their own Subjects AND besides this Power owing its Original wholly to Force and not to a Lineal Succession or Election over the rest of those Princes upon whom it was usurped was without any Just or Legal Right and consequently lasted no longer than the Success or at farthest the Life-time of such a Conquering Prince and then it was for a time Extinct until some other of the Seven by the like success of his Arms could set up for the same Power and Greatness SO that at length we found that the best way of Writing this History was to follow the plain and natural Method of our Saxon Annals not only as the most easy for our selves but also for the Reader AND tho perhaps an Objection may be made against this Method viz. That the crowding of so many different Actions done in several Places and under several Kings renders the Work perplexed and difficult to be remembred which I grant is in part true yet to obviate this I have at the end of each of the ensuing Books except the last presented you with exact Chronological Tables not only of the Names of all the Kings contained under each Period but also in what Year of our Lord they began and ended their Reigns so that the Reader by casting his Eye upon any one of them may easily find what Kings lived and reigned together and consequently in which of their Reigns any Action related in the History was performed And now TO come to the fourth Book Bede being the most antient Author that gives us an Account of what was done in this Period and out of whom the Saxon Annals themselves have borrowed almost the greatest part of what they relate concerning those early Times of Christianity I have therefore wholly confined my self to him without having recourse to these Annals or any other unless it be where I find they relate any Action of which he has been wholly silent But in this Period I cannot but mention Stephen Eddi or Heddi a Monk who as Bede tells was one of the first Masters for Singing in the Northumbrian Churches and having been invited by Wilfred Archbishop of York out of Kent for that purpose had so great a Veneration for his Memory that he wrote his Life in Latin in a Stile somewhat better than could be expected from that Age this Treatise having continued in Manuscript in the Library of Sir Jo. Cotton and also of that of Salisbury has lately been published by the Learned Dr. Gale in his last Volume of English Writers and to which I must own my self beholding for many choice Passages relating to the Ecclesiastical as well as Civil State in those Times this Author flourish'd cotemporary with Bede in the Reign of Osric King of Northumberland and died about Anno. Dom. 720. BVT indeed as for the last forty Years or thereabouts viz. from the Time when Bede ceased to write which was Anno Dom. 637. we have been forced to make use of the Annals or else of those of later Writers that have made any Additions to them WHICH Annals since I found them the Store-house or Repository from whence most if not all of our Latin Historians as well those that wrote before as since the Conquest have borrowed the earliest Accounts of our English Saxon Affairs I have by the advice of Persons of much greater Learning and Judgment than my self rather chose to translate and give you them almost entire as I find them in the Edition lately published than to do as most other Writers cite them at second Hand not that I have omitted setting down whatsoever any other Authors have added to these Annals by way of Improvement or Illustration WHEREFORE to avoid stuffing my Margins with unnecessary Quotations I desire my Reader once for all to observe that wheresoever he shall find the Lines Comma'd unless they be before some Speeches or Laws they always denote the Saxon Annals whether expresly mentioned or not as also in all other places tho not Comma'd where no other Writer is cited BVT if some think I have inserted too many Names of Authors into the Body of this History and that it had been better omitted there and put into the Margin or bottom of the Pages to this I answer that intending faithfully to translate these Annals and to make such frequent use of them as I have done there could be no way to distinguish them from other Writers but either by Letters in the Margin or else by setting them in a different Character But as the former would have been a constant and unsightly clog to the Margin so the other would have looked as unhandsome in the Body and especially at the latter end of the Work where these Annals alone take up several whole Pages AND tho in my Citations of Authors I have seldom quoted the Page yet having taken what I write from those who have wrote in a Chronological Method the Reader by turning to the Years of our Lord may easily find what he looks for making some small allowance for different Accounts and where other Authors have not taken that Course I have there quoted the Chapter or Book and in matters of greater Moment the very Page BVT that even the Annals themselves do vary from each other in Account of Time often one and sometimes two or three Years that is to be ascribed either to the fault of the several Amanuenses or else to the different Calculations of those Monks who drew them up in the Form we now have them as any may easily perceive that will give himself the Trouble to compare the various Readings of the several Copies of these Annals lately published at Oxford by the Ingenious Mr. Edmund Gibson IN the fifth and sixth Books as I have endeavoured faithfully to translate the same Annals so I have also used that Liberty as not slavishly to confine my self to the very Words themselves when either the Obscurity or Vncouthness of the Phrase would not bear a literal Translation but I thought I could give them a better turn AND here as also in the two preceding Books I have often added by way of Illustration to the Text the present proper Names of Places in a Parenthesis immediately after the obsolete Saxon ones as also the Titles of the Ealdormen or Earls Bishops and Abbots out of Florence of Worcester and other Authors where the Annals have only given their bare Names without telling us to what Places they belonged and here likewise I would note That in all Saxon words where the Letter C is made use of it is always pronounced like K there being no K in that Language And as for the Saxon Names of Men made use of in the Annals I have as near as I could faithfully kept to the Saxon Original tho they often differ very much in their way and manner of spelling them from that of those Latin Authors that translate them HAVING thus given you a short Account of the several
the knowledge we have of the History of our Ancient Times we shall begin where we left off in the former Book and shew you by what means this part of Britain was brought to the knowledge of Christ and all the Kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy became by degrees united in the same Faith For the doing of which it is necessary that we look some years backward and give you Venerable Bede's Relation how Pope Gregory sirnamed The Great to whom the English Nation owes its Conversion came to send Augustine the Monk to preach the Gospel here in Britain which he thus relates as he received it down by Tradition The Report is That many Merchants coming to Rome great store of Commodities being exposed in the Market-place to be sold Chapmen flocking in apace Gregory also himself going thither tho rather out of Curiosity than to buy saw among other things certain handsome Boys exposed to sale whom when he beheld he demanded from what Countrey they were brought and answer being made That they came out of the Isle of Britain then he asked again Whether those Islanders were Christians To which it was answered They were Heathens when fetching a deep sigh he said It was pity the Father of Darkness should be Master of such bright Faces They also told him that they were called Angles of the Kingdom of Deira and that their Kings were named Aella On each of which Names Bede either invents or else had heard that Pope Gregory made divers Latin Allusions which since if translated they would seem dry or trivial to most Readers I therefore pass by But Will. of Malmesbury further adds to this story That it was then and long after the Custom of the Nation of the Northumbers to sell their own Children or other near Relations to Foreign Merchants which shews them then to have been either extraordinary necessitous or else to have been as barbarous and void of Natural Affection as the Negroes of some parts of Africa are at this day Gregory going immediately to the then Bishop of Rome for himself was not so as yet intreated him to order some Preachers of God's Word to be sent to the English Nation by whose means it might be converted to Christ and that he himself was ready to undertake the Performance of this Work in case it would please the Pope to send him who although he was willing to grant his Request yet the Citizens of Rome who had a great value for him would by no means permit that he should go so far from that City But Gregory being not long after himself advanced to the Papacy he performed by others his so long desired design for in his Fourth Year being admonished saith Bede by Divine instinct he sent Augustine whom he had designed for Bishop of the English Nation and other Zealous Monks along with him to preach the Gospel in Britain who being now upon their way and discouraged by some false Reports dispatch'd Augustine in all their Names beseeching the Pope that they might return home and not be sent a Journey so full of hazard to a fierce and Infidel Nation whose Language they understood not But the Pope immediately sent back their Messenger with Exhortatory Letters to them not to be discouraged by vain Reports but vigorously to pursue the work they had undertaken since their labours would be attended with lasting Glory both in this life and that to come and that they should obey Augustine whom he had appointed for their Abbot besides which Letters the Pope Wrote also to Eutherius Arch-Bishop of Arles wherein he recommended them to his Care and Protection and that he would furnish them with what they wanted also recommending to him Candidus a Presbyter whom he had sent to receive and dispose of the Churches Revenues in France besides which there is nothing remarkable in these Letters except the date which is in the Tenth of the Kalends of August in the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus and the Fourteenth Indiction which falls out in the Year of our Lord 596 though the Author of the old Gregorian Register hath for some Reasons omitted to put down the dates of these Epistles perhaps lest Posterity might understand that the Pope at that time called the Emperour his LORD and dated his Letters by the Year of his Reign Agustine and his Companions being thus confirmed by the Pope's Exhortation proceeded in their Voyage and passing thorough France took Sea and landed in the Isle of Thanet lying on the East part of Kent with about Forty Persons in his Company together with some Interpreters of the French Nation Ethelbert was at that time King of that Country being the most powerful Prince that had Reigned there as having extended the bounds of his Dominion as far as the banks of the River Humber As soon as Augustine arrived he sent to King Ethelbert giving him to understand that he came from Rome and had brought good tidings of Eternal Happiness to all them that would receive it the King hearing this commanded that they should remain in the place where they landed and that all necessaries should be plentifully supplied them till he had determined what to do for he had heard of the Christian Religion long before as having married a Christian Lady called Bertha Sister to the King of France as hath been already said upon this condition that she should have the free Exercise of her Religion and liberty to have a Bishop of her own named Lethard whom she brought with her to assist and strengthen her in the Faith The King after some Days came to the Island and fearing Inchantments sate down in the open Air commanding that Augustine and his Companions should be brought into his presence for he was perswaded by his Country Superstition that if they brought with them any Inchantments they could not there so easily work upon him but Augustine and his Companions Armed with the Power of God and bearing a Silver Cross before them with the Image of our Lord and Saviour painted on a Banner came on singing as in a solemn Procession the Litany as they went and praying unto God for the Eternal Salvation of those to whom they were sent But when sitting down with the King they had preached the Word of Life to him and his Nobles the King thus spoke The Doctrines and the promises ye have made are indeed fair and inviting But I am not as yet resolved to embrace them since I cannot suddenly consent to quit that Religion I have so long professed together with the whole English Nation yet because ye are Strangers and come a long Journey and as it seems would impart to us the knowledge of that Religion you believe to be the best we will not give you the least Molestation but rather will protect you and take care that all things necessary shall be provided for your Maintenance neither shall we prohibit you from gaining as
them reaching the Shore were presently slain at the Mouth of the same River But Simeon of Durham imputes this to a Judgment inflicted on them by St. Cuthbert for thus spoiling his Monastery The Moon was Eclipsed 5 o Kal. Aprilis from the Cock crowing till the Morning Eardwulf also began to reign over Northumberland 1 o Idus Maii and was afterwards Consecrated and placed on the Throne 7 o Kal. Junii at York by Eanbald the Arch-Bishop and by the Bishops Ethelbert Higbald and Badewulf This Eardwulf as Florence of Worcester informs us was he who 5 Years before had so strangely escaped Death at Ripun after he had been carried out to be buried but the Chronicle of Mailross does here give great Light of the Saxon Annals for it tells us that now the Northumbers murthered their King Ethelred the Son of Moll Simeon places it a Year after but says The Murther was committed on the 14th of the Kalends of May at a Place called Cobene but they both agree that immediately after his Death one Osbald a Nobleman of that Country was made King but reigned only 27 Days and that then being forsaken by the Chief Men of his Kingdom he was driven into the Isle of Lindisfarne with a few Followers from whence he fled by Sea to the King of the Picts where he became a Monk And this Eardwulf reigned of his stead William of Malmesbury further adds that Alcuin writing to King Offa tells him That King Charles so soon as he heard of this Murther of King Ethelred above-mentioned and of the Perfidiousness of the Northumbrian Nation not only stopt the Gifts he was then sending but falling into a Passion against them called them a perverse and perfidious Nation and worse than Pagans so that if Alcuin had not interceded for them he would have done them all the Mischief he could About this time also the Welsh Chronicles relate there was a great Battle fought at Ruthlan between the Saxons and the Britains where Caradoc ap Gwin King of North Wales was slain But as Dr. Powel observed in his Notes upon Caradoc's Chronicle in those Times there was no settled Government in Wales therefore such as were Chief Lords of any Country there are in this History called Kings This Year died Eanbald Arch-bishop of York the 4th of the Ides of August whose Body was there buried also the same Year Bishop Ceolwulf died and another Eanbald was Consecrated in his stead This Year likewise Cenwulf King of the Mercians destroyed Kent to the Borders of Mercia and took Eadbert or Ethelbert Sirnamed Praen and carryed him Prisoner into Mercia and there caused his Eyes to be put out and his Hands to be cut off Also Ethelheard Arch-bishop of Canterbury called a Synod which by the Command of Pope Leo established and confirmed all those things relating to God's Church which had been before constituted in the Reign of King Withgar and then the Arch-bishop said thus I Ethelheard Arch-bishop of Canterbury with the Unanimous Consent of the whole Synod and of the whole Body of all the Monasteries to whom Exemption hath been granted of Old Times by Believers in the Name of GOD and by his fearful Judgments and as I have received Command from Pope Leo do Decree That for the future none shall presume to Elect themselves Covâ—rnours amongst Lay-men over GOD's Heritage but as it is contained in the Charter or Bulls which the Pope hath granted or Holy Men to wit our Kings and Ancestors have ordained concerning the Holy Monasteries so let them remain inviolate without any gain-saying and if there be any one who shall refuse to obey this Command from GOD the Pope and Us but shall despise it and count it as nothing let him know that he shall give an Account of it before the Tribunal of GOD. And I Aethelheard the Archbishop with Twelve Bishops and Three and Twenty Abbots do hereby establish and confirm this Decree with the Sign of the Cross. This Council thô the Annals do not expresly mention it under that Title is that great Council of Becanceld placed in Sir H. Spelman's Collection under Anno 798 being held under Cenwulf King of the Mercians Aethelheard Arch-bishop of Canterbury with 17 Bishops more who all subscribed to this Decree thô the Annals mention no more than 12 Bishops to have been there This Year the Romans took Pope Leo and cut out his Tongue and put cut his Eyes and deposed him but presently after if it may be believed he could both see and speak by the help of GOD as well as he could before and was also restored to the Papacy by the Emperour Charles Also Eanbald the Arch-bishop of York received the Pall and Ethelbert Bishop of Hagulstad deceased 3 o Kal. Nov. This Year was a bloody Battle in the Province of Northumberland in Lent-time at Wealaege now called Whalie in Lancashire where was slain Alric the Son of Heardbert and many others with him The occasion of which Civil War Simeon of Durham hath thus given us â—iz That besides Alric there were divers others in Northumberland who had formerly conspired against King Ethelred and now raising a Rebellion against Eardwulf under Wadâ— their Captain after much slaughter on both sides at Billangahoth near Whalie in Lancashire the Conspirators being at last put to flight King Eardwulf returned home Victorious The same Year London according to the same Author with a great multitude of its Inhabitants by a sudden Fire was Consumed And now according both to Simeon of Durham and Roger Hoveden was held the Second Council of Pinchinhale in the Kingdom of Northumberland under Eanbald Arch-bishop of York and divers other Principal and Ecclesiastical Men where many things were ordained for the Profit of GOD's Church and of the Northumbrian Nation as concerning the keeping Easter and other Matters not particularly mentioned The same Year also according to Monasticon Anglicanum Kenwulf King of the Mercians founded a stately Abbey at Winchelcomb in Glocestershire for 300 Benedictine Monks and when it was Dedicated in the Presence of Wilfrid Arch-bishop of Canterbury and 13 other Bishops he then set free before the High Altar Eadbert King of Kent who was then his Prisoner of War But having before most cruelly put out his Eyes and cut off his Hands and disposed of his Kingdom to another I doubt that Liberty proved but a small Satisfaction to his poor injured Prince But such was the Superstitious Zeal of that Age the Foundation of a Monastery was counted a sufficient Atonement to GOD for whatsoever Cruelties or Injustice Princes hath then committed This Year Ethâ—lheard the Arclt-bishop and Cynebriht Bishop of the West Saxons went to Rome the latter to take the Habit of a Monk and Bishop Alfwin deceased at Southburg now Sutbury in Suffolk and was buried at Domuc now Dunwich in the same County being then the Seat of that Bishoprick and Tidfrith was chosen in his Room
his History of the Church of Durham who has interspersed many excellent Passages concerning the same Northern Story Here likewise we may add the Chronicle of the Abbey of Mailross which tho wrote by the Abbot of Dundraimon was certainly collected out of some much antienter Annals of that Monastery which was then destroyed and these together with the last mentioned Authors have helped us to make up the Succession of the Northumbrian Kings after Eardulf that was expelled his Kingdom Anno 806. from whom our common Writers suppose there was an Interregnum for the space of above sixty Years tho by those above-named it appears to have been otherwise as you may see in the Tables at the end of the last Book AFTER these flourished William of Malmesbury who finished his History in the Reign of King Stephen but certainly he began it long before viz. in the Reign of Henry the First To which Learned Monk being one of the best Writers both for Judgment and Stile of that Age I must own my self obliged for the best and choicest Passages in this Volume TO him succeeded Henry Arch-Deacon of Huntington who wrote a History of the Kings of England as well before as after the Conquest and retiring to Rome lived there for some time for that purpose He deduced his History almost to the end of K. Stephen and writing most commonly by way of Annals transcribed many things out of Florence of Worcester and was of that great Reputation that Geoffrey of Monmouth who was his Cotemporary recommends the English History to be written by his Pen as he does the British to be continued by Caradoc of Lancarvon who wrote a Welsh Chronicle as far as his own Time the Substance whereof I have here likewise given you as it was put out by Dr. Powell to which I have also added several remarkable Passages that were designed in a new Edition of the same Work to be published from the Manuscripts of the Learned Antiquary Mr. Robert Vaughan by Mr. Ellis late of Jesus College in Oxon but which were never finished And I have likewise inserted divers choice Notes that I gathered from another Manuscript of the same Author's relating to the Chronology and Actions of the British Princes which he wrote for the Satisfaction of the Lord Primate Usher and from him is now in my Possession And I suppose no Ingenious British Antiquary will think this Performance unnecessary since he will here find the Substance of all that is contained in Caradoc's Chronicle together with a great many considerable Additions from the Manuscripts abovementioned as also some others gathered from two MS. Copies of the Chronicles of Wales the one in the Cottonian Library the other in the Exchequer written at the end of one of the Volumes of Doomesday for the perusal of which I stand obliged to the Reverend Dr. Gale H. Huntingdon was followed by Rog. Hoveden a secular Priest of Oxford and was Domestick Clerk or Secretary to Henry the Second he seems to have chiefly transcribed from Simeon of Durham as to the Affairs before the Conquest as he does from William of Malmesbury and other Authors as well as his own Observations for those that occur'd afterwards to his own Time continuing his History to the beginning of King John's Reign THE next we come to are those Authors contained in that noble Volume called the Decem-Scriptores such as Ailred Abbot de Rievalle who wrote concerning the Kings of England so far as King Henry the 2d in whose Time he lived as also concerning the Life and Miracles of Edward the Confessor from whom I have taken divers memorable Passages relating to the Life of that King as well as to his Predecessors omitting his Fables and Legends in which he does too much abound AFTER him follows Radulphus de Diceto Dean of St. Pauls London who flourished in the Reign of King John about the Year 1210. he was esteemed a very accomplished Historian and an indefatigable Collector in his Time of things not only before but after the Conquest I have also taken some few Passages from William Thorn a Monk of Canterbury who wrote an entire History of the Affairs of his own Monastery of St. Augustin down to the beginning of King Richard the Second in whose Reign he lived AFTER whom we had for a long time no printed Historians of the Times before the Conquest till that in the Decem-Scriptores which goes under the Name of John Brompton Abbot of Jorvaulx in Richmondshire tho Mr. Selden has shewn us in his Preface to that Volume that he was rather the Purchaser than Author of this Chronicle which he left to his own Abbey he is supposed to have lived in the time of Edward the Third but the History concludes with the Death of Richard the First BVT the said Reverend Dr. Gale farther observes of him That he intended to continue Geoffrey of Monmouth as appears in the Preface and in Col. 1153. as also that he took much from Benedictus Abbas still in Manuscript in the Cottonian Library and not from Roger Hoveden for where a Fault or Omission is found in Benedictus the same is here found also but not so in Hoveden e. g. Benedictus wanted the Seal of the King of Sicily and so did Bromton till it was added from some other Copy and not out of Hoveden for the Seals differ and some Copies of Hoveden have it not at all And tho the Compiler of this History seems to have lived in the Time of Richard I. as himself seems to intimate yet Col. 967. it mentions Richard the Third which must have been added to continue down the Genealogy of our Kings as is often done in antient Chronicles by some later Hand But the Learned Doctor farther supposes this Chronicle to have been written by one John Brompton who as the Doctor found in an old Manuscript Year-Book or Collection of Reports of the Reign of King Edward the First was a Justice Itinerant about that Time which Conjecture is also confirmed by his careful inserting the Antient Saxon Laws into this Chronicle This as it was not done by any before him so neither does it savour of the Monk THIS is the more worthy taking notice of because Sir William Dugdale hath omitted this John Brompton in his Catalogue of Judges Itinerant at the end of his Origines Juridiciales TO this Historian succeeds Henry de Knyghton Canon of Leicester who wrote his History de Eventibus Angliae beginning with King Edgar and ending with the Reign of Richard the Second BVT the Reader may be pleased to take notice that in these two last Authors are found many Passages which are in none of the more Antient Writers and since most of them relate to Customs and Terms that had their Original after the coming in of the Normans therefore they may with good Reason be suspected to have been borrowed from some common Stories or Traditions that then passed up and down for current NOR can
Westmoreland I suppose they are omitted in this Catalogue because in the Times not long before the Conquest the first was under the Power of the Scots and consequently under their Laws as the two latter were under that of their own Earls who ruled those Counties as Feudatary Princes under the Kings of England tho thus much is certain that the Danish Laws took Place there as well as in Yorkshire BUT after King Edward the Confessor came to the Crown he reduced the whole Kingdom under one General for thus says Ranulph Higden as he is cited by Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary Tit. Lex Ex tribus his Legibus Sanctus Edwardus unam Legem Communem edidit quas Leges Sancti Edwardi usque hodie vocant Brompton says the like Iste Supradictus Rex Sanct. Ed. Conf. dictus est Edwardus Tertius qui Leges Communes Anglorum Genti tempore suo ordinavit quia proantè Leges nimìs partiales editae fuerant But Roger Hoveden carries them up higher in his History of Henry the Second for he says Quod istae Leges primùm inventae institutae erant tempore Edgari Avi sui sed postquam Edwardus venit ad Regnum Consilio Baronum Angliae Legem per 48. Annos sopitâ—m excitavit excitatam reparavit reparatam decoravit decoratam confirmavit confirmata verò vocata est Lex Edwardi Regis non quià ipse invenisset eam prius sed cum praetermissa fuerat Oblivioni penitùs data è Diebus Avi sui Edgari qui primus Inventor ejus fuisse dicitur usque ad sua tempora quià justa honesta erant è profundo Abysso extraxit eam revocavit ut suam observandam tradidit But the true Reason why it is called the Common Law is because it is the Common or Municipal Law of this Kingdom so that Lex Communis or Jus Patriae is all one with Lex Patriae or Jus Patrium and it is also called the Common Law in other Countries as Lex Communis Norica Burgundica Lombardica c. And from this latter they were so called by William the First in his Confirmation of them HAVING now given you the Original of our Laws in General we will next proceed to shew you what they were in particular as far as they concern those two great Branches of all Municipal Laws viz. the Civil or the Criminal The former oâ— which concerns Lands and Goods and the latter the Nature and Punishments of Criminal Offences TO begin with the former as far as it concerns Lands I shall satisfy my self with what Dr. Brady hath with great Industry and Exactness extracted in the first part of his Compleat History of England out of those Learned Authors you will find there cited in the Margin which is as follows Mr. Somner says there were but two sorts of Tenures here in the Saxon times before the Conquest Bocland and Folkland to which two all other sorts of Land might be reduced Bocland as Lambard says was Free and Hereditary and was a Possession by Writing the other without That by Writing was possessed by the Free or Nobler sort that without called Folkland was holden by paying Annual Rent or performance of Services and was possessed by the Rural People Rusticks Colons or Clowns in those Times these Writings were called in Latin Libelli Terrarum Landboc's and Telligraphia and Livery and Seizin was then made and given by delivery of a Turf taken from the Land with the Writings This was called Terra Testamentalis hereditaria Land Inheritable and devisable by Will unless the first Purchaser or Acquirer by Writing or Witness had prohibited it and then it could not be sold or disposed of from the nearest Kindred This Bocland was of the same Nature with Allodium in Doomsday holden without any Paiments nor chargeable with Services to any Lord or Seignory and though the Name was almost quite lost yet the thing remained under the Name of Allodium and the Lands possessed by the Allodiarii frequently mentioned in Doomsday I have been the more exact in putting down this Passage because it plainly proves from the learned Doctor 's own shewing that if the greatest part of the Lands before the Conquest held by Men of any Quality were Bocland and that this Bocland was the same as he grants with Lands held in Allodio and I have already proved that such Lands were held without any Paiments or Services other than such publick Taxes as were imposed by the Great Council of the Kingdom that is Danegelt with such other Duties as all Lands whatsoever were liable to then is it also as evident that these Lands which were far the greatest part of the Lands in the Kingdom were not held by Knight's Service and consequently their Owners could not be Tenants in Capite as this Author is pleased in other Places to suppose and therefore these Tenants in Allodio could never be so represented by such Military Persons as that they alone could either make Laws for them or lay Taxes on their Estates without their Consents either by themselves or Representatives in the Great Councils or Parliaments of those Times and therefore such free Tenants must have either appeared for themselves in Person or have chosen others to represent them AND if any Man doubt whether these Lands held in Allodio were before the Conquest the greatest part of the Lands of the Kingdom I must refer them for their Satisfaction to Mr. Somners and Mr. Taylor 's Treatises upon Gavelkind as also to Mr. Lambard's Discourse of the Customs of Kent at the end of his Perambulation of that County who there fully prove that the Antient Bocland descending to all the Male Issue alike was not meer Socage Tenure but Allodial 2 dly That this was the general Tenure of all Lands not held by Knights Service before the Conquest as well Gavelkind as others and that not only at the Common Law but confirmed by divers Saxon Kings as by that Law of King Edmund Si quis intestatus obierit Liberi ejus haereditatem aequalitèr dividant So likewise by the 68 th and 75 th Laws of King Cnute as also by those of Edward the Confessor confirmed by William the Conqueror Cap. 36. And therefore Mr. Somner in his said Treatise of Gavelkind farther proves that this was a Liberty left to the Kentish Men by William the Conqueror when all the rest of England changed its Antient Tenure and Mr. Taylor in his History of Gavelkind Chap. 6 7 8. hath proved this to have been a general Custom not only in Kent but in Wales and several parts of England I shall not any further pursue what the Doctor has said of Lands holden by Military Service before the Conquest or of the Herriots or Reliefs that were due upon them which were payable out of the Feudal Lands of the Ealdormen middle and less Thanes but shall refer
now repaired it and made it habitable and then committed it to the Custody of his Son-in-Law Ethered Earl of the Mercians and now all the English viz. the Mercians and Kentishmen as also the East and West Saxons who had been before dispersed or made Prisoners with the Danes being now returned home put themselves under King Alfred's Protection But these Danish Storms being pretty well blown over King Alfred began now to make some use of the Learned Men he had sent for from abroad for as Mr. Camden shews us in his Britannia we have a large account of the University of Oxon. Under the Year of our Lord 886 viz. That in the Second Year of St. Grimbald's coming over into England the University of Oxford was founded the first Regents there and Readers in Divinity were St. Neot an Abbot an Eminent Professor of Theology and St. Grimbald and Eloquent and most Excellent Interpreter of the Holy Scriptures whilst Grammer and Rhetorick were Taught by Asser a Monk a Man of extraordinary Learning Logick Musick and Arithmetick were Read by John a Monk of St. Davids Geometry and Astronomy were professed by John another Monk and Collegue of St. Grimbald one of a sharp Wit and Immense Knowledge These Lectures were often honoured with the presence of the most Illustrious and Invincible Monarch King Aelfred which is also asserted by Will of Malmesbury who tells us a constant Tradition of his time that King Alfred by the Advice of Neot the Abbot first founded publick Schools of various Arts at Oxford which is further confirm'd by an Ancient Manuscript Copy of Randolph Higden's Polychron in Bayliol College Library which in the beginning treating of all the Kings of England when he comes to King Alfred says thus That he first founded the University of Oxford John Rouse in his Manuscript Treatise de Regibus Angliae Lib. 1. seems also to have seen this passage in Winchester Annals and adds Three Halls to have been thus built The one for Grammar near the East Gate the Second near the North-Gate for Logicians and the Third in the High-Street for Divines But since this only proves that King Alfred first founded publick Schools here and not that there was any such thing here before I shall recite also what follows as it is quoted by the said Mr. Camden out of an ancient Copy of Asser de Gestis Alfredi which I could wish may clear this point About this time says he there arose a sharp and grievous dissention between Grimbald and those learned Men whom he brought hither with him and the old Scholars whom he found here at his coming for these absolutely refused to comply with the Statutes Institutions and Forms of Reading perscribed by Grimbald the difference proceeded to no great height for the space of Three Years yet there was always a private Grudge and Enmity between them which soon after broke out with the utmost violence imaginable to appease these Tumults the most Invincible King Aelfred being informed of the Faction by a Message and Complaint from Grimbald came to Oxford to accommodate the matter and submitted to a great deal of Pains and Patience to hear the Cause and Complaint of both Parties The Controversie depended upon this The Old Scholars maintain'd that before the coming of Grimbald to Oxford Learning did here flourish thô the Students were less in number than they had formerly been because very many of them had been Expell'd by the cruel Tyranny of the Pagans They farther declar'd and proved by the undoubted Testimony of their ancient Annals that good Orders and constitutions for the Government of that place had been already made by Men of great Piety and Learning such as Gildas Melkin Ninnias Kentigern and others who had there prosecuted their Studies to a good old Age All things being then managed in happy Peace and quiet and that St. German coming to Oxford and residing there half a Year after he had gone through all England to Preach down the Pelagian Heresie did well approve of their Rules and Orders The King with incredible Humility and great attention heard both parties exhorting them with Pious and Importunate entreaties to preserve Love and Amity with one another upon this he left them in hopes that they both would follow his Advice and obey his Instructions But Grimbald resenting these proceedings retired imediately to the Monastery of Winchester which King Aelfred had lately founded and soon after he got his Tomb to be removed thither to him in which he had designed his Bones should be put after his Decease and laid in a Vault under the Chancel of the Church of S. Peters in Oxford which Church the said Grimbald had raised from the ground of Stones hewn and carved with great Art But since it must be confessed that this passage of the quarrel of St. Grimbald and the Old Scholars of Oxford is not to be found in that ancient Copy of Asser which Arch-Bishop Parker first published in Saxon Characters like those in which it is written being still Extant in the Cottonian Library yet though it was published by Mr. Camden in that Edition of Asser which was printed at Frankford in 1603. The Original of which the Lord Primate Usher in his Ant. Brit. Eccles. expresly tells us Mr. Camden never saw from whence Sir John Spelman in his History of the Life of King Aelfred hath made a very hard inferences as if that clause was not to be found in any of the ancient Copies of that Authour but had been foisted in either by the Publisher or else by Mr. Camden himself thô this Authour does not say so in express terms I shall therefore repeat in short what Mr. Ant. Wood hath answered to this Objection in the Antiquities of the University of Oxford from a Manuscript Testimonial under the hand of the learned Mr. Twyne viz. That he himself long after discoursing with Mr. Camden on this Subject and asking him expresly about this passage whose authority began to be then questioned His Answer was that he very well knew that he had truly transcribed that passage from an ancient Manuscript of Asser which he had then by him and which as the said Mr. Wood in his Notes tells us then belonged to Sir Henry Savile of Banke near Halifax in York-shire But I shall not now take upon me to Answer the rest of the Objections which the said Sir John Spelman does there produce against the validity of the above cited passage which supposes publick Schools to have been at Oxford before King Alfreds time for they are all reduceable to these two heads First the express words of the Annals of the Abbey of Hyde above-mentioned as also that of Polychronicon That King Alfred was the first King who founded a University there all which may be answered by allowing that to be true in respect of a University endow'd with Priviledges and distinct Halls and Colledges built on purpose and
Horses whereof two with Furniture and two without two Swords four Spears and as many Shields one Helmet one Corslet and fifty Mancuses of Gold The Herriot of an inferior Thane an Horse with Furniture and Arms or amongst the West-Saxons the Sum of Money that is paid called Halfange in Mercia and East-England two Pounds But amongst the Danes the Herriot of a King's Thane who hath free Jurisdiction is four Pounds and if he be nearer to the King his Herriot is two Horses whereof the one with Furniture and the other without a Sword two Spears as many Targets and fifty Mancuses of Gold But the Herriot of a Thane of the lowest condition is two Pounds This word Herriot or as the true Saxon word is written Herëgeate signifies Furniture for War given by the Vassal to his Lord probably at first designed for the driving away Thieves and Robbers which abounded when the Danish or Northern Nations so frequently invaded the Land For though the word Here does in the Saxon Language signify an Army yet it is in our Saxon Authors when without composition generally taken in the worst sense for Invaders and Spoilers A Lawful Army collected by the King for the defence of the Nation being called by the name of Fyrd The seventy first requires Widows to continue in Widowhood for the space of Twelve Months and then permits them to marry If a Woman marry before her Twelve Months be out she shall lose her Dower with all that her Husband left her which is to come in such case to the next of kin and he that marries her shall pay the value of his Head to the King or to whomsoever he assigns it The seventy fifth Law deprives him of Life and Estate who either in an Expedition by Land or Sea deserts his Lord or his Fellow-Soldier and in such case the Lord is to have back the Land he gave him or if it was Bocland it goes to the King But in case any one dye in Fight in the presence of his Lord either at home or abroad his Herriot shall be remitted and his Children shall succeed both to his Goods and Lands and equally divide them The seventy sixth gives him liberty that hath defended his Land and cleared it from all doubts and incumbrances in the Sciregemote or County-Court to possess it quietly whilst he lives and to leave it to whom he pleases when he dies From whence we may observe that before the Conquest men might bequeath their Lands by their Last Will. The seventy seventh gives liberty to every man to hunt in his own Grounds but forbids all men under a Penalty to meddle with the King's Game especially in those places which he had fenced by Privilege By those places thus privileged he means those which afterwards the Normans called Forests being Ground Desart and Woody lying open to the King 's Deer not fenced about with any Hedge or Wall but circumscribed and privileged or as here he words it fenced with certain Bounds Laws and Immunities under Magistrates Judges Officers c. Concerning these Forests the King published certain Constitutions Thirty four in number which you may see at large in Sir Hen. Spelman's Glossary tit Foresta But because he mentions them not in this nor any other of his Laws they seem to have been made afterwards But the Thirtieth Article is therein almost the very same with this Law forbidding all men to meddle with his Game and yet permitting them to hunt in their own Grounds sine Chasea but what that signifies unless it be following their Game out of their own Grounds I will not take upon me to determine King HAROLD sirnamed Harefoot NOT long after the Death of King Cnate our Annals relate That there was a great Witena Gemot or Council of the Wise Men held at Oxnaford where Earl Leofric and almost all the Thanes on the East part of Thames with the Seamen of London chose Harold for King of all England whilst his Brother Hardecnute was in Denmark But Earl Godwin and all the Great Men of the West-Saxons withstood it as much as they could though they were not able to prevail against them Then was it also decreed That Elgiva or Emma the Mother of Hardecnute should reside at Winchester with the Domesâ—ick Servants of the late King and should possess all West-Saxony where Earl Godwin was Governor or Lord Lieutenant It is said also by some concerning this King Harold that he was the Son of King Cnute and of Aelgiva the Daughter of Aelfhelm the Ealdorman but that seems scarce probable to many however he was full or Real King of all England That which gave cause to this suspicion was as Florence of Worcester and Radulph de Diceto relate That this Aelgiva not being able to have Children by King Cnute commanded the Son of a certain Shoomaker then newly born to be brought to her and feigning a formal Lying in to have imposed upon the credulous King her Husband that she was really brought to bed of a Son which if true shews that it is no new or strange thing for a Queen of England to impose a supposititious Birth upon the King her Husband and the whole Nation But this Contention about the Election of Harold gives us great reason to doubt the Truth of the Relation in Simeon of Durham and other Authors of this Harold's being appointed by his Father's Will to succeed in the Kingdom of England such a Nomination or Recommendation seldom or never failing to be observed by the States of the Kingdom without any dispute at the Election of a New King And besides Queen Aemma his Mother who had then the greatest power with King Cnute would sure much rather have had her own Son Hardecnute to have succeeded him in the Kingdom of England than Harold at best supposed to be her Husband's Son by another Woman So that if Harold was now chosen King it is most likely that it was not in pursuance of King Cnute's Will but purely from the prevailing Faction of the Danes and Londoners who as William of Malmesbury tells us were by their long conversation with them become wholly Danish in their Inclinations But if Ingulph may be believed who lived as well before as after the Conquest there was then so great a Dispute about the Election of a King that many fearing a Civil War would ensue it caused multitudes of people to quit their Habitations and betake themselves into Waterish and Fenny Places where they thought the Enemy could not or would no easily pursue them and particularly to the Monastery of Croyland where they caused such a disturbance that the Monks of that place could neither meet in the Church nor in the Refectory When at last to avoid the Effusion of Christian Blood it was agreed at the aforesaid Council at Oxnaford That the Kingdom should be divided between the two Brothers Harold and Hardecnute so that the former should have all the Countries
what they knew would please their Masters would have passed him over without this Story and have given him a fairer Character His first Wife was the Sister of King Cnute by whom he had a Son but in his Infancy happening to mount an unruly Horse that was presented him by his Grandfather he was run away with into the Thames and there drowned His Mother was kill'd by Thunder which as then was believed fell upon her as a Judgment on the account of her great Cruelty for she made a Trade of selling handsome English Boys and Girls into Denmark After her Death Earl Godwin married another Wife and by her had Six Sons viz. Harold Sweyn Wined Tosti Gyrth and Leofwin His Earldom of West-Seaâ— was given to his Son Harold and the Earldom that Harold had before viz. Essex was conferred on Alfgar the Son of Leofric Earl of Mercia which is also confirmed by our Annals And the same year according to Simeon of Durham Rees the Brother of Griffyn King of South-Wales being taken Prisoner for the many Insolences he had committed against the English was by the Command of King Edward put to death at a place called Bulendun and his Head sent to the King then lying at Gloucester on the Vigil of Epiphany But this is omitted in the Welsh Chronicles as commonly every thing is that makes to the disadvantage of their own Nation This year Leo that Holy Pope of Rome deceased and Victor was elected in his stead And there was also so great a Murrain of all sorts of Cattel in England that none could ever remember the like And now according to the Welsh Chronicles Griffyth the Son of Ratherch ap Justin raised a great Army both of Strangers and others against Griffyth Prince of North Wales who delaying no time but getting all the Forces of that Countrey together and meeting the other Griffyth fought with him and slew him on the place though none of these Chronicles have told us where that was This was the last Rebellion or Welsh Civil War that happened in this Prince's Reign The same year according to Simeon of Durham and Roger Hoveden Siward that Valiant Earl of Northumberland at the Command of King Edward being attended with a powerful Army and a strong Fleet marched into Scotland to restore Malcolm the Right Heir to the Crown of that Kingdom where joining Battel with Macbeth the then Usurping King of Scots many both of that Nation and of the Normans who took their part were slain and the Earl put the Usurper to flight But in this Battel the Earl's Son and several of the English and Danes were slain H. Huntington further adds That when the News was brought to the Earl of the Death of his Son he presently asked Whether he had received the Wound behind or before And being told it was before he only replied I am glad to hear that for so it became my Son to dye He says also That this Son of his whom he does not name had been sent into Scotland before his Father and was there killed and that Earl Siward did not subdue Macbeth till the second Expedition in which he differs from all the rest of the English and Scotish Historians Buchanan indeed acknowledges that this Prince Malcolm having taken Refuge in the Court of England obtain'd of King Edward the Assistance of Ten thousand men under the Conduct of Earl Siward and that the rest were raised for him by Macduf and others of his Party that took Arms on his behalf But John Fordun in his History writes much more improbably and though he allows that King Edward offered Malcolm an Army sufficient to place him on the Throne yet that he refused it with Thanks and only took Earl Siward of all the English Lords along with him as if this Earl's single Might though he was a Man of great Strength and Stature signified any thing against the Forces of Macbeth unless he had also brought a powerful Army along with him Mat. Westminster also adds That Scotland being thus conquered by the Forces of King Edward he bestowed it upon King Malcolm to be held of himself But since this is not found in any of our Ancient Historians and this Author does not acquaint us from whence he had it I do not look upon it as worthy of any great Credit About this time according to Simeon Aldred Bishop of Worcester was sent Ambassador to the Emperor with Noble Presents and being received with great Honour by him as likewise by Herman Archbishop of Cologne he staid in Germany a whole year to prevail with the Emperor on the King's behalf to send Ambassadors into Hungary to bring back Prince Edward the King's Cousin Son of King Edmund Ironside into England The same year also according to the Latin Copy of the Annals ' Was a Battel at Mortimer in Normandy But though they do not tell us by whom it was fought yet from others we learn it was between William Duke of Normandy and the King of France where the former obtain'd a most signal Victory This year Siward Earl of Northumberland deceased and the King gave that Earldom to Tostig Son of Earl Godwin Of this Siward's death our Historians give us divers remarkable Circumstances That being near his End by a Bloody-Flux he said He was asham'd to dye thus like a Beast so causing himself to be compleatly Armed and taking his Sword in his hand as if he would have fought even Death it self he in this Posture expired as he supposed like a Man of Honour King Edward not long after this summoned a Witena Gemot or Great Council seven days before Midlent wherein Earl Aelfgar was outlaw'd upon a Charge of being a Traytor to the King and the whole Nation and of this he was convicted before all there assembled Then Earl Aelfgar went to the Castle of Prince Griffyn in North-Wales and the same year they both together burnt the City of Hereford with the Monastery of St. Aethelbert once King of the East-Angles whose Bones were here enshrin'd This Earl had the greater reason to do what he did having been unjustly banish'd as most of our Historians write Simeon of Durham is somewhat larger in his account of this Affair and says That this Earl Aelfgar first went to Ireland and there procuring Eighteen Pyrate-Ships sail'd with them into Wales to assist Prince Griffyn against King Edward where joining with the Welshmen they laid waste the Countrey about Hereford with Fire and Sword against whom was sent that Cowardly Earl Rodolph King Edward's Sister's Son who gathering an Army and meeting with the Welshmen about two miles from that City he commanded the Englishmen contrary to their custom to fight on Horseback but so soon as they were ready to join Battel Rodulph with all his Frenchmen ran away which the English seeing quickly followed By which you may see that it is no new thing for a Cowardly General to make Cowardly Soldiers The