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n  . , 

s. 


THE 


HISTORY 


OF 


THE     ANGLO-SAXONS, 


FROM 


THE  EARLIEST  PERIOD   TO   THE 
NORMAN  CONQUEST. 

BY    SHARON  TURNER,    F.A.S,   &   R.A.S.L, 

IN    THREE   VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 

*V\ 

SEVENTH    EDITION. 


LONDON: 

LONGMAN,  BROWN,   GREEN,  AND   LONGMANS. 
1852. 


WJ 


VJ 


LONDON : 

SPOTTISWOODES  and  SHAI 
New-street-Square. 


ADVERTISEMENT 


THE   SEVENTH   EDITION. 


THE  text  and  notes  of  this  Edition  have  been  care- 
fully revised,  and  as  many  of  the  Author's  later 
corrections  and  additions  as  appeared  to  have  been 
intended  and  prepared  by  him  for  publication  have 
been  introduced. 

London,  January,  1852. 


A  2 


PREFACE 


THE     FIFTH    EDITION. 


IN  this  edition  the  general  catalogue  of  the  affinities 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  language  has  been  enlarged ;  and 
lists  are  added  of  those  which  the  Author  has  ob- 
served between  many  of  its  words  and  the  corre- 
sponding terms  in  the  ARABIC,  the  HEBREW,  the 
CHINESE,  the  SANSCRIT,  the  GEORGIAN,  the  MALAY, 
the  MANTCHOU,  the  JAPANESE,  the  CARIBBEE,  the 
TURKISH,  the  Susoo,  the  ANGOLA,  the  TONGA,  and  the 
LAPLAND  tongues.  The  analogies  which  he  has 
traced  with  the  PERSIAN,  ZEND,  and  PEHLVI,  are  not 
inserted  with  the  above  in  this  Volume,  because  they 
were  sent  to  the  Eoyal  Society  of  Literature,  and 
may  be  printed  in  the  next  publication  of  its  Trans- 
actions. 

The  Vindication  of  the  antient  Welsh  Bards,  and 
the  Essay  on  the  Antiquity  of  Eime,  were  printed 
with  the  fourth  edition  of  this  work,  and  are  also 
added  at  the  end  of  the  present;  as  they  are  both 
connected  with  that  portion  of  the  British  History 
which  this  work  comprises. 


32.  Red  Lion  Square, 
October  1.  1827. 


A  3 


PREFACE 


TO 


THE   THIRD   EDITION. 


THE  first  edition  of  this  work  was  published,  in  suc- 
cessive parts,  between  the  years  1799  and  1805. 
When  the  first  volume  appeared,  the  subject  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  antiquities  had  been  nearly  forgotten 
by  the  British  public ;  although  a  large  part  of  what 
we  most  love  and  venerate  in  our  customs,  laws,  and 
institutions,  originated  among  our  Anglo-Saxon  an- 
cestors. A  few  scholars  in  a  former  century  had 
cultivated  the  study,  and  left  grammars,  dictionaries, 
and  catalogues  for  our  use;  but  their  labours  had 
been  little  heeded,  and  no  one  had  added  to  the  in- 
formation which  they  had  communicated.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  MSS.  lay  still  unexamined,  and  neither  their 
contents,  nor  the  important  facts  which  the  ancient 
writers  and  records  of  other  nations  had  preserved  of 
the  transactions  and  fortunes  of  our  ancestors,  had 
been  ever  made  a  part  of  our  general  history.  The 
Quida,  or  death- song,  of  Ragnar  Lodbrog  first  led 
the  present  author  to  perceive  the  deficiency,  and 
excited  his  wish  to  supply  it.  A  series  of  careful 

A    4 


PREFACE. 

researches  into  every  original  document  that  he  had 
the  opportunity  of  examining  was  immediately  begun, 
and  steadily  pursued,  till  all  that  was  most  worth 
preserving  was  collected  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  MSS. 
and  other  ancient  books.  The  valuable  information 
thus  obtained  the  author  endeavoured  to  give  to  the 
public,  in  a  readable  form,  in  this  work,  of  which 
two-thirds  have  not  appeared  in  English  history 
before.  His  favourite  desire  has  been  fulfilled — a 
taste  for  the  history  and  remains  of  our  Great  An- 
cestors has  revived,  and  is  visibly  increasing. 

Many  writers  have  since  followed  in  the  same 
path.  Their  publications  have  spread  the  useful 
taste,  and  contributed  to  obtain  for  our  venerable 
forefathers  the  attention  of  their  enlightened  pos- 
terity. To  gratify  more  fully  this  patriotic  curiosity, 
some  additional  portions  of  original  matter,  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  remains,  have  been  inserted  in  the  pre- 
sent edition.  The  most  important  of  these  consist  of 
the  following  additions : 

On  reading  our  Alfred's  Anglo-Saxon  translation 
of  Boetius,  the  author  observed  passages  which  were 
not  in  the  original.  Struck  with  this  curious  fact, 
he  compared  the  king's  work  carefully  with  the  Latin 
of  Boetius,  and  found  that  Alfred  had  frequently 
taken  occasion  to  insert  his  own  thoughts  and  reason- 
ings in  various  parts,  forming  so  many  little  essays, 
dialogues,  and  imitated  tales,  of  our  venerable  sove- 
reign's own  composition.  Some  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  these  have  been  selected  and  translated, 
and  inserted  in  the  second  volume  of  the  present 
edition. 

Since  the  author  called  the  attention  of  the  public, 


PREFACE.  IX 

in  1805,  to  the  neglected,  and  indeed  unknown  Saxon 
heroic  poem  on  Beowulf,  Dr.  Thorkelin  has  printed 
it  at  Copenhagen  in  1815.  This  valuable  publication 
has  assisted  the  author  in  giving  a  fuller  analysis  of 
this  curious  composition  in  the  third  volume. 

On  the  composition  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  parlia- 
ment, or  witena-gemot,  many  have  desired  more 
satisfactory  information  than  the  author  had  incor- 
porated in  the  preceding  editions.  He  has  inserted, 
in  the  present,  all  the  facts  that  he  found,  which 
seemed  to  have  an  actual  relation  to  this  interesting 
subject,  and  has  added  such  remarks  as  they  have 
suggested  to  a  mind  wishing  to  be  correct  and  im- 
partial. 

The  author  has  added  a  statement  of  the  great 
principles  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Constitution  and  laws, 
as  far  as  an  attentive  consideration  of  our  most  ancient 
documents  has  enabled  him  to  discriminate  them. 

He  has  been  long  since  requested  to  give  some 
detail  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  population.  The  Con- 
queror's Record  of  Domesday  afforded  good  materials 
for  this  subject.  It  has  been  examined,  with  this 
object  in  view  ;  and  the  reader  will  find,  in  the  third 
volume,  an  enumeration  of  the  different  classes  and 
numbers  of  people  whom  it  records  to  have  been 
living  in  England  about  the  time  of  the  Norman 
conquest. 

Some  pains  have  been  taken  to  make  the  work,  in 
its  other  parts,  as  improved  and  as  complete  as  a 
careful  diligence  could  secure,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  comprise  the  whole  within  the  compass  of  three 
octavo  volumes.  This  object  has  been  attained  with- 
out the  sacrifice  of  any  material  information,  al~ 


X  PREFACE. 

though,  to  accomplish  it,  some  parts  have  been  neces- 
sarily printed  in  a  smaller  type,  and  others  as 
appendices.  But  the  convenience  to  the  public  of 
compressing  this  history  into  three  volumes  seemed 
to  outbalance  the  disadvantage  of  a  partial  alteration 
of  the  printed  letter.  As  it  now  stands,  it  presents 
the  reader  with  the  History  of  England  from  the 
earliest  known  period  to  the  time  of  the  Norman 
conquest. 

It  would  have  been  desirable,  for  the  gratification 
of  the  curious  student,  that  the  original  Anglo-Saxon 
of  the  various  passages  that  are  cited  and  given  in 
English  should  have  been  added ;  but  this  would 
have  extended  the  work  into  a  fourth  volume,  and 
have  made  it  more  expensive  than  the  author  de- 
sired. The  public  may  rely  on  his  assurance,  that 
he  has  endeavoured  to  make  the  translations  literally 
faithful,  in  order  that  the  style,  as  well  as  the  sense, 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  writer  may  be  perceived. 


London,  March,  1820. 


CONTENTS 


THE  FIRST  VOLUME. 


BOOK  I. 

CHAP.  I. 

The  early  Division  of  Mankind  into  the  civilised  and 
Nomadic  Nations.  —  The  most  ancient  Population  of 
BRITAIN  proceeded  from  the  Nomadic. 

Page 

Population  of  Europe  disputed    -  1 

The  Keltic  distinguished  from  the  Gothic  tribes  -  2 

Dr.  Percy's  table  of  their  different  languages       -             -  ib. 

Three  great  streams  of  population  in  Europe        -  3 

All  population  the  result  of  emigration  from  one  race       -  4 

Its  slow  progress,  and  from  the  East        -  6 

Mankind  always  in  two  great  classes        -  7 

General  description  of  the  civilised  class                            •  11 

Nomadic,  or  Barbaric  class     -  ib. 

The  first  civilised  nations                                                     -  20 

Our  ancestors  from  the  Nomadic  class     -  21 

CHAP.  II. 

That  the  KIMMERIAN  and  KELTIC  Nations  were  the 
earliest  Inhabitants  of  the  West  of  Europe. — A  brief  Out- 
line of  their  Migrations  and  Expeditions.  —  Settlement 
of  their  Colonies  in  BRITAIN.  —  WELSH  Traditions  on 
this  Subject. 

Three  genera  of  languages  in  Europe      -  23 

The  Kimmerian,  or  Keltic  -       24 


xii  CONTENTS. 

Page 

The  Gothic,  Scythian,  or  Teutonic  -  24 

The  Sarmatian,  or  Slavonic  -  ib. 

Kimmerians  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Europe    -  -  ib. 

Their  movements  when  attacked  by  the  Scythians  -  26 

Their  progress  to  the  German  Ocean       -  -  27 

The  Cimbri  were  Kimmerians  -  28 

Kimmerians  and  Cymry  in  Britain                       -  30 

Hw  Cadarn  -  32 

Manners  of  the  Kimmerians  and  Cimbri  -  33 

The  Kelts  sprang  from  the  Kimmerians               -  36 

The  Kelts  in  the  west  of  Europe  — Their  movements      -  37 

The  Kelts  enter  Britain               -             -             -  42 


CHAP.  III. 

PHENICIANS  and  CARTHAGINIANS  in  BRITAIN. 

Phenicians  in  Spain  and  Britain                                          -  45 

The  Cassiterides                                                      -             -  ib. 

These  islands,  the  Scilly  Isles,  and  Cornwall        -             -  46 

Welsh  traditions                                                                       -  48 

Carthaginians  acquainted  with  Britain    -  49 

CHAP.  IV. 

On  the  Knowlege  which  the  GREEKS  had  of  the  BRITISH 
Islands  ;  and  on  the  Tradition  of  the  TROJAN  Colony. 

The  Grecian  knowlege  of  Europe  gradual            -             -  51 

Britain  known  to  the  Greeks       -             -             -             -  52 

Voyage  of  Pytheas                                      -             -             -  ib. 

Traditions  of  Grecian  intercourse             -  55 

Story  of  Brutus  and  his  Trojans              -             -             -  ib. 


CHAP.  V. 

The  Manners  of  the  ancient  BRITONS.  —  The  Druids. 

Forty-five  tribes  in  Britain  -  -         ''  .       5$ 

State  of  the  country  ,,.  -  .  -       59 

Persons  and  dress  of  the  Britons  -  -  -       60 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

Page 

Their  houses  and  customs  -  61 

Their  war-chariots  -  -       62 

Their  religion     -  ib. 

Their  Druids      ------       64 


CHAP.  VI. 

Invasion  of  BRITAIN  by  JULIUS  CESAR.  —  Its  final  Con- 
quest by  the  ROMANS. 

Caesar's  great  projects     -                          -  67 

His  first  expedition  to  Britain      -  •;''-       68 

His  second                       -  -      69 

Successes  of  the  emperor  Claudius           -  71 

Vespasian  and  Titus  in  Britain  -  -       72 

Boadicea's  struggle  for  independence       -  73 

Agricola's  conquest  and  improvements    -  -             -       ib. 

The  walls  built  by  the  Romans                -  -                    75 


BOOK  II. 

CHAP.  I. 

The  Origin  of  the  SAXONS. 

A.C. 

141.      Saxons  first  mentioned  by  Ptolemy                        -  78 

not  noticed  by  Tacitus      -             -            ..»  79 

Other  tribes  omitted  by  Tacitus                          T  -  80 

The  Scythian,  or  Gothic,  population  of  Europe     -  81 

The  Anglo-Saxons  a  branch  of  this                        -  82 
Existing  works  in  the  ancient  languages  from  the 

Gothic  stock    -                                                      -  83 

Scythians  in  Asia                                                      -  84 

6—700.  Scythians  enter  Europe                                         -  85 
The  Sakai-suna  probably  the  Saxons       -            -87 

Their  country  now  the  province  of  Karabaugh      -  ib. 

Ancient  Scythian  language                                      -  89 

And  deities                       ....  ft. 

The  Sclavonians,  or  Sarmatic  branch        -  90 

Their  chronological  succession      -  91 

Antiquarian  theories  on  the  origin  of  the  Saxons  93 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  II. 

Description  of  the  Country  inhabited  by  the  SAXONS  near 
the  ELBE,  before  they  occupied  BRITAIN. 

A.  C.  Pase 

The  three  Saxon  islands  -  96 

Northstrandt        -  -  ib. 

Busen      -  -  97 

Heilig-island,  the  most  celebrated  -  ib. 

Continental  territory  of  the  Saxons  -  101 

Ditmarsia  -  102 

Stormaria  -  ib. 

Holsatia  -             -             -             -             -  -  103 


CHAP.  III. 

Circumstances  favourable   to   the   increase  of  the  SAXON 
Power  on  the  Continent. 

Progress  of  the  Eomans  to  the  Elbe  -  105 

Caesar's  invasion  of  Germany        -  106 

Augustus  subdues  its  districts  to  the  Rhine           -  107 

His  operations  towards  the  Danube  -  ib. 

Progress  of  Drusus  to  the  Elbe  -  109 

Patriotic  exertions  of  Arminius    -  -  110 

Sanguinary  victories  of  Germanicus  -  113 

His  recall  -  114 

17.       Repulse  of  the  Romans  to  the  Rhine         -  -  115 
Growth  of  the  nations  between  the  Rhine  and  the 

Elbe     -  -  116 

235 — 240.  Maximin's  invasion  of  Germany  -  119 

Origin  of  the  Francs  .  ib. 

Their  use  to  the  Saxons  -             -  .          -  -  120 


CHAP.  IV. 

The  Application  of  the  SAXONS  to  Maritime  Expeditions. 

Naval  exertions  of  the  nations  between  the  Rhine 

and  Elbe                                      -             -             .  122 

Voyage  of  Francs  from  the  Euxine                          -  124 

Its  effects  on  the  Saxons                -             -•             -  ib. 


CONTENTS.  XV 

A.  C.  Page 

Usurpation  of  Carausius  ,••:•*)  ....jfo  [Tr  125 

287.  He  teaches  the  Saxons  the  naval  art  -  126 

Magnentius  allies  with  them  n-  127 


CHAP.  V. 

The  League  of  the  SAXONS  with  other  States ;  and  their 
Continental  Aggrandizement. 

Their  league  with  the  nations  between  the  Rhine 

and  Elbe  -     128 

The  Jutes  -     130^] 

The  Angles                                   .-         .    -  ,     131  -J 


CHAP.  VI. 

Sequel    of  their    History  to    the  Period   of  the    ANGLO- 
SAXON  invasion. 

368.  The  Saxons  attack  Britain  -  132 

Are  defeated  by  Theodosius  -  ib. 

370.  Defeated  by  the  Romans  on  the  Continent  -  1 33 

Their  diffusion  on  the  Continent  -  -  134 

Their  colonies  in  Hungary  and  Transilvania  135 


CHAP.  VII. 

The  History  of  BRITAIN  elucidated,  from    the  Death  of 

MAXIMUS,    in    388,    to    the  final   Departure    of  the 
ROMANS. 

Bede's  chronology  of  this  period  erroneous            -  138 

383 — 388.  Rise  and  fall  of  Maximus      -          -'•'•'..'       •»*  ib. 

Rise  and  actions  of  Alaric                                   -    -  142 

Progress  of  the  Goths      *;  /                                       -  143 

Progress  of  Alaric                                                     -  144 

Gildasj3pmpared  with  the  imperial  writers r 

Movements  of  the  legions  in  Britain                       -  148 

Germans  excited  by  Stilicho  to  invade  Gaul         -  152 
406.      Revolt   of    the   troops   in   Britain :    Constantino 

chosen  their  emperor  '*•;"'                                    -  153 

He  leaves  Britain          '  *  •          -             -         :.!£  ib. 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

A.C.  Page 

His    officer,    Gerontius,    confounded    by   Jeffrey 
with  Vortigern  '  •  •     1 5 

409.      The  Barbaric  nations  attack  Britain  -       ib. 

Britons  assert  their  independence 
Merobaudes  on  the  Consulship  of  JEtius  - 


CHAP.  VIII. 

The  History  of  BRITAIN  between    the  Departure  of  the 
ROMANS  and  the  Invasion  of  the  SAXONS. 

410.      British  independence  continues    -             -  159 

Discontented  state  of  the  Roman  provinces  -     161 

They  favour  the  Gothic  invaders              -  -     162 

TheBagaudse      -  -     163 

The  Civitates  of  Britain  -  -     165 

Civil  discord  in  the  island  -     168 

Many  kings  in  Britain     -  -     169 

Roman  improvements  in  the  country  -     17CT 

Gildas's  picture  of  their  moral  state  Ji— U?_ 


APPENDIX  TO  BOOK  II. 

THE   MANNERS   OP   THE   SAXONS   IN   THEIR  PAGAN  STATE. 

CHAP.  I. 

Character  and  persons  of  the  most  ancient  Saxons  177 

CHAP.  II. 

Their  government  and  laws         -  i;,-  181 

CHAP.  III. 

Religion  of  the  Saxons  in  their  Pagan  state  -  185 

Their  idols  -  187 

Their  rites  -  192 

Their  Irminsula  -             -             -  -  193 

Principles  of  their  ancient  paganism  -  196 

Their  traditions  on  the  end  of  the  world  -  -  197 


CONTENTS. 


XV11 


A.C. 


Page 


CHAP.  IV. 

On  the  Menology  and  Literature  of  the  Pagan  SAXONS. 

The  Saxon  months  -     201 

On  their  alphabetical  characters  -  -  -     202 

The  Voluspa  translated    -  >    •         -        '••'-     207 


BOOK  III. 


CHAP.  I. 

The  Arrival  of  HENGIST.  —  His  Transactions  and  Wars 
with  the  BRITONS,  and  final  Settlement  in  KENT. 


_ 
449.      Arrival  of  Hengist 

Saxons  make  peace  with  the  Picts 
Hengist's  battles  with  Guortimer 
His  conquest  of  Kent 


-  219 

-  225 

-  ib. 

-  228  J 


CHAP.  II. 

ELLA  arrives  in  SUSSEX,  and  founds  a  Kingdom  there.  — 
CERDIC  invades  the  South  Part  of  the  Island,  and  esta- 
blishes the  Kingdom  of  WESSEX.  —  Battles  of  his  Succes- 
sors with  the  BRITONS. 


477.      Arrival  of  Ella    - 
495.      Invasion  of  Cerdic 

Establishes  himself  in  Wessex 
534.      His  son  Cynric    - 
560.      Ceawlin's  great  successes 

Genealogies  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings 


-  231 

-  232 

-  234 

-  235 

-  236 

-  238 


CHAP.  III. 

Ancient  BRITISH  Accounts  of  the  Battles  with  the  WEST 
SAXOXS  :  and  the  authentic  History  of  ARTHUR. 


530.      Battle  of  Llongborth 

on  the  Llawen 

—  of  Bath     - 

VOL.  I. 


-  243 

-  244 

-  ib. 


XV111  CONTENTS. 

A.  C.  Page 

Probable  history  of  ARTHUR  -  245 

His  birth  r-  246 

His  actions  -  -  ib. 

How  mentioned  in  the  Welsh  bards  -  249 

542.  His  death  -  251 

His  death  concealed  -  252 

His  family  -  ib. 

1189.  His  remains  discovered  -  -  253 

And  enshrined  -----  254 


CHAP.  IV. 

Establishment  of  the  ANGLO-SAXONS  in  EAST  ANGLIA, 

MERCIA,  and  ESSEX.  —  Arrival  of  IDA  in  NORTHUM- 
BERLAND. —  Battles  with  the  BRITONS.  —  Kingdoms  of 
BERNICIA  and  DEIRA. 

527.      First  arrivals  in  East  Anglia        -  -  256 

530.      Kingdom  of  ESSEX  founded  -  ib. 

547.  Ida  arrives  in  Bernicia  -  -  257 

State  of  the  north  of  Britain  -  ib. 

Urien  of  Reged  -  ••  259 

Battle  of  Argoed  Llyfain  -  260 

Gwenystrad  -  -  261 

Llywarch  Hen's  elegy  on  Urien  -  -  262 

Owen,  the  son  of  Urien  -  -  263 

Battle  of  Cattraeth  -  264 

The  Gododin  of  Aneurin  -  265 

Slow  progress  of  the  Angles  -  270 

559.      Ida's  death  -  271 

Frisians  in  England  ••  373 

Strandfrisii  -  ib. 

^  Settlements  of  the  Jutes  and  Anglo-Saxons         -  274 


CHAP.  V. 

History  of  the  ANGLO-SAXON  Octarchy,  and  its  further 
Successes  against  the  BRITONS,  to  the  beginning  of  the 
Seventh  Century. 

560.      An  octarchy  established  -  -     276 

Restoration   of   the   Britons    predicted    by  their 
bards   -  -  -  -  -  -     278 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

A.  C.  Page 

560.      Anglo-Saxons  war  with  each  other  -  281 

568.      Ethelbert  invades  Ceawlin  -  ib. 

591.      Ceawlin's  death    -  -  282 

603.      Successes  of  Ethelfrith     -  -  283 

607.      Bangor  destroyed  -  285 

610.      Tewdric  defeats  Ceolwulph          -  -             -  ib. 

Distress  of  the  Welsh       -  -  286 

614.      Cynegil's  victory  over  the  Britons  -             -  287 


CHAP.  VI. 

The  Introduction  of  CHRISTIANITY  among  the  ANGLO- 
SAXONS  in  KENT  and  ESSEX.  —  ETHELBERT'*  Reign  in 
KENT. 

Pope    Gregory's    desire    to   convert  the    Anglo- 
Saxons  -  290 

596.  He  sends  Augustin  on  the  mission  .  291 

597.  Augustin  addresses  Ethelbert       -  -  293 
The  king  becomes  a  Christian      -  294 

604.      Christianity  introduced  into  Essex  -     295 


CHAP.  VII. 

Expedition  of  the  EAST  ANGLIANS  to  the  RHINE.  —  ED- 
WIN'S Asylum  in  EAST  ANGLIA.  —  REDWALD'S  defeat 
of  ETHELFRITH.  —  EDWIN'S  Reign  in  NORTHUMBRIA  ; 
and  the  Introduction  of  CHRISTIANITY  into  that  Province. 

534—547.  East  Anglians  land  on  the  Rhine  -  -  298 

617.  Ethelfrith  expels  Edwin  from  Northumbria  -  300 

Redwald  of  East  Anglia  protects  Edwin  -  -  ib. 
defeats  Ethelfrith  -  ib. 

Edwin's  reign  in  Northumbria  -  -  301 

625.  His  meditations  on  Christianity  -  -  305 

Discussions  on  it  in  his  witena-gemot  -  -  306 

628.  Edwin  and  his  nobility  baptized  -  -  309 

633.  His  death  -  312 

Cadwallon's  victories  and  defeat  -             -  -  313 


a  2 


XX  CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  VIII. 

The  Reign,  Actions,  and  Death  of  PENDA.  —  History  oj 
the  ANGLO-SAXON  Octarchy  to  the  Accession  of  ALFRED 

of  NORTHUMBRIA. 

A.  C.  Page 

627— 684.  RiseofPenda  -  315 

634.      Oswald's  reign  in  North umbria,  and  death  -  316 

643.      Penda  attacks  Wessex  and  East  Anglia   -  -  318 

655.      His  fall    -  -  320 

Penda  introduces  Christianity  into  Mercia  -  321 

His  assassination  -  323 

650.      Sigeberht  restores  Christianity  in  Essex  -  -  324 

670.      Oswy's  death        -  -  326 

674.      Ecgfrid  in  Northumbria  -  -  328 

684.      slain  against  the  Picts      -  -  330 


CHAP.  IX. 

Reign  of  ALFRED  of  NORTHUMBRIA  and  his  Successors. 
—  History  of  WESSEX  to  the  Death  of  INA. 

684—728.  Alfred  the  Wise  in  Northumbria  -  -  332 

Encourages  literature  -  -  334, 

Ceadwalla  in  Wessex  -  -•  336 

Mollo's  catastrophe  -  337 

Ceadwalla's  death  -  _  333 

688.      Ina's  accession  and  reign                             -             -  ib. 

721.      He  abdicates,  and  goes  to  Rome  -  344 

731.      Anglo-Saxon  kings  at  this  period              -             -  ib. 


CHAP.  X. 

The  History  of  the  Octarchy  from  the  Death  of  INA  to  the 

Accession  of  EGBERT  in  the  Year  800. 

728.  Ethelheard  in  Wessex  -  -  _  .  345 

Ethelbald  in  Mercia  -  -  -  ib. 

Defeats  the  Welsh  -  347 

752.  His  war  with  Cuthred  -  -  -  348 

And  death  .  349 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

A.  C.  Page 

755.      Revolutions  of  Northurabria  -  350 

774.      Offa  reigns  in  Mercia       -  -  353 

His  correspondence  with  Charlemagne     -  -  355 

784.      Cynewulf  of  Wessex  assassinated  -  358 

Vices  of  queen  Eadburga  -  360 

Her  miserable  end            -             -  -            -  361 


CHAP.  XL 
The  Reigns  of  EGBERT  and  ETHELWULF. 

800.      Egbert  accedes     -  -     363 

819.      Rivalry  of  Wessex  and  Mercia     -  -     365 

823.      Egbert  subdues  Kent  and  Wessex  -     367 

Conquers  Mercia               -  368 

827.      Invades  Northumbria       -  -     369 

832.      Attacked  by  the  Danes     -                          -  ib. 

836.      His  death  -     370 

Doubts  as  to  his  being  crowned  king  of  England         ib. 

Dates  and  successions  of   the  different    kings  of 

the  octarchy     -  -     371 

BOOK  IY. 

CHAP.  I, 

The  Political  State  of  NORWAY,  SWEDEN,  and  DENMARK, 
in  the  Eighth  Century. 

State  of  Norway  -     374 

Of  Sweden  -     376 

Of  Denmark  -     379 

CHAP.  II. 

The  SEA-KINGS  and  Vikingr  of  the  North* 

The  sea-kings       -  -     383 

Northern  piracy  -  -     384 

The  vikingr  -     387 

The  berserkir       -             -             -             -  -     388 


XX11  CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  III. 

Comparison  between  the  Histories  0/*SAXO-GRAMMATicus 
and  SNORRE.  —  The  first  Aggression  of  the  NORTHMEN 
on  the  ANGLO-SAXONS.  —  The  Rise,  Actions,  and  Death 
O/*KAGNAR  LODBROG. 

A.C.  Page 

Saxo-Grammaticus  -  392 

The  Icelandic  writers       -  -  393 

Snorre's  history  -  395 

On  the  unprovided  population  of  the  North  -  397 

Ragnar  Lodbrog's  actions  -  401 

His  Quida,  or  death  song  -  410 


CHAP.  IV. 

The  Reign  of  ETHEL WULPH.  —  Invasion  of  the  NORTH- 
MEN. —  Birth  of  ALFRED  the  Great  —  His  Travels.  — 
ETHELWULPH'S  Deposition. 

836 — 856.  Ethelwulph's  reign  -  -  -  414 

849.  Birth  of  Alfred  the  Great  .  -  416 

Northmen's  invasions  -  -  -  -417 

853.  Alfred  sent  to  Rome  -  .  420 

Ethelwulph's  charter  on  the  tithes  -  -     421 

His  presents  to  the  pope  -  422 

856.  Marriage  with  Judith  the  French  princess  -  423 

Deposition  j                                     -  424 


CHAP.  V. 

The  Reigns  of  ETHELBALD  and  ETHELBERT. — ALFRED'* 
Education. 

856.  Ethelbald's  accession  -  .  ^26 

Judith's  third  marriage  _  _  427 

860.  Ethelbert  succeeds  .  .  ib< 

Alfred's  youth  and  education  -  -  _  423 


! 


CONTENTS.  XXlll 


CHAP.  VI. 

The  Accession  of  ETHELRED,  the  third  Son  of  ETHEL- 
WULPH.  —  The  Arrival  of  the  Sons  of  RAGNAR  LOB- 
IS  ROG  in  ENGLAND.  —  Their  Revenge  on  ELLA.  — 
Conquests  and  Depredations.  —  ETIIELBED'S  Death. 

A.  C.  Page 

866.  Arrival  of  the  Northern  Confederacy  -             -  437 
The  Northmen  defeat  Ella  at  York  -  439 

867.  Alfred's  marriage  -  440 

868.  The  Northmen  advance  to  Croyland  -     4-41 
870.      Invade  East  Anglia                                                   -     449 

Death  of  Edmund  -     453 

Wessex  attacked  -  -     454 

Ethelred  dies        -  -  -          >  -  -     457 


CHAP.  VII. 

The  Reign  o/*ALFREDt/rom  his  Accession  to  his  Retirement. 

871.  Alfred  accedes  -  ...  458 

His  defeat  and  first  peace  -  459 

874.  Northmen  conquer  Mercia  -  460 

And  Bernicia  -  -  -  -  -  461 

876.  They  attack  Alfred  —  his  second  peace  -             -  462 

877.  Alfred's  naval  successes                -  463 

CHAP.  VIII. 

ALFRED  becomes  a  Fugitive. — Misconduct  imputed  to  him. 

878.  Northmen  enter  Wilts      -  -  465 
Alfred's  flight      -  -  ib. 
Its  cause  investigated       -  -  467 
Misconduct  imputed  to  him  -  469 
The  probable  cause                        -  -  473 
Alfred  deserted  by  his  subjects    -  -  474 

CHAP.  IX. 

His  Conduct  during  his  Seclusion. 

His  retreat  in  the  cottage  described  -  477 

His  munificence  to  the  peasant     -  -  481 


XXIV  CONTENTS. 

A.  C.  Page 

Ubba's  attack  in  Devonshire     -                               -  483 
Exertions  of  Alfred  before  he  discovered  himself 

to  his  people     -                                                      -  484 

His  charity                                                                 -  486 

CHAP.  X. 
The  Battle  which  produced  ALFRED 's  Restoration. 

He  visits  the  Danish  camp                                       -  488 

Battle  at  Ethandune                                                  -  490 

Its  success                                                                 -  491 

CHAP.  XI. 

Review  of  the  Causes  and  Consequences  of  the  NORTHMAN 
Invasion  —  The  Actions  of  HASTINGS,  and  his  Invasion 
of  ENGLAND.  —  ALFRED'S  Death. 

Alfred's  treaty  with  Godrun                                    -  495 

Another  attempt  of  the  Northmen                          -  496 

893.      Invasions  of  Hastings       -                                        -  498 

897.      Alfred  improves  his  ships                                         -  514 

Hastings  finally  expelled                            -             -  515 

900.      Alfred's  death      -             -             -             -             -  517 


THE 

HISTORY 


OF    THE 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


BOOK  I, 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  early  Division  of  Mankind  into  the  Civilised  and  Nomadic 
Nations.  —  The  most  ancient  Population  of  Britain  proceeded 
from  the  Nomadic. 

No  subject  has  been  more  disputed  by  antiquarian 
writers  than  the  origin  of  the  population  of  Europe  ; 
and  no  discussions  have  been  more  fanciful,  more  ill- 
tempered,  or  more  contradictory.  As  vehement  and 
pertinacious  have  been  the  controversies  on  the  peo- 
pling of  Great  Britain.  Few  topics  would  seern  to 
be  more  remote  from  the  usual  currents  of  human 
passions,  than  the  inquiry  from  what  nations  our 
primeval  ancestors  descended :  and  yet  the  works  of 
our  historical  polemics,  on  investigations  so  little  con- 
nected with  any  present  interest  or  feeling,  abound 
with  all  the  abusive  anger  which  irritability  can  fur- 
nish ;  as  well  as  with  all  the  dogmatism,  confusion, 
dreams,  and  contradictions,  that  egotism  could  gene- 
rate, or  wranglers  and  adversaries  pursue. 

It  is  not  intended  in  this  work  to  renew  disputa- 

VOL.  I.  B 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  tions  so  interminable  and  so  useless.  But  in  order 
.  to  present  the  reader  with  a  complete  view  of  the 
History  of  England,  from  the  earliest  period  to  the 
Norman  Conquest,  when  the  Anglo-Saxon  dynasty 
ceased,  the  first  division  of  this  history  will  be  de- 
voted to  collect,  from  an  impartial  consideration  of 
the  original  and  ancient  writers,  that  series  of  facts 
and  those  reasoned  inferences,  which  most  deserve 
the  attention  and  belief  of  an  enlightened  age.  The 
authentic  will  be  distinguished  from  the  conjectural ; 
and  the  nearest  approach  to  unbiassed  judgment  and 
to  historical  truth,  that  can  be  effected  on  periods 
which  are  now  so  obscure,  because  so  remote,  will  be 
dispassionately  attempted. 

After  a  succession  of  disputes,  which  have  only 
increased  the  labyrinths  of  controversial  investigation, 
and  made  the  doubtful  more  uncertain,  Dr.  Percy,  in 
1770,  struck  out  a  clear  and  certain  path,  by  distin- 
guishing the  Keltic  from  the  Gothic  tribes ;  and  by 
arranging  the  principal  languages  of  Europe,  under 
these  two  distinct  genera,  with  specimens  of  the  Lord's 
prayer  in  each. l 

1  Dr.  Percy's  genealogical  table  was  thus  composed :  — 

GOTHIC. 
I 


1 

Old  Saxon 
or 
Anglo-Saxon. 

1 
English 
Lowland  Scotch 

Era 
the( 

Gen 

Suat 

nco- 

>-tisc 

nan 
»ian 

Cumbric 
or 
Old  Icelandic. 

Icelandic 
Norwegian 

Belgic 

Swiss 

Banish 

Prusic 

Swedish. 

CELTIC. 

1 

1 

1 

j 

Ancient 

Ancient 

Ancient 

Gaulish 

British 
i 

Irish 

Welsh 

Irish 

Armorican 

Erse 

Cornish 

Manks. 

Preface  to  Mallet's  Northern  Antiquities,  vol.  i.  p.  xxiv. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  3 

He  did  not  pursue  his  subject  farther.  But  this 
clear  separation  of  the  Gothic  from  the  Keltic  tribes, 
whom  most  reasoners  on  the  origin  of  the  European 
nations  have  confounded,  and  whom  many  on  the 
continent  still  confound,  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
true  history  of  ancient  Europe,  to  those  minds  whose 
freedom  from  former  prepossessions  enabled  them  to 
feel  the  justice  of  this  valuable  discrimination. 

Mr.  Pinkerton,  in  his  dissertation  on  the  Scythians 
and  Goths,  endeavoured  to  verify  the  idea  of  the 
Bishop  of  Dromore,  by  quotations  from  ancient  au- 
thorities ;  but  he  disfigured  his  work  by  an  abuse  of 
the  Keltic  nations ;  by  attempting  to  add  unautho- 
rised chronologies ;  by  some  wrong  citations  ;  and  by 
several  untenable  opinions  and  digressions,  with  which 
he  embarrassed  Dr.  Percy's  simple  and  judicious  ob- 
servations. 

But  to  the  two  genera  of  languages  pointed  out  by 
Dr.  Percy,  a  third  must  be  added,  which  prevails  in 
the  eastern  regions  of  Europe  ;  the  Slavonian  or  Sar- 
matian.  These  genera  present  us  with  those  three 
great  sources,  from  which  the  nations  of  the  western 
regions  of  Europe  have  chiefly  derived  their  various 
population. 

Corresponding  with  this  distinction  of  these  lan- 
guages, the  most  authentic  facts  that  can  be  now 
gleaned  from  ancient  history,  and  the  most  probable 
traditions  that  have  been  preserved  in  Europe,  con- 
cur to  prove,  that  it  has  been  peopled  by  three  great 
streams  of  population  from  the  East,  which  have  fol- 
lowed each  other,  at  intervals  so  distinct,  as  to  possess 
languages  clearly  separable  from  each  other.  The 
earliest  of  these,  we  shall  find  to  have  comprised  the 
Kimmerian  and  Keltic  race.  The  second  consisted 
Df  the  Scythian,  Gothic,  and  German  tribes ;  from 
whom  most  of  the  modern  nations  of  continental 
Europe  have  descended.  The  third,  and  most  recent, 

B   2 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  comprehends  the  Slavonian  and  Sarmatian  nations, 
T'  who  were  bordering  on  the  second  race,  as  they  spread 
over  Germany  ;  and  who  have  now  established  them- 
selves in  Poland,  Bohemia,  Russia,  and  their  vicinities. 
It  is  from  the  two  first  genera  of  the  European  popu- 
lation that  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  England  suc- 
cessively descended. 

On  the  general  origin  of  mankind,  two  fanciful, 
but  unscientific  opinions  have,  at  different  times,  been 
started.  One,  that  men  have  sprung  fortuitously 
from  the  earth :  the  other,  that  there  have  been 
several  aboriginal  races.  The  first  was  a  vulgar  error 
of  antiquity,  arising  from  its  ignorance  of  natural 
history,  which  philosophy  has  long  since  exploded, 
both  from  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms.  The 
other  misconception,  which  has  now  been  stretched, 
with  that  fertility  of  error  which  usually  follows  the 
desertion  of  the  simple  truth,  into  no  fewer  than 
seventeen  primeval  races  by  some  Parisian  dreamers, 
is  also  yielding  to  our  increasing  knowledge  of  phy- 
siology and  geography.  The  doubts  on  this  subject 
have  arisen  partly  from  imperfect  information,  partly, 
from  mistaking  specific  for  generical  differences,  anc 
partly  from  a  discreditable  avidity  to  prefer  any  sup- 
position to  the  invaluable,  though  brief  account  o: 
the  earliest  and  greatest  historiographer  of  the  Jewish 
nation. 

That  population  has  been,  everywhere,  the  resul 
of  emigration  from  some  primeval  residence,  is  th< 
belief  of  the  most  intelligent  and  impartial  inquirers 
We  can  trace,  from  historical  documents,  the  colo- 
nisation of  many  parts  of  the  world ;  and  the  tra- 
ditions of  other  nations  sufficiently  assure  us,  tha| 
they  have  been  effusions  from  more  ancient  sources 
Where  history  and  tradition  fail,  we  discern  the  sam§ 
kind  of  origin,  from  the  impressive  attestations  o; 
analogous  manners  and  languages.  The  unnecessarj 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

fables  of  various  original  races,  as  well  as  spontaneous 
animal  vegetation,  may  therefore  now  be  dismissed 
with  equal  discredit.  Nations  have  branched  off 
from  preceding  nations,  sometimes  by  intentional 
emigration,  and  sometimes  by  accidental  separation. 
War,  commerce,  want,  caprice,  turbulence,  and  pride, 
have,  in  various  regions,  contributed  to  disperse  the 
human  race  into  new  settlements  ;  and  among  those 
tribes  which  have  frequented  the  sea,  the  casualties 
of  the  weather  have  often  compelled  undesigned 
colonisations. 

That  there  has  been  some  catastrophe,  like  an  uni- 
versal deluge,  to  which  all  authentic  history  must  be 
posterior,  is  now  becoming  the  belief  of  the  most 
discerning  geologists.  The  petrifactions  of  .animal 
and  vegetable  substances,  which  are  to  be  found  in 
every  part  of  the  globe,  and  on  its  hills  and  moun- 
tains, far  distant  from  the  ocean,  and  of  which  many 
species  are  extinct ;  and  the  gigantic  animals  which 
they  prove  to  have  existed,  of  whom  history  has  left 
no  notices,  concur  with  the  earliest  traditions  of  al- 
most all  countries,  and  especially  of  those  of  whose 
ancient  literature  and  transactions  any  fragments 
have  reached  us,  to  satisfy  our  reason  of  the  certainty 
of  this  momentous  event. 

But  the  only  ancient  record,  which  connects  a 
rational  chronology  with  this  awful  revolution  in 
physical  nature  —  the  Genesis  of  Moses  —  has  autho- 
rised our  best  chronologers  to  place  it  about  2348 
years  before  the  Christian  era.  This  period  is,  there- 
fore, the  historical  limit  of  all  credible  antiquity  ;  and 
precedes,  by  a  long  interval,  every  document  which 
has  survived  to  us.  But  if  the  human  race  were  at 
this  time  renewed,  it  is  to  a  much  later  date,  that  we 
must  look  for  the  beginnings  of  the  British  population. 

The  safe  rule  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  to  admit  no 
more  causes  of  natural  things,  than  are  sufficient  to 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  account  for  their  phenomena,  may  be  efficaciously 
I  applied  to  determine  the  question,  whether  the  human 
race  has  originated  from  one,  or  many  primeval 
stocks  ;  because  the  most  judicious  physiologists  now 
agree,  that  there  are  no  more  varieties  of  form  or 
manners  among  the  numerous  tribes  of  mankind,  than 
such  as  the  descendants  of  one  pair  may  have  ex- 
hibited, under  the  varying  influences  of  different 
climates  and  countries ;  and  of  dissimilar  food,  cus- 
toms, diseases,  and  occupations.  As  we  may  there- 
fore believe,  without  credulity,  the  account  of  the 
most  ancient  and  venerated  history  which  we  possess, 
that  all  nations  have  sprung  from  one  original  race ; 
it  is  to  its  primitive  parents  in  the  first  source,  and 
in  the  second,  to  one  or  more  of  their  three  descend- 
ants, who  survived  that  catastrophe,  in  which  the  first 
diffusion  of  human  population  disappeared,  that  we 
must  refer  the  various  colonies  of  Britain  whom  we 
are  about  to  enumerate. 

That  the  re-peopling  of  a  globe  which  is  nearly 
twenty-four  thousand  miles  in  circumference,  should 
have  been  immediately  effected  no  reflecting  mind 
will  suppose ;  and  the  slow  progress  which  popula- 
tion must  have  made  over  so  large  a  surface,  could 
not  but  be  more  gradual  from  the  mountains,  deserts, 
lakes,  woods,  and  rivers,  which  divide  its  various 
regions,  and  obstruct  human  access. 

The  impenetrable  forests,  ever  increasing  from  the 
vegetative  agencies  of  nature,  till  checked  by  human 
labour l  ;  and  the  continual  and  deleterious  marshes, 
which  rain  and  rivers  are,  every  year,  producing  and 
enlarging  in  all  uninhabited  countries,  must  have 
long  kept  mankind  from  spreading  rapidly,  or  nume- 
rously, beyond  their  first  settlements.  These  seem 

1  Mr.  Erdmann    so  recently  as  1826,  found  that  in   Permia,  immense  forests 
were  then  covering  nine-tenths  of  the  soil.     He  entered   Siberia  by  a  forest  of 


firs. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

generally  to  have  been  made  along  the  inland  rivers, 
or  on  the  maritime  shores  of  the  earth.  Almost 
every  where  the  high  mountains  are  uninhabited, 
while  the  vallies  and  the  plains  abound  with  towns 
and  villages. 

No  ancient  history  exhibits  mankind  as  first  in- 
habiting Europe.  Although  this  is  now  the  most 
important  part  of  our  globe ;  it  was  once  to  Asia, 
what  the  Americas  were,  until  the  last  three  centu- 
ries, to  us  —  an  unknown,  and  unexplored  world. 
All  the  records  of  human  transactions  in  the  earliest 
times  of  our  knowlege  agree  with  the  Mosaic,  and 
with  the  researches  of  modern  science  and  antiqua- 
rian curiosity,  to  place  the  commencement  of  popula- 
tion, art,  and  knowledge,  in  the  eastern  portions  of 
the  earth.  Here  men  first  appeared  and  multiplied  ; 
and  from  hence  progressively  spread  into  those  wilder 
and  ruder  districts,  where  nature  was  living  in  all 
her  unmolested,  but  dreary,  vacant,  and  barbarous 
majesty. 

In  the  plains  of  warm  and  prolific  climates,  which 
the  human  race  first  cultivated,  ease,  abundance, 
leisure,  and  enjoyment,  produced  an  early  civilisation, 
with  all  its  advantages  and  evils.  As  the  experience 
of  the  latter  has,  in  subsequent  times,  and  in  our 
own,  driven  many  from  their  native  soil  and  patriotic 
comforts,  to  pursue  the  shadows  of  their  hopes  in 
new  and  uncultivated  regions  ;  so  it  appears  to  have 
actuated  several  to  similar  emigrations,  in  the  earliest 
periods  of  society.  In  all  ages,  mankind  have  grown 
up  into  two  great  classes,  which  have  diverged  into 
a  marked  distinction  from  each  other.  It  has  been 
usual  to  call  one  of  these,  in  its  connected  ramifi- 
cations, the  civilised  states  of  antiquity ;  and  to 
consider  the  other,  with  much  complacent  contumely, 
as  savage  and  barbarous  tribes. 

B    4 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  That  the  primeval  tribes  of  mankind  were  savage 
f  brutes,  is  a  theory  which,  although  it  has  been 
adorned  by  the  poetry  of  Lucretius  and  Horace,  may 
be  now  deemed  as  credible  as  the  diverging  systems 
of  two  modern  speculators,  who  have  respectively 
deduced  us  from  fishes  and  monkeys.  The  sober 
truth  may  rather  be  considered  to  be,  [that  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  antediluvian  race,  and  their  immediate 
descendants,  must  have  been  a  cultivated  people; 
that  improvement  preceded  barbarism ;  and  that  the 
wilder  tribes  were  deviations  from  the  more  civilised. 
Hence  we  may  reasonably  contemplate  both  these 
descriptions  of  society  as  the,  same  people,  of  whom 
the  Nomadic,  or  Wandering,  radiated,  like  the  modern 
settlers  on  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  the  Missouri, 
and  the  Oronooko,  from  civilised  communities,  into 
new  circumstances  of  life  and  residence  ;  into  deso- 
late solitudes,  often  grand  and  picturesque ;  but  for  a 
long  time  comfortless  and  appalling:  where  nature 
reigned  in  a  state  of  magnificence,  as  to  her  vegetable 
and  animal  subjects,  but  diffused  for  some  time 
terror,  penury,  and  disease,  to  all  that  was  intellectual 
and  human.  It  was  impossible  for  any  portion  of 
the  civilised  population  of  the  world,  to  wander  from 
their  domestic  localities,  and  to  penetrate  far  into 
these  unpeopled  regions,  without  changing  the 
character  and  habits  of  their  minds;  or  without 
being  followed  by  a  progeny,  still  more  dissimilar  to 
every  thing  which  they  had  quitted.  In  some,  the 
alteration  was  a  deteriorating  process,  declining  suc- 
cessively into  absolute  barbarism.  But  in  the  far 
greater  number  it  became  rather  peculiarity  than 
perversion,  and  a  peculiarity  not  without  beneficial 
operation  on  the  ulterior  advances  of  human  society, 
for  it  is  manifest  to  the  impartial  eye,  as  it  calmly 
contemplates  most  of  the  less  civilised  populations 
which  have  come  within  the  scope  of  our  knowledge, 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


.hat  original  forms  of  character,  and  many  new  and 
admirable  habits  and  institutions,  often  grew  up,  in 
these  abodes  of  want,  exertion,  independence,  and 
vicissitudes.  The  loss  of  some  of  the  improvements 
of  happier  society,  was  compensated  by  energies  and 
principles,  which  that  must  necessarily  sacrifice,  or 
cannot  obtain :  and  it  will  be  nearer  the  actual 
truth,  to  consider  the  barbarous  and  civilised  states 
of  antiquity,  as  possessed  of  advantages  distinct  from 
each  other ;  and  perhaps  not  capable  of  continuous 
union,  although  often  becoming  intermingled,  for  a 
time,  with  mutual  improvement. 

In  our  late  age  of  the  world,  the  term  barbarian  is 
often  correctly  applicable  to  many  countries  which 
we  have  visited  ;  but  it  will  be  unjust  to  the  ancestors 
of  all  modern  Europe,  not  to  consider,  that  the  appel- 
lation had  not  anciently  a  meaning  so  directly  appro- 
priate. The  Greeks  denominated  all  nations  as  barbaroi 
but  their  own ;  although  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Babylon, 
and  Carthage  had  preceded  them  in  civilisation. 

The  rise  of  the  two  ancient  grand  divisions  of 
mankind  may  be  dated  from  their  dispersion  at  the 
confusion  of  human  language.  When  their  unity  was 
by  this  event  broken  up,  and  they  had  separated  from 
each  other  to  form  independent  tribes  in  new  and 
wilder  districts,  the  differences  of  their  manners  and 
social  life  must  have  soon  afterwards  begun.  The 
choice  of  northern  or  southern  regions  —  the  effects 
of  colder  or  warmer  climate  —  the  preference  of  in- 
dolent pasturage  to  laborious  agriculture,  and  of 
changeable  abode  to  the  fixed  mansions  of  a  monoto- 
nous city,  must  have  caused  their  posterities  to 
become  very  dissimilar  to  each  other.  To  many 
active  spirits,  it  was  then  more  gratifying  to  hunt 
the  eatable  animals  in  their  woods,  than  to  cut  down 
the  trees,  grub  up  their  roots,  erect  log-houses,  or 
drain  bogs :  while  some  would  submit  to  these 


10  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  patience-needing  and  slowly-rewarding  toils.  Hence 
.  L  .  the  hunter  state,  the  shepherd  state,  the  rude  first- 
clearers'  state,  and  the  industrious  tillage  state,  would 
be  arising  in  many  places  simultaneously  with  each 
other,  and  with  the  more  stationary  and  self-indulgent 
accumulation  of  city  populations  in  those  warmer  and 
longer  cultivated  localities,  where  the  arts,  industry, 
and  enjoyments  of  regular  life  under  kings,  hier- 
archies, and  aristocracies,  first  appear  to  the  re- 
searches of  an  investigating  curiosity.  All  these 
conditions  of  society  have  been  always  found  too 
coincident  to  have  been  originally  converted  into  each 
other ;  and  when  we  consider  mankind  to  have  early 
branched  off  into  unconnected  ramifications,  sepa- 
rating for  ever  from  their  parent  root,  we  shall  per- 
ceive that  their  coincidence  involves  no  inconsistency. 
We  even  now,  at  this  late  age  of  the  world,  see  the 
Esquimaux,  the  wild  Indian,  the  Back-settler,  and 
the  cultivated  Philadelphian,  existing  at  the  same 
time  in  North  America ;  so  did  the  Egyptian,  the 
Scythian,  and  the  Greek ;  so  did  high  polish  and  rude 
barbarism  at  all  times  appear  in  disparted  but  coeval 
existence,  whenever  the  ancient  traveller  or  historian 
sufficiently  extended  his  geographical  inquiries.  But 
all  the  early  great  divisions  of  mankind  were  not,  at 
once,  as  strongly  unlike,  as  the  New  Hollander,  or 
Caffre,  is  to  a  modern  European.  They  were  at  first 
to  each  other,  what  the  Dorians  were  to  the  Athe- 
nians in  Greece ;  the  one  a  settled  population,  the 
other  migratory  and  restless.  And  though  we  may 
retain  the  expression  of  civilisation,  as  the  character 
of  the  settled  races,  it  will  less  mislead  our  imagina- 
tions, if  we  call  the  other  portion  of  mankind  the 
Nomadic  race.  These  had  improvements  and  civili- 
sation of  their  own,  though  of  a  sterner  and  more 
hardy  nature.  They  differed  in  attainments  from 
their  more  polished  relatives ;  but  were  not  in  all 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

things  their  inferiors.  It  is  unjust  to  degrade  those 
with  the  appellation  of  barbarians,  in  the  present 
meaning  of  the  term,  from  whose  minds,  institutions, 
and  manners,  all  that  we  now  possess  in  civilisation, 
superior  to  the  most  cultivated  states  of  antiquity, 
has  been  principally  derived.  Our  ancestors  sprung 
from  the  great  barbaric  or  Nomadic  stock  ;  and  it 
may  divest  us  of  some  of  our  unreasonable  prejudices 
and  false  theories  about  them,  if  we  make  a  rapid 
survey  of  the  circumstances  by  which  the  two  great 
classes  of  mankind  have  been  principally  distin- 
guished. 

Of  these,  THE  CIVILISED  were  those  nations  who, 
from  their  first  appearance  in  history,  have  been 
found  numerously  and  durably  associated  together; 
building  fixed  habitations ;  cultivating  continuously 
the  same  soil ;  and  fond  of  connecting  their  dwellings 
with  each  other  into  cities  and  towns,  which,  as 
external  dangers  pressed,  they  surrounded  with  walls. 
They  multiplied  inventions  in  the  mechanic  and 
manufacturing  arts ;  allowed  an  individual  property 
in  ground  and  produce,  to  be  acquired  and  trans- 
mitted ;  and  guarded  and  perpetuated  the  appropria- 
tion, with  all  the  terrors  of  law  and  civil  power. 

They  became  studious  of  quiet  life,  political  order, 
social  courtesy,  pleasurable  amusements,  and  domestic 
employments.  They  exercised  mind  in  frequent  and 
refined  thought ;  pursued  intellectual  arts  and  studies  ; 
perpetuated  their  conceptions  and  reasonings  by 
sculptured  imagery,  wrritten  language,  and  an  im- 
proving literature ;  and  valued  those  who  excelled 
in  mental  studies.  They  promoted  and  preserved 
the  welfare  of  their  societies  by  well-arranged  govern- 
ments, which  every  citizen  was  desirous  to  uphold ; 
by  a  vigilant  policy,  which  they  contentedly  obeyed ; 
and  by  laws,  wise  in  their  origin  and  general  tenor, 
but  often  pursuing  human  actions  with  inquisitorial 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


BOOK  severity;  with  vindictive  jealousy  ;  with  sanguinary 
J^—;  punishments,  and  with  a  minuteness  and  subtlety, 
which  destroyed  individual  freedom,  and  bounded 
public  improvement.  They  have  usually  loved  reli- 
gion ;  though  they  have  made  it  a  slavery,  whose 
established  superstitions  it  was  treasonable  to  resist. 
They  erected  temples,  oracles,  and  altars  ;  they 
divided  the  energies  and  attributes  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  into  distinct  personalities,  which  they  adored 
as  divinities  ;  made  images  and  mythologies  of  each  ; 
devised  and  established  a  ceremonial  worship,  and 
permanent  priesthood,  which  has  usually  been  in- 
timately connected  with  their  political  government  ; 
and  made  the  sanctioned  teachers  of  the  belief,  morals 
and  main  opinions  of  their  people. 

But  these  civilised  nations,  notwithstanding  all 
their  improvements,  and  from  the  operation  of  some, 
have  degenerated  into  sensuality,  into  the  debasing 
vices,  and  to  effeminate  frivolities.  The  love  of 
money,  and  a  rapaciousness  for  its  acquisition,  and 
the  necessities  and  false  emulation  which  continual 
luxuries  create,  have  dissolved  their  social  morality, 
and  substituted  a  refined,  but  persevering  and  ever- 
calculating  selfishness,  for  that  mutual  benevolence 
which  reason  desires,  which  Christianity  now  enjoins, 
and  which  our  best  sympathies  suggest.  Super- 
stition, irreligion,  and  despotism  increase,  as  the 
moral  attachments  to  probity  and  order  lessen  ;  and 
yet,  by  their  increase,  assist  to  undermine  both 
loyalty  and  patriotism,  as  well  as  public  happiness. 

Factious  violences  on  the  one  hand  ;  legal  oppres- 
sions and  persecutions  on  the  other  ;  and  an  aug- 
menting soldiery,  every  day  becoming  dangerous  to 
the  authorities  that  need  them,  from  a  practical  sense 
of  their  own  importance  and  power,  and  every  day 
enfeebled  by  inefficient  chiefs,  because  the  promotion 
of  talent  is  dangerous  to  its  employers,  and  is  ira- 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

peded  by  the  claims  of  the  interested  and  powerful ; 
have  often  increased  the  evils  of  a  voluptuary  civili- 
sation, till  states  have  subsided  from  secret  and  selfish 
disaffection  into  feeble  and  disunited  masses ;  which 
enemies  have  shaken,  and  powerful  invaders  at  last 
subdued.  Their  mental  progress,  from  all  these 
causes,  has  been  usually  checked  into  that  limited 
and  stationary  knowledge,  soon  becoming  comparative 
ignorance,  into  which  even  the  cultivation  and  social 
comforts  of  civilisation  have  hitherto  invariably 
sunk ;  and  from  which  the  irruptions,  spirit,  and 
agencies  of  the  Nomadic  tribes,  or  the  newer  king- 
doms which  they  have  founded,  have  repeatedly 
rescued  the  human  race.  Perhaps  another  marking 
feature  may  be  mentioned  of  the  political  state  of  the 
ancient  civilised  nations — and  this  was  the  want  of 
an  ennobled  and  landed  Aristocracy.  A  civic  class 
of  this  sort,  like  all  human  inventions,  has  its  own 
peculiar  evils:  but  it  is  more  connected  with  the 
public  emancipation  from  either  regal  or  sacerdotal 
despotism  than  is  usually  imagined  —  and  accord- 
ingly it  has  chiefly  prevailed  among  the  Nomadic  or 
barbaric  nations,  and  perhaps  originated  among 
them.  From  them  it  has  manifestly  descended  to 
modern  Europe  and  to  ourselves. 

The  other  important  part  of  the  ancient  population 
—  that  from  which  we  have  sprung — which  the 
civilised  world  always  contemplated  with  disdain,  and 
frequently  with  horror,  comprised  those  who,  under 
various  names,  of  which  the  Kimrnerians,  Kelts, 
Scythians,  Goths,  and  Germans  are  the  most  in- 
teresting to  us,  long  preferred  a  wilder,  roaming,  and 
more  independent  life. 

By  these,  the  forests  and  the  hills ;  the  unbounded 
range  of  nature ;  the  solitude  of  her  retreats ;  the 
hardy  penury  of  her  heaths ;  the  protection  of  her 
morasses;  and  the  unrestricted  freedom  of  personal 


14  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  exertion  and  individual  humour  (though  with  all  the 
L  ,  privations,  dangers,  wars,  and  necessities  that  attend 
self-dependence,  and  even  human  vicinity,  unasso- 
ciated  by  effective  government  and  vigilant  laws) 
have  yet  been  preferred  to  crowded  cities  and  con- 
fused habitations;  to  petty  occupations  and  con- 
tented submission;  to  unrelaxing  self-government 
and  general  tranquillity. 

This  Nomadic  class  of  mankind  was  composed  of 
distinct  families,  that  multiplied  into  separate  tribes, 
living  insulated  from  each  other,  and  rarely  coalescing 
into  nations,  though  sometimes  confederating  for  the 
purposes  of  war  and  depredation.  Their  primeval 
state  was,  in  some,  that  of  the  shepherd,  and  in 
others,  of  the  hunter.  Or  if  any  migratory  clans 
paused  awhile  for  agriculture,  they  quitted  the  soil 
after  they  had  reaped  the  harvest,  and  sought  out 
new  plains  to  consume  and  to  abandon ;  new  woods 
to  range,  and  new  game  to  chase.  Too  fond  of  in- 
dividual liberty — probably  the  first  stimulus  to 
many  in  their  separation  from  civilised  society  in  the 
ages  that  followed  its  first  great  fracture, — and  too 
moveable  and  too  jealous  of  restricting  laws,  to  have 
—  a  regular  government, — they  became  fierce,  proud, 
and  irascible;  easily  excited,  rugged  in  manners, 
boisterous  in  temper,  and  implacable  in  resentments. 
Looking  on  the  kingdoms  and  cities  of  refined  life 
with  contempt  for  its  effeminate  habits,  and  with  the 
eye  of  rapacity  for  its  tempting  abundance,  all  their 
intercourse  with  it  was  war,  depredation,  and  cap- 
tivity. Sometimes,  multiplying  too  rapidly  for  the 
produce  of  their  locality,  they  moved  in  large  bodies 
to  regions  unoccupied,  or  incapable  of  resisting  them; 
and,  with  their  wives,  families,  and  humble  property, 
transported  themselves  forcibly  from  one  country  to 
another,  to  be  often  again,  by  some  more  numerous 
or  warlike  tribe,  dispossessed  of  their  new  soil,  or  to 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  15 

be  destroyed  in  wars  which  were  usually  extermi-  CHAP. 
nations.  Revolting  as  these  habits  are  to  our  better  ^— -^ — » 
and  happier  feelings,  yet  they  served  at  that  period 
to  penetrate  the  wild  earth,  to  subdue  the  exuberance 
of  excessive  vegetation,  and  to  begin  the  first  pro- 
cesses of  preparing  the  unpeopled  world  for  the  cul- 
tivation and  settlements  of  an  improved  posterity. 
They  levelled  some  forests,  and  made  roads  through 
others ;  they  found  out  the  fords  of  rivers,  the  passes 
of  the  mountains,  and  the  permeable  parts  of  the 
insalubrious  marshes.  Their  wars  and  depredations, 
their  ravages  and  restless  dispositions,  were  per- 
petually clearing  new  ground  for  human  cultivation, 
and  making  new  channels  for  human  intercourse 
through  unknown  countries.  Their  vicissitudes, 
though  perpetuating  their  ferocity,  yet  kept  them 
under  particular  excitement,  and  nourished  hardy 
and  active  bodies. 

Building  their  rude  huts  in  the  woods  for  easier 
defence,  every  invader  that  dislodged  them,  and  pro- 
claimed  his  triumph  by  his  conflagrations,  only  drove 
them  to  explore  and  people  more  inaccessible  soli- 
tudes, and  rendered  the  district  they  quitted  unfit 
for  barbaric  occupation,  but  more  adapted  to  become 
the  residence  of  peaceful  colonists.  By  their  desul- 
tory movements,  the  domesticated  animals,  most 
useful  to  mankind,  were  diffusely  scattered ;  the 
savage  beasts  destroyed ;  and  new  germs  of  future 
tribes  were  every  where  deposited,  till  some  branches 
or  other  of  the  Nomadic  tribes  had  moved,  from  the 
Asiatic  Bosphorus,  to  the  farthest  shores  of  the 
European  continent.  Of  these,  the  Kimmerians  were 
the  most  advanced  in  the  north-west ;  and  the  Kelts 
towards  the  west  and  south. 

In  this  state  a  new  description  of  society  became 
perpetuated  and  diffused,  in  which  the  greatest  de-    *— 
gree  of  individual  liberty  was  exerted  and  allowed 


Q  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     that  could  be  made  compatible  with  any  social  com- 
.   bination. 

Liberty  was  the  spring  and  principle  of  their 
political  associations,  and  pervaded  the  few  civil  in- 
stitutions which  their  habits  required,  and  their 
humours  permitted.  Neither  chief  nor  priest  was 
suffered  to  have  much  power.  Influence,  not  autho- 
rity, was  the  characteristic  of  the  shadowy  govern- 
ment which  they  respected;  nobility  arose  among 
them  from  successful  war;  and  petty  conquests  of 
an  hostile  soil  laid  the  foundation  of  a  territorial 
aristocracy.  The  power  and  property  of  these  for- 
tunate adventurers  being  held,  as  they  had  been 
acquired,  by  the  sword,  they  were  governable  only 
so  far  as  they  chose  to  assent ;  and  the  free  man  who 
lived  in  society  with  them,  being  neither  less  warlike, 
less  irritable,  nor  more  submitting,  it  was  the  sacred 
custom  of  almost  all  their  tribes,  that  a  national 
council  should  be  an  inseparable  portion  of  the  sove- 
reignty or  civil  government  of  each ;  in  which  all 
legislation  should  originate ;  by  which  the  executive 
power  of  the  chosen  ruler  should  be  continually  con- 
trolled ;  in  which  all  general  measures  of  the  state 
should  be  considered  and  determined,  and  all  taxes 
imposed ;  and  to  which  every  freeman  that  was  ag- 
grieved might  appeal  for  redress.  We  have  direct 
historical  evidence  of  this  fact  among  all  the  German 
and  Gothic  tribes,  and  sufficient  intimation  that  it 
had  once  prevailed  among  the  Kimmerians  and 
Kelts.  Hence,  while  a  political  submission  became 
the  mark  and  practice  of  the  civilised,  individual 
independence  and  political  liberty  became  the  cha- 
racteristic of  the  Nomadic.  A  fierce  and  jealous 
spirit  of  control  never  left  them.  As  each  man  chose 
to  be  principally  his  own  avenger,  instead  of  leaving, 
like  the  civilised,  the  punishment  of  wrong  to  the 
magistrate  and  the  laws,  their  feuds  were  unceasing 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  17 

and  inveterate.  A  martial  temper  and  habit  became 
necessary  to  their  existence ;  and  the  penury  which 
attended  their  aversion  to  peaceful  drudgery,  their 
mutual  desolations,  and  their  wandering  life,  com- 
pelled them  to  seek  both  their  food  and  comforts 
from  war  and  rapine. 

Yet  amid  these  habits,  a  fearless  and  enterprising 
spirit,  and  a  personal  dignity  and  highminded  tem- 
per were  nourished ;  and  the  hardy  and  manly  vir- 
tues became  pleasing  habits.  In  this  life  of  constant 
activity,  want,  privation,  courage,  vigilance,  en- 
durance, and  exertion,  the  female  virtues  were  called 
perpetually  into  action ;  arid  their  uses  were  felt  to 
be  so  important,  that  the  fair  sex  obtained  among  all 
the  tribes  of  ancient  Germany  a  rank,  an  estimation, 
and  an  attachment  which  were  unknown  in  all  the 
civilised  world  of  antiquity,  and  which  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  has  since  matured  and  completed. 

Most  of  our  improvements  are,  for  a  time,  incom- 
patible with  each  other ;  and  must  be  separately 
pursued  and  successively  attained.  Hence,  the  divi- 
sion of  mankind  into  the  Nomadic  and  the  civilised 
conditions  of  society  has  been  instrumental  to  a 
greater  progress,  and  productive  of  more  blessings, 
than  an  uniform  and  simultaneous  civilisation  of  all 
would  have  occasioned. 

The  subjected  temper  and  patient  habits  of  civilised 
life  acquire  merits,  which  the  fierce  and  enterprising 
spirit  of  the  wilder  state  cannot  attain  ;  but  this  pos- 
sesses an  originality,  an  activity,  a  strength,  and  a 
vigorous  virtue,  which  gives  civilisation  new  ener- 
gies, dissipates  its  corruptions,  and  breaks  its  enslaving 
bonds.  All  nations  have  been  most  improved  by 
due  mixtures  of  these  two  great  classes.  The  earlier 
civilised  have  been  repeatedly  disciplined,  and,  in  the 
end,  benefited  by  the  invasions  and  conquests  of  the 

VOL.  i.  c 


18  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK  Nomadic.  Many  debasing  vices"  have  been  checked  : 
.  *•  .  many  injurious  governments  and  institutions  dis- 
solved; and  many  pertinacious  errors  destroyed. 
And  of  those  ruder  nations,  from  which  the  British 
population  has  been  formed,  it  will  be  obvious  to 
every  inquirer,  that  some  of  their  peculiar  habits  and 
institutions,  which  were  well  adapted  to  their  freer 
life,  and  which  originated  from  their  peculiar  neces- 
sities and  circumstances,  have  become  the  source  of 
our  greatest  improvements  in  legislation,  society, 
knowledge,  and  general  comfort.  The  Nomadic 
mind  is  a  mind  of  great  energy  and  sagacity,  in  the 
pursuits  and  necessities  peculiar  to  that  state ;  and 
has  devised  many  laws,  principles  of  government, 
customs,  and  institutions,  which  have  been  superior 
to  others  that  the  earlier  civilised  have  established. 

The  Saxons,  Franks,  Burgundians,  Goths,  and 
Northmen  have  been  distinguished  by  these  charac- 
teristics. 

That  these  nations  were  ignorant  of  Grecian  and 
Koman  literature,  and  of  the  sciences  of  Egypt,  was ; 
the  consequence  of  their  early  separation  from  the 
civilised  communities,  before  these  intellectual  bless- 
ings had  been  attained,  or  much  diffused  ;  and  of 
their  subsequent  loss  of  intercourse  with  those 
nations,  when  more  generally  enlightened. 

A  state  of  ignorance  must,  in  all  countries,  and  in 
every  individual,  precede  that  of  knowledge ;  because 
knowledge  cannot  be  intuitive,  though  the  power  to 
receive  and  to  apprehend  it  be  innate.  In  whatever 
world  the  mind  exists,  it  must  acquire  the  knowledge 
of  what  that  world  contains,  after  its  birth  ;  after  its 
senses  have  begun  to  act,  and  to  be  acted  on  by  the, 
objects  and  events  which  it  may  contain.  Hence,- 
every  nation  must  pass  gradually  from  its  times  of 
ignorance,  to  its  period  of  intellectual  eminence,  and 
general  information. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

But  although  our  Nomadic  ancestors  were  long 
without  the  cultivation  of  knowledge  and  literature, 
they  were  not  therefore  mentally  inert. 

There  is  an  education  of  mind,  distinct  from  the 
literary,  which  is  gradually  imparted  by  the  contin- 
gencies of  active  life.  In  this,  which  is  always  the 
education  of  the  largest  portion  of  mankind,  our  an- 
cestors were  never  deficient. 

The  operation  of  this  practical,  but  powerful  intel- 
lect, may  be  traced  in  the  wisdom  and  energy  of  their 
great  political  mechanisms  arid  municipal  institutions. 
It  pervades  their  ancient  laws ;  and  is  displayed  in 
full  dimensions,  as  to  our  Saxon  and  Norman  ances- 
tors, in  that  collection  of  our  native  jurisprudence, 
which  Bracton  has  transmitted  to  us.  The  system 
*of  our  common  law,  there  exhibited,  was  admirably 
adapted  to  their  wants  and  benefit ;  and  has  mainly 
contributed  to  form  those  national  bulwarks,  and  that 
individual  character,  by  which  England  has  been  so 
long  enriched  and  so  vigorously  upheld. 

It  is  well  known,  that,  of  the  two  states  which  we 
have  been  considering,  literary  and  scientific  know- 
ledge has  been  the  earliest  acquired  by  the  civilised ; 
and  has  always  continued  to  be,  with  some  partial 
fluctuations,  their  peculiar  property;  continually, 
though  often  tardily  increasing,  till  they  reached  at 
length  that  line  of  limitation,  which  their  manners 
and  institutions  finally  create. 

But  the  natural  capacity  and  the  intellectual  ac- 
tivity, though  with  a  different  application,  have  been 
equal  in  both  classes.  Influenced  by  dissimilar  cir- 
cumstances, and  directed  to  distinct  subjects,  the 
mental  power  of  each  may  have  appeared  to  be  dis- 
proportionate, when  it  was  only  diversified ;  but  its 
exertion  among  those  called  barbarians,  in  their 
forest-habitations,  in  their  predatory  expeditions,  in 
their  rude  councils  and  national  wars,  was  unceasing ; 

c  2 


20  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     and  so  finally  effective,  that  the  genius  of  civilised 
...  L     ,  Rome,  repeatedly  endangered  by  their  hostilities,  was 
at  last  subdued  by  their  superior  energies. 

These  two  states  seem  to  have  been  in  all  ages  so 
contemporaneous,  and  to  have  pervaded  the  world 
so  equally  together,  and  in  such  constant  vicinity, 
that  history  has  recorded  no  era,  since  the  separation 
of  mankind  at  Babel,  in  which  either  has  been  ex- 
tinct. On  the  contrary,  the  settler  and  the  wan- 
derer; the  restless  and  the  tranquil;  the  hunter 
Indian ;  the  pastoral  Tartar ;  the  Arab  plunderer, 
and  the  polished  lover  of  city  habits  and  of  peaceful 
life,  have,  under  different  denominations  of  tribes 
and  nations,  at  all  times  co-existed.  As  far  as  his- 
tory ascends,  the  world  has  been  agitated  and  bene- 
fited by  the  perpetual  diversity.  This  fact  of  their* 
unceasing  co-existence  confirms  the  idea,  that  the 
Nomadic  were  originally  but  branches  of  the  civilised, 
as  the  migratory  settlers  on  the  Ohio  and  Missouri 
in  our  days  are  the  effusions  of  other  states,  more 
advanced  and  improved:  and,  but  that  such  men 
cannot  now  go,  where  civilisation  from  its  command- 
ing extent,  and  with  its  transforming  effects,  will 
not  soon  pursue  them,  their  posterity  would  become 
the  Scythians  and  Goths  of  modern  times ;  and! 
exhibit  an  example  of  the  formation  of  new  barbaric 
tribes. 

The  nations  that  appeared  the  earliest  in  the  civil- 
ised state,  were  the  Egyptians,  Phoenicians,  Assyrians, 
/     Chinese,  and  Babylonians ;  and  these  have  never  been 
/£     known  in  the  Nomadic  or  barbaric  state.     In  a  later 
&     age,  partly  offsets  from  these,  or  from  a  kindred  seed, 
the  Carthaginians,    Greeks,  Persians,   Hindoos,    and 
Romans  emerged;  of  whom  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
began,  at  first,  to  act  in  their  uncivilised  condition. 

Some  of  these  nations — both  of  the  earlier  and  the 
later  improved— the  Phoenicians,  Carthaginians,  and 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  2 1 

Greeks,  either  visited  Britain,  or  were  acquainted 
with  it ;  and  the  Romans  ultimately  conquered  and 
occupied  it.  But  the  great  masses  of  the  popula- 
tions, which  have  successively  planted  themselves  in 
the  British  islands,  have  sprung  from  the  Nomadic 
classes.  The  earliest  of  these  that  reached  the  north- 
ern and  western  confines  of  Europe,  the  Kimmerians 
and  Kelts,  may  be  regarded  as  our  first  ancestors  ; 
and  from  the  German  or  Gothic  nations  who  formed, 
with  the  Scythians,  the  second  great  flood  of  popula- 
tion into  Europe,  our  Anglo-Saxon  and  Norman 
ancestors  proceeded.  The  Sarmatic,  or  third  Nomadic 
race,  have  never  effected  any  settlements  among  us  ; 
nor  reached  those  states  of  the  continent  from  which 
they  could  have  troubled  us.  England  has  seen  them 
only  as  visitors  and  friends. 

The  migrations  by  land  precede  those  by  sea.  The 
facilities  of  movement  are  greater :  while  the  ocean 
is  a  scene  of  danger,  that  repels  adventure,  as  long 
as  other  avenues  of  hope,  or  safety,  are  as  accessible. 
But  the  chronology  of  these  transplantations  cannot 
now  be  determined.  It  is  most  probable,  that  popu- 
lation advanced  contemporaneously,  though  not  with 
an  equal  ratio,  from  both  land  and  sea.  The  sea- 
coasts,  nearest  to  the  first  civilised  states,  were  gra- 
dually visited  and  peopled,  as  Greece  from  Egypt 
and  Tyre  ;  and  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago  and 
the  Mediterranean,  as  well  as  Africa  and  Spain,  were 
colonised  by  the  Phoenicians.  But  the  greatest  waves 
of  population  have  rolled  inland  from  the  east.  Tribe 
after  tribe  moved  over  the  Bosphorus  into  Europe, 
until  at  length  the  human  race  penetrated  its  forests 
and  morasses  to  the  frozen  regions  in  the  north,  and 
to  the  farthest  shores  of  the  ocean  on  the  west.  Our 
islands  derived  their  population  chiefly  from  branches 
of  the  inland  hordes  of  Europe,  though  the  habitual 
visits  of  the  maritime  nations  of  antiquity,  the  Phos- 

c  3 


22  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     nicians  and  Carthaginians,  and  their  Spanish  settle- 

.     L     ,  ments,    were   not  likely   to  have    occurred   without 

leaving  some  colonial  and  permanent  results.3 

3  It  is  highly  interesting  to  an  Englishman,  who  has  sprung  from  the  uncivilised 
races  of  antiquity,  to  contemplate  the  deities  and  sculptures  of  Egypt  in  the  court- 
yard and  entrance  hall  of  the  British  Museum.  He  there  sees  the  venerated  pro- 
ductions of  the  earliest  civilised  nation  reposing  in  the  metropolis  of  the  descendants 
of  one  of  the  earth's  most  distant  Nomadic  tribes.  When  Egypt  was  in  her  splen- 
dour, England  was  barbaric  and  unknown,  and  scarcely  suspected  to  be  existing  at 
the  supposed  end  of  the  habitable  world.  England  has  now  reached  one  of  the 
highest  summits  of  human  civilisation  ;  and  Egypt  has  sunk  into  our  ancestors' 
darkest  state,  without  their  free  and  hardy  virtues.  Osiris  and  Isis  transported 
from  the  worshipping  Nile  to  the  Thames,  to  be  but  the  gaze  and  criticism  of 
public  curiosity  !  The  awing  head  of  Memnon  in  London ! !  There  is  a  melan- 
choly sublimity  in  this  revolution  of  human  greatness,  yet  soon  changing  into  a 
feeling  of  triumph  in  the  recollection,  that  were  Egypt  now  in  her  proudest  state, 
she  would  not  be,  in  any  thing,  our  superior.  Indeed  she  would  rather  be  in  the 
comparison  no  less  inferior  to  us  in  the  present  state  of  our  arts,  sciences,  manu- 
factures, commerce,  cultivated  mind,  and  national  greatness,  than  our  barbaric 
ancestors  would  have  been  deemed  by  her  in  the  period  of  her  Rhameses,  Sesostris, 
and  Amenoph,  and  of  the  other  great  monarchs  with  whom  their  gigantic  temples 
and  deciphered  inscriptions  have  lately  brought  us  acquainted. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


CHAP.  II. 

The  Kimmerian  and  Keltic  Nations  were  the  earliest  Inhabitants 
of  the  West  of  Europe.  — A  brief  Outline  of  their  Migrations 
and  Expeditions.  —  Settlement  of  their  Colonies  in  Britain.  — 
Welsh  Traditions  on  this  Subject. 

FKOM  the  languages  already  remarked  to  have  pre- 
vailed in  Europe,  we  have  clear  indications  of  the 
three  distinct  and  successive  streams  of  population, 
to  which  we  have  alluded,  because  we  find  two 
separate  families  of  languages  to  have  pervaded  the 
northern  and  western  regions:  with  a  third,  on  its 
eastern  frontier,  each  family  being  peculiar  to  certain 
states.  These  three  languages  may  be  classed  under 
the  general  names  of  the  Keltic,  the  Gothic,  and  the 
Slavonic  ;  and  from  the  localities  in  which  we  find 
them,  and  from  the  names  of  the  ancient  nations 
who  are  first  recorded  to  have  inhabited  those  local  • 
ities,  they  may  be  also  called  the  Kimmerian,  the 
Scythian,  and  the  Sarmatian.  Of  these,  the  Welsh, 
the  Gaelic,  the  Irish,  the  Cornish,  the  Armoric,  the 
Manks,  and  the  ancient  Gaulish  tongue,  are  the  re- 
lated languages  which  have  proceeded  from  the  KIM- 
MERIAN or  KELTIC  source.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
Franco-theotisc,  the  Mseso-gothic,  and  the  Islandic  of 
former  times ;  and  the  present  German,  Suabian, 
Swiss,  Dutch,  Swedish,  Danish,  Norwegian,  Ork- 
neyan,  English,  and  Lowland  Scotch,  are  ramifica- 
tions of  the  great  GOTHIC  or  SCYTHIAN  stock.  The 
third  genus  of  European  languages,  the  ancient  Sar- 
matian, or  modern  Slavonic,  appears  in  the  present 
Polish  and  Russian,  and  in  their  adjacent  dialects. 
The  languages  classed  under  each  of  the  above 


24  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  heads  are  so  visibly  related  together,  as  to  make  so 
.  *•  ,  many  distinct  families,  issuing  from  the  same  parent 
stocks ;  but  each  stem  is  so  dissimilar  to  the  others, 
as  to  mark  a  different  source  and  chronology  of 
origin.  The  local  positions  in  Europe  of  the  dif- 
ferent nations  using  these  tongues,  are  also  evidence 
of  their  successive  chronology.  The  Keltic  or  Kim- 
inerian  is  in  the  farthest  part  of  the  west,  in  the 
British  islands,  and  on  the  western  shores  of  France. 
The  Scythian  or  Gothic  languages  occupy  the  great 
body  of  the  European  continent,  from  the  ocean  to 
the  Vistula,  and  have  spread  into  England.  In  the 
eastern  parts  of  Europe,  most  contiguous  to  Asia, 
and  also  extending  into  Asia,  the  Sarmatian  or 
Slavonic  tongues  are  diffused.  So  that  we  perceive 
at  once,  that  the  Kimmerian  or  Keltic  nations,  to 
have  reached  the  westerly  position,  must  have  first 
inhabited  Europe  ;  that  the  Scythian  or  Gothic  tribes 
must  have  followed  next,  and  have  principally  peo- 
pled it ;  and  that  the  Sarmatian  or  Slavonic  people 
have  been  the  latest  colonists.  Other  nations  have 
entered  it  at  more  recent  periods,  as  the  Huns  and 
the  Eomans ;  and  some  others  have  established  par- 
tial settlements,  as  the  Lydians  in  Tuscany ;  the 
Greeks  at  Marseilles,  and  in  Italy;  the  Phrenicians 
and  Carthaginians  in  Spain.  But  the  three  stocks, 
already  noticed,  are  clearly  the  main  sources  of  the 
ancient  population  of  the  European  continent,  in  its 
northern  and  western  portions. 

The  most  authentic  accounts  of  ancient  history 
confirm  the  preceding  statement. 

That  the  Kimmerians  were  in  Europe  before  the 
Scythian  tribes,  we  learn  from  the  information  of 
Herodotus,  the  father  of  Grecian  history.  He  states, 
apparently  from  the  information  of  the  Scythians 
themselves,  that  the  Kimmerians  anciently  possessed 
those  regions  in  Europe  which  the  Scythians  were 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  25 

occupying  in  his  time.1     And  these  Scythians  were     CHAP. 
then  spread  from  the  Danube  towards  the  Baltic  and   ,,     ^  —  » 
the  north. 

It  cannot  now  be  ascertained,  when  the  Kimme- 
rians  first  passed  out  of  Asia  over  the  Bosphorus, 
which  they  named  ;  but  that  they  were  in  Europe,  in 
the  days  of  Homer,  is  obvious,  because  he  mentions 
them  in  his  Odyssey  2  ;  and  he  appears  to  have  lived, 
at  least  eight  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  sera. 
That  he  was  acquainted  with  the  position  of  the 
Kimmerians,  in  the  north-eastern  parts  of  Europe,  is 
three  times  asserted  by  Strabo.3 

That  the  Kimmerians  were  inhabiting  these  places, 
above  seven  hundred  years  before  our  Saviour's  ad- 
vent, we  have  direct  historical  evidence  ;  because  it 
was  about  this  period,  if  not  before,  that  they  were  at- 
tacked by  the  Scythians  in  these  settlements.4  Over- 
powered by  this  invasion,  the  Kimmerians  of  these 
districts  moved  from  Europe  into  Asia  Minor;  and 
afflicted  its  maritime  regions  with  calamities,  from 
their  warfare,  which  Ionia  remembered  with  such 
horror,  as  to  believe  that  they  sprang  from  the  infer- 
nal regions  ;  to  the  neighbourhood  of  which  even 
Homer  consigns  them.  5 

The  part  of  the  Kimmerian  population,  which  the 

1  Herod.  Melpom.  s.  11.  I  have  adopted  the  Greek  orthography  of  the  K, 
K.i/j./j.epioi,  because  it  expresses  the  proper  pronunciation  of  the  word. 


,  Od.  A.  v.  14.  He  places  them  on  the  Pontus,  at  the  extre- 
mities of  the  ocean  ;  and  describes  them  as  covered  with  those  mists  and  clouds, 
which  popular  belief  has  attached  to  the  northern  regions  of  the  Euxine.  The 
Turkish  name  Karah  Deksi,  the  Greek  Maupo  ©aAa<r<ra,  and  our  Black  Sea,  imply 
the  same  opinion.  Bayer  says,  that  he  has  had  it  from  eye-witnesses,  that  all 
the  Pontus  and  its  shores  are  infested  by  dense  and  dark  fog.  Comm.  Acad. 
Petrop.  t.  ii.  p.  421. 

3  Strabo,  Geog.  p.  12.  38.  222. 

4  Herodotus  states  this  invasion  to  have  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Ardyes,  the 
son  of  Gyges,  lib.  i.  s.  15.     Ardyes  reigned  from  680  to  631  years  before  Christ. 
Strabo  places  the  same  event  in  Homer's  time  or  before,  on  the  authority  of  some 
other  historians,  p.  38.  222.     We  can  scarcely  reduce  any  of  the  facts  of  ancient 
classical  history,  before  the  Persian  war,  to  exact  chronology. 

5  "  As  Homer  knew  that  the  Kimmerians  were  in  the  north  and  west  regions  on 
the  Bosphorus,  he  made  them  to  be  near  Hades  ;   and  perhaps  according  to  the 
common  opinions  of  the  lonians  concerning  that  race."     Strabo,  Geog.  p.  222. 


2(>  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  Scythians  thus  disturbed,  was  then  occupying  the 
.  L  .  peninsula,  which  from  them  obtained  the  name  of  the 
Kimmerian  Chersonesus;  and  its  vicinity.  Their 
name  was  also  retained,  after  their  departure,  in  the 
adjoining  Bosphorus,  in  a  mountain,  and  in  a  city  on 
the  peninsula,  where  the  isthmus  was  protected  by  a 
ditch  and  a  rampart.  In  these  parts  of  Europe  they 
had  possessed  great  power,  before  the  Scythians  at- 
tacked them6 ;  and  Herodotus  says,  that  in  his  time, 
several  Kimmerian  walls  and  ports  were  to  be  seen 
there.7  The  Turks  are  now  the  masters  of  this 
country,  but  their  dominion  begins  to  decline. 

The  retreat  of  the  Kimmerians,  who  fled  before  the 
Scythians,  has  given  rise  to  the  assertion,  that  they 
conquered  Asia,  because  what  the  Komans  called  Asia 
Minor,  was  by  the  more  ancient  Greeks  usually  de- 
nominated Asia ;  but  it  is  clear  that  their  irruption 
was  along  the  sea-coast,  and  did  not  extend  beyond 
the  maritime  districts.8  One  of  their  chiefs  who 
conducted  it  was  called  Lygdamis  ;  he  penetrated  into 
Lydia  and  Ionia,  took  Sardis,  and  died  in  Cilicia. 
This  destructive  incursion,  which  succeeded  probably 
because  it  was  unexpected,  has  been  mentioned  by 
some  Greek  poets9,  as  well  as  by  Herodotus10,  Callis- 
thenes11,  and  Strabo.12  They  were  at  length  expelled 
from  Asia  Minor  by  the  father  of  Croesus. 13 

When  the  Scythians  first  attacked  them  on  the 
European  side  of  their  Bosphorus,  their  endangered 
tribes  held  a  council;  the  chiefs  and  their  friends 
wished  to  resist  the  invaders,  but  the  others  preferred 
a  voluntary  emigration.  Their  difference  of  opinion 
produced  a  battle,  and  the  survivors  abandoned  their 

6  Strabo,  lib.  xi.  p.  766.  475.     Ed.  Amst.  1707. 

7  Herod.  Melpom.  s.  12. 

8  Herod.  Clio,  s.  15. 

9  By  Callinus  in  his  poems,  who  calls  them  the   "impetuous  Kimmerians." 
Strab.  lib.  xiv.  p.  958.,  and  by  Callimachus,  Hym.  in  Dian.  252. 

10  Herod.  Clio,  s.  6.     Ibid.  Melpom.  >»  A  p.  Strab.  p.  930. 
18  Strab.  Geog.  lib.  i.  p.  106.  et  al.  «  Herod.  Clio,  s.  16. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  27 

country  to  the  Scythians.  u     But  while  one  portion      CHAP. 
went  under  Lygdamis  to  Asia,  the  more  warlike  and  • 

larger  part  of  the  Kimmerian  nations,  according  to 
the  geographers  cursorily  mentioned  by-  Plutarch15, 
receded  westward  from  the  Scythians,  and  proceeded 
to  inhabit  the  remoter  regions  of  Europe,  extending 
to  the  German  Ocean.  "  Here,"  he  adds,  "it  is  said 
that  they  live  in  a  dark  woody  country,  where  the 
sun  is  seldom  seen,  from  their  many  lofty  and  spread- 
ing trees,  which  reach  into  the  interior  as  far  as  the 
Hercynian  forest."  But  whether  their  progress  to 
these  parts  was  the  consequence  of  the  Scythian  at- 
tack, or  had  preceded  it,  is  of  little  importance  to  us 
to  ascertain.  The  fact  is  unquestionable,  that  the 
Kimmerians  anciently  diffused  themselves  towards 
the  German  Ocean. 

The  history  of  the  Kimmerians,  from  their  leaving 
the  eastern  Bosphorus  to  their  reaching  the  Cimbric 
Chersonesus  on  the  Baltic,  has  not  been  perpetuated. 
The  traditions  of  Italy,  and  even  an  ancient  historian 
intimate,  that  Kimmerians  were  in  those  regions 
near  Naples,  where  the  ancient  mythologists  place  the 
country  of  the  dead. 16  Their  early  occupation  of 
Europe  and  extensive  dispersion  divest  this  circum- 
stance of  any  improbability.  They  who  wandered 
across  Europe  from  the  Thracian  Bosphorus  into 
Jutland,  may  have  also  migrated  southward  into 
Italy,  like  the  Goths  and  Lombards  of  a  future  age. 
But  as  nations,  in  the  Nomadic  state,  have  little  other 
literature  than  funeral  inscriptions,  the  brief  and 
vague  songs  of  their  bards,  wild  incantations,  or  rude 
expressions  of  martial  trophies,  divested  of  all  circum- 

14  Herod.  Melpom.  s.  11.  ls  Plutarch  in  Mario. 

18  Straho  says,  "  And  they  deem  this  place  Plutonian,  and  say  that  the  Kimme- 
rians are  there  ;  and  they  who  sail  thither,  first  sacrifice  to  propitiate  the  sub- 
terraneous demons,  which  the  priests  exhort  them  to  do,  on  account  of  the  profit 
which  they  derive  from  the  offering.  There  is  a  fountain  of  river  water,  but  all  ab- 
stain from  this,  as  they  think  it  the  water  of  the  Styx.  Geog.  p.  171.  — Ephorus 
applying  this  place  to  the  Kimmerians,"  &c.  Ib.  p.  375. 


28  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  stance  or  chronology,  it  is  not  till  they  assail  the 
.  T'  ,  welfare  of  the  civilised,  and  become  a  part  of  their 
national  history,  that  we  have  any  notice  of  their 
transactions ;  and  often  not  till  this  period,  any  indi- 
cation of  their  existence.  But  two  intimations  have 
been  preserved  to  us  of  the  Kimmerians,  which  pro- 
bably express  the  general  outline  of  their  history. 
They  are  stated  to  have  often  made  plundering  incur- 
sions17, and  they  were  considered  by  Posidonius,  to 
whose  geographical  works  Strabo  was  often  indebted, 
as  a  predatory  and  wandering  nation.18 
imbri  jn  ^e  century  before  Caesar  they  became  known 

Kim- 

to  the  Eomans  by  the  harsher  pronunciation  of 
Kimbri19,  in  that  formidable  irruption  from  which 
Marius  rescued  the  Roman  state.  At  this  period  a 
great  body  of  them  quitted  their  settlements  on  the 
Baltic,  and,  in  conjunction  with  other  tribes,  entered 
the  great  Hercyniari  forest,  which  covered  the  largest 
part  of  ancient  Germany.  Repulsed  by  the  Boioi, 
they  descended  on  the  Danube.  Penetrating  into 
Noricum  and  Illyricum,  they  defeated  the  Roman 
consul  Narbo;  arid  a  few  years  afterwards,  having 
by  their  ambassadors  to  Rome  solicited  in  vain  the 
senate,  to  assign  them  lands  for  their  habitation,  for 
which  they  offered  to  assist  the  Romans  in  their 
wars,  they  defeated  four  other  consuls  in  as  many 
successive  battles,  and  entered  Gaul.  Having  ravaged 
all  the  country  between  the  Rhone  and  the  Pyrenees, 


17  Strabo,  p.  106.     This  habit  no  doubt  occasioned  the  word  Cimbri  to  signify 
robbers  among  the  Germans,  as  Plutarch  remarks  in  his  life  of  Marius. 

18  Posid.  ap.  Strab.  p.  450. 

19  That  the  K^epiot  of  the  Greeks  were  the  Kimbroi  of  the  Greeks,  and  Cimbri 
(Kimbri)  of  the  Latin  writers,  was  not  only  the  opinion  of  Posidonius,  whom 
Strabo  quotes,  lib.  vii.  p.  293.,  but  of  the  Greeks  generally:   "quum  Greed  Cimbros 
Cimmeriorum  nomine  afficiant,"  ib.     Diodorus  Siculus  expressly  says,  that  to  those 
who  were  called  Ki/x^eptots,  the  appellation  of  Ki^§pcav  was  applied  in  process  of 
time,  and  by  the  corruption  of  language,  lib.  v.  p.  309.     Plutarch,  in  his  life  of 
Marius,  also  identifies  the  Kimbri  with  the  Kimmerioi.     He  says,  "  From  these 
regions,  when  they  came  into  Italy,  they  began  their  march,  being  anciently  called 
Kimmerioi,  and  in  process  of  time  Kimbroi. " 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  29 

they   spread    into    Spain,    with  the   same    spirit   of     CHAP. 
desolation.     Repulsed   there  by  the   Celtiberi,    they  « — ^ — » 
returned  to  France ;  and  joining  with  the  Teutones, 
who  had  also  wandered  from  the  Baltic,  they  burst 
into   Italy    with  a  force,    that  had  accumulated   in 
every  region  which  they  had  traversed.     Rome  was 
thrown  into  consternation  by  their  progress ;  and  it 
required  all  the  talents  and   experience  of  Marius, 
Sylla,    and   the   best  Roman   officers   to   overthrow 
them.20 

The  great  mass  of  the  Kimbric  population  perished 
in  these  conflicts.  The  Romans  are  stated  to  have 
destroyed,  from  two  to  three  hundred  thousand,  in 
two  battles.  It  is  impossible  to  read  of  human 
slaughter  without  lamenting  it,  or  without  feeling 
some  abhorrence  of  those,  however  famed  as  heroes, 
by  whom  it  has  been  effected.  But  in  this  war,  the 
Kimbri  provoked  the  destruction,  by  their  desolating 
aggressions :  and  considering  the  spirit  and  customs 
of  barbaric  ferocity,  which  they  maintained,  and 
their  national  restlessness,  their  disappearance  was 
advantageous  to  the  progress  of  civilisation,  and  to 
the  interests  of  humanity.  Marius  did  not,  like 
Caesar,  go  into  Gaul  in  search  of  a  sanguinary  war- 
fare. He  obeyed  the  call  of  his  country  to  rescue  it 
from  a  calamitous  invasion.  His  successes  filled 
Rome  with  peculiar  joy,  and  were  sung  by  the  poet 
Archias,  whom  Cicero's  eloquence  has  made  illus- 
trious. 21 

The  rest  of  the  Kimmerian  nation  on  the  Continent 
remained  in  a  feeble  and  scattered  state.  They  are 
noticed  by  Strabo,  as  existing  in  his  time  on  the 

80  Liv.  Epit.  63 — 67.  Floras,  lib.  iii.  c.  3.  Oros.  lib.  v.  c.  16.  Strabo,  lib.  v. 
Plut.  Vit.  Mar.  We  have  the  names  of  three  of  their  kings  from  Livy,  Plutarch, 
and  Floras :  these  are  Bolus,  Bojorisc,  and  Teutobochus. 

21  Even  the  illiterate  Marius  was  pleased  with  this  Parnassian  effusion.  "  Ipsi 
illi  C.  Mario,  qui  durior  ad  haec  studia  videbatur,  jucundus  fuit."  Cicer.  Or  pro 
Arch.  c.  9. 


30  HISTOKY   OF    THE 

BOOK     Baltic22;  and  are  more  briefly  alluded  to  by  Pliny.23 
.     *•  .__,   Both   these   writers   represent   them  on  the  north- 
western shores  of  Europe,   or  on  those  coasts  of  the 
German  Ocean,   from  which  the   Saxons  and  Danes 
made  afterwards  expeditions  into  Britain. 

In  the  days  of  Tacitus,  this  ancient  nation  had 
almost  ceased  to  exist  on  the  continent  of  Europe ; 
but  his  expressions  imply  their  former  power  and 
celebrity.  When  he  mentions  the  Kimbri  who,  in 
his  time,  remained  in  the  peninsula  of  Jutland,  he 
says,  "  A  small  state  now,  but  great  in  glory ;  the 
marks  of  their  ancient  fame  yet  remain,  far  and  wide, 
about  the  Elbe ;  by  whose  extent  you  may  measure 
the  power  and  greatness  of  this  people,  and  accredit 
the  reported  numbers  of  their  army."  They  were 
existing,  or  their  fame  continued  in  those  parts,  in 
the  days  of  Claudian. 24 

Thus  far  we  have  proceeded  upon  the  authentic 

authorities,  which  remain  to  us  in  the  classical  writers, 

of  the  primeval  population  of  Europe.     From  these 

it  is  manifest  that   the   earliest   inhabitants  of  the 

north  of  Europe  were  the  Kimmerians  or  Kimbri ; 

and  that  they  spread  over  it  from  the  Kimmerian 

Bosphorus,  to  the  Kimbric  Chersonesus ;  that  is  from 

Thrace  and  its  vicinity,  to  Jutland  and  the  German 

Ocean;    to   that  ocean  from  which  the   passage  is 

direct  to  Britain ;  —  the  regular  voyage  in  our  times 

from  Hamburgh  to  England  or  Scotland. 

Kimme-  The  habit  of  moveable  nations  in  the  uncivilised 

cymry  in     °\  nomadic  state,   would  lead  us  to  infer,    as  these 

Edwin.       Kimmerii  or  Kimbri  are  characterised  as  a  wandering 

82  He  remarks  that,  in  his  time,  Kimbri  continued  to  inhabit  their  former  settle- 
ments on  the  Baltic,  and  had  sent  a  present  of  one  of  their  sacred  cauldrons  to 
Augustus.     Lib.vii.  p.  449. 

83  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  27.  and  28.     The  latter  passage  intimates  Inland  Cimbri  ' 
near  the  Rhine,  as  well  as  the  Cimbri  in  the  peninsula.     In  lib.  vi.  c.  14.  he  men- 
tions  Cimmerii  in  Asia,  near  the  Caspian. 

Tacitus  de  Morib.  Germ.     Claudian  calls  the  Northern  Ocean  by  their  name, 
"  Cimbnca  Thetis."     Cons.  Hon.  lib.  iv. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  31 

nation,  and  are  shown  by  all  that  remains  of  their     CHAP. 
history  to  have  been  so,  that  at  some  early  period,  . 

after  they  reached  the  shores  of  the  German  ocean, 
they  crossed  it  in  their  rude  vessels  to  Great  Britain. 
This  reasonable  supposition,  analogous  to  all  that  we 
know  of  the  customs  of  such  nations,  and  of  the 
colonisation  of  other  parts  of  the  world,  has  a  re- 
markable support  in  the  name  and  traditions  of  the 
Welsh,  and  their  ancient  British  literature.  It  is 
agreed  by  the  British  antiquaries,  that  the  most 
ancient  inhabitants  of  our  island  were  called  Cymry 
(pronounced  Kumri)  :  they  are  so  named  in  all  that 
remains  of  the  ancient  British  literature.  The  Welsh, 
who  are  their  descendants,  have  always  called  them- 
selves Cymry ;  and  have  given  the  same  appellation 
to  the  earliest  colonists  of  our  island;  and  as  the 
authorities  already  referred  to,  prove,  that  the  K//*,- 
pepioi  or  Kimbri  were  the  ancient  possessors  of  the 
northern  coasts  of  the  Germanic  Ocean,  and  attempted 
foreign  enterprises,  it  seems  to  be  a  safe  and  reason- 
able inference,  that  the  Cyrnry  of  Britain  originated 
from  the  continental  Kirnmerians.25  That  a  district, 
in  the  northern  part  of  England,  was  inhabited  by  a 
part  of  the  ancient  British  nation,  and  called  Cum- 
bria, whence  the  present  Cumberland,  is  a  fact  favour- 
able to  this  presumption. 

The  Danish  traditions  of  expeditions  and  conquests 
in  Britain,  from  Jutland  and  its  vicinity,  long  before 
our  Saviour's  birth,  which  Saxo  Grammaticus  has 
incorporated  into  his  history,  may  here  be  noticed. 
He  is  an  authority  too  vague  to  be  trusted  alone ; 
but  he  is  evidence  of  the  traditions  of  his  countrymen, 
arid  these  may  claim  that  attention,  when  they  coin- 


85  Tacitus  mentions  a  circumstance  favourable  to  this  deduction.  He  says  of 
the  (Estii  on  the  Baltic,  that  their  language  resembled  the  British,  "  lingua  Britan- 
nicre  proprior."  De  Mor.  Germ.  If  the  opinion  maintained  in  the  text  be  true, 
the  (Estii  must  have  been  a  Kimmerian  tribe. 


32  HISTOKY    OF    THE 

BOOK     cide  with  those  of  the  ancient  British,  which  they 
.     L     ,   would  not  otherwise  deserve.     They  add  something 
to  the  probability  of  early  migrations,  or  expeditions 
from  these  regions  into  our  islands,   although   they 
must  not  be  confounded  with  historical  facts. 
HU  ca-  The  historical  triads  of  the  Welsh  connect  them- 

darn-  selves  with  these  suppositions  in  a  very  striking 
manner. 26  They  state  that  the  Cymry  were  the  first 
inhabitants  of  Britain,  before  whose  arrival  it  was 
occupied  by  bears,  wolves,  beavers,  and  oxen  with 
large  protuberances.27  They  add,  that  Hu  Cadarn, 
or  Hu  the  Strong,  or  Mighty,  led  the  nation  of  the 
Kymry  through  the  Hazy,  or  German  Ocean,  into 
Britain,  and  to  Llydaw,  or  Armorica,  in  France  ;  and 
that  the  Kymry  came  from  the  eastern  parts  of 
Europe,  or  the  regions  where  Constantinople  now 
stands.28  Though  we  would  not  convert  Welsh 
traditions  into  history,  where  they  stand  alone,  it 
cannot  be  unreasonable  to  remember  them,  when  they 
coincide  with  the  classical  authorities.  In  the  pre- 
sent case  the  agreement  is  striking.  The  Kimmerians, 
according  to  the  authorities  already  stated,  proceeded 
from  the  vicinity  of  the  Kimmerian  Bosphorus  to  the 

86  The  Welsh  have  several  collections  of  historical  triads ;  which  are  three  events 
coupled  together,  that  were  thought  by  the  collector  to  have  some  mutual  analogy. 
It  is  the  strange  form  into  which  their  bards,  or  ancient  writers,  chose  to  arrange 
the  early  circumstances  of  their  history.  One  of  the  most  complete  series  of  their 
triads  has  been  printed  in  the  Archaiology  of  Wales,  vol.  ii.  p.  57 — 75.  It  was 
printed  from  a  MS.  dated  1601,  and  the  writer  of  it  states  that  he  had  taken  them 
out  of  the  books  of  Caradoc  of  Llancarvan,  and  of  John  Breckfa.  Caradoc  lived  in 
the  twelfth  century.  Breckfa  was  much  later. 

i7  It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  translate  the  whole  triad.  "  Three  names  have 
been  given  to  the  isle  of  Britain  since  the  beginning.  Before  it  was  inhabited,  it 
was  called  Clas  Merddin  (literally  the  country  with  sea  cliffs),  and  afterwards  Fel 
Ynis  (the  island  of  honey).  When  government  had  been  imposed  upon  it  by  Pry- 
dain,  the  son  of  Aedd  the  Great,  it  was  called  Ynys  Prydain  (the  island  of  Prydain); 
and  there  was  no  tribute  to  any  but  to  the  race  of  the  Kymry,  because  they  first 
obtained  it ;  and  before  them,  there  were  no  more  men  alive  in  it,  nor  any  thing 
else  but  bears,  wolves,  beavers,  and  the  oxen  with  the  high  prominence."  Triad  1. 
Arch.  v.  ii.  p.  57. 

28  "  The  three  pillars  of  the  nation  of  the  isle  of  Britain.  First,  Hu  Gadarn, 
who  led  the  nation  of  the  Cymry  first  to  the  isle  of  Britain  ;  and  from  the  country 
of  Summer,  which  is  called  Deffrobani,  they  came ;  this  is  where  Constantinople 
is  :  and  through  the  hazy  ocean  they  came  to  the  island  of  Britain,  and  to  Llydaw, 
where  they  have  remained."  Triad  4.  p.  57. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  33 

German  Ocean ;  and  the  Welsh  deduce  their  ancestors,  CHAP. 
the  Cymry,  from  the  regions  south  of  the  Bosphorus.  v_^ — > 
The  Welsh  indeed  add  the  name  of  their  chieftain, 
and  that  a  division  of  the  same  people  settled  in 
Arrnorica.  But  if  the  memory  of  Lygdamis,  who 
led  the  Kimmerian  emigration  to  Asia,  and  of 
Brennus,  who  marched  with  the  Kelts  against  Greece, 
were  preserved  in  the  countries  which  they  overran  ; 
so  might  the  name  of  Hu  Cadarn,  who  conducted 
some  part  of  the  western  emigrations,  be  remembered 
in  the  island  which  he  colonised. 29  That  Armorica, 
or  Bretagne,  was  peopled  by  a  race  of  men  similar 
to  those  who  inhabited  Britain,  is  verified  by  the 
close  resemblance  of  the  languages  of  the  two  coun- 
tries. 

As  we  have  traced  the  probable  identity  of  the  Manners 
Kymry  with  the  Kirnmerii,  and  the  actual  identity 
pf  these  with  the  Kimbri ;  it  will  be  right  to  add  the 
few  circumstances,  as  to  the  manners  of  these  ancient 
people,  which  the  classical  writers  have  transmitted. 
They  appear  to  have  been  such  as  might  be  expected 
from  the  earliest  emigrants  of  the  civilised  stock, 
rwho  diverged  the  farthest  from  their  primitive  seats 
of  civilisation.  But  as  no  Tacitus  took  the  trouble 
to  study  their  internal  customs,  we  know  nothing  of 
their  polity  or  national  institutions.  The  repulsive 
features  that  most  struck  the  attention  of  their 
enemies  are  nearly  all  that  is  recorded  about  them. 
They  were  too  much  dreaded  or  hated,  to  be  carefully 
inspected  or  favourably  delineated. 

Ephorus  said  of  the  Kimmerians,  that  they  dwelt 
in  subterraneous  habitations,  which  they  called  ar- 
gillas,  communicating  by  trenches.30  It  is  certainly 
a  curious  analogy  of  language,  that  argel,  in  the 

29  Pausanias  has  preserved  the  names  of  many  of  the  kings  of  the  Kelts  who  in- 
vaded Greece.  So,  Livy  has  transmitted  to  us  those  of  the  Keltic  leaders,  who 
attacked  Italy  in  the  time  of  the  first  Tarquin. 

80  Ap.  Strabo,  Geo.  lib.  v.  p.  375. 

VOL.  I.  D 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  language  of  the  Cymry,  or  British,  means  a  covert, 
.  L  .  a  place  covered  over.31  This  mode  of  habitation  seems 
to  have  been  the  primitive  state  of  barbaric  life. 
The  Troglodytes  of  Asia  are  said  to  have  lived  in 
caves ;  and  Tacitus  describes  some  of  the  ruder 
German  tribes  as  dwelling  under  ground.  The  prac- 
tice of  several  animals  which  burrow  in  the  earth 
may  have  suggested  the  custom ;  and  it  suits  that 
savage  state  into  which  even  the  emigrants  from 
civilised  society  may  lapse,  among  woods  and  marshes, 
want  and  warfare,  if  they  lose  the  knowledge  of  the; 
mechanic  arts,  or  the  tools  which  these  require.  Eplio- 
rus  added,  that  they  had  an  oracle  deep  under  ground. 
The  Kimbri  swore  by  a  brazen  bull,  which  they 
carried  with  them.  In  battle  they  appeared  with 
helmets  representing  fierce  beasts  gaping,  or  some 
strange  figures;  and  added  a  high  floating  crest  to 
make  them  look  taller.  They  used  white  shining 
shields,  and  iron  mail,  and  either  the  battle-axe,  or 
long  and  heavy  swords.  They  thought  it  base  to  die 
of  a  disease,  and  exulted  in  a  military  death,  as  a 
glorious  and  happy  end.32 

Callimachus  applies  to  these  people  the  epithet 
horse-milkers.33  This  incident  corresponds  with  the* 
preceding  accounts.  The  attachment  to  mare's  milk 
has  been  common  to  most  nations  in  their  uncivilised 
state.  Most  rude  and  poor  nations  drink  the  milk  of: 
the  animals  they  ride :  as  the  Arabs  of  the  desert  use] 

31  The   word  occurs  in   the   ancient  Welsh  poetry,   as   in  the   Afallenau   of 
Merddhin, 

a  dyf  yn  argel  yn  argoedydd, 
will  come  in  the  covert  in  the  lofty  woods. 

1  W.  Archaiol.  p.  152. 

It  is  also  used  in  the  Englynion  Beddaw  of  Taliessin  : 
Bet  Llia  Gwitel  in  argel  ardudwy 
dan  y  guellt  ac  guevel. 

The  grave  of  Llia  the  Gwyddelian  in  the  covert  of  Ardudwy,  under  the  grass  and. 
withered  leaves.  —  1  Archaiol.  p.  80. 

92  Pint,  in  Mario,  Val.  Max.  1.  ii.  c.  6.  »  Callim.  Hym.  in  Dian,  v.  252. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  35 

that  of  their  camels.  This  habit  suits  their  move- 
ability,  scanty  property,  small  supply  of  food,  and  a 
sterile  or  uncultivated  country. 

The  religious  rites  of  the  Kimmerians  included 
occasionally  human  sacrifices ;  one  of  the  most  ancient 
and  universal  superstitions,  which  affected  and  dis- 
graced mankind  in  the  first  stages  of  their  idolatrous 
and  polytheistic  worship.  Strabo,  after  remarking 
of  the  Kirnbri,  that  their  wives  accompanied  them  in 
war,  says  that  many  hoary  priestesses  of  their  oracle 
followed,  clothed  in  white  linen  garments  bound  with 
a  brazen  girdle,  and  with  naked  feet.  These  women, 
with  swords  in  their  hands,  sought  the  captives 
through  the  army,  and  threw  them  into  a  brass 
vessel  of  the  size  of  twenty  amphoroe.  Then  one  of 
the  prophetesses,  ascending  an  elevation,  stabbed 
them  singly,  as  suspended  above  the  cauldron ;  and 
made  her  divinations  from  the  manner  in  which  the 
blood  flowed  into  it.  The  other  assistants  of  the 
horrible  superstition  opened  the  bodies,  and  predicted 
victory  from  the  inspection  of  the  bowels.  In  their 
conflicts,  they  used  a  species  of  immense  drum ;  for 
they  struck  upon  skins  stretched  over  their  war 
chariots,  which  emitted  a  very  powerful  sound.34 
Plutarch  describes  the  women  to  have  been  placed 
on  their  waggons  in  the  conflict  with  Marius  ;  and 
when  the  men  gave  way  in  the  battle,  to  have  killed 
those  who  fled,  whether  parents  or  brothers.  They 
strangled  their  infants  at  the  same  time,  and  threw 
them  under  the  wheels,  while  fighting  the  Romans, 
and  at  last  destroyed  themselves  rather  than  survive 
the  calamity.  These  descriptions  lead  us  to  recollect 
some  analogous  passages  of  Tacitus  concerning  the 
Britons  at  the  period  of  the  Roman  invasion.  He 
describes  women,  with  firebrands  in  their  hands, 

34  Strabo,  lib.  vii.  p.  451. 
D  2 


36 


HISTOEY    OF    THE 


BOOK 
I. 


The  Kelts 


sprang 
from  Kim- 
merians. 


running  like  furies  among  the  army  of  the  Britons  in 
Anglesey;  and  adds,  that  they  stained  their  altars 
with  the  blood  of  their  captives ;  and  consulted  their 
gods  by  the  fibres  of  men.  He  mentions  also,  that 
before  their  destruction  of  the  colony  at  Camelodu- 
num,  "  Women,  agitated  with  the  prophetic  fury, 
sang  its  approaching  ruin."  35 

But  upon  investigating  the  remains  of  antiquity, 
we  find  another  ancient  people,  placed  in  some  of  the 
western  regions  of  Europe,  at  the  time  when  Greek 
history  begins.  They  were  called  KS^TOJ,  and  after* 
wards  FaXara/ ;  and  Ca3sar  says  of  them,  that  they 
called  themselves  Celta3  or  Keltse,  though  the  Romans 
gave  them  the  appellation  of  Galli.36 

The  Keltoi,  to  follow  the  Greek  orthography  of 
the  word,  appear  to  have  been  one  of  the  branches 
of  the  Kimmerian  stock.  The  term  Kimmerian,  like 
German,  or  Gaul,  was  a  generic  appellation.  The 
people  to  whom  it  extended  had  also  specific  de- 
nominations. Thus,  part  of  the  Kimmerians  who 
invaded  Asia,  under  Lygdamis,  were  likewise  called 
Trerones,  or  Treres.37  That  the  Keltse  were  Kim* 
merians  is  expressly  affirmed  by  Arrian  in  two  pas- 
sages38 ;  and  with  equal  clearness  and  decision  by 
Diodorus  39,  and  is  implied  by  Plutarch.40 

As  the  Kimmerians  traversed  the  north  of  Europe, 

15  Tacitus  Annal.  lib.  xiv.  Stabat  pro  litore  diversa  acies,  densa  armis  virisque, 
intercursantibus  feminis.  In  modum  furiarurn,  veste  ferali,  crinibus  dejectis,  faces 
preferebant  —  Nam  cruore  eaptivo  adolere  aras;  et  hominum  fibris  consulere  deos 
fas  habebant  —  Et  feminae  in  furore  turbatae,  adesse  exitium  canebant. 

36  Caesar.  Comment,  de  Bell.  Gal.  lib.  i.  s.  1.  Pausanias  says  of  these  people* 
They  have  but  lately  called  themselves  ya\arai.  They  anciently  called  them- 
selves /ceAroi,  and  so  did  others,"  p.  6.  And  that  7aAarai  was  but  another  appella- 
tion of  the  K€ATo<,  see  Diod.  Sic.  lib.  v.  p.  308.  ed.  Hanov.  1604.  So  Origen  calls 
the  Druids  of  Gaul,  rovs  TaXaruv  SpvaSas,  adv.  Cels.  Galatai  seems  to  be  a  more 
euphonous  pronunciation  of  Keltoi ;  and  Galli  is  probably  but  the  abbreviation  of 
Galatai.  Strabo  also  says,  all  this  nation  whom  they  now  call  Gallikon  or  Galati- 
koiij  p.  298. 

"Strabo,  lib.  i.  p.  106.  In  another  place  he  says,  Magnetus  was  utterly  destroyed 
by  the  Treres,  a  Kimmerian  nation,  lib.  xiv.  p.  958. 

38  Appian  in  Illyr.  p.  1196  ,  and  de  Bell.  Civ.  lib.  i.  p.  625 
Diod-  Sic'  lib'  v'  P.  309.  «  Plut'  in 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  37 

from  east  to  west,  the  Kelts  seem  to  have  proceeded     CHAP. 
more  to  the  south  and  south-west.   Some  geographers,  • 

before  Plutarch,  extended  the  country  of  the  Kelts  as 
far  as  the  sea  of  Azoph.41  Ephorus  was  probably 
one  of  these ;  for  he  is  not  only  mentioned  to  have 
made  Keltica  of  vast  magnitude,  and  including  much 
of  Spain42;  but  he  likewise  divided  the  world  into 
four  parts,  and  made  the  Kelts  to  inhabit  one  of 
the  four  towards  the  west.43  This  statement  leads 
us  to  infer,  that  the  Kelts  had  been  considered  to  be 
an  extensive  people44;  which  indeed  the  various  no- 
tices about  them,  scattered  in  the  writings  of  the  an- 
cients, sufficiently  testify.  All  the  classical  authors, 
who  mention  the  Kelts,  exhibit  them  as  seated  in 
the  western  regions  of  Europe.  While  the  Kim- 
merians  pervaded  Europe  from  its  eastern  extremity, 
to  its  farthest  peninsula  in  the  north-west,  their 
Keltic  branch  spread  down  to  the  south-western 
coasts.  When  their  most  ancient  transactions  are 
mentioned  by  the  Greek  and  Roman  writers,  we  find 
them  placed  in  France,  and  Spain,  and  emerging  into 
Italy. 

In  the  time  of  Herodotus,  the  Kelts  were  on  the  The  Kelts 
western  coasts  of  Europe.  He  says,  that  they  in- 
habited  the  remotest  parts  of  Europe  to  the  west 45 ; 
and  in  another  part,  he  states  them  to  live  beyond 
the  pillars  of  Hercules,  and  about  Pyrene ;  and  he 
places  among  them  the  origin  of  the  Danube.46 

41  Pint,  in  Mario.  42  Strabo,  lib.  iv.  p.  304. 

43  Strabo,  lib.  i.  p.  59.     Ephorus,  in  his  fourth  book,  which  was  entitled  Europe, 
Strabo,   p.  463.,  divided  the   world  into  four  parts,  ibid.  p.  59. :  in  the  East  he 
placed  the  Indians  ;  in  the  South,  the  Ethiopians  ;  in  the  West,  the  Keltse  ;  and 
in  the  North,  the  Scythians. 

44  Ephorus  was  a  disciple  of  Isocrates,  who  desired  him  to  write  a  history  (Pho- 
tius,  1455),  which  he  composed  from  the  return  of  the  Heraclidse  into  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus to  the  twentieth  year  of  Philip  of  Macedon.      It  obtained  him  a  distin- 
guished reputation.     His  geography  is  often  mentioned,  and  sometimes  criticised 
by  Strabo.     But  he  is  extolled  for  his  knowledge  by  Polybius,  Diodorus,  and  Diony- 
sius  Halicarnassus.    * 

45  Herod.  Mel  pom.  c.  49  . 

46  Herod.  Euterpe,  c.  33.     So  Arrian.     Herodotus  places  a  people,  whom  he  calls 
Cunosioi,  beyond  the  Kelts. 

D    3 


38  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  Aristotle  frequently  mentions  the  Kelts.  In  one 
.  L  ...  place,  he  notices  them  as  neither  dreading  earthquakes, 
nor  inundations47;  in  another,  as  rushing  armed  into 
the  waves48;  and  in  another,  as  plunging  their  new- 
born infants  in  cold  water,  or  clothing  them  in  scanty 
garments.49  In  other  works  attributed  to  him,  he 
speaks  of  the  British  island  as  lying  above  the  Kelts  50J 
he  mentions  Pyrene  as  a  mountain  towards  the  west 
in  Keltica,  from  which  the  Danube  and  the  Tartessus 
flow;  the  latter  north  of  the  columns  of  Hercules  ; 
the  former  passing  through  Europe  into  the  Euxine.51 
He  elsewhere  speaks  of  Keltica,  and  the  Iberians.52 
He  places  the  Kelts  above  Iberia ;  and  remarks  that 
their  country  was  too  cold  for  the  ass,  which  our 
present  experience  contradicts ;  or,  perhaps,  we  should 
rather  say,  that  the  temperature  of  France  has  been 
softened  by  the  demolition  of  its  forests,  the  dis-' 
appearance  of  its  marshes,  and  the  cultivation  of  its 
soil.  Hipparchus  also  mentioned  Keltica,  but  seems 
to  have  extended  it  into  the  arctic  circle;  for  he 
placed  Keltae  at  the  distance  of  six  thousand  stadia 
from  Marseilles,  and  said  that  the  sun  shone  all 
night  in  Keltica  during  the  summer,  and  was  not 
raised  above  the  horizon  more  than  nine  cubits  in| 
winter.53 

The  opinions  may  be  fanciful,  but  they  show  this 
great  astronomer's  notion  of  the  extent  of  the  Keltic 


47  Arist.  -nOtKuv  NiKofj..  lib.  iii.  c.  10.  «  Arist.  yOiK.  Ev5r)/j.,  lib.  iii.  c.  1. 

49  Arist.  TloXiT.  lib.  vii.  c.  1 7.  *>  De  Mundo,  c.  iii.  p.  552. 

51  Meteor,  lib.  i.  c.  12.     This  passage  makes  it  probable,  that  by  Pyrene  the  an- 
cients meant  the  Pyrenees,  though  Herodotus  calls  it  a  city,  and  places  it  inaccu- 
rately as  to  the  sources  of  the  Danube. 

52  De  Mirab.  Auscult.  1157.  de  Gen.  An.  lib.  ii.   c.  8.     Strabo  also  calls  their 
country  Keltica,  and  Livy,  Kelticum.     Timagetes  placed  the  springs  of  the  Danube 
in  the  Keltic  mountains.      Schol.  Appoll. 

53  Strabo  cites  Hipparchus,  p.  128. ;  but  adds  his  own  belief,  that  the  Britons 
were  more  north  than  Keltica,  by  1500  stadia.     In  the  time  of  Strabo  the  Kelts 
were  not  more  north  than  France.     Hipparchus  lived  ]  50  years  before  Strabo,  and 
Keltica  had  become  much  limited,  when  the  Roman  wrote,  by  the  successful  pro- 
gress  to  the  Rhine  of  the  German  nations.     The  Belga;  had  then  passed  this  river, 
and  even  entered  Gaul. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  39 

population.     The  Boii  who  named  Bohemia,  and  the     CHAP. 
Helvetians,  are  both  admitted  to  be  Keltic.54  « — 'r — . 

The  tendency  of  the  notices  of  the  Kelts,  by 
Herodotus,  Aristotle,  and  Ephorus,  is  to  show,  that 
in  their  times,  this  people  lived  in  the  western  parts 
of  Europe,  about  Gaul  and  Spain.  They  are  spoken 
of  as  being  in  the  same  places  by  later  writers.55  But 
the  evidence  of  Caesar  is  particularly  interesting  on 
this  subject.  In  his  time  the  German  or  Scythic 
hordes  had  spread  themselves  over  Europe,  and  had 
incorporated,  or  driven  before  them,  the  more  ancient 
races,  whom  we  have  been  describing.  But  he  found 
the  Kelts  possessing,  at  the  period  of  his  entrance 
into  Gaul,  the  most  considerable,  and  the  best  mari- 
time part  of  it.  He  mentions  that  the  Seine  and  the 
Marne  separated  them  from  the  Belgae,  and  the 
Garonne  from  the  Aquitani.56  But  if  the  Kelts  occu- 
pied the  sea-coast  of  France,  from  the  Seine  to  the 
Garonne,  and  had  been  driven  to  the  Seine  by  the 
invasions  of  northern  assailants,  they  were  in  a  position 
extremely  favourable  for  passing  over»into  Britain ; 
and  the  same  circumstances  would  impel  them  to  it, 
as  afterwards  drove  the  Britons  to  seek  refuge  on  a 
part  of  their  coast,  when  the  Saxons  pressed  upon 
them. 

The  Kelts  had  certainly  been  much  spread  upon 
the  Continent,  in  the  times  anterior  to  Caesar,  and 
had  shaken  both  Greece  and  Koine  by  perilous  in- 
vasions. From  the  earliest  of  their  predatory  mi- 
grations which  has  been  recorded  by  the  classical 
writers,  we  find,  that  they  were  in  the  occupation  of 
France  about  600  years  before  the  Christian  aera. 
At  that  period,  their  population  in  this  country  was 
so  abundant,  that  their  chiefs  recommended  two  of 

51  See  Tac.  Mor.  Germ.—  Strabo,  lib.  vii.  —  Caesar,  de  Bell.  Gall. 

55  As  Pausanias,  p.  62.    Diod.  Sic   p.  308. ;  and  Strabo  in  many  places  ;  also  by 
. 

56  Caesar.  Comment,  de  Bell.  Gall.  lib.  i.  c.  1 . 

D  4 


40  HISTORY    OF    THE 

their  princes  to  lead  a  numerous  body  over  the  Alps 
into  Italy.  One  large  multitude  passed  them  near 
Turin,  defeated  the  Tuscans,  and  founded  Milan; 
another  party  settled  about  Brixia  and  Verona,  while 
succeeding  adventurers  spread  themselves  over  other 
districts.  The  reign  of  Tarquinius  Priscus  at  Rome 
marks  the  chronology  of  these  expeditions.57 

The  next  great  movement  of  the  Kelts,  in  the 
Italian  States,  that  has  been  transmitted  to  us,  oc- 
curred about  180  years  after  the  preceding  migra- 
tion, when  Brennus  led  them  to  that  attack  upon 
Eome  itself,  in  which  they  became  masters  of  the 
city,  killed  its  senate,  and  had  nearly  taken  its  capitol, 
when  Camillus  rescued  the  perishing  republic  from 
its  barbaric  conquerors.68 

One  hundred  and  ten  years  afterwards,  Greece 
suffered  from  the  irruptions  of  this  prolific  people, 
under  another  Brennus.59  The  Kelts  burst  from 
Illyria,  into  Macedonia  and  Thrace,  poured  thence 
into  Thessaly,  passed  the  strait  of  Thermopylaa,  as 
Xerxes  had  done,  and  proceeded  to  attack  Delphi, 
when  they  were  affected  and  destroyed  by  that  panic 
which  the  reputation  of  the  place,  arid  the  con- 
trivances of  its  priesthood  produced,  and  which  pre- 
served Greece  from  their  further  desolations. 60  These 

57  We  derive  our  information  of  this  important  event  and  its  date  from  Livy. 
He  states,  that  when   Tarquinius  Priscus  reigned,  the  chief  sovereignty  of  the 
Keltse  was  with  the  Bituriges  (the  inhabitants  of  that  part  of  France  where  Bourges 
is  now  situated),  and  that  these  gave  a  king  to  Kelticum.     His  name  at  that  time 
was  Ambigatus.     The  princes  whom  he  sent  out  at  the  head  of  these  expeditions 
were  Bellovesus  and  Sigovesus,  his  sister's  sons.     The  party  under  Sigovesus  took 
the  direction  of  the  Hercynian  forest.     But  Bellovesus  commanded  the  invasion  of 
Italy.     Livy,  Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  34.     The  elder  Tarquin  died  578  years  before  the 
Christian  sera. 

58  Dionysius  Halicar.  places  this  Keltic  irruption,  e^oSos  ice\Twv,  in  the  first  year 
of  the  ninety-eighth  Olympiad,  or  120  years  after  Junius  Brutus  and  Collatinus. 
Lib.  i.  p.  60. 

59  That  the  leader  of  the  Keltse  in  the  attack  of  Rome,  and  their  chief  a  century 
after  in  their  invasion  of  Greece,  should  both  be  named  Brennus,  induces  one  to 
believe  that  this  word   is  rather  a   descriptive  than  a  personal  appellation,  and 
therefore  to  recollect  that  Brennin  means  a  king  in  the  Welsh  and  ancient  British 
language. 

50  The  fullest  account  of  this  expedition  of  the  Kelts  into  Greece,  occurs  in  Pau- 
sanias,  Attic,  lib.  i.  p.  6—8.,  and  Phoc.  lib.  x.  p.  643— 655. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  41 

events  occurred  about  280  years  before  our  Saviour's     CHAP. 
birth.     The  Kelts  are  noticed  afterwards  as  attempt-  • 

ing  Asia  Minor,  and  as  serving  in  the  armies  of 
Ptolemy  and  also  of  Antigonus61,  and  they  had  fre- 
quent battles  with  the  Romans,  but  usually  ex- 
perienced ruinous  defeats62 ;  especially  in  that  tremend- 
ous conflict  with  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  of  which 
Ca3sar  reminded  the  Gauls  of  his  day63,  when  they 
were  about  to  war  with  him,  and  in  which  Strabo 
states,  that  200,000  Keltse  were  cut  off. 64 

Strabo  remarks  of  the  Kelta?,  that  it  was  common 
to  them  and  the  Iberians  to  lie  on  the  ground65 ;  that 
they  used  waxen  vessels66 ;  that  they  were  addicted 
to  human  sacrifices,  from  which  the  Romans  re- 
claimed them67;  and  that  they  were  accustomed  to 
bring  home  the  heads  of  their  enemies  and  fix  them 
on  the  gates  of  their  towns. 68  That  the  Keltae,  or 
Gauls,  were  easier  conquered  than  the  Spaniards,  he 
ascribes  to  their  fighting  more  in  masses.69  In  the 
time  of  Alexander,  there  were  Kelts  on  the  Adriatic 
who  offered  him  their  friendship  with  language  which 
he  thought  arrogant. 70  The  expeditions  and  positions 
above  noticed  of  the  Kelts,  prove  that  they  were  in 
the  habit  of  spreading  themselves  from  France  into 
other  countries ;  and  considering  the  spirit  of  enter- 

61  Pausan.  lib.  i.  p.  23.  m  Liv.  Hist. 

63  Casar  de  Bell.  Gall. 

64  Strabo  places  the  scene  of  this  battle  where  the  Isar  and  the  Rhone  flow,  near 
the  Kemminon  mountains.     The  conqueror  erected  a  trophy  of  white  stone,  and 
built  two  temples,  one  to  Mars,  and  one  to  Hercules,  p.  283. 

65  Strabo,  p.  249.  *  Ib.  p.  233. 
67  Ib.  p.  303. 

69  He  says,  that  Posidonius  declares  he  saw  several  of  their  heads,  p.  303.  ;  a 
custom  which  Strabo  thought  barbarian  ;  but  which  reminds  us  of  our  own  legal 
practice  with  executed  traitors. 

69  Tb.  p.  299. 

70  Strabo,  lib.  vii.  p.  462.     Arrian,  lib.  i.  p.  8.     The  account,    related    on   the 
authority  of  Ptolemy  Lagus,  his  general  and  king  of  Egypt,  is,  that  the  king  re- 
ceived  the  ambassadors  with  great  civility,  and  asked  them  at  his  banquet  what 
they  most  dreaded,  expecting  a  complimentary  answer  as  to  himself.     But  they 
said  they  feared  nothing,  unless  that  the  sky  should  fall  and  overwhelm   them, 
though  they  highly  valued  his  friendship.     Alexander  admitted  them  to  his  alliance, 
but  called  them  arrogant. 


42 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


BOOK     prise,    the  abundant  population,    and  power  of  the 
.     L     ,   Kelt®  in   France,  and  the  vicinity   and  fertility  of 
Britain,  we  cannot  avoid  believing,  that  they  crossed 
the   sea  to  colonise  it.     Ca3sar  expressly  mentions, 
that  one  of  the  Keltic    kings   in   Gaul,    Divitiacus, 
who  governed    there    the    Suessiones,  and  was   the 
most  powerful  prince  in  that  country,  had  subjected 
also  part  of  Britain  to  his  power.71     From  him  also 
we  learn,   that  the  Kelts  of  Armorica  called   upon 
some  of  the  British  tribes  to  aid   them  against  his 
hostilities72;    and  one  of  his  reasons  for   attacking 
Britain  was  that  it  had  assisted  the  Keltic  Gauls  to 
resist  him. 73     He  speaks  also  of  its  being  visited  by 
the   Keltic   merchants;    and   before  his  invasion    of 
Britain,  he  sent  one  of  the  Keltic  princes  of  Gaul, 
whom  he  had  made  a  king,  into   our  island  to  per- 
suade the  Britons  to  be  friendly  to  the  Roman  state, 
because  the  authority  of  this  chieftain  was  great  in 
Britain.     Thus  Caesar  affords   sufficient  evidence  of 
the  military  and  commercial  intercourse  between  the 
two  nations  in  his  time,    a  fact  favourable  to  the 
opinion  of  the  affinity,  between   some  parts  of  their 
respective  populations. 

The  Kelts  That  colonies  of  Keltic  race  entered  the  British 
Britain.  islands  from  Gaul,  has  always  appeared  to  our  anti- 
quaries so  probable,  that  there  is  scarcely  any  cir- 
cumstance on  which  they  have  so  cordially  agreed. 
The  Welsh  tradition  may  be  therefore  read  without 
incredulity,  which  deduces  two  colonies  from  Gaul, 
not  Kymry  or  Kimmerians,  but  of  Kimmerian  origin  ; 
the  one  from  Armorica,  and  the  other  from  Gascony. 74 

71  Lib.  ii.  c.  4.  72  Lib.  iii.  c.  9.  ra  C.  18. 

74  The  fifth  triad  is  this  :  "  The  three  peaceful  people  of  the  isle  of  Britain.  The 
first  were  the  nation  of  the  Kymry,  who  came  with  Hu  Cadarn  to  the  island  of 
Britain.  He  obtained  not  the  country,  nor  the  lands,  by  slaughter  or  contest,  but 
with  justice  and  peace.  The  other  was  the  race  of  the  Lloegrwys,  who  came  from 
the  land  of  Gwasgwyn  ;  and  they  were  of  the  first  race  of  the  Kymry.  The  third 
were  the  Brython,  and  from  the  land  of  Llydaw  they  came ;  and  they  were  of  the 
first  race  of  the  Kymry.  And  these  were  called  the  three  peaceful  nations,  because 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  4 

The  distinction  taken  as  to  their  origin  suits  the  CHAP. 
situation  of  the  Kelts,  who,  to  use  the  expression  of  .. 
the  triad,  were  of  the  first  race  of  the  Kymry.  The 
Arinorican  emigration  was  of  the  tribe  called  Bry- 
thon75,  a  name  which  recals  to  our  recollection,  that 
Pliny  found  a  people  called  Britanni  remaining  in 
Gaul  in  his  time. 76  The  colony  from  Gascony  was 
the  Lloegrwys,  whose  name  became  attached  to  that 
part  of  the  island  which  they  occupied ;  for  the 
largest  part  of  England  has  been  always  named 
Lloegr  by  the  Welsh  poets77  and  chroniclers, 78  Tacitus 
expresses  his  belief,  that  the  Gauls  peopled  Britain79, 
and  Bede  derives  its  inhabitants  from  Arrnorica. 80 
The  position  of  the  Kelts  on  the  maritime  regions  of 
the  west  of  Europe,  bringing  them  more  within  the 
reach  of  intercourse  with  the  civilised  nations  of 
antiquity,  who  frequented  the  ocean,  they  had  begun 
to  feel  the  influence  of  the  superior  progress  of  the 
improved  part  of  the  world.  The  Grecian  settlement 
of  the  Phocians,  at  Marseilles,  about  540  years  before 
the  Christian  aera,  flourished  afterwards  into  great 

they  came  one  to  the  other  with  peace  and  tranquillity  ;  and  these  three  nations 
•were  of  the  first  race  of  the  Kymry,  and  they  were  of  the  same  language."  Trioedd 
ynys  Prydain.  2  Archaiol.  p.  58. 

75  The  Brython  are  frequently  mentioned  hy  the  old  Welsh  poets  :  by  Aneurin, 
in  his  Gododin,  1  Archaiol.  p.  10.,  and  by  Taliessin,  p.  31.  50.  66,  67.  73.      He 
once  mentions  the  Morini  Brython,  in  his  Prif  Gyfarch,  or  Primary  Gratulation, 
p.  33. 

76  Pliny  Hist.  Nat.  lib.  iv.  c.  31.  ;  and  Dionysius. 

77  Aneurin  speaks  of  Lloegr,  p.  7.,  and  calls  its  inhabitants  Lloegrwys,  p.  4.  9. 
and  1 1.    Taliessin  has  Lloegr,  p.  64.  and  59.,  and  Lloergrwys,  p.  51.  55.    Llywarch 
Hen  and  Myrddhin  also  use  both  words,  as  108.  117.  153.,  &c. 

78  Besides  the  fabulous  Brut  Tysilio,  and  the  Brut  ab  Arthur,  2  Archaiol.  p.  116, 
117.,  their  historical  chronicles  Brut  y  Saeson,  and  the  Brut  y  Tywysogion,  p.  469. 
471.,  &c.  speak  of  England  under  this  name. 

79  Tacitus  Vit.  Agric.     In  Camden's  Britannia  numerous  analogies  of  manners 
and  language  between  the  Britons  and  Gauls  are  collected,  to  prove  their  identity 
of  origin.     Some  of  these  are  worth  our  consideration. 

80  Bede  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  1.     We  have  two  collateral  proofs  from  the  analogy 
of  language  of  the  affinity  between  the  inhabitants  of  Britain  and  the  ancient  Kelts. 
Pausanias,  mentioning  that  every  Keltic  horseman  was  followed  to  battle  by  two 
attendants,  says  that  the  Kelts  called  this  custom,  in  their  native  language,  Triinar- 
kisian,  because  the  name  of  a  horse  among  the  Kelts  is  Markan,  Phoc.  lib.  x.  p.  545. 
Mark  is  also  a  horse,  tri  is  three,  and  trimarkwys  is  literally  three  horsemen,  in  the 
ancient  British,  and  present  Welsh.     Caesar  states,  that  the  Keltic  people,  who 
bordered  upon  the  ocean,  were  in  his  time  called  Armoricse,  lib.  v.  c.  44.     In  the 
ancient  British,  and  in  the  Welsh,  armor-uch  literally  mean  upon  the  sea-heights. 


44  HISTORY    OF    TPIE 

BOOK  wealth  and  consequence.  These  colonists  subdued 
.  *•  .  some  of  the  Keltic  regions  around  them,  founded 
cities,  built  a  splendid  temple  to  the  Ephesian  Diana, 
raised  large  fleets,  pursued  extensive  navigations,  — 
of  which  the  voyage  of  Pytheas  towards  Iceland  is  an 
instance,  —  and  became  distinguished  for  the  elegance 
of  their  manners,  their  love  of  literature,  and  spirit 
of  philosophy.  They  made  their  city  so  attractive 
for  its  intellectual  resources,  that  some  of  the  noblest 
of  the  Komans  lived  at  Marseilles,  in  preference  to 
Athens ;  and  they  diffused  such  a  taste  for  Grecian 
customs  around  them,  that  the  Gauls  used  Greek 
letters,  and  wrote  their  contracts  in  Greek. 81  The 
Keltic  invaders  of  Greece  must  have  also  introduced 
many  beneficial  improvements  into  their  native 
country ;  for  Strabo  mentions,  that  treasures  taken 
from  Delphi,  in  the  expedition  under  Brennus,  were 
found  by  the  Romans  at  Toulouse.82  It  was  re- 
marked by  Ephorus,  that  the  Keltse  were  fond  of  the 
Greeks83;  and  their  diffusion  into  Spain,  which  he 
also  notices84,  brought  them  into  immediate  contact 
with  the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians ;  and  their 
Druids  are  certainly  evidence  that  a  part  of  the 
population  had  made  some  intellectual  advance.  The 
preceding  facts,  connected  with  the  analogy  of  the 
language,  as  at  first  remarked,  satisfactorily  prove 
that  our  earliest  population  came  from  the  Kiinmerian 
and  Keltic  stock. 

81  Strabo,  p.  272,  273.     Justin.  L.  43.  c.  3. 

82  Strabo,  p.  286.  ™  Ib.  p.  304. 

84  Ephorus  stated,  that  they  occupied  the  largest  part  of  Spain,  up  to  Cadiz. 
Strabo,  p.  304.  And  Strabo  mentions,  that  before  the  Carthaginians  possessed 
Spain,  the  Keltoi  and  the  Tyrians  held  it,  p.  238.  Mr.  Garnett  in  his  commu- 
nications to  the  Philological  Society  remarks,  that  "  the  Irish  or  Gaelic  resembles 
the  Welsh  language  in  many  points  of  grammatical  structure,  in  a  considerable 
proportion  of  its  vocabulary,  and  in  that  remarkable  system  of  initial  mutation  of 
consonants  which  distinguishes  the  Celtic  from  all  other  languages  in  Europe. 
An  intelligent  contributor  to  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  (September,  1843),  re- 
ferring to  this  statement,  gives  a  list  of  seventy  or  eighty  words  in  C  only,  which 
are  nearly  identical,  and  adds,  "  the  conclusion  I  have  come  to  is,  that  Welsh  must 
have  been  the  Aboriginal  language  of  Ireland,  as  it  forms  the  basis  of  the  Irish 
language."—  Gent.  Mag.  Sept.  1843,  p.  265. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


CHAP.  III. 

Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians  in  Britain. 

BUT  though  the  Kimmerii,  and  their  kindred  the  CHAP. 
Kelts,  may  have  peopled  Britain,  a  more  celebrated 
people  are  also  stated  to  have  visited  it.  The  Phoeni- 
cians, in  their  extensive  commercial  navigations, 
colonised  many  of  the  islands,  and  some  of  the  coasts  tain- 
of  the  --ZEgean  and  Mediterranean  Seas.  Inscriptions 
in  their  language  have  been  found  in  Malta.  They 
occupied  Spain,  and  founded  Cadiz ;  and  it  was  pro- 
bably in  pursuit  of  them,  that  Nebuchadnezzar,  the 
celebrated  King  of  Babylon,  became  the  conqueror  of 
Spain.  They  had  also  an  established  intercourse 
with  islands,  which  the  Greeks  called  "  the  Islands 
of  Tin,"  or  Cassiterides.  This,  being  a  descriptive  Th?  Cassi- 
name,  was  probably  the  translation  of  the  Phoenician 
appellation.1  As  Herodotus  intimates,  that  the  Cas- 
siterides were,  with  respect  to  Greece,  in  the  farthest 
parts  of  Europe2 ;  as  Aristotle  talks  of  Keltic  tin3  ; 
and  Strabo  describes  both  these  islands  and  Britain, 
to  be  opposite  to  the  Artabri,  or  Gallicia  in  Spain, 
but  northward,  and  places  them  within  the  British 
climate4;  as  in  another  passage  he  states  them  to  be 
as  to  Rome,  without,  or  on  our  side  of,  the  columns 

1  Kacra-iTfpov  is  the  word  used  by  the  Greeks  for  tin.     Bochart  has  founded  an 
ingenious    etymology  of    the  "Britannic    islands"   on    the    Hebrew    *pfc$Tn2, 
Baratanac,  which,  he  says,  means  the  Land  of  Tin.      He  says  Strabo  calls  Britain, 
BptTTaviKrj.     Boch.  Canaan,  lib.  i.  c.  39.  p.  720.     He  also  intimates,  what  is  more 
probable,  that  the  word   Ka<r<riT€pov  may  have  been  of  Phoenician  origin.     The 
Chaldean  Targums  of  Jonathan  and  Jerusalem,  certainly  call  tin  kastira  and  kistara, 
as  the  Arabs  name  it  kasdar.     See  Numbers,  xxxi.  22. 

2  Herod.  Thalia,  c.  115. 

3  Aristot.  lib.  Mirabilium ;  Mela  places  the  Cassiterides  in  Celticis,  or  among 
the  Keltae,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.  p.  262. 

1  Strabo  Geog.  lib.  ii.  p.  181. 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  of  Hercules5 ;  as  he  mentions  them  to  be  productive 
.  Tt  ,  of  tin,  obviously  connecting  them  at  the  same  time 
with  the  British  islands6;  and  in  another  part,  as 
being  in  the  open  sea,  north  from  the  port  of  the 
Artabri7,  or  Gallicia :  the  most  learned,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  have  believed  the  Cassiterides  to 
have  been  some  of  the  British  islands.  This  opinion 
is  warranted  by  there  being  no  other  islands  famous 
for  tin  near  the  parts  designated  by  Strabo  ;  and  by 
the  fact,  that  British  tin  was  so  celebrated  in  an- 
tiquity, that  Polybius  intended  to  write  on  the 
British  islands,  and  the  preparation  of  tin.8 

It  has  been  suggested,  that  the  Scilly  islands  and 
Cornwall  were  more  peculiarly  meant  by  the  Cassite- 
rides. When  Cornwall  was  first  discovered  from  the 
south  of  Europe,  it  may  have  been  thought  an  island, 
before  greater  familiarity  with  the  coast  taught  the 
navigators  that  it  was  only  a  projecting  part  of  a 
larger  country ;  and  even  then,  when  the  whole 
country  connected  with  it  was  found  to  be  an  island, 
there  was  no  reason  to  change  its  insular  appellation. 
In  our  navigations  to  the  Pacific,  new-discovered 
places  have  been  at  first  marked  as  islands,  which 
were  afterwards  traced  to  be  parts  of  a  continent ; 
arid  others  have  been  deemed  continental,  which  have 
been  discovered  to  be  insular.9 


5  Strabo  Geog.  lib.  ii.  p.  191 .     He  joins  them  with  the  British  islands,  /cat  Karn- 

KCU  jSpeTTawKai. 

6  Ib.  lib.  iii.  p.  219.     Here  he  says,  that  tin  is  produced  among  the  barbarians 
above  Lusitania,  and  in  the  islands  Cassiterides,  and  from  Britain  is  brought  to 
Marseilles. 

7  Ib.  lib.  iii.  p.  265.    In  this  passage  Strabo  says  likewise,  they  are  ten  in  number, 
adjoining  each  other. 

8  Polyb.  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  5.     Festus  Avienus  describes  islands  under  the  name  of 
JEstrymnides,  which  are  thought  to  be  the  same  with  Strabo's  Cassiterides.     He 
says  they  were  frequented  by  the  merchants  of  Tartessus  and  Carthage,  and  were 
rich  in  tin  and  lead.     De  oris  Marit. 

9  The  reasons  for  supposing  the  Cassiterides  to  be  the  Scilly  islands  are  thus 
stated  in  Camden's  Britannia.     They  are  opposite  to  the  Artabri  in  Spain  ;  they 
bend  directly  to  the  north  from  them  ;  they  lie  in  the  same  clime  with  Britain  ; 
they  look  towards  Celtiberia ;  the  sea  is  much  broader  between  them  and  Spain 
than  between  them  and  Britain  ;  they  lie  just  upon  the  Iberian  sea ;  there  are  only 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  47 

Much  of  the  false  description  with  which  the  posi-     CHAP. 
tion  of  the  Cassiterides  has  been  confused,  may  have   , — ,J — , 
been  designedly  circulated  by  the  Phoenicians  them- 
selves. We  know  from  Strabo,  that  they  were  anxious 
to  deprive  the  rest  of  the  world  of  any  acquaintance 
with  these  islands.     He  has  told  us  a  very  striking 
incident  of  this  monopolising  solicitude,  which  must 
have  been  the  parent  of  many  misrepresentations  about 
Britain,  till  the  Romans  subdued  and  examined  it. 
He  says,  "  anciently  the  Phoenicians  alone,  from  Cadiz, 
engrossed  this  market ;  hiding  the  navigation   from 
all  others.     When  the  Eomans  followed  the  course  of 
a  vessel,  that  they  might  discover  the  situation,  the 
jealous  pilot  wilfully  stranded  his   ship  ;  misleading 
those,  who  were  tracing  him,  to  the  same  destruction. 
Escaping  from  the  shipwreck,  he  was  indemnified  for 
his  losses  out  of  the  public  treasury."  10    When  Caesar 
invaded  Britain,   we  know  from  his   Commentaries, 
that  he    was  unacquainted  with    its   magnitude,  its 
harbours,  or  its  people.  It  was  even  doubted  whether 
it  was  a  continent  or  an  island. n      Of  course  the 
Romans  at  that  time  could  have  known  nothing  of 
the  connection  and   continuance   of   coast  between 
Cornwall  and  Dover.  This  ignorance  of  other  nations, 
and  the  designed  misinformation  given  by  the  Pheni- 
cians,  may  have  occasioned  the  distinction  to  have 
been  taken  between  the  Cassiterides  and  Britain,  and 
a  supposition,  favoured  by  Strabo,  that  some  sea  in- 
tervened.12    The  Cassiterides  had  become  imperfectly 
known  to  the  Romans  in  the  time  of  Strabo,  by  the 
attempt  of  13  Publius  Crassus  to  discover  them.      He 

ten  of  them  of  any  note,  and  they  have  veins  of  tin  which  no  other  isle  has  in  this 
.tract.  Camd.  Brit.  p.  1112.,  ed.  1695.  All  these  circumstances  have  been  men- 
tioned of  the  Cassiterides. 

10  Strabo,  lib.  iii.  p.  265. 

11  Dio  Cass.  lib.  xxxix.  p.  127.     Csesar  Comm.  de  Bell.  Gall.  lib.  iv.  s.  18. 

12  Solinus  says,  that  a  turbid  sea  divided  the  Scilly  isle  (Siluram)  from  Britain, 
Polyhist    c.  22.    p.  31.     The   distance   is   near   forty  miles.     Whit.  Manch.  ii. 
p.  172.  8°. 

13  Strabo,  lib.  iii.  p.  265.     Huet  thinks  this  was  not  the  Crassus  who  perished 


48  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK     seems  to  have  landed  at  one  of  them ;  but  the  short 
^  *•    ._>   account  given  of  his  voyage   does  not  incline  us  to 
believe  that  he  completely  explored  them. u 

If  we  once  presume  that  the  Phoenicians  reached 
the  Scilly  islands,  and  extracted  tin  from  them,  we 
shall  do  great  injustice  to  their  memory  to  suppose 
that  they,  who  could  sail  from  Tyre  to  the  Scilly 
islands,  would  not  have  adventured  across  the  small 
sea  between  them  and  the  Land's  End.  Indeed,  the 
voyage  of  Himilco  shows  that  the  Carthaginians,  the 
offspring  of  Tyre,  pursued  voyages  even  more  north- 
ward than  Britain. 15  We  may  therefore  admit,  without 
much  chance  of  error,  that  the  Cassiterides  visited  by 
the  Phoenicians  were  the  British  islands,  though  the 
Eomans  understood  by  the  name  the  islands  of  Scilly, 
with  perhaps  part  of  the  co#st  of  Cornwall.16 
weish  tra-  Having  thus  stated  the  most  authentic  circum- 
ditions.  stances  that  can  be  now  collected,  of  the  peopling  of 
Britain  by  the  Kimmerians,  the  Keltoi,  and  the  Phoe- 
nicians ;  it  may  not  be  improper  to  state,  in  one  view, 
all  that  the  Welsh  traditions  deliver  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  the  island.  As  traditions  of  an  ancient 
people  committed  to  writing,  they  deserve  to  be 
preserved  from  absolute  oblivion. 

According  to  the  Welsh  triads,  while  it  was  unin- 
habited by  human  colonies,  and  was  full  of  bears, 
wolves,  beavers,  and  a  peculiar  kind  of  wild  cattle,  it 
had  the  name  of  Clas  Merddhin.17  In  this  state,  Hu 

against  the  Parthians,  though  he  had  fought  in  Portugal  and  triumphed  in  Spain ; 
but  his  son,  who  was  Caesar's  lieutenant  in  his  Gallic  wars,  and  who  subdued  the 
people  of  Vannes  and  its  vicinity.  He  may  have  undertaken  the  voyage  from 
curiosity,  as  Volusenus,  by  Cssar's  orders,  examined  part  of  the  sea  coasts  of  our 
island  for  military  purposes.  Hist,  de  Com.  des  Anciens,  c.  38.  p.  183.,  ed.  Par. 
1727. 

14  Whittaker's  description  of  the  present  state  of  the  Scilly  islands  is  worth  reading. 
Hist.  Manch.  ii.  p.  169.     Though  the  same  chapter  in  other  parts  discovers  a  fancy 
painting  far  beyond  the  facts  in  its  authorities. 

15  Pliny,  lib.  ii.  c.  67. 

16  Pliny  has  preserved  the  name  of  the  Phoenician  navigator  who  first  procured 
lead  from  the  Cassiterides.     He  says,  Plumbum  ex  Cassiteride  insula  primus  appor- 
tavit  Midacritus.     Hist.  Nat.  lib.  vii.  c.  57. 

17  Trioedd  1. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  49 

Cadarn  led  the  first  colony  of  the  Cymry  to  it,  of  CHAP. 
whom  some  went  to  Bretagne.18  It  then  acquired  .  m'  . 
the  name  of  the  Honey  Island.19  In  the  course  of 
time,  Prydain,  the  son  of  Aedd  the  Great,  reigned  in 
it,  and  from  him  it  was  called  Ynys  Prydain,  the  Isle 
of  Prydain 20 ;  which  is  its  present  denomination  in 
Welsh,  and  which  the  Greeks  and  Komans  may  have 
extended  into  Britannia.  It  was  afterwards  visited 
by  two  foreign  tribes  of  Kimmerian  origin,  the 
Lloegrwys,  from  Gwasgwyn,  or  Gascony  ;  and  the 
Bry thon,  from  Llydaw,  or  Bretagne. 21  Both  of  these 
were  peaceable  colonists.  The  Lloegrwys  impressed 
their  name  upon  a  large  portion  of  the  island.  At 
subsequent  periods,  other  people  came  with  more  or 
less  violence.  The  Eomans 22 ;  the  Gwyddyl  Fficti 
(the  Picts)  to  Alban  or  Scotland,  on  the  part  which 
lies  nearest  the  Baltic 23 ;  the  Celyddon  (Caledonians) 
to  the  north  parts  of  the  island;  the  Gwyddyl  to 
other  parts  of  Scotland  24 ;  the  Corraniaid  from  Pwyll 
(perhaps  Poland)  to  the  Humber25 ;  the  men  of  Gale- 
din,  or  Flanders,  to  Wyth ;  the  Saxons 26 ;  and  the 
Llychlynians,  or  Northmen. 27 

As  the  prosperity  of  the  Phoenicians  declined  under  carthagi- 
the  hostilities  of  the  ancient  conquerors,  who  emerged  quanted" 
from  Assyria,  Babylon,  and  Persia,  their  descendants,  wi.th  Bri- 
the   Carthaginians,   succeeded   to   the   possession  of 
their  European  settlements ;  and  in  some  places,  as 
in  Spain  and  Scilly,  greatly  extended  their  territorial 
power.      The  Carthaginian  occupation  of  Spain   is 
fully  attested  to  us  by  the  Koman  historians,  and  was 
distinguished  by  the  wars   in  that   country  of  the 
celebrated  Carthaginian  generals  Asdrubal  and  Han- 
nibal.    It  was  natural  that  when  possessed  of  Spain, 

18  Trioedd  4.  and  5.  19  Ib.  1. 

20  Trioedd  1.     Isidorus  says,  that  Britain  derived  its  name  from  a  word  of  its 
inhabitants. 

21  Trioedd  5.  »  Ib.  8.  »  Ib.  7.  24  Ib.  6. 
25  Ib.  7.                            M  Ib.  6.                      27  Ib.  8. 

VOL.  I.  E 


50  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

BOOK  they  should  also  acquire  the  more  distant  colonies  of 
.  *'  ,  the  Phenicians,  and  continue  their  commercial  inter- 
course with  the  British  islands,  and  the  neighbouring 
shores.  Hence,  there  is  no  reason  to  disbelieve  the 
opinion,  that  the  Carthaginians  had  the  same  inter- 
course with  the  British  islands  which  the  Phenicians 
established.  The  voyage  of  Himilco  warrants  the 
supposition.  This  Carthaginian  officer  sailed  from 
Spain,  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  of  the  northern  coasts 
of  Europe,  at  the  same  time  that  Hanno  was  directed 
to  circumnavigate  Africa. 28 

28  Plin.  Nat  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  67.  On  Bochart's  derivation  of  Brettanike  from 
Baratanac,  the  Land  of  Tin,  mentioned  in  note  1  of  this  chapter,  p.  45.,  it  may  be 
remarked  that  these  terms  are  rather  conjectural  as  to  the  Hebrew :  though  barat, 
as  he  intimates,  signifies  a  field  in  Syriac,  and  is  twice  used  in  that  sense  in  the 
Chaldee  of  Daniel.  But  I  have  since  found  the  two  component  words  actually 
existing  in  the  Arabic  tongue,  and  placed  as  such  in  the  Arabic  Lexicon  ;  for  there 
I  find  «  bahrat '  to  mean  '  a  country,'  and  « anvk  '  to  signify  '  tin  and  lead.'  So 
that  in  Arabic  bahrat-anuk  literally  express  « the  Country  of  Tin,'  which  is  the 
meaning  of  the  Greek  Kassiterides :  and  it  is  not  more  improbable  that  England 
should  have  been  anciently  called  by  its  trading  visitors,  the  '  Tin  Country,'  than 
that  Molucca  and  the  adjacent  isles  should  be  termed  by  our  navigators  '  the  Spice 
Islands,1  or  that  a  part  of  Africa  should  be  entitled,  « the  Gold  Coast,'  and  another 
part '  the  Slave  Coast ; '  seamen  and  merchants  not  unnaturally  naming  the  distant 
land  from  the  article  for  which  they  frequent  it. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  51 


CHAP.  IV. 

On  the  "knowledge  which  the  Greeks  had  of  the  British  Islands. — 
And  on  the  Tradition  of  the  Trojan  Colony. 

THE  Grecian  knowledge  of  Europe  was  gradually  ob-  CHAP. 
tained.  The  calamities  experienced  at  sea,  by  the  .  ™' 
conquerors  of  Troy  on  their  return,  are  said  to  have 
dispersed  them  into  many  parts  of  the  maritime 
regions  of  Europe. l  The  subsequent  settlements  of 
several  Grecian  colonies  in  Italy,  as  well  as  that  al- 
ready noticed  at  Marseilles,  from  which  they  pursued 
distant  navigations ;  and  the  visits  of  Grecian  travellers 
and  philosophers  to  the  Phoenician  cities  in  Spain 2,  led 
them  to  some  knowledge  of  its  western  and  northern 
seas,  shores,  and  islands.  The  attack  of  Darius,  the 
Persian,  on  the  Scythians  in  Europe,  revealed  more 
about  these  people  than  former  ages  had  acquired  3 ; 
and  the  expeditions  of  Alexander,  before  his  eastern 
adventure,  disclosed  to  the  Greeks  all  the  north  of 
Europe,  up  to  the  Danube.  In  the  same  manner,  the 
restless  enterprises  of  Mithridates  made  known  to 
both  Greeks  and  Eomans  the  various  tribes  that  in- 
habited the  sea  of  Azoph  and  its  vicinity.  4  Hence 
the  Grecians  had  much  information  of  the  ancient 
chorography  of  Europe,  though  they  were  unac- 

1  Strabo,  p.  223.  236.     Plutarch  in  Nic.  p,  238. 

2  Of  which  we  have  an  instance  in  Posidonius.     See  Strabo,  264. 
8  Herodotus. 

4  Strabo,  p.  26.  Several  of  the  Greeks  wrote  on  the  ancient  geography  of 
Europe,  whose  works  we  have  lost,  as  Dicaearchus,  Messenius,  Eratosthenes,  and 
Posidonius,  whom  Strabo  mentions,  p.  163.,  and  whom  he  seems  too  fond  of  cen- 
suring, which  is  one  of  the  faults  of  Strabo.  It  was  a  favourite  point  with  him  to 
attack  all  former  geographers.  He  comes  within  the  remark  of  "  bearing  no  brother 
near  the  throne." 

£  2 


52  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK     quainted,  as  Poly  bins  intimates,  with  many  of  its 

.     L     .   inland  regions. 5 

Britain  But  that  Britain  and  Ireland  were  known  to  the 

'Greeks,  at  least  by  name,  is  an  unquestionable  fact. 
The  ancient  Argonautica,  ascribed  to  Orpheus,  but 
of  much  later  origin6,  describes  the  voyage  of  the 
Argonauts,  on  their  return  to  Greece.  In  this  curious 
work,  they  are  made  to  sail  round  the  north  of  Europe, 
from  the  Kimmerian  Bosphorus.  In  coming  south- 
ward, the  author  says  "  they  passed  by  the  island 
lernida."7  Whether  the  next  island  they  noticed, 
which  is  described  as  full  of  pine-trees,  was  any  part 
of  Britain,  cannot  be  ascertained.  As  this  work,  if, 
not  written  in  the  time  of  Pisistratus,  which  many 
assert  it  to  have  been,  is  at  least  of  great  antiquity8; 
it  is  an  evidence  that  Ireland  was  known  to  the 
ancient  Greeks. 

In  the  book  de  Mundo,  which  is  ascribed  to  Aris-. 
totle,  the  British  islands  are  mentioned,  with  their 
specific  names,  Albion  and  lerne. 

The  voyage  of  Pytheas,  which  was  in  existence  in 
the  fifth  century9,  must  have  transmitted  much  in- 
formation to  the  Greeks  concerning  our  islands.  He- 
seems  to  have  lived  about  the  time  of  Aristotle.10  He 

5  Polybius,  lib.  iii.  remarks  this  of  the  tract  between  Narbonne  and  the  Tanais. 

6  Suidas  says,  the  Argonautica  was  written  by  an  Orpheus  of  Crotona,  whom 
Asclepiades,  in  the  sixth  book  of  his  Grammaticse,  declared  to  be  the  friend  of  Pisis- 
tratus, vol.  ii.  p.  339.     Some  other  works,  published  under  the  name  of  Orpheus, 
he  attributes  to  Onomacritus,  ib.  338. 

7  ApyovavTiKa,  v  1179.   p.  156.  ed.  Lips.  1764.     Strabo,  lib.  iv.    p.  307.  calls 
Ireland  Iepv»j,  and  Diodorus  Siculus  gives  it  a  name  that  approaches  very  near 
its  native  appellation.     Its  name  in  the  Gaelic  is  Erin ;  in  Diodorus  it  is  Iptv, 
lib.  v.  p.  309. 

8  The  antiquity  of  the  Apyovaimica.  has  been  ably  indicated  by  D.  Ruhnkenius. 
He  shows  that  it  was  quoted  by  two  ancient  grammarians,  Orus  and  Draco  Stratoni- 
censis.     He  gives  his  own  critical  judgment  of  its  antiquity  in  strong  terms  :    "  Is, 
qui  Argonautica  et  Hymnos  Orpheo  subjecit,  sive  Onomacritus  fuerit,  ut  plures 
traducit,  sive  alius,  scriptor  certe  meo  judicio  vetustissimus  est ;  in  quo  quamvia 
animum  diligenter  attenderim  ne  levissimum  quidem  recentioris  aetatis  vestigium 
reperi;  contra,  pvoba  omnia  et  antiquitatem  redolentia."     Epist.  Crit.  2.  p.  128. 
ed.  1782. 

8  He  is  quoted  by  Stephanius,  Voc.  OXTTIWVCS,  who  lived  at  this  period. 
10  See  M.  Bougainville's  very  able  Memoir  on  his  Life  and  Voyages,  Mem.  Ac.  des 
Inscript.  v.  xxx.  p.  285. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  53 

sailed  from  Marseilles,  where  he  made  an  observation     CHAP. 

IV 

to  determine  its  latitude,  which  enabled  Eratosthenes  . 

and  Hipparchus  to  calculate  it  w^ith  a  precision  which 
modern  astronomers  have  found  exact.11  He  coasted 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  France,  into  the  British  Channel. 
He  passed  along  the  eastern  shore  of  Britain,  to  the 
north,  till  he  reached  the  island  which  he  has  called 
Thule.  He  is  the  first  navigator  that  penetrated  so 
far  into  the  Northern  Ocean.  After  this,  he  made  a 
voyage  to  the  German  Ocean  ;  passed  the  Sound  into 
the  Baltic  Sea,  and  sailed  on  to  a  river,  which  he 
thought  the  Tanais,  the  boundary  of  Europe.12  In  all 
his  course,  he  made  many  observations  on  the  climate, 
the  people,  and  the  productions  of  the  countries  he 
visited,  of  which  only  a  very  few  fragments  have 
descended  to  us;  and  it  is  evident,  from  what  has 
been  transmitted  to  us  of  his  opinions,  that  Britain 
was  a  principal  object  of  his  examination.13 

In  the  third  book  of  his  history,  Polybius  has 
intimated  that  the  British  islands,  and  the  manner  of 
making  tin,  would  be  one  of  his  subjects  for  a  future 
composition.14  His  friend,  the  great  Scipio,  made 
inquiries  concerning  Britain15,  of  the  merchants  of 
Narbonne  and  Marseilles;  but  though  he  could  obtain, 
from  their  ignorance  or  their  jealousy,  nothing 
worthy  of  memory,  yet,  as  Polybius  mentions  that 
many  authors  before  him  had  treated  fully,  though, 
variously,  on  this  and  the  other  subjects  which  ho 


11  Bougainville,  p.  289.    Pytheas  referred  the  cause  of  the  tides  to  the  agency  of 
the  moon.     Plut.  de  placit.  Phil.     His  description  of  the  stars  in  the  north  was 
cited  with  approbation  by  Hipparchus,  in  his  Commentary  on  Aratus. 

12  Bougainville  has  collected  the  passages  from  Pytheas'  voyage,  in  Strabo  and 
Pliny,  which  express  these  circumstances  ;  and  has  vindicated  him  from  the  angry 
invectives  of  Strabo,  who,  though  occasionally  erring  himself,  is  very  unsparing  in 
his  censure  of  Pytheas. 

13  See  Pliny,  lib.  ii.  c.  77.,  and  c.  99.  ;  lib.  iv.  c.27.,  and  a,  30. ;  and  Strabo,  p.. 
163.  and  175.     Pytheas  has  had  a  singular  fortune:  he  has  been  attacked  by 
Strabo  and  Polybius  ;  and  followed  by  Eratosthenes  and  Hipparchus. 

14  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  5.  15  Strabo,  lib.  iv.  p.  289. 

E  3 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK      postpones ;  and  as  he  himself  had  travelled  through 

.     L ,   Spain  and  Gaul,  and  had  sailed  over  the  ocean  which 

bounds  them16;  the  remarks  of  an  author,  so  in- 
quisitive and  judicious,  would  have  been  an  invaluable 
present  to  our  curiosity.  If  they  were  ever  written17, 
time  has  deprived  us  of  them.  We  have  equally  lost 
the  works  of  Timaeus,  Isidorus,  Artemidorus,  Mes- 
senius,  Eratosthenes,  Hipparchus,  and  Posidonius, 
who  are  all  mentioned  to  have  noticed  the  British 
islands.18 

Indeed  it  is  evident  that  the  Grecian  geographers 
directed  their  attention  to  the  northern  and  western 
parts  of  Europe.  Caesar  mentions  that  the  great 
Hercynian  forest  of  Germany  was  known  to  Eratos- 
thenes, and  some  other  Grecians,  who  called  it 
Orcynia.19  But  that  Grecian  colonies  were  in  Britain, 
cannot  be  believed  on  the  vague  intimation  of  St. 
Jerome.20  That  Hiero,  king  of  Sicily,  had  the  main- 
mast of  his  ship  from  England,  rests  on  a  passage  in 
Athenaeus21,  which  has  been  thought  corrupted,  be- 
cause a  sentence  of  Polybius,  if  it  had  not  been 


16  Polybius,  lib.  iii.  c.  5. 

17  In  speaking  of  the  British  islands,  Polybius  rather  expresses  a  treatise  which 
he  had  it  in  his  contemplation  to  compose,  than  one  which  he  had  made.     From 
this  passage,  it  is  not  certain,  whether  he  fulfilled  his  intentions ;  and  yet  some 
allusions  of  Strabo  seem  to  have  been  taken  from  such  a  work. 

18  Pliny,  lib.iv.  c.  30.     Strabo,  lib.  ii.  p.  163. ;  lib.  iv.  p.  304. ;  lib.  i.  p.  111. 
We  find  from  Tacitus,  Vit.  Agr. ,  that  Livy  and  Fabius  Rusticus,  "  eloquentissimi 
auctores,"  had  also  treated  of  Britain  before  him. 

19  Caesar,  lib.  vi.  c.  22. 

20  St.  Jerome,  in  his  questions  on  Genesis,  referring  to  Varro,  Sisinius  Capito,  and 
Phlegon,  but  without  giving  their  precise  words,  says,  that  the  Greeks  possessed 
all  the  sea  coasts  from  the  mountains  Amanus  and  Taurus  to  the  British  Ocean. 
But  these  writers  most  probably  meant  no  more  than  the  Grecian  colony  at  Mar- 
seilles. 

21  Athenaeus  describes  at  length  the  celebrated  ship  which  Archimedes  made  for 
Hiero,  because  he  had  just  read  very  carefully  the  book  which  Moschion  had 
written  upon  it.     After  giving  a  full  detail  of  its  various  parts,  he  comes  to  its 
masts.     He  says,  the  second  and  third  were  easily  found,  but  the  first  was  obtained 
with  difficulty.     It  was  found  by  a  herdsman,  tv  TOIS  opecriv  TTJS  Epfrravias,  and 
Phileas  the  Tauromenian,  the  mechanist,  brought  it  down  to  the  sea.    Deip.  lib.  v. 
p.  208.     Camden  suggests  that  this  may  be  a  corruption  for  BpcTTiavns,  or  the 
Brutii  in  Italy. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  55 

corrected,  would  have  made  Hannibal  to  have  fought     CHAP. 
in  Britain.22     Later  Greek  stories  are  mere  random   ^^J — , 
fictions.23     But  that  Britain  was  at  least  in  the  re- 
collection of  the  Romans  before  Caesar,  is   obvious 
from  the  passage  of  Lucretius  which  alludes  to  it.24 
The  remarks  of  Dion  Cassius  and  of  Diodorus,  express 
the  real  state  of  the  question  as  to  the  actual  inter- 
course of  the  Grecians  and  Romans  with  Britain.25 

It  is  well  known,  that  Jeffrey^of  Monmouth,  who 
diffused  in  the  twelfth  century  that  history  of  Britain 
which  in  former  times  so  much  occupied  the  public 
mind,  deduces  the  first  colonisation  of  Britain  from  a 
Trojan  source ;  from  Brutus,  the  son  of  ^Eneas,  who, 
after  wandering  through  the  sea,  and  landing  in  Gaul, 
finally  settled  in  this  island.  The  same  story  is  in 
the  Welsh  Chronicles,  which  are  ascribed  to  Tyssilio, 
and  supposed,  though  too  gratuitously,  to  have  been 
Jeffrey's  originals. 

Not  a  line  of  history  can  be  written  from  a  work 
so  obviously  fabulous  as  the  composition,  or,  as  he 
describes  it,  the  translation  from  Breton  manuscripts, 
of  Jeffrey.  But  the  curious  student  may  fairly  ask, 
did  this  Trojan  story  originate  with  Jeffrey,  or  had 

22  The  corrupt  passage  of  Polybius  occurs  in  the  eclogue  of  the  llth  book.    The 
corruption  here  is  manifest,  as  Camden  has  remarked.     The  passage  applies  wholly 
to  Italy. 

23  There  have  been  some  absurd  fancies  about  the  earlier  intercourse  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  with  Britain.     That  Alexander  the  Great  came  from  Cadiz  to 
Britain,  or  that  British  kings  made  presents  to  Cato  the  Elder,  in  approbation  of 
his  virtue,  as  Cedrenus  and  J.  Tzetzes  mention,  are  circumstances  which  show 
that  the  introduction  of  romance  into  history  did  not  originate  merely  from  our 
minstrels. 

24  "  Nam  quid  Britannium  coalum  differre  putamus 

Et  quod  in  ^gypto  est,  qua  mundi  claudicat  axis."     Luc. 

25  Dion  says,  "  Its  existence  was  not  known  to  the  earliest  Greeks  and  Romans, 
and  to  the  more  recent  it  was  a  doubt  whether  it  was  a  continent  or  an  island. 
But  though  several  maintained  each  opinion,  they  had  no  actual  knowledge  about 
It,  as  they  neither  saw  the  island  themselves  nor  conversed  with  its  natives.  '* 
lib.  xxxix.  p.  127.     Diodorus  remarks.    "Anciently  it   remained   untouched   by 
foreign  powers ;  for  we  have  not  heard  that  either  Bacchus  or  Hercules,  or  any 
of  the  other  heroes,    reigned  in  it,"  lib.  iv.   p.  30O.      Mela's   opinion    is,    that 
Caesar  subdued  it  in  tribes,  not  only  unconquered  before,  but  even  unknown,  lib.  iii. 
p.  263. 

E  4 


56  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

it  an  earlier  origin  ?  A  few  observations  will  be  suffi- 
cient on  the  subject. 

It  appears  from  Nennius,  wlio  wrote  in  the  ninth 
century,  that  the  opinion  of  this  descent  was  in 
Britain  in  his  time ;  for  he  mentions  an  outline  of 
that  story26,  which  Jeffrey  has  so  much  amplified  and 
dramatised. 

Taliesin,  in  his  poems,  frequently  mentions  Troy, 
and  seems  to  allude  to  the  tradition  of  such  a  descent. 27 
All  this  is  too  vague  for  history.  But  it  is  remark- 
able, that  there  should  have  been  in  Europe  several 
traditions  connected  both  with  the  conquerors  and 
the  conquered,  in  that  celebrated  warfare  which 
Homer  has  immortalised. 28 

It  was  the  ambition  of  Caesar,  who  delighted  to 
accomplish  what  no  man  before  him  had  achieved, 
that  led  him,  after  the  conquest  of  the  Keltic  nation 
in  Gaul,  and  "its  German  invaders,  to  attempt  the 
discovery  and  subjugation  of  Britain.  He  knew  not 
whether  it  was  a  vast  continent  or  a  confined  island. 
But  the  doubt  and  obscurity  were  but  additional 

26  Nennius  professes  to  derive  his  account  from  the  annals  of  the  Romans.     It  is 
chiefly  this :  Brutus  was  the  grandson  of  Ascanius,  the  son  of  ^Eneas.     Driven 
from  Italy  and  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea,  he  went  to  Gaul,  and  founded  Tours,  and 
thence  came  to  this  island,  gave  it  his  name,  and  peopled  it  about  the  time  that 
Eli  was  the  judge  in  Israel,  c.  33. 

27  See  Welsh  Archaiology,  vol.  i. 

28  Thus  Tacitus  mentions  the  opinion  of  the  Germans,  that  Ulysses  was  driven 
into  the  Northern  Ocean,  and  built  there  Asciburgum  ;  and  that  an  altar  dedicated 
to  Ulysses,  with  the  name  of  Laertes  his  father,  had  been  found  there,  De  Mor, 
Germ.  s.  3.     Solinus  notices  a  tradition  of  Ulysses  having  reached  a  bay  in  Cale- 
donia ;  "  which,"  he  adds,  "  an  altar  with  a  Greek  inscription  shows,"  c.  22.     A 
Trojan  colony  is  stated  to  have  founded  Trapano  in  Italy,  Dion.  Hal.  p.  41,  42. 
Virgil  intimates,  JEn.  1.  1.  v.  242.,  that  Antenor   founded  Padua,  and   led  his 
Trojan  followers  into  Ulyria  and  Liburnia,  and  to  the  springs  of  the  Timavus,  or 
into  Sclavonia,  Croatia,  and  Friuli.  —  Pliny,  1.  3.  c,  2.  stations  Dardani  in  Mresia, 
which  he  extends  from  the  Pontus  to  the  Danube,  and  Strabo,  1.  7.  enumerates 
the  Dardanidae  among  the  Illyrians  ;  while  Pindar  ascribes  the  settlement  of  Cyrene 
in  Africa  also  to  Antenor.  Pyth.  Od.  5.     Another  tradition  connects  Ulysses  with 
Lisbon.    Livy  describes  the  same  Trojan  chief  as  likewise  founding  the  Venetian 
population.  Hist.  1.  1.     But  the  tradition  more  immediately  connecting  itself  with 
the  intimations  of  Nennius,  is  that  noticed  by  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  that  some 
Trojans,  flying  from  the  Greeks,  and  dispersed  all  around,  occupied  regions  in  Gaul 
then  uninhabited,  lib.  xv.  c.  9. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  57 

temptations  to  his  aspiring  genius.     To  great  minds,     CHAP. 
the  unknown  is  as  attractive  as  the  wonderful,  and  • 
untried  danger  is  but  a  mysterious  incentive  to  explore 
it.     He  prepared  a  small  fleet  to  examine  its  coasts, 
and   resolved  with   the   force   which  he  could  then 
venture  to  take  from  Gaul,  to  attempt  to  penetrate  a 
country,  which  none  of  the  conquerors  of  the  civilised 
world  appeared  to  have  even  seen. 


58  HISTOKY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  V. 

The  Memoirs  of  the  Ancient  Britons.  —  The  Druids. 

BOOK  WHEN  Britain  was  invaded  by  the  Romans,  it  ex- 
L  J  hibited  the  state  of  a  country  which  had  been  peopled 
from  several  shoots  of  the  barbaric  or  nomadic  stocks, 
at  different  periods,  with  some  grafts  or  improvements 
from  more  civilised  nations.  Its  inhabitants  were 
divided  into  many  tribes,  of  which  about  forty -five 
have  been  enumerated  with  distinct  appellations.1 

1  I.  From  Kent  to  Cornwall  were  the 

Cantii  Belgae 

Regni  Durotriges 

Bibroces  Haedui 

Attrebates  Carnabii 

"  Segontiaci  Damnonii. 

These  were  afterwards  comprised  in  the  Roman  district  called  Britannia  Prima. 

II.  In  the  Peninsula  of  Wales  were  the  Silures,  Ordovices,  and  Dimetae,  whose 
country  formed  the  Britannia  Seeunda  of  the  Romans. 

III.  Between  the  Thames,  the  Severn,  the  Mersey,  the  Humber,  and  the  ocean, 
the  district  afterwards  named  Flavia  Caesariensis,  comprised  the 

Trinobantes  Dobuni 

Iceni  Huiccii 

Coritani  Ancalites 

Cassii  Carnabii. 

IV.  In  the  Maxima  Csesariensis  of  the  Romans,  or  in  our  present  Lancashire, 
Westmoreland,  Cumberland,  Yorkshire,  Durham,  and  part  of  Northumberland, 
were  the 

Setantii       or  Sistuntii 

Volantii        or  Voluntii 

Brigantes. 

V.  The  five  nations,  who  occupied  the   districts  of  the  Roman  province  of 
Valentia,  which,  comprising  chief  part  of  Northumberland,  extended   from  the 
Wall  of  Hadrian,  into  Scotland,  as  far  as  the  Wall  of  Antoninus,  were  the 

Ottadini  Novantes 

Gadeni  Damnii. 

Selgovae. 

VI.  Beyond  these,  in  North  Britain,  were  the  tribes  included  in  the  Roman 
province  of  Vespasiani. 

Horestii  Vacouiagi 

Vecturones  Albani 

Taixali  Attacotti. 

VII.  In  the  rest  of  Scotland,  were  the 

Caledonii  Mertse 

Cautae  Carnonancae 

Logi  Cerones 

Carnabii  Creones 

Catini  Epidii. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  59 

Of  these,  the  Belgas,  whom  Caesar  particularises  to  CHAP. 
have  passed  over  from  Belgic  Gaul,  and  to  have  been  .  — » 
established  in  the  island  by  their  victories,  occupied 
part  of  the  coast  of  the  British  Channel.  He  dis- 
tinguishes the  Cantii,  or  people  of  Kent,  as  more 
advanced  than  the  rest  in  the  habits  of  civilised  life, 
and  as  not  differing  much  from  the  people  of  Gaul. 
The  Belgae  pursued  agriculture.  But  most  of  the 
interior  tribes  lived  on  milk  and  flesh,  or  in  that 
state  which  has  been  called  the  pastoral,  and  clothed 
themselves  with  skins.2 

All  the  Britons  stained  themselves  of  a  blue  colour 
with  woad,  which  gave  them  a  more  horrible  ap- 
pearance in  battle.3  They  wore  long  hair  on  their 
heads,  but  shaved  it  from  the  other  parts  of  the  body 
excepting  the  upper  lip.  Their  population  appeared 
numerous  to  the  Romans.4 

The  aspect  of  the  country,  as  it  first  struck  their 
view,  presented  a  succession  of  forests,  lakes,  and 
great  rivers:  and  Mela  remarks  of  it,  what  must 
have  been  true  of  most  parts  of  Europe,  where  agri- 
culture was  little  practised,  that  it  was  more  adapted 
to  the  kindly  nourishment  of  cattle  than  of  men. 
He  also  represents  the  people  in  general  as  not  only 
uncivilised,  but  as  much  behind  the  nations  on  the 
continent  in  their  social  culture.  Their  cattle  and 
fields  were  their  general  wealth,  and  they  seem  to 
have  been  acquainted  with  no  other.5 

2  Caesar.  Comment,  lib.  v.  c.  10.  Herodian  speaks  of  those  in  the  northern 
districts,  with  whom  Severus  fought,  as  usually  naked,  with  an  iron  ring  round 
their  neck  or  stomach,  lib.  iii.  p.  83. 

8  Csesar.  ib.  Mela,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.  This  seems  to  have  been  done  from  infancy, 
as  Pliny  says  the  British  wives  and  nurses  did  it,  lib.  xxii.  c.  2.  Hence  Martial's 
epithet  "  Caeruleis  Britannis,"  lib.  xi.  c.  32.  Herodian  remarks,  of  the  Britons 
who  resisted  Severus,  that  they  painted  the  figures  of  all  kinds  of  animals  on  their 
bodies,  lib.  iii.  p.  83.  ;  and  as  Claudian  mentions  "  the  fading  figures  on  the  dying 
Pict,"  it  seems  to  have  pervaded  the  island,  and  to  have  been  continued  by  the 
less  civilised  to  his  time.  Claud,  de  Bell.  Get. 

4  Caesar. 

5  Mela,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.     Cicero  gives  us  the  impression  of  his  day  on  this  subject. 
In  a  letter  to  Atticus  he  says,  "  It  is  known  that  there  is  not  a  scruple  of  money 


0  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  Like  all  barbaric  tribes,  who  have  reached  their 
*;.__.  stations  at  successive  periods,  or  have  grown  up  in 
separate  and  independent  states,  and  whose  active 
spirits  are  not  occupied  by  the  pursuits  of  civilised 
life,  they  were  perpetually  at  war  with  each  other  6  ; 
and  it  is  probable  that  the  present  state  and  people 
of  New  Zealand  exhibit  more  nearly  than  any  other, 
the  condition  of  Britain  when  the  Romans  entered  it. 
The  Britons  were  taller  than  the  Gauls,  but  not  so 
strong.  The  young  Britons  whom  Strabo  saw  at 
Rome,  were  higher  by  half  a  foot  than  the  tallest 
man  there,  but  their  lower  limbs  were  not  straight, 
nor  did  the  general  outline  of  their  make  display  the 
symmetry  of  beauty.  Their  hair  was  less  yellow 
than  that  of  the  Gauls.7  The  Silures  are  mentioned 
with  ruddy  cheeks  and  curled  hair,  and  the  in- 
habitants of  Caledonia  with  red  hair.8  As  the  Belga? 
in  Gaul  wore  loose  breeches  and  a  waistcoat  with 
sleeves,  instead  of  a  tunic;  and  a  sagum  or  upper 
garment9,  we  may  suppose  that  their  settlers  in 
Britain  used  the  same  dress.  Bonduca's  royal  costume 
when  she  addressed  the  Britons,  was  long  yellow 
hair,  with  a  large  golden  torques;  and  a  XITWV  or 
tunic  swelling  round  her  bosom  in  various  colours, 
with  a  thick  cloak  thrown  over  it.10  The  Britons  had 
gold  rings  on  their  middle  finger.11 

in  the  island  ;  nor  any  hope  of  booty,  but  in  slaves,"  lib.  iv.  ep.  1 7.     It  is  curious 
to  read  this  remark  now,  when  Britain  is  the  wealthiest  country  of  Europe. 

6  Mela,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.     Herodian  speaks  of  the  Britons  as  "  a  most  warlike  nation, 
eager  for  slaughter,"  lib.  iii.  p.  83.   As  already  hinted,  I  consider  the  British  History 
of  Jeffrey  of  Monmouth  a  tissue  of  fiction,  though  it  may  have  preserved  some  real 
names,  traditions,  and  circumstances  ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  separate  in  it  the  true 
from  the  invented. 

7  Strabo,  lib.  iv.  p.  305. 

8  Tacitus,  Agric.  Vit.     Rutilatae  Comae,  Livy  notices  of  the  Gauls,  lib.  xxxviii. 
c.  17. 

9  Strabo,  300.  10  xiph.  epit.  Dio.  p.  169. 

11  Pliny,  lib.  xxxiii.  c.  6.  This  author  remarks  that  the  person,  who  first  put 
rings  on  the  fingers,  introduced  one  of  the  worst  crimes  of  life,  ibid.  c.  4.  The 
proximum  scelus  was  coining  money  from  gold,  ibid.  c.  13.  The  use  of  rings  as  a 
personal  distinction  for  men  has  so  greatly  declined,  that  even  Pliny  would  not 
have  thought  them  to  have  a  very  wicked  tendency.  They  are  worn  now  but  as  a> 
petty  ornament,  not  as  in  his  time  for  fastidious  pomp. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  61 

Their  houses,  chiefly  formed  of  reeds  or  wood, 
were  very  numerous,  like  those  of  the  Gauls,  and 
were  usually  seated  in  the  midst  of  woods,  perhaps 
for  better  defence,  as  those  of  the  New  Zealanders 
are,  for  the  same  reason,  placed  on  fortified  hills. 
The  wars  of  fierce  and  rude  men,  unacquainted  with 
military  discipline,  or  disdaining  to  submit  to  it, 
usually  consist  of  attempts  to  surprise  and  ravage; 
and  therefore  precautions  against  sudden  aggressions 
are  the  most  essential  parts  of  their  defensive  skill. 
The  Britons  seem  to  have  cleared  a  space  in  the 
wood,  on  which  they  built  their  huts  and  folded  their 
cattle ;  and  they  fenced  the  avenues  by  ditches  and 
barriers  of  trees.  Such  a  collection  of  houses  formed 
one  of  their  towns.12 

They  had  great  quantities  of  cattle.13  Some  of  the 
British  tribes  are  said  not  to  have  had  the  art  of 
making  cheese,  though  they  had  abundance  of  milk ; 
others  knew  nothing  of  either  agriculture  or  garden- 
ing.14 They  housed  their  corn  in  the  ear,  in  sub- 
terraneous places,  and  threshed  out  no  more  than 
served  them  for  the  day.15  The  little  money  which 
they  had,  was  of  the  Spartan  kind ;  it  was  either  copper 
or  iron  rings,  of  a  definite  weight.16 

They  thought  it  a  crime  to  eat  hares,  geese,  or 
hens,  though  they  bred  them  for  pleasure.  One  of 
their  most  extraordinary  and  pernicious  customs  was, 
that  community  of  women  among  ten  or  twelve  men, 
who  chose  to  form  such  an  association,  which  reminds 
us  of  the  Arreoys  of  Otaheite.  The  British  Arreoys, 

12  Strabo,  lib.  iv.  p.  306.     Caesar,  lib.  v.  c.  17.     Diod.  Sic.  lib.  v.  p.  301. 

13  Cjesar,  lib.v.  c.  10. 

14  Strabo,  lib.  iv.  p.  305. 

15  Diod.  lib.  v.  p.  301.  Pliny  notices  that  they  used  a  species  of  lime  as  a  manure, 
which  he  calls  white  chalk,  lib.  xvii.  c.  4. 

16  Caesar,  lib.  v.  c.  10.     It  is  supposed  that  Cunobelin,  the  successor  of  Cassi- 
vellaun,  first  coined  money  in  Britain.      "  About  fifty  of  his  coins,  with  his  own 
name,  have  come  down  to  the  present  age.      Some  of  them  exhibit  a  plane  surface, 
but  most  a  small  convexity."    Whit.  Manch.  book  i.  c.  9.    One  of  them  represents 
a  bard  with  his  harp,  ibid.  c.  7.  sect.  5. 


02  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK     however,  seem  not  to  have  destroyed  their  children ; 

.     *•     .   as  these  were  agreed  to  be  considered  as  the  offspring 
of  the  man  who  had  married  the  mother.17 

In  battle  their  chief  strength  was  in  their  infantry.18 
But  they  fought  also  on  horses,  and  more  especially 
in  chariots,  with  scythes  at  the  axles.19  In  these  they 
rode,  throwing  darts  on  every  side;  and,  by  the 
dread  of  the  horses,  and  the  noise  of  the  wheels,  they 
often  disordered  their  opponents.  When  they  had 
broken  in  among  the  horse,  they  leaped  from  the 
cars,  and  fought  on  foot.  The  drivers  retired  a  little 
out  of  the  battle,  but  so  stationed  themselves,  as  to 
be  ready  to  receive  the  combatants  if  pressed  by  the 
enemy.  Thus,  to  the  activity  of  cavalry,  they  united 
the  steadiness  of  infantry.  By  daily  use  and  practice 
they  were  so  expert  that  they  could  stop  their  horses 
at  full  speed  down  a  declivity,  could  guide  and  turn 
them,  run  along  the  beam,  stand  on  the  yoke,  and 
from  thence,  with  rapidity,  dart  into  their  chariots.20 
Diodorus,  in  mentioning  the  British  war-chariots, 
recalls  to  our  mind,  that  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan 
war  used  them  likewise ;  there  was,  however,  this 
difference,  that  among  the  Britons  the  driver  was  the 
superior  person.21 

The  honourable  testimony  of  Diodorus  to  their 
superiority  to  the  Romans  in  some  of  those  moral 
virtues,  in  which  the  nomadic  nations  excelled  the 
civilised,  must  not  be  omitted.  "  There  is  a  sim- 
plicity in  their  manners,  which  is  very  different  from 
that  craft  and  wickedness  which  mankind  now  ex- 
hibit. They  are  satisfied  with  a  frugal  sustenance, 
and  avoid  the  luxuries  of  wealth."  22 

Their  re.         The  religion  of  the  Britons  was  of  a  fierce  and 
sanguinary  nature.     It  resembled  that  of  the  Gauls, 

17  Caesar,  lib.  v.  c.  10.  »  Tacitus. 

19  Mela,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.  20  Ca>sar.  lib.  iv.  c.  29. 

21  Diod.  lib.  v.  p.  301.  Honestior  auriga  ;  clientes  propugnant,  Tacit.  Vit.  Agr. 

22  Diod.  p.  301. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  63 

which  is  thus  described.  They  who  were  afflicted 
with  severe  disease,  or  involved  in  dangers  or  battles, 
sacrificed  men  for  victims,  or  vowed  that  they  would 
do  so.  The  Druids  administered  at  these  gloomy 
rites.  They  thought  that  the  life  of  a  man  was  to 
be  redeemed  by  a  man's  life;  and  that  there  was 
no  other  mode  of  conciliating  their  gods.  Some 
made  images  of  wicker  work  of  an  immense  size,  and 
filled  them  with  living  men,  whom  they  burned  alive. 
Thieves  and  robbers,  or  other  criminals,  were  usually 
made  the  victims ;  but  if  there  were  a  deficiency  of 
these,  the  guiltless  were  sacrificed.23  At  some  of 
their  sacred  rites  the  British  women  went  naked, 
but  stained  dark,  like  Ethiopians,  by  a  vegetable24 
juice.  That  they  consulted  their  gods  on  futurity, 
by  inspecting  the  quivering  flesh  of  their  human 
victims,  and  that  they  had  prophetic  women,  has 
been  already  mentioned.25 

Their  superstitious  fancies  deemed  the  misseltoe 
sacred,  if  it  vegetated  from  the  oak.  They  selected 
groves  of  oaks,  and  thought  everything  sent  from 
heaven  which  grew  on  this  tree.  On  the  sixth  day 
of  the  moon,  which  was  the  beginning  of  their 
months  and  years,  and  of  their  period  of  thirty  years, 
they  came  to  the  oak  on  which  they  observed  any 
of  the  parasitical  plant  (which  they  called  all-healing), 
prepared  a  sacrifice  and  a  feast  under  this  venerated 
tree,  and  brought  thither  two  white  bulls,  whose 
horns  were  then  first  tied.  The  oificiating  Druid,  in 
a  white  garment,  climbed  the  tree,  and,  with  a  golden 
knife,  pruned  off  the  misseltoe,  which  was  received 
in  a  white  woollen  cloth  below.  They  then  sacrificed 
the  victims,  and  addressed  their  gods  to  make  the 
misseltoe  prosperous  to  those  to  whom  it  was  given ; 

23  C*sar.  lib.\i.  c.  15.  *  Pliny,  lib.  xxii.  c.  2. 

35  See  before,  p.  35.  That  the  Kelts  sacrificed  human  victims  to  a  deity,  whom 
the  Greeks  called  Kronos,  and  the  Latins  Saturn,  we  learn  from  Dionysius  Halic. 
lib.  i.  p.  30. 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     for  they  believed  that  it  caused  fecundity,  and  was 
.     *•     ,  an  amulet  against  poison.     They  performed  no  cere- 
monies without  the  leaves  of  the  oak.26 

The  ancient  world,  including  the  most  enlightened 
nations,  even  Greece  and  Kome,  were  universally  im- 
pressed with  a  belief  of  the  powers  of  magic.  But 
the  expressions  of  Pliny  induce  us  to  imagine,  that 
this  mischievous  imposture  was  peculiarly  cultivated 
by  the  British  Druids.  He  says,  "  Britain  now  cele- 
brates it  so  astonishingly,  xand  with  so  many  cere- 
monies, that  she  might  even  be  thought  to  have  given 
it  to  the  Persians." 27  The  Druids  were  indeed  so 
superior  in  knowledge  and  intellect  to  the  rest  of  the 
nation,  that  their  magical  frauds  must  have  been 
easily  invented  and  securely  practised. 

The  The  Druidical  system  began  in  Britain,  and  from 

thence  was  introduced  into  Gaul.  In  Caesar's  time,  they 
who  wished  to  know  it  more  diligently,  for  the  most 
part  visited  Britain,  for  the  sake  of  learning  it.  The 
Druids  were  present  at  all  religious  rites ;  they  ad- 
ministered at  public  and  private  sacrifices ;  and  they 
interpreted  divinations.  They  were  so  honoured,  that 
they  decided  almost  all  public  and  private  contro- 
versies, and  all  causes,  whether  of  homicide,  inhe- 
ritance, or  boundaries.  They  appointed  the  remu- 
nerations, and  the  punishments.  Whoever  disobeyed 
their  decree,  was  interdicted  from  their  sacrifices, 
which  with  them  was  the  severest  punishment.  An 
interdicted  person  was  deemed  both  impious  and 
wicked ;  all  fled  from  him,  and  avoided  his  presence 
and  conversation,  lest  they  should  be  contaminated  by 

2e  Pliny,  lib.  xvl  c.  95.  As  derw  is  British  for  an  oak,  and  derwydd  is  the  terra 
for  a  Druid  in  the  same  language,  it  is  probable  that  this  class  of  persons  was  named 
trom  the  tree  they  venerated.  Maximus  Tyrius  calls  the  oak,  the  Keltic  image  of 
the  Deity.  Dissert. 

•?  PHny;  ^  XXX-  C*  4>     The  Welsh  term  for  right-hand,  seems  to  have  some 

terence  to  the  ancient  superstitions  of  the  Britons.     It  is  deheulaw,  or  the  south- 

an  expression  which  can  only  be  true,  when  we  look  at  the  east.     The 

solstice         t0nehenge  appear  to  have  a  reference  to  the  rising  of  the  sun  at  the 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  65 

the  intercourse.     He  was   allowed  no  legal  rights. 
He  participated  in  no  honours. 

The  Druids  obeyed  one  chief,  who  had  supreme 
authority  over  them.  At  his  death,  he  was  succeeded 
by  the  next  in  dignity.  If  others  had  equal  pre- 
tences, the  suffrages  of  the  Druids  decided  it ;  and 
sometimes  arms  determined  the  competition.  28 

The  Druids  had  great  privileges.  They  neither 
paid  taxes,  nor  engaged  in  war.  They  were  allowed 
exemption  from  warfare  and  all  other  offices.  Excited 
by  such  advantages,  many  voluntarily  submitted  to  the 
discipline,  and  others  were  sent  by  their  friends  and 
relations.  They  were  said  to  learn  a  great  number 
of  verses  there  ;  so  that  some  remained  twenty  years 
under  the  education.  They  conceived  it  not  lawful 
to  commit  their  knowledge  to  writing,  though  in  all 
other  things  they  used  Greek  characters.  Caesar  adds, 
that  a  great  number  of  youth  resorted  to  them  for 
education. 

They  taught  that  souls  never  perished  ;  but  passed 
at  death  into  other  bodies ;  and  as  this  opinion  re- 
moved the  fear  of  death,  they  thought  that  it  excited 
strongly  to  what  they  called  virtue,  of  which  valour 
was  the  most  conspicuous  quality.  They  discussed 
and  taught  also  many  things  concerning  the  stars, 
and  their  motion  ;  the  size  of  the  world,  and  its  coun- 
tries ;  the  nature  of  things  ;  and  the  force  and  power 
of  the  immortal  gods. 29  Such  subjects  of  contem- 
plation and  tuition  as  these,  show  a  knowledge  and  an 
exerted  intellect,  that  could  not  have  been  the  natural 
growth  of  a  people  so  rude  as  the  Britons  and  Gauls. 
They  must  have  derived  both  the  information  and 
the  habit  from  more  civilised  regions.  The  Druidi- 
cal  order  consisted  of  three  sorts  of  men  ;  Druids, 

28  Caesar. 

29  Caesar,  lib.  vi.  c.  13.     Mela,  lib.  iii.  c.  20.;  and  see  Lucan's  celebrated  verses 
on  their  theory  of  transmigration. 

VOL.  I.  F 


6  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  Bards,  and  Ouates.  The  Bards  were  the  poets  and 
L  .  musicians,  of  whom  some  were  satirists,  and  some 
encomiasts.  The  Ouates  sacrificed,  divined,  and  con- 
templated the  nature  of  things.  The  Druids  culti- 
vated physiology  and  moral  philosophy  ;  or,  as  Dio- 
dorus  says,  were  their  philosophers  and  theologians.30 
Of  the  Druidical  superstitions,  we  have  no  monu- 
ments remaining,  unless  the  circles  of  stones,  which 
are  to  be  seen  in  some  parts  of  the  island,  are  deemed 
their  temples.  Of  all  the  suppositions  concerning 
Stonehenge  and  Avebury,  it  seems  the  most  rational 
to  ascribe  them  to  the  Druidical  order ;  and  of  this 
system  we  may  remark,  that  if  it  was  the  creature  of 
a  more  civilised  people,  none  of  the  colonisers  of 
Britain  are  so  likely  to  have  been  its  parents,  as  the 
Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians.31  The  fact  so  expli- 
citly asserted  by  Caesar,  that  the  Druidical  system 
began  in  Britain,  and  was  thence  introduced  into 
Gaul,  increases  our  tendency  to  refer  it  in  these  na- 
tions. The  state  of  Britain  was  inferior  in  civilisa- 
tion to  that  of  Gaul,  and  therefore  it  seems  more  rea- 
sonable to  refer  the  intellectual  parts  of  Druidism  to 
the  foreign  visitors,  who  are  known  to  have  culti- 
vated such  subjects,  than  to  suppose  them  to  have 
originated  from  the  rude  unassisted  natives. 

30  Died.  Sicul.  lib.  v.  p.  308.     Strabo,  lib.  iv.  p.  302. 

31  Syria,  Phoenicia,   and  Palestine  abound  with  many  solid   rocks   and   stony 
mountains  cut  into  shapes,  and  excavated  into  chambers,  and  with  erections  of 
stones  for  the  purposes  of  superstition.     Mr.  Watts1  Views  in  Syria  and  Palestine, 
from  the  drawings  in  Sir  Robert  Ainslie's  collection,  exhibit  some  curious  remains 
of  this  sort.     Dr.  Stukely  in  his  letters  to  Mr.  Gale,  in  1743,  states  that  he  had 
found  a  Druidical  Temple  at  Shap,  in  Westmoreland.  He  says,  « I  have  got  a  drawing 
and  admeasurement  of  the  stones  at  Shap.     I  find  it  to  be  another  huge  serpentine 
temple  like  that  of  Avebury.     The  measure  of  what  are  left  extends  to  a  mile 

and  a  half,  but  a  great  deal  has  been  demolished." Reliq.  Gal.  p.  387.    A  writer 

in   the    Gentleman's    Magazine  for  February  1833,  thinks  Dr.  Stukely  right  in 
calling  the  whole  collection  of  stones  a  temple.     "  It  is  not  a  Danish  monument." 
It  is  a  remarkable  feature  of  Westmoreland  and  Cumberland  that  their  uncultivated 
hills  and  plains  are  scattered  all  over  with  Druidical  remains,  while  in  Northumber- 
land and  Durham,  which  adjoin  them  on  the  East,  scarcely  anything  of  the  kind 
exists.     A  Dolman,  or  Druid's  Cave,  near  Saumur,  in  France,  is  described  in  "  Six 
AVeeks  on  the  Loire." 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  67 


CHAR  VI. 

Invasion  of  Britain  by  Julius   Ccesar.  —  Its  final  Conquest  by 
the  Romans. 

SUCH  were  the  Britons  whom  Csesar  invaded.  After  CHAP. 
his  conquest  in  Gaul,  and  an  expedition  into  Ger-  .  VI!^ 
many,  he  resolved  to  visit  Britain.  We  need  not 
ascribe  this  invasion  to  the  British  pearls  alluded  to 
by  Suetonius.  The  ambition  of  Caesar,  like  that  of 
all  men  of  great  minds,  who  have  accomplished  vast 
attempts,  expanded  with  his  successes.  Accustomed 
to  grand  conceptions,  and  feeling  from  their  expe- 
rience of  their  own  talents,  and  the  abundance  of 
their  means,  a  facility  of  prosecuting  the  most  capa- 
cious plans  ;  it  has  been  usual  with  conquerors  who 
have  united  sovereignty  with  their  military  triumphs, 
instead  of  enjoying  their  fame  in  peaceful  repose,  to 
dare  new  enterprises  of  danger  and  difficulty,  and  of 
mighty  issue.  Caesar  appears  to  have  amused  him- 
self in  forming  great  projects.  He  not  only  purposed 
to  build  a  temple  to  Mars,  whose  magnitude  was  to 
surpass  whatever  the  world  had  seen  of  religious 
architecture ;  to  drain  the  Pontine  marshes  ;  to  make 
a  highway  through  the  Apennines,  from  the  Adriatic 
to  the  Tiber;  and  to  cut  through  the  isthmus  of 
Corinth l :  but  he  had  also  a  dream  of  subduing  the 
Parthians  on  the  Euphrates ;  of  marching  along  the 
Caspian,  and  Mount  Caucasus  to  the  Euxine  ;  of  in- 
vading Scythia ;  and  from  thence  of  penetrating  and 
conquering  Germany ;  and  from  that  country,  of 
returning  through  Gaul,  into  Italy  and  Koine. 2  That 

1  Suet.  Vit.  Cses.  s.  44.  *  Plut.  Vit.  CSBS. 

F   2 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  a  mind,  delighting  to  contemplate  schemes  so  vast 
t  L  .  and  extravagant,  should  not  have  reached  the  shores 
of  Gaul,  and  surveyed  the  British  island,  then  pos- 
sessing the  fame  of  being  a  new  world,  little  known 
even  to  its  Keltic  neighbours  as  to  its  interior,  with- 
out feeling  the  desire  to  explore  it,  was  a  natural 
event.  Caesar,  under  this  impulse,  collected  the  mer- 
chants of  Gaul,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  visit  the 
island ;  and  inquired  of  them  its  size,  what  and  how 
many  nations  inhabited  it,  their  mode  of  warfare, 
their  customs,  and  their  harbours.  Obtaining  from 
those  whom  he  questioned  but  scanty  information,  he 
sent  one  of  his  officers,  in  a  vessel,  to  explore  the 
coast,  and  collected  all  the  ships,  within  his  command, 
to  make  the  exploring  enterprise. 

Some  of  the  British  states,  hearing  of  his  intentions 
from  the  Keltic  merchants,  sent  envoys  of  peace. 

His  first  expedition  into  Britain  was  to  reconnoitre ; 
not  to  subdue.  He  was  compelled  to  fight  upon  his 
landing,  in  the  vicinity  of  Dover,  because  the  Kentish 
Britons  immediately  opposed  him  —  conflicting  even 
amidst  the  waves,  with  signal  courage ;  and  although 
Caesar,  observing  his  troops  to  be  dispirited  by  the 
British  attacks,  ordered  up  the  vessels  with  his  artil- 
lery, and  poured  from  their  sides  stones,  arrows,  and 
other  missiles,  yet  the  natives  stood  the  unusual  dis- 
charges with  intrepidity,  and  he  made  no  impression. 
It  was  the  rushing  forward,  alone,  of  the  bearer  of 
the  eagle  of  the  tenth  legion,  exclaiming,  "Follow 
me,  unless  you  mean  to  betray  your  standard  to  your 
enemies,"  that  roused  the  Roman  legions  to  that 
desperate  and  closer  battle,  which  at  length  forced 
back  the  Britons,  and  secured  a  landing.  The  Britons 
retired ;  and  Caasar  did  not  pursue.  The  natives  of 
the  locality  sent  a  message  of  peace ;  but  four  days 
afterwards,  a  tempest  dispersing  his  fleet,  they  as- 
saulted the  Romans  with  new  attacks.  Caesar  re- 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  69 

pulsed  them ;    but  after    this  success  he  thought  it     CHAP. 
expedient,  without  advancing,  to  quit  the  island  sud-  i—^J — > 
denly  at  midnight.     He  ascribes  his  departure  to  the 
approach  of  the  autumnal  equinox ;  but  he  knew  of 
this  event  before  his  landing.     The  truth  seems  to  be 
that  he  found  his  present  force,  though  sufficient  to 
repel  the  Britons,  yet  incompetent  to  subdue  them.3 

His  next  invasion,  in  the  ensuing  summer,  was 
more  formidable.  It  was  made  with  five  well  ap- 
pointed legions,  and  two  thousand  cavalry — a  force 
of  thirty  thousand  of  the  best  disciplined  troops  then 
known,  under  the  ablest  commander.  As  the  Britons 
did  not  contest  the  landing,  it  was  easily  effected. 
On  this  visit  he  quitted  the  coasts,  and  marched 
twelve  miles  into  the  island.  There  he  repulsed  an 
attack.  A  storm  again  shattering  his  fleet,  he  stopped 
his  advance,  and  returned  to  the  coast,  to  provide 
for  the  safety  of  his  ships.  Ten  days  afterwards  he 
resumed  his  former  position,  and  was  immediately 
assaulted  by  some  of  the  British  tribes,  who  had 
confederated  under  the  temporary  command  of  Cas- 
sivellaun.  They  were  repelled.  They  attempted 
hostilities  again  on  the  succeeding  day,  but  were 
again  defeated.  On  these  failures,  the  auxiliary 
bodies  left  Cassivellaun ;  and  Caesar,  being  informed 
of  their  desertion,  ventured  to  advance  to  the  Thames, 
and  to  the  borders  of  the  state  of  the  British  prince. 
The  ford  had  been  fortified  by  sharp  stakes,  under 
the  water,  and  on  the  banks.  The  Romans  passed 
it  up  to  their  necks  in  water,  in  the  presence  of  the 
natives  collected  in  arms  on  the  other  side,  who,  dis- 
mayed at  the  courage  of  the  enemy,  hastily  retired. 

Cassivellaun,    keeping    only    four    thousand   war 

3  Caesar,  lib.  iv.  c.  18 — 33.  On  this  expedition  Dio's  observation  seems  a  fair 
one.  —  "  He  obtained  from  it  nothing,  either  for  himself  or  for  his  country,  but 
the  glory  of  having  fought  in  it :  and  as  he  stated  this  very  strongly,  the  people  of 
Rome  wondered,  and  extolled  him."  Lib.  xxxix.  p.  128. 

r  3 


70  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  chariots  with  him,  confined  his  efforts  to  harassing 
.  the  invaders. 

The  civil  dissensions  of  the  island  then  began  to 
give  Caesar  the  advantage  of  his  enterprises.  The 
Trinobantes,  of  whose  territories  London  was  the 
metropolis,  desired  his  aid  for  their  chief  Mandu- 
bratius,  or  Androgorus,  against  Cassivellaun ;  and 
five  other  tribes  also  sent  in  their  submission.  Caasar 
was  afterwards  attacked  by  four  kings  of  Kent,  Gin- 
getorix,  Carnilius,  Taximagulus,  and  Segonax,  but 
without  success;  and  Cassivellaun  now  sending  an 
embassy  for  peace4,  Caasar  immediately  granted  it, 
demanded  hostages,  appointed  a  tribute,  retired  with 
his  army  to  the  sea  coast,  and  relanded  it  in  Gaul.5 
The  Romans  appeared  no  more  in  Britain,  nor  at- 
tempted to  molest  it,  for  several  years. 

Augustus  afterwards  talked  of  an  expedition  to 
Britain,  and  entered  France,  as  if  beginning  it.  But 
the  Britons  met  him  there  with  peaceful  embassies, 
and  custom-duties  were  imposed  on  the  commodities 
that  were  objects  of  trade  between  Gaul  and  Britain ; 
as  ivory,  bridles,  amber,  and  glass  vessels.  Strabo 
well  remarks,  that  to  have  raised  a  tribute  from  the 
island,  he  must  have  established  a  military  force 
there,  but  the  expense  of  these  troops  would  have 


4  Csesar.  lib.  v.  c.  7 — 19.     Dio  remarks,  that  it  would  have  been  dangerous  to 
him  to  have  wintered  in  the  island,  lib.  xl.  p.  137.     Polyaenus  has  preserved  a  story 
that  Caesar's  success  in  battle  against  the  Britons  was  obtained  by  placing  an  armed 
elephant  with  a  tower  of  soldiers  in  his  front,  whose  appearance  threw  the  natives 
into  a  panic.     But  Caesar's  force,  skill,  and  discipline,  were  sufficient  to  have  ob- 
tained his  victories  without  this  stratagem. 

5  From  Caesar's  own  account,  as  thus  abstracted,  we  perceive  the  propriety  of 
Horace  applying  the  epithet  of  intactus  to  Britain,  as  also  of  the  invictus  of  Pro- 
pertius.     Tacitus  has  justly  given  the  amount  of  his  successes,  when  he  states,  that 
he  did   not  subdue  the  island,  but  only  showed  it  to  the  Romans.     This  correct 
intimation  keeps  clear  of  Lucan's  extreme,  that  he  showed  his  affrighted  back  to 
the  Britons ;  and  of  that  of  Paterculus,  that  he  twiced  passed  through  the  island.  • 
His  successes  however  astonished  and  delighted  his  countrymen.     He  offered  to 
Venus,  whom  he  once  stated  to  be  the  ancestor  of  one  of  his  aunts  (Suet.  c.  6.),  a 
breast-plate  of  British  pearls.     Pliny.     The  victories  over  the  Britons  were  painted 
on  purple  hangings ;  and  some  of  the  natives  were  given  to  the  theatre.    See  Yirgil, 
Georg.  3.,  and  Servius  on  the  passage,  p.  126. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  71 

consumed  the  contribution;  and  when  violent  courses     CHAP. 
are  pursued,  he  adds,  danger  begins.6  \ — , — > 

Tiberius  was  content  to  leave  Britain  unmolested. 
Caligula  was  flattered  in  Gaul,  by  one  of  the  British 
princes  seeking  an  asylum  in  his  court ;  and  drawing 
up  his  army  on  the  sea  shore,  he  sounded  a  charge 
and  commanded  them  to  gather  cockle-shells,  as  in- 
dications of  a  conquest.  With  this  bloodless  tri- 
umph, and  the  erection  of  a  watch-tower  to  com- 
memorate it,  his  ambition  was  satisfied.  He  left 
Britain  to  the  continuation  of  those  internal  wars 

(which  all  uncivilised  nations  pursue,  and  which  at 
last  occasioned  some  to  sacrifice  their  patriotism  to 
their  revenge,  and  to  incite  Claudius,  his  successor, 
to  order  Aulus  Plautus  to  lead  an  army  into  the 
island.7  This  general  landed  with  a  powerful  force, 
comprising  German  auxiliaries  and  some  elephants; 
and  with  Yespasian  for  one  of  his  officers.  He  had 
the  usual  successes  of  the  Roman  discipline  and 
skill.  The  emperor  Claudius  came  himself  to  par- 
take the  triumph.  He  took  Camalodunum  or  Mai- 
den, the  capital  of  Cunobellin's  dominion ;  and,  after 
a  residence  of  sixteen  days  in  the  island,  returned  to 
Rome,  leaving  Plautus  to  govern  Britain.8  Games, 
triumphal  arches,  dramatic  representations,  horse- 
races, bear-combats,  pyrrhic  dances,  gladiators,  re- 
wards to  his  officers,  and  a  splendid  triumph  to  him- 
self, with  the  surname  of  Britannicus,  attested  his 

8  Horace.  Strabo.  In  the  following  year  Augustus  resumed  his  project  of  an 
invasion,  because  the  natives  broke  their  treaty ;  but  the  insurrection  of  the  Can- 
tabri  in  Spain  pi-evented  it.  The  "  adjectis  Britannis  imperio,"  of  Horace,  is  there- 
fore rather  a  poetical  figure,  than  an  achieved  fact. 

7  Dio  mentions  Bericus  as  one  of  this  description,  lib.  Ix.  p.  779.     His  remark 
on  the  political  state  of  the  Britons  is,  "  that  they  were  not  O.VTOVO/J.OI,  but  were 
subject  to  several  kings,"  ibid.     Of  these  Plautus  first  defeated  Kataratakos,  and 
afterwards  Togodoumnos,  the  two  sons  of  Kunobellin.   Ibid. 

8  Dio,  lib.  Ix.  p.  781,  782.     Tacitus's  account  of  this  invasion  has  perished  in  his 
last  books.     That  elephants  were  used  by  the  Romans  in  England,  appears  from 
the  bones  of  an  elephant  having  been  found,  on  digging  for  gravel,  in  a  field  near 
Battle  Bridge.     1  Lei.  Collect,  p.  Ixiv. 

r  4 


72  HISTORY    OF   THE 

own  and  the  national  exultations  at  his  successes  in 
Britain. 

Vespasian  distinguished  himself  in  Britain  at  this 
period.  He  fought  thirty  battles  with  the  natives, 
took  twenty  towns,  and  subdued  the  Isle  of  Wight9 ; 
exertions  which  imply  corresponding  efforts  and  in- 
trepidity on  the  part  of  the  Britons.  The  great 
Titus,  the  conqueror  of  Jerusalem,  fought  here  also, 
as  military  tribune  under  his  father,  with  much 
reputation  both  for  his  modesty  and  courage.10  It  is 
interesting  to  read  of  this  celebrated  man,  that  when 
Vespasian  was  surrounded  by  the  Britons,  and  in 
extreme  danger,  Titus  rushed  upon  the  assailing 
enemies,  and  at  last  extricated  his  revered  parent.11 
We  may  consider  this  great  instrument  of  Providence 
as  training  himself,  unconsciously,  in  Britain,  for  the 
awful  task  he  was  to  accomplish. 

The  island,  although  thus  penetrated  to  a  certain 
extent,  and  the  southern  parts  occupied  by  the  Ro- 
mans, was  as  yet  neither  conquered  nor  tranquil. 
Seven  years  afterwards,  we  find  Ostorius  withstand- 
ing the  British  assaults,  and  establishing  a  line  of 
posts  between  the  Nen  and  the  Severn.  The  Britons 
on  the  east  and  north,  and  afterwards  those  of  Wales, 
renewed  the  conflicts.  The  defeat  and  capture  of 
Caradawg  or  Caractacus,  whose  appearance  at  Rome, 
as  a  prisoner,  excited  peculiar  exultation,  and  for 
whom  an  impressive  speech  has  been  composed  by 
Tacitus,  of  which  the  rude  Briton  could  only  re- 
cognise the  manly  feeling  it  displays12,  secured  the 
Roman  conquests. 

•  Sueton.  Vesp.  c.  4.  10  Suet  m  c  4 

Dio.  Cass.  lib.  Ix.  p.  788.  Josephus  mentions  the  extraordinary  strength  and 
activity  of  Titus,  and  gives  instances  of  his  rescuing  his  soldiers  from  the  Jews  by 
his  personal  exertions.  Few  pieces  of  history  are  more  interesting,  than  Josephus's 
account  of  the  final  siege  and  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

See  it  in  Tacitus,  Ann.  lib.  xii.  c.  37.  Cartismandua,  queen  of  the  Brigantes, 
whom  Caractacus  had  married,  was  afterwards  subdued,  ibid.  c.  40.  The  allusions 
to  these  victories  in  Britain,  in  the  Roman  poets  of  the  day,  show  the  joy  of  the 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  73 

About  ten  years  afterwards,  the  Britons  rushed  to  CHAP. 
a  new  effort  to  regain  their  independence,  under  . — ^ — » 
Boadicea,  which  they  began,  like  Mithridates  in 
Asia,  by  an  inhuman  massacre  of  all  the  Romans 
within  their  reach.  This  new  struggle  has  been  de- 
scribed by  Tacitus  with  all  his  energy.  The  Roman 
governor  Suetonius  happened  to  be  a  man  of  talent, 
equal  to  the  emergency,  and  finally  triumphed  over 
all  the  fury  and  forces  of  the  Britons.  Boadicea 
poisoned  herself;  and  the  island  was  again  subdued 
into  terror  and  peace13,  though  much  remained  un- 
conquered. 

Vespasian  had  the  recollection  of  his  personal  ex- 
ploits to  excite  his  military  attention  to  Britain, 
after  he  had  obtained  the  empire.  He  sent  powerful 
armies  to  extend  the  Roman  conquests.  The  con- 
flicts continued  with  varying  success,  but  the  Britons 
were  resolute  and  undaunted  by  failure.14 

Seventeen  years  after  the  revolt  of  Boadicea  Agri- 
cola  was  appointed  to  command  the  Roman  forces  in 
Britain,  and  by  him  the  conquest  of  the  island  was 
completed.  The  pen  and  affection  of  Tacitus  have 
amply,  and  interestingly,  detailed  his  political  and 
military  conduct ;  and  has  made  Galgacus  or  Gallwg, 
on  the  Grampian  Hills,  as  interesting  as  Caractacus.15 
It  is  needless  to  detail  battles  that  so  much  resemble 
each  other,  and  always  pain  humanity  both  to  read 
and  to  narrate.  It  is  more  pleasing  to  contemplate 
the  wisdom  of  his  liberal  mind,  which  directed  its 

public  feeling  on  the  occasion.  See  them  collected  in  Camden's  Introduction  to 
the  Britannia.  It  is  amusing  to  read  that  our  island  was  deemed  a  new  world,  an 
impervious  region  of  frost  and  snow,  where  stars  never  set,  and  placed  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  earth,  &c. 

13  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  xiv.  c.  29 — 39.,  and  more  concisely  in  his  life  of  Agricola, 
c.  14—16. 

14  These  events  are  briefly  noticed  by  Tacitus  in  his  Agricola,  c.  16,  17.     One 
of  the  able  governors  here  was  Frontinus,  the  author  of  the  book  on  the  stratagems 
of  war. 

15  His  animated,  and  no  doubt  much  amplified  and  polished  speech  is  in  Vit. 
Agric.  s.  30. 


74  HISTORY  OF   THE 

BOOK     powers  to  civilise   and   improve  the  fierce  natives. 

.  *•  .  He  assisted  them  to  build  temples,  forums,  and  more 
convenient  habitations.  He  inspired  them  with  a 
love  of  education ;  he  applauded  their  talents ;  flat- 
tered them  as  possessing  a  genius  superior  to  the 
Gauls  ;  and  he  persuaded  the  sons  of  the  chiefs  to 
study  letters.  The  Roman  dress,  language,  and  lite- 
rature gradually  spread  among  the  natives.  All  this 
was  improvement;  but  human  advantages  are  mingled 
with  imperfections.  The  civilisation  of  Rome  also 
introduced  its  luxury;  and  baths,  porticoes,  arid 
sensual  banquets  became  as  palatable  to  the  new 
subjects  as  to  their  corrupted  masters.16  Four  legions 
were  kept  in  the  island.  Their  labours  pervaded  it 
with  four  great  military  roads,  that  became  the  chief 
Saxon  highways ;  and,  in  the  military  stations,  upon 
and  near  them,  laid  the  foundations  of  our  principal 
towns  and  cities.  The  Roman  laws  and  magistracies 
were  everywhere  established,  and  the  British  lawyers, 
as  well  as  the  British  ladies 17,  have  obtained  the  pane- 
gyrics of  the  Roman  classics.  It  is  beautifully  said 
by  Rutilius,  that  Rome  filled  the  world  with  her 
legislative  triumphs,  and  caused  all  to  live  under  one 
common  pact;  that  she  blended  discordant  nations 
into  one  country;  and,  by  imparting  to  those  she 
conquered  a  companionship  in  her  rights  and  laws, 
made  the  earth  one  great  united  city.18 

A.C.  121.        Britain,  nearly  half  a  century  after  Agricola,  was 

16  Tac.  Ag.  s.  21. 

17  The  stern  Juvenal  has 

Gallia  causidicos  docuit  facunda  Britannos.          Sat. 

And  Martial  has  an  epigram  on  the  decus  formje  of  a  British  lady,  whom  he  calls 
Claudia  Rufina.     The  epithet  of  blue-eyed,  which  he  applies  to  the  Britons,  was 
also  given  to  them  by  Seneca.     All  the  northern  nations  of  Europe  exhibit  in  their 
physiognomy,  this  contrast  with  the  black  eyes  and  darker  skins  of  Italy. 
Legiferis  mundum  complexa  triumphis 

Faedere  communi  vivere  cuncta  facit 

Fecisti  patriam  diversis  gentibus  unum 

Dumque  offers  victis  proprii  consortia  j  uris 

Urbem  fecisti  quod  prius  orbis  erat.  liutil.  Itin. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  75 

visited   by  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  who  ordered  the     CHAP. 
construction  of  a  military  work,  from  the  mouth  of  — ^ — > 
the  Tyne  to  the  Solway  Firth,  as  the  boundary  of  the 
Koman  provinces  in  Britain.     In  the  next  reign,  of 
Antoninus  Pius,  the  Romans  penetrated  again  to  the 
isthmus  between  the  firths  of  Forth  and  Clyde,  and 
built    another    military   rampart,   for    the   farthest 
boundary  of  their  empire  in  Britain.19     In  170  the 
Romans  are  said  to  have  deserted  all  the  country 
which  lay  to  the  north  of  the  wall  of  Antoninus.20 

After  this  period,  the  Roman  legions  in  Britain 
began  to  support  their  commanders  in  their  compe- 
titions for  the  empire.  During  these  disputes,  two 
unsubdued  nations  in  the  northern  parts  of  Britain, 
the  Caledonians  and  Meatae,  broke  through  the  ram- 
part between  the  firths,  and  harassed  the  province. 
The  emperor  Severus  came  to  Britain  to  repress 
them.21  His  wars  in  Scotland  cost  him  much  toil,  A.C.  207. 
and  many  men ;  but  he  subdued  his  wild  opponents, 
and,  instead  of  the  weak  barrier  of  Hadrian,  he 
erected  an  immense  wall  of  stone,  twelve  feet  high, 
and  eight  feet  thick,  strengthened  with  towers, 
castles,  and  stations  at  proper  distances,  and  de- 
fended by  a  ditch  and  military  way.  This  great 
work  (the  vestiges  of  which  are  still  visible  in  several 
places)  was  built  nearly  parallel  to  that  of  Hadrian, 
at  the  distance  of  a  few  paces  further  to  the  north, 
and  from  the  east  coast,  near  Tinmouth,  to  the  Sol- 
way  Firth  at  Boulness,  on  the  west  coast.22  Severus 

19  "  Betwixt  them  Agricola  had  formerly  erected  a  line  of  forts.  These  had  not 
been  destroyed,  and  Lollius  joined  them  together  by  a  long  rampart. "  Whit.  Manch. 
vol.  ii.  p.  86.  8vo. 

io  Ibid. 

81  Herodian,  lib.  Hi.  p.  83.     Xiphelin  in  Sever,  p.  339. 

22  Eutropius,  lib.  viii. ;  and  see  Henry's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  App.  No.  9., 
and  Horsley  Britannia  Romana.  We  derive  some  curious  information  on  the 
Roman  stations  and  residence  in  Britain,  from  the  compilation  of  Richard  of  Circn- 
cester,  first  printed  in  1757  from  a  MS.  of  the  fourteenth  century.  It  presents  us 
with  eighteen  Itinera,  which,  he  says,  he  collected  from  the  remains  of  records 
which  a  Roman  general  had  caused  to  be  made.  Mr.  Whittaker's  remarks  upon  it, 


76 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
I. 


died  at  York.  As  it  was  soon  after  this  period  that 
the  Saxons  began  to  molest  Britain,  we  shall  proceed 
to  narrate  the  history  of  the  invasion  and  occupation 
of  Britain  by  the  Saxons  and  Angles,  after  first 
stating  all  that  can  be  collected  of  their  authentic 
history  before  they  left  the  continent. 

a  little  tinged  with  his  sanguine  feelings,  are  in  his  Hist.  Manch.  vol.  ii.  p.  83 — 91. 
Dr.  Gouch's  edition  of  Camden's  Britannia,  Mr.  Lyson's  works,  the  Archseologia  of  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries,  will  supply  the  inquirer  with  many  notices  of  Roman  re- 
mains found  in  this  country.  Even  in  the  last  year  1 835,  and  the  present  1 836,  new 
discoveries  of  these  and  of  their  coins,  have  occurred  in  various  counties,  some 
even  in  London  on  digging  below  the  present  surface  for  the  foundations  of  new 
buildings.  A  quantity  of  Roman  coins  chiefly  of  Vespasian  and  Domitian,  were 
lately  found  in  improving  the  road  from  Shap  to  Kendal,  nineteen  gold,  and  five 
hundred  and  eighty  silver.  —  Gent.  Mag.,  Feb.  1833.  Roman  coffins  with  inscrip- 
tions were  recently  discovered  in  York  Castle  Yard,  a  dozen  feet  below  the  surface. 
Some  Roman  tiles  also  in  St.  Cuthbert's  church-yard  with  the  inscription  Leg.  IX. 
Hisp.  In  the  mint  yard  there,  in  the  spring  of  1 833,  a  stone  was  found  with  the 
inscription  that  one  Hieronyms  of  the  6th  legion  had  raised  there  a  temple  to  Serapis 
the  Egyptian  god.  "  Deo  Sancto  Serapi  Templum  a  solo  fecit."  —  York  Papers. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  77 


BOOK  II, 
CHAP.  I. 

The  origin  of  the  SAXONS. 

THE  Anglo-Saxons  were  the  people  who  transported 
themselves  from  the  Cimbric  peninsula,  and  its  vici- 
nity, in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  into  England. 
They  were  branches  of  the  great  Saxon  confederation, 
which,  from  the  Elbe,  extended  itself  at  last  to  the 
Ehine.  The  hostilities  of  this  formidable  people  had 
long  distressed  the  western  regions  of  Europe ;  and 
when  the  Gothic  nations  overran  the  most  valu- 
able provinces  of  Rome,  the  Anglo-Saxons  invaded 
Britain  soon  after  the  Romans  quitted  it.  The 
ancient  inhabitants,  and  the  progeny  of  the  Roman 
settlers,  disappeared  as  the  new  conquerors  advanced, 
or  accepted  their  yoke ;  and  Saxon  laws,  Saxon  lan- 
guage, Saxon  manners,  government,  and  institutions, 
overspread  the  land. 

This  revolution,  than  which  history  presents  to  us 
none  more  complete,  has  made  the  fortunes  of  the 
Saxons,  during  every  period,  interesting  to  us. 
Though  other  invaders  have  appeared  in  the  island, 
yet  the  effects  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  settlements  have 
prevailed  beyond  every  other.  Our  language,  our 
government,  and  our  laws,  display  our  Gothic  an- 
cestors in  every  part :  they  live,  not  merely  in  our 
annals  and  traditions,  but  in  our  civil  institutions 
and  perpetual  discourse.  The  parent-tree  is  indeed 
greatly  amplified,  by  branches  engrafted  on  it  from 
other  regions,  and  by  the  new  shoots,  which  the 


78  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     accidents  of  time,  and  the  improvements  of  society, 

.     n-    .   have  produced  ;  but  it  discovers  yet  its  Saxon  origin, 

and  retains  its  Saxon  properties,  though  more  than 

thirteen    centuries  have  rolled  over,  with    all   their 

tempests  and  vicissitudes. 

Although  the  Saxon  name  became,  on  the  continent, 
the  appellation  of  a  confederacy  of  nations,  yet,  at 
first,  it  denoted  a  single  state.  The  Romans  began 
to  remark  it,  during  the  second  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era ;  until  that  period,  it  had  escaped  the  notice 
of  the  conquerors  of  the  world,  and  the  happy 
obscurity  was  rewarded  by  the  absence  of  that  de- 
solation which  their  ambition  poured  profusely  on 
mankind. 

Saxons  first  Ptolemy,  the  Alexandrian,  was  the  first  writer 
byepYo°iemy.  whom  we  know  to  have  mentioned  the  Saxons.  By 
the  passage  in  his  Geography,  and  by  the  concurrence 
of  all  their  future  history,  it  is  ascertained,  that,  be- 
fore the  year  141  after  Christ1,  there  was  a  people 
called  Saxones,  who  inhabited  a  territory  at  the  north 
side  of  the  Elbe,  on  the  neck  of  the  Cimbric  Cherso- 
nesus,  and  three  small  islands,  at  the  mouth  of  this 
river.  From  the  same  author  it  is  also  clear,  that  the 
Saxons  were  of  no  great  importance  at  this  period  ; 
for  in  this  peninsula,  which  is  now  divided  into  Jut- 
land, Sleswick,  and  Holstein,  no  fewer  than  six  other 
nations  were  stationed,  besides  the  Saxones  and  the 
remnant  of  the  Cimbri.2 

But  it  is  not  probable,  that  the  Saxons  should  have 

1  Ptolemy  lived  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  according  to  Suidas,  vol.  ii. 
p.  646. ;  but  he  testifies  himself,  in  the  7th  book,  Mag.  Synt.  p.  167.,  that  he  made 
astronomical  observations  at  Alexandria  in  the  2d  year  of  Ant.  Pius,  or  ann.  Christ, 
139.    3  Fab.  Bibl.  Grsec.  p.  412.     He  speaks  also  of  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  in  the 
9th  of  Adrian,  or  ann.  Chr.  125.     La  Lande's  Astron.  i.  p.  312.     He  mentions  no 
observation  beyond  141.     Ib.  117. 

2  Cl.  Ptolemseus  Georg.  lib.  ii.  c.  11.     Marcianus  of  Heraclea,  somewhat  later 
than  Ptolemy,  gives  the  Saxons  the  same  position  on  the  neck  of  the  Chersonesus. 
Pont.  ib.  651.     The  geographical  Lexicographer  of  Byzantium,  usually  named 
Stephanas,  briefly  says,  "  dwelling  in  the  Cimbric  Chersonesus."    Steph.  Byz.  voc. 
Saxones. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  79 

started  suddenly  into  existence,  in  the  days  of  Ptole- 
my. The  question  of  their  previous  history  has  been 
therefore  much  agitated ;  and  an  equal  quantity  of 
learning  and  of  absurdity  has  been  brought  forward 
upon  the  subject. 

It  has  been  observed,  that  to  explain  the  origin  of 
the  Saxons,  the  most  wild  and  inconsistent  fictions 
have  been  framed.3  But  it  is  not  this  nation  only, 
which  has  been  thus  distinguished  by  the  perverseness 
of  the  human  mind,  labouring  to  explore  inscrutable 
antiquity;  every  people  may  recount  similar  puer- 
ilities. 

To  claim  an  extravagant  duration,  has  been  the 
folly  of  every  state  which  has  risen  to  any  eminence. 
We  have  heard,  in  our  childhood,  of  the  dreams  of 
the  Babylonians,  Egyptians,  Indians,  and  Chinese  ; 
and  we  know,  that  even  Athenians  could  wear  a  golden 
grasshopper4,  as  an  emblem,  that  they  sprung  fortuit- 
ously from  the  earth  they  cultivated,  in  ages  far  be- 
yond the  reach  of  human  history :  we  may  therefore 
pardon  and  forget  the  fables  of  the  Saxon  patriots. 

It  has  caused  much   surprise,  that   Tacitus,    who  Not  noticed 
wrote   a   particular   description  of  Germany,    many  byT 
years  before  Ptolemy,   should  have  omitted  to  name 
the  Saxons.5     Every  author  has  been  unwilling  to 
suppose,  that  they  came  to  the  Elbe  in  the  short  in- 
terval between  these  authors;  and  therefore  it  has 
been  very  generally  imagined,  that  the  nation  to  whom 
Tacitus  gave  the  denomination  of  Fosi6,   were  the 

3  Krantz  remarked  this  :   "  Ita  puerilibus  fabulis  et  anilibus  deliramentis  omnia 
scatent,  ut  nihil  in  his  sibi  constet,  nihil  quadret.     Saxonia,  pi.     Yet  the  ab- 
surdity of  others  did  not  preserve  him  from  an  imitation. 

4  Potter's  Antiq.  of  Greece,  vol.  i.    p.  2.      So  the  Arcadians  boasted  they  were 
irpoff€\T)t>oi,  or  before  the  moon.     Ib.  p.  1. 

5  Conringius  thinks,  that  by  some  unexplained  accident,  time  has  effaced  from 
the  text  of  Tacitus  a  passage  about  the  Saxons.     Schilter's  Thes.  Ant.  Teut.  iii. 
p.  704. 

6  Cellarius  Geog.  Ant.  i.  p  303.,  and  Cluverius,  iii.  Germ.  Ant.  87.,  and  many 
others  assert  this.    Spener  with  diffidence  defends  it.    Notit.  Germ.  Ant.  363.    With 
a  manly  but  rare  impartiality  he  states  forcibly  the  objections  to  the  opinion  he 
adopts,  37 1.     Leibnitz  places  the  Fosi  on  the  Fusa,  a  river  which  falls  into  the  Alien 
near  Zell.     Ibid.  372. 


80  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     warriors,  who  acquired  afterwards  so  much  celebrity, 

.     n>     ,   under  the  name  of  Saxons. 

Before  such  violent  suppositions  are  admitted,  it 
seems  necessary  to  ask,  if  Ptolemy  mentions  any  other 
people,  in  his  geography  of  Germany,  whom  Tacitus 
has  not  noticed  ?  If  he  does,  the  omission  of  Tacitus 
is  not,  in  the  present  instance,  singular;  if  he  does 
not,  the  conjecture  that  the  Fosi  were  the  Saxons, 
comes  to  us  with  authority. 

other  tribes  Upon  comparing  the  Cimbric  Chersonesus  of  Taci- 
tus,  with  the  delineation  of  the  same  place  by  Ptolemy, 
the  question  above  stated  is  decided.  Ptolemy  does 
not  mention  the  Saxones  only,  as  being  there  ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  names,  separately,  six  other  nations  be- 
fore he  comes  to  the  Cimbri.  Tacitus,  after  mention- 
ing the  Frisii,  Chauci,  and  Cherusci,  speaks  of  the 
Fosi,  and  closes  his  account  of  this  part  of  Germany 
with  the  Cimbri.  Tacitus  has  not  merely  neglected 
to  name  the  Saxons,  but  also  the  Sigulones,  the  Saba- 
lingii,  the  Cobandi,  the  Chali,  the  Phundusii,  and  the 
Charudes.7  If  either  of  these  tribes  had  risen  to 
eminence,  the  one,  so  successful,  would  have  been 
thought  the  Fosi.  The  Saxons  became  renowned, 
and  their  celebrity,  rather  than  their  situation,  has 
made  some  persons  desirous  to  find  them  in  Tacitus. 
The  name  of  Fosi  cannot  be  strictly  applied  to  the 
Saxons,  with  more  justice  than  to  the  others.8 

But  it  cannot  be  inferred  from  the  silence  of 
Tacitus,  that  the  Saxons  were  not  above  the  Elbe  in 
his  days.  In  this  part  of  his  map  of  Germany,  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  intended  to  give  that  minute 

7  Cluverius  thus  stations  these  tribes.  The  Sigulones  northward  from  the 
Saxons,  as  far  as  Tunderen  and  Appenrade ;  Sabalingii,  above  these,  to  the 
Nipsa  and  Tobesket,  on  which  are  Ripen  and  Kolding ;  Cobandi,  thence  to  Holm 
and  Horsens  ;  Chali,  beyond  these  to  Hensburg  and  Hald  ;  the  Phundusii  and 
Charudes  on  the  west  and  east,  northward  to  the  Lymfort ;  and  the  Cimbri  in 
Wensussel.  Ant.  Ger.  iii.  p.  94.  See  also  on  this  Chorographia  Pontani,  p.  649. 
Strabo,  Tacitus,  and  Ptolemy,  exhibit  a  very  natural  progression  of  information 
on  the  German  geography.  Tacitus  gives  a  more  accurate  detail  than  Strabo,  and 
Ptolemy,  writing  later,  is  still  more  minute 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  81 

detail  of  information,  which  Ptolemy,  fortunately  for 
our  subject,  has  delivered.  Tacitus  directed  his 
philosophical  eye  on  German  states,  who  differed  in 
manners,  as  well  as  in  name.  He  seldom  presents  a 
mere  nomenclature  ;  he  seems  to  enumerate  those  the 
most  carefully,  whose  wars,  customs,  fame,  vicissi- 
tudes, and  power,  had  distinguished  them  from  the 
rest.  As  the  Saxons,  and  their  neighbours,  were  not 
remarkable  in  either  of  these  circumstances,  he  knew 
them  not,  or  he  passed  them  over ;  but  Ptolemy  pur- 
sues the  plan  of  a  plain  and  accurate  chorographer ; 
he  is  solicitous  to  mark  positions,  latitudes,  distances, 
and  names,  leaving  narrations  of  history  and  manners 
almost  out  of  his  consideration.  It  was  therefore  a 
part  of  his  plan  to  notice  the  Saxons,  as  it  was  con- 
sistent in  Tacitus  to  have  omitted  them. 

The  only  inferences  which  can  be   safely  drawn  The  scy- 
from  the  silence  of  Tacitus,  and  the  preceding  geo-  f^uon  of 
graph ers,  are,  that  the  Saxons  were  then  an  obscure  Europe. 
and  inconsiderable  people,  and  had  neither  molested 
the   nations  of  greater  notoriety,  nor  incurred  the 
enmity  of  the  Koman  government. 

It  will  be  unnecessary  to  employ  our  time,  in 
enumerating  the  many  fallacious  theories  which  have 
been  framed,  on  the  origin  of  our  Anglo-Saxon 
ancestors.  It  will  be  more  useful  to  select  those 
few  facts  which  may  be  gleaned  from  the  writers  of 
antiquity  on  this  subject,  and  to  state  to  the  reader, 
rather  what  he  may  believe,  than  what  he  must 
reject. 

The  early  occupation  of  Europe,  by  the  Kimmerian 
and  Keltic  races,  has  been  already  displayed.  The 
next  stream  of  barbaric  tribes,  whose  progress  formed 
the  second  great  influx  of  population  into  Europe, 
were  the  Scythian,  German,  and  Gothic  tribes.  They 
also  entered  it  out  of  Asia.  It  is  of  importance  to 
recollect  the  fact  of  their  primeval  locality,  because 

VOL.  i.  G 


82  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  it  corresponds  with  this  circumstance,  that  Herodotus, 
.  n'  .  besides  the  main  Scythia,  which  he  places  in  Europe, 
mentions  also  an  Eastern  or  Asiatic  Scythia,  beyond 
the  Caspian  and  laxartes.9  As  these  new  corners 
pressed  on  the  Kimmerians  and  Kelts,  their  pre- 
decessors, those  nations  retired  towards  the  western 
and  southern  extremities  of  Europe,  pursued  still  by 
the  Scythian  invaders.  This  new  wave  of  population 
gradually  spread  over  the  mountains,  and  into  the 
vast  forests  and  marshes  of  Europe,  until,  under  the 
name  of  Germans,  an  appellation  which  Tacitus  calls 
a  recent  name10,  they  had  not  only  reached  the 
Rhine,  but  had  also  crossed  it  into  France.  Here 
Cassar  found  one  great  body  firmly  settled,  descended 
from  them,  whom  he  calls  Belgaa;  though  its  com- 
ponent states  had  their  peculiar  denominations11, 
besides  a  very  large  force  of  recent  German  invaders, 
under  the  command  of  Ariovistus. 

This  second  stock  of  the  European  population  is 
peculiarly  interesting  to  us,  because  from  its  branches 
not  only  our  own  immediate  ancestors,  but  also  those 
of  the  most  celebrated  nations  of  modern  Europe, 
have  unquestionably  descended.  The  Anglo-Saxons, 
Lowland  Scotch,  Normans,  Danes,  Norwegians, 
Swedes,  Germans,  Dutch,  Belgians,  Lombards,  and 
Franks,  have  all  sprung  from  that  great  fountain  of 

9  This  Asiatic  Scythia  suits  Mr.  Abel  Remusat's  inference,  in  his  Memoir  lately 
read  before  the  Academic  des  Inscriptions,  that  the  Goths  originally  issued  from 
Tartary,  because  near  Mount  Altai  inscriptions  have  been  found  in  Runic  cha- 
racters like  those  of  Scandinavia.     On  this  point  we  must  always  recollect,  that 
the  northern  traditions  about  Odin,  the  common  ancestor  of  the  Scandinavians, 
Saxons,  and  Goths,  bring  him  at  the  head  of  the  Asse,  from  the  Asiatic  regions. 

10  De  Mor.  Germ. 

11  De  Bell.  Gall.     The  fact  that  nations  of  the  same  origin  had  yet  different 
local  or  provincial  names— as  the  Germans  who  passed  the  Rhine  becoming  Tungri, 
and  part  of  the  Belgse,  Bellovaci,  &c — must  be  remembered,  when  we  consider  the 
derivation  of  nations  ;  as  the  omission  of  this  recollection  has  occasioned  many 
antiquaries  to  consider  those  people  as  distinct  in  origin,  who  were  really  related. 
Tacitus  remarks,  that  the  Trevisi  and  Nervii  were  ambitious  of  a  German  origin, 
though  residing  in  and  near  Gaul.     Indeed  his  whole  book,  on  the  Germans,  proves 
that  each  tribe  went  by  very  distinct  appellations,  though  all  were  Germans.     This 
may  lessen  the  scruples  of  those  who  doubt  whether  the  Get»   and  Goths  were 
Scythian  nations. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  83 

the  human  race,  which  we  have  distinguished  by  the 
terms  Scythian,  German,  or  Gothic.12 

The  ancient  languages  of  these  nations  prove  their 
ancient  affinity,  the  contiguous  chronology  of  their 
first  origin,  and  their  common  derivation,  and  afford 
evidences  of  these  truths,  from  which  every  one  may 
satisfy  his  doubts  or  his  curiosity.  We  have  works 
still  existing  in  the  ancient  Gothic 13,  and  Saxon 14,  as 
well  as  in  the  Frankish 15  and  Icelandic 16,  in  which 
the  philologist  will  easily  perceive  their  mutual  re- 
lationship. The  comparison  of  these  with  the 
modern  German,  Danish,  Dutch,  Swedish,  and  Flemish, 
will  equally  demonstrate  the  kinship  between  the 
ancient  parents  and  their  existing  descendants.17 

12  Mr.  Archdeacon  Coxe,  in  his  "  Vindication  of  the  Celts,"  has  rebuked  many 
of  Mr.  Pinkerton's  erroneous  opinions?  unfounded  declamations  wrong  quotations, 
and  misconstructions  and  misapplications  of  several  ancient  authorities.     But  amid 
these  faults  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  Mr.  Pinkerton's  general  notion, 
that  the  German,  Scythian,  and  Gothic  nations  were  of  the  same  generic  family. 
This  is  all  that  I  can  praise  in  his  Dissertation  on  the  Goths ;  for  the  chronology 
which  he  attempts  to  build  up,  and  many  of  his  details,  are  not  only  unwarranted, 
but  inconsistent  with  true  history.    Mr.  Pinkerton  and  Mr.  Whitaker,  alike  in  their 
angry  temperament  of  mind,  and  mode  of  reading  arid  stating  ancient  authorities, 
are  in  two  extremes  as  to  their  inferences.     The  latter  strives  to  make  every  thing 
Keltic,  the  former  Scythian.    Both  are  too  apt  to  make  their  authorities  speak  rather 
what  they  wish,  than  what  they  find  :  they  are  equally  intolerant  of  any  contrary 
opinion  ;  and  though  the  one  abhors  and  the  other  accredits  Ossian,  almost  the 
only  point  in  which  they  agree  is  to  abuse  Mr.  Macpherson.     Both,  however,  were 
men  of  vigorous  minds  and  extensive  reading  ;  and  deserve  much  praise  for  having 
devoted  so  much   attention  to  these  uninviting  studies.     The  fire  of  genius  at 
times  burnt  with  great  energy  in  Mr.  Whitaker,  and  makes  us  lament  that  he  did 
not  direct  it  to  more  congenial  themes. 

13  The  fragment  of  the  Gospels,  in  the  celebrated  Silver  MSS.  of  the  Meso- 
Gothic,  printed  by  Marshall  with  the  Saxon  Gospels  in  1 665,  and  recently  with 
more  splendour  and  accuracy,  preserves  a  most  interesting  specimen  of  the  ancient 
Gothic  tongue. 

14  The  present  work  will  contain  many  specimens  of  this  language.     "Wotton's 
Conspectus  contains  a  copious  catalogue  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  MSS.  that  exist. 

13  The  Franco- Theotisc  versified  harmony  of  the  four  evangelists,  by  Otfrid,  and 
several  other  specimens  of  this  language  of  the  ancient  Franks,  are  published  with 
a  glossary  valuable  to  a  certain  extent,  but  which  is  capable  of  much  improvement, 
in  Schilter's  Thesaurus. 

18  Many  of  the  Icelandic  sagas  have  been  published  by  the  northern  literati,  with 
Latin  translations.  I  have  accustomed  myself  to  rely  on  the  accuracy  of  these 
versions,  but  some  passages  of  Mr.  Thorkelin's  late  translation  of  Beowulf,  lead  me 
to  recommend  to  the  student  an  acquaintance  with  the  original  language.  Perings- 
kiold's  catalogue  of  the  sagas  is  printed  in  the  pars  altera  of  Hickes'  Thesaurus. 

17  The  continental  writers  have  not  so  clearly  distinguished  the  Keltic  and 
Gothic  nations  as  our  own  authors  have  done,  but  most  frequently  confuse  the  two 
races  with  each  other,  and  sometimes  with  the  Sarmatian  nations. 

Q  2 


84  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  The  first  appearance  of  the  Scythian  tribes  in 
._  IL  ,  Europe  may  be  placed,  according  to  Strabo  and 
Scythians  Homer,  about  the  eighth,  or,  according  to  Herodotus, 
in  the  seventh  century  before  the  Christian  era.18 
Herodotus  likewise  states,  that  the  Scythians  declared 
their  nations  to  be  more  recent  than  any  other,  and 
that  they  reckoned  only  one  thousand  years  between 
Targitaos,  their  first  king,  and  the  aggression  of 
Darius.  The  first  scenes  of  their  civil  existence,  and 
of  their  progressive  power,  were  in  Asia,  to  the  east 
of  the  Araxes.  Here  they  multiplied  and  extended 
their  territorial  limits,  for  some  centuries,  unknown 
to  Europe.  Their  general  appellation  among  them- 
selves was  Scoloti,  but  the  Greeks  called  them  Scy- 
thians 19,  Scuthoi  or  Nomades. 

To  this  judicious  and  probable  account  of  Hero- 
dotus, we  add  the  information  collected  by  Diodorus. 
He  says,  that  the  Scythians,  formerly  inconsiderable 
and  few,  possessed  a  narrow  region  on  the  Araxes : 
but,  by  degrees,  they  became  more  powerful  in  num- 
bers and  in  courage.  They  extended  their  boundaries 
on  all  sides :  till  at  last  they  raised  their  nation  to 
great  empire  and  glory.20 

One  of  their  kings  becoming  valiant  and  skilful  in 
the  art  of  war,  they  added  to  their  territory  the 
mountainous  regions  about  Caucasus,  and  also  the 
plains  towards  the  ocean,  and  the  Palus  Maeotis,  with 
the  other  regions  near  the  Tanais.  In  the  course  of 
time  they  subdued  many  nations  between  the  Cas- 

18  See  before,  p.  24,  25. 

19  Herod.  Help.  s.  5.  7.  6.  11.     The  wars  of  the  Scythians  before  this  period 
must  have  been  with  their  Asiatic  neighbours ;  but  I  think  there  is  no  credit  to  be 
given  to  the  system  of  an  ancient  great  or  universal  Scythic  empire.      The  passage 
in  Justin,  which  seems  to  warrant  it,  and  for  which  I  have  no  great  respect,  does 
not  appear  to  me  to  be  a  sufficient  foundation  for  it.     His  period  of  1500  years  I 
believe  to  be  fabulous  :  and  am  much  inclined  to  the  supposition  that  xv  has  been 
corrupted  in  the  MS.  of  Justin  into  xv<= ;  and  that,  in  consequence,  fifteen  hundred 
has  been  read  instead  of  fifteen.     The  supposition  of  one  great  and  early  Scythian 
empire  seems  to  me  to  have  no  foundation.     See  Vindic.  of  the  Celts  n  14 

80  Diod.  Siculus,  p.  127. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  85 

plan  and  the  Maeotis,  and  beyond  the  Tanais.     Thus,      CHAP. 
according  to  Diodorus,  the  nation  increased,  and  had   . 
kings  worthy  of  remembrance.     The  Sakai,  the  Mas- 
sagetai,  and  the  Arimaspoi  drew  their  origin  from 
them.21 

The  Massagetai  seem  to  have  been  the  most  eastern 
branch  of  the  Scythian  nation.  Wars  arising  between 
them  and  the  other  Scythic  tribes,  an  emigration 
from  the  latter  took  place,  according  to  the  account 
which  Herodotus  selects  as  in  his  opinion  the  most 
authentic22,  which  occasioned  their  entrance  into 
Europe.  Such  feuds  and  wars  have  contributed 
more  than  any  other  cause,  to  disperse  through  the 
world  its  uncivilised  inhabitants. 

The    emigrating    Scythians   crossed  the    Araxes,  Scythians 
passed  out  of  Asia,  and  invading  the  Kirnmerians,  rope* 
suddenly  appeared  in  Europe,  in  the  seventh  century  ^J~^° 
before  the  Christian  era.     Part  of  the  Kimmerians 
flying  into  Asia  Minor,  some  of  the  Scythian  hordes 
pursued  them ;  but,  turning  in  a  direction  different 
from   that   which   the   Kimmerians   traversed,  they 
missed  their  intended  prey,  and  fell  unintentionally 
upon  the  Medes.     They  defeated  the  Medes,  pressed 
on  towards  Egypt,  and  governed  those  parts  of  Asia 
for   twenty-eight  years,   till   Cyaxares,  the  king  of 
Media,  at  last  expelled  them.23 

The  Scythian  tribes,  however,  continued  to  flock 
into  Europe ;  and,  in  the  reign  of  Darius,  their 
European  colonies  were  sufficiently  numerous  and 
celebrated  to  excite  the  ambition  of  the  Persian 
monarch,  after  his  capture  of  Babylon,  but  all  his 
efforts  against  them  failed.24  In  the  time  of  Hero- 
dotus they  had  gained  an  important  footing  in  Eu- 

21  Diod.  Siculus,  p.  127.  *•  Herod.  Melpom.  s.  11. 

23  Herod.  Clio,  s.  15.  103 — 106.  It  was  at  this  period  that  Idanthyrsus  the 
Scythian  king  overran  Asia  as  far  as  Egypt.  Strabo,  1 007.  At  this  time  also  oc- 
curred the  expedition  of  Maduos  their  king.  Strabo,  106. 

M  Herod.  Melpom. 

G  3 


86  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  rope.  They  seem  to  have  spread  into  it  from  the 
1L  ,  Tanais  to  the  Danube25,  and  to  have  then  taken  a 
westerly  direction;  but  their  kindred  colonies,  in 
Thrace,  had  extended  also  to  the  south.  Their  most 
northward  ramification  in  Europe  was  the  tribe  of 
the  Kcxolani,  who  dwelt  above  the  Borysthenes,  the 
modern  Dnieper.26 

It  would  be  impertinent  to  the  great  subject  of 
this  history  to  engage  in  a  minuter  discussion  of  the 
Scythian  tribes.  They  have  become  better  known  to 
us,  in  recent  periods,  under  the  name  of  Getas  and 
Goths27,  the  most  celebrated  of  their  branches. 

As  they  spread  over  Europe,  the  Kimmerian  and 
Keltic  population  retired  towards  the  west  and  south. 
In  the  days  of  Caasar,  the  most  advanced  tribes  of  the 
Scythian,  or  Gothic,  race  were  known  to  the  Romans 
under  the  name  of  Germans.  They  occupied  all  the 
continent  but  the  Cimbric  peninsula,  and  had  reached 
and  even  passed  the  Ehine.  One  of  their  divisions, 
the  Belgae,  had  for  some  time  established  themselves 
in  Flanders  and  part  of  France :  and  another  body, 
under  Ariovistus,  were  attempting  a  similar  settle- 
ment near  the  centre  of  Gaul,  which  Caesar  pre- 
vented.28 It  is  most  probable  that  the  Belgaa  in 

*s  Herod.  Melp.  s.  47— 57. 

86  Strabo  says,  "  Above  the  Borysthenes  dwell  the  last  of  the  known  Scuthose, 
the  Roxolani.  The  parts  beyond  them  are  uninhabitable  from  the  cold."  175. 
He  repeats  this  again.  «  If  any  live  above  the  Roxolani  we  know  not.  They  are 
the  most  northern,  and  inhabit  the  places  between  the  Tanais  (the  Don),  and  the 
Borysthenes."  p.  470. 

27  That  the  Getae  were  Goths  cannot  be  doubted.  The  Getse  were  the  same  as 
the  Daci,  or,  as  they  were  more  anciently  called,  Davi.  Hence  the  Greek  terms 
for  slaves  in  their  comedies,  which  Terence  has  borrowed,  Geta  and  Davus. 
Strabo,  lib.  vii.  467.  The  Getse  used  the  same  language  with  the  Thracians,  and 
the  Greeks  called  them  a  Thracian  nation  :  so  does  Menander.  Strabo,  p.  453 — 
455.  Ovid,  who  was  banished  to  Tome,  a  town  of  Mysia,  on  the  Euxine,  frequently 
talks  of  his  Getic  and  Scythic  locality  in  his  Epistles  and  Tristia.  As  he  was  so 
near  the  borders  of  the  Sarmatians,  it  is  a  natural  circumstance  that  their  name  is 
also  mentioned  in  his  verses  ;  but  this  is  no  identification  of  nations  whose  origin 
was  so  distinct. 

*»  These  two  facts  are  fully  asserted  by  Caesar.  He  expressly  distinguishes  the 
,*U*  from  the  Belgians  in  Gaul,  as  differing  in  language,  laws,  and  customs,  and 
ascribes  to  the  Belgians  a  German  origin. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  87 

Britain  were    descendants    of  colonists   or   invaders      CHAP. 
from  the  Belgae  in  Flanders  and  Gaul.  .     L     . 

The  names  Scythians  and  Scoloti  were,  like  Galli 
and  Kimmerians,  not  so  much  local  as  generic  appel- 
lations. The  different  tribes  of  the  Scythians,  like 
those  of  the  Kimmerians  and  Gauls,  had  their  peculiar 
distinctive  denominations. 

The  Saxons  were  a  German  or  Teutonic,  that  is,  a  The 
Gothic  or  Scythian  tribe ;  and  of  the  various  Scythian  babfyT 
nations  which  have  been  recorded,  the  Sakai,  or  Sax°ns. 
Sacae,  are  the  people  from  whom  the  descent  of  the 
Saxons  may  be  inferred  with  the  least  violation  of 
probability.  Sakai-suna,  or  the  sons  of  the  Sakai, 
abbreviated  into  Saksun,  which  is  the  same  sound  as 
Saxon,  seems  a  reasonable  etymology  of  the  word 
Saxon.  The  Sakai,  who  in  Latin  are  called  Saca3, 
were  an  important  branch  of  the  Scythian  nation. 
They  were  so  celebrated,  that  the  Persians  called  all 
the  Scythians  by  the  name  of  Saca3 ;  and  Pliny,  who 
mentions  this,  speaks  of  them  as  among  the  most  dis- 
tinguished people  of  Scythia.29  Strabo  places  them 
eastward  of  the  Caspian,  and  states  them  to  have 
made  many  incursions  on  the  Kimmerians  and 
Treres,  both  far  and  near.  They  seized  Bactriana, 
and  the  most  fertile  part  of  Armenia,  which,  from 
them,  derived  the  name^  Sakasina ;  they  defeated 
Cyrus;  and  they  reached  the  Cappadoces  on  the 
Euxine. 30  This  important  fact  of  a  part  of  Armenia 
having  been  named  Sakasina,  is  mentioned  by  Stfabo 
in  another  place  31,  and  seems  to  give  a  geographical 
locality  to  our  primeval  ancestors,  and  to  account  for 
the  Persian  words  that  Occur  in  the  Saxon  language, 
as  they  must  have  come  into  Armenia  from  the 
northern  regions  of  Persia. 


89  Pliny,  lib.vi.  c.  19.  E0  Strabo,  lib.  xi.  p.  776.  778. 

81  Strab.  p.  124.  Mr.  Keppel,  in  his  late  travels,  calls  this  "the  beautiful  pro- 
vince of  Karabaugh."  In  a  letter  to  the  Royal  Literary  Society,  I  have  traced  262 
words  in  the  Persian,  Zend,  and  Pehlvi  languages,  like  as  many  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon. 

G   4 


88  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  That  some  of  the  divisions  of  this  people  were 
.  n'  .  really  called  Saka-suna,  is  obvious  from  Pliny;  for 
he  says,  that  the  Sakai,  who  settled  in  Armenia,  were 
named  Sacassani32,  which  is  but  Saka-suna  spelt  by 
a  person  unacquainted  with  the  meaning  of  the  com- 
bined words.  And  the  name  Sacasena33,  which  they 
gave  to  the  part  of  Armenia  they  occupied,  is  nearly 
the  same  sound  as  Saxonia.  It  is  also  important  to 
remark,  that  Ptolemy  mentions  a  Scythian  people, 
sprung  from  the  Sakai,  by  the  name  of  Saxones.  If 
the  Sakai  who  reached  Armenia  were  called  Sacas- 
sani, they  may  have  traversed  Europe  with  the  same 
appellation  ;  which  being  pronounced  by  the  Romans 
from  them,  and  then  reduced  to  writing  from  their 
pronunciation,  may  have  been  spelt  with  the  x  in- 
stead of  the  ks,  and  thus  Saxones  would  not  be  a 
greater  variation  from  Sacassani  or  Saksuna  than  we 
find  between  French,  Fra^ois,  Franci,  and  their 
Greek  name,  <&payyi-  or  between  Spain,  Espagne, 
and  Hispania. 

It  is  not  at  all  improbable,  but  that  some  of  these 
marauding  Sakai,  or  Sacassani,  were  gradually  pro- 
pelled to  the  western  coasts  of  Europe,  on  which  they 
were  found  by  Ptolemy,  and  from  which  they  mo- 
lested the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  third  century  of 
our  era.  There  was  a  people  called  Saxoi,  on  the 
Euxine,  according  to  Stephanus.34  We  may  consider 
these,  also,  as  a  nation  of  the  same  parentage  ;  who, 
in  the  wanderings  of  the  Sakai  from  Asia  to  the 
German  Ocean,  were  left  on  the  Euxine,  as  others 
had  chosen  to  occupy  Armenia.  We  may  here  re- 
collect the  traditional  descent  of  Odin  preserved  by 
Snorre  in  the  Edda  and  his  history.  This  great 
ancestor  of  the  Saxon  and  Scandinavian  chieftains  is 
represented  to  have  migrated  from  a  city,  on  the  east 


»  c'  lib'  Vh  C'  1  L  *  Strabo,  lib.  xi.  p.  776,  778. 

84  Stephanus  de  tlrb.  et  Pop.    p.  657. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  89 

of  the  Tanais,  called  Asgard,  and  a  country  called     CHAP. 
Asaland,  which  imply  the  city  and  land  of  the  Asae  <      v'     / 
or  Asians.      The  cause  of  this   movement  was   the 
progress  of  the  Eomans.35     Odin  is  stated  to  have 
moved   first   into    Russia,  and  thence  into  Saxony. 
This   is   not   improbable.       The   wars   between   the 
Romans  and  Mithridates  involved  and  shook  most 
of  the  barbaric  nations  in  these  parts,  and  may  have 
excited  the  desire,  and  imposed  the  necessity,  of  a 
westerly  or  European  emigration. 

Of  the  ancient  Scythian  language,  the  probable  Ancient 
parent   of  all   the   Gothic   tongues,  we  have  a  few  language, 
words  preserved  to  us  : 

Exampaios  sacred  ways. 

Arima  one. 

Spou  an  eye. 

Oior  a  man. 

Pata  to  kill. 

Groucasum  white  with  snow.36 

Of  their  gods,  we  learn  that  they  had  seven;  whose  and  deities, 
character   and   attributes   were    thought,   by   Hero- 
dotus, to  be  like  some  of  the  most  distinguished  in 
the  Grecian  mythology  :  as, 

Tahiti,  their  principal  deity, 

resembled  the  Greek  Vesta. 

Papaios  Jupiter. 

Oitosuros  Apollo. 

Artimpasa,  or  Arippasa  Venus. 

Tharnimasadas  Neptune. 

Apia,  wife  of  Papaios  Earth. 

They  had  also  a  warlike  deity,  like  Mars,  whose 
name  has  not  been  given  to  us ;  and  to  whom  only 
they  raised  altars,  images,  and  temples37,  and  to  whom 

34  Snorre  Ynglinga  Saga,  c.  2.  and  5. 

*  Herod.  Melpom.  s.  52.  28.  110.     Pliny,  lib.  vi.  c.  19. 

17  Herod.  Melp.   s.  59.     Lucian  tells  us  that  they  adored  a  sword,  Jup.  Trag., 


90  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  they  sacrificed  annually  horses  and  sheep,  and  a  por- 
.  IL  t  tion  of  their  prisoners.  Their  bows  were  proverbial. 38 
In  battle  they  drank  the  blood  of  the  first  enemy 
whom  they  mastered.  They  scalped  their  opponents, 
and  offered  their  heads  to  their  king ;  and  they  made 
drinking  vessels  of  the  skulls  of  their  greatest  enemies 
or  conquered  friends.  They  had  many  diviners,  who 
used  rods  of  willow  for  their  predictions.39  In  these 
customs  our  Gothic  ancestors  resembled  them.  They 
had  the  moral  virtues  of  Nomadic  nations.  ^Eschylus 
mentions  them  with  an  epithet  that  implies  their 
habits  of  social  justice.  Homer  declares  that  no 
nation  was  more  just  than  theirs ;  and  Strabo  asks 
where  is  the  wonder  of  this,  as  they  cared  little  for 
money  or  commerce,  which  he  considers  to  be  the 
fountains  of  civilised  dishonesty.40 

The  nations  who  entered  Europe,  after  the  Scythic 
or  Gothic  or  Teutonic  tribes,  have  been  called  Scla- 
vonian  or  Sarmatian,  forming  a  third  great  race 
who  have  appeared  on  the  vast  Germanic  continent. 
The  Sarmatian  or  Sclavonic  branches  have  occupied 
Russia,  Poland,  Eastern  Prussia,  Moravia,  Bohemia 
and  their  vicinity.  As  our  ancient  history  is  not 
connected  with  this  race,  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
remark,  that  they  had  reached  the  neighbourhood  o: 

\vhich  Herodotus  mentions  as  their  emblem  of  Mars.  Lucian  also  says  that  despising 
the  Grecian  worship  as  unworthy  of  the  deity,  they  sacrificed  men  to  their  Diana, 
who  delighted  in  human  blood. 

38  «  Like  a  Scythic  bow."     Strabo,  187. 

89  Her.  Help.  s.  64,  65.  67.    Strabo  remarks,  that  they  used  skulls  for  their  cups 
lib.  vii.  p.  458.     In  the  days  of  Herodotus  their  customs  were  sufficiently  ferocious 
but  by  the  time  that  their  branches  the  Germans  and  Saxons  had  pervaded  Europe 
and  attracted  the  attention  of  Tacitus,  they  had  attained  the  improvements  whose 
benefits  we  feel.     How  superior  both  they  and  the  Kelts  of  Gaul  were  to  the  more 
savage  and  uncivilised  tribes  of  America  we  may  perceive,  by  contrasting  Tacitus' 
account  of  the  Germans,  with  Brainerd's  the  Indian  missionary's  description  of  the 
North  American  Indians.     Of  these  he  says,   *«  they  are  in  general  wholly  un 
acquainted  with  civil  laws  and  proceedings ;  nor  have  any  kind  of  notion  of  civi 
judicatures ;  of  persons  being  arraigned,  tried,  judged,  condemned  or  acquitted 
They  have  little  or  no  ambition  or  resolution.     Not  one  in  a  thousand  of  them  has 
the  spirit  of  a  man.     They  are  unspeakably  indolent  and  slothful.     They  discover 
little  gratitude  or  even  manhood,  amidst  all  the  kindnesses  they  receive.     They 
seem  to  have  no  sentiments  of  generosity,  benevolence,  or  goodness. "     See  Brainerd's 
Life  by  President  Edwards.     He  died  1747. 

40  Strabo,  460,  461.  454, 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  91 

the  Tanais,  on  the  borders  of  Europe,  in  the  time  of 
Herodotus,  who  calls  them  Sauromatse. 41  This  fact 
gives  one  solid  basis  for  their  just  chronology. 
Herodotus  lived  450  years  before  our  era;  and  thus 
he  gives  evidence  of  the  existence  and  approach  to 
Europe  of  the  Sarmatian  race  at  that  period. 

The  Sclavonic  is  a  genus  of  languages  which  every  The  scia- 
examiner  would  separate  from  the  Keltic  and  Gothic. 
The  present  Russian  is  thought  to  be  the  most  faith- 
ful specimen  of  the  original  Sclavonic.  The  Poles, 
the  Bohemians,  the  Dalmatians,  the  Croatians,  the 
Bulgarians,  Carinthians,  Moravians,  and  some  other 
tribes  adjacent,  formerly  used  its  various  dialects.42 
It  prevailed  in  those  parts  of  Europe  where  the 
ancients  placed  the  Sarmatae. 43  The  numerous  tribes 
who  spoke  the  Sclavonic  preserved  their  ancient  name 
of  Yenedi,  long  after  their  invasion  of  Germany,  in 
the  fifth  or  sixth  century,  though  they  were  also 
called  Slavi.  Their  successes  enabled  them  to  reach 
the  Saxons  and  the  Francs,  but  their  conquests  were 
terminated  by  the  opposition  of  Charlemagne,  and 
their  incessant  civil  feuds. 

The  incontrovertible  fact,  of  the  existence  in  an-  Their  chro- 
cient  Europe  of  at  least  three  genera  of  languages,  "uccessTon. 
strongly  distinguished  from  each  other,  conducts  us 
safely  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  collections  of  nations 
who    spoke   them,    must   have  also  differed   in    the 
chronology    of  their  origin.       As   the   Keltic  tribes 
were   found    in    the    most    western    extremities    of 
Europe,  it  is  reasonable  to  infer  that  they  visited  it 

41  He  says  the  regions  beyond  the  Tanais  are  no  part  of  Scythia.  The  first  por- 
tion belongs  to  the  Sauromatse.  c.  21. 

48  The  extent  of  the  nationes  Slavorum,  and  of  their  language,  is  stated  by  Hel- 
moldus,  Chron.  Slav.  p.  3. ;  by  Krantz  in  his  \Vandalia,  p.  2. ;  by  Chrytaeus,  Wan- 
dalia,  p.  3. ;  by  Munster,  1  Schard.  Hist.  Germ.  486. ;  and  by  Faber,  Rer.  Muse.  132. 
On  the  Slavi,  see  Spener's  Notitia,  ii.  p.  384.  Sunt  a  Germanis  plane  diversi  generis. 
Pontanus,  Chor.  Dan.  710. 

43  Dubravii  Hist.  Bohem.  44.  Helmoldus,  p.  3.,  says,  that  the  Hungarians  nee 
habitu  nee  lingua  discrepant.  But  Krantz  disputes  his  authority,  and  affirms, 
that  all  acknowledge  the  Hungarian  and  Sclavonic  to  be  dissimilar  languages. 
Wandalia,  36. 


92  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK  earlier  than  the  others :  so  the  Sclavonic  peoples, 
.  1L  .  being  found  to  reside  about  its  eastern  boundaries, 
may  be  fairly  considered  as  the  latest  settlers.  The 
Gothic  or  Teutonic  states,  from  their  position,  claim 
justly  an  intermediate  date.  As  they  advanced  west- 
wards, the  Keltoi  retired  before  them.  As  the  rami- 
fications of  the  Scythians,  Saxons,  and  Goths  spread 
toward  the  Germanic  Ocean,  the  Sclavonic  hordes 
flowed  after  them  from  Asia.  The  Saxon  was  one  of 
the  Gothic  or  Teutonic  states,  and  it  was  as  far  west 
as  the  Elbe  in  the  days  of  Ptolemy.  The  Saxons 
were  therefore,  in  all  likelihood,  as  ancient  visitors  of 
Europe  as  any  other  Gothic  tribe.  Their  situation 
seems  to  indicate  that  they  moved  among  the  fore- 
most columns  of  the  second  great  emigration  into 
Europe ;  but  the  particular  date  of  their  arrival  on 
the  Elbe,  or  a  more  particular  derivation,  it  is  im- 
possible to  prove,  and  therefore  unprofitable  to 
discuss.44  The  Poles  became  the  most  distinguished 
of  the  Sclavonian  nations  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  but  the  Russian  branch  has  since 
attained  a  pre-eminence,  which,  for  power,  influence, 
and  extent  of  empire,  transcends  now,  beyond  all 
competition,  every  other  people  of  the  Sarmatian 
descent. 45 

44  The  most  ancient  nations  of  Italy  and  Greece,  and  those  on  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean,  the  JEgean  Sea,  and  the  Adriatic,  appear  to  me  to  have  sprung 
partly  from  Phoenician  and  Egyptian  colonisations,  and  partly  from  the  migrations 
of  the  Kimmerian  and  Keltic  races.  From  this  ancient  population,  secondary 
colonisations  took  place,  like  those  which  peopled  Magna  Graecia,  and  the  north 
coast  of  the  Euxine,  and  which  settled  at  Marseilles.  In  their  later  population,  the 
Gothic  or  Scythian  tribes,  as  well  as  the  Carthaginians,  must  have  had  some  share. 
The  most  remarkable  fact  of  the  Latin  language  is,  that  although  visibly  of  the 
same  family  with  the  Greek,  yet  it  contains  many  striking  resemblances,  especially 
in  its  terminations,  to  the  ancient  Sanscrit.  Meric  Casaubon  has  taken  some  pains 
to  show  that  the  Saxon  language  has  great  affinity  with  the  Greek.  De  Ling. 
Sax.  234—376. 

13  The  old  Russian  chronicler,  Nestor,  has  preserved  to  us  the  names  of  the  seven 
chief  Sclavonian  deities,  in  those  idols  which  Vladimir  set  up  at  Kiow,  and  de- 
stroyed as  soon  as  he  embraced  Christianity.  They  were  Peroun,  Veless,  Stribog, 
Zimtserla,  Khorss,  Dajbog,  and  Makochd.  Rousef 's  Idoles  de  Kief.  A  poem  of 
the  12th  century,  entitled  «  Song  on  the  exploits  of  Igor,"  mentions  three  of  these, - 
is  Viley,  Streb,  and  Dajbog.  This  poem  speaks  of  the  latter  as  the  Mother  of  the 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  93 

Gods  and  Men.  Ib.  The  greatest  part  of  the  ancient  Russian  MSS.  were  destroyed 
in  the  civil  commotions  of  Bati  and  the  false  Demetrius ;  but  it  has  been  calculated 
that  above  10,000  yet  remain  of  those  of  the  middle  ages. 


In  the  first  edition  of  this  history  some  of  the  fanciful  derivations  of  the  Saxons 
•were  noticed,  which  the  learned  of  former  times  had  patronised  ;  and  as  the  curious 
reader  may  wish  to  know  the  speculations  which  have  been  framed  on  this  subject, 
the  passage  is  reprinted  here. 

The  Saxon  antiquaries,  like  those  of  the  other  European  states,  formerly  coveted 
a  duration  almost  coeval  with  creation.  To  have  appeared  on  the  world  but  so 
recently  as  the  second  century  of  our  era  was  once  thought  such  a  national  disgrace, 
that  a  succession  of  ancestors  from  the  very  deluge  itself  was  ostentatiously  sought 
for  in  a  vainglorious  emulation  of  the  rest  of  mankind.  The  exact  parent  was  not 
indeed  determined,  because  the  taste  of  our  heralds  has  disagreed.  Some  preferred 
Magog  a,  the  grandson  of  Noah  ;  many  his  grandson  Gomerb,  and  others  were  more 
partial  to  his  great  grandson  Askenaz.c  With  more  ardent  patriotism  some  ascended 
a  little  higher,  in  order  to  assert  an  origin  which  could  not  be  surpassed.  Hence 
Shemd,  the  eldest  of  Noah's  offspring,  and  Japhet6,  the  youngest,  have  been  also 
selected.  But  as  the  human  mind  delights  in  contradiction,  the  antediluvian 
sons  of  the  antediluvian  patriarch,  however  unexceptionable  for  their  antiquity, 
were  not  honoured  with  an  unanimous  choice.  It  is  the  privilege  immemorially 
assumed  by  an  antiquary  to  exhibit  his  learning,  and  to  indulge  his  caprice.  Some 
of  our  annalists  have  felt  this  impulse,  and  the  claims  of  Shem  and  Japhet  were,  in 
their  minds,  superseded  by  the  merits  of  their  brother  Strefius. f  It  is  true  that  this 
Strefius  is  a  venerable  person  with  whom  Moses  was  unacquainted  ;  but  our  more 
learned  countrymen  discovered  that  he  was  born  in  the  floating  ark.  We  must 
excel  each  other  in  the  length  of  our  national  as  well  as  individual  genealogy,  or 
our  spirit  of  competition  will  not  be  gratified,  nor  our  envy  appeased. 

When  the  Saxon  pedigree  had  been  sufficiently  guarded,  a  brilliant  history  was 
yet  wanting  to  their  glory.  Some  friendly  pens  supplied  this  defect.  The  defenders 
of  Troy  are  immortal  amongst  mankind,  and  their  fame  led  the  erudition  of  some 
to  perceive  that  the  Saxons  marched  with  the  battalions  of  Priam,  e  But  to  be  the 
children  of  vanquished  fugitives  was  less  palatable  to  others,  and  a  destiny  more 
glorious  has  been  claimed  for  those  whose  posterity  have  filled  Germany  and  Britain 
with  their  colonies.  The  triumphant  Alexander  was  the  general  alone  worthy  to 
have  led  the  ancient  Saxons  to  the  field  of  martial  honour  :  they  are  stated  to  have 
followed  him  to  the  stream  of  victory,  and  on  his  death,  to  elude  the  envy  excited 
by  their  exploits,  to  have  exchanged  the  slothful  plains  of  the  East  for  the  hardier 


8  Wern.  Rolevinck  de  Westphal.  ant.  Situ,  p.  13,  &c. 

b  Langhorn,  who,  to  begin  ab  ovo,  opens  his  Elenchus  with  an  acceunt  of  Adam 
and  Eve,  settles  Gomer  in  Bactriana  at  first ;  but  conveys  him  afterwards  to  Scythia 
Sacana,  from  which  his  posterity,  spreading  through  Scythia  intra  Imaum,  became 
divided  into  the  Sasones  and  other  tribes.  Antiquit.  Albion,  xi.  326. 

c  This  derivation  is  among  those  mentioned  by  Krantz,  p.  4.  ;  but  Lazius  de 
Gent.  al.  Migrat.  p.  19.,  makes  the  Askenazians  the  people  who  were  ejected  by  the 
Trojan  Saxons. 

d  Asser  Menev.  p.  4.,  leads  the  pedigree  of  Alfred  up  to  Shem,  and  to  Adam. 
So  others. 

e  Hist.  Erphest.  de  1  Her.  Germ.  Pistori,  908.  and  others. 

f  William  Malmsbury,  41.  Strefius  filius  Nose.  Sim.  Dun.  adds,  in  archa  natus. 
Pra;f.  x.  Script.  Twysd.  Langhorn  Ant.  Alb.  334,  saw  one  MSS.  genealogy,  which 
derives  Strefius  from  Japhet.  The  Lanfedgatal,  an  Icelandic  composition,  interposes 
several  generations  between  Strefius,  when  it  names  Seskef  and  Noah.  1  Langb. 
Scrip.  Dan.  p.  3. 

«  Trithemius,  in  the  name  of  Wasthald  de  Orig.  Franc,  p.  3.  64.  exhibits  the 
Saxons  as  a  progeny  of  Trojans.  Lazius  also  makes  them  part  "  of  the  fatal  relics 
of  the  Trojan  war,"  deGent.  Migrat.  19. 


94  HISTOEY    OF    THE 

ROOK        soil  of  the  Germanic  continent.     The  Thuringians  did  not  receive  the  heroes  with 
TT  the  confidence  they  exacted,  but  fraud  and  violence  soon  extorted  a  country  !  ! h 

, ,         in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  true  learning  spread,  these  details  were  found  to  be 

warranted  by  no  evidence,  and  fell  into  discredit ;  but  as  these  disappeared,  other 
suppositions,  not  less  gratuitous,  took  their  place.  They  were  admitted  to  be  neither 
Trojans  nor  Macedonians  ;  they  were  Germans,  indigenous  Germans  ',  polluted  by 
no  foreign  race,  and  they  were  asserted  to  have  been  flourishing  in  arms  and 
commerce  above  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era !  !  No  claim  of  vanity 
could  be  bolder  than  this.  They  were  active  on  the  Elbe,  the  Weser,  and  the 
Ems  k  before,  perhaps,  these  rivers  had  been  at  all  disturbed  by  human  oars  ! 

The  effect  of  evidence  on  the  mind  is  as  various  as  the  perceptions  and  associa- 
tions of  individuals.  The  authorities  which  were  decisive  in  the  estimation  of  one 
scholar,  were  light  as  chaff  in  the  judgment  of  another.  When  once  the  origin  of 
the  Saxons  was  submitted  to  investigation,  conjecture  began  to  unfold  its  plumes, 
and  soared  in  devious  flights  through  the  dark  expanse  of  historical  erudition. 

No  principle  of  judgment  governed  its  exertions  :  men  were  only  solicitous  to  be 
'  singular ;  and  if  the  opinion  were  but  novel,  its  extravagance  was  overlooked. 
Hence  the  Cimbri 1,  the  Chauci m,  and  the  Suevi  n,  or,  as  other  advocates  prevailed, 
the  Boii  °,  the  Suardones  P,  and  the  Catti  1,  were  declared  to  be  identical  with  the 
Saxon  nation.  The  proofs  of  the  affinity  of  either  were  indeed  invisible,  as  the 
whimsical  selection  and  the  casual  belief  of  the  writers  were  the  only  authorities  by 
which  they  were  supported.  It  was  the  same  sort  of  authentication,  combined 
with  the  grossest  ignorance  of  the  transactions  of  nations,  which  induced  two  authors, 
who  from  their  proximity  both  in  time  and  place  to  the  Saxon  emigration,  ought 
to  have  supplied  the  most  authentic  information,  to  derive  this  people  from  the  very 
island  which  they  invaded. r  Others  seduced  by  the  vicinity  of  situation,  have  dis- 

h  This  derivation  was  at  one  time  the  most  popular.     It  is  found  in  Wittichind 
Gest.  Sax.  p.  2.,  and  was  firmly  believed  by  Gotfred.  Viterb.  2  Pist.  361. 
Saxo,  velut  credo,  patria  fuit  ante  Macedo, 
Regis  Alexandri  miles  ubique  fuit. 

The  authors  who  have  adopted  this  idea  are  very  numerous.  It  is  one  of  the  facts 
on  which  the  celebrated  Agrippa  founds  his  Philippic  against  History.  De  Van. 
Sclent,  p.  25. 

1  Many  continental  writers  affirm  this.  Among  these  is  Bebelius,  a  man  of 
merit ;  but  whose  learning  and  eloquence  were  too  partially  pressed  into  the  service 
of  his  patriotism.  He  discovers  his  ancient  Germans  not  only  to  have  been  valiant, 
but  perpetually  victorious ;  not  only  to  have  possessed  mind,  strength,  beauty,  and 
integrity,  but  superior  mind  and  strength,  beauty,  and  integrity,  unparalleled  in  the 
world.  See  his  tract,  in  1  Schard.  Hist.  Germ.  256 — 286. 

k  Krantz  (Saxonia,  p.  5.)  was  betrayed  into  this  mistake  by  accrediting  the 
reveries  of  Saxo  Grammaticus,  of  which  Chrytaeus  says  truly,  "  poetica  magis  quam 
historica  fide  scripta  temporum  etiam,  "ut  totaipsius  historia,  distinctione  accurate 
carent."  Saxonia  Proemium. 

1  Aventinus  Ann.  Boiorum,  p.  388.,  and  Sheringham  de  Orig.  Angl.  45.,  one  of 
the  most  learned  and  intelligent  of  our  antiquaries. 

m  See  Glareanus  and  Althamerus  in  1  Schard.  Hist.  Ger.  187.  48. 

n  Bebelius,  1  Schard.  241. 

0  Eneas  Sylvius  (Pope  Pius  II.),  in  his  Historia  Bohemica,  c.  1.  p.  3.,  says,  the 
Saczania  is  one  of  the  rivers  which  the  Multavia  receives.      The  episode  annexed  to 
this  was,  that  such  of  the  Galli  Boii  as  were  driven  over  the  Saczania  were  deno- 
minated Saxons.     Krantz  Sax.  p.  3. 

P  Langhorn's  Antiq.  Alb.  333.  intimates  the  Suardones  of  Tacitus  to  be  the 
Saxon  name  distorted  by  negligent  transcribers  ;  because  Saxones  might  easily 
slip  into  Sardones,  and  that  into  Suardones. 

1  This  is  the  favourite  idea  of  Krantz  (Saxon,  p.  4.),  which  Reineccius  deno- 
minates foedum  errorem.     Prarf.  to  Wittichind.     Chrytaus  admits  that  it  seemed 
durior  et  alienior  aliis  eruditis.     Proem. 

'  Meginhard  delivers  it  with  an  ut  tradit  antiquitas.  Vita  S.  Alexandri, 
2  Langb.  Scrip.  Dan.  39.  He  wrote  about  870.  Adam  of  Bremen,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  repeated  the  derivation  on  his  authority,  and  quotes  him,  p.  4., 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  95 

cerned  their  parents  in  the  Danes  and  Northmen ;  and  an  author,  even  of  our  own 
period,  has  thought  the  Vandals  of  Scandinavia  8  to  have  justcr  claims  to  this  honour 
than  all  the  rest. 

But  those  antiquarians,  whose  narrow  views  looked  only  into  Europe  for  the 
cradle  of  our  ancestors,  may  be  despised  as  indolent  hy  the  adventurous  spirits 
who  have  made  Asia  and  Africa  the  regions  of  their  research.  So  indefatigable  has 
been  the  activity  of  some,  that  the  Pontic  Chersonesus  has  been  visited  *,  the  classic 
Euxine  navigated",  Armenia  traversed',  and  Mount  Imaus  approached. w  When- 
ever the  chorographical  polemic  has  turned  his  eye,  this  fairy  people  have  appeared. 
Distance  has  been  no  difficulty  ;  impossibility  no  impediment ;  but  the  bleak  deserts 
of  Scythiax,  and  the  sands  of  Africa  y,  have  alike  been  .presented  to  us  as  the  birth- 
place of  that  tribe,  which  in  the  days  of  Ptolemy  just  darkened  the  neck  of  the 
peninsula  of  Jutland,  and  three  inconsiderable  islands  in  its  neighbourhood. 

A  contemporary  of  our  own,  whose  talents  and  industry  deserve  more  applause 
than  his  judgment,  has  taken  a  flight  on  this  subject  which  is  peculiarly  eccentric. 
His  genius,  disdaining  the  prudence  which  would  dictate  hesitation  amid  obscurity 
so  impenetrable,  has  set  both  chronology  and  geography  at  defiance.  He  finds  the 
Saxons  in  almost  all  parts  of  Europe,  and  in  almost  all  ages ;  at  one  time  marauding 
in  Europe  as  Celto-Scythae,  intimidating  the  Romans  as  Ambrones  from  Liguria, 
afterwards  peeping  out  to  Lucan  in  the  name  of  Axones,  then  settling  in  Gaul  in 
the  character  of  Suessiones,  and  at  last  haunting  the  natives  of  the  British  isles 
in  the  terrific  shape  of  the  Lochlynach  ;  it  was  in  vain  that  the  Celtic  Protei  shifted 
their  disguises  ;  the  historian  of  Manchester  detected  them  in  all. z  An  illustrious 
instance  that  imagination  may  be  as  active  in  the  dullest  and  darkest  as  in  its  most 
bright  and  congenial  themes. 

under  the  name  of  Eginhard.  Until  lately  he  has  been  confounded  with  the 
biographer  of  Charlemagne.  His  work  was  thought  lost.  Fabr.  Bibl.  Medii  ^Evi, 
1. 5.  p.  264.  It  was  fancied  to  have  been  a  curious  history  of  the  Saxons.  It  has 
been  found  to  be  but  the  life  of  a  saint,  containing  no  more  about  the  Saxons  than 
what  Adam  has  extracted  into  his  Hist.  Eccl. 

The  chronicle  of  Conrad,  which  Melanchthon  published  with  commendations, 
repeats  the  story.  Abb.  Usper.  Chron.  p.  145. 

8  Macpherson's  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Great  Britain,  p.  291.  12°  ed.  The 
Danish  origin  had  been  started  before  by  Wittichind.  See  this  ancient  author,  p.  2. 
Leibnitz  inclined  to  it. 

*  M.  Casaubon  de  Ling.  Sax.  393.     The  modesty  of  Casaubon  entitles  him  to 
respect :   "  In  hac  tanta  et  ipsarum  rerum  obscuritate  et  opinionum  varietate,  non 
meum  neque  fortasse  cujusquam  vel  diligentissimi  quicquam  certe  statuere." 

u  Capnio  and  others  supposed  the  Axones  on  the  Euxine  to  have  been  the  Saxons. 
Cisner.'s  preface  to  Krantz  Sax.  and  M.  Casaub.  392.  Capnio  contends  the  Saxones 
of  Ptolemy  should  be  read  Amoves. 

v  The  Chronicon  Holsatia*  says,  that  Alexander  found  in  Armenia  a  hardy  race 
of  men,  who  partook  of  all  his  expeditions,  and  whose  name,  from  their  valour,  he 
changed  into  Saxones,  from  saxum,  a  rock.  Leibnitz  Access.  Histor.  12. 

w  Beyond  the  Jaxartes,  according  to  Strabo,  and  opposite  to  the  Sogdiani,  ac- 
cording to  Eratosthenes,  and  half  enclosed  by  the  mountains  of  Ascatanea  and  Imaus, 
according  to  Ptolemy,  were  the  Saca?.  It  was  the  opinion  formerly  of  almost  all 
the  learned,  that  from  these  the  Saxons  descended.  Cisner  Praef.  Camden  favours 
it.  This  position  is  that  which  we  have  before  mentioned  as  the  most  probable  seat 
of  our  ancestors  in  Asia,  if  they  have  really  sprung  from  the  Sacae. 

*  North  of  the  Sacse,  and  near  the  Syebian  and  Tapurian  mountains,  Ptolemy 
has  placed  another  people,  the  Sasones.     These  have  been  selected  as  our  ancestors. 
Krantz  Saxonia,  2.     This  opinion  has  been  united  with  the  former.     Sasones, 
Sacaesons,  Sacsones,  Saxones.     Cisner  Praef. 

y  Verstegan  quotes  Occa  Scarlensis  for  this  derivation.  Suffridus  Petri  has 
courageously  undertaken  the  defence  of  Occa's  veracity,  Apol.  pro  Ant.  Fris.  Hist, 
p.  180.  I  wonder  no  one  has  thought  of  the  Saxoi,  near  the  Pontus,  according  to 
Stephanus,  or  the  Saxinae,  who  were  some  troglodytes  in  Ethiopia,  according  to 
Pliny.  Ortelius  Thesaur.  Geograph.  in  voc. 

a  Hist.  Manch.  i.  p.  427. 


96  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  II. 

Description   of  the  Country  inhabited  by  the  SAXONS  near  the 
ELBE,  before  they  occupied  BRITAIN. 

BOOK  THE  infant  state  of  the  Saxon  people,  when  the 
.  IL  ,  Romans  first  observed  them,  exhibited  nothing  from 
which  human  sagacity  would  have  predicted  great- 
ness. A  territory,  on  the  neck  of  the  Cimbric  Cher- 
sonesus,  and  three  small  islands,  contained  those 
whose  descendants  occupy  the  circle  of  Westphalia, 
the  electorate  of  Saxony,  the  British  islands,  the 
United  States  of  North  America,  and  the  British 
colonies  in  the  two  Indies.  Such  is  the  course  of 
Providence,  that  empires  the  most  extended,  and  the 
most  formidable,  are  found  to  vanish  as  the  morning 
mist ;  while  tribes  scarce  visible,  or  contemptuously 
overlooked,  like  the  springs  of  a  mighty  river,  often 
glide  on  gradually  to  greatness  and  veneration, 
saxon  The  three  islands  which  the  Saxons  in  the  days  of 

Ptolemy  inhabited,  were  those  which  we  now  denomi- 
nate North  Strandt,  Busen,  and  Heiligland.1 
North  North  Strandt,  formerly  torn  from  South  Jutland 

strandt.      ky  ^  yioience  of  faQ  waveSj  is  situated  opposite  to 

Hesum,  and  above  Eiderstede,  from  both  which  it  is 
separated  by  intervals  of  sea.  The  Hever,  a  bay 
which  flows  below  it,  and  washes  the  northern  shore 
of  the  Eiderstede,  is  favourable  to  commercial  navi- 
gations. This  island  was  formerly  about  twenty 
miles  long,  and  in  most  parts  seven  miles  broad.  It 

1  Cluver.  Ant  Ger.  iii.  p.  97.  Pontanus  Chorog.  737.  Du  Bos  Histoire 
Critique,  i.  p.  148.  The  Geographer  of  Ravenna  places  Eustrachia  among  the 
Saxon  isles,  lib.  v.  c.  30.  This  may  mean  the  neighbouring  peninsula,  Eyderstadt, 
which  was  almost  an  island. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  97 

once  contained  twenty- two  parishes,  and  was  noted  CHAP. 
for  its  agricultural  produce,  as  well  as  its  fish.2  ^_^J — > 
The  raging  of  the  sea  has  materially  damaged  it 
since  the  time  of  the  Saxons.  Four  calamitous  in- 
undations are  recorded  to  have  happened,  in  1300, 
1483,  1532,  and  1615;  but  a  more  destructive  one 
than  all  began  in  the  night  of  the  llth  October,  1634; 
the  island  was  entirely  overflowed  ;  6408  persons, 
1332  houses,  arid  50,000  head  of  cattle  were  washed 
away  into  the  sea.3  Such  devastations  have  almost 
annihilated  the  place.  There  is  now  remaining  of 
Nord-strand  only  the  small  parish  of  Pelworm,  which 
derives  its  safety  from  the  height  of  its  situation. 

Busen  lies  north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  to  the 
westward  of  Ditmarsia,  and  looks  towards  Meldorp  ; 
in  breadth  it  is  above  two  miles,  in  length  near  three. 
It  is  situated  close  upon  the  main  land,  of  which  it 
is  suspected  to  have  once  formed  a  part.  Being 
one  even  plain,  the  stormy  ocean  around  makes  the 
island  a  perilous  habitation ;  it  has  therefore  been 
surrounded  by  a  strong  dyke.  It  contains  three  or 
four  parishes,  with  about  as  many  villages ;  and 
though  boasting  no  pre-eminence  of  soil,  it  commonly 
yields  its  produce  with  moderate  fertility. 4 

But  the  most  celebrated  and  the  most  frequented 
of  the  Saxon  islands  was  HEILIGISLAND.  The  words 
literally  mean  the  sacred  island.5  In  the  eighth 
century,  and  in  the  eleventh,  it  had  two  other  names; 

2  Chry tarns,  p.  65.     Pontanus,  p.  741.     Ubbo  Emmius,  p.  30.  158. 

3  The  destruction  extended  to  other  parts  of  Jutland.     In  the  Eyderstede,  664 
houses,  2107  persons,  and  12,000  cattle  and  sheep  were  swept  off.     Busching's 
Geography. 

4  Ubbo  Emmius,  Her.  Fris.  p.  31.     Pontanus,  Chorog.  737,  738.  and  741.     He 
derives  its  name  from  Buysen,  or  Busch,  a  wood.     His  vernacular  names  of  the 
fishes,  with  their  Latin  names  of  that  day,  are  in  p.  741. 

5  Some  derive  the  name  from  Hilgo,  a  bishop  of  the  place ;  others,  and  in  the 
opinion  of  Pontanus,  verius,  from  some  holy  virgins  who  inhabited  it.       Their 
sacred  steps  the  respectful  grass  never  covered,  as  all  the  credulous  natives  will 
attest  and  show  !  !     Pontanus,  Chorog.  739.     But  as  an  idol  much  revered,  called 
Foseti,  was  in  it,  the  epithet  perhaps  arose  from  the  Pagan  superstition. 

VOL.  I.  H 


98  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     Fossetis-land6,  and  Farria,  which  have  been  written 
.    n-    ,   with  various  orthography. 

This  ancient  seat  of  our  forefathers  has  now  be- 
come united  to  the  British  dominions.7  As  it  was 
the  principal  station  of  their  naval  excursions,  it  is 
peculiarly  interesting  to  us,  and  an  important  object 
of  our  national  history.  But  its  condition  has  greatly 
varied:  we  will  therefore  subjoin  its  earliest,  as  well 
as  its  subsequent  and  latest  descriptions,  to  give  the 
reader  the  fullest  information  of  its  successive  states 
that  can  now  be  obtained. 

In  the  eighth  century  it  is  noticed  by  a  writer  as 
the  place  where  the  idol  Fosete  was  adored.8  In  the 
eleventh  century,  it  is  thus  described  by  Adam  of 
Bremen,  under  the  name  of  Farria.  "  It  lies  in  a 
long  recess  at  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe.  It  is  the  first 
island  that  occurs  in  the  ocean.  It  has  a  monastery 
and  is  inhabited.  It  is  very  fruitful :  rich  in  corn, 
and  a  nurse  of  cattle  and  birds.  It  has  one  hill  and 
no  trees :  it  is  surrounded  with  the  steepest  rocks, 
with  ,  only  a  single  entrance,  where  there  is  fresh 
water.  It  is  a  place  venerated  by  all  sailors,  and 
especially  by  pirates.  Hence  it  is  called  Heilige- 
land."  9 

Its  state  about  1630,  we  take  from  Pontanus.  "  It 
had  formerly  seven  parishes,  and  from  its  inhabitants 
and  incidents,  we  learn  that  it  was  once  much  larger 
than  it  is  at  present.  For  in  our  times  the  sea  re- 
ceding, the  soil  has  been  worn  down  and  carried  off 
on  all  sides  by  the  violence  of  the  waves.  It  is  eight 
German  miles  from  Eyderstadt,  and  about  nine  from 
the  Elbe.  On  the  west,  opposite  England,  it  is  46 

6  Altf.  vita  St.  Lieudg.  ap.  Bouquet,  t.  V.  p.  449.     This  ancient  name  of  the 
island  and  its  Idol  seems  to  connect  them  with  the  Fosi  of  Tacitus. 

On  the  26th  August,  1814,  the  King  of  Denmark  signed  an  official  act,  an- 
nouncing his  cession  of  this  island  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain.  It  had  been 
annexed  to  Denmark  in  1714.  It  was  formerly  possessed  by  the  dukes  of  Holstein. 
Gottorf.  Busching. 

8  See  note  6.  9  Ad>  Brem   Higt  c  2io.  p.  64.  ed.  Linden. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  99 

ells   high,    and   towards   the  Elbe    30.      They  who     CHAP. 
have  examined  its   shores,  report   that  solid  bodies    < — ^ — > 
formed  of  stone,  and  that  shells,  oysters,  and  human 
hands,  have  been  found  there,  and  even  books  and 
candles.      Its  banner  is  a  ship  in  full   sail."  10      He 
adds  another  description  from  its  governor,  which  is 
translated  in  the  note.11 

The  occupations  of  its  inhabitants  have  generally 
been  those  of  the  fisherman  and  the  pilot.  Perpe- 
tually at  sea,  like  their  Saxon  ancestors,  they  dis- 
regard the  terrors  of  the  ocean.  Their  food  consists 
of  their  oats,  and  the  produce  of  their  nets.  But 
though  sacred  in  human  estimation,  the  elements 
have  not  respected  this  island.  In  the  year  800,  a 
furious  tempest  from  the  north-west  occasioned  the 
greater  portion  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the  waves. 
In  1300  and  1500  it  suffered  materially  from  the 
same  cause;  but  the  inundation  of  1649  was  so  de- 
structive, that  but  a  small  part  of  the  island  survived 

10  Pontan.  Chorog. 

11  "  The  island  consists  of  two  rocks,  one  red,  the  other  white.     The  first,  con- 
taining the  fortress  and  garrison  of  the  place,  can  be  ascended  by  only  one  path. 
Like  a  red  mulberry  it  emerges  straight  up  from  the  sea  like  Segeburg  in  Holsatia, 
406  ells  high,  with  a  rich  and  fertile  soil  upon  it,  from  two  ells  and  a  half  to  one 
ell  deep.     It  bears  pease,  beans,  and  English  barley,  of  such  peculiar  goodness,  that 
two  bushels  of  it  excel  three  of  Eyderstadt.     It  has  lettuces,  radishes,  and  spinage, 
and  is  free  from  serpents,  toads,  and  every  venomous  animal.     It  has  fine  cattle 
and  horses,  but  their  motions  must  be  restricted  or  they  fall  into  the  sea.     The  air 
is  pure  and  salubrious.     It  has  a  church,  50  families,  and  about  300  inhabitants, 
an  industrious  and  healthy  race,  skilled  in  navigation,  and  rich,  and  advancing 
themselves  in  other  regions  to  wealth  and  dignities.    The  rock  abounds  with  birds, 
of  whom  incredible  numbers  fly  hither  in  crowds  every  autumn,  especially  cranes, 
swans,  geese,  ducks,  thrushes,  larks,  and  others,  which  supply  the  inhabitants  with 
many  banquets.      They  detain  and  use  rainwater.     It  has  a  safe  and  capacious 
port,  very  deep  and  open  to  the  south.     This  sometimes  holds  above  100  ships  of 
burthen,  and  defends  them  from  the  north  and  west  winds.      Larger  ships  may 
find  a  shelter  in  it.      The  other  white  rock  is  sandy,   and  has  springs  of  fresh 
water.     It  has  rabbits  :  it  affords  no  pasture,  but  it  grows  hemp.     It  has  towards 
the  north  and  east  a  metal  like  gold,  which  they  call  mummergoldt,  from  which 
gold  may  be  extracted,  and  sulphur  enough  to  pay  the  expense  of  the  smelting. 
Petrified  almonds  and  wax-candles  are  found  in  its  veins  in  abundance,  and  snails 
and  shells  converted  into  the  metallic  gold.     There  are  small  metallic  branches,  as 
of  trees,  so  fine  that  no  artificer  could  make  such  of  gold.   The  island  was  formerly 
famous  for  the  capture  of  herrings,  and  now  abounds  with  fish,  especially  oysters." 
Pont.  Chorog.  p.  739,  740.     As  gold  is  seldom  found  united  with  sulphur,  auri- 
ferous pyrites  are  very  rare,  though  some  have  been  found  in  Peru,  Siberia,  Sweden, 

~  Hungary. 

H  2 


100  HISTORY    OF    THE 

it.12     If  another  attack  should  wash  away  the  sandy 
downs,   scarce  one-sixth  of  the    present  population 

could  subsist. 

Situated  near  nations  highly  civilised,  this  island 
exists  for  the  benefit  of  all  who  navigate  the  Elbe, 
which,  from  its  dangerous  coast,  could  not  be  entered 
without  it.  A  sea-mark  by  day,  a  lighthouse  by 
night,  Heiligland  points  out  the  path  of  safety  to  the 
anxious  mariner,  and  abounds  with  skilful  pilots, 
who  possess  the  local  knowledge  which  he  needs. 
They  conduct  vessels  to  the  Elbe,  the  Weser,  the 
Eider,  or  the  Hever.  But  though  now  so  useful  to 
the  navigator,  it  was  anciently  an  object  of  terror. 
Its  safe  harbour,  so  contiguous  to  many  marts  of 
wealth  and  industry,  long  invited  to  it  the  adven- 
turous pirate.  From  the  age  of  the  Saxons  almost 
to  our  own,  it  has  been  thronged  with  maritime 
depredators.13  It  is  a  subject  of  geographical  con- 
test, whether  it  be  the  Actania  of  Pliny,  and  the 
island  of  the  Castuin  Nemus  of  Tacitus.14 

The  latest  account  of  this  curious  island  which  has 
appeared,  is  that  of  an  intelligent  traveller  who  visited 
it  in  1805,  from  which  it  appears,  that  its  population 
has  increased.15  Connected  now  with  the  trade  and 

12  Busching's  Geog.  vol.  i. 

13  It  has  been  often  the  seat  of  a  royal  residence.     Radbodus,  king  of  Frisia,  had 
his  last  sovereignty  upon  it.     See  Ubbo  Emmius,  p.  52.     The  Sea-kings  also  fre- 
quented it.     But  this  island  has  been  often  confounded  with  Helgoland,  a  populous 
district  of  Norway,  which  is  mentioned  in  Ohther's  voyage,  Alfred's  Orosius,  24.; 
and  in  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby's  voyage,  Hackluyt,  p.  268. ;  and  of  which  the  kings 
of  Helgoland,  mentioned  in  the  Norwegian  Chronicle,  were  kings.     Pont. 

14  See  Pontanus,  665.  737 Cluverius  gives  Heiligland  as  Actania ;  and  Rugen, 

from  its  wood  and  lake,  as  the  island  designated  by  Tacitus,  Ant.  Germ.  1 07.  97. 
—  Heiligland  has  no  woods.     Pontanus,  while  he  hints  the  pretensions  of  Zealand, 
seems  to  prefer  Heiligland,  because  it  is  near  the  Elbe,  and  is  almost  a  translation 
of  castum  nemus. 

15  Dr.  Adam  Neale,  in  his  travels,  states,  "  The  present  inhabitants  amount  to 
about  two  thousand  souls.     The  men  gain  their  subsistence  by  fishing  and  pilot- 
age, while  the  women  tend  the  flocks  of  sheep  and  cows,  and  cultivate  the  soil, 
which  produces  little  more  than  barley  and  oats.     The  communication  between 
the  cliff  and  the  downs  is  carried  on  by  means  of  a  broad  wooden  staircase  fixed  in 
the  rock,  which  is  red  breccia.     There  are  three  wells  of  fresh  water,  but  scarcely 
a  shrub  or  tree  of  any  kind  in  the  island ;  and  turf,  wood,  fruit,  and  garden  vege- 
tables are  brought  from  Cuxhaven  and   Hamburg,  in  exchange  for  the  fish  with 
which  the  hardy  Heligolanders  supply  these  towns." 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  101 

interests  of  Great  Britain,  its  prosperity  will  augment      CHAP. 
with  our  commerce,  and  from  its  local  utility  as  a  . 

safe  point  of  intercourse  between  England  and  the 
continent,  its  importance  can  no  longer  be  under- 
valued. The  island  of  Nieuwerk,  at  the  very  inouth 
of  the  Elbe,  is  a  mere  sand,  with  a  beacon  to  guide 
the  course  of  the  approaching  mariner. 

The  territory  which  the  original  Saxons  occupied  Their  con- 
on  the  Continent,  was  situated  on  the  western  side  of  territory, 
the   Cirnbric  peninsula,   between  the  Elbe   and    the 
Eyder.     This  latter  river  is  the  boundary   of  Den- 
mark, and  has  always  been  understood  to  mark  the 
termination  of  the  German  states.16     It  rises  from  a 
district    which   was   anciently    a    forest ;    and    from   , 
Borsholm,  passing  Keil  and  Rensberg,  it  continues 
its  course  into  the  British  Ocean  below  Eiderstadt. 

The  region  between  the  Eyder  and  the  Elbe,  was 
denominated  Nordalbingia,  and  its  inhabitants  Nor- 
dalbingi,  in  the  earliest  records  we  possess  of  these 
parts.17  North  of  the  Eyder,  extended  Sleswick,  in 
South  Jutland ;  and,  beyond  that,  the  district  of 
North  Jutland  was  continued  into  Wendila,  and 
ended  in  Skawen,  from  which  in  a  clear  atmosphere 
the  rocks  of  Scandinavia  are  visible. 

Three  districts,  in  ancient  times,  divided  this 
country  of  Nordalbingia  or  Eald  Saexen. 18  These 
unequal  portions,  which  have  preserved  their  names 
to  recent  times,  are  Ditmarsia,  Stormaria,  and  Hol- 
satia.  The  progress  of  the  Slavi  occasioned  a  fourth 
division  in  the  province  of  Wagria.  As  the  early 
state  of  all  distinguished  nations  is  a  curious  subject 
of  contemplation,  it  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  add 

1J  Saxo  Gram.  Preface,  p.  2.      Svaningius,  in  Steph.  Comm.  in  Sax.  p.  16. 

17  Ad  Brcm.  p.  63.  —  The  Privilegia,  Eccl.  Hammb.   146,  147.  —  Helmoldus 
Chron.  Sla/.  40.  — Some  name  the  people  Transalbini. 

18  So  Alfred,  in  his  Orosius,  p.  20,  21.,  and  his  kinsman  Ethelwerd,  833.,  entitle 
this  region.     The  three  divisions  exist  in  Ad.  Brem.  22.,  and  Helmoldus  Slav.  40. 
Subsequent  geographers  acknowledge  it. 

ii  3 


102 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


BOOK 
II. 

*.- 
Ditmarsia. 


Stormaria. 


a  short  account  of  the  provinces  which  our  ancestors, 
when  first  noticed,  occupied  on  the  Continent. 

Ditmarsia19  is  separated  on  the  north  from  Sleswick 
by  the  Eyder,  and  from  Stormaria  on  the  south  by 
the  Stoer.  It  fronts  the  isles  of  Heiligland  and 
Busen,  and  extends  in  length  thirty-seven  miles,  and 
in  breadth  twenty-three.  Its  general  aspect  is  a 
soil  low  and  marshy,  and  strong  mounds  are  neces- 
sary to  keep  the  ocean  to  its  natural  limits.  The 
land  on  the  coast  is  favourable  to  corn  and  cattle ; 
but  in  the  interior  appear  sterile  sands,  or  unculti- 
vated marshes.  Its  inhabitants,  like  those  of  all 
unfruitful  regions,  have  been  tenacious  of  the  right 
of  enjoying  their  poverty  in  independence,  and  the 
nature  of  the  country  has  favoured  their  military 
exertions.  Their  habits  of  warfare  and  scanty  liveli- 
hood produced  a  harshness  of  disposition,  which  often 
amounted  to  ferocity. 20 

Below  Ditmarsia,  and  reaching  to  the  Elbe,  was 
STORMARIA.  21  The  Stoer,  which  named  the  province, 
confined  it  on  the  north.  The  Suala,  Trave,  and 
Billa,  determined  the  rest  of  its  extent.  It  was 
almost  one  slimy  marsh.  The  wet  and  low  situation 
of  Stormaria  and  Ditmarsia  exactly  corresponds  with 
the  Roman  account  of  the  Saxons  living  in  inacces- 
sible marshes.22  The  Stoer  is  friendly  to  navigation 
and  fishing.  Stormaria  is  somewhat  quadrangular, 
and  its  sides  may  be  estimated  at  thirty-three  miles. 23 

19  It  is  called  Thiat  mares-galio  in  S.  Anscharius,  who  lived  in  840,  and  in 
whose  work  the  name  is  first  met  with.     1  Langb.  Script.  347.      Thiatmaresca,  in 
a  diploma  of  1059,  ib.;  and  Thiatmarsgoi,  in  Ad.  Brem.  22. — Teutomarsia,  Chry- 
teus  Proem.— Also  Dythmersi,  Dytmerschi. — Suhm  has  investigated  the  etymology 
in  his  Nordfolk,  Oprin.  263. 

20  Pontanus,  ch.  667.  —  Cilicius   Belli  Ditmars.  427.,  annexed  to  Krantz. — 
Their  banner  was  an  armed  soldier  on  a  white  horse. 

21  Ad.  Brem.  p.  22.  derives  the  name  from  Storm,  a  metaphor  expressive  of  the 
seditions  of  the  inhabitants  ;  but  Stoer,  the  river,  and  Marsi,  the  residents  in 
marshes,  seem  to  compose  a  juster  etymology.      Chrytcus  Sax.  66  — Pont.  664. 

22  Saxones,   gentem  in  oceani  littoribus   et  paludibus  inviis  sitam.      Orosius, 
7.  32. 

23  Pontanus,  666.  —  Ad.  Brem.  22.  distinguishes  the  Sturmarii  with  the  epithet 
nobiliores.     Their  banner  was  a  white  swan  with  a  golden  collar.     Hammaburg 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  1  03 

Divided   from    Sleswick  by  the   Levesou    on   the     CHAP. 

north,  bounded  by  Wagria  on  the   east,  and  by  the   , ,_, 

Trave  on  the  south24,  HOLSATIA  stretches  its  nurner-  H()lsatia- 
ous  woods  to  Ditmarsia.  The  local  appellation  of 
the  region  thus  confined  has  been,  by  a  sort  of 
geographical  catachresis,  applied  to  denominate  all 
that  country  which  is  contained  within  the  Eyder, 
the  Elbe,  and  the  Trave.  In  the  age  approaching 
the  period  of  the  continental  residence  of  our  ances- 
tors, the  Holtzeti  were  nominally  as  well  as  territo- 
rially distinguished  from  the  other  states  which  we 
have  considered.25  Their  country  received  from  the 
bounty  of  nature  one  peculiar  characteristic.  As  the 
western  and  southern  coasts  of  Eald  Saexen  were 
repetitions  of  quagmires,  the  loftier  Holsatia  presented 
a  continued  succession  of  forests,  and  of  plains  which 
admitted  cultivation. 

Strength  and  courage  were  qualities  which  grew 
up  with  the  Holsatian,  in  common  with  his  neigh- 
bours: he  has  been  proverbed  for  his  fidelity;  his 
generosity  has  been  also  extolled;  but  an  ancient 
writer  diminishes  the  value  of  this  rare  virtue,  by 
the  companions  which  he  associates  to  it.  "  They 
are  emulous  in  hospitality,  because  to  plunder  and 
to  lavish  is  the  glory  of  an  Holsatian  ;  not  to  be 
versed  in  the  science  of  depredation  is,  in  his  opinion, 
to  be  stupid  and  base." 26 

(Hamburg)  was  their  metropolis,  which,  before  the  eleventh  century,  had  been 
viris  et  armis  potens :   but  in  Adam's  time,  was  in  solitudinem  redacta.     Ib. 

24  Holsatia  was  42  miles  from  "Wilster  to  Kiel,  and  about  33  from  Hanrahuw  to 
New  Munster.     Pontan.  665. 

25  Their  etymology  has  been  variously  stated  ;   1.  from  the  woods  they  inhabited  ; 
Holt,  a  wood  ;  saten,   to  be  seated.     Ad.  Brem.   and  Pontan.  —  2.   From  their 
country  having  been  called  Olt  Saxen,  Old  Saxony.     Sharing,  De  Gent.  Angl.  28. 
It  certainly  was  so  named  by  Ravenna,  Geog.  lib.  v.  s.  31.      So  in  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  15. 
and  lib.  v.   c.  11.  Chron.  Sax.   p.  13.     By  Gregory,  Ep.  Bib.  Mag.  v.  16.  p.  101., 
and  Boniface,   ib.   p.  55.,  who  lived  in  the  seventh  century.     Nennius,  3  Gale 
Script.  Angl.  115.  —  3.   See   another  derivation  in  Verstegan,  91.     Eginhard,  in 
the  ninth  century,  names  it  Holdunstetch.     The  derivation  of  Adam  of  Bremen 
has  prevailed. 

6  Helmoldus,  Chron.  Slav.  40.  He  adds,  that  the  three  people  of  Nordalbingia 
differed  little  either  in  dress  or  language.  They  had  the  jura  Saxonum. 

H  4 


104 


HISTORY   OF    THE 


BOOK 
II. 


Such  were  the  countries  in  which  our  Saxon  an- 
cestors were  residing  when  the  Roman  geographer 
first  noticed  them ;  and  from  these,  when  the  atten- 
tion of  their  population  became  directed  to  maritime 
depredations,  they  made  those  incursions  on  the 
Roman  empire,  which  its  authors  mention  with  so 
much  dismay.  But  the  Saxons  were  one  of  the 
obscure  tribes  whom  Providence  selected  and  trained 
to  form  the  nobler  nations  of  France,  Germany,  and 
England,  and  they  have  accomplished  their  distin- 
guished destiny. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  105 


CHAP.  III. 

ircumstanccs  favourable  to  the  Increase  of  the  SAXON  Power  on 
the  Continent. 

ABOVE  a  century  elapsed  after  Ptolemy,  before  the  CHAP. 
Saxons  were  mentioned  again  by  any  author  who  has  IIL 
survived  to  us.  Eutropius  is  the  second  writer  we 
have,  who  noticed  them.  In  accounting  for  the  re- 
bellion of  Carausius,  and  his  assumption  of  the 
purple,  he  states  the  Saxons  to  have  united  with 
the  Francs,  and  to  have  become  formidable  to  the 
Eomans  for  their  piratical  enterprises.  In  the  cen- 
tury which  elapsed  between  Ptolemy  and  Carausius, 
the  Saxons  had  greatly  advanced  in  power  and  repu- 
tation, and  they  were  beginning  their  system  of 
foreign  depredations  when  that  emperor  encouraged 
them  to  pursue  it.  Their  prosperity  during  this 
interval  seems  to  have  arisen  from  the  repulse  of  the 
Komans  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Rhine ;  from  the  rise 
of  the  Francs  ;  and  from  their  own  application  to 
maritime  expeditions. 

The  descendants  of  the  first  Scythian  population  Progress  of 
of  Europe  had  acquired  the  name  of  Germans  in  the 
time  of  Ca3sar.  That  it  was  a  recent  appellation,  we 
learn  from  Tacitus.1  They  were  first  invited  into 
Gaul,  to  assist  one  of  its  contending  factions,  and  the 
fertility  of  the  country  was  so  tempting,  that  their 
15,000  auxiliaries  gradually  swelled  into  120,000 
conquerors2,  who  established  themselves  in  the 

1  Tacitus,  Mor.  Germ.  c.  2. 

2  So  one  of  the   Keltic  princes  told  Caesar,  lib.  i.  c.  23.     In  combating  these 
Germans,  the  Eduari  of  Gaul,  a  Keltic  race,  had  lost  almost  all  their  nobility,  senate, 
and  cavalry. 


106  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  northern  provinces.  Caesar  defeated  them  with  great 
.  IL  ,  destruction;  but  he  admits  that  France,  from  the 
Rhine  to  the  Seine  and  Marne,  was  peopled  by 
German  tribes,  differing  from  the  Kelts  in  language, 
laws,  and  customs,  little  civilised,  averse  from  trade, 
but  excelling  in  bravery.3 

The  same  insuppressible  love  of  distinction  and  ad- 
venture which  led  Caasar  into  Britain,  actuated  him 
to  an  invasion  of  Germany.  He  resolved  to  pass  the 
Rhine,  that  he  might  show  them  that  the  Romans 
could  both  dare  and  accomplish  the  attempt.4  He 
was  offered  ships  ;  but  he  chose  to  construct  a  bridge, 
as  better  suited  to  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  nation.5 
He  crossed  the  Rhine,  burnt  the  towns  and  villages  of 
one  tribe,  alarmed  others ;  and  after  staying  eighteen 
days  in  the  country,  returned  to  France6,  and  made 
his  first  incursion  into  Britain.  In  a  subsequent  year, 
he  entered  Germany  again  by  a  temporary  bridge  ; 
but  the  natives  retiring  to  their  woods,  he  thought  it 
dangerous  to  pursue  them,  and  left  a  garrison  on  the 
Rhine.7  He  used  some  German  auxiliaries  against 
the  Gauls ;  and  was  materially  benefited  by  a  charge 
of  German  horse,  in  his  great  battle  at  Pharsalia.8 
His  vast  project  of  entering  and  subduing  Germany 
from  the  Euxine  has  been  already  noticed. 

Yet  Caesar  had  but  shown  Germany  to  the  Romans, 
as  he  had  led  them  to  the  knowledge  of  Britain.  It 
was  the  succeeding  reign  of  Augustus,  which  was  the 
actual  era  of  the  establishment  of  the  Roman  power 
in  Germany,  as  that  of  Claudius  afterwards  introduced 
it  into  our  island.  The  reign  of  Augustus  was,  there- 
fore, as  important  in  its  consequences  to  the  Barbaric 
as  it  was  to  the  Roman  mind.  It  spread  an  intellectual 
cultivation  through  the  outer  circle  of  his  civilised 

3  Ccesar,  lib.  ii.  c.  1.  lib.  i.  c.  1.  4  Csesar>  lib   iy   c   ,3 

Ibt  c-  13-  6  Ib.  c.  16.  c.  17.  7  Ccesar,  lib.  vi.  c.  27.     ' 

8  Florus. 


ANGLO  -  SAXONS .  107 

empire,  superior  to  that  which  its  varying  provinces      CHAP. 
had  before  enjoyed ;  and  it  began  the  improvement  > 

of  the  German  intellect  and  society,  by  adding  to  the 
principles,  customs,  and  spirit  of  the  Barbaric  con- 
tinent, whatever  its  uncivilised  tribes  could  succes- 
sively imbibe,  of  the  literature  and  arts  of  the  Roman 
world.  The  Germans  had  much  which  the  wild 
savages  of  the  New  World  have  been  found  without, 
and  in  which  even  the  Romans  were  deficient,  for  they 
had  some  of  the  noblest  principles  of  social  polity 
and  morals ;  but  they  had  scarcely  any  literature,  few 
arts,  few  luxuries,  and  no  refinement.  When  these 
became  united  to  their  own  nobility  of  spirit  and  poli- 
tical principles,  kingdoms  arose  in  many  parts  of 
Europe,  whose  peoples  have  far  transcended  those  of 
the  Grecian  states,  and  of  the  Roman  empire. 

Under  Augustus,  Gaul  or  France  was  completely 
reduced  to  Roman  provinces  ;  and  most  of  its  na- 
tives adopted  the  Roman  appearance,  language,  and 
modes  of  life,  and  polity.  Many  colonies  of  the  Ro- 
mans were  planted  both  in  France  and  Spain,  each  a 
little  image  of  Rome 9 ;  and  the  natives  assisted  him 
to  subdue  the  Germans. 

The  country  between  Gaul  and  the  Rhine  was  also 
subdued  into  Roman  provinces,  and  roads  were  con- 
structed in  every  part.  Eight  of  these  were  made  in 
Belgium,  diverging  from  a  single  town.  All  these 
parts  were  formed  into  two  grand  divisions,  called 
Germania  Prima,  and  Germania  Secunda. 

9  Thus  Thoulouse  became  famous  both  for  its  great  temple  to  Pallas,  which  Strabo 
mentions,  1.  4.,  and  also  Martial,  1.  9.  ep.  10.,  and  for  its  rhetorical  schools,  where 
Sidonius  remarks  that  Theodoric  was  educated.  Budams,  p.  39.  41.  This  city 
became  afterwards  celebrated  for  its  floral  games  of  eloquence  and  poetry.  Tacitus 
praises  the  liberal  studies  at  Autun,  whose  schools  in  Diocletian's  time  were  destroyed 
by  the  Bagaudse,  but  restored  by  Constantius.  Apollo  was  worshipped  there,  ib. 
p.  25.  Narbonne  became  also  distinguished.  The  inscription  which  has  been 
found  there  is  a  complete  instance  of  the  Roman  deification  and  adoration  of  their 
emperor.  It  orders  sacrifices  to  Augustus,  and  appoints  the  days  of  the  worship,  ib. 
p.  34.  Bourdeaux  was  repeatedly  the  theme  of  the  panegyric  of  Ausonius.  Sido- 
nius praises  the  schools  at  Auvergne  and  Lyons.  Others  are  noticed,  as  Triers  and 
Besanfon. 


108  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  Castles  and  forts  were  built  all  along  the  Rhine, 
.  IL  .  nearly  fifty,  and  chiefly  on  its  left  bank,  over  which 
several  bridges  were  thrown.  A  whole  nation,  the 
Ubii,  was  transplanted  from  beyond  the  Rhine  to  live 
along  its  left  side :  a  Roman  colony  was  placed  among 
them,  which  increased  afterwards  into  the  city  of 
Cologne.  Other  towns,  as  Mentz,  Bonn,  Worms,  and 
Spires,  arose  from  Roman  stations.  Eight  legions 
were  divided  and  placed  in  the  most  commanding 
spots  to  watch  and  overawe  the  Germans ;  and  Au- 
gustus expressed  and  cultivated  so  strong  an  attach- 
ment to  this  people,  that  he  had  a  body  of  Germans 
for  his  guard. 

Thus  the  reign  of  Augustus  completely  reduced 
all  the  regions  up  to  the  Rhine  into  the  condition  of 
Roman  provinces :  all  within  that  boundary  were  de- 
bilitated into  a  state  of  subjection,  of  peaceful  life,  and 
of  beginning  civilisation.10 

The  natives  immediately  beyond  the  Rhine  stretch- 
ing to  the  ancient  country  of  our  ancestors,  were  the 
Batavi,  in  the  present  Holland  ;  the  Frisii,  in  Fries- 
land  ;  the  Bructeri,  towards  the  Ems  ;  the  Catti,  and 
the  Cherusci,  who  extended  to  the  Weser;  and  the 
Chauci,  who  inhabited  the  shores  from  the  Weser  to 
the  Elbe ;  while  the  Suevi  spread  from  the  Main  to 
the  Danube.  The  German  nations  nearest  to  the 
Rhine  frequently  passed  it  in  the  reign  of  Augustus, 
to  attack  the  stations  of  the  Romans  ;  and  these  as 
willingly  crossed  the  same  river  to  defeat,  plunder, 
and  ravage,  as  far  as  they  could  penetrate. 

10  It  was  most  probably  from  the  new  policy  adopted  by  Augustus,  and  from  its 
effects,  and  with  a  complimentary  reference  to  it,  that  Virgil  penned  the  celebrated 
lines,  which,  conceding  to  Greece  the  superiority  in  arts  and  eloquence,  called  thus 
upon  Rome  to  subdue  the  world  to  a  state  of  social  tranquillity. 
Tu  regere  imperio  populos,  Romane  !  memento. 
Hae  tibi  erunt  artes  :  pacisque  imponere  morem  : 
Parcere  subjectis,  et  debellare  superbos.  JEn.  L.  6.  851. 

Augustus  fulfilled  this  admonition  of  Anchises.  He  fought  to  pacify,  and  ruled 
to  civilise.  Every  Roman  before  him  had  warred  for  power,  fame,  and  destruction 
disturbing,  not  harmonising,  the  world. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  109 

Augustus  often  visited  these  parts  of  Germany ;  CHAP. 
but  operated  more  decisively  on  its  southern  regions.  ..  ^J — > 
From  the  progress  of  his  legions,  the  southern  part, 
from  the  Alps  to  the  Danube,  became  a  Koman  pro- 
vince, under  the  name  of  Noricum  ;  and  two  other 
contiguous  provinces,  called  Khetia  and  Vindelicia, 
were  also  established  from  the  Alps  to  the  Rhine,  the 
Inn,  and  the  Adige.  n  The  capital  of  Vindelicia  was 
the  present  Augsburg,  which  Tacitus  then  called  a 
most  splendid  colony.  The  Roman  dominion  being 
thus  established  in  the  southern  district  of  Germany, 
the  Emperor's  son-in-law,  Drusus,  felt  and  cherished 
the  same  spirit  of  ambitious  but  unjust  enterprise 
which  had  incited  Caesar ;  projected  the  conquest  of  the 
whole  Continent,  and  actually  began  it.  A  passage  in 
Tacitus  displays  the  insatiable  thirst  of  distinction 
with  which  the  active-minded  youths  of  Rome  were 
urged  upon  expeditions  incompatible  with  the  com- 
forts of  the  rest  of  mankind.  Drusus  crossed  the  Rhine 
from  Holland,  and  ravaged  around  to  the  Main,  while 
a  fleet  navigated  along  the  coast  into  the  Zuyderzee, 
and  the  Ems.  In  the  ensuing  spring  he  penetrated 
to  the  Weser,  and  in  another  year  to  the  Elbe  ;  laying 
the  country  waste,  and  building  forts  on  the  Maes, 
the  Rhine,  the  Weser,  and  the  Elbe ;  but  before  he 
passed  that  river,  he  suddenly  received,  from  natural 
causes,  the  fate  which  he  was  unsparingly  dealing  to 
others.  Tiberius  succeeded  to  the  station,  though 
not  to  the  abilities,  of  Drusus.  He  moved  several 
times  into  Germany.  In  one  year  he  passed  the 
Weser;  and  in  another,  attacking  the  Chauci  and 
Langobardi,  he  waived  the  imperial  standards  over 
the  Elbe.  His  fleet  triumphantly  sailed  up  the  river : 
he  contemplated  the  collected  warriors  who  lined  its 
northern  bank ;  but  hazarded  no  attack.12  Two  of  the 

11  Tacitus. 

l-  Dion.  Cassius,  p.  622 — 628.,  and  the  authors  in  Mascou's  learned  history  of 


HO  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK      princes  of  the  Cherusci  served  in  the  Roman  army  ; 
.     IL     ,   of  whom   one  became  the  celebrated  Arminius,   and 
another,  a  Roman  priest. 

Tiberius  was  called  by  other  wars  to  the  Danube  ; 
and  while  he  was  there  conflicting  with  the  Marco- 
manni  and  their  allies,  the  avarice  of  Quintilius 
Yarus,  combined  with  his  precipitate  attempt  to 
civilise  them,  provoked  the  Germans  of  the  Rhine  to 
rebel.  Arminius  stood  forward  as  the  champion  of 
Germany ;  and  by  his  skill  and  exertions,  the  Roman 
general  and  his  army  were  destroyed.  This  misfor- 
tune struck  Rome  with  consternation,  and  the  horrors 
of  an  invasion  like  that  of  the  Cimbri  and  Teutones 
were  anticipated ;  but  Arminius  was  contented  to 
have  merited  the  title  of  the  deliverer  of  his  country. 13 
He  had  either  not  the  means  or  the  desire  to  pursue 
schemes  of  offensive  conquest  or  of  vengeful  devasta- 
tion beyond  the  precincts  of  Germany.  He  drove 
back  the  Roman  empire  from  the  Weser  to  the  Rhine. 
He  restored  to  his  countrymen  the  possession  of  their 
native  soil  up  to  the  latter  river ;  destroyed  all  the 
Roman  forts  on  the  Ems,  the  Weser,  and  the  Saal ; 
and  when  Tiberius  hastened  to  relieve  the  capitol 
from  its  dismay,  the  imperial  general  could  gain  no 
decisive  laurels  from  the  cautious  patriot. 14  Thus 

the  Germans,  i.  p.  78—85.  He  has  selected  and  arranged  the  most  important 
passages  of  the  classical  authors  concerning  the  transactions  and  movements  of  the 
German  nations  before  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  authorities  for 
most  of  the  events  alluded  to  in  this  chapter  will  be  found  in  his  work. 

13  Tacitus  gives  him  this  title,  Ann.  lib.  ii.   c.  88.     Kenler  calls  him  the  leader 
of  the  Saxons.    1  Schard.  H.  G.  501.  ;  but  he  was  of  the  Cherusci.  Spen.  Not.  297. 
His  character  in  Paterculus  is  interesting ;  "  Juvenis  genere  nobilis,  manu  fortis, 
sensu  celer,  ultra  promptus  ingenio,  ardorem  animi  vultu  oculisque  prseferens."    He 
had  served  in  the  Roman  armies,  and  obtained  the  equestrian  dignity.     The  pen 
of  Tacitus  has  completed  his  fame.     For  the  disaster  of  Varus,  see  Dion.  Cass.  667., 
Paterc.  ii.  c.  1 1 7. ;  and  Tac.  Ann.  lib.  i. 

14  There  is  a  history  of  Arminius  by  Kenler,    1  Schard.  p.  501—518.     In  the 
dialogue  on  his  military  merit  by  Hutt,  ib.  426.,  the  German  prince  says  to  Han- 
nibal, with  some  truth.  "Nam  eorum  qui  res  preclaras  gesserunt,  nemo  majoribus 

lifficultatibus  enisus,  aut  gravioribus  circa  impediments  eluctatus  est.  —  In 
summa  rerum  aut  hominum  inopia,  misera  egestate,  desertus  ab  omnibus,  impeditus 
undique,tamen  ad  recuperandam  libertatem,  viam  mihi  communivi;  citraque  omnem 
extra  opem,  omne  adjumentum,  hoc  solo  prseditus  et  suffultus  animo,  a  me  ipso 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  Ill 

Arminius  raised  Germany  into  a  new  military  and  CHAP. 
political  position.  Having  learned  himself  all  the  .  ll*'  . 
Roman  discipline,  he  diffused  among  his  countrymen 
as  much  of  it  as  they  could  be  persuaded  to  adopt, 
and  prepared  them  to  receive  more;  and  from  this 
period  the  wars  of  these  fierce  people  became  every 
year  more  formidable  to  the  Roman  empire,  and  more 
instructive  to  themselves.  Nearly  twenty  years  had 
elapsed  between  the  time  that  Tiberius  had  marched 
to  the  Weser  and  the  period  in  which  Arminius  ef- 
fected his  revolt.  During  all  this  space,  the  Germans 
had  all  the  Roman  habits  and  peculiar  civilisation  in 
their  immediate  contemplation  :  and  continuous  in- 
tercourse occurred,  from  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
country,  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Weser,  being 
made  Roman  provinces ;  from  the  serving  of  their 
chiefs  and  countrymen  in  the  Roman  armies,  and  their 
acting  with  them  as  allies  ;  and  from  their  perpetual 
communications  with  the  numerous  Roman  forts  and 
stations.  Germany  was  thus  constantly  advancing 
to  improvement  from  the  time  that  Augustus  es- 
tablished the  Roman  armies  on  its  continent;  and 
the  successes  of  Arminius  kept  it  from  being  too  Ro- 
manised. By  driving  back  the  Romans  to  the  Rhine, 
he  preserved  to  his  countrymen  and  their  neighbours 
the  power  of  continuing,  not  merely  in  independence, 
but  of  preserving  their  native  manners  and  customs, 
with  only  so  much  addition  of  the  Roman  civilisation 
as  would  naturally  and  beneficially  harmonise  with 
these.  Many  new  ideas,  feelings,  reasonings,  and 
habits,  must  have  resulted  from  this  mixture  ;  and  the 
peculiar  minds  and  views  of  the  Germans  must  have 
been  both  excited  and  enlarged.  The  result  of  this 
union  of  Roman  and  German  improvement,  was  the 

rerum  initia  petivi  et  bellum  extreme  periculosum,  non  antea  coeptum  sed  ab 
omnibus  desperatum  prosequutus  sum."  He  details  his  exertions,  and  contrasts 
them,  with  more  patriotism  than  critical  judgment,  with  the  exploits  of  Scipio  and 


Alexander. 


112  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     gradual  formation  of  that  new  species  of  our  human 
.     n>    ..   character  and  society  which  has  descended  with  in- 
creasing  melioration    to    all   the    modern    states    of 

Europe. 

Germany  was  not  at  this  time  very  populous. 
The  Hercynian  forest,  sixty  days'  journey  in  length, 
overspread  a  large  portion  of  its  surface.  It  was  the 
destructive  policy  of  each  state  to  make  a  little  desert 
around  its  territories  for  their  easier  defence;  and 
the  Suevi  who  were  in  Suabia  and  Franconia,  used 
this  desolating  protection  so  abundantly,  that  they 
kept  the  country  for  500  miles  around  them  in  a 
devastated  condition.  The  population  of  Germany 
was,  therefore,  but  scanty,  and  dwelt  chiefly  near 
the  rivers,  at  their  mouths,  and  on  the  sea-coasts. 
The  Roman  invasions  repeatedly  thinned  the  numbers 
of  their  tribes,  by  the  slaughter  of  their  battles  and 
subsequent  cruelties ;  and  when  new  populations 
multiplied,  as  these  existed  under  new  circumstances, 
and  amid  many  alterations  of  native  manners  around 
them,  every  succeeding  generation  differed  from  its 
predecessors :  but,  happily,  this  difference,  from  the 
continual  intercourse  with  the  only  civilised  empire 
which  then  existed,  was  that  of  progressive  improve- 
ment producing  progressive  power,  until  Rome  became 
their  conquest,  and  its  provinces  their  spoil  and  the 
sites  of  their  new  kingdoms. 

Germanicus  renewed  the  victories  of  his  father 
Drusus,  and  endangered  for  a  while  the  independence 
of  the  barbaric  continent.  His  warfare,  though  his 
name  lives  in  the  panegyric  of  Tacitus,  can  be  only 
compared  with  that  which  we  have  witnessed  in  our 
days  in  St.  Domingo.  His  first  expedition  was  under- 
taken for  the  express  purpose  of  human  slaughter. 
One  part  of  his  legions  having  destroyed  their  mu- 
tinous comrades,  desired  to  attack  the  enemy,  to 
appease,  in  a  strange  medley  o£  compunction  and 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

ferocity,  by  the  blood  of  the  Germans,  the  manes  of  CHAP. 
their  rebellious  fellow-soldiers.  They  accordingly  v_^ 
rushed  to  the  massacre  of  the  Marsi.  Their  com- 
mander was  as  unfeeling,  and  as  irrational  as  them- 
selves ;  for,  "  Germanicus,  to  spread  the  slaughter  as 
wide  as  possible,  divided  his  men  into  four  battalions. 
The  country  fifty  miles  round  was  laid  waste  with 
fire  and  sword:  neither  sex  nor  age  excited  pity; 
nor  any  places,  holy  or  profane ;  their  sacred  temple, 
the  Tanfanae,  was  destroyed.  This  slaughter  was 
perpetrated  without  their  receiving  a  wound,  because 
the  enemies  they  attacked  were  sunk  in  sleep,  or 
unarmed  and  dispersed."  15 

The  surprise  of  the  Catti,  against  whom  Germa- 
nicus sent  Coccina,  was  one  of  their  next  exploits. 
"  His  arrival  was  so  little  expected  by  the  Catti,  that 
their  women  and  children  were  either  immediately 
taken  prisoners  or  put  to  the  sword:  Mattium,  the 
-capital,  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  open  plains 
were  laid  waste." 16  In  subsequent  battles  we  usually 
find  the  addition,  that  "  no  quarter  was  given  to  the 
barbarians;"  and  in  the  progress  of  the  Eomans, 
the  country  was  always  desolated.  In  one  battle  we 
have  this  ferocious  plan  of  warfare  even  commanded 
by  the  applauded  hero  of  the  historian  :  "  Germa- 
nicus rushing  among  the  ranks,  besought  his  men  to 
give  no  quarter ;  he  told  them  they  had  no  need  of 
prisoners,  and  that  the  extirpation  of  the  barbarians 
would  alone  end  the  war  !  "  17 

Trained  amid  their  soldiery  to  such  sanguinary 
habits,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Roman  emperors 
ghould  have  carried  to  the  throne  the  cruelties  of  the 
camp,  and  have  exhibited  there  the  merciless  cha- 

15  Tacit.  Ann   lib.  i.  16  Ibid. 

1T  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  ii.  Yet  Germanicus  is  one  of  the  few  favourites  of  Tacitus. 
Such  were  the  moral  reasonings  and  sensibilities  of  one  of  Rome's  most  applauded 
historians,  and  who  was  one  of  the  least  tolerant  of  imperial  and  patrician  misconduct 
in  political  transactions. 

VOL.  I.  I 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  racter  which,  in  such  campaigns  as  these,  they  must 
IL  ,  have  acquired.  But  to  destroy  the  uncultivated 
nations  of  Europe,  however  unoffending,  was  no 
crime  in  the  popular  estimation  at  Rome.  A  sur- 
name from  a  country  subdued  was  a  charm  which 
made  its  chieftains  deaf  to  all  the  groans  of  humanity 
and  the  clamours  of  violated  right.  They  pursued 
this  trade  of  sanguinary  ambition,  though  Greece 
had  taught  the  Romans  to  philosophise  on  morality  ; 
and  the  orators  of  the  capitol,  in  order  to  destroy  an 
obnoxious  governor,  could  sometimes  declaim  as  if 
they  had  felt  themselves  the  advocates  of  mankind  ! 

After  these  massacres  of  the  Marsi  and  the  Catti, 
Germanicus  sailed  up  the  Ems,  and  marched  his 
army  to  the  Weser.  At  this  juncture  Arminius18 
was  not  wanting  to  his  countrymen  ;  but  the  superior 
knowledge  of  his  competitor,  and  the  discipline  of 
the  invading  troops,  were  rapidly  annihilating  the 
rude  liberty  of  Germany.  Its  bravest  tribes  fell 
fruitlessly  in  its  defence  ;  the  survivors  trembled  for 
the  awful  issue  ;  when  the  jealous  policy  of  Tiberius 
who  had  succeeded  to  the  empire,  rescued  them  from 
absolute  conquest.  He  called  back  Germanicus  from 
his  victorious  progress ;  although  he  asked  to  con- 
tinue in  his  command  but  one  year  more,  and  woulc 
have  extended  the  Roman  empire  to  the  Elbe.19 

The  conquests  of  Germanicus  were,  in   truth,  so 
many  depopulations.     The  Germans  always  fought 
till  they  had  not   men  enough  for  further  battles 
and  every  war  was   the  destruction   of  the  largest 
portion  of  the  generation  that  waged  it.     But  new 
races  sprang  up  rapidly  in  the  vacancy  thus  made 
and  under  circumstances  that  were  continually 

18  Many  have  thought  that  the  famous  Irmensul  was  a  monument  of  Arminius 
whose  heroic  actions  the  Germans  long  celebrated  in  their  songs  j  but  there  is  no 
reason  to  believe  that  Arminius  was  ever  venerated  as  a  deity. 

19  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  ii.  s.  26.     It  is  painful  to  read  that  Arminius  fell  a  victim  to 
the  treachery  and  ingratitude  of  some  of  his  countrymen  ;  or  to  his  love  of  power 
and  their  love  of  liberty, 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  11 

coming  more  promotive  of  their  improvement,  espe-  CHAP. 
daily  in  war,  and  in  all  the  mental  qualities  which  .  m'  . 
were  connected  with  it,  and  which  could  be  excited 
by  a  struggle  with  an  enemy  so  renowned  and  so 
successful.  War  became  their  necessity,  as  well  as 
the  theatre  of  their  glory ;  and  from  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  until  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  under 
their  swords,  the  German  nations  beyond  the  Rhine 
on  the  west,  and  beyond  the  Danube  on  the  east, 
were,  under  various  denominations,  of  Marcomanni, 
Alemanni,  Franks,  Saxons,  Burgundians,  Lombards, 
and  Goths,  every  year  training  and  educating  them- 
selves in  those  military  habits,  laws,  and  exercises, 
and  in  the  corresponding  policy  and  institutions, 
which  new  events  and  experience  discovered  to  be 
most  effective  for  their  own  welfare  and  for  the  an- 
noyance of  their  enemy.  They  were  in  every  gene- 
ration becoming  more  and  more  the  Spartans  of 
modern  Europe.  Their  martial  systems  increased 
progressively  in  wisdom  and  vigour.  The  whole 
frame  of  their  society  was  made  subservient  to  their 
warlike  objects  ;  and  it  became  impossible  for  Rome, 
in  the  degeneracy  of  its  confined  civilisation,  to  with- 
stand the  unremitted  onsets  of  a  people  daily  attain- 
ing superiority  in  force  of  mind,  loftiness  of  spirit, 
ardent  feeling,  and  moral  fortitude  and  probity,  as 
well  as  in  technical  discipline  and  manual  activity. 

The  recall  of  Germanicus  ended  the  progress  of  the  A  c  17 

Romans  in  the  north  of  Germany.     They  had  many  Repulse  of 

•ii  1  the  Ro' 

contacts  and  some  successes  ;  but  they  never  reached  mans  to  the 

the  Elbe  again.  They  retreated  gradually  to  the  Rhine' 
south,  though  not  with  perpetual  retrogression. 
Sometimes  the  interior  tribes  of  the  country  were  af- 
flicted by  their  victorious  invasions,  and  as  often  were 
consoled  by  their  expulsion.  At  one  period  Hadrian 
made  a  rampart  for  sixty  leagues,  from  Neustadt  on 
the  Danube  to  Wimpfen  on  the  Neckar,  which  lasted 

I  2 


H  Q  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK  till  Aurelian:  the  natives  then  pulled  it  down. 
,  "•  .  Probus  replaced  it  with  stone ;  but  it  soon  became 
an  ineffective  barrier.  At  length,  after  various  con- 
flicts, the  Rhine  near  the  modern  Leyden,  separated 
the  Romans  and  their  allies  from  the  free  nations  of 
the  north.20  It  was  not,  indeed,  an  impassable  boun- 
dary, but  the  Romans  generally  kept  within  it :  and 
thus  the  nations  beyond,  and  more  especially  the 
Saxons,  who  were  among  the  most  remote,  had  full 
leisure  to  increase  their  population,  and  to  improve 
the  propitious  circumstances  which  attended  their 
peculiar  situation. 

The  jealousy  of  Tiberius  having  stopped  Germa- 
nicus  from  annihilating  Arminius,  and  from  destroy- 
ing the  nations  beyond  the  Weser  sufficiently  for  the 
extension  of  the  Roman  empire  to  the  Elbe,  all  the 
German  tribes  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Baltic  were  left 
to  act,  fight,  and  improve,  with  the  new  arts  and 
knowledge  which  they  had  learnt  from  the  Romans, 
and  which  they  afterwards  more  fully  imbibed  from 
their  future  intercourse  with  the  empire. 

Their  continuation  in  this  independent  state,  was 
favoured  by  the  fall  of  Arminius.  His  talents  and 
ambition  might  have  subdued  the  north-western  coast 
of  Germany  into  a  single  dominion,  but  he  being 
killed,  and  his  Cherusci  weakened,  no  similar  hero, 
and  no  great  kingdom,  which  such  a  character  usu- 
ally founds,  arose  in  those  parts.  Hence  every  state 
from  the  Rhine  to  the  Elbe,  and  amongst  these  the 
Saxons,  grew  up  in  the  free  exercise  of  its  energies 
and  means  of  power.  Warlike  activity  was  neces- 
sarily their  predominating  principle,  not  only  in  order 
to  repel  the  Romans,  but  also  to  protect  themselves 

20  Bebelius  too  eagerly  denies  that  any  part  of  Germany  beyond  the  Rhine  was 
conquered,  though  the  emperors  arrogated  the  surname  Germanicus.  Orat.  vet 
Ger.  ]  Schard.  257.  Mascou  fairly  states  the  fact,  i.  p.  131.  —  The  Tabula  Peuting. 
(on  which  some  excellent  remarks  of  M.  Freret  are  in  Mem.  vii.  p.  292. )  confirms 
this  boundary. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  117 

from  each  other.     It  was  indeed  an  essential  indi-      CHAP. 
vidual  quality.     The  life  of  each  depended  on  his   .    IIL    „ 
martial  efficiency ;  for  their  wars,  whether  public  or 
private,  were  always  those  of  desolation  and  death. 

The  Romans  continued  to  be  the  military  educators 
of  the  population  in  these  parts,  without  intending 
an  effect  so  dangerous  to  their  own  domination.  But 
their  new  principle  or  necessity,  of  forming  part  of 
their  armies  of  German  troops,  led  to  this  momen- 
tous result.  They  frequently  felt  its  evil  without 
changing  their  system.  So  early  as  the  year  28,  the 
Frisii,  the  neighbours  of  the  Saxons,  and  some  of 
whose  nobles  had  served  in  the  Roman  armies,  re- 
volted, and  for  a  long  time  remained  21  independent. 
Fifteen  years  afterwards,  Batavi  were  serving  in  the 
Roman  armies  in  Britain.22 

From  the  Batavian  marshes,  in  A.D.  47,  Gennascus 
became  the  leader  of  the  Chauci,  and  began  that 
system  of  operations  which  the  Saxons  in  an  after 
age  so  eagerly  pursued.  He  plundered  Gaul  with 
light  ships.  He  became  strong  enough  to  invade 
lower  Germany.23  Yet  in  A.D,  69,  the  Emperor 
Yitellius  became  so  fond  of  his  German  auxiliaries, 
as  to  take  them  to  Rome,  in  their  dresses  of  skins 
and  long  spears,  and  to  consult  their  superstitions.24 
After  him  Givilis  essayed  and  demonstrated  the  mi- 
litary efficiency  which  the  tribes  of  these  regions  had 
acquired  from  Roman  tuition.  He  had  served  among 
the  Batavian  cavalry  that  was  employed  in  Britain, 
and  he  visited  Rome.  He  found  the  sailors  in  the 
Roman  fleet  on  the  Rhine  to  be  chiefly  Batavi. 
With  talents  which  Tacitus  compares  with  those  of 
Hannibal  and  Sertorius,  he  roused  his  countrymen 
to  arms  against  the  Romans.  The  whole  Batavian 
nation,  Bructeri,  Tencteri,  and  their  neighbours,  al- 

21  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  iv.  *  Dio  Cass.  lib.  Ix. 

23  Tac.  Ann.  lib.  xi.  c.  18.  u  Tacit.  Hist.  lib.  ii.     Suet,  in  Vit. 

I  3 


118 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
II. 


lied  with  him.  He  defeated  the  imperial  armies,  and 
was  joined  by  the  auxiliary  forces  whom  the  Komans 
had  trained.  The  Gauls  submitted  to  him.  One 
division  of  his  navy  sunk  or  took  the  Roman  fleet ; 
and  he  equipped  another  to  intercept  their  supplies 
from  Gaul.  Defeated  at  one  time,  he  maintained  a 
doubtful  battle  at  another,  and  at  last  obtained  a 
creditable  peace ;  and  the  Romans  again  took  Bata- 
vians  into  their  service  in  Britain.25  These  events 
deserve  our  contemplation,  because  they  show  that 
great  improvements  flowed  from  the  Romans,  to- 
wards the  regions  where  our  Saxon  ancestors  were 
stationed,  and  thus  assisted  to  educate  them  to  a 
fitness  for  the  great  destination  to  which  they  were 
finally  impelled. 

From  the  time  of  Civilis  to  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century,  the  emperors  left  the  nations  beyond 
the  Rhine  to  the  natural  course  of  their  own  means 
of  continuing  the  progress  which  the  preceding  events 
had  excited.  In  Caracalla's  reign  the  tribes  that 
dwelt  on  the  Elbe  near  the  North  Sea,  a  position 
that  includes  the  Saxons,  felt  so  highly  their  own 
importance,  as  to  send  an  embassy  to  Rome  offering 
peace,  but  requiring  money  for  observing  it.  The 
emperor  gave  the  demanded  payment;  and  so  greatly 
favoured  them,  as  to  form  a  German  body-guard, 
like  Augustus,  and  to  wear  himself  a  German  dress.26 

But  the  savage  Maximin  soon  changed  this  flat- 
tering scene.  After  the  assassination  of  Alexander 
235-240.  Severus,  the  ferocious  Thracian  assumed  the  con- 
taminated purple,  and  announced  his  accession  to 

29  Tacit. -Hist.  lib.  iii.  iv.     Civilis  had  maintained  a  personal  friendship  with 

«  Cum  privatus  esset  amici  vocabamur."     Lib.  v.  c.  26.     Mascou,  to 

his  summary  of  the  actions  of  Civilis,  adds  that  his  memory  continued  dear  to  the 

ollanders :  that  in  the  Great  Hall  of  the  States  General  there  were  twelve  pic- 
SSw°- J ^ e?ploits'  ^  Otto  Veenius ;  and  that  the  Dutch  were  fond  of  comparing 

iTd."  VOL?  rsr*  prince  °f  °range>  "the  f°untain  °f 

26  Herodian,  lib.  iv.  c.  7. 


Kise  of  the 
Francs, 
A.D. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  119 

the  north  of  Germany  in  a  series  of  victorious  slaugh-  CHAP. 
ter  and  unrelenting  devastation.  So  irresistible  was  .  — > 
the  tempest,  that  unless  (says  the  historian)  the 
Germans  had  escaped  by  their  rivers,  marshes,  and 
woods,  he  would  have  reduced  all  Germany  into  sub- 
jection. His  furious  valour  once  betrayed  him  into  a 
situation  of  so  much  danger  in  a  marsh,  that  he  was 
saved  with  difficulty,  while  his  horse  was  drowning. 
His  haughty  letters  to  the  senate  display  the  exulta- 
tion and  the  ferocity  of  his  mind.  "  We  cannot  relate 
to  you  how  much  we  have  done.  For  the  space  of 
four  hundred  miles  we  have  burnt  the  German  towns; 
we  have  brought  away  their  flocks,  enslaved  their 
inhabitants,  and  slain  the  armed.  We  should  have 
assailed  their  woods,  if  the  depths  of  the  marshes  had 
permitted  us  to  pass."27 

This  destructive  invasion,  like  many  other  evils, 
generated,  by  the  greatness  of  the  necessity,  a  pro- 
portionate benefit.  By  a  conjecture  more  probable 
in  itself,  and  more  consistent  with  contemporaneous 
facts,  than  any  other  which  has  been  mentioned,  a 
modern  writer  has  very  happily  ascribed  to  it  the 
formation  of  that  important  confederation  which, 
under  the  name  of  Francs,  withstood  the  Roman 
arms,  and  preserved  the  liberties  of  Germany.28 

It  is  the  prevailing  opinion  of  the  learned,  that  Their  true 
about  the  year  240  a  new  confederation  was  formed,  ongm' 
under  the  name  of  Francs,  by  the  old  inhabitants  of 
the  Lower  Rhine  and  Weser.29     As  the  incursion  of 
Maxirnin  took  place  about  the  year  235,  the  additional 
supposition  of  Spener  is  very  happy,  that  this  con- 

27  Jul.  Capitol.  Maxim,  c.  12.     Herodian,  lib.  vii.  p.  146.  ed.  Steph,     The  his- 
tory of  Maximin  is  related  by  Mr.  Gibbon  with  elegance  and  accuracy,  i.  p.  173 — 
190.  4to. 

28  Spener  in  his  Notit.  Germ.  lib.  iv.  p.  338.     "  Non  valde  vereor  adfirmare, 
Maximini  crudelem   in  Germaniam  incursionem  foedus   inferioris  Rhcni   accolis 
Germanis  suasisse." 

29  Gibbon,  1.  p.  259.  —  Foncemagne,  Mem.  Ac.  xv.  p/268.,  and  Freret,  Hist.  Ac. 
Insc.  ix.  p.  88.,  and  Mem.  xxxiii.  p.  134.,  unite  in  the  opinion. — Mascou,  who 
dislikes  it,  p.  196.,  has  evidently  not  weighed  all  the  circumstances. 

I  4 


120  HISTORY   OF   THE 

.BOOK     federation  arose  from  a  general  desire  of  security  and 

.     *L    .   revenge. 

The  horizon  of  Eome  was  at  this  juncture  dark- 
ening:  civil  wars  were  consuming  the  strength  of 
the  empire;  and  its  Germanic  enemies,  who  had 
many  losses  of  liberty,  life,  and  property  to  avenge, 
were  learning  the  dangerous  secret  of  the  benefit  of 
union.  The  Alemanni30  had  alarmed  Marcus  Aure- 
lius  with  its  first  exhibition.  The  advantage  of  this 
confederation  generated  others,  until  the  Koman  em- 
pire was  overwhelmed  by  the  accumulating  torrent ; 
and  her  western  provinces  were  parcelled  out  among 
those  warlike  spoilers  whose  improved  posterity  now 
govern  Europe. 

This  sagacious  union  of  strength  in  a  common 
cause  was  consecrated  on  the  Rhine  by  the  general 
name  of  Francs,  in  which  the  peculiar  denominations 
Their  use  of  the  tribes  were  absorbed.31  Their  valour  achieved 
Saxons.  ^s  en(^  5  anc^  their  existence  and  general  conduct 
were  peculiarly  useful  to  the  Saxon  nation.32  The 
safety  and  success  of  our  ancestors  may  have  flowed 
from  this  timely  confederation.  The  Saxon  exploits 
on  the  ocean  inflicted  such  wounds  on  the  Roman 
colonies  and  commerce,  that  a  peculiar  fleet  was  ap- 
pointed to  counteract  them  ;  the  southern  coast  of 
Britain  was  put  under  an  officer  called  Comes  Littoris 
Saxonici;  and  every  historian  mentions  them  with 
dread  and  hatred.  It  does  not  seem  visionary  to 
state,  that  it  would  have  been  one  of  the  first  employ- 
ments of  the  Roman  indignation  to  have  exterminated 

80  For  the  nations  who  assumed  this  name,  see  Spener,  175.  179. 

31  The  states  who  united  in  the  league  are  particularised  by  Spener,  p.  341.  ; 
and  by  Chrytaeus,  Sax.  Proem. 

32  The  ancient  writers  give  us  some  curious  traits  of  the  Francs  of  this  period  : 
"  Francis  familiare  est  ridendo  fidem  frangere."     Vopiscus  Proc.  c.  xiii.  p.  237.  Ed. 
Bip.     "  Gens  Francorum  infidelis  est.     Si  perjeret  Francus  quid  novi  faciet,  qui 
perjuriam  ipsum  sermonis  genus  putat  esse  non  criminis. "     Salvian  de  Gub.  Dei, 
lib.  iv.  p.  82.     Mag.  Bib.  Pat.  5.  —  Again,  lib.  vii.  p.  116.     "  Franci  mendaces, 
sed  hospitales."_This  union  of  laughter  and  crime,  of  deceit  and  politeness,  has 
not  been  entirely  unknown  to  France  in  many  periods  since  the  fifth  century. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


121 


them  by  an  expedition  like  those  of  Drusus,  Ger- 
manicus,  and  Maximin,  if  the  confederation  of  the 
Francs  had  not  interposed  a  formidable  barrier  that 
was  never  destroyed,  and  which  kept  the  imperial 
armies  employed  on  the  south  banks  of  the  Rhine.33 
We  may  add,  that  the  furious  desolations  of  Maximin 
were  favourable  to  the  growth  of  the  Saxon  power ; 
for  they  depopulated  the  contiguous  states,  and  left 
the  Saxons  without  any  strong  neighbours  to  coerce 
or  endanger  them. 

Another  cause  peculiarly  promotive  of  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Saxons,  and  directly  tending  to  facilitate 
their  future  conquests  in  Britain,  was  their  applica- 
tion to  maritime  expeditions ;  and  it  is  interesting  to 
the  philosophical  student  of  history  to  remark  by 
what  incidents  they  were  led  to  this  peculiar  applica- 
tion of  their  courage  and  activity. 


CHAP. 
in. 


33  Pontanus  Origin  Franc.  —  Spener,  333 — 360.,  and  his  2  vol.421 — 429., 
and  Schilter's  Glossary,  316 — 322.,  furnish  much  information  on  the  Frankish 
tribes. 


122  HISTORY   OF   THE 

CHAP.  IV. 

The  Application  of  the  SAXONS  to  Maritime  Expeditions. 

BOOK  THE  situation  of  the  Saxons  on  the  sea-coast  of  that 
.  **'  .  part  of  Europe  which  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
some  fertile  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  yet 
remote  enough  to  elude  their  vengeful  pursuit,  and 
the  possession  of  an  island  with  a  harbour  so  ample, 
and  yet  so  guarded  against  hostile  assaults,  as  Helig- 
land  afforded,  were  circumstances  propitious  to  a 
system  of  piracy. 

The  tribes  on  the  sea-coasts,  from  the  mouths  of 
the  Rhine  to  the  Baltic,  had  from  the  days  of  Cassar 
been  gradually  forming  themselves  to  maritime  ex- 
ertions. The  Romans  themselves,  inattentive  to  the 
consequences,  contributed  to  their  progress  in  this 
new  path  of  war.  Drusus  equipped  a  fleet  on  the 
Rhine  to  waft  his  army  to  the  Ems:  he  cut  a 
channel  for  its  passage  into  the  Zuyder  Zee ;  and  we 
find  in  his  time,  that  the  Bructeri,  who  lived  on  the 
left  of  the  Ems,  were  able  to  fight  a  battle  with  him 
on  the  seas.1  In  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  Germanicus 
built  a  thousand  vessels  on  the  Rhine,  Maes,  and 
Scheld2,  teaching  the  attentive  natives  the  use  of 
ships,  and  the  manner  of  their  constructing  them, 
and  employing  them  in  their  navigation. 

Within  thirty  years  afterwards,  Gennascus,  at  the 
head  of  the  Chauci,  evinced  the  maritime  improve- 
ments of  the  tribes  in  these  parts:  for  with  light 
ships,  armed  for  plunder,  he  made  the  descent  al- 
ready noticed  on  the  contiguous  shores,  and  par- 
ticularly on  the  Roman  provinces  in  France,  knowing 

1  Mascou,  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  80.  *  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  ii.  c.  6. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  123 

that  they  were  rich,  and  perceiving  that  they  were     CHAP. 

weak  against  such  attacks.3     His  enterprises  were  in   « ^ — > 

fact  the  precursors  of  .those  with  which  the  Francs 
and  Saxons  afterwards  annoyed  the  Roman  empire. 
The  naval  exertions  of  Civilis  have  been  stated  be- 
fore. 

As  the  population  between  the  Rhine  and  Ems  be- 
came thus  accustomed  to  excursions  on  the  seas,  the 
Saxons  began  to  multiply  near  them,  and  to  spread 
into  the  islands  we  have  described.  But  an  active 
system  of  naval  enterprise  is  not  naturally  chosen  by 
any  nation ;  and,  still  less,  distant  voyages,  which 
are  fatal  to  land  warriors  from  their  ignorance,  and 
still  more  formidable  from  their  superstitions.  Hence 
the  Saxons  might  have  lived  amid  their  rocks  and 
marshes,  conflicting  with  their  neighbours,  or  sailing 
about  them  in  petty  vessels  for  petty  warfare,  till 
they  had  mouldered  away  in  the  vicissitudes  in  which 
so  many  tribes  perished ;  if  one  remarkable  incident, 
not  originating  from  themselves,  but  from  a  Roman 
emperor,  who  intended  no  such  result,  had  not  ex- 
cited their  peculiar  attention  to  maritime  expeditions 
on  a  larger  scale,  with  grander  prospects,  and  to 
countries  far  remote. 

This  event,  which  tinged  with  new  and  lasting 
colours  the  destiny  of  Europe,  by  determining  the 
Saxons  to  piratical  enterprises,  was  the  daring 
achievements  of  the  Francs;  whom  Probus,  during 
his  brief  sovereignty,  had  transported  to  the  Pontus. 
To  break  the  strength  of  the  barbaric  myriads,  who 
were  every  year  assaulting  the  Roman  state  with 
increasing  force,  this  emperor  had  recourse  to  the 
policy,  not  unfrequent  under  the  imperial  govern- 
ment, of  settling  colonies  of  their  warriors  in  places 
very  distant  from  the  region  of  their  nativity. 

Among  others,  a  numerous   body  of  Francs,    or  voyage  of 

3  Tacit  Ann.  lib.  xi.  c.  18.  the  Francs 


124  HISTORY  OF   THE 

BOOK  rather  of  the  contiguous  tribes  united  under  that 
»  IL  .  name,  was  transplanted  to  the  Euxine.  The  attach- 
from  the  ment  of  mankind  to  the  scenes  of  their  childhood  ;  and 
their  ardent  longing,  when  in  foreign  lands,  for  the 
country  which  their  relatives  inhabit ;  where  their 
most  pleasing  associations  have  been  formed ;  where 
their  individual  characters  have  been  acquired,  and 
customs  like  their  own  exist ;  are  feelings  so  natural 
to  every  bosom,  and  so  common  to  every  age,  that 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Frankish  exiles,  when 
removed  to  the  Euxine,  regretted  their  native  wilds.4 
We  read,  therefore,  with  general  sympathy,  that 
they  soon  afterwards  seized  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  abandoning  their  foreign  settlement.  They  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  many  ships,  probably  the  ves- 
sels in  which  they  had  been  carried  from  the  Ger- 
man Ocean  to  the  Euxine,  and  formed  the  daring 
plan  of  sailing  back  to  the  Rhine.  Its  novelty  and 
improbability  procured  its  success ;  and  the  neces- 
sities which  attended  it,  led  them  to  great  exploits. 
Compelled  to  land  wherever  they  could  for  supplies, 
safety,  and  information,  they  ravaged  the  coasts  of 
Asia  and  Greece.  Reaching  at  length  Sicily,  they 
attacked  and  ravaged  Syracuse  with  great  slaughter. 
Beaten  about  by  the  winds,  often  ignorant  where 
they  were,  seeking  subsistence,  pillaging  to  obtain  it, 
and  excited  to  new  plunder  by  the  successful  depre- 
dations they  had  already  made,  they  carried  their  tri- 
umphant hostility  to  several  districts  of  Africa.  They 
were  driven  off  that  continent  by  a  force  sent  from 
Carthage  ;  but  this  repulse  turning  them  towards 
Europe,  and  finding  no  where  a  home,  they  con- 
cluded at  last  their  remarkable  voyage  by  reaching 
in  safety  their  native  shores.5 

4  So  strong  was  this  feeling  in  Germany,  that  some  of  the  German  chiefs  whom 
Augustus  forced  from  their  country  killed  themselves.      1  Mascou,  85. 

5  The  original  authorities  are  Zosimus,  end  of  book  i.  j  Eumen.  Paneg.  iv.  c.  18. ; 
and  Vopiscus  in  Probo,  c.  18. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  125 

In  this  singular  enterprise,  a  system  to  endure  for 
ages  received  its  unpremeditated  birth.  It  discovered 
to  these  adventurers  and  to  their  neighbours ;  to  all 
who  heard  and  could  imitate,  that,  from  the  Roman 
colonies,  a  rich  harvest  of  spoil  might  be  gleaned  by 
those  who  would  seek  for  it  at  sea.  It  likewise 
removed  the  veil  of  terror  that  hung  over  distant 
oceans  and  foreign  expeditions.  These  Francs  had 
desolated  every  province  almost  with  impunity  ;  they 
had  plunder  to  display,  which  must  have  fired  the 
avarice  of  every  needy  spectator ;  they  had  acquired 
skill,  which  those  who  joined  them  might  soon  in- 
herit ;  and  perhaps  the  same  men,  embarking  again 
with  new  followers,  evinced  by  fresh  booty  the  prac- 
ticability of  similar  attempts.  On  land,  the  Roman 
tactics  and  discipline  were  generally  invincible ;  but, 
at  sea,  they  who  most  frequent  it  are  usually  the 
most  expert  and  successful.  The  Saxons  perceived 
this  consequence :  their  situation  on  the  ocean  tempted 
them  to  make  the  trial ;  they  soon  afterwards  began 
their  depredations,  and  by  this  new  habit  evinced  the 
inciting  and  instructive  effects  of  the  Frankish  ad- 
venture. 

The  piracies  of  the  Francs  and  Saxons  are  not  usurpation 
mentioned  in  the  imperial  writers  anterior  to  this 
navigation ;  but  they  seem  to  have  become  frequent 
after  it;  for  within  a  few  years  subsequent,  the 
Francs  and  Saxons  so  infested  the  coasts  of  Belgium, 
Gaul,  and  Britain,  that  the  Roman  government  was 
compelled  to  station  a  powerful  fleet  at  Boulogne,  on 
purpose  to  confront  them.  The  command  was  in- 
trusted to  Carausius,  a  Menapian,  of  the  meanest 
origin ;  but  a  skilful  pilot  and  valiant  soldier.  It  was 
observed,  that  this  commander  attacked  the  pirates 
only  after  they  had  accomplished  their  ravages,  and 
never  restored  the  capture  to  the  suffering  provin- 
cials. This  excited  a  suspicion,  that  by  wilful  re- 


126  HISTORY   OF  THE 

missness  he  permitted  the  enemy  to  make  the  incur- 
sions, that  he  might  obtain  the  booty  on  their  return. 
Such  conduct  was  fatal  to  the  design  of  suppressing 
the  piracies  of  the  Francs  and  Saxons.  It  permitted 
the  habit  of  such  enterprises  to  become  established ; 
and  the  success  of  those  who  eluded  his  avarice,  on 
their  return,  kept  alive  the  eagerness  for  maritime 
depredations.6 

Another  incident  occurred  to  establish  their  pro- 
pensity and  power.  The  emperor,  informed  of  the 
treasons  of  Carausius,  ordered  his  punishment.  Ap- 
prised of  his  impending  fate,  he  took  refuge  in  aug- 
mented guilt  and  desperate  temerity;  he  boldly 
assumed  the  purple,  and  was  acknowledged  emperor 
by  the  legions  in  Britain.  The  perplexities  in  which 
the  Koman  state  was  at  that  time  involved  favoured 
his  usurpation ;  and,  to  maintain  it,  he  had  recourse 
to  one  of  those  important  expedients  which,  originally 
intended  for  a  temporary  exigency,  lead  ultimately  to 
great  revolutions. 

He  teaches        As  it  was  only  by  active  warfare  that  his  sove- 

theA.D.°ns'  reignty  could  be  maintained,  he  made  alliances  with 

287,      the  Germans,  and  particularly  with  the  Saxons  and 

the  naval        -^  ,  -.     x  ,          J  ,          .      .  ,      . 

art.  Jbrancs,  whose   dress  and   manners    he   imitated   in 

order  to  increase  their  friendship.  To  make  them 
of  all  the  use  he  projected,  he  encouraged  their  ap- 
plication to  maritime  affairs ;  he  gave  them  ships  and 
experienced  officers,  who  taught  them  navigation  and 
the  art  of  naval  combat.7  No  circumstance  could 
have  tended  more  to  promote  their  future  successes 
and  celebrity.  They  had  sufficient  inclination  to 
this  new  path  of  action.  They  only  wanted  the 
tuition  and  encouragement.  Fostered  by  this  im- 
perial alliance,  and  supplied  with  those  essential  re- 
quisites, without  which  they  could  not  have  become 

6  1  Gibhon,  362.     1  Mascou,  243.  »  ]  Mascou,  244.      1  Gibbon,  364. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  127 

permanently  formidable,  they  renewed  their  predatory     CHAP. 
attacks  with  licensed  severity.   Every  coast  which  had  . 

not  received  Carausius  as  its  lord  was  open  to  their 
incursions.  They  perfected  themselves  in  their  dan- 
gerous art,  and  by  the  plunder  which  they  were  al- 
ways gaining,  they  increased  their  means  as  well  as 
their  avidity  for  its  prosecution,  and  nurtured  their 
population  in  the  perilous  but  attractive  warfare. 
The  usurpation  of  Carausius,  and  this  education  of 
the  Saxons  to  the  empire  of  the  ocean,  lasted  seven 
years. 

Sixty  years  afterwards,  a  similar  occurrence  ad- 
vanced  the  Saxon  prosperity.  Magnentius,  another 
usurper  of  the  bloody  and  restless  sceptre  of  Rome, 
having  murdered  Constans,  endeavoured  to  preserve 
the  perilous  dignity  by  an  alliance  of  fraternisation 
with  the  Francs  and  Saxons,  whom  in  return  he  pro- 
tected and  encouraged.8  This  was  again  one  of  those 
auspicious  incidents,  which  enhanced  the  consequence 
and  power  of  those  tribes  who  had  been  invisible  to 
Tacitus,  and  who  had  been  merely  known  by  name 
to  Ptolemy.  But  as  Providence  had  destined  them 
to  be  the  stock  of  a  nation  whose  colonies,  commerce, 
arts,  knowledge  and  fame  were  to  become  far  superior 
to  those  of  Rome,  and  to  pervade  every  part  of  the 
world ;  it  cherished  them  by  a  succession  of  those 
propitious  circumstances  which  gradually  formed  and 
led  them  to  that  great  enterprise  for  which  they  were 
principally  destined,  the  conquest  and  colonisation  of 
Romanised  Britain  ;  and  to  be  the  founders  of  the 
great  body  of  the  English  population ;  for,  although 
Britons,  Danes,  Scoti,  and  Normans  have  contributed 
to  enlarge  its  numbers,  the  far  largest  proportion  of 
the  inhabitants  of  England  has  arisen  from  Anglo- 
Saxon  progenitors. 

8  Julian  Grat.  cited  1  Mascou,  280. 


128  HISTORY   OE   THE 


CHAP.  V. 

The  League  of  the  SAXONS  with  other  States,  and  their  Conti- 
nental Aggrandisement. 

BOOK  BUT  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  the 
IL  Saxons  were  not  alone  on  the  ocean ;  other  States, 
both  to  the  south  and  north  of  their  own  locality, 
were  moving  in  concert  with  them,  whose  nominal 
distinctions  were  lost  in  the  Saxon  name.  This  ad- 
dition of  strength  multiplied  the  Saxon  fleets,  gave 
new  terror  to  their  hostility,  and  recruited  their  losses 
with  perpetual  population.  The  league  extended. 
Their  depredations  increased  their  population,  afflu- 
ence, and  celebrity ;  and  these  results  extended  their 
power.  What  emulation,  policy,  or  rapacity  may 
have  first  prompted,  success  and  fear  made  more 
universal.  They  who  would  not  have  been  tempted 
to  unite,  dreaded  the  wrath  of  those  whose  proffered 
alliance  they  refused  :  and  at  length  most  of  the 
nations  north  of  the  Rhine  assumed  the  name, 
strengthened  the  association,  and  fought  to  augment 
the  predominance,  of  the  Saxons.  Towards  the\ 
south,  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Rhine,  the  Chauci 
seem  to  have  led  the  way.  The  Frisii,  urged  by| 
kindred  passion  and  a  convenient  position,  willingly 
followed.  The  precise  date  of  the  accession  of  others  j 
is  not  so  clear ;  but  in  some  period  of  their  power 
the  Chamavi,  and  at  last  the  Batavi,  the  Toxandri, 
and  Morini  were  in  their  alliance.  North  of  their 
territorial  position  the  Cimbri,  the  Jutes,  the  Angles, 
and  others  not  so  discernible,  added  their  numbers  to 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  129 

the  formidable  league ;  which  lasted  until  their  expe- 
dition to  Britain1,  and  then  began  to  dissolve. 

Without  detaining  the  reader  by  a  detail  of  the 
modern  chorography  answering  to  the  position  of  these 
tribes2,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  state  concisely,  that 
the  progress  and  leagues  of  the  Saxon  states  enlarged 
gradually  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Weser  ;  from  the 
Weser  they  reached  to  the  Ems ;  and  still  augment- 
ing, they  diffused  themselves  to  the  Rhine  with  vary- 
ing latitude,  as  the  Francs,  many  of  whose  allies  they 
seduced,  quitting  that  region,  and  abandoning  their 
exploits  on  the  ocean,  marched  upon  Gaul.  The  ex- 
tension of  this  new  confederation  was  favoured  by 
the  change  of  policy  and  position  adopted  by  the 
Francs.  As  this  people  stood  foremost  to  the  Roman 
vengeance,  they  experienced  its  effects.  They  had 
many  distressing  wars  to  maintain,  which  in  time 
compelled  them  to  abandon  maritime  expeditions, 
and  to  consolidate  their  strength  for  their  continental 
conflicts.  Their  ultimate  successes  made  this  warfare 
the  most  popular  among  them.  Hence,  the  nearer  we 
approach  the  period  of  the  invasion  of  England,  we 
find  the  Francs  less  and  less  united  with  the  Saxons 
on  the  ocean,  and  even  wars  begin  to  be  frequent  be- 
tween the  rival  friends.  As  the  former  moved  on- 
ward, to  the  conquests  of  Belgium  and  Gaul,  the 
Saxons  appear  to  have  been  the  only  nation  under 
whose  name  the  vessels  of  piracy  were  navigated. 
Saxons  were  the  enemies  every  where  execrated, 
though  under  this  title  several  nations  fought.  Some 
of  the  tribes  on  the  maritime  coast  who  had  composed 

1  Spener's  Notitia,  363 — 370.     That  the  Saxons  of  the  fifth  century  were  an 
association  of  peoples,  was  remarked  by  Stillingfleet,  Orig.  Brit.  305. ;  and  Lang- 
horn,  Elench.  Ant.  Alb.  342.     See  also  Freret,  Mem.  Ac.  Inscr.  xxxiii.  p.  134.  ;  and 
2  Gibbon,  523. 

2  This  may  be  seen  as  to  the  Chauci,  Spener,  302 — 3J3.     Cluverius,  lib.  iii. 
p.  72.     Cellarius,   Ant.   Geog.  i.    p.  298.  — As  to  the  Frisii,    Spener,   314—332. 

Cluv.  p.  55.     Cell.  295 As  to  the  Chamavi,  Sp.  260,  &c.     The  same  authors 

treat  of  the  others. 

VOL.  I.  K 


130  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

BOOK  the  league  of  the  Francs,  abandoned  it,  rto  share  the 
.  IL  .  easier  warfare  and  ampler  booty  of  the  Saxons.  At 
last  this  successful  people  diffused  themselves  into 
the  interior  of  Germany  so  victoriously,  that  the  vast 
tracts  of  country  embraced  by  the  Elbe,  the  Sala,  and 
the  Rhine,  became  subjected  to  their  power3,  in  ad- 
dition to  their  ancient  territory  from  the  Elbe  to  the 
Eyder.4  An  old  Belgic  chronicle  in  rhyme,  makes 
Neder  Sassen,  Lower  Saxony,  to  have  been  confined 
by  the  Scheld  and  the  Meuse5;  but  this  is  a  larger 
extent  than  others  admit. 

The  jutes^'^But  those  allies  of  the  Saxons  with  whom  the  his- 
tory of  Britain  is  most  connected,  were  the  Jutes  and 
Angles.  The  Jutes  inhabited  Jutland,  or  rather  that 
part  of  it  which  was  formerly  called  South  Jutland  6, 
but  which  is  now  known  as  the  duchy  of  Sleswick. 
The  little  band  first  introduced  into  England  by  Hen- 
gist  and  Horsa  were  Jutes.  Their  name  has  been 
v  written  with  all  the  caprices  of  orthography. 7 

3  That  continental  Saxony  at  last  extended  to  the  Rhine  is  affirmed  by  Adam  of 
Bremen,  p.  3. ;  and  see   the  later  writers.     Chrytscus,  72. ;  et  Proem.     Krantz 
Saxon,  p.  5.     Spener  Notit.  2  vol.  400 — 413.     Eginhart,  the  secretary  of  Charle- 
magne, says,  p.  7.,  that  in  his  time,  Saxony  Germanise  pars  non  modica  est. 

4  The  Saxon  poet  commemoratesjhe  Saxons  to  have  retained  this  region  in  the 
time  of  Charlemagne : 

Saxonum  populus  quidam  quos  claudit  ah  austro 
Albia  sejunctum  positos  Aquilonis  ad  axem, 
Hos  Northalbingos  patrio  sermone  vocamus. 

Ap.  Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Fran.  Script.  2.  p.  160. 

Oude  bocken  hoor  ick  gewagen, 

Dat  all  t'larid  beneden  Nyemagen, 

Wilen  neder  Sassen  hiet, 

Alsoo  als  die  stroom  verschiet 

Van  der  Maze  ende  van  den  Rhyn, 

Die  Schelt  was  dat  westende  syn. 

Schilt.  Thes.  706. 

I  have  heard  that  old  books  say, 

That  all  the  land  beneath  Nyemagen 

Whilom  was  called  Nether  Saxony, 

Also  that  the  stream 

Of  the  Maes  and  the  Rhine  confined  it : 

The  Scheld  was  its  western  end. 

6  Chrytseus,  Saxon.  65.     Pont.  Chor.  Dann.  655. 

7  As  Geatum,  Giotse,  Jutse,  Gutae,  Geatani,  Jotuni,  Jete,  Juitze,  Vitse,  &c.     The 
Vetus  Chronicon  Holsatise,   p.  54.,  says  the  Danes  and   Jutes  are  Jews  of  the 
tribe  of  Dan !  and  Munster  as  wisely  calls  the  Helvetii,  Hill-vitEe,  or  Jutes  of  the 
hills ! 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  131 

The  Angles  have  been  derived  from  different  parts!   CHAP. 
of  the  north  of  Germany.     Engern,   in  Westphalia,  |», 
was  a  favourite  position,  because  it  seemed  to  suit 
geography  of  Tacitus.     Angloen,  in  Pomerania,  had 
good  pretensions,   from  the  similarity  of  its  name; 
and  part  of  the  duchies  of  Mecklenburgh  and  Lunen- 
burg  was  chosen  out  of  respect  to  Ptolemy  ;  but  the 
assertion   of  Bede   and  Alfred,  which   Camden   has 
adopted,  has,  from  its  truth,  prevailed  over  all.     In 
the  days  of  Tacitus  and  Ptolemy,  the  Angli  may  have 
been  in  Westphalia  or  Mecklenburg,  or  elsewhere  ;  but 
at  the  era  of  the  Saxon  invasion  they  were  resident  in 
the  district  of  Anglen,  in  the  duchy  of  Sleswick.8 

The  duchy  of  Sleswick  extends  from  the  river 
Levesou,  north  of  Kiel,  to  the  Tobesket,  on  which 
stands  Colding ;  but  that  particular  position,  which 
an  ancient  Saxon  author  calls  Old  England,  extends 
from  the  city  of  Sleswick  to  Flensberg.  Sleswick  was 
the  capital  of  Anglen,  and  was  distinguished,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  for  its  population  and  wealth.9 

8  Bede's  words  are  :  "  De  ilia  patria,  quse  Angulus  dicitur  et  ab  eo  tempore  usque 
hodie,  manere  desertus  inter  provincias  Jutarum  et  Saxonum  perhibetur,"  lib.  i. 
c.  1 5.     His  royal  translator's  expressions  are  similar  :   "  Is  tha  land  betwyh  Geatum 
and  Seaxum.     Is  saed  of  thsere  tide  the  hi  thanon  gewiton  oth  to  dscge  tha  hit  west 
wunige,"  p.  483.     Alfred,  in  his  Orosius,  alluding  to  the  Danish  countries  on  the 
Baltic,  says,   "on  thsem  landum  eardodon  Engle  ser  hi  hider  on  land  coman." 
Camden,  in  his  introduction,  attributes  to  the  Angles  the  German  cities  Engelheim, 
where  Charlemagne  was  born,  Ingolstad,  Engleburg,  Engelrute ;  and  Angleria,  in 
Italy. 

9  Pontanus,  Geographia,  655,  656.     It  is  our  Ethelwerd  who  gives  us  the  ancient 
site  of  the  Angles  most  exactly.     Anglia  vetus  sita  est  inter  Saxones  et  Giotos, 
habens  oppidum  capitale  quod  sermone  Saxonico  Sleswic  nuncupatur,  secundum 
vero  Danos,  Haithabay,  p.  833.     Some,  who  admit  this  situation,  will  not  allow 
that  the  Angli  were  German  emigrants.     Schilter's  Glos.  p.  49 Wormius  de- 
rives them  from  the  Jutes.     Literat.  Runica,  p.  29.     This  is  a  mere  supposition. 
As  Tacitus  notices  Angli  in  Germany,  but  does  not  specifically  mention  Jutes,  a 
speculative  reasoner  might  with  greater  probability,  make  the  Angli  the  parents  of 
the  Jutes.      That  they  were  kindred   nations  is  clear  from  the  identity  of  their 
language.     Our  Kentish  Jutes  have  always  talked  as  good  English  as  our  Mercian, 
and  Norfolk,  and  Yorkshire  Angles.     Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons  seem  to  have  been 
coeval  twigs  of  the  same  Teutonic  branch  of  the  great  Scythian  or  Gothic  tree. 
Some  dialectic  differences  of  pronunciation  may  be  traced,  but  no  real  diversity  of 
language. 


K  2 


132  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  VI. 

Sequel  of  their  History  to  the  Period  of  the  ANGLO-SAXON 
Invasion. 

BOOK  WHILE  the  Saxons  were  in  this  state  of  progressive 
.  "'  .  greatness,  in  the  fourth  century,  the  prosperity  and 
contiguity  of  Britain  invited  their  frequent  visits; 
and  their  attacks  were  favoured  by  the  incursions  of 
other  enemies,  who  are  called  by  the  historians  Picti, 
Scoti,  and  Attacotti. 

A.D.  In  a  similar  combination  of  hostilities,  Nectaridus, 

The3s!'x.     tne  commander  of  the  Saxon  shore,  was  slain,  and 
ons  attack    the  general  of  the  island,  Fullo-faudes,  perished  in 
m;      an  ambush.    Several  officers  were  sent  by  the  Roman 
emperors  to  succeed  them  ;  but  their  exertions  being 
inadequate   to   the   necessity,  Theodosius,  an   expe- 
rienced  and    successful   leader,    was    appointed    by 
Valentinian  in  their  room.     The  Picts  and  the  co- 
operating tribes  attacked  from  the  north,  while  the 
Saxons  and  their  allies  assaulted  the  maritime  coasts. 
Theodosius,    from    Eichborough,    marched    towards 
London,  and  dividing  his  army  into  battalions,  cor- 
respondent to  the  positions  of  the  enemies,  he  attacked 
the  robbers  incumbered  with   their   plunder.      The 
bands  that  were  carrying  away  the  manacled  inha- 
bitants and  their  cattle,  he  destroyed,  and  regained 
the  spoil ;  of  this  he  distributed  a  small  share  among 
are  defeated  his  wearied  soldiers ;  the  residue  he  restored  to  its 
6hisTh<    "  owners,  and  entered  the  city,  wondering  at  its  sudden 
deliverance,  with  the  glories  of  an  ovation. 

Lessoned  by  experience,    and   instructed   by   the 
confessions  of  the  captives  and  deserters,  he  combated 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  133 

this  mixture  of  enemies,  with  well-combined  artifice  CHAP. 
and  unexpected  attacks.  To  recall  those  who  in  the  <..  ^. — » 
confusion,  from  fear  or  from  cowardice,  had  aban- 
doned their  ranks  or  their  allegiance,  he  proclaimed 
an  amnesty  l ;  and  to  complete  the  benefit  he  had 
begun,  he  prosecuted  the  war  with  vigour  in  the 
north  of  Britain.  He  prevented  by  judicious  move- 
ments the  meditated  attack ;  and  hence  the  Orkneys 
became  the  scene  of  his  triumphs.  The  Saxons, 
strong  in  their  numbers  and  intrepidity,  sustained 
several  naval  encounters  before  they  yielded  to  his 
genius.2  They  ceased  at  last  to  molest,  the  tran- 
quillity of  Britain,  and  the  addition  of  a  deserved 
surname,  Saxonicus,  proclaimed  the  services  of  Theo- 
dosius.3  He  added  the  province  of  Yalentia  to 
Roman  Britain,  restored  the  deserted  garrisons,  and 
coerced  the  unruly  borderers  by  judicious  stations 
and  a  vigilant  defence.4 

The  Saxon  confederation  might  be  defeated,  but       370. 
was  not  subdued.     Such  was  its  power,   that  they  bytiVRo- 
were  now  bold  enough  to  defy  the  Roman  armies  by  manfon*he 

.S5  »   r     .  J     continent. 

land,  and  invaded  the  regions  on  the  Rhine  with  a 
formidable  force.  The  imperial  general  was  unable 
to  repulse  them ;  a  reinforcement  encouraged  him. 
The  Saxons  declined  a  battle,  and  sued  for  an  ami- 
cable accommodation.  It  was  granted.  A  number 
of  the  youth  fit  for  war  was  given  to  the  Romans  to 
augment  their  armies ;  the  rest  were  to  retire  unmo- 
lested. The  Romans  were  not  ashamed  to  confess 
their  dread  of  the  invaders  by  a  perfidious  violation 

1  Am.  Marcel,  lib.  xxvii.  c.  8.  p.  283. 

2  Claud.     4  Cons.  Hon.  31.    "Maduerunt  Saxone  fuso  Orcades."     Saxo  con- 
sumptus  bellis  navalibus,  Pacatus  Paneg.  Theod.  p.  97. 

3  Pacat.  98.     "Quum  ipse  Saxonicus."  —  The  British  government  have  wisely 
done  equal  justice  to  the  defenders  of  their  country.     We  have  Earl  St.  Vincent, 
Lord  Viscount  Duncan  Baron  of  Camperdown,  and  Baron  Nelson  of  the  Nile,  and 
Earl  of  Trafalgar. 

4  Am.  Marc.  p.  406.     Claudian,  de  3  Consul.  Hon.  states  his  successes  against 
the  Picts  and  Scots,  p.  44. 

K8 


134  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  of  the  treaty.  They  attacked  the  retreating  Saxons 
IL  ,  from  an  ambush ;  and,  after  a  brave  resistance,  the 
unguarded  barbarians  were  slain  or  made  prisoners.5 
It  is  to  the  disgrace  of  literature,  that  the  national 
historian  of  the  day  has  presumed,  while  he  records, 
to  apologise  for  the  ignominious  fraud. 

Such  an  action  might  dishonourably  gain  a  tem- 
porary advantage,  but  it  could  only  exasperate  the 
Saxon  nation.  The  loss  was  soon  repaired  in  the 
natural  progress  of  population,  and  before  many 
years  elapsed,  they  renewed  their  depredations,  and 
defeated  Maximus.6  At  the  close  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury they  exercised  the  activity  and  resources  of 
Stilicho.  The  unequal  struggle  is  commemorated 
by  the  encomiastical  poet,  whose  genius  gilds,  with 
a  departing  ray,  the  darkening  hemisphere  of  Kome.7 
After  his  death  the  Saxons  commenced  new  8  erup- 
tions. They  supported  the  Armorici  in  their 9  rebel- 
lion, awed  Gothic  Euric,  began  to  war  with  the 
Francs10,  and,  extending  the  theatre  of  their  spoil, 
made  Belgium,  Gaul,  Italy,  and  Germany  tremble 
at  their  presence.  At  length,  Charlemagne,  having 
prosecuted  against  them  one  of  the  most  obstinate 
and  destructive  wars  which  history  has  recorded, 
their  predominance  was  abased,  and  their  spirit  of 
aggression  n  destroyed.  The  celebrity  and  power  of 
the  Saxons  on  the  continent  then  ceased.  They 
dwindled  to  a  secondary  rank,  and  have  ever  since 
acted  a  secondary  part  in  the  events  of  German  his- 

5  Am.  Mar.  416 Orosius,  vii.  c.  12.  and  Cassiodorus,  2  vol.  636.  also  mention 

the  incident. 

6  S.  Ambrose,  quoted  1  Mascou,  371. 

7  Claudian.  de  Laud.  Stil.  lib.  ii.  p.  140.  Elz.  edit. 

8  Jerom.  in  Mascou,  410. 

9  Sid.  Apoll.  Paneg.  Avit.  v.  369. 

10  2  Mascou,  39.     Gregory  of  Tours,  lib.  ii.  c.  19.,  mentions  the  capture  of  the 
Saxon  islands  by  the  Francs  ;  and  lib.  iv.  c.  10.  what  he  calls  their  rebellion  ;  and 
Chlotarius'  successes  against  them,  ib.  et  c.  14. ;  and  their  ravages  in  France,  c.  37. 
p.  35. 

11  See  this  war  in  Eginhart's  Vita  Carol.  Magn.  and  in  the  Poeta  Saxon.    Antiq. 
Annal.  de  gestis  Caroli  M.  ap.  Duchesne,  ii.  p.  136. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  135 

tory.  But  they  have  never  been  obscure.  In  the  CHAP. 
tenth,  and  eleventh,  and  twelfth  centuries,  colonies  <  /  .; 
of  their  population  settled  themselves  in  12  Hungary 
and  Transilvania 13 ;  and  allied  themselves  by  mar- 
riages with  the  ruder  chieftains  of  those  regions. 
Saxon  dukes  became  emperors  of  Germany  soon 
after  the  separation  of  this  dignity  from  the  crown 
of  France.  Branches  from  their  stem  have  formed 
the  most  illustrious  princes  in  the  north  of  Germany, 
and  Saxony  has  the  honour  of  having  given  birth  to 
the  great  Reformer  of  Christianity  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  her  chieftains  of  successfully  supporting 
this  intellectual  emancipation  and  improvement,  till 
it  became  impossible  for  power  or  craft  to  suppress 
it.  A  king  of  Saxony  still  exists,  though  with  dis- 
membered dominions,  and  the  country  yet  presents 
a  people  of  the  most  cultivated  mind  of  all  the  German 
continent.  The  rise  of  the  Saxon  nation  has  been, 
therefore,  singularly  propitious  to  human  improve- 
ment. It  created  a  new  formation  of  mind  and 
manners,  and  polity  in  the  world,  whose  beneficial 
results  the  state  and  history  of  England  expressively 
display.  No  events  tended  more  to  civilise  Germany 
from  the  third  century  to  the  eleventh,  than  the 
activity,  leagues,  colonies,  conquests,  and  transactions 
of  this  people.  All  the  improvements  of  Germany, 
beyond  what  Rome  imparted,  have  arisen  from  the 
Saxon  and  the  Frankish  mind.  They  kept  from  it 
the  more  barbarous  population  of  the  Slavonians  and 
the  Huns,  and  the  rude  heroes  of  Scandinavia  and 
the  Baltic.  The  imperial  reigns  of  the  house  of 
Saxony,  notwithstanding  the  faults  of  .some  of  its 
princes,  principally  contributed  to  establish  the 

12  See  the  Chronicles  of  Hungary,  of  Thwrocz,  pars  ii.  e.  11.  c.  22. 

13  See  the  authorities  collected  by  Eder  on  this  point,  in  his  De  initiis,  juribusque 
primsevis  Saxonura   Transilvanorum.     Comment,  p.  17.  and  63 — 78.     Flemings, 
Hollanders,  and  others  also  went  there,  ibid.     Ed.  Vienn.  1792. 

K  4 


136  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

BOOK  German  independence,  civilisation,  and  prosperity 
.  IL  ,  during  the  middle  ages.  But  the  beneficial  agencies 
of  this  race  on  the  continent  having  diminished,  other 
nations,  whom  they  assisted  to  form  and  educate, 
are  now  obtaining  a  political,  and  will  probably  gain 
a  mental,  preponderance ;  unless  Saxony,  in  her 
adversity,  shall  regain  a  moral  one — the  great  foun- 
dation of  all  intellectual  superiority. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  137 


CHAP.  VII. 

The  History  of  BRITAIN  elucidated  from  the  Death  of  MAXIMUS 
in  388,  to  the  final  Departure  of  the  ROMANS. 

SOON  after  the  termination  of  the  fourth  century,  the 
Saxon  invasion  of  England  occurred.  It  will  be, 
therefore,  useful  to  consider  the  state  of  the  island  at 
that  time.  A  just  perception  of  the  events  which 
occurred  in  Britain  previous  to  their  arrival,  will 
illustrate  the  causes  of  their  success,  and  remove 
some  of  the  difficulties  with  which  this  portion  of 
our  history,  from  a  want  of  careful  criticism,  has 
been  peculiarly  embarrassed. 

It  is  true  that  the  transactions  of  the  natives  of 
Britain  from  the  fall  of  Maximus  to  the  Saxon  in- 
vasion are  almost  lost  to  us,  from  the  want  of  ac- 
curate historiographers  of  this  period.  But  the 
more  defective  our  information,  the  greater  should 
be  our  care  and  diligence  to  profit  by  the  notices 
which  can  be  gleaned  and  combined  from  the  con- 
temporary documents.  These  indeed  are  few.  The 
crude  declamation  of  Gildas,  Bede's  extracts  from 
him,  the  abrupt  intimations  of  Nennius,  and  Jeffry's 
historical  romance,  or  rather  amplification  of  Nennius, 
with  many  additions  from  unknown  sources,  or  from 
LIS  own  invention,  and  a  few  lines  in  some  other 
Latin  authors,  are  all  the  original  documents  which 
either  Britons  or  Saxons  have  left  us  on  this  curious 
and  important  interval. 

The  querulous  and  vague  invectives  of  Gildas  have 
been  reduced  to  some  chronology  by  Bede ;  and  the 
broken  narrations  of  Nennius  have  been  dramatised 
by  Jeffry :  but  the  labours  of  Bede  have  not  lessened 


138 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
II. 


Bede's 
chronology 
of  this  pe- 
riod erro- 
neous. 


Rise  and 
Fall  of 
Maximus, 
333—388. 


the  original  obscurity  of  Gildas:  and  all  that  the 
imagination  of  Jeffry  has  effected  has  been  to  people 
the  gloom  with  fantastic  shapes,  which,  in  our  search 
for  authentic  history,  only  make  us  welcome  the 
darkness  that  they  vainly  attempt  to  remove.1 

The  chronology  into  which  Bede  has  distorted  the 
rhetoric  of  Gildas,  was  erroneously  framed  and  chosen 
by  our  venerable  and  valuable  historian.2  His  au- 
thority, which  his  learning  would  in  any  age  make 
respectable,  has  been  peculiarly  impressive,  because, 
without  his  ecclesiastical  history,  we  should  have 
lost  almost  all  knowledge  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  for 
three  centuries  after  their  establishment  in  this  island. 
With  unsuspicious  deference,  our  historians  have 
rather  studied  Gildas  as  he  has  been  transcribed  by 
Bede,  than  in  his  own  composition ;  and  thus  they 
have  governed  the  chronology  of  this  interesting 
interval  by  the  authority  of  Bede,  without  examining 
if  Bede  has  not  been  himself  mistaken. 

It  will  much  assist  our  inquiry  to  take  a  general 
survey  of  the  history  of  the  Roman  empire  at  this 
period. 

While  Gratian  governed  the  western  empire,  and 
Theodosius  the  eastern,  the  legions  of  Britain,  which 
had  so  often  been  conspicuous  for  their  turbulence, 

1  In  the  Archaiology  of  Wales  are  two  copies  of  Jeffry's  History  in  Welsh ;  but 
they  are  not  entitled  to  more  historical  respect  than  his  Latin  work.  The  Welsh 
triads  have  some  curious  notices  concerning  the  ancient  history  of  the  Britons  ;  but 
these  are  very  unlike  the  fables  of  Jeffry ;  and  this  dissimilarity,  while  it  makes 
the  most  ancient  triads  more  respectable,  increases  our  disrespect  for  his  work, 
Whether  in  Welsh  or  Latin.  Some  of  the  triads,  indeed,  which  have  a  more  modern 
aspect,  seem  to  be  taken  from  Jeffry's  history.  But  I  cannot  believe  that  this 
history,  whether  first  written  by  Tyssilio,  Caradoc  of  Lancarvan,  or  Jeffry,  was  in 
existence,  in  its  present  details,  before  the  eleventh  century.  Some  of  its  incidents 
may  have  been  earlier  traditional  stories  ;  but  their  present  arrangement,  chrono- 
logy, and  details,  and  the  amplifications  and  additions  with  which  they  are  accom- 
panied, appear  to  me  to  be  fictitious,  and  unauthorised  ;  fully  as  much  so  as  those 
baxo  Grammaticus.  The  true  cannot  now  be  separated  from  the  invented.  We 
arettierefore  compelled  to  discredit  the  whole. 

/  2  Bede  p0stpones  the  invasions  of  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and  the  coming  of  the 
>ns,  ur  til  after  Constantine.  I  have  considered  attentively  the  reasonings  of  his 

[ingenious  editor  in  his  behalf,  but  I  cannot  coincide  in  his  opinion.     See  Smith's 

v.  jsaae,  App.  p.  672. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  139 

seceded  from  their  allegiance  to  Gratian ;  and,  in  CHAP. 
concert  with  the  Britons,  appointed  Maximus,  a  .  vn'  . 
Spaniard  by  birth,  but  then  in  the  Eoman  service  in 
Britain,  to  be  their  emperor  in  his3  stead.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  merit.  He  accepted  the  dangerous 
honour,  and  prepared  to  support  it.  Perhaps,  if  he 
had  been  contented  to  have  reigned  in  Britain,  his 
throne  might  have  been  perpetuated,  and  then  a  new 
destiny  would  have  changed  the  fortune  of  England 
and  the  western  world.  The  Saxons  would  in  that 
case  not  have  obtained  Britain ;  and  a  Eoman  British 
kingdom  might  have  stemmed  the  barbaric  torrent 
that  afterwards  overwhelmed  the  empire.  But  either 
from  the  desire  of  extending  his  dominion  into  his 
native  country,  or  because  the  dignity  and  life  of  the 
new  sovereign  were  insecure  until  victory  had  con- 
firmed the  usurpation,  he  collected  a  gi*eat  body  of 
British  youth,  and  with  these  he  passed  into  Gaul. 
Many  wonders  have  been  fabled  of  his  levies,  and  of 
the  fatal  effects  of  their  absence  from  the  island. 
Many  legends  of  the  most  ridiculous  nature  have  been 
appended,  which  grave  historians  have  believed.4 
That  he  raised  all  the  force  from  Britain  which  he 
could  collect  is  probable,  because  he  had  a  great 

3  Zos.  lib.  iv.  p.  247.     Socrates,  lib.  iv.  c.  11.     Sulpicius  gives  him  a  high  cha- 
racter.    Vir  omni  vitse  merito  etiam  predicandus,  —  if  he  had  refused  the  offered 
diadem.    Dial.  ii.  c.  7. 

4  See  Usher,  617 — 636.  Ib.  200.     This  affair,  as  stated  by  Jeffry,  lib.  v.  c.  14., 
is,  that  Maximus  ordered  100,000  common  people  and  30,000  soldiers  out  of  Britain, 
to  colonise  Armorica;  c.  15.   he  desired  wives  for  them;  and  c.  16.  the  king  of 
Cornwall  sent  Ursula,  his  beauteous  daughter,  with  11,000  noble  ladies,  and  60,000 
meaner  women,   who   embarked   at  London.     Great  storms  drowned  part,   and 
Guanius  king  of  the  Huns,  and  Melga  king  of  the  Picts,  murdered  the  others,  who 
resolved  to  be  virtuous.     Johan  Major  will  have  Ursula  to  be  the  daughter  of  the 
Scottish  king,  that  Scotland  may  have  the  credit  of  her  story.     A  lady  settles  the 
point  by  averring  that  Verena,  one  of  the  virgins,  assured  her,  in  an  express  reve- 
lation, that  the  blessed  Ursula  was  a  Scotswoman  ;  her  convenient  visions  also 
authenticated  their  relics  !  !     Vision  Elizabeth,  lib.  iv.  c.  2.     Usher  Primord.  618 
— 624.     Baronius,  who  with  others  countenances  the  emigration,  mentions,  that 
the   Martyrologies  devoted  the   llth  October  to  the  memory  of  Ursula  and  the 
71,000  ;  a  day  still  religiously  observed  at  Cologne  for  this  superstitious  incident. 
Some  affirm,  that  no  person  can  be  buried  at  Cologne  in  the  place  where  they  were 
said  to  have  lain,  because  the  ground  throws  up  other  corpses,  which  some  deny  !  ! 
Usher,  202.  and  993. 


140  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK  stake  to  contend  for,  and  the  power  of  an  ancient 
.  IL  .  empire  to  withstand.  But  we  need  not  extend  this 
to  the  depopulation  of  our  island,  or  to  the  total  de- 
struction of  its  military  strength.  His  officer  assas- 
sinated Gratian,  after  he  had  reigned  fifteen  years, 
and  Valentinian  admitted  Maximus  into  a  participa- 
tion of  the  empire,  who  retained  it  until  he  failed  to 
conciliate  Theodosius,  or  ventured  to  contend  with 
him  for  the  dominion  of  the  whole. 

The  superior  forces  or  ability  of  the  emperor  of 
the  East  avenged  the  death  of  his  unfortunate  patron. 
Maximus  perished  at  Aquileia.5  The  British  soldiers 
did  not  long  survive  the  leader  they  had  befriended  ; 
but  that  they  wandered  into  Armorica,  and  new- 
named  it,  seems  to  be  unfounded.6 

In  391  the  generous  Theodosius  delivered  the 
sceptre  of  the  western  empire  to  Valentinian,  who 
marched  into  Gaul  against  the  Francs.  He  renewed 
the  ancient  leagues  with  them,  but  perished  by  the 
weapon  of  a  murderer  in  392.  A  new  adventurer 
for  empire,  Eugenius,  assumed  his  dignity,  made 
fresh  treaties  with  the  Francs  and  Alemanni,  col- 
lected troops  from  all  parts  to  maintain  the  exalted 
station  he  had  ventured  to  seize,  and  advanced  to 
defy  the  genius  of  Theodosius.  In  394  he  sustained 
a  destructive  combat  near  Aquileia,  which  terminated 
his  ambition  and  his  life. 

395.  The  next  year  was  marked  by  the  death  of  Theo- 
dosius himself;  and  when  he  expired,  the  Koman 
glory  began  to  set.  His  two  sons  lived  only  to  dis- 
grace him.  The  western  hemisphere  was  possessed 
by  Honorius,  the  youngest  son  of  Theodosius,  who, 

5  Socrates,  p.  270—273. 

6  This  point  has  been  much  controverted,  but  I  cannot  avoid  agreeing  with  Du 
Bos,  that  Quant  au  tems  ou  la  peuplade  des  Bretons  insulaires  s'est  etablie  dans  les 

3aules,  it  was  not  before  the  year  513.  Hist.  Crit.  ii.  470.  The  chronicle  of  the 
abbey  of  Mont  S.  Michel,  in  Bretagne,  gives  this  year  as  the  epoch  of  their  arrival. 
Anno  513,  venerunt  transmarini  Britanni  in  Armoricam,  id  est  minorem  Britan, 
mam  Ib.  472.  The  ancient  Saxon  poet,  ap.  Duchesne  Hist.  Fran.  Script,  ii. 
p.  148.  also  peoples  Bretagne  after  the  Saxon  conquest. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  141 

in  January  395,  at  the  age  of  eleven,  became  master     CHAP. 
of  an   empire   almost   besieged   by  enemies ;   Italy,  • 

Africa,  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain  looked  up  to  him 
for  protection7,  and  in  turns  demanded  it:  while 
Arcadius,  his  brother,  filled  the  throne  of  the  East. 
A  minister  able  to  have  upheld  a  falling  state  di- 
rected the  young  mind  of  Honorius.  Stilicho,  his 
appointed  guardian,  passed  the  Alps  soon  after  the 
new  accession,  reviewed  the  garrisons  on  the  Khine, 
and  negotiated  with  the  Germans.  During  the  pro- 
gress of  the  same  year  he  marched  the  legions  of  the 
empire  along  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic,  to  punish  the 
guilty  favourite,  who  was  diffusing  misery  through 
the  East.  In  November  the  fate  of  Rufinus  de- 
livered Stilicho  from  a  competitor,  and  the  world 
from  a  subordinate  tyrant,  who  converted  a  trust  of 
power  into  an  instrument  of  base  oppression.8 

But  the  enemy  that  was  destined  to  shake  the 
Roman  empire  to  its  foundation,  and  to  give  the 
signal  of  successful  onset  to  the  barbarians  who  were 
crowding  to  encompass  it,  began  now  to  appear. 
Superior  genius  frequently  produces  great  revolutions 
on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  when  it  is  placed  in  the 
sphere  of  command.  Empires  rise  to  grandeur  by 
the  potent  springs  which  that  only  can  set  in  action ; 
but  when  these  have  spent  their  force,  and  a  new 
potentate  appears,  gifted  with  the  same  creative 

7  3  Gibb.  104.   Aurelius  Victor  has  drawn  a  very  exalted  and  interesting  character 
'  Theodosius. 

8  Gibbon,  117 — 120.     Claudian  has  punished  the  vices  of  Rufinus  by  a  fine 
effusion  of  heroic  satire.    His  description  of  the  council  of  the  calamities  of  mankind 
is  a  living  picture  : 

"  Nutrix  Discordia  belli, 
Imperiosa  Fames,  Leto  vicina  Senectus, 
Impatiensque  sui  Morbus,  Livorque  secundis 
Anxius,  et.  scisso  mcerens  velamine  Luctus, 
Et  Timor  et  caeco  preceps  Audacia  vultu, 
Et  Luxus  populator  opum,  quern  semper  adhaerens 
Infelix  humili  gressu  comitatur  Egestas, 
Foedaque  Avaritiae  complex*  pectora  matris 
Insomnes  longo  veniunt  examine  Curae." 

In  Ruf.  lib.  i.  p.  21.  Elz.  ed. 


142  HISTORY   OF   THE 

.BOOK  powers,  the  scenes  of  greatness  change,  the  descend- 
u-  ,  ants  of  the  illustrious  are  destroyed,  and  new  edifices 
of  sovereignty  are  erected,  to  tower,  to  menace,  and 
to  fall,  like  those  on  whose  ruins  they  exist.  Such 
was  Alaric,  who,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century, 
united  under  his  sovereignty  the  strength  of  the 
Gothic  nation. 

Rise  of  The  Gothic   nation   had   slowly  but  steadily  ad- 

Aiaric.  vanced  to  consequence  and  power.  Augustus  had 
extended  the  Roman  empire,  in  the  eastern  part  of 
Germany,  up  to  the  Danube.  Before  he  died  Mara- 
boduus,  a  German  who  had  been  educated  by  serving 
in  the  Roman  armies,  and  by  fighting  against  them, 
led  the  nation  of  the  Marcomanni,  with  others  of  the 
Suevian  race,  into  Bohemia,  and  founded  there  a  new 
barbaric  kingdom,  which  became  peculiarly  formid- 
able to  the  Romans.  His  movements  excited  most 
of  the  nations  between  his  new  position  and  Italy  to 
take  up  arms;  and  Tiberius  was  three  years  em- 
ployed, with  fifteen  legions  and  an  equal  proportion 
of  auxiliary  troops,  before  he  could  subdue  what  was 
called  Illyricum,  or  the  countries  that  lay  between 
the  Danube  and  the  Adriatic.  The  civil  dissensions 
of  the  Marcomanni  enabled  the  Romans  to  establish 
themselves  beyond  the  Danube.  Of  the  subsequent 
Roman  emperors,  Nerva,  Trajan,  and  Antoninus  had 
successful  wars  with  these  people  and  their  neigh- 
bours, the  Dacians,  Quadi,  and  others ;  but  about  the 
year  167,  from  a  confederation  of  all  these  nations, 
Marcus  Aurelius  had  to  sustain  a  war  the  most 
dangerous  and  destructive  that  the  Romans  had  ex- 
perienced. Almost  all  the  nations  from  Illyricum  to 
Gaul  appeared  in  arms.  Aurelius  made  proportionate 
exertions.  To  his  regular  armies  he  added  slaves 
and  gladiators,  robbers  whom  he  pardoned,  and  Ger- 
mans whom  he  could  trust.  He  sold  by  auction,  at 
Rome,  all  his  personal  property,  to  augment  his  pe- 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  143 

cuniary  funds,  and,  after  the  military  efforts  of  many     CHAP. 
years,    at   last    subdued   them;   but  the  succeeding  ...          - 
emperors  were  unable  to  retain  any  province  beyond 
the  Danube;  and  as  they  retreated,  the  nations  to 
the  north  became  more  prosperous  and  daring. 

Of  these  the  Goths  were  the  most  adventurous  Progress  of 
and  successful.  They  begin  to  appear  in  the  im- 
perial history  about  the  time  that  the  Francs  are 
mentioned.  They  invaded  Dacia.  One  Koman  em- 
peror, Alexander,  used  the  ruinous  policy  of  paying 
them  an  annual  subsidy,  and  their  history  afterwards 
is  that  of  continual  progression.  Many  barbaric 
nations  joined  them;  and,  assuming  their  name,  en- 
larged both  their  power  and  celebrity,  as  other  tribes 
had  thus  contributed  to  the  importance  of  the  Francs 
and  Saxons.  Under  Decius,  about  the  year  250,  the 
Gothic  king  passed  the  Danube  at  the  head  of  70,000 
men,  and  ravaged  Thrace  and  Macedonia:  others 
afterwards  invaded  Asia,  and  with  fleets  assailed  the 
Pontus.  In  267  the  Goths,  Heruli,  and  Scythae 
plundered  the  Archipelago,  and  devastated  Greece. 
All  the  talents  of  Aurelian  were  insufficient  to  pre- 
serve the  provinces  beyond  the  Danube.  He  there- 
fore abandoned  Dacia  to  the  warlike  nations  who 
were  threatening  it,  and  transplanted  the  friendly 
population  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube.  Pro- 
bus,  pursuing  this  policy,  caused  100,000  Bastarnae 
to  cross  the  Danube,  and  to  settle  in  the  southern 
xrovinces,  which  had  been  depopulated  in  these  con- 
tests. To  the  same  districts  he  also  transplanted  the 
Francs  and  Saxons.  But  all  these  measures  were 
ineffective  to  resist  the  perpetual  advance  of  the 
enterprising  Goths,  becoming  in  every  campaign 
better  disciplined  by  their  unceasing  contests  with 
the  Koman  armies,  and  by  the  education  of  their 
chieftains  in  the  Roman  service,  during  the  intervals 
of  peace.  The  ambition  and  spirit  of  the  Gothic 


144 


BOOK 
II. 


376. 


Progress  of 
Alaric. 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

nation  increased  with  their  improvements  and  power; 
and  when  Alaric  appeared  to  lead  them,  they  dis- 
covered themselves  to  be  as  superior  to  the  Komans 
in  their  military  qualities  as  they  were  in  their  po- 
litical institutions,  and  in  some  of  the  moral  virtues. 

In  this  year  the  western  world  had  been  alarmed 
by  the  irruption  of  the  Huns.9  After  swelling  their 
army  by  the  nations  they  conquered,  they  had  rushed 
on  the  Gothic  tribes.  Unable  to  repulse  the  ferocious 
invaders,  the  Goths  had  precipitated  themselves  over 
the  Danube.  Stationed  by  the  emperor  Yalens  in 
Lower  Moesia,  the  Goths  revolted,  penetrated  into 
Thrace,  defeated  and  killed  their  imperial  benefactor, 
in  378,  at  Adrianople ;  and,  from  this  disastrous  day, 
never  abandoned  the  Eoman  territory.10  At  length 
Theodosius  made  an  accommodation  with  them ;  a 
large  portion  of  their  warriors  were  taken  into  the 
imperial  service,  and  a  successful  attempt  was  made 
to  convert  them  to  the  Christian  faith. 

Among  the  Goths  who  were  allied  to  the  Roman 
armies,  Alaric  passed  his  youth.  Born  in  the  island 
of  Peuce  n,  on  the  Euxine,  of  one  of  the  principal 
families  of  the  Goths 12,  he  had  early  abandoned  the 
confined  limits  of  his  native  soil,  for  the  civilised 

9  The  history  of  these  Huns  is  ably  abridged  by  Mr.  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  561. ;  he 
traces  their  unsuccessful  contests  with  the  Chinese,  their  divisions  and  emigrations, 
their  conquests,  the  union  of  the  Alani,  and  their  wars  upon  the  Goths.     One  of 
their  ancient  historians,  Jornandes,  c.  24.,  gives  their  execranda  origine,  that  is, 
veneficarum  cum  immundis  spiritibus  congressu.     M.  de  Guignes  leads  the  way  on 
their  history.     It  was  on  the  extensive  steppe  between  the  Dniester  and  the  Bog, 
that  Dr.  Henderson,  in  1 821,  saw  those  large  male  and  female  images  hewn  in  stone, 
which  these  Mongolian  Huns  seem  to  have  erected  in  this  emigration  ;  when  they 
were  driven  over  the  Volga  by  the  Sien-Pi  in  374.     "  They  are  executed  with  con- 
siderable taste ;  the  features,  limbs,  and  ornaments  being  all  distinctly  marked. 
Some  of  them  are  erect ;  others  in  a  sitting  posture.     They  hold  with  both  hands 
in  front  of  their  body  a  small  box  or  pot ;  and  are  generally  raised  to  some  height 
above  the  stone  that  forms  the  pedestal  by  which  they  are  supported.     They  were 
found  on  the  tumuli."     Hend.  Biblical  Researches,  p.  267,  8. 

10  Gibbon,  ii.  p.  591—617.     Ib.  640. 

11  Claud,  de  6  Consul.  Hon.  p.  174.     Peuce  is  an  island  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Danube,  formed   by  two  of  its  discharging  torrents.     Strabo,  p.  211.     Dionys. 
Periegetes,  v.  301. 

12  Jornandes  says  of  Alaric,  "  Secunda  nobilitas  Baltharum  quse  ex  genere  origo 
ttiirifica,"  &c. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  1 45 

regions  of  Europe,  where  he  cultivated  his  mind  with      CHAP. 
their  improvements.      He  solicited  an   appointment  • 

in  the  Roman  armies,  and  he  was  only  intrusted 
with  the  command  of  barbarian  battalions.  Though 
by  birth  a  barbarian  himself,  he  felt  the  superiority 
of  his  assuming  mind,  and  was  disgusted  by  the  de- 
gradation. In  Thrace,  in  Macedon,  and  in  Thessaly,  395. 
he  showed  the  terrors  of  his  discontent ;  he  obtained 
the  passage  of  the  immortalised  Thermopylae,  over^ 
run  Boeotia,  Attica,  and  the  Peloponnesus ;  and 
though  his  superstition  protected  Athens  from  his 
fury,  the  other  famed  cities  in  Greece,  Corinth,  Argos, 
and  Sparta,  now  enfeebled  and  degenerated,  were 
conquered  by  his  valour,  his  fortune,  or  his  name.13 
When  Stilicho  advanced  with  the  imperial  troops,  to 
chastise  the  daring  invader,  Alaric,  by  a  great  exer- 
tion of  skill,  escaped  to  Epirus,  and  extorted,  from 
the  timid  ministers  of  the  Byzantine  court,  the  title 
and  authority  of  governor  of  the  Eastern  Illyricum. 
He  was  soon  after  recognised  king  of  the  Visigoths.14 

With  these  recollections  of  the  Roman  history,  we 
may  proceed  to  contrast  the  loose  phrases  of  Gildas 
with  the  circumstances  we  can  glean  from  the  Greek 
and  Latin  writers,  which  seem  applicable  to  the 
British  history. 

Immediately  after  mentioning  the  death  of  Max- 
imus,  Gildas  states15,  that  Britain,  despoiled  of  her 
soldiery  and  military  apparatus,  and  her  youth,  who 
followed  the  usurper  to  return  no  more ;  and,  being 

13  Zosimus,  lib.  v.  p.  292 — 295.     Yet  let  not  the  historian's  apology  for  Sparta 
be  forgotten.     "  Nee  armis  amplius  nee  idoneis  ad  pugnam  viris  munita,  propter 
Romanorum  avaritiam." 

14  The  history  of  Alaric  is  narrated  by  Gibbon,  v.  iii.  p.  134. 

15  Gildas,  s.  xi.  p.  4.     Gale's  xv  Scriptores.     Richard,  entitled  of  Cirencester  by 
some,  by  others  Monk  of  Westminster,  places  this  invasion  in  the  year  after  the 
death  of  Maximus,  lib.  ii.  c.  1.    See  his  de  Situ  Britannise  in  the  Antiquitates  Celto- 
Uormannicse,  p.  120.     Ado.  Viennensis,  an  author  of  the  ninth  century,  gives  a 
similar  chronology.     Chron.  ^Etas  Sexta,  353.     Bib.  Mag.  Patrum,  v.  7.  —  Bede, 
without  any  authority,  and  contrary  to  the  literal  meaning  of  Gildas,  postpones  it 
for  above  twenty  years,  lib.  i.  c.  12.  and  thus  lays  a  foundation  for  his  subsequent 
mistakes. 

VOL.  I.  L 


146  HISTORY   OF  THE 

utterly  ignorant  of  war,   groaned  for   many   years 
under  the  incursions  of  the  Scots  from  the  north- 
west 16,  and  of  the  Picts  from  the  north. 
Giidas  This  'account,  though  obviously  the  language  of 

wtthth?     exaggeration,    is    somewhat    countenanced    by   the 
imperial      writers  of  the  imperial  history.     It  is  stated  by  So- 

writers.  ..  _,       .  -MT 

zomen,  that  Maximus  collected  a  numerous  army 
from  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Germany,  and  went  to 
Italy.17  We  learn  from  others,  that  the  Francs  took 
advantage  of  his  absence  to  invade  Gaul,  and  that 
the  Saxons  also  moved  in  successful  hostility  against 
him.18  During  the  reign  of  his  prosperity,  in  the 
second  year  of  his  empire,  the  Picts  and  Scots  had 
vigorously  defied  him.19  It  becomes,  therefore, 
highly  probable,  that  these  Irish  and  Caledonian 
wanderers  would  be  alert  to  profit  by  the  opportu- 
nity of  his  absence,  as  well  as  the  Francs  and  Saxons. 
On  this  occasion  we  shall  accredit  Gildas,  and  as 
Maximus  was  killed  at  Aquileia,  in  388 20,  we  may 
consider  that  as  the  year  in  which  the  incursions 
began. 

The  next  account  of  Gildas  is,  that  the  British 
nation,  unable  to  endure  these  ravages,  sent  an  em- 
bassy to  Rome,  desiring  a  military  force,  and  pro- 
mising a  faithful  obedience  to  the  imperial  sceptre.21 
That  a  province  suffering  under  a  hostile  invasion 

16  The  Circius,  which  is  the  expression  of  Gildas,  is  mentioned  by  Pliny,  ii,  46. 
as  a  wind  famous  in  the  province  of  Narbonne,  and  inferior  in  vehemence  to  none. 
Harduin  interprets  it,  nord-west-nord. 

17  "  Collecto  ex  Britannia  et  vicinis  Galliis,  et  ex  Germanis  ac  finitimis  gentibus 
numeroso  exercitu,  in  Italiam  profectus  est."     Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  vii.  c.  13. 
p.  721.     Ed.  Vales. 

18  The  valuable  fragment  of  Sulpitius  Alexander,  preserved  by  Gregory  of  Tours, 
lib.  c.  c.9.  p.  34.  mentions  the  Francic  incursion:  and  St.  Ambrose,  ep.  17.,  inti- 
mates, though  with  no  particulars,  the  Saxon  success.     "  Hie  statim  a  Francis,  a 
Saxonum  gente  in  Sicilia  Siciee  et  Petavione  ubique  denique  terrarum  victus  est.' 
1  Mascou,  371. 

19  Prosper  in  his  Chronicon  says,  « incursantes  Pictos  et  Scotos,  Maximus  strenue 
superavit." 

20  Gibbon,  iii.  40.     The  British  history  miscalls  him  Maximian,  and  kills  him  at 
Rome,  lib.  v.  c.  16. 

21  Gildas,  s.  12. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  147 

should  solicit  succour  from  the  fountain  of  power,     CHAP. 
and  that,  to  obtain  it,  they  should  lavish  assurances  > 

of  fidelity,  to  expiate  the  imputation  of  treason  which 
the  elevation  of  Maximus  would  produce,  are  circum- 
stances which  bear  the  marks  of  truth  in  their  natural 
probability. 

He  adds,  that  a  legion  came  by  sea,  well  appointed 
with  every  requisite  for  service ;  that,  engaging  with 
the  enemy,  they  destroyed  a  great  multitude,  drove 
them  from  the  borders,  and  liberated  the  subjected 
natives  from  their  rapacity  and  tyranny.22 

If  we  inquire  of  the  imperial  writers  by  whom 
this  service  was  performed,  we  shall  find  that  for 
three  years  after  the  fate  of  Maximus,  both  divisions 
of  the  Roman  empire  were  governed  by  Theodosius 23, 
who,  by  his  edict,  made  void  all  the  usurper's  exer- 
tions of  the  prerogative,  that  every  thing  might 
resume  its  pristine  situation.24  It  was  a  necessary 
consequence  of  these  orders,  that  the  civil  powers  of 
the  revolted  provinces  should  be  immediately  re- 
placed :  we  accordingly  find  that  a  Yicarius,  named 
Chrysanthus,  was  sent  to  Britain  by  Theodosius, 
whose  good  conduct  was  admired.25  No  other  period 
seems  to  have  been  more  suitable  to  his  administraT 
tion.26 

But  from  the  time  of  Constantine  the  policy  of  the 
emperors  had  completely  separated  the  civil  and 
military  powers.27  This  regulation  could  not  allow 

82  Gildas,  s.  12.  a  Gibbon,  iii.  p.  55.  »  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  xv.  tit.  14, 

25  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  vii.  c.  12.  This  temperate  expression  of  Socrates, 
36av/ji.d<Tdr),  was  construed  by  Carte  to  imply  the  attainment  of  such  a  height  of 
glory,  that  he  must  have  stopped  the  Scottish  depredations,  p.  169.  Our  Henry 
also  amplifies  it  so  far  as  to  say,  that  Chrysanthus  was  sent  on  purpose  to  check 
them,  that  he  executed  his  commission  with  great  ability  and  success,  expelled  the 
enemies,  and  restored  the  tranquillity  of  the  province.  He  refers  to  Socrates  as  his 
authority,  who  only  mentions  what  the  text  expresses. 

1  ™  The  remark  of  Carte  is  just,  that  in  no  other  juncture  could  Theodosius  have 
intermeddled  in  the  affairs  of  the  western  empire,  p.  169. 

27  Gibbon,  ii.  43.  Du  Bos,  Hist.  Crit.  i.  69.  Le  prefet  du  pre"toire,  et  les 
officiers  qui  lui  etoient  subordonnes,  ne  command  erent  plus  les  troupes.  —  The 
vicarius  of  Britain  was  under  the  prsefectus  praetorius  of  the  Gauls,  Notitia,  s.  36., 
and  was  a  civil  officer. 

L  2 


148  HISTORY   OF   THE 


II. 


BOOK  Chrysanthus  to  have  been  the  deliverer  of  Britain. 
The  military  arm  was  wielded  by  an  arrangement  of 
officers,  jealously  distinguished  from  the  civil  autho- 
rity.28 Chrysanthus  may  have  governed  Britain  as 
Vicarius,  to  diffuse  internal  quiet  over  a  revolted 
province,  as  far  as  the  civil  magistracy  was  able  to 
operate,  but  could  have  no  forces  to  coerce  the  me- 
nacing barbarians. 

During  the  latter  period  of  the  reign  of  Theodo- 
sius,  and  for  many  years  in  that  of  his  successor,  the 
military  force  of  the  western  empire  was  under  the 
command  of  Stilicho,  the  master-general  of  the  ca- 
valry and  infantry  of  the  west.29  It  must  have  been 
under  him  that  every  military  aid  was  despatched 
into  Britain. 

The  indistinct  intimations  of  the  Monk  of  Bangor 
are  confirmed  by  Claudian ;  his  mellifluous  muse  de- 
voted herself  to  pursue  the  triumphs,  and  to  proclaim 
the  glory  of  Stilicho  ;  and  in  Claudian's  historic  pic- 
ture of  his  fame,  the  victorious  battles  of  this  superior 
man  with  the  Picts  and  Scots,  form  one  of  those 
groups,  which,  for  this  part  of  his  life,  have  insured 
to  Stilicho  an  honourable  celebrity.30 

But  the  desired  euphony  and  imagery  of  poetry 
are  unfriendly  to  geographical  and  chronological  de- 
tail. We  must  not,  therefore,  expect  from  Claudian 
the  exact  year  of  the  Christian  era  in  which  Stilicho 
or  his  officers  approached  Ireland  and  Caledonia. 
We  must  endeavour  to  trace  the  chronology  from 
other  sources. 

Britain,  according  to  Gildas,  mourned  these  devas- 
tations many  years,  A  probable  interval  seems  to 

28  Even  Julian,  when  sent  to  command  the  army  in  Gaul,  though  he,  en  qualite 
de  Cesar,  ou  d'heritier  presomptif  de  1'empire,  put  pretendre  a  une  autorite  plus 
etendue  que  celle  qu'un  generalissime  ordinaire  auroit  exercee  en  vertu  de  sa  com- 
mission, cependant  Julien  n'osoit  rien  decider  concernant  la  levee  des  subsides  et  la 
subsistence  des  troupes,     Du  Bos,  61. 

29  Gibbon,  iii.  lie.  *  Claudian  de  Laud.  Stil.  lib.  ii.  p.  140.  Elz.  edit. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  149 

arise   from   the  situation   of  the   empire.      Though     CHAP. 

Maximus  was  conquered  in  388,  yet  the  Francs  and  • 

Saxons  continued  in  hostility.     When  Valentinian, 

who  was  sent  against  them  into  Gaul,  was  murdered, 

the  usurpation  of  Eugenius  harassed  the  empire  for 

two  years.     Soon  after  he  had  perished,  Theodosius 

expired. 

The  death  of  Rufinus  left  Stilicho  at  leisure,  in  the 
year  396.  The  African  war  was  not  prosecuted  till 

398,  in  which  Gildo  fell 31 ;  therefore  we  may  con- 
sider either  the  preceding  year,  or  the  subsequent, 

399,  as  the  era  in  which  Britain  was  rescued  from 
the  spoilers.32     This  last  will  allow  eleven  years  for 
the  multos  annos  which  Gildas  notes  to  have  inter- 
vened between  the  invasion  after  Maximus  and  its 
suppression. 

The  querulous  narration  adds,  that  the  Romans 
ordered  the  natives  to  build  a  wall  between  the  two 
seas,  in  the  north  of  Britain,  to  deter  the  invaders, 
and  to  protect  the  natives ;  that  the  irrational  vulgar, 
having  no  director,  constructed  it  of  turf  instead  of 
stone.33 

This  narration  has  the  appearance  of  being  an  ig- 
norant account  of  the  construction  of  one  of  those 
famous  walls,  which  have  so  deservedly  attracted  the 
curiosity  of  antiquaries. 

Gildas  states,  that  this  legion  having  returned 
home,  the  plunderers  came  again.34  A  passage  in 

31  Gibbon,  iii.  p.  128. 

32  Richard  places  it  eleven  years  before  the  capture  of  Rome  by  Alaric,  or  399, 
lib.  ii.  c.  i.  p.  121.    Antiq.  Celto-Nor,     The  criticism  of  Mascou,  p.  394.,  on  Pagius, 
who  dates  a   similar  passage  in  402,  confirms   our  Richard's  chronology,  as  it 
makes  399  the  year  in  which  Honorius  was  preparing  the  expeditions  alluded  to  in 
the  lines : 

Domito  quod  Saxone  Tethys 
Mitior,  aut  fracto  secura  Britannia  Picto 
Ante  pedes  humili  Franco,  &c. 

In  Eutrop.  p.  196. 

83  Gildas,  s.  12. 

84  Gildas,  s.  13.     The  peculiarity  of  style  in  which  he  indulges  himself  is  remark- 

L  3 


150  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  Claudian  verifies  the  fact,  that  the  legion  quitted  the 
n-  .  wall  soon  after  the  successes  of  Stilicho,  and  diffuses 
a  ray  of  light,  which  determines  the  chronology  of 
the  incident. 

We  have  mentioned  the  pacification  which  Alaric 
extorted  from  the  eastern  government :  it  might  seem 
to  them  a  release  from  anxiety  ;  it  was  made  by  Alaric 
an  interval  of  earnest  preparation  for  more  fortu- 
nate warfare.  He  surveyed  the  state  of  the  world 
with  the  eyes  of  prophetic  penetration,  and  discerned 
the  vulnerable  part  in  which  the  genius  of  Koine 
might  be  fatally  assailed.  About  the  year  400,  he 
suddenly  marched  from  his  eastern  settlements  to  the 
Julian  Alps,  and  poured  his  forces  into  Italy.  The 
emperor  of  the  West  fled  at  his  approach,  when 
Stilicho  again  interposed  the  shield  of  superior  talents. 
To  meet  the  destructive  Goths  with  a  competent 
force,  he  summoned  the  Koman  troops  out  of  Ger- 
many and  Gaul  into  Italy  :  even  the  legion  which  had 
been  stationed  to  guard  the  wall  of  Britain  against 
the  Caledonians  was  hastily  recalled,  and  attended 
the  imperial  general  at  Milan.36  In  the  battle  of  Pol- 
lentia  Alaric  discovered  the  inferiority  of  his  troops, 
and  made  a  bold  but  ruinous  retreat. 36 

The  battle  of  Pollentia  was  fought  in  March,  403. 
We  must  allow  time  for  the  troops  to  have  travelled 
from  the  north  of  Britain  to  Milan,  and  may  date  this 
departure  of  the  Roman  legion  in  the  year  402.  No 
one  can  disbelieve  that  in  their  absence  the  habitual 
depredators  would  return. 

Gildas  proceeds  to  inform  us  that  embassadors  went 

able  -.  «  Rabid  robber  wolves,  with  profound  hunger  and  dry  jaws,  leaping  into  the 
sheep-fold,"  are  the  invaders  who  are  brought  over  by  "  the  wings  of  oars,  and  the 
arms  of  rowers,  and  sails  swelling  in  the  wind." 

35  Claudian,  in  his  poem  de  Bello  Getico,  p.  169.  : 

Venit  et  extremis  legio  prsetenta  Britannis, 
Qua?  Scoto  dat  frsena  truci,  ferroque  notatas 
Perlegit  exangues  Picto  moriente  figuras, 
88  Gibbon,  iii.  147—155. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  151 

to  Rome  with  rent  garments,  and  with  ashes  on  their     CHAP. 
heads,  to  implore  further  aid. 37     However  we  may  be  • 

inclined  to  ascribe  the  costume  of  the  embassy  to  the 
imagination  of  the  author,  we  cannot  dispute  the  pro- 
bable fact,  that  the  province  solicited  and  obtained 
the  protection  of  its  sovereign. 

We  have  no  direct  evidence  from  the  imperial 
writers  that  Stilicho  sent  back  the  legion,  after  the 
battle  of  Pollentia,  into  Britain,  but  it  must  have  been 
there  before  406,  because  we  read  of  soldiers  then 
choosing  and  deposing  emperors  in  the  island.  Their 
presence  must  have  been  attended  with  its  usual  effect 
on  the  Picts  and  Scots. 38 

Before  we  state  the  next  sentence  of  Gildas,  it  will 
be  proper  to  narrate  the  incidents,  which,  as  he  does 
not  notice,  though  of  principal  importance,  we  may 
presume  he  never  knew :  they  occurred  between  this 
last  defeat  of  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and  the  final  depar- 
ture of  the  Romans. 

The  unwearied  genius  of  Claudian  has  resounded 
the  praise  of  Stilicho  in  poetry,  which,  though  some- 
times defective  in  taste,  yet  has  too  much  energy  and 
felicity  to  perish.  The  acts  which  the  general  achieved, 
justify  his  bard,  and  raise  the  minister  above  his  de- 
generate countrymen.  But  it  may  be  said  of  human 
virtue,  as  Solon  pronounced  to  Croesus  of  human  hap- 
piness, that  we  should  wait  until  the  life  is  closed, 
before  we  pronounce  decisively  upon  it.  Stilicho  for 
a  while  was  the  saviour  of  the  Roman  empire ;  he 
ended  his  career  its  most  destructive  scourge.  He  ex- 
cited invasions,  which  he  wished  to  have  the  merit  of 
repressing ;  he  introduced  the  barbarian  hordes  into 
the  provinces,  who  quitted  them  no  more ;  he  occa- 
sioned rebellions  which  completed  the  debility  of  the 

37  Gildas,  s.  14. 

38  For  the  origin  and  history  of  these  two  nations,  the  reader  may  usefully  con- 
sult Mr.  Pinkerton's  Inquiry  into  the  early  history  of  Scotland. 

£  4 


152 


HTSTOKY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
II. 


Desolation 
of  Gaul. 


imperial   government;    and   paved   the  way  for  the 
extinction  of  the  western  empire. 

When  Alaric  menaced  Italy,  Stilicho  drove  off  the 
tempest;  but  he  wanted  to  have  his  son  invested  with 
the  imperial  dignity,  and  he  hoped  to  extort  the  con- 
cession from  the  trembling  Honorius,  by  the  terror 
of  impending  evils.  To  effect  this,  he  excited  the 
German  nations  to  invade  Gaul.39  Fatal  contrivance  of 
unprincipled  ambition  ! 40  A  most  formidable  irrup- 
tion of  the  tribes  between  the  Khine  and  Danube, 
Alani,  Suevi,  Vandali^and  many  others,  burst  over 
the  mountains,  and  deluged  the  western  world.  A 
portion  of  these,  under  Radagaisus,  perished  before 
Stilicho  in  Italy  41,  and  furnished  him  with  the  laurels 
he  coveted.  The  remainder  crossed  the  Rhine,  which, 
if  the  charge  of  treason  be  true,  was  purposely  divested 
of  its  protecting  troops,  and  overwhelmed  Gaul  and 
its  vicinity.  "  The  consuming  flames  of  war  spread 


39  Orosius,  lib.  vii.  c.  38.  and  c.  40. ;  and  from  him  Isidorus,  Wandal.  Grotius, 
p.  732.  expressly  affirm  the  treason.     Jerom.  Ep.  ad  Ager.  exclaims  against  the 
semi-barbarian  traitor,  who  armed,  against  his  adopted  country,  its  worst  enemies. 
Prosper  says,  that  saluti  imperatoris  tendebat  insidias,  p.  50.  — Marcellinus  more 
explicitly  says  of  him,  "  Spreto  Honorio,  regnumque  ejus  inhians,  Alanorum,  Sue- 
vorum,  Wandalorumque  gentes  donis  pecuniisque  illectas  contra  regnum  Honorii 
excitavit,    Eucherium   filium  suum   paganum,    et    adversum  Christianos  insidias 
molientem,  cupiens  Caesarem  ordinare."    Chron.  p.  37.  added  to  Scaliger's  Euseb.  — 
If  these  authors  are  not  sufficient  to  make  the  imputation  credible,  the  point  seems 
to  be  decided  by  the  evidence  of  a  contemporary,  who,  being  a  pagan,  gives  more 
weight  to  an  opinion,  in  which  he  and  the  Christians  coincide ;  I  mean  Rutilius, 
whom  Gibbon  does  not  mention  ;  he  says, 

Quo  magis  est  facinus  diri  Stilichonis  acerbum, 

Prodi  tor  arcani  quod  fuit  imperil. 

Romano  generi  dum  nititur  esse  superstes, 

Crudelis  summis  miscuit  ima  furor : 

Dumque  timet,  quidquid  se  fecerat  ipse  timeri, 

Immisit  Latise  barbara  tela  neci. 

Visceribus  nudis  armatum  condidit  hostem, 

Illataj  cladis  liberiore  dolo. 

Ipsa  satellitibus  pellitis  Roma  patebat, 

Et  captiva  prius,  quam  caperetur,  erat. 

Itinerarium,  lib.  ii.  v.  41 — 50. 

40  Gibbon  attempts  to  defend  Stilicho,  but  the  weight  of  evidence  must  prevail. 
Du  Bos,  p.  190.,  accredits  his  guilt.     How  fatal  the  scheme  was  to  Rome,  we  may 
judge,  when  we  recollect,  that  "  le  dernier  Decembre,  406,  fut  la  journee  funeste  ou 
les  barbares  entrerent  dans  les  Gaules,  pour  n'en  plus  sortir."     Du  Bos,  194. 

41  For  the  expedition  of  Radagaisus,  see  Gibbon,  iii.  163—173.,  and  Mascou. 
404 — 411. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  153 

from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  over  the  greatest  part  of     CHAP. 
the  seventeen  provinces  of  Gaul ;  that  rich  and  exten-   •  ' 

sive  country,  as  far  as  the  ocean,  the  Alps,  and  the 
Pyrenees,  was  delivered  to  the  barbarians,  who  drove 
before  them  in  a  promiscuous  crowd,  the  bishop,  the 
senator,  and  the  virgin,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  their 
houses  and  altars."  42 

This  disaster  spread  consternation  through  Britain.       406. 
Inflamed  with   their   success,    the  invaders  menaced  ^Ttroops 
this  island.     It  is  expressly  asserted  by  Zosimus,  that  in  Britain. 

,,     .       !  , .  -. r  / ,,  •      T>    VL    •  A          Constantino 

their  devastations  alarmed  the  army  in  Britain.  Ap-  chosen, 
prehensive  of  their  further  progress,  and  to  exert  an 
energy  adequate  to  the  crisis,  the  troops  created  an 
emperor  for  themselves.  One  Marcus  was  their  first 
choice :  finding  his  counsels  or  his  conduct  insufficient 
for  the  exigency,  they  destroyed  him,  and  elected 
Gratian,  who  is  mentioned  with  the  title  of  Municeps, 
in  his  room.  Within  four  months  afterwards  he  was 
murdered,  and,  induced  by  the  flattering  name,  the 
British  soldiery  selected  one  Constantine  from  the 
ranks,  and  decorated  him  with  the  imperial  garments.43 

Constantine  seems  not  to  have  been  unworthy  of  constant™ 
his  station44 ;  he  passed   out  of  Britain  into  Gaul,  Brttain. 
stayed  a  short  time  at  Boulogne,   conciliated  to  his      406' 
interest  the  soldiers    scattered   upon  the   continent, 
and  defeated  the  terrible  barbarians.45 

The  authority  of  Constantine  was  acknowledged  in  4oe— 411. 
Gaul,  and  he  reduced  Spain.  His  son  Constans  laid 
aside  the  cowl  of  a  monk,  which,  previous  to  his 
father's  elevation,  he  had  assumed46,  and  was  created 
Caesar.  Honorius,  to  whom  Constantine  had  respect- 
fully stated,  that  his  dignity  had  been  forced  upon 

42  Gibbon,  iii.  171. 

43  Zosimus,  lib.  vi.  p.  373.  and  371.     Orosius,  vii.  40. 

44  Zosimus,  ibid. 

45  Marcellin.  Com.  p.  38.     Orosius.  vii.  40.     Jornandes,  c.  32. 

46  Yet  Frigeridus,  cited  by  Gregory  of  Tours,  characterises  him  as  gula?  et  ventri 
deditus,  lib.  i.  c.  9.  p.  35. 


154  HISTOBY   OF   THE 

BOOK     him,  appeared  to  acquiesce  in  his  retaining  it,  and 
.    "'    .   sent  him  the  imperial  robes.  47     The  barbarians  ob- 
tained reinforcements,  but  Constantine  adopted  the 
precautionary  measure  of  placing  troops  to  guard  the 
passages  into  Gaul.48 

During  this  division  of  the  imperial  power,  Alaric 
again  assembled  a  willing  army,  and  appeared  on  the 
Eoman  frontier.  The  guilt  of  Stilicho  had  been 
detected  and  punished,  and  his  death  removed  the 
last  bulwark  of  the  empire.  The  court  of  Honorius 
could  furnish  no  other  mind  competent  to.  confront 
the  Gothic  conqueror.  In  408,  he  overwhelmed  re- 
sistance, and  besieged  Kome.  A  ransom  obtained  a 
short  security,  but  determined  his  superiority.  In 
the  next  year  he  assailed  it  again,  and  condescended 
to  accept  from  an  emperor  of  his  own  nomination  the 
Aug.  24.  title  of  master-general.  Every  doubt  was  now  re- 
moved ;  he  saw  his  irresistible  power,  and  the  suc- 
ceeding summer  was  marked  by  the  dismal  catas- 
trophe of  a  third  siege  and  successful  assault49,  whose 
ferocious  cruelties  we  might  notice  with  abhorrence, 
but  that  the  generals  of  civilised  ages  choose  yet  to 
perpetrate  such  deeds  in  violation  of  all  moral  prin- 
ciple or  social  benevolence,  and  in  wilful  contempt 
of  the  inevitable  opinion  of  posterity ! 

Among  the  officers  attached  to  the  interest  of 
Constantine  was  Gerontius,  who  had  proceeded  from 
Britain.  The  valour  and  services  of  this  person  on 
former  occasions  are  stated  by  the  historians;  but, 
offended  that  Constaris  returned  to  Spain,  on  his 
second  visit,  with  another  as  his  general,  the  slighted 
Gerontius  abandoned  the  interests  of  the  emperor  he 
had  supported,  and  elevated  a  friend  to  dethrone 
him.50  He  pursued  his  new  purpose  with  a  fatal 

47  Zosim.  lib.  v.  p.  359.  **  Zosim>  p<  374> 

49  Gibbon,  iii.  24—1244.  »  Zosinii  37i.373_375. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  155 

alacrity,  besieged  and  slew  Constans  at  Vienne51,  and      CHAP. 
menaced  the  father  with  deposition.     The  troops  of  . 

the  legal  emperor,  Honorius,  profited  by  the  quarrel, 
and  destroyed  the  competition.  Constantine  was  411. 
taken  at  Aries,  and  Gerontius  was  pursued  to  the 
confines  of  Spain ;  his  house  was  besieged,  and  the 
assailants  set  it  on  fire.  His  friend  and  wife  received 
from  his  hands  the  death  they  implored,  and  he  joined 
them  in  the  tomb.52 

Amid  this  complexity  of  rebellion  and  sub-rebellion,  The  barba- 
the  western  provinces  of  the  Koman  state  were  sacri-  £S£inttack 
ficed  to  the  revenge  of  the  military  competitors.    The       4°9- 
crime  which  degraded  all  the  merit  of  Stilicho  was, 
from  the  same  motives  of  selfishness,  repeated  by 
Gerontius.     He  also,  to  diminish  the  danger  of  his 
revolt,  by  his  incitements  and  advice  influenced  into 
hostile  invasion  the  barbarians  who  hovered  near  the 
Celtic  regions. 53     This  desperate  act  of  ambition  was 
unfortunate  for  Koine.     Constantine  could  not  repel 
the  torrent,  because  the  flower  of  his  army  was  in 
Spain.54     Britain  and  Gaul  experienced  all  its  fury. 

51  Orosius,   lib.  vii.     Olyrapiodorus  ap.  Photium,  183.     Marcellin.  Chron.  38. 
Eusebius  Chronicon,  412. 

52  See  the  detail  in  Gibbon,  iii.  p.  259.     I  am  tempted  to  imagine,  that  in  draw- 
ing his  Vortigern,  Jeffry  has  copied  and  distorted  the  Gerontius  of  the  imperialists. 
Some  particulars  are  alike  in  both.     He  makes  Constans  a  monk,  and  Vortigern  a 
British  consul,  —  who  rebelled  against,  and  caused  Constans  to  be  destroyed.    Vor- 
tigern being  afterwards  besieged  in  the  place  to  which  he  fled,  and  his  pursuers 
finding  they  could  not  get  an  entrance,  it  was  set  on  fire,  lib.  vi.  and  lib.  viii.  — 
The  facts  from  the  Roman  historians  are,  that  Gerontius  proceeded  from  Britain, 
and  was  a  comes  or  count ;  that  he  revolted  from  Constans,  who  had  been  in  a 
monastery  and  caused  his  death ;  that  he  fled  for  refuge  afterwards,  and  prevented 
his  pursuers  from  entering  his  house,  who  therefore  applied  flames.     These  coinci- 
dences would  induce  me  to  strike  Vortigern  entirely  out  of  true  history,  but  that  I 
find  a  Gurthrigernus  mentioned  in  Gildas,  and  a  Gwrtheyrn  in  the  Welsh  remains. 
Their  authority  inclines  me  to  believe,  that  Jeffry  has  confounded  Gerontius,  who 
died  in   Spain,  with  Gwrtheyrn,  in  England,  and  in  his  Vortigern  has  given  us  a 
fictitious  medley  of  the  history  of  both. 

53  Zosimus,  lib.  vi.  p.  375.     There  was  a  severe  imperial  law  in  existence,  made 
A.  D.  323,  which  was  applicable  to  these  crimes  of  Gerontius  and  Stilicho  :   "  Si 
quis  barbaris  scelerata  factione  facultatem  depredationis  in  Romanos  dederit,  vel  si 
quo  alio  modo  factam  deviserit,  vivus  amburatur. "     Cod.  Theod.  lib.  vii.  tit.  i.     It 
was  perhaps  in  execution  of  this  law  that  the  flames  were  applied  to  the  retreat  of 
Gerontius. 

51  Zosimus,  lib.  vi.  p.  375. 


156  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK     The  cities  even  of  England  were  invaded.     To  what- 
n-   _,  ever  quarter  they  applied  for  help,  the  application 
was  vain.     Honorius  was  trembling   before  Alaric, 
and  Constantine  could  not  even  save  Gaul. 

In  this  extremity  the  Britons  displayed  a  magnani- 
mous character ;  they  remembered  the  ancient  in- 
dependence of  the  island,  and  their  brave  ancestors, 
who  still  lived  ennobled  in  the  verses  of  their  bards  : 
they  armed  themselves,  threw  off  the  foreign  yoke, 
deposed  the  imperial  magistrates,  proclaimed  their 
insular  independence,  and,  with  the  successful  valour 
of  youthful  liberty  and  endangered  existence,  they 
drove  the  fierce  invaders  from  their  cities.55  The 
sacred  flame  of  national  independence  passed  swiftly 
over  the  channel,  and  electrified  Armorica.  This 
maritime  state,  and  its  immediate  neighbours,  in  the 
same  crisis  and  from  the  same  necessity,  disclaimed 
the  authority  of  a  foreign  emperor,  and  by  their  own 
exertions  achieved  their  own  deliverance. 
4°9-  Thus  the  authentic  history  from  407,  is,  that  the 

barbarians,  excited  by  Gerontius,  assailed  both  Gaul 
and  Britain;  that  Constantine  could  give  no  help, 
because  his  troops  were  in  Spain;  that  Honorius 
could  send  none,  because  Alaric  was  overpowering 
Italy ;  that  the  Britons,  thus  abandoned,  armed  them- 
selves, declared  their  country  independent,  and  drove 
the  barbaric  invaders  from  their  cities  ;  that  Honorius 
sent  letters  to  the  British  states,  exhorting  them  to 
protect  themselves56 ;  and  that  the  Romans  never 
again  recovered  the  possession  of  the  island. 57 

55  Zosimus,  p.  376.  ;  and  see  Nennius,  s.  25 — 27. 

50  Zosimus,  lib,  vi.  p.  381.  <f>uAaTT€<r0c«.  The  silver  ingot  discovered  in  1777, 
n  digging  among  the  old  foundations  of  the  Ordnance  office  of  the  Tower,  marked 
"  ex  officio  Honorii,"  implies  that  the  authority  of  Honorius  was  at  first  respected 
in  the  island. 

57  The  Abbe  Du  Bos,  Hist.  Crit.  211.,  and  Mr.  Gibbon,  iii.  275.,  agree  in  placing 
the  defection  and  independence  of  Britain  in  409.  The  words  of  Procopius  are 
express,  that  the  Romans  never  recovered  Britain,  lib.  i.  p.  9.  Grot.  —  Prosper,  in 
his  Chronicon,  intimates  as  much.  In  the  year  before  the  fall  of  Constantine,  he 
says,  Hac  tempestate,  prae  valetudine  Romanorum,  vires  funditus  attenuate  Britan- 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  157 

To  these  facts,  which  we  know  to  be  authentic,  it  CHAP.  ; 
is  with  much  distrust  that  we  endeavour  to  adapt  «  ,  '  > 
the  vague  lamentations  of  Gildas,  which  Bede  has 
abridged.  The  account  which  he  has  left  us  of  men 
sitting  on  the  wall  to  be  pulled  down ;  of  the  British 
nation  cut  up  by  the  Picts  and  Scots,  like  sheep  by 
butchers  ;  of  the  country  becoming  but  the  residence 
of  wild  animals ;  of  the  antithetical  letter  to  ^Etius 
in  Gaul,  "  the  barbarians  drive  us  to  the  sea,  and  the 
sea  drives  us  back  to  the  barbarians  ;  so  that  between 
the  two  we  must  be  either  slaughtered  or  drowned ; " 
of  part  of  the  natives  enslaving  themselves  to  the 
barbarians,  to  get  victuals;  and  of  the  remainder 
turning  robbers  on  mountains,  caves,  and  woods, 
can  only  awake  our  suspicion  that  querulous  de- 
clamation has  usurped  the  place  of  history,  in  his 
verbose  yet  obscure  composition,  or  has  converted 
local  incidents  into  a  national  catastrophe.  He  who 
has  stated  these  things  has  also  declared  that  the 
Britons,  whom  the  Romans  for  near  four  centuries 
had  civilised,  could  not  build  a  wall,  nor  make  arms 
without  patterns58  ;  has  mentioned  nothing  of  the 
emperors,'  or  transactions  after  Maximus ;  and  has 
ascribed  the  walls  of  Hadrian  and  Severus  to  the 
fifth  century,  and  the  castles  of  the  Saxon  shore,  so 
long  before  constructed,  to  a  legion  quitting  Britain 
for  ever.  As  far  as  Gildas  can  be  supported  and 
made  intelligible  by  others,  he  is  an  acceptable  com- 
panion ;  but  he  contains  so  much  ignorant  and  ex- 
aggerated narration,  and  uses  so  many  rhetorical 
generalities,  that  he  cannot  be  trusted  alone.59  If 

niae,  p.  50.  Seal.  Euseb.  —  Bede,  though  he  afterwards  copies  Gildas  with  mistaken 
chronology,  yet,  lib.  i.  c.  11.  after  mentioning  the  capture  of  Rome  by  Alaric,  adds, 
ex  quo  tempore  Romani  in  Britannia  regnare  cessarunt,  after  having  reigned  in  it 
470  years  since  Caesar.  Now  in  c.  2.  he  says,  Caesar  came  60  ant.  Chr.  ;  therefore 
according  to  Bede,  in  this  passage,  the  Romans  lost  the  government  of  Britain  by 
the  year  410. 

58  Gildas,  s.  12.  and  s.  14. 

59  Gildas.     Bede,  lib.  i.   c.  12.   and  13.     The   errors  of  Gildas  are  not  to  be 


158  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  any  application  was  made  to  Mtius  from  Britain,  it 
.  IL  ,  must  be  referred  to  the  period  when  the  civil  con- 
tests that  pervaded  it,  invited  the  attacks  of  the 
northern  invaders,  and  facilitated  their  progress,  as 
we  shall  afterwards  notice;  and  it  may  have  been 
sent  on  behalf  of  particular  districts  only. 60 

charged  upon  Bede ;  he  has  only  adopted  them  because  he  had  no  other  Latin 
document  to  use.  The  Roman  account  of  British  transactions  ceased  when  the 
imperial  troops  finally  quitted  England.  Native  literature  only  could  supply  mate- 
rials afterwards  for  future  history ;  but  the  Saxons  of  Bede's  age  did  not  under- 
stand the  British  tongue.  Hence  Bede  had  no  authority  but  Gildas  for  this  part  of 
his  history.  Nennius  had  certainly  other  materials  before  him  ;  for,  with  some 
fables,  he  has  added  many  original  circumstances  which  are  entitled  to  attention. 

60  M.  Niebuhr  in  1 824  has  published  at  Bonn  the  Panegyric  of  Merobaudes  on 
the  consulate  of  ^tius  in  Latin  verse.  It  contains  about  200  lines,  and  gives  us  a 
contemporary's  laudatory  account  of  the  actions  of  this  Roman  general. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  159 


CHAP.  VIII. 

The  History  of  BRITAIN,  between  the  Departure  of  the  ROMANS 
and  the  Invasion  of  the  SAXONS. 

WHEN  Zosimus  mentions  Britain,  for  the  last  time, 
in  his  history,  he  leaves  the  natives  in  a  state  of 
independence  on  Rome,  so  generally  armed  as  to 
have  achieved  the  exploits  of  Roman  soldiers,  and  to 
have  driven  the  invaders  from  their  cities.  This 
appears  to  be  authentic  history.  We  may  assume 
the  governing  powers  of  the  island,  at  that  period,  to 
have  been  the  civitates  or  the  territorial  districts, 
because  the  emperor  would  of  course  have  written  to 
the  predominant  authority.  This  was  the  state  of 
the  island  in  or  after  the  year  410,  and  to  this  we  A.D. 
may  add  from  others,  that  the  Romans  never  regained  4la 
the  possession  of  it.1  There  is  evidence  that  they 
assailed  the  liberties  of  Armorica2,  but  none  that 

1  Mr.  Camden  makes  Britain  return  to  the  subjection  of  Honorius,  and  to  be 
happy  for  a  while  under  Yictorinus,  who  governed  the  province,  and  put  a  stop  to 
the  inroads  of  the  Picts  and  Scots.     Introd.  85.     Henry,  lib.  i.  c.  i.  p.  1 1 9.  8vo. 
enlarges  still  more  ;  he  states,  that  after  the  death  of  Constantine,  Britain  returned 
to  the  obedience  of  Honorius,  who  sent  Victorinus  with  some  troops  for  its  recovery 
and  defence ;  and  that  this  general  struck  terror  into  all  his  enemies  in  this  island ; 
but  the  increasing  distresses  of  the  empire  obliged  Honorius  to  recall  Victorinus, 
and  all  his  troops,  from  the  island.  — There  is  no  authority  for  this  circumstantial 
detail.     Rutilius,  in  his  journey  in  Italy  about  416,  merely  takes  occasion  to  com- 
pliment Victorinus  on  his  former  honours.     In  this  friendly  digression  he  says, 
that  the  ferox  Britannus  knew  his  virtues,  whom  he  had  governed  so  as  to  excite 
their  attachment.     Itiner.  499.  p.  14.  ed.  Amst.     Whether  he  governed  it  under 
Theodosius  or  Honorius  is  not  said.     That  he  could  have  no  command  of  troops 
is  certain,  because  the  vicarius  or  governor  was  a  civil  officer.     The  act  of  his  go- 
vernment, according  to  Rutilius,  was  not  then  a  recent  thing,  but  at  some  distance, 
because  he  adds  another  event, -which,  he  says,  lately  happened,  "illustris  nuper 
sacrae  comes  additus  aulse  :  "  marking  this  honour  as  a  recent  event  in  416,  implies 
that  the  others  were  not  recent  j  hence  there  is  no  reason  to  place  him  in  Britain 
after  409. 

2  Du  Bos,  Hist.  Crit.  p.  213.,  thinks,  that  the  revolt  of  Armorica  contributed 
more  than  any  other  event  to  establish  la  monarchic  Fran9oise  in  Gaul.     Armorica 
comprehended  five  of  the  seventeen  provinces  of  Gaul.     On  its  struggles  for  liberty, 


160  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  they  contested  with  the  Britons  the  enjoyment  of 
.  "'  .  their  independence. 

The  Britons,  who  had  been  strong  enough  to  re- 
pulse from  their  island  the  barbarians  who  had 
overrun  Gaul,  or  who  had  taken  advantage  of  that 
calamity  to  molest  them,  could  not  have  been  sub- 
dued without  a  serious  invasion.  Even  the  ex- 
posed and  inferior  Armorica  maintained  a  vigorous 
resistance.  But  the  dismal  aspect  of  the  Roman 
state,  during  the  fifth  century,  coincides  with  the 
absolute  silence  of  authors  to  prove  that  the  Romans 
forbore  to  invade  the  British  independence. 

The  majesty  of  the  capitol  had  departed ;  the 
world  no  longer  crouched  in  submission  before  it; 
and  even  its  own  subjects  are  said  to  have  rejoiced 
over  its  ruin.  The  Goths  conquered  Spain ;  a  rebel 
arose  from  the  tomb  of  Honorius;  another  general 
repeated  the  treason  of  Stilicho;  and  the  terrible 
Genseric  embarked  with  his  Yandals  against  Africa : 
even  ^Etius  was  a  subject  of  dubious  fidelity.  At  the 
head  of  60,000  barbarians  he  extorted  the  honours 
he  enjoyed,  maintained  his  connection  with  the  Huns 
and  Alaric,  and  had  to  withstand  the  Francs  and 
Suevi.  The  son  of  Alaric  besieged  Narbonne,  the 
Belgic  provinces  were  invaded  by  the  Burgundians, 
and  the  desolating  Attila  at  last  burst  upon  Gaul.3 

But  whatever  was  the  cause  which  induced  Hono- 
rius to  permit,  or  withheld  his  successors  from  mo- 
lesting, the  independence  of  Britain,  it  was  an  event 
which  was  likely  to  be  beneficial  to  every  class  of 
its  inhabitants.  The  Romans  had,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  their  conquests  in  Britain,  from  motives  of 
self-preservation,  endeavoured  to  civilise  it.  When 

see  Du  Bos,  and  1  Mascou,  453.  476.;  also  Gibbon,  iii.  275.— It  had  afterwards  many 
unfavourable  conflicts  with  the  Francs.  Greg.  Tours,  lib.  iv.  and  v.  Freculphus, 
lib.  ii.  c.  22. 

8  See  Gibbon,  iii.  p.  262—271.  and  327—432. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  161 

by  their  incentives,  the  national  mind  had  been  CHAP. 
diverted  from  habits  of  warfare,  to  the  enjoyments  of  .  V*IL  . 
luxury  and  the  pursuits  of  commerce,  the  natives 
shared  in  the  prosperity  and  vices,  as  well  as  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  governing  empire.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  the  evils  of  corrupted  civilisation, 
and  of  its  invariable  attendant,  a  weak,  tyrannical, 
and  oppressive  government,  were  dissolving  in  every 
part  the  decaying  fabric  of  the  Koman  dominion. 
Its  state  at  this  period  has  been  described  to  us  by  a 
contemporary,  who,  though  he  writes  with  the  an- 
tithesis without  the  genius  of  Seneca,  yet  was  a 
man  of  sense  and  piety,  and  saw  clearly  and  felt 
strongly  the  mischiefs  which  he  laments,  and  the 
ruin  to  which  they  tended.4  He,  after  detailing  the 
social  vices  of  the  Roman  world  at  that  time — its 
general  selfishness,  rivalry,  envy,  profligacy,  avarice, 
sensuality,  and  malignant  competitions,  expatiates 
on  one  important  fact,  which  deserves  our  peculiar 
notice,  from  its  destructive  hostility  to  the  stability 
of  the  empire,  as  well  as  to  the  welfare  of  every  in- 
dividual. This  was  not  merely  the  weight  and  repe- 
tition of  the  taxations  imposed  by  the  government, 
but  still  more,  the  permitted  and  overwhelming  op- 
pressions of  the  authorised  tax-gatherers,  exceeding 
their  authority,  and  converting  their  office  into  the 
means  of  the  most  arbitrary  and  ruinous  oppressions. 

He  says,  "  In  all  the  cities,  municipia,  and  villages,  state  of  the 
there  are  as  many  tyrants  as  there  are  officers  of  the 
government ;  they  devour  the  bowels  of  the  citizens, 
and  their  widows  and  orphans ;  public  burthens  are 
made  the  means  of  private  plunder ;  the  collection  of 
the  national  revenue  is  made  the  instrument  of  indi- 
vidual peculation ;  none  are  safe  from  the  devastations 
of  these  depopulating  robbers.  The  public  taxation 

4  This  was  Salvian,  an  ecclesiastic  of  Marseilles.     It  occurs  in  his  treatise  Do 
Gubernatione  Dei,  which  is  published  in  the  Magna  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  vol.  v. 

VOL.  I.  M 


162  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  is  a  continual  destruction :  the  burthens,  though 
.  IL  ,  severe,  would  be  more  tolerable,  if  borne  by  all 
equally  and  in  common ;  but  they  are  partially  im- 
posed and  ^arbitrarily  levied:  hence  many  desert  their 
farms  and  dwellings  to  escape  the  violence  of  the 
exactors  ;  they  seek  exile  to  avoid  punishment.  Such 
an  overwhelming  and  unceasing  proscription  hangs 
over  them,  that  they  desert  their  habitations,  that 
they  may  not  be  tormented  in  them."  5 

Such  were  the  evils  under  which  the  people  of  the 
Eoman  empire  were  groaning,  from  the  conduct  of 
the  officers  of  the  public  revenue,  who  seem  to  have 
resembled  Turkish  Pashas.  The  disastrous  conse- 
quences to  the  empire  itself  are  as  forcibly  delineated. 

"  From  these  oppressions  many,  and  those  not  of 
obscure  birth  but  of  liberal  education,  fly  to  our 
national  enemies  (that  is,  the  barbaric  nations  pressing 
on  the  Koman  empire)  ;  that  .they  may  not  perish 
under  the  afflictions  of  legal  prosecutions.  And 
although  the  people  to  whom  they  retire  differ  in 
religion,  language,  and  ruder  manners,  yet  they 
prefer  to  suffer  the  inconveniences  of  dissimilar 
customs  among  barbarians,  than  ruinous  injustice 
among  Romans.  They  emigrate  to  the  Goths,  to  the 
Bagaudae,  and  other  ruling  barbarians,  and  do  not 
repent  the  change." 6 

This  preference  given  by  the  Roman  people  to  the 
protection  of  the  barbaric  government  over  that  under 
which  they  had  been  brought  up,  explains  impressively 
the  facility  with  which  the  German  nations,  at  this 
period,  overwhelmed  the  Roman  empire.  He  mentions 
it  repeatedly  and  emphatically. 

"  Thus  the  name  of  Roman  citizen,  once  so  valued 
and  bought  so  dearly,  is  now  spontaneously  re- 
pudiated and  shunned :  it  is  esteemed  not  only  useless 

5  Salv.  p.  89.  91.  e  Salv.  p.  90. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  163 

but  abominable.     What  can  be  a  greater  evidence  of     CHAP. 

VIII 

the  iniquity  of  the  Roman  administration,  than  that  • 

so  many  both  rfoble  and  honourable  families,  and  to  TahedBa" 
whom  the  Roman  state  ought  to  be  the  means  of  the 
highest   honour   and   splendour,  are   driven  to  this 
extremity,  that  they  will  be  no  longer  Romans."7 

His  next  assertion  is,  that,  if  they  did  not  emigrate 
to  the  barbaric  nations,  they  became  part  of  those 
affiliated  robbers  who  were  called  Bagaudae.8 

"  They  who  do  not  fly  to  the  barbarians  become  The  Ba. 
themselves  barbarians.  In  this  state  is  a  large  portion  8 
of  Spain,  and  no  small  part  of  Gaul.  Roman  op- 
pression makes  all  men  no  longer  Romans.  The 
Bagaudae  are  those  who,  plundered  and  maltreated 
by  base  and  bloody  judges  after  they  had  been  de- 
prived of  the  right  of  Roman  liberty,  choose  to  lose 
the  honours  of  the  Roman  name.  We  call  them 
rebels  and  traitors,  but  we  have  compelled  them  to 
become  criminal.  By  what  other  causes  are  they 
made  Bagaudae  but  by  our  iniquities;  by  the  dis- 
honesty of  our  judges ;  by  the  proscriptions  and 
rapine  of  those  who  convert  the  public  exactions  into 
emoluments  for  themselves  ;  who  make  their  appointed 
taxations  the  means  of  their  own  plunder; — they  fly 
to  the  public  foe  to  avoid  the  tax-gatherer."9 

He  declares  these  feelings  to  have  been  universal. 

"  Hence  there  is  but  one  wish  among  all  the 
Romans,  that  they  did  not  live  subject  to  the  Roman 
laws.  There  is  one  consenting  prayer  among  the 
Roman  population,  that  they  might  dwell  under  the 
barbarian  government.  Thus  our  brethren  not  only 
refuse  to  leave  these  nations  for  their  own,  but  they 

7  Salv.  p.  90. 

8  To  Scaliger's  note  on  the  Bagaudae,  Aniraad.  Euseb.  243.,  we  may  add  that 
Bagat,  in  the  Armoric,  is  a  troop  or  crew.     Lhuyd  Archaiol.  196.     Bagach,  in 
Irish,  is  warlike.     Bagach,  in  Erse,  is  fighting.     Bagad,  in  Welsh,  is  multitude. 
Du  Cange  mentions  Sayeveiv,  vagare,  and  Boguedim,  Hebrew  for  rebellis.     Glos. 
Med.  Lat.  i.  p.  432.     See  their  history  in  Du  Cange,  ib.  and  Du  Bos,  p.  204. 

9  Salv.  p.  90,  91. 

H  2 


164  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     fly  from  us  to  them.     Can  we  then  wonder  that  the 
.     IL    .   Goths  are  not   conquered   by  us,  when   the   people 
would  rather  become  Goths  with  them  than  Romans 
with  us."10 

These  political  evils,  thus  oppressively  affecting 
the  general  population  of  the  Roman  empire,  may 
satisfy  us,  that  the  Britons,  once  become  independent, 
armed,  and  victorious  over  their  barbaric  invaders, 
would  not  court  the  return  of  the  Roman  yoke. 
Therefore  every  narration  which  states,  that  after  their 
independence  they  offered  unconditional  submission 
to  the  Roman  empire,  cannot  but  excite  our  suspicion 
or  disbelief. 

When  we  proceed  to  inquire  into  the  events  which 
followed  the  emancipation  of  Britain,  the  first  ques- 
tion which  naturally  occurs  to  us  is,  what  was  the 

10  Salv.  92.  I  cannot  dismiss  this  author  without  noticing  the  intimation  he 
gives  us  of  the  moral  benefit  which  the  irruptions  of  the  German  barbaric  tribes 
produced  at  that  period.  The  Vandals  furnish  an  instance,  who,  it  is  well  known, 
invaded  Spain,  and  from  thence  passed  victoriously  into  Africa,  where  they  esta- 
blished a  kingdom :  they  were  one  of  the  weakest  of  the  barbaric  nations,  yet  they 
were  led  onwards  to  successes  that  surprised  the  dismayed  Romans.  Though  fierce 
and  rude,  they  were  remarkable  for  the  chastity  of  their  manners,  at  the  very  time 
when  voluptuous  profligacy  was  prevailing  in  the  Roman  empire,  and  especially  in 
its  provinces  in  Africa,  Salvian  mentions  the  African  depravity  from  his  own 
observations  in  the  strongest  terms  of  reprehension.  The  abominations  were  gene- 
ral and  incurable.  He  describes,  as  a  specimen,  Carthage,  the  Rome  of  Africa, 
which  had  its  schools,  philosophers,  gymnasia,  churches,  nobles,  magistrates,  and 
every  establishment  and  advantage  that  distinguished  a  Roman  great  city.  But  he 
says  he  saw  it  full  of  the  most  dissolute  luxury,  and  the  foulest  vices  and  debauchery 
in  all  its  inhabitants,  as  well  as  of  the  most  selfish  tyranny  and  rapacity  in  the  great 
and  rich.  It  was  even  the  fashion  for  the  men  to  dress  themselves  as  women,  and 
to  pass  for  such.  In  this  state  of  evil,  the  Vandals,  like  a  torrent,  over-ran  the 
north  of  Africa,  and  settled  themselves  in  Carthage,  and  the  other  towns  :  their 
speedy  corruption  was  anticipated  in  a  country  so  abandoned ;  but,  to  the  astonish- 
ment  of  the  empire,  instead  of  degenerating  into  the  universal  depravity,  they  be- 
came its  moral  reformers.  The  luxuries  and  vices  that  surrounded  them,  excited 
their  disgust  and  abhorrence.  Their  own  native  customs  were  so  modest,  that 
instead  of  imitating  they  despised,  and  punished,  with  all  their  fierce  severity,  the 
impurities  they  witnessed.  They  compelled  all  the  prostitutes  to  marry.  They 
made  adultery  a  capital  crime,  and  so  sternly  punished  personal  debauchery,  that 
a  great  moral  change  took  place  in  all  the  provinces  they  conquered.  He  details 
these  circumstances  in  his  seventh  book.  He  gives  our  Saxon  ancestors  the  same 
character,  "  feri  sed  casti,"  fierce  but  chaste,  and  it  seems  to  be  manifest,  that  the 
superiority  of  the  ladies  of  modern  Europe  in  virtue,  mind,  and  general  character 
has  arisen  from  the  barbaric  tribes  of  ancient  Germany,  and  from  the  revolution 
of  manners,  as  well  as  of  government,  which  they  produced  by  their  conquest  of 
the  Roman  empire. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


165 


CHAP. 
VIII. 


government  which  the  natives  substituted  for  the  im- 
perial institutions. 

Britain,  under  the  Romans,  contained  two  munici- 
pia,  nine  colonia3,  ten  civitates  possessing  the  Jus  La- 
tium,  twelve  stipendaria?,  besides  many  other  towns.11 
It  was  usual  with  the  Romans  to  partition  their  con- 
quests into  districts,  called  civitates.  In  Gaul,  during 
the  fifth  century,  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
civitates ;  each  of  these  had  its  capital  city,  in  which 
resided  a  senate,  whose  jurisdiction  extended  over  all 
the  pagi  which  composed  the  territory  of  the  ci vitas.12 
Now  if  the  seventeen  provinces  of  Gaul  had  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  civitates,  the  five  provinces  of 
Britain,  which  were  as  flourishing,  might  reasonably 
have  had  thirty-three,  which  is  the  number  of  the 
great  towns  enumerated  by  Richard. 

We  are,  therefore,  to  consider  Britain,  in  the  latter  civitates  of 
periods  of  the  Roman  residence,  divided  into  thirty- 
three  civitates,  of  which  thirty  were  in  England  and 
Wales.     The  chief  towns  were — 13 


Britain. 


Municipia : 
Verolamium, 
Eboracum. 

Colonies : 
Londineium, 
Camalodunum, 
Rhutupis, 
Thermae, 
Isca  Secunda, 
Deva  Getica, 
Glevum, 
Lindum, 
Camboricum. 

Latiojure  donates: 
Durnomagus, 
Catarracton, 
Cambodunura, 
Coccium, 
Luguballia, 


Ptoroton, 
Victoria 
Theodosia, 
Corinum, 
Sorbiodunum. 
Stipendarice : 
Venta  Silurum, 
Venta  Belgarum, 
Venta  Iceriorum, 
Segontium, 
Muridunum, 
Ragae, 
Cantiopolis, 
Durinum, 
Isca, 

Bremenium, 
Vindonum, 
Durobrovae, 


in  Scotland, 


11  Richard,  p.  111.  Antiq.  Celto-Scand.  K  Du  Bos,  i.  p.  2. 

13  Richard,  ubi  sup.     For  the  modern  names,  see  Mr.  Whitaker's  Manchester, 
vol.  ii.  p.  330—379. 

M  3 


166  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  In  each  of  these  principal  towns,  the  offices  of 
.  IL  .  power  and  dignity  belonging  to  each  civitas  were 
made  residentiary  ;  the  duumviri,  senates,  decurions, 
curia3,  and  aadiles.  These  civitates  were  arranged 
under  five  provinces,  two  of  which  were  governed  by 
consulares,  and  three  by  presides.  Above  these 
provincial  magistrates  a  vicarius  extended  his  over- 
ruling authority,  subordinate  only  to  a  prsetorian 
prefect,  with  whom  the  emperor  preserved  an  imme- 
diate communication.14 

The  vicarius  and  the  provincial  magistrates,  or  the 
consulares  and  presides,  were  foreigners.  With  such 
a  jealous  hand  did  Rome  maintain  her  empire,  that 
no  native  was  suffered  to  enjoy,  in  any  case,  the  pro- 
vincial administration ;  nor  could  the  provincial 
officers,  or  their  children,  marry  with  a  native,  or 
purchase  territorial  property,  slaves,  or  houses.15  On 
the  other  hand,  the  municipal  officers  of  the  civitates 
seem  to  have  been  natives. 

It  was  a  point  carefully  guarded  by  law,  that  the 
officers  of  one  civitas  should  not  interfere  with  any 
other ;  hence  the  edict,  that  no  duumviri  should  with 
impunity  extend  the  power  of  their  fasces  beyond 
the  bounds  of  their  own  civitas.16  The  decurions 
served  for  the  civitas  of  their  nativity ;  and  it  was 
ordered,  if  to  avoid  the  office  any  withdrew  to  an- 
other civitas,  that  he  should  be  made  to  serve  in 
both.17 

We  may,  therefore,  conceive  England  and  Wales, 
in  the  fifth  century,  divided  into  thirty  independent 
civitates,  governed  by  native  officers  originating  from 
each  civitas.  The  imperial  magistrates,  whom  Zo- 
simus  mentions  that  they  deposed,  were  most  likely 
the  vicarius,  the  consulares,  and  the  presides ;  and  on 

14  Gibbon,  ii.  32—38.     Notitia,  s.  49.  is  Gibbon,  ii.  39. 

16  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  xii.  tit.  i.  s.  174.  "  Ibid.  s.  12. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  167 

their  deposition,  the  island,  as  far  as  it  was  possessed     CHAP. 
by  the  Britons,   would  naturally  divide  into  thirty  « 

independent  republics :  or,  into  as  many  separate 
republics  as  there  were  civitates.  That  this  event 
did  happen  we  have  a  sort  of  evidence  in  the  circum- 
stance, that  Honorius  addressed  his  letters  to  the 
civitates  of  Britain. 

But  in  addition  to  these  civil  powers,  the  influence 
of  the  ecclesiastical  must  be  taken  into  consideration. 
In  Gaul,  and  therefore  most  probably  in  Britain,  every 
civitas  had  a  bishop 18,  and  every  province  had  a 
superior  bishop,  answerable  to  our  metropolitans, 
though  not  distinguished  with  the  title  of  archbishop. 
The  bishops  had  some  power,  and  from  this  enjoyed 
much  consideration  and  credit  in  every  district.  The 
people  in  general  were  in  two  divisions,  the  free  and 
the  servile. 

Thus  far  the  few  facts  left  to  us  fairly  extend. 
Independent  Britain,  after  the  year  410,  contained 
many  independent  republics  or  civitates;  each  of 
which  was  governed  by  chief  magistrates  or  duumviri, 
a  senate,  subordinate  officers  called  decurions,  an 
inferior  senate  called  curise,  with  other  necessary 
officers.  The  ecclesiastical  concerns  were  regulated 
by  a  bishop  in  each,  whose  power  sometimes  extended 
into  lay  concerns. 

But  it  is  probable  that  these  thirty  independent 
civitates  did  not  long  continue  in  peace  with  each 
other.  The  degenerated  civilisation,  bad  financial 
system,  and  oppressive  government  of  the  Romans 
must  have  left  evil  habits  and  tendencies  in  the 
British  population.  Nor  can  we  suppose  that  the 
natives  of  each  civitas  would  always  be  contented 
with  the  legal  power  of  the  offices  to  which  they  were 
called ;  quietly  lay  down  the  fasces  at  the  end  of  the 

18  Du  Bos,  i.  p.  14. 
M  4 


168  HISTOKY    OF    THE 

BOOK  year,  if  duumviri ;  or  if  senators,  seek  no  more  au- 
.  •"'  .  thority  than  belonged  to  their  official  acts;  or  if 
inferiors,  aspire  not  unduly  to  an  elevation  of  con- 
dition. The  accidents  of  human  life  would  not  fail 
to  involve  disputes  of  jurisdiction  between  one  ci vitas 
and  others :  and  mankind  are  generally  eager  to  de- 
termine their  differences  by  force.  Hence  it  was 
likely  that  no  long  interval  would  ensue,  before  civil 
discord  pervaded  the  island,  and  that  this  would 
terminate  in  the  predominance  of  military  tyrants ; 
because  in  that  most  dreadful  of  all  evils,  civil  strife, 
it  is  the  sword  which  eventually  prevails, 
civil  dis-  The  lamentations  of  Gildas  concur  with  the  obscure 
1  intimations  of  Nennius  to  prove,  that  a  considerable 
part  of  the  interval  between  the  emancipation  of  the 
island  and  the  arrival  of  the  Saxons,  was  occupied 
in  the  contests  of  ambitious  partisans. 

"  The  country,"  says  Gildas,  "  though  weak  against 
its  foreign  enemies,  was  brave  and  unconquerable  in 
civil  warfare.  Kings  were  appointed,  but  not  by 
God;  they  who  were  more  cruel  than  the  rest, 
attained  to  the  high  dignity." 

With  as  little  right  or  expediency  as  they  derived 
their  power,  they  lost  it.  "  They  were  killed,  not 
from  any  examination  of  justice,  and  men  more 
ferocious  still  were  elected  in  their  place.  If  any 
happened  to  be  more  virtuous  or  mild  than  the  rest, 
every  degree  of  hatred  and  enmity  was  heaped  upon 
them."19  The  clergy  partook  of  the  contentions  of 
the  day. 

He  renews  this  picture  in  his  address  to  the  British 
kings  who  had  survived  the  Saxon  invasion  ;  and  al- 
though his  expressions  are  not  elucidated  by  any 
historical  detail,  yet  they  are  supported  by  the  ex- 
pression of  St.  Jerome,  "  Britain,  a  province,  fertile 

19  Gildas,  s.  19. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  169 

in  tyrants,"  and  by  the  assertion  of  Procopius,  that  it     CHAP. 
remained  a  long  time  under  its  tyrants.20  ».  • 

Here  that  agreement  between  Gildas  and  other 
writers  occurs,  which  entitles  him  to  belief:  and  if 
his  other  loose  declamations  about  the  devastations  of 
the  barbarians  in  Britain,  and  the  application  of  the 
natives  to  ^Etius  for  succour,  have  any  foundation, 
they  must  be  referred  to  the  period  of  those  civil 
wars  which  succeeded  the  Koman  departure.  We 
can  conceive,  that  when  the  strength  of  the  country 
was  not  directed  to  its  protection,  but  was  wasted 
in  mutual  conflicts,  the  hostilities  of  the  Picts  and 
Scots  may  have  met  with  much  success.  Not  op- 
posed by  the  force  of  the  whole  island,  but  by  the 
local  power  of  the  particular  civitas  or  district  in- 
vaded, the  enemies  may,  in  many  parts,  especially  of 
the  northern  districts,  have  defeated  the  opposition, 
and  desolated  the  land  of  the  northern  borders  and 
the  adjacent  coasts.  With  equal  success,  from  the 
same  cause,  the  western  shores  may  have  been  plun- 
dered by  the  Scots,  and  the  southern  by  the  Saxons. 
Some  of  the  maritime  states,  abandoned  by  their 
more  powerful  countrymen,  may  have  sought  the  aid 
of  JEtius,  as  they  afterwards  accepted  that  of  the 
Saxons;  but  either  the  account  of  Gildas  is  rhetorical 
exaggeration,  or  is  applicable  only  to  particular  dis- 
tricts, and  not  to  the  whole  island. 

These   contests  seem  at  last  to  have  produced  a  Many  tings 
great  cluster  of  regal  chiefs  within  the  island.     We  mBntain- 
hear  of  kings  of  Devonshire,  Cornwall,  Kent,  and 
Glastonbury ;  several  kings  of  Cumbria,  the  kings  of 
Deira  and  Bernicia,   several  contemporary  kings  of 
Wales,  and  others  in  the  north  and  west  of  England, 
about  the  time  of  the  Saxons.21     We  find  Malgocune^ 

20  Procop.  Hist.  Vandal,  lib.  i.  sed  mansit  ab  eo  tempore  sub  rvppavois. —  2  Jerom 
ad  Ctes.  Britannia  provincia  fertilis  tyrannorum.     Gib.  iii.  277.     Masc.  i.  516. 

21  See  Gildas,  Ep.  p.  10.    Nennius,  p.  105 — 107.  117.    Taliesin,  passim.    Cara- 
doc  Llanc.  ap.  Usher,  469.    Llyward  hen ;  Aneurin. 


170  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

styled  by  Gildas,  the  dethroner  of  many  tyrants ;  and_ 
Nennius  mentions  the  Saxons  to  have  fought,  and 
Arthur  to  have  marched,  with  the  kings  of  the 
Britons.22  But  this  succession  of  tyrants  is  only 
known  to  us  by  casual  intimation,  and  by  the  denun- 
ciations of  Gildas.  They  appear  in  their  rest  of  ob- 
scurity like  the  distant  wood  touched  by  the  last  re- 
fractions of  the  departed  sun :  we  behold  only  a  dark 
mass  of  gloom,  in  which  we  can  trace  no  shapes,  and 
distinguish  no  individuals. 

I^jthis_period  of  the  independence  and  civil_war- 
fare  of  Britain,  one  tyrant  ia^raid''Ton5ave  predomi- 
nated over  the  rest,  or  atjeasF  m_tlie^amithernjgarti 
of  the  island,  whom  Gildas  calls  Gurthrigernus,  and 
whom  the  Welsh  triads  and  poets  Dameljwrtheyrn..23"' 

But  Britain  was  not  now  in  the  state  in  which  the 
Komans  had  found  it.  Its  towns  were  no  longer 
barricadoed  forests24,  nor  its  houses  wood  cabins 
covered  with  straw25,  nor  its  inhabitants  naked  sa- 
vages with  painted  bodies 26,  or  clothed  with  skins.27 
It  had  been  for  above  three  centuries  the  seat  of 
Koman  civilisation  and  luxury.  Koman  emperors 
had  been  born 28,  and  others  had  reigned  in  it.29  The 
natives  had  been  ambitious  to  obtain,  and  hence  had 
not  only  built  houses,  temples,  courts,  and  market 
places,  in  their  towns,  but  had  adorned  them  with 

22  Gildas,  12.     Nennius,  114. 

23  IFhas  been  already  remarked,  p.  155.,  that  the  Vortigern  of  Jeffry  seems  to  be 
a  mixture  of  Gerontius  and  Gwrtheyrn.     Nennius  has  added  some  idle  fables  to 
his  name  ;  yet  gives  him  a  genealogy.     Mac  Guortheneu,  McGuitaul,  McGuitolin, 
Mc  ap  Glou,  p.  112.     The  Saxon  Ethelwerd,  p.  833.,  calls  him  Wrtheyrn,  which 
corresponds  with  the  name  in  the  Welsh  remains. 

24  Caesar,  lib.  v.  c.  14.     Tac.  Vit.  Agr.     Strabo,  lib.  iv. 

25  Diod.  Sic.  lib.  v.  c.  8. 

26  Caesar,  lib.  v.     Mela,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.     Pliny,  Hist.  lib.  xxii.  c.  1. 

27  Caesar,  lib.  v.  c.  14. 

28  As  Constantine  the  Great ;  for  such  I  consider  to  be  the  fair  meaning  of  the 
orator's  words  addressed  to  him,  speaking  of  Britannias,  or  the  British  Isles,  "  Tu 
etiam  nobiles,  ILLIC  ORIENDO  fecisti."     Mr.  Gibbon  thinks  this  may  refer  to  his 
accession ;  but  the  other  opinion  is  the  most  natural  construction ;  and  so  the 
foreign  editor  thought  when  he  added  the  marginal  note,  "  Nam  in  Britannia  Con- 
stantinus  natus  fuit." 

29  Carausius,  Constantius  Chlorus,  the  father  of  Constantine,  and  others. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

porticoes,  galleries,  baths,  and  saloons30,  and  with 
mosaic  pavements,  and  emulated  every  Koman  im- 
provement.  They  had  distinguished  themselves  as 
legal  advocates  and  orators 31,  and  for  their  study  of 
the  Eoman  poets.32  Their  cities  had  been  made 
images  of  Rome  itself,  and  the  natives  had  become 
Romans.33  The  description  of  Caerleon  in  Wales  is 
applicable  to  many  others  in  Britain.34  The  ruins  of 
Verulam,  near  St.  Albans,  exhibited  analogous  signs 
of  splendour  and  luxury35;  and  the  numerous  re- 
mains of  habitations  or  towns  built  in  the  Roman 
fashion,  which  casual  excavations  are  even  yet  every 
year,  and  sometimes  every  month,  disclosing  to  our 
view,  show  that  Britain,  at  the  time  of  the  Saxon 
invasion,  had  become  a  wealthy,  civilised,  and  luxu- 
rious country.36  These  epithets,  however,  whenever 
used,  are  but  comparative  phrases,  and  their  precise 
meaning  varies  in  every  age,  from  the  dawn  of  Egyp- 
tian civilization  to  our  own  bright  day.  Britain  did 

30  Tacit.  Vit.  Ag.  c.  21. 

31  Hence  Juvenal's  "  Gallia  causidicos  docuit  facunda  Britannos,"  Sat.  15.     Gaul 
being  their  place  of  study. 

32  So  Martial  intimates,  "  Dicitur  et  nostros  cantare  Britannia  versus."     Ep. 

83  Hence  Gildas  says,  "  Ita,  ut  non  Britannia,  sed  Romania  insula  censeretur," 
c.  v.  p.  3.  He  adds,  that  all  their  coins  were  stamped  with  the  image  of  the 
emperor,  ibid. 

34  Giraldus  has  left  this  account  of  its  remains  in  the  twelfth  century.     "  It  was 
elegantly  built  by  the  Romans  with  brick  walls.     Many  vestiges  of  its  ancient 
splendour  still  remain,  and  stately  palaces,  which  formerly,  with  the  gilt  tiles,  dis- 
played the  Roman  grandeur.     It  was  first  built  by  the  Roman  nobility,  and  adorned 
with  sumptuous  edifices,  with  a  lofty  tower,  curious  hot  baths,  temples  now  in 
ruins,  and  theatres  encompassed  with  stately  walls,  in  part  yet  standing.     The  walls 
are  three  miles  in  circumference,  and  within  these,  as  well  as  without,  subterra- 
neous buildings  are  frequently  met  with  ;  as  aqueducts,  vaults,  hypocausts,  stoves," 
&c.     Giral.  Camb.     Itin.  Camb.  p.  836. 

35  One  abbot  of  St.  Albans,  before  the  conquest,  found  great  subterraneous  pas- 
sages of  the  ancient  city,  Verulam,  solidly  arched  and  passing  under  the  river,  and 
tiles  and  stones,  which  he  set  apart  for  the  building  of  a  church.     Mat.  Par.  Vit. 
Ab.  p.  40.     The  next  abbot,  exploring  farther,  met  with  the  foundation  of  a  great 
palace,  and  remains  of  many  buildings,  with  some  manuscripts.     He  discovered 
several  stone  floors,  with  tiles  and  columns  fit  for  the  intended  church  ;  and  pitchers 
and  vessels  made  of  earth,  and  neatly  shaped  as  with  a  wheel ;  and  also  vessels  of 
glass,  containing  the  ashes  of  the  dead.     He  also  met  with  several  dilapidated  tem- 
ples, subverted  altars,  idols,  and  various  coins.     Mat.  Par.  ibid.  p.  41. 

36  It  is  mentioned  by  the  orator  Eumenius,  that  when  the  father  of  Constantino 
the  Great  rebuilt  Autun,  he  was  chiefly  furnished  with  workmen  from  Britain, 
"  which  abounded  with  the  best  builders."     Eum.  Pan.  8. 


172  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  not  in  the  fifth  century  possess  our  present  affluence 
.  IL  .  and  refinement,  but  those  of  a  Roman  province  at 
that  epoch.  It  had  not  our  mind,  or  knowledge,  or 
improvements,  but  it  shared  in  all  that  Rome  then 
possessed  or  valued.  Gildas  has  been_emphatically^ 
querulous  dn  painting  the~3esolations  which  it  ha3T 
endured  before  his  ".time  —  the  sixth  century  —  from 
the  Picts,  the  Irish,  and  the  Saxons,  and  from  its 
own  civil  discord ;  and  yet,  after  all  these  evils  had 
occurred,  he  describes  it  as  containing  twenty-eight 
cities,  and  some  well-fortified  castles,  and  speaks  of 
the  country  with  metaphors  that  seem  intended  to 
express  both  cultivation  and  abundance.37  Bede, 
who  liwrl  two  centuries  after  Gildas,  does  not  sub- 
tract  from  his  description  ;  but  on  the  contrary  adds 
"  nobilisshme  "  to  his  cities,  and  "  innumera  "  to  his 
castles38,  which  Nennius  above  a  century  later^re^ 
peats.39 

If  our  knowledge  of  the  moral  state  of  Britain  at 
this  period  be  taken  from  the  vehement  censures 
of  Gildas,  no  country  could  be  more  worthless  in 
its  legal  chieftains  and  religious  directors,  or  in  its 
general  population.  He  says  it  had  become  a  pro- 
verb, that  the  Britons  were  neither  brave  in  war  nor 
faithful  in  peace;  that  adverse  to  peace  and  truth, 
they  were  bold  in  crimes  and  falsehood  ;  that  evil 
was  preferred  to  good,  and  impiety  to  religion.  That 
those  who  were  most  cruel  were,  though  not  right- 
fully, anointed  kings ;  and  were  soon  unjustly  de- 
stroyed by  others,  fiercer  than  themselves.  If  any 
one  discovered  gentler  manners  or  superior  virtues, 

87  Gildas,  c.  1.  The  fecundity  of  the  harvests  of  Britain,  and  the  innumerable 
multitudes  of  its  cattle  and  sheep,  had  been  extolled  by  the  Roman  encomiast  of 
Oonstantine.  Paneg.  Const.  And  we  .read  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  lib.  xviii. 
c.  2.,  and  Zosimus,  lib.  iii.,  of  corn  being  carried  to  Germany  from  Britain,  by  the 
Roman  armies,  as  if  from  their  granary.  Permission  had  been  granted  by  Probus 
to  plant  vines  and  make  wine  in  Britain.  Scrip.  Aug.  p.  942. ;  and  see  Henry's 
History,  vol.  ii.  p.  106 — 112. 

38  Hist.  Eccl.  c.  1.  p.  41.  a>  Nenn.     3  Gall.  p.  98. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  173 

he  became  the  more  unpopular.    Actions,  pleasing  or     CHAP. 
displeasing  to  the  Deity,  were  held  in  equal  estima-  • 

tion.  It  was  not  the  laity  only  who  were  of  this 
character;  the  clergy,  he  adds,  who  ought  to  have 
been  an  example  to  all,  were  addicted  to  intoxication, 
animosities,  and  quarrels.40  He  aggravates  the  features 
of  this  revolting  picture,  in  his  subsequent  addresses 
to  the  British  kings,  whom  he  names,  and  for  whom 
no  epithet  seems,  in  his  opinion,  to  have  been  too 
severe :  and  to  the  clergy,  on  whom  his  vituperative 
powers  of  rhetoric  and  scripture-memory  are  exerted 
with  unceremonious  profusion ;  accusing  them,  besides 
their  folly  and  impudence,  of  deceit,  robbery,  avarice, 
profligacy,  gluttony,  and  almost  every  other  vice :  — 
"  even,"  he  adds,  "  that  I  may  speak  the  truth,  of 
infidelity."  41  He  is  angry  enough  with  the  Saxons, 
whom  he  calls  Ambrones,  Furciferi,  and  Lupi,  "  rob- 
bers, villains,  and  wolves;"  but  these  are  forbearing 
metaphors,  compared  with  the  flow  of  Latin  abuse 
which  he  pours  first  on  all  the  British  kings  generally, 
and  then  specially  on  Constantine,  "  the  tyrannical 
cub  of  the  lioness  of  Devonshire ;"  on  the  other 
"  lion's  whelp,"  Aurelius  Conan,  "  like  the  pard  in 
colour  and  morals,  though  with  a  hoary  head;"  on 
Vortiper,  "  the  stupid  tyrant  of  South  Wales,  the 
bear-driver,"  and  what  his  words  seem  to  imply, 
"  the  bear-baiter ; "  on  Cuneglas,  whose  name,  he  is 
pleased  with  recollecting,  implies  the  "  yellow  bull- 
dog ; "  and  on  Maglocune,  "  the  dragon  of  the 
island,"  the  most  powerful  and  "  the  worst"  of  all.42 

40  See  his  first  tract  de  excidio  Brit. 

41  See  his  last  declamation  against  the  ecclesiastical  order  of  Britain,  of  which  he 
yet  says,  before  he  dies,  he  sometimes  wishes  to  be  a  member,  "  Ante  mortem  esse 
aliquandiu  participem  opto." 

42  It  is  his  epistola  in  which  these  expressions  occur,  with  copious  commentaries 
of  the  same  tendency.     I  am  rather  inclined  to  think,  that  one  of  the  passages 
against  Maglocune  alludes  to  his  having  aided  Mordred  against  the  celebrated 
Arthur.     "  Nonne  in  primis  adolesccntise  tuae  annis,  AVUNCULUM  REGEM  cumfor- 
tis.rimis  prope  modum  militibus,  quorum  vultus,  non  catulorum  leonis  in  acie  mag- 
nopere  dispares,  visebantur,  acerrime,  cnse,  hasta,  igni  oppressisti."    The  chronology 


174  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  But  the  very  excess  and  coarseness  of  the  invectives 
IL  of  Gildas,  display  such  a  cynicism  of  mind  and  atra- 
bilious feeling  in  himself,  as  not  only  to  show  that  he 
partook  of  the  dispositions  he  reprehends,  but  also 
that  he  has  so  much  exaggerated  the  actual  truth, 
that  we  cannot  disencumber  it  from  his  spleen,  his 
malice,  or  his  hyperboles.  Bede  has  condescended 
to  adopt  a  few  sentences  from  his  inculpations ;  but 
Nennius  has  not  copied  them ;  nor  has  Mark  the 
hermit,  one  of  the  last-known  revisers  of  Nennius, 
inserted  them.43  Yet  so  many  features  of  moral 
depravity  in  the  Roman  empire  at  this  period  are 
described  'by  Salvian,  who  witnessed  and  detailed 
them,  that  however  unwilling  we  are  to  adopt  the 

suits  Arthur,  and  the  king  with  his  brave  milites,  whose  countenances  in  battle 
were  not  much  unlike  lion's  whelps,  will  sound  like  remarkable  expressions,  to 
those  who  cherish  the  romances  on  Arthur  and  his  knights. 

43  Of  the  small  history  of  the  Britons  usually  ascribed  to  Nennius,  the  Rev.  W. 
Gunn  has  recently  (1819)  published  an  edition  from  a  MS.  in  the  Vatican,  that 
seems  to  be  of  the  age  of  the  tenth  century,  where  it  bears  the  name  of  Mark  the 
Anchorite.  "  Incipit  Historia  Brittonum  edita  ab  anachoreta  Marco  ejusdem  gentis 
scto  Epo.  p.  46.  The  original  is  on  parchment,  fairly  written  in  double  columns, 
and  fills  ten  pages  of  a  miscellaneous  volume  of  the  folio  size."  Gunn's  Pref.  It 
once  belonged  to  Christina,  the  celebrated  queen  of  Sweden.  The  two  MSS.  of  this 
work  in  the  British  Museum,  Vitel.  A.  13.  and  Vespas.  D.  21.,  have  the  name  of 
Nennius  as  the  author.  So  has  the  MS.  of  the  Hengwrt  library.  The  Bodleian 
MS.  No.  2016.,  now  No.  163.,  makes  Gildas  its  author:  "  A  Gilda  sapiente  com- 
posita."  Of  the  new  MS.  Mr.  Gunn  justly  says,  "  It  varies  not  as  to  general  im- 
port from  the  copies  already  known.  It  differs  from  those  edited  by  Gale  and 
Bertram  in  certain  transpositions  of  the  subject;  in  the  omission  of  two  introduc- 
tory prefaces ;  in  not  acknowledging  the  assistance  of  Samuel  Bewly,  the  reputed 
master  of  Nennius ;  and  in  detaching  the  life  of  St.  Patrick  from  the  body  of  the 
work,  and  placing  it  at  the  end."  Pref.  xxiv.  It  is  in  fact  the  former  work  dis- 
located and  curtailed.  I  think  these  alterations  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  Mark 
having  put  his  own  name  to  the  transcript  he  so  varied.  This  MS.  makes  one  of 
its  latest  computation  of  dates  in  946,  and  the  fifth  year  of  Edmund  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  king,  p.  45.  But  this  year  is  afterwards  protracted  to  994,  pp.  62.  and  80. 
The  dates  of  all  the  copies  are  inconsistent.  Mark  by  his  date  has  varied  that  of 
Nennius,  which  in  the  MSS.  used  by  Gale  was  800,  and  in  the  Hengwrt  MS.  796, 
and  in  c.  xi.  is  made  876.  This  would  imply  that  the  chronicle  had  both  earlier 
authors  and  revisals  than  Mark.  Jeffry  quotes  Gildas  frequently  as  a  writer  of 
some  history  which  we  have  not ;  and  as  this  history  of  Nennius  has  had  the  name 
of  Gildas  prefixed  to  it,  and  bears  so  many  marks  of  dislocated  passages  and  changes 
of  its  dates,  I  am  tempted  to  think  that  it  is  an  old  chronicle  revised  and  altered 
by  several  hands.  Gildas  may  have  made  the  first  sketch  of  part  of  it.  His  work, 
Nennius  in  the  ninth  century  may  have  abridged  and  carried  on,  and  Mark  in  the 
next  age  have  added  his  revisal.  It  is  clear  that  the  history  of  Nennius  is  not  the 
whole  work  of  Gildas  to  which  Jeffry  alludes,  because  it  does  not  contain  the 
incident  to  which  he  refers.  It  is  therefore  either  an  extract  or  a  different  work. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


175 


violent  abuse  and  repulsive  rhetoric  of  Gildas,  there 
is  too  much  reason  to  fear,  that  many  of  the  deformi- 
ties which  his  coarse  daubing  has  distorted  almost 
into  incredibility,  degraded  the  character  and  acce- 
lerated the  downfall  of  our  ancient  British  prede- 
cessors.44 


CHAP. 
vur. 


See  Salv.  de  Gub. 


7. 


APPENDIX 


TO 


BOOK  II, 


THE  MANNERS  OF  THE  SAXONS  IN  THEIR 
PAGAN  STATE. 

CHAP.  I. 

The  Character  and  Persons  of  the  most  ancient  SAXONS. 

CHAP.      "WE  may  now  pause  to  consider  the  most  prominent  features 
*•          of  the  Saxons  before  they  established  themselves  in  Britain. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  came  to  England  from  the  Germanic 
continent ;  and  above  a  century  had  elapsed  from  their  first 
settlements  before  they  received  those  improvements  and 
changes  which  followed  the  introduction  of  the  Christian 
system.  These  circumstances  make  it  necessary  to  exhibit 
them  as  they  were  in  their  continental  and  pagan  state, 
before  they  are  delineated  with  the  features,  and  in  the  dress 
of  Christianity. 

It  would  be  extremely  desirable  to  give  a  complete  portrait 
of  our  ancestors  in  their  uncivilised  state ;  but  this  is  an 
epocha  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind  which  in  former 
times  seldom  interested  any  one,  and  has  not  been  faithfully 
detailed.  Hence  on  this  subject  curiosity  must  submit  to  be 
disappointed.  The  converted  Anglo-Saxon  remembered  the 
practices  of  his  idolatrous  ancestors  with  too  much  abhorrence, 
to  record  them  for  the  notice  of  future  ages ;  and  as  we  have 
no  Runic  spells  to  call  the  pagan  warrior  from  his  grave,  we 
can  only  see  him  in  those  imperfect  sketches  which  patient 
industry  may  collect  from  the  passages  scattered  in  the 
works  which  time  has  spared. 


TO   BOOK  II.  177 

The  character  of  the  ancient  Saxons  displayed  the  qualities 
of  fearless,  active,  and  successful  pirates.  It  is  not  merely 
the  Spanish  churchman  Orosius  *,  who  speaks  of  them  as 
dreadful  for  their  courage  and  agility,  but  the  emperor  Julian, 
who  had  lived  among  barbarians,  and  who  had  fought  with 
some  Saxon  tribes,  denotes  them  as  distinguished  amongst 
their  neighbours  for  vehemence  and  valour.2  Zosimus,  their 
contemporary,  expresses  the  general  feeling  of  his  age,  when 
he  ranks  them  as  superior  to  others  in  energy,  strength,  and 
warlike  fortitude.3 

Their  ferocious 4  qualities  were  nourished  by  the  habit  of 
indiscriminate  depredation.  It  was  from  the  cruelty  and 
destructiveness,  as  well  as  from  the  suddenness  of  their  in- 
cursions, that  they  were  dreaded  more  than  any  other  people. 
Like  the  Danes  and  Norwegians,  their  successors  and  assail- 
ants, they  desolated  where  they  plundered  with  the  sword 
and  flame.5 

It  was  consistency  in  such  men  to  be  inattentive  to  danger. 
They  launched  their  predatory  vessels,  and  suffered  the 
wind  to  blow  them  to  any  foreign  coast,  indifferent  whether 
the  result  was  a  depredation  unresisted,  or  the  deathful 
conflict.  Such  was  their  cupidity,  or  their  brutal  hardihood, 
that  they  often  preferred  embarking  in  the  tempest  which 
might  shipwreck  them,  because  at  such  a  season  their  victims 
would  be  more  unguarded.  Their  warfare  did  not  originate 
from  the  more  generous,  or  the  more  pardonable  of  man's 
evil  passions.  It  was  the  offspring  of  the  basest.  Their 
swords  were  not  unsheathed  by  ambition  or  resentment.  The 
love  of  plunder  and  of  cruelty  was  their  favourite  habit ;  and 
hence  they  attacked,  indifferently,  every  coast  which  they 
could  reach.6 

Inland  provinces  were  not  protected  from  their  invasion. 
From  ignorance,  necessity,  or  policy,  they  traversed  the 
ocean  in  boats  framed  of  osiers,  and  covered  with  skins  sewed 
together ;  and  such  was  their  skill  or  their  prodigality  of  life, 


1  Orosius,  lib.  vii.  c.  32. 

2  Julian  Imp.  Orat.  de  laud.  Const,  p.  116. 

3  Zosimus,  lib.  iii.  p.  147.  ed.  Ox. 

4  Salvian  says,  gens  Saxonum  fera  est,  de  Gub.  Dei,  lib.  iv.     V.  Fortunatus  calls 
them  "  aspera  gens,  vivens  quasi  more  ferino,"  Bib.  Mag.  Pat.  viii.  787. ;  and  Si- 
donius  has  the  strong  expression  of  "  omni  hosti  truculentior,"  lib.  viii.  c.  7.    Even 
in  the  eighth  century  the  Saxons  on  the  continent  are  described  by  Eginhard  as 
"  natura  feroces,"  p.  4. 

5  Amm.  Marcell.  lib.  xxviii.  c.  3. 

6  Amm.  Marcell.  lib.  xxviii.  c.  3.,  xxvii.  c.  8.  Sid.  Apoll. 
VOL.  I.  N 


178  APPENDIX 

that  in  these  they  sported  in  the  tempests  of  the  German 
Ocean.7 

It  is  possible  that  men  who  had  seen  the  vessels  in  which 
the  Francs  had  escaped  from  the  Pontus,  and  who  had  been 
twice  instructed  by  imperial  usurpers  in  the  naval  art,  might 
have  constructed  more  important  war  ships  if  their  judgment 
had  approved.  Although  their  isles,  and  their  maritime 
provinces  of  Ditmarsia  and  Stormaria,  were  barren  of  wood, 
yet  Holsatia  abounded  with  it ;  and  if  their  defective  land- 
carriage  prevented  the  frequency  of  this  supply,  the  Elbe 
was  at  hand  to  float  down  inexhaustible  stores  from  the 
immense  forests  of  Germany. 

They  may  have  preferred  their  light  skiffs 8,  from  an  ex- 
perience of  their  superior  utility.  When  their  fatal  in- 
cursions had  incited  the  Romans  to  fortify  and  to  garrison 
the  frontier  of  Britain  and  Gaul,  the  Saxons  directed  their 
enmity  against  the  inland  regions.  For  their  peculiar  vessels 
no  coast  was  too  shallow,  no  river  too  small ;  they  dared  to 
ascend  the  streams  for  eighty  or  an  hundred  miles ;  and  if 
other  plunder  invited,  or  danger  pressed,  they  carried  their 
vessels  from  one  river  to  another,  and  thus  escaped  with 
facility  from  the  most  superior  foe.9 

Of  the  Saxons,  an  author  of  the  fifth  century  says  to  a 
friend  who  was  opposed  to  them,  "  You  see  as  many  piratical 
leaders  as  you  behold  rowers,  for  they  all  command,  obey, 
teach,  and  learn  the  art  of  pillage.  Hence,  after  your 
greatest  caution,  still  greater  care  is  requisite.  This  enemy 
is  fiercer  than  any  other ;  if  you  be  unguarded,  they  attack ; 
if  prepared,  they  elude  you.  They  despise  the  opposing,  and 
destroy  the  unwary ;  if  they  pursue,  they  overtake ;  if  they 
fly,  they  escape.  Shipwrecks  discipline  them,  not  deter; 
they  do  not  merely  know,  they  are  familiar  with,  all  the 
dangers  of  the  sea;  a  tempest  gives  them  security  and 
success,  for  it  divests  the  meditated  land  of  the  apprehension 
of  a  descent.  In  the  midst  of  waves  and  threatening  rocks 
they  rejoice  at  their  peril,  because  they  hope  to  surprise." 10 

As  their  naval   expeditions,  though  often  wildly  daring, 

7  That  this  ocean  was  anciently  dangerous  from  its  tempests,  Boniface,  the  self- 
devoted  missionary  of  Germany,  often  states  :   periculosum  est  navigantibus,  p.  52. 
Germanici  tempestatibus  rnaris  undique  quassantibus  fatigati  senis  miserere,  p.  59. 
vol.  xvi.  Bib.  Mag.  Patrum. 

8  On  the  vessels  of  the  Saxons,  see  Du  Bos,  Hist.  Crit.  de  la  Mon.  de  France,  i. 

p.  150 Mioparo  quasi  minimus  paro  ;  idem  et  carabus.     Est  parva  scapha  ex 

vimine  facta  qua?  contexta  crudo  corio  genus  navigii  prabet     Isidorus  Orig.  lib.  xix. 

9  See  Du  Bos,  149.     Gibbon,  ii.  524.  10  Sid.  Apoll.  Epist.  lib.  8. 


TO   BOOK  II.  179 

were  much  governed  by  the  policy  of  surprise,  so  their  land 
incursions  were  sometimes  conducted  with  all  the  craft  of 
robbers.  "  Dispersed  into  many  bodies,"  says  Zosimus,  of 
some  of  their  confederates,  "  they  plundered  by  night,  and 
when  day  appeared,  they  concealed  themselves  in  the  woods, 
feasting  on  the  booty  they  had  gained."11  They  are,  how- 
ever, seldom  mentioned  by  the  historians  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  without  some  epithets  which  express  a  su- 
periority over  other  men  in  their  achievements  or  their 
courage. 

The  ferocity  of  the  Saxon  character  would  seem  to  suit  f 
better  the  dark  and  melancholy  physiognomies  of  Asia  and  4 
Africa,  than  the  fair,  pleasing,  and  blue-eyed  countenances 
by  which  our  ancestors  are  described.12  But  though  nature 
had  supplied  them  with  the  germs  of  those  amiable  qualities 
which  have  become  the  national  character  of  their  descendants, 
their  direful  customs,  their  acquired  passions,  and  barbarous 
education  perverted  every  good  propensity.  So  ductile  is 
the  human  capacity,  that  there  is  no  colour,  climate,  or  con- 
stitution which  governs  the  moral  character  so  permanently 
as  the  good  or  evil  habits  and  discipline  to  which  it  is  sub- 
jected. An  incident  mentioned  by  Symmachus  shows  that 
they  had  a  pride  of  mind  which  could  not  endure  disgrace. 
He  says  that  twenty-nine  Saxons  strangled  themselves  to 
avoid  being  brought  into  a  theatre  for  a  gladiatorial  show.13 

Their  persons  were  of  the  largest  size.  On  the  continent 
they  were  so  proud  of  their  forms  and  their  descent,  and  so 
anxious  to  perpetuate  them,  that  they  were  averse  to 
marriages  with  other  nations.14  Hence  the  colour  of  the 
hair  of  their  males  is  mentioned  as  uniform.  In  the  fourth 
century  they  cut  their  hair  so  close  to  the  skin,  that  the 
appearance  of  the  head  was  diminished  and  the  face  enlarged.15 
In  the  following  ages,  their  hair  behind  is  mentioned  as 

11  Zosimus,  lib.  iii.  p.  149.   This  tribe,  whom  he  calls  Quadi,  Marcellinus,  lib.  xvii. 
c.  8.,  more  correctly  names  Chamavi.    These  robbers  were  destroyed  by  one  Chariette, 
a  Franc,  who  organised  some  corps  on  the  same  plan. 

12  Sidon.  Apoll.  lib.  viii.  ep.  9.     Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  1.      The  expressions  applied  by 
Tacitus  to  all  the  German  nations  are  "  truces,  et  cerulei  oculi." 

13  Ep.  xlvi.  lib.  2.  p.  90. 

14  Meginh.  ib.  ap.  Lang.  Script.  Dan.  torn.  ii.  p.  39.     Wittichind.  p.  5.     Tacitus 
had  expressed  the  same  of  all  the  German  tribes. 

15  Cujus  vertices  extimas  per  oras 
Non  contenta  suos  tenere  morsus 
Arctat  lamina  marginem  comarum 
Et  sic  crinibus  ad  cutem  recisis 
Decrescit  caput,  additurque  vultus. 

Sid.  Ap. 

N  2 


180 


APPENDIX 


CHAP. 
I. 


diffused  upon  their  shoulders  l6 ;  and  an  ancient  Saxon  law 
punished  the  man  who  seized  another  by  the  hair.17 

In  their  dress,  their  loose  linen  vests  were  adorned  with 
trimming,  woven  in  different  colours.18  Their  external  gar- 
ment was  the  sagum,  or  cloak  l9,  and  they  had  shoes.  Their 
females  had  gowns,  and  several  ornaments  for  the  arms, 
hands,  and  neck.20 

The  Saxons  who  invaded  Thuringia  in  the  sixth  century, 
are  described  by  Wittichind  as  leaning  on  small  shields, 
with  long  lances,  and  with  great  knives,  or  crooked  swords, 
by  their  sides.21  Fabricius,  an  author  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  saw,  in  an  ancient  picture  of  a  Saxon,  a  sword  bent 
into  a  semilunar  shape.22  He  adds,  that  their  shields  were 
suspended  by  chains,  that  their  horsemen  used  long  iron 
sledge  hammers 23,  and  that  their  armour  was  heavy.  I  have 
not  met  with  the  documents  from  which  he  took  these  cir- 
cumstances. 


16  Wittichind,  p.  5.  17  1  Linden.  Codex  Legum,  p.  474. 

18  Paul.  Warnefrid  de  Gest.  Langob.  lib.  iv.  c.  23.   p.  838.   ed.  Grot.     The  vest 
is  mentioned  in  the  old  Saxon  law,  p.  474.,  and  their  idol,  Crodus,  had  one.  — 
Fabric.  Hist.  Sax.  torn.  i.  p.  61. 

19  Wittichind,   p.  5.  ;  and  see  Lindenbrog  Glossary,  Voc.  Sagum,  and  Weiss. 
The  curious  may  see  a  description  of  the  dress  of  a  Franc  in  the  Monk  of  St.  Gall's 
life  of  Charlemagne,  and  of  a  Longobard  in  P.  Warnefridus,  lib.  iv.  c.  23. 

20  One  is  called  in  the  old  Anglian  law  the  Rhedo,  to  the  stealing  of  which  the 
same  penalty  was  attached  as  to  stealing  six  sows  with  pig.     The  mother,  in  the 
same  law,  might  at  her  death  leave  to  her  son,  land,  slaves,  and  money ;  to  her 
daughter,  the  ornaments  of  the  neck  ;  id  est,  muraenas  (necklaces),  nuscas,  monilia 
(collars),  inaures  (ear-rings),  vestes,  armillas  (bracelets),  vel  quicquid  ornament! 
proprii  videbatur  habuisse.      1  Lindenb.  p.  484. 

21  Wittichind,  5.     As  Tacitus  remarks  that  the  Germans  seldom  had  swords,  and 
more  generally  javelins,  there  is  some  plausibility  in  the  derivation  of  the  Saxon 
name  from  their  sachs,  or  peculiar  swords.    The  Cimbri,  on  the  contrary,  had  great 
and  long  swords,  according  to  Plutarch,  in  his  life  of  Marius. 

22  Fabric,  i.  p.  66. 

&  The  favourite  weapon  j>f  Thor,  according  to  the  Northern  Eddas,  was  a  mallet. 


TO   BOOK  II.  181 


CHAP.  II. 

The  Government  and  Laws  of  the  more  ancient  SAXONS. 

IT  is  said  by  Aristotle,  that  whoever  lives  voluntarily  out  of      CHAP. 

civil  society  must  have  a  vicious  disposition,  or  be  an  exist-   ( 

ence  superior  to  man.1  But  nature  has  endeavoured  to  pre- 
serve her  noblest  offspring  from  this  dismal  and  flagitious 
independence.  She  has  given  us  faculties  which  can  be  only 
used,  and  wants  which  can  be  only  provided  for,  in  society. 
She  has  made  the  social  union  inseparable  from  our  safety, 
our  virtue,  our  pride,  and  our  felicity. 

Government  and  laws  must  have  been  coeval  with  society, 
for  they  are  essentially  necessary  to  its  continuance.  A 
spacious  edifice  might  as  well  be  expected  to  last  without 
cement  or  foundation,  as  a  society  to  subsist  without  some 
regulations  of  individual  will,  and  some  acknowledged  autho- 
rity to  enforce  their  observance. 

The  Athenian  philosopher  has  correctly  traced  the  pro- 
gress of  our  species  towards  political  institutions.  The  con- 
nubial union  is  one  of  the  most  imperious  and  most  acceptable 
laws  of  our  frame.  From  this  arose  families  and  relationships. 
Families  enlarged  into  villages  and  towns,  and  an  aggregation 
of  these  gave  being  to  a  state.2 

A  family  is  naturally  governed  by  its  parents,  and  its 
ramifications  by  the  aged.  The  father,  says  Homer,  is  the 
legislator  to  his  wife  and  children.3  Among  most  barbarous 
tribes,  the  aged  ancestors  have  prescribed  to  the  community 
the  rules  of  mutual  behaviour,  and  have  adjudged  disputes. 
As  population  has  multiplied,  civilisation  advanced,  and  the 
sphere  of  human  activity  has  been  enlarged,  more  precise 
regulations,  more  decided  subordination,  and  more  compli- 
cated governments  became  necessary,  and  have  been  esta- 
blished. 

That  the  Saxon  societies,  in  their  early  stages,  were 
governed  by  the  aged,  is  very  strikingly  shown  in  the  fact, 

1  Aristotle's  Politic,  lib.  i.  c.  2.  p.  380.  ed.  1606. 

2  Aristot.  lib.  i.  c.  3.  p.  381.     This  is  one  of  Aristotle's  most  valuable  works,  and 
will  repay  with  great  profit  a  careful  attention. 

3  Cited  by  Aristot.  ibid.  p.  379. 

N  3 


182  APPENDIX 

that  the  words  of  their  language  which  denote  authority,  also 
express  age.  When  it  states  that  Joseph  was  appointed 
ruler  over  Egypt,  the  words  are,  "  refce  into  ealbne  oven 
^5yPta  lank'" 4  -For  Caesar,  the  emperor,  we  have  "  Ca- 
repar  tha  beoth  cymnga  ylbert"5  Here  eldest  is  used  as 
synonymous  to  greatest.  A  British  general  is  called  an 
"ealbojiman."6  The  Latin  term  satrapa,  by  which  Bede 
expressed  the  ruling  Saxon  chief  of  a  district  on  the  conti- 
nent, is  rendered  by  his  royal  translator,  "  ealbonman." 7  The 
phrase  of  "  a  certain  ruler,"  in  St.  Luke,  is,  in  the  Saxon 
Gospel,  "  rum  ealboji."  8  The  contest  between  the  disciples 
of  Christ  which  should  be  the  greatest,  is  expressed  in  the 
Saxon,  which  should  be  the  ylbert.9  The  aged  were  the 
primitive  chiefs  and  governors,  among  the  Saxons,  and  there- 
fore the  terms  expressing  age  were  used  to  denote  dignity  so 
habitually  that  they  were  retained  in  common  phrase,  even 
after  the  custom  of  connecting  power  with  seniority  had 
become  obsolete. 

The  most  ancient  account  of  the  Saxon  government  on  the 
continent  exists  in  this  short  but  expressive  passage  of  Bede : 
"  The  ancient  Saxons  have  no  king,  but  many  chiefs  set  over 
their  people,  who,  when  war  presses,  draw  lots  equally  ;  and 
whomsoever  the  chance  points  out,  they  all  follow  as  leader, 
and  obey  during  the  war.  The  war  concluded,  all  the  chiefs 
become  again  of  equal  power."  10 

That  the  continental  Saxons  in  the  eighth  and  preceding 
centuries  were  under  an  aristocracy  of  chieftains,  and  had 
no  kings  but  in  war ;  and  that  the  war-kings  who  were  then 
chosen  laid  aside  their  power  when  peace  was  re-established, 
is  attested  by  other  ancient  authorities.11  More  recent  his- 

4  Genesis,  xlv.  v.  8.,  in  Thwaite's  Saxon  Heptateuch. 

5  So  the  pontifex  is  called  ylberta  bij*ceop,  Orosius,  lib.  v.  c.  4. 

6  Sax.  Chron.  7  Smith's  edition  of  Bede,  p.  624. 

8  Luke,  xviii.  v.  18.      So  the  highest  seats  in  the  synagogue  are  called  tha 
ylbej-Can  retl,  Luke,  xx.  46.     The  Saxons  had  ylbejr  pyphta  for  the  chief  work- 
man, ylbert;  picins  for  the  chief  of  pirates,  on  rcype  ylbort  for  a  pilot,  ylebert  on 
tham  yr-elan  plocce  for  prince  of  that  evil  flock.      So  Bede's  "  he  who  by  the  pri- 
ority of  seat  seemed  to  he  their  chief,"  lib.  v.  c.  13.,  is  rendered  by  Alfred  re  per 
retler  ylbert  et  me  thuhce  tha  he  heojia  ealboji  beon  rceolbe,  p.  633. 

9  Luke,  xxii.  v.  24. 

10  Bede,  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  v.  c.  10.  p.  192. 

11  The  ancient  Saxon  poet  says,  — 

Qua?  nee  rege  fuit  saltern  sociata  sub  uno 

Ut  se  militise  pariter  defenderet  usu  : 

Sed  variis  divisa  modis  plebs  omnis  habebat, 

Quot  pagos,  tot  pene  duces.  Du  Chesne. 

Si  autem  universale  bellum  ingrueret,  sorte  eligitur  cui  omnes  obedire  oporteat 
ad  administrandum  imminens  bellum.  Quo  peracto,  eequo  jure  ac  lege  propria 
contentus  potestate  unusquisque  vivebat Wittichind,  lib.  i.  p.  7.  So  the  Vetus 


TO   BOOK  II.  183 

torians  have  repeated  the  assertion.12  Caesar  gives  an  account  CHAP. 
nearly  similar  of  the  German  magistracy  in  his  time.13  We 
may,  therefore,  safely  infer,  that  when  the  Anglo-Saxons 
visited  England,  they  came  under  war-kings.  The  reigns  of 
Hengist,  and  of  the  founders  of  the  dynasties  of  the  Octarchy, 
were  so  many  periods  of  continued  warfare,  and  their  imme- 
diate posterity  were  assailed  with  hostility  from  the  natives 
almost  perpetual.  The  Anglo-Saxons  were  under  a  necessity 
of  continuing  their  war-kings,  until  at  length  a  permanent, 
though  a  limited,  monarchy  was  established.  Their  chiefs, 
or  witena,  continued  in  their  influence  arid  power.  They 
elected  the  king,  though  they  chose  him  from  the  family  of 
the  deceased  sovereign ;  and  their  consent  in  their  gemot 
continued  to  be  necessary  to  the  more  important  acts  of  his 
authority. 

There  were  four  orders  of  men  among  the  ancient  Saxons : 
the  Etheling  or  noble,  the  free  man,  the  freed  man,  and  the 
servile.  The  nobles  were  jealous  of  their  race  and  rank. 
Nobles  married  nobles  only,  and  the  severest  penalties  pro- 
hibited intrusions  of  one  rank  into  the  others.14 

Of  their  laws,  in  their  Pagan  state,  very  little  can  be 
detailed  from  authority  sufficiently  ancient.  From  the  uni- 
formity of  their  principles  of  legislation  in  continental  Saxony 
and  in  England  in  a  subsequent  period,  we  may  infer,  that 
pecuniary  compensation  was  their  general  mode  of  redressing 
personal  injuries,  and  of  punishing  criminal  offences.  This 
feature  certainly  announces  that  the  spirit  of  legislation 
began  to  be  understood,  and  that  the  sword  of  punishment 
had  been  wrested,  by  the  government,  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
vindictive  individual.  It  also  displays  a  state  of  society  in 
which  property  was  accumulating.  It  is,  however,  a  form 
of  punishment  which  is  adapted  to  the  first  epochas  of  civili- 

Theotisce  Chronicon  on  the  year  810.  Twelff  Edelinge  der  Sassen  dereden  over 
dat  lant  tho  Sassen.  Und  Wannere  dat  se  krich  in  dat  lant,  tho  Sassen  hadden  so 
koren  se  von  den  twelffen  einen,  de  was  ore  Koning  de  wile  de  krich  warde.  Und 
wan  de  krich  bericht  wart,  so  weren  de  twelffe  gelick,  so  was  des  einen  koniges 
state  uth,  und  was  den  anderon  gelick. — Lindenb.  Gloss.  1347.  This  is,  "  Twelve 
Ethelings  governed  over  the  land  of  the  Saxons  ;  and  whenever  war  arose  in  that 
land,  the  Saxons  chose  one  of  the  twelve  to  be  king  while  the  war  lasted  :  when 
the  war  was  finished  the  twelve  became  alike." 

12  Krantz  Metropol.  lib.  i.  c.  1.,  and  Belli  Dithmar.  p.  431.    Fabricius,  Hist.  Sax. 
I.  p.  69.      Sagittarius,  Hist.  Bard.  60. 

13  Quura  bellum  civitas  aut  illatum  defendit  aut  infert,  magistratus  qui  eo  bello 
prsesint,  ut  vitse  necisque  habeant  potestatem,  deliguntur.     In  pace  nullus  est  coin- 
munis  magistratus,  sed  principes  regionum  atque  pagorum  inter  suos  jus  dicunt 
controversiasque  minuunt. — De  Bell.  Gall.  lib.  vi.  c.  21. 

11  Meginhard,  2  Lang.  p.  40.  Nithardus,  lib.  iv.  Hucbald  Vita  B.  Lebuini,  Act. 
Sanct.  vol.  vi.  p.  282.,  and  Wittichind. 

N  4 


184  APPENDIX 

sation  only ;  because  as  wealth  is  more  generally  possessed, 
pecuniary  mulcts  become  legal  impunity. 

Their  severity  against  adultery  was  personal  and  san- 
guinary. If  a  woman  became  unchaste,  she  was  compelled 
to  hang  herself,  her  body  was  burnt,  and  over  her  ashes  the 
adulterer  was  executed.  Or  else  a  company  of  females 
whipped  her  from  district  to  district,  and,  dividing  her  gar- 
ments to  the  girdle,  they  pierced  her  body  with  their  knives. 
They  drove  her,  thus  bleeding,  from  their  habitations ;  and 
wheresoever  she  went,  new  collections  of  women  renewed  the 
cruel  punishment,  till  she  expired.15  This  dreadful  custom 
shows  that  the  savage  character  of  the  nation  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  males.  Female  chastity  is  indeed  a  virtue  as 
indispensable  as  it  is  attractive  :  but  its  proper  guardians  are 
the  maternal  example  and  tuition,  the  constitutional  delicacy 
of  the  female  mind,  its  native  love  of  honour,  and  the  uncor- 
rupted  voice  and  feeling  of  society.  If  it  can  be  only  main- 
tained by  the  horrors  of  a  Saxon  punishment,  the  nation  is 
too  barbarous,  or  too  contaminated,  to  be  benefited  by  the 
penalty. 

In  their  marriages  they  allowed  a  son  to  wed  his  father's 
widow,  and  a  brother  his  sister-in-law.16 

From  one  of  the  laws  of  their  confederates,  the  Frisians, 
who  were  among  the  tribes  that  settle  in  England,  we  learn 
that  their  religious  establishment  was  protected  by  penalties 
as  terrible  as  those  which  guarded  their  chastity.  "  Who- 
ever breaks  into  a  temple,  and  takes  away  any  of  the  sacred 
things,  let  him  be  led  to  the  sea,  and  in  the  sand  which  the 
tide  usually  covers,  let  his  ears  be  cut  off,  let  him  be  cas- 
trated, and  immolated  to  the  gods  whose  temples  he  has 
violated."  l7 

15  Boniface  describes  this  custom  in  his  letter  to  Ethelbald,  the  king  of  Mercia, 
in  Mag.  Bibl.  Patrum,  torn.  xvi.  p.  55. 

16  Sax.  Chron.     Bede,  i.  c.  27.  p.  64. 

17  Lex  Fris.  ap.  1.  Lindenb.  p.  508. 


TO   BOOK  II.  185 


CHAP.  III. 

The  Religion  of  the  SAXONS  in  their  Pagan  State. 

AT  this  happy  period  of  the  world,  we  cannot  reflect  on  the  CHAP. 
idolatry  of  ancient  times,  without  some  astonishment  at  the  v—_ 
infatuation  which  has  so  inveterately,  in  various  regions, 
clouded  the  human  mind.  We  feel,  indeed,  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  contemplate  the  grand  canopy  of  the  universe ; 
to  descry  the  planets  moving  in  governed  order;  to  find 
comets  darting  from  system  to  system  in  an  orbit  of  which 
a  space  almost  incalculable  is  the  diameter  ;  to  discover  con- 
stellations beyond  constellations  in  endless  multiplicity,  and 
to  have  indications  of  the  light  of  others  whose  full  beam  of 
splendour  has  not  yet  reached  us ;  we  feel  it  impossible  to 
meditate  on  these  innumerable  theatres  of  existence,  without 
feeling  with  awe,  that  this  amazing  magnificence  of  nature 
announces  an  Author  tremendously  great.  But  it  is  very 
difficult  to  conceive  how  the  lessons  of  the  skies  should  have 
taught  that  localising  idolatry,  which  their  transcendent 
grandeur,  and  almost  infinite  extent,  seem  expressly  calcu- 
lated to  destroy. 

The  most  ancient  religions  of  the  world  appear  to  have 
been  pure  theism,  with  neither  idols  nor  temples.  These 
essential  agents  in  the  political  mechanism  of  idolatry  were 
unknown  to  the  ancient  Pelasgians,  from  whom  the  Grecians 
chiefly  sprung,  and  to  the  early  Egyptians  and  Romans. 
The  Jewish  patriarchs  had  them  not,  and  even  our  German 
ancestors,  according  to  Tacitus,  were  without  them. 

In  every  nation  but  the  Jewish  a  more  gross  system  of 
superstition  was  gradually  established.  The  Deity  was  de- 
throned by  the  symbols  which  human  folly  selected  as  his 
representatives  ;  the  most  ancient  of  these  were  the  heavenly 
bodies,  the  most  pardonable  objects  of  erring  adoration.  But 
when  it  was  found  possible  to  make  superstition  a  profitable 
craft,  then  departed  heroes  and  kings  were  exalted  into  gods. 
Delirious  fancy  soon  added  others  so  profusely,  that  the  air, 
the  sea,  the  rivers,  the  woods,  and  the  earth  became  so 
stocked  with  divinities,  that  it  was  easier,  as  an  ancient  sage 
remarked,  to  find  a  deity  than  a  man. 


136  APPENDIX 

But  if  we  meditate  more  profoundly  on  the  subject,  we 
may  infer  that  polytheism  and  idolatry  were  in  part  the 
effects  of  human  pride  throwing  off  all  superior  tuition  ;  and 
in  part  the  natural  progress  of  the  human  mind  towards 
knowledge,  and  in  reasoning.  They  were  erroneous  deduc- 
tions, but  they  were,  in  some  of  their  authors,  mistaken  efforts 
at  improvement.  As  the  intellect  became  more  exercised,  and 
the  sensibilities  awakened ;  and  as  vice  began  to  spread,  the 
idea  arose  in  some  that  the  adored  Supreme  was  so  great,  and 
man  so  unworthy,  that  human  beings,  or  concerns,  could  not 
be  objects  of  his  divine  attention.  In  others  a  desire  began 
to  withdraw  from  the  sovereignty  of  a  Being  so  perfect  and 
so  holy,  that  the  pleasures  of  the  body  might  be  indulged 
with  less  restriction  and  remorse.  Hence  every  supposition 
was  encouraged  that  favoured  the  wish  of  mankind  to  have 
deities  more  resembling  their  own  imperfections ;  and  the 
theory  of  our  world  being  consigned  to  inferior  divinities 
more  like  our  feeble  selves,  was  a  welcomed  suggestion,  be- 
cause it  attempted  to  reconcile  the  perception  of  the  exalted 
majesty  of  the  Deity  with  the  feeling  of  the  daily  misconduct 
and  follies  of  the  human  race.  Mankind  would  neither  deny 
his  existence,  nor  disbelieve  his  providence,  nor  could  they 
live  in  comfort  without  believing  both ;  and  polytheism  was 
therefore  patronised  by  the  refining  and  self-indulging  reli- 
gious intellect,  as  a  supposition  calculated  to  unite  both  these 
truths,  and  to  satisfy  the  doubts  of  the  scrupulous  and  in- 
quisitive. At  first  the  new  fancies  were  venerated  as  the 
ministers  and  delegates  of  the  Supreme.  But  as  new  dis- 
tinctions and  caprices  succeeded,  and  especially  after  the 
custom  of  allegorising  natural  phenomena  prevailed,  the  in- 
vented deities  were  multiplied,  and  connected  with  all  the 
departments  and  agencies  of  nature.  Hero-worship  emerged 
from  their  belief  of  the  soul's  immortality,  and  was  in  time 
added  to  that  excess  of  posthumous  gratitude  and  veneration 
to  which  mankind  are  always  prone.  These  follies  seem  to 
have  been  a  natural  consequence  of  man's  deserting  the  Divine 
guidance,  as  we  cannot  have  any  authentic  knowledge  of  the 
creation,  providence,  and  will  of  an  Almighty  Ruler  but  from 
his  own  revelations  of  these  awful  mysteries.  The  human 
race  had  no  choice  but  to  believe  and  to  preserve  faithfully 
all  that  he  had  communicated  to  them,  and  to  be  governed 
by  its  tuition.  But  when  once  the  taste  and  habit  had  be- 
come popular,  of  turning  from  His  grand  and  simple  truths 
to  create  and  prefer  the  speculations  of  Man's  own  ignorance 
and  conjecture,  error  and  falsehood  were  the  inevitable  results 


TO   BOOK  II.  187 

of  such  unfortunate  misconduct ;   the  mind  became  blinded      CHAP. 
and  'debased  by  its  own  theories,  and  the  world  was  filled 
with  superstition  and  absurdity. 

The  use  of  idols  was  an  attempt  to  solace  the  mind,  to 
excite  the  memory,  interest  the  feelings,  and  fix  the  attention 
by  a  visible  image  of  the  invisible  Omnipresence.  In  all  re- 
ligious countries  they  have  been  found  to  be  efficacious  for 
these  purposes,  especially  with  the  less  intellectual.  But  in 
all,  both  polytheism  and  idolatry  tend  at  last  to  fix  the  mind 
almost  exclusively  on  their  own  false  imaginations,  to  deprave 
the  reasoning  faculty,  to  supersede  the  adoration  of  the  uni- 
versal Parent,  and  to  occasion  the  most  deplorable  supersti- 
tions and  tyrannical  persecutions.  The  continuing  advance 
of  the  human  mind  then  led  to  the  abolition  of  both  these 
fictitious  systems  as  steadily  as  it  originally  suggested  them. 
When  our  Saxon  ancestors  had  settled  themselves  in  Eng- 
land they  used  both.  They  had  many  gods,  and  they  vene- 
rated their  images ;  but  that  the  progress  of  their  manly 
intellect  was  fast  operating  to  shake  the  attachment  to  the 
national  superstitions,  we  may  infer  from  the  candour  with 
which  they  listened  to  the  first  Christian  missionaries,  and 
from  the  rapidity  with  which  they  adopted  the  Christian 
faith. 

There  is  a  beauty  in  the  name  appropriated  by  the  Saxon 
and  German  nations  to  the  Deity  which  is  not  equalled  by 
any  other,  except  his  most  venerated  Hebrew  appellation. 
The  Saxons  call  him  GOD,  which  is  literally  THE  GOOD  ; 
the  same  word  signifying  both  the  Deity  and  his  most 
endearing  quality. 

The  peculiar  system  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  is  too  imper- 
fectly known  to  us  for  its  stages  to  be  discriminated,  or  its 
progress  detailed.  It  appears  to  have  been  of  a  very  mixed 
nature,  and  to  have  been  so  long  in  existence  as  to  have 
attained  a  regular  establishment  and  much  ceremonial  pomp. 

That  when  they  settled  in  Britain  they  had  idols,  altars, 
temples,  and  priests  ;  that  their  temples  were  surrounded  with 
inclosures ;  that  they  were  profaned  if  lances  were  thrown 
into  them ;  and  that  it  was  not  lawful  for  a  priest  to  bear 
arms,  or  to  ride  but  on  a  mare ;  we  learn  from  the  unques- 
tionable authority  of  our  venerable  Bede. l 

1  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  13.  et  9.;  lib.  ii.  c.  6.  Pope  Gregory  mentions,  that  if  their 
pagan  temples  were  well  built,  they  might  be  used  for  Christian  churches,  lib.  i. 
c.  30.  Their  name  for  idol  was  plS,  and  for  altar  pigbeb,  the  table  or  bed  of  the 
idol.  The  word  PIS  also  signifies  war,  and  this  may  imply  either  that  the  idol  was 
a  warrior  or  the  god  of  war. 


188  APPENDIX 

Some  of  the  subjects  of  their  adoration  we  find  in  their 
names  for  the  days  of  the  week. 

Sunday,  or  Sunnan  bsej,     is  the  Sun's  day. 

Monday,  or  GQonan  baeg,      is  Moon's  day. 

Tuesday,  or  Tiper  baej,        is  Tiw's  day. 

Wednesday,  or  UUobnef  baeg,    is  Woden's  day. 

Thursday,  or  Thunpef  bsej,  is  Thunre's  day. 

Friday,  or  Fngebsej,          is  Friga's  day. 

Saturday,  or  Setepnej*  baej,  is  Seterne's  day.2 

Of  the  sun  and  moon  we  can  only  state,  that  their  sun  was 
a  female  deity,  and  their  moon  was  of  the  male  sex3;  of 
their  Tiw,  we  know  nothing  but  his  name.  Woden  was  the 

freat  ancestor  from  whom  they  deduced  their  genealogies, 
t  will  be  hereafter  shown  that  the  calculations  from  the 
Saxon  pedigrees  place  Woden  in  the  third  century. 4  Of  the 
Saxon  Woden,  his  wife  Friga,  and  of  Thunr,  or  Thor,  we 
know  very  little,  and  it  would  not  be  very  profitable  to  detail 
all  the  reveries  which  have  been  published  about  them.  The 
Odin,  Frigg,  or  Friga,  and  Thor,  of  the  Northmen,  were 
obviously  the  same  characters ;  though  we  may  hesitate  to 
ascribe  to  the  Saxon  deities  the  apparatus  and  mythology 
which  the  Northern  scalds  of  subsequent  ages  have  transmitted 
to  us  from  Denmark,  Iceland,  and  Norway.  Woden  was 
the  predominant  idol  of  the  Saxon  adoration,  but  we  can 

2  I  take  the  Saxon  names  of  the  days  of  the  week  from  the  Cotton  MS.  Tiberius 
A.  3.     They  may  be  also  found  in  the  Saxon  Gospels,  p.  24  S.  72  M.  55  T.  48  W. 

49  Th.  28  F.  52  S.     As  Thoji  means  also  a  mountain,  his  name  may  have  some 
connection  with  the  ancient  Eastern  custom  of  worshipping  on  mountains  and  hills. 
He  was  called  the  god  of  thunder ;  hence  is  named  Thunne.      The  word  Thop 
seems  to  imply  the  mountain'  deity. 

3  The  same  peculiarity  of  genders  prevailed  in  the  ancient  Northern  language. 
Edda  Semundi,  p.  14.     It  is  curious,  that  in  the  passage  of  the  Arabian  poet,  cited 
by  Pocock,  in  not.  ad  Carmen  Tograi,   p.  13.,  we  meet  with  a  female  sun  and 
masculine  moon.     The  distich  is, — 

Nee  nomen  femininum  soli  dedecus, 
Nee  masculinum  lunae  gloria. 

50  the  Caribbees  think  the  moon  a  man,  and  therefore  make  it  masculine,  and  call 
it  Noneim.     Breton's  Gram.  Carabb.  p.  20.      So  the  Hindu  Chandra,  or  moon,  is 
a  male  deity.     2  A.  R.  127.     The  priests  of  Ceres  called  the  moon  Apis,  and  also 
Taurus.    Porph.  deAnt.  Reg.  119.    Caesar  mentions,  that  the  Germans  worshipped 
the  sun  and  moon,  lib.  vi.  c.  19.     In  the  Saxon  treatise  on  the  vernal  equinox  we 
have  their  peculiar  genders  of  these  bodies  displayed.     «  When  the  sun  goeth  at 
evening  under  this  earth,  then  is  the  earth's  breadth  between  us  and  the  sun ;  so 
that  we  have  not  her  light  till  she  rises  up  at  the  other  end."     Of  the  moon  it  says, 
"  always  he  turns  his  ridge  to  the  sun."—"  The  moon  hath  no  light  but  of  the  sun, 
and  he  is  of  all  stars  the  lowest."— Cotton  MS.  Tib.  A.  iii.  p.  63. 

Perhaps  hleoihop,  the  Saxon  for  oracle,  may  have  some  reference  to  Thoji. 
Dleo  means  a  shady  place,  or  an  asylum.  Dleothoji  is  literally  the  retirement  of 
Thon.  Dleothon  cpybe  means  the  saying  of  an  oracle,  Dleothojijtebe  the  place  of 
an  oracle. 


TO   BOOK  II.  189 

state  no  more  of  him  but  so  far  as  we  describe  the  Odin  of      CHAP. 
the  Danes  and  Norwegians.5  IIL 

The  names  of  two  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  goddesses  have  been 
transmitted  to  us  by  Bede.  He  mentions  RHEDA,  to  whom 
they  sacrificed  in  March,  which,  from  her  rites,  received  the 
appellation  of  Rheb-monath  ;  and  EOSTKE,  whose  festivities 
were  celebrated  in  April,  which  thence  obtained  the  name  of 
Gortpe-monath.6  Her  name  is  still  retained  to  express  the 
season  of  our  great  paschal  solemnity  :  and  thus  the  memory 
of  one  of  the  idols  of  our  ancestors  will  be  perpetuated  as 
long  as  our  language  and  country  continue.  Their  name  for 
a  goddess  was  jybena ;  and  as  the  word  is  applied  as  a  proper 
name  instead  of  Vesta7,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they  had  a 
peculiar  divinity  so  called. 

The  idol  adored  in  Heiligland,  one  of  the  islands  originally 
occupied  by  the  Saxons,  was  FOSETE,  who  was  so  celebrated 
that  the  place  became  known  by  his  name ;  it  was  called 
Foreterlanb.  Temples  were  there  built  to  him,  and  the 
country  was  deemed  so  sacred,  that  none  dared  to  touch  any 
animal  which  fed  on  it,  nor  to  draw  water  from  a  fountain 
which  flowed  there,  unless  in  awful  silence.  In  the  eighth 
century,  Willebrord,  a  converted  Anglo-Saxon,  born  in  Nor- 

5  Without  imitating  those  who  have  lately  fancied  that  there  never  was  an  Odin, 
and  that  he  is  merely  a  mythological  personage,  the  name  of  a  deity,  we  may  re- 
mark, that  the  date  of  Odin's  appearance  in  the  North  cannot  be  accurately  ascer- 
tained.    This  difficulty  has  arisen  partly  from  the  confusion  in  which,  from  their 
want  of  chronology,  all  the  incidents  of  the  North,  anterior  to  the  eighth  century, 
are  involved,  and  partly  from  the  wild  and  discordant  fictions  of  the  scalds,  who 
have  clouded  the  history  of  Odin  by  their  fantastic  mythology.     The  same  obscurity 
attends  the  heroes  of  all  countries  who  have  been  deified  after  death,  and  upon 
whose  memory  the  poets  have  taken  the  trouble  to  scatter  the  weeds  as  well  as  the 
flowers  of  their  fancy.     The  human  existence  of  Odin  appears  to  me  to  be  satis- 
factorily proved  by  two  facts :   1st.  The  founders  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Octarchy  de- 
duced their  descent  from  Odin  by  genealogies  in  which  the  ancestors  are  distinctly 
mentioned  up  to  him.     These  genealogies  have  the  appearance  of  greater  authen- 
ticity by  not  being  the  servile  copies  of  each  other ;  they  exhibit  to  us  different 
individuals  in  the  successive  stages  of  the  ancestry  of  each,  and  they  claim  different 
children  of  Odin  as  the  founders  of  the  lines.     These  genealogies  are  also  purely 
Anglo-Saxon.     2d,  The  other  circumstance  is,  that  the  Northern  chroniclers  and 
scalds  derive  their  heroes  also  from  Odin  by  his  different  children.      Snorre,  in  his 
Ynglinga  Saga,  gives  a  detailed  history  of  Sweden  regularly  from  him ;  and  though 
the  Northerns  cannot  be  suspected  of  having  borrowed  their  genealogies  from  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  yet  they  agree  in  some  of  the  children  ascribed  to  Odin.     This 
coincidence  between  the  genealogies  preserved  in  their  new  country  of  men  who 
left  the  North  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  and  the  genealogies  of  the  most 
celebrated  heroes  who  acted  in  the  North  during  the  subsequent  ages,  could  not 
have  arisen  if  there  never  had  been  an  Odin  who  left  such  children.     I  have  already 
expressed  my  opinion,  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  genealogies  lead  us  to  the  most  pro- 
bable date  of  Odin's  arrival  in  the  North. 

6  Bede,  de  Temporum  Ratione,  in  his  works,  vol.  ii.  p.  81. 
T  See  Saxon  Dictionary,  voc.  Dybena. 


190  APPENDIX 

CHAP,      thumbria,  who,  under  the  auspices  of  his  uncle  Boniface,  went 
IIL        missionary  to  Friesland,  endeavoured  to  destroy  the  super- 
'      '   stition,  though  Kadbod,  the  fierce  king  of  the  island,  devoted 
to  a  cruel  death  all  who  violated  it.     Willebrord,  fearless  of 
the  consequences,  baptized  three  men  in  the  fountain,  in- 
voking the  Trinity,  and  caused  some  cattle  who  were  feeding 
there  to  be  killed  for  the  food  of  his  companions.     The  sur- 
rounding pagans  expected  them  to  have  been  struck  dead  or 
insane. 8 

That  the  Angles  had  a  goddess  whom  they  called  Hertha, 
or  mother  Earth,  we  learn  from  Tacitus.  He  says,  that  in 
an  island  in  the  ocean  there  was  a  grove,  within  which  was 
a  vehicle  covered  with  a  garment,  which  it  was  permitted  to 
the  priest  alone  to  touch.  The  goddess  was  presumed  to  be 
within  it,  and  was  carried,  by  cows,  with  great  veneration. 
Joy,  festivity,  and  hospitality  were  then  universal.  Wars 
and  weapons  were  forgotten,  and  peace  and  quiet  reigned, 
then  only  known,  then  only  loved,  until  the  priest  returned 
the  goddess  to  her  temple,  satiated  with  mortal  converse. 
The  vehicle,  the  garment,  and  the  goddess  herself  were 
.  washed  in  a  secret  lake.  Slaves  ministered,  who  were  after- 
wards drowned.9 

The  Saxons  dreaded  an  evil  being,  whom  they  named 
Faul10;  some  kind  of  female  power  they  called  an  elf,  who 
is  very  frequently  used  as  a  complimentary  simile  to  their 
ladies.  Thus  Judith  is  said  to  be  elp  rcinu,  shining  as  an 
elf.11  They  also  venerated  stones,  groves,  and  fountains.12 
The  continental  Saxons  respected  the  lady  Hera,  a  fancied 
being,  who  was  believed  to  fly  about  in  the  air  in  the  week 
after  their  Jule,  or  between  our  Christmas  and  Epiphany. 
Abundance  was  thought  to  follow  her  visit. 13  We  may  add 

8  Alcuini  vita  S.  Willebrord  in  his  works,  p.  1438.,  or  in  Sanct.  Hist.  Col.  vol. 
vi.  p.  130.     Charles  Martel  conquered  Radbod,  and  added  the  island  to  his  domin- 
ions, ibid.     Saint  Liudger,  who  died  in  809,  destroyed  the  temples  of  Fosete.      See 
his  life  by  Altfridus,  who  was  alive  in  848,  in  Act.  Sanct.  Bolland.     March,  torn, 
iii.  p.  646. 

9  Tacit,  de  Mor.  German. 

10  That  Faul  might  not  hurt,  was  part  of  one  of  their  exorcisms.     See  Sax.  Diet, 
voce  Faul. 

11  So  Judith,  p.  21. 

12  See  Meginhard.     Conrad  Usperg.     Wilkins,  83.     Linden.  Gloss.  1473. 
Gobelin  Ap.  Meibom.  Irminsula,  p.  12.     We  may  add  that  Bede,  in  his  com- 
mentary on  Luke,  mentions  demons  appearing  to  men  as  females,  and  to  women 
as  men,  whom,  he  says,  the  Gauls  call  Dusii,  the  presumed  origin  of  our  word  deuce. 
Hincmar,  in  Bib.  Mag.  Pat.  xvi.  561.     But  he  does  not  say  that  these  demons  were 

t   of  the  Saxon  paganism.     There  were  two  personages  feared  in  the  North, 

m  we  may  mention  here,  as  words  from  their  names  have  become  familiar  to 

ourselves  ;  one  was  Ochus  Bochus,  a  magician  and  demon,  the  other  was  Neccus, 


TO   BOOK  II.  191 

that  Hilde,  one  of  their  terms  for  battle,  seems  to  allude  to  a      CHAP. 
war-goddess  of  that  name.  { , 

That  the  Saxons  had  many  idols  appears  from  several 
authors.  Gregory,  in  the  eighth  century,  addressing  the  old 
Saxons,  exhorts  them  to  abandon  their  idols,  whether  of  gold, 
silver,  brass,  stone,  or  any  other  kind. 14  Hama,  Flinnus, 
Siba,  and  Zernebogus,  or  the  black,  malevolent,  ill-omened 
deity,  are  said  to  have  occupied  part  of  their  superstitions, 
but  we  cannot  be  answerable  for  more  than  their  names. 15 
A  Saxon  Venus  has  been  also  mentioned ;  she  is  exhibited  as 
standing  naked  in  a  car,  with  myrtle  round  her  head,  a  lighted 
torch  in  her  breast,  and  the  figure  of  the  world  in  her  right 
hand.  But  this  description  implies  too  much  refinement  in 
its  allusions,  and  the  authority  is  not  decisive. 16 

The  account  of  Crodus  has  stronger  marks  of  authenticity ; 
it  seems  to  have  been  preserved  in  the  Brunswick  Chronicle, 
from  which  more  recent  historians  have  taken  their  descrip- 
tions. The  figure  of  Crodus  was  that  of  an  old  man  clothed 
in  a  white  tunic,  with  a  linen  girdle,  with  floating  ends.  His 
head  was  uncovered  :  his  right  hand  held  a  vessel,  full  of 
roses  and  other  flowers,  swimming  in  water;  his  left  hand 
supported  the  wheel  of  a  car ;  his  naked  feet  stood  on  a  rough 
scaly  fish  like  a  perch.17  It  was  raised  on  a  pedestal.  It  was 
found  on  the  Mount  Hercinius,  in  the  fortress  of  Harsbourg, 
which  was  anciently  called  Satur-bourg 18,  or  the  fortified  hill 
of  Satur.  Hence  this  was  probably  the  idol  of  Satur,  from 
whom  our  Saturday  is  named. 19 

That  the  Saxons  had  the  dismal  custom  of  human  sacrifices 
on  some  occasions,  cannot  be  doubted.  Tacitus  mentions  it 

a  malign  deity  who  frequented  the  waters.  If  any  perished  in  whirlpools,  or  by 
cramp,  or  bad  swimming,  he  was  thought  to  be  seized  by  Neccus.  Steel  was  sup- 
posed to  expel  him,  and  therefore  all  who  bathed  threw  some  little  pieces  of  steel 
in  the  water  for  that  purpose.  Verel.  Suio-Goth.  p.  13.  It  is  probable  that  we 
here  see  the  origin  of  hocus  pocus,  and  Old  Nick. 

14  Bib.  Mag.  Pat.  xvi.  101. 

15  Fabricius,  Hist.  Sax.  p.  62.     Verstigan  describes  the  idol  Flynt  as  the  image 
of  death  in  a.  sheet,  holding  a  torch,  and  placed  on  a  great  flint-stone.     He  was  also 
represented  as  a  man  in  a  great  cloak,  with  a  lion  on  his  head  and  shoulders,  and 
carrying  a  torch.     His  figure  was  sometimes  more  deformed  with  monstrous  feet. 
It  had  a  crown  on  its  head.     Montf.  Ant.  Exp.  c.  10. 

16  Gyraldus  says  he  read  of  this  idol  in  the  Saxon  histories.     Worm.  Mon.  p.  19. 

17  Albinus,  Nov.  Sax.  Hist.  p.  70.  and  Fabricius,  p.  61. 

18  Montfaucon,  Ant.  Exp.  c.  10.     He  says,  that  at  the  entrance  of  this  fortress 
the  place  was,  in  his  time,  shown  where  this  image  stood. 

19  The  descriptions  of  Prono,  of  the  three-headed  Trigla,  oflporevith  with  five 
heads,  and  Svanto  with  four,  of  Radegast  with  a  bull's  head  in  his  breast,  and  an 

?le  on  his  head,  mentioned  by  Montfaucon  from  Grosser's  History  of  Lusatia, 
to  be  more  Oriental  than  Teutonic,  and  may  have  come  into  Germany  from 
the  latter  Sarmatian  tribes. 


192  APPENDIX 

CHAP,      as  a  feature  of  all  the  Germans,  that  on  certain  days  they 
HI.  '      offered  human  victims  to  their  chief  deity.     Sidonius  attests, 

' ' '   that  on  their  return  from  a  depredation  the  Saxons  immolated 

one  tenth  of  their  captives,  selected  by  lot.20  We  have 
already  mentioned,  that  for  sacrilege  the  offender  was  sacri- 
ficed to  the  god  whose  temple  he  had  violated ;  and  Ennodius 
states  of  the  Saxons,  Heruli,  and  Francs,  that  they  were 
believed  to  appease  their  deities  with  human  blood. 21  But 
whether  human  sacrifices  were  an  established  part  of  their 
superstitious  ritual,  or  whether  they  were  but  an  occasional 
immolation  of  captives  or  criminals,  cannot  be  decided.  Nor 
is  the  distinction  material.22 

Of  the  rites  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  we  cannot  learn  many 
particulars.  In  the  month  of  February  they  offered  cakes  to 
their  deities,  which  occasioned  the  month  to  be  called  Sol 
monath.  September,  from  its  religious  ceremonies,  was 
denominated  Halig  monath,  the  holy  month.  November 
was  marked,  as  the  month  of  sacrifices,  Blot  monath,  because 
at  this  period  they  devoted  to  their  gods  the  cattle  that  they 
slew.23  As  it  was  their  custom  to  use  during  the  winter 
salted  or  dried  meat,  perhaps  November,  or  Slot  monath, 
was  the  period  when  the  winter  provision  was  prepared  and 
consecrated. 

Their  celebrated  festival  of  Zxeol,  Jule,  or  Yule,  which 
occurred  at  the  period  of  our  Christmas,  was  a  combination 
of  religion  and  conviviality.  December  was  called  enjia 
Zreola,  or  before  the  Lreol.  January  was  eptejia  Zreola,  or 
after  it.  As  one  of  the  Saxon  names  for  Christmas  day  was 
Ireola,  or  Eeohol  bej,  it  is  likely  that  this  was  the  time  when 
the  festival  commenced.  This  day  was  the  first  of  their 
year ;  and  as  Bede  derives  it  from  the  turning  of  the  sun, 

£0  Tac.  de  Moribus  Germ.  Sid.  Apoll.  ep.  vi.  lib.  8.  Herodotus  says  of  the 
Scythians,  the  presumed  ancestors  of  the  Saxons,  that  they  sacrificed  to  Mars  every 
hundredth  man  of  their  prisoners.  Melp. 

21  Ennodius  in  Mag.  Bib.  Pol.  15.  p.  306. 

22  Of  the  human  sacrifices  of  the  Northmen  we  have  more  express  testimony. 
Dithmar  apud  Steph.  92.  says,  that  in  Seland,  in  January,  they  slew  ninety-nine 
men,  and  as  many  horses,  dogs,  and  cocks,  to  appease  their  deities.     Snorre  men- 
tions a  king  of  Sweden  who  immolated  nine  of  his  sons  to  Odin,  to  obtain  an  ex- 
tension of  life,  i.  p.  34.     He  also  states  that  the  Swedes  sacrificed  one  of  their 
sovereigns  to  Odin,  to  obtain  plenty,  ib.  p.  56.     When  the  famine  began,  oxen  were 
offered  up  ;  in  the  following  autumn,  they  proceeded  to  human  victims,  and  at  last 
destroyed  their  king.     Dudo  Quint,  says,  they  slew  cattle  and  men  in  honour  of 
Thor.     For  other  instances  of  human  sacrifices  in  the  North,  see  Herv.  Saga,  97. ; 
Ara  Frode,  63.  145.  ;  Kristni  Saga,  93. 

23  Bede,  de  Temporum  Ratione,  p.  81.     See  a  good  description  of  a  Danish 
sacrifice  in  Snorre,  Saga  Hak.  God.  c.  16. 


TO   BOOK  II. 


193 


and  the  days  beginning  then  to  lengthen 24 ;  as  it  was  also      CHAP. 
called  mother  night,  and  as  their  sun  was  worshipped  as  a   .     IIL 
female,  I  suspect  that  this  was  a  festival  dedicated  to  the  sun. 

But  the  Saxon  idol,  whose  celebrity  on  the  continent  was 
the  most  eminent,  was  the  IRMINSULA.25 

The  name  of  this  venerated  idol  has  been  spelt  with  vary- 
ing orthography.  The  Saxon  Chronicle,  published  at  Mentz 
in  1492,  calls  it  Armensula,  which  accords  with  the  pronun- 
ciation of  modern  Saxony.  The  appellation  adhered  to  by 
Meibomius,  the  most  elaborate  investigator  of  this  curious 
object  of  Saxon  idolatry,  is  Irminsula,26 

It  stood  at  Eresberg,  on  the  Dimele.27  This  place  the 
Saxon  Chronicle  above  mentioned  calls  Marsburg.  The 
Rhyming  Chronicle  of  the  thirteenth  century  writes  it  Mers- 
berg,  which  is  the  modern  name.28 

Its  temple  was  spacious,  elaborate,  and  magnificent.  The 
image  was  raised  upon  a  marble  column.29 

The  predominant  figure  was  an  armed  warrior.  Its  right 
hand  held  a  banner,  in  which  a  red  rose  was  conspicuous  ;  its 
left  presented  a  balance.  The  crest  of  its  helmet  was  a  cock ; 
on  its  breast  was  engraven  a  bear,  and  the  shield  depending 
from  its  shoulders  exhibited  a  lion  in  a  field  full  of  flowers.30 
The  expressions  of  Adam  of  Bremen  seem  to  intimate  that  it 
was  of  wood,  and  that  the  place  where  it  stood  had  no  roof. 
It  was  the  largest  idol  of  all  Saxony,  and  according  to  Rol- 
winck,  a  writer  of  the  fifteenth  century,  whose  authorities 
are  not  known  to  us,  though  the  warlike  image  was  the 
principal  figure,  three  others  were  about  it.31  From  the 
chronicle  called  the  Vernacular  Chronicle,  we  learn  that  the 
other  Saxon  temples  had  pictures  of  the  Irminsula.32 

Priests  of  both  sexes  attended  the  temple.  The  women 
applied  themselves  to  divination  and  fortune-telling;  the 
men  sacrificed,  and  often  intermeddled  with  political  affairs, 
as  their  sanction  was  thought  to  insure  success. 

24  Bede,  de  Temporum  Ratione.     I  see  that  syl  runne  once  occurs  in  a  hymn, 
"Let  the  sun  shine."     See  Diet  voc.  Gyl.     They  who  desire  to  see  the  opinions 
which  have  been  given  of  the  derivation  of  the  keol  will  be  assisted  by  Hickes, 
Dissert.  Ep.  p.  212,  &c. 

25  The  most  complete  account  of  this  idol  is  in  the  Irminsula  Saxonica,  by  Henry 
Meibomius.     It  is  in  the  third  volume  of  his  Rerum  German.  Hist,  published  by 
the  two  Meibomii. 

26  Meibom.  p.  6.     It  has  been  called  Irminsulus,  Irminsul,  Irmindsul,  Erminsul, 
Hermansaul,  Hormensul,  Hermesuel,  Hermensul,  and  Adurmensul,  ibid. 

27  Ibid.  c.  ii.   p.  6.  a  Ibid.   p>  7. 
29  Ibid.  c.  iii.  p.  8. 

80  Ibid.  p.  9.  The  particular  descriptions  of  this  idol  are  all  taken  from  the 
Saxon  Chronicle  printed  at  Mentz. 

31  Meibom.  c.  iii.  p.  9.  »  Ibid. 

VOL.  I.  0 


JO 


194  APPENDIX 

The  priests  of  the  Irminsula  at  Eresberg  appointed  the 
gow  graven,  the  governors  of  the  districts  of  continental 
Saxony.  They  also  named  the  judges,  who  annually  decided 
the  provincial  disputes.  There  were  sixteen  of  thesejudges : 
the  eldest,  and  therefore  the  chief,  was  called  Gravius ;  the 
youngest,  Frono,  or  attendant ;  the  rest  were  Freyerichter, 
or  free  judges.  They  had  jurisdiction  over  seventy-two 
families.  Twice  a  year,  in  April  and  October,  the  Gravius 
and  the  Frono  went  to  Eresberg,  and  there  made  a  placa- 
tory offering  of  two  wax  lights  and  nine  pieces  of  money. 
If  any  of  the  judges  died  in  the  year,  the  event  was  notified 
to  the  priests,  who,  out  of  the  seventy-two  families,  chose  a 
substitute.  In  the  open  air,  before  the  door  of  the  person 
appointed,  his  election  was  seven  times  announced  to  the 
people  in  a  loud  voice,  and  this  was  his  inauguration. 

In  the  hour  of  battle,  the  priests  took  their  favourite  image 
from  its  column,  and  carried  it  to  the  field.  After  the  con- 
flict, captives  and  the  cowardly  of  their  own  army  were 
immolated  to  the  idol. 33  Meibomius  quotes  two  stanzas  of 
an  ancient  song,  in  which  the  son  of  a  Saxon  king,  who  had 
lost  a  battle,  complains  that  he  was  delivered  to  the  priest 
to  be  sacrificed.34  He  adds,  that,  according  to  some  writers, 
the  ancient  Saxons,  and  chiefly  their  military,  on  certain 
solemn  days,  clothed  in  armour,  and  brandishing  iron  cestus's, 
rode  round  the  idol,  and,  sometimes  dismounting  to  kneel 
before  it,  bowed  down  and  murmured  out  their  prayers  for 
help  and  victory.35 

To  whom  this  great  image  was  erected,  is  a  question  full 
of  uncertainty.  Because  ~E,f>w$  approached  the  sound  of 
Irminsul,  and  Apy$  that  of  Eresberg,  it  has  been  referred  to 
Mars  and  Mercury.36  Some  considered  it  a  memorial  of 
the  celebrated  Arminius 37 ;  and  one  has  laboured  to  prove 

33  Meib.  c.  iii.  p.  10.     Tacitus  mentions  generally  of  the  Germans,  that  they 
detached  their  idols  and  banners  from  their  sacred  groves,  and  carried  them  to  the 
field  of  battle.     Germ.  s.  7. 

34  The  verses  are :  — 

Sol  ich  nun  in  Gottes  fronen  hende 
In  meinen  aller  besten  tagen 
Geben  werden,  und  sterben  so  elende 
Das  musz  ich  wol  hochlich  klagen. 

Wen  mir  das  glucke  fuget  hette 
Des  streites  einen  guten  ende, 
Dorffte  ich  nicht  leisten  diese  \vette 
Netzen  mit  blut  die  hire  wende. 

Meibom.  p.  10, 

35  Meibom.  p.  11.  se  j^^  c  v>  p>  jj, 
37  The  names  to  this  supposition  are  very  respectable. 


TO   BOOK  II.  195 

that  it  was  an  hieroglyphical  effigy,  intended  for  no  deity  in      CHAP. 
particular.38  .     HL     . 

In  772,  this  venerated  object  of  Saxon  superstition  was 
thrown  down  and  broken,  and  its  fane  destroyed  by  Charle- 
magne. For  three  days  the  work  of  demolition  was  carried 
on  by  one  part  of  the  army,  while  the  other  remained  under 
arms.  Its  immense  wealth  and  precious  vessels  were  dis- 
tributed to  the  conquerors,  or  devoted  to  pious  uses. 39 

The  fate  of  the  column  of  the  image  after  its  eversion  may 
be  noticed. 40  It  was  thrown  into  a  waggon,  and  buried  on 
the  Weser,  in  a  place  where  Corbey  afterwards  stood.  It 
was  found  again  in  the  reign  after  Charlemagne,  and  was 
transported  beyond  the  Weser.  The  Saxons  attempting  to 
rescue  it,  a  battle  ensued  on  the  spot,  which  was  afterwards 
called  Armensula,  from  the  incident.  The  Saxons  were 
repulsed,  and,  to  prevent  further  chances,  the  column  was 
hastily  thrown  into  the  Inner.  A  church  being  afterwards 
built  in  the  vicinity,  at  Hillesheim,  it  was  conveyed  into  it 
after  much  religious  lustration,  and  placed  in  the  choir,  where 
it  long  served  to  hold  their  lights  at  their  festivals.41  For 
many  ages  it  remained  neglected  and  forgotten,  till  at  length 
Meibomius  saw  it,  and  a  canon  of  the  church,  friendly  to  his 
studies,  had  its  rust  and  discoloration  taken  off. 42 

Idolatrous  nations  are  eminently  superstitious.  The  prone- 
ness  of  mankind  to  search  into  futurity  attempts  its  gratifica- 

38  Joannes  Goropius  Beccanius  is  the  person  whose  reveries  are  given  at  length 
in  Meibomius,  13 — 17.     We  may  suggest  as  a  new  opinion,  that  Hermansul  lite- 
rally expresses  "  The  Pillar  of  the  Lord  the  Moon,  or  of  the  Lord  Man,"  whom  the 
Germans,  according  to  Tacitus,  revered.     As  the  moon  was  a  male  deity,  Mannus 
and  the  moon  may  have  been  the  same  person.     From  the  inscription  mentioned 
below,  it  was  clearly  their  war  god.     The  similarity  between  Irmin  and  E^UTJS  may 
have  led  Tacitus  to  mention  that  the  Germans  chiefly  worshipped  Mercury,  s.  9. 

39  Meibom.  p.  1 8.     The  image  is  said  to  have  been  long  preserved  in  the  monas- 
tery at  Corbey.     It  then  bore  this  inscription :  "  Formerly  I  was  the  leader  and 
god  of  the  Saxons.     The  people  of  war  adored  me.     The  nation  who  worshipped 
me  governed  the  field  of  battle."    Ibid.     I  have  been  favoured  by  an  intelligent 
correspondent  with  some  reasons  founded  on  this  Inscription  and  other  grounds 
for  considering  the  Hermansul  to  "  have  been  connected  with  the  worship  of  Odin, 
as  the  God  of  Battles,  and  the  founder  of  the  Saxons'  political  and  religious  estab- 
lishments."    The  opinion  is  well  worthy  of  consideration. 

40  It  was  about  eleven  feet  long,  and  the  circumference  of  the  base  was  about 
twelve  cubits.     The  base  was  of  rude  stone,  or  of  gravel- stone.     The  column  was 
marble,  of  a  light  red  colour.     Its  belts  were  of  orichalchus  ;  the  upper  and  lower 
gilt,  and  also  the  one  between  these  and  the  crown,  which  is  also  gilt,  as  is  the 
upper  circle  incumbent  on  it,  which  has  three  heroic  verses.     The  whole  work  was 
surrounded  with  iron  rails,  dentated  to  preserve  it  from  injury.     Meibom.  p.  31. 
He  has  given  a  plate  of  it. 

41  Meibom.  p.  19.  and  p.  31. 

42  Ibid.  p.  19.     Our  ancient  Irmin-street  has  been  lately  conjectured  to  have 
been  derived  from  the  name  of  this  idol.     If  so,  the  inference  would  be  reasonable 
that  it  was  worshipped  also  in  England. 


196  APPENDIX 

tion,  in  the  eras  of  ignorance,  by  the  fallacious  use  of 
auguries,  lots,  and  omens. 

All  the  German  nations  were  addicted  to  these  absurdities ; 
and  the  account  which  Tacitus  relates  of  them  generally  is 
applied  by  Meginhard  to  the  ancient  Saxons.  They  were 
infatuated  to  believe  that  the  voices  and  flights  of  birds  were 
interpreters  of  the  Divine  will.  Horses  were  supposed  to 
neigh  from  celestial  inspiration,  and  they  decided  their  public 
deliberations  by  the  wisdom  of  lots.  LJhey  cut  a  small  branch 
of  a  fruit-tree  into  twigs,  marked  them,  and  scattered  them 
at  random  on  a  white  vest.  The  priest,  if  it  were  a  public 
council,  or  the  father,  at  a  private  consultation,  prayed, 
gazed  at  heaven,  drew  each  three  times,  and  interpreted 
according  to  the  mark  previously  impressed.  If  the  omen 
were  adverse,  the  council  was  deferred?]13 

To  explore  the  fate  of  an  impending  battle,  they  selected 
a  captive  of  the  nation  opposing,  and  appointed  a  chosen 
Saxon  to  fight  with  him.  They  judged  of  their  future  victory 
or  defeat  by  the  issue  of  this  duel. 44 

The  notion  which  from  Chaldea  pervaded  both  East  and 
West,  that  the  celestial  luminaries  influenced  the  fortunes  of 
mankind,  operated  powerfully  on  the  Saxon  mind.  Affairs 
were  thought  to  be  undertaken  with  better  chance  on  peculiar 
days,  and  the  full  or  new  moon  was  the  indication  of  the 
auspicious  season.45 

Magic,  the  favourite  delusion  of  ignorant  man,  the  inven- 
tion of  his  pride  or  malignity,  or  the  resort  of  his  imbecility, 
prevailed  among  the  Anglo-Saxons.  Even  one  of  their  kings 
chose  to  meet  the  Christian  missionaries  in  the  open  air, 
because  he  fancied  that  magical  arts  had  peculiar  power 
within  a  house.46 

Of  the  speculative  principles  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Paganism 
we  have  no  written  evidence.  But  of  the  religion  of  the 
Northmen,  which  prevailed  in  or  near  the  parts  which  the 
Angles  and  Saxons  inhabited  about  the  Elbe,  and  was  the 
religion  of  the  Northmen  colonies  of  England,  we  have  suffi- 
cient documents  remaining.  In  these  we  probably  contem- 
plate the  substance  of  the  faith  of  our  rude  forefathers.  In 
some  respects  the  polytheism  of  the  north  was  one  of  the 

43  Tacit  de  morib.  Germ,  and  Meginhard,  p.  39.;  and  see  Bede,  p.  144.  147. 
In  the  law  of  the  Frisians  there  is  a  curious  order  of  determining  by  lot,  with 
twigs,  who  was  guilty  of  a  homicide,  when  it  occurred  in  a  popular  tumult.  See 
it  in  Lindenb.  i.  p.  496.  Alfred,  in  his  version  of  Eede,  says,  they  hluton  nub 
fcanum,  they  cast  lots  with  twigs,  p.  624. 

14  Meginhard,  p.  39.  «  Ibid> 

46  Bede,  i.  c.  25.  p.  61. 


K 


TO   BOOK  II.  197 

most  rational   forms  of  its  erroneous  theory  ;  and,   though      CHAP. 
inferior  in  taste  and  imagination,  displays  on  the  whole  a 
vigour    and  an  improvement  of   mind  beyond  the  classical 
mythology.     The  Edda,  though  wilder,  has  better  theology 
than  much  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  the  Northmen  venerated  three  prin- 
cipal supreme  deities  connected  with  each  other  by  relation- 
ship. Odin,  whom  they  called  All-father,  or  the  Universal 
Parent  ;  Freya,  his  wife  ;  and  their  son  Thor.  Idols  of  these 
three  were  placed  in  their  celebrated  temple  at  Upsal.  47  Of 
these  the  Danes,  like  the  Anglo-Saxons,  paid  the  highest 
honours  to  Odin  ;  the  Norwegians  and  Icelanders  to  Thor  ; 
and  the  Swedes  to  Freya.  48 

In  the  system  of  the    Northmen's  religion,    we    see  the 

3at  principles  of  the  ancient  theism,  mingled  with  the 
Iditions  of  allegory,  polytheism,  and  idolatry.  Odin's  first 
name  is  the  All-father,  though  many  others  were  subjoined 
to  this  in  the  process  of  time.  He  is  described  in  the  Edda 
as  the  First  of  the  Gods;  "  He  lives  for  ever  :  he  governs  all 
his  kingdom,  both  the  small  parts  and  the  great  :  he  made 
heaven,  and  the  earth,  and  the  air  :  he  made  man,  and  gave 
him  a  spirit  which  shall  live  even  after  the  body  shall  have 
vanished.  Then  the  just  and  the  well-deserving  shall  dwell 
with  him  in  a  place  called  Gimle;  but  bad  men  shall  go 
to  Hela."49  In  other  parts  it  adds:  "  When  the  All-Father 
sits  on  his  supreme  throne,  he  surveys  with  his  eyes  all 
the  world  and  the  manners  of  all  men."50  —  "Odin  is  the 
first  and  the  most  ancient  :  he  governs  all  things  ;  and 
though  the  rest  of  the  gods  are  powerful,  yet  they  serve 
him  as  children  their  father.  He  is  called  All-father,  be- 
cause he  is  the  father  of  all  the  gods."51  Thor  is  represented 
as  the  son  of  Odin  and  Freya,  and  the  Earth  is  called  Odin's 
daughter.  5a 

They  had  some  remarkable  traditions  preserved  in  their 
ancient  Voluspa.  One,  that  the  earth  and  heavens  were 
preceded  by  a  state  of  non-entity.53  Another,  that  at  a 

47  Ad  Brem. 

48  Mallet,  Nort.  Antiq.  vol.  i.  p.  97.     So  in  the  Edda  Gangler  Is  represented  as 
beholding  three  thrones,  each  above  the  other.     The  lowest  was  called  the  lofty 
one  ;  the  second  his  equal  ;  the  highest  was  named  "  the  third."     Suppl.  Nor.  Ant. 
vol.  ii.  p.  282. 

49  Edda,  Hist.  Prim.  p.  283.     See  the  twelve  names  given  to  Odin,  p.  285.  and 
forty-six  in  p.  305. 

50  Edda,  Hist.  Sext.  p.  292.  5I  Edda,  Hist.  Duod.  p.  305. 

52  Edda,  p.  292. 

53  The  words  of  the  Voluspa  are  :  "  At  the  beginning  of  time  there  was  nothing  : 
*"uther  land,  nor  sea,  nor  foundations  below.     The  earth  was  nowhere  to  be  found  ; 


198  APPENDIX 

CHAP,      destined    period  the  earth    and  all  the  universe  would    be 
IIL        destroyed  by  fire.     This  catastrophe  was  connected  with  a 

' ' '    being,  that  was  to  direct  it,  whom  they  called  Surtur,  or  the 

black  one.54  Till  this  day  Loke,  their  principle  of  evil,  was 
to  remain  in  the  cave  and  in  chains  of  iron  to  which  he  was 
consigned. 55  A  new  world  is  to  emerge  at  this  period ;  the 
goodwill  be  happy.56  The  gods  will  sit  in  Judgment,  and 
the  wicked  will  be  condemned  to  a  dreary  habitation. 57  The 
Edda  ends  with  a  description  of  this  final  period,  which 
presents  it  to  us  in  a  more  detailed  shape  :  — 

"  Snow  will  rush  from  all  the  quarters  of  the  world.  Three 
winters  without  a  summer  will  be  followed  by  three  others,  and 
then  wars  will  pervade  the  whole  world.  Brother,  father,  son, 
will  perish  by  each  other's  hands.  The  wolf  will  devour  the  sun ; 
another,  the  moon.  The  stars  will  fall  from  heaven.  The  earth 
trembles.  Mountains  and  trees  are  torn  up.  The  sea  rushes  over 
the  earth.  Midgard  the  great  serpent  hastens  over  it.  The  ship 
made  of  the  nails  of  dead  men  floats.  The  giant  Hrymer  is  its 
pilot.  The  wolf  Fenris  opens  his  enormous  mouth  ;  the  lower  jaw 
touching  the  earth  ;  the  upper,  the  heavens.  The  serpent  breathes 
poison  over  heaven,  and  the  sons  of  Muspell  ride  forward :  Surtur 
leads  them.  Before  him,  behind  him,  a  glowing  fire  spreads. 
His  sword  radiates  like  the  sun.  From  their  course  the  bridge  of 
heaven  is  broken.  They  move  towards  a  plain,  and  Fenris  and 
Midgard  follow.  There  Loke  and  Hrymer  meet  them  with  all  the 
infernal  genii.  The  hosts  of  the  sons  of  Muspell  glitter  round. 
Heimdal  sounds  vehemently  his  tremendous  trumpet  to  awaken 
the  gods.  Odin  consults.  The  ash  Ygdrasil  trembles.  Every 
thing  in  heaven  and  earth  is  in  fear.  The  gods  and  heroes  arm. 
Odin,  with  his  golden  helmet,  moves  against  Fenris.  Thor  assails 
Midgard.  Frey  falls  beaten  down  by  Surtur.  The  dog  Garmer 
attacks  Tyr,  and  both  perish.  Thor  kills  the  serpent,  but  dies 
also.  And  the  wolf  devours  Odin.  Vidar  seizes  the  monster's 
jaws,  and  at  last  renders  them  asunder.  Loke  and  Heimdal  slay 
each  other.  Surtur  then  darts  his  flames  over  all  the  earth,  and 
the  whole  universe  is  consumed."58 

These  traditions  correspond  with  the  idea  mentioned  in  the 


nor  the  heaven  above.     There  was  an  infinite  abyss,  and  grass  nowhere."     Edda, 
Hist.  Prim.  p.  284. 

54  The  Edda  thus  describes  him  :   "  First  of  all  was  Muspells-heim.     It  is  lucid, 
glowing,  and  impervious  to  strangers.     There  Surtur  rules,  and  sits  in  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  earth.     He  holds  a  flaming  sword,  and  will  come  at  the  end  of  the 
world  and  conquer  all  the  gods  and  burn  the  unwise."     Edda,  p.  286.     The  most 
ancient  and  oracular  Voluspa  speaks  of  this  period.    See  it  annexed  to  the  Appendix. 
Its  latter  part  alludes  to  these  incidents. 

55  Edda,  p.  347.  M  See  the  Voluspa  in  the  last  stanza. 

"  The  same  events  are  mentioned  in  the  Vafthrudnismal,  Edd.  Sem,  p.  28 — 33. 
53  Edda,  last  chapter,  p.  347 — 350.     It  then  proceeds  to  describe  the  new  world. 


TO   BOOK  II.  199 

beginning  of  this  work,  that  the  barbaric  nations  of  Europe      CHAP. 
have  sprung  from  the  branches  of  more  civilised  states. 

Allegory,  disturbed  imagination,  mysticism,  and  perverted  ' 
reasoning,  have  added  to  these  traditions  many  wild  and 
absurd  tales,  whose  meaning  we  cannot  penetrate.  The 
formation  of  Nifl-heim,  or  hell,  from  whose  rivers  came  frozen 
vapours  ;  and  Muspeil-heim,  or  the  world  of  fire,  from  which 
lightning  and  flames  issued.  The  gelid  vapours  melting  from 
the  heat  into  drops  :  one  of  these  becoming  the  giant  Ymer59, 
and  another,  the  cow  .ZEdumla,  to  nourish  him ;  who  by 
licking  off  the  rocks  their  salt  and  hoar  frost,  became  a  beauti- 
ful being  from  whose  son  Bore,  their  Odin,  and  the  gods 
proceeded60  ;  while  from  the  feet  of  the  wicked  Ymer  sprang 
the  Giants  of  the  Frost.  The  sons  of  Bore  slaying  Ymer, 
and  so  much  blood  issuing  from  his  wounds  as  to  drown  ajl 
the  families  of  the  Giants  of  the  Frost,  excepting  one  who 
was  preserved  in  his  bark.61  The  recreation  of  the  earth 
from  the  flesh  of  Ymer  ;  his  perspiration  becoming  the  seas  ; 
his  bones  the  mountains  ;  his  hair  the  vegetable  races ;  his 
brains  the  clouds ;  and  his  head  the  heavens. 62  All  these 
display  that  mixture  of  reasoning  to  account  for  the  origin  of 
things ;  of  violent  allegory  to  express  its  deductions ;  of  con- 
fused tradition,  and  distorting  fancy,  which  the  mythologies 
of  all  nations  have  retained. 

We  have  already  remarked,  that  the  general  term  used  by 
the  Anglo-Saxons  to  express  the  deity  in  the  abstract  was 
God,  which  also  implied  the  Good.  This  identity  of  phrase 
carries  the  imagination  to  those  primeval  times,  when  the 
Divine  Being  was  best  known  to  his  creatures  by  his  gracious 
attributes,  was  the  object  of  their  love,  and  was  adored  for 
his  beneficence.  But  when  they  departed  from  the  pure 
belief  of  the  first  eras,  and  bent  their  religion  to  suit  their 
habits,  new  reasonings,  and  their  wishes ;  then  systems  arose, 
attempting  to  account  for  the  production  of  things,  with- 
out his  preceding  eternity  or  even  agency,  and  to  describe 
his  own  origination  and  destruction.  Hence  the  Northmen 
cosmogonists  taught  the  rising  of  the  world  of  frost  from  the 
north,  and  of  the  world  of  fire  from  the  south ;  a  formation 
by  their  united  agency  of  a  race  of  evil  beings  through 
Ymer,  and  of  deities  through  the  cow  -ZEdumla ;  a  warfare 
between  the  divine  and  the  wicked  race ;  the  death  of  Ymer ; 
the  fabrication  of  the  earth  and  heaven  out  of  his  body ;  and 

59  Edda,  Hist.  Tert.  p.  288.  »  Edda,  Hist.  Quart,  p.  289. 

61  Edda,  Hist.  Quin.  p.  290.     He  was  called  Bergelraer. 

62  The  ancient  verse,  quoted  in  Edda,  p.  291. 

o  4 


200  APPENDIX 

the  final  coming  of  the  powers  of  the  world  of  fire  to 
destroy  all  things,  and  even  the  deities  themselves.  The 
mixture  of  materialism,  atheism,  and  superstition  visible  in 
these  notions,  shows  the  divergency  of  the  human  mind 
from  its  first  great  truths,  and  its  struggles  to  substitute 
its  own  phantoms  and  perverted  reasonings  instead.  All 
polytheism  and  mythology  seem  to  be  an  attempted  com- 
promise between  scepticism  and  superstition:  the  natural 
process  of  the  mind  beginning  to  know,  resolved  to  question, 
unattending  to  its  ignorance,  and  solving  its  doubts  by  its 
fancies,  or  concealing  them  by  its  allegories  ;  and  shaping  its 
faith  to  suit  its  inclinations. 

The  most  formidable  feature  of  the  ancient  religion  of  the 
/&  I  Anglo-Saxons,  as  of  all  the  Teutonic  nations,  was  its  separa- 
tion from  the  pure  and  benevolent  virtues  of  life,  and  its  in- 
dissoluble union  with  war  and  violence.  It  condemned  the 
faithless  and  the  perjured  ;  but  it  represented  their  Supreme 
Deity  as  the  father  of  combats  and  slaughter,  because  those 
were  his  favourite  children  who  fell  in  the  field  of  battle. 
To  them  he  assigned  the  heavenly  Yalhall  and  Vingolfa,  and 
promised  to  salute  them  after  their  death  as  his  heroes.63 
This  tenet  sanctified  all  the  horrors  of  war,  and  connected 
all  the  hopes,  energies,  and  passions  of  humanity  with  its 
continual  prosecution. 

As  the  nation  advanced  in  its  active  intellect,  it  began  to 
be  dissatisfied  with  its  mythology.  Many  indications  exist 
of  this  spreading  alienation 64,  which  prepared  the  Northern 
mind  for  the  reception  of  the  nobler  truths  of  Christianity, 
though  at  first  averse  from  them. 

63  Edda,  Hist.  Duod.  p.  304. 

64  Bartholin  has  collected  some  instances  which  are  worth  the  attention  of  those 
who  study  the  history  of  human  nature.     One  warrior  says,  that  he  trusted  more 
to  his  strength  and  his  arms  than  to  Thor  and  Odin.     Another  exclaims  :"  I  be- 
lieve not  in  images  and  daemons.     I  have  travelled  over  many  places,  and  have  met 
giants  and  monsters,  but  they  never  conquered  me.     Therefore  I  have  hitherto 
trusted  to  my  own  strength  and  courage."     To  a  Christian  who  interrogated  him, 
one  of  these  fighters  boasted,  that  he  knew  no  religion,  but  relied  on  his  own  powers. 
For  the  same  reason  a  father  and  his  sons  refused  to  sacrifice  to  the  idols.     When 
the  king  of  Norway  asked  Gaukathor  of  what  religion  he  was,  he  answered,  «  I  am 
neither  Christian  nor  heathen  ;  neither  I  nor  my  companions  have  any  other  re- 
ligion than  to  trust  to  ourselves  and  our  good  fortune,  which  seem  to  be  quite 
sufficient  for  us."     Many  others  are  recorded  to  have  given  similar  answers  ;  de- 
spising their  idols,  yet  not  favouring  Christianity.     Another  is  mentioned  as  taking 
rather  a  middle  path.     «  I  do  not  wish  to  revile  the  gods ;  but  Freya  seems  to  me 
to  be  of  no  importance.    Neither  she  nor  Odin  are  any  thing  to  us. "    See  Bartholin 
de  Caus.  p.  79 81. 


TO   BOOK  II. 


201 


CHAP.  IV. 


On  the  Menology  and  Literature  of  the  PAGAN  SAXONS. 


their  computation  of  time,    our  ancestors   reckoned  by 
nights  instead  of   days,    and   by  winters  instead   of  years. 
Their  months  were  governed  by  the  revolution  of  the  moon. 
They  began  their  year  from  the  day  which  we  celebrate  as 
hristmas-day1,  and  that  night  they  called  Moedrenech,  or 
lother  night,   from   the   worship  or   ceremonies,   as   Bede 
imagines,  in  which,  unsleeping,  they  spent  it.     In  the  com- 
lon  years,  they  appropriated  three  lunar  months  to  each  of 
four  seasons.     When  their  year  of  thirteen  months  oc- 
jurred,  they  added  the  superfluous  month  to  their  summer 
iason,  and  by  that  circumstance  had  then  three  months  of 
name  of  Liba,  which  occasioned  these  years  of  thirteen 
lonths  to  be  called  Tju-Libi.     The  names  of  their  months 
rere  these : 

Emit,  or  sejrtepa  Eeola,  answering  to  our  January. 

8ol  monath  February. 

Rehb  monath  March. 

6oj*tup  monach  April. 

Tpi-milchi  May. 

Liba  June. 

Liba  July. 

UUeipb,  or  UUenben  monath  August, 

pahj  monath  September. 

IDyntyp  f$llech  October. 

Bloch  monach  November, 

dull,  or  aeppa  Ereola  (before  Zreol)  December. 

They  divided  the  year  into  two  principal  parts,  summer  and 
winter.  The  six  months  of  the  longer  days  were  applied  to 
the  summer  portion,  the  remainder  to  winter.  Their  winter 
season  began  at  their  month  pyntyji  pylleth,  or  October. 
The  full  moon  in  this  month  was  the  era  or  the  commence- 
ment of  this  season,  and  the  words  pyntyp  pylleth  Were  meant 
to  express  the  winter  full  moon. 

1  The  Francs  began  the  year  in  the  autumnal  season ;  for  Alcuin  writes  to 
Charlemagne :  "  I  wonder  why  your  youths  begin  the  legitimate  year  from  the 


month  of  September."     Oper.  p.  1496. 


CHAP. 
IV. 


202  APPENDIX 

CHAP.  The  reason  of  the  names  of  their  month  of  Sol  monath, 
IV-  Rehb  monath,  Gortun  moiiath,  Hahj  monath,  and  Bloth 

' '  '  monath,  we  have  already  explained.  Bede  thus  accounts 

for  the  others : 

Tni-milchi  expressed  that  their  cattle  were  then  milked 
three  times  a  day.  Liba,  signifies  mild  or  navigable,  be- 
cause in  these  months  the  serenity  of  the  air  is  peculiarly 
favourable  to  navigation.  Wenben  monath  implies  that  the 
month  was  usually  tempestuous.  The  months  of  Ireola 
was  so  called  because  of  the  turning  of  the  sun  on  this  day, 
and  the  diminution  of  the  length  of  the  night.2  One  of 
the  months  preceded  this  change,  the  other  followed  it. 

It  has  been  much  doubted  whether  the  Anglo-Saxons  had 
the  use  of  letters  when  they  possessed  themselves  of  England. 
It  is  certain  that  no  specimen  of  any  Saxon  writing,  anterior 
to  their  conversion  to  Christianity,  can  be  produced.  It  can- 
not, therefore,  be  proved  that  they  had  letters  by  any  direct 
evidence,  and  yet  some  reasons  may  be  stated  which  make  it 
not  altogether  safe  to  assert  too  positively,  that  our  ancestors 
were  ignorant  of  the  art  of  writing  in  their  pagan  state. 

1st.  Alphabetical  characters  were  used  by  the  Northern 
nations  on  the  Baltic  before  they  received  Christianity3, 
and  the  origin  of  these  is  ascribed  to  Odin,  who  heads  the 
genealogies  of  the  ancient  Saxon  chieftains  as  well  as  those 
of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark;  and  who  is  stated  to 
have  settled  in  Saxony  before  he  advanced  to  the  North.4 
Either  the  pagan  Saxons  were  acquainted  with  the  Runic 
characters,  or  they  were  introduced  in  the  North  after  the 
fifth  century,  when  the  Saxons  came  to  Britain,  and  before 
the  middle  of  the  sixth,  when  they  are  mentioned  by  For- 
tunatus,  which  is  contrary  to  the  history  and  traditions  of 
the  Scandinavian  nations,  and  to  probability.  We  may  re- 
mark, that  Run  is  used  in  Anglo-Saxon5,  as  Runar  in  the 

2  This  valuable  account  of  the  Saxon  year  is  in  Bede,  de  Temporum  Ratione,  in 
the  second  volume  of  his  works,  in  the  edition  of  Cologne,  p.  81.     Other  Saxon 
raenologies  may  be  seen  in  Wanley,  185.  and  109. ;  and  a  comparative  one  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  Francs,  Icelanders,  Danes,  and  Swedes,  is  in  Hickes's  Gram.  Anglo- 
Sax,  p.  214. 

3  I  would  not  attribute  to  the  Runic  letters  an  extravagant  antiquity,  but  the 
inscriptions  on  rocks,  &c.  copied  by  Wormius  in  his  Literaturse  Runicse,  and  by 
Stephanius,  in  his  notes  on  Saxo,  proved  that  the  Northerns  used  them  before  they 
received  Christianity. 

4  Snorre,  Ynglinga  Saxa. 

5  So  Cedmon  uses  the  word,  pun  bith  gepecenob,  p.  73. ;  hpaet  reo  pun  bube, 
p.  86.  ;  that  he  to  him  the  letters  should  read  and  explain,  hpaet  reo  pun  bube, 
p.  90. ;  he  had  before  said,  hi  his  account  of  Daniel  and  Belshazzar,  that  the  angel 
of  the  Lord  ppat  tha  in  page  popba  sepynu  barpe  bocrCapar,  p.  90. 


TO   BOOK  II. 


203 


Icelandic,  to  express  letters  or  characters.6     It  is  true  that      CHAP. 
Odin  used  the  runae  for  the  purpose  of  magic,  and  that  in    .     IV> 
Saxon  jiun-cpaer-tij,  or  skilled  in  runse,  signifies  a  magician 7 ; 
but  the  magical  application   of  characters  is  no  argument 
against  their  alphabetical  nature,  because  many  of  the  foolish 
charms  which  our  ancestors  and  other  nations  have  respected, 
have  consisted,  not  merely  of  alphabetical  characters,   but 
even  of  words.8 

2d.  The  passage  of  Venantius  Fortunatus,  written  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixth*century,  attests  that  the  Runic  was  used 
for  the  purpose  of  writing  in  his  time.  He  says, 

The  barbarous  Runas  is  painted  on  ashen  tablets, 
And  what  the  papyrus  says  a  smooth  rod  effects.9 

Now,  as  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  not  inferior  in  civilisation 
to  any  of  the  barbarous  nations  of  the  North,  it  cannot  be 
easily  supposed  that  they  were  ignorant  of  Runic  characters 10, 
if  their  neighbours  used  them. 

3d.  Though  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  letters  of  our 
Saxon  MSS.  written  after  their  conversion  are  of  Roman 
origin,  except  only  two,  the  th  and  the  w,  p,  p,  the  thorn 
and  the  wen,  yet  these  two  characters  are  allowed  by  the 
best  critics  to  be  of  Runic  n  parentage ;  and  if  this  be  true, 
it  would  show  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  acquainted  with 
Runic  as  well  as  with  Roman  characters  when  they  com- 
menced the  handwriting  that  prevails  in  their  MSS. 

4th.  If  the  Saxons  had  derived  the  use  of  letters  from 
the  Roman  ecclesiastics,  it  is  probable  that  they  would  have 

6  Schilter's  Thesaurus,  vol.  iii.  p.  693. 

I  Thus  Cedmon  says,  the  pun-cpaeptiSe  men  could  not  read  the  handwriting  till 
Daniel  came,  p.  90. 

8  One  passage  in  a  Saxon  MS.  confirms  this  idea  :   "  Then  asked  the  ealbopman 
the  hepchns,  whether  through  bpycpert,  or  through  jiynrfcar-ep,  he  had  broken 
his  bonds;  and  he  answered  that  he  knew  nothing  of  this  craft."     Vesp.  D.  14. 
p.  132.     Now  pynrcaper  means  literally  ryn  letters.     We  may  remark,  that  the 
Welsh  word  for  alphabet  is  coel  bren,  which  literally  means  the  tree  or  wood  of 
Omen;  and  see  the  Saxon  description  of  the  northern  Runs;,  in  Hickes's  Gram. 
Ang.  Sax.  p.  135. 

9  Ven.  Fortun.  lib.  vi.  p.  1814.     Ed.  Mag.  Bib.  torn.  viii. 

10  There  are  various  alphabets  of  the  Runse,  but  their  differences  are  not  very 
great.     I  consider  those  characters  to  be  most  interesting  which  have  been  taken 
from  the  ancient  inscriptions  remaining  in  the  North.     Wormius  gives  these,  Lit. 
Run.  p.  58.     Hickes,  in  his  Gram.  Anglo-Isl.  c.  1.  gives  several  Runic  alphabets. 

II  The  Saxons  used  three  characters  for  th,  D,  *5,  and  J>.     Of  these  the  two  first 
seem  to  be  Roman  capitals,  with  a  small  hyphen.     Astle,  in  his  History  of  Writing, 
p.  7.  and  8.  gives  these  d's.     The  other,  j>,  is  the  Runic  d.     See  Wormius,  p.  58. 
The  Runic  d,  in  some  dialects,  was  pronounced  th  :   so  dus,  a  giant,  or  spectre  of 
the  woods,  as  given  by  Wormius,  p.  94.,  is  by  other  writers  written  thus.     I  con- 
sider the  P  to  be  taken  from  the  j>. 


204  APPENDIX 

taken  from  the  Latin  language  the  words  they  used  to  ex- 
press them.  Other  nations  so  indebted,  have  done  this.  To 
instance  from  the  Erse  language  : 

For  book,  they  have  leabhar,  from  liber. 
letter,  liter  12,  litera. 

f  scriobham,       scribere. 
to  write,  |grafam5     '       7pafu 

writing,  sgriobhadh,      scriptura. 

' 


But  nations  who  had  known  letters  before  they  became  ac- 
quainted with  Roman  literature  would  have  indigenous  terms 
to  express  them. 

The  Saxons  have  such  terms.  The  most  common  word 
by  which  the  Anglo-Saxons  denoted  alphabetical  letters  was 
rtraer.  ;  plural,  rtsep  a.  Elfric,  in  his  Saxon  Grammar,  so  uses 
it.13  The  copy  of  the  Saxon  coronation  oath  begins  with, 
"  This  writing  is  written,  ytsep  be  rtaepe  (letter  by  letter), 
from  that  writing  which  Dunstan,  archbishop,  gave  to  our 
lord  at  Kingston."14  In  the  same  sense  the  word  is  used  in 
Alfred's  translation  of  Bede  15,  and  in  the  Saxon  Gospels.16 
It  is  curious  to  find  the  same  word  so  applied  in  the  Runic 
mythology.  In  the  Vafthrudis-mal,  one  of  the  odes  of  the 
ancient  edda  of  Semund,  it  occurs  in  the  speech  of  Odin, 
who  says  "  fornum  stavfom"  in  the  ancient  letters.17 

The  numerous  compound  words  derived  from  ftaej:,  a 
letter,  show  it  to  have  been  a  radical  term  in  the  language, 
and  of  general  application. 

Sca?j>cpej:t,  the  art  of  letters. 

Sca^en-pop,  the  alphabet. 

Staep-sefej,  a  syllable. 

Scaeplic,  learned. 

Scaepman,  to  teach  letters. 

Scaep-plega,  a  game  at  letters. 

Staep-pij-e,  wise  in  letters. 

Scseper-heapob,  the  head  of  the  letters. 

Scaejra-nama,  the  names  of  the  letters. 

12  In  the  Erse  Testament,  Greek  letters  are  expressed  by  litrichibh  Greigis.  Luke, 
xxiii.  38. 

13  Cotton.  Lib.  Julius,  A.  2.  u  Cotton.  Lib.  Cleop.  B.  13. 

1  Bede,  615.  633.  M  John,  vii.  15.     Luke,  xxiii.  38. 

Edda  Semund,  p.  3.  In  the  Icelandic  Gospels,  for  Latin  and  Hebrew  letters 
we  have  Latiniskum  and  Ebreskum  bokstefum.  Luke,  xxiii.  38.  The  Franco- 
theotisc,  for  letters,  has  a  similar  compound  word,  bok-staven. 


TO   BOOK  II.  205 

The  same  word  is  also  used  like  the  Latin  litera,  to  signify      CHAP. 
an  epistle.18  IV- 

The  art  of  using  letters,  or  writing,  is  also  expressed  in 
Saxon  by  a  verb  not  of  Roman  origin.  The  Saxon  term 
for  the  verb  to  write,  is  not,  like  the  Erse  expression,  from 
the  Latin  scribere,  but  is  "  apjutan,"  or  e(  jepnitan."  This 
verb  is  formed  from  a  similar  noun  of  the  same  meaning  as 
rtaer..  The  noun  is  preserved  in  the  Masso- Gothic,  where 
writs  signifies  "  a  letter." 

In  like  manner  the  Saxons  did  not  derive  their  word  for 
book  from  the  Latin  liber ;  they  expressed  it  by  their  own 
term,  "  boc,"  as  the  Northerns  called  it  "  bog." 

I  do  not  mean  to  assert  indiscriminately,  that  whenever  a 
word  indigenous  in  a  language  is  used  to  express  writing,  it 
is  therefore  to  be  inferred,  that  the  people  using  that  lan- 
guage have  also  letters ;  because  it  may  so  happen  that  the 
word  may  not  have  been  an  indigenous  term  for  letters,  but 
for  something  else  ;  and  may  have  been  applied  to  express 
letters  only  allegorically  or  metaphorically.  To  give  an  in- 
stance :  the  Indians  of  New  England  expressed  letters,  or 
writing,  by  the  terms  wussukwhonk,  or  wussukwheg,19  But 
the  Indians  had  no  letters  nor  writing  among  them  ;  whence 
then  had  they  these  words  ?  The  answer  is,  that  they  were 
in  the  habit  of  painting  their  faces  and  their  garments,  and 
when  we  made  them  acquainted  with  writing,  they  applied 
to  it  their  word  for  painting.20  But  though  they  could 
figuratively  apply  their  term  for  painting  to  express  writing, 
they  had  nothing  to  signify  a  book,  and  therefore  it  was 
necessary  to  ingraft  our  English  word  "  book  "  into  their 
language  for  that  purpose.21 

18  When  a  letter  or  authoritative  document  is  mentioned  in  Saxon,  the  expres- 
sions applied  to  it  are  not  borrowed  from  the  Latin,  as  scriptum,  mandatum,  epis- 
tola,  and  such  like  ;  but  it  is  said,  "  Honorius  sent  the  Scot  a  se-ppic,"  Sax.  Ch. 
39. ;  desired  the  Pope  with  his  ge-ppic  to  confirm  it,  ib.  38.     So  Alfred,  trans- 
lating Bede,  says,  "  the  Pope  sent  to  Augustin  pallium  and  se-ppt,"  i.  c.  29. ;  here 
borrowing  from  the  Latin  the  pallium,  a  thing  known  to  them  from  the  Romans, 
but  using  a  native  Saxon  term  to  express  the  word  epistle. 

19  Thus  in  the  Indian  Bible,  "  and  this  writing  was  written,"  Dan.  v.  24.  is  ren- 
dered, kah  yeh  wassukwheg  unussukkuh  whosu ;  "  and  this  is  the  writing  that  was 
written,"  kah  yeh  wussukwhonk  ne  adt  tannus-sukuh  whosik,  ib.  v.  25.     "  Darius 
signed  the  writing,"  Darius  sealham  wussuk  whosuonk,  vi.  9.     "  And  the  writing 
was,1'  wussuk  whonk  no,  John,  xix.  19. 

20  Thus  wussukhosu  was  a  painted  coat.     William's  Key  to  the  Language  of 
America,  p.  184.   ed.  1643,  and  see  his  remark,  p;  61.     The  Malays,  who  have 
borrowed  their  letters  from  other  nations,  have  used  the  same  analogy.     Their 
word  "  to  write  "  is  toolis,  which  also  signifies  to  paint.     See  Howison's  Malay 
Dictionary. 

21  Hence  the  translator  was  obliged  to  express,  "  this  is  the  book  of  the  genera- 
tion "  by  uppometuongane  book,  Matt.  i.  1 .     So,  "  I  have  found  the  book  of  the 


206  APPENDIX 

CHAP.          On  the  whole,  I  am  induced  to  believe  that  the  Anglo- 
1V-         Saxons  were  not  unacquainted  with  alphabetical  characters 

' *"~      when  they  came  into  England.     However  this  may  be,  it 

is  certain  that  if  they  had  ancient  letters,  they  ceased  to  use 
them  after  their  conversion,  with  ^the  exception  of  their  p 
and  p.  It  was  the  invariable  policy  of  the  Roman  eccle- 
siastics to  discourage  the  use  of  the  Runic  characters,  because 
they  were  of  pagan  origin,  and  had  been  much  connected 
with  idolatrous  superstitions.22  Hence,  as  soon  as  the 
Christian  clergy  acquired  influence  in  the  Saxon  octarchy, 
all  that  appeared  in  their  literature  was  in  the  character 
which  they  had  formed  from  the  Romans. 

We  know  nothing  of  the  compositions  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
in  their  pagan  state.  Tacitus  mentions  generally  of  the 
Germans,  that  they  had  ancient  songs  23,  and  therefore  we 
may  believe  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  not  without  them. 
Indeed,  Dunstan  is  said  to  have  learned  the  vain  songs  of 
his  countrymen  in  their  pagan  state ;  and  we  may  suppose, 
that  if  such  compositions  had  not  been  in  existence  at  that 
period,  Edgar  would  not  have  forbidden  men,  on  festivals, 
to  sing  Heathen  songs.24  But  none  of  these  have  survived 
to  us.  If  they  were  ever  committed  to  writing,  it  was  on 
wood,  or  stones ;  indeed,  their  word  for  book  (boc)  expresses 
a  beech-tree,  and  seems  to  allude  to  the  matter  of  which 
their  earliest  books  were  made.25  The  poets  of  barbarous 
ages  usually  confide  the  little  effusions  of  their  genius  to  the 
care  of  tradition.  They  are  seldom  preserved  in  writing  till 
literature  becomes  a  serious  study;  and  therefore  we  may 
easily  believe,  that  if  the  Anglo-Saxons  had  alphabetical 
characters,  they  were  much  more  used  for  divinations,  charms, 
and  funeral  inscriptions,  than  for  literary  compositions. 

law,"  nunnamteoh  naumatue  book,  2  Kings,  xxii.  8.  "  Hilkiah  gave  the  book," 
Hilkiah  aninnumauau  boot,  Ibid.  v.  9. 

22  The  Swedes  were  persuaded  by  the  Pope,  in  1001,  to  lay  aside  the  Runic 
letters,  and  to  adopt  the  Roman  in  their  stead.     They  were  gradually  abolished  in 
Denmark,  and  afterwards  in  Iceland. 

23  De  Moribus  German.  24  Wilk.  Leg.  Anglo- Sax.  p.  83. 

25  Wormius  infers,  that  pieces  of  wood  cut  from  the  beech-tree  were  the  ancient 
northern  books,  Lit.  Run.  p.  6.  Saxo  Grammaticus  mentions,  that  Fengo's  am- 
bassadors took  with  them  literas  ligno  insculptas,  "  because,"  adds  Saxo,  "  that  was 
formerly  a  celebrated  kind  of  material  to  write  upon,"  lib.  iii.  p.  52.  Besides  the 
passage  formerly  cited  from  Fortunatus,  we  may  notice  another,  in  which  he  speaks 
of  the  bark  as  used  to  contain  characters.  See  Worm.  p.  9.  who  says,  that  no  wood 
more  abounds  in  Denmark  than  the  beech,  nor  is  any  more  adapted  to  receive  im- 
pressions, ib.  p.  7.  In  Welsh,  gwydd,  a  tree,  or  wood,  is  used  to  denote  a  book. 
Thus  Gwilym  Tew  talks  of  reading  the  gwydd.  Owen's  Diet.  voc.  Gwydd. 


TO   BOOK  II.  207 


THIS  Poem  is  frequently  quoted  in  the  Edda  of  Snorre,  as 
a  competent  authority,  and  is  therefore  much  more  ancient. 
It  is  thought  to  have  been  compiled  from  preceding  traditions 
by  Saemund,  who  lived  about  a  hundred  years  before  Snorre. 
As  it  has  never  appeared  in  English  before,  and  is  very  little 
known  in  Europe,  and  is  the  most  ancient  record  of  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  Northmen  which  has  yet  been  found,  a  transla- 
tion of  it  will  be  added  here.  It  is  obscure  and  difficult, 
and  the  meaning  is  not  always  indisputable.  I  have  made 
the  version  as  literally  as  possible,  and  as  well  as  I  can  un- 
derstand it,  but  in  some  parts  all  the  interpretations  of  it 
differ.  Bartholin  has  sometimes  rather  paraphrased  than 
translated  his  extracts.  Its  best  commentary  is  Snorre's 
Edda.  The  name  VOLUSPA  implies  the  oracle  or  prophecy 
of  Vola.  This  Sibyl  of  the  North  expresses  in  it,  though 
with  rapid  conciseness,  the  great  outlines  of  the  most  ancient 
Northern  Mythology.  The  Yoluspa  and  the  Edda  are  two 
great  repositories  of  the  oldest  and  most  venerated  traditions 
of  Pagan  Scandinavia.  The  Voluspa  opens  abruptly,  and 
most  probably,  represents  many  of  the  ancient  Saxon  tra- 
ditions or  imaginations. 

BE  silent,  I  pray,  all  holy  creatures ! 
Greater  or  small !  sons  of  Heimdallar ! 
I  will  tell  of  the  devices  of  Valfodur ; 
The  ancient  discourses  of  men  :  the  earliest  I  know. 

I  know  the  giants ;  the  early  born  ; 
They  who  formerly  instructed  me. 
I  know  there  are  nine  worlds,  and  nine  supports, 
And  the  great  centre  under  the  earth. 

In  the  era  of  the  ages  where  Ymer  was  dwelling, 
There  was  no  sand  nor  sea, 
Nor  winds  on  a  vast  ocean. 
Earth  yet  was  not ;  nor  the  heaven  above. 
Only  the  abyss  of  chaos  ;  and  no  grass. 

Before  Bur  had  raised  up  the  meadows, 
And  had  enlarged  Midgard, 
The  sun  shone  round  the  south, 
And  the  ground  produced  its  green  fruits. 

The  sun  from  his  noon,  threw  out  the  moon 
With  his  right  hand,  over  the  steeds  of  heaven. 


CHAP. 

IV. 


208  APPENDIX 

CHAP.  The  sun  knew  not  where  should  be  his  palaces : 

IV.  '  The  moon  knew  not  where  should  be  her  home  : 

*— ~ * '  The  stars  knew  not  where  would  be  their  station. 

Then  all  the  Deities  moved  to  their  royal  stools : 
The  stupendously-holy  Gods  considered  these  things  : 
They  gave  names  to  the  night  and  to  the  twilight, 
They  called  the  morning  and  mid-day  so ; 
And  bade  the  rise  and  the  course  of  the  year  to  begin. 

The  Asse  met  on  the  fields  of  Ida, 
And  framed  their  images  and  temples. 
They  placed  the  furnaces.     They  created  money. 
They  made  tongs  and  iron  tools. 

They  played  at  dice.     They  were  merry. 
No  vicious  desire  of  gold  arose  among  them. 
Till  three  of  the  Thursa  Virgins  come, 
Two  very  powerful  from  Jotun-heim. 

The  Gods  then  went  to  their  divine  stools, 
Inquiring  of  the  Holy  Deities,  this,  — 
Who  ought  to  be  the  Lord  of  the  Duerga,  (the  dwarfs,) 
Or  to  create  them 
From  Bruner's  blood,  and  the  legs  of  Blavis  ? 

There  Motsogner  obtained  the  pre-eminence 
Of  all  the  Duerga.     Durin,  the  next. 
They  made  many  images  of  men, 
Dwarfs  on  the  earth,  as  Durin  said. 

Nor  and  Nidi ;  the  northern  ;  the  southern ; 
The  east ;  the  west ;  the  hidden  Althiofi, 
Bivor  and  Bavor  ;  Bumbur  ;  Nori, 
An,  and  Anar  ;  Ae ;  the  mead  of  knowledge. 
Veigur  and  Gandalfur ;  Vindalfur ;  Thraim ; 
Theckur ;  Thorinn  ;  Thror ;  Litur  and  Yitur ; x 
Nar  and  Nyradur.     Now  I  have  the  dwarfs, 
The  violent  and  the  placid,  rightly  enumerated. 

Fill ;  Kili ;  Fundinn  ;  Nali ; 
Heiti ;  Vili ;  Hanar  ;  Svior ; 
Frar  :  Hornbore ;  Flogur ;  Lone ; 
Aurvangur,  and  Eikinskialldi. 

It  is  time  that  the  dwarfs 
From  the  family  of  Daulin 

Should  be  reckoned  by  the  kindreds  of  the  people, 
For  an  auspicious  year  ; 
They  go  out  from  the  rocks  above  ground, 
To  the  seats  of  the  husbandmen ; 
The  sea  of  the  ploughs. 


TO   BOOK  II.  209 

There  was  Draupner  and  Dolgkrasir :  CHAP. 

Har ;  Haugspere  ;  Hlevangur  ;  Gloe ;  IV- 

Skryver  ;  Virvir ;  Skafidur  ;  Ai ;  t"""~v 

Alfur ;  Ingve  of  Eikinskialldr ; 
Falur ;  Frosti ;  Fidur  ;  Sinnar ; 
Dore  ;  Ore ;  Dufar ;  Andvere  ; 
Heph ;  Fill ;  Haar  ;  Sviar  ; 
This  will  be  manifest  while  people  live ; 
The  number  of  their  descendants  will  value  it. 

Until  three  came  from  this  troop. 
The  powerful  and  rich  Asae,  to  their  home, 
They  found  in  the  land  weak  and  unwarlike  ones, 
ASK  and  EMBLA,  without  a  destiny. 

These  had  then  no  soul ;  they  had  then  no  reason  ; 
No  blood ;  no  senses  ;  no  good  colour. 
Odin  gave  them  a  soul.     Hsenir  gave  reason  ; 
Lodur  gave  them  blood  and  a  good  complexion. 

I  know  that  an  ash  existed  called  Ygdrasil : 
Its  lofty  size  covered  with  white  clay. 
Then  comes  the  rain  that  falls  in  the  valleys  ; 
It  stands  always  green  over  Ordar-brunne.26 

Then  came  the  much-knowing  virgins  ; 
Three,  from  that  sea 
Which  extends  over  the  oak  : 
One  is  called  Urd  (necessity)  ; 
Another  Verdande  (the  possible)  ; 
The  third  Skulld.27 
They  engrave  on  the  shield ; 
They  appoint  laws,  they  choose  laws 
For  the  sons  of  the  ages  ; 
The  fates  of  mankind. 

This  one  knew  the  first  slaughter 
Of  the  people  in  the  world ; 
When  they  supported  Gullvelg  with  weapons ; 
And  burnt  her  in  the  hall  of  Har. 

Three  times  they  burnt  her ; 
Three  times  re-born  : 
Often  —  again  —  yet  she  lived. 
They  called  her  Heid, 
Whatever  house  they  came  to. 

Vola  of  good  omen 
Dishonoured  the  divine  mysteries. 
She  knew  magic  arts. 

26  These  words  mean  "  The  Fountain  of  Necessity." 

27  The  Edda  calls  these  "  the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future.'" 

VOL.  I.  P 


210  APPENDIX 

CHAP.  She  could  use  enchantments, 

IV.  Always  troubling  like  an  evil  woman. 

Then  the  Deities 

Went  each  to  their  judicial  stools. 
Considering  whether  mischiefs  from  bad  counsel 
Would  occur  from  the  Asae  ; 
Or  whether  all  the  Gods 
Should  reserve  their  banquets  to  themselves. 

Odin  hastened, 

And  sent  his  darts  into  the  crowd. 
This  was  the  first  slaughter  of  men  in  the  world. 
The  wall  of  the  city  of  Asae  was  broken. 
Vaner  made  the  fields  to  be  trampled  by  war. 

Then  all  the  gods 
Went  to  their  judicial  stools  : 
The  Holy  Deities  :  to  consider 
Who  would  mingle  the  aether  and  the  sea ; 
Or  give  the  Virgin  Odi 
To  the  race  of  the  Jotna  (the  giants). 

Thor  was  one  there  ;  turgid  with  bile  : 
He  rarely  sat, 

When  he  perceived  such  things. 
Oath  and  compacts  were  cut  thro', 
And  all  the  controversies  which  intervened. 

She  knew ; 

Heimdallur  had  the  secret  song ; 
Under  the  same  sacred  zone 
She  beheld  the  river 
Flowing  with  its  dark  torrent. 
From  the  compact  of  Valfodur. 
Know  you  more  ?     It  is  this. 

She  sat  alone  in  the  air, 
When  the  old  man  came, 
Yggiongur  of  the  Asae, 
And  looked  her  in  the  face. 
"  What  do  you  seek  from  me  ?" 
"  Why  do  you  tempt  me  ?" 
I  know  all.     Odin ! 
Where  have  you  hidden  the  eye  ? 
In  the  greater  fountain  of  Mimur. 
Mimur  every  morning  drinks  mead 
From  the  pledge  of  Valfodur. 
Know  you  more  ?     What  is  it  ? 

Herfodur  delivered  to  him 
The  rings  and  the  bracelets. 
The  spell  of  riches  ;  wisdom  ; 


TO   BOOK  II.  211 

And  the  staffs  of  prophecy.  CHAP. 

He  saw  these  well  and  widely  IV. 

Over  all  the  earth.  *       »       ' 
Know  you  more  ?     What  is  it  ? 

He  saw  the  Valkyriar 
Immediately  coming  ? 
Adorned  on  steeds,  they  went  to  Gothiod. 
Skulid  held  the  shield : 
Scogul  was  the  other. 
Ginnur ;  Helldur ; 
Gondull  and  Gierskialld. 
Now  the  maidens  of  Odin  are  told  : 
The  Valkyrear  :  instructed  to  ride  over  the  ground. 

I  saw 

The  secret  destinies  on  Balder. 
The  bleeding  warrior  :  the  son  of  Odin. 
The  slender  and  polished  weapon 
That  killed  him 
Stood  in  the  field  growing  upwards. 

It  was  made  from  that  tree 
Which  appeared  to  me 
A  mournful  calamity 
When  Hodur  darted  it : 
The  killer  of  Balder,  born  before  day. 
Before  one  night  the  new  born 
Struck  the  son  of  Odin. 

Then  he  would  not  raise  his  hands 
Nor  comb  his  head 
Before  he  should  carry 
The  foe  of  Balder  to  the  pile. 
Frigga  grieved  in  her  Fensola, 
The  keeper  of  Vahalla. 
Know  you  more  ?    Is  it  this  ? 

She  saw  the  bound  one 
Lying  under  the  grove  of  the  Huns. 
The  perfidious  funeral. 
One  like  Lok, 
There  sat  as  Sigynia. 
Never  dear  to  her  husband. 
Know  you  more  ?    What  is  it  ? 

A  river  flows  from  the  east 
Over  poisoned  vales, 
Carrying  mud  and  turf. 
It  is  called  Slidur. 

There  stands  towards  the  north, 
In  Nidafiollum, 

p  2 


212  APPENDIX 

CHAP.  A  golden  palace  named  Sindra ; 

IV.  But  another  exists  in  Okolni. 

' » '  The  ale  cellars  of  the  Jotun 

Which  is  called  Brimir. 

She  saw  a  palace  stand  far  from  the  sun 
In  Nastrondum. 

It  looks  at  the  doors  of  the  north. 
The  building  is  twisted  from  the  spines  of  serpents 
Poisoned  torrents 
Flow  thro'  its  windows. 

There  she  saw  amid  the  dreadful  streams 
The  perjured  and  the  murderers : 
And  those  who  pull  the  ears 
Of  another's  wife. 
Their  Nidhoggur 
Tore  the  flesh  from  their  corpses. 
The  fierce  Wolf  devoured  the  men. 
Know  you  more  ?    It  is  this. 

There  sat  an  old  man 
Towards  the  east  in  a  wood  of  iron. 
Where  he  nourished  the  sons  of  Fenris. 
Every  one  of  these  grew  prodigious ; 
A  giant  form ; 
The  persecutor  of  the  moon. 

He  was  saturated 
With  the  lives  of  dying  men. 
He  sprinkled  the  host  of  the  Deities  with  blood. 
He  darken'd  the  light  of  the  sun  in  the  summer. 
All  the  winds  were  malignant. 
Know  you  more  ?    It  is  this. 

He  sat  on  a  mound,  and  struck  the  harp. 
Gygas  the  herdsman. 
The  glad  Egder  (the  eagle) 
Sang  before  him  on  the  boughs  of  the  tree, 
The  purple  cock  surnamed  Fialer. 

The  golden-haired  bird 
Sang  with  the  Asae. 
He  roused  the  heroes  with  Herfadur. 
But  another  crowed  below  the  earth, 
The  yellow  cock  in  the  palace  of  Hela. 

Garmur  barked  horribly 
Before  the  cave  of  Gnipa. 
The  chains  will  be  broken : 
Freco  will  rush  out, 
Wise,  she  knows  many  things. 
But  I  see  beyond, 


TO   BOOK  II. 

From  the  twilight  of  the  Deities, 
The  fierce  Sigtiva. 

Brethren  will  fight  and  slay  each  other  ; 
Kindred  will  spurn  their  consanguinity : 
Hard  will  be  the  world  : 
Many  the  adulteries. 
A  bearded  age :  an  age  of  swords : 
Shields  will  be  cloven. 
An  age  of  winds  ;  an  age  of  wolves. 
Till  the  world  shall  perish 
There  will  not  be  one  that  will  spare  another. 

The  sons  of  Mimur  will  sport ; 
But  the  bosom  of  the  earth  will  burn ; 
Hear  the  sound  of  the  Mystic  horn, 
Heimdallur  will  blow  on  high 
The  elevated  horn. 
Odin  will  speak  by  the  head  of  Mimer. 

The  ancient  tree  will  sound  ominously. 
The  Jotun  will  be  dissolved. 
The  ash  Yggdrasil  erected 
Will  become  terrible. 
Garmur  will  bark 
Before  Gniper's  cave. 
The  chains  will  be  shattered : 
And  Freco  will  run  forth. 

Hrymer  will  drive  his  car  from  the  east. 
Jornumgandus  will  revolve  round 
With  the  rage  of  the  Jotun  (giants), 
The  serpent  will  move  the  seas ; 
But  the  eagle  flies 
Through  the  seas  of  the  people : 
And  Lok  will  hold  his  club. 

All  the  sons  of  Fiflo  lead  Freco. 
The  brother  of  Bilvifs  accompanies  them. 

What  is  there  among  the  Asae  ? 
What  among  the  Elfi  ? 
All  the  house  of  the  Jotun  trembles : 
The  Dvergi  (the  dwarfs)  groan 
Before  the  doors  of  the  rocks : 
Their  stony  asylum. 
Know  you  more  ?    What  is  it  ? 

Surtur  comes  from  the  south 
With  Swiga  —  lesi 

The  sword  of  Valtivi  radiates  like  the  sun  : 
The  stony  rocks  glide  away : 
The  Deities  are  enraged : 


213 


214  APPENDIX 

CHAP.  Men  tread  the  wa/of  Hela : 

IV.  But  the  heaven  is  cleft  in  twain. 

Then  Hlinar,  the  other  grief,  goes  forth. 
When  Odin  goes  to  battle  the  Wolf. 
The  striker  of  Beli  shining 
Opposes  Surtur. 
Then  the  husband  of  Frigga  falls. 

Then  will  come  Sigfodr 
The  greater  son  of  Odin : 
Vida ;  to  fight  with  the  fatal  animal, 
Who  with  her  broad  hand, 
In  the  middle  of  her  jaws, 
Pierces  his  heart  with  a  sword. 
Thus  avenging  the  death  of  her  father. 

Then  comes 

The  beautiful  son  Hlodynia. 
The  son  of  Odin  combated  the  Wolf. 
He  slew  in  wrath  the  serpent  Midgard. 
Men  state  the  prop  of  the  world. 

The  offspring  of  Fiorgunar 
Stepped  nine  steps. 

Weakened  by  the  black  and  hungry  snake, 
The  sun  darkens ; 
The  earth  is  immerged  in  the  sea ; 
The  serene  stars  are  withdrawn  from  heaven 
Fire  rages  in  the  ancient  world  : 
The  lofty  colour  reaches  to  heaven  itself. 

Garmur  barks  before  the  cave  of  Gnipa ; 
The  chains  are  broken : 
Freco  rushes  out. 

She  sees  at  last  emerge  from  the  ocean, 
An  earth  in  every  part  flourishing. 
The  cataracts  flow  down  ; 
The  eagle  flies  aloft ; 
And  hunt  the  fishes  in  the  mountains. 

The  Asae  met  in  Ida  Valle, 
And  talked  of  the  world's  great  calamities : 
And  of  the  ancient  runae  of  Fimbultyr. 

These  things  done,  the  wonderful  dice 
Are  found  gilt  in  the  grass, 
Which  those  of  the  former  days  possessed. 

There  were  fields  without  sowing ; 
All  adverse  things  became  prosperous. 
Baldur  will  come  again. 


TO  BOOK  II.  215 

Haudur  and  Baldur :  CHAP. 

Hroptr  and  Sigroptr  :  IV. 

The  Asae  will  dwell  without  evils.  ' 

Do  you  yet  understand  ? 

Then  Heinir  shares  the  power  of  choosing  Vidar, 
And  the  sons  of  the  two  brothers 
Inhabit  the  vast  mansion  of  the  winds. 
Do  you  know  more  ? 

A  hall  stands  brighter  than  the  sun  ; 
Covered  with  gold  in  Gimle. 
There  virtuous  people  will  dwell : 
And  for  ages  will  enjoy  every  good. 

There  will  come  the  obscene  dragon  flying, 
The  serpent  from  Nidar-fiolli. 
He  carries  the  corpses  in  his  wings : 
He  flies  over  the  ground : 
The  infernal  serpent,  Nidhoggur : 
Now  the  earth  gapes  for  him. 


r  4 


216  HISTORY    OF    THE 


BOOK  III, 


CHAP.  I. 

The  Arrival  of  HENGIST.  —  His   Transactions  and  Wars  with 
the  BRITONS,  and  final  Settlement  in  KENT. 

BOOK  HITHERTO  England  had  been  inhabited  by  branches 
"L  .  of  the  Kimmerian  and  Keltic  races,  apparently  visited 
by  the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  and  afterwards 
occupied  by  the  Roman  military  and  colonists.  From 
these  successive  populations,  it  had  obtained  all  the 
benefits  which  each  could  impart.  But  in  the  fifth 
century  the  period  had  arrived  when  both  England 
and  the  south  of  Europe  were  to  be  possessed  and 
commanded  by  a  new  description  of  people,  who  had 
been  gradually  formed  amid  the  wars  and  vicissitudes 
of  the  Germanic  continent ;  and  to  be  led  to  manners, 
laws,  and  institutions  peculiarly  their  own,  and 
adapted,  as  the  great  result  has  shown,  to  produce 
national  and  social  improvements  superior  to  those 
which  either  Greece  or  Rome  had  attained.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  invasion  of  Britain  must  therefore  not 
be  contemplated  as  a  barbarisation  of  the  country. 
Our  Saxon  ancestors  brought  with  them  a  superior 
domestic  and  moral  character,  and  the  rudiments  of 
new  political,  juridical,  and  intellectual  blessings. 
An  interval  of  slaughter  and  desolation  unavoidably 
occurred  before  they  established  themselves  and  their 
new  systems  in  the  island.  But  when  they  had  com- 
pleted their  conquest,  they  laid  the  foundations  of 
that  national  constitution,  of  that  internal  polity,  of 
those  peculiar  customs,  of  that  female  modesty,  and 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  217 

of  that  vigour  and  direction  of  mind,  to  which  Great 
Britain  owes  the  social  progress  which  it  has  so 
eminently  acquired.  Some  parts  of  the  civilisation 
which  they  found  in  the  island  assisted  to  produce 
this  great  result.  Their  desolations  removed  much 
of  the  .moral  degeneracy  we  have  before  alluded  to. 

Although  in  the  fictions  of  romance  kingdoms  fall 
almost  at  the  will  of  the  assailant,  yet  in  real  life  no 
great  revolutions  of  states  occur  without  the  pre- 
paratory and  concurring  operation  of  many  political 
causes.  The  Saxons  had  for  nearly  two  centuries 
been  attacking  Britain,  with  no  greater  successes  than 
the  half-naked  Scoti  from  Ireland  had  obtained.  They 
plundered  where  they  arrived  unexpectedly.  They 
were  defeated  when  they  encountered  a  military  or 
naval  resistance.  Hengist  and  Ella  would  not  have 
been  more  fortunate  than  their  depredatory  country- 
men who  had  preceded  them,  if  the  events  of  the 
day  had  not  by  their  agencies  conducted  them  and 
their  successors,  from  exile  and  piracy,  tt>  the  pro- 
prietorship of  the  kingdoms  of  the  English  octarchy. 

Amid  the  sovereignties  into  which  the  island  was 
divided,  and  the  civil  distractions  which  this  division 
of  power  produced,  it  appears  that  one  ruler  was 
made  the  supreme  monarch,  with  the  addition  of  a 
council  of  the  other  chiefs.  The  council  is  mentioned 
by  all  the  ancient  writers  who  treat  of  this  period1, 
and  Gwrthycrn  is  named  by  each  as  the  predominat- 
ing sovereign.2 

Gwrtheyrn  is  mentioned  as  a  proud  and  cruel 
tyrant ;  but  with  these  features  Gildas  describes  the 

1  As  by  Gildas,  s.  22,  23.     Nennius,  c.  38,  &c.     Bede,  p.  52.     Flor.  Wig.  194. 

2  Thus  W.  Malmsb.  p.  9.     "  Omnes  reguli  insulae  Vortigerni  substernebantur 
monarchic."     The  traditions  of  the  Welsh  that  have  been  committed  to  writing 
notice  the  same  plan  of  government.     The  seventh  historical  triad  exhibits  Arthur 
as  the  pen-teyrn,  literally  the  head-king  ;  and  Maelgwn,  the  king  of  Gwynedd,  as 
the  pen-hynain,  or  chief  elder.     Welsh  Archaeol.  vol.  ii.  p.  3.     According  to  this 
British  appellation,  Gwrtheyrn  was  the  pen-teyrn,  whose  supreme  power  was  called 
unbenaeth,  literally,  the  one  head-ship  or  monarchy. 


218  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  general  body  of  the  Britons,  both  clergy  and  laity.3 
i — , — '  Their  supreme  king  seems  to  have  acted  only  with 
the  selfish  spirit  of  his  contemporaries,  and  he  was 
surrounded  with  many  political  difficulties  that  would 
have  embarrassed  a  wiser  and  a  better  man.  His 
authority  was  disputed4  by  a  chieftain  of  Roman 
parentage,  whose  parents  had  perished  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  imperial  purple,  and  to  whom  Gildas  gives 
the  name  of  Ambrosius 5  Aurelianus.  The  Scoti  and 
Picts  were  harassing  the  island  wherever  they  could 
penetrate 6,  and  a  mortal  distemper  was  raging  among 
the  people7,  which  appears  to  have  spread  over  a 
large  part  of  the  world.8  But  the  greatest  affliction 
of  Britain  was  the  numerous  petty  sovereignties  into 
which,  after  the  departure  of  the  Romans,  it  had  be- 
come divided.9  Gwrtheyrn  had  to  encounter  each 
of  these  evils,  and  all  nearly  at  the  same  time.  The 
country  became  dissatisfied  at  its  sufferings,  and  its 
discontent  increased  the  civil  factions  of  the  period. 
Royalty  has  no  safety  when  the  sovereign  is  un- 
popular. When  the  fuel  of  rebellion  abounds  in  every 
part,'  the  restlessness  of  the  disturbed  society  seldom 

3  See  Gildas's  epistola  annexed  to  his  history,  p.  10 — 39. 

4  Nennius,  c.  28. 

5  Gildas,  s.  25.     Nennius,  c.  44.     The  Welsh  triads  call  him  Emrys  Wledig,  or 
king  Emrys,  which  is  the  name  disfigured,  in  the  MSS.  or  printed  copy  of  Nennius, 
into  Embreis  gleutic,  c.  44.     He  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the  triads.     His  de- 
scendants were  alive  in  the  time  of  Gildas,  but  much  degenerated. 

6  Gildas,  c.  20.     Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  16.     The  Vita  S.  Carentoci  names  the  leaders 
of  the  Scoti,  "  In  istis  temporibus  Scotti  superaverunt  Britanniam ;  nomina  ducum 
quorum  Briscus,  Thuibaius,  Machleius,  Anpacus."     MSS.  Vesp.  A.  xiv.  p.  90. 

7  Gildas,  c.  21. 

8  Gildas,  c.  21.     Marcellinus  mentions  a  great  pestilence  following  a  famine  at 
Constantinople,  when  JEtius  III.  and  Symmachus  were  consuls,  ann.  446,  p.  41. 
Seal.  Euseb.     Evagrius,  lib.  ii.  c.  6.,  extends  it  over  Asia  and  the  world  rt]v  y-qv, 
p.  298.  ed.  Vales.     Corporibus  tumescentibus  oculos  amittebant :    simulque  tussi 
vexati  tertio  die  moriebantur.     No  remedy  could  be  found  for  it. 

9  The  custom  of  gavel-kind,  which  prevailed  among  the  Britons,  increased  this 
evil.     In  the  Lives  of  the  Welsh  Saints  in  the  Cottonian  library,  Vesp.  A.  14.  and 
Titus,  D.  22.,  MSS.  seemingly  of  the  twelfth  century,  two  striking  instances  of 
this  custom  are  given.     The  Vita  Cadoci,  after  mentioning  a  king  who  left  ten 
sons,  says  of  them,  "  paternum  regnum  inter  se  secundum  eorum  numerum  uni- 
cuique  suam  provinciam  diviserunt."     So  the  Vita  S.  Carentoci,  speaking  of  the 
son  of  Cunedda,  states  that  "  divisit  possessions  patris  sui  inter  fratres  suos." 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  219 

fails  to  produce  events  or  characters  which  begin  the     CHAP. 
fatal  conflagration.  - 

In  this  state  of  the  country,  three  Saxon  chiules,  o"F\  ^^ 
vessels,  arrived  from  Germany  on  or  near  the  British  AD. 449. 
coast ;  whose  leaders  were  named  Hengist  and  Horsa, 
two  brothers,    and  descendants   from   Woden.      As 
their  numbers  were  too  few  for  conquest,  their  visit 
must  have  been  either  a  matter  of  accident  or  for 
the   purpose  of  a  transient   depredation. 
says,  they  were  exiles. i(r 

If  we  estimate  the  number  of  these  Saxons  from 
the  size  of  the  Danish  vessels  in  a  subsequent  age, 
they  could  not  have  exceeded  three  hundred  men  u  ; 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  Saxon 
ships,  as  they  are  mentioned  by  Sidonius,  were  larger. 
They  may  have  been  some  of  the  Saxons  who  were 
at  this  time  supporting  the  Armorici,  and  hovering 
on  the  coast  of  France. 

They  arrived  at  Ebbs-fleet12,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet, 
near  Richborough.  The  king  and  British  chiefs  were 
at  that  time  holding  a  public  council  on  the  best 
means  to  repel  their  Irish  and  Scottish  enemies,  and 
it  was  agreed  to  employ  these  Saxon  adventurers  as,, 
subsidiary  soldiers.13  They  were  accordingly  retained 

10  Nennius,  c.  28.     Many  authorities  mention  that  the  Saxons  were  invited,  and 
many  that  they  came  accidentally.     It  is  most  likely  that  the  first  arrival  off  the 
island  was  casual,  but  that  their  landing  and,  subsequent  increase  were  the  result 
of  invitation. 

11  Gildas,  Bede,  Flor.  Wigorn.,  Malmsbury,  H.  Huntingd.,  and  others  mention 
the  ships,  but  not  the  number  of  men.     Verstegan  and  his  authority,  p.  126.,  and 
Speed,  Hist.  291.,  outrage  probability  so  far  as  to  crowd  9000  into  these  three 
ships.  —  The  Danish  ships  of  a  subsequent  age  had  1 00  men  in  each.     Herv.  Sag. 
p.  25. — Lazamon  gives  the  probable  number,  "  Threo  scipen  gode  comen  mid  than 
flode,  threo  hundred  cnihten,"  MSS.  Cott.  Calig.  A.  9.  p.  79. 

12  Or  Ypwines  fleot,  Sax.  Chronicle,  12.     It  was  near  the  sestuary  of  the  Wan- 
stum,  which  divides  Thanet  from  the  main  land  of  Kent.  —  The  Wanstum  was 
once  navigable  for  ships  of  large  burthen.    See  Batteley,  Ant.  Rutup.  13.     In  Bede's 
time  it  was  three  stadia  broad,  and  fordable  only  in  two  places,  lib.  i.  c.  25.     It  is 
now,  at  Reculver,  one  of  its  entrances,  a  brook  which  may  be  stepped  over,  and  in, 
its  centre,  towards  the  Sarr  road,  is  not  six  feet  broad.     Ebbsfleet  is  now  an  inland 
spot  at  some  distance  from  the  sea —  Sarr  was  a  naval  station  formerly,  and  some 
old  drawings  still  exist  which  represent  a  man  with  a  ferry-boat  at  this  place. 

13  Gildas,  s.  22.     Nen.  c.  28.     The  British  poem  of  Golyddan  indignantly  al- 
ludes to  this  council.     Welsh.  Arch.  v.  i.  p.  156. 


220  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     to  serve  against  the  northern  invaders,  the  Pihtas, 
•   Scoti,  and  other  foes ;  they  were  promised  food  and 
449'       clothing,  and  were  stationed  in  Thanet.14    Their  first 
exertions  are  stated  to  have  been  directed  against  the 
Irish  and  Picts,  in  just  performance  of  their  engage- 
ment, and  with  immediate  success.15     But  it  was  notlv 
enough  to    repress    one    incursion   of   these   activeJ 
enemies.      It  was    their  habit  to    attack,    plunder, 
retire,  and  return ;  and  if  one  quarter  was  too  well 
guarded,  to  attempt  another.     All  pirates  in  every 
age  use  this  policy,  and  exhibit  this  perseverance.^ 
Hence  it  was  not  enough  to  have  repelled  the  first 
assailants ;  and  to  do  more,  larger  forces  were  requi- 
site.     But  as  the   numbers  which  had   come  with 
Hengist  were  few,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  re- 
commend the  invitation  of  more  of  his -countrymen, 
if  they  were  to  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  continued-^ 
military16  defence.      The    king  assented ;  and  they 
sent  to  their  native  land  for  further  supplies.17 

But  we  must  not  resort  to  Wittichind  for  the  speech 
of  the  ambassadors.  Though  a  Saxon  himself,  he 
appears  to  have  been  completely  ignorant  of  the 
Saxon  antiquities.18  We  can  conceive  the  application! 
to  have  been  an  address  to  the  courage  and  spirit  of 
adventure  of  the  youth  of  Jutland,  from  whichj 

14  Gildas,  s.  13.     Nennius,  s.  28.  35.     The  ancient  British  name  of  Thanet  was 
Ruithina.     Nen.  c.  28. 

15  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  15.  p.  52.     Sax.  Ch.  p.  12.     Ethelwerd,  lib.  i.  p.  833. 

16  Nennius,  s.  37. 

17  I  would  place  at  this  period,  as  well  as  at  their  first  arrival,  that  invitation 
which  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  15.,  Ethelwerd,  833.,  Sax.  Chron.  12.,  and  others  affirm. 

18  He  was  the  biographer  of  his  contemporary,  Otho,  who  died  972.     Sigebert, 
1196.     Germ.  Quat.  Celeb.  Chron.  —  He  addresses  his  Saxon  history  to  Matilda, 
Otho's  maiden  daughter.     He  knows  nothing  of  the  Saxons  prior  to  their  entering 
Thuringia.     He  was  so  ignorant  of  them  as  to  say,  that  the  Saxons  in  England 
were  called  Angli-Saxones,  because  the  island  was  in  a  sort  of  angle  of  the  sea. 
P.  3.  he  says,  when  he  was  a  boy,  he  heard  of  the  Macedonian  extraction  of  the 
Saxons.     If  the  Saxons  sprang  from  the  Sacasenae,  who  lived  near  Persia,  which  is 
the  most  probable  account  of  their  origin,  traditions  connected  with  the  battles  of 
Alexander  might  have  remained  with  them,  as  with  the  nations  in  the  East ;  but 
this  is  a  subject  too  illusory  to  deserve  any  attention.     If  it  be  worth  recollecting 
-at  all,  it  is  merely  as  another  tradition  pointing  to  their  Eastern  origin. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  221 

^Hengist  had  sailed.19  Hengist  may  have  added,  as  a 
lure,  the  probability  of  greater  aggrandisement ;  but 
the  lofty  projects  of  ambition  are  not  the  first  con-  449- 
ceptions  of  humbler  fortunes :  auspicious  events 
gradually  teach  hope  to  be  more  aspiring.  One  un- 
expected success  occasions  a  further  elevation  to  be 
attempted,  until  a  greatness,  at  one  time  the  most 
improbable,  is  attained  with  a  facility  which  surprises 
the  adventurer.  But  in  the  beginning  of  his  employ- 
ment, it  is  not  probable  that  Hengist,  with  his  scanty 
means,  could  have  projected  the  conquest  of  a  country 
so  well  peopled  as  Britain.  It  was  the  civil  feuds, 
divided  sovereignties,  and  warring  interests  of  the 
unhappy  island,  and  events  not  before  anticipated, 
usually  arising  in  disturbed  periods  of  society,  which 
led  him  to  perceive  that  permanent  settlements  were 
attainable,  and  to  desire  their  acquisition.  Hence 
we  need  not  fancy  that  his  primary  invitations  held 
out  magnificent  hopes,  or  that  his  first  friendly  allies 
came  in  search  of  thrones.  The  sword  of  the  Saxon 
was  ready  for  every  enterprise  ;  war  and  booty  were 
his  high-prized  pleasures ;  and  it  is  probable,  that,  at 
the  first  call  of  Hengist,  many  thronged  who  knew 
only  that  they  were  to  fight  and  to  be  rewarded. 

The  Saxons  at  that  time  had,  as  we  have  already 
described,  spread  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Rhine ;  and 
the  old  Saxon  Chronicler  describes  them  to  have 
then  been  active  in  depredation  on  all  the  sea-coast 
from  Holland  to  Denmark.20 

The  subsequent  actions  of  Hengist  are  not  satis- 
factorily detailed  in  our  oldest  writers :  their  great 
result,  the  occupation  of  Britain  by  the  Anglo-Saxon 
nations,  and  the  consequent  defeats  and  sufferings  of 
the  Britons,  are  strongly  but  generally  expressed. 

19  Bede,  p.  52. 

20  Ethelwerd,  p.  833.    His  Chronicle  ends  with  Edgar,  about  whose  time  he  lived. 
He  derives  himself  from  Ethelred,  the  brother  of  Alfred,  p.  831.     It  is  a  rude  but 
valuable  Chronicle. 


222  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     Few  of  the  accompanying  circumstances  are  noticed, 

.    nL    ,.  and  these,  it  is  not  easy  to  arrange  under  any  de- 

449.      finite  chronology.     All  that  criticism  can  do  is  to 

select  the  incidents  that  seem  indisputable,  and  to  add 

the  remarks  which  they  naturally  suggest. 

It  was  not  until  the  seventh  year  after  his  arrival 
in  England  that  Hengist  is  stated  to  have  begun  his 
kingdom  in  Kent.21  Thus  a  period  of  six  years  in- 
tervened between  his  entrance  and  his  establishment ; 
and  this  interval  was  occupied  by  three  classes  of 
events,  which  are  all  mentioned,  though  not  circum- 
stantially narrated.  These  were  his  conflicts  with 
the  Picts  and  Irish,  —  his  alliance  and  friendship  with 
Gwrtheyrn  and  the  Britons,  —  and  his  subsequent 
hostilities  against  them,  and  final  conquest  of  Kent 
into  a  kingdom,  which  he  transmitted  to  his  posterity. 
These  events  followed  in  the  order  thus  stated ;  but 
the  time  which  each  occupied  cannot  now  be  dis- 
criminated. 

The  consequences  of  admitting  and  employing 
Hengist  and  his  followers  became  so  calamitous  to  the 
Britons,  that  the  original  policy  of  the  measure  has 
been  generally  reprobated.  But  this  was  not  the 
Dingle  act  of  Gwrtheyrn.  It  was  the  unanimous  re- 
solution of  the  national  council  of  kings  and  chiefs 
who  decided  for  its  adoption.  It  appeared  to  them 
to  be  an  expedient  means  of  protecting  the  coasts 
of  the  island  from  the  maritime  desolations  of  the 
Irish  and  Picts,  that  one  set  of  barbarians  should  be 
hired  to  combat  the  others ;  for  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Romanised  Britons  all  these  piratical  invaders  were 
Ldeemed  barbarians,  and  are  so  mentioned.  The  pur- 

21  The  Saxon  Chronicle  expressly  states,  that  after  the  battle  in  455,  in  which 
Horsa  fell,  Hengist  acquired  his  little  kingdom  ;  after  tham  Hengest  feng  to  rice, 
p.  13.  The  more  ancient  Ethel werd  has  the  same  date,  with  et  Hengest  cepit 
regnum,  p.  834.  Henry  of  Huntingdon  dates  his  acquisition  one  year  later,  p.  31 1. ; 
and  Florence  of  Worcester  one  year  earlier,  p.  204.  Nennius,  without  specifying 
the  exact  year,  indicates  a  similar  interval. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  223 


CHAP. 
I. 


posed  utility  of  the  measure  was  immediately  attained. 
Hengist  defeated  the  depredators,  with  a  slaughter 
which  at  last  ended  their  incursions. 22  To  have  fore- 
seen at  the  outset,  that  the  employment  of  a  few 
hundred  Saxons  for  this  purpose  would  have  in- 
duced the  whole  nation  of  the  Angli,  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  continental  Saxons  and  Jutes,  to  ex- 
patriate themselves  from  their  domestic  hearths  into 
Britain,  required  a  power  of  prophetic  vision  which 
it  was  no  disgrace  to  the  Britons  to  have  wanted. 
No  such  event  had  at  that  time  occurred  to  the 
island.  The  Saxons  were  not,  like  the  Eomans,  a 
mighty  and  civilised  empire,  whose  ambition  had 
been  rapaciously  progressive.  They  had  been  but 
petty  and  partial  depredators ;  active,  bold,  and  per- 
severing, but  whom  moderate  exertions  of  military 
vigilance  had  always  repelled.  Hence  Gwrtheyrn 
and  the  British  council  had  no  reason  to  anticipate 
the  new  spirit  of  permanent  dominion  and  territorial 
conquest  with  which  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Saxon 
confederation  became  afterwards  inspired ;  and  still 
less,  their  power  of  effectuating  such  ambitious  reso- 
lutions. 

The  censure  to  which  the  Britons  are  more  justly 
liable  is,  that  when  these  intentions  began  to  appear, 
no  vigorous  system  of  union  and  patriotic  resistance 
was  adopted  to  frustrate  their  completion.  On  this 
point  the  evils  of  their  political  system,  and  the  bad 
passions  of  Gwrtheyrn,  operated  to  destroy  the  in- 
dependence of  the  country.  The  chiefs  pursued  their 
conflicts  with  each  other,  which  the  people  supported ; 
and  Gwrtheyrn  projected  to  use  the  aid  of  Hengist 
against  those  who  were  jealous  of  his  power,  or  had 
become  his  competitors. 

When  Hengist  obtained  permission  to  increase  his 

22  W.  Malm.  lib.  i.  p.  9. 


224  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK     forces,  as  the  island  was  accessible  on  so  many  points 
.  »  of  attack,  by  enemies  who  came  by  sea,  and  chose 

449-  their  own  places  of  operation  ;  this  augmentation  was 
necessary  to  the  country  while  it  continued  the  policy 
of  using  foreign  auxiliaries.  Seventeen  more  chiules 
came  with  his  daughter  Rowena23 ;  and  afterwards 
forty  more,  with  his  son  and  kinsman,  which  plundered 
the  Orkneys  and  Scotland  in  their  way,  and  were  sta- 
tioned off  the  Scottish  coast,  near  the  wall. 24 

For   these  services  an  interval  of   cordiality    oc- 
curred between   Hengist  and  the  Britons.25      That 
Hengist  invited  Gwrtheyrn  to  a  feast,   at  which  the 
fair   and    blue-eyed    Rowena   officiated  as  the   cup- 
bearer, till  the  British  king  became  intoxicated  both 
with  wine  and  love,   and  at  last  obtained  her  for  his 
wife,    we  must  believe,  if  at  all,    on   the   credit   of 
Nennius.26     But  the  burden  of  their  remuneration 
diminished  the  gratitude  of  the  Britons;    and    the 
martial  vigour,  'which  had  produced  the  successes  of 
the  Saxons,  alarmed  those  whom  they  had  benefited. 
The  object  for  which  they  had  been  engaged  having! 
been  attained,  the  natives  wished  their  departure  j 
but   military  adventurers   have  no    proper   homes; 
having  abandoned  peaceful  life  and  its  comforts  for 
the  fame  and  advantages  of  daring  warfare  in  other 
countries,  their  new  habits  and  gratifications  are  in- 
consistent with  the  quiet  and  content  of  agricultural 
obscurity.     The  Saxon-Jutes  refused  to  leave  their"! 
station  in  Thanet :  they  demanded  larger  supplies ; 
and  stated   that  they  must  plunder  for  their    sub-J 
sistence  if  these  were  refused.27      The  Britons   had 

23  Nenn.  c.  36.     Malmsbury,  p.  9.,  mentions  her  with  an  "  ut  accepimus :  "  and 
H.  Huntingdon  with  a  "  dicitur  a  quibusdam,"  p.  310.     The  Welsh  Triads,  c.  38., 
call  her  Ronwen,  and  some  of  the  later  Welsh  poems  allude  to  her ;  but  there  seems 
no  historical  authority  for  her  existence,  except  the  brief  passages  of  Nennius,  which 
Jeffry  of  Monmouth,  and  from  him  Wace  and  Layamon  have  so  copiously  expanded, 
and  to  which  Malmsbury  and  Huntingdon  seem  to  allude. 

24  Nen.  c.  37.  a  Ethel w.  833. 

20  Nen.  c.  36.  27  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  15.  p.  53. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  225 

the  spirit  to  resent  their  requisition,    but  not  the     CHAP. 
wisdom  to  combine  to  expel  them ;  and   the  third  <_J — » 
class  of  incidents,  to  which  we  have  alluded,  began.         465> 

The  Saxons  made  peace  with  the  Picts,  collected^"] 
their  forces,  and,  imitating  those  whom  they  had  been   / 
employed  to  repress,  ravaged  the  nearest  cities  and  I 
countries,  from  the  east  sea  to  the  west.28     The  de--* 
solations  that  followed  are  strongly  painted.     Public 
and  private  edifices  destroyed,    priests  slain  at   the 
altars,  and  chieftains  with  their  people :  some   part , 
of  the  population    flying  to   monasteries,    others   to 
forests  and  mountains,  and  many  to  foreign  parts, 
imply  the  successful  ravages,  which  the  first  assaults 
of  Hengist  and  his  Jutes  effected,    against  the  un- 
prepared and  astonished  natives.29 

But  these  victorious  depredations  could  not  long 
continue.  These  evils  aroused  the  Britons  to  wiser 
policy  and  to  a  courageous  resistance.  Self-love  pro- 
duced the  conduct  which  no  patriotism  had  suggested. 
A  vigorous  system  of  defence  was  resolved  upon,  and 
Guortemir,  a  son  of  Gwrtheyrn,  was  appointed  to 
conduct  it.  A  series  of  battles  occurred  between  him 
and  Hengist  and  Horsa,  in  which  victory  was  alter- 
nate. It  is  expressly  stated  by  Nennius,  that  Guor- 
temir  three  times  defeated  and  besieged  Hengist  and 
his  Jutes,  and  at  last  expelled  them  from  Thanet 
and  from  England.  He  adds,  that  for  five  years 
they  were  kept  out  of  the  island,  till  Guortemir's 
death.30  As  Gildas  asserts  that  the  invaders  at  one 
time  returned  home31 ;  and  Bede,  though  a  Saxon, 
admits  the  fact  by  inserting  it  in  his  history 32 ;  as 
Hengist  did  not  begin  his  reign  in  Kent  till  six  years 
after  his  arrival  in  the  island33;  and  as  there  are 
some  foreign  traditions  of  his  having  founded  Leyden, 

28  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  15.  p.  53.  ffl  Ibid. 

30  Nenn.  c.  45.  81  Gildas,  c.  25. 

32  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  16.  p.  53.  »  See  before,  note  21.  p.  222. 

VOL.  I.  Q 


226  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     during  his  absence  from  England34,  his   temporary 
.    IIT1'    .  expulsion,  and  the  successful  exertions  of  the  Britons 
455-       at  this  period,  seem  entitled  to  our  belief. 

The  Britons  who  combined  against  Hengist  were 
headed  by  two  sons  of  Gwrtheyrn,  who  are  named 
Guortemir  and  Categirn.  On  the  Derwent  the  first 
struggle  occurred35 ;  the  next  at  a  place  called  the 
Ford  of  the  Eagles,  now  Aylesford  in  Kent,  was  dis- 
tinguished by  the  death  of  Horsa  on  the  part  of  the 
Saxons,  and  of  Categirn  among  the  Britons36 ;  a  third 
battle  was  fought  at  Stonar,  on  the  sea  shore  fronting 
France,  from  which  the  Saxons  fled  to  their  chiules. 37 
Guortemir  was  the  British  chieftain  who  commanded 
in  all  these  conflicts.  But  fable  has  obscured  his 
title  to  celebrity.  We  may  concede  to  him  all  the 
praise  that  Cambrian  affection  can  demand,  without 
believing  that  he  pulled  up  a  tree  by  the  roots,  and 
with  the  vegetating  club  killed  Horsa,  and  defeated 
the  Saxons.38  Courage  has  been  always  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  Cymry,  and  they  may  disclaim,  without 
injury  to  their  glory,  every  impossible  achievement. 

Guortemir  dying,  Hengist  is  stated  to  have  re- 
turned with  an  augmentation  of  his  forces,  which 
proved  ultimately  irresistible39 ;  but  he  is  described 
as  having  first  regained  a  footing  in  the  island  by 
the  treacherous  massacre  of  the  British  chieftains  at 


84  Usher,  in  his  Primordia  Eccl.  Anglic,  p.  420.,  extracts  a  passage  to  this  effect 
from  the  Chronicon  of  Gerbrandus,  who  died  1504.     I  do  not  know  his  authorities. 
Kempius,  in  his  Rer.  Frisic.   lib.  ii.  c.  1.  affirms  the  same.     Usher  adds,  that 
"  Dousa,  Meursius,  Hegeiiitius,  &c.      Vulgata  Hollandice  chronica  sequuti,"  also 
report  it,  p.  420. 

85  Nennius,  c.  46. 

38  Sax.  Chron.  13.  Ethelw.  834.  Nennius  gives  the  British  name  of  the  place 
as  Sathenegabail,  p.  110.;  but  his  British  names  of  places  and  persons  have  been 
badly  transcribed.  On  Horsa's  monument,  see  Gough's  Camden,  vol.  L  p.  231. 

37  Nenn.  a  46,  47.     Batteley  thinks  that  the  site  of  this  battle  was  Stone-end, 
in  the  south  corner  of  Kent.     Ant.  Rutup.  p.  19.     There  still  remains  a  great 
quantity  of  human  bones  under  the  church  at  Hythe,  which  imply  that  some  great 
battle  has  been  fought  in  its  vicinity.     Nennius  calls  the  stone,  from  which  the  field 
was  named,  "  The  Stone  of  the  Title."     Unless  this  means  the  boundary  of  the 
kingdom  or  county  of  Kent,  the  subject  of  the  allusion  is  lost. 

38  Nenn.  c.  45.  »  Nenn.  c.  46,  47. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  227 

a  banquet.     The  account  of  Nennius  represents  him     CHAP. 
not  only  as  soliciting  a  treaty  of  peace,  which  was   .     L     . 
closed  by  the  invitation  of  the  Britons  to  a  friendly       435- 
feast ;  but  also  as  commanding  his  Saxons  to  come 
with  their  short  swords  under  their  garments,  and 
on  his  exclaiming,  "  Nimed  eure  saxes,"  "  Unsheath 
your  swords,"  to  slay  all  but  Gwrtheyrn.     The  meet- 
ing  was   held,   and   the   cruel  perfidy   was   accom- 
plished.40    It  cannot  now  be  determined  how  much, 
or  if  any  part,  of  this  is  true ;  or  whether  the  fatal 
issue,  if  it  occurred,  is  to  be  attributed  to  premeditated 
villany.     One  Welsh  bard,  two  centuries  afterwards, 
alludes  to  a  catastrophe  like  this,  but  with  no  dis- 
tinctness of  historical  detail. 41 

As  Nennius  adds  to  the  history  of  Gwrtheyrn  in- 
cidents undeniably  fictitious42,  and  inserts  fables  as 
decided  about  St.  Germain,  in  circumstances  which 
the  true  chronology  of  the  bishop  disproves43,  he  may 
have  equally  invented,  or  at  least  have  exaggerated, 
this  event.  A  feast,  inebriation,  an  unpremeditated 
quarrel,  and  a  conflict  may  have  taken  place ;  and 
the  battle  may  have  ended  in  the  destruction  of  the 
Britons.  But  this  is  all  that  is  credible  of  this  cele- 

40  Nenn.  c.  48. 

41  The  passage  in  Golyddan  is  :  — 

When  they  bargained  for  Thanet,  with  such  scanty  discretion, 

With  Hors  and  Hengys  in  their  violent  career, 

Their  aggrandisement  was  to  us  disgraceful, 

After  the  consuming  secret  with  the  slaves  at  the  confluent  stream. 

Conceive  the  intoxication  at  the  great  banquet  of  Mead  ; 

Conceive  the  deaths  in  the  great  hour  of  necessity  : 

Conceive  the  fierce  wounds :  the  tears  of  the  women  : 

The  grief  that  was  excited  by  the  weak  chief : 

Conceive  the  sadness  that  will  be  revolving  to  us, 

When  the  brawlers  of  Thanet  shall  be  our  princes. 

Gol.  Arym.  2.     W.  Arch.  156. 

The  only  words  here  that  imply  any  premeditated  treachery  are,  "  rhin  dilain," 
the  consuming  or  destroying  secret,  which  in  the  Cambrian  Register  for  1796  are 
translated  too  freely,  "  The  plot  of  death." 

42  See  his  Stories,  from  c.  38.  to  c.  34. 

43  Nennius,  c.  29, 30,  &c.     St.  Germain  was  bishop  of  Auxerre,  from  418  to  448. 
Fabricius,  Bibl.  Med.  lib.  vii.  p.  139.     He  lived  thirty  years  and  five  days  after 
St.  Amator,  according  to  his  ancient  biographer  Constantius.     Amator  died  in  418, 
Stillingfleet,  Orig.  Brit.  p.  209.     Bede  also  errs  in  placing  the  visit  of  St.  Germain 
into  Britain,  to  oppose  their  Pelagian  opinions,  after  the  arrival  of  the  Saxons. 

Q  2 


228  HISTOKY    OF    THE 

BOOK     brated  catastrophe ;  and  even  this  statement  is  rather 
.    m'    ,   a  concession  to  an  ancient   tradition,   than  the  ad- 
435-       mission  of  an  historical  fact. 

57.  The  great  battle  which,  according  to  the  Saxon 

chroniclers,  completed  the  establishment  of  Hengist 
in  Kent,  was  fought  at  Crayford,  in  457.  The 
Britons,  defeated  in  this  with  great  slaughter,  aban- 
doned Kent,  and  fled  in  terror  to  London.44  Eight 
years  after,  the  Britons  attacked  Hengist  again,  but 
it  was  with  ruin  to  themselves.  And  in  473,  they 
attempted  another  battle  with  him,  but  with  such  a 
calamitous  issue,  that  they  are  declared  to  have  fled 
from  the  Saxons  as  from  fire.45 

The  name  of  Hengist  has  been  surrounded  with 
terror,  and  all  his  steps  with  victory.  From  Kent, 
he  is  affirmed  to  have  carried  devastation  into  the 
remotest  corners  of  the  island ;  to  have  spared  neither 
age,  sex,  nor  condition;  to  have  slaughtered  the 
priests  on  the  altars ;  to  have  butchered  in  heaps  the 
people  who  fled  to  the  mountains  and  deserts46;  and 
to  have  finally  established  his  dominion  in  Kent, 
Essex,  Middlesex,  and  Sussex.  But  when  from  these" 
hyperboles  of  conquest,  we  turn  to  the  simple  and 
authentic  facts,  that  all  the  battles  of  Hengist,  par- 
ticularised by  the  Saxons,  were  fought  in  Kent ;  that 
one  of  the  last  contests  was  even  in  Thanet,  in  the 
extremity  of  his  little  kingdom47,  and  that  no  good 
evidence  is  extant  of  his  having  penetrated,  except 
in  his  first  depredations,  beyond  the  region  which  he 
transmitted48  to  his  posterity ;  and,  above  all,  that  at 

44  Sax.  Chron.     "And  tha  Bryttas  tha  forleton  Centlond,"  p.  313.     It  is  from 
this  victory  that  Huntingdon  dates  the  kingdom  of  Hengist,  p.  311. 

45  Sax.  Chron.  p.  14.     Flo.  Wig.  200,  201. 

46  This  statement  is  seriously  given  by  Hume,  p.  20.,  and  by  our  venerable  Milton. 
1  Kennett's  Collection  of  Histor.  37.     Langhorn,  p.  33.,  follows  Jeffry,  and  adds 
York,  Lincoln,  London,  and  Winchester  to  his  conquests. 

47  Wippeds  Fleot. 

48  Mr.  Carte  has  observed,  that  he  never  extended  his  territories  beyond  Kent. 
Hist.  England,  p,  198,     Mr.  Whitaker  is  of  a  similar  opinion*     Manchest.  ii.  4to. 
p.  28. 


' 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  229 

this  very  period  the  Britons  were  so  warlike  that  twelve     CHAP. 
thousand  went  to  Gaul,    on  the  solicitations  of  the  , — ; — > 
emperor,  to  assist  the  natives  against  the  Visigoths49,       437- 
we  must  perceive  that  exaggeration  has  been  as  busy 
with   Hengist   as   with   Arthur;    and  that   modern 
historians  have  suffered  their  criticism  to  slumber, 
while  they  were  perusing  the  confused  declamations 
of  Gildas  and.  his  copyist  Bede.     What  Gildas  related 
as  the  general  consequences  of  all  the  Saxon  invasions 
has  been  too  hastily  applied  to  the  single  instance  of 
Hengist.     From  this  error  the  misconception  of  his 
real  history  has  arisen.     The  truth  seems  to  be,  that 
the  fame  of  Hengist  depends  more  on  the   circum- 
stance of  his  having  first  conceived  and  executed  the 
project  of  a  hostile   settlement  in  Britain,  than  on\ 
the  magnitude  of  his  conquests,  or  the  extent  of  his  j 
devastations. 

For  twelve  years  after  the  battle  at  Wippeds  Fleot, 
he  remained  alone  exposed  to  the  vengeance  of  all  the 
Britons  in  the  island,  except  those  in  Kent,  whom 
he  had  subdued.  The  ease  with  which  he  seems  to 
have  maintained  his  extorted  dominion  announces 
the  continuance  of  the  discord  between  the  contend- 
ing native  chieftains,  which  was  wasting  the  British 
strength50,  and  which  Gildas  seems  to  protract  to  the 
times  of  Arthur.  At  length  another  adventurer  ap-  455. 
peared  on  the  island.  The  success  of  Hengist  made  a 
new  species  of  enterprise  familiar  to  the  Saxon  states. 

49  The  expedition  of  Riothamus,  mentioned  in  Sidon.  Apollon.  lib.  iii.  ep.  9.,  and 
Jornandes,  c.  45.     This  incident  was  early  noticed  by  Freculphus,  Chron.  t.  ii. 
c.  17.  —  Sigebert  Gembl.  in  mentioning  it  gives  a  gentle  lash  to  Jeffry ;  Quis  au- 
tem  fuerit  iste,  historia  Britonum  minime  dicit,  quse  regum  suorum  nomina  et 
gesta  per  ordinem  pandit.      1  Pist.  504.     Either  this  Riothamus  was  Arthur,  or  it 
was  from  his  expedition  that  Jeffry,  or  the  Breton  bards,  took  the  idea  of  Arthur's 
battles  in  Gaul. 

50  Gildas  in  his  last  section,  and  in  his  epistle,  and  Bede,  c.  22.     An  abrupt  but 
valuable  passage  of  Nennius,  p.  118.,  also  intimates  that  Ambrosius  was  connected 
with  the  civil  fury  at  this  period  :   "  A  regno  Guorthrigerni  usque  ad  discordiam 
Guitolini  et  Ambrosii  anni  sunt  duodecim."     Huntingdon  declares,  "  Non  cessa- 
bant  civilia  bella,"  p.  311.     And  see  the  Lives  of  the  Welsh  Saints,  MSS.  Vesp. 
A.  14. 

Q  3 


230  HISTOBY  OF   THE 

BOOK     To  combine  to  obtain  riches,  cultivated  lands,  and 
,    IIL    .   slaves  to  tend  them,  was  more  inviting  than  to  risk 
465-       the  tempest  for  uncertain  plunder.     Hence  it  is  not 
wonderful,  that  while  some  were  diffusing  themselves 
over  Germany,   the  success  of  Hengist  attracted  the 
maritime  part  of  the  Saxon   confederation ;  and  as- 
sisted to  convert   it  from  naval   piracy  to  views  of 
regular  conquest  in  Britain. 

Hengist  was  succeeded  in  Kent  by  his  son  -/Esc, 
who  reigned  twenty-four  years.  No  subsequent  event 
of  importance  is  recorded  of  this  little  kingdom,  till 
the  reign  of  Ethelbyrhte,  who  acceded  in  56051,  and 
enjoyed  the  sceptre  for  above  half  a  century.52 

51  Sax.  Ch.  p.  20. 

52  Flor.  Wig.  dates  his  accession  561,  and  gives  fifty-six  years  as  the  duration  of 
his  reign,  p.  221.     The  names  by  which  Alfred  translates  the  title  of  duces,  which 
Bede  gives  to  Hengist  and  Horsa,  are  Latteowas  and  Heretogan,  p.  483.     The 
British  king,  whom  Jeffry  calls  Vortigernus,  and  the  Welsh  writings  Gwrtheyrn, 
Alfred  names  Wyrtgeorn,  p.  482. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  231 


CHAP.  II. 

ELLA  arrives  in  SUSSEX,  and  founds  a  Kingdom  there.  —  CERDIC 
invades  the  South  Part  of  the  Island,  and  establishes  the  King- 
dom O/*WESSEX. — Battles  of  his  Successors  with  the  BRITONS. 

ELLA  was  the  next  Saxon  chieftain,    or  king,  who,      CHAP. 

twenty-eight  years  after  the  first  arrival  of  Hengist,   , 

invaded  Britain.  He  landed  with  three  sons  in  477. 
Sussex1;  and  drove  the  Britons  into  the  great  wood  Eila!™1 
which  stretched  from  the  south  of  Kent  into  Sussex 
and  Hampshire. 2  Although  they  came  with  but  three 
ships,  they  succeeded  in  gaining  a  settlement.  Hence 
we  may  infer,  that  they  were  resisted  only  by  the 
petty  British  sovereign  of  the  district.  By  slow  de- 
grees they  enlarged  their  conquests  on  the  coast.  In 
the  eighth  year  of  their  arrival  they  attempted  to 
penetrate  into  the  interior ;  a  dubious  but  wasteful 
battle  on  the  river  Mercread  checked  their  progress. 
Recruited  by  new  arrivals  from  the  Continent,  they  490. 
ventured  to  besiege  Andredes  Ceaster,  a  city  strongly 
fortified  according  to  the  usages  of  the  age.  The 
Britons  defended  this  with  some  skill.  Taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  adjoining  forest,  while  the  Saxons 
attempted  to  scale  the  walls,  a  division  of  the  Britons 
attacked  them  from  the  woods  behind  ;  to  repel  them 
the  Saxons  were  compelled  to  desist  from  their  assault 
on  the  city.  The  Britons  retired  from  the  pressure 
of  their  attack  into  the  woods,  sallying  out  again  when 
the  Saxons  again  advanced  to  the  city.  This  plan  was 

'    *  Saxon  Chron.  14.     Flor.  Wigorn.  203.     Ethelwerd,  834. 

8  The  weald  of  Kent  was  anciently  120  miles  long  towards  the  west,  and  30 
broad  from  north  to  south.  On  the  edge  of  the  wood,  in  Sussex,  stood  Andedres 
Ceaster.  Lambard's  Perambulation  of  Kent,  167,  168.  This  vast  wood  was  a 
wilderness,  not  inhabited  by  men,  but  by  deer  and  hogs. 

Q  4 


232  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  successfully  repeated  with  great  loss  to  the  assailants, 
.  IIL  ;  till  Ella  conceived  the  idea  of  dividing  his  Saxons 
49°-  into  two  bodies ;  one  to  storm,  the  other  to  cover  the 
attack.3  This  measure  succeeded,  and  the  Saxons 
burst  into  the  city ;  but,  irritated  by  their  loss,  dis- 
graced their  conquest  by  one  of  those  barbarous  ac- 
tions which  history  ought  never  to  mention  without 
horror,  and  which  no  events  or  reasons  can  justify  : 
the  inhabitants  were  put  to  the  sword.4  This  was  a 
conquest  not  far  distant  from  the  shore  ;  so  that  this 
Saxon  kingdom  was  rather  permitted  by  the  Britons 
to  exist  than  extorted  from  their  national  opposition. 
Ella's  settlement  was  probably  considered  as  a  colonis- 
ation that  would  have  no  important  consequences  to 
the  British  people.  It  became  the  kingdom  of  Sussex. 
As  this  state  was  never  formidable  to  the  others, 
nor  is  much  mentioned  afterward,  there  is  no  reason 
to  imagine  that  Ella  made  any  great  progress ;  but 
Ella  is  commemorated  as  the  preponderant  Saxon 
chief5  at  that  time  in  England:  his  conquests  were 
therefore  superior  to  those  of  Hengist  and  his  son, 
who  were  his  contemporaries.  This  is  another  cir- 
cumstance, which  shows  the  mistake  of  attributing 
such  extensive  desolation  and  triumphs  to  Hengist. 
Both  he  and  Ella  appear  to  have  been  satisfied  with 
the  possession  of  the  provinces  they  invaded.  It 
was  the  next  warrior  who  spread  consternation 
through  Britain,  resisted  the  genius  of  Ambrosius 
and  Arthur,  and  by  his  successes  ensured  safety  to 
the  intruders  in  Kent  and  Sussex. 

495.  Eighteen  years  after  Ella,  another  powerful  colony 

c*rdic!n  (     of  Saxons  arrived  in  the  island,  under  the  auspices  of 

3  Hen.  Hunt.  p.  312.     He  adds,  that  the  city  was  never  rebuilt,  but  remained 
apparently  in  his  times  in  a  state  of  ruin,  which  showed  to  the  passenger  how 
noble  a  place  it  had  been. 

4  Sax.  Chron.  15.     "  Ne  wearth  thser  forthon  an  Bryt  to  lafe."     Our  ancient 
chroniclers  make  often  small  differences  in  their  chronologies.     Thus  the  Sax. 
Chron.  dates  this  event  in  490,  Flor  Wig.  491,  and  Ethelwerd,  492. 

3  Sax.  Chron.  "].     Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  5. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  233 

Cerdic,  who  also  derived  his  genealogy  from  Woden.6     CHAP. 
The  first  essay  was  made  with  five  ships  ;   but  the  - 

battles  and  conquests  of  its  leaders  display  either  495- 
abilities  of  the  most  superior  kind,  or  an  accumulation 
of  force  far  beyond  that  which  had  assailed  the  other 
parts  of  the  island.  The  place  of  his  primary  descent 
is  by  no  means  clear.  The  modern  name,  which 
would  correspond  with  the  ancient  appellation  of  Cer- 
dices  Ora,  has  not  been  preserved. 7  Both  Yarmouth 
and  Southampton 8  have  had  their  advocates ;  but 
a  remarkable  passage  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  which 
indicates  that  he  attacked  West  Saexnaland  six  years 
after  his  arrival9,  induces  a  belief  that  his  first  at- 
tempt was  on  some  other  part  of  the  island. 

In  the  same  year  that  Cerdic  assaulted  the  district  soi. 
afterwards  denominated  Wessex,  a  band  of  his  allies, 
under  Porta,  effected  a  landing  with  the  companies  of 
two  ships  at  Portsmouth,  and  defeated  the  Britons. 10 
Others  came,  thirteen  years  afterwards,  under  Stuf 
and  Wihtgar. 

It  was  in  the  battles  with  Cerdic  that  the  strength 
of  the  Britons  and  Saxons  seems  to  have  been  first  op- 
posed to  each  other  with  a  national  magnitude,  and 
for  many  years  with  varying  success.  It  was  not  till 
twenty-four  years  after  his  arrival  that  Cerdic  and  his 

6  Sax.  Chron.  15.     Flor.  Wig.  205.     Cerdic  was  the  ninth  descendant  from 
Woden  by  his  son  Boeldseg,  and  his  great  grandson  Freothogar.     Allowing  thirty 
years  for  a  generation,  this  would  place  the  existence  of  Odin  about  225,  which  is 
near  the  time  when  the  Francs  accomplished  the  voyage  from  the  Euxine. 

7  Yet  Higden,  in  his  Polychronicon,  makes  Cerdicesore  that  quaa  nunc  dicitur 
Gernemouth,  p.  224.,  which  (if  we  could  rely  upon  it)  would  decide  that  Yar- 
mouth was  the  spot.     Camden  mentions  a  striking  fact  in  favour  of  the  claims  of 
Yarmouth,  "The  place  is  called  by  the  inhabitants  at  this  day,  Cerdicksand. " 
Britain,  390.  Gib. 

8  This  position  is  thought  to  be  warranted  by  comparing  the  Saxon  Chron. 
p.  18.,  which  mentions  the  arrival  of  the  nepotes  of  Cerdic  at  Cerdicesora,  in  514, 
and  Matt.  West.,  who  states  their  arrival  in  occidentali  parte  Britannia;,  p.  1 84.  ; 
but  this  is  not  conclusive  evidence.     Mr.  Whitaker  thinks,  that  all  Cerdic's  opera- 
tions were  confined  to  Hampshire,  vol.  ii.  p.  61. 

9  Sax.  Chron.  p.  15.     So  Ethelwerd,  834.     Sexto  etiam  anno  adventus  eorum 
occidentalem  circumierunt  Britannia  partem  quse  Westsexe  nuncupatur. 

10  Sax.  Chron.  p.  17.     Flor.  Wig.  205.     Ethelw.  834. 


234  HISTORY  OE  THE 

BOOK     son  are  noticed  to  have  established  the  kingdom  of 
.  *  Wessex.11     Of  the  conflicts  which  he  had  with  the 

501-  Britons  during  these  twenty-four  years,  the  Saxons 
have  left  scarcely  any  notice.  As  Cerdic  did  not 
arrive  in  any  part  of  England  till  forty- six  years  after 
Hengist,  he  found  a  new  generation  of  Britons,  with 
different  kings  and  chiefs  from  those  who  had  em- 
ployed and  fought  with  the  conqueror  of  Kent. 
Gwrtheyrn,  Guortemir,  and  Ambrosius  had  long  been 
dead.  The  Britons  were  in  possession  of  all  the  island 
but  Kent  and  Sussex ;  and  when  Cerdic  attacked 
them,  they  were  at  liberty  to  have  employed  all  their 
forces  against  him,  as  Ida  had  not  yet  arrived,  nor 
had  the  Angles  expatriated  themselves. 

The  only  British  king  whom  the  Saxons  mention 
to  the  battles  that  preceded  the  establishment  of  this 
West  Saxon  kingdom  was  Natanleod,  and  he  appears 
but  in  one  great  battle,  in  which  he  fell  in  508. 12 

508.  This  was  something  like  a  national  conflict  between 
the  two  contesting  races.  Cerdic  increased  his  own 
strength  by  auxiliary  forces  from  the  Saxons  in  Kent 
and  Sussex,  and  Natanleod  assembled  the  greatest 
army  of  Britons  that  had  yet  met  the  Saxons  to- 
gether. He  directed  his  main  attack  on  their  right 
wing,  where  Cerdic  commanded,  and  drove  it  from 
the  field  ;  but,  too  eager  in  pursuit,  he  allowed  this 
chieftain's  son  to  move  on  him  in  the  rear,  and  the 
victory  was  wrenched  from  his  grasp.13  He  fell  with 
5000  Britons ;  and  such  was  the  extent  of  his  dis- 
aster, that  all  the  region  near  the  scene  of  conflict 
became  afterwards  called  by  his  name.14  This  victory 

11  Thus  the   Sax.  Chron.  519.      "Her  Cerdic  and  Cynric  West-Saexna  rice 
onfengun,"  p.  18.    Flor.  Wig.  "  regnare  cceperunt,"  p.  208.    Ethelwerd,  "in  ipso 
anno  facietenus  cceperunt  regnare,"  p.  834.     So  Huntingdon  to  the  same  date 
"  Regnum  West-Sexe  incipit,"  p.  313. 

12  Sax.  Chron.  p.  18.     Flor.  Wig.  206.     Ethelwerd,  834. 

13  H.  Hunt,  312.  "  Sax.  Chron. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  235 

gave  Cerdic  a  firm  position  in  the  island,  though  it     CHAP. 
did  not  enable  him  yet  to  found  a  kingdom.  . 

The  subsequent  battles  of  Cerdic  and  his  friends  508- 
with  the  Britons,  which  the  Saxon  writers  have  re* 
corded,  are  but  few.  In  514  his  kinsmen,  Stuf  and 
Wihtgar,  made  their  incursion  on  Cerdicesore.  In 
519,  Cerdic  and  his  son  Cynric  obtained  a  victory  at 
Cerdices-ford,  which  appears  to  have  first  laid  the 
actual  foundation  of  the  West- Saxon  kingdom,  as 
from  this  time  the  Saxon  Chronicle  dates  the  reign 
of  the  West-Saxon  kings.15  The  struggle  lasted  the 
whole  day  with  varying  success,  but  in  the  evening 
the  Saxons  conquered.16  In  528,  another  conflict  is 
mentioned  at  Cerdices-leah,  but  its  issue  is  not  stated  : 
and,  in  530,  Cerdic  and  his  son  took  the  Isle  of 
Wight  with  great  slaughter.  In  534,  Cerdic  died.17 
He  does  not  appear  to  have  done  more  than  to  have 
maintained  himself  in  the  district  where  he  landed ; 
but  his  posterity  enlarged  his  settlement  into  a 
kingdom  so  powerful  as  to  absorb  every  other  in 
the  island. 

His  son  Cynric  defeated  the  Britons  at  Searobyrig ;       552. 
and  four  years  afterwards  at  Beranbirig.18     In  this       555. 
last  battle  the  Britons  made  peculiar  exertions  to 
overcome  their   invaders.      They  collected   a   large 
army ;  and,  taught  by  former  defeat  the  evil  of  dis- 
orderly combats,  their  leaders  attempted  an  imitation 
of  better  discipline.     They  were  formed   into  nine 
divisions ;    three  in  front,  three  in  the  centre,  and 
three  in  the  rear,  apparently  to  act  as  a  reserve ; 

is  « jjer  Cerdic  and  Cynric  West  Seaxna  rice  onfengun :  "  after  mentioning 
the  battle,  it  adds,  "siththan  ricsadon  West  Seaxa  cynebearn  of  tham  dasge." 
Sax.  Chron.  p.  18. 

16  lien.  Hunt.  313.      Camden  places  the  battle  at  a  ford  of  the  Avon,  at  the 
place  now  called  Charford  in  Hampshire. 

17  Sax.  Chron.  20.     Flor.  Wig.  219.     I  think  Somner  goes  too  far  from  the  line 
of  Cerdic's  operations,  when  he  guesses  this  to  be  Chardsley  in  Buckinghamshire. 

18  Sax.  Chron.  20.  Flor.  Wig.  220.     This  is  placed  at  Banbury  in  Oxfordshire ; 
the  other  at  Salisbury. 


236  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     their   archers   and    horse   were    arranged   like    the 
.  Eomans.    The  Saxons,  observing  the  array,  condensed 

656-  themselves  into  one  compact  body,  and  made  an  at- 
tack in  this  mass  which  proved  irresistible.19 

It  was  Cealwin,  the  third  king  of  Wessex,  who 
acceded  in  560,  that  obtained  the  greatest  successes 
against  the  natives,  and  took  from  them  more  of  their 
country  than  his  predecessors  had  been  able  to  sub- 
due. His  brother  defeated  the  Britons  at  Bedford, 

67 '•  and  dispossessed  them  of  four  towns 20 ;  and  six 
years  afterwards  Cealwin  himself  obtained  a  great 
victory  at  Deorham,  against  three  British  kings,  who 
fell  in  the  battle  ;  Conmail,  Condidan,  and  Farinmail. 
The  number  of  these  kings  shows  that  the  former 
ruinous  division  of  the  British  strength  continued  in 
the  island,  though  its  rulers  had  at  times  sufficient 
policy  to  combine  their  efforts.  This  appears  to 
have  been  a  conflict  of  some  magnitude,  as  well  from 
the  union  of  the  three  kings,  as  from  the  important 
results  of  the  victory ;  for  three  of  the  great  cities  of 
the  Britons,  Gloucester,  Cirencester,  and  Bath,  sub- 
mitted after  it  to  the  conqueror.21  Seven  years  after- 
wards, in  584,  the  Britons  again  tried  the  fortune  of 
war  with  him  at  Fethanleagh :  a  son  of  Cealwin  fell 
in  the  struggle,  and  the  Saxons  retreated  in  disorder ; 
but  their  king  succeeded  in  rallying  them,  and  at 
last  acquired  a  hard-earned  and  long-contested  tri- 
umph. He  obtained  much  booty  and  many  towns; 
but  as  the  Saxon  chronicler  remarks  that  he  after- 
wards retired  into  his  own  district22,  the  Britons 

19  H.  Hunt,  p.  314.     This  ancient  author,  from  sources  now  lost,  has  preserved 
the  particular  circumstances  of  several  of  these  Saxon  battles.     He  seems  to  have 
had  a  military  tact  which  led  him  to  notice  them.     He  had  certainly  other  chro- 
nicles before  him  than  those  which  have  survived  to  us. 

20  Lygeanburgh  ;    JEgeles-burh,  Benningtun,  and  Egonesham.       Chron.   Sax. 
p.  22.     These  are  supposed  by  Gibson  to  be  Leighton  in  Bedfordshire ;  Aylesbury 
in  Buckinghamshire  ;  Bensington  and  Ensham  in  Oxfordshire. 

21  Chron.  Sax.  p.  22.    F.  Wig.  223.    Ethelw.  835.    Durham  in  Gloucestershire 
is  believed  to  have  been  the  site  of  this  battle. 

22  Gehwearf  thonan  to  his  agenum,  Chron.  Sax.  p.  22. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  237 

were  still  powerful  enough  to  prevent  or  discourage      CHAP. 
his  advance.  .     IL     . 

Such  is  the  Saxon  statement  of  the  battles  which  571. 
attended  the  establishment  and  progress  of  the  for- 
midable kingdom  of  Wessex  ;  by  which  we  find  that 
eighty-two  years  elapsed  after  the  arrival  of  Cerdic, 
before  it  was  extended  to  include  Gloucester,  Ciren- 
cester,  and  Bath.  Its  first  acquisition  was  Hampshire 
by  Cerdic.  It  was  enlarged  into  Wiltshire,  Oxford- 
shire, and  Buckinghamshire,  by  his  son ;  and  by  his 
grandson  into  Gloucestershire  and  part  of  Somerset- 
shire. But  after  these  successes,  it  was  still  flanked 
on  the  west  by  British  kingdoms  in  Cornwall,  Devon- 
shire, and  part  of  Somersetshire ;  arid  on  the  north- 
west by  the  British  princes  in  Wales ;  and  by  British 
states  or  kingdoms  on  the  north,  from  Gloucestershire 
to  Scotland.  On  the  south  at  the  sea-coast  it  was 
supported  by  the  Saxon  kingdoms  of  Sussex  and 
Kent.  But  if  the  nation  of  the  Angles  had  not  suc- 
cessively arrived  after  Cerdic's  death,  to  overrun  the 
east,  the  centre,  and  the  country  beyond  the  Humber, 
the  Saxon  occupation  of  Britain  would  have  been  a 
precarious  tenure,  or  have  remained,  like  Normandy 
in  France,  but  a  Saxon  colonisation  of  our  southern 
shores.  It  was  the  emigration  of  the  Angles  from 
Sleswick  that  ultimately  wrested  the  island  from  the 
ancient  Britons,  and  converted  it  into  England.  But 
before  we  narrate  this  great  incident,  which  has  so 
peculiarly  affected  our  national  fortunes  and  cha- 
racter, we  will  pause  to  consider  the  ancient  British 
accounts  of  their  conflicts  with  the  West-Saxon  in- 
vaders. 


238 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 


SAXON  GENEALOGIES. 

As  some  of  the  Saxon  poetry  and  MSS.  allude  to  persons  whose 
names  do  not  appear  in  the  chronicles  which  have  come  down  to 
us,  but  which  are  mentioned  among  the  ancestors  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  kings,  it  may  be  useful  to  insert  some  of  their  most  authen- 
tic genealogies.  These  are  also  important  for  indicating  Woden 
to  have  been  a  real  personage,  and  for  assisting  us  to  annex  a  rea- 
sonable chronology  to  his  historical  existence.  They  furnish  us 
also  with  five  of  Woden's  ancestors. 


Woden 

Wecta 

Witta 

Wihtgils 

HENGIST 


Horsa,  p.  13. 


SAXON  CHRONICLE. 

Ingin 
Esa 
Eoppa 
IDA,  p.  19. 


Geata 

Godwulf 

Finn 

Frithowulf 

Freotholaf 

WODEN,  p.  19. 

Woden 

Boeldo3g 

Brand 

Freothogar 

Freawine 

Wig 

Giwis 

Esla 

Elesa 

CERDIC,  p.  15.20. 

Woden 

Braldoeg 

Brand 

Beonoc 

Aloe 

Angenwit 


Woden 

Woegdoeg 

Sigear 

Swo3fdoeg 

Sigegeat 

Scebald 

Soefugl 

Westerfalcna 

Wilgis 

Uscfrea 

Yffa 

ELLA,  p.  20. 

Woden 

Wihtlosg 

Wo3rmund 

Offa 

Angeltheow 

Eomor 

Icel 

Cnebba 

Cynewold 

Cryda 

Wybba 

PENDA,  p.  28. 


Of  these  ancestors  of  Penda,  the  very  ancient  Sveno  Aggo 
notices  with  some  detail  of  incidents,  Wcermund  and  Offa.  Langb. 
Script,  p.  1.  D.  1.  p.  45. 


Kent. 
Jeta 


HENRY  OF  HUNTINGDON. 
Fin 
Fredulf 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


239 


Filii  Dei 

Flocwald 

Fin 

Fredulf 

Frealof 

WODEN 

Vecta 

Wicta 

Widgils 

HENGIST  and  HORSA,  p.  311, 

Essex. 
Saxnat 
Andesc 
Gesac 
Spcewe 
Segewlf 
Biedcan 
Offa 
Erchenwin,  1st  king,  p.  313. 

Northumberland. 
Heata 
Godwlf 


Fredelaf 

WODEN 

Beldet 

Brand 

Beonoc 

Aloe 

Angenwit 

Ingiuni 

Esc 

Eope 

IDA,  p.  314. 

Northumbria. 
Fredealaf 
WODEN 
Wepdeg 
Sigegeat 
Seabald 
Sefugel 
Westrefalcna 
Witgils 
Uscfrea 
Iffa 
ELLA,  p.  314. 


CHAP. 
ii. 


ETHELWERD. 


WOTHEN 
Withar 
Wicta 
Wyrhtelsi,  p.  833. 


Strefius 

Bedweg 

Guala 

Sceaf 

Sceldius 

Beowi 

Tecti 

Geti 

Godwlf 

Finn 

Frelaf 

Fridewold 

WODEN,  p.  1, 

Beoda 

Godewlf 

Fenn 


WOTHEN 
Wither 
Wicta 
Wihtgils,  p.  836 


SIMEON  OF  DURHAM. 

Hadra 

Stermon 

Heremod 

Brond 

Fridegar 

Frewin 

Wig 

Giwi 

Esli 

Elesi 

CERDU,  p. 

WODEN 

Beldeg 

Brond 

Benoc 

Aloth 


240 


HISTORY   OF    THE 


BOOK          Freothwulf 

Hi.  Freothlas 

— * '        WODEN,  p.  1, 

WODEN 
Beldeg 


WODEN 

Beldeg 

Beornec 

Gethbrond 

Aluson 

Inguet 

Edibrith 

Ossa 

Eobba 

IDA 

WODEN 

Guedolgeat 

Gueagon 

Guithleg 

Guerdmund 

Ossa 

Origen 

Earner 

Pubba 

PENDA.    3  Gall.  p. 


Angenwi 
Ingui 
Esa 
Eoppa 
IDA,  p.  1. 


NENNIUS. 


116. 


WODEN 

Casser 

Titinou 

Trigil 

Rodnum 

Keppan 

Guithelin 

Guechan.      He    first    reigned 

in    Britain    over    the    East 

Anglians 

WODEN 

Beldeyg 

Brond 

Siggar 

Sibald 

Zegulfh 

Soemil.      He   first    conquered 

Deira  and  Bernicia 
Sguerthing 
Guilgles 
TJlfrea 
Iffi,  Ulli,  or  ELLA. 


On  these  genealogies  we  may  remark  that  they  mention  four 
sons  of  Woden,  and  deduce  distinct  descendants  from  each ;  that 
they  give  also  Woden's  ancestry  ;  and  as  the  different  kings  must 
have  preserved  their  own  pedigrees,  the  tendency  of  the  whole  is 
to  make  Woden  a  real  personage. 

If  we  take  30  years  as  the  average  life  of  each  of  the  descendants, 
these  genealogies  place  the  chronology  of  Woden  between  200  and 
300  years  after  the  Christian  era.  Thus  Cerdic's  nine  ancestors 
from  496,  the  date  of  his  invasion,  would  on  this  computation 
place  Woden  225  years  after  Christ ;  Ida's  nine  from  547,  in  277 ; 
Ella's  eleven  from  560,  in  230 ;  Penda's  eleven  from  626,  in  296. 

The  four  from  Hengist  would  make  him  one  generation  later, 
but  this  looks  like  an  imperfect  genealogy. 

One  of  the  most  ancient  ICELANDIC  documents  that  now  exist 
is  the  LANGFEDGATAL.  It  was  used  both  by  Ara  Erode  and  by 
Snorre.  It  calls  Odin  the  king  of  the  Tyrkia,  who  are  supposed 
to  be  Turks,  and  gives  him  the  following  ancestry,  deducing  him 
from  THOR. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


241 


Japhet 

Japhans 

Zechim 

Ciprus 

Celius 

Saturnus  of  Krit 

Jupiter 

Darius 

Erichhonius 

Troes 

Ilus 

Lamedon 

Priam,  King  of  Troy 

Minon,  or  Memnon,  who  mar- 
ried Priam's  daughter 

Their  son  was  Tror  whom  we 
call  THOR,  the  father  of 

Hloritha 


Einridi 

Vingethorr 

Vingener 

Moda 

Magi 

Seskef,  or  Sescef 

Bedwig 

Athra 

Itormann 

Heremotr 

Scealdna 

Beaf 

Eat 

Godulf 

Finn 

Frealaf 

VODEN,  whom  we  call  ODEN. 


CHAP. 

ii. 


"  From  him  descended  most  of  the  kingly  races  in  the  north 
part  of  the  world.  He  was  king  of  the  Tyrkia.  He  fled  from  the 
Romans  to  the  north." 


It  then  deduces,  through  two  lines  of  descendants  from  him,  by 
two  other  sons  than  those  who  head  the  Anglo-Saxon  dynasties, 
the  kings  of  Norway  and  Denmark. 


The  Norway  line  is, 
Oden 
Niordr    in   Noatunum, 

was  near  Sigtun 
Yngui  Frseyr 
Fiolner 
Svegdir 
Vallande 
Visburr 
Domalldr 
Domarr 
Dyggvi 
Dagr 

Agni,  the  husband  of  Skialfr 
Alrekr 
Yngui 
Jorundr 
Aun,  the  aged 
Egill  Slayer  of  Tunna 
Ottarr  Vendilkraka 
Athils  of  Upsal 
Eysteinn 
Yugwarr 
Braut-Onundr 

VOL.  I. 


The  Danish  line  is, 

Oden 

which     Skioldr 
Fridleifr 
Fridfrode 
Fridleifr 
Havarr-Handrami,    or    strong 

hand 
Frode 

Varmundr  Vitri,  or  the  wise 
Olafr  Litillate,  or  the  mild 
Danr  Mikillate,  or  the  proud 
Frode  Fridsami,  or  the  quiet 
Fridleifr 
Frode  Frsekne 
Ingialdr,  the  foster  of  Stark- 

adar 

Halfdan,  his  brother 
Helgi  and  Hroar 
Rolfr  Kraki 
Hrserekr 
Frode 
Halfdan 

Hraerekr  Slaungvan  baugi 
R 


242  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK          Ingialldr,  the  cunning  Haralldr  Hillditaunn 

IIL             Olafr  Tre-telgia,  or  the  wood-  Sigurdr  Hring,  son  of  Rand 

'                          cutter  ver 

Haldan  Hvit-bein,  or  white  feet  RAGNAR  LODBROG 

Eysteinn  Sigurdr  Orm 

Halfdan,  the  meek  Haurda  Knutr. 
Grudrodr,  the  magnanimous 
Halfdar  Svarti,  or  the  black 
HARALLD  HARFAGRI. 

Langbek  Scrip.  Dan.  1.  p.  1 — 6. 

This  Icelandic  document  inserts  twenty-nine  kings  between 
Oden  and  Harald  Harfagre,  who  acceded  in  873.  But  twenty  of 
these  sovereigns  perished  violently,  and  therefore  thirty  years 
would  be  too  large  an  average  for  every  one.  If  we  allow  twenty 
years  each  for  those  who  died  by  violence,  and  thirty  for  the  other 
nine,  this  would  station  Oden  about  203  years  after  the  Christian 
era. 

The  same  northern  authority  puts  twenty-three  kings  between 
Oden  and  Ragnar  Lodbrog,  who  acceded  about  812.  As  in  these 
turbulent  parts  few  Baltic  kings  died  naturally,  we  cannot  take  a 
higher  average  for  all  than  twenty-five  years,  and  this  computation 
would  place  Oden  about  237  years  after  Christ. 

Therefore,  on  the  whole,  we  may  consider  Woden,  or  Odin,  to 
have  really  lived  and  reigned  in  the  north,  and  may  place  his  real 
chronology  as  not  earlier  than  200,  nor  later  than  300,  years  of  the 
Christian  era. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  243 


CHAP.  III. 

Ancient  BRITISH  Accounts  of  the  Battles  with  the  WEST  SAXONS, 
and  the  authentic  History  of  ARTHUR. 

SOME  of  the  battles  mentioned  by  the  ancient  Welsh  CHAP. 
poets  are  those  between  Cerdic  and  the  Britons  ;  one 
of  these  is  the  battle  at  Llongborth.  In  this  conflict 
Arthur  was  the  commander-in-chief 1 ;  and  Geraint 
ab  Erbin  was  a  prince  of  Devonshire,  united  with  bortb> 
him,  against  the  Saxons.  Llywarch  Hen,  in  his 
elegy  on  his  friend,  describes  the  progress  of  the 
battle.  The  shout  of  onset,  and  the  fearful  obscurity 
which  followed  the  shock,  are  succeeded  by  the  ter- 
rible incidents  which  alarm  humanity  into  abhorrence 
of  war.  The  edges  of  the  blades  in  contact,  the 
gushing  of  blood,  the  weapons  of  the  heroes  with 
gore  fast  dropping,  men  surrounded  with  terror,  the 
crimson  gash  upon  the  chieftain's  brow,  biers  with 
the  dead  and  reddened  men,  a  tumultuous  running 
together,  the  combatants  striving  in  blood  to  the 
knees,  and  ravens  feasting  on  human  prey,  compose 
the  dismal  picture  which  this  ancient  bard  has  trans- 
mitted to  us  of  a  battle  in  which  he  was  personally 
engaged.2 

The  valiant  Geraint  was  slain  ;  "  slaughtering  his 
foes  he  fell."  3  The  issue  of  the  conflict  is  not  pre- 
cisely stated,  but  some  ambiguous  expressions  concur, 
with  the  absence  of  all  triumphant  language,  to  indi- 
cate that  the  Britons  did  not  prevail.  As  Llongborth 

1  Llywarch  Hen's  Elegies,  p.  9.  2  Ib.  p.  3 — 7. 

3  Llywarch  Hen's  Elegies,  p.  7.  The  20th  triad  names  him  as  one  of  the 
Llynghessawg,  the  naval  commanders  of  Britain.  The  Welsh  genealogies  make 
him  the  son  of  Constantine  of  Cornwall,  from  Gwen  the  daughter  of  Gyngar. 
They  give  him  a  son  named  Seliff.  Bodedd  y  Saint,  Welsh  Arch.  vol.  ii.  p.  33. 

R  2 


244  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     literally  implies  the  haven  of  ships,  and  was  some 

.    T*L    ,  harbour  on  the  southern  coast,  we  may  consider  this 

63°-       poem  as  describing  the  conflict  at  Portsmouth  when 

Porta  landed.      The   Saxon    Chronicle  says,  that  a 

very  noble  British  youth  fell  on  that  occasion,  but 

does  not  mention  his  name.4 

Battle  on  Llywarch  mentions  another  battle  on  the  Llawen, 
theLiawen.  «n  Wj1jcj1  Arthur  was  engaged.  Gwen,  the  poet's 
favourite  son,  exerted  himself  in  the  struggle.  The 
battle  was  at  the  ford  of  Morlas.  The  bard  describes 
his  son  as  watching  the  preceding  night,  with  his 
shield  on  his  shoulder.  He  compares  his  impetuosity 
to  the  assault  of  the  eagle  ;  and  laments  him  as  the 
bravest  of  his  children.  "As  he  was  my  son,  he  did 
not  retreat."  Of  the  event  of  the  battle,  he  only 
says,  that  Arthur  did  not  recede.5 

Of  the  other  contests  which  ensued  before  Wessex 
was  colonised  by  Saxons,  we  have  no  further  in- 
formation from  the  British  writers,  except  of  the 
battle  at  Bath. 

Battle  of  Gildas  intimates,  that  until  the  battle  of  Bath  the 
Saxons  and  the  Britons  alternately  conquered  ;  and 
that  this  was  almost  the  last,  but  not  the  least, 
slaughter  of  the  invaders.  Nennius  makes  it  the 
twelfth  of  Arthur's  battles.6  The  position  of  this 
battle  has  been  disputed,  but  it  seems  to  have  oc- 
curred near  Bath.7  Its  chronology  is  not  clear.8 


4  Sax.  Chron.  17.    Fl.  Wig.  206. 

5  Llywarch  Hen's  Elegy  on  Old  Age,  p.  131  —  135. 

6  Gildas,  s.  26.     Nennius,  s.  23. 

7  Mr.  Carte  describes  the  Mount  of  Badon,  in  Berkshire,  p.  205.     Usher  places 
the  battle  at  Bath,  p.  477.     Camden  also  thinks  that  Badon  Hill  is  the  Bannes- 
downe,  or  that  which  overhangs  the  little  village  Bathstone,  and  exhibits  still  its 
bulwarks  and  a  rampire.     Gibson,  ed.  p.  470. 

8  Gildas,  in  a  passage  of  difficult  construction,  says,  as  we  interpret,  that  it  took 
place  forty-four  years  before  he  wrote,  —  annum  obsessionis  Badonici  montis,  qui 
que  quadragessimus  quartus  ut  novi  oritur  annus,  raense  jam  primo  emenso  qui 
jam  et  mea?  nativitatis  est,  s.  26.  —  Bede  construed  it  to  mean  the  forty-  fourth 
year  after  the  Saxon   invasion,  lib.  i.  c.  16.,  but  the  words   of  Gildas  do  not 
support  him.      Matt.  West.,  p.  186.,  places  it  in  520.     Langhorn,  p.  62.,  prefers 
511. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  245 

The  Welsh  MSS.  in  the  red  book  of  Hergest,  say,     CHAP. 
that  128  years  intervened  from  the  age  of  Gwrtheyrn   , — ^J — , 
to  the  battle  of  Badon,  in  which  Arthur  and   the      63°- 
elders  conquered  the  Saxons.9 

Arthur  was  the  British  chieftain  who  so  long  re- 
sisted the  progress  of  Cerdic.  The  unparalleled 
celebrity  which  this  Briton  has  attained,  in  his  own 
country  and  elsewhere,  both  in  history  and  romance, 
might  be  allowed  to  exalt  our  estimation  of  the  Saxon 
chief,  who  maintained  his  invasion,  though  an  Arthur 
opposed  him,  if  the  British  hero  had  not  himself  been 
unduly  magnified  into  an  incredible  and  inconsistent 
conqueror. 

The  authentic  actions  of  Arthur  have  been  so  dis-  The  pro- 
figured   by   the   additions   of  the   minstrels,  and  of  toVof18" 
Jeffry,  that  many  writers  have  denied  that  he  ever  Arthur- 
lived10 :  but  this  is  an  extreme,  as  objectionable  as 
the  romances  which  occasioned  it.     The  tales  that  all 
human   perfection   was  collected   in  Arthur11,    that 
giants    and  kings   who  never  existed,    and  nations 
which  he  never  saw,  were  subdued  by  him,  that  he 
went  to  Jerusalem  for  the  sacred  cross12,  or  that  he 
not  only  excelled  the  experienced  past,  but  also  the 
possible  future13,  we  may,  if  we  please,  recollect  only 


9  See  this  published  in  the  Cambrian  Register,  p.  3 1 3.     Pryse,  in  his  Defensio, 
p.  120.,  quotes  a  passage  of  Taliesen  on  this  battle,  which  I  have  not  observed 
among  his  printed  poems. 

10  His  existence  was  doubted  very  early.     Genebrard  said,  it  might  be  inferred 
from  Bede,  Arcturum  magnum  nunquam  extitisse.     Chron.  lib.  iii.   ap.  Usher, 
522.  —  Sigebert,  who  wrote  in  the  twelfth  century,  complained  that,  except  in  the 
then  newly-published  British  history,  nullam  de  eo  mentionem  invenimus.    1  Pis- 
tori  Rer.  German.  504.  —  Our  Milton  is  also  sceptical  about  him.     Many  others 
are  as  unfriendly  to  his  fame. 

11  And,  in  short,  God  has  not  made,  since  Adam  was,  the  man  more  perfect  than 
Arthur.     Brut  G  ab  Arthur.     2  W.  Archaiol.  p.  299. 

12  Nennius,  or  his  interpolator,  Samuel,  pledges  himself  that  the  fragments  of 
the  cross  brought  by  Arthur  were  kept  in  Wedale,  six  miles  from  Mailros.    3  Gale, 
p.  114.      Langhorn,  whose  neat  Latin  Chronicle  of  the  Saxon  kingdoms  I  wish  to 
praise  for  its  general  precision,  adduces  Jerom  and  others  to  prove  that  Britons 
used  to  visit  Jerusalem,  p.  47. 

13  Joseph  of  Exeter,  in  his  elegant  Antiocheis,  after  contrasting  the  inferior 
achievements  of  Alexander,  Ceesar,  and  Hercules,  with  those  of  his  flos  regum 
Arthur  us,  adds, 

R  3 


246  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     to  despise ;  but  when  all  such  fictions  are  removed, 
<_,J — <   and  those    incidents  only  are    retained   which   the 
53o.       sober  criticism  of  history  sanctions  with  its  approba- 
tion ;  a  fame  ample  enough  to  interest  the  judicious, 
and  to  perpetuate  his  honourable  memory,  will  still 
continue  to  claim  our  belief  and  applause. 

The  most  authentic  circumstances  concerning  Ar- 
thur, appear  to  be  these : 

ms  birth.  He  was  a  chieftain  in  some  part  of  Britain  near  its 
southern  coasts.  As  a  Mouric,  king  of  Glamorgan- 
shire, had  a  son  named  Arthur  at  this  period14,  and 
many  of  Arthur's  actions  are  placed  about  that  dis- 
trict, it  has  been  thought  probable  that  the  celebrated 
Arthur  was  the  son  of  Mouric:  but  this  seems  to 
have  been  too  petty  a  personage,  and  too  obscure  for 
his  greater  namesake,  who  is  represented  by  all  the 
traditions  and  history  that  exist  concerning  him  to 
have  been  the  son  of  Uther. 

His  actions.  He  is  represented,  in  the  Lives  of  the  Welsh  Saints, 
with  incidents  that  suit  the  real  manners  of  the  age. 
Meeting  a  prince  in  Glamorganshire,  who  was  flying 
from  his  enemies,  Arthur  was,  at  first,  desirous  of 
taking  by  force  the  wife  of  the  fugitive.  His  military 
friends,  Cei  and  Bedguir,  persuaded  him  to  refrain 
from  the  injustice ;  and  to  assist  the  prince  to  regain 
his  lands.15 

A  British  chief  having  killed  some  of  his  warriors, 
Arthur  pursues  him  with  all  the  avidity  of  revenge. 
At  the  request  of  St.  Cadoc,  Arthur  submits  his  com- 
plaint to  the  chiefs  and  clergy  of  Britain,  who  award 
Arthur  a  compensation.16 

Sed  nee  pinetum  coryli,  nee  sidera  solem 
JEquant ;  annales  Latios,  Graiosque  revolve  ; 
Prisca  parem  nescit,  sequalera  postera  nullum 
Exhibitura  dies.     Reges  supereminet  omnes 
Solus  ;  prateritis  melior,  majorque  futuris. 

A  p.  Usher,  p.  519. 

11  Reg.  Llandav. 

15  Vita  S.  Cadoei,  Cott.  MSS.  Vcsp.  A.  14.  1G  Ibid. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  247 

At  another  time,  Arthur  is  stated  to  have  plun-     CHAP. 
dered  St.  Paternus,  and  to  have  destroyed  a  monastery  .    ni'    . 
in  Wales.17     These  incidents  suit  the  short  character       53°- 
which  Nennius  gives  of  him,  that  he  was  cruel  from 
his  childhood.18 

It  is  stated,  by  Caradoc  of  Llancarvan,  that  Melva, 
the  king  of  Somersetshire,  carried  off  Arthur's  wife, 
by  force,  to  Glastonbury.  Arthur,  with  his  friends, 
whom  he  collected  from  Cornwall  and  Devonshire, 
assaulted  the  ravisher.  The  ecclesiastics  interposed, 
and  persuaded  Melva  to  return  her  peaceably.  Arthur 
received  her,  and  both  the  kings  rewarded  the  monks 
for  their  useful  interference.19 

Arthur  also  maintained  a  war  against  the  Britons, 
in  the  north  of  the  island ;  and  killed  Huel,  their  king. 
He  was  greatly  rejoiced  at  this  success ;  because,  says 
Caradoc,  he  had  killed  his  most  powerful  enemy. 20 
Thus  Arthur,  by  his  wars  with  his  own  countrymen, 
as  much  assisted  the  progress  of  the  Saxons,  as  he 
afterwards  endeavoured  to  check  it,  by  his  struggles 
with  Cerdic. 

He  may  have  fought  the  twelve  battles  mentioned 
by  Nennius 21 ;  but  it  is  obvious,  from  the  preceding 
paragraphs,  that  they  were  not  all  directed  against 
the  Anglo-Saxons.  He  is  represented  by  Nennius,  as 
fighting  them  in  conjunction  with  the  kings  of  the 

17  Vita  S.  Cadoci,  Cott.  MSS.  Vesp.  A.  14.     Vita  S.  Paterni  MS.     Cei  is  men* 
tioned  as  his  companion  in  a  poem  of  Taliesin's. 

18  Nenn.  c.  62. 

19  Carad.  Vit.  Gild.  MSS.  King's  Lib.     Malmsbury  mentions,  in  his  History  of 
Glastonbury,  p.  307.,  one  circumstance  of  Arthur  sending  Ider,  the  son  of  King 
Nuth,  on  an  adventure,  after  having  knighted  him ;  but  it  is  too  romantically 
narrated  to  be  classed  among  the  authentic  facts.     Giants  have  no  right  to  admis- 
sion into  ordinary  history. 

20  Carad. 

81  Nenn.  c.  62,  63.  He  thus  enumerates  them  :  1st,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
called  Glen  ;  2d,  3d,  4th,  and  5th,  on  another  river  called  Douglas,  in  the  region 
of  Linius  ;  6th,  on  the  river  called  Bassas ;  the  7th,  in  the  wood  of  Caledon  ;  the 
8th,  in  Castle  Gunnion,  where  he  adds  that  Arthur  had  the  image  of  the  cross  and 
of  Mary  on  his  shoulders  ;  the  ninth,  at  Caerleon  ;  the  10th,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Rebroit;  the  llth,  on  the  mount  called  Agned  Cathrcgonion ;  the  12th  on  the 
Badon  Hills. 

R  4 


248  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK     Britons.  It  is  clear,  from  many  authorities,  that  there 
-   were  several  kings  at  this  time  in  different  parts  of 
530.       Britain.22     But  there  appears,  as  the  preceding  pages 
have  intimated,  to  have  been  a  paramount  sovereign ; 
a  Pen-dragon,  or  Penteyrn ;  who,  in  nominal  dignity 
at  least,  was  superior  to  every  other.     Arthur  is  ex- 
hibited in  this  character23 ;  and  his  father  Uther  had 
the  same  appellation.24 

Four  of  the  battles  ascribed  to  him  by  Nennius 
have  been  ably  illustrated  by  Mr.  Whitaker.  Mr. 
Camden  and  others  had  remarked,  that  the  Douglas, 
on  which  Nennius  had  placed  them,  was  a  river  in 
Lancashire.  The  historian  of  Manchester,  whom  I 
am  happy  to  praise  for  his  genius  and  energy,  has 
commented  on  the  positions  of  these  conflicts  with 
great  local  knowledge.  His  fancy,  though  often  too 
prolific,  and  even  on  this  portion  of  our  history  pecu- 
liarly active,  yet  describes  these  with  so  much  pro- 
bability, that  we  may  adopt  his  sketches  as  history.25 
The  battle  of  Badon  Hills,  or  near  Bath,  has  been 
celebrated  as  Arthur's  greatest  and  most  useful 
achievement ;  a  long  interval  of  repose  to  the  Britons 
has  been  announced  as  its  consequence26;  yet  it  is 
curious  to  remark,  that  this  victory  only  checked  the 
progress  of  Cerdic  ;  and  does  not  appear  to  have  pro- 
duced any  further  success.  We  hear  not  of  the 
vindictive  pursuit  of  Arthur,  of  the  invasion  of  Hamp- 

22  The  Cott.  MSS.  Vesp.  A.  14.,  in  the  Lives  of  the  Welsh  Saints,  mention 
several  in  Wales. 
28  Trioedd  7.  p.  3. 

24  There  is  an  elegy  on  Uthyr's  death  among  the  ancient  British  bards.     See 
Welsh  Arch.  vol.  i. 

25  Hist.  Manch.  vol.  ii.  p.  43 — 45.  4to,  ed.     An  ingenious  critic  in  the  Gentle- 
man's Magazines  for  May  and  June  1 842,  has  endeavoured  to  show  that  Arthur's 
earlier  battles  were  fought  against  a  Saxon  colony,  probably  founded  about  450,  in 
Bernicia,  and  that  the  places   mentioned  by  Nennius  are  to  be  recognised  in  the 
Glen  (a  stream  which  falls  into  the  Till),  the  Dunglass,  in  South  Lothian,  the 
channel  separating  the  Bass  Rock  from  the   mainland,  near  North  Berwick,  &c. 
The  planting  of  this  supposed  Saxon  colony  at  so  early  a  date,  requires,  however, 
to  be  established. 

26  This  seems  to  be  the  battle  mentioned  by  Gildas  and  Bede,  which  occurred 
when  Gildas  was  forty-four  years  old. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  249 

shire,  or  the  danger  of  Cerdic.  The  Saxon  was  CHAP. 
penetrating  onwards  even  towards  Wales  or  Mercia ;  . — ^ — > 
he  was  defeated,  and  did  not  advance.27  No  other 
conflicts  ensued.  Arthur  was  content  to  repulse. 
This  must  have  been  because  he  wanted  power  to 
pursue.  Arthur  was,  therefore,  not  the  warrior  of 
irresistible  strength ;  he  permitted  Cerdic  to  retain 
his  settlements  in  Wessex ;  and  such  an  acquiescence 
accords  with  the  Chronicle,  which  asserts,  that  after 
many  fierce  conflicts,  he  conceded  to  the  Saxon  the 
counties  of  Southampton  and  Somerset. 28  The  latter 
was  however  still  contested. 

This  state  of  moderate  greatness  suits  the  character  HOW  men- 
in  which  the  Welsh  bards  exhibit  Arthur.  They 
commemorate  him ;  but  it  is  not  with  that  excelling  bards, 
glory  with  which  he  has  been  surrounded  by  sub- 
sequent traditions.  On  the  contrary,  Urien  of  Keged 
seems  to  have  employed  the  harp  more  than  Arthur. 
Llywarch  the  aged,  who  lived  through  the  whole 
period  of  slaughter,  and  had  been  one  of  the  guests 
and  counsellors  of  Arthur29,  never  displays  him  in 
transcendant  majesty.  In  the  battle  of  Llongborth, 
which  Arthur  directed,  it  was  the  valour  of  Geraint 
that  arrested  the  bard's  notice ;  and  his  elegy,  though 
long,  scarcely  mentions  the  commander,  whose  merit, 
in  the  frenzy  of  later  fables,  clouds  every  other.  As 
an  effusion  of  real  feeling,  this  poem  may  be  supposed 
to  possess  less  of  flattery  and  more  of  truth  in  its 
panegyric.  It  speaks  of  Arthur  with  respect,  but  not 
with  wonder.  Arthur  is  simply  mentioned  as  the 

2T  Bede's  expressions  taken  from  Gildas  express  the  general  truth  of  these  con- 
flicts. "  Now  the  natives,  now  their  enemies,  conquered,  until  the  siege  of  the 
Hills  of  Bath,  when  they  (the  Britons)  did  not  give  the  least  slaughter  to  their 
enemies,"  c.  16.  p.  53. 

28  Rad.,  quoted  by  Polychronica,   says,  in  quibusdam  chronicis  legitur,   quod 
tandem  Arthurus  extsediatus,  post  26  annum  adventus  Cerdici  fidelitate  sibi  jurata 
dedit  ei  Hamptershiram  et  Somersetham,  p.  224.  —  The  Chronicle  of  Ricardi  Di- 
visionensis,  in  MSS.  at  Cambridge,  affirms  the  same.     It  is  quoted  by  Langhorn, 
Chron.  Rer.  Anglorum,  p.  70. 

29  Triocdd  116.  p.  74. 


250  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  commander  and  the  conductor  of  the  toil  of  war ;  but 
*  Geraint  is  profusely  celebrated  with  dignified  peri- 
53°-  phrasis.30 

In  the  same  manner  Arthur  appears  in  the  Afal- 
lenau  of  Myrddin ;  and  in  Taliesin  he  is  mentioned 
as  a  character  well  known  and  reverenced31,  but  not 
idolised ;  yet  he  was  then  dead,  and  all  the  actions 
of  his  patriotism  and  valour  had  been  performed. 
Not  a  single  epithet  is  added,  from  which  we  can 
discern  him  to  have  been  that  whirlwind  of  war 
which  swept  away  in  its  course  all  the  skill  and 
armies  of  Europe.  That  he  was  a  courageous  war- 
rior is  unquestionable ;  but  that  he  was  the  miracu- 
lous Mars  of  the  British  history,  from  whom  kings 
and  nations  sunk  in  panic,  is  completely  disproved 
by  the  temperate  encomiums  of  his  contemporary 
bards. 

One  fact  is  sufficient  to  refute  all  the  hyperboles  of 
Jeffry,  whose  work  has  made  him  so  extravagantly 
great.  Though  Arthur  lived  and  fought,  yet  the 
Anglo-Saxons  were  not  driven  from  the  island,  but 
gradually  advanced  their  conquest,  with  progressive 
dominion,  whether  he  was  alive  or  whether  he 
was  dead.  Reflecting  on  this  unquestionable  fact, 
we  may  hesitate  to  believe  that  Arthur  was  victorious 
in  all  his  battles32,  because,  if  he  wielded  the  whole 
force  of  Britain,  and  only  fought  to  conquer,  what 
rescued  Cerdic,  Ella,  the  son  of  Hengist,  and  the 
invaders  of  Essex  and  East-Anglia  from  absolute 
destruction  ? 


30  As  "the  glory  of  Britain — the  terrifier  of  the  foe  —  the  molester  of  the 
enemy — the  great  son  of  Erbin — the  strenuous  warrior  of  Dyvnaint."    Llywarch, 
p.  3—7. 

31  Myrddin  styles  him  modur  tyrfa,  king  of  a  multitude.     Afall.  ].  W.  A.  153. 

32  Nennius,  c.  62.,  says,  this  "in  omnibus  bellis  victor  extitit."    But  the  author 
quoted  by  Higden,  p.  224.,  says  more  probably  of  Cerdic,  who  often  fought  with 
Arthur,  "  si  semel  vinceretur,  alia  vice  acrior  surrexit  ad  pugnam." — Gildas,  s.  26., 
implies  an  alternation  of  victory  previous  to  the  battle  of  Bath.       The  MS.  Chron. 
Divis.,  cited  by  Langhorn,  70.,  affirms  it. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  251 

The  Welsh  triads  notice  many  of  Arthur's  friends     CHAP. 
and  warriors ;  and  mention  one  stanza  as  his  com-  •_    t '    • 
position.     But  this  must  be  mere*  tradition.  530-j 

Sef  ynt  fy  nhri  chadfarchawg, 
Mael  hir,  a  Llyr  Lluddawg  ; 
A  cholofn  Cymru  Caradawg.33 

To  me  there  are  three  heroes  in  battle ; 
Mael  the  tall,  and  Llyr  with  his  army, 
And  Caradawg  the  pillar  of  the  Cymry. 

Arthur  perished  at  last  ingloriously,  in  a  civil  feud  ins  death, 
with  Medrawd  his  nephew,  who  is  said  to  have  en- 
grossed the  affections  of  Gwenhyfar,  his  wife.  But 
as  the  blow  of  Arthur  on  Medraivd  is  mentioned  as 
one  of  the  most  mischievous  blows  in  Britain34,  this 
may  have  been  the  immediate  cause  of  Medrawd's 
hostility. 

The  character  of  Medrawd  has  been  branded  with 
much  reproach  by  the  Welsh,  because  their  favourite 
Arthur  perished  in  the  war  which  he  excited.  But 
there  is  a  triad  which  records  his  gentleness,  good 
nature,  and  engaging  conversation  ;  and  declares  that 
it  was  difficult  to  deny  him  any  request. 35  He  must 
have  been  powerfully  supported,  to  have  raised  an 
army  capable  of  confronting  Arthur  in  the  field. 
Maelgwn,  who  reigned  in  Gwynedd,  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  Medrawd's  allies ;  for  Gildas  inculpates 
him  for  having  destroyed  the  king  his  uncle,  with 
his  bravest  soldiers.36 

The  conflict    took  place  at   Camlan,    where  both       542. 
Arthur  and  Medrawd  fell37:  Arthur,  mortally  wounded, 
was  carried  out  of  the  field.    From  the  coast  of  Corn- 
wall he  was  conveyed  into  Somersetshire.     Sailing 
along  the  shore  they  reached  the  Uzella,  which  they 


33  Trioedd  29.  p.  62.  S1  Trioedd  51.  p.  13. 

35  Trioedd  83.  p.  18.  »  Gildas,  p.  12. 

87  This  battle  is  placed  in  542,  by  the  Annals  in  Wliarton's  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  ii. 
p.  648.  ;  by  many  authors  cited  by  Usher,  Ant.  p.  521.  ;  and  by  Jeffry  and  the 
Welsh  Brut  ab  Arthur. 


252 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 

' » 

542. 

His  death 
concealed. 


His  family. 


ascended,  and  the  king  was  committed  to  the  care  of 
his  friends  in  Glastonbury  38,  but  their  skill  could  not 
avert  the  fatal  hour. 

The  death  of  Arthur  was  long  concealed,  and  a 
wild  tale  was  diffused  among  the  populace,  that  he 
had  withdrawn  from  the  world  into  some  magical 
region ;  from  which  at  a  future  crisis  he  was  to 
re-appear,  and  to  lead  the  Cymry  in  triumph  through 
the  island.  Why  this  fiction  was  invented,  we  may 
now  in  vain  inquire.  It  could  not  repress  the  ambi- 
tion of  the  Saxons,  because  the  temporary  absence  of 
Arthur  was  sufficient  to  favour  their  wishes  ;  and  if 
his  living  authority  could  not  prevent  British  insur- 
rection, was  it  probable  that  his  residence  in  another 
region  would  avail  ?  Yet  Taliesin  industriously  sang 
that  Morgana  promised,  if  he  remained  a  long  time 
with  her,  to  heal  his  wounds ;  and  it  is  notorious  that 
the  return  of  Arthur  was  a  fond  hope  of  the  people 
for  many  ages.  Perhaps  it  was  an  illusion  devised 
to  avert  the  popular  vengeance  from  those  who,  by 
aiding  Medrawd,  had  contributed  to  produce  the 
lamented  event39 ;  or  perhaps  some,  affecting  to  reign 
in  trust  for  Arthur,  conciliated  the  public  prejudice 
in  favour  of  their  government,  by  thus  representing 
that  they  governed  only  for  him. 

Of  the  family  of  Arthur  we  know  little.  We  hear 
of  Noe  in  Caermarthenshire,  reputed  to  be  his  son  ; 
another  son,  Llechau,  is  celebrated  as  an  accomplished 
warrior.40  His  sister  Anna  married  Llew,  brother  of 
the  famous  Urien,  and  son  of  Cynvarch ;  Medrawd 
was  her  son.41  The  marriage  of  Anna  united  the 


38  See  Jeffry's  curious  poem,  his  best  work,  MSS.  Cott.  Lib.  Vesp.  E.  4.     See, 
also,  Giraldus  Spec.  Eccles.  dist.  ii.  c.  9.,  cited  apud  Usher,  p.  523. 

39  Matth.  Westm.,  p.  192.,  declares  that  the  king  voluntarily  concealed  himself 
while  dying,  that  his  enemies  might  not  triumph,  nor  his  friends  be  molested. 

40  MSS.  Vesp.  A.  14.  p.  57.     Trioedd  10.  p.  3. 

41  See  the  genealogy  in  Mr.  Owen's  Life  of  Lly warch. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  253 

kings  of  the  Northern  Britons  in  consanguinity  with     CHAP. 
Arthur.  » — J — » 


But  though  the  friends  of  Arthur  concealed  the 


542. 
His  re- 


place  of  his  interment,  a  future  age  discovered  it.  mains 
In  the  year  1189,  when  romance  had  begun  to 
magnify  his  fame,  his  body  was  diligently  sought  for 
in  the  abbey  of  Glastonbury.  The  circumstances 
attending  this  search  give  us  the  first  clear  arid 
historical  certainty  about  this  celebrated  man,  and 
are  therefore  worth  detailing.  They  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  who  saw  both 
the  bones  and  the  inscription,  as  well  as  by  a  monk 
of  the  abbey  ;  and  the  same  facts  are  alluded  to  by 
William  of  Malmsbury,  a  contemporary,  and  by 
others. 

The  substance  of  the  account  of  Giraldus  is  this.42 
Henry  the  Second,  who  twice  visited  Wales,  had 
heard,  from  an  ancient  British  bard,  that  Arthur  was 
interred  at  Glastonbury,  and  that  some  pyramids 
marked  the  place.  The  king  communicated  this  to 
the  abbot  and  monks  of  the  monastery,  with  the  ad- 
ditional information,  that  the  body  had  been  buried 
very  deep  to  keep  it  from  the  Saxons  ;  and  that  it 
would  be  found  not  in  a  stone  tomb,  but  in  a  hollowed 
oak.  There  were  two  pyramids  or  pillars  at  that 
time  standing  in  the  cemetery  of  the  abbey.  They 
dug  between  these  till  they  came  to  a  leaden  cross 
lying  under  a  stone,  which  had  this  inscription,  and 
which  Giraldus  says  he  saw  and  handled  —  "Hie 
jacet  sepultus  inclytus  Eex  Arthurus  in  insula  Aval- 
Ionia."43  Below  this,  at  the  depth  of  sixteen  feet 

42  This  account  of  Giraldus  corresponds  with  that  of  the  monk  of  Glastonbury, 
which  Leland  has  extracted  in  his  Assert.  Art.  p.  60.  ;  and  Usher  in  his  Antiq. 
p.  117.     Malmsbury  more  briefly  alludes  to  it,  De  Ant.  Glast. 

43  A  fac-simile  of  this  inscription  is  given  in  Gibson's  Camden,  p.  66.  ;  and  in 
Whitaker's  Manchester,  part  ii.     Dr.  Whitaker  was  told  that  the  cross  had  then 
lately  been  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Chancellor  Hughes,  at  Wells.     The  form  of 
the  letters  suits  the  age  of  Arthur. 


254  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

BOOK     from  the  surface,  a  coffin  of  hollowed  oak  was  found, 

.    m'    ,  containing  bones  of  an  unusual  size.     The  leg-bone 

542-       was  three  fingers  (probably  in  their  breadth)  longer 

than  that  of  the  tallest  man  then  present.     This  man 

was  pointed  out  to  Giraldus.     The  skull  was  large, 

and  showed  the  marks  of  ten  wounds.     Nine  of  these 

had  concreted  into  the  bony  mass,  but  one  had  a  cleft 

in  it,  and  the  opening  still  remained  ;  apparently  the 

mortal  blow.44 

Giraldus  says,  in  another  place,  that  the  bones  of 
one  of  Arthur's  wives  were  found  there  with  his,  but 
distinct,  at  the  lower  end.  Her  yellow  hair  lay  ap- 
parently perfect  in  substance  and  colour,  but  on  a 
monk's  eagerly  grasping  and  raising  it  up,  it  fell  to 
dust.45 

The  bones  were  removed  into  the  great  church  at 
Glastonbury,  and  deposited  in  a  magnificent  shrine, 
which  was  afterwards  placed,  in  obedience  to  the  order 
of  Edward  I.,  before  the  high  altar.  He  visited  Glas- 
tonbury with  his  queen,  in  1276,  and  had  the  shrine 
of  Arthur  opened  to  contemplate  his  remains.  They 
were  both  so  interested  by  the  sight,  that  the  king 
folded  the  bones  of  Arthur  in  a  rich  shroud,  and  the 
queen  those  of  his  wife  ;  and  replaced  them  reveren- 
tially in  their  tornb.46 

The  circumstances  of  Arthur's  funeral  could  be 
known  only  from  Welsh  traditions.  Giraldus  has  left 
us  one  of  these :  "  Morgan,  a  noble  lady,  proprietor  of 
this  district,  and  patroness  of  the  Abbey,  and  related 
to  Arthur,  had  the  king  carried,  after  the  battle  of 
Camlan,  to  the  island  called  Glastonbury,  to  heal  his 

44  Matthew  Paris  notices  the  discovery  of  the  bones,  but  says  that  it  was  occa- 
sioned by  their  digging  the  grave  of  a  monk,  who  had  an  earnest  desire  to  be 
buried  in  that  spot.     It  is  not  improbable  that  this  may  have  been  a  further  in- 
ducement with  the  convent  to  have  the  spot  dug. 

45  Girald.  Institutio  Principis.  ap.  Lei.  47.     This  work  still  remains  in  MS.  in 
the  British  Museum. 

46  Mon.  Glast.  Lei.  55. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  255 

wounds."47     The  same  facts  are  alluded  to  by  Jeffry,      CHAP. 
in   his   elegant   poem,  which   entitles   him  to  more   <_^ — » 
literary  respect  than  his  history,   and  which  contains       542* 
more  of  real  British  traditions. 48 

The  pyramids  or  obelisks  that  are  stated  to  have 
marked  the  place  of  Arthur's  interment,  long  remained 
at  Glastonbury.  They  had  images  and  inscriptions, 
which  have  not  yet  been  understood,  but  which  do 
not  seem  to  relate  to  Arthur. 49  A  sword,  fancied  to 
have  been  his  caliburno,  was  presented  by  Richard 
the  First,  as  a  valuable  gift,  to  the  king  of  Sicily. 50 

47  Gir.  in  Speculo  Ecclesiastico,  MSS.  Brit.  Mus. ;  and  ap.  Lei.  44. 

48  It  is  among  the  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum.     Since  it  was  noticed  in  this 
work,  Mr.  Ellis  has  given  an  account  of  it,  with  extracts,  in  his  History  of  the 
Early  English  Romances. 

49  On  one  of  the  sides  of  the  pyramid  that  was  twenty-six  feet  high,  with  five 
sides,  was  a  figure  in  a  pontifical  dress :  on  the  second  side  was  a  royal  personage, 
with  the  letters  Her,  Sexi,  Blisyer :  on  the  third,  Wemerest,  Bantomp,  Winewegn : 
the  other  sides  had  also  inscriptions.    The  smaller  pyramid  was  eighteen  feet  high, 
and  had  four  sides  with  inscriptions.      W.  Malms,  de  Antiq.  Glast.     Gale,  iii. 
p.  306.,  as  collated  in  my  copy  by  Hearne. 

50  Usher,  p.  121.     These  are  the  only  circumstances  which  we  can  present  to 
the  reader  as  Arthur's  authentic  history.      The  romances  about  him   contain 
several  names  of  real  persons,  and  seem  occasionally  to  allude  to  a  few  real  facts. 
But  their  great  substance  and  main  story  are  so  completely  fabulous,  that  what- 
ever part  of  them  was  once  true,  is  overwhelmed  and  lost  in  their  fictions,  and 
manifest  falsifications  both  of  manners  and  history. 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  IV. 

Establishment  of  the  ANGLO-SAXONS  in  EAST  ANGLIA,  MERCIA, 
and  ESSEX.  —  Arrival  of  IDA  in  NORTHUMBERLAND.  —  Battles 
with  the  BRITONS.  —  Kingdoms  of  BERNICIA  and  DEIRA. 

BOOK     WHILE   Cerdic   and    his   son  were   conflicting  with 
t    "L    .   Arthur,  and  the  other  British  kings  and  chiefs  who 
oppposed  them  in  Hampshire  and  the  adjoining  re- 
gions, several  adventurers  from  the  nation   of  the 
Angles  in  Sleswick  arrived  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
island.     The  chronology  of  their  invasions  cannot  be 
more  definitely  stated  than  by  the  date  which  an  old 
chronnicler  has  affixed  to  them,  and  which  accords  so 
well  with  the  other  facts  on  this  subject,  that  it  may 
First  am-    be  considered  as  entitled  to  our  attention.     Another, 
Angiia.East  more  ancient,  has  mentioned  that  many  petty  chiefs 
527.       arrived  in  East  Anglia  and  Mercia  in  the  reign  of 
Cerdic,  and  fought  many  battles  with  the  natives; 
but  as  they  formed  no  kingdom  and  were  numerous, 
their  names  had  not  been  preserved.1     The  year  in 
which  these  invasions  began  to  occur  is  placed  by  the 
other  annalist  in  527.2 

Kingdom          Contemporary   with   these   assailants,    a   body   of 

founded.      Saxons  planted  themselves  in  Essex,  and,  protected  on 

53°-       the  south  by  the  kingdom  of  the  Jutes  in  Kent,   and 

on  the  north  by  the  adventurers  in  East  Anglia,  they 

succeeded  in  founding  a  little  kingdom,  about  530  3, 

which  has  little  else  to  attract  our  notice,  than  that  it 

gradually  stretched  itself  into  Middlesex,  and  obtained 

the  command  of  London,  then  but  a  flourishing  town 

of  trade,  though  destined  in  a  subsequent  age  to  be- 

1  H.  Huntingd.  p.  313.  2  Matt.  Westm.  p.  188. 

3  The  first  king  was  Erkenwin,  who  died  587.     Matt.  Westm.  p.  200. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  257 

come  the  metropolis  of  all  the  Jute,  Saxon,  and  Angli     CHAP. 
kingdoms  of  the  island.  <L — > 

In  this  state  of  the  contest  between  the  British  53°- 
nation  and  their  Saxon  invaders,  while  the  Britons, 
yet  masters  of  all  the  island,  from  the  Avon  to  the 
Cornish  promontory  on  the  west,  and  to  the  Firth  of 
Forth  on  the  north,  were  resisting  and  arresting  the 
progress  of  the  son  of  Cerdic  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  unrecorded  adventurers  in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  on 
the  other,  the  most  formidable  invasion  which  the 
natives  had  yet  been  called  upon  to  oppose,  occurred 
on  the  coast  above  the  Hurnber.  In  547,  Ida  led  or  Ha  arrives 
accompanied,  to  the  region  between  the  Tweed  and  the  547. 
Firth  of  Forth,  a  fleet  of  forty  vessels  of  warriors,  all 
of  the  nation  of  the  Angles. 4  Twelve  sons  were  with 
him.5  The  chieftains  associated  with  him,  or  who 
afterwards  joined  in  his  enterprise,  appointed  him 
their  king.6  Ida,  like  Hengist,  Cerdic,  and  Ella, 
traced  his  pedigree  to  Woden,  the  great  ancestor  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  chieftains,  as  well  as  those  of  Nor- 
way, Sweden,  and  Denmark. 

That  part  of  Britain,  between  the  Humber  and  the  state  of  the 
Clyde,  was  occupied  by  Britons ;  but  they  were 
divided  into  many  states.  The  part  nearest  the  Hum- 
ber was  called  Deifyr  by  the  ancient  natives,  which, 
after  the  Saxon  conquest  was  named  Deira;  and 
north  of  Deifyr  was  Bryneich,  which  became  Latin- 
ised into  Bernicia.  Deifyr  and  Bryneich  had  three 
sovereigns,  whose  names  have  descended  to  us  :  Gall, 
Dyvedel,  and  Ysgwnell. 

In  some  part  of  the  district  between  the  Humber 
and  the  Clyde,  was  a  state  called  Keged,  which  Urien, 

4  Flor.  Wig.     "  In  provincia  Berniciorum,"  p.  218.     So  Nennius  calls  him  the 
first  king  of  Bernicia,  p.  114. 

5  We  may  record  their  names  as  specimens  of  their  family  appellations  :  Adda, 
Belric,  Theodric,  Ethelric,  Theodhere,  Osmer  from  his  queens,  and  Occa,  Ailric, 
Ecca,  Oswold,  Sogor,  and  Sogether.     Most  of  these  are  significant  words,  or  com- 
binations of  words,  in  the  Saxon  language. 

6  So  Huntingdon  states,  p.  314. 

VOL.  I.  S 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  the  patron  of  Taliesin,  governed.  In  the  parts  nearest 
.  IIL  .  the  Clyde,  there  were  three  other  sovereigns,  Rhyd- 
547-  derc  the  Generous,  Gwallog  the  son  of  Lleenog,  and 
Morgant.  Llywarch  Hen  also  enjoyed  a  little  prin- 
cipality in  Argoed.  Aneurin,  the  bard,  was  the  chief 
of  a  district,  called  Gododin.  And  Mynnyddawr 
ruled  in  a  part  near  the  friths  at  Eiddyn,  which  has 
been  conjectured  to  be  the  origin  of  Edinburgh,  or 
the  burgh  of  Edin.  Cunedda  was  also  a  wledig,  or 
sovereign,  in  some  of  these  northern  regions,  who 
emigrated  into  North  Wales ;  and  Cau  was  another. 
All  these,  and  some  others,  are  mentioned  in  the 
Welsh  remains ;  which  prove  that  the  north  of 
Britain,  like  the  south,  was  divided  into  many  sove- 
reignties :  some  of  them  of  very  inconsiderable  size. 
This  state  of  the  country,  at  the  time  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  invasion,  must  be  always  recollected,  when  the 
facility  and  permanency  of  the  Saxon  conquests  are 
adverted  to.7  From  the  Kymry,  or  Britons,  having 
retained  possession  of  much  of  this  country,  for  some 
time  after  the  Saxon  invasions,  a  large  portion  of  it 
was  called  Cumbria ;  which  is  the  Latin  name  by 
which  their  states  or  kingdoms  in  these  parts  have  been 
usually  expressed.  As  the  Saxon  conquests  spread, 
the  extent  of  British  Cumbria  was  diminished,  and 
the  most  noted  of  the  British  race,  who  had  any  Cum- 
brian kingdom  in  these  parts,  were  the  Ystradclwyd, 
who  maintained  what  has  been  called  the  Strath  Clyde 
kingdom.  The  word,  Y-strad-clyde,  literally  imports 
the  valley  of  the  Clyde  ;  and  the  region  they  occu- 
pied was  therefore  about  the  Clyde.  After  enduring 
wars,  with  various  fortune,  with  the  Britons,  the 
Dalriads,  and  the  Piks,  their  little  kingdom  was  de- 
stroyed, in  the  close  of  the  tenth  century.  Alclyde, 

7  See  for  these  facts  Nennius — Caradoc's  Life  of  Gildas  —  The  Welsh  Triads  — 
Aneurin's  Gododin — Taliesin's  Poems  —  Cotton.  MSS.  Vesp.  A.  14. — Llywarch 
Hen's  Poems — Bodedd  y  Saint.  W.  Arch.  ii. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  259 

which  means  the  height  of  the  Clyde,  was  the  princi-      CHAP. 
pal  town  of  the  Y-strad-clyde,  and  was  in  all  likeli-  . 

hood  the  present  Dumbarton.  This  circumstance  547- 
increases  the  probability,  that  the  Eiddyn,  another 
town  in  these  parts,  which  Mynnyddawr  governed 
at  this  period,  was  the  town  on  the  Forth,  almost 
parallel  with  Alclyde,  and  which  has  long  become 
illustrious  under  the  name  of  Edinburgh.  Another 
British  state  between  the  Y-strad-clyde,  and  the 
Saxons,  seems  to  have  existed  so  late  as  the  tenth 
century ;  as  Eugenius,  or  Owen,  king  of  the  Cumbri, 
is  then  mentioned.8 

The  defence  of  the  Britons,  according  to  the  poems 
which  remain  in  the  manuscripts  of  their  ancient 
poets,  appears  to  have  been  peculiarly  vigorous  in 
these  districts :  and  their  warriors  have  received  a 
liberal  meed  of  praise  from  the  bards  whom  they 
patronised. 

Of  these,  Urien,  the  chief  of  Keged,  has  been  most  urien  of 
extolled.  He  was  the  son  of  Cynvarc  the  Aged.9  Reged* 
Taliesin  has  addressed  to  him  several  poems  with 
warm  panegyric ;  and  alludes  to  him  in  others.  In 
these  he  calls  him  the  head  of  the  people  ;  the  shield 
of  warriors ;  the  most  generous  of  men ;  bounteous 
as  the  sea ;  the  thunderbolt  of  the  Cymry.  He  com- 
pares his  onset  to  the  rushing  of  the  waves ;  and  to 
the  fiery  meteors  moving  across  the  heavens.10  But 
though  he  notices  him  as  engaged  in  many  battles  n, 
he  has  only  distinctly  described  the  battle  of  Argoed 
Llwyfain,  and  the  battle  of  Gwenystrad. 

As   Ida  was   the  war-king,   who   led  the  Angles 

8  Mr.  Pinkerton  distinguishes  the  kingdom  of  Stratclyde  from  the  kingdom  of 
Cumbria,  Inq.  Hist.  Scot.  i.  p.  60 — 99.     But  awe  must  add   to  this  opinion,  the 
recollection  that  there  were  many  British  states  at  the  time  of  Ida's  invasion. 

9  Several   triads   mention   him  and   his  family,  as  also   Llywarch   Hen,  and 
Taliesin. 

10  See  the  Yspeil  Taliesin,  p.  57.     Canu  Urien  Reged,  p.  55.  ;  and  his  other 
poems  addressed  to  Urien. 

11  As  in  his  Canu  i  Urien,  p.  57. 

s  2 


260  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  against  the  Britons  in  these  parts,  it  was  with  his  forces 
-  that  Urien  and  his  sons  and  friends  so  fiercely  com- 
547-  bated.  Ida  is  not  named  in  the  Welsh  poetry : 
because  they  have  chosen  to  stigmatise  the  invader 
by  a  reproachful  epithet.  They  call  him  Flamd- 
dwyn  12,  the  flame-bearer,  or  destroyer ;  a  term  which 
implies  the  devastations  that  accompanied  his  pro- 
gress. As  the  elegy  of  Llywarch  Hen,  on  Urien, 
expresses  that  he  conquered  in  the  land  of  Bryneich, 
or  Bernicia  13,  we  must  infer  that  he  was  frequently 
successful  against  Ida ;  and  two  of  his  most  fortunal 
battles  appear  to  be  those  which  Taliesin  has  selecte< 
for  his  praise. 

Battle  of  The  bard  states,  that  on  a  Saturday,  the  invaders, 

under  "  the  destroyer,"  hastened  with  four  divisions 
to  surround  Goddeu  and  Keged,  the  seat  of  Urien'j 
government.     They  spread  from  Argoed  to  Arfyn- 
nydd,  and  demanded  submission  and  hostages. 

Owen,  the  son  of  Urien,  and  his  friend  Cenau,  in- 
dignantly rejected  the  proposal.    Urien  then  indul^ 
their  ardour.     He  exclaimed, 

Being  assembled  for  our  country, 
Let  us  elevate  our  banners  above  the  mountains ; 
And  push  forward  our  forces  over  the  borders : 
And  lift  our  spears  above  the  warriors'  heads ; 
And  rush  upon  the  Destroyer  in  his  army ; 
And  slay  both  him  and  his  followers ! 

Impressed  with  his  patron's  valour,  Taliesin  de- 
clares, that  when  he  was  declining  with  age,  h< 
should  be  unable  to  meet  death  with  smiles,  unless 
he  was  praising  Urien.14 

18  Flamddwyn  is  also  mentioned  in  the  triads  ;  but  it  is  for  a  misfortune  whk 
some  ladies  will  not  permit  either  the  brave  or  the  good  to  escape.  His  wife,  Bi 
is  classed  among  the  British  women  who  were  notorious  for  unchastity.  Trioedc 
p.  56.  It  would  seem  from  this  tradition  that  he  had  married  a  British  lady. 

13  Llywarch  Hen,  Welsh  Arch.  p.  104.  Mr.  Owen  (now  Dr.  Owen  Pughe) 
published  a  translation  of  this  ancient  bard,  which,  though  wanting  some  revisal, 
entitles  him  to  the  thanks  of  all  the  friends  of  British  literature. 

11  Taliesin,  p.  53. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  261 

Another  conflict  with  Ida  was  at  the  mound  of 
Gwenystrad,  literally,  "  the  pleasant  valley."  The 
Britons  of  Cattraeth  assembled  round  Urien,  "  the 
king  of  victorious  battle."  Taliesin,  who  was  present 
in  the  struggle,  thus  describes  it :  — 

Neither  the  fields,  nor  the  woods,  gave  safety  to  the  foe, 

When  the  shout  of  the  Britons  came 

Like  a  wave  raging  against  the  shore  — 

I  saw  the  brave  warriors  in  array ; 

And  after  the  morning,  how  mangled ! 

I  saw  the  tumult  of  the  perishing  hosts ; 

The  blood  springing  forward  and  moistening  the  ground. 

Gwenystrad  was  defended  by  a  rampart : 

Wearied,  on  the  earth,  no  longer  verdant, 

I  saw,  at  the  pass  of  the  ford, 

The  blood-stained  men  dropping  their  arms ; 

Pale  with  terror !  — 

I  admired  the  brave  chief  of  Reged ; 

I  saw  his  reddened  brow, 

When  he  rushed  on  his  enemies  at  Llec  gwen  Calystan : 

Like  the  bird  of  rage  was  his  sword  on  their  bucklers : 

It  was  wielded  with  deadly  fate. 

Taliesin  renews  his  wish  not  to  die  pleasantly, 
unless  he  was  praising  Urien.15 

Besides  the  patriotic  valour  of  Urien,  which  he 
lavishly  praises  with  all  the  artifice,  and  sometimes 
with  the  exaggerations  of  poetry  16 ;  Taliesin  extols 
highly  his  liberality.  This  is  the  theme  of  several 
poems.17 

15  Taliesin,  p.  52. 

16  One  specimen  may  be  added : 

What  noise  is  that  ?     Does  the  earth  shake  ? 

Or  is  it  the  swelling  sea  that  roars  ? 

If  there  be  a  sigh  in  the  dingle  ; 

Is  it  not  Urien  who  thrusts  ? 

If  there  be  a  sigh  on  the  mountains ; 

Is  it  not  Urien  who  conquers  ? 

If  there  be  a  sigh  on  the  slope  of  the  hills  ; 

Is  it  not  Urien  who  wounds  ? 

If  there  be  a  sigh  of  dismay ; 

Is  it  not  from  the  assault  of  Urien  ? 

There  is  no  refuge  from  him  ; 

Nor  will  there  be  from  famine, 

To  those  who  seek  plunder  near  him  ! 

His  wrath  is  death  ! 

Can.  Urien,  p.  56. 

17  See  the  Dadolwch  Urien,  which  is  translated  in  the  Vindication  of  the  ancient 

s  3 


262 


HISTOEY   OF    THE 


Urien  was  also  commemorated  by  his  bardic  friend, 
Llywarch  Hen,  who  has  left  an  elegy  upon  him. 
After  bravely  resisting  the  Saxons,  it  was  the  mis- 
fortune of  Urien  to  be  involved  in  one  of  those  civil 
contests  which  were  at  this  period  the  disgrace  and 
ruin  of  the  Britons.  As  he  was  besieging  one  of  the 
descendants  and  successors  of  Ida,  in  Holy  Island,  he 
was  slain  by  Llovan  Lawdeffro,  or  Llovan  with  the 
detested  hand,  an  emissary  of  Morgant,  one  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Northern  Britons.18  Llywarch's  elegy 
celebrates  the  British  king  with  much  earnest  sym- 
pathy, but  in  rude  and  warlike  strains. 19 


British  Poems,  now  annexed  to   this  work.     See  also   the  Songs  to   Urien   in 
Welsh  Arch.  i.  p.  55. 

18  Nenn.  Gen.  p.  117.     Trioedd  38.  p.  9. 

19  Marwnad  Lly.  Hen.     W.  A.  p.  103—107.     As  Llywarch  Hen  is  one  of  the 
British  bards  of  the  sixth  century,  the  genuineness  of  whose  poems  is  strongly 
marked,  I  will  translate  some  extracts  from  his  Elegy  on  Urien  of  Reged.     He 
begins  with  an  abrupt  address  to  his  spear. 

Let  me  rush  forward,  thou  ashen  piercer ! 
Fierce  thine  aspect  in  the  conflict ! 
*Tis  better  to  kill  than  to  parley. 

Let  me  rush  forward,  thou  ashen  piercer ! 
Bitter  and  sullen  as  the  laugh  of  the  sea 
Was  the  bursting  tumult  of  the  battle, 
Of  Urien  of  Reged  the  vehement  and  stubborn. 

An  eagle  to  his  foe  in  his  thrust,  brave  as  generous. 
In  the  angry  warfare,  certain  of  victory 
Was  Urien,  ardent  in  his  grasp. 

»  I  bear  by  my  side  a  head ; 

The  head  of  Urien  ! 
The  courteous  leader  of  his  army ; 
But  on  his  white  bosom  the  raven  is  feeding. 

He  was  a  shield  to  his  country ; 

His  course  was  a  wheel  in  battle. 

Better  to  me  would  be  his  life  than  his  mead  : 

He  was  a  city  to  old  age  ; 

The  head,  the  noblest  pillar  of  Britain. 

I  bear  a  head  that  supported  me  ! 

Is  there  any  known  but  he  welcomed  ? 

Woe  to  my  hand  ! 

Where  is  he  that  feasted  me  ? 

I  bear  a  head  from  the  mountain 
The  lips  foaming  with  blood. 
Woe  to  Reged  from  this  day. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  263 

Owen,   one   of  the   sons  of   Urien,   was  also  dis-      CHAP. 
tinguished  for  his  brave   resistance   to   the  Angles    .    ^ — / 

547. 

My  arm  lias  not  shrunk,  His  son 

But  my  breast  is  greatly  troubled.  Owen. 

My  heart !  is  it  not  broken  ? 
The  head  I  bear  supported  me. 

The  slender  white  body  will  be  interred  to  day, 

Under  earth  and  stones. 

Woe  to  my  hand  ! 

The  father  of  Owen  is  slain.  — 

Eurddyl  will  be  joyless  to-night. 
Since  the  leader  of  armies  is  no  more, 
In  Aber  Lieu  Urien  fell.  — 

Dissevered  is  my  lord  : 

Yet.  from  his  manly  youth 

The  warriors  loved  not  his  resentment. 

Many  chiefs  has  he  consumed. 

The  fiery  breath  of  Urien  has  ceas'd. 

I  am  wretched. 

There  is  commotion  in  every  district, 

In  search  of  Llovan  with  the  detested  hand. 

Silent  is  the  gale, 
But  long  wilt  thou  be  heard. 
Scarcely  any  deserve  praise, 
Since  Urien  is  no  more. 

Many  a  dog  for  the  hunt  and  ethereal  hawk 
Have  been  trained  on  this  floor, 
Before  Erlleon  was  shaken  into  ruins. 

This  hearth ;  no  shout  of  heroes  now  adheres  to  it : 

More  usual  on  its  floor 

Was  the  mead ;  and  the  inebriated  warriors. 

This  hearth  !  will  not  nettles  now  cover  it  ? 

While  its  defender  lived, 

More  frequent  was  the  tread  of  the  petitioner. 

The  green  sod  will  cover  it  now ; 
But  when  Owen  and  Elphin  lived 
Its  cauldron  seethed  the  prey. 

This  hearth  !  the  mouldy  fungus  will  hide  it  now. 

More  usual  about  its  meals 

Was  the  striking  of  the  sword  of  the  fierce  warrior. 

Thorns  will  now  cover  it. 

More  usual  once  was  the  mixture 

Of  Owen's  friends  in  social  harmony. 

Ants  will  soon  overrun  it 

More  frequent  were  the  bright  torches 

And  honest  festivities. 

Swine  will  henceforward  dig  the  ground, 
Where  once  the  gladness  of  heroes 
And  the  horn  of  the  banquet  went  round  : 
It  was  the  solace  of  the  army  and  the  path  of  melody. 
s  4 


264 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 

%  •• 
547. 


Battle  of 
Cattraeth. 


under  Ida.  Taliesin  praises  his  liberality  and  valour; 
and  says  he  chased  his  enemy,  as  a  herd  of  wolves 
pursuing  sheep.20  In  his  song  to  the  Winds,  the  bard 
records  Owen's  successful  defence  of  the  flocks  and 
cattle  of  his  province ;  and  also  mentions  his  battles 
at  the  ford  of  Alclud,  and  other  places.  The  poet's 
imagery  is  wild  and  dismal,  like  his  subject.  He 
describes  the  swords  whirled  round  the  faces  of  the 
combatants,  and  the  blood  staining  their  temples. 
"  There  was  joy,"  he  exclaims,  "  that  day  to  the 
ravens,  when  men  clamoured  with  the  frowning 
countenance  of  battle.  But  the  shield  of  Owen  never 
receded." 21  The  elegy  states,  that  by  the  sword  of 
this  warrior  Flamddwyn  perished.22  Taliesin  occa- 
sionally commemorates  other  British  heroes ;  but  as  it 
would  be  useless  to  revive  a  catalogue  of  names,  long 
since  forgotten,  they  need  not  be  enumerated  here. 

That  conflict  between  the  Saxons  and  Britons, 
which  occupies  the  largest  space  in  the  ancient  British 
poetry,  is  the  battle  or  destruction  of  Cattraeth.  It 
forms  the  subject  of  the  Gododin  of  Aneurin23,  a 
poem  much  alluded  to  and  venerated  by  the  poets  of 
Wales,  and  which  has  procured  for  him,  among  them, 
the  title  of  the  king  of  the  bards.  He  was  a  chieftain 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  island,  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury ;  and  perished  at  last  from  the  blow  of  an  axe, 
inflicted  by  one  Eiddyn,  who  has  been  therefore 
classed  as  one  of  the  three  foul  assassins  of  Britain.24 


20  Marwnad  Owain  ap  Urien  Reged,  Tal.  W.  A.  i.  p.  59. 

21  Can  y  Gwynt,  p.  38,  39. 

22  Marwnad   Owain,  p.  59.      Both  the  Saxon  Chronicles,  Flor.  Wig.  p/218., 
and  Nennius,  p.  116.,  mention  Ida  to  have  reigned  only  twelve  years.     Yet  Hun- 
tingdon calls  him  at  his  accession  "  juvenem  nobilissimum,"  p.  314.     The  com- 
parison of  these  authorities  places  Ida's  death  in  the  flower  of  his  manhood ;  and 
this  gives  a  countenance  to  the  Welsh  bard's  assertion,  that  he  perished  in  his 
conflicts  with  Owen  of  Reged. 

23  It  is  the  first  poem  printed  in  the  Archaiology  of  Wales.     I  printed  a  trans- 
lation of  the  first  seventy-three  lines,  in  the  "  Vindication  of  the  ancient  British 
Poems." 

24  Tair  anfad  gyflafan  ynys  Prydain.     Eiddyn  mab  Einygan  a  laddwys  Aneurin 
Gwawdrydd  mydeyrn  beird."     Triad  47.     Welsh  Arch.  ii.  p.  65.,  and  see  p.  9. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  265 

As  it  contains  no  regular  narration  of  incident,      CHAP. 
and  no  introductory  annunciation  of  its  subject,  but  . 

consists  chiefly  of  stanzas  but  little  connected,  on  the       54/- 
feats  and  praises  of  the  chieftains  whom  it  comme-  dodin  of 
morates ;  and  as  it  records  places  and  British  heroes,  Aneunm 
whose  names,  however  notorious  in  their  day,  are  not 
preserved  elsewhere,  it  is  difficult  to  say  to  what  pre- 
cise event  or  locality  it  actually  applies.     That  the 
warriors  mentioned  were  the  contemporaries  of  Aneu- 
rin  is  clear  from  its  contents25,  but  this  is  all  that  we 
can  with  certainty  infer. 

It  has  been  usually  supposed  to  record  a  battle, 
between  the  collected  Britons  of  the  north,  under 
Mynyddawr  of  Eiddyn,  which  has  been  assumed  to 
be  Edinburgh,  and  the  Saxons  of  Ida,  or  his  successor. 
The  issue  was  calamitous  to  the  Britons ;  for  out  of 
above  360,  who  wore  the  golden  torques,  the  mark  of 
their  nobility,  only  three  escaped,  of  whom  the  bard 
was  one.26  This  unfortunate  result  is  undeniably 
stated ;  and  it  is  as  manifestly  imputed  to  the  Britons' 
having  previously  indulged  in  an  excess  of  mead. 

A  recent  writer  on  Cambrian   mythology,  whose  The  new 
imagination  has  been  as  active  as  such  an  illusive  ^eoryup011 
subject  could  excite  it  to  be,  has  strenuously  urged, 

25  Thus  he  says  he  saw  what  he  describes  : 

"  I  saw  the  scene  from  the  high  land  of  Adoen. 
I  saw  the  men  in  complete  order  at  dawn  at  Adoen. 
And  the  head  of  Dyfnwal  ravens  were  consuming." 

Gweleis  y  dull  o  ben  tir  Adoen. 

Gweleis  y  wyr  tyll  vawr  gan  u  aur  Adoen. 

Aphen  Dyvynaul  vrych  brein  ae  cnoyn. 

God.  W.  A.  p.  13. 

26  A  stanza  of  the  Gododin  thus  states  the  result :  — 

"  The  warriors  went  to  Cattraeth.     They  were  famous. 
Wine  and  mead,  fronf  gold,  had  been  their  liquors  — 
Three  heroes,  and  three  score,  and  three  hundred, 
"With  the  golden  torques. 
Of  those  who  hastened  after  the  jovial  excess, 
There  escaped  only  three  from  the  power  of  the  swords, 
The  two  war-dogs,  Aeron  and  Cynon  Dayarawd, 
And  I  from  the  flowing  blood, 
The  reward  of  my  blessed  muse." 

Godod.  p.  4. 


266  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK      that  the  Gododin  records  the  famous  massacre  of  the 

' — ^ — >   British  nobles  by  Hengist.27     That  it  neither  men- 

547>       tions  Hengist  nor  Gwrtheyrn,  has  not  appeared  to 

him  to  be  an  objection.28  He  supports  his  opinion  by 

an  unusually   free   translation,   and  by  a   sanguine 

commentary. 

This  translation  contains  so  much  fancy,  and  is  in 
parts  so  forcibly  adapted  to  the  conjecture,  and  the 
whole  is  removed  so  much  from  the  plain  literal 
sense,  that  it  seems  most  reasonable  to  dismiss  the 
new  hypothesis,  as  the  illusion  of  a  warm  imagination. 
If  the  poem  has  any  relation  to  the  incident,  which 
has  become  the  subject  of  the  tradition  alluded  to, 
that  incident  cannot  be  attached  to  Hengist,  and  did 
not  occur  in  the  manner  hinted  by  Nennius,  and  de- 
tailed by  Jeffry.29 

The  prevailing  subject  of  the  poem,  continually  re- 
peated in  every  second  or  third  stanza,  is  the  intoxi- 
cation of  the  Britons,  from  some  great  feast  of  mead 
previous  to  the  battle.30  So  far  the  poem  and  the 

27  See  Mythology  and  Rites  of  the  British  Druids,  p.  318 — 384.     Of  its  author, 
the  Rev.  Edward  Davies,  I  wish  to  speak  with  more  than  mere  respect,  because  his 
remarks  on  the  ancient  Welsh  literature,  in  this  work  and  in  his  Celtic  researches, 
though  displaying  the  same  creative  imagination,  which  pervades  and  injures  Mr. 
Whitaker's  historical  investigations,  have  yet  in  many  parts  thrown  great  light  on 
the  venerable  remains  of  the  British  bards,  and  contributed  to  gain  for  them  more 
attention  than  they  have  been  accustomed  to  receive. 

28  Mr.  Davies  thinks  that  he  traces  various  allusions  to  them  and  to  Ambrosius ; 
but  the  same  latitude  of  construction  in  this  respect  would  almost  make  any  poem 
mean  any  thing. 

29  The  difference  of  opinion  between  Mr.  Davies  and  all  former  readers  of  the 
Gododin,  cannot  be  better  stated  than  in  his  own  words  ;   "  I  also  perceived,  that 
the  great  catastrophe  which  the  bard  deplores,  was  not,  as  it  has  been  generally 
represented,  the  fall  of  360  nobles  in  the  field  of  battle,  to  which  they  had  rushed 
forth  in  a  state  of  intoxication  ;  but,  the  massacre  of  360  unarmed  British  nobles, 
in  time  of  peace,  and  at  a  feast,  where  they  had  been  arranged  promiscuously  with 
armed  Saxons,"  p.  321.     On  this  I  will  only  remark,  that  the  former  opinion  is 
the  manifest  literal  import  of  the  poet's  words.     The  new  conjecture  requires  the 
ingenious  author's  commentary,  as  well  as  an  adapted  translation  to  make  it  at  all 
probable. 

30  They  went  to  Cattraeth : 
Loquacious  were  their  hosts. 

Pale  mead  had  been  their  feast,  and  was  their  poison, 

God.  p.  2. 
So  many  other  passages :  — 

Gwyr  a  aeth  Gattraeth  vedvaeth  vedwn.  Ibid. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  267 

tradition   correspond ;     and   all  the    British   nobles     CHAP. 
perished   but   three,    another   coincidence.      But   as  . 

Aneurin,  according  to  the  unvarying  statement  of  the  Its^n'tof 
Welsh  literature,  lived  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixth31  foundation, 
century,   and  was  contemporary  with  Taliesin,  who 
mentions  him32 ;  and  as  the  bard  was  himself  one  of 
the  survivors  of  the  conflict,  and  a  captive  from  it33, 
it  cannot  have  occurred  till  some  time  after  Hengist 
had  died. 34  To  this  decisive  evidence,  from  its  chrono- 
logy, may  be  added  a  remark,  that  although  to  the 

Med  yvynt  melyn  melys  maglawr.  God.  p.  2. 

Cyt  yven  vedd  gloew  wrth  liw  babir, 
Cyt  vei  da  ei  vlas  y  gas  bu  hir.  Ibid. 

So  the  bard  says  he  partook  of  the  wine  and  mead  there ; 

Yveis  y  win  a  med  y  Mordai.  God.  p.  4. 

31  So  Mr.  Davies  acknowledges,  p.  317. ;  and  adds,  "Edward  LI wyd  refers  the 
era  of  the  Gododin  to  the  year  510,  and  this  probably  upon  the  authority  of  the 
ancient  MS.  which  he  quotes  in  the  same  passage,"  p.  321. 

32  In  his  Anrec  Urien,  p.  51.     In  like  manner  Aneurin  speaks  of  Taliesin  :  — 

I  Aneurin  will  do 

What  is  known  to  Taliesin, 

The  partaker  of  my  mind.  God.  p.  7. 

33  Aneurin  thus  mentions  his  captivity  :  — 

In  the  earthy  abode, 

With  the  iron  chain 

About  the  top  of  my  two  knees  ; 

From  the  mead, 

From  the  festive  horns, 

From  the  host  at  Cattraeth.  God.  p.  7. 

34  Mr.  Davies  escapes  the  difficulties  of  chronology  by  three  large  suppositions. 
First,  he  supposes,  that  though  Hengist  came  in  449,  yet  that  the  reputed  massacre 
did  not  occur  till  472.     But  though  Hengist  was  then  alive,  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
states,  that  he  obtained  his  kingdom  after  a  battle  in  455  ;  and  that  in  457,  after 
another  battle,  the  Britons  abandoned  Kent.     Another  battle,  in  which  twelve 
British  leaders  fell,  occurred  in  465.     After  such  transactions  as  these,  such  a  con- 
fiding banquet  was  not  likely  to  have  occurred  on  the  part  of  the  Britons,  iior  was 
such  a  massacre  wanted  to  give  Hengist  that  kingdom,  which  he  had  both  acquired 
and  maintained.     His  second  and  third  will  best  speak  for  themselves  :  "  There  is 
no  improbability  in  Aneurin's  having  attended  the  feast,  as  a  young  bard,  in  472, 
and  his  having  bewailed  the  friends  of  his  youth,  thirty-eight  years  afterwards,  when 
he  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  foe,  and  was  confined  in  a  dreary  dungeon," 
p.  322.     Yet  according  to  Aneurin's  own  expressions  in  the  preceding  note,  the 
captivity  seems  to  me  to  be  clearly  referred  to  the  destruction  at  Cattraeth.     His 
words  are  :  — 

Yn  y  ty  deyerin 
Catuyn  heyernin 
Am  benn  vy  deulin 
O  ved  o  vuelin 
O  Gattraeth  wnin. 
Then  follows  the  passage,  in  note  32.,  on  himself  and  Taliesin. 

I 


268  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  praise  of  his  several  heroes,  or  of  their  exploits,  he  an- 
•  — .  nexes,  almost  invariably,  a  lamentation  of  their  festive 
547*  indulgence  ;  yet  this  is  not  accompanied  with  any  spe- 
cific charge  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  Saxons.35 
If  it  related  to  the  reported  massacre,  the  natural  pro- 
cess of  the  poet's  mind  would  have  been  to  have  in- 
veighed against  the  Saxons  for  their  perfidy ;  instead 
of  so  continuously  censuring  the  Britons  for  their 
inebriety.  If  Hengist  had  invited  them  to  a  banquet 
of  peace  and  friendship,  it  was  not  merely  natural, 
but  it  was  even  laudable,  according  to  the  customs  of 
that  age,  that  the  festivity  should  advance  to  intoxi- 
cation. As  it  is  not  likely  that  the  bards  ever  wit- 
nessed a  public  banquet  without  this  termination,  it 
could  not  justly  form,  nor  would  have  been  made  a 
subject  of  inculpation. 

That  the  Gododin  should  commemorate  so  many 
British  chiefs,  Ceawg36,  Cynon,  Madawg,  Tulvwlch, 
Mynnydawg,  Cyvwlch,  Caradawg,  Owen,  Eidiol, 
Pereddur,  and  Aeddan  ;  and  yet  not  actually  name 
either  Gwrthyrn,  Guortemir,  or  Ambrosius,  cannot 
but  strengthen  the  inference,  that  it  has  no  concern 
with  the  latter ;  for  why  should  some  be  mentioned 
directly  and  plainly,  and  others,  the  most  important 
in  rank  and  power,  he  never  named,  but  implied,  as 
he  thinks,  by  some  periphrasis  ? 

The  locality  of  the  incident  alluded  to  in  the 
poem,  seems  also,  as  far  it  can  be  ascertained,  to  be 
inconsistent  with  the  massacre  imputed  to  Hengist. 
It  fixes  the  scene  at  Cattraeth,  and  it  implies  that  the 

35  Mr.  Davies  believes  he  discerns  such  charges.  But  the  supposed  allusions  are 
not  direct,  and  do  not  seem  to  me  to  be  the  natural  construction  of  the  passages 
so  applied. 

86  This  hero,  whose  name  begins  four  of  the  stanzas  of  the  poem,  and  whose 
praise  seems  to  be  their  import,  has  been  converted  by  Mr.  Davies,  contrary  to  all 
former  translations,  into  an  epithet.  But  by  the  same  mode  of  interpretation, 
when  we  meet  with  the  names  Hengist,  Cicero,  and  Naso,  we  may,  if  we  please, 
turn  our  Saxon  ancestor  into  a  war-horse ;  the  Roman  orator  into  a  bean ;  and  the 
poet  of  tbe  metamorphoses  into  a  nose. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  269 

people  of  Deira  and  Bernicia  were  in  the  conflict.37     CHAP. 
Cattraeth  has  been  always  placed  in  the  northern  dis-   *.     . ' — » 
tricts.       So   has   Eiddyn,   from   which   Mynnydawg       547- 
came,  whose  courteousness  is  repeatedly  praised   in 
the  poem,  and  whom  in  its  natural  construction  it 
mentions  as  the  commander  of  the  British  force.    His 
host  is  also  mentioned  in  the  conflict,  not  as  if  he 
was  feasting  with  a  small  retinue,  but  as  his  warlike 
tribe38;  and  it  is  correspondent  with  this  view  that 
the  Triads  mention  his  host  at  the  battle  of  Cattraeth, 
as  one  of  the  three  gallant  hosts  of  Britain,  because 
th^y  followed  their  chiefs  at  their  own  charge.39 

The  natural  import  of  the  poem  is,  that  the  Britons 
had  fought  hastily  on  one  of  their  festive  days.  And 
this  leads  us  to  infer,  that  they  might  have  been  sur- 
prised by  an  unexpected  advance  of  the  Saxon  forces. 
That  360  nobles,  intoxicated  at  a  previous  banquet, 
should  have  perished  in  this  battle,  and  that  360 
should  be  the  number  said  to  have  been  massacred  by 
Hengist  at  his  feast,  are  coincidences  that  lead  the 
mind  to  believe  there  may  be  some  connection  be- 
tween the  two  incidents.  But  every  other  circum- 
stance is  so  unlike,  that  we  may  more  reasonably 
suppose,  that  the  actual  event  occurred  in  a  battle,  as 
Aneurin  has  exhibited  it ;  and  upon  a  surprise,  as  we 
have  suggested,  and  that  tradition  has  erroneously 

Of  the  men  of  Dewyr  and  Bryneich  : 

The  dreadful  ones  ! 

Twenty  hundred  perished  in  an  hour. 

O  wyr  Dewyr  a  Bryneich  dychrawr 

Ugeincant  eu  divant  yn  un  awr.  God.  p.  2. 

38  The  Gorgordd  Mynnydawc  mwyn  vawr :    "  the  host  of  Mynnydawg  the 
Courteous,"  is  mentioned  in  several  passages  :  as  — 

Rac  Gorgordd  Mynydawc  mwyn  vawr.  —  Twice  in  p.  2. 
He  is  also  noticed  in  p.  10.  and  11.     The  last  is  — 

Of  the  host  of  Mynnydawg  there  escaped 
But  one  weapon. 

Mr.  Davies  transforms  this  proper  name  into  an  epithet,  implying  mountain  chief; 
and  then  supposes  it  to  mean  Vortigern,  because  North  Wales  is  a  mountainous 
region,  and  Vortigern  was  the  lord  of  it,  p.  322. 

39  See  Triad,  79. ;  Welsh  Arch.  ii.  p.  69. ;  and  Triad,  36.  p.  8. 


270  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     attached  it  to  the  first  Saxon  invader,  and  feigned 
.    the  banquet  and  its  calamitous  consequences  to  be  the 
547 •      result  of  a  premeditated  treachery  on  a  festive  invit- 
ation ;  or  that  they  are  what  they  have  been  always 
thought  to  be,  really  distinct  transactions. 

The  same  conflict  is  alluded  to  in  other  poems ; 
but  its  disastrous  issue  and  the  inebriety,  not  the 
Saxon  perfidy,  is  the  usual  topic.40  Even  Golyddan, 
who  mentions  the  massacre  of  Hengist,  has  no  allu- 
sion to  Cattraeth  or  Mynnydawg,  nor  gives  any 
intimation  that  it  relates  to  the  subject  of  the  Go- 
dodin.41 

siow  pro-         The  progress  of  the  Angles  in  the  north  was  slow 
and  difficult.     The  Britons  appear  to  have  fought 

40  It  is  so  mentioned  in  a  poem  printed  in  the  Welsh  Archaiology,  as  a  part  of 
Taliesin's  Dyhuddiant  Elphin,  though  it  obviously  begins  as  that  ends.     Mr.  Davies 
found  it  to  be  in  one  MS.  appended  to  Aneurin's  Gododin,  Celt.  Res.  574.     The 
passage  may  be  thus  translated  :  — 

A  year  of  sorrow 

For  the  men  of  Cattraeth  ! 

They  nourished  me. 

Their  steel  blades ; 

Their  mead  ; 

Their  violence ; 

And  their  fetters.  W.  Arch.  i.  p.  21. 

In  the  Gorchan  Cynvelyn,  the  incantation  of  Cynbelyn,  it  is  thus  mentioned,  as  if 
by  Aneurin  himself :  — 

Three  warriors,  and  three  score,  and  three  hundred, 

Went  to  the  tumult  at  Cattraeth. 

Of  those  that  hastened 

To  the  bearers  of  the  mead, 

Except  three,  none  returned. 

Cynon  and  Cattraeth 

With  songs  they  preserve, 

And  me  —  for  my  blood  they  bewailed  me  — 

The  son  of  the  omen  fire, 

They  made  a  ransom, 

Of  pure  gold,  and  steel,  and  silver.  Ibid.  p.  61. 

41  The  golden  torques  mentioned  by  Aneurin  was  then  worn  in  Britain.     "  In 
1692,  an  ancient  golden  torques  was  dug  up  near  the  castle  of  Harlech,  in  Merio- 
nethshire.    It  is  a  wreathed  bar  of  gold,  or  perhaps  three  or  four  rods  jointly 
twisted,  about  four  feet  long,  flexile,  but  naturally  bending  only  one  way  in  form 
of  a  hat-band  ;  it  is  hooked  at  both  ends  ;  it  is  of  a  round  form,  about  an  inch  in 
circumference,  and  weighs  eight  ounces."     Gibson's  Additions  to  Camden,  p.  658. 
ed.  1695.— Bonduca  wore  one,  Xiphilin.  Epit.  Dionis,  p.  169.  ed.  H.  S.    1591  ; 
and  the  Gauls  used  them,  Livy,  lib.  xxxvi.   c.  40.      Gibson  quotes  a  passage  of 
Virgil,  2Eneid,  lib.  v.  559.,  which  implies  that  the  Trojan  youth  wore  them. — 
Llywarch,  p.  135.,  says,  that  his  twenty- four  sons  were  eudorchawg,  or  wearers  of 
the  golden  torques,  which,  from  the  above  description,  we  perceive  was  not  a  chain. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  271 

more  obstinately  in  these  parts  than  in  any  other.      CHAP. 
Three  of  their  kings,  besides  Urien  and  his  son,   are  , — ,_, 
named,    Kyderthen,    Guallawc,    and    Morcant42,    as       547- 
maintaining  the  struggle  against  the  sons    of  Ida, 
and  with  alternate  success.      Sometimes  the  Britons, 
sometimes  the  Angles  conquered.     After  one  battle, 
the  latter  were  driven  into  an  adjoining  island,  and 
were  for  three  days  besieged  there43,  till  Urien,  their 
pursuer,  was  assassinated,  by  an  agent  of  Morcant, 
one  of  the  British  kings  that  had  joined  him  in  the 
attack  on  the  invaders.     The  motive  to  this  atrocious 
action  was  the  military  fame  which  Urien  was  ac- 
quiring.44    The  short  reigns  of  Ida's  six  immediate 
successors,  induce  us  to  suppose  them  to  have  been 
shortened  by  the  violent  deaths  of  destructive  warfare.45 

The  death  of  Ida,  in  559,  produced  a  division  of  Ida's  death. 
his  associates.  His  son  Adda  succeeded ;  but  one  of 
his  allied  chieftains,  also  a  descendant  of  Woden, 
quitted  Bernicia,  and  sought  with  those  who  followed 
him  a  new  fortune,  by  attacking  the  British  kingdom 
of  Deifyr,  between  the  Tweed  and  the  Humber.  This 
chieftain  was  named  Ella,  and  he  succeeded  in  con- 
quering this  district,  in  which  he  raised  the  Angle 
kingdom  of  Deira,  and  reigned  in  it  for  thirty  years.46 
Yet  though  able  to  force  an  establishment  in  this 
country,  many  years  elapsed  before  it  was  completely 
subdued ;  for  Elmet,  which  is  a  part  of  Yorkshire, 
was  not  conquered  till  the  reign  of  his  son,  who  ex- 
pelled from  it  Gertie,  its  British  king.47 

One  Jute,  three  Saxon,  and  three  Angle  kingdoms 
were  thus  established  in  Britain  by  the  year  560  :  in 

42  Nennius,  Geneal.  p.  117.  ^  Nennius,  p.  117. 

44  Nenn.  p.  117.     The  Welsh  Triads  mention  this  murder  in  noticing  the  three 
foul  assassins  of  Britain.     "  Llofan  Llawddino,  who  killed  Urien,  the  son  of  Cyn- 
farch."     Trioedd38.     W.  A.  ii.  p.  9. 

45  Thus  his  son  Adda,  his  eldest  son,  reigned  but  seven  years  ;  Clappa,  five  ; 
Theodulf,  one ;  Freothulf,  seven  ;  Theodoric,  seven ;  and  Ethelric,  two.    Flor.  Wig. 
221. 

46  Flor.  Wig.  221.     Sax.  ch.  20.  47  Nenn.  Geneal.  p.  117. 


272  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK      Kent,  Sussex,  Wessex,  Essex,  East  Anglia,  Bernicia, 
.    IIL    .   and    Deira.     Another   Angle   kingdom    was,    about 

559.  twenty-six  years  afterwards,  added  in  Mercia,  which 
became  in  time  more  powerful  and  celebrated  than 
any  other,  except  that  of  the  West  Saxons,  who  at 
last  conquered  it.     This  kingdom  of  Mercia  made  the 
eighth  which   these  bold   adventurers  succeeded  in 
founding.     It  was  formed  the  latest  of  all.     The  first 
enterprises   of  the   Angles    against    the    district   in 
which  it  was  raised,    were  those  of   inferior  chief- 
tains, whose  names  have  not  survived  their  day ;  and 
it  seems  to  have  been  at  first  considered  as  a  part  of 
Deira,  or  an  appendage  to  it.    Its  foundation  is  dated 
in  586.48     But  although  Crida  is  named  as  its  first 
sovereign,  yet  it  was  his  grandson,  Penda,  who  is 
represented   as  having  first  separated   it   from   the 

560.  dominion  of  the  northern  Angles.49 

When  we  contemplate  the  slow  progress  of  the 
Saxon  conquests,  and  the  insulated  settlements  of 
the  first  adventurers,  we  can  hardly  repress  our  sur- 
prise, that  any  invader  should  have  effected  a  perma- 
nent establishment.  Hengist  was  engaged  in  hostility 
for  almost  all  his  life  ;  the  safety  of  Ella,  in  Sussex, 
was  little  less  precarious.  The  forces  of  either  were 
so  incommensurable  with  the  numbers  and  bravery 
of  the  people  they  attacked,  that  nothing  seems  to 
have  saved  them  from  expulsion  or  annihilation, 
but  the  civil  dissensions  of  the  natives.  Fallen  into 
a  number  of  petty  states50,  in  actual  warfare  with 
each  other,  or  separated  by  jealousy,  Britain  met 
the  successive  invaders  with  a  local,  not  with  a 
national  force,  and  rarely  with  any  combination. 

48  Crida  was  the  first  Mercian  sovereign,  and  grandfather  to  Penda ;  he  began 
to  reign,  586.     Gale  Scriptores,  iii.  229.    H.  Hunt.  315.    Leland's  Collectanea,  ii. 
56.,  ib.  i.  258. — Leland,  ib.  i.  211.,  from  an  old  chronicle,  observes,  that  the  Trent 
divided  Mercia  into  two  kingdoms,  the  north  and  south. 

49  Nenn.  Geneal.  117. 

50  Tota  insula,  diversis  regibus  divisa,  subjacuit.     Joannes  Tinmuth  ap  Usher, 
662. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  273 

The  selfish  policy  of  its  chiefs,  often  viewing  with     CHAP. 
satisfaction  the  misfortunes  of  each  other,  facilitated  > 

the  successes  of  the  Saxon  aggressors.  36°- 

Although  the  people,  who  invaded  Britain,  were 
principally  Saxons,  Angles,  and  Jutes,  yet  as  the 
Saxon  confederation  extended  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
Khine,  if  not  to  the  Scheldt,  we  can  easily  accredit 
the  intimations,  which  we  occasionally  meet  with, 
that  Frisians 51,  and  their  neighbours,  were  mixed 
with  the  Saxons.  The  Britons  maintained  a  long, 
though  a  disorderly  and  ill-conducted  struggle,  and 
many  fleets  of  victims  must  have  been  sacrificed,  by 
their  patriotic  vengeance,  before  the  several  king- 
doms were  established.  In  such  a  succession  of 
conflicts,  the  invading  chiefs  would  gladly  enlist 
every  band  of  rovers  who  offered ;  and,  as  in  a  future 
day,  every  coast  of  Scandinavia  and  the  Baltic  poured 
their  warriors  on  England,  so  is  it  likely  that,  in  the 
present  period,  adventurers  crowded  from  every 
neighbouring  district.52 

In  this  part  of  our  subject  we  are  walking  over 
the  country  of  the  departed,  whose  memory  has  not 
been  perpetuated  by  the  commemorating  heralds  of 
their  day.  A  barbarous  age  is  unfriendly  to  human 
fame.  When  the  clods  of  his  hillock  are  scattered, 
or  his  funeral  stones  are  thrown  down,  the  glory  of 
a  savage  perishes  for  ever.  In  after-ages,  fancy 
labours  to  supply  the  loss  ;  but  her  incongruities  are 
visible,  and  gain  no  lasting  belief. 

Opposite  to  the  island  of  Northstrand,  on  the 
western  shore  of  Sleswick,  a  small  tract  of  land, 
dangerous  from  its  vicinity  to  a  turbulent  sea,  was 

51  Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  10.  Procop.  lib.  iv.  p.  467.  Colinus,  ap  Canneg.  de  Britten, 
p.  68. ;  and  Ubb.  Emm.  p.  41. ;  and  Spener,  361. 

42  So  Mascou  also  thinks,  p.  527.  Some  of  the  Icelandic  writings  mention 
northern  kings,  who  had  dominions  in  Britain,  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries. 
If  they  be  not  entirely  fabulous,  they  may  relate  to  some  of  these  expeditions.  On 
this  period  we  may  also  recollect  the  life  of  the  first  Offa.  See  Matt.  Paris,  Vit. 
Offie. 

VOL.  I.  T 


274 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 


560. 


The  settle- 
ments of 
the  Jutes 


in  ancient  times  occupied  by  a  colony  of  Frisians. 
They  extended  north  from  Husum  for  several  miles 
along  the  sea-coast.  In  the  middle  of  the  district 
was  the  town  Brested,  surrounded  by  a  rich  soil, 
though  sands  extended  beyond.  It  terminated  about 
Langhorn.  The  people  who  dwelt  on  it  were  called 
Strandfrisii,  and  the  tract  was  denominated  Frisia 
Minor.  The  marshy  soil  was  colonised  by  the  natives 
of  Friesland,  in  an  age  which  has  not  been  ascer- 
tained. Saxo  speaks  of  Canute  the  Fifth's  journey 
to  it,  and  then  describes  it  as  rich  in  corn  and 
cattle,  and  protected  from  the  ocean  by  artificial 
mounds.  It  was  a  complete  flat;  the  waters  some- 
times were  terrible  to  it ;  fields  were  often  buried, 
and  carried  off  to  another  spot,  leaving  to  their 
owner  a  watery  lake.  Fertility  followed  the  inun- 
dation. The  people  were  fierce,  active,  disdaining 
heavy  armour,  and  expert  with  their  missile  weapons.53 

It  is  an  opinion  of  Usher54,  that  these  Frisians 
accompanied  Hengist  into  England.  To  convert 
Hengist's  Jutes  into  the  Strandfrisii  Jutes  is  an  ex- 
ertion of  mere  conjecture.  These  Frisii,  as  well  as 
others  from  Friesland,  may  have  joined  in  some  of 
the  expeditions,  and  this  probability  is  all  that  can  be 
admitted. 

The  various  parts  of  Britain,  into  which  the  Saxons 
and  their  confederates  spread  themselves,  may  be 
s^a*ed  from  the  Irish  primate's  commentary  on  Bede's 
brief  description,  which  forms  the  basis  of  all  our 
reasonings  on  the  subject.55 

53  Pontanus  Chorograph.  657.     Saxo  Grammaticus,  lib.  xiv.  p.  260.     Ed.  Steph. 
and  his  Prefatio,  p.  3.     Frisia  Major  was  not  unlike  it,  as  a  low  marshy  soil,  much 
exposed  to  the  fury  of  the  ocean.     Saxo,  lib.  viii.  p.  167. ;  and  Steph.  notes,  16. 

54  Usher,  Primord.  397. 

55  Bede  has  thus  placed  them.     The  Jutes  in  Kent  and  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  the 
Saxons  in  Essex,  Sussex,  and  Wessex  ;  the  Angles,  whose  native  country  remained 
in  his  time  a  desert,  in  East  Anglia,  Midland  Anglia,  Mercia,  and  all  Northumbria, 
p.  52.     Alfred,  in  his  translation  of  the  passage,  makes  no  addition  to  this  informa- 
tion.    The  people  of  Wessex  were  called  Ge-wisi,  in  Bede's  time  and  before,  lib.  iii. 
c.  7. 


'  ANGLO-SAXONS.  275 

The  Jutes  possessed  Kent,  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and     CHAP. 
that  part  of  the  coast  of  Hampshire  which  fronts  it.      < — ^ — > 

The  Saxons  were  distinguished,  from  their  situa- 
tion, into 

South  Saxons,  who  peopled  Sussex ; 
East  Saxons,  who  were  in  Essex,  Middlesex,  and 
the  south  part  of  Hertfordshire  ; 

West  Saxons,  in  Surrey,  Hampshire  (the  site  of 
the  Jutes  excepted),  Berks,  Wilts,  Dorset, 
Somerset,  Devon,  and  that  part  of  Cornwall 
which  the  Britons  were  unable  to  retain. 

The  Angles  were  divided  into 

East  Angles,  in  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Cambridge, 
the  Isle  of  Ely,  and  (it  should  seem)  part  of 
Bedfordshire ; 

Middle  Angles,  in  Leicestershire,  which  apper- 
tained to  Mercia. 

The  Mercians,  divided  by  the  Trent  into 

South  Mercians,  in  the  counties  of  Lincoln, 
Northampton,  Rutland,  Huntingdon,  the 
north  parts  of  Bedfordshire  and  Hertford- 
shire, Bucks,  Oxfordshire,  Gloucestershire, 
Warwickshire,  Worcestershire,  Hereford- 
shire, Staffordshire,  Shropshire  ;  —  and  into 

North  Mercians,  in  the  counties  of  Chester, 
Derby,  and  Nottingham. 

The  Northumbrians,  who  were 

The  Deiri,  in  Lancaster,  York,  Westmoreland, 
Cumberland,  Durham  ; 

The  Bernicians,  in  Northumberland,  and  the 
south  of  Scotland,  between  the  Tweed  and 
the  Firth  of  Forth.56 

58  Usher,  Primord.  c.  12.  p.  394.  With  this,  Camden's  idea  may  be  compared  ; 
and,  for  the  sentiments  of  an  ingenious  modern  on  the  Anglo-Saxon  geography,  see 
Dr.  \Vhitaker's  Hist.  Manchester,  lib.  ii.  c.  4.  p.  88. 

T  2 


276  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  V. 

The  History  of  the  ANGLO-SAXON  Octarchy,  and  its  further 
Successes  against  the  BUTTONS,  to  the  beginning  of  the  Seventh 
Century. 

BOOK  THE  exertions  of  the  British  against  their  invaders 
1IL  .  having  thus  failed,  eight  Anglo-Saxon  governments 
560.  were  established  in  the  island.  This  state  of  Britain 

»«     ^,.4- 

has  been  improperly  denominated  the  Saxon  hep- 
tarchy.1 When  all  the  kingdoms  were  settled,  they 
formed  an  octarchy.  Ella,  supporting  his  invasion 
in  Sussex,  like  Hengist  in  Kent,  made  a  Saxon 
duarchy  before  the  year  500.  When  Cerdic  erected 
the  state  of  Wessex  in  519,  a  triarchy  appeared  ; 
East  Anglia  made  it  a  tetrarchy  ;  Essex  a  pentarchy. 
The  success  of  Ida,  after  547,  having  established  a 
sovereignty  of  Angles  in  Bernicia,  the  island  beheld 
a  hexarchy.  When  the  northern  Ella  penetrated,  in 
560,  southward  of  the  Tees,  his  kingdom  of  Deira 
produced  a  heptarchy.  In  586,  the  Angles  branching 
from  Deira  into  the  regions  south  of  the  Hurnber, 
the  state  of  Mercia  completed  an  Anglo-Saxon  octar- 
chy. As  the  Anglo-Saxons  warred  with  each  other, 
sometimes  one  state  was  for  a  time  absorbed  by 
another;  sometimes,  after  an  interval,  it  emerged 

1  Although  most  of  our  ancient  annalists  and  modern  historians  have  retained 
the  word  heptarchy,  yet  one  old  chronicler,  I  perceive,  has  more  critically  sa 
"  Provincia  Britonum,  quae  modo  Anglia  nominatur,  Saxonum  temporibus  in  octo 
regna  divisa  fuerit."  Th.  Rudborne's  Hist.  Major.  Winton.  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  187. 
— Matth.  Westm.  198.,  as  correctly  states  the  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms  to  have  been 
eight.  He  names  the  eight  kings  who  reigned  in  586,  p.  200. 

The  word  heptarchy  came  to  be  used  from  the  habit  of  mentioning  the  two 
kingdoms  of  Deira  and  Bernicia  under  the  appellation  of  Northumbria.  But 
though  they  were  at  times  united  under  one  sovereign,  yet,  as  they  became  con- 
solidated, Essex,  Kent,  or  Sussex  ceased  to  be  separate  and  independent  kingdoms ; 
so  that  the  term  was  still  improper. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  277 

again.      If  that  term  ought  to  be  used   which  ex-     CHAP. 
presses  the   complete   establishment  of  the   Anglo-  , 

Saxons,  it  should  be  octarchy ;  if  not,  then  the  66°- 
denomination  must  vary  as  the  tide  of  conquest 
fluctuated.  If  the  collective  governments  are  to  be 
denominated  from  the  nations  who  peopled  them,  as 
these  were  three,  the  general  term  should  .  be  tri- 
archy ;  but  it  is  obvious,  that  octarchy  is  the  appella- 
tion that  best  suits  the  historical  truth. 

It  was  in  the  slow  progression  which  has  been 
stated,  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  possessed  themselves 
of  the  different  districts  of  the  island.  The  Britons, 
with  all  the  faults  of  their  mode  of  defence,  yielded 
no  part  till  it  had  been  dearly  purchased ;  and  almost 
a  century  and  a  half  passed  away  from  the  first 
arrival  of  Hengist  to  the  full  establishment  of  the 
octarchy.  We  cannot  state  in  what  year  each  British 
principality  was  destroyed,  or  each  county  subdued ; 
but  we  have  seen  that,  from  the  sea  coasts  where 
they  landed,  the  invaders  had  always  to  fight  their 
way  with  pertinacity  and  difficulty  to  the  inland 
provinces. 

But  the  Anglo-Saxons,  as  they  advanced,  did  not, 
as  some  have  fancied,  exterminate  the  Britons ;  though 
many  devastations  must  have  accompanied  their 
progress.  The  fierce  warriors  of  Germany  wanted 
husbandmen,  artisans,  and  menials  for  domestic  pur- 
poses. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  majority  of 
the  British  population  was  preserved  to  be  useful  to 
their  conquerors.  But  the  latter  imposed  their  own 
names  on  every  district,  place,  and  boundary ;  and 
spread  exclusively  their  own  language  in  the  parts 
which  they  occupied.  It  is  however  true,  that  some 
Britons  disdained  the  Saxon  yoke,  and  emigrated  to 
other  countries.  Armorica,  or  Bretagne,  was  the 
refuge  to  many.  From  others,  Cornwall  and  Wales 


278 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


received  a  large  accession  of  population  ;  and  some 
are  even  said  to  have  visited  Holland.2 

The  most  indignant  of  the  Cymry  retired  into 
Wales.  There,  the  bards,  fugitives  like  the  rest, 
consoled  the  expatriated  Britons  with  the  hope  that 
the  day  would  afterwards  arrive  when  they  should 
have  their  full  revenge,  by  driving  out  the  Saxon 
hordes.  Not  only  Taliesin  sung  this  animating  pre- 
diction3; Myrddin  also  promised  the  Britons  that 
they  should  again  be  led  by  their  majestic  chief,  and 
be  again  victorious.  He  boldly  announced,  that  in 
this  happy  day  should  be  restored  to  every  one  his 
own ;  that  then  the  horns  of  gladness  should  proclaim 
the  song  of  peace,  the  serene  days  of  Cambrian  hap- 
piness.4 The  anticipation  of  this  blissful  era  gave 


2  H.  Cannegieter,  in  his  Dissertation  de  Brittenburgo,  Hag.  Co.  1734,  has  par- 
ticularly examined  this  point.     His  decision  is  that  Brittenberg  was  named  from 
the  Britons,  but  was  built  by  the  Romans.     He  prefers,  to  the  assertion  of  Ger- 
brandus,  that  the  Britons  fled  from  the  Saxons  to  Holland  and  built  Catwych  on 
the  Rhine,  the  opinion  of  Colinus,  the  ancient  monastical  poet,  who  admits  that 
they  visited  and  ravaged  it,  but  affirms  that  they  did  not  settle. 

3  A  serpent  with  chains, 

Towering  and  plundering, 
With  armed  wings 

From  Germania; 

This  will  overrun 
All  Loegria  and  Brydon, 
From  the  land  of  the  Lochlin  sea. 
To  the  Severn. 

After  mentioning  that  the  Britons  will  be  exiles  and  prisoners  to  Saxony,  he 
adds,— 

Their  lord  they  shall  praise, 
Their  language  preserve, 
Their  country  lose, 

Except  wild  Wales, 

Till  the  destined  period  of  their  triumph  revolves, 
Then  the  Britons  will  obtain 
The  crown  of  their  land, 
And  the  strange  people 

Will  vanish  away. 

He  concludes  with  declaring  that  Michael  had  predicted  the  future  happiness  of 
Britain.     Taliesin,  p.  94. 

Gildas,  p.  8  ,  states,  that  the  Saxons  had  a  prophecy  that  they  should  ravage 
Britain  150  years,  and  enjoy  it  150.      The  limitation  has  rather  a  Cambrian  aspect. 

4  Myrddin's  Afallenau,  p.  153.     Golyddan,  in  his  Arymes  Prydein  vawr,  endea- 
vours to  inspire  his  countrymen  by  a  similar  prediction.     The  first  part  is  a  review 
of  the  transactions  between  Hengist  and  the  Britons.     It  is  in  the  Welsh  Archai- 
ology  vol.  i.  p.  156 — 159. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  279 

rapture  to  the  Cymry,  even  in  their  stony  paradise  CHAP. 
of  Wales.5  The  proud  invaders  mocked  the  vaunting  <_v! — » 
prophecy,  and,  to  render  it  nugatory,  unpeopled  some 
of  their  native  coasts  on  the  Baltic6,  and  filled  Britain 
with  an  active  and  hardy  race,  whose  augmenting 
population  and  persevering  valour  at  length  carried 
the  hated  Saxon  sceptre  even  to  the  remotest  corners 
of  venerated  Anglesey.  But  up  to  the  reign  of 
Alfred,  and  even  afterwards,  the  Britons  still  main- 
tained their  own  kingdoms  in  Cornwall  and  part  of 
Devonshire,  and  in  that  portion  of  the  north  which 
composed  the  Strathclyde  district.  It  was  not  till 
Athelstan's  reign  that  they  finally  lost  Exeter. 

The  Britons  long  after  Arthur's  death  maintained  571. 
their  patriotic  struggle  against  the  kingdom  of  Wes- 
sex.  They  fought,  though  unsuccessfully,  at  Bedford, 
against  the  brother  of  Cealwin,  as  we  have  noticed 
before.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  in  marching  back  to  Wes- 
sex,  through  the  districts  yet, in  the  hands  of  the 
natives,  took  Lygeanburh,  Aylesbury,  Bensington, 
and  Ensham.7  Six  years  afterwards,  the  Britons 
again  resisted  the  progressive  ambition  of  the  Saxons. 
An  important  battle  occurred  between  them  at  Der- 
hain,  in  Gloucestershire,  in  which  some  of  the  kings 
of  Wales  appear  to  have  confederated  against  the  in- 
vaders ;  for  three  British  sovereigns,  Conmail,  Con- 
didan,  and  Farinmail,  fell  in  the  conflict8:  two  of 
these  seem  to  be  the  princes  lamented  by  Llywarch 
Hen  in  one  of  his  elegies 9 :  the  last  was  king  of  Mon- 

5  These  epithets  are  Welsh.     Stony  Wales  is  a  phrase  of  Taliesin,  and  Llywarch 
denominates  Powys  "  the  paradise  of  the  Cymry,"  p.  119. 

6  Bede  affirms  the  complete  emigration  of  the  Angles ;  he  says,  their  country 
"  ab  eo  tempore  usque  hodie  manet  desertus,"  lib.  i.  c.  15.     To  the  like  purpose 
Nennius,  "  ita  ut  insulas  de  quibus  venerant  absque  habitatore  relinquerunt,"  c.  37. 

7  Sax.  Ch.  22.     Fl.  Wig.  222.     Ethelw.  834. 

8  Sax.  Ch.  22.     Fl.  Wig.  223.     Ethelw.  835. 

9  His  Marwnad  Cynddylan,  the  son  of  Cyndrwyn.     It  begins  energetically  :  — 

Stand  out,  ye  virgins, 

And  behold  the  habitation  of  Cynddylan. 

The  palace  of  Pengwern  : 

T  4 


280  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     mouthshire.10     The  capture  of  three  cities,  then  of 

TFT  ' 

.   considerable  note  among  the  Britons,  as  they  are  now 
57 L      to  us,  Gloucester,  Cirencester,   and  Bath,  were   the 
fruits  of  the  Saxon  victory.11 

Seven  years  afterwards,  we  read  of  Cealwin  pursu- 
ing hostilities  against  the  Britons  on  the  Severn.  A 
bloody  contest  occurred  at  Frithern.  The  Britons 
fought  with  earnest  resolution,  and  for  some  time 
with  unusual  success.  The  brother  of  the  West 
Saxon  king  was  slain,  and  his  forces  gave  way.  But 
Cealwin  rallied  his  countrymen,  and,  after  great 
slaughter,  obtained  the  victory.  The  issue  was  as 
decisive  as  it  had  been  long  doubtful;  and  many 
towns  were  added  to  Wessex,  and  a  vast  booty  di- 
vided among  the  conquerors.12  The  Britons,  with 


Is  it  not  iu  flames  ? 

Woe  to  the  young  who  wish  for  social  bonds. 

One  tree  with  the  woodbine  round  it 

Perhaps  may  escape. 

What  God  wills  ;  be  it  done. 

Cynddylan  ! 

Thy  heart  is  like  the  wintry  ice. 

Twrch  pierced  thee  through  the  head. 

Thou  gavest  the  ale  of  Tren.  W.  Arch.  p.  107. 

The  venerable  bard  proceeds  with  his  panegyrical  apostrophes  to  his  deceased  friend, 
calling  him  the  bright  pillar  of  his  country  ;  the  sagacious  in  thought ;  with  the 
heart  of  a  hawk,  of  a  greyhound,  of  a  wild  boar ;  and  daring  as  a  wolf  tracing  the 
fallen  carcase.     See  it  translated  by  Dr.  Owen  Pugh,  p.  71 — 105. 
He  also  commemorates  Caranmael,  apparently  the  Saxon  Conmail. 

I  heard  from  the  meadow  the  clattering  of  shields. 

The  city  confines  not  the  mighty. 

The  best  of  men  was  Caranmael.  W.  A.  p.  1 1 2. 

He  also  laments  the  fall  of  Freuer. 

Is  it  not  the  death  of  Freuer, 

That  separates  me  this  night  ? 

Fatal  end  of  social  comfort  1 

It  breaks  my  sleep.     I  weep  at  the  dawn.  W.  A.  p.  110. 

10  I  do  not  know  that  the  Freuer  of  Llywarch  means  the  same  person  as  Farin- 
mail ;  but  it  is  likely  that  this  was  the  Fernvail  who  was  then  reigning  in  Gwent 
or  Monmouthshire.     See  Regis.  Landew,  quoted  by  Langhorn  in  his  useful  ehroni- 
cle,  p.  115. 

11  See  before,  p.  275.     Ethelwerd  calls  these  cities,  urbes  eorum  clariores,  p.  835. 
Huntingdon's  epithet  is  excellentissimas,  p.  315. 

12  Flor.  224.     Hunt.  315.     M.  Westm.  omits  the  ultimate  success  of  Cealwin, 
and  states  it  as  a  British  victory,  p.  198.     Soon  after  this  contest,  Langhorn  quotes 
lo.  Salisb.  Polyc.  v.  c.  1 7.  to  say,  that  "  paulo  post  Anglorum  introitum  impositum 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  281 

undismayed  perseverance,  fought  again,  seven  years     CHAP. 
afterwards,  at  Wanborough,   and  appear  to  have  ob-  . 

tained  a   complete  victory.13     There  were  probably       5GO- 
many  efforts  of  minor  importance  made  by  the  Britons 
which  the  Saxon  chroniclers  have  not  noticed.14 

But  as  soon  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  had  so  far  The 
subdued  the  Britons,  as  to  be  in  no  general  danger  from 
their  hostility ;  and  began  to  feel  their  own  strength  other- 
in  the  growing  population  of  their  provinces,  and  in 
the  habitual  submission  of  the  natives,  their  propen- 
sity to  war,  and  their  avarice  of  power,  excited  them 
to  turn  their  arms  upon  each  other. 

It  was  the  impatience  of  a  young  mind  to  distin-       568- 
guish  itself,  which  thus  began  a  new  series  of  wars  invades 
that  lasted  till  Egbert,     The  attacks  and  successes  of  Cealwiru 
the  West  Saxons  and  the  South  Saxons  had  turned 
off  from  Kent  the  direction  of  British  hostility.    Left 
at  leisure  for  the  indulgence  of  youthful  turbulence, 
Ethelbert,  the  fourth  successor  of  Hengist,  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  presumed  to  invade   Cealwin,    the  king 
of  Wessex.       This    action    seems  to  have  been   in- 
temperate.    Cealwin  had  displayed  both  talent  and 
resources  for  war,  and  Kent  never  attained  the  terri- 
torial extent  or  power  of  Wessex.  But  it  is  probable, 
that  the  Anglo-Saxons  knew  nothing  as  yet  of  the 
geography  or  comparative  strength  of  their  respective 
kingdoms.     The  issue  of  thi$  contest  taught  Kent  to 

fuisse  Anglise  nomen."  Langhorn  has  here  departed  from  his  usual  accuracy. 
The  passage  of  our  elegant  monk  is  lib.  vi.  c.  17.  p.  197.,  and  merely  mentions  that 
"  ab  inventu  Saxonum  in  insulam  appellatur  Anglia."  These  words  determine  no 
chronology  like  paulo  post.  They  express  only  one  of  the  consequences  of  the 
Saxon  invasion,  without  marking  the  precise  time  of  the  change  of  name. 

13  The  brief  intimation  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  p.  22.,  is  more  fully  expressed 
in  Hunt.  315. ;  and  Ethelwerd  ascribes  to  this  battle  the  expulsion  of  Cealwin  from 
his  throne,  p.  835. 

11  Thus  Meigant,  the  British  bard  of  the  seventh  century,  mentions  an  expedi- 
tion of  the  British  chief  Morial : 

Pacing  to  combat,  a  great  booty 

Before  Caer  Lwydgoed,  has  not  Morial  taken 

Fifteen  hundred  cattle  and  the  head  of  Gwrial  ? 

W.  A.  i.  p.  160. 


282 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


BOOK 
III. 

v— — ' • 
568. 


584. 


Ceawlin's 
death. 


591. 


understand  better  its  true  position  in  the  political 
scale  of  the  octarchy.  Cealwin  collected  his  troops,  de- 
feated Ethelbert  at  Wimbledon,  and  threatened  the 
Kentish  Jutes  with  the  subjection  which  they  had 
armed  to  impose.15  This  is  remarked  to  have  been  the 
first  battle  that  occurred  between  the  Anglo-Saxon 
sovereigns.16 

Cealwin  soon  imitated,  but  with  more  success  from 
his  superior  means,  the  ambition  of  Ethelbert.  On 
the  death  of  its  sovereign,  Cissa,  he  obtained  the 
kingdom  of  Sussex.  By  annexing  it  to  West  Saxony, 
he  changed  the  Saxon  octarchy  into  a  temporary 
^heptarchy. 

Dreaded  for  his  power  and  ambition,  Cealwin  now 
preponderated  over  the  other  Saxon  monarchs17 ;  but 
his  prosperity  changed  before  his  death.  His  nephew, 
Ceolric,  allied  with  the  Cymry  and  the  Scoti  against 
him ;  and  all  the  valour  and  conduct  of  Cealwin 
could  not  rescue  him  from  a  defeat,  in  the  thirty-third 
year  of  his  reign,  at  Wodnesburg,  in  Wilts,  the 
mound  of  Woden  already  alluded  to.18  His  death 
soon  followed,  and  the  unnatural  kinsman  succeeded 


15  Sax.  Chron.  p.  21.     Flor.  Wigorn.  222.      Malmsbury  attributes  the  aggres- 
sion to  Ethelbert's  desire  of  engrossing  prse  antiquitate  familise  primas  partes  sibi, 
P.  12. 

16  Hunt.  315.     About  this  time,  in  573,  the  Saxons  obtained  a  settlement  in 
France.      They  were  placed  in   the   Armorican  region  after  their  irruption,  in 
flnibus  Bajocassium  et   Namnetensiifhi.       Bouquet's   Recueil   des  Historiens  des 
Gaules,  vol.  ii.  p.  250.  —  Hence  Gregory  of  Tours  calls  them  Saxones  Bajocassos, 
lib.  v.  c.  10.     It  is  curious  that  they  were  sent  against  the  British  settlers  in 
Gaul,   who  defeated  them.     Gregory,  lib.  v.    c.  27.     Their  dialect,  Charles  the 
Bald,  in  his  Laws  apud  Silvacum,  calls  Linguam  Saxonicam.     Bouquet,  p.  250. 

17  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  5.       He  was  the  second  Saxon  prince  so  distinguished.  — 
Matt.  West,  says  generally,  "  magnificatum  est  nomen  ejus  vehementer,"  p.  197. 
—  Langhorn  fancied  that  he  was  the  Gormund,  whom  the  Britons  mention  with 
horror.     Chron.  Reg.  Anglise,  123.     This  Gormund,  by  some  styled  king  of  the 
Africans,  by  others  a  pirate  of  Norway  or  Ireland,  is  fabled  to  have  invaded  the 
Britons  with  166,000  Africans.    Rad.  die.  559.,  Gale,  iii.,  and  Jeffry,  12.  2.    Alan  us 
de  Insulis,  lib.  i.  p.  25.,  gives  him  360,000. 

18  Sax.  Chron.  22.     Ceola,  as  Flor.  Wig.,  225.,  names  him,  was  son  of  Cuthulf. 
Ethelwerd,  835.  —  This  village  stands  upon  the  remarkable  ditch  called  Wansdike, 
which  Camden  thought  a  Saxon  work  to  divide  Mercia  from  Wessex,  and  which 
others  have  supposed  to  have  been  a  defence  against  the  incursions  of  the  Britons. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  283 

to  the  crown  he  had  usurped.     He  enjoyed  it  during     CHAP. 
a  short  reign  of  five  years,  and  Ceolwulf  acceded.  . 

The  disaster  of  Cealwin  gave  safety  to  Kent.  Ethel-  59L 
bert  preserved  his  authority  in  that  kingdom,  and 
at  length  succeeded  to  that  insular  predominance 
among  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  which  they  called  the 
Bretwalda,  or  the  ruler  of  Britain.19  Whether  this 
was  a  mere  title  assumed  by  Hengist,  and  afterwards 
by  Ella,  and  continued  by  the  most  successful  Anglo- 
Saxon  prince  of  his  day,  or  conceded  in  any  national 
council  of  all  the  Anglo- Saxons  ;  or  ambitiously  as- 
sumed by  the  Saxon  king  that  most  felt  and  pressed 
his  temporary  power ;  or  whether  it  was  an  imitation 
of  the  British  unbennaeth,  or  a  continuation  of  the 
Saxon  custom  of  electing  a  war  cyning,  cannot  now 
be  ascertained. 

While  Ceolwulf  was.  governing  Wessex,  Ethel- 
frith,  the  grandson  of  Ida,  reigned  in  Bernicia,  and 
attacked  the  Britons  with  vehemence  and  persever-  frith* 
ance.  None  peopled  more  districts  of  the  ancient 
Cymry  with  Angles,  or  more  enslaved  them  with  tri- 
butary services.20  It  is  probable  that  he  extended  his 
conquests  to  the  Trent.  Alarmed  by  his  progress, 
Aidan  advanced  with  a  great  army  of  Britons,  either 
from  Scotland,  or  those  who  in  the  Cumbrian  or 
Strathclyde  kingdoms,  and  their  vicinity,  still  pre- 
served their  independence,  to  repress  him.  The 
Angles  met  him  at  Degsastan ;  a  furious  battle 
ensued,  which  the  determination  of  the  combatants 

19  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  5.,  names  him  as  the  third  qui  imperavit  all  the  provinces 
south  of  the  Humber.     Malmsbtiry  amplifies  this  into  "  omnes  nationes  Anglorum 
praeter  Northanhimbros  continuis   victoriis  domitas  sub  jugum  traxit,"  p.  10. — 
The  Saxon  Chron.  calls  him  one  of  the  seven  bretwaldas  who  preceded  Egbert. 
The  proper  force  of  this  word  bretwalda  cannot  imply  conquest,  because  Ella  the 
First  is  not  said  to  have  conquered  Hengist  or  Cerdic ;  nor  did  the  other  bret- 
waldas conquer  the  other  Saxon  kingdoms.    The  Anglo-Saxon  sovereigns,  to  whom 
Bede  gives  this  title  in  succession,  are  Ella,  of  Sussex  ;  Cealwin,  of  Wessex  ;  Ethel- 
bert,  of  Kent ;  Redwald,  of  East  Anglia  ;  Edwin,  Oswald,  and  Oswy,  of  Northum- 
bria  ;  and  see  Hunt.  314. 

20  Hunt.  315. 


284 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


603. 


607. 

or 

612. 


BOOK  made  very  deadly.  The  Britons  fought  both  with 
— ,-1— >  conduct  and  courage,  and  the  brother  of  Ethelfrith 
perished,  with  all  his  followers.  At  length  the  Scot- 
tish Britons  gave  way,  and  were  destroyed  with  such 
slaughter,  that  the  king,  with  but  few  attendants, 
escaped.21  They  had  not,  up  to  the  time  of  Bede, 
ventured  to  molest  the  Angles  again. 

The  colonists  of  Sussex,  endeavouring  to  throw  off 
the  yoke  of  Ceolwulf,  this  West  Saxon  king,  who  is 
mentioned  as  always  engaged  in  quarrels  with  the 
Angles,  Britons,  Picts,  or  Scots,  ventured  on  a  con- 
flict with  him,  which,  disastrous  to  both  armies,  was 
most  fatal  to  the  assertors  of  their  independence.22 

The  Bernician  conqueror,  Ethelfrith,  renewed  his 
war  with  the  Cymry.  He  reached  Chester,  through 
a  course  of  victory.  Apart  from  the  forces  of  the 
Welsh,  assembled  under  Brognail,  king  of  Powys,  he 
perceived  the  monks  of  Bangor,  twelve  hundred  in 
number,  offering  prayers  for  the  success  of  their 
countrymen :  "If  they  are  praying  against  us,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  they  are  fighting  against  us;"  and  he 
ordered  them  to  be  first  attacked:  they  were  de- 
stroyed23; and,  appalled  by  their  fate,  the  courage  of 
Brocmail  wavered,  and  he  fled  from  the  field  in  dis- 
may.24 Thus  abandoned  by  their  leader,  his  army 
gave  way,  and  Ethelfrith  obtained  a  decisive  con- 

21  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  34.     Sax.  Chron.  24. —  The  position  of  this,  as  of  most  of  the 
Saxon  battles,  is  disputed.     Dalston,  near  Carlisle,  and  Dawston,  near  Jed  burgh, 
has  each  its  advocate. 

22  H.  Hunt.  316.     Sax.  Chron.  p.  25. 

23  The  chronology  of  this  battle  is  disputed.     The  Saxon  Chronicle  dates  it  in 
607,  p.  25.  ;  Flor.  Wig.,  603  ;  the  Annals  of  Ulster  in  6 1 2 ;  Matt.  West,  in  603, 
p.  204.     The  ancient  Welsh  chronologer,  in  the  Cambrian  Reg.  for  1796,  places 
it  in  602,  and  fourteen  years  before  the  battle  of  Meigen,  p.  313.     Bede  says,  that 
Austin  had  been  jam  multo  ante  tempore  ad  ccelestia  regna  sublatus,  lib.  ii.  c.  2.  ; 
but  Austin  died  in  605. 

24  Brocmail  was  one  of  the  patrons  of  Taliesin,  who  commemorates  this  struggle. 

I  saw  the  oppression  of  the  tumult ;  the  wrath  and  tribulation  ; 
The  blades  gleaming  on  the  bright  helmets ; 
The  battle  against  the  Lord  of  Fame  in  the  dales  of  Hafren  ; 
Against  Brocvail  of  Powys,  who  loved  my  muse. 

Taliesin,  p.  66. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  285 

quest.  Ancient  Bangor  itself  soon  fell  into  his  hands,      CHAP. 
and   was    demolished25 ;    the   noble   monastery   was   .     v'     . 
levelled  to  the  earth  ;  its  library,  which  is  mentioned      -eio. 
as  a  large  one,  the  collection  of  ages,  the  repository 
of  the  most  precious  monuments  of  the  ancient  Bri- 
tons, was  consumed26 ;  half  ruined  walls,  gates,   and 
rubbish  were  all  that  remained  of  the  magnificent 
edifice.27     We  may   presume  that   the   addition  of 
Cheshire  to   Bernicia  was   the   consequence   of  the 
victory. 

But  amidst  their  misfortunes,  the  Cymry  some- 
times  triumphed.  Ceolwulph  from  Wessex  advanced 
upon  them,  not  merely  to  the  Severn,  but  crossed  it 
into  the  province  of  Glamorgan.  Affrighted  at  his 
force,  the  inhabitants  hastened  to  Tewdric  their  former 
king,  who  had  quitted  his  dignity  in  behalf  of  his  son 
Mowrick,  to  lead  a  solitary  life  among  the  beautiful 
rocks  and  woodlands  of  Tintern.  They  solicited  him 
to  reassume  the  military  command,  in  which  he  had 
never  known  disgrace,  if  he  sympathised  in  the  wel- 
fare of  his  countrymen  or  his  son.  The  royal  hermit 
beheld  the  dreaded  Saxons  on  the  Wye,  but  the  re- 
membrance of  his  own  achievements  inspired  him 
with  hope.  He  put  on  his  forsaken  armour,  con- 
ducted the  tumult  of  battle  with  his  former  skill,  and 
drove  the  invaders  over  the  Severn.  A  mortal  wound 
in  the  head  arrested  him  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his 

25  Ancient  Bangor  was  about  eight  miles  distant  from  Chester.     Caius  de  Antiq. 
Cantab,  lib.  i.  ap.  Usher,  133.  — Leland  says,  "  the  cumpace  of  the  abbay  was  as  of 
a  waullid  toune,  and  yet  remaineth  the  name  of  a  gate  caullid  Forth  Hogan  by 
north,  and  the  name  of  another,  port  Clays  by  south. — Dee  syns  chaunging  the 
bottom  rennith  now  thoroug  the  mydle  betwyxt  thes  two  gates,  one  being  a  mile 
dim  from  the  other."     Itiner.  vol.  v.  p.  26. 

26  Humph.  Lhuyd  asserts  this.     Comm.  Frag.  Brit.  Descript.  58.,  and  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  declares  that  Chester  also  was  destroyed.    De  illaud.  Walliae,  c.  7.    And 
it  is  not  likely  that  a  rude  Anglo-Saxon  warrior  would  take  any  care  to  preserve 
British  MSS.     This  destruction  was  an  irreparable  loss  to  the  ancient  British 
antiquities. 

27  Malmsbury,  19 In  the  Triads  Bangor  is  paralleled  with  the  isle  of  Avallon, 

and  Caer  Caradog,  for  possessing  2400  religious.     The  Bangor  of  modern  note  is  a 
city  built  by  Maelgo  on  the  Meneath,  near  Anglesea,  Joh.  Rossius,  ap.  Usher,  133. 


286 


HISTOEY    OF    THE 


BOOK 
III. 

V 

610. 


Distress  of 
the  Welsh. 


success,  and  he  breathed  his  last  wishes  for  his  people's 
safety  at  the  confluence  of  the  Severn  and  the  Wye. 
The  local  appellation  Mathern,  the  abbreviation  of 
Merthyr  Teudric28,  pointed  out  his  remains  to  the 
sympathy  of  posterity ;  in  the  sixteenth  century  his 
body  was  found  unconsumed,  and  the  fatal  blow  on 
his  head  was  visible.29 

The  condition  of  the  Britons  at  this  juncture  was 
becoming  more  distressful  and  degrading.  Driven 
out  of  their  ancient  country,  they  had  retired  to  those 
parts  of  the  island  which,  by  mountains,  woods, 
marshes,  and  rivers,  were  most  secluded  from  the 
rest ;  yet  in  this  retreat  they  lived,  with  their  hands 
against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against 
them 30 ;  they  were  the  common  butt  of  enterprise  to 
the  Angles  of  Bernicia,  and  Deira,  and  Mercia ;  to 
the  Saxons  of  Wessex,  and  to  the  Gwiddelians  of 
Ireland  ;  and  they  were  always  as  eager  to  assail 
as  to  defend.  The  wild  prophecies  of  enthusiasts, 
who  mistook  hope  for  inspiration,  having  promised  to 
them,  in  no  long  period,  the  enjoyment  of  the  soil 
from  which  they  had  been  exiled,  produced  a  per- 
petual appetite  for  war.  Their  independent  sove- 
reignties fed,  by  their  hostile  ambition,  the  flames  of 

28  The  martyr  Tewdric.     Usher  quotes  the  Register  of  Landaff  for  this  conflict, 
p.  562. — Langhorn.  Chron.  p.  148. 

29  Godwin  pracsul.  ap.  Usher,  563.     In  the  chancel  of  Mathern  church  an  epi- 
taph mentions  that  he  lies  there  entombed.     Williams's  Monmouthshire,  App. 
No.  17.     An  incident  somewhat  like  this  occurred  in  the  commencement  of  the 
English  settlements  in  North  America.      General  Whalley,  one  of  the  judges  of 
Charles  I.,  fled  with  his  son-in-law  General  Gough  from  England  to  Boston  a  few 
days  before  the  Restoration.     Pursued  by  proclamations  offering  large  rewards  for 
their  apprehension,  their  hiding-place,  at  first,  was  a  cave  on  the  top  of  a  rock,  a 
few  miles  from  Newhaven,  from  which,  in  two  or  three  years,  they  moved  to 
Hadley,  where  they  lived,  concealed  and  unknown,  for  fifteen  summers.      A  war 
ensuing  between  the  English  colonists  and  the  Indian  chief  of  Pokanoket,  the 
Indians  surprised  Hadley  in  the  time  of  public  worship  :  the  townspeople  had  their 
arms  with  them,  but  were  panic-struck  and  confounded ;  and  would  have  been  all 
destroyed,  if  an  old  and  venerable  man,  in  a  dress  unlike  that  of  any  other,  had 
not  suddenly  appeared  among  them.     He  rallied  them,  put  himself  at  their  head, 
gave  orders  like  one  accustomed  to  battle,  charged  and  routed  the  enemy,  and 
saved  the  town ;  but,  when  the  victory  was  complete,  was  no  longer  to  be  seen. 
It  was  General  Gough.  —  Holme's  Annals  of  America. 

30  Matt.  West,  paints  this  forcibly,  p.  198,  and  199. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


287 


610. 


614. 


domestic  quarrels,  and  accelerated  the  ruin  of  their     CHAP. 
independence.     But  yet,   under  all  these  disadvan-   . 
tages,  they  maintained  the  unequal  conflict  against 
the  Anglo-Saxons  with  wonderful  bravery,  and  did 
not  lose  the  sovereignty  of  their  country  until  the 
improvements  of  their  conquerors  made  the  conquest 
a  blessing. 

Cynegils,  with  the  West  Saxons,  again  assailed  some 
branches  of  the  Britons.  If  Bampton  in  Devonshire  victory.* 
be  the  place  which  the  Saxon  annalist  denominates 
Beamdune,  the  princes  of  Cornwall  were  the  objects 
of  attack.  When  the  armies  met,  Cynegils  surprised 
the  Britons  by  drawing  up  his  forces  into  an  arrange- 
ment which  was  not  common  to  that  age.  This  dis- 
play and  the  sight  of  the  battle-axes,  which  the 
Saxons  were  brandishing,  affected  them  with  a  sudden 
panic,  and  they  quitted  the  field  early,  with  the  loss 
of  above  two  thousand  men.31 


31  Hunt.  316.  Sax.  Chron.  25.  Camden  supposes  the  place  to  have  been 
Bindon  in  Dorsetshire,  i.  44.  Gough's  ed.  The  editor  mentions  favourably  the 
opinion  of  Gibson,  which  is  in  the  text,  ib.  p.  50. 


288  HISTORY    OF    THE 


CHAP.  VI. 

The  Introduction  of  Christianity  among  the  ANGLO-SAXONS  in 
KENT  and  ESSEX.  —  ETHELBEKT'S  Reign  in  KENT. 

BOOK  THE  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  has,  thus  far,  been 
.  the  history  of  fierce,  barbaric  tribes;  full  of  high 
courage,  excited  spirit,  persevering  resolution,  great 
'  activity,  and  some  military  skill ;  but  with  minds 
which,  although  abounding  with  talent  and  love  of 
enterprise,  and  inventive  of  political  institutions 
well  adapted  to  their  position  and  necessities,  were 
void  of  all  lettered  cultivation  ;  unused  to  the  social 
sympathies,  and  averse  from  the  intellectual  refine- 
ments, of  which  they  were  naturally  capable.  These 
great  blessings  of  human  life  were  introduced  among 
them  with  that  peculiar  form  of  Christianity,  which 
the  benevolent  feelings  and  religious  enthusiasm  of 
Pope  Gregory  (deservedly,  with  all  his  imperfections, 
surnamed  the  Great)  conveyed  into  England  by  his 
missionary  Augustin.  This  great  mental,  moral,  and, 
we  may  add  from  some  of  its  results,  political  revo- 
lution was  suggested  and  accomplished  by  a  train  of 
coincidences,  which  deserve  to  be  recollected.1 

1  While  we  give  the  missionaries  of  Gregory  the  honour  of  thus  introducing 
Christianity  amongst  the  conquering  Saxons,  we  must  not  forget  that  it  was  already 
existing,  and  long  survived  independently,  among  the  conquered  Britons.  Many 
facts  show  that  the  British  church,  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  century,  held  an  influ- 
ential position,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  ecclesiastical  proceedings  of  the  age. 
The  Christian  population,  however,  retired  under  the  pressure  of  the  Saxon  in- 
vasion into  Wales,  and  the  south-western  parts  of  England,  and  partly  from  the 
divisions  in  relation  to  the  opinions  of  Pelagius ;  partly  from  the  deep  hostility 
between  the  British  and  Saxon  populations,  and  partly  from  the  active  support 
which  Rome  gave  to  the  Saxon  hierarchy  as  in  more  direct  dependence  upon  her- 
self, the  more  ancient  British  hierarchy  lost  ground,  and  became  gradually 
absorbed  into  the  Roman  church.  In  770  the  Roman  reckoning  of  Easter- tide 
was  accepted  ;  and,  by  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  all  remains  of  indepen- 
dence even  in  Wales  had  disappeared. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  289 

The  Roman  papacy  had  felt  the  advantage,  to  CHAP. 
itself,  of  the  conversion  of  the  Gothic  nations ;  and  v__^ — . 
Gregory,  in  succeeding  to  that  dignity,  would  have 
imbibed  a  disposition  to  promote  the  same  religious 
policy,  if  his  own  earnest  belief  in  Christianity  had 
not  led  him  to  befriend  it.  But  the  Anglo-Saxons 
were  not  the  only  nation  of  Europe  that  were  then 
pagans.  All  Germany,  and  all  the  nations  from  the 
Rhine  to  the  Frozen  Ocean,  and  all  the  Slavonian 
tribes,  were  of  this  description.  England,  which 
Rome  had  long  before  amused  itself  with  describing, 
as  cut  off  from  the  whole  world,  and  as  approach- 
ing the  frozen  and  half-fabled  Thule,  was  so  remote, 
and  had  been  so  separated  by  its  Saxon  conquerors, 
from  any  connection  with  the  civilised  regions,  that 
it  seemed  to  be  the  country  least  adapted  to  interest 
him.  But  a  circumstance,  which  does  credit  to  his 
heart,  had  turned  the  current  of  Gregory's  feelings 
towards  our  island,  before  he  had  reached  the  papacy. 

It  was  then  the  practice  of  Europe  to  make  use  of 
slaves,  and  to  buy  and  sell  them ;  and  this  traffic 
was  carried  on,  even  in  the  western  capital  of  the 
Christian  church.  As  he  was  passing  one  day 
through  the  market  at  Rome,  the  white  skins,  the 
flowing  locks,  and  beautiful  countenances  of  some 
youths  who  were  standing  there  for  sale,  interested 
Gregory's  sensibility.2 

To  his  inquiries  from  what  country  they  had  been 
brought,  the  answer  was,  from  Britain,  whose  inhabit- 
ants were  all  of  that  fair  complexion.  Were  they 
Pagans  or  Christians  ?  was  his  next  question :  a 

2  The  chronicler  of  St.  Augustin's  monastery  at  Canterbury,  W.  Thorn,  men. 
tions  that  these  were  three  boys :  *«  Videt  in  foro  Romano  tres  pueros  Anglicos," 
Decem.  Script,  p.  1757.  In  the  Anglo-Saxon  homily  on  Gregory's  birth-day, 
published  by  Mrs.  Elstob,  it  is  stated  that  English  merchants  had  carried  them  to 
Rome,  and  that  the  practice  was  continuing.  "Tha  selamp  hec  aec  rumum  raele 
rpa  rpa  syc  pop  ore  beeh,  ChaeC  Cnslirce  cychmen  bpohcon  heopa  pajie  Co  Romana 
bypiS.  "J  Jrpesopmr  eobe  be  thaepe  rcpaee  co  Cham  enshrcum  maniium  heopa 
Chins  rceapjsenbe.  Tha  Sereah  he  beCpuxC  Cham  papum  cypecmchCar  gerecce. 
Tha  peepon  hpiCer  lichaiuan  •}  Faegper  *j  phcan  man  T  aechehce  gereaxobe,"  p.  H. 

VOL.  I.  U 


290  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  proof  not  only  of  his  ignorance  of  the  state  of 
.  IIL  .  England,  but  also,  that,  up  to  that  time,  it  had  occu- 
pied no  part  of  his  attention.  But  thus  brought  as 
it  were  to  a  personal  knowledge  of  it,  by  these  few 
representatives  of  its  inhabitants,  he  exclaimed,  on 
hearing  that  they  were  still  idolaters,  with  a  deep 
sigh :  "  What  a  pity,  that  such  a  beauteous  frontis- 
piece should  possess  a  mind  so  void  of  internal 
graces !  "  The  name  of  their  nation  being  mentioned 
to  him  to  be  Angles,  his  ear  caught  the  verbal  coin- 
cidence. The  benevolent  wish  for  their  improvement 
darted  into  his  mind,  and  he  expressed  his  own 
feelings,  and  excited  those  of  his  auditors  by  re- 
marking :  "It  suits  them  well :  they  have  angel 
faces,  and  ought  to  be  the  co-heirs  of  the  angels  in 
heaven."  A  purer  philanthropy  perhaps  never 
breathed  from  the  human  heart,  than  in  these  sudden 
effusions  of  Gregory's.  That  their  provincial  country 
Deira,  should  resemble  the  words  De  ira,  seemed  to 
his  simple  mind  to  imply,  that  they  ought  to  be 
plucked  from  the  wrath  of  God ;  and  when  he  heard 
that  their  king's  name  was  called  Ella,  the  conso- 
nancy  of  its  sound  with  the  idea  then  floating  in 
his  mind,  completed  the  impression  of  the  whole 
scene.  His  full  enthusiasm  burst  out.  "  Hallelujah ! 
the  praise  of  the  creating  Deity  must  be  sung  in 
these  regions."3  This  succession  of  verbal  coin- 
cidences affected  his  mind  with  a  permanent  impres- 
sion of  the  most  benevolent  nature.  He  went  to  the 
then  pope,  and  prayed  him  to  send  some  missionaries 
to  convert  the  English  nation,  and  offered  himself  for 
the  service.  His  petition  was  refused,  but  the  pro- 
ject never  left  his  mind,  till  he  was  himself  enabled 

3  Bede,  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  1.  p.  78.  This  incident  was  probably  in  Gregory's  mind, 
when  he  wrote  this  passage  in  his  moral  exposition  of  Job.  "  Ecce  lingua  Bri- 
tannise,  qua?  nil  aliud  noverat,  quam  barbarum  frendere  ;  jamdudum  in  divinis 
laudibus  Hebraum  cepit,  Halleluia,  resonare,"  lib.  xxvi.  c.  6.  p.  688.  ed  Paris. 
1640. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  291 

to  accomplish  it.     As  Ella  died  in  589,  this  incident     CHAP. 
must  have  occurred  before  this  year.  , ^ — < 

In  592,  Gregory  became  pope,  and  four  years  592. 
afterwards  he  attempted  to  execute  his  purpose.  He 
selected  a  monk  named  Augustin,  as  the  fittest  for 
the  chief  of  the  mission,  and  added  some  other  monks 
of  congenial  feelings  to  assist  it.  They  set  out  on 
their  journey,  but  the  dread  of  encountering  a  nation 
so  ferocious  as  the  Saxons  had  the  character  of 
being,  and  ignorance  of  their  language,  overcame 
both  their  resolution  and  their  zeal.  They  stopped, 
began  their  return  to  Rome,  and  sent  Augustin  back 
to  solicit  Gregory  not  to  insist  on  their  pursuing  an 
enterprise  so  dangerous  and  so  little  likely  to  be 
availing. 4 

Gregory  prevailed  on  Augustin  to  resume  the  mis- 
sion, and  answered  the  entreaties  of  the  rest  by  a 
short  but  impressive  letter.  He  remarked  to  them 
that  it  was  more  disgraceful  to  abandon  an  under- 
taking once  begun,  than  to  have  at  first  declined  it. 
That  as  the  work  was  good,  and  would  receive  the 
Divine  aid,  they  ought  to  pursue  it.  He  reminded  them 
of  the  glory  that  would  recompense  their  sufferings 
in  another  world,  and  he  appointed  Augustin  their 
abbot,  and  commanded  their  obedience  to  his  direc- 
tions, that  the  little  community  might  have  an  effec- 
tive governor. 5  He  wrote  also  to  the  bishop  of  Aries,  590. 
recommending  this  band  of  religious  adventurers  to 
his  friendship  and  assistance.  He  addressed  letters 
to  other  prelates  in  France  to  the  same  purport.  He 
requested  the  patronage  of  the  Frankish  kings  to 
their  undertaking ;  and  also  endeavoured  to  interest 
Brunechilda,  one  of  their  queens,  to  befriend  it.  The 
missionaries  were  forty  in  number.6 

4  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  23.  p.  59.  5  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  23.  p.  59. 

8  These  letters  of  Gregory  are  printed  amid  his  very  multifarious  correspond- 
ence, which  are  classed  in  twelve  books,  and  occupy  the  fourth  volume  of  his  works. 

u  2 


292  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK          But  to  which  part  of  the  octarchy  should  they  first 
.  apply  ?  a  natural  circumstance  led  them  to  Kent. 

596-  Ethelbert,  who  had  begun  his  reign  with  the  in- 

auspicious attack  on  Wessex,  had  been  afterwards  so 
harassed  by  others  of  the  Saxon  kings,  that  it  was  with 
difficulty  he  preserved  his  own  dominions  from  sub- 
jection.7 Adversity  and  danger  had  made  him  wiser. 
His  future  measures  were  more  prosperous,  and  he 
became  the  Bretwalda  of  the  Saxon  octarchy,  and 
predominated  over  it  as  far  north  as  the  Humber. 

The  circumstance  auspicious  to  Augustin's  mission, 
was  Ethelbert's  marriage  with  Bertha,  a  Frankish 
princess.  She  had  been  educated  to  be  a  Christian, 
and  she  had  stipulated  for  the  right  of  pursuing  her 
own  religion  after  her  marriage.8  To  Kent  and  to 
this  queen  Augustin  proceeded  with  his  companions, 
with  interpreters  whom  the  king  of  the  Francs  had 
provided. 

Augustin  sent  one  of  these  to  Ethelbert,  to  an- 
nounce that  he  came  from  Rome,  and  had  brought 
with  him  a  messenger,  who  promised  to  those  that 
obeyed  him  everlasting  joys  in  heaven,  and  a  king- 
dom that  should  never  end.  The  king,  whom  the 
conduct  of  his  queen  had  dispossessed  of  all  virulence 
against  Christianity,  ordered  them  to  remain  in 
Thanet,  where  they  had  landed,  supplied  with  every 
necessary,  till  he  had  determined  what  he  should  do 
with  them. 

697.  Interested  by  their  arrival,  the  queen  was  not  likely 

to  be  inactive.  But  the  freedom  of  all  the  Anglo-Saxon 
tribes,  and  the  power  of  their  witenagemots,  as  well 
as  the  opposing  influence  of  the  Saxon  priests,  caused 
Ethelbert  to  pause.  After  a  few  days'  deliberation,  he 
went  into  the  island  and  appointed  a  conference.  He 

Dr.  Smith  has  selected  those  which  concern  this  mission,  in  the  appendix  to  his 
Bede,  No.  6. ;  and  Mrs.  Elstob  has  translated  them  in  her  appendix,  p.  7,  &c. 
7  Malmsb.  p.  10.  8  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  25.     Hunting.  321. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  293 

sat  in  the  open  air,  fearful  lest,  if  he  received  them  in  CHAP. 
a  house,  he  should  be  exposed  to  the  power  of  their  ...  Yi1'  . 
magic  if  they  used  any.  They  came  with  a  simple  597- 
but  impressive  ceremony.  They  advanced  in  a  pro- 
cession, preceded  by  a  silver  cross,  as  their  standard, 
and  carrying  also  a  painted  portrait  of  our  Saviour, 
and  chanting  their  litany  as  they  approached.  The 
king  commanded  them  to  sit  down,  and  to  him  and 
his  earls,  who  accompanied  them,  they  disclosed  their 
mission. 9  Ethelbert  answered  with  a  steady  and  not 
unfriendly  judgment.  "  Your  words  and  promises 
are  fair,  but  they  are  new  and  uncertain.  I  cannot 
therefore  abandon  the  rites,  which,  in  common  with 
all  the  nations  of  the  Angles,  I  have  hitherto  observed. 
But  as  you  have  come  so  far  to  communicate  to  us 
what  you  believe  to  be  true,  and  the  most  excellent, 
we  will  not  molest  you.  We  will  receive  you  hospit- 
ably, and  supply  you  with  what  you  need.  Nor  do 
we  forbid  any  one  to  join  your  society  whom  you  can 
persuade  to  prefer  it."  He  gave  them  a  mansion  in 
Canterbury,  his  metropolis,  for  their  residence,  and 
allowed  them  to  preach  as  they  pleased.10 

They  entered  the  city  singing  the  litanies,  which 
they  had  found  to  be  interesting  to  the  populace. 
They  distinguished  themselves  by  prayers,  vigils,  and 
fastings,  which  excited  the  admiration  of  those  who 
visited  them ;  and  their  discourses  pleased  many.  On 
the  east  side  of  the  city,  a  church  had  been  built, 

9  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  25.  p.  61.     The  homily  briefly  states  the  substance  of  the  ad- 
dress of  Augustin  :   «Hu  re  milbheopCa  haelenb  mib  hir  asenpe  chpopanse  Chirne 
j-cylbisan  mibbaneapbe  alyrbe  •)  Seleappullum  inannum  heopena  picef  inpaep  seo- 
ponobe,"  p.  34.     The  substance  of  the  sermon  is  given  at  length  by  Joscelin, 
Angl.  Sac.  vol.  ii.  p.  59. ;  and  a  translation  of  it  in  Elstob,  p.  33. 

10  The  text  is  from  Bede,  p.  61.     But  Alfred's  Saxon  of  this  speech  perhaps 
exhibits  most  exactly  the  actual  words  of  Ethelbert ;   Faesepe  wopb  chir  rynb  anb 
SehaC  Che  sebpohcon  T  ur  raecsath.    Ac  popchon  hi  mpe  rynbon  anb  uncuchr, 
ne  mason  pe  nu  syc  Cha  sechapisean  rha  pe  poplaeCan  cha  piran  the  pe  langepe 
Cibe  mib  ealle  Ansel  cheobe  heolban.    Ac  popChon  Che  ge  peoppan  hibep  aelcheo- 
bise  coman  anb  chaer  Che  me  sechuhc  anb  serapen   ir  cha  Chins  cha  Che  roch 
anb  becrc  selypbon,  cha  se  eac  rpylce  pyllabon  ur  Cha  senaaenpiman,  ne  pyllaCh 
pe  popbhon  eop  hepise  beon  :    Ac  pe  pillach  eop  ppemrumlice  on  saerfctoh^rT6 
onpon  anb  eop  anblypne  ryllan  anb  eoppe  cheappe  popsipan.     Ne  pe  eop  bepe- 
piach  Cha  se  ealle  cha  Che  RC   mason  Chuph   eoppe   lape  Co  eopper  seleapan 
aepercnyrre  secheobe  anb  secyppe,"  p.  487. 

u  3 


294  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     during   the   residence   of  the  Romans,  dedicated  to 
.    HL    .   St.  Martin,  which  the  queen  had  used  as  her  oratory. 
697-       Here  they  sang,  prayed,  performed  their  mass,  and 
preached  till  they  made  several  converts,  whom  they 
baptized.     The  impression  spread,  till  at  length  the 
king  was  affected,  and  became  himself  a  Christian. u 
In  no  part  of  the  world  has  Christianity  been  intro- 
duced in  a  manner  more  suitable  to  its  benevolent 
character. 

The  peculiar  form  of  this  religion,  which  Gregory 
and  Augustin  thus  introduced,  was  of  course  that 
system  which  Rome  then  professed.  It  was  the  best 
system  which  had  been  recognised  at  Rome ;  and  it 
could  not  be  better  than  that  age  or  the  preceding 
times  were  capable  of  receiving  or  framing.  It  was  a 
compound  of  doctrines,  ritual,  discipline,  and  polity, 
derived  partly  from  the  Scriptures,  partly  from  tradi- 
tion, partly  from  the  decisions  and  orders  of  former 
councils  and  popes,  and  partly  from  popular  customs 
and  superstitions,  which  had  been  permitted  to  inter- 
mix themselves.  But  such  as  it  was,  it  was  the  most 
impressive  form  that  either  its  teachers  or  the  then 
intellect  of  the  world  could  furnish.  Nor  is  it  clear 
that  its  new  converts  would  have  relished  or  under- 
stood any  purer  system.  The  papal  clergy  were  then 
the  most  enlightened  portion  of  the  western  world ; 
and  the  system  which  they  preferred  must  have  been 
superior  to  any  that  the  barbaric  judgment  could  have 
provided. 

The  pope  continued  his  attentions  to  his  infant 
church.  He  sent  Augustin  the  pall,  the  little  addi- 
tion to  his  dress  which  marked  the  dignity  of  ail 
archbishop,  with  a  letter  of  instructions  on  the  form- 
ation of  the  English  hierarchy :  also  several  MSS.  of 
books12,  ecclesiastical  vessels,  vestments,  and  orna- 

11  Bede,  c.  26. 

12  Bede,  c.  29.  p.  70.     Wanley  has  given  a  catalogue  of  the  books  sent  by  Gre- 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  295 

ments 1S,  and  some  religious  persons  to  assist  him,      CHAP. 

who  were  afterwards  active  in  the  conversion  of  the  < ^ — > 

rest  of  the  island.  Augustin  restored  from  its  ruins  597> 
another  British  church  at  Canterbury,  which  had  been 
built  in  the  Roman  times,  and  began  the  erection  of  a 
monastery. M  The  king  sanctioned  and  assisted  him 
in  all  that  he  did;  and  afterwards  became  distin- 
guished as  the  author  of  the  first  written  Saxon  laws, 
which  have  descended  to  us,  or  which  are  known  to 
have  been  established  ; — an  important  national  bene- 
fit, for  which  he  may  have  been  indebted  to  his 
Christian  teachers,  as  there  is  no  evidence  that  the 
Saxons  wrote  any  compositions  before.  Gregory 
sent  into  the  island  "  many  manuscripts,"  and  thus 
began  its  intellectual  as  well  as  religious  education.15 

Seven  years  after  Augustin's  successful  exertions  604. 
in  Kent,  he  appointed  two  of  the  persons  that  arrived 
last  from  Rome,  Mellitus  and  Justus,  to  the  episcopal 
dignity,  and  sent  them  to  the  kingdom  of  Essex. 
Sabert,  the  son  of  Ethelbert's  sister,  was  then  reigning. 
The  new  religion  was  favourably  received ;  and  Ethel- 
bert,  to  whose  superior  power  the  little  state  was 
subject,  began  to  erect  St.  Paul's  church  at  London, 
its  metropolis.16 

Augustin  did  not  long  live  to  contemplate  the  great 

gory.  These  were,  1st,  A  Bible,  adorned  with  some  leaves  of  a  purple  and  rose 
colour,  in  two  volumes,  which  was  extant  in  the  time  of  James  the  First :  2d,  The 
•Psalter  of  St.  Augustin,  with  the  Creed,  Pater  Noster,  and  several  Latin  hymns  : 
3d,  Two  copies  of  the  Gospels,  with  the  ten  Canons  of  Eusebius  prefixed ;  one  of 
which  Elstob  believed  to  be  in  the  Bodleian  library,  and  the  other  at  Cambridge, 
p.  42. :  4th,  Another  Psalter  with  hymns  :  5th,  A  volume  containing  legends  on 
the  sufferings  of  the  apostles,  with  a  picture  of  our  Saviour  in  silver,  in  a  posture 
of  blessing:  6th,  Another  volume  on  the  martyrs,  which  had  on  the  outside  a 
glory,  silver  gilt,  set  round  with  crystals  and  beryls :  7th,  An  exposition  of  the 
Epistles  and  Gospels,  which  had  on  the  cover  a  large  beryl  surrounded  with  crys- 
tals. Augustin  also  brought  Gregory's  Pastoral  Care,  which  Alfred  translated.  See 
Elstob,  p.  39 — 43.,  and  Wanley,  172.,  whose  description  is  taken  from  Thomas  de 
Elmham,  a  monk  of  Augustin's  abbey,  in  the  time  of  Henry  V.  See  also  Cave, 
Hist.  Lit.  p.  431. 

13  A  list  of  the  vestments,  vessels,  relics,  &c.,  sent  by  Gregory,  is  added  to  Elstob, 
from  "Wanley's  communication,  App.  34 — 40. 

14  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  33.  15  Bede,  lib.  i.  c.  29. 
16  Bede,  lib  ii.  c.  3. 

u  4 


296  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  advantages  which  he  had  introduced  into  England.  He 
•  died  the  year  of  his  mission  into  Essex.  Ethelbert 
604-  survived  him  eleven  years.  This  King's  son  Eadbald 
restored  the  Saxon  paganism  in  Kent,  and  drove  out 
the  Christian  ecclesiastics.  The  three  sons  of  Sabert 
imitated  him  in  Essex.  But  this  persecution  was  of 
a  short  duration.  A  simple  contrivance  of  Laurence, 
the  successor  of  Augustin,  affected  the  mind  of  Ead- 
bald with  alarm.  He  appeared  before  the  king  bleed- 
ing from  severe  stripes ;  and  boldly  declared  that  he 
had  received  them  in  the  night  from  St.  Peter,  be- 
cause he  was  meditating  his  departure  from  the 
island.  The  idea  was  exactly  level  with  the  king's 
intellect  and  superstition.  A  strong  sensation  of  fear 
that  the  same  discipline  might  be  inflicted,  by  the 
same  invisible  hand,  on  himself,  changed  his  feelings, 
and  he  became  a  zealous  friend  to  the  new  faith.  The 
exiled  bishops  were  recalled,  and  the  old  Saxon  rites 
were  abolished  for  ever  in  Kent  and  Essex.17 

Laurence  enjoyed  his  triumph  but  two  years;  and, 
on  his  death,  Mellitus,  who  had  converted  Essex, 
received  his  dignity :  a  man  of  noble  family,  and  of 
such  an  active  spirit,  that  the  gout,  with  which  he 
was  severely  afflicted,  was  no  impediment  to  his  un- 
abated exertions  for  the  mental  and  moral  improve- 
ment of  the  Saxon  nation.  All  these  early  prelates 
enjoyed  their  rank  but  for  a  brief  period.  In  five 
years  Mellitus  died,  and  Justus,  his  friend  and  com- 
panion from  Rome,  was  made  his  successor.18  As 

17  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  5,  & 

18  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  7,  8.     Gregoi*y  has  also  a  claim  to  our  grateful  remembrance 
for  his  improvement  in  church  music ;  he  reformed  the  chant  of  St.  Ambrose,  and 
enlarged  its  plan  by  introducing  four  new  modes  or  tones  into  the  canto  fermo  ; 
he  formed  the  Roman  Gregorian  chant  which  his  missioned  monks  introduced  into 
England.     On  particular  occasions  it  is  still  used  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
especially  during  Lent,  and  it  is  felt  to  have  a  dignity,  a  breadth,  and  a  simplicity 
which  render  it  acceptable  even  to  modern  composers.     He  first  separated  the 
chanters  from  the  regular  clergy  and  led  the  way  to  our  present  system  of  notation 
by  substituting  the  first  seven  letters  of  the  Roman  alphabet  for  the  notes  of  the 
octave  in  place  of  the  more  complicated  Greek  notes.     Choron.  Hist,  of  Music,  and 
see  Hogarth's  Musical  History. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  297 

Gregory  had  chosen  the  men  best  adapted  to  accom-     CHAP. 
plish  his  purpose,  it  is  probable  that  those  he  selected  • 

were  advanced  in  life.19  604* 

19  Gregory  appears  from  his  works  and  extensive  correspondence,  to  have  been 
a  man  of  no  common  energies  acting  in  the  sincerest  spirit  of  Christianity.  He, 
like  Alfred  the  Great,  is  an  instance  of  how  much  an  active  minded  man  may  do 
amid  great  bodily  infirmities.  For  this  indefatigable  Pope  was  seldom  in  comfort- 
able health.  In  one  letter  from  Rome  he  writes  — "  I  am  so  oppressed  with  gout 
that  life  is  a  heavy  punishment.  I  faint  daily  through  pain,  and  breathe  after 
death  as  my  remedy.  Among  the  clergy  and  people  of  the  city  scarce  a  freeman 
or  slave  are  exempt  from  fevers." — L.  7.  Ep.  127.  To  Eulogius  of  Alexandria,  he 
mentioned  in  the  following  year  —  "I  have  been  near  two  years  confined  to  my 
bed  in  constant  pain ;  often  have  I  been  forced  to  return  to  my  bed  when  I  had 
scarcely  left  it  Thus  I  am  dying  daily,  and  yet  I  am  alive."  In  another  letter 
he  speaks  of  a  distressing  headache,  and  in  another  of  a  grievous  burning  heat 
which  spread  over  all  his  body,  and  deprived  him  of  his  spirits  and  comfort.  In 
his  preface  to  Job  and  elsewhere,  he  mentions  other  illnesses  as  severely  and  almost 
continually  afflicting  him. 


298 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


CHAP.  VII. 

Expedition  of  the  EAST  ANGLIANS  to  the  RHINE.  —  EDWIN'S 
Asylum  in  EAST  ANGLIA.  —  REDWALD'S  Defeat  of  ETHELFRITH. 
—  EDWIN'S  Reign  in  NORTHUMBRIA,  and  the  Introduction  of 
Christianity  into  that  Province. 


BOOK     THE  kingdom  of  East  Anglia  becomes  remarkable  by 

.   an  incident  which  Procopius  has  preserved,  and  which 

Expedition    occurred  in  the  sixth  century.     It  exhibits  the  ad- 

of  the  East  .  ,...-,  in 

Angiians  to  venturing  spirit  ot  our  early  baxon  princes. 
nheentc.°nti"  Between  the  Rhine  and  the  Northern  Ocean,  the 
534—547.  Varni  had  settled.1  Their  king  solicited  a  princess 
of  East  Anglia  for  his  son,  and  the  hand  of  the  lady 
was  promised.  On  his  death-bed  it  occurred  to  him, 
that  an  alliance  with  the  Francs,  his  neighbours, 
would  be  more  profitable  to  his  people  than  the 
friendship  of  the  Angles,  who  were  separated  from 
the  Yarni  by  the  sea.  In  obedience  to  the  political 
expediency,  Radiger,  the  prince,  married  his  father's 
widow,  his  step-mother,  because  she  was  sister  of 
Theodebert  the  Franc.  The  rejected  East  Anglian 
would  not  brook  the  indignity;  she  demanded  re- 
venge for  the  slight,  because  in  the  estimation  of  her 
countrymen  the  purity  of  female  chastity  was  sullied 
if  the  maiden  once,  wooed  was  not  wedded.  Her 
brother  and  the  East  Anglian  warriors  thought  her 
quarrel  just ;  a  large  fleet  sailed  from  England  under 
her  auspices,  and  landed  on  the  Rhine.  A  part  of 
the  army  encamped  round  her ;  the  rest,  with  one  of 

1  The  editor  of  the  great  collection  des  Historiens  des  Gaules,  Paris,  1741,  re- 
marks (referring  to  Valesius),  that  Procopius  erred  when  he  placed  the  Varni  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  that  he  is  more  credible  when  he  places  them 
nearer  the  Danes,  vol.  ii.  p.  42. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  299 

her  brothers,  defeated  the  Varni,  and  penetrated  the 
country.  Eadiger  fled.  The  Angles  returned  to  the 
lady,  glorying  in  their  victory.  She  received  them  547- 
with  disdain.  They  had  done  nothing,  as  they  had 
not  brought  Radiger  to  her  feet.  Again  her  selected 
champions  sallied  forth,  and  Radiger  at  last  was 
taken  in  a  wood.  The  captive  entered  her  tent,  to 
receive  his  doom.  But  the  heart  of  the  East  Anglian 
was  still  his  own.  He  pleaded  his  father's  commands, 
and  the  solicitations  of  his  chiefs.  The  conquering 
beauty  smiled  forgiveness.  To  accept  her  hand,  and 
to  dismiss  her  rival,  was  the  only  punishment  she 
awarded.  Joyfully  the  prince  obeyed,  and  the  sister 
of  Theodebert  was  repudiated.2 

This  event  is  the  only  one  in  the  history  of  East       617. 
Anglia  which  can  interest  our  notice  until  the  reign 
of  Redwald.     Before  this  prince  it  had  arrogated  no 
dominating  precedence  in  England.    The  intemperate 
ambition  of  Ethelfrith  propelled  it  into  consequence. 
This  king  of  the  Northumbrian  Angles,  dissatisfied  ^*frith 
with  his  inherited  Bernicia,  and  his  trophies  in  Scot-  Dei™, 
land  and  Wales,  invaded  Deira,  to  which  Edwin  the 
son  of  Ella,  at  the  age  of  three  years,  had  succeeded ; 
and  by  expelling  the  little  infant,  converted  the  Saxon 
states  in  England  into   an   hexarchy.     Edwin  was 
carried  into   North  Wales,  and  was  generously  edu- 
cated by  Cadvan.3 

As   Edwin   grew  up,  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
Wales ;    and    for    many   years    wandered   about   in 
secret,  through  various  provinces,  to  escape  the  un- 
ceasing pursuit  of  Ethelfrith.    Reaching  East  Anglia,  Edwin  in 
he  went  to  the  court  of  Redwald,  and,  avowing  him-  ^  An~ 
self,  besought  his   hospitable   protection.      Redwald 

2  Procopius,  Goth.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  p.  468—471.     Gibbon  places  this  incident  be- 
tween 534  and  547,  which  were  the  extreme  terms  of  the  reign  of  Theodebert, 
vol.  iii.  c.  38.  p.  627. 

3  Alured  Beverl.  lib.  vi.  p.  90.     Redwald  was  son  of  Titel,  and  grandson  of  Uffa, 
Fl.  Wig.  233. 


300 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


BOOK 
III. 


617. 


Redwald 
protects 
him,  and 
defeats 
Ethelfrith. 


received  him  kindly,  and  promised  what  he  asked. 
Impatient  that  Edwin  should  be  alive,  Ethelfrith 
sent  repeated  messengers,  with  presents  to  the  East 
Anglian  sovereign,  requiring  him  to  surrender  the 
youth,  and  adding  menaces  if  he  refused.  Redwald 
remembered  the  unvarying  successes  of  Ethelfrith, 
and  fearful  of  encountering  his  hostility,  promised 
either  the  death  or  the  surrender  of  Edwin.  A  friend 
to  the  young  exile  discovered  his  intentions,  and 
counselled  him  to  fly.  But  Edwin,  weary  of  living 
like  a  fugitive,  replied,  "  I  cannot  do  this.  I  have 
made  a  compact  with  Redwald,  and  I  will  not  be  the 
first  to  break  it,  while  he  has  done  me  no  evil,  nor 
has  yet  discovered  any  enmity.  If  I  am  to  perish, 
he  that  betrays  or  destroys  me  will  be  disgraced,  not 
myself.  And  whither  should  I  fly,  who  have  been 
wandering  already  so  long,  through  so  many  pro- 
vinces of  Britain,  without  a  shelter  ?  How  can  I 
escape  elsewhere  the  toils  of  my  persecutor  ?  "  His 
friend  left  him.  Edwin  remained  sitting  before  the 
palace,  reflecting  on  his  misfortunes  and  darkening 
projects.  In  this  anxious  state  night  approached, 
and  he  believed  he  saw  an  unknown  person  advance 
to  him,  who  promised  him  present  deliverance  and 
great  future  prosperity,  if  he  should  listen  to  what 
would  be  afterwards  taught  him.  The  vision  laid 
his  hand  on  his  head,  and,  adjuring  him  to  remember 
this  interview,  disappeared 4 ;  or  else  Edwin  waked. 
But  he  had  a  more  substantial  friend  than  the  appa- 
rition of  a  dream. 

The  queen  of  Redwald  secretly  pleaded  for  the 
youthful  exile,  and  with  noble  sentiments :  "  A  king 
should  not  sell  a  distressed  friend,  nor  violate  his 
faith  for  gold ;  no  ornament  is  so  ennobling  as  good 
faith."  Interested  by  her  intercession,  and  inspired 


4  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c,  12. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  301 

with  her  fortitude,  Redwald  resolved  to  keep  sacred     CHAP. 
the  duties  of  hospitality ;  and  Edwin  was  informed         ,  '   ' 
by  his   watchful,    though   unknown,   friend   of  the       617t 
generous  determination. 

The  preparations  of  Ethelfrith,  disappointed  of  his 
prey,  compelled  him  to  arm;  Redwald  acted  with 
judicious  vigour ;  and  he  attacked  Ethelfrith,  before 
he  had  collected  all  his  troops,  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Idel  in  Nottinghamshire.5  The  Northumbrian 
king,  by  his  experienced  valour  and  veteran  soldiers, 
supplied  the  disparity  of  his  troops,  and  balanced 
the  contest.  The  East  Anglians  advanced  in  three 
divisions ;  one  of  these,  Rainer,  the  son  of  Redwald, 
led.  The  ancient  fortune  of  Ethelfrith  befriended 
him  ;  he  attacked  this  wing,  and  the  prince  and  his 
warriors  were  destroyed.  This  disaster  only  stimu- 
lated Redwald  to  more  determined  exertions ;  he 
still  outnumbered  his  opponent,  and  his  other  divi- 
sions were  firm.  Ethelfrith,  unused  to  such  resist- 
ance, and  impatient  for  the  event,  rushed  on  the  East 
Anglians  with  a  dangerous  impetuosity.  His  friends  Ethelfrith 
did  not  follow  his  injudicious  courage;  he  was  sepa-  falls* 
rated  from  them,  and  perished  among  the  swords  of 
the  surrounding  East  Anglians.6  Edwin  also  sig- 
nalised himself.  Redwald  not  only  re-instated  him  in  Edwin 
Deira,  but  enabled  him  to  subject  Bernicia  to  his  r 
power.  Thus  the  hexarchy  continued.  The  sons  of 
the  slain  usurper  fled  into  Scotland,  where  they  im- 
bibed Christianity.7  Redwald  ascended  to  the  national 
pre-eminence  which  Ella,  Cealwin,  and  Ethelbert  had 
possessed  under  the  title  of  the  Bretwalda ;  and,  on 
his  death,  it  was  assumed  by  Edwin.8 

The  three  brothers  who  governed  Essex  perished       623. 
in  a  conflict  with  the  West  Saxons.9     Redwald  was 

5  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  12. 

6  Hunting,  lib.  ii.  p.  316.     Sax.  Chron.  27. 

7  Sax.  Chron.  27.     Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  1.     Polychron.  Gale,  iii.  229. 

8  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  5.  9  Ibid.     Flor.  Wig.  231. 


302  HISTORY    OF    THE 

succeeded  in  East  Anglia  by  Eorpwald.     Redwald, 
during  a  visit  to  Ethelbert  in  Kent,  had  adopted 

623>  Christianity  for  his  religion  ;  but  returning  to  his 
own  country,  his  wife  and  the  East  Anglian  priests 
opposing  his  impressions,  he  attempted  to  unite  it 
with  the  Saxon  idolatry.  He  built  an  altar  to  Christ 
in  the  same  temple  where  the  sacrifices  to  Odin  were 
performed.10  But  even  this  strange  combination  of 
worship  had  the  effect  of  drawing  the  attention  of 
his  East  Anglians  to  the  Christian  faith. 

The  vicissitudes  of  Edwin's  life  had  endued  his 
mind  with  a  contemplative  temper,  which  made  him 
more  intellectual  than  any  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings 
that  had  preceded  him,  and  which  fitted  him  for  the 
reception  of  Christianity.  His  progress  towards  this 
revolution  of  mind  was  gradual,  and  the  steps  have 
been  clearly  narrated  by  his  countrymen  Bede. 

He  solicited  in  marriage  Tata  Edilberga,  the 
daughter  of  Ethelbert  in  Kent.  Her  brother,  who 
had  abandoned  his  idolatry,  objected  to  her  alliance 
with  a  worshipper  of  Odin.  Edwin  promised  that  he 
would  not  interfere  with  her  religion,  but  would  allow 
the  free  exercise  of  it  both  to  herself  and  her  friends. 
He  also  intimated  that  if,  on  the  examination  of  it 
by  his  wise  men,  it  was  found  to  be  more  holy  and 
worthier  of  God  than  his  native  faith,  he  might  him- 
self adopt  it.  The  Saxon  princess  became  his  wife, 
and  Paulinus,  one  of  those  whom  Gregory  had  last 
selected  to  assist  Augustin,  went  with  her  as  her  priest 
and  bishop.11 

eas.  The  first  care  of  Paulinus  was  to  prevent  the  queen 

and  the  noble  persons   in  her  train  from   relapsing 
into  their  idolatry.     His  next,  to  convert  some  of  the 

10  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  15.     This  altar,  Bede  says,  lasted  to  the  time  of  Aldulf,  the  king 
of  East  Anglia,  his  contemporary,  who  mentioned  that  he  had  seen  it  when  a  boy. 

11  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  9. 


ANGLO-SAXONS-  303 

natives ;  but  they  were  impenetrable  to  his  exertions. 
Odin  continued  still  to  be  their  favourite. 

At  this  period  the  life  of  Edwin  was  attacked  by  625- 
an  assassin.  Cwichhelm,  the  pagan  king  of  Wessex, 
commissioned  one  of  his  subjects  to  visit  Edwin's 
court,  and  watch  his  opportunity  to  stab  him  with  a 
poisoned  dagger.  The  wretch  reached  the  royal  re- 
sidence on  the  Derwerit,  and  introduced  himself  as  a 
messenger  from  his  king.  Edwin  was  then  about  to 
be  made  a  father  by  his  queen.  The  name  of  Cwich- 
helrn  procured  an  immediate  admission  for  the  in- 
tended assassin,  who  had  abilities  and  firmness  suf- 
ficient to  begin  the  delivery  of  a  fictitious  message, 
when  suddenly  starting  up,  he  clenched  his  weapon 
and  rushed  upon  the  king.  The  attack  was  so  sudden 
that  Edwin  was  off  his  guard  and  defenceless ;  but  a 
thegn  to  whom  he  was  greatly  attached,  Lilla,  was 
near  him :  he  saw  the  rising  dagger  and  Edwin's 
danger  ;  he  had  no  shield ;  but  with  the  impulse  of  a 
generous  heart  he  threw  himself  before  his  king,  and 
received  in  his  own  body  the  blow,  which  it  was  im- 
possible to  avert.  So  vehement  was  the  stroke  that 
it  went  through  Lilla  and  slightly  wounded  the  king. 
The  swords  of  the  attendants  were  instantly  drawn 
upon  the  murderer  ;  but  he  stood  on  his  defence,  and 
was  not  hewn  down  till  he  had  stabbed  another 
knight  with  the  weapon  which  he  had  withdrawn 
from  his  first  victim's  body. 12 

On  this  same  night  the  queen  was  delivered  of  her 
daughter  Eanfleda.  The  king  thanked  his  idols  for 
her  birth ;  and  when  Paulinus  directed  his  attention 
to  the  Christian  Saviour,  Edwin,  like  Clovis,  who  had 
established  in  France  the  kingdom  of  the  Francs, 
promised  that  he  would  adopt  the  faith  of  the  Bishop, 
if  heaven  should  give  victory  to  his  arms  against  the 

12  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  9.     Fl.  Wig.  232. 


304  UISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     king,  who  had  sent  the  assassin  to  destroy  him.     As 
r   m'    .  a  pledge  of  his  own  determination  to  fulfil  this  en- 
625.       gagement,  he  consented  to  the  baptism  of  the  new- 
born babe.     Eleven  others  of  the  household  at  the 
same  time  received  the  Christian  rite.13 

introduc-         Edwin  assembled  his  forces  and  advanced  against 
tion  of        Cwichhelm.     His  expedition  was  successful.     But  on 

Christianity  .    r    .  . 

into  Nor-  his  return  from  his  victory  into  JNorthumbria  ,  he 
thumbrm.  ^e|ayej  to  embrace  the  new  religion.  He  had  become 
dissatisfied  with  his  idols,  but  he  was  of  that  class  of 
mind,  which  requires  the  conviction  of  its  reason 
before  it  decides  on  its  belief.  He  conferred  long  and 
anxiously  with  Paulinus  on  the  subject,  and  with  his 
wisest  nobles.  He  was  seen  frequently  sitting  alone, 
discussing  with  himself  what  he  ought  to  do,  and  to 
which  religion  he  should  adhere.15  In  these  deliber- 
ations a  letter  reached  him  from  Pope  Boniface,  ex- 
horting him  to  abandon  useless  and  insensible  idols, 
who  of  themselves  could  not  even  change  their  locality; 
but  if  not  moved  by  others,  must,  like  a  stone  remain 
for  ever  where  they  were.  The  pontiff  told  him  he 
had  a  living  spirit  within  him,  of  which  they  were 
destitute,  which  would  survive  the  dissolution  of  his 
body ;  and  added,  "  Come  then  to  the  knowledge  of 
Him  who  has  created  you ;  who  has  breathed  into 
you  this  spirit  of  life ;  and  who  has  sent  his  Son  to 
redeem  you  from  sin  and  every  evil  power ;  and  to 
reward  you  with  all  the  blessings  of  his  heavenly 
world."16 

Boniface  at  the  same  time  sent  an  epistle  to  his 
queen,  reminding  her  of  the  duty  of  interesting  her 

13  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  9.     Fl.  Wig.  232.     Sax.  Chron.  27. 

14  Sax.  Chron.  28. 

15  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  9.     The  feelings  which  a  respectable  Hindoo  of  Delhi  expressed 
in  1826  to  the  Christian  missionary  there,  may  perhaps  illustrate  the  state  of 
Edwin's  mind,  at  this  period,  on  this  momentous  subject.     "  I  say  truly,  that  I  have 
a  love  for  the  things  contained  in  your  books ;  but  I  have  little  faith  yet :  when  I 
have  more  faith,  I  will  say  more  to  you."     Miss.  Reg.  Feb.  1827,  p.  82. 

19  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  10. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  305 

husband  with  Christianity  ;  and  urging  her  to  soften      CHAP. 
his  prepossessions  against  it,  and  to  impress  upon  his  ,,     y  '    > 
senses  the  excellence  of  the  faith  she  had  adopted,       625- 
and  the  admirable  nature  of  its  future  rewards.17 

These  letters  were  received  and  considered  ;  but 
Paulinus  found  that  the  loftiness  of  the  king's  mind, 
and  the  natural  pride  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  nation, 
could  not  be  easily  brought  to  stoop  to  the  humility 
and  gentleness  of  the  Christian  precepts.18  In  this 
juncture  he  appears  to  have  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  king's  dream  at  the  court  of  Redwald,  and  he 
made  an  ingenious  use  of  it. 

The  vision  at  its  departure  was  said  to  have  laid 
its  right  hand  on  the  king's  head,  and  to  have  ex- 
claimed :  "  When  this  sign  is  repeated,  remember  this 
conference,  and  perform  your  promise  of  obeying 
what  will  then  be  disclosed  to  you." 

Paulinus,  without  appearing  to  have  had  any  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  this  dream,  one  day  entered  the 
king's  apartment  as  he  was  pursuing  his  meditations 
on  the  opposing  religions  ;  and  advancing  with  a 
solemn  air,  imitated  the  action  of  the  imaginary 
figure,  and  placed  his  right  hand  on  his  sovereign's 
head,  at  the  same  time  asking  him  if  he  remembered 
that  sign. 

The  king's  sensibility  was  instantly  affected.  His 
dream  and  promise  rushed  upon  his  mind.  He  did 
not  pause  to  consider  that  Paulinus  might,  from  his 
queen  or  his  intimate  friends,  have  become  acquainted 
with  his  own  account  of  his  believed  vision.  All 
seemed  supernatural,  and  Paulinus  to  be  the  actual 
vision  that  had  addressed  him.  He  threw  himself  at 
the  bishop's  feet,  who,  pursuing  the  impression  which 
he  had  excited,  raised  him,  and  exhorted  him  to  lose 

17  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  11.  18  Ibid.  c.  12. 

VOL.  I.  X 


306  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  no  time  in  fulfilling  his  thrice-repeated  engagement ; 
•  — <  and  reminded  him  that  this  alone  would  deliver  him 
625.  from  the  eternal  evils  of  disobedience.19 

The  king,  now  seriously  affected  by  the  important 
question,  summoned  his  witena-gemot,  that,  if  they 
participated  in  his  feelings,  all  might  be  baptized 
together.  When  they  met,  he  proposed  the  new  wor- 
ship for  the  subject  of  their  deliberations,  and  required 
each  to  express  his  feelings  without  reserve. 

Coifi,  the  high  priest  of  their  idols,  as  the  first  in 
rank,  spoke  first ;  and  unless  the  coarseness  of  his 
mind  was  that  of  the  country,  must  have  surprised 
the  king.  His  speech,  from  the  singularity  of  the 
criterion  by  which  he  governed  the  faint  moral  feel- 
ing he  possessed,  deserves  a  literal  translation.  "  You 
see,  0  king !  what  is  now  preached  to  us.  I  declare 
to  you  most  truly  what  I  have  most  certainly  expe- 
rienced, that  the  religion  which  we  have  hitherto 
professed  contains  no  virtue  at  all,  and  as  little  utility. 
No  one  of  all  your  court  has  been  more  attentive 
than  I  have  been  to  the  worship  of  our  gods  ;  and  yet 
many  have  received  far  richer  benefits,  far  greater 
honours,  and  have  prospered  more  in  all  that  men 
transact  or  pursue,  than  I  have.  But  if  these  gods 
had  been  of  any  real  worth,  would  they  not  in  pre- 
ference have  assisted  me  who  have  never  neglected 
them?20  If  then,  on  due  inquiry,  you  shall  perceive 
that  these  new  things  which  are  preached  to  us  will 
be  better  and  more  efficacious,  let  us  hasten  to  adopt 
them  without  any  delay." 

This  effusion  of  self-interest  would  lead  one  to  sus- 
pect that  the  effects  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest  of 

19  Bede,  lib.ii.  c.  12. 

20  This  seems  a  natural  strain  of  reason  with  the  priests  of  idols  -when  they  choose 
to  express  their  opinions ;  and,  perhaps  also,  of  many  others ;  for  at  Benares,  as 
Mr.  Smith  wrote  to  England,  "  I  asked  a  Brahmin  why  they  took  no  notice  of 
some  stone  gods  lying  under  a  wall  ?  "     "  We  worshipped  them  several  years," 
answered  the  Brahmin,  "  but  not  deriving  any  benefit,  we  laid  them  aside,  knowing 
they  are  but  stones,  and  are  not  able  to  do  good  or  evil."     Miss.  Reg.  p.  78. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  307 

Romanised   and    Christianised   Britain,    and   of  the     CHAP. 
civilisation,  luxuries,  and  mental  cultivation  which  it   .    vn'  . 
had,  to  a  certain  extent,  exhibited  to  the  Saxon  eye,       625- 
had   already  shaken   their   attachment    to  the  rude 
superstitions  of  their  ancestors  ;  or  the  high  priest  of 
their  national  deities  would  not  have,  so  feelingly, 
expatiated  on  his  comparative  neglect.    This  circum- 
stance will  contribute  to  account  for  the  ease  with 
which  Christianity  was  re-established  in  the  island. 

The  next  speaker  discovered  a  mind  unusually  en- 
larged for  a  people  hitherto  so  unaccustomed  to  intel- 
lectual investigations. 

"  The  present  life  of  man,  0  king  !  seems  to  me,  if 
compared  with  that  after-period  which  is  so  uncertain 
to  us,  to  resemble  a  scene  at  one  of  your  wintry 
feasts.  As  you  are  sitting  with  your  ealdormen  and 
thegns  about  you,  the  fire  blazing  in  the  centre,  and 
the  whole  hall  cheered  by  its  warmth  ;  and  while 
storms  of  rain  and  snow  are  raging  without,  a  little 
sparrow  flies  in  at  one  door,  roams  around  our  festive 
meeting,  and  passes  out  at  some  other  entrance. 
While  it  is  among  us,  it  feels  not  the  wintry  tempest. 
It  enjoys  the  short  comfort  and  serenity  of  its  tran- 
sient stay  ;  but  then,  plunging  into  the  winter  from 
which  it  had  flown,  it  disappears  from  our  eyes. 
Such  is  here  the  life  of  man,  It  acts  and  thinks  be- 
fore us  ;  but,  as  of  what  preceded  its  appearance 
among  us  we  are  ignorant,  so  are  we  of  all  that  is 
destined  to  come  afterwards.  If,  then,  on  this  mo- 
mentous future,  this  new  doctrine  reveals  any  thing 
more  certain  or  more  reasonable,  it  is  in  my  opinion 
entitled  to  our  acquiescence."  21 

21  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  13.  Alfred's  translation  of  this  interesting  speech  presents  it 
to  us  as  near  to  its  original  form  as  we  can  now  obtain  it.  "  Thyrlic  me  ir  serepen, 
Cynms  !  thif  anbpapbe  lip  manna  on  eopthan,  to  pithmetenyrre  thaefe  tibe 
the  ur  uncuth  i)',  rpa  gelic,  rpa  thu  aet  rpaerenbum  ritte  mib  ttnnum  ealbop- 
mannum  -)  thesnum  on  pmtep  tibe  -j  ry  pyp  onaek'b,  *J  "Sin  heall  sepypmeb. 

fto 


hit  pine  -)  rmpe  rtypine  ute.     Cume  ftonne  an  Speappa  *j  hpaeblice  i>  hu 
Fleo  "j  cume  ftuph  oppe  dupu  in;  tSuph  oppe  ut  sepicev  J}pet  he  on  $a  tib 
he  nine  bib  ne  bip  hpmeb  mib  py  jtopme  tSa-r  pintper\  ac  "£  bip  an  eagan  bphytm 

x  2 


308  HISTORY    OF   THE 

The  other  witena  and  the  royal  counsellors  ex- 
hibited  similar  dispositions.   Coifi  desired  to  hear  from 
Paulinas  an  exposition  of  the  Deity.     The  bishop 
obeyed,  and  the  Angle  priest  exclaimed,  "  Formerly 
I  understood  nothing  that  I  worshipped.     The  more 
I  contemplated  our  idolatry,  the  less  truth  I  found  in 
it.     But  this  new  system  I  adopt  without  hesitation ; 
for  truth  shines  around  it,  and  presents  to  us  the 
gifts  of  eternal  life  and  blessedness.     Let  us  then,  0 
king !  immediately  anathematise  and  burn  the  temples 
and  altars  which  we  have  so  uselessly  venerated." 
On  this  bold  exhortation,  he  was  asked  who  would 
be  the  first  to  profane  the  idols  and  their  altars,  and 
the   inclosures  with   which   they  were   surrounded. 
The  zealous  convert  answered,  "  I  will :  as  I  have  led 
the  way  in  adoring  them  through  my  folly,  I  will 
give  the  example  of  destroying  them  in  obedience  to 
that  wisdom  which  I  have  now  received  from  the 
true  God."     He  requested  of  the  king  weapons  and  a 
war-horse.     It  was  a  maxim  of  their  ancient  religion, 
that  no  priest  should   carry  arms,  or  ride  on  any 
horse  but  a  mare ;  —  an  interesting  rule  to  separate 
the  ministers  of  their  religion  from  the  ferocity  of 
war.    The  priest  girded  on  a  sword,  and,  brandishing 
a  spear,  mounted  the  king's  horse,  and  rode  to  the  - 
idol  temple.     The  people,  without,  thought  him  mad. 
He  hurled  his  spear  against  the  temple  to  profane  it, 
and  then  commanded  his  companions  to  destroy  all 
the  building  and  its  surrounding  inclosures.     The 
scene  of  this  event  was  a  little  to  the  east  of  York, 
beyond  the  river  Derwent,  at  a  place,  in  Bede's  time, 
called  Godmunddingaham.22 

T  ¥  laejte  paeS.  ac  he  rona  or  pmtpa  m  pinfcep  ert  cymepv  Spa  tSonne  "Sir  monna 
lip  to  mebmyclum  j-aece  taet/ypeh,  hpaee  ftaep  popesanse.  oppe  hpaefc  "Sdep  aep- 
tetryhse  pe  ne  cunnonv  Foppon  S'F  peop  nipe  laep  opiht  cuplicpe  ~]  gepirenlicpe 
bpmse.  heo  ftaer  pypthe  ij*  ^  pe  tSaspe  ryliSeanv"  p.  516. 

22  Bede,  c.  13.  It  is  still  called  Godmundham,  or  the  home  of  the  mund,  or 
protection  of  the  gods.  The  effect  of  these  sudden  acts  of  desecrating  the  great 
scenes  or  objects  of  idolatrous  veneration  has  been  recently  witnessed  in  Owhyhee. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  309 

Edwin  and  his  nobility  were  soon  afterwards  bap-     CHAP. 
tized,  in  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign.     In  632,  he  .      ,  '   > 
persuaded  Eorpwald  of  East  Anglia,  the  son  of  Red-       628- 
wald,  to  imitate  his  example.     Sigebert,  the  brother 
and  successor  of  Eorpwald,  not  only  increased  the 
diffusion  of  Christianity  in  East  Anglia,  but  applied 
so  closely  to  the  study  of  it  as  to  be  called  by  the 
Chronicler,  "  Most  Learned." 2a 

Edwin  reached  the  summit  of  human  prosperity: 
a  considerable  part  of  Wales  submitted  to  his  power, 
and  the  Menavian  islands ;  and  he  was  the  first  of 
the  Angles  that  subdued  or  defeated  all  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  kingdoms  but  Kent.24  The  internal  police 

This  island,  containing  4000  square  miles^  is  one  complete  mass  of  lava,  and  has 
the  largest  volcanic  crater  we  know  of,  being  eight  miles  round.  The  goddess  of 
fire,  Peli,  and  her  subordinate  fire  gods,  are  supposed  to  preside  over  it,  and  when 
offended,  to  visit  mankind  with  thunder,  earthquake,  and  streams  of  liquid  fire. 
Fifty  cones,  of  which  above  twenty  continually  emitted  pyramids  of  flame  and 
burning  matter,  riveted  the  terrified  people  to  the  worship  of  the  supposed  fiery 
deities,  till  Kapiolani,  a  female  chief,  having  embraced  Christianity,  resolved  to  de- 
scend into  the  flaming  crater,  and  to  convince  the  inhabitants  of  the  nullity  of  the  * 
gods  they  feared,  by  braving  them  in  their  volcanic  homes.  "  If  I  do  not  return 
safe,"  said  the  heroic  woman,  "  then  continue  to  worship  Peli :  but  if  I  come  back 
unhurt,  adore  the  God  who  created  her."  Eapiolani  went  down  the  steep  and 
difficult  side  of  the  crater,  and  arriving  at  the  bottom,  pushed  a  stick  into  the  liquid 
lava  and  stirred  the  ashes  of  the  burning  lake.  The  charm  of  superstition  was  at 
that  moment  broken.  It  was  expected  that  the  goddess,  armed  with  flame  and 
sulphureous  smoke,  would  have  burst  forth  and  destroyed  the  impious  intruder. 
But  seeing  the  fire  roll  as  harmlessly  as  if  no  one  were  present,  the  people  "  ac- 
knowledged the  greatness  of  the  God  of  Kapiolani,  and  from  that  time  few  have 
been  the  offerings  and  little  the  reverence  offered  to  the  fires  of  Peli."  Lord 
Byron's  Voyage  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  1827,  p.  188.  The  missionaries  had  made 
no  general  impression,  nor  could  the  king  and  chiefs  subdue  the  worship,  till  the 
rod  of  Kapiolani  thus  dissolved  the  spell. 

23  Doctissimus.     Flor.  Wig.  233,  234.     Analogous  to  Edwin's  conduct  in  this 
overthrow  of  the  Saxon  superstitions,  was  that  of  Riho  Kiho,  king  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  in  May,  1819,  which  maybe  here  noticed  as  illustrating  the  Northum- 
brian revolution,  and  confirming  its  historical  probability,  and  thereby  our  Bede's 
veracity.     After  several  conferences  with  his  nobles  on  the  absurdities  of  their  re- 
ligion, which  the  visits  of  Captain  Cook  and  others,  and  some  American  mission- 
aries, had  led  his  father's  mind  and  his  own  to  perceive,  he  declared  his  resolution, 
if  the  chiefs  consented,  to  desecrate  their  sacred  morais,  and  to  destroy  their  idols. 
His  mother  inquired,  "  What  harm  their  gods  had  done  ?  "     "  Nay,"  answered  the 
nobles,  "  what  good  ?    Are  not  the  offerings  we  are  required  to  make,  burdensome  ? 
Are  not  the  human  sacrifices  demanded  by  the  priests,  cruel  and  useless  ?     Do  not 
the  foreigners  laugh  at  our  supposing  these  ill -shaped  logs  of  wood  can  protect  us  ?  " 
The  maternal  queen  replied,  "  Do  as  you  will ; "  and  on  the  same  day  their  con- 
secrated places  and  images  were  destroyed,  and  Christianity  was  soon  after  intro- 
duced into  these  interesting  islands.    See  Ellis's  Narrative,  and  Lord  Byron's  Voyage, 
for  the  fuller  details. 

24  Flor.   Wig.  233.     Sax.  Chron.  27.     Bede,  ii.  c.  9.  and  16.     The  Menavian 

x  3 


310  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  which  prevailed  through  his  dominions  was  so  vigi- 
T'_J  lant,  that  it  became  an  aphorism  to  say,  that  a 
628-  woman,  with  her  new-born  infant,  might  walk  from 
sea  to  sea  without  fear  of  insult.  As  in  those  days 
travelling  was  difficult  and  tedious,  and  no  places 
existed  for  the  entertainment  of  guests,  it  was  an 
important  and  kind  convenience  to  his  people,  that 
he  caused  stakes  to  be  fixed  in  the  highways  where 
he  had  seen  a  clear  spring,  with  brazen  dishes  chained 
to  them,  to  refresh  the  weary  sojourner,  whose  fa- 
tigues Edwin  had  himself  experienced.  In  another 
reign  these  would  have  been  placed  only  to  have  been 
taken  away ;  but  such  was  the  dread  of  his  inquiring 
justice,  or  such  the  general  affection  for  his  virtues, 
that  no  man  misused  them.  It  is  remarked  by  Bede, 
as  an  instance  of  his  dignity  and  power,  that  his 
banner  was  borne  before  him  whenever  he  rode  out, 
either  in  peace  or  war.  When  he  walked  abroad,  the 
•  tufa  preceded  him.25 

ms  pros-  For  seventeen  years  he  reigned,  victorious  over  his 
u7dfange.  enemies,  and  making  his  subjects  happy.  But  Edwin, 
-  with  all  his  merit,  was  an  imperfect  character.  He 
had  admitted  Christianity  to  his  belief,  but  he  was 
forty-three  years  old  before  he  had  adopted  it.  His 
mind  and  temper  had  therefore  been  formed  into 
other  habits  before  he  allowed  the  new  faith  to  affect 
him.  He  was  still  the  Saxon  warrior,  and  partook  of 
the  fate  which  so  many  experienced  from  their  mar- 
tial character.  Five  years  had  not  elapsed  after  his 
conversion  before  his  reign  was  ended  violently ;  and 

islands  were  Eubonia  and  Mona,  or  Man  and  Anglesey.  — Bede,  c.  9.,  states  that 
Anglesey  contained  960  hydes  or  families,  and  Man  300.  The  fertility  of  Angle- 
sey occasioned  the  proverb,  Mon  mam  Cymry ;  Mona  the  mother  of  Wales.  Pryse's 
Pref.  to  Wynne's  Caradoc.  —  The  king  of  Gwynedd  had  his  royal  seat  in  it  at 
Aberfraw,  which  is  now  a  small  village.  Camp.  Reg.  1796,  p.  402. 

25  We  know,  from  a  passage  of  Vegetius,  corrected  by  Lipsius,  that  the  tufa  was 
one  of  the  Roman  ensigns  ;  and  we  are  informed  by  Isidorus,  that  Augustus  in- 
troduced a  globe  upon  a  spear  among  his  signa,  to  denote  a  subjected  world.  Lip- 
sius is  of  opinion  that  this  was  the  tufa  alluded  to  by  Bede.  -De  Militia  Romana, 
lib.  iv.  c.  5.  p.  169.  ed.  Antwerp,  1598. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  311 

the  disaster  resulted  from  his  ambition.  The  tender  CHAP. 
years  of  his  life  had  been  cherished  by  the  father  of 
Cadwallon,  the  sovereign  of  North  Wales;  but  when 
Edwin  had  obtained  the  sceptre  of  Ethelfrith,  he  duetto 
waged  furious  war  with  the  son  of  his  host.  We  and  Wales, 
know  neither  what  had  caused  him,  when  young,  to 
leave  his  asylum  in  Wales,  nor  what  occasioned  now 
the  hostility  between  him  and  Cadwallon.  But  as 
the  Welsh  king  invaded  Edwin,  we  may  presume 
him  to  have  been  the  aggressor.  Edwin  defeated 
Cadwallon,  who  had  penetrated  to  Widdrington, 
about  eight  miles  north  of  Morpeth.26  It  is  with 
regret  we  read  that  he  was  not  satisfied  with  de- 
fensive war,  and  did  not  forbear  to  use  the  rights  of 
victory  against  his  early  friend  and  protector.  He 
obeyed  his  resentment  or  his  ambition  in  prefer- 
ence to  his  gratitude.  He  pursued  Cadwallon  into 
Wales,  and  chased  him  into  Ireland.27  So  severely 
did  he  exercise  his  advantages,  that  the  British  Triads 
characterise  him  as  one  of  the  three  plagues  which 
befell  the  Isle  of  Anglesey.28 

For   a   few   years   his   authority   continued  over       ess. 
Gwynedd.     But  this  apparent  triumph  only  flattered 
him  into  ruin.    Cadwallon  besought  the  aid  of  Penda,  unite- 
the  Mercian  king,  who  armed  in  his  cause  with  all 
the  activity  of  youth.     The  confederated  kings  met 
Edwin  in  Hatfield  Chase  in  Yorkshire,  on  the  12th 
of  October.     As  Mercia  until  that  time  had  been  ob- 

'  ™  Jeffry's  account  of  the  quarrel  is,  that  Edwin  wished  to  wear  his  crown  inde- 
pendently of  the  Welsh  prince,  who  was  advised  to  insist  on  his  subjection,  and 
threatened  to  cut  off  his  head  if  he  dared  to  crown  it.  Lib.  xii.  c.  2,  3. 

27  The  34th  Triad  states,  that  Cadwalton  and  his  family  lived  seven  years  in 
Ireland,  p.  7.  — Jeffry  annexes  a  pretty  nurse  tale  to  Cadwallon's  exile.     Sailing  to 
Armorica,  he  was  driven  by  a  tempest  on  the  island  of  Garnereia ;  the  loss  of  his 
companions  affected  him  to  sickness  ;  for  three  days  he  refused  food,  on  the  fourth 
he  asked  for  venison ;  a  day's  search  discovered  none.     To  save  his  king,  Brian  cut 
an  ample  piece  out  of  his  own  thigh,  roasted  it  on  a  spit,  and  presented  it  to  the 
king  as  genuine  venison.     It  was  greedily  devoured.     The  wind  changed,  they  got 
safe  to  Armorica,  and  Brian  afterwards  killed  the  second-sighted  magician  of  Edwin. 
Lib.  xii.  c.  4.  and  7. 

28  Matt.  West.  224.,  in  his  De  combustis  Urbibus  et  Coloniis  destructis,  explains 
the  direful  scourge. 

x  4 


312  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     scure  and  tranquil,  and  an  appendage  to  his  kingdom 
.    1IL    .   of  Deira,   Edwin  had  no  reason  to  apprehend  any 
633-       danger  from  this  union.     But  the  end  of  all  battles 
is  uncertain :  the  death  of  a  commander ;  the  mistake 
of  a  movement ;  a  sudden  unforeseen  attack  on  some 
part ;  a  skilful,  even  at  times  an  accidental,  evolution, 
has  frequently  made  both  talent  and  numbers  un- 
availing.    The  detail  of  this  conflict  has  not  been 
transmitted,  but  its  issue  was  calamitous  to  Edwin. 
Edwin's       He   fell  in   his   forty -eighth  year,  with  one  of  his 


fate. 


children  ;  and  most  of  his  army  perished. 


I'll 


successes. 


The  victors  ravaged  Northumbria ;  the  hoary  Penda 
exercised  peculiar  cruelty  on  the  Christian  inha- 
bitants. Consternation  overspread  the  country.  The 
royal  widow  fled  in  terror,  under  the  protection  of 
Paulinus  and  a  valiant  soldier,  with  some  of  her 
children,  to  her  kinsman  in  Kent.30 

cadwaiion's  On  Edwin's  death,  the  ancient  divisions  of  North- 
umbria again  prevailed,  and  a  heptarchy  re-appeared. 
His  cousin  Osric,  the  grandson  of  Ella,  succeeded  to 
Deira ;  and  Eanfrid,  the  long  exiled  son  of  Ethelfrith, 
to  Bernicia :  both  restored  paganism,  though  Osric 
had  been  baptized.  The  Welsh  king  Cadwallon,  full 
of  projects  of  revenge  against  the  nation  of  the  Angles, 
continued  his  war.  Osric  rashly  ventured  to  besiege 

29  Osfrid  fell  before  his  father.     Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  20.     Sax.  Chron.  29.      Gibson 
and  Carte  place  the  battle  in  Hatfield  Chase.     Langhorn  prefers  Hethfield  in  Derby- 
shire, near  Cheshire,  176.  ;  others,  more  absurdly,  have  glanced  on  Hatfield  in 
Herts.     Near  the  Yorkshire  town  many  intrenchments  are  to  be  seen.     I  will  not 
aver  that  rats  shun  the  town,  or  that  the  sparrows  are  displeased  with  Lindham  in 
the  moors  below  it.     Gibson's  Add.  to  Camden,  725.  —  The  men  of  Powys  so  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  this  battle,  that  they  obtained  from  Cadwallon  a  boon  of 
fourteen  privileges.     The  Welsh  call  the  scene  of  conflict  Meigin.     Cynddelw,  cited 
in  Owen's  Llywarch,  p.  117. 

30  Eadbald  received  them  honourably,  and  made  Paulinus  bishop  of  Rochester. 
Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  20.     Sax.  Chron.  29.     He  gave  her  the  villam  maximam  Lininge 
(Liming)  cum  omnibus  adjacentibus,  in  which  she  built  a  monastery.     Hugo. 
Candid.  Csenob.  Burg.  Hist.  p.  37.   ed  Sparke.     She  exhibited  a  novelty  to  the 
English,  which  produced  serious  consequences.     She  took  the  veil.     Smith's  Notes 
on  Bede,  101.     The  hospitality  of  Eadbald  seems  not  to  have  been  unchequered  ; 
her  apprehension  of  him  and  Oswald  induced  her  to  send  her  children  to  France, 
to  Dagobert,  their  relation.     Bede,  c.  20. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  313 

him  in  a  strong  town 31,  but  an  unexpected  sally  of     CHAP. 

Cadwallon  destroyed  the  king  of  Deira.     For  a  year  , ^ » 

the  victor  desolated  Northurnbria :  his  success  struck       633* 
Eanfrid  with  terror,  and  his  panic  hurried  him  to  his 
fate.     He  went  with  twelve  soldiers  to  sue  peace  of 
the  Welshman.     Notwithstanding  the  sacred  purpose 
of  his  visit,  he  was  put  to  death. 

The  swords  of  Cadwallon  and  his  army  seemed  the 
agents  destined  to  fulfil  their  cherished  prophecy. 
The  fate  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  now  about  to 
arrive ;  three  of  their  kings  had  been  already  offered 
up  to  the  shades  of  the  injured  Cymry ;  an  Arthur 
had  revived  in  Cadwallon.  —  But  the  lying  prophecies 
of  hope,  and  human  augury,  have  been  the  experience 
and  the  complaint  of  ages,  and  are  never  more  fal- 
lacious than  in  ambition  and  war. 

Triumphant  with  the  fame  of  fourteen  great  battles       634. 
and  sixty  skirmishes32,  Cadwallon  despised  Oswald, 
the  brother  and  successor  of  Eanfrid,  who  rallied  the 
Bernician  forces,   and  attempted  to  become  the  de- 
liverer of  his  country.     "With  humble  confidence  the 
royal  youth  committed  his  cause  to  the  arbitration  of 
Providence33,  and  calmly  awaited  the  decision  on  the 
banks  of  the  Denise.34      There,  Cadwallon  and  the  Oswald  de- 
flower of  his  army  were  destroyed. 35     The  return  of  feats  hinu 

31  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  1.     The  town  was  a  municipium,  and  was  therefore  in  all 
probability  York.     Smith's  Notes  on  Bede,  103. 

32  Llywarch  Hen,  p.  111. 

33  The  piety  of  Oswald  previous  to  the  battle  is  expressed  by  Bede.     To  his 
arrayed  army  he  loudly  exclaimed  :  "  Let  us  kneel  to  the  Omnipotent  Lord,  the 
existing  and  the  true,  and  unite  to  implore  his  protection  against  a  fierce  and  arro- 
gant enemy.     He  knows  that  we  have  undertaken  a  just  war  for  the  safety  of  our 
people." — The  army  obeyed  the  royal  mandate.     Lib.  iii.  c.  2. 

34  Camden  places  this  battle  at  Dilston,  formerly  Devilston,  on  a  small  brook 
which  empties  into  the  Tyne,  854.,  Gib.  ed.  —  Smith,  with  greater  probability, 
marks  Erringburn  as  the  rivulet  on  which  Cadwallon  perished,  and  the  fields  either 
of  Cockley,  Hallington,  or  Bingfield,  as  the  scene  of  conflict.     App.  to  Bede,  721. 
The  Angles  called  it  Ilefenfield,  which  name,  according  to  tradition,  Bingfield  bore. 

35  Although  Jeffry  admits  Oswald  to  have  conquered  at  Havenfield,  yet  he  has 
sent  Penda  to  be  the  person  defeated  there  ;  and  instead  of  suffering  his  Cadwallon 
to  perish,  inflames  him  with  rage  at  the  disaster,  and  despatches  him  like  lightning 
in  chase  of  Oswald,  whom  he  permits  Penda  to  kill  ;  Cadwallon  then  became  pos- 
sessed of  all  Britain.     Lib.  xii.  c.  10,  11.     Such  is  the  veracity  of  Jeffry 's  history  1 


314  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     the  Cymry  to  their  ancient  country  never  became 
.    m>    .  probable  again.36 

634. 

36  The  ancient  bard  Llywarch  Hen  composed  in  his  old  age  an  elegy  on  Cad- 
wallon,  whose  death  he  lived  to  witness  ;  and  thus  speaks  of  his  friend  :  — 

Fourteen  great  battles  he  fought 
For  Britain,  the  most  beautiful ; 
And  sixty  skirmishes. 

Of  Lloegyr  (England) 
The  scourge  and  the  oppressor, 
His  hand  was  open ; 
Honour  flowed  from  it. 

Cadwallon  encamped  on  the  Yddon, 

The  fierce  affliction  of  his  foes. 

The  lion,  prosperous  against  the  Saxons. 

fcadwallon  in  his  fame  encamped 

On  the  top  of  Mount  Digoll : 

Seven  months,  and  seven  skirmishes  daily. 

He  led  the  hand  of  slaughter  in  the  breach ; 
Eagerly  he  pursued  the  conflict ; 
Stubborn  in  a  hundred  battles, 
A  hundred  castles  he  threw  down. 

He  made  the  eagles  full ; 

Violent  his  wrath  in  the  gash  ; 

As  the  water  flows  from  the  fountain, 

So  will  our  SOITOW  through  the  lingering  day, 

For  Cadwallon  ! 

Welsh  Arch.  i.  p.  121.;  arid  Owen's  Llywarch,  p.  111—117. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  315 


CHAP.  VIII. 

The   Reign,  Actions,  and  Death   of  PENDA.  —  History   of  the 
ANGLO-SAXON  Octarchy  to  the  Accession  of  ALFRED  of  NOR- 

THUMBRIA. 

ABOUT  this  time  the  kingdom  of  Mercia  was  not  only     CHAP. 
distinctly  formed,  but,  by  the  extraordinary  ability  of  .   VIIL 
one  man,  was  at  the  same  time  raised  to  a  greater      A-D- 

•        ,io  1         ./I  f*-j.  627—634. 

eminence  in  the  baxon  octarchy  than  any  of  its  pre-  Rise  of 
ceding  kings,  even  those  who  had  become  Bretwaldas,  Penda- 
had  actually  obtained.  This  man  was  Penda,  who, 
though  not  classed  among  the  Bretwaldas,  would,  if 
victory  over  the  other  Anglo-Saxon  states  had  given 
the  dignity,  have  possessed  it  more  rightfully  than 
any  other.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  several  petty 
adventurers  of  the  Angles  had  successively  penetrated 
into  the  inland  districts,  which  became  comprised  in 
the  kingdom  of  Mercia,  and  established  settlements 
among*  the  Britons  in  these  regions.  In  586,  one  of 
them,  named  Crida,  also  a  descendant  of  Woden, 
began  to  attain  a  regal  pre-eminence l ;  but  as  we 
may  infer  from  an  intimation  of  Nennius,  that  Penda 
first  separated  Mercia  from  the  kingdom  of  the 
northern  Angles,  Crida  must  have  been  in  subor- 
dination to  the  kingdom  of  Deira,  which  formed  its 
northern  frontier.2  In  627,  Penda,  the  grandson  of 
Crida,  succeeded  to  the  crown  at  that  age,  when 

1  Crida  is  the  first  Mercian  chief  that  is  mentioned  in  the  documents  which 
remain  to  us,  with  the  title  of  king.     He  began  to  reign  in  586.     Gale,  Script,  iii. 
p.  229.    Hunt.  315.    Lei.  Collect,  ii.  p.  56.    Ibid.  i.  p.  258.     Leland  from  an  old 
chronicle  observes,  vol.  i.  p.  211.,  that  the  Trent  divided  Mercia  into  two  kingdoms, 
the  north  and  the  south. 

2  Nennius,  p.  117.     "  Penda  primus  separavit  regnum  Merciorum  a  regno  Nor- 
dorum. "     Ceorl  acceded  between  Crida  and  Penda.     Rad.  Polych.  p.  229.     It  was 
Ceorl's  daughter  Quenburga  that  Edwin  married  in  his  exile.     Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  14. 


316  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  men  are  usually  more  disposed  to  ease  than  activity. 
.  m>  .  He  was  fifty  years  old  before  he  became  the  king  of 
634.  Mercia,  and  he  reigned  thirty  years 3 ;  but  it  was  to 
the  terror  and  destruction  of  several  of  the  other 
Anglo-Saxon  kings.  Mercia  had  neither  displayed 
power  nor  ability  before  his  accession ;  but  Penda's 
military  talents  and  uncommon  vigour  speedily  raised 
it  to  a  decided  and  overwhelming  preponderance.  In 
the  year  after  he  attained  the  crown,  we  find  him  in 
a  battle  with  Cynegils,  and  his  son  Cwichelm,  in 
Wessex,  at  Cirencester.  The  conflict  was  undecided 
during  the  whole  day,  and  in  the  ensuing  morning 
the  war  was  ended  by  a  treaty.4  Five  years  after- 
wards, at  the  age  of  sixty,  he  joined  Cadwallon,  and 
defeated  Edwin  of  Northumbria,  in  that  battle  in 
which  this  prince  was  slain.5 

Oswald  The  piety  of  Oswald  was  sincere,  and  influenced 

Northum-  his  conduct ;  he  obtained  a  bishop  from  Icolm-kill  to 
instruct  his  rude  subjects ;  and  he  earnestly  laboured 
to  advance  their  moral  tuition.  His  own  example 
strengthened  his  recommendations  on  that  essential 
duty,  without  which  all  human  talents,  and  all  hu- 
man aggrandisement,  are  unavailing  decorations.  In 
the  festival  of  Easter  a  silver  dish  was  laid  before 
him,  full  of  dainties.  While  the  blessing  was  about 
to  be  pronounced,  the  servant  appointed  to  relieve 
the  poor,  informed  the  king  that  the  street  was 
crowded  with  the  needy,  soliciting  alms.  Struck  by 
the  contrast,  that  while  he  was  feasting  with  luxury, 
many  of  his  subjects,  beings  of  feelings,  desires,  and 
necessities  like  his  own,  were  struggling  with  poverty; 
remembering  the  benevolent  precepts  of  Christianity, 
and  obeying  the  impulse  of  a  kind  temper,  he  or- 

3  Flor.  Wig.  dates  his  accession  in  627,  p.  232.     Penda  was  the  eleventh  de- 
scendant from  Woden,  by  his  son  Wihtlaeg,  ibid,  and  Hunt.  316. 

4  Hunt.  316.     Sax.  Chron.  29.     The  pacification  is  mentioned  by  Flor.  Wig. 
233.;  and  Matt.  West  217. 

5  See  before,  p.  350. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  317 

dered  the  food,  untouched,  to  be  given  to  the  sup-     CHAP. 
plicants,  and  the  silver  dish   to   be  divided  among   .  . 

them.6     The  beggar  for  one  instant  participated  in       634- 
the  enjoyments  of  a  king,  and  rank  was  admonished, 
in  that  fierce  arid  proud  day,  to  look  with  compassion 
on  the  misery  which  surrounds  it. 

Oswald  had  the  satisfaction  of  perceiving  the  bless- 
ings of  Christianity  diffused  into  Wessex.  A  spirit 
so  lowly  and  so  charitable  as  his  own,  must  have 
powerfully  felt  the  beauties  of  its  benign  morality. 
He  stood  sponsor  for  Cynegils,  who  received  baptism. 
The  nation  follo\ved  the  example  of  the  king.7 

While  Oswald  was  benefiting  his  age  by  a  display      642. 
of  those  gentle  virtues  which  above  all  others  are  f^ia* 
fitted  to  meliorate  the  human  character,  the  Mercian 
king  was  preparing  to  attack  him.     His  invasion  of 
Northumbria  was  fatal  to  the  less  warlike  Oswald, 
who  fell  at  Oswestry  in   Shropshire,  in  the  thirty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  ninth  of  his  reign. 
Oswald  breathed  his  last  sigh  in  prayer  for  his  friends.8 

As  ferocious  as  he  was  daring  and  restless,  Penda 
caused  the  head  and  limbs  of  Oswald  to  be  severed 
from  his  body,  and  exposed  on  stakes.9  He  pro- 
ceeded through  Northumbria  with  devastations,  and 
finding  himself  unable  to  carry  the  royal  city  of 
Bebbanburh  by  storm,  he  resolved  to  destroy  it  by  Pendaat- 
fire.  He  demolished  all  the  villages  in  its  vicinity, 
and  encompassing  the  place  with  a  great  quantity  of 
the  wood  and  thatch  of  the  ruins,  he  surrounded  the 
city  with  flames.  But  the  wind,  which  was  raising 
the  fiery  shower  above  the  city  walls,  suddenly  shifted. 
The  element  of  destruction,  most  fatal  to  man,  was 

6  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.     Oswald  was  Nepos  Edwini  regis  ex  sorore  Acha,  ibid. — 
As  he  united  Deira  and  Bernicia,  the  Saxon  states  formed,  during  his  reign,  an 
hexarchy. 

7  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  7.  8  Ibid.  c.  9. 

9  Ibid.  lib.  ii.  c.  12.  Oswy,  his  successor,  removed  and  interred  them,  ibid. 
But  the  Saxon  Chronicler  mentions  that  his  hands  were  at  Bebbanburh  in  his  time, 
p.  31.  They  were  kept  as  relics. 


318  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK      driven  back  from  its  expected  prey  on  those  who  had 
.    IIL    .   let  it  loose,  and  the  sanguinary  besiegers,  in  panic  or 
642j       in   prudence,    abandoned   the   place.10     The   North- 
umbrians  afterwards    made   Oswy,   the    brother   of 
Oswald,  their  king. 

643.  Penda's  next  warfare  was  against  Wessex.     Cen- 

walh,  the  son  of  Cynegils,  had  offended  him  by  re- 
pudiating his  sister.      He  invaded  and  expelled  him  ; 
and  Cenwalh  was   an  exile  from  Wessex   for   three 
years  before  he  could  regain  his  crown.11 
Destroys  In  the  year  after  Oswald's  death,  the  victorious 

ofEastgS  Penda  turned  his  arms  against  East  Anglia,  then  in 
a  state  of  unambitious  and  inoffensive  tranquillity. 
But  this  disposition  only  tempted  the  ambition  of 
the  Mercian.  In  this  country,  Sigebert  had  succeeded 
the  son  of  Kedwald,  whom  at  one  time  fearing,  he 
had  fled  into  France  for  safety,  and  there  became  a 
Christian,  and  attached  himself  to  study.  Attaining 
the  crown  of  East  Anglia,  he  founded  that  school  in 
his  dominions,  which  has  not  only  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first,  after  that  at  Canterbury,  which  the 
Anglo-Saxons  established  to  teach  reading  and  the 
literature  to  which  it  leads,  but  also  of  being  supposed 
to  have  formed  the  original  germ  of  the  university  of 
Cambridge.12  Sigebert  built  also  a  monastery ;  and 
preferring  devotion,  letters,  and  tranquillity  to  state, 
he  resigned  his  crown  to  his  kinsman  Ecgric,  who 

10  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  16. 

11  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  c.  7.     Flor.  Wig.  237.      Sax.  Chron.  32. 

12  Bede's  account  is,  that  desiring  to  imitate  what  he  had  seen  well  arranged  in 
Gaul,  he  instituted,  with  the  help  of  Felix  from  Kent,  a  school  in  which  youth 
should  be  instructed  in  letters.     Felix  gave  him  teachers  and  masters  from  Kent, 
lib.  iii.  c.  1 8.     Dr.  Smith  has  given  a  copious  essay  on  the  question,  whether  this 
was  the  foundation  of  the  university  at  Cambridge,  and  preceded  that  of  Oxford  in 
antiquity.     He  considers  himself  to  have  shown  "  feliciter  "  that  the  school  of  Sige- 
bert was  planted  at  Cambridge ;  but  admits  that  the  posterior  account,  which  Peter 
Blessensis  has  left  of  Joffrid's  teaching  near  Cambridge,  after  the  Norman  conquest, 
is  an  "  objectio  validissima,"  which  can  hardly  be  answered.     On  the  whole,  he 
thinks,  that  if  he  has  not  identified  the  Cambridge  university  with  the  school  of 
Sigebert,  he  has  at  least  shown,  that  the  fables  about  Alfred's  founding  Oxford  are 
to  be  entirely  rejected.     App.  No.  14.  p.  721 — 740. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  319 

was  reigning  in  a  part  of  East  Anglia,  assumed  the      CHAP. 
tonsure,  and  retired  into  the  monastery  which  he  had  .   vm'  > 
founded.     On  Penda's  invasion,  the  East  Anglians,       643- 
fearful  lest  their  reigning  monarch  should  be  unequal 
to  repel  his  superior  numbers,  drew  Sigebert  by  force 
from  his  monastery,  and  compelled  him  to  head  their 
army,  from  a  belief  that  it  would  prosper  under  the 
guidance  of  so  good  a  man.     He  led  them   to  the 
shock,  but,  disclaiming  all  weapons  of  destruction,  he 
used  only  a  wand  of  command.     His  skill  was  ex- 
celled by  the  veteran  ability  of  Penda.     Both  the 
East-Anglian  princes  fell,  and  their  army  was  dis- 
persed.13 

The  ambition  and  the  success  of  Penda  were  not  634- 
yet  terminated.  In  654,  he  marched  into  East 
Anglia,  against  Anna,  the  successor  of  Sigebert  and 
Ecgric,  and  destroyed  him.14  His  crime  was  un- 
pardonable in  the  eyes  of  Penda.  He  had  hospitably 
received  Cenwalh.15 

In  that  warlike  age,  when  every  man  was  a  soldier,  oswy. 
no  conquest  was  permanent,  no  victor  secure.  Penda 
lived  to  exhibit  an  instance  of  this  truth.  When 
Oswy  assumed  the  government  of  Bernicia  on  the 
death  of  Oswald,  he  placed  Os win,  son  of  Osric,  the 
kinsman  of  the  applauded  Edwin,  over  Deira.  Oswin, 
of  a  tall  and  graceful  stature,  distinguished  himself 
for  his  humanity  and  generosity,  but  could  not  allay 
the  jealousy  of  Oswy,  who  soon  became  eager  to 
destroy  the  image  he  had  set  up.  Oswin  shrunk 
from  a  martial  conflict,  and  concealed  himself,  with 
one  faithful  soldier,  Tondhere,  his  foster-brother,  in 
the  house  of  Earl  Hunwald,  his  assured  friend.  This 

13  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  18. 

14  Flor.  Wig.  240.     Sax.  Chron.  23.     Anna  was  the  son  of  Eni,  of  royal  descent. 
His  brother  Adelhere  acceded  on  Anna's  fall ;  but  in  his  second  year  was  slain  by 
the  army  of  Oswy.     The  third  brother,  Edewold,  a  pious  prince,  succeeded.     On 
his  death,  Adulph,  the  son  of  Anna,  was  crowned.     Hist.  Elien.  MSS.  Cott.  Lib. 
Nero.  A.  15. ;  and  1  Dugdale,  88. 

15  Bede,  lib.  iii.  cap.  18.  and  c.  7. 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     man  betrayed  him  to  Oswy,  and  suffered  him  to  be 

.      /    .   murdered.16     Os win  had  given  to  his  betrayer  the 

swhJ4'       possessions  he  enjoyed.     The  soldiers  of  Oswy,  whom 

killed.         he  guided,  entered  the  house  in  the  night.     Tondhere 

offered  himself  to  their  fury,  to  save  his  lord   and 

friend ;  but  had  only  the  consolation  to  perish  with 

him.17 

655.  Oswy  was,  however,  destined  to  free  the  Anglo- 

Saxon  octarchy  from  Penda.  When  this  aged  tyrant 
was  preparing  to  invade  his  dominions,  he  sued  long 
and  earnestly  for  peace  in  vain.  At  the  age  of  eighty, 
the  pagan  chief,  encouraged  by  his  preceding  successes, 
still  courted  the  chances  and  the  tumult  of  battle. 
Kejecting  the  negotiations  repeatedly  offered,  he 
hastened  with  the  veterans  whom  he  had  long  trained, 
to  add  Oswy  to  the  five  monarchs  whose  funeral 
honours  recorded  him  as  their  destroyer.  With 
trembling  anxiety  Oswy  met  him,  with  his  son  Alfred, 
and  a  much  inferior  force;  but  the  battle  is  not 
always  given  to  the  strong,  nor  the  race  to  the  swift. 
Penda  had  filled  up  the  measure  of  his  iniquities,  and 
Providence  released  the  country  from  a  ruler,  whose 
appetite  for  destruction  age  could  not  diminish. 
He  rushed  into  the  battle  with  Oswy  confident  of 
victory,  but  the  issue  was  unexpectedly  disastrous  to 
Penda's  him.  Penda,  with  thirty  commanders,  perished  before 
the  enemy,  whose  greatest  strength  they  had  subdued, 
and  whose  present  feebleness  they  despised.  The 
plains  of  Yorkshire  witnessed  the  emancipation  of 
England.18  Oidilwaid,  the  son  of  Oswald,  was  with 
the  forces  of  Penda,  but  not  desirous  to  assist  him. 
When  the  battle  began,  he  withdrew  from  the  con- 
flict, and  waited  calmly  for  the  event  in  a  distant 

position.     This  secession  may  have  produced  a  panic 

• 

16  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  14.  17  Dugd.  Mon.  i.  333. 

18  Sax.  Chron.  33.  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  24.  Winwidfield,  near  Leeds,  was  the  theatre 
of  the  conflict.  Camden,  Gib.  711. — Bede  does  not  explicitly  assert  that  Penda 
had  three  times  the  number  of  forces,  but  that  it  was  so  reported. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  .    321 

among  the  troops  of  Penda,   or  by  occupying    the      CHAP. 
jealous   attention   of  part  of  them,  diminished  the   <  „   ,  '  , 
number  which  acted  against  Oswy.     The  principal       655- 
leaders  of  the  Mercians  fell  in  defending  Penda,  and 
the  country  happening  to  be  overflowed,  more  perished 
by  the  waters  than  by  the  sword. 

By  the  death  of  Oswin  the  hexarchy  returned ; 
by  the  death  of  Penda,  a  pentarchy  appeared ;  for 
the  kingdom  of  Mercia  was  so  weakened  by  the  result 
of  this  battle,  that  it  fell  immediately  into  the  power 
of  Oswy,  who  conquered  also  part  of  Scotland. 

Penda,  during  his  life,  had  appointed  one  of  his 
sons,  Peada,  a  youth  of  royal  demeanour  and  great 
merit,  to  be  king  of  that  part  of  his  dominions  and 
conquests  which  were  called  Middle  Angles ;  Peada  Peada  in- 
had  visited  Oswy  in  Northumbria,  and  solicited  his 
daughter.  Alchfleda,  in  marriage.  To  renounce  his  into 

Mercia 

idols  and  embrace  Christianity,  was  made  the  con- 
dition of  her  hand.  As  his  father  was  such  a  deter- 
mined supporter  of  the  ancient  Saxon  superstition, 
and  was  of  a  character  so  stern,  the  princess  must 
have  inspired  her  suitor  with  an  ardent  affection  to 
have  made  him  balance  on  the  subject.  Peada  sub- 
mitted to  hear  the  Christian  preachers;  and  their 
three  great  topics,  the  resurrection,  the  hope  of 
future  immortality,  and  the  promise  of  a  heavenly 
kingdom,  inclined  him  to  adopt  the  religion  which 
revealed  them.  The  persuasions  of  Alfred,  the  eldest 
and  intelligent  brother  of  the  princess,  who  had 
married  his  sister  Cyneburga,  completed  the  im- 
pression. He  decided  to  embrace  Christianity,  even 
though  Alchfleda  should  be  refused  to  him.  He  was 
baptized  with  all  his  earls  and  knights,  who  had 
attended  him,  and  with  their  families,  and  took  four 
priests  home  with  him  to  instruct  his  people.19  The 

19  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  21.     The  names  of  the  four  priests  were,  Cidd,  Adda,  Betti, 
and  Diuraa.     The  three  first  were  Angles,  the  last  an  Irishman,  ibid, 

VOL.  I.  Y 


322  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK      Saxon  mind  appears  to  have  then  reached  that  state 
.   of  activity  and  judgment    which  had   become    dis- 
655-       satisfied  with  its  irrational  idolatry,  and   was   thus 
become  fitted  to  receive  the  belief  of  Christianity,  as 
soon  as  it  could  be  influenced  to  attend  steadily  to 
this  interesting  and  enlightening  religion.     The  ex- 
ertions of  the  ecclesiastics  were   successful.     Every 
day,  many  Mercians,  both  nobles  and  laity,  were  con- 
verted. 

.The  mind  of  Penda  himself  had  seemed  at  last  to 
lessen  its  aversion  to  the  new  faith  before  his  fall. 
He  allowed  it  to  be  preached  in  his  own  dominions 
to  those  who  chose  to  hear  it;  and  he  took  a  fair 
distinction  on  the  subject.  He  permitted  them  to 
believe,  if  they  practised  what  they  were  taught.  He 
is  stated  to  have  hated  and  despised  those  who 
adopted  Christianity,  but  did  not  perform  its  in- 
junctions ;  exclaiming  that  those  miserable  creatures 
were  worthy  only  of  contempt,  who  would  not  obey 
the  God  in  whom  they  believed.  This  important 
revolution  of  opinions  occurred  to  Mercia  about  two 
years  before  Penda's  death.20  His  character  was 
violent  and  ambitious,  but  his  mind  was  strong, 
decided,  and  of  a  superior  energy.  If  literature  and 
Christianity  had  improved  it,  his  talents  would  have 
placed  him  high  among  the  most  applauded  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  kings. 

Penda's  death  led  to  the  complete  conversion  of 
Mercia.  Oswy,  after  his  victory,  reigned  three  years 
over  it,  and  gave  to  his  son-in-law  Peada  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  Southern  Mercians,  whom  the  Trent 
divided  from  the  Northern.  To  read  that  Mercia 
beyond  the  Trent  contained  but  seven  thousand 
families,  and  in  its  other  part  only  five  thousand21, 
leads  us  to  the  opinion,  that  its  successes  under 

20  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  21.  21  Ibid.  c.  24. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  3  2  3 

Penda  had  not  arisen  from  the  numbers  of  its  popu-      CHAP. 

VTTT 

lation,  but  rather  from  his  great  military  abilities  and   ,.     v  '  > 
powerful  capacity.     From  his  reign  it  advanced  with       655- 
a  steady  and  rapid   progress.       Christianity   spread 
through  it  with  great  celerity  after  Penda's  death. 
Its  two  first  bishops  were  Irishmen  ;  and  the  third, 
though  born  an  Angle,  was  educated  in  Ireland. 

In  the  spring  after  his  father's  death,  Peada  was  His 


assassinated  at  his  Easter  festival  :  the  report  pre- 
served by  the  chroniclers  is,  that  it  was  the  result 
of  the  treachery  of  his  queen.22  Another  tradition, 
but  of  slender  authority,  ascribes  it  to  the  arts  of 
her  mother,  who  was  still  a  pagan.23  It  may  have 
arisen  from  the  resentments  of  those  who  lamented 
the  fall  of  the  ancient  idolatry,  which  Peada  had 
first  subverted  in  Mercia.  He  had  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  celebrated  monastery  at  Peterborough 
before  he  fell,  which  his  brother  completed.24 

The  chieftains  of  Mercia  had  submitted  to  the 
Northumbrian  king  with  an  impatient  reluctance. 
They  concealed  Wulf  here,  another  of  Penda's  children, 
among  themselves,  till  a  fit  occasion  arose  of  using 
his  name  and  rights  :  and  after  Peada's  death,  three 
of  them  placed  Wulfhere  at  their  head,  assembled 
in  arms,  disclaimed  the  authority  of  Oswy,  expelled 
his  officers,  and  made  their  young  leader  their  king. 

22  So  Bede,  c.  24.  ;   Sax.  Chron.  33.;  and  Malmsb.  p.  27.     It  is  not  uninterest- 
ing to  read  how  characteristically  an  ancient  monk  expresses  the  incident.     "  The 
enemy  of  the  human  race  instigated  against  him  that  nature  by  which  he  deprived 
us  of  the  joys  of  Paradise  ;  to  wit,  his  wife  Alfleda,  who  betrayed  and  slew  him." 
Hug.  Cand.  p.  4.     The  Norman  Rhimed  Chronicle  also  ascribes  the  crime  to  the 
queen  :  — 

Alfled  la  reine  engine  taunt  doluersment, 
Ke  ele  sun  barun  tuat  par  graunt  traisement. 

Ed.  Sparke,  243. 

23  Speed  quotes  Rob.  Swapham  to  this  effect,  but  I  have  not  met  with  the  pas- 
sage.    The  register  of  Peterborough,  Ap.  Dugd.  i.  p.  63.,  uses  the  phrase,  indigna 
et  immatura  morte,  without  designating  the  person,  whom  Ingulf  also  omits. 
Huntingdon  has  merely,  ipso  occiso,  p.  317. 

24  Chron.  Petrib.  p.  1.     It  was  called  Medeshamstede,  because  there  was  a  well 
there  named  Medes-wel.     Sax.  Chron.  33. 


324 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


Christia. 
nity  re- 
stored in 
Essex. 


They  succeeded  in  establishing  the  independence  of 
their  country.25 

Wessex  now  began  to  emerge  into  activity  and 
power.  Her  king,  Cenwalch,  defeated  the  Britons, 
who  had  imagined,  that,  after  his  defeat  by  Penda, 
he  would  prove  an  easy  conquest.26  Pen  in  Somer- 
setshire was  the  place  of  their  conflict :  the  Britons 
attacked  with  an  impetuosity  that  was  at  first  suc- 
cessful, but  at  length  were  defeated,  and  chased, 
with  a  slaughter  from  which  they  never  recovered, 
to  Pedridan  on  the  Parrett.27  This  locality  would 
seem  to  intimate,  that  it  was  the  Britons  of  Cornwall 
and  Devonshire  who  had  principally  invaded.  Ani- 
mated by  this  success,  Cenwalch  sought  to  revenge 
on  Mercia  and  Wulfhere  the  disgrace  which  he  had 
suffered  from  his  father.  A  struggle  ensued,  in 
which,  after  some  reverses,  the  Mercians  prevailed, 
and  part  of  Wessex  was  subjected  to  the  authority 
of  the  Mercian  king.28 

Christianity  was  restored  about  this  period  in  Essex, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  Oswy.  Sigeberht  its 
king  came  frequently  into  Northumbria,  and  Oswy 
used  to  reason  with  him,  that  those  things  could  not 
be  gods  which  the  hands  of  men  had  made;  that 
wood  and  stone  could  not  be  the  materials  of  which 
Deity  subsisted :  these  were  destroyed  by  the  axe 

25  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  24. 

26  Huntingdon,  lib.  ii.  p.  317.,  et  facta  est  super  progeniem  Bruti  plaga  insana- 
bilis  in  die  ilia.     Ib. 

27  "  Et  persecuti  sunt  eos  usque  ad  locum  qui  Pederydan  nuncupatur."     Ethel- 

werd,  p.  836. — So  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  hy  geflymde  oth  Pedridan,  p.  39 There 

is  a  place  on  the  Parret,  in  Somersetshire,  the  entrance  of  which  was  called  Pedri- 
dan muth,  perhaps  the  Aber  Peryddon  of  Golyddan. 

28  Matt.  West.  216. — The  issue  of  this  battle  has  been  differently  stated.    Ethel- 
werd,  837.,  makes  Cenwalch  take  Wulfhere  prisoner  at  vEscesdun,  or  Aston,  near 
Wallingford,  in  Berks.  — The  Saxon  Chronicle,  39.,  and  Flor.  Wigorn.  241.,  as  far 
as  they  express  themselves,  imply  the  contrary. — Malmsb.  says,  the  Mercian  was 
at  first  graviter  afflictus  by  the  loss,  but  afterwards  avenged  himself,  p.  27.  —  The 
expressions  of  Bede,  that  Wulfhere  gave  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  a  province  in  West 
Saxony  to  the  king  of  Sussex  in  one  part  of  his  life,  lib.  iv.  c.  13.,  and  that  Cen- 
walch, during  Wulfhere's  life,  was  gravissimis  regni  sui  damnis  saepissime  ab  hosti- 
bus  adflictus,  lib.  iii.  c.  7.,  fully  countenance  the  idea,  that  if  Cenwalch  at  first 
prevailed,  the  ultimate  triumphs  were  enjoyed  by  Wulfhere. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  325 

and  by  fire,  or  were  often  subjected  to  the  vilest  CHAP. 
occasions.  As  Sigeberht  admitted  these  obvious  *. — ,_j 
truths,  Oswy  described  the  real  object  of  human  659- 
worship  to  be  that  Eternal  and  Almighty  Being,  to 
us  invisible,  and  in  majesty  incomprehensible;  yet 
who  had  deigned  to  create  the  heavens,  and  the  earth, 
and  the  human  race ;  who  governs  what  he  framed, 
and  will  judge  the  world  with  parental  equity.  His 
everlasting  seat  was  not  in  perishing  metals,  but  in 
the  heavens  ;  in  those  regions  where  he  had  pro- 
mised to  give  endless  recompense  to  those  who  would 
study  and  do  the  will  of  their  Lord  and  Maker.  The 
frequent  discussion  of  these  topics  at  length  con- 
quered the  resisting  minds  of  Sigeberht  and  his 
friends.  After  consulting  together,  they  abandoned 
their  idolatry  ;  and  the  king  adopted  the  Christian 
faith  as  the  religion  of  Essex.29 

Sussex  had  embraced  the  opportunity  of  Cenwalch's 
exile  to  terminate  its  subordination  to  Wessex.  In 
645  Penda  had  expelled  Cenwalch  from  "Wessex ;  and 
in  648  we  find  Edilwalch  commencing  his  reign  as 
king  of  Sussex.30  He  submitted  to  the  predominance 
and  courted  the  friendship  of  Wulf here ;  and  in  661 
received  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  the  Meanwara  dis- 
trict in  Hampshire,  part  of  the  spoils  of  Wessex,  from 
the  bounty  of  his  conqueror.  Sussex  at  this  period 
contained  seven  thousand  families,  but  remained 
attached  to  its  idol  worship.  But  Wulfhere  per- 
suaded Edilwaid  to  be  baptized  ;  and  by  the  exertions 
of  Wilfrid,  the  bishop  most  distinguished  in  his  day, 
the  little  kingdom,  about  A.  D.  688,  exchanged  its 
paganism  for  Christianity.31  Essex  also  submitted 

29  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  22.     This  was  in  653, 

30  Matt.  West.,  p.  224.,  mentions  the  expulsion  of  Cenwalch.      So  Floren.  Wig. 

p.  237.  —  In  648  the  exiled  monarch  returned.     Flor.  Wig.  238 In  661,  Matt. 

West,  places  the  1 3th  year  of  ^Ethelwald's  reign  in  Sussex,  p.  232. 

31  Bede,  lib.  iv.  c.  13.     Sax.  Chron.  p.  39.     The  annotator  on  Bede  remarks, 
that  the  memorial  of  this  province  remains  still  in  the  names  of  the  hundreds  of 
Meansborough,  Eastmean,  Westmean,  and  Mansbridge,  Smith's  Bede,  p.  155. 

T  3 


326  HISTORY   OF   THE 

afterwards  to  Wulfhere32,  who  became  now  the  most 
important  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  sovereigns,  though  he 
is  not  mentioned  with  the  title  of  Bretwalda,  which 
seems  to  have  been  discontinued  after  this  period. 
Perhaps  the  conjecture  on  this  dignity  which  would 
come  nearest  the  truth,  would  be,  that  it  was  the 
walda  or  ruler  of  the  Saxon  kingdoms  against  the 
Britons,  while  the  latter  maintained  the  struggle  for 
the  possession  of  the  country :  a  species  of  Agamem- 
non against  the  general  enemy,  not  a  title  of  dignity 
or  power  against  each  other.  If  so,  it  would  be  but 
the  war-king  of  the  Saxons  in  Britain,  against  its 
native  chiefs. 

67o.  Oswy  is  ranked  by  Bede,  the  seventh,  as  Oswald 

na<i  been  the  sixth,  of  the  kings  who  preponderated 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  octarchy.33  He  died  in  this 
year.34  His  greatest  action  was  the  deliverance  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons  from  the  oppressions  of  Pen  da  ;  he 
also  subdued  the  Picts  and  Scots ;  but  the  fate  of 
the  amiable  Oswin,  whom  he  destroyed,  shades  his 
memory  with  a  cloud.35  Alfred,  his  eldest  son,  who 
had  assisted  to  gain  the  laurels  of  his  fame  in  the 
field  of  Winwid,  was  rejected  from  the  succession, 
for  his  illegitimacy,  and  the  younger,  Ecgfrid,  was 
placed  over  the  united  kingdoms  of  Northumbria.36 

672.  On  the  death  of  Cenwalch,  his  widow,   Saxburga, 

Saxburga 

32  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  30. — Hugo  Candidus  names  Sigher  as  the  king  of  Sussex  sub- 
dued by  Wulfhere.    Coenob.  Burg.  Hist.  p.  7.  and  8. — This  is  a  misnomer.    Sigher 
reigned  with  Sebbi  in  Essex  at  this  period.     That  Surrey  was  also  in  subjection  to 
Wulfhere,  appears  from  a  charter  in  the  register  of  Chertsey  Abbey,  in  which  Frith- 
wald,  the  founder,  styles  himself  "  Provinciae  Surrianorum  subregulus  regis  Wlfarii 
Mercianorum."     This  was  in  666.     MSS.  Cotton.  Lib.  Vitel.  A.  13.     This  Frith- 
wald  is  called  King. 

33  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  5.     Sax.  Chron.  p.  7. 

34  Sax.  Chron.  40.     Chron.  Abb.  Petri  de  Burgo,  p.  2. 

35  If  Oswin's  character  has  not  been  too  favourably  drawn,  his  death  was  a  great 
loss  to  his  contemporaries.     His  tall  and  handsome  person  was  adorned  by  a  dis- 
position unfrequent  in  his  age  ;  affatu  jucundus,  moribus  civilis,  omnibus  manu 
largus,  regum  humilimus,  amabilis  omnibus.    Flor.  Wig.  237.    To  the  same  purport 
Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  14.,  and  Matt.  West.  224. 

36  Reprobate  notho  — factione  optimatum  quamquam  seniore.    Malms.  20,  2 1. — 
Ecgfrid  had  resided  as  a  hostage  with  the  Mercian  queen  at  the  time  of  Penda's  fall. 
Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  24. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  327 

assumed  the  sceptre  of  Wessex.     She  wielded  it  with     CHAP. 

VI TT 

courage  and  intelligence;  she  augmented  her  army  . 

with  new  levies,  and  encouraged  her  veterans.  The  672- 
submissive  were  rewarded  by  her  clemency ;  to  the 
enemy  a  firm  countenance  was  displayed37 ;  but  the 
proud  barbarians  of  Wessex  disdained  even  a  govern- 
ment of  wisdom  in  the  form  of  a  woman38;  and  for 
ten  years  the  nobles  shared  the  government.  In  the  674. 
first  part  of  this  interval,  J^scuin,  son  of  Cenfusus,  "Escum- 
a  prevailing  noble,  descended  from  Cerdic,  is  men- 
tioned to  have  ruled.39  He  led  a  powerful  force 
against  Wulfhere,  the  king  of  Mercia ;  a  battle,  in 
which  there  was  great  mutual  destruction,  but  whose 
issue  was  doubtful,  ensued  at  Bedwin  in  Wilts.  "  It  is 
worth,  our  while,"  says  the  moralising  historian,  "  to 
observe  how  contemptible  are  the  glorious  wars  and 
noble  achievements  of  the  great.  Both  these  con- 
tending kings,  whose  vanity  and  pomp  hurled  thou- 
sands of  their  fellow-creatures  to  their  graves,  scarcely 
survived  the  battle  a  year."  40  Within  a  few  months 
Wulfhere  died  of  a  natural  disease ;  and  in  676 
-^Escuin  followed.  Kentwin  is  denominated  his  sue-  Kentwin. 
cessor 41 ;  and  Ethelred,  the  surviving  son  of  Penda, 
acceded  to  the  crown  of  Mercia,  and  ravaged  Kent.42 


37  Malms.  14.     She  reigned  for  one  year.     Sax.  Chron.  41. 

38  "  Indignantibus  regni  magnatibus  expulsa  est  a  regno,  nolentibus  sub  sexu 
foemineo  militare."     Matt.  West.  236. 

39  There  is  a  seeming  contradiction  on  this  point  between  Bede  and  the  Saxon 
Chronicle.     Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  12.,  says,  that  after  Cenwalch's  death,  acceperunt  sub- 
reguli  regnum  gentis,  et  divisum  inter  se  tenuerunt  annis  circiter  decem.  —  Flor. 
Wig.,  246.,  mentions  this  passage,  but  mentions  also  the  opposite  account  of  the 
Anglica  Chronica.     The  Saxon  Chronicle,  after  Saxburga's  year,  places  ^Escuin  in 
674,  and  Kentwin  in  676,  both  within  the  ten  years  of  Bede,  p.  41.  44.     I  cannot 
reject  the  evidence  of  Bede,  who  was  born  at  this  time.     Perhaps  ^Escuin  and 
Kentwin  were  the  most  powerful  of  the  nobles,  and,  being  of  the  race  of  Cerdic, 
enjoyed  the  supremacy.     Ina's  Charter  authenticates  Kentwin's  reign.     See  it  In 
Malmsb.  de  Ant.  Glast.    Gale,  iii.  311.    Alfred,  in  his  Chronological  Fragment,  in- 
serted in  his  Bede,  mentions  both  jEscuin  and  Kentwin.     Walker's  Elfred.     Mag. 
App.  p.  199. 

40  H.  Hunting,  p.  318.     Sax.  Chron.  45. 

41  Sax.  Chron.  44.     Ethelwerd,  837. 

42  Sax.  Chron.  44.     The  Chronicon  of  Peterborough  dates  the  invasion  of  Kent 
in  677,  p.  3. 

Y  4 


328 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 

III. 

' , 

674. 

Ecgfrid  of 
Northura- 
bria. 


664. 
A  pesti- 

Icnce. 


Ecgfrid,  who  was  governing  in  Northumbria,  had 
repulsed  with  great  slaughter  an  invasion  of  the 
Picts.  Their  general,  Bernhaeth,  fell,  and  the  corpses 
of  his  followers  stopped  the  current  of  the  river 
which  flowed  near  the  scene  of  ruin, 43  In  679  Ecgfrid 
invaded  Mercia,  though  Ethelred  had  married  his 
sister,  The  Mercians  met  him  on  the  Trent,  and,  in 
the  first  battle,  his  brother  ^Elfuin  fell.  More  calami- 
tous warfare  impended  from  the  exasperation  of  the 
combatants,  when  the  aged  Theodore  interposed.  His 
function  of  archbishop  derived  new  weight  from  his 
character,  and  he  established  a  pacification  between 
the  related  combatants.  A  pecuniary  mulct  com- 
pensated for  the  fate  of  JElfuin,  and  the  retaliation 
in  human  blood  was  prevented.  ** 

A  destructive  pestilence  began  to  spread  through 
Britain,  from  its  southern  provinces  to  the  northern 
regions,  and  equally  afflicted  Ireland,  in  664.45  The 
calamity  extended  to  Wales,  and  many  of  the  natives 
emigrated  to  Bretagne.  Cadwaladyr,  the  son  of  Cad- 
wallon,  accompanied  them.  He  was  kindly  received 
by  one  of  the  Breton  kings,  and  partook  of  his  hospi- 
tality, till  devotion  or  an  aversion  to  the  military 
vicissitudes  of  the  day,  induced  him  to  abandon  his 
royal  dignity  in  Wales,  and  to  visit  Eome.  He  was 
the  last  of  the  Cymry  who  pretended  to  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  island.4^ 

48  Malmsb.  Gest.  Pontiff,  lib.  iii.  p.  261.     Eddius  fills  two  riwrs  with  tbe  bodies, 
over  which  the  victors  passed  "  siccis  pedibus."     Vit.  Wilf.  c.  19.  p.  61.  ed  Gale. 

44  Bede,  lib.  iv.  c.  21.      Malmsb.  20.  28.      Sax.  Chron.  44.     Ecgfrid  had  con- 
quered Lincolnshire  from  Wulfhere  before  Ethelred 's  accession,  Bede,  lib.  ii.  c.  12. 

45  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  27. 

46  Jeffry,  Brit.  Hist,   lib,  xii.  c.  17,  18.     This  work  and  the  Brut.  Tysilio  and 
Brut.  G.  ab  Arthur  end  here.      The  death  of  Cadwaladyr  is  the  termination  of  those 
British  Chronicles  which  contain  the  fabled  history  of  Arthur  and  his  predecessors ; 
and  they  close  analogously  to  their  general  character ;  for  the  voice  of  an  angel  is 
made  use  of  to  deter  Cadwaladyr  from  returning  to  Britain.      The  reason  added  for 
the  celestial  interference  is,  because  the  Deity  did  not  choose  that  the  Britons  should 
reign  in  the  island  before  the  time  predicted  by  Merlin.      The  same  voice  ordered 
him  to  Rome,  and  promised  that  his  countrymen  should,  from  the  merit  of  their 
faith,  again  recover  the  island,  when  the  time  foretold  was  arrived  ! !     Jeffry,  lib. 
xii.  c.  17.     Brut.  Tys.  and  Brut.  Arth.  p.  386. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  329 

When  Cadwaladyr  settled  at  Rome,  Alan,  the  king     CHAP. 
of  Bretagne,  sent  his  son  Ivor,  and  his  nephew  Inyr,   . 
with  a  powerful   fleet,   to  regain  the  crown  which       688- 
Cadwaladyr  had  abandoned  or   lost.     Ivor   was  at 
first  so  successful,  that  he  defeated  the  Saxons,  and 
took  Cornwall,  Devonshire,  and  Somersetshire.     But       69i. 
Ken  twin  met  him  with  the  West  Saxon  power,  and 
chasing  him  to  the  sea,  again  disappointed  the  hopes 
of  the   Cymry.47     Rodri   Maelwynawc  assumed  the       698. 
pennaduriaeth,    or    sovereignty    of    the    Cymry,    on 
Ivor's  departure  for  Rome.48 

The  restless  Ecgfrid  soon  turned  his  arms  upon       684. 
Ireland.     This  nation,  although  some  of  its  tribes  were  J^"^ 
occasionally  at  variance  with  the  Welsh,  had  always  Ireland. 
continued    in   strict  amity  with  the  English49;  but 
this  peaceful  forbearance  was  no  protection  from  the 
avarice  of  power.     Their  country  was  miserably  ra- 
vaged by   Beorht,    the  Northumbrian   general  ;   the 
lands  of  Bregh  were  plundered,  and  many  churches 
and  monasteries  were  destroyed.     The  islanders  de- 
fended  their   domestic   lares  with   valour,    and   the 
Angles  retreated. 

It  is  at  this  period  that  Ireland  appears  to  have 


47  Brut,  y  Saeson  and  the  Brut,  y  Tywysoglon,  p.  468  —  470.     Sax.  Chron.  45. 
Wynne's  History  of  Wales  is  not  a  translation  of  Caradoc.     It  is  composed  from  his 
work,  with  many  additions  badly  put  together. 

48  Brut,  y  Tywys,  p.  471.     Dr.  Pughe's  biographical  notice  of  Cadwaladyr  may 
be  read  as  a  good  summary  of  the  chief  incidents  that  concern  this  celebrated 
Welsh  prince.     Cadwaladyr,  son  of  Cadwallon  ab  Cadwan,  succeeded  to  the  nominal 
sovereignty  of  Britain,  in  the  year  660.     Disheartened  at  the  progress  of  the 
Saxons,  he  went  to  Rome  in  686,  and  died  in  703.     With  him  the  title  of  king  of 
the  Britons  ceased,  and  such  parts   as  were  not  conquered  by  the  Saxons  were 
governed  by  different  chiefs,  as  Strathclyde,  Cornwall,  and  Wales.     In  the  Triads 
he  is  styled  one  of  the  three  princes  who  wore  the  golden  bands,  being  emblems  of 
supreme  authority,  which  were  worn  round  the  neck,  arms,  and  knees.     He  was 
also  called  one  of  the  three  blessed  kings,  on  account  of  the  protection  and  support 
afforded  by  him  to  the  fugitive  Christians  who  were  dispossessed  by  the  Saxons. 
There  is  a  church  dedicated  to  him  in  Mona,  and  another  in  Denbighshire.    Camb. 
Biog.  p.  34. 

49  Bede  characterises  the  Irish  as  a  people  innoxiam  et  nation!  Anglorum  semper 
amicissimam,  lib.  iv.   c.  26.  —  Malmsbury  describes  them  as  a  "  genus  hominum 
innocens,  genuina  simplicitate,  nil  unquam  mali  moliens,"  p.  20. 


330  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  been  conspicuous  for  the  literature  of  some  of  her 
'  monastic  seminaries.  Bede  states,  that  many  of  the 
684-  noble  and  middle  classes  of  the  English  left  their 
country,  and  went  to  Ireland,  either  to  study  the 
Scriptures  or  to  pass  a  more  virtuous  life.  Some 
connected  themselves  with  the  monasteries,  and  pre- 
ferred passing  from  the  abode  of  one  master  to  that 
of  another,  applying  themselves  to  reading.  The 
Irish  received  them  all  most  hospitably,  supplied 
them  with  food  without  any  recompense,  and  gave 
them  books  to  read,  and  gratuitous  tuition.50 

In  the  next  year,  Ecgfrid  invaded  the  Picts  with 

the  same  purpose  of  depredation ;  but  a  feigned  flight 

of  the  natives  seduced  him  into  a  defile.     At  Drum- 

nechtan  the  fierce  assault  of  patriotism  was  made, 

siain  by       and  Ecgfrid  perished  with  most  of  his  troops.61     The 

the  picts.     ^dy  of  ^gfrid  was  taken  to  Icolmkill,  the  celebrated 

isle  of  St.  Columba,  and  buried  there. 52 

This  disastrous  expedition  humbled  the  power  of 
Northumbria. 53  The  Irish  and  Scotch  immediately 
disclaimed  its  predominance,  and  some  of  the  Welsh 
princes  obtained  their  independence.  This  kingdom, 
which,  in  the  hands  of  Ethelfrid,  Edwin,  and  Oswy, 
had  menaced  the  others  with  subjection,  was  formid- 
able to  its  contemporaries  no  more.  The  kings  of 
Wessex  and  Mercia  obscured  it  by  their  superior 

80  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  27.  He  mentions  two  of  these  monasteries  by  name,  Paeg- 
nalaech  and  Rathmelsigi.  The  studies  pursued  in  Ireland  about  this  time  are  im- 
plied rather  than  expressed,  in  the  tumid  and  not  easily  comprehensible  epistle  of 
Aldhelm,  to  be  the  geometrical  and  grammatical  arts,  logic,  rhetoric,  and  the  Scrip- 
tures. I  can  hardly  guess  what  he  means  by  his  "  bis  ternasque  omissas  physicae 
artis  machinas."  Ush.  Syll.  p.  39. 

51  Bede,  lib.  iv.  c.  26.     The  annals  of  Ulster  thus  mention  his  death  :   "  Battle 
of  Drumnechtan,  on  the  20th  May,  where  Ecgfred  M'Offa  was  killed  with  a  vast 
number  of  his  men.     He  burnt  Tula-aman  Duinolla."     Ant.  Celt.  Nor.  p.  59. 

52  Sun.  Dun.,  p.  5.,  calls  the  place  of  battle  Nechtonesmere,  which  corresponds 
with  the  Drumnechtan  of  the  Irish  Chronicle. 

63  Thirteen  years  afterwards,  Beorht,  endeavouring  to  revenge  the  calamity  by 
another  invasion,  also  perished,  Bede,  lib.  v.  p.  24.  —  Ann.  Ulst.  59.  Sax.  Chron. 
49.  Hunting.  337. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  331 

power,  and  it  precipitated  its  own  fall  by  incessant     CHAP. 
usurpations  and  civil  wars. 54  . 

684. 

54  Bede  remarks  the  fines  angustiores  of  Northumbria  after  Ecgfrid,  lib.  iv.  c.  26. 
It  is  about  this  time  that  the  authentic  chronicles  of  the  Welsh  begin.  Four  of 
them  are  printed  in  the  Welsh  Archaiology,  vol.  ii.  The  Brut  y  Tywysogion  begins 
\vith  the  year  680,  and  ends  about  1280,  p.  390 — 467.  This  is  printed  from  the 
Ked  Book  of  Hergest.  The  Brut  y  Saeson,  which  is  in  the  Cotton  Library,  begins, 
after  a  short  introduction,  in  683,  and  ends  in  1197.  Another  copy  of  the  Brut 
y  Tywysogion,  printed  from  MSS.  in  Wales,  begins  660,  and  ends  1196.  Some 
extracts  are  also  printed  from  another  Chronicle,  called,  from  the  name  of  a  former 
transcriber,  Brut  Jeuan  Brechfa,  beginning  686.  These  last  three  Chronicles  oc- 
cupy from  p.  468.  to  p.  582.  These  Chronicles  refer  to  Caradoc  of  Llancarvan, 
who  lived  in  the  twelfth  century,  as  their  author.  As  they  contain  facts  and  dates 
not  always  the  same  in  all,  it  is  not  probable  that  Caradoc  wrote  them  all.  Their 
variations  seem  to  have  arisen  from  the  imitations  or  additions  of  the  ancient  tran- 
scribers, who  have  brought  them  down  below  the  times  of  Caradoc.  Their  general 
character  is  that  of  plain  simple  chronicles,  in  an  humble,  artless  style,  but  seldom 
correct  in  their  chronology.  They  scarcely  ever  agree  with  the  Saxon  dates. 


332 


HISTORY   OF  THE 


BOOK 
III. 

684—728. 
Alfred  of 
Northum- 
bria. 


CHAP.  IX. 

Reign  of  ALFRED  of  NORTHUMBRIA  and  his  Successors. — History 
of  WESSEX  to  the  Death  of  INA. 

THE  important  improvements  which  always  occur  to 
a  nation,  when  its  sovereign  is  attached  to  literature, 
give  peculiar  consequence  to  the  reign  of  Alfred,  who 
succeeded  his  brother  Ecgfrid  in  Northumbria.  He 
was  the  eldest,  but  not  the  legitimate,  son  of  Oswy, 
and  was,  therefore,  prevented  by  the  nobles  of  his 
country  from  ascending  the  throne,  to  which  they 
elected  his  younger  brother.  This  exclusion  kept 
him  several  years  from  the  royal  dignity,  but  was 
beneficial  both  to  his  understanding  and  his  heart. 
His  name  alone  would  interest  us,  as  the  precursor 
of  the  greater  sovereign,  his  namesake ;  but  the 
similarity  of  his  intellectual  taste  and  temper  with 
the  pursuits  and  sentiments  of  the  celebrated  Alfred 
of  Wessex,  makes  his  character  still  more  interesting. 
We  cannot  avoid  remembering  the  lives  and  pursuits 
of  those  eminent  men  whose  names  we  may  happen 
to  hear ;  and  as  Alfred  of  Northumbria  appears  in 
Bede  as  the  first  literary  king  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  we  may  reasonably  suppose,  that  his  example 
and  reputation  had  no  small  influence  in  suggesting 
the  love  of  study,  and  arousing  the  emulation  of  the 
distinguished  son  of  Ethelwulf. 

Alfred,  of  Northumbria,  whom  Eddius  distin- 
guishes by  the  epithet  of  the  most  wise,  had  been 
educated  by  the  celebrated  Wilfrid.1  He  had  go- 

1  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  25.  He  remunerated  bis  preceptor  by  a  bishopric,  in  the 
second  year  of  his  reign.  Ibid.  lib.  v.  c.  19.— Eddius,  Vit.  Wilf.  c.  43.  — The 
Saxon  MS.  in  the  Cotton.  Library,  Vesp.  D.  14.  p.  132.,  spells  the  name  Alfred. 
Bede  calls  him  Alfridus. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


333 


IX. 


684. 


verned  Deira,  under  his  father  Oswy,  and  had  contri-  CHAP. 
buted  to  the  defeat  of  Penda.  He  had  cultivated  a 
friendship  with  Peada  and  had  married  his  sister; 
and,  by  inspiring  Peada  with  a  favourable  impression 
of  Christianity,  had  occasioned  its  establishment  in 
Mercia. 2 

Kejected  by  the  great  from  the  crown  of  his  father, 
he  did  not  attempt  to  raise  the  sword  of  military 
competition  against  his  brother :  he  submitted  to  the 
decision  of  the  Northumbrian  Witena,  and  retired 
contentedly  to  a  private  life.  Learned  ecclesiastics 
from  Ireland  had  given  to  his  father  and  country 
what  intellectual  information  they  had  acquired.  The 
larger  tuition  of  Wilfrid,  who  had  visited  Rome,  and 
studied  in  France3,  had  inspired  him  with  a  fondness 
for  knowledge  which  now  became  his  happiness.  He 
devoted  himself  to  piety  and  literature,  and  volun- 
tarily retired  into  Ireland,  that  he  might  pursue  his 
unambitious  studies.4  For  fifteen  years  he  enjoyed  a 
life  of  philosophic  tranquillity  and  progressive  im- 
provement. The  books  revered  by  the  Christians 
engrossed  so  much  of  his  attention,  that  one  of  the 
epithets  applied  to  him  was,  "most  learned  in  the' 
Scriptures."5 

He  exhibited  to  the  world  this  example  of  contented 
privacy  till  the  death  of  Ecgfrid  raised  him  to  the 
throne  without  a  crime.  The  catastrophe  of  his 
brother  had  taught  most  impressively  the  folly  of 

2  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  21.  c.  24.    He  reigned  under  his  father.  —  Eddius,  c.  7.  c.  10. 
So  Bede  implies,  c.  25. 

3  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  25. 

4  "In  insulis  Scotorura  ob  studium  literarura  exulabat  —  in  regionibus  Scot- 
orum    lectioni   operam   dabat — ipse   ob   amorem    sapientiae   spontaneum   passus 
exilium."     Bede,  Vita  S.  Cudbercti,  c.  24.  —  '« In  Hyberniam  seu  vi  seu  indigna- 
tione  secessai-at,  ibi  et  ab  odio  germani  tutus,  et  magno  otio  literis  imbutus,  omni 
philosophia  composuerat  animum." — Malmsbury,  21.     Viro  undecumque  doctis- 
simo.     Bede,   Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  12. — Rex  sapientissimus.     Eddius,  Vit.  Wilf.  c.  43. 
— The  wise  king  of  the  Saxons.     Annals  Ulster,  p.  60. 

5  Bede,  Hist.    Abbot.  Wiremuth.   p.  300.  —  Alcuin   describes   him   thus:    Qui 
sacris  fuerat  studiis  imbutus  ab  annis  setatis  primae,  valido  sermone  sophista  acer  et 
ingenio,  idem  rex  simul  atque  magister.     De  Pont.  718. 


334  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK     military  ambition,  and  the  national  as  well  as  personal 

>   comfort  of  the  peaceful  and  intellectual  virtues.     He 

684.       governed  the  kingdom,  to  which  he  was  now  invited, 

with  the  same  virtue  with  which  he  had  resigned  it ; 

he  derived  his  happiness  from  the  quiet  and  enjoy- 

Encourages   ments  of  his  people6;  he  encouraged  literature,  re- 

literature.     cejve(j  with  kindness  the  Asiatic  travels  of  Arcuulfus, 

who  had  visited  Greece,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  and  which 

had  been  written  by  Adamnan,  liberally  rewarded 

the  author,  and  by  his  bounty  caused  the  composition 

to  be  imparted  to  others.7 

The  love  of  Alfred  for  knowledge  became  known 
beyond  the  precincts  of  Northumbria,  and  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  celebrated  Aldhelm.  The  sub- 
jects chosen  by  the  West- Saxon  scholar,  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  the  king,  show  the  extent  of  the  royal 
attainments.  "  On  the  number  seven ;  collections 
from  the  flowers  of  the  Bible,  and  the  tenets  of  philo- 
sophers ;  on  the  nature  of  insensible  things ;  and  on 
prosody  and  the  metre  of  poetry."8 

Yet,  though  attached  to  the  studies  of  the  clergy, 
he  was  not  their  indiscrirninating  instrument.  He 
iiad  made  his  early  instructor,  Wilfrid,  a  bishop  ;  but 
when,  in  his  opinion,  that  prelate  was  unduly  pressing 
points,  however  conscientiously,  which  he  disapproved 
of,  he  remained  immovable  in  what  he  thought  was 
right,  and  Wilfrid  quitted  his  dominions  ?  9  We  can- 
not now  fairly  judge  of  the  subjects  of  their  difference. 
They  were  on  ecclesiastical  privileges ;  but  as  Wilfrid, 

6  "  Per  decem  et  novem  annos  summa  pace  et  gaudio  provincial  praefuit :  nihil 
unquam  praeter  in  persecutione  magni  Wilfridi  quod  livor  edax  digne  carpere  posset 
admittens."     Malms.  21.     Alcuin,  p.  722. 

7  Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  15.     Bede  calls  the  book  De  Locis  Sanctis  multis  utillimum. 
Arcuulfus  surveyed  Jerusalem,  Palestine,  Damascus,  Constantinople,  Alexandria, 
and  the  Archipelago.     Returning  home,  he  was  driven  by  a  tempest  on  Britain  ; 
Adamnan  received  him,  listened  eagerly  to  his   conversations,  and  immediately 
committed  them  to  writing.    Bede,  ibid.     This  work  of  Adamnan  is  apud  Mabillon, 
Act.  Ben.  Saec.  iii.  part  ii.  p.  502.     There  is  a  tract  of  Bede,  De  Locis  Sanctis, 
taken  from  this  of  Adamnan,  printed  p.  315.  of  Smith's  edition. 

8  Malmsb.     Pontif.  p.  342.  9  See  Eddius,  Vit.  Wilf.  c.  44—46. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


335 


though  an  able  man,  was  of  an  ambitious  character, 
inclining  to  turbulence,  and  fond  of  domination,  it 
is  probable  that  Alfred  was  not  unduly  maintaining 
the  fair  liberty  of  his  own  judgment.  The  value  of 
perseverance  in  any  opinion  depends  upon  its  wisdom ; 
but  the  principle,  in  men  of  his  character,  is  always 
that  of  well-meaning  rectitude. 

The  pope,  John  VII.,  afterwards  interfered,  by  a 
letter  to  Alfred,  rather  dictatorial.10  And  Wilfrid, 
from  the  Mercian  court,  to  which  he  had  retired,  sent 
an  abbot  and  another  with  the  pope's  letters  and  his 
own  further  expostulations.  Alfred  at  first  received 
them  austerely.  His  manner  was  afterwards  softened, 
but  his  purpose  continued  firm.  His  final  answer 
was  courteous,  but  decisive. 

"  My  venerable  brothers :  —  Ask  of  me  whatever 
things  are  necessary  to  your  own  comfort,  and  I  will 
grant  them,  as  proofs  of  my  great  respect  for  you ; 
but  from  this  day  make  no  solicitations  in  behalf  of 
Wilfrid  your  lord.  What  my  royal  predecessors,  and 
the  archbishop  sent  formerly  from  Rome,  with  almost 
all  the  prelates  of  Britain,  thought  fit  to  order,  I  will 
never  change,  while  I  live;  whatever  writings  you 
may  bring  me  from  the  apostolic  seat,  as  you  choose 
to  call  it."11 

Alfred  adhered  with  temperate  firmness  to  his  de- 
termination. The  urgencies  of  the  pope  and  Wilfrid 
could  not  shake  it.  He  reigned  over  the  province 
which  his  knowledge  enlightened,  and  his  virtues 
cherished,  for  nineteen  years.  Sickness  then  fell  upon 
him.  In  his  last  hours  he  was  disturbed  by  the  appre- 
hension that  he  might  have  acted  wrong  in  resisting 
the  applications  of  the  pope  and  prelate  ;  but  his 
speech  failed  him  for  several  days  before  his  death. 
When  he  expired,  one  Eadwulf  assumed  the  sceptre, 


CHAP. 

IX. 


684. 


10  Eddius,  c.  81.     It  was  addressed  to  Ethelred  of  Mercia. 

11  Eddius,  c.  61. 


336  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK      to  whom  Wilfrid  began  a  journey  with  hopes  of  a 

.    m     .   friendly  reception ;  but  Eadwulf  sent  him  this  message  : 

684-       —  "I  swear,  by  my  salvation,  that  unless  he  depart 

in  six  days  from  my  kingdom,  both  he  and  all  that  I 

find  with   him   shall  perish."      Wilfrid  stopped  his 

progress ;  but  he  had  with  him  the  effective  means 

of  retorting  the  menace.     Osred,  the  son  of  Alfred, 

had  joined  him,  and  in  two  months  was  established  in 

Northumbria,  and  Eadwulf  expelled.12 

The  effect  of  Alfred's  reign  and  habits  in  this  pro- 
vince became  visible  in  Ceolwulf,  who  soon  succeeded 
to  his  throne.  This  prince,  who  acceded  in  731,  was 
the  patron  to  whom  Bede  addressed  his  ecclesiastical 
history  of  the  English  nation.  In  the  dedication,  the 
venerable  father  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  learning  says, 
that  it  was  this  king's  delight  not  only  to  hear  the 
Scriptures  read,  but  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the 
deeds  and  sayings  of  his  illustrious  predecessors. 
From  this  feeling  he  had  desired  Bede  to  compose  his 
history.  But  the  flame,  which  Alfred  had  kindled 
in  his  dominions,  was  soon  afterwards  quenched  there 
by  the  sanguinary  civil  contests  that  succeeded.  It 
burnt,  however,  with  a  cheering  influence  in  the  other 
provinces  of  the  octarchy.  Bede  and  Alcuin  may  be 
considered  as  two  of  the  valuable  minds  which  it  had 
excited. 

ceadwaiia.  In  the  year  of  Ecgfrid's  destruction,  Cead walla 
began  to  contend  for  the  throne  of  Wessex :  he  was 
descended  from  Cerdic,  through  Cealwin  and  his  son 
Cutha.13  His  youth  was  of  great  promise,  and  he 
suffered  no  opportunity  of  exerting  his  warlike  talents 
to  occur  unimproved.  Banished  from  his  country  by 
the  factious  chiefs  who  governed  it,  he  was  assiduous 

12  Eddius,  c.  57. 

13  Sax.  Chron.  45.    Malmsbury,  in  his  Life  of  Aldhelm,  p.  11.    Wharton's  Ang. 
Sac.  2.,  or  3  Gale,  346.,  says  that  Kentwin,  morbo  et  senio  gravis,  appointed  Cad- 
walla  his  successor  ;  but  as  Kentwin  only  reigned  nine  years,  the  addition  of  senio 
gravis  can  hardly  be  correct. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  337 

to  assemble  from  it  a  military  force,  and  he  succeeded     CHAP. 
in  drawing  the  youth  of  Wessex  to  his  standard. u  ~ 

In  Selsey  he  obtained  money  and  horses  from  Wilfrid,  684- 
the  bishop 16,  and  directed  his  first  onset  on  the  king 
of  Sussex,  whom  he  surprised  and  destroyed,  and 
whose  kingdom  he  desolated.  The  royal  generals, 
who  had  been  warring  in  Kent,  returned,  and  expelled 
the  invader16,  who  profited  by  his  expulsion  to  secure 
to  himself  the  crown  of  Wessex.  This  accession  of 
strength  he  wielded  triumphantly  against  Sussex, 
which  lost  its  defenders,  and  yielded  to  the  fortune 
of  his  arms. 17  Ceadwalla  also  captured  the  Isle  of 
Wight;  but  stained  his  prosperity  with  cruelty.18 

For  two  years,  Ceadwalla  and  his  brother  Mollo       686. 
plundered  Kent,  which  had  been  harassed  by  Sussex, 
and  weakened   by  incapable   rulers.19     The  natives 
viewed  the  spoilers  for  some  time  with  fruitless  in- 
dignation.    Town  after  town  was  ravaged.    Rousing 
themselves  at  last,  the  men  of  Kent  collected  into  a 
competent  body,  and  attacked  them  with  auspicious 
valour.     Mollo,  with  twelve  soldiers,  was  surprised  in  Moiio's  ca- 
a  cottage.     The  invaded  people  brutally  surrounded  tastrophe- 
them  with  flames,  and  they  were  reduced  to  ashes. 20 

In  obeying  the  impulse  of  a  headlong  wrath,  the 
Kentish  men  forgot  that  cruelty  makes  even  the  in- 
jured odious,  and  justifies  punishment ;  it  much  oftener 
stimulates  revenge  than  deters  it.  The  brother  of 
Mollo  was  on  the  throne  of  Wessex,  and  in  the  follow- 

14  Malmsbury,  p.  14.  K  Malmsb.  De  Gest.  Pontif.  lib.  iii.  p.  265. 

16  Bede,  lib.  iv.  c.  15.     Flor.  Wig.  p.  255. 

17  Bede,  ib.     Flor.  Wig.  255.     Langhorn  Chron.  241,  242.      Sussex  is  said  by 
Bede  to  have  contained  the  land  of  7000  families,  lib.  iv.  c.  13. 

18  During  this  conquest  he  formed  the  inhuman  project  of  destroying  its  inha- 
bitants, and  of  repeopling  it  from  his  own  province.     Bede,  lib.  iv.  c.  15. 

19  Hunting,  lib.  iv.  p.  335.     Malmsbury  mentions  the  civil   wars,   which  also 
afflicted   Kent,  lib.  i.  p.  11.     In  the   preceding  year,  pestilentia    depopulata   est 
Britannia.     Chron,  Petri  de  Burgo,  p.  4. 

20  Malmsbury,  p.  11.      Sax.  Chron.  p.  46.     Huntingdon,  p.  336.      W.  Thorn, 
in  his  Chronica,  places  the  catastrophe  at  Canterbury,  p.  1770.  x  Script. 

VOL.  I.  Z 


338  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     ing  year  spread  a  torrent  of  vindictive   calamities 
.  through  Kent,  which  it  mourned  in  all  its  districts.21 
ese.  'j'he  Roman  missionaries,  and  the  ecclesiastics  whom 

they  educated,  had  not  only  succeeded  in  establishing 
Christianity  in  England,  but  they  raised  so  strong  a 
feeling  of  piety  in  some  of  its  Anglo-Saxon  sove- 
reigns, as  to  lead  them  to  renounce  the  world.  It  was 
not  only  the  widowed  queen  of  Edwin,  who  gave  the 
first  precedent  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  lady  of  that  rank 
taking  the  veil22;  nor  Oswy,  who  devoted  his  daughter 
Elfleda  to  a  convent23,  that  exhibited  this  religious 
zeal ;  but  several  of  the  sovereigns  themselves,  from 

ceadwaiia's  its  impulse,  abandoned  their  thrones.  Thus,  in  688, 
Ceadwalla  travelled  to  Rome  as  on  a  pilgrimage  of 
piety,  where  he  was  baptized  by  the  pope,  and  died, 
before  he  was  thirty,  in  the  following  week.24  Thus 
also  some  years  afterwards,  in  709,  two  other  Anglo- 
Saxon  kings,  Cenred  of  Mercia,  and  Offa  of  Essex, 
probably  affected  by  the  example  of  Ceadwalla,  quitted 
that  dignity  which  so  many  myriads  covet,  went  to 
Rome,  and  became  monks  there. 25  And  thus,  also,  at 
no  long  interval,  a  greater  sovereign  than  either,  Ina 
of  Wessex,  obeyed  the  same  impression,  took  the  same 
journey,  and  found  his  grave  in  the  same  venerated 
city.  Offa  is  described  as  a  most  amiable  youth,  who 
was  induced  to  abdicate  his  power  from  the  purest 
motives  of  devotion.  It  is  remarked  by  an  old  chro- 
nicler, that  the  examples  of  these  two  kings  produced 
a  thousand  imitations. 26 
ess.  Ina  succeeded  Ceadwalla  in  Wessex.  He  was  the 

cession!"      son  °f  Cenred,  who  was  the  nephew  of  Cynegils.27 
His  father  was  living  at  the  period  of  his  accession. 

21  Sax.  Chron.  46.     Hunting.  336.  B  Smiths  Bede,  p.  101.  note. 

23  Bede,  lib.  iii.  c.  29. 

24  Sax.  Chron.  46.     Bede,' lib.  v.  c.  7.     Sergius  gave  him  the  name  of  Peter. 
An  epitaph  in  Latin  verse  was  inscribed  on  his  tomb,  which  Bede  quotes. 

25  Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  19.  *  Hunt.  337. 
8T  Sax.  Chron.  47.     Bede,  lib.  v.  e.  7. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  339 

The  Saxon  octarchy,  amidst  all  its  vicissitudes,  CHAP. 
presented  in  one  province  or  the  other  an  uninter-  , — ^ — , 
r  up  ted  succession  of  great  men.  From  Hengist  to 
Egbert,  talents  were  never  wanting  on  some  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  thrones.  The  direction  of  the  royal 
capacity  varied ;  in  some  kings  valour,  in  others 
military  conduct ;  in  some  piety,  in  some  learning,  in 
some  legislative  wisdom,  predominated.  The  result 
was,  that  the  Anglo-Saxons,  though  fluctuating  in  the 
prosperity  of  their  several  districts,  yet,  considered  as 
a  nation,  went  on  rapidly  improving  in  civilisation 
and  power. 

Much  of  the  fame  of  Ina  has  been  gained  by  his  m*  laws, 
legislation.  He  published  a  collection  of  laws  which 
yet  remains28,  and  he  deserves  the  gratitude  of  man- 
kind in  common  with  every  other  lawgiver.  Whoever 
applies  himself  to  mark  the  useful  limits  of  human 
action,  to  set  boundaries  to  individual  selfishness,  to 
establish  the  provisions  of  justice  in  defence  of  the 
weak  or  injured,  and  to  rescue  the  criminal  from 
punishments  of  caprice  or  favour,  is  a  character  en- 
titled to  the  veneration  of  mankind.  A  declamation 
against  laws  is  a  satire  upon  wisdom  the  most  bene- 
volent. Laws  must  partake  of  the  ignorance  and 
spirit  of  the  age  which  gave  them  birth.  An  Ina 
must  legislate  as  an  Ina,  and  for  the  people  of  an  Ina. 
If  the  subsequent  improvements  of  mankind  discover 
that  prior  regulations  have  been  defective,  succeeding 
legislators  will  correct  those  provisions,  which  the 
progress  of  society  has  made  obsolete  or  improper. 
"What  they  may  devise,  their  posterity,  who  will  have 
changed  into  new  beings,  may  mould  into  a  fitter 
correspondence  with  their  own  necessities;  but  to 
abolish  all  laws,  because  laws  are  not  all  perfect, 

28  Wilkins's  Leges  Saxonica?,  p.  14 — 27.  The  first  paragraph  of  these  an- 
nounces his  father  Cenred  as  one  of  the  counsellors  by  whose  advice  he  promulgated 
them. 

z  2 


340  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     would  be  to  unchain  the  tiger  passions  of  mankind, 
"L       and  to  convert  society  into  an  African  desert,  or  a 
Cytherean  brothel. 

The  wrath  of  the  West  Saxons  for  the  fate  of  Mollo 
had  not  relented.  With  inhumanity,  as  great  as 
that  which  they  professed  to  chastise,  they  continued 
to  desolate  Kent.  At  length,  their  hostilities  were 
appeased  by  the  homicidal  mulct  of  thirty  thousand 
marks  of  gold.29  Wihtred,  from  the  line  of  Ethel- 
bert,  had  obtained  the  crown  of  Kent,  and  terminated 
the  miseries  which  the  people  had  suffered  from  the 
invasion  and  a  turbulent  inter-regnum.30 
697.  The  Mercian  nobility  displayed  the  ferocity  of  the 

age>  in  destroying  Ostrida,  the  wife  of  Ethelred, 
their  queen,  their  reigning  king.31  The  cause  of  her  fate  is  not 
known.  The  reason  adduced  by  Langhorn32,  that 
her  sister  had  murdered  Peada,  is  unlikely,  because 
this  event  had  occurred  near  forty  years  before. 
Ethelred  exhibited  another  instance  of  the  spirit  of 
704.  religion  among  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings.  He  volun- 
tarily descended  from  the  throne,  to  become  monk 
and  abbot  of  Bardney33:  he  was  succeeded  by  his 
nephew,  Cenred.34 

Osred,  the  son  of  Alfred,  and  but  eight  years  old 
at  his  father's  death,  had  been  besieged  by  the 
usurper  Eadwulf  already  noticed,  with  his  guardian 
Berthfrid,  in  Bebbanburh,  the  metropolis  of  this 
northern  kingdom.35  After  their  deliverance,  and 

29  Sax.  Chron.  47,  48.     Malmsbury,  14.     Others  make  the  payment  smaller; 
as  Polychronicon,  p.  243.,  3000  pounds ;  Flor.  Wig.  p.  260.,  3750  pounds.  Wihtred, 
unable  to  resist  Ina,  proposed  the  expiatory  fine.     Huntingd.  337. 

30  Sax.  Chron.  48.     Huntingd.  337. 

31  Bede,'Hb.  v.  c.  ult.    Sax.  Chron.  49.    Flor.  Wig.  260.    Matt.  West.  250.    She 
was  sister  to  Ecgfrid,  and  daughter  of  Oswy.     I  observe  her  name  signed  to  a 
charter  of  Peterborough  monastery  in  680.     1  Dugd.  Monast.  67.     Ego  Ostrich 
regina  Ethelredi. 

82  Chron.  Reg.  Angl.  p.  256. 

83  In  this  capacity  he  died  in  716.     Chron.  Petri  de  Burgo,  6. 

34  Malmsbury,  28. 

35  Malmsb.  de  Pontif.  lib.  iii.  p,  268.    Eddius  Vit.  Wilf.  c.  57.  p.  85.    Hoveden 
describes  Bebbanburh  to  have  been  a  city  munitissima  rion  admodum  magna,  sed 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  341 

the  dethronement  of  the  usurping  competitor,  Berth-      CHAP. 
frid,  the  protecting  praefect  of  Northumbria,  defeated  . 

the  Picts  between  Haefe   and   Caere,  in  the  field  of       709- 
Manan.     Finguin  M'Delaroith  perished  in  the  battle.36 
It   is   not   stated   who   commanded    the   Picts,   but 
Nectan,  or  Naiton,  was  king  of  this  people  at  this 
period.37 

Ina  continued  to  reign  prosperously.     He  waged       no. 
war   with   Geraint,    the    British   king   of  Cornwall,  ^atot, 
Amid  the  first  charges,  Higbald,  a  Saxon  leader,  fell; 
but  at  last  the  Britons  fled.38     Ina  also  prosecuted 
a  war  with  Ceolred,  who  had  succeeded  his  cousin 
Cenred  in  Mercia.     At  Wodnesbury  they  met;  the       7 15. 
slaughter  of  the  battle  was  great;  the  event  was  no  JJJ^0 
advantage  to  either.39 

Ceolred,  king  of  Mercia40,  was  succeeded  by  Ethel-       7ie. 
bald,  who  possessed  the  crown  for  forty-one  years. 
In  this  year  Osred  of  Northumbria,  the  eldest  son  of 
Alfred,  was  destroyed  at  the  lake  of  Windermere  by 
his  revolting  kinsmen41,  one  of  whom,   Cenred,  the 

quasi  duorum  vel  trium  agrorum  spatium,  habens  unum  introitum  cavatum,  et 
gradibus  miro  modo  exaltatum.  On  the  top  of  the  mountain  was  the  church 
Annal.  pars  prior,  403.  The  city  was  built  by  Ida. 

36  Sax.  Chron.  50.    Flor.  Wig.  264.    Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  24.,  dates  it  711.       Gib- 
son, in   his  Appendix  to  the  Chronicle,  conjectures  that  Ksefe  and  Caere  were 
Ileefeld  and  Carehouse,  a  little  beyond  the  wall,  p.  18.     "710.  Slaughter  of  the 
Picts  in  the  field  of  Manan,  among  the  Saxons,  where  Finguin  M'Delaroith  pe- 
rished."    Annals  of  Ulster,  p.  60. 

37  Nectan,  in  the  Annals  of  Ulster,  p.  60.     In  716  he  drove  the  family  of  lona 
beyond  Drum-albin,  ibid.  p.  60.    In  725  he  was  put  in  chains  by  king  Drust,  ibid, 
p.  61.     Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  21.,  calls  him  Naiton,  and  mentions   his  changing  the 
time  of  Easter  to  the  Roman  period,  which  the  Annals  of  Ulster  place  in  715, 
p.  60. 

38  Sax.  Chron.  50.     Hunting.  337.      Flor.  Wig.  264.      This  Geraint  was  the 
third  of  that  name  in  Cornwall.     Owen's  Llywarch,  p.  3.     Aldhelm  addressed  to 
him  a  letter  on  the  British  celebration  of  Easter,  which  is  among  the  epistles  of 
Boniface.    Biblioth.  Magna  Pat.  v.  16.  p.  65.  ep.  44.    In  this  he  writes  to  Geraint 
as  domino  gloriosissimo  occidentalis  regni  sceptra  gubernanti,  Geruntio  regi. 

39  Sax.  Chron.  50.     Hunt.  338. 

40  Unless  we  interpret  the  account,  given  by  Boniface,  of  Ceolred's  dying  con- 
versation with  the  devil,  who  came  for  him  in  the  middle  of  a  feast  (Malmsb.  28.), 
as  a  sudden  incidence  of  insanity,  the  missionary  of  Germany  is  at  variance  with 
Huntingdon,  who  says  of  Ceolred,  that  patrise  et  avitae  virtutis  hseres  clarissime 
rexit,  p.  337. 

41  Malmsb.  21.     Huntingd.  338.     Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  24.     Sax.  Chron.  51.     Osred 
has  received  the  lash  of  Boniface.     Malmsb.  28.  —  Malmsbury  complains  of  him, 
p.  21. 

Z  3 


342 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
. 

718> 
the 

ancestor 

of  Egbert, 


718. 


ina  builds 


son  of  Cuthwin,  succeeded42  ;   but  he  fell  from  the 
agitated  throne   two   years   afterwards,    and   Osric, 
another  son  of  the  learned  Alfred,  took  his  place.43 
In  718.  Inigils,  the  brother  of  Ina,  died.     Though 

,  .  '  .  i       i   A      i  • 

no  achievement  of  greatness  is  attached  to  his  name 
in  history,  yet  the  events  of  the  future  time  have 
given  it  importance.  He  was  the  ancestor  from  whom 
Egbert  and  Alfred,  and  the  following  Saxon  monarchs 
of  England,  deduced  their  descent.44 

Ina  rebuilt  the  abbey  of  Glastonbury  at  the  request 
°^  Aldhelm.  It  had  been  utterly  destroyed,  but  he 
erected  it  with  magnificence,  and  it  lasted  until  the 
Danish  ravages.45  The  insurrection  of  pretenders 
disturbed  the  close  of  Ina's  reign:  but  he  attacked 
and  destroyed  Cynewulf  ^Etheling  ;  and  in  the  next 
year  his  queen  besieged  another,  Ealdbryht,  in 
Taunton,  a  castle  which  the  king  had  built  to  defend 
that  part  of  his  dominions,  and  in  which  the  rebel 
had  taken  his  post  of  enmity.  She  levelled  it  to  the 
ground,  and  Ealdbryht  withdrew  into  Sussex.  Ina 
directed  his  forces  against  this  province,  and  three 
years  afterwards  slew  his  competitor.46 

HIS  queen  After  a  fortunate  reign  of  thirty-seven  years,  the 
abdication,  king  imitated  the  custom  which  had  become  so  re- 
markable among  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings,  and  laid 
down  his  dignity.  His  queen  had  long  exhorted 
him,  as  his  age  advanced,  to  retire  from  the  concerns 
of  the  world  ;  but  the  charms  of  habitual  power  for 
some  time  defeated  her  eloquence.  One  day,  as  she 
travelled  with  the  king  to  one  of  his  rural  mansions, 

42  Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  22.     Flor.  Wig.  266. 

43  Ibid.  c.  23.     Simeon  Dunel.   p.  7.      The  expressions  of  Malmsbury  imply 
that  Osric  assisted  to  procure  his  brother  Osred's  death  :   he  says  of  Kenred  and 
Osric,  domini  sui  occisi  sanguinem  luentes  fcedo  exitu  auras  polluere,  p.  21. 

44  Sax.  Chron.  51.     Asser.  p.  3.     Abb.  Rieval,  350. 

45  Bromton,  p.  758.     He  founded  the  great  church  of  Glastonbury  pro  anima 
propinqui  ejus  Mollonis.      See  his  charters  to  it.      1  Dugdale,  Monast.  12,  13. 
Malmsb.  de   Ant  Glast.     Gale,  iii.  309.  311.     His  other  gifts  to  it  were   mag- 
nificent. 

46  Sax.  Chron.  52.     Hunt.  338.     Flor.  Wig.  268. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  343 

where  a  splendid  feast  was  prepared  with  all  the  CHAP. 
pomp  and  bustle  of  royal  luxury,  she  seized  the  « — ^J — . 
occasion  of  converting  it  to  a  moral  lecture  on  her  72K 
favourite  theme.  They  left  the  place  after  the  repast, 
and  a  rustic  by  her  orders,  in  their  absence,  scattered 
the  festive  hall  with  filth  and  rubbish,  and  placed 
a  swinish  litter  on  the  couch  where  he  had  reposed. 
Before  they  had  advanced  two  miles  on  their  road, 
she  desired  to  return,  and  Ina  courteously  complied 
with  her  request ;  but  when  he  entered  the  hall  of  his 
festivity,  and  saw  the  disgusting  change,  he  con- 
templated it  with  silent  astonishment  and  displeasure, 
till  informed  that  the  queen  had  directed  it :  he  de- 
manded from  her  an  explanation  of  the  strange 
mystery.  She  smiled  and  answered :  "  My  lord  and 
husband!  this  is  not  indeed  the  noisy  hilarity  of 
yesterday :  here  are  no  brilliant  hangings,  no  flattery, 
and  no  parasites :  here  are  no  tables  weighed  down 
with  silver  vessels :  no  exquisite  delicacies  to  delight 
the  palate :  all  these  are  gone  like  the  smoke  and 
wind.  Have  they  not  already  passed  away  into 
nothingness  ?  And  should  we  not  feel  alarmed  who 
covet  them  so  much  ?  for  we  shall  be  as  transient. 
Are  not  all  such  things  ?  are  not  we  ourselves  like  a 
river,  hurrying  heedless  and  headlong  to  the  dark 
ocean  of  illimitable  time  ?  Unhappy  must  we  be  if 
we  let  them  absorb  our  minds.  Think,  I  entreat  you, 
how  disgusting  those  things  become  of  which  we  have 
been  so  enamoured.  See  to  what  filthy  objects  we 
are  attached.  In  these  loathsome  relics  we  may  see 
what  our  pampered  bodies  will  at  last  be.  Ah !  let 
us  reflect,  that  the  greater  we  have  been,  and  the 
more  powerful  we  are  now,  the  more  alarmed  ought 
to  be  our  solicitude;  for  the  greater  will  be  the 
punishment  of  our  misconduct."47 

47  Malmsbury,  p.  15. 
z  4 


344 


HISTOKY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 

721. 

Ina  goes  to 
Rome. 


731. 

The  Anglo- 
Saxon 


•716—756. 


The  singularity  of  the  incident  had  its  full  im- 
pression on  the  mind  of  Ina  :  he  resigned  his  crown 
to  his  kinsman,  and,  imitating  what  all  ranks  were 
then  emulous  to  do,  he  travelled  to  Rome.48  He 
founded  there  a  Saxon  school  for  the  instruction  of 
such  of  his  countrymen  as  chose  to  be  educated  at 
Rome,  and  he  added  a  church  for  their  use,  and  for 
the  convenience  of  their  burial.  To  support  this,  and 
to  provide  a  subsistence  for  the  English  who  should 
dwell  there,  he  imposed  the  payment  of  a  penny  on 
every  family,  which  was  denominated  Romescot.  It 
was  sent  to  the  papal  see.49  Ina  studiously  avoided 
all  pomp  in  his  voluntary  humiliation.  He  cut  off 
his  hair,  put  on  a  plebeian  dress,  and  lived  with  his 
queen  a  private  and  retired  life,  even  seeking  support 
by  the  labour  of  his  hands,  till  he  died  thsre.60  This 
conduct  was  evidence  that  his  religious  feelings  were 
genuine  impulses  of  sincerity. 

The  mutations  of  the  octarchy  for  the  last  century 
had  been  generally  from  a  heptarchy  to  a  hexarchy  ; 
at  the  period  of  Ina's  death  it  was  a  hexarchy, 
because  Wessex  had  absorbed  Sussex,  and  Deira  and 
Bernicia  were  amalgamated  into  North  umbria.  This 
restless  province  was  then  governed  by  Osric,  who 
"^  ^e  kingdom  to  Ceolwulf,  the  brother  of  Cenred, 
whom  he  had  destroyed,  and  the  friend  and  patron 
of  Bede.51  In  Mercia.  Ethelbald,  a  descendant  of 


48  Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  7.  Sax.  Chron.  52.  Flor.  Wig.  269.  M.  West.  265.  Bede 
says  of  Ina's  journey,  that  it  was  what  in  these  times  plures  de  gente  Anglorum, 
nobiles,  ignobiles,  laici,  clerici,  viri  ac  feminse,  certatim  facere  consuerunt. 

48  Matt.  West.  265. 

50  Dug.  Monast.  i.  p.  14.  32.     Malm.  Pont.  313.     Alcuin  mentions  him  by  the 
name  of  In  : 

"  Quern  clamant  IN,  incerto  cognomine,  gentes." 

Oper.  p.  1676. 

51  Flor.  Wig.  269.      Malmsb.  21.     Ceolwulf  submitted  to  the  tonsure  in  737, 
and  Eadbert  succeeded.      Smith's  Bede,  p.  224.     Ceolwulf  was  descended  from 
Ocga,  one  of  the  sons  of  Ida.      Sim.  Dun.  p.  7.     Bede  in  one  line  expresses  the 
vicissitudes  of  Ceolwulf,  and  the  state  of  the  country,  captus  et  adtonsus  et  remissus 
in  regnum,  lib.  v.  c.  ult. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  345 

Wybba,  reigned.52     In  Essex,  which  was  becoming     CHAP. 
fast  the  satellite  of  Mercia,  Suebricht  had  governed  . 

alone   since   his  brother   Offa  went  to  Rome.53     In       731- 
Kent,  Eadbert  had  ascended  the  throne  of  Wihtred, 
whose  laws  remain  to  us.M     In  East  Anglia,  Aldul-       725. 
phus  was  succeeded  by  Selred ;  on  his  death,  Alphuald, 
for  a  short  time,  inherited  the  sceptre.55  747. 

52  Sax.  Chron.   51.  59.      Bede,   lib.  v.  c.  24.      He   was   the   son   of  Alwion. 
Ing.  33. 

53  By  mistake,  Langhorn,  281.,  and  Rapin,  place  Selred  on  the  throne  of  Essex. 
Malmsb.  35.  ;  Flor.  Wig.   273.  ;    and  Al.  Beverl.  85.,   led  them  into  the  error. 
We  learn  from  Huntingdon,  that  Selred  was  king  of  East  Anglia,  p.  339.,  whom 
the  Chronicle  of  Mailros  supports.     Suebricht  or  Sueabred  was  king  of  Essex,  and 
died  738.     Mailros,  p.  136.     Sim.  Dunelm.  100.     A  charter  of  his,  dated  704,  is 
in  Smith's  Appendix  to  Bede,  p.  749.     In  another  he  signs  with  Sebbi  and  Sig- 
hear,  ib.  p.  748.     Swithred  reigned  in  Essex  758,  Sim.  Dun.  275. 

51  After  a  reign  of  thirty-four  years  and  a  half,  Wihtred  died  in  725,  and  left 
Edilberct,  Eadbert,  and  Alric  his  heirs.  Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  23.  Eadbert  reigned  until 
748.  Sax.  Chron.  56.  or  749.  Mailros,  p.  137.  Ethelbert  until  760.  Sax. 
Chron.  60.,  when  the  surviving  brother,  Alric,  succeeded.  Malmsbury,  p.  11.  After 
this  period  we  find  three  kings  again  in  Kent  signing  charters  contemporaneously ;  • 

as  in  762  Sigiraed  and  Eadbert  appear,  in  one  charter,  as  kings  of  Kent ;  and  in 
another,  Eardulf;  and  in  765  Egebert  signs  a  charter  with  the  same  title. 
Thorpe,  Reg.  Roffens.  p.  16.  So  many  kings,  in  so  small  a  province  as  Kent, 
strikingly  illustrate  the  gavel-kind  tenure  of  lands  which  still  prevails  there. 

55  In  the  synod  at  Hatfield  in  680,  Adulph  was  present.  This  was  the  seven- 
teenth year  of  his  reign.  Bede,  lib.  iv.  c.  17.,  and  the  Ely  History,  MSS.  Cott. 
Nero.  A.  15.,  state  Aldulph  to  have  been  reigning  in  679.  The  Chronicle  of 
Mailros  accurately  places  Selred  after  him,  who  died  747.  Gale,  Script,  i.  137. 
Alphuald,  the  successor  of  Selred,  died  749.  ibid.  Humbean  and  Albert  divided 
the  kingdom  afterwards,  ibid.  Sim.  Dun.  103.  M.  West  names  them  Beorna 
and  Ethelbert,  p.  273.  Bromton,  p.  749.  Flor.  Wig.  places  Beorn  in  758, 
p.  275.  I  hope  these  few  last  notes  correctly  state  a  very  troublesome  chronology. 


346 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


Ethelbald 
in  Mercia. 


CHAP.  X. 

The  History  of  the  Octarchy ',  from  the  Death  of  INA  to  the 
Accession  of  EGBERT,  in  the  Year  800. 

-ZETHELHEARD,  the  kinsman  of  Ina,  and  a  descendant 
of  Cerdic,  obtained  the  crown  of  West  Saxony.1 
Oswald,  also  sprung  from  the  founder  of  Wessex,  at 
first  opposed  his  pretensions,  but  discovering  the  in- 
feriority of  his  forces,  abandoned  the  contest.2  The 
king  invaded  Devonshire,  and  was  extending  the 
ravages  into  Cornwall,  when  the  Britons,  under 
Eodri  Malwynawc,  vanquished  him  at  Heilyn,  in 
Cornwall.  At  Garth  Maelawch,  in  North  Wales,  and 
at  Pencoet,  in  Glamorganshire,  the  Cymry  also 
triumphed.3  On  ^Ethelheard's  death,  Cuthred,  his 
kinsman,  succeeded  him.4 

The  king  of  Mercia  at  this  period,  Ethelbald,  was 
a  man  of  elegant  stature,  a  powerful  frame,  a  warlike 
and  imperious  spirit.  Persecuted  in  his  youth  by 
the  king  he  had  succeeded,  and  to  whom  he  had 

1  Sax.  Chron.  52.    Flor.  Wig.  269.    Ran.  Higd.  Chron.    Petri  de  Burgo,  p.  6., 
gives  this  date,  which  Ethelwerd,  p.  837.,  also  sanctions.     Matt.  West.  p.  266.  has 
727  ;  yet  the  expressions  of  Bede,  a  contemporary,  imply  the  year  725.     Smith's 
ed.  p.  188.,  note.  —  A  passage  of  Malmsbury,  in  his  Antiq.  Glast.  Eccles.  p.  312. 
promises  to  reconcile  the  contradictions.     It  states  that  Ina  went  twice  to  Rome. 
"  Eodem  anno  quo  idem  rex  Romam  personaliter  adiit,  privilegium  apostolico  sig- 
naculo  corroboratum  in  redeundo  Glastoniam  apportavit.     Et  postea  iterum  cum 
Ethelburga  regina  sua,  instinctu  ejusdem,  Romam  abiit."  —  Bede  may  have  dated 
his  first  peregrination  ;  the  others  his  last. 

2  Huntingd.  338.     In  the  charter  of  Ina,  transcribed  by  Malmsbury,  Antiq. 
Glast.   p.  312.,  Ethelheard  signs  frater  reginae.      Oswald  was  the  son  of  Ethel- 
bald,  of  the  race  of  Cerdic,  through  Cealwin  and  Cuthwin.     Flor.  Wig.  269.    Sax. 
Chron.  53.     The  plural  expression  of  Bede,  taken  in  its  natural  force,  seems  to 
express  that  Ina  left  his  crown  to  Oswald,  as  well  as  Ethelheard,  "  ipse  relicto 
regno  ac  juvenioribus  commendato,"  lib.  v.  c.  7. 

8  Brut  y  Saeson,  and  Brut  y  Tywysogion,  471,  472. 

4  Sax.  Chron.  55.  The  Chronicle  of  Mailros,  a  document  valuable  for  its 
general  accuracy,  countenances  Bede's  date  of  JEthelheard's  reign ;  it  says,  that  in 
740,  after  a  reign  of  fourteen  years,  he  died.  Gale's  Rer.  Angl.  Script,  i.  p.  136. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  347 

been  dangerous,  he  owed  his  safety  to  the  secresy  of     CHAP. 
his  retreat.     Here  the  pious  Guthlac  endeavoured  to   <_,! — » 
moralise  his  mind,  and,  in  gratitude  to  the  friend  of 
his  adversity,  Ethelbald  constructed  the  monastery 
of  Croyland  over  his  tomb.5     The  military  abilities 
of  this  Mercian  king,  procured  him  the  same  pre- 
dominance  over   the   other  Anglo-Saxon   kingdoms 
which   Egbert   afterwards   acquired.      He    subdued 
them  all  up  to  the  H umber ;  and  afterwards,  in  737, 
invaded  and  conquered   Northumbria.6     The  Welsh 
next    attracted    his    ambition ;    and,    to   annex   the 
pleasant  region  between  the  Severn  and  the  Wye  to 
his   Mercian   territories,  he   entered  Wales   with   a 
powerful   army.     At    Carno,    a   mountain   in    Mon-       728. 
mouthshire,  the  Britons  checked  his  progress  in   a  the'wlish. 
severe  battle,  and  drove  him  over  the  Wye  with  great 
loss.7     But   he   afterwards   marched   another   army 
against  the  Britons,  in   conjunction   with   Cuthred, 
who   had   succeeded   ^Ethelheard   in  Wessex.     The       743. 
great  superiority  of  the  Saxon  forces  obtained  a  de- 
cisive  victory  at  Ddefawdan.     After  much  plunder, 
the  victors  retired.8 

The  friendship  between  Ethelbald  and  Cuthred  was 
not  lasting.  Cuthred  wished  to  emancipate  himself 
from  the  power  of  the  Mercian,  who,  to  keep  Wessex 
in  subjection,  fomented  its  civil  distractions.  The 
son  of  Cuthred  gave  him  this  advantage.  This  im- 
petuous youth  attempted  to  depose  his  father,  but 

5  Ingulf,  p.  2 — 4.  To  sustain  the  stony  mass,  an  immense  quantity  of  wooden 
piles  was  driven  into  the  marsh ;  and  hard  earth  was  brought  in  boats  nine  miles, 
to  assist  in  making  the  foundation.  There  is  a  MS.  life  of  Guthlac,  in  the  Cotton 
Library,  Vesp.  D.  21.,  in  Saxon,  by  a  monk  named  Alfric,  and  addressed  to  Alf- 
wold,  king  of  East  Anglia.  His  beginning  will  show  the  respectful  style  used  by 
the  clergy  to  the  sovereigns  at  that  time.  »« Upum  pealbenbe  pihc  selypenbum, 
a  populb  minum  tham  leopertan  hlapopbe,  opeji  ealle  ochpe  men  eopblice 
Kymnsar,  Alppolb  Barr  Ansla  Kymns,  iiiib  jiibte  ec  mib  se-jnrenum  jiice 
healbenb."  MSS.  ibid. 

8  Hunt.  lib.  iv.  p.  339,  340.      Sax.  Chron.  54. 

7  Brut  y  Tywysogion,  p.  472. 

8  Ibid.     Flor.  Wig.  272.     Sax.  Chron.   55,     Mailros,  p.  136.,  and  Matt,  West. 
271.,  date  the  event  in  744. 


348 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


War  be- 
tween Cu- 
thred  and 
Ethelbald. 
752. 


BOOK     perished  in  the  guilty  struggle.9     Two  years  after, 

.   Cuthred  suppressed  a  dangerous  rebellion  of  Edelhun, 

748-       one   of  his   chieftains,    whose   extraordinary  valour 

Suppresses  7  .  J  , 

a  rebellion,  would  have  conquered  the  superior  numbers  ot  the 
king,  if  in  the  hour  of  victory  a  wound  had  not  dis- 
abled him.10 

Cuthred,  now  presuming  his  power  to  be  equal  to 
the  effort,  disclaimed  the  intolerable  exactions  of 
Ethelbald,  and  resolved  to  procure  the  independence 
of  Wessex,  .or  to  perish  in  the  contest.  At  Burford, 
in  Oxfordshire,  the  rival  princes  met.  Cuthred  was 
assisted  by  the  brave  Edelhun,  who  had  now  become 
a  loyal  subject;  Ethelbald  displayed  the  forces  of 
Kent,  East  Anglia,  and  Essex,  in  joint  array  with 
his  Mercians.  Edelhun,  advancing  beyond  his  line, 
pierced  the  golden  dragon  n,  the  splendid  banner  of 
Mercia,  and,  animated  by  his  intrepidity,  the  West 
Saxons  uttered  the  shout  of  battle,  and  rushed  to 
the  charge.  The  chronicler  describes  with  unusual 
warmth  a  conflict  terrible  to  both  armies.  Ambition 
inflamed  the  friends  of  Mercia.  The  horrors  of  sub- 
jection made  Wessex  desperate.  Slaughter  followed 
the  sword  of  Edelhun,  and  Ethelbald  raged  like  a 
resistless  fire.  Their  mutual  fury  brought  the  general 
and  the  king  into  personal  collision;  each  collected 
his  full  vigour,  and  struck  at  the  other  with  a  power 
and  determination  that  menaced  destruction  in  every 
blow :  but  the  king  of  Mercia  at  last  discerned  the 
superiority  of  his  antagonist,  and,  preferring  safety  to 
glory,  he  gave  to  his  yet  struggling  army  the  first 
example  of  a  hasty  flight.12 


9  Sax.  Chron.  55.      Mailros,   137.      Huntingdon,  341.      His   expression,  that 
Ethelbald  afflixit  eum  nunc  seditionibus  nunc  bellis,  implies  that  the  insurrection 
was  fostered  by  Mercia. 

10  Hunt.  341.     Sax.  Chron.  56.     Flor.  Wig.  273. 

11  The  ancient  Wittichind  describes  the  Saxon  standard  on  the  continent,  as  a 
representation  of  a  lion  and  a  dragon  with  an  eagle  flying  above ;  intended  to  be 
symbols  of  their  bravery,  prudence,  and  rapidity,  Hist.  Sax.  p.  6. 

12  Huntingdon  has  preserved  the  circumstances  of  the  battle,  p.  341.     It  is  also 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  349 

The  event  of  this  conflict  rescued  Wessex  from 
the  yoke  of  Mercia,  and  established  the  foundation  of 
that  predominance  which  was  afterwards  improved 
into  the  conquest  of  the  island.  Cuthred  again 
successfully  invaded  the  country  of  the  Welsh.13 

In  754,  Cuthred  died,  leaving  Wessex  in  a  state  of 
progress  towards  that  superiority  which,  under  the 
reign  of  Egbert,  it  finally  attained.  Sigebyrht  suc- 
ceeded14; his  reign  was  short,  arrogant,  and  tyran- 
nical; he  perverted  the  laws  to  his  convenience,  or 
presumptuously  violated  them.  When  Cuinbra,  the 
noblest  of  his  earls,  obeyed  the  solicitations  of  the 
people,  and  intimated  their  complaints  to  the  king,  he 
was  arbitrarily  put  to  death,  and  the  grievances 
were  multiplied.  The  nobles  and  the  people  as- 
sembled ;  after  a  careful  deliberation,  Sigebyrht  was  is  deposed, 
deposed  from  his  authority  by  an  unanimous  decision,  ^dlfCyne~ 
and  Cynewulf,  a  youth  of  the  royal  blood,  was  elected  chosen. 
in  his  place.  Deserted  by  all,  the  deposed  king  fled 
into  the  wood  of  Anderida :  a  swineherd  of  the 
murdered  Cumbra  discovered  him  in  his  hiding-place, 
and  immediately  slew  him.15 

The  long  reign  of  Ethelbald,  at  one  period  so  755. 
successful,  terminated  in  calamity.  His  defeat  by 
Wessex  was  never  retrieved,  and  he  perished  at  last 
by  civil  insurrection ;  by  the  same  means  of  evil  with 
which  he  had  endeavoured  to  oppress  Cuthred.  At 
Seggeswold  the  fatal  battle  ensued,  for  which  he  was 
not  prepared,  and  Ethelbald  fell,  either  by  assassina- 
tion or  in  the  general  slaughter.  Bernred,  who 

mentioned  in  Sax.  Chron.  56.  Flor.  Wig.  p.  273.  The  Chron.  of  Mailros  dates  it, 
as  the  other  events  of  this  period,  a  year  later,  p.  137.  A  stone  coffin  was  found 
near  Burford,  in  December,  1814. 

13  Sax.  Chron.  56.     Mailros,  137.     The  British  Chronicles  mention  a  battle 
at  Henford  in  South  Wales,  about  this  time,  where  the  Cymry  triumphed.     Brut 
y  Tywys.  473. 

14  Flor.  Wig.  273.     Sax.  Chron.  56.     Cant-wara-burh,  Canterbury,  was  burnt 
this  year. 

15  Hunt.  341,  342.     Malmsb.  15.     Mailros,  137.     Ethelwerd  names  the  place 
of  his  death  Pryfetesfleodan,  p.  838. 


350 


HISTORY   OF  THE 


BOOK 
III. 

• „ • 

755. 

Offa  made 
king. 


731. 

The  revo- 
lutions of 
Northum- 
bria. 

737. 


755. 


headed  the  rebellion,  attempted  to  invest  himself 
with  the  robes  of  royalty;  but  the  nomination  of 
Ethelbald  was  supported  by  the  nobles  of  Mercia, 
and  the  young  prince,  Offa,  who  has  acquired  such 
celebrity,  and  who  was  descended  from  Eoppa,  the 
brother  of  Penda,  was  placed  upon  the  throne.16 
Bernred  did  not  survive  the  year.17 

We  may  pause  a  moment  to  cast  a  rapid  glance  on 
Northumbria.  Ceolwulf,  the  friend  of  Bede,  had 
acceded  to  the  united  kingdoms ;  but  so  perilous  was 
the  regal  dignity  in  this  perturbed  kingdom,  that  he 
voluntarily  abandoned  the  disquieting  crown,  and 
sought  the  tranquillity  of  the  cloister.18 

Eadbert  succeeded.  His  kingdom,  left  unprotected 
by  his  march  against  the  Picts,  suffered  from  an 
invasion  of  the  Mercian  Ethelbald  ;  but  he  afterwards 
enlarged  his  dominions19,  and  had  the  ability  to 
maintain  himself  in  his  crown  for  twenty-one  years  ; 
but  religious  impressions  then  came  upon  him,  and 
he  assumed  the  religious  life.20  He  was  the  eighth 
Anglo-Saxon  king  who  had  exchanged  the  crown  for 

16  Ingulf,  p.  5.  Mailtos,  137.  Matt.  West.  p.  274.  apparently  misconceiving  a 
passage  of  Huntingdon,  p.  341.,  erroneously  makes  Ethelbald  to  have  fallen  against 
Cuthred,  whom  he  represents  to  have  survived  him.  The  monk  of  Croyland 
enables  us  to  rectify  the  mistake,  and  is  supported  by  Malmsb.  28.  and  by  the 
Sax.  Chron.  p.  56.  and  Flor.  Wig.  p.  273.,  who  place  the  decease  of  Cuthred  a 
year  before  Ethelbald's.  Bede  implies,  that  Ethelbald  perished  by  assassination, 
lib.  v.  c.  ult. 

1T  That  Bernred  died  this  year  has  been  disputed.  Malmsb.  p.  28.  ;  Alur. 
Beverl.  87.  ;  Ingulf,  5.  The  biographer  of  Offa,  p.  11.  ;  Flor.  Wig.  274.  ;  Ethel- 
ward,  839.,  affirm  or  imply  it.  On  the  other  hand,  Matt.  West  p.  274.  ;  Sax. 
Chron.  59.  ;  Bromton,  776.  ;  and  some  others,  state  Bernred's  expulsion  only  j 
and  Matt.  West.  277.  makes  him  to  perish  by  fire  in  the  year  769,  after  having 
burnt  the  town  of  Catterick.  But  the  Chronicle  of  Mailros,  which,  p.  137.,  men- 
tions  the  attempt  on  the  Mercian  crown,  by  Beornred,  calls  the  person,  who  caused 
and  perished  in  the  fire  of  Catterick,  Earnredus,  p.  138.  Hence  it  is  not  certain 
that  they  were  the  same  persons,  and  if  not,  the  aufugavit  of  the  one  side  is  not 
sufficiently  explicit  to  disprove  the  death  stated  on  the  other. 

18  Huntingdon,  p.  340.,  paints  strongly  the  apprehensions  of  Ceolwulf:  "  Ipse 
horribilibus  curis  necis,  et  proditionis,  et  multimodse  calamitatis,  intus  cruciebatur, 
et  animo  et  corpore  decoquebatur."     Bede  remarks  that  an  excessive  drought  de- 
stroyed the  fertility  of  this  year,  lib.  v.  c.  ult. 

19  Hunt.  p.  340.     Sax.  Chron.  p.  54.     Bede,  lib.  v.  c.  ult.     Sim.  Dun.  11. 

20  Hunt.  342.      Sax.  Chron.  59.      Chron.   Petrib.  8.      Huntingdon    ascribes 
Eadbert's  retreat  to  the  impression  made  upon  his  mind  by  the  violent  deaths  of 
Ethelbald  and  Sigebert,  contrasted  with  the  peaceful  exit  of  Ceolwulf. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  351 

the  cowl.     But  on  his  abdication  all  the  fruits  of  the     CHAP. 
wise  example  and  useful  reign  of  Alfred  seemed  to   ,_1^ — , 
vanish  in  the  turbulent  activity  of  the  excited  mind       757- 
of  the  countrv  taking  now  a  mischievous  direction : 
the  turbulence  of  civil   murder   again  broke  loose. 
His   son  Osulf,  in   the  first   year  of  his   accession, 
perished  from   domestic  treachery,    and  Moll  Edel- 
wold  ventured  to  accept  the  crown.21     In  his  third 
year  his  life  and  honours  were  fiercely  assaulted  by 
one  of  his  leaders,  Oswin,  whom  he  slew  at  Edwines- 
cliiFe.     At  no  long  interval  afterwards  the  tomb  re- 
ceived him,  and   Aired,  of  the  race  of  Ida22,    was 
elevated  to  the  crown.     After   a  few  years  he  was       765. 
driven  out,  and  Ethelred,  the  son  of  Moll,  was  chosen 
in  his  stead.23     In  his  third  year,   this  king  fraudu-       774. 
lently  procured  the  death  of  two  of  his  generals  by 
the  instrumentality  of  two  others.     In  the  very  next 
year,  these  men  rebelled  against  himself,   destroyed 
in  two  successive  attacks  others  of  his  commanders, 
and  expelled  him  from  his  kingdom.24     Alfwold  ob-       779. 
tained  it;  but  such  was  the  spirit  of  the  country, 
that  in  the  following  year  two  chieftains  raised  an 
army,  seized  the  king's  earldorman,  Beorn,  and  his 
justiciary,  and  burnt  them  to  ashes,  because,  in  the 
estimation   of  the   rebels,     their   administration    of 
justice  had  been  too  severe.25     Alfwold,  to  whom  a       788. 
chronicle  applies  the  epithet,  "  King  of  the  innocent," 
was  treacherously  killed  by  his  patrician,  Sigan ;  and 
Osred,  his  kinsman,  son  of  Aired,  acceded.     In  the 

21  Bede  says  he  was  a  sua  plebe  electus ;  and  adds,  that  in  his  second  year  a 
great  mortality  took  place,  and  lasted  for  two  years.     The  dysentery  was  the  prin- 
cipal malady,  lib.  v.  c.  ult 

22  By  his  son  Edric,  Sim.  Dun.  1 1 .     Two  letters  of  Aired  to  Lullus,  a  French 
bishop,  are  extant,  Mag.  Bibl.  Pat.  16.  88.  and  apud  Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Franc,  vol.  ii. 
p.  854.     In  the  one  he  desires  the  bishop's  assistance  in  establishing  an  amity 
with  Charlemagne  ;  the  other  is  a  letter  of  civility  from  Aired  and  his  queen 
Osegeotha,  to  Lullus,  congratulating  him  on  his  arrival  from  a  long  journey. 

23  Chr.  Mailros,   137,   138.      Hunt.  342.     Sax.  Chron.   60,  61.     Matt.  West, 
276.  278. 

24  Mailros,  138.  »  Mailros,  139.     Hunt,  343.     Sax.  Chron.  62. 


352  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  next  year  he  was  betrayed  and  driven  out,  and 
«.  /'  *  Ethelred,  the  son  of  Moll,  was  recalled.26  But  as 

788>  adversity,  though  it  corrects  many  dispositions  into 
virtue,  yet  sometimes  only  exasperates  the  stubborn, 
so  it  appears  to  have  rather  increased  than  diminished 

792.  the  obduracy  of  Ethelred.  In  the  year  of  his  re- 
storation, he  left  Eardulf  weltering  in  his  blood  at 
the  gate  of  a  monastery ;  and  in  the  following  year 
he  dragged  Elf  and  Elwin,  the  children  of  Alfwold, 
from  York,  and  slew  them.  Osred,  who  had  been 
deposed,  attempted  to  recover  the  crown  ;  his  army 
deserted  him,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  Ethelred,  and 
perished.  This  prince  now  endeavoured,  by  a  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  Offa,  to  secure  his  au- 
thority, and  for  this  purpose  he  repudiated  his 
previous  wife.  But  his  policy  and  his  murders  were 
equally  vain.  Whoever,  by  an  example  of  cruelty, 
lessens  the  public  horror  at  deeds  of  blood,  diminishes 
his  own  safety,  and  gives  popularity  to  his  own 
assassination.  In  the  fourth  year  of  Ethelred's 
restoration,  his  subjects,  whom  he  had  assisted  to 
brutalise,  destroyed  him,  and  set  up  Osbald.  After  a 
reign  of  twenty-seven  days,  they  deposed  Osbald,  and 
he  obtained  security  in  the  cloister.27  Eardulf,  who 
had  been  recovered  from  his  assassination  by  the 
charity  of  the  monks,  who  found  him  apparently  life- 
less near  their  cloister,  had  fled  to  Charlemagne, 
and  visited  Rome.  The  emperor  of  the  West,  in 
conjunction  with  the  papal  legate,  assisted  him  in  his 
efforts  to  regain  his  kingdom :  and  he  was  crowned 
in  794.  Before  four  years  elapsed,  they  who  had 

26  Mailros,  139,    Hunt.  343.    Chron.  Pet.  10.    Rich.  Hag.  298.     Saxon  Chron. 
64.      Osred  took  refuge  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  Sim.  Dun.  12.     Alcuin  addressed  to 
Ethelred,  or,  as  he  spells  the  name,  Edelred,  a  letter  of  strong  moral  exhortation, 
which  is  still  in  existence.      He  reminds  him  how  many  of  his  predecessors  had 
perished,   propter  injustitias  et  rapinas  et   immunditias   vitae.     He   entreats  his 
people  to  he  at  peace  between  themselves,  and  to  be  faithful  to  their  lord,  that,  by 
their  concord,  the  kingdom  might  be  extended,  quod  ssepe  per  discordiam  minui 
solebat     Alcuini  opera,  p.  1537.  ed.  Paris,  1617. 

27  Mailros,  139. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  353 

murdered    Ethelred,    revolted   from   Eardulf;    and,      CHAP. 
under   their  leader,  Wada,  endeavoured   to   destroy  . 

him.  The  sword  of  the  king  prevailed,  and  the  792- 
rebels  fled.28  Here  for  a  while  we  will  quit  this 
region  of  civil  discord.  Happy  is  the  country  in 
which  the  regal  office  is  not  elective,  nor  the  right  of 
succession  permitted  to  be  questionable  !  An  here- 
ditary monarchy,  though,  like  all  human  institutions, 
it  has  its  inconveniences,  has  not  been  the  contriv- 
ance of  childish  thinkers  or  half-taught  politicians ; 
it  was  the  benevolent  invention  of  human  wisdom, 
profiting  from  the  most  disastrous  experience.  No 
contests  have  been  more  baneful  to  human  life  and 
happiness,  than  those  which  have  sprung  from  the 
uncertain  right  of  accession,  and  from  the  practica- 
bility of  attaining  power  by  violence.  It  was  a  noble 
effort  of  advancing  civilisation,  which  strove  to  anni- 
hilate the  evil,  by  accustoming  mankind  to  revere 
as  sacred  the  laws  of  hereditary  succession. 

Offa,  who  had  obtained  with  violence  the  throne  Traditions 
of  Mercia29,  displayed  talents,  and  enjoyed  a  pros- 
perity, which  have  made  his  name  illustrious.     His  his 
youth  has  been  fabulously  represented  as  distinguished 
by   a   wonderful   transformation   from    a   miserable 
child,  afflicted  with  imperfections  in  his  speech  and 
the  most  important  senses  of  the  intellect,  the  sight 
and  hearing,  into  an  elegant  frame,    adorned  with 
every  human  accomplishment.30     His  monastic  pane- 

28  Ann.   Franc,   ap.  Du   Chesne,  vol.  ii.   p.  45.      Mailros,   140.      Huntingdon 
might  well  say,  "  Gens  Anglorum  naturaliter  dura  est  et  superba,  et  ideo  bellis 
intestinis  incessanter  attrita."     Alcuin  displays  the  angry  feelings  of  Charlemagne 
at  this  repetition  of  ferocity  at  Northumbria  ;  he  styled  them  a  nation  perfidam  et 
perversam,  pejorem  paganis.     Malmsb.  26. 

29  Bede's  expression,  concerning  the  accession  of  Offa,  is,  that  having  driven  out 
.Bernred,  he  sought  the  kingdom  with  a  blood-stained  sword,  lib.  v.  c.  ult.     An 
epithet  so  marking,  as  sanguinolento,  from  a  contemporary,  implies  that  Offa's 
reign  commenced  with  human  slaughter. 

30  Vita  Offae  secundi,  added  to  Watts's  edition  of  Matthew  Paris,  p.  10.  —  The 
author  of  it  was  some  monk  of  St.  Albari's;  he  makes  Offa's  real  name  Pineredus. 
The  name  Offa  was  derived  from  a  king  whom  he  calls  Offa  primus,  the  son  of 
Warmund,  who  had  similar  defects,  and  a  cure  as  miraculous.     His  editor  believes 

VOL.  I.  A  A 


354 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 


792. 


gyrist  has  also  bequeathed  to  his  queen,  Drida,  or 
Cynedrida,  a  series  of  adventures  scarcely  probable, 
and  which  have  the  aspect  of  having  been  invented, 
in  order  to  impute  to  her,  more  plausibly,  the  crime 
which  has  stained  the  memory  of  Offa  for  ever.31 
When  he  had  enjoyed  his  throne  many  years,  he 
offa'swars.  began  to  covet  an  augmentation  of  dominion.  Some 
of  his  attacks  were  against  the  Northumbrians32,  and 
774.  the  Hestingi.33  He  invaded  Kent,  and  a  great 
slaughter  ensued  at  Otford,  in  which  Offa  triumphed, 
and  Kent  submitted  to  the  power  of  Mercia.34  After- 
wards he  measured  his  strength  with  the  king  of 
"Wessex,  at  Bensington,  and  established  his  great 
power  by  defeating  Cynewulf,  and  subjecting  part  of 
his  dominions.35 

The  conquests  of  Offa  have  not  been  transmitted 
to  us  in  accurate  detail ;  but  the  celebrity  which  he 
attained,  and  the  blood  which  his  contemporary, 
Alcuin,  attests  him  to  have  shed,  imply  many  war- 
like and  not  rightful  exertions.36  The  prerogatives 


that  this  Offa  primus  never  existed  but  in  his  page.  I  have  however  discovered 
him  in  Saxo-Grammaticus.  Saxo  says,  Warmund,  the  17th  king  of  Denmark, 
had  in  his  age  a  son  named  Uffo,  who  excelled  his  coevals  in  his  person,  but  who 
was  thought  weak  in  mind,  and  never  spoke  till  the  king  of  Saxony  endangered  his 
father,  &c.  59—65. 

31  The  account  is,  that  the  lady  was  allied  to  the  French  king,  but  for  some 
crime  was  adjudged  to  die.  Respect  for  majesty  saved  her  from  the  ordeals  of  iron 
and  fire.  She  was  committed  to  the  chances  of  the  sea  in  an  open  boat,  with 
little  food ;  the  stormy  ocean  threw  her  on  the  coast  of  Wales,  and  she  was  con- 
ducted to  Offa.  A  plaintive  story  interested  his  compassion,  and  he  recommended 
her  to  the  protection  of  his  mother.  Her  charms  or  her  wiles  animated  his  pity 
into  love,  and  she  became  his  wife.  Vita  Offse,  p.  12. 

82  Bromton,  x  Script,  p.  776.,  puts  the  Northumbri  first ;  but  Huntingdon,  343., 
places  this  after  his  other  conquests.  So  Matt.  West.  275.,  and  Hoveden,  409. 

33  Mailros,  p.  138.     Hoveden,  403.     Sim.  Dun.  107 The  situation  of  these 

people  is  contested.     Mr.  Watts  thinks  them  of  Hastings,  one  of  the  Cinque  Ports. 
Langhorn,  p.  29.,  believes  the  word  to  have  meant  east  men,  and  to  have  alluded 
to  the  east  part  of  Northumbria.  —  Alford,  in  his  annals,  settles  the  question. 
A  charter  in  Dublet  fixes  them  in  Sussex.     Offa  by  this  confirms  a  grant  of  land, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Hastings,  to  the  abbey  of  St.  Denis  ;  and  styles  Bertwald 
the  proprietor  of  Hastings  and  Pevensey,  his  fidelis. 

34  Mailros,  138.     Sax.  Chron.  61.     Vit  Offae,  p.  15. 

35  Sax.  Chron.  61.     Matt.  West.  279. 

36  Alcuin,  the  preceptor  of  Charlemagne,  speaking  of  the  immature  fate  of  Offa's 
son,  mentions,  that  pater  suus  pro  confirmatione  regni  ejus  multum  sanguinem 
effudit.     Ap.  Malmsb.  de  Gest.  p.  33. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  355 

which   he   exercised   confirm   the   traditions   of  his     CHAP. 
power.     He  founded  the  abbey  at  St.  Alban's,  and   ..     /     . 
the  abbey  of  Bath ;  and  made  gifts  of  land  to  Can-       777- 
terbury,  and  other  places,  far  beyond  the  limits  of 
his  inherited  domains.37 

Offa  is  distinguished  above  the  other  Anglo-Saxon 
kings  who  had  preceded  him  in  the  octarchy,  by 
commencing  an  intercourse  with  the  continent.  He  maene- 
had  a  correspondence  with  Charlemagne,  which  does 
credit  to  the  Frankish  sovereign  and  to  himself.  In 
one  letter,  Charlemagne  communicates  to  him  with 
perceptible  exultation  his  success  in  procuring  the 
continental  Saxons  to  adopt  Christianity.  In  another 
the  Frankish  emperor  promises  security  to  all  pil- 
grims, and  his  especial  protection  and  legal  inter- 
ference to  all  commercial  adventurers,  on  their  paying 
the  requisite  duties.  He  greets  Offa  with  expressions 
of  friendship,  and  sends  him  a  belt,  an  Hungarian 
sword,  and  two  silken  cloaks.38 

37  Matt.   West.  284.      Dugdale  Monasticon,  i.  p.  19.   62.    177.    184.      Matt. 
West,  p.  288.  enumerates,  twenty-three  counties  which  Offa  governed.     Amongst 
these,  the  districts  of  East  Anglia,  Essex,  and  part  of  Wessex  and  Northumbria, 
are  recited. 

38  Du  Chesne  Scrip.  Fr.  vol.  ii.  p.  620.     Malmsb.  32.     In  the  second  volume  of 
Du  Chesne's  Hist.  Franc.  Scriptores,  p.  666.,  is  another  letter  from  Charlemagne  to 
Offa.     The  king  states  the  guilty  conduct  of  a  Presbyter  et  Scottus,  who  had  eaten 
meat  in  Lent.     The  king  mentions  that  the  clergy  in  France,  for  want  of  full 
evidence,  had  declined  to  pass  sentence  upon  him  :  and  adds,. that,  as  he  could  not 
remain  where  he  was,  from  the  infamy  of  the  thing ;    and  lest  the  sacerdotal 
honour  should  be  thought  by  the  ignorant  vulgar  to  be  tarnished,  and  lest  others 
should  be  induced  to  violate  the  sacred  fast,  Charlemagne  thought  it  fittest  to  send 
him  to  abide  the  judgment  of  his  bishop. 

Another  monument  of  their  intercourse  exists  in  a  letter  from  Charlemagne  to 
the  Archbishop  Athilhard,  whom  Alcuin  styles  the  primate  of  Canterbury.  In 
this  letter  the  humanity  of  Charlemagne  is  nobly  distinguished.  It  is  in  behalf  of 
some  exiles,  for  whom  he  entreats  the  prelate  to  intercede  with  Offa,  that  they 
may  have  leave  to  return  to  their  country  in  peace,  and  secured  from  the  oppres- 
sion of  injustice.  He  says,  their  lord,  Vinhringstan,  was  dead,  who  he  thinks 
would  have  proved  faithful  to  his  lord,  if  he  might  have  remained  in  his  country. 
"  To  escape  the  peril  of  death,  he  fled  to  us,  but  was  always  ready  to  purge  himself 
from  all  infidelity.  We  kept  him  with  us  not  from  enmity,  but  with  the  hope  of 
producing  a  reconciliation.  As  to  these  his  followers,  if  you  can  obtain  their  peace, 
let  them  remain  in  the  country.  But,"  adds  this  humane  king,  "  if  my  brother 
answers  harshly  about  them,  send  them  to  us  uninjured.  It  is  better  to  travel 
than  to  perish  ;  it  is  better  to  serve  in  another  country  than  to  die  at  home.  But 
I  trust  to  the  goodness  of  my  brother,  if  you  strongly  intercede  for  them,  that  he 
may  receive  them  kindly  for  love  of  us,  or  rather  for  the  love  of  Christ." 

The  delicacy  of  this  application  is  peculiar.  He  does  not  write  to  Offa,  because 

A  A  2 


356 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 


777. 


Offa's  wars 
with  the 
Britons. 


A  discord  of  some  moment  interrupted  this  amity. 
All  intercourse  between  the  two  countries  was  reci- 
procally interdicted 39 ;  but  the  quarrel  is  not  stated 
to  have  lasted  long.  Offa  had  also  a  quarrel  with 
the  pope. 

The  wars  of  Offa  with  the  Britons  were  at  first  to 
his  disadvantage.  Some  branches  of  the  Cymry  pe- 
netrated in  an  incursion  into  Mercia.  Their  united 
attack  drove  the  English  from  the  Severn;  they  fre- 
quently repeated  their  devastations.  Offa  collected 
in  great  number  the  forces  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and 
marched  into  Wales.  The  Britons,  unable  to  with- 
stand him,  quitted  the  open  country  between  the 
Severn  and  the  Wye,  and  withdrew  to  their  moun- 
tains. Impregnable  among  these  natural  fortresses, 
they  awaited  the  return  of  the  invaders,  and  then 
sallied  out  in  new  aggressions.  To  terminate  these 
wasteful  incursions,  Offa  annexed  the  eastern  regions 
of  Wales,  as  far  as  the  Wye,  to  Mercia,  planted  them 
with  Anglo-Saxons,  and  separated  them  from  the 
HIS  Dyke.  Britons  by  a  large  trench  and  rampart,  extending 
from  the  asstuary  of  the  Dee  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Wye.40  It  was  carried  through  marshes,  and  over 
mountains  and  rivers  for  a  hundred  miles,  and  was 
long  celebrated  under  the  name  of  Claudh  Offa,  or 
Offa's  Dyke.41  Its  remains  and  direction  are  yet 
visible.42  It  was  used  for  ages  afterwards,  as  the 

he  will  not  compromise  his  own  dignity  by  subjecting  it  to  a  refusal,  nor  appear  to 
dictate  to  another  prince  ;  he  employs  an  honoured  minister  of  peace  ;  he  applies 
to  Offa  the  tender  epithet  of  my  brother  ;  and  he  makes  a  denial  almost  impos- 
sible, by  the  disinterested  humanity  which  he  intends  to  show  them,  if  Offa  should 
be  inexorable.  Du  Chesne,  ii.  p.  678. 

39  Alcuin  ap.  Malmsb.  32. 

40  Brut  y  Tywys.  p.  473.     Brut  y   Saeson,   p.  474.     Asser,  de   Gestis  Elfredi, 
10.      Sim.  Dunelm.  p.  118.     After  these  events  the  princes  of  Powys  moved  their 
royal  seat  from  Pengwern,  or   Shrewsbury,  to  Mathraval  in   Montgomeryshire. 
Where  the  royal  castle  of  Mathraval  stood,  a  small  farm-house  is  the  only  building 
visible  now. 

41  Lhwyd  Comment.  Brit.  Descript.  42.  —  Almost  all  the  cities  and  towns  on 
its  eastern  side  "  in  ton  vel  ham  finientia  habent."     Ibid. 

42  See  Gibson's  Camden,  p.  587. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  357 

boundary  which  determined  the  confines  of  England     CHAP. 
and  Wales;  a  boundary  jealously  guarded  with  the  * 

most  rigorous  penalties.43  777- 

Offa's  desire  of  reading  is  mentioned  by  Alcuin.44 
The  basest  action  of  OfFa  was  the  murder  of  Ethel- 
bert,  king  of  East  Anglia. 

At  the  close  of  Offa's  reign,  Ethelbert  possessed 
the  crown  of  East  Anglia,  a  peaceful  and  intelligent 
prince,  in  the  bloom  of  youth  and  beauty,  interesting 
in  his  manners,  and  virtuous  in  his  disposition.  In- 
vited or  welcomed  by  Offa 45,  he  went  to  Mercia,  for 
the  purpose  of  receiving  the  hand  of  Etheldritha,  the 
daughter  of  the  Mercian  king.  He  travelled  with  a 
splendid  retinue.  Offa  received  him  with  that  dis- 
tinction which  was  due  to  the  allotted  husband  of  his 
daughter.  But  before  the  marriage  was  completed, 
Ethelbert  was  assassinated,  and  the  father  of  his  be- 
loved commanded  the  murder.  Though  Offa  had 
pledged  his  protection r  had  received  the  king  of 
East  Anglia  as  his  guest,  had  introduced  him  to  his 
daughter  as  her  approved  husband,  and  the  nuptial 
feast  had  begun,  Offa  is  represented  as  having  pro- 
cured his  assassination.46  The  favourable  moment  of 
annexing  East  Anglia  to  Mercia  was  a  temptation 
which  overpowered  the  feelings  of  the  father  and  the 
man.  The  friends  of  Ethelbert  fled  in  consternation. 

43  Jo.  Sarisb.  Polycrat. ,  in  his  De  nugis  curialium,  lib.  vi.  p.  1 84. 

44  Alcuin  in  a  letter  to  him  says,  "  It  greatly  pleases  me  that  you  have  such  an 
intention  to  read  ;  that  the  light  of  wisdom  may  shine  in  your  kingdom  which  is 
now  extinguished  in  many  places."     He  adds  some  good  moral  advice.     Ale.  Op. 
p.  1554. 

45  The  welcome  is  affirmed  by  all.     The  invitation  by  Malmsbury,  29.,  and  the 
author  of  the  life  of  OfFa,  p.  23.,  and  Hen.  Silgrave,  MSS.  Cott.  Cleop.  A.  12. 

46  That  OfFa  commanded  the  murder  is  expressly  asserted  by  Ethelwerd,  840.  ; 
Hoveden,  410.  ;  Huntingdon,  344.  ;  Sax.  Chron.  65. ;  Flor.  Wig.  281.  ;  Malmsb; 
de  Pont.  287.;  Bromton,   749,;   Higden,  251.;    Rad.    Dicet.    446.;    and  Assert 
Annal.  154.    Their  uniting  evidence  does  away  the  attempt  of  Matt.  West.  p.  283., 
and  the  fabulous  monk  of  St.  Alban's,  in  Vita  Offge,  p.  23.,  who  want  to  fix  it 
solely  on  the  queen. — Both  these  apologists  admit  that  OfFa  immediately  seized 
East  Anglia ;  and  such  an  action,  after  such  a  catastrophe,  is  among  the  most 
forcible  evidences  of  his  guilt  and  its  motive., 

A  A   3 


358 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 


777. 


Calamities 
of  Offa's 
family. 


784. 

Cynewulf 
of  Wessex 
assassi- 
nated. 


Offa  invaded  his  dominions,  and  East  Anglia  was 
added  to  his  conquests. 

Did  such  a  complication  of  crimes  benefit  the  per- 
petrator ?  Before  two  years  elapsed,  he  sank  from 
his  empire  to  his  grave.  Remorse  embittered  all  the 
interval.  His  widowed  daughter  abandoned  his  court, 
fled  into  the  marshes  of  Croyland,  and  pined  away 
her  life  in  mourning  solitude 47 ;  his  queen,  the  evil 
counsellor  of  his  ambition,  perished  miserably  48 ;  the 
husband  of  another  of  his  daughters  was  cut  off  in 
the  same  year  with  himself49;  the  other,  who  mar- 
ried Brihtric,  died  a  martyr  to  vice  and  penury  the 
most  extreme,  scorned  and  abhorred 50 ;  his  son 
Ecgfrid,  who  succeeded  him,  was  permitted  to  exist 
only  141  days 51 ;  and  thus  the  race  of  Offa  disap- 
peared for  ever. 

During  the  reign  of  Offa,  the  sceptre  of  Wessex 
had  been  swayed,  since  755,  by  Cynewulf.  He  warredf 
with  the  Britons  successfully52,  and  met*  Offa  in  the 
disastrous  conflict  at  Bensington.  After  a  reign  of 
many  years,  he  fell  a  victim  to  revenge  and  despera- 
tion. He  endeavoured  to  expel  Cyneheard,  the  bro- 
ther of  the  deposed  Sigebyrht ;  a  suspicion  that  he 


47  Ingulf.  7.    Bromton,  752.    Vit.  Offse,  p.  24.  *  Vit.  Off*,  p.  25. 

49  Ethelred,  the  son  of  Moll.    '  M  See  further,  note  58. 

51  Bromton,   754.     Hunt.   344.     Ingulf.   6.     Offa  went  to   Rome   before   his 
death,  and  extended  to  his  own  dominions  the  liberality  of  Ina,  called  Romescot. 
It  was  with  strict  truth  that  the  friend  of  the  great  Alfred  mentions  Offa  with  the 
epithet  "  universis  circa  se  regibus  et  regionibus  finitimis  formidolosus  rex."    Asser 
de  Reb.  Gest.  Elfredi,  p.  10.     I  find  the  following  curious  circumstance  in  the 
public  papers  :  — *'  In  digging  a  vault  in  the  churchyard  of  Kernel  Hampstead  (in 
Hertfordshire),  the  sexton  struck  against  a  large  stone  about  four  feet  below  the 
surface  ;  it  was  found  to  be  the  lid  of  a  coffin.     The  coffin  was  taken  up  in  a 
perfect  condition  ;  the  bones  within,  on  being  exposed  to  the  air,  crumbled  into 
dust.      On  the  lid  of  the  coffin  is  an  inscription,  partly   effaced   by  time,  yet 
sufficiently  legible  to  prove  that  it  contained  the  ashes  of  the  celebrated  Offa,  king 
of  the  Mercians.     The  coffin  is  very  curiously  carved,  and  altogether  unique  of  its 
kind.     The  church  was  built  in  the  seventh  century." — Standard,  August  18th, 
1836. 

52  Flor.   Wig.   274.      Sax.   Chron.  57.     Of  Cornwall,   I  presume  ;  for  in  his 
charter  to  the  monastery  at  Wells,  dated  766,  he  adduces  among  his  motives  to 
the  donation  pro  aliqua  vexatione  inimicorum  nostrorum  Cornubiorum  gentis. 
See  it  ap.  Dugd.  i.  186. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  359 

was  mediating  retaliation,  occasioned  the  attempt.53 
Cyneheard  determined  to  prevent  the  blow ;  he 
watched  the  unguarded  moment  when  the  king  with  784- 
a  few  attendants  visited  a  lady  at  Merton  in  Surrey ; 
he  collected  about  eighty  desperadoes,  hastened  to 
the  place,  and  surrounded  the  chamber  to  which  the 
king  had  retired,  before  his  friends  were  aware  of 
his  danger.  The  king  quitted  the  apartment,  and 
vigorously  defended  himself;  he  beheld  Cyneheard, 
and,  rushing  forward,  severely  wounded  him ;  but  no" 
courage  could  prevail  against  such  numbers.  Cyne- 
wulf  was  slain.  Roused  by  the  clamour  of  the 
struggle,  his  thanes  hurried  to  the  conflict.  Safety 
and  wealth  were  offered  to  them  by  the  assassi 
but  no  Bribes"  could  repressTheTr^Toyal  indignation ; 
and  tEeyTfelTlrobly  by  thejr  master's  side ;  onejBritlsF 
hostage~~6~niy ^escaped,  desperately^waundedT  Loathe 
morning,  the  dismal  tidings  had  circulated ;  and  the 
great  officers  of  the  royal  household,  Osric,  the  friend, 
and  Weverth,  the  faithful  minister  of  Cynewulf, 
with  their  attendants,  rode  to  the  town.  Cyneheard 
lavished  both  promises  and  presents,  if  they  would 
assist  hmPto  obtain  thfr  (grown.  The  disinterested 
thanes  disdained  the  favours  of  a  murderer,  forced 
an  entrance  with  their  battle-axes,  and  a  deadly  con- 
test ensued,  in  which  the  guilty  perished.54 

This  melancholy  catastrophe  led  to  the  elevation 
of  Brihtric.  He  was  of  the  race  of  Cerdic55,  and 
married  Eadburga.  the  daughter  of  Offa.  The  year  Danes  first 

r,  i  .  .  -,.      .     °    .    ,       -,  ,  .  X.    ,      land  in 

of  his  accession  was  distinguished  as  that  in  which  England. 
the  Danes  are  recorded  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  writers 
to   have   first  landed  on  the  English   shore.      The 
gerefa  of  the  place  went  out  to  see  the  strangers,  who 
had  arrived   with  three  vessels,  and  was  instantly 

53  Matt.  West.  280.     This  author  states,  that  Cyneheard  had  been  banished. 

54  Sax.  Chron.  59.  63.     Flor.  Wig.  278.     Hunt.  343. 

55  Sax.  Chron.  63. 

A  A   4 


360  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK     killed.56    Their  incursion  was  repeated  on  other  parts 

...  m'    .   of  the  island. 
787.  The  wife  of  Brihtric,  or  Beorhtric,  is  expressed  by 

Queen         Asser  to  have  imitated  the  tyranny  of  her  father, 

Eadburga.  Qj(fa .  to  have  hated  all  to  whom  her  husband  was 
attached,  and  to  have  done  whatever  was  odious  to 
mankind.  She  became  familiar  with  crimes  which 
the  gentleness  of  female  nature  never  perpetrates  till 
its  moral  sentiments  have  been  erased.  She  accused 
to  the  king  whomsoever  her  caprice  disliked,  and 
thus  deprived  them  of  life  or  power.  When  he  re- 
fused the  gratification  to  her  malice,  she  used  the 
secret  poison. 

To  one  youth  the  king  was  so  attached,  that  her 
arts  were  fruitlessly  exerted  to  procure  his  disgrace. 

BrfhtricS°nS  *^e  mingled  for  him  a  poisoned  cup.  It  was  the 
destiny  of  Brihtric,  that,  by  accident,  he  should  drink 
the  contents.  Thus  punished  for  his  unjust  com- 
pliances with  the  malignancy  of  Eadburga,  he  ex- 
pired as  well  as  the  youth,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Egbert.57 

she  escapes  Driven  out  of  Wessex,  the  wretched  woman  sailed 
lce*  with  great  treasures  to  France,  and  presented  herself 
to  Charlemagne.  With  splendid  presents  she  stood 
before  the  throne :  "  Choose,  Eadburga,"  said  the 
king,  "  which  you  prefer,  me  or  my  son."  —  "  Your 
son,"  was  her  answer,  "  because  he  is  youngest." 
The  monarch  tauntingly  assured  her,  that  if  she  had 
selected  him,  he  should  have  transferred  her  to  his 
son ;  but  that  as  her  election  had  been  otherwise,  she 
should  have  neither.  He  gave  her  what  he  thought 
better  suited  her  immorality,  the  habit  and  discipline 

56  Sax.  Chron.  64. ;  Flor.  Wig.  280. ;  and  see  Ethelwerd. 

57  Asser  relates  these  incidents  from  the   communications   of  his   illustrious 
master  :   "  Quod  a  domino  meo  JElfredo  Angul-saxonum  rege  veredico,  etiam  ssepe 
mihi  referente  audivi :  "  p.  10.     The  Saxon  chronicle  mentions  Worr  as  the  eal- 
dorman  who  died  with  Brihtric,  p.  68.      Brihtric  was  buried   in    Tewksbury. 
Chron.  de  Tewksb.  MSS.  Cott.  Cleop.  c.  3. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  361 

of  a  cloister;  but  even  in  this  retreat  she  indulged     CHAP. 
her  depravity,  and  was  turned  out  of  the  society.    In  • 

poverty  and  miserable  vice  she  dragged  on  a  loathed  __  78?- 

•     .         J  .   0°  Her  miser- 

existence,  and,  at  last,  accompanied  by  a  little  girl,  able  end. 

she  begged  her  daily  bread  at  Pavia ;  and  closed  an 
abandoned  life  by  a  deplorable  death.58 

58  Asser  says  he  had  this  fact  from  many  who  had  seen  her,  p.  12.  —  In  798, 
London  was  burnt,  with  many  of  its  inhabitants.     Chron.  Pet.  10. 


362  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  XL 

The  Reigns  of  EGBERT  and  ETHELWULF. 

BOOK  EGBERT,  the  most  distinguished  and  successful  king 
.  HL  ,  of  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  before  Alfred,  was  the 
Egbert's  son  of  Alcmund,  or  Ethelinund,  the  great  grandson 
of  Inigils,  the  brother  of  Ina.  Alcmund  was  left 
early  in  his  mother's  care,  and  his  sisters  were  sent 
into  Saxony  for  their  education,  where  they  became 
religious.1  Egbert  received  the  instruction  of  the 
times,  and  his  talents  gave  splendour  to  his  youth. 
When  Brihtric  became  king  of  Wessex,  the  popularity 
of  Egbert  excited  his  mistrust,  and  he  projected  his 
destruction.  To  avert  the  danger,  Egbert  fled  to 
Offa.  The  messengers  of  Brihtric  followed  him ; 
and,  to  debar  the  young  exile  from  the  friendship  of 
Mercia,  they  solicited  for  their  master  the  daughter 
of  Offa.  Eadburga  was  betrothed  to  Brihtric,  and 
Egbert  sailed  to  the  coast  of  France,  where  he  greatly 
improved  his  mind.2 

787.  It  was  after  787,  that  he  left  Offa  for  the  court 

°f  Charlemagne.  This  indefatigable  monarch,  whom 
Europe  every  year  beheld  in  a  new  part  of  its  varied 
climate,  pouring  his  disciplined  warriors  on  the  power- 
ful savage  tribes,  which  swarmed  between  the  German 
Ocean  and  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  in  the  year  788 
marched  against  the  Sclavonians  on  the  Baltic.  Scarce 

1  Wallingford,  Gale,  iii.  63L    See  Thorn.  2.;  Scrip,  x.  2211. ;  and  Lei.  iiS.  55. 
The  Saxon  Chronicle  makes  the  father  of  Egbert  king  of  Kent,  p.  63. ;  and  Higden 
entitles  him  sub  reguli,  p.  252.     So  Rudborne.     The  eldest  sons  of  the  kings  of 
Wessex  seem,  at  this  period,  to  have  been  always  appointed  kings  of  Kent,  until  the 
reign  of  Alfred. 

2  .Malms,  lib.  ii.  c.  1.  p.  36.     Hen   Silgrave,  Cott.  MSS.  p.  12, 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


363 


787. 


795. 


had  they  submitted,  but  the  Huns  were  invading  him,  CHAP, 
and  he  was  also  summoned  towards  Naples  by  the 
hostilities  of  the  eastern  empire.  He  subdued  the 
Avarians  and  the  Huns,  the  modern  Austrians  and 
Hungarians.  When  Saxony  revolted,  he  determined 
to  extirpate  the  most  hostile  of  its  confederation. 
The  fate  of  30,000  men  evinced  the  dreadful  execu- 
tion of  his  determination. 

On  his  return  from  this  expedition,  he  passed  his 
winter  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  a  place  with  which  he  was 
much  delighted.  In  the  subsequent  years  we  find 
him  at  Paderborn,  afterwards  traversing  the  French 
coasts,  visiting  the  diet  at  Mentz,  and,  in  the  year 
800,  inarching  into  Italy  through  Suabia  and  Friuli. 
We  may  reasonably  suppose  that  Egbert  attended 
him  in  some  of  these  expeditions,  and  that  great 
activity,  enlargement,  and  information  of  mind  were 
acquired  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  prince  during  his 
asylum  with  the  Frankish  sovereign.  Thus  Egbert's 
exile  and  adversity  became  beneficial  both  to  himself 
and  to  the  country  which  he  was  soon  called  to 
govern. 

It  was  in  the  year  800  that  Egbert  was  summoned 
out  of  the  French  empire  to  the  throne  of  England,  tarns  to 
As  he  was  the  only  descendant  of  Cerdic  that  was  £nsland- 
in  existence3,   his  accession  was  highly  popular  in 
Wessex. 

At  the  period  of  his  accession,  the  island,  though  state  of 
nominally  under  an  hexarchy,  was  fast  verging  into 
a  triarchy.  The  petty  powers  of  Kent,  Essex,  and 
East  Anglia  had  already  become  the  satellites  of 
Mercia ;  Northumbria,  occupied  in  producing  and 
destroying  a  succession  of  usurpers  and  turbulent 
nobles,  had  ceased  to  molest  her  neighbours ;  Wessex 
had  enlarged  herself  by  the  incorporation  of  Sussex ; 


800. 


3  Malmsbury,  lib.  i.  c.  2.  p.  16. 


364  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     its  population  and  wealth  multiplied  under  the  peace- 
•   able  administration  of  Brihtric,  and  a  series  of  able 
80°-       sovereigns  had  reduced  the  nobles  of  the  land  to  an 
useful   subordination.      The    force   of  Wessex   was 
therefore  a  well-organised  concentration  of  various 
powers,  ready  to  operate  with  all  their  energies  for 
any  great   purpose   to  which  they  should  be  sum- 
moned. 

At  this  crisis  Egbert  acceded.  The  friendship  of 
Charlemagne  had  educated  him  to  the  arts  of  empire  ; 
and  the  studies  cultivated  at  the  Frankish  court  had 
excited  his  mind,  and  polished  his  manners.4  From 
the  example  of  the  French  emperor  he  learnt  the 
difficult  policy  of  governing,  with  vigour  and  pru- 
dence, the  discordant  members  of  a  great  body  politic. 
The  character  of  Charlemagne  was  a  mixture  of  cul- 
tivated intellect  and  barbarism,  which  was  likely  to 
have  interested  and  improved  the  mind  of  Egbert; 
and  in  the  wars  of  the  Francs  he  must  have  im- 
bibed a  military  knowledge  superior  to  that  of  every 
Anglo-Saxon  competitor. 

His  mild  government  completed  the  attachment  of 
his  subjects,  and  the  tranquillity  of  the  first  years  of 
his  reign  fostered  his  growing  strength. 

Kenwuif  in  For  the  first  nineteen  years  of  Egbert's  reign,  Ken- 
wulf  continued  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Mercia.  He 
had  subdued  Kent,  and  ruled  Mercia  and  its  ap- 
pendages with  an  ability  which  suspended  the  ambi- 
tion of  the  West- Saxon  king.  Kenwuif  is  mentioned 
with  applause  for  his  peacefulness,  piety,  and  justice.5 
His  ability  was  known  to  his  contemporaries,  and 
secured  his  repose. 

4  Malmsbury  says  of  the  Francs,  "  This  nation,  from  the  activity  of  its  powers 
and  the  urbanity  of  its  manners,  was  decidedly  the  prince  of  all  the  western  states  ; " 
he  mentions  that  Egbert  regnandi  disciplinam  a  Francis  acciperit,  and  that  with 
them  aciem  mentis  expediret  et  mores  longe  a  gentilicia  barbaric  alienos  indueret. 
Lib.ii.  c.  1.  p.  36. 

5  Ingulf.  Hist.  p.  6.  rex  justissimus.     Chron.  Pet.  10. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  365 

It  was  on  the  inferior  Britons  of  the  West,  that      CHAP. 
Egbert  first  tried  the  efficacy  of  his  military  strength.    , — ^ — , 
He  penetrated  successfully  into  Devonshire  arid  Corn-  E  b®^e 
wall ;  resistance  was  in  vain ;  and  he  ravaged,  un-  feats  the 
checked,  from  the  East  to  the  West.6  Br^ns? 

The  path  to  his  greatness  was  laid  open  to  Egbert  si 9. 
by  the  death  of  Kenwulf.7  The  wisdom  of  this  king 
had  completed  the  efforts  of  Offa  for  the  power  of 
Mercia;  and  if  his  successors  had  been  of  equal 
energy,  Wessex  might  not  at  this  period  have  become 
its  superior. 

But  to  such  a  degree  of  strength  had  these  rival  Rivalry  of 
states   respectively  attained,   that  it  was  obvious  a  & 

serious  competition  must  soon  arise  for  one  to  be 
sovereign  of  the  whole.  The  humiliation  of  the  other 
powers  increased  the  rivalry  of  these.  Two  neigh- 
bouring co-equals  in  power  cannot  long  exist  in  amity 
together,  because  man  is  too  much  a  being  of  hope 
and  envy,  and  too  little  appreciates  tranquillity  and 
content.  By  its  political  power,  Mercia  promised  to 
win  in  the  approaching  race  of  supremacy ;  but 
Wessex  was  rising  so  fast  into  importance,  that 
nothing  less  than  a  continuation  of  able  government 
in  Mercia  could  suppress  its  competition.  Both  had 
reached  that  point  of  power,  at  which  the  state  that 
was  first  disquieted  by  the  evils  of  a  weak  administra- 
tion would  inevitably  fall  under  the  pressure  of  the 
other. 

Egbert  and  Kenwulf  governed  their  several  king- 
doms with  such  steady  capacity,  that,  during  their 
co-existence,  the  balance  was  not  determined.  If 
Kenwulf  had  been  the  survivor,  and  minors  or  in- 
capable men,  harassed  by  factious  chiefs,  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  of  Egbert,  then  Mercia  would 

6  Sax.  Chron.  69.     Flor.  Wig.  285.      Malmsb.  36.     Ethelw.  840.     In  the  year 
816,  the  English  school  at  Rome  was  burnt     Flor.  Wig.  285. 

7  Ingulf.  7. 


366 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 

-'         Y 

819. 


The  son  of 

Kenwulf 

murdered. 


Ceolwulf. 


Beornwulf, 
a  weak 
prince. 


823. 

Beornwulf 
makes  war 
on  Egbert. 


have  acquired  the  monarchy  of  England;  but  the 
coveted  distinction  was  allotted  to  Wessex,  and  the 
causes  powerful  enough  to  reduce  a  nation  were  suf- 
fered to  operate  in  Mercia. 

Kenwulf  left  his  son,  Kinelm,  a  child  of  seven  years 
of  age,  the  heir  to  his  crown,  under  the  tutelage  of 
his  marriageable  daughters.  The  eldest  of  these, 
Windreda,  hopeful  of  acquiring  a  permanent  autho- 
rity, resolved  on  her  brother's  death.  He  was  car- 
ried by  his  foster-father  under  pretence  of  hunting, 
into  a  wood,  and  there  murdered.  Her  crime  failed 
to  profit  her.  Her  uncle,  Ceolwulf,  took  the  crown  ; 
in  his  second  year  he  was  driven  out  by  Beornwulf. 8 

These  distractions  checked  Mercia  in  her  career 
of  dignity.  Beornwulf  became  by  his  usurpation 
rather  the  king  of  his  party  than  sovereign  of  the 
united  population  of  his  territory.  He  had  acquired 
his  throne  by  violence ;  yet  if  his  skill  had  been  equal 
to  the  crisis,  he  might  have  consolidated  his  power ; 
but  he  is  characterised  as  a  fool,  rich  and  powerful, 
though  of  no  regal  ancestry.9  With  giddy  precipi- 
tancy he  plunged  into  a  personal  competition  with 
Egbert,  and  linked  the  fate  of  Mercia  in  his  own.10 

It  was  in  823  that  Beornwulf  rushed  to  that  col- 
lision which  the  wary  Egbert  seems  to  have  been 
reluctant  to  hazard.  The  twenty-three  years'  for- 
bearance of  the  West- Saxon  prince  indicates  no  inor- 
dinate ambition ;  but  the  hostilities  of  Beornwulf 
roused  him  into  activity.  At  Wilton  the  competition 


8  Ingulf.  7.     Flor.  Wig.  286. 

9  Ingulf.  7.     A  Bernulpho  quodam  fatuoso  et  divitiis  ac  potentia  pollenti,  in 
nulloque  lineam  regalem  contigente  expulsus  est. 

10  In  823,  a  battle  occurred  at  Gafelford,  or  Camelford,  in  Cornwall.    Sax.  Chron. 
70.    Flor.  Wig.  287.     The  men  of  Devonshire  are  particularised  as  the  combatants 
who  conflicted  with  the  Cornish  Britons.     The  pieces  of  armour,  rings,  and  brass- 
furniture  for  horses,  dug  up  here,  and  the  local  tradition  of  a  bloody  battle,  may 
be  collateral  evidences  of  this  struggle ;  but  they  are  also  claimed  by  Leland  as  the 
attestations  of  the  celebrated  fight  of  Camlan,  which  he  places  on  this  spot.    Whether 
Egbert  or  his  generals  commanded  against  the  Britons,  is  not  decisively  ascertained. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  367 


between  the  two  states  was  decided.11     The  superior 
strength  of  the  forces  of  Mercia  was  balanced  by  the  »—  ,  —  • 
skill  of  Egbert.     A  furious  battle  ensued,  which  the 
rival  armies  maintained  with  great  obstinacy  ;  but  at  Egbert's 
length  Egbert  conquered  with  great  slaughter,  and  v 
Beornwulf  's  forces  fled  in  irremediable  confusion. 

Egbert   derived   from   his   victory   all  the  conse-  |u^duae^d 
quences  of  which  it  was  so  fruitful:  he  beheld  the  Essex. 
favourable  moment  for  breaking  the  power  of  Mercia 
for  ever,  and  he  seized  it  with  avidity.  He  despatched 
his  son,  Ethelwulf,  and  the  warlike  bishop   and   able 
statesman,    Ealstan,    with   a  competent   army,   into 
Kent,  who  drove  the  petty  sovereign  that  had  ruled 
there,  the  dependent  of  Mercia,  over  the  Thames  12  ; 
and  then  Kent,  and  its  neighbour,  Essex,  became  for 
ever  united  to  the  crown  of  Wessex. 

Egbert  pursued  his  scheme  of  aggrandisement  with  incites  the 
careful  policy.  He  forbore  to  invade  Mercia;  for 
though  it  had  been  defeated,  it  abounded  yet  with 
courageous  soldiery  ;  and  Egbert  seems  to  have  been 
cautious  of  putting  too  much  into  hazard.  Instead 
of  attacking  Beornwulf  in  Mercia,  Egbert  fomented 
the  discontent  with  which  the  East  Anglians  endured 
the  Mercian  yoke;  by  promise  of  support  he  excited 
East  Anglia  to  revolt,  and  thus  engaged  his  rival  in 
a  new  warfare.13 

Beornwulf  went  in  anger  to  chastise  the  East  An-       825. 
glians.     His  incapacity  again  disgraced  him  with  a  disasters. 
defeat  :  he  fell  in  the  contest  14  ;  and  was  succeeded 
by  Ludecan,  who   again   led    the   forces   of  Mercia 
against  East  Anglia  ;  but  he  was  as  unfortunate  as 
his  predecessor,    and  found  -a  grave  where    he   had 

11  Sax.  Chron.  70.     Flor.  Wig.  287.     Hunt.  344. 

12  Sax.  Chron.  70.    Wallingf.  534.    Hunt.  345.    Flor.  Wig.  287.    The  year  824 
is  remarked  by  continental  annalists  to  have  had  a  winter  so  extremely  severe,  that 
not  only  animals,  but  many  of  the  human  race,  perished  in  the  excessive  cold.    See 
Annal.  Fuldenses.     Bouquet's  Recueil,  vi.  p.  208.     The  annals  add  a  description  of 
a  huge  stone  which  fell  from  the  air  ! 

13  Ingulf.  7.  M  Ibid.     Chron.  Petr.  12. 


368 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
HI. 

V 

825. 


Egbert  in- 
vades Mer- 
cia. 


hoped  for  empire.     Wiglaf,  the  governor  or  prince  of 
Worcestershire,  succeeded.15 

The  views  of  Egbert  were  now  accomplished.  An 
important  passage  of  Ingulf  us  pours  light  on  the 
policy  of  Egbert.  He  says  that  the  two  usurpers, 
Beornwulf  and  Ludecan,  by  their  imprudence,  de- 
stroyed all  the  military  strength  of  Mercia,  which  had 
been  most  numerous  and  victorious.16  For  this  event 
Egbert  seems  to  have  waited ;  and,  as  soon  as  he 
found  that  Mercia  had  exhausted  herself  against 
others,  his  caution  was  thrown  aside,  and  his  officers 
marched  his  army  immediately  into  Mercia.  Wiglaf, 
attacked  before  he  could  recruit  his  forces,  fled  from 
his  new  dominion,  and  concealed  himself  from  the 
eager  searches  of  Egbert  in  the  monastery  of  Croy* 
land.  That  interesting  character,  Ethelburga,  wi- 
dowed in  the  hour  of  the  marriage-feast  by  her  father 
Offa's  crime,  sheltered  the  fugitive  prince  in  her  re- 
spected cell.17  How  painfully  must  she  have  moral- 
ised on  the  deed  which  had  not  only  destroyed  her 
happiness,  but  had  contributed  in  its  consequences  to 
the  ruin  of  Mercia ! 

The  negotiations  of  the  venerable  abbot  of  Croy- 
mitstohim  ^an(^  preserved  Wiglaf,  but  completed  the  inevitable 
degradation  of  Mercia.  Egbert  agreed  to  the  king's 
continuing  on  the  throne  as  the  tributary  vassal  of 
Wessex.  The  expressions  of  Wiglaf,  in  the  charter 
of  Croyland,  six  years  after  this  pacification,  are,  "  I 
have  procured  it  to  be  confirmed  by  my  lord,  Egbert, 
king  of  Wessex,  and  his  son."  —  "  In  the  presence  of 
my  lords  Egbert  and  Athelwulf."  18  —  The  payment 


827. 


sub- 


15  Ingulf.  7.     Chron.  Petr.  12. 

16  Regno  vehementer  oppresso,  to  tarn  militiam  ejus,  quae  quondam  plurima  ex- 
titerat,  et  victoriosissima,  sua  imprudentia  perdiderat.     Ing.  7. 

17  Ing.  7. 

18  Per  dominum  meum  Egbertum  regem  West  Saxonias  et  Athelwlphum  filium 
ejus  illud  obtinui  confirmari.     Ing.  9.  —  In  presentia  dominorum  meorum  Egberti 
regis  West  Saxonia  et  Athelwlphi  filii  ejus.     Ing.  10. 


ANGLO  SAXONS.  369 

of  the  tribute  is  attested  by  Ingulf.19     The  submis-      CHAP. 

VI 

sion  of  East  Anglia  was  consequent  on  the  humilia-   t_^ , 

tion  of  Mercia.  827- 

Northumbria  had  not  yet  felt  his  power.  Eardulf,  Egbert  in- 
whom  we  left  reigning  at  the  beginning  of  this  the 
ninth  century,  had  assumed  a  hostile  posture  against 
Kenwulf  of  Mercia ;  but  the  clergy  interposed,  and 
procured  a  reconciliation.20  In  806,  Eardulf  was 
driven  out,  and  the  province  continued  without  a  king 
for  a  long  time.21  Alfwold  is  mentioned  afterwards, 
as  a  fleeting  monarch  of  two  years ;  and  Eanred,  the 
son  of  Eardulf,  then  succeeded  for  thirty-three  years, 
and  transmitted  it  to  his  son.22  It  was  against  Eanred 
that  Egbert  inarched,  after  the  conquest  of  Mercia. 
The  Northumbrian  prince  was  too  prudent  to  engage 
his  turbulent  and  exhausted  kingdom  in  a  war  with 
Egbert:  he  felt  the  imperious  necessity,  and  obeyed 
it.  At  Dore,  beyond  the  Humber,  he  met  the 
West- Saxon  prince,  and  amicably  acknowledged  his  its  sub- 
superiority.23 

The  Anglo-Saxon  octarchy  thus  subdued,  he  turned       828. 
the  tide  of  conquest  towards  Wales.  With  a  numerous  overrun. 
army  he  penetrated  to  Snowdon,    the  Parnassus  of 
the  Cambrian  bards.     The  same  successes  attended 
his  arms  in  North  Wales,  and  he  penetrated  to  Den- 
bighshire, and  from  thence  to  Anglesey.24     He  ap- 
pointed his  son  Ethelwulf  king  of  Kent. 25 

The  only  enemy  that  baffled  the  genius  of  Egbert       832- 

xu      r\  i  ,.•          ^    ^     -       ^  i      •  Thc  Dancs 

was  the  Danes,  who  continued  their  depredations ;  invade 
and  probably  under  the  command  of  that  celebrated  Eebert 
sea-king  Ragnar  Lodbrog,  whose  actions  will  be  more 

19  Promissa  tributi  annualis  pensione.     Ing.  8. 

20  Sim.  Dunelm.  de  Gestis  Reg.  Angl.  117.  21  Chron.  Mailros,  141. 

22  Sim.  Dunelm.  de  Dunel.  Eccles.  13. 

23  Sax.  Chron.  71.     Flor.  Wig.  288. 

24  Brut  y  Saeson,  475.     Brut  y  Tywysog.  392.     Sax.  Chron.  72.     Ethelwerd, 
841. 

25  So  he  says  in  a  charter  at  Rochester,  dated  "  Ethelwulph,  quern  regem  con- 
stituemus  in  Cantia."     Thorpe,  Reg.  Reff.  p.  22. 

VOL.  I.  B  B 


370 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
III. 

-    v-— 
832. 


835. 


836. 
Egbert's 
death. 


distinctly  considered.26  They  ravaged  the  Isle  of 
Sheppey,  and  in  the  next  year  defeated  Egbert  at 
Charrnouth,  in  Dorsetshire. 27  This  disaster,  perhaps, 
occasioned  that  council  which  Wiglaf,  in  his  charter 
to  Croyland,  mentions  to  have  met  this  year  at  Lon- 
don, for  the  purpose  of  deliberating  on  the  Danish 
depredations. 28  The  efficacy  of  the  measures  adopted 
by  the  council  appeared  at  Hengston  Hill,  in  Corn- 
wall. The  Danes  landed  in  this  part  of  the  island, 
and  the  Cornish  Britons,  from  fear  or  voluntary 
policy,  entered  into  offensive  alliance  with  them 
against  Egbert.  The  king  of  Wessex  defeated  their 
combined  forces  with  great  slaughter.29 

After  a  reign  of  prosperity  seldom  rivalled,  Egbert 
died  full  of  glory.30  He  had  made  all  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  kingdoms  subordinate  to  his  own ;  but  the 
tale,  that  he  assembled  the  Anglo-Saxon  states,  and, 
abolishing  the  distinction  of  Saxons  and  Angles,  and 
all  provincial  appellations,  commanded  the  island 
to  be  called  England,  and  procured  himself  to  be 
crowned  and  denominated  king  of  England,  seems  not 
to  be  entitled  to  our  belief.31 


26  See  the  next  book,  ch.  3.  27  Sax.  Chron.  72. 

28  Ingulf.  10.     (Ubi  omnes  congregati   fuimus   pro   concilio   capiendo   contra 
Danicos  piratas  littora  Angliae  assidue  infestantes. ) 

29  Sax.  Chron.  72. 

30  Sax.  Chron.  73.     Flor.  Wig.  291.     Higden,  253.     Chron.  Petri  de  Burgo,  13. 
The  Chronicle  of  Mailros  says  in  838,  p.  142.     The  Asserii  Annales,  839,  p.  155. 
Wallingford,  837,  p.  531.     On  the  26th  January,  in  the  year  839,  an  unusual  in- 
undation of  the  sea  devastated  all  Frisia,  so  that  it  was  almost  on  a  level  •with  the 
copious  masses  of  sands  called  there  Dunos  (Downs).     Animals,  men,  and  houses, 
were  destroyed  by  the  waters.     The  number  of  the  inhabitants  known  to  have 
perished  in  the  deluge,  was  2437.     Annal.  Bertiniani.     Bouquet's  Recueil,  vi. 

31  I  was  induced,  as  early  as  I  began  this  work,  to  doubt  this  popular  tale,  by 
observing  these  circumstances :  — 1.  That,  although  if  such  an  act  had  taken  place, 
the  legal  title  of  Egbert  and  his  successors  would  have  been  rex  Anglorum  ;  yet  that 
neither  he  nor  his  successors,  till  after  Alfred,  generally  used  it.     In  his  charters, 
Ethelwulf  always  signs  king  of  the  West  Saxons  ;  so  do  his  three  sons  ;  so  Alfred ; 
and  in  his  will  he  says,  I,  Alfred,  of  the  West  Saxons,  king.     Asser,  the  friend  of 
this  king,  styles  Ethelwulf  and  his  three  sons  always  kings  of  the  West  Saxons, 
p.  6 — 21.     It  is  with  Alfred  that  he  begins  to  use  a  different  title  ;  he  names  him 
Angul  Saxonum  rex.  —  2.  Egbert  did  not  establish  the  monarchy  of  England  :  he 
asserted  the  predominance  of  Wessex  over  the  others,  whom  he  defeated  or  made 
tributary,  but  he  did  not  incorporate  East  Anglia,  Mercia,  or  Northumbria.     It  was 
the  Danish  sword  which  destroyed  these  kingdoms,  and  thereby  made  Alfred  the 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  371 

As  the  new  enemies  from  the  Baltic  who  had  begun 
to  appear  in  England,  for  the  first  time,  at  the  end  of 
the  eighth  and  in  the  ninth  centuries,  were  not  duly  836« 
noticed  by  our  historians  before  the  publication  of 
this  work,  it  will  be  necessary,  for  the  more  perfect 
understanding  of  the  events  which  they  caused,  to 
take  a  review  of  the  political  state  of  Scandinavia, 
and  of  its  customs  at  this  period. 


SAXON  OCTARCHY. 

It  may  gratify  the  wishes  of  some  readers  to  have  the  succes- 
sions of  the  kings  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  octarchy  enumerated  in 
their  chronological  order.  I  take  the  chronology  from  the  Saxon 
chronicle,  when  it  occurs  there.  My  other  authorities  are,  Alured 
of  Beverley,  and  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  for  the  successions,  and 
the  latter,  sometimes,  for  the  duration  of  the  reigns.  Every 
notice  in  our  old  writers  cannot  be  minutely  reconciled  on  the 
length  of  each  reign.  I  have  selected  what  I  thought  to  be,  on 
the  whole,  the  most  probable. 

KENT. 

449  Hengist  lands.  512  Octa 

488  Esca,  or  .ZEric  succeeds         542  Eormenric 

monarcha  of  the  Saxons  :  accordingly,  Alfred  is  called  primus  monarcha  by  some  ; 
but,  in  strict  truth,  the  monarchy  of  England  must  not  even  be  attributed  to  him, 
because  Danish  sovereigns  divided  the  island  with  him,  and  occupied  all  the  parts 
which  the  Angles  had  peopled,  except  Mercia,  It  was  Athelstan,  who  destroyed 
the  Danish  sovereignty,  that  may,  with  the  greatest  propriety,  be  entitled  primus 
monarcha  Anglorum ;  and  accordingly  Alured  of  Beverly  so  speaks  of  him,  p.  93. 

Totius  Anglise  monarchiam  primus  Anglo-Saxonum  obtinuit  Edelstanus 3.  The 

important  incidents  of  the  coronation,  and  change  of  name,  are  not  mentioned  by 
the  best  writers.  The  Saxon  Chronicle,  Florence  of  Worcester,  Asser,  Ethelwerd, 
Ingulf,  Huntingdon,  Hoveden,  Bromton,  Malmsbury,  the  Chronicle  of  Mailros,  of 
Peterborough,  and  Matthew  of  Westminster  say  nothing  about  it. — 4.  Why  should 
Egbert,  a  Saxon,  have  given  the  Angles  a  preference  in  the  royal  title  ?  The  fact 
seems  to  be,  that  the  people  of  the  provinces  colonised  by  the  Angles  had  been  long 
called  Angli.  Bede  and  Boniface,  in  the  century  before  Egbert,  so  call  them. 
There  is,  however,  one  charter  that  makes  an  exception.  In  one  of  those  at  Ro- 
chester, Egbert  is  called  rex  Anglorum.  Thorpe,  p.  22.  Yet  his  son  Ethelwulf 
does  not  continue  the  title,  but  uses  that  of  occidentalium  Saxonum,  p.  23.  ;  which 
proves,  that  if  the  other  charter  with  the  Anglorum  be  a  genuine  one,  yet  that  this 
word  could  not  have  arisen  from  any  legal  change  of  title,  or  his  son  would  have 
continued  it  So  far  as  such  a  phrase  was  applied  to  Egbert  from  his  victories,  it 
was  a  just  compliment ;  but  it  is  no  evidence  of  his  assumption  of  it  as  his  legal 
title, 

B  B    2 


372 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK  560  JEthelbyrht 

in.  616  Eadbald 

— ' '        640  Ercenberht 

664  Ecbyrht 

673  Lother 

685  Edric.     Al.  B.  81. 

694  Wihtred 


725  Eadberht 
748  JEthelbyrht 
760  Edbert  Pren 

Cuthred.     Al.  B.81. 

Baldred 
784  Ealhmund 
794  Eadbryht 


477  Ella  lands 
Scissa 


SUSSEX. 


Caeteros  oblivio  mersit. 
Al.  Bev.  82. 


WESSEX. 


495  Cerdic    lands,    reigned 

from  519 
534  Cynric 
560  Cealwin 
591   Ceol,  or  Ceolric 
597  Ceolwulf 
611  Cynegils 
643  Cenwalh 
672  Sexburh 
674  JEscwine 


676  Centwine 
685  Ceadwalla 
688  Ina 

728  ^Ethelheard 
741   Cuthred 

754  Sigebert 

755  Cynewulf 
784  Brihric 

800  ECGBRIGHT,  or  Egbert. 
S.  C.  15. 


NORTHUMBRIA. 


Bernicia.  Deira. 

547  Ida  560  JElla. 

560  Adda 
567  Clappa 

572  Heodwulf 

573  Freodwulf 
580  Theodric 
588  JEthelric 
593  JEthelfrith 
617  Eadwin 

634  Eanfrith  634  Osric 

634  Oswald  644  Oswin 

642  Oswiu 

670  Ecverth,  or  Ecgferth 

685  Aldfreth,  or  Alfred 

705  Osred 

716  Conred 

Osric 

731  Ceolwulf 
738  Edberht 
757  Osulf 

659  Moll  ^thelwold 
765  Alhred 


A.  B.  78. 


590  Edwin,  expelled  by  Ethelric. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  373 

774  jEthelred  CHAP, 

778  Alfwold  XL 

789  Osred  ' « ' 

790  ^Ethelred 
Osbald 

795  Eardwulf 

Osbert  Ella 

MERCIA. 

586  Creoda,  or  Crida  794  Egverth 

Pibba  794  Cenwulf,  or  Kenulf 

626  Penda  Kenelm 

655  Peada  819  Ceolwulf 

656  Wulfhere  821  Beornwulf 
675  ^Ethelred  Ludican 
704  Cenred  828  Wiglaf 
709  Ceolred  Beornwulf 
716  ^thelbald  Buthred.     S.  C. 

755  Beornred  Ceolwulf.    Al.  Bev.  88. 
755  Offa 

EAST  ANGLIA. 

Uffa  Aldulf 

Titilus  Beorna 

Redwald  Edelred 

Eorpwald  Egelbrict 

Sigebert  Edmund 

Egric  Guthric 

Anna  Eohric 

Edelhere  EADMUND,  slain  by  Inguar 

Alfwold 

ESSEX. 

Eswyn  Sebbi  and  Sighere 

Sledda  Offa 

Sabert  Selred 

Sexred  and  Seward  Swictred 

Sigbert  Parvus  Sigeric 

Sigebert  Sigered 

Suithelin  Guthrum.     Al.  Bev.  85. 


B  B  3 


374 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


BOOK  IV, 


CHAP.  I. 

The  Political  State  of  NORWAY,  SWEDEN,  and  DENMARK,  in  the 
Eighth  Century. 

BOOK     ALTHOUGH   popular  language,  seldom   accurate,  has 
t    IJ'    .   given  the  denomination  of  Danes  to  the  invaders  of 
England,  they  were  composed  of  the  nations  who 
lived  in  the  regions  now  known  by  the  general  appel- 
lations of  Sweden  and  Norway,  as  well  as  of  the  inhabi-  ' 
tants  of  Zealand  and  Jutland.     Of  these,  the  Swedes    < 
were  the   earliest  civilised,   and  seem  to  have  first  ! 
abandoned  the  system  of  maritime  piracy.     The  Nor- 
wegians continued  their  aggressions,  though  at  long 
intervals,  to  the  year  wherein  this  history  ends.     The 
Danes,  who  headed  the  most  terrible  of  the  invasions, 
were  also  the  most  successful.    Under  Sweyn,  Canute, 
and  his  children,  they  obtained   the  government  of 
Britain. 

The  general  aspect  of  the  north,  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, was  remarkable  for  two  peculiarities,  which 
were  fitted  to  produce  an  age  of  piracy.  These  were, 
the  numerous  petty  kings  who  ruled  in  its  various 
regions,  and  the  sea-kings  who  swarmed  upon  the 
ocean. 

state  of  Norway,   whose   broken   coast   stretches   along   a 

tumultuous  ocean,  from  the  rocks  of  the  Baltic  into 
the  arctic  circle,  was  the  most  sterile  of  all  the  regions 
of  the  north.  Its  rugged  mountains,  and  intolerable 
cold,  were  unfriendly  to  agricultural  cultivation  ;  but 
they  nurtured  a  hardy  and  vigorous  race,  who,  pos- 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

sessing  no  luxuries,  feared  no  invasion,  but  poured 
their  fleets  on  other  coasts,  to  seize  the  superfluities 
which  happier  climates  produced.1  The  navigator 
whom  Alfred  consulted  and  employed,  describes  this 
region,  which  he  calls  Northmanna  land,  as  very  long 
and  very  small.  "  All  that  man  may  use  for  pasture 
or  plough  lieth  against  the  sea ;  and  even  this  in  some 
places  very  rocky.  Wild  moors  lie  against  the  east, 
and  along  the  inhabited  lands.  In  these  moors  the 
iinnas  dwell.  The  cultivated  land  is  broadest  towards 
the  east,  but  becomes  continually  smaller  as  it  stretches 
towards  the  north."2  Ohthere  added,  that  the  "  moors 
were  in  some  places  so  broad,  that  a  man  would  be 
two  weeks  in  travelling  over  them  ;  in  others  but  six 
days."3 

From  these  descriptions  we  may  remark,  that  the 
natural  state  of  the  country  favoured  maritime  depre- 
dations. The  population  was  along  the  sea.  The 
natives  were  hardy,  and  their  subsistence  scanty. 
Compelled  by  their  penury,  they  roamed  largely 
abroad,  and  returned,  when  plunder  had  enriched 
them.4 

Norway,  in  the  eighth  century,  was  divided  among 
numerous  sovereignties,  called  fylki,  which  an  Ice- 
landic Saga  defines  to  have  been  a  province  which 
could  furnish  twelve  ships,  containing  each  sixty  or 
seventy  well-armed  men.5  Sometimes  every  fylki 
had  an  independent  king.  Sometimes  more  than  one 
were  under  the  same  ruler.6  The  chorographical 

1  Adam  Bremen.     Historia  Ecclesiastica,  lib.  iv.  c.  96.  p.  71.   ed.  Lindenbrog. 
Franc.  1630. 

2  See  Ohthere's  narration,  inserted  by  Alfred  in  his  Saxon  translation  of  Orosius, 
p.  24.  ed.  Lond.  1773.     The  land   subjected  to  human  culture,  he  describes  as 
about  60  miles  broad  in  the  eastward,  about  30  in  the  middle  ;  and  northward, 
where  smallest,  it  might  be  three  miles  to  the  moors.     Ibid. 

3  Ohthere,  ibid.  *  Adam  Brem.  p.  71. 

5  Olaf  Tryggva-son's  Saga,  c.  41.     Stephanius  says,  that  the  ancient  Danes  used 
the  word  fylki  to  signify  a  province  now  called  Lren  ;  but  so  populous  as  to  fur- 
nish an  army.     In  each  of  these  a  sovereign  governed.     Note  in  Saxon.  Gram.  p. 
'118.  ed.  Hafn.  1644. 
0  Olaf 's  Saga,  p.  97. 

u  B  4 


375 


376  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  description  of  Norway  enumerates  twenty-two  of  these 
.  fylki,  besides  the  district  of  Trondheim,  which  con- 
tained eight  more. 7  The  number  of  sovereignties  pro- 
bably varied  according  to  the  ambition  and  success  of 
the  several  chiefs.  The  Hervarar  Saga  mentions,  that 
at  one  period  there  were  twelve  kingdoms  in  Norway.8 
In  the  ninth  century  they  were  very  numerous. 
Snorre,  the  very  ancient  and  most  valuable  historio- 
grapher of  Norway9,  brings  all  the  fylki  kings  to  our 
view,  in  his  history  of  Harald  Harfragre,  the  descend- 
ant of  a  petty  prince  in  the  southern  parts  of  Scandi- 
navia, who  acceded  in  862. 10  Harald  swore  to  subdue 
all  these  little  sovereigns,  as  Gormo  had  already  con- 
quered those  of  Denmark,  and  Eric  those  of  Sweden. 
He  accomplished  his  vow.  By  his  first  efforts  he 
destroyed  the  kings  who  governed  in  the  eight  fylki 
of  Trondheim,  and  reduced  these  fylki  under  his 
dominion. u  The  rest  of  his  life  was  chiefly  occupied 
by  his  wars  with  the  other.  The  struggle  ended  in 
his  uniting  them  all  under  one  monarchy.12 
state  of  Skirted  by  the  Alps  of  Norway,  Sweden  was  dis- 

sweden.       tinguished  for  its  fertility,  wealth,  and  commerce.13 
Its  population  was  numerous,  warlike,  and  hospita- 

7  Stephanius  recapitulates  them,  p.  118. 

8  C.  18.  p.  221.     This  Saga,  whose  author  is  unknown,  is  a  kind  of  Icelandic 
Epopea.      The  original  was  published,  with  a  vernacular  translation  and  Latin  notes, 
by  Verelius,  in  1672.      The  last  edition  is  valuable  for  its  Latin  version;  but  it 
has  omitted,  I  think,  with  a  diminution  of  its  utility,  and  with  injustice  to  Vere- 
lius, his  learned  notes.     Some  might  have  been  retrenched,  but  the  great  body  of 
them  ought  not  to  have  been  characterised  as  "  non  momentosae." 

9  Snorre  Sturleson  was  born  at  Hvam,  in  West  Iceland,  1178.     In  1213  he  was 
made  supreme  judge  of  Iceland.     He  was  a  poet  as  well  as  an  historian.    His  moral 
character  was  not  so  distinguished  as  his  genius.     He  was  killed  at  Reickholt,  in 
his  sixty-third  year.     See  his  Life,  prefixed  to  Schoning's  edition  of  his  Heimsk- 
ringla,  or  Historia  Regum  Norvegicorum.  Havn.  1777. 

10  Annales  Islandici  vetustissimi,  Langbeck's  Script.  Dan.  ii.  p.  186. 

11  Snorre,  Haralld's  Saga,  c.  8.  p.  81. 

12  See  Snorre,  Haralld's  Saga,  p.  83 — 112.      The  last  chapters  of  the  Ynglinga 
Saga  are  on  the  immediate  ancestors  of  Harald,  who  sprang  from  the  Ynlingi  of 
Upsal. 

13  Adam  Brem.  68.     Rembert,  who  obtained  the  archbishopric  of  Hamburg  in 
865,  has  left  us  some  valuable  expressions  about  Birca,  which  he  calls  the  port  of 
Sweden.     He  says,  Ibi  multi  essent  negotiatores  divites  et  abundantia  totius  boni 
atque  pecunia  thesaurorum  multa.     Vita  Anfgar.     Langb.  i.  459. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  377 

ble. 14  The  name  of  Sweden,  though  now  applied  to 
the  whole  region  governed  by  the  Swedish  monarch, 
was  in  ancient  times  restricted  to  the  territory  about 
Upsal. 15  Before  the  eighth  century,  it  contained  many 
provincial  sovereigns,  called  Herads  Konungr,  of  whom 
the  king  of  Upsal  was  the  chief.  As  cultivation  spread, 
and  deserts  where  converted  into  fields,  new  kingdoms 
rose. 16  Ninteen  of  these  puny  kingdoms  are  enume- 
rated.17 The  king  of  Upsal,  subjecting  these  inferior 
rulers,  received  the  denomination  of  Thiod  Kongr.18 
Ingialld,  who  perished  in  the  invasion  of  IvarVidfadme, 
destroyed  by  treachery  twelve  of  the  petty  kings.19 
The  king  of  Upsal  received  tribute  from  the  rest,  who 
were  thence  denominated  Skatte  Kongar,  tributary 
kings.20  But  these  subordinate  rulers  sometimes 
amassed  so  much  wealth  by  piracy,  as  to  be  more 
powerful  than  the  superior  lord.21  Sweden  had  not 
a  very  extensive  population  till  after  the  beginning 
of  the  eighth  century :  in  the  preceding  age  it  was  so 
full  of  woods  and  deserts,  that  it  required  many  days' 
journey  to  pass  over  them.  The  father  of  Ingialld 
exerted  himself  to  convert  many  forests  and  heaths 
into  arable  land.22  He  made  roads  through  parts 
which  no  human  foot  had  explored,  and  by  his  wise 
industry,  great  extents  of  country  were  adorned  for 

14  Adam  Brem.  p.  68.     He  says,  the  Swedes  not  only  thought  it  a  disgrace  to 
refuse  hospitality  to  the  traveller,  but  they  contended  for  the  honour  of  entertain- 
ing him.    Ibid.      The  Swedes  had  as  many  wives  as  they  could  maintain.     Ibid. 

15  Snorre  calls  this  part  Swithiod.      He  places  here  the  Ynglingi,  whose  succes- 
sion Ivar  Vidfadme  disturbed.     Adam  Brem.  also  distinguishes  Suedia  from  the 
adjoining  provinces  of  Gothland,  p.  68. 

16  Snorre,  Ynglinga  Saga,  c.  40.  p.  48. 

17  In  Messenii  Scond.  Illust.  i.  p.  7. 

18  Verelius  in  Got.  et  Rol.  p.  87.     I  observe  in  Snorre,  that  the  ancient  title  of 
the  kings  of  Sweden  was  Drottnar  (lord).     Dyggvi  was  first  saluted  Konungur 
(king),  c.  20.  p.  24.     His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Dan  the  Magnificent,  a  quo 
Danise  ortum  est  nomen,  ibid.     Snorre  says,  the  Swedes  call  him  their  drottinn, 
who  takes  the  Skattgiafr,  the  tribute,  from  them,  c.  11.  p.  15. 

19  Snorre,  Yngl.  c.  43.  p.  53. 

20  Peringskiold  Monum.  TJpl.  10.     He  calls  the  kings  of  Upsal  Enwalds,  or  Ofwer 
Konungar.     The  arms  of  Upland  were  a  golden  apple,  or  globe,  surrounded  with  a 
belt,  in  allusion  to  the  monarchy.     Ibid. 

21  Verelius  Got.  et  Rolf.  75. 

22  Snorre,  Ynglinga  Saga,  c.  37.  p  45. 


378  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  the  first  time  by  the  cottages,  corn,  and  people  of  a 
.  ^  ,  nourishing  cultivation.23  This  continent  was,  how- 
ever, still  so  little  peopled,  thatOlaf,  the  son  of  Ingialld, 
flying  from  Ivar,  in  the  eighth  century,  found  the 
country  from  the  west  of  the  kingdom  of  Upsal,  to 
the  Yener  lake,  an  uninhabited  forest.  By  the  axe 
and  by  fire,  he  cleared  the  regions  about  the  river, 
which  runs  into  the  lake  ;  and  the  province  and  king- 
dom of  Vermaland,  under  his  auspices,  arose.24  It 
was  not  until  the  ninth  century,  that  Jamtia  and 
Helsingia,  the  two  northern  provinces  of  Sweden, 
received  a  permanent  colony.  Men,  flying  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  preponderant  sovereign,  levelled  the 
woods,  and  spread  themselves  over  the  district.25 
It  seems  to  have  been  general  throughout  the  north, 
that  the  interior  parts  of  every  country  were  wild 
solitudes.  The  sea-coasts  were  peopled ;  but,  as  the 
natives  undervalued  agriculture,  the  adventurous 
spirits  plunged  into  piracy,  and  the  rest,  addicted  to 
hunting  and  pasturage,  made  few  efforts  to  remove 
the  frightful  forests  and  extensive  marshes  which 
every  where  forbad  their  occupation.26  Sweden  was 
for  a  long  time  a  favourite  prey  to  the  pirates  of 
Denmark  and  the  Baltic.27  In  the  eighth  century, 
the  Upsal  kingdom  was  conquered  by  Ivar  Vidfame, 
the  little  potentate  of  Scania,  whose  father  was  one 
of  the  chiefs  destroyed  by  Ingialld.28  Upsal  after- 
wards continued  to  increase  in  its  power  and  pre- 
ponderance. 

23  Snorre,  p.  45.     Loccenius,  with  truer  chronology  than  others,  places  Aunund 
immediately  before  the  father  of  Ragnar  Lodbrog.     Hist.  Suec.  p.  41. 

24  Snorre,  Yng.  c.  46.  p.  55. 

25  Snorre  gives  the  history  of  these  colonisations  in  his  Saga  Hakonar  Goda, 
c.  14.  p.  137.     Verelius  cites  the  Olaf  Saga  on  the  same  fact,  in  Goth,  et  Rolf, 
p.  15. 

26  Verelius,  Goth,  et  Rolf.  13.     Hence  the  Suerris-Saga  says,  that  travelling  was 
very  difficult,  because  on  the  melting  of  the  ice  and  snows  upon  the  rivers  and 
lakes,  the  road  must  then  be  taken  through  pools,  marshes,  and  trackless  woods. 
Verel.  ib.  p.  14. 

27  Snorre,  p.  43,  44.  28  Ibid.  p.  53. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  379 

The  country  of  the  Danes  was  composed  of  islands, 
which  an  unquiet  ocean  separated,  and  of  the  penin- 
sula  Jutland,  which  is  almost  insulated  by  its  nume- 
rous  bays.  Of  the  Danish  islands,  Fionia  was 
remarkable  for  its  Odinsee,  the  place  in  Denmark  to 
which  Odin  went  out  of  Saxony,  after  his  reputed 
emigration  from  the  Tanais.29  It  became  a  great 
city.  The  island  was  very  fertile,  but  its  coasts  were 
full  of  pirates.30 

Zealand  was  distinguished  amidst  the  other  isles 
for  its  magnitude,  and  its  ancient  metropolis,  Lethra, 
whose  sovereign  was  superior  to  the  other  kings  who 
governed  in  the  various  provinces  of  the  Danes.31 
Jutland,  which  extended  from  the  Angles  to  the 
Sound,  constituted  a  principal  part  of  the  Danish 
strength.  Its  soil  was  sterile,  but  the  country  upon 
the  rivers  was  cultivated  ;  and  the  most  frequented 
cities  were  on  the  arms  of  the  sea,  which  ran  into  it. 
The  rest  was  made  up  of  vast  solitudes  and  briny 
marshes,  like  all  the  north  in  this  savage  and  calami- 
tous period.  It  -abounded  with  uninhabited  forests, 

29  Snorre,  p.  9.     Odins-ey  means  Odin's  island.     Odin  afterwards  moved  into 
Sweden,  built  a  temple,  and  founded  a  city  at  Sigtun.     Ibid.     He  is  usually  placed 
before  the  Christian  era ;  but  the  Saxon  Genealogies  make  him  above  200  or  300 
years  more  recent.     These  are  entitled  to  much  notice,  because  the  Saxon  annals 
are  far  more  accurate  and  precise  than  the  Northern.      They  were  also  committed 
much  earlier  to  writing.     These  make  Cerdic,  in  495,  the  ninth  descendant  from 
Odin  (Sax.  Chron.  15.),  Ida,  in  547,  the  tenth  (Ibid.  19.),  Ella,  in  560,  the  ele- 
venth (p.  20.).     If  we  reckon  each  generation  at  twenty-five  years,  as  a  fair  average, 
then,  according  to  Cerdic's  genealogy,  Odin  will  be  placed  270  after  Christ ;  ac- 
cording to  Ida's,  290  A.  c. ;  according  to  Ella's,  285  A.  c.     This  position  of  Odin, 
by  the  Saxon  chroniclers,  has  sometimes  suggested  to  me  the  probability,  that  Odin's 
famous  emigration  from  the  Euxine,  was  no  other  than  the  daring  voyage  of  the 
Francs  from  the  Euxine,  which  occurred  between  270  and  280  A.  c.,  and  which  is 
stated  before,  p.  124.     It  is  a  coincidence,  that  Snorre  places  his  first  conquests  in 
Saxony ;  for  the  Francs  landed  about  Frisia,  and  immediately  after  that,  the  sea 
was  covered  with  Frankish  and  Saxon  pirates.     Odin  is  also  said  by  the  Northern 
traditions  to  have  fled  from  the  Romans  ;  but  no  other  flight  than  the  Frankish 
voyage  is  noticed  by  the  Latin  writers.     The  Saxon  piracies  show,  that  the  Frankish 
voyage  gave  a  new  impulse  to  society  in  the  north. 

30  Adam  Brem.  64. 

31  On  Lethra  and  its  topography,  see  Stephanius  in  Sax.  p.  74.     It  was  in  the 
middle  of  the  island,  not  far  from  Roschild.     Sveno,  who  lived  in  1 186,  says,  that 
this  famous  city  had  in  his  time  so  declined,  that  inter  abjectissima  ferme  vix 
colitur.  Hist.  Reg.  Dan.  Langb.  i.  45.    Roschild  became  afterwards  the  metropolis. 


>80  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  which  concurred  with  the  fens  to  keep  the  interior 
*J'  ,  unpeopled.  Hence  the  maritime  coasts,  though  full 
of  incessant  danger,  from  the  pirates,  were  the  parts 
frequented.32 

The  Danes  also  occupied  Scania,  on  the  Scandina- 
vian continent.  It  was  their  richest  province.33 
This  peninsula  was  almost  an  island ;  a  tract  of  land, 
composed  of  deep  forests  and  rugged  mountains, 
divided  it  from  Gothland.34  It  produced  Ivar,  the 
king  whose  invasion  destroyed  the  dynasty  of  the 
Ynglingi  at  Upsal,  and  who  occupied  part  of  Eng- 
land.35 Saxo  mentions  Hallandia  and  Blekirigia  as 
Danish  possessions.36 

Wulfstan,  a  navigator  with  whom  Alfred  conversed 
about  the  north-eastern  countries  of  the  Baltic,  enu- 
merated the  isles  of  Langoland,  Leland,  Falster,  and 
Sconey,  as  belonging  at  that  period  to  Deiiemearca.37 
The  German  chronicles  at  this  time  generally  mean 
Jutland  when  they  speak  of  Denmark,  but  the  isles 
seem  to  have  always  formed  an  important  part  of 
the  Danish  population.38 

Denmark  was  anciently  possessed  by  many  con- 
temporary kings.  The  Knytlinga  Saga,  after  enu- 
merating the  districts  which  Denmark  contained  in 
the  time  of  Canute,  adds,  that  although  then  under 
one  sovereign,  they  had  been  formerly  divided  into 
many  kingdoms.39  According  to  this  document, 

32  Adam  Brem.  63.     Jutland  was  anciently  called  Reidgotaland.     Torfaeus,  Series 
Reff.  Dan.  86,  87.     The  rest  of  Denmark  was  called  Ey-gotaland,  the  insular  Goth- 
land.    Ibid.  83.  87. 

33  Knytlinga  Saga.     Worm.  Mon.  Dan.  App,  p.  35. 

34  Adam,  64.     In  his  time  it  had  become  very  opulent. 

35  Snorre,  p.  53,  54. 

36  In  his  preface  he  mentions  the  rock  in  Blekingia,  so  famous  for  its  surprising 
inscriptions.     He  says,  lib.  vii.  p.  138.,  Harald  Hyldetand,  as  a  monument  to  his 
father,  caused  his  actions  to  be  described  on  it.     Wormius  relates  what  remains  of 
it.     Monum.  Dan.  p.  221. 

37  Alfred's  Orosius,  p.  25. 

38  They  were  anciently  called  Witahedh,  or  Vitaslett.     Verelius,  Hist.  Suio-Goth. 
1 6.     Peter  Olaus  says,   that  the  name  Dania  primo  et  principaliter  comprehended 
the  islands.     Chron.  Langb.  i.  83. 

39  Knytlinga  Saga.     Wormius,  App.  36. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  38 1 

Jutland  contained  five  of  these  Konga-ryki,  at  Sles- 
wick,  Ripen,  Arhusan,  Wiburg,  and  Hording.40  The 
islands,  and  the  continental  provinces  of  Scania  and 
Hallandia,  had  also  their  respective  sovereigns,  among 
whom  the  king  of  Lethra  appears  the  most  ancient 
and  the  most  powerful.41  These  petty  kings  were 
styled  Fylki  Kongr,  people,  or  provincial  kings.42 
Ambition,  before  the  eighth  century,  had  diminished 
the  number  of  the  rival  thrones.  Two  monopolised 
Jutland;  Fionia,  Seeland,  and  Scania  had  each  an- 
other.43 This  number  also  lessened  ;  and  at  the  period 
of  their  first  aggression  on  England,  the  Danish 
royalty  was  confined  to  a  king  in  Jutland,  and  one 
over  the  isles.  Soon  afterwards  one  monarcha  com- 
manded the  whole.  Gormo  Grandaevus,  who  lived  in 
the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  is  stated  to  have  de- 
stroyed the  other  reguli.44 

In  speaking  of  kings  and  kingdoms,  we  use  words 
of  swelling  sound,  and  magnificent  import.  Splen- 
dour, extensive  dominion,  pomp,  power,  and  venerated 
dignity  are  the  majestic  images  which  arise  in  our 
minds  when  we  hear  of  thrones.  But  we  must  dis- 
miss from  our  thoughts  the  fascinating  appendages 
to  modern  royalty,  when  we  contemplate  the  petty 
sovereigns  of  the  North.  Some  of  their  kingdoms 
may  have  equalled  an  English  county  in  extent,  but 
many  would  have  been  rivalled  by  our  hundreds. 

40  In  Canute's  time  the  proportionate  importance  of  these  provinces  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  war-ships  they  furnished  to  the  king.     Heida  bay,  containing  350 
kyrckna,  or  parishes,  provided  130  ships.     Ripen,  324  parishes,  110  or  120  ships. 
Arhusen,  210  parishes,  90  ships.     Wiburg,  250  parishes,  100  ships.     Hording,  160 
parishes,  50  ships.     Fionia,  300  parishes,  100  ships.     Zealand,  309  churches,  120 
ships.     Scania,  353  churches,  150  ships.     Worm.  p.  34,  35. 

41  Snorre  generally  calls  the  Danish  kings,  kings  of  Hleidra,  as  p.  9.  17.  41.  43, 
&c.     Stephanius  says,  ab  hac  Lethra  Danise  reges  in  antiquissimis   monumentis 
semper  nominantur  Kongar  aff  Ledru,  p.  74. 

42  Stephan.  p.  103.     Verelius  informs  us,  that  fylking  is  an  embodied  army,  fylke 
a  province  furnishing  afylking,  and  fylke  king  its  sovereign.     In  Got.  et  Rol.  p.  27. 

43  Anon.  Roskild.  Chron.     Langb.  i.  374.     To  the  same  purpose  Stephanius, 
p.  103. 

44  Torfaeus  Hist  Norv.  i.  p.  410.     Snorre  intimates  as  much.     Harald's  Saga, 
c.  3.  p.  78. 


382  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK      Seated  in  their  rural  halls,  with  a  small  band  of  fol- 

IV 

•_..  /  •  lowers  scattered  about,  these  northern  fylki  kings 
were  often  victims  to  pirates  who  assailed  them. 
They  had  neither  castles,  cities,  nor  defensive  fortifi- 
cations.45 Even  the  Thiod-Kongr,  the  preponderant 
ruler,  sometimes  fell  before  one  of  his  inferiors  whom 
plunder  had  enriched.46 

The  more  settled  kings  of  Denmark  became  known 
more  distinctly  to  us  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne. 
During  his  life,  Godfrid  reigned  in  Jutland,  who  had 
subdued  the  Frisians,  and  also  the  Obotriti  and  a 
part  of  the  Slavi.  He  threatened  Charlemagne  with 
war.  He  was  succeeded  by  Hemming,  his  cousin, 
who  made  peace  with  the  Frankish  monarch,  and  the 
Eyder  was  established  as  their  common  boundary. 
On  Hemming's  death,  the  Danish  sovereignty  was 
contested  between  Sigefrid  and  Ring,  in  whose  war- 
fare 11,000  men,  with  both  the  competitors,  perished. 

45  We  have  a  remarkable  instance  of  this  in  Birca,  the  port  and  chief  commer- 
cial emporium  of  Sweden.     Rembert,  who  lived  about  865,  states  this  Birca  to  have 
been  so  defenceless,  that  on  the  approach  of  the  Danes,  the  people  fled  from  it  to  a 
neighbouring  civitatem.     This  civitas  was  also  non  multum  firma.     They  offered 
1 20  pounds  of  silver  to  save  Birca.     Ansch.  vita,  p.  460.     Langb.  i. 

46  Verelius  in  Hervarar  Saga,  142. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  383 


CHAP.  II. 

The  Sea-Kings  and  Vikingr  of  the  North. 

WHEN  we  review  these  kings  and  sub-kings  of  the  CHAP. 
North,  we  behold  only  a  part  of  its  political  situation.  .  IL 
There  were  also  sovereigns  who  possessed  neither  The  sea- 
country  nor  regular  subjects,  and  yet  filled  the 
regions  adjacent  with  blood  and  misery.  The  sea- 
kings  of  the  North  were  a  race  of  beings  whom 
Europe  beheld  with  horror.  Without  a  yard  of  ter- 
ritorial property,  without  any  towns,  or  visible 
nation1,  with  no  wealth  but  their  ships,  no  force  but 
their  crews,  and  no  hope  but  from  their  swords,  the 
sea-kings  swarmed  on  the  boisterous  ocean,  and 
plundered  in  every  district  they  could  approach. 
Never  to  sleep  under  a  smoky  roof,  nor  to  indulge  in 
the  cheerful  cup  over  a  hearth2,  were  the  boasts  of 
these  watery  sovereigns,  who  not  only  flourished  in 
the  plunder  of  the  sea  and  its  shores,  but  who  some- 
times amassed  so  much  booty,  and  enlisted  so  many 
followers,  as  to  be  able  to  assault  provinces  for  per- 
manent conquest.  Thus  Haki  and  Hagbard  were 
sea-kings ;  their  reputation  induced  many  bands  of 
rovers  to  join  their  fortunes.  They  attacked  the 
king  of  Upsal,  whom  Haki  defeated  and  succeeded.3 
Some  years  afterwards,  the  sons  of  Yngvi,  who  had 
become  sea-kings,  and  lived  wholly  in  their  war-ships, 

1  Multi  enim  reges  hinc  fuere  maritimi  (SaD-konungar)  qui  maximis  quidem 
copiis  sed  nulli  prseerant  regioni.    Snorre,  Yngl.  Saga,  c.  34.  p.  43.     Multi  insuper 
qui  nee  ditiones  riec  subditos  habebant  sed  piratica  tan  turn  et  latrociniis  opes  quae- 
rebant,  Wiik-kungar  et  Naak-kungar,  i.  e.  reges  maritimi  dicebantur.     Verelius, 
Hist.  Suio-Gott.  p.  6. 

2  Snorre,  p.  43.  3  Snorre,  Yngling.  c.  25.  p.  30,  31. 


384  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  roamed  the  ocean  in  search  of  adventures.  They  en- 
<  ^ — »  countered  the  king  of  Haley-ia,  and  hanged  him. 
They  also  assaulted  Haki,  and  overpowered  him.4 
Solvi  was  a  sea-king,  and  infested  the  eastern  regions 
of  the  Baltic  with  his  depredations.  He  suddenly 
landed  in  Sweden  in  the  night,  surrounded  the  house 
where  the  king  of  Upsal  was  sleeping,  and,  applying 
firebrands,  reduced  all  who  were  in  it  to  ashes.5 
Such  was  the  generous  warfare  of  these  royal  pirates. 
It  is  declared  to  have  been  a  law  or  custom  in  the 
North,  that  one  of  the  male  children  should  be 
selected  to  remain  at  home,  to  inherit  the  govern- 
ment. The  rest  were  exiled  to  the  ocean,  to  wield 
their  sceptres  amid  the  turbulent  waters.6  The  con- 
sent of  the  northern  societies  entitled  all  men  of 
royal  descent,  who  assumed  piracy  as  a  profession, 
to  enjoy  the  name  of  kings,  though  they  possessed 
no  territory.7  Hence  the  sea-kings  were  the  kins- 
men of  the  land-sovereigns.  While  the  eldest  son 
ascended  the  paternal  throne,  the  rest  of  the  family 
hastened,  like  petty  Nepturies,  to  establish  their 
kingdoms  in  the  waves8;  and,  if  any  of  the  fylki- 
kongr,  or  thiod-kongr,  were  expelled  their  inherit- 
ance by  others,  they  also  sought  a  continuance  of 
their  dignity  upon  the  ocean.9  When  the  younger 
branches  of  a  reigning  dynasty  were  about  to  become 
sea-kings,  the  ships  and  their  requisite  equipments 

4  Snorre,  p.  31,  32.     The  practice  of  hanging  the  chief  they  overpowered,  seems 
to  have  furnished  their  scalds  with  some  gloomy  wit.      One  of  them  calls  the  tree 
from  which  the  king  was  suspended,  the  horse  of  Sigar.     Ibid.  31. 

5  Snorre,  p.  43. 

6  Maessenius  Scond.  i.  p.  4. ;  and  see  Wallingford,  533. 

7  Olaf  Trygg.  Saga  ap.  Bartholin.  Antiq.  Dan.  446.     Snorre  has  given  a  par- 
ticular instance  of  this.     Saga  af  Olafl,  Hinom.  Helga,  c.  4.     Wormius  recognises 
the  same  custom.     Mon.  Dan.  269. 

8  See  Verelius,  Hist.  Suio-G.  p.  6.     Pontanus,  Hist.  Dan.  p.  87.     Stephanius  in 
Sax.  p.  152.     Thus,  a  grandson  of  the  famous  Ragnar  Lodbrog  was  a  sea-king, 
while  his  brother  succeeded  to  the  crown  of  Sweden.     Filii  Biornis  jamsidae  fuere 
Eirikus  et  Refillus.  hie  erat  Herkongr  oc  Saekongr.     Hervarar  Saga,  225. 

9  Thus  Gudrum  :  ab  eo  regno  pulsus  piratico  more  vixit,  Langb.  i.  480.     Thus 
also  Biorn,  ii.  1.10.  89. 


ANGLO-SAXONS*  385 

were  furnished  as  a  patrimonial  right,  and  perhaps  as      CHAP. 
a  political  convenience.  -      /    . 

When  we  recollect  the  numerous  potentates  of 
Scandinavia,  and  their  general  fecundity,  we  may 
expect  that  the  ocean  swarmed  with  sea-kings.  Such 
was  their  number,  that  one  Danish  sovereign  is 
mentioned  by  Saxo  to  have  destroyed  seventy  of  the 
honourable  but  direful  race.10  Their  rank  and 
successes  always  secured  to  them  abundant  crews, 
and  the  mischief  they  perpetrated  must  have  been 
immense.11  These  sea-kings  were  also  called  Her- 
kongr. 

The  sea-kings  had  the  name  of  honour,  but  they 
were  only  a  portion  of  those  pirates,  or  vikingr,  who 
in  the  ninth  century  were  covering  the  ocean.  Not 
only  the  children  of  the  kings,  but  every  man  of 
importance,  equipped  ships,  and  roamed  the  seas  to 
acquire  property  by  force.12  At  the  age  of  twelve, 
the  sons  of  the  great  were  in  action  under  military 
tutors.13  Piracy  was  not  only  the  most  honourable 
occupation,  and  the  best  harvest  of  wealth,  it  was 
not  only  consecrated  to  public  emulation  by  the 
illustrious  who  pursued  it14,  but  no  one  was  esteemed 

10  Saxo  Gram.  lib.  vii.  p.  142. 

11  Snorre  has  recorded  the  sufferings  of  Sweden  in  his  Ynglinga  Saga ;  and  the 
famous  inscription  on  the  lapis  Tirstedensis,  given  by  Wormius,  Monum.  267.,  and 
commented  on  by  Bartholin,  438.,    records   the    memory  of  Frotho,  a  vikingr 
terrible  to  the  Swedes,  443.     The  ancient  Sveno  Aggonis  mentions  the  extensive 
depredations  of  Helghi,  a  « rex  maris,'  Hist.  Dan.     Langb.  i.  44.     And  the  Norna- 
gesti  Historia  in  one  instance  exhibits  a  volume  of  such  incidents.     "  Hi  regulos 
permultos  subjugaverant,  pugnatores  fortissimos  interfecerant,  urbesque  incendio 
deleverant  ac  in  Hispania  et  Gallia  immensam  stragem  ediderant,"     Ap,  Torfajus, 
Series  Reg.  Dan.  384. 

12  Snorre,  Saga,  Olafi  Ilelga,  c.  192.  p.  315. 

13  Snorre  furnishes  us  with  a  fact  of  this  kind  :   "  quo  tempore  primum  navem 
bellicam  adscendit  Olafus  Haraldi  films  xn  annos  natus  erat."     His  mother  ap- 
pointed Ranius,  who  had  been  his  foster-father,  and  had  been  often  in  warlike  ex- 
peditions, the  commander  of  the  forces,  atque  Olafi  curatorem.    Saga,  af  Olafi  Helga, 
c.  2.  p.  3. 

14  The  northern  writers  attest  the  glory  which  accompanied  piracy.      See  Bar- 
tholin, 437.     Verelius  in  Hervarar  Saga,  47.      Wormius,  Mon.  Dan.  269.     Bar- 
tholin quotes  the  Vatzdaela,  which  says,  Mos  erat  magnorum  virorum  regum  vel 
comitum,  scqualium  nostrorum,  ut  piraticae  incumberent,  opes  ac  gloriam  sibi  ac- 
quircntes,  p.  438. 

VOL.  I.  C  C 


386  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  noble,  no  one  was  respected,  who  did  not  return  in 
.  the  winter  to  his  home  with  ships  laden  with  booty.10 
The  spoil  consisted  of  every  necessary  of  life,  clothes, 
domestic  utensils,  cattle,  which  they  killed  and  pre- 
pared on  the  shores  they  ravaged,  slaves,  and  other 
property.16  It  is  not  surprising  that,  while  this  spirit 
prevailed,  every  country  abounded  in  deserts. 

So  reputable  was  the  pursuit,  that  parents  were 
even  anxious  to  compel  their  children  into  the  danger- 
ous and  malevolent  occupation.  It  is  asserted  in  an 
Icelandic  Saga,  that  parents  would  not  suffer  the 
wealth  they  had  gained  by  it  to  be  inherited  by  their 
offspring.  It  is  mentioned  to  have  been  their  prac- 
tice to  command  their  gold,  silver,  and  other  property 
to  be  buried  with  them,  that  their  offspring  might  be 
driven  by  necessity  to  engage  in  the  conflicts,  and 
to  participate  the  glory  of  maritime  piracy.17  In- 
herited property  was  despised.  That  affluence  only 
was  esteemed  which  danger  had  endeared.18  It  was 
therefore  well  said  of  the  Northmen  by  one  of  their 
contemporaries,  that  they  sought  their  food  by  their 
sails,  and  inhabited  the  seas.19 

Even  the  regular  land-kings  addicted  themselves 
to  piracy.20  It  was  the  general  amusement  of  their 
summer  months  :  hence  almost  every  king  commemo- 
rated by  Snorre  is  displayed  as  assaulting  other 
provinces,  or  as  suffering  invasions  in  his  own.21 
With  strange  infatuation,  the  population  of  the  day 

15  Stephanius  in  Sax.  p.  69. 

16  Thus  Eystein,  king  of  Upsal,  pirated  in  Vaurnia,  praedas  ibi  agit  vestes,  alias- 
que  res  pretiosas  nee  non  colonorum  utensilia  rapiens,  pecoraque  in  litore  mactans, 
quo  facto  domum  reversi  sunt.     Snorre,  Yngling.  Saga,  c.  51.  p.  58.     So  Adils 
plundered  in  Saxland,  and  got  many  captives.     Ibid.  c.  32.  p.  40. 

17  Vatzdaela  ap.  Earth.  438.  *  Ibid. 

19  Nigellus,  who  lived  about  826,  has  left  a  poem  on  the  baptism  of  Harald,  in 
which  he  says,  — 

"  Ipse  quidem  populus  late  pernotus  habetur, 
Lintre  dapes  quaerit,  incolitatque  mare."  Langb.  i.  400. 

20  Verel.  in  Got.  et  Rol.  p.  75. 

21  Yngl.  c.  26.  pp.  31,  32.  40.     Hence  Snorre  marks  the  autumn  as  the  season, 
of  their  return. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  387 

welcomed   the  successful  vikingr  with   the   loudest      CHAP. 
acclamations ;  although,  from  the  prevalence  of  the   .       — » 
practice,    domestic  misery   became  the  general  lot. 
The  victors  of  one  day  were  the  victims  in  the  next ; 
and  he  who  was  consigning  without  pity  the  women 
and  children  of  other  families  to  the  grave  or  to 
famine,   must  have  often  found  on  his  return  but  the 
ashes  of  his  paternal  habitation,  and  the  corpses  of 
those  he  loved. 

The  name  by  which  the  pirates  were  at  first  dis- 
tinguished was  Yikingr,  which  perhaps  originally 
meant  kings  of  the  bays.22  It  was  in  bays  that  they 
ambushed,  to  dart  upon  the  passing  voyager.  The 
recesses  of  the  shores  afforded  them  a  station  of 
safety  as  to  the  perils  of  the  ocean,  and  of  advantage 
as  to  their  pursuit.  Our  bolder  navigation,  which 
selects  in  preference  the  middle  of  the  ocean,  was 
then  unusual.  The  ancient  merchants  coasted 
wherever  they  could,  and  therefore  naturally  fre- 
quented bays  in  the  progress  of  their  voyage.  In 
hopes  of  prey,  the  bays  were  also  full  of  pirates, 
ever  ready  to  dart  upon  their  object.23 

These  fierce  Jbands  of  robbers  appear  to  have  been 
kept  in  amity  with  each  other  by  studied  equality. 
It  was  a  law,  that  the  drinking-vessel  should  pass 
round  the  whole  crew,  as  they  sat,  with  undistin- 
guished regularity.24  Their  method  of  fighting  was 
the  offspring  of  their  fearless  courage;  they  lashed 
their  ships  together,  and  from  the  prows  rushed  to 
mutual  battle.25 


22  Wormius  says,  viig  means  a  bay.     Mon.  Dan.  269. ;  and  Bartholin  favours 
the  derivation,  446.. 

23  Wormius,  269.     And  see  the  Dissertation  annexed  to  the  Gunnlaugi  Saga, 
303. 

84  Snorre,  Yngl.  Saga,  c.  41.  p.  50.  This  custom  is  stated  to  have  prevailed 
among  the  predatory  Britons  ;  "  circa  medium  cerevisiae  ordinatim  in  modum  cir- 
culi,  illud  circumdando  discubuerunt."  Vita  Cadoci,  MSS.  Cotton  Library,  Vesp. 
A.  14. 

25  Snorre,  Harald's  Saga,  c.  11.  p.  85. 

cc  2 


388  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  The  ferocity  and  useless  cruelty  of  this  race  of 
.  *y*  ,  beings  almost  transcend  belief.  The  piracy  of  the 
vikingr,  who  were  also  called  hernadi26,  was  an  ex- 
hibition of  every  species  of  barbarity.  Besides  the 
savage  food  of  raw  flesh  and  blood27,  which,  how- 
ever, the  Greenlanders  of  our  times  are  stated  to 
have  used,  as  also  the  Abyssinians28,  to  tear  the 
infant  from  the  mother's  breast,  and  to  toss  it  on  their 
lances  from  one  to  another29,  is  stated  in  several 
books  to  have  been  the  custom  of  many  of  these 
pirates,  from  which,  though  at  a  late  period,  their 
civilising  chiefs  at  last  alienated  them.  It  was  a 
consistency  of  character  in  such  men  to  despise  tears 
and  mourning  so  much,  that  they  would  never  weep 
for  their  deceased  relations.30 

One  branch  of  the  vikingr  is  said  to  have  culti- 
vated paroxysms  of  brutal  insanity,  and  they  who 
experienced  them  were  revered.  These  were  the 
berserkir31,  whom  many  authors  describe.  These 

26  These  words  were  at  first  promiscuously  used.     The  Brandkvossa  thetti,  and 
the  Svarfdalensium  historia,  cited  by  the  editors  of  the  Gunnlaugi  Saga,  p.  305., 
evince  that  they  had  some  difference  of  meaning,  but  I  do  not  think  we  understand 
the  distinction.     They  who  are  curious  may  read  the  dissertation  above  quoted, 
p.  305. 

27  See  the  Saga  Gothrici  et  Rolfi,  and  also  the  Helgaquida  of  Ssemund,  in  Bar- 
thol.  455.     One  of  the  laws  of  Hialmar  mentioned  in  the  Orvar  Oddz  Sagu,  was, 
ne  crudam  carnem  comederent.     Ibid. 

28  That  the  Greenlanders  eat  raw  flesh,  and  drink  the  rein-deer's  hot  blood,  see 
Crantz,  ii.  28.     And  as  to  Abyssinia,  see  Bruce's  Life,  p.  107.  2d  edition. 

29  This  is  stated  by  the  English  annalists,  as  Osborn,  in  his  life  of  Elphegus, 
Langb.  ii.  p.  444.     Matt.  Westm.  p.  388.,  and  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  lib.  v.  p.  347. 
After  citing  these,  Bartholin  records  from  the  Landnama  the  name  of  the  man  who 
abolished  the  horrid  custom.     The  Landnama  says,  "  Olverus  Barnakall  Celebris 
incola  Norvegiae,  validus  fuit  pirata,  ille  infantes  ab  unius  hasta?  mucrone  in  aliam 
projici,  passus  non  est,  quod  piratus  tune  familiare  erat ;  ideoque  Barnakall  (infan- 
tum  prsesidlum  vel  multos  habens  infantes)  cognominatus  est."     Bartholin,  p.  457. 

30  Adam  Brem.  states  this  fact  of  the  Danes,  p.  64. 

31  The  berserkir  were  at  first  honoured.     The  Hervarar  Saga  applies  the  name 
to  the  sons  of  Arngrim  as  a  matter  of  reputation.     Omnes  magni  berserkir  fuere, 
p   15.     Snorre,  in  mentioning  one  who  fought  with  Harald  Harfragre,  calls  him  a 
berserkir  mikill,   a  mighty  berserkir.     Harald's   Saga,  c.  19.   p.  94.     The  scalld 
Hornklofi  says,  fremuere  berserki  bellum  eis  erat  circa  praecordia,  p.  95.     In  an* 
other  place,  Snorre  says,  Haralld  filled  his  ship  with  his  attendants  and  bersevkir ; 
he  says  the  station  of  the  berserkir  was  near  the  prow,  ibid.  p.  82.  ;  he  mentions 
them  also,  69.     It  was  in  allusion  to  their  ferocity,  that  the  Harbarz  lioth  of  Sa> 
mund  applies  the  name  berserkir  to  signify  giants.     Edda  Sa>mundar,  p.  107. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  389 

men,    when  a  conflict  impended,   or  a  great  under-      CHAP.  • 
taking  was  to  be  commenced,   abandoned  all  ration-  ^ 

ality  upon  system  ;  they  studied  to  resemble  wolves 
or  maddening  dogs  ;  they  bit  their  shields ;  they 
howled  like  tremendous  beasts32;  they  threw  off 
covering ;  they  excited  themselves  to  a  strength 
which  has  been  compared  to  that  of  bears,  and  then 
rushed  to  every  crime  and  horror  which  the  most 
frantic  enthusiasm  could  perpetrate.33  This  fury 
was  an  artifice  of  battle,  like  the  Indian  war-whoop. 
Its  object  was  to  intimidate  the  enemy.  It  is  attested 
that  the  unnatural  excitation  was,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, always  followed  by  a  complete  debility.34  It 
was  originally  practised  by  Odin.35  They  who  used 
it  often  joined  in  companies.36  The  furor  Berserki- 
cus,  as  mind  and  morals  improved,  was  at  length 
felt  to  be  horrible.  It  changed  from  a  distinction  to 
a  reproach37,  and  was  prohibited  by  penal  laws.38 
The  name  at  last  became  execrable. 

When  we  consider  the  calamities,  which  the  course 
of  nature  every  where  mixes  with  the  happiness  of 
man,  we  should,  from  theory,  expect  a  general  union 
of  sentiment  and  wisdom  to  mitigate  the  evils  which 
none  can  avoid.  Experience  however  shows  our 
species  to  have  been  engaged  at  all  times  in  exas- 
perating every  natural  affliction,  by  the  addition  of 

32  Hervar.  Saga,  p.  35.     Saxo  describes  the  berserk ir  fury  minutely  twice  in  his 
seventh  book,  p.  123,  124.      Torfseus  also,  in  Hrolfli  kraka,  p.  49.,  mentions  them. 

33  Annotatio  de  Berserkir  added  to  Kristni  Saga,  p.  142.     See  the  Eyrbyggia 
Saga,  ibid.  p.  143.     So  the  Egills  Saga  ap.  Bartholin,  p.  346. 

84  Hervarar  Saga,  p.  27.     So  the  Egills  Saga  ap.  Bartholin,  p.  346. 

35  Snorre,  Ynglinga,  c.  vi.  p.  11.     In  the  Havamal  of  Saemund,  Odin  boasts  of 
it  as  a  magical  trick.     See  the  ode  in  Barthol.  347. 

36  So  they  appear  in  the  Hervarar  Saga. 

37  Thus  the  Vatzdsela.     Thorus  furore  Berserkico  nonnunquam  corripiebatur, 
quod  in  tali  viro  probrum  ducebatur,  neque  enim  illud  ipsi  gloriosum  erat.     Bar- 
thol. 345.     This  man  is  made  to  say  of  himself,  that  it  disgraced  him,  and  he  asks 
advice  how  to  overcome  it.     Ibid.  346. 

38  The  code  of  Icelandic  law  says,  "  furore  berserkico  si  quis  grassetur,  relega- 
tione  puniatur."     Ann.  Kristni  Saga,  p.  142.     So  the  Grettis  Saga  mentions  of 
Eric  the  earl  of  Norway,  omnes  Berserkos  Norvegia  exulare  jussit,  ibid.  142. 

cc  3 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  those  which  human  agency  can  create.  Mankind 
•  appear  from  history  to  have  been  always  attacking 
each  other,  without  the  provocation  of  personal  in- 
jury. If  civilisation,  science,  and  Christianity  have 
not  allayed  the  spirit  of  political  ambition,  nor  sub- 
dued the  love  of  warlike  glory,  we  cannot  be  surprised 
that  the  untaught  Northmen  delighted  in  the  de- 
predations to  which  they  were  educated,  from  which 
they  derived  honour  and  fame,  and  by  which  they 
subsisted.  Pity  and  benevolence  are  the  children  of 
our  disciplined  reason  and  augmented  felicity.  They 
are  little  known  to  our  species  in  those  ages,  when 
general  misery  licenses  and  produces  the  most  tyran- 
nical selfishness.  Hence  the  berserkir,  the  vikingr, 
or  the  sea-king,  felt  no  remorse  at  the  sight  of  human 
wretchedness.  Familiar  with  misery  from  their 
infancy,  taught  to  value  peaceful  society  but  as  a 
rich  harvest  easier  to  be  pillaged,  knowing  no  glory 
but  from  the  destruction  of  their  fellow- creatures, 
all  their  habits,  all  their  feelings,  all  their  reasonings 
were  ferocious ;  they  sailed  from  country  to  country, 
to  desolate  its  agriculture,  and  not  merely  to  plunder, 
but  to  murder  or  enslave  its  inhabitants.  Thus  they 
landed  in  Gothia.  The  natives  endeavoured  to  escape. 
The  invaders  pursued  with  the  flame  and  sword.39 
So  in  Sweden,  part  of  the  inhabitants  they  massacre, 
and  part  they  make  captive;  but  the  fields  were 
ravaged  far  and  wide  with  fire.40  The  same  miseries 
proclaimed  their  triumphs  in  Wendila.  The  flame 
and  sword  were  unsparing  assailants,  and  villages 
were  converted  into  uninhabited  deserts.41  Thus  at 
Paris  they  impaled  111  of  their  captives,  crucified 
many  others  on  houses  and  trees,  and  slew  numbers 

39  Snorre,  Tnglinga  Saga,  c.  xxi.  p.  24. 

40  Snorre,  c.  xxxi.  p.  39.  41  Ibid. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  391 

in  the  villages  and  fields.42     In  war  they  seemed  to     CHAP. 
have  reckoned  cruelty  a  circumstance  of  triumph ;   *     K'    .. 
for  the  sea-king  and  the  vikingr  even  hung  the  chiefs 
of  their  own  order  on  their  defeat.43     And  yet  from 
the  descendants  of  these  men  some   of  the  noblest 
people  in  Europe  have  originated. 

42  Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Francorum  Script,  vol.  ii.  p.  655.     The  annals  which  he 
edited  abound  with  such  incidents. 

43  There  are  many  instances  of  this  in  Snorre,  pp.  31,  33.  44,  &c.  also  in  the 
Hervarar  Saga,  and  others. 


C  C  4 


392  HISTOKY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  III. 

Comparison  between  the  Histories  of  SAXO-GRAMMATICUS  and 
SNORRE.  —  The  first  Aggression  of  the  Northmen  on  the 
ANGLO-SAXONS. — And  the  Rise,  Actions,  and  Death  of  RAGNAR 
LODBROC. 

BOOK  SUCH  was  the  dismal  state  of  society  in  the  North. 
*y*  .  For  a  long  time  the  miseries  of  this  system  were 
limited  to  the  Baltic.  After  the  colonisation  of  Eng- 
land had  freed  the  Germanic  and  British  ocean  from 
Saxon  piracy,  Europe  was  blessed  with  almost  three 
centuries  of  tranquillity.  One  Danish  rover  is  stated 
to  have  wandered  to  the  Maes 1  in  the  beginning  of 
the  sixth  century ;  but  the  enterprise  was  unfortu- 
nate. Other  Danes  are  mentioned  as  acting  with 
the  Saxons  against  the  Francs.  But  after  this  cen- 
tury2 we  hear  no  more  of  Danes  for  above  two 
hundred  years. 

But  some  of  the  historians  of  the  North  pretend 
that  the  Danes  visited  England  and  Europe  in  a 
much  earlier  period.  Are  these  entitled  to  our  be- 
lief? 

Saxo-Grammaticus,  who  died  1204  3,  has  left  us  a 
history  which  has  delighted  both  taste  and  learning  4, 

1  Gregory  of  Tours,  who  lived  in  573,  the  oldest  author  extant  who  mentions 
the  Danes,  narrates  this  expedition,  lib.  iii.  c.  3.  p.  53.     Corpus  Franc.  Hist.  ed. 
Hanov.  1613. 

2  Venantius  Fortunatus,  who  lived  565,  mentions  them  as  defeated  by  the  kings 
of  the  Francs,  lib.  viii.  c.  1.  p.  822.  and  in  his  lines  to  the  Dux  Lupus  (lib.  vi.)  he 
implies  that  the  Danes  and  Saxons  had  invaded  the  country  near  Bordeaux.      This 
was  probably  some  ebullition  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  expeditions  against  Britain. 

8  Stephan.  Prolog,  p.  22. 

4  Erasmus  has  honoured  Saxo  with  a  panegyric  which  every  historian  must 
covet ;  "  qui  suse  gentis  historiam  splendide  magnificeque  contexuit.  Probo  vivi- 
dum  et  ardens  ingenium,  orationem  nusquam  remissam  aut  dormitantem ;  tarn 
miram  verborum  copiam,  sententias  crebras,  et  figurarum  admirabilem  varietatem, 
ut  satis  admirari  nequeam,  unde  ilia  setate,  homini  Dano,  tanta  vis  eloquendi  sup- 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  393 

by  its  elegance  and  vigour;  and  which,  considering     CHAP. 
his  age  and  country,  is  surprising  for  its  power  of  . 

composition.  He  conducts  the  Danes  into  Britain 
long  before  the  Christian  era.  According  to  his 
narration,  Frotho  the  first,  his  ninth  king  of  Den- 
mark5, Amleth,  whose  memory  our  Shakspeare  has 
preserved 6,  Fridlevus,  the  twenty-third  king  of  Saxo7, 
and  Frotho,  the  next  sovereign 8,  fought,  and  with 
one  exception  obtained  splendid  yictories  in  Britain, 
previous  to  the  appearance  of  the  Christian  legislator. 
Twelve  reigns  afterwards,  he  states  that  Harald 
Hyldetand  invaded  England,  and  conquered  the  king 
of  Northurnbria. 9 

Some  documents  for  his  history  Saxo  may  have 
•derived  from  poems  of  the  ancient  scallds,  from  in- 
scriptions on  stones  and  rocks,  from  an  inspection 
(yet  how  imperfect!)  of  the  Icelandic  authors,  and 
from  the  narrations  of  his  friend.10  "We  may  even 
grant  to  him,  that  such  men  as  he  enumerates,  such 
actions  as  he  so  eloquently  describes,  and  such  poems 
as  he  so  diffusely  translates11,  once  appeared;  but  the 
chronology  and  succession  into  which  he  arranges 
them  are  unquestionably  false.  The  boasted  foun- 

petiverit."  Dial.  Ciceron.  ap.  Stephan.  p.  33.  And  yet  a  more  correct  taste  would 
suggest  that  his  work  is  rather  an  oration  than  a  history.  Though  some  parts  are 
happy,  it  is  in  general  either  tumid  and  exaggerated,  or  the  specific  fact  is  darkened 
or  lost  in  declamatory  generalities.  It  wants  that  exact  taste  for  truth,  as  well  as 
for  patient  comparison  of  antiquarian  documents,  which  the  history  of  such  a 
period  peculiarly  required. 

5  Hist.  Dan.  lib.  ii.  p.  25. 

6  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  p.  56,  57.     The  speech  of  Amleth  to  the  people,  after  destroy- 
ing Fengo,  is  an  exertion  of  eloquence  very  creditable  to  the  genius  of  Saxo,  p.  54, 
55. 

7  Ibid.  67. 

8  Ibid.  95.     Saxo  places  the  birth  of  Christ  immediately  after.     Ibid. 

9  Ibid.  137. 

10  Saxo  mentions  these  authorities  in  his  preface,  p.  2. ;  and  the  curious  will  be 
pleased  to  read  Stephanius's  notes  upon  it. 

11  We  have  a  striking  proof  how  much  Saxo  has  amplified  the  barren  songs  of 
the  scallds,  and  therefore  how  little  to  be  relied  on  for  precision,  in  his  poetical  and 
elegant  dialogue  between  Hialto  and  his  friend  Biarco,  whom  he  roused  to  the  de- 
fence of  his  endangered  king.     Forgetful  of  the  emergency,  Saxo  prolongs  it  to  six 
folio  pages.      Stephanius  has  cited  part  of  the  concise  and  energetic  original,  p.  82., 
which  discovers  the  historian's  exuberance. 


394  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK  tains  of  the  history  of  the  ancient  Scandinavians12, 
i — ,J — >  their  memorial  stones,  and  funeral  runae13,  the  in- 
scribed rings  of  their  shields,  the  woven  figures  of 
their  tapestry,  their  storied  walls,  their  lettered  seats 
and  beds,  their  narrative  wood,  their  recollected 
poetry,  and  their  inherited  traditions,  may  have  given 
to  history  the  names  of  many  warriors,  and  have 
transmitted  to  posterity  the  fame  of  many  battles ; 
but  no  dates  accompanied  the  memorials;  even  the 
geography  of  the  incidents  was  very  rarely  noted. 
Hence,  however  numerous  may  have  been  the  pre- 
served memoranda,  their  arrangement  and  appropria- 
tion were  left  to  the  mercy  of  literary  fancy  or  of 
national  conceit. 

Saxo  unfortunately  emulated  the  fame  of  Livy,  in- 
stead of  becoming  the  Pausanias  of  Scandinavia ;  and 
instead  of  patiently  compiling  and  recording  his  ma- 
terials in  the  humble  style  or  form  in  which  he  found 
them,  which  would  have  been  an  invaluable  present 
to  us,  has  shaped  them  into  a  most  confused,  unwar- 
ranted, and  fabulous  chronology.  The  whole  of  his 
first  eight  books,  all  his  history  anteceding  Ragnar 
Lodbrog,  can  as  little  claim  the  attention  of  the  his- 
torian, as  the  British  history  of  Jeifry,  or  the  Swedish 
history  of  Johannes  Magnus.  Tt  is  indeed  superfluous, 
if  we  recollect  the  Roman  history,  to  argue  against  a 
work  which  pretends  to  give  to  Denmark  a  throned 
existence,  a  regular  government,  and  a  tissue  of  or- 
derly and  splendid  history  for  twenty-four  royal  ac- 
cessions before  the  birth  of  Christ.  Saxo,  on  whose 
history  many  others  were  formerly  built,  refers  to 
the  Icelandic  writers u ;  but  this  only  increases  our 

12  Torfams  mentions  these  in  the  prolegomena  to  his  History  of  Norway,  and  in 
his  Series  Regum  Dan.  50 — 53.     They  are  also  remarked  by  Bartholin,  lib.  i.  c.  9. 

13  Wormius  has  given  us  the  inscriptions  found  in  Denmark  in  his  Monumenta 
Danica ;  and  Peringskiold  copies  many  out  of  Sweden  in  his  Monumenta  Ullera- 
karensia,  321  —  349.,  and  in  his  Monumentum  Sveo-Goth.  177 — 306.     See  also 
Verelius's  Manuductio,  and  others. 

14  Though  he  applauds  them  in  his  preface,  and  even  says,  "  quorum  thesauros 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  395 

depreciation  of  his  narratives,  for  they  are  at  irrecon-      CHAP. 
cilable  variance  with  all  his  history  before  the  ninth   .      ^ — , 
century. 15 

The  Icelandic  writers,  Torfaeus,  their  able  cham- 
pion, divides  into  four  kinds :  the  allegorical,  the 
fabulous,  the  mixed,  and  the  authentic. 1G 

Of  the  authentic,  the  only  one  extant  who  attempts 
a  history  much  earlier17  than  the  times  of  Harald 
Harfragre,  is  Snorre,  the  son  of  Sturla,  who  has  given 
us  as  faithful  a  compilation  of  northern  history  as  his 
means  and  age  permitted.  Beginning  with  Odin,  the 
common  ancestor  of  the  Scandinavian,  Danish,  and 
Saxon  nations,  as  Hercules  was  of  the  Grecian  royal 
dynasties,  he  first  gives  the  history  of  the  Yriglingi 
kings  at  Upsal,  and  the  life  of  Halfdan  Svarte,  the 
father  of  Harald.  He  then  continues  the  history  of 
Norway  to  his  own  time. 

Snorre  incidentally  mentions  the  Danish  kings  of 
Lethra18,  and  he  clashes  irreconcilably  with  Saxo, 
always  in  the  chronology  and  successions,  and  some- 
times in  the  incidents. 19  As  far  as  the  internal  cha- 
racters of  authenticity  can  decide  the  competition 
between  him  and  Saxo,  he  has  every  superiority,  and 
no  rational  antiquary  will  now  dispute  it.  His  nar- 

historicarum  rerum  pignoribus  refertos  curiosius  consulens,  baud  parvam  prsesentis 
operis  partem  ex  eorum  relationis  imitations  contexui ;  nee  arbitros  habere  con- 
tempsi,  quos  tanta  vettistatis  peritia  callere  cognovi ;  "  notwithstanding  this,  it  may 
be  fairly  doubted  if  he  knew  much  of  them. 

15  Torfseus  says  justly  of  Saxo,  that  he  has  placed  some  kings  before  Christ,  who 
flourished  long  after  him  ;  that  he  has  made  other  kings  of  Denmark,  who  belonged 
to  other  regions,  and  has  raised  some  to  the  supreme  throne  of  Denmark,  who  were 
but  tributary  reguli.     Series  Regum  Dan.  p.  219. 

16  See  his  discriminated  catalogue  of  the  Icelandic  writings  in  his  Series  Regum 
Dan.  p.  3 — 12. 

17  There  are  Icelandic  writers  extant  more  ancient  than  Snorre,  as  Ara  Frode, 
born  1068;  his  contemporary,  Semund,  the  author  of  the  ancient  Edda  ;  Eiric, 
who  about  1161  wrote  on  the  sons  of  Harald  Gillius;  Charles,  an  abbot,  in  1169, 
whose  history  of  king  Swerrer  remains  ;  and  Oddus,  author  of  the  Saga  of  Olave 
Tryggvason  ;  but  these  are  on  later  subjects.     Torfaeus,  Prolegomena  Hist.  Norv. 

18  Pp.  24.  34.  37.  39.  41.  43.  54.  69,  70.  77. 

19  To  give  only  one  instance  ;  Saxo  places  Helghi  and  his  son  Rolf  Krake  eleven 
reigns  before  Christ.     Snorre  says,  Rolf  fell  in  the  reign  of  Eystein,  p.  43.,  the 
third  king  before  Ingialld,  who  lived  iu  the  seventh  century  of  the  Christian  era. 


396  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  ratives,  though  sprinkled  with  a  few  fables20,  are 
•  very  short,  consistent,  and  unadorned ;  they  display 
the  genuine  costume  of  the  time  :  the  quotations 
from  the  scallds  are  given  literally,  no  chronology  is 
marked,  and  his  arrangement  does  not  carry  up  his 
actors  to  any  extravagant  antiquity.21  It  is  in  his 
work,  if  in  any  of  the  northern  ancient  documents, 
we  shall  find  some  true  information  of  the  earliest 
attacks  of  the  Northmen  on  Britain. 

The  first  king  whom  Snorre  mentions  to  have  had 
dominion  in  England,  is  Ivar  Vidfadme,  a  king  of 
Scania,  who  conquered  Upsal.  His  words,  are,  u  Ivar 
Vidfadme  subjected  to  him  all  Sweden,  all  Denmark, 
great  part  of  Saxony,  all  Austurrikia,  and  the  fifth 
part  of  England. " 22  But  no  English  chronicler  notices 
such  a  person  or  such  an  event.  Our  ancient  annalists 
expressly  mark  the  year  787  as  the  date  of  the  first 
aggressions  of  the  Northmen  on  England 23,  which  is 
subsequent  to  the  reign  of  Ivar.  If,  therefore,  he 
conquered  or  plundered  any  where  in  Britain,  it 
must  have  been  in  Scotland,  of  whose  early  history 

20  As  in  pp.  9,  10.  24.  and  34. 

21  He  gives  thirty-two  reigns  between  Odin  and  Ilarald  Harfragre.     Almost  all 
the  kings  perished  violently  ;  therefore  the  average  of  their  reigns  cannot  exceed 
twenty  years.     This  computation  would  place  Odin  about  220  years  after  Christ. 
Nothing  can  show  more  strongly  what  little  support  the  songs  of  the  scallds  can 
give  to  the  remote  periods  of  northern  antiquity,  than  the  fact  that  the  scalld 
Thiodolfr,  on  whom  Snorre  bases  his  history  before  Ilarald  Harfragre,  and  whom 
he  therefore  quotes  twenty-six  times,  lived  in  the  days  of  Harald,  or  about  the  year 
900.     We  find  him,  p.  115.,  singing  in  the  last  days  of  Harald,  who  died  936. 
Excepting  Brage  Gamle,  who  is  once  quoted  on  Odin,  p.  9.,  and  Eywindr,  who  lived 
after  Thiodolfr.  and  who  is  adduced  twice,  p.  13.  31.,  no  other  scalld  is  referred  to. 
The  poems  of  the  scallds  may  be  good  authority  for  incidents  near  their  own  times, 
but  can  be  only  deemed  mere  popular  traditions  as  to  the  earlier  history  of  a  bar- 
barous people.     Snorre's  other  authorities  are  genealogies  and  individual  narratives. 
See  his  preface.     But  the  Icelandic  genealogies  are  often  contradictory.     Their 
most  veracious  writers  are  rather  the  faithful  recorders  of  traditions,  usually  true 
in  substance,  but  as  usually  inaccurate,  than  the  selecting  or  critical  compilers  of 
authentic  history. 

22  Snorre  Yngl.  Saga,  c.  xlv.  p.  54.     This  part  of  England  the  Hcrverar  Saga 
marks  to  be  Northumbria  ;  and  gives  the  same  dominion  to  his  grandson  Haralld 
Hyldetand,  c.  xix.  p.  223. 

23  Sax.  Chron.  64.  ;  Fl.  Wig.  280.  ;  Ethelw.  839.  ;  Malmsb.  16.;  Hunt.  343.; 
Matt.  West.  282.,  and  several  others.     The  annals  of  Ulster  do  not  mention  their 
attacks  on  Ireland  earlier ;  but  from  this  period  incessantly. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  397 

we  have  no  correct  information24,  and  whose  coasts     CHAP. 
were  most  likely  to  be  the  first  attacked.  •        — > 

But  from  the  state  and  habits  of  the  natives  of 
Scandinavia  and  the  Baltic,  which  have  been  de- 
scribed, we  might  have  expected  the  result  to  have 
been,  that  this  mutual  destruction  and  desolation 
would  in  time  have  consumed  themselves,  and  un- 
peopled the  north.  Europe  had  then  no  reason  to 
apprehend  any  mischief  from  such  men,  because 
Charlemagne  had  just  raised  a  formidable  Frankish 
empire ;  Egbert  had  consolidated  the  Anglo-Saxon 
power,  and  it  was  the  interest  of  the  new  monarchies 
that  were  absorbing  their  own  little  sovereignties  to 
extinguish  such  a  restless  race.  But  such  are  the 
unexpected  directions  which  the  course  of  human 
agency  frequently  takes,  that  at  this  very  period 
those  dreadful  hurricanes  of  war  and  desolation  began 
to  arise  in  the  north,  which  afflicted  all  the  maritime 
regions  of  Europe  with  a  succession  of  calamities  for 
above  a  century.  As  it  exhibits  a  curious  picture  of 
human  nature  in  its  more  savage  energies,  and  is 
immediately  connected  with  the  romantic,  and  yet 
authentic,  history  of  one  man,  whose  transactions 
have  not  before  been  introduced  into  our  annals, 
Kagnar  Lodbrog,  it  is  important  to  take  an  enlarged 
but  calm  review  of  the  causes  that  produced  this 
direction,  and  gave  such  an  effect  to  his  peculiar 
position  and  singular  propensities. 

In  every  country  whose  inhabitants  have  passed  from 
their  nomadic  or  wandering  condition  into  a  settled 

o 

state,  the  cultivated  lands  become  gradually  the  pro- 

24  The  northern  literati  place  Ivar  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century.  If  this  were 
just  chronology,  he  might  have  been  one  of  the  adventurers  that  came  among  the 
Angles  into  North umbria  or  Mercia. 

As  the  Angles  and  Jutes  came  from  the  Danish  provinces  of  Sleswick  and  Jut- 
land, their  ancient  memorials  might  have,  not  unfairly,  pretended  to  conquests  in 
Britain.  But  from  a  critical  comparison  of  some  of  the  most  authentic  of  the 
ancient  Icelandic  authorities,  I  am  satisfied  that  Ivar  Vidfadme  has  been  placed 
above  a  century  too  early. 


398  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  perty  of  a  portion  only  of  the  community.  Their 
-  first  occupiers  or  partitioners  transmit  them  to  their 
descendants  ;  while  the  rest  of  society,  as  it  mul- 
tiplies, must,  until  commerce  and  the  arts  open  new 
sources  of  employment  and  acquisitions,  either  serve 
the  proprietary  body  as  vassals  and  retainers,  more 
or  less  dignified  by  office,  title,  or  birth;  or  as  la- 
bourers more  or  less  servile ;  or  they  must  float 
loosely  in  life  without  an  adequate  provision  for  their 
desires  or  necessities.  This  unprovided  class  soon 
arises  as  population  increases,  and  augments  with  its 
increase.  When  the  subdivisions  of  trade  and  ma- 
nufactures occur,  large  portions  of  the  unprovided 
are  absorbed  by  them  ;  but  still  many  remain,  in 
every  age  and  country,  from  the  rudest  to  the  most 
civilised,  who  form  a  body  of  men  disposed  to  be 
restless,  migratory,  enterprising,  and  ready  for  every 
new  adventure,  or  impression,  which  the  flowing  ac- 
cidents of  time,  or  the  rise  of  bold  and  active  original 
characters  can  present  to  them.  This  class  pursues 
the  progress  of  society  in  all  its  stages,  feeds  or  occa- 
sions all  its  wars,  seditions,  colonies,  and  migrations, 
and  has  repeatedly  shaken  the  happiness  of  the  more 
civilised  nations. 

It  seems  not  to  be  the  want  of  actual  food  on  the 
earth  which  creates  this  unprovided  body ;  for  there 
is  not  sufficient  evidence  that  nature  has,  in  any 
period,  produced  less  food  than  the  existing  popula- 
tion needed.  The  more  population  tends  to  press 
upon  the  quantity  of  subsistence  in  any  country,  the 
more  it  also  tends  to  increase  it.  As  the  pressure 
begins,  the  activity  and  ingenuity  of  mankind  are 
roused  to  provide  for  it.  The  powers  of  nature  have 
hitherto  answered  to  their  call,  and  rewarded  their 
exertions  with  the  requisite  supply.  Hence  increased 
productibility  has  always  accompanied  increased  po- 
pulation, and  still  attends  it :  nor  have  we  yet 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  399 

approached,    nor  probably  shall  we  ever  reach  the     CHAP. 
period  when  the  fertility  of  the  earth  and  the  in-  ^ 

genuity  of  man  shall  fail  to  be  equal  to  the  subsist- 
ence that  is  needed.  New  means  have  always  hitherto 
unfolded  to  meet  new  exigencies.  In  the  case  of  the 
Northmen,  it  is  remarkable,  that  although  every  act 
of  plunder  was  also  an  act  of  ravage,  and  more  of  the 
necessaries  and  conveniences  of  life  were  destroyed 
by  their  depredations  than  were  either  carried  off  or 
consumed;  yet  the  numbers  of  both  the  plunderers 
and  plundered  increased  till  they  formed  well-peopled 
and  prosperous  communities., 

This  unprovided  class  arises  from  the  impossibility 
of  having  any  system  of  property  without  it.  These 
systems  have  increased  population,  civilisation,  ge- 
neral prosperity,  and  individual  comfort ;  but  they 
are  always  multiplying  the  number  of  those,  who 
either  form  no  part  of  the  proprietary  body,  or  whose 
individual  portions  are  inferior  to  the  demands  of 
their  habits,  their  passions,  or  their  necessities.  To 
equalise  all  property,  would  not  destroy  the  evil,  un- 
less wisdom  and  virtue  could  be  made  equally  com- 
mon. Society  at  this  moment  presents  us,  in  every 
part  of  Europe,  with  a  large  unprovided  population. 
A  similar  class  existed,  though  under  different  habits, 
in  the  ninth  century,  all  round  the  Baltic  and  North 
Sea ;  and  it  was  from  this  body  of  men  that  the  sea- 
kings  and  vikingr  principally  emerged. 

This  unprovided  population  consisted  and  consists, 
not  of  the  poor  only,  but  also  of  many  from  the 
wealthier  classes  of  every  state.  In  every  age,  some 
portions  of  the  families  of  all  the  rich  and  great  have 
been  as  unable  to  continue  the  state  and  enjoyment 
of  their  relations,  and  of  their  own  earlier  days,  as 
the  meaner  conditions  of  life  to  attain  them.  The 
one  become  the  leaders  of  the  other,  and  both  alike 
desire  adventures  and  employments,  by  which  they 


400  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK      can  attain  the  property,  the  luxuries,  or  the  distinc- 
.    tions  which  they  covet. 

In  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  the  Anglo-Saxons 
of  this  class  poured  themselves  on  Britain,  and  the 
numerous  petty  sovereignties  in  Norway,  Sweden, 
and  tjie  Danish  isles,  seem  to  have  arisen  from  the 
same  source.  Adventurers,  seeking  their  fortune, 
appear  to  have  landed  from  time  to  time  on  various 
parts  of  the  uninhabited  regions  and  islands  of  Scan- 
dinavia, with  little  bands  of  inferior  companies ;  and 
as  their  posterity  multiplied,  levelled  the  forests, 
drained  the  marshes,  and  cultivated  the  earth :  then 
humble  kingdoms,  j arils,  and  nobility  appeared.  But 
the  same  result,  in  time,  pursued  them  here  which 
had  driven  them  hither.  All  the  lands  they  could 
subject  to  human  culture  became  appropriated;  claims 
of  individual  property  became  fastened  on  the  parts 
which  were  left  untilled ;  and  unprovided  population 
increased  in  each,  who  had  to  look  elsewhere  for  the 
rank  and  comforts  which  the  rest  inherited. 

At  the  close  of  the  eighth  and  beginning  of  the 
ninth  century,  the  unprovided  population  of  the  north 
was  in  full  activity  among  their  little  kingdoms  and 
jarlldoms  in  every  part  of  the  Baltic.  The  acquisi- 
tion of  property  by  violence  was  their  object,  the  sea 
their  road  to  it,  the  sword  their  instrument,  and  all 
the  settled  habitations  which  they  could  reach,  master, 
or  surprise,  were  the  theatres  of  their  enterprise. 
The  invention  of  the  term  sea-king  satisfied  the  am- 
bition of  their  highest-born  chieftains;  and  the  spoil 
obtained  by  their  depredations,  and  the  energies 
necessary  to  be  exerted  to  make  the  expeditions  sue* 
cessful,  gratified  their  associates. 

But  the  vicinity  of  their  domestic  homes  for  a  long 
time  circumscribed  the  sphere  of  their  exertions. 
There  is  not  sufficient  evidence  that  they  had  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  Baltic,  till  that  individual  to  whom 
we  have  already  alluded,  Ragnar  Lodbrog,  had  been 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  401 

expelled  by  Harald  from  his  insular  kingdom  ;  and      CHAP. 
becoming  himself  a  sea-king,  led  his  fleet  of  depreda-   .    m>    . 
tors  successively  to  Friesland,  Flanders,  the  British 
islands,  and  to  France. 

We  do  not  know  enough  of  the  incidents  of  his 
youth  to  delineate  the  gradual  formation  of  Ragnar's 
peculiar  character ;  but  we  can  trace  some  of  the 
circumstances  that  favoured  the  new  habit  which  he 
either  began  or  the  most  powerfully  promoted.  His 
father,  Sigurd,  was  a  Norwegian,  who  had  married 
the  Danish  princess,  daughter  of  the  king  of  the  chief 
Danish  island.25  His  spirit  of  adventure  had  there- 
fore an  encouraging  example  in  his  father's  elevation. 
But  that  father  had  been  opposed  by  the  king  of  Jut- 
land in  a  battle  in  which  nearly  eleven  thousand  men 
and  both  the  chieftains  perished.26  On  this  fatal 
result  the  contending  partisans  compromised  their 
quarrel  by  raising  the  sons  of  their  several  leaders  to 
their  fathers'  thrones.  Ragnar  was  made  king  of  the 
isles,  and  Harald  of  the  Danish  territory  in  Jutland. 
But  this  arrangement  was  too  pacific  to  last  long  in 
such  a  turbulent  age  ;  and  the  friends  of  Harald  were 
found  to  be  numerous  enough  to  enable  him  to  expel 
Ragnar  from  his  sea-girt  kingdom.  This  warrior,  in 
all  the  pride  and  activity  of  his  youth,  was  driven 
with  all  his  followers  to  seek  that  provision  and  dis- 
tinction on  the  ocean,  and  by  their  swords,  which  they 
were  not  allowed  to  retain  on  their  domestic  territory. 

If  Ragnar  had  been  a  common-minded  man  he 
would  have  been  but  a  common  plunderer,  and  have 
soon  fallen  in  the  usual  violent  deaths  of  battle  or 
punishment  which  most  pirates  at  last  undergo.  But 
Denmark  was,  from  its  contiguity  to  the  Frankish 
kingdom  and  to  the  improving  continental  Saxons, 


25  So  Snorre  states. 

28  Ad.  Brem.  Alb.  Stad.  and  Aimonius. 

VOL.  I.  D  D 


402  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  the  most  civilised  country  of  the  barbaric  north.  Its 
« — ^ — i  monarchy  was  also  beginning  to  arise.  Its  small 
697>  kingdoms  having  been  subdued  or  absorbed  into  two, 
and  these,  from  their  increasing  power  and  dignity, 
being  more  cultivated  than  formerly,  Ragnar  Lod- 
brog,  before  he  became  a  sea-king,  had  obtained  the 
greatest  advantages  of  education  which  the  Baltic  at 
that  time  afforded.  Son  of  an  enterprising  Norwegian 
and  of  a  Danish  princess,  he  thus  united  in  himself  all 
the  improvements  which  Norway  and  Denmark  could, 
then  confer.  His  great  natural  talents  thus  assisted, 
he  entered  upon  his  new  profession  with  a  distinction 
which  led  to  great  exploits.  The  actual  enjoyment 
of  a  previous  kingdom  fixed  large  objects  of  ambition 
in  his  mind  ;  gave  him  at  his  outset  an  impressive 
and  dignified  character,  and  connected  him  with  more 
numerous  and  powerful  friends  and  followers  than 
any  ordinary  vikingr  could  influence  or  command. 
The  insular  nature  of  the  territory  over  which  he  had 
reigned  favoured  his  enterprises,  and  he  soon  became 
formidable  enough  to  compel  his  land-rival  to  implore 
the  succours  of  the  Frankish  empire. 

But  this  event  became  only  another  impulse  to  the 
new  direction  which  Ragnar  was  insensibly  giving  to 
all  the  population  about  him.  That  the  Franks  should 
presume  to  interfere  in  behalf  of  his  enemy,  was  an 
affront  that  fixed  in  his  heart  an  indignant  reso- 
lution to  avenge  himself  on  them.  This  vindictive 
feeling  led  him  out  of  the  Baltic  to  France  itself; 
and  though  he  could  not  dethrone  his  competitor  at 
home,  he  had  followers  enough  to  penetrate  to  the 
walls  of  Paris,  and  to  afflict  France,  in  its  then  dis- 
tracted state,  with  the  most  calamitous  depredations. 
The  personal  fame  which  he  gained  by  these  distant 
expeditions  was  an  impressive  appeal  to  the  vanity 
and  emulation  of  all  the  northern  youth ;  and  his 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  403 

booty  tempted  the  most  selfish  to  join  his  fleets  or  to 
imitate  his  adventures. 

About  the  same  period  a  king  of  Norway,  Harald 
Harfagre,  unintentionally  contributed  to  give  the 
unprovided  population  and  ambitious  youth  of  that 
country  the  same  external  direction  and  a  new  im- 
pulse to  pursue  it.  He  also  began  the  system  of  sub- 
duing in  Norway  all  its  petty  sovereignties,  and  of 
extirpating  piracy  within  his  dominions.  Nothing 
then  remained  in  Norway  for  those  who  had  not 
lands  or  property,  but  to  seek  them  elsewhere.  Bands 
of  adventurers  now  arose  from  hence,  who  were  re- 
solved to  obtain  subsistence,  plunder,  fame,  or  settle- 
ment in  other  countries  by  their  swords.  And  one 
of  these,  under  the  command  of  Hrolfr  or  Rollo, 
after  harassing  France  with  desolation,  extorted  from 
its  sovereign  the  province  of  Normandy. 

From  the  operation  of  these  circumstances  as  they 
successively  occurred,  distant  expeditions  for  tem- 
porary plunder,  vindictive  retaliations,  or  military 
colonisation,  became,  from  the  end  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, the  regular  habits  of  the  active  population  of 
the  North.  We  have  mentioned  that  in  787  the  fierce 
visitors  first  appeared  in  England.  By  the  year  800, 
they  had  begun  to  molest  the  Franks27;  and  before 
the  death  of  Charlemagne,  wrhich  occurred  in  814, 
they  had  even  reached  the  Mediterranean. 

He  was  at  dinner  in  the  city  of  Narbonne  when 
their  ships  came  in  sight.  By  the  construction  of  the 
vessels  and  the  agility  of  their  mariners,  he  knew 
they  were  not  merchants.  He  rose  from  the  table, 
and  went  to  the  eastern  window  of  the  mansion  to 
contemplate  them.  His  tears  fell  as  he  gazed  :  "  I 
fear  not,"  he  exclaimed,  "  that  they  can  injure  rne ; 
but  I  weep  that  they  should  dare,  in  my  life-time,  to 

.  27  So  the  ancient  Saxon  Latin  versifier  states.     Hist.  Franc.  Du  Chesne,  ii.  p. 
164. 


D  2 


404  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     approach  my  coasts.     I  foresee  the  misery  they  will 
.     /    .   bring  on  my  descendants." 28  * 

To  protect  his  empire  from  their  assaults,  he  caused 
ships  to  be  built  against  them  on  the  rivers  which, 
from  Gaul  and  Germany,  disembogue  their  waters 
into  the  Northern  Ocean.29  In  every  harbour,  and 
at  the  mouth  of  every  stream  which  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  ascend,  he  established  stations  and  gar- 
risons to  protect  the  endangered  country.  Kept  off 
by  his  active  genius,  they  seldom  molested  the  peace 
of  his  dominions. 

His  son  Louis  attempted  the  policy  of  converting 
the  North  ;  he  invited  all  such  vikingr  as  approached 
his  coast  to  accept  of  the  sacred  baptism.  As  he  was 
careful  that  the  initiated  should  leave  his  court  laden 
with  presents,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  came  in 
haste  to  be  baptized.  A  surly  exclamation  of  a  con- 
verted chieftain  ^revealed  the  sincerity  of  the  new 
Christians  and  the  utility  of  the  project.  At  one 
paschal  solemnity,  the  pretended  penitents  were  so 
numerous,  that  white  dresses  could  not  be  procured 
for  all  the  pagans  ;  some  linen  of  the  clergy  was  cut 
up  and  sewed  together,  and  a  garment  thus  made 
was  given  to  a  northern  leader.  The  son  of  Odin 
frowned  with  disdain.  "  This  is  the  twentieth  time 
that  I  have  come  to  be  washed,  and  I  have  hitherto 
always  received  the  best  white  dresses  ;  this  vile  ap- 
parel is  fit  only  for  a  herdsman ;  if  I  can  have  noj 
better  garment,  I  disclaim  your  Christianity."30 

The  civil  wars  of  the  children  of  Louis  favoured 
the  subsequent  aggressions  of  the  vikingr.31  The 

28  The  monk  of  St.  Gall  has  transmitted  to  us  this  incident  in  his  work,  de  Reb. 
Car.  Magn.  ii.  p.  130. 

29  Eginhard,  p.  8.     Meyer,  in  his  Annals  of  Flanders,  mentions  that  the  emperor 
stayed  some  time  at  Ghent,  on  account  of  the  ships  which  he  had  ordered  to  be J 
built  there  against  the  Northmen. 

80  Sax.  Gall.  p.  134. 

31  See  Chron.  Fontanell.  and  the  Ann.  Bertinin.  and  Frag.  Hist.  Brit,  in  Bou- 
quet's Recueil,  v.  7. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  405 

Prankish  princes  sent  an  embassy,  in  847,  to  the  king     CHAP. 
of  the  Northmen,   to  desire  peace,  and  to  announce  • 

their  union.32  But  such  an  embassy  was  as  useless 
as  it  would  have  been  to  have  petitioned  any  single 
wind  not  to  blow.  Every  habitable  district  was  a 
nursery  of  pirates ;  and  to  obtain  the  forbearance  of 
one  leader,  was  to  ensure  a  rich  harvest  for  the  rest. 
This  effect  seems  to  have  been  experienced ;  for  in 
this  same  year  we  read  of  their  attacks  on  Brittany, 
Aquitaine,  and  Bordeaux,  as  well  as  on  Dorestadt 
and  the  Batavian  island.  In  Aquitaine  they  ravaged 
successfully ;  "  because,"  says  Ademar,.  "  the  chiefs 
were  destroying  each  other  in  their  warfare,  and  be- 
cause the  people  had  no  fleet  to  protect  their  coasts." 
The  list  of  districts  which  they  afflicted  is  very  co- 
pious. 33  They  also  attacked  Spain  near  Cadiz,  fought 
three  battles  with  the  Moors,  and,  when  Abderrah- 
man  provided  a  fleet  to  oppose  them,  they  left  the 
country,  full  of  plunder. 34 

Of  all  the  sea-kings  and  vikingr  who  roamed  the 
ocean  in  the  ninth  century,  the  man  whose  life  and 
death  had  the  most  disastrous  effects  on  England  was 
Eagnar  Lodbrog,  whose  quida,  or  death-song,  has  been 
long  venerated  for  its  antiquity,  and  celebrated  for  its 
genius.35  The  learned  of  the  North  have  usually 
quoted  it  as  his  own  composition  36,  although  one  would 
ascribe  it  to  his  wife,  who  was  also  a  famous  scalld 

32  Miroi  ap.  Deplom.  vol.  i.  p.  23. 

33  See  Langb.  i.  534.  34  Mariana. 

35  The  most  complete  edition  for  the  use  of  the  English  reader  of  the  Lodbrokar 
Quida  is  that  edited  by  Johnstone  in  1782.     But  as  his  English  translation  is  not 
a  literal  one,  a  more  exact  version  is  attempted  of  the  passages  quoted  in  the  text. 
Mr.  C.  C.  Rafn  has,  in  1826,  published  an  elegant  edition  of  it  at  Copenhagen, 
with  a  Danish  and  a  French  translation,  with  many  notes  and  remarks;  but  has 
secluded  them  from  general  use  out  of  Denmark,  by  expressing  them  in  its  ver- 
nacular language.     He  calls  it  "  Krakas  Mai :  "  or,  the  Song  of  Kraka.     Some  MSS. 
so  entitle  it.     He  suggests  that  although  Ragnar  and  his  companions  may  have 
sung  the  twenty-three  first  stanzas,  Kraka,  his  queen  and  widow,  may  have  added 
the  six  last.     Skule  Thorlacius  wishes  to  take  the  composition  of  it  from  both 
Ragnar  and  Kraka  ;  and  to  give  it  to  Bragi  the  son  of  Boddi.     Antiq.  Boreal,  p.  70. 

36  As  Wormius,  Bartholin,  Stephanius,  and  others.     It  was  not  uncommon  in 
the  North  for  their  kings  to  celebrate  their  own  actions* 

D  D    3 


406  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  or  poetess.37  It  is  one  of  tbe  most  ancient  pieces  of 
.  Jy*  .  northern  literature ;  expresses  exactly  the  manners 
of  those  times ;  and,  compared  with  the  other  his- 
tories and  traditions  that  have  been  preserved  con- 
cerning him,  will  be  found  to  contain  the  most  simple, 
probable,  and  consistent  incidents.  As  his  death,  the 
approach  of  which  it  ends  with  intimating,  was  the 
cause  of  that  disastrous  invasion  which  shook  Alfred 
from  his  throne,  it  merits  the  consideration  of  the 
English  reader,  in  those  parts  which  concern  the 
British  islands. 

Ragnar  is  not  mentioned  by  name  by  the  Saxon 
annalists ;  because,  while  they  commemorate  the  in-l 
vasions  of  the  Northmen  during  his  life,  they  seldom 
notice  the  commander.     But  the  Frankish  chronicles 
expressly  mention  him  in  that  aggression  in  845,  in 
which  he  even  penetrated  as  far  up  the  Seine   as* 
Paris.     He  began  by  ravaging  the  isles  of  the  sea  ;j 
thence  proceeded  to  Rouen,  and  finding  no  effective '{ 
resistance,  he  left  his  ships,  and  his  warriors  spread 
over  the  country.     Invited  onward  by  the  general 
consternation,  they  advanced  to  Paris  on  Easter-Eve. ' 
The  next  day  they  entered  the  city,    and  found  it] 
deserted   by   its   inhabitants.      They  destroyed   the 
monastery  of  St.  Germains,  when  a  present  from  the 
king   of  seven   thousand  pounds   induced    them   to 
desist  from  their  ravages.38     The  attacks  of  his  sonj 
Biorn,    in   843,    are  also  recorded.39     His   name  ofj 
Lothbroe  occurs  in  our  chroniclers  at  his  death  ;  but! 
they  were  ignorant  of  his  true  history,  which  is  stated? 
in  none  of  our  old  documents,  except  in  the  ancient! 
Anglo-Norman  poem  of  Denis  Pyramis.40    His  death,! 

37  So  Torfseus  intimates. 

38  Chron.  Fontanel.  ;  Bouq.  vii.  p.  41.;  Chron.  Vezel.  p.  271. ;  Mirac,  Racher. 
p.  361.  ;  and  Aimonius,  p.  350.     Pet.  Glaus,  Langb.  i.  109.     See  also  Ann.  Bertin. 
and  Amra.  Mirac,  S.  Germ. 

39  Frag.  Hist.  Brit.     Bouq.  vii.  p.  46.      The  chronicles  which  mention  Biorn's 
expeditions  are  very  numerous.      See  Pontop.  Gest.  Dan. 

40  It  is  so  extraordinary  to  find  this  in  an  Anglo-Norman  rhymer's  work,  that  I 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  407 

as  justly  stated  in  the  Icelandic  remains,  happened  CHAP. 
in  Northumbria.  In  opposition  to  his  wife  Aslauga's  .  t '  > 
counsel  he  built  two  ships  of  a  size  which  the  North 
had  never  beheld  before ;  he  filled  them  with  soldiers, 
and  sailed  along  the  Scottish  coast  to  England,  which 
he  selected  to  be  the  theatre  of  his  exertions.41  The 
triumphs  of  these  royal  pirates  had  been  obtained  by 
the  celerity  of  their  retreats,  as  well  as  the  -vigour  of 
their  attacks.  It  was  not  their  competency  to  over- 
come the  force  which  any  country  could  embody 
against  them,  that  made  them  so  successful;  but 
their  ability  of  attacking  in  their  light  ships  before 
it  could  be  collected,  or  of  eluding  it  when  too  formid- 
able. These  spacious  ships  tended  to  deprive  Ragnar 
of  this  advantage  and  thereby  produced  his  fate. 

Too  large  for  the  ignorant  navigation  of  that  period, 
these  vessels  were  soon  wrecked  on  the  English  shore. 
Thrown  on  the  coast  of  enemies,  without  means  of 
return,  Ragnar  had  no  choice  but  to  dare  his  fortune, 
which  his  pride  also  counselled.  He  moved  forward 
as  soon  as  he  got  to  the  shore,  to  plunder  and  ravage, 
either  disdaining  to  recollect  that  his  small  band 

quote  the  passage  in  the  original,  as  it  has  never  been  observed  or  printed  before. 
He  is  here  called  Lothbroc,  and  his  three  sons,  Yngar,  Hulbe,  and  Berin,  for  In- 
guar,  Ubba,  and  Beorn. 

Oil  Lothebroc  e  ses  treis  fiz 

Furent  de  tute  gent  haiz  ; 

Kar  uthlages  furent  en  mer ; 

Unques  ne  fuierent  de  rober. 

Tuz  jurs  vesquirent  de  rapine  ; 

Tere  ne  cuntree  veisine 

N'est  pres  d'els  ou  il  a  larun, 

N'ensentfeit  envasiun. 

De  ceo  furent  si  en  rich  ez, 

Amuntez  et  amanantez. 

Qu'il  aveient  grant  annee 

De  gent ;  e  mult  grant  assemble ; 

Qu'il  aveient  en  lur  companye 

Kant  erronent  oth  lur  navye. 

Destrut  en  aveient  meint  pais ; 

Meint  po3ple  destrut  et  occis  : 

Nule  contree  lez  la  mer 

Ne  se  put  d'els  ja  garden 

Den.  Pyr.  MSS.  Domit.  xi.  p.  12. 
41  Langb.  ii.  227.     Torfaeus,  Hist.  Norv. 

D  D  4 


408  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  would  soon  be  confronted  by  superior  strength,  or 
.  1V'  .  .hoping  to  deter  any  hostility  by  the  boldness  of  his 
measures. 

Ella,  at  that  time,  was  king  of  Deira,  and  with 
the  force  of  his  kingdom  marched  against  the  fearless 
vikingr ;  a  fierce,  though  unequal  conflict  ensued. 
Ragnar,  clothed  in  the  garments  which  he  had  re- 
ceived from  his  beloved  Aslauga  at  their  parting, 
four  times  pierced  the  ranks  of  Ella,  but  his  friends 
fell  one  by  one  around  him,  and  he  at  last  was  taken 
prisoner  alive. 

Ella  obeyed  the  impulse  of  barbarian  resentment, 
and  doomed  his  illustrious  prisoner  to  perish  with 
lingering  pain  in  a  dungeon,  stung  by  venomous 
snakes.42 

The  Quida  celebrates  the  depredations  of  Ragnar 
on  various  countries,  from  the  Baltic  to  England,  and 
on  Flanders.  It  presents  to  us  a  view  of  one  of  the 
dreadful  states  of  society  in  which  our  species  have 
lived.  Every  incident  is  triumphantly  described  with 
the  imagery  of  death,  and  the  revolting  circumstances 
attending  human  slaughter  are  recollected  with  ex- 
ultation. Such  were  the  people  for  whom  the  author 
composed  this  death-song,  that,  not  content  with 
equalling  the  pleasures  of  war  to  social  festivity,  and 
with  remembering,  without  remorse,  its  destruction 
of  youthful  happiness43 ;  he  even  extols  it  as  rivalling 

42  Langb.  ii.  277.     Saxo  has  been  thought  to  place  Ella  in  Ireland,  but  whoever 
reads  the  pages  176,  177.  carefully,  will  see  that  he  speaks  of  England.     The  Ice- 
landic authors  unanimously  station  him  in  Northumbria.     This  fact  ascertains  the 
time  of  Ragnar's  death ;  for  Ella  usurped  the  Northumbrian  crown  in  862,  and 
perished  867  ;  therefore  between  these  years  Ragnar  must  have  expired.     The 
English  chroniclers  acknowledge  that  Lodbrog  was  killed  in  England  ;  but  so  im- 
perfectly was  the  Northumbrian  history  known  to  them,  that  for  the  true  history 
of  Ragnar's  fate,  they  substitute  two  contradictory  tales.     See  Matt.  West.  314 — 
316.  and  Bromton,  802. 

43  "  Delightful  was  the  work  at  Sky,  as  when  the  damsels  bring  the  wine."     St. 
18.     "  Pleasant  was  it  at  Ila's  Straits,  as  when  the  winebearing  Nioruns  hand  the 
warm  streams." 

"  In  the  morning  I  saw  struck  down 
The  fair-hair'd  wooer  of  the  maiden, 
And  him  whose  converse  was  so  sweet  to  the  widow."      St.  19. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  409 

one  of  the  sweetest  hours  of  life  ;  "  Was  it  not  like     CHAP. 
that  hour  when  I  seated  my  bright  bride  by  me  on   .    "L    . 
the  couch  ?  " 44    What  must  have  been  the  character 
and  the  transactions  of  that  nation,   in   which  the 
conversation  and  sympathy  of  love  were  felt  to  be 
but  as  charming  as  a  battle ! 

We  may  concede  to  the  historical  traditions  of 
the  North,  and  to  the  chroniclers  of  other  nations, 
that  Ragnar  Lodbrog  depredated  with  success  on 
various  parts  of  Europe,  on  the  British  islands,  on 
Sweden,  Norway,  and  the  coasts  round  the  Baltic.45 
We  may  admit  that  he  was  one  of  those  men  whose 
lives  become  models  to  their  contemporaries ;  and 
that  his  activity  and  genius  were  fitted  to  give  cele- 
brity to  bloodshed,  and  dignity  to  plunder.  "  Fifty 
and  one  times,"  as  his  Quida  asserts,  "  his  messenger, 
the  spear,  may  have  announced  the  distant  enter- 
prise." But  it  would  be  an  extravagant  aggrandise- 
ment of  his  fame,  to  attribute  to  him  all  the  horrors, 
which  Northern  piracy  poured  upon  Europe  in  the 
first  part  of  the  ninth  century.  It  is  indeed  a 
coincidence  with  his  life,  that  till  he  lived,  few  and 
rare  were  the  aggressions  of  the  sea-king  and  the 
vikingr,  beyond  the  northern  Hellespont.46  But 
though  he  gave  to  the  storm  of  depredation  a  new 
direction ;  yet  when  he  had  once  burst  beyond  the 
precincts  of  the  Baltic ;  when  he  had  once  crossed 
new  oceans,  and  thrown  the  beam  of  glory  round  his 
course,  we  may  believe  that  adventurers  swarmed 
from  every  coast,  eager  to  track  his  way.  It  is 
certain  that  after  his  life,  new  heroes  appeared  every 

44  Stanza  13,  and  see  Stanza  24. 

45  We  may  refer  to  Saxo,  1.  ix.  p.  169.  177.  with  Stephanius's  note;  to  the  Ice- 
landic fragment,  in  Langb.  ii.  270.  280.;  to  the  Ragnar  Saga;  and  to  Torfams, 
in  his  Series  Dan.  and  his  Hist.  Norveg.  for  the  northern  account  of  the  particular 
transactions  of  Ragnar.    Johannes  Magnus,  and  Loccenius,  also  mention  his  history. 

46  The  Baltic  is  called  by  some  the  Hellespont ;  as  by  Hevelius,  in  the  Dedic.  to 
his  Selenographia.     The  use  of  this  word  has,  I  think,  sometimes  misled  Northern 
authors  to  carry  some  of  their  heroes  towards  the  Euxine,  and  the  Hellespont  of 
Homer. 


410  HISTORY   OF   THE 

year,  and  the  seas  were  burdened  with  ever-succeed- 
ing fleets  of  such  greedy  and  ruthless  savages. 

It  was  the  lot  of  Ragnar  to  have  a  numerous 
posterity47,  and  all  his  passions  were  infused  into  his 
children,  whom  he  educated  to  be  sea-kings  like 
himself.  But  as  our  history  is  concerned  with  his 
English  exploits  only,  we  will  state  them  from  his 
Quida,  in  its  own  language,  and  in  the  succession 
in  which  they  are  there  placed. 

The  Quida  begins  with  Ragnar' s  attempt  on  Goth- 
land, by  which  he  obtained  his  wife  Thora.  This 
expedition,  and  others  in  Eyra-sound,  or  the  Baltic ; 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Dwina ;  at  Helsingia,  in  the  bay 
of  Finland  ;  and  against  Herrauthr,  his  wife's  father ; 
at  Scarpey,  in  Norway ;  at  Uller  Akri,  near  Upsal ; 
at  the  Indoro  Isles,  in  the  bay  of  Drontheim  ;  and  on 
the  island  of  Bornholm,  occupy  the  first  nine  stanzas. 
After  these  exploits  the  sea-king  comes  nearer  to  the 
British  shores,  and  begins  his  southern  ravages  with 
an  attack  on  Flanders.  This  is  followed  by  a  bold 
invasion  of  England,  in  which  he  boasts  of  the  death 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Walthiofr. 

We  hewed  with  our  swords 

Hundreds,  I  declare  lay- 
Round  the  horses  of  the  Island-rocks, 
At  the  English  promontory. 
We  sailed  to  the  battle 
Six  days  before  the  hosts  fell. 
We  chanted  the  mass  of  the  spears 
With  the  uprising  sun. 
Destiny  was  with  our  swords : 
Walthiofr  fell  in  the  tumult.48 

Conflicts  at  Perth,  and  on  the  Orkneys,  are  then 
exultingly  sung :  another  occurs  afterwards  in  Eng- 
land* 


47  According  to  Saxo,  he  had  ten  sons  by  his  three  wives,  p.  169,  170.  172. 
The  Ragnar  Saga,  ap.  Torfaeus,  346,  347.,  gives  their  mothers  differently  from  Saxo. 

48  Lod.  Quid.  St.  11.  John.  p.  14. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  411 

Hard  came  the  storm  on  the  shield 

Till  they  fell  prone  to  the  earth 

On  Northumbria's  land. 

On  that  morning  was  there 

Any  need  for  men  to  stimulate 

The  sport  of  Hillda,  where  the  sharp 

Lightnings  bit  the  helmed  skull  ? 

Was  it  not  as  when  the  young  widow 

On  my  seat  of  pre-eminence  I  saluted. 49 

Exploits  at  the  Hebrides ;  in  Ireland,  at  another 
coast,  where  "  the  thorn  of  the  sheath  glided  to  the 
heart  of  Agnar,"  his  son ;  at  the  Isle  of  Sky  ;  and  in 
the  bay  of  Ila,  on  the  Scottish  coast,  are  triumphantly 
narrated.  Another  stanza  follows,  which  seems  to 
make  Lindisfarne  the  locality  of  the  battle  : 

We  had  the  music  of  swords  in  the  morning 

For  our  sport  at  Lindis-eyri 

With  three  kingly  heroes. 

Many  fell  into  the  jaws  of  the  wolf; 

The  hawk  plucked  the  flesh  with  the  wild  beasts ; 

Few  ought  therefore  to  rejoice 

That  they  came  safe  from  the  battle. 

Ira's  blood  into  the  sea 

Profusely  fell ;  into  the  clear  wave.50 

He  next  records  his  expedition  on  the  British  isle 
of  Anglesey  : 

The  swords  bit  the  shields  ; 

Red  with  gold  resounded 

The  steel  on  the  clothes  of  Hillda. 

They  shall  see  on  Aungol's  Eyri, 

In  the  ages  hereafter, 

How  we  to  the  appointed  play 

Of  heroes  advanced. 

Red  were  on  the  distant  cape 

The  flying  dragons  of  the  river  that  gave  wounds.61 

After  two  stanzas  of  eulogy  on  battles,  he  begins 
to  commemorate  his  disastrous  change  of  fortunes, 
and  avows  that  it  was  unexpected  to  him  : 

It  seems  to  me,  from  experience, 
That  we  follow  the  dercees  of  the  fates. 

49  St.  15.  p.  18.  *»  St.  20.  p.  24/ 

81  St.  21.  p.  24. 


412  HISTORY   OF  THE 

BOOK  Few  escape  the  statutes  of  the  natal  goddesses. 

IV.  Never  did  I  believe  that  from  Ella 

1       »       '  The  end  of  my  life  would  come, 

When  I  strewed  the  bloody  slaughter, 
And  urged  my  planks  on  the  lakes. 
Largely  we  feasted  the  beasts  of  prey 
Along  the  bays  of  Scotland.52 

But  he  consoles  himself  with  his  belief  in  his  pagan 
mythology : 

It  delights  me  continually 
That  the  seats  of  Baldor's  father 
I  know  are  strewed  for  guests. 
We  shall  drink  ale  immediately 
From  the  large  hollowed  skulls. 
Youths  grieve  not  at  death 
In  the  mansions  of  dread  Fiolner. 
I  come  not  with  the  words  of  fear 
Into  the  hall  of  Vithris.53 

He  animates  his  spirit  as  the  adders  sting  him, 
with  the  remembrance  of  his  children,  as  if  he  an- 
ticipated their  fierce  revenge  for  his  sufferings : 

Here  would  for  me 

All  the  sons  of  Aslauga54, 

The  bright  brands  of  Hillda  awake 

If  they  knew  but  the  danger 

Of  our  encounter. 

What  a  number  of  snakes 

Full  of  venom  strike  me  ? 

I  gained  a  true  mother  for  my  children, 

That  they  might  have  brave  hearts.55 

His  strength  decreases  as  he  sings :  he  feels  ad- 
vancing death,  yet  seems  to  catch  a  gleam  of  pleasure 
from  the  hopes  of  the  vengeance  which  his  children 
will  inflict : 

52  St.  24.  p.  28.  «  St.  25.  p.  28. 

St  We  have  a  specimen  of  the  traditions  of  the  Norwegian's  concerning  this  lady, 
in  Torfseus.  He  says  that  in  Spangareid,  an  isthmus  in  Norway,  the  greatest  part 
of  her  history  remains  uncorrupted.  The  people  of  this  region  relate  from  the 
accounts  of  their  ancestors,  that  a  golden  harp  came  on  shore  in  a  small  bay  near 
them,  on  which  was  found  a  little  girl.  She  was  brought  up ;  afterwards  kept 
sheep ;  became  famed  for  her  beauty ;  married  a  Danish  king,  and  was  called  Ot- 
lauga.  They  show  a  hill,  called  Otlauga's  hill.  The  bay  is  named  Gull-Siken,  or 
golden  bay ;  and  the  stream  near  this  is  called  Kraakabecker,  or  the  rivulet  of 
Kraaka.  Torf.  ser.  Reg.  p.  35.  Kraka  was  one  of  this  lady's  prior  names. 

55  St.  26.  p.  30. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 


413 


It  flows  to  my  inheritance ; 

Grim  dangers  surround  me  from  the  adder  ; 

Vipers  dwell  in  the  palace  of  my  heart  — 

We  hope  that  soon  the  staff 

Of  Vitbris  will  stand  in  Ella's  breast. 

My  sons  must  swell 

That  their  father  has  been  thus  conquered. 

Must  not  the  valiant  youths 

Forsake  their  repose  for  us  ?  56 

The  recollection  of  his  own  exploits  gives  a  mo- 
mentary impulse  of  new  vigour,  and  the  number 
announces  the  ferocious  activity  of  his  sea-king  life : 

Fifty  and  one  times  have  I 

Call'd  the  people  to  the  appointed  battles 

By  the  warning-spear-messenger. 

Little  do  I  believe  that  of  men 

There  will  be  any 

King,  more  famous  than  ourself. 

When  young  I  grasped  and  reddened  my  spear. 

The  -ZEsir  must  invite  us ; 

I  will  die  without  a  groan.57 

As  the  fatal  instant  presses  on,  he  rouses  himself 
to  expire  with  those  marks  of  exultation  which  it 
was  the  boast  of  this  fierce  race  to  exhibit  : 

We  desire  this  end. 

The  Disir  goddesses  invite  me  home ; 

As  if  from  the  hall  of  him  rejoicing  in  spoils, 

From  Odin,  sent  to  me. 

Glad  shall  I  with  the  Asse 

Drink  ale  in  my  lofty  seat. 

The  hours  of  my  life  glide  away, 

But  laughing  I  will  die.58 

The  sovereign  that  arose  with  sufficient  ability  to 
meet  and  change  the  crisis  which  these  new  habits  of 
the  Scandinavian  nations  were  bringing  on  Europe, 
was  Alfred  the  Great,  the  son  of  Ethelwulph,  and 
grandson  of  Egbert. 

68  St.  27.  p.  30.  »  St.  28.  p.  32. 

58  St.  29.  p.  32.  Torfseus  supposes  two  other  Lodbrogs.  I  am  not  sure  that  he 
is  not  dividing  the  same  person  into  three  parts.  But  it  is  clear  that  the  Ragnar 
Lodbrog,  the  subject  of  the  Quida,  is  the  person  whom  Ella  of  Northumbria  de- 
stroyed between  862  and  867,  and  whose  children,  in  revenge,  executed  that  in- 
vasion which  destroyed  the  octarchy  of  England,  and  dethroned  Alfred  for  a  time. 


CHAP. 
III. 


414 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  IV. 


education. 


The  Reign  of  ETHELWULPH. — Invasion  of  the  Northmen. — Birth 
of  ALFRED  the  Great.  —  His  Travels.  —  ETHEL WULPH'S  De- 
position. 

THE  death  of  Egbert,  in  836,  checked  for  a  while 
the  ascendancy  of  the  West  Saxon  power,  because 
his  sceptre  descended  to  an  inferior  hand  in  his  son 
Ethelwulph.  This  prince,  who  from  the  failure  of 
other  issue  became  his  successor,  was  then  a  monk. 
Educated  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  life  by  Helmstan 
the  bishop  of  Winchester,  he  had  shared  at  first  in 
his  father's  warlike  toils.  In  823,  he  had  marched 
with  Alstan  into  Kent  after  the  defeat  of  Mercia,  and 
was  appointed  by  his  father  king  of  that  country  1, 
but  the  passive  timidity  of  his  disposition  alienated 
him  from  an  ambitious  life,  and  he  returned  to  his 
preceptor,  who  recommended  him  to  the  care  of 
Swithin,  a  prior  of  the  monastery  at  Winchester. 
From  Swithin  the  prince  received  not  only  instruc- 
tion, but  also  the  monastic  habit,  and  by  his  first 
master  was  appointed  a  sub-deacon.2 

The  quiet  seclusion  which  Ethelwulph's  slow  capa- 
city and  meek  temper  coveted,  was  not  refused  to 
him  by  Egbert,  because  another  son  promised  to 
perpetuate  his  lineage.3  But  life  is  a  mysterious  gift, 

1  There  Is  a  charter  of  Egbert,  dated  823,  in  which  he  says  of  Ethelwulph, 
"  quern  regem  constituimus  in  Cantia."     Thorpe,  Reg.  Roff.  p.  22. 

2  Rudborne,  Hist.  Mag.  Winton.  lib.  iii.   c.  1.  p.  199.,  published  in  Wharton's 
Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  i. — Malmsbury  Pontiff,  p.  242.    Wallingf.  532.     No  good  docu- 
ment authorises  us  to  say  that  he  was  made  a  bishop. 

3  The  expressions  of  the  chroniclers  are  in  general  mere  negatives,  implying 
that  Egbert  left  no  other  heir ;  but  the  extract  which  Leland  has  translated,  ex 
Chronico  quodam  Vilodunensi  Anglicis  rithmis  scripto,  explicitly  says,  Atwulphus 
rex  Egbert!  films  secundus.     Collectanea,  voi.  iii.  p.  219. 


AtfGLOSAXONS.  415 

which  vanishes  at  the  will  of  other  agencies,  whose  CHAP. 
operations  we  cannot  trace,  whose  power  we  cannot  L  /  , 
limit.  The  destined  heir  of  Egbert's  dignity  was  in 
the  tomb  before  his  father,  and  this  catastrophe  in- 
vested Ethel wulph  with  an  importance  which  his 
natural  character  could  never  have  obtained.  He 
became  what  Egbert  had  been,  the  only  existing 
descendant  of  Cerdic,  the  revered  ancestor  of  the 
West  Saxon  princes.  This  casualty  made  the  acces- 
sion of  Ethel  wulph  an  object  of  popular  desire  ;  but 
though  sovereigns  had  often  at  will  descended  from 
the  throne  to  the  cloister,  it  was  less  easy  to  quit  the 
cloister  for  the  throne.  The  papal  dispensation  was 
first  wanted  to  release  Ethelwulph  from  his  sacer- 
dotal engagement ;  on  its  arrival  he  assumed  the 
crown  of  Egbert.4 

His  indolent,  mild,  and  weak  mind 5  was  not  ade- 
quate to  the  exigencies  of  the  time,  but  he  enjoyed 
the  great  advantage  which  was  capable  of  counter- 
acting the  ill  effects  of  his  inability,  a  wise  and  vigo- 
rous minister.  Alstan,  the  bishop  of  Sherborne,  had 
possessed  the  favour  of  Egbert,  and  on  his  death 
became  the  political  and  military  tutor  of  Ethelwulph  : 
he  was  powerful,  warlike,  and  intelligent.  He  had 
the  good  and  rare  fortune  to  enjoy  his  preferments 
for  fifty  years.  He  endeavoured  to  rouse  the  king 
to  those  exertions  which  his  dignity  made  a  duty. 
He  provided  supplies  for  his  exchequer,  and  he  la- 
boured to  organise  a  military  force.  His  wise  mea- 
sures, though  sometimes  baffled  by  an  incompetent 
execution,  and  by  the  suddenness  of  aggressions, 
which  no  vigilance  could  prevent,  had  the  general 

4  Wallingford,  532.     The  name  of  this  king  has  been  disfigured  by  that  variety 
of  orthography  which  prevailed  at  this  time,  and  often  confuses  history.     Ethel- 
wulphus,  Ethulfus,  Athulfus,  Adulfus,  Aithulfus,  Adhelwlfus,  Athelwlfus,  Atwulfus. 

5  Malmsbury  s  expressions  are,  natura  lenis  et  qui  sub  quiete  degere  quam  multis 
provinciis  imperitare  mallet  —  crassioris  et  hebetis  ingenii,  p.  37. — mansuetoris 
ingenii  —  segnem,  p.  247. 


416  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     success  of  punishing  many  insults,  and  of  preserving 
.   the  country  from  a  permanent  conquest.6 

Nothing  is  more  curious  nor  more  interesting  in 
history  than  to  remark  that  when  great  political 
exigencies  occur,  which  threaten  to  shake  the  foun- 
dations of  civil  society,  they  are  usually  as  much 
distinguished  by  the  rise  of  sublime  characters,  with 
genius  and  ability  sufficient  to  check  the  progress  of 
the  evil,  and  even  to  convert  its  disasters  to  benevo- 
lent issues.  One  of  these  extraordinary  persons  was 
Alfred  the  Great,  and  considered  with  regard  to  the 
time  of  his  appearance,  the  great  ends  which  he 
achieved,  and  the  difficulties  under  which  he  formed 
himself,  no  historical  character  can  more  justly  claim 
our  attention  and  admiration  than  our  venerated 
king. 

Ethelwulph  had  married  Osberga,  the  daughter  of 
Oslac,  a  man  mentioned  with  an  epithet  of  celebrity, 
and  the  king's  cup-bearer.  Oslac  had  sprung  from 
*the  chieftain,  who,  in  the  time  of  Cerdic,  had  obtained 
Alfred's  ^ne  ^s^e  °^  Wight.7  After  three  elder  sons,  Osberga 
birth.  was  delivered  of  Alfred,  at  Wantage,  in  Berkshire.8 
She  is  highly  extolled  for  her  piety  and  understand- 
ing ;  but  the  education  of  Alfred  must  have  lost  the 
benefit  of  her  talents,  because  his  father  married 
another  lady  before  the  sixth  year  of  his  childhood 
had  expired.  She  is  said  to  have  given  him  to 
Swithin,  the  preceptor  of  his  father,  to  be  taught.9 

6  Though  Alstan  had  stripped  his  monastery  of  some  of  its  advantages,  our 
William,  in  his  history,  p.  37.,  and  his  Gest.  Pont.  247.,  commemorates  him  with 
an  encomium  which  is  liberal  and  strongly  marked. 

7  Asser  de  rebus  gestis  JElfredi,  p.  4.  ed.  Ox.  1722.     Oslac  was  alive  at  his 
grandson's  birth ;  for,  as  the  ambassador  of  Ethelwulph,  he  signed  a  charter  which 
the  king  of  Mercia  gave  to  Croyland  in  851.     Ingulf,  p.  15. 

8  Asser,  p.  3.,  adds,  that  the  country  was  called  Berroc  scire  a  berroc  silva  ubi 
buxus  abundantissime  nascitur. 

9  Rudborne  Hist.  mag.  p.  207.     There  is  a  beautiful  MS.  on  St.  Swithin,  written 
by  Lantfredus  in  the  tenth  century,  in  the  British  Museum.     Bib.  Reg.  xv.  c.  7. 
But  it  contains  an  account  of  his  miracles  only,  to  justify  his  canonisation  in  the 
reign  of  Edgar.     One  part  is  a  curious  Latin  alphabetical  or  acrostic  hymn. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  417 

The  bishop  may  have  nurtured  or  infused  that  habi-     CHAP. 

tual  piety  for  which  Alfred  was  remarkable ;   but   , ^ — , 

was  unquestionably  unfit  for  the   office  of  literary       849- 
tutor,  as  Alfred  passed  his  childhood  without  know- 
ing how  to  read. 

Their  successes  in  France  having  enlarged  the 
horizon  of  the  Northmen's  ambition,  every  new  ag- 
gression on  England  became  more  formidable  than 
the  preceding.  In  851,  they  first  ventured  to  winter 
in  the  Isle  of  Thanet.10  This  was  a  new  era  in  their 
habits.  Their  ancient  custom  had  been  to  pirate 
abroad  in  the  summer,  but  to  return  with  the  au- 
tumn. But  Ragnar's  success  in  France  had  increased 
their  daring,  and  enlarged  their  views.  They  had 
now  formed  the  daring  project  of  remaining  in  the 
countries  which  they  insulted. 

In  the  spring  they  attempted  against  the  Anglo-  852. 
Saxons  the  most  serious  invasion  which  England  had 
yet  experienced.  Their  numbers,  perhaps  the  result 
of  a  confederation,  were  superior  to  any  preceding 
attack.  They  entered  the  Thames  with  350  ships, 
plundered  Canterbury  and  London,  and  marched  into 
Mercia.  The  names  of  all  their  chieftains  are  not 
mentioned ;  but  as  Ragnar  Lodbrog  was  now  in  full 
activity,  he  may  have  led  or  aided  the  invaders. 

Mercia  had  been  governed  by  Withtlaf  till  838. 
His  son  and  wife  reached  the  tomb  before  him,  and 
he  buried  them  by  the  side  of  Etheldritha,  the 
daughter  of  Offa.  She  had  sheltered  him  from  the 
pursuit  of  Egbert,  and  his  grateful  feelings  were  so 
ardent,  that  when  he  heard  of  her  death,  his  grief 
confined  him  to  his  bed,  and  it  was  with  difficulty 
afterwards  that  he  was  withdrawn  from  her  grave. 
His  brother  Bertulph  succeeded,  and  signalised  his 

10  Sax.  Chron.  74.  Asser,  p.  5.,  places  the  winter  residence  in  Shepey  Isle  ; 
but  the  printed  Chronicle  dates  their  first  wintering  in  Shepey  in  854.  The  MS. 
Sax.  Chron.  Tib.  B.  4.  has  855. 

VOL.  I.  E  E 


418  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     reign  by  favouring  the  assassination  of  his  brother's 

,    Iy*    .  grandson;  his  own  son  was  the  murderer;  love  of 

852-      power  was  the  cause.     Bertulph  was  king  of  Mercia, 

when  the  northern  warriors  entered  his  dominions  n ; 

he  endeavoured  to  repel  them,  but  was  defeated.12 

The  Northmen  after  this  victory  turned  southward 
and  entered  Surrey.  The  West- Saxons  collected  under 
Ethelwulph  and  his  son  Ethalbald,  and  at  Aclea,  a 
field  of  oaks,  the  two  nations  met,  and  a  battle  en- 
sued, which  the  desperate  courage  of  both  armies 
made  long  and  very  deadly.  It  was  not  until  the 
greatest  part  of  the  invaders  had  perished,  that  they 
lost  their  ground.  The  English  at  last  triumphed  : 
the  battle  was  so  destructive,  that  Asser,  who  lived 
in  the  period  when  the  Northmen  maintained  the  most 
furious  contests,  yet  attests  that  so  great  a  slaughter 
of  the  invaders  had  never  been  known  before  that 
day,  or  during  his  experience,  since.13 

The  Earl  of  Devonshire  had  already  defeated  them 
at  Wenbury  in  that  county,  and  JEthelstan,  the  sub- 
ordinate king  of  Kent,  with  the  earl  Ealhere,  had 
enjoyed  a  similar  success  at  Sandwich,  where  nine  of 
their  ships  were  taken.14 

11  Ingulf,  11.     Sax.  Chron.  74.     Mr.  Hume   erroneously  says  that  Brichtric 
governed  Mercia  at  this  period,  p.  71. 

12  Sax.  Chron.  74.     Flor.  Wig.  295. 

13  Asser,  p.  6.     Voltaire  has  strangely  confounded  this  invasion  with  that  against 
Ethelred,  above  a  century  later.     He  says,  "  On  pretend  qu'en  852,  ils  remon- 
t&rent  la  Tamise  avec  trois  cens  voiles.     Les  Anglais  ne  se  defe.nderent  mieux  que 
les  Francs.     Ils  payerent  comme  eux  leurs  vainqueurs.     Un  roi  nomme  Ethelbert 
suivit  le  malheureux  exemple  de  Charles  le  chauve.     II  donna  de  V  argent"     Essai 
sur  les  Moeurs.     OEuvres  completes,  t.  16.  p.  472.  ed.  1785.     In  his  previous  para- 
graphs, he  confounds  the  Britons  with  the  English.     "  Les  Anglais,  —  ils  n'etaient 
echappes  du  joug  des  Romains  que  pour  tomber  sous  celui  de  ces  Saxons."     Ibid. 

14  Asser,  p.  6.     Sax.  Chron.  74.     There  is  some  confusion  about  Ethelstan  ;  by 
three  authors  (Huntingd.  345.,  Mailros,  142.,  and  Hoveden,  412.),  he  is  styled  the 
brother  of  Ethelwulph.    But  Flor.  Wig.  291.,  Ethel werd,  841.,  Malmsbury,  37.,  and 
the  printed  Saxon  Chronicle,  make  him  the  son.     The  MS.  Saxon  Chronicle,  in 
the  Cotton  Library,  Tib.  B.  4.,  diffei's  from  the  printed  one,  for  it  calls  him  the 
son  of  Egbert.     It  says,  "pens  Gchelpulp  lur  runu  to  Weft  Seaxna  pice;   anb 
ethelrtan  hir  othep  runu,  pens  to  Cant|?apa  pice,  anb  to  Suthpisean,  anb  to 
Suthpeaxno  pice,"  P'  30.     Matt.  West.  301.,  and  Rudborne,  201.,  make  him  Ethel- 
wulph's  illegitimate  son.     Asser's  testimony,  p.  6.,  would  decide  that  he  was  the 
son  of  Ethelwulph  ;  but  that  these  descriptive  words  are  wanting  in  the  Cotton 
MSS.  of  his  book.     Bromton  says,  Ethelwulph  had  a  son,  Athelstan  ;  but  that 
he  died  in  annis  adolescentise  suae,  802.     Malmsbury  states,  that  Ethelwulph  gave 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  419 

The  Mercian  succession  of  sovereigns  was  now  CHAP. 
drawing  to  its  close.  Beortulf  was  succeeded  in  852  \  ^. — > 
by  Burrhed,  the  last  king  of  Mercia,  who  in  the  next 
year  requested  the  assistance  of  Ethelwulph  against 
the  Britons  of  Wales.15  Burrhed  had  already  fought 
a  battle,  in  which  Merfyn  Frych  the  British  king 
fell,  and  was  succeeded  by  Koderic,  who  has  obtained 
in  Welsh  history  the  epithet  of  Mawr,  or  the  Great.16 
But  an  epithet  like  this  rather  expresses  the  feelings 
of  his  countrymen,  than  the  merit  of  his  character. 
It  may  be  just  in  provincial  history  as  long  as  that 
exists  in  its  local  seclusion ;  but  the  force  of  the 
expression  vanishes  when  the  person  it  accompanies 
is  brought  forward  into  more  general  history  in  an 
enlightened  age.  He  who  was  great  in  his  little 
circle  or  ruder  times,  becomes  then  diminutive  and 
obscure ;  and  it  is  almost  ludicrous  to  apply  one  of 
the  most  splendid  symbols  of  recorded  merit,  to 
actions  so  inconsiderable,  and  to  characters  so  ambi- 
guous as  a  petty  Welsh  prince.  The  grand  epithets 
of  history  should  be  reserved  for  those  who  can  abide 
a  comparison  with  the  illustrious  of  every  age,  like 
the  lofty  mountains  of  nature,  which,  whether  exist- 
ing in  Italy,  in  Tartary,  or  Chili,  are  admired  for 
their  sublimity  by  every  spectator,  and  in  every 
period. 

Eoderic  endured  the  invasion  of  Ethelwulph  and       ess. 
Burrhed,  who  penetrated  with  victorious  ravages  to 
Anglesey.17     Ethelwulph  gave  his  daughter  Ethels- 
witha  in  marriage  to  the  Mercian,  and  the  nuptial 
solemnities  were  celebrated  royally  at  Chippenham.18 

to  him  the  provinces  which  Eghert  had  conquered,  37.  Ethelstan  is  mentioned 
by  Fordun  to  have  perished  in  a  battle  against  the  Picts,  lib.  iv.  c.  14.  p.  666. 
In  850  he  signed  a  charter  as  king  of  Kent.  Thorpe,  Reg.  Roff.  p.  23.  Dr.  Whit- 
aker  supposes  him  to  have  been  St.  Neot,  but  this  is  rather  a  hazarded  than  an  au- 
thorised conjecture. 

15  Asser,  6.  16  Wynne's  Hist.  p.  27. 

17  Wynne,  27.     Asser,  7.     Sax.  Chron.  75. 

18  Asser,  7.     Matt.  West.  305.     Burrhed  therefore  became  Alfred's  brother-in- 
law.     Voltaire  calls  him  inaccurately  his  uncle.     Comme  Burred  son  oncle>  p.  473. 

E  E    2 


420 


HISTOKY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
IV. 


853. 


Alfred  sent 
to  Rome. 


At  Rome 
again  in 
855. 


The  vikingr  appeared  again  in  Thanet.  Ealhere, 
with  the  armed  men  of  Kent,  and  Huda,  with  those 
of  Surrey,  overwhelmed  the  invaders  with  the  first 
fury  of  their  battle ;  but  the  conflict  was  obstinately 
renewed,  the  English  chiefs  fell,  and  after  many  of 
both  armies  had  been  slain  or  drowned,  the  pirates 
obtained  the  victory.19 

In  the  fifth  year  of  Alfred's  age,  his  father,  al- 
though he  had  three  elder  sons,  seerns  to  have  formed 
an  idea  of  making  him  his  successor.  This  intention 
is  inferred  from  the  facts  that  Ethelwulph  sent  him 
at  this  time  to  Rome,  with  a  great  train  of  nobility 
and  others  ;  and  that  the  pope  anointed  him  king,  at 
the  request  of  his  father.20 

It  is  expressly  affirmed,  that  the  king  loved  Alfred 
better  than  his  other  sons.21  When  the  king  went 
to  Eome  himself  two  years  afterwards,  he  took  Alfred 
with  him,  because  he  loved  him  with  superior  affec- 
tion.22 The  presumption  that  he  intended  to  make 
Alfred  his  successor,  therefore,  agrees  with  the  fact 
of  his  paternal  partiality.  It  is  warranted  by  the 
declaration  of  Matthew  of  Westminster,  that  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  rebellion  which  followed  against 
Ethelwulph  was,  that  he  had  caused  Alfred  to  be 
crowned,  thereby,  as  it  were,  excluding  his  other 
children  from  the  chance  of  succession.23 

In  Alfred's  journey  through  France,  he  was  very 
hospitably  treated  by  Bertinus  and  Grimbald.24  When 

19  Asser,  7.     Ragnar's  Quida  mentions  one  of  his  exploits  at  an  English  pro- 
montory, where  the  English  noble  Walthiofr  fell.      See  before,  note  48. 

20  So  Florence,  296. ;  Sim.  Dun.  139. ;  Rad.  diceto.  450.  ;  Chron.  Mailros,  142.; 
Matt.  West.  307.;  and  Chron.  Joan.  Taxton,  MSS.  Cotton.  Lib.  Julius,  A.  1.,  affirm. 
As  St.  Neot  the  son  or  brother  of  Ethelwulph  went,  about  this  period,  seven  times 
to  Rome,  his  journeys  or  his  advice  may  have  had  some  connection  with  this  project. 

21  Cum  communi  et  ingenti  patris  sui  et  matris  amore  supra  omnes  fratres  suos. 
Asser,"  15.,  Matt.  West.  307.,  Sim.  Dun.  141.,  Flor.  Wig.  297.,  express  the  same 
fact. 

22  Filium  suum  JElfredum  iterum  in  eandem  viam  sec  urn  ducens  eo  quod,  ilium 
plus  ceteris  flliis  suis  diligebat.     Asser,  p.  8. 

23  Causa  autem  bifaria  erat,  una  quod  fllium  juniorem  JElfredum  quasi  aliis  a 
sorte  regni  exclusis,  in  regem  Romae  fecerat  coronari.     Matt.  West.  p.  308. 

24  Vita  Grimbaldi.     Lei.  Collect,  i.  p.  18. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  42 1 

Alfred  arrived  in  the  course  of  nature  at  the  royal     CHAP. 
dignity,    he    remembered   Grimbald's    services    and   __^J — » 
talents,  requited  them  by  a  steady  friendship,   and       865- 
obtained  from  them  an  important  intellectual  benefit. 
In  855,  Ethel wulph,  with  the  sanction  of  his  witena 
gemot,  made  that  donation  to  the  church  which  is 
usually  construed  to  be  the  grant  of  its  tithes.     But  the  tenths 
on  reading  carefully  the  obscure  words  of  the  three 
copies  of  this  charter,  which  three  succeeding  chro- 
niclers have  left  us,  it  will  appear   that   it  cannot 
have   been   the  original   grant  of  the  tithes  of  all 
England.     These  words  imply  either  that  it  was  a 
liberation  of  the  land  which  the  clergy  had  before 
been  in  possession  of,  from  all  the  services  and  pay- 
ments to  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  lands  were  gene- 
rally liable 25,  or  that  it  was  an  additional  gift  of  land, 
not  of  tithes,  either  of  the  king's  private  patrimony, 
or  of  some  other  which  is  not  explained.    The  reason 
for  the  gift  which  is  added  in  the  charter  strengthens 
the  first  supposition 2G ;  but  the  terms  used  to  express 

25  Ingulf,  Malmsbury,  and   Matt.  West,   profess  to  give  copies  of  the  charter. 
The  king  (in  Ingulfs  copy),  after  reciting  the  depredations  of  the  Northmen,  adds, 
with  some  confusion  of  grammar  and  style,  "  Wherefore  I,  Ethelwulph,  king  of  the 
West  Saxons,  with  the  advice  of  my  bishops  and  princes,  affirming  a  salutary  counsel, 
and  uniform  remedy,  we  have  consented  that  I  have  adjudged  some  hereditary  por- 
tion of  land  to  all  degrees  before  possessing  it,  whether  male  or  female  servants  of 
God,  serving  him,  or  poor  laymen ;  always  the  tenth  mansion  :  where  that  may 
be  the  least,  then  the  tenth  part  of  all  goods  should  be  given  in  perpetual  freedom 
to  the  church,  so  that  it  may  be  safe  and  protected  from  all  secular  services  and 
royal  contributions  greater  or  smaller,  or  taxations  which  we  call  wynterden  ;  and 
that  it  may  be  free  from  all  things ;  and  without,  the  military  expedition,  building 
of  bridges,  arid  constructions  of  fortresses."     Ing.  Hist.  p.  17.     Malmsbury's  copy 
corresponds  with  this ;  but  for  "  then  the  tenth  part  of  all  goods,"  it  has  "  yet  the 
tenth  part,"  omitting  the  words,  "  of  all  goods,"  and  changing  "  turn  "  into  "  tamen." 
p.  41.     Matt.  West.,  p.  306.,  gives  it  a  different  aspect:  he  makes  it  like  an  abso- 
lute hereditary  gift,  but  converts  the  general  term  "  land,"  used  by  the  others,  into 
"  my  land."     Thus,  "  I  grant  some  portion  of  my  land  to  be  possessed  in  perpetual 
right,  to  wit,  the  tenth  part  of  my  land,  that  it  may  be  free  from  all  offices,  and 
secular  services,  and  royal  tributes,"  &c.,  adding  the  same  reason  as  above.      The 
natural  force  of  Matthew's  words  limit  the  lands  given,  to  the  king's  own  lands, 
which  were  only  a  small  part  of  the  kingdom,  but  gives  a  proprietary  right  more 
expressly  than  the  others.     I  think  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  tithes  were 
then  first  granted,  but  that  this  charter  was  meant  to  have  the  operation  mentioned 
in  the  text. 

26  "  That  they  may  more  diligently  pour  forth  their  prayers  to  God  for  us  with- 
out ceasing  ;  as  we  have  alleviated  their  servitude  in  some  part,  '  eorum  servitutem 

13  E    3 


422  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     the  persons  to  whom  the  benefit  was  granted  seem 

< — <L — '   to  confine  it  to  monastical  persons.27     But  whatever 

855*       was  its  original   meaning,  the  clergy  in   after-ages 

interpreted  it  to  mean  a  distinct  and  formal  grant  of 

the  tithes  of  the  whole  kingdom.28 

He  went  afterwards  to  Kome  himself  with  great 
magnificence,  accompanied  by  Alfred29,  who  was 
entering  his  seventh  year.  As  the  expeditions  of  the 
great  to  Rome  were,  in  those  days,  usually  by  land, 
Ethelwulph  went  first  into  France,  where  Charles, 
the  French  king,  received  him  with  honour  and  royal 
liberality,  and  caused  him  to  be  conducted  through 
his  dominions  with  every  respectful  attention. 30 
ins  presents  The  presents  which  the  West- Saxon  king  carried 

to  the  pope.  ,  ,.      ,  .        ,.,  .  - 

to  the  pope  were  peculiarly  splendid.  A  crown  of 
pure  gold,  weighing  four  pounds,  two  golden  vessels 
called  Baucas,  a  sword  adorned  with  pure  gold,  two 
golden  images,  four  Saxon  dishes  of  silver  gilt,  besides 
valuable  dresses,  are  enumerated  by  his  contemporary 
Anastasius.  The  king  also  gave  a  donative  of  gold 

in  aliqua  parte  levigamus.'"  Ing.  p.  17.  Malmsb.  41.  An  alleviation  of  services 
is  not  a  grant  of  tithes. 

27  The  words  in  Ingulf  are,  "  famulis  et  famulabus  Dei,  Deo  servientibus  sive 
laicis  miseris."     In  Malmsbury  the  same,  omitting  the  epithet  "  miseris. "     Famu- 
labus cannot  apply  to  rectors  or  curates ;  famulis  et  famulabus  Dei,  mean  usually 
monks  and  nuns.     The  copy  of  Matthew  of  Westminster,  for  these  words,  substi- 
tutes "  Deo  et  beate  Marise,  et  omnibus  sanctis."    But  Matthew  wrote  in  the  latter 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century.     Ingulfs  copy  is  above  two  centuries  more  ancient 
than  his. 

28  So  Ingulf,  and  Malmsbury,  and  others  state  it ;  but  all  classes  of  men  who 
have  obtained  a  grant  by  deed,  try  to  extend  its  meaning  as  far  for  their  own  benefit 
as  the  construction  of  the  words  can  be  carried.     The  law  itself  looks  only  at  the 
sense  of  the  words  used.     Asser's  opinion  of  its  import  would  be  very  valuable  if  it 
was  clearly  given :  because,  as  a  contemporary,  we  should  gain  from  him  the  mean- 
ing given  to  it  at  its  first  publication.     If  his  first  sentence  stood  alone,  it  would 
confirm  our  first  construction ;   but  his  rhetorical  after-phrase  adds  something, 
which,  if  it  means  anything  more,  I  do  not  understand  it.     The  passage  stands 
thus  :  «'  He  liberated  the  tenth  part  of  all  his  kingdom  from  every  royal  service 
and  contribution,  and  in  an  everlasting  instrument  in  the  cross  of  Christ  for  the 
redemption  of  his  soul,  and  of  his  predecessors,  he  immolated  to  the  triune  Deity." 
I  do  not  see  that  these  latter  words  increase  the  meaning  of  the  first,  which  express 
only  a  liberation  from  burdens.     They  seem  to  add  that  he  offered  this  liberation 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  Deity. 

29  Asser,  9. 

30  Annales  Bertiniani  in  Bouquet's  Recueil,  torn.  vii.  p.  71. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  423 

to  all  the  Roman  clergy  and  nobles,  and  silver  to  the     CHAP. 
people. 31  .__ IV*    . 

Ethelwulph  continued  a  year  at  Rome,  and  rebuilt  855- 
the  Saxon  school  which  Ina  had  founded.32  By  the 
carelessness  of  its  English  inhabitants,  it  had  been  set 
on  fire  the  preceding  year  and  was  burnt  to  ashes.33 
One  act  which  he  did  at  Rome  evinces  his  patriotism 
and  influence,  and  entitles  him  to  honourable  remem- 
brance. He  saw  that  the  public  penitents  and  exiles 
were  bound  with  iron,  and  he  obtained  an  order  from 
the  pope  that  no  Englishman  out  of  his  country, 
should  be  put  into  bonds  for  penance.34 

In  his  way  through  France,   he  discovered  that       sse. 

•V.L  f  i  T        T    i       i        His  mar- 

senility  gave  no  exemption  from  love.     In  July  he  riagewitn 
sued  for  an  alliance  with  Judith  the  daughter  of  Charles,  Judith- 
and  in  October  was  married  to  her  by  Hincmar.     He 
admitted  her  to  share  in  the  royal  dignity,  and  the 
diadem  was  placed  on  her  head.     Presents  worthy  of 
the  high  personages  concerned  were  mutually  given, 
and  Ethelwulph  took  shipping  for  England.35 

Few  marriages  of  our  sovereigns  have  been  more 
important  in  their  consequences  to  the  reputation 
and  happiness  of  England  than  this,  which  at  the  time 
might  have  appeared  censurable  from  the  disparity 
of  the  ages  of  the  parties,  and  from  our  aversion  to 
see  the  hoary  head  imitating  the  youthful  bride- 
groom. It  was  this  lady  who  began  the  education  of 
Alfred;  and  to  her  therefore  may  be  traced  all  his 
literary  acquisitions. 

But  the  connubial  felicity  of  Ethelwulph  was  in-  The  revolt 
terrupted  by  intelligence  of  a  successful  conspiracy 

81  Anastasius  Bibliothecarius  de  vitis  Pontif.  vol.  i.  p.  403.  ed.  Rome,  1718. 

32  Rudborne,  202.    'Anastasius  describes  it  as  an  habitation  ;   quae  in  eorum 
lingua  burgus  discitur,  p.  317.      The  place  where  it  was  situated,  was  called  the 
Saxon-street,  Saxonum  vicum.     Anast.  363.     This  school  was  much  attended  to 
by  the  Anglo-Saxon  nobles  and  sovereigns. 

33  Anastasius,  p.  317.  **  Rudborne,  202. 

35  Annales  Bertiniani,  p.  72.  —  Asser,  8.     The  ceremony  used  at  the  coronation 
of  Judith  yet  exists,  and  may  be  seen  in  Du  Chesne's  Hist.  Franc,  vol.  ii.  p.  423. 

JR  E  4 


424  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  against  his  power,  which  menaced  him  with  deposi- 
< — ^ — »  tion  and  exile.  It  was  conducted  by  Alstan,  the 
856.  bishop,  to  whom  he  owed  all  his  prosperity ;  and 
Ethelbald,  the  eldest  of  the  legitimate  princes,  was 
placed  at  the  head.  The  earl  of  Somerset  participated 
in  the  rebellion.  The  principal  object  was  to  defeat 
the  plans  of  Ethelwulph  in  favour  of  Alfred,  and  to 
invest  Ethelbald  with  the  crown.36  The  popular 
reason  was,  the  elevation  of  his  new  wife  to  the 
dignity  of  queen.  The  crimes  of  Eadburga  had  in- 
cited the  Anglo-Saxon  nation  to  forbid  the  wife  of 
any  other  of  their  kings  to  be  crowned.37  Ethel- 
wulph's  visit  to  Rome  without  having  resigned  his 
crown  may  have  begun  the  discontent.  Two  of  the 
preceding  sovereigns  of  Wessex  who  had  taken  this 
step,  Ceadwalla  and  Ina,  had  first  abdicated  the 
throne,  though  Offa  retained  it  during  his  journey. 
But  Ethelwulph  had  been  in  the  church,  and  had  not 
the  warlike  character  of  Offa  to  impress  or  satisfy  his 
thanes  and  eorls.  For  him  therefore  to  pursue  the 
steps  that  were  so  like  a  re-assumption  of  his  early 
ecclesiastical  character  may  have  dissatisfied  the 
fierce  Anglo-Saxons,  who  thought  little  of  religion 
until  some  event  roused  them  to  renounce  the  world 
altogether. 

HIS  depo-  In  Selwood  Forest  the  revolters  first  assembled  in 
strength.  The  king's  absence  favoured  the  scheme ; 
and  as  his  devotion  to  the  Eoman  see,  combined  with 
the  prospect  of  a  stripling's  succession,  to  the  preju- 
dice of  brothers,  who  to  priority  of  birth  added 
maturity  of  age,  may  have  diminished  the  general 
loyalty;  so  the  circumstances  of  his  marriage  con- 
curred, fortunately  for  the  conspirators,  to  complete 

86  Matt.  West.  308.  Rudborne  also  states,  that  some  write,  quod  filii  insurrexe- 
runt  contra  patrem  propter  invidiam  quod  frater  minimus,  viz.  Alfredus,  ante  omnes 
inunctus  erat  in  regem  jussione  paterna,  p.  201. 

37  Asser,  10,  11.  See  before,  p.  360.  This  degradation  of  their  sovereign's 
queen  was  contrary,  says  Asser,  to  the  custom  of  all  the  German  nations. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  425 

his  unpopularity.      When  Ethelwulph  returned,  he      CHAP. 
found  the  combination  too  powerful  to  be  resisted ;   .    lv'    . 
but  the  nobles  of  all  Wessex  would  not  permit  him       856- 
to  be  absolutely  dethroned ;  they  promoted  an  ac- 
commodation between  the  two  parties,  on  the  plan, 
that  Ethelbald  should  be  put  in  possession  of  West 
Saxony,  the  best  portion  of  the  monarchy38,  and  that 
Ethelwulph  should  be  contented  with  the  eastern  dis- 
tricts   which    Ethelstan    had   enjoyed.      The   king, 
averse  to  war,  and  perhaps  intimidated  by  the  strength 
of  his  opponents,  submitted  to  the  proposition.39 

38  Asser,  9.     He  remarks  that  occidentalis  pars  Saxonise  semper  oriental!  princi- 
palior  est,  ibid. 

39  There  is  a  complimentary  letter  of  Lupus,  a  French  abbot,  to  Ethelwulph,  still 
existing,  soliciting  him  to  be  at  the  expense  of  covering  the  church  of  his  monastery 
with  lead.     In  this  he  speaks  of  the  good  opinion  which  had  spread  of  Ethelwulph 's 
government,  and  of  the  reputation  he  had  acquired  by  his  exertions  against  the 
enemies  of  Christianity,  alluding  to  his  victories  over  the  Northmen.     Epist.  Lupi 
Bib.  Mag.  Pat,  vol.  iii.  p.  625. 


426  HISTORY   OF  THE 


CHAP.  V. 

The  Reigns  of  ETHELBALD   and  ETHELBERT. —  ALFRED'S 
Education. 

BOOK  BY  wresting  the  sceptre  of  Wessex  from  the  hand  of 
-  his  father,  Ethelbald  gained  a  very  short  interval 
856—860.  Of  regai  pomp.  The  old  king  survived  the  disappoint- 
ment of  his  hope  and  the  diminution  of  his  power 
but  two  years,  and  Ethelbald  outlived  him  scarcely 
three  more.  Ethelwulph,  by  his  will,  left  landed  pos- 
sessions to  three  of  his  sons  ;  and  it  is  a  proof  of  his 
placable  disposition,  that  Ethelbald  was  one ;  the 
others  were  Ethelred  and  Alfred  ;  the  survivor  of  the 
three  was  to  inherit  the  bequest.1  His  other  son,  his 
daughter,  and  kinsmen,  and  also  his  nobles,  partook 
of  his  testamentary  liberality.  His  will  displayed 
both  the  equity  and  the  piety  of  his  mind.2 

Soon  after  Ethel  wulph's  decease,  Ethelbald  married 
his  widow,  Judith,  in  defiance  of  religious  institutions 
and  the  customs  of  every  Christian  state.3  On  the 
exhortations  of  S within,  he  is  represented  to  have 
dismissed  her,  and  to  have  passed  the  remainder  of 
his  short  life  in  reputation  and  justice.4  He  died  in 
860. 

1  See  Alfred's  will,  published  by  Mr.  Astle,  which  recites  this  devise. 

2  He  ordered  throughout  all  his  lands,  that  in  every  ten  manors  one  poor  person, 
either  a  native  or  a  foreigner,  should  be  maintained  in  food  and  clothing,  as  long  as 
the  country  contained  men  and  cattle.     He  left  the  pope  a  hundred  mancusses,  and 
two  hundred  to  illuminate  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's  churches  at  Rome  on  Easter 
eve  and  the  ensuing  dawn.  <  Asser,  13. 

8  Asser,  23.  But  this  author,  and  they  who  follow  him,  are  wrong  in  stating 
that  this  was  against  the  custom  of  the  pagans ;  for  Eadbald,  king  of  Kent,  had 
done  the  same  in  616;  and  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  in  mentioning  that  event,  says, 
he  lived  "  on  hethenum  theape  spa,  that  he  haepbe  lnj*  paeben  lape  t*  pive,"  p.  26. 

4  Matt.  West.  310.     Rudborne,  204. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  427 

Some  time  after  the  death  of  Ethelbald,    Judith      CHAP. 
sold  her  possessions  in  England,  and  returning  to  her  . 

father,  lived  at  Senlis  with  regal  dignity.     Here  she  Judith's 

&  ?         A  third  mar- 

was  seen  by  Baldwin,  surnamed  the  Arm  of  Iron,  mge. 
whom  she  married.  He  was  descended  from  the 
count  who  had  cultivated  and  occupied  Flanders.5 
The  pope  reconciled  him  with  the  king  of  France, 
her  father6,  who  gave  to  Baldwin  all  the  region 
between  the  Scheld,  the  Sambre,  and  the  sea,  and 
created  him  count  of  the  empire,  that  he  might  be  the 
bulwark  of  the  French  kingdom  against  the  North- 
men.7 

Baldwin  built  Bruges  in  856,  as  a  fortress  to  coerce 
them,  and  died  in  880,  having  enjoyed  his  honours 
with  peculiar  celebrity.8 

On  the  death  of  Ethelbald,  the  kingdom  of  Wessex       seo. 
became  the  possession  of  Ethelbert,  his  brother,  who 
had  been   already   reigning   in   Kent,    Surrey,   and 
Sussex. 

In  his  days,  the  tranquillity  of  England  was  again 
endangered ;  a  large  fleet  of  the  northern  vikingr 
suddenly  appeared  near  Winchester,  and  ravaged  it ; 
but  as  they  were  retiring  with  their  plunder,  they 
were  overtaken  and  chased  to  their  ships  by  the  earls 
of  Hampshire  and  Berkshire. 

Their  commander  led  them  from  England  to  France ; 
with  above  300  ships  they  ascended  the  Seine,  and 

5  Annales  Bertiniani  Bouquet,  torn.  vii.  p.  77. — The  Genealogia  comitum  Flan- 
drise  scripta  seculo  12,  says,  A.  792,  Lidricus  Harlebecensis  comes  videns  Flandriam 
vacuam  et  incultam  et  nemorosam  occupavit  earn.     Ibid.  p.  81.,  he  was  the  great 
grandfather  of  Baldwin.     Previous   to  Baldwin,  Flanders  was  in  the  hands  of 
foresters,  Espinoy's  Recherches,  p.  5. 

6  The  pope's  letters  to  Charles,  and  his  queen,  Hermentrudes,  are  in  Mirsei  opera 
diplomatica,  i.  p.  132.     Hincmar's  letter  to  the  pope,  stating  what  he  had  done  in 
obedience  to  his  order,  is  in  the  same  work,  p.  25.     The  pope  hints  to  Charles,  that 
if  his  anger  lasted,  Baldwin  might  join  the  Northmen. 

7  Meyer  Annales  Flandriae,  13.     For  the  same  purpose,  Theodore  was  made  the 
first  count  of  Holland  at  this  time,  ibid. 

8  The  author  of  the  Life  of  St.  Winnoc,  written  in  the  eleventh  century,  says, 
Flanders  never  had  a  man  his  superior  in  talent  and  warlike  ability,  Bouquet,  vii. 
p.  379. 


428  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  Charles  averted  their  hostilities  from  his  own  domains 
< — ^ — •  by  money.  The  winter  forbidding  them  to  navigate 
the  sea,  they  dispersed  themselves  along  the  Seine 
and  the  adjacent  shores  in  different  bands.9  Such 
incursions  induced  the  Flemings  to  build  castles  and 
fortified  places.10 

In   864,   they    wintered   in    Thanet.      While  the 
Kentish  men  were  offering  money,  to  be  spared  from 
their  ravages,  they  broke  from  their  camp  at  night, 
and  ravaged  all  the  east  of  the  country.     Ethelbert 
was,  like  his  brother,  taken  off  prematurely,  after  a 
His 866th*    s^or^  but  honourable  reign  of  six  years,  and  was 
buried  in  Shireburn.11     He  left  some  children12,  but 
Ethelred,  his  brother,  acceded  in  their  stead. 
Alfred's  During    the  reigns    of   his  brethren,    Alfred  was 

quietly  advancing  into  youth  and  manhood.  When 
an  illustrious  character  excites  our  attention,  it  is 
natural  to  inquire  whether  any  unusual  circumstances 
distinguished  his  early  years.  This  curiosity  arises, 
not  from  the  expectation  of  beholding  an  extraordi- 
nary being,  acting  so  as  to  astonish  us  in  the  features 
and  dress  of  infancy,  because  it  is  probable,  that  in 
the  beginning  of  life  no  indications  of  future  great- 
ness appear.  Healthy  children  are  in  general  sprightly ; 
and  the  man  destined  to  interest  ages  by  his  mature 
intellect,  cannot  be  distinguished  amid  the  universal 
animation  and  activity  of  his  delighted  play-fellows. 
But  as  the  evolution  of  genius,  and  its  luxuriant 
fertility,  depend  much  upon  the  accidents  of  its  ex- 
perience, it  becomes  important  to  notice  those  events 

9  Anuales  Bertiniani.     One  expression  of  these  annals  is  curious  :  it  says,  that 
the  Northmen  divided  themselves,  secundum  suas  sodalitates,  as  if  they  had  been 
an  union  of  different  companies  associated  for  the  expedition. 

10  Ob  tarn  furibundas  septentrionalium  barbarorum  incursiones  Flandri  in  suis 
pagis  castellisque  munitiones  facere  ceperunt.     Meyer.  Ann.  Fland.  ]  2. 

11  Asser,  14. 

12  They  are  mentioned  in  Alfred's  will.     About  this  time,  Ruric,  a  prince  of  the 
Waregi,  obtained  the  empire  of  Russia,  and  fixing  his  seat  at  Novogardia  (Novgo- 
rod), which  he  adorned  with  buildings,  occasioned  all  Russia  to  have  that  name. 
Chronicon  Theod.  Kiow,  cited  by  Langb.  i.  p.  554. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  429 

which  have  occurred    to    an    illustrious   individual,      CHAP. 
during  the  first  periods  of  life,  that  we  may  trace  • 

their  influence  in  producing  or  determining  the  ten-  866- 
dencies  of  his  manly  character,  and  in  shaping  his 
future  fortunes.  The  minds  of  all  men,  in  every 
portion  of  their  lives,  are  composed  of  the  impres- 
sions received,  and  the  ideas  retained,  from  their  pre- 
ceding experience.  As  the  events  of  childhood  affect 
its  future  youth,  those  of  its  youth  influence  its  man- 
hood, and  that  also  impresses  its  subsequent  age. 
Hence  they  who  wish  to  study  the  formation  of  great 
characters  must  attentively  consider  the  successive 
circumstances  of  their  previous  stages  of  life. 

The  first  years  of  Alfred's  life  were  marked  by 
incidents  unusual  to  youth.  When  he  was  but  four 
years  old,  he  was  sent  by  his  father  to  travel  by  land 
through  France,  and  over  the  Alps  to  Rome,  accom- 
panied with  a  large  retinue.  He  was  brought  back 
in  safety  from  this  journey  ;  and  in  his  seventh  year 
he  attended  his  father  in  a  similar  expedition,  and 
resided  with  him  a  year  in  that  distinguished  city. 
Although  Alfred  at  these  periods  was  but  a  child, 
yet  the  varied  succession  of  scenes  and  incidents,  and 
the  new  habits,  privations,  alarms,  and  vicissitudes 
with  which  such  dangerous  and  toilsome  journeys 
must  have  abounded,  could  not  occur  to  his  per- 
ception without  powerfully  exciting  and  instructing 
his  young  intellect.  His  residence  twice  at  Rome, 
in  which  so  many  monuments  of  ancient  art  were 
then  visible  to  rouse  the  enthusiasm  and  interest  the 
curiosity  of  the  observer,  must  have  left  impressions 
on  his  mind,  not  likely  to  have  forsaken  it,  of  the 
superiority  and  civilisation  of  the  people  whose  cele- 
brity was  every  where  resounded,  and  whose  noble 
works  he  was  contemplating.13  The  survey  of  the 

13  Besides  the  remains  of  ancient  taste,  Alfred  must  have  seen  there  the  most 
perfect  productions  of  the  time,  as  the  pope  was  perpetually  receiving  a  great  variety 


430  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  ruins  of  the  capitol  has  excited  some  to  the  arduous 
.  TJ'  ,  toil  of  literary  composition14,  and  their  remembrance 
866-  may  have  produced  in  the  mind  of  Alfred  that  eager- 
ness for  knowledge  which  so  usefully  distinguished 
his  maturer  years. 

In  his  eighth  year  he  received  a  new  train  of  asso- 
ciations from  his  residence  in  the  court  of  France, 
during  his  father's  courtship  and  marriage  with 
Judith.  An  urbanity  of  manners,  and  a  cultivation 
of  knowledge,  vigorous  because  recent,  distinguished 
the  Francs  at  that  time  from  the  other  Gothic  nations. 
Alfred  seems  to  have  been  inspired  by  them  with 
some  desire  of  improvement,  though  the  occupations 
and  contrary  tastes  of  his  father  confined  his  wishes 
to  a  latent  sentiment. 

From  his  eighth  year  to  his  twelfth,  his  biography 
is  less  certain.  If  it  be  true,  as  some  chronicles 
intimate,  that  infirm  health  occasioned  his  father,  in 
obedience  to  the  superstition  of  the  day,  to  send  him 
to  Modwenna,  a  religious  lady  in  Ireland,  celebrated 
for  sanctity15,  such  an  expedition  must,  by  its  new 
and  contrasting  scenes,  have  kept  his  curiosity  alive, 
and  have  amplified  his  information.  The  disposition 
to  improve  may  also  have  been  increased,  if  not  pro- 
duced, within  him,  by  the  reputation  of  his  name- 
sake, Alfred  of  Northumbria. 

But  though  Alfred's  mind  may  have  abounded 
with  excited  capability,  eager  to  know,  and  emulous 
of  distinction 16,  it  had  received  none  of  that  fruitful 
cultivation  which  is  gained  in  literary  education, 

of  rich  presents  from  Constantinople,  and  every  other  Christian  country.    See  many 
of  these  mentioned  in  Anastasius. 

14  Mr.  Gibbon  mentions  that  he  conceived  the  first  idea  of  writing  his  history 
while  sitting  on  the  ruins  of  the  Capitol. 

15  Hist,  aurea  Johan.  Tinmuth,  MSS.  in  Bib.  Bodl.  cited  by  Dugdale,  Monast. 
i.  p.  197.     Higden  also  mentions  it,  p.  256. 

18  Asser  says  of  him,  cui  ab  incunabulis  ante  omnia  et  cum  omnibus  presentis 
vibe  studiis,  sapientia?  desiderium  cum  nobilitate  generis,  nobilis  mentis  ingenium 
supplevit,  p.  16. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  431 

from  the  transmitted  wisdom  of  other  times ;  from     CHAP. 
the  unobtrusive  eloquence  of  books.    Alfred  had  been  .     v*     . 
a  favourite ;  and  of  such  children,  indulgences  and       866. 
ignorance  are  too  often  the  lot.     Happily,  his  father's 
misfortunes   and  new  connection  rescued  him  from 
that  ruin  of  temper  and  mind  which  sometimes  dis- 
appoints the  fairest  promises  of  nature. 

Alfred's  intellect  first  displayed  itself  in  a  fondness 
for  the  only  mental  object  which  then  existed  to  at- 
tract it.  This  was  the  Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  It  was 
in  a  rude  and  simple  state,  and  barren  of  all  that  we 
now  admire  in  the  productions  of  the  muses.  But  it 
was  stately  and  heroical.  It  tended  to  confer  fame, 
and  was  therefore  adapted  to  rouse  the  mind  to  seek 
it.  Hence  to  Alfred  the  Saxon  poems,  being  the  best 
which  were  then  accessible  to  him,  were  impressive 
and  delightful.  By  day  and  by  night,  he  was  an 
assiduous  auditor,  whenever  they  were  recited.17  As 
he  listened,  the  first  aspirings  of  a  soaring  mind  seem 
to  have  arisen  within  him ;  and  they  prepared  him  to 
desire  larger  draughts  of  that  intellectual  fountain, 
whose  scantiest  waters  were  so  sweet.  He  became  at 
last  a  versifier  himself.  The  great  cause,  however, 
of  the  dearth  of  intellectual  cultivation  at  that  period 
was,  that  few  would  learn  to  read.  Alfred  had 
passed  eleven  years  without  having  acquired  this 
easy  though  inestimable  accomplishment.  A  prince, 
son  of  a  father  who  had  been  educated  for  the 
church ;  who  had  twice  visited  Rome,  and  resided  at 
Paris  after  Charlemagne  had  improved  his  people, 
was  yet  passing  into  youth  without  the  simplest  of 
all  tuition,  which  the  poorest  infant  is  now  invited 
and  urged  to  attain.  That  he  received  it  at  last  was 
owing  to  his  step-mother,  Judith.  When  Alfred  was 
twelve  years  old,  she  was  sitting  one  day,  surrounded 

17  Asser,  p.  16. 


432  HISTOEY   OF   THE 

BOOK  by  her  family,  with  a  manuscript  of  Saxon  poetry  in 
.  her  hands.  As  Aldhelm  and  Cedmon  had  written 
866-  poems  of  great  popularity,  it  may  have  contained 
some  of  theirs.  That  she  was  able  to  read  is  not 
surprising,  because  she  was  a  Franc,  and  the  Francs 
had  received  from  the  Anglo-Saxons  a  taste  for 
literary  pursuits,  and  were  cultivating  them  with  su- 
perior ardour.  With  a  happy  judgment  she  proposed 
it  as  a  gift  to  him  who  would  the  soonest  learn  to 
read  it.  The  whole  incident  may  have  been  chance 
play,  but  it  was  fruitful  of  consequences.  The  elder 
princes,  one  then  a  king,  the  others  in  mature  youth 
or  manhood,  thought  the  reward  inadequate  to  the 
task,  and  were  silent.  But  the  mind  of  Alfred,  cap- 
tivated by  the  prospect  of  information,  and  pleased 
with  the  beautiful  decoration  of  the  first  letter  of  the 
writing,  inquired  if  she  actually  intended  to  give  it  to 
that  one  of  her  step-children  as  would  the  soonest  learn 
to  understand  and  repeat  it.  The  queen  repeating  the 
promise  with  a  smile  of  joy  at  the  question,  he  took 
the  book,  found  out  an  instructor,  and  learnt  to  read 
it.  When  his  industry  had  crowned  his  wishes  with 
success,  he  recited  it  to  her.18  To  this  important, 
though  seemingly  trivial,  incident  we  owe  all  the 
intellectual  cultivation,  and  all  the  literary  works,  of 
Alfred  ;  and  all  the  benefit  which  by  these  he  im- 
parted to  his  countrymen.  If  this  family  conversa- 
tion had  not  occurred,  Alfred  would  probably  have 
lived  and  died  as  ignorant,  as  unimportant,  and  as 
little  known  as  his  three  brothers.  For  the  mo- 
mentous benefit  thus  begun  to  Alfred,  the  memory 
of  Judith  deserves  our  gratitude.  His  brothers  had 
reached  manhood  without  having  been  taught  letters 
by  their  father,  who,  though  he  had  received  an  eccle- 
siastical education,  had  left  both  them  and  Alfred 

18  Asser,  p.  16. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  433 

illiterate.     Nine  years  old  at  his  father's  death,  and     CHAP. 
yet  wholly  uninstructed  ;  with  one  brother  on  the   , — ^ — » 
throne,  and  two  more  so  near  it  as  ultimately  to  sue-       866- 
ceed  to  it  equally  uneducated;  and  surrounded  by 
nobles  as  ignorant,  and  with  no  lettered  clergy  about 
the  throne,  whence  could  Alfred  have  received  this 
necessary  introduction  to  all  his  improvement,  if  the 
more  intelligent  Judith,  the  granddaughter  of  Charle- 
magne, had  not  been  transplanted  by  Ethelwulph,  from 
Paris  to  England,  and  even  detained  there  by  Ethel- 
bald  ?     This  French  princess  was  the  kind  Minerva 
from  whom  arose  the  first  shoots  of  that  intellectual 
character  which  we  admire  in  Alfred.     To  such  re- 

,  mote  and  apparently  unconnected  causes  do  we  often 
owe  our  greatest  blessings. 

But  in  learning  to  read  Saxon,  Alfred  had  only 

!  entered  a  dark  and  scanty  anteroom  of  knowledge. 
The  Saxon  language  was  not  at  that  day  the  reposi- 

i  tory  of  literature.  The  learned  of  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
Bede,  Alcuin,  and  others,  had  written  their  useful 
works  in  Latin,  and  translations  of  the  classics  had 
not  then  been  thought  of.  Alfred's  first  acquisition 
was  therefore  of  a  nature  which  rather  augmented 
his  own  conviction  of  his  ignorance,  than  supplied 
him  with  the  treasures  which  he  coveted.  He  had 
yet  to  master  the  language  of  ancient  Rome,  before 
he  could  become  acquainted  with  the  compositions 
which  contained  the  main  facts  of  history,  the  ele- 
gance of  poetry,  and  the  disquisitions  of  philosophy. 
He  knew  where  these  invaluable  riches  lay,  but  he 
was  unable  to  appropriate  them  to  his  improvement. 
We  are  told  that  it  was  one  of  his  greatest  lamenta- 
tions, and,  as  he  conceived,  among  his  severest  mis- 
fortunes, and  which  he  often  mentioned  with  deep 
sighs,  that  when  he  had  youth  and  leisure,  and  per- 
mission to  learn,  he  could  not  find  teachers.  No 
good  masters,  capable  of  initiating  him  in  that  lan- 

VOL.  I.  F  F 


434  H1STOKY   OF   THE 

BOOK     guage  in  which  the  minds  he  afterwards  studied  had 
.   conversed  and  written,  were  at  that  time  to  be  found 
866-       in  all  the  kingdom  of  Wessex. 19 

His  love  for  knowledge  made  him  neither  effemi- 
nate nor  slothful.  The  robust  labours  of  the  chase' 
engrossed  a  large  portion  of  his  leisure;  and  he  i& 
panegyrised  for  his  incomparable  skill  and  felicity  in: 
this  rural  art.20  To  Alfred,  whose  life  was  indis-: 
pensably  a  life  of  great  warlike  exertion,  the  exercise: 
of  hunting  may  have  been  salutary  and  even  needful. 
Perhaps  his  commercial  and  polished  posterity  may 
wisely  permit  amusements  more  philanthropic  to. 
diminish  their  attachment  to  this  dubious  pursuit. 

He  followed  the  labours  of  the  chase  as  far  as  Corn- 
wall. His  fondness  for  this  practice  is  a  striking 
proof  of  his  activity  of  disposition,  because  he  appears 
to  have  been  afflicted  with  a  disease  which  would 
have  sanctioned  indolence  in  a  person  less  alert.  This 
malady  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  slow  fever,  of 
an  unusual  kind,  with  symptoms  that  made  some  call 
it  the  piles.  It  pursued  him  from  his  infancy.  But 
his  life  and  actions  show,  that,  though  this  debili- 
tating disease  was  succeeded  by  another  that  haunted 
him  incessantly  with  tormenting  agony,  nothing  could 
suppress  his  unwearied  and  inextinguishable  genius.: 
Though  environed  with  difficulties  which  would  have- 
shipwrecked  any  other  man,  his  energetic  spirit  con-J 
verted  them  into  active  instruments  to  advance  him 
to  virtue  and  to  fame. 

His  religious  impressions  led  him  from  his  child- 
hood to  be  a  frequent  visitor  at  sacred  places,  for  the- 

19  Asser,  p.  17. 

20  Asser,  p.  1 6.     Though  men  fond  of  literature  have  not  often  excelled  in  the 
robust  exercises,  yet  some  remarkable  characters  have  been  distinguished  for  cor- 
poral agility.     Thus  the  great  Pythagoras  was  a  successful  boxer  in  the  Olympic 
games ;  the  first  who  boxed  according  to  art.     Cleanthes,  the  Stoic,  was  a  similar 
adept.     His  scholar,  Chrysippus,  the  acutest  of  the  Stoics,  was  at  first  a  racer ;  and 
even  Plato  himself  was  a  wrestler  at  the  Isthmian  and  Pythian  games.     Bentley  on 
Phalaris,  51 — 54. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  435 

!  purposes  of  giving  alms,  and  offering  prayer.     It  was     CHAP. 
from  this  practice,  that  as  he  was  hunting  in  Cornwall,  • 

;  near  Liskeard,  and  observing  a  village  church  near,       866- 

i  he  dismounted,  and  went  into  it.  A  Cornish  man  of 
religion,  called  St.  Gueryr,  had  been  buried  there. 
The  name  implied  that  he  had  possessed  medical 
powers  or  reputation ;  and  with  a  sudden  hope  of 
obtaining  relief  from  his  distressing  malady,  Alfred 
prostrated  himself  there  in  silent  prayer  to  God,  and 
remained  a  long  time  mentally  petitioning  that  his 

I  sufferings  might  be  alleviated.  He  solicited  any 
change  of  the  divine  visitations  that  would  not  make 
him  useless  in  body  or  contemptible  in  his  personal 
appearance  ;  for  he  was  afraid  of  leprosy  or  blind- 

I  ness,  but  he  implored  relief.  His  devotions  ended, 
he  quitted  the  tomb  of  the  saint,  and  resumed  his 
journey.  No  immediate  effect  followed.  He  had 
often  prayed  before  for  relief  in  vain :  but  now,  in 

1  no  long  space  afterwards,  his  constitution  experienced 
a  beneficial  alteration,  and  this  complaint  entirely 
ceased,  though  after  his  marriage  it  was  succeeded 

|  by  another  and  a  worse,  which  lasted  till  his  death.21 
For  a  while  we  must  leave  Alfred  aspiring  to 
Decome  the  student,  to  describe  that  storm  of  desola- 
tion and  ferocious  war  which  was  proceeding  from 
the  North  to  intercept  the  progress,  and  disturb  the 
happiness  of  the  future  king  ;  and  to  lay  waste  the 
whole  island,  with  havoc  the  most  sanguinary,  and 
ruin  the  most  permanent. 

21  Asser,  40.  Flor.  Wig.  309.  Guerir,  in  Cornish,  signifies  to  heal  or  cure, 
Camden  places  the  church  near  Liskeard.  St.  Neot  lived  here  after  Guerir,  and  it 
acquired  the  name  from  him  of  Neotstoke.  'Whit.  Neot.  109. 


TF  2 


436  HISTOllY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  VI. 

The  Accession  of  ETHELRED,  the  third  Son  of  ETHELWULPH. — i 
The  Arrival  of  the  Sons  of  KAGNAR  LODBROG  in  ENGLAND.  — 
Their  Revenge  on  ELLA.  —  Conquests  and  Depredations.  — 
ETHELRED'S  Death. 

BOOK  As  the  life  of  Ragnar  Lodbrog  had  disturbed  the 
.  *y*  .  peace  of  many  regions  of  Europe,  his  death  became 
866—871.  the  source  of  peculiar  evil  to  England.  When  his 
sons  heard  of  his  fate  in  the  prison  in  Northumbria, 
they  determined  on  revenge.  Their  transient  hos-sj 
tilities  as  sea-kings  were  laid  aside  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  this  passion  ;  and  as  their  father's  fame  wa£ 
the  conversation  and  pride  of  the  North,  they  found 
that  wherever  they  spread  news  of  his  catastrophe, 
and  their  own  resolutions  to  avenge  it,  their  feelings 
were  applauded,  and  auxiliaries  procured  to  join 
them,  from  every  part.  Bands  of  warriors  confede- 
rated from  every  region  for  this  vindictive  object- 
Jutes,  Swedes,  Norwegians,  Danes,  Russians,  and" 
others  ;  all  the  fury  and  all  the  valour  of  the  North 
assembled  for  the  expedition  \  while  none  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  kings  even  suspected  the  preparations. 

Eight  kings  and  twenty  earls,  the  children,  rela- 
tives, and  associates  of  Ragnar,  were  its  leaders.2 
Their  armament  assembled  without  molestation,  and 
when  it  had  become  numerous  enough  to  promise 
success  to  their  adventure,  Halfden,  Ing  war,  an(J 
Ubbo,  three  of  Ragnar's  sons,  assumed  the  com- 

1  Langb.   ii.  278.     Saxo,   176.     Al  Beverl.  92.     Hunt.  347.     M.   West.  316. 
Bromton,  803.     Sim.  Dun.  13.     Al.  Kiev.  353. 

2  The  kings  were  Bacseg,  Halfden,  Ingwar,  Ubbo,  Guthrums,  Oskitel,  Amund, 
and  Eowls.     Al.  Bev.  93.     Simeon  adds  to  the  kings,  Sidroc,  with  a  jarl  of  that 
name,  Frena  and  Harald,  p.  14. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  437 

mand,  sailed  out  of  the  Baltic,  and  conducted  it  safely     CHAP. 
to  the  English  coasts.     By  some  error  in  the  pilot-  * 

age,  or  accident  of  weather,  or  actual  policy,  it  passed  866— 87 1- 
Northumbria,  and  anchored  off  the  shores  of  East 
Anglia. 

Ethelred  was  scarcely  seated  on  his  brother's 
throne,  before  the  great  confederacy  began  to  ^arrive. 
It  found  the  country  in  a  state  auspicious  to  an  inva- 
sion. Four  distinct  governments  divided  its  natural 
force,  whose  narrow  policy  saw  nothing  but  triumph 
and  safety  in  the  destruction  of  each  other.  One  of 
these,  the  peculiar  object  of  the  hostility  of  the  North, 
was  plunged  in  a  civil  warfare. 

Of  the  Anglo-Saxon  governments,  the  kingdom  of 
Northumbria  had  been  always  the  most  perturbed. 
Usurper  murdering  usurper,  is  the  pervading  inci- 
dent. A  crowd  of  ghastly  monarchs  pass  swiftly 
along  the  page  of  history  as  we  gaze ;  and  scarcely 
was  the  sword  of  the  assassin  sheathed  before  it  was 
drawn  against  its  master,  and  he  was  carried  to  the 
sepulchre  which  he  had  just  closed  upon  another.  In 
this  manner,  during  the  last  century  and  a  half,  no 
fewer  than  seventeen  sceptred  chiefs  hurled  each  other 
from  their  joyless  throne3,  and  the  deaths  of  the 
greatest  number  were  accompanied  by  hecatombs  of 
their  friends. 

When  the  Northern  fleet  suddenly  appeared  off 
East  Anglia,  such  sanguinary  events  were  still  dis- 
turbing Northumbria.  Osbert  had  been  four  years 
previously  expelled  by  Ella  from  the  throne  which 
he  had  usurped  from  another,  and  at  this  juncture 
was  formidable  enough  to  dare  his  rival  again  to  the 
ambitious  field. 

The  Danish  chieftains  who  first  landed  did  not  at 

3  Ella  is  called  by  Huntingdon  degenerem,  349.  Asser  describes  him  as  tyran- 
num  quendam  Ella  nomine  non  de  regali  prosapia  progenitum  super  regni  apicem 
constituerant,  p.  18. 

F  F  3 


438  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK      once  rush  to  their  destined  prey.     Whether  accident 
-   or  policy  had  occasioned  them  to  disembark  in  East 

sec.  Anglia,  they  made  it  a  beneficial  event.  Awing  the 
country  by^a  force  which  the  winds  had  never  wafted 
from  Denmark  before  4,  they  quietly  passed  the  winter 
in  their  camp,  collecting  provisions  and  uniting  their 
friends.  They  demanded  a  supply  of  horses  from 
the  king,  who  complied  with  their  request,  and 
mounted  the  greatest  part  of  their  army.5  He  at- 
tempted no  enmity ;  he  suffered  them  to  enjoy  their 
wintry  feasts  unmolested  ;  no  alliance  with  the  other 
Saxon  kingdoms  was  made  during  the  interval ;  each 
state  looked  on  with  hope,  that  the  collected  tempest 
was  to  burst  upon  another ;  and  as  the  menaced 
government  was  a  rival,  nothing  but  advantage  was 
foreseen  from  its  destruction. 

The  Northern  kings  must  have  contemplated  this 
behaviour  with  all  the  satisfaction  and  contempt  of 
meditative  mischief  and  conscious  superiority.  The 
Northumbrian  usurpers  at  last  sheathed,  though 
tardily,  the  swords  of  contending  ambition  ;  and,  on 
the  advice  of  their  nobles,  united  for  their  mutual 
defence  and  the  general  safety.6 

The  invaders,  although  in  many  bands,  like  the 
Grecian  host  before  Troy,  yet  submitted  to  the  pre- 
dominance of  Ingwar  and  Ubbo,  two  of  the  sons  of 
Ragnar.  Of  these  two,  Ingwar  was  distinguished  for 
a  commanding  genius,  and  Ubbo  for  his  fortitude; 
both  were  highly  courageous,  and  inordinately  cruel.7 

867.          In  the  next  spring,  the  invaders  roused  from  their 


4  Al.  Bev.  93. 

5  Asser,  15.     The  Icelanders  intimate  that  the  Northmen  on  their  first  arrival 
found  Ella  too  powerful ;  and  that  Ingwar  negotiated  with  him,  and  cultivated 
treasonable  intercourse  with  his  subjects,  till  the  complete  arrival  of  the  invaders 
enabled  him  to  prosecute  his  revenge.     Langb.  ii.  278. 

6  Hunt.  349.     Asser,  18.     So  Sim.  Dun.  14. 

7  Hunt.  348.     Ubbo  is  called  chief  of  the  Frisians  by  Sim.  Dun.  70.     Adam  of 
Bremen  describes  Ingwar  as  the  most  cruel  of  all,  and  as  destroying  Christiana 
everywhere  in  torments,  p.  14.     He  is  also  called  Ivar. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  439 

useful  repose,   and   marched   into .  Yorkshire.      The     CHAP. 
metropolis  of  the  county  was  their  first  object;  and,   .   7*'..  • 
on  the  first  of  March,  it  yielded  to  their  attack.     De-       867- 
vastation   followed   their    footsteps;    they   extended 
their  divisions  to  the  Tyne,  but,  without  passing  it, 
returned  to  York.8 

Osbert  and  Ella,  having  completed  their  pacifica- 
tion, moved  forwards,  accompanied  with  eight  of 
their  earls,  and,  on  the  12th  of  April,  assaulted  the 
Northmen  near  York.  The  Danes,  surprised  by  the 
attack,  fled  into  the  city.  The  English  pursued  with 
the  eagerness  of  anticipated  victory,  broke  down  the 
slight  walls  9,  and  entered,  conflicting  promiscuously 
with  their  enemies  ;  but,  having  abandoned  the  great 
advantage  of  their  superior  discipline,  the  English 
rushed  only  to  destruction.  No  nation  could  hope 
to  excel  the  Northmen  in  personal  intrepidity  or 
manual  dexterity ;  from  their  childhood  they  were 
exercised  in  single  combat  and  disorderly  warfare  ; 
the  disunited  Northumbrians  were  therefore  cut  down 
with  irremediable  slaughter.  Osbert  and  Ella,  their 
chiefs,  and  most  of  their  army,  perished.10  The  sons 
of  Kagnar  inflicted  a  cruel  and  inhuman  retaliation 
on  Ella,  for  their  father's  sufferings.  They  divided 
his  back,  spread  his  ribs  into  the  figure  of  an  eagle, 
and  agonised  his  lacerated  flesh  by  the  addition  of 
the  saline  stimulant.11 

After  this  battle,  decisive  of  the  fate  of  North- 
umbria,  it  appeared  no  more  as  an  Anglo-Saxon 
kingdom.  The  people  beyond  the  Tyne  appointed 

8  Sim.  Dun.  14.     In  this  year  Ealstan  died,  the  celebrated  bishop  and  statesman. 
Asser,  18. 

9  Asser  remarks,  that  York  had  not  at  this  period  walls  so  firm  and  stable  as  in 
the  latter  part  of  Alfred's  reign,  1 8. 

10  Asser,  18.     Sim.  Dun.  14.     The  place  where  they  fell  was  in  Bromton's  time 
called  Ellescroft.     Bromt.  803. 

"  Frag.  Isl.  Lang.  ii.  279.  Ragnar  Saga,  ib.  The  Scalld  Sigvatr.  ib.  Saxq 
Gram.  177.  This  punishment  was  often  inflicted  by  these  savage  conquerors  on 
their  enemies.  See  some  instances  in  Stephanius,  193. 

F  F    4 


440  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     Egbert  as  their  sovereign,  but  in  a  few  years  he  was 

.    lv'    .   expelled,  and  one  Eicseg  took  the  shadowy  diadem. 

867-       In   876   he  died  with  grief  at  the  distresses  of  his 

country,  and  another  Egbert  obtained  the  nominal 

honours.12     But  Ingwar  was  the  Danish  chief,  who, 

profiting   by   his    victory,    assumed   the    sceptre   of 

Northumbria  from  the  Humber  to  the  Tyne.13 

A  dismal  sacrifice  had  been  offered  up  to  the  manes 
of  Ragnar,  yet  the  invaders  did  not  depart.  It  was 
soon  evident  that  their  object  was  to  conquer,  in 
order  to  occupy ;  desolation  followed  their  victories, 
because  Northmen  could  not  move  to  battle  without 
it ;  but  while  plunder  was  the  concomitant  of  their 
march,  dominion  became  the  passion  of  their  chiefs. 
Alfred's  The  country  was  affected  by  a  great  dearth  this 

marriage,  year,  which  the  presence  of  such  enemies  must  have 
enhanced.  Alfred  had  now  reached  his  nineteenth 
year ;  he  was  raised  by  his  brother  to  an  inferior 
participation  of  the  regal  dignity,  and  he  married 
Ealswitha,  the  daughter  of  a  Mercian  nobleman.14 
The  earnestness  with  which  Alfred  in  his  Boetius 
speaks  of  conjugal  affection  implies  that  this  union 
contributed  greatly  to  his  felicity. 

The  Northmen  having  resolved  on  their  plans  of 
occupation  and  conquest,  began  to  separate  into 
divisions.  One  body  rebuilt  York,  cultivated  the 
country  round  it,  and  continued  to  colonise  it.15  It 
may  be  presumed  that  Ingwar  headed  these.  Other 
bands  devoted^  themselves  to  promote  the  ambition 

12  Sim.  Dun.  14.     Matt.  West.  326,  327,  328.     Leland's  Collect,  ii.  p.  373. 

13  The  language  of  the  Northern  writers  is,  that  Ivar  obtained  that  part  of  Eng- 
land which  his  ancestors  had  possessed.     Ragnar  Saga,  in  Torfaeus  Series  Dan. 
Olaff  Tryggv.     Saga,  ib.  375.     This  adds  that  he  reigned  a  long  while,  and  died 
without  issue,  376.     So  Frag.  Isl.     Lang.  ii.  279. 

11  Ethelred,  surnamed  the  Large.  The  mother  of  Alfred's  queen  was  Eadburh, 
of  the  family  of  the  Mercian  kings.  Asser  frequently  saw  her  before  her  death, 
and  calls  her  a  venerable  woman.  Her  daughter's  merit  as  a  wife  leads  us  to  infer 
the  excellence  and  careful  nurture  of  the  mother,  19. 

15  Sim.  Dun.  Vita  St.  Cuthberti,  71. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  441 

of  those  chieftains  who  also  aspired  to  royal  settle-     CHAP. 
merits.  .    VL    . 

This  army  passed  the  Humber  into  Mercia,  and  868- 
established  themselves  at  Nottingham  16,  where  they 
wintered.  Alarmed  by  their  approach,  Burrhed,  the 
king,  and  his  nobles,  sent  an  urgent  embassy  to  West 
Saxony  for  assistance.  Ethelred,  with  judicious 
policy,  hastened  to  his  wishes.  He  joined  the  Mercian 
with  Alfred  and  the  whole  force  of  his  dominions ; 
and  their  united  armies  inarched  towards  the  frontier 
through  which  the  invaders  had  penetrated. 

They  found  the  Northmen  in  possession  of  Notting- 
ham ;  the  Danes  discerned  the  great  superiority  of  the 
allied  armies,  and  remained  within  the  strong  walls 
and  castle  of  the  town.17  The  Anglo-Saxons  were 
incapable  of  breaking  through  these  fortifications, 
and  their  mutual  respect,  after  an  ineffectual  struggle, 
occasioned  a  pacification,  advantageous  only  to  the 
Danes.  The  invaders  were  to  retreat  to  York,  and 
the  kings  of  Wessex,  satisfied  with  having  delivered 
Mercia,  and  not  discerning  the  danger  of  suffering 
the  Northmen  to  remain  in  any  part  of  the  island, 
returned  home.18 

The  Northmen  retired  to  York  with  great  booty. 19 
In  this  year  two  of  the  most  terrible  calamities  to 
mankind  occurred,  a  great  famine,  and  its  inevitable 
attendant,  a  mortality  of  cattle,  and  of  the  human 
race.20  The  general  misery  presented  no  temptations 

18  Its  British  name  was  Tiguo  Cobauc,  the  house  of  caves,  Asser,  19.  Ty,  is  a 
house  in  Welsh  now ;  and  cwb,  a  concavity.  In  the  charter  of  868,  it  is  called 
Snothryngham,  the  house  of  Snothryng ;  which  in  the  days  of  Ingulf  had  become 
changed  to  Nothingham,  p.  18, 19. 

17  Pagani  munitione  fortissimorum  murorum  et  areis  validissimae  confidentes. 
Ingulf,  20.     Burrhed,  in  a  charter  to  Croyland,  dated  Aug.  1.  868,  states  himself 
to  have  made  it  at  Snothryngham  before  his  brother's  friends,  and  all  his  people 
assembled  to  besiege  the  pagans. 

18  Asser,  20.,  mentions  no  conflict ;  the  Saxon  Chronicle  asserts,  that  an  attack 
was  made  on  the  entrenchments,  but  disgraces  the  Anglo-Saxons,  by  adding,  that 
it  was  not  severe,  p.  79.     The  monk  of  Croyland  praises  the  young  earl  Algar,  for 
his  prowess  in  the  affair,  p.  18. 

19  Ingulf,  18—20.  ."  Asser,  20. 


442  HISTORY    OE    THE 

BOOK     to  the  rapacity  of  the  Northmen,  and  they  remained 

>  a  year  in  their  Yorkshire  stations. 21 

87o.  When  spring  arrived,  they  threw  off  all  disguise, 

and  signalised  this  fourth  year  of  their  residence  in 
England  by  a  series  of  hostilities  the  most  fatal,  and 
of  ravages  the  most  cruel.  They  embarked  on  the 
Humber,  and  sailing  to  Lincolnshire,  landed  at  Hum- 
berstan  in  Lindesey.22  From  this  period,  language 
cannot  describe  their  devastations.  It  can  only  re- 
peat the  words  plunder,  murder,  rape,  famine,  and 
distress.  It  can  only  enumerate  towns,  villages, 
churches  and  monasteries,  harvests  and  libraries, 
ransacked  and  burnt.  But  by  the  incessant  repeti- 
tion, the  horrors  are  diminished ;  and  we  read,  with- 
out emotion,  the  narration  of  deeds  which  rent  the 
hearts  of  thousands  with  anguish,  and  inflicted 
wounds  on  human  happiness  and  human  improve- 
ment, which  ages  with  difficulty  healed.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  general  statements,  which  glide  as  un- 
impressively over  the  mind  as  the  arrow  upon  ice,  it 
may  be  preferable  to  select  a  few  incidents,  to  imply 
those  scenes  of  desolation,  which,  when  stated  in  the 
aggregate,  only  confuse  and  overwhelm  the  sensibility 
of  our  perception. 

After  destroying  the  monastery,  and  slaying  all 
the  monks  of  the  then  much  admired  abbey  of 
Bardeney,  they  employed  the  summer  in  desolating 
the  country  around  with  sword  and  fire. 23  About 
Michaelmas  they  passed  the  Witham,  and  entered 
the  district  of  Kesteven  with24  the  same  dismal 
ministers  of  fate.  The  sovereign  of  the  country 
made  no  effort  of  defence ;  but  a  patriotic  few  at- 

21  Sax.  Chron.  80.     Asser,  20. 

22  Lindesey  was  the  largest  of  the  three  parts  into  which  the  county  of  Lincoln 
was  anciently  divided. 

23  Ingulf,  20. 

24  Kesteven  was  another  of  the  three  districts  into  which  Lincolnshire  was 
anciently  divided. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  443 

tempted  to  procure  for  themselves  and  the  rest,  that     CHAP. 
protection  which  their  government  did  not  impart.        .    VL    . 

The  brave  earl  Algar,  in  September,  drew  out  all  87°- 
the  youth  of  Hoiland 25 ;  his  two  seneschals,  Wibert 
and  Leofric,  whose  names  the  aged  rustics  that  sur- 
vived attached,  with  grateful  memory,  to  their  pos- 
sessions, which  they  called  Wiberton  and  Lefrink- 
ton,  assembled  from  Deeping,  Langtoft,  and  Boston, 
300  valiant  and  well  appointed  men  ;  200  more  joined 
him  from  the  Croyland  monastery.  They  were  com- 
posed chiefly  of  fugitives,  and  were  led  by  Tolius, 
who  had  assumed  the  cowl ;  but  who,  previous  to  his 
entering  the  sacred  profession,  had  been  celebrated 
for  his  military  character.  Morcard,  lord  of  Brunne, 
added  his  family,  who  were  undaunted  and  numerous. 
Osgot,  the  sheriff  of  Lincoln,  a  courageous  and  for- 
midable veteran,  collected  500  more  from  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  county.  These  generous  patriots  united 
in  Kesteven,  with  the  daring  hope  of  checking,  by 
their  valour,  the  progress  of  the  ferocious  invaders. 

On  the  feast  of  St.  Maurice,  they  attacked  the  ad- 
vanced bands  of  the  Northmen  with  such  auspicious 
bravery,  that  they  slew  three  of  their  kings,  and 
many  of  the  soldiers.  They  chased  the  rest  to  the 
gates  of  their  entrenchments,  and,  notwithstanding  a 
fierce  resistance,  they  assailed  these,  till  the  advance 
of  night  compelled  the  valiant  earl  to  call  off  his 
noble  army.26 

With  an  unpropitious  celerity,  the  other  kings  of 
the  Northmen,  who  had  spread  themselves  over  the 
country  to  plunder  it,  Godrun,  Bacseg,  Oskitul,  Half- 

25  Holland  or  Holland ;  the  southern  division  of  Lincolnshire,  which  extended 
from  the  Witham  to  the  Nine.     Like  the  Batavian  Holland,  it  was  so  moist,  that 
the  surface  shook  if  stamped  upon,  and  the  print  of  the  feet  remained  on  it.     It 
was  composed  of  two  parts,  the  lower  and  the  upper.     The  lower  was  full  of  im- 
passable marshes  ;  huge  banks  preserved  it  from  the  ocean.     Camd.  459. 

26  Ingulf,  20.     Chron.  St.  Petri  de  Burgo,  16.     The  place  where  these  three 
kings  fell  obtained  the  name  of  Trekyngham,  or  the  three  kings'  home.     It  was 
before  named  Lacundon.     Ing.  21. 


444  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     den,  and  Amond,  together  with  Frena,  Ingwar,  Ubbo, 

.    IV'    .   and  the  two  Sidrocs,  hastened,  during  the  night,  to 

87°-       re-unite  their  bands  in  the  camp.    An  immense  booty, 

and  a  numerous  multitude  of  women  and  children, 

their  spoil,  accompanied  them. 

The  news  of  their  unfortunate  arrival  reached  the 
English  stations,  and  produced  a  lamentable  effect; 
for  a  large  part  of  the  small  army,  affrighted  by  the 
vast  disproportion  of  numbers  which  in  the  ensuing 
morn  they  must  encounter,  fled  during  the  darkness 
of  the  night.  This  desertion  might  have  inspired  and 
justified  a  general  flight;  but  the  rest,  as  though 
they  had  felt  that  their  post  was  the  Thermopylae  of 
England,  with  generous  magnanimity  and  religious 
solemnity,  prepared  themselves  to  perish  for  their 
country  and  their  faith. 

The  brave  Algar  managed  his  diminished  force 
with  the  wisest  economy,  and  with  soldierly  judg- 
ment. He  selected  the  valiant  Tolius,  and  500  in- 
trepid followers,  for  the  post  of  the  greatest  danger, 
and  therefore  placed  them  on  his  right.  Morcard, 
the  lord  of  Brunne,  and  his  companions  in  arms,  he 
stationed  with  them.  On  the  left  of  his  array,  Osgot, 
the  illustrious  sheriff,  with  his  500  soldiers,  took  his 
allotted  post  with  Harding  of  Rehale,  and  the  young 
and  impetuous  citizens  of  Stamford.  Algar  himself, 
with  his  seneschals,  chose  the  centre,  that  they  might 
be  ready  to  aid  either  division  as  exigency  required. 

The  Northmen,  in  the  first  dawn  of  light,  buried 
their  three  kings  in  the  spot  thence  called  Trekyng- 
ham,  and  leaving  two  other  of  their  royal  leaders, 
with  four  jarls  to  guard  their  camp  and  captives, 
they  moved  forwards  with  four  kings  and  eight  jarls, 
burning  with  fury  for  the  disgrace  of  their  friends 
on  the  preceding  day. 

The  English,  from  their  small  number,  contracted 
themselves  into  a  wedge ;  against  the  impetus  of  the 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  445 

Northern  darts,  they  presented  an  impenetrable  arch     CHAP. 
of  shields,  and  they  repelled  the  violence  of  the  horse  .    VL    . 
by  a  dense  arrangement  of  their  spears.     Lessoned      87°- 
by   their   intelligent  commanders,   they   maintained 
their  station  immovable  the  whole  day. 

Evening  advanced,  and  their  unconquered  valour 
had  kept  off  enemies,  whose  numbers  had  menaced 
them  with  inevitable  ruin.  The  Northmen  had  spent 
their  darts  in  vain.  Their  horsemen  were  wearied 
with  the  ineffectual  toil  of  the  day ;  and  their  whole 
army,  despairing  of  success,  in  feigned  confusion 
withdrew.  Elated  at  the  sight  of  the  retreating  foe, 
the  English,  quitting  their  array,  sprang  forwards  to 
complete  their  conquest.  In  vain  their  hoary  leaders 
expostulated,  in  vain  proclaimed  ruin  if  they  sepa- 
rated. Intoxicated  with  the  prospect  of  unhoped 
success,  they  forgot  that  it  was  the  skill  of  their 
commanders  which,  more  than  their  own  bravery, 
had  protected  them.  They  forgot  the  fewness  of 
their  numbers,  and  the  yet  immense  superiority  of 
their  foes.  They  saw  flight,  and  they  thought  only 
of  victory.  Dispersed  in  their  eager  pursuit,  they 
displayed  to  the  Northern  chiefs  a  certain  means  of 
conquest.  Suddenly  the  pagans  rallied  in  every 
part,  and  rushing  upon  the  scattered  English,  sur- 
rounded them  on  every  side.  It  was  then  they  saw 
what  fatal  rashness  had  involved  in  equal  ruin  their 
country  and  themselves.  They  had  almost  rescued 
England  from  destruction  by  their  valour  and  con- 
duct ;  and  now,  by  a  moment's  folly,  all  their  advan- 
tages were  lost.  For  a  while,  Algar,  the  undaunted 
earl,  and  the  self-devoting  Tolius,  with  the  other  chiefs, 
discreet  even  in  the  midst  of  approaching  ruin,  by 
gaining  a  little  eminence,  protracted  their  fate.  But 
as  the  dispersed  English  could  not  be  re-united,  as 
the  dissolved  arrangement  could  not  be  re-composed, 
the  valour  and  skill  of  the  magnanimous  leaders, 


446  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     however  exalted  and  unexcelled,  could  only  serve  to 
v       — <   multiply  the  victims  of  the  day.     The  possibility  of 
87°-       victory  had  vanished.     The  six  chiefs  beheld  their 
followers  falling  fast  around ;  death  approached  them- 
selves.    Mounting  upon  the  bodies  of  their  friends, 
they   returned  blow  for   blow,    till,    fainting   under 
innumerable  wounds,  they  expired  upon  the  corpses 
of  their  too  impetuous  companions.  27 

A  few  youths  of  Sutton  and  Gedeney  threw  their 
arms  into  the  neighbouring  wood,  and,  escaping  with 
difficulty  in  the  following  night,  they  communicated 
the  fatal  catastrophe  to  the  monastery  of  Croyland 28, 
while  its  abbot  and  the  society  were  performing 
matins.  The  dismal  tidings  threw  terror  into  every 
breast ;  all  foreboded  that  the  next  stroke  of  calamity 
would  fall  on  them.  The  abbot,  retaining  with  him 
the  aged  monks  and  a  few  infants,  sent  away  the 
youthful  and  the  strong,  with  their  relics,  jewels,  and 
charters,  to  hide  themselves  in  the  nearest  marshes, 
till  the  demons  of  slaughter  had  passed  by.  With 
anxious  haste  they  loaded  a  boat  with  their  treasures. 
They  threw  their  domestic  property  into  the  waters, 
tut  as  part  of  the  table  of  the  great  altar,  plated  with 
gold,  rose  above  the  waves,  they  drew  it  out,  and  re- 
placed it  in  the  abbey. 

The  flames  of  the  villages  in  Kesteven  now  gra- 
dually spread  towards  them,  and  the  clamours  of 
the  fierce  pagans  drew  nearer.  Alarmed,  they  re- 
sumed their  boat,  and  reached  the  wood  of  Ancarig 
near  the  south  of  the  island.29  Here,  with  Toretus, 

27  This  interesting  narrative  is  in  Ingulf,  20,  21. 

28  Croyland  was  one  of  the  islands  lying  in  that  tract  of  the  Eastern  waters, 
which,  rising  from  the  middle  of  the  country,  and  spreading  above  100  miles,  pre- 
cipitated themselves  into  the  sea  with  many  great  rivers.     Malm.  Gest.  Pont.  292. 

29  Or  Thorn-ey,  the  island  of  Thorns.     There  was  a  monastery  here.     Malms- 
bury  exhibits  it  as  the  picture  of  a  paradise  ;  amidst  the  marshes  abounding  in 
trees,  was  a  fine  green  plain,  as  smooth  and  level  as  a  stream  ;  every  part  was  cul- 
tivated ;  here  apple-trees  arose,  there  vines  crept  along  the  fields,  or  twined  round 
poles.     Yet  he  adds  one  trait  so  expressive  of  lonesomeness,  as  to  throw  a  gloom 
over  the  charms  of  nature  :  "  When  a  man  comes  he  is  applauded  like  an  angeL" 
De  Gest.  Pont.  294. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  447 

the  anchorite,  and  his  fraternity,  they  remained  four     CHAP. 
days.  > 

The  abbot,  and  they  who  were  too  young  or  too 
old  to  fly,  put  on  their  sacred  vestments,  and  as- 
sembled in  the  choir,  performing  their  mass  and 
singing  all  the  Psalter,  with  the  faint  hope,  that  un- 
resisting age  and  harmless  childhood  would  disarm 
ferocity  of  its  cruelty.  Soon  a  furious  torrent  of 
howling  barbarians  poured  in,  exulting  to  iind 
Christian  priests  to  massacre.  The  venerable  abbot 
was  hewed  down  at  the  altar  by  the  cruel  0 skit ul, 
and  the  attendant  ministers  were  beheaded  after  him. 
The  old  men  and  children,  who  ran  affrighted  from 
the  choir,  were  seized  and  tortured,  to  discover  the 
treasure  of  the  place.  The  prior  suffered  in  the 
vestry,  the  subprior  in  the  refectory;  every  part  of 
the  sacred  edifice  was  stained  with  blood.  One  child 
only,  of  ten  years  of  age,  whose  beautiful  counte- 
nance happened  to  interest  the  younger  Sidroc30,  was 
permitted  to  survive.  The  spoilers  broke  down  all 
the  tombs  and  monuments,  with  the  avaricious  hope 
of  discovering  treasures  ;  and,  on  the  third  day,  they 
committed  the  superb  edifice  to  the  flames. 

With  a  great  plunder  of  cattle,  the  insatiate  bar- 
barians marched  the  next  day  to  Peterborough.31 
There  stood  a  monastery,  the  glory  of  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  age,  and  whose  library  was  a  large 
repository  of  books,  which  the  anxious  labours  of 
two  centuries  had  collected.  But  arts  and  science 

30  One  of  the  Sidrocs  had  already  distinguished  himself  for  his  aggressions  on 
France.     In  853,  and  855,  he  entered  the  Seine  with  much  successful  depredation. 
Chron.  Fontanel.  Bouquet,  7.  p.  40 — 43. 

31  This  also  stands  in  the  land  of  the  Girvii  or  Fenmen,  who  occupied  those 
immense  marshes,  containing  millions  of  acres,  where  the  counties  of  Lincoln, 
Cambridge,  Huntingdon,  and  Northampton  meet.     Camd.  408.     The  marshes  are 
described  by  Hugo  Candidus  as  furnishing  wood  and   turf  for  fire,  hay  for  cattle, 
reeds  for  thatching,  and  fish  and  water-fowl  for  subsistence.     Peterborough  monas- 
tery was  in  the  best  portion.      On  one  side  was  a  range  of  water,  on  the  other  woods 
and  a  cultivated  country.     It  was  accessible  on  all  sides  but  the  east,  where  a  boat 
was  requisite. 


448  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  were  toys  not  worthy  even  to  amuse  their  women, 
.  Iy>  _.  in  the  estimation  of  these  invaders.  They  assailed 
87o.  the  gates  and  fastenings,  and  with  their  archers  and 
machines  attacked  the  walls.  The  monks  resisted 
with  all  their  means  of  annoyance.  A  brother  of 
Ubbo  was  carried  off  to  his  tent,  wounded  by  the 
blow  of  a  stone.  This  incident  added  a  new  incen- 
tive to  the  cruel  fury  of  the  Northmen.  They  burst 
in  at  the  second  assault  under  Ubbo.  He  slew  the 
hoary  abbot,  and  all  the  monks,  with  his  own  weapon. 
Every  other  inhabitant  was  slaughtered  without 
mercy  by  his  followers.  One  man  only  had  a  gleam 
of  humanity.  Sidroc  cautioned  the  little  boy,  whom 
he  had  saved  from  Croyland,  to  keep  out  of  the  way 
of  Ubbo.  The  immense  booty  which  they  were  gorged 
with  did  not  mitigate  their  love  of  ruin.  The  much 
admired  monastery,  and  its  valuable  and  scarcely 
reparable  literary  treasures,  were  soon  wrapt  in  fire. 
For  fifteen  days  the  conflagration  continued. 

The  Northmen,  turning  to  the  south,  advanced  to 
Huntingdon.  The  two  earls  Sidroc  were  appointed 
to  guard  the  rear  and  the  baggage  over  the  rivers. 
As  they  were  passing  the  Nen32,  after  the  rest  of  the 
army,  two  cars,  laden  with  vast  wealth  and  property, 
with  all  the  cattle  drawing  them,  were  overturned,  at 
the  left  of  the  stone  bridge,  into  a  fathomless  whirl- 
pool. While  all  the  attendants  of  the  younger  Sidroc 
were  employed  in  recovering  what  was  possible  of 
the  loss,  the  child  of  Croyland  ran  into  the  nearest 
wood,  and,  walking  all  night,  he  beheld  the  smoking 
ruins  of  his  monastery  at  the  dawn. 

He  found  that  the  monks  had  returned  from  An- 
carig  the  day  before,  and  were  laboriously  toiling  to 
extinguish  the  flames,  which  yet  raged  in  various 


82  This  river  runs  through  Northampton,  making  many  reaches  by  the  winding 
of  its  banks.     Camden  calls  it  a  very  noble  river,  p.  430. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  449 

divisions  of  the  monastery.  When  they  heard  from  CHAP 
the  infant  the  fate  of  their  superior  and  elder  brethren,  .  VL 
unconquerable  sorrow  suspended  their  exertions,  till  87°- 
wearied  nature  compelled  a  remission  of  their  grief. 
They  collected  such  as  they  could  find  of  the  muti- 
lated and  half-consumed  bodies,  and  buried  them 
with  sympathetic  reverence.  Having  repaired  part 
of  the  ruins,  they  chose  another  abbot ;  when  the 
hermits  of  Ancarig  came  to  implore  their  charitable 
care  for  the  bodies  at  Peterborough,  which  the 
animals  of  prey  were  violating.  A  deputation  of 
monks  was  sent,  who  found  the  corpses,  and  interred 
them  in  one  large  grave,  with  the  abbot  at  the  sum- 
mit. A  stony  pyramid  covered  his  remains,  round 
which  were  afterwards  engraven  their  images  in 
memorial  of  the  catastrophe.33 

Spreading  devastation  and  murder  around  them  as 
they  marched,  the  Northmen  proceeded  into  Cam- 
bridgeshire. Ely  and  its  first  Christian  church  and 
monastery,  with  the  heroic  nuns,  who  mutilated  their 
faces  to  preserve  their  honour,  were  destroyed  by 
the  ruthless  enemy ;  and  many  other  places  were 
desolated. 

The   sanguinary   invaders   went    afterwards   into  invasion  of 
East    Anglia.34     The   throne   of  this   kingdom   was  EastAn*lia- 
occupied  by  Edmund,   a   man   praised   for  his  affa- 
bility, his  gentleness,  and  humility.     He  may  have 
merited  all  the  lavish  encomiums  which  he  has  re- 
ceived for  the  milder  virtues ;  but  he  was  deficient 
in  those  manly  energies  whose  vigorous  activity  would 

33  Ingulf,  22 — 24.     Chron.  Petrib.  18 — 20. 

34  Abbo  Floriacensis,  who  wrote  in  the  tenth  century,  describes  East  Anglia  as 
nearly  environed  with  waters ;  immense  marshes,  a  hundred  miles  in  extent,  were 
on  the  north ;  the  ocean  on  the  east  and  south.     On  the  west  it  was  protected 
from  the  irruptions  of  the  other  members  of  the  octarchy,  by  a  mound  of  earth  like 
a  lofty  wall.     Its  soil  was  fertile  and  pleasant ;  it  was  full  of  lakes  two  or  three 
miles  in  space  ;  its  marshes  were  peopled  with  monks.     MSS.  Cott.  Library.  Tib. 
B.  ii.  p.  3. 

VOL.  I.  G  G 


450  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     have  met  the  storm  in  its  fury,   and  might  have  dis- 
.    *y*    .  armed  it  of  its  terrors.35 

87°-  Ingwar,  separating  from  Ubbo,  proceeded  to  the 

place  where  Edmund  resided.  The  picture  given  us 
of  his  route  represents  a  burning  country,  the  high- 
ways strewed  with  the  victims  of  massacre,  violated 
women,  the  husband  expiring  on  his  own  threshold 
near  his  wife,  and  the  infant  torn  from  its  mother's 
bosom,  and  slain  before  her  eyes  to  increase  her 
screams.36  Ingwar  had  heard  a  favourable  account 
of  Edmund's  warlike  abilities,  and  by  a  rapid  move- 
ment endeavoured,  according  to  the  usual  plan  of  the 
Northmen37,  to  surprise  the  king,  before  he  could 
present  an  armed  country  to  repel  him.  Edmund, 
though  horrors  had  for  some  time  been  raging  round 
his  frontiers,  was  roused  to  no  preparations,  had 
meditated  no  warfare.  He  was  dwelling  quietly  in  a 
village  near  Hagilsdun38,  when  the  active  Dane  ap- 
peared near  him,  and  he  was  taken  completely  un- 
awares. 

His  earl,  Ulfketul,  had  made  one  effort  to  save 
East  Anglia,  but  it  failed.  His  army  was  decisively 
beaten  at  Thetford  with  profuse  slaughter  ;  and  this 
calamity  deeply  wounded  the  mind  of  Edmund,  who 
did  not  reflect,  that  to  resist  the  Danes  mj 


35  One  of  the  fullest  accounts  of  the  fate  of  Edmund,  is  in  the  little  book  of 
Abbo.     He  addresses  it  to  the  famous  Dunstan,  from  whom  he  had  the  particulars 
he  narrates.     He  intimates  that  Dunstan  used  to  repeat  them  with  eyes  moist  with 
tears,  and  had  learnt  them  from  an  old  soldier  of  Edmund's,  who  simply  and  faith- 
fully recounted  them  upon  his  oath  to  the  illustrious  Athelstan.     Abbo's  treatise 
has  been  printed  abroad  in  Acta  Sanctorum.     Cologne,  vol.  vi.  p.  465  —  472.  ed. 
1575. 

36  "  Maritus  cum  conjuge  aut  mortuus  aut  moribundus  jacebat  in  limine  ;  infans 
raptus  a  matris  uberibus,  ut  major  esset  ejulatus,  trucidabatur  coram  maternis  ob- 
tutibus."     Abbo,  MS.  p.  3.     This  author  was  so  well  acquainted  with  Virgil  and 
Horace  as  to  cite  them  in  his  little  work. 

37  Abbo  remarks  of  the  Danish  nation,  "  cum  semper  studeat  rapto  vivere,  nun- 
quam  tamen  indicta  pugna  palam  contendit  cum  hoste,  nisi  preventa  insidiis,  ablata 
spe  ad  portus  navium  remeandi."     MS.  p.  6. 

38  The  Hill  of  Eagles.     It  is  now,  says  Bromton,  805,  called  Hoxne.     It  is  upon 
the  Waveney,  a  little  river  dividing  part  of  Norfolk  from  Suffolk.     It  is  not  far 
from  Diss  in  Norfolk.     Camden  names  it  Hoxon,  p.  375. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  45 1 

was  not  merely  to  uphold  his  own  domination,  but  to 
protect  his  people  from  the  most  fatal  rum?r~ 

As  Ingwar  drew  nigh  to  the  royal  residence,  he 
sent  one  of  his  countrymen  to  the  king  with  a  haughty 
command,  to  divide  his  treasures,  submit  to  his  reli- 
gion, and  reign  in  subjection  to  his  will.  "  And  who 
are  you  that  should  dare  to  withstand  our  power  ? 
The  storm  of  the  ocean  deters  not  our  proposed 
enterprise,  but  serves  us  instead  of  oars.  Neither 
the  loud  roarings  of  the  sky,  nor  its  darting  light- 
nings have  ever  injured  us.  Submit,  then,  with  your 
subjects,  to  a  master  to  whom  even  the  elements  are 
subservient."  40 

On  receiving  this  imperious  message,  Edmund  held 
counsel  with  one  of  his  bishops  who  enjoyed  his  con- 
fidence. The  ecclesiastic,  apprehensive  of  the  king's 
safety,  exhorted  his  compliance.  A  dialogue  ensued, 
in  which  Edmund  displayed  the  sensibility  of  an 
amiable  mind,  but  not  those  active  talents  which 
would  have  given  safety  to  his  people.  He  pitied 
his  unhappy  subjects,  groaning  under  every  evil 
which  a  barbarous  enemy  could  inflict,  and  wished 
his  death  could  restore  them.  When  the  bishop  re- 
presented to  him  the  ravages  which  the  Northmen 
had  perpetrated,  and  the  danger  which  impended  on 
himself,  and  advised  his  flight,  the  mild-hearted  king 
exclaimed,  "  I  desire  not  to  survive  my  rlp^r^anj^ 

faithful^  subjects.  Why  do  you  suggest  to  me  the 
shame  of  abandoning  myfdlow-  soldiers  ?  I  have 
always  shunned  the"dTsgrace  of  reproach,  and  espe- 
cially of  cowardly  abandoning  my  knights ;  because 
I  feel  it  nobler  to  die  for  my  country  than  to  forsake 

39  Ingulf,  24.      Asser,  20.     Matt.  West.  318. 

*•  "  Et  quis  tu,  ut  tantse  potentiae  insolenter  audeas  contradicere  ?  Mario* 
tempestatis  procella  nostris  servit  remigiis,  nee  movet  a  preposito  directae  inten- 
tionis.  — Quibus  nee  ingens  mugitus  coeli,  nee  crebri  jactus  fulminum  unquam 
hocuerunt.  Esto  itaque,  cum  tuis  omnibus,  sub  hoc  imperatore  maximo  cui  famu- 
lantur  elementa."  Abbo,  MS. 

««  i 


452  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  it ;  and  shall  I  now  be  a  voluntary  recreant,  when 
«_^J — .  the  loss  of  those  I  loved  makes  even  the  light  of 
87°-  heaven  tedious  to  me  ?  "41  The  Danish  envoy  was 
then  called  in,  and  Edmund  addressed  him  with  an 
energy  that  ought  to  have  anticipated  such  a  crisis, 
and  to  have  influenced  his  actions.  "  Stained  as  you 
are  with  the  blood  of  my  people,  you  deserve  death ; 
but  I  will  imitate  the  example  of  him  I  venerate,  and 
not  pollute  my  hands  with  your  blood.  Tell  your 
commander,  I  am  neither  terrified  by  his  threats, 
nor  deluded  by  his  promises.  Let  his  boundless 
cupidity,  which  no  plunder  can  satiate,  take  and 
consume  my  treasures.  You  may  destroy  this  frail 
and  falling  body,  like  a  despised  vessel ;  but  know, 
that  the  freedom  of  my  mind  shall  never,  for  an 
instant,  bow  before  him.  It  is  more  honourable  to 
defend  our  liberties  with  our  lives  than  to  beg  mercy 
with  our  tears.  Death  is  preferable  to  servility. 
Hence  !  my  spirit  shall  fly  to  heaven  from  its  prison, 
contaminated  by  no  degrading  submission.  How 
can  you  allure  me  by  the  hope  of  retained  power,  as ; 
if  I  could  desire  a  kingdom,  where  its  population  has 
been  so  destroyed  ;  or  a  few  subjects  robbed  of  every 
thing  that  makes  life  valuable !  "42 

This  passive  fortitude,  and  these  irritating  re- 
proaches, only  goaded  the  resentment  of  the  Dane, 
whose  rapid  hostilities  had  now  made  active  warfare 
useless.  The  king  was  taken  without  farther  contest. 
He  was  bound  with  close  fetters,  and  severely  beaten., 
He  was  then  dragged  to  a  tree,  tied  to  its  trunk,  and 
lacerated  with  whips.  Even  these  sufferings  could, 
not  appease  the  tigers  of  the  Baltic.  They  aimed 
their  arrows  at  his  body  with  contending  dexterity. 
At  length  Ingwar,  enraged  at  his  firmness  and  piety, 

41  Abbo,  MS. 

42  This  is  a  literal  translation  of  his  speech  to  the  messenger  of  Ingwar,  as  given 
by  Abbo,  on  the  authority  mentioned  in  note  35. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  453 

closed    the    barbarous    scene    by     cutting    off    his     CHAP. 
head.43  _^_ 

Thus  terminated  another  kingdom  of  the  Anglo-  87(>- 
Saxon  octarchy,  which,  as  it  had  been  baneful  to  the 
happiness  of  the  island  by  occasioning  incessant  war- 
fare, was  now  become  wholly  incompatible  with?  the 
security  of  every  individual,  while  the  states  of  the 
continent  were  enlarging,  an^L  the  North  was  pouring 
its  throngs  around.  By  annihilating  with  such  total 
extirpation  all  the  rival  dynasties,  and  the  prejudices 
which  supported  them,  the  Danes  unconsciously  made 
some  atonement  for  the  calamities  they  diffused. 
They  harassed  the  Anglo-Saxons  into  national  fra- 
ternity, and  combined  contending  sceptres  into  one 
well-regulated  monarchy. 

The  Northmen  placed  Godrun,  one  of  their  kings, 
over  East-Anglia;  while  the  brother  of  Edmund, 
terrified  at  the  miseries  of  the  day,  fled  into  Dorset, 
and  there  lived  the  life  of  a  hermit  on  bread  and 
water.44 

Having  resolved  to  attempt  the  subjugation  of  the 
island,  the  Northmen  governed  their  career  with 
policy  as  distinguished  as  their  cruelty.  They  had 
attacked  Mercia,  and  they  beheld  the  banners  of  West 
Saxony  waving  on  its  frontiers.  If  they  assaulted 
Wessex,  would  the  Mercian  sword  be  there  ?  Their 
experience  proved  that  they  calculated  well  on  the 
petty  policy  of  that  degraded  kingdom.  Although 
the  crown  of  Mercia  trembled  in  every  battle  in 
Wessex ;  though  it  was  impossible  for  Ethelred  to  be 
conquered,  and  for  Burrhed  to  be  secure,  yet  the 
protecting  succour  which  Mercia  had  received  from 

43  The  20th  of  November  was  the  day  of  his  catastrophe,  which  was  so  interest- 
ing, that  the  Islander,  Ara  Frode,  makes  it  one  of  the  steps  of  his  chronology,  p.  7. 
He  was  canonised.     His  memory  was  much  venerated,  and  his  name  still  exists  in 
our  calendars. 

44  Malmsb.  250.     Bromton,  807. 

G  G   3 


454 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
IV. 

— — v— 
870. 


Wessex  at- 
tacked. 


the  kings  of  Wessex,  was  never  returned,  though 
common  danger  claimed  it. 

Ingwar  having  completed  the  conquest  of  East- 
Anglia,  and  permitted  his  associate,  Godrun,  to  assume 
its  sceptre,  returned  to  his  brother  Ubbo,  in  North- 
umbria.45  The  rest  of  the  invaders,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Halfden  and  Bacseg,  two  of  their  kings,  or 
sea-kings,  hastened  from  East-Anglia  to  a  direct 
invasion  of  Wessex. 

They  penetrated  from  Norfolk  unchecked  into 
Berkshire ;  they  possessed  themselves  of  Reading  as 
soon  as  they  reached  it,  and  continued  there  many 
days  unmolested. 

On  the  third  day  after  their  arrival,  their  leaders, 
with  a  powerful  body  of  cavalry,  spread  themselves 
successfully  to  pillage  ;  the  rest  dug  a  trench  between 
the  Thames  and  the  Kennet,  to  the  right  of  the  city, 
to  defend  their  encampments.  Ethelwulph,  the  earl 
of  the  county,  who  had  defeated  the  invaders  before, 
collected  the  men  of  the  vicinity,  and  exhorted  them 
to  disregard  the  superiority  of  the  foe.  His  argu- 
ment was  a  popular  one :  "  What,  though  their  army 
is  larger  than  ours,  Christ,  our  general,  is  stronger 
than  them."  His  countrymen  were  convinced  by  his 
logic ;  and,  after  a  long  combat,  the  invaders  were 
repulsed  at  Inglefield 46,  with  the  loss  of  Sidroc  the 
elder,  the  chief  who  had  so  much  afflicted  France. 

Four  days  after  this  conflict,  the  kings  of  Wessex, 
Ethelred  and  Alfred,  put  themselves  in  motion  with 
their  forces,  and  joining  the  earl  Ethelwulph,  attacked 


45  Bromton,  807.  Ethelwerd  says  of  him,  "  Ivar  died  this  year,"  p.  843.  The 
Annals  of  Ulster  state,  that  he  went  in  this  year  from  Scotland  to  Dublin  with  200 
ships,  with  great  booty,  and  a  multitude  of  English,  Welsh,  and  Pictish  prisoners. 
These  annals  place  his  death  in  872,  thus  :  "  872,  Ivar,  king  of  all  the  Northerns 
in  Ireland  and  Britain,  died,"  p.  65.  His  children,  sea-kings,  like  himself,  are  often 
mentioned  in  these  Irish  Annals. 

48  Sax.  Chron.  80.  Sim.  Dun.  125.  Asser,  21.  Inglefield  is  a  little  village 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Reading.  Camden,  142,  who,  by  a  small  mistake,  calls 
Ethelwulph  a  king  instead  of  an  earl. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  455 

the  Northmen  at  Reading.  They  destroyed  all  the 
enemies  who  were  out  of  the  citadel ;  but  those  within 
rushing  from  all  its  gates,  a  fiercer  battle  followed, 
which  ended  in  the  death  of  Ethelwulph,  and  the 
retreat  of  the  West  Saxons.47 

Taken  unawares  by  the  invasion,  the  West  Saxons 
had  rushed  to  the  conflict  with  a  hasty  and  inadequate 
force.  Four  days  afterwards,  they  collected  in  a 
more  complete  and  formidable  array,  and  combated 
the  enemy  at  .ZEscesdun,  or  the  Ash-tree  Hill.48 
The  Danes  had  accumulated  all  their  strength,  and, 
with  an  attempt  at  tactical  arrangement,  they  divided 
themselves  into  two  bodies ;  one,  the  chief,  their  two 
kings  conducted;  the  other  moved  under  the  earls. 
The  English  imitated  their  array.  Ethelred  resolved 
himself  to  encounter  the  northern  kings,  and  appointed 
Alfred  to  shock  with  their  earls.  Both  armies  raised 
their  shields  into  a  tortoise-arch,  and  demanded  the 
battle. 

The  Northmen  were  first  in  the  field ;  for  Ethelred, 
either  impressed  with  that  dispiriting  belief,  which 
men  on  the  eve  of  great  conflicts  sometimes  experience, 
that  he  should  not  survive  it,  or  preparing  his  mind 
for  the  worst  event,  and  for  its  better  state,  and 
desirous  to  obtain  the  favour  of  the  Lord  of  all 
existing  worlds,  waited  to  say  his  prayers  in  his  tent, 
which  he  declared  he  would  not  leave  till  the  priest 
had  finished.  Alfred,  more  eager  for  the  fray,  and 
provoked  by  the  defying  presence  of  the  enemy,  was 
impatient  at  the  delay ;  his  indignant  courage  forgot 
the  inferiority  of  the  division  which  he  commanded ; 
he  led  up  his  troops  in  condensed  order,  and  disdained 
to  remark  that  the  crafty  Danes  were  waiting  on  an 
eminence  for  an  advantageous  conflict.49  A  solitary 

47  Sim.  Dun.  125.     Asser,  21.  *  Asser,  21. 

49  Asser  says  he  had  his  account  of  Alfred's  impetuous  alacrity  from  those  who 
saw  it,  22.     He  adds  the  phrase  "  aprino  more." 

G  G   4 


456  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     tree  marked  the  place  of  combat,  and  round  this  the 

IV 

.  nations  fought  with  frightful  clamour  and  equal 
87°-  bravery.  The  exertions  of  Alfred  were  unavailing, 
though  he  is  stated  to  have  attacked  like  the  chafed 
boar ;  he  had  been  too  precipitate.  The  English  ranks 
gave  way,  when  the  presence  of  Ethelred,  with  his 
array,  destroyed  the  inequality  of  the  combatants, 
and  reanimated  the  fainting  spirits  of  his  countrymen. 
The  long  and  dreadful  struggle  at  last  ended  in  the 
death  of  the  king  Bacseg,  of  the  younger  50  Sidroc, 
many  other  earls,  and  some  thousands  of  the  Danes, 
who  fled  in  general  rout.  The  English  chased  them 
all  night  and  the  next  day  over  the  fields  of  Ashdown 
till  they  reached  their  fortress  at  Eeading. 51  The 
slaughter  of  the  day  gave  it  a  dismal  claim  to  memory.52 

Fourteen  days  after  this,  the  Danes  collected 
strength  sufficient  to  defeat  the  kings  of  Wessex  at 
Basing.53  An  important  accession  of  allies,  newly 
arrived  from  the  North54,  increased  the  terrors  of 
this  defeat,  and  augured  new  miseries  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxons. 

The   last  invaders  joined  harmoniously  with  the 

50  Asser  and  the'printed  copy  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  place  the  deaths  of  both  the 
Sidrocs  in  this  battle,  although  the  latter  had  recorded  the  fall  of  one  in  the  preceding 
battle.     The  fine  MS.  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  in  the  Cotton  Library,  Tib.  B.  iv. 
p.  30.,  having  mentioned  the  death  of  one  Sidroc  at  Inglefield,  refers  the  death  of 
the  younger  Sidroc  only  to  this  battle  :   «anb  fchep  Sibpac  re  Seonsa,  anb  Or- 
hcapn  eopl,  anb  Fpaena  eopl,  anb  Hapalb  eopl."     This  MS.,  though  in  some  re- 
spects less  complete  than  those  which  Dr.  Gibson  edited,  is  yet  more  accurate  in 
others.     It  is  remarkably  well  written,  and  seems  very  ancient. 

51  Asser,  23,  24.     Flor.  Wig.  307.     Sax.  Chron.  81. 

52  The  place  of  this  great  battle  has  been  controverted.     Aston,  near  Walling- 
ford,  in  Berks,  has  good  claims,  because  the  Saxon  Chronicle   (as  its  editor  ob- 
served) mentions  ^scesdun,  on  another  occasion,  as  close  by  Wallingford,  p.  135. 
Dr.  Wise,  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Mead,  concerning  some  antiquities  in  Berkshire, 
printed  1738,  contends  that  the  famous  white  horse  on  the  hill  was  made  to  com- 
memorate this  victory.     He  says,  "  I  take  Escesdune  to  mean  that  ridge  of  hills 
from  Letcombe  and  thereabouts,  going  on  to  Wiltshire,  and  overlooking  the  vale 
with  the  towns  in  it     The  town  formerly  called  Ayshesdown,  is  now  called  Ash- 
bury  ;  the  old  name  is  still  preserved  hereabouts,  the  downs  being  called  by  the 
shepherds,  Ashdown  ;   and  about  a  mile  southward  from  Ashbury,  is  Ashdown 
Park,"  p.  20.     Whitaker  prefers  the  locality  of  Aston,  p.  272. 

53  Asser,  24. 

M  Quo  praelio  peracto,  de  ultramarinis  partibus  alius  paganorum  exercitus  socie- 
tati  se  adjunxit.     Asser,  24. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  457 

preceding,  because  their  object  was  the  same.     Within     CHAP. 
two  months  afterwards  the  princes  of  Wessex  sup-   t    YL    . 
ported  another  battle  with  the  recruited  confederates       87°- 
at  Merton55;  but  the  conflict,  after  many  changes  of 
victory,  was  again  unfortunate  to  the  English.    Ethel- 
red  received  a  wound  in  it,  of  which  he  died  soon 
after  Easter,  and  was  interred  at  Wimburn.56 

55  Sax.  Chron.  81.     This  position  of  Meretune  is  doubtful.     Merton  in  Surrey, 
Merden  in  Wilts,  and  Merton  in  Oxfordshire,  have  been  suggested.     I  am  induced 
to  venture  a  new  opinion,  that  it  was  Morton  in  Berks,  because  the  chronicle  of 
Mailros,  144,  places  the  battle  at  Reading;  and,  according  to  the  map,  Morton 
hundred  joins  Reading,  and  contains  both  North  Merton  and  South  Merton. 

56  Bromton,  809.     The  bishop  of  Sherborne  fell  in  this  battle.    Matt.  West.  323. 
The  Saxon  Chronicle  says,  that  he  and  many  sobpa  nienna  fell  in  it,  81,  whom 
Huntingdon   calls  multi  proceres  Angliae,  p.  349.     Ethelwerd,  the  chronicler,  in 
mentioning  Ethelred's  death,  styles  this  king  his  atavus,  p.  843.,  thus  intimating 
his  own  princely  ancestry. 


458  HISTORY    OF   THE 


CHAP.  VII. 

The  Reign  of  ALFRED,  from  his  Accession  to  his  Retirement. 

BOOK  THE  death  of  Ethelred  raised  Alfred  to  the  throne  of 
Wessex.  Some  children  of  his  elder  brother  were 
alive  \  but  the  crisis  was  too  perilous  for  the  nation 
accedes.  to  have  suffered  the  sceptre 'to  be  feebly  wielded  by  a 
juvenile  hand.  The  dangers  which  environed  the'! 
country,  excited  the  earls  and  chiefs  of  the  whole 
nation,  whom  we  may  understand  to  have  been  the 
witena-gemot,  with  the  unanimous  approbation  of 
the  country2,  to  choose  Alfred  for  the  successor,  that 
they  might  have  a  prince  who  could  give  them  the 
protection  of  his  abilities. 

It  is  intimated  that  he  hesitated3;  and,  indeed, 
every  evil  which  can  abate  human  happiness,  seemed 
to  surround  the  diadem  offered  to  Alfred.  It  was 
the  defeat  and  death  of  a  brother  which  occasioned 
his  accession.  The  victorious  enemies,  stronger  from 
their  victory,  promised  to  be  more  formidable  to 
Alfred  than  to  Ethelred.  All  the  causes  that  had 
produced  their  former  successes  were  yet  in  full 
operation,  while  the  new  sovereign's  means  of  resisting 
them  were  not  increased.  According  to  the  natural 
course  of  things  his  reign  could  not  but  be  calamitous. 
Alfred  chose  to  endure  the  threatening  contingencies, 
and  by  accepting  the  throne,  began  a  life  of  severe 

1  Alfred  in  his  will  gave  eight  manors  to  ZEthelm,  his  brother's  son,  and  three 
manors  to  Athelwold,  his  brother's  son.  He  also  gave  some  manors  to  his  cousin 
Osferth.  The  end  of  Athelwold  will  be  seen  in  Edward's  reign. 

8  Sim.  Dun.  126,  127.     Asser,  24. 

3  Asser's  expression  is,  that  he  began  to  reign  quasi  invitus,  as  if  unwillingly, 
because  he  thought  that  unless  he  was  supported  by  the  divine  assistance,  he  could 
not  resist  such  enemies.  Vita  Alfredi,  p.  24. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  459 

military  labour,  of  continual  difficulty,  and  of  great      CIIM-. 
mental   anxiety,    shaded   for    some    time    with    the   .    vn'    . 
deepest  gloom  of  misfortune  and  personal  degrada-       871- 
tion. 

The  fiercest  and  most  destructive  succession  of 
conflicts  which  ever  saddened  a  year  of  human  ex- 
istence, distinguished  that  of  Alfred's  accession  with 
peculiar  misery.  With  their  own  population,  the 
West  Saxons  maintained  eight  pitched  battles  against 
the  Northmen,  besides  innumerable  skirmishes  by 
day  and  night,  with  which  the  nobles  and  royal 
officers  endeavoured  to  check  their  depredations. 
Many  thousands  of  the  invaders  fell,  but  new  fleets 
of  adventurers  were  perpetually  shading  the  German 
Ocean  with  their  armaments,  who  supplied  the  havoc 
caused  by  the  West  Saxon  swords.4  It  was  now  be- 
come a  conflict  between  the  Northman  nations  and 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  for  the  conquest  and  occupation  of 
England,  like  that  of  their  own  ancestors  against  the 
Britons,  and  of  these  against  the  Romans.  The 
Northman  mind  had  taken  a  full  direction  to  a 
forcible  settlement  in  England.  It  was  no  longer 
battles  for  transient  plunder  or  personal  fame.  It 
was  for  lasting  dominion ;  for  the  land-inheritance  of 
the  country  ;  and  for  the  property  and  liberty  of  every 
individual  who  possessed  any. 

Within  a  month  after  Alfred's  accession,  the  Danes  Alfred's 
attacked  his  troops  at  Wilton 5,  in  his  absence,  with 
such   superiority   of  force,    that   all   the   valour   of 
patriotism  could  not  prevent  defeat.     This  made  the 
ninth  great  battle  which  had  been  fought  this  year 

4  Asser,  25.  Flor.  Wig.  311.  Hoveden,  417.  The  year  871  is  noted  as  the 
beginning  of  Alfred's  reign  by  Asser,  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  Mailros,  Hoveden,  Sim. 
Dun.,  and  some  others.  But  Ingulf,  25.,  Malmsb.  42.,  and  Chron.  Petrib.  21., 
place  his  accession  in  872. 

6  Bromton,  809.,  in  a  mistake,  puts  down  Walton  in  Sussex.  But  Asser,  whom 
the  other  chronicles  follow,  says,  Wilton  is  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river  Guilou, 
from  which  the  whole  country  is  named,  p.  25.  Guilou  means  the  meandering 
river. 


460  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     in  "West  Saxony,  besides  the  excursions  which  Alfred 
•   and  several  of  the  ealdormen  and  the  king's  thegns 
871-       made  against  the  enemy,  which  were  not  numbered. 
Wearied  himself,  and  the  country  being  exhausted 
by  these  depopulating  conflicts,  Alfred  made  a  peace 
with  his  enemies,  and  they  quitted  his  dominions.6 
Northmen        Yet  a  peace,  with  their  continuance  in  the  island, 
Merck*       could  but  be  a  dangerous  truce,  that  would  soon  end 
in  more   dangerous  hostilities ;   and   which,    in   the 
mean  time,    surrendered   the   rest   of  England  into 
their  power.     This  soon  became  visible ;  for  the  in- 
vaders marched  immediately,   even  those  who  were 
in  Northumberland,  to  London,  and,  wintering  there, 
874.       threatened  Mercia.     Burrhed,  its  king,  twice  nego- 
ciated  with  them ;  but  at  last,  disregarding  all  treaties, 
they  entered  Mercia,  and  wintered  at  Repton  in  Der- 
byshire, where  they  destroyed  the  celebrated  monas- 
tery, the  sacred  mausoleum  of  all  the  Mercian  kings. 7 
Burrhed  quittedjiis  throne,  and  leaving  his  people  to 
the  mercy  of  the  invaders,  went  disgracefully  to  Rome, 
jie£fi-Ji£_soon  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  English 
school.8 

The  Danes  gave  the  Mercian  crown  to  Ceolwulf,  an 
officer  of  Burrhed' s  court ;  his  capacity  was  contracted ; 
his  disposition  mischievous ;  he  swore  fidelity  to  his 
foreign  masters  ;  paid  them  tribute,  and  promised  to 
return  the  power  they  granted,  whenever  they  re- 
quired, and  to  be  ready  with  his  forces  to  co-operate 
with  them.  He  plundered  the  poor  peasantry,  robbed 

6  Sax.  Ch.  82.     Asser,  25.     Ethelw.  844.     It  would  seem  that  Ingwar  went  to 
Scotland  and  Ireland  after  his  conquest  of  East  Anglia ;  for  he  is  noticed  in  the 
Annals  of  Ulster,  as  besieging  and  destroying  Alcuith  at  Dumbarton,  and  proceeding 
afterwards  to  Ireland  with  a  multitude  of  English,  Welsh,  and  Pictish  prisoners, 
where,  he  died ;  as  mentioned  in  note  45.  of  the  preceding  chapter. 

7  Monasterium  que  celeberrimum   omnium  reguin  Merciorum   sacratissimum 
mausoleum  funditus  destruxissent.     Ingulf,  26. 

8  In  the  church  of  St.  Mary  there.    Asser,  26.     Ingulf,  who  in  general  is  a  very 
valuable  authority,  here  makes  a  small  confusion  of  dates ;  he  says,  Burrhed  fled 
in  874,  while  Alfred  was  tarrying  in  Etheling  island.     This  is  not  correct.     Alfred 
did  not  seclude  himself  till  four  years  afterwards. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  461 

the  merchants,  and  oppressed  the   unprotected  and     CHAP. 
the  clergy  ;  on  the  wretched  monks  of  the  destroyed   *    Vn'   . 
abbey  of  Croyland  he  unfeelingly  imposed  a  tax  of  a       874- 
thousand  pounds.     But  this  pageant  of  tyranny  dis- 
pleased his  masters ;  he  was  stripped  of  every  thing, 
and  he  perished  miserably.9     With  him  ended  for 
ever  the  Anglo-Saxon  octarchy.      The  kingdom  of 
Mercia  never  existed  again.    When  the  Danish  power 
declined,  it  was  associated  by  Alfred  to  Wessex10, 
from  which  it  was  never  afterwards  separated. 

England  was  now  become  divided  between  two 
powers,  the  West  Saxons,  and  the  Northmen,  who 
had  subdued  all  the  island  but  Wessex. 

The  invaders  divided  themselves  into  two  bodies. 
The  largest  part  of  their  army,  under  their  three 
kings,  Godrun,  Oskitul,  and  Amund,  marched  from 
Eepton  to  Cambridge,  where  they  wintered  and  re- 
sided twelve  months11;  while  another  division  of  their  They  con- 
forces  proceeded  to  Northumbria  under  Halfden,  to 
complete  the  conquest  of  this  kingdom.  As  yet  they 
had  subdued  no  more  of  it  than  Deira.  His  calami- 
tous invasion  subjected  the  whole  kingdom  of  Nor- 
thumbria, and  harassed  the  Strathcluyd  Britons.12 
Scotland  attempted  to  withstand  them,  but  failed ; 
and  the  king  of  Wales  fled  to  Ireland  for  refuge  from 
their  attacks.13  Halfden,  having  completed  the  con- 
quest of  Bernicia,  divided  it  amongst  his  followers, 
and  tilled  and  cultivated  it.  He  perished  soon  after- 
wards in  Ireland.14 

9  Ingulf,  27. 

10  Ingulf,  27.     He  says,  that  from  the  first  year  of  Penda,  to  the  deposition  of 
Ceolwulf,  the  Mercian  throne  had  lasted  about  230  years. 

11  Ethelwerd,  844.     Asser,  27.  12  Sax.  Chron.  83. 

13  Ann.  Ulster,  65.     These  annals  notice  some  dissensions  of  the  Northmen,  in 
which  Halfden  killed  by  stratagem  the  son  of  Olaf,  one  of  the  kings,  or  sea-kings, 
that  accompanied  Ingwar. 

14  Sax.  Chron.  84.     In  876,  the  Annals  of  Ulster  place  the  death  of  Halfden. 
"  Battle  at  Lochraun,  between  the  Fingals  and  Dubh-gals,  where  the  latter  lost 
Halfden  their  captain,"  p.  65. 


462  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK          The  three  kings,  who  had  wintered  at  Cambridge, 
.   began  their  hostilities  against  Wessex.    Leaving  their 
The8 Attack  Positi°ns  at  night,  they  sailed  to  Dorsetshire,   sur- 
Aifred.        prised  the  castle  of  Wareham,  and  depopulated  the 
peace?™       country  round.     Alfred,  after  a  naval  victory,  weary 
of  battles  and  seeking  only  repose,  again  negotiated 
with  them  to  leave  his  dominions  ;  and  he  had  the 
impolicy  to  use  money  as  his  peace -maker.15     They 
pledged  themselves  by  their  bracelets,  the  oath  most 
sacred  to  their  feelings,  and  which  they  had  never 
plighted  before.16     But  Alfred  exacted  also  an  oath 
on  Christian  relics.    We  may  smile  at  the  logic  of  the 
king,  who  thought  that  a  Christian  oath  would  im- 
pose a  stronger  obligation  on  Pagan  minds,  or  that 
the  crime  of  perjury  was  aggravated  by  the  formali- 
ties of  the  adjuration.     But  the  delusion  of  his  mind 
in  not  discerning  that  the  welfare  of  himself  and  his 
country  was  sacrificed  by  such  treaties  is  more  re- 
markable ;    especially   as   Asser   mentions    that    his 
natural  character  was  to  be  too  warlike.17 

To  punish  Northmen  by  the  impositions  of  oaths,  or 
by  hostages,  which  appear  to  have  been  reciprocal 1S, 
was  to  encourage  their  depredations  by  the  impunity 
which  attended  them.  It  was  binding  a  giant  with  a 
rush,  an  eagle  with  a  cobweb.  Accordingly,  in  a 
night  quickly  succeeding  the  peace-making  solemnity, 
they  rushed  clandestinely  on  the  king's  forces,  and 
slew  all  his  horsemen.19  They  used  the  steeds  to 

15  Ethelwerd,  844.     Before  this  treaty  Alfred  attacked  the  Danes  by  sea.     His 
ships,  meeting  six  of  theirs,  took  one  and  dispersed  the  others.     Asser,  27. 

16  Asser,  28.     Their  bracelets  were  highly  valued  by  them,  and  always  buried 
with  them.     See  Bartholin.  499 — 503.     Joannes  Tinmouth  says,  they  were  nobili- 
tatis  indicium.     Hist.  MSS.  cited  by  Dugdale,  i.  p.  256. ;  and  see  Aimon,  p.  371. 
385. 

17  "  Nimium  bellicosus,"  p.  24. 

18  I  infer  this,  because,  in  mentioning  Alfred's  complete  and  final  conquest  of 
Guthrun,  Asser  says,  he  exacted  hostages,  but  gave  none.     Ille  nullum  eis  daret, 
p.  34.     He  adds  that  this  was  unusual.     Ita  tamen  qualiter  nunquam  cum  aliquo 
pacem  ante  pepigerant. 

19  Asser,  28. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  463 

mount  a  part  of  their  army,  which  rode  immediately 
to  Exeter,  and  remained  there  for  the  winter.20 

The  small  advantage  which  the  ships  of  Alfred  Alfr^,7; 
had  obtained  over  a  few  Danish  vessels,  induced  him  navai  sue- 
to  cause  long  ships  and  galleys  to  be  built  at  the  cesses' 
ports  of  his  kingdom ;  and,  as  his  countrymen  were 
less  competent  to  navigate  them,  he  manned  them 
with  such  piratical  foreigners  as  would  engage  in  his 
service.21  They  were  appointed  to  cut  off  all  supplies 
from  his  invaders.  They  met  a  large  fleet  of  North- 
men hastening  from  Wareham,  to  relieve  their  coun- 
trymen. They  flew  to  arms  with  the  same  alacrity 
with  which  they  prosecuted  all  their  enterprises. 
The  Northmen,  half  ruined  already  by  a  stormy 
voyage,  waged  a  fruitless  battle ;  their  hosts  perished, 
and  of  their  steeds  of  the  ocean,  to  adopt  their  fa- 
vourite metaphor,  one  hundred  and  twenty  were 
destroyed  at  the  rock  of  Swanwick,  on  the  coast  of 
Hampshire.22 

Alfred  at  last  collected  his  troops,  and  marched 
against  the  Danes  in  Exeter;  but  they  possessed 
themselves  of  the  castle  before  he  reached  it,  and 
his  military  skill  was  unable  or  unwilling  to  assault 
or  to  besiege  it.  He  contented  himself  with  repeating 
the  illusory  policy  of  exacting  new  hostages  and  new 
oaths,  that  they  should  depart  from  his  kingdom.23 

The  conduct  of  Alfred,  in  the  first  years  of  his 
reign,  seems  to  have  been  imprudent.  While  acting 
with  his  brother,  he  was  energetic  and  indefatigable; 

20  Named  by  the  Britons,  Caer  Wise;  by  the  Saxons,   Gaxanceartpe.     It   is, 
continues  Asser,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  Wise,  near  the  southern  sea,  which 
flows  between  Gaul  and  Britain. 

21  Asser's  expressions  are  "  Impositisque  piratis  in  illis  vias  maris  custodiendas 
commisit."     P.  29. 

22  The  printed  copy  of  Asser,  besides  this  defeat,  makes  120  also  to  perish  in  a 
storm.     I  follow  Matt.  West.  328.,  who  consolidates  the  two  incidents  into  one. 
Flor.  Wig.  315.,  Sax.  Ch.  83.,  Ethelw.  845.,  and  Hunt.  350.,  mention  only  one 
loss  of  120  vessels. 

23  Asser,  28. 


464  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     but  after  he  became  possessed  of  the  crown  himself, 
-        — •   instead  of  a  system  of  vigilance  and  vigour  against 
877*       his  enemies,  we  find  nothing  but  inert  quietude,  tem- 
porising pacifications,  and  transient  armaments.    The 
only  plan  discernible  in  the  first  seven  years  of  his 
reign,  was  to  gain  momentary  repose.     An  interval 
of  tranquillity  was  certainly  obtained ;  but  it  was  a 
delusive  slumber  on  the  precipice  of  fate. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  4  ($5 


CHAP.  VIII. 

ALFRED  becomes  a  Fugitive.  —  Misconduct  imputed  to  him. 

WE  now  approach  the  period  of  Alfred's  greatest  de- 
gradation.  The  locusts  of  the  Baltic,  to  use  the  ex- 
pressive  metaphor  of  the  chronicles,  having  spread 
themselves  over  part  of  Mercia  in  the  preceding 
August,  and  being  joined  by  new  swarms,  advanced 
again  into  Wessex ;  and  in  January  took  possession 
of  Chippenham  in  Wiltshire,  where  they  passed  the 
winter,  and  from  which  they  made  excursive  ravages 
over  the  adjacent  country.  On  this  decisive  invasion, 
the  country  found  itself  so  unprotected,  from  what- 
ever cause,  that  many  of  the  inhabitants  emigrated 
in  penury  and  terror  to  other  regions.  Some  fled 
over  sea,  and  to  France ;  the  rest,  overawed  by  the 
cavalry  of  the  invaders,  submitted  to  their  dominion, 
and  Alfred  himself  was  compelled  to  become  a  fugi- 
tive.1 

These  circumstances,  which  every  chronicler  states  Alfred's 
or  implies,  are  so  extraordinary,  that  it  is  difficult  to  fllgbt* 
comprehend  them.     The  Danes  invade  Wessex,  the 
country  falls  undefended  into  their  hands,  and  Alfred 
preserves  his  life  by  such  a  concealment,  that  his 
friends  were  as  ignorant  as  his  enemies  both  of  his 
residence  and  fate.2     Such  became  his  distress,  that 
he  knew  not  where  to  turn  3 ;  such  was  his  poverty, 

1  Asser,  30.     Sax.  Chron.  84.     Ethelw.  845.     Matt.  West.  .329.     Hunt.  350. 
Asserii  Annales,  166.     Alur.  Bev.  105.     Walling.  537.  and  others. 

2  Quare  ergo  idem  saepedictus  Alfred  us  in  tantam  miseriam  sa;pms  incidit  ut 
nemo  subjectorum  suorum  sciret,  ubi  esset  vel  quo  devenisset.     Asser,  32.     So 
Asserii  Annales,  166.      So  Flor.  Wig. 

*  At  rex  ^Elfredus  tactus  dolore  cordis  intrinsecus,  quid  ageret,  quo  se  verteret 
ignorabat.     Matt.  West.  329. 

VOL.  I.  H  H 


466  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     that  he  had  even  no  subsistence  but  that  which  by 

IV 

•  furtive  or  open  plunder  he  could  extort,  not  merely 
878.  from  the  Danes,  but  even  from  those  of  his  subjects 
who  submitted  to  their  government ;  or  by  fishing 
and  hunting  obtain.4  He  wandered  about  in  woods 
and  marshes  in  the  greatest  penury,  with  a  few  com- 
panions ;  sometimes,  for  greater  secrecy,  alone.5  He 
had  neither  territory,  nor,  for  a  time,  the  hope  of 
regaining  any.6 

To  find  Alfred  and  the  country  in  this  distress, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  remark,  that  no  battles  are 
mentioned  to  have  occurred  between  the  arrival  of  the 
Northmen  at  Chippenham,  and  the  flight  of  the  king, 
or  the  subjection  of  the  country,  are  circumstances 
peculiarly  perplexing.  It  is  not  stated  on  this  inva- 
sion, as  it  is  on  every  other,  that  Alfred  collected  an 
army,  and  resisted  the  Northmen  ;  that  he  retired  at 
the  head  of  his  forces,  though  defeated ;  that  he  posted 
himself  in  any  fortress7,  or  that  he  took  any  measures 
to  defend  the  country,  against  his  enemies.  They  in- 
vade in  January ;  and  between  that  month  and  the 
following  Easter,  a  very  short  period,  all  this  disaster 
occurred. 

^  The  power  of  the  Danes  may  have  been  formidable, 

but  it  had  never  been  found  by  Alfred  to  be  irresis- 
tible ;  and  the  events  of  a  few  months  proved  that  it 
was  easily  assailable.  When  they  attacked  his  brother, 
they  met  a  resistance  which  has  been  recorded.  When 
they  attacked  himself  in  the  preceding  years,  his 
means  of  opposition,  though  not  vigorous,  are  yet 

4  Nihil  enim  habebat  quo  uteretur,  nisi  quod  a  paganis  et  etiam  a  Christianis 
qui  se  paganorura  subdiderant  dominio,  frequentibus  irruptionibus  aut  clam,  aut 
etiam  palam  subtraheret.     Asser,  30.     Flor.  Wig. 

5  Asser,  30.     Hunt.  350.     Mailros,  144.     Chron.  Sax.  84.     Matt  West.  329. 
Sim.  Dun.  18.  71. 

6  Alured.  Bev.  105. 

7  This  was  remarkable,  because  Odun's  defence  in  Kynwith,  and  Alfred's  subse- 
quent fortification  in  Ethelingey,  show  how  such  a  retreat  would  have  protected 
the  country.     Hoveden  says,  that  his  ministers  retired  to  Kynwith,  p.  41 7. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  4G7 

noticed.     But  on  this  invasion,  a  most   remarkable     CHAP. 
silence  occurs  as  to  any  measures  of  defence.     As  far  .  VUL  . 
as  we  can  penetrate  into  such  an  obscured  incident,       878- 
we  can  discern  none  ;  nothing  appears  but  panic  and 
disaffection  in  the  people ;  inactivity  and  distress  in 
the  king. 

To  suppose  that  the  Northmen  surprised  fyim  by  a 
rapid  movement  into  Wessex  is  no  diminution  of  the 
difficulty,  because  they  had  been  eight  years  in  the 
island,  moving  about  as  they  pleased ;  and  often  with 
celerity,  for  the  purpose  of  easier  victory.  Rapidity 
of  motion  was,  indeed,  a  part  of  their  usual  tactics, 
both  in  England  and  in  France ;  and  not  to  have  pre- 
pared against  an  event  that  was  always  possible,  and 
always  impending  over  him,  impeaches  both  the 
judgment  and  patriotism  of  the  king  at  this  period 
of  peril. 

Before  Alfred,  from  a  respected  sovereign,  would 
have  become  a  miserable  fugitive,  we  should  expect 
to  read  of  many  previous  battles  ;  of  much  patriotic 
exertion,  corresponding  with  his  character  and  dig- 
nity due  to  the  duties  of  his  station,  and  worthy  of  his 
intellect.  If  defeated  in  one  county,  we  should  look 
for  him  in  another;  always  with  an  army,  or  in  a 
fortress ;  always  withstanding  the  fierce  enemies  who 
assaulted  him. 

What  overwhelmed  Alfred  with  such  distress  ?  its  cause  in- 
What  drove  him  so  easily  from  his  throne  ?  It  could 
not  be,  as  Sir  John  Spelman  intimates,  that  the  Saxons 
"  were  before  quite  spent  and  done,"  because  it  is 
not  true,  that  in  876  they  fought  "  seven  desperate 
battles."  8  These  battles  have  been  placed  in  this 
year  hitherto  erroneously.  On  comparing  every  re- 
putable chronicler  with  Asser,  the  friend  of  the  king, 
we  find  them  to  have  occurred  in  the  last  year  of 

9  See  bis  plain  but  learned  and  useful  life  of  Alfred,  p.  53.  and  50.  Hume  has 
copied  his  misconception. 

H  H  2 


468 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK  Ethelred's  reign,  and  the  first  of  Alfred's.  Since  that 
— ^—>  period,  though  the  king  sometimes  headed  armies,  no 
sanguinary  conflict  is  mentioned  to  have  ensued  in 
Wessex.  Seven  years  had  now  elapsed  without  one 
important  struggle;  the  strength  of  West  Saxony 
was  therefore  unimpaired,  because  one  third  of  the 
juvenile  jpopulatiofi,  at  Alfred's  accession,  would,  in 
878,  have  attained  the  age  of  courageous  manhood. 

That  the  arrival  of  new  supplies  from  the  Baltic, 
could  not  have  "  broken  the  spirits  of  the  Saxons  "  so' 
suddenly,  and  have  "  reduced  them  to  despair,"  is 
probable,  because  the  West  Saxons  had  not,  for  the 
last  seven  years,  "  undergone  a  miserable  havoc  in 
their  persons  and  property,"  and  had  exerted  no 
"  vigorous  actions  in  their  own  defence."  So  far  from 
being  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  despair,  we  shall 
find  that  a  single  summons  from  their  king,  when  he 
had  recovered  his  self-possession,  and  resolved  to  be 
the  heroic  patriot,  was  sufficient  to  bring  them  eagerly 
into  the  field,  though  the  undisputed  occupation  of 
the  country  for  some  months  must  have  rendered  the 
collection  of  an  adequate  force  more  difficult,  and  its 
hostilities  far  less  availing  than  before.  The  king  is 
not  stated  to  have  troubled  them  with  exhortations, 
to  defend  "  their  prince,  their  country,  and  their 
liberties,"9  before  he  retired.  And  it  is  remarkable, 
that  the  foes  whom  he  had  left  at  Chippenham,  he 
found  near  Westbury,  when  he  made  the  effort  which 
produced  his  restoration.  Amid  all  the  confusion,  \ 
emigration,  and  dismay,  which  his  seclusion  must 
have  produced,  twenty  miles  composed  the  extent  of 
their  intermediate  progress.  The  invaders,  whose 
conquests,  when  unresisted,  were  so  circumscribed, 
and  whose  triumphs  were  afterwards  destroyed  by 
one  well-directed  effort,  could  not  have  exhibited 
that  gigantic  port,  which  intimidates  strength  into 

9  This  is  our  Hume's  mistaken  statement,  p.  79,  80. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  469 

imbecility,  and  ensures  destruction,  by  annihilating     CHAP. 
the  spirit  that  might  avert  it.  .  VIIL  » 

To  understand  this  obscure  incident,  it  is  neces-       878- 
sary  to  notice  some  charges  of  misconduct  which  have  Misconduct 
been  made    against  Alfred.      The   improprieties  al-  Aifred!dt 
luded  to  are  declared  to  have  had  political    conse- 
quences, and  have  been  connected  with  his  mysterious 
seclusion.     It  may  be  most  impartial  to  review  the 
traditional  imputations  in  all  their  extent,  and  then 
to  consider,  from  the  confessions  of  Asser,  how  much 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  or  to  reject.10 

An  ancient  life  of  Saint  Neot,  a  kinsman  of  Alfred, 
exists  in  Saxon11,  which  alludes,  though  vaguely,  to 
some  impropriety  in  the  king's  conduct.  It  says, 
that  Neot  chided  him  with  many  words,  and  spoke  to 
him  prophetically :  "  0  king,  much  shalt  thou  suffer 
in  this  life ;  hereafter  so  much  distress  thou  shalt 
abide,  that  no  man's  tongue  may  say  it  all.  Now, 
loved  child,  hear  me  if  thou  wilt,  and  turn  thy  heart 
to  my  counsel.  Depart  entirely  from  thine  un- 
righteousness, and  thy  sins  with  alms  redeem,  and 
with  tears  abolish."12 


10  It  would  be  absurd  for  me  to  offer  any  apology  for  having  ventured  to  be  the 
first  writer  in  our  history  that  has  called  the  public  attention  to  the  faults  of  Alfred, 
whose  life  has  been  made  one  continued  stream  of  panegyric.     History  is  only 
valuable  in  proportion  to  its  truth,  and  it  is  no  injustice  to  any  great  characters 
to  remark,  with  due  candour,  those  imperfections  which  they  allowed  themselves  to 
commit.     Yet  Dr.  Whitaker  accuses  of  falsehood  those  who  state  that  Alfred  had 
any  defects.     A  few  strokes  of  his  pen  demolish  authorities  as  easily  as  he  some- 
times  unduly  stretches  them.     See  his  St.  Neot,  p.  141. 

11  It  is  in  MS.  in  the  Cotton  Library,  Vespasian,  D.  14,  intituled  "Vita  Sancti 
Neoti  Saxonice."     It  follows  an  account  of  Furseus,  an  East-Anglian  Saint,  and 
some  religious  essays  of  Elfric,  all  in  Saxon.     As  Elfric  wrote  the  lives  of  many 
saints  in  Saxon,  it  is  most  probably  his  composition. 

12  After  mentioning  that  Alfred  came  to  Neot,  emb  hir  raple  theappe,  it  adds, 
he  hme  eac  thpeabe  manega  popben,   anb  him  to   cp*   mib  pope  pitegunse. 
"Gala  thu  kins,  mycel  rcealt  thu  tholisen  on  thyrren  hpe,  on  Chan  topeapben 
time  rpa  micele  ansrumnyrre  fchu  Sebiben  rcealt  tha  nan  maenmrc  tunge  hit 
call  arecgen  ne  maeis.    Nu  leop  beapn  sehop  me  syp  thu  pylt  anb  thine  heopte 
to  mine  pebe  seceppe.    tepit  eallinge  ppam  thinpa  unpichtpirnyrre,  an&  thine 
rynnen  mib  aelmerren  aler  et  mib  teapen  abigole."    MSS.  Vesp.  p.  1.45.      From 
Asser's  expressions  (ut  in  Vita  Sancti  patris  Neoti  legitur),  p.  30.,  it  seems  that  a 

'life  of  Neot  had  been  written  before  Asser  died.  The  Saxon  life  above  quoted 
seems  to  be  an  epitome  of  some  more  ancient  one.  In  this  manner  Elfric  epito- 
mised Abbo's  life.  See  MSS.  Julius,  E.  7. 

HH   3 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

Another  ancient  MS.  life  of  Saint  Neot13  is  some- 
what  stronger  in  its  expressions  of  reproach.  It 
878'  t-x  states,  "  that  Neot,  reproving  his  bad  actions,  com- 
manded him  to  amend;  that  Alfred,  not  having 
wholly  followed  the  rule  of  reigning  justly,  pursued 
the  way  of  depravity  u :  that  one  day  when  the  king 
came,  Neot  sharply  reproached  him  for  the  wicked- 
ness of  his  tyranny,  and  the  proud  'austerity  of  his 
government."  It  declares  that  Neot  foresaw  and  fore- 
told his  misfortunes.  "  Why  do  you  glory  in  your 
misconduct  ?  Why  are  you  powerful  but  in  iniquity  ? 
you  have  been  exalted,  but  you  shall  not  continue ; 
you  shall  be  bruised  like  the  ears  of  wheat.  Where 
then  will  be  your  pride  ?  If  that  is  not  yet  excluded 
from  you,  it  soon  shall  be.  You  shall  be  deprived  of 
that  very  sovereignty,  of  whose  vain  splendour  you 
are  so  extravagantly  arrogant."  15 

It  is  in  full  conformity  with  these  two  lives  of  Neot 
that  those  others  written  by  Ramsay  in  the  twelfth 
century 16,  express  also  inculpations  of  Alfred.  The 
life  composed  in  prose  states  that  Neot  chided  him 
severely  for  his  iniquitous  conduct.  "  You  shall  be  de- 
prived of  that  kingdom  in  which  you  are  swelling;  in 
which  you  are  so  violently  exercising  an  immoderate 

13  This  is  a  MS.  in  the  Cotton  Library,  Claudius,  A.  5.     It  is  in  Latin,  and  is 
intituled  "Vita  Sancti  Neoti  per  Will.  Abbatem  Croylandensem,  an.  1180." 

14  Pravos  etiam  ejus  redarguens  actus  jussit  in  melius  convert!  —  norttum  ad 
plenum  recte  regnandi  normam  assecutus,  viam  deserverat  pravitatis.     Claud.  MS. 
154. 

13  Quadam  deuique  die  solemni  venientem  ex  more  de  firannidis  improbitate  et 

de  superba  regiminis  austeritate  acriter  eum  increpavit  Neotus Apponebat  ei ; 

sanctum  David  —  regum  mansuetissimum  et  omnibus  humilitatis  exemplar — affe- 
rebat  et  Saulem  superbia  reprobatum.  —  Spiritu  attactus  prophetico,  futura  ei 
prsedixit  infortunia.  "  Quid  gloriaris,"  inquit,  "  in  malitia  ?  Quid  potens  es  in ; 
iniquitate,  elevatus  es  ad  modicum  et  non  subsistes  et  sicut  summitates  spicarum 
conteris.  Ubi  est  gloriatio  tua  ?  at  si  nondum  exclusa  est,  aliquando  tamen  ex- 
cludetur.  Ipso  enim  regiminis  principatu  cujus  inani  gloriatione  te  ipsum  exce- 
dendo  superbis,  in  proximo  privaberis,  &c."  MS.  Claud,  p.  154. 

16  Dr.  Whitaker  has  printed  these  from  two  MSS.  at  Oxford,  one  at  the  Bodleian, 
the  other  in  Magdalen  College,  in  the  Appendix  to  his  St.  Neot.  He  thought  them 
the  oldest  lives  of  St.  Neot  now  known.  The  two  which  I  have  already  quoted 
are,  however,  more  ancient,  especially  the  Saxon,  which  preceded  the  Norman 
conquest. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  471 

tyranny.     But  if  you  withdraw  yourself  from  your     CHAP. 
cruel  vices  and  inordinate  passions,  you  shall  find  •  Vm'  . 
mercy." 17  878. 

The  same  author's  biography,  in  Latin  verse,  re-     .S 
proaches   the  king's  conduct,   as  "  dissolute,  cruel,  ^ 
proud,  and  severe."     It  adds,  that  the  king  promised 
to  correct  himself,  but  did  not ;  but  only  added  to  his 
misdeeds,  and  became  worse.     That  Neot  again  re- 
proved him  for  "  wandering  in  depraved  manners," 
and  announced  his  impending  calamities. 18 

The  same  ideas  are  repeated  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury by  Matthew  of  Westminster  in  his  history,  in 
phrases  like  those  of  Ramsay19;  and  John  of  Tin- 
mouth,  about  the  same  period,  reiterates  the  charge 
in  the  language  of  the  Claudius  MS. 20  Another 
writer  of  a  chronicle,  Wallingford,  asserts  that  Alfred, 
in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  indulged  in  luxury  and 
vice ;  and  that  the  amendment  of  his  conduct  was  a 
consequence  of  his-  adversity. 21 

With  these  statements  from  later  authorities  in 
our  recollection,  let  us  turn  to  the  contemporary 
evidence  of  Asser,  the  confidential  friend  as  well  as 
the  biographer  of  Alfred,  and  who  declares  so  re- 
peatedly in  his  history  that  he  wrote  from  the  in- 
formation of  living  eye-witnesses.  He  loved  his  royal 
master,  and  we  cannot  read  his  artless  biography  of 
him  without  perceiving  that  it  is  not  likely  he  would 
have  overstated  his  faults,  or  have  even  mentioned 
them,  if  they  had  not  been  then  too  well  known  to 
have  been  omitted  by  an  honest  writer. 

17  Whit,  App.  p.  347.  w  Ibid.  p.  348. 

19  See  Matt.  West.  p.  330.     From  the  correspondence  of  his  words,  he  must  have 
had  Ramsay's  prose  life  before  him  when  he  wrote. 

20  From  the  very  damaged  MS.  of  Tinmouth's  history  in  the  British  Museum, 
Tiberius,  b.  L,  Dr.  Whitaker  has  printed  the  part  which  relates  to  St.  Neot.    App. 
366.     There  is  a  fine  complete  MS.  of  Tinmouth  in  the  Lambeth  library,  which 
I  have  inspected.     As  I  have  found,  on  comparing  them,  Matthew  of  Westminster 
to  have  copied  Ramsay,  so  I  perceive  Tinmouth  has  extracted  passages  from  the 
older  life  which  I  have  quoted  in  notes  14  and  15. 

21  Wallingford,  Chron.     Gale,  iii.  p.  535,  536. 

H  H    4 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

Two  words  used  by  Asser  are  sufficient  to  remove 
all  doubt  on  the  existence  of  some  great  faults  in 
Alfred,  in  the  first  part  of  his  reign ;  and  his  con- 
tinuing expressions  will  assist  us  in  comprehending 
what  they  were.  Asser  says,  "  We  believe  that  this 
adversity  occurred  to  the  king  NOT  UNDESERVEDLY."  22 
This  emphatic  admission  is  followed  by  these  sen- 
tences :  — 

"  Because,  in  the  first  part  of  his  reign,  when 
he  was  a  young  man,  and  governed  by  a  youthful 
mind ;  when  the  men  of  his  kingdom  and  his  subjects 
carne  to  him  and  besought  his  aid  in  their  necessities ; 
when  they  who  were  depressed  by  the  powerful,  im- 
plored his  aid  and  patronage ;  he  would  not  hear 
them,  nor  afford  them  any  assistance,  but  treated 
them  as  of  no  estimation."  23 

Asser  continues  to  state,  that  "  Saint  Neot,  who 
was  then  living,  his  relation,  deeply  lamented  this, 
and  foretold  that  the  greatest  adversity  would  befall 
him.  But  Alfred  paid  no  attention  to  his  admoni- 
tions, and  treated  the  prediction  with  disdain."  24 

The  guarded  expression  of  the  bishop,  writing  to 
his  living  sovereign,  whom  he  highly  venerated,  pre- 
vent us  from  deciphering  more  clearly  the  exact 
nature  of  Alfred's  offence.  As  far  as  he  goes,  how- 
ever, he  gives  some  confirmation  to  the  traditions 
which  have  been  quoted.  He  confesses  some  miscon- 
duct in  the  discharge  of  the  king's  royal  functions. 
And  as  he  adds,  that  Alfred's  punishment  was  so 

22  Quam  siquidem  adversitatem  prsefato  regi  illatam  non  immerito  ei  evenisse 
credimus.     Asser,  p.  31. 

23  Quia  in  primo  tempore  regni  sui,  cum  adhuc  juvenis  erat,  animo  que  juvenili 
detentus  fuerat,  homines  sui  regni  sibi  que  subjecti,  qui  ad  eum  venerant,  et  pro 
necessitatibus  suis  eum  requisierant,  et  qui  depressi  potestatibus  erant,  suum  aux- 
ilium  ac  patrocinium  implorabant ;  ille  vero  noluit  eos  audire,  nee  aliquod  auxilium 
impendebat,  sed  omnino  eos  nihili  pendebat,  p.  31. 

24  Quod  beatissimus  vir  Neotus  adhuc  vivens  in  carne  qui  erat  cognatus  suus 
intime  corde  doluit ;  maximamque  adversitatem  ab  hoc  ei  venturam  spiritu  pro- 
phetico  plenus  prsedixerat.     Sed  ille  et  piissimam  viri  Dei  correptionem  parvi  peii- 
debat  et  verissimam  ejus  prophetiam  non  recipiebat.     Asse^  32. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  473 

severe  in  this  world,  that  his  insipientia,  his  folly,      CHAP. 
might  not  be  chastised  hereafter 25,  we  may  presume  .  VIIL  . 
that  the  fault  was  of  magnitude,  though  he  has  not       87S- 
more  clearly  explained  it. 

The  prophetic  spirit  of  Neot  could  be  nothing  but 
his  sagacity.  The  king's  neglect  of  the  complaints 
and  sufferings  of  his  subjects  may  have  made  him 
unpopular,  and  Neot  may  have  foreseen  the  calami- 
ties which  would  result  from  the  displeasure  of  the 
people.  The  activity  and  power  of  the  Danes  could 
not  be  resisted  with  success,  without  the  highest  zeal 
and  alacrity  of  the  Saxon  people.  But  if  Alfred,  by 
treating  their  grievances  with  contempt,  had  alienated 
their  affections,  the  strongest  fortress  of  his  throne 
was  sapped. 

In  considering  this  subject,  we  must,  injustice  to  The  pro- 
Alfred  remember,  that  all  his  errors  were  confined  bablecause- 
to  the  first  part  of  his  reign,  and  were  nobly 
amended.  It  is  also  fair  to  state,  that  the  imputed 
neglect  of  his  people  must  not  be  hastily  attributed 
to  a  tyrannical  disposition,  because  it  may  be  referred 
to  circumstances  which  better  suit  his  authentic  cha- 
racter. It  may  have  arisen  from  the  intellectual  dis- 
parity between  himself  and  his  people.  When  men 
begin  to  acquire  knowledge,  they  sometimes  encourage 
a  haughty  self-opinion,  a  craving  fondness  for  their 
favourite  pursuit,  and  an  irritable  impatience  of  every 
interruption.  This  hurtful  temper,  which  disappears 
as  the  judgment  matures,  may  have  accompanied 
Alfred's  first  acquisitions  of  knowledge;  and  such 
feelings  could  only  be  exasperated,  when  the  duties 
of  his  office  called  him  from  his  studies  and  medita- 
tions into  a  world  of  barbarians,  who  despised  books 
and  bookmen  ;  with  whom  his  mind  could  have  no 


Quia  igitur  quicquid  ab  homine  peccatur  aut  hie  aut  in  future  necesse  est  ut 
quolibet  modo  puniatur ;  noluit  verus  et  pi  us  judex  illam  regis  insipientiam  esse 
imjiunitam  in  hoc  seculo  quatenus  illi  parceret  in  districto  judicio.  Asser,  32. 


474  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  point  of  contact ;  whose  ignorance  provoked  his  con- 
.  T  '  *  tempt,  and  whose  habits,  perhaps,  excited  his  abhor- 
878-  rence.  Beginning  to  meditate,  in  his  private  hours, 
on  the  illustrious  ancients  whom  he  had  heard  of,  his 
mind  aspired  to  be  assimilated  to  theirs,  and  could 
only  loathe  the  rude,  martial,  and  ignorant  savages 
who  filled  his  court,  claimed  his  time,  and  oppressed 
his  kingdom.  Dependent  and  noble  were  alike  fierce, 
uninstructed,  and  gross.  How  could  his  emerging 
mind  compare  the  exalted  characters  and  depictured 
civilisation  of  Greece  and  Rome,  or  the  sweet  and 
interesting  virtues  inculcated  by  Christianity,  with- 
out an  indignation,  impatience,  and  misanthropy 
which  call  for  our  compassion  rather  than  our  re- 
proach !  How  could  he  have  imbibed  an  ardent  intel- 
lectual taste,  and  have  thereby  possessed  the  increas- 
ing love  of  the  great,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good, 
without  being  affected  by  the  melancholy  contrast 
between  his  studies  -and  his  experience !  Every  one 
who  has  struggled  into  taste  and  knowledge  amid  the 
impediments  of  uncongenial  connections  and  occupa- 
tions, will  have  felt,  in  his  own  experience,  some- 
thing of  that  temper  of  mind,  which,  in  circumstances 
somewhat  analogous,  seems  at  first  to  have  actuated 
Alfred. 

Alfred  de-  Asser  connects  with  the  hints  about  his  faults,  an 
wf subjects,  intimation,  that,  in  this  important  crisis  of  his  life, 
he  suffered  from  the  disaffection  of  his  subjects.  It 
is  expressed  obscurely,  but  the  words  are  of  strong 
import.  He  says,  "  the  Lord  permitted  him  to  be 
very  often  wearied  by  his  enemies,  afflicted  by  ad- 
versity, and  to  be  depressed  by  the  contempt  of  his 
people.11 2G  He  adds  to  these  phrases,  the  paragraphs 
already  quoted  about  his  faults,  and  ends  the  subject 
by  declaring,  "  Wherefore  he  fell  often  into  such 

26  Verum  etiam  ab  hostibus  fatigari,  adversitatibus  affligi,  despectu  suorum  deprimi, 
multotieus  eum  idem  benignus  dominus  permisit,  p.  31. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  475 

misery,  that  none  of  his  subjects  knew  where  he  was,     CHAP. 
or  what  had  befallen  him." 27  ,  VIIL  . 

Asser  had  already  declared,  that  on  the  invasion       878. 
of  Godrun,  many  fled  into  exile ;  and  that  "  for  the 
greatest  part,  all  the  inhabitants  of  that  region  sub-  - 
mitted  to   his   dominion."28     The   inference  which 
seems  naturally  to  result  from  all  his  passages  is, 
that  Alfred   had  offended   his  people,   and   in   this 
trying   emergency   was   deserted   by   them.      Other 
authors  also  declare,  that  it  was  their  flight  or  dis- 
affection which  produced  his. 29 

A  few  other  remarks  on  this  subject  may  be  perused 
in  the  accompanying  note.30 

27  Quare  ergo  idem  saepedictus  ^Elfredus  in  tantam  miseriam  saepius  incidit,  ut 
nemo  subjectorum  suorum  sciret,  ubi  esset  vel  quo  devenisset,  p.  32. 

28  Asser,  p.  30. 

29  The  chronicle  of  Mailros  says,  that  Alfred  fugientibus  suis  cum  paucis  relictus 
est  et  in  nemoribus  se  abscondebat,  p.  1 44.     Wallingford  says,  Rex  vero  Ealfredus 
elegit  prophetise  spiritui  cedere  quam  cum  certo  suorum  dissidio  saevientibus  occur- 
sare.     Ingulf  declares,  that  ad  tantam  tandem  exilitatem  deductus  est  ut  tribus 
pagis  Hamtoniensi,   Wiltoniensi,  et  Somersata  cegre  in  fide   retentis,  p.  26.     So 
Malmsbury,  p.  43. 

The  Latin  life  of  St.  Neot  says,  Rex  autem  Aluredus  audiens  barbaricam  rabiem 
atque  ssevitiam  cominus  iruisse  suorumque  considerans  dispersionem  hue  illucque 
coepit  animo  fluctuare.  MSS.  Claud.  157.  The  expression  of  Asser,  in  note  32. 
of  Sapius,  would  lead  us  to  infer  that  Alfred  had  been  in  great  difficulties  before 
this  last  distress. 

80  We  have  endeavoured  to  account  for  the  neglect  of  his  subjects  mentioned  by 
Asser ;  but  he  is  also  charged  with  cruelty  and  severity,  and  with  immoral  conduct, 
in  the  ancient  lives  of  St.  Neot. 

On  the  last  imputation  we  may  observe,  that  Alfred  in  his  youth  felt  himself 
subject  to  tendencies  which  induced  him  to  implore  from  Heaven  some  disciplining 
visitation  to  repress  them,  that  would  not  make  him  useless  or  contemptible  among 
his  contemporaries.  Asser,  p.  41.  The  accusation  of  cruelty  and  severity  is  more 
remarkable.  On  this  we  may  recollect  some  of  his  judicial  punishments  which  are 
mentioned  in  the  old  law-book  called  the  "  Mirroir  des  Justices,"  written  by  An- 
drew Home  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Second.  He  quotes  in  this  work,  Rolls  in 
the  time  of  king  Alfred,  and,  among  many  other  inflictions  of  the  king's  love  of 
justice,  he  mentions  several  executions  which  appear  to  have  been  both  summary 
and  arbitrary,  and,  according  to  our  present  notions,  cruelly  severe.  It  is  true  that 
the  minds  and  habits  of  every  part  of  society  were  in  those  times  so  violent,  that 
our  estimation  of  the  propriety  of  these  judicial  severities  cannot  now  he  accurately 
just.  But  yet,  even  with  this  recollection,  the  capital  punishments  with  which 
Alfred  is  stated  to  have  visited  the  judicial  errors,  corruptions,  incapacity,  dis- 
honesty, and  violence,  which  are  recorded  in  the  Mirror,  strike  our  moral  feeling 
as  coming  within  the  expressions  of  the  "  immoderate  tyranny  "  which  he  is  said 
to  have  at  first  exhibited. 

That  Alfred  should  desire  the  improvement  of  his  people,  was  the  natural  result 
of  his  own  improving  mind.  But  if  he  at  first  attempted  to  effect  this  by  violence ; 
and  to  precipitate,  by  pitiless  exertions  of  power,  that  melioration  which  time,  and 
adapted  education,  laws,  example,  and  institutions,  only  could  produce,  he  acted 


476  HISTORY   OF   THE 

with  as  much  real  tyranny  as  If  he  had  shed  their  blood  from  the  common  passions 
of  ordinary  despots ;  but  his  motives  must  not  be  confounded  with  theirs.  He 
meant  well,  though  he  may  have  acted,  in  this  respect,  injudiciously. 

878.  Yet  no  motive  can  make  crime  not  criminal.     However  men  may  palter  with 

the  question  to  serve  temporary  purposes,  no  end  justifies  bad  means.  Cruelty  and 
violence  are  always  evils,  and  tend  to  produce  greater  ones  than  those  which  they 
correct.  We  may,  therefore,  understand  from  the  examples  mentioned  by  Home, 
that  even  Alfred's  better  purposes,  thus  executed,  may  have  attached  to  the  begin- 
ning of  his  reign  the  charges  of  tyranny  and  cruelty,  and  may  have  produced  the 
temporary  aversion  of  his  people.  They  could  not  appreciate  his  great  objects. 
They  saw  what  they  hated.  They  probably  misconceived,  for  a  time,  his  real  cha- 
racter, and  by  their  alienation  may  have  contributed  to  amend  it.  Virtue,  without 
intending  it,  will  often  act  viciously  from  ignorance,  prejudice,  wrong  advice,  or 
undue  alarm.  Wisdom  must  unite  with  virtue  to  keep  it  from  wrong  conduct  or 
deterioration ;  but  true  wisdom  arises  from  the  best  human  and  divine  tuition,  and 
the  gradual  concurrence  of  experience.  Alfred  possessed  these  in  the  latter  part 
of  his  life,  but  in  its  earlier  periods  had  not  attained  them. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  477 


CHAP.  IX. 

His  Conduct  during  his  Seclusion. 

LET  us  now  collect  all  that  the  most  ancient  writers     CHAP. 
have   transmitted    to   us   of  this  afflictive  crisis  of  .    Ix' 
Alfred's  life.     Their  statements  present  us  with  all      878« 
that  was  known  or  believed  on  this  subject,  by  our 
ancestors  who  lived  nearest  to  the  times  of  our  vene- 
rable king  ;  and  they  are  too  interesting  not  to  merit 
our  careful  preservation. 

The  period  of  Alfred's  humiliation  may  be  divided 
into  four  stages.  1st.  What  occurred  between  his 
leaving  his  throne  and  his  reaching  Athelney  :  2d. 
The  incidents  which  happened  to  him  there  before 
he  began  his  active  measures  against  the  invaders  : 
3d.  His  exertions  until  he  discovered  himself  again 
to  his  subjects  :  and,  4th.  The  great  battle  which 
restored  him  to  his  kingdom.  On  each  of  these 
heads  we  will  lay  before  the  reader  the  circumstances 
which  the  best  and  most  ancient  authorities  that  we 
could  explore  have  transmitted  to  us. 

On  the  first  stage,  the  oldest  authority  that  now 
remains  is  the  Saxon  life  of  St.  Neot,  written  before 
the  Conquest.  He  says  of  the  king,  that  when  the 
army  approached  "  he  was  soon  lost  ;  he  took  flight, 
and  left  all  his  warriors,  and  his  commanders,  and 
all  his  people,  his  treasures  and  his  treasure  vessels, 
and  preserved  his  life.  He  went  hiding  over  hedges 
and  ways,  woods  and  wilds,  till  through  the  divine 
guidance  he  came  safe  to  the  isle  of  JEthelney."  ] 


1  Tha  re  hepe  pa  rtithlic  paef,  anb  n»a  neh   Bnslelanbe,  he  fone 

cepte,  hif  cempen  ealle  jvplet  anb  hij*  hepetosen  anb  call  hif  thcobe, 


478  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK         The  life  of  St.  Neot  was  first  written  in  Alfred's 

...    /    ^  time,  and  is  quoted  by  his  friend  Asser.2     This  pri- 

87a      mitive  tract  of  Neot's  biography  is  not  now  to  be 

found ;    but  we  may   reasonably  suppose   that   the 

ancient  lives  of  this  saint  which  have  survived  to  us 

were  composed  from  it. 

The  next  work  in  point  of  antiquity  is  the  MS. 
Latin  life  of  the  same  person  in  the  Cotton  Library,, 
ascribed  by  the  title  of  the  MS.  to  an  Abbot  of  Croy- 
land  in  1180.  It  says  :  — 

"The  king  hearing  that  the  rage  and  cruelty  of 
the  barbarians  were  rushing  immediately  upon  him, 
and  considering  the  dispersion  of  his  people,  began 
to  fluctuate  to  and  fro  in  his  mind.  At  length  yield- 
ing to  his  discreeter  judgment,  he  retired  from  his 
enemies  alone  and  unarmed,  and  exposed  to  be  the, 
sport  of  flight.  As  he  was  entirely  ignorant  whither 
he  should  turn  himself,  or  where  the  necessity  of  his 
flight  should  impel  him,  he  let  fortune  lead  him,  and 
came  unexpectedly  into  a  place  surrounded  on  all 
sides  with  extensive  marshes.  This  place  was  in  the 
extreme  boundary  of  England,  on  the  borders  of 
Britain,  which,  in  their  language,  is  called  Ethelin- 
gaia,  and  in  ours  (Latin)  means  the  royal  island/'3 

The  fuller  account  of  Matthew  of  Westminster 
seems  to  be  taken  chiefly  from  Eamsay's  Life  of 
St.  Neot,  written  within  half  a  century  after  the 
preceding. 

"  In  the  extreme  borders  of  the  English  people 
towards  the  west,  there  is  a  place  called  JEthelingeie, 
or  the  isle  of  the  nobles.  It  is  surrounded  by  marshes, 
and  so  inaccessible  that  no  oner  can  get  to  it  but  by  a 
small  vessel.  It  has  a  great  wood  of  alders,  which 

mabmej-  anb  niabmpaten  anb  hif  lire  Sebeaph.    Fepbe  tha  lutigenbe  geonb  hesef 
anb  pesef,  Seonb  pubej*  anb  pelbef  jra  tha  he  thuph   tober  piJT«nSe 
become  to  ^Ethelms-ese.    MSS.  British  Museum,  Vespas.  D.  14. 

2  Ut  in  vita  sancti  patris  Neoti  legit ur.     Asser,  p.  30. 

3  MSS.  Claud.  A.  5. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  479 

contains  stags  and  goats,  and  many  animals  of  that 
kind.  Its  solid  earth  is  scarcely  two  acres  in  breadth. 
Alfred  having  left  the  few  fellow- soldiers  whom  he 
had,  that  he  might  be  concealed  from  his  enemies, 
sought  this  place  alone,  where,  seeing  the  hut  of  an 
unknown  person,  he  turned  to  it,  asked  and  received 
a  shelter.  For  some  days  he  remained  there  as  a 
guest  and  in  poverty,  and  contented  with  the  fewest 
necessaries.  But  the  king,  being  asked  who  he  was 
and  what  he  sought  in  such  a  desert  place,  answered 
that  he  was  one  of  the  king's  thegns,  had  been  con- 
quered with  him  in  battle,  and  flying  from  his  enemies 
had  reached  that  place.  The  herdsman,  believing  his 
words,  and  moved  with  pity,  carefully  supplied  him 
with  the  necessaries  of  life."  4 

His  first  incident  is  thus  described  by  his  friend  Alfred's 
Asser,  with  an  allusion  to  a  contemporary  life  of  Neot 
not  now  extant. 

"  He  led  an  unquiet  life  there,  at  his  cowherd's.  It 
happened  that  on  a  certain  day  the  rustic  wife  of  this 
man  prepared  to  bake  her  bread.  The  king,  sitting 
then  near  the  hearth,  was  making  ready  his  bow  and 
arrows,  and  other  warlike  instruments,  when  the  ill- 
tempered  woman  beheld  the  loaves  burning  at  the 
fire.  She  ran  hastily  and  removed  them,  scolding 
the  king,  and  exclaiming,  '  You  man !  you  will  not 
turn  the  bread  you  see  burning,  but  you  will  be  very 
glad  to  eat  it  when  done.'  This  unlucky  woman  little 
thought  she  was  addressing  the  king,  Alfred." 5 

4  Matt.  West.  p.  329,  330. 

8  Asser,  p.  30,  31.  Although  in  the  Cotton  MS.  of  Asser  this  passage  is  want- 
ing, yet  it  was  in  Camden's  ancient  MS.,  and  the  preceding  words,  "apud  quon- 
dam suum  vaccarium"  are  in  the  Cotton  MS.  Dr.  Whitaker,  in  his  usual  hasty 
manner,  boldly  calls  it  an  interpolation  taken  from  Ramsay's  Life  of  St.  Neot,  which 
he  has  printed.  But  Dr.  W.  did  not  know  of  the  earlier  life  in  the  Claud.  MS., 
nor  of  the  still  more  ancient  Saxon  life,  Vesp.  D.  14.,  both  of  which  contain  the 
incident.  Malmsbury  also  mentions  the  "  in  silvam  profugus,"  and  the  subsequent 
education  of  the  herdsman  for  the  church,  and  his  elevation  to  the  see  of  Win- 
chester, p.  242. 


4.80  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK          The  same  event  is  told  in  the  Saxon  life  thus :  — 

TV 

-  "  He  took  shelter  in  a  swain's  house,  and  also  him 
87 8-  and  his  evil  wife  diligently  served.  It  happened  that 
on  one  day  the  swain's  wife  heated  her  oven,  and 
the  king  sat  by  it  warming  himself  by  the  fire.  She 
knew  not  then  that  he  was  the  king.  Then  the  evil 
woman  was  excited,  and  spoke  to  the  king  with  an 
angry  mind  :  '  Turn  thou  those  loaves,  that  they 
burn  not ;  for  I  see  daily  that  thou  art  a  great 
eater.'  He  soon  obeyed  this  evil  woman,  because 
she  would  scold.  He  then,  the  good  king,  with 
great  anxiety  and  sighing,  called  to  his  Lord,  im-j 
ploring  his  pity."  6 

The  Latin  life  gives  a  little  more  detail. 

"  Alfred,  a  fugitive,  and  exiled  from  his  people, 
came  by  chance  and  entered  the  house  of  a  poor 
herdsman,  and  there  remained  some  days  concealed, 
poor  and  unknown. 

"  It  happened  that  on  the  Sabbath  day,  the  herds- 
man as  usual  led  his  cattle  to  their  accustomed  pas- 
tures, and  the  king  remained  alone  in  the  cottage 
with  the  man's  wife.  She,  as  necessity  required, 
placed  a  few  loaves,  which  some  call  loudas,  on  a  pan 
with  fire  underneath,  to  be  baked  for  her  husband's 
repast  and  her  own  on  his  return. 

"  While  she  was  necessarily  busied  like  peasants 
on  other  .affairs,  she  went  anxious  to  the  fire  and 
found  the  bread  burning  on  the  other  side.  She  im- 
mediately assailed  the  king  with  reproaches :  '  Why, 
man!  do  you  sit  thinking  there,  and  are  too  proud 
to  turn  the  bread  ?  Whatever  be  your  family,  with 
such  manners  and  sloth,  what  trust  can  be  put  in 

s  Anb  on  rumer  rpanej*  hure  hif  hleop  gejinbe  anb  eac  j-pylce  him  anb  hif 
ypele  pipe  seopne  hepbe.  •  )}ic  selamp  rume  beige  cha  ehaep  fpaney  pip  haeCte 
hepe  open  anb  re  kins  Chop  bis  raec  hleop-pinbe  bine  beo  Chan  pype.  Than  heo 
pep  n>'Cen  die  he  kins  pene.  Tha  peapch  Cha  ypele  pif  paepmse  arCypeb  anb 
cpaech  Co  Chan  kinse  eoppe  mobe  "  Wenb  Chu  cha  hlaper,  Cha  heo  ne  pop- 
beopnep:  popbam  ic  Sereo  beixhamlice  cha  Chu  mycel  seCe  eapr."  J}e  paer  r°ne 
Seheprum  than  ypele  pipe.  Fopban  Che  heo  nebe  rcolbe.  ?>  Cha,  re  Sobe  ki»S» 
mib  mycelpe  ansruninyrre  anb  riccechunse  to  hir  DpihCen  clypobe,  hir  milbfe 
bibbenbe.  MSS.  Vesp.  D.  14. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  4$  j 

you  hereafter  ?    If  you  were  even  a  nobleman,  you     CHAP. 
will  be  glad  to  eat  the  bread  which  you  neglect  to  .    IX-    , 
attend  to.'     The  king,  though  stung  by  her  upbraid- 
ings,  yet  heard  her  with  patience  and  mildness ;  and 
roused  by  her  scolding,  took  care  to  bake  her  bread 
as  she  wished."  7 

Matthew  of  Westminster's  statement  of  the  same 
circumstance  is  to  the  same  effect.  "  It  happened 
that  the  herdsman,  one  day,  as  usual,  led  his  swine 
to  their  accustomed  pasture,  and  the  king  remained 
at  home  alone  with  the  wife.  She  placed  her  bread 
tinder  the  ashes  of  the  fire  to  bake,  and  was  employed 
in  other  business,  when  she  saw  the  loaves  burning, 
and  said  to  the  king  in  her  rage,  '  You  will  not  turn 
the  bread  you  see  burning,  though  you  will  be  very 
glad  to  eat  it  when  done.'  The  king,  with  a  submit- 
ting countenance,  though  vexed  at  her  upbraidings, 
not  only  turned  the  bread,  but  gave  them  to  the 
woman  well  baked  and  unbroken,"  s 

It  is  stated,  that  he  afterwards  munificently  re-  ms  muni- 
warded  the  peasant,  whose  name  was  Denulf.  He 
observed  him  to  be  a  man  of  capacity ;  he  recom- 
mended him  to  apply  to  letters,  and  to  assume  the 
ecclesiastical  profession.  He  afterwards  made  him 
bishop  of  Winchester.9 

The  homely  taunts  of  this  angry  rustic  must  have 
sounded  harshly  to  the  yet  haughty  king ;  but  he  was 
now  levelled  to  her  condition,  or  rather  he  was  even 
more  destitute  than  herself;  for  he  was  dependent 
on  the  bounty  of  her  poverty,  and  had  no  asylum 
but  in  her  humble  cottage.  All  the  honours  and  all 
the  pleasures  of  his  life  had  vanished  like  a  dream : 

7  MSS.  Claud.  A.  5.  p.  157.  *  Matt.  West.  330. 

9  Malmsb,  242.  Flor.  Wig.  318.  As  Florence  of  Worcester  mentions  this  ele- 
vation of  Denulf,  p.  318.,  he  ought  not  to  have  been  mentioned  as  an  evidence 
against  the  incident  as  stated  by  Asser ;  yet  Dr.  Whitaker  unguardedly  so  produces 
him,  p.  239.  Matt.  West.  332.  Denulf  died  bishop  of  Winchester  in  009.  Sax. 
Chron.  102. 


VOL.  I.  II 


482  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  self-reproach,  if  he  had  only  suffered  himself  to  be 
»  surprised,  and  more  poignant  feelings,  if  his  personal 
s78-  misconduct  had  driven  his  subjects  to  desert  him  in 
the  hour  of  need,  concurred  to  aggravate  his  distress. 
In  the  solitude  of  his  retreat,  and  amid  its  penury 
and  mortifications,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  be 
pensive  and  melancholy,  and  yet  improved.  It  is  in  its 
distresses  that  arrogance  learns  to  know  its  folly ;  that 
man  perceives  his  individual  insignificance,  discerns 
the  importance  of  others  to  his  well-being  and  even 
existence,  and  feels  the  necessity  and  the  comfort  of 
believing  or  hoping  that  there  exists  a  Protector  more- 
powerful  than  himself.  Humility,  urbanity,  philan- 
thropy, decorum,  and  self-coercion,  and  all  the  virtues 
which  are  requisite  to  produce  the  good  will  of  our 
species,  are  among  the  offspring  which  nature  has 
allotted  to  adversity,  and  which  the  wise  and  good 
have  in  every  age  adopted  in  their  eclipse.10  The 
sequel  of  Alfred's  reign,  which  was  a  stream  of  virtue 
and  intelligence,  attests  that  his  fortunate  humiliation 
disciplined  his  temper,  softened  his  heart,  increased 
his  piety,  and  enlightened  his  understanding.11 

His  mind  was  too  powerful  and  too  intelligent, 
either  to  remain  inactive  or  to  fail  of  discerning  the 
best  means  of  emancipating   the   country  from  its-? 
barbaric  invaders ;  and  his  subsequent  measures  to* 
regain  his  throne,  and  to  surround  it  with  its  na- 
tural and  impregnable  bulwark,  the  confidence  of  his 
people,  were  judicious  and  exemplary.    An  auspicious 
incident  occurred  at  this  juncture  to  excite  both  their 
courage  and  his  own  perseverance. 

10  "  I  honour  solitude,  the  meditating  sister  of  society,  and  often  her  legislator, 
who  converts  the  experience  of  active  life  into  principles,  and  its  passions  into 
nutritious  juices."     Herder's  Outlines  of  the  Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Man, 
p.  511.  Eng.  ed.  1800. 

11  Asser's  reflection  at  this  period  of  Alfred's  life  seems  to  allude  to  his  previous 
imperfections.     He  says  he  was  afflicted,  "that  he  might  know  that  there  exists 
one  Lord  of  all  to  whom  every  knee  must  bow ;  in  whose  hands  are  the  hearts  of 
kings;  who  deposes  the  mighty  from  their  seat,  and  exalts  the  humble,"  p.  31. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  483 

Ubbo,  who  with  his  brothers  Ingwar  and  Halfden,  CHAP. 
had  conducted  his  fatal  fleet  to  England,  to  avenge  .  IX"  . 
the  death  of  their  father,  and  who  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  massacre  at  Peterborough,  and  who  tack  in  D* 
was  now  the  only  survivor  of  those  children  of  Rag-  vonshire- 
nar  Lodbrog  who  had  afflicted  England,  had  been 
harassing  the  Britons  in  South  Wales,  where  he 
had  wintered.  After  much  of  that  slaughter,  which 
always  attended  their  invasions,  he  returned  with 
twenty-three  ships  to  the  English  Channel.  Sailing 
by  the  north  of  Devonshire,  the  castle  of  Kynwith 12 
attracted  his  notice,  where  many  of  the  king's  thegns 
had  embraced  the  protection  of  the  Earl  of  Devon. 
The  place  was  unprovided  with  subsistence.  It  had 
110  stronger  fortification  than  a  Saxon  wall13;  but 
Ubbo  found  that  its  rocky  situation  made  it  impreg- 
nable against  all  assault,  except  at  the  eastern  point. 
He  also  remarked  that  no  water  was  near  it,  and 
i  consequently  that  a  short  siege  would  reduce  the  in- 
habitants to  every  misery  of  thirst  and  famine.  He 
preferred  the  certain  victory  of  a  blockade  to  a  bloody 
attack,  and  surrounded  it  with  his  followers. 

Odun  saw  the  extent  of  his  distress,  and  the  in- 
evitable certainty  on  which  the  pagans  calculated; 
and  determined  on  a  vigorous  sally.  It  was  bravety 
executed.  While  the  dawn  was  mingling  with  the 
darkness,  Odun  pierced  at  once  to  the  tent  of  Ubbo, 
slew  him  and  his  attendants,  and  turning  on  the 
affrighted  host,  destroyed  the  largest  part ;  a  few 
reached  their  vessels  and  escaped.  An  immense 
booty  rewarded  the  victors,  among  which  the  cap- 
ture of  their  magical  standard,  the  famous  Reafan, 
was  to  the  eye  of  ignorant  superstition  a  more  fatal 

12  Risdon  places  this  castle  near  Apledore  ;  it  is  called  Henney  Castle.     Gough's 
Camden,  i.  p.  40. 

13  Asser  seems  to  treat  Saxon  fortifications  with  some  contempt ;  for  he  says, 
that  it  was  «  omnino  immuriitam  nisi  quod  msenia  nostro  more  erecta  solum  modo 
haberet,"  p.  32.     He  says  he  had  seen  this  castle  himself. 

j  i  2 


484 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK 
IV. 


878. 


Exertions 
of  Alfred 
before  he 
discovered 
himself  to 
his  people. 


disaster  than  even  Ubbo's  death,  and  their  destructive 
defeat,14 

When  Easter  had  passed,  Alfred,  now  twenty-eight 
years  of  age,  began  to  execute  a  new  plan  of  opera- 
tions. The  place  of  his  retreat,  as  already  described, 
was  peculiarly  fitted  to  be  made  a  military  post  of 
the  most  defensible  nature,  and  the  king  fortified  it 
as  his  place  of  safety.15 

The  fullest  account  of  the  exertions  of  Alfred, 
during  his  seclusion  in  this  little  island 16,  is  that  left 
by  the  Abbot  of  Croyland. 

"  The  king,  overwhelmed  with  the  disgrace  of  po- 
verty and  dejection,  and  instead  of  his  royal  palace, 
being  confined  to  a  vile  hovel,  was  one  day  casually 
recognised  by  some  of  his  people,  who,  being  dis- 
persed, and  flying  all  around,  stopped  where  he 
was.  An  eager  desire  then  arose  both  in  the  king 
and  his  knights  to  devise  a  remedy  for  their  fugitive 
condition. 

"  In  a  few  days  they  constructed  a  place  of  defence 
as  well  as  they  could ;  and  here  recovering  a  little 


14  Asser,  32.     The  Sax.  Chron.  makes  the  number  of  the  slain  840.     Flor.  Wig. 
1200,  p.  316.     Asser  describes  the  raven  as  a  banner  woven  by  Ubbo's  three  sisters, 
the  daughters  of  Ragnar  Lodbrog,  in  one  noontide.     It  was  believed  that  the  bird 
appeared  as  if  flying  when  the  Danes  were  to  conquer,  but  was  motionless  when> 
they  were  to  be  defeated.     Asser  adds,  "  et  hoc  sacpe  probatum  est,"  p.  33.     He  j 
might  have  said  that  nothing  was  easier  to  be  contrived.     Bartholin  has  collected 
some  traditions  concerning  such  standards,  and  the  raven's  prophetic  powers,  p.  472 
—480. 

15  Dr.  Whitaker,  in  June  1 806,  thought  that  the  marshes  on  the  new  road  near 
Taunton,  were  those  in  which  Alfred  found  his  refuge.     This  is  the  tradition  of 
the  country,  where  the  Alfred's  head  has  been  taken  for  the  sign  of  the  inn  :  and 
an  inscription  has  been  set  up  about  a  mile  to  the  west  to  commemorate  the  belief. 
The  farm-house  in  this  neighbourhood  was  then  called  Athelney,  and  at  Burrow- 
bridge  there  was  at  that  time  a  pass  over  the  Perrot  which  had  a  rounded  hillock 
near  it,  at  which  a  line  of  raised  road  from  the  east  terminated.     Mr.  Collinson 
describes  it  as  a  very  high  and  steep  mount,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  Perrot, 
which  had  on  it  part  of  the  tower  and  walls  of  an  ancient  chapel. 

The  river  was  navigable  to  this  hamlet,  and  further  on  to  Langport,  and  had 
over  it  a  stone  bridge  of  three  high  arches.  Dr.  Whitaker  thinks  that  on  this 
mount  Alfred  built  his  fortification.  Life  of  St.  Neot,  p.  245 — 248. 

18  A  jewel  of  gold,  enamelled  like  a  bulla  or  amulet,  to  hang  round  the  neck, 
circumscribed,  Alppeb  meg  heht  sepypcan,  i.  e.  Alfred  ordered  me  to  be  made, 
was  found  here.  It  is  now  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum.  Gough's  Camden,  i.  70.. 
It  is  engraved  in  that  work,  p.  59.  and  elsewhere. 


ANGLO-SAXONS/  485 

his  strength,  and  comforted  by  the  protection  of  his     CHAP. 
few  friends,  he  began  to  move  in  warfare  against  his   .    IX'    . 
enemies.     His  companions  were  very  few  in  number,       878- 
compared  with  the  barbarian  multitude ;  nor  could 
they  on  the  first  day,  or  by  their  first  attacks,  obtain 
any  advantages :  yet  they  neither  quitted  the  foe,  nor 
submitted   to  their  defeats ;  but  supported  by  the 
hope  of  victory,  as  their  small  number  gradually  in- 
creased, they  renewed  their  efforts,   and  made  one 
battle  but  the  preparation  for  another. 

"  Sometimes  conquerors,  and  sometimes  conquered,, 
they  learnt  to  overcome  time  by  chances,  and  chance 
by  time.  The  king,  both  when  he  failed  and  when  he 
was  successful,  preserved  a  cheerful  countenance,  and 
supported  his  friends  by  his  example." 17 

To  this  natural  and  intelligible  account,  we  may 
add,  from  Asser,  that  the  only  land-access  to  their 
little  island  was  by  one  bridge,  on  which  by  great 
labour  they  raised  two  defensive  towers,  or,  as  we 
should  now  call  them,  tetes  du  pont.  From  this  for- 
tified retreat,  with  his  noble  vassals  in  Somersetshire, 
he  was  continually  assaulting  the  Danes.18 

The  same  incidents  are  implied  in  the  brief  nar- 
rative of  Matthew  of  Westminster.  "  While  the  king 
remained  alone  with  the  herdsman,  there  came  to 
him  many  of  his  warriors ;  and  by  his  directions 
they  built  a  fortress  with  towers  and  defences,  and 
from  thence  made  continual  irruptions  on  their  ene- 
mies." 19 

They  led  here  an  uncertain  and  unquiet  life.  They 
had  no  subsistence  but  what  they  could  obtain  by 
plunder,  hunting,  or  fishing 20,  in  the  adjoining  dis- 
tricts. Here,  dispossessed  of  his  kingdom,  the  king 
concealed  himself  with  a  few  of  his  friends  among 

»  MS.  Claud.  A.  5.  p   157.  *  Asser,  Vit  p.  60. 

K  Matt.  West,  p.  330. 

»  Ran.  Higden  Polych.  p.  257.     Bromton,  811. 

ii  3 


486  HISTORY   OF    THE 

BOOK     these  woods  and  marshes,  living  on  the  fish  they 
.  -  caught 21  for  several  weeks.     He  had  none  to  aid  him 

878-       but  a  part  of  his  own  household.22 

The  plan  of  Alfred,  suggested  by  the  lonesomeness 
and  security  of  his  retreat,  was  as  efficacious  as  it 
was  wisely  adapted  to  his  position  and  necessities. 
With  a  small  force  he  attacked  without  ceasing  his 
superior  enemies,  whenever  he  found  any  of  their 
parties  or  camps  accessible  to  his  attempts.  His 
object  achieved,  or  repulsed  by  a  superior  force,  he 
retired  with  a  celerity  which  baffled  pursuit  to  his 
unknown  asylum,  and  soon  harassed  the  enemy  with 
hostility  in  a  distant  quarter.  By  day  and  by  night, 
at  dawn,  in  the  evening  twilight,  from  woods  and 
marshes,  he  was  ever  rushing  on  the  Northmen  with 
all  the  advantages  of  selection  and  surprise.23 

By  these  expeditions  Alfred  provided  himself  and 
his  party  with  sustenance ;  he  inured  himself  to  war 
and  skilful  generalship  ;  he  improved  in  his  know- 
ledge of  the  country,  secured  the  attachment  of  his 
friends,  collected  others,  provided  new  resources  of 
character  for  his  future  life,  collected  perpetual  in- 
telligence of  the  motions  of  the  Danes,  revived  the 
spirit  of  the  country,  and  prepared  it  for  that  grand 
exploit  which  was  soon  to  crown  his  labours. 

During  his  residence  in  this  fenny  isle,  an  incident 
occurred,  which  the  monks  are  particular  in  record- 
ing as  a  proof  of  the  improvement  of  his  disposition; 
and  as  it  shows  both  his  situation  and  his  benevolent 
temper,  it  is  worth  our  reciting,  though  without  those 
additions  of  celestial  machinery  with  which  the  te- 
nants of  the  cloister  seem  to  have  been  as  warmly 
enamoured  as  any  possessor  of  the  epic  laurel. 
His  charity.  His  wife  and  family  had  joined  him.  His  friends 
were  abroad  in  search  of  food,  and  his  queen  and  one 

21  Ethelred.  Abb.  p.  353.  a  Ethelwerd,  Chron.  845. 

33  MSS.  Claud.     Wallingf.  p.  537. 


ANGLO-SAXONS  487 

thegn  only  were  with  him.24  It  was  his  custom  when  CHAP. 
alone  here  to  be  reading  the  books  of  Scripture,  .  IX'  . 
hymns,  or  the  annals  of  his  country,  and  the  actions 
of  illustrious  men.25  He  was  sitting  by  himself  read- 
ing one  of  these,  when  he  was  interrupted  by  a  feeble 
knock  at  his  gate,  and  by  the  lowly  cry  of  poverty 
supplicating  relief.  He  remembered  the  state  of  pe- 
nury in  which  he  had  reached  the  same  spot :  he  laid 
down  his  book,  and  called  his  thegn  to  give  the  poor 
claimant  some  food.  The  thegn  found  only  one  loaf 
in  their  store,  which  would  not  suffice  for  their  family 
on  their  return  from  their  toilsome  expedition,  and  a 
little  wine.  Alfred  thought  the  necessities  of  the 
mendicant  more  urgent  than  their  own,  and  reserv- 
ing a  part  of  the  pittance  for  his  friends,  he  presented 
the  beggar  with  the  rest.26 

24  Sim.  Dun.  Hist.  Cuthb.  p.  71. 

25  Ingulf,  p.  26.     Ethel.  Abb.  353. 

86  Sim.  Dun.  71.     Ing.  26.     Ethel.  353. 


ii  4 


488  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAP.  X. 

The  Battle  which  produced  ALFRED'*  Restoration. 

BOOK  AFTER  passing  about  six  months  in  this  retreat1, 
IV'  .  Alfred  revolved  in  his  mind  the  means  of  surprising 
878.  the  main  army  of  the  Northmen,  which  still  continued 
in  Wiltshire.  It  was  encamped  on  and  about  Brat- 
ton-hill,  at  Eddendun2,  near  Westbury.  And  it  is  a 
tradition  which  some  of  the  most  respectable  of  our 
ancient  chroniclers  have  recorded,  that  he  resolved 
to  inspect  their  camp  in  person,  before  he  made  the 
attempt.  His  early  predilection  for  the  Saxon  poetry3 
and  music  had  qualified  him  to  assume  the  character 
of  an  harper ;  and  thus  disguised,  he  went  to  the 
Danish  tents.  His  harp  and  singing  excited  notice ; 
he  was  admitted  to  their  king's  table ;  he  heard  their 
conversation,  and  contemplated  their  position  unsus- 
pected. He  quitted  their  encampment  without  mo- 
lestation, and  reached  his  little  isle  in  safety.4  There 

1  Mr.  Walker,  in  his  notes  to  Sir  John  Spelman's  Life  of  Alfred,  computes,  that 
Alfred's  seclusion  did  not  last  six  months.     Chippenham  was  taken  in  January, 
and  the  great  battle  which  produced  his  restoration  was  fought  seven  weeks  after 
Easter.     Easter-day  was  in  that  year  the  23d  of  March ;  p;  30.     The  seventh 
week  after  that  would  of  course  be  the  eleventh  of  May,  which  does  not  allow  the 
retreat  to  have  been  five  months. 

2  A  part  of  Mr.  Walker's  curious  note  is  worth  translating :  "  Eddendun  lies 
under  Bratton-hill,  which  is  lofty,  abrupt,  and  of  difficult  ascent :  on  its  summit 
there  are  yet  extant  the  trenches  and  ditches  of  the  Danish  camp.     Two  branches, 
for  the  sake  of  water,  spread  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain.     Here,  weary  of  the  con- 
finement of  a  camp,  and  under  no  alarm  of  any  hostile  troops,  the  Danes  diffused 
themselves  to  Eddendun,  and  over  the  neighbouring  plain.     It  is  probable  that  the 
king  had  notice  of  this  descent,  and  resolved  to  examine  the  fact  in  person."     Mr. 
Walker  hints,  that  the  king  may  have  made  his  attack  between  their  army  and  the 
hill,  so  as  to  separate  them  from  their  encampment.     Not.  Vit.  JElfredi,  p.  33. 

3  See  before,  p.  431. 

4  This  incident  is  mentioned  by  Ingulf,  who  was  a  lad  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Confessor,  p.  26.  ;  by  Malmsbury,  p.  43.  ;  both  highly  respectable  chroniclers ; 
and  by  Higden  in  his  Polych.  258.     It  is  also  in  the  MS.  Chronicles  of  Henry 
de  Silgrave,  Cleop.  A.  12.,  and  of  Joh.  Bever,  Harl.  Coll.  641.     That  others  omit 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  4g9 

ts  nothing  improbable  in  the  incident,  nor  is  it  incon-     CHAP. 
sistent  with  the  manners  of  the  time.  , , 

It  was  now  Whitsuntide.  He  sent  confidential  878. 
messengers  to  his  principal  friends  in  the  three  ad- 
jacent counties,  Wilts,  Hampshire,  and  Somerset, 
announcing  his  existence ;  declaring  his  intention  of 
joining  them,  and  requiring  them  to  collect  their 
followers  secretly,  and  to  meet  him  in  military  array 
on  tjie  east  of  Selwood  Forest.5  A  dream,  of  St. 
Neot's  appearing  to  him,  and  promising  him  both 
assistance  and  a  great  success,  is  placed  at  this 
crisis.  It  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  king's 
policy,  or  may  have  occurred  naturally  from  his 
memory  of  his  sacred  monitor ;  and  anticipating  its 
encouraging  effects,  he  may  have  circulated  it  among 
his  friends.4 

A  celebrated  place  called  the  stone  of  Egbert7,  was 
the  appointed  place  of  meeting.  As  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  had  suffered  severely  in  his  absence,  the 
tidings  of  his  being  alive,  and  the  prospect  of  his 
re- appearance,  filled  every  bosorn  with  joy.  All  who 
were  entrusted  with  the  secret  crowded  enthusi- 
astically to  the  place  appointed,  and  the  horns, 
trumpets,  and  clashing  of  the  arms  of  those  who 
came,  and  of  those  who  welcomed  the  loyal  patriots, 
loudly  expressed  their  mutual  congratulations  and 
exultation.8 

it  may  be  accounted  for  by  their  desire  of  attributing  the  victory  to  St.  Neot's 
miraculous  interference,  rather  than  to  the  plans  of  the  king's  previously  exerted 
sagacity. 

5  This  was  named  in  British  Coit  mawr,   the  great  wood.     Asser,  33.     The 
county   (perhaps  from  the  wood)  was  anciently  called   Sealpubrcipe.     Erhelw. 
p.  837.     The  wood  reaches  from  Frome  to  Burham,  near  fifteen  miles  in  length, 
and  six  in  breadth.     Gough's  Camden,  i.  78      Seal,  in  Saxon,  is  a  willow-tree. 
This  was,  therefore,  a  wood  of  willows ;  and  so  the  MSS.  Claud,  names  it,  sylvam 
salicis. 

6  Both  the  MSS.  lives  of  St.  Neot,  and  Asser's  Annals,  mention  this. 

7  Asser,  33.     Flor.  Wig.     MSS.  Claud. 

8  MSS.  Claud,  p.  158.     That  Alfred  invited  Hollo  out  of  France  to  his  aid,  and 
that  Hollo  came  to  help  him.  is  a  circumstance  which  I  have  found  in  Wallingford 
only  (p.  57.),  and  therefore  cannot  state  it  as  a  fact  on  his  single  authority.     It  is 
not  probable  of  itself ;  and  yet  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  its  invention,  if  false. 


490 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


BOOK 
IV. 

V 

878. 


The  battle 
at  Ethan- 
dune. 


Two  days  were  passed  in  these  arrivals  and  re- 
joicings, and  in  making  the  necessary  arrangements 
for  the  consequential  exertion.  Some  rumours  of 
what  was  preparing  reached  the  ears  of  Godrun,  the 
Danish  king9,  but  nothing  to  explain  the  meditated 
blow.  He  called  in  his  forces  to  be  prepared;  but 
as  he  saw  no  collected  enemy,  he  had  no  object  before 
him  to  move  against. 

On  the  third  day  Alfred  marched  his  new-raised 
army  to  .ZEcglea10,  seized  an  adjoining  hill,  encamped 
that  night  there,  and  again  reconnoitred  his  enemies' 
position.11  In  the  morning  they  advanced  rapidly  to 
the  place  called  Ethandune,  where  the  northern 
myriads  were  overspreading  the  plain. 

Alfred  halted  to  form  them  into  a  skilful  arrange- 
ment, and  made  a  short  but  impressive  address.  He 
reminded  them  that  they  were  about  to  combat  both 
for  their  country  and  for  themselves;  he  conjured 
them  to  act  manlily,  and  he  promised  them  a  glorious 
victory.12  They  advanced  when  he  had  concluded, 
and  soon  beheld  the  invading  warriors  before  them, 
but  whether  resting  in  their  camp,  or  arrayed  for 
battle,  is  not  clearly  expressed.  The  attack  was 
meant,  by  the  secrecy  and  celerity  of  the  movement, 
to  be  a  surprise,  and  most  probably  was  so,  and  the 
expressions  used  by  most  of  the  chroniclers  imply 
this  circumstance. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  rushed  on  their  enemies  with 
an  impetuosity  which  disordered  valour  was  unable 

9  MSS.  Claud. 

10  Asser,  34.     JEcglea  has  been  conjectured  to  be  the  village  Leigh.     Cough's 
Camden,  p.  100.     Dr.  Whitaker  prefers  Highley,  near  Whaddon,  p.  266.     Gibson 
suggested  Clay-hill,  near  Warminster. 

11  MSS.  Claud,  p.  158,  159.     Dr.  Whitaker  thinks  the  present  Tatton,  about  five 
miles  from  Chippenham,  to  be  the  representative  of  Ethandun.     He  adds,  "  But 
the  battle  itself  was  a  little  lower  on  the  Avon,  at  Slaughter-ford,"  p.  268.     Gibson 
mentions  a  tradition  of  the  inhabitants,  of  a  great  slaughter  of  the  Danes  at  this 
place.     I  remark  that  the  place  is  called  Assandune  by  Sim.  Dun.  p.  71.  ;  Edde- 
randun  by  Hoveden,  41 7.  ;  Ethandune  by  Ethelwerd,  845.     Camden  places  it  at 
Edindon  or  Eddington,  the  place  mentioned  in  note  1. 

13  MSS.  Claud,  p.  159. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  49  J 

to  withstand.  It  was  Alfred  who  led  them  on ;  who  CHAP. 
seemed  to  have  risen  from  his  grave  to  destroy  them.  .  x>  . 
The  discharge  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  arrows  was  sue-  878- 
ceeded  by  the  attack  of  their  lances,  and  soon  it 
became  a  personal  combat  of  swords.13  The  Northmen 
resisted  with  their  usual  individual  intrepidity ;  but 
their  efforts,  though  furious,  were  unavailing.  Seeing 
a  standard-bearer  leading  on  one  of  his  divisions  with 
great  bravery,  Alfred  is  represented  to  have  pointed 
him  out  to  his  warriors  as  St.  Neot  himself  at  their 
head.14  The  belief  increased  their  enthusiasm ;  their 
resolute  attack  was  everywhere  irresistible ;  and  the 
Northmen  gave  way.  Their  bodies  strewed  the 
plain,  till  a  part  found  refuge  with  their  king  in  a 
neighbouring  fortification ;  Alfred  was  thus  left  the 
master  of  that  important  field,  which,  from  the 
marshes  and  penury  of  Ethelingey,  exalted  him  again 
to  the  throne  of  England.15 

The  king,  with  vigorous  judgment,  followed  the  its  success. 
Northmen  to  their  fortress ;  and,  contrary  to  their 
hopes,  encamped  himself  strongly  round  it.  By  this 
decisive  measure  he  cut  them  off  from  all  reinforce- 
ment, and  confined  them  to  the  scanty  subsistence 
which  happened  to  be  in  their  station.  While  the 
siege  lasted,  the  strength  of  Alfred  augmented  in  a 
proportion  which  destroyed  in  the  Danes  every  hope 
of  emancipation.  They  lingered  in  unavailing  distress 
for  fourteen  days,  and  then,  oppressed  with  cold  and 
famine,  and  worn  down  by  fatigue  and  dismay,  the 

13  MSS.  Claud.  "  MSS.  Claud,  p.  159. 

15  Asser,  34  Mr.  Gough  remarks,  that  on  the  south-west  face  of  the  hill,  near 
Edindon,  there  is  a  most  curious  monument  unnoticed  by  Bishop  Gibson.  It  is  a 
white  horse,  in  a  walking  attitude,  cut  out  of  the  chalk,  fifty-four  feet  high,  from 
his  toe  to  his  chest ;  and  to  the  tip  of  his  ear  near  one  hundred  feet  high,  and  from 
ear  to  tail  one  hundred  feet  long.  The  learned  editor  of  Camden  thinks,  that  it 
was  made  to  commemorate  this  celebrated  victory,  p.  100,  101.  Yet  Whitaker, 
p.  273.,  ha?  remarked,  that  Wise,  in  1742,  declared  it  had  been  wrought  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Westbury  in  the  memory  of  persons  then  living. 


492  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK      imprisoned  chiefs  humbly  supplicated  the  mercy  of1 
\      ^ — »    their  conqueror.16 

Thus,  after  a  very  doubtful  struggle  for  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  island,  during  twelve  years  of  peril 
and  calamity,  the  Anglo-Saxons  by  this  battle  tri- 
umphed over  their  enemies,  arid  surmounted  one  of 
the  most  formidable  invasions  that  any  nation  had 
experienced.  To  this  great  achievement,  to  the 
talents  which  planned,  and  to  the  energy  which 
accomplished  it,  words  can  add.no  praise.  It  was 
the  triumph  of  mind  over  barbarian  strength:  of  a 
wisely  conceiving  and  arranging  intelligence  over 
superiority  of  number,  elation  from  past  successes, 
and  a  hardihood  of  personal  valour  which  no  corn- 
petition  could  excel.  It  was  as  complete  in  its  bene- 
ficial effects  as  it  was  brilliant  in  its  immediate  glory. 

The  immediate  conditions  which  Alfred  imposed, 
were  hostages,  which  were  not  reciprocal,  and  oaths 
that  they  should  leave  his  dominions.     These,  how- 
ever, were  of  puerile  importance,  because   Godrun, 
having  got  released  from  his  confinement,  might  have< 
acted  with   the   same   contempt   of  diplomatic   and 
religious  faith,  for  which  his  countrymen  were  no-| 
torious.     Alfred  had  learnt  that  hosts  and  hostages 
were  but  bonds  of  sand,  and  therefore  relied  no  longer 
upon  these. 

His  comprehensive  mind  conceived  and  executed 
the  magnanimous  policy  of  making  Godrun  and  his 
followers  his  allies,  and  of  leading  them  to  agriculture, 
civilisation,  and  Christianity.  To  effect  this,  he  per- 
suaded them  to  exchange  their  Paganism  for  the 
Christian  religion,  and  on  these  terms  he  admitted 

16  Asser,  34.  Flor.  Wig.  317.  Sax.  Chron.  85.  Whitaker,  p.  269.,  supposes 
the  fortress  to  which  the  Danes  fled  to  have  been  the  double  entrenchment  in 
Bury-wood,  which  is  thus  described  by  Gough  :  "  On  Colerne-down,  on  the  fosse 
near  Wraxhall  and  Slaughterford,  in  Bury-wood,  is  North- wood,  a  camp  of  eighteen 
acres,  double  works,  not  Roman  -.  the  entrance  from  Colerne-down.*3  P.  99. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  493 

them  to  cultivate  and  possess  East  Anglia  as  peaceful     CHAP. 
colonists.  ( *• 

After  some  weeks,  Godrun,  to  whom  the  conditions  878- 
were  acceptable,  went  with  thirty  of  his  chiefs  to 
Aulre17,  near  Ethelney,  where,  Alfred  standing  as 
his  godfather,  he  was  baptized  by  the  name  of  Ethel- 
stan.  The  ceremony  was  completed  a  week  after  at 
the  royal  town  of  Wasdrnor.  He  stayed  twelve  days 
with  the  king,  as  his  guest,  and  received  magnificent 
presents  at  his  departure.18 

Such  a  conversion*  could  be  but  nominal ;  but  the 
religious  tenets  of  the  unreflective  mass  of  mankind 
are  little  else.  The  object  of  Alfred  was  to  place 
them  immediately  under  new  habits,  which  would 
give  them  dispositions  more  compatible  wit  th.3 
well-being  of  society  than  their  ferocious  Paganism. 
To  time,  reflection,  and  tuition,  he  left  further  pro- 
gress in  the  system  he  revered. 

Godrun,  to  fulfil  his  engagements  with  Alfred,,  left 
Chippenham,  and  went  into  Gloucestershire.  He  re- 
mained at  Cirencester19  a  year,  and  then  marching 
into  East  Anglia,  he  divided  it  among  his  soldiers, 
and  they  cultivated  it.20 

Although  the  Northmen  came  to  England  as  the 
ministers  of  vengeance,  yet,  by  residing  in  it  for 
twelve  years,  they  must  have  become  more  sensible  to 
the  charms  of  civilised  life.  The  bands  under  Half- 
den  attested  this  impression  when  they  cultivated 
Northumbria.  Having  thus  turned  their  swords  into 

17  Asser,  35.     Mr.  Walker  thinks,  it  was  the  modern  Aulre,  an  inconsiderable 
place  near  Ethelney.     Wedmor  was  not  less  than  twelve  miles  from  it.     At  Wed- 
mor,  the  white  garments  and  mystic  veil,  then  appropriated  to  baptism,  were  given. 
Vit.  JElf.  35. 

18  Asser,  35.     MSS.  Vesp.  D.  14.     Flor.  318.     Sax.  Chron.  85. 

19  Cirrenceastre,  qui  Brittannice  Cairceri  nominatur,  quse  est  in  meridiana  parte 
Huicciorum  ;  ibique  per  unum  annum  mansit.      Asser,  35. 

20  An.  880.     Cirrenceastre  deserens,  ad  orientales  Anglos  perrexSt,  ipsam  que 
regionem  dividens,  csepit  inhabitare.     Asser,  35.        ftepe  F°n  Te  hepe  OF  Cypen- 
ceajTpe  on  Cart  6nsle,  anb  5t>ra>C  the  lonb,  aub  sebaelbe.     Sax.  Chron.  86.     This 
printed  chronicle  dates  their  occupation  of  East  Anglia  in  879.     The  MS.  chronicle 
places  it,  like  Asser,  in  880.     Cot.  Lib.  Tib.  B.  4.  p.  35, 


494  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  ploughshares,  they  gave  no  assistance  to  Godrun  in 
,  his  invasion  of  Wessex ;  and  if  left  unmolested,  and 

87a  not  endangered,  it  was  probable  they  would  continue 
to  be  pacific.  By  admitting  Godrun  to  imitate  their 
example,  Alfred  calmed  their  inquietude;  and  by 
giving  this  occupation  to  Godrun,  he  secured  safety 
to  himself:  the  beginning  change  in  the  manners  of 
the  North  was  cherished  in  its  most  important  crisis  ; 
and,  as  the  Danes  became  civilised  in  East  Anglia, 
they  were  compelled,  for  their  own  safety,  to  form  a 
barrier,  defending  the  most  exposed  coast  of  the  island 
from  their  more  ferocious  countrymen.21 

21  Saxo  places  a  Gormo  Anglicus  soon  after  Ragnar  Lodbrog,  p.  178.     In  the 
Chronicon  of  Eric  he  is  surnamed  Enske,  the  Englishman,  and  is  there  said  to  have! 
been  baptized  in  England.     Langb.  i.  158.     Hamsfort  says,  he  went  to  England, 
and  was  converted  by  Alfred  ;  ib.  p.  37.     If  so,  he  was  the  Godrun  here  mentioned. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  495 


CHAP. 


878. 


CHAR  XL 

Review  of  the  Causes  and  Consequences  of  the  NORTHMAN  Inva- 
sions. —  The  Actions  of  HASTINGS,  and  his  Invasions  of  ENG- 
LAND. —  ALFRED'S  Death. 

ALFRED  having  permitted  Godrun  to  colonise  East 
Anglia,  the  limits  of  their  respective  territories  were  °XL 
settled  by  a  treaty,  which  still  exists.1  By  the  first 
article,  the  boundary  was  placed  in  the  Thames,  the 
river  Lea  to  its  source,  and  Watling  Street  to  the 
Ouse.2  The  spaces  thus  marked  contained  Norfolk, 
Suffolk,  Cambridgeshire,  Essex,  part  of  Hertfordshire, 
part  of  Bedfordshire,  and  a  little  of  Huntingdonshire.3 
These  regions  were  subjected  to  Godrun,  and  were 
filled  with  Danes.4  JSTorthumbria  was  afterwards  put 
under  Guthred,  who  governed  Deira ;  and  Egbert 
ruled  in  Bernicia. 5 

1  It  is  in  Wilkins's  Leges  Anglo- Saxonicae,  p.  47.     The  beginning  may  be  quoted 
as  an  intimation  of  the  parties  to  such  transactions  :   "Thir  if  the  pj'ythe  tlia 
.flSlpptbcymns  anb  Iruthpun  cynins,  anb  caller  Ansel  cynnerpitan  anb  eal  reo 
tlieob  die  on  Cart-Cnsliim  beoth,  ealle  secpeben  habbath  anb  nub  at  hum  s<-'- 
Faej*cnob  pop  hi  rylpe  anb  pop  heopa  senspan  se  pop  Sebopene,   &e  pop    un£e- 
bopene,  the  Sober  miltre  pecca  oththe  upe." 

2  The  words  are,  "  ^Epejt  ymb   upe  lanbgemepa   upon  Temt>re,  anb  thonne 
upon  Irisan  anb  anblans  Lisan  oth  hipe  aepylin,  thonne  on  sepiht  to  Beban- 
popba,  thon  upon  Upm  oth  Waethnsartpet."     p.  47. 

8  Sir  John  Spelman  places  Northumbria  also  under  Godrun,  p.  66.  He  is  cer- 
tainly sanctioned  by  Malmsbury,  p.  43.  ,  but  Asser,  35. ;  Florence,  328.  ;  Sax. 
Chron.  86.  ;  Ethelwerd,  845.;  Hunt,  350. ;  Ingulf,  26.;  and  Mailros,  144.,  unite 
in  merely  stating  Godrun's  occupation  of  East  Anglia.  The  grammatical  construc- 
tion of  the  Saxon  treaty  appears  to  me  to  imply  no  more. 

4  The  other  articles  of  the  treaty  are  legal  regulations.     Spelman's  Summary 
may  be  cited  :   They  provide  "  that  there  shall  be  one  and  the  same  estimation  of 
•person,  both  of  English  and  Dane,  and  the  mulct  for  slaughter  of  them  both  alike. 
That  a  thane  of  the  king's  being  questioned  for  manslaughter,  or  any  offence  above 
four  marks,  shall  be  tried  by  twelve  of  his  peers,  and  others  by  eleven  of  their  peers, 
and  one  of  the  king's  men.      That  no  buying  of  men,  horse,  or  oxen,  shall  be  jus- 
tifiable without  voucher  of  the  seller,  and  his  avowing  the  sale.     And,  lastly,  that 
there  shall  be  no  licentious  intercourse  of  the  soldiers  of  the  one  with  those  of  the 
other  army."  p.  68.     Herne's  ed. 

5  Mailros,  145.     In  890,  Godrun  died  in  East  Anglia,  Flor.  328. ;  and  Guthred 
in  Northumbria  died  894.     Sim.  Dun.  133.  and  70.     Mailros,  146. 


496 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


BOOK          The  sovereignty  of  Mercia,  on  the  defeat  of  the 

^! — .  Danes 6,  fell  into  the  power  of  Alfred.     He  did  not, 

878-  however,  avowedly  incorporate  it  with  Wessex.  He 
discontinued  its  regal  honours,  and  constituted  Ethel- 
red  its  military  commander,  to  whom  he  afterwards 
married  his  daughter,  Ethelfleda,  when  her  age  per- 
mitted. 7 

The  reign  of  Alfred,  from  his  restoration  to  his 
death,  was  wise  and  prosperous.  One  great  object 
of  his  care  was,  to  fortify  his  kingdom  against  hostile 
attacks.  He  rebuilt  the  cities  and  castles  which  had] 
been  destroyed,  and  constructed  new  fortifications  in: 
every  useful  place ;  and  he  divided  the  country  into 
hundreds  and  tythings  for  its  better  military  defence 
and  internal  peace,  and  to  repel  that  disposition  for 
depredation  which  was  prevailing  even  among  his 
own  subjects.8  By  these  defensive  precautions,  he 
gave  to  the  country  a  new  face,  and  not  only  kept  in 
awe  the  Northmen  who  were  in  it,  but  was  prepared 
to  wage,  with  advantage,  that  defensive  war,  which 
the  means  and  disposition  of  the  impetuous  invaders 
could  never  successfully  withstand. 

The  policy  of  Alfred's  conduct  towards  Godrun 
was  evinced  and  rewarded  immediately  afterwards. 
A  large  fleet  of  Northmen  arrived  in  the  Thames, 
who  joined  Godrun,  as  if  desirous  to  unite  with  him 
in  a  new  warfare ;  but,  Alfred  having  pacified  his 
ambition,  these  adventurers  found  no  encouragement 
to  continue  here.  They  wintered  at  Fulham,  and 
then  followed  their  leader,  the  famous  Hastings,  into 
Flanders ;  and  remained  a  year  at  Ghent.  9 

6  Spelman  thinks  that  the  superior  sovereignty  of  Alfred  was  preserved  in  his 
treaties  with  the  Danes.     He  remarks  from  Malmsbury,   that  Alfred  gave  the 
dominion  to  Godrun,  ut  eas  sub  fldelitate  regis  jure  hereditario  tbveret,  and  that 
the  very  joining  in  the  laws  shows  that  the  one  was  a  vassal.     P.  69. 

7  It  is  said  in  the  Saxon  life  of  Neot,  that  after  the  pacification,  Godrun,  with 
the  remains  of  his  army,  departed  in  peace  to  his  own  country,   "  CG  hir  «senem 
eapbe  nub  ealpe  ribbe."      MSS.  Vesp.  D.  14.     This  seems  to  imply  a  return  to 
Denmark,  as  East  Anglia  was  not  properly  his  own  country. 

8  Ingulf,  27.     Matt.  West.  345.  9  Asser,  35,  36.     Malmsb.  43. 


Another 


the  North- 
men. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  497 

Alfred  discerned  the  inestimable  benefit  to  Eng-     CHAP. 
land  of  creating  a  naval  armament  for  the  protection       XL  ^ 
of  its  coast  from  the  adventurers  that  now  swarmed       878. 
on  the  ocean.     This  king,  who  never  used  war  but 
from  necessity,  which  he  deplored,  may  be  considered 
as  the  founder  of  the  English  navy.     In  this,  how- 
ever, he  was  but  the  copyist  of  Charlemagne,  'whose 
policy  of  building  ships  to  repress  the  northern  in- 
vasions has  been  noticed  before.10    Alfred  had  already 
experienced  the  efficacy  of  a  few  ships  of  war.     In 
882,  he  was  prepared  to  engage  in  a  naval  conflict, 
and  took  two  ships.     The  chief  and  the  crews  of  two 
others  submitted  to  him,  but  not  until  they  were 
•all  wounded.11 

The  army  of  the  Northmen  on  the  Scheld  divided  884 
into  two  branches.  One  moved  against  Eastern 
France;  the  other  invaded  England,  and  besieged 
Rochester.  They  built  a  castle  against  its  gate,  but 
the  valour  of  the  citizens  prolonged  their  defence, 
till  Alfred,  with  a  great  army,  approached  to  relieve 
them.  On  the  king's  sudden  presence,  the  Pagans 
abandoned  their  tower,  all  the  horses  which  they 
had  brought  from  France,  and  the  greatest  part  of 
their  captives,  and  fled  with  precipitation  to  their 
ships.  Compelled  by  extreme  necessity,  they  returned 
in  the  same  summer  to  France.12 

Alfred,  improving  the  hour  of  success,  directed  his 
fleet,  full  of  warriors,  to  East  Anglia,  where  new 
bands  of  depredators  had  arrived  or  were  forming. 
They  met  thirteen  war-ships  of  the  Danes  ready  for 
battle.  The  Saxons  attacked  and  took  them,  with 

10  About  this  time  kings  seem  to  have  thought  of  navies.     In  888,  Mahomet, 
the  Saracen  king  in  Corduba,  ordered  ships  to  be  built  at  Corduba,  Hispali,  and  in 
other  places  where  wood  abounded.      Of  this  king  it  is  said,  that  as  he  was  walking 
in  his  garden,  a  soldier  exclaimed,  "  What  a  beautiful  place  I     What  a  delightful 
day!     How  charming  would  life  be  if  death  never  came  I"  —  "  You  are  wrong," 
answered  Mahomet;  "if  death  never  had  come,  I  should  not  have  reigned  here." 
Rod.  Tol.  Hist.  Arab.  c.  28.  p.  24. 

11  Asser,  36.     Sax.  Chron.  86.  12  Asser,  37. 


VOL.  I.  K  K 


498  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     all  their  booty  ;  the  crews  fighting  fiercely,  till  every 
v     /    •  one  perished.     But  the  Saxons  forgot  the  suspicious 
884.      vigilance  which  should  always  be  maintained  on  an 
enemy's  coast.     The  Danes  gathered  all  their  ships 
together,  and  coming  on  the  fleet  of  Alfred,  which 
was  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  they  obtained  a  vic- 
tory of  superiority  or  surprise.13     The  colonising  fol- 
lowers of  Godrun  broke  their  treaty  with  Alfred  ;  but 
as  no  account  of  the  consequences  is  transmitted  to 
us,  the  peace  was  soon  probably  restored.14 

The  most  brilliant  incident  in  the  life  of  Alfred 
was  his  defence  of  England  against  the  formidable 
Hastings,  which  has  not  hitherto  been  sufficiently 
remarked.  In  his  struggles  against  the  Northmen,- 
over  whom  he  prevailed  at  Eddinton,  he  had  to  op- 
pose power  rather  than  ability ;  but  in  resisting 
Hastings,  he  had  to  withstand  a  skilful  veteran,  dis- 
ciplined in  all  the  arts  of  war  by  thirty  years'  practice 
of  it ;  renowned  for  his  numerous  successes  in  other 
regions,  and  putting  in  action  a  mass  of  hostility, 
which  might  have  destroyed  a  man  of  less  ability  than 
the  Saxon  king. 

Actions  of  Hastings  must  have  long  been  a  favourite  of  tradi- 
tion, because  he  was  one  of  those  heroic  and  success- 
ful adventurers  whom  popular  fame  loves  to  celebrate, 
and  sometimes  to  fancy.  Time  has,  however,  sol 
much  to  record,  such  numerous  characters  to  perpe- 
tuate, that  it  suffers  many  to  fall  into  the  shroud  of 
oblivion,  of  whom  our  curiosity  would  desire  a  dis- 
tinct memorial.  Hastings  has  scarcely  survived  the 
general  lot.15  We  know  him  but  by  a  few  imperfect 

13  Asser,  38.     The  Cotton  MSS.  and  the  editions  of  Parker  and  Camden  say, 
the  English  fleet  dormiret.     Florence,  in  relating  the  incident,  substitutes  the  word 
rediret,  p.  321.;  and  the  Saxon  Chron.  p.  87.  hampeapb  penbon. 

14  Asser,  39.     A  great  army  of  Northmen  was  at  this  time  attacking  the  con- 
tinental Saxons  and  Frisians.     Ibid.  38. 

15  Dudo  has  attempted  to  draw  his  character ;  but  he  has  only  recollected  and 
applied  to  him  thirty -two  vituperative  epithets  from  the  Latin  language,  strung 
into  hexameters.     One  of  the  historian's  bright  ideas  is,  that  Hastings  should  be 
non  atramento  verum  carbone  notandus,  p.  63. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  499 

fragments :  they  announce  a  character  of  high  im- 
portance  in  his  day,  but  they  give  us  little  acquaint- 
ance  with  his  individual  features. 

He  first  appears  to  us  as  selected  by  Ragnar 
Lodbrog,  to  initiate  his  son,  Biorn,  in  the  habit  of 
piracy 16 :  that  he  possessed  the  virtues  of  a  vikingr, 
intrepidity,  activity,  and  ferocity,  is  evinced  by  the 
i  office  which  Ragnar  assigned  him. 

He  fulfilled  his  military  duty  with  distinguished 
courage ;  for  he  led  his  young  pupil  into  a  collision 
with  the  Franks.     To  detail  his   successful   depre- 
dations against  this  powerful  nation17  would  be  to 
[repeat  much  of  those  descriptions  with  which  our 
i  annals  abound. 

Charles  at  last  bought  off  his  hostility,  and  the 
j  ambitious  Northman  is  said  to  have  formed  the  bold 
ihope  of  conquering,  for  his  master,  the  imperial 
I  dignity.  To  accomplish  this  project,  he  sailed  to 
j  Italy18,  and,  mistaking  the  city  Luna19  for  Rome, 
l|  he  attacked  and  obtained  it.  The  geographical  error, 
and  his  ignorance  of  the  country,  occasioned  him  to 
I  return.  But  the  scheme  evinces  the  largeness  of  am- 

16  Hastings  had  been  the  nutritius  of  Biorn.     Ord.  Vital,  p.  458.     Snorre  gives 
a  similar  instance,  in  Olaf  Helga's  history.     This  prince  first  began  piracy  at  the 
age  of  twelve,  under  the  tuition  of  Ran,  his  foster-father.     Hastings  is  also  men- 
tioned by  his  contemporary  Odo,  an  abbot  of  Clugny,  in  his  account  of  St.  Martin. 
Bib.  Mag.  Pat.  viL  p.  637. 

17  For  his  actions,  see  Gemmeticensis  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  5.  p.  218.     Dudo,  lib.  i.  c.  1. 
ip.  63.     Ord.  Vitalis,  lib.  iii.  p.  458.     The  chronicles  cited  by  Du  Chesne,  p.  25. 
and  32.  of  his  Hist.  Norm.  Scriptores.     The  authorities  vary  much  as  to  the  year 
of  the  attack.     Some  place  it  in  843,  others  in  851. 

18  Chron.  Turonense,  p.  25.     Du  Chesne,  Script.  Norm.  Chron.  Floriac.  p.  32. 
ibid.     Dudo,  p.  64.     Gemmet.  220. 

19  Luna  is  mentioned  in  Strabo,  p.  339.     It  is  thus  noticed  by  Condamine  in 
his  Tour  to  Italy  in  1757  :  "  In  passing  from  Genoa  to  Lerici  on  board  a  felucca, 
I  entered  the  gulf  of  Specia,  where  I  saw  a  spring  of  fresh  water  in  the  midst  of 
the  sea.     This  gulf,  on  the  borders  of  which  are  seen  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  city 
Luna,  destroyed  by  the  Saracens,  forms  the  most  beautiful  and  the  largest  port 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  perhaps  of  the  whole  world.     It  is  of  this  port  that  Silus 
Italicus  said, 

«  *  Quo  nos  spatiosior  alter 
Innumeras  cepisse  rates  et  claudere  portum. ' 

L.  8.  v.  481. 

It  comprehends  within  its  sweep,  and  in  its  bays,  several  other  ports  ;  two  naval 
armaments  may  lie  there  at  anchor  without  seeing  each  other." 

K  K    2 


500  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK     bition,  and  prospect,  to  which  the  fame  and  actions 
v_^J — >   of  Ragnar  was  expanding  the  Northman  mind. 

He  landed  again  in  France 20,  and  from  him  and 
others  renewed  destruction  became  its  fate.  The 
government  was  weak,  and  the  country  factious. 
Sometimes  the  assailants  were  bought  off.21  Some- 
times the  rivers  were  fortified  to  prevent  their  in- 
gress.22 A  general  assembly  of  the  powerful  chiefs 
was  in  one  year  convened,  to  provide  an  united  de- 
fence 23  ;  and  an  edict  was  afterwards  passed,  award- 
ing death  to  all  who  should  give  breast-plates,  arms, 
or  horses,  to  Northmen,  even  though  it  was  to  pro-; 
cure  their  own  redemption.24  But  the  particular- 
actions  of  Hastings  are  not  now  to  be  traced,  be*; 
cause  though  the  chronicles  of  France  abound  with] 
depredations,  they  often  omit  the  name  of  the  com- 
manding adventurer. 

He  appears  to  us,  however,  twice  by  name  in  the 
annals  of  Regino.  Once  in  the  year  867,  as  compelled! 
to  fortify  himself  in  a  church,  sallying  from  which^ 
he  destroyed  Count  Robert  the  Strong25,  who  has:i 
been  called  the  greatest  captain  which  France  theiw 
had.26  Again,  in  the  year  874,  as  hovering  about! 
Bretagne,  and  accepting  a  defiance  from  a  celebrated, 
Breton  warrior,  whose  courage  excited  his  admiration, 
and  averted  or  deterred  his  hostility.27 

20  Dudo,  p.  65.     The  Gesta  Normannorum  does  not  state  when  they  returned 
from  Italy,  but  mentions  that,  in  869,  part  returned  to  Italy,  p.  3. 

21  In  869,  Charles  gave  them  4000  pounds  of  silver,  and  raised  this  sum  by 
exacting  six  denarii  from  every  manso  ingenuili  et  de  servili  tres  et  de  accolis  unus  I 
et  de  duobus  hospitibus  unus  et  decima  de  omnibus  quse  negotiatores  videbantitf  I 
habere.     Gesta  Norman.     Du  Chesne,  p.  3.     So  in  870,  they  obtained  a  great! 
donation  of  silver,  corn,  wine,  and  cattle,  p.  4,  &c. 

22  Ann.  Bertiniani,  an.  864. 

23  In  Junio,  864,  celebrantur  Comitia  Pistensia  quo  regem  et  proceres  traxerat  f 
generalis  necessitas  instituendi  munitiones  contra  Normannos.     Capit.  Reg.  ap.  I 
Lang.  i.  558. 

24  Capit.  Reg.  ap.  Lang.  i.  558.     When  the  Pope  Nicolaus  cited  the  bishops  of  j 
France,  they  excused  themselves  on  account  of  the  Northmen.     Lang.  i.  568. 

25  Regino,  p.  481.     Pistor.  Script.  Germ. 

26  Cet  fut  ainsi  que  perit  alors  Robert  le  Fort  le  plus  grand  capitaine  qu'il  y  eust 
alors  en  France.     Daniel,  Hist,  de  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  99. 

27  Regino,  p.  55. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  501 

In  879  he  was  in  England,  as  before-mentioned,  at     CUA.P. 
Fulhain ;   but  as  he  received  no  co-operation  from   .    XI'    - 
Godrun,  whom  Alfred  had  wisely  pacified,  he  sailed       884- 
to  Ghent28,   and  joined  vigorously  in  those  furious 
assaults  by  which  the  kingdom  of  France  was  for 
thirteen  years  again  desolated,  and  endangered.29 

Defeated  at  length  by  the  imperial  forces,  Hastings  893- 
marched  to  Boulogne,  and  constructing  there  a  large 
fleet 30,  he  determined  to  try  his  fortune  against 
Alfred  in  England.  Perhaps  weary  of  a  life  of  wan- 
dering warfare,  he  now  hoped  to  extort  an  English 
kingdom,  or  to  be  chosen  king  of  the  Anglo-Danes, 
as  no  chieftain  of  the  Northmen  was  then  surviving 
of  equal  celebrity  with  himself. 

Fifteen  years  had  now  elapsed  since  Alfred's  re- 
storation, and  he  had  employed  the  interval  in  execut- 
ing every  scheme  which  his  active  wisdom  could  form, 
for  the  improvement  and  protection  of  his  people. 
His  activity  in  defeating  this  attempt  is  a  remarkable 
feature  in  a  character  so  contemplative.  The  sud- 
den invasion  of  Hastings  compelled  him  to  abandon 
literature  and  ease,  for  an  unremitted  exertion  of 
sagacity  and  courage,  in  the  decline  of  his  life,  and 
towards  the  end  of  his  reign. 

Hastings  attacked  Alfred  with  peculiar  advantages. 
As  the  Northmen  were  in  possession  of  Northumbria 
arid  East  Anglia,  he  had  only  to  contend  against  the 
strength  of  AVessex  and  its  dependencies.  Godrun 
was  dead 31 ;  whose  friendship  with  Alfred  might 
have  counteracted  his  invasion.  If  his  countrymen 

28  It  is  Malmsbury  who  has  affixed  his  name  to  this  incident.     Asser  and  others 
mention  the  arrival  at  Fulham,  and  the  departure.     Malmsbury  says,  "  Caeteri  ex 
Dunis  qui  Christiani  esse  recusassent,  cum  Hastingo  mare  transfretaverunt  ubi  qua 
mala  fecerunt  indiginae  norunt "     P.  43. 

29  During  this  period  they  were  once  defeated  by  Louis :  a  song,  in  the  ancient 
Teutonic  language,  written  at  the  time,  on  this  victory,  still  exists.     Their  siege  of 
Paris,  and  its  defence  in  886,  is  narrated  in  a  curious  poem  of  Abbo,  who  was  in 
the  scene  of  action,  and  who  has  transmitted  to  us  a  full  description  of  the  incident. 
It  is  in  Du  Chesne ;  and  Langb.  ii.  76—106. 

30  Ethel  werd.  sl  He  died  890.     Sax.  Chron.  p.  90. 

K  K  3 


502  HISTORY    OF   THE 

BOOK  in  England  declined  to  assist  him  by  their  active  co- 
.  /  '  operation,  he  was  sure  of  their  neutrality,  and  he 
893.  relied  on  their  secret  connivance.  He  shaped  his 
operations  in  conformity  with  this  political  situation. 
By  not  landing  in  East  Anglia  and  Northumbria,  he 
avoided  the  danger  of  exciting  their  jealousy ;  and  by 
directing  his  fleet  to  Kent,  he  was  enabled  to  profit 
from  their  vicinity.  If  he  were  defeated,  they  might 
afford  him  a  shelter ;  if  successful,  they  could  imme- 
diately assist.  On  these  occasions  we  must  also  re- 
collect, that  the  assailing  force  did  not  merely  consist 
of  those  who  at  first  invaded.  The  landing  actually 
made,  usually  drew  to  the  enterprise  many  of  the 
independent  bands  that  were  floating  about.  It  may 
have  been  from  these  supplies  that  Hastings  con- 
tinued  the  struggle  so  long. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  vessels  sailed  to  the  south- 
west coast  of  Kent,  and  landed  near  Romney-marsh, 
at  the  eastern  termination  of  the  great  wood  or  weald 
of  Anderida.32  They  drew  up  their  ships  to  the! 
weald,  four  miles  from  the  outward  mouth  of  the 
river,  and  there  attacked  and  mastered  a  fortification 
which  the  peasants  of  the  country  were  constructing 
in  the  fens.  They  built  a  stronger  military  work  at 
Apuldre,  on  the  Rother,  and  ravaged  Hampshire  and] 
Berkshire. 33 

Soon  afterwards,  Hastings  himself  appeared  with 
the  division  he  had  selected  to  be  under  his  own  com- 
mand, consisting  of  eighty  ships,  in  the  Thames.  He 
navigated  them  into  the  East  Swale,  landed  at  Milton, 
near  Sittingbourn,  and  threw  up  a  strong  entrench- 
ment, which  continued  visible  for  ages.33 

This  distribution  of  his  forces  was  judicious.     The 

32  The  Saxon  Chronicle  says,  they  landed  at  Limine  muthan,  p.  91.  This  au- 
thority describes  this  wood  as  then  being  1 20  miles  long  from  east  to  west,  and  30 
broad. 

39  Sax.  Chron.  92.     Ethelw.  846.      Matt.  West.  345. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  503 

two  armies  were  but  twenty  miles  asunder,  and  could     CHAP. 
therefore  act  separately,   or  combine   for   any  joint  .    XL    . 
operation  which  prudence  or  exigency  should  direct.       893- 
The  vicinity  of  their  countrymen  in  Essex  secured 
them  from  any  attacks  on  the  right,  and  the  sea  was 
their  frontier  on  the  left.     The  fertile  districts  in  the 
east  part  of  Kent  became  their  spoil  without  a  blow  ; 
and  thus  Hastings  secured  an  ample  supply,  and  a 
safe  position,  which  courage  and  policy  might  convert 
into  a  kingdom. 

While  Alfred  prepared  for  measures  of  active  re-  894. 
sistance,  he  endeavoured  to  bind  the  Northumbrians 
and  East  Anglians  to  peace,  by  oaths  and  hostages ; 
but  the  sympathetic  temptations  to  plunder,  which 
the  presence  and  situation  of  Hastings  presented, 
overcame  their  young  religion  and  their  honour. 
When  the  armies  of  Hastings  pervaded  the  country 
in  occasional  excursions,  they  joined  in  the  enterprise, 
and  sometimes  they  made  aggressions  themselves.34 

In  this  perilous  conjuncture,  Alfred,  with  cool 
judgment,  distinguished  the  dangerous  from  the  tem- 
porary attack.  He  neglected  the  East  Anglians ;  he 
left  the  country  which  they  could  infest  to  the  pro- 
tection of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  fortified  cities 
which  he  had  provided ;  and  he  encamped,  with  his 
collected  army,  between  the  two  divisions  of  the 
Danes :  the  forest  on  the  one  side,  and  waters  upon 
the  other,  protected  his  flanks,  and  gave  security  to 
his  encampment.35 

By  this  judicious  station  he  separated  the  invaders 
from  the  East  Anglians,  and  at  the  same  time  kept 
asunder  the  two  armies  of  the  Northmen.  He  watched 
their  movements,  and  was  prepared  to  pour  his 
avenging  troops  on  either  which  should  attempt  to 
molest  his  people  beyond  the  districts  in  which  they 


84  Sax.  Chron.  92.     Flor.  Wig.  329. 

35  Sax.  Chron.  92.     Flor.  330.     Matt.  West.  346. 

K  K    4 


504  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     resided.     They  sometimes  endeavoured  to  plunder  in  \ 
.    IV'    .   places  where  the  royal  army  was  absent ;  but  bands 
894.       from  the  neighbouring  cities,  or  Alfred's  patrolling 
parties,   both   by    day   and    night,    chastised   their 
ravages. 36 

The  king's  discretion  and  activity  awed  even  Hast- 
ings. It  was  so  unlike  the  disorderly  warfare  which 
he  had  experienced  in  France,  that  for  some  time  he 
seemed  intimidated  by  an  enemy  whose  strength  was 
multiplied  by  his  judgment.  Alfred's  position  was 
too  strong  to  be  attacked  without  assured  peril ;  and 
as  the  king  despised  the  valour  of  temerity,  he  for- 
bore to  assault  the  Danes  in  their  entrenchments. 
His  hope  was  to  acquire  a  certain  victory  from  a 
Fabian  caution,  combined  with  a  Fabian  vigilance. 

The  plan  of  Alfred  required  the  aid  of  time,  and  a 
permanent  force :  but  the  conditions  of  military  ser-  j 
vice  prevented  the  Saxon  army  from  being  perpetually 
in  the  field.  To  remedy  this  inconvenience,  which 
would  have  robbed  him  of  all  the  advantages  he  pro- 
jected, Alfred  divided  his  army  into  two  bodies :  of 
these,  he  called  one  to  the  warlike  campaign,  while 
the  individuals  of  the  other  were  enjoying  peaceably 
their  private  occupations.  After  a  reasonable  service, 
the  active  portion  was  allowed  to  return  home,  and 
the  rest  quitted  their  domestic  hearths  to  supply  the 
place  of  their  retiring  countrymen.  Thus  while  he 
avoided  every  necessity  of  rushing  to  a  precipitate 
attack,  he  always  presented  to  the  invaders  a  strong 
and  undiminished  force. 

Surprised  at  this  new  phenomenon,  Hastings  and 
his  confederates  remained  in  their  camps,  discontented, 
coerced,  and  overawed.  The  East  Anglians,  who 
watched  the  motions  of  Hastings,  forbore  any  mate- 
rial warfare  while  he  remained  inactive. 

M  Sax.  Chron.  92.      Flor.  330.     Matt.  West.  346. 


ANGLO -SAXONS.  5()5 

Weary  of  this  destructive  confinement,  Hastings 
resolved  at  last  to  emancipate  himself.  To  deceive 
Alfred,  he  sent  his  two  sons  to  be  baptized,  and 
promised  to  leave  the  kingdom.37  Then,  at  the  same 
instant  that  he  took  to  his  shipping,  as  if  to  fulfil  his 
engagement,  his  main  army  suddenly  broke  up  their 
encampments,  and  passed  beyond  the  army  of  Alfred 
into  the  interior  of  the  country.  Their  object  was  to 
reach  the  Thames,  where  fordable,  and  to  pass  into 
Essex,  where  they  could  unite.  The  celerity  of  their 
movements  prevented  his  vigilance,  and  an  ample 
booty  was  their  first  reward.  But  the  wakeful 
monarch  was  not  long  outstripped ;  he  pursued  with 
a  speed  commensurate  to  theirs,  while  his  son  Edward 
advanced  to  the  same  point  with  the  warriors  which 
he  had  collected.38  Alfred  reached  them  at  Farnham, 
in  Surrey,  and  hastening  into  action,  with  as  much 
judgment  as  he  had  before  deferred  it,  he  defeated 
I  them  so  decisively,  and  pursued  them  with  such 
vigour,  that  they  were  compelled  to  plunge  into  the 
Thames,  without  a  ford,  for  shelter  against  his  sword. 
Their  king,  desperately  wounded,  was  saved  with 
difficulty,  being  carried  over  the  river  on  horseback. 
They  who  could  swim,  escaped  into  Middlesex.  Al- 
fred followed  them  through  this  county  into  Essex, 
and  drove  them  across  Essex  over  the  Coin.  In  this 
point  they  found  a  refuge  in  the  Isle  of  Mersey. 
The  defences  of  this  place  secured  them  from  attack, 
and  the  king  had  no  ships  to  make  his  siege  effec- 
tual.39 His  forces  maintained  the  blockade  as  long 
as  their  time  of  service,  and  their  provisions,  allowed 

37  Matt.  West.  346. 

88  It  is  Ethelwerd  who  mentions  the  prince's  exertions.  His  chronicle  in  this 
p;irt  is  obviously  the  translation  of  a  Saxon  song  on  this  struggle,  p.  846. 

39  Matt.  West.  346.  Bishop  Gibson  says  of  Mersey  Island,  which  contains  eight 
parishes,  "  It  is  a  place  of  great  strength,  and  may  be  almost  kept  against  all  the 
world ;  for  which  reason  the  Parliament  clapped  in  a  thousand  men  to  guard  it 
from  being  seized  by  the  Dutch,  about  the  beginning  of  the  Dutch  war."  Camd. 
359. 


506  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     them.40     Alfred   then   marched   thither   with  other 
v_^! — »   forces  from  the  county,  whose  allotment  it  was  to 
894-       continue  the  siege.     The  king  of  the  Northmen  being 
wounded,  they  were  compelled  to  stay  in  their  posi- 
tion.    They  now  sued  for  peace,  and  agreed  to  retire 
from  England.41 

While  Alfred  was  thus  victoriously  employed,  the 
exhortations  of  Hastings  produced  at  last  their  effect 
on  the  Danish  colonists  of  Northumbria  and  East 
Anglia.  Unable  to  resist  the  wish  of  seeing  a  coun- 
tryman on  the  throne  of  Wessex,  they  combined  their 
exertions  to  make  two  diversions  in  favour  of  the  in- 
vaders. With  a  hundred  ships  they  passed  the  North 
Foreland,  and  sailed  along  the  southern  coasts,  while 
a  fleet  of  forty  vessels  successfully  attempted  a  passage 
round  the  north  of  the  island.  Their  scheme  was  to 
attack  in  two  points.  The  larger  armament  besieged 
Exeter ;  the  other,  reaching  the  Bristol  Channel,  sur- 
rounded a  fortress  in  the  north  part  of  the  county. 42 

The  king  was  preparing  to  renew  the  blockade  of 
Mersey,  when  the  intelligence  reached  him  of  these 
invasions  in  the  west.  The  possession  of  Devonshire 
was  perilous  to  his  best  interests.  The  Welsh  might 
be  stimulated  to  take  advantage  of  his  difficulties ; 
and  if  this  county  had  been  occupied  by  Danes,  from 
its  maritime  conveniences,  it  might  be  difficult  to 
dislodge  them.  Alfred  therefore  determined,  at  every 
hazard,  to  have  Exeter  relieved.  He  left  his  eastern 
troops  to  proceed  to  the  siege  of  Mersey;  and  he 
hastened  to  protect  his  endangered  fortresses  in  Devon- 
shire. 

In  the  mean  time,  Hastings  had  been  more  fortu- 
nate in  his  movement  than  his  discomfited  friends. 
He  got  out  of  the  Swale,  and,  crossing  the  Thames,  he 

40  The  passage  is  curious :    "  Tha  beret  rio  jynb  hie  thaefi  utan  tha  hpile  the 
lensept  mete  haepbon.    Ac  hie  haepbon  tha  hiopa  rtemn  seretenne   anb   hiopa 
mere  senotubne."     Sax.  Chron.  93. 

41  Ethelwerd,  846.  42  Sax.  Chron.  93.     Flor.  Wig.  330. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  507 

established  himself  at  South  Benfleet,  near  the  Can-  CHAP. 
vey  Isle,  in  Essex ;  but  he  had  not  been  able  to  abandon  XL  . 
Kent  with  total  impunity.  The  same  superintending  894- 
genius  which  had  chased  the  invaders  from  Farnham 
to  Mersey  had  watched  the  paths  of  Hastings,  and  as 
soon  as  he  had  left  his  entrenched  camp  it  was  imme- 
'  diately  attacked,  and  all  his  wealth  and  booty  that  it 
contained  were  taken,  with  his  wife  and  children. 
Alfred  baptized  the  boys ;  and,  hoping  to  overcome 
the  enmity  of  his  competitor  by  liberality,  he  restored 
the  captives  with  great  presents.43  But  the  delicate 
emotions  of  cultivated  sentiment  could  not  operate  on 
the  furious  ambition  of  a  sea-king,  who  subsisted  by 
his  army  and  his  ravages.  If  he  could  not  conquer  a 
territorial  settlement,  he  must  pirate  or  perish.  His 
friendship,  therefore,  did  not  survive  his  fear ;  nor 
were  the  promises  he  made  to  quit  the  kingdom  per- 
formed ;  on  the  contrary,  as  soon  as  he  had  dis- 
embarked on  Essex,  instead  of  quitting  the  island,  he 
prepared  for  new  aggressions.  His  friends  in  Mersey, 
hearing  of  his  arrival,  joined  him  on  the  coast. 

Alarmed  into  caution,  by  the  skill  of  Alfred,  he 
built  a  strong  fortification  at  Benfleet,  and  from  this 
sent  out  powerful  detachments  to  forage  and  devas- 
tate. The  acquisition  of  provisions  was  as  necessary 
as,  from  the  precautionary  measures  of  Alfred,  it  was 
difficult.  The  country  was  no  longer  open  to  in- 
cursions as  formerly ;  a  regular  communication  of 
defence,  and  a  vigilant  armed  peasantry,  directed  by 
able  men,  secured  the  property  of  the  country,  and 
straitened  the  supplies  of  the  invader.  Hastings  had 
to  conquer,  before  he  could  subsist. 

From  his  strong  hold  at  Benfleet,  Hastings  marched 
with  a  portion  of  his  united  army  to  spread  his  depre- 
dations through  Mercia.  This  excursion  was  for- 

43  Sax.  Chron.  94.     Alfred  and  his  son-in-law,  Ethered,  stood  sponsors.     Flor. 
331. 


508  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  tunate  for  Alfred.  The  troops  which  he  had  allotted 
•  to  act  against  the  enemy  in  Mersey  proceeded  through 
894-  London,  and  were  joined  by  the  warlike  citizens. 
While  Hastings  was  abroad,  the  Anglo-Saxons  at- 
tacked those  who  remained  in  the  entrenchment, 
forced  their  defence,  threw  them  into  complete  con- 
fusion, and  again  carried  away  their  wealth,  women, 
and  children,  to  London.  Of  the  ships  which  lay 
under  the  protection  of  the  fort,  they  broke  up  some, 
burnt  others,  and  sailed  with  the  rest  to  London  and 
Rochester.44 

The  wife  and  children  of  Hastings  were  again  sent 
to  Alfred.  The  king  was  strongly  urged  to  put  them 
to  death,  as  an  act  of  vengeance  for  the  perfidy  and 
cruelty  of  Hastings ;  but  Alfred's  nobler  mind  con- 
sulted only  its  generosity,  and  with  that  benevolent 
magnanimity  so  rare,  not  only  in  barbarous  ages,  but 
in  civilised  war,  and  yet  which  sheds  new  glory  round 
the  illustrious  character  who  displays  it,  he  loaded 
them  with  presents,  and  again  sent  them  free  to  his 
rival. 45 

During  these  transactions  Alfred  had  reached  Exeter 
with  so  much  expedition  that  the  invaders,  discon- 
certed by  his  unexpected  presence,  raised  the  siege  of 
the  town  with  precipitation,  hastened  to  their  ships, 
and  committed  themselves  once  more  to  the  chance 
of  the  ocean.  On  their  return  round  the  southern 
shore,  they  attacked  Chichester,  on  the  coast  of  Sussex ; 
but  the  brave  citizens  repulsed  them  to  the  sea,  slay- 
ing many  hundreds,  and  taking  some  ships.46 

Before  Alfred  could  return  from  Devonshire,  Hast- 
ings had  collected  again  his  defeated  army,  and  keep- 
ing still  on  the  sea-coast,  where  he  might  receive  the 
supplies  he  needed,  he  erected  a  strong  fortress  at 

44  Sax.  Chron.  94. 

45  Sax.  Chron.  94.     Matt.  West  347.     Flor.  331. 

46  Sax.  Chron.  94.  96.     Flor.  331. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  5Q9 

South  Shobcry,  near  the  south-eastern  point  of  Essex  : 
there  he  was  joined  by  numbers  from  Northumbria 
and  East  Anglia,  and  by  another  descendant  from 
Eagnar  Lodbrog. 47  Confident  from  his  numbers,  and 
dissatisfied  with  his  frustated  plan  of  defensive  settle- 
ment, he  appears  to  have  adopted  a  new  scheme  of 
operations,  in  which  rapid  enterprise  was  the  pre- 
dominant feature. 

Hastings  sailed  up  the  Thames  into  the  heart  of 
the  king's  dominions,  and  spread  his  forces  over  Mer- 
cia.  48  By  this  intrepid  measure,  he  had  often  scat- 
tered terror  through  France,  and  enriched  himself 
with  booty. 

He  proceeded  through  Mercia  to  the  Severn.  But 
his  presence  roused  to  their  duty  the  military  com- 
manders of  every  district  which  he  traversed.  Ethered, 
the  governor  of  Mercia,  two  other  aldermen,  and  the 
king's  thanes,  who  were  residing  in  the  strong  holds 
which  he  had  erected,  summoned  the  people  of  every 
borough  from  the  east  of  Pedridan,  the  west  of  Sel- 
wood,  and  the  east  and  north  of  the  Thames,  to  the 
west  of  the  Severn,  with  some  portion  of  the  North 
Welsh.  The  willing  citizens  united  to  protect  their 
families  and  their  property.  Alfred  advanced  to  join 
them,  pursued  the  bold  invaders  to  Buttington,  on 
the  Severn,  and  besieged  them  in  their  fortress,  both 
by  land  and  on  the  river. 

Surrounded  by  the  hostility  of  the  country,  and 
without  shipping,  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
blockade.  They  were  lodged  on  both  banks  of  the 
Severn,  and  they  remained  confined  to  their  post  for 

47  Ethelwerd  mentions  that  Sigefert  came  to  him  with  a  powerful  fleet  from 
Northumbria,  p.  847.     The  Annals  of  Ulster,  p.  65.,  mention  Sigfred,  the  son  of 
Ingwar,  as  roaming  ahout  the  British  isles  at  this  period.     Ethelwerd  notices  the 
death  of  Guthfred,  king  of  Northumbria  at  this  time,  and  his  burial  at  York,  p.  847. 
As  Sigfred  is  stated,  in  the  Ulster  Annals,  to  have  killed  his  brother  Godfred  about 
this  period,  p.  65.,  they  are  probably  the  Sigefert  and  Guthfred  of  Ethelwerd. 

48  Ethelwerd  says  he  extended  his  ravages  to  Stamford,  between  the  Weolod  and 
the  thick  wood  called  Ceoftefne,  p.  847. 


510  HISTORY   OF   THE 

BOOK  several  weeks,  enduring  every  extremity  of  distress. 
•  They  killed  a  great  part  of  their  horses  for  their  sub- 
894-  sistence,  and  yet  many  perished  by  famine. 49 

The  success  with  which  the  generals  of  Alfred, 
and  their  hasty  levies,  compelled  such  a  spirit  as  that 
of  Hastings  to  submit  to  a  calamitous  confinement, 
announces  highly  the  energy  and  wisdom  of  the  regu- 
lations by  which  Alfred  had  provided  for  the  defence 
of  his  people. 

Roused  by  their  sufferings,  the  Northmen  attempted 
to  burst  from  their  prison.  They  threw  themselves 
upon  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who  occupied  the  eastern 
part  of  the  blockade,  and  an  ardent  conflict  ensued, 
in  which  several  royal  thanes  perished  ;  the  Northmen 
were  repulsed,  many  drowned,  and  some  thousands 
were  slain  ;  but  the  rest  effected  their  escape.  These 
went  directly  forwards  to  Essex,  and  reached  their 
entrenchments,  and  the  ships  they  had  abandoned, 
without  further  molestation.50 

Although  their  bold  enterprise,  which  had  carried 
devastation  into  the  centre  of  England,  had  ended  in 
disaster,  yet  their  spirit  of  adventure  was  not  quelled. 
They  were  educated  to  exist  with  the  most  excited 
and  most  pleasurable  vitality  in  the  tempests  of  war, 
and  no  failure  deterred  them,  because,  having  no 
homes  but  their  ships,  or  a  conquered  country,  no 
profession  but  piracy,  no  provisions  but  their  spoils, 
they  had  no  chances  of  enjoyment,  or  even  existence, 
but  from  the  battle.  It  was  dreadful  to  have  such  an 
enemy  to  encounter,  who  must  gain  his  point  or 
perish ;  because  there  is  a  vivaciousness  in  his  despair, 
which  no  danger  can  intimidate,  no  defeat,  less  than 
total  annihilation,  can  destroy.  He  must  act  offen- 
sively while  he  lives.  Desperate,  and  therefore  fear- 
less, he  delights  to  multiply  contests,  because  every 

49  Sax.  Chron.  95.     M.  West.  348. 
30  Sax.  Chron.  95.     Florence,  332. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  511 

encounter,  presenting  a  possibility  of  success,  is  to     CIIAP- 
him  an  advantage,  and  to  his  opponent  a  peril.  -     /    . 

The  ruined  bands  of  Hastings  were  in  this  situation  894* 
when  they  regained  their  station  in  Essex.  He  might 
have  manned  his  vessels,  and  sought  the  smiles  of 
fortune  on  more  prosperous  shores ;  but  wherever  he 
went  he  must  extort  subsistence  from  plunder,  and 
win  his  fortune  with  his  sword.  England  had  charms 
which  overbalanced  the  discouragement  of  his  dis- 
comfiture ;  and  he  resolved  to  wrestle  with  Alfred  for 
the  sceptre  again. 51 

Before  the  winter  came  on,  Hastings  had  raised  a 
large  army  from  the  East  Anglians  and  Northum- 
brians. Their  wives,  their  shipping,  and  their  wealth, 
they  confided  to  the  East  Anglians,  and  marching 
with  that  vigorous  rapidity  from  which  Hastings  and 
the  Northmen  had  so  often  derived  their  surest  ad- 
vantages, they  rested  neither  night  nor  day  till  they 
had  reached  and  fortified  Chester  in  the  Wirall.52 
Alfred  was  active  to  pursue,  but  he  did  not  overtake 
them  till  they  had  surrounded  themselves  with  forti- 
fications, which  the  military  knowledge  of  that  day  re- 
spected as  impregnable.  Alfred,  for  two  days,  be- 
sieged them,  drove  away  all  the  cattle  in  the  vicinity, 
slew  every  enemy  who  ventured  beyond  the  encamp- 
ment, and  burnt  and  consumed  all  the  corn  of  the 
district.53 

From  Chester,  Hastings  led  his  bands  for  subsist-       895. 

81  Hastings  is  thus  far  distinctly  mentioned.  M.  Westm.  states  him  to  have  led 
the  Northmen  from  Benfleet  to  the  Severn,  p.  347, 348.,  and  carries  on  the  history 
of  the  same  army  to  Cwatbridge,  349.  Hence  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was 
still  the  chief  leader. 

52  Spelman,  who,  in  his  life  of  Alfred,  is  generally  accurate,  construed  Lega- 
ceaster  to  mean  Leicester,  hut  this  town  is  spelt  with  an  r  before  ceaster,  as  Leger- 
ceaster,  Legraceaster.  Sax.  Chron.  25.  and  106.  The  Wirall  is  thus  described  by 
Camderi :  "  From  the  city  (Chester)  there  runneth  out  a  Chersonese  into  the  sea, 
inclosed  on  one  side  with  the  sestuary  Dee,  and  on  the  other  with  the  river  Mersey  ; 
we  call  it  Wirall ;  the  Welsh,  because  it  is  a  corner,  Killgury.  This  was  all  here- 
tofore a  desolate  forest,  and  not  inhabited  (as  the  natives  say) ;  but  king  Edward 
disforested  it.  Now  it  is  well  furnished  with  towns."  Brit.  Chesh. 

43  Sax.  Chron.  95. 


512 


HISTORY    OF   THE 

Iy  ence  into  North  Wales :  he  plundered  and  then  quitted 
— v — '  it,  with  his  booty ;  but  not  daring  to  molest  West 
Saxony,  or  Mercia,  where  the  troops  of  Alfred  were 
watching  his  progress,  he  made  a  circuit  through 
Northurnbria,  and  East  Anglia,  and  proceeded  till  he 
reached  Mersey,  in  Essex.  He  seems  to  have  always 
made  this  a  favourite  point  of  retreat  or  rallying.  It 
was  favourable  for  the  junction  of  other  adventurers, 
and  it  seems  to  have  been  his  wish  to  have  founded  a 
little  kingdom  here.  Before  the  winter,  he  drew  his 
ships  from  the  Thames  up  the  Lea.54 

To  protect  their  fleet,  they  built  a  fortress  on  the 
Lea,  twenty  miles  above  London.  This  distance  suits 
either  Ware  or  Hertford.55  To  have  maintained  this 
position  would  have  been  to  have  secured  the  estab- 
lishment they  wished  in  Essex.  In  the  summer,  a 
great  number  of  the  citizens  of  London,  and  many 
from  its  neighbourhood,  attacked  the  Danish  strong 
hold ;  but  the  Northmen  repulsed  them  with  the  loss 
of  four  king's  thanes.  This  disaster  required  the  pre- 
sence and  ability  of  Alfred  to  repair.  In  autumn  he 
encamped  near  the  discomfited  city,  at  the  time  when 
the  harvest  ripened,  that  the  invaders  might  not  de- 
prive the  Londoners  of  their  subsistence.  One  day, 
the  king  musing  on  some  decisive  blow  against  his 
pertinacious  enemy,  rode  to  the  river,  and  conceived 
the  practicability  of  a  plan  of  so  affecting  the  stream, 
that  the  ships  might  be  prevented  from  coming  out. 
He  executed  his  skilful  project.  By  digging  three 
new  channels  below,  he  drew  off  so  much  water  as  to 
leave  the  ships  aground 56 ;  and  to  protect  his  new 
works,  he  built  a  castle  on  each  side  of  the  river,  and 
encamped  in  the  vicinity. 

54  Flor.  Wig.  333.     The  Lea  (Ligan)  is  the  little  river  which  divides  Essex  from 
Middlesex,  as  the  Stour  separates  it  from  Suffolk,  and  the  Stort  from  Hertfordshire. 

55  Camden  mentions  Ware  ;   Spelman,  Hertford. 

56  I  insert  this  account  on  the  authority  of  Huntingdon,  because  his  statement 
is  adopted  by  Camden  and  Spelman.     The  Saxon  Chronicle  and  Florence  imply 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  5  }  3 

Finding  that  they  could  not  get  out  their  ships,      CHAP. 
the  Northmen    abandoned   them,    and,    desirous   to   .   XL    . 
escape  from  the  nets  of  destruction  with  which  the       896- 
active  mind  of  Alfred  was  encompassing  them,  they 
had  again    recourse   to  that    celerity  of  movement 
which  had   so   often  rescued  them  from  impending 
ruin.     Sending  their  wives  to  their  countrymen  in 
East  Anglia57,  they  suddenly  broke  up  from  their 
entrenchments  at  night,  and,  outflying  Alfred,  they 
again  traversed  Mercia,  from  the  Lea  to  the  Severn, 
and   settling   themselves  at  Bridgnorth58,   they   de- 
fended their  encampments,  as  usual,  by  an  immediate 
fortification. 

The  idea  of  always  protecting  their  positions  by 
military  defences,  and  the  facility  with  which  they 
raised  such  as  Alfred  dared  not  assault,  augur  favour- 
ably of  the  warlike  knowledge  of  the  invaders,  or  of 
their  veteran  chieftain. 

The  army  of  Alfred  followed  Hastings  to  the  Severn, 
but  respected  his  entrenchments  so  highly  as  to 
permit  him  to  pass  the  winter  unmolested.  In  the 
meantime,  the  citizens  of  London  seized  the  ships  on 
the  Lea ;  such  as  they  could  bring  away  were  carried 
to  London,  with  their  contents;  the  others  were 
destroyed. 

For  three  years  had  Hastings,  undismayed,  con- 
tended against  Alfred59;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
power,  skill,  and  victories  of  the  West  Saxon  king, 


that  Alfred  made  the  Danish  ships  useless  by  obstructions,  by  building  two  works 
(ge-\veorc  S.  C.  obstructuram  F. )  below  the  part  where  the  vessels  lay. 

57  Flor.  Wig.  334.     Sax.  Chron.  97. 

58  The   Saxon  Ch.    says,    Cpafcbpicse  bae  Sepepn,  97.     The  ancient  name  of 
Bridgnorth  in  the  Saxon  Annals  is  Bpicse>  and  in  ancient  records  it  is  called 
Bridge.     Two  towns  near  it  are  called  Quatford  and  Quat,  which  is  a  fact  implying 
that  Cwatbridge  should  not  be  far  off.     Gibson's  add.  to  Camden,  552.     Spelman 
placed  it  in  this  part,  p.  88.     Camden  and  Somner  sought  for  it  at  Cambridge,  and 
in  Gloucestershire,  which  is  less  probable.     M.  West,  spells  it  Quantebrige,  p.  349. 

59  The  Saxon  Chronicle  says,  "  This  was  about  the  third  year  since  they  came 
hither,  over  the  sea  to  Limene-mouth,"  p.  97. ;  thus  expressing  that  the  invaders 
at  Cwatbridge  were  the  same  who  had  come  from  Boulogne. 

VOL.  I.  L  L 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK  had  always  recruited  his  losses,  and  maintained  his 
.  invasion  ;  but  his  spirit  now  began  to  bend  under  the 
genius  of  his  master.  All  that  energy,  and  valour, 
and  labour,  could  effect,  he  had  used  in  vain.  He 
had,  as  the  Saxon  Chronicle  intimates,  made  great 
devastations,  and  weakened  the  English  nation,  by 
the  destruction  of  much  of  its  population,  but  he] 
had  not  "  broken  it  up."  Hastings  therefore  at  last 
yielded  indignantly  to  his  evil  fortune.  The  North- 
men now  disbanded ;  some  withdrew  to  East  Anglia, 
some  to  Northumbria.  They  who  had  no  resources 
to  expect  from  these  regions,  made  ships ;  and^ 
stimulated  by  want,  crossed  the  ocean,  and  attempted- 
plunder  on  the  Seine.60 

*97.  One  feeble  attempt  terminated  this  invasion,  which 

must  have  been  prodigal  of  human  life.  The  d 
predators,  who  had  retired  beyond  the  Humber  and 
the  Ouse,  embarked  in  long,  well-constructed  ships, 
to  revenge  themselves  by  piracy  on  the  coast  ol 
Wessex.  But  even  through  the  ocean  the  genius  of 
Alfred  pursued  them.  He  was  skilled  in  domestic 
architecture ;  and  he  applied  his  talents  to  the  im- 
provement of  his  ships  ;  he  caused  vessels  to  be  built- 
against  the  Northmen,  full-nigh  twice  as  long  a* 
theirs,  swifter,  higher,  and  less  unsteady.  In  some 
he  put  sixty  rowers,  in  others  more.  They  were 
neither  like  Frisian  nor  Danish  ships,  which  then 
excelled  all  others  in  Europe.  They  were  made  on 

*°  Sax.  Chron.  97.  Flor.  Wig.  334.  Hastings  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Saxon 
Chronicle  by  name  as  having  accompanied  these,  because  the  Chronicles  rarely 
mention  the  king  or  chiefs  of  the  Northmen.  Hence  it  was  with  some  trouble  that 
I  have  been  enabled  to  trace  a  connected  history  of  his  warfare  against  Alfred. 
But  the  fact  in  our  chroniclers  of  part  of  the  army  he  had  acted  with  going  after- 
wards to  the  Seine,  suits  the  intimation  in  the  French  Chronicles,  that  he  obtained 
at  last  a  settlement  there.  See  further,  note  64.  Since  the  above  remarks  were 
written,  I  perceive  a  passage  in  the  Annals  of  Asser,  which  justifies  our  ascribing 
the  incidents  of  this  long-contested  invasion  to  Hastings,  and  which  distinctly  states 
him  to  have  begun  it,  and  to  have  retired  with  the  army  to  the  Seine,  895.  Has- 
tsengus  cum  exercitibus  sibi  adhaerentibus,  tertioanno  postquam  venerunt  in  ostium 
Tamensis,  et  in  ostium  fluminis,  mare  transivit,  sine  lucro  et  sine  honore,  sed  multis 
perditis  ex  sociis  suis  applicuit  in  ostium  Sequanae  fluminis,  p.  172. 


ANGLO-SAXONS.  51.') 

that  plan  which  the  judgment  of  Alfred,  enlightened  CHAP. 
by  his  knowlege  and  experience,  discerned  to  be  .  XL  . 
more  useful  than  either.61  Six  Danish  vessels  ravaged  897- 
the  Isle  of  Wight  and  Devonshire,  and  the  intervening 
coast.  The  king  ordered  nine  ships  of  his  new  naval 
architecture,  manned  with  Frisians  and  English,  to 
pursue  them  ;  with  the  orders  to  take  all  alive  they 
could.62  The  king's  fleet  found  the  Northmen's  six 
near  the  shore  ;  three  of  these  were  aground,  the 
other  three  went  out  and  endured  the  combat :  two 
were  taken :  the  third  escaped  with  only  five  men. 
The  conquering  English  sailed  to  the  bay,  where  the 
others  were  detained ;  but  the  inconstant  waters  be- 
trayed them  into  peril.  The  unexpected  retreat  of 
the  waves  separated  the  English  fleet  into  two  por- 
tions ;  one,  consisting  of  three  ships,  remained  fixed 
close  by  the  enemy,  the  rest  were  kept  asunder  on 
another  part,  and  could  not  move  to  the  support  of 
their  friends.  The  wary  Danes  embraced  the  oppor- 
tunity, and  attacked  the  three  ships  which  the  waters 
:had  placed  near  them.  Lucumon,  the  king's  gerefa, 
perished,  with  .zEthelferth,  his  geneat  or  herdsman, 
three  Frisian  chiefs,  and  sixty-two  of  the  crew.  Of 
the  Danes,  120  fell.  The  battle  seems  to  have  been  in- 
decisive ;  but  the  tide  first  releasing  the  Danish  ships, 
they  sailed  into  the  ocean.  They  were,  however,  so 
injured,  that  two  were  afterwards  cast  on  the  English 
shore,  and  their  crews  were  ordered  by  Alfred  to 
execution.  The  same  year,  twenty  more  of  their 
ships  were  taken,  and  the  men  were  punished  as 
pirates.63 

Thus  terminated  the  formidable  attempt  of  Has- 

|  «  This  important  passage  deserves  to  be  transcribed,  in  its  original  language  : 
"Tha  her  Alppeb  cynms  timbpian  lanje  rcipu  onsen  tha  aercar.  Tha  paepon 
Jful  neah  rpa  ppa  lanse  rP»  tha  othjm.  Sume  haepbon  60  apa,  rume  ma.  lha 
paepon  jeschep  se  rpiFCpan,  se  unpealtpan,  se  eac  hypan  thonne  tlia  othpu. 
Naepon  hie  napthep  ne  on  Fperifc  sercsepene  ue  on  Da-mrc  bute  rP»  him  return 
thnhee,  thaet  hie  nytpypthorte  beon  meaheon.'  Sax.  Chron.  98. 
I  «  Fl.  Wig.  335.  M  Sax.  Chron.  99.  Flor.  Wig.  335. 

L  L    2 


516  HISTORY    OF    THE 

BOOK     tings.    As  far  as  we  can  distinguish  the  last  incidents 
,   of  his  life,  he  returned  to  France,  and  obtained  from 
897-       the  king  the  gift  of  some  territory,  where  he  passed 
the  remainder  of  his  life  in  peaceful  privacy.64     Hisi 
memory  was  honoured  by  the  encomium  of  a  warrior, 
in  a  future  age,  whose  invasion  of  England  was  suc-J 
cessful,  but  who  had  not  to  encounter  the  abilities  of 
an  Alfred.65     The  defence  of  England  against  Hast-j 
ings  was   a   greater   evidence  of  Alfred's    military 
talents  than  his  triumph  over  the  armies  which  had 
harassed  the  first  part  of  his  reign. 

Notwithstanding  the  vigilance  and  ability  of  Alfred, 
it  was  impossible  that  such  a  dangerous  contest  could 
have  existed  without  great  detriment  to  his  people.66 
The  ravages  and  depopulation  caused  by  Hastings 
and  his  associates,  in  their  persisting  invasion  and 
extensive  movements,  are  spoken  of  very  strongly  by 
the  Chroniclers.  But  the  miseries  of  this  warfare 
were  exceeded  by  the  dreadful  calamity  which  at-, 
tended  its  conclusion.  A  pestilence  which  raged  for 
three  years  filled  the  nation  with  death ;  even  thJ 
highest  ranks  were  thinned  by  its  destruction.67 

The  sovereignty  of  Alfred  was  not  only  established 
over  the  Anglo-Saxons68,    but  even   the    Cymry  in' 

84  Hastingus  vero  Karolum  Francorum  regem  adiens,  pacem  petiit,  quam  adipis- 
cens,  urbem  Carnotensem  stipendii  munere  ab  ipso  accepit.  Wil.  Gem.  221.  He 
is  mentioned  for  the  last  time  on  Hollo's  invasion  and  acquisition  of  Normandy,  as 
residing  at  this  place.  Ibid.  p.  228.  ;  and  Dudo,  p.  76. 

65  William  the  Conqueror,  in  his  address  to  his  troops,  as  stated  by  Brompton, 
says,  "  Quid  potuit  rex  Francorum  bellis  proficere  cum  omni  gente  quse  est  a  Lota- 
ringia  usque  ad  Hispaniam  contra  Hasting  antecessorem  vestrum,  qui  sibi  quantum 
de  Francia  voluit  acquisivit,  quantum  voluit  regi  permisit,  dum  placuit  tenuit,  dura 
sauciatns  est  ad  majora  anelans  reliquit  ?  "  p.  959. 

88  The  exclamation  of  the  monk  of  Worcester  is  forcible  :  "  O  quam  crebris 
vexationibus,  quam  gravibus  laboribus,  quam  diris  et  lamentalibus  modis,  non 
solum  a  Danis,  qui  partes  Angliae  tune  temporis  occupaverant,  verum  etiam  ab  his 
Satanae  filiis  tota  vexata  est  Anglia,"  p.  334.  Matt.  West,  has  copied  it,  p.  348.  \ 

67  Some  of  the  noblemen  who  perished  are  named  in  Sax.  Chron.  p.  97.  ;  and 
Flor.  Wig.  335. 

68  In  836  Alfred  besieged  London  (Ethel w.  846-),  rebuilt  it  with  honour,  made 
it  habitable,  and  subjected  it  to  Ethelred's  dominion.      It  is  added,  that  all   the 
Anglo-Saxons,  not  under  the  dominion  of  the  Danes,  submitted  to  Alfred.     Flor. 
Wig.  322.      Sax.  Chron.  88. 


ANGLO-SAXONS. 

0 

Wales  acknowledged  his  power,  and  sought  his  al- 
liance. The  rest  of  his  life  was  tranquil.  He  con- 
tinued to  prosecute  all  his  plans  for  the  improvement 
of  his  shipping  and  the  defence  and  education  of  his 
kingdom.  His  reputation  increased  with  his  life.  All 
sought  his  friendship,  and  none  in  vain.  He 
land  and  money  to  those  who  desired  them,  and  his 
personal  friendship  to  those  who  aspired  to  it.  All 
experienced  that  love,  vigilance  and  protection,  with 
which  the  king  defended  himself  and  those  attached 
to  him. 69  But  at  last  the  progress  of  human  destiny 
deprived  the  world  of  its  then  most  beneficent  lu- 
minary. After  a  life  of  the  most  active  utility,  he 
was  taken  from  the  world,  on  the  26th  day  of  October, 
in  the  year  900,  or  901. 70  His  great  character  has 
been  praised  by  many71,  but,  by  none  more  than  it 
has  merited.  Its  best  panegyric  will  be  an  impartial 
consideration  of  it,  under  three  divisions,  of  his  intel- 
lectual, moral,  and  political  exertions. 

69  Asser,  50. 

70  The  year  of  his  death  is  variously  given.     Matt.  West.  350. ;  Ing.  28. ;  and 
Rad.  Die.  452. ;  place  it  in  900.     The  Sax.  Chron.  99.  ;  Malms.  46. ;  Mailros, 
146.;  Florence,  336.  ;  Petrib.  Ch.  2. ;  affix  it  to  the  year  901.     So  Hen.  Silgrave, 
MSS.  Cleop.  A.  12.  and  others. 

71  Alfred  has  been  highly  extolled  by  foreigners.     The  following  extracts  show 
the  opinions  of  a  Frenchman  and  German  on  his  character :  —  Je  ne  scais  s'il  y  a 
jamais  eu  sur  la  terre  un  homme  plus  digne  des  respects  de  la  posterite  qu' Alfred 
le  grand,  qui  rendit  ces  services  a  sa  patrie,  suppose  que  tout  ce  qu'on  raconte  de 
lui  soit  veritable. — Voltaire,  Essai  sur  les  Mosurs,  vol.  xvi.  c.  26.  p.  473.  ed.  1785. 

"  But  as  the  greatest  minds  display  themselves  in  the  most  turbulent  storms 

on  the  call  of  necessity,  so  England  has  to  boast,  among  others,  her  Alfred  ;  a. 
pattern  for  kings  in  a  time  of  extremity,  a  bright  star  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
Living  a  century  after  Charlemagne,  he  was,  perhaps,  a  greater  man  in  a  circle 
happify  more  limited."     Herder's  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Man, 
p.  547,  548.     The  celebrated  Mirabeau,  in  a  Discours  Preliminaire,  published  under 
his  name,  to  a  translation  of  Mrs.  Macaulay's  History,  draws  with  a  liberality  that 
does  him  credit,  a  parallel  between  Alfred  and  Charlemagne,  and  gives  the  supe- 
riority to  the  Anglo-Saxon. 


END    OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


Ci 


AP. 


•  7. 


LONDON : 

SPOTTISWOODRS  and  SHAW, 
New-street-Square. 


LIST  of  WOEKS  in  GENERAL  LITERATURE 

PUBLISHED  BY 

Messrs.  LONGMAN,  BROWN,  GREEN,  LONGMANS,  and  ROBERTS 

39  PATEENOSTEE  EOW,  LONDON. 


CLASSIFIED       INDEX. 


griculture    and    Rural 
Affairs. 

Maunder's  Scientific  Treasury       -    14 
Treasury  of  History      -     14 

Normanby's  Year  of  Revolution   -    17 
Perry's  Franks       ...         .17 

Bayldon  on  Valuing  Rents,  &c.    -      4 
Cecil's  Stud  Farm          ...      6 
Hoskyns's  Talpa                                -     10 
Loudon's  Agriculture                       -     1! 
Low's  Elements  of  Agriculture       -     13 
Morton  on  Landed  Property          -     16 

"          Natural  History   -        -    14 
Piesse's  Art  of  Perfumery      -        -    17 
Pocket  and  the  Stud      -        -        -      8 
Pycroft's  English  Reading     -        -    18 
Reece's  Medical  Guide  -        -        -    18 
Rich's  Comp.  to  Latin  Dictionary    18 
Richardson's  Art  of  Horsemanship    18 

Raikes's  Journal    -        -        -        .19 
Ranke's  Ferdinand  &  Maximilian     22 
Riddle's  Latin  Lexicon                  -     It 
Rogers's  Essays  from  Edinb.  Reriewlg 
Roget's  English  Thesaurus   -        -    1» 
Schmitz's  History  of  Greece          -    19 
Southey's  Doctor  -        -        -       -    21 

rts,   Manufactures,   and 
Architecture. 

Riddle's  Latin  Dictionaries    -        -    18 
Roget's  English  Thesaurus  -        -    19 
Rowton'a  Debater           ...    19 
Short  Whist                                           20 

Stephen's  Ecclesiastical  Biograph?    21 
"     Lectures  on  French  History    21 
Sydney  Smith's  Works  -       -       -    20 

Bourne  on  the  Screw  Propeller      - 
'   Brande's  Dictionary  of  Science,  &c. 
"        Organic  Chemistry  - 

Thomson's  Interest  Tables    -        -    23 
Webster's  Domestic  Economy       -    24 
West  on  Children's  Diseases  -        -    24 
Willich's  Popular  Tables       -        -    24 

Select  Works         -    22 
Lectures        -       -    21 
Memoirs        -       -    20 
Taylor'i  Loyola     -        -                -    21 
"        Wesley    -        ...    21 

Chevreul  on  Colour        - 
Cresy's  Civil  Engineering 
Fairbairn's  luforma.  for  Engineers 

Wilmot's  Blackstone                     -    24 

Thirlwall's  Historyof  Greece        -    23 
Thomas's  Historical  Notes    -       -      5 

Gwilt's  Encyclo.  of  Architecture  -      8 
Harford's  Plates  from  M.  Angelo  -     8 
Humphreys's  Parable*  Illuminated     10 

Botany  and  Gardening. 

Hassall's  British  Freshwater  Algse      9 

Townsend's  State  Trials        -       -    23 
Turkey  and  Christendom       -        -    22 
Turner's  Anglo-Saxons         -       -23 

Jameaon'sSacred&  Legendary  Art     11 
"         Commonplace-Book     -    11 
KSnig's  Pictorial  Life  of  Luther   -      8 
Loudon's  Rural  Architecture        -    13 
MacDougall's  Campaigns  of  Han- 

Hooker's  British  Flora   -        -       -      9 
"        Guide  to  Kew  Gardens  -      9 
"       "        "      Kew  Museum  -      9 
Lindley's  Introduction  to  Botany      1  3 
"         Theory  of  Horticulture  -     12 

Middle  Ages    -       -        -    23 
"       Sacred  Hist,  of  the  World    23 
Uwins's  Memoirs                             -    23 
Vehse's  Austrian  Court                   -    23 
Wade's  England's  Greatness         -    24 
Young's  Christ  of  History    -       -    24 

"             Theory  of  War         -    13 
Moseley's  Engineering  -                 -     16 

"          Amateur  Gardener         -     13 
Trees  and  Shrubs  -       -    12 

Geography  and  Atlases. 

Piesse's  Art  of  Perfume»y      -        -     17 
Richardson's  Art  of  Horsemanship     18 
Scoffern  on  Projectiles,  &c.  -        -    19 
Scrivener  on  the  Iron  Trade  -        -     19 
Stark's  Printing                                -    22 

"          Gardening      -        -        -     12 
«          Plants     -        -        -        -     13 
Pereira's  Materia  Medica       -       -    17 
Rivera's  Rose-Amateur's  Guide    -     19 
Wilson's  British  Mosses        -       -    24 

Brewer's  Historical  Atlas      -        -      4 
Butler's  Geography  and  Atlases  -      6 
Cabinet  Gazetteer  -        -        -        -      ( 
Cornwall:  Its  Mines,  &c.      -       -    22 

Steam-Engine,  by  the  Artisan  Club      4 

Hughes's  Australian  Colonies       -    22 

Ure's  Dictionary  of  Arts,  &o.          -    23 

Chronology. 

Johnston's  General  Gazetteer        -     11 

iography. 

Arago's  Autobiography         -        -    22 
"        Lives  of  Scientific  Men    -      3 
Bodenstedt  and  Wagner's  Schamyl    22 
Brialmont's  Wellington         -        -      4 
Bunsen's  Hippolytus                              5 

Blair's  Chronological  Tables         -      4 
Brewer's  Historical  Atlas       -        -      4 
Bunsen's  Ancient  Egypt                -      5 
Calendars  of  English  State  Papers      5 
Haydn's  Beatson's  Index       -        -      9 
Jaquemet's  Chronology         -        -    11 
"          Abridged  Chronology  -    11 
Nicolas's  Chronology  of  History  -    12 

M'Culloch's  Geographical  Dictionary  14 
"          Russia  and  Turkey     -    22 
Maunder's  Treasury  of  Geography    13 
Mayne's  Arctic  Discoveries   -       -    22 
Murray's  Encyclo.  of  Geography  -    16 
Sharp's  British  Gazetteer      -       -    20 

Juvenile  Books  • 

Capgra-ve's  Henries                            -      6 

Amy  Herbert-                                 -    20 

Cockavne's  Marshal  Turenne         -    22 
Crossed  (Andrew)  Memorials         -      7 
Forster's  De  Foe  and  Churchill     -    22 

Commerce  and  Mercantile 
Affairs. 

Cleve  Hall                        •                     °0 

Earl's  Daughter  (The)  -       -       -    20 
Experience  of  Life                           -    20 

Green's  Princesses  of  England      -      8 
Harford's  Life  of  Michael  Angelo  -      8 
Havward's  <  :hesterfield  and  Selwyn    22 
Hoicroft's  Memoirs                           -     22 
Lardner's  Cabinet  Cyclopaedia      -     12 
Maunder's  Biographical  Treasury-     14 
Memoir  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington    22 
Mountain's  (Col.)  Memoirs     -        -     16 
Parry's  (Admiral)  Memoirs   -        -     17 

Gilbart's  Treatise  on  Banking       -      8 
Lorimer's  Young  Master  Mariner    12 
Macleod's  Banking         -        -        -     14 
M'Culloch'sCommerce&  Navigation  14 
Murray  on  French  Finance    -        -     16 
Scrivenor  on  Iron  Trade         -        -     19 
Thomson's  Interest  Tables    -        -    23 
Tooke's  History  of  Piices     -       -    23 

Gertrude                                           -    20 
Howitt's  Boy's  Country  Book        -    10 
"       (Mary)  Children's  Year    -    10 
Ivors        20 
Katharine  Ashton          -       -       .20 
Laneton  Parsonage        -        -        -    20 
Margaret  Percival                            -    20 
Pycroft's  Collegian's  Guide    -       -    18 
Ursula    »       T       •       -               -    20 

Rogers's  Life  and  Genius  of  Fuller    22 

Russell's  Memoirs  of  Moore  -        -     15 
"         (Dr.)  Mezzofanti   -        -    19 

Criticism,    History,    and 

1X1  G  XXI  0  11°  S  * 

Medicine,  Surgery,  &c. 

SehimmelPenninck's  (Mis.)  Life  -    19 
Southey's  Life  of  Wesley        -        -    21 
"         Life  and  Correspondence  21 

Blair's  Chron.  and  Histor.  Tablea  - 
Brewer's  Historical  Atlas     -     -    - 

Brodie's  Psychological  Inquiries  -     4 
Bull's  Hints  to  Mothers                  -      5 
"     Managementof  Children     -     6 

Stephen's  Ecclesiastical  Biography    21 
Strickland's  Queens  of  England    -    21 
Sydney  Smith's  Memoirs        -        -    20 
Symond's  (Admiral)  Memoirs        -    21 
Taylor's  Loyola                                -    21 

Bunsen's  Ancient  Egypt 
"         Hippolytus     - 
Calendars  of  English  State  Papers 
Chapman's  G  ustavus  Adolphus     - 
Chronicles  &  Memorials  of  England 

Copland's  Dictionary  of  Medicine  -      6 
Cust's  Invalid's  Own  Book             -      7 
Holland's  Mental  Physiology        -      9 
"        Medical  Notes  and  Reflect.    9 
How  to  Nurse  Sick  Children  -        -    10 

"      Wesley                                -    21 
Uwini>'s  Memoirs                             -    23 
Waterton's  Autobiography  &  Essays  24 

Conybeare  and  Howson's  St.  Paul 
Connolly's  Sappers  and  Miners     - 
Crowe's  History  of  France     - 

Kesteren's  Domestic  Medicine      -     11 
Pereira's  Materia  Medica       -        -    17 
Reece's  Medical  Guide  -        -       -    18 

Gleig's  Essays         - 

Richardson's  Cold-  Watfr  Cure      -    18 

>oks  of  General  Utility. 

"      Leipsic  Campaign      -       -    2 
Gurney's  Historical  Sketches 

Spencer's  Psychology     -        -        -    21 
West  on  Diseases  of  Infancy  -       -    24 

Acton's  Bread-Book        -        -        -      3 

Hayward's  Essays  - 

"       Cookery      -        -        -        -       3 
Black's  Treatise  on  Brewing           -      * 
Cabinet  Gazetteer  -        -        -        -      5 

Herschel's  Essavs  and  Addresses  - 
Jeffrey  's  (Lord)  Contributions       -    Jl 
Kemble's  Anglo-Saxons        -        -    11 

Miscellaneous  and  General 

Literature. 

Cust's  Invalid's  Own  Book      -        -      7 
Gilbart's  Logic  for  the  Million      -      8 

Lardner's  Cabinet  Cyclopaedia      -    12 
Macaulay's  Crit.  *nd  Hist.  Essays      1 
«          History  of  England     -    13 

Bacon's  (Lord)  Works   -        -       -      3 
Carlisle's  Lectures  and  Addresies      22 
Defence  of  Eclipte  of  Faith    -       -     7 

Hints  on  Etiquette          -        -        -      8 
How  to  Nurse  Sick  Children  -        -     10 
Hudson's  Executor's  Guide    -       -     1C 
"      on  Making  Wills         -        -     10 
Kesteven's  Domestic  Medicine      -    11 
Lardner's  Cabinet  Cyclopaedia      -    12 
Loudon's  Lady's  Country  Compa- 
nion    -                                           -    12 
Maunder's  Treasury  of  Knowledge     14 
"         Biographical  Treasury      14 
Geographical  Treasury     15 

Mackintosh's  Miscellaneous  Works    14 
"            History  of  England  -    14 
M'Culloch'sGeographicalDictionary  15 
Maunder's  Treasury  of  History      - 
Memoir  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington    2- 
Merivale's  History  of  Rome  -       -    }« 
"           Roman  Republic  -       -     1? 
Milner's  Church  History 
Moore's  (Thomas)  Memoirs,&c.    -    Jo 
Mure's  Greek  Literature 

Eclipse  of  Faith      - 
Fischer's  Bacon  and  Realistic  Ph 

Greathed't  Letters  from  Delhi              8 
Greyson's  Select  Correspondence         8 
Gurney's  Evening  Recreations             I 
Hassall'sAdulterationsDetected.&c.    9 
Haydn's  Book  of  Dignities    -               S 
Holland's  Mental  Physiology                « 
Hooker's  Kew  Guides    -        -               « 

2 

CLASSIFIED  INDEX. 

Howitt's  Rural  Life  of  England     -     10 
"         VisitstoRemarkablePlaceslO 

Martineau's  Studies  of  Christianity    14 
Merivale's  Christian  Records         -    15 

Rural  Sports. 

Jameson's  Commonplace-Book      -     11 
Last  of  the  Old  Squires          -        -     17 

Milner's  Church  of  Christ      -        -     15 
Moore  on  the  Use  of  the  Body        -    15 

Baker's  Rifle  and  Hound  in  Ceylon 
Elaine's  Dictionary  of  Sports 

Letters  of  a  Betrothed    -        -        -     11 

"          "       Soul  and  Body         -     15 

Cecil's  Stable  Practice   - 

Macaulav's  Speeches                      -     13 

"    's  Man  and  his  Motives       -    15 

<€      Stud  Farm                            ~ 

Mackintosh's  Miscellaneous  Works     14 
Memoirs  of  a  Maitre  d'Armes        -     22 
Martineau's  Miscellanies       -        -     14 

Morrronism    -----    22 
Morning  Clouds                                -     16 
Neale's  Closing  Scene              -        -     17 

Davy'sFishing  Excursions,  2  Scries 
Ephemera  on  Angling    - 
"         's  Book  of  the  Salmon  - 

Printing:  Its  Origin,  &c.        -        -    22 
Pycroft?8  English  Reading     -        -     18 

Pattison's  Earth  and  Word  -        -     17 
Powell's  Christianity  without  Ju- 

Hawker's Young  Sportsman  - 
The  Hunting-Field 

Raikes  on  Indian  Revolt        -        -     18 

daism  ------     18 

Idle's  Hints  on  Shooting 

Rees's  Siege  of  Lucknow       -        -    If 

Ranke's  Ferdinand  &  Maximilian     22 

Pocket  and  the  Stud       ... 

Rich's  Comp.  to  Latin  Dictionary     18 

Readings  for  Lent           ...    20 

Practical  Horsemanship         -        J 

Riddle's  Latin  Dictionaries   -        -     It 

"           Confirmation    -        -    20 

Pycroft's  Cricket  Field  - 

Rowton's  Debater           -        -        -     1! 
Seaward  's  Narrative  of  his  Shipwreckl9 

Riddle's  Household  Prayers  -        -    18 
Robinson's  Lexicon  to  the  Greek 

Rarey's  Horse-Taming  - 
Richardson's  Horsemanship  - 

Sir  Roger  De  Coverley                    -    20 
Southey  's  Doctor,  &c.    -        -        -    21 
Souvestre's  Attic  Philosopher        -    22 
"  Confessions  of  a  Working  Man    22 
Spencer's  Essays                             -    21 
Stow's  Training  System         -        -    *l 
Thomson's  Laws  of  Thought         -    23 

Testament  -        -       -        -       -    19 
Saints  our  Example        -        -        -    19 
Sermon  in  the  Mount             -       -    19 
Sinclair's  Journey  of  Life       -        -     20 
Smith's  (Sydney)  Moral  Philosophy  21 
"        (G.V.)AssyrianProphecies     20 
"        (G.)  Wesleyan  Methodism     20 

Ronalds'  Fly-Fisher's  Entomology 
Stable  Talk  and  Table  Talk  - 
Stonehenge  on  the  Dcg  - 
"           on  the  G  rev  hound 
Thacker's  Courser's  Guide      - 
The  Stud,  for  Practical  Purposes  - 

Tighe  and  Davis's  Windsor  -        -    23 

"        (J.  )  St.  Paul's  Shipwreck  -     20 

Townsend's  State  Trials        -        -    23 
Willich's  Popular  Tables  '     -        -    24 

Southey's  Life  of  Wesley       -       -    20 
Stephen's  Ecclesiastical  Biography   21 

Veterinary  Medicine,  &c 

Yonge's  English-Greek  Lexicon  -    24 
"       Latin  Gradus            -        -    24 

Taylor's  Loyola      -       -       -       -  .21 
"       Wesley      -        -       -       -    21 

Cecil's  Stable  Practice 

Zumpt's  Latin  Grammar       -       -    24 

Theologia  Germanica                             5 
Thumb  Bible  (The)                 -        -    21 

"     Stud  Farm          ... 
Hunting  -Field  (The)     - 

Natural  History  in  general  . 

Callow's  Popular  Conchology        -      6 
Ephemera's  Book  of  the  Salmon    -      7 
Garratt's  Marvels  of  Instinct          -      £ 
Gosse's  Natural  History  of  Jamaica    8 
Kemp's  Natural  History  of  Creation  22 
Kirby  and  Spence's  Entomology    -     11 
Lee's  Elements  of  Natural  History    11 
Maunder's  Natural  History    -        -     14 

Turner's  Sacred  History-       -        -    23 
Ursula    20 
Young's  Christ  of  History      -       -    24 
"        Mystery                            -    24 

Poetry  and  the  Drama. 

Aikin's(Dr.)  British  Poets             -      3 
Arnold's  Merope                               -      3 
it       Poems      -       -       -       -      3 

Miles's  Horse-Shoeing  - 
"    on  the  Horse's  Foot      - 
Pocket  and  the  Stud 
Practical  Horsemanship         -        -  • 
Rarey's  Horse-Taming  -                -  ) 
Richardson's  Horsemanship 
Stable  Talk  and  Table  Talk  - 
Stonehenge  on  the  Dog                   ~1 
Stud  (The)               -        -        - 
Youatt's  The  Dog                           Jl 

Qwatrefages'  Naturalist's  Rambles     18 

Baillie's  (Joanna)  Poetical  Works      3 

*'       The  Horse                       - 

Stonehenge  on  the  Dog          -      '  -     21 
Turton's  Shells  oftheRritishlslands    23 

Goldsmith's  Poems,  illustrated     -      8 
L  E  L  's  Poetical  Works               -    11 

Van  der  Hoeven's  Zoology    -        -     23 
Von  Tschud  i's  Sketches  in  the  Alps    22 

Lin  wood's  Anthologia  Oxoniensis  -     12 

Voyages  and  Travels. 

Waterton's  Essays  on  Natural  Hist.    24 
Youatt's  The  Dog  -        -        -        -    24 

Macaulav's  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome    13 
Mac  Donald's  Within  and  Without   13 

Auldjo's  Ascent  of  Mont  Blanc      - 
Baines's  Vaudois  of  Piedmont 

"       The  Horse                        -    24 

"              Poems    -       -       -    13 

Baker's  Wanderings  in  Ceylon 

1-Volume    Encyclopaedias 

Montgomery's  Poetical  Works      -    15 
Moore's  Poetical  Works          -        -    15 

Barrow's  Continental  Tour  - 
Earth's  African  Travels          -        -  - 

and  Dictionaries. 

Blaine'8  Rural  Sports      -       -       -      4 
Brande's  Science,  Literature,  and  Art  4 
Copland  '8  Dictionary  of  Medicine  -      6 
Cresy's  Civil  Engineering                       8 

•'        Selections  (illustrated)     -    15 
"       LallaRookh                      -    16 
"        Irish  Melodies  -        -•      -     16 
"       National  Melodies    -        -    16 
"        Sacred  Songs  (withMutic)    16 

Burton's  East  Africa      - 
"       Medina  and  Mecca  - 
Da  vies  's  Algiers     -        -        -       ^t 
De  Custine's  Russia 
Domenech's  Texas        -        -       Jj 
Eothen 

Gwilt's  Architecture       ...      8 
Johnston's  Geographical  Dictionary  11 
London's  Agriculture                     -    12 
"        Rural  Architecture        -    13 
"         Gardening                        -     13 

"        Songs  and  Ballads   -        -     15 
Reade's  Poetical  Works         -       -     18 
Shakspeare,  by  Bowdler         -        -    19 
Southey's  Poetical  Works       -       -    21 
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Ferguson's  Swiss  Travels      -        -  < 
Forester's  Rambles  in  Norway      - 
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Gironiere's  Philippines  -       -        -  f 
Gregorovius's  Corsica    - 

"         Plants                               -     13 
"        Trees  and  Shrubs    -        -     13 
M'Culloch's  GeographicalDictionary  1  4 
"          Dictionary  of  Commerce  14 
Murray's  Encyclo.  of  Geography   -     16 
Sharp's  British  Gazetteer       -        -    20 
Ure's  Dictionary  of  Arts,  &c.  -        -    23 
Webster's  Domestic  Economy       -    24 

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Statistics. 

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Macleod's  Political  Economy        -     14 
M'Culloch's  Geog.  Statist.  &c.  Diet.    1  4 
"          Dictionary  of  Commerce  14 
"           London                       -    22 

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Hope's  Brittany  and  the  Bible 
*     Chase  in  Brittanv        -        -  : 
Howitt's  Art-Student  in  Munich  - 
"        (W.)  Victoria  - 
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Blanc 

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The   Sciences    in    general 
and  Mathematics. 

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CleveHall       •         -        ...     20 
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Cotton's  Instructions  in  Christianity   6 
Dale's  Domestic  Liturgy                 -      7 
Defence  of  Eclipse  of  Faith  -       -      7 
Earl's  Daughter  (The)    -                -    20 
Eclipse  of  Faith      -        ...       7 
Englishman's  Greek  Concordance      7 
"           Heb.&Chald.Concord.     7 
Experience  (The)  of  Life        -       -    20 
Gertrude                           ...    20 
Harrison's  Light  of  the  Forge       -      8 
Home's  Introduction  to  Scriptures     9 
"        Abridgment  of  ditto         -    10 
Hue's  Christianity  in  China  -        -    10 
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Ivors  ;  or,  the  Two  Cousins           -     20 
Jameson's  Sacred  Legends    .-        -    11 
Monastic  Legends  -       -    11 
Legends  of  the  Madonna      11 

Arago's  Meteorological  Essays      -      3 
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Bourne  on  the  Screw  Propeller     -      4 
"     's  Catechism  of  Steam-Engine    4 
Boyd's  Naval  Cadet's  Manual        -      4 
Brande's  Dictionary  of  Science,  &c.     4 
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Cresy's  Civil  Engineering       -        -      6 
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De  la  Rive's  Electricity           -        -      7 
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Herschel's  Outlines  of  Astronomy       9 
Holland's  Mental  Physiology        -      9 
Humboldt's  Aspects  of  Nature      -     10 
"            Cosmos      -        -        -    10 
Hunt  on  Light      -       -        -       -    10 
Lardner's  Cabinet  Cyclopaedia      -    12 
Marcet's(  Mrs.)  Conversations       -    14 
Morell's  Elements  of  Psychology  -     16 
Moseley'sEngineering&Architecture  16 

"            Western  Africa 
Jameson's  Canada  - 
Jerrmann's  St.  Petersburg    - 
Laing's  Norway     - 
"        Notes  of  a  Traveller 
M'Clure's  North-  West  Passage      - 
MacDougall'sVoyage  of  theMesolute 
Mason's  Zulus  of  Natal         -        -J 
Miles's  Rambles  in  Iceland    -       -  i 
Osborn's  Quedah    -        -        -        - 
Pfeiffer's  Voyage  round  the  World 
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Seaward  's  Narrative       - 
Snow's  Tierra  del  Fuego 
Von  Tempsky's  Mexico 
Wanderings  in  Land  of  Ham         -    , 
Weld's  Vacations  in  Ireland  - 
"        United  States  and  Canada-  1 
Werne's  African  Wanderings         -   .' 
Wilberforce's  Brazil  &  Slave-Trade  1 

Lectures  on  Female  Em- 

Ogilvie's Master-  Builder's  Plan     -     17 

ployment                                      -    11 

Our  Goal  Fields  and  our  Coal-Pits     22 

Jeremy  Taylor's  Works  -        -        -    li 
Katharine  Ashton           -        -        -    20 

Owen'8  Lectureson  Comp.  Anatomy     17 
Pereira  on  Polarised  Light    -        -     17 

Works  of  Fiction. 

Konig's  Pictorial  Life  of  Luther    -       8 
Laneton  Parsonage         -                 -    20 

Peschel's  Elements  of  Physics        -     17 
Phillips's  Fossils  of  Cornwall,  &e.      17 

Cruikshank's  Falstaff    - 
Heirs  of  Cheveleigh        - 

Letters  to  my  Unknown  Friends    -    11 

«        Mineralogy      -        -         -     17 

Howitt's  Tallangetta     - 

'       on  Happiness     -        -        -    11 

"        Guide  to  Geology    -        -    17 

Moore's  Epicurean         -        -        -a 

Lyra  Germanica                                       6 
Maguire's  Rome                                -     14 

Portlock's  Geology  of  Londonderry     18 
Powell's  Unity  of  Worlds                -      18 

Sir  Roger  De  Coverlev    -       - 
Sketches  (The),  Three  Tales 

Margaret  Percival  -                          -    20 
Martineau's  Christian  Life  -        -    14 

Smee's  Electro-Metallurgy    -        -    20 
Steam-Engine(The)      ...       4 

Southey's  The  Doctor  &c. 
Trollope's  Barchester  Towers 

"           Hymns       -       -        -    14 

Wilson's  Electric  Telegraph  -       -    22 

"          Warden                           -    ' 

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1  This  interesting  and  in- 
structive little  volume  is 
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concise  paraphrase  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  occa- 
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words  of  the  narrative  itself, 
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dstory We  heartily  re- 
commend this  work  to  those 
?ho  are  engaged  in  the 
nstruction  of  the  young. 
Fhe  Sunday  School  Teacher 


may  derive  many  useful 
hints  from  it.  And  those 
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"  High  and  pure  aims,  ear- 
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guide  for  young  minds 

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religious  self-discipline,  rigid 


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by  the  Rev.  WILLIAM  CLABX,  M.D.,  F.R.S., 
&c.,  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  and  Pro- 
fessor of  Anatomy  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge ;  with  additional  References  fur- 
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separately,  VOL.  I.  Invertebrata,  30s.  and 
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"  Naturalists  will  b«  glad 
to  learn  that  Professor  Clark 


has  completed  his  transla- 
tion of  Van  Der  Hoeven's 
Handbook  of  Zoology  by  the 
publication  of  the  second 
volume,  comprising  the  Ver- 
tebrate Animals.  The  ar- 
rangement is  the  same  as 
that  which  we  described  in 
the  former  volume.  The 
four  classes  of  Fishes,  Rep- 
tiles. Birds,  and  Mammals 
are  introduced  by  short  ge- 
neral prefaces,  which  are 
followed  by  a  brief  scientific 


description  of  the  families 
and  genera,  and  the  princi- 
pal species.  A  series  of 
beautifully  executed  plates 
at  the  end  carries  the  eye 
along  the  ascending  scale  of 
life  by  the  delineation  of 
some  of  its  chief  organs. 
Professor  Clark  has  supplied 

us  j.hu-ii 
a  complete  and  careful  ma- 


a  great  want  by  thus  placing 
plete  and  careful  ma- 
nual, bearing  the  warrant  of 


the  highest  names  and  the 
latest  science,  within  the 
reach  of  the  private  stu- 
dent." GPABDIAIT. 


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24 


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