It was upon this people that Vortigern turned A. D. his eyes for succour against the Picts and Scots, 449. whose cruelties, perhaps, were still more flagrant. It certainly was not without the most pressing invitations. that the Saxous deigned to espouse their cause; and we are yet in possession of the form of their request, as left us by Witichindus, a contemporary historian of some credit: "The poor and distressed Britons, almost worn out by hostile invasions, and harassed by continual incursions, are humble supplicants to you, most valiant Saxons, for succour. We are possessed of a wide-extended and a fertile country; this we yield wholly to be at your devotion and command. Beneath the wings of your valour we seek for safety, and shall willingly undergo whatever services you may hereafter be pleased to impose.'

un

M

Hengist un

It was no disagreeable circumstance to these conquerors, to be thus invited into a country upon which Hersa lun they had, for ages before, been forming designs. In a mil consequence therefore of Vortigern's solemn invitation, 1500 Mun they arrived. with fifteen hundred men, under the com- 1600 mand of Hengist and Horsa, who were brothers, and landed on the isle of Thanet. There they did not long remain inactive; but, being joined by the British forces, they boldly marched against the Picts and Scots, who had advanced as far as Lincolnshire, and soon gained a complete victory over them.

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Hengist and Horsa possessed great credit among their Ab kun countrymen at home, and had been much celebrated for on Hengist their valour and the splendour of their descent. They and Horsa. were believed to be sprung from Woden, who was worshiped as a god among this people, and were said to be no more than the fourth in descent from him. This report, how fabulous soever, did not a little contribute to increase their authority among their associates; and being Fall's Wodan grß &

sensible of the fertility of the country to which they came, and the barrenness of that which they had left behind, they invited over great numbers of their countrymen to become sharers in their new expedition. It was no difficult matter to persuade the Saxons to embrace an enterprise, which promised at once an opportunity of displaying their valour and of rewarding their rapacity. Gole. D. Accordingly they sent over a fresh supply of five muf. 451. thousand men, who passed over in seventeen

vessels.

Entzweiung It was now, but too late, that the Britons began to Tuff entertain apprehensions of their new allies, whose numu. Bitte bers they found augmenting as their services became

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less necessary. They had long found their chief protection in passive submission; and they resolved, upon this occasion, to bear every encroachment with patient resignation. But the Saxons, being determined to come to a rupture with them, easily found a pretext, in complaining that their subsidies were ill paid, and their provisions withdrawn. They, therefore, demanded that these grievances should be immediately redressed, otherwise they would do themselves justice; and in the mean time they engaged in a treaty with the Picts, whom they had been called in to repress. The Britons, impelled by the urgency of their calamities, at length took up arms; and having deposed Vortigern, by whose counsel and vices they were thus reduced to an extremity, they put themselves under the command of Vortimer, his son. Many were the battles fought between these enraged nations; their hatred to each other being still more inflamed by the difference of their religion, the Britons being all Christians, and the Saxons still remaining in a state of idolatry. There is little to entertain the reader in the narration of battles, where rather obstinate valour than prudent conduct procured

the victory; and, indeed, the accounts given us of them are very opposite, when described by British and Saxon annalists. However, the progress the latter still made in the island sufficiently proves the advantage to have been on their side'; although, in a battle fought at Eglesford, Horsa, the Saxon general, was slain.

But a single victory, or even a repetition of success, Din Juffen could avail but little against an enemy continually rein-versen forced from abroad; for Hengist, now become sole. commander, and procuring constant supplies from his native country, carried devastation into the most remote corners of Britain. Chiefly anxious to spread the terror of his arms, he spared neither sex, age, nor condition, but laid the country desolate before him. The priests and bishops found no protection from their sacred calling, but were slaughtered upon their altars. The people were massacred in heaps; and some, choosing life upon the most abject terms, were contented to become slaves. to the victors. It was about this time that numbers deserted their native country, and fled over to Armorica, since called Britanny, where they settled in great numbers, among a people of the same manners and language with themselves.

the Din Taffon

in Kent

The British historians, in order to account for easy conquest of their country by the Saxons, assign their treachery, not less than their valour, as a principal cause. They allege that Vortigern was artfully inveigled geraien der into a passion for Rowena, the daughter of Hengist; ll. and, in order to marry her, was induced to settle upon her father the fertile province of Kent, from which the Saxons could never after be removed. It is alleged also, that, upon the death of Vortimer, which happened shortly after the victory obtained at Eglesford, Vortigern his father was reinstated upon the throne. It is added, that this weak monarch accepting of a festival

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from Hengist, three hundred of his nobility were treacherously slaughtered, and himself detained as a captive. Mona Be these facts as they may, it is certain that the affairs of the Britons gradually declined; and they found botten. Jer but a temporary relief in the valour of one or two of their succeeding kings. After the death of Vortimer, Ambrosius, a Briton though of Roman descent, was invested with the command, and in some measure proved successful in uniting his countrymen against the Saxons. He penetrated with his army into the heart of their possessions; and though he fought them with doubtful advantage, yet he restored the British interest and dominion. Still, however, Hengist kept his ground in the country, and inviting over a new tribe of Saxons, under the command of his brother Octa, he settled them in Northumberland. As for himself, he kept possession of the kingdom of Kent, (comprehending also Middlesex and Essex); fixing his royal seat at Canterbury, and leaving his new-acquired dominions to his posterity.

A. D.

Die Säde After the death of Hengist, several other Gerhaffen. 488. man tribes, allured by the success of their countrymen, came over in great numbers. A body of their

A. D. countrymen, under the command of Ella and his 477. three sons, had some time before laid the foundation of the kingdom of the South Saxons, though not without great opposition and bloodshed. This new kingdom included Surrey, Sussex, and the New Forest; and extended to the frontiers of Kent.

wachsen. Another tribe of Saxons, under the command of Cerdic and his son Kenric, landed in the West, and thence took the name of West Saxons. These met with a very vigorous opposition from the natives; but, being reinforced from Germany, and assisted by their countrymen on the island, they routed the Britons: and, although retarded in their progress by the celebrated king Arthur,

they had strength enough to keep possession of the conquests they had already made. Cerdic, therefore, with his son Kenric, established the third Saxon king- A.D. dom in the island, namely, that of the West 519. Saxons, including the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight.

It was in opposing this Saxon invader that the cele-Arthur brated prince Arthur acquired his fame. Howsoever unsuccessful all his valour might have been in the end, yet his name makes so great a figure in the fabulous annals of the times, that some notice must be taken of him. This prince is of such obscure original, that some authors suppose him to be the son of king Ambrosius, and others only his nephew; others again affirm that he was a Cornish prince, and son of Gurlois, king of that province. However this be, it is certain he was a commander of great valour; and, could courage alone repair the miserable state of the Britons, his might have been effectual. According to Nennius, and the most authentic historians, he is said to have worsted the Saxons in twelve successive battles. In one of these, namely, that fought at Caer-Baden, in Berks, it is asserted that he killed no less than four hundred and forty of the enemy with his own hand. But the Saxons were too numerous and powerful to be extirpated by the desultory efforts of single valour; so that a peace only, and not conquest, resulted from his victories. The enemy, therefore, still gained ground; and this prince, in the decline of life, had the mortification, from some domestic troubles of his own, to be a patient spectator of their encroachments. His first wife had been carried off by Meluas, king of Somersetshire, who detained her a whole year at Glastonbury, until Arthur, discovering the place of her retreat, advanced with an army against the ravisher, and obliged him to give her back, by the mediation of Gildas Alba