[432] 475 A [19]; it occurs again 476 D [22] (battle of Ashdown); 477 C [24], in relation to Alfred’s accession. In the last passage Alfred is said to have borne the title ‘uiuentibus fratribus.’ The plural is probably mere rhetoric; otherwise it might point to the arrangement as to the succession having been made under Æthelberht, which is not impossible; cf. Ailred of Rievaulx’ phrase: ‘cum fratribus aliquo tempore regnauit,’ ed. Migne, col. 719.
[433] See above, p. 40.
[434] cf. O’Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, I. cxxxii f.
[435] Rhŷs and Brynmor Jones, The Welsh People, p. 203.
[436] It is curious that though Alfred speaks of Æthelbald, Æthelred and himself as three brethren, he only calls Æthelberht ‘our kinsman,’ ‘uncer mæg.’ The same use occurs in Bede, p. 188, where Oswy is called Oswald’s ‘mæg.’
[437] Near the beginning Alfred speaks of ‘min yrfe þæt me God and mine yldran forgeafon,’ i.e. ‘the inheritance which God and my forefathers granted me.’ The Latin translator gives ‘principes’ for ‘yldran,’ a meaning which it can have. He therefore naturally took the sentence to refer to Alfred’s election as king by the Witan; and the rest may have followed from this.
[438] 472 B [12].
[439] Const. Hist. i. 142 note.
[440] April, 1886.
[441] Foundations of England, i. 244.