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ALLA, ALLE. Aella, king of Deira in Northumbria, ruled A.D. 559-588. Bede tells how Gregory determined to send missionaries to convert Britain when he heard the king's name (Ecclesiastical History II.1). In Trevet's Les Chroniques Ecrités pour Marie d'Angleterre, fille d'Edward I, Alle, a brave king, wins his battles against the Scots and the Picts (S&A 176).

Alla becomes Custance's second husband in The Man of Law's Tale. He slays his mother Donegild when he discovers that she has caused Custance and her child Maurice to be set adrift in the sea. Then, following his repentance, he travels to Rome to be absolved from his sin and there finds Custance his wife and their son Maurice. [Custance: Donegild: Hermengyld: Maurice]

Alla occurs twice in initial position, MLT 876, 1096; twenty-six times in medial positions, 578, 604, 610, 659, 688, 691, 893, 897, 984, 988, 996, 1003, 1006, 1014, 1016, 1022, 1032, 1045, 1046, 1051, 1073, 1088, 1100, 1128, 1141, 1144. Alle, Trevet's form, occurs once, in final rhyming position, MLT 725.


Bede, Ecclesiastical History, ed. and trans. J.E. King, I: 184-203; M. Schlauch, S&A 172-181.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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