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The Jutes possessed Kent, the Isle of Wight, and that part of the coast of Hampshire which fronts it. The Saxons were distinguished, from their situation, into

South Saxons, who peopled Sussex;

East Saxons, who were in Essex, Middlesex, and
the south part of Hertfordshire;

West Saxons, in Surrey, Hampshire (the site of
the Jutes excepted), Berks, Wilts, Dorset,
Somerset, Devon, and that part of Cornwall
which the Britons were unable to retain.

The Angles were divided into

East Angles, in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge,
the Isle of Ely, and (it should seem) part of
Bedfordshire;

Middle Angles, in Leicestershire, which apper-
tained to Mercia.

The Mercians, divided by the Trent into

South Mercians, in the counties of Lincoln,
Northampton, Rutland, Huntingdon, the
north parts of Bedfordshire and Hertford-
shire, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire,
Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Hereford-
shire, Staffordshire, Shropshire; — and into
North Mercians, in the counties of Chester,
Derby, and Nottingham.

The Northumbrians, who were

The Deiri, in Lancaster, York, Westmoreland,
Cumberland, Durham;

The Bernicians, in Northumberland, and the
south of Scotland, between the Tweed and
the Firth of Forth.56

56 Usher, Primord. c. 12. p. 394. With this, Camden's idea may be compared ; and, for the sentiments of an ingenious modern on the Anglo-Saxon geography, see Dr. Whitaker's Hist. Manchester, lib. ii. c. 4. p. 88.

CHAP.

IV.

560.

BOOK

III.

560. An octarchy established.

CHAP. V.

• The History of the ANGLO-SAXON Octarchy, and its further Successes against the BRITONS, to the beginning of the Seventh Century.

THE exertions of the British against their invaders having thus failed, eight Anglo-Saxon governments were established in the island. This state of Britain has been improperly denominated the Saxon heptarchy. When all the kingdoms were settled, they formed an octarchy. Ella, supporting his invasion in Sussex, like Hengist in Kent, made a Saxon duarchy before the year 500. When Cerdic erected the state of Wessex in 519, a triarchy appeared; East Anglia made it a tetrarchy; Essex a pentarchy. The success of Ida, after 547, having established a sovereignty of Angles in Bernicia, the island beheld a hexarchy. When the northern Ella penetrated, in 560, southward of the Tees, his kingdom of Deira produced a heptarchy. In 586, the Angles branching from Deira into the regions south of the Humber, the state of Mercia completed an Anglo-Saxon octarchy. As the Anglo-Saxons warred with each other, sometimes one state was for a time absorbed by another; sometimes, after an interval, it emerged

1 Although most of our ancient annalists and modern historians have retained the word heptarchy, yet one old chronicler, I perceive, has more critically said, "Provincia Britonum, quæ modo Anglia nominatur, Saxonum temporibus in octo regna divisa fuerit." Th. Rudborne's Hist. Major. Winton. Anglia Sacra, i. 187. -Matth. Westm. 198., as correctly states the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to have been eight. He names the eight kings who reigned in 586, p. 200.

The word heptarchy came to be used from the habit of mentioning the two kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia under the appellation of Northumbria. But though they were at times united under one sovereign, yet, as they became consolidated, Essex, Kent, or Sussex ceased to be separate and independent kingdoms; so that the term was still improper.

V.

560.

again. If that term ought to be used which ex- CHAP. presses the complete establishment of the AngloSaxons, it should be octarchy; if not, then the denomination must vary as the tide of conquest fluctuated. If the collective governments are to be denominated from the nations who peopled them, as these were three, the general term should be triarchy; but it is obvious, that octarchy is the appellation that best suits the historical truth.

It was in the slow progression which has been stated, that the Anglo-Saxons possessed themselves of the different districts of the island. The Britons, with all the faults of their mode of defence, yielded no part till it had been dearly purchased; and almost a century and a half passed away from the first arrival of Hengist to the full establishment of the octarchy. We cannot state in what year each British principality was destroyed, or each county subdued; but we have seen that, from the sea coasts where they landed, the invaders had always to fight their way with pertinacity and difficulty to the inland provinces.

But the Anglo-Saxons, as they advanced, did not, as some have fancied, exterminate the Britons; though many devastations must have accompanied their progress. The fierce warriors of Germany wanted husbandmen, artisans, and menials for domestic purposes. There can be no doubt that the majority of the British population was preserved to be useful to their conquerors. But the latter imposed their own names on every district, place, and boundary; and spread exclusively their own language in the parts which they occupied. It is however true, that some Britons disdained the Saxon yoke, and emigrated to other countries. Armorica, or Bretagne, was the refuge to many. From others, Cornwall and Wales

BOOK

III.

560. Restoration of the Britons predicted.

received a large accession of population; and some are even said to have visited Holland.2

The most indignant of the Cymry retired into Wales. There, the bards, fugitives like the rest, consoled the expatriated Britons with the hope that the day would afterwards arrive when they should have their full revenge, by driving out the Saxon hordes. Not only Taliesin sung this animating prediction3; Myrddin also promised the Britons that they should again be led by their majestic chief, and be again victorious. He boldly announced, that in this happy day should be restored to every one his own; that then the horns of gladness should proclaim the song of peace, the serene days of Cambrian happiness. The anticipation of this blissful era gave

2 H. Cannegieter, in his Dissertation de Brittenburgo, Hag. Co. 1734, has particularly examined this point. His decision is that Brittenberg was named from the Britons, but was built by the Romans. He prefers, to the assertion of Gerbrandus, that the Britons fled from the Saxons to Holland and built Catwych on the Rhine, the opinion of Colinus, the ancient monastical poet, who admits that they visited and ravaged it, but affirms that they did not settle. 3 A serpent with chains,

Towering and plundering,
With armed wings

From Germania ;

This will overrun

All Loegria and Brydon,

From the land of the Lochlin sea.

To the Severn.

After mentioning that the Britons will be exiles and prisoners to Saxony, he adds,

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He concludes with declaring that Michael had predicted the future happiness of
Britain. Taliesin, p. 94.

Gildas, p. 8., states, that the Saxons had a prophecy that they should ravage
Britain 150 years, and enjoy it 150. The limitation has rather a Cambrian aspect.
Myrddin's Afallenau, p. 153. Golyddan, in his Arymes Prydein vawr, endea-
vours to inspire his countrymen by a similar prediction.
of the transactions between Hengist and the Britons.
ology vol. i. p. 156-159.

The first part is a review It is in the Welsh Archai

rapture to the Cyınry, even in their stony paradise of Wales. The proud invaders mocked the vaunting prophecy, and, to render it nugatory, unpeopled some of their native coasts on the Baltic, and filled Britain with an active and hardy race, whose augmenting population and persevering valour at length carried the hated Saxon sceptre even to the remotest corners of venerated Anglesey. But up to the reign of Alfred, and even afterwards, the Britons still maintained their own kingdoms in Cornwall and part of Devonshire, and in that portion of the north which composed the Strathclyde district. It was not till Athelstan's reign that they finally lost Exeter.

The Britons long after Arthur's death maintained their patriotic struggle against the kingdom of Wessex. They fought, though unsuccessfully, at Bedford, against the brother of Cealwin, as we have noticed before. The Anglo-Saxon, in marching back to Wessex, through the districts yet in the hands of the natives, took Lygeanburh, Aylesbury, Bensington, and Ensham. Six years afterwards, the Britons again resisted the progressive ambition of the Saxons. An important battle occurred between them at Derham, in Gloucestershire, in which some of the kings of Wales appear to have confederated against the invaders; for three British sovereigns, Conmail, Condidan, and Farinmail, fell in the conflict: two of these seem to be the princes lamented by Llywarch Hen in one of his elegies: the last was king of Mon

5 These epithets are Welsh. Stony Wales is a phrase of Taliesin, and Llywarch denominates Powys "the paradise of the Cymry,” p. 119.

Bede affirms the complete emigration of the Angles; he says, their country "ab eo tempore usque hodie manet desertus," lib. i. c. 15. To the like purpose Nennius, "ita ut insulas de quibus venerant absque habitatore relinquerunt," c. 37. 7 Sax. Ch. 22. Fl. Wig. 222. Ethelw. 834.

s Sax. Ch. 22. Fl. Wig. 223. Ethelw. 835.

9 His Marwnad Cynddylan, the son of Cyndrwyn. It begins energetically : —

Stand out, ye virgins,

And behold the habitation of Cynddylan.

The palace of Pengwern:

СНАР.

V.

560.

571.

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