THE PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
SUETEES SOOIETY,
ESTABLISHED IN THE YEAR M.DCCC.XXXIY.
VOL. LI.
FOR THE YEAR M.DCCC.LXVII.
A
'P
SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS O P E R A
COLLECTANEA
YOL. I.
|auilt^f)ftf for t!)c «&0ricti>
BY ANDEEWS AND CO., DURHAM.
WHITTAKER AND CO., 13 AA^E MARIA LANE ;
T. AND W. BOONE, 29 NEW BOND STREET;
BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY, LONDON
BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
1868.
At a Meeting of tlie Council of the Surtees Society^ held in the Castle of Durham^ on Tuesday, December thc 6th, 1864^ Mr. Chevallier in the chair, it was ordered " That a volume of the works of Symcon of Durham should be cditcd for this Socicty by Mr. Hodgson Hinde.^"
JAMES RAINE,
Secretary.
LONDON : MITCHELL AND HUGnES, PEINTEES, 24 WAEDOUE STEEET, W,
PREFACE.
Symeon of Durliam was a monk in tlie ecclesiastical establish- ment with which his name is inseparably connected, and stands thirty-eighth in order on the list of its members, ftirnished by himself/' and substantially corroborated by the entries in the Liber Vita of the Church of Durham.*
The original settlement of the fraternity was at Jarrow, under the auspices of Bishop Walcher, in 1074.^ From this place they were transferred by his successor, William de St. Carileph, to the conventual buildings which he erected for thcir reception_, within the cathedral precincts of his episcopal city, A.D. 1083.'^ Symeon appears to have been uesident in Durham, perhaps as a member of the choir, before the removal of the monastery from Jarrow, as he speaks from his own recollection of the performance of the choral service in the cathedral by the secular clergy, during the episcopate of Bishop Walcher f and it is probable from his position on the monastic roU that he joined the fraternity shortly after their transference to that city.
The number of monks who migrated from Jarrow to Durham was twenty-three/ to which it is likely enough that the thirty-
a Historia Ecclesise Dunelmensis, p. 12 ; edit. Bedford, 1732.
* Surtees Society Publications ; 1841 ; vol. ii., p. 45.
«^ Hist. Dunelm., lib. iii., c. xxi.
^ Ibid., lib. iv., c. ii. ^ Ibid., lib. ii., c, vi.
■f Ibid., lib. iv., c. iii. The number of the monks has been erased from the MS. in the Library of the University at Durham, and does not occur in tliat in the Publio Library of the University of Cambridge, but is preserved in the contemporary MS. in the Cottonian Library, Faustina A. v.
b
357522
VI PREFACE.
seven enrolled previous to Symeon had been reduced by deatlis and removals during an interval of nine or ten years.
Assuming the date of his profession to have been about A.D. 1083^ we cannot place that of his birth much later than A.D. 1060;, and these dates are consistent Tvith the fact relatcd by himself/ and with greater particularity by an historian of the succeeding century, Reginald of Coldingham/ that he was present at the exhumation of the remains of St. Cuthbert in 1104_, and assisted at the solemnity, being at that period one of the senior monks.
The others who officiated on this solemn occasion were Turgot the Prior; Aldwine the Sub-prior; Leofwine and Wiking ; Godwin and Osburn, the sacrists ; Henry and William the archdeacons ; and Algar_, afterwards Prior. Of these, seven were of superior standing to Symeon^ and two were his juniors.^ Symeon was not as yet distinguished by any official designation^ but he seems afterwards to have attained the rank of precentor, by which title he is described in the rubrics to his History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes^ and also in that prefixed to the copy of his History of the Church of Durham, which is preserved in the Cambridge University Library. His obit was celebrated on the 14th of October by his brethren and suc- cessors in the Church of Durham/ but we have no information as to the year of his decease.'*' His History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes is brought down to the year 1129^ and his account of the archbishops of York must have been written
«■ Hist. Bunelm.j lib. i., c. x. ^ Surtees Society Publications, vol. i., p. 84.
' The names of those present are from Reginald, as above. Their order of priority is, from Symeon's own list, as follows : —
Turgot, the Prior (6). Osburn (24).
Aldwine, Sub-prior (48). Henry (32).
Leofwin (4). William (35).
Wiking (17). Algar (49).
Godwin (11). Symeon (38).
j Ancient obituary published by the Surtees Societ}^, at the end of the Liber Vitfe, p. 146.
* Dugdale's Monasticon (by Caley and Elhs), vol. vi., p. 1173. WilHam de St. Barbara, his successor, was as earl}^, if not earher, than 1138.
PREFACE. VU
about the same time, or perhaps a little later. It is dedicated to Hughj dean of York, of whose tenure of that dignity we have evidence in 1130 and 1133. Symeon must at that time have been between seventy and eighty, and it is probable that his life did not extend long beyond the period of his literary labours.
Such are the few particulars which are known to us of Symeon of Durham^ and even these^ although they are derived almost exclusively from his own testimony, have not been accepted without question.
The rubric prefixed to his History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes^ in the only existing MS._, represents the work as extending from the death of the Venerable Beda to the latter part of the reign of Henry 1., an interval, as is erro- neously stated^, of 429 years. Now Beda died a.d. 737, and the addition of 429 years to this date brings us down to 1166, which has been adopted by one commentator after another as the era of Symeon's authorship, ignoring altogether the facts, that the reign of Henry I. terminated in 1135, and the History is actually carried no farther than 1129. On such grounds Bale asserts that Symeon flourished a.d. 1166, and his assertion has been accepted as conclusive by Seldenj who contributed an essay to Twysden^s great work, the Decem Scriptores,^ in which he undertakes to prove that Symeon was not the author of the History of the Church of Durham. Nor was the task a diffi- cult one, assuming his premises to have been correct. We may readily admit that an individual who flourished in 1166 could hardly speak from his own recollection of matters which occurred previous to 1080, the year of Bishop Walcher^s death; nay, further, we can hardly identify him with one of the senior brethren of his convent who assisted at the translation of St. Cuthbert in 1104. Either we must reject the authority of Bale, or deprive Symeon of the credit of a work on which his reputation as an historical writer mainly depends, and Selden adopted the latter alternative. But he did more than this.
' London, folio, 1652.
b2
■Vlll PREFACE.
Ignoring the real author_, lie advanced tlie claims of another person, Symeon's superior, the Prior Turgot. The ingenuity of his argument^ and his well-earned reputation for judgraent and learning, secured for his opinions general and unhesitating acceptance^ nor did any one till the lapse of nearly a century attempt an examination of the basis on which his superstructure was built. At length a new edition of the Durham History, based on a MS. unknown to Twysden^ was undertaken by Dr. Bedford/" and to this was prefixed a dissertation by Rudd_, in which the claims of Symeon were successfully vindicated,, and the erroneous computation exposed.
The publication by the Surtees Society of the work of Reginald of Coldingham^ in which the presence of Symeon at the disinterment of St. Cuthbert^s remains is distinctly affirmed, renders it unnecessary to recapitulate Rudd^s arguments here^ but they may be read with advantage as a model of close and accurate reasoning, perfectly conclusivCj irrespective of the corroborative evidence which has since come to light.
The History of the Church of Durham forms no part of the present publication_, being reserved for a second volume, to which it may not be thought inexpedient to prefix both the treatise of Selden and the reply of Rudd^ and thus to exhibit a complete view of a discussion which^ although now set at rest^ has always excited peculiar interest amongst historical enquirers.
Of the voluminous historical materials which have been printed under the name of Symeon of Durham_, two only are properly described as his works, in the sense in which we apply the term to the production of a modern writer^ the History of the Church of Durham, and the Account of the Archhishops of York. The History of St. Cuthbert is only a transcript of an ancient document which has furnished matter for the compila- tion of the Durham History ; and the tract on the Siege of Durham, and the fortunes of Uchtred and his successors, earls of Northumberland, has apparently been transcribed for a kin- dred purpose, as many of the details have been incorporated in
'" London, 8vo, 1732.
PREFACE. IX
the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes. Tlie last- mentioned production occupies an intermediate position between an original composition and a mere transcript_, being for the most part a verbatim copy or an abridgment of earlier writers, with certain additions^ some of which are possibly from the pen of Symeon, whilst others have unquestionably been added by a later hand.
In order to include all these pieces^ the title of Symeonis Opera et Collectanea has been adopted for the present publi- cation. Under the latter designation a place has also been reserved for the very important History of the Mi^^acles and Translations of St. Cuthbert, of which no perfect copy has previously been printed, and which, although it has not hitherto, like his other Collectanea, been associated with his name^ has yet been used by him to a great extent as an au- thority^ and is more than once referred to by him for addi- tional particulars_, which he has thought it unnecessary to repeat.
Besides the works enumerated above^ there is in the Cot- tonian Library a MS. chronicle in the handwriting of the twelfth century^ to which is prefixed a rubric in a recent hand, attributing its authorship to Symeon of Durham. The work consists of two parts ; the first being an account of the suc- cession of the kings of the principal states of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy ; the second, an abridgment of the latter part of Symcon^^s History of the Anyles and Danes. From the second part have been gleaned a few passages of no great importance^ which are not derived from Symeon^s larger work_, but which are here printed with it, care being taken to distinguish them from the original text ; the compilation from which they are extracted being distinguished in the notes as Abbreviatio Symeonis. The first part^ of which several other MSS. exist,, is printed entire^ under the title_, which occurs in one of them, of Libellus de adventu Saxonum, sive de eorumdem regibus. It has never been printed^ and although it may well be doubted whether Symeon had any connection with its authorship^ it contains several matters of novelty and importance which
X PREFACE.
render its publication highly expedient in connection with the other pieces in this volume.
Another tract has been printed by Twysden, consisting of various historical and topographical extracts^ which have been inserted in the MS. of the History of the Church of Durham which is preserved in the Cambridge University Library. They bear internal evidence of having been thrown together by the transcriber in the reign of Henry II., and not by Symeon in that of Henry I. As, however_, they have been so long asso- ciated with his name, they are printed in the Appendix.
The present volume thus contains everything which has at any time been ascribed to the authorship of Symeon, with the exception, already noticcd, of his History of the Church of Durham. This has been reserved for future publication, with such kindred and illustrative matter, as, taken in conjunction with the previous volumes of the Surtees Society, will exhaust the ancient literature connected with the Life of St. Cuthbert, and the history of his ehurch.
Having explained the scope of the present undertaking, it remains to lay before the reader a more detailed account of the contents of the volume now presented, and of the MSS. from which they have becn derived.
I. The Passion of St. Ethelbert and St. Ethelred. This legend is taken from the only existing MS. in which the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes is preserved, being indeed described as part of that work_, and placed after the rubric to which reference has already been made. On the ground that it may have been copied from the collections of Symeon it is printed here, but it certainly has no connection with the History of the Kings, which is confined, on the testi- mony of the rubric itself, to transactions " after the death of the Yenerable Beda.^' The legend has moreover an appropriate rubric of its own. We have no information as to the name of the author_, but we have distinct proof that it was written long before the age of Symeon. The legend informs us that the bodies of the martyred princes were still deposited at Wakering, whereas we know from Gotscelin that they were removed to
PREFACE. XI
Romsey about the year 990/' This narrative is repeated nearly verbatim in the Life of Mildreda^ which passes nnder the name of that writer_, and is printed in an abbreviated form by Capgrave.
II. The Succession of the Kings of Northumberland is also treated in the MS. as part of the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes^ and is connected with the Passion of St. Ethelbert and St. Ethelred by the following sentence : " In the beginning of this work I have accurately set forth the succes- sion of the Kentish kings : I must now set forth that of the kings of the Northumbrians^ that we may come to the times of those of whom there is no history^ after the death of the venerable priest^ Beda.^^ This piece is merely a paraphrase^ in very inflated language^ of the short Northumbrian chronology which is appended to many MSS. of Beda^s Ecclesiastical History.
If the version is by Symeon, it was probably executed in very early life, before his judgment was matured. The phrase- ology is evidently adopted in imitation of that in which the preceding legend is written, and is even more laboured and ambitious in its style. Its value as an authority is of course nullified by the existence of the original document from which it is paraphrased ; but it is of some interest in consequence of the similarity of its style to that of a version of Asser^s Life of Alfred, which is incorporated with the first part of the History of the Kings, which points to the inference that both are from the same hand; that if one^ then both have been operated upon by Symeon ; and that the Kentish legend from which the phraseology is derived, in which both are clothed_, must have formed part of the collections of the same writer. The question of the authorship^ however, will be more satisfactorily dis- cussed in connection with the more important work which immediately foUows.
" See Preface to Monumenta Historica Britannica, p. 89. Gotscelin's Passio leatorum martyrum Etheldredi et Ethelhricti occurs in MS. Bodl., 285, ff. 116- 120 h. Of his Life of Mildreda, four early MSS. are described by Mr. Hardy in liis Catalogue of Materials for British History, vol. i., p. 376.
Xll PREFACE.
III. History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes. The only ancient copy of tliis compilation is contained in a MS. volume in tlie library of C. C. College_, Cambridge/ formerly in tlie possession of Arclibisbop Parker, of whicli a minute description will be found in tlie appendix to this Preface^ being the result of a careful examination and collation by the Eev. James Raine. Besides the two pieces which precede the History of the Kings in the present volume^ there are in the MS.j interposed betw^een the rubric and the body of the work, many pages of extracts from the writings of Beda^ including a large portion of the Lives of the Abbats of Jarrow and Wear- mouth, wdth several Latin poems^ one of them of considerable length. As all these are accessible in the collccted editions of Beda^s works^ it has not been thought necessary to reproduce them here^ especially as they exhibit no marks of that manipu- lation to w^hich the Northumbrian chronicle and the version of Asser have been subjected.
The rubric is to the following eifect : — " Here begins the History of Symeon of holy and sw^eet memory_, monk and precentor of the Church of Durham^ concerning the deeds of the kings of the Anglcs and Danes, and their incessant wars, rapineSj and incendiarisms ; from the death of the Vcnerable priest Beda_, nearly to the death of King Henry I.^ the son of William the Bastard^ who conquered England^ that is_, for a period of four hundred and twentj^-nine years and four months.-'^
The inaccuracy of the computation in the last line has been already pointed out^ but the rubric altogether is very little to be depended upon_, and certainly formed no part of the original work^ but must have been added not earlier than the reign of Henry II. _, previous to whose accession there was no occasion to distinguish his predecessor of the same name^, as Henry I. To all the matter previously adverted to it is altogether inap- plicable, as the whole of it relates to a period inconsistent with the title, for the most part antecedent to the birth of Beda^ and in no case posterior to his death. Leland_, who has made
° F., V., 139.
PREFACE. XIU
extensive extracts from this MS.^ was fully alive to the inac- curacy of tlie above description_, and has modified the rubric, first_, by rejecting the false compntation^ and^ secondly_, by discriminating between the Historia post Bedam, and the incon- gruous medley of discordant materials which has been asso- ciated with it.^ The historical matter_, to which alone the rubric properly applies^ consists of two separate compilations^ perfectly distinct and unconnected^ but which do between them extend over the interval from the death of Beda to the latter years of Henry !._, the first part reaching from the termination of the Ecclesiastical History, four years before the death of its author, to the year 957^ the second going back to the birth of King Alfred, a.d. 848^ and ending in the 30th of Henry I.^ A.D. 1129.
That the scribe of the Cambridge MS. himself, when he copied the several pieces which he has grouped together under this rubric^ did not regard thcm as portions of an integral whole, is obvions on a reference to Mr. Raine^s report. Nay, further^ he has not even treated the two chronicles, which we are content to accept as the first and second parts of the History of the Kings, as if they were in any way connected. The first^ although Avritten with some regard to neatness and regularity, is totally void of ornament^ whilst the second is executed with considerable elegance^ and adorned with an illu- minated initial,, which if it were to be found in one only of two parts of the same work_, we should at all events expect to find at the commencement of the first and not of the second. The preliminary matter, again, is so carelessly transcribed as in many places to be scarcely legible^ replete with erasures and
p The rubric as modified by Leland is as follows : — Ex historia Symeonis monachi, precentoris Dunholmensis ecclesise, quam scripsit de regibus Anglorum et Danorum a tempore Bedge usque ad ultimos annos Henrici Primi, regis Anglise ; ita tamen ut ante prsescriptam historise inchoationem incipiat a genealogia regum Cantianorum et vitam Ethelberti et Etheh'edi martyrum, et filiorum Eormenredi, qui fuit filius Eadbaldi, et frater Erconberti regum Cantise, scribat et posterea adsuat genealogiam regum Northanhynbrorum, multa interserens de abbatibus, cum Weremutensis tum Gyrovicencis coenobii, ac etiam de Beda (Collectanea, vol. ii., p. 347 : ed. 1V74).
XIV PREFACE.
interlineations^ and, as regards the poetry^ abounding with alternative readings^ as if it had been taken from a still ruder copy^ which could not with certainty be deciphered.
That the rubric was an after-thought_, is obvious from the position which it occupies. No space remained for it at the top of the page^ which was already occupied by the appropriate rubric of the Legend of the Martyrdom of the two Kentish Princes_, and it had to be written at the bottom of the previous page.^ Mr. Raine does not pronounce with certainty whether the rubric is written by the same hand as the two chronicles, but the writing is of nearly the same period.
PART I.— A.D. 732-957.
As the entire history consists of two somewhat incongruous parts^ so the first part is composed of two divisions equally distinct_, written at different periods^ but both far anterior to the age of Symeon^ whatever part he may possibly have taken in reducing them to their present form.
The first division^ extending to the commencement of the ninth century^ has every appearance of having been written contemporaneously with the events which it records. The second is a paraphrase^ somewhat abridged in detail^ but much more diffuse in language^ of Asser's Life of Alfred, with a few
"? The work which immediately precedes the miscellaneous matter which is grouped with the History of the Kings in the Cambridge MS. is the Httle tract on the Siege of Durham, at the foot of which the rubric is written. Next before this is the epistle to Dean Hugh on the archbishops of York, which is une- quivocally Symeon's, and in the body of which his name occurs. It is difficult to know what inference to draw from this : whether it induced the rubricist to ascribe to Symeon the matter which follows, and which was previously anony- mous, or whether the whole had been transcribed from a copy in the same handwriting, or which could be traced to have belonged to Symeon. The only conclusion at which we can safely arrive is a negative one, that in discrediting the authority of the rubric, we do not necessarily disprove Symeon's connection with any of the works with which his name has been associated, but leave it to be decided on other evidence.
PREFACE. XV
unimportant additions^ and some scanty notices by way of con- tinuation_, the last of whicli refers to the year 957.
The first division, althongh it professes to take np the Anglo-Saxon annals from the death of Beda^ really commences where his Ecclesiastical Histo7'y ends^ three years earlier. The last chapter of Beda contains_, as is well known, what is called a Recapitulation of the whole work, but which is in fact a chronological summary of the affairs of Britain^ founded for the most part on the previous narrative^ but containing some information of considerable importance which does not occur there/
This summary is continued up to and after the death of the author in various existing MSS. for a longer or shorter period. In some it ends with a.d. 735 ; in others it is carried on to 766, and the chronicle under consideration to a very great extent, though not uniformly, coincides with it up to the later date, differing from it only in the same degree that one copy of the Saxon Chronicle differs from another. From 7QQ to the com- mencement of the following century it is of precisely the same character, being to all appearance a series of notes committed to writing whilst the events were fresh in the memory of the authors. We have evidence, at all events, that it was compiled previous to the year of Halfdene^s incursion, 875, in which the church of Hexham was destroyed. In an entry under a.d. 788 the author describes it as still existing in his own time, as it stood at the date referred to, in all its pristine splendour; whereas we know that the torches of Halfdene^s foUowers had consumed the woodwork and ornamental fittings, and left nothing but the wreck of its bare and blackened walls.
The copy of these annals in the work before us ends abruptly and imperfectly, the entry under tlie year 803 break- ing off in the middle of a sentence. From this year to 830 is a total blank ; then occurs one of a series of notices of the suc-
^ Inter alia, the notice of the foundation of the kingdom of Northumberland by Ida, which has been copied in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and by all our early historians, is found in the " Eecapitulatio " only : the very name of Ida does not occur in the body of the Ecclesiastical History.
XVI PREFACE.
cession of the archbisliops and bishops of Canterbury and the Northern sees ; after which we have no indication of any farther portion of these earlier materials^ bnt the second division com- mences after another interval of nineteen years.
It is not to be wondered at that Symeon^s name has been connected with this work_, althongh we have shewn that the original fabric at all events is of much earlier date. Not only does he use it during a long period as the basis of the civil history which is nccessarily intermixed with his account of the Church of Durham, but in many instances he adopts the pccu- liarities of its language. The following instances of identity of expression will be sufficient to shew that the coincidence is not fortuitouSj but that he must have written with the book open before him : —
1. Describing the elevation of Egbert_, bishop of York^ to the archiepiscopal dignity^ a.d. 735^ the foUowing words are used in the annals^ and are adopted by Symeon : '' Primus post Paulinum^ accepto ab Apostolica sede pallio^ genti Northanhym- brorum in archiepiscopatum confirmatus est.''^*
2. Speaking of the death of Balther, the hermit of Tyning- ham_, the words in these annals are : " Viam sanctorum patrum est secutus^ migrando ad Eum,, Qui se reformavit ad imaginem Filii Sui.^'' Symeon has the same words^ with the substitution only of " ingressus est '''' for " est secutus.^^^
3. In reference to the retirement of King Eadbert to the cloister at York_, we read here : " In clericatu Deique Omni- potentis servitio." Symeon has the same words^ transposing " Dei'' and " Omnipotentis.''"
4. Under the year 793 Symeon copies with slight verbal alterations, first a minute description of the island and monas- tery of Lindisfarne; secondly, an account of the prodigies which preceded the destruction of the latter ; and^ lastly, the particulars of the catastrophe. In this case^ if we had had any doubt as to which was the original authority^ it would have
* Compare p. 13, 1. 1, with. Hist. Dunelm., ii., 3. ' Compare p. 20, 1. 9, with Hist. Dunelm., ii., 2. " Compare p. 23, 1. 1, with Hist. Dunelm., ii., 3.
PREFACE. XVll
been removed by his own express statement that he copied from an earlier writer/
5. The account given in this wwk of the attack of the Danes on the monastery at the mouth of the Don is copied verbatim in the History of the Church of Durham, but in the lattcr w^e have an explanation^ w^hich was unnecessary in the time of the earlier writer^ that Portus Ecgfridi was the old name of the estuary at Jarrow at the confluence of the Don with the Tyne.'"
The number of cases of this kind^ of the recurrence of combinations of words which would never spontaneously have presented themselves to two independent writers^ might be extended, but the above are the most remarkable. We must notj however^ omit to point out one very notable instance in which Symeon has unquestionably derived his materials from the Historia de Gestis Regum^ but has assigned motives for the acts detailed, which cannot be gathered from the earlier writer, and are even opposed to the obvious deductions from his text ; thus clearly demonstrating that Symeon was not the author of these annals^ inasmuch as he was not in all cases able to unravel the intricacies of their narrative. Under the year 750 w^e read that King Eadbert led Bishop Kynewlf captive to Bamburgh, and afterwards confined him in the church of St. Peter at Lindisfarne. Also that Offa;, the son of Aldfrid, although innocent^ was compelled to take refuge at the shrine of St. Cuthbertj but was dragged^ unarmed and almost dead with hungerj from the church.^
The natural inference seems to be that both acts of violence were committed by the king, or with his sanction^ but Symeon gives quite a different version, attributing the calamities which befell Offa_, in general terms^ to the persecution of his enemies^ and the punishment of the bishop to Eadberfs displeasure at his connivance or non-interference to prevent such atrocities. Even if the text before us admitted of such an interpretation^ we have tliis serious difficulty to contend with, that Offa so far
^ Compare p. 31, 1. 17, with Hist. Dunelm., ii., 5. •* Compare p. 32, 1. 38, with Hist. Dunelm., ii., 5. ' Compare p. 19, 1. 3, with Hist. Duncltn., i.., 2.
XVlll PREFACE.
from being a connection or ally of the ruling monarch^ was tlie last remaining descendant of an elder and antagonistic branch of the house of Ida. Eadbert followed but the instinct of his race in pursuing the rightful heir to the crown with unrelenting severity^ and even tearing him from the sanctuary of the altar^ whilst the bishop drew upon himself the anger of his sovereign by admitting the fugitive to this ineffectual asylum.
Not only has Symeon availed himself of these ancient annals in the compilation of his History of the Church of Durham up to the year 803^ where they terminate imperfectly in our copy^ but he seems to have followed an unmutilated text to a much later date^ for he gives us the succession of the North- umbrian kings from that period to the disruption of the mo- narchy in 867/ and^ after that_, the reigns of two petty princes, Ecgbert and Ricsig/ whose dominions were limited to the terri- tory north of the Tyne ; which particulars are not to be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, nor^ so far as we are aware^ in any other authority which existed at the time he wrote. From this date indeed the character of his history is altogether changed. It is no longer a continuous narrative^ but a series of unconnected anecdotes and miracles, often separated by considerable intervals of time^, and generally traceablCj where the matter is historical^ to existing sources. The inference seems clear that the authority which had guided him from the close of Beda^s History had suddenly failed^ nor need we be surprised that it should be so^ when we remember that at this precise period, in the reign of Ricsig, the devastations of Half- dene occurred^ overwhelming in one common ruin all the mo- nasteries of Northumberland^ and that the monks_, the only historians of the age, were either slain or hopelessly dispersed. We have seen that in these annals the church of Hexham is represented as existing in its pristine magnificence and integrity^ and so it did remain till this calamitous period, but scarcely had the pen dropped from the hand of the writer,, when it was reduced to a scorched and blackened ruin.
y Hist. Dunelm., ii., 5, 6. ' Ibid., ii., 6.
PREFACE. XIX
The anonymous author of the work for the first time made public in this volume^ De Adventu Saxonum, has used the same materials up to this date in the Northumbrian portion of his compilation, and they must even have existed in the time of Roger of Wendover^ a much more recent author_, whose narrative precisely agrees with Symeon^s^ but is occasionally somewhat fuller in details.
We have traces also of a continuation of the Historia de Gestis Regum Anglorum, which is probably the same that is cited by Adam of Bremen, an author referred to by Dr. Lap- penbergh^ under the title of Gesta Anglorum, as his authority for events which occurred half a century later^ and which we do not find recorded by any other historian. This continuation was probably not the work of a contemporary^ nor is it probable that there ever existed a complete and continuous history of the affairs of Northumberland during the troublous period which intervened between the reign of Ricsig and that of Eric^ or Hyric_, the last of her Danish rulers. For the earlier portion of this interval there are no other details in the History of the Church of Durham than are to be met Avith in the ancient History of St. Cuthbert : those in the Libellus de Adventu Saxonum are probably from the Gesta Anglorum^ and contain little which is not to be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The importance of the early annals embodied in the Historia de Gestis Regum Anglorum et Dacorum has been greatly un- derrated_, in consequence of their having been looked upon as the production of an author of the twelfth century,, instead of being, as they unquestionably are^ the genuine records of the eighth and ninthj as ancient and authentic as any of the materials which have been incorporated in the Saxon Chronicle for the same period.
The original information which they supply relates more particularly to the kingdom of Northumberland^ but is by no means confined to it. The following notices apply to the his- tory of the southern states. Under the year 732 we read of the death of Alric, one of the sons and co-heirs of Wictred^ king of Kent, which is unnoticed in the Saxon Chronicle, and
XX PREFACE.
erroneously dated by Malmesbury. Swebrelit also^ king of the East Saxons_, wliose death is recorded a.d. 738, is noticed by no other author. Again, in 740, we read, '' Arwine, the son of Eadulf, was slain.^^ Eadulf was one of the petty kings who ruled in separate districts of Kent at that period, unnoticed by historians, but known to us by a charter bearing his name in the Textus Roffensis. The Northumberland Annals appended to Beda mention his death, without noticing his parentage;'^ by no other historian is any mention made of him. Under the year 749 the following statement occurs in our text_, which is not to be met with elsewhere : ^' JElfwald, king of the East Angles, died. Hunbeanna* and Alberht divided his kingdom between them.^^
As regards the Fasti of the English Church we have much exclusive information. We find the succession of the bishops of Lindsea/ and the names of many bishops of the Mercian sees/ notices of the consecration of two bishops of Selsea/ and of one of each of the dioceses of Hereford, Sherburn, and Elmham / of the deaths of two bishops of London^ and one of Rochester/^ all unnoticed by the Saxon Chronicle, in common with which we have also lists of the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and of the bishops of Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Whitherne.
« "Aruuini et Eadbertus interfecti." We have no clue to the identity of Eadbertus, if indeed the reading is correct,
* Mr. Thorpe would read Beanna or Beonna, and not ^«wbeanna. See his note to the translation of Lappenberg's JSngland under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, vol. i., p. 243 : 1845.
•^ 732 Cynebertus moritur.
733 Aldwig — moritur 750.
750 Aldulfus — moritur 765. ^ Aldwinus qui et Wor moritur 737.
737 Huita (Lichfield) ; Totta (Leicester) — moritur 764.
Hemeli (Lichfield) moritur 765.
764 Eadbert (Leicester); 765 Cuthfrid (Lichfield).
786 Aldulfus (Lichfield). ^ 731 Sigfrid ; 767 Alubert— moritur 780. / 736 Cuthbert, Heordwald, Ethelfrid. s Ingwald 745 ; Hathubert 801. " Aldulf 739.
PREFACE. XXI
We have also several details of the history of Scotlaiid during the period of the Pictish predominance, which are either altogether unnoticed elsewhere^ or confined to the text before us^ and the kindred pages of the Northumberland Annals.
A.D. 744. A battle between the Picts and Britons.
A.D. 756. Eadbert,, king of Northumberland^ and Unust_, king of the Picts^ led an army against the city of Alclyde, and there received the submission of the Britons on the first day of August. On the tenth of the same month almost the whole of the army perished, on the route from Ouania to Newburgh.
A.D. 774. Alcred^ king of Northumberland, fled with a few companions first to Bamburgh, and afterwards to Cynoht, king of the Picts.^
Not less important is the confirmation given to the accuracy of the ancient Chronicon Pictorum, by the dates which are here furnished of the decease of Unust, or Ungus/ and of Cynoht. The Pictish Chronicle does not give the dates of the accession or deaths of the several kings^ but specifies the length of each reign, so that the knowledge of the year of the death of one* king enables us to ascertain the dates of the whole series^ pro- vided we are assured of the accuracy of the statement of the duration of the intermediate reigns. Now the Irish Annals give the date of Cynoht^s death a.d. 775, and the Chronicle furnishes the length of his reign twelve years, and of that of his predecessor_, Brude^ the immediate successor of Ungus, two years, thus fixing the death of Ungus, a.d. 761. Our Annals not only agree with the Irish Annals in placing the death of Cynoht a.d. 775, but confirm the accuracy of the intermediate computation, by supplying the date of Ungus^s death also, which the Irish Annals do not, in this very year 761.
The second division of the first part commences, as has
' In our Annals under tlie year 750, we read, Cuthred rex Occidentalium Saxonuni surrexit contra ^thilbaldum regem Merciorum ; the Northumberland Annals add, " et Oengusum."
i Unust, Pictorum rex, defunctus est. The Northumberland Annals add, " qui regni sui principium usque ad finera facinore cruentum tj^rannus carnifex produxit."
C
XXU PREFACE.
been already stated^ with an abridged paraphrase of Asser^s Life of Alfred, wliicli is continued from the Saxon Clironicle to the end of his reign. The first entry refers to a.d. 802^ forty- seven years before Alfred^s birth_, being a narrative of events at that datCj which are introdnced by Asser in explanation of a custom to which he has occasion to allude under a.d. 856. These particulars are here inserted in chronological order imme- diately before the last imperfect items belonging to the first division. These items relate to the series of archbishops of Canterbury and bishops of Lindisfarne^ which form part of the earlier work^ and two similar entries are inserted in the second part by a more recent hand at the bottom of the page. With these exceptions, there are but four entries between 802 and 887 which are not derived from Asser. Of these, three^ under the years 875^ 877^ and 883^ are from the Historia dc Sancto Cuthberto, and two of them are inter- lineations ; the fourth^ under the year 881^ is from an un- known source_, which has also been made use of in the second partj under the same date^ and is unconnected with English history.'^
From the death of Alfred there is nothing like a continuous narrative,, but a series of unconnected notices extend over a pcriod of fifty-eight years j of these^ about forty in all^ more than half are taken from the Saxon Chronicle ; the others fur- nish many particulars^ chiefly in connection with Northumbrian history^ which cannot be traced to any earlier source.
The last entry under the year 957 records the death of Edgar and the accession of Edwin, after whose reign of seven- teen years, we are told, ^^reigned his son Edward_, who was slain by the trcachery of his step-mother_, and rests at Shaftes-
* Nam et patres coenobii sanctissimi Benedicti, (quod Floriacum dicitur,) ipsius reliquias a tumulo, quo locatse fuerant immensa pulchritudine, secum auferentes hac illacque discurrebant, The words in parentheses are only in the notice in the second part. The locality indicated is Fleurie in Lyonnois, and the particulars are probably from Abbo, who was an inmate of that monastery, and whose Legend of the Passion of St. Edmund is referred to in the second part, p. 70, 1. 21.
PREFACE. XXlll
bury j to him succeeded his brother Ethelred, the father of King Edward, whom he had begotten of Emma/^
This aflPords us some clue to the date at Avhich the materials comprised in the first part were put together^ certainly not earlier than the reign of Edward the Confessor^ whose name is here introduced as king^ and there are reasons for supposing that it was not later. Surely if it had been written nnder any of the succeeding kings of the Norman dynasty some allusion would have been made to that stupendous revolntion which overwhelmed the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth on Edward^s death. Neither in the list of kings from Edgar to Edward would it have ignored altogether the reigns of Suane^ Cnute, Harold and Hardicnute. We can understand the feeling that might still prevail in the reign of Edward the Confessor, which wonld repudiate the Danish monarchs as usurpers^ and exclude them from the regal list ; but such a feeling could have no existence after the Conquest. If, again^ this genealogical summary had been written after Edward's death, his name would hardly have been brought thus prominently forward without some expression of the fond veneration in which his memory was held by his countrymen in aftertimes. Symeon has occasion to refer to him twice in his History of the Church of Durham, and on both occasions applies the prefix of '^the most pious king " (iii. 9^ 14) . That the same hand was em- ployed in shaping the first and second portions of the first part of the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes^ will scarcely admit of dispute. The same exaggerated style pervades both^ founded in each case upon the same model ; on the Passion of St. Ethelbert and St. Ethelred; which, with the Genealogy of the Kings of Northumberland^ clothed in the same florid para- phrase, seems to have formed the collections of an anonymous student in the reign of Edward the Confessor.
It is true that the same grandiloquent phraseology does not so universally pervade the annals of the eighth century^ as the subsequent extracts from Asser; but this is due to the nature of the material to be operated upon. The brief notes of which thc annals chiefly consist, werc hardly susceptible of this species
XXIV PREFACE.
of ornamentation ; but whenever an opportunity presented itself, as in the list of the archbishops of Canterbury, at page 12, we at once detect the finger of the paraphrast of Asser, and the Northumbrian genealogy. The detached sentences which form the continnation are again in the simplest language. We have already pointed out the very few additions which this compiler has inserted in the narrative of Asser. His interpolations in the earlier annals are yet fewer. Two only have been detected, both of which occur at page 18_, and are referred to in the notes below [q and u). — The reference in the former to the Saxon Chronicle is characteristic of a writer who has drawn so much of his additional matter from that source. There can be little doubt that the other is from the same pen ; at all events it was not introduced by Symeon, who was himself the author of a History of the Archbishops of York, and well acquainted with the position in their series of the second Wilfrid, whose name has caused so much perplexity in the passage referred to.
There are, however, two interpolations of much greater length which can neither be referred to the reign of Edward the Confessor, nor yet to the pen of Symeon in the following century. These occur at pages 14-17, and 26-28, and con- sist of Legends respecting the two canonized bishops of Hexham, Acca and Alchmund, not only directly at variance with the statements of Symeon, in his History of the Church of Durham, but obviously introduced for the very purpose of contradicting those statements. Symeon tells us (iii. 7), amongst other meri- torious actions of the pious priest Alured, that he employed himself in the collection of the bones of the illustrious Saints, whose remains lay scattered amidst the ruins of the monasteries and churches of Northumberland, a portion of all of which, in- cluding relics of Acca and Alchmund, he conveyed to Durham, and deposited in the tomb of St. Cuthbert. The Legends, on the contrary, inform us that the relics remain at Hexham, not a bone absent from its proper place ; and all this is accompanied by details well calculated to make a deep impression on a credu- lous age, and effectually to dispose of the testimony of Symeon, without raaking any direct reference to it.
PREFACE. XXV
Many instances have been adduced in wliich Symeon has not only derived materials from the carlier portion of the First Part of this History, but has even adopted its language. Of the latter portion he has not availed himself to the same extent ; but we have proof that it was not unknown to him. It con- tains a notice of the great battle in which Athelstan defeated the combined forces of the Danes, Scots and Cumbri^ns, the locality of which it fixes at a place called Wendune. Every other early authority describes it by the name of Brunnanburgh ; but Symeon^ informs us that it was "fought at Weondune/^ which is also called by another name^ '' Aet-Brunnanwerc " or " Brunnanbyrig.^"' We may assume then that Symeon had access to the entire collection, which is known to us as the First Part of the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes ; that in all probability he was the possessor of a copy which it is not unlikely that he had himself transcribed, as a storehouse of ma- terials for the History of the Church of Durham ; and the only respects in which his copy appears to have differed from that which Ave now possess, were^ first^ that the early annals were continued to the reign of Ricsig, towards the close of the ninth century, instead of ending abruptly at its commencement ; and, secondly, that it had not the interpolated legends of Acca and Alchmund.
PART II.— A.D. 848-1129.
This part, as far as the year 1119^ is based on the History of Florence of Worcester, of which it exhibits the text somewhat abridgcd, with certain interpolated passages, many of them of considerable length, but presenting in the aggregate a very small proportionate bulk as compared with the substructure on which they are grafted. The remainder of the narrative from 1119 to 1129 is an original composition.
Between the first part and the second is inserted a series of Legends from William of Malmesbury^ which it has not been
' Hist. Dimelm., ii., 18.
XXVI PREFACE.
tliought desirable to reproduce^ but references are given in tbe notes_, by which they may readily be found in the pages of the original author. The rubricist of the MS. has distinguished by the title of " Kecapitulatio ^^ that portion of the second part which extends over the same period_, which has been already gone over in the first^ although after the death of Alfred they have scarcely anything in common. The remainder is described as " Continuatio.^^
The History of Florence, in all the copies with which we are acquainted^ is made to close with the year 1117^ a few months previous to the death of its author ; but there is reason to believe'" that his labours terminated some years earlier. It seems to have been brought down to 1119^ probably by the same hand which afterwards continued it to 1141, and to have been at once made public. At all events Symeon commences his continua- tion at the former date. Amongst the interpolations are two long extracts, the first at p. 74 concerning Johannes Scotus from Malmesbury^s Life of Aldhelm; the second at p. 81, ex- plaining the conflicting claims of Harold and William to the crown of England, extracted from Eadmer^s Historia Novorum.
There are also several notices of Rollo and his successors, Dukes of Normandy, from some authority resembling the Chronicle of Caen.
Ecgbert and Ricsig, who are mentioned by Symeon as reign- ing beyond the Tyne after the disruption of the Northumbrian monarchy by the Danes, are also noticed here; and the date of the latter^s death, and the name of his successor, a second Ecgbert, are also givenwithotherparticulars, apparentlyunknown to Symeon, which have probably been derived from the Gesta Anglorum, referred to by Adam of Bremen. Many other par- ticulars are also given from Symeon^s History of the Church of Durham, and some extracts are made from the brief chrono- logical notes in the first part of the History after the death of Alfred. The extracts from the History of Durham have certainly not been made by Symeon himself, as in many cases
'" See notey, p. 106.
PREFACE. XXVll
they have been so altered as to cliffer essentially from liis narrative. This applies particularly to tlie acconnt of tlie possessions of tlie church of Lindisfarne at p. 67, and of the settlement of Aldwine and his brethren first at Monkchester and afterwards at Jarrow, at p. 94^ as will be seen by a reference to the notes. Appended to the latter narrative is a romantic legend of the life of Turgot^ which is unsupported by Symeon or any independent authority.
At p. 79 is a notice of the disastrous battle at Carham, A.D. 1018, of which we have the particulars in the History of the Church of Durham, but here we have a statement utterly uncountenanced by Symeon^ that Earl Uchtred was the leader of the Northumbrian forces in the engagement,, although we know from Florence^ as copied a few pages before, that he had been treacherously slain two years previously.
The most unaccountable discrepancy, howeverj occurs in the account^ at p. 103, of the ceremony of laying the foundation of the new cathedral at Durham, a narrative of which we have also a description in the work of Symeon, which is specially devoted to the honour of his Church." According to him the ceremony was performed by the bishop, William de St. Carileph, and Prior Turgot, assistcd only by the monks ; whilst in the history beforc us,^ Malcolm king of Scotland is represented not merely as being present, but as having taken an active part in the solem- nity. The co-operation of a sovereign prince on such an occa- sion was too memorable an event to have been omitted by an historian so warmly interested, and who could not have been ignorant of it, if there were any truth in the story. Neither were the relations between the parties of so amicable a kind as to induce us to accept the statement as authentic without satis- factory proof. Not many years previously Turgot had been driven from the retirement which he sought amidst the shades of Melrose, hallowed by the memory of his patron Saint, by the unceasing persecutions of the Scottish king.^
If we are to believe the very authority on which the state-
" Hist. Dunelm., iv., 8. " p. 103, 1, 39.
p Hist. Dunelm., iii., 22.
XXVlll PREFACE.
ment of Malcolm's presence on tliis occasion rests, his liostility was not confined to tlie Prior^ but extended to the wliole churcli of St. Cuthbert^ whose patrimony he had three times invaded and laid waste^ on one occasion ravaging the sacred island of Lindisfarne ;* on another_, desolating tlie entire district from the Tees to Wearmouth / on a third^ carrying devastation to the very threshold of the episcopal city itself/ Two other invasions of Northumberland are mentioned^ not specially directed against the patrimony of the church^ and the whole are recapitulated as follows :^ —
'^'^The first was in King Edward^s reign^ when Earl Tosti " was on a pilgrimage to Rome.
"The second in King William^s^ when he ravaged Cleve- " land.
'^The third in the same reign, when he advanced to the " Tyne, retiring from thence with great booty^ after the slaughter " of the inhabitants, and the conflagration of their residences.
'' The fourth in the reign of William the younger, when he " advanced with an immense force to Chester, not far from " Durhara^ intending to have proceeded yet farther_, when_, being ^^ confronted by a far inferior force, he was seized with panic^ ^' and returned precipitately.
"The fifth was when, having raised all the forces in his ^^ power^ he entered Northumberland for the purpose of a final " desolation^ but was cut oflP with his eldest son Edward near ^' the river Alne.^^
The first, second, and fourth are the incursions above re- ferred to. The third and the fifth are alone corroborated by any independent authority.
As regards the first incursion_, there is nothing very startling in the fact that Malcolm should have taken advantage of Tosti^s absence on a religious errand to invade his province^ although they are described_, as if in reprobation of the breach of faith_, as ^' sworn brothers.''^
The second was directed chiefly against the possessions of
? p. 80, 1. 25 ; A.D. 1061. "■ p. 87, 1. 6 ; A.D. 1070.
• p. 104, 1. 21. - * p. 104, 1. 16.
PREFACE. XXIX
Earl Gospatric, who retaliated by making a raid upoa Malcolm^s Cumbrian territories^ and the mutual exasperation is represented as extreme. AU this^ unsupported by other testimony, appears little entitled to credit^ when opposed not only to the general statements which we have from all quarters of the amity which existed between the two_, but more especially to the fact that when Gospatric was shortly afterwards driven from his earldomj he took refuge at the Scottish court, where he was not only hospitably received, but was replaced in his adopted country in a position_, both as to rank and estate_, little inferior to that which he had held in the land of his birth. We can imagine Malcolm ignoring obligations and violating pledges ; we can even believe that circumstances might induce him to be reconciled to a for- mer foe_, but it is difficult to account for the bestowal of the wealth and honours which he heaped upon Gospatric^ after the mutual injuries which they are here said to have inflicted on each other. There are minor discrepancies and inconsistencies in reference to this invasion which it is difficult to reconcile with known facts^ and which at all events prove that the account could not have been written by Symeon. The church of St. Peter at Wearmouth is represented as having been burnt down on this occasion/' whereas we learn from Symeon that it had been for ages in ruins^ its walls only standing, and the site^ both within and without_, overgrown by timber and brushwood^ which were cut down with much labour a few years later, when the edifice was at last put into a state of repair.^ The accounts of Malcolm^s atrocities so closely resemble those ascribed to his son David I. by the Hexham historians^ that^ knowing as we do that the former portion of this work had received interpolations from a Hexham pen^ it is difficult to resist the conviction that the details now under review have been additions from the same quarter.^ The absurd story of the number of English slaves that were to be found in almost every Scotch household, which has met with such favourable acceptance with many of
" p. 87, 1. 21. " Hist. Dunelm., iii., 22.
" Compare p. 8, 1. 2-21, with the Chronicles of Eichard and John, Priors of Hexham, pubHshed by the Surtees Society, pp. 78, 116.
XXX PREFACE.
our historians^ rests on the solitary anthority of this interpola- tion. The tale of the meeting of Malcolm with his future queen and her brother and sister at Wearmouth is not merely an idle fable unsupported by other evidence^ but it is dated two years after the settlement of all the parties in Scotland. Some of the interpolations undoubtedly contain genuine information, but not always on matters of very great importance ; and the examples which have been here given are sufficient to point out that they must not in all cases be received without examination. It has been further shewn that a large portion, at all events, is not due to Symeon. Indeed the rubric is the only evidence we possess that he had any connection with the work at all^ and this assigns to him the authorship of the first part as well as the second. As regards the first part^ he appears at most to have been only the transcriber of the MS. of an anonymous collector of the time of Edward the Confessor, just as he had transcribed the Historia Cuthberti and the tract on the Siege of Durham, as materials for his own works. In the same way it is probable that, on the appearance of Florence of Worcester's chronicle, he may have made an abridgment of it, adding to it perhaps from year to year such notices of current events as ultimately formed the continuation as we now have it. Some of the interpolations may also have been his. This is indeed, to a great extent, matter of speculation, but it is as near an approach to certainty as with the limited and somewhat con- tradictory information in our possession we are ever likely to arrive at.
The last entry in this chronicle refers to the year 11 29^ which is perfectly consistent with Symeon^s age^ and with the assumption that the continuation proceeded from his pen. In endeavouring to fix the precise date of its completion^ our attention is naturally directed to two lists of the abbats of the religious houses founded at York and Whitby, w^hich are in- troduced in connection with the account of the re-introduction of monastic institutions into Northumberland a.d. 1074, nearly two centuries after their extermination by the Danes.^ A com-
■' p. 94.
PREFACE. XXXI
parison of these lists^ if tliey had come down to us withont alteration or addition^ would have given us the information we require with a close approximation to complete accuracy ; but we know that it was the almost universal practice of tran- scribers to continue such lists to their own times, thus oblite- rating the landmarks of the original authors. This has been done by the transcriber of the Cambridge MS., who brings down the series of abbats of York to Clement, and of Whitby to Richard^ whose contemporaneous incumbencies extended from 1161 to 1175^ thus fixing the date of transcription between those years, whilst the character of the handwriting^ as reportcd on by Mr. Raine, points to the later rather than the earlier year.
The Ahridgment of Symeon, however, to which allusion has already been made as existing in the Cottonian Library^ pre- sents us with farther information. This MS., which is un- questionably of earlier date than that on which our text is founded, closes the series of York abbats with the name of Godfrey, who was appointed in 1132_, and only enjoyed his dignity one year. This date approximates so closely to that at which the chronicle closes, that we are tempted to assume that we have the list without alteration by the epitomist, just as it came out of the author^s hands^ and that the year 1132 repre- sents the precise date of the _ compilation ; or^ even if it is the date of the abridgment, the original work must have been iinished between the year 1129, to which the narrative is brought down, and 1132, in which it was epitomized. Unfor- tunately, however, the Abbreviatio extends only to 1119, and the only positive testimony which we derive from it is that certain of the interpolations had been inserted in the text of Florence, and the joint work of Florence and his interpolator had been epitomized as early as 1132. This leads to the infer- ence that in 1132 Symeon^s continuation was unknown to the public, or at all events to the epitomist, although carried out in the meantime in the privacy of his cell.
It is well known that the History of Roger Hoveden is based to a great extent upon the Historia Regum, and that he
XXXll PREFACE.
has transcribed verbatim a large proportion of both the parts. It furtlier appears from the series of abbats in his work, that the MS. from which he transcribed must have been of inter- mediate date between that used by the editor of the Abbreviatio, and the Cambridge MS.^ written whilst Severinus^ the imme- diate successor of Godfrey, was abbat of St. Mary's at York, which position he held till his death in 1161. The ancient annals in the First Part^ which were unquestionably perfect to a much later period, when Symeon compiled his History of the Church of Durham_, must already have been mutilated when Hoveden^s MS. was transcribed; and the particulars which have been inserted to fill up the gap between the year 801 and the birth of Alfred had already been transposed from their proper place in Asser^s biography for that purpose. These particulars are retained by Hoveden^ but he makes no farther use of the paraphrase of Asser in our text_, nor of the brief notices which foUow it.
It does not appear that the MS. from which the Abbreviatio was made contained the first part ; at all events no use has been made of it^ but the two parts must have been united previous to the transcription of the MS. which Hoveden copiedj as that unquestionably contained farther additions^ which are not in the Cambridge MS. Alured of Beverley also made use of both parts in the compilation of his History^ which we know was written about a.d. 1143.2^
' The second part is twice referred to by Fordun/ once as an authority for the presence of Malcohn at the foundation of Durham cathedral^ when he quotes it as the work of Turgot_, and_, secondly^ for the details of certain events antecedent to the marriage of that king with the princess Margaret^ when he describes it anonymously as "an old chronicle.^^ Nowhere does he speak of Symeon as the author^ nor does he appear to have been acquainted with Symeon^s genuine work^ the History of the Church of Durham.
y See Hardy^s Catalogue of Materials for British Historj, vol ii., p. 172. '^ See rordun's extracts from Turgot in tlie Appendix to this volume, p. 261, also note y, p. 258.
PREFACE. XXXIU
In preparing tliis edition^ it lias been determined to omit all that portion of the text which is taken from Florence of Worcester, beyond such sentences. or parts of sentences_, and passages, as are essential to render the additions intelligible. A snfficient justification for this omission might be found in the inexpediency of re-printing^ without serving any object of practical utility, a mass of matter, many times exceeding in bulk the contributions of Symeon, even if credit were given to him for every word which is not directly copied from Florence. It is^ indeed^ performing for Symeon^ or whoever the inter- polator may have been^ the very operation which has been successfully carried out for Florence himself, whose history, it will be remembered, was originally grafted on Marianus Scotus, just as our text has been grafted on him. But the advan- tage is much more than negative. To retain the text of Flo- rence is not only useless, but prejudicial. How often do we find our best historians quoting his words as the testimony of Symeon, and even insisting on the conclusive au^hority of those wwds on Northern affairs^ as proceeding from a Northern source.
To ascertain what passages in the existing edition are really due to the alleged author requires a minute collation with Florence^ to which few readers, and not raany writers_, will submitj and of which the majority do not know the necessity. In order to obviate all difficulty on this head, such portions of Florence as have necessarily been retained in the present edition are distinguished by inverted commas, so that the reader may distinguish the additional matter at a glance.
The same course might perhaps have been pursued with regard to the abridgment of Asscr, which forms so large a proportion of the first part, but the cases are not precisely similar. Our text affords one or two new readings of Asser/
" At p. 55 an important correction of the printed text is supplied. In the MSS. of Asser we find " Exancestriam, quod Brittanice dicitur Cairioisc, Latine Civitas," the next word being deficient. This has been supplied from Florence, who has Civitas JExe. Our text gives the true reading, Civitas Aquarum, which is the Latin equivalent for the Saxon Exanceasfre, and the British Cairioisc.
XXXIV PREFACE.
and is besides valuable for the purpose of comparing its style with otber portions of the works ascribed to Symeon, with a view to determine some questions bearing upon their author- ship. The additions^ moreover, are so few that there is no difficulty in distinguishing them^ as there is in the case of the additions to Florence, which^ although comparatively small in bulk, are considerable in number.
ly. Epistle to Dean Hughf concernmg the Archbishops of York. This little piece is contained in the same MS. volume in the Library of C. C. CoUege, Cambridge^ from which the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes is taken^ but the text adopted in this edition is from another transcript in the Cottonian Library/ which^ although of comparatively modern date^ undoubtedly represents an earlier and more accurate original. It has been collated also with a modern copy amongst the Hale MSS. in the Library of Lincoln^s Inn/ but this turns out to be only a very faulty transcript of the C. C. volume. The narrative of the Acts of the Archbishops extends only to Oswald, who received the pall from Pope Benedict^ a.d. 971, but the names of his successors are given down to Arch- bishop Thurstan, a.d. 1114-1143. The list is further ex- tended in the Cambridge MS. to Archbishop Iloger, whose primacy comprised the interval from 1154 to 1181, thus con- firming the date which has already been assigned to the tran- scription of that volume.
The work consists of two parts, one containing the nar- rative, the other an epistle addressed to Hugh, dean of York, explaining the scope of the undertaking^ and adding some miscellaneous information. There were two deans of York of
In the same page our text has Mucelwudu iastead of Selwudu in Asser ; the latter being the popular name, the former the Saxon equivalent for Coitmawr, or Magna Silva, Selwood Porest. The less material deviations are numerous.
* Titus A. xix., a small quarto on paper, of the fifteenth centurj, written probably by a York scribe, as the same hand occurs in other MSS. connected with Yorkshire in the British Museum. It was probably transcribed at York from the original, or at all events from a copy of earlier date than the Cambridge MS.
" MS. Hale, vol. xiii., in a hand of the seventeenth century.
PREFACE. XXXV
this name in Symeon^s time, the first between the years 1090 and 1109, the second from 1130 to 1132. As, however, the latter was also the contemporary of archbishop Thurstan, there can be no doubt that he is the person addressed. In the text foUowed in the present volume the narrative portion precedes the epistolary; in the C. C. volume the order is reversed. The other variations_, which are not very material, are pointed out in the notes. Some of the names have been modernized in the Cotton MS.j and Arabic numerals have been substituted for Roman. The latter are restored in the text.
There can be no doubt that we have here a genuine work of Symeon_, as it is authenticated by his name in the body of the epistle. It is not, however, a production of much value_, as it contains no information which is not to be met with else- where. We have notice here of the reigns of Egbert and Ricsig, who are also mentioned in the History of the Church of Durham, and whose names are only known to us from the works of Symeon and his foUowers, and from the other pieces which are contained in this volume. The second Egbert does not occur here_, or in the Durham History. In the Cotton MS. Symeon^s name is spelt with a ?/, as in his autograph copy of the History of the Church of Durham, in the University Library in that city. In the Cambridge MS. it is written in an abbreviated form with an i, thus, Sim\
In the Cotton MS. the successors of Thurstan down to George NeviUe, 1464-76, are added, not in their proper place in the series of archbishops, but at the end of the epistle, thus giving us the date of the transcription.
V. History of St. Cuthbert, and of such places and regions as belonged to him of old, and down to the present time. The latter part of the title_, rather than the former, truly expresses the object of this brief but very important contribution to the history of the church of St. Cuthbert. The notices of the Saint are incidental, and no particulars of his life, or details of miracles wrought by him after his decease, are introduced otherwise than in connection with the material advantages wliich were derived from them. The work is referred to by
XXXVl PREFACE.
Symeon on two occasions as the ^' ancient cartulary of the Church/^'^ in which are recorded grants and acquisitions, to which he adverts in general terms_, but omits the particulars^ which he says " it is unnecessary to detail, as they are written " elsewhere/' It is, indeed, essentially a cartulary, although in a narrative form_, and was probably the only evidence which remained of the original charters, which had perished amidst the desolations of the ninth century^ when the house of Lindis- farne was twice burnt^ its inmates driven forth_, and their lands devastated. The only charter which occurs in diplomatic form is of a period subsequent to the removal of the bishopric to Chester-le-Street^ and records the bounty of king Athelstan/ the brother and predecessor of Edmund, to whose time the narrative is brought down, and which is no doubt truly described as " nunc temporis '^ by the writer.
This tract is the earliest authority for the story of the appearance of the Saint to king Alfred in a vision^ in which he promises him his protection^ and assures him of the success of his arms against the Danes.-^ The legend is copied and em- bellished by Malmesbury/ and is briefly told by Symeon/' with this qualification^ that ^' since the particulars are elsewhere " fully detailed, it is not expedient to repeat them here.^^
Symeon also adopts without acknowledgment the details of the death of Halfdene^ of the elevation of Guthred to the throne of Northumberland^ and the incidents of his reign/ also the ravages of Reinold^ or Ragnal, and his lieutenants Scula and Onalafball, between the Tees and Tyne_, and the punishment of the latter.-^'
From the History of St. Cuthbert he has also culled the miracle of the three bloody waves, which drove back the bark
<* Hist. Dunelm., ii., 16, 18.
' p. 149, 1. 14. The pretended charter of King Ecgfrid, wliicli occurs at the end of the Cambridge MS, of the History of the Church of Purham, is a palpable forgerj^ as will be explained in the next volume.
•'' p. 144. s Gesta Eegum Anglorum, ii., 121.
* Hist. Dunelm., ii., 10.
' Compare the History of St. Cuthbert, pp. 143-4, with Hist. Dunelm., ii., 13.
^ Compare pp. 147-8 with Hist. Dunelni., ii., 16.
PREFACE. XXXVll
in which it was proposed to convey the body of the Saint to Ireland/ On one point tliere is a remarkable discrepancy between the older authority and Symeon, which cannot be re- garded as accidental. The former describes the removal of the body of St. Cuthbertj as well as of king Ceolwulf, to Norham from Lindisfarne by Bishop Ecgfrid ;^ the latter mentions that of Ceolwulf only."^ The topographical information which we find in the History of St. Cuthbert is invaluable, notwithstanding the obsolete^ and in very many cases vitiated spelling, which renders it difficult to recognize the local names. This difficulty seems to have existed in the time of Symeon^ who has not always attempted to grapple with it. Great pains have been taken to correct the text wherever it can be done with certainty : conjectural emendations are suggested in the notes^ where also will be found the modern names and the localities of the places mentioned.
This piece was printed by Twysden from a MS. in the public Library of the University of Cambridge^ where it is appended to the History of the Church of Durham, in connection with which the MS. will be described in the Preface to the second volume. No other copy was then known to exist. A MS. in the Library of Lincoln^s Inn" is described by the late Mr. Hun- ter in a report to the Eecord Commissioners'' as bearing a great resemblance to it, but on examination such was not found to be the case^ the work in question being merely a biography of the Saint^ containing no information of novelty or importance.
Whilst this volume was passing through the press^ Mr. Raine discovered a very ancient copy in the Bodleian Library/ defective at the commencement^ but containing a continuation vvhich brings the history of the property of his church to the reign of
* p. 146 ; Hist. Dunelm., ii., 2. ' p. 142, 1. 4.
•" Hist. Dunelm., ii., 5. " Hale MSS., vol. cxiv.
" Record Commissioners' Eeport, 1837 ; p. 374.
p MS. Bodl., 596 (237 h), flf. 203-206 h, vellum, folio ; circa 1080. The tract is described in Hardy's Catalogue, vol. i., p. 317, as " Tarrago Cartarum ad historiam ecclesise Dunelmensis spectantium." It formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Augustine, Canterbury.
d
XXXVlll PREFACE.
Cnute. This MS. agrees very closely with the Cambridge copy^ but is less corrupt,, and in many places confirms the emendations which I had previously made. Symeon has made free use of the continuation as well as o*f the former part of the work. At the end of it will be found the narrative of the miraculous dis- comfiture of the Scottish army in the reign of Guthred;, which is alluded to in the History of the Church of Durhara, with a reference^ as before^ to an earlier authority for particulars.^
VI. Sascon Poem on the situation of Durham, and the relics of Saints which are preserved there. This short piece imme- diately follows the History of St. Cuthbert in the Cambridge MS._, which contains the only ancient copy which is known to exist. It is referred to by Symeon in his History of the Church of Durham, iii. 7. An earlier MS. was destroyed by the fire in the Cottonian Library in 1731. The poem has been ascribed to iElfred^ a priest of the Church of Durham between the years 1056 and Vd1\.'
VII. 0/ the siege of Durham and of the probity of Earl Uchtred. The only copy of the short narrative which is distin- guished by this not very appropriate title is preserved in the C. C. manuscript_, in which the History of the Kings and othcr pieces in this volume are also found. It is not attributed to Symeon in the original MS.^ but his name is an unauthorised addition in a much later hand, probably that of Archbishop Parker. Although it contains considerable information as to the succession of the earls of Northumberland before the Con- quest^ this seems to be purely incidental^ its object being to explain the descent of certain manors alienated by Bishop Aldune on his daughter^s marriage, some of which had reverted to the church^ whilst others remained in lay hands. This is brought down to a period subsequent to the Conquest^ and several names of proprietors occur^ which are known to us in connection with the disturbances which prevailed in Northum- berland both before and after that event. This tract is also the
1 p. 152, 1. 5 ; Hist. Dunelm., ii., 13.
'■ See Preface to Lindisfarne Gospels, piiblished b}^ the Surtees Society,
PREFACE. XXXIX
earliest authority for the statement of the transfer of the clis- trict of Lothian to the crown of Scotland by Eadulf Cudel;, earl of Northumberland. It is^ however^ of less value historically, than as illustrative of the usages and manners of the times. We find a married bishop portioning his daughter out of the property of his see. We have instances^ especially in reference to the Bishop^s daughter^ of the facility of divorce ; and a most remarkable case of deadly feud^ continued through three gene- rations. We have a curious notice of the obligation of duelling. Cospatric the son of Archil is distinguished from others of the same namC;, as the individual who ought to have fought with Waltheof the son of Ailsi. As a mirror of every-day life amongst the influential classes in Northumberland^ in the first half of the eleventh century^ we have no such instructive docu- ment. It belongs to an age prior to Symeon_, but he has not made use of it to the extent we might have expected. He details the assistance given by Uchtred to the Bishop in clear- ing the foundations for his new settlement at Durham^ but he passes unnoticed the siege which is here recorded. This was probably owing to the difficulty occasioned by an error in the date, pointed out in the notes^ which may in his judgment have cast a doubt on the statement altogether^ and on the credibility of the writer.
VIII. History of the Translations oj St. Cuthbert. This work has been compiled within a short time of the establish- ment of the monastery of Durham, and has received additions from time to time^ until it assumed its present shape. One ancient copy, still extant/ contains only the first seven chapters, and w^e have proof that in its original state it consisted of only six. These six chapters must have been in existence when Symeon composed his History of the Church of Durham during the priorate of Turgot^ which only extended to the year 1109, as we have ample evidence that it was in his hands whilst he was employed upon that work. On the other hand it is equally certain that the seventh chapter was not written until after the
« MS. Ilarl., 1924.
r/2
xl
PREFACE.
decease of Ranulpli Archbishop of Canterbury/ whicli occurred in 1122. The first four chapters are derived from the History of St. Cuthbert^ and are all of them adopted or referred to by Symeon. The first contains the vision of King Alfred; the second the miracle of the three bloody waves; the third the legend of Onalaf ball, or^ as his name is here spelt_, Onalafbald ; the fourth is the history of the destruction of the Scottish host in the reign of Guthred. To all these Symeon_, doubtless^ had access in the pages of the earlier authority ; but the fifth and sixth are not to be found there, but first occur in the present work. The fifth chapter records the punishment of Barcwith or Barcwid^ a soldier of Earl Tosti^ for a violation of the sanc- tity of the monastic precincts^ to which Symeon specially refers, as it is " elsewhere detailed more fully.^^" The sixth chapter contains a relation^ adopted by Symeon^ of the miraculous interposition^ by which the monks were enabled to pass the sands between the mainland of Northumberland and the island of Lindisfarne at high tide^ when they fled with the body of the Saint to escape the anger of William the Conqueror after the slaughter of Bobert Cumin and his men at Durham." The seventh chapter^ which forms chapter xviii. of the work as it now standsj is the most interesting of the whole^ containing a minute and circumstantial account of the exhumation of the body of St. Cuthbert, a.d. 1104. This is found in all existing MSS. of the Translations of St. Cuthbert^ to which indeed it gives name_, the bulk of the remainder of the work being taken up with a series of miracles_, which although due to the inter- position of the Saint^ are only occasionally connected with the migrations of his remains. It is printed separately in the Acta Sanctorum, and a translation is given by the late Dr. Raine in his St. Cuthbert, pp. 75-78.
The eleven intervening chapters, vii. to xvii. inclusivCj occur in all the MSS. with the exception noted above; chapters xix. and XX. are in the Laud_, Arundel^ and Gale MSS.^ xxi. in Arundel and Gale only.
' See p. 194, note s. " Hist. Dunelm., iii., 11.
" Ib., iii., 15.
PREFACE.
xli
It is remarkable that there is no reference in tliis work to the vision wliich led to Guthred^s elevation to the throne of Northumberland, which is related in the Historia Cuthberti and repeated by Symeon ; and^ further^ that neither here nor in the Historia is there any notice of the miraculous preservation of the copy of the Gospels which was washed overboard on the occasion of the attempted voyage to Ireland wdth the body of the Saint. That legend rests on the authority of Symeon alone/" supported by the evidence of the book itself which is preserved to this day^ and exhibits marks which have always been attributed to the effects of this immersion.
The present is not merely the first complete edition of the Translations of St. Cuthbert, but, as regards by far the greatest portion of its contents_, is the only edition. The compilation which is printed under this title in the Acta Sanctorum contains only the first chapter and part of the second/ the remainder being made up of many pages from Symeon^s History of the Church of Durham, and of another w^ork entitled Relatio de Sancto Cuthberto, which is to a great extent a plagiarism from Symeon. In many of the MSS. in which the Translations occur they are foUow^ed by the Relatio, and the editor of the Acta Sanctorum had met with a volume of this kind in a muti- lated state^ perfect at the beginning and end but defective in the middle, and thus containing tbe commenccment of the Translations, and the conclusion of the Relatio, which he has not unnaturally supposed to be portions of the same work. These he has connected together by the insertion of matter equal to tAvelve closely printed octavo pages from Symeon_, and has published the whole under the title of the History of the Translations of St. Cuthbert. The same text is reprinted in the Acta Sanctorum, and again by Mr. Stevenson in the Appendix to Beda^s Historical Works. Mr. Stevenson says^ ''The text here given has necessarily been adopted from the Acta Sanc- torum, no manuscript copy being known in England.^^ It would
•" Ib., ii., 12.
' Ending with the word undcB, p. 164, 1. 4. The text of the Relatio is, taken up at p. 226 in the Appendix to this volume, from the word tenera iu line 32.
Xlii PREFACE.
be difficult perhaps to give a more conclusive testimony of the inestimable benefit conferred on bistoric literature by the publi- cation of Mr. Hardy^^s Catalogue of Materials for British His- tory, than is afForded by tbe fact tliat a reference to his pages has directed me to no less than nine MSS.^ one fragmentary, in various repositories in England^ which have been collated for this publication. Of forty-four pages^ to which the text extends in the present edition, little more than five are to be found in those which have preceded it^ exclusive of the eighteenth chapter_, which has been printed, as before stated^ as a separate work.
On an analysis of Mr Stevenson^s pages_, I find twclve occu- pied by Symeon^ fifteen by the Relatio, and only betw^een five and six by the work to which alone the title is applicable. The mixture of materials of later date has very much perplexed the consideration of the question of the true age of the Translations of St. Cuthbert. The indications contained in the first and second chapters might have been accepted as satisfactory proof that the work had been written before the Historij of the Church of Durham, had there not been evidence even stronger in the latter part of what appeared to be the same narrative_, leading to a directly opposite conclusion. Symeon has a long story of what a garrulous old man professed to have seen in a vision, and the particulars^ which are of great length, are introduced in the very same words into that portion of the Relatio which has been mixed up in former editions with the Translations j^/ but Symeon says that he himself had heard them from the mouth of the old man^ whereas the Relatio, as incorporated in the text of the Acta Sayictorum, merely says that many persons had heard them. The inference is clear that Symeon, who had the legend at first hand_, must have written prior to the author^ who only has it on the secondary testimony of others ; but this^ we now know^ applies only to the Relatio, and not to the Translations. The connection which has thus existed for so long between the Relatio and the Translations has given to the former an adventitious importance to which it has no inherent
V Scc note n, p. 228-9,
piiErACE. xliii
claim^ and it has been thouglit desirable to give a place to it in tlie Appendix, divested of tliose details whicli are copied ver- batim from Symeon. It has thus been compressed within a moderate space^ whilst as ample an opportunity is afforded of referring to it in connection with the matters before us as if it had been printed in extenso.
The MSS. from which our text has been formed are
1. MS. Harl. 1924^ a small quarto on vellum of the twelfth century. This manuscript contains only the first six chapters^ and the eighteenth.
2. MS. Cotton, Nero A. ii.^ also on vellum^ of the twelfth century;, in diiodecimo^ ends abruptly in the middle of chapter xviii.;, but it contains^ besides, the Relatio de Sancto Cuthherto.
3. MS. Bodl.^ Laud 491^ a small thick quarto volume with some rich illustrations, written between 1160 and 1186; in single columns; a very fine MS._, belonging originally to " Leo Pylkynton/' prebendary of Durham^ whose autograph it bears. It contains Beda^s Life of St. Cuthbert^ after which is a rubric ^^Explicit liber de Vita et Miraculis beatissimi patris/^ etc. Then come two chapters of St. Cuthbert^s miracles from Beda^s Ecclesiastical History (i._, 31^32), which also precede the Trans- lations in the two former MSS. The Liber de Translationibus extends to twenty chapters, and is followed by the Relatio. The text of this MS. is more correct than that of either of the precedingj but they very nearly coincide in those chapters which they have in common.
4. MS. Arundel 332, a very fine MS. on vellum, of the thir- teenth century, in octavo, agrees generally with the foregoing, but has one additional miracle, which forms chapter^xxi. of the present edition.
5. MS. Gale, O. iii., 55, a volume which has been very kindly entrusted to the care of the Society by the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. It contains the twenty chapters, and is a MS. of great value and antiquity, having probably been written at Durham iu the twelfth century. It subsequently belonged to the Priory of Holy Island. A full de- scription of this MS. is given in the Appendix to the Preface.
Xliv PREFACE.
In accuracy it is perliaps superior to all tlie rest^ and tlie text of the tractate De Translaiionibus is mainly derived from it. Besides these_, the foUowing MSS. have been examined : —
6. MS. Bodl., Digby 59, agrees substantially with MS. Laud, 491, but the chapters are somewhat differently arranged, the fourth chapter being placed before the first. It contains twenty chapters in all, after which are several chapters from Symeon. It is in small octavo, written circa 1200, and contains Sir Kenelm Digby's autograph, " Vindica te tibi ; Ken. DigbyJ'
7. MS. Fairfax, 6 : folio, double columns, a large and fine MS., containing all the Durham Historians ; in a hand of the fifteenth century. At the beginning is this line with the Christian name of the transcriber,
" Nomen scriptoris est Petrus plenus amoris,"
It contains the two chapters from Beda^ with twenty of the Translations as in Laud.
8. MS. Cotton, Titus A. ii., a fine old book of the fourteenth century from the Durham Scriptorium, affords no additional matter.
9. MS. Dec. et Capit. Ebor._, xvi., i., 12, a well-known volume which has been much used by the Surtees Society. It is of the fourteenth century, and contairis chapters xviii. to xxi. inclusive.
10. MS. Bodl., 514, a thin quarto in the old sheepskin bind- ing, written circa 1200, has belonged to the abbey of Jervaux in Yorkshire, and bears the inscription " Liber Sanctce Marice de Jorevalle f' also the name of the grantee of the abbey lands, " Arthur Darcy.^^ It contains only a fragment of the Iransla- tions, three or four pages of chapter xviii.
All the above MSS., with the exception of No. 9, are noticed by Mr. Hardy. There is also a copy of the twenty chapters of the Translations without any distinctive title, with numerous other miracles from Beda, Symeon, and other known sources, in the '^'^Lawson MS., the property of Sir John Lawson of Brough^ Bart.^^ A minute description of the volume, by Mr. LongstafFe, will be found in the Archseologia ^Eliana, vol. ii., part i., octavo
PREFACE.
xlv
series. This MS. has been largely used by tbe northern his- torical writers. It is a small clelicately finished volume in a hand of the twelfth century^ with many interesting illuminations. Mr. Longstaffe suggests that these chapters^ which w^ere not known to him under any distinguishing title^ may have been the w^ork of Symeon written previous to the History of the Church of Durham^ and afterwards freely drawn upon as mate- rials for his more ambitious volume. The same idea has occurred to Mr. Hardy^ who offers also an alternative theory^ that, if Turgot did write anything relative to the church of St. Cuth- bertj this may have been his work. Either hypothesis is worthy of consideration^ wdth this limitation^ that Turgot^s connection with the work can only have extended to the first six chapters, as the eighteenth chapter, which was originally the seventh, must^ as has been already explained_, have been written after his death. Symeon^ on the other hand_, was as well qualified as Turgot to have described the circumstances detailed in the eighteenth chapter, which relate to the disinterment of St. Cuthbert^s remains, at which ceremony both were presentj whilst the former only w^as alive at the date when the narrative was composed. — The intermediate chapters between the sixth and the eighteenth could scarcely have been written by, or even known to Symeon_, or he would have made use of them^ as he has of those which precede them^ whenever they come within the period to which his history is limited.
IX. The Arrival of the Saxons and the Succession of their Kings. In noticing the Abbreviatio Symeonis, attention has already been directed to this little work^ which is prefixed to it in the only MS. of that abridgment which is known to exist/ in which both are jointly attributed to Symeon of Durham. We havCj however_, ample ground for treating this Anglo-Saxon history as a scparate production^ entirely distinct from the Abbreviatio, of which it is unnecessary to speak farther in this place. Of the Anglo-Saxon History we have three copies in which it stands unconnected with any other work. These are
' MS, Cotton, Caligula, viii.
xlvi
PREFACE.
MS. Cotton^ Domitian, viii./ MS. liii. 11, in tlie Library of Magdalen CoUege^ Oxford;* and MS. B., xi. 35^ in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Durham.^
We will first describe the contents as we find them in tlie Cotton MS., prefixed to the Abbreviatio Symeonis/ This copy^, like all the others_, commences with a long extract from Nennius, containing the description of Britain^ with other particulars, which have been omitted in the present volume. The proper contents are as follow. First, the genealogies of the royal families of Kent^ Mercia, Wessex^ Bernicia and Deira, from Woden downwards. Next follows an account of the settlement in Britain of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes, and then the succes- sion of the kings of all the states of the Heptarchy^ Sussex excepted, in the following order : 1. Kings of Kent; 2. Of East Anglia; 3. Of Essex ; 4. Of Mercia; 5. Of Wessex;
6. Kings of Bernicia_, and, subsequently^ of Northumberland ;
7. Earls of Northumberland ; 8. Kings of Deira.
To these is appended a list of the founders of the several kingdoms ; and then an enumeration in the order of their succession of the archbishops of Canterbury and York; and the bishops of LindisfarnCj and^, afterwards_, of Durham. Then follows the Abbreviatio Symeonis.
" Yellum, quarto, thirteenth century.
* Quarto, not later than the beginning of the reign of Stephen, Afc the commencement, in a hand of the beginning of the sixteenth century, is written, " Chronicon monachi cujusdam Dunelmensis,"
*■ See Mr, LongstaflFe's description of this MS, in Appendix to Preface.
^ The following description is from Mr, "Walbran's report : — " The characters of the MS. refer it to the middle of the twelfth centur}^ The handwriting is of the larger bold character of the period, with plain painted capital letters, with the exception of two, which have a httle foUation, The text commences without any leading rubric, At the head of the first page is written in a hand of the seventeenth century, perhaps that of Sir Eobert Cotton, whose signature is at the foot, Chronicon Symeonis monaclii Dunelmensis. After a page and a half of introductory matter from Nennius is a curious illuminated head of Woden, crowned, with the heads of six of his sons disposed around, with genealogies below each, Thus under the head of a grave-looking personage, witli yellow curly hair and a long beard, wearing a pyramidal cap, is written, ' Woden genuit Beldei,' " etc, The MS, is on velhim, and in quarto.
PREFACE. Xlvii
The series of tlie kings of Wessex, aiid their descendants, kings of England^ is brought down to the reign of Henry !._, who is also mentioned in the account of the earls of North- umberland as the reigning sovereign^ who then held the earldom in his own hands.
The list of archbishops of Canterbury is brought down to WilliamA.D. 1122-36; of York, to Henry Murdac 1147-53; and of the bishops of Durham^ to William 1143-53; which shews that this^ although the earliest copy extant^ is only a transcript of an earlier original^ and that the York and Durham lists have been extended to the transcriber^s own time.
In MS. Domitian A. viii._, although probably transcribed a century later_, the lists terminatc at an earlier period^ having been left without additions as they came from the pen of the original compiler in the reign of Henry I.
William^ as in the other list, occupies the throne of Can- terbury^ but Thurstan, a.d. 1114-39^ occurs as archbishop of York^ and Ralph Flambard^ 1099-1128^ as bishop of Durham. This fixes the date of the original w^ork between the years 1122 and 1128, which is of course quite consistent with the alleged authorship of Symeon.
The two MSS., as regards the Saxon history, coincide except in a very few particulars. MS. Domitian has no rubrics to the sections, and there are some variations in the arrange- ment. The kings of Deira immediately follow those of Bernicia and Northumberland. Then come the archbishops and bishops, andj last of all, the earls of Northumberland.
To the text of this MS. is appended a list of the counties in England, classed under the three divisions of Denelaga, Mer- chenelaga^ and Westsexanelaga^, which^ as it does not occur in the other MSS., and has no apparent connection with the work, is not inserted here^ but wdll be found in the Appendix/ with other matter of a similar kind.
The Magdalen MS. is of the reign of Stephen, to which not only the lists of prelates, but the narrative itself, is brought
' Scc Appcndix, p. 221-2, notc iv.
xlviii PREFACE.
down. We are thus enabled to determine its date to witliin a year. Steplien_, we are told^ continued to hold the earldom of Northumberland in his own hands^ as his predecessors William II. and Henry had done before him. This could not have been written later than a.d. 1139^ in which year the earldom was once more severed from the crown of England, and conferred on Henry, son of David, king of Scotland : neither could it have been written earlier than the previous year^ 1138^ in which GeoiFrey Rufus^ who occurs as bishop of Durham^ was appointed to that see.
The only additional particulars supplied by this MS. relate to Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland^ who^ in oppo- sition to other authorities^ is said to have ended his life in the monastery of St. Albans, to which he had bcen a munificent benefactor. From this intimation we may conjccture that this transcript was made either at Tynemouth, a cell of St. Albans founded by this earl Robert^ or at the parent establishment.
That the monks of St. Albans were in possession of a copy is unquestionablcj as it has been used extensively by historians connected with their house. The series of the earlier kings of the heptarchy, as given by Wallingford^ is copied verbatim from this source/ and many subsequent notices are derived from it. Several remarkable instances will also be pointed out of the obligations of Koger de Wcndover^ who stands at the head of the great chroniclers of St. Albans_, to this work.
The arrangement to the end of the fourth section is the same as in MS. Caligula_, but no rubrics are prefixed to the accounts of the kings of Kent and East Anglia. The later sections foUow in the following order : —
5. Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
6. Kings of Mercia.
7. Kings of Essex.
8. Bishops of Durham.
9. Kings of Wessex.
10. Kings of Bernicia and Northumberland.
/ The termination of Wallingford's series of tlie kings of the heptarchy is pointed out in the notes as regards each state.
PREFACE. Xlix
11. Earls of Nortliumberland^ without yubric.
12. Kiugs of Deira.
The ortliography of the personal names differs considerably in this manuscript from MS. Caligula.
The Durham MS. is much more recent thaii any of the others^ the history being brought down to the reign of Henry II. Lists of the bishops of many other sees are added. The states of the heptarchy are taken in the following order : — 1. Kentj 2. East Anglia ; 3. Essex ; 4. Mercia; 5. Deira and Bernicia^ with those kings who reigned over both provinces ; 6. WesseX;, and kings of England. As regards the first four and the last^ the transcriber abandons the text of MS. Caligula, and copies the genealogies of Florence of Worcester. In the Northumbrian series he combines all that he can find in either authority down to Eiric, the son of Harold^ adding, " Deinceps per comites procurata est (provincia) usque ad tempora Nor- mannorum/'' but he gives no account of these earls_, as in the other MSS. Mr. Longstaffe^s account of this MS.^ and of the volume in which it is contained, will be found in the Appendix to the Preface.
Although the compilation before us has no pretensions to an earlier origin than the reign of Henry L, it possesses a higher value than would otherwise attach to it^ in consequence of being derived from authorities which no longer exist^ and of which it may be looked upon as the sole exponent. This remark applies more particularly to that portion which relates to the Northumbrian states^ which contains many particulars which are not to be met with elsewhere.
The series of the successors of Ida previous to the reign of Ethelfrith, whilst it presents the same names which are included in others of our most authentic lists^ gives a different order of succession^ and so reconciles them with the Saxon Chronicle and Malmesbury^ which^ although they do not enumerate the names of the others, agree in making Ethelric the immediate predecessor of Ethelfrith. This series is copied by Wallingford^ and was only known to us from his chronicle^ previous to the examination of the present work. It will bc found under his
1 PREFACE.
name contrasted with other ancient autliorities, in note g, p. 9, of this volnme.
From Ethelfrith to Ceolwulf, Beda and the ancient North- umbrian chronology appended to his works are the authorities followed. The ancient annals which are incorporated in the Historia Regum Anglorum are then taken up^ and form the basis of the narrative, not merely to the period wdiere they abruptly cease in the Historia Regum a.d. 802^ but as far as they are used by Symeon in the Historia Dunelmensis to the reign of Ricsig a.d. 873-6. The length of this king^s reign, which is not given in that work, is here stated to have been three years, which is also the term assigned to him in the second part of the Historia Regum. There is an apparent dis- crepancy between the two authorities as to the reign of his successor, Egbert IL^ who is here said to have reigned two years/ i. e., to the year 878. In the second part of the Historia Regum he is spoken of as if he were still alive on the accession of Guthred to the throne of the southern province, as there stated, A.D. 883. The words are^ Regyiavit (Gutliredus) super Eboracum ; Egbert vero super Northimbros. The sense, how- ever, in which they were intended to be used might merely be, Guthred had the seat of his government at York, (whereas) Egbert only reigned over the Northumbrians (beyond the Tyne). Our authority, again, gives to Guthred a reign of fourteen years, whereas the Historia Regum places his death A.D. 894 ; but Ethelwerd, a much earlier and better authority, mentions his death aud burial at York two years later^ a.d. 896, w hich would be in the fourteenth year of his reign ; or, if w^e compute it from the death of his predecessor, Halfdene, we have fourteen years complete. The foUowing table of North- umbrian chronology, from the slaughter of the two kings, Osbert and Ella, a.d. 867^ to the death of Guthred, is com- piled from the several works in this volume, with the above correction from Ethelw^erd : —
^ This statement is copied in tlie little Nortliumbrian Chronicle printed amongst the Exccrpta Historica et Topographica in the Appendix, p. 219, 1. 30,
PREFACE. li
ULTEA TTNAM. SUPEE EBOEACUM,
Egbertus 867-873 Interregnum, sub "Danis 867-875
Eicsig 873-876 Halfdene 875-882
Egbertus II. 876-878 Guthred 882-3-896
Neitlier the Liber de Adventu Saxonum, nor the Historia Regum, give us any intimation of the state of affairs in Northumberlancl on the death of Guthred ; hut Symeon^ in his History of the Church of Durham, informs us that Alfred took the government into his own hands/' Even then indeed the Danes had leaders of their own^ whom they dignified with the title of kings^ but their authority seems to have been personal rather than territorial. Each could command the services of an organized host of his countrymen wherever the prospect of phmder tempted him ; but they reigned over no particular locality ; and we hear of them now in Northumberland^ and now in Essex, Mercia^ or East Anglia. When^ on the accession of Edward the Elder to the throne of England^ his cousin Ethelwald fled into Northumberland^ he was received by these petty reguli, and acknowledged as "king and prince of the kings."^ Such is the statement of Henry of Huntingdon^ an historian well informed on northern affairs, who further ex- plains that the '' Danish kings reigned in a confused manner, sometimes two_, sometimes three_, at the same time.^''
Ethelwald was slain a.d. 905_, and the following year we find " king Edward from necessity concluded a peace wdth the army both of East Anglia and of Northumberland/^ over which these reguli now held command^ freed from the control of any superior.
In 911, ^''the army among the Northumbrians broke the peace/^ and being defeated by the forces of king Edward, two of their kings, Eowils and Halfdene, were slain. Elorence of Worcester, by a strange mistake_, confounds this Halfdene with his namesake_, who was the scourge of the previous generation_, and assigns to him a reign of twenty-six years, but the actual interval from Halfdene^s accession to the year 911 is not
^ Hist. Dunelm., ii., 14,
lii PREFACE.
twenty-six, but thirty-six years. He then tells us that Eegnold reigned ten years^ and his brotlier Sihtric a few years, after whom came his son Guthferth_, who was expelled by Athelstan A.D. 926. This chronology is framed on the assumption that Rcgnold succeeded immediately on the death of Eowils and Halfdene^ placing the termination of his reign a.d. 921^ and allowing five years for the reigns of Sihtric and Guthferth. But Regnold was engaged in Ireland long after 911/ and his connection with Northumberland commenced with the incur- sion in which he besieged and took York_, which is fixed by the Saxon Chronicle a.d. 923^ by the Historia Regum 919.-^ In 924 he made submission to Edward the Elder^ and the following year he was expelled. The Saxon Chronicle allows only one year for the reign of Sihtric^ placing his death in 926_, and the expulsion of Guthferth in 927. It is remarkable that the Liber de Adventu Saxonum makes no mention of Regnold at all, nor does it from this period furnish us with a single name or an incident of Northumbrian history down to the expulsion of Eiric_, the last king of that province^ with which we are not acquainted from other sources. The Historia Regum, on the other hand^ whiist following for the most part the authority of the Saxon Chronicle^ gives important details from some independent authority/ probably^ as has been suggested_, from a continuation of those annals on which the earlier portion of it is altogether based.^
» In 915 Eegnold and Sihtrio landed in Ireland ; one at Kildare, the other at Waterford. From this time they appear from the Irish Annals to have exercised a joint authority until a.d. 918, when their brother Guthferth, or Godfrej, made himself master of Dublin, and assumed the chief command, which he retained till his death a.d. 932.
i The latter was probably the true date, as the events of Eegnold's reign, as recorded in the Historia Cuthberti, the Historia Eegum, the Pictish Chronicle, and other authorities, would scarcely have been compressed within a period of two years.
* See pp, 62-6 of this volume.
' We have traces in Eoger of Wendover of the existence of some such work even in his time, from which he gives particulars not to be met with either in the tract before us, in the History of the Church of Durham, or in any other extant authority. He mentions, for instance, the usurpation of Eedwulf in the
PREFACE. liii
On tlie abolition of kingly government in Northumberland, tbe administration was committed to a succession of earls, sorae of whom presided over the whole district_, whilst at other times it was divided into two provinces. As regards the country north of the Tyne, which had formed the kingdom of the two Egberts and Ricsig, this form of government had existed ever since the death of Guthred. The rulers_, indeed, were during the former period known as dukes_, instead of earls^ but under both, as regarded the Northern province^ the government was hereditary in the same family. Ethelward mentions the death of Eadulf, duke of Bamburgh,, a.d. 912^ and he is spoken of in the Historia Cuthberti as the friend of king Alfred."* In the same way his son Aldred is described as the friend of king Edward/* and his name^ Aldred of Bamburgh, occurs in the pages of our general historians^ amongst the petty princes who did homage to Edward in 92dL_, and to Athelstan in 926. Aldred had a brother Uchtred/ a name of constant recurrence, as is also that of his father Eadulf, amongst the earls who succeeded to his power.
Of these earls we have two lists^ both obviously derived from the same authorities^ amongst which the tract De
fourth year of Ethelred, the son of Eanred, a.d. 844, an event which has escaped the notice of all our other historians, but which is confirmed by the existence of coins bearing the name of the usurper, which have been found with others of the same period at Hexham and elsewhere. Again, although in this tract, as well as in the Historia Regum, we have the date of king Eicsig's death, Wendover alone tells us that it was caused by distress of mind induced by the devastations of Halfdene, who had overrun his kingdom, and parcelled out his lands amongst his foUowers. Again, we learn from the Historia Eegum that Eiric, the last Danish king of Northumberland, was slain hy Maccus, the son of Anlaf. Wendover gives rauch fuller particulars. Besides, supplying the date a.d. 750, two years after Eiric's expulsion, he informs us that he was slain through the treachery of earl Osulf by Macon, the consul, with his son Henry and his brother Reginald, in a solitary region called Stainmore. This Maccus, or Macon, lord of Man and the Isles, the " arch-pirate " of Malmesbury, occurs twenty years afterwards in the list of princes who performed an act of homage to king Edgar on the river Dee, near Chester. Further instances of the exclusive information preserved by Wendover will occur under the earls of Northumberland,
'" p. 147, 1. 25. « ibid., 1. 24.
" ibid., 1. 31.
liv PREFACE.
Obsessione Dunelmi, in the present volume/ is not tlie least important. One list follows the series of kings of North- umberland in the LibeUus de Adventu Saoconum, the other is introduced^ somewhat out of place_, under the year 1072, in the Historia RegumS
In both Osulf is represented as the first earl of the two provinces of Northumberland in the reign of Edred. In the Historia Regum we are told that, in the reign of Edgar, Oslac was associated with him, to whom he resigned tlie province of York, retaining only the district north of the Tyne. According to the Libellus, Osulf was succeeded in due course by Oslac in York, and by Eadulf Yvilcild in all the country from the Tees to the Frith of Forth (Myreforth) . " These two earls/' it is added, " with Elfsius, bishop of the see of St. Cuthbert, pre- sented Kyneth, king of the Scots, to king Edgar^ who^ when he had done homage^ gave him Lothian, and dismissed him with great honour.^'' We can scarcely suppose that Eadulf Yvilcild is a fictitious character^ introduced for the purpose of playing a part in the transfer of Lothian to the Scotch, which might with equal propriety have been assigned to Osulf or Waltheof.'' Neither is there any reason to doubt the perfect
p p. 154.
1 This is evidently not tlie place which the list originally occupied, as a reference is made two years earher, a.d. 1070, to a statement contained in it respecting earl Gospatric, " qui, ut sujpradictum est," etc. In Hoveden's Annals, which are to a great extent a mere copy from the Historia Begum, it is placed under a.d. 953, which should undoubtedly have been its position in the latter work, in which we find under the previous year, " Defecerunt hic reges North- anhymbrorum ; et deinceps ipsa provincia administrata est per comites" (p. QQ).
'■ Until the examination of the Lihellus de Adventu Saxonum, the earliest known authority for this account of the cession of Lothian was E-oger of "Wendover, and as no mention of any earl Eadulf earher than Eadulf Cudel occurred in any hst then known, it was assumed that Eadulf had been written b}' mistake for Waltheof, senior, the father of earl Uchtred. See p. 90, note c, and p. 212, note h. Wendover's account, again, gives further particulars which are not elsewhere to be found :— " Bishop Alfsey and earl Eadulf conducted Kenneth, king of Scotland, to king Edgar, who made him many presents of his royal bounty. He gave him, moreover, the whole district called Laudian in the native tongue, on this condition, that every year, on certain festivals, when the king and his successors wore the crown, he should come to court, and
PREFACE. IV
bona fides of the narrative of this transaction, written^ be it rememberedj at a period long prior to any dispnte as to tlie relations between England and Scotland. On the other hand, it is not difi&cnlt to account for the author of the Historia Regum not merely omitting this incident^ but leaving out the name of Eadulf Yvilcild altogether^ under the impression that his authority had confounded it with that of Eadulf Cudel, to whom the cession of Lothian is imputed by another authority, the tract De Obsessione Dunelmi.
There is in fact no inconsistency between the two state- ments. Nothing is more probable than that the province now ceded was reclaimed by Uchtred^ the most powerful of all the Northumbrian earls^ and was again wrested from the grasp of his unwarlike brother and successor Eadulf Cudel. Some particulars occur in the Historia Regum which are not in the Libetlus, but these are generally to be found in the tract De Obsessione Dunetmi, with the exception of the account of the death of Eadulf Rus^ the assassin of bishop Walcher, by the hands of a woman ; his burial at Jedburgh ; and the subsequent disturbance of his remains by prior Turgot.
Appendix^ No. I. Historicat and Topographical Extracts. These extracts have been printed amongst Symeon^s works by Twysden^ from the MS. of the History of the Church of Durham^ in the Public Library of the University of Cambridge/ and have also found a place in the English translation of that author in the Church Historians of England, where they are
celebrate the festival with the other nobles. The king gave him besides raany mansions on the road, that he and his successors might find entertainment in going and returning ; and these houses continued to belong to the kings of Scotland until the time of Henry II."
» MS. F. f., i., 27. The History commences at foHo 122 with the Apologia Symeonis ; next follows the Preface, then the Capitula extending to the middle of folio 128. These extracts occur without any interval, extending from the middle of f. 128 to the bottom of f. 130 L.
e2
Ivi PREFACE.
entitled Chronicle of the Angles, by wliich designation tliey are once referred to in a note in the present volnme.^
The first extract is taken verbatim from William of Malmes- bnry^ and a reference has been given in a note to the original^ as it has not been thought necessary to reprint it entire. Then foUows a series of notices of Northumbrian history^ the mate- rials of which have been brought together from a variety of sources. These have been printed with references to the original authorities.
The third part_, which is of somewhat greater interest^ con- tains an account of the several Bishops^ sees in England^ Avith a list of the counties arranged under the heads of Westsaxena- laga^ Denelaga and Merchenelaga. Anothcr copy of it exists in MS. Norf., Arundel 222^ and has been printed by Gale in the Scriptores xv., under the title of De pai^titione provincice in schiras et episcopatus, et regna. A collation of the two copies has resulted in a greatly amended text. A third copy occurs at the commencement of the Chronicon Monasterii de Hida (a totally distinct work from the Liber de Hida) MS. Cotton^ Domit. A. xiv. The date of the compilation is during the reign of Henry 11.^ whose grandfather is referred to as Henry I. This is also the date of the Cambridge MS. The other copies are more recent^ the Cotton MS. being of the fourteenth century^ the Arundel of the fifteenth. The portion of the latter to which the conclusion of the title^ Partitio in regna, refcrs is merely an extract from Malmesbury^s History of the Kings of England/' and this also is to be found in another part of the Cambridge volume.^
Appendix, No. IL A brief Relation of the Life of St. Cuth- bert. This piece consists of two parts^ of which the first con- tains a short notice of the life of St. Cuthbert_, which although it contains littloj if any^ original information_, is perhaps entitled to be preserved amongst the numerous memorials of the saint. The second part contains a number of miracles^ almost ex- clusively derived from Symeon^s History of the Church of
' p. 73, note l. " i., 6. " Folio 215.
PREFACE. Ivii
Durhani. Of these it has for the most part been considered sufficient to give the title and initial line. They would have been omitted altogether^ but for their connection with the publication of the Translations of St. Cuthbert, with which^ as we have seeUj they have been mixed up. The portion which has been mistaken for the conclusion of the Translations, com- mences with the word " tenera '' at the bottom of p. 226. The last chapter^ which contains an enumeration of the pos- sessions of the church founded at Lindisfarne^ and ultimately established at Durham, is printed entire for the purpose of comparison with other documents of the same class, none of which altogether correspond.
Of the MSS. which contain the Translations of St. Cuthbert^ four also contain this Relation ; MSS. Nero and Titus in the Cottonian Library^ Laud in the Bodleian,, and Gale in that of Trinity College^ Cambridge^ all which have been examined for the present edition. Mr. Hardy refers to another^ MS. Sloane, 1772;, vellum^ quarto^ twelfth century.
Appendix^ No. III. Life of Margaret Queen of Scotland, attributed to Turgot, Prior of Durham. It has been thought desirable to bring togcther in this collection everything which has been ascribed to the pen of Turgot, as bearing upon the question of his alleged authorship of the History of tlte Church of Durham.
Of the Life of Queen Margarct but one copy exists in manu- script in tliis kingdom, in a folio volume on vellum, in double columns, of the latter part of the twelfth century, Cotton, Tibe- rius, D. \\i., which was much injvired by the great fire in the British Museum. It was long supposed to have been rendered altogether useless for the purpose of reference^ but has been repaired and restored so successfully, that, with comparatively trifling exccptions, where the tops of the leaves have been con- sumed, the whole of the contents can be decyphered by painful study.
It contains a collection of the Lives of British Saints, in which the Life of St. Margaret immediately follows the Legend of thc '' Passion of the holy martyrs, Piimus and Felicianus/^
Iviii PREFACE.
and has this rubric^ " Incipit Translatio et Vita Sanctse Marga- retse reginse Scottorum/^ It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, and again by Pinkerton in his lives of the Scottish Saints. An abridgment exists in the MS. Cotton^ Tiberius E. i., a folio in double columns^ also injured by fire. It extends only to four and a half pages^ and is of the beginning of the fourteenth century. At the foot of the pages is a pedigree of the descend- ants of king Malcolm.
This abridgment has been printed by Capgrave with the addition of a section from Aelred of Rievaulx, and has been re- printed by Surius. Pinkerton^s collection contains the abridg- ment, as well as the more extended biography. Both vvorks have been carefuUy collated with the MSS. by Mr. Raine for the present edition; all variations between the original and the abridgment are pointed out; and those passages which have been rendered illegible by the fire have been supplied from Pinkerton. These are distinguished by brackets, the portions between which represent the amount of injury sustained.
The writer^ in his dedication to Matilda^ queen of England_, the daughter of Queen Margaret, gives only the initial letter of his name^ describing himself as "T. servus servorum S. Cuth- berti/^ from which we gather that he was at the time of writing it a monk of Durham. He writes in a great measure from his own knowledge^ and details the particulars of an interview with the queen not long before her death. Erom an expression which she uses in addressing him_, " Ego posthac in hac vita diu non subsistam : tu autem non parvo post me tempore vives,'' it is probable that the author was not then an old man. He was not present at her death_, but gives an account of it from the narration of the priest who attended her_, and who afterwards became;, like himself, a monk of Durham. Eordun twice quotes the work as the production of Turgot^^ and it is probably on his authority that Capgrave in his edition of the abridgment re- presents the conversation referred to above^ as having taken place between the queen and Turgot, whom he describes as her
'* See the passages in italics in extract iv.^ p. 258, and extract v., pp. 259-60.
PREFACE. lix
confessor. This is evidently amisconception. There is nothing in the original biography to lead to the belief that the writer conversed with the queen otherwise than as a confidential friend. That he was her confessor in no way appears ; and if we identify him with Turgot^ the assumption is preposterous. His avoca- tions at Durham, where he held the responsible position of Prior more than five years previous to Margaret^s death_, are altogether inconsistent with such an idea. There is indeed no primd facie reason to doubt that a Prior of Durham might be a visitor at the Scotch court^ or that his station and character would commend him to the confidence of the queen.
There arC;, however, circumstances peculiar to Turgot^ which render it unlikely that lie was either the guest of Malcolm_, or the author of such encomiums upon him as are contained in the work.
We know of one previous visit which he paid to Scotland in company with Aldwine, his predecessor in the priorate^ when they were driven from Melrose by the persecutions of Malcolm.^ The same consideration^ which makes us doubt the probability of the attendance of the latter at the ceremony of the foundation of Durham cathedral^ makes us hesitate to believe that Turgot would voluntarily throw himself upon his hospitality. It is too much to say that either statement is necessarily untrue_, but it is strange that^ if true^ both should remain unrecorded by the contemporary historian of the church of Durham.
The question is further complicated by the existence of a second claimant^, Theodericus^ whose name is inserted instead of the initial T.^ in the Acta Sanctorumj the text of which is derived from a forcign MS., with the age and character of which we are unacquainted.^'
In tlie list of the monks of Durham we meet with one of
' Sed cum regi Scottorum Malcolmo, ad quem locus iste (Mailrosense monasterium) pertiuebat, eorum (Aldwini scilicet et Turgoti) ibi conversatio innotuisset, graves ab illo injurias et persecutiones pertulerunt, pro eo quod Evangelicum prseceptum servantes, jurare illi fidelitatem noluerunt (Hist. Dunelm., iii., 22).
y " Codex Valcelleusis, in Hannoniie monaslerio.'^
IX PREFACE.
tliis name ; but here again a difficulty arises from the lowness of his position on the roll_, where lie stands the hundred and thirty- first in order. If the transcriber of the MS. had no better ground than the occurrence of the initial T. in Theoderic for selecting him as the author^ there are no less than five other monks whose names equally satisfy this condition^ and who precede Theoderic in the date of their profession. Turkil stands eighth, just two below Turgot, and Thurstan seventy- sixthj being thirty-eight below Symeon. There are two of the name of Thomas who stand eighty-third and eighty-sixth_, and another called Turold^ eighty-ninth. Even the last of these^ although apparently too low on the roll^ stands earlier by forty- two than Theoderic. But for the objection stated above^ the claims of Turgot would unquestionably be superior to those of any other^ whilst those of Theoderic_, except so far as the authority of the MS. supports them, are inferior to all. If Theoderic really was the author, and as such, the friend and confidant of queen Margaret_, we can only reconcile the fact with his position on the roll by supposing that he entered the monastery in extreme old age many years afterwards.
Pinkerton^s volume^ of which only one hundred copies were printed^ has become so scarce as to be even more difficult of access than the voluminous Acta Sanctorum from which it was taken^ and a new edition of this tract has long been a deside- ratum.
Appendix^ No. IV. FordurCs Extracts from Turgot. Of these extracts^ a few words in the fourth/ and nearly the whole of the fifth"^ are from the Life of Queen Margaret, printed above, which is there referred to as " The Legend of the Life of the Blessed Queen.^^* By far the greater part of the remainder is from the Genealogy of the Kings of England by Aelred of Bie- vaulx^ as will be seen by a reference to the notes. The part which is unaccounted for is probably taken from some other w^ork of the same author_, whose writings are very numerous^ and some are not now known to exist. Amongst others a Life
* p. 258, 1. 13-14, 16-17. " p. 259, 1. 10. * p. 259, 1. 8.
PREFACE. Ixi
of Queen Margaret is ascribed to him by our early bibliographers. It is even probable that the portions wbich were originally in the Life ascribed to Turgot_, may have been found by Fordun incorporated in the Biography of Aelred, and that on this ground he has ascribed not merely the Life but the Genealogy, and perhaps other works of Aelred^ which were coUected in the same volume, to Turgot.
The object^ however^ of publishing the Life of Queen Mar- garet^ and the extracts frora Fordun in this volumC;, is not so much to determine the authorship, as to shew that even suppos- ing them to have been all written by Turgot^ there is nothing in them in any way akin to the History of the Church of Dur- ham^ or which can in any way advance his claim to the author- ship of the work.
A curious account of Turgot^s early life will be found in the Historia Regum, at page 95^ but it seems to be rather legendary than historical_, and is probably one of the later additions^ subse- quent to the time of Symeon. At all events it receives no sanc- tion from his History of the Church of Durham^ in which^ if authentic^ it would probably have found a place. At page 91 we have an instance of the exercise of his jurisdiction^ most likely in his archidiaconal capacity^ at Jedburgh^ which like Melrose was an ancient possession of the church of St. Cuthbert within the dominions of king Malcolm.
His tenure of the priorate was unmarked by any important events, if we except the rebuilding of the church of St. Cuth- bert_, a work more immediately due to the bishop, but to which he contributed his assistance^ and the translation of St. Cuth- bert^s remains. His subsequent career as Bishop of St. Andrew^s was as unsatisfactory as his earlier experience of the same country during his residence at Mekose.
The only complete edition of the works usually ascribed to Symeon of Durham is contained in the Historice Anglicancs Scriptores Deceni, pubiished by Sir lloger TT\ysden in 1652^ in a bulky volume of 1,500 folio pages, 136 of which_, printed, with the exception of a few pages at the commencement, in double columns, are devoted to Symeon. Amongst the contents
Ixii PREFACE.
are several otlier works of great interest^ whilst otliers are of inferior value.
The editorial labours in respect to this publication have been performed in a manner much more creditable than in the case of the majority of the early editions of our mediseval historians. The text generally is tolerably correct_, and the mistakes which occur are much more frequently due to the transcriber of the MS. than to the editor of the printed volume. This especially applies to the frequent errors in the orthography of proper names_, in most cases originating in the substitution of one Saxon character for another of nearly similar form.
No attempt has been made by Twysden to ascertain the authorship of the several pieces_, or to discriminate between those which are really the productions of Symeon, and those of older date which have been mixed with them. Prefixed to the volume indeed is Selden^s essay ah^eady referred to, which seeks to award to another pen the merit of the History of the Church of Durham ;. but this^ if an exception, is an unfortunate one. Neither has the text in any case been illustrated by such notes as are absolutely essential to the general reader.
The MSS. used by Twysden are contained in two folio vohmies, both of which were formerly the property of arch- bishop Parker^ by whose liberality one was consigned to the Public Library at Cambridge, the other to that of C. C. College in the same University. Of both these volumes we have already spoken. From the MS. in the Public Library Twysden has printed the History of the Church of Durham, with the His- torical and Topographical Extracts printed at p. 217 of the present volume ; the Continuation of the above History ; and the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, with certain charters and illustrative documents appended to it and to the Continuation. From the C. C. manuscript he has printed the two Tracts on the archbishops of York, and on the siege of Hurham ; and the History of the Kings of the Angles and Danes, including under that title not only the two pieces which precede it in this volume^ but the long extracts from Beda above referred to.
PREFACE. Ixiii
Besides tlie two Cambridge MSS. he used others_, which will be described in the second volume^ on the History of the Church of Durham, but none as regards the works in the present volume.
In 1732 an admirable edition of the History of the Church of Durham, which we have previously had occasion to notice in connection with E^udd^s reply to Selden which is prefixed to it^ was published by Dr. Bedford in a small octavo volume. This edition is based on a MS. now in the Library of the University of Durham^ which was unknown to Twysden and Selden_, and which will be fully described in the Preface to the second volume.
The only other portion of any of the reputed works of Symeon which has hitherto been published is contained in the solitary volume of the Monumenta Historica Britannica. This is limited to the First Part of the Historia Regum, with such portions of the original matter in the second part as refer to the period antecedent to the Norman Conquest. Of the merits of this publication under the editorship of the late Mr. Petrie^ it is unnecessary to speak, but it contains only a small portion of the works of Symeon, and is incorporated in a volume of colossal size.
Seeing, then, that the text of the Decem Scriptores is capable of considerable amendment^ and is unaccompanied by such explanatory notes and elucidations as historical readers are accustomed to meet with, the Council of the Surtces Society resolved to place the Works of Symeon of Durham on their list of intended publications.
To this resolution the existence of a small portion of one of the works in the Monumenta Britannica constituted no objection^ but it was doubtful whether the existence of Bedford^s edition might not render it expedient to exclude the History of the Church of Durham from the proposed publication. The increasing scarcity of that volume^ and the groAving demand for works of this class^ tends year by year to diminish any hesitation which might exist on the subject, but it has bccn determined in tlie first instance to confine the publication to
Ixiv PREFACE.
the first volume of Symcon's works_, leaving tlie Hisiory of the Church of Durham as material for a second.
The Editor agreed, at tlie request of ttie Council_, to under- take the supervision of tlie first volume only_, but lie trusts ere long to see tlie second also completed under an editor more conversant than himself with tasks of this nature.
He was only induced to incur the responsibility to this extent by the kind offer of the Rev. James Raine,, the able and indefatigable Secretary of the Society^ to relieve him altogether from the task of collating MSS._, and to assist him in the correction of the press.
The task of collation^ which was expected to be chiefly confined to the Cambridge MSS._, has been much more onerous. As regards the works in the former edition, a second MS. of the tract on the archbishops of York required attention_, whilst the discovery of another and most important MS. of the His- toria de Sando Cuthberto is due to Mr. Raine^s research.
The additional matter which has been iuserted involved greatly increased labour, a large share of which devolved upon the same kind friend.
Seven of the MSS. of the Translations of St. Cuthbert, several of them containing also the Relatio, and a mass of extraneous matter^ have been examined and collated by him ; also the MSS. of the Life of St. Margaret^ and the abridg- ment of the same, both of which required peculiar attention, in consequence of the injuries which they had sustained from fire.
He also made a very minute collation of the Liber de Adventu Saxonum, in the Library of Magdalen College^ Oxford, with the transcript which I had obtained from the British Museum. All this involved repeated journeys to London, Oxfordj and Cambridge.
I am also indebted to Mr. Raine for the references which appear in the notes not only to the endless quotations from the Holy Scriptures, but to verses taken from Boethius_, Sedulius, and Aldhelm^ as well as to the writings of Baronius relative to councils and other ecclesiastical matters.
PREFACE. IXV
I liave further to discharge a pleasing duty in acknow- ledging my obligations to otlier friends.
To Joseph Burtt, Esq.^ Assistant-Keeper of the Public Records^ for the pains which he took in collating the Hale MS. of the tract on the archbishops of York^ with the Cambridge transcript, and also in examining a work in the same collection^ which was supposed to resemble the Uistoria Cuthberti, and sending me numerous extracts which shewed the fallacy of that view. The same gentleman kindly superintended the transcrip- tion of two MSS. of the Translations of St. Cuthbert in the British Museum_, and of the MS. Caligula A. viii. of the Liber de Adventu Saxonum.
To Mr. Walbran^ so favourably known to the members of the Surtees Society by his volume of the Memorials of Foun- tains Abbey, and other works^, for an elaborate report on the volume in the British Museum containing the Liber de Adventu Saxonum and the Abbreviatio Symeonis, and for his examination of a second MS. of the former w^ork in the same repository. I should have printed Mr. Walbran^s report in extenso, if I had not been induced by the great importance of the work to w^hich it refersj to include it in this collection^ thus rendering a detailed account unnecessary.
To Mr. Longstaffe I am indebted for a minute description of a MS. volume of historical materials in the Library of the dean and chapter of Durham, containing^ inter alia, a transcript of the same work^ De Adventu Saxonum, witli numerous inter- polations and additions^, from which he furnished me with copious extracts.
In addition to the printed works of Symeon in the editions to which I have referred^ I have not failed to avail myself of the information contained in the preface and notes to Mr. Stevenson^s translation_, published in the Church Historians of England.
I cannot forbear expressing my obligations to tw^o works of national importance^ the Monumenta Historica Britannica, w^hich will remain a monument to all ages of the learning, judgment; and industry of the late Mr. PctriC;, and to the
Ixvi PREFACE.
Catalogue of the Materials for Britisli History^ by his friend and coadjutor Mr. Duffus Hardy^ the present chief of the Record establishment. Of the value of the latter I have already adduced a striking instance. Of the former I will only say thatj irrespective of the erudition which is so eminently displayed in the preface and notes^ I have in numerous cases derived assistance and information from a glance at the lucid and comprehensive Indeoc Rerum, which I could only have obtained otherwise by a toilsome search through many volumes. It will be observed that I have invariably spelt the name of my author Symeon, instead of Simeon, the orthography adopted by Twysden on the authority of the Cambridge MS. In this I am supported by the list of monks in the autograph copy of the History of the Church of Durham^ and by the spelling of the name in the Liber Vitse, and the ancient Obituary of that church. The same orthography also prevails in Reginald-^s Miracles of St. Cuthbert,, and in the Cotton MS. of the Arch- bishops of York_, and is adopted by Leland.
L H. H.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
PART I.
A Description of the MS. of Symeon, MS. C. C. C, F. v. 139;, sm. folio^ written in donble colnmn_, sac. xii exeunte,
It was given by archbishop Parker to the College.
The MS. contains at the commencement a rough list of its contents^ made in the fifteenth century, so that archbishop Parker has not altered the position of any of the portions of the volume, as he did in many other cases.
On the title are the following lines : —
" Divitiis plena, genetrix quoque, Virgo serena, Sint procul obscscna mortis mihi, mater amsena."
Below this are two short extracts from '^^Ge(nnad)ius Massiliensis in libro de Illustribus Viris.^'
FoU. 2 a, \7 b. Rubric. '^ Incipit Historia omnimoda^^ (cum bona chronica ejusdem).
Incipit. '' Mundum sine initio.^^
Explicit. ^' Per lumen scientise ad gloriam et honorem perducat.'^ This consists of sacred and profane history in the shape of notes_, and a list of the Popes.
Foll. 18 a, 36 b. Rubric. " Incipiunt Chronica abbatis Prumiensis monasterii^ ubi Lotharius imperator ad conver- sionem venit.^^
Incipit. " Anno imperii Octaviani Csesaris xlii.^^ Explicit. " Ex quo vulnere eadem nocte extinguitur.^^ It ends with the year 1002, and contains little of importance. See Martene et Durand, Ampl. Coll., iv., 517.
Ixviii
APPENDIX TO
Foll. 37 a, 47 a. Rubric. " Incipit historia pise memorise Prioris Ricardi Haugustaldensis ecclesise de gestis regis Stepliani et de bello Standardii."
Printed by Twysden and the Surtees Society. Tliis begins with a large letter ilhiminated in red and green.
Poll. 47 a, 49 b. Rubric. " Incipit Cronica ab Adam usque ad Henricum.^^
Incipit. " Adam cxxx ann^ genuit Seth.^^ Explicit. " Qui autem post hunc regnaturus sit pos- teritas videbit.^^
See Memorials of Hexham_, i., pref.^ cxlv. It is in the same hand as the preceding.
FolL 49 5;, 51«. Ruh^ic. ^'^ Incipit epistola Simeonis mo- nachi ecclesise Sancti Cuthberti Dunelmi ad Hugonem decanum Eboracensem de archiepiscopis Eboraci."
Printed by Twysden and in this volume. In the same hand.
FolL 51 a, 52 b. Rubric. " De Obsessione Dunelmi et de probitate Ucthredi comitis.'''' Archbishop Parker has added several other words which appear in Twysden.
Printed by Twysden and the Surtees Soeiety. In the same hand.
FoL 52 b. The rubric at the commencement of Symeon^s Historia Regum; p. 1] of this volume^ is at the foot of the page. FoL 53 a begins with another rubric in a rather different character^ " Incipit passio Sanctorum iEthelberti atque Ethelredi regise stirpis puerorum^^ (p. 1). The concurrence of the two rubrics is most peculiar^ and I know of no other instance.
The Historia Hegum ends with folio 77 b.
FoL 78 a. A capital letter in red and green^ like that at the commencement of Richard of Hexham ; and then begins the Recapitulatio in the same hand which wrote the notice of earl Uchtred and the preceding tractates.
FolL 78 a, 130 b.
Incipit. " Anno ab incarnatione Domini ncccxlviii.^"
All this is written in one good and uniform hand.
Fol. 130 b. Rubric. " Incipit historia Johannis Prioris Haugustaldensis ecclesise xxv annorum.^^ Printed by Twysden
PREFACEj PART I. IXIX
and the Surtees Society. In the same hand. The sequence of this Chronicle is broken by the following insertions : —
(Fol. 132 h. Rubric. " Incipit descriptio Serlonis monachi, fratris Radulfi abbatis de Parcho^ de bello inter regem Scotiae et barones Anglise.'^ In verse. Printed by Twysden.
Fol. 133 a. Rubric. " Quomodo a paucissimis interfectus sit Sumerledus Cicebi,, ^e king^ cum suo immenso exercitu." Incipit. '' David rege mortis lege clauso in sarcofago.^" Ewplicit. ^' Et honori et decori Kentegerni tribuit."
An interesting and unpublished poem. I gave a transcript of it to the late Mr. Joseph Robertson for publication in the proceedings of one of the Scottish clubs.
Foll. 133 bj 137 a. Rubric. " Incipit descriptio viri vene- rabilis ^thelredi abbatis Rievallis de bello inter regem Scottise et barones Anglise apud Standardum juxta Alvertoniam.'^
This begins with a red and green letter^ as other preceding tractSj and is in the same hand.
Rubric at end. " Explicit descriptio ^thelredi abbatis ; incipit descriptio prsedicti Prioris Haugustaldensis ecclesise.^^
Printed by Twysden.)
FolL \^7 a, 146 a. John of Hexham begins again with the wordsj " Eodem anno mortuus est Petrus Leo.^^
Foll. 146 a, 148 5. Rubric. " Explicit opus Johannis Prioris XXV annorum ; incipit de quodam miraculo mirabili.''
The story of the Nun of Watton, printed by Twysden.
Archbishop Parker has added to the rubric, '^ Autore Aluredo abbate Rievallensi/' and Twysden has printed it so.
In the same hand.
Foll. 149 a, 157 «. Rubric. " Quomodo et a quibus cceno- bium Sanctse Marise Eboraci fundatum sit^ et quantas invidorum perturbationes impulsa sustinuerit_, sed^ Dei protegente gratia, magis ac magis aucta et multiplicata fuerit.^^
Incipit. " Quamvis sancta et una et universalis ecclesia.^^
Explicit. " Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.^'
Written by abbat Stephen_, and continued^ afterw ards_, by Simon de Warwick. Noticed by Leland and Dugdale. Copied by me. In another hand, also of the twelfth centurVj perhaps a little later.
/
IXX APPENDIX TO
Included with this there is arclibisliop Tlmrstan^s letter about tbe secession of the monks of St. Mary's Abbey to Fountains, which has been collated for the Memorials of Foun- tains Abbey^ vol. i.
The rubric at the beginning is^ " Quomodo Funtanense eoenobium sumpsit exordium.^'
FoU. 157 a, 159 a. Rubric. " De Vita et Conversatione Gereberti papse.^'
Incipit. '^ De Johanne qui et Gerebertus dictus est.^^ Explicit. '' In aqua aspectum intuentium fallere.''' Foll. 159«^ 160«. Rubric. ^'^Visio Karoli Imperatoris." Incipit. " In nomine Dei summi^ regis regum." Explicit. " Sine fine_, in ssecula sseculorum. Amen.'^ Foll. 160«. Rubric. ^^Visio Sancti Maurilii.'' Incipit. " Sanctus Maurilius.^' Explicit. '' Elevatum est.^^ Foll. 160 a, b. Rubric. ''De an(n)ulo statuse.'' Incipit. '^ Verum ut Romam revertar." Explicit. " Ad memoriam posteris transmittendum.^' The well-known mediseval story.
Foll. 161 a — 164 a. A curious story about a York merchant of the name of Arnulf and the Saxon king Elle who had com- mitted a rape upon his wife.
Incipit. " Domino et patri venerabili atque amando.^^ Eocplicit. " Residuum vitae mese in dolore peragam.^^ Printed by Mr. Petrie^ and also by the Caxton Society. FoU. IQ^ab. Rubric. "J)q eo quod Eboracensis ecclesia nullum dominium super Scottos habere debet."
Incipit. " De Eboracensis ecclesia? primatu.^' Eocplicit. " Ipsa in suum sola optinet.^^ Copied. Of little value.
Eol. 164 b. Rubric. '^^Visio cujusdam clerici de gloria regis Mah^olmi^ cui_, ad singula interrogata super statu suo^ in hunc sensum respondit.^^
Incipit. "CuY sic, care^ taces? Pro me loquitur mea vita.^^ Explicit. "■ In ccelestes thesauros intulerunt mella.^^ Copied by me, Ilnpublished.
PREFACE; PART I. Ixxi
Fol. 165 a, is a blank leaf on wliich is written in a fiftcentli centnry hand the speech of the men of Galloway at the battle of the Standard — as given by Aelred.
Foll. 165 b — 175 b. Rubric. " Incipit enlogium brevissimum Britannise insulse quod Ninnius Elvodugi discipulus congre- gavit.'''
I have omitted to copy the first and last words of this and the next tract.
This MS. of Nennius has m-any curious interpolations and additions.
Foll. 175 b — 178. Rubric. '^Vita sanctissimi atque doc- tissimi viri Gildse incipit."
On the fly leaves^ at the end^ are a few genealogical and historical notes of no value^ and in a late hand.
Some of the tracts at the end of the volume are of a later date than their predecessors_, but I should say that there is nothing later than the reign of king John.
The date of the Corpus MS. is probably about 1180. It is later than the MS. of Symeon in Bishop Cosin^s library at Dur- ham^ as well as inferior to it in execution. The Corpus MS. of Symeon is doije by the same hand that wrote the History of the Church of Hexham by Prior Ilichard_, which is in the Cambridge University Library, and probably by the same hand that wrote Symeon^s History of the Church of Durham, Beda^s Eccle- siastical History, and Ethelwold^s account of the abbats of Lin- disfarne, which occur in the same volume. These three are better executed than the others^ and, if not by the same hand, have at all events been written in the same place.
The date of the rubric at the beginning is perhaps a little later than the MS., but not much. From the allusion in it to Henry I. it is obvious that the writer knew of Henry 11.^, who became king in 1154.
The Historia Regum is carelessly written in several hands and inks. The portion arranged under years is tolerably evenly done, and by one hand probably. The extracts about Ethelbert and Ethelred, the genealogy of the kings, the notices of Benedict and Ceolfrid^ the poetical extracts from Beda^ and that from
/2
Ixxii
APPENDIX TO
Malmesbury^ are in various hands. The poem of Beda is full of interlineations^ other words being inserted with the word vel before them. The word vel occurs in other places throughout the first part of the MS._, shewing that it was regarded as subject to correction. There are also many interpolations (given between the lines), not noticed as such in the printed text^, which have evidently been done by a north country hand. I regard the greater part of this as Symeon^s own notes and extracts_, out of which the chronicle from 848 downwards was constructed and perhaps designed to be extended upwards. The scribe found them with the completed portion (i. e. from 848 downwards), and copied the whole. He has shewn his estimate of Part No. 2, by copying it carefully and neatly. The First Part he has treated as a set of Notes, as he found it. Even the chrono- logical part is carelessly written_, and he has probably added largely to the whole^ intending perhaps to make something orderly of it. He probably inserted the accounts of Acca and Alchmund_, and secured copies of the Passion of Ethel- bert, etc.
The Recapitulatio begins in 848 (T^vj^sden^ coL 137), with a carefully made letter in green and red_, evidently intended to mark the commencement of a work. It is carefully and neatly written throughout in the same set and orderly hand which wrote foll. 37-52, and which goes on afterwards. In this part there are occasional erasures, and words put between the lines, or in the margin, or at the foot of the page.
Of these the greater number, especially the marginal re- ferences relating to northern bishops and persons, are in a coarse hand, which appear in other parts of the MS., i. e. in Part No. 1, John of Hexham, and the account of St. Mary^s abbey, and especially in Nennius. The references, etc, to the archbishops of York, the bishops of Hexham, Chester and Lindisfarne, are all of them in this hand. The erasures relate generally to northern matters. The writing is probably very early thirteenth century, if not somewhat earlier. The remainder of the mar- ginal referenccs are by the scribe himself, and are in a small neat hand.
PREFACEj PART II. Ixxiii
Archbishop Parker sometimes puts in the margin of tlie MS. extracts from other chronicles — of no value.
At the end of the MS. of Symeon a seventeenth century hand has put "Liber vero impressus est amplior in nonnullis quse hic desunt.^^
The members of the Surtees Society are under great obli- gations to the Master and Fellows of C. C. C. Cambridge, for allowing them access to this invaluable MS., and to the Rev. W. M. Snell for his courteous assistance.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
PART II.
A Description of MS. B. ii.^, 35^ in the Library of the dean and chapter of Durham. By W. H. D. Longstaffe^ Esq.
A collection of MSS. of various dates^ paged 1;, 3^ 5^ etc, on the right; left hand unpaged, but counting as pages.
Since Rudd^s Catalogue was published, the volume has been re-bound^ and now presents^ as noticed in Dr. Raine^^s St. Cuthbert, 121, at the end, Sedbruke^s list of the Durham relics.
For tracts 1, 2, 3, see Budd^s Catalogue. No. 3 is believed to be the Historia Anglorum presented by bishop Carileph.
Tract No. 4 is, I believe, the Life of Beda, a translation of which appears in the Church Historians of England, Beda, xxxix. This, with No. 3, " Beda de Gestis Anglorum '' (the Ecclesiastical History) , and No. 5, his Lives of the Abbats, are in the same early hand, with occasional initials — in which ani- mals entwine. Mr. Stevenson thinks that the Life was written by an author who lived on the south side of the Humber, before the translation of Beda^s bones in 1101. The Durham MS. possesses an interest as an early Northumbrian MS., especially with regard to the only passage of which I took a
Ixxiv APPENDIX TO
note^ in reference to the claims of Monkton : — " Erat antem territorii Gyrwensis haud grandi oriundus viculo. Non longe
inde lapsurus in oceanum amnis Tina prseterfluit/^ The
date of the historian^s birth is given as 677.
Tract No. 5^, Beda^s Lives of the Abbats. See above.
No. 6, p. 235. A MS. of Nennius. See Rudd, who ascribes it to the commencement of the twelfth century_, vide Hardy^s CataloguC;, i._, 325. It is Stevenson^s N._, and Petrie^s C. ; Hardy gives it to cent. 12, Stevenson to cent. 13. My examination not relating to it specially^ I speak with deference^ but to my eye it seemed earlier than the documents of the time of bishop Pudsey^ to which my attention was directed.
Notwithstanding Stevenson^s note^ xxviii._, the MS. requires careful collation. It has not the genealogies^ and^ in some respectSj may not be of a high order; but its northern cha- racter deserves attention. It has the miracles.
In Arthur's battles the MS. reads Glem^ or Glein : Duglas : Bassas : C«llidonis : Guinon : Ribroit.
At the end of Stevenson^s^ § 56^ the MS. proceeds thus : —
" Usque ad tempus quo Ida regnavit, qui fuit filius Eobba^ ipse primus [fuit rex added in a hand contemporary, or nearly so']. Prima civitas Britanniee ipsa in Beornica(JX' est quse vocatur Cair Guorthigirn/' Then the remaining twenty-five cities are enumerated thus : —
Cair Muncip, Cair Meiguod^ Cair Ebroauc^ Cair Caratauc_, Cair Mauchguid^ Cair Caint, Cair Peris^ Cair Legion_, Cair Legeint^ Cair Guent_, Cair Lerion^ Cair Pensa vel Coit^ Cair Guintiugj Cair Lualid_, Cair Colum^ Cair Custeint^ Cair Grauth, Cair Lunden^ Cair Guoricon_, Cair Legion Guar iuuc, Cair Brito^ Cair Drotchoi^ Cair Urnach^ Cair Celeimon, Cair Luit Coit.
Then comes what stands in Stevenson as the preceding sentence_, " Hsec sunt nomina/^ etc.
« This mark (j\ refers to a separate slip bound into the MS. of much the same date, beginning "Ida flHus Eobba tenuit regiones, etc, arcem," etc, as in Stevenson's note 14, on his p. 52. After all, whether the copyist did not thoroughly misunderstand his original, and whether " in Beornica " does not projterly belong to the " fiiit rex " of his interUncation.
PREFACEj PART II. IxXV
I believe that tlie above are correctly copied^ but I cannot speak always with confidence as to tbe letters u and n.
Tract No. 1 , p. 251, is in a minute and beautiful hand. As to this, and tracts 8 and 9, see Rudd.
Tract No. 10 is in a hand of the twelfth century. There is no rubric, but the text, where not otherwise noted, corre- sponds with the Libellus de Adventu Sawonum, et de regibus eorundem, MS. Cotton., Caligula A. viii.
p. 257. Portraits of Adam and Woden (but not of Woden^s sons) . Descent from Adam to Woden, with origin of nations.
At each side of Woden are genealogies of his sons. Thus, " Woden genuit Wegda, qui genuit Sigegaru, qui gen. Sweab- degu, qui gen. Sigegeat, qui gen. Seabaldu_, qui gen. Wester- flacne, qui gen. Wilglis, qui gen. Uscfrea, qui gen. YfFa, qui gen. EUa Deirorum. Woden gen. Beldeig, qui gen. Brond_, qui gen. Freothegarum, etc. Woden gen. Beldeig, qui gen. Brond, qui gen. Benoc, qui gen. Aloc, qui gen. AngenwitZj qui gen. Inguui, qui gen. Esam, qui gen. Eoppam, qui gen. Ida^ a quo reges Northanhimbrorum (Berniciorum) J' Before what I have given are the descents of Hengest and Penda. Then commenccs without heading or rubric^ " Britannia a quodam consule Bomano Bruto/^ etc.
p. 258. The MS. proceeds with three columns each (except as to this introductory matter)_, with a margin in which the names of kings and notes are placed. In col. 2 the intro- ductory matter ends, and we have a rubric, '^ Regnum Cantua- riorum. Genealogia regum Cantuariorum " (from the genealo- gies of Florence of Worcester) .
p. 259. Two rubrics, '' Regnum Orientalium Anglorum. Genelogia Regum Orientalium Anglorum." " Regnum Orien- talium Saxonum. Genealogia Regum Orientalium Saxonum '' (also from Florence) .
p. 260. Rubric, " De Regno Mertiorum. Genealogia Re- gum Mertiorum.^^ (The chapter is from the genealogies of Elorence of Worcester.)
p. 261. Rubrics. '^^De Regnis Deiorum et Berniciorum. Genealogia Regum Deir?e — Genealogia Rcgum Berniciorum
Ixxvi APPENDIX TO
et quorundam Regum qui pariter super Deiram et Berniciam regnaverunt/^ This is a combination of tlie information con- tained in Florence and in tlie Libellus de Adventu Saxonum, containing
I. Account of Ida, his sons_, and tbe length of his reign from Florence.
II. His landing at Flamborough from the Libellus.
III. Ella of Deira, with the contemporary kings of Bernicia from Florence, the name of Hussa being interlined from the Libellus_, above that of Theodulfus.
IV. To the death of Osbryht and Ella a.d. 867, from Florence.
V. Kings usque Tinam from Florence and ultra Tinam from the Libellus.
VI. Guthred's reign of fourteen years super totam, Northum- hriam from the Libellus.
VII. Reigns of Danisli Idngs from Sihtric to Eric, or Eiric, from the Libellus. " Deinceps per comites procurata est pro- vincia, usque ad tempora Normannorum.^^
p. 262. " Rubric. De Regnis West-Saxonum, Anglorum, et eorum qui super Angliam monarchiam adepti sunt. Genealogia Begum West Saxonum_, Anglorum, et eorum qui super totam Angliamregnaverunt." This chapter is from Florence^s Genea- logies.
p. 263. The West Saxon history ends with Henry II. The last sentence is_, " Duxit vero uxorem Alienoram, reginam Fran- cise,, filiam ducis Aquitanise.'^ Best of page blank.
p. 265. Rubric at top of page which is of two columns, with names in the margins. " Cantia. Nomina archiepiscopo- rum Dorobernensis ecclesise.^^ Ends with " xxxviii. Thomas.^^
p. 267. Bubrics. " Bovecestria. Nomina episcoporum Bofensis ecclesise/^ ending '^'^xxvi. Waltherus." East Saxonia. " Nomina episcoporum Lundoniensis ecclesise/^ ending " xxxix. Gilebertus ab Hereford translatus episcopus."
pp. 268, 269, 270 and part of 271. The various sees. See Rudd^s list.
pp. 271-4. " Quo tempore gens Northanh^ cum suo rege
PUEFACE^, PART II. IxXVii
JEdwino/' etc. No rubric. A sort of summary of tlie begin- nings of the Christian religion in Northumbria, running into the archbishops of York^ ending with the death of Turstin^ 1140. In double columns.
p. 275. A history of the bishops of Lindisfarne and Dur- ham_, without rubric. Continues to p. 278 in double columns. Bamburgh is called ^^Bebburch/^ and so in the previous article, p. 271, it is called ^^ Bebboria.''
Begins "Aidanus. Hic a Sancto Oswaldo rege, secundo anno imperii sui, anno ab inc. Domini. Dc° xxx*' v°, in Lindis- v farnensi insula sedem episcopalem suscepit.^^
p. 275. Beda^s bones ^^ translata, in sepulchro Sancti Cuth- berti sunt locata.''^
Ecgredus. " Hic ecclesiam in Norham sedificans, translato illuc corpore Sancti Ceowlfi regis, in ejus honore, Sancti Petri, et beati Cuthberti_, eam dedicavit, et villam ipsam cum duabus Geddewordis, atque ecclesiam de Geinforde cum villa, et Ileclif et Wigeclif, et Billigham, quas ipse sedificavit, et quicquid ad eas pertinet a flumine Teisa usque Weor, Sancto Cuthberto contulit.-'^
^^Applicante tandem ob hyemandum rege Danorum Hal- dene ad Tinam fluvium circa Thomemuthe.^^
p. 276. " Facto rege Gutdredo beati Cuthberti prsecepto, sedatis procellis, sedes episcopalis in Cuneacestre restauratur.^^ No mention of Tyne and Tees or Wear.
^' Cnut Rex Sancto Cuthberto Staindropeschyre dedit."
p. 277. Walcher's murder '^^ad Gatesheued, quod est Capud caprse.^^
Foundation of the Priory by St. Carileph. ^'^ Tpseque cartis propriis hsec omnia ecclesise imperpetuum confirmavit.^^
^' Bex Willelmus II. — dedit episcopatum Rannulfo, qui vocabatur Capellanus regis propter quandam excellentiam fami- liaritatis ."
The history not very minute.
p. 278. The history ends in 1154 with " Rex et Scottorum inclitus David eodem anno apud Karlel ix k. Junii obiit.^^
Lists of the archbishops of York (ending with Roger de
IxXViii APPENDIX TO
Ponte), Hexham, Ripon^ Carlisle, Lindisfarne (ending ^^Will. secundus/^) Whitherne.
The bishops of Dunelm beginning " Hugo " are continued by later hands.
A genealogy from Adam of the English and Scottish kings. The English end thus : —
I ^^Mathild' imperatrix
Henricus filius ejus / Henricus filius hujus."
The Scottish thus : —
^' Malcolmus rex filius Henrici Willelmus rex frater ejus.^^
p. 281. IndextoBeda. Vide Hudd.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
PART III.
A Description of MS. Gale, O. iii. 55^ Trin. ColL, Cam- bridge^ fi^. 69^ including two fiy leaves. 8vo. Ssec. xii exeunte.
Eol. 2 a. Reliquise in eccl. Dunelm. Inc. " De veste Domini nostri.^^ Expl. '' Ossa sanctarum virginum xj miliium Coloniae.^'' [Printed in Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres_, appendix^ ccccxxvj-xxx^ from a more perfect MS. at York].
Fol. 2 b. Nomina episcoporum Lindisfarnensis et Dunelm- ensis ecclesise. Inc. "Aidan.^' j^<r/?. "Willelmus.^' [A later hand has added the years of the reign of Wm. de St. Barbara^ and the name of his successor^ " Hugo '^ Pudsey.]
Fol. 3 «. A draft of an acknowledgment from Thomas Dawtre, Prior ^*^ de Fenkell/^ of the receipt of an annual pen- sion of 20s. out of the mills of Embleton^ paid by Wm. Swan^
PREFACE^, PART III. Ixxix
receiver of the lordship of Embleton for Henry (IV.). Dated at Finchalcj July 28. [Dawtre was Prior of Fincliale from ]405 to 1411. See Priory of Finchale, xxviii, 158-163.]
EoU. 3 h, 25 h. Beda^s Life of St. Cuthbert. Inc, " Epis- tola Venerabilis Bedse presbyteri.''^ Expl. " Explicit liber de vita et miracnlis beatissimi patris Cutbberti.^'' [A list of tlie chapters. The prologue addressed to bishop Eadfrid ; and then the life of the Saint in forty-six chapters, as printed in Smith^s edition of Beda^ pp. 227-264. The dedication of Beda^s Me- trical Life of the Saint^ addressed to John the Priest^ is also given.]
After which are the words in a sixteenth century hand^ " Jhesus be my speyd. Amen.^^ J. H. C. '' Symon Garstell.''
Fol. 4 a. The name^ " Thomas Hersley/^ occurs^ ssec. xvi.
Fol. 4 b.
" I pray God ofF my behalflfe Have mercy off the sowll off Johne Cauff ; Had not dethe curamyt lyke a wyly foxe, Johne had levyt vvylsse he had benne an old old oxe,"
(Sgec. xvi.)
" Liber de Vita et Miraculis Sanctorum Cuthberti prsesulis, Oswaldi martirisj et Aydani episcopi in Insula Sacra ex dono domini Henrici Dalton_, Prioris ejusdem^ anno Domini 1513."
Fol. 5 «. '^ Liber domini W. Ellvyt ex dono
quondam Prioris Dunelm." Ssec. xv.
Foll. 25-6. The miracles wrought upon "Beadothegn" and " Suthbertus/'' which constitute chapters xxxi. and xxxii. in the fourth book of Beda^s Ecclesiastical History. In nearly all the MSS. in which the treatise De Translationibus occurs^ these two chapters form the connecting link between that tractate and Beda^s Life of Cuthbert.
Fol. 26 a. ^'^Excerpta de Vita et Miraculis Sancti Cuth- berti." [This is the ^^Brevis Belatio" as printed pp. 223-233, in this volume. The chapters from i. to xxix. inclusive run in the same order as in our text. Then comes cap. xxxvi., Visio Bosonis : after this follows abruptly the Historia Translationum] .
IxXX APPENDIX TO
roll. 30 a — 46 a. The "Historia Translationum^^ as printed in this volume.
Fol. 46 b. The " Brevis Eelatio" begins again witli a cliap- ter_, " Quomodo in loco ubi prius jacuerat miracula coruscarc et infirmi sanitatem cceperunt recuperare '' (Hist. Dunebn., iii.^ 3) . After this tbe cbapters run on tbus^ according to tbe numbering of our text, xxx., xxxv.^ xxxiv., xxxi._, xxxii.^ xxxiii._, xxxvi. After tbese tbere foUows an Indulgence granted in bebalf of tbe cburcb of Durbam by Pope Anastasius IV. (Tbis will be printed in tbe Appendix to tbe History of tbe Cburcb of Durbam.) Tben follows cbapter xxxviii. of our text of tbe '' Brevis Relatio.^'
FoU. 50 a — 54 b. Tbe service on tbe Deposition of St. Cutb- bert witb musical notes Inc. "Tertia decima kal. Aprilis depo- sitio Sancti Cutbberti. Officium. Statuto ei Dominus. Oratio.'^
Expl. " Ut per ea veniam mereamur peccatorum et cselestis gratise donis reficiamur. Per — "
FolL 57 a — 58 b. Rubr. ^' Quomodo Willelmus episcopus et regia et Apostolica auctoritate fretus clericos incontinentes de Dunelmensi ecclesia eliminavit et monacos induxit.^'' (Symeon^s Hist. Dunelm. iv., l^ abridged). After tbis come some otber extractSj cbiefly from Symeon, relating to tbese cbanges at Durbam^ ending witb tbe letter of Bisbop St. Carilepb to tbe monks; wbicb constitutes tbe sixtb cbapter of tbe fourtb book of Symeon^s History.
Foll. 59 a — b. A Hymn to tbe Blessed Virgin^ witb rausical notes^ beginning : — "Salve regina misericordise;, vitse dulcedo et spes nostra/^ and ending abruptly " O dulcis Maria.^^ At tbe end of it are four lines of a sbort prayer to tbe Virgin. After tbis is some writing in a sixteentb century band, including a quotation from tbe Eclogues of Virgil.
" Who so wolde faine doy wellj The dewille's workes lete him expell ; Flee from sinne and lette pase vice, So thowe shall winne Paradise.
" Humfrey Eadclyff."
Foll. 60 a b. Several sbort prayers forming part of tbe
PREFACE^ PART III. IxXXl
service_, In Natale Oswaldi, followed by part of a liymn_, with musical notes^ beginning thns^
" Regis Oswaldi inclita Christo canamus merita."
Foll. 61 a — QQ> a, The life and miracles of St. Oswald. Incipit. " Successores Eadwini regis Anglorum in apos-
tasiam corruentes.^^ Explicit. " Cujus precibus et meritis mereamur a pec- catis emundari et prope tua cum illo beatitudine ditari. Amen.^^ In thirteen chapters^ eleven of which are taken almost verbatim from Beda. The two last are new^ and will be printed in Vol. II.
Foll. m Z»— 68 b. The life of St. Aidan. Incipit. '^ Est insula quse vocatur Hii.^^ Explicit. " Futuram cum sancta ecclesia credebat.^^ [Derived altogether from Beda] .
After this there are three pages containing hymns to St. Oswald;, with musical notes.
" Eiegalis ostro sanguinis Lux purpuratur prsecluis."
With several fragments of a service in honour of that Saint.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGB
Passio Sanctorum Ethelberti atque Ethelredi 1
Genealogia Eegum Northanhymbrorum , 9
Historia de Regibus Anglorum et Dacorum, a tempore Bedse Venerabilis. . 11
Historise ejusdem Eecapitulatio 67
Historise de Regibus Continuatio 78
Epistola ad Hugonem Decanum Eboracensem de Archiepiscopis Eboraci . . 132
Historia de Sancto Cuthberto 138
De Situ Dunelmi, Carmen Anglo-Saxonicum 153
De Obsessione Dunelmi Libellus 154.
Historia Translationum Sancti Cuthberti 158
De Primo Saxonum Adventu, et de eorum Regibus 202
APPENDIX.
I. Excerpta Historica et Topographica 217
II. Brevis Relatio de Sancto Cuthberto 223
III. Yita S. Margareta3 Scotorum Eeginsc, Targoto Monacho Dunelmensi
adscripta 234
IV. Excerpta e Scriptis Turgoti, apud Scotichronicon Johannis Eordun . . 255
SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
HISTORIA EEGUM.
INCIPIT PASSIO SANCTORUM ETHELBERTl" ATQUE ETHELREDI, REGI^ STIRPIS PUERORUM.*
Anno ab incarnatione Dominica Dc.xvj^ qni est xxj ex quo sanctissimus Augustinus cum sociis ad prsedicandum missus est, ^thelbert rex Cantuariorum, post regnum temporale quod I. et vj annis gloriosissime tenuerat, seterna cselestis regni subiit gaudia. Erat autem idem rex filius Irmirici^ cujus pater Octa_, cujus pater Oiric^ cujus pater Hengest, qui cum filio suo Oisc a Wirtigerno rege invitatus Britanniam primus intravit, ut Beda*^ luculento describit sermone. Eadbaldus vero^ filius ^thel- byrhti, regni gubernacula suscepit, qui genuit duos filios Eor- menredum atque Erconbyrhtum. Eadbaldus rex, transiens ex hac vita, Erconberto sceptra dereliquit imperii. Hic, primus regum Anglorum, in toto regno suo idola relinqui ac destrui prsecepit ; simul et jejunium quadraginta dierum observari principali auctoritate jussit; cui natus est filius nomine Ec- bertus. Natique sunt Eormenredo J^thelbertus atque ^thel- redus ; quorum vitam et passionis triumphum in exordio nostrse historise placet inserere, et gloriam sanctitatis eorum demon- strare. ' Erat namque rex JEthelbyrhtus perfectus in imperio glo-
° This legend is printed by Twysden and also by Mr. Petrie from the C. C. C. mannscript, as an integral part of Symeon's Gesta Eegum, but is evidently the production of a much earUer period. Mr. Petrie calls attention to the fact that the remains of the two martyrs are described as still deposited at A\"akering, although we learn from GotsceUn, who wTote an account of their passion a.d. 1090, that they had been removed to Eamsey a century before that period. See Mon. Hist., preface, p. 89. Portions of Gotscelin's narrative are also obviously derived from the present work. This legend and the genealogy of the Northum- brian kings must be regarded as prefatory to Symeon's work, and on that account these are given in this place, as they are not devoid of novelty and interest. The notices of the abbats of AVearmouth and two poems by Beda have been omitted.
^ This heading is in red letters. " Eccl. Hist., i., xiv.
B
2 • — SYMEONIS bUNELMENSIS
riosse potestatis_, qui^ delectatus summopere verbis Divinse agni- tionisj tinctus est baptismate salutis. Cujus studio vel sagaci auxilio ubique ecclesiarum Dei diffusus est status, et rerum suarum collatione fidelium roboratus extitit conventus. Unde regni monarchia solertissime pro sibi illato posse disposita, vocante (sequi enim inter omnia fecerat) justi Remuneratoris clementia, carnalibus privatur^ et ad ardua setlieris cum Sanctis regnaturus sustollitur. Huic vero in regiminis sumministra- tione succedit filius Eadbaldus, sicut superius prsefati sumus_, de quo procreantur bini regalis stirpis filii^ Eormenredus et Ercon- byrhtus^ quorum junior imperialis principatum regni, patre dis- ponente^ suscepit. Post autem Erconbyrliti decessum^ filius ipsius^ nomine Ecgbyrhtus^ illud potenter gubernavit. Eormen- redus vero major absque imperii dominio in hujus caducalis vitai permansit volubili stadio : cui justo ex justissima conjuge nati sunt filii duo, qui nutriti in herili cselestis Regis palatio, multimodis sunt ditati seternse glorise munere Regio; quorum unus onomate nituit ^thelredus^ alter vero vocabulo fulsit TEthelbyrhtus. Namque in eorum natali sanctissimo^ cuncti, ut remur^ Isetati sunt beatorum spirituum ordines in cselo^ quia quos in terris destinari conspiciebant^ ipsos fortiores post hujus vitse gravia certamina ad se redituros videbant. Gavisa est telluris sublimitas^ se ornari sentiens duplicis doni gratia; et quia ex nimio mulctatur contrariorum infortunio, se semper sperat immeliorari tali subsidio. Gratulatur insuper et mater sancta ecclesia, dum sui tanto Sponsi illustratur dotaliciOj quo et meritorum luce melius resplendeatj et semper in sanctioris rectissimum sequitatis culmen crescat. Hujus nempe prsecel- lentis doctrinae utero traditi, ut sine accuratis disciplinse magis- tralis loquamur eloquentiis^ primo omnium in serenissimo sanctse meditationis illius sacrario^ nitido salutaris aquse sunt abluti baptisterio^ in cujus puri septem gradibus liquoris septem sunt sortiti dona Spiritus Sancti, episcopali benedictione perfusi, et sancto crismate delibuti. Quibus undique decentissime fulti^ vivere studuerunt virgines et corpore sancto tenerrimi_, septenis dierum curriculis^ ut_, septem septies augmentatis et monade sup- posito,, singularis in prsesenti vita adquirerent fructum jubilei^ hoc est annum seternse felicitatis. Hoc deinde insignium illustri cura virtutum duplicato corpore et anima^ post peractum vitse cursum^ fructum caperent centesimum sacratissimis virginibus consecratum. Egregia namque insignes forma sanctitatis^ ap- tissimis devincti caritatis radiis_, cernuse locupletes humilitatis officiis, inevincibilis ter beati patientise titulis, largis pro posse fungentes elemosinarum studiis^ indeficientis priecordialibus orationis compti privilegiis^ et plurimis Patris spirituum debri-
HlSTOllIA REGUM. 3
antiir bonitatum speculis. Quia ergo plantaria virtutum natu- raliter eis insita pro nostra capacitate prselibavimus, nunc brevi notationis serie aggredi temptamus^ qualiter ad gaudia cselestis patrise per coronam martyrii vocantur.
Igitur utrisque eorum parentibus ab hujus vitse miseria de- cedentibus cum adhuc juvenilis potirentur imbeciJlitate setatis, Ecgberhto regi germano consobrino suo sunt traditi^ qualiter et solertis prudentiae educarentur exercitiis^ et humanse infirmitatis sustentarentur solatiis. Talibus vero piorum conaminibus non defuere iniquse venena jaculationis^ quse semper adversus filios Dei per filios diffidentise telis invidise armatur. In regali nam- que palatio homo quidam peccati et filius inventus est perdi- tionis/ membrum diaboli necnon domus zabuli, qui sseculi vanis tumidus pompisj munificentiaque regali redimitus^ nec Deum timebat nec hominem reverebatur. Hic cum principe cum pro nimia ambitione honoris super omnes consiliis frueretur, tum pro fsetido humanse levitatis favore in vanum tollebatur, Aman super Mardocheum ignicomis mortifei'8e vexationis furcis stimu- labatm% quibus ipse postmodum insperate vinctus suspendere- tur. Vocabatur porro convenienti sibi nomine Thunur, quod Latina interpretatione sonat tonitrus. Furiis namque teterri- morum spirituum morbidis indesinenter vexabatur, quorum horridis fragoribus in inferni tartarum demergeretur. Videns ergo felices quos supra-taxavimus vivere feliciter^ sordidarum scabenti deturpatus meditationum prurigine^ in coenoso mentis impise volutabro coepit cogitare^ quibus adinventionum ruderibus eos neci posset tradere. Unde canino dente apud plurimos aulicorum eorum prseconia prsesumebat rodere, vecordique in calumpnia ipsorum duci talia proferre. ^^Cum_, rex serenissime^ strenua mente, solerti opere, perspicacis sensus valitudine^ ac vigorabili tui potentatus lance^ largissima regnorum tua3 majes- tati subjacentium sinuamina prudentissimo sequitatis disponan- tur libraminC;, est quam pretiosum^ ut non tantum stabili nunc virga regni recte moderetur, sceptrumque orbis status guber- netur^ quam pulcherrime tuse propagini prospiciat incolume pacis decus. Non enim tantum tui cura sollicitationum nebulis agitareris^ nisi clarissimorum tuse dignitatis successurorum spe- ciebus natorum optimis delectareris. Quapropter operse pretium ducimus^ ut semita tranquillitatis eis prospera redimatur^ quo et respublica ipsis successura nullo turbinum fluctu quatiatur^ nul- lis discordiarum angoribus vacilletur. Cuncta eis bonis omnibus exuberans arrideat felicitas^ Isetitise pleniter inditis perseverabilis
^ 2 Thes?. ii. 3 ; St. Jolm xvii. 12. The passage below is from St. Luke xviii. 2.
B 2
4 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
affluat jocunditas ! Videre autem videor, ut magna hujus salu- britatis oriatur penes te injuria, quia nutris cum diligentia qui aliquando sibi usurpare prsesument tui regni fastigia^ mutabunt quse diligenter eis exbibes talia, in tui tuorumque posterorum inutilia. Ex assistentibus tuse celsitudinis loquor ^thelredo et ^thelbyrhto tyrunculis, qui magis in augmento tuse liberorum- que crescunt dampnationis quam cujuslibet tuse provectionis. Ergo perquisita directi ominis scientiola qua sequa promoveatur in eos rationis sententiola ; consultum communis crederem esse utilitatis tuae_, ut aut eos in longinquum dirigi exilium jubeas regionis, aut citissime tradi mihi sinas jugulis.^^ Rege bsec dissimulantCj utraque se nolle denegante^ illo tamen obnixe ut fieri permitteret stimulante, et hoc ssepius repetente, dum tepide et non argute probibuit^ audacise temeritatem ut perde- rentur intulit. O quam subdola semper in insontes perfidorum calliditas ! O quam immitis fraudulentorum in innocentes ssevitia ! Nulla lenis gratissima pietatis cura^ non eis ulla mansuetudinis intersunt viscera. Sola quse meditantur acerba, quse portant venenis similia. Quid plura? mortifera idem in se-ipsum armatur pestifer turbo nequitia^ qua absente regis prsesentia manus nisus est extendere in Deo cernua innocentum colla.
Hac igitur invidi persecutoris insectatione martyres Christi coronati sunt palma victorise,, et, a Christo susceptij in prsedio perennis vitse Isetantur cum angelis cselestis patrise. Pretiosa vero tantarum membra agonistarum jussit inhonestis subselli- orum locis humo contegi regalium^ credens latere diu cunctis quod peregerat stupidse commentum perversitatis nequitia sce- lesti interemptoris. Porro nullo eis indulto fletus suspirio^ nullo decem cordarum reboante officio^ non hymnorum pul- cherrimo Ambrosiano titulo^ nec Gregoriano potitis dulcis armonise organo ; non defuere summse Deitatis tamen multipiicis virtutis exennia.
Etenim intempesta noctis quiete visa est Divinitus corusca super aulam palatii regis fulsisse luminis columpna^ quse illus- tratione insolita plures turbavit ex regis familia. Dantesque fragorem clamoris in admiratione nimia expergefactus est rex^ et hoc minime cognoscens surrexit a stratus sui cubiculo^ et iter paravit ad nocturnales matutinorum hymnos. Cum digres- sus a domo, videt orbem novi splendoris incanduisse albedine_, cujus procreatio diffluebat a prsefato lucis mirabili solio. Enim- vero tam recentis stupefactus intuitu_, mentis agitari coepit solli- citus rex cogitationibus^ et ubi essent quos pridie prseviderat, et de confabulatione perdendorum martyrum quam minister ini- quitatis cum eo jamdudum habuerat^ movebatur siquidem medi-
HISTORIA REGUM. 5
tatione acerrima. Tunc celerrirae ascito tanti criminis auctore sciscitatur qua forent propinqui sui positi regionis longinquitate, quorum non fruebatur prsesentise inclita pulchritudine. Iniquis- simo sane surdas his punctionibus aures prsebente carnifice, atque Cain voce superbo mentis supercilio se nescire turpiore grunniente, minaci vultu^ quippe ut perterritus Divinse lucis claritate, ei fertur talia inculcavisse ; "Tu mihi plurima de eis semper sermocinatus es bonis contraria, tu de eorum exilio mala^ tu de internicione nefaria^ tu adversus eos multa morde- baris insania. Tibi pleniter enarrare nostrse sollertiae oportet^ nequissime, qualiter inveniantur quos gravi insectabaris odii zelo^ corrupta mente.^'' Ad hsec ille furcifer sentina malitise fsetidus : " Sub tuae/^ inquit, ''^mortua eorum jacent cadavera loco sedis domus." Princeps quid ageret ? Perculsus namque timoris ingenti turbinC;, quia in parte torquebatur mordaci macula alis conscientise^ dum fortiter non restitit bonitatis hosti ; et quia vindicare nequibat quod peractum injuste fuerat, stupens inhserebat, in quantumque poterat pcenitebat. Aurora itaque diei terris illucescente, convocatis quibus ad prsesens innitebatur comitibus, regnique sui principibus cum episcopis^ in quibus supereminebat archiprsesul Dorovernensis multse beatitatis vir_, vocabulo Deus-deditj ad locum prsefatorum innocentum concitus pergit^ terram suflPossorio avellit_, corporaque sanctissima inde- center jugulata ac inhoneste condita detegit. Heu quam surda aare tunc mentis constitit si non flevit_, cum filios avunculi sui innocentes perditos conspexit ! Heu quam ferreo usus est pec- tore si dum propinquos carnis suse felici sanguinis vidit tinctos rubore, non tangitur cordis dolore ! Heu quam gravi lacrima- rum potuit suffundi imbre^ dum tantse nobilitatis flores inclitos tam futili vidit traditos sepulturse !
Igitur cum hominum exequiis etiam non defuerunt magnalia perpetuse Deitatis. Coronatos namque in regni seternitatis solio etiam hic visitare dignatur miro potentise Suse miraculo. Talia gerebantur in villa regali quse vulgari dicitur Easterige pro- nunciatione. Cum ergo sanctorum pretiosissima innocentum corpora terroe secreto forent superstatuta feretro^ propositum est utj delata in urbem Cantise, Christi sepelirentur in monasterio ; et moveri non quiverunt ab illo in quo statuta fuerant loco. Propositum est ut ad Sancti Augustini ferrentur ecclesiam, siquidem levari nequiverunt. Ad plurima quoque et honorabilia portare decreverunt loca et tumbis appositarum manuum deficie- bant brachia. Tandem salubri reperto consilio^ ut ad famos- sissimum gestarentur monasterium^ Wacrinense vocitatum, tam citissimse agilitatis insperato levantur oflicio_, ut nihil oneris videretur in gestamine diu desiderato. Quo cum perventum
6 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
iiiisset, cum pulcherrimis hymnorum cantilenisj lenibusque psalmorum melodiis^ multis resonantibus choris et jubilationum cymbalis^ suscipiuntur, tradunturque principalem retro aram sepulturse decenti. Hic multis annorum curriculis eis positis, Excelsus Dominus^ Qui humilia respicit et alta a longe cog- noscitj'^ eos creberrimis ditare miraculis voluit; de quibus duo posterorum notitise nunc propalare prsesenti sermone [statuo] .
Accidit ut quidam alterius bonis csecatus ovem cujusdam pauperis tolleret secretius^ quam gestans in humeris^ ligatis pedibus^ deferre gliscebat secus arcisterium sanctorum mar- tyrum^ sed non potuit. Portari ibidem potuit, sed dehinc vehi non valuit. Reus itaque hujus sceleris continuo frustratur flatu vitali, prosterniturque mortuus, humi ovem viventem habens in manibus, eo insequente cui furtum fuerat illatum. Uecipit innocens proprium, dimittit reum morte prseventum subitanea sanctorum ultione innocentum. Continuo currens ad sedituum sciscitatur si peremerit latronem illum ; a nullo mortali didicit jugulatum ; acceptaque licentia reportandi quod suum fuerat, Isetus et hilaris revertitur in sua^ Deo ac Sanctis Ejus multas gratias agens.
Igitur quoniam passiones sanctorum martyrum, prout potui- mus_, strictim praelibavimus, restat quomodo Divina ultio super iniquissimum judicem, piissimse necis eorum auctorem^ per- veneritj breviter tangamus. Euerat eis ex paterno maternoque soror procreata semine^ Eormenburga vel Domneva nomine, quam habebat in conjugium copulationis legitimse rex Mercio- rum^ Mearwoldus nomine, quam Ecgberhtus rex ad se, misso legationis suse gerulo,, disposuit vocare. Quae veniens^ suscipitur ab omnibus primatibus illius regionis^ uti dignum erat^ honorabili perspicuse ambitionis dignitate. Decernens itaque eam hono- rare^ ut quodcunque vellet honestatis sibi competentis in potes- tatis suse ditione rogaret, et sine mora acciperet, sancta mulier humili responsione subinfert^ ut tantum terrae illi concederet quantum cerva quam sibi nutrierat, in una die Divino instinctu pede peragraret. Rex vero gratanter continuo jubet in crasti- num prseparari comitum agmen^ quo fretus, navibus ad insulam Tened dictam faceret callem. Quo positi^ ipsaque cum cerva insulam navigio ingressa^ viam cerva lustrandi arripit^ a princi- peque et Christi famula cum plebe militari insequitur equis. Jam ex parte quamplurima circumita, nefandus carnifex tur- batur invidia,, et quasi pro fidelitate regis, cui nihil remanere videbatur ex ipsius vastitate amaena, coepit^ quasi in viis ejus compatiens, garrire talia, ^' Cum cuncta peragas perspicacis pru-
'^ Psalm cxxxviii. 6.
HISTORIA REGUM. 7
dentise gubernaculOj quare hoc brutum animal, sicut aliquid magni gerat^ sequeris incessu devotissimo ?^^ His dictis^ Deitatis summis perculsus jaculis^ ex sonipede ruit. Continuo suscipitur cum armis equoque nimis nimiumque infelix Thunor novo terrse hiatu, ac nimio terrore rex cum omnibus suis commilitonibus correptus, operiri concite jubet horrendo lapidum acervo ipsius corpus^ anima perenni servata incendio^ baratri coenosis ignibus^ de quibus dictum est poenis, "Transibunt animse de pcenis nivium ad calorem nimium.^'' Qui locus a transeuntibus Thunerhleaw vocatur^ talique vocabulo potitur. Talibus stupidse mortis officiis insano lanista utente^ ac pro deliciis tormentorum poenas luente^ prsedicta fera, quantum Divina voluntas concessit, eis comitantibus iter fecit, et sic gradum fixit mirantibus cunctis. Rex quod spoponderat viso territus miraculo fecit^ manu propria formavit_, sicque domum rediit.
Mulier vero^ sanctse virtutis amica, ac Deo valde electa^ in hac insula ecclesiam almse Dei genitricis Marise perpetuae Vir- ginis^ in memoria innocentum Christi martyrum^ fratrum suo- rum, constituit, filiamque suam bonse indolis virginem^ Mildry- dam appellatam^ ecclesiasticis in transmarinis partibus disci- plinis eruditam^ postmodum ibi constituit^ cum septuaginta sanctimonialibus a sancto archiepiscopo Deus-dedit consecratis, inibique congregavit. Ibi ergo beatse genitrix Mildrithse post excursum plurimorum annorum^ post exhibitionem bonarum virtutum, post sedificationem plurimarum mentium virorum et virginum quas in Christo confortavit cum lampade justitiae^ a Christo meruit audire^ Surge, propera, amica mea, veni de Libano, veni, coronaberis .^ Cujus anima ad cseli deducta pa- latium, a Christo percipit immarescibilia victorise dona^ cum Eo Sanctisque Ejus regnatura in perenni gloria. Sane in monasterii regimine succedit inclita ejus soboles^ quam edu- caverat decentissime nobilis et in Christi servitio non deficiens Mildrytha prsedicta^ sanctissima virgo^ multa fulgens miracu- lorum gratia.
Unde unum narramus miraculum^ quod sine dubio confirmat quia fecerat ei Dominus plurima quse sunt mortalibus inedici- bilia. Quadam hamque temporis serie^ lassescentibus membris pro nimia laboris diuturnitatej quiescebat in lectulo, modico gravata sopore : cui astitit angelus Domini in columbse specie residens in ejus capite^ ut eam tueretur a malignorum spirituum illusione. Hajc beata virgo, sicut ejus felix genetrix, bona relinquens sequacibus vestigia, Omnipotente spirituum Patre ejus animam sumente, terra plorantC; cselo gaudente, vivit in
' Cantic. ii. 10 ; iv. 8.
8 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
aaterna beatitudine ; sacratissimo ipsius corpore in templo beatse Dei genitricis Marise^ perpetuse virginis^ digniter in condigno loco tradito sepulturse. Prseterea dum spurcissimi persecutoris piorum martyrum subitum mortis interitum statuimus de- scribere^ postmodum infleximus oculos ad veneranda sororis neptisque eorum gesta, quibus insimul Christus fuit vivere, et mori lucr um ;f cujus gratia ad alia narranda,, Eo succurrente,, est properandum, retinentes ordinem narrationum.
/ Phil. i. 21.
HISTORIA REGUM.
GENEALOGIA REGUM NORTHANHYMBRORUM.
In exordio hujus operis genealogiam regum Cantuariorum strictim praelibavimus ; nunc Northanhymbrorum libet demon- strare^ ut ad eorum tempora valeamus pervenire^ de quibus non est narratum post obitum reverendissimi sacerdotis Bedae.^
«■ This paragraph refers to the preceding legend, which seems to have been the model on which the style of the Northumbrian Genealogy was formed. This latter piece is of no value as an original authority, being a mere paraphrase in very bombastic language of the "Brief Northumbrian Chronology," printed in the Monumenta Historica, page 290, with a few additions subsequent to the in- troduction of Christianity from the Ecclesiastical History of Beda. The sequence of the successors of Ida is the same in both Hsts ; and although there is some discrepancy in the length of the several reigns, the summation of the whole is the same in each. Where differences occur, the Northumbrian Chronology seems the better authority, confirmed as it is by the genealogy appended to Nennius. The following table will explain the variations.
GENEALOGY. CHEONOLOGY. NENNIUS.
Ida 11 Ida 12 Ida 12
Glappa 1 Glappa 1 (omitted) 1
Adda 8 Adda 8 Adda 8
Ethelric 7 Ethelric 4 Ethelric 4
Theodoric. ... 4 Theodoric. ... 7 Theodoric ... 7
Frithwald 7 Frithwald 6 Frithwald 6
Hussa 7 Hussa 7 Hussa 7
45 45 45
Florence of Worcester has a distinct list, not only differing in the length and sequence of the reigns, but introducing a new name, Theolwulf, and omitting Hussa. Wallingford has framed a list from those several authorities, adopting the order in which the names occur in Florence ; but taking the length of the reigns from the Northumberland Chronology, and giving a place to Hussa instead of Theolwulf. Hussa indeed is noticed with too great particularity, not merely in the Genealogy, but in the narrative of Nennius, to allow of the omission of his name ; whilst the general accuracy of the succession of the kings, as recorded by Florence, is corroborated by the Saxon Chronicle ; which, although it omits two others, expressly mentions Ethelric as the immediate predecessor of Ethelfrith. As this is a matter of some interest in Northumbrian history, I subjoin the series of Florence and the composite list of Walhngford.
FLOEENCE OF WOECESTEE. WALLINGFOED.
Ida 11 Ida 12
Adda 7 Adda 8
Glappa 5 Glappa 1
Theolwulf ... 1 Hussa 6
Frithwulf . . . . 7 Frithwulf. . . . 7
Theodoric ... 7 Theodoric ... 7
Ethelric .... 7 Ethelric 4
Of these Adda, Ethelric, and Theodric, were sons of Ida ; and our three first
cited authorities seem to have misled us by placing them in the order of their
birth, rather than in that of their succession to the throne.
10 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
Ida rex annis regnavit xj^ quo abstracto^ Glappa j regnavit anno^ quem secutus Adda^ viij annis tenuit regni fastigia. Illo vero penetrante ima pro meritis^ ^^Etlielric regnum adeptus est terrenum, quod tenuit vij annis. Is^, secreta inferni visitans^, Theoderico imperia dereliquit^ qui bis binis annis regnum tenens, regnum simul perdidit et vitam^
" Tendens in externas ire tenebras, Quo pressus gravidis colla catenis, Cogitur nunc miserum cernere regnum."'^
Post hunc Frithwold adeptus est sceptrum regni vij annis, qui subtractus a sseculo monarchiam regni dereliquit regi Husso. Ipse vero vij annis jura imperii tenens^ didicit per se verum esse quod sequitur^
"Mors spernit altam gloriara, Involvit humile pariter et celsum caput, Jilquatque summis infima."
Octavus in regno refulsit ^thelfryth fortissimus regum, qui, XX et viij annis regno potitus^ vita et regno est privatus. Huic successit Edwinus rex^ qui fidem Christianitatis percipiens_, rex et martyr cselos penetravit pro meritis, xvij annis regnum con- servans cum honore summse potestatis. Oswaldus vero post hunc regnum Northanhymbrorum Christianissimus suscepit^ quod et viij annis tenuit : qui supernse civitatis gaudia petens, et cseli secreta scandens/ regnum post ipsum Oswius rex sus- cepit ad tuendum xx et viij annis. Ouo ablato ab imis ad supera^ Ecfrido commisit terrena imperia^ qui regnum xv annis tenuit. Ouo a Pictis interfecto^ quia injuste vastaverat Hiber- niam/ regnavit pro eo Alfridus, frater ejus, xix annis. Quo occiso^ Coenredus regni gubernacula suscepit xj annis. Cui in regnum successit Osricus xj annis. Osrico vero successit Ceol- wlfus frater Coenredi viij annis. Huic Beda historiographus Anglorum Historiam destinavit.
^ Boethius de Consol. Philosoph., i., 3, 25, 27. Several words, however, are altered. The two short sentences before may be written hke verse, but they do not occur in Boethius. The passage below comes from the same author, ii., 12-14.
' These four words are interhned.
HISTORTA REGUM. H
INCIPIT HISTORTA* SANCT^ ET SUAVIS MEMORT^ SYMEONIS MONACHI ET PR^CENTORTS ECCLESI^ SANCTT CUTHBERTI DUNELMT DE REGIBUS ANGLORUM ET DACORUM^ ET CRE- BERRTMTS BELLTS^ RAPTNTS ET INCENDTIS EORUM j POST OBTTUM VENERABTLTS BED^ PRESBYTERT FERE USQUE AD OBTTUM REGIS PRIMI HENRTCT rTLTT WTLLELMI NOTHI QUI ANGLTAM ADQUT-
siviT^ [id est ccccxxix annorum et iiij mensium] .
DCCXXXII."^
Anno ab incarnatione Domini Dcc.xxxij^ ut praefati sumus, Berthwaldus archiepiscopus est defunctus. Eodem anno Tat- wine est consecratus archiepiscopus nonus Dorovernensis eccle- sise^, Ethilbaldo rege Merciorum quintum-decimum agente annum imperii.^ Ipso quoque anno Ceolwlfus rex captus^ attonsus^ et remissus est in regnum.'' Erat vero miro^ studio imbutus, ut Beda testatur in exordio sui proemii veridicus. Acca episcopus eodem anno de sua sede est fugatus/ et Cyne- berht Lindisfarorum'' ecclesise antistes obiit. Ipso autem anno Alric et Esc cum aliis plurimis occisi sunt die x kal. Sep- tembris^ v feria.^
* This Colophon is in red letters.
' In the MS. this rubric is placed at the commencement of the collection, preceding the separate title of the Passion of Ethelbert and Ethelred, to which, however, and the intermediate pieces, it has no reference whatever. It is here prefixed to the historical narrative to which it refers, commencing with events immediately preceding the death of Beda. The concluding words, "id est cccc.xxix annorum et iiij mensium," which have been shewn in the Preface to be inaccurate, have been put within brackets.
'" The following note is inserted in a hand of the seventeenth century in the C. C. C. manuscript in this place : " Historia Simeonis Bunelmensis monachi, sed desunt folia nonnulla. Debiierat possuisse immediate post titulum operis ante passionem Ethelberti et Ethelredi," thus recognizing the appHcability of tlie title to this part of the collection only.
" This is copied from the E;ecapitulation at the end of Beda's Ecclesiastical History. Some of the following statements are taken from the ancient Northum- brian Annals at the end of certain MSS. of Beda, wliich are printed in the Monu- menta Historica, pp. 288-9. These are referred to in the following notes by tlie initials N. A.; the Saxon Chronicle by S. C. Notices which occur only in Symeon are distinguished by the letter S.
" N. A., sub anno 731.
p Parker has inserted the word Scripturarum, which is printed hy Twysden.
9 N. A. 731, S. C. 733.
*■ Lindissse interhned.
* S.-Alric is probably the same person who is mentioned by Beda (Mon. Hist., p. 282) as the youngest son of Wictred king of Kent, and who on the death of his
12 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
DCCXXXIII.
Anno Dcc.xxxiij Tatwine archiepiscopus, accepto ab Apos- tolica auctoritate pallio^ ordinavit Alwig et Sigfrid episcopos.^ Eclipsis facta est solis xix kal. Septembris, circa horam diei tertiam^ ita ut pene totus orbis solis quasi nigerrimo et horrendo scuto videretur esse coopertus."
DCCXXXIV.
Anno Dcc.xxxiiij luna sanguineo rubore est perfusa, quasi hora integra, ij kal. Februarii circa gallicantum. Dehinc ni- gredine subsequente ad lucem propriam est reversa.^
Eodem anno Tatwine archiepiscopus nonus Dorovernensis civitatis in Cantia obiit die iij kal. Augusti.^ Primus ipsius civitatis episcopus erat Augustinus^ gloriosus doctor totius regni, ac egregius fundator Christianitatis.^ Qm, ad supernse civitatis gaudia sublevatus^ sceptra tanti fastigii dereliquit Laurentio. Is pro meritis supernis allectus civibus, dispensationem catholicse ecclesise commendavit Mellito episcopo. Mellitus denique post laborum suorum certamina, tanquam miles emeritus^ cselestium donorum consecutus est prsemia. Post eum quarto in loco Justus succedit, qui in Domino Deo confisus ad montem vir- tutum secundum nominis sui palmam transmigravit victoriosus. Secutus est ipsum Honorius^ hoc est honore plenus, qui oflficium sibi commissum bene ministrans, poli culmina conscendit pro meritis. Deus-dedit cathedram ascendit sexto in loco, qui patrum secutus vestigia, hseres factus est in cselesti curia. Deinde Theodorus doctissimus^ exurgens^ septimum locum gloriose exornavit. Berthwaldus octavo succedit loco ; quem secutus est Tatwine episcopus, sicut praefati sumus.
Eodem anno ordinatus est Friothuberht Haugustaldensis ecclesise episcopus sub die vj idus Septembris.^
DCCXXXV.
Anno Dcc.xxxv Nothelmus archiepiscopus ordinatus^* est, et
father, a.d. 725, was left one of the heirs to his kingdom with his brothers Edil- bert and Edbert.
It is true that Malmesbury tells us that Alric reigned thirty-four years, Edilbert eleven, and Edbert twenty-three ; but we have on the other hand the much higher authority of the Saxon Chronicle, which, agreeing with Malmes- bury as to the length of Edberfs reign, assigns the longer period of thirty-four years not to Alric but to Edelbert, making no mention of the date of Alric's death, or the length of his reign. Esc is mentioned by no other writer.
' S. " N. A., S. C. " N. A., S. C. " N. A., S. C.
■^ Interhned are the words, which Twysden prints unnecessarily, " Vel Chris- tiancBJidei et religionis"
y Interiined. ^ N. A., V35.
HISTORIA REGUM. 13
Egberhtus Eboraci antistes^ priraus post Paulinum, accepto ab Apostolica sede pallio, genti Northanhymbrorum in archie- piscopatum confirmatus'* est.* Beda doctor obiit in Gyruum.'^
DCCXXXVI.
Anno Dcc.xxxvj Notlielmus^ pallio a Komano pontifice suscepto/ ordina\dt tres episcopos; Cutlibertum^ videlicet, Heordwaldum et ^tlielfridum.^
DCCXXXVII.
Anno Dcc.xxxvij Aldwine^ qui et Wor_, episcopus defunctus est j et pro eo Hwitta et Totta Mercis et Midil-Anglis sunt con- secrati antistites./ Eodem anno regnum Northanhymbrorum Celwlfus dimisit^ et monaclius apud Lindisfarnensem insulam factus estj et pro eo^ Eadberht_, filius patrui ejus^ successit.
DCCXXXVIII.
Anno Dcc.xxxviij Swebriht^ Orientalium Saxonum rex_, obiit.^
DCCXXXIX.
Anno Dcc.xxxix Ethelheard^ rex Occidentalium Saxonum_, defunctus est/ et pro eo Cuthred^ frater ejus^ rex constituitur.
Ipso quoque anno Nothelm archiepiscopus post annos iiij accepti episcopatus diem fsic) obiit in pace/ et Aldulf Hrofensis ecclesise episcopus diem clausit ultimum.'''
DCCXL.
Anno Dcc.xl ^thelwald^ Lindisfarnensis ecclesise antistes^ migravit ad Dominum, et Kynewlf in episcopatum subrogatus
est.'
« Ordinatus interlined. ' N. A., S. C.
' N. A., S. C, 734. " S. C.
' S.-Cuthbert was bishop of Hereford ; Hereward of Shirburn ; "Ethelfrid of Elmham." Petrie.
f S.-Aldwin, bishop of Litchfield. His see extended over the whole of Mercia, including the Mid-Angles. On the division of the diocese Hwitha was placed at Litchfield ; Totta at Leicester. Florence of Worcester, Appendix.
s The words from Celwlfus to eo are at the foot of the page in a somewhat later hand. A blank is left in the text as if there had been an omission or an erasure. The relationship between Ceolwulf and Eadbert is not given in N. A., but is suppUed by S. C. ; whence we learn that Ceolwulf was the son of Cutha, son of Cuthwin, son of Ledwold, son of Egwold, son of Aldelm, son of Occa, son of Ida ; and that Eadbert was the son of Eata, son of Ledwold.
h S.
' N. A., 739, S. C. 741. The latter describes Cuthred as the kinsman of his DrGdGCGssor»
J N. A.,' 739, S. C. 741. * S. ' N. A., 737, S. C. 739.
14 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
Eodem vero anno reverendse memorise Acca episcopus sub- levatus est in regionem viventium."' Erat ipse beatus strenuis- simus actu^ et coram Deo et hominibus magnificus. In eccle- siasticse quoque institutionis regulis sollertissimus extiterat^ et usque dum prsemia pise devotionis capiat existere non desistit_, utpote qui a pueritia in clero sanctissimi atque Deo dilecti Bosa^ Eboracensis episcopi, nutritus atque eruditus est. Deinde ad Wilfridum episcopum spe melioris propositi adveniens, omnem in ejus obsequio usque ad obitum ejus explevit setatem. Cum quo etiam Romam veniens^ multa illic quse in patria nequiverat ecclesise sanctse instituta utilia didicit, et suis sub- jectis tradidit. Sustollitur Sanctus de prsesenti sseculo xiij kal. Novembris; cujus perducitur spiritus ab Angelis ad bravium supernse felicitatis; corpus vero ejus ad orientalem plagam extra parietem ecclesise Haugustaldensis, quam xxiiij annis pontificali rexit dignitate, sepultum est ; dua^que cruces lapidese mirabili cselatura decoratse positse sunt, una ad caput^ alia ad pedes ejus. In quarum una, quse scilicet ad caput est, literis insculptum est, quod in eodem loco sepultus sit. De quo loco post annos plusquam ccc depositionis suse a quodam pres- bytero Divina revelatione translatus est^ ac in ecclesia intra feretrum condigno honore positus est. Ubi usque hodie in magna veneratione babetur. Ob cujus sanctitatis meritum omnibus demonstrandum casula et tunica et sudarium, quse cum sanctissimo ejus corpore in terra posita erant, non solum speciem sed etiam fortitudinem pristinam usque in hodiernum diera servant. Inventa est etiam super pectus ejus tabula lignea in modum altaris facta, ex duobus lignis clavis argenteis con- juncta;, sculptaque est in illa scriptura hsec : Ahue Trinitati, Agi(B Sophia, Sanctce Ma^ice. Utrum vero reliquise in ea positse fuerint, vel qua de causa cum eo in terra posita sit ignoratur. Attamen absque rationabili devotionis causa, summae vene- rationis cultu cum sancto ejus corpore nequaquam csse condita creditur. Vestimenta vero ejus prsedicta fratres ejusdem Ha- gustaldensis ecclesise aliquotiens populo monstrare solent^ a quo cum omni devotione deosculantur.
Plm-ima vero miracula de Sancto Acca etiam vulgo nar- rantur^, quse omnia scripto explicare perlongum est. Aliquam tamen de illis memorise" breviter commendare libet_, videlicet quam mirabiliter ac terribiliter adversarios suos, pacem ecclesise in qua requiescit infringere temptantes_, vel ipsam ecclesiam funditus evertere molientes_, crebro coercuerit_, et qualiter re-
'" S. 0.737. The legend of Acca is undoubtedlj an interpolation, and cer- tainly not the work of Symeon. See Preface, " An interlineation.
HISTORIA REGUM. 15
liquias de corpore suo furtim auferre volentibus ssepius obstiterit. Fuit frater quidam in prsefata Hagustaldensi ecclesia^ Aldredus nomine, qui nunc in Christo requiescit^ vir veracissimus et morum probitate conspicuus_, sed et in Scripturis Sanctis bene eruditus, qui tale miraculum de Sancto Acca in semetipso patratum fratribus ejusdem ecclesise narrare solebat. Cum ipse adhuc essct adolescens^ nutrireturque in domo fratris sui_, cujus- dam presbyteri qui ssepe-fatam Hagustaldensem regebat eccle- siam^ antequam donatione venerabilis memorise Thomre Secundi, Eboracensis archiepiscopi^ canonicis regularibus qui ibidem usque hodie Deo serviunt tradita esset^ placuit eidem fratri suo ossa reverenda Sancti Accse adhuc cum pulvere corporis mixta separare, separatimque in theca quam in hoc paraverat recon- dere. Prolatas ergo venerabiles reliquias super altare Sancti Michaelis in australi porticu ecclesise situm deposuit^ ibique ossa de pulvere collegit et in syndone munda involuta in theca recondiditj et dum eam in chorum^ ubi stare debebat^ deferret_, porticum illam cum reliquiis quse remanserant^ prsedicto fratri suo tuendam delegavit. Qui solus ibi remanens coepit inter se cogitarC;, quia magno munere etiam prsecelsa queelibet ecclesia se ditatam crederet, si vel unum de ossibus tam gloriosi con- fessoris haberet. Proposuit ergo ad altare accedere., et per- quirere si forte aliquid de minutis ossibus in pulvere relictum invenire posset, quod penes se reponens alicui ecclesipe ad ho- norem Dei et Sancti Accse donaret. Sed id reverenter perpe- trare non ausus^ prius humi procumbens septem poenitentiales psalmos devote cantavit^ Deum exorans quatinus tale furtum Ei non displiceret^ quod non sacrilega mente sed piae devotionis et venerationis gratia facere cogitabat. Post hanc orationem se erigenSj quod proposuerat explere temptabat. Cumque ostio interioris porticus^ in qua erant venerandse reliquise^ appropin- quasset^ ecce ! subito calor quidam^ quasi ignis vaporantis de ore clibani ardentis^ ei obvius fuit_, eumque magno timore per- culsum retroire coegit. Ille vero credens hoc ei ideo contigisse^ quod cum minori devotione quam deberet tantam rem assequi vellet_, solo tenus iterum prostratus, multo uberiores et devo- tiores preces quam antea fecerat Domino fudit, quatinus quod devote desiderabat digne adipisci valeret. Post aliquantum itaque intervallum surgens^ cum timore et reverentia magna ad ostium porticus accessit^ sed multo ardentiore calore quam antea de illa egrediente, repercussus est. Quo facto intelligens non esse voluntatem Dei ut aliquid de reliquiis Sancti Accse furtim asportaret, tertio id temptare non ausus est.
Sed et aliud miraculum de eodem Deo dilecto confessore non est silentio prsetereundum^, quod multi qui usque hodie
16 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
supersunt per reliquias ejus patratum esse testantur. Cum venisset ad prsefatam Hagustaldensem ecclesiam quidam ca- nonicus regularis et sacerdos^ scilicet Edricus^ qui illuc primus canonicorum a viro venerabili Thoma arcliiepiscopo missus est^ invenit acervum de terra congestum juxta majus altare quod infra cancellos ecclesise erat^ quem inde auferre volens, effodere eum coepit. De quo cum aliquam partem fodisset_, reperit thecam ligneam non admodum magnam. Quam aperiens, invenit duo sigilla plumbea^, insculptis literis quid intus con- tinerent intimantia. In quorum altero scriptum erat^ quod de Sancto Acca reliquise intro haberentur. Mox ergo illud con- fringens^ invenit pulverem cineri simillimum^ nonnullaque ossa de sancto ejus corpore pulveri immixta, qu3e inde tollens in honestiori theca reposuit. Erat tunc temporis paupercula quae- dam sanctimonialis femina in ipsa villa, quam prsedictus frater pro simplicitate ejus et innocentia vitse oppido diligebat. Ista multo tempore extiterat Cceca^ ita ut ad ecclesiam^ et ubicumque necesse ire habebat, semper ab alio duceretur. Quadam die repente venit in cor fratris pra^fati talis cogitatio^ ut unum de ossibus illis quse nuper invenerat, in aqua benedicta abluere deberet_, mulierique de ipso lavacro dare^ ut inde oculos suos lavaret, si forte Deus^ meritis sancti confessoris sui Accse inter- cedentibus^ lumen oculorum hoc venerando lavacro ei restituere dignaretur. Eecitque ille quod Divino instinctu ammonituSj sicut postea claruit^ faciendum cogitaverat. Abluensque unum de ossibus in aqua benedicta, mulieri dedit^ prsecipiens ei qua- tinus de illa oculos suos lavaret. Quse cum ita fecisset_, quasi post duarum horarum spatium per merita et intercessiones Sancti AccDe visum recepit.
Fuit alter quidam homo pauper in eadem villa cujus guttur intercutaneo morbo in tantum intumuerat, ut nec loqui nec manducare posset. In cujus ore cum idem frater de ipsa aqua parum infudisset, repente post unius horse spatium disrupta est cutis ex inferiori parte tumoris^ sicque exeunte tumore sanatus est.
Qualiter vero Malcolmus rex Scottorum ab invasione pacisque violatione ecclesise Hagustaklensis^ Sancto Acca csete- risque Sanctis qui in ea requiescunt^ meritorum suorum prse- sidiis illam conservantibus coercitus sit^ silentio tegere nimis impium est. Licet enim vulgo etiam notissimum sit, tamen ne penitus cum tempore a memoria hominum transeat, notitise posterorum scripto tradendum est. Malcolmus igitur rex Scottorum, homo scilicet ferocissimus mentemque bestialem gerens, Northumbrensem provinciam crebra irruptione misere devastare solebat^ plurimosque de illa viros et mulieres captivos
HISTORIA REGUM. 17
in Scotiam deducere. Qui cum quadam vice cum numerosiore solito exercitu fines provincise illius_, eam devastaturus^ ingressus fuisset^ provinciales ejus adventum audientes^ fere omnes ad ecclesiam Hagustaldensem^ cum rebus suis quas secum portare poterant_, sub protectione Sanctorum in illa quiescentium con- fugerunt. Quod ut Malcolmus comperit, proposuit illo pergere, omnesque qui eo confugerant exspoliare, ipsamque ecclesiam funditus evertere. Quod audiens presbyter ejusdem ecclesise^ porrexit obviam ei, ammonuitque illum ne tantum nefas in Sanctos Dei^ ecclesise illius patronos^ committere prsesumeret. At ille^ ejus spernens monita^ eum a se cum injuria projecit. Qui ad ecclesiam festinato rediens^ omnes qui ibidem con- fugerant in commune exhortatus est^ gloriosos Sanctos Dei^ sub quorum prsesidium confugerantj instanter deprecari;, qua- tinus illos solita pietate sua a tam immani lioste Scottisque bestiis crudelioribus protegere dignarentur. Et fecerunt ita. Nocte vero sequenti cum idem presbyter prse tristitia in soporem decidisset^ apparuit ei vir quidam vultu et habitu venerandus, qui ab eo sciscitabatur_, quasi ignorans^ causam tantse tristitise. Cumque pro hostium imminentium saevitia se pavere respon- dissetj ait illi, " Ne timeas^ quoniam, antequam illucescat^ rete meum in fluvium mittam, per quod omnino Scottorum transitus impedietur.''^ Hsec cum dixisset evanuit. Mane autem facto^ iuA^entus est amnis qui Tyna dicitur^ absque plu- viarum inundatione et ventorum violentia^ in tantum excrevisse, ut absque navis" amminiculo minime transiri posset. Prseterea eadem nocte et die sequenti tanta repente nebula accidit_, ut maxima pars exercitus supradicti regis per tenebras dispersa a se invicem dilaberetur, ita ut plures ad aquilonem, multi ad orientem_, nonnulli quoque ad meridiem, aperte miraculo Divino confusi_, per intercessionem Sanctorum Hagustaldensis ecclesiae cum magna festinatione tenderent. Rex vero Malcolmus cum illa particula exercitus sui quse cum eo remanserat veniens, omnem transmeandi copiam sibi negatam vidit. Resedit ergo supra ripam fluminis^ exspectare volens donec aqua diminueretur ut transire posset. Sed cum tribus diebus expectasset^ aquam- que absque omni pluvise amministratione cotidie magis ac magis crescere videret, tam evidenti miraculo perterritus., cum magna festinatione recessit : sicque ab ejus crudelitate omnes qui ad prsefatam Hagustaldensem ecclesiam confugerant_, meritis Sanc- torum in illa requiescentium erepti sunt.
Sed nunc ad historicam narrationem prsetermissam redeamus. Ipso vero anno quo Sanctus Acca episcopus ad cselestia mi-
" This word is interlined.
18 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
gravit_, Arwine filius Eadulfi^^ occisus est, die x kal. Jan., feria vij. Refert Historia vel Cronica hujus patrise, quod eodem anno Cutliberlit undecimus Dorovernensis ecclesise arcliiepiscopatum susceperit.^ At vero post Aldulfum Hrofensis ecclesiee Dun sacerdotium assumpsit.
DCCXLI.
Anno Dcc.xlj monasterium in Eboraca civitate succensum est ix kal. Maii^ feria prima.''
DCCXLIV.
Anno Dcc.xliv factum est prselium inter Pictos et Brittones.*
DCCXLV.
Anno Dcc.xlv visi sunt in aere ictus ignei quales numquam ante mortales illius sevi viderunt ; et ipsi pene per totam noctem visi sunt_, kal. sciiicet Januarii.^
Eodem quoque anno, ut quidam refert^ dominus Wilfridus Secundus, Eboracse civitatis episcopus, migravit ad Dominum iij kal. Maii." Nos vero dicimus quod priusquam Beda suam Historiam explicuisset, translatus sit ille primus Wilfridus ex hoc mundo ad celsitudinem seternse visionis, Ipsis quoque diebus Lundonise civitatis episcopus^ nomine Ingwald, de Egypto hujus sseculi translatus est.*" Eadem tempestate antistes in Wiccum defunctus est.^*' Etiam anno eodem Herebald abbas obiit. His temporibus floruit sanctus anachorita Guthlacus.^
' " Aruuini et Eadbertus interfecti." — N. A.
9 The reference to the Saxon Chronicle in this place is unaccountable, as the accession of archbishop Cuthbert is equally recorded in the Northumbrian Annals. The next entry of the death of Aldulf, bishop of Hereford, and the appointment of Dun, is in the Saxon Chronicle only.
*■ " This year York was burned." — S. C. * S.
' " Stars were seen to shoot rapidly." — S. C.
" N. A., S. C. The words '^ secundus" above, and " ille primus" lower down, are interlined. Mr. Petrie supposes the individual referred to, to have been Wilfrid, bishop of Worcester, not AVilfrid "the second," or " the younger" bishop of York (Mon. Hist., pp. 288, 329). This mistake has originated in the assumption that when Egbert succeeded Wilfrid a.d. 732, the vacancy was occasioned by the death of the latter; but such was not the case. Wilfrid resigned his see, and spent his last years in retirement, as appears from Alcuin's poem on the archbishops of York. See Eaine's Lives of the Archbishops of York, vol. {., p. 93. Wilfrid, bishop of Worcester, however, does appear to have died the same year, and his death to be recorded in the text below as ** antistes in Wiccum."
'^ N. A. '" S. C.
^ S. The last sentence an interlineation.
HISTORIA REGUM. 19
DCCXLIX.
Anno Dcc.xlix ^lfwald rex Orientalium Anglorum defunctus est, regnumque Hunbeanna et Alberht sibi diviserunt.^
DCCL.
Anno Dcc.l 'Eadberht rex Kyniwlfum episcopum in urbem Bebbam captivum adduxerat^ basilicamque beati Petri obsidere fecit in Lyndisfarnea.^ Offa filius Alfridi quoque [ad] reliquias Sancti Cuthberti pontificis innocens coactitie accurrebat, pene defunctus fame de ecclesia sine armis abstractus est.^ Eodem anno Alwih episcopus translatus est ad alterius vitse contempla- tionem, et Aldulf diaconus ejus ordinatur in episcopum. Cuthred autem rex Occidentalium Saxonum surrexit contra ^thilbaldum regem Merciorum.*
DCCLII.
Anno ab incarnatione Dominica Dcc.lij eclypsis lunse facta est pridie kal. Augusti.*^ Quia mentio facta est de hac re, libet ignorantibus pandere quid sit eclypsis,, id est deliquium vel defectus lunse. Eclypsis lunse est quotiens in umbram terrse luna incurrit, non enim suum lumen habere dicitur_, sed a sole illuminari putatur. Eclypsis lunse non nisi plena id est xv erit. Defectus solis nunquam nisi ortu lunse fieri solet. Certum est, inquit Plinius_, defectum solis non nisi novissima, id est xxx, primave fieri luna, quod coitum vocant.'^ Omnibus autem annis fieri utriusque sideris defectus statutis diebus_, horis, sub terra. Nec tamen cum superne fiunt ubique cerni possunt, aliquando propter nebulam_, ssepius globo terrse obstante convexitatibus mundi. Eclypsis solis est quotiens luna xxx ad eandem lineam qua sol vehitur pervenit, eique se objiciens solem obscurat. Nam deficere nobis sol videtur dum illi orbis lunse opponitur.
DCCLIV.
Anno Dcc.liv Bonifacius, archiepiscopus (qui et Winfridus) Francorum, martyrio coronatus est cum quinquaginta tribus.^
V S.
^ Eespecting the dedication of the cathedral church of Lindisfarne to St. Peter by archbishop Theodore, see Beda, Mon. Hist., p. 199.
" S. These particulars of the captivity of bishop Kyniwolf, and the outrage on Offa, are given with some variations in Symeon's History of the Church of Durham. See Preface to this volume.
* N. A. add after ^thilhaldum Regem, et Oeugusum.
' N.A.
'^ Nat. Hist., ii., c. xiii. — In margin, Lata ohc\ . . apud Ehoracum.
' N. A.
c2
20 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
DCCLV.
Anno Dcc.lv Cuthred^ rex Occidentalmm Saxonum, obiit, cujus regni sceptra Sigberht accepit./
DCCLVI.
Anno ab incarnatione Dominica Dcc.lvj Eadberht rex^ xviij anno regni sui^ et Unust rex Pictorum duxerunt exercitum ad urbem Alclutli.^ Ibique Brittones in deditionem receperunt^ prima die mensis Augusti. Decima autem die ejusdem mensis interiit exercitus pene omnis quem duxit de Ouania ad Niwan- birig/ id est ad Novam Civitatem.
Eodem anno Balthere anachorita* viam sanctorum patrum est secutus, migrando ad Eum Qui se reformavit ad imaginem Filii Sui.
Luna autem xv sanguineo rubore superducta viij kal. De- cembris, xv setate^, id est plena luna. Sicque paulatim decre- scentibus tenebris ad lucem pristinam pervenit. Nam mira- biliter ipsam lunam sequente lucida stella et pertranseunte^ tanto spatio eam antecedebat illuminataj quanto sequebatur antequam esset obscurata.-^
DCCLVII.
Anno Dcc.lvij ^thelbald rex Merciorum a suis tutoribus fraudulenter interfectus est. Eodem vero anno Merci bellum inter se civile inierunt. Bearnred in fugam verso, Offa rex victor extitit.*
DCCLVIII.
Anno Dcc.lviij Eadberht rex Northymbrorum sponte contulit filio suo regnum sibi a Deo collatum^ nomine Osulfo, qui uno anno regnum tenuit^ amisit^ perdidit. Quia occisus
/ S. C.
«■ Erroneously written Alcioith in the MS. Immediately below is another mistake in the MS. text, the words inde conditionem being written instead of in deditionem. The correct reading is interlined.
* Niwanbirig is no doubt Newburgh on the Tay. There is a small lake in Gleu-Turret, in the parish of Monivaird in Strathearne, Perthshire, called Loch Ouan, which may be the Ouania of the text, as it lies on a practicable route between the Clyde and the Tay. This word has been printed Ouoma by Twysden and Petrie. Hoveden has Ouama, or rather Deouama, by running the preposi- tion into the proper name.
' " In Tiningaham." Symeon, Eist. Ecclesice Dunelm.
i N. A. notice this ecHpse ; also one of the sun the same month.
* N. A.. S. C.
HISTORIA REGUM. 21
est nequiter a sua familia^ juxta Mechil Wongtune ix kal. Augusti.
DCCLIX.
Anno Dcc.lix Etlielwald_, qui et MoU dictus erat, regnare incipit nonas Augusti. Cujus tertio anno inchoante, gravissi- mum juxta Eldunum secus Melros*^ gestum est bellum octavo idus Augusti^ in quo cecidit Oswine post triduum, prima feria. Ethelwald vero rex^ qui Moll est nominatus^ victoriam sumpsit in bello. Ipso quoque anno Unust_, Pictorum rex^ defunctus est.''
DCCLXII.
Anno Dcc.lxij Ethelwald_, rex prsefatus^ accepit reginam Etheldrytham kal. Novembris in Cateracta."
DCCLXIV.
Anno Dcc.lxiv nix ingens gelu ligata omnibus retro sseculis incomparabilis_, a principio hiemis pene usque ad medium veris terram oppressit.^ Cujus vi arbores oleraque magna ex parte aruerunt, ac marina animalia multa inventa sunt mortua.
Eodem quoque anno Ceolwlf^ quondam rex, tunc Domini nostri Jesu Christi servus monachusque, obiit. Huic vero regi Beda historiographus veridicus direxit epistolam^ sic inchoando. Gloriosissimo regi Ceolwlfo Beda famulus Christi et presbyter. Historiam gentis Anglorum quam nuper edideram, libentissime tibi desideranti, rex, et prius ad legendum et nunc scribendum, ac plenius ex tempore meditaturum transmitto. Anno eodem multse urbes monasteriaque atque villse per diversa loca^ necnon et regna^ repentino igne vastatse sunt^ verbi gratia Stretburg, Venta civitas^ Homwic^ Londonia civitas^ Eboraca civitas^ Donacester, aliaque multa loca illa plaga concussit/ ut illud
' "A ministris suis/' N. A. ; " by his household," S. C. Neither authority mentions the locaUty. Mechil Wongton was probably Weighton between York and Beverley, the prefix Mechil (Great) being appHed to it, as that of Market is in modern times, to distinguish it from another place of the same name.
"• Secus Melros is an interlineation ; Eildon, near Melrose, being the locaHty intended. The Saxon Chronicle calls the place Edwine's chfFe (query, Edinburgh, which occurs in early writings as Edwine's burgh). N. A. give no details, beyond the words, " Ouuini occisus est." Huntingdon has these particulars : " Mol rex Nordhumbrise interfecit Oswine, fortissimum ducum suorum, qui committens prseUum erga dominum suum apud EadwinescHve, jure gentium spreto, jure Dei occisus est." Wendover describes Oswine as " gravissimum ducem."
" " Anno 761, Oengus Pictorum Rex obit, qui regni sui principium usque ad finem facinore cruentum tyrannus carnifex produxit." — N. A.
" S. p A.D. 761, S. C. ? S.
22 SYMEONIS DUNELMENSIS
impleretur quod scriptum est, Erit terrce motus/ Eodem anno Frehelm presbyter et abbas obiit, et episcopus Merciorum gentis nomine Totta defunctus est. Et Eadberlit pro eo ordinatus est episcopus. His quoque temporibus Frithwald episcopus Can- didse-casse ex hoc sseculo migravit_, pro quo Pectwine in loco illius episcopus subrogatur.
DCCLXV.
Anno Dcc.lxv ignei ictus in aere visi sunt_, quales quondam apparuerunt tempore nocturno kal. Januarii^ ut superLus prseno- tavimus. Eodem anno Ethelwald regnum Northanhymbrorum amisit in Winchanheale* tertio kal. Novembris. Cui Alcred^ prosapia Idse regis exortus^ ut quidam dicunt, successit in regnum. Quo anno Hemeli, Merciorum episcopus^ obiit^ cujus vice Cuthfrid ordinatus est episcopus in Liccetfeldan. Eadem- que tempestate Bregwine^ archiepiscopus Cantise civitatis_, ex hac vita subtractus est^ cui Lamberht successit vice regiminis. Aldulf quoque antistes in Lindisse eodem anno hanc vitam dereliquit, aliamque petivit. Post quem Ceolwlf electus et consecratus est.
DCCLXVI.
Anno Dcc.lxvj Ecgberht_, archiepiscopus Eboracse civitatis, in pace Christi requievit xiij