Saxons are represented as a very cruel nation; but we must remember, that their enemies have drawn the picture. It was upon this people that Vortigern turned his eyes for succour against the Picts and Scots, whose cruelties, perhaps, were still more flagrant.. It certainly was not without the most pressing invitations, that the Saxons deigned to espouse their cause; and we are yet in possession of the form of their request, as left us by Wittichindus, a cotemhistorian of some credit. "The porary poor and "distressed Britons, almost worn out by hostile in "vasions, and harassed by continual incursions, "are humble suppliants to you, most valiant Sax"ons, 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 im "pose." 'It was no disagreeable circumstance to these conquerors, to be thus invited into a country upon which they had, for ages before, been forming. designs. In consequence, therefore, of Vortigern's solemn invitation, they arrived with fifteen hundred men, under the command 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. Hengist and Horsa possessed great credit among their countrymen at home, and had been much celebrated for their valour and the splendour of their descent. They were believed to be sprung from Woden, who was worshipped 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 encrease their authority among their associates; and being sensible of the fertility of the country, to which they came, and the barreness 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. AccordA. D. ingly, they sent over a fresh supply of five thousand men, who passed over in seventeen 4.50. vessels. It was now, but too late, that the Britons began to entertain apprehensions of their new allies. whose numbers they found augmenting as their services became 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 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 enra. ged nations, their hatred to each other being til more enflamed 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 bat. tles, 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, sulliciently proves the advantages 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, could avail but little against an enemy continually reinforced from abroad; for Hengist, now. becoming 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, or condition, but laid all the country desolate before him. The priests and bishops found no protection from their sacred cailing, 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 deserting their native country, fled over to the province of Armorica, since called Britanny, where they settled in great numbers, among a people of the same manners and language with themselves. The British historians, in order to account for the 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 into a passion for Rowena, the daughter of Hengist; and, in order to marry her, was induced to settle the fertile provinces of Kent upon her father, from whence the Saxons could never after be removed. It is alleged also that, upon the death of Vortimer, which happened shortly after the victory he obtained at Eglesford, Vortigern his father was reinstated upon the throne. It is added that this weak monarch accepting of a festival from Hengist, three hundred of his nobility were treacherously slaughtered, and himself detained as a captive. Be these facts as they may, it is certain that the affairs of the Britons gradually declined, and they found 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 very 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 newacquired dominions to his posterity. A. D. 488. After the death of Hengist, several other German tribes, allured by the succes of their countrymen, went over in great numbers. A body of their countrymen under the conduct of Ella and his three sons, had some time before laid the foundation of the kingdom of 477. the South Saxons, though not without great apposition and bloodshed. This new kingdom included Surry, Sussex, and the New Forest: and extended to the frontiers of Kent. A. D. Cerdic and his son Kenric, landed in the west, and thence took the name of West Saxons. These met a very vigorous opposition from the natives, and being reinforced from Germany, and assisted by their countrymen on the island, they routed the Britons; and though 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 kingdom in the island, namely, that of the West Saxons, including the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the isle of Wight. It was in opposing this Saxon invader that the celebrated prince Arthur acquired his fame. However 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 Caerbadon, 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, and not conquest, were the immediate fruits of his victories. my therefore still gained ground; and this prince, in the decline of life, had the mortification, from The ene |