Part 17 (1/2)

(38) This bridge was built, or rebuilt on a larger plan than before, by Charles the Bald, in the year 861, ”to prevent the Danes or Normans (says Felibien) from making themselves masters of Paris so easily as they had already done so many times,” etc.--”pour empescher que les Normans ne se rendissent maistres de Paris aussi facilement qu'ils l'avoient deja fait tant de lois,” etc.--Vol. i. p. 91, folio. It is supposed to be the famous bridge afterwards called ”grand pont” or ”pont au change”,--the most ancient bridge at Paris, and the only one which existed at this time.

(39) Or, in Holmsdale, Surry: hence the proverb--

”This is Holmsdale, Never conquer'd, never shall.”

(40) The pirates of Armorica, now Bretagne; so called, because they abode day and night in their s.h.i.+ps; from lid, a s.h.i.+p, and wiccian, to watch or abide day and night.

(41) So I understand the word. Gibson, from Wheloc, says--”in aetatis vigore;” a fact contradicted by the statement of almost every historian. Names of places seldom occur in old MSS. with capital initials.

(42) i.e. the feast of the Holy Innocents; a festival of great antiquity.

(43) i.e. the secular clergy, who observed no rule; opposed to the regulars, or monks.

(44) This poetical effusion on the coronation, or rather consecration, of King Edgar, as well as the following on his death, appears to be imitated in Latin verse by Ethelwerd at the end of his curious chronicle. This seems at least to prove that they were both written very near the time, as also the eulogy on his reign, inserted 959.

(45) The following pa.s.sage from Cotton Tiberius B iv., relating to the accession of Edward the Martyr, should be added here--

In his days, On account of his youth, The opponents of G.o.d Broke through G.o.d's laws; Alfhere alderman, And others many; And marr'd monastic rules; Minsters they razed, And monks drove away, And put G.o.d's laws to flight-- Laws that King Edgar Commanded the holy Saint Ethelwold bishop Firmly to settle-- Widows they stript Oft and at random.

Many breaches of right And many bad laws Have arisen since; And after-times Prove only worse.

Then too was Oslac The mighty earl Hunted from England's sh.o.r.es.

(46) Florence of Worcester mentions three synods this year; Kyrtlinege, Calne, and Ambresbyrig.

(47) Vid. ”Hist. Eliens.” ii. 6. He was a great benefactor to the church of Ely.

(48) This was probably the veteran historian of that name, who was killed in the severe encounter with the Danes at Alton (Aethelingadene) in the year 1001.

(49) i.e. at Canterbury. He was chosen or nominated before, by King Ethelred and his council, at Amesbury: vid. an. 994.

This notice of his consecration, which is confirmed by Florence of Worcester, is now first admitted into the text on the authority of three MSS.

(50) Not the present district so-called, but all that north of the Sea of Severn, as opposed to West-Wales, another name for Cornwall.

(51) See a more full and circ.u.mstantial account of these events, with some variation of names, in Florence of Worcester.

(52) The successor of Elfeah, or Alphege, in the see of Winchester, on the translation of the latter to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury.

(53) This pa.s.sage, though very important, is rather confused, from the Variations in the MSS.; so that it is difficult to ascertain the exact proportion of s.h.i.+ps and armour which each person was to furnish. ”Vid. Flor.” an. 1008.

(54) These expressions in the present tense afford a strong proof that the original records of these transactions are nearly coeval with the transactions themselves. Later MSS. use the past tense.

(55) i.e. the Chiltern Hills; from which the south-eastern part of Oxfords.h.i.+re is called the Chiltern district.

(56) ”Leofruna abbatissa”.--Flor. The insertion of this quotation from Florence of Worcester is important, as it confirms the reading adopted in the text. The abbreviation ”abbt”, instead of ”abb”, seems to mark the abbess. She was the last abbess of St. Mildred's in the Isle of Thanet; not Canterbury, as Harpsfield and Lambard say.

(57) This was a t.i.tle bestowed on the queen.

(58) The ”seven” towns mentioned above are reduced here to ”five”; probably because two had already submitted to the king on the death of the two thanes, Sigferth and Morcar.

These five were, as originally, Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, and Derby. Vid. an. 942, 1013.