THE FLOWERS OF HISTORY, ESPECIALLY SUCH AS RELATE TO THE AFFAIRS OF BRITAIN. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THE YEAR 1307. COLLECTED BY MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL BY C. D. YONGE, B.A. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. B. C. 4004 TO A.D. 1066. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLIII. 1853 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. THE author of the following Chronicle was a Benedictine Monk, who flourished probably in the early part of the fourteenth century, though some place him near the end of it. It begins with the creation of the world, and continues to the end of the reign of Edward the First. In his Preface, the Author speaks as if he intended to write the history of the whole world; but after the time of the Heptarchy, he very rarely mentions the affairs of any country except Great Britain. The early portion of the work is merely an abridgment of the Bible: then he gives us a brief sketch of Rome, making little mention of Greece, except where its history is connected with that of the Jews or Romans. Of our own early times he gives us the fabulous traditions of Brutus (whom he represents as the great-grandson of Æneas), and Pandrasus, and Corinæus, and Camber; relates the sad story of Lear, the prophecy of Merlin, and so conducts us through the wars of Vortimer and Vortigern, &c., to the times of comparatively certain history. It is, of course, after this point that his work begins to be really valuable; for he was not only a careful observer, and a great master of plain and simple narrative, but, what was even more uncommon in the days in which he wrote, he paid great attention to order and chronology. As might be expected, he is very credulous on the subject of the miracles attested by the Roman church, as performed by the early martyrs, dead and alive; of which he gives us copious accounts: but the frequent recurrence of such marvellous stories ought not to diminish our confidence in him when relating facts, where there was no room for ascribing them to supernatural agency; for we must recollect that the belief in such events was common in his time; and not only have we no right to quarrel with him for not being in advance of his age on such points, but we may derive some in |