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CHAPTER III.

THE SAXON HEPTARCHY.

Table of Contents

A SAXON SHIP.

1. It is now time to tell you something about the Picts and Scots. They were the people of Scotland, and were called by the Romans Caledonians, which meant men of the woods, because they were very rude and fierce, and lived among woods and wilds.

2. They had always been sad enemies to the Britons; but the Romans had kept them away, and the good governor Agricola built a row of strong forts, all across their country, and placed soldiers in them, to make the Caledonians keep on the other side.

3. However, they sometimes managed to break through; so the Emperor Severus, who was here from the year 207 to 211, had a stone wall built across that narrow part, where Northumberland joins Cumberland, and it was so strong, that parts of the banks and forts are still remaining.

4. But when all the Roman soldiers were gone, the Picts and Scots began to come again, and robbed the people of their corn and cattle, and stole their children for slaves, and did a great deal of mischief.

5. Now, if the British princes had agreed among themselves, and joined together to drive out these terrible foes, things might have gone on very well; but they were foolish enough to quarrel, and go to war with one another; while some of the captains, who wanted to be princes, got a number of soldiers to help them, and took possession of different places, where they called themselves kings, and made the people obey them.

6. They did not continue the good Roman laws; nor elect magistrates to keep order in the cities, as used to be done while the Romans were here; and tillage was neglected, because the farmers were afraid their crops would be destroyed, so that numbers of people died of famine.

7. There were still many Romans in Britain, who were not soldiers but were settled here, most of them having married into British families; and there were a great number of people who were Britons by birth, but whose ancestors had been Romans; and all these were desirous that the country should still be governed by the Roman laws, and formed what was called the Roman party.

8. But there was a British party also, that wanted to do away with the Roman laws altogether, and not to let the Romans have any thing to do with ruling the country; so each of these parties elected a king.

9. The Britons chose a prince named Vortigern; and the Romans chose one called Aurelius Ambrosius; and there was war between them.

10. Then Vortigern, the British king, thought it would be a good thing to get some other brave people to join his party, that he might be able to overcome his rival, as well as to drive away the Picts and Scots; so he proposed to some of the British chiefs that they should ask the Saxons to come and help them, and they thought it would be a good plan.

11. The Saxons inhabited the north of Germany, and parts of Holland and Denmark, which were then poor and barren countries.

12. Many of their chiefs were pirates, that is, they lived by going out on the seas to fight and plunder; nor did they think it wicked so to do; but, on the contrary, imagined it was brave and noble.

13. Two of them, Hengist and Horsa, happened to be cruising near the British coast, when they received a message from Vortigern; who made a bargain with them, and offered to give them the little island of Thanet, if they would come with all their men, to assist him in driving out the Picts and Scots.

14. Thanet is that part of Kent where Margate is now situated, but was then separated by an arm of the sea, so that it was a small island, standing alone, nearly a mile from the coast.

15. The Saxons were very ready to come, for they knew that Britain was a pleasant, fertile country, and hoped to get some of it for themselves; but they did not let the Britons know they thought of doing so.

16. Hengist and Horsa were very brave, and their men were well armed, so they soon forced the Picts and Scots to retreat to their own country; and shortly afterwards they went to the Isle of Thanet, which they fortified, and many more Saxons came there to them.

17. I cannot tell you how the affairs of the Britons went on, or what became of Vortigern; but this I can tell you, that the Saxons soon began to quarrel with the people of Kent, and fought with them, and having driven most of them away, took the land for themselves, and began to live there.

18. The chief who made this conquest, was Esca, the son of Hengist, who called himself king of Kent, which, from that time, was a small Saxon kingdom, for the Britons never won it back again.

13. Then other chiefs, hearing how Esca had succeeded, got together bands of soldiers, and landed in different parts of the country, to try to gain kingdoms also; but they did not all come at once, and their conquests were made by such slow degrees, that the wars lasted more than one hundred and fifty years; so you may guess how hard the Britons fought in defence of their liberty.

20. We can learn but very little about those unhappy times, for the few histories that were then written were mostly destroyed in these long wars; and though songs were composed by the bards or poets, which the people used to learn and teach to their children, these songs were not all true.

21. They were mostly about the wars, and the brave British chiefs who defended the country against the Saxons; and if you should ever hear anybody speak of king Arthur, and the knights of the Round Table, you may remember that he is said to have been one of those chiefs; and, if we may believe the tale, killed four hundred Saxons with his own hand in one battle.

22. Those who made the story about him, say that the nobles of his court were all so equal in bravery and goodness, that he had a large round table made for them to feast at, that no one might sit above another; so they were called knights of the Round Table. But let us return to our history.

23. The Saxons went on making one conquest after another, till, at last, they were in possession of the whole country; where very few of the natives were left, for most of those who had not been killed in the wars, had fled into Gaul, or taken refuge among the Welsh mountains; so from this time we shall hear no more of the Britons, but must look upon the Saxons as the people of England.

24. I told you how Esca had established the little kingdom of Kent. Well, in the course of the wars, six more kingdoms had been formed in the same manner, by different Saxon chiefs, so that, by the time the conquest was completed, there were seven kingdoms in Britain, namely, Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia, Northumbria, Wessex, and Mercia; and this division of the country among seven kings, was called the Saxon Heptarchy.

25. The Saxons were not clever people, like the Romans, but were rough and ignorant, and cared for nothing but fighting; so while the wars were going on, they ruined and destroyed all the beautiful and useful works that had been done in the Roman times; for they did not understand their value, and only thought it was a fine thing to destroy all that belonged to their enemies.

26. But the works of the Romans were very strong; for even now, when workmen are digging in London, and different parts of the country, they sometimes find Roman walls, and pavements, and foundations of houses, that show what good architects the Romans were.

27. When the Saxons had got possession of the whole country, you may perhaps suppose they would be quiet and contented, but this was not the case; for as long as there were separate kingdoms, they were continually at war with each other, and the principal cause of disagreement was, that, among the kings, there was always one called the Bretwalda, or ruler of Britain, who had some degree of authority over the rest; but as any one of them might be raised to this dignity, it was a constant source of quarrels and warfare, until, at length, the weaker kingdoms were overcome by the more powerful ones, and there was but one king over the whole country, which then took the name of Angleland or England, from a particular tribe of people called the Angles, who came here in great numbers with the Saxons.

28. I dare say you did not know before how Britain came to be called England; and you would be very much amused to hear how many of the places in it, came by their present names.

29. We will take for example Norfolk and Suffolk, which, with Cambridge, formed the kingdom of East Anglia, and was conquered by the Angles. Now these Angles consisted of two tribes, who divided their conquest between them, one tribe settling in the north part, the other in the south; so that they were called North folk, and South folk, and thus came the names of the two counties.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who were the Caledonians?

4. How did they molest the Britons?

6. What was the state of the country at this time?

7. What was the Roman party?

8. What was the British party?

10. Who was Vortigern, and what did he do?

11. Tell me something about the Saxons.

16. Who were Hengist and Horsa, and how did they assist the Britons?

23. What did the Saxons do after this?

24. What was the Heptarchy?

25. How was the country changed by the wars?

27. How was the Heptarchy destroyed?