§ 2. TEUTONIC KINGDOMS IN BRITAIN.

From the first invasions to the supremacy of Ecgberht 449 (?)-828.

Roman Britain.

Political divisions: 1. Britannia prima, S. of the Thames and the Severn (Cantii, Regni, Belgæ, Atrebates, Durotriges, Dumnonii). 2. Britannia secunda, Wales (Silures, Demetæ, Ordovices). 3. Flavia Casariensis, between the Thames, Severn, and Humber (Trinobantes, Caytieuchlani, Iceni, Dobuni, Coritavi, Cornavii). 4. Maxima Cæsariensis, between the Humber and the Tyne (Parisii, Brigantes). 5. Valentia, between the Tyne and the Forth (Otadeni, Gadeni, Selgovæ, Novantæ).

Fortifications: In the N. wall of Agricola (81) or Lollius Urbicus, between the Friths of Forth and Clyde; wall of Hadrian (122) between the Solway Frith and a point on the opposite coast near Newcastle-on-Tyne (replaced in the third century by the wall of Severus). In the S. the strongholds Burgh Castle, Reculver, Richborough, Lymne, Pevensey, along the Saxon shore. (Compare the Cinque Ports.) Towns Camulodunum (Colchester), Glevum (Gloucester), Lindum (Lincoln), Deva (Chester), Eburacum (York), Londinium (London).

:

Roads: Watling Street from Kent to the Forth, Hermin Street from Sussex coast to Humber, Foss Way from Cornwall to Lincoln, Ikenild Street from Caistor to Dorchester.1

The Teutonic Invaders.

After the withdrawal of the Roman legions (about 410) the Britons suffered severely from the ravages of the Scots (Irish) on the W. and the Picts (Gaels) on the N., which they resisted unaided for several decades. About the middle of the fifth century the Britons were overwhelmed from another quarter. Bands of Low Germans from the coast of Europe, west of the Baltic, whose piratical expeditions had long been the terror of southeastern Britain, began to settle in the island and conquer themselves homes and kingdoms. That they came at first to aid the Britons against their other foes is not impossible; but little faith, however, can be placed in the story of Vortigern and Rowena.

The invaders came principally from three Teutonic tribes: Jutes, inhabiting the northern part of Denmark (Jutland); Angles or Engle from modern Schleswig, south of the Jutes; Saxons, a more numerous people, living south of Schleswig along the Elbe and westward on the coast. Of the Jutes and Saxons only a portion emigrated; the Angles seem to have gone en masse.

Religion: The new settlers were pagans, sharing the faith of the

1 Green. The more usual but incorrect routes assigned these roads are: Watling, Kent to Cardigan Bay; Hermin, St. Davids to Southampton; Foss, Cornwall to Lincoln; Ikenild, St. Davids to Tynemouth. See Scarth, Roman Britain, p. 116.

continental Germans (p. 164). Each man was priest in his household, and political rulers exercised also priestly functions for the regions under their control.

Civilization: The invaders were rude warriors, cultivators of the soil, but fond of the hunt and still more fond of war. They settled in villages, the dwellers in each village being kinsmen, who often gave their family name to the place of their abode. In each village all were united by a bond of mutual protection and responsibility. Around the house-lots and garden-plots, which were for the most part practically private property, extended the common land, the “mark,” comprising tilled land, pasture and woodland, which also served to isolate one village from another. The people were divided into four orders: athel, nobles; ceorl, free landowners; laets, tenants owing service to their landlords; slaves, generally captives taken in war. Whether either of the invading tribes were under kings at home is unknown; their leaders during the invasion were war-chiefs, ealdormen, whose power was frequently prolonged and concentrated by the military necessities of their new conditions, until it became royal and they took the title of king. Each village had its governor and its council, the latter composed of all freemen in the village; each aggregate of villages (the hundred) had its governor and council; the aggregate of hundreds which made up the tribe had its king and its great council (witan), which elected the king, generally out of some one noble family, and was consulted by him. The witan was in theory composed of all freemen in the tribe, but it soon became practically limited to the more wealthy and powerful among them. Each ealdorman, perhaps every man of note, had a personal following of companions (thegns), who had devoted themselves to his service and were supported by him. The development of monarchy caused a corresponding development of this institution. Powerful men were proud to be thegns of the king, and thus the number and power of the king's military household constantly increased.

Jutes (Kent).

449 (?).1 Landing of the chiefs Hengist and Horsa in Thanet (then an island). Gradual conquest of the country between the Thames and the Andreds weald (p. 36). East and West

Kent.

South Saxons (Sussex).

477. Ælle, a Saxon ealderman, with his sons Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa, landed at Cissanceaster and conquered the region S. of the Andreds weald.

491. Storm of Anderida. Massacre of the inhabitants.

1 The date is variously given, but 449 is the year most commonly accepted. I have followed throughout the conservative scholars. The ultra-skepticism which would limit our knowledge of the 5th and 6th centuries in Britain to what can be guessed from the condition of things there in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries seems to me to be based on hypercriticism.

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West Saxons (Wessex)..

A more important settlement was that begun by the Saxons, under the ealdormen

495. Cerdic and Cynric, on the southern coast, W. of the Andredsweald. The formation of the country directed their line of extension W. and N., thus bringing them into contact with the great body of western Cymry.

517. Cerdic and Cynric assumed the royal title.

At the beginning of the second decade of the sixth century the Saxon advance was so sternly checked that fifty years elapsed before it was again resumed. Battle of Mons Badonicus (520). The Cymric traditions of Arthur, king of the Silures, to whom this repulse of the pagan invaders is attributed, are probably founded in truth.

Cynric (534-556) conquered modern Berkshire. Ceawlin (556– 591 [3]) raised Wessex to such power that later years entitled him the second Bretwalda of Britain (the first being Elle). The meaning of this title is not clear. By the

577. Battle of Deorham Ceawlin extended his power to the Severn and separated the Cymry of Cornwall (Devraint) from those of West Wales.

East Saxons (Essex).

During the latter half of the fifth century Saxons settled north of the Thames. Sack of Camulodunum. Establishment of a small kingdom under the shadow of the great forest which then reached to the Wash (Ercenwin, 527 ?).

Middle Saxons (Middlesex).

A small division of the East Saxons, dwelling about London.
East Angles (East Anglia).

While the East Saxons were making their settlements, Angles were occupying the region to the N., between the sea, the great fens about the Wash (Uffa, 575 ?), and the forest. Norfolk, Suffolk.

547.

North Angles (Northumbria).

Deira. Early in the sixth century settlements of Angles north of the Humber. Conquest of central Yorkshire. Bernicia. At the same time other Angles were settling along the Frith of Forth, where they may have found a Jutish colony already established. Under Ida, "the flame bearer," as the Cymry called him, the Angles pushed their conquests to the Esk.2 Bernicia thus comprised the Lowlands of Scotland, a region which still contains the purest type of the Teutonic conquerors of Britain. Saxon and Gael.

1 The northern Cymry seem also to have had traditions of an Arthur. Later fugitives to Bretagne carried the memory of Arthur with them; there his name was connected with the French legend of the Holy Grail, and woven into the romances which make up the Arthurian cycle.

2 The stubborn resistance of the Cymry here as well as in the south has been attributed to Arthur.

Middle Angles (Mercia).

Early in the sixth century scattered bands of Angles occupied the present counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, Warwick, and Northampton. The small kingdoms and lordships thus founded (Lindesfaras, Gainas, Magesætas, Hwiccas) were at a later time united in the great kingdom of Mercia (Cridda, 582 ?).

Thus Britain south of the Firth at the close of the third quarter of the sixth century was divided between Cymry and Teutons by a line drawn nearly N. and S. midway of the breadth of the land. Teuton and Celt, pagan and Christian, faced one another throughout the length of the island. As far as it went, the conquest was thorough. Not that the Cymry were exterminated; many remained within the Saxon lines, and traces of Celtic, and of still older blood, are not infrequent in the most Teutonic parts of England to-day. Though the subjugated Cymry, however, might retain their Celtic blood, in all else they were soon assimilated with the conquerors. Temporary halt in the work of conquest.

Wars of the invaders among themselves.

588. Formation of the kingdom of Northumbria by the enforced union of Bernicia and Deira under thelric, king of Bernicia. 590-616. Supremacy of thelbert, king of Kent, afterwards called the third Bretwalda, over Essex, East Anglia, Middle Britain. His wife was the Catholic Christian princess Bertha, daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks.

597. Arrival of Augustine, legate of Pope Gregory the Great. Conversion of Kent. Quarrel between the British church and Augustine (date of Easter, form of the tonsure). Conversion of the East Saxons. Laws of Æthelbert. An attempt to convert the East Angles led to the revolt and

About 610-617. Supremacy of Redwald, of East Anglia, over Middle Britain. He was afterwards called the fourth Bretwalda. In the N. Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated the Cymry of Strathclyde in the great

607. Battle of Chester, and extended his realm to the sea, cutting off Strathclyde from Wales, as Wales had been severed from Cornwall by the battle of Deorham (p. 178). Æthelfrith defeated and slain in the battle of the Idle by Radwald, who had taken up the claims of Eadwine, son of Ælla, formerly king of Deira. 617-633. Supremacy of Eadwine of Northumbria, called the

fifth Bretwalda. His overlordship was more comprehensive than that of any of his predecessors, since, after the conquest of Wessex (526), it included all Teutonic Britain except Kent. Conversion of Northumbria (627). Revolt of the Mercians under Penda (627-655), who, in alliance with Cadwallon of Wales, defeated Eadwine in the battle of Heathfield (633). Death of Eadwine.

633-655. Supremacy of Penda of Mercia over Middle Britain, Essex, and East Anglia.

635. Defeat of Cadwallon by Oswald of Bernicia, in the battle of the Hevenfeld. Conquest of Deira.

635-642. Supremacy of Oswald of Northumbria, afterwards called the sixth Bretwalda, over Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Kent. Conversion of Northumbria (where many people had relapsed into paganism) by Irish (not Roman) missionaries. Conversion of WesIn the contest over East Anglia Oswald was defeated by Penda, and slain in the

sex.

642. Battle of the Maserfeld. Penda's sovereignty extended over Wessex, East Anglia, Deira.

655. Battle of the Winwæd. Penda defeated by Oswiu, brother of Oswald, and his successor in Bernicia, and slain.

655–659. Supremacy of Oswiu of Northumbria, called the seventh Bretwalda, over all Teutonic Britain except Wessex, Kent, and Sussex.

659. Revolt of Mercia under Wulfhere. Henceforward the kings of Northumbria were sovereigns of merely local power.

Rivalry between the Irish missionaries and Rome. A council convened by Oswiu, decided in favor of Rome. Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury (609), undertook the organization of the English church.

688-726. Ine, king of Wessex. Conquest of Kent (694). Wars

with the Cymry of Cornwall (710). Laws of Ine, the oldest West Saxon code. Abdication of Ine (726).

Cæd

Willibrod, missionary to the Frisians. Boniface (Winfrith), apostle of the Germans. Wilfrith, bishop of York. Cuthbert, of Lindisfarne. Benedict Biscop, abbot of Wearmouth. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. thelbald of Mercia over all England

mon.

Bæda (672–735);

733-752. Supremacy of S. of the Humber.

752. Battle of Burford (Oxfordshire). Defeat of Æthelbald of Mercia by the West Saxon, Cuthred.

Henceforward Teutonic Britain remained divided between the three great kingdoms, Northumbria, Wessex, Mercia. 756. Strathclyde subjected to Northumbria by Eadberht. 755-794. Offa, king of Mercia.

Conquest of Oxfordshire from Wessex (777 ?). Conquest of the Welsh kingdom of Powys, W. of the Severn. Offa's Dyke from the mouth of the Wye to that of the Dee. Friendship between Offa and Charles the Great. Laws of Offa.

789. First recorded landing of Northmen in Britain on the coast of Devonshire.

802-837. Ecgberht, king of Wessex, being elected to suc

ceed Beorhtric after thirteen years' exile spent in the kingdom of the West Franks. Cornwall made tributary. Defeat of Beornwulf of Mercia, at the battle of Ellandune (825). Submission of all England S. of the Thames, and of Essex. Ecgberht overlord of Mercia and Northumbria (828). Submission of Wales (828).