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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2010
Victoria carnis est adversus quod quæ Dei sunt minus appetit homo, quæ mundi maxime. Ratio vero cum tenetur, animas triumphus est, reddit quae Cæsaris Cæsari, Dei quæ Deo. Duo præmisi Dei misericordiam et judicium continentia, quæ non solum non delectant, sed tediosa sunt, et expectantur sicut expetuntur fabulæ poetarum, vel earum similes. Differantur tamen, si non auferantur, et quæ scimus aut credimus miraculum præmittamus.
page 69 note * Hamelinus was abbot of Gloucester from the 26th of September, 1148, to the 10th of March, 1179.
page 69 note † This was the first Gilbert de Lacy, the partizan of the empress Matilda in the civil wars of the reign of Stephen. He afterwards became a templar, and the date of his death appears to be uncertain.
page 69 note ‡ Peter, who for his ascetic piety was canonized by the church of Rome, and who was universally believed to have had the power of working miracles, was archbishop of Tarentaise from 1141 to his death in 1174. In 1173 he was commissioned by pope Alexander III. to attempt a reconciliation between Henry II. and Louis VII. of France, who were then at war, and he is said to have performed many miracles before the two monarchs. See Gallia Christiana, vol. xii. col. 706. We learn from Hoveden, Annal, p. 532, that at the beginning of this year the archbishop of Tarentaise was present at the espousals of prince John (Henry's younger son) with Aalis daughter of the count of Maurienne; and, as the English king went to Auvergne for this purpose, it is probable that he was accompanied on this journey by Walter Mapes, and that they made a brief stay at Limoges, as narrated in the text.
page 69 note § Limoges.
page 70 note * John, surnamed ad albas manus, was made bishop of Poitiers in 1162, and was promoted to the archbishopric of Narbonne in 1181, and to that of Lyons in 1182. He was an Englishman, and had been treasurer of the cathedral of York. See the Gallia Christiana, vol. ii., col. 1110.
page 70 note † The abbey of Eleemosyna, or l'Aumône, sometimes called Little Citeauz, was situated between Chartres and Blois. Serlo was abbot from 1171 to some period subsequent to 1173. The authors of the Gallia Christiana seem not to have been aware that he was an Englishman.
page 73 note * Girard la Pucelle was a distinguished scholar and ecclesiastic of the twelfth century, believed to have been a native of England. He died in 1184. An article on him will be found in the Histoire Littéraire de France, vol. xiv. p. 301.
page 73 note † This was Geisa II., who died on the 31st May, 1161. The events which followed are somewhat differently told by the Hungarian and Greek historians.
page 73 note ‡ Stephen III., the eldest son of Geisa mentioned above. He died during the usurpation of his uncles.
page 73 note § This was Ladislas, the eldest of the two remaining sons of Bela II. the father of Geisa. He caused himself to be crowned in 1171, and, after an usurpation of six months, died Feb. 1, 1172.
page 73 note ¶ Virgil. Æn. lib. vii. l. 312. The MS. reads achonita for Acheronta.
page 74 note * Pope Alexander III. occupied the papal chair from 1159 to 1181.
page 74 note † Stephen, the brother of Ladislas, was crowned on the 20th Feb. 1172, and on the 19th of June following he was defeated and driven from the throne which he had usurped. He died April 13, 1173.
page 74 note ‡ Bela III. a younger son of Geisa II. who was placed on the throne of Hungary after the death of his uncle Stephen. He died in 1196.
page 75 note * Walter Mapes appears to have been incorrectly informed as to the death of Bela III. who was alive when this book was written.
page 75 note † This William de Braose was a man of great celebrity during the reigns of Henry II, Richard I, and John. He had very large possessions in Ireland and in Wales. He was banished by King John, and is said to have died in Paris. See a character of him in Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerar. Cambriæ, lib. i. c. 2.
page 77 note * The popular legends contained in the following chapters are extremely interesting, not only because they are valuable documents illustrative of the mythology of the Teutonic and Celtic tribes, but because some of them relate to persons of historical celebrity. The three first legends preserved by Walter Mapes belong to a class which was very extensive among the Teutonic people, that of mortals who had married wood nymphs. Among the most remarkable examples may be pointed out Matthew Paris's legend of King Offa, and the French romance of Melusine.
page 77 note † Brecknock in Wales. Brechein is said to have been the first king of this region. I have found no traces of this legend in the writers on Welsh antiquities; it is curiously connected with ancient tumuli in the sequel.
page 79 note * This Edric was a very remarkable person, and one of the last Anglo-Saxon patriots who held out against William the Conqueror. He only made his peace with the Normans in 1070, and he accompanied the king in his expedition to Scotland in 1072. See an account of him in Ellis's Introduction to Domesday Book, vol. ii. p. 87. In the Latin and Anglo-Norman documents Edric is described by the epithet of silvestris and salvage which are the exact translations of wild. The present chapter is an interesting trait of popular history, as preserving one of the numerous legends connected with the memory of the last defenders of Anglo-Saxon freedom.
page 79 note † The manor of Ledbury North has been long attached to the see of Hereford. This chapter gives a curious account of the manner in which the bishops became possessed of it. It is mentioned in Domesday as belonging to Edric the Wild.
page 79 note ‡ I do not recollect meeting with this word for an inn before. The more usual Anglo-Saxon name was gist-hus.
page 81 note * St. Ethelbert was buried at Hereford, and the cathedral raised over his grave. His shrine was an object of great veneration among the Saxon population of our island, and remained so long after the Norman conquest.
page 83 note * The story which forms the subject of this chapter will be found in the lives of Paul the Hermit, in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, Januar, torn. i. pp. 603 and 605.
page 84 note * It was a common article of the popular belief that a portion of the fallen angels wander in the air and earth and water, and that they appeared to mankind in the shape of fairies, hobgoblins, &c. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itin. Camb. lib. i.c. 12,gives a curious story illustrative of this notion. It was as old as the Anglo-Saxon age, and occurs in the dialogue between Saturn and Solomon (Thorpe's Analecta, p. 98.) “Saga me hwider ge-witon þa engelas þbe Gode wiðsócon on heofona ríce Ic þe secge, hyg to-dældon ón þri dælas: ánne dæl he asette on þæs lyftes ge-drif, oþerne dæl on þæs wateres ge-drif, þriddan dæl on helle neowelnysse.” In the legend of St. Brandan these fallen spirits appear in the shape of birds.
page 84 note † Tournaments were a source of great evil in feudal times, not only from the accidents and disturbances which frequently attended them, but from the extensive feuds which arose out of them. Frequent attempts were made to suppress and discourage them, both by the crown and by the church, and Mapes here only speaks the opinion of the wisest of his contemporaries. One article of the Decrees of Pope Alexander III. published in 1179 ran as follows: “Felicis memorise papæ Innocentii et Eugenii prædecessorum nostrorum inhærentes, detestabiles nundinas vel ferias, quas vulgo torneamenta vocant, in quibus milites ex dicto convenire soient ad ostentationem virium suarum et audaciæ temere congrediuntur, unde mortes hominum et pericula animarum sæpe proveniunt, fieri prohibemus. Quod si quis eorum ibi mortuus fuerit, quamvis ei pœnitentia non denegetur, ecclesiastica tamen careat sepultura.” Rogeri de Hoveden, Annal, p. 584.
page 85 note * This chapter appears to be the abstract of some medieval (perhaps Anglo-Saxon) romance, now lost. It is hardly necessary to state that the invasion of Offa's kingdom by the Roman emperor is a mere fable. In the MS. the name is Grado in the first two instances.
page 86 note * Offa reigned over Mercia from 758 to 796. He was on terms of friendship with Charlemagne.
page 86 note † Offa's Dyke still exists, one of the most remarkable earthworks in the island, stretching from the Dee to the Wye. According to John of Salisbury, Polycrat. lib. vi. c. 6, it was earl Harold who made the law alluded to, the transgressors of which were to lose the right hand, not the foot. “Legem statuit, ut quicunque Britonum exinde citra terminum quem eis præscripsit, fossam scilicet Offæ, cum telo inveniretur, ei ab officialibus regni manus dextra præcideretur.”
page 87 note * The avarice of the court of Rome was proverbial during the Middle Ages, and was an instrument of burdensome oppression to our forefathers. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries all ecclesiastical appointments, and the slightest disputes which could be urged into an appeal to the pope, were pretexts for extorting enormous sums of money from the candidates or persons concerned in them. The simony of the Romish pontiff and cardinals is a constant subject of indignant satire in the poems commonly ascribed to Walter Mapes.
page 88 note * It was an old established legend that the empress Helena was the daughter of a king of Colchester named Coel or Hoel. Henry of Huntingdon, Hist. lib. i. p. 306, speaking of Constantius, the father of Constantine, says, Accepitque filiam regis Britannici de Colecestre, cui nomen erat Coel, scilicet Helenam, quam sanctam dicimus, et genuit ex ea Constantinum Magnum.
page 90 note * Louis VI., who ascended the throne of France in the year 1108.
page 90 note † Mapes appears to have been ill informed concerning the affairs of the Eastern Empire, and he has fallen into much confusion in the present chapter. Alexis, the first of the family of the Comneni, was succeeded on the throne of Constantinople by his eldest son John in 1118, whose second son Manuel succeeded on his death in 1143. The second Alexis, the only son of Manuel, was made Emperor in 1180, and it was to him that Agnes, daughter of Louis le Jeune of France, was affianced in that year, and sent to Constantinople. Androoicus, the cousin of the Emperor Manuel, was associated with him in the empire in 1183, and, having caused him to be murdered the same year, succeeded as sole emperor, and married the French princess Agnes.
page 91 note * The Turks (Seljuks) had first become formidable to the Greek empire in the East in the eleventh century, and before the middle of the twelfth century they had conquered some of its most important provinces.
page 91 note † Lucius III. succeeded Alexander III. in the papacy on the 1st of September, 1181.
page 91 note ‡ See the note on the preceding page.
page 91 note § This appears to be a corruption of the title Protosebastus (πρωτοσέβαστος), which was given to the chief officer of the Eastern imperial court. Ealph de Diceto calls him protosalvastus, Ymag. Hist. col. 614, where there is a brief account of some of the events here alluded to.
page 92 note * This is a curious proof of the contempt in which the Greeks of the lower empire were regarded by the nations of the West. The Trojan war was at this time a very popular subject of romance in England, France, and Germany. The MS. has Titidem, an evident corruption of the scribe for Tydidem.
page 95 note * This is a singular instance of the origin and propagation of the feuds of clans among barbarous nations. The very existence of such a system proves the absence of civilization among the people with whom it prevailed.
page 96 note * The Welsh laws make the fine for seducing the king's wife a hundred cows for each cantref. Cows were the common article with which fines for different offences were to be paid.
page 96 note † This story has been repeated under different forms, and with different applications, up to our own days.
page 99 note * Aast Clive, now called Aust Ferry, or the Old Passage. It has been mentioned before at p. 76. Beachley is on the opposite side of the Severn. This anecdote is related in other writers.
page 99 note † Thomas Becket, who was chancellor from 1158 to 1163.
page 101 note * l Mac. iii. 19.
page 103 note * Probably Hay in Brecknockshire. Hay has the same meaning as Sepes.
page 103 note † The stories which follow are curious instances of the prevalence in England in the twelfth century of a belief in vampires, a superstition chiefly peculiar to modern Greece. Some other similar tales will be found in W. Neubrig. de Rebus Anglicis, lib. v. capp. 22, 23.
page 103 note ‡ See a former note, p. 19. Gilbert Foliot was bishop of Hereford from 1149 to 1162.
page 104 note * Of this bishop, who was a son of the earl of Gloucester, we know little more than that he died in 1179.
page 105 note * This story forms the seventh chapter of the fabulous history published under the name of Turpin, where it is said to have occurred at the city of Bayonne, and the knight is called Romaricus (in some MSS. Romanticus).