[267] Gregorovius, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, iii. 206, 207. The Saxon Chronicle dates his pontificate 883-885, another indication that it is a year in advance of the true chronology.
[268] AA. SS. p. 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 335, 349, 372; Gorham, p. 259.
[269] Chron. 885.
[270] ibid. 883; omitted in MS. ‘A’ only. According to Malmesbury, Alfred gave this relic to Glastonbury, Antiq. Eccl. Glast. p. 316 (ed. Gale).
[271] Even Mr. W. H. Simcox, English Historical Review, i. 232; on the ground that the evidence is ‘earlier than much which we accept.’ Even were this so, it does not touch the fact of its being inconsistent with authentic records.
[272] ‘Com þa Guðrum se hæðene king mid his wælreowen here ærest on east dæle Sexlandes.… Ða Ælfred king … þæt ofaxode þæt se here … wæs … swa neh Englelande, he sone for fyrht fleames cepte, and his cæmpen ealle forlet, and his heretogen, and eall his þeode; … ferde þa lutigende geond heges and weges, geond wudes and feldes, swa þæt he … becom to Æðelingege,’ Gorham, p. 239; cf. AA. SS. p. 327ᵃ.
[273] Pauli thinks that the result was partly due to internal treachery, König Ælfred, p. 123; cf. also Asser, 480 B [30] ‘et etiam a Christianis,’ &c.
[274] Professor Earle’s suggestion, who notes that Alfred’s will shows that he had a ‘ham’ at Chippenham; cf. Asser, 480 B [30].
[275] König Ælfred, p. 117.
[276] ‘Butan þam cyninge Ælfrede,’ ‘diese vier Worte klingen in ihrer trockenen Einfachheit unendlich grossartig,’ ibid., 125 note. The same words are used of Hereward, 1071 E, 1072 D; and Pauli has remarked that Alfred’s position in Athelney was not unlike Hereward’s in Ely, p. 129.