Page images
PDF
EPUB

T

IX.

ROGER OF WENDOVER.

'FLOWERS OF HISTORY.'

HIS writer was a monk of St. Albans, who died 1237.
His work covers the world's history to 1235, and,

so far as our period is concerned, is almost wholly
taken from earlier authorities. He inserts, however, various
interesting and picturesque details, which are here given; and
never fails to record the various ecclesiastical changes of the
time.

Roger's work was carried on by Matthew Paris, and passed
under his name. In the next century it was pirated, name
and all, by Matthew of Westminster.

[blocks in formation]

ROGER OF WENDOVER.

1. In the year of our Lord 837 . . . Egbert, King of the West Saxons... departed out of this world. After him came his son

[ocr errors]

Ethelwulf or Adulf, who had four sons of fame . . . who all reigned after him. He had also a fifth son, Athelstan, born out of wedlock, to whom he gave the realms which his father Egbert won. . . .

[Here follows Henry of Huntingdon's introduction of the Danes into England; his account of the birth and parentage of Alfred, and events to the Battle of Ockley and the marriage of Elswitha. Roger here inserts the tale of the Old Woman of Berkley, immortalized by Southey. Continuing, he tells of Ethelwulf's subjugation of Wales, of his tithing charter, his journey to Rome.]

2. With him he took the youngest and dearest of his sons, Alfred, that he might be instructed by Pope Leo in faith and morals. A whole year tarried he there with his son, and had him crowned King by the Pope, and a few days after set forth homewards. And on the way he wedded Judith . . . and brought her to England. But meanwhile was there a plot formed against him.. to keep him out of the realm.. for twofold cause. First because he had Alfred, his youngest, crowned at Rome, as though to shut out his elder sons from the kingship; and next that he had slighted all the women of England in wedding a stranger...

...

[Next comes the story of Edburga (from Asser) and the partition of the kingdom.]

3. In the year of our Lord 855

[ocr errors]

Edmund . . . took over the rule of the East Angles, in the 13th year of his age, on the day of our Lord's Nativity. Chosen King he was, that pious and godly youth, of all the Lords and Commons of that realm; and, sore against his will, needs must he reign. And the gift of hallowing took he from Humbert, Bishop of Elmham, in a town-royal called Bures. . .

[ocr errors]

[After this comes the death and will of Ethelwulf, who is said to have been Bishop of Winchester before his coronation. Ethelbald's marriage with Judith follows.]

$ 4. But in the year 859 of our Lord, did Ethelbald... repent him of this fault, and did penance therefor. Judith, his stepmother, did he put away; and ruled his realm for the rest of his days in peace and righteousness.

...

[His death follows, and that of St. Swithun, with sundry legends of that saint, and how, 'when he had to dedicate any new church, never would he ride thither nor yet be drawn, however long the way, but stoutly went on foot, and this by night, lest it should be set down to ostentation. For never made he show of his good deeds.'

The reign and death of Ethelbert are next touched on, the accession of Ethelred, and the great Danish invasion of East Anglia, and their

sack of York (Asser, § 31), with the additional entry that 'The Kings of the Northumbrians being thus slain, a certain Englishman named Egbert for six years ruled the realm, under the Danes.']

§ 5. In the same year [867] died Alfstan, Bishop of Sherborne. In the days of Egbert, and of Ethelwulf his son, great was his power in the realm. For by his statecraft brought he Kent and East Anglia under Egbert. He stirred up Ethelwulf, also, against the Danes . . . and himself raised money, and gathered a host, and fought with the foe many a stout fight, and won them, too. His power may be judged from his having kept King Ethelwulf out of the kingdom, on his return from Rome, and made his son Ethelbald King in his stead, till at length he suffered him to share the kingdom. He ruled his church 50 years. . . . [We now read of Alfred's wedding, of the Danes at Nottingham, and their great raid of 870.]

...

§ 6. Old and young did these cut-throats slaughter, whomsoever they met; and holy matrons and virgins they shamefully handled. . . . [Here we are told how the nuns of Coldingham, to escape dishonour, cut off their own noses, on beholding which, 'the tyrants rushed in haste away, nor would make one moment's tarrying.' They burnt the Abbey, however, nuns and all.]

After this, sailed they, the wicked miscreants, along the coast, wasting with fire and sword all that ever they came to.... The noblest Abbeys along the coast were wasted; Lindisfarne (wherein was then the Bishop's see). . . Tynemouth, Jarrow, Wearmouth (wherein Bede the Priest was brought up), Streonshall [Whitby] (founded by the Blessed Hilda....).

Through Yorkshire next passed they, burning churches, towns and villages, utterly destroying all folk, of whatsoever sex and age. . . Going on thence they brake down all the Abbeys of monks and virgins in the fens ... Crowland, Thorney, Ramsey, Hampstead (which is now called Peterborough), and Ely, so famous of old. . . .

§ 7. [Roger next tells at great length the story of St. Edmund, how Lodbroc, father of Ingwar and Hubba, was murdered at his court, and how the murderer persuaded the sons that Edmund had done the deed, how thereupon they invaded England to avenge it, and, landing at Berwick, marched, ravaging as they went, to East Anglia.]

...

...

There camped they, at a town called Thetford, and put to the sword all they found, men and women . . . that the King might not be able to raise an army . . . for they had heard the prowess of King Edmund, and also of his size and stature beyond all men. . . . Then sent they to the King . . . a message... after this sort. 'Lord Ingwar, the dread and invincible King of the Danes, is come hither to winter. Despise him, and your life and kingdom are of little worth.' .. Then groaned Edmund and asked counsel of the Bishop of Elmham, saying, ‘O Humbert, servant of the Living God... here be these fierce barbarians ... who would blot us out. But never will I ... be under a

...

repair of London; and a list of all former English Kings. Then we come to the Danish ravages in France under Hasting.]

...

After inflicting on Gaul all this wretchedness. . . Hasting-the wicked thief-sailed off to Lunis, and thought to storm the city. But the townsfolk... flew to arms and, do all he could, he might not win the place. So, at the last, he sent unto the Bishop . . . saying that he was sick unto death, and was humbly fain to be christened. Thereat was the Bishop full glad; and they made peace with this enemy of peace, and freely let his folk into the city. So this wicked Hasting was borne unto the church, and dipped in the sacred font. And the Bishop and the Mayor upraised him therefrom [i.e., stood sponsors] to their own destruction, and he received the Holy Chrism, and to his ship was he borne back again.

§ 15. Thereafter, at dead of night, was he clad in armour, and laid on a bier; and, under their coats, he bade his men wear shirts of mail; and so, with feigned lamentation, bare they him to the church, as dead. There, in his sacred vestments, was the Bishop, all ready to sacrifice the Host for the departed—when, lo! up from the bier sprang that son of perdition, Hasting; down he cut the Bishop and the Count, and fell, raging like a wolf, upon the people . . . old and young were massacred, the city was spoiled, and the walls thereof beaten down. . .

...

[ocr errors]

...

§ 16. [Alfred's abbeys are next recorded, and his method in almsgiving and devotion, also his lantern, his justice, his sister's death, the adventure of the three Irishmen, and the comet of 892, which is called in the Saxon tongue Vexed Star." Alfred's system of 'Hundreds' follows; and then the great invasion, of 893, with another story of Hasting.]

[ocr errors]

But the heathen . . . fled to Milton, whither the King hotly chased them, and stayed not till he had driven them one and all into the stronghold that Hasting the Cruel had wrought there. Straightway did he beset the place... and gave his whole mind to the taking of it. And Hasting the Dane (since of holding out he lost all hope) bethought him how he might, by falsehood, cheat the King into pity. . . Sureties gave

he, and bound him by oath, that, might he but be let go, never more would he vex England. And the more to assure the King, he sent unto him his two sons-but boys were they-that, if he would, he might give them the Sacraments of the Faith and Baptism. Ever was the pious King more ready to save the souls of the heathen than to slay them . . . and, after the boys were regenerated in the sacred Font, then suffered he their father Hasting, and the rest of the misbelievers, to depart in peace, according to the troth-plight.

[ocr errors]

[The campaigns of 894 are now recorded, with the treason of Hasting and the capture of his wife and children.]

No harm would the King do unto them, seeing that he had himself upraised the one lad from the Font, and Earl Ethelred the other; therefore suffered he them to depart, mother and sons.

Roger misunderstands the Old English fixed, i.e., haired, a literal rendering of the Latin cometa.

Ricsy, the last King thereof, so deeply that he died of a broken heart'; their taking of Cambridge, Wareham and Exeter; and the sea-fight at Swanage.]

In the year 878 . . . Guthrum, King of the Danes, had passed through every realm in England, with boldness unconquerable, laying waste every holy spot, and sharing out amongst his men all the silver, and gold he might come by. Now, at last (hearing of the fame of King Alfred, how, in forethought, wisdom, and wealth, he was beyond all Kings that were in England), he turned thitherward his impious arms. Towns and villages he gave to the flames, whomsoever he met them put he to the sword... sparing neither man nor woman, nor yet the tender babe.

...

[ocr errors]

[Here Roger brings in the Danish defeat at Kinwith, where the blood of Edmund was avenged by the sword of Alfred.' But he makes the ravage of Wessex continue still.]

12. In this storm of persecution, the faithful Bishops of Christ fled over sea, with the relics of the saints and the treasures of the churches. With them went much people; and some, with King Alfred, sought hiding in the woods and deserts, through that evil time.

[ocr errors]

There is a spot in the West called Athelney . girded in by fen on all sides, so that by boat only can it be come at. On this islet is there a thicket of alders, full of stags and goats and other such creatures, and in the midst a bit of open ground, scarce two acres. Hither, in his distress, came Alfred all alone.

[Here is the episode of the cakes; the reproof of St. Neot; the vision of St. Cuthbert; the English rising; the victory of Ethandune; the Baptism of Guthrum; the Peace of Wedmore; the Danish invasion of Gaul.

§ 13. Next follows a curious entry, which appears to show that some part of Northumbria, at least (probably the northern province Bernicia), now more or less shook off the Danish yoke, and became once more an English under-kingdom.]

...

St. Cuthbert . . . in a vision ... bade tell the Bishop there to buy back Cuthred, whom the Danes had sold as a slave, and to make him their King [i.c. English under-king of Bernicia] and he was crowned in the 13th year of King Alfred. In the year 882 the Bishop's see which was erst at Lindisfarne was transferred to Chester [le Street]. The saint bade also... that whosoever should flee to his body in the hour of need should for a month be unharmed. And King Alfred, and eke King Cuthred, doomed this to be so for ever. And the aforesaid Kings gave unto St. Cuthbert, over and above the old see, the whole land between Tees and Tyne. . Then the Bishopric of Hagulstad [Hexham] ceased to be, through the outburst of the Heathen.1 . . .

...

...

§ 14. [Here follows the gift of Marinus, the mission to India, the story of John Scotus (from Simeon of Durham, § 59); the fights at Rochester; Charles the Fat's vision (from the Chronicle of St. Neots, § 10); Alfred's

The see of the united bishoprics was finally transferred to Durham.

« PreviousContinue »