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 Another Random Document on
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Burgundian by birth, who now lies buried at Ramsey. Sigebert
moreover renouncing the world and taking the monastic vow, left
the throne to his relation, Ecgric, with whom, being attacked in
intestine war by Penda, king of the Mercians, he met his death, at
the moment when, superior to his misfortunes, and mindful of his
religious profession, he held only a wand in his hand. The successor
of Ecgric was Anna, the son of Eni, the brother of Redwald, involved
in similar destruction by the same furious Penda; he was blessed
with a numerous and noble offspring, as the second book will
declare in its proper place. To Anna succeeded his brother Ethelhere,
who was justly slain by Oswy king of the Northumbrians, together
with Penda, because he was an auxiliary to him, and was actually
supporting the very army which had destroyed his brother and his
kinsman. His brother Ethelwald, in due succession, left the kingdom
to Adulf and Elwold, the sons of Ethelhere. Next came Bernred. After
him Ethelred. His son was St. Ethelbert, whom Offa king of the
Mercians killed through treachery, as has already been said, and will
be repeated hereafter. After him, through the violence of the
Mercians, few kings reigned in Eastern Anglia till the time of St.
Edmund, and he was despatched in the sixteenth year of his reign,
by Hingwar, a heathen; from which time the Angles ceased to
command in their own country for fifty years. For the province was
nine years without a king, owing to the continued devastations of
the pagans; afterwards both in it and in East Saxony, Gothrun, a
Danish king, reigned for twelve years, in the time of king Alfred.
Gothrun had for successor a Dane also, by name Eohric, who, after
he had reigned fourteen years, was taken off by the Angles, because
he conducted himself with cruelty towards them. Still, however,
liberty beamed not on this people, for the Danish earls continued to
oppress them, or else to excite them against the kings of the West
Saxons, till Edward, the son of Alfred, added both provinces to his
own West Saxon empire, expelling the Danes and freeing the Angles.
This event took place in the fiftieth year after the murder of St.
113
Edmund, king and martyr, and in the fifteenth of his own reign.
 CHAP. VI.

Of the kings of the East Saxons. [A.D. 520–823.]

Nearly co-eval with the kingdom of the East Angles, was that of
the East Saxons; which had many kings in succession, though
subject to others, and principally to those of the Mercians. First,
114
then, Sleda, the tenth from Woden, reigned over them; whose
son, Sabert, nephew of St. Ethelbert, king of Kent, by his sister
Ricula, embraced the faith of Christ at the preaching of St. Mellitus,
first bishop of London; for that city belongs to the East Saxons. On
the death of Sabert, his sons, Sexred and Seward, drove Mellitus
into banishment, and soon after, being killed by the West Saxons,
they paid the penalty of their persecution against Christ. Sigbert,
surnamed the Small, the son of Seward, succeeding, left the
kingdom to Sigebert, the son of Sigebald, who was the brother of
Sabert. This Sigebert, at the exhortation of king Oswy, was baptized
in Northumbria by bishop Finan, and brought back to his nation, by
115
the ministry of bishop Cedd, the faith which they had expelled
together with Mellitus. After gloriously governing the kingdom, he
left it in a manner still more glorious; for he was murdered by his
near relations, merely because, in conformity to the gospel-precept,
he used kindly to spare his enemies, nor regard with harsh and
angry countenance, if they were penitent, those who had offended
him. His brother Suidelm, baptized by the same Cedd in East Anglia,
succeeded. On his death, Sighere, the son of Sigbert the Small, and
Sebbi, the son of Seward, held the sovereignty. Sebbi’s associate
dying, he himself voluntarily retired from the kingdom in his thirtieth
year, becoming a monk, as Bede relates. His sons Sighard and of
Sighere, governed the kingdom for a short time; a youth of engaging
countenance and disposition, in the flower of his age, and highly
beloved by his subjects. He, through the persuasion of Kyneswith,
daughter of king Penda, whom he had anxiously sought in marriage,
being taught to aspire after heavenly affections, went to Rome with
Kenred king of the Mercians, and St. Edwin bishop of Worcester; and
there taking the vow, in due time entered the heavenly mansions. To
him succeeded Selred, son of Sigebert the Good, during thirty-eight
years; who being slain, Swithed assumed the sovereignty of the East
116
Saxons; but in the same year that Egbert king of the West Saxons
subdued Kent, being expelled by him, he vacated the kingdom;
though London, with the adjacent country, continued subject to the
kings of the Mercians as long as they held their sovereignty.
[A.D. 653–823.] OF THE KINGS OF KENT.

The kings of Kent, it is observed, had dominion peculiarly in

Kent, in which are two sees; the archbishopric of Canterbury, and
the bishopric of Rochester.
The kings of the West Saxons ruled in Wiltshire, Berkshire, and
Dorsetshire; in which there is one bishop, whose see is now at
Sarum or Salisbury; formerly it was at Ramsbury, or at Sherborne: in
117
Sussex, which for some little time possessed a king of its own;
the episcopal see of this county was anciently in the island of Selsey,
as Bede relates, where St. Wilfrid built a monastery; the bishop now
dwells at Chichester: in the counties of Southampton and Surrey;
which have a bishop, whose see is at Winchester: in the county of
Somerset, which formerly had a bishop at Wells, but now at Bath:
and in Domnonia, now called Devonshire, and Cornubia, now
Cornwall; at that time there were two bishoprics, one at Crediton,
the other at St. German’s; now there is but one, and the see is at
Exeter.
The kings of the Mercians governed the counties of Gloucester,
Worcester, and Warwick; in these is one bishop whose residence is
at Worcester: in Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire; these have
one bishop, who has part of Warwickshire and Shropshire; his
residence is at the city of Legions, that is Chester or Coventry;
formerly it was at Lichfield: in Herefordshire; and there is a bishop
having half Shropshire and part of Warwickshire, and
Gloucestershire; whose residence is at Hereford: in Oxfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, half of
Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire; which
counties are under the jurisdiction of a bishop now resident at
Lincoln, but formerly at Dorchester in the county of Oxford: in
Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, which belong to the diocese of
York; formerly they had their own bishop, whose seat was at
Leicester.
The kings of the East Angles had dominion over the county of
Cambridge; there is a bishop, whose seat is at Ely: and in Norfolk
and Suffolk: whose see is at Norwich; formerly at Elmham or
Thetford.
The kings of the East Saxons ruled in Essex, in Middlesex, and
half of Hertfordshire; where there anciently was, and still remains,
the bishop of London.
The kings of the Northumbrians governed all the country which
is beyond the river Humber, even into Scotland; and there were the
archbishop of York, the bishops of Hexham, of Ripon, of Lindisfarne,
and of Candida Casa [Whitherne]; Hexham and Ripon are no more;
Lindisfarne is translated to Durham.
Such were the divisions of the kingdom of England, although the
kings, according to the vicissitude of the times, now one, and then
the other, would exceed their boundaries through their courage, or
lose them by their indolence; but all these several kingdoms Egbert
subjugated by his abilities, and consolidated into one empire,
reserving to each their own laws. Wherefore, since I have passed
beyond his times, fulfilling my promise in a review of the different
periods, I will here fix the limits of my first volume, that the various
tracks of the different kingdoms may unite in the general path of the
West Saxon Empire.
 BOOK II.

PROLOGUE.
[A.D. 800.] PROLOGUE TO BOOK II.

A long period has elapsed since, as well through the care of my

parents as my own industry, I became familiar with books. This
pleasure possessed me from my childhood: this source of delight has
grown with my years. Indeed I was so instructed by my father, that,
had I turned aside to other pursuits, I should have considered it as
jeopardy to my soul and discredit to my character. Wherefore
mindful of the adage “covet what is necessary,” I constrained my
early age to desire eagerly that which it was disgraceful not to
possess. I gave, indeed, my attention to various branches of
literature, but in different degrees. Logic, for instance, which gives
arms to eloquence, I contented myself with barely hearing.
Medicine, which ministers to the health of the body, I studied with
somewhat more attention. But now, having scrupulously examined
the several branches of Ethics, I bow down to its majesty, because it
spontaneously unveils itself to those who study it, and directs their
minds to moral practice; History more especially; which, by an
agreeable recapitulation of past events, excites its readers, by
example, to frame their lives to the pursuit of good, or to aversion
from evil. When, therefore, at my own expense, I had procured
some historians of foreign nations, I proceeded, during my domestic
leisure, to inquire if any thing concerning our own country could be
found worthy of handing down to posterity. Hence it arose, that, not
content with the writings of ancient times, I began, myself, to
compose; not indeed to display my learning, which is comparatively
nothing, but to bring to light events lying concealed in the confused
mass of antiquity. In consequence rejecting vague opinions, I have
studiously sought for chronicles far and near, though I confess I
have scarcely profited any thing by this industry. For perusing them
all, I still remained poor in information; though I ceased not my
researches as long as I could find any thing to read. However, what I
have clearly ascertained concerning the four kingdoms, I have
inserted in my first book, in which I hope truth will find no cause to
blush, though perhaps a degree of doubt may sometimes arise. I
shall now trace the monarchy of the West Saxon kingdom, through
the line of successive princes, down to the coming of the Normans:
which if any person will condescend to regard with complacency, let
him in brotherly love observe the following rule: “If before, he knew
only these things, let him not be disgusted because I have inserted
them; if he shall know more, let him not be angry that I have not
spoken of them;” but rather let him communicate his knowledge to
me, while I yet live, that at least, those events may appear in the
margin of my history, which do not occur in the text.
 CHAP. I.

The history of king Egbert. [A.D. 800–839.]

[A.D. 800–828.] OF KING EGBERT.

My former volume terminated where the four kingdoms of

Britain were consolidated into one. Egbert, the founder of this
sovereignty, grand-nephew of king Ina, by his brother Ingild, of high
rank in his own nation, and liberally educated, had been conspicuous
among the West Saxons from his childhood. His uninterrupted
course of valour begat envy, and as it is almost naturally ordained
that kings should regard with suspicion whomsoever they see
growing up in expectation of the kingdom, Bertric, as before related,
jealous of his rising character, was meditating how to destroy him.
Egbert, apprised of this, escaped to Offa, king of the Mercians. While
Offa concealed him with anxious care, the messengers of Bertric
arrived, demanding the fugitive for punishment, and offering money
for his surrender. In addition to this they solicited his daughter in
marriage for their king, in order that the nuptial tie might bind them
in perpetual amity. In consequence Offa, who would not give way to
hostile threats, yielded to flattering allurements, and Egbert, passing
the sea, went into France; a circumstance which I attribute to the
counsels of God, that a man destined to rule so great a kingdom
might learn the art of government from the Franks; for this people
has no competitor among all the Western nations in military skill or
polished manners. This ill-treatment Egbert used as an incentive to
“rub off the rust of indolence,” to quicken the energy of his mind,
and to adopt foreign customs, far differing from his native
barbarism. On the death, therefore, of Bertric, being invited into
Britain by frequent messages from his friends, he ascended the
throne, and realized the fondest expectations of his country. He was
crowned in the year of our Lord’s incarnation 800, and in the thirty-
fourth year of the reign of Charles the Great, of France, who
survived this event twelve years. In the meantime Egbert, when he
had acquired the regard of his subjects by his affability and
kindness, first manifested his power against those Britons who
inhabit that part of the island which is called Cornwall, and having
118
subjugated them, he proceeded to make the Northern Britons,
who are separated from the others by an arm of the sea, tributary to
him. While the fame of these victories struck terror into the rest,
Bernulf king of the Mercians, aiming at something great, and
supposing it would redound to his glory if he could remove the terror
of others by his own audacity, proclaimed war against Egbert.
Deeming it disgraceful to retreat, Egbert met him with much spirit,
and on then coming into action, Bernulf was defeated and fled. This
119
battle took place at Hellendun, A.D. 824. Elated with this success,
the West Saxon king, extending his views, in the heat of victory, sent
his son Ethelwulf, with Alstan, bishop of Sherborne, and a chosen
band, into Kent, for the purpose of adding to the West Saxon
dominions that province, which had either grown indolent through
long repose, or was terrified by the fame of his valour. These
commanders observed their instructions effectually, for they passed
through every part of the country, and driving Baldred its king, with
little difficulty, beyond the river Thames, they subjugated to his
dominion, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, Kent, Surrey, the
South Saxons, and the East Saxons, who had formerly been under
the jurisdiction of his predecessors. Not long after the East Angles,
animated by the support of Egbert, killed by successive stratagems,
Bernulf and Ludecan, kings of the Mercians. The cause of their
destruction was, their perpetual incursions, with their usual
insolence, on the territories of others. Withlaf their successor, first
driven from his kingdom by Egbert, and afterwards admitted as a
tributary prince, augmented the West Saxon sovereignty. In the
same year the Northumbrians perceiving that themselves only
remained and were a conspicuous object, and fearing lest he should
pour out his long-cherished anger on them, at last, though late,
gave hostages, and yielded to his power. When he was thus
possessed of all Britain, the rest of his life, a space of nine years,
passed quietly on, except that, nearly in his latter days, a piratical
band of Danes made a descent, and disturbed the peace of the
kingdom. So changeable is the lot of human affairs, that he, who
first singly governed all the Angles, could derive but little satisfaction
from the obedience of his countrymen, for a foreign enemy was
perpetually harassing him and his descendants. Against these
invaders the forces of the Angles made a stand, but fortune no
longer flattered the king with her customary favours, but deserted
him in the contest: for, when, during the greater part of the day, he
had almost secured the victory, he lost the battle as the sun
declined; however, by the favour of darkness, he escaped the
disgrace of being conquered. In the next action, with a small force,
he totally routed an immense multitude. At length, after a reign of
thirty-seven years and seven months, he departed this life, and was
buried at Winchester; leaving an ample field of glory for his son, and
declaring, that he must be happy, if he was careful not to destroy, by
the indolence natural to his race, a kingdom that himself had
consolidated with such consummate industry.
 CHAP. II.

Of king Ethelwulf. [A.D. 839–858.]

[A.D. 838–851.] OF KING ETHELWULF.

120
In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 837, Ethelwulf, whom
some call Athulf, the son of Egbert, came to the throne, and reigned
twenty years and five months. Mild by nature he infinitely preferred
a life of tranquillity to dominion over many provinces; and, finally,
content with his paternal kingdom, he bestowed all the rest, which
his father had subjugated, on his son Ethelstan; of whom it is not
known when, or in what manner, he died. He assisted Burhred, king
of the Mercians, with an army against the Britons, and highly exalted
him by giving him his daughter in marriage. He frequently overcame
the piratical Danes, who were traversing the whole island and
infesting the coast with sudden descents, both personally and by his
generals; although, according to the chance of war, he himself
experienced great and repeated calamities; London and almost the
whole of Kent being laid waste. Yet these disasters were ever
checked by the alacrity of the king’s advisers, who suffered not the
enemy to trespass with impunity, but fully avenged themselves on
them by the effect of their united counsels. For he possessed at that
time, two most excellent prelates, St. Swithun of Winchester, and
Ealstan of Sherborne, who perceiving the king to be of heavy and
sluggish disposition, perpetually stimulated him, by their
admonitions, to the knowledge of governing. Swithun, disgusted
with earthly, trained his master to heavenly pursuits; Ealstan,
knowing that the business of the kingdom ought not to be
neglected, continually inspirited him against the Danes: himself
furnishing the exchequer with money, as well as regulating the army.
 121
Any peruser of the Annals will find many affairs of this kind, both
entered on with courage, and terminated with success through his
means. He held his bishopric fifty years; happy in living for so long a
space in the practice of good works. I should readily commend him,
had he not been swayed by worldly avarice, and usurped what
belonged to others, when by his intrigues he seized the monastery
of Malmesbury for his own use. We feel the mischief of this shameful
conduct even to the present day, although the monastery has baffled
all similar violence from the time of his death till now, when it has
122
fallen again into like difficulty. Thus the accursed passion of
avarice corrupts the human soul, and forces men, though great and
illustrious in other respects, into hell.
Ethelwulf, confiding in these two supporters, provided effectually
for external emergencies, and did not neglect the interior concerns
of his kingdom. For after the subjugation of his enemies, turning to
the establishment of God’s worship, he granted every tenth hide of
land within his kingdom to the servants of Christ, free from all
tribute, exempt from all services. But how small a portion is this of
his glory? Having settled his kingdom, he went to Rome, and there
123
offered to St. Peter that tribute which England pays to this day,
before pope Leo the fourth, who had also, formerly, honourably
124
received, and anointed as king, Alfred, his son, whom Ethelwulf
had sent to him. Continuing there a whole year, he nobly repaired
the School of the Angles, which, according to report, was first
founded by Offa, king of the Mercians, and had been burned down
125
the preceding year. Returning home through France, he married
Judith, daughter of Charles, king of the Franks.

OF THE SUCCESSORS OF CHARLEMAGNE.

[A.D. 814–840.] SUCCESSORS OF CHARLEMAGNE.

For Louis the Pious, son of Charles the Great, had four sons;
Lothaire, Pepin, Louis, and Charles, surnamed the Bald; of these
Lothaire, even in his father’s life-time, usurping the title of emperor,
reigned fifteen years in that part of Germany situated near the Alps
which is now called Lorraine, that is, the kingdom of Lothaire, and in
all Italy together with Rome. In his latter days, afflicted with
sickness, he renounced the world. He was a man by far more
inhuman than all who preceded him; so much so, as even frequently
to load his own father with chains in a dungeon. Louis indeed was of
mild and simple manners, but he was unmercifully persecuted by
Lothaire, because Ermengarda, by whom he had his first family,
being dead, he was doatingly fond of Charles, his son by his second
wife Judith. Pepin, another son of Louis, had dominion in
126
Aquitaine and Gascony. Louis, the third son of Louis, in addition to
Norica, which he had already, possessed the kingdoms which his
father had given him, that is to say, Alemannia, Thuringia, Austrasia,
Saxony, and the kingdom of the Avares, that is, the Huns. Charles
obtained the half of France on the west, and all Neustria, Brittany,
and the greatest part of Burgundy, Gothia, Gascony, and Aquitaine,
Pepin the son of Pepin being ejected thence and compelled to
become a monk in the monastery of St. Methard; who afterwards
escaping by flight, and returning into Aquitaine, remained there in
concealment a long time; but being again treacherously deceived by
Ranulph the governor, he was seized, brought to Charles at Senlis,
and doomed to perpetual exile. Moreover, after the death of the
most pious emperor, Louis, Lothaire, who had been anointed
emperor eighteen years before his father’s decease, being joined by
Pepin with the people of Aquitaine, led an army against his brothers,
that is, Louis, the most pious king of the Bavarians, and Charles, into
127
the county of Auxerre to a place called Fontenai: where, when the
Franks with all their subject nations had been overwhelmed by
mutual slaughter, Louis and Charles ultimately triumphed; Lothaire
being put to flight. After this most sanguinary conflict, however,
peace was made between them, and they divided the sovereignty of
the Franks, as has been mentioned above. Lothaire had three sons
by Ermengarda the daughter of Hugo: first, Louis, to whom he
committed the government of the Romans and of Italy; next,
Lothaire, to whom he left the imperial crown; lastly, Charles, to
whom he gave Provence. Lothaire died in the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 855, of his reign the thirty-third. Charles his son, who
governed Provence, survived him eight years, and then Louis,
emperor of the Romans, and Lothaire his brother, shared his
kingdom of Provence. But Louis king of the Norici, that is, of the
Bavarians, the son of Louis the emperor, in the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 865, after the feast of Easter, divided his kingdom
between his sons. To Caroloman he gave Norica, that is, Bavaria,
and the marches bordering on the Sclavonians and the Lombards; to
Louis, Thuringia, the Eastern Franks, and Saxony; to Charles he left
128
Alemannia, and Curnwalla, that is, the county of Cornwall. Louis
himself reigned happily over his sons, in full power for ten years,
and then died in the year of our Lord’s incarnation 876, when he had
reigned fifty-four years. Charles king of the West Franks, in the
thirty-sixth year of his reign, entering Italy, came to offer up his
prayers in the church of the apostles, and was there elected emperor
by all the Roman people, and consecrated by pope John on the 25th
of December, in the year of our Lord’s incarnation 875. Thence he
had a prosperous return into Gaul. But in the thirty-eighth year of his
reign, and the beginning of the third of his imperial dignity, he went
into Italy again, and held a conference with pope John; and
returning into Gaul, he died, after passing Mount Cenis, on the 13th
of October, in the tenth of the Indiction, in the year of our Lord 877,
and was succeeded by his son Louis. Before the second year of his
reign was completed this Louis died in the palace at Compeigne, on
the sixth before the Ides of April, in the year of our Lord 879, the
twelfth of the Indiction. After him his sons, Louis and Caroloman,
divided his kingdom. Of these, Louis gained a victory over the
Normans in the district of Vimeu, and died soon after on the 12th of
August, in the year of our Lord 881, the fifteenth of the Indiction,
having reigned two years, three months, and twenty-four days. He
was succeeded in his government by his brother Caroloman, who,
after reigning three years and six days, was wounded by a wild
129
boar in the forest of Iveline, in Mount Ericus. He departed this life
in the year of our Lord 884, the second of the Indiction, the 24th of
December. Next Charles king of the Suavi, the son of Louis king of
the Norici, assumed the joint empire of the Franks and Romans, in
the year of the Incarnate Word 885, the third of the Indiction;
whose vision, as I think it worth preserving, I here subjoin:
[A.D. 885.] CHARLES’S VISION.

“In the name of God most high, the King of kings. As I, Charles
by the free gift of God, emperor, king of the Germans, patrician of
the Romans, and emperor of the Franks, on the sacred night of the
Lord’s day, after duly performing the holy service of the evening,
went to the bed of rest and sought the sleep of quietude, there
came a tremendous voice to me, saying, ‘Charles, thy spirit shall
shortly depart from thee for a considerable time:’ immediately I was
rapt in the spirit, and he who carried me away in the spirit was most
glorious to behold. In his hand he held a clue of thread emitting a
beam of purest light, such as comets shed when they appear. This
he began to unwind, and said to me, ‘Take the thread of this brilliant
clue and bind and tie it firmly on the thumb of thy right hand, for
thou shalt be led by it through the inextricable punishments of the
infernal regions.’ Saying this, he went before me, quickly unrolling
the thread of the brilliant clue, and led me into very deep and fiery
valleys which were full of pits boiling with pitch, and brimstone, and
lead, and wax, and grease. There I found the bishops of my father
and of my uncles: and when in terror I asked them why they were
suffering such dreadful torments? they replied, ‘We were the bishops
of your father and of your uncles, and instead of preaching, and
admonishing them and their people to peace and concord, as was
our duty, we were the sowers of discord and the fomenters of evil.
On this account we are now burning in these infernal torments,
together with other lovers of slaughter and of rapine; and hither also
will your bishops and ministers come, who now delight to act as we
did.’ While I was fearfully listening to this, behold the blackest
demons came flying about me, with fiery claws endeavouring to
snatch away the thread of life which I held in my hand, and to draw
it to them; but repelled by the rays of the clue, they were unable to
touch it. Next running behind me, they tried to gripe me in their
claws and cast me headlong into those sulphureous pits: but my
conductor, who carried the clue, threw a thread of light over my
shoulders, and doubling it, drew me strongly after him, and in this
manner we ascended lofty fiery mountains, from which arose lakes,
and burning rivers, and all kinds of burning metals, wherein I found
immersed innumerable souls of the vassals and princes of my father
and brothers, some up to the hair, others to the chin, and others to
the middle, who mournfully cried out to me, ‘While we were living,
we were, together with you, and your father, and brothers, and
uncles, fond of battle, and slaughter, and plunder, through lust of
earthly things: wherefore we now undergo punishment in these
boiling rivers, and in various kinds of liquid metal.’ While I was, with
the greatest alarm, attending to these, I heard some souls behind
me crying out, ‘The great will undergo still greater torment.’ I looked
back and beheld on the banks of the boiling river, furnaces of pitch
and brimstone, filled with great dragons, and scorpions, and
different kinds of serpents, where I also saw some of my father’s
nobles, some of my own, and of those of my brothers and of my
uncles, who said, ‘Alas, Charles, you see what dreadful torments we
undergo on account of our malice, and pride, and the evil counsel
which we gave to our kings and to you, for lust’s sake.’ When I could
not help groaning mournfully at this, the dragons ran at me with
open jaws filled with fire, and brimstone, and pitch, and tried to
swallow me up. My conductor then tripled the thread of the clue
around me, which by the splendour of its rays overcame their fiery
throats: he then pulled me with greater violence, and we descended
into a valley, which was in one part dark and burning like a fiery
furnace, but in another so extremely enchanting and glorious, that I
cannot describe it. I turned myself to the dark part which emitted
flames, and there I saw some kings of my race in extreme torture;
at which, affrighted beyond measure and reduced to great distress, I
expected that I should be immediately thrown into these torments
by some very black giants, who made the valley blaze with every
kind of flame. I trembled very much, and, the thread of the clue of
light assisting my eyes, I saw, on the side of the valley, the light
somewhat brightening, and two fountains flowing out thence: one
was extremely hot; the other clear and luke-warm; two large casks
were there besides. When, guided by the thread of light, I
proceeded thither, I looked into the vessel containing boiling water,
and saw my father Louis, standing therein up to his thighs. He was
dreadfully oppressed with pain and agony, and said to me, ‘Fear not,
my lord Charles; I know that your spirit will again return into your
body, and that God hath permitted you to come hither, that you
might see for what crimes myself and all whom you have beheld,
undergo these torments. One day I am bathed in the boiling cask;
next I pass into that other delightful water; which is effected by the
prayers of St. Peter and St. Remigius, under whose patronage our
royal race has hitherto reigned. But if you, and my faithful bishops
and abbats, and the whole ecclesiastical order will quickly assist me
with masses, prayers and psalms, and alms, and vigils, I shall shortly
be released from the punishment of the boiling water. For my
brother Lothaire and his son Louis have had these punishments
remitted by the prayers of St. Peter and St. Remigius, and have now
entered into the joy of God’s paradise.’ He then said to me, ‘Look on
your left hand;’ and when I had done so, I saw two very deep casks
boiling furiously. ‘These,’ said he, ‘are prepared for you, if you do not
amend and repent of your atrocious crimes.’ I then began to be
dreadfully afraid, and when my conductor saw my spirit thus
terrified, he said to me, ‘Follow me to the right of that most
resplendent valley of paradise.’ As we proceeded, I beheld my uncle
Lothaire sitting in excessive brightness, in company with glorious
kings, on a topaz-stone of uncommon size, crowned with a precious
diadem: and near him, his son Louis crowned in like manner. Seeing
me near at hand he called me to him in a kind voice, saying, ‘Come
to me, Charles, now my third successor in the empire of the
Romans; I know that you have passed through the place of
punishment where your father, my brother, is placed in the baths
appointed for him; but, by the mercy of God, he will be shortly
liberated from those punishments as we have been, by the merits of
St. Peter and the prayers of St. Remigius, to whom God hath given a
special charge over the kings and people of the Franks, and unless
he shall continue to favour and assist the dregs of our family, our
race must shortly cease both from the kingdom and the empire.
Know, moreover, that the rule of the empire will be shortly taken out
of your hand, nor will you long survive. Then Louis turning to me,
said, ‘The empire which you have hitherto held by hereditary right,
Louis the son of my daughter is to assume.’ So saying, there seemed
immediately to appear before me a little child, and Lothaire his
grandfather looking upon him, said to me, ‘This infant seems to be
such an one as that which the Lord set in the midst of the disciples,
and said, “Of such is the kingdom of God, I say unto you, that their
angels do always behold the face of my father who is in heaven.” But
do you bestow on him the empire by that thread of the clue which
you hold in your hand.’ I then untied the thread from the thumb of
my right hand, and gave him the whole monarchy of the empire by
that thread, and immediately the entire clue, like a brilliant sun-
beam, became rolled up in his hand. Thus, after this wonderful
transaction, my spirit, extremely wearied and affrighted, returned
into my body. Therefore, let all persons know willingly or unwillingly,
forasmuch as, according to the will of God, the whole empire of the
Romans will revert into his hands, and that I cannot prevail against
him, compelled by the conditions of this my calling, that God, who is
the ruler of the living and the dead, will both complete and establish
this; whose eternal kingdom remains for ever and ever, amen.”
The vision itself, and the partition of the kingdoms, I have
130
inserted in the very words I found them in. This Charles, then,
had scarcely discharged the united duties of the empire and
kingdom for two years, when Charles, the son of Louis who died at
Compeigne, succeeded him: this is the Charles who married the
daughter of Edward, king of England, and gave Normandy to Rollo
with his daughter Gisla, who was the surety of peace and pledge of
the treaty. To this Charles, in the empire, succeeded Arnulph; a king
of the imperial line, tutor of that young Louis of whom the vision
above recited speaks. Arnulph dying after fifteen years, this Louis
succeeded him, at whose death, one Conrad, king of the Teutonians,
obtained the sovereignty. His son Henry, who succeeded him, sent to
Athelstan king of the Angles, for his two sisters, Aldgitha and
Edgitha, the latter of whom he married to his son Otho, the former
to a certain duke near the Alps. Thus the empire of the Romans and
the kingdom of the Franks being severed from their ancient union,
the one is governed by emperors and the other by kings. But as I
have wandered wide from my purpose, whilst indulging in tracing
the descent of the illustrious kings of the Franks, I will now return to
the course I had begun, and to Ethelwulf.
On his return after his year’s peregrination and marriage with
the daughter of Charles the Bald, as I have said, he found the
dispositions of some persons contrary to his expectations. For
Ethelbald his son, and Ealstan bishop of Sherborne, and Enulph earl
of Somerset conspiring against him, endeavoured to eject him from
the sovereignty; but through the intervention of maturer counsel,
the kingdom was divided between the father and his son. This
partition was extremely unequal; for malignity was so far successful
that the western portion, which was the better, was allotted to the
son, the eastern, which was the worse, fell to the father. He,
however, with incredible forbearance, dreading “a worse than civil
war,” calmly gave way to his son, restraining, by a conciliatory
harangue, the people who had assembled for the purpose of
asserting his dignity. And though all this quarrel arose on account of
his foreign wife, yet he held her in the highest estimation, and used
to place her on the throne near himself, contrary to the West Saxon
custom. For that people never suffered the king’s consort either to
be seated by the king or to be honoured with the appellation of
queen, on account of the depravity of Eadburga, daughter of Offa,
king of the Mercians; who, as we have before mentioned, being
married to Bertric, king of the West Saxons, used to persuade him, a
tender-hearted man, as they report, to the destruction of the
innocent, and would herself take off by poison those against whom
her accusations failed. This was exemplified in the case of a youth
much beloved by the king, whom she made away with in this
manner: and immediately afterwards Bertric fell sick, wasted away
and died, from having previously drunk of the same potion,
unknown to the queen. The rumour of this getting abroad, drove the
poisoner from the kingdom. Proceeding to Charles the Great, she
happened to find him standing with one of his sons, and after
offering him presents, the emperor, in a playful, jocose manner,
commanded her to choose which she liked best, himself, or his son.
Eadburga choosing the young man for his blooming beauty, Charles
replied with some emotion, “Had you chosen me, you should have
had my son, but since you have chosen him, you shall have neither.”
He then placed her in a monastery where she might pass her life in
splendour; but, soon after, finding her guilty of incontinence he
131
expelled her. Struck with this instance of depravity, the Saxons
framed the regulation I have alluded to, though Ethelwulf invalidated
it by his affectionate kindness. He made his will a few months before
he died, in which, after the division of the kingdom between his sons
Ethelbald and Ethelbert, he set out the dowry of his daughter, and
ordered, that, till the end of time, one poor person should be clothed
and fed from every tenth hide of his inheritance, and that every year,
132
three hundred mancas of gold should be sent to Rome, of which
one-third should be given to St. Peter, another to St. Paul for lamps,
and the other to the pope for distribution. He died two years after he
came from Rome, and was buried at Winchester in the cathedral.
But that I may return from my digression to my proposed series, I
shall here subjoin the charter of ecclesiastical immunities which he
granted to all England.
[A.D. 857.] ETHELWULF’S CHARTER.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning for evermore. Since we perceive

that perilous times are pressing on us, that there are in our days
hostile burnings, and plunderings of our wealth, and most cruel
depredations by devastating enemies, and many tribulations of
barbarous and pagan nations, threatening even our destruction:
therefore I Ethelwulf king of the West Saxons, with the advice of my
bishops and nobility, have established a wholesome counsel and
general remedy. I have decided that there shall be given to the
133
servants of God, whether male or female or laymen, a certain
hereditary portion of the lands possessed by persons of every
134
degree, that is to say, the tenth manse, but where it is less than
this, then the tenth part; that it may be exonerated from all secular
services, all royal tributes great and small, or those taxes which we
call Witereden. And let it be free from all things, for the release of
our souls, that it may be applied to God’s service alone, exempt from
expeditions, the building of bridges, or of forts; in order that they
may more diligently pour forth their prayers to God for us without
ceasing, inasmuch as we have in some measure alleviated their
service. Moreover it hath pleased Ealstan bishop of Sherborne, and
Swithun bishop of Winchester, with their abbats and the servants of
God, to appoint that all our brethren and sisters at each church,
every week on the day of Mercury, that is to say, Wednesday, should
sing fifty psalms, and every priest two masses, one for king
Ethelwulf, and another for his nobility, consenting to this gift, for the
pardon and alleviation of their sins; for the king while living, they
shall say, ‘Let us pray: O God, who justifiest.’ For the nobility while
living, ‘Stretch forth, O Lord.’ After they are dead; for the departed
king, singly: for the departed nobility, in common: and let this be
firmly appointed for all the times of Christianity, in like manner as
that immunity is appointed, so long as faith shall increase in the
nation of the Angles. This charter of donation was written in the year
135
of our Lord’s incarnation 844, the fourth of the indiction, and on
the nones, i. e. the fifth day of November, in the city of Winchester,
in the church of St. Peter, before the high altar, and they have done
this for the honour of St. Michael the archangel, and of St. Mary the
glorious queen, the mother of God, and also for the honour of St.
Peter the chief of the apostles, and of our most holy father pope
Gregory, and all saints. And then, for greater security, king Ethelwulf
placed the charter on the altar of St. Peter, and the bishops received
it in behalf of God’s holy faith, and afterwards transmitted it to all
churches in their dioceses according to the above-cited form.”
[A.D. 858.] WEST SAXON KINGS.

From this king the English chronicles trace the line of the
generation of their kings upwards, even to Adam, as we know Luke
the evangelist has done with respect to our Lord Jesus; and which,
perhaps, it will not be superfluous for me to do, though it is to be
apprehended, that the utterance of barbarous names may shock the
ears of persons unused to them. Ethelwulf was the son of Egbert,
Egbert of Elmund, Elmund of Eafa, Eafa of Eoppa, Eoppa was the
son of Ingild, the brother of king Ina, who were both sons of
Kenred; Kenred of Ceolwald, Ceolwald of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin,
Cuthwin of Ceawlin, Ceawlin of Cynric, Cynric of Creoding, Creoding
of Cerdic, who was the first king of the West Saxons; Cerdic of
Elesa, Elesa of Esla, Esla of Gewis, Gewis of Wig, Wig of Freawin,
Freawin of Frithogar, Frithogar of Brond, Brond of Beldeg, Beldeg of
Woden; and from him, as we have often remarked, proceeded the
kings of many nations. Woden was the son of Frithowald, Frithowald
of Frealaf, Frealaf of Finn, Finn of Godwulf, Godwulf of Geat, Geat of
Tætwa, Tætwa of Beaw, Beaw of Sceldi, Sceldi of Sceaf; who, as
some affirm, was driven on a certain island in Germany, called
136
Scamphta, (of which Jornandes, the historian of the Goths,
speaks,) a little boy in a skiff, without any attendant, asleep, with a
handful of corn at his head, whence he was called Sceaf; and, on
account of his singular appearance, being well received by the men
of that country, and carefully educated, in his riper age he reigned in
a town which was called Slaswic, but at present Haitheby; which
country, called old Anglia, whence the Angles came into Britain, is
situated between the Saxons and the Gioths. Sceaf was the son of
Heremod, Heremod of Itermon, Itermon of Hathra, Hathra of Guala,
Guala of Bedwig, Bedwig of Streaf, and he, as they say, was the son
137
of Noah, born in the Ark.
 CHAP. III.

Of Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, sons of

Ethelwulf.

[A.D. 858–872.]
138
In the year of our Lord 857, the two sons of Ethelwulf divided
their paternal kingdom; Ethelbald reigned in West Saxony, and
Ethelbert in Kent. Ethelbald, base and perfidious, defiled the bed of
his father by marrying, after his decease, Judith his step-mother.
Dying, however, at the end of five years, and being interred at
Sherborne, the whole government devolved upon his brother. In his
time a band of pirates landing at Southampton, proceeded to
plunder the populous city of Winchester, but soon after being
spiritedly repulsed by the king’s generals, and suffering considerable
loss, they put to sea, and coasting round, chose the Isle of Thanet,
in Kent, for their winter quarters. The people of Kent, giving
hostages, and promising a sum of money, would have remained
quiet, had not these pirates, breaking the treaty, laid waste the
whole district by nightly predatory excursions, but roused by this
conduct they mustered a force and drove out the truce-breakers.
Moreover Ethelbert, having ruled the kingdom with vigour and with
mildness, paid the debt of nature after five years, and was buried at
Sherborne.
In the year of our Lord 867, Ethelred, the son of Ethelwulf,
obtained his paternal kingdom, and ruled it for the same number of
years as his brothers. Surely it would be a pitiable and grievous
destiny, that all of them should perish by an early death, unless it is,
that in such a tempest of evils, these royal youths should prefer an
honourable end to a painful government. Indeed, so bravely and so
vigorously did they contend for their country, that it was not to be
imputed to them that their valour did not succeed in its design.
Finally, it is related, that this king was personally engaged in hostile
conflict against the enemy nine times in one year, with various
success indeed, but for the most part victor, besides sudden attacks,
in which, from his skill in warfare, he frequently worsted those
straggling depredators. In these several actions the Danes lost nine
earls and one king, besides common people innumerable.
[A.D. 867–871.] BATTLE OF ESCHENDUN.

One battle memorable beyond all the rest was that which took
139
place at Eschendun. The Danes, having collected an army at this
place, divided it into two bodies; their two kings commanded the
one, all their earls the other. Ethelred drew near with his brother
Alfred. It fell to the lot of Ethelred to oppose the kings, while Alfred
was to attack the earls. Both armies eagerly prepared for battle, but
night approaching deferred the conflict till the ensuing day. Scarcely
had the morning dawned ere Alfred was ready at his post, but his
brother, intent on his devotions, had remained in his tent; and when
urged on by a message, that the pagans were rushing forward with
unbounded fury, he declared that he should not move a step till his
religious services were ended. This piety of the king was of infinite
advantage to his brother, who was too impetuous from the
thoughtlessness of youth, and had already far advanced. The
battalions of the Angles were now giving way, and even bordering
on flight, in consequence of their adversaries pressing upon them
from the higher ground, for the Christians were fighting in an
unfavourable situation, when the king himself, signed with the cross
of God, unexpectedly hastened forward, dispersing the enemy, and
rallying his subjects. The Danes, terrified equally by his courage and
the divine manifestation, consulted their safety by flight. Here fell
Oseg their king, five earls, and an innumerable multitude of common
people.
The reader will be careful to observe that during this time, the
kings of the Mercians and of the Northumbrians, eagerly seizing the
opportunity of the arrival of the Danes, with whom Ethelred was fully
occupied in fighting, and somewhat relieved from their bondage to
the West Saxons, had nearly regained their original power. All the
provinces, therefore, were laid waste by cruel depredations, because
each king chose rather to resist the enemy within his own territories,
than to assist his neighbours in their difficulties; and thus preferring
to avenge injury rather than to prevent it, they ruined their country
by their senseless conduct. The Danes acquired strength without
impediment, whilst the apprehensions of the inhabitants increased,
and each successive victory, from the addition of captives, became
the means of obtaining another. The country of the East Angles,
together with their cities and villages, was possessed by these
plunderers; its king, St. Edmund, slain by them in the year of our
Lord’s incarnation 870, on the tenth of November, purchased an
eternal kingdom by putting off this mortal life. The Mercians, often
harassed, alleviated their afflictions by giving hostages. The
Northumbrians, long embroiled in civil dissensions, made up their
differences on the approach of the enemy. Replacing Osbert their
king, whom they had expelled, upon the throne, and collecting a
powerful force, they went out to meet the foe; but being easily
repelled, they shut themselves up in the city of York, which was
presently after set on fire by the victors; and when the flames were
raging to the utmost and consuming the very walls, they perished
for their country in the conflagration. In this manner Northumbria,
the prize of war, for a considerable time after, felt the more bitterly,
through a sense of former liberty, the galling yoke of the barbarians.
And now Ethelred, worn down with numberless labours, died and
was buried at Wimborne.
 CHAP. IV.

Of king Alfred. [A.D. 872—901.]

[A.D. 872–878.] ALFRED’S DREAM.

In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 872, Alfred, the youngest

son of Ethelwulf, who had, as has been related before, received the
royal unction and crown from pope Leo the fourth at Rome, acceded
to the sovereignty and retained it with the greatest difficulty, but
with equal valour, twenty-eight years and a half. To trace in detail
the mazy labyrinth of his labours was never my design; because a
recapitulation of his exploits in their exact order of time would
occasion some confusion to the reader. For, to relate how a hostile
army, driven by himself or his generals, from one part of a district,
retreated to another; and, dislodged thence, sought a fresh scene of
operation and filled every place with rapine and slaughter; and, if I
may use the expression, “to go round the whole island with him,”
might to some seem the height of folly: consequently I shall touch
on all points summarily. For nine successive years battling with his
enemies, sometimes deceived by false treaties, and sometimes
wreaking his vengeance on the deceivers, he was at last reduced to
such extreme distress, that scarcely three counties, that is to say,
Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire, stood fast by their
allegiance, as he was compelled to retreat to a certain island called
Athelney, which from its marshy situation was hardly accessible. He
was accustomed afterwards, when in happier circumstances, to
relate to his companions, in a lively and agreeable manner, his perils
140
there, and how he escaped them by the merits of St. Cuthbert;
for it frequently happens that men are pleased with the recollection
of those circumstances, which formerly they dreaded to encounter.
During his retreat in this island, as he was one day in the house
alone, his companions being dispersed on the river side for the
purpose of fishing, he endeavoured to refresh his weary frame with
sleep: and behold! Cuthbert, formerly bishop of Lindisfarne,
addressed him, while sleeping, in the following manner:—“I am
Cuthbert, if ever you heard of me; God hath sent me to announce
good fortune to you; and since England has already largely paid the
penalty of her crimes, God now, through the merits of her native
saints, looks upon her with an eye of mercy. You too, so pitiably
banished from your kingdom, shall shortly be again seated with
honour on your throne; of which I give you this extraordinary token:
your fishers shall this day bring home a great quantity of large fish in
baskets; which will be so much the more extraordinary because the
river, at this time hard-bound with ice, could warrant no such
expectation; especially as the air now dripping with cold rain mocks
the art of the fisher. But, when your fortune shall succeed to your
wishes, you will act as becomes a king, if you conciliate God your
helper, and me his messenger, with suitable devotion.” Saying thus,
the saint divested the sleeping king of his anxiety; and comforted his
mother also, who was lying near him, and endeavouring to invite
some gentle slumbers to her hard couch to relieve her cares, with
the same joyful intelligence. When they awoke, they repeatedly
declared that each had had the self-same dream, when the
fishermen entering, displayed such a multitude of fishes as would
have been sufficient to satisfy the appetite of a numerous army.
[A.D. 878–890.] DEFEAT OF THE DANES.

Not long after, venturing from his concealment, he hazarded an

experiment of consummate art. Accompanied only by one of his
most faithful adherents, he entered the tent of the Danish king
141
under the disguise of a minstrel; and being admitted, as a
professor of the mimic art, to the banqueting room, there was no
object of secrecy that he did not minutely attend to both with eyes
and ears. Remaining there several days, till he had satisfied his mind
on every matter which he wished to know, he returned to Athelney:
and assembling his companions, pointed out the indolence of the
enemy and the easiness of their defeat. All were eager for the
enterprise, and himself collecting forces from every side, and
learning exactly the situation of the barbarians from scouts he had
sent out for that purpose, he suddenly attacked and routed them
with incredible slaughter. The remainder, with their king, gave
hostages that they would embrace Christianity and depart from the
country; which they performed. For their king, Gothrun, whom our
people call Gurmund, with thirty nobles and almost all the
commonalty, was baptized, Alfred standing for him; and the
142
provinces of the East Angles, and Northumbrians were given up
to him, in order that he might, under fealty to the king, protect with
hereditary right, what before he had overrun with predatory
incursion. However, as the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, he
domineered over these tributary provinces with the haughtiness of a
tyrant for eleven years, and died in the twelfth, transmitting to his
posterity the inheritance of his disloyalty, until subdued by Athelstan,
the grandson of Alfred, they were, though reluctantly, compelled to
admit one common king of England, as we see at the present day.
Such of the Danes as had refused to become Christians, together
with Hastings, went over sea, where the inhabitants are best able to
tell what cruelties they perpetrated. For overrunning the whole
maritime coasts to the Tuscan sea, they unpeopled Paris and Tours,
as well as many other cities seated on the Seine and Loire, those
noted rivers of France. At that time the bodies of many saints being
taken up from the spot of their original interment and conveyed to
safer places, have ennobled foreign churches with their relics even
to this day. Then also the body of St. Martin, venerated, as Sidonius
says, over the whole earth, in which virtue resides though life be at
an end, was taken to Auxerre, by the clergy of his church, and
placed in that of St. German, where it astonished the people of that
district by unheard-of miracles. And when they who came thither,
out of gratitude for cures performed, contributed many things to
requite the labours of those who had borne him to this church, as is
commonly the case, a dispute arose about the division of the
money; the Turonians claiming the whole, because their patron had
called the contributors together by his miracles: the natives, on the
other hand, alleging that St. German was not unequal in merit, and
was of equal kindness; that both indeed had the same power, but
that the prerogative of their church preponderated. To solve this
knotty doubt, a leprous person was sought, and placed, nearly at the
last gasp, wasted to a skeleton, and already dead, as it were, in a
living carcass, between the bodies of the two saints. All human
watch was prohibited for the whole night: the glory of Martin alone
was vigilant; for the next day, the skin of the man on his side
appeared clear, while on that of German, it was discoloured with its
customary deformity. And, that they might not attribute this miracle
to chance, they turned the yet diseased side to Martin. As soon as
the morning began to dawn, the man was found by the hastening
attendants with his skin smooth, perfectly cured, declaring the kind
condescension of the resident patron, who yielded to the honour of
such a welcome stranger. Thus the Turonians, both at that time and
afterwards, safely filled their common purse by the assistance of
their patron, till a more favourable gale of peace restored them to
their former residence. For these marauders infesting France for
thirteen years, and being at last overcome by the emperor Ernulph
and the people of Brittany in many encounters, retreated into
England as a convenient receptacle for their tyranny. During this
space of time Alfred had reduced the whole island to his power, with
the exception of what the Danes possessed. The Angles had willingly
surrendered to his dominion, rejoicing that they had produced a man
capable of leading them to liberty. He granted London, the chief city
of the Mercian kingdom, to a nobleman named Ethered, to hold in
fealty, and gave him his daughter Ethelfled in marriage. Ethered
conducted himself with equal valour and fidelity; defended his trust
with activity, and kept the East Angles and Northumbrians, who were
fomenting rebellion against the king, within due bounds, compelling
them to give hostages. Of what infinite service this was, the
following emergency proved. After England had rejoiced for thirteen
years in the tranquillity of peace and in the fertility of her soil, the
northern pest of barbarians again returned. With them returned war
and slaughter; again arose conspiracies of the Northumbrians and
East Angles: but neither strangers nor natives experienced the same
fortune as in former years; the one party, diminished by foreign
contests, were less alert in their invasions; while the other, now
experienced in war and animated by the exhortations of the king,
were not only more ready to resist, but also to attack. The king
himself was, with his usual activity, present in every action, ever
daunting the invaders, and at the same time inspiriting his subjects,
with the signal display of his courage. He would oppose himself
singly to the enemy; and by his own personal exertions rally his
declining forces. The very places are yet pointed out by the
inhabitants where he felt the vicissitudes of good and evil fortune. It
was necessary to contend with Alfred even after he was overcome,
after he was prostrate; insomuch that when he might be supposed
altogether vanquished, he would escape like a slippery serpent, from
the hand which held him, glide from his lurking-place, and, with
undiminished courage, spring on his insulting enemies: he was
insupportable after flight, and became more circumspect from the
recollection of defeat, more bold from the thirst of vengeance. His
children by Elswitha, the daughter of earl Athelred, were
Ethelswitha, Edward who reigned after him; Ethelfled who was
married to Ethered earl of the Mercians; Ethelwerd, whom they
celebrate as being extremely learned; Elfred and Ethelgiva, virgins.
His health was so bad that he was constantly disquieted either by
the piles or some disorder of the intestines. It is said, however, that
he entreated this from God, in his supplications, in order that, by the
admonition of pain, he might be less anxious after earthly delights.
[A.D. 893.] KING ALFRED’S INSTITUTIONS.

Yet amid these circumstances the private life of the king is to be

admired and celebrated with the highest praise. For although, as
some one has said, “Laws must give way amid the strife of arms,”
yet he, amid the sound of trumpets and the din of war, enacted
statutes by which his people might equally familiarise themselves to
religious worship and to military discipline. And since, from the
example of the barbarians, the natives themselves began to lust
after rapine, insomuch that there was no safe intercourse without a
military guard, he appointed centuries, which they call “hundreds,”
and decennaries, that is to say, “tythings,” so that every Englishman,
living according to law, must be a member of both. If any one was
accused of a crime, he was obliged immediately to produce persons
from the hundred and tything to become his surety; and whosoever
was unable to find such surety, must dread the severity of the laws.
If any who was impleaded made his escape either before or after he
had found surety, all persons of the hundred and tything paid a fine
to the king. By this regulation he diffused such peace throughout the
country, that he ordered golden bracelets, which might mock the
eager desires of the passengers while no one durst take them away,
to be hung up on the public causeways, where the roads crossed
each other. Ever intent on almsgiving, he confirmed the privileges of
the churches, as appointed by his father, and sent many presents
over sea to Rome and to St. Thomas in India. Sighelm, bishop of
Sherborne, sent ambassador for this purpose, penetrated
successfully into India, a matter of astonishment even in the present
time. Returning thence, he brought back many brilliant exotic gems
and aromatic juices in which that country abounds, and a present
more precious than the finest gold, part of our Saviour’s cross, sent
by pope Marinus to the king. He erected monasteries wherever he
deemed it fitting; one in Athelney, where he lay concealed, as has
been above related, and there he made John abbat, a native of Old
Saxony; another at Winchester, which is called the New-minster,
where he appointed Grimbald abbat, who, at his invitation, had been
sent into England by Fulco archbishop of Rheims, known to him, as
they say, by having kindly entertained him when a child on his way
to Rome. The cause of his being sent for was that by his activity he
might awaken the study of literature in England, which was now
slumbering and almost expiring. The monastery of Shaftesbury also
he filled with nuns, where he made his daughter Ethelgiva abbess.
143
From St. David’s he procured a person named Asser, a man of skill
in literature, whom he made bishop of Sherborne. This man
explained the meaning of the works of Boethius, on the Consolation
of Philosophy, in clearer terms, and the king himself translated them
into the English language. And since there was no good scholar in
his own kingdom, he sent for Werefrith bishop of Worcester out of
Mercia, who by command of the king rendered into the English
tongue the books of Gregory’s Dialogues. At this time Johannes
Scotus is supposed to have lived; a man of clear understanding and
amazing eloquence. He had long since, from the continued tumult of
war around him, retired into France to Charles the Bald, at whose
request he had translated the Hierarchia of Dionysius the
Areopagite, word for word, out of the Greek into Latin. He composed
a book also, which he entitled περὶ φύσεων μερισμοῦ, or Of the
144
Division of Nature, extremely useful in solving the perplexity of
certain indispensable inquiries, if he be pardoned for some things in
which he deviated from the opinions of the Latins, through too close
attention to the Greeks. In after time, allured by the munificence of
Alfred, he came into England, and at our monastery, as report says,
was pierced with the iron styles of the boys whom he was
instructing, and was even looked upon as a martyr; which phrase I
have not made use of to the disparagement of his holy spirit, as
though it were matter of doubt, especially as his tomb on the left
145
side of the altar, and the verses of his epitaph, record his fame.
These, though rugged and deficient in the polish of our days, are not
so uncouth for ancient times:
“Here lies a saint, the sophist John, whose days
On earth were grac’d with deepest learning’s praise:
Deem’d meet at last by martyrdom to gain
Christ’s kingdom, where the saints for ever reign.”

[A.D. 893.] STORY OF JOHN THE SCOT.

Confiding in these auxiliaries, the king gave his whole soul to the
cultivation of the liberal arts, insomuch that no Englishman was
quicker in comprehending, or more elegant in translating. This was
the more remarkable, because until twelve years of age he
146
absolutely knew nothing of literature. At that time, lured by a kind
mother, who under the mask of amusement promised that he should
have a little book which she held in her hand for a present if he
would learn it quickly, he entered upon learning in sport indeed at
first, but afterwards drank of the stream with unquenchable avidity.
He translated into English the greater part of the Roman authors,
bringing off the noblest spoil of foreign intercourse for the use of his
subjects; of which the chief books were Orosius, Gregory’s Pastoral,
Bede’s History of the Angles, Boethius Of the Consolation of
Philosophy, his own book, which he called in his vernacular tongue
147
“Handboc,” that is, a manual. Moreover he infused a great regard
for literature into his countrymen, stimulating them both with
rewards and punishments, allowing no ignorant person to aspire to
any dignity in the court. He died just as he had begun a translation
of the Psalms. In the prologue to “The Pastoral” he observes, “that
he was incited to translate these books into English because the
churches which had formerly contained numerous libraries had,
together with their books, been burnt by the Danes.” And again,
“that the pursuit of literature had gone to decay almost over the
whole island, because each person was more occupied in the
preservation of his life than in the perusal of books; wherefore he so
far consulted the good of his countrymen, that they might now
hastily view what hereafter, if peace should ever return, they might
thoroughly comprehend in the Latin language.” Again, “That he
designed to transmit this book, transcribed by his order, to every
see, with a golden style in which was a mancus of gold; that there
was nothing of his own opinions inserted in this or his other
translations, but that everything was derived from those celebrated
148
men Plegmund archbishop of Canterbury, Asser the bishop,
Grimbald and John the priests.” But, in short, I may thus briefly
elucidate his whole life: he so divided the twenty-four hours of the
day and night as to employ eight of them in writing, in reading, and
in prayer, eight in the refreshment of his body, and eight in
dispatching the business of the realm. There was in his chapel a
candle consisting of twenty-four divisions, and an attendant, whose
peculiar province it was to admonish the king of his several duties by
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