laity was fummoned at Winchester, where he was folemnly crowned king of England, by which name the united kingdom was thenceforward called.

Thus, about four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons in Britain, all their petty fettlements were united into one great A.D. 827. ftate, and nothing offered, but profpects of peace, fecurity, and increafing refinement. At this period, namely, about the eighth century, the arts and sciences, which had been before only known to the Greeks and Romans, were diffeminated over Europe, where they were fufficient to raise the people above mere barbarians; but yet loft all their native fplendor in the tranfplantation. The Eng

lifh, at this time, might be confidered as polite, if compared to the naked Britons at the invafion of Cæfar. The houses, furniture, cloaths, eating, and all the real luxuries of fenfe, were almoft as great then as they have been fince. But the people were incapable of fentimental pleasure. All the fearning of the times was confined among the clergy; and little improvement could be expected from their reafonings, fince it was one of their tenets to discard the light of reason. An eclipse was even by their hiftorians talked of as an

omen

omen of threatened calamities; and magic was not only believed, but fome actually believed themfelves magicians. Even the clergy were not averfe to thefe opinions, as fuch, in fome measure, served to encrease their autho rity. Indeed, the reverence of the clergy was. carried fo high, that if a perfon appeared in a facerdotal habit on the highway, the people flocked round him, and with all the marks of profound refpect, received every word he uttered as an oracle. From this blind attachment, the focial and even the military vir-. tues began to decline among them. The reverence towards faints and reliques ferved to fupplant the adoration of the fupreme Being. Monaftic obfervances were esteemed more meritorious than active virtues; and bounty to the church atoned for all the violences done to fociety. The nobility, whofe duty it was to preserve the military spirit from declining, began to prefer the floth and fecurity of a cloister, to the tumult and glory of war; and thefe rewards, which should have gone to encourage the foldier, were lavished in maintaining the credulous indolence of monaftic fuperftition.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

From the Acceffion of EGBERT to the NORMAN

I

CONQUEST.

T might have been reasonably expected, that a wife and fortunate prince, at the head of fo great a kingdom, and fo united and numerous a people as the English then were, should not only have enjoyed the fruits of peace and quiet, but left felicity to fucceeding generations. The inhabitants of the feveral provinces, tired out with mutual diffen

tions, feemed to have loft all defire of revolting: the race of their ancient kings was extinct, and none now remained, but a prince who deferved their allegiance, both by the merit of his fervices, and the fplendor of his birth. Yet, fuch is the inftability of human affairs, and the weaknefs of man's best conjecture, that Egbert was hardly fettled on his united throne, when both he and his fubjects. began to be alarmed at the approach of new and unknown enemies, and the island exposed to fresh invafions.

About this time, a mighty swarm of those A. D. 819. nations, who had poffeffed the countries bor

1

dering on the Baltic, began, under the names of Danes and Normans, to infeft the western coafts of Europe; and to fill all places, whereever they came, with flaughter and devaftation. These were, in fact, no other than the ancestors of the very people whom they came to defpoil, and might be confidered as the original ftock from whence the numerous colonies that infested Britain, had migrated fome centuries before. The Normans fell upon the northern coafts of France; the Danes chiefly levelled their fury against England, their first appearance being when Brithric was king of Weffex. It was then, that a small VOL. I.

F

body

A. D. 787.

T

body of them landed on the coafts of that kingdom, with a view of learning the state of the country; and having committed fome fmall depredations, fled to their fhips for fafety. About seven years after the first attempt, they made a defcent upon the kingdom of Northumberland, where they pillaged a monastery; but their fleet being shattered by a ftorm, they were defeated by the inhabitants, and put to the sword. It was not till about five years after the acceffion of Egbert, that their invafions became truly formidable. From that time they continued, with unceasing ferocity, until the whole kingdom was reduced to a ftate of the most diftressful bondage.

As the Saxons had utterly neglected their naval power fince their first fettlement in Britain, the Danes, who fucceeded them in the empire of the fea, found no difficulty in landing upon the ifle of Sheppey, in Kent, which they ravaged, returning to their fhips loaden with the spoil. Their next attempt, the year enfuing, was at the mouth of the Tyne, where they landed a body of fifteen thousand men, that made good their ground against the efforts of Egbert; who, after a battle, was obliged to draw off his forces by night. Within two years after, they landed in

Cornwall,