A. D. 488.

fuccessful in uniting his countrymen against the Saxons. He penetrated with his army into the very heart of their poffeffions, and though he fought them with doubtful advantage, yet he restored the British intereft and dominion. Still, however, Hengift kept his ground in the country; and inviting over a new tribe of Saxons, under the command of his brother Octa, he fettled them in Northumberland. As for himself, he kept poffeffion of the kingdom of Kent, comprehending alfo Middlesex and Effex, fixing his royal feat at Canterbury, and leaving his new-acquired dominions to his pofterity.

After the death of Hengift, feveral other German tribes, allured by the fuccefs of their countrymen, went over in great numbers. A body of their countrymen, under the conduct A. D. 477. of Ella and his three fons, had fome time before laid the foundation of the kingdom of the South Saxons, though not without great oppofition and bloodshed. This new kingdom ineluded Surry, Suffex, and the New Foreft: and extended to the frontiers of Kent.

Another tribe of Saxons, under the command of Cerdic and his fon Kenric, landed in the weft, and from thence took the name of Weft Saxons. Thefe met a very vigorous op

pofition

pofition from the natives, but being reinforced from Germany, and affifted by their countrymen on the island, they routed the Britons; and although retarded in their progrefs by the celebrated king Arthur, they had ftrength enough to keep poffeffion of the conquefts they had already made. Cerdic, therefore, with his fon Kenric, established the third Saxon kingdom in the island, namely, that of the West Saxons, including the counties of Hants, Dorfet, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight.

It was in opposing this Saxon invader that the celebrated prince Arthur acquired his fame. Howfoever unsuccessful all his valour might have been in the end, yet his name makes fo great a figure in the fabulous annals of the times, that fome notice must be taken of him. This prince is of fuch obfcure original, that some authors fuppofe him to be the fon of king Ambrofius, and others only his nephew; others again affirm that he was a Cornish prince, and fon 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 hif

torians,

torians, he is faid to have worfted the Saxons in twelve fucceffive battles. In one of these, namely, that fought at Caerbadon, in Berks, it is afferted that he killed no lefs 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 defultory efforts of fingle valour; fo that a peace, and not conqueft, were the immediate fruits of his victories. The enemy therefore ftill gained ground; and this prince, in the decline of life, had the mortification, from fome domeftic troubles of his own, to be a patient spectator of their encroachments. His first wife had been carried off by Melnas, king of Somersetfhire, who detained her a whole year at Glaftonbury, until Arthur, difcovering the place of her retreat, advanced with an army against the ravisher, and obliged him to give her back, by the mediation of Gildas Albanius. In his fecond wife, perhaps, he might have been more fortunate, as we have no mention made of her, but it was otherwife with his third confort, who was debauched by his own nephew Mordred. This produced a rebellion, in which the king and his traiterous kinfman meeting in battle, they flew each other.

In

In the mean time, while the Saxons were thus gaining ground in the weft, their countrymen were not lefs active in other parts of the inland. Adventurers ftill continuing to pour A. D. 575. over from Germany, one body of them, under the command of Uffa, feized upon the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and gave their commander the title of King of the Eaft Angles, which was the fourth Saxon kingdom founded in Britain.

Another body of these adventurers formed A. D. 585. a kingdom under the title of East Saxony, or Effex, comprehending Effex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire. This kingdom, which was difmembered from that of Kent, formed the fifth Saxon principality founded in Britain.

The kingdom of Mercia was the fixth which was established by these fierce invaders, comprehending all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of the two laft named kingdoms.

The feventh and laft kingdom which they obtained was that of Northumberland, one of the most powerful and extenfive of them all. This was formed from the union of two fmaller Saxon kingdoms, the one called Bernicia, containing the prefent county of Northumberland

and

and the bishoprick of Durham; the fubjects of the other, called the Deiri, extending themfelves over Lancashire and Yorkshire. Thefe kingdoms were united in the perfon of Ethelfrid, king of Northumberland, by the expulfion of Edwin, his brother-in-law, from the kingdom of the Deiri, and the feizure of his dominions.

In this manner the natives being overpowered, or entirely expelled, feven kingdoms were established in Britain, which have been fince well known by the name of the Saxon Heptarchy. The unfortunate Britons having been exhausted by continual wars, and even worn out by their own victories, were reluctantly compelled to forfake the more fertile parts of the country, and to take refuge in the mountainous parts of Wales and Cornwall. All the veftiges of Roman luxury were now almost totally deftroyed by the conquerors, who rather aimed at enjoying the comforts of life than its magnificence. The few natives who were not either maffacred or expelled their habitations, were reduced to the most abject slavery, and employed in cultivating thofe grounds for their new mafters, which they once claimed as their

own.

From