CHAP. III.

The BRITONS and SAXONS.

THE Britons, being now left to themselves, considered their new liberties as their greatest calamity. [CIRC. 430.] They had been long taught to lean upon others for support; and that being now taken away, they found themselves too feeble to make any opposition. Far from practising the lessons they had received from the Romans, they aggravated their misfortunes with unavailing complaints, which only served to render them still more contemptible. Unaccustomed both to the perils of war and to the cares of civil government, they found themselves incapable of forming or executing any measures for resisting the incursions of their barbarous invaders. Though the Roman soldiers were drawn away, their families and descendants were still spread over the face of the country, and left without a single person of conduct or courage to defend them. To complete the measure of their wretchedness, the few men of any note who remained among them, were infected with the ambition of being foremost in command; and, disregarding the common enemy, were engaged in dissensions among each other.

In the mean time, the Picts and Scots, uniting together, began to look upon Britain as their own, and attacked the northern wall with redoubled forces. This rampart, though formerly built of stone, had been some time before repaired with sods; and, consequently, it was ill fitted to repress the attacks of a persevering enemy. The assailants, therefore, were not at the trouble of procuring military engines, or battering-rams, to overthrow it, but with iron hooks pulled down the inactive defenders from the top, and then undermined the fortification at their leisure. Having thus opened to themselves a passage, they ravaged the whole country with impunity, while the Britons sought precarious shelter in their woods and mountains.

In this exigence, the unhappy Britons had a third time recourse to Rome, hoping to extort, by importunity, that assistance which was denied upon prudential motives. Aëtius, the renowned general of Valentinian, had, about that time, gained considerable advantages over the Goths, and seemed to give fresh hopes of restoring the Roman empire. It was to him they applied for succour, in a strain of the most abject solicitation. [A. D. 446.] "The barbarians," said they, on the one hand, drive us into the sea; the sea, on the other, drives us back upon the barbarians. We have only the hard choice left us, of perishing by the sword, or being drowned in the deep." Such, however, were the calamities of the Romans themselves. surrounded as they were by myriads of savage HUNS, that they could yield no assistance to such remote and unserviceable allies.

The Britons, thus neglected, were reduced to despair; while, having left their fields uncultivated, they began to find the miseries of famine added to the horrors of war. It happened, however, that the barbarians themselves began to feel the same inconveniences in a country which they had ravaged; and, being harassed by the irruptions of the Britons, as well as by the want of necessaries, they were obliged to retreat from the southern parts of the kingdom laden with spoil.

The enemy having thus left the country open, the Britons joyfully issued from their mountains and forests, and pursued once more their usual arts of husbandry, which were attended with such abundance in the succeeding season, that they soon forgot all their past miseries. But it had been happy for them, if plenty had not removed one evil to plant another. They began, from a state of famine, to indulge themselves in such riot and luxury, that their bodies were totally enervated, and their minds debauched.

Thus, entirely occupied in the enjoyment of the present interval of peace, they made no provision for resisting the enemy, who were only taking breath to renew their former invasions. Christianity, indeed, had been introduced among them some time before, though at what period is not certainly known: however, to the other calamities of the state, were added also their disputes in theology. The disciples of Pelagius, who was a native of Britain, had

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increased in a great degree; and the clergy, who considered his opinions as heretical, were more solicitously employed in resisting them, than in opposing the common enemy. Besides all these calamities, a terrible pestilence visited the southern parts of the island, which thinned its inhabitants, and totally deprived them of all power of resistance.

It was in this deplorable and enfeebled state, that the Britons were informed of fresh preparations for an invasion from their merciless northern neighbours. To oppose their progress, they pitched upon Vortigern as their general and sovereign; a prince, who is said to have raised himself to the supreme command by the murder of his predecessor. This step was only productive of fresh calamities. Vortigern, instead of exerting what strength yet remained in the kingdom, only set himself to look about for foreign assistance; and the Saxons appeared to him at once the most martial, and the most likely to espouse his interests.

The Saxons were one branch of those Gothic nations, which, swarming from the northern hive, came down to give laws, manners, and liberty, to the rest of Europe. A part of this people, under the name of Suevi, had, some time before Cæsar's invasion of Gaul, subdued and possessed an extensive empire in Germany. These, for their strength and valour, were formidable to all the German tribes. They were afterwards divided into several nations, and each became famous for subduing that country which was the object of its invasion. France, Germany, and England, were among the number of their conquests.

There is a period between savage rudeness and excessive refinement, which seems peculiarly adapted for the purpose of war, and which fits mankind for great achievements. In this state of half-refinement, when compared to the Britons, were the Saxons at the time their assistance was thought necessary. They dressed with some degree of elegance, which the generality of the Britons, even though so long under the institutions of the Romans, had not yet learned to practise. Their women used linen garments trimmed and striped with purple. Their hair was bound in wreaths, or fell in curls upon their shoulders; their arms were bare, and their bosoms uncovered;-fashions which, in some measure, seem peculiar to the ladies of England to this day. Their government was generally an elective monarchy, and sometimes a republic. Their commanders were chosen for their merit, and dismissed from duty when their authority was no longer needful. The salaries they were supplied with, seldom exceeded a bare subsistence; and the honours they received, were the only reward of their superior dangers and fatigues. The custom of trying by twelve men is of Saxon original; slavery was unknown among them, and they were taught to prefer death to a shameful existence. We are told by Marcellinus, that a body of them, being taken prisoners, were kept for exhibition on the amphitheatre at Rome, as gladiators, for the entertainment of the people. The morning, however, on which they were expected to perform, they were every one found dead in his cell, all choosing rather a voluntary death, than to be the ignominious instruments of brutal pleasure to their conquerors. The chastity of this people is equally remarkable; and to be without children, was to be without praise. But their chief excellence, and what they most gloried in, was their skill in war. They had, in some measure, learned discipline from the Romans, whom they had often defeated; and had, for a century and half beforc, made frequent descents upon the coasts of Britain for the sake of plunder. They were, therefore, a very formidable enemy to the Romans when settled there; and an officer was appointed to oppose their inroads, under the title of the "Count of the Saxon shore." Thus, ever restless and bold, they considered war as their trade, and were, in consequence, taught to consider victory as a doubtful advantage, but courage as a certain good. A nation, however, entirely addicted to war, has seldom wanted the imputation of cruelty, as those terrors which are opposed without fear are often inflicted without regret. The 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, [A. D. 449.] 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 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 will ingly undergo whatever services you may hereafter bepleased to impose."

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 increase their authority among their associates; and being 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. Accordingly they sent over a fresh supply of five thousand men, [A. D. 451.] who passed over in seventeen 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 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, could avail but little against an enemy continually reinforced 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 Britany, 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 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 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 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.

After the death of Hengist, [A. D. 488.] several other German tribes, allured by the success of their countrymen, came over in great numbers. A body of their countrymen, [A. D. 477.] under the command of Ella and his 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.

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 kingdom in the island, [A. D. 519.] 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. 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 Melnas, 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 Albanius. In his second wife, perhaps, he might have been more fortunate, as we have no mention made of her; but it was otherwise with bis third consort, who was debauched by his own nephew Mordred. produced a rebellion, in which the king and his traitorous kinsman meeting in battle, slew each other.

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In the mean time, while the Saxons were thus gaining ground in the West, their countrymen were not less active in other parts of the island. Adventurers still continuing to pour over from Germany, [A. D. 573.] one body of them, under the command of Uffa, seized 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 body of these adventurers formed a kingdom under the title of East Saxony, or Essex, comprehending Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire. This kingdom, which was dismembered from that of Kent, formed the fifth Saxon principality founded in Britain.

The kingdom of Mercia was the sixth which was established by these fierce invaders, [A. D. 585.] comprehending all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of the two last-named kingdoms.

The seventh and last kingdom which they obtained was that of Northumberland, one of the most powerful and extensive of them all. This was formed from the union of two smaller Saxon kingdoms, the one called Bernicia, containing the present county of Northumberland, and the bishopric of Durham; the subjects of the other, called the Deiri, extending themselves over Lancashire and Yorkshire. These kingdoms were united in the person of Ethelfrid, king of Northumberland, by the expulsion of Edwin, his brother-in-law, from the kingdom of the Deiri, and the seizure of his dominions.

In this manner, the natives being overpowered, or entirely expelled, seven kingdoms were established in Britain, which have been since 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 forsake the more fertile parts of the country, and to take refuge in the mountainous parts of Wales and Cornwall. All the vestiges of Roman luxury were now almost totally destroyed by the conquerors, who rather aimed at enjoying the comforts of life, than its magnificence. The few natives who were not either massacred or expelled from their habitations, were reduced to the most abject slavery, and employed in cultivating, for their new masters, those grounds which they once claimed as their own.

From this time, British and Roman customs entirely ceased in the island; the language, which had been either Latin or Celtic, was discontinued, and the Saxon or English only was spoken. The land, before divided into colonies or governments, was cantoned into shires, with Saxon appellations to distinguish them. The habits of the people in peace, and arms in war, their titles of honour, their laws, and methods of trial by jury, were continued as originally practised by the Germans, only with such alterations as increasing civilization produced. Conquerors, although they disseminate their own laws and manners, often borrow from the people they subdue. Io the present instance they imitated the Britons in their government by despotic and hereditary monarchies, while their exemplary chastity, and their abhorrence of slavery, were quite forgotten.

The Saxons being thus established in all the desirable parts of the island, 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 jealousy and ambition have more frequent incentives to operate. The wars and revolutions of these little rival states were extremely numerous, and the accounts of them have swelled the historian's page. But these accounts are so confusedly written,