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XIV. Some Historical Doubts Relating to the Biographer Asser. By ]92 XIV. Some Historical Doubts relating1 to the Biographer Asser. By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A., F.S.A. in a Letter to Sir HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., Secretary. Bead 18th November, 1841. MY DEAR SIR, November 18, 1841. IN using Asser's Life of King Alfred as the ground-work of a biographi- cal sketeh of that Monarch, some doubts have arisen in my mind as to the authenticity and character of that well-known work, which I take the liberty of laying before the Society of Antiquaries. It is an important question, because it affects one of the most interesting periods of our national history; and I hope that these observations may lead to a more thorough investiga- tion of the question by those who are better capable of deciding than my- self. It will be had in mind that the book in question purports to be a life of King Alfred, written in the 45th year of his age (i. e. A.D. 893 or 894), by his intimate friend Bishop Asser. I think no person can read Asser's Life of Alfred without observing that it consists of two distinct parts; of a chronology of events arranged year by year, on which are engrafted a few anecdotes of Alfred's private life, and an eulogy of his character. The first of these portions, which is the strictly historical part, will be found on comparison to be nothing more than a trans- lation of the Saxon Chronicle. I might point out as remarkable examples of this fact, the entries in the years 867, 869, 870, 871, &c.; but I will only instance here the brief entry in the year 874, which stands as follows in the Chronicle :— An. DCCCLXXIV. Her for se here from Lindesse to Hreope-dune, 7 )>eer winter-setl nam, 7 J>one cyning Burhred ofer sse adrsefden, ymb twa 7 xx. winter pees j>e he rice hrefde, and f lond eall ge-eodon. And he for to Rome, and J>eer ge-sset to his lifes ende, Some Historical Doubts relating to the Biographer Asser. 193 and his lie lfe on sea Marian cyrican on Angel-cynnes scole. And 'Sy ylcan geare hie sealdon Ceolwulfe, anum unwisum cyninges J>egne, Myrcna rice to healdanne, and he him aSas swor, and gislas seald, •£ hit him gearo wsere swa hwilce dsege swa hie hit hab- ban woldon, 7 he gearo weere mid him sylfum, 7 mid eallum }>am )>e him lsestan woldon, to J>ees heres ]>earfe. " Here went the army from Lindesse to Hreopedune, and there took its winter- quarters, and they drove over sea the King Burhred, about two and twenty years after he had the kingdom, and overcame all that land. And he went to Rome, and there remained till his life's end, and his body lieth in St. Mary's church in the school of the Angles. And the same year they gave to Ceolwulf, an unwise thane of the King, the kingdom of Mercia to hold, and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages, that it should be ready for them on whatever day they would have it, and that he would be ready with himself, and with all that would remain with him, to be at the service of the army/' In Asser's Latin the entry for the same year is as follows :— " Anno dominicse incarnationis 874, nativitatis autem ^Elfredi regis 25, supra me- moratus ssepe exercitus Lindissig deserens, Merciam adiit, et hyemavit in loco qui dici- tur Hreopedune. Burghredum quoque Merciorum regem regnum saum deserwe et ultra mare exire et Romam adire contra voluntatem suam coegit, 22 regni sui anno. Qui postquam Romam adierat, non diu vivens ibidem [de]functus est, et in Schola Sax- onum in ecclesia sanctae Marise honorifice sepultus adventum Domini et primam cum justis resurrectionem expectat. Pagani quoque post ejus expulsionem totum Mercio- rum regnum suo dominio subdiderunt. Quod tamen miserabili conditione cuidam insi- pienti ministro regis (ejus nomen erat Ceolwulf) eodem pacto custodiendum commen- daverunt, ut qualicunque die illud vellent habere iterum, pacifice illis assignaret, quibus in eadem cognitione obsides dedit, et juravit, nullo modo se voluntati eorum contradi- cere velle, sed obediens in omnibus esse." p. 8. It is, I think, impossible to deny that one of these accounts is taken ver- batim from the other. It is improbable that Asser should be the original, because in his narrative the yearly entries contain many things which are irrelevant to the subject, and they have there a remarkable appearance of " patch-work," while in the Saxon Chronicle they are perfectly in their place, in entire harmony with what goes before and with what follows. Now if these entries are taken from the Saxon Chronicle, it is impossible that they can have been written so early as 894, because by the most favour- 2 C 2 194 Some Historical Doubts relating, to able supposition that has been hazarded on the antiquity of this part of the Chronicle, it was not composed before the beginning of the tenth century, and it is more than probable that it is a work of a later period. a With regard to the other portion of the work, the biographical matter in- terwoven with the chronological entries, I confess that it does not appear to me to embrace the kind of information to be expected from Alfred's friend and contemporary. Let any one read Eginhard's Life of Charlemagne, and compare it with the dry chronicles of the time, he will find facts told by the biographer with the vigour and spirit of a man who was active and interested in them, accompanied with vivid sketches and clear views of the policy and character of that great monarch. When we turn to Asser, we seem to hare a writer who would- fain imitate the biographer of the Frankish Emperor, but who only knows the history of his hero from one bare chronicle, and depends upon popular traditions for his views of his personal character. There is clearly much that is legendary and not historically true in Asser's account of Alfred. I am inclined to doubt the truth of the alleged neglect which, according to Asser, had been shown to Alfred's education in his in- fancy. We know that his father King Ethelwolf was an accomplished scholar, that he had been an ecclesiastic before he came to the throne, that his friends and advisers were ecclesiastics, such as Swithun and Alstan, the former of whom at least was a scholar, that he was a great patron of the clergy and of the Church, that Alfred (his favourite child) was twice carried to Rome before he was six years of age:—is it probable that under such circumstances the royal youth would be left to pick up his first scraps of learning after he was advanced beyond the common age of receiving such instruction, by the caprice of accident ? or is it not much more likely that he derived the thirst for knowledge, which distinguished his after life, from the teaching and example of the learned men whom he had seen at his father's court ? a I do not think that there is any substantial reason for attributing a part of the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle to Plegmund. But, even supposing the entries during the greater part of the reign of Alfred to hare been contemporary, it is quite improbable that such a man as Asser should use them in the way they are used in the " Life of Alfred." the Biographer Asser. 195 At page 5, the writer of this book quotes the oral authority of Alfred, in a very ostentatious manner, for the story of Offa's wife Eadburgha, which must have been familiar to the ears of every inhabitant of Alfred's dominions. Yet a little further on, when he arrives at what was one of the most important events of Alfred's life, his pretended destitution in the isle of Athelney, which one would suppose Asser must have had many occasions of hearing from the King's own mouth, all that he has to add to the words of the Saxon Chronicle he professes to take from a legendary life of St. Neot! I am aware that the passage relating to the adventure of Alfred with the neat-herd's wife is considered to be an interpolation, and that it was omitted in what appears to have been the oldest MS. But by giving up the passage omitted in the manuscript, we do not get rid of the allusion to the story, or of the reference to the authority of St. Neot's life, for the oldest MS. contained the words, " Et, ut in vita sancti patris Neoti legitur, apud quendam suum vaccarium," and there is, moreover, in this book a second reference to the same authority Now it is my opinion that no life of St. Neot existed in the time of the real Asser, but that the lives of that Saint were first composed later on in the tenth century, perhaps not till his name was made famous by the violent dispute about the possession of his relics, at the time of their felonious translation from Cornwall to Huntingdonshire, in the year 974. The second reference to the authority of the Life of St. Neot also relates to what is perhaps a legendary part of Alfred's history, namely, the unknown disease under which he is said to have laboured. At page 12, the writer, with the life of Neot before him, states that he suffered under this disease from the twentieth year of his age until he had passed his fortieth year— " quod (proh dolor!) pessimum est, tantam diuturnitatem a 20 setatis suae anno usque 40 et eo amplius annum per tanta annorum curricula incessanter protelasse,"—at which time, when hunting in Cornwall, he came to the shrine of St.
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