II.

501.

he had with the Britons during these twenty-four CHA P. 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 employed 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 in 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 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 together. 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 disaster, that all the region near the scene of conflict became afterwards called by his name.

12 Sax. Chron. p. 18. Flor. Wig. 206.

13 H. Hunt. 312.

This victory gave

Ethelwerd, 834.

14 Chron. Sax." Her Cerdic and Cynric West Seaxna rice

508.

III.

BOOK Cerdic a firm position in the island, though it did not enable him yet to found a kingdom.

508.

552.

556.

THE subsequent battles of Cerdic and his friends with the Britons, which the Saxon writers have recorded, 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." 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.

18

His son Cynric defeated the Britons at Searobyrig; and four years afterwards at Beranbirig.' In this last battle the Britons made peculiar exer

onfengun :" after mentioning the battle, it adds, “siththan ricsadon West Seaxa cynebearn of tham dæge," p. 18.

15 See Note 14. in the preceding page.

16 Hen. Hunt. 313. Camden places the battle at a ford of the Avon, at the place now called Charford in Hampshire.

17 Sax. Chr. 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. Ch.20. Flor. Wig. 220. This is placed at Banbury in Oxfordshire; the other at Salisbury.

III.

556.

tions to overcome their invaders. They collected CHA P. a large army; and, taught by former defeat the evil of disorderly combats, their leaders attempted an imitation of better discipline. They were formed into nine divisions; three in front, three in the center, and three in the rear, apparently to act as a reserve; their archers and horse were arranged like the Romans. The Saxons observing the array, condensed themselves into one compact body, and made an attack in this mass which proved irresistible.

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 subdue. His brother defeated the Britons at Bedford, 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 same 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

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 chronicles before him than those which have survived to us.

20 Lygeanburh; Ægeles-burh, Benningtun, and Egonesham. Chr. Sax. p. 22. These are supposed by Gibson to be Leighton in Bedfordshire; Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire; Bensington and Ensham in Oxfordshire.

571.

BOOK three kings, as from the important results of the

III.

571.

victory; for three of the great cities of the Britons, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath, submitted after it to the conqueror. 21 Seven years afterwards, 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 obtained a hard-earned and long-contested triumph. He obtained much booty and many towns; but as the Saxon chronicler remarks that he afterwards retired into his own district 22, the Britons were still powerful enough to prevent or discourage his advance.

SUCH is the Saxon statement of the battles which attended the establishment and progress of the formidable kingdom of Wessex; by which we find that eighty-two years elapsed after the arrival of Cerdic, before it was extended to include Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath. Its first acquisition was Hampshire by. Cerdic. It was enlarged into Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, by his son; and by his grandson into Gloucestershire and part of Somersetshire. But after these successes, it was still flanked on the west by British kingdoms in Cornwall, Devonshire, and part of Somersetshire; and 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 sup

21 Chr. Sax. p. 22. F. Wig. 223. Ethelw. 835. Durham in Gloucestershire is believed to have been the scite of this battle.

22 Gehwearf thonan to his agenum, Ch. Sax. p. 22.

II.

571.

ported by the Saxon kingdoms of Sussex and Kent. CHAP. But if the nation of the Angles had not successively arrived after Cerdic's death, to over-run the east, the center, 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 character, we will pause to consider the ancient British accounts of their conflicts with the West-Saxon invaders.