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XIV. Some Historical Doubts relating 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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Thomas Wright Esq.
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Extract

In using Asser's Life of King Alfred as the ground-work of a biographical 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 investigation of the question by those who are better capable of deciding than myself. 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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , 1842 , pp. 192 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1842

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References

page 194 note 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.”

page 200 note b Thus, to quote the first example which comes to hand, the list of Bishops of the end of the tenth century in MS. Cotton. Tiber. B. v. it is said of Wessex, in duas parrochias divisa est, altera Uuentanæ ecclesiæ, altera Scireburnensis ecclesiæ. … Uuentania ecclesia in duas parrochias divisa est tempore Friðestan. … deinde in tres parrochias divisa est, Wiltunensis, et Willensis, et Cridiensis ecclesiæ … Provincia Merciorum duos episcopos habuit Headdan et Uulfridum, postea Wilfrið electus et Headda præfatus regebant ambas parrochias, &c. &c. (See Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. ii. pp. 169, 170, where this valuable document is printed.)

page 201 note c Leland mentions the Chronicle alluded to, and two different Lives of the Saint, as being in the library of St. Neot's in Huntingdonshire.