LONDON, 
56 
year 457; and became the chief city of the Saxon king¬ 
dom in Effex. It differed much in the wars carried on 
" between the Britons and Saxons ; but it foon recovered ; 
fo that Bede calls it a princely mart-town, under the govern¬ 
ment of a chief magistrate, whofe title of portgrave, or 
portreve, (for we find him called by both names,) conveys a 
grand idea of the mercantile hate of London in thofe early 
-ages, that required a governor or guardian of the port. 
On the converfion of a confiderable number of the 
Saxons to Chriftianity, Auguftine, the monk, by order of 
pope Gregory, was ordained archbifhop of England, in 
the year 600, by Etherius archbifhop of Arles in France; 
he ordained Mellitus bifhop of the Eaft Saxons, who, in 
610, had a cathedral church, dedicated to St. Paul, erected 
for him in London, the capital of Eaft Saxony, by Ethel¬ 
bert king of Kent. At this time the city of Canterbury, 
as being therefidenccof Ethelbert, to whom all the fouthern 
nations of the Saxons were vaffals, appears to have been 
dignified with the title of the metropolis. 
In the year 605, or, according to other authors, in 610, 
Sebert, king, of the Eaft Saxons, built a church or minfter 
in the ifland of Thorney, fituated to the weft of London, 
which, at the defire of bifhop Mellitus, was dedicated to 
St. Peter; but, according to Stow, it was founded in 614, 
by Mellitus, with the afliftance of king Ethelbert. It was, 
however, deftroyed foon after by the Danes. 
Sebert was fucceeded by his three Tons, Sexred, Seward, 
and Sigbert, who, during the life of their father, profeffed 
themfelves Chriftians; but, after his death, which hap¬ 
pened about 616, they publicly returned to paganifm, and 
expelled Mellitus their dominions; and, though the con- 
■veriion of Eadbald king of Kent, their fovereign, obtained 
that good bifhop’s recall to his fee, the Londoners, who 
. chofe to live in their pagan fuperftition, would not admit 
him. 
During the heptarchy, the civil hiftory of this country 
is fo very defective, that no mention of the city of London 
.-is made from the year 616 to 764, a chafm of nearly a cen¬ 
tury and an half; but, the hiftory of the church being 
recorded by the monks, who, in thofe ages of darknefs, 
■were the only men w ho could write or read, we are enabled 
£0 fupply the defect, and fill thefe lacune. 
After the expulfion of Mellitus, the fee of London re¬ 
mained without a bifhop till the year 653, when, Sigbert 
king of the Eaft Saxons embracing the Chriftian religion, 
..Cedda, or Chad, was advanced to the biftiopric of this 
city. In 666, Wulpher, who acted as he pleafed in the 
kingdom of Effex, gave the firft inftance of fimony in 
England, by felling the biftiopric of London to Wina, 
w ho had been driven from Winchefter. He governed the 
church of Eftex till his death, in 675. After the deceafe 6f 
Wina, the biftiopric of this city was given to Erkenwald, 
fon of Offa, king of the Eaft Angles, who had been edu¬ 
cated under Mellitus, the firft biftiop of London. Er¬ 
kenwald was fo diftinguiftied by the fanctity of his life, 
and by feveral religious foundations, that, after his death, 
which happened at Barking, in Eftex, the canons of St. 
Paul's and the monks of Chertfey, or, according to Rapin, 
cf Barking, difputed the pofleflion of his body; but the 
inhabitants of London, efpouling the fide of the canons, 
took away the remains of the bilhop, and cauled them to 
be honourably interred in his own cathedral, the revenues 
of which he had augmented, and enlarged its buildings. 
.Erkenwald was fucceeded by Walter, or Waldhere, in the 
reign of king Sebbi, who, being wearied with the cares of 
a crown, acquainted the bifhop with his rel'olution to ab¬ 
dicate, and to affume the juonaftic life; lie accordingly 
palled through the forms of a reclufe; and, having received 
the habit from Waldhere, he gave that ecclefiaftic a con- 
liderable fum of money, to be applied to the purpofes of 
charity, and continued the monaftic life to his death. 
In the year 764 London fuffered very confiderably by 
fire; fome time after which, in 79S, it was almoft wholly 
burnt down ; and, the ftreets being very narrow, and the 
houfes built of wood, numbers of its inhabitants perilhed 
in the flames; nor was it rebuilt before many of r the new 
houfes were deftroyed by a third conflagration, which hap¬ 
pened in 801. 
During the civil wars of the Saxons with each other, 
the Londoners had always the add refs to keep themfelves 
neuter; and, about the year 819, when the (even Saxon 
kingdoms fell under the power of Egbert, London appears 
to have become the metropolis of England, which it has 
ever fince continued ; but Mr. Pennant fays that it was 
made the capital of all England by Alfred. 
In the year 833, Egbert king of the Weft Saxons, Ethel- 
wolf his fon, Withlaf king of Mercia, together with moll 
of the bifliops, and other great men of the realm, afTem- 
bled at London, where they held a zvitenagemot, or par¬ 
liament, in which they deliberated on the molt effectual 
meafures to be purfued, to prevent the invaiions of the 
piratical Danes. Notwithftanding all their precautions, it 
was not long before London feverely felt the effefts of 
Danifh cruelty; for, arriving with a large fleet of fiiips on 
the coaftof Kent, they landed, and, having deftroyed Ro- 
chefter and Canterbury, they marched to this city, which 
they facked, and, with a horrid rage of barbarity, mur¬ 
dered moft of its inhabitants. This happened in the year 
839. Fluftied with the fuccefs of this and feveral other 
attempts, the Danes entertained ferious thoughts of mak¬ 
ing a complete conqueft of the whole ifland. With this 
view, they, in 851, (hipped a large army on-board a fleet 
of three hundred and fifty fail; landed near London, which 
they foon reduced and plundered ; and, thinking it a pro¬ 
per fortrefs from which they might make incurfions into 
the kingdom of the Weft Saxons, they placed a large gar- 
rifon therein; and, notwithftanding the moft lolemn oaths 
and treaties with king Alfred, they made perpetual in¬ 
roads among the neighbouring ftates, which they robbed 
and haraffed with the moft unrelenting rage of diabolical 
fury. 
There is not any certainty refpefling the time or caufe 
of the reparation of London from the kingdom of Eftex. 
Rapin notices, that in 872 it was in fubjettion to Mercia, 
where it has continued ever fince, as part of Middlefex. 
In 879, the Danes, notwithftanding they had concluded 
a peace with Alfred, made preparations for further in¬ 
roads; to accomplifti which, a Danifh fleet came up the 
Thames, under one Haeften, and wintered at Fulham ; but, 
being difappointed of the afliftance they expected, they 
returned in the following fpring. Alfred, refolved to pu- 
nifti thefe infraftors of the moft folemn treaties, repaired 
all his old fortrefles, ereded new ones, and, in 884, laying 
fiege- to London, attacked that city with 10 much bravery, 
that the Danes were glad to capitulate, after a very faint 
refiftance. 
As foon as Alfred had thus poffeffed himfelf of Lon¬ 
don, he began to rebuild its walls, towers, and gates, 
which had been almoft deftroyed by the Danes ; and, hav¬ 
ing driven out the Danifh inhabitants who had fettled 
there, he beftowed the government of the city on Ethel- 
red duke of Mercia, who had married his daughter Ethel- 
fieda, in hopes that it would afford him a fecure re¬ 
treat againft both his foreign and donieftic enemies. It 
appears that Ethelred was vefted with powers fuperior to 
thofe of an ordinary governor; and it is probable that 
he held this city in. fee, becaufe, on his deceafe, Ethel- 
fleda delivered it, with the city of Oxford, up to her bro¬ 
ther, which, if her hufband had been only an ordinary 
governor, (lie need not have done, fince they would of 
courfe have fallen to her brother Edward, as heir to his 
hither Alfred. 
The ambition of conquering this kingdom ftiil predo¬ 
minating in the breafts of the Danes, they were perpetually 
hovering about the coaft of England; and at length, un¬ 
der the conduct of their general, Hasften, landed in con¬ 
fiderable numbers on the coaft of Eftex, a little below Til¬ 
bury; and, having erected a fort or caltle at Beamfleote, 
now Southbenifleet, near the Ilie of Canvey, they made 
perpetual excurfions into the adjacent country, commit- 
