204 Ovid. Amor. iii. iv. 17.
205 This was perhaps a necessary precaution, according to the rules of the necromantic art.
206 His treatise so called.
207 Macrob. in Somn. Scip. i. 20.
208 Josephus Antiq. Jud. 1. vii. c. 15. viii. 2.
209 In the fabulous Itinerary of St. Peter, falsely attributed to Clemens Romanus, Simon is represented as causing Faustinianus to assume his countenance, by rubbing his face with a medicated unguent, to the great alarm of his sons, who mistook him for Simon, and fled until recalled by St. Peter.
210 Other MSS. read Otbert.
211 “Living, formerly called Elfstan, was translated from Wells to Canterbury in the year 1013; he died, 12th June, 1020.”—Hardy.
212 Malmesbury seems to have fallen into some confusion here. The murder of the Danes took place on St. Brice’s day, A.D. 1002, and accordingly we find Sweyn infesting England in 1003 and the following year (see Saxon Chronicle): but this his second arrival took place, A.D. 1013: so that the avenging the murder of his sister Gunhilda could hardly be the object of his present attack.
213 Matins were sometimes performed shortly after midnight.
214 It was customary to hold a chapter immediately after primes.
215 Sweyn died Feb. 3, A.D. 1014.
216 The monastery of St. Edmundbury.
217 He here considers Ledo to imply the spring tide; but others say it means the neap, and express the former by Malina. See Du Cange.
218 Corsham, in Wiltshire?
219 March 12th, but the Saxon Chronicle says St. George’s day, 23d April.
220 In Somersetshire?
221 Sceorstan is conjectured to be near Chipping Norton.—Sharp. Supposed to be a stone which divided the four counties of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester and Warwick.—Hardy.
222 He passed the Thames at Brentford, followed them into Kent, and defeated them at Aylesford. Saxon Chron.
223 Thought to be either Assingdon, Ashdown in Essex, or Aston in Berkshire.
224 Henry Huntingdon says they actually engaged, and that Canute finding himself likely to be worsted, proposed the division.—H. Hunt. 1. 6.
225 “Florence of Worcester and the Saxon Chronicle place his death on the 30th of November, 1016. Florence, however, adds the year of the indiction, which corresponds with A.D. 1017.”—Hardy.
226 The Danish chiefs were apprehensive that he would excite commotions in their country; in consequence of which he was ultimately despatched.—Ang. Sac. ii. 144.
227 He returned by the way of Denmark. Florence of Worcester.
228 St. Angelo in Calabria.
229 The several princes, through whose territories their passage lay, exacted large sums for permission to pass; apparently in the defiles of the Alps.
230 A penny for every plough, that is, for as much land as a plough could till, to be distributed to the poor: it was payable in fifteen days from Easter.
231 Payable at Whitsuntide.
232 A certain quantity of corn. Though it also implies, occasionally, other kinds of offerings.
233 A forfeiture to the king, but varying according to the nature of the offence.
234 This seems to be the meaning: he has probably in view the practice of the early princes of the Norman line, who swore to observe the laws of king Edward.
235 Dean of Canterbury.
236 This appears merely intended to express that he received the pall from the pope. The two transactions are inverted; he went to Rome A.D. 1021, and translated Elphege’s body A.D. 1023.
237 Augustine, bishop of Hippo.
238 He was bishop of Selsey, which see was afterwards removed to Chichester.
239 The whole country round Glastonbury is flat and marshy, bearing evident marks of having formerly been covered by water.
240 “See the letter of Fulbert to king Canute (an. 1020 aut 1021.) No. xliv., p. 466. tom. x. Rec. des Hist. de la France. Fulberti Carnot. Episc. Op. Var. 8vo. par. 1608. Epist. xcvii. p. 92.”—Hardy.
241 Though several French chronicles give nearly the same account of Odo being the elder brother, the learned editors of the Recueil des Historiens de France insist that the assertion is false.
242 “After the death of Canute, the kingdom was at first divided: the northern part fell to the share of Harold, and Hardecanute obtained the southern division. In the year 1037, Harold was chosen to reign over all England, (Flor. Wigorn.)”—Hardy.
243 This he notices, because there was a suspicion that she had imposed the children of a priest and of a cobbler on Canute as her own. V. Flor. Wigorn.
244 The Saxon Chronicle says March 17: it also makes Hardecanute arrive on the 18th of June.
245 The printed Saxon Chronicle has no mention of this transaction, but there are two manuscripts which relate it. The story appears true in the main, but it is told with so much variety of time, place, &c., that it is difficult to ascertain its real circumstances. See MSS. Cott. Tib. b. i. and iv.
246 It seems to mean a page, or personal attendant: some MSS. read “alumnus sturni;” apparently the keeper of her starling. There appears to have been a sort of romance on this subject. The youth is said to have been a dwarf, and therefore named Mimicon: his gigantic adversary was Roddingar. V. Matt. West. and Joh. Brompton.
247 These people inhabited the country on and near the southern coast of the Baltic.
248 Clerk was a general term including every degree of orders, from the bishop downwards to the chanter. A story near similar has been told of the celebrated Eginhard and the daughter of Charlemagne. V. Du Chesne, Script. Franc. T. ii.
249 This brief allusion to Macbeth rather disproves the historical accuracy of Shakespere. See the Saxon Chronicle.
250 This seems the foundation of the fable of Emma and the Ploughshares: as the first apparent promulgator of it was a constant reader and amplifier of Malmesbury. See Ric. Divisiensis, MS. C. C. C. Cant. No. 339.
251 “Eadsine was translated from Winchester to Canterbury in 1038. The Saxon Chronicle (p. 416) states, that he consecrated Edward, at Winchester, on Easter day, and before all people well admonished him.”—Hardy.
252 Eustace II, surnamed Aux Grenons. He succeeded his father, Eustace I, in 1049; and married, in 1050, Goda, daughter of king Ethelbert, and widow of Gauthier comte de Mantes, by whom he had no issue; but by his wife Ida he left three sons; Eustace, who succeeded him, Godefroi, created, in 1076, marquis d’Anvers by the emperor Henry IV, and afterwards duc de Bouillon, was elected king of Jerusalem in 1099, (23rd July); and, dying 18th July, 1100, was succeeded by his brother Baudouin, comte d’Edesse.—Hardy.
253 He means Dover; according to the Saxon Chronicle, from which he borrows the account. Eustace stopped at Canterbury to refresh himself, and his people, and afterwards set out for Dover.—Sax. Chron. page 421.
254 Earl Godwin’s second wife’s name was Gytha. (Saxon Chron. and Flor. Wigorn.)—Hardy.
255 Sweyn had debauched an abbess, and being enraged that he was not allowed to retain her as his wife, he fled to Flanders. Shortly after he returned, and intreated Bruno or Beorn to accompany him to the king, and to intercede for his pardon: but it should seem this was a mere pretence; as he forced him on ship-board, and then put him to death. V. Flor. Wigorn, A.D. 1049. Chron. Sax. A.D. 1046, p. 419.
256 “Pagi places the commencement of Gregory’s papacy in May 1044, but Ughelli cites a charter in which the month of August, 1045, is stated to be in the first year of his pontificate. He was deposed at a council held at Sutri, on Christmas-day, A.D. 1046, for having obtained the holy see by simony. Mr. Sharpe remarks that Malmesbury’s character of this pope is considered as apocryphal. Compare Rodul Glaber, lib. v. c. 5.”—Hardy.
257 “Steteruntque comæ, et vox faucibus hæsit.”—Virgil, Æneid iii. 48.
258 There are various stories of this kind in Gregory’s Dialogues.
259 The original is as follows:
I am unable to say who was the author of this epigram, but it is not too hazardous to assert that it was not composed either by Ennius or by any other ancient poet.
260 There seems no reason to doubt the truth of this circumstance, since the exhibition of the Siamese twins, the most extraordinary lusus naturæ that has occurred in the nineteenth century. Medical science, aided by comparative anatomy, has ascertained that the bodies of both man and the brute creation are susceptible of combinations—not usually occurring in the course of nature,—which in former times were thought impossible, and as such were universally disbelieved.
261 Sometimes called St. Audry. She was abbess of Ely monastery. St. Werburga was patroness of Chester monastery.
262 Archbishop of Canterbury, from A.D. 1006 to 1012. See Sax. Chronicle, pp. 402, 403.
263 Bede, book iv. chap. 14. There are some MSS. which want this chapter. The former editor of Bede accounts for it very satisfactorily; stating that a very ancient MS. in the Cotton Collection has a note marking that a leaf was here wanting; and that those which want the chapter were transcripts of this imperfect MS.
264 Acca, bishop of Hexham, A.D. 710, and a great friend of venerable Bede, who inscribed to him many of his works.
266 He was at the same time bishop of Worcester, and archbishop of York.
268 “Concerning St. Wistan, consult MSS. Harl. 2253. De Martyrio S. Wistani.”—Hardy.
269 Repton.
270 Thought to be the Devil’s Dyke, on Newmarket Heath.
271 He was tied to a tree, and shot to death with arrows. Abbo Floriacensis.
272 This boundary is said to have been formed by Canute, in consequence of his father Sweyn having been killed by St. Edmund in a vision for attempting to plunder his territory. See Malm. de Gest. Pontif. lib. ii. f. 136, b. edit. Lond.
273 Faremoutier in Brie.
274 Hist. Eccl. b. iii. c. 8, p. 122.
275 In b. i, c. 1, p. 15, it is said the compensation for their murder was made to their mother; but here she is called their sister, which is the general account. When it was left to her to estimate this compensation (i. e. their weregild), she asked as much land as her stag should compass, at one course, in the Isle of Thanet; where she founded the monastery of Minster. Vide W. Thorn. col. 1910, and Natale S. Mildrythæ; (Saxonicè), MS. Cott. Calig. A. xiv. 4.
276 “Mild” gentle.
277 In Shropshire.
278 The Seven Sleepers were inhabitants of Ephesus; six were persons of some consequence, the seventh their servant. During the Decian persecution they retired to a cave, whence they despatched their attendant occasionally to purchase food for them. Decius, hearing this, ordered the mouth of the cave to be stopped up while the fugitives were sleeping. After a lapse of some hundred years, a part of the masonry at the mouth of the cave falling, the light flowing in awakened them. Thinking they had enjoyed a good night’s rest, they despatched their servant to buy provision. He finds all appear strange in Ephesus, and a whimsical dialogue takes place, the citizens accusing him of having found hidden treasure, he persisting that he offered the current coin of the empire. At length the attention of the emperor is excited, and he goes in company with the bishop to visit them. They relate their story and shortly after expire. In consequence of the miracle they were considered as martyrs. See Capgrave, Legenda Nova.
279 On the Norman conquest many English fled to Constantinople, where they were eagerly received by Alexius, and opposed to the Normans under Robert Guiscard. Orderic. Vitalis, p. 508.
280 Victor II. succeeded Leo IX. in 1056, and died in 1057. Stephen or Frederic, brother of duke Godefroi, succeeded Victor II. on the second of August, 1057, and Nicolaus became pope in 1059.
281 That is, of Malmesbury. This Elmer is not to be confounded with Elmer or Ailmer prior of Canterbury.
282 Died and was buried at St. Paul’s. Sax. Chron. A. 1057.
283 It is hardly necessary to observe, that the succession of William is one of the most obscure points in our history.
284 Near Chichester.
285 It was customary for the king to wear his crown on the solemn festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas: it being placed on his head in due form by the archbishop.
286 “Westminster Abbey was consecrated on the 28th of December, 1065. Ailred of Rievaulx, in his Life of Edward, states that the church had been commenced some years before, in performance of a vow the king had made to go to Rome; but being dissuaded from it, he sent to the pope to obtain his dispensation from that journey; the pope granted it, on condition that Edward should, with the money he would have spent in that voyage, build a monastery in honour of St. Peter.”—Hardy.
287 The battle of Stanford-bridge was fought on the 25th of September, 1066. See Saxon. Chron. p. 440.
288 What Malmesbury here relates is highly probable, from the shortness of the time which elapsed from William’s landing, to the battle of Hastings,—only fifteen days. In this period, therefore, the intelligence was to be conveyed to York, and Harold’s march into Sussex to be completed; of course few could accompany him, but such as were mounted.
289 Will. Pictaviensis, to whom he seems here to allude, asserts that Harold had collected immense forces from all parts of England; and that Denmark had supplied him with auxiliaries also. But the circumstances mentioned in the preceding note show the absurdity of this statement.
290 “Robert’s expedition to Jerusalem was in 1035,” (Bouq. 14, 420.)
291 Ecclesiast. x. 16.
292 Geoffrey II., son of Foulques III., earl of Anjou, whom he succeeded, A.D. 1040.
293 “He was the son of Hugh de Montgomery and Jemima his wife, daughter of Turolf of Pont-Andomare, by Wora, sister of Gunnora, great-grandmother to the Conqueror. He led the centre of the army at the battle of Hastings, and was afterwards governor of Normandy. William the Conqueror gave him the earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury. See more of him in Sir H. Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday, vol. i. p. 479.”—Hardy.
294 “For an account of the earls of Anjou consult the Gesta Consulum Andegavensium, auctore Monacho Benedictino Majoris Monasterii (apud Acherium, tom, iii.)”—Hardy.
295 To carry a saddle was a punishment of extreme ignominy for certain crimes. See another instance in W. Gemeticensis, Du Chesne, p. 259, and Du Cange, in voce “Sella;” who very justly supposes the disgrace to arise from the offender acknowledging himself a brute, and putting himself entirely in the power of the person he had offended.
296 “From this passage it is clear that Foulques IV. was still the reigning earl of Anjou, which therefore proves that Malmesbury had finished this work before 1129, in which year Geoffrey le Bel, better known as Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of Foulques, became earl of Anjou.”—Hardy.
297 Terent. Andr. iv. 1.
298 “These words seem to imply that the Great Council of the kingdom had never agreed to any settlement of the crown on the duke; and without such sanction no oath made by Harold in favour of William would have been binding.”—Hardy.
299 Some copies omit from “it is wonderful,” to “But,” and substitute as follows:— ... “that in the course of a very few years, many, if not all, things were seen changed in either order. The former became, in some respects, more dull but more liberal: the latter, more prudent in every thing, but more penurious; yet both, in defending their country, valiant in battle, provident in counsel; prepared to advance their own fortune, and to depress that of their enemies.”
300 This passage enables us to ascertain nearly the year in which William of Malmesbury’s work was written.
301 “There are two places called St. Valeri; one in Picardy, situated at the mouth of the Somme, and formerly called Leugonaus; the other is a large sea-port town, situated in Normandy, in the diocese of Rouen, and was formerly called S. Valeri les Plains, but now S. Valeri en Caux. It seems to be the former place to which Malmesbury here refers, ‘In Pontivo apud S. Walericum in ancoris congrue stare fecit,’ writes William of Jumièges.”—Hardy.
302 This was said in allusion to the feudal investiture, or formal act of taking possession of an estate by the delivery of certain symbols. “This story, however, is rendered a little suspicious by these words being in exact conformity with those of Cæsar, when he stumbled and fell at his landing in Africa, Teneo te, Africa. The silence of William of Poitou, who was the duke’s chaplain, and with him at his landing, makes the truth of it still more doubtful.”—Hardy.
303 “Whatever may have been the conqueror’s orders, to restrain his army from plundering, it is conclusive, from the Domesday Survey, that they were of no avail. The whole of the country, in the neighbourhood of Hastings, appears to have been laid waste. Sir Henry Ellis, in the last edition of his General Introduction to Domesday, observes, that the destruction occasioned by the conqueror’s army on its first arrival, is apparent more particularly under Hollington, Bexhill, &c. The value of each manor is given as it stood in the reign of the conqueror; afterwards it is said, ‘vastatum fuit;’ and then follows the value at the time of the survey. The situation of those manors evidently shows their devastated state to have been owing to the army marching over it; and this clearly evinces another circumstance relating to the invasion, which is, that William did not land his army at one particular spot, at Bulwerhithe, or Hastings, as is supposed,—but at all the several proper places for landing along the coast, from Bexhill to Winchelsea.”—Hardy.
304 Lib. v. c. 14.
305 This is from W. Pictaviensis, who puts it in the mouth of the conqueror, but it is evidently false; for Godwin died A.D. 1053, Siward A.D. 1055, and in 1054 we find Edward the Confessor sending for his nephew from Hungary, to make him his successor in the kingdom, who, accordingly, arrives in A.D. 1057, and dies almost immediately after. He could not, therefore, have made the settlement as here asserted.
306 As the armour of that time was of mail, this might easily happen.
307 What this was is not known; but it is supposed to have been a ballad or romance, commemorating the heroic achievements of the pretended nephew of Charlemagne.
308 “There seems to have been a fabulous story current during the twelfth century, that Harold escaped from the battle of Hastings. Giraldus Cambrensis asserts, that it was believed Harold had fled from the battle-field, pierced with many wounds, and with the loss of his left eye; and that he ended his days piously and virtuously, as an anchorite, at Chester. Both Knighton and Brompton quote this story. W. Pictaviensis says, that William refused the body to his mother, who offered its weight in gold for it, ordering it to be buried on the sea-coast. In the Harleian MS. 3776, before referred to, Girth, Harold’s brother, is said to have escaped alive: he is represented, in his interview with Henry II. to have spoken mysteriously respecting Harold, and to have declared that the body of that prince was not at Waltham. Sir H. Ellis, quoting this MS., justly observes, that the whole was, probably, the fabrication of one of the secular canons, who were ejected at the re-foundation of Waltham Abbey in 1177.”—Hardy.
309 Four manuscripts read Exoniam, and one, namely, that which was used by Savile, read Oxoniam. But Matthew Paris also seems to have read Exoniam, for such is the text of the two best MSS. of that author. (Reg. 14, c. vii. and Cott. Nero, D. V.) Upon a passage in the Domesday Survey, describing Oxford as containing 478 houses, which were so desolated that they could not pay gold, Sir H. Ellis remarks: “The extraordinary number of houses specified as desolated at Oxford, requires explanation. If the passage is correct, Matthew Paris probably gives us the cause of it, under the year 1067, when William the Conqueror subdued Oxford in his way to York:—‘Eodem tempore rex Willielmus urbem Oxoniam sibi rebellem obsidione vallavit. Super cujus murum quidam, stans, nudato inguine, sonitu partis inferioris auras turbavit, in contemptum videlicet Normannorum; unde Willielmus in iram conversus, civitatem levi negotio subjugavit.’ (Matt. P. ed. Watts, sub ann. 1067, p. 4.) The siege of Exeter in 1067 is also mentioned by Simeon of Durham, col. 197; Hoveden, col. 258; Ralph de Diceto, col. 482; Flor. of Worces. fol. Franc. 1601, p. 635; and by Ordericus Vitalis, p. 510.”—Hardy.
310 Domesday Book bears ample testimony to this statement; and that which closely follows, viz. that the resources of this once-flourishing province were cut off by fire, slaughter, and devastation; and the ground, for more than sixty miles, totally uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day. The land, which had belonged to Edwin and Morcar in Yorkshire, almost everywhere in the Survey is stated to be wasta; and in Amunderness, after the enumeration of no fewer than sixty-two places, the possessions in which amounted to one hundred and seventy carucates, it is said, ‘Omnes hæ villæ jacent ad Prestune, et tres ecclesiæ. Ex his 16 a paucis incoluntur, sed quot sint habitantes ignoratur. Reliqua sunt wasta.’ Moreover, wasta is added to numerous places belonging to the archbishop of York, St. John of Beverley, the bishop of Durham, and to those lands which had belonged to Waltheof, Gospatric, Siward, and Merlesweyne!—Hardy.
311 Fordun has a story of Edgar’s being cleared from an accusation of treason against W. Rufus, by one Godwin, in a duel; whose son, Robert, is afterwards described as one of Edgar’s adherents in Scotland. L. v. c. 27–34. “The Saxon Chronicle states, that in the year 1106, he was one of the prisoners taken at the battle of Tinchebrai, in Normandy. Edgar is stated, by Dr. Sayers, in his Disquisitions, 8vo, 1808, p. 296, upon the authority of the Spelman MSS., to have again visited Scotland at a very advanced period of life, and died in that kingdom in the year 1120. If this date can be relied upon, the passage above noted would prove that Malmesbury had written this portion of his history before the close of that year.”—Hardy.
312 “Earl Waltheof, or Wallef, as he is always styled in Domesday Book, was, according to the Saxon Chronicle, beheaded at Winchester on the 31st May, 1076. The Chronicle of Mailros and Florence of Worcester, however, assign this event to the preceding year.”—Hardy.
313 “Harold’s master of the horse. He was killed in 1068, in opposing the sons of Harold, when they came upon their expedition from Ireland.”—Hardy.
314 “W. Fitz-Osberne was only the father-in-law of Ralph de Guader.”—Hardy.
315 There is considerable difficulty in distinguishing exactly the various meanings of the term “miles.” Sometimes it is, in its legitimate sense, a soldier generally; sometimes it implies a horseman, and frequently it is to be taken in its modern acceptation for a knight; the latter appears to be the meaning here.
316 “Charles, called the Good. He was the son of Canute IV, king of Denmark, and Adele, daughter of Robert le Frison. He succeeded Boudouin VII, as earl of Flanders (17th June, 1119,) and died 2nd March, 1127.”—Hardy.
317 “King William now went over sea, and led his army to Brittany, and beset the castle of Dol; but the Bretons defended it, until the king came from France; whereupon king William departed thence, having lost there both men and horses, and many of his treasures, (Sax. Chron. A.D. 1076.) This event is more correctly attributed by Florence and others to the preceding year.”—Hardy.