Transcriber’s Notes
Cover created by Transcriber and placed into the Public Domain.
Table of Contents added by Transcriber and placed into the Public Domain.
The Timeline in the page headers of the original book isrepresented here by sidenotes, beginning with “[A.D. year]”, placedbetween nearby paragraphs, and shaded in some versions of thiseBook.
Other notes may be found at the end of this eBook.
An Anglo-Saxon Chief.
WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY’S
CHRONICLE
OF THE
KINGS OF ENGLAND.
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE REIGN OF KING STEPHEN.
With Notes and Illustrations.
BY J. A. GILES, D.C.L.,
LATE FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
M.DCCC.XLVII.
J. HADDON. PRINTER, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY.
“William of Malmesbury,” according to archbishop Usher,“is the chief of our historians;” Leland records him “as anelegant, learned, and faithful historian;” and Sir HenrySaville is of opinion, that he is the only man of his time whohas discharged his trust as an historian. His History of theKings of England was translated into English by the Rev.John Sharpe, and published in quarto, in 1815.
Though the language of Mr. Sharpe’s work is by no meansso smooth as the dialect of the present day would require,yet the care with which he examined MSS., and endeavouredto give the exact sense of his author, seemed so important arecommendation, that the editor of the present volume hasgladly availed himself of it as a ground-work for his ownlabours. The result of this plan is, that the public are enabledto purchase without delay and at an insignificantexpense, the valuable contemporary historian, who hashitherto been like a sealed book to the public, or only accessiblethrough a bulky volume, the scarcity of which servedto exclude it from all but public libraries or the studies ofthe wealthy.
But the translation of Mr. Sharpe has by no means been reprintedverbatim. Within the last ten years a valuableedition of the original text, with copious collations of MSS.,has been published by the English Historical Society. Thisedition has been compared with the translation, and numerouspassages retouched and improved. Some charters, also, havebeen added, and a large number of additional notes appendedat the foot of the pages, together with a few other improvementsand additions calculated to render this interesting historymore acceptable to the reading public.
J. A. G.
Bampton, June, 1847.