XXVI. STAMFORD BRIDGE AND HASTINGS

XXVI. STAMFORD BRIDGE AND HASTINGS

Upon the death of Edward the Confessor the election and coronation of HAROLD, son of Godwine, followed with the briefest possible interval. No serious notice seems to have been taken, at the time, of any claim to the crown which might be made on behalf of Edgar the Etheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, the undoubted heir, on what we call legitimist principles, of the house of Cerdic. Though the year of Edgar’s birth is doubtful, he was certainly little more than a boy at his great-uncle’s death, and it is probable that the ascertained weakness of his character made the Wise Men of the kingdom unwilling to entrust even the nominal government of England at such a critical time to his nerveless hands.

The election of Harold was undoubtedly contrary to all the traditions of West Saxon royalty, but there are some considerations which may have made it seem a less revolutionary proceeding, and the new king somewhat less of an upstart, than they have appeared to later ages. Let the cloud which rests over Godwine’s birth and parentage be admitted, but it must be remembered that Harold was on his mother’s side a near kinsman of Canute, that in his veins flowed the blood of Gorm the Old and Harold Bluetooth, kings of Denmark in the preceding century, and that the then reigning King of Denmark was his own first cousin. As has been already said, Godwine and his tribe must have always appeared half-Danish to the Saxon people, and though the claims of the house of Cerdic were disregarded by his election they had been equally disregarded by the elections of Canute, Harold and Harthacnut of whom Harold Godwineson may have seemed in some sort the natural successor.

But that this view of the case would not be accepted in Normandy, all men knew full well, and none better than the new king himself. The Bayeux Tapestry, almost immediately after its picture of Harold enthroned, represents “an English ship coming to the land of Duke William”. Whatever this may mean, whether the flight of some Norman favourite to his native land, or a desperate attempt at self-exculpation and reconciliation on the part of Harold, it is followed with ominous rapidity by the picture, “Here William orders ships to be built,” in which the axes of the woodmen are felling the trees of the forest; that again by a picture, “Here they drag the ships to the sea,” and that by a lively scene, “These men carry arms to the ships and here they drag a cart with wine and arms”. After this in a scene which is not pictorially represented and at a date of which we are not accurately informed, William assembled his barons at Lillebonne and endeavoured to obtain from them a vote in favour of an expedition for the assertion of his rights to the throne of England. The expedition, however, appeared to the Norman nobles too dangerous, the naval power of England too great to give a hope of success, and notwithstanding the eloquent pleadings of William’s trusty henchman, William Fitz Osbern (son of one of the murdered guardians of his childhood), the assembly broke up in confusion without giving the desired promise of support. The assent, however, which he had been unable to obtain from the united baronage of the duchy, he succeeded in winning by entreaties and promises from the barons singly in private conference. The contingents of men, the numbers of ships which each baron undertook to furnish, were all set down in a book, in which were found the names not only of William’s own subjects but of volunteers from the neighbouring provinces of Brittany, Maine and Anjou. It was, so to speak, the memorandum of a great Joint Stock Company of conquest, which was entered in that “Domesday Book of the Conquerors,”[248] and though the precise rate of dividend was not there set down, it is evident that the lordships and estates in the doomed land, which William promised to his shareholders, bore some definite relation to the size of their contributions.

It remained only, according to medieval ideas, to get the blessing of heaven’s representative on the great spoliation. William had himself in his earlier days all-but brought an interdict on his realm by his marriage with Matilda of Flanders who, for some reason not very clearly explained, was held to be canonically unfitted to be his wife. But that breach with the Holy See had been healed through the mediation of the great churchman Lanfranc, Prior of the Abbey of Bec; and Lanfranc’s influence may probably now have been employed to obtain from Pope Alexander II. a formal approval of the invasion of England. The oath of Harold, so solemnly taken and so flagrantly broken, and his marriage to Aldgyth, after having promised to marry William’s daughter Adela, may possibly have been pressed against him at the court of Rome and may have helped towards the composition of the bull which was now issued denouncing Harold as a usurper and proclaiming William as Edward’s rightful heir. It is probable, however, that in the mind of Hildebrand, the master-spirit of the papal court, though not yet actually Pope, the independent attitude which the English Church had sometimes assumed, and notably the unfortunate fact that Archbishop Stigand had, during the lifetime of his own predecessor, received his pallium from the anti-pope Benedict X., were the chief reasons for the Church’s enthusiastic partisanship on the Norman side. The word Crusade was not yet heard in the Christian world, nor was it to be heard till near thirty years later, when Peter the Hermit at the Council of Clermont was to utter his fiery declamation against the misbelievers; but a virtual crusade was preached against Harold and his adherents, and all Europe knew that whenever William’s shipbuilding should be ended and he should be ready to sail, his troops would march to battle under the protection of a banner consecrated by the successor of St. Peter.

The Norman preparations, begun in the early months of 1066, lasted on through the summer and almost up to the autumnal equinox. Meanwhile, a portent in the heavens and the attacks of another foe were depressing the spirits of Englishmen. Soon after Easter “the comet star which some men call the hairy star,” which had for some time been creeping nearer to the sun, unnoticed in the early morning hours, began to blaze forth in the north-west in the evening sky. From April 24 till May 1 was the period of its greatest brilliancy, and it probably disappeared early in June. In the Tapestry we see six men pointing fearful fingers towards a star which trails a rudely drawn streamer of light behind it, and we are informed that “These men are marvelling at the star”. The comet here depicted is now known to be one which regularly returns to our firmament at intervals of some seventy-five or seventy-six years. Its return in 1758 verified the prediction of the astronomer Halley, then no longer living, and it is expected that once more in the year 1910 Englishmen will be gazing upwards, and with less fearful hearts than of old, will “wonder at the star”.

The less shadowy terror of the spring of that year came from the king’s banished brother Tostig, who now by right or wrong was determined to win back his lost earldom. He had gathered a considerable force of ships and men, no doubt chiefly in “Baldwin’s land,” among the subjects of his brother-in-law; and he had probably already made overtures of alliance to the Duke of Normandy and the King of Norway. He came, however, unaccompanied by allies “from beyond sea into Wight with as large a fleet as he could procure and there people paid him both money and provisions; and he went thence and did all the harm that he could along the sea-coast until he came to Sandwich”. The naval armament which Harold had collected in anticipation of the Norman attack availed to keep the southern coasts clear from further ravages by Tostig, who took on board a large number of butse-carlas, some willingly and some unwillingly, and steering northwards entered the Humber, and began to ravage Lincolnshire. The two northern earls, Edwin and Morkere, however, having summoned the fyrd succeeded in driving him out of the country. Most of his butse-carlas took the opportunity to desert, and with a dwindled force of twelve smacks he sailed for the Forth. The Scottish King, Malcolm Canmore, took him under his protection and helped him with provisions, and there he abode all summer.

The delay of these summer months, during which invasion was impending from two quarters at once, was disastrous for England. When Harold had collected his fleet and army, “such a land force both by land and sea as no king of the land had ever gathered before,” he went to the Isle of Wight and there lay at anchor all the summer, keeping the land force always close beside him on the coast. Had William made his invasion then, it may fairly be conjectured that he would never have sat on the throne of England. But when the day of the Nativity of St. Mary (September 8) was come, the men’s provisions were exhausted, and it was impossible to keep them longer under the standards. They were accordingly allowed to go home, and the king rode up to London, while his fleet sailed round to the Thames, and meeting unfortunately with bad weather, many of the ships perished ere they reached their haven.

If Harold thought that peril from either of his foes was over for that year he was terribly mistaken. Even while the fleet and army were scattering from the Isle of Wight, the whole aspect of affairs in the north was being changed by the sudden and unexpected arrival off the northern coast of Harold, King of Norway, with an immense fleet of more than three hundred ships. This Harold, surnamed Hardrada (the man of hard counsel), was, even if we may not believe all that the saga-men told concerning him, one of the most romantic figures of the time. A half-brother of the sainted Olaf, by whose side he fought when but fifteen years old at the fatal battle of Stiklestadt, he appears, after some four or five years of a fugitive existence, as one of the chiefs of the Varangian soldiery at the court of Constantinople. The tall statured Scandinavian--his height is said to have been nearly seven feet--rose rapidly in the Byzantine service, and it was hinted that the inflammable Empress Zoe would have gladly welcomed him as one of her numerous husbands or lovers. The life of a soldier was, however, more to his taste than the dissipations of a luxurious court. He wrought great deeds in the eastern waters and shared with the veteran Byzantine general, George Maniaces, the glory of a temporary re-conquest of Sicily. Even then, however, that element of keen egotism in his character which won for him his title of Hardrada made itself visible; and his country’s skalds delighted to tell of the clever but dishonourable stratagem by which he out-witted his brother general when they were casting lots for choice of quarters. Strange to say, one of the most interesting memorials of this Norwegian chief is still to be seen amid the lagunes of Venice. There, in front of the noble gateway of the arsenal, sit two great marble lions, brought by the Venetian general Morosini from the Piraeus, trophies of that fatally memorable expedition in which he converted the Parthenon into a ruin. On the flanks of one of these lions is a nearly effaced Runic inscription, recording the conquest of the port of Piraeus by three chieftains with Scandinavian names. “These men,” says the inscription, “and Harold the Tall, laid considerable fines on the citizens because of the insurrection of the Greek people.” With difficulty Harold escaped from the prison in which he was confined by the jealous caprice of Zoe, and after charging over the great chain which was stretched across the Bosphorus, sailed out into the Euxine and thence up one of the great rivers into the heart of Russia. The king of Novgorod gave him his daughter Elizabeth to wife, and in the year 1045 Harold reappeared laden with treasure in his native Norway. He was sometimes the ally, sometimes the foe of his nephew Magnus the Good, on whose premature death in 1047 he succeeded peaceably to his throne. For fifteen years he waged almost incessant, generally successful, war with the King of Denmark, but in 1062 he concluded a treaty with that prince, which left him free to attempt the larger and more daring enterprise to which he was tempted by the example of Canute and the overtures of Tostig, even the conquest of England.

Harold made first for the Orkneys, then under the rule of the sons of the Norseman, Earl Thorfinn. From thence he sailed along the coast of Scotland, till, either in the Forth or the Tyne, he met his promised ally, Tostig, who “bowed to him and became his man”. They went both together, landed in Cleveland, which they harried; set fire to Scarborough; and at last reaching the mouth of the Humber, sailed with all their enormous fleet up that river and the Ouse, and landed near York. The Earls Edwin and Morkere came forth to meet them with as large a force as they could muster, but were utterly defeated in a great battle fought at Fulford, two miles from York, on September 20, 1066. The two earls escaped alive from the field, but were unable to make any further opposition to the invaders, who entered York in triumph and received the submission of the city. “Then after the fight came Harold and Tostig into York with as many people as to them seemed good, and they took hostages from the city and also received provisions, and so went thence to their ships, having agreed to full peace, that they [the people of York] might all go south with them and conquer this land.” It was to be an expedition of Northumbrians, Scots and men of Orkney, as well as Norsemen, under the command of Harold Hardrada, against Harold Godwineson and the men of Mercia and Wessex.

The invaders had in this instance reckoned without their host. They thought they had only the young and somewhat inefficient sons of Elfgar to deal with, whereas the namesake of Hardrada, “Harold our king” (as one of the chroniclers calls him), had heard the unwelcome news of their presence in his kingdom, and with almost Napoleonic swiftness of decision, was bearing down upon them. It was only on September 8 that he had dismissed his fleet and army in Hampshire. His journey to London may have occupied a day or two, and we know not how soon the tidings of the invasion reached him; but already on September 24, with all the fyrd that he could assemble in the south, he was at Tadcaster, and on the following day he marched through York. Hardrada and Tostig, whom he had perhaps hoped to surprise cooped up within the city, had marched eastwards some seven or eight miles to Stamford Bridge, on the river Derwent, where they expected to receive the hostages whom Yorkshire was to offer for her fidelity. Against them marched the English Harold, so suddenly, and with such successful precautions against their obtaining information of his movements, that at first when Hardrada saw afar off the steam of the horses and thereunder fair shields and white byrnies (coats of mail), he asked Tostig what host that might be. Tostig answered that they might be some of his kinsmen coming in to seek the king’s friendship, but that he feared it meant “unpeace,” and so it proved. The host drew nearer and nearer, and like the flashing of the sunlight reflected from a glacier was the gleam of their weapons.[249]

There was a short parley ere the armies closed. English Harold sent to offer his brother a third of his kingdom, that there might be peace between them. “’Tis pity,” said Tostig, “that this offer was not made last winter. Many a good man had then been living who now is dead, and better had it been for the whole realm of England; but if I accept these terms, what shall Harold of Norway have in return for his labour?” Then came the celebrated answer (and it is worthy of note that the Norse story-teller has preserved it): “Seven foot’s room, or so much more as he may need, seeing that he is taller than other men”. Tostig honourably refused to make any peace by the sacrifice of his ally; and the battle was joined, a terrible battle which lasted all day long and wrought great slaughter. The English at last succeeded in breaking the invaders’ shield-wall, and, surrounding them on all sides, poured their missiles upon them with deadly effect. Mad at this breach in his ranks, Hardrada leapt in front of his men and made a clear space round him, hewing with both his hands, but he was at last wounded in the throat by an arrow and fell dead upon the field. There was a little lull in the conflict, and Harold Godwineson offered peace to Tostig and the surviving Northmen, but they all whooped out with one voice that they would rather fall each one across the other than take peace of the Englishmen. Tostig seems to have fallen in this second battle. Then another pause, and a host of men, well-armed but breathless, came rushing up from the Norwegian ships in the river. They wrought great havoc in the English ranks, and had well-nigh turned the fortune of the day; but it was not to be. The new-comers were so spent with their march, that at last they threw away their “byrnies” and so fell an easier prey to the English axes.

So ran the story of the fight of Stamford Bridge as told by the descendants of the Norsemen. The English chronicler, with much less detail, describes Harold Godwineson’s unlooked-for attack upon the Scandinavians. According to him, the bridge itself was the key of the position and victory was impossible for the English until it was crossed. In its narrow entrance one Norwegian long held the English host at bay: an arrow availed not to dislodge him, but at length one of Harold’s men crept under the bridge and pierced him through the corselet. Then the king of the Englishmen came over the bridge and the victory was won. Great slaughter was made both of the Norsemen and Flemings, but Olaf, the son of Harold Hardrada, was left alive. With him, with a certain bishop who accompanied him, and with the Earl of Orkney, the English Harold made terms. “They all went up to our king,” says the chronicler, “and swore oaths that they would ever keep peace and friendship with this land; and the king let them depart with twenty-four ships. These two folk-fights [Fulford and Stamford Bridge] were both fought within five days” (September 20 to 25, 1066).

Short time had Harold for rest at the great northern capital, York. It was probably in the earliest days of October that news was brought to him that on September 28 William of Normandy had landed at Pevensey. Let us hear the story of what happened from that day to the fatal October 14 in the few simple words which are all that the only Saxon chronicler (he of Worcester) can bring himself to devote to the subject. “Then came William, Earl of Normandy, into Pevensey, on the eve of St. Michael (Sept. 28), and as soon as his men were fit [a possible allusion to sea-sickness which they had endured], they wrought a castle at Hastings-port. Tidings of this were brought to King Harold, and he gathered then the great host and came towards him at the Hoar Apple Tree, and William came against him at unawares ere his people were mustered. But the king nevertheless withstood him very bravely with the men who would follow him, and there was a mighty slaughter wrought on both sides. There was slain King Harold and his brothers, the Earls Leofwine and Gyrth, and many good men, and the Frenchmen held the place of slaughter.”

“He dies and makes no sign.” This is all that the Saxon chroniclers, whose guidance we have followed through six centuries, or any native English historians have to tell us of the death of the Saxon monarchy. One is half disposed to leave the matter there, and not to repeat the stories, many of them, as we may suspect, falsely coloured or absolutely untrue, and often quite inconsistent with one another, with which the Norman chroniclers and poets have enriched their jubilations over England’s downfall. But as this can hardly be, an attempt will be made to present only the broad outlines of the story, omitting all reference to recitals obviously fictitious, and for brevity’s sake declining to enter into any of the controversies which have been fiercely waged round certain parts of the narrative.

By about the middle of August William’s preparations were completed, and his fleet, collected near Caen at the mouth of the river Dive, was ready to sail. For a whole month the wind was contrary to them--a fateful month during which, as we know, but as William possibly did not know, Harold’s crews were being paid off and his army disbanded. A slight westward veering of the wind enabled the ships to creep a hundred miles up the Norman coast to St. Valery, at the mouth of the Somme. Some vessels seem to have been lost by storm, but at last, after a fortnight’s further detention at St. Valery, a favourable breeze blew--men said as the result of the exhibition of the relics of the saint and prayers for his intercession--and on the night of September 27 the fleet set forth on the great expedition. Though one chronicler puts the number of ships as high as 3,000, we are informed on what seems to be good authority[250] that they were 696. William’s own ship, named the Mora, the fastest of the fleet, had a lantern at the mast-head to serve as a signal to her consorts, a vane above the lantern to show the direction of the wind, and on the prow a bronze figure of a child with bow and arrow aiming for England. When dawn was breaking the Mora found herself alone, having outsailed all the others. A sailor sent to the mast-head reported that he saw nothing but sky and sea. The duke cast anchor, told his companions not to lose heart, and cheered them and himself with a mighty breakfast, accompanied with copious draughts of wine. On a second journey to the mast-head the sailor reported that he saw three or four ships; on a third, that the whole fleet were in sight and approaching rapidly. By nine o’clock in the morning, September 28, 1066, the fleet was all assembled off the coast of Sussex, a few miles north-east of Beachy Head, and the landing, absolutely unopposed, was effected without difficulty on the long flat shore of Pevensey, in sight of the ruins of Roman Anderida.

The most notable incident of the landing, if true, is the well-known story of William’s fall. It is said that he, being first to spring to land, stumbled and fell with both his hands on the shore, that all round him raised a cry: “A bad omen is that,” but he with a loud voice said: “Lords, by the splendour of God, I have taken seizin of this land with my two hands. No property was ever let go without a challenge. Now all that is here is ours.” From Pevensey the army marched eastward to Hastings (a distance of about fifteen miles), and there entrenched themselves in a strong camp with high earthen ramparts, fosse and palisades. They also began to ravage the country for some miles round Hastings, a fact which is attested both by the entries in Domesday Book and by a picture in the Bayeux Tapestry, “Here a house is being burnt”. The tidings of William’s landing, however swiftly carried to York, can hardly have reached Harold before October 1. They, of course, necessitated another forced march back to London, so rapidly had the shuttle to fly backwards and forwards in the loom of war. Harold reached London probably about October 6, and waited there for a short week, expecting the arrival of the troops whom he summoned from all quarters for the defence of the country. This summons seems to have been well responded to from the home counties and East Anglia; and some fighters came, we are told, from Lincoln and Yorkshire. But Edwin and Morkere, the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria, are accused of not having rallied as they should have done to the support of the king, who had saved them from utter destruction at the hands of Hardrada. The accusation which comes to us on the authority of so well-informed and generally so impartial an historian as Florence of Worcester, is one which cannot be passed over in silence. At the same time it is but fair to observe that the troops of the two northern earls had suffered severely at Fulford, and that there was very little time to collect new levies and bring them into the field from Northumberland and Cheshire before October 14. The impression left on one’s mind by the conduct of these two young earls, is rather one of inefficiency than of deliberate treachery. At the same time it must be admitted that when Harold broke with Tostig, perhaps also with his sister Edith, and allied himself with the house of Leofric, he adopted a policy which brought him little help abroad or happiness at home.

On October 12--after a hasty visit to Waltham where he had built a great minster in honour of the Holy Rood--Harold marched southward and took up a position on the last spur of a low range of Sussex hills, about seven miles to the north-west of Hastings. He is said to have been earnestly entreated by his younger brother, Gyrth, Earl of East Anglia, to adopt a more cautious line of policy, to anticipate William’s ravages of Sussex and Surrey by ravaging them himself, and to force the Norman to advance through a wasted land and attack him in the strong position of London. The advice would seem to have been wise; and surely a fortnight’s delay would have given Harold a better fighting instrument than the hasty levies which reinforced the war-wearied and march-wearied men of Stamford Bridge. But Harold was exasperated by the ravages which William had already begun in the country round Sussex. He patriotically refused to imitate those ravages in counties which had ever shown a special affection for him and for his father’s house. There are also some slight indications that he somewhat under-rated the strength of William’s army, and hoped by a sudden stroke like that at Stamford Bridge to sweep it into the sea.

However this may be, on the morning of Saturday, October 14, Harold’s army was drawn up in line on the ridge now crowned by the abbey and town of Battle, and William’s army, having marched forth that morning from Hastings, confronted them on the hill which now bears the name of Telham. As for the battlefield itself, the chronicler, as we have seen, calls it “the Hoar Apple Tree”; one Norman historian, Orderic, calls it Senlac or Epiton, but it will probably always be best known by the name which is, of course, only approximately correct, the battlefield of Hastings. There is no evidence that there was even a village there when the battle was fought. The position of Harold’s army was on a hill of moderate height, 260 feet above the sea level, so surrounded by narrow valleys, which might almost be called ravines, as to make it singularly difficult of approach by cavalry. In order to render it yet more secure against such an attack, Harold had, according to one writer,[251] strengthened it by a fence or palisade as well as by a fosse drawn, perhaps somewhat lower down, right across the field.

As to the numbers engaged on each side we have no information that is worth anything, only absurd and exaggerated estimates, especially on the part of the Norman writers concerning the size of the English army. As a mere conjecture, founded on the dimensions of the battlefield, there is something plausible in the suggestion[252] of 10,000 to 15,000 as the number of William’s soldiers, and the same or a little less for those of Harold. There cannot be much doubt that the quality of the invading troops was superior to that of the defenders. William’s men were Normans, trained and seasoned by twenty years of fighting, supplemented by brave adventurers, with whom war was probably a regular profession, drawn from all parts of France. The backbone of Harold’s army was doubtless his bodyguard of house-carls, terribly thinned by the fierce fight at Stamford Bridge, and these were reinforced by the peasants of the fyrd, brave men but little used to arms and hastily summoned from the neighbouring counties. Still they had the advantage, such as it was, of standing on the defensive in a position which had evidently been chosen with considerable military skill.

The chief weapon of the Normans was the sword, of the English the great two-handed battle-axe, the use of which was borrowed from their Danish antagonists. Both sides seem to have been armed with lances, and the best troops in both armies were clothed in long coats of mail, which were wanting, however, to the peasants of the English fyrd. The long kite-shaped shield, covering the greater part of the person, was carried by both nations, but the English were perhaps superior in the defensive tactics of the shield-wall, formed by men standing close together, shoulder to shoulder, and locking their shields into what the classically educated Norman writers called a testudo. On the other hand, William was evidently much the stronger in archers and in cavalry, and it was this superiority which eventually won for him the victory. The Normans fought of course under the standard blessed by the Pope, the Saxons under the well-known Dragon-banner of Wessex, and another which was perhaps of Harold’s own devising and which bore the likeness of a full-armed fighting man. On the English side we hear of no leaders besides Harold and his two brothers, Gyrth, Earl of East Anglia, and Leofwine, Earl of Essex and Kent, both of whom seem to have fallen early in the battle. The lack of a strong lieutenant, who could have taken the direction of the defence when the king fell, had probably something to do with the issue of the fight. On the Norman side, as we might expect, the names of many leaders are given us, but we need only notice here William’s half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux (son of the tanner’s daughter), who salved his episcopal conscience by fighting with a heavy mace instead of with a sword, thus hoping to avoid the actual shedding of blood; Count Eustace of Boulogne, the hero of the flight from Dover; and William Fitz-Osbern, the faithful friend of the Norman duke as his father had been before him.

We may pass over the account of the messages which are said to have been exchanged between the two rival chiefs, including a proposition by Duke William that, to save the effusion of Christian blood, they should settle their differences by single combat; and we may also pass over the story of the diverse ways in which the two armies spent the night before the battle, the English in song and revelry, crying “Wassail” and “Drink to me”; the Normans in confessing their sins and receiving absolution from the numerous priests who accompanied the army. Thus we come to the morning of Saturday, October 14, at nine A.M., when, as before said, the two armies stood fronting one another in battle array. As to the positions of the various divisions of the English army, we have no sufficient indication, except that we are told that the men of Kent claimed the right to march in the van, and strike the first blow in the battle, and that the Londoners made a similar claim to guard the person of the king, being grouped round his standard which was planted in the centre of the ridge. As to William’s army, we are told that he put in his first line his archers (apparently light armed), in his second his mail-clad infantry, and in a third, behind them all, he ranged his cavalry. Moreover, there was in each of these lines another threefold division according to nationalities: the Normans in the centre, the Bretons on the left, and the Frenchmen (the men from the central regions of France) on the right.

The prelude to the battle was a romantic incident which showed that the day of chivalry had dawned. A minstrel--or as one narrator calls him, an actor--named Taillefer craved of Duke William the boon of striking the first blow. He had sung on the march some staves of the great Song of Roland, describing the death of that hero and of Olivier in the gorge of Roncesvalles, and now he pranced forth before the duke--

On the rough edge of battle ere it joined.

He took his lance by the butt-end as if it had been a truncheon, threw it in the air and caught it by the head. Three times he did this and then he hurled it into the hostile ranks and wounded an Englishman. Then, after repeating this performance with his sword, while the amazed English looked on as at a feat of conjuring, he set spurs to his horse and galloped fiercely towards the ranks of the foe. One Englishman he sorely wounded and one he slew, and then a cloud of darts and javelins was hurled at him and the bold minstrel fell down dead.

For six hours the battle which was now joined raged with nearly equal fortune on both sides. No doubt the first rank of light-armed archers discharged their missiles, and the mailed foot-soldiers pressed forward to take advantage of any impression which they may have made on the hostile ranks; but also (if we may trust the Tapestry) even at this early period of the battle the cavalry were charging (uphill, of course) and dashing themselves against the English shield-wall. So far, on the whole, they dashed themselves in vain, though already thus early in the fight Gyrth and Leofwine seem to have fallen. At length the Norman horsemen, recoiling from a fruitless charge, tumbled into a fosse, ever after known as the Malfosse, which they had scarcely noticed in their advance, and rolled over and over in dire confusion, hundreds of them lying a crushed and helpless mass on the plain. Some of the English who were pursuing shared the same fate; and one of the most spirited pictures in the Tapestry shows how “Here the English and French fell together”. This disaster had very nearly proved the ruin of the invading army, for the large body of varlets or camp followers stationed in the rear to guard the harness, or stores and baggage of the troops, seeing what had befallen their masters, were about to quit the field in headlong flight, and such a movement might well have spread panic through the ranks of the army. But then Bishop Odo of Bayeux, wielding his big mace, and with a coat of mail over his alb, shouted out words of encouragement and reproof, and stayed the panic of the varlets. About the same time apparently, and under the influence of the same panic-fear, a rumour spread through the ranks that William himself was slain. He had indeed three horses killed under him in the long and dreadful struggle, but, as far as we know, he received no wound at any time, and now lifting up the nose-piece of his helmet he showed his full face to his followers whose confidence was at once restored.

As has been said, for six hours the battle hung doubtful. From three o’clock onwards victory began to incline to the Norman side, chiefly owing to two manœuvres, the credit of both of which is assigned to William personally. In the first place, finding himself otherwise unable to break the terrible shield-wall, he took a hint from the disaster of the Malfosse itself, and ordered his followers to feign flight. After men have long stood on the defensive, galled by missiles from afar, the temptation to believe that the victory is won and that they may charge a flying foe is doubtless immense. At any rate Harold’s troops yielded to it, apparently more than once, and each time when pursuers and pursued had reached the plain, the Normans turned and their cavalry encircled and destroyed numbers of the English. The other manœuvre was, we are told, an order given to the archers to shoot high up into the sky, so that their arrows might fall from on high on some unshielded part of their enemies’ persons. Perhaps we have here another illustration of the fact that, for a conflict with missile weapons, it is not all gain to occupy a position on a hill. This is what the Scots learned to their cost in 1402 at Homildon Hill and the English in 1881 at Majuba. At any rate it seems to have been by this change of tactics that the decisive blow was struck. It was by an arrow falling from on high that Harold’s right eye was pierced. The wound was mortal and the king fell to the ground. Whatever life may have been left in him was extinguished by four Norman knights (one of them the hateful Eustace of Boulogne) who not only slew but mutilated their fallen foe.

The English seem still to have fought on for some time after the death of their king, but without purpose or discipline. The Normans were not disposed to give quarter, and apparently the greater number of the mail-clad house-carls fell where they had been fighting. The lighter-armed men of the fyrd fled, and, according to one account, their pursuers followed them into a part of the field where, from the broken nature of the ground and the abundance of ditches, their own ranks--they were evidently mounted warriors--fell into some confusion, and seeing this the fugitives made a rally. Owing probably to the fading light William and his comrades believed this to be a movement of fresh troops brought up against them. They halted, and Eustace of Boulogne counselled retreat, but a blow between the shoulders dealt suddenly from behind caused him to fall to the ground, while William pressed on undaunted and found that the victory was indeed his, and in the old Saxon phrase the Normans “held the place of slaughter”. The Norman duke caused his Pope-blessed standard to be planted on the brow of the hill in the same place where Harold’s banner had floated. After rendering thanks to God for his great victory, he ordered his supper to be prepared on the battlefield in the midst of the thousands of corpses of both armies, whom the survivors all through the following Sunday were busily engaged in burying, or in removing from the field that they might be carried to their homes for burial.

The body of Harold himself, grievously disfigured, but recognised, according to a well-known story, by his lady-love, “Edith with the swan’s neck,” is said to have been given by the Conqueror to William Malet, a nobleman half Norman and half English, and a kinsman of the house of Leofric, with instructions that it should be buried under a great cairn on the coast of that Sussex which he had vainly professed to guard. According to one story, Gytha, Godwine’s widow, vainly offered to buy her son’s body back from his foe at the price of his weight in gold; but it is probable that William before long relented and allowed the body of his fallen rival to be disinterred and buried with befitting solemnity in the great minster of the Holy Rood at Waltham.

William himself, in fulfilment of a vow made on the eve of the contest, founded on the field of slaughter a stately abbey which bore the name of Battle, and in which masses were long said for the repose of the souls of those who had fallen in the fight, whether conquerors or conquered. The building of the abbey with all its dependencies must have done much to alter the face of the battlefield; and now for near four centuries the abbey itself has been hidden and changed by the manor house reared within its precincts, in Tudor style, by the family to whom it was granted on the suppression of the monasteries. Change upon change has since befallen the noble dwelling-house which still bears the name of Battle Abbey; and its gardens and groves, its tall yew hedges and terraced lawns, though all most beautiful, make it hard to reconstruct with the mind’s eye the eleventh century aspect of “the place of slaughter”. Only the well-ascertained site of the high altar of the Abbey Church on the crest of the hill enables us to say with certainty, in the language of the Bayeux Tapestry--

HIC HAROLD REX INTERFECTUS EST.

With the battle of Hastings ends the story of England as ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings. The causes of the change, so full of meaning for all future years, which transferred the English crown from the race of Cerdic to the race of Rollo, cannot be dwelt upon here: perhaps some of them have been sufficiently indicated in the course of the preceding narrative. It is enough to say that a great and grievous transformation had come over the Anglo-Saxon character since the days of Oswald and even since the days of Alfred. The splendid dawn of English and especially of Northumbrian Christianity in the seventh century had been early obscured. The nation had lost some of the virtues of heathendom and had not retained all that it had acquired of the virtues of Christianity. Of its political incapacity the whole course of its history during the last century before the conquest is sufficient evidence; and it is probably a symptom of the same general decay that for two centuries after the death of Alfred no writer or thinker of any eminence, with the doubtful exceptions of Dunstan and Elfric, appears among his countrymen. A tendency to swinish self-indulgence, and the sins of the flesh in some of their most degrading forms, had marred the national character. There was still in it much good metal, but if the Anglo-Saxon was to do anything worth doing in the world, it was necessary that it should be passed through the fire and hammered on the anvil. The fire, the anvil and the hammer were about to be supplied with unsparing hand by the Norman conquerors.

APPENDIX I.

AUTHORITIES.

All that portion of archæological science which deals with prehistoric man is of recent origin, and the conclusions arrived at as to our own island, even by the most careful inquirers, must be accepted provisionally, as liable to much modification by the labours of future students. Meanwhile the results generally accepted by scholars may be found well stated by Professor BOYD DAWKINS (Early Man in Britain, 1880), by Dr. JOHN BEDDOE (The Races of Britain, 1885), and by the Rev. Canon GREENWELL and GEO. ROLLESTON (British Barrows, 1877). All these authors deal chiefly with the results of excavation in the caves and sepulchral barrows of Britain. The measurement of the skulls disinterred from thence and the character of the vessels found in proximity to the bodies, are the chief criteria by which they decide on the racial character of the occupants. Professor JOHN RHYS (The Early Ethnology of the British Isles, 1890, and Celtic Britain, 2nd edit., 1884) approaches the subject of British ethnology rather from the side of early traditions and the evidence, somewhat meagre and unsatisfactory, of Celtic annalists, but with much help from philology.

Passing from the consideration of prehistoric man to the notices of Britain furnished by the writers of classical antiquity we come first to the Greek and Roman geographers. The chief Greek writers are Strabo and Ptolemy. STRABO, who was a native of Asia Minor, lived at the Christian era, and may be considered a slightly younger contemporary of Augustus. His colossal work on geography was written in his old age, and was probably finished about A.D. 19. Though he was an extensive traveller, he never visited Britain: his knowledge of our island seems to be chiefly derived from Cæsar, and he is altogether wrong as to its geographical position, believing it to lie alongside of the coast of Gaul from the Pyrenees to the mouths of the Rhine. He imagined Ireland to be entirely north of Britain.

PTOLEMY, who was a native of Egypt, was a contemporary of the Antonine emperors, and probably wrote about A.D. 150. He was essentially an astronomical geographer, whose object was to fix the latitude and longitude of every place of which he took note. His industry was extraordinary, and his scientific conceptions were somewhat in advance of his age; but owing to the inaccurate information upon which he had often to rely, his results are sometimes very far from correct. Thus, though he gets England and Ireland almost into their true position, correcting the errors of Strabo concerning them, he pulls Scotland so far round to the east that it is at right angles to England, and its northernmost point almost touches Denmark.

PLINY, who was born in A.D. 23 and perished in the great eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, is the only Latin geographer who tells us much about Britain, and his descriptions do not add much to our knowledge, but relate chiefly to natural history and to the cultivation of the soil.

For the Roman conquest of Britain our chief authorities are, of course, CÆSAR and TACITUS. The former, in the fourth and fifth books of his history of the Gallic War, describes in a few brief, soldier-like sentences the incidents of his two invasions, hardly attempting to conceal their ill-success. The latter, in the fourteenth book of his Annals, gives us the story of the insurrection of the Britons under Boudicca and its suppression by Suetonius Paulinus. An earlier book in the same series undoubtedly gave the history of the conquest of Britain under Claudius, but this is unfortunately lost. He gives us, however, in his Life of Agricola, a pretty full account of the events which signalised the command of his father-in-law, Julius Agricola (A.D. 78–84), and a slight notice of some events which occurred under his predecessors. Unfortunately Tacitus, superb as he is in delineation of character and scornful summaries of palace intrigues, fails grievously as a military historian, which happens to be his chief function when he is concerned with the history of Britain. Mommsen (bk. viii., chap. 5) says: “A worse narrative than that of Tacitus concerning this war (Paulinus against Boudicca) is hardly to be found even in this most unmilitary of authors”.

To make up for the loss of the earlier books of Tacitus’s Annals we have the history of DION CASSIUS, a Greek rhetorician who wrote his Roman History about A.D. 222. Though a useful compiler, Dion is, of course, no contemporary authority for the conquest of Britain under Claudius. Such as he is, however, we have to depend on him almost entirely for our knowledge of that event.

After we lose the guidance of Tacitus, our information as to Roman Britain becomes excessively meagre. Even the work of Dion Cassius after A.D. 54 is lost in the original, and only exists for us in an epitome--a tolerably full one, it must be admitted--made in the twelfth century by XIPHILINUS, an ignorant and careless monk of Constantinople. In addition to this, however, we receive a feeble and flickering light from the collection of memoirs called the HISTORIA AUGUSTA. This book, the result of the joint labours of some five or six authors whose very names are a subject of controversy, relates in clumsy and uncritical fashion the chief events in the lives of the Roman emperors during the second and third centuries. Poor as is the performance of these authors, and though they were probably separated by an interval of one or two centuries from the events which they record, we have reason to be grateful to them for the information which they supply to us, especially as to our two most illustrious conquerors, Hadrian and Severus. For the reign of the latter emperor we may also glean a few facts from the work of the Greek historian HERODIAN.

The story of the imperial pretenders, Carausius and Allectus, and of the suppression of their independent royalty, is told in a certain fashion by two panegyrists, called MAMERTINUS and EUMENIUS, in their orations before the triumphant emperors; but it is hard to extract solid history out of their windy rhetoric.

A historian to whom we owe much, and should doubtless owe far more if a perverse literary fate had not deprived us of nearly half of his work, is the life-guardsman AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, who lived in the latter half of the fourth century and wrote the history of the Roman empire from A.D. 99 to 378. As it is, possessing only those books which tell of the years from 353 to 378, we derive from him some valuable information as to the British campaigns of the elder Theodosius. If we possessed the earlier books of his history, we should almost certainly know much more than we do as to the appearance of Roman Britain in the second century and the mode of life of its native inhabitants, for Ammianus is fond of showing off his geographical knowledge, and resembles Herodotus in the interest which he takes in the manners and customs of half-civilised races. His Latin style--he was a Syrian Greek by birth--is extraordinarily affected and often obscure, but for all that, few literary events could be more gratifying to the historical student than the recovery of the lost books of Ammianus.

For the social, military and religious life of the Romans in Britain an invaluable source of information is contained in the inscriptions which are collected in the seventh volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1873). Many of the most important will be found in the Lapidarium Septentrionale, edited by Dr. Bruce (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1875). Inscriptions discovered more recently must be looked for in the volumes of the Ephemeris Epigraphica, published by the Academie der Wissenschaften at Berlin, or in the Archæological Journal and the proceedings of local antiquarian societies.

OROSIUS, a disciple of St. Augustine, has done something to lighten the darkness which hangs over the end of Roman rule in Britain. In the last book of his Histories, which were meant to show that the calamities of the empire were not due to the introduction of Christianity, he tells us with some little detail the story of the military revolt of the year 406, of which we also learn some details from the Greek historian Zosimus. A chronicler who generally bears the name of another friend of St. Augustine’s, PROSPER TIRO, but who was evidently a theological opponent of that saint, and whose personality is really unknown, inserts in his Chronicle two all-important dates for the Roman evacuation of Britain and for the Saxon invasions. The contemporary poet, CLAUDIAN, writing in 403, also gives us in a few lines some important information as to the former event. This is practically the last trustworthy notice as to our island that we find in the works of any classical writer. Henceforth our history for many centuries is written for us entirely by ecclesiastics, and this must be the modern historian’s excuse for the strongly ecclesiastical colour which he is obliged to give even to a political narrative. One such ecclesiastical authority is The Life of Germanus by the presbyter CONSTANTIUS, as has been previously said. This Life has suffered much from later interpolations. See an elaborate analysis of it by Levison in the Neues Archiv, vol. xxix.

The next writer who lifts any portion of the pall which hides the history of our island in the fifth and sixth centuries is GILDAS, the author of the Liber Querulus “concerning the ruin of Britain”. Rightly is the book called querulous, for it is one long drawn out lamentation over the barbarities of the Saxon invaders and the irreligion of the Britons which had brought this ruin upon them. If Gildas, who wrote probably between 540 and 560, had chosen to tell us simply all that he had seen or heard from men of the preceding generation concerning Saxon raids and Cymric resistance, his work would have been one of the corner-stones of English history. As it is, we have to be thankful for the few facts that he imparts to us between sob and sob over the wickedness of the world. A critical edition of this author by Mommsen will be found in vol. xiii. of the Auctores Antiquissimi in the Monumenta Germaniæ Historica. An excellent edition with notes by the Rev. Hugh Williams, Professor of Church History at the Theological College, Bala, is now in course of publication for the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion.

More perplexing, but fuller of matter, good, bad and indifferent, is the work of the much later Welsh ecclesiastic, NENNIUS, who lived about two centuries and a half after Gildas. This author exhibits a degree of ignorance and puzzle-headedness which gives one a very unfavourable idea of the intellectual condition of a Welsh monastery about the year 800. His chronology is wildly incorrect, and he intermingles with solemn history stories of dragons and enchanters worthy of the Arabian Nights; but he has inserted into the middle of his book extracts from the work of a much earlier author (probably a Northumbrian Celt living under Anglian rule) who described the contests of English and Welsh between 547 and 679. This part of the book (to be found in chapters 57 to 65 of Nennius) has probably a real historic value. It is important to note that it is in this portion that the name of King Arthur is found. As already mentioned (p. 100) we are much indebted to the labours of Prof. Zimmer (Nennius Vindicatus) with reference to this important but most provoking writer.

Turning from the Welsh to the English authorities we come to the illustrious name of BEDE, the greatest scholar of his age and the best historian whom any European country produced in the early Middle Ages. His main work, the Historia Ecclesiastica, was finished in the year 731, about four years before his death. There is an excellent edition of this book and of some of the smaller historical works of Bede by the Rev. Charles Plummer (2 vols.: Oxford, 1896). The historical importance of this work begins with its account of the conversion of England to Christianity; and, for all the events of the seventh century and the early part of the eighth, it is priceless. As to the events which marked the Roman occupation of Britain, Bede probably had no other sources of information than those which we also possess. For the two centuries of darkness between the departure of the last Roman soldier and the arrival of the first Roman missionary he had evidently very scanty sources to draw from, and in fact he springs, almost at one bound, from the year 450 to 596.

For the closing years of the seventh century we have another valuable authority in the Life of Wilfrid, written by his contemporary, EDDIUS (Historians of the Church of York, edited by J. Raine, Rolls Series): and this is the more important as, for some reason or other, Bede shows sometimes a curious reticence as to Wilfrid’s career. There is a very careful comparison of the two narratives, that of Bede and that of Eddius, by Mr. B. W. Wells in the sixth volume of the English Historical Review (1891), pp. 535–50. His conclusions are not favourable to Eddius’s veracity.

In the eighth century, after we have lost the invaluable guidance of Bede, we may derive some help from the letters of two great Churchmen, BONIFACE and ALCUIN, both published in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica (Epistolae, vols. iii. and iv., 1892 and 1895).

For the whole period from the Saxon invasion onwards we rely with increasing confidence on the great historical document, or collection of documents, which is sometimes called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but which, following Freeman’s example, we generally designate by the simple but sufficient name of The Chronicle (Plummer, 2 vols., 1892). The reason for introducing the notice of it here is that, according to the opinion of its latest editor, we arrive, in the ninth century, at the time of the first compilation of this work, so all-important for the students of our national history. If he is right in thinking that the impulse toward the commencement of this great undertaking was given by King Alfred--a belief which seems to be shared by Mr. Stevenson, the editor of Asser--it cannot have begun to assume its present shape till near the year 900. Some materials, however, for the building of such an edifice must have been gradually accumulating for at least two centuries; in what shape, of what kind, of what degree of historical trustworthiness, we shall, perhaps, never be able to determine. There were probably rhythmical pedigrees of the kings and some stories of their exploits handed down through generations of minstrels; and, at any rate since the introduction of Christianity, some simple annals such as that to which Bede alludes when he says that 634, the year of the reign of two apostate Northumbrian kings, was, “by those who compute the times of kings,” taken away from them and included in the reign of their pious successor Oswald. This hypothesis, however, will not help us much when we come to consider how Alfred’s literary friends could recover accurate dates and details of events during the preceding 150 years of darkness, and we must probably admit that for that period there may have been a good deal of imaginative chronology of the kind suggested by Lappenberg, as already stated on p. 87. Thus all this earlier portion of the Chronicle has to be used with caution, and we dare not lay any great stress upon the historical character of its statements; only let not its authority be unduly decried, seeing that for a good part of the road it is the only light that we have.

Even after we emerge into the fuller light of the seventh century, and when we have no reason to doubt the truly historical character of the Chronicle, we cannot award it the praise of minute accuracy in matters of chronology. Continually historians have found it necessary to correct its dates by one, two, or three years; and even the foundation date of Egbert’s accession, which used to be given on the authority of the Chronicle to 800, has had to be shifted to 802.

The Chronicle, if begun under the influence of Alfred (probably at Winchester), was continued in various monasteries on somewhat independent lines, and thus, as its latest editor points out, “instead of saying that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is contained in seven MSS., it would be truer to say that those MSS. contain four Anglo-Saxon Chronicles”. These are represented by the four chief MSS. which are now known to scholars by the four letters A, C, D, E. The first of these MSS. is at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the second and third in the British Museum, and the fourth in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Very briefly stated, the distinguishing characteristics of these four MSS. are as follows:--

A (sometimes marked by an Anglo-Saxon letter in order to distinguish it from a later and unimportant manuscript to which also that initial has been given) is also called, from its former owner, Archbishop Parker’s manuscript, or the Winchester Chronicle. There can be little doubt that this manuscript was originally a native of Winchester, and began to be compiled there in Alfred’s reign. A Winchester book it continued till the year 1001, after which it seems to have been transferred to Christ Church, Canterbury, where it was probably lying at the time of the suppression of the monasteries. This manuscript, in many respects the most valuable of all, ends with the year 1070.

C is associated on good authority with the monastery of Abingdon. “Its language [says Professor Earle] is of the most ripe and polished kind, marking the culmination of Saxon literature.” It closes in 1066, but a short postscript has been added in the Northumbrian dialect. One important feature in this manuscript is its inclusion of what is called “The Mercian Register,” describing the great deeds of the Lady of Mercia from 902 to 924. In the next century it is distinguished by the hostile tone which it adopts towards Earl Godwine and his family.

D, which is generally called the Worcester Chronicle, but which seems to have a closer connexion with Evesham, is, in its present shape, a late compilation, none of it probably being of earlier date than 1100. It seems to be closely allied to C, but differs from that manuscript by its friendlier attitude towards Godwine. It is the only version which gives us any account of the battle of Hastings. It ends thirteen years after the Conquest.

E, the Laud manuscript or Peterborough Chronicle, is of great importance, inasmuch as it alone continues the history down to so late a date as 1154, and its great variety of style makes it a leading authority for the history of the English language. In its present shape it is emphatically a book of the Abbey of Peterborough, and loses no opportunity of glorifying that religious house. It probably owes its origin to a disastrous fire which happened at Peterborough in 1116, in which all the muniments of the abbey perished. A manuscript akin to D seems to have been then brought thither from some other monastery, and this copy of it, with sundry interpolations, has been made to replace the perished Chronicle. A and E are the two Chronicles which Plummer and his predecessor Earle have chosen as the corner-stones of their editions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, but passages are inserted from C and D where these authorities give us important variations.

For the personal history of Alfred the Great and some information as to the events of his reign, we have the very important treatise by his contemporary, ASSER, De Rebus Gestis Aelfredi (Stevenson, 1904). Asser was a Welsh ecclesiastic, belonging to the diocese of St. Davids, who came about the year 880 to the court of King Alfred, seeking protection from the tyranny of his native sovereigns, sons of Rhodri Mawr. That protection was freely accorded, and the king, perceiving Asser to be a learned man, stipulated that he should spend at least half of every year in the land of the Saxons. Eventually he became bishop of Sherborne, and no doubt ceased altogether to reside in Wales. He died apparently in 910, about ten years after his patron. Asser’s Life of King Alfred which ends practically with the year 887, giving no account of the last thirteen years of his reign, is a very inartistic work, containing annalistic notices, taken apparently from the Chronicle, strangely jumbled up with those interesting personal details as to the character and habits of the great king which give it in our eyes all its value. It has been singularly unfortunate in its transmission, since the only copy of which we have any certain knowledge perished in the great fire at the Cottonian Library in 1731. Happily, it had been already printed three times, but unfortunately those three editions all contained several large interpolations made by its first editor, Archbishop Parker, from a mistaken desire to round off its information by extracts from other authors. Partly owing to these interpolations, its genuineness has been subjected to severe attacks, which have sometimes seemed likely to be successful. Its character, however, has been triumphantly vindicated by its latest editor, Mr. W. H. Stevenson, who has succeeded in separating the original text of the Life from the interpolations of its editors, and thus presenting it with all its naïve charm, often also, it must be admitted, with all its provoking verbiage and obscurity, to the lovers of the greatest Anglo-Saxon king. In the same volume Mr. Stevenson has printed the Annals of St. Neot’s, which were formerly, without justification, ascribed to Asser, and from which some of the worst interpolations into his real work were derived. It is an important testimony to the authentic character of Asser’s work that large extracts have been made from it by so judicious a compiler as Florence of Worcester.

For the reconstruction of English history in the tenth century our materials are very unsatisfactory. The impulse given by Alfred to the composition of the Chronicle seems to have soon exhausted itself, and for fifty years after the death of his son (925 to 975) it is, as Earle has said, “wonderfully meagre: a charge which is often unreasonably alleged against these Chronicles in the most undiscriminating manner, but which may be justified here by a comparison with the historical literature of two earlier generations”. Its aridity is in some degree atoned for by the ballads, such as that on the battle of Brunanburh, which are inserted at intervals in its pages; but with all the poetic interest attaching to these pieces they can hardly be considered a satisfactory substitute for history. In these circumstances we have to be thankful for such help as can be derived from biographies of the saints; especially from the nearly contemporary Life of Dunstan, by an anonymous Saxon priest who is known only by his initial B. (Memorials of St. Dunstan, edited by Stubbs, Rolls Series), and the similar anonymous but contemporary Life of Oswald, Archbishop of York (Historians of the Church of York, edited by J. Raine, Rolls Series). The later lives of Dunstan, by Adelard, Osbern and Eadmer (all included in Stubbs’s Memorials of St. Dunstan), soon fade off into legend, and must be used with caution.

We ought to have been greatly helped at this period by the work of ETHELWEARD the historian (Monumenta Historica Britannica, Petrie, 1848), who was of royal descent, was apparently for a time Ealdorman of Wessex, and wrote near the end of the tenth century. Unfortunately the basis of his work seems to have been the Chronicle itself, and when he has any additional facts to communicate, his style is so pompously obscure that it is difficult to make out what he means. In default, therefore, of adequate contemporary authorities, the historian is obliged to lean more than he has yet done on the compiling historians who wrote in the century which followed the Norman Conquest. Of these, happily, there is a goodly number, and they are on the whole very favourable specimens of their class.

(1) FLORENCE OF WORCESTER (edited by B. Thorpe, English Historical Society, 1848–49), a monk of whom we know nothing save that he died in 1118, having earned a high reputation for acuteness and industry, took as the staple of his narrative the work of an Irish monk named Marianus Scotus, who was settled at Mainz and composed a World-Chronicle reaching down to the year 1082. With the material thus furnished him Florence interwove extracts specially relating to English history from Bede, Asser and the Chroniclers, bringing down his recital to 1117, the year preceding his death. His work was almost entirely that of a compiler, but it was conscientiously and thoroughly done, and its chief value for us is that though his story approaches most nearly to that told in the Worcester Chronicle (D), it is not a mere transcript of that work, and he evidently had access to some manuscript of the Chronicle which is now lost. The important position which he holds in relation to Asser has already been described.

(2) Some important facts concerning Northumbrian history may be gleaned from the ill-arranged pages of SYMEON OF DURHAM (edited by T. Arnold, Rolls Series, 2 vols., 1882–85). This author, who was born a few years before the Conquest, became a monk at Durham about the year 1085, and spent probably the rest of his life by the tomb of St. Cuthbert. Soon after 1104 he wrote a History of the Church of Durham, which supplies some valuable information not to be found elsewhere, as to the history of events in the north of England during the thirty years following the Danish invasion of 875. In his old age Symeon began, but apparently did not finish, a History of the Kings, which in its present state is a piece of patchwork put together from various sources, and in its chaotic condition corresponds only too closely with the reality of Northumbrian history during that dismal period. Its chief value for the historian is that it incorporates an old Northumbrian Chronicle by an anonymous writer (perhaps called Gesta veterum Northanhymbrorum) describing the chief events which happened in that part of the country from the end of Bede’s history to the accession of Egbert (731–802). For a full discussion of the materials used by Symeon in this work the reader is referred to Mr. Arnold’s preface and to Stubbs’s preface to Roger Hoveden. It cannot be said that even his explanations make the matter very clear. An interesting tract, De Obsessione Dunelmi, which has been attributed on insufficient evidence to this author, is bound up with his works.

(3) HENRY OF HUNTINGDON (edited by T. Arnold, Rolls Series, 1879) was born about eighteen years after the Conquest and died soon after the accession of Henry II. He was an archdeacon in the diocese of Lincoln, and composed at the request of his bishop a History of the English, of which various editions were published in his lifetime, the first probably about 1130, and the last soon after 1154. Henry relies chiefly on the Peterborough Chronicle, but he seems also to have possessed some other manuscript, of which he occasionally gives indications. Unfortunately he relies not only on manuscripts and Chronicles, but also to a large extent on his own imagination. From materials not much ampler than those which we possess, he is fond of constructing a rhetorical narrative with many details, for which it is almost certain that he had no authority. Occasionally there seems reason to believe that he is repeating popular traditions or fragments of popular songs, but upon the whole it is safer not to rely greatly on his facts, where these are not corroborated by other historians.

(4) A much greater historian than Henry was his slightly younger contemporary, WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY (edited by Stubbs, Rolls Series, 2 vols., 1887–89), who was probably born about 1095 and died, or at any rate discontinued his literary labours, soon after 1142. For an elaborate discussion of these dates see Bishop Stubbs’s preface. As he remarks, William “deliberately set himself forward as the successor of the Venerable Bede: and it is seldom that an aspirant of this sort came so near as he did to the realisation of his pretensions”. His most important work for our purpose is the Gesta Regum, but from his Gesta Pontificum (Hamilton, Rolls Series, 1870) some facts relating to civil history may be gleaned. He is especially minute in all points connected with his own monastery of Malmesbury and with that of Glastonbury, in which he seems to have been for some time a guest. He has a wide outlook over continental affairs, and though he has been convicted of many inaccuracies and is unfortunately not sufficiently careful as to the authenticity of the documents quoted by him, we must admit his claim to be considered a really great historian. The Gesta Regum became at once a popular and standard history, and was the source from which a crowd of followers made abundant quotations.

(5) A great patron of learned men, and especially of historians, was Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural son of Henry I. To him William of Malmesbury dedicated his chief historical works, and it was from materials contained in his library that GEOFFREY GAIMAR (edited by Hardy and Martin, Rolls Series, 2 vols., 1888–89) wrote his Estorie des Engles. Scarcely anything is known about the author, except that he wrote before 1147, the date of the Earl of Gloucester’s death, and that he was probably an ecclesiastic and a Norman. His history is a rhymed chronicle in early French, and is to a large extent based on the English Chronicle; a proof that he understood Anglo-Saxon, though it was not his native tongue. He evidently, however, had access to other sources of information now closed to us, and this gives his Estorie a certain value, notwithstanding the author’s occasional tendency to glide off into unhistorical romance, as for instance in the long and legendary story which he tells about Edgar’s marriage with Elgiva. His geographical indications are sometimes worthy of special notice.

For sixty years after 982 the fortunes of England were so closely intertwined with those of Denmark and Norway that it is impossible wholly to overlook the contributions which Scandinavian authors have made to our national history. These consist chiefly of the great collection of Icelandic Sagas popularly known as the Heimskringla, and formerly made accessible to the English reader only by LAING’S Sea-Kings of Norway, now in much completer form in the Saga Library of MORRIS and MAGNUSSON. Three volumes of the Heimskringla have been published: the fourth is still to appear. For a full and exhaustive account, however, of the rich Dano-Icelandic literature of which the so-called Heimskringla is only a portion, we must turn to the noble work of VIGFUSSON and POWELL, the Corpus Poeticum Boreale (two vols., Oxford, 1883), and to Vigfusson’s Prolegomena to the Sturlunga Saga (Oxford, 1879). It is shown by these authors that while the name of Snorri Sturlason is rightly venerated as that of the chief literary preserver of these sagas, an earlier Icelandic scholar named Ari, born in the year after the Norman Conquest, was the first to bring them into some sort of relation with exact chronological history. The narratives seem to be wonderfully true in feeling but often false in fact. Probably a good deal of rather tedious critical work has yet to be done before the Heimskringla can be definitely and safely correlated with the Saxon Chronicle, but we may safely go to that collection of sagas and to the literature of which it forms part, the true Iliad and Odyssey of the Scandinavian peoples, for a picture of the manner of life, the characters and the ideals of those Danish and Norwegian sea-rovers who were the terror of Angle and Saxon, but from whom we ourselves are largely descended.

For the reign of Canute and his sons we are sometimes placed under obligation by the author of the Encomium Emmæ (Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, vol. xix., 1866), a panegyric on the widow of Ethelred and Canute, written apparently by an ecclesiastic of Bruges, who had shared her bounty when she was living in exile. The author sometimes deviates in the most extraordinary way from historic truth, but he seems to have been well acquainted with the facts, though he dishonestly concealed them to please his patroness.

With the extinction of the Danish dynasty and the revival of West Saxon royalty we enter upon a new period, in which our historical literature assumes a controversial character which it has not hitherto possessed. In previous centuries there has been no practical danger in speaking of The Chronicle, the amount of matter common to the various copies being so large and the divergencies between them so comparatively unimportant. Now, however, it is necessary to speak of The Chronicles in the plural, since they often give us absolutely different versions of the same event. The Abingdon Chronicle, as before remarked, is hostile to Godwine, while Worcester (or Evesham) and Peterborough generally favour his cause. Winchester is almost silent for this period. There is a nearly contemporary Life of Edward the Confessor in Latin by an unknown author (printed at the end of the volume, Lives of Edward the Confessor, in the Rolls Series, 1858), from which some noteworthy facts may be collected, but the value of the work is lessened by the writer’s evident determination to praise to the uttermost Godwine and all his family, in order to recommend himself to Edward’s widow Edith, daughter of Godwine, to whom this Vita Edwardi Regis is dedicated. In comparison with his wife’s family the king himself comes off rather poorly.

The life of the Confessor was soon caught up into the region of hagiological romance, and loses historical value accordingly. It does not seem possible to build any solid conclusions on the Vita Edwardi Regis by Aelred, itself borrowed from the twelfth-century biographer Osbert, still less on the curious and interesting Estoire de Seint Ædward le Rei, a French poem written about 1245 and dedicated to Eleanor, queen of Henry III. (Lives of Edward the Confessor).

* * * * *

The Norman historians, who now of course become of first-rate importance for the history, are fully described in the second volume. It will be sufficient here to mention the names of the most important: WILLIAM OF POITIERS, WILLIAM OF JUMIÈGES (both contemporaries of the Conqueror), ORDERICUS VITALIS (a generation later) and WILLIAM WACE, author of two French metrical Chronicles, the Roman de Brut and the Roman de Rou. The latter poem describes with much detail and some poetic power the events of the Norman invasion of England, but its author wrote about a century after the event, and the degree of reliance which may be placed on his statements, where not supported by more strictly contemporary authority, is still a subject of debate among historians. Editions by Pluquet (1826) and Andresen (1877–79) are mentioned with commendation, but the most convenient edition for an English student is that prepared by Sir Alexander Malet with a tolerably close translation of Pluquet’s text into English rhyme (London, 1860).

The other all-important document for the story of the Conquest, the BAYEUX TAPESTRY, has been reproduced in facsimile, with a valuable illustrative commentary, by F. R. Fowke (London, 1875, reprinted in abridged form in the Ex Libris Series, 1898). Discussing the date and origin of this celebrated work, he rejects the traditional connexion of the Tapestry with Queen Matilda, but believes it to be strictly contemporary with the Conquest, having been “probably ordered for his cathedral by Bishop Odo and made by Norman work-people at Bayeux”. Refer also to Freeman’s Norman Conquest, vol. iii., note A, for a discussion of the authority of the Tapestry.

* * * * *

Of the Welsh authorities for this period contained in this volume the present writer cannot speak with confidence. The chief appear to be (1) the Annales Cambriæ, supposed to have been compiled in the year 954 and afterwards continued to 1288.

(2) The Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicle of the Princes, which begins in 680 and ends with 1282. It is thought to be based on a Latin chronicle written in the middle of the twelfth century by a Pembrokeshire monk named Caradog of Llancarvan.

(3) The Brut y Saesson, or Chronicle of the Saxons (800–1382), seems to be chiefly founded on the last-named work, but with some additions from English sources; of no great value, at any rate for pre-Conquest history.

It is to be wished that some scholar would carefully sift the Welsh chronicles and poems, and tell us what are the solid historical facts that may be gathered from their pages.

* * * * *

Without attempting to give a list, however imperfect, of modern books dealing with the early history of England, it may be permitted to mention a few of the chief land-marks.

The history of Roman Britain has yet to be written. Every year excavations, inscriptions, coins add a little to our knowledge of these tantalisingly obscure centuries. Perhaps the best short sketches to which the student can be referred are the chapter on Britain in MOMMSEN’S Provinces of the Roman Empire (translated by Dickson: London, 1886), and a similar chapter in EMIL HÜBNER’S Römische Herrschaft in West Europa (Berlin, 1890). Both these scholars are complete masters of all that epigraphy has to tell concerning the Roman occupation of Britain. In the early chapters of various volumes of the Victoria County History of England, Mr. F. HAVERFIELD is bringing the Roman archæology of the counties there described thoroughly up to date. It is to be hoped that these may all before long be combined by him into one great work on Britannia Romana.

For Anglo-Saxon history perhaps LAPPENBERG’S Geschichte von England (translated by B. Thorpe: London, 1881) is still the most trustworthy guide; but the Making of England and the Conquest of England by JOHN RICHARD GREEN have all the characteristic charm of that author’s historical work; perhaps also it should be said, his characteristic tendency to translate a brilliant hypothesis into historical fact. The truly monumental history of The Norman Conquest by E. A. FREEMAN will assuredly always remain the great quarry from which all later builders will hew their blocks for building. Even those who differ most strongly from his conclusions must bear witness to his unwearied industry and single-minded desire for historical accuracy, whether he always compassed it or not. One of Freeman’s antagonists, C. H. PEARSON, offers some useful suggestions in his History of England during the Early and Middle Ages; and the same author’s Historical Maps of England during the First Thirteen Centuries contain an immense amount of carefully collected geographical material, and deserve to be more widely known than they are at the present time. Another doughty combatant, J. H. ROUND, in Feudal England (London, 1895), has set himself to demolish Professor Freeman’s theories as to the battle of Hastings and some other matters.

SIR JAMES RAMSAY’S Foundations of England (1898) is an extremely careful digest of all the authorities bearing on the subject.

W. BRIGHT’S Early English Church History, C. F. KEARY’S Vikings in Western Christendom and C. PLUMMER’S Life and Times of Alfred the Great are all helpful books.

Where English and Scottish history touch one another the works of E. W. ROBERTSON, Scotland under Her Early Kings and Historical Essays; W. F. SKENE, Celtic Scotland, and ANDREW LANG, History of Scotland, will be found useful, and should be consulted in order to see the arguments of the champions of Scottish independence.

For the history of institutions reference should be made to Bishop STUBBS (Constitutional History); F. W. MAITLAND (Domesday Book and Beyond); H. M. CHADWICK (Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions); J. M. KEMBLE (The Saxons in England); F. PALGRAVE (The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth); H. C. COOTE (The Romans of Britain--worth studying, with distrust, as an extreme statement of the survival of Roman customs in Britain); F. SEEBOHM (The English Village Community); and P. VINOGRADOFF (Villainage in England, The Growth of the Manor and an essay on “Folkland” in the English Historical Review for 1893, which has been generally accepted as containing the true explanation of that much-discussed term of Anglo-Saxon law).

A good edition of the Anglo-Saxon Laws was prepared in 1840 by BENJAMIN THORPE and published by the Record Commission. A more complete edition, with full commentary, was made by REINHOLD SCHMID and published in Leipzig in 1858. Even this is now being surpassed by the work of FELIX LIEBERMANN (Halle, 1898–1903), who has published an excellent text, but whose commentary on the laws has yet to appear. For the charters and other similar documents of the Anglo-Saxon kings we may refer to KEMBLE’S Codex Diplomaticus (6 vols., 1839–48); BIRCH’S Cartularium Saxonicum (3 vols., 1885–93), and HADDAN and STUBBS’S Councils (3 vols., 1869–78), which are splendid collections of this kind of material for the historical student. As convenient manuals, Diplomatarium Anglicum Aevi Saxonici by BENJAMIN THORPE (1845); STUBBS’S Select Charters (1895), and EARLE’S Handbook to the Land Charters, will be found useful.

For a much more detailed list of authorities than can here be given the reader is referred to the excellent manual on The Sources and Literature of English History by Dr. CHARLES GROSS of Harvard University (1900).

APPENDIX II.

GENEALOGY OF NORTHUMBRIAN KINGS.

DEIRA. BERNICIA. Yffi. | +------------+---------------+ | | Elfric. AELLE, IDA, | †588. †560. | | | | | ETHELRIC, | +-----------------+-----------------------+ †593. | | | | | OSRIC, N. Cwenburh,==EDWIN,==Ethelburga, Acha.==ETHELFRID,=Bebba. †634. | daughter | †633. | daughter of | †617. | | of King of | | Ethelbert, | | | Mercia. | | King of Kent. | | | | +------------+ +----------------------+---------------------+ | | | | 3.| 2.| 1.| OSWIN, Hereric. Osfrid. 2° Eanfled.==OSWY,==1° Riemmelth, OSWALD,==Cyneburga, EANFRID, †651. | | | †671.| perhaps a †642. | daughter of †634. Hilda, Yffi. | | British | Cynegils, abbess of | | princess. | King of Whitby. +---------------------------+ | | Wessex. | +--------------+ | | | | | ALDFRID, EGFRID, ALCHFRID, Alchfleda, ETHELWALD, brother or nephew married King of Deira, married Penda, King of Deira, of Egfrid, 1° Etheldreda, married son of Penda. †soon after 655. †705. daughter of Anna, Cyneburga, | King of East daughter of OSRED, Anglia, Penda, King †716.[253] 2° Ermenburga, of Mercia, †685. †664 (?).

APPENDIX III.

GENEALOGY OF WEST SAXON KINGS BEFORE EGBERT

CERDIC, †534. | CYNRIC, †560. +---------+------------------------+ | | CEAWLIN, †593. Cutha (or Cuthwulf). | +------+-------------------------------------------+ | | | Cuthwine. CEOLRIC, CEOLWULF, +-------------+ †597(?) †611. | | | | Cuthwulf. Ceadda. CYNEGILS, †641(?). Cuthgisl. | | +-------+--+-------------+------------------+ | | | | | | | | Ceolwald. CENBERHT, CWICHELM, CENWALH, CENTWINE, Cyneburga, Cenfrith. | †661. †636. †672. married the sister of married | | +--------+ | Ermenburga, Queen Oswald, Cenfus. | | | | of Northumbria, King of | Cenred. CADWALLA, Mul, CUTHRED I., †685. Northumbria. AESCWINE, | †689. burnt 687. †661. †676. | | | A descendant of +-+----+ Cerdic. | | +------------+ | | | | [A] [A] Ingild. INE,==Ethelburh. ETHELHEARD, CUTHRED II., CYNEWULF, | †726. †740. †754. a kinsman of Cuthred II., | †786. Eoppa. N. | +-----------+-----------+ Eaba. [A]| | | SIGEBERT, Cyneheard, EALHMUND, †757. the Avenger. sub-King of Kent. | [254] EGBERT. BEORHTRIC, †802.

FOOTNOTES.

[1] Geikie, Prehistoric Europe, p. 13.

[2] Geikie, p. 119.

[3] Bunbury (History of Ancient Geography, i., 591) disputes this translation, and contends that Pytheas only said that he travelled (not necessarily on foot) over such parts of the island as were accessible.

[4] See Note at the end of this chapter.

[5] Pre-eminently of Sir John Evans, on whose great work on ancient British coins this chapter is founded.

[6] In B.C. 34, 27 and 25 (Dion Cassius, xlix., 38; liii., 22 and 25).

[7] The popular form of this prince’s name, Caractacus, is not justified by the MSS., but one would not think it necessary to restore the true form by the omission of one letter, were it not that the correct spelling brings us nearer to the Welsh equivalent, Caradoc.

[8] That these four legions took part in the Plautian conquest of Britain is undoubted. It may perhaps, however, be questioned whether all sailed with Aulus Plautius at the very outset of the expedition. The fact that the army was divided for the purpose of the crossing into three portions looks rather as if it consisted of three legions: and the fourth might form the nucleus of the reinforcements which came with the Emperor Claudius.

[9] Agricola, xiv.

[10] The name of this tribe is doubtful.

[11] For the reasons in favour of the date 60 instead of 61 (given by Tacitus), see Henderson, Life and Principate of Emperor Nero, p. 477.

[12] Her name seems to have been really Boudicca, meaning the Victorious. The form Boadicea rests on no authority and conveys no meaning, but it is now too late to change it.

[13] Several names of British gods begin like Andraste. A little farther on Dion speaks of the sacred grove of Andate or Victory; and we find dedications to Ancasta, Anociticus, and Antenociticus.

[14] From a misreading of this name is derived the modern Grampian.

[15] These sentences are quoted from Prof. Pelham’s paper on “The Roman Frontier System” (Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, xiv., 170–84), in which the reader will find an admirable statement of the object of the Roman frontier defences and the manner of their construction.

[16] Equivalent to seventy-three and a half English miles: the distance from Wallsend to Bowness.

[17] The term “Menapian” may apply to either country.

[18] Notwithstanding the positive statement of the panegyrist that the victory over Allectus was won by Constantius in person, the merit of it is assigned by some of the historians to the Prætorian Prefect Asclepiodotus. It is, perhaps, impossible to frame a satisfactory narrative out of the very fragmentary materials at our disposal.

[19] It has been shown by Mr. Haverfield that Britannia Prima included Cirencester (Arch. Oxon., p. 220).

[20] They were Branodunum (Brancaster in Norfolk), Gariannonum (Caistor, near Yarmouth), Othona (at the mouth of the Blackwater in Essex?), Regulbium (Reculver in Essex), Rutupiæ (Richborough), Dubræ (Dover), Lemannæ (Lymne), Anderida (close to Beachy Head), Portus Adurni (not yet identified).

[21] Epist. viii. 6.

[22] 2 Kings xvii. 27.

[23] See English Historical Review, xi., 420, for a list of these evidences of Christianity in Britain, drawn up by Mr. Haverfield.

[24] Quotation from Haverfield, Victoria History of Norfolk, i., 282.

[25] See Stevenson’s Asser, p. 166, for reasons against it.

[26] Possibly their name may be connected with that of the Eudoces, a tribe mentioned by Tacitus as neighbours of the Angli. But that identification, if confirmed, would not add much to our knowledge.

[27] It is conjectured, but only conjectured, that it took place at Maes Garmon (the field of Germanus?), near Mold in Flintshire.

[28] It will be observed that this date is eight years later than that given by Tiro. It is probably derived from Bede (i., 15), who, however, does not seem to have had any definite information as to the exact year of the first invasion, though he certainly places it in the reigns of the Emperors Marcian and Valentinian III., that is (according to his inaccurate reckoning) somewhere between 449 and 455.

[29] The site of Fethan-lea is not ascertained. Dr. Guest’s identification of it with Faddiley in Cheshire, and the large consequences thence deduced by him (Origines Celticæ, ii., 287–309), can hardly survive the strenuous attack made on them by Mr. Stevenson in the Eng. Hist. Rev., xvii., 637.

[30] Probably in Wiltshire (ibid., 638).

[31] “Forwurdon,” not the usual peaceful and beautiful “forth-ferdon” (fared forth).

[32] Or Agitius, as Gildas calls him.

[33] The name of Vortigern, inserted here in Gale’s edition, is absent from the best, though found in a few manuscripts.

[34] Isaiah xix. 11.

[35] Nennius makes such a muddle of his chronology that he virtually asserts that Christ was born A.D. 183; and he accepts the idle tales about Brutus, ancestor of the Britons, and descendant of Aeneas, which had been apparently fabricated by Irish students of Virgil two centuries before he wrote.

[36] Sed ipse erat dux bellorum.

[37] This may be either Chester or Leicester.

[38] Ep. i., 7. This is a very important passage, as showing at what an early date British refugees were settled near the mouth of the Loire in such numbers as to be an important element in Gaulish politics. Arvandus, once Prætorian prefect of Gaul, was accused before the Emperor of high treason because he had corresponded with the King of the Visigoths, inviting him to attack “the Britons situated on the Loire,” who were evidently loyal to the empire. In another letter of the same writer (Ep. iii., 9) we find him pleading with his friend Riothamus, a Breton chief (or king), for the restoration of some slaves who have been coaxed away from a friend of his by “Britannis clam sollicitantibus”. This same Riothamus, described by Jordanes as “rex Brittonum,” fought with Euric, King of the Visigoths, on behalf of the empire (Jord. de rebus Geticis, xlv.).

[39] Excerpta e Prisci historia, p. 199 (ed. Bonn).

[40] De Bello Gothico, ii., 6.

[41] De Bello Gothico, iv., 20.

[42] Between 575 and 578, or possibly between 585 and 590.

[43] This story is told in similar but by no means identical words in an early life of Pope Gregory, probably written by a monk of Whitby who was a contemporary of Bede’s, and discovered by Paul Ewald: Hist. Aufsätze an G. Waitz gewidmet. It has been suggested that Bede copied from this biography. To me it seems more probable that Bede and the biographer, independently of one another, repeated the common traditio majorum.

[44] Benedict I., if the earlier date is correct; otherwise Pelagius II. On the fourth day of Gregory’s journey a grasshopper alighted on the page of the Bible which he was reading during the noontide halt. “Ecce locusta,” he said, and interpreted the sign as meaning Loco sta, “Stay where you are”. In that hour arrived the papal emissary commanding him to return to Rome.

[45] “Inter Langobardorum gladios”: a favourite expression of Gregory’s.

[46] Bede, Hist. Eccl., i., 25. Evidently the defeat sustained (according to the Chronicle) in 568 at the hands of Ceawlin, king of Wessex, had been more than made good.

[47] This follows from the date of St. Martin’s death, which was about 402.

[48] Archiepiscopus genti Anglorum ordinatus est (Hist. Eccl., i., 27). Observe that Bede without hesitation uses the word Angli to denote the whole Anglo-Saxon-Jutish nationality.

[49] See Kemble, The Saxons in England, i., 148.

[50] In the county of Flint about ten miles south of Chester: not to be confounded with Bangor on the Menai Straits or with the Irish monastery of Bangor in County Down.

[51] See H. A. Wilson in Mason’s Mission of St. Augustine, pp. 248–52.

[52] As in the case of the stigmata of St. Francis, modern science has shown that it is possible to accept the historic truth of this narrative without admitting the hypothesis, either of miracle or of fraud.

[53] That of Richard of Hexham (circa 1141. Prologue to his History). Simeon of Durham (circa 1104) says that “all the country between Tees and Tyne was then [in the seventh century] a waste wilderness, the habitation of wild animals, and therefore subject to no man’s sway” (Vita Oswaldi, cap. i.).

[54] “Ond rixode twelf gear, ond he timbrode Bebbanburh, seo waes aerost mid hegge betyned, ond aefter mid wealle.” Mr. Bates, whose History of Northumberland is a most helpful guide to this part of our history, reminds us that this “hackneyed passage is an interpolation of a Kentish scribe in the eleventh century”. Still, though we may not quote it as a first-rate authority, there seems no reason for rejecting it altogether.

[55] Hist. Eccl., i., 34.

[56] Or as the Saxon chronicler quaintly puts it, “that if Welshmen would not be kith and kin (sibbe) with us they should by Saxon hands perish”.

[57] We may probably conjecture that the rapid far-reaching campaigns of early English kings, such as Ethelfrid, were rendered possible by the still solid condition of the great Roman roads, which in the Middle Ages fell grievously into decay. Thus even the civilisation of the Roman empire fought for the barbarians.

[58] This remark was made by Professor Freeman.

[59] In telling this story Bede hints that Paulinus received by supernatural means the particulars of an earlier supernatural appearance; but he does not put forward this theory very confidently, and we may, perhaps, sufficiently account for the incident if we suppose that Paulinus himself, unknown at that time to Edwin, was the chief actor in the first scene, the memory of which he revived at an opportune time to strengthen the wavering faith of the king.

[60] It must be remembered that this is the Anglian version of the story, possibly unjust to Cadwallon, and that the Britons had the wrongs of two centuries to avenge.

[61] Skene, Celtic Scotland, ii., 89.

[62] By Skene, u.s., ii., 63.

[63] Nennius (Hist. Brit., § 64) says “in bello Catscaul”. Cat is an old English word for battle; caul is probably corrupted from guaul, the word elsewhere used by Nennius for the Roman wall (cf. §§ 23 and 38).

[64] Brut y Tywysogion, s.a., 681.

[65] “Urbs regia” (Bede, iii., 6); “urbs munitissima” (Simeon of Durham, Historia Regum, § 48).

[66] Generally identified with Oswestry (Oswald’s tree) in Shropshire.

[67] By Freeman: Norman Conquest, i., 36 (3rd ed.).

[68] Except parts of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire surrounding Dorchester.

[69] “A viro gentili nomine Ricberto” (Bede, Hist. Ecc., ii., 15).

[70] In some way which is not explained, Ethelhere was himself “the author of the war”. Possibly as suggested by Mr. Bates (Archæologia Aeliana, xix., 182–91), his marriage with a great niece of Edwin gave him some claim to the throne of Deira.

[71] That of Swithelm.

[72] The whole of this story about the so-called Dalfinus, Archbishop of Lyons, as related by Wilfrid’s biographer is encompassed with historical difficulties. See Bright’s Early English Church History, pp. 218 ff. (3rd ed.).

[73] An attempt to arrange the recurrences of Easter in a cycle of 19 years.

[74] The southern Irish conformed in 634; the northern Irish in 692; the northern Picts, 710; the monks of Iona, 716; the Britons in Wales, 768.

[75] Chiefly Celtic. See Bright’s Early English Church History, p. 237, n. 2.

[76] For the reasons for dating Oswy’s death in 671 rather than a year earlier according to the text of Bede, see Plummer’s note on H. E., iv., 5.

[77] Hagustald.

[78] In Hrypum.

[79] This is Eddius’ account of the transaction. According to Bede a dispute arose between Egfrid and Wilfrid. The latter was deposed and then his diocese was divided.

[80] Site not known.

[81] P. 174.

[82] The identification of this place with Wanborough, near Swindon, is disproved by Stevenson (Eng. Hist. Rev., xvii., 638).

[83] Gesta Regum Anglorum, i., 35 (first recension).

[84] Weorthige.

[85] Gaers-tun.

[86] Gedal-land. Mr. Seebohm translates “land divided into strips”.

[87] There is evidently an omission of some such words.

[88] Vinogradoff, The Growth of the Manor, p. 150.

[89] The nature of the difference between the tun and the ham has perhaps yet to be discovered. For brevity’s sake the former word only will be used in the following discussion. Neither “town” nor “township” is a quite satisfactory translation.

[90] The theory that place-names containing the element ing necessarily points to a settlement by a community, though generally accepted, is contested by Prof. Earle and Mr. Stevenson, who consider that ing is sometimes merely the equivalent of the genitive singular (Eng. Hist. Rev., iv., 356).

[91] Such as those in Seebohm’s Village Community.

[92] By Vinogradoff, l.c., 176; compare also Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 337.

[93] Germania, xxvi.

[94] From caruca, a plough. There is a general correspondence between the two terms hide and carucate, but it would not be safe to treat them as always precisely equivalent to one another.

[95] The size of a hide might partly depend on the nature of the soil. Obviously in some soils a team of six oxen would accomplish a much larger day’s work than in others. Kemble, The Saxons in England, i., 101, argues for a hide of about 33 acres.

[96] From virga = a yard.

[97] For convenience of reference the following table is appended, but it must be remembered that these are rather average results than scientifically exact formulæ. See Vinogradoff, Villainage in England, p. 239, for varying sizes of Hides, Virgates and Bovates.

1 Bovate or Ox-gang = 15 acres. 2 Bovates = 1 Virgate or Yard-land = 30 acres. 8 Bovates or 4 Virgates = 1 Carucate or Hide = 120 acres.

[98] As alleged by Mr. Seebohm.

[99] The laws of Ine which speak of the subjection of a free man to a lord are 3, 21, 27, 39, 67 and 74.

[100] Law 43.

[101] Law 16. Ceorles birele evidently means a ceorl’s female slave.

[102] Vinogradoff (Growth of the Manor, 202) minimises the element of personal slavery in the early Anglo-Saxon community: “Even in the earliest stage of English life it could not be said that English society was a slave-holding one.... Slavery turns out not to be a fit economic and social basis for a primitive, half-agricultural, half-pastural society: the slaves are difficult to keep and awkward to deal with.... They are mostly provided with small households of their own and used as coloni.”

[103] Ine, 70. The amber is said to have contained four bushels, but Maitland (Domesday Book, etc., p. 440, n. 6) doubts its having been so large.

[104] Ine, 11, 12.

[105] There seems to have been a tendency as legislation advanced to increase the distance in respect of wergilds between the king and his subjects.

[106] Chadwick, Anglo-Saxon Institutions, pp. 144–48.

[107] See Chadwick, chapter viii., for references on this point.

[108] Chadwick (Excursus, iv.) takes a different view and practically denies the elective power of the witan.

[109] There are some indications that in early times the shilling of Wessex may have contained only 4 peningas.

[110] Heinrich Leo.

[111] This name, or rather Cruland, was afterwards corrupted into Croyland.

[112] Ep. 73 (Mon. Hist. Germ., Epist. iii., 340).

[113] It is now recognised that the dates in the Chronicle from 754 to 851 are two, or in some cases three years behind the true dates.

[114] The words from Haerethaland which follow in the text are thought by Steenstrup (Normannerne, ii., 15–20) to be an interpolation. In the following chapters the example of the Chronicle will generally be followed, in calling the Scandinavian invaders Danes, without entering on the debated question which of them came from Denmark proper and which from Norway.

[115] See Keary, The Vikings in Western Christendom, pp. 139–42.

[116] Here is simply the Anglo-Saxon equivalent for army; but in the Chronicle it almost invariably means the Danish army, while fyrd is the word used for the English troops, which were in the nature of a militia.

[117] This fact has been especially emphasised by Freeman, Norman Conquest, i., 43–45.

[118] This date, as will be seen, is not that of his original burial, which probably took place near the beginning of July, 862, but the date of the “translation” of his remains to the cathedral, which was accomplished more than a century later.

[119] Stubbs, Const. Hist., i., 249, and 258.

[120] The translation of some of the terms used is conjectural.

[121] Liber Pontificalis, ii., 148 (ed. Duchesne).

[122] This restoration of the Schola Saxonum rests only on the authority of William of Malmesbury, and is doubted, but hardly disproved, by Mr. Stevenson in his edition of Asser, pp. 245–46. Notwithstanding the high authority of Monseigneur Duchesne, quoted by Mr. Stevenson, it does not seem to me probable that the scholæ peregrinorum were essentially military establishments, though they may have assumed somewhat of that character under the stress of the Saracen invasions in the ninth century.

[123] Charles the Bald was at this time thirty-two years of age. Ethelwulf cannot have been less than fifty and may have been considerably older.

[124] The reader is referred to the Appendix for an account of the controversies which have arisen respecting this book. It is enough to say here that we seem to be justified in accepting it as a contemporary, and in the main a truthful account of the life of the great king. It ends, however, with the year 887.

[125] Tunc ille statim tollens librum de manu sua magistrum adiit et legit. Quo lecto matri retulit et recitavit.--Asser, De Rebus Gestis Aelfredi, § 23.

[126] As Mr. Stevenson suggests, if et be a copyist’s mistake for qui (both represented by contractions), the difficulty would vanish.

[127] This is pointed out by Mr. Oman in “Collected Essays” in Alfred the Great.

[128] Florence of Worcester’s words (borrowed from St. Edmund’s earliest biographer Abbo), “Ex antiquorum Saxonum prosapia oriundus,” seem, according to the usage of the time, to refer to the Old Saxons of the continent. If he had meant merely to say “from an old Saxon family,” he would probably have said “antiqua” rather than “antiquorum”.

[129] Studies in Church Dedications (ii., 327), by Miss Arnold-Forster.

[130] In describing the events of this year the writer follows the guidance of the late Mr. W. H. Simcox, who personally identified most of the battle-sites, and the results of whose investigations are contained in an excellent paper in the English Historical Review, i., 218–34.

[131] The title of the Danish battle leaders, next in rank to the king.

[132] On philological grounds Mr. Stevenson disputes the propriety of this translation and asserts that Aesc must be the name of a person. The present appearance of Ashdown Hills seems, however, to correspond admirably with Asser’s description. It is better not to complicate the discussion by an argument derived from the strange figure of a White Horse (so-called) cut upon their northern side, as that figure, with all its picturesque interest, is not a safe guide to a historical identification.

[133] At this point the Chronicle of St. Neots, a late and untrustworthy authority written perhaps early in the twelfth century, inserts the well-known story of the burning of the cakes, which does not form part of the genuine text of Asser’s Life.

[134] The site of this fortress has been much discussed but is not yet satisfactorily settled. See Stevenson’s Asser, p. 262.

[135] Edington in Wiltshire, a little east of Westbury. Near this place is another White Horse, at Bratton Castle, but we have not sufficient evidence to connect this with Alfred’s victory.

[136] This was pointed out half a century ago by Dr. Reinhold Schmid, the accurate German editor of the Anglo-Saxon laws.

[137] It is interesting to note that the Watling Street is still the chief boundary between the counties of Warwick and Leicester. Through a large part of its course the London and North Western Railway so nearly coincides with this old Roman road that the traveller faring northwards may consider himself to be looking forth from the right-hand window over the “Danelaw” and from the left over “Saxony”.

[138] The value of the mark of pure gold is not yet clearly ascertained. Mr. Chadwick (Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions, p. 50) argues from this passage that a single mark of gold = 300 scillings, and that the fine hereby imposed was 1,200 scillings, equal to the wergild of a West Saxon noble. But in that case one would have expected to have some more distinct indication of rank than is contained in the words “gif man ofslagen weorthe”.

[139] For some valuable suggestions on the mysterious subject of Alfred’s diseases see Plummer’s Life and Times of Alfred the Great, pp. 28, 214.

[140] Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicles, ii., civ.

[141] Quotations are given from Mr. Sedgefield’s translation, which has the great merit of distinguishing Alfred’s interpolations by a different type from the original text.

[142] Against the genuineness of the passage are its omission from Ã, the earliest and best MS. of the Chronicle, from Asser, and from the original text of Florence of Worcester. See Stevenson, Asser, pp. 287–90.

[143] Professor Vinogradoff in his essay on Folkland contributed to the English Historical Review, vol. viii.; further illustrated by his Growth of the Manor.

[144] “Terra popularis, communi jure et sine scripto possessa.” This was Spelman’s definition (1626), and Vinogradoff shows good ground for reverting to it with a slight modification, instead of adopting Allen’s theory that the folkland was land owned by the nation like the ager publicus of Rome.

[145] See Cnut’s laws, ii., 13.

[146] Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus, No. 317; Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, No. 558.

[147] Not 893–97 as Chronicle.

[148] Earle, Two Saxon Chronicles (1865), p. xvi.

[149] Reginonis Chronicon, a. 891.

[150] In Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898), xiii., 444, Mr. W. C. Abbott argues that Hasting is possibly identical with Hásteinn, one of the first settlers of Iceland.

[151] Probably; but the Chronicle gives the date 901, and Mr. Stevenson, Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898), xiii., 71, argues strongly for 899.

[152] Words and Places, pp. 175–76.

[153] Might it not be added “and from the Humber?”

[154] The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmorland (1856).

[155] Edward’s reign probably lasted from 900 to 924, but owing to discrepancies between the MSS. of the Chronicles no date in the reign can be stated with certainty, the differences varying from one to three years.

[156] Offa calls it his palatium regale in one of his charters (Birch, Cart. Sax., 240).

[157] Especially Freeman, whose words are quoted in the rest of this paragraph. But see also for a later vindication of the correctness of the chronicler’s statement, Plummer, Saxon Chronicles, ii., 131.

[158] Historical Essays, i., 60, 62.

[159] Norman Conquest, i., 59.

[160] Robertson, Skene and Lang.

[161] Robertson, Scotland under her Early Kings, ii., 397.

[162] It was pointed out in the Athenæum for Nov. 4, 1905, that this place rather than Farringdon, in Berkshire, corresponds with the Farndune of the Chronicle.

[163] Adolf, son of Baldwin of Flanders.

[164] Heinskringla, Story of Haarfager, 41 and 42.

[165] It was probably at this time that Athelstan, as we learn from William of Malmesbury, rased to the ground the fortress which the Danes had aforetime built in York, “that there might be no place in which these perfidious ones could take refuge,” and generously divided among his men the vast booty which he found there.

[166] By Symeon of Durham, not by the Chronicle, which here is singularly barren of information except such as is contained in the “Lay of Brunanburh”.

[167] The twelfth century chronicler, Florence of Worcester, says that with these ships he entered the Humber; and this statement has been frequently copied by later historians. It is not, however, to be found in any contemporary or nearly contemporary record, and it is now generally regarded with suspicion, for the obvious reason that an invader, coming from Ireland with the intention of co-operating with the Kings of Cumberland and Scotland, would be more likely to land on the western than on the eastern coast of Britain.

[168] Especially since it was turned into spirited yet closely literal English verse by Tennyson, from whose poem a few passages are here quoted.

[169] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, ii., 135.

[170] Ibid., 134.

[171] Probably of the tenth century, therefore nearly contemporary.

[172] See Plummer, Saxon Chronicles, ii., 137, and Freeman, Hist. Essays, i., 10–15, for a full discussion of the question.

[173] See Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, 656.

[174] Possibly Chesterfield.

[175] Life of Dunstan, by B. (a Saxon monk, nearly contemporary).

[176] The celebrated story of the Devil and the hot tongs is not told by any contemporary of Dunstan’s, but by the much-romancing Osbern about 130 years after his death. The identical pair of tongs with which the saint is said to have seized the Devil’s nose is still shown at the priory of Mayfield in Sussex.

[177] An excellent summing up of the whole case will be found in E. W. Robertson’s Historical Essays, p. 192.

[178] The short reign of Edwy furnishes 150 pages to the Cartularium Saxonicum.

[179] The Chronicle and the biographers agree in postponing Dunstan’s return till after Edgar’s accession to the undivided realm, but his signatures to charters seem to require an earlier date.

[180] See Robertson’s, Historical Essays, p. 211.

[181] As pointed out by Mr. W. H. Stevenson in the English Historical Review (1898), xiii., 506, an important attestation to the meeting of the kings (though not to the water procession) is furnished by the ecclesiastical author Elfric, himself a contemporary of Edgar and a pupil and friend of bishop Ethelwold. In his poetical Life of St. Swithin, written about 996, he contrasts the happy days of Edgar with the disastrous reign of his son, and says: “All the kings of this island of Cymri and of Scots, eight kings, came to Edgar once upon a time on one day and they all bowed to Edgar’s government”.

[182] Robertson’s Historical Essays, p. 203.

[183] Ibid., p. 169.

[184] As stated by Robertson, ibid., p. 168.

[185] See Freeman’s Historical Essays, first series, 15–25, for a refutation of the legend of Elfrida’s marriage.

[186] See Robertson’s Historical Essays, pp. 166–71. There is no evidence that Elfrida shared her husband’s coronation, but she is the first king’s wife after Judith to sign charters as Regina.

[187] Kemble’s Codex Diplomaticus, 700.

[188] Especially by Sir H. Howorth, Archæologia, xlv., 235–50.

[189] The following passages are almost all taken from the Peterborough version of the Chronicle which was based for this part of the narrative on a Canterbury Chronicle. Hence, doubtless, the fulness of the entries relating to Kent.

[190] Now corrupted into Skutchamfly Barrow, eight and a half miles from the White Horse in Berkshire.

[191] The term Danegeld seems to be properly applicable to the tax imposed on the king’s subjects in order to provide for the payment to the Danes. The payment itself is generally called gafol in the Chronicle.

[192] It is stated in Ethelred’s Treaty with Olaf (Liebermann, i., 220–228) that the sum promised to the invaders was “22,000 pounds of gold and silver”. The document is, on other grounds, an interesting one, as it seems to show a serious effort to secure permanent peace between the two nations.

[193] Stubbs’ Constitutional History, i., 118, 623.

[194] Freeman, Hist. of Norm. Conq., i., 279.

[195] Admirably told to English-speaking readers in Longfellow’s “Saga of King Olaf,” which is, in fact, a paraphrase of this part of the Heimskringla.

[196] The name of this well-known historical personage was undoubtedly Knut or Cnut. It is so written both in the Scandinavian Sagas and in the English Chronicle. But the Latinised form Canutus preserves the remembrance of a helping vowel which may have been often used, even by contemporaries, at least in England. At this day the Danish name Knothe is always pronounced Kinnoté in Northumberland. The important point is to remember that the accent is on the last syllable: Canúte, not Cánute.

[197] In Hampshire, near Portsmouth.

[198] This is Freeman’s suggestion, Norman Conquest, i., 415.

[199] This also is Freeman’s suggestion (u.s., i., 411).

[200] See Freeman, u.s., i., 737–40.

[201] As suggested by J. R. Green, Conquest of England, 479.

[202] Author of the tract, De Obsessione Dunelmi, added to the history of Symeon of Durham.

[203] See supra, p. 396.

[204] In the reign of Indulph (954–962) according to a Pictish chronicle quoted by Skene, Celtic Scotland, i., 365.

[205] It does not appear necessary to discuss the previous question of the alleged “cession of Lothian” by Edgar, the evidence for which is very slender.

[206] As to this identification, see Skene, Celtic Scotland, i., 397, 405–6.

[207] Certainly not 1031, as stated in the Chronicle. Canute’s presence at Conrad’s coronation makes this date impossible. So considerable an error throws doubt on the chronological accuracy of, at any rate, this part of the Chronicle.

[208] In Scania, which then belonged to Denmark.

[209] This story of the forged letter is taken from the author of the Encomium Emmæ, who, as a contemporary, and as one who actually conversed with Queen Emma, seems to be entitled to credence, notwithstanding some strange misstatements, due, perhaps, rather to insincerity than to ignorance.

[210] Mr. Plummer (Saxon Chronicles, ii., 210–15) argues that Godwine’s hostile action towards the Etheling was taken in the interest not of Harold but of Harthacnut.

[211] Freeman, Norman Conquest, i., 489–501 and 779–87.

[212] Son of Uhtred and nephew of Eadwulf Cutel.

[213] Or Leges Mar chiarum, a digest of which was published in 1705 by William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle (a later edition in 1747).

[214] It is perhaps not a mere coincidence that some even of the special terms of the Leges Marchiarum are also to be found in the laws of Edgar and Ethelred. Such are foul or ful for “guilty,” and trod for the track of a stolen beast.

[215] Compare Vinogradoff, The Growth of the Manor, p. 144; Chadwick, Anglo-Saxon Institutions, 239–48, and the remarkable article by Mr. W. J. Corbett in vol. xiv. of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, N.S., on the “Tribal Hidage”.

[216] Cnut, ii., 15 (in Liebermann, i., 320).

[217] Rutland was not, however, formed into a separate county till after the Norman Conquest.

[218] Edgar, iii., 5 (ibid., 202).

[219] Burg is, of course, one of the best-known words of the common Teutonic stock. It is enshrined in Luther’s hymn “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott,” and in hunting for the traces of Roman encampments in Hesse and Nassau, I have found that the name by which they are best known in the countryside is “Die alte Burg”.

[220] Ine, 45 (Liebermann, i., 108); Alfred, 40 (ibid., 72).

[221] Maitland, Domesday Book, etc., p. 184.

[222] IV., 2, 4 and 5 (Liebermann, i., 210).

[223] If Ethelfled’s fortress of Scergeat may be identified with Shrewsbury.

[224] As Freeman puts it: “I believe the cause of this distinction [between Somerset and Northamptonshire] to be that West Saxon England was made only once, while Mercian England had to be made twice” (“The Shire and the Gâ” in English Towns and Districts, p. 124).

[225] Some of these names are probably contained in that curious document, the Tribal Hidage, on which Mr. Corbett has commented in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. xiv., N.S.

[226] See Chadwick, Anglo-Saxon Institutions, 262.

[227] If any exception is to be made to this statement it will be with reference to the half-independent earls of Bamburgh.

[228] The wers are calculated in the Scandinavian or, perhaps, Northumbrian money, the thrymsas, each equivalent to three penings.

[229] See Vinogradoff (The Growth of the Manor, p. 131) on this illustration of “the arrogant superiority of the Danish conquerors”. He remarks on the growth of the pretensions of the invaders since the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum which put the Northmen warriors only on the same level as the twelf-hyndmen, or ordinary thegns.

[230] Schmid, p. 371; Liebermann, p. 444.

[231] This is Professor Vinogradoff’s view, Growth of the Manor, p. 233.

[232] Edward, i., 1 (Liebermann, i., 138).

[233] Edgar, iv., 3 (Liebermann, i., 210). This law is important as it helps us clearly to distinguish between burh, a borough, and borh, an association for mutual defence and for the enforcement of mutual responsibility.

[234] Cnut, ii., 20 (ibid., i., 322).

[235] Ethelred, viii., 22 (Liebermann, i., 266).

[236] See Maitland, Domesday Book, etc., p. 260. He thinks it probable that many grants of similar privileges of an earlier date have perished.

[237] The German sache, preserved in our expression “for God’s sake,” and the like (Maitland, Domesday Book, etc., p. 84).

[238] Sco ealde Hlaefdige is the term used in the Chronicle to describe the queen-dowager. It will be remembered that there was in Wessex a peculiar distaste to the title “Queen”.

[239] By Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii., 124–25 and 615.

[240] For some years the county of Huntingdon was strangely added to Northumbria as a portion of his earldom. For the complicated question of the limits of the earldoms under Edward, see Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. ii., note G.

[241] Freeman, u.s.

[242] Welisce menn.--Of course the word Wealas and its derivations meant simply non-Teutonic and had no necessary connexion with the British population of what we now call Wales.

[243] Some doubt has been thrown on the early connexion of Godwine with Kent.

[244] “Mycelne ende thes folces,” says the Peterborough chronicler; “thirty good thegns,” say the Abingdon and Worcester chroniclers, “besides other folk.”

[245] Literally “had raised up un-law and deemed un-dooms”.

[246] This is Mr. Plummer’s excellent suggestion for the interpretation of a passage in the Chronicle which had previously baffled the commentators.

[247] It must always be remembered that we have nothing but bare conjecture to go upon for the date of Harold’s visit to Normandy. There are some reasons for placing it much earlier than 1064.

[248] Freeman, Norman Conquest, iii., 300.

[249] The following description of this battle is taken for the most part from the Saga of Harold Hardrada in the Heimskringla, and has no doubt a good deal of the character of fiction.

[250] Wace (ed. Malet, p. 60), who gives the number on his father’s report.

[251] Wace, author of the Roman de Rou. The question of the existence of this “palisade” has been discussed at great length by Mr. Round who denies, and by Mr. Archer and Miss Norgate who affirm, its existence (see English Historical Review, vol. ix., 1894). The question remains full of difficulty, the doubt being whether to attach most weight to the obscure utterance of one writer or to the silence of many. The conclusion to which the present writer is disposed to come is that there was some sort of hastily constructed fence, meant as a protection against cavalry, but that in the actual battle, which was waged chiefly between opposing bodies of infantry, it played an unimportant part and may have been soon thrust out of the way, as much by the defenders as by the assailants of the position.

[252] Made by Baring, Eng. Hist. Rev., vol. xx., 1905.

[253] After the death of Osred in 716 the genealogy of the Northumbrian kings becomes uncertain.

[254] The pedigree of all these kings is uncertain. All that can be said of them is that “their right ancestry goeth to Cerdic”.

INDEX.

Abercorn (Aebbercurnig), 192.

Abingdon, monastery at, 355, 419.

Acha of Deira, wife of Ethelfrid, 133, 153.

Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, 148, 151, 157.

Adela, daughter of William the Norman, 469, 476.

Adminius, son of Cymbeline, 28.

Adolf, son of Baldwin of Flanders, 330.

Ad Murum, royal villa at, 169, 175.

Aelfredes and Guthrumes Frith, 286–288.

Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, 452.

Aelle, King of Deira, 94, 115, 133, 135, 171.

Aelle, King of Sussex, 89, 90, 110, 126.

Aesc, King of Kent, 88, 89.

“Aestel,” clasp or bookmarker? 292.

Aetius, 96, 97.

Agatha, wife of Etheling Edward, 461.

Agatho, Pope, 203.

Agilbert, Bishop, 182, 183, 193, 196.

Agricola, Calpurnius, 58.

Agricola, Gnæus Julius, conquers Ordovices, 47; fortifies North of England, 50; his Caledonian campaign, 50; recalled to Rome, 50.

Aidan, King of the Scots, 133, 134, 148.

Aidan, missionary bishop, 155–169, 181, 182, 198.

Albinus, Abbot of Canterbury, 86.

Albinus, British usurper defeated at Lyons, 59.

Albion, 6, 9.

Alchfleda, daughter of Oswy, 168.

Alchfrid, son of Oswy, 168, 170–172, 180, 182, 183.

Alclyde. See Dumbarton, 130, 246.

Alcuin, Northumbrian scholar, 237, 252, 258, 498.

Aldfrid the Learned, 208.

Aldgyth, daughter of Elfgar, 467, 471.

Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, 178, 241.

Aldhun, Bishop of Lindisfarne, first Bishop of Durham, 406–408.

Alexander II., Pope, blesses Norman invasion, 476.

Alfhild, mother of Magnus of Norway, 444.

Alfred the Great, King of the English, birth (in 848?) at Wantage, 272; journey to Rome (in 853), 272; (in 855), 268, 273; story of the book of poetry given to him, 273; “secundarius” under his brother Ethelred, 275; fights with the Danes at Ashdown, 279; his accession to the throne (871), 281; in hiding at Athelney, 283; conquers the Danes, peace with Guthrum, 285; renewed fighting and peace with Guthrum, 287; family life, 289; feeble health, 290; literary culture, 291; translation of the Regula Pastoralis, 292; of Orosius, 293; his connection with the Saxon Chronicle, 295; translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, 295; of Boethius, 296; expenditure, 298; mission to India? 299; laws, 299–395; last wars with the Danes (892–896), 306–313; death, 314; buried in the New Minster, 314.

Alfred, an ealdorman, 304.

Alfred, son of Ethelred the Redeless, 386, 392, 418–420.

Alfwin, King of Deira, 191, 202.

Alfwold, defender of monks, 361.

Allectus, assassinates Carausius, 65; slain by Constantius Chlorus, 66.

Aller, Guthrum baptised at, 285.

Alphege (or Elfheah), Archbishop, 384, 389, 390.

Amber, a measure, perhaps four bushels, 226.

Ambrosius, Aurelianus, 98, 99, 102, 103, 107.

Ammianus Marcellinus, historian, 52, 72, 73, 495.

Anastasius, anti-pope, 269.

Anatolius, cycle of, 185.

Anderida (Andredesceaster), 89, 110, 138, 483.

Andover, treaty with Danes at, 384.

Andraste, Celtic goddess, 40.

Andredesleag, or Andredesweald, forest of, 89, 177, 308.

Angles, 79–81, 114, 157.

Anglesey, or Mona, 35, 38, 47, 131, 138.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 87–94, 245–482 passim, 498–500, 505.

Anglo-Saxon money, 232–235.

Anjou, origin of Counts of, 370.

Anlaf, King of Irish Danes, 333.

Anlaf, son of Guthred, 332.

Anlaf, son of Sihtric, 333, 340.

Anna, King of East Anglia, 162–164, 174, 176.

Annales Cambriæ, 100, 506.

Antoninus Pius, Emperor, builds a wall of turf, 58, 94, 334.

Apollinaris Sidonius, Bishop of Clermont, 71, 84, 106.

Appach, on Cæsar’s British Expeditions, 24.

Appledore, Cæsar’s landing-place? 24; Danish attacks, 307, 308.

Arcadius, Emperor, 72.

Archbishop of Mercia at Lichfield, 250.

Ari, an Icelandic scholar, 504.

Armorica. See Brittany.

Arnulf, King of the Franks, 306.

Arnulf the Old, Count of Flanders, 352, 369.

Arpad the Hungarian, 258.

Arthur, or Artorius, 104, 105, 107, 132.

Asclepiodotus, Pretorian Prefect, 66 n.

Ashdown (Aescesdune), 178, 278.

“Ashes,” Danish ships, 312.

Assandune, battle of, 383, 397.

Asser, Alfred’s biographer, 255, 272, 277, 284 n., 291, 292, 500.

Athelney, island of, 283, 284, 291, 295.

Athelstan, son of Edward the Elder (924–940), 328; connection with rulers of France and Germany, 330; friendship with Scandinavian powers, 331; “lord of all Britain,” 332, 333; battle of Brunanburh, 334–336; his person and character, 337; prayer of, 338; death and burial, 338; laws of, 425, 438.

Athelstan, Bishop of Hereford, 466.

Athelstan, son of Egbert, 265.

Athelstan, the half-king, 347, 352.

Athelstan, West Saxon almoner, 299.

Ath-fultum, or oath-helping, 229.

Atrebates, British tribe, 10.

Attacotti, allies of Picts and Scots, 68.

Attila, his raids a possible cause of Saxon migration, 97, 107, 109, 112.

Augustine, his mission, 118–125.

Augustine’s Oak, conference at, 123.

Avonmouth, 455.

Aylesbury (Aegelesburh), 92.

Aylesford, battle of, 88.

Avalon, vale of, 178.

Axminster (Ascanmynster), 74.

Badbury (Baddanburh), Ethelwald’s rebellion begins at, 319.

Badon. See Mount Badon.

Bagseg, Danish king, 279.

Bakewell (Badecanwiellon), 323, 326.

Baldred, King of Kent, 264.

Baldwin I. of Flanders marries Judith, widow of King Ethelbald, 274.

Baldwin II. of Flanders marries Elfrida, daughter of Alfred, 289.

Baldwin V. of Flanders, 418, 420, 450, 455, 471.

Baldwin’s land, 445, 450, 451, 455, 458, 477.

Bamburgh (Bebbanburh), built by Ida, 94, 132, 133, 153, 154, 175, 247, 281, 332, 408.

Bangor, monastery in Flint, 122, 124, 135.

Barbury (Beranbyrig), battle of, 91.

Bardney (Beardanig), monastery of, 159, 173.

Basileus, Athelstan’s title, 336, 339.

Basing, Danish victory at, 280.

Bass, a thegn of Edwin, 145.

Bates, Cadwallader J., 132, 170 n.

Bath (Bathanceaster), 92, 356, 392.

Battle Abbey, 490, 491.

Bayeux, Tapestry of, 468, 475, 484, 469, 488, 491, 506.

Beaurain, Harold, imprisoned at, 468.

Beddoe, Dr. John, 493.

Bede, the Venerable, 82, 85, 86, 88 n., 90, 114, 117 n., 120, 125, 133, 141 n., 156, 187, 189, 237–240, 497.

Bedford (Bedcanford), 92, 323.

Belgæ, a British tribe, 10, 91.

Belisarius, scoffing allusion to Britain, 113.

Benedict Biscop, 237, 238.

Benedictines, 115, 148, 155, 195, 354.

Benedict III., Pope, 269.

Benfleet (Beamfleot), Danish fort at, 309.

Bensington, Offa’s victory over Wessex at, 250.

Beorn, son of Ulf, 448, 450, 451.

Beorthelm, Archbishop, 352.

Beorhtric, King of Wessex, 254.

Beornwulf usurps the throne of Wessex, 264.

Beowulf, poem of, 228.

Bericus, an exiled British prince, 30.

Berkshire, the wood of Berroc, 272.

Bernhaeth, a leader of the Picts, 191.

Bernicia, kingdom of, 80, 94, 130–132, 134, 137, 160, 171, 179, 247, 281, 332, 408, 422.

Bertha, daughter of Charlemagne, negotiations for her marriage with Ecgferth, son of Offa, 252.

Bertha, wife of Ethelbert of Kent, 117, 121, 127, 139.

Berthfrid, regent of Bernicia, besieged in Bamburgh, 210.

Bertwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, 211, 219.

Bewcastle Cross, 172.

Bideford Bay, Danes defeated at, 284.

Billingsley, conference at, 466.

Birinus, apostle of Wessex, 158, 161, 162, 179.

Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, 338 n., 508.

Blois, Counts of, 370.

Boadicea (Boudicca), Queen of the Iceni, 40, 42, 43.

Boduni, a British tribe, 31.

Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, translated by Alfred, 296, 297.

Boniface, Archdeacon, Wilfrid’s teacher, 184.

Boniface (Wynfrith), apostle of the Germans, 203, 236, 237, 248, 250, 498.

Boniface V., Pope, 141.

“Bookland,” 304.

Border of Scotland fixed, 409.

Borh, association, 439.

Bosham, 450, 455, 468.

Bothgowanan, Duncan murdered at, 462.

Boulogne (Gesoriacum), 23, 64, 65, 67, 307, 418.

Bovate or oxgang, 223.

Brachy-cephalic or square-headed race, 7.

Bradford-on-Avon (Bradanford), Cenwalh defeats “Walas” at, 178.

Brandon Camp, perhaps the work of Ostorius, 35.

Brecon stormed by the English, 322.

Brentford (Bregentford), Danes defeated at, 396.

Bretwaldas or Brytenwealdas, 126, 138, 157.

Bridgnorth (Brycg), Danish “work” at, 311; Saxon “burh” at, 321.

Brigantes, a British tribe, 35, 36, 46, 48.

Bright, Dr., referred to, 188 n., 211, 507.

Brihtnoth, hero of Maldon, 362, 378, 379.

Brihtric, brother of Edric Streona, 388, 389.

Bristol, 455, 467.

Britain, Cæsar’s description of, 19.

Britannia, Roman Diocese of, 70, 132.

British coinage, 20.

Brittany, 83, 106, 469, 475.

Brochmail, a British king, 135.

Bromesberrow, fortress built by Ethelfled, 321.

Bromnis, royal city of, 204.

Bronze Age, 5.

Bruce, Dr., historian of the Roman wall, 55.

Brude, a Pictish king, 148.

Brunanburh (? Burnswark), battle of, 334–337.

Brut, a fictitious king, 101 n., 105.

Brut-y-Saesson, 506.

Brut-y-Tywysogion, Welsh Chronicle quoted, 153, 357, 506.

Bryhtwine, Bishop of Sherborne, 405.

Brythons, 6, 108.

Buckingham (Buccingaham), King of Scots at, 337.

Bunbury, Mr., on Pytheas, 8.

Burford, Mercians defeated at, 249.

“Burg-ware,” 310, 311.

Burh, Burg, Borough, 429–432; Burh-bryce, 430; burhs founded by Ethelfled and Edward, 431; Burh-gemôt, 429.

Burhred, King of Mercia, 267, 276, 281.

Bury St. Edmund’s (Beadoricesworth), abbey of, 277, 278, 393, 405.

Butse-carlas, common sailors, 458, 477.

Buttington, Danes defeated at, 310.

Cadwalla, King of Wessex, 178, 214–216.

Cadwallader the Blessed, 153.

Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, 144, 145, 151, 153, 154, 160.

Cadvan, a Welsh king, 136, 144.

Caedmon, a Northumbrian poet, 180, 240.

Caer Caradoc, Caratacus defeated at, 35.

Caerleon-upon-Usk (Isca), 41, 42, 55, 71, 74, 357.

Cæsar, Gaius Julius, 9, 494; first invasion of Britain, 11–16; second invasion, 16–19; description of Britain, 19, 20; points of arrival and departure in expeditions to Britain, 23, 24.

Caledonia, 60, 79, 132, 134.

Caligula’s pretended conquest of Britain, 28.

Calne, floor collapses at, 362.

Cambridge (Grantanbrycg), Danes at, 281, 283.

Camulodunum, a Roman colony, 28, 32, 39, 41, 76.

Camulus, a Celtic war-god, 39.

Caninus, British king, 99.

Canonici, hybrid order of, 353, 355.

Canute, King of England (1016–1035), lands with father, Sweyn, 391; mutilates hostages at Sandwich, 394; ruler of Wessex, 396; victory at Assandune, peace with Edmund Ironside and Danish occupation of London, 397; executes Edric Streona, 401; marries Emma of Normandy, 402; dismisses “the army,” 404; pilgrimage to Rome, 410; two expeditions to Norway, 412–415; death and burial, 416, 417, 420; laws of, 429, 434, 436, 439, 440.

Canterbury (Durovernis, Cantwaraburh), 92, 118, 119, 122, 196, 267, 355, 389, 405, 453.

Cantii, a British tribe, 10.

Caracalla, 60–62.

Caradoc of South Wales, 467.

Caratacus, 29, 31, 33, 34; defeated by Ostorius, 35, 36; betrayed by Cartimandua and taken to Rome, 36.

Carausius, Count of the Saxon shore, 64; Emperor of Britain and slain by Allectus, 65.

Carham, English defeated at, 408, 461.

Carisbrook (Wihtgarasburh), 91.

Carlisle (Luguvallium), 207, 208, 282, 334.

Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, 36, 37.

Carucate, defined, 222.

Cassiterides or Tin Islands, 8.

Cassivelaunus, a British chief, 17–19.

Castra Legionis (Chester or Leicester), 104.

Catgabail, a British king, 170.

Catterick (Cataractonium), 143, 167, 247, 248.

Catus Decianus, Roman procurator, 39, 41.

Catuvellauni, a British tribe, 31, 32, 58.

Ceadda. See St. Chad.

Ceawlin, King of Wessex, 92, 93, 107, 108, 117, 126, 140.

Cedd, a missionary, 175, 186, 188.

Cedred, King of Mercia, 216.

Celestine, Pope, 84.

Celtic gods, 39, 40 n., 75.

Celtic words in English, 111.

Celts, 5.

Cenred, father of King Ine, 219.

Centwine, King of Wessex, 204.

Cenwalh, King of Wessex, 162, 163, 177, 178, 180.

Cenwulf, King of Mercia, 251, 253, 263.

Ceol, brother of Ceawlin, 92.

Ceolfrid, Abbot, 189, 238.

Ceolred, King of Mercia, 212, 248.

Ceolric, brother of Ceawlin, 92, 93.

Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria, 245.

Ceolwulf, King of Wessex, 93.

Ceolwulf, puppet-king of Mercia, 281.

Ceorl, his holding of land, 223; a twy-hynd man, 228; gradual descent in the social scale, 441.

Cerdic, founder of Wessex, 90, 91, 178.

Cerdic, house of, its decay, 374, 461, 474.

Cerdices ora, 90.

Ceretic, an interpreter, 103.

Chadwick, H. M., 230 n., 231 n., 232 n., 288 n., 428 n., 508.

Champart, Robert, Abbot of Jumièges, Archbishop of Canterbury, 452–454, 457, 459.

Charford (Cerdicesford), Cerdic defeats Britons at, 91.

Chariots of the Britons, 15.

Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, 251, 252, 255, 258, 259, 263, 290, 444, 445.

Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, 268, 270, 370.

Charles the Fat (do.), 258, 306, 367.

Charles the Simple (do.), 330, 368.

Charmouth (Carrum), battles with Danes at, 265, 266.

Cheddar, King Edmund’s escape from death at, 347.

Chelsea (Cealchyth), the contentious synod at, 250.

Chertsey (Ceortesig) monastery purged, 355.

Chester (Deva, Laegeceaster), 37, 41, 125, 135, 138, 144, 153, 310, 321, 356.

Chesterford, Danes defeat Edred at, 342.

Chester-le-Street (Cuncacestre), 282, 333, 406.

Chichester (Cisseceaster), on site of Regnum, 90, 310.

Chirk (Cyric), Ethelfled builds a fortress at, 321.

Chippenham, royal villa at, 283, 285.

Christianity in Roman Britain, 75, 76.

Chronicle of St. Neot’s, 284 n., 501.

Chrodegang, Archbishop of Metz, 353.

Cirencester (Corinium, Cyrenceaster), 92, 161, 285.

Cissa, King of Sussex, 89, 90, 110.

Classicianus, Julius, Roman procurator, 44.

Claudian, poet, 496.

Claudius, Emperor, sends Aulus Plautius to Britain, 29, 31, 32.

Cledemutha (mouth of river Cleddau), Saxon burh at, 323.

Cluny, monastery of, 354.

Clyde, Firth of, 50, 58.

Codex Amiatinus, taken by Abbot Ceolfrid to Rome, 238.

Coelius Roscius, legatus of twentieth legion, 45.

Coenred represents Theodore at Rome, 203.

Cogidubnus, inscription at Chichester about, 33.

Coifi, a pagan priest, 141, 142, 151.

Coinmail, a British king, 92.

Coins, Macedonian, imitated by Britons, 20; of British chiefs, 26, 27; of Carausius, 65.

Colchester, 76, 323. See also Camulodunum.

Coldingham, monastery of, 199.

Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 182–187.

Coloniæ, Roman, 76, 98.

Colne, river, Hertfordshire, 308.

Columba. See Saint Columba.

Comes Britanniæ, 70.

Commius, King of the Atrebates, sent by Cæsar to Britain, 10; imprisoned by Britons, 10–14; attempted assassination by Labienus, 25, 26; submits to Mark Antony, 26.

Commius coins money in Britain, 26.

Compurgation, 226.

Condidan, a British king, 92.

Conrad II., Emperor, 410.

Constans I., Emperor, 68.

Constans II., Emperor, 195.

Constantine, Emperor, 67, 121.

Constantine, British king, 99.

Constantine, usurper, 72, 95.

Constantine II., Scottish king, 327, 333, 337.

Constantius, a presbyter, 83, 496.

Constantius Chlorus, Emperor, 64–67.

Coote, H. C., 508.

Corbett, W. J., 428 n.

Corbridge (Corstopitum), 247, 248.

Corfe, murder of Edward the Martyr at, 363.

Cornwall. See West Wales.

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, 495.

Cosham, Ethelred the Redeless sick at, 395.

Cotsetla (cottager), 437.

Counties of England, formation of, 432, 433.

Coventina, goddess, 56.

Crayford (Crecganford), Britons defeated at, 89.

Cricklade (Cricgelad), Danes at, 320.

Crida, death of, 93.

Crowland or Croyland, sanctuary of, 248.

Cuichelm, West Saxon prince, death of, 93.

Cumberland (see also Strathclyde), 6, 108, 317, 341, 356, 385.

Cunedag, King of North Wales, 102, 131.

Cuneglas, a British king, 99.

Cunobelinus (Cymbeline), a British king, 25, 28, 29, 32.

Cutha, son of Cynric, 92, 93.

Cuthbert. See St. Cuthbert.

Cuthred, kinsman of Cynegils of Wessex, 177.

Cuthred II., of Wessex, 247.

Cuthwine, brother of Ceawlin, 92.

Cwichelm, King of Wessex, 140, 161.

Cymbeline. See Cunobelinus.

Cymenesora, 89.

Cymri, 6, 63, 93, 253, 267, 357, 408.

Cyneberct, Abbot, 215.

Cyneburga, daughter of Penda, 168, 172.

Cynegils, King of the West Saxons, 140, 158, 161, 162, 177, 179.

Cyneheard the Etheling, 253.

Cyneswitha, name on Bewcastle Cross, 172.

Cynewulf, King of Wessex, 253.

Cynewulf, Saxon poet, 242.

Cynewulf the Etheling, 217.

Cynric, King of Wessex, 90–92, 100.

Cynuit, fort at, 284.

Dalfinus, of Lyons, 184 n.

Dalriada, kingdom of, 134, 146, 148, 158.

Danegeld, 381; table of payments of, 382; of Harthacnut, 421. See 446.

Danelaw, 287, 309–311, 315–317.

Danes, 257–262, 275–285; table of ravages of (982–1016), 376–378.

Danish Here or Army, 261, 306, 321, 404.

Danish pre-eminence in Ireland, 332.

Dawkins, Professor Boyd, 493.

Dawston Rigg (Degsastan), Aidan defeated by Ethelfrid at, 134.

Deal, Cæsar’s landing-place? 23, 24.

Decangi, a Welsh tribe, 35.

Decurio, title of, 76.

Deira, kingdom of, 80, 94, 115, 130–133, 137, 138, 160, 171, 180, 276, 401.

Deorham, Ceawlin defeats Britons at, 92, 107.

Denisesburn. See Heavenfield.

Denmark, early history of, 371, 417, 418, 444, 445.

Derby (Deoraby), 316, 322, 340.

Derwent in Yorkshire, 140, 141, 480.

Derwentwater, St. Herbert’s Isle, in, 208.

Deusdedit, Archbishop, 188.

Diarmid, King of Leinster, 455.

Didius Gallus, Roman governor of Britain, 37.

Diocletian, Emperor, 63; his prefectures and dioceses, 64; abdicates, 67.

Dion Cassius referred to, 27 n., 30, 37, 40, 43, 52, 59, 494.

Dive, Louis IV. defeated at the, 369; William’s fleet at, 482.

Dolicho-cephalic or long-headed race, 7.

Donation of Ethelwulf, 268.

Dorchester in Dorset, 257.

Dorchester in Oxfordshire, 162, 182, 343.

Dore, conference at, 264.

Dover (Dofere), 23, 24, 453, 469.

Druids, 5, 10, 38.

Dublin, 332, 341, 464.

Dubnovellaunus, a British king, 26, 27.

Dumbarton or Alclyde, 130, 246.

Dunbar (Dynbaer), 204.

Duncan, grandson of Malcolm II., 409, 462, 463.

Dunstan, Lives of, by various authors, 501.

Dunstan. See St. Dunstan.

Dunwich, bishopric founded, 163.

Durham (Dunhelm), St. Cuthbert’s body rests at, 407; Malcolm II. defeated at, 407; Duncan defeated at, 462.

Durovernis. See Canterbury.

Duumvir, title of, 76.

Dux Britanniarum, 70, 138.

Dyved, South Wales, 464.

Eadbald, King of Kent, 127, 128, 139.

Eadbert, King of Northumbria, 245, 246.

Eadburh, daughter of Offa, wife of Beorhtric, 255, 256.

Eadhelm, Abbot, murdered, 343.

Eadhilda, daughter of Edward the Elder, marries Hugh the Great, 330.

Eadmer, a monk, 407.

Eadsige, Archbishop of Canterbury, 452.

Eadulf, usurper, 210.

Eadwulf Cutel, 408, 409.

Eadwulf, nephew of Eadwulf Cutel, 422.

Ealdbert rebels, 217.

Ealdorman, office of, 90, 229, 268, 434–435.

Ealdred (or Eldred), Bishop of Worcester, afterwards Archbishop of York, 451, 455, 466.

Ealdred, son of Eardulf, 333.

Ealhmund, King of Kent, 254.

Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne, 289.

Ealhswith, wife of King Alfred, 289.

Eanfled, daughter of Edwin, 140, 145, 165, 167, 181, 182.

Eanfrid, King of Bernicia, 151.

Eanred, King of Northumbria, 264.

Eardulf, Bishop, 282.

Eardulf, King of Northumbria, 248.

Eardulf of Bamburgh, 333.

Earl and ealdorman, 434, 435.

Earle, John, 221 n., 306 n.; land charters, 508.

Earpwald, King of East Anglia, 163.

East Anglia, 80, 126, 136, 139, 140, 158, 162–164, 174, 179, 324, 351, 448, 484.

Easter, debates on true date of, 123, 179, 180–188.

East Saxons, kingdom of, 80, 122, 127, 174–176, 180, 324.

Eata, Bishop of Hexham, 184, 205, 207.

Ebba, aunt of Egfrid, 199, 204.

Ebbs-fleet (Ypwines-fleot), Hengest lands at, 88.

Ebissa, a Jutish chief, 103, 131.

Ebroin, Frankish mayor of the palace, 196.

Eburacum (see also York), 46, 48, 54, 55, 62, 67, 94, 121, 138, 144, 247.

Ecclesiastical History, Bede’s, 85, 86, 115–213 (passim), 295.

Ecgferth, son of Offa, 252, 253.

Ecgfrida, wife of Uhtred, 407.

Edbert Pren, King of Kent, 253.

Eddisbury, “burh” built at, 321.

Eddius’ Life of Wilfrid, 203, 497, 498.

Edgar Etheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, 474.

Edgar, the Peaceful, King of England (959–975), previously King of Mercia and East Anglia, 344, 351, 352; monastic reforms, 353–356; crowned at Bath (973), and rowed by eight kings on the Dee, 356; marries Elfrida, death and burial, 359.

Edgitha, daughter of Edward the Elder, marries the German Otto, 331.

Edgiva, daughter of Edward the Elder, marries Charles the Simple, 330.

Edgiva, Abbess of Leominster, 449, 465.

Edgiva, queen of Edward the Elder, 339, 348, 351, 352.

Edinburgh, 140, 407.

Edith, daughter of Godwine, wife of Edward the Confessor, 443, 455, 470, 484.

Edith, daughter of King Edgar, 358.

Edith with the swan’s neck, Harold’s lady-love, 490.

Edmund Ironside, king (1016), son of Ethelred the Redeless, his battles with the Danes, 395, 396; recalls Edric Streona, defeated at Assandune, 397; conference with Canute at Olney, death, 397; suggestions of foul play in his death, 397, 405, 406.

Edmund, King of East Anglia. See St. Edmund.

Edmund, King of the English (940–946), son of Edward the Elder, at Brunanburh, 333; delivers the Five Boroughs from the Northmen, 340; ravages Cumberland, 317, 341; his relations with Malcolm I., 341; assassinated by Liofa at Pucklechurch and buried at Glastonbury, 339.

Edmund, son of Edmund Ironside, 399.

Edred, Abbot, 282.

Edred, King of the English (946–955), crowned at Kingston-on-Thames, 339; his bad health, 339; subdues Northumbria, 341, 342; English defeated at Chesterford, 342; revenges the murder of Abbot Eadhelm at Thetford, 343; death at Frome and burial at Winchester, 343.

Edric Streona, traitorous ealdorman, 388, 389, 394–398, 401.

Edward, son of Edmund Ironside, 399, 461.

Edward the Elder, son of Alfred, King of the West Saxons (900–924?), childhood, 289; accession, 318; suppresses rebellion of Ethelwald, 320; wars with the Danes, 320–324; builds fortresses in the Midlands, 323, 324; alleged supremacy over Scotland, 325–328; dies, 328; laws of, 437 n.

Edward the Confessor (1042–1066), 386, 392, 393, 422, 423; son of Ethelred the Redeless, crowned at Winchester, 442; harsh treatment of his mother, 442; founds Westminster Abbey, 446; his Norman favourites, 451–453; fall of Godwine, 455; visit of William the Norman, 456, 457; return of Godwine, 458, 459; Scotch affairs, 461–463; Welsh affairs, 464–467; visit of Harold Godwineson to Normandy, 468, 469; Tostig outlawed, 470, 471; death at Westminster, 472; bequeathed crown to Harold, 473.

Edward the Martyr, son of King Edgar (975–978), crowned by Dunstan, 360; murdered at Corfe, 363; buried at Shaftesbury, 364.

Edwin, brother of Leofric, 464.

Edwin, half-brother of Athelstan, drowned, 337.

Edwin of Deira, 126, 135–144, 154.

Edwin, son of Elfgar, Earl of Mercia, 470, 477, 479, 484.

Edwy or Eadwig, King of the English (955–959), son of King Edmund, 344; scene at his coronation, 349; his lavish generosity, 350; marries Elfgiva, 351; kingdom divided with brother Edgar, 351; death, 352.

Edwy, “King of the Ceorls,” 399.

Edwy, son of Ethelred the Redeless, 399, 402.

Egbert, puppet-king of Bernicia, 281.

Egbert, Archbishop of York, brother of King Eadbert, 243, 245, 246.

Egbert, King of Kent, 195, 196.

Egbert, King of the West Saxons (802–839), early history and exile, 254, 255; accession, 263; overruns Cornwall, 263; victory over Mercia, 264; supremacy acknowledged by Northumbria, 264; battles with the Danes, 265; death, 265.

Egbert’s Stone, 284.

Egfrid, son of Oswy, 169, 172, 173, 190–193.

Egric, King of East Anglia, 164.

Egwinna, mother of Athelstan, 329.

Eleutherus, Pope, 76.

Elfgar, son of Elfric, 383.

Elfgar, son of Leofric, 460, 465–467, 480.

Elfgiva or Elfgyfu, daughter of Ethelgiva, wife of King Edwy, 344, 349–351.

Elfgiva, daughter of Edward the Elder, 331.

Elfheah, Archbishop. See Alphege.

Elfhelm, father of Elgiva of Northampton, 417.

Elfhelm, Ealdorman of Northumbria, murdered by Edric Streona, 388.

Elfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, leader of anti-monastic party, 360, 361, 364.

Elfleda, daughter of Offa, wife of Ethelred, King of Northumbria, 248.

Elfleda or Ethelfleda, daughter of Oswy, 180, 211.

Elfmaer, Abbot of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, 389.

Elfnoth, Sheriff, slain in battle with the Welsh, 466.

Elfnoth, squire to Brihtnoth, 379.

Elfric, traitorous ealdorman, 383, 388, 397, 398.

Elfric, ecclesiastical author, 357 n., 358, 491.

Elfric, father of Osric of Deira, 151.

Elfrida or Elfthryth, wife of King Edgar, 359, 360, 363.

Elfrida, wife of Baldwin II. of Flanders, 289.

Elfsige, Archbishop of Canterbury, 352.

Elfweard, son of Edward the Elder, 328, 329.

Elfwen, wife of half-king Athelstan, 352.

Elfwine at Maldon, 380.

Elfwyn, daughter of Ethelfled of Mercia, 323.

Elgiva or Aelgyfu, a name given to Queen Emma, 386.

Elgiva, wife of King Edmund, 338.

Elgiva of Northampton, wife of Canute, 416, 417.

Ellandune, battle of, 264.

Ella, King of Northumbria, 276.

Elmet or Loidis, kingdom of, 131, 138.

Elphege, Bishop of Winchester, 346.

Elwin, cousin of Athelstan, fell at Brunanburh, 336.

Ely, monastery at Isle of, 199, 355, 419.

Emma, wife of Ethelred II. and Canute, 386, 392, 402, 405, 416, 418, 420, 421, 442, 443, 457.

Emma, sister of Hugh Capet, 370.

Emmet in Holderness, peace of, 333.

Encomium Emmæ, 420, 505.

Englefield, Danes defeated at, 278.

Eobba of Bernicia, “the great burner of towns,” 132.

Eoforwic. See York.

Eomer, an assassin, 140.

Eosterwine, coadjutor-abbot, 188.

Ephemeris Epigraphica, 496.

Epiton, one name of site of “battle of Hastings,” 485.

Eppillus, a British king, 26.

Erconbert, King of Kent, 176, 183, 188.

Erconwald, Bishop, 216, 219.

Eric Blood-axe, under-king of Northumbria, 341, 342.

Eric or Yric, Earl of Deira, 401, 408.

Eric, son of Harold Blue-Tooth, 342.

Ermenburga, wife of King Egfrid, persistent enemy of Wilfrid, 199, 201, 203, 207, 208.

Erming Street, 74.

Esnes or theows, 225, 303.

Essex. See East Saxons.

Estrith, sister of Canute, 444.

Ethandune, Danes defeated at, 285.

Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 248, 249.

Ethelbald, son of Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons (856–860), fought at Ockley, 267; rebels against his father, 270; marries Judith, his father’s widow, 274; dies, 274.

Ethelbert, King of East Anglia, 251.

Ethelbert, first Christian King of Kent, 92, 97, 117, 122, 125, 126, 127, 139; his “dooms,” 218.

Ethelbert, son of Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons (860–866), 274, 275.

Ethelburga, a Kentish princess, wife of Edwin of Deira, 139, 145.

Ethelburga, wife of Ine, 217.

Etheldreda, wife of King Egfrid, 199.

Ethelfled, daughter of Alfred, Lady of the Mercians, 289, 321, 322, 329.

Ethelfled, patroness of Dunstan, 346.

Ethelfled the Fair, wife of King Edgar, 359.

Ethelfrid or Ethelfrith of Bernicia, 94, 115, 133–138.

Ethelgiva, daughter of Alfred, abbess of Shaftesbury, 289.

Ethelgiva, mother-in-law of Edwy, 349–351.

Ethelheard, King of Wessex, 217.

Ethelhere, under-king of East Anglia, 169, 170.

Ethelmaer the Fat, 402.

Ethelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, 405, 406, 420.

Ethelnoth, ealdorman of Somerset, 284.

Ethelred, ealdorman of Mercia, 289, 308.

Ethelred, ealdorman of the Gaini, 289.

Ethelred of Mercia, 173, 191, 204.

Ethelred, son of Ethelwulf (866–871), accession, 275; wars with the Danes, 276, 278–280; battle of Ashdown, 279; death, 280.

Ethelred II., the Redeless, King of England (978–1016), 317, 328; son of King Edgar, crowned at Kingston-on-Thames, 365; Danish invasions, 375–396; Ethelred harries Cumberland, 385; marries Emma of Normandy, 386; massacre of St. Brice’s Day, 386, 387; Sweyn and Canute invade England, 391; London submits, 392; king escapes to Normandy, 392; recalled, 383; dies at London, 396.

Ethelred, son of Ethelwald Moll, usurper in Northumbria, 247, 255.

Ethelric, King of Bernicia and Deira, 94, 133.

Ethelsin, evil counsellor of Ethelred, 365.

Ethelwald Moll, usurper in Northumbria, 247.

Ethelwald, son of Oswald, 169, 170, 171.

Ethelwald, son of Ethelred I., rebels against Edward the Elder, 319.

Ethelwalh, King of Sussex, 174, 204, 215.

Ethelweard, the historian, 257, 334, 384, 501.

Ethelweard, grandson of the historian, 402.

Ethelweard, son of Alfred, 290.

Ethelwin, cousin of Athelstan, fell at Brunanburh, 336.

Ethelwin, officer of Oswy, 167.

Ethelwin, son of half-king Athelstan, 361.

Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, 354, 355, 361.

Ethelwold, son of half-king Athelstan, husband of Elfrida, 359.

Ethelwulf, ealdorman of Berkshire, 278, 279.

Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons (839–858), son of Egbert, under-king of Kent, 264; succeeds his father in Wessex, 265; his two counsellors Swithun and Ealhstan, 266; victory over the Danes at Ockley, 267; helps Mercia against the Welsh, 267; gives tithe to the Church, 268; journey to Rome, 268–270; marriage to Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, 270; his will and death, 271.

Etherius, Archbishop of Arles, 116.

Etocetum, station on the Watling Street, 73.

Eudoces, possibly Jutes, 80.

Eugenius, King of Strathclyde, 333.

Eugenius the Bald, King of Strathclyde, 408.

Eumenius, panegyrist, 65, 495.

Eustace, Count of Boulogne, 452, 453, 487, 489, 490.

Evans, Sir John, on British coins, 25.

Exeter (Isca Damnoniorum, Exanceaster), 74, 283, 326.

Exmouth (Exanmutha), Beorn buried at, 451.

Farinmail, a British king, 92.

Farndon (Farndune), near Newark, Edward the Elder dies at, 328.

Farne Islands, 154, 168, 206.

Farnham, Danes defeated at, 308.

Felix, Bishop of Dunwich, 163, 174.

Fergna, Abbot of Iona, 150.

Fethan-lea, battle of, 93.

Finan of Lindisfarne, 169, 175, 182.

Fitz Osbern, William, 475, 487.

Five Boroughs, the, 316, 391, 394, 431.

Flatholme, Island of (Brada Relice), Danes take refuge at, 321.

Fleet, built by Alfred, 312; by Ethelred II., 387.

Florence of Worcester, historian, 105, 277 n., 314, 333, 334, 354, 356, 357, 400, 484, 501, 502.

Fædus Anglorum et Danorum, 381 n.

Folkland, 303, 304.

Fordheri, soldier of Edwin, stabbed, 140.

Ford of the Cross, battle of, 464.

Forth, Firth of, 49, 50, 58, 102, 132, 154, 157, 477, 479.

Fosse Way, 74.

Freeman, E. A., on virtual extermination of Britons, 110, 111; on capture of York, 138; on alleged English supremacy over Scotland, 325. Also quoted, 161, 262, 325 n., 337 n., 383 n., 401 n., 402 n., 403 n., 420 n., 433 n., 448 n., 475, 507.

Frisian Sea (Firth of Forth?), 103.

Frisians in the Border country, 131.

Frome, King Edred dies at, 343.

Frome mouth of, Danish raid, 381.

Frontinus, Julius, Roman governor of Britain, 46.

Fulford, English defeated at, 479, 481, 484.

Fursa, an Irish monk, missionary to East Anglia, 163, 174.

Fyrd, or national militia, 223, 229, 261 n., 268, 302, 320, 376, 389, 396, 486, 489.

Gabhran, Dalriadic king, 148.

Gaels, 6.

Gafolgelders, or rent payers, 226, 228.

Gafol, tribute paid to Danes, 376, 381.

Gaimar, Geoffrey, 295, 334, 359, 503.

Gainsborough, death of Sweyn, 493.

Galerius, Augustus, 67.

Galgacus, Caledonian chief, 50.

Gebur, 436.

Gedael land, 221.

Geikie, Professor, 3 n., 4 n.

Gemot, meeting, 302.

Genealogies of the kings, Nennius, 101.

Geneat, king’s retainer, 229, 230, 313, 436, 437.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 28, 105.

Geraint, Welsh king, 216.

Germanus. See St. Germanus.

Gesithcund, comrades of the king, 228.

Geta, son of Emperor Severus, 60, 62.

Geteama, a warranter, 438.

Gewissas, or men of Wessex, 128, 215.

Gildas, Welsh ecclesiastic, author of Liber Querulus, 86, 95–100, 144, 496.

Gilling, near Richmond, Oswin murdered at, 167.

Glastonbury (Glaestingaburh), 178, 339, 344, 347, 359, 397, 406.

Gloucester (Gleawanceaster), 76, 92, 322, 454, 466.

Godiva, sister of Edward the Confessor, 452.

Godiva, wife of Leofric, 447, 448, 465.

Godric, his cowardice at battle of Maldon, 380.

Godwine, son of Wulfnoth, ancestry, 403; made Earl of Wessex, 404; supports Harthacnut, 417, 418; supports Harold Harefoot and slays Alfred, son of Ethelred, 418, 419; his family, 447–451; opposes Norman influence, 451–454; exiled with family, 455; restored, 459; death and burial at Winchester, 460.

Goidels, 6, 108.

Goodmanham, site of heathen temple, 142.

Gorm the Old, King of Denmark, 371, 413, 474.

Gratian, a British usurper of Empire, 72.

Gratian, Emperor, 68, 69.

Green, J. R., 404 n., 507.

Greenwell, Dr., on British barrows, 7, 493.

Greenwich (Grenawic), 390, 394, 395.

Gregory I., Pope, sends Augustine to convert the English, 114, 115, 120, 121, 139.

Griffith ap Llewelyn, King of Wales, 464–466, 472.

Griffith, son of Rhyddarch, revolts against the preceding, 465.

Grimbald, Abbot, friend of Alfred, 291, 292, 304.

Guaul, or Roman Wall, 103.

Guest, Dr., on Cæsar’s landing-place, 24; on Fethan-lea, 93.

Gross, Dr. Charles, The Sources and Literature of English History, 508.

Guildford (Gyldeford), the Etheling Alfred arrested at, 419, 420.

Guinnion, castle of, scene of one of Arthur’s battles, 104.

Gunhild, daughter of Canute, wife of Emperor Henry III., 412, 416.

Gunnor, wife of Richard, Duke of Normandy, 370.

Guoyrancgon, King of Kent, 103.

Guthfred, a later King of Northumbria, 332.

Guthlac, hermit of Crowland, 249.

Guthred, converted Danish chief, 282.

Guthrum, Danish chief, Alfred’s foe, 283–287.

Gwent, part of South Wales (Glamorgan and Monmouth), 333.

Gwynedd (North Wales), 102, 321, 464.

Gybmund, Bishop of Rochester, 219.

Gyda, wife of Harold Fair-hair, 372.

Gyrth, son of Godwine, 404, 444, 482, 484, 486, 488.

Gyrwas, tribe in the Fens, 433.

Gytha, wife of Godwine, 404, 444, 490.

Haddan and Stubbs’s Councils, 508.

Hadrian, Abbot of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, 195, 196, 241.

Hadrian, Emperor, builder of the Roman Wall, 53.

Hadrian I., Pope, 251.

Hakon the Good, King of Norway, reared in England, 331, 332, 372.

Halfdene, a Danish king, 279, 281.

Hallelujah battle, 84.

Harold, a Scandinavian chief, 369.

Harold Blue-Tooth, King of Denmark, 371, 474.

Harold, brother of Canute, 404.

Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, 445, 477–481, 484.

Harold Harefoot, son of Canute, King of England, 416–421.

Harold II., son of Godwine, Earl of East Angles, 448; intercedes for Sweyn, 450; exiled with family, 455; in Ireland, 458; becomes Earl of Wessex, 460; real ruler of England, 461, 465; wars with Elfgar and the Welsh, 466, 467; visit to Normandy, and oath to William, 468–470; crowned king, 473, 474; defeats Tostig and Harold Hardrada at Stamford Bridge, 481; visits Waltham, 484; collects army near Battle, 485; battle of Hastings, 487–490; death, 482, 489, 490; burial at Waltham, 490.

Harold the Fair-haired, King of Norway, 331, 372.

Harthacnut, son of Canute, King of England, 402, 405, 416–418, 420–423, 450.

Hartlepool (Heruteu), Hilda’s convent at, 180.

Hasting or Haesten, Danish chief, 308, 509 n.

Hastings, battle of, 485–490.

Hastings, port, 458, 482, 484.

Hatfield. See Heathfield.

Haverfield, F., 70 n., 75 n., 77 n., 507.

Heathfield, battle of, 144, 150, 151.

Heavenfield, or Denisesburn, battle of, 151–154, 157.

Hedde, Bishop of Winchester, 219.

Heimskringla, the, 260, 338, 372, 385, 409, 480 n., 504.

Helena, mother of Constantine, 66, 121.

Hengest, King of Kent, 86, 88, 89, 91, 102–104, 132.

Henry Beauclerk, 289, 314, 463.

Henry of Huntingdon, 105, 337, 360, 386, 415, 503.

Henry III., emperor, marries Gunhild, 412.

Heptarchy, 231, 288.

Herbert. See St. Herbert.

Here or army, Danish, 261, 306, 312, 321, 323.

Hereford, 465, 466.

Here-gyld, or war tax, 446.

Herleva, mother of William the Norman, 456.

Herodian, Greek historian, 495.

Hertford (Heorotford), 323.

Hexham (Hagustald), 62, 64, 195, 199, 209.

Hiberni, 97.

Hide of land, 148, 222.

Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 180.

Hildebrand, Pope, 353, 476.

Hingston Down (Hengestdune), battle of, 265.

Historia Augusta, 494.

Historia Brittonum, of Nennius, 101, 132.

Hlothere’s and Eadric’s dooms, 218.

Hoar Apple Tree, Harold II. at, 482, 485.

Hold, a Danish title, 436.

Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, 154, 155, 158, 182, 183, 188, 205, 207, 246, 258, 282.

Holy River, Canute defeated at, 413.

Holy Rood, Cynewulf’s poem on, 242, 243.

Honorius, Emperor, 72, 82.

Honorius, Pope, 161.

Horsa, brother of Hengest, 86, 88.

House-carls, or body-guard, 418, 422, 447, 463, 486, 489.

Housesteads, Mithraic chapel at, 75.

Howorth, Sir H., 367 n.

Howell, King of Cornwall, 333, 336.

Hoxne, St. Edmund defeated at, 277.

Hübner, Emil, 507.

Hugh Capet, King of France, 367.

Hugh the Great, Duke of France, 330, 367, 369, 370, 467.

Hundred and Hundred Court, 427–429.

Huntingdon (Huntandun), burh built at, 323.

Hunwald betrays Oswin, 167.

Hwiccas, tribe in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, 263, 402.

Hyde Abbey, Winchester, 314.

Hythe, 307; Cæsar’s landing-place? 24.

Iceni, British tribe, 33–35; revolt of, 38–43.

Ida, King of Bernicia, 94, 132.

Idle, Ethelfrid defeated by Edwin, 137.

India, alleged mission to, 299.

Indulf, 408 n.

Ine, King of Wessex, 134, 138, 147, 150, 154, 156, 178, 186, 216.

Ine’s laws, 218–232.

Inguar, Danish chief, 277–279.

Inscriptions, Roman, 58, 74.

Insurance against theft of cattle, 426.

Iona, 134, 138, 147, 150, 154, 156, 180, 186.

Ireland, 50, 79, 102, 144, 148, 182, 260, 294, 310, 332, 333, 442, 458.

Isle of Man, 138, 248, 317, 356, 385.

James, deacon, attendant on Paulinus, 143, 180, 182.

Jarls, 278, 435.

Jarrow (in Gyrwum), monastery at, 133, 189, 237.

Jaruman, Bishop of Mercia, 176.

Jehmarc, Scottish king, submits to Canute, 409.

John XIX., Pope, visited by Canute, 410.

John, the Old Saxon, friend of King Alfred, 291, 292.

Judicia Civitatis Londoniæ, 425.

Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, wife of Ethelwulf, 270, 271, 274.

Judith of Flanders, wife of Tostig, 455.

Justus, Bishop of Rochester, 120, 122, 127, 128, 139.

Jutes, 79, 80, 106; possible colony of, in Scotland, 103.

Juthwal, Welsh king, 336; tribute of wolves’ heads, 357.

Kemble, J. M., 77, 508.

Kenneth, King of Scotland, 134, 356, 357.

Kent, 79, 88, 89, 104, 106, 138, 140, 176, 179.

Kent’s Cavern, 2.

King’s Milton (Middeltun thaes cynges), 458.

Kingston (Cyngestun), 232, 329, 339, 365.

Kinsige, Bishop of Lichfield, 349.

Kirtlington, Witenagemot at, 362.

Lanfranc, Prior of Bec, 476.

Lang, Andrew (History of Scotland), referred to, 326, 507.

Laon, 367–370.

Lapidarium Septentrionale, 496.

Lappenberg, historian, 87, 507.

Laurentius, Archbishop of Canterbury, 120, 125, 127, 128, 139.

Lea (Lyge), river, 287, 311.

Leges Marchiarum, 424, 425.

Legions, Roman:-- Second, 30, 33, 42, 43, 55, 71. Sixth, 54, 55, 71. Seventh, 11. Ninth, 30, 41, 42, 54. Tenth, 11. Fourteenth, 30, 42, 44. Twentieth, 30, 42, 45, 46, 55, 72, 310.

Leicester (Ratae, Ligeraceaster), 316, 322, 340.

Leighton Buzzard (Lygtun), battle at, 321.

Leofgar, Bishop of Hereford, 466.

Leofric, son of Leofwine, Earl of Mercia, 403, 417, 422, 442, 447, 448, 454, 465, 466.

Leofwine, ealdorman of the Hwiccas, 402, 417.

Leofwine, son of Godwine, 449, 455, 482, 486, 488.

Leo, Prof. Heinrich, 242.

Leominster, Abbess of, 449, 465.

Leo IV., Pope, blesses Alfred, 269.

Levison on Life of Germanus, 496.

Liber Pontificalis, 270.

Liebermann, Felix, on Anglo-Saxon laws, 508.

Lilia, thegn of Edwin of Deira, 140, 161.

Lincoln (Lindcylene), 37, 41, 76, 143, 316, 340, 470, 484.

Lindisfarne gospels, 282.

Lindisfarne. See Holy Island.

Lindsey (Lindissi), 143, 173, 191, 192, 266, 391, 394.

Liofa, murderer of King Edmund, 338.

Lichfield, archbishopric of, 248, 250, 263.

Liudhard, Queen Bertha’s chaplain, 117, 119.

Loidis or Elmet, British kingdom of, 131, 138.

Lombards, affinity with Anglo-Saxons, 81.

London (Londinium, or Augusta, Lundonia, Lunden-burh), 41, 42, 66, 68, 73; early mention of, in the Chronicle, 89; bishopric founded at, 122; relapses into idolatry, 128; Sigebert, king in, 175; reconverted to Christianity, 176; diocese of, 250; capture by Danes (851), 267; besieged by Danes, 281; rescued by Alfred, 287, 299; burh built at, 309; resumption from Mercia by Edward the Elder, 320; Dunstan, Bishop of, 352; defence against Danes, 376, 377; attack of Sweyn, 384; submits to Sweyn, 392; Ethelred II.’s illness and death at, 395, 396; faithful to house of Cerdic, 397; chooses Harold Harefoot as king, 417; Witan held at, 454; Duke William’s visit to, 457; Earl Godwine’s defence before Witan at, 459; King Harold II. at, 478, 480.

Longfellow’s Saga of King Olaf, 385 n.

Lothian, 102, 131, 326; lost by England, 409.

Louis IV. of France reared in England, 330, 368, 369.

Lucius. See St. Lucius.

Lud, a fictitious King of Britain, 105.

Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, 83.

Lymne (Portus Lemanis), suggested as Cæsar’s landing-place? 24; Danes at, 307.

Macbeth, or Maelbaeth, King of Scotland, 409, 447, 462, 463.

Maccus, “arch-pirate,” rows in Edgar’s boat, 356.

Mætæ, Caledonian tribe, 60, 62.

Maelgwn, or Maglocunus, King of North Wales, 99, 102, 144.

Magasaetas (Herefordshire), 452.

Magnus I., King of Norway, 443–445.

Magnus, a Norwegian, helps Earl Elfgar, 467.

Maitland, F. W., 430 n., 433, 508.

Malcolm I., King of Scotland (943–954), 341.

Malcolm II., King of Scotland (1005–1034), 407–409, 461.

Malcolm III. (Canmore), King of Scotland (1058–1093), 463, 477.

Malcolm, King of Cumberland, 356.

Maldon, burh at, 323; battle of, 378, 379.

Malet, William, 490.

Malfosse, at battle of Hastings, 488, 489.

Malmesbury, monastery of, 266, 338, 346, 395.

Mamertinus, panegyrist, 65, 495.

Man, Isle of, 138, 248, 317, 356, 385.

Manau Guotodin (Lothian), 102.

Manchester (Mancunium, Mameceaster) in Northumbria, 323.

Mancus, value of, 235.

Mandubracius, British chief, 18, 19.

Marcellus, Ulpius, ascetic Roman general, 59.

Marcian, Emperor, 88 n.

Marcus Aurelius, Emperor, troubled by Britannic war, 58.

Marcus, a military usurper, 72.

Margaret, grand-daughter of Edmund Ironside, wife of Malcolm III., 463.

Mark, value of, 235.

Maserfield or Oswestry, battle of, 158, 160.

Matilda of Scotland, wife of Henry I., 289, 436.

Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, 275, 289, 476.

Maximian, Emperor, 64, 67.

Maximus, usurper of the empire, 69, 95.

Mearcredesburn, battle at, 89.

Medeshamstede. See Peterborough.

Mellitus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 120–122, 127, 129, 174.

Melrose (Magilros), monastery of, 205.

Menai Straits, 41, 47, 102.

Meonwaras, district of, in Hampshire, 174, 178, 215.

Mercia, 80, 108, 136, 144, 160, 173, 248, 289, 340, 344, 351, 448, 464.

Merlin, 103.

Mersea, island in Essex, 310, 311.

Middle Anglians, 160, 169.

Middlesex, 287, 448.

Milton Abbas (Middeltun) monastery purged, 355.

Mithras, worship of, 75.

Mommsen, 507.

Mona. See Anglesey.

Money, Anglo-Saxon, 231–235.

Monkwearmouth, monastery, 133, 237.

Monothelite controversy, 196.

Mons Graupius, 50.

Moots, 302.

Mora, Duke William’s ship, 483.

Morcant, a Welsh king, 337.

Morcar, murdered by Edric, 394.

Morini, Gaulish tribe, 10, 16, 23.

Morkere, son of Elfgar, 470, 471, 477, 479, 484.

Mount Badon, battle of, 92, 99, 100, 104, 105, 107.

Mund-bora or protector, 322, 324.

Municipia, 76, 151.

Mul, brother of Cadwalla, burned by men of Kent, 215, 216.

Natanleod, British king, slain by Cerdic, 90.

Navy of Alfred, 312; of Edgar, 357, 358; of Edward the Confessor, 445.

Naze, in Essex (Eadulfesnaess), 459.

Nechtansmere (Dunnichen), King Egfrid defeated at, 192.

Nennius, historian, 100–105, 131, 132, 152 n., 497.

Neolithic man, 2–5.

Nerthus, goddess of the Angles, 81.

Netley (Natanleaga), scene of Cerdic’s victory, 91.

New Minster, at Winchester, Alfred’s burial-place, 314, 328, 355.

Nithings, 81, 380, 451.

Nobility by birth and by service, 231.

Normandy, early history of, 367–370.

Normans, weapons of, 486.

Northampton, 464, 470.

Northman, son of Leofwine, put to death by Canute, 402.

Northmen or Norwegians in Cumberland, 316; distinguished from Danes, 325; at Stamford Bridge, 481.

Norway, 372, 417, 444, 478.

Northumbria, 94, 130–173, 245–248, 325, 332, 341–343, 388, 395, 396, 406–408, 463, 470, 479.

Nothelm, priest, friend of Bede, 86.

Notitia Imperii, Army list of Roman Empire, 69, 70.

Nottingham (Snotingaham), 276, 316, 323, 340.

Nun, King of Sussex, 216.

Ockley (Aclea), Danes defeated at, 267.

Octha, son of Hengest, 103, 104, 131, 132.

Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, 340, 343, 349, 351, 352, 354.

Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 487, 488.

Odo, King of France, 367.

Oferhyrnesse, contempt of royal power, 438.

Offa, King of Mercia, 248, 250–253, 255.

Offa’s Dyke (Clawdd Offa), 251.

Offa, thegn of Brihtnoth, 380.

Ohthere, an Arctic explorer, 294.

Olaf, King of Sweden, 385.

Olaf, son of Harold Hardrada, 481.

Olaf the Thick. See St. Olaf.

Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway, 372, 384, 385.

Olney, in Gloucestershire (Olanig), conference at, 397.

Oman, Professor, 275 n.

Open field system of farming, 221.

Ora, eighth part of a mark, 235.

Ordeals, 439, 440.

Ordericus Vitalis, 505.

Ordgar, father of Elfrida, 359.

Ordmaer, father-in-law of Edgar, 359.

Ordovices, a British tribe, 35, 46, 47.

Orosius, ecclesiastic and historian, 69, 86, 293, 498.

Osbeorn, son of Siward, 463.

Osbern, biographer of Dunstan, 348 n., 501.

Osbert, King of Northumbria, 276.

Osburga, mother of Alfred, 272.

Osfrid, son of Edwin, 143, 144.

Osgod Clapa, “Staller,” 412, 450.

Oslac, Earl of Northumbria, 360, 361.

Oslac, father of Osburga, 272.

Osmund, Richard’s guardian, 369.

Osred I., King of Northumbria, 210.

Osred II. (do.), murdered, 248.

Osric, ealdorman, 254.

Osric, King of Deira, 151.

Ossa Cyllelawr, Bernician king, 132.

Osthryd, Queen of Mercia, 158, 191.

Ostorius Scapula, Roman governor, 34; defeats Caratacus, 35.

Oswald, King of Northumbria. See St. Oswald.

Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, 354, 355, 360.

Oswin, King of Deira, 160, 165, 171.

Oswulf, King of Northumbria, 247.

Oswulf, Earl of Northumbria, 342.

Oswy, King of Northumbria, 126, 160, 161, 165, 171–173, 180–190.

Oundle (Undalum), Wilfrid dies at, 212.

Owen, King of Gwent, 333.

Oxford (Oxnaford), 162, 320, 417, 473.

Ox-gang, or Bovate, the eighth of a Hide, 223.

Paga, king’s reeve, at Carlisle, 207.

Palæolithic man, 2.

Palgrave, Sir F., 508.

Palisade at Hastings, 485 and n.

Pallig, killed in massacre of St. Brice, 387.

Pallium, sign of archbishop’s rank, 120, 121, 202, 252, 453, 459, 460.

Papinian, Roman lawyer, 61.

Parisii, a British tribe in Yorkshire, 10.

Parret (Pedride), river, 178, 266.

Paulinus, Bishop of York, 120, 139–143, 145, 154, 180.

Paulinus, Suetonius, conquers Anglesey, 38; marches to London, 41; defeats Boadicea, 42; recalled, 44.

Paulus Diaconus, historian of the Lombards, 81.

Pavia, death of Eadburh at, 255.

Peada, son of Penda, 168, 173.

Pearson, C. H., 507.

Pecsaetan, tribe in the Peak district, 433.

Pelagian heresy, 76, 84.

Pelham, Professor, quoted, 53 n.

Pembrokeshire, Danish colony in, 317.

Penda, King of Mercia, 144, 158, 160–173.

Penny, Anglo-Saxon, 233.

Peonnum (the Pens or Penselwood), 178.

Perctarit, Lombard king, 203.

Peter, sent to Pope Gregory, 120.

Peterborough (Medeshamstede), sacked by Danes, 278; visited by Bishop Ethelwold, 355.

Petillius Cerialis, commands ninth legion, 41; governor of Britain, 45.

Pevensey (Pefenesea), 89, 458, 482, 483.

Picts, 68, 79, 84–86, 93, 95, 97, 102, 103, 106, 134, 147, 157, 171, 191, 192, 281.

Place-names as evidences of nationality of settlers, 315.

Plague, 176, 188, 189, 238, 312.

Plautius, Aulus, conquers southern Britain, 25, 30–32, 34.

Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, 291, 292, 314.

Pliny, 494.

Plummer, Chas., editor of Bede, 86, 190 n., 290 n., 295 n., 325 n., 337 n., 419 n., 466 n., 497.

Poenius Postumus, Roman officer, kills himself, 43.

Polybius, historian, 8.

Polyclitus, Nero’s freedman, 44.

Porlock (Portloca), Danish raid on, 321; Harold Godwineson’s, 458.

Port, mythic eponymous hero, 87, 91.

Portland, Danes attack, 266.

Portsmouth, legendary foundation of, 87, 91.

Portskewet, Harold’s lodge at, 467.

Portus Itius, 16, 23.

Pound, Anglo-Saxon, 232.

Prætenturæ, or stations on the Roman Wall, 56.

Prasutagus, King of the Iceni, 33, 39.

Prices, history of, 234, 426.

Prisci historia, quoted, 109 n.

Procolitia, station on the Roman Wall, 56.

Procopius, historian, 112, 113.

Prosper Tiro, chronicler, 82, 103, 496.

Pseudo-monasteries, 244.

Ptolemy, geographer, 80, 493.

Pucklechurch, King Edward murdered at, 338.

Purbeck, Danish fleet wrecked near, 283.

“Purveyance,” 453.

Pytheas, Greek geographer, 8.

“Quarto-decimans,” 124, 181, 182, 193, 198.

Quedlinburg, Canute’s grand-daughter Abbess of, 412.

Radfrid, Frankish noble, escorts Theodore to England, 196.

Raegenheri, son of Redwald, 137.

Raegnald of Northumbria, 325–327, 340.

Ragnar Lodbrog, the Viking, 276.

Ralph the Timid, Earl of the Magasaetas, nephew of Edward the Confessor, 452, 454, 465.

Ramsay, Sir J., 507.

Reading, 278, 279, 281.

Rectitudines singularum personarum, 436, 437.

Redwald, King of East Anglia, 126, 136, 137, 139, 163.

Redwulf, King of Northumbria, 266.

Regni, British tribe, 10, 90.

Regnum. See Chichester.

Regula Pastoralis of Pope Gregory, translated by Alfred, 291, 292.

Repton (Hreopandun), occupied by Danes, 281.

Rhuddlan, burnt by Harold II., 467.

Rhys, Professor John, 493.

Richard of Hexham, historian, 131 n.

Richard I., Duke of Normandy, 369, 370.

Richard II. (do.), 386, 399.

Richborough (Rutupiæ), 71, 118.

Ricula, sister of Ethelbert, 122.

Ripon (In Hripum), 195, 199, 209, 342, 406.

Robert, Duke of Normandy, 456.

Robertson, E. W., historian, 326, 356, 359 n., 360 n., 507.

Robert, King of France, 367.

Robert the Strong, Duke of Francia, 367.

Rochester (Durobrevi, Hrofaescaestre), 122, 145, 286, 365.

Roderick the Great (Rhodri Mawr), Welsh king, 267.

Roger of Wendover, 342.

Rolf or Rollo, settles in Normandy, 367.

Rolleston, Professor, on Neolithic man, 4, 493.

Roman roads, 73.

Roman Wall, between Firths of Forth and Clyde, 58, 103.

Roman Wall, between Solway and Tyne, 52, 94, 146, 152; description of, 56; garrison of, 57.

Romanus, Bishop of Rochester, 145.

Round, J. H., 485 n., 507.

Rowena, daughter of Hengest, 103, 109.

Rowley Burn, Cadwallon’s death at, 153.

Rufinianus, emissary to Rome, 120.

Runcorn (Rumcofa), Saxon fortress built at, 321.

Runic inscription on Bewcastle Cross, 172; about Harold Hardrada, 479.

Ruthwell Cross, 242.

Rutupiæ. See Richborough.

Saberct, King of the East Saxons, 122, 127, 175.

Sabinus, brother of Vespasian, 32.

St. Aidan, 155–168, 181, 182, 187, 282.

St. Alban, 27, 76, 84.

St. Alphege (Elfeah),384; martyrdom of, 389, 390; translation of relics, 405.

St. Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury, 82, 112–125, 338.

St. Boniface. See Boniface.

St. Brice’s Day, massacre on, 386, 387.

St. Chad (Ceadda), Bishop of York, 195; of Lichfield, 198.

St. Columba, 134, 147–150, 154, 181, 182, 187.

St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 130, 158, 192, 205, 208, 282, 406.

St. Dunstan, early life, 344–348; Abbot of Glastonbury, 347; influence on Edred, 339; at Edwy’s coronation, 349; exiled, 350; Bishop of Worcester and London, 352; Archbishop of Canterbury, 352; share in monastic reform, 353–356; story of St. Edmund’s martyrdom, 277; crowns King Edward the Martyr, 360; escape at the meeting at Calne, 362; remonstrance with Ethelred, 365; death, 365; character, 360, 491; lives of, by various authors, 501.

St. Edmund, 276–278, 393, 405.

St. Frideswide, church of, at Oxford, 394.

St. Germanus, 83–85, 102, 106.

St. Guthlac, 249.

St. Herbert of Derwentwater, 208.

St. Jerome, 68.

St. Joseph of Arimathea, 339.

St. Lucius, King of Britain, 76, 414.

St. Martin of Tours, 119, 146.

St. Ninian, 146.

St. Olaf, King of Norway, 410, 413–415, 444.

St. Oswald, 126, 150–159, 171, 173, 179, 282.

St. Patrick, 104.

St. Paul, church in London dedicated to, 122, 391.

St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, 265, 266, 357.

St. Thomas, Christians of, in India, 299.

Sake and Soke, 440, 441.

Sandwich, 375, 388, 389, 394, 444, 445, 450, 458, 477.

San Spirito in Sassia, church in Rome, 270.

Sarn Helen, a Roman road, 74.

Sarum, Old (Searoburg), battle of, 91.

Savernake Forest, battle near, 280.

Saxon Chronicle. See Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Saxon Shore in Britain, Count of, 70.

Saxons, origin and appearance in Britain, 71, 79–81, 84, 104, 106.

Scarborough burnt, 479.

Sceatt, value of, 235.

Schmid, Professor Reinhold, 286 n., 381 n., 508.

Schola Saxonum, at Rome, 270.

Scilling, value of, 232.

Scip-here, Danish fleet, 311, 321, 342.

Scotland, 134, 138, 192, 246, 324–328, 333, 335, 356, 357, 406–410, 461–464.

Scots, 68, 79, 93, 95, 102, 103, 134, 148, 157.

Sebbi, King of East Saxons, 175, 176.

Sedgefield, W. J., translation of Alfred’s Boethius, 297 n.

Seebohm, F., 77, 508.

Seghine, Abbot of Iona, 154.

Selsey, bishopric founded, 205.

Selwood, Forest of, 284.

Seneca, as money-lender in Britain, 39.

Senlac or Epiton, site of “battle of Hastings,” 485.

Seven Boroughs, 394, 395.

Severus, Septimius, Emperor, 59–62, 90.

Sexburh, Queen of Kent, 176.

Shaftesbury (Sceaftesburh), 364, 416.

Sheppey (Sceapig), Isle of, 265, 268, 308, 458.

Sherborne (Scireburne), Bishopric of, 242.

Ship-money, 388.

Shire and Shire Gemot, 429, 432, 433.

Shire-reeve (sheriff), 434.

Shoebury (Sceoburh), Danish fort at, 309.

Shrewsbury (Scergeat, Scrobbesburh), “burh” built at, 321, 433 n.

Sideman, Bishop of Crediton, 362.

Sidroc, a Danish jarl, 278.

Sigebert the Learned, King of East Anglia, 163, 164.

Sigebert, King of the East Saxons, 175, 179.

Sigebert, King of the West Saxons, 253.

Sigeferth, thegn, murdered by Edric, 394.

Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, 381.

Sighelm, West Saxon almoner, 299.

Sighere, King of the East Saxons, 175, 176.

Sigvat, minstrel to King Olaf, 444.

Sihtric, Northumbrian king, 332.

Silchester, Christian Basilica at, 75.

Silures, a British tribe, 33–35, 37, 46.

Silurians, 5.

Simcox, W. H., on sites of Alfred’s battles, 278 n.

Sinodun camp, 162.

Siward the Strong, Earl of Northumbria, 422, 442, 447, 454, 462, 463.

Six-hynd men, 430.

Skene, W. F., on Celtic Scotland, 148, 149, 326, 409 n., 508.

Slavery, 114–116, 225, 226 n., 303.

Snorri Sturleson, Icelandic scholar, 504.

Somerton captured, 249.

Southampton (Hamtun), Danes attack, 266.

South Anglians, 160.

Southwark (Suthgeweore), 455, 458.

Spartianus, on the Roman Wall, 53.

Stafford, “burh” built at, 321.

Stamford (Steanford), 316, 323, 340.

Stamford Bridge, battle of, 480–482, 485, 486.

Stainmoor, King Eric slain at, 342.

Steenstrup, J. C., 257 n.

Steepholm (Steapa Relice), Danes at, 321.

Stevenson, W. H., Editor of Asser, 221 n., 270 n., 274 n., 279 n., 284 n., 299 n., 357 n., 359 n.

Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, 459, 472, 476.

Stilicho, Roman general, 72.

Stonehenge, neolithic work at, 5.

Stour, river, 117, 458.

Strabo, geographer, 8, 27, 493.

Strathclyde, kingdom of, 95, 108, 130, 144, 148, 153, 281, 325–327, 332, 333.

Streanæshalch. See Whitby.

Stubbs, Bishop, 268, 383 n., 508.

Stuf, nephew of Cerdic, 91.

Sumorsætas, 249.

Sussex, kingdom of, 80, 89, 174, 176, 177, 194.

Swearing power, scale of, 130.

Sweyn Estrithson, King of Denmark, 443–445.

Sweyn, or Swegen, King of Denmark, 371, 384, 385, 391–393.

Sweyn, son of Canute, 416, 417.

Sweyn, son of Godwine, 448–452, 455, 465.

Swithelm, King of East Saxons, 175 n.

Swithun. See St. Swithin.

Symeon of Durham, historian, 131, 281, 333, 334, 337, 340, 393, 502.

Tacitus, P. Cornelius, historian, 33, 35, 37, 41, 43, 46, 49, 50, 77, 81, 380, 494.

Taillefer, minstrel, 487, 488.

Tamworth (Tameweorthig), 322, 332, 340.

Tanaus, river, position discussed, 49.

Tasciovanus, British king, 27.

Taunton (Tantun), fortress built by King Ine, 216.

Taylor, Isaac, on distribution of Danes in England, 315, 316.

Telham, hill of, 485.

Tempsford (Temesanford), Danish fort at, 324.

Tettenhall, Danes defeated at, 320.

Teutonic conquest of England, 106–109.

Teutons pressed westward by Huns, 109, 110.

Thanet (Tenet), Isle of, 117, 118, 267, 268, 275, 353, 445.

Thegn right, 223.

Thegns, 228, 435.

Thelwall, Saxon “burh” at, 323.

Theodbald, brother of Ethelfrid, 134.

Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 195–209.

Theodosius the Elder, 68.

Theodosius I., Emperor, 68, 71, 72.

Theodosius II. Emperor, 82.

Theows, or esnes, 225, 303.

Thetford, 277, 278, 343.

Thora, mother of Hakon, 331.

Thored, son of Gunnor, 353.

Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, 462, 479.

Thorney Island (in Hertfordshire), 308.

Thorney Island (at Westminster), 457, 472.

Thorpe, Benjamin, 508.

Three Field System of farming, 221.

Thrum, gives coup de grâce to Saint Alphege, 390.

Thrymsa, value of, 235.

Thurcytel of Northumbria, 396.

Thurgils Sprakalegg, cousin of Canute, 404.

Thurkill, Danish leader, 391, 392, 394, 401, 404.

Tincommius, British king, 26.

Tithing, 439.

Titus in Britain, 33.

Togodumnus, British chief, 29, 31.

Tondheri, servant of Oswin, 167.

Tonsures, Greek and Roman, 179, 186, 196.

Torksey occupied by Danes, 281.

Tortulf, or Tertullus, ancestor of Counts of Anjou, 370.

Tostig, son of Godwine, 449, 455, 461, 463, 465, 467, 470, 471, 477, 479–481, 484.

Towcester (Tofeceaster), relief and fortification of, 323, 324.

Trebellius Maximus, Roman governor, 45.

Tributum, Roman, 47.

Trinobantes, British tribe, 17–19, 28, 40.

Trinoda necessitas, 432, 436.

Trondhjem, Canute declared King of Norway at, 414.

Trumwine, Bishop of Abercorn, 192, 207.

Tuda, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 188.

Tufa or thuuf ornament on banner of Edwin, 143.

Tunberct, Bishop of Hexham, 206.

Twelf-hynd man, 228, 305.

Twyford (Alnmouth), synod at, 206.

Twy-hynd man, 228, 305, 430.

Ubba, Danish chief, murderer of St. Edmund, 277, 278, 284.

Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria, 396, 407, 408.

Ulf, Bishop of Dorchester, 457, 459.

Ulfcytel, ealdorman of East Anglia, 387, 397.

Ulf the Jarl, brother-in-law of Canute, 404, 413, 414, 444.

Utta, priest sent by Edwin to King of Kent, 165.

Valens, Emperor of Rome, 68.

Valentia, province of Britannia, 68.

Valentinian I., Emperor of Rome, 68.

Valentinian III., Emperor of Rome, 88.

Valerius Maximus, historian, 13.

Val-ès-Dunes, battle of, 456.

Vallum runs parallel to Roman Wall, 152, 251.

Veranius, Roman governor of Britain, 37.

Verica, British king, 26.

Verulamium (St. Albans), Britanno-Roman town, 27, 42, 76.

Vespasian, officer under Aulus Plautius, afterwards Emperor, 32, 33, 45, 46.

Vikings, 237, 260, 341, 456.

Villa, Roman, 77.

Vinogradoff, Professor Paul, 220 n., 221 n., 226 n., 304 n., 428 n., 437 n., 508.

Virgate, extent of, 223.

Virius Lupus, Roman governor of Britain, 60.

Vitalian, Pope, 195.

Volusenus, 10, 12.

Vortigern, British king, 86, 88, 97, 102–104, 106, 107.

Vortimer, son of Vortigern, 103.

Vortipor, British king, 99.

Wace, William, 469, 483 n., 485 n., 505.

Wales, 34, 35, 41, 47, 74, 101, 102, 108, 123, 131, 144, 158, 186, 253, 336, 342, 449, 464, 466.

Wallingford, 376.

Waltham, minster at, 484, 490.

Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, 407.

Waltheof, son of Siward, 463.

Wantage, birth-place of Alfred, 272.

Wantsum, in Kent, 117.

Wapentake, Danish equivalent for hundred, 429.

Warburton (Weardburh), Saxon burh at, 321.

Wareham (Werham), 283, 364.

Warwick (Waerinewic), Saxon burh at, 321.

Watchet (Wecedport), attacked by Danes, 321.

Watling Street, 73, 287, 309, 324.

Wat’s Dyke, 251.

“Wealas,” Romanised Celts, 111.

Wedmore, treaty of, 285.

Weland the Smith, 287.

Welsh. See also Cymri, 89, 90, 93, 177, 178, 309, 321, 356.

Welsh Church, 123, 124, 197.

Wembury (Wicganbeorg), Danes attack, 266.

Wendel Sea, or Mediterranean, 294.

Wer, 300, 302.

Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, 291.

Wergild, 226, 228, 229, 300, 435.

Wessex, 158, 161, 179, 180, 448, 464; source of chronicle, 87, 88; foundation, 80, 90; its decline, 140, 177, 178; revival under Egbert, 263–265.

Westminster Abbey, 446, 472.

Westmorland, harried, 353.

West Wales (Cornwall), 6, 34, 93, 108, 123, 265, 333, 336.

Wherwell, abbess of, 455.

Whitby (Streanæshalch), synod of, 180–188.

White Sea, explored, 294.

Whithern (Candida Casa), 146.

Wictgils, father of Hengest, 86, 88.

Wighard, candidate for archbishopric, 190.

Wight, Isle of, 33, 66, 80, 91, 174, 178, 214, 215, 375, 392, 458, 477, 478.

Wigmore (Wigingamere), burh built at, 323.

Wihtgar in Isle of Wight, 87, 91.

Wihtred’s laws, 218, 219.

Wilfrid, his education, 183; at Ripon, 184; his arguments at Synod of Whitby, 185; elected Bishop of York, 193; Ceadda (St. Chad), appointed to same see, 195; dispute settled by Theodore of Tarsus, 198; builds Hexham Abbey, 200; his quarrels with Egfrid and Aldfrid, 202–212; his visits to Rome, 203, 209; death, 212.

William, Bishop of London, 457.

William Fitz Osbern, follower of William of Normandy, 475, 487.

William of Jumièges, historian, 505.

William Longsword, son of Rolf, 368, 369.

William of Malmesbury, historian, 105, 241, 266, 336 n., 337, 342, 354, 356, 357, 364, 392, 394, 503.

William of Normandy, 456, 457, 460, 461, 467–469, 471, 475–477, 482, 484–486, 489, 490.

William of Poitiers, historian, 505.

Willibrord, missionary to Germany, 203, 236.

Wilton, Danish victory at, 281.

Wimbledon (Wibbandune), battle of, 92.

Wimborne (Winburne), Ethelred I. buried at, 280.

Winchester (Venta Belgarum, Wintanceaster), 88, 90, 91, 182, 232, 275, 297, 314, 342, 343, 355, 416,418, 423, 451, 457, 460.

Windermere, princes drowned in, 247.

Winfrid, Bishop, 203.

Winwaed, perhaps river Went, battle of, 170, 171.

Wippedes-fleote, battle of, 89.

Wissant, possible place of Cæsar’s embarkation, 23.

Wite, 227, 300, 302.

Witenagemot, 141, 232, 267, 301, 319, 336, 337, 356, 362, 452, 454, 455, 459, 465.

Wite-theows, 225.

Woden, 86, 90, 133, 141.

Wodensburh (Wansborough?), 216.

Wodnesbeorge, battle of, 93.

Worcester (Wigraceaster), insurrection at, 422.

Workington, Lindisfarne gospels at, 282.

Wrdelau, St. Cuthbert’s body at, 406.

Wulfhere, King of Mercia, 172, 173, 178, 191, 195.

Wulfmaer, squire to Brihtnoth, 379.

Wulfnoth Child, rebels against Ethelred, 388.

Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, 340–342, 353.

Wulfstan, Norwegian pilot, 294.

Wulfthryth, a novice at Wilton, 358.

Wuscfrea, son of Edwin, 145.

Wynfrith. See Boniface.

Xiphilinus, abbreviator of Dion Cassius, 495.

Yard-land, extent of, 221, 222.

Yeavering, palace of Edwin of Deira, 143.

Yffi, son of Osfrid, 142, 145.

York (Eburacum, Eoforwic), 67, 94, 121, 138, 141, 193, 198, 257, 276, 322, 332, 340, 342, 470, 479, 482, 484.

Zimmer, commentator on Nennius, 100, 497.

Zosimus, Greek historian, 83.

THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED.

Transcriber’s Notes

Inconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling were not changed, except in a few cases where an Index entry was made consistent with the text on the page it referenced.

Simple typographical errors were corrected.

The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.

In the Genealogy charts, the dagger † apparently indicates the last year of the King’s reign.

Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of pages, have been collected, resequenced, and positioned just before the Index.

Page 68: A possibly unbalanced quotation mark has not been remedied.

Page 87: For consistency with the text preceded by “(a)” on page 85, the text beginning with “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” on page 87 perhaps should be preceded by “(b)”.

The two illustrations just above this Note are maps.

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