546 ENG] 
Wales and Armorica, who were odious to the Saxons, 
and unknown to the reft of mankind. Every nation em¬ 
braced and adorned the popular romance of Arthur, and 
his Knights of the Round Table : their names were cele¬ 
brated in Greece and Italy ; and the voluminous tales of 
hr Lancelot and fir Triftram were devoutly ftudied by 
the princes and nobles of antiquity. 
Refiftance, if it cannot avert, mull increafe the mife- 
ries of conqueft ; and conqueft has never appeared more 
dreadful and deftruftive than in the hands of the Saxons, 
who hated the valour of their enemies, difdained the faith 
of treaties, and violated, without remorfe, the moft facred 
objefts of Chriftian worfhip. The fields of battle might 
be traced, alnroft in every diftrict, by monuments of 
bones ; the fragments of falling towers were ftained with 
blood ; the Britons, without diftinftion of age or fex, 
were maflacred; and the repetition of fuch calamities was 
frequent and familiar. The arts and religion, the laws 
and language, which the Romans had fo carefully planted 
in Britain, were extirpated by their favage fuccefl’ors. 
After the deftruftion of the principal churches, the bi- 
Ihops, who had declined the crown of martyrdom, retired 
with the holy relics into Wales and Armorica ; the re¬ 
mains of their flocks were left deftitute ; the practice, and 
even the remembrance, of Chriftianity were abolifhed. 
The proceedings of civil and criminal jurifdiCtion, the 
titles of honour, the forms of office, the ranks of fociety, 
and even the dotneftic rights of marriage, teftament, and 
inheritance, were finally fupprefled ; and the indiferimi- 
nate crow'd of noble and plebeian flaves was governed by 
the traditionary cuftoms, which had been coarfely framed 
for the fhepherds and pirates of Germany. The language 
of fcience, of bufinefs, and of converfation, which had 
been introduced by the Romans, was loft in one general 
defolation. 
Out of this ruin of the Roman empire in Britain arofe 
the feven petty ftates or kingdoms of the Saxons, which 
conftitutes a memorable qpoch in its hiftory. Kengift 
kept his ground in the moft opulent and commercial part 
of the country, and founded the kingdom of Kent, fixing 
his refidence at Canterbury, and leaving his newly-ac¬ 
quired dominions to his pofterity, A. D.48S. A body of 
his countrymen, under the command of iElla and his 
three fons, had alfo laid the foundation of the kingdom 
of the South Saxons, which included Surry and Suffex, 
and extended to the frontiers of Kent. Another tribe of 
Saxons, under the command of Cerdic and his fon Kenric, 
had landed in the weft, and from thence took the name of 
Weft Saxons. Tiieir kingdom, called Wellex, included 
the counties of Cornwall, Devonfhire, Dorfet, Somerfet, 
Hants, Wilts, Berks, and the Ille of Wight. It was in 
oppofing this Saxon invader that the celebrated prince 
Arthur acquired his fame. 
Frefh {warms of adventurers ft ill pouring over from 
Germany, one body of them, under the command of 
U'ffa, A. D. 575, feized upon the counties of Cambridge, 
Suffolk, and Norfolk, with the i(le of Ely, and gave their 
commander the title of king of the Eaft Angles, which 
was the fourth Saxon kingdom founded in Britain. Ano¬ 
ther body of thefe invaders formed a kingdom under the 
title of Eflex, or Eaft Saxony, comprehending.Effex, 
Middlefex, and partnof Hertford (hire, A.D.585. This 
kingdom, which had been difmembered from that of Kent, 
formed the fifth Saxon principality founded in Britain. 
The kingdom of Mercia was the fixth which was efita- 
blilhe'd by thefe foreign depredators, comprehending all 
the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the 
frontiers of the two lad-named diltricts : viz. Gloucefter, 
Hereford, Warwick, Worccfter, Leicefter, Rutland, 
(Northampton, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Bedford, Bucking¬ 
ham, Oxford, Stafford, Derby, Salop, Nottingham, and 
the reft of Hertfordihire. The feventh kingdom which 
they obtained was that of Northumberland, one of the 
moft powerful and extonfive of them all. This was formed 
from the union of two (mailer Saxon kingdoms, the one, 
■called Bernicia, containing the prefent county of North- 
. A N D, 
umberland, quite up to the Frith of Edinburgh, and the 
bifhopric of Durham ; the fubjefts of the other, called 
the Deiri, extending themfelves over Lancaftrire, York- 
fliire, Cumberland, and Weftmoreland. Thefe kingdoms 
were united in the perfon of Ethelfrid, king of Northum¬ 
berland, by the expulfion of Edwin, his brother-in-law, 
from the kingdom of the Deiri, and the feizure of his 
dominions. In tills manner the feven kingdoms were efta-' 
bliftied in Britain, which were afterwards known in hif¬ 
tory by the name of the Saxon heptarchy. 
This ftrange fubverfion of the populous date and im¬ 
proving condition of Britain under the Roman juri("pru¬ 
dence, has perfuaded hiftorians, and even philofophers, 
that the provincials of Britain were totally ejsjtirminated; 
and that the vacant land was again peopled by the perpe¬ 
tual influx, and rapid increafe, of the German colonies. 
A partial population doubtlefs fupplied-, in a confiderable 
degree, the Englifh who were driven from the coaft; but 
neither reafqn nor facts caii jufrify the unnatural fuppofi- 
tion that the Saxons remained alone in the country which 
they had fubdued. After the fanguinary barbarians had 
fecured their dominion, it was their intereft to preferve 
the peafants, as well as the cattle, of the unrefifling coun¬ 
try, and to encourage the trade and population of the 
fubjugated natives, i:i all the interior parts of the ill and. 
When the Saxons had eftablifhed their government in 
all the defirable parts of the i(land, and having ho longer 
the Britons to contend with, they began to quarrel among 
themfelves. A country divided into a number of petty 
independent principalities, mu ft ever be fubject to con¬ 
tention, as jealoufy and ambition have more frequent in¬ 
centives to operate. The wars and revolutions of thefe 
little rival, ftates were extremely numerous and fangui¬ 
nary ; and the accounts of them have (welled the hiftoric 
page. But thefe accounts are fo confufedly written, the 
materials fo’uninterelting, and filled with fuch improbable 
adventures, that a repetition of them can neither gratify 
our curiolity, nor augmentour knowledge. 
The Chriftian religion never flittered more perfectition 
than it now underwent in Britain, from the barbarity of the 
Saxon pagans, who maflacred all thofe whom they found 
profeffing Chriftianity. This deplorable ftate of theology 
in Britain was firft taken into conlideration by pope Gre¬ 
gory, furnamed Gregory the Great, who undertook to fend 
mifiionaries to reclaim the morals of the conquerors. He 
named St. Auguftine, and others of the fame fraternity, to 
accept this million in Britain. It was not, however, with¬ 
out fume reluftance, that they undertook fo dangerous a 
talk ; but fome favourable circumftances feemed providen¬ 
tially to prepare the way for their arrival. Ethelbert, king 
of Kent, in his father’s life-time, had married Bertha, the 
only daughter of Caribert, king of Paris, one of-the de- 
feendents of Clovis, king of Gaul. But before he was 
admitted to this alliance, he was obliged to ftipulate that 
this princefs (hould enjoy the free exercife of tire Chrif¬ 
tian religion. She was therefore attended to Canterbury, 
the place of her refidence, by Luidhard, a Gaulilh pre¬ 
late, who officiated in a church dedicated to St. Martin, 
which had been built by the Romans, near the walls of 
Canterbury. The exemplary condudt of this primitive 
bilhop, added to the queen’s learning and zeal, made very 
ftrong impreffions upon the king, as well as on the reft of 
his fubjeCts, in favour of Chriftianity. Auguftine, there¬ 
fore, on his firft landing in the Ille of Thane.t, fent one 
of his interpreters to the Kentilh king, declaring the na¬ 
ture of his million. The king immediately ordered him 
to be furniflied with neceflaries, and even vilited him in 
perfon. Auguftine, encouraged by this favourable re¬ 
ception, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the 
gofpel. So much afliduity, together with the earneftnefs 
of iiis addrel's, the aufterit.y of his life, and the example 
of his followers, at length powerfully operated. The 
king openly efpoufed the Chriftian faith, while his exam¬ 
ple wrought fo fuccefsfully on his fubjeCts, that numbers 
of them came voluntarily to be bap tiled. The heathen 
temples were now changed into places of Chriftian wor- 
