having made his Prayers they all rowed him thence back again in like pompe to his Royal Palace which when he had entred he said to his Nobles That any of his Successors might then say he was King of England when with so many Kings following and subject to him he should enjoy the Prerogative of the like pompe and power But Mr. Fox subjoyns In my mind this king had said much better God forbid that I should glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ The year following An. 974. Certain Merchants comming from York arived in the Islle of Thanet in Kent where they were presently taken by the Ilanders and spoyled of all their goods which king Edgar being informed of was so far incensed against these Plunderers that he spoyled them of all their Goods and deprived some of them of their lives Which Huntingdon and Bromton thus record Rex Edgarus undecimo Anno Regri sui jussit praedari Insulam Tenet Quia jure Regalia spreverant non ut hostis insaniens sed ut Rex maâ—o mala puniens The same year as Malmesbuâ—y Ingulphus and others write king Edgar by his regal Charter caused the secular Priests to be removed out of the Monastery of Malmesbury and introducing Monks in their places restored to them the Lands and Possessions of the monastery which the secular Priests formerly enjoyed and had leaâ—ed 〈◊〉 that upon a full hearing before the Wise-men Bishops others in his presence most likely in a Parliamentary Council as this clause in his Charter intimates Haec a praedictis accommodata Clericis a comensioso possessa est Edehnotâ— sed superstitiosa subâ—il que ejus disceptâ—tione a Sapientibns meis audita et conflictatione illius mendosa ab eisdem me praesente convicta Monasteriali a me reaâ— ta est usui If the Council of Winchester hereafter cited Anno 975. was held in King Edgars life time as some affirm most probably this debate here mentioned touching these Lands was held in and before that Council and this Charter therein made and ratified with the subscriptions of the Kings Arch-bishops Bishops Abboâ—s and Dukes thereto annexed according to the custome of that age Although King Edgar in his younger daies was subject to many Vices and committed some injurious Tyrannicâ—â— Acts recorded by Malmesbury Fox Speed and others yet repenting of these his youthfull lustfull Vices he proved such a just and prudent King that our Historians of elder and later ages give these large Encomiums of his Justice Prudence Piety Vertues and politique Government wor hy perpetual memory and immitation So excellent was he in Iustice So sharp was he in correction of Vices as well in his Magistrates Officers and other Subjects that never before his days was less felony by Robbers nor less extortion or Bribery by false Officers such as were wicked he kept under them that were Rebels he repulsed the godly he maintained and the just and modest he loved the learned and viâ—tuous he encouraged He would suffer no mâ—n of what degree or quality soever he were to elude or violate his Laws without condigne punishment In his time there was neither any private Pilferer nor publâ—ke Theef but he that in stealing other mens Goods would venture and suffer as he was sure the loss of his own Goods and Life He was no respecter of persons in judgement but judged every man according to the quantity of his Offence and quality of his person He united all the Nations under him which were divers by the Covenanâ— and Obligation of one Law Governing them all with such Iustice Equity Integrity and Peace that he wastileâ— Rex or Edgarus Pacificus tâ—e pâ—aceable King Edgar In his days not â—orments not Gibbeâ—s not Ex le not banishment were so much feared as the offending of so good and gracious a King He built and endowed no lesse than 48 Monasteries and restored many more endowing them with large possessions privileges out of Piety and Devotion â—s these times reputed it was a great honourer lover promoter of the vertuous and learned Clergy and suppressor of the vicious and scandalous There was scarce one year throughout all his reign wherein he did not some great and memorable necessary thing for the good of his Country and people the honour of God and advancement of Religiòn All which made him so honoured and beloved by his Subjects at home so far dreaded by his Enemies abroad that Nullas Domesticorum insidias nullum exterminium alienorum sensit He never felt any homebred treachery or forein invasion but reigned peaceably all his days without war or bloodshed which none of his Predecessors ever did He was so far from tollerating any violence or rapine in men towards each other that he commanded all the Wolves and
Northamtune et congregata ibi tota Provincia sive Vicecomitatu coram cunctis iterum causam supradictam patefecerunt Qua patefacta ac declarata ut praejudicata erat apud Londoniam judicaverunt et isti apud Northamtune Quo facto omnis populus cum jure jurando in Christi Cruâ—e reddiderunt Episcopo quae sua erant scilicet Burch et Undeles et Kateringes By which President it is apparent 1. That Parliamentary Councils in that age held Pleas and gave judgements of Disseisins and Titles of Lands 2. That they had Lawvers to assist them and plead such cases before them 3. That the Judgement given in the Great Council at London was confirmed recited and executed in the County-Court held at Northampton and possession of the Lands accordingly restored to the Bishop King Ethelred being incensed against the Bishop of Rochester Anno 983. as some or 986. as others compute it besieged the City of Rochester for a long space VVhereupon Archbishop Dunstan commanded him to give over the siege lest he should provoke St. Andrew Patron of that City against him The King not withstanding continued his siege till he extorted one hundred pounds from the Bishop VVhere upon Dunstan admiring at his covetousness sent him this Message Because thou bast preferred silver before God Mony before an Apostle covetousness before me the evils which the Lord hath denounced shall violently come upon thee Upon which Matthew Westminster makes this observation Anno 986. Rex Anglorum Aethelredus qui prohibente beato Dunstano Ceâ—tum libras ab Episcopo Roffensi extorserat pro pace brevissima pensionem 16 millium librarum persolvere compulsus est VVhich fell not out till the year 994. as himself and others record Malmesbury referrs it to the Tax of 10 thousand pounds paid by him to the Danes Anno 991. In this year 986. Alfric Duke of Mercians son of Duke Alfere was banished England crudeliter cruelly without just cause as Bromton recites which made him afterwards prove treacherous to the King he being one of those English quos nullis causis extantibus exhaeredabat Rex et affecto crimine opibus emugebat which Malmesbury taxeth him for His oppression and injustice being the chief causes of his miscarriage and expulsion by the Danes Anno 988. The Danes invading VVecedport thereupon Goda Earl of Devonshire Strenwild a most valiant Knight and many others in defence of their Native Country and Liberties fought with them and were slain by them And Anno 891. Brithnoth the most valiant Duke of the East English and his forces fought a set battle with the invading Danes who wasted Ipswich and the parts adjoyning In which battel an innumerable multitude were slain on both sides and this valiant Duke with many thousands of the English in defence of their Country against these Invaders After which by the Counsel of Syricius Archbishop of Canterbury Duke Aethelward Alfric and other Nobles assembled no doubt in a Parliamentary 〈◊〉 as Malmesbury his Duces et Proceres si quando in Concilium venissent pars hic 〈◊〉 illud elâ—gâ—runt c. and Henry de Knyghton his Proceres Regni si quando ad Concilium congregati c. import A Tribute of ten thousand pounds was given to the Danes that they might desist from their frequenr rapines and slaughters of men which they frequently exercised about the Sea-coasts pacemque firmam cumiis tenerent and might hold a firm peace with them Some of our Historians stile this Infaustum Concilium an unlucky Council Eadmerus gives this verdict of it Regis desidia circum circa innotuit Et ideo extevorum cupiditas opes Anglorum quam mortes affectans hac illac per mare terram invadere primo propinquas mari villas urbes deinde remotiores ac demum totam Provinciam miserabili depopulatione devastare Quibus cum ille nimio pavore perculsus non armis occurrere sed data pecunia pacem ab eis petere non erubuisset ipsi suscepto pretio in sua revertebantur ut numero suorum adaucto fortiores redirent ac praemia iteratae irruptionis multiplicata reciperent Unde modo decem millia modo sedecim millia modo viginti quatuor millia modo triginta millia librarum argenti consecuti sunt omnia illis largiente praefato Rege Edelredo et gravi exactione totum Regnum opprimente VVilliam of Malmesbury passeth this censure on it and the unhappy consequence of it Danis omnes portus infestantibus levitate piratica ubique infestanribus dum nesciretur ubi eis occurrere debent decretum à Syriaco Archiepiepiscopo c. ut repellerentur argento qui non poâ—erunt ferro Ita decem millia librarum soluta cupiditatem Danorum expleâ—ete Exemplum Infamiae et Viris indignnm libertatem pecunia redimere quam ab invicto animo nulla violentia poseit excutere Et tunc quidem palisper ab incurâ—bus cessarunt mox ubi vires otio resumpserunt ad superiora reâ—itum Tantus timor Anglos invaserat ut nihil de resistendo cogitarent Si qui antiquae glorlae memores obviare signa colligere tentassent hostium multitudine sociorum defectione destitue bantur whereby they became Vassals and Tributaries to the insulting Danes Cujus Siricii consilio in gestis Regum dixi Ethelredum Regem animi libertatem Danis pretio vendicasse Ut eorum pacem argento redimerent quod ferro repellere posset nisi corde carâ—ret Unde Importabilis Tributi pensio imposita Angliae fortunas provincialium ad solum usque destruxit Henry Huntindon and the Chronicle of Bromton pass this verdict against and deduce this memorable observation from this Tribute Edelredi Regis Anno 13. Primo statuerunt Angli which intimates it to be decreed in a Parliamentary Council Concilio infausto Siricii Archiepiscopi quod ipsi censum Dacis persolverent quatenus à rapinis caede ceâ—â—arent dederunt eis decem mille libras Hoc autem malum usque in hodiernum diem duravit et diu nisi Dei Pietas subveniat durabit Regibus namque nostris modo persolvimus ex consuetudine quod Dacis persolvebatnr ex ineffabili terrore To which Bromton Ranulphus Censtrensis and Henry de Knyghton immediately subjoyn Dacis Tributum annuum solvunt Primo anno 10 milia librarum Secundo anno 16 millia librarum Tertio anno 20 millia librarum Quarto anno 24 millia Quinto anno 40. millia librarum donee tandem pecunia deficiente iterum tenderent ad Rapinas Et tunc Northimbâ—ia 〈◊〉 deâ—â—aedantes et Londoniam obsidenteâ— Coegerunt regem tributum dare Mat. Parker Archbishop of Canterbury thus censures this ill advice of his Predecessor Siricius pacem Christianis ab infidelibus Dacis 10. librarum millibus redemit Ad ignominiam sane peneque pernicient totius Regni Mr. John Fox informs us
them with great loss from their walls Wherewith they being extremely enraged marched through all Devonshire burning the villages wasting the fields and slaying the people without distinction of age or sex after their usual manner Whereupon the inhabitants of Devon Somerset and Dorsetshires uniting their forces in a Body in a Place called Penho gave them battel but being overpowred by the multitude of the Danes who farr exceeded them both in number and military skill they were forced to flie and many of them slain The Danes thereupon getting their horses harrowed Devonshire farr worse than before and returned with a great booty to their ships Whence steering their course to the Isle of Wight they preyed sometimes upon it sometimes upon Hampshire other times upon Dorsetshire no man resisting them Destroying the men with the sword and the Villages and Towns with fire in such sort ut cum illis nec classica manus navali nec pedestris exercitus certare audeat praello terrestri for which cause the King and People were overwhelmed with unspeakable grief and sadness In this sad perplexity King Ethelred Anno 1002. Habito consilio cum regni sui Primatibus as Florentius Wigorniensis Simeon Dunelmensis Radulphus de Diceto Roger Hoveden and others express it or Consilio Primatum suorum as Mat. Westminster and his followers relate it By the Counsel of the Nobles of his realm assembled together for this purpose at London reputed it beneficial for him and his people to make an Agreement with the Danes and to give them a Stipend and Pacifying Tribute that so they might cease from their mischiefs For which end Duke Leofsi was sent to the Danes who coming to them importuned them that they would accept of a Stipend and Tribute They gladly embracing his Embassy condescended to his request and determined how much Tribute should be paid them for to keep the peace Whereupon soon after A Tribute of 24000 pounds was paid them pro bono Pacis for the good of Peace In this Assembly and Council as I conjecture King Ethelred informed his COUNSELLERS who instructed him both in divine and humane things with the sloathfulness negligence and vicious lives of the Secular Priests throughout England and by their advice thought meet to thrust them out and put Monks in their places to pour forth prayers and praises to God for him and his people in a due manner Whereupon he confirmed by his Charter the ejection of the Secular Priests out of Christs-Church in Canterbury and the introduction of Monks in their places and ratified all the lands and privileges formerly granted them exempting the Monastery and Lands thereof from all Secular services except Expeditione Pontium operatione et Arcium reparatione Beseeching and conjuring all his lawfull Successors Kings Bishops Earls and people that they should not be Ecclesiae Christi Praedones sed sitis Patrimonii Christi defensores seduli ut vita et gaudio aeternis cum omnibus Dei sanctis in aeternum fruamini Which Charter was ratified by the Subscriptions of the King Archbishop Bishops Aâ—bâ—ts and of several Aeldermen Nobles and Officers and the sign of the Cross This year Duke Leofsi slaying Esric a Nobleman the Kings chief Provost was judicially banished the Realm by the King for this offence After this Peace made with the Danes Anno 1002. Emma ariving in England received both the Diadem and name of a Queen whereupon King Ethelred puffed up with pride seeing he could not drive out the Danes by force of arms contrived how to murder and destroy them all in one day by Treachery at unawares either by the sword or by fire because they endeavoured to deprive him and his Nobles both of their Lives and the Realm and to subject all England to their own Dominion The occasion time and manner of whose sudden universal Massacre is thus related by Mat. Westminster An. 1012. though acted An. 1002. as all accord and by Mr. Fox and others Huna General of King Ethelreds Militia a valiant warlike man who had taken upon him the managing of the affaris of the Realm under the King observing the insolency of the Danes who now after the peace made with them did so proudly Lord it through all England that they presumed to ravish the wives and daughters of Noblemen and every where to expose them to scorn by strength caused the English husbandmen to soyl and sow their land and doe all vile labor belonging to the House whiles they would sit idely at home holding their wives daughters and servants at their pleasure and when the husbandmen came home they should scarcely have of their own as his servants had So that the Dane had all at his will and fill faring of the best when the owner scarcely had his fill of the worst Thus the common people being of them oppressed were in such fear and dread that not only they were constrained to suffer them in their Doings but also glad to please them and called every one of them in the House where they had rule LORD DANE c. Hereupon Huna goeth to the King much perplexed and makes a lamentable complaint to him concerning these things Upon which the King being not a little moved by the Counsel of the same Huna sent Letters or Commissions unto all the coasts of the Realm commanding all and every of the Nation that on one day after to wit on the Feast of St. Brice the Bishop all the Danes throughout England should be put to death by a secret Massacre that â—o the whole Nation of the English might all jointly and at one time be freed from the Danish Oppression And so the Danes who by a firm covenant sworn unto by both sides a little before ought to have dwelt peaceably with the English were too opprobriously slain and the women with their children being dashed against the posts of the houses miserably powred out their souls When therefore the sentence of this decree was executed at the City of London without mercy many of the Danes fled to a certain Church in the City where all of them were slain without pity standing by the very Altars themselves Moreover that which aggravated the rage of this persecution was the death of Guimild Sister of King Swain slain in this manner in England she was lawfully maried to Count Palingers a Noble man of great power who going into England with her husband they both there received the faith of Christ and Sacrament of baptism this most prudent Virago being the mediatrix of the peace between the English and Danes gave her self with her husband and only son as Hostages to King Ethelred for the security of the peace she being delivered by the King to that most wicked Duke Edric to keep that Traytor within few days after commanded her husband with her son to be slain before her face with four spears and last of all commanded her to be beheaded She underwent
his if they would all unanimously receive him again as their King into the Kingdom To which they all gave a favourable and satisfactory answer Whereupon a plenary reconciliation was ratified between them on both sides both by words and compact Moreover The Nobles unanimously and fréely agreed and voted That they would never more admit a Danish King into England to reign over them These things concluded King Ethelred speedily returns into England where he was honourably and joyfully received by the English And that he might seem to cast off his former sloathfulness he hastned to raise an Army against Cnute who remaining with his Navy in Lindesey made an agreement with the inhabitants exacting men and horses from them that he might surprise Ethelred at unawares and threatning grievously to punish all such as revolted from him But Cnute being taken in his own craft Ethelred marching thither with a strong army before he was provided to receive him fled from thence with his Hostages Army and Navy to Sandwich whereupon Ethelred depopulated all Lindesey wasting the Country with fire and sword slaying all the Inhabitants as Traitors to him and their Native Country Cnute by way of revenge humano et divino Iure contempto in insontes grassatus cuts off the hands and ears and slits the Noses of all the most Noble and beautiful Hostages throughout England given to his father and so dismissing them sailed into Denmark to settle his affairs and augment his forces resolving to return the year following After his departure King Ethelred this very year Super haec omnia mala Classi quae apud Greenwic jacuit Tributum quod erat 30. millia librarum pendi mandavit to wit to the Fleet under Turkell the Dane who instead of defending did but help to pillage and oppress the English Huntindon writes it was but 21 thousand pounds and Bromton avers that it was Cnute not Ethelred who commanded it to be paid to his Navy Soon after which the Sea rising higher than it was accustomed drowned an innumerable Company of Villages people and cattel After Cnutes departure King Ethelred summoned a Parliamentaty Council at Oxford Anno 1015. both of the Danes and English Malmsbury expressly stiles it MAGNUM CONCILIUM Wigorniensis Hoveden Sim. Dunelmensis MAGNUM PLACITUM Matthew Westminster and others MAGNVM COLLOQUIUM our later English Historians a Great Council and Parliament The King by the ill advise of that Arch Traytor Duke Edric at this Great Council commanded some Nobles of the Danes to be sodenly and secretly slain quasi de Regia proditione notatos ac perfidiae apud se insimulatos the chiefest of them were Sygeforth and Morcar whom Edric treacherously invited to his chamber and there making them drunk caused his armed guards there placed secretly to murder them which they did Hereupon their Servants endeavouring to revenge their Lords deaths being digniores et potentiores ex Seovengensibus they were repulsed with arms and forced to flye into the Tower of St. Frideswides Church for safety whence when they could not be forcibly expelled they were all there burnt together The King presently seised upon their lands and goods the chief cause of their murder as some conceived and sent the relict of Sygeforth a very Noble beautifull and vertuous Lady prisoner to Malmsbury whither Edmond the Kings base Son as some affirm posted without his fathers privity and being enamored with her beauty first carnally abused then afterward maried her and by her advice forcibly invaded and seised upon the Lands of her husband and Morcar which were very great and the Earldom of Northumberland which his father denied him upon his request Whereupon all the Inhabitants of that County readily submitted to him Whiles these things were acting d Cnute having setled his affairs in Denmark and made a League with his neighbour Kings recruired his Army and Navy and returned into England with a resolution either to win it or to lose his life in the attempt Ariving first at Sandwich and sailing thence to the West he pillaged Dorsetshire Somersetshire and Wiltshire filling all places with slaughters and plunders King Ethelred lying then sick at Cosham his son Edmond Ironside and Duke Edric raised an Army against Cnute but when both their forces were united to fight him the old perfidious Traytor Edric endeavoured by all means to betray Edmond to the Danes or treacherously to slay him which being discovered to Edmond thereupon they severed their forces from each other and gave place to the Enemies without giving them battel Not long after Edric inticing to him 40 of the Kings ships furnished with Danish Mariners and Souldiers openly revolted and went with them to Cnute subjecting himself to his dominion as his Soveraign by whose example all West-Sex submitted to him as their Kihg delivering him hostages for their fidelity resigning up all their arms to him and providing both horse and arms for his Danish Army The Mercians offred themselves alone to resist the Danes but through the Kings sloathfulness the business of war received delay and the enemies proceeded in their rapines without opposition In the year 1016. King Cnute and treacherous Duke Edric came with 200 sail of ships into the river of Thames whence they marched by land with a great Army of horse and foot and invaded Mercia in an hostile manner burning all the Towns and Villages and slaying all the men they met with in Warwickshire and other places whereupon King Ethelred as Huntindon Wigorniensis and others record made an Edict Ut quicunque Anglorum sanus esset secum in bello procederet That every Englishman who was in health should go with him in battel against the Danes An innumerable multitude of people upon this assembled together to asist him But when his and his son Edmonds forces were conjoyned in one body the King was informed that some of his auxiliaries were ready to betray and deliver him up to the enemies unless he took care to prevent it and save himself and as some write the Mercians refused to fight with the VVest-Saxons and Danes whereupon the expedition was given over and every man returned to his own home After this Edmund Ironside raised a greater Army than before against Cnute and sent Messengers to King Ethelred to London to raise as many men as possible he could and speedily to come and joyn with him against the Danes but he for fear of being betrayed to the Enemy presently dismissed the Army without fighting and returned to London Hereupon Ed. Ironside went into Northumberland where some imagined he would raise a greater Army against Cnute the Dane but he and Vhtred Earl of Northumberland instead of incountring Cnute wasted the Counties of Stafford Shrewsbury and Leicester because they would not go forth to fight against the Danes Army in defence of their Country and King Cnute on the other side wasting with fire and sword the Counties of Buckinghan
head of a Souldier named Osmeranus very like to King Edmund both in hair and countenance and shaking his bloody sword with the half gasping head in his hand which he lifted up on high cryed out to the English Army Oye Dorsetshire men Devonshire men and other English flee and get away for your head is lost behold here is the head of your King Edmund which I hold in my hand therefore hasten hence with all speed and save your lives Which when the English heard and saw they were more affrighted with the atrocity of the thing than with the belief of the Speaker whereupon all the more unconstant of the Army were ready to fly away But Edmond having present notice of this treacherous stratagem and seeing his men ready to give over the fight hasted where he might be best seen and posting from rank to rank encouraged them to fight like Englishmen who thereupon resuming their courage charged the Danes more fiercely than before and bending their force against the Traytor had shot him to death but that he retreated presently to the Enemy the English reviving and manfully continuing the battel again till the darkness of the night caused both Armies voluntarily to retreat from each other into their Tents When much of the night was spent Cnute commanded his men in great silence to break up their Camp and marched to his Ships and soon after whiles King Edmond was recruiting his Army in West-Sex besieged London again whereupon Edmond marching to London with a select company of Souldiers chased Cnute and his Army to their ships removed the siege and entred the City in manner of Triumph Cnute and Edric perceiving the valour and good success of Edmond conspired together to overcome him by Treason whom they could not vanquish by Armes for which end Edric before King Edmonds march to London as some or soon after as others relate feignedly revolted from Cnute and submitted himself again to Edmond as his natural Lord and renewing his peace with him fraudently swore that he would eontinue faithfull to him only that he might betray him Edmond two days after he had chased the Danes from the siege of London pursuing his victory passed over the Thames at Brentford where though many of the English were drowned in passing oveâ— the River through their carelesness yet he there fought with the Danes the fourth or tather fifth time routed them and won the field After which Edmond by the advice of Edric marched again into West-Sex to raise a more numerous Army to supply those who were drowned and slain in this last battel Upon which advantage the Danes again returned to the siege at London invironing and fiercely assaulting it on every side but being valiantly repulsed by the Citizens they retired from thence to their ships and sailed into the River of Arewe where leaping out of their ships they went about pillaging in Mercia killing all they met and burning the Villages returning to their ships with a great booty Another company of their foot sailing up the River of Meadway pillaged Kent their Horse marching thither by Land to meet them doing the like wasting all places with fire and sword King Edmond having in the mean time raised a strong Army out of all England passed over with them again at Brentford to fight the Danes and giving them battel near Oteford routed the whole Danish Army not able to endure his fierce charge and pursued them as far as Ilesford slaying many thousands of them in the pursute and had he followed the pursute futther it was conceived that day had put an end to the war and Danes for ever But perfidious Duke Edric by his most wicked Counsel the worst ever given in England caused him to give over the chace Whereupon the flying Danes escaped into the Isle of Shepy Edmond returning into VVest-Sex to observe Cnutes motion he thereupon transported his forces into Kent who began to plunder and wast Mercia far worse than ever they had done before VVhereupon King Edmond marching with his Army against them gave them battel the sixt time at Esesdune or Assendune now Ashdune in Essex where after a long and bloody fight with equall valour and great loss on both sides King Edmond seeing the Danes to fight more valiantly than ever before leaving his place which usually was between the Dragon and Standard ran into the very front of the battel and breaking in like thunder upon the Enemy brake their ranks pierced into the very midst of them and made way for others to follow him forcing the Danes to give back VVhich the ever traiterous Edric perceiving fled with the whole Squadron of Souldiers which he commanded unto Cnute as was formerly agreed between them whereupon the Danes becoming the stronger made an extraordinary slaughter of the Eâ—glish as Matthew VVestminster and his followers story Henry Huntindon relates That Edric seeing the Danes going to ruine cryed out to the English Army Fly O Englishmen fly Englishmen for Edmond is dead being not seen in his wonted place and crying out thus he and his Brigade first began the flight whereupon the whole Army of the English following them fled likewise VVigorniensis informs us that King Edmond before this battel riding about to every Company admonished and commanded them that being mindfull of their pristinâ— valour and victory they should defend themselves and the Realm from the avarice of the Danes being now to fight with those they had formerly conquered That perfidious Duke Edric seeing the Danish army inclining to slight and the English about to gain the victory began to fly with the VVagesetensians and that part of the army which he commanded as he formerly promised to Cnute that circumventing his Lord King Edmond and the English army with deceits he gave the victorie to the Danes by his treacherie and by the consent of all our VVriters he here gave the greatest wound to the English Nobility and Nation that ever they received in any former battel Duke Alfric Duke Godwin Duke Ulfketel Duke Aethelward Ailward son of Duke Alke and all the flower of the English Nobility together with Eadnoth Bishop of Lincoln and Abbot VVulfius qui ad exorandum Deum pro milite bellum agente convenerunt with an infinite number of common Souldiers being there slain in this fight and slight qui nunquam ante in uno praelio tantam cladem ab hostibus acceperunt Ibi Cnuto Regnum expugnavit ibi omne decus Anglorum occubuit ibi flâ—s patriae totus emarcuit VVrites Malmesbury Cnute likewise on his side sustained an irre perable loss both of his Dukes and Nobles After this lamentable loss wherein so many Nobles fell Cnute marching to London in triumph took the Royal Scepters whence departing into Glocestershire in pursute of Edmond who retreated almost alone to Glocester and there recruited his broken forces he wasted and pillaged the Country in his march King Edmond resolved to give him another battel in
PENDERETUR STATUTO and appointed a Tribute which should be paid to the Sea forces and then departed from each other The Daues returned with the great booty they had gotten to their ships with whom the Citizens of London having made a peace DATO PRECIO which they paid a price for they permitted them there to winter The Realm was divided between them both but the Crown remained to Edmond with the City of London Essex East-England and all the Land on the Southside the River of Thames and Cnute enjoyed the North parts of England by mutual consent and agreement of all the Nobles and so this bloudy warr between them after 7. or 8. battels within so many moneths space ceased Soon after this fatal Agreement and partition of the Realm which made Edmond but half a King and England half Denmark that ever trayterous Duke Edric to ingratiate himself the more with Cnute treacherously murdered King Edmond at Oxford of which there are 3. different relations in our Historians Some say that he corrupted the Kings Chamberlains with gifts to murder him in his bed and that King Cnute in the first year of his Coronation caused all of them who had conspired his death by Edric's exhortation to come before him where they declared to the King the Treason they had committed against King Edmond expecting a large reward for it Whereupon the King sent for the Great Men and Nobles of the Realm and made the Traitors to acknowledge their Treason before them and a great assembly of people fearing lest otherwise it should be believed that he had foreplotted the Treason aforelaid and suborned them to execute it After their publick confession thereof he caused them all to be first drawn and then hanged for it l Others write that Edric himself or his Son by his command murdered him at Oxford on St. Andrews night as he was easing nature in an house of Office stabbing him into the bowels with a two-edged knife through the hole of the privy in which one of them lay in wait to murder him leaving the knife sticking in his bowels and him dead in the place And some write that he placed an Image in his Chamber with a bow and arrow ready bent which Edmond admiring at touching the spring which held the bow thus bent the arrow thereupon pierced slew him in the place That before his death was known Edric went to Edmonds wife and taking away her two young Sons from her brought and delivered them to Cnute and then saluted him saying GOD SAVE THEE SOLE KING OF ENGLAND Whereupon Cnute demanding Why he saluted him in this manner He then informed him of King Edmoâ—ds death and how he had murdered him of purpose to make him sole King of England Speed adds That he cut off his Soveraigns head presenting it to Cnute with these fawning salutations All hail thou sole Monarch of England for here behold the head of thy Copartner which for thy sake I have adventured to cut off which no antient Historian mentions Upon this Cnute though ambitious enough in Soveraignty yet out of a Princely disposition sore grieved at such a disloyal treacherous act presently replyed to him I for reward of so great and meritorious a service done for me will this day advance thee above all the Nobles of the Realm After which he caused his head to be cut off then fixed on an high poll and placed on the highest Tower of London for the birds to prey upon Others more agreeable to the truth relate That Cnute in the first year of his reign depriving this Arch-Traitor Edric of the Dukedom of Mercia which he had many years enjoyed thereupon Edric in the feast of Christs Nativity repaired to Cnute at his Palace in London to expostulate with him about it where checking the King over-harshly he upbraided him with the many benefits he had received from him amongst which he mentioned two wherewith he specially provoked him to anger saying Most dear King you ought not to speak harshly to me nor suffer any evil to be done unto me for you had never enjoyed the Realm of England but by my means For out of love to thee I have first betrayed King Ethelred after that I deserted Edmond my proper and natural Lord and afterwards I foreplotted his death and murdered my just and true liege Lord out of my fidelity towards thee to bring the whole kingdom unto thee and dost thou so lightly vilify so great love conferred on thee for which I never received any benefit or profit from thee At which speeches Cnute changing his countenance expressing his fury by its redness presently pronounced this sentence against him saying And thou shalt deservedly die thou most perfidious Traitor seeing by thy own confession thou art guilty of Treason both against God and me who hast slain thine own Soveraign and natural King and my dear confederate Brother His bloud be upon thy head because thou hast stretched out thy hand against the Lords anointed And lest a tumult should be raised among the people he commanded him to be there presently strangled in his palace and his body to be cast through a window into the river of Thames to be devoured of the fishes as some or hanged upon London walls unburied to be devoured by birds as others story At which time Duke Norman son of Duke Leofwin Captain of Edrics guard Aethelward son of Duke Agelmar and Brihtricus son of Alphege Earl of Devonshire with many others of Edrics followers were likewise slain without offence together with Edric because Cnute feared he should one time or other be circumvented by the treacheries of this old perfidious Traitor hearing his former natural Lords Ethelred and Edmond had frequently been betrayed by him quorum diutina proditione alterum vexavit alterum interfecit there being no trust to be reposed in such a Traytor to his Soveraigns Thus this inveterate Arch-Traitor to his Natural Country Kings and bloudy Regicide by Gods divine Justice received the just punishment of all his Treasons at the last instead of expected great rewards from that hand he least suspected Whence p Matthew Westminster relating both the Histories of the manner of Edrics death concludes thus Sed sive sic sive aliter vitam finierit Proditor Edricus non multum ad rem pertinet quia hoc liquido constat Quod ille qui multos circumvenerat tandem est justo Dei Iudicio circumventus et proditionis suae meruit subire talionem And let all those who have or shall imitare him in his Treasons against his native Country Kings and Regicide seriously meditate on his tragical end and expect the self same retribution in conclusion though they escape as many years as he then did before final execution A third sort of Authors as Marianus Scotus Wigorniensis Roger Hoveden and Simeon Dunelmensis make no mention of King Edmonds murder by Edric his subordination but only that
compilationem Decretorum quae Anno. Dom. 1150. fuerunt compilata anno septimo Pontificatus Papae Eugenâ—i â—ertii et ante compilationem aliorum Canonum quorumcunque Cunctos Regni sui Praelatos Proceresque ac Magnates ad suum convocans Parliamentum in suo publico Parliamento persistenâ—â—bus personaliteâ— in eodem Wuâ—â—tano et Adelnodo Archiepiscopis et Ailwino Episcopo Elmhamense et aliis Episcopis ipsorum suffraganeis septem Ducibus cum totidem Comitibus necnon diversorum Monasteriorum nonnullis Abbatibus cum quamplurimis gregariis Militibus ac cum populi multitudine copiosa ac Omnibus tunc in eodem Parliamento personalitur existentibus Votis Regiis unanimiter consentientibus praeceptum et decretum fuit Quod Monasterium Sancti Edmondi c. sit ab omni Jurisdictione Episcoporum Comitatus illius ex tunc in perpetuum funditus liberum et exemptum c. Illustris Rex Hardicanutus praedicti Regis Canuti filius haeres et successor ac sui Patris Vestigiorum devotus imitator c. cum laude et favore Aegelnodi Doroberniensis nunc Catuariensis et Alfrici Eborac Episcoporum aliorumque Episcoporum Suffraganeis necnon Cunctorum Regni sui mundanorum Principum descriptum constituit roboravitque praeceptum That which this Manuscript stiles so often a Parliament held at Winchester in the 5th year of King Câ—ute of which there is not one Syllable in any of our Historians is as I conceive that which Matthew Westminster Wigorniensis Hoveden and Simeon Dunelmensis stile CONCILIUM ET MAGNUM CONCILIUM c. held at Cirâ—ncester or Orencester not Winchester the 4th year of his reign wherin by the Counsel of Queen Emma and of his Bishops and Barons he placed Monks in the Monasterie of Bederichesiorthe where St. Edmund was interred and endowed the Monastery of St. Edmond with so many farmes and other goods as made it one of the richest in all England as those Historians witness Whose Name and date the ignorant compiler of this Manuscript mistook whose Antiquitie and reputation is very suspitious as c Sir Henry Spelman informs us First because Sir Henry could never gain the sight of it from Sir Edward Cook though he oft-times promised to lend it him to peruse for his satisfaction And that which dares not abide the sight and test of such a judicious learned Antiquary when desired may justly be deemed an Imposture 2ly Sir Henry Spelman conceives the Author of this Manuscript writ not before the end of King Henry the 3d if so soon seeing he calls the Great Council of the Realm so frequently a Parliament which Title was not given it in Manuscripts or Historians till the end of King Henry the 3d. or after his reign And Wigorniensis Matthew Westminster Hoveden and Simeon Dunelmensis all stile it onely CONCILIUM not Parliamentum 3ly Because he certainly mistakes in his Chronology in making Aegelnoth Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of King Hardecnute when as he died and Eadsi was made Archbishop thereof two years before Hardicnutes reign which Eadsi crown'd him King as Matt. Westminster An. 1038. together with Matthew Parker and Godwin attest And therefore he might as grosly mistake in other things 4ly It appears by the recital it self that it was writ above 130 years at least after this Council under Cnute because it recites it preceeded the Decrees made so long after under Pope Eugenius An. 1150. 5ly The form of the Prologue Haec sunt Statuta c. coupled with ad suum convocans Parliamentum in suo publico Parliamento and aliis Episcopis ipsorum Suffraganeis prove it not to be written before King Edward the first his reign when such phrases came first in vse Sir Edward Cooke himself informing us in his Epistle that in Cnute his reign such State-Assemblies were stiled Venerandum Concilium Sapientum sic enim apud majores Parliamentum illud Latine redditur 6ly Became it â—ubjoins cum quamplurimis gregariis militibus ac cum populi multitudine copiosa as if they had been personally present in this Parliamentary Council as well as the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Dukes and Nobles of which there is not one syllable in our four antient Historians which mention this Council at Cirencester Neither can these Gregarii milites be intended Knights of shires nor populi multitudine copiosa Commoners or Burgesses elected to serve in Parliament by and for the people as Sir Edward Cooke and others fancy there being no mention of any such chosen Knighâ—s of Counties Citizens Burgesses or Commons in that or succeeding ages till about the reign of King Hâ—nry the 3d. but only ordinary Souldiers and the Vulgar sort of people admitted to be present in the Council at the reading and passing of the Charter to St. Edmond as they are now admitted into the Lords House together with the Knights and Burgesses at the beginnings and ending of our Parliaments and upon publike Trials Conferences and Occasions at which times there are more common people ten to one usually present to see and hear what is acted who are no members then there are Members of the Commons House which never sate together with the Lords for ought appears much less in this Parliament as some confidently inferr from this Spurious Antiquity which Sir Edward Cooke little versed in Antiquities and oft mistaken in them so much magnifies and insists on In the year of Christ 1021. King Cnute uppon occasions and offences taken by him banished Duke Turkell to whom he had formerly committed East-England with Edgitha his wife and Hire Duke of Northumberland out of England Turkell no sooner arived in Denmark but he was there slain by the Dukes of the Country by divine vengeance he being a chief inciter of the death of St. 〈◊〉 The English Danes An. 1022. in Colloquio apud Dxoniam celebrato de Legibus Regi Edwardi prâ—mi tenendis couoordes facti sunt Unde eisdem Legibus jubente Rege Cnutone ab Anglica lingua in Latinam translatis tà m in Dania quà m in Anglia propter earum aequitatem à Rege praefato observari jubentur as Mat. Westminster relates Anno 1022. So as he imposed no New Laws on them nor revived old but only by common consent in a Parliamentary Council both of English and Danes King Cnute in the year 1023. did so carefully endeavour to reform all things wherein himself or his Ancestors had offended as he seemed to wipe away Prioris Injustitiae Naevum the Blot of his former Injustice as well with God as with men And by the exhortation of Queen Emma studying to reconcile all the English to himself he bestowed many Gifts upon them et insuper bonas Leges omnibus et placentes promisit and moreover promised good and pleasing Lawes to all The best means to win and knit the peoples hearts g Anno 1024. Cnute leading an Army of English and Danes against the Swedes
and â—rivolous and that no man is worthy the name of a King but he alone to whose bâ—ck both Heaven Earth and the Sea obey by everlasting Laws Henry de Knyghton superaddes thereto as part of his Speech which most others omit I am a Wretch and a Captive able to do nothing possessing nothing without his gift I commend I recommend my self to him and let him be the Gardian of debility Amen After which King Cnute never wore his Crown upon his head but put it upon the head of the Crucifix at Winchester as most accord to the praise of the great King thereby giving a great example of humility to Kings and Conquerors who in the height of all their power can not command the Sea or least wave not to flow or wash them Henry de Knyghton conceives this to be before his pilgrimage to Rome others expresly record it was after his return from thence whose computation I here follow and therefore place it in this year In the year of our Lord 1035. King Cnute a little before his death made this partition of his kingdoms amongst his Sons Swane his son by Q. Algiva or as some affirm of a Priests wife suborned by Algiva as her own he made King of Norwey his Son Harde-Cnute by Queen Emma he caused to be crowned King of Denmark as Wigorniensis Hoveden and others write yet some gainsay it that he made his Son Harold King of England and soon after died at Shaftesbury November 12. 1035. and was buried at Winchester Immediatly after his decease the Nobles met at Oxford about the election of a new King which our Historians thus express Convenerunt apud Dxoniam ad Colloquium as Mat. Westm or Placitum magnum as Huntindon and others stile it Proceres Regni Vt de novo Rege creando tractatent ibidem All the Nobles of the Realm assembled in a great Parliamentary Council or Court at Oxford that they might consult about the electiction of a New King which they would not have done had Harold been made King of England before by Cnute in his life time Leofric Earl of Chester and the rest of the Nobles on the Northside of the Thames with all the Danish Princes and Londoners who by conversing with the Danes amongst them were corrupted with their vices and addicted to their party elected Harold Son of Cnute by his Concubine Algiva whom some aver to be the son of a Tayler for their King But Godwin Earl of Kent with the Princes of the Western part of England contradicting them would rather have elected Harde-Cnute son of Cnute by Queen Emma or one of the Sons of King Ethelred and Emma then in Normandy After great strife and debate between the Nobles about the Election because Harold was there personally present but Harde-Cnute then in Denmark and Alfred and Edward in Normandy Harolds party prevailed against Earl Godwins qui tandem vi numero minor â—essit violentiae Whereupon Harold was presently crowned King at Oxford by Elnothus Archbishop of Canterbury though at first he was very unwilling to perform that service For it is reported of him that he having the regal Scepter and Crown in his custody refused with an Oath to consecrate any other for King so long as Queen Emma her children were living for said she Cnute committed them to my trust and assurance and to them will I give my faith and allegiance This Scepter and Crown therefore I here lay down upon the Altar neither do I deny nor deliver them to you but I require by the Apostolick Authority all Bishops that none of them presume to take the same away neither that they consecrate him King therewith as for your self if you dare you may usurp that which I have committed to God on this Table Notwithstanding this great thunderclap being allayed with the showers of Golden promises of his just good and religious government intended though present experience manifested the contrary he was crowned by him Anno Anno. 1035. Henry Huntindon and others write That they elected him King only to keep the kingdom for his Brother Harde-Cnute then in Denmark Harold and the Nobles of West-Sex who opposed his election upon advice taken resolved that Queen Emma wife of the deceased King should keep West-Sex and Winchester for the use of her Son Harde Cnute and that Earl Godwin should be their Captain in military affairs Roger Hoveden and others record That Harold being elected King by the consent of the major part of the Nobles of England obtained the royal dignity and began to reign quia justus haeres because he was a lawfull heir yet he reigned not so powerfully as Cnute quia justior haeres expectabatur Harde Cnutus because a juster heir Harde Cnute was expected By reason of this disagreement amongst the Nobles to please both parties the kingdom of England was therupon divided by Lot Harold enjoying the Northern part thereof and Harde-Cnutes friends retaining the Southern part of it for his use No sooner was Harold crowned King but to secure himself the better in his Throne he presently posted to Winchester with his forces where tyrannically and forcibly taking away all the Treasures and goods which Cnute had left to Queen Emma his Mother-in-law he banished her out of England into Flanders some write she was thus banished by the secret Counsel and treachery of Earl Godwin whom she had made General of her forces for her preservation who proved unconstant and a Traytor to her and her children where in this her distresse she was honourably entertained by Earl Baldwin In the year 1036. Alfred eldest Son of King Ethelred comming over to claim his right in the Crown was with his Norman associates betrayed and murdered by the treachery of Earl Godwin of which I finde these several different relations in our Historians Matthew Westminster Ranulphus Cistrensis and others out of them record that Alfred being in Normandy and hearing of the death of Cnute came into England with 23. chosen ships full of Souldiers ut paternum regnum de Jure sibi debitum vel pacificè vel si necessitas cogeret armatorum praesidio obtineret that he might obtain his fathers kingdom of right due unto him either peaceably or if necessity compelled by force of arms Who ariving with his forces at Sandwich Port came as far as Canterbury When Godwin Earl of Kent knew of his comming he went to meet him and receiving him in his fidelity the very next night following compleated the part of the Traytor Judas upon him and his fellow-Souldiers For after kisses of peace given and joyful banquets in the silence of the midnight when as Alfred and his companions had given their Members to sleep they were all taken unarmed in their beds suspecting no harm by a multitude of armed men rushing in upon them and their hands being tyed behind their backs they were compelled to sit down in order one by another Where
richly gilt with gilt bosses and darts in their hands Which Present though it pacified the Kings indignation yet it prevented not Gods avenging justice on him afterwards for Alfreds bloud thus partly avenged on Harolds carcasse which was cast into the Thames and mangled according to Hard-Cnutes command and lay floting on the water sundry dayes till a Fisherman in compassion took up his corps and buried it privately in St. Clements Danes Soon after Harde-Cnute in the second year of his reign commanded 8. Marks to be paid to every Mariner Some write â—0 others 30. marks to every Shipwright of his Danish Navy besides a vast sum of money to his Land-Army Hujus anno secundo redditus est Census Exercitui Dacorum scilicet 21000 lib. 89 lib. Et posteà sunt redditae 32. puppibus 11000 lib. 48. lib. writes Henry Huntindon Tributum inexorabile et importabile Angliae imposuit ut Classiariis suis per singulas naves viginti ac triginti marcas ex pollicito pensitaret Quod dum importune per Angliam exigitur duo infestius hoc munus exequentes a Wigorniae Civibus extincti sunt as Will of Malmsbury expresseth it Hic etiam contra omnem spem octo Marcâ—s unicuique remigi Classis suae de importabili tributo Angliae solvi fecit So Bromton Which â—lorentius Wigorniensis Hoveden Simeon Dunelmensis Matthew Westminster Polychronicon Caxton Fabian Holinshed Grafton and Speed thus more at large relate Anno 1040. Octo Marcas unicuique suae classis Remigi et 12. unicuique gubernatori de tota Anglia praecepit dependi Tributum videlicet tam grave ut vix aliquis id possit persolvere Quapropter omnibus qui prius adventum ejus desiderabant magnopere factus est exosus summopere Anno 1041. Harde-Cnute King of England Huscarlas missit per omnes regni sui Provincias Or Ministros suos per omnes fines regni destinavit sent his Officers through all the Counties parts of the Realm to exact and collect the Tribute which he had imposed without sparing any and to furnish his Mariners with all necessaries from thence Two of which Officers Faeder and Turstin exacting this Importable Tribute with great rigour and cruelty from the Inhabitants of the County and City of Worcester were thereupon tumultuously slain by them in a Monastery whither they fled for Sanctuary on the 4th day of May. The King being very much incensed therewith sent Godwin with all the rest of the Earls of England and almost all his Officers and whole army thither to avenge their deaths commanding them to slay all the men if they could to pillage and burn the whole City and County who coming thither the 2. of November wasted the City and County for 4. dayes space but took or slew few of the City or County because they having notice of their coming fled all away to an Iland in the midst of Severn called Beverage which they fortified and so long manfully defended against their Enemies til they had recovered their peace and obtained leave quietly to return to their homes Whereupon on the fifth day they burnt the City every one returning with great booties and thereupon the Kings wrath was pacified but his reputation much ecclipsed and the affections of the people lost by that cruelty and Tax Which it seems was imposed by his own arbitrary power without any Grant or common consent in a Parliamentary Council Vnde cunctis qui prius ejus adventum optaverant in Angliam exosus effectus est writes Mat. Westminster Contumeliam famae amori suo detrimentum ingessit adds Malmsbury This whole Tribute amounted but to 32137 l. which came not to the moity of one Moneths Contribution or Excise in our dayes John Speed and some others write That Earl Godwin devising how the Crown might be worn by him or his to separate the hearts of the Subjects from the Prince thaen which there can be no greater wound unto both caused the King to impose heavy Tributes upon the English only to pay the Danes in his Fléet appointing every common Souldier and Mariner to receive 8. Marks in money and every Officer and Master 12. amounting to the summ of 32147 l. for the payment whereof there was so great a grudge that two of his Collectors were slain by the Citizens of Worcester which caused their City to be burnt and part of the County to be spoiled by the Kings command and their Bishop Alfred expulsed the See til with money he had purchased his peace But observe Gods Justice on this Exactor and Tax-imposing King soon after his cruelty at Worcester as he was revelling and carrouzing amidst his cups at Lambheth at a solemn Mariage-feast between a Danish Lord and Gotha an English Lady he suddenly fell down dead to the ground without speech or breath not being lamented nor desired by reason of his unwonted Taxes excesse and riot Yea so far were all sorts from bewailing him that in regard of their freedom from the Danish yoak which they attained ever since among the Common people the 8. of June the very day of his death is annually celebrated with open pastimes in the street as the old Romans kept their Fugalia for chasing out their King which time is now called Hoc-tide or Herextide signifying a time of scorning or contempt which fell upon the Danes by his death when he had voluptuously and oppressingly reigned over the English not full two years wanting ten dayes thereof Now here take special notice of Gods exemplary justice upon King Cnute the Danish Usurper and Invader of other mens Crowns and Kingdoms by treachery bloud war treason the murders of Edmund Ironside Pr. Edwin and Alfred and exile of the Royal posterity His base Son Harold dispossessed his Legitimate Son Harde-Cnute of the Crown of England contrary to his will and contract banished and spoiled his own Queen Emma of her Treasure and Jewels oppressed the people with Taxes and was soon cut off by death without any issue Harde-Cnute after his death digs up his Brother Harolds corps beheads and then throws it into the common sink Thames incurs Gods and his Peoples hatred by his Oppressions Taxes Luxurie and is taken away suddenly in the midst of his age without issue before he had reigned two years His Son Swanâ— to whom he bequeathed the Kingdom of Norwey which he got by treachery bribery force and the expulsion murder ol their rightfull pious King Olaus was expelled both out of Norwey and Denmark too by Magnus the Sonne of Olaus the English Army sent by Harde-Cnute to re-establish him in the Kingdom of Norwey routed in the field and so forced home thence with dishonour leaving Magnus in possession not only of Norwey but Denmark which he conquered and made Tributary to him Thus were all his three Sons within 8 years space after Cnutes death quite stript of all their three Kingdoms
milericâ—rdiâ—m non defuturam constantissime pollicâ—baâ—uâ— From these passages whether reall as manâ— as fictitions as some repute them I shall onely observe these reall Truths 1. That in King Eâ—hâ—lreds reign great Parliamentary Councils were usually assembled to consult of the weighty affairs state if not succession of the Realm of England 2. That godly men in all ages have been deeply affected with the misery exile disinheriting and extirpation of the Royal Issue and Posterity by invading forreign usurpers and with the oppressions of their native countrey under their usu ped power and have poured forth frequent and fervent prayers unto God in secret for their restitution and relief 3. That the Nobility Clergy and people of England have ever had a propense naturall inclination and affection to the true royall Blood and Posterity of the Nation though forcibly constrained to aâ—jure and renounce them for a season by prevailing Intruders electing them for their Kings and preferring them before all others upon the very next opportunity to vindicate their rights and liberties and rejecting the usurpers and their race 4 That though the Kings of England were usually reputed hereditary yet in truth they were for the most part actually elected by the Prelates and Nobles in parliamentary Councils and appointed by the generality of the Clergy and people and had oaths of allegiance given to them by their subjects 5. That God doth many times beyond all probability and expectation restore disinherited Princes to their Crowns of which they have been forcibly deprived after many years dispossession and without any wars or effusion of blood even by the Nobles and peoples own voluntary choice and act without their seeking as he did here restore Prince Edward after 25 years interruption and Aurelius Ambrosius long before to the British Crown to omit all others 6. That Crowns invaded ravished by force of armes and bloodshed are seldome long or peaceably enjoyed by the usurpers themselves or their posterity that of Curtius being an experimentall truth Non est diuturna possessio in quam gladio inducimur All which we find experimentally verified in this History of King Edward his election and restitution to the Crown of England worthy our special observation King Edw. coming to the Crown was not onely very charitable to the poor humble mercifull and just towards all men but also PLURES LEGES BONAS IN ANGLIA STATUIT quae pro majore parte adhuc in regno tenerentur Whereupon about the year 1043. as the Chronecle of Brompton William Caxton in his Chronicle and Mr. Selden inform us Earl Godwin a sugitive in Denmark for the murther of prince Alfred hearing of his piety and mercy resolved to return into England humbly to implore his mercy and grace that he might have his lands again that were confiscated having provided all things for his voyage he put to sea and arrived in England and then posted to London UBI REX ET OMNES MAGNATES AD PARLIAMENTUM TUM FUERUNT Where the King and all the Nobles were then at a parliament here he beseeched intreated his friends kindred who were the greatest Lords of the land after the King that they would study to procure to him the Kings Grace and friendship who having thereupon taken deliberate counsel among themselves led him with them before the King to seek his Grace But so soon as the King saw him he presently appealed him of TREASON of the death of Alfred his brother and using these words unto him said THOU TRAITOUR GODVVIN I THEE APPEAL FOR THE DEATH OF ALFRED MY BROTHER WHOM THOU HAST TRAITEROUSLY SLAIN To whom Godwin excusing himself answered My Lord and King saving your Reverenes and Grace Peace Lordship I never betrayed nor yet slew your Brother unde super hoc pono me IN CONSIDERATIONE CURIAE VESTRAE whence I put my self upon the consideration and judgement of your Court concerning this matter Then said the King KARISSIMI DOMINI COMITES ET BARONES TERRAE c. Most dear Lords Earls and Barons of the land who are my Liege men now here assembled you have heard both my appeale and Godwins answer Volo quod inter Nos in ista appeslatione RECTUM JUDICIUM DECERNATIS ET DEBITAM JUSTITIAM FACIATIS I will that between us in this appeale you award right Iudgement and do due Iustice COMITIBUS VERO ET BARONIBUS SUPER HOC AD INVICEM TRACTANTIBUS Hereupon the Earls and Barons debating upon this businesse among themselves some among them were different in their opinions from others in doing just judgement herein For some said that Godwin was never obliged to the King so Bromton to Alfred writes Caxâ—on by homage service or fealty and therefore HE WAS NOT HIS TRAITOUR and that he had not slain Alfred with his own hands But others said Quod Comes nec Baro nec aliquis Regi subditus BELLUM CONTRA REOEM IN APPELLATIONE SUA DE LEGE POTEST VADIARE That neither the Earl nor any Baron nor any Subject to the King could by the Law wage Battel against the King in his Appeal but ought wholy to put himself in his mercy and to offer him competent amends Then Leofric Earl of Chester or Coventry as Caxton a good man towards God and the world spake and said The Earl Godwin after the King is a man of the best parentage of all England and he cannot deny but that BY HIS COUNCEL Alfred the Kings Brother was slain wherefore I award as touching my part that himself and his son and every of us DUODECIM COMITES the twelve Earls who are his friends and kinsmen should go humbly before the King laden with as much gold and silver as every of us can carry between his arms offering that to him for his trespasse and submissively deprecating that he would pardon all his rancour and ill-will to the Earle and receiving his homage and fealty he would restore and redeliver his lands intirely to him Vnto which award THEY ALL ACCORDING they all laded themselves with treasure in the manner aforesaid and going to the King declared unto him the order and manner of their JUDGEMENT or AVVARD QUORUM CONSIDERATIONI REX CONTRADICERE NOLENS QUI CQUID JUDICAVERANT PER OMNIA RATIFâ—CAVIT The King not willing to contradict them in any thing they had judged ratified the same in all things An agreement therefore being made between them in this manner the Earl presently regained all his lands The generality of our Historians as Bromton confesseth deny that Godwin ever fled into Denmark or left England for the murder of Alfred they generally affirming that he purged himself thereof though falsly CORAM PROCERIBUS before the Nobles in the reign of Harde-Cnute swearing with his compurgators that he never consented to his death NISI REGIA VI COACTUS but through compulsion by royall violence Recording likewise that after the death of King Harde-Cnute Prince Edward was called out of
Host to avenge the wrong done to Eustace and to punish the insolency of the men of Dover which the King exceedingly aggravated But Godwin a man of sharp wit and wel understanding that sentence ought not to be pronounced upon the hearing of the allegations of one part only without hearing the other refused to march with his Army against the Burgesses of Dover although the King commanded him both because he envied that all Aliens should find such extraordinary favour with the King and because he would shew friendship to his own Countreymen Whereupon he answered It were reasonable and just that before any execution done the the Wardeins of Dover Castle should be summoned into that Kings Court in a fair manner to answer this tumult and if they could excuse themselves that then they should be dismissed without harms or if not that then they should satisfy the King whose peace they had broken and the Earl whom they had offended with money or the forfeiture of their bodies and goods Iniquum videri ut quos tutari debeas eos ipse potissimum inauditos adjudices And so Godwin depaâ—ted at that time little regarding the Kings fury as being but momentany Quocirca Totius regni Proceres fussi Glocestriam conventre uf ibi magno conventu res ventilaretur Therefore all the Lords of the land were commanded to assemble together at Glocester that this matter might be there debated in a great Parliamentary assembly Thither came the most famous Earle Syward of Northumberland and Leofric Earle of Mercia Omnibus Anglorum Nobiles and all the English Nobility at that time only Godwin and his Sonnes who knew themselves suspected thought it not safe for them to come thither without an armed Guard whereupon they encamped at Breverstone with a great host and there stayed giving out a report among the people that they had therefore gathered an Army together out of Kent Surry Yorkshire Oxfordshire Glocestershire Somersetshire Herfordshire Essex Notinghamshire and other parts that they might curbe the Welshmen who meditating Tyranny and Rebellion against the King had fortified a Town in Herefordshire where Swane one of the Earl Godwins Sonnes then pretended to keep watch and ward against them The King hearing that Godwin and his Sonnes had raised a great Army of men out of all these Counties upon this false pretext presently sent Messengers to Syward Earle of Northumberland and Leofric Earle of Mercia to hasten to him being in great danger with all the forces they could raise Who repairing to him at the first with small forces so soon as they knew how the matter went sending their Officers through their Countries together with Earle Ralph in his Countrey speedily assembled a great Army to assist the King ready to encounter these enemies if there were a necessity In the mean time Godwin marching with his Army into Glocestershire sent messengers to the King as Matthew VVestminster and some others story commanding him to deliver up Earle Eustace with his companions the Normans Bonomans who then held the Castls of Dover to him else he should denounce war against him To whom the King being sufficiently furnished with military forces sent this answer That he would not deliver up Earl Eustace to him commanding moreover Ut qui erercitum contra ipsum collegerat sine ejus licentia pacem regni perturbaverat veniret ad eum die statuta super hac injuria sibi resonsurus juri pariturus Godwin and his Sonnes being accused of A CONSPIRACY against the King and made odious to the whole Court by the VVelshmen and Normans so that a rumor was spread abroad that the Kings Army would assault them in the same place where they quartered and were unanimously resolved and ready to fight with Godwins Army being much incensed against him if the King would have permitted them Quo accepto Godwinus ad Conjuratos classicum cecinit Ut ultro Domino regi non resisterent sed si conuenti fuissent quin se ulciscerentur loco non cederent profecto facinus miserabile plus quam civile bellum fuisset nisi maturiora consilia interessent writes Malmsbury But because the best and greatest men of all England were engaged on the one side and other it seemed a great unadvisednesse to Earl Leofric and others that they should fight a battle and wage war with their own Countrymen and thereupon they advised That hostages being given on both sides the King and Godwin should meet at London on a certain day to plead together which Counsel being approved of and meslengers running to and fro between them hostages being given and received and some small agreement made between them at the present thereupon the Earle returned into VVest-Sax and the King increasing his Army both out of Mercia and Northumberland returned with them to London by agreement between both parties Iterumque praeceptum ut Londini Concilium coageretur and it was again commanded by the King that A COVNCEL or PARLIAMENT as Trevisa Speed and others render it should be assembled at London Swane the Son of Godwin was commanded to mitigate the Kings anger by his flight Godwin and Harold were ordered to come to this Councel with twelve men only in their company and that they should resigne up to the King the services of all the Knights and Souldiers which they had thoroughout England But Godwin and his Sonnes as they durst not wage war against the King so ad Curiam ejus venire Juriparituri negabant They would not come to his Court to put themselves upon a legal tryall alleadging That they would not goe to a Conventicle of factious persons without pledges and hostages that they would obey their Lord in the surrender of all their Knights services and in all things else without the perill of their honour and safety That if they came thither unarmed they might fear the losse of life if with a few followers it would be a reproach to their honour But the King being so resolute in his minde that he would not recede from what he had resolved by their intreaties upon their refusal to come unto his Court to justify themselves Her in suo Concilio communi Curiae suae judicio by the common judgement of his Court in this Parliamentary Councel Et omnis exercitus unanimi consensu and by the unanimous consent of his whole Army as Flo-rence of VVorcester and his followers subjoyne banished Godwin himself and his five Sons out of England whereupon prolatum Edictum est A Decree Proolamation was then published that within five dayes they should depart out of England Godwin perceving that his souldiers deserted him some some for fear of the Kings Army and displeasure thereupon he and his wife Giva and his three sonnes Swane Gurth and Tosti with his wife Iudith daughter to the Earle of Flanders departed presently out of England by the Isle of Thanet into Flanders to Earle Baldwin
to banish and expell them From all these memorable Historical passages as we may observe the great unconstancy vicissitude and changes of earthly Princes favours worldly honours preferments and popular favour with the great inconveniencies of admitting or advancing forreigners to any places of trust or power under the King or Court so we may likewise conclude that by the Law of that Age. 1. That no Englâ—sh man ought to be condemned executed imprisoned or put to death upon any great mans bare suggestion no not by the Kings own speciall command which if given ought to be disobeyed in such cases but only by and after a Legall hearing tryall and conviction of the offence 2. That the Kings of England were then sworn and obliged to govern their people by good just and wholesome Laws and Customes not by their arbitrary pleasures powers or commands 3. That the Parliamentary Councels and Nobles in that age were very carefull to defend and maintain the Liberties Rights good Laws and Customs of the people and to prevent and abolish all unjust Laws and Encroachments repugnant to them 4. That Parliamentary Councels were then frequently summoned by the King upon all publique emergent occasions and differences and to make war and peace either at home or in forreign parts 5. That the Parliamentary Councels of that time consisted of the Earles Barons Nobles and Praelates of the Realme duly summoned to them without any mention of Knights or Burgesses elected and sent to them by the people of which there are no presidents in this Kings reign Enough to prove Modus Tenendi Parliamentum supposed to be made and observed in this age a meere cheating imposture of later daies as in truth it is 6. That all delinquents of what quality soever justly or unjustly accused ought to appear and justify themselves before the King and his Nobles in their Parliamentary Councels without armed Guards forces Tergiversation or resistance upon due suÌ„mons to appear before them by the Laws of that time 7. That Kings and great mens coming to Parliamentary Councels with Armies strong armed Guards and holding them with power or under Armies is inconsistent with their Liberty Priviledges and are an occasion of civill wars disturbances muchmischief to the Nation as then they proved 8. That English Peers then were and ought to be tried banished judged by their Peers both in Parliamentary Councels and other Courts 9. That no English Peer ' or Freeman could then be lawfully and judically banished the Realme but in and by sentence and judgement of a Parliamentary Councel for some contempt or offence demeriting such a punishment 10. That Peers and great men obstinately refusing to submit themselves to the triall and judgement of Parliamentary Councels or to appear in them or the Kings Courts to justify themselves without hostages fist given for their securiy may justly be sentenced and banished by our Parliaments for such contempts and affronts to justice 11. That the subjects were bound to ayd and assist their Kings as wel against Traitors Rebels Pyrates as against forreign enemies under our Saxon Kings 12. That forreigners are usually the greatest occasioners and fomenters of civil wars That such Incendiaries deserve justly to be banished the Nation And that civill wars between King and subjects English and English and their shedding of one anothers blood in such wars was then deemed most unnatural odious execrable by all prudent means and councels to be timely and carefully prevented and not to be begun or undertaken but by good advice and common consent in great Parliamentary Councels upon weighty urgent inevitable necessities 13. That the abolishing of ill and enacting of good Laws the removing of ill Counsellors and Instruments about Kings ordering matters of war and defence by Land and Sea and setling of peace were the antient proper works businesses imployments of our Saxon Parliaments 14. That the English Freemen have been always apt forwards cordially to joyn with such Nobles and Great men who are most cordial and active to defend their just Liberties Laws Rights against foreiners and others who invade them Soon after the forementioned agreement between the King and Godwin King Edward according to his forementioned promises to make good Laws for all his people out of all the former British and Saxon Laws by Order of his Wisemen compiled an universal common Law for all the people throughout the whole Realm which were called King Edwards Laws being so just and equal and so securing the profit and wealth of all estates that the people long after as Mr Fox and others record did rebel against their Lords and Rulers to have the same Laws again when suspended or taken from them or dis-used and prescribed this Oath to William the Conquerour himself and every of our Kings since to be solemnly taken at the time of his Coronation for the further ratification and better inviolable observation of these Laws and perpetuating them to all posterity SIR will you grant and keep and by your Oath confirm to the people of England the Laws and Customs granted to them by antient Kings of England rightfull men and devout towards God namely the Laws and Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy and to the People by the glorious King Edward to your power To which the King must answer I will doe it before he be anointed or crowned King Now because these Laws of King Edward made by his Wisemens Counsel and advice as this Clause Sapientes caeperunt super hos habere consilium et constituerunt in the Chapter De illis qui has Leges despexerent implyes are so famous and fundamental most of our Common old Laws being founded on or resulting from them I shall give you this brief account of them out of our Historians as most pertinent to my subject matter and usefull for those of my profession to be informed of being generally not so well versed in Antiquity History and Records as were to be wished for the honour and lustre of their honourable publike calling pretermiting the grosse Forgery and Imposture of Modus tenendi Parliamentum so much cryed up by Sir Edward Cooke for its Antiquity and Authority as made and observed in Edward the Confessors reign when as it is a meer counterfeit Treatise and Spurious Antiquity scarce antienter than King Richard the 2. as I have proved in my Levellers levelled and Mr. Selden manifests in his Titles of honour pars 2. p. 713 738 to 745 yea it s own mentioning the Bishop of Carlisle which Bishoprick was not erected til the year 1132 or 1134. the Mayors of London which had no Mayor til the year 1208 and of other Cities with Knights and Burgesses usual wages all instituted long after the Conquerours reign the not mentioning of this Modus in any of our Records Histories or judicious Antiquaries and its difference from all the Modes and Forms of Parliaments and Great Councils of that or
Invasion injury violence disturbance and specially enact That not only all Clerks and Clergy men but all other persons shall enjoy the peace of God and the Church free from all assaults arrests and other disturbances whatsoever both on Lords-days Solemn Festivals and other times of publike Church meetings eundo subsistendo redeundo both in going to continuing at and returning from the Church and publike duties of Gods worship or to Synods and Chapters to which they are either summoned or where they have any business requiring their personal presence wherewith the Statute of 8 H. 6. c. 1. concurs as to the later clause Therefore all Quakers Anabaptists and others who disturb affront and revile assault or abuse our Ministers or their people as many now doe in going to or returning from the Church or whiles they continue in it as well before or after as during Divine Service Sermons or Sacraments there administred may and ought by the Common Law oâ— England confirmed both by Confessor and Conquerour in their Parliamentary Councils to be duly punished as Breakers of the Peace by all our Kings Justices and Ministers of publike Iustice being ratified by Magna Charta c. 1. and the Coronation Oaths of all our Kings which all our Judges and Justices are bound to observe To keep to God and holy Church to the Clergy and to the People Peace and Concord entirely according to their power especially during the publike worship of God in the Church and in going to tarrying at and returning from the duties which they owe unto him both as his Creatures and Servants And to grant keep and confirm the Laws Customs and Franchises granted by the glorious King Edward 3. That they prescribe the due payment of Tithes to God and his Ministers as well personal as praedial under Ecclesiastical and temporal penalties being granted and consented unto a Rege et Baronibus et Populo 4. That the Causes and pleas of the Church ought first to be heard ended in Courts and Councils before any other Iustitia enim est ut Deus ubique prae cateris honoretur 5. That they thus define Danegild Danegaldi redditio propter Piratas primitus Statuta est Patriam enim infestantes vastationi ejus pro posse suo insistebant Ad eorum quidem insolentiam reprimendam Statutum est Danegaldum annuatim reddi scilicet duodecim denarios de unaquaque Nida totius Patriae ad conducendos eos qui Piratarum eruptioni Resistendo obviarent To which Hoveden Knyghton Lambard and others subjoyn De hoc quoque Danegaldo omnis ecclesia libera est quieta omnis texra quae in proprio dominico Ecclesiae erat ubicunque jacebat nihil prorsus in tali redemptione persolvens quia magis in Ecclesiae confidebant orationibus quam in armorum defensionibus usque tempora Willielmi junioris qui Ruffus vocabatur donec eodem a Baronibus Angliae auxilium requirente ad Normanniam requirendam retinendam de Roberto suo fratre cognomine Cortehose Ierusalem proficiscente Concessum est ei nonLege sancitum neque confirmatum sed hac necessitatis causa ex unaquaque hida sibi dari quatuor solidos Ecclesia non excepta Dum vero collectio census fieret proclamabat Ecclesia suam reposcens libertatem sed nil profecit By which it is apparent 1. That this grievous Tax of Danegeld was first granted and appointed by a publike Law in a Parliamentary Council to hire men to resist the eruption of the Pyrates and Enemies That it amounted but to 12 d. a year upon every Ploughland That the Church and Demesne Lands of the Church where ever they lay were exempted from it till William Rufus his time who first exacted it from the Clergy upon a pretended necessity and raised it from 12 d. to 4 s. a Ploughland by grant of the Barons without any Law to enact or confirm it for fear of drawing it into consequence 6ly That these Laws thus describe the Duty and Office of a King The King because he is the Vicar of the highest King is constituted for this end that he may rule the earthly kingdom and the Lords people and above all things that he may reverence his holy Church and defend it from injuries pluck away evil doers from it and utterly to destroy and disperse them Which unless he shall doe the name of a King agreeth not unto him the Prophet Pope John witnessing Nomen Regis perdit qui quod Regis est non faciat he loseth the name of a King who dischargeth not the duty of a King Pepin and Charls his Son being not yet Kings but Princes under the French King hearing this definitive Sentence as well truly as prudently pronouneed concerning the name of a King by William the bastard King of England foolishly writ to Pope John demanding this question of him Whether the Kings of France ought so to continue being content only with the name of a King Who answered That it is convenient to call them Kings who do watch over defend and govern the Church of God and his people imitating King David the Psalmograph saying He shall not dwell in my House which worketh pride c. After which it followeth in Mr. Fox and some others but not in Hoveden and Knyghton Moreover the King by his right and by his Office ought to defend and conserve fully and wholly in all ampleness without diminution all the Lands Honours Dignities Rights and Liberties of the Crown of his Kingdom And further to reduce into their pristine state all such things as have been dispersed wasted and lost which appertain to his kingdom Also the whole and universal Land with all I lands about the same in Norwey and Denmark be appertaining to the Crown of his kingdom and be of the appurtenances and dignity of the King making one Monarchy and one Kingdom which sometimes was called the Kingdom of Britain and now the Kingdom of England such bounds and limits as is above said be appointed and limited to the name of this kingdom A King above all things ought to fear God to love and observe his commandements and cause them to be observed through his whole kingdom He ought also to keep cherish maintain and govern the holy Church within his kingdom with all integrity and Liberty according to the constitution of his ancestors and predecessors and to defend the same against all Enemies so that God above all things be honoured and ever before his eyes He ought also to set up Good Laws and Customs such as be wholesom and approved Such as be otherwise to repeal them and thrust them out of his kingdom Item he ought to doe Judgement and Justice in his kingdom by the counsel of his Realm All these things ought a King in his own person to do taking his Oath upon the Evangelist swearing in the presence of the whole State of the Realm
Regis Edwardi ei Regnum Angliae Sacramento firmavit subjoyns thereto Tradunt autem aliter alii quod videlicet Haroldus a Rege Edwardo fuerat ad hoc in Normanniam missus ut Ducem Gulihelmum in Angliam conduceret quem idem Rex Edwardus Haeredem sibi constituere cogitavit Roger de Hoved. Annal. pars prior p. 449. Radulph de Diceto Abbr. Chron. col 480 481. Eadmerus Hist Novorum l. 1. p. 4 5. Sim. Dunel Hist col 195. Jo. Bromton in his Chronicle col 947. Hygden in his Polychron l. 6. c. 27. with others record the matter somewhat different from our other Historians That Harold after his Fathers death craving leave of King Edward to goe into Normandy to free and bring into England his Brother Wulnoth Nephew Hake there detained Hostages the King would not permit him to goe as sent by him but yet left him free to do what he pleased of himself therein Adding Praesentio tamen te ad nihil aliud tendere nisi in detrimentum totius Anglioi regni et opprobrium tui nec enim ita novi Comitem mentis expertem ut eos aliquatenus velit concedere tibi si non praescierit in hoc magnum proficuum sui Harold notwithstanding taking ship to go into Normandy upon this occasion was driven by storm into Ponthieu and there imprisoned as aforesaid and by Duke Williams means and threats after two denials released who honourably entertaining him for some dayes to advance his own designs by him at last opened his minde thus to him Dicebat itaque Regem Edwardum quando secum invene olim juvenis in Normanniâ— demoraretur sibi interposita fide sua pollicitum fuisse quod si Rex Angliae foret Jus regni in illum Jure Haereditario transferret subdens ait tu quoque si mihi te in hoc ipso adminiculaturum sposponderis et insuper castellum Dofriâ— cum putâ—â— aquae ad opus meum te facturum sâ—roremque tuam uni de Principibus mâ— is dederis in uxâ—rem te ad me tempâ—râ— quâ— nobis conveniet destinaturum nec non filiam means in conjugem accepturum promiseris tunc et modo nepotem tuum et cum in Angliam venerâ— regnaturus fratrem tuum incolumem recipies in quo regno si tuo favore confirmatus fuero spondeo quod omne quod à me rationabiliter tibi postulaveris obtinebis Hereupon Harold perceiving danger on every side and not knowing how to escape unless he condescended to Williams will in all things he thereupon consented to his requests But he that all things might be ratified bringing forth the reliques of Saints brought Harold to this That he should swear upon them that he would actually perform all things which they had agreed between them These things thus done Harold receiving his Nephew returned into his Country where he related to the King upon his demand what had happened and what hee had done Who said Did I not tell thee I knew William and that many mischiefs might happen to this kingdom in thy journey I foresee in this thy deed that great calamities will come upon our Nation which I beseech God of his infinite mercy to grant that they may not happen in my dayes Mr. Fox relating this story more briefly concludes thus Whereby it may be â—athered That King Edward was right willing that Duke William should reign after him and also in seemeth not unlike but that he had given him his promise thereunto before The same Hoveden Annalium pars posterior p. 608 609 610. reciting the Laws of King Edward confirmed by King William after he got the Crown records these passages intermixed with them That King Edward retained his Cosen Edwards son Edgar with him and nourished him for his Son and because he thought to make him his Heir he named him Adâ—ling which we call a Little Lord. But King Edward so soon as he knew the wickednesse of his Nation and especially the pride of the Sons of Godwin of Harold who after invaded the Kingdom Estigurt Lefwin and others of his Brothers imagining that what he had purposed concerning Edgar could not possibly be stable Adoptavit Willielmum Ducem Normannorum in regnum adopted William Duke of Normandy to succeed him in the Realm William I say the bastard the son of Robert his Uncle a valiant warlike and stout man Who afterwards by Gods assistance by vanquishing the foresaid Harold son of Godwin victoriously obtained the Realm of England To which he subjoyns That Edward wanting issue sent Robert Archbishop of Canterbury to his Cosen William Duke of Normandy de Regno cum constituit Haeredem and made him heir of the Kingdom yea after him he sent Earl Harâ—ld and He invaded the Realm He further Records That when King William would have altered the Laws of England presented to him upon Oath in the 4th year of his reign but in one point Universi compatriotae qui leges edixerant tristes effecti c. tandem eum prosecuti sunt deprecantes quatenus pro anima Regis Edwardi qui ei post diem suum concesserat Coronam et Regnum et cujus erant Leges that he would not alter the Laws herein whereupon he consented to their request Thomas of Walsingham thus registers the fact Edwardus Rex Anglorum prolis successione carens olim miserat Duci Robertum Archiepiscopum Cantuar. statuens illum haeredem Regni a Deo sibi attributi Sed et Haroldum ipse postmodum destinavit qui fuit maximus Comitum regni sui in honore dominatione et divitiis ut ei de Corona sua fidelitatem faceret ac Christiano more Sacramentis confirmaret Qui dum ob hoc negotii venire contenderet velificato freto Porti Pontnium appulit ubi in manus Widonis Abbatis villae S. Abvile Comitis incidit quem idem Comes captum cum suis confestim in custodiam trusit Quod ut Dux comperit missis Legatis violenter illum extorsit quem aliquandiu secum moratâ— facto fidelitate de regno pluribus Sacramentis cum muneribus multis Regi remisit Denique Rex Edwardus completo termino foelicis vitae c. migravit a saeculo Cujus regnum Harâ—ldus continuo invasit ex fidelitate pejuratus quam Duci Iuraverat Ad quem Legatos direxit protinus hortans ut ab hac vesania resipisceret fidem quam Iuramento sposponderat cum digna subjectione servarer Sed ille hoc non solum audire contempsit verum omnem ab illo Anglorum gentem infideliter avertit c. Chronicon Johannis Bromton Col. 945. relates That King Edward purposed to make Edgar whom he had nourished as his Son heir of England Sed ut quidam aiunt Rex gentis suae malitiam et praecipuè superbiam Haroldi filii Godwini et aliorum divina demonstratione praevidens percepit quod propositum suum quoad ipsum Edgarum cognatum suum de regno post
without reply vel veris vel veresimilibus argumentis perstricti Some of our Historians record That the Dukes Messengers upon their second Embassy admonishing him how religiously he had bound himself by Oath and that perjured persons should be sure to find perdition from Gods hands and reproachfull shame with men waived all other demands of the Crown and insisted only upon this That Harold should marry his Daughter which he had espoused according to his promise else he should certainly know he would by force of Armes challenge the succession of the Kingdom promised to him But this seems improbable because our other Historians conclude that his espoused Daughter was dead before this Embassie and Williams preparations and future Messages claiming the Crown resolve the contrary Abbot Ingulphus flourishing at that time gives us this sum of their Negotiation and Harolds answer thereunto Willielmus autem Comes Normanniae Legatos mittit foedera facta dicit pacta patefecit promissa petit aliquod justum medium confici requirit At Rex Haroldus Legatos vix auscultat foedera fracta negat pacta recusat promissa excusat omnia justà media oblata sufflat subsannat Cumque haec intermedia quorldie agerentur ac solum nunciorum cursus ac recursus tota aestate sine fructis consumerarentur The Embassadours returned empty bringing only Harolds unsatisfactory and scornfull Answers with them Wherewith Duke William being much inraged cast about how to recover that by right of armes which he could not gain by Treaty providing Ships Souldiers Mariners and all things necessary for an invasive war making choice of the tallest skilfullest and goodliest Souldiers he could select and of such Captains and Commanders as both in the Army and elsewhere seemed all of them to be rather Kings than Nobles And to set the better colour upon his pretended enterprise he sent to Pope Alexander acquainting him with the justice of his cause and the war he had undertaken his Embassadours setting them forth with all the strength of eloquence which Harold neglected to doe either through sloathfullness or diffidence of his Title or for fear William who strictly watched at Ports should intercept his Messengers The Pope having weighed the Title of both parties sent a consecrated Banner to William as an Omen of his right to the kingdom and good success taken in the enterprise Which having received Conventum magnum Procerum apud Lislibonam fecit super negotium singulorum sententias scissitatus Duke William called a Great Council of Nobles at Lillebon demanding every one of their opinions concerning this business Cumque omnes ejus voluntatem plausibus excipientes magnificis promissis animassent Commeatum Navium omnibus pro quantitate possessionum indixit Henry Huntindon Hygden Radulphus de Diceto Speed Daniel and others relate That the Lords of Normandie in this great Parliamentary Assembly taking Counsel amongst themselves what was best to be done in this expedition VVilliam Fitz-Osbert counselled to leave and forsake the war both for scarcity of fighting men and by reason of the strength valour fierceness and cruelty of the Enemies Whereof the other Lords being glad put their answer into his mouth resolving they would all consent to what he should say Who comming before the King said That he and all his men were ready and devoted to assist him in that enterprise and so were all the other Lords Whereupon all the Nobles of Normandy being thus unexpectedly surprized and bound by his words and promise provided themselves for the expedition In this Assembly of the Norman States a subsidy being propounded as the sinews to carry on this great undertaking it was answered That a former war with the French had impoverished much of their wealth That if new wars were now raised and therein their substance spent to gain other parts it would be there so missed as it would hardly be sufficient to defend their own That they thought it more safe for him to hold what he had than with hazard of their own to invade the territories of others That though the war intended were just yet it was not necessary but exceeding dangerous Besides by their allegiance they were not bound to military services in forein parts and therefore no payments could be assessed upon them Whereupon the wealthiest of all the people were sent for by the Duke and severally one by one conferred with shewing them his right and hopes of England where preferments lay even for the meanest of them only money was the want which they might spare neither should that be given but lent upon a plentifull increase With which words he drew them so on that they strove who should give most and by this means he gathered such a masse of money as was sufficient to defray the war Besides Fitz Osburne promised to furnish 40 ships at his own charge the Bishop of Bayon 40 the Bishop of Maus 30. and so others accordingly beyond their abilities And divers neighbour Princes upon promises of fair possessions in England assisted him both with Ships and Souldiers On the other side Harold to prevent his and the Danes invasions who likewise laid Title to the Crown provided ships and forces to oppose them both by Sea and Land and repairing to the Port of Sandwich appointed his Navy to meet him there which being there assembled he sailed with it to the Isle of VVight and there watched the coming of VVilliam into England with his Army all the Summer and Autumn placing likewise his Land forces of Foot in fitting places about the Sea coasts But at last the victuals of the Navy and land Army being spent they both returned home about the Feast of Sr. Mary Soon after Divine Providence to make the easier and speedier way for Harolds overthrow stirred up his own Brother Tosti the banished Earl of Northumberland to recover his Earldom and avenge himself of Harold who exiled him some think by Duke VVilliams advice they marrying two Sisters who coming with 60 some write 40 ships out of Flanders forced Taxes and Tribute out of the Isle of VVight took booties and Mariners to serve in his Navy on the Sea coasts of Kent whence he hoising sail fell foul on Lincolnshire where Morcar and Edwin Earls of Chester and Yorkeshire incountring him with their forces by Land and Harolds Navy by Sea with some loss of their men routed and drove him from thence into Scotland Where after some stay Harold Harfager King of Denmark after his conquest of the Orcades by Tosti his solicitation came into the River of Tine with 300. others write 500 ships where they both united their forces intending to subdue and conquer England then landing their Souldiers in Northumberland they wasted and spoiled the Country where ever they came Whereupon Earl Morcar and Earl Edwin with the inhabitants of the Country raised all the forces they could against them and giving them battel in a tumultuous manner were
three Horses slain under him and often acknowledged that Gods divine hand did more protect him than mans seeing his Enemy amidst so many showers of darts and arrows which they shot against him could not draw so much as one drop of his bloud though they frequently hit him with them Morcar and Edwin Earls of Yorkeshire and Cheshire Harolds Brother-in-laws withdrawing themselves and their forces from their battel either for want of room to fight as was pretended or rather for former discontents retreated to London where consulting with Alfred Archbishop of York and other Peeâ—s and with the Citizens and Mariners of London they all resolved to crown and set up Edgar Atheling the true heir for their King promising to march under him with all their forces against Duke William and to try another field for which end they posted abroad Messengers to levy new forces and raise up the hearts of the dejected English from a despairing fear But before Edgars Coronation whiles many were preparing themselves for a new battel Morcar and Edwyn whom this fearful estate of their native Country would not disswade or restrain from disloyalty and ambition to gain the Crown to themselves as some record secretly hindered that noble and prudent design by withdrawing themselves from Edgar and marched home with all their forces and their Sister Algitha or Agatha Harolds wife into Northumberland conjecturing out of their simplicity that Duke William would never come so farr Upon their departure though the rest of the Nobles would still have elected and crowned Edgar King if the Bishops would have assented thereunto yet the Prelates struck with the fear of the Popes thunderbolt from abroad and with the consideration of the divisions distractions of the Nobility and people and the imminent danger at home would no wayes concurr with the Nobles Londoners Sea-Captains and others to crown Edgar but resolved to go forth and submit themselves to the victorious Duke and elect and crown him for their Soveraign The Nobility discerning this wavering inconstancy of the Bishops and considering that they were nobly born and must have a King that not to take him who was of power to make himself King would shew more of passion than discretion distrusting each others faith began to strive and runn headlong who should be the first to preoccupate the Grace of Servitude and intrude them into forein subjection The Commons like a strong Vessel that might have been for good use were hereby left without a stern and could not move irregularly without apparent shipwrack So that all estates in generall either transported with sordid fear or corrupted with new hopes forsook Edgar themselves and their distressed Country resolving all to become Williams sworn Vassals without any further contest Ita Angli qui in unam coeuntes sententiam potuissent Patriae reformare ruinam dum nullum ex suis volebant induxerunt alienum During this their Consultation at London Duke William after his victory marched with his army through Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire and Hartfordshire towards London so farr as Berkhamsted without the least opposition wasting the Country burning the Villages and slaying the people as Hoveden Cambden and others write notwithstanding his former inhibition of plunder to force them more readily to submit unto him Hereupon Aldred Archbishop of York Wulstanc Bishop of Worcester Walter Bishop of Hereford yea Prince Edgar himself all the English Nobility the chiefest of the Londoners and many others repaired to the victorious Duke at Berkhamsteed where giving him hostages for their fidelity they resigned themselves up unto him as his subjects and swore allegiance to him with whom he reciprocally made a Covenant of Peace nihilominus exercitui suo villas cremare rapinas agere permisit adds Hoveden When the feast of Christs Nativity approached Duke William resolved to march to London with all his Army and there to be crowned King but being on his way he found all the passâ—ges blocked up with many great trees which Frederick Abbot of St. Albans descended from the Saxons noble bloud had caused to be cut down and cast in the waies to secure his Monastery from the destruction of the Normans whereat the Duke both wondering and fretting sent for the Abbot under assurance of his safe return and demanding the cause Why his woods were thus felled and the wayes blocked up he returned him this stout answer I have done saith he both the duty of my birth and profession and if others of my rank had performed the like as they well might and ought to doe it had not been in thy power to have pierced the land thus farr William hearing his bold answer and knowing it was now a fitter time to pacifie than exulcerate the English Spirits gave way to the present necessity and marched to London with his Army where he was joyfully received by the Prelates Nobles and Generality of the People and by them all elected and crowned King on the day of Christs Nativity Anno 1066. o In magna exultatione a Clero et Populo susceptus et ab omnibus Rex acclamatus Thomas of Walsingham records that Williams Vantguard marching into London before him found many Rebels against him in the streets of the City with whom they encountring forthwith brought no small grief and lamentation to the City by reason of the many funerals of the Citizens and their Sons whom they slew At last the Citizens perceiving they could no longer resist them put in hostages subjecting themselves with all theirs to their Conqueror and Hereditary Lord. After which writes he the Duke on Christmass day was elected King by all the Nobles as well of the Normans as English and anoynted with sacred oyl and crowned with the royal Crown by the Bishops of the Realm at Westminster He receiving the Crown from the hands of Aldred Archbishop of York refusing to be crowned by Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury by reason of the many evils and horrible crimes reported of him and because he had unlawfully invaded that See during the life of Robert for which he was suspended by the Pope ne maledictionem videretur induere pro benedictione as most of our Historians accord though the Chronicle of Bromton and Mat. Parker assert that Stigand peremptorily reâ—used to crown him being a man of bloud and an invader of anothers right Cumque Willielmus Dux Normanniae Conquestor Angliae Tyranni nomen exhor resceret et nomen Legitimi Principis induere vellet à Stigando Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo in regno petiâ—t consecrari Ille vero ut quidam dicunt cruenti viro et alieni Iuris invasori manus imponere formidans nullatenus adquievit Unde licet ipse Willielmus eundem Stigandum ut noverat multis modis blandè honoravit ipâ—um tamen nunquam cordialiter amavit Thomas Sprot William Thorne and out of them Matthew Parker Mr. Lambard Mr. Cambden Godwin Stow and
Normannorum annis Clerici literatura tumultuaria contenti vix Sacramentorum verba balbutiâ—bant stupori et miraculo erat caeteris qui grammaticam noscet Monachi subtilibus indumentis et indifferenti genere ciborum regulam ludificabant Optimates gulae venerii dediti Ecclesiam more christiano mane non adibant sed in cubiculo et inter uxorios amplexus matutinorum solemniâ— et Missarum a festinante presbytero auribus tantum libabant Vulgus in medio expositum praeda erat potentioribus ut vel eorum substantiis exhaustis vel etiam corporibus in longinquas terras distractis acervos thesaurorum congererent quamvis magis ingenitum sit illi genti commessationibus quam operibus inhiare Illud erat a natura abhorrens quod multi ancillas suas ex se gravidas ubi libidini satisfecissent aut ad publicum prostibulum aut ad aeternum obsequium vendicabant Potabatur in commune ab omnibus in hoc studio noctes perinde ut dies perpetuantibus parvis abjectis domibus totos sumptus absumebant Francis Normannis absimiles qui amplis superbis aedificiis modicas expensas agunt Sequebantur vitia ebrietatis socia quae virorum animos effaeminant Hinc factum est ut magis temeritate et furore praecipiti quam scientia militari Willielmo congressi uno praelio ipso perfacili servituti se patriamque pessundederint Ad summam tuno erant Angli vestibus ad medium genu expediti crines tonsi barbas rasi armillis aureis brachia onerati picturatis stigmatibus â—utem insigniti in cibis urgentes crapulum in potibus irritantes vomica Et haec quideÌ„ extrema victoribus suis participarunt de caeter is in eorum mores transeuntes Sed haec mala de omnibus generaliter Anglis dicta intelligi nolim Scio clericos multos tunc temporis simplici via semitam sanctitatis trivisse Scio multos Laicos omnis generis conditionis in hae eadem gente Deo placuisse facessat ab hac relatione invidia non cunctos pariter haec involvat calumnia Verum sicut in tranquillitate malos cum bonis fovet plaerumque Dei serenitas ita in captivitate bonâ—s cum malis nonnunquam ejusdem constringit severitas I have insisted more largely upon the Historical part of Harolds usurpation perjury short and troublesom reign tragical death Duke Williams claims to and manner of acquiring the Crown of England for this reason especially To refute the common received Error of some ignorant Historians of many illiterate Statists and Swordmen of this age and of sundry temporizing Ignoramusses of my own robe who publickly averr in their Pamphlets Speeches Charges and Discourses that Duke William claimed and obtained the Crown of England only as a Conqueror and thereupon altered the antient Laws Customs of the Realm and gave New Laws unto it by his own absolute power as a Conqueror thereof Upon which false Ground they inferre That those in late and present Power coming in by the same Title of Conquest may lawfully give new Laws to impose what Taxes Government they please upon the English as well as Scotish and Irish as a meer conquered Nation by their own inherent authority seeing by the Laws of Warr regularly all Rights and Laws of the place and Nation conquered be wholly subject to the Conquerors will And hereby they justifie all their late Impositions Taxes Excises Sequestration Seisures Sales of all the publike revenues of the Nation and many thousand private mens Estates by their Westminster and White-Hall Ordinances Edicts with the changes of our Government new-modellings of our Parliaments and all other irregular proceedings destructive to our Fundamental Rights Laws Liberties Government which they formerly covenanted inviolably to maintain without grant or consent by any free full lawfull English Parliaments Now to demolish all these their superstructures by subverting their false Foundation of D. Williams pretended Title to the Crown of England only by Conquest It is most apparent by the premised Historical Authorities 1. That King William alwayes claimed the Crown of England both before at and after his Coronation as of right belonging to him by the promise gift contract gift and bequest of Edward the Confessor and as his heir and next kinsman by the Mothers side 2. That he alleged this gift and grant of the Crown to him to be made with the consent of the Archbishops of Canterbury Earls Godwin Syward and other Nobles of the Realm ratified by special Messengers sent unto and Hostages delivered him for its performance and by Harolds own solemn agreement and Oath sent to him by King Edward for that purpose as himself at least suggested to him which designation and grant of King Edward to William was no fiction but a truth confessed by all our Historians and Harold himself who by his answers never denyed but only endeavoured to evade it and voluntarily acknowledged by all the Nobles of England both at his Coronation and in Parliament it self in the 4. year of his reign 3. That after King Edwards decease divers of the Nobles would have elected William King in pursuance hereof but that Harold perjuriously usurped the Crown by meer force and power without the least right unto it or any election by the Lords or people setting the Crown on his own head the very day King Edward was interred and thereby prevented Williams election to it 4. That hereupon divers of the Nobles Prelates and other English sent private Messengers to William into Normandy to come and demand his right to the Crown as due unto him promising hostages and their assistance to recover it 5. That thereupon he sent Embassadors twice or thrice to Harold one after another before his landing insisting on his meer right and Title to the Crown to gain it by parly without effusion of bloud 6. That upon Harolds obstinacy he appealed to the Pope and to all his Nobles assembled in a Parliamentary Council for the justice of his Title and Right to the Crown who declared his Title Lawfull and Just and thereupon encouraged assisted him all they could to regain it by force of arms from the Usurper Harold who would not otherwise depart from it 7. That immediately after his landing he made claim unto it only by the foresaid Right Title and thereupon prohibited his Souldiers to plunder the Country or hurt any of the Inhabitants as being his by right 8. That very few of the English Nobility or Nation would march or engage with Harold against William and sundry withdrew themselves from the battel as conscious of Harolds usurpation perjury and Williams just cause against him however other causes were then pretended and amongst the rest his own Brother-in-laws the greatest Peers of the Realm Earl Morcar and Edwin deserted him in the fight 9. That after the first battel won and Harold slain all the Prelates and Clergy generally except Abbot Frederick appeared for