“And thou lions whelpe, as saith the prophet, Aurelius Conanus what doost thou?  Art thou not swallowed vp in the filthie mire of murthering thy kinsmen, of committing fornications and adulteries like to the other before mentioned, if not more deadlie, as it were with the waues and surges of the drenching seas ouerwhelming thee with hir vnmercifull rage?  Dooest thou not in hating the peace of thy countrie as a deadlie serpent, and thirsting after ciuill wars and spoiles (oftentimes vniustlie gotten) shut vp against thy soule the gates of celestiall peace and refreshment?  Thou being left alone as a withering tree in the middle of a field, call to remembrance (I praie thee) the vaine youthfull fantasie and ouertimelie death of thy fathers and thy brethren.  Shalt thou being set apart, and chosen foorth of all thy linage for thy godlie deserts, be reserued to liue an hundred yeares, or remaine on earth till thou be as old as Methusalem?  No no.”  And after these reprehensions, with further threatnings of Gods vengeance, he exhorted him to amendment of life, and so proceedeth to talke with Vortiporus, whome he nameth the king, or rather the tyrant of Southwales, as after shall be rehearsed.

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The beginning of the kingdome of Brenitia, of whome the king of Kent, Mertia, and west Saxons descended, Ida the Saxon commended, the originall of the kingdome of Deira, the circuit and bounds therof, of Ella the gouernour of the same, when the partition of the kingdome of Northumberland chanced; Vortiporus reigneth ouer the Britains, he vanquisheth the Saxons; Gyldas sharplie reprooueth Vortiporus for manie greeuous offenses, and exhorteth him to amendement.

THE XVJ.  CHAPTER.

[Sidenote:  IDA. 547.] In the yeare of the Lord 547, which was about the first yeare of the reigne of Aurelius Conanus, the kingdome of Brenitia began vnder a Saxon ruler there called Ida, & descended of Woden.  For where the said Woden had three sonnes, Weldecius, Withlegris, and Beldecius; of [Sidenote:  H.  Hunt. The kingdom of Brenitia began.] the first, the kings of Kent were lineallie extracted:  of the second, the kings of Mertia:  and of the third sonne came the kings of Westsaxon, and also of him was this Ida descended, being the ninth in lineall succession from the said Beldecius and the tenth from Woden.  The same Ida was vndoubtedlie a right noble personage, and changed first that dukedome into a kingdome; where before that time the Saxons that ruled there, were subiects vnto the kings of Kent.  Whether he tooke vpon him of his owne accord to vsurpe the kinglie title and roiall authoritie, or whether that the same was giuen to him by consent of other, the certeintie appeareth not.  But sure it is, that he being a woorthie prince, did not degenerate from his noble ancestors inuincible in warre abroad and at home, qualifieng his kinglie seueritie with a naturall kind of courteous humanitie.  The bounds of his kingdome called (as is said) Brenitia, began in the south at the riuer of Tine, and ended in the north at the Forth in Scotland, in the British toong called Werd.