Page images
PDF
EPUB

to wife; he thought to obtain Normandy thereby, but he sped little, and by good right, for he was an evil man, for wherever he was, he did more evil than good. He plundered the lands, and laid great contributions on them. He brought his wife to England, and put her in the castle of.... bury. Good woman she was, but she had little happiness with him; and Christ willed not that he should long reign; and both he and his mother died. And the earl of Anjou died; and his son Henry took the kingdom. And the queen of France separated from the king, and she came to the young earl Henry, and he took her to wife, and all Poitou with her. Then went he with a great army into England, and won castles; and the king went against him with a much greater army, and yet they did not fight; but the archbishop and the wise men went between them, and made this agreement, [namely,] that the king should be lord and king while he lived, and after his day Henry should be king, and that he would hold him [Stephen] as a father, and he would hold him [Henry] as a son, and that peace and concord should be between them and in all England. This, and the other covenants which they made, the king and the earl swore to hold, and the bishop, and the earls, and all the noblemen. Then was the earl received at Winchester and at London with great worship, and all did homage to him, and swore that they would keep the peace; and soon there was very good peace, such as never was here [before]. Then was the king stronger than he ever was here; and the earl went over the sea, and all the people loved him, for he did good justice, and made peace.

A.D. 1141-1153.

A.D. 1154. In this year died the king Stephen, and he was buried where his son and his daughter were buried, at Favresfeld; they had made that minster. When the king died, the earl was beyond sea; and no man durst do but good to other, for the great awe of him. When he came to England, he was received with great worship; and he was consecrated as king in London on the Sunday before Midwinter day [19th Dec.]; and there he held a great court. The same day that Martin, abbot of Peterborough, should have gone thither, he sickened, and died on the 4th of the nones of January [2d Jan.], and the monks, within a day, chose another of themselves, one named William de Wattevile, a good clerk and a good man, and well beloved of the king and of all good men; and all the monks buried the abbat worshipfully; and soon the abbat elect, and the monks with him, went to Oxford to the king; and the king gave him that abbacy; and he went soon to Peterborough, and was there with the abbat before he went home; and the king was received with great worship at Peterborough [and] with great procession, and so was he also at Ramsey and at Thorney, and at T... and at Spalding, and at beres, and . . . . . abbat, and . had begun.

THE END OF THE SAXON CHRONICLE.

THE CHRONICLE OF FLORENCE OF

WORCESTER.

PREFACE TO FLORENCE OF WORCESTER.

§ 1. THE Chronicle of Florence of Worcester has a double claim upon our attention. It is valuable historically, as a record of events, and critically, as contributing to a knowledge of the condition of the Saxon Chronicle at the time when that document supplied the monk of Worcester with the basis of the history which passes under his name. It is in the former of these capacities only that it claims our notice upon the present occasion.

§ 2. Of Florence himself we know very little. He is said to have been an inmate of the great Benedictine monastery of Worcester; and not only is there nothing in his Chronicle which militates against this statement, but there is much which establishes its credibility. The Continuation of this history states, that " upon the nones of July, Florence, the monk of Worcester, died; by whose skill, learning, and studious industry this Chronicle has the preeminence over all others." In the preparation of this work, Florence adopted for his basis the Chronicle of Marianus Scotus,' into which he has interwoven a large body of information respecting England. The earlier portion of his work is borrowed from the Saxon Chronicle and the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Beda, interspersed, however, with a few extracts from the Lives of the English Saints. From 849 to 888 Asser's Life of Alfred forms the staple; but the narrative is slightly abridged, and occasionally transposed. After this last date he returns to the Saxon Chronicle once more; and from it by far the larger portion of the remainder of his work is derived. These several materials he employs with care and discretion; and although his narrative is without the slightest claim to artistic skill, it tells its tale simply and intelligibly.

1 See also Wharton's Angl. Sacr. i. 475, for a note to the same effect.

2 This Marianus, an Irishman, was born about A.D. 1028, and, like many of his countrymen, he spent the larger portion of his life upon the continent, residing successively at Cologne, Fulda, and Mentz. He died about 1082 or 1083, leaving behind him a Chronicle which extends from the creation of the world to his own time. The notices of British affairs which it contains are few and unimportant. The copy of Marianus which was used by Florence appears to have very closely resembled that in the Cottonian Library, marked Nero, C. v. An admirable edition has lately appeared in the fifth volume of Pertz's collection of German Historians, the text of which is founded upon a MS. in the Vatican, which claims to be the autograph of the author.

§3. The most important manuscripts of Florence which remain are the following:

One in the library of Corpus Christi College at Oxford, written in folio, upon parchment, in double columns, about the middle of the twelfth century. It appears to have formerly belonged to the church of Worcester, and may be considered the most valuable copy which we have. It breaks off in the year 1140, having

suffered mutilation at the end.

§ 4. One in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, in large folio, written upon vellum, in double columns. It contains the Continuation, ending in 1131. From the fact of it presenting some interpolated passages respecting the monastery of Abingdon, it is supposed, not unreasonably, to have formerly belonged to that foundation.

§ 5. One in the Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 297, in folio, on vellum, written in double columns, towards the end of the twelfth century. It also contains the Continuation, ending in 1131. It apparently belonged to the monastery of Bury St. Edmund's.

§6. One in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, marked XCII. in Nasmith's Catalogue, in folio, on vellum, written in double columns, towards the end of the twelfth century, or perhaps the beginning of the thirteenth. This copy formerly belonged to the monastery of Peterborough. It also contains the Continuation as far as 1131; and then a third annalist, named John de Taxter (of whom more hereafter), carries on the narrative to 1295. § 7. One in the library of Magdalen College, Oxford, number XXXVI., on vellum, in folio, written in the thirteenth century. It has the Continuation as far as 1131.

§ 8. One in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, in small quarto, on vellum, written in the thirteenth century, with a Continuation to 1137.

§ 9. A second in the same library, in duodecimo, on vellum, written in various hands. It is continued as far as the year 1141, where it concludes abruptly, being mutilated at the end.

§ 10. The Cottonian manuscript, Vitellius A. XIII., and that numbered CLXXXV. in the library of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, may be here mentioned, since they both contain copies of Florence of Worcester, although they are erroneously described as manuscripts of the Chronicle of Walter of Coventry.

§ 11. Three editions of the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester have appeared.

The first edition is that edited in quarto, at London, in 1592, from two manuscripts which then were in the possession of Lord William Howard, of Naworth,' and which afterwards became the property of Archbishop Ussher, and are now, with the rest of the collections of that eminent prelate, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. (See §§ 8 and 9.) This edition was very carelessly reprinted at Frankfort in the year 1601.

§ 12. Mr. Petrie's first volume of the Materials for the History of Britain contains a carefully executed edition of the Chronicle of

1 Dugd. Bar. ii. 281.

« PreviousContinue »