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From The Annals of Roger de Hoveden, Comprising the History of England and of Other Countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, Translated from the Latin with Notes and Illustrations by Henry T. Riley, Esq., Volume I, London: H.G. Bohn, 1853; pp. 89-49.
In this battle fell Ethelstan, the king’s son-in-law, Oswy, a noble thane, together with his son, Wulfric the son of Leofwin, Edwy, the son of Effuic, and many other noble thanes, and an innumerable multitude. The Danes being masters of the field of slaughter, gained possession of East Anglia; and taking to horse, did not cease for three months ravaging the whole province, collecting booty, burning towns, and slaughtering men and animals; after which they laid waste Thetford and Grantebrige,1 and burned them; having accomplished which, the foot on board ship, and the cavalry on horseback, returned again to the river Thames. After the lapse of a few days, they again sallied forth to plunder, and made straight for the province of Oxfordshire, and first ravaged it, and then the districts of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, burning the towns, and slaughtering the men and cattle, after which they returned to their ships with vast booty.
After this, about the time of the festival of Saint Andrew the Apostle, they committed to the flames Northampton and its vicinity, as far as they pleased, and then crossed the river Thames and entered Wessex, where, having consigned to the flames Caning’s-marsh,2 and the greater part of the province of Wiltshire, after their usual manner, they returned with great booty to their ships about the Nativity of our Lord.
In the year 1011, on the northern side of the Thames, the provinces of East Anglia, Essex, Middlesex, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Grantebrigeshire,3 the middle parts of Huntingdonshire, and the villages of a great part of Northamptonshire, were ravaged; and on the southern side of the river Thames, the provinces of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Southampton, Wiltshire, and Berkshire were laid waste by the above-mentioned army of the Danes, with fire and sword; upon which Egelred, king of the English, and the
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chief men of his kingdom, sent ambassadors to them to sue for peace, and request them to cease from their ravages, promising them provisions and tribute; on hearing which, not without treachery and dissimulation, as the event proved, they consented to his offer.
For, although food was provided for them in abundance, and tribute paid as much as they pleased, still, they did not desist from making incursions in straggling bodies throughout the provinces wherever they chose, laying waste towns, spoiling some wretched people of their property and slaying others.
In the same year, after having ravaged a great part of England, an army of the Danes, between the Nativity of Saint Mary and the feast of Saint Michael, drawing their lines around it, laid siege to the city of Canterbury. On the twentieth day of the siege, through the treachery of the archdeacon Elmer, whom Saint Elphege had before rescued from being condemned to death, a part of the city was burnt, and, the army effecting an entrance, the city was taken. Some were slaughtered with the sword, some destroyed by the flames. Many were also thrown from the walls, while some were put to death by being hung up by their secret parts. The women were dragged by their hair through the streets of the city, and then, being thrown into the flames, were thus put to death; infants were torn from their mother’s breasts, and were either caught on the points of spears, or ground to pieces under the wheels of vehicles.
In the meantime archbishop Elphege was taken, bound in fetters, kept in confinement, and put to various torments. Ailmar, abbat of the monastery of Saint Augustine, was allowed to depart. Godwin, the bishop of Rochester, was also taken, and Leoufruna, abbess of the monastery of Saint Mildred, Elfrige, the king’s steward, the monks also and secular clergy, and an innumerable multitude of either sex. After this, Christ’s Church was sacked and burnt; a multitude of monks, and a crowd, consisting not only of men, but even women and children as well, were decimated, and nine were put to death, while the tenth was reserved alive: the amount of the decimated thus saved was four monks and eight hundred men. After the people had been slaughtered and the whole of the city burnt, archbishop Elphege was dragged forth in fetters, hurried along with violence, grievously wounded, and afterwards led away to the fleet and thrust into prison, where he was tortured for seven months.
In the meantime the wrath of God, waxing fierce against this murderous race, put an end to two thousand of them by a tormenting pain in the intestines. The others being attacked in a similar manner, were appealed to by the faithful, to make reparation to the archbishop, but refused to do so. In the meantime, the mortality increased, and at one time would put an end to ten, at another twenty, and at another a still greater number at the same instant.
In the year 1012, the perfidious duke Edric Streona, and all the chief men of England, assembled at London before Easter, and remained there until the tribute promised to the Danes, which consisted of forty-eight pounds,4 was paid. In the meantime, on the holy Sabbath of the rest of our Lord, a proposal was made to archbishop Elphege by the Danes, that if he wished to preserve his life and liberty, he should pay three thousand pounds. Upon his refusal, they deferred his death until the next Sabbath, on the approach of which they were inflamed against him with great anger, both because they were intoxicated with excess of wine, and because he had forbidden that any thing should be given for his liberation. After this, he was brought forth from prison, and dragged before their council. On seeing him, they instantly sprang from their seats, struck him down with the butt ends of their axes, and overwhelmed him with stones, bones, and the skulls of oxen.
At length, a certain person, whose name was Thrum, and whom he had confirmed the day before, moved with pity at this wickedness,5 struck him on the head with an axe, upon which he immediately fell asleep in the Lord, on the thirteenth day before the calends of May, and sent his soul exulting in the triumph of martyrdom to heaven. On the following day his body was carried to London, and being received with due honor by the citizens, was buried by the bishops Ednoth of Lincoln, and Alphune of London, in the church of Saint Paul.
After this, when the tribute had been paid and peace established with the Danes on oath, the Danish fleet which had been collected, dispersed far and wide; but five-and-forty ships remained with the king, and swore fealty to him, and
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promised that they would defend England, on condition of his giving them food and clothing.
In the year 1013, Living was appointed to the archbishopric of Canterbury. In the month of July, Sweyn, king of the Danes, arrived at the port of Sandwich with a strong fleet, and after remaining there a few days, took his departure, and sailing round East Anglia, entered the mouth of the river Humber, from which, entering the river Trent, he sailed up to Gainesburg,6 where he pitched his camp. Without delay there made submission to him, first, earl Ucthred and the people of Northumbria and Lindesey, and after them the people of the Five Boroughs,7 next all the people living in the district north of Watlingastrete, the road which the sons of king Wethle made through England, from the Eastern Sea to the Western; all these made submission, and having entered into a treaty of peace with him, and given hostages, swore fealty to him, and were ordered to provide horses and food for his army.
These things being done, and the fleet with the hostages entrusted to his son Canute, he took chosen men as auxiliaries, from those who had been surrendered, and made an expedition against the South Mercians. Having passed over Watlingastrete, he issued an edict to his followers that they should lay waste the fields, burn the towns, spoil the churches, slay without regard or mercy all those of the male sex who should fall in their hands, and reserve the females to satisfy their lust, doing all the mischief they possibly could.
They acting in this manner, and raving with the rabidness of wild beasts, he came to Oxford, and took it more speedily than he had previously expected; having received hostages, he passed on in haste to Winchester, and arriving there, the citizens, being alarmed, made peace with him without delay, and gave him hostages, such and as many as he demanded. Having received these, he moved on his army towards London; and great numbers of them being drowned in the river Thames, perished there, having never attempted to find either a bridge or a ford. On arriving at London, he endeavoured in many ways to capture it either by stratagem or by force.
But Egelred, king of the English, with the citizens and the aid of the Danish earl, Turkill, so often mentioned, who was with him at the time, manfully defended the walls of the city, and held out against him. Being repulsed, he repaired first to Wallingford, then to Bath, ravaging and laying waste everything in his progress, according to his usual practice, and there he sat down with his forces to refresh them. Then came to him Athelmar, the earl of Devon, and with him the thanes of the west, and having made peace with him, gave him hostages. All these things being thus accomplished to his wish, on returning to his fleet, he was by all the people styled and considered king, although he acted in most respects in a tyrannical manner.
The citizens of London, also, sent hostages to him, and made peace with him; for they were afraid that his fury would be so inflamed against them, that, taking away all their possessions, he would either order their eyes to be put out, or their hands or feet to be cut off. When king Egelred saw this, he sent queen Emma by sea to Normandy, to her brother Richard, the second duke of Normandy, and her sons Edward and Elfred, together with their tutor, Elphune, bishop of London, and Elfsy, abbat of Medeshampstead.8 But he himself remained for some time with the Danish9 fleet, which lay in the Thames at a place called Grenwic;10 and afterwards proceeding to the Isle of Wight, there celebrated the Nativity of our Lord; after which, he passed over to Normandy, and was honorably entertained by duke Richard.
In the meantime, the tyrant Sweyn ordered provisions to be prepared in abundance for his fleet, and an amount of tribute to be paid that could hardly be endured. In like manner, in all respects, earl Turkill ordered payment to be made to the fleet which lay at Grenwic. In addition to all this, each of them, as often as they thought proper, collected spoil, and did much mischief.
In the year 1014, the tyrant Sweyn, after innumerable and cruel misdeeds, which he had been guilty of either in England or in other countries, to complete his own damnation, dared to exact a heavy tribute from the town where lies interred the uncorrupted body of the royal martyr, Edmund; a thing that no one had dared to do before, from the time when that town11
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had been given to the church of the above-named saint; he repeatedly threatened, also, that if it was not quickly paid, beyond a doubt he would burn the town, together with the townsmen, utterly destroy the church of the martyr himself, and torment the clergy with various tortures. In addition to this, he even dared frequently to speak slightingly of the martyr himself, and to say that he was no saint at all. But, inasmuch as he was unwilling to put an end to his misdeeds, the Divine vengeance did not permit this blasphemer to live any longer.
At length, towards the evening of the day on which, in a general council which he had held at a place which is called Geagnesburt,12 he had again repeated these threats, while surrounded with most numerous crowds of Danes, he alone beheld Saint Edmund coming armed towards him; on seeing whom, he was terrified, and began to cry out with loud shrieks, exclaiming, “Fellow-soldiers, to the rescue, to the rescue! behold Saint Edmund has come to slay me;” after saying which, being pierced by the Saint with a spear, he fell from the throne13 upon which he was sitting, and, suffering great torments until nightfall, on the third day before the nones of February, terminated his life by a shocking death.
After his death, the fleet of the Danes elected his son, Canute, king. But the elders of the whole of England, with one consent, in all haste sent messengers to king Egelred, declaring that they loved no one, and would love no one, more than their own natural lord, if he would either rule them more becomingly, or treat them with more mildness than he had previously done. On hearing this, he sent his son, Edward, to them, with his deputies, and in a friendly way greeted his people, both great and small, promising that he would be to them a loving and affectionate lord, and would consult their wishes in all things, would listen to their advice, and with a forgiving temper pardon whatever had been said in abuse, or done in contradiction by them to himself or his family; if, on the other hand, they would be ready to restore him with unanimity and without guile, to his kingdom. To this they all made answer in kindly terms, and full friendship was
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established on either side, both by words and by pledge. In addition to this, the nobles unanimously made promise that they would no more admit a Danish king into England.
On these things being concluded, a deputation was sent by the English to Normandy, and the king was brought back in all haste during the season of Lent, and received with due honor by all. In the meantime it was arranged by Canute and the men of Lindesey,14 that, procuring horses for the army, they should make a descent for the purpose of plunder. But, before, they were prepared, king Egelred came thither with a strong army, and, Canute with his fleet being put to flight, laid waste the whole of Lindesey, and ravaged it with fire, slaughtering all the inhabitants he could. But Canute, at once taking safety in flight, directed his course towards the south of England, and in a short time came to the part of Sandwich, where he put on shore the hostages that had been given to his father by the whole of England, and, having cut off their hands, ears, and nostrils, allowed them to depart, and then set sail for Denmark, to return in the ensuing year. In addition to all these evils, king Egelred ordered to be paid to the fleet, which lay at Grenwic, a tribute which amounted to thirty thousand pounds.
On the third day before the calends of October, the sea overflowed its shores, and drowned a great number of towns in England and numberless multitudes of people.
In the year 1015, while a great council was being held in secret at Oxford, the perfidious duke Edric Streona, by stratagem enticed Sigeferth and Morcar, the sons of Earngrim, the very worthy and influential thanes of the Seven Boroughs, into his chamber, and there ordered them to be put to death. King Egelred thereupon took possession of their property, and ordered Aldgitha, the relict of Sigeferth, to be taken to the city of Maidulph.15 While she was being kept in confinement there, Edmund, the king’s son, surnamed Ironside, came thither, and, against the will of his father,16 took her to wife, and, between the feasts of the Assumption and the Nativity of Saint Mary, set out for the Five Boroughs, and invading the territories of Sigeferth and Morcar, subjected their people to himself.
At the same time, Canute, king of the Danes, came with a great fleet to the port of Sandwich; and then, sailing round Kent, entered the mouth of the river Frome, and collected great booty in Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and the province of Winchester.17 At this period, because king Egelred lay sick at Corsham, the Clito Edmund, his son, acted in his behalf, and, with the duke Edric Streona, who was full of guile and treachery, collected a large army: but, when they had met together, duke Edric in every possible way laid snares for the Clito Edmund, and tried by treachery to cut him off. On Edmund learning this, they soon separated from each other, and left the place to the enemy. Not long after this, the same duke enticed away forty ships of the royal fleet, manned with Danish soldiers, and, going over to Canute, made submission to him. The men of Wessex did the same, and gave hostages, and afterwards provided horses for his army.
In the year 1016, Canute, king of the Danes, and the perfidious duke Edric Streona, with a large retinue,18 crossed the river Thames at a place which is called Cricklade; and, on the approach of the Epiphany of our Lord, made a hostile irruption into Mercia, and laying waste many towns in the province of Warwick, burned them, and slew all the persons they could find. When the Clito Edmund, surnamed Ironside, heard of this, in all haste he collected an army; but, after it was brought together, the men of Mercia were unwilling to engage with the men of Wessex and the Danes, unless king Egelred and the citizens of London were with them. In consequence of this, the expedition was given up, and each one returned home.
After the festival was concluded, the Clito Edmund again formed a still greater army; after which, he sent messengers to London, to beg his father to meet him as soon as possible, with all the men he could find. But, after an army had been collected together, intimation was given to the king, that, if he did not take due precaution, some of his allies were about to betray him. The army was soon broken up in consequence, on which he returned to London; but the Clito proceeded to Northumbria. For which reason some thought that he still intended to form a greater army against Canute; but in the
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same way that Canute and Edric did on their part, so did he and Ucthred, the earl of Northumbria, lay waste some of the provinces. For first they ravaged Staffordshire, and next the provinces of Shrewsbury and Leicester, because they had refused to go out to fight against the army of the Danes.
In the meantime, Canute and Edric Streona laid waste, first the provinces of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Somersetshire, and Nottinghamshire, and, afterwards, Northumbria. On hearing this, the Clito Edmund Ironside, pausing in his ravages, hastened to London to his father; while, on the other hand, earl Ucthred returned home with all speed, and, compelled by necessity, betook himself, with all the Northumbrians, to Canute, and gave him hostages; yet, for all that, either by his command or with his sanction, he was slain by Turebrand, a noble Dane, together with Turketel, the son of Navena. After his death, Canute appointed Eiric earl in place of Ucthred; and after that, returning in all haste to the south,19 before the festival of Easter, with the whole of his army retreated to his ships.
At this period, in the fourth year of the indiction, on the ninth day before the calends of May, being the second day of the week, Egelred, king of the English, departed this life at London, after having in his life experienced great troubles and many tribulations, which Saint Dunstan had prophesied to him should come upon him for the death of his brother Edward, as I have mentioned under the first year of his reign. His body was becomingly buried in the church of Saint Paul.
After his death, the bishops, abbats, and most noble men of England met together and with one consent elected Canute their lord and king, and coming to him at Southampton, repudiated and rejected in his presence all the family of king Egelred, and made peace with him, and took the oaths of fealty to him; on which he swore to them that before God and men he would be a faithful master to them.
But the citizens of London, and a part of the nobles who were at that time staying there, with unanimous consent elected the Clito Edmund king, who, being thus elevated to the royal throne, fearlessly entered Wessex, and being received by all the people with great congratulations, reduced it very
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speedily to subjection; on hearing which, many of the people of England with alacrity voluntarily submitted to him. But Canute, in the meanwhile, about the time of the Rogation days, came up with all his fleet to London; and on arriving there, the Danes dug a great ditch20 on the southern side of the Thames, and towed their ships along to the western side, after which, surrounding the city with a wide and deep trench, in strict siege they shut out all from either ingress or egress. They also made frequent attempts to take it by storm; but, the citizens making a stout resistance against them, they were repulsed from the walls; in consequence whereof, the siege being put off for a time, and a part of the army left to guard the ships, they hastened with all speed to Wessex, and gave king Edmund Ironside no time for collecting a large army.
However, with the army which in such a short period he had collected, relying on the aid of God, he boldly met them in Dorsetshire, and attacking them at a place which is called Penn,21 near Gillingham, fought with them, and conquered, and put them to flight. After this, midsummer being past, he again collected a still larger army than before, and resolved to engage boldly with Canute; this took place in Worcestershire, at a place which is called Eearstam,22 where he drew up his army as the situation and his own strength would allow him, and placing all his best men in the front rank, the rest of the army he set in reserve; and then appealed to them, calling each by name, and exhorting and entreating them that they would bear in mind that they were fighting for their country, their children, their wives, and their homes; and, in the most encouraging language having kindled the spirits of the soldiers, he then ordered the trumpets to sound, and his troops to advance at a gentle pace. The army of the enemy did the same. When they had come to the spot where the battle was able to be commenced, with immense clamour they rushed on with hostile standards, and the combat was waged with lances
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and swords, and the engagement carried on with the greatest vigour. In the meantime, king Edmund Ironside fought bravely in the front rank, hand to hand, while giving all requisite orders. He himself fought most valiantly, and struck down many an enemy, at the same moment performing the duties of a valiant soldier and of a good general; but, inasmuch as his brother-in-law Edric Streona, that most perfidious duke, and Almar the beloved, and Algar, the son of Mehu, who ought to have been aiding him, together with the men of the provinces of Southampton and Wiltshire, and an innumerable multitude of people, were on the side of the Danes, his army had to struggle hard for victory.
However, on the first day of the week, Monday to wit, so severe and so bloody a battle was fought, that either army, from exhaustion being no longer able to fight, at sunset ceased of its own accord. Still, on the following day, king Edmund would have crushed all the Danes, if it had not been for the treachery of the perfidious duke Edric Streona. For, when the battle was at its height, and he saw that the English were prevailing, having cut off the head of a man, Osmer by name, who very strongly resembled king Edward in features and hair, raising it aloft, he exclaimed: “Englishmen! it is in vain you fight!” adding, “You men of Dorset, Devon, and Wiltshire, your chieftain is slain, — take to flight will all speed.23 Behold the head of Edmund your king! I hold it in my hand; give way, then, instantly!”
When the English heard this, they were more shocked at the atrocity of the deed than alarmed through belief in him who announced it. Hence it came to pass that the more unsteady ones were nearly taking to flight, but instantly, on it being found that the king was alive, they recovered their courage, and boldly rushing upon the Danes, slaughtered many of them, fighting with all their might until twilight, on the approach of which, as on the preceding day, they separated of their own accord. But when the greater part of the night had passed, Canute commanded his men to decamp in silence, and taking the road towards London, returned to the ships, and shortly after again laid siege to it.
On the next day, when king Edmund Ironside found that the Danes had fled, he returned into Wessex to collect a
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larger army. His brother-in-law, the perfidious duke Edric, seeing his valour, sought him again as his natural lord, and making peace with him, swore that he would continue faithful to him; upon which, with an army collected together for the third time, the king liberated the citizens of London from the siege, and drove the Danes to their ships. Two days after this, he passed over the Thames at a place which is called Brentford, to engage with the Danes for the third time; there he joined battle with them, and having put them to flight, gained the victory. On this occasion many men on the side of the English, while crossing the river without due precautions, were drowned. After this, the king hastened to Wessex, for the purpose of collecting a more numerous army; on which, the Danes again repaired to London, laid siege to it, and stormed it on every side; but, by the aid of God, they were unsuccessful.
Upon this, they returned thence with their fleet, and entered the river which is called Arewe,24 and, landing from their ships, proceeded into Mercia for the purpose of plunder, after their usual manner slaughtering all they met, burning towns, and carrying off the spoil: after which, they returned to their ships, and the land forces were conveyed by sea to the river which is called Meodewege,25 while the cavalry endeavoured to drive the live-stock, which formed part of their booty, by land.
In the meantime, king Edmund Ironside for the fourth time collected a valiant army throughout the whole of England, and passing over the Thames at the place26 where he had done so previously, quickly entered Kent, and fought a battle with the Danes near Ottaford; on which, being unable to resist his attack, they turned their backs and fled with their horses to Scepege.27 However, he slew all he could overtake, and had not the perfidious duke Edric Streona, with his treachery, withheld him at Eagleford,28 from pursuing the enemy, he would that day have gained a complete victory. After returning into Wessex, Canute crossed over with his forces into Essex, and proceeded again to Mercia, for the sake of plunder, giving orders to his army to commit still greater excesses than before.
On this, with the greatest alacrity, they obeyed his commands, and having slaughtered all who fell into their hands, and burned a very great number of towns, and laid waste the fields, greatly enriched, they repaired with all haste to their ships. Edmund Ironside, king of the English, pursuing them with an army which he had levied from the whole of England, came up with them, as they were retreating, at a hill which is called Assendun,29 that is to say, “the hill of the ass.” There, with all expedition, he drew up his troops in three divisions, and then going round each troop, exhorted and entreated them, bearing in mind their ancient valour and victories, to defend him and his kingdom from the avarice of the Danes, and reminded them that they were about to engage with those whom they had conquered already.
In the meantime, Canute slowly led his forces to a level spot; while, on the other hand, king Edmund quickly moved his line in the order in which he had drawn it up, and suddenly giving the signal, fell upon the Danes; on both sides they fought with the greatest valour, and in every quarter multitudes fell. But that most perfidious and most wicked duke, Edric Streona, seeing the line of the Danes wavering, and the English king likely to gain the victory, just as he had previously arranged with Canute, took to flight with the people of Maiseveth30 and the part of the army which he commanded, and by treachery betrayed his lord, king Edmund, and the army of the English. There were slain in that battle duke Alfric, duke Godwin, Ulfketel duke of East Anglia, duke Ethelward, son of Ethelwin, the friend of God, duke of East Anglia, and almost the entire mass of the nobility of England, which in no battle ever sustained a greater wound than it did there. Eadnoth, also, the bishop of Lincoln, and the abbat Wulsy, who had come for the purpose of invoking the Lord on behalf of the soldiers while waging the battle, were slain.
1 Cambridge.
2 A large tract of land in Wiltshire.
3 Cambridgeshire.
4 Evidently a mistake for forty-eight thousand pounds, mentioned by Roger of Wendover and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
5 “Impiâ motus pietate,” can hardly be a correct reading here.
6 Gainsborough.
7 These were Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, Stamford and Derby.
8 Peterborough.
9 Qy. English?
10 Greenwich.
11 Bury St. Edmunds.
12 Probably Gainsborough.
13 “Emissario” is the word in the text, probably a mistake for some other word. “Missarius” means one that strikes or wounds; but if it is to be retained here, some other word is omitted.
14 Roger of Wendover says that he had gained them over to his cause.
15 Malmesbury.
16 Roger of Wendover says, without his father’s knowledge.
17 It ought to be “Wiltonensi,” Wiltshire.
18 V. r. “Equitatu,” body of cavalry.
19 A various reading has here “Edmund Ironside returning in all haste to the south by another road.”
20 This is supposed to have been commenced on the eastern side of London Bridge, at either Deptford or Rotherhithe, and running through the present St. George’s Fields, to have entered the river at Vauxhall.
21 It is wrongly called in the text “Peomum.”
22 Properly Sherston. According to Hardy, this is supposed to have been a stone which divided the four counties of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester, and Warwick.
23 “Præciptes” seems a better reading here than “principes.”
24 The Orwell, in Suffolk.
25 The Medway.
26 Brentford.
27 The isle of Sheppey.
28 Aylesford, in Kent.
29 Ashendon, in Essex.
30 Radnorshire.