Category Archives: Bede

Of Bede, Malmesbury, & Hollister

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A Few Historical Personages

Ethelbert

  • King of Kent
  • Had a Christian wife, Bertha
  • Talked with Augustine, finally converted to Christianity and was baptized
  • Pope Gregory corresponded with this king
  • Died in 616 – he ruled for 56 years

    Edwin

  • Ruled over all England except Kent
  • Became a Christian through the teaching of Paulinus – baptized 627
  • Married Ethelbert’s daughter Ethelburh
  • King of Wessex sent Eomer to assassinate him
  • Received correspondence from Boniface and Honorius
  • Brought peace to Britain
  • Died in 633 at the Battle of Hatfield Chase

    Oswald

  • King of Northumbria
    “the most Christian king of the Northumbrians” – Bede
  • Asked for a bishop from Ireland (Aidan came)
  • Ruled 9 years
  • Killed at the battle of Maserfelth

    Alfred

  • d. 899
  • Crowned king by Pope Leo in 872
  • Son Edward took the throne in 901
  • Buried in Winchester
  • Occupied London 886

    Canute

  • Denmark / England
  • Reigned from 1016 – 1035
  • Laid everything to waste from Sandwich to Wessex -1016
  • 1017 – 1031 Reigned in England
  • Went to Rome in the fifteenth year of his reign – to atone for sins
  • Died and was buried at Winchester

    Edward the Confessor

  • Reigned 1042 – 1066
  • Son of Etheldred the Unready
  • Crowned at Winchester
  • Promised the kingdom first to William of Normandy, and then to Harold Godwin

    Harold Godwin

  • 1066 – was crowned Jan. 5, (having been promised the kingdom on the deathbed of Edward the Confessor
  • died in October 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, against William of Normandy (who was the first to be promised the kingdom by Edward the Confessor)

    William of Normandy (William the Conqueror)

  • Lived from 1035 to 1087
  • Ruled England from 1066 to 1087 after beating Harold Godwin at the Battle of Hastings
  • Ended Saxon age of England, fused Norman culture to that of England, thereby establishing the start of modern English culture

    William Rufus

  • William the Conqueror left the throne of England to Rufus
  • Rufus scorned religion, exploited the church, ruled with a rod of iron.
  • 1089 seized the lands of Canterbury
  • (Rufus was killed by an arrow while hunting.)

    Henry I

  • ruled from 1100 to 1135
  • Anselm threatened to excommunicate him in 1105 AD
  • Norman & Saxon combine under his reign, and he married a Saxon (Matilda)
  • “Henry I’s reign marks the coming of age of the royal administration. Indeed, some historians have sen it as the seedbed of the modern state. The functions of the royal household officials were growing in importance and specialization.” – Hollister, 135.

Patriatism in Gaul’s civitates

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The cultivation of a provincial identity is most obvious in the literature composed in Gaul in the fourth century through the early sixth century…–and Sidonius (ca. 430-484)–an aristocrat from Lyon–expressed their deepest feelings not for Rome, or even for Gaul, but for their particular cities. Ausonius sings the praises of his beloved Bordeaux while Sidonius focuses on the Auvergne. Across Gaul, expressions of love for the patria focused not on Rome or even the chimeric “Gaul,” beloved of French nationalist historians, but, rather, on Marseille, Narbonne, Trier, Lyon, or other civitates.

– Patrick J. Geary, The Myth of Nations – The Medieval Origins of Europe, 104.

William of Malmesbury

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The industry and forbearance of this man, any one will admire who reads the book which Bede composed concerning his life and those of the succeeding abbats: his industry, in bringing over a multitude of books, and being the first person who introduced in England constructors of stone edifices, as well as makers of glass windows ; in which pursuits he spent almost his whole life abroad : the love of his country and his taste for elegance beguiling his painful labours, in the earnest desire of conveying something to his countrymen out of the common way ; for very rarely before the time of Benedict were buildings of stone seen in Britain, nor did the solar ray cast light through the transparent glass.

– William of Malmesbury, Book II, chapter III

It has been made evident, I think, what disgrace and what destruction the neglect of learning and the immoral manners of degenerate men brought upon England! These remarks obtain this place in my history merely for the purpose of cautioning my readers.

– William of Malmesbury, Book II, chapter III

The searcher of my heart is witness that it was not for lust of gold that I came to France or continued there, but for the necessities of the church.

–Alcuin, William of Malmesbury, Book II, chapter III