Page images
PDF
EPUB

Cui vestes sudore jugi, cui sica cruore

Tincta jugi, quantum sit onus regnare probarunt.
Non fuit immensi quisquam per climata mundi
Cui tot in adversis vel respirare liceret.
Nec tamen aut ferro contritus ponere ferrum
Aut gladio potuit vitæ finire labores.

Jam, post transactos vitæ regnique dolores,
Christus ei sit vera quies, sceptrumque perenne.]

[graphic]

F

VII.

FLORENCE OF WORCESTER.

LORENCE was a monk of Worcester, and died IIIS.
His 'Chronicle' extends from the English Conquest

to 1117. For the reign of Alfred, it is merely a slightly abridged copy of Asser, so far as Asser goes, and afterwards of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Several MSS. of this work exist, all of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The standard text is that of Petrie ('Monumenta '), and has been translated in 'The Church Historians of England.'

The following extracts are given :

SECTION

4. Of St. Edmund.

5. Of St. Swithun.

10. Of Bishop Denewulf.

SECTION

13. Alfred's stronghold.
15. His death and glory.

FLORENCE OF WORCESTER.

§ 1. For our period Florence copies almost throughout verbatim either from Asser or the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with here and there a slight difference in the arrangement of his items, and, very occasionally, a touch or two of his own. He thus gives us the birth and pedigree of Alfred, the first wintering here of the Danes in 851 (which, like Asser, he places in Sheppey, not Thanet), the sack of Canterbury,' that is the chief city of Kent,' and London, 'which lieth on the North bank of the River Thames, on the boundary of Essex and Middlesex, though, indeed, this city pertaineth to Essex,' and the Battle of Ockley.

§ 2. Next comes Ethelwulf's subjugation of the Welsh and his sending of Alfred to Rome [853]. 'Pope Leo, at his father's asking, wholly gave him due place [oppido ordinans], anointed him to be King, and taking him for his own son by adoption, confirmed him.'

§ 3. The fight at Thanet, the marriage of Elswitha to Burghed of Mercia, Ethelwulf's tything, pilgrimage to Rome, and marriage, follow as in Asser, also Ethelbald's conspiracy, and the story of Edburga. Then comes the death of Ethelwulf and Ethelbald's incest.

§ 4. 'In 855, Edmund, a man most holy and acceptable to God, sprung from Old Saxon stock, the truest of Christians, pleasant-spoken and kind to all, for meekness far-famed, free-handed [liberaliter dapsilis] toward the needy; to orphans and widows the kindness of patrons; gained the supreme authority [culmen regiminis] in the province of East Anglia.'

§ 5. The reign of Ethelbert is marked only by the Danish raid on Winchester, and in 862 we read 'St. Swithun passed away and sought the starry height in the 10th Indiction, the 6th of the Nones of July [July 21, on the fifth day [of the week].'

§ 6. The harrying of Kent, the Danes in East Anglia, their capture of York, the death of Bishop Ealhstan, the comet of 868, the marriage of Alfred, the march to Nottingham, follow with one original sentence : • The oratory of St. Andrew the Apostle at Kemsege was built, and was dedicated by Alhun, Bishop of Worcester.'

§ 7. The return of the Danes to York is followed by their raid upon East Anglia, where Edmund, the most holy and glorious King, as is read in his passion, vas martyred by King Ingwar, an utter heathen [paganissimus], in the second Indiction, on Sunday the 12th of the Kalends of December [November 20].'

§ 8. The events of the year 871 are wholly from Asser, from whom also, on Alfred's accession Florence inserts the notice of his infancy and boyhood, his thorn in the flesh, his children, his versatility, his devoutness, his liberality, and his zeal for education. And under the date of 872 he tells of his galaxy of teachers (including Asser).

§ 9. The conquest of Mercia by the Danish pirates,' and their subjugation of Northumbria and Cambridge, Alfred's first sea-fight, the episodes of Wareham and Exeter, bring us to 876, where Florence adds : 'Rollo and his men invaded [penetravit] Normandy, on the 15th of the Kalends of December [November 17].' The destruction of the Danish fleet at Swanage is given, not from Asser, but from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. § 10. The overrunning of Wessex, and the following events of 878 are taken from Asser, (without the story of the cakes). In 879 we read :

'Dunbert, Bishop of Winchester, being dead, Denewulf succeeded. He, if fame is to be trusted, to an advanced age was not merely unlettered, but a mere swineherd, whom King Alfred, when he fled to the woods for the violence of his enemies, lit upon as he was feeding his pigs. Perceiving his good wit, he put him to school, and after he was fully instructed, created him Bishop of Winchester; a truly miraculous transaction [commentus rem dignam miraculo].

§ 11. The foreign doings of the Danes follow, and their attempt on Rochester, all from Asser (see p. 101), whose death, by some extraordinary blunder, Florence records in 883, in connection with Alfred's Mission to India, and whom he copies so slavishly that he does not correct even his most obvious slips of the pen.

§ 12. He next gives Asser's account of Alfred's troubles, his abbeys, his systematic almsgiving and devotion (with a description of his lantern), and his administration of justice. [See pp. 111-118.]

§ 13. The defeat of the Danes in Britanny, their return to England, the simultaneous invasion under Hasting, and the rising of the resident Danes, follow as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with the following additional details:

'And when this was known, King Alfred took with him part of his army, (leaving part, as he was wont, at home, and placing some, too, on garrison duty in his castles and cities), hied him with all speed to Kent, and pitched his camp between the two Heathen hosts, in a spot strong by nature, (girded to wit by brimming waters, whose waves ran high [undis admodum crispantibus], by high rocks and by overhanging woods), so that, forsooth, if they should seek any open country for spoil or fight he might instantly join battle with them. But they, now on foot, now on horse, raiding by bands, haunted in their harrying those parts where they saw the King's army was not. Yet did many a man, not only of the King's force, but of burghers, almost every day and night, surprise and slaughter them, harassing them to such a degree that they forsook Kent and burst forth on foray from all their holds at once. So had they done once before, when first they took up their abode hereabouts. But this time held they more and choicer [uberiorem] spoil, and were fain to cross Thames river and get them into Essex,—thus to meet, booty and all, with the ship-host whom they had sent before them.'

§ 14. The Battle of Farnham, the capture of Beamfleet, the episode of the sons of Hasting, the Danish attack on Devon, and their defeats at

Chichester and at Buttington, where many thousands of the Heathen were slain,' their march to Chester, 'which was at that time uninhabited,' the capture of their fleet in the Lea, and their final break up at Coatbridge, are told from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

'O with what ceaseless harrying, with what grievous raids, in what dire and piteous fashion was all England then vexed, not only by the Danes who had occupied parts of the land, but by these sons of Satan' [the Danes from abroad].

§ 15. The final suppression of the Danish piracies by Alfred's guardships [see p. 130] brings us to his death:

Renowned, warlike, victorious; the devoted champion of widows, wards, orphans, and poor; the master of Saxon song-craft; the darling of his people; kind of speech to all, and free of hand; endowed with prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance; so patient under his daily infirmity; so fair and so sagacious in awarding sentence; so watchful and so devout in God's service; Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, son of the most religious King Ethelwulf, having completed 29 years and six months of his reign, died in the fourth Indiction,1 on the 5th of the Kalends of November [October 28], and at Winton in the New Monastery is he buried, awaiting the robe of a blessed immortality, and the glory of the resurrection with the just.2

'To him succeeded his son Edward, surnamed the Elder, in letters inferior to his father, but in dignity, in power, and eke in glory above him.'

1 This final encomium is also found in William of Malmesbury.
2 The fourth Indiction began September 24, A.D. 900.

« PreviousContinue »