AN ABRIDGMENT

OF

ENGLISH HISTORY.

BOOK II.

BOOK

II.

CHAP. I.

The Entry and Settlement of the Saxons, and their Conversion to Christianity.

FTER having been so long subject to a foreign dominion, there was among the BriA. D. tains no royal family, no respected order in the 447. state, none of those titles to government confirmed

by opinion and long use, more efficacious than the wisest schemes for the settlement of the nation. Mere personal merit was then the only pretence to power. But this circumstance only added to the misfortunes of a people, who had no orderly method of election, and little experience of merit in any of the candidates. During this anarchy, whilst they suffered the most dreadful calamities from the fury of barbarous nations, which invaded them, they fell into that disregard of religion, and those

loose

I.

loose disorderly manners, which are sometimes the CHAP. consequence of desperate and hardened wretchedness, as well as the common distempers of ease and A. D. prosperity.

At length, after frequent elections and deposings, rather wearied out by their own inconstancy, than fixed by the merit of their choice, they suffered Vortigern to reign over them. This leader had made some figure in the conduct of their wars and factions. But he was no sooner settled on the throne than he showed himself rather like a prince born of an exhausted stock of royalty in the decline of empire, than one of those bold and active spirits, whose manly talents obtain them the first place in their country,. and stamp upon it that character of vigour essential to the prosperity of a new commonwealth. However, the mere settlement, in spite of the ill administration of government, procured the Britains some internal repose, and some temporary advantages over their enemies the Picts. But having been long habituated to defeats, neither relying on their king nor on themselves, and fatigued with the obstinate attacks of an enemy, whom they sometimes checked, but could never remove, in one of their national assemblies it was resolved to call in the mercenary aid of the Saxons, a powerful nation of Germany, which had been long by their piratical incursions terrible not only to them but to all the adjacent countries. This resolution has

been

447..

BOOK been generally condemned. It has been said, that II. they seem to have through mere cowardice disA. D. trusted a strength not yet worn down, and a fortune 447 sufficiently prosperous. But as it was taken by ge

neral counsel and consent, we must believe, that the necessity of such a step was felt, though the event was dubious. The event indeed might be dubious; in a state radically weak, every measure vigorous enough for its protection must endanger its existence.

There is an unquestioned tradition among the Northern nations of Europe, importing, that all that part of the world had suffered a great and general revolution by a migration from Asiatick Tartary of a people, whom they call Asers. These every where expelled or subdued the ancient inhabitants of the Celtick and Cimbrick original. The leader of this Asiatick army was called Odin, or Wodin; first their general, afterwards their tutelar deity. The time of this great change is lost in the imperfection of traditionary history, and the attempts to supply it by fable. It is however certain, that the Saxon nation believed themselves the descendants of those conquerors; and they had as good a title to that descent as any other of the Northern tribes; for they used the same language, which then was, and is still, spoken with small variation of the dialects, in all the countries, which extend from the polar circle to the Danube. This people most

probably

1

I,

A. D.

447

probably derived their name, as well as their origin, CHAP.
from the Sacæ, a nation of the Asiatick Scythia
At the time, of which we write, they had seated
themselves in the Cimbrick Chersonesus, or Jut-
land, in the countries of Holstein and Sleswick, and
thence extended along the Elbe and Weser to the
coast of the German ocean, as far as the mouths
of the Rhine. In that tract they lived in a sort of
loose military commonwealth of the ordinary Ger-
man model under several leaders, the most eminent
of whom was Hengist, descended from Odin, the
great conductor of the Asiatick colonies. It was
to this chief, that the Britains applied themselves.
They invited him by a promise of ample pay for
his troops, a large share of their common plunder,
and the isle of Thanet for a settlement.

.

The army, which came over under Hengist, did not exceed fifteen hundred men. The opinion, which the Britains had entertained of the Saxon prowess, was well founded; for they had the principal share in a decisive victory, which was obtained over the Picts soon after their arrival, a victory, which for ever freed the Britains from all terrour of the Picts and Scots, but in the same moment exposed them to an enemy no less dangerous.

Hengist and his Saxons, who had obtained by the free vote of the Britains that introduction into this island they had so long in vain attempted by arms, saw, that by being necessary they were superiour

BOOK Superiour to their allies. They discovered the characII. ter of the king; they were eye-witnesses of the interA. D. nal weakness and distraction of the kingdom. This 447. state of Britain was represented with so much effect

to the Saxons in Germany, that another and much greater embarkation followed the first; new bodies daily crowded in. As soon as the Saxons began to be sensible of their strength, they found it their interest to be discontented; they complained of breaches of a contract, which they construed açcording to their own designs; and then fell rudely upon their unprepared and feeble allies, who, as they had not been able to resist the Picts and Scots, were still less in a condition to oppose that force, by which they had been protected against those enemies, when turned unexpectedly upon themselves. Hengist, with very little opposition, subdued the province of Kent, and there laid the foundation of the first Saxon kingdom. Every battle the Britains fought only prepared them for a new defeat by weakening their strength, and displaying the inferiority of their courage. Vortigern, instead of a steady and regular resistance, opposed a mixture of timid war and unable negotiation. In one of their meetings, wherein the business, according to the German mode, was carried on amidst feasting and riot, Vortigern was struck with the beauty of a Saxon virgin, a kinswoman of Hengist, and entirely under his influence,

.