The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Part 17

(38) This bridge was built, or rebuilt on a larger plan than before, by Charles the Bald, in the year 861, "to prevent the Danes or Normans (says Felibien) from making themselves masters of Paris so easily as they had already done so many times," etc.--"pour empescher que les Normans ne se rendissent maistres de Paris aussi facilement qu'ils l'avoient deja fait tant de lois," etc.--Vol. i. p. 91, folio. It is supposed to be the famous bridge afterwards called "grand pont" or "pont au change",--the most ancient bridge at Paris, and the only one which existed at this time.

(39) Or, in Holmsdale, Surry: hence the proverb--

"This is Holmsdale, Never conquer'd, never shall."

(40) The pirates of Armorica, now Bretagne; so called, because they abode day and night in their ships; from lid, a ship, and wiccian, to watch or abide day and night.

(41) So I understand the word. Gibson, from Wheloc, says--"in aetatis vigore;" a fact contradicted by the statement of almost every historian. Names of places seldom occur in old MSS. with capital initials.

(42) i.e. the feast of the Holy Innocents; a festival of great antiquity.

(43) i.e. the secular clergy, who observed no rule; opposed to the regulars, or monks.

(44) This poetical effusion on the coronation, or rather consecration, of King Edgar, as well as the following on his death, appears to be imitated in Latin verse by Ethelwerd at the end of his curious chronicle. This seems at least to prove that they were both written very near the time, as also the eulogy on his reign, inserted 959.

(45) The following pa.s.sage from Cotton Tiberius B iv., relating to the accession of Edward the Martyr, should be added here--

In his days, On account of his youth, The opponents of G.o.d Broke through G.o.d's laws; Alfhere alderman, And others many; And marr'd monastic rules; Minsters they razed, And monks drove away, And put G.o.d's laws to flight-- Laws that King Edgar Commanded the holy Saint Ethelwold bishop Firmly to settle-- Widows they stript Oft and at random.

Many breaches of right And many bad laws Have arisen since; And after-times Prove only worse.

Then too was Oslac The mighty earl Hunted from England's sh.o.r.es.

(46) Florence of Worcester mentions three synods this year; Kyrtlinege, Calne, and Ambresbyrig.

(47) Vid. "Hist. Eliens." ii. 6. He was a great benefactor to the church of Ely.

(48) This was probably the veteran historian of that name, who was killed in the severe encounter with the Danes at Alton (Aethelingadene) in the year 1001.

(49) i.e. at Canterbury. He was chosen or nominated before, by King Ethelred and his council, at Amesbury: vid. an. 994.

This notice of his consecration, which is confirmed by Florence of Worcester, is now first admitted into the text on the authority of three MSS.

(50) Not the present district so-called, but all that north of the Sea of Severn, as opposed to West-Wales, another name for Cornwall.

(51) See a more full and circ.u.mstantial account of these events, with some variation of names, in Florence of Worcester.

(52) The successor of Elfeah, or Alphege, in the see of Winchester, on the translation of the latter to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury.

(53) This pa.s.sage, though very important, is rather confused, from the Variations in the MSS.; so that it is difficult to ascertain the exact proportion of ships and armour which each person was to furnish. "Vid. Flor." an. 1008.

(54) These expressions in the present tense afford a strong proof that the original records of these transactions are nearly coeval with the transactions themselves. Later MSS. use the past tense.

(55) i.e. the Chiltern Hills; from which the south-eastern part of Oxfordshire is called the Chiltern district.

(56) "Leofruna abbatissa".--Flor. The insertion of this quotation from Florence of Worcester is important, as it confirms the reading adopted in the text. The abbreviation "abbt", instead of "abb", seems to mark the abbess. She was the last abbess of St. Mildred's in the Isle of Thanet; not Canterbury, as Harpsfield and Lambard say.

(57) This was a t.i.tle bestowed on the queen.

(58) The "seven" towns mentioned above are reduced here to "five"; probably because two had already submitted to the king on the death of the two thanes, Sigferth and Morcar.

These five were, as originally, Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, and Derby. Vid. an. 942, 1013.

(59) There is a marked difference respecting the name of this alderman in MSS. Some have Ethelsy, as above; others, Elfwine, and Ethelwine. The two last may be reconciled, as the name in either case would now be Elwin; but Ethelsy, and Elsy are widely different. Florence of Worcester not only supports the authority of Ethelwine, but explains it "Dei amici."

(60) Matthew of Westminster says the king took up the body with his own hands.

(61) Leofric removed the see to Exeter.

(62) So Florence of Worcester, whose authority we here follow for the sake of perspicuity, though some of these events are placed in the MSS. to very different years; as the story of Beorn.

(63) i.e. The ships of Sweyne, who had retired thither, as before described.

(64) "Vid. Flor." A.D. 1049, and verbatim from him in the same year, Sim. Dunelm. "inter X. Script. p. 184, I, 10. See also Ordericus Vitalis, A.D. 1050. This dedication of the church of St. Remi, a structure well worth the attention of the architectural antiquary, is still commemorated by an annual loire, or fair, on the first of October, at which the editor was present in the year 1815, and purchased at a stall a valuable and scarce history of Rheims, from which he extracts the following account of the synod mentioned above:--

"Il fut a.s.semble a l'occasion de la dedicace de la nouvelle eglise qu' Herimar, abbe de ce monastere, avoit fait batir, seconde par les liberalites des citoyens, etc."

("Hist. de Reims", p. 226.) But, according to our Chronicle, the pope took occasion from this synod to make some general regulations which concerned all Christendom.

(65) Hereman and Aldred, who went on a mission to the pope from King Edward, as stated in the preceding year.

(66) Nine ships were put out of commission the year before; but five being left on the pay-list for a twelvemonth, they were also now laid up.

(67) The ancient name of Westminster; which came into disuse because there was another Thorney in Cambridgeshire.

(68) i.e. at Gloucester, according to the printed Chronicle; which omits all that took place in the meantime at London and Southwark.

(69) Now Westminster.

(70) i.e. Earl G.o.dwin and his crew.

(71) i.e. from the Isle of Portland; where G.o.dwin had landed after the plunder of the Isle of Wight.

(72) i.e. Dungeness; where they collected all the ships stationed in the great bay formed by the ports of Romney, Hithe, and Folkstone.

(73) i.e. G.o.dwin and his son Harold.

(74) i.e. the tide of the river.

(75) G.o.dwin's earldom consisted of Wess.e.x, Suss.e.x, and Kent: Sweyn's of Oxford, Gloucester, Hereford, Somerset, and Berkshire: and Harold's of Ess.e.x, East-Anglia, Huntingdon, and Cambridgeshire.

(76) The church, dedicated to St. Olave, was given by Alan Earl of Richmond, about thirty-three years afterwards, to the first abbot of St. Mary's in York, to a.s.sist him in the construction of the new abbey. It appears from a MS. quoted by Leland, that Bootham-bar was formerly called "Galman-hithe", not Galmanlith, as printed by Tanner and others.

(77) Called St. Ethelbert's minster; because the relics of the holy King Ethelbert were there deposited and preserved.

(78) The place where this army was a.s.sembled, though said to be very nigh to Hereford, was only so with reference to the great distance from which some part of the forces came; as they were gathered from all England. They met, I conjecture, on the memorable spot called "Harold's Cross", near Cheltenham, and thence proceeded, as here stated, to Gloucester.

(79) This was no uncommon thing among the Saxon clergy, bishops and all. The tone of elevated diction in which the writer describes the military enterprise of Leofgar and his companions, testifies his admiration.

(80) See more concerning him in Florence of Worcester. His lady, G.o.diva, is better known at Coventry. See her story at large in Bromton and Matthew of Westminster.

(81) He died at his villa at Bromleage (Bromley in Staffordshire).--Flor.