tinued still more boldly to infeft the northern parts; and croffing the friths, which the Romans could not guard, in little wicker boats, covered with leather,. filled the country wherever they came with flaughter and confternation. The Romans, therefore, finding it impoffible to ftand their ground in Britain, in the reign of the emperor Valentinian took their laft leave of the ifland, after being masters of it for near four hundred years, and now left the natives to the choice of their own government and kings. They gave them the best in-. ftructions the calamitous times would permit, for exercifing their arms, and repairing their ramparts, and helped them to erect a-new a wall of ftone built by the emperor Severus across the ifland, which they had not at that time artizans skilful enough among themfelves to repair. T mity. С НА Р. II. THE SAXON S. HE Britons being now left to themselves, confidered their new liberties as their greatest cala- The Picts and Scots uniting together, began to look upon Britain as their own, and attacked the northern. wall which the Romans had built to keep off their incurfions, with fuccefs. Having thus opened to themselves a paffage, they ravaged the whole country with impunity, while the Britons fought precarious fhelter in their woods and mountains. It was in this deplorable and enfeebled ftate that the Britons had recourfe to the Saxons, a brave peo-ple; who, for their strength and valour, were formiable to all the German nations around them, and fuppofed to be more than a match for the gods them. felves. B 4 felves. They were a people restless and bold, who confidered war as their trade; and were, in confequence, taught to confider victory as a doubtful advantage, but courage as a certain good. A nation, however, entirely addicted to war, has feldom wanted the imputation of cruelty, as those terrors which are oppofed without fear, are often inflicted without regret. The Saxons are reprefented as a very cruel nation; but we must remember that their enemies have drawn the picture. It was no difagreeable circumftance to thefe ambitious people to be invited into a country upon which they had, for ages before, been forming defigns. In confequence, therefore, of Vortigern's folemn invitation, who was then king of Britain, they arrived with fifteen hundred men, under the command of Hengift and Horfa, who were brothers, and landed on the ifle 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 foon gained a compleat victory over them. The Saxons, however, being fenfible of the fertility of the country to which they came, and the barrennefs of that which they had left behind, invited over great numbers of their countrymen to become sharers in their new expedition. Accordingly they received a fresh fupply of five thousand men, who paffed over in feventeen veffels, and foon made a permanent eftablishment in the island. The British hiftorians, in order to account for the eafy conqueft of their country by the Saxons, affign their treachery, not less than their valour, as a principal caufe. They alledge that Vortigern was artfully inveigled into a paffion for Rowena, the daughter of Hengift; and, in order to marry her, was induced to fettle the fertile province of Kent upon her father, from whence the Saxons could never after be removed. It is alledged also that, upon the death of Vortimer, which fhortly happened after the victory he obtained at Eglesford, Vortigern his father was reinftated upon the throne. It is added that this weak monarch accepting of a feftival from Hengift, three hundred of his nobility were treacherously flaughtered, and himself detained as a captive. 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 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 included 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 West, and from thence took the name of Weft Saxons. Thefe met a very vigorous oppofition from the natives, but being reinforced from Germany, and affifted by their countrymen on the ifland, they routed the Britons ; and although retarded in their progrefs by the celebrated king Arthur, they had ftrength enough to keep poffeffion of the conquests they had already made. Cerdic, therefore, with his fon Kenric, eftablished the third Saxon kingdom in the ifland, namely, that of the Weft Saxons, including the counties of Hants, Dorfet, Wilts, Berks, and the isle of Wight. It was in oppofing this Saxon invader that the celebrated prince Arthur acquired his fame. Howsoever 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 muft be taken of him. This prince is of fuch obfcure original, that fome authors fuppofe him to be the fon of king Ambrofius, and others only his nephew; others. B 5 again. again affim 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 miferable state of the Britons, his might have been effectual. According to the most authentic hiftorians, 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 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 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 firft wife had been carried off by Melnas, king of Somerfetfhire, who detained her a whole year at Glastonbury, until Arthur, difcovering the place of her retreat, advanced with an army against the ravisher, and obliged him to give her back. 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, flew each other. 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 island. Adventurers still continuing to pour 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 East Angles, which was the fourth Saxon kingdom founded in Britain Another Another body of thefe adventurers formed a kingdom under the title of Eaft 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 moft 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 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, hisbrother-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 Saxons being thus eftablished in all the defirable parts of the ifland, and having no longer the Britons to contend with, began to quarrel among themselves. A country divided into a number of .petty independent principalities, must ever be subject to contention, as jealously and ambition have more frequent incentives to operate. After a feries, therefore, of battles, treasons, and ftratagems, all these petty principalities fell under the power of Egbert, king of Weffex, whofe merits deferved dominion, and whose prudence fecured his conquefts. By him all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy were united unB 6 der |