Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/299

Alfred ALFRED (fl. 1143), chronicler, was a priest of Beverley, and is described in the preface to his book as ‘treasurer of the church of Beverley’ and ‘Master Alfred, sacrist of the church of Beverley.’ He speaks of himself as contemporary with the removal of the Flemings from the north of England to Ross in Herefordshire in 1112, and writes that he compiled his chronicle ‘when the church was silent, owing to the number of persons excommunicated under the decree of the council of London,’ an apparent reference to the council held at Mid-Lent, 1143. His attention, by his own account, was first drawn to history by the publication (before 1139) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's ‘Historia Britonum,’ and he looked forward to following up the chronicle which bears his name, and which largely depends on Geoffrey's work, with a collection of excerpts from the credible portions of the ‘Historia Britonum,’ but no trace of such a work is extant. Alfred of Beverley's chronicle is entitled ‘Aluredi Beverlacensis Annales sive Historia de gestis Regum Britanniæ libris ix. ad annum 1129.’ It is largely devoted to the fabulous history of Britain, and is mainly borrowed from Bede, Henry of Huntingdon, and Symeon of Durham, when Geoffrey of Monmouth is not laid under contribution. Alfred quotes occasionally from Suetonius, Orosius, and Nennius, and names many Roman authors whom he had consulted in vain for references to Britain. The chronicle is of no real use to the historical student, since it adds no new fact to the information to be found in well-known earlier authorities. The best manuscript of Alfred's ‘Annales’ is that among the Hengwrt MSS. belonging to W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, Merionethshire, and has not been printed. Hearne printed the ‘Annales’ in 1716 from an inferior Bodleian MS. (Rawl. B. 200).

[Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue (Rolls Series), ii. 169–74; Bale's Scrip. Brit. Cat.; Pits' De Ang. Scrip.; Hearne's Preface.]  ALFRED, surnamed and also, an English writer, who probably flourished towards the close of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth centuries. Considerable obscurity rests over his career and works. Roger Bacon, in his reference to translators of Aristotle, mentions one Alfred, an Englishman (R. B. Op. Ined., by Brewer, 1859, p. 471), and speaks of him as a contemporary. The work in which the reference is made doubtless was not prior to 1270. A translation of the pseudo-Aristotelian work, ‘De Vegetabilibus et de Plantis,’ passes under the name of Alfred de Sarchel or Sereshel, and appears to have been dedicated to Roger of Hereford, who is said to have flourished towards the close of the twelfth century (, Recherches sur les Traductions d'Aristote, 2nd ed., 1843, pp, 105–6). A somewhat remarkable little work, ‘De Motu Cordis,’ also by Alfred de Sarchel, is dedicated by the author to his friend and teacher, Alexander Neckham, who died 1227 (, Excerpta e libro Alf. Ang. de Motu Cordis, 1878, pp. 1–18.) Other works are ascribed to the same Alfred by Bale, Leland, and Pits (see list in Jourdain and Barach, as above). There is difficulty in reconciling what Bacon says with the other facts regarding Alfred, but it is to be remembered that the precise date of Bacon's reference is not known, and that its minute accuracy is not to be rashly assumed. On the other hand, it is not clear that Roger of Hereford is referred to by the translator and annotator of the ‘De Plantis.’ The most satisfactory evidence as to Alfred seems to be that contained in the dedication to Alexander Neckham, and one would therefore assign to the ‘De Motu Cordis’ the date about 1220. This little work expounds, with much that is fantastic, the doctrine that in the heart is to be found the seat of the soul—a doctrine that is repeated in Neckham's ‘De Naturis Rerum’ (ed. by Brewer in Rolls Series). A summary of its contents is given by Barach in his preface to the ‘Excerpta,’ already referred to.

[Authorities: besides Bale, Pits, and Leland, whose notices are summed up in Wright's Biographia Litteraria, sub voce, Jourdain and Barach as above; Hauréau, in Philos. Scolastique, i. pp. 65–72, and in Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, xxviii. pt. 2.]  ALICE MAUD MARY (1843–1878), princess of Great Britain and Ireland, duchess of Saxony, and grand duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt, the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, was born at Buckingham Palace on 25 April 1843. Her third name was given in honour of the queen's aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, who had been born on St. Mark's day sixty-seven years before. ‘Bright, joyous and singularly attractive’ (Earl Granville) almost from her cradle, she was early described by her father as ‘the beauty of the family, and an extraordinarily good and merry child.’

The Princess Alice became one of the most accomplished young ladies in England. She was sympathetic and affectionate. In a characteristic letter of condolence, 24 May 1861,