were like to haue lost the day, for that they were in maner wearied with long warres, and their munition sore wasted in the last viage that he had made for Spaine. Herevpon Hercules perceiuing the courages of his souldiours somewhat to abate, and seeing the want of artillerie like to be the cause of his fatall daie and present ouerthrowe at hand, it came suddenlie into his mind to will each of them to defend himselfe by throwing stones at his enimie, Strabo, lib. 4. whereof there laie great store then scattered in the place. The policie was no sooner published than hearkened vnto and put in execution, whereby they so preuailed in the end, that Hercules wan the field, their enimies were put to flight, and Albion and his brother both slaine, and buried in that plot. Thus was Britaine rid of a tyrant, Lucus king of the Celts deliuered from an vsurper (that dailie incroched vpon him, building sundrie cities and holds, of which some were placed among the Alps & called after his owne name, and other also euen in his owne kingdome on that side) and Lestrigo greatlie weakened by the slaughter of his brethren. Of this inuention of Hercules in like sort it commeth, that Jupiter father vnto Hercules (who indeed was none other but Osyris) is feigned to throw downe stones from heauen vpon Albion and Bergion, in the defense of his sonne: which came so thicke vpon them, as if great drops of raine or haile should haue descended from aboue, no man well knowing which waie to turne him from their force, they came so fast and with so great a violence.

But to go forward, albeit that Albion and his power were thus discomfited and slaine, yet the name that he gaue unto this Iland died not, but still remained vnto the time of Brute, who arriuing héere in the 1116. before Christ, and 2850. after the creation of the world, not onelie changed it into Britaine (after it had beene called Albion, by the space of about 600. yeares) but to declare his souereigntie ouer the rest of the Ilands also that lie scattered round about it, he called them all after the same maner, so that Albion was said in time to be Britanniarum insula maxima, that is, The greatest of those Iles that beare the name of Britaine, which Plinie also confirmeth, and Strabo in his first and second bookes denieth not. There are some, which vtterlie denieng that this Iland tooke hir name of Brute, doo affirme it rather to be so called of the rich mettals sometime carried from the mines there into all the world as growing in the same. Vibius Sequester also saith that Calabria was sometime called Britannia, Ob immensam affluentiam totius delitiæ atque vbertatis, that was to be found heerein. Other contend that it should be written with P (Pritannia.) All which opinions as I absolutelie denie not, so I willinglie leane vnto none of them in peremptorie maner, sith the antiquitie of our historie carrieth me withall vnto the former iudgements. And for the same cause I reiect them also, which deriue the aforesaid denomination from Britona the nymph, in following Textor (or Prutus or Prytus the sonne of Araxa) which Britona was borne in Creta daughter to Mars, and fled by sea from thence onelie to escape the villanie of Minos, who attempted to rauish and make hir one of his paramours: but if I should forsake the authoritie of Galfride, I would rather leane to the report of Parthenius, whereof elsewhere I haue made a more large rehersall.

It is altogither impertinent, to discusse whether Hercules came into this Iland after the death of Albion, or not, although that by an ancient monument seene of late, as I heare, and the cape of Hartland or Harcland in the West countrie (called Promontorium Herculis in old time) diuers of our British antiquaries doo gather great likelihood that he should also be here. But sith his presence or absence maketh nothing with the alteration of the name of this our region and countrie, and to search out whether the said monument was but some token erected in his honour of later times (as some haue beene elsewhere, among the Celts framed, & those like an old criple with a bow bent in one hand & a club in the other, a rough skin on his backe, the haire of his head all to be matted like that of the Irishmens, and drawing manie men captiue after him in chaines) is but smallie auailable, and therefore I passe it ouer as not incident to my purpose. Neither will I spend any time in the determination, whether Britaine had beene sometime a parcell of the maine, although it should well séeme so to haue beene, bicause that before the generall floud of Noah, we doo not read of Ilands, more than of hils and vallies. Wherfore as Wilden Arguis also noteth in his philosophie and tractation of meteors, it is verie likelie that they were onelie caused by the violent motion and working of the sea, in the time of the floud, which if S. Augustine had well considered, he would neuer haue asked how such creatures as liued in Ilands far distant from the maine could come into the arke, De ciuit. lib. 16. cap. 7. howbeit in the end he concludeth with another matter more profitable than his demand.

As for the speedie and timelie inhabitation thereof, this is mine opinion, to wit, that it was inhabited shortlie after the diuision of the earth. For I read that when each capteine and his companie had their portions assigned vnto them by Noah in the partition that he made of the whole among his posteritie, they neuer ceased to trauell and search out the vttermost parts of the same, vntill they found out their bounds allotted, and had seene and vewed their limits, euen vnto the verie poles. It shall suffice therefore onelie to haue touched these things in this manner a farre off, and in returning to our purpose, to proceed with the rest concerning the denomination of our Iland, which was knowne Yet Timeus, Ephorus, and some of the Grecians, know the name Britannia, as appeareth also by Diodorus, &c. before the comming of Cesar. vnto most of the Gréekes for a long time, by none other name than Albion, and to saie the truth, euen vnto Alexanders daies, as appeareth by the words of Aristotle in his De mundo, and to the time of Ptolomie: notwithstanding that Brute, as I haue said, had changed the same into Britaine, manie hundred yeares before.

After Brutus I doo not find that anie men attempted to change it againe, vntill the time that Theodosius, in the daies of Valentinianus and Valens endeuoured, in the remembrance of the two aforesaid Emperours, to call it Valentia, as Marcellinus saith. But as this deuise tooke no hold among the common sort, so it retained still the name of Britaine, vntill the reigne of Ecbert, who about the 800. yeare of Grace, and first of his reigne, gaue foorth an especiall edict, dated at Winchester, that it should be called Angles land, or Angel-landt, for which in our time we doo pronounce it England. And this is all (right honorable) that I haue to say, touching the seuerall names of this Iland, vtterlie misliking in the meane season their deuises, which make Hengist the onlie parent of the later denomination, whereas Ecbert, bicause his ancestours descended from the Angles one of the sixe nations that came with the Saxons into Britaine (for they were not all of one, but of diuers countries, as Angles, Saxons, Germans, Switzers, Norwegiens, Jutes otherwise called Jutons, Vites, Gothes or Getes, and Vandals, and all comprehended vnder the name of Saxons, bicause of Hengist the Saxon and his companie that first arriued here before anie of the other) and therto hauing now the monarchie and preheminence in maner of this whole Iland, called the Of this opinion is Belforest, lib. 3. cap. 44. same after the name of the countrie from whence he derived his originall, neither Hengist, neither anie Queene named Angla, neither whatsoeuer deriuation ab Angulo, as from a corner of the world bearing