THE CHRONICLE OF FABIUS ETHELWERD,

FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE YEAR DCCCCLXXV.

Fabius Ethelwerd the patrician, consul and quæstor, wishes perpetual health in Christ to his kinswoman Mahtilda.

ETHELWERD the patrician desires health in the Lord to the most eloquent Mahtilda, a true handmaid of Christ.

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I have received your letter, which I longed for, my dearest relative, and not only have I read its contents, and mentally embraced them, but I have also hidden them in the treasury of my heart. I frequently entreat the favour of the Most High God that He would preserve you in safety during this present life, and after your departure from the body conduct you to the eternal mansions. As I once before briefly hinted to you by letter, concerning the knowledge of our common ancestry and family, and their migrations, I now, by God's assistance, intend to treat it more clearly, by taking up the yearly course of events from the very beginning of the world, that the reader may behold it at a glance, and the pleasure of the hearer in comprehending it may be increased. Besides this, you will more readily find in the following pages an account of the arrival of our ancestors in Britain from Germany, with their numerous wars, the frequent slaughter of their chiefs, and the imminent dangers to which their fleets were exposed from the roughness of the ocean. Hence, in my present letter, I shall enlarge with great plainness on our modern pedigree, and the movements of our relatives, informing you who they were, and how and whence they came, as far as my memory serves me, and

1 There are two individuals of the name of Matilda whose claims to this dedica tion might appear to be nearly equally balanced. Otho the Great married as his first wife Edith, the daughter of Edward the Elder, king of England. From this marriage sprung Liudulf, duke of Suabia, who had a daughter named Matilda, the wife of Obizzo, count of Milan. (See Anderson's Genealog. Tables, pp. 452, 659.) Mr. Petrie remarks that "the fact that no other Matilda, or Earnulf, is found in their respective genealogical lines, renders it almost certain that it is this Matilda, daughter of Liudulf, duke of Suabia, to whom Aethelward dedicated his work." There is, however, another claimant. The same table in Anderson's Genealogies (No. ccxvii.), states that by his second wife Adelheida, Otho had a daughter named Matilda, who became abbess of Quedlinburg; and this is confirmed by authorities cited by Struvius, (Corpus Hist. Germ. i. 300, ed. Drest. 1755,) and by the Art de Vérif. les Dates, ii. 12. The tone of this letter of Ethelwerd's, as well as other portions of his work, might seem to lead to the preference being given to the claims of this latter Matilda. But see the Preface, §§ 3-5.

3

as my parents have informed me. For instance, king Aelfred, from whom we both derive our origin, was the son of king Athulf.' He was the father of five sons; from one of whom, king Ethered,' I appear to be descended, and you from king Aelfred, another of the sons of the above-mentioned king Athulf. King Alfred sent his daughter Aelfthrythe into Germany, to become the wife of Baldwin, and they had two sons, Athulf and Earnulf, and two daughters, Ealshwid and Earmentruth. From Aelfryde your neighbour count Earnulf is descended. Besides this, the daughter of king Eadwerd, the son of the above-named king Aelfred, was named Eadgyfu, and she was sent by your maternal aunt into Gaul, to be married to king Charles' the younger. Eadhild was also sent to be married to Hugo,' the son of Brodbyrht;' and king Aedeftan sent two other daughters for the same object to Oddo,' that he might choose which of them he pleased for a wife; and he preferred Eadgyde, from whom you derive your lineage. He also married the other to a certain king1 near the mountains of Jupiter," of whose family I have no knowledge, partly through the great distance, and partly through the disorders of the times; but it is your duty to send me information concerning these events, not only from our family connexion, but from the power with which you are favoured, should no obstacle prevent it.

May you ever be propitious to me

Through each revolving hour.

HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE.

HERE BEGINS THE FIRST BOOK.

THE world had its origin at the beginning of all things. For on the first day God created the angels in the splendour of light. On the second day He formed the heavens under the name of "firmament;" on the third day, by the word "division," He gave shape to the earth and waters; by creating the heavenly luminaries on the fourth day, the marine animals on the fifth, and the terrestrial

1 More commonly written Ethelwolf.

2 He was the predecessor of Alfred.

3 This Baldwin, earl of Flanders, died A.D. 918 or 919, leaving issue by Aelfthrythe. See Anderson's Gen Tables, p. 594. From this marriage was descended in the sixth degree Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror.

Apparently Arnulf II. earl of Flanders, who succeeded his grandfather in 964, and died in 988. See Anderson, as above.

5 Charles the Simple; concerning this alliance see Limiers, Hist. Genealog. de France, p. 27.

• This Hugo, duke of France and of Burgundy, (the son of Robert II. king of France, who was killed 15th June, 923,) succeeded to the throne of France in 936, and was married about 927. See Limiers, Hist. Genealog. p. 40.

7 An error for Hrodbyrht.

Read, Aethelstan.

• Otho, afterwards emperor of Germany, who died A.D. 974. See Anderson,

p. 350.

10 According to Petrie, this was Louis the Blind, emperor, and king of Arles. 11 The great St. Bernard. See Leandri Alberti descriptio totius Italiæ, p. 706, ed. fol. Colon. 1567.

animals, with man, on the sixth day. He created man after his own image and likeness, and called him Adam; that is, Earthly; from whose origin we are endeavouring to draw up a very brief yet complete narrative of events. Although in writing history we may easily be lost through its numerous windings, yet it does not seem to me too laborious an office to take care to guide my pen according to the course of my preceding remarks. Therefore, from Adam, the first man, to Noah's deluge, the number of years which elapsed was two thousand two hundred and forty-two. From the deluge to the time of Abram nine hundred and eighty years passed away; from the birth of Abraham to the time of Moses, and the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, five hundred and five years elapsed; and from the time of Moses to the rise of Solomon, and the building of the holy city, Jerusalem, four hundred and seventyeight years occurred. And from that wonderful foundation of the city of our Lord to the birth of the Saviour, the number of years reached one thousand and twenty-two: and the whole number of years from the beginning of the world to the first advent of Christ is five thousand four hundred and ninety-five.' Hence, thirty years after his wonderful nativity, He was baptized in the river Jordan, and washed away the sins of the whole world by his blood: then He chose twelve disciples, in which number Paul was not yet included. Three years afterwards, on the testimony of holy Scripture, He was crucified on Calvary. After about the space of a year, Stephen became the first martyr, in imitation of Christ, and then followed the conversion of Paul. Then, in the following year, Peter fulfils the duty of a true rock, in the episcopacy of the church at Antioch; and after the lapse of nine years he discharges the office of pontiff at Rome. Then, after two years, Claudius Cæsar, with troops of Romans, leads his army against the Britons, invades their rich fields, reduces their kings to slavery, and becomes. everywhere successful, as far as the Orkneys and "Última Thule,” though the Picts and Scots resist his yoke.

Again, after the sixteenth year had passed away, James, our Lord's brother, who was also the first bishop of the church at Jerusalem, suffers gloriously for Christ. Then, after a year, the evangelist Mark departs from the world. In another six years, following in regular order, Peter and Paul are martyred for Christ, both constant, and both flourishing in the divine ministry. In the course of this very year, John the evangelist, in the isle of Patmos, put forth the book of the Apocalypse, that is, of Revelation, which had been given to him from heaven, that he might open divine mysteries to the world. After the completion of the period of fifteen years, he rested in peace, sixteen stadia from the city of Ephesus; and in the same year Simon the apostle is suspended. This completes the number of one hundred years from the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Two years afterwards, Clement departs by martyrdom suffered for Christ-blessed pope! In the eighth year afterwards,

1 It may suffice, once for all, to state, that the chronology of Ethelwerd is frequently very faulty; in this instance his numeration is incorrect.

Ignatius, a worthy bishop of Christ, follows the example of his sufferings; and in the fifty-sixth year after him, Eleutherius is raised to the apostolic seat at Rome, and for fifteen years he constantly persevered in his glorious preaching to the Christian people, and his holy doctrine went forth, not only through the cities subject to him, but from the rising to the setting sun. For the same most blessed servant of Christ visited even Lucius, king of this island, both by message and by letter; instructing in the faith and in catholic baptism the monarch who then possessed the chief power in Britain, and who yielded so far as to own the great probability of his becoming a Christian, which he afterwards, in fact, did. His successor, Severus, after a reign of twenty-three years, exercised the supreme power at Rome: he then formed a trench straight across the aforesaid island, from sea to sea, and he also constructed a wall, with turrets and battlements, on the inner side, to prevent, if possible, any injury to the Britons which might arise from the army of the barbarians. Moreover, after the course of one hundred and ninety-two years, Maximus Cæsar received the kingdom, who was born in Britain. He first subdues the Gauls, routs the Tuscans, and subjects the kingdoms of Italy and Spain to the yoke. Therefore, after he had reigned twenty-eight years, mighty Rome is destroyed by the Goths, in the eleven hundred and forty-sixth year after its foundation. From that time, the empire of the Romans ceased in the island of Britain, and in many other lands which they had hitherto retained under the yoke of slavery.

While they held this island for four hundred and eighty-five years, reckoning from the time of Caius Julius Cæsar, they constructed, with wonderful skill, cities and encampments, as well as bridges and highways, which are visible even at the present day. But while the inhabitants of Britain were dwelling securely within that trench whose course we have mentioned, as well as its construction by Severus Cæsar, in consequence of its strength, two nations rose up against them, namely, the Picts from the north, and the Scots from the west. They raised an army, and ravaged their possessions, and thus for many years inflicted innumerable miseries upon them. When they are no longer able to endure their sufferings, they send messengers to Rome, with anxiety of mind, and with mournful epistles. .1 The army returned to Rome with victory. When the Picts and Scots heard that the army opposed to them had returned home, they manifested no slight rejoicing. Again they take up arms, and, as wolves invade the unprotected sheepfold, so they ravage the northern portion of the island, as far as the trench of Severus. The Britons mount the wall, and use their weapons of defence; but neither nature nor fortune had conferred upon them success in war. Then this cunning tribe of Scots, knowing what to do before an overhanging wall, as well as in the deep recesses of a wood, construct iron prongs of the right length, by mechanical art, and dragging down those who stand upon the wall, eagerly destroy them, and thus become conquerors both outside and within, and acquire at once At this point there is an omission in the narrative.