this period', and Gwrtheyrn is named by each as CHA P. the predominating sovereign."

GWRTHEYRN is mentioned as a proud and cruel tyrant; but with these features Gildas describes the general body of the Britons, both clergy and laity. 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 disputed by a chieftain of Roman parentage, whose parents had perished in the possession of the imperial purple, and to whom Gildas gives the name of Ambrosius Aurelianus. The Scoti and Picts were harassing the island wherever they could penetrate, and a mortal distemper was raging among the peo

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 insulæ Vortigerni substernebantur monarchiæ." 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 penteyrn, literally the head-king; and Maelgwn, the king of Gwynedd, as the pen-hynain, or chief elder. Welsh Archæol. 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.

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 descendants 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.

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BOOK ple", which appears to have spread over a large part of the world. But the greatest affliction of Britain was the numerous petty sovereignties into which, after the departure of the Romans, it had become divided. 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 unpopular. When the fuel of rebellion abounds in every part, the restlessness of the disturbed society seldom fails to produce events or characters which begin the fatal conflagration. Arrival of In this state of the country, three Saxon cyules, Hengist. A. C. 449. or vessels, arrived from Germany on or near the British 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

7 Gildas, c. 21. 8 Gildas, c. 21. Marcellinus mentions a great pestilence following a famine at Constantinople, when Etius III. and Symmachus were consuls, an. 446, p. 41. Scal. Euseb. Evagrius, lib. ii. c. 6., extends it over Asia and the world, Tyyny, 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 unicuique suam provinciam diviserunt." So the Vita S. Carentoci, speaking of the son of Cunedda, states that "divisit possessiones patris sui inter fratres suos."

accident, or for the purpose of a transient depreda- CHA P. tion. Nennius says, they were exiles.10

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"; 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-fleet 12, in the Isle of Thanet, near Richborough. The king and British chiefs were at that time holding a public council,

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 100 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 æstuary of the Wanstum, 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.

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BOOK 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 to serve against the northern invaders, the Pihtas, Scoti, and other foes; they were promised food and 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 engagement, and with immediate success.15 But it was not enough to repress one incursion of these active 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 requisite. But as the numbers which had come with Hengist were few, it was natural that he should recommend the invitation of more of his countrymen, if they were to be used for the purpose of continued military 16 defence. The king assented; and they sent to their native land for further supplies."

BUT we must not resort to Wittichind for the speech of the ambassadors. Though a Saxon himself, he appears to have been completely ignorant

13 Gildas, s. 22. Nen. c. 28. The British poem of Golyddan indignantly alludes to this council. Welsh Arch. v. i. p. 156. 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.

lib. i. p.833.

16 Nennius, s. 37.

Sax. Ch. p. 12. Ethelwerd,

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.

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of the Saxon antiquities.18 We can conceive the CHA P. application to have been an address to the courage and spirit of adventure of the youth of Jutland, from which Hengist had sailed.19 Hengist may have added, as a lure, the probability of greater aggrandizement; but the lofty projects of ambition are not the first conceptions of humbler fortunes: auspicious events gradually teach hope to be more aspiring. One unexpected 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 employment, 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, which also arise in disturbed periods of society, that led him to perceive that permanent settlements were attainable, and to desire their acquisition. Hence we need

18 He was the biographer of his contemporary, Otho, who - He died 972. Sigebert, 1196. Germ. Quat. Celeb. Chron. 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 Sacasenæ, 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.

19 Bede, p. 52.