One of our earliest accounts of Britain comes from the Venerable Bede.

• A. Nennius
• B. Geoffrey of Monmouth
• C. Venerable Bede
• D. Alfred the Great

Answer: (C)

Bede’s work is a foundational source because he wrote one of the earliest comprehensive histories of Britain from a contemporary English monk in the early medieval period. Around 731 CE, Bede produced the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, a Latin narrative that traces the island’s story from Roman times through the spread of Christianity and up to his own era. This makes his account one of the oldest sustained, non-legendary histories of Britain by someone living on the island, providing dated events, names of bishops and kings, and a Christian framework that shaped how later historians understood early Britain.

Nennius, while an early figure, offers a later compilation known as Historia Brittonum that blends native traditions and legends. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a much later, 12th-century work that popularized legendary material about kings and Arthur. Alfred the Great the ruler contributed to historical writing and promoted learning, but he did not produce the kind of early, continuous account of Britain that Bede did.