874 Florence Huntingdon Simeon 872. Died Alhun bishop of the In the 1st year of king Al- In the year of our Lord's Wiccii; and Werefrith, a nurseling of the church of incarnation 872, the 24th from king Elfred's birth, the Worcester, and a man most learned in the Holy Scrip tures, was ordained bishop by *Here Florence places a long ac which will be given hereafter. Æthelred the archbishop of count of Alfred's learned men, And the army subdued the CHARTERS IN 875. 1. CEOL land, and oft-times spoiled WOLF king of Mercia. II, 101. 2. the Picts, and the Strathclyde EARDWOLF, Subscribed also thus ; Britons. "Ælfred gratia Dei rex hanc libertatem donationis meæ consensi manuque mea propria roboravi et subscripsi." and by others. II, 102. 3. CEOLWOLF king of Mercia. II. 104. And the three kings, Godrum, and Oscytel, and Anwynd, went with a large army from Repton to Grantabridge, and sat down there one year. They also ravaged the Picts and the Strath-Clydensians. The other division, with Gothrun, Oskytel, and Amund, three kings of the pagans, went to a place called Grantabridge, and there wintered. Oskytel also, and Guthrum, and Annuth, their three kings, with an immense army, came from Repton to a place called Grantabridge [CAMBRIDGE], and there remained twelve months. Simeon world after his arrival at Rome, because he went to Him who is the true life; and he was honourably buried in the church of St Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ever a virgin, awaiting his second coming, when he shall largely give to the good their due rewards, and deal out their dreadful punish ments to the wicked. The Danes, also, after his expulsion, subjected the Mercian kingdom to their own rule. They gave it to a soldier of that same nation named Ceolwlf, on condition that, whenever they chose, they might have it back again, without deceit, and without harm. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 875, the 27th from the birth of king Elfred, the aforesaid army left Repton, and divided itself into 2 parts. One part with Haldene went into the country of the Northumbrians, and ravaged it, and wintered near the river Tyne, and subdued all that nation under its dominion, and they plundered the Picts and the Stretcluttians [STRATH-CLYDE BRITONS]. Eardulf the bishop and abbat Eadred, taking the body of St Cuthbert from the island of Lindisfarne, fled from place to place 9 years before the face of the barbarians, with that treasure in their possession. But king Alfred, consoling himself with a sea-fight, found six ships at sea, and engaging boldly with them took one of them: the others fled in fear. 876. The aforesaid army of the pagans, leaving Grantebrycg by night, entered a castle called Wareham where there is a monastery of holy virgins between the two rivers Frawn[FROME] and Trent, in the district which is called in Saxon DORNSETA, placed in a most secure situation, except that it was exposed to danger on the western side from the contiguity of the land. With this army Alfred made a solemn treaty, to the effect that they should depart ont of the kingdom, and for this they made no hesitation to give as many hostages as he named. And they swore an oath over all the relics, which with king Alfred were next in veneration after the Deity himself, that they would depart speedily from the kingdom. But they again practised their usual treachery, and caring nothing for the hostages or their oaths, they broke the treaty, and sallying forth by night, slew all the horsemen that the king had round him, and turning off into Devon, to another place called in Saxon EXANCEASTER, but in Latin, the city of Ex, situated on the eastern bank of the same river, they directed their course suddenly towards the south sea, which divides Britain and Gaul. |