England

Front matter

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Preface

THIS volume is one of a series intended to popularise the sources of mediaeval history, and is specially devoted to the chronicles of our own country. With such an object it is neither possible nor desirable to give an exhaustive account of all our early historians ; but a selection has been made of those writers whose style is most characteristic and whose works are best adapted for quotation. It is for these qualities rather than for their intrinsic value as original authorities that occasionally some of the minor chronicles have been treated at considerable length, while greater and more important works have been barely mentioned or have even been passed over in silence. No attempt, in fact, has been made to preserve proportion as between one writer and another ; but it is hoped that some general idea both of the wealth of mediaeval writings illustrative of English history and of their iv $wface.

great variety of character may be obtained from a perusal of these pages.

It is almost needless to say that- this work does not profess to be the fruit of great original research. In such a large field it is impossible not to be guided to a very considerable extent by the eyes of others ; and in many instances it will be seen that the author has acknowledged his obligations in the text. No mention, however, has been made of one modern writer to whose work he has been indebted in some portion of Chapter III. ; and he takes this opportunity of referring to Mr. Morison's valuable Life and Times of St. Bernard.

A large number of the old English chronicles have in our day been rendered very accessible in the series of cheap English translations published by Bohn. These versions are of unequal merit ; but their publication is certainly a great boon to that reading public who desire to be made better acquainted with the chronicles of the Middle Ages. The extracts in the present volume are occasionally derived from Bohn's translations ; but in many cases the author has thought it better to supply a translation of his own.

Chapter I. Our Earliest Historians

Gildas on the destruction of Britain — Bede's account of the conversion of England to Christianity — Pope Gregory and the English slaves at Rome — King Edwin's consultation with his councillors about embracing Christianity — Paulinus made Bishop of York —King Edwin's good government — Abbey of Whitby — Story of Csedmon — Bede's other writings — Account of his death — Supernatural stories in Bede — Asser's Life of Alfred the Greats- Questions about the text — Interpolations — The story of Alfred and the cakes — How Alfred learned to read — How he divided his time

Chapter II. Records Of The Monks

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — Influence of the Norman Conquest — Chronicle of Battle Abbey — How monasteries fostered literature and civilization — Plorence of Worcester — Eadvi ©ontentg.

mer — His account of St Anselm — William of Malmesbury — Extracts touching the effects of the Conquest — The First Crusade — Robert of Normandy and Henry I. — The Gesta Stephani — Early report of a debate in the king's council — Extract touching Bristol and Bath — The Empress Maud — Henry of Huntingdon — Ordericus Vitalis .... 49

Chapter III. New Monastic Orders — The Crusades

Religious revival in Europe — New orders of monks practising austerity — The Cluniacs — Carthusians — Cistercians — St Bernard — His love of nature — Richard of Devizes — Massacre of the Jews at Richard I.'s coronation — Alleged crucifixion of a boy by the Jews of Winchester — Crusade of Richard L, and state of the kingdom in his absence — Expulsion of the monks of Coventry by Bishop Hugh de Nonant — Joceline of Brakeland's account of the monastery of St. Edmundsbury under Abbot Sampson — Description of the abbot — Disputes between the monastery and the burgesses — Privileges claimed against the archbishop — Abbot Sampson's journey to Rome — He holds his own against the king— Customs and privileges of the monastery — Dispute with the monks of Ely 109

Chapter IV. Imaginative And Sober History — Welsh And Northern Writers

Robert of Gloucester's patronage of literature — Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain — Its popularity — Its apocryphal character and extraordinary legends— Their acceptance as history — Clergymen more witty than monks — William of Newburgh denounces Geoffrey's J7istory — Giraldus Cambrensis also — Credulity of Giraldus — His account of his birth-place — His family and personal history— His election to St David's — Goes to Ireland

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PAGB with Prince John — His Topographia Hibernuz — His Vaticinal History of the Conquest of Ireland. — Description of Henry II. — Itinerary through Wales— Character of the North of England historians — Simeon of Durham— Ailred of Rievaulx — William of Newburgh— Roger of Hoveden — Chronicle of Melrose— Walter Hemingburgh— The Chronicle of Lanercost . » . , . . . .155

Chapter V. Records Of The Friars

Actual results of the Crusades injurious to Christian faith and morals — St. Dominic and the Preaching Friars — The Albigenses — St. Francis — The Eastern leprosy — Devotion of the Franciscans — Thomas of Eccleston's account of their settlement in England — Anecdotes — Aquinas and the Schoolmen — Trivet's Annales — Stubbs's Archbishops of York — Franciscan Schoolmen — Roger Bacon, Scotus, Occam . . 199

Chapter VI

THE ST. ALBAN'S HISTORIANS AND LATER MONASTIC CHRONICLES.

Diminution in the number of monastic chronicles — Compensated at first by minuteness of detail — Position of St Alban's as a centre of news — First formation of the scriptorium at St. Alban's — Roger of Wendover — Plan of his chronicle — His account of the papal interdict — Matthew Paris — His character as an historian — Extracts from his chronicle — William Rishanger — Trivet's account of Edward I. transcribed by him — Other continuators of Matthew Paris — Thomas Walsingham — His account of Wat Tyler's rebellion — Whethamstede's register — End of the age of monastic chronicles — Higden's Polychronicon — Trevisa — Caxton ...••••• 233 viii ©onfcmtt.

Chapter VII. Records Of The City

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The Liber de Antiquis Legibus — French Chronicle of London — The Liber Albus — The Chronicle of London — Gregory's Chronicle — Account of Jack Cade's rebellion — Adventures of Margaret of Anjou — The Mayor of Bristol's Kalen-dar — Fabyan's Concordance of Histories — More's History of Richard III. — Extract — Shakespeare dramatized More's works — Hardyng's Chronicle — Hall's Chronicle — Polydore Vergil's History — Grafton's historical works — John Stow — His Summary, his Chronicle, and his Survey of London — Ireland — Holinshed's Chronicle— Sources of Shakespeare's historical plays . . % > . . . 284

EARLY CHRONICLERS OF EUROPE.

ENGLAND.

Chapter I. Our Earliest Historians

Gildas on the destruction of Britain — Bede's account of the conversion of England to Christianity — Pope Gregory and the English slaves at Rome — King Edwin's consultation with his councillors about embracing Christianity — Paulinus made Bishop of York — King Edwin's good government — Abbey of Whitby — Story of Csedmon — Bede's other writings — Account of his death — Supernatural stories in Bede — Asser's Life of Alfred the Great — Questions about the text — Interpolations — The Story of Alfred and the cakes — How Alfred learned to read — How he divided his time.

After the departure of the Romans from Britain, the history of this island is for some time enveloped in great obscurity, which is at the best but faintly relieved by Welsh traditions and unsatisfactory fragments of Welsh poetry. Left to themselves the Britons manifested no native capacity for ENG. B lEarlg ©fjromderg of iinglanfc.

government and relapsed into comparative barbarism. Only about a century after the withdrawal of the conquerors do we meet with a British writer who tells us anything about the Britons ; and the picture he gives of their decay and demoralization is melancholy in the extreme.

Nor can it be said that even here our scanty historical information rests on a basis altogether free from controversy. Indeed, the doubts and discussions to which the brief treatise of Gildas has given rise are out of all proportion to its magnitude. As to the personality of the writer it is unsatisfactory to find two ancient biographies utterly inconsistent even with regard to his parentage and family, and manifestly full of fabulous matter throughout. In the absence of better information on this subject, even his age and nationality have been called in question ; and though his own testimony upon these points, if trustworthy, is unmistakeable, one daring critic suspects the work to be a forgery of a somewhat later time. Speculations of this kind, however, I shall for my part simply pass by ; and as the work is, under any circumstances, anterior to that of our next historian, the Venerable Bede, I will endeavour to give the reader some account of its general drift.

The title which it commonly bears — Liber querulus de Excidio Britannia (a Book of Complaint touching the Destruction of Britain) — may not have been prefixed by the author himself, but indicates, nevertheless, truly enough its general character.

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The work, as it has come down to us, is divided into three sections, the first of which is called " the Preface," the second, " the History," and the third " the Epistle." But it is greatly questioned whether this division is the author's own, who, according to his most recent editor, called the whole simply an Epistle. In any case it is clear that "the History" is only meant to lead up to " the Epistle," and that the author's real aim was not to write a history at all, but to show the fearful degeneracy of the times, and to rebuke the rulers of the British nation for the shameful perfidy with which they dishonoured their Christian profession. In the opening words of " the Epistle " the general state of matters is described as follows : —

" Britain has kings, but they are tyrants ; she has judges, but impious ones ; often engaged in plunder and rapine, but preying upon the innocent ; avenging and protecting, indeed, but only robbers and criminals. They have an abundance of wives, yet are they addicted to fornication and adultery ; they are ever ready to take oaths, and as often perjure themselves ; they make a vow and almost immediately act falsely ; they make war, but their wars are against their countrymen, and are unjust ones ; they rigorously prosecute thieves throughout the country, but those who sit at table with them are robbers, and they not only cherish but reward them ; they give alms plentifully, but on the other hand they heap up an immense mountain of crimes ; they sit on the seat of justice, but rarely seek for the rule of right judgment ; they despise the innocent and the humble, but seize every occasion of exalting to the utmost the bloody minded, the proud, murderers, the combined and adulterers, enemies of God, who ought to be utterly destroyed and their names forgotten."

lEaily ©fironicfcrg of lEnglanti.

The turgid Latin in which all this is set forth is certainly not to be commended as a model of literary style. It is a sort of decayed Ciceronianism, in which a great multiplicity of hard words is made to do the duty of a few well-ordered and weighty ones. But after all the style itself is only an additional illustration of that which is the main subject of the book — the general decay of civilization, culture, and morality, which had ensued since the Romans left the island. The author is in dead earnest, and uses a great array of heavy words in the hope that some of them may take effect upon the heavy and sluggish intellects of a demoralized people. And from this general statement of the case he proceeds to special instances, attacking the different British princes by name, for their gross immoralities, and finally addressing a general warning to them by examples from Old Testament history, and from the words of the Prophets.

Such was the aim and object of this work of Gildas ; and to treat him as an historian in the ordinary sense of the word is not to do him justice. He was an historian only so far as history lay in his path towards another object ; and as an historian he confesses that he labours under very great disadvantages.

" I will endeavour," he says, " to give an account both of those evils which Britain suffered in the time of the Roman emperors and of those which she inflicted on other citizens afar off ; yet, so far as I shall be able to do it, it will not be so much from the literature of this country or from the memo-

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rials of its writers (because, if there ever were such, they have either been destroyed by the fires of the enemy, or carried off by the ships of citizens who went into exile), as from a narrative [supplied to me] beyond sea, which, being interrupted by frequent gaps, is not by any means satisfactory."

In fact, the information possessed by Gildas as to what happened long before his own day was not only scanty, but I must add not much to be relied on. From the analysis of the apparent sources of the work made by Sir Thomas Hardy, we may presume that the earlier part, at least, of the narrative obtained beyond sea consisted of fragments of the writings of Eusebius and St. Jerome relating to Britain, and perhaps of the ecclesiastical history of Sulpicius Severus. If it extended much later it could not have been very trustworthy ; for the notions of Gildas, at least as to the order and succession of events, are exceedingly confused and inaccurate, nor are they in harmony with wellinformed Greek and Roman writers as to the events themselves. But from the early part of the fifth century Greek and Roman writers tell us nothing of the affairs of Britain, and Gildas is the original authority used by Bede and succeeding writers as the basis of our early English history.* It is he who reports how the Britons, after their abandonment by the Romans, being molested by the Picts and Scots, invoked again their old conquerors and rulers to save them from the barbarians,

* See Sir T. Hardy's remarks in his Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. i. pp. 136, 137.

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and wrote to Aetius the Consul the desponding appeal, headed "the groans of the Britons." The reader is doubtless familiar with the words of that letter as translated by Hume : — " The barbarians, on the one hand, chase us into the sea ; the sea, on the other, throws us back on the barbarians ; and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or by the waves." It is Gildas, also, who reports how, when the Romans could no longer assist the islanders, the latter unwisely met the difficulty by calling in " the fierce and impious Saxons — a race hateful both to God and man, to repel the invasions of the northern nations." On the extreme impolicy and wickedness of this step our author makes severe reflections. " Nothing," he says, " was ever so pernicious to our country." Its immediate result is described as follows : — " Then a litter of whelps bursting forth from the lair of the barbaric lioness in three keels as they call them in their language, or long ships as we should say in ours, with their sails wafted by the wind, and with omens and prophecies favourable, by which it was foretold that they should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years, should plunder and despoil the same." They landed on the eastern side of the island as allies of the southern natives ; but having once obtained a footing they strengthened themselves by fomenting the internal dissensions of the -(slanders. The author goes on to state, though ffitt&ajs. 7

in obscure and turgid language, that commotions spread from sea to sea, even to the Western ocean, which he regards as the vengeance of the Almighty on the former sins of the inhabitants. But the peculiar horror of these events was the overthrow of Christianity and civilization, recalling the words of the Psalmist, " O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance ; Thy holy temple have they defiled."* " They have cast fire into Thy sanctuary ; they have defiled the dwelling-place of Thy name." t

Then following up this figure of speech in a passage which is very obscure, but which has been translated as follows, he goes on to say —

" So that all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press, and with no chance of being buried save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds ; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were carried at that time into the high heaven by the holy angels. So entirely had the vintage, once so fine, degenerated and become bitter, that in the words of the prophet there was hardly a grape or ear of corn to be seen where the husbandman had turned his back."

It is added that "of the miserable remnant,"

8 ^arlg <&§tomlm of lEnglant).

some were taken in the mountains and murdered with great slaughter ; others, oppressed by hunger, gave themselves up as slaves, even at the risk of being slain on the spot ; others escaped beyond sea ; while others succeeded in preserving their lives, though in constant fear and danger, among the mountains, precipices, and forests. Nevertheless, after a time, the islanders took arms under the Roman General Ambrosius Aurelianus, who alone of all that nation, it is said, " was by chance left alive in the confusion of that troubled period," and obtained some advantage over their persecutors. The war continued then for some time with varied success, till forty-four years after the landing of the Saxons the islanders gained a decided victory at the battle of Mount Badon, which was followed by some other successes. It was at that time, Gildas tells us, that he himself was born. Yet even to the time at which he wrote the cities were not inhabited as before ; and though the foreign foe had ceased to give trouble civil wars still continued. It was true the remembrance of that horrible desolation and of their unexpected deliverance exercised for a time a beneficial influence upon kings, magistrates, and people, who with their priests and clergy led orderly and decent lives. But after that generation had passed away, the islanders, forgetting everything but their present prosperity, abandoned truth and justice and relapsed into every kind of wickedness, all but a very small company ; so few, says the writer, that our holy mother Church could

(Effoajs. 9

hardly see them reposing in her bosom — by whose prayers, nevertheless, as by pillars, the infirmity of the nation was sustained. These things, the author wishes us to understand, he writes not in anger but in pure sorrow ; for it is needless to conceal what foreign nations know and cast in our teeth.

Such is the tenor of this book of Gildas, be it history, epistle, or what it may. A multitude of questions rise up as to the sufficiency of his testimony, the completeness of the Saxon conquest and various other points in connection with it, which we may here dismiss. But no one will doubt the general truth to which this remarkable composition bears witness — that the withdrawal of the Romans and the settlement in the island of the pagan Saxons led to something that might well be called " the destruction of Britain ; " that the new comers made havoc of civilization, and that the early planted Christianity of the Britons, cut off from the Christianity of Europe, became so degenerate and corrupt that it had no influence whatever in mitigating the fury of the conquerors. The absence of all other records on this point only confirms the solitary testimony of Gildas ; for a civilized people always preserves some evidences of its civilization. But here we have no other contemporary documents — no other fruit of that doomed and decaying nationality than this pitiful lament over its decay. In another generation or two the Britons will have ceased to exist as a nation altogether, or ceased, at all events, to be any longer called by that name.

io lEarlg ®f)fomcfasS of 1Englant>.

The revival of civilization came again from Rome ; not, as at first, by the subjugation of the island by Roman arms, but by an influence still more powerful and more humanizing. The triumphant pagans who now possessed the land learned the tidings of salvation from the preaching of St. Augustine, and became more gentle than the subject race had been in the days of their independence. For the record of the mode in which the change was wrought we are indebted to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation ; and it is certainly the most interesting narrative to be found in our early annals. We therefore present it to the reader in the very words of the original author, translated from the Latin : —

"In the year of our Lord 582, Maurice, the fifty-fourth from Augustus, ascended the throne, and reigned twenty-one years. In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man conspicuous for his learning and ability, having attained the pontificate of the Roman Apostolic See, ruled it for thirteen years, six months, and ten days ; who, being warned by a divine instinct, in the fourteenth year of the same emperor, and about the one-hundred and fiftieth after the coming of the English into Britain, sent the servant of God, Augustine, and several others along with him, monks who feared the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English nation. But when in obedience to the Pope's commands they had begun to take that work in hand, and had proceeded some way upon the journey, they were seized with a sluggish fear, and thought rather to return home than go to a barbarous, fierce, and unbelieving nation, whose language even they did not understand ; and this they all agreed was the safer course. And straightway they sent home Augustine, whom he had determined to appoint their bishop if they v/ere received by

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the English, to obtain leave of the blessed Gregory by humble supplications, that they should not undertake so dangerous, toilsome, and uncertain a journey. The pope sent them a letter of exhortation persuading them to go forward in the work, relying on the aid of the divine Word ; of which letter the tenor was as follows : —

" ' Gregory, the servant of the servants of God. Forasmuch as it had been better not to begin a good work than in thought to desist from that which is begun, it behoves you, my beloved sons, by all means to complete the good work which with the Lord's aid you have entered upon. Let not therefore the toil of the journey nor the tongues of men who speak evil deter you ; but with all assiduity and fervour accomplish the things which, prompted by God, you have commenced, knowing that the glory of an eternal reward follows a great labour. Obey in everything your chief Augustine who is returning to you, and whom I appoint to you as abbot, knowing that whatever shall be effected by you according to his direction will be in every way for the advantage of your souls. Almighty God protect you by His grace, and grant that I may in the eternal country see the fruit of your labour ; so that, although I cannot labour with you, I shall be found along with you in the joy of the reward, because at least I desire to labour. God keep you in safety, my most beloved sons. Given on the loth of the kalends of August (23rd July) in the fourteenth year of the reign of our most pious and august lord, the Emperor Mauritius Tiberius, the thirteenth year after the consulate of our said lord, Indiction* xiv.'

"The same venerable Pope then sent also a letter to ^Etherius, archbishop of Aries, that he should give a kind reception to Augustine on his way to Britain ; of which letter this was the tenor : —

* The Indictions were another mode of reckoning years. They took in a cycle of fifteen years, the successive years being numbered Indiction I., Indiction II., and so forth, to Indiction XV., after which the numbers were repeated, begining again with Indiction I.

12 lEarlg ©Jjtontcln'g of lEnglanD,

" ' To his most revere7id and most holy brother and fellowbishop AZtherius, Gregory servant of the servants of God.

" ' Although with priests who have the charity which is well pleasing to God, religious men stand in need of no man's recommendation, yet as a fitting opportunity of writing offers itself, we have determined to send our letters to your brotherhood, * intimating that we have sent thither for the good of souls the bearer of these presents, Augustine, the servant of God, of whose assiduity we are assured, with other servants of God besides, whom it is needful that your holiness hasten to assist with sacerdotal zeal and afford him comfort. And that you may be the more ready to grant him assistance, we have enjoined him particularly to relate to you the cause, being assured that when it is fully known to you, you will apply yourself for the love of God to grant him succour, for the case requires it. We also commend to your charity in all things Candidus the priest, our common son, whom we have sent for the government of a small patrimony in our church. God preserve thee in safety, most reverend brother. Given on the ioth of the kalends of August (23rd July) in the fourteenth year of the reign of our lord the Emperor Mauritius Tiberius, the thirteenth year after the consulship of the same lord, Indiction xiv.'

" Thus strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory, Augustine, with the servants of Christ who went along with him, returned to the work of the Word, and arrived in Britain. At that time Ethelbert was king in Kent, a most powerful sovereign who had extended his sway to the confines of the great river Humber, by which the southern and the northern peoples of the English are divided. On the Eastern side of Kent is Thanet, an island not very small, — that is to say of the magnitude of 600 families, according to the customary computation of the English, — which is divided

* It will be observed that "your brotherhood" (a title which sounds rather unconventional in English) and "your holiness" were modes of address used at this time even by the chief bishop of Christendom in addressing other bishops.

from the mainland by the river Wantsum, about three furlongs (stadia) in breadth* and fordable only in two places, for either end of it runs into the sea. On this island landed Augustine, the servant of God, and his companions, a company, it is said, of nearly forty men. They had by order of the blessed Pope Gregory taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending to Ethelbert, Augustine informed him that he had come from Rome, and brought the best possible of tidings, which promised those who obeyed the message eternal joy in heaven, and a kingdom that would be without end with the living and true God. Hearing this he commanded them to remain in that island where they had landed, and that all necessaries should be supplied to them, until he should consider what to do with them ; for the fame of the Christian religion had already reached him, as he had a Christian wife of the nation of the Franks, by name Bertha, whom he had received from her parents, on the condition that she should be allowed to continue without interruption the rite of her religion with a bishop whom they had given her to assist her faith, whose name was Luidhard. Some days later, accordingly, the king came to the island, and sitting in the open air, commanded Augustine and his companions to come and confer with him. For he had taken the precaution that they should not come to him in any house, lest according to an old superstition if they practised any magical arts they might impose upon him, and so get the better of him. But they came furnished with divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for a banner, and a figure of our Lord and Saviour painted in a picture, and singing litanies petitioned the Lord for the eternal salvation alike of themselves and of those on whose account and to whom they had come. And when at the king's command they had sat down, and preached the Word of life to him and all his attendants there present, he replied, ' Your words are