85. Gratian Municeps

At this time the Picts and Scots harass the Britons, who apply to the

Romans.

86. Constantine, prince of Armorica, comes to assist the Britons

87. Constans 89. Aurelius Ambrosius 90. Utherpendragon

VIII. 2.

VIII. 17.

Igerna VIII. 19.

88. Vortigern usurps the throne (VI. 9) and calls in the

King Arthur dies, A.D. 542 (XI. 3.)

92. Constantine 93. Aurelius Conan 94. Wortiporius 95. Malgo

Cadwallader goes to Rome, where he is confirmed in the faith of Christ by pope Sergius, and dies A. D. 689.

CHAP. VI.-RICHARD OF CIRENCESTER.

RICHARD, surnamed from his birth-place Richard of Cirencester, flourished from the middle to the latter end of the fourteenth century. No traces of his family or connections can be discovered; though they were at least of respectable condition, for he received an education which in his time was far beyond the attainment of the inferior ranks of society. In 1350 he entered into the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, Westminster, during the abbacy of Nicholas de Lytlingtom, as appears from the rolls of the abbey; and his name occurs in various documents of that establishment in the years 1387, 1397, and 1399.

He devoted his leisure hours to the study of British and Anglo-Saxon history and antiquities, in which he made such proficiency that he is said to have been honoured with the name of the Historiographer. Pitts informs us, without

specifying his authority, that Richard visited different libraries and ecclesiastical establishments in England in order to collect materials. It is at least certain that he obtained a licence to visit Rome, from his abbat, William of Colchester, in 1391; and there can be little doubt that a man of so industrious, observant, and sagacious a character profited by this journey to extend his historical and antiquarian knowledge, and to augment his collections. This license is given by Stukeley from the communication of Mr. Widmore, librarian of Westminster, and bears honourable testimony to the morals and piety of our author, and his regularity in performing the discipline of his order. He probably performed this journey in the interval between 1391 and 1397, for he appears to have been confined in the abbey infirmary in 1401, and died in that or the following year. His remains

were doubtlessly interred in the cloisters of the abbey, but we cannot expect to find any memorial of a simple monk. We have abundant cause to regret that he was restrained in the pursuit of his favourite studies, by the authority of his abbat. In the seventh chapter of his first book he enters into a spirited justification of himself, but from the preface to his chronology he appears to have found it necessary to submit his better judgment to the will of his superior. His works are-Historia ab Hengisto ad Ann. 1348, in two parts. The first contains the period from the coming of the Saxons to the death of Harold, and is preserved in the public library of the University of Cambridge, Ff. i. 28. Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, thus speaks of it :- "The hope of meeting with discoveries as great in the Roman, British, and Saxon history as he has given us concerning the preceding period, induced me to examine the work. But my expectations were greatly disappointed. The learned scholar and the deep antiquarian I found sunk into an ignorant novice, sometimes the copier of Huntingdon, but generally the transcriber of Geoffrey. Deprived of his Roman guides, Richard showed himself as ignorant and as injudicious as any of his illiterate contemporaries about him."*

The second part is probably a manuscript contained in the library of the Royal Society, p. 137, with the title of Britonum Anglorum et Saxonum Historia. In the library of *, Hist. of Manchester, vol. i. p. 58. 4to.

Bennet Coll. Cambridge, is Epitome Chron. Ric. Cor. West. Lib. I. Other works of our author are supposed to be preserved in the Lambeth Library, and at Oxford.

His theological writings were ·Tractatus super Symbolum Majus et Minus, and Liber de Officiis Ecclesiasticis.—In the Peterborough Library.

But the treatise to which Richard owes his celebrity is that now presented to the reader. Its first discoverer was Charles Julius Bertram, Professor of the English Language in the Royal Marine Academy at Copenhagen, who transmitted to the celebrated antiquary, Doctor Stukeley, a transcript of the whole in letters, together with a copy of the map. From this transcript Stukeley published an analysis of the work, with the Itinerary, first in a thin quarto, in 1757, and afterwards in the second volume of his Itinerarium Curiosum. In the same year the original itself was published by Professor Bertram at Copenhagen, in a small octavo volume, with the remains of Gildas and Nennius, under this title-Britannicarum Gentium Historiæ Antiquæ Scriptores tres: Ricardus Corinensis, Gildas Badonicus, Nennius Banchorensis, &c. Of this treatise Bertram thus speaks in his preface: "The work of Richard of Cirencester, which came into my possession in an extraordinary manner with many other curiosities, is not entirely complete, yet its author is not to be classed with the most inconsiderable historians of the middle age. It contains many fragments of a better time, which would now in vain be sought for elsewhere; and all are useful to the antiquary ***** It is considered by Dr. Stukeley, and those who have inspected it, as a jewel, and worthy to be rescued from destruction by the press. From respect for him I have caused it to be printed."

Of the map Bertram observes: "I have added a very antient map of Roman Britain, skilfully drawn according to the accounts of the ancients, which in rarity and antiquity excels the rest of the Commentary of Richard."

This map, however, as no longer of use in an age when so much light has been thrown on its subject, has been omitted.

a forgers,

THE CHRONICLE

OF

FABIUS ETHELWERD,

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 975.

IN FOUR BOOKS.

To Matilda, the most eloquent and true handmaid of Christ, Ethelwerd the patrician, health in the Lord! I have received, dearest sister, your letter which I longed for, and I not only read it with kisses, but laid it up in the treasury of my heart. Often and often do I pray the grace of the Most High, to preserve you in safety during this life present, and after death to lead you to his everlasting mansions. But as I once before briefly hinted to you by letter, I now, with God's help, intend to begin in the way of annals from the beginning of the world, and explain to you more fully about our common lineage and descent, to the end that the reader's task may be lightened, and the pleasure of the hearer may be augmented, whilst he listens to it. Concerning the coming of our first parents out of Germany into Britain, their numberless wars and slaughters, and the dangers which they encountered on ship-board among the waves of the ocean, in the following pages you will find a full description. In the present letter therefore I have written, without perplexity of style, of our modern lineage and relationship, who were our relations, and how, and where they came from: as far as our memory can go, and according as our parents taught us. For instance king Alfred was son of king Ethelwulf, from whom we derive our origin, and who had five sons, one of whom was king Ethelred* my ancestor, and another king Alfred

Ethelred died and Alfred succeeded him A. D. 871.

B

:

who was yours. This king Alfred sent his daughter Ethelswitha into Germany to be the wife of Baldwin,* who had by her two sons Ethelwulf and Arnulf, also two daughters Elswid and Armentruth. Now from Ethelswitha is descended count Arnulf, your neighbour. The daughter of king Edward son of the above named king Alfred was named Edgiva, and was sent by your aunt into Gaul to marry Charles the Simple. Ethilda also was sent to be the wife of Hugh, son of Robert and two others were sent by king Athelstan to Otho that he might choose which of them he liked best to be his wife. Het chose Edgitha, from whom you derive your lineage; and united the other in marriage to a certain king§ near the Jupiterean Mountains, of whose family no memorial has reached us, partly from the distance and partly from the confusion of the times. It is your province to inform us of these particulars, not only from your relationship, but also because no lack of ability or interval of space prevents you.||

HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE.

BOOK THE FIRST BEGINS.

The beginning of the world comes first. For on the first day God, in the apparition of the light, created the angels: on the second day, under the name of the firmament he created the heavens ; &c. &c. T

Rome was destroyed by the Goths in the eleven hundred and forty-sixth year after it was built. From that time the Roman authority ceased in the island of Britain, and in many other countries which they had held under the yoke of slavery. For it was now four hundred and eighty-five years,

* Baldwin, count of Flanders died A. D. 918. See Malmesbury, p. 121. + Arnulf, count of Flanders, A. d. 965.

The emperor Otho married Edgitha A. D. 930.

Lewis the blind.

The writer adds the barbarous verse, "Esto mihi valens cunctis perhenniter horis," which is as easy to construe as to scan.

Here follow several pages, in which the writer, like other annalists, deduces his history from the creation. It is now universally the custom with modern writers and translators to omit such preliminary matter.