V. 560. active and hardy race, whose augmenting population CHA P. 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 maintained their own kingdoms in Cornwall and part of Devonshire, and in that portion of the north which composed the Stratclyde district. It was not till Athelstan that they finally lost Exeter. THE Britons long after Arthur's death maintained their patriotic struggle against the kingdom of Wessex. They fought, though unsuccessfully, at Bedford, against the brother of Ceawlin, as we have noticed before. The Anglo-Saxon, in marching back to Wessex, through the districts yet in the hands of the natives, took Lygeanburh, Aylesbury, Bensington, and Ensham. Six years afterwards, the Britons again resisted the progressive ambition of the Saxons. An important battle occurred between them at Derham, in Gloucestershire, in which some of the kings of Wales appear to have confederated against the invaders; for three British sovereigns, Conmail, Condidan, and Farinmail fell in the conflict: two of these seem to be the princes lamented by Llywarch Hen in one of his elegies3: 7 Sax. Ch. 22. Fl. Wig. 222. Ethelw. 834. 8 Sax. Ch. 22. Fl. Wig. 223. Ethelw. 835. His Marwnad Cynddylan, the son of Cyndrwyn. It begins energetically: Stand out, ye virgins, And behold the habitation of Cynddylan. The palace of Pengwern: Is it not in flames? Woe to the young who wish for social bonds. 571. III. The cap BOOK the last was king of Monmouthshire. 1o ture of three cities, then of considerable note among the Britons, as they are now to us, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath, were the fruits of the Saxon victory." 571. The venerable bard proceeds with his panegyrical apostrophes I heard from the meadow the clattering of shields. He also laments the fall of Freuer. It breaks my sleep. I weep at the dawn. W. A. p. 112. W. A. p. 110. 10 I do not know that the Freuer of Llyward means the same person as Farinmail; 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 chronicle, p. 115. 11 See before, p. 266. eorum clariores, p. 835. mas, p. 315. Ethelwerd calls these cities, urbes Huntingdon's epithet is excellentissi V. 571. suing hostilities against the Britons on the Severn. C 11 A P. 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 Ceawlin 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 divided among the conquerors. 12 The Britons, with undismayed perseverance, fought again seven years afterwards, at Wanborough, and appear to have obtained a complete victory. 13 There were probably many efforts of minor importance made by the Britons which the Saxon chroniclers have not noticed. 14 12 Flor. 224. Hunt. 315. M. Westm. omits the ultimate success of Ceawlin, and states it as a British victory, p. 198. Soon after this contest, Langhorn quotes Io. Salisb. Poylc. v. c. 17, to say, that "paulo post Anglorum introitum impositum fuisse Angliæ 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 Ceawlin from his throne, p. 835. 14 Thus Meigant, the British bard of the seventh century, mentions an expedition of the British chief Morial: Pacing to combat, a great booty Before Caer Lwydgoed, has not Morial taken 1 W. Ar. p. 160. BOOK III. 560. The An BUT as soon as the Anglo-Saxon kings had so far subdued the Britons, as to be in no general danger from their hostility; and began to feel their glo-Saxons own strength in the growing population of their each other, provinces, and in the habitual submission of the natives, their propensity to war, and their avarice of power, excited them to turn their arms upon each other. war with 568. Ethelbert invades Ceawlin. It was the impatience of a young mind to distinguish itself, which thus began a new series of wars that lasted till Egbert. The attacks and successes of 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 Ceawlin, the king of Wessex. This action seems to have been intemperate. Ceawlin had displayed both talent and resources for war, and Kent never attained the territorial 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 this contest taught Kent to understand better its true position in the political scale of the octarchy. Ceawlin collected his troops, defeated Ethelbert at Wimbledon, and threatened the Kentish Jutes with the subjection which they had armed to impose. This is remarked to have been the first 15 15 Sax. Chron. p. 21. Flor. Wigorn. 222. Malmsbury attributes the aggression to Ethelbert's desire of engrossing præ antiquitate familiæ primas partes sibi, p. 12. battle that occurred between the Anglo-Saxon CHA P. 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. V. 584. death. DREADED for his power and ambition, Ceawlin Ceawlin's now preponderated over the other Saxon monarchs"; 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 Ceawlin, 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 to the crown he had usurped. He enjoyed it 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 finibus Bajocassium et Namnetensium. 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 district, 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. Angliæ, 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. dic. 559., 3 Gale, and Jeffry, 12. 2. Alanus de Insulis, lib. i. p. 25., gives him 360,000. 18 Sax. Chron. 22. Ceola, as Flor. Wig., 225. names him, 591. |