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HISTORY OF ENGLAND

UNDER THE

ANGLO-SAXON KINGS.

VOL. I.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

UNDER THE

ANGLO-SAXON KINGS,

TRANSLATED FROM

THE GERMAN

Dr. J. M. LAPPENBERG, For. F.S.A.,
KEEPF.R OP THE ARCHIVES OF THE CITY OF HAMBURG,

BY
BENJAMIN THORPE, F.S.A.
WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS BY THE AUTHOR
AND THE TRANSLATOR.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
MDCCCXLV.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

FLAMMAM.

PREFACE.

By many it will, without doubt, be thought singular
that the history of a state, which has always been of
prominent, and often of paramount importance in the
affairs of the world, should have been undertaken by
one who cannot, in the vocation or position of a pro
fessor, have found either an excuse for venturing on a
task, however desirable, yet of difficult execution, or
superior means of accomplishing it. As unfitting too,
and even obnoxious to the charge of presumption, an
individual must appear, who, in addition to the above-
mentioned objections, has not unlimited leisure to be
stow on so great a theme, but, on the contrary, has for
many years been attached to a practical calling, which,
though favourable to particular historical and juridical
investigations, and to the elaboration of his native hi
story, is, nevertheless, wont to stand opposed to a sus
ceptibility for the more general views, to a conception
of the more agitated life, and to the poetic and moral
elements of general history, and at the same time ad
verse to every attempt at vivid powerful description and
individual feeling, as foreign and obstructive to the mat
ter. These considerations seem to render a few words

vi PREFACE.
necessary regarding the personal circumstances of the
author in reference to his work.
The editors of ' The History of the European States * '
had for some years been seeking for a person willing
and qualified to undertake the History of England, but
had generally found that the external as well as internal
difficulties attending that study had held German scholars
aloof. The first historical inquirer of our time, to whom
the affairs of England were familiar from his youth,
whose premature loss we have never ceased to deplore,
had, it is said, at an early period, fostered the hope of
being one day enabled to undertake such a work. The
most acute also of living historians had, at a later period,
actually undertaken it, when another direction given to
his investigations withdrew him from all thoughts of
England. May both names remain concealed, in order
not to excite unfavourable comparisons and vain regrets
for that which is denied to us ! 2 The question when
put to me, ' What is to be done ? ' I could at the time
answer only by naming certain German scholars, but
whose limited leisure and other circumstances proved
unfavourable to the undertaking, or Englishmen in
clined to devote themselves to the later centuries only
of English history. Influenced by these considerations,
and as a resolution must be taken — some volumes of
'The History of the European States' having already
appeared— I accepted the honourable invitation to com-
1 Geschichte der europaischen Staaten, herausgegeben von AHI,
Heeren und F. A. Ukert.
2 The literary reader will hardly fail to recogmse in the one the cele
brated h1Stonan of Rome, Barthold George Njebuhr, and in the other
the learned and enlightened Leopold Ranke.— T.

PREFACE. vii
pose the history of a country rendered estimable to me
by long residence there in early days. Having completed
the arrangement of the archives of this city1, and con
sequently possessed of a larger share of leisure, I had
commenced several historical and juridical works, of
which some are, either complete or in part, in the hands
of the friends of German history ; but the time consumed
in the elaboration of records and other ancient docu
ments was not at the moment sufficiently taken into
account, while too much reliance was placed on a bodily
frame by no means possessing the vigour of youth ;
though the unimpaired consciousness of what England
and many of its worthiest natives had been to me, to
gether with the magic of other unobliterated delightful
recollections, had inspired me with sentiments well be
fitting him who should recount to his dear native land
the advantages and defects, and so many to us extra
ordinary phenomena in the political existence of the
English people.
The abode of the author in the city of his birth, the
libraries of which, in works relative to the insular king
dom, are richer than most others of Germany ; the
valuable community of possession there in knowledge
relative to the commerce, the industry and other cir
cumstances of the present England ; the proximity to
that country, alike favourable to literary intercourse and
personal observation ; the illustrations of the Anglo-
Saxon tongue which in common life offer themselves
even at this day to the Lower Saxon, — such were the
points urged against the doubts of the author as to
1 They perished in the calamitous fire in May 1842. — T.

viii PREFACE.
whether he should or should not devote himself to the
undertaking, while various occupations connected with
the history of the commerce of the middle age, the use
of valuable records, of which some are1 preserved at
Hamburg, which city, previously to the great elevation
of England in the latter years of Queen Elizabeth, was
frequently in intimate connexion with the English court,
might tend to foster the hope of being useful, even to
the scholar, through some new disclosures.
When, however, the wished-for leisure for forming
the plan of the new undertaking arrived, greater diffi
culties than had been anticipated presented themselves,
more particularly with reference to the earlier part of the
history. The defects of the edited authorities are not
unknown in England, and the conviction of the neces
sity of a thorough revisal of them had been expressed
by Gibbon, who, in his great work, could apply only a
very partial remedy to the evil. Of modern writers, the
greater number, though industrious, were wanting both
in criticism and in knowledge of general history ; while
to the German it could not be difficult to gather new
views with regard to old English history, on the paths
opened to him by some honoured countrymen and pro
fessors, in which the lovers of that study are but too apt
to feel delighted and consider themselves rich ; but for
the confirmation and establishment of such views, even
in cases where they could be proved indisputably just,
all authorities and preliminary labours were wanting.
Even the simple work of procuring the most important
original authors demanded much time, which should
1 For are we may now substitute, were before the conflayraHon.—T.

PREFACE. ix
rather have been devoted to the work itself. A welcome
and stimulating phenomenon, therefore, while my volume
was in progress, was the work of Sir Francis Pal
grave1, which, by the novelty of its views, and the
variety and abundance of its matter, both imparted in
struction and invited to a completer establishment of the
notions it set forth. Not less propitious to my under
taking was a correspondence accidentally established with
Charles Purton Cooper, Esq., the Secretary of the
Parliamentary Commission on the Public Records, who
not only made me acquainted with some new sources,
but afforded me an opportunity of applying more con
formably to the objects of that Commission many hi
storic and literary notices, which must otherwise have
found a place only as a sort of literary ballast in my
work. That the progress of my labour has been less rapid
than could be wished, is partly to be ascribed to the
necessity of a new verification and reference of the ac
counts to their first sources, which will henceforth, in
consequence of the better materials at hand, be more
rarely requisite ; and partly also to the interest, never yet
sufficiently considered, which the history of the unmixed
German race in Britain, before their Romanizing by the
Normans, must possess among their continental brethren.
Of everything, therefore, which could contribute to the
groundwork of a history of the Anglo-Saxon period, and
which admitted of historic proof, I deemed it right not
to be sparing. Much other matter relative to the Anglo-
Saxon myths, the old Britons, and the historic sagas
1 Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth. See Literary Intro
duction, p, lxviii. — T.

x PREFACE.
connected with the north of England, will probably be
communicated in another work. The genealogic tables1,
which I have drawn up of the Anglo-Saxon royal houses,
will be found at the end of the volume.
My earnest endeavour to know and make known
those sources of old English history, which are at present
accessible, would have been far from successful, had not
the chiefs of the libraries at Gottingen, Hanover, Kiel
and Wolfenbiittel most kindly favoured me with the long
and uninterrupted use of many rare works and manu
scripts necessary for such investigations. While feeling
it my duty to express to these estimable friends my sin-
cerest gratitude for the confidence and benevolence shown
me, I feel myself called on again to mention my valued
friend Mr. Cooper, to whose influential mediation I
am indebted not only for many highly interesting and
important works for the Norman and later portions of
English history, but also for the communication, before
the completion of the present work, of several valuable
materials, prepared under the Record Commission, for
Anglo-Saxon history, which he granted to the then per
sonally unknown foreigner, for his particular use, pre
viously to their publication. May that which is here
given appear not wholly unworthy of such honourable
confidence !
J. M. L.
Hamburg, 16th September, 1833.
1 These, in the present translation, have not only been revised by me
throughout, but also augmented by— 1. a table of the ancestors of Woden,
showing also the descents from his several sons ; 2. the ancestors up to
Woden of the founders of the Germanic states in Britain ; 3. the genealogy
of the princes or ealdormen of Lindisse (Lindsey). — T.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Following the example of my worthy and learned
friend, the author, and in compliance with the general
usage on such occasions, I will endeavour, as briefly as
possible, to lay before the few who will honour this hi
story with a perusal, an account of the part I have taken
in it beyond that of a mere translator.
Having been presented by Dr. Lappenberg with a
copy of his work immediately on its publication at
Hamburg in 1834, the interest excited in me by its
perusal was such that I resolved on attempting a version
of it into English ; for although histories of the same
period in the mother-tongue and of good repute were
not wanting, yet it appeared to me that in this were
contained many particulars, especially with reference to
chronological criticism, and to what may be called the
German portion of Anglo-Saxon history, not elsewhere
to be found in a condensed form, as well as much other
information, which the author's pursuits in the field of
old Teutonic literature had enabled him to introduce
almost as matter of course, at a time when that field
was a sort of terra incognita to most lovers of historic
literature in England.

xii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
My resolve was partly executed, a translation to the
end of the so-called Heptarchy was completed, when, to
my mortification, I found that not one of the booksellers
to whom it was offered would risk anything in its pub
lication : nor indeed were they to blame, for it seemed
at the time that few persons in the country interested
themselves much about old history, a study which, from
some unknown cause, had unfortunately never found that
favour among us with which it has for ages been re
garded in Italy, France, and Germany ; though the fruits
of the Record Commission, and more especially the hope
of the immediate publication of a volume of the late Mr.
Petrie's ' Corpus Historicum,' certainly justified the
expectation of better days. Discouraged by this some
what discreditable stateof things, and far from satisfied
with my translation (which was a translation in the
strictest sense of the word, without the slightest attempt
at addition or rectification by reference to the sources
of our early history), I destroyed the labour of many
months ; and it was not till the winter of 1842 that cir
cumstances induced me again to think of a translation
of Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon History.
During the intermediate time I had laboured sedulously
in the field of Anglo-Saxon literature, and having, while
editing for the Government the ' Ancient Laws and
Institutes of England,' been put in possession of Mr.
Petrie's unfinished volume and other authorities, I could
not withstand the temptation thus thrown in my way to
test and enlarge the text of Dr. Lappenberg's history
by the help of the original writers so fortunately placed
within my reach. This task led ultimately to a new

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xiii
translation of the whole, with many alterations and cor
rections, and such additions as appeared indispensable
to the original, in which the narrative had been abridged
and several facts unnoticed, in compliance with the ne
cessity of conciseness imposed on the author by the cir
cumstance, that his volume, forming one of a collection,
could not be extended beyond a certain limit.
On the first notice of my intention to translate his
work, Dr. Lappenberg most kindly supplied me with a
considerable quantity of matter, both as additions to and
corrections of the original, the substance of which will
be chiefly found in the text, in new annotations, or
embodied with the old ones ; while my own additions
and modifications have more especial reference to the
text, though a few notes by me1 will be met with occa
sionally scattered throughout the volumes. In fulfilling
this part of my task it has been my endeavour to impart
our early story as faithfully as possible, and as fully as
the bounds which good taste forbids us to transgress
would allow. The passages from the ancient historians,
occasionally interwoven into the text, I have rendered,
not from the author's German version, but directly from
the originals.
Should it be objected by any one, that unnecessary
pains have sometimes been bestowed in recording, from
charters and other sources, the rtames of petty kings
(subreguli), of whom little or nothing, beyond the fact
that they once existed, is known to us, an answer is at
hand, that the knowledge of a name, especially if in
combination with a date, may, in the progress of in-
1 These are distinguished by the initial T.

xiv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
quiry, lead to the knowledge of a fact, and, for numis
matic pursuits, such notices are often of the highest
utility. Even legends are not to be indiscriminately
rejected, as void of value, in recording the history of
times, of which it may be said, that the germ of many
an important event, connected with the establishment and
progress of religion, as well as many a main spring of
action, may sometimes be found in a legend.
In conclusion, I will venture to express a hope that,
when a new edition of the original shall be called for in
Germany — as I trust will ere long be the case — the
author will not reject, as unworthy of his notice, some
at least of the variations and additions introduced by me
into this translation. I am here reminded of the kind
interest taken in my labour by my old and much-
esteemed friend Mr. Richard Taylor, who has not
only supplied me with several works of reference, but
also obliged me with some judicious observations while
the volumes were in the press — services which claim
ahd have my best thanks.
Should this tfanslation meet with a favourable recep
tion, it is my intention, if life be granted me, to com
municate to English readers the author's ' History of
England under the Norman Kings,' or to the
accession of the house of Plantagenet. This will be
comprised in a single volume. B. T.

CONTENTS. VOL. I.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Page
Necessity of a Literary Introduction  xxiii
COLLECTIONS OF THE ENGLISH CHRONICLES.
Parker. — Savile. — Camden  xxiii
Twysden. — Fell. — Gale  Sparke  xxiv
Wharton. — Hearne. — Record Commission  xxv
BRITISH OR WELSH AND IRISH AUTHORITIES.
The Bards  xxvi
The Triads. — Gildas  xxvii
Nennius  xxviii
Jeffrey of Monmouth  xxix
Tysilio  xxx
Ponticus Virunnius. — Le Brut of Robert Wace. — Layamon xxxi
Caradoc of Llancarvan. — John Brechfa. — Chronicon
Walliae. — Chronicon Cambriae (Annales Cambriae). . . . xxxii
Brut y Tywysogion. — Rerum Hibernicajum Scriptores
Veteres  xxxiii
ANGLO-SAXON AND EARLY ENGLISH AUTHO
RITIES.
Beda  xxxiv
Earlier Anglo-Saxon Sources, Necrologies, Genealogies, etc. xxxv
Asser  xxxviii

xvi CONTENTS. Page
The Saxon Chronicle  xxxix
Sources of the Saxon Chronicle  xii
Authors of the same  xliii
Ethelwerd  xliv
Florence of Worcester. — Marianus Scotus  xlvii
Simeon of Durham. — Chronicle of Melrose. — Henry of
Huntingdon  xlviii
Roger of Hoveden. — Alured of Beverley  1
Ingulf  li
Ailred of Rievaux  lii
William of Malmesbury. — Matthew of Westminster  liii
John Wallingford  liv
NORMAN AUTHORITIES.
Dudo of St. Quentin. — William of Jumieges. — Robert
Wace  Iv
Benoit de Ste. More  Geffrei Gaimar  lvi
William of Poitiers. — Ordericus Vitalis. — Guy (Wido) of
Amiens  Ivii
Chronicon Danorum  Iviii
ENGLISH METRICAL CHRONICLERS.
Robert of Gloucester. — Peter Langtoft. — Robert de
Brunne  j v;jj
LATER CHRONICLERS, etc.
John Bromton. — Douglas of Glastonbury  lix
Charters, Laws (Anglo-Saxon, Welsh)  lx-lxii
MODERN HISTORIANS.
Caxton  lxii
Milton. — Langhorne  j ••?
Spelman— Rapin — Carte.— Hume.— Gibbon.— Burke . . lxiv
Mackintosh  j
Whitaker  lxvii
Henry — Turner. — Lingard  lxvii
PalSrave  '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. lxviii

CONTENTS.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
Page
Earliest knowledge of Britain. — Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
Greeks, Romans  1
Tin Islands and Commerce  4
Descent and Traditions  6
Language  7
Druids  9
Bards  11
Chieftains and Kings  12
Customs, manner of fighting  13
Triads of Dyvnwal Moelmud  14
Tribes  15
Invasion by C. Julius Caesar  17
Invasion by Caligula  22
Invasion by Claudius  23
Caractacus (Caradoc)  24
Conquest of Mona  27
Boudicea  28
Agricola  29
Division and form of Government  32
Collegia (Guilds) — Preservation of the Celtic tongue .... 36
British Princes  38
Law of Gavelkind. — State of the country under the Caesars 39
Saxon pirates  43
Carausius  45
Constantine the Great. — Christianity  47
High roads  51
Roman structures  52
Picts and Scots  54
Attacotti and Dalreudini. — Princely families . . *  56
Rebellions of the Roman generals  57
British settlement in Armorica  59
Departure of the Roman legions  60
St. Germain. — State of Christianity  62
Pelagius  65

VOL. I.

xviii CONTENTS. PART I.
FROM THE LANDING OF HENGEST AND HORSA TO
THE ACCESSION OF ECGBERHT. Page
British traditions. — Vortigern  67
Anglo-Saxon traditions  71
Chronology of the Anglo-Saxons  75
Anglo-Saxon Runes  79
National Traditions. — Saxons  83
Angles  89
Jutes  96
Frisians, etc  97
The various races in Britain  99
Resistance of the Lloegrians  100
Ambrosius Aurelianus  Arthur  101
South Saxons. — iEUe  104
Gewissas or West Saxons. — Cerdic  107
East Saxons  HI
East Angles  112
Mercia  jjg
Angles and Warni  1 15
Northumbria (Bernicia and Deira)  117
Britons  Ug
Cymry or Welsh  120
Cumbria  122
Germanizing of Britain  123
The Dignity of Bretwalda  125
Ceawlin of Wessex  128
Conversion of Kent  130
The British Church.  131
Conversion of Essex  142
Raedwald of East Anglia  144,
^Ethelfrith of Northumbria.— Eadwine  145
Paulinus  , . n
_ . . ••¦•!•  149
Conversion of Deira  15J
Conversion of East Anglia  I54,
Penda of Mercia  ' 155
Oswald  •••
Aidan  ..y.'.'.'y.v..'.y.\\.\'.'.'.'.... iss

CONTENTS. xix
Page
Ceolwulf of Wessex  159
Tewdric of Morganwg  160
Cynegils and Cwichelm. — Conversion of Wessex  161
Oswiu  163
Defeat and death of Penda  166
^Progress of Christianity  167
Synod of Whitby  169
Archbishop Theodore  171
Bishop Wilfrith  173
The Arts in England  176
Ecgfrith of Northumbria  179
Anglo-Saxon foundations abroad  181
Scottish foundations abroad  1 82
Wilfrith  184
Ceadwealla  186
Aldfrith of Northumbria  187
Ecclesiastical Institutions  -  190
Bishoprics  192
Monasteries and Churches  195
Clergy  197
Tithes  198
Canon Law  200
The Mother-tongue the language of the Church. — Versions
of the Scriptures  202
Church Music  203
Saxon School at Rome  204
Superstitions. — Pilgrimages  Relics  207
Venerable Beda  209
The Monk Ecgberht  210
Decline of Northumbria. — Succession of kings  211
Ceolwulf.— Eadberht  213
jEthelwald Moll, etc  214
Ethelred  216
Eardwulf  217
State of Mercia  221
^Ethelred and Osthryth  222
Ceolred.— ^Ethelbald  224
Offa  227
Offa's Dyke  230
Charles the Great  231

XX

CONTENTS.

Page
Archbishopric of Lichfield  233
Council of Cealchyth  234
j-Ethelberht of East Anglia  235
Ecgferth of Mercia.— Cenwulf  238
Eadberht Praen  238
Cenhelm of Mercia  241
East Anglia  241
East Saxons  243
Kent  245
South Saxons  248
Smaller States. — Middlesex, Surrey, Hwiccas, etc  249
Gradual Preponderance of Wessex   251
Cynegils and Cwichelm  251
Cenwealh  252
Sexburh  255
Centwine  256
The Britons and Armoricans. — Yvor  256
Ceadwealla  258
Subjection and Partition of Sussex  Isle of Wight  259
Arwald and his Sons. — Mul  260
Ine  261
Laws of Ine  264
Aldhelm  264
Boniface  265
Abdication and Pilgrimage of Ine  266
iEthelheard  267
Cuthred.— War with ./Ethelbald of Mercia  268
Sigebyrht  270
Cynewulf  270
Beorhtric  272
Ecgberht  272
First Landing of the Northmen  273
Eadburh  273
Additional Notes  275
Genealogies  *  ' 284

LITERARY INTRODUCTION.

As all our knowledge of ancient times necessarily depends on
an acquaintance with the original sources of history, it is only
when such sources are supposed to be already sufficiently
known, that an accurate specification of them can be dis
pensed with. The want of such a specification for the History
of England is felt even in the literature of England itself1,
but is more particularly disadvantageous to the natives of
other countries, where the most extensive libraries are too
often but sparingly supplied with these original authorities.
But if it be the object of an historic work to promote a critical
knowledge of history, and to aid the solitary student in his
researches, mere literary or bibliographic notices will be found
wholly inadequate ; and, as a basis for such researches, an
accurate review of the several authorities, of their peculiarities
and deviations from each other, must be set forth. Among
no historic writers are we more to seek for such information
than among those of England, with the exception, perhaps,
1 The work of Nicolson (English, Scotch and Irish Historical Libraries,
3rd edit. Lond. 1736. fol.) is not sufficient for the wants of the present day.
On the chronicles of the Anglo-Saxons may be consulted with advantage
a very sensible article in ' Hermes,' Bd. xxx., by Dr. Reinhold Schmid.
VOL. I. C

xxii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
of Lingard and Palgrave, and even these seem to have been
guided rather by a correct, though not always followed, tact,
than by a scientifically founded view. Hence by English hi
storians, chroniclers are not unfrequently adduced as autho
rities, who in the present work are either not cited at all, or in
those rare cases only when their original sources cannot be
traced : such are Matthew of Westminster, Roger of Hoveden,
John Bromton, William Knyghton, and others. With correct
and critical editions of the several authorities, which might
serve as a compass whereby to steer on the dark ocean of hi
story, England is but ill provided. An analysis of the chro
nicles, for the purpose of separating that which is verbally
borrowed, and that which is remodelled, from that which is
original communication ; the comparison of the latter with,
and confirmation by, contemporary records and other autho
rities ; the illustration of the pohtical position of the author ;
the examination of his language — all this in England, as in
other countries, belongs to the rarely possessed requisites for
historic research ; so that historic composition, like other
arts, must continue far behind its theory.
The following notices and critical remarks are given with
due regard to brevity, and have reference solely to the most
important sources of Anglo-Saxon history, to the exclusion of
Greek, Roman, Northern, and German authorities, as well as
of separate biographies, which will be found cited under the
several periods with which they are connected.
The study of English history would have been exceedingly
facilitated, had the edition of the English historians to the
year 1500, commenced under the authority of the late Par
liamentary Commission, appointed for the preservation and
publication of British historical and legal monuments, been
carried on to completion ; there being not only many excellent
manuscripts still unused of the chronicles already — though
for the most part very indifferently— edited, but also a con
siderable number of important historic sources that have never

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxiii
yet appeared in print1. Had this design been carried on in
a way commensurate with the means possessed by the Com
mission, England might, at no distant period, have exulted in
a collection of historical and legal monuments excelling those
of other countries in as great a degree as her present printed
chronicles are inferior to the historical collections of Italy,
France, Germany and Denmark.
The larger printed collections of English chroniclers belong
for the most part to the seventeenth, and some even to the
sixteenth century. The earliest is that of Dr. Matthew Parker,
archbishop of Canterbury2, containing the British History of
Jeffrey of Monmouth, his epitomiser Ponticus Virunnius,
Beda's Ecclesiastical History, Gildas, William of Newburgh,
and an extract translated into Latin from Froissart. Besides
the above, Parker, as early as 1570, had caused Matthew of
Westminster, and, in the following year, Matthew Paris to be
printed* and, in 1574, Walsingham, andAsser's Life of Alfred,
the latter with Anglo-Saxon types. This collection was fol
lowed by that of Sir Henry Savile, under the title of ' Rerum
Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam Praecipui3,' containing the
three principal works of William of Malmesbury, Henry of
Huntingdon, Roger of Hoveden, Ethelwerd and Ingulf — a
great acquisition for history, though so uncritically edited, that
a considerable portion of Henry of Huntingdon is reprinted
verbatim in Hoveden. The chronicles of Matthew of West-
. *j
minster and Florence of Worcester were printed separately in
the same year. A few years later that unrivalled antiquary
William Camden (ob. 1623) increased the number of collec
tions with his 'Anglica, Normannica, Hibernica, Cambrica,
a Veteribus Scripta4,' containing a new but faulty edition of
1 For the plan of this collection and the preliminary labours of the Com
mission, see Cooper's * Account of the most important public Records of
Great Britain, and the publications of the Record Commissioners,' vol. ii.
pp. 144-178 and 365-370.
2 Rerum Britannicarum Scriptores Vetustiores et Praecipui. Lugd. 1587. fol.
3 Londini 1596. Francofurti 1601. fol. 4 Francof. 1603. fol.
c2

xxiv LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Asseris Life of Alfred, William of Jumieges, Walsingham
(to which is needlessly appended an extract from the same
work, the Hypodigma Neustriae), Giraldi Cambrensis Itine-
rarium, Descriptio Cambriae, Topographia Hiberniae, and
Hibernia Expugnata. As a proof of the httle interest taken
in England for fundamental historic knowledge, it may he
mentioned, that so far from other and more effective editions
being there produced, these collections could only be reprinted
in Germany ; nor till a lapse of fifty years was an edition of
the Saxon Chronicle brought forth, though next after Beda
the most important source of Anglo-Saxon history, and the
basis of the portion relating to that period of the principal of
the before-mentioned Latin chronicles.
The ' Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decern/ edited by
Sir Roger Twysden1, is chiefly useful for the Anglo-Saxon
period on account of Simeon of Durham contained in it (who
not only frequently supplies the deficiencies of Florence, hut
also gives many particulars not to be found elsewhere), also
the abbot of Rievaux, ' De Genealogia Regum Anglorum/
and his Life of Edward the Confessor. Of greater interest
for the ante-Norman period are the collections printed at
Oxford, of which that by Dr. Fell, bishop of that city, con
tains the best edition of Ingulf, the History of Peter of Blois,
and the Chronicle of the Abbey of Melrose2. In the other,
edited by Dr. Gale, are comprised Gildas, Nennius, ^Edde's
Life of Wilfrith, John Wallingford, the valuable Chronicles
or Histories of the Abbeys of Ely and Ramsey, besides other
works of importance for the Anglo-Saxon period of Enghsh
history8. From this time no similar collection has appeared,
1 Londini 1652. fol.
2 Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum t. i. Oxon. 1684. fol. Of
this collection no more appeared. As Fell's name is not mentioned in the
volume, the work is frequently confounded with the similarly printed one
of Gale.
3 Historic Britannicse, Saxonicae, Anglo-Danicae Scriptores xv. opera
Thomae Gale. Oxon. 1691. This volume, containing the earlier writers,

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxv
unless we may include in the list that of Sparke, under the
title of 'Historias Anglicanee Scriptores varii1,' the chief
portion of which has reference to the abbey of Peterborough,
or to the Life of Thomas a Becket. Of greater interest for us,
though exclusively confined to church history, is the ' Anglia
Sacra' of Wharton2, a valuable collection of the chronicles of
various dioceses and monasteries, as well as Lives of celebrated
ecclesiastics. Many English chronicles were, in the beginning
of the last century, edited by the indefatigable Thomas
Hearne, though less critically and carefully than could be
wished. His publications being detached and independent
of each other, are consequently not easily collected3. For
our present purpose the Scottish chronicle of Fordun4 is
perhaps the only one of them possessing any interest.
The wish for a complete collection of the English historians
of the middle age was first publicly expressed by Gibbon5 :
that his wish was not carried into effect is matter of deep
regret, except in the case that no other individual than the
object of his choice, John Pinkerton, had been selected for
that purpose.
The unfinished first volume of the edition of English Hi
storians6, to have been published under the Record Corn-
is usually regarded as the first, though the second, containing some writers
of the Norman period, is dated 1687-
1 Londini 1723, in two small folios. 2 Londini 1691, ii. torn, folio.
3 The collection sometimes cited under his name, ' Collectio Scriptorum/
etc., contains of the chronicles only the most unimportant — that of William
of Worcester.
4 Johannis de Fordun Scotichronicon genuinum, edit. Th. Hearne, v.tom.
8vo. Oxon. 1722. 5 See his Miscellaneous Works.
6 Just as the manuscript of this work was about to be sent to press
(1833), the author had the pleasure, through the particular kindness of
his highly respected friend, C. P. Cooper, Esq., to receive the first volume
of Mr. Petrie's ' Materials for English History,' or ' Corpus Historicum/
as far as that work was printed ; the execution of which, it is hoped, will
satisfy all reasonable expectations. Though it is to be regretted that the
Introduction, containing an account of and remarks on the work, the seve
ral authors and manuscripts, is not yet printed, its present contents enable
us, nevertheless, to place greater confidence in our views regarding the con-

xxvi LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
mission, contains — after extracts from the Greek and Latin
geographers and historians — Gildas, Nennius, Beda's Chro
nicon and Ecclesiastical History, the Saxon Chronicle with
an English translation, Asser's Life of ^Elfred, the Chronicles
of Ethelwerd, Florence of Worcester1, Simeon of Durham,
and Henry of Huntingdon, L'Estorie des Engles of Gefirei
Gaimar, the Annales Cambriae, the Brut y Tywysogion, or
Chronicle of the Princes of Wales (with an English trans
lation), ascribed to Caradoc of Llancarvan (all down to the
year 1066), and the ' Carmen de Bello Hastingensi.' Four
volumes were destined to comprise all the chronicles (omit
ting in the later all matter copied verbatim from the earlier
ones), and whatever could be found illustrative of English
history to the period of the Norman conquest.
The hope once fostered by the historic inquirer, of deriving
considerable information respecting the earliest history of
Britain from Welsh sources, has not been reahzed. The hi
story of Wales and Cornwall has undoubtedly received illus
tration : highly interesting is it also to have determined the
very great antiquity of the poems of the bards Aneurin,
Taliesin, Llywarch Hen and Merddyn, some of which may
probably be assigned to the sixth century2. Yet do these
poetic spirits set before us the subject rather than an illustra
tion of the history of their time. We find in theu* glowing love
of country, in their intense hatred of the Anglo-Saxons, in
the outbreak of strong enthusiasm exulting in its subject, in
the vain-glory ever exhibiting itself more pompously with the
nexion of the known sources of English history, and to avail ourselves of
some hitherto unused authorities.
1 The genealogies given at the end of Florence are from a MS. belonging
to C. C. Coll. Oxford, collated for the purpose by the translator of the pre
sent work. — T.
2 This estimable treasure of old British literature is, with other relics,
published in the Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, a collection of historical
documents from ancient MSS. 3 voll. 8vo. Lond. 1801-7. Compare
Turner's Dissertation on the age of those poems iu his History of the
Anglo-Saxons.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxvii
fall of former greatness — we find in all this the germ of that
world of fiction, which the Welsh of after-ages have passed
off for a History of Britain. When we think of these and of
similar Scandinavian compositions, the full worth of the love
of truth pervading our modest monkish chronicles cannot fail
most forcibly to strike us. Servile as that faithfulness may
appear, easily as the earnestness and the strength of belief
may be mistaken, which, by the old chroniclers, were esteemed
as the greatest virtues ; absurd as the accuracy is with which
they copy, without the omission, of a syllable, every word of
a predecessor, and although, as from virtue a vice may spring,
so from their dull fidelity the most insipid pedantry and
grossest falsehood may grow and often has grown, yet to
that schoolboy fidelity alone are we indebted for a chrono
logical clew through the labyrinth of the middle age, the
bridge, as it were, which connects the old with the new world
over the rushing, ever-agitated, sparkling waves of the stream
of time.
The historic Triads of the Welsh contain considerable in
formation, but require much illustration for the satisfactory
understanding of them. Adherence to an originally perhaps
well-adapted form, can, in its later wholly unfitting apph
cation, only counteract the object of the composition, and
cause it to degenerate into insipidity1.
The oldest known British historian — if his work, 'Liber
querulus de Excidio Britanniae,' called also ' Historia,' can
give him any pretension to that title — is Gildas2, born a.d.
516, a scholar of St. Iltut and monk of Bangor, who, after a
hfe spent partly in travel or pilgrimages, partly in solitude,
is said to have died and been buried in the abbey of Glaston-
1 See, besides the Myvyrian Archaiology, Edw. Lhuyd, Archaeologia
Britannica. Oxon. 1707. Davies, Celtic Researches. Lond. 1804. 8vo.
Edw. Williams, Lyrical and Pastoral Poems. Lond. 1794. 12mo. vol. ii.
2 See p. 133. He was born in the year of the battle of Bath, which
Beda, from a misconception of the text of Gildas, places in 493.

xxviii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
bury. To Gildas is also ascribed an e Epistola,' wherein he
pours forth the bitterest lamentations over the corruption
and general wickedness of his time. The History must have
been composed in the year 560, the Epistle before 547 1> m
which Maglocun, king of Gwynedd, who is mentioned in it,
died2- Beda, Alcwine and Lupus cite Gildas, surnamed the
Wise3. Jeffrey of Monmouth appeals to a larger historical
work of Gildas, which is no longer extant, unless it be latent
in the -* Historia Britonum,' bearing the name of Nennius4.
This last-mentioned work, entitled also ' Eulogium Bri
tannia?,' is usually ascribed to Nennius, abbot of Bangor, a
pupil of Elbod, archbishop of Gwynedd5. The year 688, as
signed as that of its composition, can, therefore, have refer
ence only to the work in its original form, that which has
reached our time having many additions and interpolations.
The preface to the common manuscripts places its compo
sition in the year 85 8 6, a date reconcileable with 809, that of
the death of Elbod. A valuable manuscript of this work in
the Vatican, of the tenth century, in which the greater part
of those additions are wanting, names Mark the Hermit as
the author or, perhaps, the copier only, in the year 945. An
edition from this manuscript, with learned and excellent re
marks, was published by the Rev. W. Gunn7. Nennius names
as his authorities the Annales Romanorum, Chronica S. S.
1 Both works are printed in Gale, t. i.; the first also in C. Bertrami
Britannicarum Gentium Historia"* antiquae Scriptores III. Havniae, 1758.
8vo. Since the first edition by Polydore Vergil (Lond. 1526. Svo), Gildas
has been frequently printed.
2 Annales Cambriae h.a. King Constantine, who is likewise mentioned
by Gildas, was living in the year 589. See Annal. Camb.
3 See also Will. Malmesb. de Antiq. Glaston. ap. Gale, t. i. p. 296. A
Life of Gildas, " scripta a monacho Ruyensi," is printed in the ' Bibliotheca
Floriacensis.' Lugd. 1645. 8vo. [See Stevenson's edition, printed uniformly
with Gildas, for the English Historical Society. — T.]
4 This is Turner's opinion. History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i. p. 201 .
6 See Stevenson's edit. pref. p. viii.
6 Also in cap. xi., and at the conclusion of the work.
7 Historia Britonum by Mark the Hermit. Lond. 1819. 8vo.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxix
Patrum, and Scripta Scotorum Anglorumque et Traditio
Veterum. The Welsh Triads are undoubtedly comprised in
the last, as his work abounds in trilogies1. An important
circumstance for criticism seems to have been overlooked,
viz. that a considerable portion of this work has been inserted,
and often verbatim, by Henry of Huntingdon into his Chro
nicle, though without mention of the name either of Nennius
or of Mark the Hermit. Thus (p. 695, edit. Petrie), " apud
quendam auctorem (Nenn. ix.) reperi." (Ib. p. 707) " dicitur
a quibusdam" (Nenn. xxxviii.xxxix.). In one place (p. 712)
he quotes him under the name of " Gildas historiographus2."
The chronology followed by Nennius is that of Eusebius,
though, in the manuscripts, particularly in that of Mark,
much corrupted.
Jeffrey ap Arthur, born at Monmouth in 1152, bishop of
St. Asaph, is the English foster-brother of the Danish Saxo
Grammaticus. In the choicest Latin of his time he has com
posed a history of the Britons3, consisting of the grossest
fables, interspersed with some historic traditions. In later
times authors seem to have unanimously agreed in an un
qualified rejection of the entire work, and have therefore failed
to observe, that many of his accounts are supported by nar
ratives to be found in writers wholly unconnected with and
independent of Jeffrey4. He professes to have merely trans
lated his work from a chronicle in the British tongue, called
1 Cap. vii. " Venerunt tres filii cujusdam militis Hispaniae cum xxx.
chiulis apud illos, cum xxx. mulieribus in unaquaque chiula ; " Cap. xxv.
" Nonus (3 X 3) fuit Constantinus ; " Cap. xxvii. '^Tribus vicibus occisi
sunt duces Romanorum a Brittannis;" Cap. xxviii. "tres chiulae ; "
Cap.xlvii. three battles with the Saxons; Cap. xlviii. "Hengistus elegit
ccc. milites," etc.
2 The passages from Nennius to be found in Henry of Huntingdon are
particularly from cc. 2-4, 9, 10, 16, 23, 28, 36, 38, 47-49, 51, 54, 61, 62.
Some passages in Huntingdon accord most closely with the Vatican MS.
e. g. p. 712, ed. Petrie, " Arthurus belliger.'J
3 Editio princeps ab Ascensio, 1508, 4to, from three Parisian MSS.
4 See p. 45, note2-

xxx LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
< Brut y Brenhined,' or ' History of the Kings of Britain,'
found in Brittany, and communicated to him by Walter,
archdeacon of Oxford1- The 'Brut' of Tysilio2 has, with
some probability, been regarded as the original of Jeffrey's
work, though it is doubtful whether it may not itself be rather
an extract from Jeffrey3. The Latin elaboration of the British
original seems to have been completed about the year 1128.
That the whole is not a translation, appears from passages
interpolated, in many places verbatim, from the existing work
of Gildas4, of whom (lib. iv. 20, vi. 13, xii. 6) he cites another
work, ' De Victoria Ambrosii,' no longer extant. From Beda,
of whom he speaks (lib. xii. 14), Jeffrey has rarely extracted
verbatim, though he seems, in many places, to have had
before him either Nennius or his original5, where the simi
larity of thought and expression can hardly be accidental6.
Among the writers who copy from Jeffrey of Monmouth,
we must not reckon either William of Malmesbury or Henry
of Huntingdon, both of whom he mentions at the end of his
own work. Ordericus Vitalis is probably the first who (though
without naming him) has excerpted from him, viz. lib. xn.,
the prophecy of Merlin (Galfr. lib. vii. 3). After him is Alfred
of Beverley, who cites the ' Historia Britonum,' without men
tion of the author, and does not conceal his doubts as to its
credibility. The ' Historia Britonum,' cited in the Chronicle
1 Not Walter Mapes, as is generally supposed, but an earlier Walter
Calenius. See Douce in Warton, H. E. P. vol. i. p. 60, edit. 1840.
' Translated by P. Roberts, and printed in the Welsh Archaiology,
vol. ii., under the title of ' A Chronicle of British Kings.' See Dissertation
on the origin of Romantic fiction in Europe, in Warton, H. E. P.
3 Turner, H. of the A.-SS. vol. i. p. 159.
4 All doubt will vanish on comparing Jeffrey vi. 3. with Gildas cc.xiv-
xvi. Cf. also Jeffrey v. 5. with Gildas viii. Jeffrey v. 3, 14. with Gildas x.,
and xii. 6. with Gildas xix.
6 Compare particularly Jeffrey vi. 12-15, 17,40-42, with Nennius xxxvi.,
xiv., xlvii., 1. — lii.
6 The edition of Jeffrey of Monmouth in Parker's collection is extremely
faulty. An edition from the excellent MS. in the library of the Prince of
Schaumburg-Lippe at Biickeburg would remove many critical doubts.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxxi
of Albericus, is probably that of Jeffrey 1. Gervase of Tilbury
gives copious extracts from him, and is said to have written
four books of Illustrations of his work ; and Ponticus Virun
nius of Treviso2, who lived at the close of the fifteenth cen
tury, made an epitome of it in six books.
Several writers, even contemporaries of Jeffrey, have ex
pressed themselves strongly against his propagation of the
Bagas about Arthur3, under the guise of authentic history,
among whom William of Newburgh and Giraldus are the
most conspicuous • and at an earlier period William of Mal
mesbury had also declared himself against the British tra
ditions of Arthur. On the other hand, the welcome reception
given to this garb and embellishment of the old favourite tra
ditions was greatly promoted by the policy of Henry the First;
the composition of Jeffrey's work might indeed have been
occasioned by it4. In conclusion, we will venture to express
the hope of one day seeing what is historical in Jeffrey of
Monmouth separated from that which is fabulous ; the latter
honoured as a pleasing relic of the times of old, and the rest
exalted into useful matter for the national history.
cLe Brut d'Angleterre' of Robert Wace5 appears to be a
French imitation of Jeffrey6, an old Enghsh translation of
which, made in the thirteenth century by Layamon, a priest
dwelling on the banks of the Severn7, proves the delight
taken by the people in these traditions. In his preface,
1 See p. 5, and aa. 434,442, etc.; also about Merlin's prophecies, aa.
717, 1136, 1139.
2 In Parker's collection.
3 A sensible defence of Jeffrey is prefixed to Wynne's Caradoc.
4 This supposition is rendered very probable by Turner. See History of
England, vol. iv. pp. 339-355.
5 An edit, of this work, by M. Le Roux de Lincy, has been printed at
Rouen, in 2 voll. 8vo. 1836, 1838.
6 Cf. Warton, H. E. P. vol. i. p. 58, edit. 1840 j also the Abbe de la Rue's
papers in the Archaeologia, voll. xii.-xiv.
7 Of this translation, so important for the old language of England, an
edition, accompanied by a prose version in modern English, is in prepa
ration by Sir F. Madden, for the Society of Antiquaries.

xxxii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Layamon informs us that he did not merely translate Wace,
but made use of other historic sources.
The chronicle of Caradoc, a monk of Llancarvan, has been
estimated too highly with reference to Enghsh history. This
work, which reaches to the year 1156, has been translated
and edited, first in 1584 by H. Llwyd and Dr. Powell, and
secondly in 1697 by H. Wynne '. Its chief basis is the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle and a Welsh chronicle, into which the
author has interwoven many British traditions, though very
uncritically and unchronologically. It is believed to have been
composed in the monastery of Strata Florida. Some manu
scripts are as early as the year 14 IO2. A similar work by
John Brechfa is likewise much esteemed by inquirers into
Welsh history, an edition of which, as well as of other British
monuments hitherto little known, or possibly wholly unknown
to us, would, without doubt, shed considerable light on the
history of the remnant of a great people, which has, with
remarkable tenacity, preserved its nationahty throughout a
period of two thousand years.
The Welsh chronicle used by Caradoc is probably the
' Chronicon Walliae,' from the year 444 to 954, together with
the beginning of the continuation of the same, or the ' Chro
nicon Cambriae,' to the year 1286. An edition of both is
given in the ' Corpus Historicum' under the title of ' Annales
Cambriae.' The chronology followed in these Annals is not
reckoned from the birth of Christ, but begins with a year
which may possibly be intended for that of the coming of the
Saxons, but which would indicate an adherence to the Anglo-
Saxon chronology, while among the Welsh we might rather
expect to find a continuation of the Roman annals. The un
certainty arising from this mode of calculating is the more to
be regretted, as these few pages, notwithstanding their brevity
of detail, contain valuable notices of the rulers and of the
1 A new edition was published at Shrewsbury in 1832.
2 See Cooper on the Public Records, vol. ii. p. 457.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxxiii
military history of all the British tribes ; and the general hi
story of the Britons, as it has hitherto been known to us from
Caradoc, acquires from them numerous as well as important
additions and rectifications. ' The Chronicle of the Princes of
Wales,' written in Welsh, entitled 'Brut y Tywysogion,' begins
with the abdication of Cadwaladyr, in the year 681, in which
Tysiho and Jeffrey of Monmouth terminate, and is continued
to the conquest of Wales by Edward the First. This work
(which, to the end of the ninth century, appears to have been
translated from the 'Annales Cambriae') has been erroneously
attributed to Caradoc of Llancarvan. The Welsh text, to the
year 1066, accompanied by an English version, is comprised
in the ' Corpus Historicum.' The ' Brut y Saeson' is merely
a manuscript, somewhat varying from the ' Brut y Tywy
sogion,' interpolated with passages from the Annals of Win
chester (ascribed without sufficient reason to Richard of
Devizes) and other chronicles.
The oldest Irish chronicles, written partly in Irish and
partly in Latin, contain but little useful matter for Anglo-
Saxon history, though they report some circumstances illus
trative of the battles of the inhabitants of Scotland and Wales
with the Anglo-Saxons, with a few otherwise unknown par
ticulars and some variations, which cannot, however, shake
our faith in Beda and the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, but de
serve attention as originating from other records of history.
Dr. Charles O'Connor published a collection of these Annals
under the auspices of the late duke of Buckingham and Chan-
dos, entitled 'Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, auctore
Carolo O'Connor, S.T.D. Buckinghamia**,' 1814-1826.iv.tom.
The first volume contains introductions, giving very instruc
tive accounts of Irish manuscripts, the chronology of the Irish
kings, the oldest proofs* of the history of Ireland from the
Greek and Roman authors, as well as from native historians
and poets. The second contains — I. Annales Tigernachi ab
anno 305 a. C. ad 1088 p. C. II. Annales Inisfalenses ab anno

xxxiv LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
428 ad 1088. III. Annales Buelliani ab anno 420 ad 1245.
The third volume contains the Quatuor Magistrorum Annales
Hibernici usque ad annum 1172, collected about the year
1634 by Michael O'Clery, a Franciscan friar, and other
learned Irishmen. In the fourth volume is given a complete
edition of the Annales Ultonienses ab anno 431 ad 1131,
previously known only from, some printed fragments. The
General Index to the whole, which closes the last volume,
can hardly be said to correspond to the industry displayed in
the work itself.
Beda's great work, 'The Ecclesiastical History of the
Angles,' must be reckoned among the most complete, and,
for posterity, most important works of that age. The first
twenty-two chapters of the first book are chiefly verbatim
extracts from Orosius, Gildas, a legend of St. Germanus,
with a few others, the sources of which cannot with certainty
be indicated. In the greater and more important portion of
his history, Beda confirms the credibility of his narrative by
naming the experienced archbishops, bishops and abbots
among his countrymen and contemporaries, who had sup
plied him with all necessary information from their own and
even from the papal archives. Many other individuals were
also questioned by him, the substance of whose testimony,
with regard to contemporary events and credible tradition,
is embodied in his admirable work1.
The other historical writings of Beda are — two Lives of
St. Cuthberht (one in hexameters), and the History of the
1 Cf. Schmid, 1. cit., and his Introduction to the Laws of the An°*lo-
Saxons. See also p. 209 of this volume. The best edition of the Latin
text, and of the A.-S. version of Beda's history, as well as of the smaller
historical pieces, is that of John Smith, Cantab. 1722. folio. Regarding a
MS. of the church history of the eighth century, and a projected edition
by the Archivarius de Ram at Mechlin, see Mone, ' Quellen und For-
schungen,' Th. i. [An excellent edition of Beda's historical works has
been published by Mr. Stevenson, in 2 voll. 8vo, for the English Historical
Society. An edition of all Beda's works has also been recently published
by the Rev. Dr. Giles.— T.]

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxxv
Abbots of Wearmouth, viz. Benedict, Ceolfrith, Eosterwine,
Sigefrith and Hwaetberht. His ' Chronicon ' also contains
some historic notices, which have been used by Paul Warne-
frid in his History of the Lombards, and at a later period
have been transferred into the numerous works to which
Beda's Chronicle has served as a foundation.
Meritorious and comprehensive works have often been pre
judicial to historic research, by casting into oblivion the
materials out of which they have been formed. This obser
vation applies particularly to the History of Beda, and we feel-
its truth the more acutely, as it is evident that he must have
found much recorded matter relative to the history of his
country, which the plan of his work did not permit him to
insert: hence our information with regard to Wessex, the
most important of the Anglo-Saxon states, is extremely
scanty. Among such records may be enumerated, Genealo
gies of the royal races, Lists of the successions of kings and
eminent ecclesiastics, Necrologies or Obituaries, and Diony-
sian tables.
Of the oldest genealogies, that deserves especial notice
which is given at the end of a manuscript of Nennius, written
in a British hand, containing some important matter relating
to the eastern and northern kingdoms of England. Others,
hitherto incompletely printed, are inserted into the texts of
the Saxon Chronicle and Florence of Worcester, whence they
have passed into other chronicles -*. With reference to North
umbria, much matter of this kind is to be found in Simeon of
Durham. Many regal tables are blended with the genealogies. Such
a table of the West Saxon kings has been repeatedly printed2,
and because it concludes with Alfred, has, without sufficient
ground, been attributed to that monarch. It not only deviates
1 See Textus Roffensis, cc. xxxvi. xxxvii.
2 Prefixed to Wheelocke's edit, of Beda, p. 5 ; after Spelmau's Vita
MlfreAi, p. 199. Inserted by Gibson and Ingram in the Sax. Chron.
a. 495.

xxxvi LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
materially from the common accounts, with respect to the
regnal years of the West Saxon kings, in assigning to Cerdic
a reign of sixteen years only instead of thirty-six, but is also
inconsistent with itself, by placing the accession of Alfred
396 years after the year 494, i.e. in 890, instead of a.d. 871.
The primitive custom of dating public documents from the
regnal years of the kings must have made an accurate know
ledge of those years a matter of general necessity, as Beda
also testifies, when speaking of many recorders of royal reigns,
who, by a judicial sentence, blotted from their hst the names
of two unworthy kings1, adding the year of their reign to
those of their worthier successor.
The Necrologies contain, besides the day of the death of
those for whose souls masses were to be celebrated, an ac
count of the donations whereby they rendered themselves
worthy of that benefit, also the names of the kindred with
whom the patronage of the foundations remained, and other
particulars often of general interest2- The old English Calen
dar is a large necrology, consisting for the most part of the
names of Anglo-Saxon saints and pious benefactors, bearing
evident signs of its origin from the obituaries of several
metropolitan churches.
From what we are able to ascertain, small chronicles were
composed before the time of Beda, though probably not
founded on the Dionysian nineteen-yearly Easter tables, but
rather on the regnal years3.
1 Osric of Deira and Eanfrith of Bernicia. See p. 156. — T.
2 See such a one from the cathedral of Canterbury in 'Anglia Sacra,' t. i.
p. 52 sq.
3 It has already been remarked by others, that the Annales Majores
Juvavienses (or Annals of Salzburg, printed in Mon. Germ. Histor. t. i.)
bear on their face signs of their Anglo-Saxon origin. Their real or pre
sumed errors will be discussed in another place ; here we shall merely re
mark, that they alone supply us with the day of the death of Eadbald, king
of Kent, viz. xiii. Kal. Feb. a. 640. More important, however, in a similar
respect are the Annales Lauresham. Alamannici et Nazariani, though for
their just appreciation requiring illustration : we must, therefore, in the
first place, observe, that "a. 713 mors Alfrede et Adulfi regis," is not an

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxxvii
Although the very probable origin of the oldest German
annals, to be found written on the margins of the Dionysian
tables in the Scottish cloisters of Germany, may tend to show
that this usage was carried thither from Britain, still the
practice of Scottish monks would prove nothing for the
Anglo-Saxons, and sufficient traces are, moreover, to be
found, that among the latter an era was in use dating from
their coming into Britain, which, at least in secular matters,
they had not laid aside in the time of Beda. This chro
nology, combined with the record of the regnal years, has, to
the exclusion of the Christian era, been used by Henry of
erroneous memorial of the death of king Ealdfrith (Aldfrith), who died in
705, but of jElflaed, the daughter of Oswiu of Northumbria, born in 654,
who died in her 59th year as abbess of Whitby, consequently in 713 (see
Beda, iii. 24), and of Ealdwulf or Aldulf, king of the E. Angles, who suc
ceeded to the crown in 664, the year of whose death was hitherto unknown.
In the ' Annales Petav.' also his death is recorded in 713, under the name of
Agledulms. Under the name of the abbot Domnanus, whose death is placed
in 705, hardly any other can be meant than the celebrated abbot of Hii or
lona, Adamnan, who, as we know from Beda, v. 1, 15, died about that
time. The year 702 adopted by the editors is, as Smith himself confesses,
arbitrary. Tigernach, Annal. and Fabricius (Bibl. Med. iEvi) nearly ap
proximate to the above date, viz. ix. Kal. Oct. 704. Disguised as this name
is, as well as those of other bishops and abbots, yet their sound enables us
to recognise their Irish origin. Anno 729, Macflatheus is probably the
same name as the abbot of Bangor's, Machlaisreus, in the ancient antipho-
ner of that cloister (Muratori Anect. t. iv. p. 159). In Dubdecris abbas,
ob. 726, may perhaps be concealed a successor of Adamnan at Hii, who
lived between 716 and 729, by Beda (v. 22) named Duunchadus. Anno
707, " Dormitio Tigermal," probably Tigernoth or Tigernach, bishop and
confessor, whose death-day was celebrated in the Anglo-Saxon church on
the 5th April. Anno 705, "Canani episcopi " we must not seek in Caman,
abbot of Bangor, or the later Cronan, but is perhaps bishop Colman, who
had left Lindisfarne in 664 and returned to Hii. An aft-hot is mentioned.
to have died in 716 in Tigernach, Annal. h. a. Also in the ancient 'Annales
breves Fuldenses' (Monum. Germ. Hist. ii. 237) are given, besides the years
of the death of the Northumbrian kings Ecgfrith and Osred, those of the
Scottish bishops of Lindisfarne, Aidan, Finan and Colman : the year of
the last is, however, to be referred to that of his above-mentioned departure.
In the 'Fasti sive Annales Corbeienses' (ap. Pertz, Monum. t. iii.) are
likewise to be found notices of Finan, Colman and Ecgfrith.
VOL. I. d

xxxviii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Huntingdon and other later chroniclers, and justifies the in
ference of sources no longer in existence.
The oldest of these small chronicles known is a Northum
brian one, ending shortly after the death of Beda1. Of some
others, mentioned in catalogues of manuscripts in the libraries
of England, we are without the means of judging, whether
they are earUer than Beda and the Saxon Chronicle, or
epitomes of them. Some larger ancient chronicles also still
exist in manuscript in the English libraries ; among them
may possibly one day be found the ' Gesta Anglorum,' cited
by Adam of Bremen2, which work I am unable to recognise
in any of the known authorities.
An important work for a most interesting period of Enghsh
history is the Life of King iElfred by his friend Asser, bishop
of Shireburne. Though this biography itself has not reached
our times in any good manuscript, we are fortunately enabled
to restore it in many places from Florence of Worcester, who
has inserted a considerable portion of it verbatim into his
Chronicle. In the Cottonian library there was a manuscript
of Asser of the tenth century, which was slighted because it
was wanting in several passages to be found in the other
manuscripts, though they were also wanting in Florence. It
was, consequently, pronounced defective, though the genuine
ness of the greater number of these passages is extremely
questionable : as an instance may be cited the celebrated one
relative to the antiquity of the University of Oxford, which
first appeared in Camden's edition, and the non-appearance
of which in the best manuscripts has, in the judgement of
party-spirit, rendered them -obnoxious to suspicion. These
1 Printed in Wanley's Catalogue, p. 288 ; in Smith's preface to Beda ;
and in Petrie, Corpus Historicum, p. 290.
2 Lib. i.e. 35, and ii. 15.
" Edit. Parker, 1570. Camden, 1600 and 1603. Annales Rerum Ges-
tarum iElfredi, auct. Asserio, rec. F. Wise. Oxon. 1722. 8vo, containing a
collation with the Cottonian MS. Printed also in the Corpus Historicum.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xxxix
passages have at a later period been inserted into Asser's Life
of iElfred from a work to which the name of Asser's Annals
has erroneously been given1, but which is a compilation from
the Saxon Chronicle, Dudo's Norman History, several legends,
Asser's Life of Alfred, and other sources, and can hardly be
earlier than the eleventh century. To these Annals the title
of ' Chronicon Fani Sancti Neoti ' was given by Leland, from
his having found them in that place2.
After Beda, the chief source of the early history of England,
and one of the most important in the whole historiography of
northern Europe, is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle3, composed
in the language of the country, and, in the later centuries,
abounding in contemporaneous narratives. A thorough cri
tical examination of its authorities, manuscripts and versions
would be a work of the highest utility for English history,
but which has hitherto been but very partially attempted,
and without any great result. Such an examination is the
more difficult, as the texts of the manuscripts, or rather the
elaborations of them, which have been written in various
monasteries, often differ from each other, and have, in the
printed editions, been by their editors blended together with
out regard either to dialect or locality. Of the Latin elabo
rations, some still exist only in manuscript.
The oldest known manuscript of the Saxon Chronicle is
that in the hbrary of Corpus Christi, or Bene't, CoUege,
Cambridge, written to the year 891 in the same hand, which
is not later than the tenth century4. The dialect in which it
is composed seems to be the Mercian, while the other copies
are in that of Wessex. It is continued in Anglo-Saxon to the
1 In Gale's collection, t. i.
2 See Wise's preface to his edit, of Asser.
3 In the present translation, the edition constantly cited is that in Petrie,
' Corpus Historicum.'— T.
4 Accounts of the several MSS. are given in Ingram's edition, and in
Cooper on the Public Records, ii. p. 167.

d2

xl LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
year 1070, and in Latin to 1075. This manuscript, which
should serve as the basis of a text, has hitherto been only
partially used by the editors1.
The other manuscripts are — 1. One formerly belonging to
the abbey of St. Augustine at Canterbury, now in the Cot
tonian library, where it is marked, Tiberius A. vi. It extends
to the year 997. Another copy (Otho, B. xi.), continued to
the year 1001, perished in the fire at Ashburnham House in
1731. This was the basis of Wheelocke's edition2. 2. A
manuscript presented to the Bodleian library by archbishop
Laud, marked Laud E. 80 3. This manuscript, originaUy
brought down to the year 1122, has been continued (with
many Normanisms in language and orthography) to 1154.
It was written in the abbey of Medeshamstede (Peterbo
rough), and contains many demonstrably false documents
relative to that foundation. From which circumstance —
though its text indisputably belongs to the more recent ones
— it has sometimes, though rather rashly, been concluded,
that the monks of Peterborough were the original authors of
the Saxon Chronicle. 3. Greatly abridged and Normanized,
though enriched with some accounts wanting in the other
copies, is a manuscript originally perhaps from Canterbury,
but now in the Cottonian library (Domitian A. vin.). Both
this manuscript and the one last mentioned have been par
ticularly used in Gibson's edition4- Gibson used also a Pe
terborough manuscript, brought down to the year 1016, and
thence continued beyond 1080, but now lost. 4. Of greater
importance are two manuscripts used by Ingram in his edi-
1 In the edition of the Chronicle in the Corpus Historicum, the text to
the year 975 is from the C. C. MS.— T.
2 Cantab. 1643. folio, printed at the end of his edition of Beda's history.
8 Literal translations into Latin from the Laudian MS. are contained in
the Annales Waverleienses (ap. Gale, t. ii.), which we know, however, only
from the year 1066. Less exact, but not to be mistaken, is the use made
of this MS. by Henry of Huntingdon. 4 Oxon. 1692. 4to.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xii
tion of the Chronicle ', one containing the annals of the abbey
of Abingdon to the year 1066, the other those of the cathedral
of Worcester to the year 1079, both in the Cottonian library
(Tiber. B. i. and B. iv.). These are nearly allied to each other,
and in the later years have many valuable accounts, which in
the other more strictly Saxon Chronicles are given more
briefly or differently. 5. A transcript from an unknown ori
ginal, made by Lambarde in 1563, containing the history from
a.d. 1043 to 1079. It is printed in the Appendix to Lye's
Dictionary, and agrees verbatim with what Ingram gives from
the Worcester copy.
This slight review may serve to call the attention of every
one famiUar with such studies, who are desirous to use the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — on the several copies of which the
oldest Latin chronicles of England are based — in any original
or derived form, to the difficulties attending an exact critical
examination of that estimable relic.
As from the time of Beda to that of WilUam of Malmes
bury — a space of near four hundred years — England pos
sessed no chronicler who recorded independently of the
Saxon Chronicle the history of the whole country, an inquiry
into the sources and authors of that work is the more de
sirable. For the earliest centuries of the Christian era to the year
449, Beda's work ' De sex hujus mundi aetatibus,' his Church
History, Gildas and some others are regarded as the sources.
I find, however, that it is only in the accounts of the ancient
inhabitants of Britain and Ireland that Beda (H. E. lib. i. c. 1.)
is used. For all the rest, Eusebius and some unimportant
ecclesiastical history have been excerpted, Beda being tacitly
used only where the Chronicle completes or deviates from his
narrative. (Compare Sax. Chron. aa. 189, 435, 443, with
1 London, 1823. 4to, with an English translation and critical remarks.
An English translation also by Miss Gurney was printed but not pub
lished : it is highly commended.

xiii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Beda, Ub. i. cc. 4, 11, 13.) The calculation of the years from
the creation is according to that of Eusebius and Orosius, who
from that epoch to the birth of Christ reckon 5198 years.
From the year 449 to 597 the Chronicle contains, with
some Kentish accounts, matter almost exclusively relating to
Wessex, in which Beda is unfortunately so deficient. In con
firmation of the general veracity of the Chronicle is the correct
notice of two ecUpses of the sun, in the years 538 and 540,
and again in 664 and 733, though of the two last mentioned
the day and the hour, which are given by Florence, are
omitted in the Chronicle. In the following time to the year
731, when Beda's History terminates, the events are probably
for the most part derived .from that source; the accounts
which are not to be found in Beda being but few, and chiefly
derived from the late Laudian manuscript (as in the years
603, 616, 617), though the better manuscripts have also some
additions, with the sources of which we are unacquainted (as
in the years 693 and 710), together with some accounts
which, as Florence has remarked, deviate from Beda. From
732 to 845 the Chronicle is the primeval source, though
during this period unquestionable errors are observable in the
manuscripts ; for instance, the eclipse of the moon in 796,
correctly given by Simeon of Durham, is in the Chronicle
placed under the year 795. From 851 to 887 extracts from
Asser's Life of iElfred, with a few variations, are transferred
into the Chronicle.
In the following part the frequently inaccurate chronology
might excite a doubt as to the historic fidelity of the Chro
nicle (as in the years 915—922), but we ought not to charge it
with errors originating in the misconceptions of editors, and
which may often be rectified by the various readings which
they have themselves coUected, though more frequently by
comparison with Florence of Worcester and Simeon of Dur
ham. The year 977 forms a section in the Anglo-Saxon Chro-

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xliii
nicle, as with this year not only two ancient manuscripts con
clude, but also their oldest Latin copier Ethelwerd. From
this time, but more particularly from the year 1001, which is
also remarkable for the ending of some manuscripts, the de
viations become more considerable, particularly in the Abing
don and Worcester Chronicles • and even these, though
agreeing together much more closely than with other manu
scripts, yet in some places differ considerably from each
other, as in the years 1046, 1048, 1049, 1053, the former has
Mercian accounts which are wanting in the latter.
With respect to the origin of these Chronicles, the first
question to be decided seems to be, whether they, like so
many other chronicles of other nations, written in the lan
guage of the country, have not been originally composed by
ecclesiastics in the language of the church, and afterwards
translated into Anglo-Saxon. When we call to mind that
^Elfred translated, or caused to be translated, into Anglo-Saxon
the Church History of Beda, the History of Orosius, etc.,
and that before Beda's time the language possessed the poetry
of Caedmon, little doubt can be entertained of the probability,
that these Annals were also composed in the Latin tongue,
which till iElfred's time are written with extreme simphcity,
and even to be pronounced meagre. Florence of Worcester
repeatedly cites the ' Chronica Saxonica' (aa. 672, 674, 734),
by which it appears on comparison that he means our Saxon
Chronicle. Whether, besides the weU-known Latin elements
of the Chronicle, a West Saxon one, written in the language
of the country, may have contributed to form its basis, it is
now impossible either to assert or contradict : luckily the
credibdity of its scanty notices is not affected by our igno
rance of that point. The continuations of the Chronicle are
often written by contemporaries, to identify whom, however
desirable for criticism, would with our present means be an
impracticable task. Even in such a research, the question
might not be unimportant, whether it really was or was not

xliv LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
first written in the language of the country. On comparing
Florence with the Chronicle, we find that the former bears
the nearest resemblance to the Worcester manuscript; though
Florence has many details wanting in the latter, as in the
years 1040, 1041 and 1049; while vice versa, the former has
some notices, viz. under the years 693 and 710, and even
1044, relative to King Eadward's marriage, which in the latter
are wanting.
Notwithstanding the variations existing among the several
manuscripts, their general resemblance, particularly a striking
agreement in many chronological errors, both in the Anglo-
Saxon and Latin texts, must appear very remarkable. In
explanation of this, Gibson refers to an account, that in the
monasteries of royal foundation in England, whatever worthy
of remembrance occurred in the neighbourhood was com
mitted to writing, that such records were at the next synod
compared with each other, and that from them the Chronicles
were composed. It must, however, be remarked, that this
account given by Walter Bower, the continuator of Fordun's
Scotichronicon1, who wrote in the beginning of the fifteenth
century, cannot, without further authority, be apphed to the
portion of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in which we are at
present interested.
Till the year 1036 poetical fragments are occasionaUy in
serted into the Chronicle, viz. in the years 937, 941, 958,973,
975, 1011, 1036 and 1065. That these verses were not com
posed in the years under which they stand is sometimes
manifest from their words, as in the year 958, on the acces
sion of Eadgar, where allusion is made to his conduct and
character; and under 975, where the year of his death is
spoken of, which it is said took place, according to the cal
culation of those skilled in numbers, in the month of July.
Of the Latin elaborations of the Saxon Chronicle the oldest
is that of Ethelwerd, in four books, to the year 975, in which,
1 Edit. Hearne, t. iv. p. 1348.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xiv
as we have observed, some manuscripts of the Chronicle itself
also terminate. With the pompousness characteristic of the
Anglo-Saxons he gives (and often incorrectly1) an epitomised
version of the Chronicle, and would without the aid of the
original be the more difficult to understand, as the only
ancient manuscript of the work perished in the fire at the
Cottonian library, and is made known to us solely through
the printed text in Savile's collection. The fourth book, how
ever, contains some valuable information relative to the reigns
of ^Ethelred and ^Elfred, not to be found in Asser and the
other chroniclers, and not to be ascribed to some lost manu
script of the Saxon Chronicle, but rather to Ethelwerd him
self, whose adherence to the Chronicle is, nevertheless, to be
continually recognised ; and even the verses inserted in that
record under the year 975, are by him very indifferently
imitated in Latin.
Ethelwerd was not an ecclesiastic, but an ealdorman de
scended from king iEthelred the First. He calls himself, in
true Anglo-Saxon style, Patricius Consul Fabius Quaestor
Ethelwerdus. He is generally supposed to have been the
ealdorman of that name2 who died in the year 1090, a suppo
sition which appears even more erroneous than that which
makes him a son of king Alfred, who died in 922. Ethelwerd
dedicates his work to a relation (consobrina) named Mathilda,
who was descended from king iElfred, the brother of his
ancestor (abavus) ^Ethelred, through his granddaughter Ead-
gyth, the wife of the emperor Otto the First. Some, on the
strength of the words, "Eadgyde, ex qua tu principium
tenes nativitatis," and " vera Christi ancilla8," have supposed
this Mathilda to have been the daughter of Otto, who became
abbess of Quedlinburg ; but this abbess was not his daughter
by Eadgyth, who died in 947, but by his second wife Adel-
1 Sax. Chron. a. 710. " gefuhton wis Gerente " he renders "bellum gesse-
runt contra Uuthgirente." Malmesbury (lib. i.) severely blames his style.
2 Nicolson, Engl. Hist. Library, p. 48. 3 Prolog, lib. i.

xlvi LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
heid, born in 955 - ; nor can the relationship intimated be
by a daughter, but only by a granddaughter of Eadgyth, as
jElfred is called not the abavus, but the atavus of Mathilda2.
Now this person I find in the daughter of Liudolf8, the son
of Otto and Eadgyth, by Ida, a daughter of Hermann duke
of AUemannia, born in 949, and married to Obizzone of
Milan, the ancestor of the Visconti famUy; a conjecture
which finds corroboration in the request of Ethelwerd to
Mathilda, that she would inform him to what king in the
neighbourhood of the Great St. Bernard (juxta Jupitereos
montes) the sister of Eadgyth had been given in marriage,
and what offspring they had ; to learn which would to her
be an easy matter, both by reason of her influence4, and of
the proximity of her abode. From Mathilda's place of ha
bitation it appears why a layman came to render such a
work mto Latin for a lady. According to our hypothesis,
the period when Ethelwerd lived is also determined, who
must have composed his work about the year 1000. Which,
however, of the two sons of ^Ethelred, whether Athelm or
^Ethelwold, — who married a nun whom he had carried off,
and in 905 fell in an insurrection in East AngUa, against
Eadward, — was the great-grandfather of Ethelwerd, appears
no longer ascertainable. Three eminent men of his name
died about that time — in 1001 the heah-gerefa of the king, in
1016 the son of ^Ethelwine, and in 1017 the son of ^Ethel-
maere the Great. Of iEthelwine's mother, MMwen, the wife
of the under-king iEthelstan of East Anglia, we know that
she was of royal lineage, and that the education of king
1 She died in 999. Cf. Annal. Quedlinburg. a. 955 6q. ap. Leibnitz
Script. Rer. Brunsvic. t. i., and Pertz, t. iii. = Lib. iv. c. 2 f.
3 She also became abbess of Quedlinburg, and died in 1011. Annal.
Quedl. " Abstulit (sseva mors) et de regali stemmate gemmam Machtildam
abbatissam, Liudolfi filiam." Her birth is registered by Annalista Saxo
a. 949.
4 Prolog, lib. i. " Quae non solum affinitate, sed et potestate videris ob-
pleta, nulla intercapedine prohibente.''

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xlvii
Eadgar was entrusted to her : she may possibly be the link
wanting in the descent of Ethelwerd from king ^Ethelred.
Soon after the establishment of the Norman dynasty on the
throne of England the Anglo-Saxon tongue rapidly became
corrupt, and fell into disuse among the clergy, who, not from
any parade of learning, but from necessity, wrote the annals
of the kingdom in the only to them intelligible language of
the church. Of their works, several composed in the first
half of the twelfth century or earlier have reached our time.
The most estimable translator of the Saxon Chronicle is
Florence, a monk of Worcester, called also Bavonius, who
has inserted into the Universal Chronicle of Marianus Scotus,
an Irishman, who passed his life in the abbey of Fulda (ob.
1086), besides a translation either of a manuscript of the
Saxon Chronicle resembUng the existing Worcester manu
script, or of a text emended and enlarged by himself1, extracts
from Beda, the greater part of Asser's Life of ^Elfred, and
many valuable genealogical and other notices down to 1118,
the year of his death. Florence had not only excellent manu
scripts before him, but has translated the Anglo-Saxon more
correctly than the other chroniclers. That he made use of
the Historia Eliensis or its sources seems highly probable,
from the close agreement of his account of the murder of the
a2theUng -iElfred with that in the History (hb. ii. c. 32.), which
deviates from that in the Saxon Chronicle (a. 1036)2. Flo
rence's Chronicle is continued by another monk of his mo
nastery to the year 1141. His work was printed at London
in 1592 in 4to, and at Frankfurt o. M. in 1601 in folio, after
the 'Flores Historiarum' of Matthew of Westminster.
Marianus himself has but few special accounts relative to
Britain, and these refer chiefly to Scotland and to certain
ecclesiastics. Florence had apparently a much completer
manuscript of Marianus than that from which Pistorius
1 Cf. both under the year 988.
2 Cf. Florence a. 1070 with the Hist. Eliensis, lib. ii. c. 44.

xlviii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
printed; hence we find in him many accounts relating to
Germany, even to the abbey of Fulda, by Marianus, an exa
mination into which would be an indispensable preUminary
labour to a better edition of this chronicle.
The work of Florence forms in great measure, word for
word, the basis of a chronicle of events from the year 848 to
1129, compiled about the last-mentioned year by Simeon,
precentor of St. Cuthberht's at Durham, but which contains
also some special Northumbrian and Scottish accounts1. Of
such, however, more are to be found in another work of the
same author, entitled 'Historia de Gestis Regum Anglo-
rum,' from the year 616 to 957- In the latter he makes use
of Beda, the ' Historia vel Chronica hujus patriae,' and some
legends of saints. The narrative of Harold's visit to duke
William, inserted in his Chronicle under the year 1066, is
also given in Eadmer's ' Historia Novorum/ Ub. i., though
somewhat abridged ; whence it is evident that the latter can
not have been Simeon's source. The ' Historia Dunelmensis
Ecclesiae,' also under the name of Simeon, in three books,
contains much interesting matter for the history of the north
of England. Of this work it is supposed that Simeon, to the
year 1097, was only the transcriber, and that the author was
the prior Turgot2, who after 1108 became bishop of St.
Andrew's. The Chronicle of the abbey of Melrose (Mailros)3, from the
year 735 to 1270, is for the Anglo-Saxon period merely an
extract, with a few unimportant additions, from Simeon of
Durham. Its value has been much overrated.
Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, compiled an ' Historia
Anglorum' from the year of Julius Caesar's landing to 1135,
1 The notices relative to Normandy, aa. 876 and 906, agree literally with
the Chronicle of Rouen (Chronicon Rothomagense), which deserves to be
noticed on account of the chronology.
2 Simeon is printed inTwysden's collection, and to 1066 in Petrie, C. H.
Respecting Turgot see Twysden's preface.
3 Printed in Fell's collection, t. i.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. xlix
which is continued to 1154. The first six books embrace the
period in which we are concerned, for which, besides the
usual sources, Henry has availed himself of many traditions ;
whUe for the later period he has recorded either what he had
witnessed himself or received from eye-witnesses l. Some of
his few principal sources are still undiscovered : the more
important of the known ones, exclusive of Eutropius, Paulus
Diaconus, etc., are Beda's Chronicon and Ecclesiastical Hi
story, Nennius (whom he calls Gildas), and the Saxon Chro
nicle, which he sometimes misinterprets, though perhaps less
often than has been supposed. His chronology is extremely
confused and frequently inaccurate, as are also his genealogi
cal notices. Particularly attractive, however, are his accounts
of battles, which often appear borrowed from old poems2. A
very close agreement with the more copious Ailred of Rie-
vaux, which leads to the conclusion of a common, though to
us unknown source, is manifest in his account of Eadmund
Ironside. A striking contrast to the other monastic chro
niclers, who cannot bestow sufficient praises on Dunstan,
appears in his commendation of king Eadwy : and in general,
throughout all which this author relates or suppresses may
be recognised the patriotic Anglo-Saxon, equally averse both
to temporal and ecclesiastical oppressors. That he availed
himself of Norman sources may, perhaps, be inferred from his
narrative of the sons of Emma, which agrees so closely with
the Roman de Rou ; as well as from accounts strictly Norman
given by him alone of all the English chroniclers, as a.d.
1047, of the battle of Val des Dunes, also William's speech
before the battle of Hastings. From similar works he has
probably derived his old British stories, as that of the princess
Helena and others, which are not to be traced either to Nen
nius or Jeffrey of Monmouth, according to our manuscripts3.
1 See Prolog, ad lib. i. 2 e. g. The battle of Brunanburh.— T.
3 He is copied literally by Rob. du Mont, Wallingford, Hoveden, the
Annal. Waverl.,R.de Diceto, Matt. Paris, Bromton, Gervasius, Robert of
Gloucester, etc.

1 LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Henry's work is dedicated to the same Alexander bishop of
Lincoln whom Jeffrey addresses in his ' Historia Britonum.'
A continuation of Henry of Huntingdon from 1042 to 1275
is extant in manuscript1.
Roger of Hoveden in Yorkshire, chaplain to king Henry
the Second, a jurist and professor of divinity at Oxford, was
living in the year 1204. This writer has been much too often
quoted, as, even to the last year of his Annals, he has (ex
cepting a few trifling additions) copied from chronicles known
to us, and, for the Anglo-Saxon period, from Simeon of Dur
ham and Henry of Huntingdon. The beginning of his work,
including the ' Prologus,' to the year 803 (edit. Frankf. pp.
401-407), is from Simeon (pp. 90-119) ; the following to the
year 849 (p. 414) is from Huntingdon (pp. 341-348) ; hence
to the year 1122 (pp. 414-477) is from Simeon's second work
(pp. 137-245); after which, from 1122 to 1148 (p. 490),
Roger returns to Henry of Huntingdon.
Alured, or iElfred, treasurer of the monastery of Beverley,
has in his Annals excerpted from Beda, Jeffrey of Monmouth
and Simeon of Durham. He ends with the year in which the
last-mentioned terminates ; but we are not thence justified in
concluding that he wrote in that year, or in inferring that the
work of Jeffrey, which is known to have followed those of
Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury, had
already appeared in 1129. Traces of an immediate use of the
Saxon Chronicle are occasionally discernible in Alured, as
a. 879 (883), relative to king Alfred's mission to India. The
lists of Anglo-Saxon kings, contained in the sixth book, are,
with the exception of the introduction, from the Appendix to
Florence of Worcester : the author's own additions are very
short and unimportant 2-
These are the principal works which, on account of their
close adherence to the earliest sources of Anglo-Saxon history,
1 Cooper on the Public Records, ii. p. 105.
2 Alured was edited by Thomas Hearne, Oxon. 1716.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. li
must here be cited. In the first centuries after the Norman
conquest several other English historic writers appeared, who,
devoted to the new dynasty, excite our attention chiefly by
reason of the baneful influence which, through their Norman
prejudices and false criticism, they have exercised on the
early history.
The work ascribed to Ingulf, an Englishman, born about
the year 1030, secretary to William of Normandy, and after
wards abbot of Croyland (ob. 1109), is the first to be noticed1.
In this composition almost aU the charters are forgeries2, a cir
cumstance which of itself, perhaps, might not invalidate the
general credibility of the rest of the work — which consists of
a history of Croyland abbey, interspersed with matter relating
to the kingdom of Mercia, and, at a later period, to all En
gland ; — but the narrative of Ingulf not only abounds in gross
errors and anachronisms with regard to contemporary events,
but contains matter demonstrably * fabulous ; such is the
account of his having studied Aristotle at Oxford3. Even in
the Life of abbot Thurketul, which, though composed by his
relative, the younger abbot Egelric, is said to have been con
tinued by Ingulf, it is erroneously stated, that Constantine
king of Scotland feU in the battle of Brunanburh, in 938
(erroneously for that king's son), by the hand of Thurketul,
and that the emperor Henry the First (who it is well known
died in 936), after that battle sought the hand of ^Ethelstan's
daughter for his son Otto. In the accounts of Alfred and
Eadward the Elder, the so-called Ingulf agrees so frequently,
both in erroneous matter and words, in chronology and facts,
with William of Malmesbury, that it will be difficult not to
regard this part of his chronicle as an interpolation from that
1 Cf. Ingulf, a. 1075, where an account of his life is inserted.
2 See Hickes, t. iii. p. 73.
3 " Primum Westmonasterio, postmodum Oxoniensi studio traditus
eram. Cumque in Aristotele arripiendo," etc. For a judicious and inter
esting notice of Ingulf see Biographia Britahnica Literaria, vol. ii., com
posed by Mr. Wright for the Royal Society of Literature. — T.

lii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
author, since a source common to both cannot be indicated.
The account too of the interment of two relations of Thur
ketul in the abbey of Malmesbury is to be found in both
writers 1, for which the latter cites as his authority an historic
work in Latin hexameters. A charter also of Malmesbury
of the year 974 is given more fuUy in Ingulf than in the
printed work of the monk of that cloister. Even in that part
of his chronicle in which contemporary events are recorded,
Ingulf, as we have already observed, is not trustworthy : as
in the years 1056 and 1062, where he calls count Radulf,
instead of the son, the husband of Goda. The contemporary
abbots of Croyland are confounded by him. He seems to
hate made use of AUred of Rievaux. At the same time it
must be allowed that the continuation of Ingulfs work by
Peter of Blois seems to impress it with a stamp of genuine
ness. From the foundation of his abbey till its destruction
by the Danes in 870, Ingulf appeals to five older chroniclers,
viz. Aio, Thurgar, Swetman, etc.2 By whom the history from
871 to 948 has been supplied we are not informed. Hence
it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the true history of
Ingulf has not reached us, but that in the work before us we
possess a compilation made at an early period, into which por
tions of the real Ingulf are interwoven, and in the use of
which the utmost caution is to be observed. It is printed in
Savile's collection, and in that of Fell; no manuscript is
known to exist.
AUred (^Ethelred), abbot of Rievaux in Yorkshire, has
collected genealogical notices of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Of
his other writings, none need be mentioned except his Life,
or rather Legend of Eadward the Confessor3. His praise of
Eadgar and account of Godwine's death remind us strongly
of Alured of Beverley.
1 Ingulf, p. 39 ; W. Malm. lib. ii. 6. Cf. also in both the passages about
Eadwine. 2 Ib. a. 974, and at the close of the work.
8 Printed in Twvsden's collection.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. liii
The works of William, a monk and librarian of Malmes
bury1 abbey (ob. about 1142), are remarkably attractive, both
from the manner in which he treats his subject and from his
arrangement, which deviates from the usual chronological
order. These are, ' De Gestis Regum Anglorum ' lib. v.; ' Hi
storic Novella:' lib. ii.; 'De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum'
lib. v. From the ' Prologus ' to the first book of his principal
work it appears, that Malmesbury was unacquainted with the
invaluable historic productions of his contemporaries. The
authors named by him are Beda, Ethelwerd, and Eadmer.
In the words, " quaedam vetustatis indicia chronico more et
patrio sermone, per annos Domini ordinata," he evidently
alludes to the Saxon Chronicle. Together with many inter
esting narratives preserved by Malmesbury, is to be found an
abundance of insipid tales quite irrelevant to his subject, but
to which his work is mainly indebted for much of the appro
bation which it has received ; for after Beda and Jeffrey of
Monmouth, no old EngUsh historic writer has been more
resorted to by chroniclers, both of his own country and of
the continent, than William of Malmesbury. Among the
more ancient of the latter may be named Alberic des Trois-
fontaines and Vincent of Beauvais.
To Matthew, a monk of Westminster abbey, is ascribed an
historic work, compiled in the fourteenth century from various
chronicles, entitled ' Flores Historiarum2.' From a kind of
inadvertence this chronicle has been much used, because it
has not been noticed that almost all his sources (for the
Anglo-Saxon period) have been preserved, extracts from
which have by him only been abridged and often unskilfuUy
brought together, and, when dates were wanting, not un-
1 Printed in Savile's collection, excepting the fifth book 'De Gestis
Pontificum,' which is to be found in Gale and Wharton. [Of the two first-
mentioned works, an excellent edition with English notes, etc. has been
published by T. D. Hardy, Esq. for the English Historical Society.— T.]
2 Francofurti,l601. fol.
vol. i. e

liv LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
frequently inserted under wrong years. Of his sources with
which we are concerned may be mentioned Nennius, Beda,
Asser, the Saxon Chronicle, Florence of Worcester, Jeffrey
of Monmouth, William of Jumieges (e.g. a. 887, from lib.i,
cc. 6-1 1 relative to Haesting, and later about RoUo), Mari
anus Scotus, and William of Malmesbury, whom he occasion
ally mentions by name (as aa. 979, 1035). To the foregoing
Henry of Huntingdon might perhaps be added, though some
passages in him, chiefly concerning the north of England, on
which that supposition is founded, are more fully given in
Matthew, and may therefore have been more circumstantiaUy
taken from a source common to both. The account of the
single combat between Eadmund Ironside and Cnut seems to
have been extracted from Ailred of Rievaux (p. 364). Many
legends are recounted, and narratives from monastic chro
nicles inserted by Matthew ; hence several notices are to be
found scattered throughout his work which the future ga
therer of materials for Enghsh history may deem it worth his
while to coUect.
To John Wallingford, abbot of St. Albans (ob. 1214), Gale
ascribes a chronicle pubUshed by him of events from the year
449 to 1036 1. This author makes some attempts at historic
criticism, in which, however, he is eminently unsuccessful.
For the history of the northern Anglo-Saxon provinces, he
gives us some accounts not to be found elsewhere. He makes
great use of the first six books of WiUiani of Jumieges, and
also, though not immediately, of Dudo of St. Quentin ; as we
find in WaUingford the narratives of the latter, together with
the additions and continuations of the former of these two
writers (as pp. 532 and 533, from Guil. Gemet. hb. i. cc. 3-5 ;
also p. 548, from lib. v. c. 8 ; pp. 549, 550, from lib. vi. cc. 10-
13). He also makes mention of Jeffrey of Monmouth, Henry
of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury, and excerpts the
Lives of the saints Guthlac, Cuthberht, Neot and Eadward,
1 Printed in Gale's collection, t. i.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. Iv
also Britferth's Life of St. Dunstan. His quotation from the
' Historia Gothorum ' is copied from William of Jumieges.
We have now to mention, in a few words, those Norman
writers who have touched on this portion of English history.
In this respect Dudo, dean of St. Quentin, is but rarely of im
mediate interest, though, for the history of the ancestors of
king Wilham the Conqueror, he is not only the source of
several chronicles generally more noticed, but is also, not
withstanding his many poetical ornaments and chronological
errors, much richer in undoubted facts than the learned edi
tors of the ' Materials for French History' have been aware
of1. More immediately interesting to us is William, a monk of
Jumieges, whose ' Historia Normannorum ' reaches to the
conquest of England by the Normans. His work being de
dicated to the Conqueror, it follows that what forms the end
of the seventh and the eighth book, which is continued to the
year 1137, cannot have been written by him2. He has, as we
have seen, been excerpted by many English chroniclers.
Both these writers are contained in Du Chesne's collection
of 'Scriptores Rerum Norman nicarum;' the latter also in
Camden's 'Anglica Normannica,' etc., an edition much in
ferior to that of Du Chesne, which is founded on two manu
scripts from the hbrary of De Thou.
Of much importance for historic research, notwithstanding
its poetic garb, is the ' Roman de Rou3,' a history of the
dukes of Normandy, interwoven with many traditions, by
Robert Wace, a native of Jersey, bred at Caen, and after
wards, by appointment of Henry the Second, a prebendary
of Bayeux. Of his 'Brut,' written about the year 1155,
1 See Bouquet, t. x. Preface, and p. 141. The proofs of my assertion
cannot be given here, but will appear in a chapter on the history of Nor
mandy before the year 1066, prefixed to the ' History of England under the
Norman Kings.'
2 Bouquet, t. xi. Pref. No. xii., and t. xii. Pref. No. xlix.
3 Written after 1170. See v. 16538 sq.
e2

lvi LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
mention has already been made. In the ' Roman de Rou '
is to be found much exclusive and credible matter for the
history of the eleventh century, in the use of which, how
ever, due allowance is to be made for the national prejudices
of the Norman. This work also seems to have served as a
source to some of the EngUsh chroniclers. It has for the first
time been printed by M. Pluquet1.
Anterior to Wace was Benoit de Ste More, or, as he is
styled by Wace, Maistre Beneit, who wrote in French a
metrical chronicle of the dukes of Normandy, consisting of
48,000 verses. The only ancient manuscript known of this
work is in the British Museum (Harl. I7l7)> It has recently
been published at Paris from a transcript made by M. Fran-
cisque Michel, by the direction of M. Guizot, whUe Minister
of Public Instruction2. Further notice of this work is re
served for 'The History of England under the Norman
Kings.' In the language of the GaUo-Normans, but written in
England for the lords of the land a century after the Con
quest, is ' L'Estorie des Engles solum la translation Maistre
Geffrei Gaimar,' a metrical chronicle of England from the
landing of Cerdic in the year 495 to the death of William
Rufus in 1099. It seems to have been composed about the
middle of the twelfth century, and foUows the Saxon Chro
nicle, which the author frequently misunderstands. It con
tains, however, many, though not always historic additions,
by which Gaimar, as the oldest known authority — though he
refers to an earlier — is rendered of importance. This work,
1 Rouen, 1827. 2 voll. 8vo, and ' Remarques ' by Le Prevost and Ray-
nouard, 1829. [For a very able prose version of the portion of the Roman
de Rou relating to the conquest of England, with highly valuable and in
teresting illustrations, the public are indebted to a most worthy and amiable
man and excellent scholar lately deceased, under the title : ' Master Wace
his Chronicle of the Norman Conquest from the Roman de Rou, translated
with notes and illustrations by Edgar Taylor, Esq., F.S.A.' London, 1837.
8vo.— T.]
2 Chroniques des Dues de Normandie, 2 torn. 4to. 1836, 1838.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. lvii
to the year 1066, appears for the first time in the ' Corpus
Historicum1.' Of great moment for the illustration of the downfall of the
Anglo-Saxon dynasty in England is the biography of William
the Conqueror by William of Poitiers, archdeacon of Lisieux.
Though valuable for his matter, this author is objectionable
on account of his style, in which he is an imitator of the
Roman classics, particularly Sallust, and not only inserts
fabricated speeches into his narrative, but not unfrequently
sacrifices a part of the truth for the sake of sparkling anti
theses and oratorical pomp. He is sometimes copied by
William of Jumieges, but more copiously by Ordericus Vi
talis ; so much so indeed, that some defective passages in our
manuscript of WilUam of Poitiers can be supplied from Orde
ricus with tolerable security. His work is printed in Du
Chesne's collection, and in a separate edition by Baron Ma-
seres2. Ordericus Vitahs, born in the year 1075 at Attingesham
on the banks of the Severn, a monk in the monastery of St.
Evroult en Ouche (Uticum), has but few details relative to
Anglo-Saxon history in his ' Historia Ecclesiastica,' though
his extracts from WUliam of Poitiers are not without some
additional information.
Mention must also be made of the ' Carmen de Bello Has-
tingensi' discovered at Brussels by Dr. Pertz, and printed for
the first time in the EngUsh Corpus Historicum3. Several
galUcisms in the poem prove the author to have been a French
man, such as 'ter quinque dies,' quinze jours, for a fortnight,
etc. I have no doubt that this is the poem spoken of by
\See also extracts in Depping, Histoire des expeditions maritimes des
Normands, and Corpus Historicum, p. 764 note; and Michel, Chron.
Anglo-Norm., t. i. Cf. also Wiener Jahrb. Th. 76. p. 259 sq.
2 Historiae Anglicanae circa tempus Conquestus Angliae a Gulielmo Notho,
Normannorum Duce, Selecta Monumenta, etc. London 1807. 4to.
3 It is also printed in Mr. Cooper's unpublished Report on Rymer, and
in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes par M. Michel, t. iii.

lviii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
William of Jumieges (lib. vii. c. 44) and Ordericus VitaUs
(hb. iii. p. 504), as the composition of Guy (Wido) bishop of
Amiens (ob. 1075), who Uved for some time at the court of
Mathilda, the queen of the Conqueror. The first verses of
this poem may therefore be supplied thus :
Quem probitas celebrat, sapientia munit et ornat,
Erigit et decorat, L(anfrancum) W(ido) salutat.
To these Norman writers appears to have belonged the
author of the ' Chronicon Danorum in AngUa regnantium,'
mentioned by Thomas Rudborne in the ' Historia Major
Wintoniensis ' (ap. Wharton, A. S. t. i.), for the purpose of
quoting from him a tradition respecting the birth of William
the Conqueror.
Of EngUsh metrical chronicles, that of Robert of Glou
cester, written about the year 1280, is one of the most valu
able1. It begins with the tales of Jeffrey of Monmouth,
but in the Anglo-Saxon portion foUows chiefly William of
Malmesbury, and sometimes Henry of Huntingdon, as in the
story of Cnut on the sea-shore, the speech of Wilham before
the battle of Hastings, etc. His relation of the single combat
between Eadmund and Cnut, with the prolix speech, is ap
parently an imitation of AUred of Rievaux.
A similar chronicle, written in French verse2, by Peter
Langtoft, a canon regular of the order of St. Augustine, at
Bridlington in Yorkshire, whence he is also called Pers of
Bridlynton, though extant in manuscript, is known to us
only through the English metrical version of Robert Man-
nyng, or, as he is more usually called, Robert de Brunne3-
The editor has omitted the part copied from ' Le Brut.' This
chronicle, which ends with the death of Edward the First in
1307, was without doubt composed and translated not long
after that time. The little contained in it of Anglo-Saxon
1 Edited by Thomas Hearne. Oxon. 17*24. 2 voll. Svo.
2 Extracts from the French text are printed in theChron. Anglo-Norm. t.i.
3 Edited by Thomas Hearne. Oxon. 1725. 2 voll. 8vo.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. lix
history, for which Gildas, Beda, Henry of Huntingdon, and
Wilham of Malmesbury are cited, are old English sagas in
serted by Robert de Brunne, of which that of Havelok, king
Gunter's son1, he says expressly is not to be found in Pers of
Bridlynton. It is a remarkable circumstance that the majority of the
later chroniclers are from Yorkshire or the neighbouring
counties, which may, perhaps, be attributed to a longer pre
served nationality in those parts. Their chief sources are
rarely the Saxon Chronicle and Florence, but rather Henry
of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury, whose traditions
and fables are by them generaUy transcribed in greater
breadth. This remark is particularly appUcable to the work,
too often appealed to, ascribed to John Bromton, abbot of
Jorvaulx in Yorkshire, who Uved towards the end of the
fourteenth century. It comprises the period from the year
588 to 1198, whence it might be suspected to be the produc
tion of some earlier writer, did it not contain mention of the
marriage-contract of Johanna, sister of Edward the Third,
with David, afterwards king of Scotland. Besides the chro
niclers just enumerated, Bromton also copies Florence and
the Flores Historiarum : he likewise mentions the chronicle
of Walter of Giseborne. Norman anecdotes he relates in the
same order as Wace in the Roman de Rou.
The only merit, with reference to Anglo-Saxon history,
hitherto possessed by Bromton — that of being the earUest
source of many interesting sagas, is now effaced, as we find
the same sagas in Gaimar ; and they are also to be found,
though in an abridged form, in the unpririted chronicle of
Douglas of Glastonbury, the Hamburg veUum manuscript of
which reaches to the time of Edward the Third, in which the
names, disguised hke those in Gaimar, sufficiently betray
the use of a -Norman source2. In the earlier part of his chro-
1 See p. 116.
2 Thus, cap. iii. Renaude for Reginald ; cap. cxii. Estrilde for jElfthryth,

lx LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
nicle Douglas follows Jeffrey of Monmouth; in the later
portion he has accounts exclusively his own, relating to the
wars between England and Scotland in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, which are valuable through the com
munication of contemporary ballads.
We have occasionally, in the course of our researches, made
use of smaUer historic works, but of which many monastic
histories and Lives of Saints are stUl in manuscript only.
Letters also, homilies and other documents have been but
partially brought to light, of which several, connected with
later times, will be noticed hereafter.
Of other helps to Anglo-Saxon history, the first to be men
tioned are the Charters, a complete collection of which is now
in course of publication by the English Historical Society.
Of these important documents two volumes have already ap
peared1, containing charters of Anglo-Saxon kings, ealdor-
men and prelates to the year 966. To the first volume is
prefixed an Introduction by the learned editor, embracing an
ample fund of information illustrative of the use and nature
of those instruments, their dates, tests of their genuineness,
etc., indispensable to those who have not made such monu
ments a particular branch of study. Older coUections, which
are in great measure superseded by this highly useful pub
lication, are — the Textus Roffensis, belonging to the cathe
dral of Rochester, containing, besides many valuable charters,
etc., the only copy extant of the Laws of the Kentish kings.
This manuscript, compUed by bishop Ernulphus in the twelfth
century, was communicated to the world by that laborious
and meritorious antiquary Thomas Hearne : also Hemming's
Chartulary of the church of Worcester. Many charters are
the queen of Eadgar ; cap. cvii. in " Alured that Dolphynes was called " it
is not Dauphin, but Gaimar's (v. 3023 sq.)  " Elueret, Edelwolfing ert
apelez;" also, cap. cvii. "a Dane that me called Roynt," from Gaimar,
v. 3016, "un Daneis, un tyrant, ki Sumerlede ont nun le grant."
1 Codex Diplomatics ^Evi Saxonici. Opera Johannis M. Kemble,
torn. i. and ii.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. lxi
also to be found dispersed in Hickes's Thesaurus, Smith's
edition of the historic works of Beda, the monastic histories
of Ely and Glastonbury, etc. The greater number, however,
of these documents having reference to churches and con
vents, those of the latter description are consequently col
lected in the ' Monasticon Anglicanum,' originally edited by
WUliam Dugdale and Roger Dodsworth, in 3 voll. folio, 1682,
continued by J. Stevens in 2 voll. folio, and lastly edited
anew by John Cayley, Esq., Henry EUis, Esq., and the Rev.
B. Bandinel1.
The edition of the Anglo-Saxon Laws, commenced by the
late Mr. Price, under the authority of the Commission on the
Public Records, but continued and completed by the trans
lator of the present work2, exhibits a purer text, accompanied
by collations from every known manuscript, than that of the
earlier editions. In the ecclesiastical portion of the work is
printed for the first time the Penitential of archbishop Theo
dore, the prototype of most of the later penitentials, particu
larly that of archbishop Ecgberht. In this work also some in
teresting secular documents are given for the first time in print.
Before the appearance of this edition, that of Dr. Wilkins
was the most complete, though abounding in errors of no
trivial character. An edition of much merit, and highly useful
to the German scholar, was begun by Dr. Reinhold Schmid,
of which the first volume only has hitherto appeared8. The
1 London, 1817-1830. 8 voll. folio.
2 Ancient Laws and Institutes of England ; comprising Laws enacted
under the Anglo-Saxon Kings from jEthelbirht to Cnut, with an English
translation of the Saxon ; the Laws called Edward the Confessor's ; the
Laws of William the Conqueror, and those ascribed* to Henry the First :
also Monumenta Ecclesiastica Anglicana, from the seventh to the tenth
century ; and the Ancient Latin Version of the Anglo-Saxon Laws. With
a compendious Glossary, &c. Printed by command of His late Majesty
King William IV., under the direction of the Commissioners on the Public
Records of the Kingdom. MDCCCXL. 1 vol. fol., or 2 voll. royal 8vo.
3 Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen. In der Ursprache mit Uebersetzung
und Erlauterungen herausgegeben von Dr. Reinhold Schmid, Professor der
Rechte zu Jena. Leipzig, 1832. 8vo.

Ixii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical laws, the councils, and other
church documents, are also contained in the collection of
Sir Henry Spelman, though more completely in the later one
of Dr. WUkins.
The Welsh Laws, viz. those of Howel Dda and other
princes, have also been recently communicated to the world
under the same authority, in an exceUent edition by Aneurin
Owen, Esq.1, containing the original text founded on several
manuscripts with an English translation. The Welsh Laws
had been previously edited by Dr. Wotton, with a Latin
translation, and subsequently by Probert with an EngUsh
one2. For the study of Anglo-Saxon numismatics, the work of
Ruding on the coinage3 is to be recommended, as containing
much useful information on that ample subject; also the
valuable works of Mr. Akerman4, and several papers in the
Archaeologia.

On casting a glance at the labours of later historic writers
since the introduction of printing, we are carried back to
Douglas of Glastonbury, whose work forms the basis of the
oldest printed chronible of England, — that by the printer
William Caxton, in the year 1480. Nowhere does it appear
more evidently than in Enghsh historic Uterature, how slowly
1 Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales ; comprising Laws supposed to
be enacted by Howel the Good, modified by subsequent regulations under
the native Princes prior to the conquest by Edward the First : and Ano
malous Laws, consisting principally of Institutions which, by the Statute
of Ruddlan, were admitted to continue in force : with an English trans
lation of the Welsh text. To which are added a few Latin transcripts,
containing Digests of the Welsh Laws, principally of the Dimetian Code.
With Indexes and Glossary. Printed by command, etc. MDCCCXLI.
2 The Ancient Laws of Cambria, translated from the Welsh by William
Probert. London, 1823. Svo, from a MS. of the year 1685.
3 Annals of the Coinage. 4 voll. 4to.
4 Particularly ' Coins of the Romans relating to Britain.' 8vo, 2nd edit.
enlarged.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. Ixiii
that study has, from faith in arbitrary fictions, turned to the
contemporary writers, ancient laws and other authentic monu
ments. From the Norman tales of Gaimar and Le Brut, in
the extract of Douglas, historians turned to Bromton, Mat
thew of Westminster, WUliam of Malmesbury, and Henry of
Huntingdon, till the further the lapse of ages removed them
from us, the more zealously has historic research striven to
revert to the oldest authorities, to the great work of Beda and
other trustworthy sources. The memory of the Anglo-Saxons
seems almost to have been effaced in England by the splen
dour of the Norman aristocracy ; and Shakspere himself,
whose muse sought a subject in every region of Europe and
in every' age, and immortalized even the Lear of British tra
dition, the Scot and the Dane, found — while, unconsciously
to himself, his language reverted to them, — no subject in the
eventful history of the Anglo-Saxons whereby to attract his
countrymen. It was not until the fall of the Stuarts and the
rise of the commons of England that the country first gained
a tolerable history of the Anglo-Saxons in the mother-tongue,
by the hand of him who, above all others, successfuUy em
ployed the Germanic element of his language, — the exalted
John Milton1.
Unimportant as MUton's work may appear at the present
day, we must, nevertheless, praise the careful examination it
evinces of the genuine sources of our early history, so highly
laudable in one blind, verging on his seventieth year, a poet
of the highest order, an energetic statesman, to whom the
dryness of the chronicles was so distasteful, that he could not
withhold the public expression of his sentiments to that effect.
The 'Chronicon Regum Anglias' of David Langhorne2 is a
very useful work, evincing considerable critical judgement in
its compilation from numerous and the best authorities known
1 First printed in 1671. It is reprinted in the several editions of his
Prose Works, and also in Rennet's Complete History of England, vol. i.
2 London, 1679, 8 vo.

lxiv LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
at the time for the history of kings and wars to the reign of
iElfred. The Life also of that king by Spelman forms an
epoch in the historic literature of England. In 1724 the
work of Rapin de Thoyras appeared, who, however, did very
little for the Anglo-Saxon period, and even seems to have
been ignorant of the existence of many sources then already
in print. In the notes of his translator, Tindal, many rectifi
cations and additions are to be found. A considerable ad
vance is manifest in the portion dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon
period of Carte's History of England1, the earUer part of
which has served as a storehouse to David Hume, who was
lamentably deficient in fundamental knowledge of the early
middle age. In praising Hume for his lively picture of the
history of the Stuarts, and for some portions of that of the
Tudors, as the most acute of modern investigators, as an un
rivalled perfect model for historic composition, in whom was
united with English strength and Scottish perspicuity, the
grace of the land of his mental cultivation, his much-loved
France, — in this very praise is impUed the cause why Hume,
who at first had occupied himself only on the history of the
Revolution (from which, not till a later period, he carried back
his work to the beginning of the history2), could not evince
in his account of the middle age either the enthusiasm or
even the industry of MUton. It is not, therefore, surprising
that Gibbon, with his widely comprehensive studies, and who
in acuteness and powers of combination was the equal of his
great contemporaiy, is, in his notices of the Anglo-Saxons,
contained in his immortal work, more instructive than Hume.
After these another star of the first magnitude in the Bri
tish horizon remains to be named, — though, as in the case of
Milton, as the author of a work of no great estimation, —
Edmund Burke, who wrote an Abridgment of English Hi-
1 London, 1747-1755, 4 voll. folio.
2 The History of the Stuarts appeared in 1755, that of the Tudors in
1759, that of the earlier period some years later.

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. lxv
story to the year 1216, in which the part relating to the
jurisprudence of the Anglo-Saxons has considerable merit.
From this specimen, which, though not printed until after his
. death, was probably the labour of his earlier years1, we may
reasonably suppose, that had this most talented of British
statesmen more seriously devoted himself to the subject, the
story of England would have been told in a work not inferior
to those through which the enviable states of antiquity, as well
as that revival of the Periclean Athens, the Tuscan city, stand
in never-fading colours before the wondering eyes of after-

It might almost appear as though it were intended to be
shown that the greatest geniuses among a people devoted to
freedom have felt themselves irresistibly drawn to the study
of their native history, when we yet mention the History of
England by Sir James Mackintosh, the apparent antagonist,
though in fact the intellectual son of Edmund Burke. The
study of philosophy and of the laws of Europe and Asia, a
high judicial post at Calcutta, a truly considerable share in
.European poUtics, through the engendering and spread of
creative, promoting, wide-forming ideas in internal national
life, as well as of retrospective, preserving views, well founded
in the policy and public law of both hemispheres ; the favour
of the sportive muse, the acknowledged possession of a noble,
graceful, courtly demeanour, an intercourse, — which while it
much received no less distributed,— with the ablest of his
contemporaries ; all this, more than Sir Walter Raleigh and
the illustrious Bacon ever compassed, satisfied not the son of
needy Scottish parents : even the aversion* so hard to over
come, by a genius ever glowing with its own fires, for the toU
some working up of a given raw material, did not withhold
this extraordinary man from labouring during several years
1 It was written in his twenty-seventh year, and appears in the collec
tion of his works. Eight sheets of it were printed by Dodsley in 4to, in
1757, which with the author's corrections are now in the British Museum.

lxvi LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
on a history of England, to which his contemporaries had
already beforehand willingly awarded the palm. Indisposition
and the pressure of unwelcome age induced Mackintosh to
contract the plan of his undertaking, and death interrupted
that which he had still hoped to publish. Of what he has ac
complished the excellences wiU be mentioned hereafter ; for
the short section on Anglo-Saxon history, the praise of spirited
and just conception, as well as of worthy representation may
suffice. But would not Mackintosh with more vigorous powers have
accomplished more ? Let us freely confess that neither he
nor any other equally gifted man can in our days satisfy the
requisites of a history of any country in the middle age,
and least of all of England, where new sources spring forth
daily, where the divining rod inclines over many a deep-hidden
treasure without yet finding it. Generations must pass away
before all this matter wUl be found arranged and divided, in
order one day to be illustrated by the master. The Germanic
race must first have more completely investigated its old tra
ditions, its old language, its old laws, through the labours of
antiquarians, philologists and legal historians, before an in
controvertible answer can be given to some of the most im
portant questions. The history of one state wiU always be
defective without commensurate advances in that of the neigh
bour states. The difficult duty of a modern investigator of
history, which requires almost endless researches, spUtting
themselves in aU directions into various others, and often
widely remote from each other, is little compatible with that
of an historian in the highest sense, who shaU also have
learned from life, and desires to understand the past by and
for the sake of the present. History, moreover, often requires
a renewed form, as well for the purpose of appropriating to
itself the fruits of investigation, to set them in their true light,
and bestow on them their just value, as also on account of
the ever variable undeveloped necessity of the present. The

LITERARY INTRODUCTION. lxvii
representer of past times, mindful of this duty, will not, there
fore, be always anxious only to give demonstrable certainty,
but will rather often draw attention to the defects of our hi
storic knowledge, and will even gain much by a clear glance
over the history apparently lost : he -will not lull the reader
into a mere sluggish conception of what is recorded, but must
frequently draw him along with him in his investigations ; he
will consider himself as a prophet looking backwards, and
often leave the interpretation of his well-weighed judgements
to the inteUigent, and probably to the more gifted or more
fortunate inquirer.
A few respected investigators of old English history remain
yet to be noticed, and first Whitaker, who, under the title of
a History of the Town of Manchester, has given a very learned
account of the country under the Romans1. A similar work
is his Genuine History of the Britons asserted against J.
Macpherson2. In the highly esteemed work of Dr. Robert
Henry3, the Roman period is treated with predilection and
success ; to praise the Anglo-Saxon portion, it must be on
comparison with his predecessors.
To Sharon Turner, for his labours on the history of the
Anglo-Saxons4, students are under a lasting obligation, parti
cularly for his profounder investigation of their state of cul
ture, his unprejudiced application of Welsh literature, and
the use which he has made of many unprinted sources. At
the same time it must be acknowledged that this meritorious
coUection of materials is charged with many unnecessary di
gressions, and that the author has often preferred giving much
to a critical discrimination in his narratives/
Lingard's representation of Anglo-Saxon history5 is di-
1 Second edition corrected. London, 1773. 2 voll. 8vo.
2 Second edit. Lond. 1773.
3 History of Great Britain. 6voll. Edinb. 1771-1793. 4to, often reprinted.
4 History of the Anglo-Saxons, 1799-1805. 2 voll. 4lo, frequently re
printed in 3 voll. 8vo. The 6th edit, is the last that has appeared.
6 Thelast edit, in 13 voll. 12mo with corrections.

Ixviii LITERARY INTRODUCTION.
stinguished for its just arrangement, as well as by the clear
ness and solidity of its expression ; though he has generaUy
confined himself to a repetition of the facts related by his
latest predecessors ; and only in rare cases, where Catholicism
prompted him to a refutation of some narrow views of En
ghsh protestantism, has exhibited independent and new in
vestigations. Sir Francis Palgrave has, in an elaborate work ^endeavoured,
and not unsuccessfully, to supply the existing want. The
political institutions of the Anglo-Saxons are examined by
him with much acuteness ; he has also given, in great part
from sources hitherto but little used for the purpose, a very
valuable chronological view of the larger states, as weU as of
the provinces dependent on them ; though in the appUcation
of some modern hypotheses, chiefly with regard to the deri
vation of several historical phenomena in the institutions of
the Anglo-Saxons from Roman elements, he probably goes
too far. While the present work bears evident proofs for
how much multifarious information its author is indebted to
this learned inquirer, yet several of his principal notions can
not be acknowledged by us as new, but as an ancient common
property of the continental investigators of the history of
nations and laws. Palgrave has Ukewise pubUshed, in a small
volume2, principally designed for youth, and embellished with
maps and other engravings, a History of the Anglo-Saxons,
containing some of the results of his inquiries.
1 The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth. Anglo-Saxon
Period. II Parts. London, 1832. 4to.
2 History of England, vol. i. Anglo-Saxon Period. London, 1831. 12mo.
forming volume xxi. of the ' Family Library.'

HISTORY OF ENGLAND
UNDER THE
ANGLO-SAXON KINGS.

INTRODUCTION.
BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
X OR the earliest notice of its existence among nations, Bri
tain is indebted to that spirit of commerce, through which it
was itself one day to become so great. More than a thousand
years before the birth of our Saviour, Gades and Tartessus
had been founded by the Phoenicians, whose fearless traders
we behold, in our dim vision of those remote times when tin
was brought in less abundance from the ports of Spain, after
a tedious coasting-voyage of four months, fetching that metal
from the islands which Herodotus1 denominates the Cassi-
terides, or islands producing tin (/cao-o-tTepos), and which now
bear the name of the Scilly islands2. Herodotus was unable
to ascertain the position of these islands, nor does he even
mention the name of Britain. It is probable that the Phoe
nicians never sailed thither direct from their own coast3,
1 Lib. iii. § 115.
2 Camden's Britannia. Cf. Heerens Ideen, ii. 191. Beckmann's Hist.
of Inventions, vol. iv.
3 Strabo, lib. iii., relates, that a Phoenician shipmaster, being chased by
some Roman vessels, ran his ship upon a shoal, leading his pursuers into
destruction, while he escaped on a fragment of the wreck, and received
from the state the value of the cargo he had sacrificed. — T.
VOL. I. _5 -' B

2 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
though Midacritus1, the individual who is recorded as having
first brought tin from the Cassiterides, seems by his name to
have been a Phoenician. The earhest mention of the British
islands by name is made by Aristotle2, who describes them
as consisting of Albion and Ierne. The Carthaginian Hi-
milco, who, between the years 362 and 350 a. a, had been
sent by his government on a voyage of discovery, also found
the tin islands, which he calls Oestrymnides, near Albion,
and two days' sail from Ierne3, in Mount's Bay4. His ex
ample was some years after followed by a citizen of the cele
brated colony of the Phocians, the Massilian Pytheas, to the
scanty fragments of whose journal, preserved by Strabo and
other ancient authors, we are indebted for the oldest accounts
concerning the inhabitants of these islands5. The MassUians
and Narbonnese traded at an early period (by land-journeys
to the northern coast of Gaul6) with the island Ictis (Wight,
or St. Michael's Mount7) and with the coasts of Britain.
This early commerce was carried on both for the sake of the
tin — an article of great importance to the ancients — and of
lead; though these navigators extended their commerce to
other productions of the country, such as slaves, skins, and a
1 Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. vii. c. 57.
2 De Mundo, c. iii. Ireland, under the name of Iernis, is mentioned by
the author of the Argonautica, v. 1179.
3 On this geographic conclusion see the Metropolitan for January 1832.
* Of his diary, which was extant in the fifth century, we possess frag
ments in the poem of Festus Avienus, ' Ora Maritima.' If, with Ukert and
Lelewel (Entdeckungen der Carthager und Griechen auf dem atlantischeu
Ocean), we place Himilco in the middle of the fifth century a.c, the honour
of having discovered Britain must be denied to the Phoenicians and given
to the Carthaginians.
6 Murray de Pythea Massiliensi, in Nov. Comment. Gotting. torn. vi.
6 Diod. Sic. lib. v. c. 38.
7 The near resemblance between the names is in favour of the first sup
position ; while to the second the account of Diodorus, lib. v. c. 22, is alone
applicable, who, describing this island, says, that at flood- tide it appears
as an island, and at ebb as a peninsula. The proximity to Cornwall, the
British tin country, likewise favours this interpretation.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 3
superior breed of hunting-dogs, which the Celts made use of
in war1. British timber was employed by Archimedes for
the mast of the largest ship of war which he had caused to
be built at Syracuse2. Gold and silver are said to have been
found there ; also an inferior sort of pearl, which is still to be
met with3. This country and its metals soon became an ob
ject of scientific inquiry to the Greeks, as is proved by a work
upon the subject by Polybius, the loss of which must be
painfully felt by every one acquainted with the acuteness and
sound judgement of that historian4.
The Romans first became acquainted with Britain through
their thirst after universal dominion. Scipio, to his inquiries
concerning it among the merchants of the three most di
stinguished Celtic cities, Massilia, Narbo, and Corbelo, had
received no satisfactory answer5; and Publius Crassus is
named as the first Roman who visited the Cassiterides, and
who observing that the metals were dug out from but a little
depth, and that his men at peace were voluntarily occupying
themselves on the sea, pointed out this course to such as were
willing to take it6. This was probably the officer of that name
who, by Caesar's command, had achieved the conquest of the
Gaulish nations inhabiting along the shores of the British
Channel7. Through Caesar's conquest of the South of England, and
the later sway held over it by the Roman emperors, we are
first enabled to form an idea of the country. WeU might the
goddess of science and of war appear to the Greeks and Ro
mans under one form (for it was the Macedonian and Roman
1 Strabo, lib. iii. Oppiani Cyneg. lib. i. v. 468. Nemesiani Cyneg.
v. 123 sq.
2 Athen. Deipn. lib. v. c. 10.
3 Cf. Strabo, lib. iv. Tac. de Vita Agric. c. xii. Pomp. Mela, lib. iii.
c. 6. Sol. Polyh. c. liii. Suet. lib. i. c. 46. Plin. H. N. ix. c. 57, and the
contrary testimony of Cicero, ad Fam. vii. 7, ad Att. iv. 16.
4 Polyb. lib. iii. c. 37. 6 Strabo, lib.iv.
6 Strabo, lib. iii. 7 Osar, B. G. ii. 34.

4 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
swords that fixed for antiquity the limits both of the earth
and of historic knowledge), though their idea of Britain is, it
must be confessed, a very obscure one, and stands much in
need of the reflecting light of modern scientific research. To
Strabo, as well as to Caesar and Ptolemy, even the figure and
relative position of the British islands were uncertain. Ac
cording to Strabo, Ireland lies to the north of Britain1 ; whUe
to the last, the northern coasts of Ireland and Scotland
appear in the same latitude2. These errors must necessarily
occasion numberless mistakes with regard to the positions of
tribes and territories, when given according to the degrees of
longitude and latitude. Our knowledge too with regard to
the inhabitants is rendered extremely unsatisfactory by the
circumstance, that in the islands and their several districts
very different degrees of civihzation were met with, which
have by authors been too generally applied, and in the most
opposite senses. The inhabitants of the Cassiterides, whose
position even Strabo seeks off GaUicia3, are described by
Pytheas in almost the same words as the Iberians are in other
passages. Besides mining of a very simple description, they
applied themselves to the rearing of cattle, and exchanged
tin, lead, and hides with the traders, against salt, pottery, and
brass wares. They appeared rambling about their ten islands
with long beards like goats, clad in dark garments reaching
to their heels, and leaning upon staves4. It is not improbable
1 Geogr. lib. ii.
2 B. G. v. 13. Geogr. lib. ii. c. 2. See also the excellent disquisitions of
Mannert in his ' Geographie der Griechen und Rbmer,' Abth. 'Britannia.'
The Nuremberg Globe of 1520 has still the map of Ptolemy. In Edit.
Uberlin. of Ptolemy Britain first appears in an upright position.
3 Geogr. lib. ii. If the existence of these islands were not a fiction in
vented by the traders of Gades for the purpose of misleading their com
mercial rivals, and inducing them to undertake fruitless expeditions, they
must be looked for only on the coast of Cornwall. The ignorance or
silence of later writers concerning them may perhaps be explained by the
supposition that the hazardous passage by sea was forgotten after the way
by land through Gaul became the usual route.
4 Strabo, lib. iii.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 5
that these accounts are also applicable to the neighbouring
coast of Cornwall, perhaps even to the tribe of the Silures in
South Wales ; but it is uncertain whether in these moun
taineers we are to recognise Iberian settlers1, or an original
native population identical with that of the rest of South
Britain. Navigation along the coasts, though only in small
boats of twisted osier covered with leather, had, for a length
of time, been very Uvely2. The tin, formed into square
blocks, was brought to the Isle of Wight, where it was pur
chased by merchants and carried over to Gaul, and then, in
a journey of about thirty days, conveyed on horses to Mar
seilles, Narbonne, and the mouths of the Rhone3. A com
merce of this kind, by exciting individual industry, had long
rendered the inhabitants of the southern coast of Britain
active, docile, and friendly to strangers ; yet was their spirit
sunk in a slumber which held them to their native soil, until,
through the calamity of a most unjust hostile invasion, from
being a country not reckoned among the nations of Europe4,
the land of British barbarians, known only to a few daring
mariners, became a province closely connected with imperial
Rome, and at length that state which, more than any other
of the European nations, has impressed the stamp of its cha
racter and institutions not only upon this portion of the globe,
but also upon lands and regions not discovered till after a
long course of ages.
1 Tac. Agric. c. xi. The opinion of Tacitus is much contested from
having been made to apply to all Britain. Dionysius Periegetes, v. 563,
also declares the inhabitants of the Cassiterides, descendants of the Ibe
rians. On the difference between the Iberian and the old British lan
guages, see W. v. Humboldt's ' Priifung der Untersuchungen uber die
Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache,' p. 163.
2 Lucani Phar. lib. iv.v. 134. Plin. H. N. lib. iv.c. 30, vii. 57. Sol. Polyh.
c. xxii. F. Avien. v. 104 sq. We find vessels of the same description in
use at a later period among the Saxon pirates. Isid. Orig. lib. xix. c. 1.
3 Diod. lib. v. 22. Strabo, lib. iii.
4 Even Diodorus speaks of the neighbouring islands lying between Eu
rope and Britain.

6 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
The inhabitants of Britain, with the exception, perhaps, of
those above mentioned as Iberian colonists, belonged to the
same great national family which we find in Gaul and in
Belgium, and which commonly bears the name of Celts. The
supposition of Tacitus1 of a difference between the northern
and the southern race, and that the former, from its strong
bodily structure and red hair, was of Germanic origin, is by
other accounts shown to be groundless. The language stiU
Uving, particularly in Wales and Brittany, as well as the
druidic worship, which, though blended with Christianity,
survived to a late period in the former country, supplying it,
during a thousand years, with energy to withstand the En
glish invaders, form the leading characteristics of this once
great race, and which, being its intellectual portion, have
been preserved the longest.
In treating of the primitive history of the Britons, a writer
must use their native traditions with great caution. Like
those of the other European nations, they appear only in that
Romanized garb which was fashioned in the modern world
by the last rays of the setting Roman sun. Though at every
step in the region of British tradition we meet with traces of
an eastern origin, yet the tales of the destruction of Troy and
of the flight of Brutus, a great-grandson of ./Eneas, to Britain2,
are, in the unnational travestie in which alone they have
been transmitted to us, wholly devoid of historic value, and
the simple truth seems lost to us beyond recovery. The
vain Britons gratified their pride in adorning themselves with
the faded tinsel, and appropriating to themselves the fabulous
national tradition of Rome.
The name of Kymry or Cumry, by which the Welsh still
1 Vita Agric. c. xi.
2 The oldest authority for this tradition is Nennius, who professes to
have derived his information "partim majorum traditionibus, partim scriptis,
partim etiam monumentis veterum Brittanize incolarum." Jeffrey of Mon
mouth is several centuries later, as is also the poem of Robert Wace, ' Le
Brut d'Angleterre.'

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 1
distinguish themselves, as well as that of the north-west
county of England, Cumberland ; the similarity of the words
that have been preserved of the language of the old Kim-
merians or Cimbrians to the Welsh ; the traditions of the
Welsh Triads, as weU as the Roman narratives, — all justify
the assumption, that the race existing in Britain in the time
of Caesar belonged to those Kimmerians who had gradually
moved forward out of Western Asia. Though the obscurity
attending the name of that people envelopes also the epoch
of their immigration, yet we may conclude, from Caesar's own
account, that it took place long before the time of that con
queror. Hw Cadarn, or Hu the Powerful, as the Triads relate,
led the nation of the Kymry from Deffrobany, or the Land of
Summer, where Constantinople now is, over the misty ocean,
to the uninhabited island Britain, and to Llydaw (Armorica
or Brittany), where they established themselves. They deli
vered the country, which had previously been called Clas
Merddin (the land of sea-cliffs), and afterwards Fel Theis
(the island of honey), from the possession of bears, wolves,
and buffaloes. Prydain, son of ^Edd the Great, became ruler
of the land, which, through the wisdom of his government,
enjoyed a Saturnian age, and retained his name ; but later
expeditions of Lloegrwys from Gwasgwy or Gascony, and of
Brythones from Llydaw, are said to have joined their kindred
on the island, and to have settled in the south-east parts1.
A language resembUng that of the Britons was, according
to Tacitus2, in use among the ^Estii on the shores of the
Baltic, the inhabitants on the western coast of which long
retained the name of Cimbri. The Britannife Moorland on the
Ems3 seems to owe this ancient appeUation to the same Cim-
bric race. In Belgic Gaul, between Boulogne and Amiens,
dwelt a people bearing the name of Britanni4 ; an early ex
ample of the constant intercourse between both shores, and
1 Archaeology of Wales. 2 Germania, c. xiv,
" In Groningen, now called the Bourtanger Moor. 4 Plinii H. N. iv. 17,

8 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
a striking proof how little even the greatest separation by
water, however convenient a boundary for objects of state,
avails in dividing nations. That the Belgae inhabiting the
British coasts came hither from the Belgium of the continent
we know from Caesar1, who speaks of the aboriginal inhabi
tants, that is the Albiones, (whose name we recognise in the
Scottish Alpin, Albany), as dwelling in the interior of the
country. But, besides the Belgae, there dwelt also in the
thickly peopled island of Britain, the Atrebates on the Thames,
the Cenimagni on the Stour, and the Parisi on the Humber,
whose relationship to the Gaulish tribes of the same name
seems unquestionable. The names of places also, particu
larly those with the Celtic termination dunum, equaUy prove
the identity of these peoples.
This state of the population plainly shows us to what class
of nations Britain belonged when the foot of Caesar first trod
its shores, by which event the tales of mariners about the tin
islands soon fell into oblivion, the veil was withdrawn from
Britain, and the land, won for civihzation by Roman arms,
had the rare fortune to find her first historian in one, for
whose thirst of knowledge, penetration, and ambition, neither
science nor the world were too extensive.
The continental Gauls, to whom the Channel formed no
intellectual barrier, were yet more closely united with the
natives of Britain by the common religion of druidism. The
important information given us by Caesar, that the Gauls,
though in general possessing a higher degree of culture than
the Britons, were, nevertheless, accustomed to seek their more
profound knowledge among the druids of the latter2, together
with the account of the same observer respecting the density
of the British population, leads to the inference that migra-
1 B. G. v. 12.
2 B. G. vi. 13. "Disciplina in Britannia reperta atque inde in Galliam
translata esse existimatur : et nunc, qui diligentius earn rem cognoscere
volunt, plerumque illo discendi caussa proficiscuntur." — T.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 9
tions had taken place from the North to the southern lands,
which had slowly and by piecemeal been conquered by their
countrymen. The several mysteries of the druidic doctrines
are the more obscure to us, as the transmission of them is not
from the most ancient sources, but from times in which the
severe rehgious spirit of druidism had yielded to the purer
doctrines of Christianity, and the desecrated, secret lore of
the druids been made subservient to scientific, patriotic, and
often impure purposes. The accounts of the bardic oxstall,
the mystic cauldron, and similar traditions of the Welsh, are to
us either unintelligible, or void of historic value. The simple
old monuments of British faith, — the cromlechs, huge stones
set perpendicularly with a transverse ; cairs, or concentric
circles of stones ; rocking stones ; cams, or mounds of stone
covered with earth, &c. ; numbers of which, in the West of
England, and in the other British islands, offer themselves at
the present day to the contemplation of the antiquary, — while
they indicate but a rude state of external worship, yet prove
that a vast exertion of physical and mechanical power was
appUed to the purposes of religion1. To a later age those
places of old religious veneration were often rendered of
importance by being dedicated to Christian worship2, a case
which in Britain may have happened the more frequently,
as no obstinate resistance appears to have been made by
druidism to the introduction of Christianity. The oak and
mistletoe were objects of profound veneration among the
druids. With oak leaves they adorned their sacrifices ; and
if the mistletoe was found growing on a tree, a priest, ascend-
1 An appeal to Hecatseus (Diod. lib. ii.) cannot, it is true, prove that
Stonehenge (Chorea gigantum, Brit. Cor Gawr) is there alluded to, but
which is, however, mentioned by the bards of the sixth century, and may
with confidence from this be applied to older heathen monuments and cus
toms. Regarding such monuments, see Mone's ' Geschichte des nord-
ischen Heidenthumes,' Th. ii. p. 435-454, where also the religious tenets
of the Britons are treated with acuteness, and with a comprehensive know
ledge of the heathenism of the other Celtic nations.
2 Mone, Th. ii. p. 457.

10 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
ing the tree, severed the sacred plant with a golden knife, A
festival on the happy occasion was held under its branches,
attended with the sacrifice of two white bulls1.
With respect to the doctrines and learning of these western
Brahmins, what Ca3sar ascertained was very similar to that
which Alexander had formerly found among those on the
Ganges. They taught the immortahty of the soul, its trans
migration from one body to another, and — founded on tbis
belief — inculcated a contempt of life2. They professed a con
siderable knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their motions ;
discoursed on the magnitude of the world, and of its countries ;
the nature of things ; the virtues and power of the immortal
gods3. In the druidic order, and in that of the knights or eques
trian order, was vested the chief authority of the country.
The druids were subordinate to a high-priest chosen by them
selves, though arms occasionally decided the fate of the Celtic
pontificate. Through the administration of the judicial func
tions they became accurately versed in temporal affaus, and
thus secured worldly influence to themselves, and to justice
the sanction of religious awe. Their human sacrifices4, which
1 Plinii H. N. xvi. c. 95. Max. Tyr. Dissert, xxxviii.
2 Lucan. lib. i. v. 460. A Triad of the druids — (Davies's Celtic Re
searches, p. 182) " The three first principles of wisdom are obedience to the
laws of God, care for the welfare of man, and fortitude under the accidents
of life" — is found also as the principle of the gymnosophists, in Diogenes
Laertius (Prooem. § 5), 2t£f/i< hovg, xui ftnliv xxxoy Igciii, xttl diihq u'ur daxiiy,
3 Caesar, B. G. vi. 14. [Of their gods, the chief was one to whom Cassar
(vi. 17.) gives the name of Mercurius : " Deura maxime Mercurium colunt :
hujus sunt plurima simulacra." Tacitus (Germ, ix.) says in the same
words of the Germans: "Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt;" thereby
meaning Wodan, the chief god of the Germanic nations. Hence Wodens-
dasg (Wednesday) = dies Mercurii. See Grimm's ' Deutsche Mythologie,'
p. 76 sq. On other deities of the Britons Caesar bestows the names of
Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva. — T.]
4 From Caesar, vi. 16, it appears that the human sacrifices of the Britons
were not limited to public occasions. " Qui sunt adfecti gravioribus mor-
bis, quique in proeliis periculisque versantur, aut pro victimis homines
immolant, aut se immolaturos vovent, administrisque ad ea sacrificia drui-

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. n
were usually limited to criminals and captured foes, we look
on with horror ; yet should posterity not too severely judge
them, which, without the plea of religious infatuation, had for
two thousand years deliberately persisted in similar sacrifices,
before doubts as to the lawfulness of capital punishments
became a subject of national consideration. As the knight by
mUitary followers, so was the druid surrounded by studious
disciples, to whom twenty years seemed not too long a period
for the acquisition of the required knowledge, — astrology and
magic, as well as acuteness in judicial decisions, — together with
the privilege of directing the sacrifices, and of proclaiming the
dreaded excommunication, and the temporal advantage of
exemption from taxes and military service1. Their precepts,
which were in verse, were delivered orally, it being forbidden
to commit them to writing ; though in recording the common
concerns of life they are said to have used the Greek letters2.
With the druids the bards (beirdd) were closely connected3.
They wrote in verse on the descent of their princes, and,
together with didactic and epic, had also lyric poetry, which
was sung to the sound of the chrotta": Though none of the
productions, nor even the names of the more ancient bards
have been transmitted to us, yet all that is related of them
allows us to suppose that their works resembled those still
extant of the bards of the sixth and foUowing centuries, from

dibus utuntur." For the larger sacrifices he informs us that they framed
immense images of twisted osier, the members of which they filled with
living beings, and then set the mass on fire. The victims were generally
criminals, but when these could not be supplied, innocent persons were
taken : " etiam ad innocentium supplicia descendant." — T.
1 Caesar, B. G. vi. 13-16. Plinii H. N. xxx. cc. 3, 4. Tac. Ann, xiv. 30.
2 A hieroglyphic bardic writing is also said to have been in use, consist
ing of sixteen characters, and formed from the figures of plants. See Davies,
p. 245 sq.
3 Diod. v. 31. Strabo, iv. Lucani Phars. i. v. 447 sq. Athenseus vi.
Ammian. Mar. lib. xv. 24.
4 " Crotta Britanna." Venant. Fortun. lib. vii. c. 8. [The crowd (rote) of
later minstrelsy. SeeGraff,AlthochdeutscherSprachschatz,ii.col.487.  T.l

12 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
vt'hich, when treating of later times, we must not withhold
our attention. That bards were known to Posidonius and
Lucan 1, is a convincing proof of the antiquity of the Celtic
settlement in Britain, for wandering people carry no poems
about with them, scarcely even the most meagre traditions.
The Anglo-Saxons and Northmen brought no poetic store
from their ancient home to their new country. The peace,
leisure, and prosperity of a nation, seated in its old native
abode, are indispensable to the cultivation of national song2.
Together with the druids, the ruling order was, as before
said, that of the chieftains or knights. In Caesar's time, both
these noble orders had reduced to a state of dependence the
greater part of the rest of the people of Gaul, who were op
pressed by debts, taxes, and the tyranny of the powerful, ex
ercising towards them all the rights of masters over slaves3.
The Roman conquest itself might also have contributed to the
completion of an already existing state of cUentship of the
indigent class to the opulent, such as is stiU to be found in
the very pure patriarchal customs of the clans in the Scottish
highlands and isles.
The land was divided among many tribes and their kings4,
who, slightly connected through the priesthood, Uved inde
pendently near each other, cherishing their love of strife, and
training up their youth in civil quarrels, without manifesting
at a later period, in the days of the destruction of the common
liberty, the judgement and energy necessary for a general re
sistance5. The power of these princes was much Umited by
the before-mentioned castes, and consisted chiefly in mUitary
command. In the southern parts of England, which had become more
1 Athen. lib. iv. c. 37. Pharsal. lib. i. v. 447 sq.
3 May not an instance to the contrary possibly exist in the original saga
of Beowulf?— T. 3 Csesar, B. G. vi. 13.
4 The royal authority and even military command could also be exer
cised by a female, as in the instances of Cartismandua and Boudicea.
5 Diod. lib. v. 21. Tac. Agric. c. xii.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 13
civilized through commerce, the cultivation of grain, to which
the mildness of the climate was favourable, had been greatly
improved by the art of marling1. The daily consumption was
taken from the unthrashed corn, preserved in caves, which they
prepared for food, but did not bake as bread2. Horticulture
was not in use among them, nor the art of making cheese3 ;
yet the great number of buildings, of people, and of cattle
appeared striking to the Romans. Copper and bits of iron,
according to weight, served as money4. Their custom of
painting themselves with blue and green, for the purpose of
terrifying their enemies, as well as that of tattooing5, was re
tained tUl a later period by the Picts of the North. At certain
sacrifices, even the women, painted in a similar manner, re
sembling Ethiopians, went about without clothing6. Long
locks and mustachios were general. Like the Gauls, they
decorated the middle finger with a ring7. Their round simple
huts of reeds or wood resembled those of that people8, and
the Gaulish checquered, coloured mantles are still in common
use in the Scottish Highlands. Their clothing, more especially
that of the Belgic tribes of the South, enveloped the whole
body ; a girdle encircled the waist, and chains of metal hung
about the breast9. The hilts of their huge pointless swords
were adorned with the teeth of marine animals 10 ; their shields
were small11. The custom of fighting in chariots (called by
them esseda, covini12), on the axles of which scythes were
fastened, and in the management of which they showed great
skill, was peculiar to this and some other of the Celtic nations,
in a generally level country, and where the horses were not
1 Plin. H. N. xvii. 4. Tac. Agric. xii. Diod. v. 21.
2 Diod. v. 21. 3 Strabo, lib. iv. 4 C-ssar, B. G. v. 12.
0 Caesar, B. G.v. 14. '.' Virides Britanni." Ov.Amor.lib. ii. 16. "Caerulei
Britanni." Mart. Epig. liv. Plin. H. N. lib. xxii. 2. Claud. Prim. Cons.
Stil. lib. ii. v. 247. Pomp. Mela, iii. 6. Sol. Polyh. c. xxii.
6 Plin. H. N. xxii. 2. 7 Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 6.
8 Strabo, iv. Diod. v. 21. 9 Dio ap. Xiph. Ixii.
10 This was rather the custom of the inhabitants of Ireland. Sol. Polyh.
c. xxii.— T. " Tac. Agric. xxxvi. 12 Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.

14 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
sufficiently powerful to be used for cavahy. The charioteer
was the superior person, the servant bore the weapons. They
begun their attacks with taunting songs and deafening howls1.
Their fortresses or towns consisted in the natural defence of
impenetrable forests2- In the interior of the country were
found only the more rugged characteristics of a people engaged
in the rearing of cattle, which, together with the chase, sup
plied skins for clothing, and milk and flesh for food3. The
northern part of the country seems in great measure to have
been abandoned to the shaft and javelin of the roving hunter,
as skilful as he was bold4. That every ten or twelve men of
near relationship possessed their wives in common, but that
the one earhest married was regarded as the father of all the
children, is probably a mere Roman fable5- Simphcity, in
tegrity, temperance, with a proneness to dissension, are men
tioned as the leading characteristics of the nation6. The
reputation of bravery was more especially ascribed to the
northern races7.
A much more favourable picture of the social condition of
the ancient Britons may be drawn from the Triads of Dyvnwal
Moelmud, who is said to have hved several centuries before
the Christian era8, if those Triads have even the shghtest claim
1 Caesar, B. G. iv. 33, v. 16. Strabo, iv. Tac. Agric. xii. Diod. v. 21.
Dio ap. Xiph. lxii. Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.
2 Caesar, B. G. v. 21. Strabo, iv.
3 Caesar, B. G. v. 14. The abundance of milk and skins is mentioned
in Eumenii Panegyr. ad Constan. Aug. c. ix. Cf. eund. ad Constan.
Caes. c. xi.
4 Dio ap. Xiph. lxxvi. 12.
5 Caesar, B. G. v. 14. Diodorus does not mention this custom.
6 Diod. v. 21, 22. Pomp. Mela, iii. 6. Tac. Agric. xii.
7 Dio ap. Xiph. lxxvi.
8 [" Before the crown of London and the supremacy of this island were
seized by the Saxons, Dyvnwal Moelmud, son of Clydno, was king over
this island, who was son to the earl of Cernyw, by a daughter of the king
of Lloegyr. And his laws continued in force until the time of Howel the
Good, son of Cadell." 'Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales,' pp. 89
and 630. In a note the learned editor, Mr. A. Owen, adds, " Dyvnwal,
according to the Chronicle of the Kings, in the book of Basingwerke (a

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 15
to be considered genuine which have reached us only in a very
modern manuscript, and exhibit not only traces of Roman and
Saxon influence, but also of numerous interpolations subse
quent to the introduction of Christianity.
Of the British tribes, the first to be mentioned are the
Cantii, or men of Kent. They were governed by four
princes1. Northward of the Thames, as far as the river Stour,
in the present counties of Middlesex and Essex, dwelt the
Trinobantes, whose capital, London, was already a consider
able emporium. To the north of the Stour, in Suffolk, dwelt
the Cenimagni, a tribe of the Iceni ; in Norfolk, Cambridge
shire and Huntingdonshire, the rest of the Iceni, whose chief
town bore the common Celtic appellation of Venta. The
Catuvellani, or Katyeuchlani of Ptolemy, inhabited the present
counties of Hertford, Bedford and Buckingham.
The Coritavi (Coriniaidd), who, as the Triads relate, had
migrated from a Teutonic marshland, possessed the present
counties of Northampton, Leicester, Rutland, Lincoln, Not
tingham and Derby. Beyond them, in the eastern part of
Yorkshire, dwelt the Parisi.
The most powerful people were the Brigantes, who held
the country to the north of the Humber and the Mersey,
comprising the counties of York, Durham, Lancaster and
Westmoreland. The Caer, or city Luel (Luguvallum, Lugu-
balia, or Carlisle), in the country of the Cumbri, on this side
of the Picts' wall, remained long the seat of its original in
habitants. Cataractonium and Vinnovium may here also be
Welsh version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's compilation), flourished from
anno b.c 694 to 667." Of these triads Mr. Owen says (Pref. p.vii),
" Their antiquity is very dubious, but in their present form and phraseology
they may be attributed to the sixteenth century." — T.] See also ' The
Ancient Laws of Cambria ' translated by W. Probert, 1823. Cf. Gervinus
in den Heidelberg. Jahrbiichern 1831, Ss. 46-49, and Palgrave's ' Rise and
Progress of the English Commonwealth,' vol. i. c. ii.
1 Caesar, B. G. v. 22. Ptolemy places London in the territory of the
Cantii. [See also Anc. Laws and Instt. of Engl., p. 14, fol. ed. — T.]

16 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
distinguished as having evidently preserved themselves under
the names of Catterick and Binchester. To this people be
longed also the Jugantes and the Cangi.
The ancestors of the Welsh were the Ordovices, whose ter
ritory comprised the counties of Montgomery, Merioneth,
Caernarvon, Anglesea, Denbigh and Flint; the Dimetae in
Caermarthen, Pembroke and Cardiganshire, and the most
powerful tribe of those parts, the Silures, inhabiting the
present shires of Hereford, Radnor, Brecknock, Monmouth
and Glamorgan.
Hampshire, Somersetshire and Wiltshire, from the Enghsh
to the Bristol channel, were occupied by the Belgae, where a
city, Venta, is stiU to be recognised in the modern Win
chester. The ancient tin country, the Bretland of the Northmen,
now Cornwall and Devonshire, was inhabited by the Dum-
nonii or Damnonu. The Roman incursions not having reached
this south-west corner of the province, we consequently pos
sess the fewest accounts of the period relative to that part of
the country which was first known to the three ancient di
visions of the globe.
Between the Dumnonii and the Belgae, in the present Dor
setshire, dwelt the Durotriges : in the counties of Gloucester
and Oxford, the Dobuni. The Atrebates, whose chief city
was Calleva1, were settled in Berkshire. In the vicinity of
these we are to look for the small tribes mentioned by Caesar,
of the Segontiaci, Ancahtes, Bibroci (Bibracte in Bray Hun
dred, on the Thames, below Windsor), and the Cassi2.
1 Anton. Itin., Ric. Corin. p. 148, edit. 1809.
2 For the geography of Britain under the Romans, Camden's 'Bri
tannia ' is especially to be consulted. See also the works of Horsley and
Stukeley. The appendix to the first book of Henry's History of Great Britain
contains a very useful illustration and comparison of the texts of Ptolemy
and Antoninus, and of the extracts relative to Britain in the 'Notitia Imperii
Occidentalis.' The itineraries of Antoninus and of Richard of Cirencester,
with the illustrations by Gale, Horsley, and Stukeley, are given by Whitaker

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 17
The Cornabii, or Carnabii, inhabited the present counties
of Warwick, Worcester, Stafford, Salop and Chester, and
probably a part of Flint. In the last-mentioned county, or
in that of Chester, the monastery of Bangor (Banchor Iscoed)
was seated, the most celebrated religious foundation in the
island, till its destruction and the slaughter of its inmates by
^Ethelfrith of Northumbria1.
The Scottish and Irish races (for a knowledge of whose
names we are chiefly indebted to Ptolemy) form matter ex
clusively for the separate history of those nations. Here it is
only necessary to observe, that to the north of the Brigantes
dwelt the Maeatae, consisting of five tribes, and beyond them
the Caledonians2.
The Britons had lived hitherto without intercourse with
the south of Europe, except, as before mentioned, through
the medium of a few traveUers, and an inconsiderable com
merce, carried on for the most part by intermediate agents,
when they learned that the mighty Roman people from the
South had already advanced upon, and subdued many of their
Gaulish brethren. Valiant, and mindful of their own danger,
the Britons endeavoured, though vainly, by sending succours
to the Veneti, to support the Gauls against their victorious
foe3; but this inefficient help served only as a ground for
Roman policy, or a pretext to the Roman general for risking
an attack on the unsubdued island. Its inhabitants soon re
ceived inteUigence from foreign traders, that the Roman com
mander was making preparations for an invasion, and they
beheld a Roman captain, C. Volusenus, in a ship of war re-
at the end of his ' History of Manchester.' The notions of the ancients re
garding the form of Britain, and its coasts as given by Ptolemy, are most
ably illustrated by Mannert. [The localities of the several tribes given in
this translation are from Petrie's ' Corpus Historicum.' — TJ
1 Beda, ii. 2. Sax. Chron. a. 607. Ric. Corin. lib. i. c. 6. § 27. "Ban-
chorium monasterium totius insulae celeberrimum, quod in contentione
Augustini eversum, non postea resurrexit." — T.
2 Dio ap. Xiph. lib. lxxvi. 10. 3 C-esar, B. G. iii. 9.
VOL. I. C

18 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
connoitring their coast1. Some of the British tribes, either
terrified by the fame of the conquerors of more regions than
they had ever heard of, or with the view of amusing the enemy
by negotiations, sent ambassadors across the sea to the Roman
camp, promising hostages and submission.
They were received in the kindest manner by their ambi
tious enemy, whom they assured of the early fulfilment of
those promises, and were accompanied on their return by a
chieftain named Commius, whom the Romans favoured, on
account of his valour, his judgement, and his reputation, and
had placed as king over the Gaulish Atrebates, and who now
undertook the commission of persuading the Britons into a
reliance on the Roman people, and of announcing the early
arrival of their general. Scarcely, however, had Commius
made known his commission in the public assembly, when —
although it was the duty of their princes to protect the sacred
character of an ambassador — the enraged people, divining the
drift of the deceitful words, seized on the speaker, and loaded
him with chains. The Britons collected their hordes, which
they skilfully posted on the eminences along the shore2. The
Romans, of whom the infantry of two legions had crossed over
from the country of the Morini3, did not at first venture upon
landing, but observing the moment of the ebb, they attempted
it upon a level tract of shore about seven mues distant4.
Here were British cavalry and war-chariots arrayed before the
foot, who for some time skilfully and boldly held the invaders
in check : but the eagle-bearer of the tenth legion, after ex
horting his comrades, leaped into the sea, and rushed to the
onset, when the missiles of the enemy, Roman valour, enthu
siasm for their leader, the great Caius Julius Caesar — under
whom it was regarded a greater disgrace to see the glory of
victory even slightly tarnished, than to be beaten under any
1 a.c. 55. 2 Where Dover now is. — T.
3 Orosius, vi. 9. • Near the present Deal.— T.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 19
other general — but above all, superior discipUne, effected the
hostile landing1.
In these encounters, the war-chariots of the Britons called
forth the admiration of their invaders. Their manner of fight
ing from chariots was this : — At first they rode in all direc
tions, casting their darts, and with the dread of their horses
and noise of their wheels generally succeeded in disturbing
the ranks of the enemy. Having made an opening in the
bodies of cavalry, they would leap from the chariots and fight
on foot : meanwhile the charioteers graduaUy withdrawing
from the battle, would post the chariots so that, if pressed on
by numbers, their comrades might find a certain retreat ; thus
evincing both the rapidity of cavahy and the firmness of in
fantry. From constant exercise they could drive their horses
at fuU speed down a declivity, or along a precipice, checking
and turning them instantaneously ; and would run along the
pole, sit on the yoke, and thence in an instant reseat them
selves in their chariots.
The Britons, in their first consternation, imagining the
danger greater than it really was, sent ambassadors to Caesar,
accompanied by the prince of the Atrebates, Commius, offer
ing to give hostages, to place themselves under the protection
of the Romans, and entreating forgiveness for the outrage
committed on his ambassador.
In his glad surprise Caesar could not do otherwise than
lend a willing ear to these proposals ; the British warriors
were therefore sent back to their fields, and their princes
came to Caesar, for the purpose of commending themselves
to his protection. They soon, however, remarked that the
valour of their enemy had deceived them with regard to his
numbers, and moreover learned that the ships, which had
been expected with the cavalry and grain, were dispersed
in a storm. Hereupon the resolution soon ripened among
them of freeing for ever their native land from this daring
1 Aug. 26. Anno u.c. 699. a.c. 55. Caesar, B. G, iv. 21-23.
C 2

20 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
foe. They withdrew from the Roman camp, gathered their
warriors, and attacked the seventh legion that had gone
out to forage, but to which Caesar sent timely help. Some
days afterwards, in an attempt upon the Roman camp, they
were repulsed with loss, though, for want of cavalry, not
pursued. On the same day they sent messengers to sue for
peace, from whom Caesar demanded a number of hostages,
the double of that which he had previously required, and the
equinox being at hand, hastened to avoid a dangerous contest
with the elements by a speedy return to Gaul. The Romans
at home were, however, elated at his account of their new ac
quisition, and in celebration of it decreed a festival of twenty
days' continuance1. Thus terminating what— save for the
gratification of his own vanity — may be considered a bootless
adventure. But this light prelude was soon to be foUowed by a sterner
contest. The following summer Caesar again trod the British
shores with a greater power2 — five legions, two thousand
cavahy, and aU their mUitary engines, to which was attached
an elephant armed with scales of iron, and bearing a tower con
taining archers and slingers3, — and met with no resistance, the
inhabitants of the coast, who had at first appeared in arms on
the level shore, terrified at the magnitude of the approaching
fleet, having retired to the higher points of land. An internal
dissension, fostered by Mandubratius4, the son of Imanuentius,
the powerful prince of the Trinobantes, who had been slain
by Cassivellaunus (Caswallon), devastated the countiy. Small
was the benefit which the barricades, erected in the forests
against domestic foes, afforded against the Romans, in com
parison with the detriment they suffered, through their want
of union, in allowing a foreign enemy to land unassaUed, to
repair his fleet, and, after victories easily achieved, to march
1 Ciesar, B. G. iv. 20-38. Dio Cass, xxxix. 51-53. Luc. ii. v. 572.
2 A.c. 54. 3 Polysen. Strat. viii. 23.
4 Caesar, B. G. v. 20. Orosius (vi. 9.) calls him Androgorius.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 21
forward to the heart of the country. The Britons at length
sacrificing their petty quarrels to the pressing necessity of
struggling for independence, intrusted the chief military com
mand to the brave prince of the Cassi, Caswallon, who had
hitherto been engaged in constant warfare with the neigh
bouring states. In their incursions and attacks great valour
was displayed by the Britons, yet was lack of discipline the
cause of much disorder after a mischance, and a preventive
to their engaging in a general battle. The enemy had ad
vanced as far as the Thames, which at a shallow ford they
passed, unhindered by the strong piles that had been driven
into the bed of the river by order of Caswallon, remains of
which existed in the time of Beda1, after an interval of seven
hundred years. The treachery of the Trinobantes and other
tribes, who had submitted to the invaders, disheartened the
British leader, whose fame has been preserved to us only in
the honourable testimony of Caesar. His well-planned forest-
fastness was, with great difficulty, at length taken, and even
then he attempted an attack upon the Roman camp on the
coast of Kent, with the design, by destroying their fleet, of
turning the land they had conquered into a prison. No
other resource being left him, Commius negotiated for his
submission, by which the Romans obtained what alone they
could seek in this to them inhospitable land — the glory of
victory ; while Caswallon gained that which, even with the
disgrace of apparent humiliation, was not too dearly bought
— the evacuation of his native country by hostile armies.
This time hostages were actually led home by the Romans,
grain was delivered to them, and Rome was dazzled2 by
1 " Quarum vestigia sudium ibidem usque hodie visuntur, et videtur in-
spectantibus quod singulae earum ad modum humani femoris grossae, et
circumfusae plumbo immobiliter erant in profundum fluminis infixae." H. E.
i. 2. The exact point at which Caesar crossed is not known with certainty :
Camden supposes it to have been at Coway Stakes, near Laleham. See
Archaeol. vol. i. p. 184 ; ii. 134, 168. — T.
2 Not so the better informed. Cicero, in a letter to Atticus (iv. 16.),

22 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
Caesar's account of the riches of this new portion of the
world, and by a corselet adorned with British pearls which he
dedicated to Venus l : yet the promised yearly contributions
were not paid, and, with the exception of the hostages, the
Britons were as free as they had been the year before, ere a
passing cloud had for a moment darkened the sunshine of
their independence, though to the steady yet powerful in
fluence of the plastic rays of the Roman star the Britons
could not continue insensible, and the coins of their prince
CynobeUin, the Cymbeline ennobled in tradition and by
Shakspere's muse, prove that the Roman alphabet was in
telligible to the natives, that Roman art was cultivated in
Britain2. A century had nearly elapsed, and the Britons had seen on
their soU no other Romans than peaceful merchants. The
duties levied in Gaul on their trifling exports and imports
were moderate3. On the rumour of an intended invasion,
envoys were sent by them to the emperor Augustus4; yet
Rome heard of no homage from Britain, except the offerings
said to have been made by some petty princes to the Capitol6,
and in the empty compositions of poets and panegyrists ; and
it is probable that the Britons would never have yielded to
Roman sway — for the strength of the latter was aheady in
its wane, their power near to the summit from which it must
soon descend — had not pernicious discord prevailed among
the British princely races, and reduced their country under a
subjection of four hundred years' duration.
writes, " Britannici belli exitus exspectatur. Constat enim aditus insulae
esse munitos mirificis molibus. Etiam illud jam cognitum est, neque ar-
genti scripulum esse ullum in ilia insula, neque ullam spem praedas, nisi ex
mancipiis." Caesar, v. 8-23.
1 Plin. H. N. ix. 57. Sol. Polyh. t. liii.
2 See Pegge's Essay on the Coins of Cunobeline : London, 1766. In
Whitaker's History of Manchester representations of these coins are given.
See also Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. ii.
3 Strabo, iv. 4 Dio Cass. liii. 22.
5 Strabo, iv.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 23
Adminius1, the son of Cynobellin, a successor of Cas-
waUon, having been banished by his father, had, with a few
followers, placed himself under the power of Caligula, who, as
if the whole island had been surrendered to him, immediately
sent despatches to Rome announcing the glorious intelligence.
The forces raised for the German war were hereupon ordered
to the coast, where being arrayed, with their military engines
in readiness, and while in suspense as to what was to follow,
the emperor went on board a trireme, in which having pro
ceeded a short distance from the shore, he placed himself at
his return on a lofty throne, from whence he gave a signal as
if for battle, and to the sound of trumpets ordered the sol
diers to gather, and fill their helmets and bosoms with, shells,
calling them 'the spoils of the ocean'; and, as a monument
of victory, caused a lofty tower to be built, which at the same
time should serve as a beacon. Considerable rewards were
then given to the soldiers, and the shells borne in triumph to
Rome2. This treachery, however, proved hurtful only through the
example which it soon after afforded to an exile named Beric,
at whose instigation the emperor Claudius resolved on sending
an army to Britain3. The warlike reputation of the natives
was so universally acknowledged, that the four legions destined
to contend with them, under the command of Aulus Plautius,
could scarcely be induced to break up their quarters. Sur
prised, however, by the landing of the enemy, the Britons
were not in a condition to oppose it, and proved their valour
only in a warfare of skirmishes. The Gaulish allies of the
1 Orosius (vii. 5.) calls him Minocynobellinus.— T.
2 Suet, de Calig. u. xlvi. Dio Cass. lix. 21. a.d. 40.
3 a.d. 43. Dio Cass, lx.19. Suet, de Claud, c. xvii. Orosius says (vii. 6.),
" Expeditionem in Britanniam movit, quae excitata in tumultum propter
non redhibitos transfugas videbatur." The fugitives were probably Beric
and his associates, and the disturbance, caused by the emperor's refusal to
deliver them up, seems to have served him as a pretext for invading the
island.— T.

24 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
imperial forces, even if at the outset they spared the lives of
their kindred, and only slew their chariot-horses, must in the
end cause great injury to them. The glory of the first im
portant victory in Britain, and the honour of a triumph at
home, belong to Cn. Osidius Geta1. This country was the
palcestra of the Roman emperors. Vespasian, at the head of
the second legion, accompanied by Titus, fought here thirty
battles, subdued the Isle of Wight, overcame two nations,
and took twenty places2. Thewar now assuming a more serious
character, Plautius, as he had been previously instructed, re
solved on sending for the emperor. Claudius was accompa
nied by Galba, the administration of the state being conducted
by Vitellius during the absence of the emperor. CynobeUin
was now dead ; of his sons, Togodumnus and Caractacus, or
Caradoc, the former had fallen in battle, the latter was driven
across the Thames, and Claudius, honoured with the surname
of the Britannic, entered their chief city, Camulodunum3-
From this place, by means of negotiations and arms, he
began to mould the south-eastern parts of Britain into a
Roman province, the administration of which was committed
to Plautius, and afterwards to P. Ostorius Scapula4. A
prince named Cogidubnus obtained some territories in or
about Sussex, which he was proud to govern under the title
of an imperial legate, and devoted the rest of his Ufe to the
establishment of the Roman power in his native country5.
1 Dio Cass. lx. 20.
2 Dio Cass. lx. 20. Eutrop. lib. vii. c. 19. Suet, de Vespas. c. iv.; de
Tito, c. iv ; de Galba, c. vii. Tac. Agric. t. xiv.
3 Dio Cass. lx. 21. Suet, de Claud, xvii. Camulodunum is usuallv
supposed to be the town of Maldon, but the cogent reasons assigned bv
Mannert and others induce us rather to identify it with Colchester. See
' Geogr. der Griechen und RSmer/ p. 157. [Roy, Milit. Antiq. p. 187.
Archaeol. iii. p. 165. — T.]
4 a.d. 50. Tac. Agric. c xiv. Camden (edit. Gibson, p. 300) supposes
the Oyster hills near Hereford to have been one of his camps. Ostorius
came in the year 47.
6 Tac. Agric. c. xiv. The hypothesis of several commentators on this

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 25
The majority of the inhabitants who had attached themselves
to the conqueror had, however, soon cause to repent that step,
on perceiving that while the duty of subjects was exacted from
them, they were at the same time deprived of the right of
bearing arms. While the west was submitting to the Roman
camps on the Avon and the Severn, the Iceni in the east
were the first to declare themselves against the new tyranny;
and history, when relating their defeat, celebrates at the same
time their many and brilliant achievements. Their misfor
tune disheartened the similarly disposed neighbouring states ;
but the Cangi and the Silures, under the national hero,
Caradoc, continued a war of annihilation and despair. The
Brigantes also, in the yet unconquered northern parts, now
rose for the protection of the common liberty ; but before the
league among them had become general, and they could ap
pear prepared for the contest, they were, for the time, reduced
by Ostorius, who with his army marching rapidly against
them, caused the few who had taken up arms to be slain ; the
others were pardoned1.
With the design of securing the subjection of the vanquished,
and of those who were honoured with the name of allies, as
well as of establishing a stronghold in the countiy for Roman
interests and civilization, a colony of hardy veterans was placed
at Camulodunum2. The Roman eagles were aheady displayed
over the plains of Britain, when the Silures, Ordovices, and
passage of Tacitus, which Lingard also adopts, that Togodumnus and
Cogldubnus were the same person, appears, on comparison with Dio, un
tenable. The writers of the ' Universal History ' (vol. xlvii. p. 32) make him
the son of Cartismandua, and to fall, instead of Tdgodumnus, in battle
against the Romans. At Chichester, in 1723, an inscription was dug up
with the words, " Ex auctoritate Tiberii Claudii Cogidubni regis legati
Augusti in Britannia." See Gale in Philos. Trans. 1723, Oct. 31. Hors
ley, Brit. Rom. No. 76. pp. 192, 333; also Henry, History of Great
Britain, i. p. 336. The fac-simile, with a somewhat different explanation,
is given in Hearne's Preface to Adam de Domerham.
1 Tac. Ann. xii. 32. 2 Ibid.

26 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
other mountaineers, who had flocked around Caradoc, begun
a new struggle, which for some time seemed ruinous to the
enemy; yet were their love of freedom, their reverence for the
gods of theh country, their craft and valour forced to give way
before regular warfare. Caradoc's town (Caer Caradoc1) was
taken ; his wife, daughter, and brother fell into the hands of
the conqueror. Himself sought shelter and help among the
Brigantes, whom he had formerly befriended ; but their queen,
Cartismandua, expecting to obtain less by a noble struggle for
the independence of her people than through the favour of the
Romans, sought to purchase the latter by the treacherous sur
render of her guest to his enemies, whom he had stoutly re
sisted during a space of nine years2. But though with his
family compelled to appear as a glorious spectacle to proud
triumphant Rome, who looked on this fruit of treachery as
equal to the most brilliant victories of PubUus Scipio and
Lucius Paullus, yet were the brave mountaineers whom
Caradoc had led still unsubdued. The SUures attacked the
Roman legions appointed to erect fortresses among them, and
although they often gave ground, the enemy could boast of
no victory : his forces — which could hope only with the last
of the Silures to quell the spirit of British independence —
were daily diminishing, whUe the allies of the Britons daily
increased. Ostorius died of grief3- His death was celebrated
as a victory by the Britons, for his successor Aulus Didius
Gallus *was, by reason of his advanced age, far from formi
dable. Some years had passed when Venusius, the husband
of Cartismandua, from whom he had parted, and who had
married Vellocatus, one of his shield-bearers, placed himself
at the head of his people, in opposition to the Romans, whose
1 A lofty hill on the river Ony, near the junction of the Clun and the
Teme, in the south-eastern part of Shropshire, still bears the name of Caer
Caradoc, and exhibits traces of ancient fortifications.
2 a.d. 51. 3 a.D. 55.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 27
arms, however, under the skilful guidance of Cassius Nasica,
succeeded in producing a momentary tranquiUity. Didius
was succeeded by Veranius1.
The Britons of the present England were now, to all ap
pearance, nearly subjected to the Romans ; and the prefect
or legate, Suetonius PaulUnus, the successor of Veranius,
after two years of tranquil administration, resolved on the
reduction of the Isle of Mona (Anglesey)2, the chief seat of
druidism, and a receptacle for fugitives. To this end he
ordered the construction of shaUow vessels for the transport
of the foot-soldiers, while the cavalry should either swim or
wade across the strait. On arriving at the opposite shore
they found a dense band of armed men, between whose ranks
women like furies were seen passing, clad in mourning, with
disheveled locks, and bearing torches; while the female druids
with upraised hands poured forth maledictions on the invaders.
AppaUed and, as it were, petrified at this spectacle, the soldiers
stood aghast and exposed to the missiles of the enemy, till,
on the .exhortation of their general, not to fear a band of
fanatics and women, they rushed to the onset, overthrowing
and destroying in their own fire all who had courage to resist.
A garrison was then left on the isle, and the groves, stained
with the blood of human victims, fell under the axe of
the legionaries. But while the general was thus engaged3,
the Britons were near proving successful in extirpating the
Romans from the country. These, as well as the other
provincials, were bitterly exasperated by the heavy taxes, in
the levying of which they were exposed not only to the rapa
city of Roman usurers — among whom was Lucius Annaeus
Seneca4, in whom the love of wisdom and of base lucre existed
in a rare, though not unexampled combination — but also by
the most intolerable oppression of the procurator Catus, and
of other Roman officials.
1 Tac. Ann. xii. 40, xiv. 29. Hist. iii. 45. 2 a.d. 61.
3 Tac. Ann. xiv. 29. 4 Dio ap. Xiph. lxii. 2.

28 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
No tribe endured the incorporation of their country as a
province more impatiently than the Iceni. Their king, the
wealthy Prasutagus, in the view of securing both his king
dom and family from the officers and farmers of the revenue,
and, according to a practice then prevalent, seeking in de
gradation a safeguard against insult, had made the emperor
his joint heir with his two daughters. The atrocities perpe
trated by the insolent and profligate officials of the provinces
(whom vice instigated more than the desire of possession, and
whose inordinate lusts had been excited by wantonness to a
recklessness of all the rights of humanity, as well as of theh
own weU-understood interest,) were at length the cause that,
under the conduct of Boudicea, the magnanimous widow of
Prasutagus, who had been scourged as a slave, and the chastity
of whose daughters had been violated, a multitude of a hun
dred and twenty thousand Britons1 surprised the Romans, de
stroyed Camulodunum,the important emporium London2, and
Verulam, and slaughtered seventy thousand Romans (including
the ninth legion under the legate Petilius Cerealis), and theh
traitorous British allies, with all the fury of vengeance to
wliich the violation of their temples, theh honour, and their
domestic hearths could impel them3. Suetonius PauUinus,
in a contest of despair, gained, through his wedge-shaped
array, a bloody victory, which, after the fall of eighty thou
sand Britons, Boudicea would not survive4 : she ended her
days by poison5. Yet neither the want of regular discipUne,
1 Dio ap. Xiph. lxii. 1 sq.
2 " Londinium, cognomento quidem coloniae non insigne, sed copia nego-
tiatorum et commeatuum maxime celebre." Tac. Ann. xiv. 33.
3 Dio ap. Xiph. lxii. The grove of Andraste or Andate, the British god
dess of victory, is mentioned as the chief place where these atrocities were
perpetrated. — T. 4 a.d. 62.
5 Tac. Ann. xiv. 31-37. Boudicea is described by Dio (ap. Xiph.) as of the
largest size, most terrible of aspect, most savage of countenance, and harsh
of voice ; having a profusion of yellow hair which fell down to her hips,
and wearing a large golden collar ; she had on a party-coloured flowing
vest drawn close about her bosom, and over this she wore a thick mantle

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 29
nor the reinforcements of the Romans, but only a scarcity of
corn in the following winter compelled the Britons again to
submit to the dominion of the Caesars. One point, however,
was gained : the necessity of a mild administration became
understood at Rome. The procurator Catus was succeeded
by Julius Classicianus ; the general by Petronius Turpilianus ;
his followers were the contemptible Trebellius Maximus, and
the inactive Vettius Bolanus, under whose inefficient command
the Roman soldiery became more licentious, the Britons more
bold1. Among the Brigantes, Venusius had fostered enmity
to Rome and her ally Cartismandua ; and they might have
hoped to overpower the Romans, had not Vespasian, at that
time emperor, appointed PetiUus Cerealis to the dignity of
consular legate, who, after an entire year of contest, succeeded
in subduing them: yet did these mountaineers ever rise again
with renewed strength2. The Silures could only be withheld
from further strife by his successor Julius Frontinus3, who
was followed in the administration of the province by Cneius
Julius Agricola4, a leader whose glorious memory will for ever
live in the noble monument raised to his father-in-law by the
great historian of the empire.
The first campaign of Agricola, after his arrival, was against
the Ordovices, who had attacked and nearly annihilated a
body of Roman cavalry stationed on their border. Having
destroyed the greater part of this people, he directed his at
tention to the reconquest of Mona, which had recovered its
liberty on the sudden departure of Paullinus to quell the in
surrection under Boudicea. Though without vessels for the
transport of his soldiers, the energy of Agricola was not to
be subdued. He caused such of his auxiliaries as were most

fastened by a clasp. Such was her usual dress, but at this time she also
bore a spear. By the same authority we are informed that she died of
disease. — T.
1 Tac. Ann. xiv. 38. Agric. c. xvi. ; Hi3t. i. 60. 3 a.d. 70-75.
3 a.d. 75-78. 4 Josephus de Bell. Jud. vii. 4. Tac. Agric. cvii.

30 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
expert in swimming, and who were acquainted with the loca
Uty, to cross the strait, on whose unlooked-for approach the
surprised inhabitants sued for peace, and again yielded to the
Romans. But Agricola had not to learn that tranquillity could be
best maintained by removing the causes of discontent, and,
acting on this conviction, he undertook the work of reform,
wisely beginning with his own household. He checked the
abuses connected with the levying of the taxes, which were
even more intolerable than the taxes themselves. The summer
immediately following1 was employed in improving the state
of the army, in the formation of camps, and other measures
for the security of the province ; and the winter was passed
in introducing among the rugged natives the luxuries and
refinements of the capital.
To this end neither exhortations nor aid were wanting on
the part of Agricola. Temples, baths and other structures,
both public and private, were erected ; the British youth were
instructed in the language and learning of Rome ; elegant and
costly entertainments became fashionable, and with the toga
were adopted the vices of the imperial city. Among the in
experienced this passed under the name of politeness, whUe
it was a part of their servitude.
In the third year of his government Agricola conducted his
forces as far as the Tay, where he estabhshed strong garrisons.
In his fourth year, for the security of his conquests, he caused
a Une of forts to be erected between the Firths of Forth and
Clyde2. With a view to the future subjugation of Ireland, to
which he had been excited by the representations of an exiled
chief, Agricola, in the year foUowing, extended his conquests
1 A.D. 79.
2 On the subject of the Roman walls in Britain, the reader will find a
very able digest in a work entitled ' Eburacum, or York under the Romans,
by C. Wellbeloved,' 8vo, 1842 : which contains also much valuable matter
connected with the latest discoveries in Yorkshire and the North, as well
as with the state of Roman Britain in general.-— T.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 31
to the western shores of Britain, where he stationed nume
rous forces, to be in readiness for ulterior operations.
In the summer of his sixth year he proceeded with an army
to the country beyond the Forth, while a fleet coasting along
the eastern shore seconded his designs. At the sight of the
ships the Britons were struck with amazement, while the
Romans were equally alarmed by accounts of the valour and
activity of the Caledonians. These in the night attacked the
ninth legion, and, having slain the sentinels, were already en
gaged in a sanguinary contest within the camp, when Agri
cola, informed of theh movements by his scouts, commanded
the fleetest of his horse and foot to follow in their track. The
Caledonians having now an enemy to contend against in front
and rear, were compelled to seek for safety in the shelter of
their marshes and forests.
In the last year of his administration Agricola resolved on
another expedition into Caledonia. For this purpose he as
sembled his sea and land forces, having added to the latter a
corps of tried British auxiliaries. With these he advanced
to the Grampian hiUs, where he found the Britons, under
their general Calgacus, to the number of thirty thousand,
drawn up in battle array, their foot being posted in Unes on
the declivity, while the chariots and horse occupied the level
plain. In the centre of his battle Agricola placed eight thou
sand auxihary foot ; his legions were posted in front of the
camp ; three thousand horse were in the wings. As long as
they fought with missiles, the advantage appears to have been
on the side of the natives ; but on the attack of three Batavian
and two Tungrian cohorts with their pointed swords, the
Britons, whose long ponderous swords without points and
smaU targets were but ill fitted for close action, were com
pelled to give ground. On the advance of other cohorts
their horse were put to flight, and the chariots driven in dis
order among the infantry. Those of the Britons who had
occupied the summit of the hills now descended, with the de-

32 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
sign of attacking the rear of the Romans, but were repulsed
by a body of cavalry which had been held in reserve by the
foresight of Agricola. The foUowing day exhibited to the
victors the spectacle of a vast solitude, at a distance the smoke
of burning dwellings, but not a vestige of a living being. The
loss of the Britons in this conflict is estimated at ten thou
sand, that of the Romans at three hundred and sixty. The
army then retired into winter quarters, and the fleet, having
made the circuit of the island, returned to Sandwich (Portus
Trutulensis), from whence it had sailed. Triumphal ornaments
and the honour of a statue were decreed to Agricola, who
shortly after delivered up his province to a successor, returned
to Rome, which, according to order, he entered by night,
and, after a cold reception by Domitian, sank into obscurity
amid the servile crowd1.
The quiet of the latter years in the greater part of South
Britain, not less than the power of arms in other districts of
the country, had now (when the Celtic tribes of the continent,
notwithstanding the fruitless endeavours of Cl. CiviUs in
Belgic Gaul2, had also submitted to the Romans) greatly
promoted the union of Britain with the Roman empire. The
politic and wise administration of Agricola completed the
Romanizing of the British Celts, and gave to the larger por
tion of Britain the form under which for several centuries it
was governed, and at the same time caused the political di
vision of the country into the parts which from later settlers
have obtained the names of England and Scotland. The
form of government under which the country was acknow
ledged as a part of Europe, while it destroyed the national
unity of the Britons, must in its connexion with the whole
administration of the empire be here briefly delineated.
The division into Britannia Inferior and Superior3 is nearly
identical with the present one into England and Scotland.
1 Tac. Agric. c. vii. — xl. 3 Tac. Hist. iv. 15. 3 Dio Cass. Iv. 23.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 33
The provinces were : Britannia Prima, or the district to the
south of the Thames and the Bristol Channel; Britannia
Secunda, the present principality of Wales ; Flavia Caesari-
ensis, so called from the master of Agricola, which extended
from the Thames to the Mersey and the Humber. Beyond
the Humber, to the distance of twenty-five miles north of the
Picts' wall, was the province of Maxima Caesariensis, bor
dering on the fifth province Valentia, which extended to the
firths, to the country beyond which the name of Vespasiana
had, it is said, been given ; but of which, as the memorial of
a fruitless occupation, mention is made only in the work of
Richard of Cirencester, discovered (if not fabricated) in the
middle of the last century.
The supreme civil and military power in Britain *was at
first vested in a governor, who bore the high title of Legatus,
or Consularis1. The Procurator or Quaestor administered
the concerns of the imperial treasury, levied the land-tax, the
poll-tax, and those laid on certain natural productions. Se
verus divided the government into two portions2. When
Constantine parted the empire into four governments, Bri
tannia fell to that which was placed under the Praefectus
Praetorio Galliarum, who at first resided at Treves and sub
sequently at Aries. Under a vicar of the prefect, two con-
sulars were appointed to the provinces of Maxima Caesari
ensis and Valentia, and three presidents over those of Bri
tannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, and Flavia Caesariensis3.
For the revenues of the country, a Rationalis Summarum
Britanniarum, a Praepositus Thesaurorum Augustensium in
Britanniis, and a Procurator Cynegii in Britannia Biennensis4
were subordinate to the Comes Largitionum of the West.
1 The title of Praefectus or Propraetor of Britain occurs only in later
writers. 2 Herodian. in. 24. 3 Zosim. ii. 33. Not. Imp. Occid. c. Ixviii.
4 Not. Imp. c. xxxiv. For Biennensis Pancirol. (p. 68) reads Dremtensis,
but without adding any explanation. Graevius (Thes. torn, vii.) has Ben-
tensis, and cynegii instead of the gynecii of the earlier editors.
VOL. I. D

34 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
Under the Comes Largitionum Privatarum there was a spe
cial Rationalis Rei Privatae per Britannias1. We can here
give only an imperfect outline of the administration ; the de
tails, such as the amount of revenue, its increase or diminu
tion, are totally unknown to us. It was not, however, tiU
after the time of Appian2 that the receipts of the state be
gun to cover the expenses of the government. The military
force in Britain under the Magister Mihtum PraesentaUs,
which was intrusted to the Comes Militum Britanniarum,
consisted of 2200 infantry and 200 cavalry; to the Comes
Tractus Maritimi (at a later period, Litoris Saxonici per Bri
tannias) 3000 infantry and 600 horse ; and a stUl larger force
to the Dux Limitum Britanniarum, of 14,000 infantry and
900 cavalry, forming together an army of 19,200 infantry
and 1700 cavalry. The British Count had thirty-seven
castella to defend ; the Count of the Saxon shore, nine for
tresses situated on the coast of South Britain, from the
straits of Dover to Brancaster in Norfolk and Pevensey in
Sussex3. The frontier fortresses were numerous and required
strong garrisons.
The number of these officials and — when compared with
the others of the empire — the narrow limits of the British
province lead us to infer the existence of a sufficient object
both for the activity and cupidity of those employed in the
administration and their subalterns; an inference, indeed,
which seems incompatible with the current opinion of the
want of all civilization in the country. More important,
however, for the Britons than those forms in which the am-
1 Not. Imp. c. xii. 2 See his preface.
3 Not. Imp. cc. xix., Ixxii., and Pancirol. ibid. p. 157. The title of Comes
Litoris Saxonici first occurs in the Notitia Imperii Occident, composed in
the time of Arcadius and Honorius. The conservation of peace on the British
coast on the Atlantic fell much more naturally to the Gaulish coast troops
under the command of the Dux tractus Armoricani (Not. Imp. Occid. i.
86) ; though the chief command over the marine in those parts may, as
in the instance of Carausius, have sometimes been held by one individual.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 35
bition of a few Romans found a step to higher objects, or the
rapacity of others sought the means of gratification, must
have been the economy of the civic constitution ; and here
we behold those advantages, which even an enemy always
brings to a previously isolated country. When the Romans
abandoned Britain it contained twenty-eight cities, besides a
considerable number of castella, ports, and small communi
ties. Among the first, we know of two municipia, York and
Verulam ; nine colonies, Camulodunum (Maldon or Colches
ter), Rhutupiae (Richborough), Londinium Augusta (London),
Glevum Claudia (Gloucester), Thermae Aquae Solis (Bath),
Isca Silurum (Carleon in Monmouthshire), Camboricum
(Chesterford near Cambridge), Lindum (Lincoln), and Deva
Colonia (Chester) ; also ten cities which had obtained the
right of Latium: Pterotone (Inverness), Victoria (Perth),
Durnomagus (Caister in Lincolnshire), Lugubalia (Carlisle),
Cattaractone (Catterick), Cambodunum (Slack in Long-
wood), Coccium (Blackrode in Lancashire ?), Theodosia (Dun-
barton), Corinum (Cirencester), and Sorbiodunum (Old Sa
rum), the last colony to the south-west in the country of the
free Damnonii. Volantium (Ellenborough in Cumberland),
so rich in Roman remains, preserves an inscription, from
which we learn that it had Decurions who assembled in a
public building destined for the purpose1. These cities,
therefore, possessed a council (Decuriones, Curiales, Muni-
cipes), with magistrates of their own choosing (Duumviri and
Principales), and the right of contentious as well as of volun
tary jurisdiction. To them was committed the levying of
taxes in their districts, and it is known how the joint security
of the civic decurions became both a burthen to themselves
and brought the greatest obloquy on their order. That these
abuses had also found their way into Britain, we learn from
1 Petrie, C. H. p. cxiii. No. 123. Horsl. B. R. 68.
D 2

36 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
an ordinance of Constantine for the remedying of the same
in this country 1. Subsequently to the time of that emperor,
the Defensor elected by the whole city, more especially
against the oppressions of the governor, had become of con
sideration. The establishment of corporations at Rome, into
which certain artizans and handicraftsmen were united, was
extremely advantageous to them when they were removed
into foreign provinces. We find much information concern
ing these coUeges in ancient inscriptions ; and it is very pro
bable that, together with the trades of Rome, this form of
social unions, as well as the hereditary obligation under
which the former were conducted, was propagated in Britain,
and was the original germ of those guilds, which became so
influential in Europe some centuries after the cessation of
the Roman dominion2.
Great caution is necessary in endeavouring to show what
ancient British elements were preserved under the Romans.
From the Latin authors we can extract very Uttle upon the
subject, and the old British accounts have reached us in a form
comparatively modern and demonstrably much corrupted.
In the larger eastern portion of the country, it is chiefly in
the names of rivers and mountains that the old British de
nominations have been preserved3; those of tribes and of
places being either wholly lost, or in their Roman disguise
scarcely to be recognised ; while in Gaul the old names may
easily be traced. As rare exceptions may be mentioned a
few places known through commerce prior to the Roman
conquests in the north of Europe, viz. Vecta (the Isle of
Wight), Dubris (Dover), the county of Kent, and that uni
versal mart on the Thames, which, though dignified by the
1 Cod. Theod. xi. tit. 7, 2.
2 ' Collegium lignatorum,' inscrip. at Middleby in Scotland : ' fabrorum,'
inscrip. at Chichester. Horsley, B. R. pp. 337, 342. Petrie, C. H. pp.
cxii, cxiii. Cf. also Wilda, ' Das Gildenwesen im Mittelalter.'
3 For a copious enumeration of these with illustrations, see Chalmers's
Caledonia, vol. i. p. 33-36.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 37
Romans with the name of Augusta, has still preserved its
ancient appellation of London1.
It was otherwise beyond the mountains, the British Apen
nines, which separate the country into two portions, where,
in the later territory of the Cymry, comprising Cumberland,
the south-east of Scotland, Westmoreland and Lancashire ;
in Wales, Cornwall, Devonshire, Man and Anglesey, every
philological deduction justifies the inference of a purer pre
servation of the British stock. Of the dialects and literature
of Wales we shall have occasion to speak hereafter ; it may,
however, be here observed, that Cornwall, so late as the
twelfth century, was by the Norwegians called Bretland2,
and until the middle of the sixteenth century only the primi
tive British or Lloegrian tongue was there spoken ; since
which time, through the reformation of the church and the
spread of EngUsh printed books, it rapidly declined, till,
about half a century ago, on the death of its last preserver,
a very aged woman, it was entirely blotted from the list of
living dialects3. Still longer has the old Celtic tongue been
preserved in the Isle of Man4. With the old British terri-
1 " Lundinium vetus oppidum, quod Augustam posteritas adpellavit."
Amm. Marcell. xxvii. 8.
2 See Theodoric the monk of Trondhjem, in Hist, et Antiq. Regum
Norwegiae, apud Langebek, Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, t. v. p. 315.
3 From 1560 to 1602 the Cornish dialect greatly declined, and became
limited to the western part of the county, where it was preserved till the
beginning of the last century. Lhuyd (Archaeologia Britannica, p. 225-
253) gives a grammar of the Cornish. The printed books in this dialect
are few, and only three or four in manuscript. Latterly, however, we are
indebted to the late Davies Gilbert, Esq., for ' Mount Calvary,' and ' The
Creation of the World,' 8vo. The first is in old Cornish with a slight
mixture of Saxon or Norse. The other is in more modern Cornish, written
in 1611. To both are added translations made by J. Knigwin in 1682,
together with several small Cornish pieces. Cf. Borlase's 'Antiquities of
Cornwall.' Oxf. 1758, folio. W. Price, 'Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica,
containing a Cornish Grammar and Vocabulary.' Sherborne, 1790, 4to.
Daines Barrington on the expiration of the Cornish language, in Archaeol.
vol. iii. p. 279, vol. v. p. 81 ; also the treatises in Grose's 'Antiquarian
Repertory,' vol. ii.
4 See Henry Rowland's ' Mona Antiqua restaurata, with an Appendix

38 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
tories may perhaps be reckoned the tract of country extend
ing from the Humber to the Firth of Forth, which after the
departure of the Romans was formed into two states, the
names of which, Deifyr and Bryneich, are undoubtedly Bri
tish. Here are also several British names of places that have
undergone but little corruption.
That British princes of the old reigning native families
were acknowledged by the Romans after the death of Cogi-
dubnus, is by no means improbable, as, according to theh
wise policy, it was thought useful, in the other provinces of
the empire, to preserve such mediators, as it were, between
themselves and nations wholly differing from them in speech,
habits, and notions of right ; yet as no mention of their names
is to be found even in the accounts of the several insurrec
tions in Britain, nor on coins or other monuments, they must
have acted a part little beyond that of rich private individuals,
who were regarded by their oppressed countrymen with the
respect due to their lineage, as weU as with hvely sympathy,
and, sometimes, with secret hope. British tradition speaks of
princes of Colchester, of Cornwall, and among the ' Gewissi '
in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, during the sway of the
Romans, on which, however, a probable hypothesis may rest
in favour of the existence of certain princely famUies, from
whom many of the ancient, noble and wealthy races derived
their origin1.
In no part of England are there fewer Roman remains than
among the Damnonii and in Wales. To explain this sUght
influence of the Romans by the supposition of greater pliancy
containing a comparative table of primitive and derivative words.' Lond.
1722 and 1766, 4to. Also 'A Practical Grammar of the Ancient Gaelic,
or Language of the Isle of Man, usually called Manks,' by John Kelly,
Lond. 1808. Some translations of the Scriptures exist in this dialect.
1 The continuation of such princes in Britain with a subordinate autho
rity is adopted by Whitaker (Histoiy of Manchester, i. p. 247). By Gib
bon (c. xxxi. note 184) the hypothesis is rejected, while Palgrave (Rise and
Progress, i. p. 324) favours it. What is here stated may perhaps suggest
new grounds for the supposition.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 39
and weakness in the natives of those parts is not justifiable,
when we call to remembrance the noble struggles of the
Silures : on the contrary, we may, both from the above cir
cumstance and from the fact that the western coasts of En
gland continued free from attacks from the opposite shore of
Ireland, conclude that those people who were able to preserve
the most striking sign of distinct nationality in their native
tongue, continued in reality as respected aUies of the Romans ;
the Roman chancery too might, in such a case, find it easy
to forget, that to the unity of their power in Britannia Prima
and Secunda some districts were wanting, and the treasury
not unwiUingly forgo the contributions and taxes of the coasts
on the Atlantic.
This view of the limits of the real dominion of Rome, and
of the condition of the western tribes, is in many respects im
portant for later history : it explains and supports the British
traditions, the accounts of the first introduction of Christi
anity, the state of the country after the departure of the Ro
mans, and, in a degree, marks out the limits of the Anglo-
Saxon conquests, which may frequently be traced by those
of Roman Britain.
A fact worthy of notice in this place, is the existence down
to recent times of the old British law of succession in Wales,
Kent, and some parts of Northumberland, called Gavelkind.
As far as we are enabled to understand it in its mixture with
Anglo-Saxon law, all the sons of the same father inherited,
but the youngest possessed the homestead ; the eldest, or the
next following capable of bearing arms, had the heriot, that
is, the arms offensive and defensive of hi» father, and his
horse. Even the son of an outlaw could not be deprived of
the entire succession, but of the half only1.
Of events in Britain under the Romans there is but little
1 'Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales,' p. 266, and on the subject of
Gavelkind in Kent see ' Statutes of the Realm,' vol. i. The greater part of
the usages there recorded are pure Germanic.

40 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
to relate. A province has no individual existence ; its vege
tative dreamlike being no history. Most of the occurrences
of which it may have been the theatre, even the changes and
modifications in the machine of its government, belong to the
history of the empire or of its metropolis. The laurels won
by British legions in distant lands seldom came to the know
ledge, and still more seldom touched the hearts of their coun
trymen. This last acquisition of a fragUe state colossus was
particularly unfortunate : the culture of the Romans, grafted
with violence on the wild stock, not being that of the higher
intellectual life and exalted moral feeling, but of an age in
which talent and mental powers, deaf to the inward voice,
under, and in harmony with which they ought to be culti
vated, were subservient only to sensuality, to aU the faihngs
of humanity, and to the then prevailing disregard of the social
union. Roman customs, Roman garb, and Roman extrava
gance found entrance among the barbarians, with the temples,
language, and law of the metropolis of the world ; and every
benign as well as every hurtful influence of victory combined
to destroy the nationahty of a conquered people amalgamated
with its conquerors.
From Scotland came the movement which, in the time of
the emperor Hadrian, awakened the spirit of British freedom
to new life, and to an apparently weU-founded hope of totally
casting off the imperial yoke1. Though the Roman armies
maintained themselves in the elder province, the emperor,
nevertheless, deemed it advisable to retire from the boundary
line drawn and fortified by Agricola in Scotland2, and, between
the Tyne and Solway Firth, to cast up a rampart with a ditch
— the Picts' wall stUl existing to the height of six feet — which
1 M\. Spart. Had. u. v. Britanni teneri sub Romana ditione non po-
terant. Fronto de Bello Parthico, § 4. Hadriano imperium obtinente,
quantum militum a Britannis caesum ! Orosius, vii. 17. Severus victor in
Britannias defectu pene omnium sociorum trahitur. Ubi magnis gravibus-
que praeliis ssepe gestis, etc. Cf. also Cassiodorus,
2 Tac. Agric. c. xxiii.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 41
should defend what was more strictly the Roman province1.
An irruption of the Maeatae, dwelling in the south of Scotland,
was attended with the support and junction of many of the
Brigantes, and probably of other Britons, seeing that they
were able to penetrate to the Ordovices. They were, however,
driven back by the propraetor Lollius Urbicus, who erected
the rampart of earth bearing the name of his master, the
emperor Antoninus Pius, between Caerriden on the Forth and
Alcluid (Whiterne) on the Clyde2. Of a war in Britain during
the reign of Marcus Antoninus3, we know little more than
the name of the Roman general, Calpurnius Agricola4. The
emperor who, in the tranquillity of his palace, meditated on
lessons of recondite wisdom, was satisfied if his name was
bestowed on the northernmost monument of Roman sway;
and the orator flattered both him and his people with the
conceit that, in the delightful enjoyment of science and learn
ing, he directed the helm of the mighty vessel of the state, as
well as this remote warfare5. Under Commodus6 the boundary
wall was broken through by the Britons, to repel whom proved
an arduous undertaking to the Roman general, Ulpius Mar-
cellus7. He was succeeded by Clodius Albinus, who accepted
the title of Caesar, which had been offered to him by Com
modus, from Severus8, whose sole motive in conferring that
honour seems to have been to lull suspicion in the mind of a
' a.d. 120. Ml. Spart. Had. c.xi.
2 Jul. Capitol, de M. Anton, c. v. Horsley, B. R. p. 160. Petrie,
C. H. p. cvii sqq. The account given in the text is the one generally fol
lowed, and in Graham's dyke traces of the rampart seem to be preserved :
the inscriptions there found also refer to Antoninus ; still Pausanias (viii.
43. § 3.), under this supposition, remains to be explained, but whose ac
count, nevertheless, agrees with the passage cited of Capitolinus, and is
compatible with the hypothesis, that the vallum of Antoninus may have
been raised near that of Hadrian, which had been destroyed bythe Britons.
3 a.d. 161-180. 4 J. Capit. de M. Anton, c. viii.
5 Fronto, cited by Eumenius (Panegyr. Const. Caes. t. xiv.).
6 a.d. 190-197. i Dio ap. Xiph. lxxii. s. 8.
8 Herod, ii. 48, iii. 16-23. Dio ap. Xiph. lxxiii. 14. J. Capit. cc. xiii.,
xiv. Aur. Vict. c. xx. Oros. vii. 17.

42 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
vain but potent officer, of whom he was jealous, and whose
destruction he had resolved. On the inteUigence that Severus
was advancing with a hostile army, Albinus crossed with his
forces over to Gaul : the armies met on the plain of Trevoux,
near Lyons. For some time victory seemed to inchne to the
side of Albinus, Severus being unhorsed and disappearing
from the field ; but the arrival of fresh troops to his aid
changed the face of things ; the army of Albinus was routed,
himself seized and beheaded in Lyons, where he had shut
himself up from the commencement of the conflict. Having
settled the affairs of Britain, Severus, as has aheady been
observed, divided the government into two provinces1.
At this time the power of the northern tribes had become
so formidable, that the propraetor, Virius Lupus, was com
pelled not only to purchase with a considerable sum a short
respite from the inroads of the Maeatae, but to sohcit either
an additional force or the presence of the emperor himself.
Though advanced in years and afflicted with gout, Severus
obeyed the summons with alacrity. Attended by his sons,
Antoninus Caracalla and Septimius Geta, he soon arrived in
Britain, where he lost no time in making the most efficient
preparations for the subjugation of the barbarians. To his
younger son, Geta, he committed the civil administration of
the province : Caracalla accompanied his father. On the
arrival of the Romans beyond the Umits of the province, the
natives, though unfitted for regular warfare through the want
of discipline and of defensive armour, harassed the Romans
on their march, who, nevertheless, continued to advance, feU-
ing woods, levelling hills, rendering marshes passable, and
constructing bridges. At length, after a loss of fifty thousand
men, they reached nearly to the extremity of the island, where,
having entered into a treaty with the natives, according to
which a considerable portion of territory was to be yielded to
the Romans, the emperor, who during the whole expedition
1 Herodian. iii. 24.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 43
had been borne in a covered litter, returned to York. On
the inteUigence of a fresh insurrection, Severus, whom age
and sickness compelled to remain inactive, resolved on send
ing an army under Caracalla to extirpate the barbarians. That
prince, however, who was far less intent on prosecuting the
war than on corrupting the soldiery, in the view of excluding
his brother from all share in the empire, on the death of his
father, which shortly after took place at York -, entered into
a truce with the natives and returned to Rome2.
Whether, after his expedition against the northern tribes,
Severus enlarged and strengthened by a wall the rampart of
Hadrian or that of Antoninus3, is to the antiquary a question
not devoid of interest ; but in either case it is manifest that
the south of the present Scotland was always a very insecure
possession to the Romans, and in the hands of extremely
doubtful aUies, and that it was only in the modern England
that Rome held any considerable influence.
The tranquillity which Britain enjoyed, with the exception
of the northern border districts, began in this century to be
disturbed by an event which, new in its kind and conse
quences in the history of the world, had on this country an in
calculable influence. That element which had set a salutary
limit to the hostile desolating wanderings of the savage, which
is, as it were, appointed to be the securest medium and freest
path for civihzation and varied intercourse, was, in the north
of Europe, in a state iU adapted to the purpose either of sepa
ration or communication. It was at that time infested with
swarms of those daring pirates, to whom for many ages after
1 A.D. 211. *
2 Dio ap. Xiph. lxxv. 5, lxxvi. 11-16, lxxvii. 1. Herodian. iii. 46-51.
3 The latter opinion has been started by Mannert ; but would Dio (ap.
Xiph. lxxvi. 12.) have said of the wall of Severus, if it were in Scotland,
without thinking of that of Hadrian, that it divides the island into two parts ?
He must also (1. 15.) have spoken in other terms of the new hostilities of
the Maeatae and Caledonians, if both people had, by the wall, been placed
in a totally different position with regard to the Romans. Cf. also Smith's
Beda, App. No. V.

44 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
it served as a home, and who, in their frail barks, exposing
themselves to all the perils of the stormy ocean, evinced in
every conflict the most desperate valour, with an endurance
and skUl in warfare, which, if applied to higher purposes,
would have renewed in history the dazzling glory of Sparta
and of ancient Rome.
In the historical records that have been handed down to
us, the name of the Saxons does not occur before the end of
the second century, when they are noticed as the possessors
of the islands at the mouth of the Elbe, and probably also of
the opposite districts of Holstein and Hadeln1 . In the fol
lowing century they became so troublesome to the Roman
empire, through their piracies, that, for the purpose of warring
against them and for the protection of the northern coasts, a
commander was appointed by the emperors Diocletian and
Maximian, in the person of Carausius, a Menapian2, whose
successor bore the title of Count of the Saxon shore3. But
of such importance was this appointment, in consequence of
the formidable power of the adversary, that Carausius, pro
bably availing himself of the distraction caused by the GauUsh
Bagaudae, ventured, after entering into a compact and alliance
with the Saxon pirates, to withdraw himself from subjection
1 Ptol. Geogr. ii. 2.
2 a.d. 287-296. ' Pirata.' Claud. Mam. ' Menapiae civis.' Aur. Vict.
deViris Illust. c. xxxix. ' Bataviae alumnus.' Eumen. ' Genere infimus.'
Oros. vii. 25. 'Vilissime natus.' Eufcrop. ix. 21. 'Juvenis in Britannia
ex infima gente creatus.' Galf. Monum. v. 3. Richard of Cirencester, i.
viii. 14, in speaking of the two Menapias (the Irish, and the present
St. David's), says, "Harum imam, quam nam vero incertum, patriam
habebat Carausius."
3 This title first occurs in the ' Notitia Dignitatum Imperii,' compiled
under Arcadius and Honorius. Earlier writers name him 'comes maritimi
tractus ; ' a circumstance not to be overlooked, on account of the impor
tance of the ' litus Saxonicum ' for the history of the Saxons. Of Carausius,
Eutropius, (ix. 21) says, " Cum apud Bononiam, per tractum Belgicae et
Armoricae, pacandum mare accepisset, quod Franci et Saxones infestabant,
etc." Eumenius also in Constantio (c. xii.) says of the fleet of Carausius,
" Quae olim Gallias tuebatur."

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 45
to the Roman sceptre, to fqrtify Boulogne, and to assume the
imperial title in Britain. The emperor Maximian found him
self compelled to acknowledge hira as a joint ruler, but without
seeing an end put to the piracies, by which the coasts of the
German ocean, of the Atlantic, and even of the Mediterranean
were held in constant dread. Carausius had governed in this
country for seven years, even after the loss of Boulogne, vic
torious against the Caledonians, and powerful in his internal
administration, when he fell by the hand of an assassin, his
companion AUectus -, who occupied his place for three years,
when Asclepiodotus, the prefect of the emperor Constantius,
having destroyed him and his forces, stormed London, and
soon restored their most northern province to the dominion
of the Caesars2.
The deeds of Augustus Carausius are of great moment for
the later history of the country. Through him Britain first
learned that it could maintain itself independent of Roman
supremacy, and in security against its northern enemies ; and
the slumbering national spirit became, through this conscious
ness of self-dependence, powerfully excited3. He reigned
chiefly by the help of Frankish warriors, under Roman forms
1 Orosius, vii. 25. Aur. Vict. c. xxxix. Eutrop. ix. 22. Cf. Genebrier,
Geschichte des Carausius aus Miinzen (from the French, in the appendices
to the 'Allegemeine Welthistorie,' Th. vi.). Stukeley's 'Medallic History
of Carausius.' Some coins of Carausius and Allectus are given in Haver-
camp's 'Orosius/ p. 527. See also 'Eumenii Oratio pro restaurandis
Scholis,' cc. xviii., xxi.
2 Eumenius (Paneg. Const, cc. xv.-xvii.) is the only one of the ancients
extant who gives the circumstances of the destruction of Allectus, with
whose account Jeffrey of Monmouth agrees so closely, that we must sup
pose this extraordinary writer to have used ancient works no longer in ex
istence. Even the name given by him of the defender of London, ' Livius
Gallus,' is probably, like his other Roman names, genuine.
3 A few years earlier a prefect of Britain, under the emperor Probus,
having raised a rebellion, had by some artifice (sYg-voi? oiix cttpooyi) been
circumvented and put to death by a minister of the emperor sent over for
the purpose. Zosimus, i. 66.

*

46 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
of government, which, from their connexion with his memory,
may have been held in a higher degree of veneration in the
minds of later races1.
But not less has Carausius influenced the later Germanizing
of Britain by the Saxons. Himself a German by extraction,
a Menapian by birth, if he did not cause the settling of the
Saxons along the Saxon shore, in Gaul as well as in Britain,
he at least promoted it by his alUance with them2. The pre
vailing opinion, that the ' Litus Saxonicum ' borrowed its
name from the enemy to whose attacks it was exposed, ap
pears as contrary to the principles of sound philology as it is
unhistorical3. By the probably contemporaneous settlements
of the Saxons on the Litus Saxonicum near Bayeux (to wliich,
perhaps, the circumstance may partly be ascribed, that the
manners and language of the French found slower admission
into that place than into the other parts of Normandy4), the
weakness of the Romans, even on the coasts of Gaul and
elsewhere across the channel, is authenticaUy shown, as weU
1 That the coins of Carausius, bearing the impress of the wolf and twins,
were copied by the Bretwalda JEthelberht of Kent, can hardly be placed to
the account of mere caprice. The circular temple, that remarkable and
venerable relic which, till destroyed by the hand of modern barbarism, stood
on the banks of the Carron, though in later times attributed to Julius
Caesar and to Arthur, was at a remoter period considered to be the work of
Carausius. See Stukeley ; also Palgrave, vol. i. pp. 376, 377. Nennius,
c. xix. Camden, and ' De Mirabilibus Britanniae ' at the end of Hearne's
Robert of Gloucester, p. 576.
2 Eutropius, ix. 21, speaks only of the Belgian and Armorican coasts.
Beda (H. E. i. 6.) here copies Orosius, who takes his account from Eutro
pius. 3 See Palgrave, vol. i. p. 384, who takes the same view. — T.
4 Grannona in litore Saxonico. Not. Imp. Occid. c. lxxxvi. DuChesne,
Hist. torn. i. p. 3. In the capitularies of Charles the Bald tbis district is
called 'Otlingua Saxonica.' Bouquet, vii. p. 616. ' Saxones Bajocassini.'
Greg. Turon. v. c. 27. a. 578. x. c. 9. Fortunati Carm. iii. 8, says, at
the end of the sixth century, speaking of Felix, bishop of Nantes,
" Aspera gens Saxo, vivens quasi more ferino,
Te mediante, sacer, bellua reddit ovem."

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 47
as the proneness of the Saxons to similar settlements, of
which also the ' Litus Saxonicum in Belgica Secunda' (Flan
ders)1, not less than the just application of language, affords
a further proof.
During the reign of Constantius Chlorus, the position of
Britain in the Roman state must have been very prominent.
Swayed both by inclination and probably by matrimonial
connexions — his wife Helena being, it is said, the daughter,
or at least the relative of a British prince2 — and perhaps by
the wish also to preserve this country to Rome, Constantius
passed the greater part of his life in Britain. He died at
York, where his son Constantine was proclaimed emperor.
A German prince supported his nomination, a circumstance
from which we may infer the presence of German warriors3.
The name of Constantine the Great immediately reminds
us of the rapid diffusion of Christianity during his time, and
through him.
The Christian faith found at an early period, among both
the Celtic and the German races, ready admission into
Britain, and, even when persecuted, had, in soUtary retire
ment, borne promising fruits for the future. It is, down to
the latest times, so closely interwoven with the social consti
tution and, consequently, with the leading events of this
country, that a glance at the history of religion is often in
dispensable for the illustration of political events. The ac-
1 See Warnkbnig, Flandrische Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, vol. i. p. 95.
2 Panegyr. Vet. pp. 192, 207. Henry of Huntingdon (lib. i„ we know
not on what authority) and Jeffrey of Monmouth (v. 6, 11.) give to this
prince the name of Coel (of Colchester). On the other hand, in the ' Gesta
Treberorum,' c. xxix., it is said, "Helena Trerjerorum nobilissima."
Huntingdon relates, that the walls of London, existing in his time, were
built by Helena. [It seems almost superfluous to remark, that Colchester
derives its name, not from Coel, but rather from its ancient appellation,
Colonia (Camulodunum) . — T.]
3 "Praecipue Eroco, Alamannorum rege, auxilii gratia Constantium
comitato, imperium capit." Aur. Vict. Epit. c. xii. May not the name
Erocus be a corruption of Ertocus, a Latinization of the Old-Saxon
Heritogo (A.-S. Heretoga, Ger. Herzog), dux}

48 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
count that, less than thirty years after the death of the
Redeemer, a lady of distinction — Pomponia Graecina, the wife
of that Plautius whose victories in Britain had gained him the
honour of an ovation — adopted Christianity, stands probably
on no better foundation than other tales of a simUar nature,
it being improbable that this lady ever set foot in Britain ;
yet as early as the close of the following century, Christianity
had advanced even into parts of Britain not subject to the
Romans, by which Cornwall and Wales are particularly to be
understood. The agreement of the British with the Eastern
churches respecting the celebration of Easter1, shows a con
formity most satisfactorily, perhaps, to be accounted for by
the supposition of an historic basis for the several legends re
specting the preaching of the doctrines of Christ by oriental
apostles. It is even probable that the first tidings of the new
faith did not come from Rome, where it was still under op
pression, but rather from one of those congregations of Asia
Minor, which the Mediterranean had long held in connexion
with Gaul, and from whence, by the great pubhc roads, the
spirit of conversion easily found its way to Britain2.
Less objectionable seems the tradition of the adoption of
Christianity by the British prince Lever Maur (the Great
Light), or Lucius, on comparing it with the testimony of
Tertullian3. Lucius is reported to have sent Fagan and
Dervan to Rome, for the sake of receiving from the bishop
Eleutherius more accurate instruction in the doctrines of
Christianity; whereupon Roman missions passed over to Bri-
1 It appears that in the beginning of the fourth century the Britons and
Romans kept Easter on the same day. Euseb. Pamph. de Vita Constant
iii. 19. xtnuri irctntai) %Qiiri x^lasi, rqii diyiarttrnu ri flckaxa Iojtjjk fcia kxI
Ty uvrri Yifii^a awTthtiaSui. Cf. also Socrat. Hist. v. 22. Cone. Arelat.
(Spelman, pp. 40, 42) and Lingard, H. E. vol. i. p. 45 note, edit.1837. — T.
2 For the traditions respecting Glastonbury, see Will. Malmesb. ' De
Antiquitatibus Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, apud Gale,' t. i. Also Warner's
' History of the Abbey of Glastonbury,' 1826, 4to, who, by the way, gives
oredit to the tradition of St. Paul's preaching in Britain.
3 Adv. Jud. c. vii.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 49
tain, and there founded three archbishoprics and twenty-
eight bishoprics' — denominations which are of course to be
understood in the sense of the time. The supposition seems
by no means unreasonable, that the Anglo-Saxon Romanists,
in their disputes with the British foUowers of the eastern
church, would, in such tales, provide themselves with a
weapon of controversy ; yet how is it that we find them in a
complete form precisely in those authors who have translated
the old British authorities2 ?
Gaul, in the time of the predecessors of Eleutherius, had
very numerous Christian congregations, which have been
ennobled by the persecutions they underwent at Lyons and
Vienne, in the year 177 j fleeing from which, many of their
members may have increased the number of believers among
the kindred Britons. The controversy between the Jewish
and the heathen Christians upon several external matters, and
especially the celebration of Easter, had already at that time
1 This number is, no doubt, connected with the catalogue of the twenty-
eight cities of Britain mentioned in Nennius, c. ii.
2 Beda (H. E. i. 4.) places Lucius (who, according to Jeffrey of Mon
mouth, died in 156) in the time of Marcus Aurelius, to the beginning of
whose reign he assigns the date 156, instead of 161. In lib. v. c. 24, he
places Eleutherius in the years 167-182. Nennius gives 167 as the year
of the conversion of Lucius. In his 'Chronicon' Beda places this event
in 180, which agrees better with the regnal years of pope Eleutherius, 167-
182, or, according to ' Anastasii Vitae Pontificum,' 179-194, where mention
is made of Lucius in the words used by Beda in his history, " Hic accepit
epistolam a Lucio, Britanniae rege, ut Christianus eificeretur per ejus man-
datum," of which passage the last three words aie wanting in Beda's
' Chronicon.' On the other hand, Anastasius agrees with the ' Chronicon '
in mentioning, under Victor, the successor of Eleutherius, the document
(libelli) of the latter relative to the celebrating of Easjter. If Beda had had
the ' Vitae Pontificum ' before him, the account of Lucius must gain con
siderably in point of historic credibility ; at the same time the confusion
in the chronology is quite inexplicable. Not less hazardous does it appear
to assume that the author of the ' Vitae Pontificum ' had both of Beda's
works at hand. A thorough examination of the ' Gesta ' or ' Vitae Ponti
ficum ' would probably lead to the discovery of a common source to both
authors. With regard to the accounts of Jeffrey of Monmouth, it may
not be amiss to notice that he appeals (iv. 20.) to a work of Gildas, ' De
Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii.' See Pref. to Stevenson's edit, of ' Gildas,' p. xi .
VOL. r. E

50 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
engaged the minds of men, and, among the new converts, who
belonged to neither party, but had at once sprung from druid
ism, occasioned new scruples. Without, therefore, attaching
much importance to later embellishments of the account of a
mission from a distinguished British chieftain to Eleutherius,
we may, perhaps, assume, that the former might have applied
to the head of the Western church, with the view of effecting
an arrangement of the contradictory opinions prevailing among
the Christians under his dominion.
The gradual spread of Christianity in Britain drew upon it
the unpropitious eye of the pagan emperors, and the perse
cution of the Christians under Diocletian has left behind it
a terrific remembrance also in this country. The martyrdom
of St. Alban at Verulam, and of the two citizens of Caerleon
upon Usk, Aaron and Julius, could not be obscured, even in
the following times of relapse into paganism1. The Christian
faith and the measures adopted for its preservation were,
however, not yet entirely suppressed. Under Constantius,
the mild successor of Diocletian, Christianity again ventured
to show itself, and under Constantine we meet with the
names and dioceses of three British bishops, who were present
at the first Council of Aries : Eborius of York, Restitutus of
London, and Adelfius of Lincoln2, and at the same time learn
the dissidence of their tenets from those of the Romish
church. This account supports a tradition, which has been
too much called in doubt, that, besides the above-mentioned,
Wales also (Britannia Secunda) had a bishop at Caerleon, and
the most northern province one at St. Andrews (anciently
Albin), and that each of these bishoprics was divided into
twelve districts3. However erroneous this tradition may be
1 Gildas, c. viii. Beda, i. 7-
2 a.d. 314. Spelman, Cone. t. i. p. 42. The see of Adelfius is there
called " Colonia Londinensium," for which, with Henry, I prefer reading
' Col. Lindum,' than to render it by ' Richborough.'
3 Girald. Cambr. (' De Jure et Statu Menev. Eccl.,' ap. Wharton, 'Anglia
Sacra,' t. i. p. 542) appeals to "tomum Anacleti papse, sicut in pontifi-
calibus Romanorum gestis et imperialibus, directum Galliarum episcopis."

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 51
in naming five archbishoprics and sixty bishoprics, it may,
nevertheless, essentially not be void of foundation.
The first half of the fourth century is chiefly remarkable as
regards Britain, on account of the harmony with which the
natives and Romans, as well as other settlers — brought
together in no small number by their common faith — united
in the arts of peace1. The cultivation of grain had been
carried to such a height, that Britain became the granary of
the northern provinces of the empire, and by yearly exports
supplied other countries with food, while it enriched itself2.
Civic establishments were so flourishing, that builders and
other artificers were demanded from Britain for the restoration
of the desolated provinces3.
The country was crossed by high-roads in various direc
tions, many of which have served the later settlers in their
marches, as well as their commercial operations. It is pro
bable that the Romans themselves found some of these great
highways aheady in existence, which were afterwards known
by the names of Watling Street, leading from the southern
shore of Kent, by Rhutupiae and London, through St. Alban's
and Stony Stratford to Caernarvon4 (Segontium). Ikenild, or
Rikenild Street, from Tynemouth, through York, Derby, and
Birmingham to St. David's. The Irmin (Ermin) Street led
from the latter place to Southampton ; the Foss from Cornwall
to Caithness, or, perhaps, more correctly, only to Lincoln5.
1 "Britannia  terra tanto frugumubere, tantolaetamunere pastionum,
tot metallorum fluens rivis, tot vectigalibus quaestuosa, tot accincta portu-
bus." Eumen. Paneg. Const. Caes. c. xi. Cf. ejupdem Paneg. Const.
Aug. t. ix.
2 Amm. Marcell. xviii. 2. Libanii Orat. a. t. ii. p. 281. Zosimus, iii. 5.
Julian. Imp. ad S. P. Q. Athen. Epist. Eunapii Legat.
3 Eumen. Paneg. Const. Caes. c. xxi. — T.
4 To Cardigan. Higd. Polychron.
5 H. Hunt. lib. i., followed by Robert of Gloucester, ' Ric. Corinaeus de
Situ Britanniae,' lib. i. c. 7, and ' Commentary on the Itinerary,' p. 110
sq. edit. 1809. R. Higden, Polychron, lib. i. cap. ' De Plateis Regalibus.'
Whitaker 's Hist, of Manchester, vol. i. p. 102 sq.
E 2

52 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
These roads, which, if not formed, were at least greatly im
proved by Roman labour, prove by their direction a lively
internal traffic, as well as a commercial connexion with the
countries lying east and west of Britain -.
We are accustomed to regard Roman influence and Roman
civilization in Britain as considerably less than in the southern
provinces of the empire, chiefly because the language of mo
dern England is not immediately based on that of Rome, and
but few ancient monuments have been preserved in the coun
try. Of these the number has been greatly diminished by
frequent and early devastations, more especiaUy in the richest
provinces, and those first possessed by the Romans ; yet,
even in our days, many have been discovered, which suffi
ciently prove to us the importance of Roman Britain2. Many
remains of Roman buildings, on sites long since traversed by
the ploughshare, or from which, as from seed, modern towns
have sprung up, were visible as late as the twelfth and thir
teenth centuries3. Besides the two municipal towns, the re
mote Caerleon (the City of the Legion, Isca SUurum) also
had its theatres, temples, and palaces, of which Ghaldus
speaks in terms of high admiration4, and for which like Bath
(Aquae Solis), it may have partly been indebted to its hot
springs. At a later, period we have an account of various
subterranean antiquities in the city of Chester (Deva)5. To
the excavated remains of a temple of Neptune and Minerva
at Chichester we are indebted for some highly important dis
closures relative to the history of Britain under the Romans ;
but the most complete idea of Roman building is presented
to us in a villa discovered at Bignor in Sussex ; also in the
1 The course of these roads is very uncertain. Compare Ric. Corin.
with Higden.— T.
2 See Horsley, ' Britannia Romana.'
3 Will. Malmesb. de Gestis Regum, lib. i. c. 1. Id. de Gestis Ponti
ficum, lib. iii. Procem.
4 Girald. Cambren. Itin. Camb. lib. i. c. 1. ap. Camden.
6 R. Higden, Polychr. ap. Gale, i. 200.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 53
antiquities at Woodchester in Gloucestershire1. Beda like
wise mentions the Roman towns, lighthouses, roads, and
bridges existing in his time2. Many a sacred spot of anti
quity offers itself to our knowledge through the holier con
secration it has received from Christianity, always ready to
apply and hallow every legacy of the past. St. Peter's church
and abbey at Westminster, St. Paul's cathedral at London,
will appear to us only the more venerable, if we call to mind
that at the former, in times remote, the worship of Apollo
contributed to the culture of a rugged race, and at the latter,
that a temple of Diana was mediate to the faith of so many
people. Thus the Angles and the Saxons, when they had
established themselves in Britain, dwelt within Roman walls,
and walked amid spacious structures and beautiful works of
Roman art. Ought it then to surprise us, if, when first made
sensible, on their conversion to Christianity, of the necessity
of new and ample edifices, they strove to restore the archi
tecture of the Romans in their country, and that structures
in imitation of the same were afterwards erected, which have
erroneously been regarded as original productions of Saxon
. art. Of Roman vestiges, those of ramparts and fortresses are
oftenest to be met with, though it is not to be denied that
these, through their equivocal character, have but too often
given rise to misconceptions and inveterate errors. As un
doubted Roman remains may be cited those at Richborough
(Rhutupiae), Lincoln (Lindum), Burgh Castle in Suffolk
(Gariannonum), Chester (Deva). At Dorchester vestiges of
an amphitheatre are still visible.
From the great number of Roman towns and garrisons in
Britain, it may be inferred that an intimate connexion sub-
1 See Sam. Lysons's splendid work on this subject, London, 1797,
1815 : also his ' Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae,' 3 vol. fol. Lond. For Ro
man temples and other buildings at Bath, see Lysons, also Carter's
' Ancient Architecture of England.'
2 H. E. i. 11. Vita S. Cuth. xxvii. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif. ap. Savile,
p. 258.

54 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
sisted between the Romans and the natives. Hence the Ro
man language also had found general admission among the
provincials, as is evident from the number of Latin words oc
curring in the Welsh tongue ; and in the British historical
traditions, as they have been preserved by Nennius, Jeffrey
of Monmouth, and others, we meet with too many points of
resemblance with Roman history and tradition, to aUow the
supposition of a total abohtion of the Roman tongue, with
the cessation of Roman sway, and the temporary extinction
of Christianity.
For their superiority as shipmen it has been thought that
the Britons were indebted to the Romans, though we know that
the Roman troops stationed in the island were by no means
a match by sea even for their usual enemy, the Saxons1, and
that they were not practised in sea-fights. The dweUers
along the shores of the Mediterranean may, perhaps, have
taught the rovers of the North an improved style of ship
building, but confidence on the rocking element, the direct
dartlike course over and through the wild towering billows,
the placid gaze which spies the wind, ere its approach, on the
far distant curling surge, the unquenchable deUght in the
amphibious Ufe of a seaman — these have been brought to
Britain only by Saxons and Northmen ; and not only does
the EngUsh language, but even those of southern Europe de
clare, who are the people caUed by nature to be master of the
vessel and the wave.
We must now turn from the subject of Roman civilization
in Britain, and cast a glance on those nations which chiefly
contributed to its extirpation *¦ — to the Picts and Scots, who
are first mentioned as making theh appearance in the present
Scotland in the fourth century. Both these tribes were
1 The passage of Eumenius (Paneg. Const, c. xii.) which has been cited
in proof of the maritime proficiency of the Romans, rather says that Ca
rausius employed many foreigners — " exercitibus nostris in re maritima
novis." 2 a.d. 364.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 55
nearly related to the Caledonians and Maeatae, though they
appear to have been more barbarous. It is certain that the
Scots, and probably the Picts likewise, passed over from Ire
land and reduced the earlier inhabitants to subjection. Their
name, Picti, is by no means an appellation bestowed on ene
mies with painted bodies, but is a Roman corruption of
Peght1. They dwelt in the eastern part of Scotland, on both
sides of the Grampian hills, from Inverness and Elgin to
Dunbarton, or from the Firth of Murray to those of Forth
and Clyde, but, at a later period, in the south-west of Scot
land, as far as the Picts' wall, where, on the river Nith in
Dumfriesshire, we meet with a particular tribe of them, the
Nithwaras2. In the south of Scotland the rustic still points
to many a memorial of the Picts, consisting of old walls and
excavations. The Scottish kings in the ninth century in
cluded theh name among their titles. Pictland was attacked
by the Norwegians, and in the famous battle of the Standard,
in the year 1138, also in that of Clithero, the Peghts of Gal
loway3 fought with their native savage valour. As no re
mains exist of a particular tongue spoken by this people, nor
even any accounts of its existence or decay, British antiqua
ries have indefatigably contended, some for a Gothic, and
others for a Celtic origin of the Pictish language — a dispute
certainly about less than words, for one or two very ancient
names of mountains, which at the present day we are unable
to explain by our insufficient knowledge of the old Gaelic,
can afford no proof of a distinct Pictish tongue, which pro
bably differed from that of other British and Irish tribes only
in being a more barbarous dialect.
1 Even Wittekind gives them their right name. Eumenius (Paneg.
Const, c. vii.) is the first who mentions them, " Caledonum aliorumque
Pictorum silvas et paludes." Amm.Mar.xxvii.il. " Britanni Pictis mo-
do et Hibernis assueti hostibus.''
2 Bed-e Vitee S. Cuthb. c. xi. Cf. ejd. H. E. i. 1; iii. 4 ; v. 21. and
Chron. a. 452.
3 See the Rev. R. Garnett's communication to the Philological Society,
June 9, 1843, p. 123. — T.

56 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
.Together with the Scots, mention is also made of the At-
tacotti1. A tribe of these, the Dalreudini, in the southern
part of Argyleshire and the neighbouring isles preserved the
name of their original home in Ulster. Historeth, son of
Istorin, was the name of their leader, a name which has pro
bably no more historic truth in it, than that of Reuda as
signed to him by other traditions2. These were foUowed by
their countrymen from Irin (Ierne, Hibernia) in multitudes,
and it is probable, that under the name of Scots, against
whom the Romans fought, we must frequently understand
their kinsmen also, who left Ireland solely for the purpose of
joining them. From West Wales, or the territory of the
Dimetae, as far as which they had endeavoured to extend theh
conquests, it is related that they were for ever driven by
Cunedda Wledig, afterwards Prince of Gwynedd, who with
his sons came from Manau Guotodin, before the Romans had
yet left the other parts of the island3.
The consideration of the old British princely famihes be
gan to revive when the pressure of the Roman government
was lightened. The princes of Strathclyde and North Wales
traced their descent from Cunedda Wledig, or the Glorious (a
title answering to that of Caesar Augustus), and to his an
cestor Coel, as did the Cornish dynasty to Bran ap Llyr4,
the ancestor of Arthur, and of those other heroes whose
valour enabled them to avert the total subjection of their
mountain followers by the Romans, and afterwards by the
Saxons and the Danes5.
Under Constantius, the son of Constantine, the condition
1 Amm. Mar. xxvi. 4 ; xxvii. 8. Hieron. Epist. lxxxii. ad Oceanum.
Nennius, c. viii.
2 Nennius, c. viii. Bedae H. E. i. 1.
3 Nennius, c. viii. lxvi. Appen. As Cunedda is said to have come to
Gwynedd 146 years before the reign of Mailcun, who died a.d. 547, the
date 370-380 is here given. Guotodin is supposed to have been on the
eastern coast of the south of Scotland.
4 So called in Jeffrey of Monmouth.
5 See Gunn in ' Historia Brittonum,' p. 119.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 57
of Britain was rendered particularly deplorable by the tyranny
of the notary Paulus, a Spaniard by birth, who had been sent
by the emperor for the purpose of prosecuting certain indi
viduals of the army accused of participation in the conspiracy
of Magnentius. This man, availing himself of the opportuni
ties afforded him by his station, hesitated not, by means of
false accusations, to sacrifice the liberty and life of those in
dividuals whose fortunes offered a temptation to his rapacity.
Martinus the pro-prefect, who had long lamented the suffer
ings of the innocent, finding his intercession vain, threatened
to resign his charge. Alarmed hereupon for the permanency
of his own power, Paulus took measures to involve him in the
common ruin, when, urged by the feelings of the moment,
Martinus attacked the notary with his sword, but failing to
strike a mortal blow, he plunged the blade into his own side,
a victim to his hatred of oppression and cruelty. Paulus
now freed from restraint set no bounds to his barbarity;
many, loaded with chains, were led to torture, while many
were proscribed and driven into exile, or perished by the
sword of the executioner. Though applauded for his ser
vices by Constantius, by Julian, the succeeding emperor,
Paulus was condemned to be burnt alive1.
In the century after the death of Constantine the Great,
during which Britain still continued a part of the Roman
emphe, we know little more of the country than that it was
the theatre of devastation, caused by the Celtic and Germanic
tribes. It had indeed long been a school of war by land and
sea for the Romans, out of which many a conspicuous cha
racter arose, as well as the germ of new* rebellions. The
anti-emperor Bonosus, who vainly strove to wrest from the
emperor Probus the island of Britain — which usually fell to
those tyrants who had made themselves masters of Gaul —
was the son of a rhetorician or paedagogue of British origin 2.
1 Amm. Mar. xiv. 5, xx. 2.
2 a.d. 280. Vopiscus de Probo, c. xviii. [Domo Hispaniensis fuit, origine

58 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
The Pannonian Valentinus, when banished to Britain, found
there both friends and aid in his rebellion against the em
peror Valentinian, the suppression of which, even after the
capture and death of the chiefs, required aU the prudence of
the general Theodosius1. This success, but yet more his
glorious triumph over the Picts and Scots2, who had advanced
as far as London and slain the general, FuUofaudes, and the
count of the marine district, Nectaridus, the re-estabhshment
of the province of Valentia, the restoration of the towns
and garrisons, the security of the camps and frontiers, and
the amelioration of the civil government, obtained for the
British leader that renown and influence which raised him
self to the rank of magister equitum, and contributed to the
elevation of his yet more fortunate son to the imperial purple,
by whom that dignity was once more, and for the last time,
ennobled. Britain possessed also an upright, though severe
governor in Civilis, and in Dulcitius, a general distinguished
for his knowledge of the art of war3.
But the spirit of independence had already stricken too
deep a root for the example of Carausius ever to be without
imitators. Maximus, of a distinguished British family4, had
gained the highest reputation in the wars against the Picts
and Scots5. He was, against his will, proclaimed emperor
bythe army6; and in the treason of the warrior posterity
would have seen only the strong national feeling of the noble
Briton, had he not left his island realm, and, seduced by
early success, been desirous of founding at Treves a Western
Roman empire, which was at first acknowledged by Theo-
Britannus : Galla tamen matre ; ut ipse dicebat, rhetoris filius ; ut ab aliis
comperi, paedagogi litterarii. Id. de Bonoso, c. xiv. — T.]
1 Amm. Mar. xxviii. 3. 3 A.D. 368.
3 Amm. Mar. xxviii. 3; xxvii. 8. Claud, de Consul. Honorii.
4 See the authorities in Palgrave, vol. i. pp. 381, 383.
6 Prosp. Tyro, a. 382.
0 Prosp. Tyro, a. 381. Prosp. Aquitan. a. 384. Sulp. Sev. Vita S.
Martini, c. xx. Orosius, vii. 34. and from him, Bedae H. E. i. 9. Paulus
Diac. lib. xi. Greg. Turon. i. 38.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 59
dosius. He was taken prisoner at Aquileia and put to death ' .
His young son Victor, whom he had declared emperor and
left behind in Gaul, shared the same fate2. Hence, though
we must look with great mistrust on the Welsh pedigrees3,
which derive the independent princes of Gwent and Powys,
as well as the more powerful ones of Cumberland and Strath
clyde, from Constantine, who is described as the eldest son
of this emperor, yet the impression must be acknowledged
to have been extremely deep made on the Britons by the
deeds of Maximus.
An event connected with the history of this prince may
not be passed without notice ; namely, the settlement of a
Roman military colony (miUtes limitanei, laeti), consisting of
British warriors, in Armorica, which has given name, as well
as a distinct character and history to the province of Bre
tagne4. Though that country had from the earliest times,
by descent, language, and druidism, been related to Britain,
yet the new colonists, who were followed by many others,
both male and female5, served unquestionably to bind more
closely and to preserve the connexion between Bretagne and
the Britons of Wales and Cornwall ; and but for this event,
the heroic poetry of France and Germany had probably been
without the charm cast over it by the traditions of the San-
graal, of Tristan and Isolde, of Arthur and of Merlin. But
Britain was thereby deprived of her bravest warriors, and
1 a.d. 388.
* Prosp. Aquitan. a. 388. Orosius, vii. 35. Paul. Diac. lib. xii. Nen
nius, c. xxvi.
3 See Gunn in Hist. Britt. p. 141. »
4 Gildas, c. x. Nennius, c. xxiii. Beda (H. E. i. 12) copies the words
of Gildas. It is not apparent why Gibbon (c. xxxviii. note 136), who else
frequently follows these authors, here wholly rejects them. See also Pal
grave, vol. i. p. 382.
5 The tradition of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins who fol
lowed the colony of warriors, is recorded by Jeffrey of Monmouth, lib. v.,
according to whom the arrival of many of them in the Rhenish districts is
not unfounded. See also my little work on Helgoland, note 17.

60 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
thence the more easily became an early prey to foreign in
vaders. Scots, Picts, and Saxons continued to trouble Britain, and
even the excellent administration of the vicar Chrysanthus1
came too late to restore the state of things. Stilicho indeed
felt himself at first powerful enough to send a body of Roman
troops to the aid of the afflicted province, who both fulfiUed
the object of their mission, and, as tradition informs us, ex
horted the natives to construct a waU across the island from
sea to sea, as a barrier against the northern barbarians2.
But the Roman general himself soon stood in need of aU his
united forces for the defence of Italy against the hordes of
Alaric. The troops, a few years after, returned to Britain,
but the country had in the meanwhUe suffered new devasta
tions from the Celtic invaders.
The Roman legions were soon afterwards, on the occupa
tion of Gaul by the Alani, the Suevi, and the Vandals3, with
drawn from the island by the emperor Honorius, who was
compelled to leave it to its fate. An emperor of Britain was
elected in the person of Marcus4, who, being slain, found
a successor to his dignity and his fate in Gratian, a burgher
of a British municipal town8. The memory of Constantine
1 Socratis H.E. vii. 12.
2 [Or rather to restore the one already constructed. — T.] See Gildas,
c. xii. This tradition is remarkable for the confusion it has caused : ha
ving been adopted by Beda (H. E. i. 12. and Chron. a. 426) it has fre
quently been copied. Nennius (Rubric to c. xxiv.) mixes the story with
the older accounts of the wall of Severus, by the interpolation of a new
emperor, Severus IL, who built a wall from Boggenes (Bowness) to Tyne-
mouth ; consequently, where Hadrian had caused the first wall of earth to
be raised. Rich. Corinaeus (De Situ Brit. ii. r. 37.) also considers the wall
as the work of Stilicho, and appeals to the passage of Claudian (In Prim.
Cons. Stilichonis, ii. 247) : —
" Me (Britanniam) quoque vioinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit,
Munivit Stilichon," etc.
3 Oros. vii. 40, and from him Paul. Diac. Beda, i. 11.
4 a.d. 406.
6 Oros. vii. 40. Olymp. ap. Photium. Zosim. vi. 2. Sozom. ix. 11.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 61
the Great was, after the lapse of a century, so highly revered
in his real or adopted country, that the possession of that
Ulustrious name, which at the time was borne by a humble
soldier, procured for him the vacant British throne ; though
the vigour which also gained him the dominion of Gaul and
Spain1, might well justify the supposition, that a descent
from the emperor Constantine and consanguinity to British
princes raised him to that eminence2. He probably yielded
to the hope of rendering his dignity and power hereditary ;
his son Constans having, it is said, exchanged the cowl for
the diadem3. Honorius saw himself compelled to acknow
ledge Constantine as emperor4 ; but the count Constantius
having proceeded to Gaul with an army, shut him up in
Aries, took him prisoner and put him to death6. Constans
his son was slain at Vienne by his count Gerontius6. Bri
tain, however, never returned to Roman subjection, but con
tinued under rebellious tyrants or pseudo-emperors7.
A new inroad of the Picts and Scots appears to have occa
sioned a mission from Britain to Rome, which, in mourning
weeds, had to deprecate the murder of the Roman generals
in the last rebellion, and to implore forgiveness and protec
tion8. Roman troops came over once more, to defend a pro
vince which contained not a little Roman property and in
terest ; perhaps also, under the pretext of punishing the rebels,
to get possession of the remaining treasures of the inhabitants9:
but having repelled the invaders, the Roman cohorts were
obliged to hasten away to warfare in distant regions, after
1 a.d. 409. Oros. vii. 40, who adds, " sine merito Virtutis." Olymp. ap.
Phot. Zosim. vi. 3. Sozom. ix. 11. Procop. i. 2. Prosp. Aquit. a. 407.
2 Procop. (i. 2) calls him ovx tUpuitij c%«\a. — T.
3 Oros. vii. 40. Galf. Mon. vi. 5, who says that he had been a monk
at Winchester.
4 Olymp. ap. Phot. Zosim. v. 43. 5 a.d. 412.
" Oros. vii. 42. Procop. i. 2. 7 Procop. i. 2.
8 Gildas, c. xii. Nennius, c. xxvii.
9 " Hae tempestate prae valitudine Romanorum vires funditus attenuatae
Britannia." Prosp. Tyro, a. 409. Cf. also Sax. Chron. a. 418. Nen
nius, c. xxvii.

62 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
having repaired the forts along the wall, and the watch-
towers on the sea-coasts, and left behind them arms for
models, with instructions how to use them1.
This gift availed but little — the Britons being not only
strangers to the use of arms, but, in a still greater degree, to
concord — for the re-establishment of the common good in the
forsaken land, in which every town and every petty chieftain
aspired to perfect independence. The Roman officials who
had been left behind were driven from the island, and the
emperor Honorius, conscious of his weakness, renouncing
for the present all hopes of replacing them, authorized the
British states to undertake their own defence : but liberty
proved as useless to the Britons as the cunning did to the
court of Ravenna, with which it appeared to grant what it
had not the power to hinder2. The enemies from the north
of the island soon returned, and the feeble inhabitants were
unable either to defend their towns, or to escape from the
murderous weapons of their foes. To this state of helpless
ness were added famine, and the pestilence which at that
time raged throughout Europe3.
Of one victory only, which for a short time checked the
progress of the piratical Saxons and the Picts, has any tra
dition been preserved : this, from the cry of onset, bears the
name of the HaUelujah victory4. The Gauhsh bishop, St.
Germain of Auxerre, during his stay in the island, in the year
429, is said to have led the orthodox Britons on this occasion,
strengthening them by the penetrating virtue of his ghostly
promises5. 1 Gildas, c. xiv. Nennius, c. xxvii.
2 Zos. vi. 5, 10. aa. 409 and 410. The Saxon Chronicle (which places
the landing of Caesar in the year 60 a.c.) agrees remarkably herewith : it
says (a. 409) that " they (the Romans) altogether ruled in Britain 470 years
since Caius Julius first sought the land." So likewise Beda, H. E. i. 11,
and v. 24. a. 409, "Roma a Gothis fracta; ex quo tempore Romani in
Brittania regnare cessarunt."
3 Gildas, cc. 19, 22.
4 "Alleluiam tertio repetitam sacerdotes exclamant." Beda, i. 20.  T.
6 Gildas, c. xviii., seems to allude to this victory. Cf. Beda, i. 17 ; Chron.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 63
Yet once again a supplicating embassy was sent to the
Roman general ^Etius, during his third consulship, in the
year 446. " The barbarians," said the ambassadors, " drive
us to the sea, the sea to the barbarians, we are massacred or
must be drowned1." ^Etius was unable to help them. The
a. 459. Nennius. Prosp. Aquit. a. 429. Constan. Vita S. Ger. c. 1. 28, also
Beda, i. 20, where the reading ' Saxones,' sanctioned by the best MSS., and
by the life of Germanus by Constantius, written within forty years of his
death, ought not to be questioned. To this expedition of the Saxons the
accounts refer which place the first landing of the Saxons in Britain in the
year 428 or 429 ; in the Appendix too of Nennius (Petrie, C. H. p. 77) >
where "Felice et Tauro consulibus" indicates the year 428. Nennius,
c. xi., reckons, that till the fourth (twenty-fourth) year of King Mervin,
in which he wrote, viz. a.d. 858, 429 years had passed since the Saxons
first landed in Britain ; for which event, therefore, the half of 858, or the
year 429 is to be assigned. At a later period also this date is given.
Osbern, Precentor of Canterbury in the eleventh century, in his ' Life of
Dunstan/ speaking (cap. i.) of the year of Dunstan 's birth, says, " Re-
gnante Anglorum rege Ethelstano, anno quidem imperii ejus primo, adventus
vero Anglorum in Britanniam quadringentesimo nonagesimo septimo." The
editors ('Acta Sanctorum' ed. Papebrock, Maii 19, t. iv. 359. Wharton,
' Anglia Sacra,' ii. 90 and 94) have been desirous of altering this number
into 479, and, supposing the year 449 as that of the coming of the Saxons,
have placed the birth of Dunstan in the year 928, which is the fourth of
the reign of ^Ethelstan, thereby making Dunstan so young, that Wharton
(p. 94) accuses Osbern of falsehood. But Osbern was not thinking of the
year 449, but of 428, according to which Dunstan would be born in 925, with
which the Saxon Chronicle agrees, which year is also the first of the reign
of jEthelstan. In the edition also of Nennius by Mark the Hermit, the
landings of the Saxons are confused between the years 429 and 447. In the
beginning of his work (p. 45) Mark gives the date of its composition very
accurately, viz. " Quintus ainnus Eadmundi, regis Anglorum," or a.d. 946,
according to our reckoning, or 976 according to the reckoning of the Welsh,
if, from Mark, c. i., and Nennius, cc. xi. xxix., we may conclude on this
point, who take the year in which we place the birth of Christ for that of
his passion, and consequently reckon thirty years mqre than we since the
birth of Christ. Mark, p. 62, is sufficiently explicit, " Saxones a Guther-
girno suscepti sunt anno 447 post passionem Christi. A tempore quo ad-
venerunt primo ad Bryttanniam Saxones (viz. 429.) usque ad primum im
perii regis Eadmundi 542, ad nunc in quo nos scribimus annos, traditione
seniorum 547 didicimus." A chronology dating from the death of Christ
rarely occurs (Cf. Ideler, ' Handbuch der Chronologie,' ii. p. 4 1 1), and never
without adding the usually adopted year of the nativity.
1 Gildas, u. xvii. Nennius, c. xxvii. Beda, i. 13, and from Beda's
Chron. Paulus, Diac. xiv. Ric. Corin. lib. ii. i. 39. Sax. Chron. a. 443,

64 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
clergy entertained a better hope, and showed greater courage.
The state of the church in Britain during this early period, is
indeed too remarkable not to claim a short notice in this
place. The ordinances of the Christian communities were observed
in Britain, though many districts of a country exposed to the
rapacity of the Roman officials were unable to satisfy the
modest claims of the clergy. Three Britons, therefore, were
the only bishops at the Council of Ariminum, in the year 359,
who accepted the offer of the emperor Constantius, to receive
their subsistence at the expense of the state1. That not only
Romans in this country, but others also of British race were
devoted to Christianity, is proved by the existence of British
versions of the Bible2. Of the state of Christianity in Britain
some idea may also be formed from the early opposition there
manifested to the doctrines of Arius, and the subsequent strong
tendency to that heresy. The holy places of Palestine, which
the British Helena and her imperial son had adorned, were
soon visited by theh countrymen, to whom even to pray at
the pillar of Symeon Stylites3 seemed a sufficient motive for a
perilous journey by sea and land, and the best pretension to
the reward of everlasting life. The pilgrims returned with
intelligence of the cloisters that were forming in the East ;
and the monastery of Bangor4, near Chester, was a founda
tion as ancient as memorable of a society of brethren in this
country (probably grafted on druidism) devoting themselves
to pious contemplation and traditional wisdom, but who, how
ever beneficial to individuals, contributed little to the spread
and inculcation of Christianity, and were even unable to
hinder its extinction and oblivion.
We are enabled to form some judgement of the acuteness
1 Sulp. Sev. lib. ii. c. 55.— T.
2 Chrysost. Opp. P. viii. p. 111. edit. Savile.
3 Theodoreti Relig. Hist. c. xxxvi. — T.
4 Ban gor, the great circle, is an universal denomination for a congre
gation or monastery. See Gunn in Hist. Britt. Pref. p. xxi.

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 65
and capacity of the British ecclesiastics by the celebrated
heresy of the Briton Morgan, better known under his Latin
ized name of Pelagius1, as also of the Scot Caelestius, by which
Christendom was long agitated, and which, having been
propagated in their native country by the Pelagian Agricola,
found such favour, that the orthodox, through the intervention
of Palladius, who afterwards became the first Scottish bishop,
prevailed on the pope Caelestinus to send hither Germanus,
bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes2, to confute
theh opponents in a public disputation. Their first attempt
proved that the majority were not incorrigibly devoted to the
new doctrine. Scriptural passages, relics, together with the
address with which Germanus came to the assistance of the
Britons, in the conflict before mentioned with the Picts and
Saxons, fought all at once against Pelagius3. In a second
journey, in the year 446, which probably preceded the above-
1 Bishop Stillingfleet has the following notices of Pelagius, who appears
to have followed the doctrines of the Greek fathers and the Eastern churches,
and was approved by the council of Diospolis ; and, as the bishop observes,
was condemned by men who did not understand his meamng. " St. Au
gustine," he adds, " saith of Pelagius, ' he had the esteem of a very pious
man, and of being a Christian of no mean rank.' And of his learning and
eloquence St. Augustine gives sufficient testimony in his epistle to Juliana,
to whom Pelagius wrote an epistle highly magnified for the wit and ele
gance of it. And he saith, ' He lived very long in Rome, and kept the
best company there.' Pelagius wrote letters to clear himself, first to Pope
Innocentius, and then to Zosimus, who was so well satisfied, that he
wrote to the African bishops in his vindication, although he afterwards
complied in condemning him : " — "so that Pelagius and Coelestius, by their
own natural wit, had in all probability been too hard for a whole succes
sion of popes, Innocentius, Zosimus, and Xystus, had not the African
fathers interposed, and told them what the true doctrine of the Church
was." Orig. Brit. p. 114, where also honourable mention is made of two
British bishops charged with Pelagianism, Fastidius and Faustus, as men
of piety, learning and eloquence. — R. T.
2 Prosp. Aquit. aa. 429, 431. Constant. Vita S. Germani. Vita S. Lupi.
3 For the miracles sard to be performed by Germanus, see Usher, Annal.
Hector Boetius relates that he caused the Pelagians to be burnt, by the
care and order of the magistrates. See Jortin, Six Dissertations : the
Second contains an historical account of this controversy, so much con
nected with the early history of Britain, abridged from Le Clerc, Bibl.
Chois. viii. 308.— R. T.
VOL. I. F

66 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
mentioned mission of the Britons, but certainly stood in close
connexion with it, Severus, bishop of Treves, accompanied
Germanus to Britain, where, in the expulsion of the Pela
gians l, they performed one of the last acts of Roman power
in this country; a measure indicating the weakness of that
religious conviction which was so soon to be totally annihi
lated, and which allows us to attribute the earliest occupation
of a Roman province by the pagans to the same contentious
sectarian spirit, through which, a thousand years after, the
last fragment of the unwieldy political conglomeration fell, in
like manner, a prey to infidels.
The spectacle which Britain now presented is one of the
saddest, but, at the same time, most memorable in the history
of the world. It was reUeved from the rapacity of the Roman
procurator ; it was freed from the insolence of the Caesarian
cohorts ; but for this liberty the people were not indebted to
their courage and higher impulses : for them, therefore, liberty
was helplessness, independence anarchy: and however the
historian may strive to show that corruption had long been
gaining ground in the country, that the government had
become gradually perverted, and that of the events and views
of later times types are to be found in the earlier ; that many
fundamental principles were constantly preserved, while the
outer shell alone was changed ; yet it cannot be denied, that
no country ever so quickly cast aside a polished language,
which had for many generations been the mother-tongue, not
only of the settlers but of the natives ; that the Christian
religion had never so rapidly been exchanged, leaving not a
trace behind, for paganism and infidelity: such a pohtical
and moral degradation as took place in the greater part of
Roman Britain, after so many a mournful lesson, appears in
deed an inexplicable enigma.
This was the deplorable state of the country whose natio
nality had been destroyed by Roman lust of conquest, after
the annihilation of which it possessed not powers of resistance
against its most barbarous enemies.
1 Beda, i. 21. Vita S. Germani.

67

PART I.
FROM THE LANDING OF HENGEST AND HORSA TO THE
ACCESSION OF ECGBERHT.
After the extinction of the Roman power in Britain, the
country had for many years been a prey to internal discord
and foreign assailants, when, to subdue his northern foes,
Vortigern1, a powerful prince in Kent and the southern parts
of Britain, with the concurrence of his counsellors and in the
true spirit of Roman policy, formed the resolve to avail him
self of the help of those German warriors who for many years
had been known to the country only as formidable enemies.
This resolve was executed ; but these mercenaries took ad
vantage of the weakness of the land and, with the aid of suc
ceeding cognate tribes and kinsmen, subjected it to their
dominion ; a drama which, in the following century, was in
a similar manner enacted in the north of Italy by the Lom
bards, who had been called in by Narses.
That the employment of the Jutish ' heretogas ' or leaders,
Hengest and Horsa, who, banished2 from their native home,
had been driven to gain for themselves a new country, was
no very striking event, and that the number of their followers
1 Vortigern was the son of Guortheneu, or Guortheu, the great-grandson
of Gloui, who, according to the British tradition, built Cair-Gloui (Glou
cester). Such is the account given by Nennius, c. liv. A later tradition
ascribes the building of that city to the emperor Claudius, whom it states
to have been the father of Gloui by a British girl named Geuissa. See
Galfr. Mon. iv. 15. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif. iv. p. 283.
2 The banishment is mentioned not only by Jeffrey, but also by Nen
nius, c. xxviii. " Interea venerunt tres chiulae a Germania in exilio pulsae,
in quibus erant Hors et Hengist, qui et ipsi fratres erant." Beda (i. 15)
speaks only of the invitation, but Wittekind gives a circumstantial account
of a mission of the Britons to the Saxons, and recites their speech, re
ferring, for further information, to an ' Historia Anglo-Saxonum.'
F 2

68 BRITISH TRADITIONS.
was not considerable, is evident from the obscurity which
shrouds the history of England during the years immediately
following their arrival, and from their being contained in
three vessels (ceolas !), as weU as from the fabulous traditions
(though unknown to Gildas and Beda) with which these
years were filled up by the later Welsh writers, as soon as
the growing preponderance of the Saxons in the British
islands had contributed rather to excite the imagination than
to cherish and freshen the memory.
Hengest, when, according to the British tradition, his band,
after Dido's example, had measured with a hide, or, with
greater probability, had, according to Roman usage, received
as a reward, the fertUe and, from its position commanding
the Thames, important isle Ruoihin, by the Saxons called
Thanet2, sent for new allies from his native country, together
with his son Ochta, Abisa3 the son of Horsa, and for her
beauty his highly prized daughter Rowena. The British prince,
Vortigern, at a feast given by the Saxons, — who, in the ac
counts of the time, are represented as addicted to gluttony
and drunkenness, — received from Rowena a fuU golden cup,
with the old German salutation, " Wes hai," and learned the
answer, " Drinc hai4." Vortigern now forgot all regard for
the Christianity which he outwardly professed, and, excited
by love and wine, declared the fair Jute his consort, whom
her father granted to him in return for the cession of Kent,
at that time suffering under the mal-administration of a cer-
1 "Tribus cyulis, nostra lingua, * longis navibus.' " Gildse Hist. c. xxiii.
2 " Felix Thanet sua fecunditate — insula arridens bona rerum copia, regni
flos et thalamus, amenitate, gratia, in qua tanquam quodam elysio, etc."
Cf. Jocelinum de Vita Milburgae. eund. de Vita S. Augustini, ap. Leland
Collect, t. iii. p. 170, t. iv. p. 8. The British name of this isle, of which
we have documentary evidence as late as the year 692 (Thorne, p. 2234),
shows, together with other proofs, that the British tongue had not been
driven out of Kent by the Latin.
3 Later traditions relative to these individuals will be noticed, when we
come to the founding of the kingdoms of Northumbria.
* See von Arx, in 'Monum. Germ. Hist.' t. ii.

BRITISH TRADITIONS. 69
tain Gnoirangon1. His subjects saw with indignation the
partiality for the strangers with which their king was in
spired, in consequence of this connexion, and placed his son
Vortemir on the throne. Hengest, who, according to Jeffrey
of Monmouth, had called over three hundred thousand of his
countrymen to Britain, under the pretext of defending the
Picts' Wall against the Scots, with whom he afterwards en
tered into an alliance, had by the victorious arms of Vortemir
been beaten in three battles, on the Darent, at Episford2, in
which Horsa and Categirn, a son of Vortigern, were slain, and
at Folkestone3, and for some years driven out of the country,
but had been recalled by his son-in-law, after the latter (whose
son had been poisoned by Rowena) had re-ascended the
British throne. On the refusal of the Britons to restore to
the Saxons their previous possessions, a conference was ap
pointed of three hundred of each nation, during which, on
the exclamation of Hengest to his followers, " Nimath eowere
seaxas," they, with their long knives, which they had held
concealed, feU on and murdered their opponents4. The ran
som of Vortigern was three provinces, distinguished by their
later denominations of Essex, Sussex, and Middlesex, over
which Hengest, and after him his son Ochta, reigned5.
In the perusal of this narrative, drawn from the writings
1 Nenn. c. xxxvii. Gorongus. Will. Malmesb. lib. i. c. 1. [Some sup
pose this name to signify a title, as viceroy, governor, but from the words
of Nennius it would rather seem to be a proper name : " Gnoirangono
rege regnante in Cantia," though some MSS. omit the word * rege.' — T.]
2 Nenn. c. xlvii. Br. Saissenaeg-haibail, so called, says Camden,
because the Saxons were conquered there. The Saxon Chron. a. 455.
reads iEglesthrep and ^Eglesford. *
3 This reading is founded on a conjecture of Somner and Stillingfleet,
that for Lapis Tituli (Nenn. c. xlvii.) we should read Lapis Populi ; while
others suppose that Stonar, in the Isle of Thanet, is the place intended.
4 Davies (in his ' Mythology and Rites of the British Druids ') would
perceive in the ' Gododin' of Aneurin, a bard of the sixth century, an allusion
to this event. Turner's refutation (b. iii. c. 4 .) is very satisfactory, though
his own interpretation seems no less arbitrary.
5 Nenn. c. xlix.

70 ANGLO-SAXON TRADITIONS.
of those who have recorded the British traditions, we feel at
no loss with regard to the several elements of which it is
composed. The Triad of the druidic religion and of British
fiction furnishes the groundwork and the standard, according
to which all events, without any chronological data, are shaped:
British and Roman traditions are mingled and embeUished,
and the Old-Saxon saga of the craft and valour with which
the Saxons landed in Hadeln, gained possession of Thuringia,
bought land, and murdered the inhabitants with their knives1,
is here again placed in account against them by the Britons.
The principal assertion in this narrative is, moreover, the
least true, — that Hengest received the above-mentioned three
provinces, which never fell to his share, but to that of other
German chieftains, and a part of them in much later years.
The evident worthlessness of these traditions renders the
more necessary a strict examination of the accounts of theh
conquests in Britain given by the immigrants themselves.
We find these in Beda, — who, however, records but very few
circumstances relative to that event from his own sources,
but, for the most part, transcribing GUdas, mingles both tra
ditions2, — and in the earliest English chroniclers, among
whom Henry of Huntingdon, from his greater detail, is par
ticularly valuable and interesting. As these narratives are
accompanied by dates, the first point to be ascertained by the
historic inquirer is, the system, according to which these dates
were calculated, before the Christian writers, through whom
only they are transmitted to us, reduced them to the Juhan
calendar and the Christian era. Britain, in the latter half of
the fifth century, could no longer have reckoned its years by
Roman consuls and emperors; the epoch of the birth of
1 For the earlier traditions of the Saxons see hereafter.
2 Beda, i. 15, 16, 22, from Gildas, cc. xxiii. xxiv. xxv.', while Henry of
Huntingdon copies Beda, adding, however, the accounts which are sub
stantially given in the Saxon Chronicle. The passages copied from Beda
should be carefully detached from the rest, in order to form a correct idea
of the view here taken.

ANGLO-SAXON TRADITIONS. 71
Christ, first introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth
century, could not in any case have been adopted before its
close, and before the conversion of an Anglo-Saxon prince,
and probably not before the Christian religion had gained a
considerable footing in the country1. Of the chronology
brought by the Saxons into Britain we know little more than
that they reckoned by lunar years, and increased their year
(which, like that once in use among the Romans, consisted of
ten months only2) by the addition of two new months, and
of an intercalary month, on the adoption of the Christian
Roman calendar3. Hence, in assaying, as it were, such
chronological data, and whatever is dependent on them, we
must have the greater regard to their intrinsic credibility,
seeing that, for a period of nearly a hundred and fifty years,
we are unable to adduce a single trustworthy authority for
the history of the pagan Anglo-Saxons.
The Anglo-Saxon narratives are given to us by the chro
niclers in the following words : —
In the year 449, on application made by Vortigern, king
of the Britons, to the ' aethelings ' or chiefs of the Angles, or
Saxons4, for aid against the Picts and Scots, the leaders Hen
gest and Horsa, the sons of Wihtgils, a great-grandson of
Woden, who, in the sixth generation, descended from God,
landed with their followers from three ships at Ypwines-fleot5
(Ebbsfleet) in Kent. The Picts and Scots had already ad-
1 On the dates of the Anglo-Saxons subsequent to the introduction of
Christianity, Kemble's Introduction to the ' Codex Diplomaticus Mvi
Saxonici ' may be consulted with advantage. — T.
2 See Ideler's ' Chronologie ' and Niebuhr's Roman History.
3 Beda de Ratione Temp.
4 Beda, i. 15. Sax. Chron. a. 443, which probably follows some other
narrative in assigning the year 443, or the following year, to the invitation
of the Angles.
5 Sax. Chron. (which in other particulars of this event merely copies
Beda). Ethelwerd, lib. i. It is remarkable that the Goths migrated in
three ships ; see Jornandes, p. 98 : the Winili or Longobards in three
divisions ; see P. Warnefrid, i. 3 : the Wariiger under three leaders ; see
Nestor.

72 ANGLO-SAXON TRADITIONS.
vanced to Stamford in Lincolnshire. While on the one side
they fight with darts and spears, on the other with battle-
axes and long swords, the Picts, unable to withstand such
force, seek for safety in flight1. The victorious Saxons tri
umph over the enemy whithersoever they advance, and gain
vast booty. The strangers inform their countrymen in Sax
ony of the fertility of the island, and the sloth of its inhabit
ants ; whereupon a fleet of sixteen saU immediately brings
over a larger body of warriors, which, added to the former
band, form an irresistible army. A fixed habitation is as
signed them by the Britons, as reward and pay for the further
defence of Britain, according to the difference of the three
races : to the Jutes in Kent, to the Saxons in Wessex and
Essex, to the Angles northwards. The story of Rowena is
here mentioned merely as a British tradition2. Beda further
relates, that Horsa feU in a battle against the Britons, and
that his monument was yet to be seen in the eastern part of
Kent3. The Saxons afterwards come in greater numbers, and
form an aUiance with the Picts4. He then gives some words
from Gildas on the battles of Ambrosius Aurehanus with the
Saxons, and immediately, through one of those singular hal
lucinations under which he occasionally labours, passes on to
the battle of Bath, which he places in the year 492, or in the
forty-fourth year after the arrival of the Saxons. On a later
occasion he calls the son of Hengest, Oeric (Eric), surnamed
Oisc5 (.<Esc), from whom the royal race of Kent derived its
1 H. Hunt. lib. ii.
2 H. Hunt. " dicitur a quibusdam." Cf. Nenn. cc. xxxvii. xlix.
3 At Horsted. Archaeol. vol. ii. p. 107 ; Hasted's Kent, vol. ii. p. 177.
— T. ' This account of Beda, i. 15, is not to be found either in Gildas or Nen
nius, who would hardly have omitted it, had it been founded. It may
possibly have arisen from a misunderstanding by Beda of the passage in
Gildas, c. xxiii. " testantur se cuncta insulae rupto foedere (sc. cum Vorti-
gerno inito) depopulaturos."
5 It may be well to observe that, in the orthography of personal proper
names, Beda uses the Northumbrian dialect, writing oi for ae and e, oe and

ANGLO-SAXON TRADITIONS. 73
patronymic appeUation of Oiscings1 (^Escings). The other
traditions which we are about to relate, were therefore un
known to, or regarded by Beda as unworthy of notice.
In a battle where Ambrosius Aurelianus, a chief of Roman
lineage, with two sons of Vortigern, Gortimer and Catigern,
lead each a separate body, Hengest and Horsa, though with
an inferior number, each with his band, march boldly to the
encounter2. This battle may be identical with that of the
Derwent, recorded without particular details by the British
traditionists. In the sixth or seventh year after the coming
of the Germans, was fought the battle at ^Eglesthrep, sup
posed to be the present Aylesford, where tradition declares
the British structure known by the name of Kits Coty house
to be the sepulchral monument of Catigern. At the outset
Horsa attacked the band led by Catigern with such impetu
osity that, like dust, it was scattered in all directions, and the
son of the king was struck by him to the earth. His brother
Gortimer, however, a very valiant man, burst from the flank
into the array of Horsa, and slew that hero. The remnant of
Horsa's band fled to Hengest, who stiU fought unconquered
with the wedge-formed array of Ambrosius. The whole
weight of the conflict having now fallen on Hengest, who was
also pressed by the brave Gortimer, after a long resistance,
and a great loss on the side of the Britons, he who had never
fled was now compelled to flee. This battle, though, from its
name, regarded as the second mentioned by Nennius, agrees
in its consequences more with the third and last recorded by
him3.
i for e, a and se for ea, u for w, c and ch for h, d for th (8) . Examples of
all these changes occur in the following, Oidilualch, Coinualch, Coenred,
Alcfrid, jEdwine, Saeberct ; for iEthelwealh, Cenwealh, Cenred, EalhfriS,
Eadwine, Saeberht. — T.
1 H. E. ii. 5.
2 H. Hunt. lib. ii. The battle between Aurelianus and Hengest is also
mentioned by Gildas, c. xxv., though without details.
3 Sax. Chron. H. Hunt. a. 455.

74 ANGLO-SAXON TRADITIONS.
In the eighth year after the coming of the Germans, the
Britons led four large bodies under as many valiant chieftains
to Crecganford (Crayford) in Kent, against Hengest and his
son Msc : though when the Britons had begun the game of
war, they ill withstood the Saxons, who, strengthened by a
body of newly-arrived chosen men, with their battle-axes and
swords, fearfully hewed the bodies of the Britons, nor ceased
they from the conflict until they beheld the slaughter of four
thousand of their adversaries, who in dismay fled towards
London, and never again ventured to enter Kent with a hos
tile purpose1. Hengest and his son ^Esc2 now assumed
kingly power in Kent.
Eight years later, in 465, Hengest and ^Esc assembled an
invincible army, against which all Britain went forth in twelve
noble warlike hosts. They fought long and bravely, until
Hengest slew the twelve British chieftains, took theh stand
ards, and put the panic-struck bands to flight : but, together
with other noted leaders and kinsmen, Hengest lost his
valiant thane Wipped, after whom the battle-field, which,
from the preceding narrative, we ought not to look for in
Kent, received the name of Wippedes-fleot. This battle was
followed by so many tears and so much sorrow, that neither
people for a considerable time ventured beyond theh own
boundaries3. Again, after a term of eight years, in 473, Hengest and
Msc gained another victory over the Britons : the name of
1 Sax. Chron. Ethelwerd. Fior. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 457.
2 Sax. Chron. Fior. Wigorn. a. 455. Huntingdon places the assump
tion of the kingly power by Hengest and his son in 457, where the men
tion of Msc seems a later addition to the text, the verb being left in the
singular: "Exinde regnavit Hengist et Esc filius suus." Ethelwerd also
(rightly I suspect) omits all mention of yEsc, saying merely, that Horsa
being slain, Hengest " cepit regnum." Whether Hengest's assumption of
the royal dignity was a consequence of Horsa's death or of the complete
expulsion of the Britons from Kent, is doubtful, though the latter seems
the more probable cause. — T.
3 Sax. Chron. Ethelw. Fior. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 465.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 75
the field is forgotten. They made vast booty, and the Britons
fled before them as from fire1.
In the fortieth year after his arrival2, or twice eight years
after the last battle, Hengest died, and after him Eric, sur
named ./Esc, the patriarch of the dynasty of the ^Escings,
reigned twenty-four years, increasing his territory at the ex
pense of the Britons, until the end of the eighth cycle of eight
years after the coming of the Germans into England. From
this time for the following eighty years, the history of the
kingdom of Kent affords no chronological data, and records
little beyond the names of the first /Escings, namely Octa
or Ocha, the son of Eric or ^Esc, and Eormenric, the son or
brother of Octa. Under the year 568 iEthelberht is named,
who reigned forty-eight years, whose successor Eadbald was
foUowed by Earconberht, each of whom reigned twenty-four
years. The great importance in the history of England of the
conquests of Hengest must justify us for occupying some
space in an attempt more accurately to determine the value
of the foregoing narratives. The first point for consideration
is the year of the landing, which, according to the later Anglo-
Saxon chronicles, is 449. The more ancient Beda, in three
different places3, merely says, that the first landing of the
Saxons took place during the seven years' reign of Marcianus
and Valentinianus, the beginning of which in his History he
places in the year 449, but in his Chronicon in 459: the
right year is known to be 450. The English accounts being
thus evidently incorrect, the hitherto apparently neglected
statement of the older and nearly contemporaneous Prosper
1 Sax. Chron. a. 473.
2 H. Hunt. a. 488. " Mortuus est Hengist xl. anno post adventum
suum in Britanniam." The Sax. Chron. Ethelw. and Fior. Wigorn. make
no mention of the fortieth year, which is, moreover, undoubtedly incorrect,
and added apparently through prepossession for the number eight and its
multiples. — T.
3 H. E. i. 15, v. 24, " quorum tempore Angli a Brittonibus accersiti
Brittaniam adierunt." Chron. a. 459.

76 CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.
Tyro becomes important, namely, that Britain, as early as in
the year 441, fell under the dominion of the Saxons1. With
this year the mission of the Britons to ^Etius, at that time
resident in Gaul, might possibly be brought into connexion :
yet Beda himself, in other parts of his work, where he gives
the dates with greater exactitude, fixes 446, that of the third
consulship of ^Etius2, for the year of the landing of the Angles
and Saxons. It would seem that Beda, whose glaring defi
ciency in historic criticism has never been duly attended to,
foUowed in the one account the Kentish narratives, in the
other, the North-AngUan authorities, both of whom may be
correct for their respective localities. On the first-mentioned
account of Beda later chroniclers have founded the beginning
of their Saxon era.
The oldest Anglo-Saxon chronologists reckoning theh years
from the arrival of the Saxons, we have, in the adoption some
times of the year 445 and sometimes 449, an explanation why
the dates of the earliest annals so frequently differ from each
other by exactly four years3. The year 428, to be found in
1 "Britanniae usque ad hoc tempus variis cladibus eventibusque latae
(laceratae) in ditionem Saxonum rediguntur." Pr. Tyro, a. 441, ap. Ca-
nisium, and Petrie, C. H. p. lxxxii. 2.
2 H. E. v. 23, " anno adventus Anglorum in Britanniam, circiter ducen-
tesimo octogesimo quinto, Dominicae autem incarnationis anno septingen-
tesimo tricesimo primo." Id. i. 23, " anno decimo quarto ejusdem principis
(Mauricii, hoc est anno 696) adventus vero Anglorum in Brittaniam circiter
centesimo quinquagesimo." The ' Northumbrian Chronology ' (Wanley,
p. 288 ; Petrie, C. H. p. 290) places the arrival of the Angles 292 years
before 737, consequently in 445. See also Petrie, p. 1 20, note ". Nennius
(c. xxviii.) assigns a period of forty years from the extinction of the Roman
power in Britain till the landing of the Germans, where it is evident that,
as well as in other parts of his history, he mixes up Anglo-Saxon with
British traditions.
3 See also the ' Annales Juvavienses Majores,' where the death of /Ethel-
berht of Kent is mentioned under the year 620, but which is usually as
signed to 616, while, according to a contrary calculation, the year of the
death of Finnan bishop of Lindisfarne is placed in 658, instead of 662. A
similar confusion occurs in the year of the death of Penda of Mercia,
which is usually given in 654, but in the Northumbrian chronology already
cited, in 658.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 77
writers of no very late times, as that of the landing of the
Saxons in England, having been already considered1, need be
merely mentioned in this place.
We have in our detail endeavoured to draw attention to
a circumstance hitherto entirely overlooked, — that the events
in the saga of the ^Escings, or founders of the kingdom of
Kent, take place in an eight times repeated cycle of eight
years. If so many traces of fiction did not betray a poetic
source from which these meagre chroniclers derived their
narrative, yet must those numbers awaken the suspicion, that
of a people, who have preserved no more ancient chrono
logical notices, whose genealogies, ascending in the tenth or
twelfth generation to the first Creator of the world, betray a
very short historic memory, we possess a fragment only, ar
bitrarily taken by the Scalds, of a myth founded on some
historic sagas.
Though so little of the Old-Saxon traditions has been trans
mitted to us through the literature of the Christian Anglo-
Saxons, we possess, however, two poetic pieces in which
Hengest appears as a conspicuous character : the one a frag
ment only, "The Battle of Finnesburh2," the other an epi
sode in Beowulf3, the oldest national epic extant of Germanic
Europe. We should therefore not be startled at the suppo
sition of poems, founded on his most memorable deed, sung
by heathen Anglo-Saxons in the first century after it took
place4 ; nor if in the history of the later founded Anglo-Saxon
1 See p. 62, note1".
2 See Hickes, Thes. t. i. p. 192 ; Conybeare's ' Illustrations,' p. 173, and
Beowulf by Kemble, vol. i. p. 238. ,
3 [First published by Thorkelin at Copenhagen in 1815, 4 to, whose text
abounds in the grossest errors, but from which his original transcript, now
at Copenhagen, is, singularly enough, in great measure exempt. His "ver-
sio Latina " is worthy of the text. An edition of a different character ap
peared in 1833, and again, with considerable improvements, in 1835, by
J. M. Kemble, Esq. M.A., which was in 1837 followed by a prose trans
lation of the poem, a valuable glossary and body of notes by the same able
hand.— T.] The name of Hengest [as well as that of Hnaef], though oc
curring several times in the poem, has at each time been misunderstood by
Thorkelin !
4 This is perhaps not exactly the place to remark, that in Biisching's

78 CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.
kingdoms, we detect many traces of poetic conception in the
fragments preserved by the chroniclers.
Whether the number eight was merely the division given by
the probably historic numbers forty and sixty-four, or whether
it had an astronomic allusion, or was founded on some myth,
we are unable to discover. That the Saxons were not stran
gers to astronomic traditions, appears probable from their
primitive saga, in which 354, the number of the ships with
which their forefathers migrated from the land of sunrise1,
corresponds with that of the days of the lunar year. We find
the number eight in the division of the twenty-four hours,
from one morning to another, usual among the Anglo-Saxons
and Icelanders. A similar division exists in the eight watches
among mariners. As at Rome the period of eight days was
superseded only by the Jewish-Christian week of seven days,
so both German and Scandinavian colloquial terms point to a
similar division of time in the heathen North. This number
reminds us, moreover, of the oKTaeTriplq of the Greeks, so fre
quently occurring in their games and other institutions.
If, in considering the cyclic chronology of the dominion
of the .<Escings, we recollect how many centuries of history
are a later work of men, we shaU be unable whoUy to sup
press our doubts regarding the existence in Kent of the
first founder of that race. Among the reasons against the
historic truth of the traditions of Hengest and Horsa, the
first that presents itself is the extraordinary, and, except in
poetical tradition, almost unheard of circumstance, of two
leaders, at the same time, at the head of a band of followers.
Beda gives the story of the two brothers as a tradition only2.
' Volkslieder ' there is a child's song in which allusion is made to the Saxon
invasion of Britain. The mention therein of the Old-Saxon weapon, the
long knife (seax), is remarkable.
1 See i. a. Sachsenspiegel, lib. iii. c.44.
2 H, E. i. 15. [The circumstance of two brothers being joint kings or
leaders, and bearing alliterative names, is far fiom unheard of in the annals
of the North : as instances may be cited the sons of Ragnar, Ingvar and
Ubba, of whom hereafter; also two kings in Rumedal (Snorre, t. i. p. 81),
Herlaug and Hrollaug. See also the early Danish chronicles.— T.]

ANGLO-SAXON RUNES. 79
Their synonymous names are yet more striking, which have
been considered as bearing allusion to the horse held sacred
by the Germans1, to their military banner2, and to the white
horse, the arms of the county of Kent. The poems of the
founding of the kingdom of Kent are unfortunately, through
the early decay of that power, irretrievably lost, and there is
as little hope of illustrating the traditions from historic nar
ratives as from the heroic compositions of the bard or glee-
man3. The inquiry into the chronology of the Anglo-Saxons na
turally leads to the question, what were the means employed
by them to aid the memory, and preserve to posterity the
remembrance of past generations ? That the art of writing
was not very general among them we must conclude from
their numerous symbolical legal usages ; nevertheless the
1 Tac. Ger. c. x. 2 Ibid, cvii. Ejd. Hist. iv. 22.
3 According to a tradition of Ocka Scharlensis, a Frisian historian of the
tenth century (printed at Amsterdam in 1507), Hengist and Horsa were
the sons of Udolph Haro, the seventh and last duke of the Frisians, and
of Svana, a daughter of the noble Witgistus (Wihtgils ?), dwelling near
Hamburg, and sister of two earlier individuals deceased, named also Hen-
gist and Horsa. I am acquainted with this story (which is justly rejected
by Verstegan and later English writers) only through the work of Suffridus
Petri, 'De Frisionum Antiquitate et Origine,' Colon. Agrip. 1590.
Having, since the foregoing was written, received the original work
of Ocka, revised and enlarged by John Vlitarp and Andreas Cornelisz
(Leeuwaarden, 1597, fol.), I find that, in speaking of Hengist, born in 361,
and Horsus, who had already served in the army of Valentinian, and landed
in Britain in 385, the author generally follows Jeffrey of Monmouth. Ac
cording to the Frisian historian this Hengist was hanged in the year 389
by Eldol (Cf. Galfr. Monum. vi, 6), and tbe conquest of Britain was achieved
bythe followers of the sons of the second Frisian king Odilbalt, who were
born in 441, and likewise called Hengist and Horsa, and had been taught
the art of war under the Northern kings, but were at last slain by Gormund
and his Irishmen. In Ocka's work no mention is made of Svana nor of
her father ' Waethgist ' (Wihtgisl, Wihtgils) . [From the tale of the scop or
gleeman in Beowulf, Hengest certainly appears as (what he has always
till of late been considered) a Jutish leader. The whole episode will be
found at the end of the volume, accompanied by what I believe to be a
literal translation, with a few conjectural readings of the text, which do
not, however, affect the parts relating to the country of Hengest.— T,]

80 ANGLO-SAXON RUNES.
Anglo-Saxon, and in part English expressions for writing and
alphabetic signs, viz. writan, to write, and staef, letter, and
the many Anglo-Saxon derivatives from these roots, as stagf-
craeft, art of letters, grammar; staefen-row, alphabet; staef-
gewrit, staefhc, staef-plega, etc., justify the conclusion, that if
the Anglo-Saxons had appropriate names for writing and ob
jects connected with it, the art itself could not have been
unknown to them. Of runes, the use of which among the
Germans seems to have been known to Tacitus1, many traces
stiU exist in England, where the word rune, however, rather
signified a mystery, than, as among the Scandinavian nations,
an alphabetic character. That the Germans brought alpha
betic writing with them to Britain appears partly from the
chcumstance that they were acquainted only with the old
runic alphabet of sixteen letters, and that theh characters
closely resembled those of the northern Germans2, but par
ticularly from the adoption of some of the Saxon characters
into the Roman alphabet introduced by the Christian priests,
which was found inadequate to express all the Anglo-Saxon
sounds. These are the runes P, afterwards expressed by V
or W, and p, b (for which the later D, $ was also used), now
expressed by Th. During the early culture of the Anglo-
Saxons by the missionaries, the other runic characters the
sooner fell into disuse from being unknown to the Britons,
who at a later period exercised over them considerable influ
ence. Although we have to regret the loss of aU the alpha-
1 Ger. c. iii. " Aram Ulixi consecratam, monumentaque et tumulos
quosdam Gracis Uteris inscriptos in confinio Germania- Raetiaeque adhuc
extare." Ib. c. x. " Virgam frugiferae arbori decisam in surculos amputant,
eosque notis quibusdam discretes super candidam vestem  spargunt."
Were these twigs, used for casting lots, marked with runes ? [See a passage
connected with this subject in ' The Legend of St. Andrew,' edited by
Mr. Kemble for the .Mfric Society, or in Archaeol. vol. xxviii. p. 332. — T.]
2 Cf. W. C. Grimm, 'Ueber Deutsche Runen,' Gottingen 1821, and
his supplement to that work in the 'Wiener Jahrbucher,' 1828, Bd.43.
Geijer, ' Svea Rikes Hafder,' T. i. 134-185, with whom I agree in the result,
though not in particular points.

ANGLO-SAXON RUNES. 81
betic writings of the Anglo-Saxons from the time of paganism,
which, on perishable wood, recorded the genealogies of their
kings, legal documents and poems, — yet are lasting though
somewhat later monuments inscribed with them not want
ing, from which we may conclude that here, as in the North,
they were in use as the writing of the people for some cen
turies ; hence we meet with them on boundary stones, fonts,
and similar public monuments.
The use of runes as a peculiar kind of writing may be
traced in England till the fourteenth century1; and, ifwe err
not, they continued in use both there and in Germany for
inscriptions and seals to even a later period, in consequence of
the superior facility which their right-lined forms afforded to
the engraver over those of the usual round monkish charac
ters. That we have failed in discovering their numerals is
much to be regretted, by an acquaintance with which many
an enigmatic myth of the North might be found susceptible
of an historic interpretation. From the undoubted connexion
of the runic characters with the Phoenician and, consequently,
with the ancient Greek alphabet, we may perhaps conclude
that the runic numerals were those characters in their ancient
order, which we know from some manuscripts ; a supposition
which as far as the number 19 finds confirmation in the
notation used on the old runic calendar, in reference to
the cycle of nineteen years2- If we further consider how
long these characters continued in use among the common
people and perhaps in commerce, the question, however re
pugnant to received opinion, may be asked, whether, not
withstanding the influence of the Arabian or Indian numeral
1 See Cod. Sangallens. 270 and 878 ; it. Cod. Isidor. Paris, in Grimm.
tab. ii., and ibid. tab. iii.; from later A.-S. manuscripts in Hickes, t. i
pp. 135, 136, and t. iii. tab. 6 ; Duncan and Repp's account of the monu
ment in Ruthwell Garden, Edinb. 1833 [and Kemble's paper on Anglo-
Saxon Runes, in Archaeologia, vol. xxviii. — T.].
2 Hickes, t. i. p. 34.
VOL. I. G

82 ANGLO-SAXON NUMERAL SYSTEM.
system on our own, the present so-caUed Arabian first eight
numerals are not eight runes, to which, as they appear in
ancient manuscripts, they bear a closer resemblance than to
the real Arabian ciphers ? That this supposed similarity is
less striking in the Northern than in the later wide-spread
Anglo-Saxon runes, seems in favour of the hypothesis. Pla-
nudes indeed says, that the numerals used by him are of
Indian origin l ; but how different from our ciphers are those
figures as we find them in his time and, some centuries
earlier, in Roger Bacon, as well as in other manuscripts!
It would be rash to pretend to decide on a point regarding
which our materials for judging are so scanty and so uncer
tain ; yet the doubt may be forgiven on caUing to remem
brance that science and art have often been found nearer to
their home than short-sighted learning imagined.
Of greater importance for historical investigation would be
the knowledge of the numeral system in use among the
Saxons. I am incUned to the behef that the octonary, on
account of its facility of division, was the one followed, and
that herein may be found a further reason for the frequent
use of the number eight in the Anglo-Saxon narratives.
From this system it appears also probable that the name of
the eighth rune, 'hun,' is nearly connected with hundred ; also,
that both Scandinavians and Germans had a smaU and a great
hundred and thousand, by the latter of which the numbers
120 and 1200 were denoted2, and hence perhaps the frequent
occurrence of the number 12 (3 x 4). The greatest weight
usual in the North, which emphatically bore the name of
' vaett,' contained eighty pounds, and was increased to a hun-
1 See Montucla, Histoire des Mathe'matiques, i. p. 375 sq. The se
cond rune Ur resembles in all the alphabets the cipher for two as it appears
in manuscripts of the fourteenth century.
2 Rask, Anvisning til Islandskan, p. 130. Mone, Gesch. des Heiden-
thums, ii. 79, p. 89. For traces of a reckoning by a great hundred see
Diss, on Domesday Book, p. xlvii. Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, vol. i.
p. 148.

NATIONAL TRADITIONS. 83
dred1 in later times only. The Anglo-Saxons placed the word
'huud' before the numbers 70 to 120, a practice evidently de
rived from a time when that syllable had not acquired its later
signification of number, but indicated only a certain multipli
cation; which notation might perhaps have connexion with the
number of the sixteen ancient runes, the eleventh of which
might denote 20, and so on, the fifteenth 60, and the last
100; in like manner, at a later period, after six new runes
had been added, the twenty-first might have been employed
for the great hundred, and the last rune for its multiple,
the great thousand. As an idiom now lost in the English
tongue, but as showing the close relationship subsisting
between the Anglo-Saxon method of reckoning and that of
the Scandinavian and other Germanic people, may be cited
the use of the word ' healf,' half, which they subtract from
the preceding whole number, while in other tongues the half
is added to the same ; an idiom which receives illustration
from the custom adopted, in writing the numerals during the
middle age, of drawing a stroke through the whole number,
thereby signifying that a half is to be subtracted from it2.
Before we resume the subject of the settlements of the
Germans in Britain, the manifest deficiency of the historic
picture, — which in this instance has very little claim to be
regarded as a faithful mirror, — renders it necessary to give a
more detailed account of the descent of these people ; a subject
the more important, as with greater rapidity and more last
ing consequences, they converted the newly acquired land, in
language, laws and customs, into a native country for their
posterity. It is a remarkable circumstance attending the invasion of
Britain by the Germanic races, that people whose language
was sufficiently formed to supplant both the old mother-
1 Gragas II. in Gloss., though Bioin Haldorsen, voc. Vaett, explains it
by ' octoginta pondo, nonnunquam olim centum pondo.'
2 This practice is not yet entirely obsolete in Scotland. — T.
G 2

84 NATIONAL TRADITIONS.
tongue, and the language of business, of education, and of
the church, — while in every other province of the Roman em
pire, with the exception of border districts, the language of
the barbarians expired, — should have preserved only meagre
genealogic memorials, but no ancestral tradition, historic re
cords, or even any distinct allusions to the country which
they had previously occupied. But this want of native hi
story wiU appear the less singular, when we caU to mind that
the immigration did not take place in great bodies, but gra
duaUy, frequently by very small settlements, which spread
themselves over the greater part of England and the south
of Scotland, during the course of one or two centuries. In
the English language, particularly in the rural districts,
where the Norman French has exercised less influence, we
still possess Uving witnesses of the identity of the invaders
with the inhabitants of the banks of the Lower Elbe and of
the neighbouring countries, to the north and south, from
Jutland to the mouths of the Rhine. The existing monu
ments of the old Lower Saxon dialect, especially the ' Har
mony of the Four Gospels,' of the ninth century, known by
the name of the Heliand1, agree much more closely with
the Anglo-Saxon in the formation of words, in inflexion, and
the whole vocabulary, than the Upper German writings of
the same period. Widely as the modern EngUsh tongue
deviates from the present German, there, nevertheless, "yet
lives in the various dialects of England, and particularly of
Scotland, a rich store of Old-Saxon, and the speech and the
song of the Scottish ploughman not unfrequently receive theh
best illustration by a comparison with the expressions of the
Holsteiner, Hadeler, or Frisic husbandman or mariner.
An insight into the very close, immediate connexion be
tween the Anglo-Saxon and Low German dialects is not
1 Heliand. Poema Saxonicum seculi noni, edidit J. A. Schmeller.
Monachii, StutgartiiE et Tubingae. 1830, 4to. Also, Glossarium Saxo
nicum e Poemate Heliand, ib. 1840. — T.

NATIONAL TRADITIONS. 85
without important results for many centuries of English hi
story, ahd a firm footing for the illustration of the civil in
stitutes in both these neighbouring countries is thereby ob
tained. The Scandinavian dialects are far more remote from
the Anglo-Saxon, and we are fully justified in regarding the
traces yet to be found in English of the old Norse tongue as
the echo of the invasion of the Jutes, and yet more of the
later ones by the Danes or Northmen, and are enabled to fix
with confidence the period of the introduction of certain
Northern elements, which, as legal antiquities, sometimes
at the present day present themselves as still living.
To the proofs derived from language regarding the native
land of the Saxons who passed over to Britain, belongs the
resemblance both of the personal names of the Anglo-Saxons,
and of local names in the western parts of England to those of
Lower Saxony ; though with respect to the former, the com
parison is rendered very difficult by the want of old Lower
Saxpn documents, few of which reach beyond, or even so far
as the twelfth century, besides being exposed to much uncer
tainty, through the early spread of originally national proper
names by wanderings and intermarriages. But the resem
blance of local names, exclusive even of those that preserve
historical and mythological recollections, is too striking not to
have been long ago caUed into notice 1 ; yet the lists may be
greatly increased, and gain in value by the aid of more ancient
records. The most important names to us must be those
which, occurring in Old- Saxony only, lead to the inference
of similar political institutions there, where it is worthy of
notice that the name of the Anglo-Saxon noble, ' aethel,' is to
be found in Ethehngstede2, and that the local termination in
Wick, wich, so frequent in England, with its compounds
1 See Ch. U. Grupens, Abh. ' De Lingua Hengisti ' in Observat. Rer. et
Antiquit. Germanic, et Romanar.; and, with particular reference to districts
on the Elbe, Wedekinds noten zu deutschen Geschichtschreibern, Bd. i.
2 Now Tellingstadt in Dithmarschen.

86 NATIONAL TRADITIONS.
Wykgraf, wykvogt, Wykscheffel (wispel), are not common to
all Germany, but exist only in Old-Saxony and Friesland.
Of greater and more immediate interest for the history of
England is the agreement between the public and private
legal institutions of the Germans and those of the EngUsh
Saxons, which abundantly manifests itself as well in their
general characteristics as in incidental notices and detached
fragments, the further consideration of which we defer for
the present, as an opportunity will hereafter be given for the
discussion of them in connexion with the history of the An
glo-Saxon constitution.
But if, on every close comparative consideration of the
copious language, numerous settlements, and civU institutes
of both nations, new proofs of identity shaU be found, a
more favourable and more faithful picture wUl present itself
of the state of civilization of the continental and of the insular
Saxons than the meagre narratives of the older historians
have been able to supply. Even though it were the petulant,
rugged youth who first forsook theh home, and took pos
session of a foreign land, yet these emigrants, unconsciously
to themselves, had their share in the transmission to England
of the most valuable possession of theh country, in language
and customs, which succeeding multitudes of theh elder and
more peaceful kinsmen afterwards fully effected. But let the
modern world not forget, that the existing notions of property,
of inheritance, and the institutions founded thereon, are the
slow and artificial production of many centuries, and that
states of society sometimes present themselves to the geogra
pher and the historian exhibiting no inconsiderable degree of
mental culture, yet with no consciousness of the necessity of
those fundamental principles of present social order. The
system of an annual changing, or at least changeable pos
session of land, and the custom necessarily attending it, of
migrating, prejudicial as they were to the solid interests of
nations, nevertheless required activity and strength of mind :

NATIONAL TRADITIONS. 87
the individual too, whose home afforded him no permanent
settlement, would not respect that of a stranger ; while piracy,
ennobled by stratagem and valour, is indebted only to an
established system of social order for its disgrace and punish
ment. Even in later times the prince of the Hebrides bore
without scruple the title of -* archpirate ' : the Barbary States
also afford examples of odious but not wholly savage com
munities, professing piracy as a trade; and the letters of
marque of the Europeans prove how easy, even to ourselves
at the present day, is the suspension of the fundamental
principles of our whole legal system, and the return to
lawful private robbery.
The ancestral traditions of the Saxons belong scarcely to the
province of history. The tradition that they sprung from the
Danes and Northmen, though questioned by Wittekind, was
probably founded on the transient dominion of the Danes
over the northern Saxons1, and receives some countenance in
the intermediate position of these people between Germany
and the North. As neighbours of the Danes, on the confines
of the Cimbric Chersonesus, the Saxons were known to
Ptolemy. We find them soon afterwards in the South, ex
tending themselves along the sea-shore towards the Rhine2.
With both these traditions, a third, to which the monks of
Corvey gave full credit, is not incompatible, viz. that the
Saxons having come to their neighbourhood in ships, and
first landing in Hadeln, drove the Thuringians thence by craft
and violence. If this event took place, it cannot have been
later than at the time stated, that of the emperor Vespasian,
1 " Confinalis Daniae est patria quae nominatur Saxonia, quae antiquitus
et ipsa ex Dania pertinere dicebatur." Geog. Raven, iv. c. 17.
2 " Saxones, gentem oceani in litoribus et paludibus inviis sitam." Oro
sius, vii. 32, whose words here as elsewhere are copied by Paulus Diac.
de Gest. Roman, lib. xi. In geographical notices the unaltered confirm
ations of a copyist are sometimes of value. The ' Insulae Saxonum ' of
Ptolemy are probably to be sought for in the present North Friesland :
Eiderstedt, Nordstrand, Wieking-Harde and Bbking-Harde. See Falck,
Schleswig-Holsteinsches Privat-recht, Th. ii. p. 10.

88 NATIONAL TRADITIONS.
as we soon afterwards find the Saxons in league with the
Franks. Wiftekind does not inform us whence these Saxons
came who landed in Hadeln, and there is no ground for contro
verting, but, in accordance with other narratives and with the
ordinary march of nations from north to south, for supposing
that they were from the north shore of the Elbe, or Nordal-
bingian Saxons, who took possession of the southern shore of
that river, and soon spread themselves over those tracts, as
far as the Weser and the Rhine1, until, in the time of Charle
magne, they were in possession of the territory forming the
eight bishoprics founded by him, or of the ' gaus,' or districts,
of the later Upper and Lo**n*er Saxony and WestphaUa. In
the account which makes the Saxons to have passed from
Britain to Hadeln2, a later inversion of the tradition is to be
recognised, originating, perhaps, in the return of some bo
dies, of Saxons from England3.
That a considerable portion of the German invaders of
Britain were strictly Saxons4 is the more probable, as the
names of the territories occupied by them, Essex, Sussex,
Middlesex and Wessex, prove their Saxon origin ; and even
at the present day, after all the immigrations of other races,
1 This is the country which Beda, jElfred and other English writers call
Old-Saxony in contradistinction to the newer Saxon realm in England.
Herewith also agrees the account of Adam of Bremen, i. 3, that the Saxons
first had their habitation on the Rhine, and thence passed over to Britain.
To seek for Old-Saxony in Holstein, with Camden and others after him,.
is not admissible, as in the oldest accounts we always find the latter coun
try written Holsatia. Adam. Brem. ii. 8. " Holsati dicti a sylvis quas
accolunt." And from him, Annalista Saxo a. 983. "Holcetae dicti a
sylvis quas incolunt." Cf. also Albert. Stad. a. 917- The Sachsenspiegel
(b. iii. art. 64. § 3.) has ' Holtseten.'
2 Meginhard, Transl. S. Alexandri, and Adam. Brem. i. 4, from Einhard.
3 Gildas, Hist. u. xxv. Beda, i. 16. Galf. Mon. vi. 13.
4 The oldest continental writers for the most part mention only the
Saxons as immigrants. Prosp. Aquit. a. 441. " Britanniae  in
ditionem Saxonum rediguntur." Geog. Raven, v. § 31. "In oceano occi
dental est insula qua** dicitur Britannia, ubi olim gens Saxonum, veniens
ab antiqua Saxonia, cum principe suo, nomine Anschis, modo habitare
videtur ;" also Wittekind, lib. i. [The territories occupied by the Saxons
were small in comparison with those of the Angles. See note 2, p. 89. — T.]

NATIONAL TRADITIONS. 89
their Celtic neighbours, the Highland Scots, the Welsh, the
Irish, and the Bretons, speak of the English only under the
denomination of Saxons, though other hordes either accom
panied or followed them, among which the Angles are chiefly
conspicuous, but whose origin — though they were undoubt
edly more numerous than even the Saxons, and sufiiciently
powerful to impart their name, as a national denomination,
to the whole new Germanic land, to the exclusion of that
of the Saxons1, until, for the sake of convenience, historians
introduced that of Anglo-Saxons, — is, nevertheless, in
volved in very considerable obscurity. Both Beda and iElfred
distinctly mention the district of Angeln as the original seat
of this people2, a name now confined to the country between
the Slie, or Schley, and Flensburg, but which anciently must
have comprised a much larger territory3. The testimony of
Beda, who lived in one of the states founded by the Angles,
and scarcely a century from the time of its foundation, is here
particularly valuable. The old British tradition makes Hen
gest and his companions embark for Britain from the Isle of
Angul4, although they are else confidently spoken of as Sax-
1 Already in a letter of Gregory I., a. 596, the inhabitants of ' Saxonia
transmarina,' as they are denominated in the superscription, are in the
text called 'gens Anglorum.' Hardt. iii. p. 509. Du Chesne, t. i. p. 897.
So also in all the letters of the same pope in Smith's Beda, Appendix vi.,
and in Bedae Opera Historica Minora, Appendix, ed. Stevenson.
2 Beda, i. 15. " Porro de Anglis, hoc est, de ilia patria quae Angulus
dicitur, et ab eo tempore usque hodie manere desertus inter provincias
Jutarum et Saxonum perhibetur, Orientales Angli, Mediterranei Angli,
Merci, tota Nordanhymbrorum progenies, id est, illarum gentium quae ad
boreamHumbri fluminis inhabitant, ceterique Anglorum populi sunt orti."
Alfred's Account, § 3. Ohther's Voyage, § 10. Dahlmann's Forschungen,
Th. i. p. 418 sq. Nestor also, the Russian chronicler, makes mention of
the Angles.
3 See Ethelwerd, lib. i., who mentions Sleswic, by the Danes called Haith-
aby, as the capital of that country.
4 Nennius, c. xxxvii. " Hengistus  cum suis senioribus, qui secum
venerant de insula Angul." [Some MSS. read Oghgul.— T.] Gerv. Tilb. ed.
Maderus,p.41. "Ab illis Saxonibus ab Engla insula venientibus seminarium
ortum est Anglorum."

90 NATIONAL TRADITIONS.
ons, and the peopling of the kingdom of Kent, founded by
them, was ascribed to Jutes :-
The Angles2 possessed in Britain those parts which after
wards formed the kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, and
Northumbria (in the ancient and Uteral acceptation of that
name, comprising the country to the north of the Humber,
viz. the county of York and the present Northumberland, the
latter, if it were already included under that appellation, form
ing but a small, and the most remote portion of it), or, in
other words, the country to the north of the counties of Hert
ford, Northampton, and Warwick. This northern portion of
England is distinguished from the south by two denomi
nations, which can be ascribed only to the Angles : whUe the
parts inhabited by the Saxons were divided into hundreds,
the like division in all the Anglian territories bore the name
of wapentake3, which is stiU retained in the county of York,
and partially in those of Derby and Lincoln. It wUl hardly
be objected that this appellation was introduced at a later
period by the Danes, since, of all the Anghan states, East
AngUa, which first fell under a regular Danish government,
is the only one where it does not occur. In the present
counties of Northumberland and Durham, which had early
1 Beda, i. 15. Procopius, lib. iv., says, Bj/tti'mh 8s tij» twov ihn tji'«
irohvat^eaTro-rartt, 'i^oviri  ' Ayyfaoi ts xai 3>giWo«£; xcti ai t9i ufaa
oftapvftot Bo'ittuvis, without mentioning the Saxons,
2 Of the Old Angles we possess two remarkable monuments : the poem
of Beowulf (see p. 77 and note), in which the old Anglian saga is ennobled
by an Anglo-Saxon of the eighth century, and the laws of the Angles of
Haithaby, generally known under the probably corrupt title of ' Leges
Angliorum et Werinorum,' for which Dahlmann acutely proposes to read
* Angliorum Etverinorum,' or ' Hetverinorum.' See Kraut on the Lex Angl.
et Werin. in Falk's Eranien, iii. [The reading ' Werinorum ' is, however,
as old as Cnut's Forest Laws : see p. 93, note 4. — T.]
3 Leges Edw. Conf. xxx. " Everwichescire, Nicholescire, Notingeham-
scire, Leicestrescire, Norhamtunescire, et usque ad Watlingestrete, et VII.
milliaria ultra Watlingestrete, sub lege Anglorum. Et quod alii (' Angli,'
some MSS.) vocant hundredum, supradicti comitatus vocant wapentagium."
Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, folio edit. p. 196.

' ANGLES. 91
and long been Danish, as well as in Cumberland and West
moreland, the division caUed a ward is met with, which may,
however, date only from the Norman times. Another national
denomination of the Angles accords precisely with the pre
ceding, viz. that of the civic estabhshment, the ' by.' Fre
quently as local names with this termination occur to the
north of Warwick, we shall vainly seek for them southwards
of that town1. To the distinction between Angles and Saxons
it may, perhaps, also be ascribed, that beyond the WatUng
Street, many of the local names end or begin with ' kirk '
(church), while to the south we find ' minster' (monastery).
These remarks on isolated differences of expression between
Angles and Saxons, here confined to local instances, may be
extended to the important and well-ascertained variations in
dialect prevailing between the inhabitants of Mercia and those
of Wessex.
The testimony of manuscripts of the same work in the dia
lects of Wessex and Mercia2, and of a period when the Danes,
having scarcely obtained their first peaceful settlement in
England, could exercise no influence over the language and
culture of their territory, seems to place the age of both dia
lects, and, consequently, the difference of both races, beyond
a doubt ; and wiU, when the investigation is rendered more
easy, probably remove all uncertainty regarding the descent
of the Angles.
Another hypothesis must not, however, be entirely over
looked, according to which the Angles were either the Anglii
of Tacitus, or the Angrivarii, the inhabitants of the later duchy
of Engern. Ptolemy relates that a nation, bearing the name
1 The correctness of this observation, with reference to the earliest times,
cannot indeed be proved, in consequence of the want of documents. Derby,
in which I have first met with this termination, owed its name of Deoraby
to the Danes, having been originally called Northweorthig. Ethelwerd, iv. 2.
2 In that of Mercia is the Cambridge MS. of the Chronicle (C. C. S. 11,
Wanley, p. 130), and a MS. of Alfred's Boethius used by Rawlinson in his
edition. [I believe the genuine Anglian dialect to be that which is usually
denominated the Northumbrian. — T.]

92 ;angles.
of Angles, dwelt to the south of the Elbe, in a territory which,
perhaps, may be sought for in the old North Thuringia1. No
account of, not even the slightest allusion to, any connexion
between these southern Angles and those of Sleswig is extant;
yet, if the supposition be not groundless, that the Saxons
moved southwards from the northern bank of the Elbe, it is
not improbable that hordes also of their Anglian neighbours
in the north might have accompanied them.
Nor may we seek for the Anglian settlers in the midst of
the German continent, seeing that the grounds alleged in
favour of that opinion rest on a manifest misunderstanding2.
At an early period the servility of genealogists had declared
Hengest and Horsa for sons of the duke of Engern, with the
view of bestowing on those individuals an origin that should
be welcome both to the Saxons and English3; but of an
argument, however specious, founded merely on blazonry, we
ought to be extremely distrustful. The duchy of Engern
bore, it is said, a white horse in its banner, whence that charge
came into the shield of the dukes of Liineburg and the pre
sent Guelphs4; the same is also borne by the county of Kent,
1 Von Wersebe, Beschreibung der Gauen zwischen Elbe und Werra,
p. 69. Von Ledebur, Land und Volk der Bructerer, p. 274, but who, in
what he says about the Old- Saxons, is far from satisfactory ; and, in what
he states concerning the Angli and Warni, misunderstands in an extraordi
nary manner the passage of Procopius, lib. iv., who does not consider the
Angli and Warni as allies in England, but speaks of the Angli who from
Britain overcame the Warni encamped on the opposite coast of Belgium.
2 In Adam. Brem. i. 4, where he speaks of the Saxons who had gone
over to Britain, the words " et vocati sunt Angli," after " Saxones circa
Rhenum sedes habebant," are wanting in the Vienna MS.
8 Gobelini Personae Cosmodrom. aetate vi. "Duces exercitus illius, qui
de Saxonia in Britanniam profectus est, filii ducis Angariae sive de Engere
fuerunt,  et inde forte est quod arma ducis Saxoniaesunt equus albus."
See also Verstegan, p. 131.
4 Not the device of the Saxons, who, according to Wittekind, bore an
eagle hovering over a lion and a dragon. The golden dragon was the royal
standard of Wessex. H. Hunt., lib. iv, " Edelhun praecedens Westsexenses,
regis insigne, draconem scilicet aureum gerens," etc. The horse in the
arms of Brunswick-Liineburg was not added till the year 1362. See Muller
in Neue vaterliindische Archiv. 1832, p. 176 ; Scheldt vom deutschen
Adel, p. 228.

ANGLES. 93
where Hengest and Horsa, according to tradition, first landed
and ruled. But here all dates are wanting, and Kent, as we
have already seen, was not occupied by a race of Angles.
Of the laws of the Angles there is no collection extant ;
the loss of them, more especiaUy those of Offa, is matter of
deep regret, as they would, no doubt, have afforded us some
important data whereby to judge of the identity of the British
Angles with one of the continental races. We know, however,
from detached sources, that the laws of the southern and
northern English, or of the Saxons and Angles, even in their
later form, differed in many points from each other1 ; but the
law of Mercia is usually cited as agreeing with that of East
Anglia2 ; hence an accordance of the law of Mercia with that
of the continental Anglians ought not to be overlooked — in
the latter of which, among all the written German laws, the
denomination ' adaling ' (aetheling) is alone to be found — viz.
that both fix the wergild of the free at two hundred shiUings3.
The disproportion in the wergild of the noble among the An-
gUans may perhaps be accounted for by the circumstance,
that a new nobility, the ' sixhyndesmen,' formed out of the
mUitary retainers that had passed into Britain, had stept into
the place of the old nobles, while the wergild of the old
nobility by birth was doubled, and their rank raised in pro
portion. We possess, however, a very remarkable testimony
of the origin of the wergUd of the free from the law of the
Anglians, and of its validity in England, in the Forest Laws
of Cnut, which seems to place even the later application of
that law in England beyond a doubt4.
1 See Laws of ^Ethelred, vii. 9, 13, and the title 'Wergilds,' in the An
cient Laws and Institutes of England.
2 Cnut's Sec. Laws, lxxii.
3 See tit. ' Mercian Law,' in Anc. Laws and Instt. Lex Angl. et Wer.
tit. i.
4 Const, de Foresta, xxxiii  "emendet secundum pretium hominis
mediocris, quod secundum legem Werinorum, i. Thuringorum, est ducen-
torumsolidorum." [The reading ' Churingorum,' for 'Thuringorum,' given

94 ANGLES.
But the accordance of the laws of the Anglians with those
of the Anglo-Saxons is in general, and even in many indi
vidual points, very remarkable. Particularly important in
the former is the precept regarding the succession to inherit
ances in the male line1 (lancea, the spear-side of the Anglo-
Saxons2); the Saxons also acknowledging only heirs male,
to which, as far as the fifth generation, they give the prefer
ence over descendants in the female line. Important also is
the title cDe Postestate Testandi,' or, Of freedom in testa
mentary bequests3. The higher fine imposed for injury done
to the hand of the harper, the goldsmith, and the embroider-
ess4, of which no mention occurs in the other German laws,
calls to mind the harp of the North, of Denmark and of En
gland, at the same time that the several female ornaments5
imply the existence of cities, such as from the foregoing we
may suppose Haithaby to have been. A striking character
istic of the Anglians was the sanctity of domestic security,
which manifests itself in the heavy penalty affixed to its vio
lation, implying both civilization and notions of property, the
later advancement of which appears in the great respect shown
by the laws for the house of the English burgher6.
In the laws of the Anglians and of the Anglo-Saxons is
found also the common principle, that those who first forcibly
in Spelman's Glossarium, is apparently a mere clerical or typographical
error : Canciani has, " hoc est Thuringorum." — T.]
1 Lex Angl. et Wer, tit. vi, Leges Henrici I. lxx. § 20, where, though
the passage is copied from the Leges Ripuariorum, c. lvi., yet it in principle
agrees with the Anglian law, and can have been adopted only in conse
quence of its conformity with the Anglo-Saxon.
2 See Testamentum iElfredi Regis. Hence is also the proverb to be ex
plained, " Bicge spere of side oSer bere : " " lanceam eme de latere, aut
fer eam," which in Leges Edw. Conf. xii, is thus cited in the law of
' Manbote,' " Emendationem faciat parentibus, aut guerram paciatur."
3 Lex Angl. et Wer. tit. xiii. That the Anglo-Saxons were acquainted
with this appears from Cnut's Sec. Laws, lxxi. LL. Hen. I. lxxv. § 11.
See also Anc Laws and Instt. p. 185.
4 Lex Angl. tit. v. 20. 6 Lex Angl. tit. vii. 3.
0 See title ' Hamsocn,' in Anc. Laws and Instt. of England.— T.

ANGLES. 95
enter another's property shall pay a heavier fine than those who
follow1. According to both laws a thief might be slain, if his
crime was affirmed by oath2. Whether the enactments of the
Anglians regarding duels, among whom they were allowed in
all cases of two shiUings and upwards, show any connexion
between their laws and those of the Anglo-Saxons, will be
doubted by those who deny the existence of that mode of
judicial proof among the latter, on the ground that the word
for single combat, ' eornest,' — though certainly Germanic, —
is not of Anglo-Saxon3 origin : yet William the Conqueror
speaks of the judicial combat as a known English custom ;
and that the Anglians themselves lacked an appropriate term
is evident from the language of their law, which says, " let
the field (campus) decide4." The omission of all mention in
the Anglo-Saxon laws of this undeniably existing custom
may, perhaps, justify the inference, that the laws of East
Anglia contained circumstantial provisions regarding judicial
combats. The existence, however, in England of another
means of proof in judicial proceedings, similar in form and
application to what is enacted in that old Germanic law, is
undoubted — the fire, or iron proof, for accused females, con
sisting in walking over nine red-hot ploughshares5.
Thus may the assertion appear justified, that the laws of
the Anglians agree, not only in general characteristics com
mon to aU Germanic laws, with those of the Anglo-Saxons,
and may be regarded as a chief source of them, but also, that
no other Germanic laws coincide with them so closely in single
1 Lex Angl. tit. x. c. 9. Laws of ./Ethelberht, xvii.
2 Lex Angl. tit. vii. 4. Laws of Ine, xvi. xxxv. Ifews of Wihtraed, xxv.
3 Palgrave, vol. i. p. 223.
4 " Campus judicat ; " hence, Kampe, champion, campio ; Kamp, Low
Saxon for field.
5 Lex Angl. tit. xiv. Annal. Winton. ap. Du Cange, voce ' Vomeres ' ;
Wharton, Anglia Sacra, t. i. Cf. Theodor. Monach. Hist. Reg. Norv.
c. xxxiv. ap. Langebek, t. v. p. 340. Capit. ad Leg. Salic, c. ix. Capit. 1. iv.
App. ii. c. 3. LL. Longob. 1. i. c. 10. § 3, and even LL. Hen. I. lxxxix.
§ 1. Other laws enjoin twelve ploughshares.

96 JUTES.
points ; so that if all other historic grounds were wanting,
we must, nevertheless, place the laws of the Anglians in the
nearest relationship to those of the Anglo-Saxons.
The third race which increased the new population of Bri
tain was that of the Jutes, apparently less numerous than either
of the before-mentioned, as they possessed only Kent, the
Isle of Wight, and a part of Wessex, where for some centu
ries the Jutish race was distinguished from the Saxon 1. Kent
has certain customs of its own, among which the law of in
heritance called Gavelkind2 is well known, and also a pecuUar
dialect3. Even on a slight glance over the history of En
gland, we must be repeatedly reminded of the distinguishing
nationality of the men of Kent. More accurate inquiries,
however, into the history of nations than have hitherto taken
place, and especially into the history of England, will alone
enable us to ascertain whether the oldest Jutish law resembles
the custumal of Kent, and whether the Jutish forefather may
yet be traced in the Kentish man of the present day. One
circumstance is, however, too striking not to have drawn to
it the attention of others — while the other EngUsh shires are
parted into hundreds or wapentakes, the county of Kent
alone is divided into six lathes* of regular form, and of nearly
equal magnitude. These divisions, which have in later times
become mere districts for judicial purposes, served at an earUer
period for the quartering and muster of the mUitary and of
the general levy. But in the Jutish law5 a military expedi
tion is still called a 'lething' (in modern Danish, 'leding');
1 Beda, i. 15, iv. 16. Sax. Chron. a. 449. Juti Vectiani, and Cantiani
Juti, about the year 900 are mentioned by Wallingford, ap. Gale, i. p. 538.
2 See page 39.
3 A remarkable and valuable specimen of the Kentish dialect exists in
the ' Ayenbyte of Inwyt ' (MS. Arundel. 570, which, though written in
1340, may still be regarded as Anglo-Saxon. See Caedraon, Pref. p. xii.
Mr. T. Wright, to whom all lovers of early English lore are greatly be
holden, has announced an edition of this interesting relic. — T.
4 LL. Edw. Conf. xxxi. var. lect. 13.
5 Lib. iii. c. 2. 12.

FRISIANS, ETC. 97
whence the district summoned together for such expedition
may have borne that name. In like manner the word f fyrd,'
the mihtary levy of the Anglo-Saxons, — the old signification
of which does not appear to have been preserved in any other
monuments of the German tongue, — is still used in Holstein,
where it signifies the assembly of the States, originally lor
military purposes, at Bornhoved. The earliest record known
to us of any of the customary laws of Kent1 refers chiefly to
circumstances arising out of the feudal system; while the
Jutish Law of King Waldemar the Second, in the thirteenth
century, has adopted many Saxon and other foreign prin
ciples ; both, however, contain the enactment, that the son,
in reference to the property of the deceased husband, shall
be considered of age in his fifteenth year2 ; a principle which,
though on the one side in accordance with the Danish laws,
and, on the other, valid among the socmen3 in other parts
of England, is probably not derived from the Saxon laws, but
rather to be referred to the immigration of the Jutes.
It is hardly probable that, in those days of national migra
tions and military services, so splendid an enterprise as the
conquest of Britain should not have allured many bands from
the kindred tribes of Germany ; these, however, were not, it
seems, sufficiently numerous to claim notice in the most au
thentic narratives. Frisians, on account of their proximity,
their skiU in seamanship, theh language so nearly resembUng
the Anglo-Saxon, and the traditions already mentioned, we
might expect to meet with before all others4 ; but from affinity
1 Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. p. 223-225. Many of the usages there
mentioned will, however, be recognised as common Anglo-Saxon law.
2 Jiit. Lov, lib. i. c. 7.
3 Glanvile, lib. vii. c. 9. § 2.
4 Fin Alius Folcwald, who was a Frisian chief, appears as an ancestor
of Hengest in the genealogies as given by Nennius and those following him ;
but the Saxon authorities, viz. the Chronicle, Asser, Ethelwerd, the Textus
Roffensis, also Florence and Snorre, concur in naming Godwulf as the
father of this Fin ; while in ' Beowulf,' ' The Scop's Tale ' (Traveller's
Song), and ' The Battle of Finnesburh,' Fin son of Folcwalda appears, not
VOL. I. H

98 FRISIANS, ETC.
of language, however, no inference is to be drawn, as it would
tend to the exclusion of the remoter German races; nor
should too much importance be attached to such words as
' seax,' the long knife of the Saxons, from which they are sup
posed to have derived their name, and which was common
also to the Frisians1, and is stiU to be met with in that country ;
as on the same ground the Icelanders must also be considered
as Saxons2. Even the striking similitude between the old
Frisic and the Anglo-Saxon public and private law, although
affording the most decisive testimony as to the relationship
of the two nations, does not aUow us to make any further in
ference with regard to Britain ; more especiaUy as our oldest
accounts of the Frisians are too defective to enable us to as
certain what influence the connexion with the Anglo-Saxons,
and the migration of the latter may have had on the tribes
of Friesland. The assertion of Procopius3, that Angles and
Frisians dwelt on the isle of f Brittia,' notwithstanding the
fables in the rest of the narrative, appears credible on account
of its antiquity and other circumstances to be discussed here
after. Later testimonies show with greater certainty the ex
istence of the descendants of Frisic forefathers in England,
as an ancestor, but as an adversary of Hengest, by whom he is attacked
and slain in his dwelling, Finnesburh or Finnesham, in Friesland. I find
it therefore much more reasonable to prefer in this case the Saxon autho
rities, and to suppose that there were two Fins, living at very distant times,
than to seek to reconcile them with an apparent error of Xennius, bv the
aid of hypotheses hardly in accordance with our notions of a more than
semi-barbarous people. In these meagre traditions exist, I firmly believe,
faint traces of persons that once had being, and actions that once took
place ; but that they generally require a mythic interpretation is to me
more than questionable. — T.
1 Asega-Buch, tit. iii. § 13, tit. v. § 17. [J. Grimm considers the de
rivation from saa: (sahs, a stone or stone weapon, saxvm) as undeniable. D.
M. p. 204, and Massmann's ' Abschworungsformeln,' p. 18. At all events,
the coincidence of the words, seax, franca and angul, signifying weapons,
with the names of three warlike nations, is, if accidental, not a little remark
able.— T.]
2 Sax, mavhivro. B. Haldorsen. — T.
3 De Bello Goth. lib. iv. i. 20.

THE VARIOUS RACES IN BRITAIN. gfj
but do not prove the establishment of any state or consider
able settlement of that people in the country1.
Of the participation of the Franks there exists some, though
not sufficiently specific accounts : the same may be observed
with respect to the Longobards. Little doubt can, however,
be entertained regarding either the one or the other, as we
elsewhere, in similar undertakings, find Saxons united with
Franks and Longobards ; the latter especially, when the com
plete Occupation of the British southern or eastern coasts
made a new field for conquests desirable2.
But little attention has hitherto been paid to the national
diversity of the Germanic races which established themselves
in Britain, and the coUective appellation of Angles, which
became common at an early period, as well as the subsequent
political unity, have caused us to overlook the variety of ele
ments of which the population of Great Britain is composed ;
although, at the present day, after a lapse of nearly fifteen
Centuries, even in the instance of the Celtic tribes, striking
varieties in laws and dialect, as well as peculiarities of figure,
hair, and eyes, are still discernible, and prove their indelible
1 Vita S. Swiberti : " Egbertus sitiens salutem Frisonum et Saxonum,
eo quod Angli ab eis propagati sunt." The Sax. Chron., a. 897, mentions,
that the ships constructed by ^Elfred were shaped neither like the Frisian
nor the Danish ; and also gives us the names of three Frisians of distinc
tion slain in a sea-fight with the Danes, together with seventy-two men,
Frisians and English. The circumstance, however, that they are men
tioned separately leads us to regard these Frisians rather as allies than in
habitants. In Vita S. Liudgeri, c. xi., Frisian merchants are spoken of as
strangers. Beda also (iv. 22) has a story of a slave bought by a Frisian
in London.
2 See Paul. Diacon. De Gestis Longob. lib. ii. c. 6,*and lib. iii. c. 6. Of
the connexion between the Anglo-Saxons and Longobards we shall again
have occasion to speak ; but will here observe, that Sceaf, one of the an
cestors of Woden in the genealogy of the West Saxon kings, is called a
king of the Longobards, and that the old Longobardic kings, Agelmund,
Lethus, Audoin, and his son Alboin, are celebrated in Anglo-Saxon song.
See 'The Song of the Traveller ' in Conybeare's Illustrations, p. 9. [Also
Cod. Exon. p. 318 ; Beowulf, edit. Kemble ; and Ettmiiller's ' Scopes Vid-
sidh,' accompanied by a valuable commentary, illustrative of the persons
mentioned in the poem and its ethnography. — T.]
H 2

100 THE VARIOUS RACES IN BRITAIN.
natural affinity with those of the ancient country. Must not
these characteristics have displayed themselves in early times
much more manifestly than at present ? The answer is ob
vious ; and to this cause, no doubt, may be ascribed the great
weakness of the. Anglo-Saxon power, when, fleeing before the
invading Northmen, the sons yielded the dominion of the land
which their valiant forefathers had conquered. The slow in
troduction of Christianity, the disputes of the clergy in the
north and south of England by which it was followed, the
disunion which prevailed during the invasions of foreign foes,
the treaties with them, — in short, the most important events
of the Anglo-Saxon sovereignty, find theh true and natural
illustration in an attentive consideration of the diversities of
race. These original, though not strongly marked differences
among the invaders, lead us to the obvious, though neglected
remark, that a considerable part of what we are accustomed
to regard as the religion, law, customs, and language of the
Anglo-Saxons, arose only in the course of some centuries,
from the blending of the several elements. As any attempt
at detail of what the immigrants brought with them from
their home is not admissible in this place, we shall defer tUl
a future opportunity the discussion of that which may be
more strictly regarded as Anglo-Saxon, occasionaUy adverting
to what appears originally to belong to the Saxons, to the
Angles, or to the Jutes.
Such were the races which, in the course of a. century and
a half, succeeded in gaining possession of the greater eastern
portion of Britain. The more Roman the several districts
had been, the sooner did the forsaken cities and towns become
the prey of the barbarians. Of the resistance made by the
Lloegrians, or Britons of the present England, at the outset
of the struggle, few accounts are preserved. The discord
among the British princes, by which the progress of the
enemy was greatly facilitated, seems to have caused in the

AMBROSIUS AURELIANUS. 101
British traditionists themselves an indifference towards the
fallen or lost states. Contemporary, though apparently not
in alliance with Vortigern was Ambrosius Aurelianus, a chief
tain of Roman descent, perhaps one of the British provincial
emperors, who, though involved in a war with the British
prince Guitolin, or Wetheling, withstood the advances of the
Saxons with Roman tactics. It is probable that there were
yet both Roman and Romanized warriors in detached fast
nesses, who, however, would seem only to have increased the
general disorder1. A defeat sustained by the Saxons, which
compelled them to return home for the purpose of seeking re
inforcements, was wisely turned to account by Ambrosius, in
exciting the Lloegrians, and strengthening them against a
further advance of the enemy. In many successive battles
and skirmishes, the Lloegrians were alternately conquerors
and conquered. The last considerable defeat sustained by
the Saxons was at the siege of Bath2 : other though incon
siderable contests took place, but which are known to us only
through the accounts of the establishing of the several Anglo-
Saxon kingdoms.
The contemporary who records the victory at Bath, gained
by his countrymen in the first year of his life, and who bears
witness of its consequences after a lapse of forty-four years3,
GUdas, surnamed the Wise, considers it superfluous to men
tion the name of the far-famed victor ; but his wide-spread
work, and the yet more wide-spread extracts from it in Beda,
have reached no region in which the fame of king Arthur
had not outstript them, — the noble champion who defended
the liberty, usages and language of the ancient country from
1 Gildas, c. xxv., and from him Beda, i. 16. Nenn. c. xxviii. "Dum
ipse (Gorthigernus) regnabat, urgebatur  et a Romanico impetu, necnon
et a timore Ambrosii." id. c. i., and Gale, ibid.
2 Gildas, t. xxvi. Annal. Camb. a. 516.
3 Beda, i. 16, has misunderstood this passage, and placed the battle in
the forty-fourth year after the coming of the Saxons, i. e. in 492. The
' Annales Cambriae ' give 516 for the year. Matt. Westmon.' 520.

102 ARTHUR.
destruction by savage enemies; who protected the cross
against the pagans, and gained security to the churches most
distinguished for their antiquity and various knowledge, to
which a considerable portion of Europe owes both its Chris
tianity and some of its most celebrated monasteries. CaUed
to such high-famed deeds, he needed not the historian to Uve
through all ages more brilliantly than the heroes of the chro
nicles, among whom he is counted from the time of Jeffrey of
Monmouth : but — not to mention the works which, about the
year 720, Eremita Britannus is said to have composed on the
Holy Graal, and on the deeds of king Arthur1, — the rapid
spread of Jeffrey's work over the greater part of Europe
proves that the belief in the hero of it was deeply rooted. In
the twelfth century a Greek poem, recently restored to light,
was composed, in celebration of Arthur and the heroes of the
round table2. Still more manifestly, however, do the nume
rous local memorials which, throughout the whole of the then
Christian part of Europe, from the Scottish hills to Mount
Etna3, bear allusion to the name of Arthur ; while on the
other hand, the more measured veneration of the Welsh poets
for that prince, who esteem his general, Geraint, more highly
than the king himself, and even relate that the latter, far from
being always victorious, surrendered Hampshire and Somer
setshire to the Saxons, may be adduced as no worthless tes
timony for the historic existence of king Arthur4. Even those
1 See Warton, H. E. P. vol. i. p. x. note b, edit. 1840.— T.
2 This fragment of 306 verses was first published by Von der Hagen in
his 'Denkmaledes Mittelalters,' Berlin, 1824, 8vo. Godfrey of Viterbo
also proves how rapidly the story became spread over Europe through Jef
frey of Monmouth. Part xviii. of his Chronicle contains some stories, in
hexameters and pentameters, of Voltiger, Orsus, Engist, Corinna (Rowena),
Uterpendragon, Merlin, Hierna (Hibernia), etc.
3 Gervas. Tilbur. ap. Leibnitz, i. p. 921.
4 Turner, Hist, of the A.-S. b. iii. c. 3. He regards Llywarch Hen
and other poets as contemporary with Arthur. Similar accounts are also
to be found in the ' Historia Angliae ad primordia Regis Stephani,' ascribed
by Bale and Pits to Richard of Devizes (see Stevenson's Preface to Chron.

ARTHUR. 103
traditions concerning him, which, at the first glance, seem
composed in determined defiance of all historic truth, — those
which recount the expedition against the Romans, on their
demand of subjection from him, appear not totally void of
foundation, when we caU to mind that a similar expedition
actually took place in Gaul ; and are, moreover, informed, on
the most unquestionable authority, of another undertaken in
the year 468, on the demand of Anthemius, by the British
general Riothamus, — who led twelve thousand Britons across
the ocean against the Visigoths in Gaul, — and of his battles
on the Loire1. This very valuable narrative gives us some
insight into the connexions and resources of those parts of
Britain which had not yet been afflicted with the Saxon
pirates. Arthur fell in a conflict on the river Camel in Cornwall,
against his nephew Medrawd2 : his death was, however, long
kept secret, and his countrymen waited many years for his
return and his protection against the Saxons. The discovery
of his long-concealed grave in the abbey of Glastonbury is
mentioned by credible contemporaries3, and excited at the time
no suspicion of any religious or political deception. Had the
Ric. Div.p. vii.), and in Chron. Radulfi Nigri, composed about 1161, both
existing only in manuscript.
1 Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 45. Sidonius Apollin. iii. ep. 9.
2 So Annal. Cambr. a. 537. According to Jeffrey, lib. xi. c. 2, Arthur
in the year 542 resigned his crown.
3 Girald. Cambrens. de Inst. Principis. [Bromton, coll. 1152, places
the exhumation in the time of Henry If., Wendover in that of Richard I.
His words are, "Eodem anno (1191) inventa sunt apud Glasconiam ossa
famosissimi regis Britannise Arthuri, in quodam tfetustissimo recondita
sarcophago, circa quod duae antiquissimae pyramides stabant erectae, in
quibus literae erant exaratae, sed ob nimiam barbariem et deformitatem legi
minime potuerunt  cui (sarcophago) crux plumbea superposita fuerat, in
qua exaratum erat, ' Hic jacet inclytus Britonum rex Arthurus, in insula
Avalonis sepultus.'" Roger de Wendover Chronica, t. iii. p. 48. The vera
city of the story seems extremely questionable. Malmesbury (lib. iii.) says,
"Arturis sepulchrum nusquam visitur, unde antiquitas nasniarum adhuc
eum venturum fabulatur." — T.]

104 SOUTH SAXONS.
king of England, Henry the Second, who caused the exhu
mation of the coffin in the year 1189, wished merely, through
an artifice, to convince the Welsh of the death of theh national
hero, he would hardly himself have acted so conspicuous a part
on the occasion. Poem and tradition bear witness to the spirit,
and his ashes and the gravestone to the life and name of Arthur.
Faith in the existence of this Christian, Celtic Hector cannot
be shaken by short-sighted doubt, though much must yet be
done for British story, to render the sense latent in the poems
of inspired bards, which have in many cases reached us only
in spiritless paraphrases, into the sober language of historic
criticism. While the British nation was more obstinately than suc
cessfully defending itself against the power of the Saxons1,
as it had done of old against the Romans, the greater part of
the island was becoming the prey and the home of strangers.
The British narratives of this period are extremely deficient,
and the Anglo-Saxon accounts, particularly theh chronology,
seem deeply tinged with the fabulous.
Hengest was yet living when, in the year477j ^EUe (J31U)2
and his three sons, Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa, landed
from three ships at the place afterwards caUed Cymenes-ora3,
on the coast of Sussex. On the landing of the Saxons the
Britons raised a loud cry, numerous bodies of them hastened
from the neighbouring country, and war instantly commenced.
The Saxons, who excelled in stature and bodily strength, re-
1 Many of the natives fled to the ancient seats of the Veneti and Corio-
solytani, where it is said that their successors, both in manners and lan
guage, still evince their affinity to the Welsh. Einh. Annal. a. 786.
2 Beda (ii. 5) merely mentions his name as the first Bretwalda. The
remaining account is from Henry of Huntingdon, the accuracy of whose
excerpts from sources with which we are acquainted is a voucher for the
same quality in those from lost or unknown authorities. See also Sax.
Chron. Of the two forms OElle, JElli) that in * i ' is the more ancient.
8 Keynor on Selsea. The locality of Cymenes-ora appears from a charter
a. 673 in Monast. Angl. t. vi. p. 1163.

SOUTH SAXONS. 105
ceived their enemies with undaunted valour, while the latter
imprudently hurrying forwards, were, as they approached
disorderly and in separate bodies, slaughtered by the compact
phalanx of Saxons, each successive band arriving only to
witness and share the fate of its predecessor. The Britons
were driven into the neighbouring forest of Andredes-leah,
while the Saxons established themselves on the coast, and
gradually extended their settlements, until, in the eighth year
after their landing in Sussex, the princes and chieftains of
the Britons, having united their forces, engaged with them in
a great battle at Mearcredes-burne, the issue of which is
doubtful. The armies much injured and weakened, each ex
ecrating its conflict with the other, returned to their habita
tions : but M\le sent to his German countrymen to demand
reinforcements, which, arriving six years after, proceeded
with that chieftain to the siege of the strong old Roman city
of Andredes-ceaster, or Anderida. The Britons now gathered
like swarms of bees, and warred on the besiegers by day with
stratagems, by night with attacks. No day nor night passed
in which new tidings of disaster did not embitter the minds
of the Saxons, who with redoubled ardour continued their
assaults on the city ; but the Britons were constantly at
hand, with their arrows and other missiles, in the rear of the
assailants; and when the Saxons, turning from the walls,
directed their steps and arms against them, the Britons, who
exceUed in speed, hastened to the forests, issuing from whence,
on the return of the Saxons to the works, they were again
ready to assail them from behind. The Saxons being thus
wearied, many too having fallen, divided their army into two
bodies, of which while one attacked the city, the other might
be armed against the assaults of the British. The citizens,
now worn out by hunger, and no longer in a condition to
withstand the ardour of the besiegers, found, with their wives
and chUdren, theh death by the sword. Not one escaped,
and Anderida was razed to the ground by the exasperated

106 SOUTH SAXONS.
victors. Henry of Huntingdon knew merely the site of the
once noble city ; in our days even this is become an object of
fruitless research. ^EUe, who had assumed the royal dignity
in Sussex, was now regarded as the supreme head of all En
gland, as the first Bretwalda of the Anglo-Saxons : so at least
we are informed by Beda ; though if we take into consider
ation the narrow compass of the Germanic possessions in
Britain at that time, if we caU to mind that for almost a cen
tury no mention is made of a second Bretwalda, we may per
haps safely ascribe the Bretwaldaship of ^EUe to the hberal
pen of the poet who has left us so circumstantial an account
of those early conflicts1.
^Elle's death is said to have taken place between the years
514 and 519 : it appears, therefore, that to him, as to Hengest,
was assigned a term of fifty years in England. He was suc
ceeded by his son Cissa2, after whom we have a period of a
hundred and thirty years, during which neither chronicler nor
poet has transmitted to us one Une concerning the kingdom
of Sussex, which, enclosed between two of the new Germanic
states, could not extend its limits by conquests in the British
territories. Even the name which it bore before the rise of
other Saxon states gave occasion to the distinctive appellation
of South Saxons, has not been preserved. We are, however,
informed that its thick forest and barriers of rock preserved
Sussex, the last hold of paganism, against the arms of the
other states ; also that Cissa's posterity maintained the royal
dignity in Sussex, although their influence, through the rising
greatness of the other Germanic kingdoms, was necessarily
much diminished3.
1 It is remarkable that the genealogy of jEUe, the first Bretwalda, is the
only one not given among those of the founders of the several kingdoms of
the Octarchy.
2 His memory is preserved in the name of Cissan-ceaster, now Chi
chester. 3 H. Hunt. lib. ii. " Regnavit post eum Cissa, filius ejus, progeniesque
eorum post eos ; at in processu temporum valde minorati sunt." M&dii

GEWISSAS, OR WEST SAXONS. 107
To its first German population belongs apparently the sin
gular division of Sussex into six 'rapes1,' each of which is
again divided into hundreds. These districts were probably
intended for military purposes.
The establishment of the third German kingdom in the
south of Britain is, through the supremacy afterwards ac
quhed by Wessex, a subject of paramount interest, Cerdic,
a descendant in the ninth generation from Woden, who in
conflicts at home had already proved the energy of his soul,
in the view of adding to his mUitary renown, landed nine
years after the death of Hengest2, attended by his enterprising
and emulous son Cynric, from five ships at a spot afterwards
called Cerdices-ora3, the locality of which is no longer known.
He posted his Saxons in close order of battle before his ships,
where they obstinately maintained their ground against the
repeated bold attacks of the islanders, until the approach of
night. Cerdic and his son proved their valour also in another
battle with the Britons, and extended themselves along the
sea-shore. The progress of the Saxons, however, was not
great untU six years later, when Port with his two sons, Bieda
and Msegla, landed from two large ships4. The error com
mitted on the earlier landings of the Germans, as well as on
Caesar's, and at a later period on that of William the Nor
man, was here repeated — the disembarkation was not pre
vented ; the country was caUed together with great clamour ;
uncombined attacks, boldly commenced and by great num
bers, were repulsed by the firmness of the enemy ; the im
prudent Britons fled in amazement, and Port remained victor
on the spot, which from him, as it is said, derives the name
Vita S. Wilfridi, c. xl. (South sex) " provincia gentilis, quae prse rupium
multitudine et silvarum densitate aliis provinciis inexpugnabilis extitit."
jEdde was contemporary with Beda. The assertion of Matthew of West
minster, that, after Cissa's death, Sussex became a province of Wessex, is
of little weight against the foregoing.
1 The Old Norse ' hreppr ' denotes a nearly similar territorial division.
2 a.d. 495. 3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 495. 4 a.d, 501.

108 GEWISSAS, OR WEST SAXONS.
of Portsmouth. Mention is made of the death of a noble
young Briton in one of these conflicts, probably Geraint ab
Erbin, prince of Dyvnaint, whose fall in the battle of Llong-
borth is lamented in the elegies of his friend Llywarch Heii1.
With extraordinary pomp of diction2 the war is announced
of the greatest king of the Britons, Nazaleod or Natanleod,
but who is described elsewhere only as a general of the British
king Uther. All Britain united against the foreign intruders ;
Cerdic on his side formed an alUance with ^Esc king of Kent,
with ^Elle the great king of the South Saxons, also with Port
and his sons. Cerdic and Cynric led the two orders of battle.
Of these Natanleod attacked the most powerful, the right
wing commanded by Cerdic ; the Saxon banners were beaten
down, their ranks broken; Cerdic fled, and vast slaughter
was instantly made among his forces : his son, however, at
the head of the left wing, pressed on the rear of the pursuers :
a new and bloody fight began ; Natanleod feU, and with him
five thousand Britons ; the rest found safety in theh speed.
A few years only had passed in the tranquilhty of secure
possession, when new auxiliaries arrived for new exploits. In
the year 5 14 Stuf and Wihtgar, nephews of Cerdic, came with
three ships and landed at Cerdices-ora. On the foUowing
morning the British leaders arrayed theh forces according to
the rules of war. As one division advanced over the hills,
and another was proceeding cautiously through the vaUey,
the beams of the rising sun, which just shone out, gleamed
on their golden shields : the hills around were illumined with
their briUiancy, and the air seemed brighter. The Saxons,
dreading with great dread, marched to the encounter; but
when these two great armies met in conflict, the energy of
1 So Turner, who does not, however, notice an inconsistency in the
chronology of 29 years. Palgrave too, vol. ii. p. ccxxxiv, says that Geraint
was slain in the year 501, and at p. cclxiii, in 530.
2 H. Hunt. " Bellum scripturus sum quod Nazaleod, rex maximus Brit-
tannorum," etc. Cf. Sax. Chron. a. 508, and ibidem Gibson. Fl. Wigorn.

GEWISSAS, OR WEST SAXONS. 109
the Britons was extinguished. Stuf and Wihtgar conquered
many districts, and Cerdic's power through them became for
midable : he now marched through the land confident in his
strength. After twice eight years, Stuf and Wihtgar with
their uncle gained a great victory in the Isle of Wight, at a
place which afterwards bore the name of Wihtgai*es-burh
(Carisbrook). This victory put Cerdic in possession of that
isle, which he bestowed on his two nephews1.
Cerdic also fought a great battle against the Britons at a
place afterwards named Cerdices-ford (Charford in Hamp
shire), in which the latter displayed great valour, until, on
the approach of evening, the Saxons gained the victory.
Though great the loss sustained on this occasion by the in
habitants of Albion, it would have been yet greater had not
the setting sun put an end to the conflict2.
Having now passed thrice eight years in Britain, in the
midst of battles, Cerdic and Cynric assumed the kingly title.
The original kingdom of the Gewissas3, or West Saxons, was,
as is evident from the site of the last-mentioned battle, hardly
more extensive than the other Germanic states in Britain,
and barely reached beyond the borders of Hampshire and the
territory of the Sumersaetas. These provinces are stated to
have been surrendered to the Saxons by King Arthur, after
1 a.d. 530.
2 a.d. 519. H. Hunt. lib. ii.
3 Beda, iii. 7, and Smith's note. " Occidentals Saxones, qui antiquitus
Gevissae vocabantur." — So called either from their western locality, analo
gously with Visigothi, or from Gewis, the great-grandfather of Cerdic.
Asser, Vita Mlfr. init., says, " Gewis, a quo Britones totam illam gentem
Gegwis nominant." The British historians also, who never distinguish
the other tribes, know the Giuoys. See Annal. Camb. a. 900. Galf.
Mon. iv. 15, v. 8, viii. 10, xii. 14, [who speaks of Gewissi in Warwick
shire and Worcestershire during the time of the Romans. (See p. 38.)
The denomination, as applied to a British tribe, was probably derived by
the traditionists of that nation from Gevissa, the mother of Glovi, from
whom, according to them, the city of Gloucester was named. See p. 67,
note '.— T.]

110 GEWISSAS, OR WEST SAXONS.
he had given a check to their further advances near Bath1 :
the possession of them, however, implies also that of a por
tion of the land of the Dorsastas and the Wiltssetas. Eight
years afterwards the Gewissas gained another great battle
over the Britons at Cerdices-leah2. Cerdic's death is record
ed in the sixteenth year of his reign over the West Saxons,
and like that of Hengest and ^Elle, in the fortieth after his
arrival in Britain3, a number, as already observed, used merely
to denote a long reign, the precise duration of which is not
known. A similar custom of using this number for any un
determined large number prevailed also among the Persians,
even when the real number was known to be larger. Cynric
succeeded his father in Wessex : the Isle of Wight was given,
as a kingdom dependent on Wessex, to his cousins, of whom
Wihtgar, it is said, was a son of Cerdic's sister4. The Isle
of Wight was peopled by Jutes ; hence it is probable that
Cerdic's sister was married to a powerful Jute, whose sons
led their victorious followers from Jutland, if not from Kent,
which had been long inhabited by that people.
Cynric gradually extended the boundaries of his kingdom,
the capital of which was Winchester (Wintan-ceaster), the
old Venta Belgarum. A vast army of Britons being assem
bled to attack him, he, in conjunction with the forces of his
friends, hastened to encounter them, and near Searobyrig
(Old Sarum5) totaUy defeated and put their numerous host
1 Gildas, c. xxvi., where see Stevenson's pref. p. viii. Radulphus in R.
Higdeni Polychron. p. 224, Ric. Divisiensis MS. ap. Langhorne, Chron.
Regum Anglise, p. 70. See p. 102.
2 a.d. 527.
3 So W. Malm. According to the Sax. Chron., which places his death
in 534, he died in the thirty-ninth year after his arrival, according to the
calculation of the lunar year before noticed with regard to Hengest. [Ac
cording to five MSS., Malmesbury assigns a reign of only fifteen years to
Cerdic ; only two MSS. have sixteen. — T.]
4 Asseri Vita jElfredi, init. W. Malm. lib. i. According to H. Hunt.
lib. ii. this donation took place in 534, shortly before the death of Cerdic.
6 a.d. 552.

EAST SAXONS. Ill
to flight. Less favourable to Cynric and his son Ceawlin
was a great battle fought some years later against the united
forces of the Britons, in which the latter were indebted to
their order of battle, according to the rules of Roman tactics1,
for their preservation from the defeat with which they were
threatened from the strength and valour of the Saxons. The
chronicles assign to Cynric a reign of twenty-six years, yet
state his death to have taken place in the sixty-fifth year after
his landing in Britain ; but an account seems to have existed,
according to which he, like the son of Hengest, died in the
sixty-fourth year after his arrival, and consequently in the
twenty-fourth year after the death of Cerdic2. Contradic
tions between historic traditions and the verses of the poet
were difficult to reconcile, and they are much more so now :
all that is incumbent on us is to point out the great uncer
tainty of the several accounts, though the facts which are re
corded may in their general outlines be acknowledged as au
thentic. Although it may excite in us no surprise that, in a time of
universal dissolution, the occupation of isolated tracts of coast
by an enemy -attracted at first but little notice, and that at a
later period the reward of historic glory was bestowed only
on the new and powerful lords of the soil, it might, never
theless, have been expected that circumstantial and trust
worthy accounts would have communicated to us the events
1 a.d. 556. H. Hunt. lib. ii. "Novem acies  tribus scilicet in fronte
locatis, et tribus in medio, et tribus in fine, ducibusque in ipsis aciebus
convenienter institutis, virisque sagittariis et telorum jaculatoribus equiti-
busque jure Romanorum dispositis." A similar passage occurs shortly
after, " Cum autem Brittones more Romanorum acies distincte admo-
verent." 2 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 560. H. Hunt. " Regnum Westsexe
incipit anno adventus Anglorum Ixxi., anno ab incarnatione Domini 519."
"Cerdic regnavit xvii. annis in Westsexe." According to this account
Cynric succeeded his father in 536, or twenty-four years before his death ;
though the same chronicler says, " Kinric cum regnasset xxvi. annis mor-
tuus est."

112 EAST SAXONS.
connected with the city of London, a place of prominent in
terest in every age, through its commerce and the arts in
separable therefrom. But the pen of the genius of trade is,
Uke the net of the fisher, devoted only to the contemplated
gain. No territory ever passed so obscurely into the pos
session of an enemy as the north bank of the Thames, where
the kingdom of the East Saxons comprised the counties of
Essex and Middlesex, of which the latter continued probably
for some time in a state of independence. The year 527 is
mentioned as that of the first landing of the Saxons there ;
and ^Escwine, or Ercenwine1, as its first prince, a son of
Offa, a descendant of Seaxneat (Saxnot), the abjuration of
whose worship, together with that of Thor (Thunaer) and
Woden, was, after a lapse of ages, exacted from the Saxon
converts of the continent2. ^Escwine is said to have reigned
during a patriarchal period of sixty years : his name reminds
us of Msc, the prince of the Jutes, on the southern shore of
the Thames, and of the race of the ^Escings, though that of
his father would indicate a relationship to the Offings, the
royal race of Mercia ; while his descent from the Saxon gods,
as weU as the name of his kingdom, speak for his pure Saxon
lineage. The geographical position of this state may, how
ever, be rather in favour of the supposition of a mixture of
several races, to which the account of a more critical chroni
cler, who gives Sleda, in the year 587, as the first king of
Essex, seems no contradiction3; though it is far from im
probable, that the earhest settlements of the Germans on this
coast reach up to a much remoter period, and have connexion
with the appeUation of ' Litus Saxonicum.'
Northwards of the East Saxons was established the king-
1 H. Hunt. Geneal. ap. Fl. Wigorn.
' See Grimm, D. M. p. 203. Massmann's ' Abschworungsformeln,'
pp. 14, 67. Pertz, Monum. Hist. Germ. t. iii. p. 19. — T.
3 W. Malm. lib. i. He makes no mention of his father, but says merely
that he was the tenth in descent from Woden, which involves no incon
sistency with the other accounts.

MERCIA. 113
dom of the East Angles, in which a northern and a southern
people (Northfolc and Suthfolc) were distinguished. It is
probable that, even during the last period of the Roman
sway, Germans were settled in this part of Britain ; a sup
position that gains in probability from several old Saxon
sagas, which have reference to East Anglia at a period an
terior to the coming of Hengest and Horsa. The land of the
Gyrwas, containing twelve hundred hides, which was also
accurately divided into a southern and a northern portion,
comprised the neighbouring marsh districts of Ely and Hun
tingdonshire, almost as far as Lincoln. Of the East Angles
Wehha or Wewa1, or more commonly his son, Uffa or Wuffa,
from whom his race derived their patronymic of Uffings or
Wuffings, is recorded as the first king2.
The neighbouring states of Mercia originated in the marsh
districts of the Lindisware, or inhabitants of Lindsey (Linde-
sig), the northern part of Lincolnshire. With these were
united the Middle Angles3. This kingdom, divided by the
Trent into a southern and a northern portion, gradually ex
tended itself to the borders of Wales. Among the states
which it comprised was the little kingdom of the Hwiccas,
conterminous with the later diocese of Worcester, or the
counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and a part of Warwick.
This state, together with that of the Hecanas, comprising the
ancient bishopric of Hereford, bore the common Germanic
appellation of the land of the Magesaetas4.
Henry of Huntingdon, though a writer abounding in tra
ditions, and, at the same time, a native or inhabitant of those
parts, gives us no legends relative to the establishment of the
two last-mentioned states. After the victory at Cerdices-
ford, and probably at an earlier period, many chieftains
1 Fl. Wigorn. Geneal. ap. Petrie. Nennii App.
2 Beda, ii. 15. H. Hunt. a. 571.
3 Beda, i. 15, iii. 21. Malmesb. de Antiq. Glaston. Eccles. ap. Gale, i.
p. 295. 4 Fl. Wigorn. Appen.
VOL. I. I

114 MERCIA.
passed over from Germany to those territories, and, in emu
lation of each other, possessed themselves of several tracts.
Their number has caused their names to be forgotten : their
territories towards the end of the century were united with
the two last-mentioned kingdoms1. Creoda, or Cridda, the
son of Cynewald, and tenth in descent from Woden2, appears
as the first king of Mercia.
In addition to the doubts attending the descent, and even
the name of the Angles, the genealogies of their kings demand
and merit discussion. In that of the kings of Mercia we
find three names in succession, which accord with a similar
unbroken series in the Danish traditions, viz. the descendants
of Woden, Wihtlaeg, Waermund, and Offa3, who stand in the
Danish chronicles as Wiglet, Wermund, and Uffo, descend
ants of Odin, and ancestors of the conquerors of Britain4-
Even the resemblance of the names of Offa's posterity, An-
geltheow and Eomer, to the Danish Ingeld and Iaomer is very
remarkable ; and that the progenitors of Woden, both in the
Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian genealogies, have many names
in common, and that among these Sceaf is regarded in the
latter as a king of Sleswig, or the country of Angeln, may,
after what has already been stated, seem the more worthy of
notice. An inquiry into the value of these resemblances in
an historic point of view would here, perhaps, be out of place ;
but attention should be directed to the evidence furnished by
this accordance of the traditions, in favour of deriving the
1 H. Hunt. p. 313. "Ea tempestate venerunt multi et saepe de Ger
mania, et occupaverunt Eastangle et Merce." Matt. Westmon. a. 527.
Radulphus ap. Higden Polychron. lib. v. p. 224, has the year 492. Florence
says of Mercia merely, " Post initium regni Cantuariorum, principium ex-
titit regni Merciorum." But of East Anglia, " Regno postenus Cantuari
orum, et prius regno Occidentalium Saxonum exortum est ; " consequently
before the year 495. - Sax. Chron. a. 626.
i Sax. Chron. In Nennius, Guithleg, Guerdmund, and Offa.
4 See Erici Chron. Sax. Grammat. Sv. Aggonis Hist. Reg. Dan. c. i.
has only the two last. The Icelandic Langfedgatal also omits the first, and
calls Uffo, Olaf.

ANGLES AND WARNI. 115
origin of the Angles and Mercians from the country north of
the Eider.
The history of the Angles receives some light from a By
zantine historian. Procopius, who died in 562, before Uffa
reigned in East Anglia, mentions a king of the Angles in
Brittia or Britain, in the years 534-547, whose sister was be
trothed to Radiger, king of the Warni, but who, on the death
of his father, in violation of his engagement, married his step
mother, a sister of the Frankish king Theudebert. To revenge
the slight, the Anglian lady, after a fruitless expostulation by
embassy, sailed, with an army, and attended by one of her bro
thers, to an outlet of the Rhine. In a battle which followed
their landing, the Warni were defeated, and their prince, being
captured in his flight, was brought bound into the presence
of the Angle, who, to his glad surprise, after reproaching him
for his want of faith, and on his promise to atone for it by re
nouncing his stepmother and fulfilling his prior engagement,
restored him to liberty and treated him honourably. Their
marriage followed as a matter of course ¦*. However fabulous
other accounts communicated by that writer may be, concern
ing some Angles sent to the emperor Justinian at Constan
tinople, the fact is, nevertheless, worthy of notice, that Angles
and Frisians are mentioned by him as inhabitants of the
island ; also a king of the Angles at that period, and (as in
the before-mentioned laws2) a connexion between the Angles
and the Warni. What the same author states, that the power
ful king of the Franks, Theudebert, took advantage of the
emigration of some Angles to his country, and of the distracted
condition of Britain, for the purpose of arrogating to him
self the appearance of a supremacy over it, was a natural con
sequence of the pretensions of the Frankish monarchs to the
dignity of Emperor of the West, which must also find addi
tional grounds in the ancient provincial administration, under
which Britain was considered a diocese subordinate to Gaul.
1 De Bello Gothico, iv. 20. 2 See pp. 93-96,
I 2

116 ANGLES.
Political relations between the Anglo-Saxons and the court of
Byzantium, of a tendency hostile to the Franks, were in the
foUowing century apprehended by the latter1, a suspicion
which at least implies other close connexions between them.
Pope Gregory the Great also, in a letter to the Frankish
kings, Theuderic and Theudebert, relative to his design of
converting the Angles, appears to speak of them as subjects
of those princes ; from which, however, nothing is perhaps
to be inferred beyond pretensions, which he deemed it ad
visable to treat with delicacy and favour in his intercourse
with his royal Christian alUes2.
The history and the poetry of those remote and unlettered
ages have long lain reconciled in the same grave, and we
cannot awaken the ashes of the one without — and often un
consciously — bringing the other back to light. As connected
with this remark, we must not omit to mention that East
Angha contains a rich store, little known and stiU less inves
tigated, of old traditions : among others the saga of King
Atla of Northfolk, the founder of Attlebury ; of Roud, king
of Thetford3 ; also the yet more wide-spread one of Havelok,
or Cuharan (Cwiran), king of Northfolk, and son of Ethel-
bert the Dane, who dwelt in that country before the time of
1 Beda, iv. 1.
" Gregorii Epist. lib. vi. c. 58. Bedae Opera Minora ed. Stevenson,
p. 234  "magnam de vobis materiam praesumendi concepimus,
quod subjectos vestros ad eam converti fidem per omnia capiatis, in qua
eorum nempe reges estis et domini. Atque ideo pervenit ad nos Anglorum
gentem ad fidem Christianam, Deo miserante, desideranter velle converti."
3 This poem, consisting of about 12,000 verses, was originally either in
Anglo-Saxon or Semi- Saxon, and was translated into French verse at the
desire of a certain countess, when the original could not be understood (i. e.
by the Anglo-Norman nobility), probably in the thirteenth century; which
version was translated into Latin by John Brame or Brome, who informs
us that the French differed considerably from the English original. The
original name of the king appeal's to have been Waldeus, not Atla. The
Latin elaboration ofthe poem is in the library of C.C.C. Camb. A manu
script of the French Romance of King Atla, once Mr. Heber's, is now in
the possession of Sir T. Phillipps, Bart. See Sir F. Madden's note in
Warton, H. E. P. vol. i. p. 41, edit. 1840.— T.

NORTHUMBRIA. 117
Hengest and Horsa1, — traditions which seem to confirm
what history, from the days of Carausius, renders far from
improbable. The country to the north of the Humber had suffered the
most severely from the inroads of the Picts and Scots. It
became at an early period separated into two British states,
the names of which Mere retained for some centuries, viz.
Deifyr (Deora rice), afterwards Latinized into Deira, extend
ing from the Humber to the Tyne, and Berneich (Beorna
rice), afterwards Bernicia, from the Tyne to the Clyde. Here
also the settlements of the German races appear anterior to
the date given in the common accounts of the first Anglian
kings of those territories, in the middle of the sixth century.
The traditions respecting Hengest relate that he founded for
his son Octa, and for Ebusa the son of Horsa2, Germanic
states in the north of Northumbria, or, according to the older
traditions, beyond the Firth of Forth, whither they sailed with
forty ships, but which seem inconsistent with the account,
that Hengest himself, when driving before him the Picts and
Scots, did not advance further than Lincolnshire. According
to a much neglected account, Deira had already been sepa-
1 A limited edition of ' The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the
Dane,' 4to, accompanied by the French text and a valuable glossary, was
published in 1828 by Sir F. Madden, of which the French text has been
reprinted at Paris. The tale of Havelok is also given in ' L'Estorie des
Engles, solum la Translation Maistre Geffrei Gaimar,' ap. Petrie, C. H.
p. 764. Later English chroniclers likewise (as Knyghton, lib. i. c. 5, who
cites a Historia de Grimesby) make mention of the story. See also, in
'Literary Introduction,' remarks on Robert de Brunne.
2 Nennius, c. xxxviii. W. Malm. lib. i., who calls Octa the brother
of Hengest and Ebusa the son. A confirmation of these accounts may be
found in Galfr. Monum. lib. i. c. i., where Modrawd promises to Childeric
the country between the Humber and Scotland, and that which in Vorti-
gern's time Horsa and Hengest possessed in Kent. According to Jeffrey,
who is here very prolix, Octa son of Hengest received York, and his cousin
Eosa, Alcluyd with the remaining country bordering on Scotland. See
lib. viii. c. 6, 8, 18, 21, 23. Abisa, Ebusa, Eowis, Eosa denote the same
individual.

118 NORTHUMBRIA.
rated from Bernicia by Soemil the son of Zegulf (Saefugl),
whose grandson Guilglis (Wihtgils) was the father of Hen
gest, and grandfather of Yffe (Yffi), of whom we are about to
speak1; and we know also, from other accounts, that both
Hengest and Yffe descended from the same son of Woden,
Wecta or Wsegdaeg2. This tradition is important from the
information it contains that the Saxon settlements in the
North of Britain were older than those in the South. At
tention must also here again be drawn to the chcumstance
aheady noticed, that while the South-EngUsh chronicles fix
the landing of Hengest and Horsa in, or rather after, the year
449, the oldest North-English authorities place the arrival of
the Angles in 445 or 446, not to mention the earUer invasion
of these people. Nennius fixes 447 for the year of Hengest's
landing, from which it would seem that the Saxon chieftains
of the North threw off the supremacy of the Kentish kings
after a lapse of a full century, instead of founding, according
to the received tradition, a new kingdom in the year 547.
Fifty years later, or about the year 500, the city of Eboracum
is said to have been taken by the Saxons, and the archbishop
to have fled to Armorica, where he founded the bishopric of
Dol. Nor perhaps to be totally rejected is the story that
Colgrim and his brother Baldwulph conquered these coun
tries, but were beaten by Arthur in the year 516, on the river
Duglas3. Ida, the son of Eoppa, a descendant of Woden (to whom
in this genealogy five forefathers are assigned), is, accordmg
to the Anglo-Saxon traditions, regarded as the founder of the
Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, in the year 547 ; or rather as
the first who freed the land, hitherto governed by nine sub-
1 Nenn. App. Soemil and his son Swearta (Swerthing) are wanting in
the genealogy given in the Sax. Chron. Swerthing, a prince of the Saxons,
was the slayer of Frothi IV. See Saxo. pp. 273, 282, edit. Muller.
2 Sax. Chron. a. 560, etc.
3 Nenn. c. lxiv. Galf. Monum. lib. ix. c. 1, and from the latter, Matt.
Westm. a. 516.

BRITONS. 119
ordinate rulers, from the supremacy of the kings of Kent1.
He arrived with forty or sixty ships of the Angles2, and,
after having reigned twelve years, is said to have fallen in a
battle against Urien of Cumberland and Reged, leaving twelve
sons. Bebbanburh, now Bamborough, perpetuates the name
of his consort Bebbe3. His immediate successor seems to
have been Glappa, who was followed by Adda, ^Ethehic, and
Theodric, sons of Ida. About the same time ^Elle son of
Yffe (Yffi), of descent equally illustrious, conquered the
greater part of the kingdom of Deira4.
So trivial, and yet more uncertain, are the accounts left us
of the conquest of a great kingdom by the barbarous dwellers
on the shores of the German Ocean, and of the spoliation
perpetrated among structures and other property, the fruits
of Roman civilization, on a people accustomed to servitude,
who knew but little how to use them and still less to defend
them. The Britons were soon restricted to the western parts of
the island, where they maintained themselves in several small
states, of which those lying to the east yielded more and more
to Germanic influence ; the others, protected by their moun
tains, preserved for a considerable time a gradually decreasing
independence. As opportunities for touching on the history
1 Scala Chron. Cf. Gale ad Nennium, c. lxv. W. Malm. lib. i.
2 Chronol. ap. Wanley and Petrie. Fl. Wig. Sim. Dunelm. Wallingford.
3 Sax. Chron. a. 547. According to Nenn. App. Bebbe was the consort
of iEthelfrith, the grandson of Ida. " Eadfered Flesaurs reguavit xii. annis
in Berneich, et alios xii. in Deur,  et dedit uxori suae Dinguo Aroy, qua;
vocatur Bebbab, et de nomine suae uxoris suscepifc nomen, id est, Bebban-
- burch." The passage in Beda (iii. 6) does not decide who was the hus
band of Bebbe.
4 Sax. Chron. a. 560. In stating the perplexed genealogy of the kings
of Bernicia to the year 592, the authority has been followed of the chro
nicle in Wanley and Petrie, and of Simeon, who in matters connected with
Northumbria is particularly trustworthy. These two authorities, though
slightly differing in the regnal years, agree in the order of succession, while
the lists in Florence and Nennius are irreconcileable both with the above
authorities and with each other. — T.

120 CYMRY OR WELSH.
of these small British states will hereafter be but rarely af
forded, a short notice of them is the more desirable : though
some separate states occasionally occur as united into one,
while others may have arisen from comparatively later par
titions. In the south-west we meet with the powerful territory of
Damnonia, the kingdom of Arthur, which bore also the name
of West Wales. Damnonia, at a later period, was limited to
Dyvnaint, or Devonshire, by the separation of Cernau, or
Cornwall. The districts called by the Saxons those of the
Sumorsaetas, of the Thornsaetas (Dorsetshire), and the Wilt-
saetas were lost to the kings of Dyvnaint at an early period ;
though for centuries afterwards a large British population
maintained itself in those parts among the Saxon settlers, as
well as among the Defnssetas, long after the Saxon conquest
of Dyvnaint, who for a considerable time preserved to the
natives of that shire the appellation of the ' Welsh kind.'
Cambria (Cymru), the country which at the present day
we call Wales, was divided into several states, the chief of
which were — Venedotia (Gwynedd), consisting of the greater
part of North Wales. The king of Gwynedd was supreme
over the other states ; his residence was at Aberfraw1; — Dime-
tia (Dyved), or West Wales2, comprising the district bounded
by the Tywi on the south-east, and the Tewi on the north
west, or, in a wider sense, the country over which the eccle
siastical supremacy of the see of Mynyw or Menevia (St.
1 Now a village on the west coast of Anglesey. Its name (aber Fraw
the efflux of the Fraw,) is derived from being situated where the brook Fraw
flows into the sea. Glossary to Anc. LL. and Instt. of Wales. — T.
2 Or South Wales ; but as Cornwall is sometimes called South Wales,
in like manner the name of West Wales is applied to Dimetia. Much
valuable information respecting the old geography and inhabitants of Wales
is to be found in the ' Itinerarium,' ' Cambriae Descriptio,' and ' De Illau-
dabilibus Walliae ' of Giraldus. [See also Ancient Laws and Institutes of
Wales, from which, and from Mr. Owen's notes, the account of the an
cient territorial division of Wales given in this translation has been chiefly
compiled. — T.]

CYMRY OR WELSH. 121
David's) extended. The residence of the Dimetian princes
was at Dinevwr1. To the east of Gwynedd and the moun
tains, of which Snowdon forms theTiighest point, was Powys,
the princes of which resided at Mathraval2. In Deheubarth,
or South Wales, were several small states, the southernmost
of which, Gwent (Monmouthshire), or South-east Wales, the
country of the Silures, forming the present diocese of Llan-
daff (Landav), the royal seat of which was at Caerleon upon
Usk, and Morganwg (Glamorganshire) lay on the northern
bank of the Severn. Near, if not comprised within this state,
between the rivers Usk and Taff, was the small principality
of Gleguising. Along the Irish Channel lay Ceredigion and
Brecheiniog, whose names are easily recognised in those of
the present counties, and which appear to have been under
separate rulers.
The chief tribes of the Britons, or, as they caU themselves,
Cymry, are distinguished by the various dialects of their com
mon mother-tongue, among which the Venedotian, the Di
metian, and that of Glamorgan, are the principal. The Cym-
rian tongue was polished by illustrious poets, — Aneurin and
Taliesin in the sixth, Llywarch Hen and others in the next
following centuries, whose works in a state of tolerable purity
have been preserved to the present time3.
The usages and laws of the Cambrians were in all these
states essentially the same. An invaluable and venerable
monument of them, although of an age in which the Welsh
had long been subject to the Anglo-Saxons, and had adopted
many of their institutions and customs, k are the laws of the

1 Near Llandilo vawr, in the Vale of Tywi. Some remains of the castle
are visible. Gloss, ut sup. — T.
2 Situated in the upper part of the Vale of Meivod, near the junction of
the two streams which form the river Evyrnwy. Gloss, ut sup. — T.
3 See Turner's Vindication of the genuineness of the ancient British
poems, at the end of the last volume of the third and following editions of
his History of the Anglo-Saxons.

122 CUMBRIA.
king Howel Dda1, who reigned in the early part of the tenth
century, which, with some local modifications, were acknow
ledged as valid in the other states of Wales.
The partition of Cambria into several small states is not,
as it has often been supposed, the consequence of a division
made by king Rodri Mawr, or Roderic the Great, among his
sons ; but which, supposing it to have taken place, could
have reference only to the sovereignty over territories which
many centuries before occur as separate states. Of Dyfed,
during the first centuries after the coming of the Saxons, we
know very little ; but with regard to Gwynedd, which was in
constant warfare with Northumbria and Mercia, our infor
mation is less scanty : of Gwent also, as the bulwark of Dime-
tia, frequent mention occurs. On the whole we are less in
want of a mass of information respecting the Welsh, than of
accuracy and precision in that which we possess. While the
Welsh, in their historic narratives, as remarkable for singu
larity of expression as for their poetic garb, give either no
dates whatever, or dates on which no reliance can be placed,
the several states and their rulers are seldom spoken of in the
Anglo-Saxon chronicles otherwise than under the universal
appeUation of the Britons, and their kings : hence a com
parison of their respective accounts is frequently impracticable,
each nation usually speaking only of its victories, very rarely
of its reverses.
An obscurity still more dense than that over Wales in
volves the district lying to the north of that country, com
prised under the name of Cumbria. This territory, sometimes
united under a supreme chief, or Pendragon, called also
Tyern (Tyrannus), who, like the other British princes, con
sidered themselves not only as the successors, but also as the
descendants of Constantine, or of Maximus, consisted of three
1 In the Venedotian and Dimetian Codes, Howel styles himself ' king '
or ' prince of all Cyraru ; ' in the Gwentian Code, ' king of Cymru, when
Cymru was in his possession in its bounds.' — T.

GERMANIZING OF BRITAIN. 123
principal parts. The southern, or Cumberland, properly so
called, comprised, besides the present county of that name,
also Lancashire and Westmoreland, which latter appears like
wise as a petty kingdom — Westmere. It extended into the
later kingdom of Northumbria ; and as the little state of
Elmet seems also to have belonged to it, the town of Leeds
must have been on its border. The old Roman Lugubalia,
or Carleol, was its largest city, in which Arthur, Rhyddrich
Hael, or the Liberal, and other princes celebrated in ancient
song, are said to have held their Round Table or court1.
The two northernmost kingdoms of the Britons, Reged and
Strathcluyd, belong to the history of Scotland ; yet as En
gland extended as far as Edinburgh, they must not be passed
without mention. Reged, a territory in the south of Scotland,
in or near Annandale, is rendered worthy of notice on account
of the protection offered to the bard Taliesin by its prince
Urien, celebrated by Llywarch Hen, who was himself a prince
of Argoed in Cumberland. The kingdom of Strathcluyd,
comprising Clydesdale or Dunbartonshire — where its chief
city, Alcluyd, was situated — the counties of Renfrew and
Dumfries, and probably those of Peebles, Selkirk, and
Lanark, in the east, continued to a much later period ; and,
although in constant warfare with the Anglo-Saxons, as well
as with the Picts and Scots, its chiefs extended their power
over all Cumberland, from which they were not expelled tiU
the early part of the tenth century, when Cumberland, under
Anglo-Saxon suzerainty, became a principahty held by the
heir of Scotland.
With respect to the first institutions adopted by the Ger
man chieftains in the conquered country, how the relations
of service and tribute were fixed ; how the Germans gradually
united themselves into considerable kingdoms ; how far the
remains of Roman civilization, when they afforded no apparent
or palpable advantage, were respected, — with regard to all
1 A.D. 561.

124 GERMANIZING OF BRITAIN.
this we have little beyond supposition; though the result,
the Saxonizing of Britain by the Germanic heretogas, or
ealdormen, and their foUowers, is as manifest as the Roman
izing of Spanish America by Columbus and Pizarro. Of the
history of these kingdoms from their foundation till their
gradual conversion to Christianity, there exist scarcely any
written accounts besides the series of their kings, which, in
detached traditions, form but a very insignificant component
of the national history.
While Anglo-Saxon sources are wanting, the British ones
also either fail us, or must undergo a stricter critical ordeal
than they have hitherto passed through, before any reliance
can be placed on them. The Anglo-Saxon laws, even the
earliest, are too recent and too exclusively restricted to the
Germanic scale of penalties and atonements to aid us in
drawing a picture of the condition of the country immediately
after the Saxon conquest. Their silence on many points leads
us, perhaps, on comparing them with the laws of other Ger
manic conquerors, to divine more than their scanty diction
expresses. The public affairs had, in consequence of the departure of
the Romans and the inroads of enemies, faUen into the utmost
disorder. What had formerly been public or private property
of the Romans became, either by purchase or usurpation, a
new unsettled possession in the hands of a people who had
long forgotten how to govern. The inhabitants of the island
were at that time, as their language sufficiently shows, scarcely
to be caUed Romanized : on the contrary, the posterity of the
Romans among them had rather assimilated themselves to
the original Britons. In this state of dissolution it must have
been an easier task to the conquerors of Britain than that
which their warlike brethren found it in the better organized
states of Europe, to obtain possession of the object of their
efforts, without causing the rights of the stronger to be felt
in the most oppressive manner. The former Roman property,

THE DIGNITY OF BRETWALDA. 125
which in the south, and especially on the coasts, must have
been considerable, would satisfy the small number of strangers.
That a certain portion of landed property, or of rents, or of
produce, was regularly set apart for the conquerors, as was
the custom in other Germanic states, is not probable, as in
the accounts of the later conquests of the Anglo-Saxons in
Britain, we meet with nothing leading to such a conclusion.
Indeed the very gradual progress made in the occupation of
many parts of Britain by detached hordes, independent of
each other, and of various races, almost induces us to regard
it less as a conquest than as a progressive usurpation of the
British territory. From the circumstance that the Anglo-
Saxons had to pass over in ships to the country destined for
their future home, it follows that they brought with them but
few women and children ; and as Vortigern had no repug
nance to an union with the daughter of Hengest, it is probable
that the German warriors, with the exception, perhaps, of a
few of noble race, would not disdain to unite themselves with
the British women. If thereby the natives soon became in
termingled with the strangers, still the latter, in virtue of the
almost exclusive advantage of the male line with respect to
inheritances, would not find such marriages prejudicial to
their political independence. Many Britons fled before the
pagan Germans, but the facility of flight weakened the power
of resistance, and accelerated the advances of the enemy.
Those Britons who, not being prisoners of war, peaceably
remained, appear to have preserved theh previous rights ;
since we find no considerable difference with regard to the
wergild, the capability of bearing witness, and other rights,
between the Britons and the Saxons1.
A most important subject for consideration, observable from
an early period, is the dignity of Bretwalda, borne by one of
the most influential of the Anglo-Saxon princes during the
period of his life, and which is said to have contained within
1 Laws of Ine, xxiii., xxiv., xxxii.

126 THE DIGNITY OF BRETWALDA.
one common bond all the inhabitants of Britain. The desire
to detect the continuation of Roman institutions has also in
this dignity been anxious to recognise an imitation of the
Roman emperors of the West, acknowledged at the same time
both by Saxons and Britons1. The acknowledgment of the
Britons, who were still united under a sovereignty of their
own, may be most confidently denied ; the passion for imi
tation in the Saxon warriors, which could prompt them to
favour one of their fellows, who aspired to the authority of
their most formidable and hated enemy, may be very strongly
doubted. The pretensions of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon
king scarcely extended over the Germanic provinces of the
southern part of Britain : to other portions of the Roman
dominion they never reached. Imitation, both in the un
civilized and the weak, begins with the tinsel of unsubstantial
show, with the assumption of an empty name, of neither of
which any trace appears among the Anglo-Saxons till after
the lapse of some centuries. With the inquhy into the origin
of the office of Bretwalda, which in its later form exhibited
perhaps some traces of Roman imperial influence, may, in the
absence of more satisfactory accounts respecting the duties
and rights ascribed to that dignity, be joined the questions,
What notions the Germans brought from their native country,
and what occasion they found in Britain for the appointment
of that relative supremacy ?
To the North-Germanic and Danish nations kings ruhng
over the whole race were unknown ; they were divided under
several chieftains2, and we know that among these, although
the consideration of birth prevailed, their leaders in war were
chosen from the most valiant. To them nothing could be
more foreign than to found the dominion of a whole race on
the common language or on kinship.
Of the Jutes and Danes especially, we know that they for
1 Palgrave, vol. i. p. 563.
2 Cf. Dahlmann's Forschungen, Bd. i. p. 431 sq.

THE DIGNITY OF BRETWALDA. 127
several centuries lived under a great number of kings, but
that they acknowledged the supremacy of the kings of Leire :
in like manner as the Swedish kings were subordinate to those
of Upsala; but that monarchy (einvalld) was a later insti
tution among them1. The Frisian chiefs also acknowledged
a superior. In Britain a connexion between the southern
and northern Saxons was, as we have already seen, established
as early as the first conquests of Hengest : though the neces
sity of a common chief over all the Germanic provinces arose
in Britain partly from the great number of independent kings,
ealdormen and other potentates, whose states only in the
course of time lapsed into the kingdoms of the ' Heptarchy ';
and partly from the necessity of opposing a united resistance
to the Britons, combined against the divided power of the
foreign intruders, as well as to the Picts and Scots. For this
purpose — nor of any other is a trace to be discovered, and
for no other does such an union seem necessary, or even con
ceivable — the Germans in Britain must have soon found an
alliance among their tribes indispensable. A common warfare
of several states without a dictator was not to be conceived ;
and the call to that post was on the most powerful, or on him
whose territory was most exposed to hostile inroads. The
latter case we find the most frequent. Sussex is said to have
first enjoyed that supremacy when it had to defend Kent.
Kent laid claim to it while it yet possessed rights of suze
rainty in the north, and subsequently obtained it ; possibly as
an indemnity for its renunciation of such rights.
Wessex next formed the bulwark ; but this state having
strengthened itself, and the struggle being carried on more
northwards, the chief military command passed to East An
glia, and lastly to Northumbria ; neither of whose Anglian
states acknowledged the authority of the Bretwalda2 until
1 Snorre, Ynglinga Saga, c. xiv.
2 Beda, i. 25. "Rex ^Edilberctus in Cantia potentissimus, qui ad con-
finium usque Humbrae fluminis maximi, quo meridiani et septentrionalea

128 CEAWLIN OF WESSEX.
the state of things had become changed. That those states
used the transient power for the aggrandizement of theh ter
ritory was in the nature of things, and, at the same time, not
inconsistent with the object of the institution. The elective
emperor of the Germans, whose dignity was not attached to
hereditary states, nor to descent, but to the importance of the
individual, represents what the Bretwalda might have been, if
the general interest could have been conceived by the bar
barian conquerors in a higher point of view. It is probable
that not only the choice of the other kings, but also of the
collective nobility and ealdormen, determined the nomination
of the Bretwalda ; for as, according to the words of an old
writer, he possessed sovereign power over all these1, it is to
be inferred that, in the spirit of Germanic forms of govern
ment, the appointment was the result of a preceding free
election. Notwithstanding the high estimation in which this dignity
was held from a very early period, yet Beda is unable to in
form us who was invested with it after JEUe2, untU Ceawlin,
the grandson of Cerdic, became its possessor. A noble
^Escing, the young ^Ethelberht of Kent, would dispute it
with him, and invaded with his arms the territory of Wessex.
A defeat at Wibbandun (Wimbledon in Surrey3) humbled
the bold aspiring youth, whose disgrace was not effaced tiU
twenty years afterwards, when he attained the object of his
ambition. To his brother Cuthwulf, whom he unfortunately
lost in the same year, Ceawlin was indebted for a most im
portant victoiy over the Britons, which brought the towns of
Lenbury, Aylesbury, Bensington and Eynsham under his
Anglorum populi dirimuntur, fines imperii tetenderat." Lib. ii. 5. "Mdil-,
beret  tertius quidem in regibus gentis Anglorum, cunctis australibus
eorum provinciis quae Humbrae fluvio et contiguis ei terminis sequestrantur
a borealibus, imperavit." See also lib. ii. 3.
1 " Omnia jura regni Anglorum, reges scilicet et proceres et tribunos in
ditione suatenebat." H. Hunt. lib. ii. - Beda, ii, 5.
3 Sax. Chron. a. 568. W. Malm. lib. i. H. Hunt. lib. ii.

CEAWLIN OF WESSEX. 129
dominion l. Not less fortunate was Ceawlin some time after
wards, when, with the aid of his brother Cutha, or Cuthwine,
after a battle at Derham in Gloucestershire, in which three
British kings were slain — Conmail, Farinmail (probably of
Gwent), and Condidan or CyndUlom (of Pengwern or Shrews
bury) — he won three cities, Bath, Gloucester, and Ciren
cester2. The last-mentioned places did not, however, con
tinue under his dominion ; probably because he did not fight
with his West Saxons only, but with the Angles also, in his
character of Bretwalda, since we find the territory of the
Hwiccas, in which those cities lie, subsequently attached to
Mercia. The Britons were now confined to their mountains
and forests. A great victory at Fethanleah (Frithern) on the
Severn, which gained him many towns, much treasure, and
vast booty, was yet granted to Ceawlin, though purchased
with the life of his valiant brother Cutha, and probably also
with that of his own son, of whom the former fell in the
beginning of the contest3 ; of the other no further mention
occurs in the chronicles. With those friends Ceawlin lost
much ; the star of his prosperity was set. Great guilt must
have accumulated on the head of him4, against whom, after
thirty years of prosperous sway and successful warfare, his
kindred, even though instigated by the ambition of iEthel-
berht of Kent, could be induced to enter into a disgraceful
league with the Britons and Scots5. He was defeated in
a great battle fought in his own territory at Wodnesbeorh in
Berkshire, not far from the frontier of Mercia, and com
pelled to abdicate the throne, which Ceolric, the son of his
1 Sax. Chron. a. 571. 2 Sax. Chron. a. 577.
3 Sax. Chron. aa. 568, 597. Fl. Wigorn. W. Malm.
4 Malmesbury says of him, " Diebus ultimis regno extorris, miserandum
sui spectaculum hostibus exhibuit. Quia enim in odium sui quasi classicum
utrobique cecinerat, conspirantibus tam Anglis quam Britonibus apud
Wodnesdic, caeso exercitu, anno xxxi. regno nudatus in exilium concessit,
et continuo decessit.
s Forduni Scotichron. lib. iii. Cf. also Langhorne ut sup.
VOL. I. K

130 CONVERSION OF KENT.
brother Cutha, ascended1, and iEthelberht was now acknow
ledged as Bretwalda. CeawUn, for many years to come the
mightiest monarch of the Anglo-Saxons, died two years after
wards in all the misery of exile2. His successor, Ceolric,
survived him only five years3.
The strife and discord which tore and threatened destruc
tion to the Anglo-Saxons was, however, soon to be met by
the kindliest palliative. The grandsons of the Saxon con
querors had been so far civilized by peaceable possession and
gradual acquaintance with the arts of peace, that they could
lend their ear to the preaching of Christianity. Of aU the
people of unmixed Germanic race the first converted to the
faith of Christ, the Anglo-Saxons were called to impart its
sanctity, and all the highest moral feeUng attached to it, to
the rest of Germanic and Northern Europe. The Roman
civilization which they found in England had expanded the
narrow boundary of their habits, theh energies, and perhaps
of their activity, without, at the same time, destroying the
nationality of their institutions, their laws, or their language.
Their mental cultivation, which must have been much pro
moted in their intercourse with the Britons, had no doubt
greatly refined even their pagan notions. Hence we see that
Christianity was received by the Anglo-Saxon states in the
order according to which they had been favoured over others,
by greater extent of settlements and length of peaceable pos
session. An important event, through which the Anglo-Saxons first
approached the pale of the Christian commonwealth of Europe,
was the marriage of king ^Ethelberht with Berhta, daughter
of Charibert, king of the Franks, — a connexion between the
princeswhich admits the supposition of an intercourse between
their subjects, and which, at a somewhat later period, does in
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 591.
8 Sax, Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 593. W. Malm. lib. i.
3 Sax. Chron. Fl, Wigorn. a. 591.

CONVERSION OF KENT. 131
fact appear to have subsisted at the great commercial fair of
St. Denis, which was visited by Anglo-Saxons1.
The ordinances of the Christian church, simple and humble
as they were, could not maintain themselves in the new pagan
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, where royalty and the sacerdotal
office were in close connexion. We find them longest in the
North, where the Angles established themselves but slowly
as independent states. Samson was nominated bishop of
York about the year 500, in which well-fortified city a Chris
tian Roman school may probably have continued till the oc
cupation of the place by the Angles. The Anglo-Saxons could
not be otherwise than ill-disposed to the worship of Rome
and of their enemies in Britain, as well as to other Roman
institutions, which might threaten to be prejudicial to their
independence : the teachers of Christianity, therefore, found
among their most barbarous Celtic neighbours earlier admis
sion than among the German invaders. The pupil of Ger
manus, who is said to have accompanied him on his visit to
Britain, St. Patric, the son of a deacon on the southern shore
of the Clyde, who died in 493, continued in Ireland, as Pal-
ladius (since the year 430) among the Scots, successfully to
spread the faith of Christ during the time when the Saxona
Were estabUshing themselves in Britain. Among the southern
Picts, Christianity is said to have maintained itself from the
period of their conversion by the Briton Nynias in the year
394, and Christian Anglo-Saxons, in later times, celebrated
their worship in the stone church of St. Martin, founded by
him at Hwitern (Candida Casa) in Galloway, when that ter
ritory had been annexed to the kingdom of Bernicia2. In
the year 563 St. Columba passed over from Ireland to the
1 Charter of Dagobert of the year 629, ap. Bouquet, t. iv. p. 629, and
more correct in Marini, ' Papiri Diplomatici,' p. 97, in which those Saxons
only who came from beyond sea to Rouen and Quentavic to fetch honey
and wood are to be held as Anglo-Saxons. See also under Offa K. of
Mercia, 8 Beda, iii. 4, K 2

132 CONVERSION OF KENT.
northern Picts, with whom, employed in the propagation of
his faith, he continued thirty- two years1, and formed excel
lent disciples, through whom a pleasing image of pious zeal,
deep learning, and varied acquirement attaches itself to the
memory of the Scottish monks. St. Columba received from
the Pictish prince the island of Hii, now lona or I-Colm-KUl,
(the isle of the church, or cell of Columba,) which his name
has consecrated, and which, in honour of him, continued for
ages to be the real or fabled burial-place of many Northern
princes, — of Scotland, Ireland, Norway, and even of North
umbria2. In the Cambrian or Welsh states, as also in Cumbria, no
apostasy from the Christian faith had taken place, though no
conformity with the church of Rome existed ; and the later
accounts, which ascribe to Rome the sending of the before-
mentioned missionaries, appear for the most part very un
worthy of credit3. Contrast, and their contests with the pa
gans must have strengthened a faith among them which re
serves its noblest crown for the martyr. Many churches in
Wales trace their foundation back to those British saints,
who, in the time of Cerdic and his immediate successors,
sought protection for their faith and tranquillity for self-con
templation behind the rocks and in the sylvan soUtudes of
that country4. The connexion into which the church had
already entered with the state, as well as that very pecuUar
one, which almost identified the form of the Western emphe
with the existence of the clergy, became known also in this
country, and preserved its ecclesiastical institutions. Of
1 Adamni Vita S. Columbae ap. Canisii Lectt. Antiquae. His biographer
was one of his successors in the abbey at lona, and is known also by his
work, ' De Locis Sanctis.'
2 According to Simeon (De Eccles. Dunelm., c. ix.), Ecgfrith king of
Northumberland was buried at lona.
3 As regards Patricius, cf. Neander's Geschichte der christlichen Re
ligion, Bd. ii. 259.
4 See the genealogies of the Saints in Lhuyd's Archteologia Britannica.

CONVERSION OF KENT. 133
these we may mention the distribution into seven bishoprics,
also the monasteries of Bangor, and Avallon or Glastonbury.
We find bishops at the election of kings : Dubritius, at first
bishop of Llandaff, subsequently of Caerleon, where there
were two ecclesiastical seminaries, crowned king Arthur in
the year 516 i. St. David, who transferred the see from
Caerleon to the ancient Menevia, exerted himself at a British
synod, held in 519, to eradicate the traces of the Pelagian
heresy2. Mention also occurs of three provincial synods of
the bishopric of Llandaff3, which, although they testify to a
knowledge of existing vices and to a desire to remedy them,
at the same time justify the mournful picture which the monk
of Bangor has with black lineaments and chastening zeal
drawn of his contemporaries in the British church. Gildas
may unquestionably be numbered among the most distin
guished men of his age, as of all writings of a similar de
scription, it has transmitted his alone to posterity and to the
present time. Though his style be bombastic, his concep
tion bordering on the absurd, his historic delineations unde
fined, without chronology, he is, nevertheless, a very instruc
tive voucher at a period, the other relics of which would,
without his labours, be much more obscure and questionable
than they are at present. We believe we err not, if in him
we recognise the speaking representative of the more serious
and pious Britons of the time, and a model of Christian Bri-
1 This report, as far as the bishop's name is concerned, seems doubtful,
as he may have been mistaken for Dibric, who died in 612. See Annal.
Camb. and Monast. Angl. t. vi. p. 1220.
2 This synod is not to be placed, as it is generally, in the year 519. The
Annales Cambriae record it, with the death of bishop David, under 601,
and (according to a later MS.) the synod of Victoria, perhaps too early, in
569. The historians who place David, Daniel of Bangor (ob. 584. see
Annal. Camb.), and Dubritius, in the beginning of the sixth century, have
not considered that Giraldus, their chief authority, here only follows Jef
frey of Monmouth.
3 Spelm. Concilia, t. i. p. 62 sq. Wilkins, Cone. t. i.p. 17. Usser. Pri-
mord. Eccles. Angl.

134 CONVERSION OF KENT.
tish Roman refinement. What pious, modest, apt sentiments,
what rare learning, what pure endeavour prevailed in the
British church, we know from the favourable testimony of an
opponent, the Venerable Beda, who praises and exalts no
catholic Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics so highly as he does those,
held out to them as patterns, of the Britons and Scots. The
struggle between both churches in Britain is not less inter
esting from the sympathy which we cannot refuse to the
fathers of the national church, than from the incalculable po
litical importance of its suppression.
The points of difference between the cathohc and the
British churches had reference to the time of celebrating
Easter, the form of the tonsure, the administration of bap
tism, the ecclesiastical benediction of matrimony, the mar
riage of priests1, the manner of the ordination of the British
bishops (of which almost every church possessed one), and
other trifling differences ; but, above all things, to the refusal
to acknowledge the supremacy of the pope and the councUs.
Of these points, however, those only regarding the computa
tion of Easter and the administration of baptism were in
sisted on by Augustine, with the condition that the British
priests should unite with the missionaries in preaching to the
Angles. The British church, established probably on the oldest di
rect traditions from Judea, in closest connexion with con
versions of the highest importance in the history of mankind,
appeared no less by its geographical position than by its ex
alted spiritual endowments, fitted to become the foundation
of a Northern patriarchate, which by its counterpoise to
Rome and the rest of the South, its guardianship over a
Celtic and Germanic population, sanctified by the doctrine of
Christ, might have been the instrument to impart to those
within its pale that which both meditative and ambitious
1 See Giesler, Kirchengeschichte, Bd. i.

CONVERSION OF KENT. 135
men, in the middle age, sometimes ventured to think on, but
which, in comparatively modern times, Martin Luther first
strove to extort for Romanized Europe1.
The struggles between the Britons and the Anglo-Saxons
were carried on for centuries with so much rancour, that it
ought to excite no astonishment, and still less call for blame,
that the former did not attempt the conversion of their bar
barous enemies and oppressors. Most worthy therefore of
admiration appears pope Gregory the Great, who first con
ceived the idea of gaining the Anglo-Saxon states for Chris
tendom and the catholic church, and applied to the holy work
with a perseverance and caution worthy of the happy result
by which it was foUowed. The obstacles, amid which the in
troduction of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons was ef
fected, were, nevertheless, very great, and it required almost
a century for the completion of the task. The language of
the Roman missionaries proved the first check to the con
vincing powers of their eloquence. Though the prince, by
family connexion, remonstrances, preaching, by papal briefs,
which flattered his vanity, and presents, as they are given in
modern times and for a similar purpose to the savages of re
mote regions, — though he by such inducements felt favourably
disposed, and acknowledged himself a Christian, yet were his
1 On the old British church see bishop Miinter's treatise in Ullmann's
u. A. ' Theologischen Studien und Kritiken,' 1833. Doellinger (Kirchen
geschichte, t. i. sect. 2), proceeding on catholic principles, explains several
points by much research, but is too zealous in endeavouring to obliterate
all traces of views and discipline, in which the ancient British church dif
fered from that of Rome, ascribing to the former an acknowledgment of
the Roman supremacy. The passage he quotes from the epistle of Gildas
does not prove that the British procured for themselves at Rome dignities
in the church of their own country, but merely that some of them had sur
reptitiously obtained ordination in. transmarine parts, perhaps Ireland or
Bretagne. The mention made of the bishop of Caerleon, in the letter of
the abbot of Bangor to Augustine, in which the supremacy of the Roman
pontiff is not recognised, will no longer, after what has been before said of
bishop David, raise critical doubts, but may be reckoned among the tests
of its authenticity.

136 CONVERSION OF KENT.
court and the rest of his people still unconverted. If he
died, the history of all the large Anglo-Saxon states testifies,
that his successor, attached to its adherents, would most
probably raise again the banner of paganism. Nor in at
tempting the spiritual conquest of any of the other small
states was there a prospect of any great result, since, from
their slender connexion with each other, and the inconsider
able influence of the Bretwalda, which, in this case especiaUy,
proved wholly ineffectual, the conversion of his kingdom was
for the neighbouring ones an occasion of a more vigilant op
position. At the same time, however, it must be noticed, as
a favourable circumstance, that, notwithstanding repeated
relapses into paganism, Christianity in one or other of the
states always preserved an altar and a sanctuary.
The wish- and the plan to' draw the Anglo-Saxons within
the pale of the Roman catholic church must have been long
entertained at Rome, though the external impulse, which is
necessary to the production of the greatest events, was want
ing, and which at the first glance is wont to appear so capri
cious, so insignificant, and so incredible, that an attentive
consideration of human affairs might pronounce it much too
wonderful for accident, but rather the leading clew of hid
den wisdom made perceptible only to those directed by it.
Some young Angles were standing in the Forum at Rome,
there to be sold as slaves. By whom they had been con
veyed thither is whoHy unknown; they possibly formed a
portion of the booty taken in the wars of the Bretwalda with
the Northumbrians, and had been brought from the pubhc
market at London. These foreign boys, distinguished by
their beautiful countenance, fair skin, and — that which was
the sign of good descent — their comely locks, attracted the
notice of Gregory, who some years afterwards was elected
pope, and was famed for his attention to the education of
youth, who for more than a thousand years after his death
were accustomed to celebrate the day dedicated to his name.

CONVERSION OF KENT. 137
On learning that they were from Britain and heathens, he
loudly lamented that they with such bright countenances
must become the prey of the prince of darkness ; and that
such grace of aspect was not accompanied with the grace of
inward Ught. On being told that they were called Angles
(Angli), he exclaimed, " And rightly so, for they have an an
gelic mien, and should be the co-heirs of angels in heaven."
On inquiring the name of the province from whence they
came, he was answered, that the people to which they be
longed were caUed Deiri. " It is well," said he, " de ira
eruti, snatched from wrath and caUed to the mercy of Christ."
On being informed that their king was named Mile, " AUe-
luiah," said he, in allusion to the name, " the praise of God
the Creator ought to be sung in that country." Whereupon
he hastened to the pope, for the purpose of beseeching him
to send some ministers of the Word to Britain, who might
convert the inhabitants to Christ, offering to accompany them
himself; and though the pope was willing to grant his re
quest, the people would not admit of his absence from the
city for so long a period : but Gregory, immediately after his
elevation to the papacy, executed his serious purpose by send
ing missionaries to the land of the slaves who had been the
objects of his commiseration1- These, under the guidance of
Augustine, had performed but an inconsiderable part of their
journey, when they were so terrified at the description given
them of the barbarity of the savage pagans, of whose speech
even they were entirely ignorant, that, on theh arrival in
Provence, they sent home Augustine2, — who was destined to
be bishop of the Angles, and who on all occasions appears
rather as a faithful instrument subservient to general opinion
and higher command, than as an inspired preacher of the
Word which brings life, — for the purpose of supplicating the
pope to release them from so dangerous, laborious, and doubt-
1 BedaUi. 1. 2 Id. i. 23.

138 CONVERSION OF KENT.
ful a mission. But Gregory exhorted them to continue theh
journey, recommended them to the protection of the Frankish
kings, Theuderic and Theudebert, to their powerful grand
mother, Brunhild, also to the several bishops, and caused
Frankish interpreters to accompany them. On the isle of
Thanet, the earliest Anglo-Saxon acquisition, Augustine like
wise made his landing, with a number of monks, which An
glo-Saxon tradition fixes at about forty. To the king of Kent,
Augustine announced his coming from Rome, with a message
that promised to the obedient eternal joy in heaven, and
kingdom without end with the true and living God. Though
^Ethelberht might not have paid attention to the faith pro
fessed by the great number of his subjects forming the op
pressed British population, he must, nevertheless, have had
some knowledge of the reUgion of his consort Berhta, who,
by the terms of her marriage contract, enjoyed the free ex
ercise of her worship, the duties attending which were fulfilled
by Liudhard, a Frankish bishop, who had accompanied her
to England, in the church of St. Martin near Canterbury,
which had been preserved from the time of the Christian
Romans. The king, soon after theh landing, proceeded to the isle
for the purpose of meeting the strangers, where, apprehend
ing the influence of their sorcery under a roof, he received
them in the open air. The missionaries approached, bearing,
in place of a banner, a silver cross, also a representation of
the Saviour painted on a board, singing litanies, supplicating
for the eternal salvation of themselves and of those for whom
and to whom they were come. The words and promises of
the sermon preached before the king seemed to him beautiful,
yet being new and uncertain, he would not renounce the
faith of the whole nation : at the same time he gave the
foreigners an hospitable reception in his chief city, Canter
bury, and allowed them, by their preaching and example, to
propagate their faith among his people, to baptize, and to

CONVERSION OF KENT. 139
solemnize theh worship in the church of his queen. The
conversion and baptism of ^Ethelberht himself1, which soon
foUowed, was attended with the restoration of the old British
church of the Holy Saviour in the royal city, the acknow
ledgment of the archiepiscopal authority of Augustine, who
had made a journey to Aries, where, by command of Gregory,
he had received consecration at the hands of the archbishop
Vhgilius2, and who on his return sent Laurentius and Petrus,
two of his companions, to announce to Gregory the progress
of his mission. These brought back with them several Co
adjutors, among whom were Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus and
Rufinianus, together with gifts for the new church, consisting
of holy vessels and vestments, books and relics, also letters
from the pope to Augustine, granting him the use of the pall.
Gregory now saw the general conversion of the nation assume
a form3, and the active head of the church, in the leisure and
tranquillity which his great mind was able to command for
the purpose of recording the fruits of his profound and
learned contemplations, could thank the Almighty, that the
inhabitants of Britain, whose language had erst been employed
only for heathenish and barbarous purposes, now chanted forth
the Hebrew Hallelujah to the praise of God4. Who does not
here call to mind his early wish ? Well might he rejoice in
the progress of the great work of which he had laid the
foundation !
The failure of an important step contemplated by Augus-
1 Beda, i. 26. a.d. 597, on the feast of Pentecost, or June 2. See
Smith's note, also Stevenson's. — T.
2 a.d. 597. Beda, i. 24 (where see Smith's note) and id. i. 27.
3 Beda, i. 27, 29. We learn from a letter of Gregory to Eulogius, bishop
of Alexandria, that before the following Christmas more than ten thousand
of the English had been baptized by Augustine and his followers. By Thorne
it is stated that jEthelberht resigned Canterbury and the surrounding
country to Augustine, and retired to Reculver : " Ipse iEdilberctus Regul-
bium demigravit, ibique novum sibi palatium condidit." See Smith's and
Stevenson's notes. — T.
4 Expositio Jobi ap. Bedae H. E. ii. 1.

140 CONVERSION OF KENT.
tine proved a check to the more rapid spread of Christianity.
In Wales the Christian faith as well as much Roman civili
zation had been preserved and transmitted, especiaUy through
the schools of Bangor and Llancarvan ; and Augustine was
not slow to perceive how desirable for the propagation of
Christianity an union would be between the Roman and the
British clergy. Through the influence of ^Ethelberht a meet
ing between the missionaries and the heads of the British
church was effected, at a spot afterwards known by the name
of Augustine's Oak1, on the confines of Wessex and the ter
ritory of the Hwiccas ; when, after a long and fruitless dis
cussion of the points on which the two churches were at
variance, the chief of which, it appears, was the time of cele
brating Easter, Augustine, as we are told by Beda, having, in
proof of his authority, miraculously restored a blind man to
sight2, the meeting was adjourned to a future day.
Previous to the second conference, which was attended by
seven British bishops, by the abbot Dinoot, or Dunawd, and
several learned divines from Bangor, the Britons consulted a
certain hermit, who was held by them in high veneration, as
to whether, in compliance with the preaching of Augustine,
they should renounce their own traditions ? He answered,
" If the man is of God, foUow him." To theh inquiry, " How
are we to prove this ?" he repUed, " The Lord says, Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and humble
of heart. If, therefore, Augustine is meek and humble of
heart, it is to be believed that he himself bears the yoke of
Christ, and offers it to be borne by you ; but if he is arrogant
1 The conference was, without doubt, literally held in the open air,
under the spreading branches of an oak. On this interesting subject see
Palgrave, vol. i. p. 238 sq. — T.
2 From an extract of a letter from Gregory to Augustine, it appears that
the great work of the latter was promoted by the intervention of other
miracles besides the one here recorded. In this letter the pontiff exhorts
the missionary not to be presumptuous on account of such miracles. See
Beda, i. 31 ; and, for the remainder of the letter, ejd. Opera Minora, ed.
Stevenson, p. 248.— T.

CONVERSION OF KENT. HI
and proud, it is manifest that he is not of God, and that we
need not heed his words." To their further question, " But
how shall we ascertain this ? " " Order it so," said he, " that
he and his followers be the first at the conference, and if he
rise up to meet you, do you, knowing him to be the servant
of Christ, hear him obediently ; but if he contemn you, and
will not rise up to you, you being in number the greater, be
he contemned of you."
On their arrival at the place of conference, finding Augus
tine seated, they, according to the instructions of the hermit,
as well perhaps as from predisposition, met all his proposals
with a refusal. Whereupon he said, " Though in many points
you act contrary to us and to the universal church, yet, if you
will agree with me in these three, — to celebrate Easter at the
proper season ; to perform baptism, whereby we are born
again to God, after the manner of the holy Roman and apo
stolic church ; and, together with us, to preach the word of
God to the Anglian nation, — we will kindly bear with you."
They answered, that they would do none of those things, nor
acknowledge him for their archbishop. In reply, Augustine,
in a threatening tone, is said to have predicted to them, that,
if they would not accept peace with their brothers, they should
have war with their enemies : and if they would not preach
the way of life to the Angles, they should suffer vengeance
at their hands. The fulfilling of the prophecy, or what was
regarded as its fulfilling, will be seen hereafter1.
From the above it will, perhaps, appear obvious to the un
prejudiced reader, that the arrogance of the foreign mission
ary on the one side, and, on the other, the stubbornness of
the British ecclesiastics, called into activity by that arrogance,
were the chief causes why a conference, held for so holy a
purpose, ended in the evocation of feelings the reverse of
those of peace and good-will to men.
With more satisfaction we, at the present day, regard the
1 This important narrative is wholly taken from Beda, ii. 2. — T.

142 CONVERSION OF ESSEX.
wisdom and UberaUty with which Gregory answers the ques
tion of Augustine, as to the course he was to follow with re
gard to the diversity prevailing in the customs of the Roman
and Gallican churches. " It is my wish," writes Gregory,
" that you sedulously select what you may think most accept
able to Almighty God, be it in the Roman, or in the GaUican,
or in any other church ; and introduce into the church of the
Angles that which you shaU have so collected ; for things are
not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake
of good things. Choose, therefore, from the several churches
whatever is pious, and religious, and right, and these, gathered
as it were into one whole, instil, as observances, into the
minds of the Angles1."
A connexion similar to that which had caused the intro
duction of Christianity into Kent facUitated its entrance into
Essex. Ricole, a sister of ^Ethelberht, was the mother of
Sasberht (Saebriht), king of that smaU but, on account of the
cities it contained, important state2. The king soon attached
himself to the new faith of his uncle and Bretwalda, and his
people, following the example of their prince, yielded to the
preaching of MeUitus, to whom, through the influence of
iEthelberht, a church in London, dedicated to St. Paul, was
assigned as an episcopal see, where had formerly stood a
temple of Diana ; while Justus was by Augustine consecrated
to the see of Rochester, in which city a church, dedicated to
St. Andrew the apostle, was founded by iEthelberht, and, as
at Canterbury, endowed with lands and other possessions3.
It was the happy lot of Augustine to pass to the higher
reward of his deeds with untroubled looks on his great ac
quisition for the church, which gathered strength under the
powerful sceptre of ^Ethelberht. He had made a very praise
worthy choice of a successor in his associate Laurentius, who,
in conjunction with Justus, renewed the attempt to unite the
1 Beda, i. 27. 3 Beda, ii. 3. Sax. Chron. a. 604.
8 a.d. 604. Beda, ii. 3.

CONVERSION OF ESSEX. 143
Britons with his church, and even took similar steps among
the Scots of Ireland1.
MeUitus was in the meanwhile gone to Rome on business
of the church : it happened, therefore, that Boniface IV.
counted in the Synod then sitting2 one Anglo-Saxon bishop.
In Kent the wholesome influence of the Roman ecclesiastics
was manifested also in the circumstance, that ,/Ethelberht
caused to be recorded, in the language of his country, the
first written collection among the Anglo-Saxons — perhaps
among all the Germanic nations — of the ancient laws of his
people, comprising those newly introduced by the Christian
priests. But the welfare of the church was not to rest on the
written letter. On the death of iEthelberht3, which was soon
followed by that of Sseberht, the faith had been established
among the Anglo-Saxons about twenty-one years, when it
was suddenly brought near to its suppression ; Eadbald, the
son of ^Ethelberht, having not only refused to listen to its
doctrines, but, yielding to the frenzy of the most passionate
excitement, had not hesitated to espouse his father's widow.
The sons of Saeberht had in like manner refused to receive
baptism, had granted to their subjects permission to return to
the worship of idols, and driven Mellitus from the kingdom,
for having refused to give them the bread of the eucharist.
MeUitus and Justus fled to Gaul, whither Laurentius was
preparing to follow them, when a sudden change in the mind
of Eadbald, occasioned by the last representations of the arch
bishop, was followed by the suppression of idolatry in his
dominions, the dismissal of his step-mother, and the resto
ration of Christianity4-
1 a.d. 605. Beda, ii. 3, 4, where see the letter of Laurentius to the
Scottish bishops and abbots. — T.
2 a.d. 610, Feb. 27. 3 Sax. Chron. a. 616.
4 The device by which these desirable events were brought to pass,
though unfit to be recorded on the pages of history at the present day,
affords, nevertheless, too striking an example of the means, it is to be
feared, but too frequently employed in propagating the new faith among

144 R^DWALD OF EAST ANGLIA.
Not so soon did the East Saxons become sensible of their
error, though the three sons of Saeberht had fallen in a battle.
Mellitus succeeded Laurentius in the archiepiscopal dignity,
but his former diocese still persisted in their idolatry1. It was
a new generation only that foUowed king Sigeberht the Good
and the majority of the Anglo-Saxons, who now generaUy
professed the doctrines of Christianity: yet even then the
appearance of an unusually destructive pestilence, called the
yellow plague, prompted the East Saxons to look for aid in
the restoration of the heathen temples, and Sigehere (Sige-
heri), one of their two kings, had relapsed into paganism;
but the example given by the pious king Sebbe (Sebbi),
together with the spiritual exertions of bishop Jaruman, led
to the final destruction of the old national idolatry with its
temples, and to the permanent establishment of the new
faith2. While on a visit to ^Ethelberht of Kent, Raedwald, king of
the East Angles, had also declared himself a convert to Chris
tianity, a step the more important, as, after the death of
iEthelberht, the dignity of Bretwalda had passed over to the
Uffings. Induced, however, by the importunity of his wife
and friends, Raedwald soon rejected the newly acquhed con-
our simple forefathers, to be wholly unnoticed. We are told by Beda
(ii. 6), that Laurentius, on the eve of his departure, had directed that his bed
should be placed in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. In the dead of
the night St. Peter appeared to him, and scourging him asked, why he
abandoned the flock entrusted to his care ? In the morning he presented
himself before the king, and showed him his body lacerated with the
scourging, who, on his inquiry, who had dared to inflict such stripes on
such a man, received for answer, that he had been so wounded and tor
mented by the apostle of Christ, for the sake of his (Eadbald's) salvation ;
who thereupon, anathematizing his old idolatry, dismissed his stepmother,
adopted the Christian faith, and received baptism. See also Sax. Chron.
a. 616.— T. ' Beda, ii. 6.
2 Beda, iii. 22, 30. Fl. Wigorn. a. 653. From the date given in the
margin of the latter of these chapters of Beda, it might seem that the reign
of Sighere and Sebbe commenced in 665 ; but in Wulfhere's charter of en
dowment to Peterborough abbey, dated 664, their names as kings appear
among the signatures. See Sax. Chron. a. 657.

.ETHELFRITH OF NORTHUMBRIA. 145
viction, but, in the view of satisfying both parties, caused to
be erected in the same temple an altar to Christ by the side
of that devoted to the rites of paganism1.
His neighbour beyond the Humber, ^Ethelfrith (iEthel-
ferth), the son of iEthelric and grandson of Ida, who had
forcibly united Deira, the kingdom of Mile his deceased
father-in-law, with his own paternal state, Bernicia, was a foe
to Christianity. He had acquhed a reputation for great
valour in the glorious victory, purchased with the loss of his
brother Theodbald, at Daegsanstan, or Degsastan2, over Aidan,
the son of Gabran, king of the Dalreods or Albanians, the
remembrance of which long deterred the latter from further
contests with the Angles of Northumbria. His wars had
hitherto been chiefly with the Britons, vast numbers of whom
he had exterminated, or rendered tributary to his sceptre ;
and the fear which those conquests spread among his neigh
bours occasioned an alliance, till then unheard of, between
Anglo-Saxon and British princes. Eadwine (Eadwini), the
son of MUe, a child of three years, had it appears, on the
seizure of his inheritance by iEthelfrith, been committed for
safety to the care of Cad van, king of Gwynedd3, and there
educated under the British clergy, till he had attained the
age of manhood. Cadvan, for the sake of his ward, having
formed an alliance with Brocmail, king of Powis, the patron
of the poet TaUesin, hazarded a war with the persecutor of
Eadwine, which ended in a battle fought near Chester (Caer-
1 Beda, ii. 15.
2 Beda, i. 34. Sax. Chron. a. 603. Dalston near Carlisle, according
to Gibson, whose supposition is favoured by the various reading, Deglas-
tan. Dawstane in Liddesdale has also been conjectured as the spot. Tiger
nach makes no mention of this battle, unless he alludes to it a. 600, " Prae-
lium Saxonum contra jEdanum, ubi cecidit Eanfrac (Eanfrith) frater Etal-
fraich, occisus a Maeluma, filio Baodani, in quo victor erat." Annal. Ulton.
a. 599, " Bellum Saxonum, in quo victus est Aeda."
3 Vaughan, Diss, on Brit. Chronol. Langhorne, Chron. Angl., though
in other respects confuting Jeffrey of Monmouth, considers this tradition
as probable. VOL. I. L

146 EADWINE,
legion, Lsegacester) and the destruction of the celebrated
monastery of Bangor, the seat of Celtic Christian learning1.
Previous to the battle ^Ethelfrith espied an unarmed body,
standing apart in a place of apparent security. On being in
formed that they belonged for the most part to the monastery
of Bangor, &nd had with others assembled on that spot to
pray, under the protection of Brocmail, he exclaimed, " If
they cry to their God against us, and load us with impreca
tions, though unarmed, they fight against us:" whereupon
he ordered them to be attacked and put to the sword. Ead
wine fled before his brother-in-law and persecutor to Mercia,
whence, finding no security there, he took refuge with Raed
wald of East Anglia ; and thus, a homeless Wanderer, esta
blished, through the protection which he there sought and
obtained, a connexion which was followed by a result far more
important than that attending his previous alliance with the
Britons. To the first and second application of ^Ethelfrith, for the
death or delivery of the fugitive, though accompanied by
tempting pecuniary offers, the Bretwalda gave no ear; but
on the third solicitation, and the proffer of a larger sum, and
threatening war in case of refusal, the faith of Raedwald gave
way, and he promised compliance with the wishes of the
Northumbrian. It was night, and Eadwine was preparing
for rest, when a faithful friend, caUing him from his chamber,
informed him of Raadwald's promise, and engaged to convey
him to an asylum, where neither the one nor the other should
be able to discover him. " Thanks for your good wiU," said
Eadwine, " but I cannot yield to your proposal, and be the
first to break my compact with a king who has done me no
injury, nor shown any ill-will towards me. If I am to die,
1 In 607 according to the Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigoi'n. a. 603. says, " longo
post tempore (jEthelfrido) collecto exercitu," etc. Annal. Camb. and Tigern,
013. Beda.ii. 2,doesnot give the year of this event. The British kings, Seysil
son of Conan, Jacobus son of Beli, and Cetul are named among the slain.

EADWINE. 147
let him rather than a less noble hand deliver me to death.
Whither can I flee, who, in striving to escape from the snares
of my enemies, have so long been a wanderer through all the
provinces of Britain?" His friend departed, and Eadwine
was left alone sitting on a stone before the palace, sad and at
a loss what to do, or whither to bend his steps.
While thus sitting, wrapt in agonizing thoughts, he was
startled by the approach of a stranger, who, after greeting,
asked him, why, when others were at rest, he was there so
sad and lonely ? " Yet think not," continued he, " that the
cause of your affliction and your vigil is unknown to me : I
know who you are, and why you are depressed, and the im
pending evils which you dread. But say, what reward would
you give to any one, if such there be, who should free you
from these cares, and prevail on Raedwald neither to do you
aught of harm himself, nor to deliver you to your enemies ? "
On his answering, that for such a benefit he would be grate
ful to the utmost of his power — " But what, if he should pro
mise that you shall destroy your adversaries, and be a king
more powerful not only than any of your forefathers, but
than any who has ever reigned over the Angles ?" On Ead
wine repeating his assurances of gratitude, the stranger, a
third time, asked, " If he, who shall have truly promised such
great benefits, should impart to you doctrines of life and sal
vation, better and more efficacious than any one of your re
latives has ever heard, would you obey him, and listen to his
admonitions ? " On receiving the promise of Eadwine, the
stranger laid his right hand on the princess head, saying,
" When this sign shall, be repeated, remember this hour and
this discourse, and delay not to fulfil that which you now
promise." Having uttered these words, it is said, he sud
denly disappeared, that he might be known to be no man,
but a spirit.
The royal youth remained : his mind, though gladdened
by the consolation he had received, was yet not free from
L 2

148 EADWINE.
anxiety, when his before-mentioned friend returned to him
with a joyful countenance, and informed him that he might
safely retire to rest, and that Raedwald had resolved to keep
his faith ; for that on communicating to the queen the pro
mise he had made to JEthelfrith, she had made manifest to
him how ill it became so great a king to sell his best friend
in his distress for gold, and to break his faith, more precious
than all ornaments, through love of money1.
The Bretwalda having thus resolved on the juster course,
marched with a powerful weU-appointed army against the
Northumbrian, who met him with inferior forces in a battle
fought on the eastern bank of the river Idle in Nottingham
shire, on the border of Mercia. Raedwald remained master
of the field, which was covered with the bodies of the slain,
among whom was iEthelfrith himself, who, in an impetuous
onset, having destroyed one of the three divisions into which
the adverse army was divided, together with its valiant leader
Raeginhere (Rasginheri), the son of Raedwald, being over
powered by numbers, was found far from his foUowers amid
the slain heaps of the enemy2. After this victory, which was
attended with most important results for Britain, Eadwine
took possession of his paternal kingdom as weU as of the va
cant throne of Bernicia. One of his earhest deeds seems to
have been the conquest of the little British territory of Elmet3,
which had existed as an independent state under its king
Cerdic — a name susceptible both of a British and a Saxon in-
1 Beda, ii. 12. Regarding this legend of the child of ^Elle as too beau
tiful and graphic, as well as too intimately connected with the account of
his conversion, to be omitted or even abridged, I have, at the risk of cen
sure from the severer class of readers, not hesitated to give it entire and
almost literally from the work of the ' Venerable ' father of English history,
who, for his love of the legendary and fascinating descriptive powers, may
be not inaptly called the Walter Scott of the eighth century. — T.
2 Beda, ii. 12. Sax. Chron. a. 617. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 616.
8 A district in Yorkshire about Leeds. Camden conjectures that the
mins visible at Barwick in Elmet indicate the site of the palace of the
Northumbrian kings.

EADWINE. 149
terpretation — whom he expelled, for having, under the guise
of hospitality, received and afterwards poisoned Hereric, the
nephew of Eadwine, who, like his uncle, had been persecuted
by ^Ethelfrith1.
The states of kindred origin now attached themselves to
the North Angles, and the first Bretwaldaship over all the
Anglo-Saxons, with the exception of Kent, devolved on their
mighty and widely aUied king. The British states, and even
the Isle of Man, were subject to him ; also the island of Mona,
which, though from the colonists brought thither it had re
ceived the name of Anglesey2, afterwards resumed its Celtic
character. Eadwine, after the death of his consort Cwenburh,
a daughter of the Mercian king Ceorl, obtained the hand of
a Christian princess of the famUy of the iEscings, the former
suzerains of his country, jEthelburh or Tate, a daughter of
^Ethelberht of Kent. This marriage had been permitted
under conditions and expectations similar to those attending
that of the Frankish princess Berhta with ^Ethelberht him
self. The bishop Paulinus accompanied the young queen, to
preserve her in the Christian faith and attend to the duties
of divine worship. Shortly after letters, accompanied by pre
cious gifts, arrived from pope Boniface3 " to Eadwine, king
1 Nennii App. " Eaguin, Alius Alii,  occupavit Elmet et expulit Cer-
tic, regem illius regionis." Beda, iv. 23. " Cum Hereric exularet sub rege
Brittonum Cerdice, ubi et veneno periit." The above passages will, it is
hoped, justify the view I have taken of this event, which receives confirm
ation from the respect shown by Eadwine to Hild, the daughter of He
reric, with whom, it appears, she received the rites of baptism : " Cum quo
(Mduino)," says Beda, ibid., " ad praedicationem beatae memoriae Paulini,
primi Nordanhymbrorum episcopi, fidem et sacramenta Christi suscepit."
Hereric, the son of the elder deceased son of MXie, was therefore dead be
fore the death of ^Ethelfrith ; whereby it appears how Eadwine, jElle.'s
second son, succeeded iEthelfrith without opposition. Cf. also Annal.
Camb. a. 616, and Fl. Wigorn. Geneal.
2 Beda, ii. 5, 9.
3 As Boniface V. died Oct. 22, a. 625, his letters must have been written
in that year, though probably not received till the spring following ; a sup
position which may account for their being placed by Beda after events of
626.

150 EADWINE.
of the Angles, and ^Ethelburh, his consort," for the purpose
of effecting the conversion of the former. Eadwine was pro
bably neither unprepared nor unwilling to receive baptism,
to which he must have often been invited in his earlier years :
he, nevertheless, weighed the difficulties and the danger of
such a step with regard to his subjects. Two events, which
occurred almost at the same moment, appear to have accele
rated his conversion. Cwichelm, king of the West Saxons,
anxious to free himself from the supremacy of Northumbria,
had recourse to the arm of an assassin. His emissary,
Eomer, reached the royal residence on the first day of Easter,
and, while delivering a feigned message from Cwichelm, sud
denly started up, and drawing from under his garment an
envenomed two-edged dagger, rushed on the king, when an
affectionate thane named Lilla threw himself between them,
and at the price of his own life saved that of his master. So
violent was the stroke that Eadwine was wounded through the
body of his foUower, nor did the assassin fall beneath the
swords of those present until he had slain Forthhere (Forth-
heri), another thane of Eadwine's. On the same night ^Ethel-
burh was delivered of a daughter, named Eanflaed; when
Eadwine, in the presence of Paulinus, returning thanks to
his gods for the gift, the bishop returned thanks to Christ,
assuring the king that it was to his prayers that the queen
owed her safe and happy delivery. Moved by these words,
Eadwine promised to renounce his idols and serve Christ, if
he would grant him the victory over that king who had em
ployed an assassin to destroy him, and, in pledge of his pro
mise, intrusted his daughter to Paulinus, by whom she was
baptized with eleven others of his household. Being cured
of his wound, he collected an army and marched against the
West Saxons, who were defeated with great loss, five kings
being mentioned among the slain1.
1 Sax. Chron. a. 626. Beda, ii. 9.

EADWINE. 151
On his return, though he abstained from the worship of his
gods, he was yet unwilling, without due reflection, to partake
of the sacraments of the Christian faith ; but, listening to the
discourses of Paulinus on the one hand, and of his priests on
the other, meditated in private on their respective arguments,
when a means of hastening his resolve presented itself to
Pauhnus, such as spiritual superiority has seldom scrupled
to apply for the attainment of an adequate object.
The predictions of the vision were now realized, but the
sign had not been repeated, when Pauhnus, as Beda conjec
tures, aheady apprized in spirit of what had taken place1,
approaching the solitary king, while wrapt in deep meditation,
laid his right hand on his head, and asked him whether he
acknowledged that sign ? Eadwine, trembling, was about to
cast himself at the feet of Paulinus, but the latter, raising him
up, addressed him thus : " By the grace of God you have
escaped from the hands of your enemies ; by his bounty, you
have obtained the kingdom which you desired; be mindful
not to delay the promise you made, to receive his faith and
keep his commandments, and, by promoting his will, as an
nounced by me, to free yourself from everlasting punishment,
and become a partaker of the heavenly kingdom2,"
The king promised to receive the faith, and, with the view
of effecting the universal adoption of Christianity, called a
meeting of his friends and witan. On Ead wine's inquiring of
each one separately his opinion of the new doctrines, Caefi,
the high priest3, immediately answered, " Judge you, O king,
of that which is now announced to us ; but I must truly con
fess to you, that the religion which we have hitherto followed
has neither power nor utility. For not one of your subjects
1 Beda, ii. 12. See p. 140 for a miracle performed by Augustine : and
for one performed on Laurentius, see p. 143, note *.— T.
2 a.d. 626. Beda, ii. 12.
3 " Primus pontificum " (regis). Beda, ii. 13, who in his Anglian or Nor
thumbrian dialect, writes the name ' Coifi ' ¦ one MS, of Alfred's version
reads ' Caefi,' and ' Cefi,' another has ' Cyfi.' See p. 72, note6.— T.

152 EADWINE.
has more diligently attended to the worship of the gods than
I ; and, nevertheless, there are many who have received from
you greater benefits and greater honours, and prosper more
in all their undertakings : whereas, if the gods were worth
anything, they would rather favour me, who have so zealously
served them. If therefore, on examination, the new doctrine
shall appear to you better and more efficacious, let us, without
further delay, hasten to adopt it."
One of the ealdormen approving these words, added, " Such
seems to me, O king, the present life of man, in comparison
of the time which is hidden from us, as when you are sitting
in your hall at your repast, with your thanes and attendants,
in the winter season, with a fire Ughted in the middle, the
apartment warm, but the chiUing storms of rain and snow
raging everywhere without, a sparrow rapidly flies through,
entering at one door, and instantly escaping by another.
While it is within it is not touched by the winter's storm,
but, after having passed through a very short space of
serenity, it goes forthwith from storm to storm, and vanishes
from your sight. So also seems the short life of man : what
follows or what precedes we know not : if, therefore, this new
doctrine brings us something more certain, it is also my
opinion that it should be adopted." In accordance with this
were the sentiments of the other ealdormen and witan. Caefi
now expressed his wish to hear Paulinus discourse concerning
God : his conversion was the result, and Eadwine himself,
convinced by the preaching of the bishop, renouncing ido
latry, professed himself also a believer in the doctrines of
Christianity1. To the inquiry of Paulinus : Who would be
the first to profane the altars and temples of the idols, with
their enclosures 2 ? Caefi answered, " I ; for who is fitter than
1 Beda, ii. 14. Sax. Chron. a. 627-
2 The ' septum ' around a temple was the ' frithgeard,' or asylum. See
Law of the Northumbrian Priests, liv. in Anc. LL. and Instt., and Gloss.
v. FrWgeard.— T.

EADWINE. 153
I am to destroy, through the wisdom given me by God, and
as an example to aU, that which I have worshiped in my
folly ? " Whereupon he prayed of the king that arms and a
horse might be given to him — it being forbidden to the sacri
ficing priests both to bear arms and to ride except on a mare
— and, girded with a sword, and with lance in hand, having
mounted the horse, he proceeded to execute his design. The
people thought him mad, but he, hastening to the temple,
instantly profaned it by casting his lance against it, and in
his exultation commanded his associates to set it on fire with
all its enclosures. This event took place at Godmundinga
ham, now Godmundham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Eadwine was baptized at York on the following Easter-day,
in a church built of wood, and dedicated to St. Peter the
Apostle, which he had there caused to be erected, but which
was shortly after succeeded by a larger one of stone on the
same spot. York was assigned as an archiepiscopal see to
Pauhnus, who received the paU from pope Honorius1.
Pauhnus preached also on the other side of the Humber,
and converted the inhabitants of Lindisse, a territory the
name of which is preserved in that of Lindsey. Its chief,
Blecca, a descendant of Woden, and his household, were his
first converts2.
The peace and tranquillity which the power of the Bret
walda procured for his kingdom must have been very favour
able to the spread of the new doctrine, such security being
said to have prevailed that, according to the Anglo-Saxon
proverb, a woman with her new-born babe might have tra
veUed from sea to sea without sustaining injury. By the con
duits which he had caused to be constructed on the high roads,
he directed brazen cups to be suspended, which no hand
touched save that of the parched wanderer. Eadwine loved
the display of authority : not only were ensigns borne before
1 a.d. 627. Beda, ii. 13, 14.
2 Beda, ii. 16. Sax. Chron. a. 627. Geneal. ap. Florentium.

154 EADWINE.
him in battle, but even in the public ways he was constantly
preceded by the Roman tufa, or tuf as it was called by the
Anglo-Saxons1. Eadwine zealously exerted himself for the propagation of
the new faith, and though it appears that he raised no altar in
Bernicia2, he succeeded in the thorough conversion of Eorp-
wald, the son of Raedwald, king of the East Angles; and
though the murder of Eorpwald by a pagan3 plunged East
Angha into darkness and strife, yet Eadwine lived to see the
return and establishment of Christianity in that country after
a lapse of three years. Sigeberht, who had received the doc-
trinee of Christianity while in Gaul, whither he had fled from
the hostility of his brother Raedwald, now conjointly with his
brother Ecgric took possession of the throne, chiefly, it would
seem, for the sake of propagating his newly adopted faith,
In the work of conversion he was aided by Felix, a Burgun-
dian bishop, sent to him from Kent by Honorius, archbishop
of Canterbury, under whose wise guidance it prospered
admirably. Desirous of improving the minds pf his people,
Sigeberht founded a Latin school on the plan of those he had
seen in Gaul, in which laudable undertaking he availed him
self of the counsel of Felix, who supplied fitting persons as
teachers, according to the Kentish practice4. On the foun
dation of the see of Domuc (Dunwich), Felix was appointed
its first bishop5.
1 Beda, ii. 16.
? This is manifest from Beda, iii. 2, a, 635, where", speaking of Oswald's
cross, he says, *' Nullum, ut comperimus, fidei Christianas signum, nulla
ecclesia, nullum altare in tota Berniciorum gente erectum est, priusquam
hoc sacrae crucis vexillum," etc. s a.d. 627. Beda, ii. 15.
4 Beda, iii. 18. " Juxta morem Cantuariorum," Malmes. de Gestis Pont.
lib. ii, " Scholas opportunis locis instituens, barbariem gentis sensim
Comitate Latina informabat." The above passage of Beda has been ad
duced in the dispute between Oxford and Cambridge, to prove the higher
antiquity of the latter. See Smith, Append, xiv. ad Bedan"*. The proof
is, however, wanting that Cambridge, formerly Grantabrycge, belonged to
East Anglia, and not, as is generally understood, to Mercia.
6 Beda, ii. 15.

PENDA. 155
Scarcely had these events taken place when we find the
king of the East Angles resigning his crown, and, following
the old Frankish example, giving the earUest instance of an
Anglo-Saxon royal monk. The sceptre now devolved on
Ecgric, who was already a sharer in the government of this
small state. So deep-rooted was the conviction which led the
East Anglian to a renunciation of earthly sway, that not even
the danger of his native land, at that time suffering under the
cruel ravages of Penda, king of Mercia, could induce him to
forsake the quiet of his cloister. When forcibly brought forth
by his subjects, in the hope that the sight of a leader, once
honoured for his valour, might cheer and stimulate his war
riors, he stood still amid the raging battle, with a staff in his
hand, until he was slain together with his brother Ecgric.
Christianity was not, however, again driven from East Anglia,
Anna, the successor of the slain prince, being not only de
voted to its doctrines, but, at the instance of Fursseus, a pious
man of Scottish race, from Ireland, the founder of several
monasteries 1,
But a season of calamity was now at hand for Northumbria.
Penda, the son of Wibba, and successor of Ceorl, had ren
dered Soufhumbria, or Mercia, independent of Eadwine2,
and, in alliance with the powerful British prince Caedwalla of
Gwynedd, the son of Cadvan, made war on Eadwine, who,
together with his son Osfrith, was slain in a great battle
fought at Haethfeld3, Another of his sons, Eadfrith, who had
1 a.d. 635. Beda, iii. 18, 1 9, Vita Ethelredae. According to the Chronicle
and Florence, Eorpwald's conversion took place in 632, the preaching of
Felix in 636. I follow Beda.
2 According to tbe Chronicle, Penda had been king of Mercia from 626 ;
but Beda, ii. 22, says expressly, that he was of royal race (de regio genere
Merciorum), and reigned twenty-two years. Therefore, as the accounts
concur in placing his death in 655, he must have been king from 633 pnly,
the year of his victory over Eadwine.
3 Beda, ii. 20. Sax. Chron. Oct. 14, a, 633. Fl. Wigorn. Oct. 12.
Annal. Ult. and Tigernach, a. 631. Camden supposes Hatfield, in the
West Riding of Yorkshire, to have been the spot. — T.

156 PENDA.
fled to his relation Penda as a suppliant, was by him trea
cherously murdered. Eadwine's queen, ^Ethelburh, and the
archbishop Paulinus fled to Kent, where they met with an
honourable reception from her brother Eadbald and the arch
bishop Honorius, who appointed Paulinus to the see of
Rochester. Wuscfrea, another son of Eadwine, and Yffe
(Yffi), son of Osfrith, were subsequently, from fear of her
own brother Eadbald, and Oswald of Northumbria, sent by
the queen to the Frankish king Dagobert, through the medi
ation of the archbishop Paulinus. The early death of these
children, the heirs of the founder of Edinburgh (Eadwines
burh), prevented probably an early example of the Frankish
influence so often exercised in after-ages on the fate of North
Britain ; but a sepulchre within the church, not unusual at
that time, long bore witness both to the antiquity of this con
nexion, and to the asylum afforded by the monarch1.
The respect paid to the royal races of the Anglo-Saxons is
strikingly proved by the chcumstance, that neither Penda,
who retained only his paternal kingdom of Mercia, nor the
king of Gwynedd took possession of the conquered state, the
northern part of which, Bernicia, the land of ^Ethelfrith, de
volved on his son Eanfrith, who, after the death of his father,
had with several friends wandered to the Scots or Picts, and
adopted Christianity, according to the doctrines followed
among those people. The southern portion, Deira, was held
by Osric, the nearest kinsman of Eadwine, who had been
baptized by Paulinus. Both relapsed into the errors of pagan
ism. Osric was slain at York, in an attempt to surprise
Caedwalla, who had shut himself up in that city ; Eanfrith
fell by the same hand, being treacherously murdered by him
when, accompanied by twelve foUowers only, he came to sue
for peace. Their countries were ravaged by the Britons in
the most cruel manner. The names of these apostate princes
were erased from the catalogue of Christian kings, and the
1 Beda, ii. 14, 20.

OSWALD. 157
unhappy year of their reign assigned to Oswald, their pious
successor1. But the apostasy of these princes and the sufferings of the
Northumbrians may be said to have constituted the revolving
point, as it were, not only of the immediate fortunes of the
North Angles, but of the successful struggle of Christianity
against paganism. Oswald, a younger son of iEthelfrith,
bred Uke his elder brother among the Scots, placed himself
at the head of a small force, and at Hefenfeld, not far from
the Roman waU, near Denisburn, in the neighbourhood of
Hexham, having erected a cross, the first sign of Christian
devotion in Bernicia, assembled his followers before it, com
manded them to kneel, and having sent forth a fervent prayer
to the God of armies, attacked the numerous warriors of
CaedwaUa, who lost their leader, and — what in those days was
the usual consequence of such a loss — betook themselves to
flight2. In Caedwalla expired the last renowned hero of old
British race : in fourteen pitched battles and sixty encounters
he had revived and confirmed the military fame of his coun
try, and acquired dominion over a considerable part of Lloegria
(Lloegyr). No wonder then if his life and death, though
claiming a far higher degree of credibility than Arthur's,
were soon surrounded by the glittering imagery of tradition3,
and that we are now unable to ascertain the truth, either in
the apotheosis of his adoring countrymen, or in the vindictive
narrative of the Anglo-Saxons.
History informs us that Oswald's cross decided the fate of
Britain for ever. Oswald obtained the sovereignty of Ber
nicia, and also of Deha, being entitled to* the latter country
1 Beda, iii. 2. Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 634. Eanfrith is the An-
fraith, whose decapitation is mentioned by Tigernach a. 632.
2 a.d, 635. Beda, iii. 2. Fl. Wigorn. a. 634. Nennius (Appen.) calls
the battle, bellum Catscaul., Annal. Camb. a. 631, b. Cantscaul (Caed-
wealla). 3 Galf. Monum. lib. xii. Llywarch HSn, Elegies. Cf. Turner, vol. i.
p. 366.

158 OSWALD.
by his maternal 'descent, his mother 'Acha,' the sister of
Eadwine, being descended from ^Elle1. He was acknow
ledged as Bretwalda, the sixth who held that dignity, and is
said to have reigned over the four tongues of Britain, — of the
Angles, the Britons, the Picts, and the Scots. Oswald com
bined great vigour with much mildness and religious enthu
siasm. By him Christianity was introduced anew into his
kingdom, but it was that of his teachers, the Scots, by whom
Aidan was sent to him from the isle of St. Columba (Hii or
Icolmkill), and to whom, as an episcopal seat, he granted the
isle of Lindisfarne, now Holy Island, the hallowed abode of
many heroes of the Christian faith2. Severity towards him
self and the powerful, humility and benevolence towards the
poor and lowly, activity in the cause of religion, zeal for
learning, were the admirable qualities that were praised in
Aidan, and shed the purest lustre on the old Scottish church
to which he belonged ; and few will feel disposed to doubt
that the general impression which the lives of such men made
on the minds of people disgusted with paganism, together
with the internal truth of the Christian doctrines, has ever,
and in a greater degree contributed to their first conversion
than even the most convincing and sohd arguments. How
else could the so-often vainly attempted conversion of the
Northumbrians have been effected by Aidan, who, sprung from
a hostile race, sent from a hostile school, strove to propagate
the doctrines of the defeated Scots and Picts, the former op
pressors of the Britons, in a tongue for which Oswald him
self was compelled to act as the interpreter ?
Of Aidan's fitness for the pious work committed to him, a
judgement may be formed from the following anecdote, re
lated by Beda3. At the solicitation of Oswald, a priest had
been sent by the Scots to preach the word to the pagans of
1 Beda, iii. 6.
2 See Beda's prose and metrical Lives of S. Cuthberht.
3 a.d. 634. H. E„ iii. 5,

CEOLWULF OF WESSEX. 159
Northumbria, who proving unqualified for the task, and un
welcome to the people, through the austerity of his character,
returned to his country, where, in an assembly of his brethren,
he declared his inability to effect any good among a people
so ungovernable and barbarous. On hearing this declaration,
Aidan, who was present at the meeting, said to him, "Brother,
it seems to me that you have been harsher than was fitting
towards such uninstructed hearers, and have not, in con
formity with apostolic usage, first offered the milk of milder
instruction, until, graduaUy nourished by the divine word,
they might become capable both of receiving the more per
fect, and of executing the higher precepts of God." A dis
cussion, to whieh these words gave rise, terminated in the
unanimous declaration, that Aidan was worthy of the episco
pal dignity, and that he ought to be sent to teach the igno
rant unbelievers.
In such, and in every other manner possible, Oswald pro
moted the religion of the cross planted by him, not in his
own kingdom only, but in the states encircling his British
empire1. In this he followed the impressions of his youth
and the conviction which had steeled his arm to victory. He
might also have cherished the hope, that in a British Christian
church the surest spiritual support would be found to consist
in the union of all the tongues of Britain*
Since the days of the Bretwalda Ceawlin the kingdom of
Wessex had been engaged in constant warfare with its British
and Saxon neighbours. Though the result may not always
have been unfavourable, yet the state, split into many parts,
bore the semblance of a great camp. In the year 626 we
find mention of at least seven kings of the Gewissas2. Ceol
wulf had succeeded his brother Ceolric3, who fighting against

1 " Oswald totius Britanniae imperator." Cummini Vita ColufflbaB, c, 26.
2 Beda, ii. 9. Sax. Chron. a. 626.
8 Sax. Chron. a, 597, where and by Florence he is called Ceol,

160 TEWDRIC OF MORGANWG.
all, proved against all the valour of the bravest1, though of
his deeds we know but Uttle. Beda, in general a poor source
for the history of Wessex, does not once mention his name.
The record of an obstinate battle with the then still appa
rently independent people of Sussex, in which he had the
advantage, has alone been preserved in the annals of his
country2 ; though a memorial equally favourable to the war
rior has been transmitted to us in the records of his ene
mies, the Britons. Tewdric or Theodric, the valiant king of
Morganwg3, had at the beginning of the century renounced
the world, having left his crown to his son Mouric, and amid
the sylvan scenes of Dindyrn (Tintern), on the pleasant wind
ing shores of the Wye, resigned himself to the enjoyment of
solitary reflection, purified from aU earthly contamination.
Ceolwulf, taking advantage of the reign of the son, marched
across the Severn, the northern boundary of Wessex, as far
as the Wye. The cry of his faithful people drew the aged
hero from his ten years' solitude, and his forces under theh
old leader were again victorious against the pagan Saxons.
The dragon of Wessex was banished to the southern bank
of the Severn ; but Tewdric received a wound which clove
his skull, and was buried at the confluence of the Wye and
the Severn4. Over his grave an oratory was raised, and at
a later period a church, in honour of the royal martyr, on the
spot afterwards caUed Mathern5, where for many ages his
memory was celebrated by the race of his enemies on the an-
1 H. Hunt. W. Malm. lib. i. " quippe qui nulli unquam ignaviae locum
dederit." 2 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 607. 3 See p. 121.
4 Calendar 3rd Jan. For the other particulars see Cod. MS. Eccl. Cath.
Landav. in Monast. Angl. t. vi. p. 1222. The year of the battle, being in
the time of bishop Oudoceus, the second successor of Dubritius (ob. 612),
to whom the oratory was dedicated, must be subsequent to 610. See also
Godwinus de Prsesul. Angl. edit. 1616, p. 619. Usher, de Primord. p. 292.
Langhorne, p. 148.
6 From Merthyr Tewdric. He was accounted a martyr, having lost his
life in fighting against pagans.

CYNEGILS AND CWICHELM. 161
niversary of his martyrdom. His remains in a stone coffin,
exhibiting the cloven skull, discovered in the sixteenth cen
tury, bore witness to the valiant heart once dwelling in the
breast of the noble Tewdric of Morganwg.
Cynegils, a son of Ceolric, and his son or brother, Cwichelm,
succeeded Ceolwulf on the throne of Wessex1. It was in the
reign of these princes that bishop Birinus landed in that king
dom. By the advice of pope Honorius, this missionary had
undertaken to penetrate to the innermost parts of the country,
for the purpose of propagating the Christian faith; but finding
himself on his landing surrounded by the darkest paganism,
he deemed it more useful to remain in those parts than to
prosecute his original design. Cynegils, convinced by his
preaching, was baptized at Dorchester2, being received from
the font by Oswald of Northumbria, who had visited him for
the purpose of marrying his daughter. In the following year
Cwichelm also, a short time before his death, professed him
self a convert to the new doctrine. To Birinus, who had also
baptized Cuthred3, the son of Cwichelm, Dorchester was
assigned as an episcopal see ; and though Cenwealh, the son
of Cynegils, after his father's death not only refused baptism,
but strove to effect in Wessex a relapse into paganism, similar
to that which had taken place in other states, yet his ex
pulsion, and conversion, which followed soon after, through
converse with Anna, the pious king of the" East Angles, and
his steady adherence to the Christian faith after his restora
tion, prove that his conviction was sincerely shared by his
people 4.
To the life of Oswald, not less distinguished for its activity
than its spirit of fervent Christian beneficence, but a short
duration was decreed. The restless foe of his country, Penda
of Mercia, involved him in a war, in which he fell at a place
1 a.d. 611. 2 a.d. 635. 3 a.d. 639.
4 Beda, iii. 7. Sax. Chron. a. 643.
VOL. I. M

162 OSWALD.
called Maserfeld -. His last words when, surrounded with
arms and enemies, death appeared inevitable, were a prayer
for the souls of his people.
The scornful treatment to which the corpse of Oswald was
exposed, bears witness alike to the ferocity of the pagan con
querors and to the fear in which they had stood of the Chris
tian Bretwalda. Penda ordered the head and arms to be
severed from the trunk and fixed on poles : these were re
moved by Oswiu in the year following, who caused the head
to be buried at Lindisfarne, the arms and hands at Bam-
borough, the royal residence. The body of Oswald was
some time afterwards, by the care of his niece Osthryth, queen
of Mercia, buried at Bardeney, where his banner of purple
and gold was placed over his sepulchre.
His amiable character had obtained for Oswald, even among
his hereditary foes, the Britons, the surname of c Lamngwin,'
the fair or free of hand. His Christian merits and his mar
tyrdom made him a hero of the Christian world. He had
attained only to the age of thirty-eight, and reigned eight
years, exclusive of the unhappy year assigned by an innocent
fiction to his reign, though belonging to that of his pre
decessors. Penda withdrew from Northumbria and the coast to his
inland kingdom, after having glutted his vengeance and thirst
for destruction, but certainly from other motives than those
assigned by the credulous monks of those times. He had
penetrated to Bamborough, which, defended by its position
1 Sax. Chron. a. 642. Beda, iii. 9, "in loco, qui lingua Anglorum nun-
cupatur Maserfelth." There is a place called Maserfield near Winwich in
Lancashire, but the site of the battle seems with more probability to have
been Oswestry in Shropshire. See Monast. Angl. and Camden Brit. By
the Britons this battle is called ' bellum Cocboy ' (or Chochui). See Nen
nius and Annal. Camb. a. 644., where it is said that Eoba (Eowa), the
brother of Penda, also fell. Tigernach places the battle in which Oswald
fell in 639 ; and another battle, unknown to our chronicles, of Oswiu
against the Britons, in 642. See Annal. Ulton. aa. 638, 641.

OSWIU. 163
on a rock and by the waters of the ocean, defied his efforts to
capture it either by assault or siege : he, therefore, resolved
on its destruction by fire, to effect which he ordered a heap
to be raised against the city, formed of timbers, thatch and
other combustibles, brought from the ruins of the neighbour
ing hamlets, which he had commanded to be demolished for
the purpose. This, when the wind was blowing towards the
city, he caused to be set on fire ; but at that instant the wind
suddenly, as we are told, at the prayer of Aidan, changed to
the opposite direction, driving the flames on the Mercians,
of whom some were injured and all terrified1. Possibly the
state constitution of the Anglo-Saxons, though without autho
rity to prevent one kingdom from warring against another,
did not permit the arbitrary aggrandizement or incorporation
of the greater states, unless based on hereditary right ; as in
Germany, while under the emperors, we find the principle
valid, that two dukedoms might not be united in one hand.
On the death of Oswald, his dominions were again sepa
rated into their chief constituent parts. His brother Oswiu
succeeded to Bernicia and the Bretwaldaship ; and two years
later, Oswine (Oswini), son of Osric, to Deira. Oswine was
distinguished by the comeliness of his person and the amiable
qualities of his mind ; he was munificent, pious and humble :
attracted by his liberality, the noblest men from the provinces
dedicated themselves to his service : but the virtues of Oswine
availed him little as a shield against aggression on the part
of Oswiu. On the eve of a conflict between these princes,
Oswine, perceiving that the forces of his .adversary were
greatly superior to his own, and despairing of success, dis
missed his army and withdrew for concealment, accompanied
by one faithful follower named Tondhere, to the house of the
ealdorman Hunwald, near Gilling, by whom he was betrayed
to Oswiu, and, together with his attendant, murdered at that
king's command by his officer ^Ethelwine2. Twelve days after
1 Beda, iii. 16. 2 a.d. 651. Beda, iii. 14.
M 2

164 PENDA.
his death the venerable Aidan followed his royal friend to the
grave. In atonement for his crime Oswiu founded a monas
tery at Ongetlingum, now GilUng, the spot where it had been
perpetrated, near Richmond in Yorkshire.
Oswine was succeeded in a part of Deira by vEthelwald, a
son of Oswald, who had just reached the age of majority1.
The chief deed of Oswiu, which as a warrior covered him
with glory, and had the greatest influence on the history of
the Anglo-Saxons, is the overthrow of Penda. This prince,
whose name is rendered memorable by many successful en
terprises against the other Germanic states in Britain, and
on whom the surname of the Strenuous2 has justly been
bestowed, presents a striking and almost inexpUcable phe
nomenon. Ruler of a territory surrounded more than any
of the other states by a numerous hostile British population ;
a state which — whatever sense may be given to a few obscure
and doubtful traditions — was of all the youngest; a state
formed in the middle of the country, of immigrants and after-
comers, who found the maritime parts already occupied;
protected by marshes, rivers, mountains, — ruler of this state,
the first of the race of Woden among the Teutonic warriors
dwelling in this territory ; succeeding to power at the age of
fifty3, yet displaying the energy of youth ; the last unshaken
and powerful adherent of paganism among the Anglo-Saxons,
— this prince, in alliance with, if not in the pay of, a British
Christian king, had, during his reign of thirty years, first
1 St. Adelbert, a pupil of St. Willibrord, who preached at Kennemaren,
and was buried at Hollum, afterwards called Egmond (Annal. Xanten. aa.
690, 694), is said to have been a son of Oswald, king of Deira.
2 I do not hesitate restoring this surname to Penda, which has been
overlooked by modern historians. By Hen. Hunt, he is repeatedly called
' Penda strenuus '; also Beda (ii. 20), in speaking of him, says, " auxilium
praebente Penda viro strenuissimo."
3 Sax. Chron. a. 626. W. Malm. lib. i. Beda, ii. 20 (who pronounces
him "de genere regio Merciorum"), begins his reign in 633, after the death
of Eadwine. It may, therefore, not be purely accidental that the Chronicle
in aa. 628 and 633 does not dignify him with the title of king.

PENDA. 165
assailed the Bretwalda of Northumbria, and afterwards re
peatedly the other states of his countrymen, with great suc
cess and still greater cruelty, yet, notwithstanding the de
struction of five kings, without securing to himself any last
ing result. Cynegils of Wessex had alone met him with any
powerful resistance in the battle at Cirencester, where both
armies, having fought obstinately till separated by the dark
ness, were, when about to renew the contest on the foUowing
morning, so disheartened by the mutual havoc, that terms of
reconcUiation were easily agreed to1. After the above-men
tioned wars, with the cause of which we are unacquainted, we
find Penda engaged in an expedition against Cenwealh, the
son of Cynegils, for the purpose of avenging his sister, whom
Cenwealh had married but afterwards repudiated2. With his
usual success, he defeated Cenwealh and drove him from his
kingdom. The fugitive found an asylum and protection with
Anna, king of the East Angles, and, after an exile of three
years, was, with the aid of his nephew Cuthred, reinstated
in his dominions.
The protection afforded to Cenwealh was probably the pre
text — if Penda needed a pretext — of a war between the Mer
cian and the king of East Anglia, in which the latter fell8,
being the third Uffing who had lost his life in contest with
Penda. iEthelhere (^Ethelheri), the brother of Anna, suc
ceeded to the throne, whom the conqueror compeUed to ac
company him in a campaign against the Bretwalda Oswiu.
The latter had striven to live on peaceable and even friendly
terms with the formidable Penda, the slayer of his brother
Oswald. His son Ealhfrith was married to Cyneburh, a
daughter of Penda ; his daughter, Ealhflaed, to Peada son of
Penda, ealdorman of the Middle Angles, who before this
union had, with all his thanes and followers, been baptized
by Finan bishop of Lindisfarne, the successor of Aidan, from
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 628.
2 Sax.. Chron. a. 645. Beda, iii. 7. 3 Sax. Chron. a. 654.

166 PENDA.
the isle of Hii. Oswiu had deUvered to Penda Ecgfrith (Ecg-
ferth), one of his sons, as a hostage, and, in the hope of check
ing the repeated and intolerable inroads of the Mercians, had
promised to their king innumerable royal ornaments and
other gifts: notwithstanding which Penda, with his aUies,
^Ethelhere of East Anglia, ^Ethelwald the son of Oswald,
and Catgabail king of Gwynedd, marched against him with
the avowed purpose of exterminating the enthe nation. His
thirty well-appointed legions under experienced leaders were
arrayed against the little band of Oswiu, who felt strength
ened by their faith in Christ. " If the heathen," cried Oswiu,
" will not accept our gifts, let us offer them to him who wiU,
to the Lord our God." He vowed to give twelve estates in
land for the erection of cloisters, also to dedicate his daughter
^Elflaed, a child of twelve months, to perpetual virginity and
a monastic life, if he proved victorious. On tbe banks of the
Winwaed Oswiu and his son Ealhfrith, with theh enthusiastic
band, begun the conflict. On theh side fought the God of
battles, the remembrance of five slaughtered kings and count
less victims of foul treachery; but treachery, which had
hitherto been on the part of Penda, now turned against him :
^Ethelwald ventured not to fight against his uncle and his
country, but, withdrawing to a place of security before the
beginning of the conflict, awaited its result. Penda feU : his
death was preceded by that of ^Ethelhere and nearly aU the
thirty auxiliary chieftains ; Catgabail fled under the veil of
night, many perished by the sword, but many more in theh
flight were drowned in the Are, which, in consequence of the
heavy rains, had overflowed its banks1. Oswiu fulfiUed his
vows ; his victory over the pagans gave to the church six
monasteries in Deira and six in Bernicia, but her greatest
gain was in the undisturbed diffusion of Christianity. In
1 Nennius, c. 66, who names the battle in which Penda fell, 'campus
Gai.' The Annal. Camb. place it in 656, and Penda's death in the year
following; the Annal. Ulton. in 649 ; Tigernach both events in 650.

PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 167
Mercia the new faith was now firmly established ; for, having
budded under a pagan king who, at least in his latter years,
did not persecute, but was content with despising the Chris
tians, it soon surmounted the dangers of a violent political
change. Peada, to whom Oswiu had ceded South Mercia,
was in the Easter following murdered, it is said through the
treachery of his wife. Two years later Oswiu, who at the
time ruled over the whole of Mercia and the southern pro
vinces, was expelled from Mercia by the revolt of three eal
dormen, Immin, Eafha, and Eadberht, when Wulfhere (Wulf-
heri), a younger son of Penda, who had fled on the death of
his father, and been long kept in concealment, ascended the
throne of his ancestors '.
Diuma, a Scot, consecrated by Finan, was the first bishop
of the Middle Angles and Mercians ; the paucity of ecclesi
astics rendering it necessary to place the two people under
the spiritual government of one individual2. Essex also,
whose king Sigeberht had, with the advice of his counsellors,
yielded to the earnest remonstrances of his friend Oswiu,
whom he frequently visited, abjured idolatry and returned to
the faith which had been suppressed in the country since the
expulsion of Mellitus. Cedd, an Englishman, consecrated
also by Finan, was appointed by Oswiu bishop of the East
Saxons3. Not long before, Ithamar, on the death of Paulinus,
had been nominated to the see of Rochester4, being the first
Anglo-Saxon raised to the episcopal dignity; and shortly after
Thomas, from the province of the Gyrwas, received the
bishopric of the East Angles : even the only archiepiscopal
dignity was possessed by an Anglo-Saxon, Deusdedit of Wes
sex. Already under Honorius, the predecessor of Deusdedit,
the pope had remitted to the archbishops of Canterbury and
1 Beda, iii. 24. 2 Beda, iii. 21. 3 Beda, iii. 21, 22.
4 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 644. Beda, iii. 14. " Honorius archi-
episcopus ordinavit Ithamar, oriundum quidem de gente Cantuariorum,
sed vita et eruditione antecessoribus suis aequandum."

168 PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.
York the journey to Rome for the purpose of obtaining the
pall, and transferred to the survivor of either the consecration
of the newly chosen archbishop ; thereby acknowledging the
great independence of the Anglo-Saxon church : but as the
archbishopric of York, since the flight of Paulinus, had not
been repossessed, Deusdedit received his consecration at the
hands of his countryman, the Kentish bishop Ithamar1, who
was himself succeeded by Damianus, a South Saxon2.
The need of a bishop famiUar with the language of the
country was most openly declared in Wessex. Cenwealh
had, after his restoration, elevated AgUbert, a Frank, edu
cated in Ireland, to the bishopric of the West Saxons ; but
becoming at length weary of a foreign tongue, he estabhshed
a new bishop at Winchester, in the person of Wine (Wini),
an Anglo-Saxon3, greatly to the displeasure of AgUbert, who
returned to France, where he was raised to the see of Paris.
A few years after the departure of AgUbert, the king expeUed
Wine from his see, so that the West Saxons were for a con
siderable time without a bishop. Wine betook himself to
Wulfhere of Mercia, of whom he bought the bishopric of
London, in which he continued tUl his death4. In Mercia
also two Scots (the before-mentioned Diuma, and Ceollach,
who soon returned to the quiet of his cloister at Hii) were suc
ceeded by Trumhere (Trumheri), an Anglo-Saxon and rela
tion of king Oswiu, but educated among the Scots6. Though
a lack of foreign ecclesiastics may be assigned as the cause of
these appointments, it was certainly owing to the frequent
elevation of natives to the highest spiritual dignities that the
English church so early became a national one, that Uturgy,
ritual, prayers, and sermons so soon resounded in the Ger-

1 Fl. Wigorn. a. 653. 3 a.d. 664. Beda, iii. 20.
3 Beda, iii. 7- " Rex, qui Saxonum tantum linguam noverat, pertaesus
barbarae loquelae, subintroduxit in provinciam alium suae linguae episcopum,
vocabulo Uini, et ipse in Gallia ordinatum."
4 Beda, iii. 7- 6 Beda, iii. 21. Fl. Wigorn. a. 659.

PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 169
manic dialect of the people and penetrated to their hearts.
The retention of German proper names, the peculiarity of the
Anglo-Saxon calendar and festivals, the slight influence of the
Roman ecclesiastical law, the cultivation of the native tongue
by the ecclesiastics, the weakened influence of Rome on the
princes, are the beneficial fruits accruing to the church, which
thus in reality became enriched by its early wants.
An important measure, both for the benefit of the church
and the closer union of the Anglo-Saxons, was reserved for
king Oswiu. The Anglo-Saxons, according as they had
been converted by Augustine and his followers, or by those
of Columba, were attached to the Roman catholic, or to the
British church. The majority of the ecclesiastics, at least of
the more distinguished, belonged to the latter ; hence arose
a difference in religious views and worship not only in the
several kingdoms, but in the several provinces, which threat
ened to become extremely dangerous to the new faith. We
see this rehgious disunion introduced through marriages even
among the royal families, and that Oswiu himself celebrated
the Easter festival, according to the Scottish practice, on a
different day from that observed by his queen Eanflsed, a
daughter of the king of Kent1. Ealhfrith also, the son and
co-regent with Oswiu, was, through the persuasion of his
friend Cenwealh, favourable to the Roman church2. Differ
ences of this kind, though affecting externals only, greatly
endangered the Christian faith among a people scarcely
1 The Easter festival was regulated by the commencement of the equi
noctial lunation, which, according to the Roman calsulation, might begin
as early as the fifth, while by the Alexandrian it could not begin before
the eighth of March. Another point of controversy was the tonsure !
The Romans, in defence of their usage, pleaded the example of St. Peter,
charging their adversaries with bearing the mark of Simon Magus, against
which dire accusation their opponents could shield themselves only under
the virtues of those whose example they followed. See Beda, ii. 4, iii. 3, 25,
v. 21, and Smith's App. ix. — T.
2 Eddii Vita S. Wilfridi, c. vii.

170 SYNOD OF WHITBY.
weaned from the worship of their forefathers, and acquainted
with Christianity only in the closest connexion with the new
external observances. Colman, a Scot, the third bishop of
Lindisfarne after the death of Finan, zealously strove to esta
blish the principles of his sect. A synod was called at
Streoneshealh (Whitby) -*, in which, under the presidency of
Oswiu, the most distinguished ecclesiastics of each church
defended their respective doctrines. Among the partizans of
Rome were AgUbert, bishop of Wessex, and Wilfrith (WU-
ferth), the future celebrated bishop of York. The disputa
tion was maintained on both sides with learning and acute-
ness, and the Scottish clergy might have succeeded in setting
for ever a strong barrier against the catholic pretensions of
the Roman church, if the king, wavering under the weight of
so many conflicting arguments, had not remarked, that the
Scots appealed to St. Columba, but the catholics to the
apostle Peter; for Wilfrith had not forgotten to adduce, in
support of the Roman tenets, that Peter was the rock on which
the Lord had founded his church, and that to him were com
mitted the keys of heaven. " Has Columba also received such
power?" demanded the king. Colman could not answer in
the affirmative. " Do you both agree that to Peter the Lord
has given the keys of heaven ?" Both affirmed it. " Then,"
said the king, " I will not oppose the heavenly porter, but,
to my utmost ability, wiU follow all his commands and pre
cepts, lest when I come to the gates of heaven, there be no
one to open to me, should he, who is shown to have the key
in his custody, turn his back upon me." Those sitting in
the council as weU as those standing around, noble and vul
gar2, ahke anxious for their eternal salvation, approved of
1 Beda, iii. 25. Fl. Wigorn. a. 664.
2 Beda, iii. 25. " Haec dicente rege, faverunt adsidentes quique sive ad-
stantes, majores una cum mediocribus ; et abdicata minus perfecta institu-
tione, ad ea quae meliora cognoverant sese transferre festinabant." This
synod is also mentioned by Liutprand, Chron. a. 664.

ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 171
this determination, and were thus, in the usual spirit of large
assemblies, and without further investigation of the argu
ments adduced, impelled to a decision by the excited feelings
of the moment. The Scots either returned to their friends,
or yielded to the opinions of the majority1, and thus, by the
learning of their school, became useful to the Anglo-Saxons ;
but, together with these apparently trivial externals, the great
latent influence was sacrificed, which their church would pro
bably have acquhed in opposition to the then less firmly
established one of Rome.
Oswiu himself appears to have been impressed with the
necessity of the unity of the Anglo-Saxon church, and his
character of Bretwalda — for we occasionally find him influ
encing, in a manner otherwise inexplicable, the concerns of
the church2 — justified him in, and prompted him to, the ex
ecution of this important design. When the archiepiscopal
see of Canterbury became vacant by the death of the sixth
archbishop, Deusdedit3, Oswiu consulted with Ecgberht,
king of Kent, who had in the same year succeeded his father,
Earconberht, concerning the interests of the national church,
and concurred with him in recommending the presbyter
Wigheard as primate to pope Vitalian, to the end that he
might consecrate catholic prelates throughout the whole coun
try4. The answers of Vitalian and the presents sent to Oswiu
and his queen bear sufficient testimony to the gratitude of
the Roman bishop5. The death of Wigheard, who feU a vic
tim to the pestUence then raging6, soon after his arrival at
1 Beda, iii. 26.
2 Beda, iii. 7- Thus, conjointly with Cynegils, Oswald appears as
founder of the see of Dorchester. " Donaverunt ambo reges eidem episcopo
civitatem quae vocatur Dorcic, ad faciendum inibi sedem episcopalem."
Wulfhere also sold, as we have just seen, the bishopric of London to
Wine. 3 Sax. Chron. a. 664.
4 Beda, iii. 29. Sax. Chron. a. 667- 6 Beda, iii. 29, iv. 1.
6 a.d. 664. This year there was a total eclipse of the sun, which was
followed by the yellow plague, which, from time to time, desolated Britain,
particularly Northumbria, during a period of twenty years. Among its

172 ARCHBISHOP THEODORE.
Rome, was taken advantage of by the pope to set over the
Anglo-Saxon bishops a primate devoted to his views, vene
rable by his age and experience, and distinguished by bis
rare knowledge and learning. The dignity was, therefore,
offered to an African named Hadrian, a monk of Niridano,
near Monte Cassino in the kingdom of Naples, who, de
clining the honour for himself, recommended as worthier of
it the monk Theodore, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, a man emi
nently qualified by his attainments. The recommendation
was accepted by the pontiff, on condition that Hadrian should
accompany the new primate to Britain. From Rome the
traveUers proceeded to Marseilles by sea, and from thence by
way of Aries to Paris, where they were kindly received by
AgUbert, with whom having staid some time, they prosecuted
their journey, and landed safely in Kent.
Immediately after his arrival, Theodore, accompanied by
Hadrian, visited all the Anglo-Saxon states, where, by incul
cating the apparently indifferent doctrine regarding the time
of celebrating Easter, he effected an universal acknowledge
ment of the Roman catholic church, and strove to obhterate
all further and even every -existing trace of the earUer in
fluence of the Scottish clergy on the choice and consecration
of bishops in his provmce. It was in his time that the Roman
or Gregorian chant, which, with the exception of the Nor
thumbrian churches, had been used only in Kent1, became
victims were Catgualet, king of Gwynedd, Earconberht of Kent, iEthel-
wealh of Sussex, Deusdedit, archbishop of Canterbury ; the bishops Wine of
London and Tuda of Lindisfarne; Boisil, abbot of Mailros, and-iEthelburh,
abbess of Barking. In Ireland, it is said that two thirds of the inhabitants
perished. The pestilence of which Wigheard died at Rome was probably
the same disease. Beda, iii. 27, iv. i. Usher, Antiq. pp. 948, 1164. — T.
1 Beda, iv. 2. [" Sed et sonos cantandi in ecclesia, quos eatenus in
Cantia tantum noverant, ab hoc tempore per omnes Anglorum ecclesias
discere cceperunt ; primusque, excepto Jacobo, de quo supra diximus, can
tandi magister Nordanhymbrorum ecclesiis (Cf. H.E. ii. 20)*jEddi cogno-
mento Stephanus fuit, invitatus de Cantia a reverentissimo viro Uilfrido,
qui primus inter episcopos, qui de Anglorum gente essent, catholicum

WILFRITH. 173
general throughout the kingdom ; and while he thus united
and strengthened the Anglo-Saxon church 1, and connected it
with that of the continent, he exerted himself, by the com
munication of his own higher acquirements, to place the
clergy of this country on a level with that of the rest of the
Christian world. We learn also from Beda that to Theodore
and Hadrian the country was indebted for the knowledge of
prosody, astronomy, ecclesiastical arithmetic, and also for
men who were as familiar with Greek and Latin as with their
mother-tongue2. Theodore found a most ardent and able adherent in that
devoted champion of the Roman church, Wilfrith, bishop of
York, a man eminently distinguished for Christian zeal, rare
knowledge and vigorous powers of mind, whose eventful life
attracts our attention even for its own sake, and imperatively
demands it through its connexion with important events in
the history of the country, at that time so closely interwoven
with that of the church.
Wilfrith, though not of noble birth8, was endowed with all
those natural advantages, the influence of which over rugged
uncivilized people appears almost fabulous. In his thirteenth
year, the period at which an Anglo-Saxon youth was con
sidered of age, he resolved to leave his parents and renounce
the world. Equipped suitably to his station, he was sent to
the court of Oswiu, and, through the influence of the queen
vivendi morem ecclesiis Anglorum tradere didicit." To this ^Eddi we owe
the valuable Vita Wilfridi, printed in Gale's collection, t. i., from whom,
from Beda, a metrical life by Fridegod, Eadmer (ap*. Mabillon, Saec. iii.
p. 1) and W. Malm. (De Gest. Pont. lib. iii.), Smith (App. ad Bed. xix.)
has compiled a very useful chronological view of the life of Wilfrith. [For
an account of the introduction of the Gregorian chant into England, see
Smith's Appendix, No. xii. — T.]
1 Beda, iv. 2. " Isque primus erat in archiepiscopis, cui omnis Anglorum
ecclesia manus dare consentiret." 2 H. E. iv. 2.
2 Malmesb. de Gestis Pont. lib. iii. "Non infimis parentibus apud
Northanimbros natus, si quid natalibus defuit gratiae, generositate morum
explevit."— T.

174 WILFRITH.
Eanfked, was received into the monastery of Lindisfarne by
the chamberlain Cudda, who had exchanged earthly joys and
sorrows for the retirement and observances of a cloister.
Here he was as remarkable for humility as for mental endow
ments. Besides other books he had read the entire psalter,
according to the emendation of St. Jerome, as in use among
the Scots. His anxious desire to behold and pray in the
church of the apostle Peter must have been the more grateful
to the queen and her Roman catholic friends from the novelty
and singularity of such a wish among his countrymen. In
furtherance of his object she sent him to her brother Earcon-
berht, king of Kent, where he made himself famihar with the
doctrines of the Roman church, including the psalms accord
ing to the fifth edition. He was attached, as traveUing com
panion, to Benedict, surnamed Biscop -*, a distinguished man,
who at a later period exerted himself so beneficiaUy in the
cause of the church, and in the civilization and instruction of
the Northumbrians. Benedict died abbot of the monastery
founded by him at Wearmouth, an establishment not less famed
for arts and scientific treasures, than ennobled through its cele
brated priest, the Venerable Beda2. On Wilfrith's arrival at
1 Eddius (c. iii.) calls him Biscop Baducing, no doubt from the name of
his father.
2 It will be allowed in the history of the Anglo-Saxons, where allusions
so often occur indicative of a higher degree of culture among them than
has generally been supposed to exist, to call attention to the account,
hitherto unnoticed in our histories of art, of the pictures which Benedict,
jn the year 678, brought from Rome to Wearmouth, which is, moreover,
exparticularly interesting as showing not only how much must have been
executed, or at least collected at Rome, but that the subjects chosen for
representation were the same as those on which artists have been chiefly
engaged from that time almost to the present. [The entire passages are
so curious that I cannot resist, the temptation to give them at length.
" Picturas imaginum sanctarum, quas ad ornandum ecclesiam beati Petri
Apostoli, quam construxerat, detulit ; imaginem, videlicet, beatae Dei gene-
tricis semperque virginis Mariae, simul et duodecim apostolorum, quibus
mediam ejusdem ecclesise testudinem, ducto a pariete ad parietem tabulato,
praecingeret ; imagines evangelicas historiae, quibus australem ecclesiae pari
etem decoraret ; imagines visionum Apocalypsis beati Johannis, quibus sep-

WILFRITH. 175
Lyons, Dalfinus, the archbishop, was so struck by his judicious
discourse, comely countenance, and mature understanding,
that he retained him long with him, offered to adopt him for
his son, to give him the hand of his brother's daughter, and
to procure for him the government of a part of Gaul.
But Wilfrith hastened to Rome, acquired there a thorough
knowledge of the four gospels, also the Roman computation
of Easter, which, as we have already seen, he afterwards so
triumphantly employed ; and at the same time made himself
familiar with many rules of ecclesiastical discipline, and what
ever else was proper for a minister of the Roman church. On
his return he passed three years at Lyons with his friend
Dalfinus, and extended his knowledge by attending the most
learned teachers. He now declared himself wholly devoted
to the church of Rome, and received from Dalfinus the ton
sure of St. Peter, consisting of a circle of hair in imitation of
the crown of thorns, while the Scots shaved the entire front,
leaving the hair only on the hinder part of the head. Here
he nearly shared the fate of his unfortunate friend, the arch
bishop, in the persecution raised against him by the queen
Baldhild, the widow of Clovis the Second -, and the mayor of
tentrionalem aequo parietem ornaret, quatenus intrantes ecclesiam omnes,
etiam literarum ignari, quaquaversum intenderent, vel semper amabilem
Christi sanctorumque ejus, quamvis in imagine, contemplarentur aspectum ;
vel Dominicae incarnationis gratiam vigilantiore mente recolerent ; vel ex-
tremi discrimen examinis, quasi coram oculis habentes, districtius se ipsi
examinare meminissent  Dominicae histories picturas, quibus totam
beatae Dei genetricis, quam in monasterio majore fecerat, ecclesiam in gyro
coronaret, adtulit ; imagines quoque ad ornandum monasterium ecclesiam-
que beati Pauli Apostoli, de concordia Veteris et Novi Testamenti, summa
ratione compositas, exhibuit : verbi gratia, Isaac ligna, quibus immolaretur,
portantem ; et Dominum crucem, in qua pateretur, aeque portantem,
proxima super invicem regione, pictura conjunxit. Item serpenti in eremo
a Moyse exaltato, Filium hominis in cruce exaltatum comparavit." — T.]
One of these pictures, though not specially mentioned, yet perhaps
comprised among the ' imagines evangelicae historiae,' Beda seems to have
had in his eye when describing the three holy kings. Cf. Bedae Vita S.
Bened. 1 Baldhild is said to have been an Anglo-Saxon slave. Act. Sane. Mabill.
Saec. ii. p. 777 sq. Script. Rer. Fr. t. ii. p. 449.

176 THE ARTS IN ENGLAND.
the palace, Ebruin ; but the comely young stranger, through
the extraordinary compassion of his persecutors, was saved
from the death of a martyr. He now hastened back to his
country, where he was honourably received by king Ealhfrith1,
consecrated abbot of the monastery of Ripon, and regarded as
a prophet by high and low. After the disputation with bishop
Colman at Whitby, Oswiu and his son with their witan chose
the abbot Wilfrith for bishop of York, who passed over to
Paris to be consecrated by AgUbert. On his return to North
umbria he was driven by a storm on the coast among the
pagan South Saxons, who proceeded vigorously to exercise
the right of wreck on the strangers. The chief priest of the
idolaters stood on an eminence, for the purpose of depriving
them of power by his maledictions and magic, when one of
their number, with David's courage and luck, hurled a stone
at him from a sling which struck him to the brain. At the
fall of their priest the fury of the people was excited against
the little band, who succeeded, however, after a conflict four
times renewed, in re-embarking with the return of the tide,
and reached Sandwich in safety.
So arbitrary at that time was the spirit in which affairs of
the highest moment were conducted, so wavering the mind
of Oswiu, of so little worth the royal word, that the king,
during Wilfrith's absence, influenced by the Scottish party,
had consented to the election of the presbyter Ceadda to the
see of York. Wilfrith retired submissively to his cloister at
Ripon, where he introduced the Roman ritual and the rule of
St. Benedict, occasionally performing episcopal duties, at the
desire of the kings Wulfhere of Mercia and Ecgberht of
Kent. Archbishop Theodore, however, during his visitation
of Bernicia and Deira, effected his restoration to his see,
while that of Lichfield was by Wulfhere, at the instance of
Wilfrith, bestowed on Ceadda.
With other arts and knowledge architecture also came in
the suite of the Roman church. The Scottish clergy, from
1 See p. 169.

THE ARTS IN ENGLAND. 177
the preference perhaps of the northern nations for that
material, had built their churches of wood, thatching them
with reeds, an example of which existed in the new cathedral
at Lindisfarne. It was at a later period only that reeds were
exchanged for sheets of lead, with which the walls also were
sometimes covered. Wilfrith sent for masons from Kent,
and the abbot Benedict for workmen from Gaul. The stone
basilica erected by Paulinus at York, which had fallen into
a disgraceful state of dilapidation, was restored by Wilfrith,
the roof covered with lead, the windows filled with glass, till
then unknown among his countrymen1. At Ripon he caused
a new basilica of polished stone to be erected, supported by
pillars, with a portico. The consecration — at which the kings
Ecgfrith and iElfwine were present — was concluded by a
feasting reminding us of pagan times, which lasted during
¦ three days and nights2- The four gospels written with golden
letters on purple vellum, adorned with paintings, in a case of
pure gold set with precious stones, enables us to judge both
of the wealth and munificence of the patrons of Wilfrith. An
edifice still more remarkable was erected by the bishop at
Hexham, which, it is said, had not its like on this side of the
Alps3. Benedict's structure too at Wearmouth was the work
of masters from Gaul, after the Roman model. Thus we
perceive, in the instance of the most memorable buildings of
which mention is found in the history of the Anglo-Saxons,
1 Eddius, cc. xvi., xvii. Beda, Vita Benedicti. "Benedictus  Gallias
petens caementarios, qui lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta Romanorum morem
facerent, postulavit, accepit, attulit. Misit legatarios Galliam, qui vitri
factores, artifices videlicet Brittaniis eatenus incognitos, ad cancellandas
ecclesiae porticuumque et ccenaculorum ejus fenestras adducerent." [For
much curious information on this subject, see Dissertation ' On the Intro
duction of Learning into England,' in Warton's H. E. P. vol. i. — T.]
2 Eddius, u. xvii.
3 Eddius, c. xxii. " Domus, cujus profunditatem in terra cum domibus
mirifice politis lapidibus fundatam, et super terram multiplicem domum,
columnis variis et porticibus multis suffultam, mirabilique longitudine et
altitudine murorum ornatam, et variis linearum anfractibus viarum, ali-
quando sursum, aliquando deorsum, per cochleas circumductam."
VOL. I. N

178 ECGFRITH OF NORTHUMBRIA.
how their architecture sprang from that of ancient Rome,
however it may have been modified in England to suit a
difference of circumstances and climate.
Oswiu had greatly enlarged his dominions by victories
over the Picts, and held his state in obedience and tran
quillity till his death1. His eldest son Ealhfrith had died
before him, and his kingdom, composed of so many discor
dant parts, fell to his younger sons Ecgfrith and jElfwine.
Despising their youth, the Picts, under their king Birdei,
lost no time in attempting to regain their independence ; but
the Northumbrian princes, under the direction of the valiant
Bernhaeth, were enabled for a considerable time to hold them
in subjection. A more dangerous enemy threatened them in
Mercia, whose king, Wulfhere, seems to have been regarded
as Bretwalda. This prince strove to form an alliance with
the southern states against Northumbria, and to render that
kingdom tributary : so unsuccessful, however, was the plan,
that Wulfhere, being himself overcome by the Northum
brians, saw his own state divided and made tributary, and
the territory of Lindisse annexed to Northumbria2. Wulfhere
did not long survive this reverse. He was the first prince
who, after some struggles with Wessex, preserved Mercia in
a long state of tranquillity and reputation among the Anglo-
Saxon kingdoms : his exertions for the spread of Christianity,
to which he had converted ^Ethelwealh3, king of Sussex ; his
endeavour, in conjunction with Wilfrith, by the ministry of
the priest Eoppa, to convert the inhabitants of the Isle of
1 Beda, iv. 5. Sax. Chron. a. 670.
2 Palgrave, vol. ii. p. cccxi, places this event about the year 678, ap
parently because Beda, iv. 1 2, says, " quam (provinciam) nuperrime rex
Ecgfrid  superato in bello et fugato Vulfhere, obtinuerat." But Wulf
here died in 675 (see Sax. Chron.), and his successor JEthelred ravaged
Kent in 676. Beda, iv. 12. ^Edde also (c. xx. sq.) places this victory "in
primis annis Ecgfridi regis," before Wulfhere's, aud several years before
Dagobert's death (678). The Chronol. in Wanley and Petrie gives the
date 674.
3 The Sax. Chron. a. 661 erroneously calls this prince ^Ethelwald.

ECGFRITH OF NORTHUMBRIA. 179
Wight1; his friendship for Wilfrith and other Christian
teachers, show that he was susceptible of higher instruction,
and understood the true policy of his time. Of his last act,
which reminds us strongly of his father Penda, we cannot
judge with confidence, our knowledge of it being derived
solely from Northumbrian sources.
With the increasing power of Northumbria the authority
of the bishop of York was in a like degree extended. Clerical
influence became exceedingly powerful over the Anglo-
Saxons, and among the newly converted people we soon
discover the same erroneous notions as those which in that
age were so prevalent on the continent. ^Ethelthryth, the
daughter of Anna king of the East Angles, had been first
married to Tunberht, prince or ealdorman of the South Gyr-
was, after whose premature death she was demanded by
Oswiu for his son Ecgfrith, then a youth of fourteen years
only. This princess, desirous of imitating what in those
times was regarded as the acme of female perfection, had
made and kept a vow of perpetual virginity2. In the view
of turning her from her resolve, Ecgfrith demanded the me
diation of Wilfrith, promising him lands and money in the
event of his success. That Wilfrith's influence was unavail
ing, or exerted in a way contrary to the king's expectation,
may be concluded from the circumstance that, after being for
twelve years the wife of Ecgfrith, ^Ethelthryth became a nun
in the monastery of Coldingham. From this event the ill-
will of Ecgfrith towards Wilfrith is said to have taken its
origin. After his separation from ^Ethelthryth, Ecgfrith espoused
Eormenburh, sister of the wife of Centwine, king of Wessex3,
1 Sax. Chron. a. 661. [Where it is at the same time stated that he had
previously laid it waste. — T.]
2 Beda, iv. 19, ejd. Chron. a. 688. W. Malm. lib. iv. and her Life by
Thomas of Ely,ap.Mabillon,SKC.ii. [iEthelthryth died abbess of Ely .— T.]
3 Eddius, c. xxxix.
N 2

183 ECGFRITH OF NORTHUMBRIA.
a princess whose violence of disposition seems to have widened
the breach between her consort and the prelate, and hastened
the outbreak of the dissensions among the higher clergy, and
the incipient jealousy of the secular towards the ecclesiastical
power. Though Wilfrith had not recovered for his see the
old archiepiscopal title, yet the primate of Canterbury might
hardly expect that the northern prelate would not seek to re
gain the ancient rights of his vast province ; he consequently
delayed not to represent to the kings Ecgfrith and ^Elfwine
the danger to which the riches and authority of the bishop of
York might expose him. The kings and the archbishop
agreed therefore to divide the northern bishopric into two
dioceses; one at York for Deira, and one at Hexham or
Lindisfarne for Bernicia. Though the violence of this pro
ceeding may not meet with approval, the partition of the
bishopric seems justified by the example afforded by Wilfrith
himself, with whose co-operation the kingdom of Mercia,
containing one bishopric of equal extent with itself, was
shortly after separated between two, and afterwards among
three prelates2. East Anglia was also in the time of Theo
dore divided into two bishoprics.
The personal consideration enjoyed by Wilfrith was power
less in effecting any change in this decision : on the contrary,
his opponents were so exasperated, that, on his leaving En
gland3, attended by a company of ecclesiastics, the king of
Neustria and his powerful mayor of the palace, Ebruin, were
prevailed on to cause him to be waylaid on his journey to
wards Rome ; a request which implies a closer connexion be
tween the two courts than the obscurity in which those times
are shrouded enables us otherwise to recognise ; though the
1 Beda, iv. 12. 2 Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif. lib. iv. p. 288.
3 Wilfrith's flight must, as by Fl. Wigorn., be placed in 677, as in the
following spring he had an interview with Dagobert who was murdered in
678. The date 678 given in Beda, iv. 12, and in the Chronicle, may have
reference to the consecration of his successors. [Some MSS. read septimo
for octavo. See Stevenson's note, p. 275 of his edit. — T.]

ANGLO-SAXON FOUNDATIONS ABROAD. 181
readiness of the Neustrians to persecute the exile may have
been a consequence of the circumstance, that Wilfrith, at the
solicitation of the friends of the Austrasian king, Dagobert
(Daegberht) the Second, who, after a long exile, had dis
covered that prince in Ireland, had, supported by the arms
of his partizans, effected his return to his realm, and pre
sented him with costly gifts. A storm, which drove his vessel
to the coast of Friesland, saved Wilfrith; but a delusive
similarity of name threw the bishop of Lichfield, Wulfrith,
also an exile, into the hands of the waylayers. The landing
of Wilfrith in Friesland was productive of the most important
consequences, both for the inhabitants of that country, and
afterwards for a great part of the north of Europe. Wilfrith
found an hospitable reception with the king Aldgisl, as well
as protection against the machinations of Ebruin, who even
there ceased not to persecute him. CaUed on through a
notion of the people, who ascribed to his presence the abun
dant fishing season and the rich harvest of that year, he
preached to them the doctrine of Christ in the intelligible
dialect of the Anglo-Saxons, and baptized nearly all the
princes, with many thousands of the people1.
It was thus decreed to Wilfrith to be the first of the
numerous Anglo-Saxon missionaries and ecclesiastics to
whom the countries on the Baltic and German Ocean, also
many provinces to the south, are indebted for their conversion
to Christianity and the elements of civilization intimately
connected therewith. His immediate followers were his pu
pil Willebrord, afterwards, under the name of Clement, first
bishop of the Frisians ; Winfrith or Boniface, the apostle of
the Thuringians, archbishop of Mentz; Leofwine, the suc
cessful converter of the Saxons ; Willehad of Northumbria,
the friend of Alcwine (Ealhwine) and first bishop of Bremen ;
Willebald, first bishop of Eichstadt, and his brother Wuni-
bald. We also find in Germany many devout and zealous
1 Eddius, c. xxvi. — xxviii.

182 SCOTTISH FOUNDATIONS ABROAD.
Anglo-Saxon ladies, as Leobgyth, who had learned the art
of poetry from the abbess Eadburh ; Thecla, abbess of the
cloister at Kitzingen, and others. In consequence of the con
nexion between Denmark and England, a considerable num
ber of distinguished men foUowed in the same course, whose
influence on the civilization of the North has been generaUy
disregarded, and certainly never sufficiently appreciated.
Those remaining behind were cheered and confirmed in the
faith by the example and teaching of Aldhelm, first abbot of
Malmesbury (Mseldulfsburh), and afterwards bishop of Shire-
burn, who first among the Anglo-Saxons made the whole
heritage of Roman learning his own, and gained the stUl
greater glory of being one of the earliest and best poets in
his own Germanic mother- tongue1.
Let us not, however, exalt the merits of the Anglo-
Saxons without acknowledging those of theh teachers, the
Scots, especiaUy as both worked sometimes in common in
the same field, and the former are often comprised under the
name of the latter. As apphcable to both, it may be re
marked that their emigrations had not always the work of
conversion for immediate object, but that, in consequence of
the lack, during several centuries, of regular monastic orders,
those desirous of devoting themselves to a severe and con
templative course of life, either alone or with a few kindred
spirits, were induced to leave their home and betake them
selves to some lonely cell, or hallowed spot2, a practice long
retained among the Scots. At a time when the Anglo-Saxons
had scarcely begun to spread a new paganism in Britain,
1 Of Aldhelm we have the following testimony : " Aldhelmus nativae
linguae non negligebat carmina, adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi (manuali libro
sive handboc) nulla aetate par ei fuerit quisquam poesim Anglicam posse
facere." W. Malm. lib. v. ap. Savile and Gale ; and Wharton, Angl. Sac.
t. ii. p. 1. Aldhelm died May 25, a. 709. An edition of Caedmon's Scrip
tural Paraphrase with an English version, by the translator of the present
work, was published in 1832, at the expense of the Society of Antiquaries.
Ceedmon died in 680.
2 Osberni Vita S. Dunstani, lib. i. c. i.

SCOTTISH FOUNDATIONS ABROAD. 183
Fridolin, a native of Ireland, had already founded a convent
at Seckingen, an island in the Rhine 1, and dedicated a church
to St. Hilarius, the possessions of which have given name to
the canton of Glarus2- At the beginning of the seventh
century, Columbanus, the friend of St. Columba, with his
pupil GaUus, travelled to those parts, where the name of the
latter is preserved in that of the canton of St. Gall, and
where his monastery may be regarded as the choicest store
house of the learning and poetry of the middle age. From
Columbanus the cloister of Luxeuil, also that of Bobbio and
others derive their origin. At a later period3 Kilian a Scot,
with his companions Coloman and Tottman, founded a
monastery at Wiirzburg, the library of which preserves the
proof of its descent in precious monuments in the Irish lan
guage. Virgilius, a Scot, contemporary with Boniface, *was
bishop of Salzburg. The convent at Peronne seems also to
be among the oldest foundations of the Scots4. Gertrude,
abbess of Nivelles, a daughter of Pepin, a daughter also of the
mayor of the palace, Grimwald, caused many learned Scots
to settle in France. Ultanus was the founder of the abbey of
St. Quentin5. The convent of St. Martin at Cologne6, of St.
James at Ratisbon, of St. Mary at Vienna, are only some among
the many Scottish foundations to which Germany, as well as
other countries, is indebted for the establishment and spread
of Christian doctrines, the preservation of learning, and the
beneficent applications of worldly goods7. The possession
1 a.d. 490. 2 J. v. Miiller's Geschichte der Schweizer, Bd. i. c. 9.
3 a.d. 680.
1 Annales Mettenses, a. 690. Beda, iii. 19, and Smith's note ; also
Gall. Christ, t. ix. 1035, and Mabill. Annal. Ord. S. Bened. xiv. 1, 2.
6 See charter in SS. Rer. Francic. t. ix. p. 735.
6 In the Monum. Hist. Germ. t. ii. p. 215. Pertz has, for the first time,
printed a chronicle of this monastery, from a. 756 to 1021.
7 Cf. Murray, Comment. 'De Britannia et Hibernia, sec. vi.-x.' ' Lite-
rarum Domicilio,' in Nov. Comment. Soc. Gbttingens. t. ii. For Scots in
Iceland and other parts of the North, cf. Dicuilus de Mensura Orbis, ap.
Langebek, SS. Rer. Dan. t. ii. p. 31, and Adam. Bremen.

184 WILFRITH.
of rich benefices often excited the national jealousy against
the Scots, who, however, were always able to recover their
lost rights1. Of the ancient connexion between the Scottish
cloisters and the mother country, which was never broken,
and had often proved of mutual benefit, both in secular
and ecclesiastical respects2, traces exist even at the present
day. As Germany was especially indebted to British ecclesiastics,
whether of kindred or of Celtic race, both for its Christianity
and its early mental formation, it may reasonably be inferred
that many historic traditions passed over from the old coun
try to the new acquisition of the Saxons. We wUl here
merely aUude to the before-mentioned saga of the landing
of the Saxons in Hadeln ; though the old Danish history is
also interwoven with traditions of England. With the wri
tings of the Anglo-Saxons, the oldest written chronicles also
passed over to Germany, and in the earhest annals of German
cloisters are to be found some chronological notices of which
all traces are lost in England. To these strangers may also
be ascribed the circumstance, that in the oldest smaU chro
nicles, in which almost every word must shed some welcome
light on dark antiquity, are often contained, instead of Ger
man names and narratives, the unintelligible and indifferent
names of British ecclesiastics : still to these individuals is
owing the introduction of Beda's chronology into Germany
at that early stage of learning3.
In the foUowing year Wilfrith continued his journey to
wards Rome, after having declined the bishopric of Strasburg,
offered to him by his royal friend Dagobert. Bertari, king
1 As early as the year 846 the French bishops recommended to Charles
the Bald that the Hospitalia Scotorum might be kept according to the in
tentions of their pious founders. Pertz, t.iii. p. 390. It is in later times
only that we find them stigmatized and prosecuted as pseudo-bishops and
vagabonds. Hludovici Imper. Capit. Addit. iii. 37.
2 See hereafter, a. 929.
3 See Literary Introduction.

WILFRITH. 185
of the Longobards1, a friend and relative of the Anglo-Saxon
rulers, received the exile with respect, rejecting with disdain
the demand of his enemies to detain him. The protection of
the pope had not yet been claimed by Anglo-Saxon church
men ; we may, therefore, considering the connexion still sub
sisting with the old British clergy, as well as the short time
that Northumbria had belonged to the catholic church, re
gard it only as a very bold experiment, when pope Agatho,
with the synod assembled at Rome, commanded, under threats
of all spiritual punishments, the restoration of Wilfrith to his
former Saxon bishopric2. But the thunders of the Vatican
proved as powerless as had been for many centuries the de
crees of the Capitol. Ecgfrith not only held in contempt the
command of the pope, but caused its object on his return to
linger nine months in prison, from which he was released
only by bold artifice and the representations of his adherents.
He was, however, compelled to leave the dominions of Ecg
frith, who, moreover, effected his expulsion from Mercia,
whose king, ^Ethelred, had married Osthryth, a sister of the
Northumbrian ; as also from Wessex, where a sister of queen
Eormenburh was, as we have seen, the consort of the king
Centwine. As an asylum beyond the influence of Ecgfrith,
the remote territory of the South Saxons alone presented
itself to the fearless energetic man, to the shore of which he
1 The passage of Eddius (c. xxviii.), " pervenerunt ad Berchterum
regem Campaniae," has been often misunderstood. The words which he
attributes to that prince about his flight to the king of the Huns agree
fully with what Paul Warnefrid relates concerning Bertari, who had him
self been desirous of seeking aid in England, and whose son Cunibert was
married to an Anglo-Saxon lady named Hermelind. See hereafter under
Ceadwealla of Wessex, and Paul. Diac. v. 32, 37-
2 Beda, v. 19. Fl. Wigofn. a. 679. In his petition to the pope, Wil
frith styles himself ' episcopus Saxonis.' See Eddius, c. xxix. In like man
ner Hwaetberht, in his letter to Gregory, — " Hwsetberchtus abbas ccenobii
beatissimi apostolorum principis Petri in Saxonia." Beda, Vita Hwaet-
berchti. How readily Rome received this appeal, from which a faint dawn
of future authority over all the British islands seemed to arise, appears
from the acts of this synod. Cf. Alberici Chron. a. 680.

186 WILFRITH.
had formerly been driven under such inauspicious circum
stances, and where the people, notwithstanding the earlier
attempt to convert them, had either persisted in, or faUen
back to, paganism.
The king of Sussex, ^Ethelwealh, as well as his queen,
Eabe1, of the famUy of the petty kings of the Hwiccas, had
been baptized. ' Thus to the homeless exile, whom the secular
power would not, and the highest spiritual power could not
protect, was the work committed, to bring within the pale of
Christendom the last heathen people of his native land. Here
too were the efforts of Wilfrith successful, and the estabhsh
ment of a bishopric in Sussex was the early consequence.
Selsea was assigned to him as an episcopal see, together with
sufficient lands and revenues, which was subsequently trans
ferred to Chichester.
Even here the most important events of Britain are gathered
round the person of Wilfrith. Ceadwealla, son of Cenbyrht2,
of the race of Ceawlin of Wessex, had hved an exUe in the
wilds of Chiltene and Andredesweald : he visited the bishop,
who received the noble youth with kindness; though yet
unconverted, treated him as his son, and was greatly helpful
to him in the acquisition of his kingdom3. Previously to this
event, Ceadwealla (under what pretext, or how Wilfrith's
conduct on the occasion is to be explained, we are ignorant)
had conquered Sussex, — in defence of which ^Ethelwealh
had fallen, — but had again lost it. Wilfrith now received the
bishopric of Wessex from Ceadwealla, who, though stiU un-
baptized, was zealous for the advancement of Christian insti
tutions. Having reconquered Sussex, the Isle of Wight, —
the conversion of which was also the work of Wilfrith, — and
1 Eabe had already been baptized in her own country : " Eaba in sua,
id est, Huicciorum provincia, fuerit baptizata; erat autem filia Eanfridi,
fratris Eanheri, qui ambo cum suo populo Christiani fuere." Beda, iv. 13.
— T.2 Ob. a. 661. 3 Eddius, c. xii. H. Hunt. a. 686.

WILFRITH. 187
finally Kent, where an appalling event had taken place, to be
detailed hereafter, and which probably accelerated the execu
tion of his design, Ceadwealla resolved not only to adopt the
faith professed by the majority of his subjects, but to give an
example hardly occurring a second time in the whole course
of history, — that of a youthful vigorous prince renouncing his
sceptre, to sever himself from paganism by baptism at the
hands of the sovereign pontiff, in the church of St. Peter, and
in monastic sohtude to await in serious meditation the day of
admission to a better life.
Wilfrith had in the meanwhile become reconciled with the
repentant archbishop Theodore, not long before the death of
the latter in 690, and, through his mediation, also with yEthel-
red of Mercia, who bestowed on him the see of Lichfield1,
— the fourth that had fallen to him — in his kingdom, and,
after the death of Ecgfrith, effected his reconcUiation with
Aldfrith2, his successor. Ecgfrith, after an unjust and cruel
1 Malmesb. de Gest. Pontif. lib. iii.
2 Aldfrith, who, according to Sim. Dunelm., in the year 685, May 20,
succeeded Ecgfrith, has by most English historians (with the exception of
Carte, Lingard and Palgrave) been regarded as the same son of Oswiu who
ruled jointly, and thirty years previously commanded with his father in the
decisive battle against Penda on the Winwaed ; but it is to be remarked
that Beda, whenever he mentions the eldest son, calls him Alchfrid (in
Alfred's version, Ealhfrith), without the slightest allusion to illegitimacy.
See H. E. iii. 14, 21, 24, etc. Vita S. Benedicti, p. 293. The later king
he always calls Aldfrid (in Alfred's version, Ealdfrith), H. E. iv. 26, v. 19,
21, 24. Vita S. Ceolfridi, Vita S. Cuthb. Ep. ad Ecgb. p. 309 ed. Smith,
ed. Stev. p. 219. Sax. Chron. aa. 685 and 705. Alcuinus, de Pontif.
Eccles. Ebor. a. 843. Adamnani Vita S. Columbae, ii. 46. Even in the
incorrect printed text of iEdde we find the distinction of the names, c. viii.
56. But we nowhere find that the peaceful Irish student, the inexorable
opponent of Wilfrith, of whom he had been the early friend and scholar,
and the valiant conqueror of Penda, the rebellious son of Oswiu, were one
and the same individual. Malmesbury indeed informs us that Aldfrith
was the elder brother (" Is quia nothus erat, factione optimatum, quamvis
senior, regno indignus aestimatus, in Hiberniam, seu vi seu indignatione,
secesserat ; ibi et odio germani tutus, et magno otio Uteris imbutus, omni
philosophia composuerat animum," lib. i.), a fact which, if well founded,
proves nothing against Beda's testimony. Alchfrid was in 653 married to

188 WILFRITH.
war on Ireland, the conduct of which he had committed to
Beorht1, and after the conquest of Cumberland, where he had
bestowed Carlisle and the land of Cartmel on the church of
Lindisfarne, was slain in an invasion of the Pictish territory,
at Nechtansmere (Drumnechtan). Aldfrith was an illegiti
mate son of Oswiu, who having passed some time in Ire
land2, devoted to study, and being very eminent at the time
for his attainments, had by his brother been destined to a
bishopric. But for Wilfrith there was no tranquilUty. Though he had
declined the succession to the archiepiscopal see of Canter
bury offered to him by Theodore, and had even aided Berht-
wald in obtaining that dignity, the latter, nevertheless, five
years afterwards, during which time Wilfrith had recovered
possession of the see of York and his other benefices, placed
himself, with king Aldfrith, at the head of a synod, at which
most of the British bishops were present, who in that sphit
of independence of the papal chair which had been main
tained for the last twenty-two years, demanded of WUfrith,
in the first place, an acknowledgment of the statutes and or
dinances of archbishop Theodore, and, on his refusal, resolved
to deprive him of his benefices, excepting only the monastery
of Ripon which he had founded3.
a daughter of Penda. Beda, iii. 21. Aldfrid in 705 left a successor eight
years of age. The similitude of names needs excite no doubt. Aldfrid
(Ealdfrith) is well associated with Alchfrid (Ealhfrith) and Ecgfrid (Ecg
frith) to suit the Anglo-Saxon usage. Thus Penda's son was named Peada ;
two brothers, Cedd and Ceadda. Oswiu's daughter, married in 653 to
Peada, was named Alchfled (Ealhflaed), and one born the year following,
^Elflaed. Beda, iii. 21, 24. Tigernach, a. 704, calls him Altfrith mac Ossu.
O'Connor (MSS. Stowens. t. i.) refers to a poem by him.
1 Beda, iv. 26. Tigernach, a. 685. " Saxones campum (Bregrae) vastant,
et ecclesias plurimas in mense Junii."
2 Beda, Vita S. Cuthb. c. xxiv. " In insulis Scottorum ob studium
literarum exulabat — in regionibus Scottorum lectioni operam dabat, ipse
ob amorem sapientiae spontaneum passus exsilium." Also, Vita Cuthb.
Anon. § 28. " Qui (Alfridus) tunc erat in insula quam Hy nominant." — T.
3 Eddius, c. xiv.

WILFRITH. 189
Wilfrith, far from tamely submitting to his disgrace and to
the diminution of the papal authority, again undertook^ though
in his seventieth year, the perilous journey to Rome, where,
however, the English clergy, in the character of accusers,
strove to anticipate him. Though their efforts against Wil
frith were fruitless, yet the honourable exculpatory decision
and mediation of the pope, John the Sixth, availed him little
on his return to his native country. The archbishop received
him with apparent kindness, but Aldfrith, on whom even
Wilfrith's friend and biographer bestows the surname of ' the
Wisest,' was too deeply imbued with the tenets of the old
British church to aUow the decrees made by his predecessors
and himself, with the concurrence of the witan and clergy, to
be annulled by a sheet of parchment from the chair at Rome1.
The death of Aldfrith, and the declaration of his sister, the
abbess ^Elflaed and other adherents of Wilfrith, that the king
in his last hours had desired the restoration of peace, but
more effectually, perhaps, the death of Bosa, bishop of York,
accomplished at length an accommodation, in the synod on the
Nith2, which, as far as Wilfrith's pretensions were concerned,
can be looked on only as a disregard of the papal authority.
He did not even recover the bishopric of York, which was
given to John bishop of Hexham, a man highly venerated for
his many virtues ; while the vacant see of Hexham, together
with the monastery of Ripon, was assigned to Wilfrith. After
a few years passed in almsgiving and the improvement of
church discipline, Wilfrith died in his seventy-sixth year, a
man whose fortunes, and activity in the European relations
of England, were long without a parallel3.
Wilfrith by his own power accomplished what Augustinej
animated by the spirit of Gregory the Great, had begun.
The Anglo-Saxon states were converted not only to Christi
anity, but to Catholicism. For secular learning they were
1 Eddius, c. ivi. 2 a.d. 705.
3 Eddius, c. lxii. Beda, v. 19. Sax. Chron. a. 709.

190 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS.
chiefly indebted to the Scots and Britons, for their accession
to the European system of faith to these two men ; for how
ever successful Augustine may appear in his first spiritual
acquisitions for the church of Rome, the course of Anglo-
Saxon history, nevertheless, shows that, although the Roman
ecclesiastical system was acknowledged, the influence of Rome
was exceedingly weak, and that the Anglo-Saxons, even after
they were no longer anti-catholic, continued always anti-pa
pistical. Wilfrith's history itself proves indeed how little
even this zealous partizan of the popes could effect ; hence it
is the more desirable to take a view of the internal relations
of reUgion in England.
We notice, in the first place, in every kingdom, a bishop,
who, travelling about with his coadjutors, propagated both
doctrine and discipline. This kind of church regimen was
well calculated to succeed that of the pagan priesthood. The
bishops, when chosen by the clergy, always required the con
firmation of the prince, but, in most instances, they were no
minated by him. In later times it is observable that the
royal chaplains always obtained the episcopal dignities. Over
these bishops, he who resided at Canterbury, the capital of
the Bretwalda ^Ethelberht, was set as archbishop, in like
manner as the bishop of Rome had originally assumed the
supremacy over the Roman provinces. The archbishopric of
York, established by Gregory the Great, which might act as
a check to a primacy of the Kentish archbishop dangerous to
the papal authority, ceased to exist after the flight of Pauhnus,
and was not re-established till a century afterwards, when
Ecgberht, the brother of king Eadberht, after many repre
sentations to the papal chair, received the pall1. A third
archiepiscopal see was established for the country between
1 Sax. Chron. a. 735. Appendix ad Bedae H. E. Beda, Epist. ad Ecg
berht. Malmesb. de Gestis Pont. lib. iii. Wilfrith never bore the archi
episcopal title. Neither Beda nor ^Edde allege anything to justify tire sup
position, but the contrary.

ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 191
the Thames and the Humber by the powerful Offa of Mercia,
— who held the dignity necessary for the honour of his king
dom — with the consent of pope Hadrian, to whom this aug
mentation of his slight influence over the Anglo-Saxon clergy
might have been welcome1. The old state of things was,
however, shortly after restored.
Almost contemporaneously with the bishoprics, some mo
nasteries were founded by the bounty of the kings and their
relatives, which served as residences to numerous monks.
Many of these cloisters in the north of England were de
stroyed by the Danes, the very sites of which are not now
known with certainty. The superintendence over clergy and
laity in the larger states soon required more than the single
bishop of the territory, whose influence might, moreover, as
we have seen in the case of Wilfrith, excite the jealousy of
the king. In the choice of episcopal sees and monasteries,
especial regard was had to the security of the new establish
ment ; hence the fortified residence of the king, or a spot par
ticularly defended by nature, like the isle of Lindisfarne, was
selected. So completely had Christianity perished in Ger
manic Britain after the departure of the Romans, or so little
was it acknowledged by the Saxons, that no religious foun
dation of Roman times was preserved or could be restored,;
and only some old Roman buildings and walls were used as
churches. A small, probably old British, church was disco
vered in a *wild thorny spot, which gave rise to the founda
tion of the abbey of Evesham2. If the abbey of Glastonbury
or Ynisvitrain, which appealed to charters of donation from
the ancient kings of Damnonia, seems to form an exception
to the above statement, the circumstance must not be over-
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 785. W. Malm.
2 Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif. lib. iv. ["constat eum (Ecgwinum) locum
ilium, quo nunc coenobium visitur, peculiariter amasse, incultum antea et
spinetis horridum, sed ecclesiolam ab antiquo habentem, ex opere forsitan
Brittannorum." The spurious charters of Coenraed and Ecgwine relating
to this foundation are in Kemble's Codex Dipl. t. i. p. 68 sqq. — T.]

192 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS.
looked, that this cloister, in the isle of Avallon, where the
corpse of Arthur rested, remained long in the hands of the
Britons1. A glance at the Anglo-Saxon bishoprics, together with a
brief notice of the most eminent monasteries, wiU render the
geographical idea of the several kingdoms more familiar : this
knowledge is, moreover, indispensable with reference even to
the political history of a country in which bishops and pre
lates shared the privileges and duties of secular nobles.
The little kingdom of Kent contained, besides the archi-
episcopal see, the bishopric of Rochester, founded by Augus
tine. In Essex the only bishop was at London, whose dio
cese comprised the present counties of Essex and Middlesex
with the half of Hertfordshire2.
In East Anglia dwelt the bishop of Domuc (Dunwich)3,
though, as early as the time of archbishop Theodore, advan
tage was taken of the death of bishop Bisi to erect a separate
see for the North-folc at Elmham, which, in the time of
WiUiam the Conqueror, was transferred to Thetford, and
under William Rufus, to Norwich4.
In Wessex the first episcopal see was at Dorcic (Dorches
ter), from which, as has been aheady mentioned, a bishopric
at Winchester was afterwards detached. The former retained
Hampshire and Surrey. A third at Shireburn — famed for
its first possessor, Aldhelm, as also for a later one, Asser, the
friend of iElfred, — was, under the Conqueror, in conformity
to the canonical prescript for the transfer of episcopal sees
1 Malmesb. de Antiq. Eccl. Glaston. ap. Gale, t. i. p. 308. The Dom-
nonian charter is, however, dated as late as 601, consequently after the
arrival of Augustine, and his conference with the British bishops. [See
also the charter of Henry II. printed by Hearne from the chartulary of
Glastonbury, and Hemingi Cartularium, app. 603.] This is one of the
few cloisters of which the charters granted by the early Anglo-Saxon kings
have not entirely perished. See Cod. Diplom. t. i.
2 a.d. 604. Beda.ii. 3. Fl. Wigorn. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif. lib. iii.
R. Higden, Polychron. ap. Gale, t. i. p. 204 sq.
3 a.d. 631. Beda, ii. 15. 4 Malmesb. de Gestis, ii.

BISHOPRICS. 193
from smaU places to large towns, removed to Old Sarum, and
afterwards to Salisbury, though not till the following bishop
rics had been taken from it, viz. Wells, afterwards Bath;
Ramesbury, subsequently reunited to Sarum; Crediton, after
wards transferred to Exeter, with which that of St. Petroc
or St. Germain's (Cornwall) was subsequently united. In
Sussex was the bishopric of Selsea, afterwards transferred to
Chichester. In Mercia, from the original diocese of Lichfield (which
comprised also the territory of the Lindisfaras) were detached
by Theodore the sees of Worcester, Leicester, Lindesey (at
Sidnacester) and Hereford. At the same time the see of
Dorchester appears to have belonged to the state of Mercia1.
The diocese of York comprised originally the whole of
Northumbria, including the south of Scotland. Under Os
wald, the see of Lindisfarne or Holy Island — the lona of the
Anglo-Saxons — was founded, containing within its jurisdic
tion the kingdom of Bernicia, until the estabUshment by
Theodore of another see at Hexham2. On the ruin of Lin
disfarne by the Danes, the see was transferred to Chester-le-
Street, and finally to Durham. That portion of the diocese
which was in the present Scotland, fell in the reign of Mal
colm Canmore to the see of St. Andrew's.
The conquests of the Northumbrian princes were followed
by an extension of the diocese of York. Hwitern (Candida l
Casa), now Whitherne in Galloway, where Nynias had formerly
erected a church of bright white stone for the southern Picts,
had, in Beda's time, its first Anglo-Saxon bishop, Pecthelm,
supposing that the authority of Trumwine — who was sent
from Northumbria to the Picts in the year 681, but expelled
after the defeat of Ecgfrith, — was limited to the northern
portion of the Pictish territory3. It appears that this bishop
ric was for some time dissolved, and that its inhabitants were
1 Malmesb. de Gestis. Higden, Polychron. p. 206.
* Beda, iv. 12. 3 Beda, iv. 12, v. 23.
VOL. I. O

194 BISHOPRICS.
under the charge of the bishop of Sodor and Man1; though,
on the restoration of the see of Hwitern, the archbishops of
York made good their authority over it. At a later period
this district, as well as the whole of Strathclyde, belonged to
the diocese of Glasgow.
The clergy of Wales refused subjection to Augustine ; and
although isolated instances may be cited to show the subjec
tion of a Welsh bishop to the see of Canterbury, it is never
theless certain that no acknowledgment of the English pri
mate on the part of the Welsh took place, previously to the
conquest of the country by the Enghsh under the Norman
dynasty. Of the four dioceses, St. David's (Menevia), Llan
daff, Bangor and St. Asaph (Llan Elwy), the first possessed
the archiepiscopal title, which at a former period had been
held by the church of Caerleon2.
Cumberland, as an independent state, had without doubt
its own bishop at an early period, though he probably did
not reside at Carlisle, which city king Ecgfrith bestowed on
St. Cuthberht as an endowment of the see of Lindisfarne.
The foundation of the bishopric of Carlisle is the work of
Henry the First.
The dioceses of the present England are, with the excep
tion of a few changes made at the time of the Reformation
under Henry the Eighth, — when Gloucester, Bristol, Oxford
and Peterborough were erected into bishoprics, — identical
with those of the Anglo-Saxons, as above described. The
voice of the bishops in the Upper House is derived from the
rights of their predecessors in the Witena-gemot. The vast
differences in their revenues may be immediately traced to
the disproportion of the states founded by the Jutes, Angles,
1 This see, which for a time had been transferred to lona, was, during
the sway of the Northmen, under the archbishop of Trondhjem. See
documents in Thorkelin, ' Diplomata Arna-Magnaeana.'
2 Giraldi Camb. Itiner. lib. i. c. 4, lib. ii. c. I, ejd. Descriptio Cambriae,
c. iv. Particularly his ' Distinctiones VII. de Jure et Statu Menevensis
Ecclesiae.'

MONASTERIES AND CHURCHES. 195
and Saxons. Even the Bretwaldaship of ^Ethelberht, with
the functions of which our acquaintance is so imperfect, is to
be recognised in the several dioceses comprised in the pro
vince of the Metropolitan and Primate of all England. The
province of the Primate of England, containing two dioceses
only, preserves the memory of the conquests of Eadwine and
Oswiu, as well as of the firmness and vigour of Wilfrith.
A cloister with a church was the first requisite of the newly
introduced faith ; a place of meeting and shelter for the mis
sionaries, teachers and disciples, as well as others devoted to
piety. The number of these increased rapidly in the larger
states ; and in their rich endowments, as well as in the nu
merous ecclesiastics of the noblest and even of royal families,
we have a sufficient explanation of the great influence soon
possessed by abbots and abbesses. Sigeberht of Essex has
been already mentioned, as well as the holy queen iEthel-
thryth, whose sister Sexburh was her successor at Ely. iEbbe,
a sister of Oswiu, was abbess of Coldingham (Coludesburh)
on the coast of Berwickshire. Hild> a grandniece of Ead
wine, enjoyed a similar dignity at Hartlepool (Heorutu) in
Durham, and subsequently at Whitby (Streoneshealh) in
Yorkshire ; in the latter she was succeeded by her niece Ml-
flaed, a daughter of Oswiu. Previously to the foundation of
these monasteries, the need of them among the Anglo-Saxons
was so great, that they frequently sent their children to
Frankish cloisters for education and consecration to a re
ligious life. Small cloisters arose from the pious exertions of
individuals, as in Northumbria, from an oratory which Wil-
gis, the father of Willebrord the apostle of Friesland, had
founded and dedicated to St. Andrew, and subsequently en
larged, in the cells of which Alcwine, the celebrated bio
grapher of Willebrord, passed his youth1.
But abuses of almost every kind were not wanting. Wine,
1 Alcuini Vita Willebrordi, lib. i. c. 1,
o 2

196 MONASTERIES AND CHURCHES.
one of the first bishops of London, bought, as we have seen,
his see of Wulfhere, king of Mercia. Many ecclesiastics were
so ignorant of the language of the church, that Beda trans
lated for their use the Creed and Paternoster from the Latin
into their mother-tongue. A vice pecuhar to the time con
sisted in the facility with which laymen of rank, ealdormen,
and other officials of the king were permitted to found mo
nasteries for themselves and wives. The land, free from all
secular service, was, under this pretext, obtained by money
from the kings, and secured to the purchasers and their hehs
by royal charter, confirmed by the bishops, abbots, and other
dignitaries. In these foundations, the layman assuming the
abbot's staff, devoted to worldly indulgences, free from all
burthens, surrounded by profligate monks, whose vices had
caused their expulsion from other monasteries, or by his own
former followers, shaven in the guise of monks, Uved with
out rule or discipline, to the detriment and scandal of the
country1. The smaU number of parish churches was very favourable
to the erection of numerous monasteries. A knowledge of
their foundations and of the parochial divisions, when attain
able, enables us to form some idea of the population and cir
cumstances of the commonalty, and of its increase in times
when other sources of information are looked for in vain.
But even in England records of the origin of the earUest
parish churches are wanting. They seem to have been first
erected in the south under archbishop Theodore, and, about
half a century later, that is, before and during the time of
Ecgberht, archbishop of York, in the northern parts of En
gland. St. Cuthberht, abbot of Melrose2, wandered from
place to place, to confirm and animate believers by bis preach
ing ; yet, when Beda subjoins to this narrative that such was
the custom of the clergy at that time3, it would foUow that
1 Bedae Epist. ad Ecgb. p. 310 sq. edit. Smith. 2 Ob. a. 687.
3 Beda, iv. 27. Epist. ad Ecgb. p. 306.

CLERGY. 197
in his own days the case was otherwise in those northern
countries ; at the same time it cannot be doubted that the
dioceses or districts there, as in other countries, were, at the
beginning, too extensive. We find however in Holstein,
very shortly after its conversion by the Anglo-Saxon Wille-
had, the foundation of four churches for baptism, from the
districts of which the later parochial division was established1.
Similar churches those also appear to have been which, be
fore the time of Theodore, were founded by Cedd, bishop of
Essex, at Ythancester and Tilaburg (Tilbury)2. In the later
Anglo-Saxon laws, provisions are not wanting for the regula
tion of the parochial system3. That the laity were soon aware
of their rights in the administration of church property, may
be inferred both from a simUar state of things in the Christian
North, and from the community of all Anglo-Saxon property :
if proof from the earliest times is wanting for England, we
may perhaps assume that the clergy at a later period did
not concede ampler rights to the laity than those which they
had formerly possessed4.
The Anglo-Saxon clergy were, however, by no means so
free and influential as their brethren in most of the continen
tal states ; for though ecclesiastics sometimes gained power
over individual kings, such cases were of rare occurrence and
without lasting consequences. That close connexion between
the Anglo-Saxon states and Rome did not exist, whereby the
latter could extend powerful aid to its servants. The arch
bishop of Mentz, Boniface, himself an Anglo-Saxon, de
clares, in his letter to Cuthberht, archbishop of Canterbury5,
that no cloisters were in such a state of slavery as those of
1 Remberti Vita S. Anscharii, c. xix.
2 Beda, iii. 22. "Cedd  fecit per loca ecclesias, presbyteros et
diaconos ordinavit, qui se in verbo fidei et ministerio baptizandi adjuvarent
(circa a. 655)."
3 Laws of Edgar I. i. 2. Eccles. Laws of Cnut, iii.
4 For a later period see ' Cone. Exancest.' a. 1287.
5 Wilkins, Cone. t. i. p. 93.

198 CLERGY.
the Anglo-Saxons, — a declaration confirmed by the language
of their charters of donation, whereby they were bound to
pay not only the ' trinoda necessitas,' the ' brycg-bot,' -* burh-
b6t,' and 'fyrd,' or contribution for keeping in repair the
bridges and fortresses, and for the maintenance of the military
levy, but were sometimes also taxable like the rest of the com
munity, and bound to harbour and entertain in theh monas
teries the king's huntsmen and followers1.
Hence the more remarkable wiU appear, a celebrated do
nation made by ^Ethelwulf, king of Wessex, to the clergy of
his states, after his return from Rome, which some older En
glish historians, as Ingulf, WiUiam of Malmesbury and other
monks, together with Selden, have been inchned to regard as
the origin of tithes ; an untenable interpretation, partly re
futed by the very uncertain tenor of apparently fictitious
charters2, and partly by the much earlier introduction of
tithes, by the assignment to the church of older imposts be
longing to the king and other lords of the soil3.
According to a recent interpretation, ^Ethelwulf bestowed
one tenth part of the land in his kingdom of Wessex and its
dependencies, Kent and Sussex, upon the servants of the
altar, or for the sustenance of the indigent, exonerated from
every territorial tax and duty4. But here two donations are
blended together ; by the one, sometimes caUed the Testament
of ^Ethelwulf, the obligation is imposed on every ten farmers
or farms in his hereditary states5 to provide one poor person
1 See Palgrave, vol. i. p. 156, and the documents there referred to. The
last-mentioned burthen was often imposed on the cloisters of the continent,
though they were relieved from it by the Carlovingian legislation.
2 a..D. 854, 855. Wilkins, Cone. t. i. Cod. Diplom. t. ii. pp. 50 sq.
W. Malm. lib. ii.
3 Excerptiones Ecgberti, iv., v., xxiv. See also Phillips, Angelsachsische
Rechtsgeschichte, § 70 ; with whom, however, we cannot agree in ascri
bing, on the weak authority of Bromton, either the introduction of tithes
to Offa of Mercia, or the confirmation of them to jEthelwulf.
4 So Palgrave, vol. i. p. 158.
6 Asser, a. 855, and ejd. Annales : " Per omnem hsereditariam terram

CLERGY. 199
with meat, drink and clothing, and is remarkable as the
beginning of secular provision for the poor. The other docu
ment, with which we are here more particularly concerned,
directs, (according to the oldest copies of the Latin text, made
probably from an Anglo-Saxon original, as well as according
to the interpretation of the oldest and nearly contemporaneous
author,) that king iEthelwulf, with the advice of his bishops
and ealdormen, resolved to exonerate, for monks, nuns and
laymen possessing hereditary land, every tenth mansus of
their property, or, of smaller possessions, the tenth part, from
the before-mentioned three obligations, usually considered as
irredeemable, and from all other burthens ; for which grace
certain masses and prayers were to be said for the souls of
the king and of the consenting prelates and ealdormen1.
suam  in decern manentibus." W. Malm. lib. ii. "in omni suae
haereditatis decima hida pauperem vestiri et cibari praecepit." Sim. Dunelm.
a. 855 : "in decern mansis." Matt. Westm. a. 857 : "in decern hydis
vel mansionibus."
1 Asser, the friend of jEthelwulf's son jElfred, is the oldest testimony
we have relative to this grant : " Eodem anno (855) iEthelwulfus decimam
totius regni sui partem ab omni regali servitio et tributo liberavit." So
Asseri Annal., Fl. Wigorn., Ingulph., W. Malm. 5 though the last-men
tioned has falsely interpreted it, he nevertheless gives the words so that
no doubt can arise as to their essential meaning. " AfBrmavi ut aliquam
portionem terrarum haareditariam antea possidentibus omnibus gradibus,
sive famulis et famulabus Dei, Deo servientibus, sive laicis (miseris, addit
Ing.), semper decimam mansionem ubi minimum sit, tamen (turn, Ing.)
partem decimam (omnium bonorum, addit Ing.) in libertatem perpetuam
perdonari (donari sanctae ecclesiae, Ing.) dijudicavi, ut sittuta atque munita
ab omnibus secularibus servitutibus, necnon regalibus tributis, etc  quo
eorum servitutem in aliqua parte levigamus." The last words seem fully
to confirm my interpretation. Spelman, Cone. p. 448 (Wilk. t. i. p. 183)
has the same text as Malmesbury. Turner is undecided, and misunder
stands the word * minimum,' which does not here signify the least or the
smallest, but very little, but a little, less than ten mansi. The widely differ
ent text of the document in Matthew of Westminster might be passed with
out notice, had it not been the cause of the errors committed by the latest
writers of history. Instead of "portionem  servitutibus," he gives
" portionem terras meae Deo, et B. Mariae, et omnibus Sanctis, jure per-
petuo possidendam concedam, decimam scilicet partem terrae meae, ut sit
tuta muneribus, et libera ab omnibus servitiis," etc.

200 CLERGY.
The Roman ecclesiastical canons took root but slowly, and
never so deeply among the Germanic nations as among the
Romanized people of the continent ; the former not being,
like the latter, familiar with the Roman law, the fountain of
the canon law. We must not suffer ourselves to be misled
by the letters of Gregory to Augustine, dictated, as it were,
by a conqueror in the flush of victory, who expected to orga
nize the whole country on the capture of the first fortress.
Let it be remembered how Kent itself wavered in its new
faith, how unfavourable to the papal authority the circum
stances were under which the Christian religion was graduaUy
propagated. A few priests only passed over from Rome to
England ; the majority were Anglo-Saxons, acquainted only
with their mother-tongue and the law of theh country.
Even if not wanting in zeal for the interest of the church,
stiU they were less attached than their continental brethren
to the bishop of Rome, who soon became sensible that, at a
great distance, even spiritual weapons lose their force. To
bishop Wilfrith, neither his profound knowledge of the canon
law l, nor the sentence of the pope in his favour, proved of any
use with the EngUsh synod. To the slight regard paid to
the papal canons, the great number of Anglo-Saxon eccle
siastical laws, often issued by the king, seem to owe theh
existence : hence the church law of the Anglo-Saxons was,
more than that of any other Christian state, a national law.
It was only for matters of a purely spiritual nature that the
synod was composed wholly of ecclesiastics2. The consent of
the king appears to have preceded the appointing and sum
moning of a synod ; and it was by his approbation, and by
admission among his laws, that its decrees became binding on
the laity. Whatever at the same time concerned the rights
of the laity was treated in the general witena-gem6t with the
participation of the clergy. Their own jurisdiction was con-
1 Eddius, c. xiii. " In omni sapientia et in judiciis Romanorum erudi-
tissimum." 2 Cf. Palgrave, vol. i. p. 176.

CLERGY. 201
ceded to the clergy in cases only affecting themselves ; every
extension of it was strictly guarded against. Mention has
already been made of the tonsure and other points, in which
the Anglo-Saxons did not follow the Roman practice until at
a later period. The long 'narrow habit was first assumed by
the Anglo-Saxons in Rome, when pope John the Seventh
seized the occasion to introduce the use both of that and the
mitre among the clergy in England, according to the custom
of the Roman church1. The celibacy of the clergy was not
so soon established among the Anglo-Saxons2, and only the
prohibition of a second marriage, and severe penalties for acts
of immorality, were observed among them. The Germanic
descent of the clergy manifested itself also in the prohibitions
occasioned by their propensity to drunkenness3. To confine
the marriages of the laity within the degrees prescribed by
the church of Rome, among a people so^impatient of restraint,
was impossible; and the pope soon found it necessary to
modify for the people of England the restrictions regarding
marriage4. The knowledge of Roman law possessed by individual
Anglo-Saxons is to be ascribed to the necessity they were
under of learning the canon law, which is modified and
defined by the Roman. Frequent appeals to the papal court
stimulated also many ecclesiastics to a profounder study of the
same in Rome itself, as England then possessed no schools
appropriated to that object. What such men as Theodore
of Tarsus and other foreign or Kentish ecclesiastics may have
accomplished in this respect we are without the means of
1 See the pope's letter in Baluzii Miscell. t. v. p. 478.
2 Even a son of St. Wilfrith is mentioned. Edd. c. lvii. " Sanctus pon
tifex noster de exilio cum filio suo proprio veniens."
3 Theod. Poenitent. xxvi. 2,4, 3, 13. Ecgb. Penitent, iv. 33, 34, 35. Edg.
Can. lvii., lviii. in Ancient Laws and Institutes. Cf. also the systematic
view of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical law in Phillips.
4 See Boniface's letter to jEthelbald in W. Malm. lib. i., and excerpt
from Gregorii Epist. ad Augustinum in Decret. p. ii. causa 35, qu. 2. c. 20.

202 VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES.
ascertaining, though among the various branches of know
ledge "possessed by Beda himself, no trace is discernible of
his acquaintance with the Roman law ; the more remarkable,
therefore, appears the knowledge of it manifested by Aldhelm,
not only in occasional expressions, but also in a special com
position1. To the distance from Rome, and their slender dependence
on the papal chair, the people of England are apparently in
debted for the advantage of having retained theh mother-
tongue as the language of the church, which was never en
tirely banished by the priests from their most sacred services.
Their careless sensual course of Ufe, and perhaps the preju
dice which prevented them from learning even so much Latin
as was requisite to enable them to repeat the Paternoster and
Creed in that language2, have proved more conducive to the
highest interests of the country than the dark subtUty of the
learned Romanized monk, pondering over authorities. Even
the mass itself was not read entirely in the Latin tongue.
The wedding form was, no doubt, in Anglo-Saxon ; and its
hearty sound and simple sterhng substance are preserved in
the English ritual to the present day3. The numerous ver
sions4 and paraphrases of the Old and New Testaments made
those books known to the laity and more famUiar to the clergy.
That these were in general circulation in Beda's time, may
perhaps be inferred from his omission of all mention of them,
though the learned and celebrated Anglo-Saxon poet, Aldhelm,
1 This fragment was to have been printed under the direction of C. P.
Cooper, Esq., among the publications of the late Record Commission.
Respecting Aldhelm see also Beda, v. 18. W. Malm. Gesta Reg. Angl.
lib. i., and De Gestis Pont. Angl. lib. v. ap. Gale : his letters are printed
in Wharton, Anglia Sacra, and his Latin poetry in Canisii Lectt. Antiq.
2 Cone. Clovesh. a. 742, art. a. ap. Wilkins, t. i. p. 96.
3 Palgrave, vol. ii. p. exxxvi.
4 The Anglo-Saxon Gospels were first printed under the auspices of
archbp. Parker in 1571. The second edition is that of Marshall in 1665.
The third and last (probably jElfric's version) is by the translator of the
present volume, in small 8vo, 1842. — T.

CHURCH MUSIC. ' 203
had already translated the psalms, and Ecgberht, bishop of
Lindisfarne, the four gospels. Beda is also said to have trans
lated both the Old and the New Testament into his mother-
tongue1, an assertion which, Uke a similar one regarding king
^Elfred, must be limited to the gospel of St. John2, and, in
the case of ^Elfred, to some fragments of the psalms3. An
abridged version of the Pentateuch, and of some other books
of the Old Testament by iElfric in the end of the tenth cen
tury, is still extant. The vast collection of Anglo-Saxon
homilies, still preserved in manuscript, once enlarged and
ennobled the language and the feelings of Christianity4 ; and
the ear which continued deaf to the mother-tongue was, in the
Anglo-Saxon church, yet more sensibly addressed, and in a
way to agitate or gently move the heart. Large organs are
described and spoken of as donations to the church in the
beginning of the eighth century5. The mention of this in-
1 Aldred's Northumbrian gloss to the four gospels in the St. Cuthberht's
book (MS. Cott. Nero D. IV.) seems not to be earlier than the middle of
the tenth century. See Mr. Stevenson's paper in the ' Graphic Illustrator,'
p. 355, and Sir F. Madden's letter to Sir H. Ellis in ' Letters of Eminent
Literary Men,' printed for the Camden Society. — T.
2 W. Malm. lib. i. 3 lb. lib. ii.
4 These venerable monuments of our early church are now in course of
publication by the iElfric Society, with a modern English version by the
translator of the present work. A MS. discovered at Vercelli by Professor
Blume contains not only homilies, but the valuable metrical pieces, printed
for the late Record Commission by the present translator, but not pub
lished, though now given to the world, with a translation by J. M. Kemble,
Esq., for the ^Elfric Society. The homilies contained in the Vercelli MS.
are all to be found in the various public libraries of England. An Anglo-
Saxon version of the Psalms, possibly Aldhelm's, transcribed by the pre
sent translator from a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris, has been pub
lished at the expense of the University of Oxford. — T.
5 Aldhelmus de Laude Virgin, ap. Canisium, t. i. p. 715.
" Maxima millenis auscultare organa flabris
Mulceat auditum ventosis follibus iste,
Quamlibet auratis fulgescant caetera capsis." —
W. Malm. De Gestis Pont. Angl. lib. v. ap. Gale: "Organa, ubi per
aereas fistulas musicis mensuris elaboratas, dudum conceptas follis vomit

204 SAXON SCHOOL AT ROME.
strument at Malmesbury affords ground for the conjecture,
that it might have been introduced by the musical Welsh.
Church music was first brought into Kent by the Roman
clergy, and from thence into the northern parts, where it
underwent improvement. This was an object of such inter
est, that the arrival of a Roman singing-master1 is mentioned
by contemporary authors as a matter of almost equal impor
tance with a new victory gained by the catholic faith over
the pagans or the Scots2.
A glance at the religious feelings of the people will suffice
to show us a striking propensity among them to pilgrimages3 ;
and we may discern under the pilgrim's gown not only a
longing after the beams of a warmer sun, but also the here
ditary craving for restless wandering. The testimonies relative
to such wanderers, more especially the numerous females, are
highly unfavourable4. The Anglo-Saxon kings established in
many places hospitals for the entertainment of pilgrims, the
most celebrated of which was in Rome, under the denomi
nation of the * Schola Saxonum,' called at a later period,
' Hospitale di S. Spirito in Vico di Sassia.' A writer of no
anxius auras." Of Dunstan also it is said that he played the organ
("modificans organa"). See Osbern, Vita S. Dunstani, ap. Wharton,
Angl. Sac. t. ii. p. 93.
1 Beda, H. E. ii. 20, iv. 2. Vita S. Bened. a. 678.
2 With the exception of the Te Deum the Scots had none of the usual
Ambrosian and Gregorian hymns, as appears from the antiphoner of
Bangor composed in the seventh century, now in the Ambrosian library,
but formerly belonging to the monastery of Bobbio. See Muratori Anect.
t. iv. These Latin hymns of the fifth and sixth centuries have long lain un
heard, and were forgotten, until again brought to light by the praiseworthy
researches of modern literati. It is remarkable that some of the hymns of
the Scot Sedulius have, in a German version, been preserved in the Pro
testant church. Cf. Rambach, Christl. Anthol. i. 85, 110.
3 Beda, v. 7- "Peregrinari  quod his temporibus plures de gente
Anglorum, nobiles, ignobiles, laici, clerici, viri ac feminae, certatim facere
consuerunt." 4 See Boniface's letter to ^Ethelbald. To bishop Cuthberht he writes :
" Paucae sunt civitates in Longobardia vel in Francia aut in Gallia, in qua
non sit adultera vel meretrix generis Anglorum."

SAXON SCHOOL AT ROME. 205
great authority ascribes the founding of this estabUshment to
Ine, king of Wessex1, who, after his abdication, ended his
days at Rome2. The object of this foundation, which com
prised a church dedicated to St. Mary, and a cemetery for the
English, was not only to provide for needy West Saxons and
other EngUsh at Rome, but for the instruction of young
Anglo-Saxons in the catholic faith, who were exposed to the
danger of so many heresies in their native country. For its
support Ine is said to have laid, under the name of Rom-feoh
or Rome-scot, a tax of a penny on every house in his king
dom, the amount of which was sent to the pope for that pur
pose. At a later period the St. Peter's penny was a subject
of repeated complaints, after its original intention had been
lost sight of. WiUiam of Malmesbury knew nothing certain
relative to the foundation of this institution at Rome, and
merely mentions, without any allusion to Rom-feoh, that
tradition ascribed it to Offa, king of Mercia. A life of Offa,
the fidelity of which has perhaps been too greatly under
rated, reconciles both these accounts, by stating that Offa,
about the year 790, richly endowed the Saxon school aheady
existing at Rome, and for that purpose introduced the per
petual burthen of Peter's pence3. According to a probably
1 Matt. Westmon. a. 727- His account is rendered rather incredible
by his ascribing to the same prince (Ine abdicated in 726) the imposition
of Rom-feoh or St. Peter's pence. Spelman (Cone. t. i. p. 290) endea
vours, from a manuscript at Chichester, to prove that the Schola Saxonum
was founded as early as 714, while the passage refers to Offa of Mercia,
from the date of whose death, dccxciv., the last c seems to have been
omitted. Cf. also J. Ross Antiquarii Warw. Hist. Reg. Angl. p. 72.
2 Sax. Chron. a. 728. The year of Ine's death is,unknown.
3 This life is ascribed to Matt. Paris, and is to be found, with the Vitae
xxm. S. Albani Abbatum, in Watts's edit. p. 29 : "Rex  scholam
Anglorum, quae tunc Romae floruit, ingressus, dedit ibi ex regali munifi-
centia, ad sustentationem gentis regni sui illuc venientis, singulos argenteos
de familiis singulis, omnibus in posterum diebus, singulis annis. Et tunc
tali largitate obtinuit, ut de regno Angliae nullus publice poenitens, pro ex-
ecutione sibi injunctae pcenitentise, subiret exilium  p. 31, annuum
reditum contulit ad sustentationem scholie memoratae, propter Anglorum

206 SAXON SCHOOL AT ROME.
contemporaneous account, it appears that in the year 816 the
school of the Angles at Rome was burnt1. Mention is made
of its inmates at the commencement of that century as form
ing part of the procession which met pope Leo the Third on
his return from his visit to Charles the Great2. It was again
destroyed by fire in the beginning of the reign of Leo the
Fourth3, when it lay for some years in ruins, till king ^Ethel-
wulf, during his stay at Rome4, caused it to be rebuilt. The
rebuilding of this structure has given occasion to the ascri
bing to that king the introduction of Rome-scot, or rather
the transfer of the same to the papal chair8. Pope Marinus
reheved the school of the Angles from aU taxes and burthens,
at the request of king iElfred6, who showed his gratitude to
that pontiff. Of this privilege king Cnut, during his stay at
Rome, obtained a new confirmation from pope John7, and in
return caused Rome-scot for the pope to be collected with
greater strictness8.
However interesting the Saxon school may appear to us,
rudium et illuc peregrinantium eruditionem." This passage is extracted
in Matt. Westmon. a. 794. Vita*: Abbat. S. Albani, c. i. "Offa  Romae
scholam peregrinorum pie constituit, ut ibidem peregrini, qui ad Romanam
ecclesiam et curiam confluxerant, ex diversis mundi partibus barbairi, vel
votivae orationis gratia vel expediendorum negotiorum necessitate, linguas,
quas non noverant, addiscerent : quae schola, propter peregrinorum con-
fluxum ibidem solatia suscipientium, versa est in xenodochium, quod Samcti
Spiritus dicitur." ' Sax. Chron. h. a.
2 "Pastorem  simul etiam cunctae scholae peregrinorum, videlicet
Francorum, Frisonum, Saxonum, atque Longobardorum  suscepe-
runt." Anastasius, ap. Muratori Script, iii. p. 198.
3 So Anastasius, lib. i. p. 233. " B. Pontificii sui exordio Saxonum
vicum validus ignis invasit," etc. 4 Sax. Chron. a. 855.
6 W. Malm. lib. ii. " jEthelwulfus Romam abiit, ibique tributum, quod
Anglia hodieque pensitat, sancto Petro obtulit  scholam Anglorum,
quae, ut fertur, ab Offa, rege Merciorum, primitus instituta, proximo anno
conflagraverat, reparavit egregie."
6 Sax. Chron. aa. 885 and 890. Matt. Westmon. a. 889. Sim. Dunelm.
a. 884, ap. Twysden, pp. 130, 148 and 355.
7 Rad. Dicet. Abbrev. a. 1031.
8 Eccl. Laws of Cnut, ix. Law of North. Priests, lvii. Also Laws of
/Ethelred passim.

SUPERSTITIONS. 207
especially with regard to the St. Peter's penny, we must
nevertheless be careful not to ascribe to it an immediate in
fluence in respect to the legal instruction of the Anglo-Saxon
clergy. In its early time it could not have had such a pre
dominant object, although it might occasionally have con
tributed to it; in later times it was transformed into the
hospital nominally still in existence : yet how important
would its old archives be, for the moral and ecclesiastical
history of England, should some fortunate explorer one day
discover them4 !
Among the chief objects of attraction to the Anglo-Saxons,
both at home and in their pilgrimages, were relics. In find
ing this superstition so extremely prevalent among them, we
are almost led to the supposition that it did not originate in
the catholic faith, but was rather, if not entirely produced, at
least greatly promoted, by the belief of the Germanic nations,
who solemnly buried the bones of the dead in barrows, threw
up vast mounds over them, raised monuments of rude work
manship2, and thought to conquer in battle with the aid of
the corpses of their dead chieftains. The judicial superstition,
brought to Britain by the Saxons, that the lifeless body of a
murdered person would begin to bleed on the approach of the
murderer, also supposes the presence of supernatural powers
in the corpse3.
No Germanic people preserved so many memorials of
paganism as the Anglo-Saxons. Their days of the week have
to the present time retained their heathen names ; even that of
Woden (Wednesday) is still unconsciously so called in both
1 The conversion of the school into an hospital is ascribed to Innocent
III. See also Spelmanni Vita iElfredi, p. 7, note a- Fea, Description de
Rome, t. iii. Some documents relating to prebends, claimed by the
hospital of S. Spiritus in Saxia de Urbe, from 1284 to 1291, are to be
found in Rymer, t. i. pp. 648, 740, 752.
2 So the Jutes for Horsa. Beda, i. 15.
3 Edg. Can. lxv. JElfr. Can. xxxv. For Germany see my tract, ' Ueber
altere Geschichte und Rechte des Landes Hadeln,' p. 59.

208 SUPERSTITIONS.
worlds, and by more tongues than when he was the chief object
of religious veneration. In the north of England and the
Germanic parts of Scotland the Yule feast (geohol, geol) has
never been supplanted by the name of Christmas. That these
denominations, throughout ages, were not a senseless echo of
superannuated customs, is evident from the Anglo-Saxon
laws of later times, which strictly forbid the worship of
heathen gods, of the sun, the moon, fire, rivers, water-wells,
stones, or forest-trees1. It is, however, probable that some
of this heathenism may have been awakened by contact with
the pagan Northmen. A part of the old theology lost its
pernicious power when, reduced to history, it became sub
servient to the purposes of epic poetry, as instances of which
may -be cited the genealogies of the Anglo-Saxon kings and
the poem of Beowulf. Of many superstitions, which long
maintained their ground, relative to the power of magic, to
amulets, magical medicaments, as well as to the innocent
belief, so intimately connected with poetry, in elves and
swarms of benevolent, or at least harmless unearthly, though
sublunary spirits, it is often difficult to point out the historic
elements from which they have sprung, as precisely in the
northern parts of England, where they were longest preserved,
the intermixture of the Britons with the Germans was the
most intimate.
The adoption of Christianity does not appear to have been
attended with any sudden and important consequences with
regard to the political relations of the Anglo-Saxons, and is
chiefly indebted to this circumstance for its final settlement.
It also very soon promoted the general and literary instruc
tion of the nation, brought it into connexion with Roman
Europe, — operating thereby with increased power on the
prospects of the country, — and, by strengthening the state
by principles and spiritual means, prevented the threatened
dismemberment of the land among military chieftains, striving
1 Sec. Laws of Cnut, v.

VENERABLE BEDA. 209
for independence. These causes soon contributed to aug
ment the power of the larger kingdoms ; and the history of
the Anglo-Saxons, during a long period, is to be sought
chiefly in that of Northumbria, of Mercia, and of Wessex,
which subsequently comprised that of all England. These
three states were those which, inured to arms, had in earlier
times maintained themselves, and extended their dominions
by many victories over the Welsh, the kingdoms of Strath
clyde and Cumbria, and those of the Picts and Scots.
After Ecgfrith's death, in the battle of Nechtansmere against
the Picts1, the boundaries of Northumbria became much
contracted. His successor, Aldfrith, acquhed the epithet of
'The wisest,' or 'The most learned.' He had been well
instructed in the theology and dialectics of the Irish school,
which was one day to send forth a Johannes Scotus, or Eri-
gena, the founder of the scholastic philosophy. But other
inteUectual pursuits were not less welcome to Aldfrith, as is
proved by the friendly reception given by him to the Gallic
bishop Arculf, who had been driven by a storm on the west
ern coast of Britain, on his return from his travels in the
East, to which we cannot allude without at the same time
mentioning the account of his journey recorded by Adamnan,
abbot of lona, from the mouth of Arculf himself, as well as
an extract from it by Beda, which became the foundation of
the numerous guides to the Land of Promise, so character
istic of the knowledge and sentiments of the middle age.
But no one imparts to the age of the ' Wisest king ' greater
brilliancy than the man just named, whom the epithet of
' The Venerable ' adorns, whose knowledge was profound and
almost universal. Born in the neighbourhood of Wearmouth,
he enjoyed in that abbey the instructions of Benedict, its first
abbot, of whom we have already had occasion to make ho
nourable mention, as well as those of his successor, Ceolfrith,
1 See p. 188.
VOL. I. P

210 THE MONK ECGBERHT.
equally distinguished for his zeal in the promotion of learn
ing. In the neighbouring cloister of Jarrow Beda passed his
life in exercises of piety and in varied study, and gave life and
form to almost aU the knowledge which the age could offer
him. If, on a consideration of his works, it must appear
manifest that that age possessed more means of knowledge,
both in manuscripts and learned ecclesiastics, than we are
wont to ascribe to it ; and even if we must recognise in Beda
the high culture of the Roman church, rather than Anglo-
Saxon nationality, yet the acknowledgment which his merits
found in Rome during his life, and, shortly after his death,
wherever learning could penetrate, proves that in him we
justly venerate a wonder of the time. His numerous theo
logical writings, his illustrations of the books of the Old and
New Testaments have throughout many ages, untU the total
revolution in that branch of learning, found readers and
transcribers in every cloister of Europe. His knowledge of
Greek, of medicine, of astronomy, of prosody, he made sub
servient to the instruction of his contemporaries ; his work
' De sex hujus seculi aetatibus,' though less used than it de
serves to be, is the basis of most of the universal chronicles
of the middle age. But his greatest merit, which will pre
serve his name through all future generations, consists in his
historic works, as far as they eoncern his own native land.
If a second man like himself had arisen in his days, who with
the same clear, circumspect glance, the same honest and pious
purpose, had recorded the secular transactions of his fore
fathers, as Beda has transmitted to us those chiefly of the
church, then would the history of England have been to
posterity almost like revelation for Germanic antiquity.
Among the learned contemporaries and countrymen of
king Aldfrith, the monk Ecgberht claims especial notice.
Like him instructed during a long abode in Ireland, he em
ployed the facility and knowledge there acquired in the con
version of the monks of lona ; but he is more particularly in-

NORTHUMBRIA. 211
teresting to the Germans through his early wish to undertake
personally their conversion, and, on renouncing his design
for himself, for having sent Willebrord and his companions
to the Frisians, thereby stimulating the two Ewalds, the
White and the Black, so distinguished from the colour of
their. hair, to a like attempt among the Old-Saxons, but
which was frustrated by their murder1.
With the death of Aldfrith2 the star of Northumbria began
to set. Eadwulf, regarding whose pretensions we are not in
formed, although the general acknowledgment, and the readi
ness of Wilfrith to receive him amicably, allow us to suppose
theh existence, assumed the sovereignty, which he wasLun-
able to maintain longer than two months3. Through the
influence of Berhtfrith, the most powerful ealdorman of the
country, Osred, the son of Aldfrith, a child of eight years, was
raised to the throne, and by him protected against disturbers
within, and, by a brilliant victory, against the Picts and Scots
from without4. While the will of the royal infant was appa
rently obeyed, and all legitimate forms were observed, the
greatest licentiousness burst out among the nobles, to which
the clergy would have shown no indulgence, but for the part
taken in it by themselves8. The government, during the
long minority of Osred, was conducted by his mother Cuth-
burh6, sister of Ine king of Wessex, whose failings were for-

1 Beda, v, 10, At Merseburg their memory is celebrated on Oct, 2
(Zeitschrift fur Archivkunde, i. 123) , According to Beda and the Calendar
the day of their martyrdom is, " quinto nonarum Optobrium " (Oct. 3),
a. 695,
2 Sax. Chron. a. 705. k 3 Eddius, c. 57.
4 This victory was gained between Haefe and Caere (Caraw, Tindale
hundred in Northumberland) , Tigernach, a. 711, also mentions it: "Strages
Pictorum in campo Manand a Saxonis, ubi Fingaine mac Deleroith imma-
tura morte jacuit."
5 Bedae Epist. ad Ecgbertum.
6 I assume this guardianship (although it seems at variance with the
Chronicle which (a. 718) says, that Cuthburh was separated from Ald-
ferth during his life) from the fragment No. 71 among the letters of Boni-
P2

212 NORTHUMBRIA.
gotten in the subsequent foundation of the abbey of Win-
burne. Osred followed not in the footsteps of his father,
but, sunk in debaucheries, which spared not even the sanctity
of the cloister, he was slain in his nineteenth year, in an am
bush laid for him by his kinsmen on the southern border by
the sea1.
The successors of Osred were — 1. Cenred, descended from
Occa, an illegitimate son of Ida ; 2. Osric, the son of Ealh-
frith; and 3. Ceolwulf, the brother of Cenred. The two years'
reign of the first-mentioned prince, as well as that of the se
cond of eleven years, are of no importance. The^tranquiUity
of the country during the first years of Ceolwulf was disturbed
by violent internal dissensions. The king himself was seized
by his enemies, confined in a cloister, and had aheady re
ceived the tonsure, when his friends reseated him on the
throne2. Though able to preserve peace on the frontiers of
his kingdom, he could not stifle discord within : of his love
for piety and learning, we have the most honourable testi
mony of the Venerable Beda, who dedicated to him his eccle
siastical history of the Angles. During the reign of Ceol-
face, where, speaking of a vision, it is said, " Aspexit  in poenalibus
puteis Cuthbergam simulque Wialan quondam reginali potestate fruentes,
demersas usque ad ascellas, i. e. Cuthbergam capite tenus humeroque prae-
claram, caeteris membris maculis conspersam ; alteriusque, i. e. Wialan,
supra caput flammam extendere, totamque animam simul cremari intue-
batur." Queen Wiala is unknown to me. This purgatory must have
been devised after the death of Boniface, not earlier, as it makes mention
of " .^Ethilbealdus, quondam regalis tyrannus."
1 Beda, v. 22. W. Malm. lib. i. Matt. Westmon., a. 717, says of him,
"belli infortunio interemptus est." Boniface, in his letter to iEthelbald
of Mercia (epist. xix.), of which Malmesbury gives only an extract, says,
"Osredum spiritus luxuriae fornicantem, et per monasteria nonnarum
sacratas virgines stuprantem et furentem agitavit, usque quo ipse gloriosum
regnum et inutilem vitam contemptibili et despecta morte perdidit." [R.
Wendover, t. i. p. 211. Eodem anno (717) " Osredus  .juxta mare
pugnans, belli infortunio interemptus est." — T.]
2 Beda, v. 23, 24, ejd. App. aa. 731, 737. Sim. Dunelm. a. 731. Ti
gernach also mentions the imprisonment of Cuthwine's son, by which cor
rect Annal. Ulton. a. 730.

NORTHUMBRIA. 213
wulf, the archiepiscopal dignity was restored to York, his
kinsman Ecgberht being the first who received the pall for
merly bestowed on Paulinus1. He had reigned eight years'
when he renounced the corroding cares attending the ima
ginary Jiappiness of rule, and withdrew to the monastery of
Lindisfarne, where, apart from worldly anxieties, he lived
nearly thirty years2.
Ceolwulf on his abdication was succeeded by his cousin
and heir, Eadberht, a brother of archbishop Ecgberht and
son of Eata3, a very able man, fully qualified for the duties
of government. Eadberht raised his kingdom to its former
estimation, chastised iEthelbald, king of Mercia, who had at
tacked Northumbria, while he was engaged in warfare with
Talorgan mac Fergusa, king of the Picts, and took Cyil in
Ayrshire, and the neighbouring lands from Dunnagual, king
of Strathclyde, or his father Teudubr, son of Beli mac Elpin
(ob. 722). Six years later, in alliance with Ouengus or Un-
nust, the hated king of the Picts, successor of Talorgan mac
Fergusa, who, in the year 750, had fallen in a battle with the
Welsh, he took Alcluyd, the capital city of Strathclyde, and
reduced that British kingdom under his subjection4.
1 Sax. Chron. a. 735. [Ecgberht was celebrated for his love of know
ledge, and founded a noble library at York. See his Penitential in Anc.
LL. and Inst. Alcuini Epist. W. Malm. lib. i.— T.]
2 Sax. Chron. aa. 737, 760. Sim. Dunelm. a. 764. H. Hunt. lib. iv.
3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 738. Malmesbury calls Ecgberh "fra-
trem aequivocum."
4 [In App. ad Bedam, a. 740, it is said, "Aruwini et Eadberctus inter-
empti." This obviously clerical error has not been copied by Simeon,
and probably did not exist in the MS. used by him : he says (a. 740),
" Arwine filius Eadulfi occisus est," without namiitg Eadberht. — Of this
prince Simeon writes (Hist. Dunelm. ii. 3), "Omnibus adversariis vel sibi
subjectis vel bello prostratis, reges circumquaque morantes, Anglorum,
Pictorum, Britonum, Scottorum, non solum cum eo pacem servabant, sed
et honorem illi deferre gaudebant : cujus excellentiae fama, ac operum vir-
tutis, longe lateque diffusa, etiam ad regem Franciae Pipiuum pervenit,
propter quod ei amicitia junctus, multa ei ac diversa dona regalia trans-
misit." — T.] App. ad Bedam, a. 750. "Eadberctus campum Cyil cum
aliis regionibus suo regno addidit." Cf. Annal. Camb. a. 722, 750, 760.

214 NORTHUMBRIA.
The Frankish king Pepin sought his friendship, and sent
him by his ambassadors costly presents, in which we may
discern the respect paid to a powerful prince, and, at the
same time, recognise the pohcy of the Franks, to gain friends
in the rulers of North-Britain, and, in the event of a war,
allies against the more neighbouring southern parts of the
country. But Eadberht grew weary of a glorious, though,
according to some accounts, not wholly prosperous sway, and,
after a reign of twenty-one years, he also renounced his throne
and the world1. The other kings of Britain endeavoured to
dissuade him from this step, and, it is Baid, offered to resign
to him portions of territory, if he would continue to bear the
sceptre2- During the ten remaining years of his life he had
ample cause not to regret his resolve, or at least to perceive
that the anxieties of his predecessors were not groundless.
His son Oswulf, to whom he had transferred his crown, was
in the foUowing year treacherously murdered by his thanes,
when iEthelwald, surnamed MoU, of unknown Uneage, was
by his faction placed on the throne of Ida3, the extinction or
neglect of whose race brought the most unhappy consequences
to the country. One ealdorman after another seized on the
government, and held it till his expelled predecessors re
turned with a superior force, or popular favour and successful
treason had raised up a new competitor. The family con-
Annal. Ulton. a. 721. Sim. Dunelm. a. 756. Chron. Mailros. Tigernach,
aa. 750, 752.
1 App. ad Bedam, a. 758, assigns his abdication to causes not easily to
be reconciled, " Dei amoris causa et coalestis patriae, violentia accepta S.
Petri tonsura." H. Hunt, says that, " videns regum praedictorum, Edel-
baldi scil. et Sigeberti, vitam aerumnosam etfinem infaustum, Ceolwlfi vero
pnedecessoris sui vitam laudabilem et finem gloriosum, meliorem partem
elegit," etc. This cannot, however, be strictly correct, as Ceolwulf did not
die till near thirty years after his abdication (764), or nine years after the
retirement of Eadberht. Chr. Mailr. more consistently, " tonsura capitis
pro Deo accepta, apud Eboracum sub archiepiscopo Egberto factus est ca-
nonicus." The Sax. Chron. and Florence place his abdication in 757. — T.
2 Sim. Dunelm. de Eccl. Dunelm, lib. i.
3 App. ad Bedam, a. 759. Sim. Dunelm.

NORTHUMBRIA. 215
nexiort, which had hitherto been maintained by marriages
among the Anglo-Saxon princes, ceased, and the subjects of
the usurpers lost not only the friendship and protection of
the once allied states, but found in family hatred, thirst for
restoration and desire of revenge, new and dangerous enemies.
In a battle which lasted three days, at Eadwine's Cliff, or,
according to another account, at Eldun near Melrose, the
ealdorman Oswine was slain1. This victory, however, af
forded but little security to ^Ethelwald, who, a few years
afterwards, by a battle fought at Wincanhealh2, lost his king
dom, though not his life8, and was succeeded by Alhred4, a
son of Eanwine, who, it is said, traced his descent from Ida.
Alhred endeavoured to continue the alliance with the Frank
ish empire, at the moment when Charles the Great was en
gaged in the Saxon conquest. He not only sent embassies
to the emperor, but was desirous also to use the services of
his countryman Lullus for that object, who, after having faith
fully foUowed Boniface in his self-denying calling, had suc
ceeded him in the see of Mentz5. It was to this king that
the Northumbrian Willehad, a friend of Alcwine, applied for
leave to convert the pagan Frisians and Saxons to the Chris
tian faith: whereupon Alhred summoned his bishops and
other ecclesiastics to consult on his request, which, after ma
ture deliberation, was granted. The missionary was recom
mended to the protection of the Almighty, who did not for-
1 Sax. Chron. a. 761. Sim. Dunelm. 2 Pincanhealh >
3 Fl. Wigorn. "regnum remisit." Sim, Dunelm. "regnum amisit in
Winchanheale." H. Hunt. " coactus dimisit illud " (sc. regnum). Matt.
Westmon. a. 765, "vita decessit:" whence Turner, vol. i. p. 411, "the
tomb received him ; " while Lingard (vol. i. p. 110) has, "he resigned in
an assembly of the witan at Finchley."
4 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 765.
,6 Othloni Vita S. Bonifacii, lib. i. c. 24. For two letters of Alhred to
Lullus see Magna Biblioth. Patrum, t. xiii. 108. ep. xc. Alhred and his
queen Osgearn write to him : " Nostris quoque, dilectissime frater, legati-
onibus ad dominum nostrum gloriosissimum regem Carl obsecramus consu-
lendo subvenias, ut pax et amicitia, quae omnibus conveniunt, facias stabi-
liter inter nos confirmari." W. Malm. lib. i. " Lullus, et ipse natione
Anglus," etc.

216 NORTHUMBRIA.
sake him, but blessed him in the foundation of the bishopric
of Bremen, the later archiepiscopal see of Hamburg1. After
a lapse of some years Alhred, forsaken by his thanes and re
lations, and driven from York, renounced the throne, and
found an asylum with Cyneth, king of the Picts. He was
succeeded by ^Ethelred, a son of ^Ethelwald Moll2, who in
the fifth year of his reign was compeUed to abdicate and
forsake his country. Two rebel ealdormen, jEthelbald and
Heardberht, had slain Ealdwulf, son of Bosa, the chief com
mander of the royal army, at Kingscliff, and afterwards his
generals Cynewulf and Ecga, in a battle at HUathirn3. Alf-
wold son of Oswulf, and grandson of Eadberht, then ob
tained the kingdom4. He is praised as a pious and upright
king, and adorned with the title of ' friend of God.' But the
turbulence of the nobles of his kingdom prevailed over better
efforts. The ealdorman Beorn, his chief-justice, was, on ac
count of his rigour, burnt at Silton by the thanes Osbald and
-<Ethelheard, who had assembled a body of forces ; and Alf-
wold himself, after a tumultuous reign of ten years, perished
by means of a conspiracy, at the head of which was the ealdor
man Siga5.
Osred son of Alhred now ascended the throne once occu
pied by his father, but so ill defended it, that when ^Ethel
red, son of ./Ethelwald MoU6, returned to the kingdom for-
1 Vita S. Willehadi, c. i., where the king of the Angles is, according to
some MSS., called Alachind, in other better ones, Alachrat. In App. ad
Bedam, a. 765, he is called Aluchredus. This agreement between the name
and race of the king, the native country of the priest (he went in 779 from
the Frisians to the Saxons) aind the chronology, seems to remove every
doubt as to my explanation.
2 Sax. Chron. a. 774. 3 H. Hunt. a. 778. Sim. Dunelm.
4 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 778. Sim. Dunelm. a. 779.
6 Sax. Chron. Sim. Dunelm. a. 788. [Alfwold, as we learn from Simeon,
was buried in the abbey church of St. Andrew at Hexham, built by Wil
frith, which abbey he describes as excelling in beauty all others in the land
of the Angles ; its walls were adorned with various colours, and it contained
painted histories. — T.]
6 Sax. Chron. a. 790. Fl. Wigorn. has " jEthelredus frater Alf-
woldi," instead of "filius," and, a. 774, .(Ethelbertum for Jithelredum.

NORTHUMBRIA. 217
merly governed also by his father, Osred, betrayed by his
thanes, was declared to have forfeited the crown, was shaven
for a monk and put into a monastery, and afterwards obliged
to seek safety in exile1. ^Ethelred strove to strengthen him
self by violent measures. The ealdorman Eardwulf who had
at first governed a part of Northumbria under him, as we
learn from existing coins (an abundant source of Anglo-Saxon
history), but who afterwards opposed him, was seized and
brought to Ripon, where, before the gates of the monastery,
he was, by order of ^Ethelred, to be put to death. Being left
for dead, his body was by the friars, singing the Gregorian
chant, borne into the church, where in the middle of the night
he was found to be yet living, being reserved for still greater
vicissitudes. The sons of Alfwold, Ml( and iElfwine, were less
fortunate : being enticed from their sanctuary in the cathedral
of York, they were barbarously murdered at Wonwaldre-
mere2. The discontented now again turned their thoughts
to the exile Osred, who had withdrawn to the Isle of Man,
whom they bound themselves by oath to restore to his king
dom ; yet scarcely had he landed when, in spite of oaths and
fealty, he was seized and put to death by command of ^Ethel
red. His corpse was buried in the church of Tynemouth.
But ^Ethelred sought by other means to strengthen his
power : shortly after he had freed himself from his dangerous
rival, he married iElflaed, a daughter of Offa king of Mercia3.
Events such as are here recorded must have been attended
with the saddest effects on the condition of the people ; we
accordingly meet with no more distinguished individuals
among the Northumbrians. Agriculture, was neglected, fa
mine and its companion pestilence desolated the land. But a
more dreadful scourge than these transient evils was at hand.
In the year 793 the Northmen first landed on Lindisfarne,
plundered the monastery and church, not even sparing the
1 Sax. Chron. Sim. Dunelm. a. 790. 2 Sim. Dunelm. aa. 790, 791.
3 Sim. Dunelm. a. 792.

218 NORTHUMBRIA.
monks, some of whom they slew, some they carried off as
slaves, others they sent forth naked, or cast into the sea. In
the following year the phateB returned and plundered the
monastery at Ecgferthes-mynster (Wearmouth ?) : but one of
their leaders was slain by the inhabitants, their ships were
wrecked in a storm, and the survivors who reached the shore
perished by the Bword of the Northumbrians1. Thus, in ac
cordance with the notions then prevailing, did St. Cuthberht,
the patron of that cloister, protect Northumbria from the
ravages of the Danes, who were, nevertheless, some years
after, destined to destroy not only its peace but its indepen
dence. The ruin of that holy edifice made a deep impression
over all England, which shows that the destructive spirit of
the Northmen was not yet universaUy known2.
A few years later iEthehed was murdered by bis discon
tented thanes, among whom the ealdormen Aldred and Wada
are especially named as the perpetrators3. Many laymen of
rank and ecclesiastics now abandoned the realm of internal
dissension, which seemed doomed to become the scorn and
1 Hist, de Cuthberto ap. Sim. Dunelm. p. 69. Here an invasion of the
' Scaldings ' after the death of Ecgfrith, and before Ceolwulf's time, i. e.
before 729, is supposed, which must be an error, arising possibly from the
inroad of the Picts in 710. Cf. Sim. Dunelm. de Rebus gestis Reg. Angl.
aa. 793, 794, who is copied by R. Hoveden-^" Pagani  princeps eorum
ibidem crudeli nece occisus est ab Anglis."
2 Alcuini Epist. 29, 49, etc. Malmesb. de Pont. lib. iii. ' De Episcopis
Lindisfarn.' 8 Sim. Dunelm. aa. 796, 798. The Sax. Chron. places his murder in
794. Not only does probability speak in favour of the Durham annals, but
also the eclipse of the moon on the 28th March, 796, given in both Simeon
and the Chronicle as contemporaneous with the accession of Eardwulf.
Cf. L'Art de verifier les Dates, in the calculation of eclipses. [The Chro
nicle gives the eclipse in 795. In a letter to Offa, Ale wine writes that
Charles was so incensed against the Northumbrians, in consequence of the
murder of ^Ethelred, that but for his (Alcwine's) mediation he would have
done them all the injury in his power, " gentem illam homicidam domi-
norum suorum pejorem paganis aestimans." W. Malm. lib. i. In this year
(798) London was destroyed by fire, and many of the inhabitants perished.
Sim. Dunh.— T.]

NORTHUMBRIA. 219
booty of its neighbours 1. The ealdorman Osbald, who had
been formerly distinguished as the leader of a faction, and
had been on terms of close intimacy with ^Ethelred, was now
proclaimed king by his partisans2, but the returning moon
found him a fugitive in the monastery of Lindisfarne, from
whence he embarked for the Pictish territory, the usual
asylum for Northumbrian exiles. He died about three years
afterwards, as an abbot, apparently in his native country3, and
was buried at York. The Northumbrians now recalled the
ealdorman Eardwulf, whose life had been so miraculously
saved by the monks of Ripon, from exile, that school of the
Northumbrian kings, with whom a better state of things
seemed to return. A great synod held under his auspices by
the archbishop of York at Pincanhealh4 bears witness to an
earnest desire of good. The turbulent nobles again assumed
a threatening attitude, and the ever-increasing number of the
descendants or relations of deposed kings necessarily laid
greater dangers in the path of every succeeding government.
The ealdorman Wada was, however, put to flight and slain at
Billingahoh5, near Whalley, together with Alric son of Heard-
berht, and his faction annihilated6. Torhtmund, an ealdor
man esteemed for his fidelity and valour, revenged the murder
1 W, Malm. lib. i.
2 Alcwine (Epist. xxix. Opera, p. 1537) reminds the king ^Ethelred, the
patricius Osbald, and Osbert, " de antiqua amicitia  de fidei veritate,
de pacis concordia, quam habere debetis inter vos j quia amicitia quae de-
seri potest, nunquam vera fuit." This letter cannot have been written long
before the murder of ./Ethelred, as it makes mention of the destruction of
the church of St. Cuthberht by the pagans.
3 Sim. Dunelm. a. 799. " Sim, Dunelm. a. 798.
5 Here and in Billingsgate we meet with the name of the noble race of
the Billings. [In the Scop's Tale (Cod. Exon. p. 320) we are told that,
" Billing (weold) Wernum," Billing (govern'd) the Warni. — T.]
6 Sim, Dunelm. a. 799- Alcuini, Epist. xviii. in Oper. p. 1514. In this
letter the archbishop of Canterbury, Torhtmund and others are recom
mended to the hospitality of the emperor Charles. As jEthelheard went
to Rome in 799, we may perhaps assume that Torhtmund left his home
immediately after the death of Aldred.

220 NORTHUMBRIA.
of his former master ^Ethelred on Aldred, one of the perpe
trators. The ealdorman Moll, of the family of ^Ethelwald,
was put to death by order of Eardwulf, as was also Alhmund,
a son of Alhred, who, on his clandestine return with other
exiles, had been seized by the guards of the king. Yet were
his adversaries not disheartened, who, when forced to flee,
found an hospitable hearth and protection with Cenwulf, king
of Mercia. Eardwulf now felt himself strong enough to at
tack the territory of his treacherous neighbour, the strong
hold of the conspirators : a long warfare which ensued was
ended, through the intervention of the bishops and nobles of
England, by a treaty of peace and friendship between the
two kings sworn on the holy evangelists1. Five years after
wards Eardwulf was, however, driven by his subjects into
exile2 : his determination not to yield to the rebels, who had
once spontaneously sworn fealty to him, and to implore the
aid of the mighty Frankish monarch Charles the Great, as
well as the intervention of the pope Leo the Third, proves
him to have been of a firm and sagacious character. Charles
was not ignorant of the affairs of the north of England;
through his lately deceased friend, Alcwine, they must have
been familiar to him. Eardwulf sought the emperor at Ni-
meguen, and, having forwarded his suit there, hastened to the
holy father at Rome, by whom the desired mediation was
readily undertaken. Accompanied by a papal legate in the
person of the deacon Aldulf, and, on the part of the emperor,
by the abbots Rotfrid of St. Amand, and Nanther of St. Omer,
Eardwulf returned to England, and by the united influence
of the pope and emperor was reinstated in his royal dignity3.
1 Sim. Dunelm. a. 801.
2 Sax. Chron. a. 806. In consequence of an hiatus in Simeon of Dur
ham from a. 803 to 849, we are during that interval nearly without any
accounts of the kingdom of Northumbria.
3 Einh. Annales, a. 808. Enh. Fuldens. eod. That the expulsion of
Eardwulf was already known to Leo is evident from his letter to Charles
(ap. Bouquet, t. v. p. 602) wherein he says, " quod Eardulphus rex de

MERCIA. * 221
Alfwold, a brother probably of king ./Ethelred, had, during
the two years spent in these negotiations, held the reins of
government, but offered no long opposition to the restoration
of peace. Eardwulf died in the year foUowing, and was suc
ceeded by his son Eanred, who reigned amid intestine dis
sensions for thirty-three years1, until the occurrence of events,
which will enable us to comprise the entire histoiy of En
gland under one head.
Mercia, towards which we now turn our attention, presents
an appearance widely different from that of Northumbria.
Long opposition to the introduction of Christianity had been
there punished by the absence of the arts and knowledge
attending civilization, as well as of institutions conducive to
that object. Mercia has left us neither the name of an author,
nor even a meagre chronicle. Nowhere was the number of
ecclesiastics smaller; and while the other states were divided
into dioceses, Mercia proper and Middle Anglia formed to
gether but one bishopric. On the other hand, the energetic
measures of Penda had formed valiant soldiers, and created
for the posterity of the old sea-heroes a military force alike
formidable to the Britons and to the other Germanic states.
Placed in the centre of the country, the rulers of Mercia
availed themselves of their position to threaten all their neigh
bours, and obtain the British supremacy or Bretwaldaship.
regno suo ejectus fuisset, jam hoc per Saxones agnoveramus." A mes
senger from Eanbald, archbishop of York, had not only been sent to Rome
but also to the emperor. See the two letters of Leo to Charles in Bouquet,
vol. v. p. 601-4. That these letters had reference not only to internal dis
sensions, but probably to the intention of the king of Mercia not to ac
knowledge the archbishops and the bishop of Rome, seems evident from
the words, " Praedictus Cenulfus rex nee suum arcfiiepiscopum (sc. Cantu-
ariensem) pacificum habet, nee istum Eanbaldum item archiepiscopum,"
etc. p. 602 c. — " Valde pertimescimus, ne ipse populus acquisitionis sanctae
Romanae ecclesiae per quamlibet occasionem et certamen praedecessoris mei,
D. Gregorii, beatissimi papae, quod ipsis in partibus posuit, meis temporibus
infructuosum existere videatur, nee mihi in judicio eveniat," etc. p. 604 a.
See also Palgrave, vol. i. p. 484.
1 Sim. Dunelm. de Eccl. Dunelm. lib. iii. c. 5. Matt, Westm. a. 810.

222 MERCIA.
The advantage of some long reigns promoted both its internal
tranquillity and the success of its designs againgt the dis
tracted states around it.
After the death of Wulfhere, his brother ^Ethelred, who
had married Osthryth, a sister of Ecgfrith of Northumbria,
succeeded to the throne1. In the first year of his reign he
made war on Hlothhaere (Hlothhaeri) king of Kent2, and
ravaged his kingdom, destroying churches and monasteries,
and even the episcopal see of Rochester. A few years after
wards he invaded the dominions of his brother-in-law, king
Ecgfrith. In this contest, iElfwine, the brother of Ecgfrith,
fell, a youth equally beloved by Mercians and Northumbrians,
when the ferocity of both nations, aggravated by this event,
threatened the direst consequences. At this conjuncture the
wholesome influence and judgement of the archbishop Theo
dore, who, in pursuance of his calling, to mediate between
hostile nations, and with the success which more frequently
attends mediators when the passions are at the highest than
in earlier stages of the quarrels, prevailed on the Northum
brians to renounce all further vengeance for the death of theh
prince, in consideration of the payment of the legal wergild,
and also to restore to Mercia the province of Lindisse, which
had been taken from Wulfhere by Ecgfrith. To the remaining
years of his long reign no blame seems to be attached. A
great misfortune saddened his later days : the nobles of the
northern part of the kingdom, or Southumbria, murdered the
queen his consort3. He subsequently gave the government of
Southumbria to his nephew Cenred, the son of his brother
Wulfhere, to whom at length he resigned the entire king-
1 Beda, iv. 21. Sax. Chron. a. 675. Matt. Westm. a. 696, calls her
erroneously, " Egfl'idi regis filiam."
2 Beda, iv. 12. "Cum ^Edilred  adducto maligno exercitu, Cantiam
vaetaret," etc.
3 Beda, v. 24, "a Merciorum primatibus interempta." Sax. Chron.
a. 697- Fl. Wigorn. a. 696. Matt. Westmon, a. 696, "crudeliter neca-
verunt."

MERCIA. 223
dom1, his own sons being yet in their minority. Hence it
would appear that the Mercian law of succession, unlike that
of Northumbria, where we have seen a boy of eight years suc
ceed to the throne, required from its king, in addition to right
by birth, the qualifications indispensable for the duties of that
high office. Among those of mature age, the next by birth
seems always to have succeeded, and the right of the elder
line at the same time to have been preserved. He who had
entered on the government was not, however, compelled to
resign it on the maturity of the direct heir, whereby all the
dangers and calamities of guardianship were prevented : it is,
therefore, merely through an error of a comparatively late
writer2 that Cenred is considered as the guardian of ^Ethajred's
son, since he legally and unconditionally possessed for life the
kingly power. The son of Penda entered the monastery of
Bardeney, took the tonsure, and for many years, as abbot,
directed the peaceful avocations of the monks3. So soon had
the time passed away, when the sons of Woden knew no
greater disgrace than to die in a bed ! But to the nation the
new increasing longing after the cowl was more pernicious
than the use of harness4- After a few years, passed for the
most part in conflicts with the Britons, Cenred also resigned
the reins of government to a successor, the young Ceolred,
the son of ^Ethelred and Osthryth, and with Offa of Essex,
a prince adorned with all the graces of youth and manners,
as weU as endowed with every quality befitting a prince,
journeyed to Rome, there to take the monastic vow at the
hands of pope Constantine, and to fast and pray for the sal-
1 Sax. Chron. aa. 702, 704.
2 Wallingford (from whom so many errors have found entrance into
English history) says (Gale, t. i. p. 527) that Cenred had engaged to .(Ethel
red to resign the crown to his (jEthelred's) son on his majority. That
the resignation of Cenred took place before the 1 3th June, 704, appears
from the document in Hickes, t. iii. p. 262. n. 77-
3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. obiit a. 716.
4 Vita S. Guthlaci in Actis Sanctorum, App. i. vol. ii. p. 39.

224 MERCIA.
vation of the souls of their forsaken consorts, their relations
and people, to the end of their earthly course1. His successor
Ceolred died in the same year as his father.
Ceolred has by later writers, whose accounts are probably
derived from the chronicle of some monastery favoured by
him, been celebrated, in pompous diction, as the illustrious
heir of his father's and his grandfather's virtues ; but to us
the unfavourable testimony, given by one of his most distin
guished contemporaries, the archbishop of Mentz, Boniface,
appears more worthy of belief4. He seems to have lacked
either the valour or the good fortune of Penda, for in the war
between him and Ine, the honour of victory at the battle of
Wodaes-beorh was claimed by both parties. His young pre
sumptive successor, the clito3 iEthelbald, son of Alweo, the
brother of Penda, who, though remote, was yet his next
relative, he persecuted inexorably. Like Penda he was hostUe
to the church, and gave himself up to sensual pleasures with
a recklessness that made him the prey of death during the
riot of a feast, thus supplying an historic interpretation to the
monkish tradition, that the evil spirit, while conversing with
him, had deprived him of life4.
iEthelbald had hitherto found in the marshes of Croyland,
where he afterwards founded the celebrated abbey, not only a
shelter, but instruction, with the holy hermit St. Guthlac,
who, like the royal house of Mercia, was of the noble race of
the Icelings. He was acknowledged as king without oppo
sition. He is described as of vast bodily strength, graceful
form and great courage ; but pride and sensuahty were the
1 Beda, v. 19. Sax. Chron. a. 709.
2 Bonifacii Ep. ad ^Ethelbaldum. Malmesbury has given us a portion
of this letter.
3 Clito was a title given by the Anglo-Saxons to the members of a royal
house, and seems equivalent to aetheling, of which it was probably in
tended as a translation.
4 Sax. Chron. a. 716. Bonifacii Epist. ad iEthelbaldum ap. Malmesb.
lib. i.

MERCIA. 225
reproach of his earlier years1. While providing by strict
justice for the internal peace of the country, for the clergy
and the poor, by liberal disbursements, and appearing to ex
ecute his public duties, he addicted himself to excesses with
married women and nuns, and hurried the thanes of Mercia
into the same vortex of corruption and dissoluteness. The
affectionate interest with which Boniface ever regarded the
fortunes of his native country, the fervour with which he
dared to set before the king his transgressions, with a remark
able allusion to the chastity of the Old-Saxons, were not with
out an effect, which may have been increased by the circum
stance, that the scorner of holy wedlock was childless. At a
synod held by archbishop Cuthberht, at Clofesho in Oxford
shire, it was attempted, through the prelates and monks, to
effect a reformation of the laity2.
^Ethelbald's reign of forty-one years was distinguished by
many successful conflicts with the Britons. East Anglia,
Kent, and Essex followed his standard without a struggle,
and, for a time, Wessex also, against the common enemy.
Taking advantage of a change of government he invaded
Northumbria, but was driven back by king Eadberht3.
Nevertheless the haughty ^Ethelbald maintained the supre-
1 Ingulph. sub init. See the letter already cited of Boniface. Cf. also
Felicis Girwii Vita S. Guthlaci in Actis Sanctor. April, xi. c. 3 et 4.
2 W. Malm. lib. i. c. 4. [The passage relating to the Old-Saxons is
worth insertion : " In antiqua Saxonia, ubi nulla est Christi cognitio, si
virgo in paterna domo, vel maritata sub conjuge, fuerit adulterata, manu
propria strangulatam cremant, et supra fossam sepultae corruptorem sus-
pendunt; aut, cingulo tenus vestibus abscissis, flagellant eam castae
matron* et cultellis pungunt, et de villa in villain ^nissae occurrunt novae
flagellatrices, donee interimant. Insuper et Winedi, quod est foedissimum
genus hominum, hunc habent morem, ut mulier viro mortuo se in rogo
cremati pariter arsura praecipitet." Malm. 1. cit. and De Gestis Pontif. lib. i.
c. 4. places the Council of Clofesho in 747. The true date, which is given
in the Sax. Chron., is manifest from iEthelbald's charter, beginning "Anno
dccxlii. regni iEthibaldi xxvii. congregatum est magnum concilium apud
Clouesho," etc. Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 105.— T.]
3 App. ad Bedam, a. 740.
VOL. I. Q

226 MERCIA.
macy in Britain ', and was able, either by hostile inroads or
by fomenting rebellions, so to weaken his most potent rival,
Cuthred of Wessex, that he was reduced to submit to the
most humiliating oppressions. But excess of disgrace soon
re-assembled the disaffected nobles of his realm around the
king of Wessex, who was, moreover, much strengthened by a
reconcihation with his brave and powerful ealdorman ^Ethel-
hun2, who had unsuccessfully risen in arms against him.
The battle at Burford3 was to the West Saxons a struggle for
life and liberty, to the Mercians for the supremacy in Britain.
./Ethelhun, bearing in his hand the golden dragon, the banner
of Wessex, marched in the front of the army, and slew the
standard-bearer of the Mercians. The fall of so conspicuous
a person struck terror into the enemy, and raised the courage
of the West Saxons. A battle of such importance, fought with
so much valour and obstinacy, rarely took place between those
people. Though no one gave ground, yet no one was more
forward than ^Ethelhun, whose battle-axe, rapid as Ughtning,
clove both armour and body, whose way was marked by
death. In like manner did the unconquered sword of ^Ethel-
bald cut through armour as a garment, and bones as though
they had been flesh. Like firebrands in the opposite arrays
they spread destruction around them, when at once the two
gigantic terrific forms stood over against each other. A
mutual glance, a mutual attack instantly followed, when,
strange to relate, yet not without example, strength and
courage on a sudden forsook the king, who, while his men
were yet bravely fighting, fled at a moment when a single
1 In a charter of 736 he styles himself, " Rex non solum Marcersium,
sed et omnium provinciarum quae generale nomine Sutangli dicuntur : " and
signs, "Ego ^Etdilbalt, Rex Britanniae." Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 96. Smith's
Beda, p. 786. Hemingford, t. i. p. 219.
2 The title of Consul is given to him. H. Hunt. a. 750. So Matt. West
mon. a. 708. " Offerus consul Northamhymbrorum."
3 Sax. Chron. a. 752. In the account of this battle it will be easy to
recognise the pompous diction of Henry of Huntingdon. — T.

OFFA. 227
stroke might have decided the fate of himself and kingdom.
For the one and the oth$r, from that day, the sun of their
glory was set. A few years afterwards he fought another battle
against Wessex at Secandun1, where, disdaining flight, not
withstanding the slaughter of his people, he either fell in the
field, or was treacherously murdered by his guards, and buried
at Repton2. Beornred, who had placed himself at the head
of the army and government, was obliged in the following
year3 to yield to the superior power and pretensions of Offa,
a descendant of the royal house of Wibba, and to retire from
the kingdom of Mercia.
The real name of Offa is said to have been Winfrith4 ; his
father was an ealdorman named Thingfrith. Though lame,
dumb, and bUnd from his birth, the youth acquired speed of
foot, speech, and sight, when the usurper Beornred persecuted
his parents and oppressed his native land. Hence he obtained
the name of the second Offa, from his resemblance to his
ancestor, Offa (Uffo) the son of Waermund, king of Angeln,
who, blind from his birth till his seventh year, and dumb till
his thirtieth, yet, roused by the impending shame of being
excluded from the succession, through a war threatened by
1 Sax. Chron. a. 755. Florence calls the battle-place Segeswald. Seck-
ington in Warwickshire is supposed to be the spot. — T.
2 Sim. Dunelm. H. Hunt, "non sine miserabili exercituum ruina,
fugam dedignans, occisus est," which has been incorrectly copied by
Matt. Westmon. a. 755. "per fugam non declinans ruinam interfectus
occubuit." 3 The Saxon Chronicles are wrong in the year 755, but right in 716,
where iEthelbald is said to have reigned forty-one years. Sim. Dunelm.
says, a. 757, "Ethelbald  interfectus est. Eodem vero anno Merci
bellum inter se civile inierunt. Bearnred in fuganfrverso, Offa rex victor
extitit." My more definite account is founded on the acts of the Council
of Cealchyth in 789, the thirty-first of the reign of Offa. Hickes, t. i. p. 171.
The victory over Beornred took place in the autumn of 757, and the coro
nation of Offa probably only in 758. That the regnal years are not
reckoned from the day of the predecessor's death, but from that of the
coronation, appears from many passages, as Sim. Dunelm. aa. 758 and 759.
4 In the Vita Offae II. he is called Pinefrid, no doubt a repetition of the
usual blunder in the Latin chronicles of P for the Anglo-Saxon W ( (7) . — T.
Q2

228 OFFA.
the king of the Saxons, suddenly recovered the use of speech
and sight1. 9
Such is the account given by the Danish writers, though
the author of the Life of Offa II. supposes that the son of
Waermund reigned in England. In the general outUne his
story is nearly the same as that given in the Danish chronicles,
which are, however, not in perfect accordance with each other.
It seems, therefore, not improbable that the monkish bio
grapher derived some parts of his narrative from ancient
sources with which we are unacquainted, and that between
the two Offas there existed some points of similitude suffi
cient for a foundation to the parallel.
' However the several accounts of the genealogies of the Mercian kings
may vary with regard to the other names, they all, nevertheless, agree with
respect to Wihtleeg, Wermund and Offa. See Nennius, Alfred of Beverley,
Saxon Chron. a. 626. This remark holds good also for the same three
kings, in the otherwise varying lists of Saxo and that in Eric's Chronicle ;
though in Svend Aagesen Wiglet (Wihtlaeg) is wanting. But in all the
three authors, who draw from different sources, we find the saune story
of Uffo. The Danish or Anglian Uffo, it is true, is not blind, but is the
son of the blind Wermund ; that he was dumb till his thirtieth year is
expressly mentioned by Svend Aagesen. In Beowulf we have Garmund
(Wermund), Ongentheow (Angeltheow), Higelac (Icel), all belonging to
the genealogy of the Mercian kings. See a saga of Offa in Beow. xxvii.
[Cod. Exon. p. 320 ; also Beow. vol. i. p. 258, and vol. ii. p. xxxii sq. The
single combat, in which Uffo revenged the insult offered to his father and
himself, took place on an island in the Eider, where a part of the city of
Rensburg, called the Altstadt, now stands. Wermund's adversary is said
to have been Sigar, a king of Holstein ; the name of his son, slain by Uffo,
was Hildebrand. See Saxo, lib. iv., and Sveno Aggonis. ap. Langebek. —
TJ, also Dahlmann's Forschungen, Th. i. p. 233. The story of the two
Offas has been written by a monk of St. Albans, and is printed at the end
of Watts's edition of Matt. Paris. The account of the elder Offa agrees
for the most part with Svend Aagesen's, not only in the general outline,
but also in the first speech of Uffo or Offa. Nor is the agreement of the
two sagas in the girding of the youth with the sword by the father, as well
as the ensuing combat, to be overlooked. It is, however, remarkable that,
besides these ' Vitae,' the date and author of which are unknown, no other
ancient English writer mentions the story of the youth of Offa, not even
Bromton himself. [The story of the Danish Uffo is well condensed by
Suhm, Historic af Danmark, Bd. i., or in Grater's translation, Bd. i. p. 117.
-T.]

OFFA. 229
At the Council of Clofesho, and on other occasions, the
name of the young patrician Offa appears next in order to
that of the king, at least before those of the other laity. Offa
himself, in two of his charters, mentions his grandfather
Eanwulf, who, in king iEthelbald's time, held land in the
territory of the Hwiccas, where, at Bredon, he had founded
a church1, and who, if we may hazard a conjecture on the
alhteration of names, so frequent among the Anglo-Saxons,
was either father or brother of the Christian petty kings of
that country, Eanfrith and Eanhere. We must, therefore,
consider him as the nearest relative of the king, though de
scending in a coUateral Une from their common ancestor2, and
ascribe the bloody wars3 attending his accession to the throne
to the resistance of Beornred, whom we meet with some years
afterwards in Northumbria, where he burnt Catterick, but in
the same year perished himself by fire, as we are told, by the
judgement of God4.
Offa's dominion does not seem to have been firmly esta
bUshed before the death of Beornred ; till then we do not find
him engaged beyond the limits of his kingdom. His first
memorable expedition was against the Hestingas, a people
whose locality, like that of many others among the Saxons, is
not known with certainty. They have been sought for about
1 See charters in Smith's Beda, pp. 766, 767, and Cod. Diplom. t. i.
pp. 169, 176.
2 " Offa quinto genu Pendae abnepos." W. Malm. lib. i. But this is
incorrect, as he descended from Eawa, son of Wibba, the brother of Penda.
Saxon Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 755, with which Alfred of Beverley agrees,
" cujus (sc. ^Edilbaldi) patruelis, Enulfi nepos Offa." Malmesbury makes
a similar mistake with regard to Cenwulf, the secgnd successor of Offa.
See p. 238.
3 App. ad Bedam, a. 757. Alcuinus ap. Malmesb. lib.i. c. 4. " Non arbi-
tror quod uobilissimus juvenis Egfertus propter peccata sua mortuus sit,
sed quia pater suus (Offa sc.) pro confirmatione regni ejus multum san-
guinem effudit."
4 Matt. Westmon. a. 769*. Sim. Dunelm., where it is erroneously said,
" Earnredo tyranno  incendio periit, Dei judicio." According to
Malmesbury, Beornred was slain by Offa in 757.

230 OFFA.
Hastings in Sussex, and most probably inhabited the district
around that town to which they gave theh name1. Some
years after Offa fought a bloody battle against his hated
enemies, the men of Kent2, at Otford on the Darent, in which
the Mercians gained the victory3.
In the following year Offa overcame at Bensington in
Oxfordshire Cynewulf of Wessex, a prince celebrated for his
valour, and took from him the royal town of Bensington4.
In the wars against the Britons his arms were equally suc
cessful. In the early part of his reign he had repulsed them
at Hereford5, and subsequently devastated Deheubarth or
South Wales6- From the king of Powis he took a consider
able tract of his territory, and even his residence Pengwern
(Shrewsbury). The flat country at the foot of the eastern
sides of the mountains, between the Wye and the Severn, he
peopled with Anglo-Saxons, no defence being so efficacious
as that of free dweUers on the land, whose settlements may
still be traced by their Saxon denominations. To protect the
settlers from the sudden inroads and maraudings of the hostUe
mountaineers, he caused to be constructed a considerable
rampart with a ditch7, from the mouth of the Dee to that of
the Wye. This work, known by the name of Ofla's dyke,
traces of which are yet discernible, so well answered its pur
pose, that it became the boundary between Britons and
Mercians, and afterwards between Wales and England. The
1 Sim. Dunelm. a. 771. To the town of Hastings there belonged, at a
later period, a territory of 500 hydes. See Gale, t. i. p. 748. See also
Palgrave, vol. ii. p. cclxxix.
2 W. Malm. lib. i. (speaking of Cenwulf), " Contra Cantuaritas succes-
sivum ab Offa suscipiens odium, regionem illam valide afflixit." Sim. Dun
elm. a. 798. Mailros. Hoveden h. a., who copies Simeon.
3 Sax. Chron. a. 774 (one MS. reads 773). Fl. Wigorn. a. 774.
4 Sax. Chron. a. 777 (oneMS. reads 775). Fl. Wigorn. a. 778. H. Hunt.
a. 777. 6 Annal. Camb. Brut v Tyw. a. 760.
6 Annal. Camb. a. 778. Brut y Tyw. a. 776.
7 Asser V. iElfredi. "Offa  qui vallum magnum inter Britanniam
atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare facere imperavit." Giraldus de
Illaudabilibus.

OFFA. 231
last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold, ordered that every Briton
who should appear armed on this side of Offa's dyke should
have his right hand struck off1. If the British language and
British customs are met with on this side of the barrier2, they
are to be attributed either to Welsh reduced to a state of
complete subjection, or who, at a later period, forsook their
desert mountain heights for the fertility of the plain.
Nothing would more raise the wars of Offa above deserving
the appeUation of battles between the kites and the crows, by
which the great epic poet of England has unconsciously eter
nalized the narrow historic notions of his time3, than if it
could be granted us accurately to ascertain how far they were
influenced by the mighty ruler of the Franks, Charles the
Great. If any reliance may be placed on the monkish bio
grapher, the kings of Kent, previously to the invasion of that
state by Offa, had apphed to Charles for his aid and protec
tion4- The menacing letters of the emperor were unheeded
by the Mercian, and in the course of years their mutual suc
cess united the lord of the Germanic insular realm with the
chief of the Roman continent. Charles sent to Offa — or, as
he himself expresses it, the most powerful ruler of the East
to the most powerful ruler of the West — many costly presents,
the catalogue of which has been preserved, though not that
of the presents sent in return, which to us would have been
of far greater interest. From a charter with its seal still in
existence, we know, however, that Offa, king of the Mercians,
confirmed certain gifts of land near the port of Lundenwyc5,
1 Joh. Salisbur. Polycrat. lib. vi. See a more particular account of Offa's
dyke in R. Higden, Polychron. p. 194.
2 Asser, x. Camden, edit. Gibson, p. 587. Higden also says, " Sed hodie
hinc inde, ultra citraque fossam illam, potissimum in provincia Cestriae,
Salopiae, Herfordias, Wallici cum Anglicis passim sunt permixti."
3 " Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more
worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows, flocking and fight
ing in tbe air ?" Milton, Hist, of England.— T. 4 Vita Offa: II.
5 This remarkable charter, dated April 5, 790, together with those of
other English kings in favour of St. Denis, exist in the Tr&or des Chartes,
in the Hotel Soubise at Paris.

232 OFFA.
made by one of his subjects to the abbey of St. Denis. The
same highly favoured cloister received from another of Offa's
vassals, the ealdorman Berhtwald of Sussex, with the confir
mation of the king, the church of Rotherfield, and his ports
of Hastings and Pevensey1. Charlemagne promised not only
to pilgrims, but also to merchants from England, his im
mediate protection2, which last concession may, perhaps, be
regarded as an extension of the privilege granted by Dagobert
to the Anglo-Saxons attending the fair at St. Denis, and may,
therefore, have been the immediate cause of the above-men
tioned donations. A dangerous misunderstanding took place,
however, between the two monarchs on the foUowing occasion.
Charlemagne had demanded for his son Charles the hand of
one of Offa's daughters, which the latter would grant only on
condition that to his own son Ecgferth (Ecgfrith) should be
given in marriage Berhta, the beloved daughter of Charle
magne, who was 'afterwards secretly married to AngUbert,
the learned abbot of St. Riquier, and is celebrated by her
contemporaries as the softened resemblance of her father in
mind, voice, aspect, and bearing3. Gerwold, abbot of St.
WandriUe or Fontenelle, of a distinguished family, and
formerly chaplain to queen Bertrade, but who had been ap
pointed to the administration of the customs in the northern
1 Charter of 792 ap. Du Chesne. Monast. Angl. t. vi. p. 1077-
2 See the letter of Charles to Offa in Wilkins, Cone. t. i. p. 158, in Al-
cuini Oper. t. ii. App. p. 618, and an extract of it in Malmesbury, Leland
Collect, t. i. p. 402. Cf. Privilege of Pepin, a. 753, ap. Bouquet, t. v. p. 227.
As in this letter he speaks of the death of pope Hadrian I., which took
place in Dec. 795, and mentions ^Ethelred of Northumbria, who died on
the following 18th of April, as still living, the date of it is fixed with
tolerable accuracy. According to this letter the emperor, besides other
presents, sends to Offa a Hunnic sword and belt, and two silken mantles ;
a circumstance greatly in favour of the genuineness of the letter, as Charles,
in the beginning of the year 796, distributed many presents from the trea
sures taken from the Huns. See Einh. Annal. a. 796. Chron. Moissac.
Sim. Dunelm. a. 795. " Karolus  Hunorum gentem subegerat 
sublatis inde xv. plaustris auro argentoque palliisque holosericis preciosis
repletis." 3 See Helperich's or Angilbert's ' Carolus Magnus,' v. 219 sq.

OFFA. 233
towns and ports of France, particularly at Quentawic, was
frequently sent with commissions from the emperor to king
Offa, with whom he had become very intimate. He was,
nevertheless, unsuccessful in his endeavours to lower the
proud pretension of the descendant of Woden, and to induce
him to abandon a demand, which had so greatly incensed
the invincible emperor of the Franks, that it required all his
exertions to prevent the closing of the French sea-ports
against the merchants of England1. According to other
accounts, the decree was already carried into effect, a similar
interdict was also issued by Offa in the English ports, and
Alcwine, the friend of both princes, was destined to appease
a quarrel arising from disappointed ambition2. We are made
acquainted with the restoration of peace by an earlier docu
ment than the before-mentioned letter to Offa, namely, by a
letter of intercession in favour of some Mercian exUes, to
^Ethelheard, archbishop of Canterbury3.
The notion of Offa's great influence at this time, entertained
by pope Hadrian, was grounded more on the suspicion that
the king of Mercia was desirous to instigate the Frankish
monarch to cast him from the papal chair4 than on the splen
dour attending many victories over his countrymen. That a
hostile disposition might have arisen between Offa and the
pope is, considering the pretensions raised by the latter at
every opportunity, exceedingly probable. While the small
kingdom of Kent, which had already been under subjection
to his ancestors, possessed the first primacy of the Anglo-
1 Chron. Fontanel, in Monum. Hist. Germ. t. ii. p. 291, according to which
this event took place about the year 788.
2 Epist. Alcuini ad Colcum Lectorem in Scotia. Bouquet, t. v. p. 607 ;
also W. Malm. lib. i. c. 4.
* Wilkins, t. i. p. 154. Alcuini Epist. lxi. iEthelheard became arch
bishop in 791. [These exiles were probably those who had sided with
Beornred against Offa. There seems little doubt that they had been har
boured by Charles for hostile purposes. — T.'J
4 Hadriani Epist. ap. Bouquet, t. v. p. 589.

234 OFFA.
Saxon church, and the one next in rank was placed in the
rapidly declining state of Northumbria, Offa felt the want, in
his own more powerful realm, of a prelate independent of
both Canterbury and York. He had long vainly endeavoured
to persuade Jaenberht, archbishop of Canterbury, to transfer
his see to Lichfield. The archbishop was now accused of
having promised aid and shelter in his diocese to the Franks,
in the case of their effecting a hostile landing in England1 ;
which reason, together with others, such as that Offa was
desirous of founding an archiepiscopal see near the spot where
he had humbled his enemies, being considered valid, it was
resolved, in a synod held at Cealchyth, under the legate of
Hadrian, to establish a separate archbishopric for the kingdom
of Mercia, which should be conferred on the hitherto bishops
of Lichfield, and first in the person of Aldulf 2, the successor
of Higeberht. That this new ecclesiastical arrangement, not
withstanding the ready comphance yielded to the formidable
Offa, must have been a source of heartburning among the
neighbouring kingdoms, already in a state of irritation from
so many other causes, may be easily imagined, the effects of
which were manifested in the early abolition of the archiepi
scopal see of Lichfield.
Offa acquired greater renown to himself and greater power
to his state than had ever been possessed by any Anglo-Saxon
king or kingdom3. His firmness and his valour are incon
testable. His delight in reading is also celebrated by his
contemporaries4. For the better administration of his domi
nions he provided by the formation or collection of a code of
1 W. Malm. lib. i. Vita Offae II. p. 21.
2 W. Malm. lib. i. and De Gestis Pont. lib. iv. Vita Offae. Rad. Dicet.
Abbrev. Chron. a. 787, where the limits of the new archbishopric are given.
Sim. Dunelm. a. 786.
3 See charters of 780 in Cod. Diplom. pp. 167, 169. Smith's Beda,
p. 767. " Ego Offa, Dei gratia concedente, rex Merciorum simulque na-
tionum in circuitu."
4 Alcuini Opera, fol. 1554.

OFFA. 235
Mercian laws, the loss of which is deeply to be lamented1.
Yet were these estimable qualities, by means of which he had
founded his power, stained with crime which stands in sin
gular contrast to the better part of his character. No deed
has excited greater horror than the murder of ^Ethelberht2,
the young and accomphshed king of the East Angles, of
which he is accused. In the hope of obtaining the hand of
.iEthelthryth, the daughter of Offa, this unfortunate prince
had, by the advice of his council, though in opposition to the
will of his mother, set out on a journey to the Mercian court.
On arriving at the border he sent forward a letter to Offa,
together with valuable presents, and in return received an
invitation couched in the warmest terms, with an assurance
of security. By Offa he was received in the most hospitable
and splendid manner ; but after he had retired to his apart
ment for the night, a message was brought to him by an
officer of the palace named Wimberht, that Offa was desirous
of conferring with him on business of moment. The un
suspecting guest followed the messenger, but when passing
through a dark passage he was attacked and basely murdered
by assassins posted there for the purpose. By the monk of
St. Albans the guilt of this foul murder has been transferred
from the head of the founder of his abbey to that of the queen
Cynethryth3 ; but, in such a case, privity to the deed is as
criminal as the deed itself, especially when, as in the instance
of Offa, who soon rendered himself master of the kingless
state, the fruits of the perfidy must inevitably fall to the ac
complice. Offa affected great sorrow for this atrocious crime,
1 See Laws of Alfred in Ancient Laws and Institutes, p. 27, fol. edit.
2 Sax. Chron. a. 792.
3 So not only the Vita Offa: IL, but also Fl. Wigorn. a. 793. [" Offae
 detestanda jussione, suaeque conjugis Cynethrithe reginae nefaria
persuasione, regno vitaque privatus est capititis abscissione." The Sax.
Chron. Ethelwerd, H. Hunt., W. Malm., place the event in 792, and agree
as to the decapitation. By R. Wendover we are told that the queen caused
her victim to fall into a pit prepared under his couch, where he was smo
thered by the attendants. See Fl. Hist. t. i. p. 250.— T.]

236 OFFA.
and raised a stately monument over the remains of his victim
in the church of Hereford, on which he bestowed rich dona
tions. In the same year ^Elflaed, another daughter of Offa,
was married to ^Ethelred king of Northumbria.
Among those events recorded of Offa's life of which the
authenticity is very questionable, is a journey to Rome which
he is said to have made towards the latter part of his reign.
His munificence to the churches and pious estabhshments in
that city is highly extolled; and though it is difficult to
ascribe to Offa other than ambitious motives1, yet, ifwe con
sider the age in which he lived rather than the individual, a
pilgrimage in expiation of the murder of iEthelberht appears
by no means improbable. But though Offa himself may not
have visited Rome, the accounts of his liberahty to the Saxon
school there2, and of the donation or confirmation of Rome-
scot for the benefit of that foundation, seem not undeserving
of credit.
Offa during eight-and-thirty years had toiled indefatigably
for the aggrandizement of his dominion, when he was seized
by the hand of death3 only a few years after the murder of
^Ethelberht, which had called down upon him the execration
1 The monk of St. Albans is perhaps more trustworthy than he has
hitherto been considered. The inmate of a monastery founded by Offa,
he has, no doubt, placed many actions of the founder in a different light
from that in which others have regarded them ; yet he may have had the
use of documents inaccessible to others. Many of his accounts agree
accurately with those of Florence, W. of Malmesbury and others,; if,
therefore, he is not older than these, but has made use of them, the
circumstance of having availed himself of such sources speaks in favour
of his general credibility. He is not therefore to be altogether rejected,
but in cases only when, for particular reasons, he is to be regarded with
suspicion. 2 Vita Offae II. W. Malm. lib. ii. c. ii. Among the traditions concern
ing Offa a German one may be noticed, viz. that Opho, rex Angliae, the
maternal uncle of St. Willibold, first bishop of Eichstadt, erected the
monastery of Schiittern, in the year 703 or 717- See Appendices in Chron.
Montis Sereni, ed. Mader, pp. 282, 289.
3 Sax. Chron. 29 July. Sim. Dunelm. 26 July a. 796. Fl. Wigorn. erro
neously, 794.

ECGFERTH OF MERCIA. 237
of Europe. Seldom do we see the hand of the avenging
Nemesis so manifest as in the destinies of the house of the
perfidious Offa. Cynethryth, of whose ambition and pre
sumption a tangible proof still exists in the coins which she
alone of all the Anglo-Saxon queens caused to be stampt with
her own image, was, three months after the deed which has
branded her, thrown by robbers into her own well ; a manner
of death which, if void of truth, may, nevertheless, serve to
show what her contemporaries wished and thought of her.
Tradition wiU not even acknowledge her as an Anglo-Saxon,
but represents her as a Frank, who for some atrocious crime
had been sent out to sea in an open boat, and having been
found by the youthful Offa, had seduced him to conduct her
to his home1. While the sanctity of the pious iEthelberht
was working numerous miracles, the bones of his murderer
were washed by the sweeping floods of the Ouse out of their
consecrated earth2. His son Ecgferth, whom in the year 785
he had caused to be crowned king3, died of disease only a
few months after the death of his father4; in him the male
Une of Offa was extinguished. Of his daughters, ^Ethelthryth,
the affianced of ^Ethelberht, ended her days in solitude and
sorrow in the abbey of Croyland. Of Eadburh, the aban-
1 Vita Offae. Bromton, a. 752.
2 Offa was buried in a chapel just without Bedford. R. Wend. t. i.
p. 262.— T.
3 H. Hunt, says king of the province of Kent ; but this is not only incon
sistent with Malmesbury and other authorities, by whom we are informed
that Alric, son of Wihtraed, and the last of the ./Escings, reigned in Kent
till 794, but is unsupported by the oldest testimonies, which state merely
that Offa associated his son with him in the kingdom of Mercia, making no
mention whatever of Kent. Sax. Chron. a. 785. "^.nd Ecgferth was con
secrated king." Fl. Wigorn. " Egferthus rex est consecratus." W. Malm.
lib. i. " Egfertum filium, ante mortem suam, in regem inunctum." R.
Wendover, t. i. p. 247. " In illo quoque concilio (Cealchyth) Offa rex Mer-
ciorum potentissimus in regem fecit solemniter coronari Egfridum, filium
suum primogenitum, qui deinceps cum patre  usque ad finem vitae
ejus regnavit." See also charters of Offa in Cod. Diplom. Nos. 152, 165,
where Ecgferth signs himself 'rex Merciorum.' — T.
4 Ingulphus.

238 CENWULF OF MERCIA.
doned consort of Beorhtric king of Wessex, we shall speak
hereafter. The remaining daughter, ^Elflaed, lost father,
brother and husband in the same year.
The rich inheritance of Offa, dominion, authority, treasures,
fell after the short reign of Ecgferth, which was not such as
to justify any very sanguine hopes1, to Cenwulf, a descendant
of Cenwealh, a son of Wibba, and consequently brother of
Penda. Cenwulf was endowed with the kingly qualities of
Offa, but he knew also how to maintain his power by justice
and clemency as well as by valour. So at least sings the
praise bestowed on him almost unanimously by the eccle
siastical chroniclers of the middle age, in whose hands were
placed the golden keys of earthly immortality and undying
renown. The prosperity of his reign, which was followed by
no similar one in Mercia, is undeniable. The arts of peace
begun to be more steadily and, therefore, more successfuUy
cultivated. Almost the only art which has left behind it un
questionable monuments of its time, the coinage, proves that,
first under Offa, and subsequently under Cenwulf^ it yielded
the best impressions which Mercia could produce.
The ./Escings who had worn the crown of Kent, though
under the supremacy of Mercia, were now extinct, and Cen
wulf formed the plan of uniting that kingdom still more
closely with his own. He found an opponent in Eadberht,
surnamed Praen, who held the sovereignty of Kent for three
years. This prince, who seems to have been coUaterally con
nected with the iEscings, and also related to Ecgberht king
of Wessex, had formerly been an ecclesiastic2. The Mercian
1 So it may be inferred from Alcwine's letter to him (No. xlviii.).
2 Sax. Chron. a. 794. Fl. Wigorn. Thorne, p. 2238. Wallingford, p. 530,
confounds Eadberht Praen with the eldest son of Wihtrad, who, according
to the Sax. Chron. and Fl. Wigorn., died in 748. That he was an eccle
siastic appears from a letter of pope Leo (Anglia Sacra, t. i. p. 460), where
it is said, " De ilia epistola, quam jEthelhardus (archiep. Cantuar.) nobis
transmisit  reddimus responsum, quia nos de clerico illo apostata, qui
ascenderat in regnum", similem ilium reputantes Juliano Parabatae, ana-

CENWULF OF MERCIA. 239
overcame his rival by the sword, as well as by the equally
efficient aid of spiritual weapons. He offered to abolish the
archbishopric of Lichfield, an act which could not fail to
dispose in his favour all the higher clergy of England, and
was especiaUy calculated to gain over to the king of Mercia
the archbishop of Canterbury and all whose interests imme
diately depended on that dignity. The pope, Leo the Third,
declared also his wiUingness to abolish the new archbishop
ric, and to excommunicate the apostate churchman who had
usurped the throne of Kent. Cenwulf, after having laid the
Kentish territory waste as far as the marshes, took the king
Eadberht prisoner, led him bound into Mercia, having caused
the eyes of his captive to be put out and his hands ampu
tated1. He did not, however, deprive him of life, but, after
some time, on the occasion of the consecration of the church
founded by him at Winchelcomb, which was conducted with
extraordinary pomp, and at which splendid gifts were be
stowed both on ecclesiastics and laymen, he restored him to
Uberty2. themizantes objicimus," etc. Other particulars concerning him have been
preserved only by H. of Huntingdon : " Populos Cantiae  rex Egbricht
in dominium suscepit, quos prius cognatus suus Pren injuste amiserat.
Edbriht Pren regnavit III. annis."
1 Sax. Chron. a. 796. Sim. Dunelm. a. 798. Neither Ethelwerd nor
Florence mention the mutilation, "quem vinculis oppressum duxerunt
usque ad Merce." Ethelw. a. 796. "Iigatum in Merciam secum duxit."
Fl. Wigorn.— T.
2 Malmesbury gives a glowing account of Cenwulf's munificence and
clemency at this ceremony : " Apud Winchelcumbam, ubi ecclesiam Deo
exaedificaverat, ipsa dedicationis die regem captivum ad altare manumittens,
libertate palpavit, memorabile dementias suae specfpculum exhibens [!].
Aderat ibidem regiae munificentiae applausor Cuthredus, quem ille Cantua-
ritis regem praefecerat. Sonabat basilica plausibus, platea fremebat dis-
cursibus, eo quod ibi in conventu tredecim episcoporum, decern ducum,
nullus largitatis pateretur repulsam, omnes suffarcinatis marsupiis abirent ;
nam praeter ilia xenia quae magnates susceperant, inaestimabilis scilicet
pretii et numeri, in utensilibus, vestibus, equis electissimis, omnibus, qui
agros non habebant, libram argenti, presbyteris marcam auri, monachis
solidam unum, postrento toti popula multa erogavit." — T.

240 CENWULF OF MERCIA.
The arms of Cenwulf were also fortunate against the Welsh.
In the first year of his reign the battle of Rhuddlan in the
Vale of Clwyd was fought, when they were driven back over
Offa's dyke. In another battle Caradoc, king of Gwynedd,
perished. In his latter years his army penetrated to Snow-
don, and devastated the country adjacent1.
The government of Kent was assigned by Cenwulf to his
brother Cuthred 2 ; but the suppression of the Mercian arch
bishopric was delayed for some years, until, at a synod held
by the primate of Canterbury and his twelve suffragans at
Clofesho3, it was carried into effect. We read not without
surprise in what contemptuous terms the decree of the synod
mentions the schemes of Offa, through which the see of the
holy Augustine had been prejudiced in its rights, and after
wards learn from the same source that archbishop ^Ethelheard
himself had made a journey to Rome for the purpose of pre
vaUing on the pope to suppress the new archbishopric, and
restore to its integrity the foundation of his glorious prede
cessor Gregory the Great. Pure good-wiU towards ^Ethel-
heard seems to have moved the pope to this remarkable act
of compliance in his favour ; the papal court could derive
from it no advantage.
^Ethelheard died shortly after the completion of his object.
Between Cenwulf and Wulfred, the new archbishop, a quarrel
soon arose, in which the violence and avarice of the former
are bitterly complained of. For six years the king prohibited
the primate from exercising the archiepiscopal duties ; and,
on his return from Rome, where he had obtained a favourable
decision of his cause, Cenwulf declared in a councU, that,
unless he surrendered certain lands, and paid a certain sum
of money, he should be expelled from the kingdom, and that
no decrees of the pope nor solicitation of the emperor Charle-
1 Annal. Camb. aa. 796, 798, 816, 818. Brut y Tyw. a. 819.
2 Ob. a.d. 805.
3 a.d. 803. See Wilkins, Cone, t.i.pp. 163, 167. Smith's Beda, p. 787.

MERCIA. 241
magne should ever effect his return. To both demands the
archbishop at length yielded, but the promised restoration of
its privileges to the church of Canterbury was unfulfilled1.
The foregoing particulars of the Ufe of Cenwulf seem, as
we have aheady remarked, inconsistent with the praise so
liberally bestowed on him by the chroniclers, who, moreover,
inform us that, after a reign of twenty-six years, he passed to
the reward of his numerous good deeds, and was buried at
Winchelcomb2. Cenwulf was succeeded by his son Cenhelm, a child of
seven years, who, at the instigation of his sister Cwenthryth,
was basely murdered in a wood by iEsceberht, his tutor.
Ceolwulf, a brother of Cenwulf, then succeeded to the throne,
from which he was driven two years afterwards by the usurper
Beornwulf, a Mercian without any pretensions by birth3.
Mercia now rapidly approached its fall.
The history of the smaller states contributing to form what
by later writers has commonly, though erroneously, been
caUed the Heptarchy, is almost whoUy lost. Even the genea
logies of their kings, which among those people constituted
the chief basis of their annals, is, soon after the introduction
of Christianity, defective, and only the stories or rather le
gends of a few pious nuns, according to the usual pattern,
and in the customary strains of praise, were composed. What
beyond this is known of their kingdoms, consists in accounts
of the victories of theh more powerful neighbours, and iso
lated traces of resistance on the part of the weaker.
None of these states excites the curiosity of the historical
inquirer so much as that of East Angha, which, inhabited
by Germans probably before the time ofHengest and Horsa,
entirely surrounded by German neighbours, in no contact
with the Britons, must necessarily have presented a most
faithful picture of Teutonic antiquity. Even at the present
1 Evidentiae Eccles. Cantuar. ap. Twysden, p. 2213.
2 Sax. Chron. a. 819. [H. Hunt. lib. iv. " Cenwlf regnavit xxvi annis
pacifice, et mortuus est communi morte."— T.] 3 Fl. Wigorn. lngulph.
VOL. I. B

242 EAST ANGLIA.
day in no other part of England do so many well preserved
German names of places declare who were their ancient lords
or founders. Many remarkable traditions, though hitherto
not sufficiently investigated and sifted for use as materials of
history, are preserved relative to this district. Its position
was particularly favourable to an intercourse with the Old-
Saxons, and we may regard not only London, in those remote
times, but also the East Anghan ports Lynn, Yarmouth and
Dunwich, as resorts for Frisic, Saxon and GaUic mariners
and members of the several commercial guilds or ' hansen.'
This connexion with Germany declares itself in the legends
of East AngUa, according to which Eadmund, who reigned
there in the ninth century, was a son of Alcmund, a king of
Saxony, and born at Nuremberg. The land itself bore for
the most part a close resemblance to the opposite marshy
coasts of HoUand and Friesland, and it was only after the
lapse of many ages that the drained fens of Cambridgeshire,
or of the so-caUed isle of Ely, begun to yield to the inmates
of the several cloisters there the blessing of the land of Go
shen. As Offa against the Welsh, so had the first kings of
East Anglia raised a vast rampart, defended by a ditch,
against Mercia, which bore the name of the Recken-dyke,
though known at a later period among the common people
as St. Edmund's, sometimes the devU's, and lastly as Cnuf s,
or Henry the First's1. We have aheady seen that this dyke
was no safeguard against the powerful Penda ; such artificial
defences tending generaUy to the restraint of intercourse in
times of peace, and, in times of danger, to the injury of the
people, by a delusive appearance of security. It long con
tinued, however, to define the limit of the authority of the
nominal kings of the country, and afterwards of the peaceful
jurisdiction of the crosier of Norwich.
After the kings Sigeberht and Ecgric had faUen in battle
against Penda, Anna, the son of Mne, a brother of the Bret-
1 Fl. Wigorn. a. 905. "Limes S. Eadmundi." Cf. Sax. Chron. h. a.

EAST ANGLIA. 243
walda Reedwald, shared the same fate. He was succeeded
by his brother ^Ethelhere, who, compelled to submit to the
formidable conqueror, was in the following year slain with
him in the memorable battle against Oswiu of Bernicia 1. It
does not appear that Anna left any male offspring. Of his
four daughters, Sexburh, married to Earconberht king of
Kent, and ^Ethelthryth to Ecgfrith of Northumbria, died
abbesses of Ely ; iEthelburh was abbess of Faremoustier en
Brie, and Wihtburh a nun at Ely2. iEthelhere was succeeded
by his brother JEthelwald3, who was followed by Ealdwulf4,
a son of his brother iEthelhere, who, after a reign of forty-
nine years, was succeeded by his brother iElfwold5. This
prince seems to have been the last of the direct line of the
Uffings, as after his death we find East Anglia divided be
tween Beonna and ^thelberht or Alberht6, who were fol
lowed by ^Ethehed, the father, by his queen Leofrun, of
iEthelberht, the unfortunate victim of Offa and Cynethryth.
The history of no Anglo-Saxon state is so defective as that
of the East Saxons. At an early period in subjection to the
1 Sax. Chron. a. 655.
2 Beda, iii. 8, iv. 19. Fl. Wigorn. Geneal. 3 a.d. 655.
4 a.d. 664. Fl. Wigorn. and Geneal. Ealdwulf was present at the
Synod of Heathfield; his mother was Hereswith, a sister of St. Hild.
Beda, iv. 17, 23. He died, according to the Ann. Lauresh., in 713. See
Literary Introduction, p. xxxvi. note 3.
5 A letter of his to archbishop Boniface is extant. See Max. Bibl.
Patrum, t. xiii. ep. lxxvi.
6 Sim. Dunelm. a. 749. " Elfwald rex Orientalium Anglorum defunctus
est, regnumque Hunbeanna et Albert sibi diviserunt." So Chron. Mailr.
In the belief, however, that the first-mentioned of these personages never
existed, I feel no scruple in eliminating the name from the list of East
Anglian kings. Simeon's original was apparently some Saxon chronicle,
where two words were joined, as aej-fceji himbeanna fens fco nice, after
him Beanna (Beonna) succeeded ; out of which, misled by the near resem
blance in Saxon manuscript of im to un, he formed the name of Hun
beanna. Florence (Geneal.) says, "regnante Offa Beorna regnavit in East
Anglia, et post eum ^Ethelredus," etc. In ' Beorna ' the final vowel ap
pears very suspicious, while Beonna (written also Beanna and Bynna) is a
common Saxon name. This mistake has undoubtedly arisen from the slight
difference in Saxon MS. between n and p. — T.
B 2

244 ESSEX.
kings of Kent, they subsequently feU under that of Mercia,
or perhaps together with Mercia, under that of Northumbria.
Some battles with Wessex in which, about the year 617, theh
kings Sexred, Sseward and Sigeberht were slain, indicate a
short interval of independence. To these succeeded Sige
berht, surnamed the Little, a son of Saeward, who was fol
lowed by Sigebert the Good, the son of Sigebald and friend
of Oswiu, at whose instance he turned to the Christian faith
and received baptism. He was assassinated by two brothers,
who, as we are told, hated him for his merciful disposition.
He was foUowed by his brother Swithhelm, also a convert to
Christianity1. It is probable that the East Saxons were con
quered by Penda, though the chroniclers have not conde
scended to record the event; but who, as a matter far more
important, inform us that king Sebbe (Sebbi) assumed the
tonsure, and hved till the year 694 ; and afterwards that the
youthful Offa also abdicated the throne and made a pilgrimage
to Rome2. His successor was Selred, who was slain, but
whether in battle or otherwise we are not informed3.
Though under subjection to Mercia, the old race of the
Offings continued to rule, whose genealogy, though not alto
gether clear, yet sufficiently shows the legitimate succession.
From the reign of Sleda it seems to have been observed as
a family law, during a period of two hundred and fifty years,
1 a.d. 660. Beda, iii. 22. Fl. Wigorn. Geneal.
2 a.d. 709. Beda (v. 19) says of him, "Offa juvenis amantissimae
aetatis et venustatis," but styles him merely "Alius Sigheri": hence it
would seem that he had never assumed the reins of government. The
charter in Thorne (ap. Twysden, p. 2219) issued by " Offa rex Anglorum,"
in the 38th year of his reign, is not of 690, but a century later, and is a
charter of Offa of Mercia. [See the document in Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 191,
where it is marked as spurious. — T.]
3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 746. This prince has by
some writers, following a blunder of the Chron. Mailros., rather than the
authority of Florence, been placed among the rulers of East Anglia, while
his name alone would have been sufficient to show the race to which he
belonged. — T.

KENT. 245
that the names of their kings should begin with the same
letter. To these probably a king Sigebald belonged, who
endeavoured to prevaU on Boniface to become the spiritual
guide of his people1. Even of London itself, the most im
portant place in Essex, we find scarcely any accounts beyond
the names of some ecclesiastics : it must with its environs at
an early period have fallen under subjection to Mercia2.
Kent, though probably not the oldest of the Germanic
states in Britain, had, through the valour of its first kings and
leaders, as weU as by its earUer connexion with the Frankish
realm, and its adherence to the continental church, acquired
a certain eminence and even precedence over the other insular
kingdoms. Soon, however, after the death of ^Ethelberht,
under his son Eadbald, Kent sank into a condition more
commensurate with its physical strength, although the sister
of Eadbald was married to the powerful Eadwine of North
umbria, and himself, now reclaimed from his criminal passion
for his step-mother, had espoused Emma, a Frankish prin
cess3. Eadbald was succeeded by Earconberht4, his son by
Emma, who guilefully supplanted his elder brother Eormen-
red, the eldest son of Eadbald. Like his father, Earconberht
reigned a round number of twenty-four years. His ecclesi
astical regulations are mentioned with praise, and for him was
reserved the total destruction of idols. His son Ecgberht
succeeded to the throne, on which, as long as his two cousins,
^Ethelred and ^Ethelberht, the sons of his father's eldest
brother, Eormenred, were alive, he felt no security. A thane
1 Bonifacii Epist. xlix.
8 W. Malm. lib. i. " Londonia cum circumjacentibus regionibus, Mer-
ciorum regibus, quamdiu ipsi imperitaverunt, paruit."
3 For the date of his death (20 June) see Literary Introduction, p. xxxvi.
note 3. It is also given by Thorne, p. 1 769, though not by the older writers.
Emma's name appears in a charter of Eadbald a. 618. See Smith's Beda,
p. 694 [and Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 8, where it is marked as spurious],
Emma was probably a daughter of the Austrasian king Theudebert IL
Langhorne, Chron. Reg. Angl. p. 155. Pagi, a. 640.
4 Beda, iii. 8. Sax. Chron. a. 640.

246 KENT.
named Thunor, either divining the wish or obeying the com
mand of his master, murdered the innocent princes1. Ac
cording to the beautiful legend, to which history itself will
not refuse a space, their bodies were buried by the murderer
in the king's palace, under the royal seat ; but a heavenly
light was seen to shine over theh resting-place, which led to
the detection of the foul misdeed. The guilty king gave to
Eormenbeorh2, a sister of the murdered princes, a space of
land as blood-fine (manb6t) ; thus making atonement to the
secular, as he did afterwards to the ecclesiastical law, by a
public supplication and the founding of a monastery in the
Isle of Thanet. The course of a hind during a day deter
mined the extent of the land ; and the murderer Thunor was
swallowed by the gaping earth. Of the daughters of Earcon
berht, by his wife Sexburh, a daughter of Anna king of the
East Angles, we find that Earcongote became abbess of Fare-
moustier ; Eormengild was married to Wulfhere of Mercia.
Eadric, the son of Ecgberht3, was deprived of his throne by
his uncle Hlothhsere (Hlothhaeri), with whom he seems, how
ever, to have for some time reigned conjointly. With the
help of the South Saxons Eadric at length overcame his faith
less kinsman in a battle, who died of his wounds4. After a
reign of about a year and a half, Eadric was carried off by a
violent death5, when Kent, as we shall presently see6, became
a prey to invaders, and the seat of a war with CeadweaUa of
Wessex, until, at the expiration of nine years, the legitimate
succession was restored in the person of Wihtraed son of
Ecgberht7, with whom, at least in the early part of his reign,
1 Sax. Chron. a. 640. Sim. Dunelm. h. a., whose narrative of the mur
der is particularly circumstantial and florid. Malmesbury merely alludes
to it. See also Thorne, p. 1906.
2 Called also Domneva. Sim. Dunelm. Fl. Wigorn. She was married
to Merewald, a son of Penda, king of the West Hecanas. — T.
3 Ob. a.d. 673.
4 Beda, iv. 26. Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 685.
6 Beda, iv. 26. W. Malm. lib. i. 6 See p. 260.
7 Sax. Chron. a. 694. This date can apply only to his becoming sole

KENT. 247
a certain Swasbheard or Waebheard appears to have been
associated. After a reign of thirty-three years, Wihtraed was
succeeded by his sons, Eadberht1, ^Ethelberht II.2 — six years
before whose death the capital suffered by fire — and Alric3,
in whom, after a reign of thirty-four years, the race of the
^Escings became extinct. Eadberht seems to have had a son
Eardulf4, who for some years reigned with his uncle, but
died before him. It was Alric who yielded to the superior
power of Offa in the battle of Otford. The state of Kent in
the foUowing times is extremely obscure. The smaU territory
was often divided between two or more dependent kings5,
and served as an appanage for the sons of the Mercian or
West Saxon sovereigns. Of Eadberht Praen we have already
made mention under Cenwulf of Mercia. The see of Canter
bury imparted to this httle kingdom a greater degree of in
tegrity than it could else have enjoyed in existence with the
possessor of the kingdom, as we find him in 692 already reigning con
jointly with Swaebheard. See Beda, v. 8. — T.
1 Ob. a.d. 748. A charter of donation to the church of Canterbury
(Thorne, p. 2209), purporting to be granted by Eadbrith Eating, is with
out doubt a forgery of comparatively recent date, by one who confounded
Eadberht of Kent with the Northumbrian king Eadberht the son of Eata.
— T.
2 Ob. a.d. 760. As characteristic of the age may be noticed iEthel-
berht's request to the venerable archbishop Boniface, that he would send
him some hawks. Bonif. Ep. xl. His mother, the consort of Wihtraed,
was named iEthelburh (Aedilburg). See fac-simile charter of 697 in the
Antiquarian Repertory, vol. ii. p. 133, also Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 50.
3 Beda, v. 23. Sax. Chron. a. 725.
4 A charter of Eardulf, dated 762, is extant in the Textus Roffensis
(Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 115) of a donation to the church of St. Andrew at
Rochester. The date is evidently a clerical error which may be corrected
by the substitution of v for x, making it cclvii. instead of cclxii. A dona
tion of Eardulf without date is given in Twysden, p. 2220. See also a
letter from him to Lullus archbishop of Mentz (Ep. Bonif. xxxvi.) written
conjointly with Eardulf bishop of Rochester.
6 See charter, dated 762, of Sigiraed king of Kent of donation to Ro
chester, signed also by " Eadberht rex Cantiae ; " and another of about the
same date, signed by " Eanmund rex." Charters of Ecgberht are also ex
tant, dating from 779 to 791, in one of which a " Heahberht rex " appears
among the signatures. See Cod. Diplom. t. i. — T.

248 SUSSEX.
powerful states of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. To
the more universal civilization of Kent it is probably owing,
that the earliest Anglo-Saxon laws extant are those enacted
under the kings of that country, viz. iEthelberht, Hlothhaere
and Eadric, and Wihtraed.
Sussex, the kingdom of iElle, the first Bretwalda of Anglo-
Saxon tradition, sank soon after the death of that prince into
a state bordering on nonentity. When we consider its smaU
extent in comparison with the neighbouring kingdoms, as
well as its position, unfavourable even at the present day to
purposes connected with navigation, and too remote from the
centre of the country for pohtical influence, we can ascribe
the part it acted under the sway of Mile only to the personal
character of that chieftain, and to the valour, displayed also
at a later period, of its rugged inhabitants. This vhtue of
the South Saxons is conspicuous on almost every occasion
where theh name occurs in history; as in the deadly conflict
with Ceolwulf of Wessex, in their wars with his successor
CeadweaUa, as weU as in instances hereafter to be mentioned.
The late conversion of the South Saxons, and the wUd state
of the country have been aheady noticed. To these circum
stances, and to the necessarUy consequent lack of literary
ecclesiastics, it is to be ascribed, that we do not possess even
a meagre series of their rulers, much less any circumstantial
details concerning them. They were the vassals sometimes of
Wessex, sometimes of Mercia. iEthelwealh, the first Chris
tian king of Sussex, received from Wulfhere, king of Mercia,
the investiture of the Isle of Wight, and of the maegth1
or tribe of the Meanwaras in Hampshire ; we, nevertheless,
regard him as the vassal of Wessex, as weU as his successors,
whether under the denomination of heretogas (duces), kings,
or under-kings. In the latter days of ^Ethelwealh occurs the
aid, already noticed, afforded by Sussex to Eadric king of
1 Tribe, territory, so denominated from its inhabitants being all of the
same race or tribe.

SMALLER STATES. 249
Kent. ^Ethelwealh, we are informed, was succeeded by
Eadric, who, like his predecessor, fell in a battle against
Ceadwealla of Wessex1. At a later period the conquest by
Offa of the territory around Hastings is recorded without any
mention on the occasion of a king of Sussex8. It is the echo
of ^EUe's name alone to which Sussex is indebted for a place
in the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy ; a denomination equaUy accu
rate or inaccurate with most similar expressions adopted for
the purpose of generalizing the particular facts of history.
More desirable than showing that the usuaUy so-called
greater kingdoms did not always subsist in a state of in
dependence3, it would be to give some account of the smaller
ones, aU traces of which have insensibly, and at an early
period, almost vanished from the page of history. To these
belong — Middel-Seaxe (Middlesex), which owes this appel
lation both to its position with regard to Essex and to the
temporary neighbourhood of the West Saxons, through the
conquest of Ceolwulf, but which subsequently passed to the
Mercians ; Suthrige (Surrey) 4 ; the Jutish state on the Isle
of Wight; Magesetania, or the land of the Magesaetas or
Hwiccas (Worcestershire) and of the Hecanas (Hereford
shire) : Middel Engle; Elmet5; the Lindisfaras (Lindsey),
who were in later times governed by under-kings, and, when
that title fell into disuse, by heretogas and ealdormen or
gerefas; — and, without doubt, many others, whose history
may yet receive illustration both from local tradition and the
1 W. Malm. lib. i.
? After the rulers mentioned in the text we meet with the names of
Huna, Numa (Nunna), Nothelm, and Wattus, as .governing under the
supremacy of Ine ; and at a later period, Osmund, JSthelherht and Sige
berht are named as kings of the South Saxons. A charter of Nothelm is
subscribed by " Caenredus, Rex West Saxonum : " this was, no doubt, the
father of Ine. See Palgrave, vol, ii. p. cclxxiv. — T.
3 Some of the elder chronicles, omitting Essex and Sussex, speak often
of five Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Chron. Angliae MS. Hamburg.
4 Fl. Wigorn. a. 823.
5 See p. 148. Beda (ii. 14) speaks only of the Silva Elmete.

250 SMALLER STATES.
use of hitherto neglected records. At present we can speak
of the greater number of these districts only with uncertainty,
though some others may with confidence be specified, as the
extensive territory of the Pecsaetas (Peakland in Derbyshire) ;
of the East and West WUsaetas (Wiltshhe); the Ciltern-
saetas ; Spalda (Spalding) l ; the South and North Gyrwas2.
We know, however, from the accounts transmitted to us rela
tive to the most important of these smaU states, the Hwiccas,
that they were generaUy held by branches of the greater royal
houses in hereditary succession, and were sometimes in the
joint possession of two or more brothers. Of this territory
the first princes, whose names are recorded, seem to be Ean-
here and his brother Eanfrith, whose daughter, as we have
already seen, was married to iEthelwealh, king of the South
Saxons. These were probably succeeded by Osric3 (supposed
to be a nephew of .(Ethelred of Mercia) and Oswald4, the
former ruling over Gloucestershhe, the other over Worcester
shire. Their follower Oshere5 was succeeded by his sons
iEthelheard, ^Ethelweard and ^Ethehic6, and these by the
brothers Eanberht, Uhtred and Aldred7. Under or after
1 In a charter of 736 mention is made of the Husmeri on the banks of
the Stour. Smith's Beda, p. 786.
2 Considerable information concerning the territorial partition of England
before the division into shires might be derived from the ancient notices in
Gale, t. i. p. 748, were they not unfortunately too incorrectly written or
printed to admit of our founding even a conjecture on the greater part of
them : c. g. to the South Saxons, whose territory is estimated by Beda
(iv. 13) at 7000 hides, it assigns no less than 100,000 hides. See also
Ellis's Introd. to Domesday, vol. i. p. 145.
3 Beda, iv. 23. " provinciam Huicciorum cui rex Osric praefuit." Charter
a. 676, in Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 16, granting 100 mamentes to the abbess
Bertana for the founding of a convent near Hat Bathu.
4 Monast. t. i. p. 541.
5 Charter aa. 680 and 693 ? in Cod. Diplom. t. i. pp. 22, 41.
6 Charter 704-709, 706, in Cod. Diplom. t. i. pp. 60, 64, 65, 96. Hickes,
t. i. pp. 169, 170. Smith's Beda, p. 786.
7 Chart, from a. 757 to 780 in Cod. Diplom. t. i. Hickes, t. i. p. 170 sq.
Smith's Beda, p. 767- This charter is perhaps not spurious, but for v we
should read x, making the date 761 instead of 756.

WESSEX. 251
these princes, who aU bore the title of king, we meet with
others styled ealdormen (principes, duces), of whom Uttle
more is known than the names 1.
It now remains for us to turn our attention to Wessex, and
to consider what were the circumstances which favoured this
land more than the other states, and, for some centuries, caused
it to be especially regarded as England. A solution of the
problem will be found in the chcumstance, that when North
umbria was compelled to renounce all thoughts of further
aggrandizement, when the hostile neighbours of Mercia were
confined within their own limits by Offa's dyke, Wessex,
though defended neither by natural barriers nor early success
in arms, always found not only a field for warfare, but also
land to bestow on the valiant, both, on the Severn and in
Cornwall, the land of the strangers : hence martial discipline,
legitimate succession, and a tranquil state of possession were
rendered so permanent in the country, that it became enabled
to adopt gradual improvements, tiU, in one of its princes, it
found a clear-sighted and energetic man, who united the
descendants of the invading hordes into closer connexion,
and brought them, as far as newly occurring impediments
permitted, to a higher degree of political culture.
The successor of Ceolwulf, Cynegils (Cynegisl), and lat
terly jointly with him his son Cwichelm2, conducted the war
against the Britons with hereditary success. The boundaries
of the very smaU state were thus gradually enlarged, which
had hitherto comprised only the districts forming in later
1 Palgrave, vol. ii. p. cclxxxix. We find a. 800 a dux Merc.iorum iEthel-
mund, whose father Ingeld must have borne the,same title under Aldred.
See charter in Hickes, 1. cit. " dux et prefectus regis." Oshere also says
(Cod. Diplom. p. 41), " consentiente comite meo Cutberhto." The title of
princeps was frequently borne by ealdormen. See Hickes, 1. c. 171.
2 Fl. Wigorn. aa. 614, 628, 636, 648 ; also Alfred of Beverley. Malmes
bury indeed says (lib.i.2), "filii Celrici, Cinegislus et Quicelmus ;" though
he afterwards calls Cuthred, the son of Cwichelm, the fratruelis of Cen
wealh, the son of Cynegils. The cause of the confusion is probably that
the son died before the father.

252 CYNEGILS AND CWICHELM.
times the shires of Hampton, Berks, Wilts, Gloucester to
the Severn, and a part of Oxfordshire. These kings pene
trated far into the territory of the South Britons, who were
defeated at Beamdun (Bampton). Seized with a panic at the
sight of their well-appointed foes, of theh gleaming battle-
axes, and the magnitude of their spears, the Britons took to
flight, leaving two thousand and sixty-two of theh country
men dead on the field1. The two kings were equaUy success
ful against Essex, which lost three kings, the sons of Saeberht,
in a bloody battle from which very few escaped, flight being
impeded by the heaps of slain and torrents of blood2. Penda
made war on them, though in the battle of Cirencester3 he
did not overcome them. It was only in the contest with
Eadwine of Northumbria that they lost a part of theh pos
sessions, and the murderous attempt made on the life of that
prince, at the instigation of the exasperated Cwichelm, led to
a defeat4, which does not, however, seem to have been fol
lowed up by Eadwine. CynegUs, at the instance of Oswald
of Northumbria, became a convert to Christianity, and was
baptized by bishop Birinus. Cwichelm also received baptism
and died in the year following5.
The succeeding years passed on quietly in setthng the new
ecclesiastical arrangements. Cenwealh, the second son of
Cynegils, had married a sister of Penda, by which connexion
a most dangerous enemy or neighbour — the expressions were
in those days synonymous — seemed concUiated. Cenwealh,
on the death of his father, inherited his throne6, but not his
principles. He rejected Christianity, repudiated his wife, and
married Sexburh, who survived him. Penda avenged the
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H.Hunt, a. 614.
2 In this and similar descriptions Henry of Huntingdon is easily to be
recognised. 3 Sax. Chron. a. 628.
4 Beda, ii. 9. Sax. Chron. a. 626. W. Malm. lib. i.
6 Beda, iii. 7. Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. aa. 635, 636.
6 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 643. Three MSS. of the Chron.
read 641.

CENWEALH. 253
injury of his sister by driving Cenwealh from his throne,
who found an asylum at the court of Anna, king of the East
Angles, with whom he passed three years, and by whose
counsel and example he was converted to the Christian faith.
With the assistance of Cuthred, the son of Cwichelm, he was
reinstated in his kingdom, and rewarded his nephew by the
resignation in his favour of a third part of his dominions, or,
according to other accounts, with a grant of three thousand
hydes at ^Escesdun1. This little state bordered on Mercia,
and was probably Ashdown in the south of Berkshire.
The reign of Cenwealh is important on account of the
aggrandizement of Wessex. He defeated in several battles
the Britons of Dyvnaint and Cernau, who had endeavoured
to throw off the Saxon yoke2, first at Wirtgeornesburh, after
wards, with more important results, at Bradenford (Bradford)
on the Avon in WUtshire8, and again at Peonna (on the hill
of Pen in Somersetshire), where the power of the Britons
melted Uke snow before the sun, and the race of Brut received
an incurable wound, when he drove them as far as the
Pedrede (the river Parret)4. A consequence of this augmen
tation of territory was the establishment of a second bishopric
in his kingdom, at Winchester, where he also founded a
monastery and a church, famed, even at its first erection, for
its magnificence 5-
Though the conduct of Cenwealh towards AgUbert, of
which mention has already been made, may appear unjust,
it seems, nevertheless, to have chiefly resulted from the ardent
zeal of the new convert ; nor perhaps ought we to blame in
1 Sax. Chron. aa. 648, 661. Fl. Wigorn. a. 648*
2 W. Malm. lib. i. " Britannos antiquae libertatis conscientiam frementes,
et ob hoc crebram rebellionem meditantes, bis omnino protrivit ; primum
in loco qui dicitur Wirtgernesburg ; secundo juxta montem qui dicitur
Pene."— T.
3 Sax. Chron. a. 652, where it is merely stated that Cenwealh fought at
Bradford.— T.
4 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 658. 6 W. Malm. lib. i.

254 CENWEALH.
him the wish to possess a bishop speaking his mother-tongue,
the only one intelligible to him1 ; while to other distinguished
dignitaries of the Anglo-Saxon church, as in the instance of
Benedict Biscop, the founder of the monastery at Wearmouth,
he gave frequent proofs of good will2. The new ecclesiastical
organization was the more important, as the general admini
stration of the Anglo-Saxons had reference chiefly to the
military constitution, and could not be regarded as a moral
bond of union, such as the erection of the see of Win
chester must necessarily have been in a very high degree.
The old British ecclesiastical estabUshments were not dis
turbed, but rather cherished by the conqueror ; and we are
not ignorant of the donation by which the monks of Glaston
bury were induced, even on the grave of Arthur himself^ to
pray for the eternal salvation of the Germanic intruder 3-
More dangerous to Cenwealh was the contest which now
took place with the king of Mercia, Wulfhere, the brother of
his first consort ; for although, in the beginning of the cam
paign, the latter sustained an overthrow, and was probably
made a prisoner in the territory of Cuthred, at ^Escesdun,
where he appears as the assailing party4, yet, in the same
year, Cenwealh lost two valuable friends in his nephew
Cuthred and Cenberht, another under-king. The Mercians
too pressed forward, or were successfuUy supported by theh
southern friends, in return for the cession by Wulfhere of the
Isle of Wight, and of the Meanwara masgth or tribe, a por
tion of Hampshire, to his ally ^Ethelwealh, the apparently
new king of Sussex.
After a reign of more than thirty years Cenwealh died
1 Beda, iii. 7- "Rex, qui Saxonum tantum linguam noverat, pertaesus
barbarae loquelae, subintroduxit in provinciam alium suae linguae episcopum,
vocabulo Vini."
2 BedaeVita S.Benedicti. "cujus (sc. Coinwalh) ante non semel amicitiis
usus, et beneficiis erat adjutus."
3 Malmesb. de Antiq. Glaston. Eccl. ap. Gale, t. i. p. 308.
. 4 Sax. Chron. a. 661. Ethelw. lib. ii. 7. H.Hunt.

SEXBURH. 255
suddenly1 without children or lineal descendants. He had,
however, provided for the administration of his kingdom by
committing it to his queen Sexburh. The talents displayed
by this princess, both at the head of the army and of the
state, have been extolled in terms which show how great
must have been the impression made on her countrymen by
a phenomenon so rare as a reigning queen2. Nevertheless,
within a year the energies of Sexburh proved inadequate to
the cares and anxieties of the male dignity, which were not a
Uttle aggravated by the illegality of her pretensions. On the
death or expulsion of Sexburh8, two under-kings of Wessex,
jEscwine4, a lineal descendant of Ceolwulf, and Centwine,
the brother of Cenwealh, — who appears to have been the
only rightful heir, and whose exclusion by Sexburh seems
inexphcable, — governed the state, either in succession or
jointly, for several years. The obscurity attending these
reigns is further increased by the account, that the imme
diate successor of Sexburh was Cenfus, the father of ^Esc-
wine5. Even Beda, whose early years fell in this period,
knew little of the ten years' anarchy in the kingdom of Wes
sex. The existence of ^Escwine himself as king would pro
bably, Uke that of his father, have afforded matter of doubt,
1 Sax. Chron. a. 672. Bedae Vita S. Benedicti. " immatura morte prae-
reptus." 2 W. Malm. lib. i.
3 W. Malm. lib. i. " plus quam foemineos animos anhelantem vita de-
stituit, annua vix potestate perfunctam." [R. Wendover, p. 162, however,
says that she was expelled, " indignantibus regni magnatibus expulsa est a
regno, nolentibus sub sexu foemineomilitare." — T.] So also Matt. Westm.
a. 672.
4 Malmesbury says, " Escuinus, regali prosapiae proximus, quippe qui
fuerit Cinegisli ex fratre Cuthgislo abnepos." I follow Fl. Wigorn. a. 674,
and Geneal. ; also Sax. Chron.
5 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 674 ; but in Geneal. Regum W. Sax. he
says, "Deinde Kenfus duobus annis, secundum dicta regis iElfredi, juxta
vero Chronicam Anglicam, filius ejus jEscwinus fere tribus annis regnavit."
The latter account only is noticed by Florence in his Chronicle, and on the
authority of the ' Anglica Chronica Occidentalium Saxonum.'

256 CENTWINE.
had not a great battle which he fought against Wulfhere of
Mercia, who had advanced to Bedwin in WUtshhe, gained for
him a hero's fame. This bloody conflict was sufficiently im
portant to influence the accounts of it in a manner agreeable
to the local feelings of the narrators. WhUe the chronicler
of Middle England strives to secure the honours of a hard-
earned victory for the king of Mercia, he of Wessex— in
whose favour the retreat of the Mercians loudly speaks—
entertains no doubt of his defeat1. Bythe death ofiEscwine,
which foUowed soon after, Centwine appears as sole ruler of
the West Saxons.
The wars of the Anglo-Saxons with each other excited in
the Armoricans the hope of recovering the home of theh
fathers from the hand of the stranger. The absence of the
British king Cadwaladyr, who had departed on a pilgrimage
to Rome, and left his son Yvor to the care of the king of
Armorica, Alan the Second, encouraged the ambitious views
of that prince ; and a landing effected under the guidance of
Yvor and his cousin Inyr led to the conquest of the old
British country to the south of the Avon. Centwine led a
powerful army against the invaders, but a battle was pre
vented by an amicable arrangement, according to which Yvor
was invested by Centwine with the principaUty of Dyvnaint
and Cernau, and, it is said, obtained the hand of /Ethelburh,
a niece of the king of Wessex, and, at a subsequent period,
his kingdom also.
According to these and other Welsh narratives, Yvor ap
pears completely identical with Ine, the second successor of
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 675. Late writers follow H. Hunt. —
" Rex vero Mercensis, patria et avita virtute usus, aliquantulum praestan-
tior pugna fuit ; uterque tamen exercitus terribiliter contritus est," etc. —
and overlook W. of Malmesbury, who says, " ille (Escuinus) Mercios
anxia clade perculit." [The Saxon Chron. and Florence say nothing of the
result of the conflict ; the latter's silence seems certainly to be in favour of
the W. Saxons.— T.]

CENTWINE. 257
Centwine ; as the story of Yvor's father resembles that of
the predecessor of Ine1. The part assigned to the king of
Armorica in this expedition accords in no respect with the
weakness of character ascribed to him in other accounts2. It
must indeed be confessed that our knowledge of the history
of Wessex, derived from Anglo-Saxon sources, is highly
unsatisfactory ; we must, therefore, have occasional recourse
to the Welsh traditions, where, in consequence of the prox
imity of the two states, much latent history may reasonably
be supposed to exist3. If in this respect too little regard has
been shown to Jeffrey of Monmouth, on the other hand, care
must be taken not to overrate his contemporary Caradoc of
Llancarvan, though criticism has hitherto but seldom directed
its shafts against the latter, an accumulation of quotations
from whom imparts a show of deep research to some modern
historic productions. In most instances, however, of such
conflicting narratives, it may be assumed that the Welsh hi
storians adopted the policy of purloining from a successful
enemy, and skilfully transferring to his British contempo
raries, if not to imaginary personages, the object and reward
of his battles, the glory and lastingness of his individuality in
history. The case before us leads also to the remark, that a
simUarity of names sometimes occurs between the West
Saxons and the Britons, to be accounted for only by the sup
position of early alliances between both nations. With regard
to the name of CeadweaUa, it may not be unimportant, for
the genuineness of Anglo-Saxon history, to remark, that this
name, as in use among the old Germanic tribes, is to be found
in Caesar, and perhaps in Tacitus4.
1 Caradoc of Llancarvan, p. 13 sq.
2 Daru, Histoire de Bretagne.
? That a war like the above-mentioned was carried on may be inferred
from Florence a. 682, where it is said, " Centwine, rex West-Saxonum,
occidentals Britones usque ad mare in ore gladii fugavit." The Sax. Chr. and
other authorities state merely that Centwine drove the Britons to the sea.
4 Caesar (B. G. vi..31) informs us that a prince of the Eburones, a people
VOL. I. S

258 CEADWEALLA.
While Centwine maintained or restored the supremacy of
Wessex in the south of his kingdom, he extended its influence
also over the Britons of Gwent on the northern side, who had
endeavoured to cast off the Germanic yoke1. But more than
by external enemies, the tranquillity of Centwine was dis
turbed by his nearest relative, Ceadwealla, a bold aspiring
youth of the race of Cynric, and son of Cenberht, a sub-king,
whose territory is not mentioned2. Ceadwealla had been
banished by Centwine, but the flower of the warlike youth
gathered round the exile, who found a harbour in the forests
of Andredeswald and Chiltene on the boundary of Sussex.
With this valiant band he subdued that kingdom, and slew
its king ^Ethelwealh3 ; but Ceadwealla was subsequently ex
pelled by two ealdormen of Sussex, Berhthun and iEthelhun,
who through him had lost their former power and influence4.
At this juncture Centwine, it seems, abdicated the throne.
That this sickly and aged prince named Ceadwealla as his
successor, who had till then been the object of his persecu
tion5, is one of the many improbabihties with which the
near Liege and Aix-la-Chapelle, was called Cativolcus, which is, no doubt,
identical with Ceadwealla. The name in Tacitus (Ann. ii. 62), if correctly
recorded by him, is rather that of the British Cadwaladyr than of the king
of Wessex : " Erat inter Gothones nobilis juvenis nomine Catvalda." — T.
1 Malmesb. de Pont. t. i. p. 349. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, t. ii. 14.
2 In the Sax. Chr. a. 661 he is styled " Coenbyrht cyning." Fl. Wigorn.
" Cenbriht subregulus." Beda calls Ceadwealla merely " de regio genere
Geuissorum." The authorities agree as to his descent, with the exception
of Malmesbury, who calls him " Ceaulini exfratre Cuda pronepos," where
the last word shows that, for " fratre," we should read " Alio."
3 a.d. 685. Beda, iv. 15. Care should be taken not to confound ^Ethel-
wealh, king of Sussex, with iEthelwald (written in the charters Ecguald),
a vassal king under Ceadwealla. Wendover (t. i. p. 182) erroneously calls
the former Athelwoldus. — T.
4 Fl. Wigorn. a. 685. H. Hunt. lib. iii. "qui prius regnaverunt." [Very
probably a mistake for Beda's " qui deinceps regnum provincial tenuerunt."
— T.] yEthelhun is by Beda called " Andhunus ; " in Alfred's version,
" Hune." 6 Malmesb. de Gestis Pont. lib. v. 1. The Saxon Chronicle a. 685 does
not say that Centwine died in that year, but that " Ceadwalla began to

CEADWEALLA. 259
ecclesiastics have sought to embellish the life of their convert.
Ceadwealla was the nearest in succession, and had been con
verted to Christianity by Wilfrith, the banished bishop of
York, whom he had attached to himself in Sussex.
The first enterprise of Ceadwealla was to take vengeance
on Sussex. Berhthun was slain in battle, also Eadric, the
successor of ^Ethelwealh1, and Sussex was partitioned into
several smaU states or kingdoms, under the supremacy of
the king of Wessex.
A hard fate befell the Isle of Wight, which, only a few
years before, had, by Wulfhere of Mercia, been severed from
Wessex and ceded to Sussex, though governed by its own
prince, Arwald. The twelve hundred families, dwelling on
the island — the only Anglo-Saxon territory, to our knowledge,
which had not yet embraced Christianity — were nearly all
slaughtered by the yet unbaptized Ceadwealla, in fulfilment
contend for the kingdom." Malmesbury's words are, " Kentwinus morbo
et senio gravis, Cedwallam regii generis juvenem successorem decreverat."
The same writer afterwards adduces a charter dated in August 688, in
which the name of Centwine appears : " consilio et confirmations Kent-
uuini regis." If, therefore, this document be genuine, Centwine was then
not only living, but had retained the kingly title, and had, perhaps, after
the resignation of Ceadwealla, been required to give his sanction to a dona
tion. That Centwine abdicated and entered a cloister, having transferred
his kingdom to Ceadwealla as the next heir, appears from a disregarded
poem of Aldhelm in Alcwine's works (edit. Quercetan. f. 1675 sq.), where,
instead of ' Entuuini,' we should no doubt read ' Centwini.'
 " Entuuini filia regis.
Qui primus imperium Saxonum rite regebat.
 rexit regnum plures feliciter annos,
Donee conversus cellam migravit in almam.
Inde petit superas meritis splendentibus arces.
Post hunc successit bello famosus et armis
Rex Ceadualla, potens regni possessor, ut haeres 
Tertius accepit sceptrum regnator opimum
Quem clamant In incerto cognomine gentes.
Qui nunc imperium Saxonum jure gubernat."
[H. Hunt. a. 686 says, however, Centwino " Occidentalium rege defuncto,
Cedwalla post eum regnans." — T.]
1 a.d, 685. W. Malm. lib. i. 2. S 2

260 CEADWEALLA.
of a vow, that, if he took the island, he would devote to Christ
the fourth part both of the land and the spoil, and which he
performed by assigning it to Wilfrith, who happened to be
present, for religious purposes ; by him the same was trans
ferred to his nephew Bernwine, who, assisted by a priest
named Hiddila, effected the conversion of the island. Two
young brothers of Arwald fled from the enemy to the adjacent
Jutish province, and sought a refuge at Stoneham, where,
being betrayed to CeadweaUa, they were condemned to death.
On receiving this intelligence, Cyneberht, abbot of Hreut-
ford (Redbridge), besought the king, who had retired to that
neighbourhood for the cure of the wounds he had received in
the conflict with Arwald, that, if it were absolutely necessary
to slay the youths, he might be previously allowed to instU
into them the mysteries of the Christian faith. The pious
office being fulfilled they readily submitted to their fate l, and
the anniversary of the young martyrs was celebrated by the
church during many centuries2. From hence, accompanied
by his brother Mul, he proceeded into Kent, which he laid
waste, no resistance being offered by the inhabitants, who fled
on his approach3.
The rapid success which had crowned the enterprises of
CeadweaUa, and the internal dissensions which prevailed in
Kent, seduced him to allow his brother Mul to invade and
ravage that kingdom a second time. On this, as on the pre
vious occasion, towns and vUlages were abandoned by their
inhabitants, who retired on the advance of the enemy ; when
Mul, who is represented as endowed with all the qualities
constituting the old Germanic pagan prince and warrior, —
elegance of figure, grace of manners, liberahty, and valour
bordering on ferocity, — having with twelve attendants only
1 Beda, iv. 16.
2 The anniversary of the " Fratres Regis Arwaldi MM." was on the
21st of August.— T.
3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 686. W. Malm. lib. i.

CEADWEALLA. 261
entered a house for the sake of plunder, was discovered by
the country people and burnt to death. A bloody vengeance
for the death of his brother was taken by Ceadwealla, whose
devastations ceased not while any objects of rapine or slaughter
were to be found in the devoted province1.
Influenced apparently by the exhortations of his revered
friend Wilfrith, CeadweaUa, after a successful reign of two
years only, resolved to renounce his crown in favour of his
cousin Ine (Ini)2, and make a pilgrimage to Rome, for the
purpose of receiving baptism at the hands of pope Sergius.
On his way he was most honourably welcomed by Cunibert,
king of the Lombards, who had espoused Hermelind, an
Anglo-Saxon princess3. He was baptized on Easter-day, and
assumed the name of Peter in honour of the chief of the
apostles ; but before he had laid aside the white garb of bap
tism, he was seized with a malady which terminated in death
on the twentieth of April, eight days only after the ceremony,
in the thirtieth year of his age. He was interred in the church
of St. Peter, where an epitaph, placed by order of the pontiff,
recorded, during many ages, the sanctity of the Anglo-Saxon
king4. The early history of Ine is involved in obscurity. That the
Britons have identified him with their Ivor or Ynor has been
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 687. W. Malm. lib. i.
2 On the 19th Aug. 688 he issued a charter of donation. Malmesb. de
Pont. lib. v. [Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 32. Kemble questions the authenticity
of this document. — T.]
3 The remarkable connexion of this Lombard prince, as well as of his
father Bertari, with the insular Saxons, has been already noticed. From
the first part of her name we might be induced to seek for the kindred of
Hermelind among the kings of Kent. Cf. Paul. Warnef. lib. vi. u. 15.
4 Beda, v. 7 . The sepulchral inscription on Ceadwealla by S. Benedictus
Crispus, archbishop of Milan, was discovered in the 15th century, accord
ing to Johannes de Deio ' de Successione S. Barnabas,' p. 23, but has since
disappeared. It is given by Beda 1. cit. The Britons make their Cadwaladyr
die at Rome on the same day (xii. Kal . Maii) of the year 689. Galf. Monom.
lib. xii. 18. Brut y Tyw. a. 681 also says he died at Rome, but Annal.
Camb. a. 682 that he died of pestilence in his own country.

262 INE.
already noticed, and even the English accounts of his descent
are inconsistent with each other ; still there appears no vahd
reason for rejecting the testimony of the oldest authorities,
which represent him as the son of Cenred, a sub-king, and,
like his predecessor, a descendant of Cutha, the son of
Ceawlin1. The first years of Ine's reign must have been passed in
disquietude, though we are not informed against what foe,
foreign or domestic, he had to contend. Not tUl after a lapse
of five years does he appear to have been able to wield the
sword of vengeance against the people of Kent for the mur
der of his kinsman Mul2, when the Kentish king Wihtraed
deemed it prudent to avoid an unequal contest, and to ap
pease him by the payment of thirty thousand pounds3, the
wergeld or legal price of the prince, who it was considered
had not faUen in open warfare, but had been treacherously
murdered. Impelled by hereditary hatred, Ine is stated to have di-
1 The title " subregulus " is found in Fl. Wigorn. Geneal. Cf. Asseri Vita
JElfredi. Sax. Chron. a.. 855. Fl. Wigorn. a. 688. The varying genealogy
in Malmesbury, lib. i.2, "Ina, qui Cinegisli exfratre Cuthbaddo pronepos,"
might excite scruples in a modern historian, being similar to that in the
Chronicle a. 688, but which is not to be found in all the manuscripts, and
is at variance with the other one, a. 855. Cynegils, otherwise known as
the son of Ceolric, gets thereby another father, and Cuth wine, the father of
Ceolwald or Cuthbald, becomes, instead of a grandson, a son of Ceawlin.
In Malmesb. de Pont. lib. ii. Ine's father is named Cissa, and so again in
lib. v. (ap. Wharton, t. ii.), though the edition of this work in Gale (t. i.
p. 346) gives the name according to the charter there printed, " Cisi, Cenred,
pater Inae." [In the preamble to his laws he says, "I Ine, with the counsel
of Cenred my father." — T.]
2 According to one MS. of the Sax. Chr. and Fl. Wigorn. a. 694, Mul
was a brother of Ine as well as of Ceadwealla. Probably Ine and Mul had
the same mother. [R. Wendover, t. i. p. 187, calls him " cognatus;" Ethel
werd, "propinquus"(Inae). — T.]
3 The Sax. Chron. a. 694 says 30,000 pounds. W. Malm. lib. i. " nun-
dinantur pacem triginta millibus auri mancis." Florence has 3750 pounds
(libras), which, reckoning eight mancuses to the pound, agrees with Mal
mesbury. Ethelwerd's account is, that it was " 30,000 solidi, per singulos
constanti numero sexdecim nummis."

INE. 263
rected his arms against East Angha, which he ravaged, having
previously expelled the nobility from the country1.
During the long reign of Ine hostile collisions with the
Britons were inevitable : among these the most memorable is
the war against Geraint, king of Cernau, conducted by Ine
and his kinsman Nunna, which ended in the flight of the
British prince2.
A power next to the king's was possessed, from the days
of Centwine, in the southern parts of Wessex, by a king or
sub-king Baldred, whose influence and importance, though
apparent from other sources, is rendered more manifest by
the circumstance, that the Welsh assign to a prince of Devon
and Cornwall living at the time the Saxon name of Baldrich3.
The hardest conflicts were, however, those of the Anglo-
Saxons among themselves, in which they engaged with all the
ardour and ferocity of their forefathers, for martial glory and
supremacy in their loosely bound confederation. In the year
715 a battle was fought between the armies of Mercia and
Wessex, in which it was unknown on which side the slaughter
was most appaUing. The scene of this engagement was Wod-
nesbeorh (Wenborough in Wiltshire), a spot which from its
position either natural, or perhaps strengthened by art as a
protection to a temple of Woden, had already been strewed
with the corpses of the slain in former conflicts.
1 W. Malm. lib. i. " Nee solum Cantuaritae, sed et Orientales Angli
haereditarium exceperunt odium, omni nobilitate primo pulsa, post etiam
bello fusa." 2 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 710.
3 W. Malm, de Antiq. Glaston. p. 308, a. 681 . " Baldred rex  Ken-
wine etiam consentiente dedit," p. 309. "Lanctocay  Kenwino etiam
et Baldredo consentientibus dedit." Ibid. p. 311. " frivilegium regis Inae,
a. 725. Ina  hortatu Balddredi et Athelardi subregulorum." — "Balt-
rec." Ine continues, " a predecessoribus meis Kenewalchio, Kenwino,
Cedwalla, Baldredo confirmatum." At the end, " Ego Baldredus rex con-
firmavi. Ego Adelard frater reginae consensi." Cuthred also in a charter
a. 744 calls Baldred his predecessor, and places him between Centwine and
Ceadwealla. In a letter of Aldhelm, written about 701, he is called
" patricius Baldredus." Ib. 347. By the Britons, " Baldrich; " see Caradoc,
edit. Wynne, p. 17.

264 INE.
But not alone for his warlike achievements, which almost
exclusively occupy the chronicles of the time, has the name
of Ine been celebrated. A collection of the laws of Wessex,
made by his command, is, with the exception of those of the
Kentish kings, the earliest known to us among the Anglo-
Saxons, These laws, seventy-six in number, have special
reference to theft, murder or manslaughter, feuds, and pecu
niary compensations (bota), with others applicable to the
British subjects (Wealas), who are placed on a footing nearly
equal to that of their Germanic conquerors.
Ine also improved the ecclesiastical administration of his
kingdom, by detaching from the diocese of Winchester, after
the death of bishop Hedde in 7°3, a new bishopric, the see
of which was established at Shireburn1. Among his nume
rous praiseworthy services in the founding and endowment
of monasteries, the rebuilding and enlarged endowment of
the old British abbey of Glastonbury, for the repose of the
soul of his murdered kinsman Mul, is the most memorable2.
But we feel more particularly induced to ascribe to the actions
and views of Ine a nobler character, when we know that his
friend and counsellor was the excellent bishop Aldhelm (Eald-
helm), a man on whom no brighter lustre can be shed by the
royal descent assigned to him by his rank-adoring country
men, and whose merits we unhesitatingly place on a level
with those of the Venerable Beda3 ; for though in compre
hensiveness of knowledge he may not, perhaps, have been his
equal, yet as a Latin poet he stood higher, merited greater
praise for the cultivation of his mother-tongue, left him far
1 Malmesb. de Pont. lib. ii.
2 Malmesb. de Antiq. Glaston. ap. Gale, t. i.
3 Aldhelm ob. a. 709. See W. Malm. lib. i. Also the 5th book of Mal
mesbury, De Gestis Pontificum, published in Savile and Gale, also in
Wharton's Anglia Sacra, which is a biography of Aldhelm. An edition of
his Latin poems as well as of his work ' De Septenario et de Re Gram-
matica ac Metrica ad Alfridum regem Northumbrorum' is in Maii Classici
Auctores e Vat. Codd. ed. t. v.

INE. 265
behind in knowledge of the canon and Roman law, and greatly
exceUed him in influential, practical activity. For his ex
tensive knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues he was
indebted to the school of Canterbury, more especially to
Hadrian ', abbot of the abbey of St. Augustine in that city,
who did not come to England till Aldhelm was near thirty
years old ; though his earlier instruction, particularly in dia
lectics, he owed to the abbey, founded by a Scot of Maildulfes-
burh, the modern Malmesbury2, a celebrated monk of which,
WiUiam of Malmesbury, has raised an honourable biographic
monument to this most renowned scholar, and subsequently
abbot of his cloister. In enumerating and characterizing the
works of Aldhelm, no observation is more descriptive both of
him and his nation, even in our days, than that which di
stinguishes pomp as a leading quality 3-
An individual, around whose name a still brighter glory
shines than even that around Aldhelm's, may not here be
totally passed over in silence. Winfrith, more generally known
under his assumed name of Boniface, was a contemporary of
Ine, and, previously to his triumphs over paganism in Ger
many, had been employed by that prince on a mission to the
archbishop of Canterbury, a choice equally illustrative of the
discriminating sagacity of the monarch, and honourable to the
future apostle of" our continental brethren. As the record of
the greater and holier acts of Boniface belongs not to our
history, we must, though reluctantly, limit our notice of him
to this little more than simple mention of his name4.
The latter years of Ine's reign were less prosperous than
most of the earlier ones. Under the year 721 it is recorded
1 Beda, iv. 1, v. 20. W. Malm. lib. i. See p. 181.
2 Beda, v. 18, and Smith's note.
3 Malmesb. de Pont. ap. Gale, p. 342. " Graci involute, Romani splen-
dide, Angli pompatice dictare solent. Quem (Aldhelmum) si perfecte
legeris, et ex acumine Graecum putabis, et ex nitore Romanum jurabis, et
ex pompa Anglum intelliges.''
1 See Vita S. Bonifacii.

266 INE.
that the aetheling Cynewulf was slain by Ine 1, the cause of
which act can only be sought for in a rebeUion raised by the
former. The flame once kindled seems, however, not to have
been quenched with the blood of Cynewulf. The insurgents
had made themselves masters of Tantun (Taunton) in Somer
setshire, a town built by Ine ; but his queen wrested it from
their hands and razed it to the ground. While Ine was car
rying on a successful war against Sussex, and apparently a
less successful one against the Britons in CornwaU and Gla
morgan, who, under the king of that country, Rodri Mal-
wynog, and Ivor with other chieftains, had taken advantage
of the disturbed state of Wessex2, Ealdberht, also an aetheling,
fled from Wessex, after the loss of Taunton, at the head of the
insurgents, and wandered about in Surrey in all the misery
of exile, but found afterwards support in Sussex. He was at
length overcome and slain by Ine3.
Shortly after these successes, and when he had reigned
thirty-seven years, Ine resolved to renounce the sceptre and
the world4. The wish by which this step was preceded must
have been occasioned by the cares of royalty and the turbu
lence of those over whom Ine had perhaps aheady reigned
too long ; but the manner in which it was brought to maturity
by the queen ^Ethelburh is too characteristic to be passed
over in silence. A sumptuous entertainment had been given
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. If faith is to be placed in Malmesbury,
Ine had no domestic enemy : " Domi gratiam, foris reverentiam mercabatur.
Adeo annis duobus de quadraginta potestate functus, sine ullo insidiarum
metu securus incanuit, sanctissimus publici amoris lenocinator. " [For
' quadraginta,' the reading of five MSS. cited by Mr. Hardy, Savile's text
has ' sexaginta.' According to Beda (v. 7), Ine reigned thirty-seven years.
— T.] 2 Annal. Camb. a. 722. Brut y Tyw. a. 721.
3 Sax. Chron. a. 725.
4 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 728. This date is unquestionably incor
rect. The Chronicle is, moreover, inconsistent with itself, giving to jEthel-
heard, the successor of Ine, a reign of fourteen years, and placing his death
in 741 (some MSS. 740). According to App. ad Bedam he died in 739.
[In four MSS. of the Chronicle, Ine's departure is correctly given in 726.
-T.]

jETHELHEARD. 267
at one of the royal villas. On the foUowing day, after the
departure of Ine and his queen, the superintendent, by order
of the latter, defiled the palace with the dung of cattle and
heaps of rubbish, and placed in the bed, where the royal pair
had passed the night, a sow which had recently farrowed.
When they had already proceeded more than a mile on theh
way back, Ine, for reasons assigned by his queen, was induced
to return to the villa. On arriving there, and seeing the
change it had undergone, he turned his inquiring eyes to
wards his consort, who hereupon took occasion to expatiate
on the vanity of human Ufe. The resolve of the deeply affected
monarch was no longer delayed ; he resigned his crown to the
brother of his wife, the under-king iEthelheard, of the race
of Cerdic1, and went, accompanied by iEthelburh, as a pilgrim
to Rome, where, rejecting every vestige of earthly pomp, and
dechning to lay aside his hair, but clad in a homely garb, he
passed the remainder of his years in privacy and devotion.
His wife, who had prompted him to this step, was his com
panion and comfort to the last2.
Ine left also another relative in the male line, the aetheling
Oswald, to whom he had destined a share of his kingdom3.
The struggle between the two competitors lasted some years,
till the death of Oswald, when his party, though powerful,
desisted from further opposition to iEthelheard. Attacks from
without rendered this union extremely necessary ; though the
victories which the Britons ascribe to themselves over Adelrad
of Wessex, in Wales and Cornwall, by which name ^Ethel-
heard seems to be intended, are mentioned as having taken
place in the years 720 and 722, consequently during the
reign of Ine, and are, therefore, extremely doubtful. At the
same time a leader could reckon on no dependents and no

1 Fl. Wigorn. a. 728. W. Malm. lib. i. 2 W. Malm.
3 Beda, v. 7. "ipse, relicto regno ac juvenioribus commendato  pro-
fectus est." Later writers mention only the final succession of iEthel-
heard.

268 CUTHRED.
renown if he had not been victorious over the refractory
Welsh, who it is certain had about this time, that is, after
the abdication of Ine, succeeded in great measure in casting
off the Saxon yoke1; and equally certain it appears that
^Ethelheard had to answer for this disgrace to his subjects.
More formidable, however, for ^Ethelheard was the prepon
derance gained over all the Anglo-Saxon states as far as the
Humber by the Mercian king ^Ethelbald, who, having as
sembled a formidable army, invested Sumertun (Somerton),
the chief town of the Sumersaetas, which, the inhabitants
being unable to offer any efficient resistance from within, and
cut off from external succour, he reduced under his subjec
tion2. After a reign of fourteen years ^Ethelheard died, and
was succeeded by his kinsman Cuthred3.
It was the lot of Cuthred to pass the greater part of his
reign in warfare with ^Ethelbald of Mercia, which led to no
beneficial result for either of the contending parties. The
Britons, on the other hand, taking advantage of the discord
prevaUing among the Anglo-Saxons, had so greatly increased
in strength, that both the hostile monarchs united their forces
for the purpose of queuing them. In this undertaking, owing
to the superior number and the emulation of theh men, they
were so successful that the honour of victory was indisputably
on the side of the Anglo-Saxons4- On the occasion of a new
quarrel between Cuthred and iEthelbald, the Britons took
part with the former, who with their aid is said to have gained
a victory over the Mercians near Hereford, but was, never
theless, unable to protect his new allies from the vengeance
of iEthelbald5. In this war the astheling Cynric, the son of
Cuthred, fell, a youth famed both as an undaunted warrior
1 Fl. Wigorn. a. 731. "Britones magna ex parte Anglorum servitio
mancipati fuere." 2 Sax. Chron. H. Hunt. a. 733.
3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 741 .
4 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 743. H. Hunt. Caradoc also seems to
speak of this battle, though, instead of Cuthred, he names jffithelheard.
6 Caradoc, p. 17.

CUTHRED. 269
and a hunter : he seems to have perished in a sedition among
his followers, who, unable to face the dangers into which he
would urge them, saw no other escape than in the murder of
their leader1.
The supremacy which Mercia had in the course of these
contests gained over Wessex became at length so oppressive,
that Cuthred resolved to take the field once more against
^Ethelbald and his ally Oengus or Unnust, king of the
Picts2, when a dangerous rebelhon broke out in his kingdom,
at the head of which was iEthelhun, an ealdorman renowned
for his valour, who, with far inferior forces, was yet able for
a considerable time to maintain the field against his sovereign ;
but having received a wound, victory at length declared itself
on the side of Cuthred3, who used it with generosity, and
restored JEthelhun to favour. Two years afterwards a decisive
victory, owing chiefly to the valour of -^Ethelhun, was gained
over the Mercians at Burford4, which freed Wessex from all
further aggression on the part of the other Anglo-Saxon
states. From that glorious day the West Saxon dynasty
rapidly rose to the supremacy over all the other insular states,
which it maintained during a period of three centuries, when
it sank under the resistless attacks of a barbarous enemy.
The year following the humiliation of Mercia, Cuthred
turned his arms against the Britons, who, weakened appa
rently by the victories which the Dahiads had obtained over
them5, and unable to offer effectual resistance, lost great num
bers in their flight6. Soon after these events Cuthred died
1 H.Hunt. Sax. Chron. a. 748. 2 App. ad Bedam, a. 750. Sim. Dunelm.
3 Sax. Chron. H. Hunt. a. 750. 4 Sax. Chron. a. 752. See p. 226.
° " Congressio Dalriada et Britonum in lapide qui vocatur Minvirce, et
Britones devicti sunt." Tigern. a. 717.
6 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 753. According to Geffrei
Gaimar, v. 1803, Cuthred was beaten by the Welsh :
" Dous anz apres, Gudret li reis descunfiz fu, mes bien guari,
se combati contre Gualeis : ne gueres del son ni perdi."
In this he is not, however, copied even by Bromton.

270 SIGEBYRHT.
childless ', and too early to witness the rising prosperity of
his nation.
Cuthred was succeeded by his kinsman Sigebyrht, the son
of an under-king Sigeric, two names which remind us of the
kings of Essex2, who were nearly allied to the race of Cerdic.
The prosperity of his predecessor had so blinded this prince,
that he treated his subjects in the most injurious manner. The
exhortations of his faithful counsellors, to preserve the laws in
violate and maintain justice, only served to instigate the tyrant
to greater acts of violence. At the beginning of the second
year of his reign, in an assembly of the nobles and people3,
Sigebyrht was formally deposed and banished from the king
dom, the government of which was intrusted to Cynewulf, an
other descendant of Cerdic, Hampshire alone remaining under
the authority of Sigebyrht, from whence he was, however, soon
compelled to flee, for having in his anger murdered the faithful
ealdorman Cumbra4, who had ventured to give him some
wholesome counsel. Like his predecessor CeadweaUa, he fled
to Andredeswald, though, unhke him, not again to leave it.
A faithful swineherd of Cumbra discovered him, and avenged
with his spear the blood of his murdered master.
The long reign5 of Cynewulf is remarkably barren of events
of which any memorial has been preserved. He engaged in
several hard-fought though successful conflicts with the
Britons, but at what place and in what year we are not in
formed6- One memorial regarding this prince has, however,
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn.
2 Fl. Wigorn. Geneal. Cf. Sax. Chron. a. 823.
3 H. Hunt. a. 755. " Congregati sunt proceres et populus totius regni."
1 " Consul nobilissimus." H. Hunt. In a charter of Cuthred, a. 744
(Cod. Diplom. p. 112), Cumbra signs himself, " praefectus regis."
5 The Chronicle and other ancient authorities assign to Cynewulf a reign
of thirty-one years, while they place his accession in 755, and his murder
in 784.— T.
c Sax. Chron. H. Hunt. a. 784. In the latter years of this prince, several
of the Frisian family of the Fortemanni are said to have served the king of
England. See Ocka Scharlensis Chronicke van Frieslandt, fol. 18.

CYNEWULF. 271
been preserved in the form of a grant of lands to the church
of Wells in expiation of his sins, and of the severities which
he had exercised towards his Cornish enemies1. The letter
which, in conjunction with his bishops and nobles, he ad
dressed to Lullus, archbishop of Mentz, shows that consider
able intercourse existed between the Anglo-Saxon and the
German church2. A conflict with Offa, the powerful king
of Mercia, ended, unfortunately for the people of Wessex,
who lost Bensington (Benson) in Oxfordshire to the con
querors8. The death of Cynewulf though late was violent. He had
ordered into banishment Cyneheard, the younger brother of
his predecessor, who, instead of yielding to the mandate,
having learned that the king with a slender retinue was gone
to visit a female at Merton to whom he was attached, sur
rounded the house with his followers, when the inmates were
wrapt in sleep. On discovering that the place was beset, the
king, seizing his weapons, rushed to the door of his apart
ment and offered a stout resistance to his assailants, when,
perceiving the astheling, he wounded him severely, but was him
self immediately overpowered and slain. At this moment the
attendants of Cynewulf, who were lodged in the neighbour
hood, roused by the cries of the female, hastened, though too
late, to their master's succour. Cyneheard's offers of life and
rewards they received with scorn, and desperately fighting
were all slain with the exception of one, a British hostage,
who was sorely wounded.
On the following morning the king's friend, the ealdorman
Osric, and Wigferth his faithful thane, with all the thanes who
had remained behind, having heard what had taken place,
immediately rode to Merton, where they found the gates
closed against them. On their attempting to force an
1 Charter a. 766 in Monast. Angl. [Also in Cod, Diplom. t. i. p. 141,
where its genuineness is questioned. — T.] 2 Epist. Bonifacii, xcii.
3 Sax, Chron. a. 775 (777). Fl. Wigorn. a. 778.

272 BEORHTRIC.
entrance, the aetheling promised them money and lands at
their own discretion if they would receive him for their king,
at the same time intimating to them, that many of theh kin
dred were with him who would not forsake him. But the
faithful band declared unanimously that no kinsman could be
dearer to them than their lord, and that they would never
follow his murderer. They then called upon their relations
who were with Cyneheard to leave him whUe they were yet
safe and unhurt ; but these also answered that they had made
a similar offer to those who were yesterday with the king,
which was not listened to ; they could not, therefore, accept
that now made to themselves. A conflict then ensued before
the gates, which being soon forced, the aetheling with his fol
lowers, to the number of eighty-four, were slain, one only,
the godson of Osric, escaping with life, and he was covered
with wounds. The corpse of Cynewulf was buried with those
of his forefathers at Winchester; that of the aetheling at
Axminster1. The next in succession to the vacant throne, as far as our
knowledge of the line of Cerdic enables us to judge, was
Ealhmund, king of Kent, a great grandson of IngUd, the
brother of Ine, whose pretensions, either from disregard to
the strict line of succession, provided the individual were of
the race of Cerdic, or from some other to us unknown cause,
seem to have been passed by, and another member of the
royal house, Beorhtric, of whose right it is merely said that
he was descended from Cerdic, was by the witan chosen for
king. Beorhtric justified the confidence which had caUed
him to the throne. For the internal security of his realm he
provided by the expulsion of Ecgberht, the son of Ealhmund ;
and against the inroads of foreign foes, whether Britons or
other Anglo-Saxons, he also rendered himself secure. The
peace of the land was, moreover, not a little confirmed by his
alliance with Offa of Mercia, whose daughter Eadburh he had
1 Sax. Chron. a. 784. Ethelwerd.

EADBURH. 273
espoused1. Ecgberht, who until this event had found shelter
among the Mercians, and cherished hopes of one day obtain
ing the crown of Wessex, now fled to the court of the Frankish
emperor. This reign was remarkable for the first landing of the North
men in England, which took place on the coast of Dorsetshire
from three ships. On being apprised of the event the king's
reeve (gerefa), named Beaduheard2, who resided at Dorchester,
supposing them to be contraband traders rather than pirates,
rode hastily to the port and commanded that they should be
forcibly conducted to the king's town; whereupon he was
assailed by the Northmen and slain with all his retinue.
To the influence of the queen Eadburh, a daughter of that
Cynethrith whose memory the murder of the young king of
East Anglia has stained with everlasting infamy, may pro
bably be ascribed the indifference with which Beorhtric seems
to have regarded the increasing power of Mercia over Kent.
Through the fond weakness of her consort, this woman had
imperceptibly acquired an absolute dominion in all the inter
nal concerns of the kingdom. Those towards whom Beorhtric
evinced an attachment, or who were opposed to her baneful
caprices, she found means to destroy, either by false accusa
tions or, failing in them, by poison. A young ealdorman
named Worr, distinguished both on account of his high birth
and amiable character, was the favourite of Beorhtric, and
consequently an object of hatred to his wife. Accusations
against him proving ineffectual, she had recourse to her usual
alternative of poison. Her purpose was effected, but her
husband also partook of the deadly cup and perished with
his friend. In theh utter detestation of this abandoned
woman, the West Saxons resolved that no future consort of
1 Sax. Chron. a. 787-
2 Ethelwerd, lib. iii. Procem. Fl. Wigorn. Sax. Chron. a. 787, where it
is said that the Northmen came out of " Haeretha lande."
VOL. I. T

274 EADBURH.
a king should be permitted to occupy a royal throne by the
side of her husband, or to bear the title of queen1.
After this event, finding that her presence could no longer
be tolerated in Wessex, Eadburh fled with her treasures to
the court of Charlemagne, who, on her presenting him with
various costly gifts, jocosely said to her, " Choose, Eadburh,
between me and my son, who stands there in the saloon2,
which you will have." To which she thoughtlessly answered,
" If I may be aUowed to choose, I will have your son as being
the younger." (t If you had chosen me," replied Charles
laughing, (i you should have had my son ; but having chosen
my son, you shall have neither me nor him." Charles, how
ever, bestowed on her a considerable monastery, in which for
a short time she exercised the duties of abbess, but being con
victed of criminal intercourse with one of her own country
men, as well as with others, she was by the emperor's order
expelled from the convent. Attended by a single slave, the
daughter of Offa and wife of Beorhtric, after various wander
ings, died a beggar in the city of Pavia3-
1 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 800. Asser. Sim. Dunelm. W. Malm.
From that time the consort of the king usually bore the title of ' hlaefdige,'
lady.— T.
2 "Elige, Eadburgh, quem velis inter me et filium meum, qui mecum in
solario isto stat." Asser. — T.
3 a.d. 802. " Uno servulo comitata." Asser, a. 856. Sim. Dunelm.
a. 802. [Asser informs us that he had the story of Eadburh from jElfred's
own mouth : " a domino meo Alfredo, Angulsaxonum rege veridico, etiam
saepe mihi referente audivi, quod et ille etiam a veridicis multis referentibus,
immo ex parte non modica illud factum commemorantibus, audierat." — T.]

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Page 11, note". — The characters of the runic alphabet are also
named chiefly after natural objects, some of them from trees,
as oak, birch, thorn ; and like the bardic alphabet it consisted
originally of sixteen letters. — T.
P. 48. — The following passage from the Codex Eberbrard Clusanus
of the Gesta Treverorum is rather curious : " Hujus Marcelli
(episc. Treverici) et prsedecessoris Naviti per Angliam facta
prsedicatione, ipse rex Britannise fidem Christi suscepit, et bapti-
zatus est ab eodem Marcello anno Dni cclxxxvi."
Pp. 79, note3, and 97, note4. — That the Jutes landed in England
where they occupied Kent, the Isle of Wight and part of Wes
sex, is, I believe, generally admitted. That they were under
a leader, or (as was usual among the Danes) two leaders, may
also be believed, without exposing the believer to the imputation
of being over credulous : nor can I found any disbelief or doubt
on the circumstance, that the one leader was named Hengest,
the other Horsa.
In addition to the testimonies of Nennius, Beda, and the
t 2

276 ADDITIONAL NOTES.
Saxon Chronicle, the following extracts may be adduced in
favour of the existence of Hengest, Fin, etc.
1 . From the Geographer of Ravenna, who is supposed to have
lived in the seventh century. See p. 88, note*.
2. From the Sc6p or Scald's Tale. (Cod. Exon. p. 320 ;
Kemble's Beow. vol. i. p. 229.)
. . . . (weold) 
Fin Folcwalding Fin Folcwalding (rul'd)
Fresna cynne the Frisian race

Hnsef Hocingum. Hnaf ihe Hocings3-.
3. From the Battle of Finnesburh. (Kemble's Beow. vol. i.
p. 239.)
Ordlaf and Gu*Slaf, Ordlaf and Guthlaf,
and Hengest sylf and Hengest himself
hwearf him on laste follow'd in his track

]>onne Hnsefe guidon then for Hntef paid
his hsegstealdas. his followers.
4. Beowulf. Hnsef prince of the Hocings, and Hengest the
Jute, vassals of the Danish king Healfdene (the Hal-
danus of Saxo), are sent to invade the Frisian territory,
at that time governed by Fin, the son of Folcwalda, and
husband of Hildeburh, the daughter of Hoce. A battle
is fought, in which Hnaef, together with all the chil
dren, brothers, and almost all the thanes of Fin, is slain.
During a truce which ensues, the bodies of Hnsef and
the rest of the slain are burnt. Hengest remains with
Fin, but at the same time meditates vengeance for the
death of Hnsef and his followers, which he subsequently
wreaks. Fin being slain, and his queen Hildeburh borne
off to Denmark. The entire episode follows :

* The Hocings are supposed by Zeuss to be identical with the Chauci.
See Ettmiiller, Sc6pes Vidsidh, p. 16, ahd Cod. Exon. p. 515.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

277

XVI.

Dser wses sang and sweg
samod setgsedere
fore Healfdenes
hilde-wfsan, gomen-wudu greted,
gid oft wrecen,
Sonne heal-gamen
HroSgares scop,
sefter medo-bence,
masnan sceolde
be Finnes eaferum,
fa hie se faer begeat ;
hseletS Healfdenes,
Hnaef Scyldinga,
in Fres-wsele
feallan sceolde.
Ne huru Hildeburh
herian porfte
Eotena treowe :
unsynnum wearS
beloren leofum
Bet J>am lind-plegan,
bearnum and brotSrum :
hie on gebyrd hruron,
gare wunde.
©set waes geomuru ides :
nalles holinga
Hoces dohtor
metodsceaft bemearn,
si'SSan morgen com,
fa heo under swegle
gesedn meahte
morfor-bealo maga,
f ser heo ser mseste heold
worulde wynne.

There was song and sound
at once together
before Healfdene's
warlike chiefs,
the wood of joy was greeted,
the lay oft recited,
when the joy of hall
Hrothgar's bard,
after the mead-bench,
should recount
concerning Fin's offspring,
when them peril o'erwhelm'd ;
when Healfdene's hero,
the Scyldings' Hnaf,
in Frisian slaughter ,
was doom'd to fall.
Not Hildeburh at least
had need to praise
the faith of the Jutes :
she was of her innocent
beloved ones depriv'd
at the linden-play,
of her children and brothers :
they in succession fell,
by the dart wounded.
That was a mournful woman :
not without cause
Hoces daughter
the Lord's decree bemourn 'd,
after morning came,
when she under heaven
might see
the slaughter of her kinsmen,
where she ere had most possess' d
of worldly joy.

5. i. e. the harp.
13. MS. Healfdena.
22. conject. Kemble, MS. hild-p.
of the lime, or linden tree.

11. be, added from conjecture.
20. unsynnigum ?
So called from the shield being made
34. MS. he.

278

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Wig ealle fornam
Finnes f egnas,
nemne feaum anum ;
f set he ne mihte
on fam mef el-stede
wiS Hengeste
wiht gefeohtan,
ne fa wea-lafe
wige forf ringan
f eodnes f egne ;
ac hie him gef ingo budon,
feet hie him oSer flet
eal gerymdon,
healle and heah-setl ;
f set hie healfre geweald
wiS Eotena beam
agan moston,
and set feoh-gyftum
Folcwaldan sunu
dogra gehwylce
Dene weorf ode,
Hengestes heap
hringum f enede,
efne swa swiSe
sine- gestreonum
fsettan goldes,
swa he Fresna cyn,
on beor-sele
byldan wolde.
Da hie getruwedon,
on twa healfa,
fseste frioSu-wsere,
Fin Hengeste
elne, unflitme,
aSum benemde,
fset he fa wea-lafe,

War destroy' d all
Fin's thanes,
save a few only ;
so that he might not
on the battle-place
against Hengest
at all contend,
nor the sad remnant
by war protect
from the king's thane ¦
but they to him conditions offer'd,
that they to him another dwelling
would wholly yield,
a hall and high seat ;
that they half power
with the sons qf the Jutes
might possess,
and at the money-gifts
Folcwalda's son
every day
the Danes should honour,
Hengest's band
with rings should serve,
even as much
with costly treasures
of rich gold,
as he the Frisian race,
in the beer-hall
would adorn.
Then they confirm' d,
on ihe two sides,
a fast peaceful compact,
Fin to Hengest
earnestly, without dispute,
by oath enjoin' 'd,
that he the sad remnant,
10. i. c. Hengest.

6. MS. wig.
11. hie, they,\. e. the Danes and Jutes.
15. hie, they, i. e. the Frisians. 23. MS. wenede.
27. he, i. e. Hengest.
29. gibelde, ornavit, inscrip. in Nero D. 4, MS. Cott.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

279

weotena dome,
arum heolde,
f set Sser senig mon,
wordum ne weorcum,
wsere ne brsece,
ne furh inwit-searo
Eefre gemEendon,
feah hie hira beag-gyfan
banan folgedon,
feodenlease, fa him swa gef earfod wses ;
gyf f onne Frysna hwylc,
frecnan sprsece,
f ses morf or-hetes
myndgiend wsere,
f onne hit sweordes ecg
sweSrian sceolde.
AS wses gesefned,
and icge gold
ahsefen of horde.
Here-Scyldiuga
betst beado-rinca
wses on bsel gearu :
set fam fide wses
eS-gesyne
swatfah syrce,
swyn eal gylden,
eofer iren-heard,
sef eling msenig
wundum awyrded,
sume on wsele crungon.
Het fa Hildeburh,
set Hnsefes side,
hire selfre suna
sweoloSe befsestan,

by his witan s doom,
piously should hold,
that there no man,
by words or works,
should break the compact,
nor through guileful craft
should they ever complain,
though they their ring-giver's
murderer followed,
10 lordless,
since they were so compel 'd ;
but if of the Frisians any one,
by audacious speech,
this deadly feud
should call to mind,
then it the edge of sword
should appease.
The oath was completed,
and moreover gold
20 rais 'd from the hoard.
Of the martial Scyldings
the best of warriors
on the pile was ready :
at the heap was
easy to be seen
the blood-stain' d tunic,
the swine all golden,
the boar iron-hard,
many an eetheling
30 with wounds afflicted,
(some had in the slaughter fall' n).
Bade then Hildeburh,
at Hneefs pile,-
her own sons
be to the fire committed,

8. For feah I suspect we should read J set.
17. MS. sySSan.
19. icge is very questionable.
22. betst b.-r„ i.e. Hnaef.
34. MS, sunu, i. e. her sons who had been slain.

280

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

ban-fatu bsernan,
and on bsel don
earme on axe.
Ides gnornode,
geomrode giddum ;
guS-rinc astah,
wand to wolcnum,
wsel-fyra msest
hlynode for hlawe ;
hafelan multon,
ben-geato burston ;
Sonne blod aetspranc
laS-bfte lices :
lig ealle forswealg,
gsesta gifrost,
fara Se fser guS fornam.
Bega folca wses
hira blsed scacen.

their carcases be burnt,
and on the pile be reduced
the miserable ones to ashes.
The woman mourn'd,
bewail' d in songs ;
the warrior ascended,
wended to the clouds,
the greatest of death-fires
roar'd before the mound;
their heads were consum'd,
their wound-gates burst ;
then out sprang the blood
from the corpse's hostile bite :
flame swallow' d ail
(greediest of guests,) [bereft.
those whom war had there of life
Of both people was
their flower departed.

xvii.

Gewiton him Sa wigend
wica neosian,
freondum befeallen,
Frysland geseon,
hamas and hea-burh.
Hengest Sa-gyt
wselfagne winter
wunode mid Finne,
unflitme,eard gemunde,
feah f e he ne meahte
on mere drifan
hringed-stefhan. Holm storme weol,

The xoarriors then departed
their villages to visit,
of their friends deprived,
Friesland to see,
its dwellings and high burgh.
Hengest yet
the death-hued winter
remain 'd with Fin,
without strife,
his home remember 'd,
although he might not
on the sea drive
the ringed prow.
Ocean boil'd with storm,

3. MS. eaxle.
6. i. e. Hnarf ascended (in flame and smoke), like the Ger. (in Feuer
und Rauch) aufgehen. So also Homily, MS. Bibl. Pub. Cantab, p. 282.
MS, "paet ceaf he forbaerntf  forSan o*e Saera manfulra smic astihS on
ecnysse. 10. So Beow. 4646, bolda selest bryne-wylmum mealt.
21. deprived through their having fallen. 26. MS. Finnel.
27. MS. unhlitme. 29. ne, added.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

281

won wiS winde,
winter yf e beleac
fs-gebinde, oSf set oSer com
gear in geardas.
Swa nu gyt deS
fa Se singale
ssele bewitiaS,
wuldor-torhtan weder.
Da wses winter scacen,
fseger foldan bearm,
fundode wrecca,
gsest of geardum.
He to gym-wrsece
swiSor f ohte
f onne to s£e-Mde,
gif he torn-gemdt
f urhteon mihte ;
f ses he Eotena beam
inn-gemunde, swa he ne forwyrnde
woruldrsedenne,
f onne him Hunlafing,
hilde leoman,
billa selest,
on bearm dyde ;
f ses wseron mid Eotenum
ecge cuSe,
swylce ferhS-frecan.

war'd against the wind,
winter lock'd the wave
with icy band,
till that came the second
year to the courts.
So now yet do
those who constantly
watch a happy moment,
gloriously bright weather.
When winter was departed,
earth's bosom fair,
the stranger hasten' d,
the guest from the courts.
He on wily vengeance
was more intent
than on a sea-voyage,
if he a conflict
could bring to pass ;
for he the sons of the Jutes
inwardly remember 'd,
so he refus'd not
worldly intercourse,
when he Hunlafing,
the flame of war,
the best of falchions,
in his bosom placed ;
for with the Jutes there were
men fam' d for sword-play,
also of spirit bold.

8. MS.sele.

13. MS. gist.

7. MS.singales.
14. gyrn = gryn.
14. wily vengeance, i. e. the faehS or deadly feud for the death of Hnaef
and the others. 19. MS. Jaet. 19. the slain ones.
23. Hunlafing is apparently the name of Hengest's sword, which had
probably been the property of Hun, king of the Haetweras (Scops Tale,
p. 320, 22). The terminations laf, a relic, legacy, and ing are commonly
applied to a sword ; thus Beow. eald laf, an ancient sword : so Tyrfing,
Miming, Hrunting, names of celebrated swords. See Kemble's Glossary
to Beowulf, v. Laf. Hunlaf occurs, however, as a man's name among the
Anglo-Saxons. 26. So Beow. 1.4382 : sweord  ]>aet he on Biowulfes bearm alegde :
sword  that he in Beowulf's bosom laid.

282

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Fin eft begeat
sweord-bealo sliSen,
set his sylfes ham,
siSf an grimne gripe
GuSlaf and Oslaf,
sefter s^-siSe,
sorge msendon,
setwiton weana dsel :
ne meahte wsefre mod
forhabban in href re.
Da wses heal hroden
feonda feorum,
swilce Fin slsegen,
cyning on corf re,
and seo cwen numen.
Sceotend Scyldinga
to scypum feredon
eal in-gesteald
eorS-cyniuges,
swylce hie set Finnes Mm
findan meahton,
sigla, searo-gimma.
Hie on sse-Mde
drihtlice wff
to Denum feredon,
lseddon to leodum.

Fin afterwards o'erwhelm'd
cruel misery from the sword,
at his own dwelling,
when the grim, one with gripe
Guthlaf and Oslaf,
after a sea-journey,
grievously upbraided, [woes:
reproach' d for his part in their
he might not his wavering soul
in his breast retain.
Then was the hall beset
with foemen,
also Fin slain,
the king amid his people,
and the queen taken.
The Scyldings' warriors
to their ships bore
all the house-chattels
of the earth-king,
such as at Fin's dwelling
they could find,
of jewels and curious gems.
They on the sea-road
the princely woman
to the Danes bore,
to their people led. — T.

Page 91, ppte a,^-rFor the near resemblance between the Northum
brian and East Anglian dialects, see Lufa's Testament in
Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, p. 119. — T.
Page 203, note *. — The publication of " The Poetry of the Codex
Vercellensis, with an English translation, by J. M. Kemble, M.A.
Part I. The Legend of St. Andrew, for the jElfric Society,"
induces me to add a few words to the above-cited note relative
to my own connexion with the VerceUi Poetry. In 1834 Mr.
5. ' Ordlaf,' Batt, of Finnesb. perhaps more correct than Oslaf.
7. maendon. In Homily, MS. Bibl. Pub. Cantab, p. 217, the verse of
Luke there quoted (xviii. 15) has 'bemaendon ' where the editions of the
Gospels have * ciddon,' rebuked.
17. MS. scypon.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 283
Cooper, then Secretary to tbe Record Commission, sent me a
transcript of the manuscript, requesting me to report on its
contents. On inspection I found that, besides Homilies, the
volume contained the several poetic pieces since known as
the ' Vercelli Poetry.' Having stated my opinion of these
poems to Mr. Cooper, their communication to the world was
resolved on : they were printed accordingly as one of the
Appendices to that gentleman's intended Report on Rymer's
Fcedera, though, in consequence of the dissolution of the Com
mission, not published. Soon after the formation of the iElfric
Society I suggested the publication of these relics to the
Council, though, regarding them as Government property, not
until I had ascertained from Lord Langdale (under whose
control they had been placed) that he had no objection to their
publication by the iElfric Society. — T.

284

GENEALOGY OF THE SONS OF WODEN.

Wecta, ancestor of the
kings of
Kent.

From the Sax.
Chron. a. 855.
Noe. I
Sceaf. I
Bedwig. Hwala. I
Hathra.
Itermon. I
Heremod. I
Sceldwa. I
Beaw. I
Taetwa. I
Geat. I
Godwulf. I
Finn.
Frithuwulf. Frealaf1.
Frithuwald. (LfltDDen.

From Snorra Edda.
edit. Rask.
Sif. I
Loride. I
Henrede. I
Vingethor. Vingener. I
Moda. I
Magi.
Cespheth (Sefsmeg).
Bedvig. Atra (nobis Anna).
I
Itrmann. I
Heremod. Skiedldunn (nobis Skiold).
I
Biaf (nobis Biar and Bavr) .
I
Jat.
Gutholfr. I
[Finnr.] Fiarlef (Frialafr) (nobis Frithleif).
I
Vothinn (nobis Othinn).

Brond.

 1 
Casere, ancestor of the
kings of
E. Anglia.

i l I ~
Seaxneat, Wsegdaeg, Wihtlaeg,
ancestor ancestor ancestor
of the of the of the
kings of kings of kings of
Essex. Deira. Mercia.

 1
Winta,
ancestor of
the princes
of the Lin
disfaras.

T

Frithogar, Beornd (Beonoc),
ancestor of ancestor of
the kings of the kings of
Wessex. Bernicia.

1 Three MSS. for Frealaf read Freawine, and omit the foUowing Frithuwald.
In the Bcrnician list(S.C.a. 547) Frealaf is called Freotholaf.

285

NEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF KENT.
Ofljooni1. I
Wecta1. I
Witta1.

Wihtgils1 _J 

\ Hengest1,
446. oh.488.
Eric, surnamed iEsc2,
488. ob.512. I
Octa3. (/
I *
Eormenric3, y
ob.568. r

HOKSA1, ob.455.

Ricole4,
nSleda, k. of Essex.

JEthelberht5, X
568. ob.24Feb.616.
m. 1. Berhta, daughter of Charibert ; 2..

^thelburh or Tate6,
m. Eadwine of Northumbria.

Eadbald', X
616. ob.20 Jan. 640.
m. 1. his stepmother ; 2. Emma,
daughter of a Frankish king.

T

Eormenred8, m. Oslaf.

Ecgfrith9, 618.

Earconberht 8,>,
640. ob.14 July 664.
m. Sexburh, d. of Anna, k. of
E. Anglia. _i  , 

Eanswith 10,
virgo sancta.

Eormenbeorh11, or Domneva.
m. Merewald,
ealdorm. of the
W. Angles.

Eormenburh12. Eormengyth12. ^thelthryth12. Ethelred12. iEthelbyrht 12.

1 Beda, i. 15. Sax. Chron. a. 449.
3 Beda, ii. 5. Sax. Chron. a. 457.
3 Beda, ii. 5.
4 Beda, ii. 3. Sax. Chron. a. 604.
5 Sax. Chron. aa. 508,516. Beda, ii.5; i. 25.
6 Beda, ii. 9. Fior. Geneal.
7 Beda, ii. 5. Charter in Smith's Beda,

p. 694. Sax. Chrm. Fl. Wigorn. a. 640. Ann.
Juvav. Thorne, col. 1769. Cod. Diplom. p. 10.
8 Beda, iii. 8, Sax. Chron. a. 640. Fior.
Geneal. 9 Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 9. Smith's Beda,
p. 694. 10 Fior. Geneal

Ecgberht13, 664. ob.July
673.

T"

Earcongote8,ob.in the abbey
of Brie.

Eormengild m. Wulfhere,
of Mercia.

Eadric14, 673-686.

Wihtraed14, >
690. ob.23 April 725.
. 1. Cynegytb ; 2. jEthelburh.

Eadberht15, 725. ob.748.
Eardwulf16, ob.hefore 794.

jEthelberht II.15, Alric15,

v 748.
\

11 Sim. Dunelm. Fior. Geneal.

W.

ob.760.

Malm.

., 760. ob.794.

Hlothhsere13,673. ob.6Feb.
• 685.
Richard1?,
a monk at Lucca.

.-, -f

lib.

12 Fior. Geneal.
13 Beda, iv. 5, 26. Sax. Chion.
14 Beda, iv. 26, v. 23. Sax. Chron. Cod.
Diplom. pp. 42, 48, 49, 50. jElhelburh's name
appears first in a charter of 696.

15 Beda, v. 23. - In Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 103,
there is a charter of jEthelberht's of 741,
while the Sax. Chron. and Florence plane the
death of Eadberht and accession of jEthel-
berht in 748.— T.
16 Charter of 762 in Cod. Diplom. p. 115.
See p. 247.
i? Alford.t.i.p.588.

GENEALOGY

OF THE KINGS OF WESSEX, fhom Woden to Ecgberht.
Mlo&en1. I
Bseldaeg-^ I
Brand.
Freothogar. (±t#xlrjt
I
Freawine.

286

Wig. I
Giwis. I
Esla.

I 
Cynebald9,
JEthelbald-1*. , I
y Oswald9,
728. ob.730.

Ceawlin4, X
r.560-591. ob.593.
I
Cuthwine8, 577. oh.584?
 I  ,

Cuthwulf5, ob.571.

Ceadda1". I
Cenbyrht10, ob.661.

Ceadwealla10, X
r. 685, resig. 688. ob.Easter
689. m. Centhryth.

Mul11.
ob.687.

Cutha11. I
Ceolwald12. Cenred12.

Elesa.

Cekdic2, jx
494. ob.534.
I
Cynric3, *
534. ob.560.

A daughter.
 I 

Stuf2.

Wihtgar9,
514. ob.544.
I
Oslac23.

Cutha6,
568. ob.584.
 I_, 

Cwichelm7, ob.593.

Ceolricor Ceol14, X
591. ob.597. I
Cynegils15, ^
611. ob.643.

-r

T

Cwichelm15, Cenwealh16, y Centwine1', ' A daughter19, St. Egelwine2".
614. ob.636. 643. ob.672. A R'"i ¦*> Rac/ ' m +» Oswald.

m. l.a sister of
Penda ; 2. Sexburh.

I —

Cwenburh ls.

Cuthburh13, m. Ealdfrith
k. of Northumbria ;
afterwards abbess
of Winburne.

Ine12, Ingild1-.
r.688,resig.725. ob.718.
m. vEthelburh. I
Eoppa12.

676. 0^685^, '
m. a sister of
Eormenburh,
the wife of Ecg
frith of North,
umhria. I
A daughter13.

m. to Oswald,
k. of Northum bria.

>

Eafa12. I
Ealhmund12. k. of Kent.

\ Ceolwulf21, Osburh23,
r.597. ob.611. m.k-iEthelwulf circa 835.
Cuthgils22. Cenferth22. Cenfus22, J
r.672. ob.674/
I
iEscwine22, -
r.674. ob.676.

1 From Woden to Cerdic, Sax. Chron. aa. 552,
597. 2 Sax. Chron. aa. 495, 534.
3 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 560.
4 Sax. Chron. a. 591.
5 Sax. Chron. a. 571.
6 Sax. Chron. aa. 568, 584. Fl. Wigorn. a. 584.

Ecgberht 12.
7 Sax. Chron. a. 593.
8 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 577.
W. Malm.
9 Sax. Chron. aa. 728, 730. Fior. Geneal.
10 Sax. Chron. a. 685.
11 Sax. Chron. a. 854.
12 Sax. Chron. a. 718. Asser. Fior. Geneal. The

Chron. a. 688. makes Ceolwald the son of Cuth
wine and brother of Cynegils. , Sax. Chron. a. 855.
In Asser, Eoppa is called Eowwa.
13 Fior. Geneal. W. Malm. lib. i.
14 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. and Geneal.
15 Sax. Chron. /
16 Beda, iii. 7. Sax. Chron.

17 Beda, iv. 15. Eddius, t. xxxix.
is Carmen ap. Alcuini Opp. p. 1675
" Beda, iii. 7. ..
20 Malmesb. de Gest. Pont. lib. u.
21 Sax. Chron.
22 Fior. Geneal. Sax. Chron.
23 Asser.

Sax. Chron.

287

GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF EAST ANGLIA.
flfliotien1- I
Casere.

Tytmon. I
Trygils.
Hrothmund. I
Hryp.
Wilhelm. I
Wewa or Wehha.
Wuff a2. X
I
Tytila2.

Of unknown lineage.
Sigeberht,
. , brother of Eorpwald
/ on tbe mother's side.
r. 631, resig. 634. ob.635.
s^C Ecgric,
kinsman of Sigeberht.
r. 634. ob.635.

Raedwald2, X
593. -617.
Eorpwald2, Raeginhere3,
r. 617. ob.628. ob.617.

Mne"

XA.nna4,
i".635. ob.654

^iEthelhere5, ^iEthelwold6, Edric7.
r.654. ob.655. r.655. ob.664.
m. Hereswith,
d. of Hereric.
ob.20 Sept....
 I  .

Ealdwulf8,
r.663. ob.713.
_1 

Alfwold 9,
r.713. ob.749.

Iurwine10.

Elric7.

Eadburh1'', abbess of
Repton.

J_

Sexburh11,
m. Earconberht
k. of Kent.
ob.abbess of Ely,
6 July after
679.

jEthelburh11, abbess of Brie
in France.
" Filia naturalis."

^Ethelthryth12, m. 1. Tunberht,
ealdorm. of the
S. Gyrwas ;
2. Ecgfrith, k. of
Northumberland. ob.23 June 679,
as abbess of Ely.

S. Wihtburh or Wihtgyth '3,
a nun at Ely.

1 From Woden to Wewa, Fior. Geneal.
2 Beda, ii. 15. Fior. Geneal.
3 Beda, ii. 12. Fior. Geneal.
4 Beda, iii. 18.
6 Beda, iii. 24.
6 Beda, iii. 22.
7 Nennius, App., the only authority for this
prince's existence.
vol. i.

8 Beda, iv. 1 7. See Literary Introd. p. xxxvi.
note 3.
9 W. Malm. lib. i. Sim. Dunelm. a. 749.
10 T. Eliens. Hist. EUens. ap. Wharton, A. S.
t. i. p. 595. Felix, Vita S. Guthl. iv. 33.
11 Beda, iii. 8, iv. 19.
12 Beda, iv. 3, 19, 20.
13 Flor.Genea).

GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF BERNICIA.

1 This list to Ida is from Florence, Geneal., which
I have preferred, not so much because it is more
complete than that in the Chronicle, but rather,
judging from the orthography, from its being pro
bably derived from a Northumbrian source. — T.
2 This list is from the Sax. Chron. ». 547, which
Florence has copied in his Chronicon.
3 Sax. Chron. a. 547. Fl. Wigorn. Sim.Dunelm.,
who assigns a reign of eleven years only to Ida.
Nennii App.
4 The names of the sons of Ida are from Simeon
and the Chronol. ap. Wanley and Petrie. Instead
of Glappa, Frithuwald and Hussa, Florence and
others have Bealric, Theodhere and Osmaer. See
p. 119. 5 Sax.Chron. Fl. Wigorn. Nennius. Beda,iii.6.
B Beda, i. 34.
7 Beda, iii. 1. Annal. Ulton. p. 53.
8 Fior. Geneal.
9 Beda, iii. 9, 7.
10 Beda, iii. 14.
11 Beda, iii. 1 4, iv. 5, iii. 15. Nennii App.
]2 Beda, iv. 19, 25. Vita S. Cuthb. c. x. Eddii
Vita S. Wilf. c. xxxviii.

ScLloUen1. i
Baeldeag. Brand. Beorn.
Beornd.
Waegbrand. Ingebrand. Alusa. i
Angengeat. Ingengeat.
Aethelbryht. Oesa. i
Eoppa.
*-/ Ida3,
547. ob.559.
m. l.Bearnoch;
2. concubine.

ftiloten2. i
Bseldseg. Brand. i
Beonoc. i
Aloe. .
i
Angenwit. Ingui. Esa. i
Eoppa.
Ida.

289
13 Beda, iii. 14, 21.
14 Beda, iii. 21.
15 Beda, iv. 21. Sax. Chron. a. 697.
" Beda, iv. 19, 26. Eddius, c. xxxix.
I 2eda' T* 18* Sax* Chron* «• 705. W. Malm.
18 Beda, v. 18, 22.
19 Beda, v. 23, and Smith, ib. Sax. Chron. a. 729.
The descent of Osric seems uncertain.
20 Beda, iv. 21.
21 Nennii App.
22 Beda, iii. 24. Acta SS. t. ii. p. 178.
23 Sax. Chron. aa. 729, 738. Fior. Geneal.
24 Sax. Chron. a. 716.
25 Sax. Chron. aa. 729, 731, 737.
26 Fior. Geneal.
2? Sax. Chron. a. 765. Fior. Geneal. Sim.Dunelm.
a. 768. Chron. Mailr. Bonifacii Epist.
28 Sim.Dunelm.
29 Sax. Chron. a. 738. Fior. Geneal.
30 Sax. Chron. aa. 738, 757, 768.
31 Sax. Chron. Fl. Wigorn. a. 789.
32 Sim.Dunelm.
33 Sax. Chron. aa. 738, 766.
34 Annal. Ult.

I 
Glappa4 r. 1 yr.

1. 1. 1. 1.
Adda-S ^thelric", vTheodricV Frithuwald
r. 8 yrs. r. 588-592. r. 4 yrs. i . 7 yrs.

y* L
4f Hussa4, X
r. 7 yrs.

V jEthelfrith5,
r. 593. ob.617.
m. 1. Bebbe ;
2. ' Acha,' sister
of Eadwine.

Theodbald6.

 r 
2.
Occa4. I
Ealdhelm23. I
Ecgwald23. I
Leodwald23.

Eanfrith7,
m. ad. of the
k. of the Picts.
ob.634.

Oslaf8. Oslac8.

Tolargain, or Talorgan 34,
k. of the Picts. ob.656.

Oswald", if
born 604. jrt>.5
Aug. 642. if. 635
the d. of Cynegils
of Wessex.
^thelwa/d10, k. of De|r a.

Oswiu11, /^
r.642. ob.15
Feb. 670. m.l.
Riemmelth ; 2.
Eannaed, d. of
Eadwine.

T

OffaA Oswudu3.

iEbbe12, abbess of
Coldingham.

Ealhfrith13,
m. Cyneburh, d.
of Penda.

Ealhflaed14,
m. Peada, s. of
Penda, 653.

Osthryth15,
m. /Ethelred of
Mercia. ob.697.

Osric
r. 718. 729

ic '9, X
ob.9 May

Ecgfrith16, M
born 845, r. 670.
ob.20 May 685.
m. 1. jEthelthryth,
d. of Anna, k. of
E. Anglia; 2.
Eormenburh, sis
ter of the qu. of
Centwine, k. of
Wessex.

Ealdfrith1?,
r. 685. ob.705.
m. Cuthburh,
sister of Ine.
Osred 18,
born 697, r. 705.
ob.716.

iElfwine20,
born 661. ob.679.
Oslac21. I
Adlsing21. Echun21. Oslaf21.

^Elflaed22, born 654.
ob.713.
abbess of
Whitby.

V

2.
Alric4.
Blaecman 26.
Bofa26.
Byrnhom 2S.
Ealhwine 2S.
Ealhred2',

2. Ecca4.
2. Oswald4.
2. Sogor4.
2. Sogorthere4

r.765. ob.774.
m. Osgearn, or
Osgyfu.

**-' Osred28,
r. 788. ob.792.

Ealhmund23, ob.800.

Cuthwine23.

Eata29.

Cenred24,
716. ob.718.

Ceolwulf25,
r. 729, resig. 737.
became a monk.

Eadberht30, ,J( Ecgbert33,
. 737, resig. 758. archb. of York.
ob.20 Aug. 768. ob.766.
I
Oswulf31, V
i. 758. ob.24 July 759.
i Alfwold32,
r. 779. ob.23 Sept. 788.
j-Elf32, Mlfwine3*,
ob.791. ob.791.

or Osgyfu3,1;
m.Eal/ired. 768.

GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF DEIRA.

290

aaiooen1. I
Waegdeeg. I
Sigegar. I
Swsebdfeg. I
Sigegeat. I
Sasbald.
Ssefugel. I
Sweerta. I
Seomel. I
Westerfalcna.

x

<^}M*jr\

Wilgils.

Uscfrea. I
Yffe.
 U 

^Elle, X
559. ob.588.

Individual not
named. I
Hereric6,
m. Beorhtswyth.
poisoned in Elmet
before 616.

' Acha4,'
m. jEthelfrith,
k. of Bernicia.

Eadwine5, *.
born 585, r. 616. ob.14 Oct. 633.
m. 1. Cwenhurh, d. of Ceorl, k.
of Mercia ; 2. jEthelburb, d. of
<Ethelberht of Kent.

Alfric2. I
,\ Osric2,
c. 633. ob.634.
Oswine3, ^
r. 644. ob.20
Aug. 651.

Hild',
born 614. ob.15
Dec. 680. Abbess
of Whitby

I 
1.
Osfrith8,
ob.14 Oct. 633.

 1 
1.
Eadfrith8,
ob.after 633.

Hereswyth7, m. Anna, k. of
E. Anglia.

2.
Eanflaed9, born 626.
m. Oswiu of
Bernicia.

2.
JEthelhun 10,
ob.atYork.

iEthelthryth10, ob.at York.

1 The hne from Woden to JSlle is from
the Chronicle, aa. 560, 588, and Florence.
The names of Swaerta and Seomel do not
appear in the Chronicle.
2 Beda, iii. i.

'* Beda, iii. 14. Sax. Chron.
4 Beda, iii. 6.
5 Beda,ii. 20, ii. 14,9.
" Beda, iv. 23. Fior. Geneal., wbere
Hereric as a son of Eadfrith and grandson
of Eadwine. Florence has, no doubt,

rendered Beda's words,
regis j" erroneously.
7 Beda, iv. 23.
8 Beda, ii. 20.
9 Beda, ii. 9, iii. 15.
i° 'Beda, ii. 14.

2.
Wuscfrea8, ob.after 634
in France.

' nepos .Eduini

GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF MERCIA.
Ofllotien1. i
Wihtlaeg.
Wsermund.

291

Offa.

Ceorl,
a kinsman of Wybba.
r. 596. ob.606.
Cwenburh, m. Eadwine,
k. of Deira.

Dan,
surnamed Mykillati3
k. of Denmark.

Angeitheow. Eomer. Ic'el. i
Cnebba.

(latotien2-
Weothelgeat.
Waga.
Wihtlaeg.
Wermund. Offa. i
Angengeat.

Cynewald. Creoda Wybba.

'/

A daughter4
m. Cenwealh,
k. of Wessex.

V Peada3,
ob.Easter 656.
m. Ealhflaed, a
d. of Oswiu.

Wulfhere9,-*' ^Ethelred 10,7** Merewald11,
r. 656. ob.675. r. 675, resig. 704. ealdorm. of the
m. Eormengild ob.4 May 716. W.Hecanas.

Penda5, X
*. 626. ob.655.
m. Cyneswyth,
or Cynewise.
 !_,_  -r-  -r 
Merchelm12, Cyneburh13, Cyneswyth14.
or Mercelin.

Eawa6,
ob.5 Aug. 642.

I 
Cenred16,
r. 704, resig.
709. x

of Kent.
1

m. Osthryth, d. of m. Eormenburh

m. Ealhfrith
of Northum
berland.

Oswiu. ob.697.

of Kent.

Wilbwrhlb,
m. Frithwold,
under-king of Surrey.

 r I
Werburh 17. Beorhtwald ls,
686, a sub-
king.

r  1  1 — *  1 i 
Ceolred19, Mildthryth20. Mildburh20. Mildgyth2". Merewine20. Alweo22.

Cenwealh7.
Cuthwealh21. Centwine21.Centreou21.Bassa21. Cuthberht21,
descendant in the 5th degree
of Cenwealh.

709. ob.716.
m. Werburh. £
ob.702 as arr I
abbess.

,iEthelbald22, r. 716. ob.757.

Heardberht23.

Osmod24. I
Eanwulf24- I
Thingferth24 m. Marcellina.

Cenwulf29, ,; r. 796.
\ ob.819.
m. l.Cyne-
gyth ; 2.
jElfthryth.

Cuthred30, k. of Kent.
ob.805.

Offa25,
v r. 757. ob.10 Aug.
*, 796. m. Cyne-
thryth.

Ceolwulf31, r.819. ,
ob.821. I
^ElflEfid 32,
m. Wigmund,
s. of Wiglaf,
k. of Mercia. I
Wistan32, ob.850.

Cynethryth33, Cenhelm33, Burgen-
an abbess ob.17 July hild33.
825. 819.

Eadburh 26,
787. m. Beorhtric,
k. of Wessex:.

^lflaed26,
m. ethelred,
k. of Northum bria.

iElfthryth27, betrothed to
jEthelberht, k.
of E. Anglia.

Ecgferth28, ob.796.

1 The line from Woden to Penda is
according to the Sax. Chron. a. 626.
2 This list is according to Florence,
having two additional names, and Angen
geat for Angeitheow.
3 Saxo Gramm. lib. iv. p. 175, t. i. ed.
Muller. 4 Beda, iii. 7. Fior. Geneal.
5 Beda, iii. 24.
6 Sax. Chron. a. 716. Nennius. Ann.
Camb. a. 644.

7 Fior. Geneal.
8 Beda, iii. 21,24.
0 Beda, iii. 24. Sax. Chron. a. 675.
Fior. Geneal.
i° Sax. Chron. Beda, iii. 11, iv. 21.
u Sim. Dunelm. Fior. Geneal. W.
Malm. i2 W. Malm. Fior. Geneal.
13 Beda, iii. 21.
14 Fior. Geneal. W.Malm.

15 Ead.deDiceto,Abbrev.a.641. Vita
S. Osithae, in Smith's Beda, p. 129.
16 Beda, v. 24.
17 W. Malm. i. ii.
18 Eddii Vita S. Wilfr. c. xxxix. Mal
mesb. de Pont. lib. v. ap. Gale, p. 345,
and charter a. 686 ib.
19 Beda, v. 24. Sax. Chron. a. 782.
Sim. Dunelm. a. 783.
20 Fior. Geneal. W.Malm.

2] Fior. Geneal.
22 Sax. Chron. a. 716. Fior. Geneal.
23 Charter in Smith's Beda, a. 786.
Hemming, t. i. p. 219.
24 Sax. Chron. a. 755. Fior. Geneal.
Nennius calls him Ossulf (Oswulf).
25 Sim. Dunelm. Sax. Chron. K.
Wendover ,,t. i. p. 250. According to the
Vita Offse IL, Drithe was a Frank, called
also Petronilla, a relation of the emperor
Charles.

26 Sax. Chron. Fior. Geneal.
27 Fior. Geneal.
28 W. Malm.
29 Sax. Chron. Cod. Diplom. t. i.
214, 238.
30 Sax. Chron. a. 805.
3i Sax. Chron.
32 Fior. Geneal.
33 Fl. Wigorn. a. 850, and Geneal.
Malm.

pp.

W.

292

GENEALOGY OF THE PRINCES OF THE LINDIS
FARAS, OR INHABITANTS OF LINDSEY,
THE TERRITORY ABOUT LINCOLN.
i
Winta. I
Cretta.
Cweldgils. Csdbaed. Bubba. Beda.
Biscop2.
Eanferth. I
Eatta.
Ealdfrith.

1 This list is from Fl. Wigorn.
2 This is apparently Benedict Biscop, surnamed Baducing, the founder of
Wearmouth abbey. See p. 174. It is singular that the name of Blecca does not
appear in the above list, of whom see p. 153. — T.

END OF VOL. I.

Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.

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