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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. 63-73.
In the year 925, Ethelstan, the valiant and glorious king of the English, Constantine, king of the Scots, having broken the treaty which he had made with him, marched with a large army into Scotland, and coming to the tomb of Saint Cuthbert, commended himself and his expedition to his guardianship, and presented to him many and various gifts, such as befitted a
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king, and lands as well; consigning to everlasting flames those who should take away any portion therefrom. After this, with a very large force he subdued the enemy, and with his army laid waste Scotland, even as far as Feoder and Wertermore, while with his fleet he ravaged as far as Catenes;1 in consequence of this, king Constantine, being compelled so to do, gave up his son to him as a hostage, together with suitable presents; and the peace being thus renewed, the king returned to Wessex. In the same year Saint Bristan departed this life.
In the year 925, the religious monk Elphege, surnamed the Bald, a kinsman of Saint Dunstan, received the bishopric of Winchester.
In the year 927, Anlaf, the pagan king of Ireland and of many of the islands, being encouraged by his father-in-law, Constantine, king of the Scots, entered the mouth of the Humber with a vast fleet, amounting to six hundred and fifteen sail; on which he was met by king Ethelstan and his brother the Clito Edmund, with an army, at the place which is called Brumanburgh.2 The battle lasted from the beginning of the day to the evening, and they slew five minor kings and seven dukes, whom the enemy had invited to their aid, and shed such a quantity of blood, as in no battle before that had ever been shed in England; and, having compelled the kings Anlaf and Constantine, and the king of the Cumbrians, to fly to their ships, they returned in great triumph. But the enemy having experienced extreme disaster in the loss of their army, returned home with only a few men.
In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 940, Ethelstan, the valiant and glorious king of the English, departed this life at Gloucester, in the sixteenth year of his reign, and in the fourteenth of the indiction, on the sixth day before the calends of November, being the fourth day of the week; his body was carried to the city of Maidulph,3 and was there honorably interred. His brother Edmund succeeded him in the eighteenth year of his age.
In the year 941, the Northumbrians proving regardless of the fealty which they owed to Edmund, the mighty king of the English, chose Anlaf, king of the Norwegians,
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as their king. The elder Richard became duke of the Norwegians, and continued so for fifty-two years.
In the first year of the reign of king Edmund, king Anlaf first came to York, and then marching to the south, laid siege to Hamtune;4 but not succeeding there, he turned the steps of his army towards Tameworde,5 and having laid waste all the places in the neighbourhood, while he was returning to Legacestre,6 king Edmund met him with an army; but he had not a severe struggle for the mastery,7 since the two archbishops Odo and Wulstan, having allayed the anger of both of the kings, put an end to the fight. And thus peace being made, the Watlingastrete8 was made the boundary of both kingdoms; Edmund having the sway on the southern side and Anlaf on the northern. Anlaf having pillaged the church of Saint Balther and burnt Tinningham, shortly after perished. After this, the people of York laid waste the island of Lindisfarne, and slew great numbers. The son of Sithric, whose name was Anlaf, then reigned over the Northumbrians.
In the year 942, Edmund, the mighty king of the English, entirely wrested five cities, namely, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford from the hands of the Danes, and reduced the whole of Mercia under his own power. He was a friend9 of Dunstan, the servant of God, and by following his counsels became renowned. Being loaded by him with various honors the latter was appointed to the abbacy of Glastonbury, in which place he had been educated.
In the year 943, when his queen, Saint Elfgiva, had borne to Edmund, the mighty king, a son named Edgar, Saint Dunstan heard voices, as though on high, singing and repeating, “Peace to the church of England in the times of the child that is now born, and of our Dunstan.” In this year, the same king raised king Anlaf, of whom we have previously made mention, from the font of holy regeneration, and gave him royal presents, and shortly afterwards held Reginald, king of the
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Northumbrians when he was confirmed by the bishop, and adopted him as his own son.
In the year 944, Edmund, the mighty king of the English, expelled two kings, namely, Anlaf, son of king Sithric, and Reginald, son of Guthferth, from Northumbria, and reduced it to subjection.
In the year 945, Edmund the mighty king of the English, laid waste the lands of the Cumbrians, and granted them to Malcolm, king of the Scots, on condition that he should be faithful to him both by land and sea.
In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 946, Edmund, the mighty king of the English on the day of the feast of Saint Augustine, the instructor of the English, while, at a town, which in English is called Pucklecirce,10 he was attempting to rescue his sewer Leo11 from the hands of a most vile robber, for fear lest he should be killed, was slain by the same man, after having reigned five years and seven months, in the fourth year of the indiction, on the seventh day before the calends of June, being the third day of the week. Being taken to Glastonbury, he was there interred by Saint Dunstan, the abbat.
His brother Edred succeeded him in the kingdom, and was consecrated by Saint Odo, the archbishop, at Kingston.
In the year 947, Wulstan, archbishop of York, and all the nobles of Northumbria, swore fidelity to Edred, the excellent king of the English, at a town which is called Tadenesclif,12 but they did not long observe it; for they elected a certain man, named Eiric, a Dane by birth, to be king over them.
In the year 948, in return for the unfaithfulness of the Northumbrians, Edred, the excellent king of the English, laid waste the whole of Northumbria; in which devastation the monastery at Rhipum,13 which was said to have been formerly built by Saint Wilfred, the bishop, was destroyed by fire. But as the king was returning homewards, the army sallied forth from York, and made great slaughter of the rear of the king’s
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army, at a place which is called Chesterford. The king being greatly enraged thereat, wished to return at once and entirely to depopulate the whole of that region; but, on understanding this, the Northumbrians, being struck with terror, forsook Eiric, whom they had appointed king over them, and made compensation to the king for his injuries with honors, and for his losses with presents, and mitigated his anger with no small sum of money.
In the year 951, Saint Elphege, surnamed the Bald, bishop of Winchester, who had graced Saint Dunstan with the monastic garb and the degree of priest, ended this life, and was succeeded in the see by Efsin. In this year also died Oswel,14 the king of the Britons.
In the year 952, Edred, the renowned king of the English, placed Wulstan, archbishop of York, in close confinement at Withanbrig,15 because he had been often accused before him on certain charges.
In the year 953, Wulstan, the archbishop of York, having been released from custody, the episcopal dignity was restored to him at Dorchester.
The kings of the Northumbrians having now, as I have mentioned above, come to a close, it is my intention here to insert how and to what earls that province afterwards became subject.
The last of the kings of that province, as I have said a little above, was Eiric, whom the Northumbrians, on violating their plighted faith, which they had sworn to king Edred, made king; for which reason the king, in his anger, ordered the whole province to be utterly laid waste. On this, the Northumbrians having expelled their king and slain Amancus, the son of Anlaf, and with oaths and presents appeased king Edred, the province was given in charge to earl Osulph; who afterwards, in the reign of king Edgar, took Oslac as his associate in the government. After this, Osulph took charge of the parts on the northern side of Tyne, while Oslac ruled over York and its vicinity. He was succeeded by Waltef the Elder, who had, as his successor, his son, Ucthred. When, in the reign of king Edric, king Canute
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invaded Northumbria with a hostile force, being compelled by necessity, he went over with his followers to Canute; and after having taken the oath of fealty and given hostages, he was slain by a certain very wealthy Dane, Thurebrand, surnamed Holde, Canute giving his sanction thereto; and in his place his brother, Eadulph Cudel, was substituted. Earl Ucthred left three sons surviving him, Aldred, Eadulph, and Cospatric. The first two of these were successively earls of Northumbria, the third, who did not enjoy the honor of the earldom, had a son named Ucthred, whose son was Eadulph, surnamed Rus, who, in after times, was the leader of those who murdered bishop Walcher; indeed, he himself is said to have slain him with his own hand. However, shortly afterwards, he himself was slain by a woman, and was buried in the church of Gedeworde; but afterwards such a mass of filth as his body was cast out from there by Turgot, formerly prior of the church of Durham, and archdeacon.
After Eadulph Cudel, Aldred, the son of the above-named Ucthred, received the earldom, and slew the murderer, Thurebrand, in revenge for the death of his father. On this, Carl, the son of Thurebrand, and the said earl Aldred, after plotting against the lives of each other, were at last reconciled. But shortly after, Aldred, suspecting no evil, was slain by Carl, in a wood which is called Risewode, the brother of Aldred having joined in the plot. After the death of his brother, Eadulph became earl of Northumbria; who, being elated with pride, laid waste the country of the Britons — that is to say, of the Welsh — in a most cruel manner. But, in the third year after, when, a treaty having been made, he had come to Hardicanute to be reconciled, he was slain by Siward; who, in succession to him, had the earldom of the whole of that province of Northumbria: that is to say, from the Humber to the Tweed. On his death he was succeeded by Tosti; who, having been banished from England for the great injuries which he had done to Northumbria, his earldom was given in charge by king Edward to Morcar; and, afterwards, by king William. Morcar, finding his attention distracted by weighty matters in other quarters, entrusted the earldom beyond the Tyne to Osulph, a young man, son of the above-named Eadulph. Morcar being afterwards taken prisoner and placed in confinement, king William gave the earldom of Osulph to Copsi, who was the uncle of
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earl Tosti, a man of wisdom and prudence. He, having made a vow to Saint Cuthbert, gave to his servants in his church, namely, that of Durham, these lands: — In Merscum, ten carrucates and a half of land, and the church of Saint Germanus in the same town; in Thortuna, two carrucates; and in Thestrota, ten bovates of land; in Readeclive half a carrucate, and in Gisburgh one carrucate of land.
On being deprived of the earldom by Copsi, Osulph, after hiding himself in hunger and destitution in the woods and mountains, at length collected a band of his companions, whom the same necessity had brought together, and surrounded Copsi at Niwebrin;16 who, escaping among the confusion that ensued, concealed himself in the church. Being however betrayed, the enemy set fire to the church: whereon he was compelled to make his way to the door, where he was slain by the hand of Osulph, in the fifth week after he had received the earldom, on the fourth day before the ides of March. In the ensuing autumn, Osulph himself, rushing headlong upon a spear which a robber presented at him, was pierced thereby, and died on the spot.
After his death, Cospatric, the son of Maldred, the son of Crinan, went to king William, and, for a large sum of money, made purchase of the earldom of Northumbria; for, through his mother’s side, the honor of that earldom belonged to him; his mother being Algitha, the daughter of earl Ucthred, whom Elgiva, daughter of king Ethelred, bore to him. This Algitha her father gave in marriage to Maldred, the son of Crinan. After this, Cospatric held the earldom until the king deprived him of it; making it a charge against him that he had with his counsel and assistance aided those who had slain the earl Robert Cumin with his followers, at Durham, although he really was not present there; and also alleging that he had sided with the enemy when the Normans were slain at York. Flying, therefore, to king Malcolm, he shortly afterwards set sail for Flanders; and, after some time, on his return to Scotland, the above-named king gave him Dunbar, in Lothian,17 with the adjacent lands, that with these he might maintain himself and his people until more fortunate
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times. But not long after this, being reduced to extreme infirmity, he sent for Aldwin and Turgot, the monks, who at this time were living at Meilros,18 in poverty and contrite in spirit for the sake of Christ, and ended his life with a full confession of his sins, and great lamentations and penitence, at Ubbanford, which is also called Northam, and was buried in the porch of the church there. He gave them two fair dorsals,19 that, in whatever place they might chance to take rest, they should set them up there in remembrance of him. These are still preserved in the church at Durham.
This Cospatric was the father of Dolfin, Walthen, and Cospatric. After Cospatric, the earldom of Northumbria was given to Walthen, the son of earl Siward, who was entitled to it both on his father’s and his mother’s side. For he was the son of earl Siward, by Elfleda, the daughter of Alfred, who was formerly earl. Some time after, Walthen having been taken prisoner, the charge of the earldom was entrusted to bishop Walcher up to the time of his death. After him, the king conferred that honor on Alfric. He, being unable to make head against times of difficulty, and having returned to his own country, the same king made Robert de Mowbray earl of Northumbria; but he being taken prisoner, king William the younger, and, after him, king Henry, kept Northumbria in their own hands.
In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 955, Edelred,20 the excellent king of the English, fell sick, in the tenth year of his reign, and his life was despaired of; on which, speedily dispatching a messenger, he sent for the father of his confessions,21 namely, Saint Dunstan, the abbat. While repairing with all haste to the palace, and when he had now got half way thither, a voice was distinctly heard by him from above, saying, “King Edelred now rests in peace;” whereupon, the horse on which he was sitting, not being able to endure the force of the angelic voice, without any injury to his rider, fell dead upon the ground. The king’s body was carried to
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Winchester, and received an honorable burial from the abbat Dunstan, at the old monastery there.
His cousin, the Clito22 Edwin,23 succeeded him in the kingdom; he was the son of king Edmund, and of Saint Elfgiva,his queen. In the same year he was consecrated king by archbishop Odo, at Kingston.
In the year 956, Saint Dunstan, the abbat, was banished on account of his righteousness by Edwin, king of the English, and passing the seas, took refuge, during the period of his exile in the monastery of Blandigny.24 On the seventh day before the calends of January, Wulstan, archbishop of York, departed this life, and was buried at Oundle;25 he was succeeded by Oskitel, a venerable man.
In the year 957, Edwy, king of the English, by reason of his unwise administration of the government, being despised by them, was forsaken by the people of Mercia and Northumbria, and his brother, the Clito Edgar, was chosen king by them, and the rule of the two kings was so separated that the river Thames divided their kingdom. Shortly after this, Edgar, the king of the Mercians, recalled Saint Dunstan, the abbat, from exile, with great honor and distinction. A short time after, Coenwald, the bishop of Worcester, departed this life, a man of great humility, and of the monastic profession. In his place Saint Dunstan was elected bishop, and was consecrated by Odo, archbishop of Canterbury.
In the year 958, Saint Odo, the archbishop of Canterbury, separated from each other, Edwy, king of the West Saxons, and Elfgiva, either because, as it is said, she was related to him, or because he loved her instead of his own wife.26 In the same year, the said archbishop, a man famed for his talents, and commendable for his virtues, endued also with a spirit of
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prophecy, was removed from human affairs, and carried by the hands of angels into Paradise. He was succeeded by Elfsin, bishop of Winchester, and in his place Brihtelm was ordained to the see of Winchester.
In the year 959, Elfsin, archbishop of Canterbury, while proceeding to Rome to obtain his pall, perished, frozen with ice and snow, upon the Alpine mountains. Edwy also, king of the West Saxons, after having reigned four years, departed this life at Winchester, and was buried in the new monastery there; on which he was succeeded in the kingdom by his brother, Edgar, king of Mercia, who was elected king by the people of all England, and united the kingdom, before divided, into one. This took place in the sixteenth year of his age, five hundred and ten years after the arrival of the Angles in Britain, and in the three hundred and sixty-third year after Saint Augustine and his companions had come to England.
Brihtelm, bishop of the people of Dorset,27 was elected to the primacy of the see of Canterbury, but as he was not suited for an office of such importance, by command of the king he left Canterbury, and returned to the church which he had lately left. Upon this, by the Divine will, and the counsel of the wise, Saint Dunstan, the bishop of Worcester, was appointed primate and patriarch of the mother church of the English; by whom and other prudent men, Edgar, the king of the English, being becomingly instructed, he everywhere checked the wicked, reduced the rebellious under the yoke of correction, cherished the virtuous and modest, restored and enriched the churches of God that had been laid waste, and having removed all corruptions28 from the monasteries of the secular29 clergy, gathered together multitudes of monks and nuns for the praise of the mighty Creator, and ordered more than forty monasteries to be erected for them. All these he honored as brethren, and cherished as most beloved sons, admonishing by his example the pastors whom he had set over them, to exhort them to live regularly and without reproach, to the end that they might please Christ and his saints in all things.
In the year 960, Saint Dunstan went to the city of Rome, in the third year of the indiction, and received the pall from pope John, and then returned to his country in the paths of peace. In the lapse of a few months after this, he repaired to the royal threshold, and, knocking at the gate of the palace, with suggestions for the exercise of the royal piety and with most humble prayers, he entreated the king that he would promote to the honor of the bishopric of Worcester the blessed Oswald, the cousin of his own predecessor Odo, a monk noted for his piety, meekness, and humility, and who, by real experience, he had proved to wax strong in the Divine fear and in the holy exercise of virtue. King Edgar assented to the request of Saint Dunstan, and the blessed Oswald was installed by himself in the high priesthood.
In the year 963, on the death of Brihtelm, Saint Ethelwald, the venerable abbat,30 who had been educated by the blessed Dunstan, received the bishopric of Winchester, and in the same year, by the king’s command, the clergy31 having been expelled, filled the old monastery with monks; for he had especially persuaded the king, whose chief adviser he was, to expel the clergy from the monasteries, and to place in them monks and nuns.
1 Caithness.
2 Or Brunenburgh; Brumley, in Lincolnshire. This battle was the subject on an Anglo-Saxon poem, which is still in existence.
[For The Poem on the Battle of Brunnanburg see two translations by the Tennysons, father and son here on Elfinpsell. — Elf.Ed.]
3 Malmesbury.
4 Southampton.
5 Tamworth.
6 Leicester.
7 On the contrary, Roger of Wendover says that the loss on either side was excessive.
8 The road which passed from the south of England, through London, into the north.
9 There is little doubt that the word “summus” here, is an error for “amicus”.
10 Pucklechurch, in Gloucestershire. Matthew of Westminster and Roger of Wendover call the place Micklesbury.
11 It is more generally represented that the name of the robber was Leof; the name no doubt which is here given to the attendant.
12 Lambarde takes this place to be the same as Topcliff, in Yorkshire.
13 Ripon.
14 V. r. Owel, or, as we write it, Howel.
15 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says Jedburgh.
16 Probably Newburgh, in Yorkshire.
17 In the original it is “Londoneio;” most probably an error for “Laudonia.”
18 Melrose.
19 Dorsals were garments, or pieces of tapestry, which were hung against walls as a screen for the backs of those who sat near them: whence the name.
20 A mistake for Edred.
21 The text is probably corrupt in this passage.
22 “Clito” was a title which was sometimes given to all the king’s sons among the Anglo-Saxons, but more generally in especial to the eldest sons. It was probably derived from the Latin “inclytus,” “glorious,” or from its root, the Greek word κλειτὸς, of the same meaning.
23 Generally called Edwy.
24 The reading in the text is Blandimum; it should be Blandinium. The monastery of Blandigny, or St. Peters, was in the city of Ghent.
25 In Northamptonshire.
26 “Sub propriâ uxore.” It is not universally agreed that king Edwy was married. Bridferth, one of the early writers, says that Edwy was intimate with two women, mother and daughter.
27 Meaning bishop of Winchester, and not bishop of Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, of which Leowin was at this time bishop.
28 The word in the text is “venenis,” perhaps too strong a word to be the correct one.
[Venenis is the plural (locative, dative, or ablative) of venenum: poison, or drug, according to William Whitaker’s Words, a web-based Latin translation tool. (A wonderful little gadget!) — Elf.Ed.]
29 In the original, “scholarium;” probably a mistake for “secularium.”
30 Of Abingdon.
31 The secular clergy.