CHAP. VII.

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

VII.

SOON after the termination of the fourth cen- CHAP. tury, 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 usefully illustrate the causes of their success, and remove some of the difficulties, with which this portion of our history has been peculiarly embarrassed.

THE transactions of the natives of Britain, from the fall of Maximus, to the Saxon invasion, are almost lost to us, from the want of accurate historiographers of this period. 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 his own invention, 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 the original obscurity of Gildas; and all that the imagination of Jeffry has effected, has been to people the gloom with fantastic shapes,

II.

BOOK which, in our search for authentic history, only make us welcome the darkness that they vainly attempt to remove.1

Bede's chronolo

gy of this period er

reneo us.

THE chronology into which Bede has distorted the rhetoric of Gildas, was erroneously chosen by our venerable and valuable historian. 2 His authority, 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;

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, chronology, and details, and the amplifications and additions with which they are accompanied, appear to me to be fictitious, and unauthorised; fully as much so as those of Saxo Grammaticus. The true cannot now be separated from the invented. We are therefore compelled to discredit the whole.

2 Bede postpones the invasions of the Picts and Scots, and the coming of the legions, until 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 Bede, App. p. 672.

VII.

and thus they have governed the chronology of this CHAP. 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.

3

fall of

WHILE Gratian governed the western empire, Rise and and Theodosius the eastern, the legions of Britain, Maximus, who had so often been conspicuous for their tur- 333–388. bulence, seceded from their allegiance to Gratian ; and, in concert with the Britons, appointed Maximus, a Spaniard by birth, but then in the Roman service in Britain, to be their emperor in his 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 Bri tain; and a Roman 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 confirmed the usurpation, he collected a great 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.

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

II.

4

BOOK Many legends of the most ridiculous nature have been appended, which grave historians have believed. That he raised all the force from Britain which he could collect, is probable, because he had a great stake to contend for, and the power of an ancient empire to withstand. But we need not extend this to the depopulation of our island, or to the total destruction of its military strength. His officer assassinated Gratian, after he had reigned fifteen years, and Valentinian admitted Maximus into a participation of the empire. He 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

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 colonize 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 revelation, 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 11th 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.

VII.

patron. Maximus perished at Aquileia." The CHAP. 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."

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, collected 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.

THE next year was marked by the death of Theodosius himself; and, when he expired, the Roman glory began to set. His two sons lived only to disgrace him. The western hemisphere was possessed by Honorius, the youngest son of Theodosius, who, in January 395, at the age of eleven, became master of an empire, almost besieged by enemies; Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and

5 Socrates, p. 270-273.

This point has been much controverted, but I cannot avoid agreeing with Du Bos, that Quant au tems où la peuplade des Bretons insulaires s'est etablie dans les Gaules, 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 Britanniam. Ib. 472. The ancient Saxon poet, ap. Duchesne Hist. Fran. Script. ii. peoples Bretagne after the Saxon conquest.

p. 148. also

395.