being made at Verulamium, in the time of the ninth abbot, in the latter part of the tenth century, an ancient book was discovered in a wall of the Roman city, bound in oak boards, and written in a language which none could read save an old priest named Unwon. He declared it to contain the story of Alban written in the British language. By the abbot's command the book was translated into Latin, and when the translation was finished the original volume crumbled away.
The cleric who was sheltered by Alban received the name Amphibalus, which first appears in the ‘Historia Britonum’ of Geoffrey of Monmouth [q. v.], and is evidently a confusion between the man and his cloak, for ‘amphibalus’ is equivalent to ‘caracalla,’ the word used in Bede's story. In 1178 a body asserted to be the remains of Amphibalus was found on Redbourn Green, near St. Albans, where it was believed that he was put to death after the martyrdom of his disciple. The body was laid in the abbey church, and, at the bidding of Abbot Symon, a monk of the house named William translated from English into Latin the story of Alban and his teacher in an elaborate form, supplying, as he says, the name Amphibalus from the ‘History’ of Geoffrey of Monmouth. The compiler of the ‘Chronica Majora’ took the legend from William's work. St. Alban of Britain has been confused with a St. Alban or Albinus of Mainz, said to have been martyred in the fifth century, and with a martyr Albinus, whose body was translated by the Empress Theophano to the church of St. Pantaleon at Cologne. At least three places in France bear the name St. Alban, a village near St. Brieuc (Côtes du Nord), a village near Roanne (Loire), and a small town near Mende (Lozère).
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. i. cc. 7, 18 (Plummer's Bede, 11, 17-20, 33); Constantius's Life of St. Germanus, 1, 25, ap. AA. SS. Bolland, Jul. 31, v. 202 sqq. 224, 250; Gildas, Hist. p. 17 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Venantius Fortunatus, De Virginitate, Miscell. viii. 6 (Patrol. Lat. lxxxviii. 267); William of St. Albans and notes, ap. AA. SS. Bolland, Jun. 22, v. 126 sqq.; Matt. Paris's Chron. Maj. i. 149-52, 233, 331, 356-8, ii. 302; Gesta Abb. S. Alb. i. 12-18, 27, 70, 176, 192-3; Geoffrey of Monmouth's Hist. Brit. v. 5, ed. Giles; Usher's Antiq. pp. 76-89, 281; Bright's Early Engl. Church Hist. pp. 6, 7, ed. 1897.]
ALBEMARLE, Earl of. [See Keppel, William Coutts, 1832–1894.]
ALBERT VICTOR CHRISTIAN EDWARD, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone (1864–1892), born at Frogmore, Buckinghamshire, on 8 Jan. 1864, was the eldest son of Albert Edward, prince of Wales (now Edward VII), and (Queen) Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX, king of Denmark, Queen Victoria [q. v. Suppl.] was his grandmother, and Prince Albert Victor stood next to his father in the direct line of succession to the throne. He was baptised in Buckingham Palace chapel on 10 March following his birth, and was privately educated until 1877, when he was sent to join the training ship Britannia at Dartmouth. In 1879 he went with his brother Prince George (now Duke of Cornwall and York) on a three years' cruise in H.M.S. Bacchante, which sailed round the world and visited most of the British colonies. An account of the cruise, ‘compiled from the private journals, letters, and note-books’ of the young princes, was published in 1886 in two stout volumes by their tutor, the Rev. John N. (now Canon) Dalton. After some tuition in 1882-3 from James Kenneth Stephen [see under Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames], Prince Albert Victor was in October 1883 entered at Trinity College, Cambridge ; during the long vacations he studied at Heidelberg, and in 1888 he was created hon. LL.D. of Cambridge. He was then sent to Aldershot, became lieutenant in the 10th hussars in 1886, major in 1889, and in 1889 captain in the 9th lancers, captain in the 3rd king's royal rifles, and aide-de-camp to the queen. In 1887 he visited Ireland, and in 1889-90 India (see J. D. Rees, The Duke of Clarence in Southern India, London, 1891). On 24 May 1890 he was created Earl of Athlone and Duke of Clarence and Avondale. On 7 Dec. 1891 his betrothal was announced with his cousin, the Princess Mary of Teck (now the Duchess of Cornwall and York). The wedding was fixed for 27 Feb. 1892, but on 14 Jan. 1892 the duke died of pneumonia following influenza at Sandringham. He was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on 20 Jan. His place in the direct line of succession to the throne was taken by his brother George, then Duke of York. A portrait painted by J. Sant, R.A., in 1872, and another of him and Prince George as midshipmen, painted by C. Sohn, were exhibited in the Victorian Exhibition; other portraits are reproduced in Vincent's ‘Memoir.’ His death was the occasion of many laments in prose and verse, of which Tennyson's elegy, published in the ‘Nineteenth Century,’ February 1892, is the most notable. Lord Selborne wrote at the time, ‘I do not think there has been a more tragic event in our time, or one which is more likely to touch the hearts of the people
