Bede Ecclesiastical History Book I Chapter Sixteen
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum:
The Britons, under the command of Ambrose, a Roman General, gain their first Victory over the English.
The History of the Primitive Church of England.
Book I, Chapter XVI
Translated by Rev. William Hurst, 1814.
Chapter XVI
The Britons, under the command of Ambrose, a Roman General, gain their first Victory over the English.
After the hostile army had thus destroyed or dispersed the natives of the island, they disbanded, and retired to their habitations; when the Britons began by degrees to resume their strength and courage, and, coming out of the secret places where they had concealed themselves, unanimously prayed for the divine assistance, humbly beseeching the Almighty that they might not be utterly exterminated. On this occasion, they chose for their general, Ambrose Aurelian, a person distinguished for his good conduct, who alone probably had survived the storm in which his parents, who had been honoured with the regal dignity and title, were destroyed with the rest of the Roman people in this country. Under this commander the Britons revived, and, offering battle to the conquerors, by the favour of heaven obtained the victory: and from this period to the year of the siege of Baddesdown-hill, which was the forty-fourth after the arrival of the invaders, when they made a great slaughter of them, as we shall hereafter relate, the war continued with various success, the Britons sometimes prevailing over the English, and at other time the English prevailing over the Britons.
