1.4. What sundrie nations haue dwel|led in Albion. Cap. 4.
What sundrie nations haue dwel|led in Albion. Cap. 4.
Compare 1577 edition:
1 _AS few or no nations
can iustlie boast themselues to haue con|tinued sithence their countrie
was first replenished, without any mixture, more or lesse, of forreine inhabitants; no more can this our
Iland, whose mani|fold commodities haue oft allu|red sundrie princes and
famous capteines of the world to conquer and subdue the same vnto their
owne sub|iection. Manie sorts of people therfore haue come in hi|ther and
settled themselues here in this Ile, and first of all other, a parcell of
the linage and posteritie of Ia|phet,Samothe|ans. brought in by Samothes in the 1910. after the
creation of Adam. Howbeit in processe of time, and after they had
indifferentlie replenished and furnished this Iland with people (which
was doone in the space of 335. yeares) Albion
the giant afore mentioned, repai|red hither with a companie of his
owne race procéeding from Cham, and not onelie annexed the same to his
owne dominion, but brought all such in like sort as he found here of the
line of Iaphet, into miserable serui|tude and most extreame thraldome.
After him also, and within lesse than sixe hundred and two yeares, came
Brute the sonne of Syluius with a
great traine of the posteritie of the dispersed Troians in 324.
ships:
Britains. who rendering the like courtesie vnto
the Chemminits as they had doone before vnto the séed of Iaphet,Chemmi|nits. brought them also wholie vnder his
rule and gouernance, and dispossessing the peeres & inferior owners
of their lands and possessions, he diuided the countrie among such
princes and capteines as he in his arriuall here had led out of Grecia
with him.
Compare 1577 edition:
1 From hencefoorth I doo
not find any sound report of other nation whatsoeuer,Romans. that should aduenture hither to dwell, and alter the
state of the land, vntill the Ro|mane emperours subdued it to their
dominion, sa|uing of a few Galles, (and those peraduenture of Belgie) who
first comming ouer to rob and pilfer vpon the coasts, did afterward plant
themselues for altogi|ther neere vnto the shore, and there builded
sundrie ci|ties and townes which they named after those of the maine,
from whence they came vnto vs. And this is not onelie to be gathered out
of Cesar where he wri|teth of Britaine of set purpose, but also
else-where, as in his second booke a litle after the beginning: for
spea|king of
Deuiaticus
king of the Swessions liuing in his time, he affirmeth him not
onelie to be the mightiest prince of all the Galles, but also to hold
vnder his sub|iection the Ile of Britaine, of which his sonne
Galba was afterward dispossessed. But after the com|ming of
the Romans, it is hard to say with how manie sorts of people we were
dailie pestered, almost in euerie steed. For as they planted their
forworne legions in the most fertile places of the realme, and where they
might best lie for the safegard of their conquests: so their armies did
commonlie consist of manie sorts of people, and were (as I may call them)
a confused mixture of all other countries and nations then liuing in the
world. Howbeit, I thinke it best, bicause they did all beare the title of
Romans, to re|teine onelie that name for them all, albeit they were
wofull ghests to this our Iland: sith that with them came all maner of
vice and vicious liuing, all riot and excesse of behauiour into our
countrie, which their legi|ons brought hither from each corner of their
domini|ons: for there was no prouince vnder them from whence they had not
seruitours.
How and when the
Scots,Scots. Picts. a people mixed of the
Scithian
and Spanish blood, should arriue here out of Ireland, & when
the Picts should come vnto vs out of Sarmatia, or from further
toward the north & the Scithi|an Hyperboreans, as yet it is
vncerteine. For though the Scotish histories doo carrie great countenance
of their antiquitie in this Iland: yet (to saie fréelie what I thinke) I
iudge them rather to haue stolne in hither within the space of 100.
yeares before Christ, than to haue continued here so long as they
themselues pre|tend, if my coniecture be any thing. Yet I denie not, but
that as the Picts were long planted in this Iland be|fore the Scots
aduentured to settle themselues also in Britaine; so the Scots did often
aduenture hither to rob and steale out of Ireland, and were finallie
called in by the Meats or Picts (as the Romans named them, be|cause they
painted their bodies) to helpe them against the Britains, after the which
they so planted them|selues in these parts, that vnto our time that
portion of the land cannot he cleansed of them. I find also that as these
Scots were reputed for the most Scithian-like and barbarous nation, and
longest without letters; so they vsed commonlie to steale ouer into
Britaine in leather skewes, and began to helpe the Picts about or not
long before the beginning of Cesars time. For both EEBO page image 6
Diodorus lib. 6
. and
Strabo lib. 4.
doo seeme to speake of a parcell of the Irish nation that should
inhabit Bri|taine in their time, which were giuen to the eating of mans
flesh, and therefore called Anthropophagi.
Ma|mertinus in like sort dooth note the Redshanks and the
Irish
(which are properlie the Scots) to be the onelie enimies of our
nation, before the comming of Caesar, as appeareth in his
panegyricall oration, so that hereby it is found that they are no new
ghestes in Britaine. Wherefore all the controuersie dooth rest in the
time of their first attempt to
inhabit in this Iland. Certein|lie I maruell much whie they trauell not
to come in with
Cantaber and Partholonus
: but I see perfectlie that this shift should be too grosse for the
maintenance of their desired antiquitie. Now, as concerning their name,
the Saxons translated the word Scotus for Irish: whereby it
appeareth that those Irish, of whom Strabo and Diodorus
doo speake, are none other than those Scots, of whom
Ierome
speaketh A duersus Iouini|anum, lib. 2. who vsed to féed
on the buttocks of boies and womens
paps, as delicate dishes.
Aethicus
writing of the Ile of Man, affirmeth it to be inhabited with Scots
so well as Ireland euen in his time. Which is another proofe that the
Scots and Irish are all one people. They were also called Scoti
by the Romans, bicause their I|land & originall inhabitation thereof
were vnknowne, and they themselues an obscure nation in the sight of all
the world. Now as concerning the Picts,Of the
Picts. whatso|euer
Ranulphus Hygden
imagineth to the contrarie of their latter enterance, it is easie
to find by
Herodian
and Mamertinus (of which the
one calleth them Meates, the other Redshankes and Pictones) that
they were setled in this Ile long before the time of Seuerus,
yea of Caesar, and comming of the Scots. Which is proofe
suffi|cient, if no further authoritie remained extant for the same. So
that the controuersie lieth not in their com|ming also, but in the true
time of their repaire and ad|uenture into this Iland out of the Orchades
(out of which they gat ouer into the North parts of our coun|trie, as the
writers doo report) and from whence they
came at the first into the aforsaid Ilands. For my part I suppose with
other, that they came hither out of Sar|matia or
Scythia: for that nation hauing how al|waies an eie vnto the
commodities of our countrie, hath sent out manie companies to inuade and
spoile the same. It may be that some will gather, those to be the Picts,
of whom
Caesar
saith that they stained their faces with wad and madder, to the end
they might ap|peare terrible and fearefull to their enimies; and so
in|ferre that the Picts were naturall Britans. But it is one thing to staine the face onelie as the Britans
did, of whom
Propertius
saith,
Nunc etiam infectos demummutare Britannos,
And to
paint the images and portrattures of beasts, fish and foules ouer the
whole bodie, as the Picts did, of whom
Martial
saith,
Barbara depictis veni Bascauda Britannis.
Certes the
times of Samothes and Albion, haue some likelie limitation: and so we may
gather of the comming in of Brute, of
Caesar, the Saxons,
the Danes, the Normans, and finallie
of the Flemmings, (who had
the Rosse in
Wales
assigned vnto them 1066. after the drowning of their countrie.)
But when first the Picts, & then the Scots should come ouer into our.
I|land, as they were obscure people, so the time of their arriuall is as
far to me vnknowne. Wherefore the reso|lution of this point must still
remaine
In tenebris. This neuerthelesse is certeine, that
Maximus
first Le|gate of Britaine, and afterward emperour, draue the Scots
out of Britaine, and compelled them to get ha|bitation in Ireland, the
out Iles, and the North part of the maine, and finallie diuided their
region betwéene the Britaines and the Picts. He denounced warre also
against the Irishmen, for receiuing them into their land: but they
crauing the peace, yéelded to subscribe, that from thence-foorth they
would not receiue any Scot into their dominions; and so much the more,
for that they were pronounced enimies to the Romans, and disturbers of
the common peace and quietnesse of their prouinces here in England.
Compare 1577 edition:
1 The Saxons became
first acquainted with this Ile, by meanes of the piracie which they
dailie practi|sed vpon our coastes (after they had once begun to
ad|uenture themselues also vpon the seas, thereby to seeke out more
wealth than was now to be gotten in the West parts of the maine, which
they and their neigh|bours had alreadie spoiled in most lamentable and
bar|barous maner) howbeit they neuer durst presume to inhabit in this
Iland,The hurt by forren aid. vntill they
were sent for by Vor|tiger to serue him in his warres against
the Picts and Scots, after that the Romans had giuen vs ouer, and lest vs
wholie to our owne defense and regiment. Be|ing therefore come vnder Hengist in three bottoms or kéeles
, and in short time espieng the idle and negligent behauiour of the
Britaines, and fertilitie of our soile, they were not a little inflamed
to make a full conquest of such as at the first they came to aid and
succour. Herevpon also they fell by little and little to the wind|ing in
of greater numbers of their countrimen and neighbours, with their wiues
and children into this re|gion, so that within a while these new comlings
began to molest the homelings, and ceased not from time to time to
continue their purpose, vntill they had gotten possession of the whole,
or at the leastwise the greatest part of our countrie; the Britons in the
meane sea|son being driuen either into Wales and Cornewall, or altogither
out of the Iland to séeke new habitati|ons.
Compare 1577 edition:
1 In like maner the
Danes (the next nation that succéeded) came at the first onelie to pilfer
and robbe vpon the frontiers of our Iland,Danes. till that in the end, being let in by the Welshmen or
Britons through an earnest desire to be reuenged vpon the Saxons, they no
lesse plagued the one than the other, their fréends than their
aduersaries, seeking by all meanes possible to establish themselues also
in the sure pos|session of Britaine. But such was their successe, that
they prospered not long in their deuise: for so great was their
lordlinesse, crueltie, and infatiable desire of riches, beside their
detestable abusing of chast matrons, and yoong virgins (whose husbands
and pa|rents were dailie inforced to become their drudges and slaues,
whilest they sat at home and fed like drone bées of the sweet of their
trauell and labours) that God I say would not suffer them to continue any
while ouer vs, but when he saw his time he remooued their yoke, and gaue
vs libertie as it were to breath vs, thereby to see whether this his
sharpe scourge could haue mooued vs to repentance and amendment of our
lewd and sinfull liues, or not. But when no signe thereof appeared in our
hearts, he called in an other nation to vex vs, I meane the Normans,The Nor|mans. a people mixed with Danes, and of
whom it is worthilie doubted, whether they were more hard and cruell to
our countrimen than the Danes, or more heauie and intollerable to our
Iland than the Saxons or the Romans. This nation came out of
Newstria, the people thereof were called Nor|mans by the
French, bicause the Danes which sub|dued that region, came out of the
North parts of the world: neuerthelesse, I suppose that the ancient word
Newstria
, is corrupted from West-rijc, bi|cause that if you marke
the situation, it lieth oppo|site from Austria or Ost-rijc, which is
called the East region, as Newstria is the Weast: for Rijc in the old
Scithian toong dooth signifie a region or kingdome, as in Franc-rijc, or
Franc-reich, Westsaxon-reich, Ost saxon-reich, Su-rijc, Angel-rijc,
&c, is else to be séene. But howsoeuer this falleth out, these
Normans EEBO page image 7 or Danish French, were dedlie aduersaries to the
Eng|lish Saxons, first by meane of a quarell that grew be|twéene them in
the daies of Edward the Confessour, at such time as the
Earle of Bullen, and William Duke of Normandie, arriued in this land to
visit him, & their freends; such Normans (I meane) as came ouer with
him and Emma his mother before him, in the time of
Canutus and Ethelred. For the first footing that
euer the French did set in this Iland, sithence the time of
Ethel|bert & Sigebert, was with Emma,
which Ladie brought ouer a traine of
French Gentlemen and Ladies with hir into England.
Compare 1577 edition:
1
2 After hir also no
small numbers of attendants came in with Edward the
Confessour,
The cause of the conquest by the Nor|mans.
whome he pre|ferred to the greatest offices in the realme, in so much
that one
Robert a Norman
, became Archbishop of Canturburie, whose preferment so much
enhanced the minds of the French, on the one side, as their lord|lie and
outragious demeanour kindled the stomachs of the English nobilitie
against them on the other: in|somuch
that not long before the death of Emma the kings mother, and
vpon occasion of the brall hapning at Douer (whereof I haue made
sufficient mention in my Chronologie, not regarding the report of the
French authors in this behalfe, who write altogither in the fauour of
their Archbishop Robert, but following the authoritie of an English préest then liuing in the court
) the English Peeres began to shew their disli|king in manifest
maner. Neuerthelesse, the Normans so bewitched the king with their lieng
and bosting, Ro|bert
the Archbishop being the chéefe
instrument of their practise, that he beléeued them, and therevpon vexed
sundrie of the nobilitie, amongst whom Earle Good|wijn of Kent
was the chéefe, a noble Gentleman and father in law to king
Edward by the mariage of his daughter. The matter also came
to such issue against him, that he was exiled, and fiue of his sonnes
with him, wherevpon he goeth ouer the sea, and soone after returning with
his said sonnes, they inuaded the land in sundrie places, the father
himselfe comming to Lon|don, where when
the kings power was readie to ioine with him in battell, it vtterlie
refused so to doo: affir|ming plainelie, that it should be méere follie
for one Englishman to fight against another, in the reuenge of Frenchmens
quarels: which answer entred so déep|lie into the kings mind, that he was
contented to haue the matter heard, and appointing commissioners for that
purpose; they concluded at the vpshot, that all the French should depart
out of England by a day, few excepted, whom the king should appoint and
nominate. By this means therfore
Robert the Archbishop,Archbishop of Can.
exi|led, and the rest of the French. & of se|cret counsell
with the king, was first exiled as princi|pall abuser & seducer of
the king, who goeth to Rome, & there complaineth to the Pope
of his iniurie receiued by the English. Howbeit as he returned home
a|gaine with no small hope of the readeption of his See, he died in
Normandie, whereby he saued a killing. Cer|tes he was the first that euer
tendered complaint out of England vnto Rome, & with him
went
William Bi|shop of London (afterward reuoked)
and
>Vlfo of Lin|colne
, who hardlie escaped the furie of
the English no|bilitie. Some also went into Scotland, and there held
themselues, expecting a better time. And this is the true historie of the
originall cause of the conquest of Eng|land by the French: for after they
were well beaten at Douer, bicause of their insolent demeanour there
shewed, their harts neuer ceased to boile with a desire of reuenge that
brake out into a flame, so soone as their Robert possessed the
primacie, which being once obtei|ned, and to set his mischéefe intended
abroch withall, a contention was quicklie procured about certeine Kentish
lands, and controuersie kindled, whether he or the Earle should haue most
right vnto them. The king held with the priest as with the church, the
nobilitie with the Earle. In processe also of this businesse,Erle Good|wine slande|red by the French wri|ters.
the Archbi|shop accused the Earle of high treason, burdening him with the
slaughter of Alfred the kings brother, which was altogither
false: as appeareth by a treatise yet extant
of that matter
, written by a chaplaine to king Edward the
Confessour, in the hands of Iohn Stow my verie
fréend, wherein he saith thus, Alfredus incautè agens in aduentu suo
in Angliam a Danis circumuen|tus occiditur. He addeth moreouer,
that giuing out as he came through the countrie accompanied with his few
proud Normans, how his meaning was to recouer his right vnto the
kingdome, and supposing that all men would haue yéelded vnto him, he fell
into their hands, whome Harald then king did send to apprehend
him, vpon the fame onelie of this report brought vnto his eares. So that
(to be short) after the king had made his pacification with the Earle,
the French (I say) were exiled, the Quéene restored to his fauour (whom
he at the beginning of this broile had imprisoned at Wilton,
allowing hir but one onlie maid to wait vpon hir) and the land reduced to
hir former quietnesse, which conti|nued vntill the death of the king.
After which the Nor|mans not forgetting their old grudge, remembred still
their quarell, that in the end turned to their conquest of this Iland.
After which obteined, they were so cruellie bent to our vtter subuersion
and ouerthrow, that in the beginning it was lesse reproch to be
accoun|ted a slaue than an Englishman,The miserie of
the Eng|lish vnder the French. or a drudge in anie filthie
businesse than a Britaine: insomuch that eue|rie French page was
superiour to the greatest Peere; and the losse of an Englishmans life but
a pastime to such of them as contended in their brauerie, who should giue
the greatest strokes or wounds vnto their bodies, when their toiling and
drudgerie could not please them, or satisfie their gréedie humors. Yet
such was our lot in those daies by the diuine appointed order, that we
must needs obey such as the Lord did set ouer vs, and so much the rather,
for that all power to resist was vtterlie ta|ken from vs, and our armes
made so weake and feeble that they were not now able to remooue the
importable load of the enimie from our surburdened shoulders. And this
onelie I saie againe,The cause of our miserie.
bicause we refused grace offered in time, and would not heare when God by
his Preachers did call vs so fauourablie vnto him. Oh how miserable was
the estate of our countrie vnder the French and Normans, wherein the
Brittish and English that remained, could not be called to any func|tion
in the commonwealth, no not so much as to be con|stables and headburowes
in small villages, except they could bring 2. or 3. Normans for suerties
to the Lords of the soile for their good behauiour in their offices! Oh
what numbers of all degrées of English and Brittish were made slaues and
bondmen, and bought and sold as oxen in open market! In so much that at
the first comming, the French bond were set free; and those that
afterward became bond, were of our owne coun|trie and nation, so that few
or rather none of vs re|mained free without some note of bondage and
ser|uitude to the French. Hereby then we perceiue, how from time to time
this Iland hath not onelie béene a prey, but as it were a common
receptacle for strangers, the naturall homelings or Britons being still
cut shorter and shorter, as I said before, till in the end they came not
onelie to be driuen into a corner of this region,
In this voi|age the said Harald buil|ded
Porta|schith, which Caradoch ap Griffin afterward ouerthrew, and
killed the garrison that Ha|rald left therein.
but in time also verie like vtterlie to haue beene extinguished.
For had not king Edward, surna|med the saint, in his time, after
greeuous wars made vpon them 1063. (wherein
Harald latelie made Earle of Oxenford
, sonne to Goodwin Earle of Kent, and af|ter king of England, was
his generall) permitted the remnant of their
women to ioine in mariage with the Englishmen
(when the most part of their husbands and male children were
slaine with the sword) it could not haue béene otherwise chosen, but
their whole race must EEBO page image 8 needs haue susteined the vttermost
confusion, and there|by the memorie of the Britons vtterlie haue perished
a|mong vs.
Thus we see how
England hath six times beene subiect to the reproch of conquest. And
wheras the Scots séeme to challenge manie famous victories also ouer vs,
be|side gréeuous impositions, tributs, & dishonorable com|positions:
it shall suffice for answer, that they deale in this as in the most part
of their historie, which is to seeke great honor by lieng, & great
renowme by prating and craking. Indeed
they haue doone great mischéefe in this Iland, & with extreme
crueltie; but as for any conquest the first is yet to heare of. Diuers
other conquests also haue béene pretended by sundrie princes sithence the
conquest, onelie to the end that all pristinate lawes and tenures of
possession might cease, and they make a new disposition of all things at
their owne pleasure. As one by king
Edw. the 3
. but it tooke none effect. An|other by Henrie the 4. who
neuerthelesse was at the last though hardlie drawne from the challenge by
William
Thorington
, then cheefe Iustice of England. The third by
Henrie the 7
. who had some better shew of right, but yet without effect. And the
last of all by Q. Marie
, as some of the papists gaue out, and also would haue had hir to
haue obtained, but God also staied their mali|ces, and hir challenge. But
beside the six afore menti|oned,
Huntingdon
the old historiographer speaketh of a seuenth, likelie (as he
saith) to come one daie out of the North, which is a wind that bloweth no
man to good, sith nothing is to be had in those parts, but hunger &
much cold. Sée more hereof in the
historie of
S. Albons,
and aforsaid author which lieth on the left side of the librarie belonging now to Paules
: for I regard no prophesies as one that doubteth from what spirit
they doo procéed, or who should be the author of them.