909 



ENGLAND. 



ENGLAND. 



910 



reasonably supposed to have had much effect in establishing its 

 acceptation in the sense in which it is there employed. In this 

 way the terms England and English came into universal use as the 

 proper names of the country, the people, and the language, just as 

 they are at this day. 



According to the statement of Bede, which, repeated in the Saxon 

 Chronicle, is the only distinct account we possess of the invaders from 

 the Continent who effected the conquest of South Britain in the 5th 

 and 6th centuries, they consisted principally of three nations or tribes, 

 the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. (' Hist. Eccles.,' i. 15.) In another 

 place however (v. 10) he mentions Frisians as being mixed with these; 

 and there are other ancient testimonies to the same effect, especially 

 a remarkable passage in Procopius (' Bell. Goth.,' iv. 20), where, in his 

 account of the island under the name of Brittia, he describes it as 

 inhabited by three nations, the Angles, the Frisones, and those of the 

 same name with the island, the Britons, each of which nations had a 

 king. Sir Francis Palgrave (' Rise and Prog, of the English Com.,' 

 pp. 41, 42) considers the name Frisians in this passage to include 

 both the Jutes and the Angles, as well as the Frisians proper, all these 

 apparently being alike Belgic tribes. " By the Frisians," he adds, 

 " Hengist is deemed to' be a Frisian king ; and the legend of Rowena, 

 or, as they term her, Ronix, is incorporated in their history. A better 

 proof of affinity is to be found in the resemblance of the Frisic and 

 Anglo-Saxon languages, which in many instances amounts to an 

 te identity. But the most conclusive argument of the unity 

 of the nations is deduced from the judgments dictated by Wuleruar, 

 and incorporated in their respective laws of the Frisians and Angles, 

 showing thereby that they obeyed the dictates of a common legislator." 

 It is to be recollected that anciently the Frisians appear to have been 

 proftd in detached settlements along the whole line of the coast 

 from the Sehelde to the North Sea. Down to the 8th century, what 

 was called the Greater Friesland (or Frisia Major), then forming part 

 of the empire of Charlemagne, extended all the way from the SchelJe 

 to the Weser. But the Frisians who passed over into Britain with 

 the Saxona, Angles, and Jutes, were most probably the Strandfrisii, 

 or inhabitants of the small district called the Lesser Frieslaud (Frisia 

 Minor), lying opposite to the Isle of Northstrand, on the western coast 

 of Schleswig. 



According to the statements of the earliest chroniclers, the first of 

 the Germanic invaders that arrived after the departure of the Romans 

 were a body of Jutes, under two leaders named Hengist and Horsa. 

 They arrived A.D. 449 at Ebbsfleet, now an inland spot, but then on 

 the coast of the Isle of Thanet, and near the mouth of the Wansum, 

 now a mere rivulet, which divides Thanet from the rest of Kent. 

 The Jutes who came to Britain with Hengist and Horsa appear to 

 have come immediately from what was formerly called South Jutland, 

 and is now the duchy of Schleswig. They were probably therefore, 

 in part at least, from the district called the Lesser Friesland, which, 

 as already mentioned, was situated on the coast of South Jutland. 

 The Jutes, according to Bede, were the ancestors of the people of 

 Kent, and also of the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, and of the 

 part of the coast of Hampshire opposite to it : that is to say, the 

 Jutes settled in those parts, mixing most probably with the former 

 inhabitants. 



The Jutes under Hengist and Horsa were followed in A.D. 477 by 

 a body of Saxons under Ella, who made their descent on the coast of 

 Sussex. The next leader that arrived was Cerdic, with another colony 

 of Saxons, in A.D. 495. At this period the name, in its most com- 

 prehensive acceptation, appears to have been used aa that, not 

 of one nation, but of a great confederacy of nations, the territories 

 occupied by which extended from the Baltic far into the interior of 

 Germany. We are inclined however to derive the Saxon invaders of 

 Britain from the immediate vicinity of the Baltic, most probably from 

 the country now forming the duchy of Holstein, with perhaps part 

 of the north of Hanover or the west of Mecklenburg. Thus situated, 

 they would be the next neighbours of the Jutes and the Angles. In 

 the account of Germany which Alfred has inserted in his translation 

 of the ' Geography of Orosius,' the ' Eald Seaxan" are described as 

 lying to the north of the Thyringas (or Thuringians) ; to the south- 

 east of the Frisians (this must mean the Strandfrisians) ; to the east 

 of the mouth of the Aelfe (the Elba) and Frysland ; and to the south- 

 east of Angle and Sillende (Zealand), and part of Deua (Denmark). 

 Bede expressly brings the English Saxons from " the land now called 

 the country of the old Saxons." They appear to have eventually 

 occupied Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, the south part of Hertford, Surrey, 

 Hampshire (with the exception of the coast opposite to the Isle of 

 Wight), Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and part of Cornwall. 



It was not till the year 527 that the first Angles arrived. From that 

 time they made a succession of descents under various petty chiefs, 

 whose names have not been preserved, upon the coasts of Suffolk and 

 Norfolk. In 547 however a much more numerous body of them than 

 had yet appeared lauded under the conduct of Ida on the coast between 

 the Tweed and the Forth, and eventually established themselves in 

 the country to the north of the Humber. Tacitus, who in his 

 ' Germany ' has mentioned neither the Saxons nor the Jutes, merely 

 notices the Angli along with several other tribes as lying beyond the 

 Longobardi, and surrounded by the natural protection of their rivers 

 and woods. Ai far however as anything can be made of his vague 



account, he appears to place them somewhere in the peninsula of 



," says Bede, 



-.., ih from that 



time till now is said to have remained waste, between the provinces 

 of the Jutes and the old Saxons, descended the East Angles, the 

 Mercians, the race of the Northumbrians, and all the rest of the 

 nations of England." Alfred, in his ' Orosius,' also places the Angles 

 in the Danish countries on the Baltic. And Ethelwerd, a writer of 

 the llth century, describes Old Auglia as situated between the Saxons 

 and the Jutes, and as having the city of Schleswig for its capital. 

 The Angles obtained possession of the whole of what is now called 

 England, with the exception of the parts already mentioned as occupied 

 by the Jutes and Saxous ; in other words, of all England to the north 

 of the Bristol Avon and the Thames, except the present counties of 

 Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertford. They also extended their 

 settlements over a great part of the south of Scotland. 



This is the generally-received account ; but it is only right to state 

 that there are grave difficulties in the way of its strict acceptation, at 

 least as to the dates. Jlr. Kemble (' Saxons in England," chap, i.) has 

 shown the probability " that a large admixture of German tribes was 

 found in England long previous to the middle of the 5th century ;" 

 and that " bodies, more or less numerous, of coast-Germans, perhaps 

 actually of Saxons and Angles, had colonised the eastern shores of 

 England long before the time generally assumed for their advent." 

 He even goes so far as to say and his opinion must be allowed great 

 weight " I confess that the more I examine this question, the moro 

 completely I am convinced that the received accounts of our migra- 

 tions, our subsequent fortunes, and ultimate settlement, are devoid of 

 historical truth in every detail." 



Be that as it may, it will be convenient to have in a summary form 

 the received view of the kingdoms founded by the several invading 

 bands ; the dates are those assigned in the valuable summaries of 

 Anglo-Saxon history, given by Sir F. Palgrave in his Appendix of 

 ' Proofs and Illustrations ' to his ' Rise and Progress of the English 

 Commonwealth,' pp. ccxxix-cccxl. 



1. Kent, consisting of the present county of that name, founded by 

 Heugist and Horsa, whose followers were Jutes, A.D. 457. From ^Iv^o 

 or Eric, the son and successor of Hengist, the kings of Kent acquired 

 the name of yKsciugas. Kent subsisted as an independent state till 

 its conquest by Ceuwulf, king of Mercia, in 796. In 823 it was finally 

 annexed to Wessex by Egbert ; but for at least a century after that 

 date it is still mentioned as a separate though subordinate kingdom. 



2. Sussex, consisting of the present county of that name, founded 

 by Ella, whose followers were Saxons, A.D. 491. In A.D. 686 it was 

 conquered by C'eadwalla, king of Wessex, and appears to have remained 

 ever after in subjection either to that state or to Mercia. In S28 it 

 finally submitted to Egbert ; and " from this period," says Sir F. Pal- 

 grave, " Sussex and Surrey appear to have been considered as integral 

 portions of the empire of Wessex, but as annexed to the kingdom of 

 Kent and passing with it." 



3. Wessex, including (in its greatest extent) Surrey, Hants with the 

 Isle of Wight, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and part of 

 Cornwall, founded by Cerdic and his son Cynric, whose followers were 

 Saxons, A.D. 519. The Jutes of the Isle of Wight were conquered by 

 Cerdic and Cynric, A.D. 530 ; but in 601 the island was wrested from 

 Wessex by Wulfere, king of Mercia ; some time after which it appears 

 to have asserted its independence, which it maintained under kings of 

 its own till the beginning of the 10th century, when it submitted to 

 Edward the Elder. In the reign of Egbert (A.D. 800-836) the kingdom 

 of Wessex attained a supremacy over the other states, which it never 

 lost afterwards. 



4. Essex, including the present counties of Essex and Middlesex, 

 and the southern part of Hertfordshire, supposed to have been founded 

 by ^Escwiu, or Ercenwine, whose followers were Saxons, A.D. 527. 

 " It is doubtful," says Sir F. Palgrave, "whether this monarchy ever 

 enjoyed independence." It certainly became subject to Mercia in the 

 course of the 7th century, and in 823 it finally submitted to Egbert 

 of Wessex. 



5. Northumbria, consisting of the sometimes separate but com- 

 monly united states of Bernicia and Deira; the former (from the 

 native name Bryneich) including the county of Northumberland, and 

 the south-eastern counties of Scotland as far as the Forth, founded by 

 Ida, whose followers were Angles, A.D. 547 ; the latter (from the native 

 name Deifyr) including the counties of Cumberland, Durham, West- 

 moreland, York, and Lancaster, founded by Ella, whose followers were 

 also Angles, A.D. 560. These two states appear to have coale ced before 

 the beginning of the 7th century ; and after the year 655 they were 

 never separated, so long as they retained their independence. The 

 limits of the kingdom of Northumbria to the north varied greatly 

 from time to tune, according to the fortunes of the almost constant 

 warfare which it carried on with the Scots, the Picts, and the kingdom 

 of Strathclyde. The Northumbrians made a formal submission to 

 Egbert of Wessex in 829. In 867 the country was conquered by the 

 Danes ; and from this lime it may be considered to have remained 

 independent under the princes of Danish race till 924, when both the 

 Danes and English inhabitants acknowledged the supremacy of Edward 

 the Elder. Northumbria however continued to bo governed by princes 



