a very vigorous opposition from the natives, but being rein forced from Germany,* and assisted by their countrymen on the island, they routed the Britons; and although retarded in heir progress by the celebrated king Arthur,† they had strength enough to keep possession of the conquest they had already made. Cerdic, therefore, with his son Kenric, established the third Saxon kingdom in the island, namely that of the West Saxons, including the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight.

11. It was in opposing this Saxon invader that the ce lebrated prince Arthur acquired his fame. However unsuccessful all his valour might have been in the end, yet his name made so great a figure in the fabulous annals of the times, that some notice must be taken of him. 12. This prince is of such obscure origin, that some authors suppose him to be the son of king Ambro'sius,‡ and others only his nephew; others again affirm that he was a Cornish prince, and son of Gurlois, king of that province. However this be, it is certain he was a commander of great valour; and, could courage alone have repaired the miserable state of the Britons, his might have been effectual. 13. According to the most authentic historians, he worsted the Saxons in twelve successive battles. In one of these, namely, that fought at Caerbadon, in Berks, it is asserted that he killed no less than four hundred and forty of the enemy with his own hand. But the Saxons were too numerous and powerful to be extirpated by the desultory efforts of single va lour; so that a peace, and not a conquest, was the immediate fruit of his victories. 14. The enemy, therefore still gained ground; and this prince, in the decline of life, had the mortification, from some domestic troubles of his own, to be a patient spectator of their encroachments. His first wife had been carried off by Melnas, king of Somersetshire, who detained her a whole year at Glas'tonbury,§ until Arthur, discovering the place of her retreat, advanced with an army against the seducer, and obliged him to give her back. 15. In his second wife, perhaps, he may have been more fortunate, as we have no mention made of her; but it was otherwise with his third consort, who was car

* A large country of Europe, comprising many kingdoms and states. † A British prince, who established Christianity at York, in the room of paganism, or worshipping of idols.

King of the Britons.

Glas'tonbury is a town in Somersetshire, noted for a famous abbey:

ried off by his own nephew, Mordred. This produced a rebellion, in which the king and his traitorous kinsman, meeting in battle, slew each other.

Questions for Examination

1. Who ravaged England with impunity?

2. To whom did the Britons have recourse for assistance in their distress! 3. What character is given of the Saxons?

4. Where did the Saxons land?

5 Whom did the Saxons defeat?

6. By what means can the easy conquest of the Britons be accounted for? 7 How did the Saxons obtain possession of the province of Kent?

8. Were not many of the British nobility treacherously slaughtered? 9. Who laid the foundation of the South Saxon kingdom?

10. Who gave rise to the name of the West Saxons?

11, 12. What celebrated British prince opposed the Saxons with succcss 13. What extraordinary feat of valour is related of him?

14. What domestic troubles afflicted Arthur in the decline of life?

SECTION II.

While undecided yet which part should fall,

Which nation rise, the glorious Lord of all.- Creech.

1. (A.D. 575.) In the mean time, while the Saxons were thus gaining ground in the west, their countrymen were not less active in the other parts of the island. Adventurers still continuing to pour over from Germany, one body of them, under the command of Uffa, seized upon the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and gave their commander the title of king of the East Angles,* which was the fourth Saxon kingdom founded in Britain.

2. Another body of these adventurers formed a kingdom under the title of East Saxony, or Essex, comprehending Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire. This kingdom, which was dismembered from that of Kent, formed the fifth Saxon principality founded in Britain.

3. The kingdom of Mercia was the sixth which was established by these fierce invaders, comprehending all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of the two last-named kingdoms.

The seventh and last kingdom which they obtained was that of Northumberland,† one of the most powerful and xtensive of them all. This was formed from the union of

*Comprehending Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and the Isle of Ely.

↑ Northumberland, that is, the land north of the river Humber, con tained six counties in England, and extended as far as the Fr th of Edin burg, in Scotland

two smaller Saxon kingdoms, the one called Berni'cia, con taining the present county of Northumberland and the bishoprick of Durham; the subjects of the other, called Dei'ri, extending themselves over Lancashire and Yorkshire. 4. These kingdoms were united in the person of Ethelred, king of Northumberland, by the explusion of Edwin, his brother-in-law, from the kingdom of the Deiri, and the seizure of his dominions. In this manner, the na tives being overpowered, or entirely expelled, seven kingdoms were established in Britain, which have since been well known by the name of the Saxon heptarchy.

5. The Saxons, being thus well established in all the desi rable parts of the island, and having no longer the Britons to contend with, began to quarrel among themselves. A country divided into a number of petty independent principalities, must ever be subject to contention, as jealousy and ambition have more frequent incentives to operate. 6. After a series, therefore, of battles, treasons, and stratagems, all their petty principalities fell under the power of Egbert, king of Wessex, whose merits deserved dominion, and whose prudence secured his conquests. By him all the kingdoms of the heptarchy were united under one common jurisdiction; but, to give splendour to his authority, a general council of the clergy and laity was summoned at Winchester, where he was solemnly crowned king of England, by which name the united kingdom was thenceforward called.

7. Thus, about four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons in Britain, all the petty settlements were united into one great state, and nothing offered but prospects of peace, security, and increasing refinement.

It was about this period that St. Gregory undertook to send missionaries among the Saxons, to convert them to Christianity. 8. It is said, that, before his elevation to the papal chair, he chanced one day to pass through the slavemarket at Rome, and perceiving some children of great beauty, who were set up for sale, he inquired about their country, and finding they were English pagans, he is said to have cried out in the Latin language, Non Angli sed Angeli, forent, si essent Christiani. They would not be English, but angels, had they been Christians."* 9. From

66

* Inquiring further the name of their province, he was answered Dein a district of Northumberland). "Deiri," replied St. Gregory, "that is good; they are called to the mercy of God from his anger; that is, de IRA.

But

that time he was struck with an ardent desire to convert that unenlightened nation, and ordered a monk, named Augus'tine, and others of the same fraternity, to undertake the mission into Britain.

This pious monk, upon his first landing in the Isle of Thanet, sent one of his interpreters to Eth'elbert, the Kent ish king, declaring he was come from Rome with offers of eternal salvation. 10. The king immediately ordered them to be furnished with all necessaries, and even visited them, though without declaring himself as yet in their favour. Augus'tine, however, encouraged by this favourable reception, and now seeing a prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel. 11. The king openly espoused the Christian religion: while his example wrought so successfully on his subjects, that numbers of them came voluntarily to be baptized, the missionary loudly declaring against any coercive means towards their conversion. Ir this manner the other kingdoms, one after the other, em braced the faith and England was soon as famous for its superstition, as it had once been for its averseness to Christianity.

The Saxon ecclesiastics were in general men of great piety and learning. The most celebrated among them was the venerable Bede, born A. D. 673, died A. D. 735, whose history of the Anglo-Saxon Church was so highly valued by King Alfred, that he translated it from the Latin language, in which it was written, into the Saxon.

Questions for Examination.

1. Whence did adventurers continue to come?

What counties formed the fourth kingdom of the Saxons? 2. What counties did the fifth Saxon kingdom comprehend? 3. What was the sixth kingdom called?

What was the seventh kingdom? and how was it formed?

4. What was the general name given to the seven Saxon kingdoms?

5. What happened to the Saxons after the Britons were subdued?

6. Under whose power did all the petty principalities fall?

7. At about what period were missionaries sent among the Saxons to con vert them to Christianity?

8,9. What was the circumstance which occasioned the sending missionaries into Britain?

How were the missionaries received by the Saxon monarch?

11. What effect was produced by the king's example?

who is the king of that province named?" He was told ELLA, or ALLA "Alleluiah!” cried he, "we must endeavour that the praises of God be sung in this country "-Hume.

CHAPTER III.

THE INVASION OF THE DANES.

FROM THE END OF THE HEPTARCHY TO THE REIGN OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

1. (A. D. 832.) PEACE and unanimity had been scarcely established in England, when a mighty swarm of those nations called Danes* and Northmen, subsequently corrupted into Normen or Normans, who had possessed the country bordering on the Baltic,t began to level their fury against England. A small body of them at first landed on the coasts, with a view to learn the state of the country; and having committed some depredations, fled to their ships for safety 2. About seven years after this first attempt, they made a descent upon the kingdom of Northumberland, where they pillaged a monastery, but their fleet being shattered by a storm, they were defeated by the inhabitants and put to the sword. It was not till about five years after the accession of Egbert, that their invasions became truly formidable. From that time they continued with unceasing ferocity, until the whole kingdom was reduced to a state of the most distressing bondage.§

3. Though often repulsed, they always obtained their end of spoiling the country, and carrying the plunder away. It was their method to avoid coming, if possible, to a general engagement; but, scattering themselves over the face of the country, they carried away indiscriminately, as well the inhabitants themselves, as all their moveable possessions. 4. At length, however, they resolved upon making a set

The Danes were inhabitants of Denmark, a kingdom in the north of Europe.

†The Baltic is an inland sea in the north of Europe.

Egbert was the first sole monarch in England.

rce

Nothing could be more dreadful than the manner in which these barbarians carried on their incursions; they spared neither age nor sex, and each commander urged the soldiers to inhumanity. One of their celebrated chieftains, named Oliver, gained, from his dislike to the favourite amusement of his soldiers (that of tossing children on the points of their spears), the con emptuous surname of Burnakal, or "The Preserver of Children."