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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. 26-31.
In the twenty-fourth year of his reign, Kinewulph fought against Offa, near Benetune;1 being humbled by the fortune of war, he retreated,2 and Offa reduced that fortified place to subjection. It the same year, Ethelbert was consecrated at Eworwic,3 bishop of Whitherne.
In the following year, Ethelbald and Herebert, earls of the king of Northumbria, rebelled against their master, and slew Aldulph, the son of Bose, general of the king’s army, in a pitched battle at Kingesdiwe;4 and afterwards in a great battle, the same generals slew Kinewulph and Egga, the king’s earls, at Hilatirn. Upon this, the above-named king Ethelred, having lost his generals and his hopes, fled from before them, and they elected Alfimod5 king, who reigned for a period of ten years. In the following year, the nobles and high-reeves of Northumbria burned a certain earl and justiciary of theirs,6 who had shown himself more severe than was befitting. In the same year, archbishop Esbert7 died at Cestre,8 and was succeeded by Enbalo. In this year, Kinebald was made bishop of Lindisfarne. In the same year also, a battle took place between the Franks and Ancient Saxons, the Franks being the conquerors.
In the next year, Alfinild, king of Northumbria, sent to Rome for the pall, and gave it to archbishop Embald.9 At the same period, Gilbert succeeded Alcmund, bishop of
A. D.
786.
DEATH
OF
KINE-
WULPH.27
Hagulstad,10 who had lately died. About this time, there was a synod held at Ade.11 After Kinewulph had reigned twenty-six years, and, being victorious, had gained many battles against the Britons,12 and subdued them on every side,13 at length, he determined on banishing a certain young man, named Kineard, the brother of Sigebert. Upon this, he attacked the king at Meretune,14 whither he had privately gone to visit a certain female. On finding this to be the case, the king stoutly defended himself at the door, until he caught sight of the youth, upon which he rushed out and wounded him, whereon all his confederates turned upon the king, and slew him. On the uproar being heard, the king’s soldiers, who were in the town, ran towards the youth, and refusing gifts of lands and money that were offered by him, all died bravely fighting, with the exception of one Briton, who was severely wounded, and taken as a hostage. In the morning, the soldiers of the king, who were near at hand in waiting,15 when the king was slain, hemmed in the young man and his confederates; on which he thus said to them; “Your kinsmen are on my side; I will give you lands and money to your hearts’ content, if you will not fight against us; I made the same offer to your companions, and refusing it they perished!” To this they made answer, that no money was dearer to them than their lord, and that they would avenge the death of their king and their comrades; and then rushing on, after a severe combat at the door, they slew the young man and eighty-four others who were with him. The only one left was a little son of the young man, and he received a wound. Kinewulph was buried at Winchester, in the thirty-first year of his reign, the young man at Acsminster.16
Brithric, who also sprang from king Cerdic so often mentioned,
A. D.
791.28
succeeded Kinewulph, and reigned over Wessex sixteen years. In his second year, pope Adrian sent legates into Britain, to renew the faith which Augustine had preached. Being honorably received by the kings and the people, they raised a fair edifice upon a firm foundation, the mercy of Christ co-operating with them. They held a council at Cealtide,17 where Iambert18 resigned a portion of his episcopate; there also Higbert was elected19 by king Offa. In the same year, Egfrid was consecrated king of the province of Kent.20
In the following year, being the year of grace 786, there appeared a sign21 upon people’s clothes, which may be justly deemed marvellous to be mentioned and to be heard of. Whether this took place as a forewarning of the movement relative to the recovery of Jerusalem, and the assumption of the cross,22 which happened three hundred and eleven years after this period, in the time of William23 the younger, or whether it was rather intended for the correction of the people, lest they should not view the plague of the Danes with which they were shortly afterwards afflicted, in the light of a chastisement, I will not rashly undertake to settle, but, the mysteries of God I leave to God.24
In the fourth year of his reign, Brithric took to wife Eadburga, the daughter of Offa, king of Mercia. Strengthened on the throne by this alliance, he gave way to pride. In these days, the Danes came to Britain, with three ships, for the sake of plunder; the king’s reeve25 in that province, seeing this, went to meet them without taking due precautions, in order that, having captured them, he might carry them to the king’s town;26 for he was ignorant who they were, or for what purpose they had come; but, being immediately surrounded by them, he was slain. He was the first person of the English nation slain by
A. D.
797.
DEATH
OF
SIGGA.29
the Danes, and after him many thousand of thousands were slaughtered by them at different periods; these too were the first ships of the Danes that arrived here.
In the following year, a synod was held in Northumbria, at Wincanhele.27
In the sixth year of king Brithric, a synod was held at Aclea.28 By infamous treachery, Sigga slew Alwulph, the good king of Northumbria. In the same spot where this king, the beloved of God, was slain, a heavenly light was often beheld; his body was buried in the church of Hagustald. After him, Osred began to reign, but in the following year was betrayed, and expelled from the kingdom.
Ethelred, the son of Mollethelwald, was then restored to the kingdom; and in the fourth year of his reign, having collected forces for the purpose, Osred was on his return, in order that he might expel Ethelred from the kingdom, by whom he himself had been expelled. On his route he was captured and put to death, and buried at Tynemouth. How just then his remark, who said, “Oh, how blind to the future is the mind of man!” For when the above-mentioned youth Osred, dancing and elated with joy, was made king, how little did he think that in the second year from that time, he should be deprived of his throne, and in the fourth, of his life! For which reason, let us ever be thoughtful in prosperity, being ignorant how near at hand adversity may be.
At this time, Offa, king of the Mercians, ordered the head of Saint Ethelbert29 to be cut off, and in these days, Lambert, archbishop of Canterbury, departed this life, and abbat Ethelred was elected in his room archbishop of Canterbury. Eanbald, archbishop of York, consecrated Badulph,30 bishop of Whitherne.
In the tenth year of king Brithric, there were seen fiery dragons flying through the air, which tokens were followed by two plagues; first, a dreadful famine, and then the pagan nations coming from Norway and Denmark. These first ravaged the kingdom of Northumbria in a frightful manner, and then, in the district of Lindisfarne, on the ides of January, dreadfully destroyed the churches of Christ, together with the inhabitants; at which period also, died Sigga, the perfidious duke who had acted the traitor towards the righteous king Elfwald.
In the eleventh year of king Brithric, that is to say, in the year of grace 795, the Northumbrians slew their king, Ethelred, who, in the same year in which king Osred was slain, becoming elated with pride, had forsaken his own wife and taken a new one, little thinking that he himself was destined to be slain within two years from that time. After him Herdulph obtained the kingdom of Northumbria, and was consecrated king by archbishop Embald,31 bishop Ethelbert and bishop Hingbald, and bishop Baldulph, and ascended the throne at York.
In these days pope Adrian and the great king Offa, departed this life; this Offa reigned with mighty sway in Mercia, during a period of thirty-nine years. He subdued Kenulph, king of Wessex, and the people of Kent and Northumbria.
King Offa was succeeded by his son Egfrith, who reigned one hundred and forty-one days, and then died; he was succeeded by Kenulph, the father of Kenelm, a most powerful king.32 In the same year, Eadbert, who also bore the name of Pren, obtained the kingdom of Kent. The pagan nations laid waste Northumbria, and sacked the monastery of Egfrid at Tynemouth; they were there met by the most noble of the English, men extremely well inured to war, and, their chieftains being slain, the barbarians were overcome, and betook themselves to their ships. When they had reached the sea, they continued their flight with their ships, on which some of them were wrecked by a tempest, and many of them drowned; but some of them coming ashore were taken, and were beheaded near the sea-shore.
Not long after this, Kenwulph, king of Mercia, laid waste the province of Kent, and captured Pren, who was not a match for him in might, and had consequently concealed himself in hiding-places and out-of-the-way spots, and carried him back with him in chains.
In the fourteenth year of king Brithric, the Romans cut out the tongue of pope Leo, and put out his eyes, and expelled him from his see; but he, as written documents inform us, through the grace of Christ, was enabled to see and to
A. D.
802.
BATTLE
AT
KINE-
MERES-
FORDE.31
speak, and once more became pope. Three years after this, king Charles was made emperor, and having been consecrated by the same pope Leo, condemned those to death who had ill-treated the pope, but afterwards, by reason of the pope’s entreaties, he saved their lives, and sent them into exile.
1 Benson, or Benington, in Oxfordshire.
2 The various reading, “loco secessit,” seems far preferable to that in the text, “jocose cessit;” “he jokingly,” or “good humouredly yielded.”
3 York.
4 The various reading is Kingsclive. Roger of Wendover calls this place Cunesclive, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Kings-cliff.
5 Under the year 779, he is previously called Elfwald, A various reading makes the name “Alfimold.” Below he is called Alfinild.
6 The fate of the patrician Bearn is previously related under the year 780.
7 Of York. He is previously called Albert. The Saxon Chronicle says that he died at York.
8 Probably Chester-le-Street, in Durham.
9 Also called Eanbald and Enbalo.
10 Hexham.
11 Evidently a mistake for Acle, or Aclea, or Ockley, in Surrey; which is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the place where the synod was held in 782.
12 The Welsh.
13 The various reading, “Ex omnia parte,” has been adopted, as it seems preferable to the words of the text, “Ex Dei parte.”
14 Merton, in Surrey.
15 “In atrio,” literally, “in the court.”
16 Axminster, in Devon. William of Malmesbury, and Roger of Wendover, however, agree in stating, that he was buried in Repandun, or Repton, in Derbyshire. Kinewulph, in reality, reigned only nine and twenty years.
17 Lambarde makes this place to be Chalkhythe, but does not say in what county.
18 Archbishop of Canterbury.
19 To be Archbishop of Lichfield, the portion of his province which the Archbishop of Canterbury had resigned.
20 Which he held jointly with his father Offa.
21 The sign of the cross.
22 By the Crusaders as their emblem.
23 William Rufus.
24 The note of interrogation in the text after “relinquimus” seems misplaced.
25 ”Præpositus regis;” the king’s bailiff or reve, or steward of the shire; holding the office of the present sheriff.
26 “Castrum;” literally, “fortified town.”
28 Ockley, in Surrey.
29 King of East Anglia.
30 A mistake for Eadulph. He was the last bishop of Whitherne.
31 Eanbald.
32 The word “maris” seems out of place here, as no definite meaning can be attached to it, unless it is meant to say that Kenelm was a man, which seems superfluous.