OF THE ANCIENT NAMES OR DENOMINATIONS OF THIS ILAND.
[Sidenote: Dis, Samothes.] In the diligent perusall of their treatises, who haue written of the state of this our Iland, I find that at the first it séemed to be a parcell of the Celtike kingdome, whereof Dis otherwise called Samothes, one of the sonnes of Japhet was the Saturne or originall beginner, and of him thencefoorth for a long while called Samothea. Afterward in processe of time, when desire of rule began to take hold in the minds of men, and ech prince endeuoured to enlarge his owne [Sidenote: Neptunus Marioticus.] dominions: Albion the sonne of Neptune, Amphitrite surnamed Marioticus (bicause his dominions laie among the ilands of the Mediterran sea, as those of Plutus did on the lower grounds neere vnto shore, as contrariwise his father Jupiter dwelled on the high hils néerer to heauen) hearing of the commodities of the countrie, and plentifulnesse [Sidenote: The first conquest of Britaine.] of soile here, made a voiage ouer, and finding the thing not onelie correspondent vnto, but also farre surmounting the report that went of this Iland, it was not long after yer he inuaded the same by force of armes, brought it to his subiection in the 29. yeare after his grandfathers decease, and finallie changed the name thereof into Albion, whereby the former denomination after Samothes did grow out of mind, and fall into vtter forgetfulnesse. And thus was this Iland bereft at on time both of hir ancient name, and also of hir lawfull succession of princes descended of the line of Japhet, vnder whom it [Sidenote: Britaine under the Celts 341. yeares.] had continued by the space of 341. yeres and nine princes, as by the Chronologie following shall easilie appeere.
Goropius our neighbor being verie nice in the denomination of our Iland, as in most other points of his huge volume of the originall of Antwarpe lib. 6. (whom Buchanan also followeth in part) is brought into great doubt, whether Britaine was called Albion of the word Alb, white; or Alp an hill; as Bodinus is no lesse troubled with fetching the same ab Oibijs, or as he wresteth it, ab Albijs gallis. But here his inconstancie appeareth, in that in his Gotthadamca liber. 7. he taketh no lesse paines to bring the Britaines out of Denmarke, whereby the name of the Iland should be called Vridania, Freedania, Brithania, or Bridania, tanquam libera Dania, as another also dooth to fetch the originall out of Spaine, where Breta signifieth soile or earth. But as such as walke in darkenesse doo often straie, bicause they wot not whither they go: euen so doo these men, whilest they séeke to extenuate the certeintie of our histories, and bring vs altogither to uncerteinties & their coniectures. They in like maner, which will haue the Welshmen come from the French with this one question, vnde Walli nisi a Gallis, or from some Spanish colonie, doo greatlie bewraie their oversights; but most of all they erre that endeuour to fetch it from Albine the imagined daughter of a forged Dioclesian, wherewith our ignorant writers haue of late not a little stained our historie, and brought the sound part thereof into some discredit and mistrust: but more of this hereafter.