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History of the English People - Book I Early England, 449-1071
Authorities for Book I
by Green, John Richard (M.A.)
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For the conquest of Britain by the English our authorities are scant and
imperfect. The only extant British account is the "Epistola" of Gildas, a
work written probably about A.D. 560. The style of Gildas is diffuse and
inflated, but his book is of great value in the light it throws on the
state of the island at that time, and above all as the one record of the
conquest which we have from the side of the conquered. The English
conquerors, on the other hand, have left jottings of their conquest of
Kent, Sussex, and Wessex in the curious annals which form the opening of
the compilation now known as the "English" or "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,"
annals which are undoubtedly historic, though with a slight mythical
intermixture. For the history of the English conquest of mid-Britain or
the Eastern Coast we possess no written materials from either side; and a
fragment of the Annals of Northumbria embodied in the later compilation
("Historia Britonum") which bears the name of Nennius alone throws light
on the conquest of the North.
From these inadequate materials however Dr. Guest has succeeded by a
wonderful combination of historical and archæological knowledge in
constructing a narrative of the conquest of Southern and South-Western
Britain which must serve as the starting-point for all future enquirers.
This narrative, so far as it goes, has served as the basis of the account
given in my text; and I can only trust that it may soon be embodied in
some more accessible form than that of a series of papers in the
Transactions of the Archæological Institute. In a like way, though
Kemble's "Saxons in England" and Sir F. Palgrave's "History of the
English Commonwealth" (if read with caution) contain much that is worth
notice, our knowledge of the primitive constitution of the English people
and the changes introduced into it since their settlement in Britain must
be mainly drawn from the "Constitutional History" of Professor Stubbs.
Bæda's "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," a work of which I have
spoken in my text, is the primary authority for the history of the
Northumbrian overlordship which followed the Conquest. It is by copious
insertions from Bæda that the meagre regnal and episcopal annals of the
West Saxons have been brought to the shape in which they at present
appear in the part of the English Chronicle which concerns this period.
The life of Wilfrid by Eddi, with those of Cuthbert by an anonymous
contemporary and by Bæda himself, throws great light on the religious and
intellectual condition of the North at the time of its supremacy. But
with the fall of Northumbria we pass into a period of historical dearth.
A few incidents of Mercian history are preserved among the meagre annals
of Wessex in the English Chronicle: but for the most part we are thrown
upon later writers, especially Henry of Huntingdon and William of
Malmesbury, who, though authors of the twelfth century, had access to
older materials which are now lost. A little may be gleaned from
biographies such as that of Guthlac of Crowland; but the letters of
Boniface and Alcwine, which have been edited by Jaffé in his series of
"Monumenta Germanica," form the most valuable contemporary materials for
this period.
From the rise of Wessex our history rests mainly on the English
Chronicle. The earlier part of this work, as we have said, is a
compilation, and consists of (1) Annals of the Conquest of South Britain,
and (2) Short Notices of the Kings and Bishops of Wessex expanded by
copious insertions from Bæda, and after the end of his work by brief
additions from some northern sources. These materials may have been
thrown together into their present form in Ælfred's time as a preface to
the far fuller annals which begin with the reign of Æthelwulf, and which
widen into a great contemporary history when they reach that of Ælfred
himself. After Ælfred's day the Chronicle varies much in value. Through
the reign of Eadward the Elder it is copious, and a Mercian Chronicle is
imbedded in it: it then dies down into a series of scant and jejune
entries, broken however with grand battle-songs, till the reign of
Æthelred when its fulness returns.
Outside the Chronicle we encounter a great and valuable mass of
historical material for the age of Ælfred and his successors. The life of
Ælfred which bears the name of Asser, puzzling as it is in some ways, is
probably really Asser's work, and certainly of contemporary authority.
The Latin rendering of the English Chronicle which bears the name of
Æthelweard adds a little to our acquaintance with this time. The Laws,
which form the base of our constitutional knowledge of this period, fall,
as has been well pointed out by Mr. Freeman, into two classes. Those of
Eadward, Æthelstan, Eadmund, and Eadgar, are like the earlier laws of
Æthelberht and Ine, "mainly of the nature of amendments of custom." Those
of Ælfred, Æthelred, Cnut, with those which bear the name of Eadward the
Confessor, "aspire to the character of Codes." They are printed in Mr.
Thorpe's "Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," but the extracts given
by Professor Stubbs in his "Select Charters" contain all that directly
bears on our constitutional growth. A vast mass of Charters and other
documents belonging to this period has been collected by Kemble in his
"Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici," and some are added by Mr. Thorpe in
his "Diplomatarium Anglo-Saxonicum." Dunstan's biographies have been
collected and edited by Professor Stubbs in the series published by the
Master of the Rolls.
In the period which follows the accession of Æthelred we are still aided
by these collections of royal Laws and Charters, and the English
Chronicle becomes of great importance. Its various copies indeed differ
so much in tone and information from one another that they may to some
extent be looked upon as distinct works, and "Florence of Worcester" is
probably the translation of a valuable copy of the "Chronicle" which has
disappeared. The translation however was made in the twelfth century, and
it is coloured by the revival of national feeling which was
characteristic of the time. Of Eadward the Confessor himself we have a
contemporary biography (edited by Mr. Luard for the Master of the Rolls)
which throws great light on the personal history of the King and on his
relations to the house of Godwine.
The earlier Norman traditions are preserved by Dudo of St. Quentin, a
verbose and confused writer, whose work was abridged and continued by
William of Jumièges, a contemporary of the Conqueror. William's work in
turn served as the basis of the "Roman de Rou" composed by Wace in the
time of Henry the Second. The primary authority for the Conqueror himself
is the "Gesta Willelmi" of his chaplain and violent partizan, William of
Poitiers. For the period of the invasion, in which the English
authorities are meagre, we have besides these the contemporary "Carmen de
Bello Hastingensi," by Guy, Bishop of Amiens, and the pictures in the
Bayeux Tapestry. Orderic, a writer of the twelfth century, gossipy and
confused but honest and well-informed, tells us much of the religious
movement in Normandy, and is particularly valuable and detailed in his
account of the period after the battle of Senlac. Among secondary
authorities for the Norman Conquest, Simeon of Durham is useful for
northern matters, and William of Malmesbury worthy of note for his
remarkable combination of Norman and English feeling. Domesday Book is of
course invaluable for the Norman settlement. The chief documents for the
early history of Anjou have been collected in the "Chroniques d'Anjou"
published by the Historical Society of France. Those which are authentic
are little more than a few scant annals of religious houses; but light is
thrown on them by the contemporary French chronicles. The "Gesta
Consulum" is nothing but a compilation of the twelfth century, in which a
mass of Angevin romance as to the early story of the Counts is dressed
into historical shape by copious quotations from these French historians.
It is possible that fresh light may be thrown on our earlier history when
historical criticism has done more than has yet been done for the
materials given us by Ireland and Wales. For Welsh history the "Brut y
Tywysogion" and the "Annales Cambriæ" are now accessible in the series
published by the Master of the Rolls; the "Chronicle of Caradoc of
Lancarvan" is translated by Powel; the Mabinogion, or Romantic Tales,
have been published by Lady Charlotte Guest; and the Welsh Laws collected
by the Record Commission. The importance of these, as embodying a
customary code of very early date, will probably be better appreciated
when we possess the whole of the Brehon Laws, the customary laws of
Ireland, which are now being issued by the Irish Laws Commission, and to
which attention has justly been drawn by Sir Henry Maine ("Early History
of Institutions") as preserving Aryan usages of the remotest antiquity.
The enormous mass of materials which exists for the early history of
Ireland, various as they are in critical value, may be seen in Mr.
O'Curry's "Lectures on the Materials of Ancient Irish History"; and they
may be conveniently studied by the general reader in the "Annals of the
Four Masters," edited by Dr. O'Donovan. But this is a mere compilation
(though generally a faithful one) made about the middle of the
seventeenth century from earlier sources, two of which have been
published in the Rolls series. One, the "Wars of the Gaedhil with the
Gaill," is an account of the Danish wars which may have been written in
the eleventh century; the other, the "Annals of Loch Cé," is a chronicle
of Irish affairs from the end of the Danish wars to 1590. The "Chronicon
Scotorum" (in the same series) extends to the year 1150, and though
composed in the seventeenth century is valuable from the learning of its
author, Duald Mac-Firbis. The works of Colgan are to Irish church affairs
what the "Annals of the Four Masters" are to Irish civil history. They
contain a vast collection of translations and transcriptions of early
saints' lives, from those of Patrick downwards. Adamnan's "Life of
Columba" (admirably edited by Dr. Beeves) supplies some details to the
story of the Northumbrian kingdom. Among more miscellaneous works we find
the "Book of Rights," a summary of the dues and rights of the several
over-kings and under-kings, of much earlier date probably than the Norman
invasion; and Cormac's "Glossary," attributed to the tenth century and
certainly an early work, from which much may be gleaned of legal and
social details, and something of the pagan religion of Ireland.
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