BOOK 560. Middle Angles, in Leicestershire, which appertained 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 Hertfordshire, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire; -and into North Mercians, in the counties of Chester, Derby, and Nottingham. The Northumbrians, who were, The Deiri, in Lancaster, York, Westmoreland, The Bernicians, in Northumberland, and the 56 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. Whitaker's Hist. Manchester, lib. ii. c. 4. p. 88. CHAP. V. The History of the ANGLO-SAXON Octarchy, and its further Successes against the BRITONS, to the beginning of the Seventh Century: Ella, sup V. THE exertions of the British against their in- CHAP. vaders having thus failed, eight Anglo-Saxon governments were established in the island. This 560. state of Britain has been improperly denominated An octarchy esthe Saxon heptarchy.' When all the kingdoms tablished. were settled, they formed an octarchy. porting 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 an hexarchy. When the northern Ella penetrated, in 560, southward of the Tees, his kingdom of Deira 1 Although most of our ancient annalists and modern historians have retained the word heptarchy, yet one old chronicler, I perceive, has more critically said, " Provincia Britonum, quæ modo Anglia nominatur, Saxonum temporibus in octo regna divisa fuerit." Th. Rudborne's Hist. Major. Winton. 1 Anglia Sacra, 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 united under one sovereign, yet, as they became consolidated, Essex, Kent, or Sussex ceased to be separate and independent kingdoms; so that the term was still improper. 560. BOOK produced an heptarchy. In 586, the Angles branchIII. ing from Deira into the regions south of the Humber, the state of Mercia completed an AngloSaxon octarchy. As the Anglo-Saxons warred with each other, sometimes one state was for a time absorbed by another; sometimes, after an interval, it emerged again. If that term ought to be used which expresses the complete establishment of the Anglo-Saxons, it should be octarchy; if not, then the 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 triarchy; but it is obvious, that octarchy is the appellation 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 nusbandmen, artisans, and menials for do V. 560. mestic purposes. There can be no doubt that the CHAP. 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 received a large accession of population; and some are even said to have visited Holland.2 tion of the THE most indignant of the Cymry retired into RestoraWales. There, the bards, fugitives like the rest, Britons consoled the expatriated Britons with the hope that predicted. the day would afterwards arrive when they should have their full revenge, by driving out the Saxon hordes. Not only Taliesin sung this animating prediction; Myrddin also promised the Britons that they should again be led by their majestic 2 H. Cannegieter, in his Dissertation de Brittenburgo, Hag. Co. 1734, has particularly examined this point. His decision is that Brittenburg was named from the Britons, but was built by the Romans. He prefers, to the assertion of Gerbrandus, 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, From Germania; This will overrun All Loegria and Brydon, From the land of the Lochlin sea To the Severn. III. 560. BOOK 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 happiness. The anticipation of this blissful æra gave rapture to the Cymry, even in their stony paradise of Wales. The proud invaders mocked the vaunting prophecy, and, to render it nugatory, unpeopled some of their native coasts on the Baltic, and filled Britain with an 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 has 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, endeavours 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 Archaiology, vol. i. p. 156-159. 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 manere desertus," lib. i. c. 15. To the like purpose Nennius, " ita ut insulas de quibus venerant absque habitatore relinquerunt." c. 37. |