ENGLISH HISTORY.

BRITISH PERIOD.

Britain was peopled at a very early date, and the Phoenicians traded here for tin some centuries before the birth of Christ, this island being then known as the Cassiterides, or Tin Islands. The principal British Tribes were the Regni (Sussex and Surrey); Cantii (Kent); Trinobantes (Essex and Middlesex); Iceni (Four Eastern Counties); Silures (S. Wales); Brigantes (North of the Humber); and Caledonians (North of the Tweed).

The chief Priests were the Druids, who ruled in time of peace. The Oak was held sacred by them; its leaves adorning the brows of the human sacrifices slain beneath its boughs. They taught, by rhymes, the doctrine of the immortality and transmigration of the soul; the final destruction of the world, by fire; and the existence of a Supreme Being.

The government of the Druids was vested in an Archdruid, who ruled over

(1) The Bards, or wandering minstrels.

(2) The Vates, or sacred poets and prophets.

(3) The Druids proper, or priests, teachers, and judges.

The civilization of the Britons was imperfect, compared with that of the Romans, especially in the inland and Northern districts; but we find they raised corn, manufactured clothing, built houses, and dug and worked metals,―at any rate, in the South.

ROMAN PERIOD.

Julius Caesar (B.C. 55.) landed on the coast of Kent, near Deal or Dover, with 12,000 men and 80 transports, to punish the Britons for aiding the Gauls against him, and to extend the domains of the Roman Empire. The invasion only lasted seventeen days, on the fourth of which the Britons attacked the

Roman camp, thinking the retreat of the enemy cut off by the destruction of their transports in a storm. Cæsar (B.C. 54.) came again,—with 5 legions, 2,000 cavalry, and 800 ships; drove Cassivelaunus before him across the Thames, near Wallingford, defeating that chieftain at Verulam, his capital; and exacting an annual tribute.

During the next century, civil war at home kept the Romans out of Britain.

(A.D. 43.) Some Britons invited the Romans to aid them against their rivals, on which, the Emperor Claudius sent Aulus Plautius-who marched to the Severn, while the Britons devastated all before him. The Emperor himself subsequently came to Britain. Plautius was succeeded by Ostorius Scapula, who built forts and disarmed the natives; defeating the Silures under Caractacus, who was sent prisoner to Rome, but was afterwards released.

After a brief interval, Suetonius Paulinus became governor (in the reign of Nero), who crushed the Druids in their last stronghold, at Mona (Anglesea), and suppressed the rebellion of the Iceni under Boadicea, who had slain 70,000 Romans, and captured Camelodunum, London, and Verulamium: 80,000 Britons fell, and Boadicea took poison, to escape capture.

their taxes

After another brief interval, Julius Agricola became governor, conciliating the natives by justice, and introducing Roman civilization; so that we read in Tacitus, "The Britons are a people who pay and obey the laws with pleasure, if no unjust demands be made on them." He also penetrated (184) to the feet of the Grampians, defeating there Galgacus, with a loss of 10,000 men: on this expedition, the Roman fleet accompanied him, and afterwards sailed round the island. These Caledonian conquests were, however, of no use to the Romans; and after a further loss of 50,000 men by Severus, in attempting to hold the North, a wall was built by the latter, to keep out the enemy.

The Roman Empire was at this time beginning to tremble, and Carausius, the Count of the Saxon Shore, sent to keep off the Scandinavian pirates, openly revolted against the Romans. Most of the British youth were drawn off to fight the battles of the Empire upon the continent, and the island was consequently open to the ravages of the Picts and Scots, from the North.

The Roman towns were- -(1) Coloniae (9), having the laws and customs of the parent city, from which the military settlers forming the colony came; (2) Municipia, enjoying the same rights as Roman citizens; (3) Jus Latii, chosing their own magistrates, who alone could become Roman citizens; and (4) Stipendiaries.

The effects of the Roman conquest may be thus summarized::

(1). Military roads were established, and the country was opened up to communication; marshes were drained; forests cut down; and agriculture introduced.

(2). Buildings of Stone were erected, such as temples, villas, &c.

(3). Commerce flourished; corn being largely exported -as well as cattle, horses, dogs, tin, lead, iron, gold, silver, and pearls; while coins were soon introduced for exchange.

(4). Christianity was introduced in the train of the Romans, though persecuted by the conquerors. (5). The spirit of independence was destroyed, and the means of self-defence taken away.

The roads and divisions have been given in Book II.

SAXON PERIOD. 449-482.

Anarchy prevailed in Britain after the departure of the Romans in 409; and to keep out the Picts and Scots, and to oppose rival factions, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons were called in from the district North of the river Elbe.

It is said that Hengist was invited into Kent, by Vortigern; that he defeated the Picts; and gave his daughter Rowena to Vortigern for a wife, thus founding the first kingdom of the Saxon "Heptarchy."

Ella probably founded Sussex, 490; Erkenwin, the kingdom of Essex, 529.

The Angles under Ida founded Bernicia, 547,— landing at Flamborough Head; while Ella founded Deira, between the Tees and Humber; the two lastmentioned kingdoms being united into Northumbria, by Edwin, 617.

The Angles also founded East Anglia, under Uffa, in 571; and Mercia, under Crida, in 586.

The Britons were thus exterminated, made serfs, or driven to the West of the Pennines, into Devon and Cornwall (West Wales); Brittany; and Wales.

But the details of the long and doubtful struggle between the Saxons and Britons are based on no solid foundation."-KEMBLE.

The Saxon kingdoms were generally at war with each other, though occasionally allied under a Bretwalda. What this office may have been is very doubtful, though we know it was held by seven of the kings of different kingdoms (Sussex, Wessex, Kent, E. Anglia, and Northumberland) in succession.

Arthur, (542) King of the Silures, resisted the Saxons, winning 12 battles; but was at length slain by his nephew, Modred.

Pope Gregory (596) saw some Saxon youths exposed for sale in the slave market at Rome; he bought them, and tried to train them as missionaries to their countrymen; but finally sent, instead, Augustine with 40 monks, who secured Ethelbert, King of Kent, and 10,000 of his subjects, as their first converts-as well as Sebert, King of Wessex; the first church being built at Canterbury: instead of idol-temples on the sites of St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, churches were also erected. At a later date (627), Edwin of Northumbria became a couvert, and his chiefs followed his example; Coifi, the high-priest of the idol-temple,

being the first to destroy the idols at Godmundham. His successor, Oswald, founded a monastery at Lindisfarne (Holy I.)

The church already existed in some parts, before the advent of Augustine, and feuds for a long time existed between the rival sects.

At last the seven kingdoms were reduced to Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; these became at length reduced to Wessex, governed by Egbert.

Egbert (Bright-eye) was trained at the court of Charlemagne. He defeated the Britons of Devon and Cornwall; annexed Mercia, defeating its king at Ellandune; and gradually secured sway over the greater part of England: though the first King of ALL England was Athelstan, the kingdoms of E. Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, retaining a shadowy existence till destroyed by the Danes.

The first important invasion of the Danes, or Northmen, took place in this reign (832); though a landing had been made at Teignmouth, but defeated by Offa (787). These marauders joined the Britons of Devon and Cornwall, but were defeated at Hengston Hill (835). The pirates came from Denmark, and were subject in time of war only, to a Vi-King, or Sea King,-one who had never slept beneath a raftered roof. Their delight was in destroying the religion of the kindred Anglo-Saxons, whom they regarded as renegades from the worship of Odin. The next four reigns were mostly occupied in dealing with these blood-thirsty robbers, till Alfred regained the ascendancy.

Ethelwulf (836) was intended for the church. In his reign, the Danes captured London and Canterbury, and wintered in the island, but were defeated at Ockley (Surrey). Ethelwulf visited Rome with his son Alfred, and rebuilt the Saxon school there, which had been burnt down; and established "Peter's Pence" for its support. He first married Osberga, the daughter of a cup-bearer,-by whom he had four sons, who came to the throne in succession: his second wife was