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they impeach. This task, however, I cannot evade; it is imposed upon me by the very nature of the history which I have undertaken; for if its foundation be not securely laid, the superstructure must, of necessity, fall to the ground.

I have no ambition or vanity to gratify; no favourite hypothesis to sustain; no preconceived or cherished system to support; "My sole object is the investigation and discovery of truth;" and if that be attained, my labour will not have been in vain.

With the most sincere deference and respect, therefore, for the learning and ability of the eminent writers to whom I have referred, and with the most candid and unqualified acknowledgment of my own insufficiency, I venture upon the task which has been imposed upon me.

It will be observed that the "shadows, doubts, and darkness" thus thrown upon the first founders of the A.-S. government in Britain, amount to no more than a mere negation -it merely denies the existence of Hengist and Horsa, whom it treats as mere mythic heroes. As no one is obliged to prove a mere negative, I have no right to require these writers to support their opinions by proofs. The onus probandi is thrown upon me-the duty of showing affirmatively that such chieftains did exist, and that they sustained the character, and performed the actions attributed to them.

But how is this to be accomplished? Only by a careful investigation of our antient annals, and by bringing all history to the rescue.

We will commence with the most antient, the most authentic, and the most valuable of our Saxon histories: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.5

The Saxon Chronicle is thus noticed by one of the authors alluded to in the text: "The pages of these writers (Rapin, Hume, Turner, and other historians), however accurate and luminous, as they generally are, still require correction from the Saxon Chronicle, without which no person, however learned, can possess anything beyond a mere superficial acquaintance with the elements of English history, and of the British Constitution." (Bohn, Sax. Chron., preface, p. 41.)

A.-Saxon

An. CCCCXLIX. Den A. D. 449. Captianur 7 Valen

Chronicle,

tinianus onfengon nice. ɲicrodon VII pinter .. On heopa dazum Penzest Doрrа From Pyntzeonne zeladode Bretta cýninge to fultume. zerohton Bɲýtene on pam ræde pe r zenemned Yppinerfleot. ærest Вrýttum to fultume. ac hy eft on hý Fuhton.. Se cing het hi Feohtan agien Pihtaɲ. hi ɲpa dýdan size hærðon гpа hpaɲ Ipa hi comon. Di da rende to Angle. heton heom rendan mane fultum. heom Jezzan Brýrpalana nahτneje. dær lander cýsta ·

Di pa rendan heom maɲe fultum. da comon þa menn of dnim mægðum Lepmanie of Єald-Seaxum. of Anglum, of Jotum. Of Jotum comon Lant-pape. Pihτpane. reo mærð þe nu eandað on Piht. cynn on PertSexum de man gyt het Juzna cynn. Of Єald-Seaxum comon Eart-Seaxan and Sud-Seaxan and Pert-Seaxan ··

Of Angle comon, “re á fiððan stod pertiz berpix Jutum Seaxum" East-Engle. Middel-Angla. Meanca. and ealle Nopp-ymbɲa ·· Deona Deɲetozan pæɲon tpezen gebroðna Penzest opra.

"A.D. CCCCXLIX. In this year Martianus and Valentinianus took the empire, and reigned seven years. In their days Hengist and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, king of the Britons, to his aid, came to Britain at the place which is called Ypwinesfleet, at first to the aid of the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them.

The king commanded them to fight against the Picts, and they did so, and had the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles, and desired them to send more aid, and told them the worthlessness of the Britons, and the fruitfulness of the land.

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They then sent to them more aid. Then came men from three Tribes of Germany, from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes. From the Jutes came men of Kent and men of Wight, that is, the tribe which now dwells in Wight, and that tribe among the West Saxons which they yet call the race of the Jutes. From the Old Saxons came the East Saxons, and South Saxons, and West Saxons.

"From the Angles (whose country from that time stood waste between the Jutes and Saxons) came the East Angles, Mid Angles, Mercians, and all the Northumbrians. Their leaders were two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, that were the sons of Wiht

pæron Pihtzilses suna. Pihtzils pæs Pitting. Pitta Pecting. Pecca Podning. Fram dan Podne apoc eall upe cynecynn. Suðan-hýmbpa eac·

gils, Wihtgils was the son of Witta, Witta was son of Wecta, Wecta was son of Woden. From this Woden arose all our royal race (king-kind) and South-humbrian also."

To the foregoing we add from the same Chronicle:

"An. CCCCLV. In this year Hengist and Horsa fought against K. Vortigern at the place which is called Ægels-threp, and his brother Horsa was there slain. And after that Hengist obtained the kingdom, and Esc his son.

"An. CCCCLVI. In this year Hengist and Esc slew four troops of Britons with the edge of the sword, in the place which is named Creccan-ford.

"An. CCCCLVII. In this year Hengist and Æsc his son fought against the Britons at the place which is called Crecgan-ford, and there slew four thousand men; and the Britons then forsook Kent, and in great terror fled to London.

"An. CCCCLXV. In this year Hengist and Esc fought against the Welsh near Wippeds-fleet, and there slew twelve Welsh ealdormen, and one of their own thanes was slain there, whose name was Wipped.

"An. CCCCLXXIII. In this year Hengist and Esc fought against the Welsh, and took spoils innumerable; and the Welsh fled from the Angles like fire.

"An. CCCCLXXXVIII. In this year Æsc succeeded to the kingdom, and was king of the Kentish men twenty-four years.

The next in chronological order which I shall cite is Bede's Ecclesiastical History.

BEDE,

THE VENERABLE BEDE, who flourished [A.D. 673-735] about two centuries after the establishment of the AngloSaxons in Britain, gives the following account of their invasion in nearly the same terms as the Saxon Chronicle:

floruit.

A.D. 673

735, Hist.

Eccl.

"Advenerant autem de tribus Germaniæ populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Jutis. De Jutarum origine sunt Cantuarii, et Victuarii, hoc est, ea gens quæ Vectam tenet insulam, et ea quæ usque hodie in provincia Occidentalium Saxonum, Jutarum natio nominatnr, posita contra ipsam insulam Vectam. De Saxonibus, id est, ea regione quæ nunc antiquorum

Saxonum cognominatur, venere Orientales Saxones, Meridiani Saxones, Occidui Saxones. Porro de Anglis, hoc est, de illa patria quæ Angulus dicitur, et ab eo tempore usque hodiè manere desertus, inter provincias Jutarum et Saxonum perhibetur, Orientales Angli, Mediterranei Angli, Merci, tota Nordan-hymbrorum progenies, id est, illarum gentium quæ ad boream Humbri fluminis inhabitant, cæterique Anglorum populi sunt orti. Duces fuisse perhibentur eorum primi duo fratres Hengist et Horsa; e quibus Horsa postea occisus in bello a Brittonibus, hactenus in orientalibus Cantiæ partibus, monumentum habet suo nomine insigne. Erant autem filii Victgilsi, cujus pater Vitta, cujus pater Vecta, cujus pater Voden, de cujus stirpe multarum provinciarum regium genus originem duxit." [Lib. i, cap. 15.]

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GILDAS,

floruit

GILDAS, the British historian, who flourished in c. A.D. 494- the sixth century,6 [circ. A.D. 494-536] throws but 536. little light upon the subject of the A.-S. invasion.

He says

"Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant, Gurthrigern (Vortigern) the British king, were so blinded, that, as a protection to their country, they sealed its doom by inviting in among them, like wolves into the sheepfold, the fierce and impious Saxons, a race hateful both to God and men, to repel the invasions of the northern nations. A multitude of

whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in three ships of war. . . . . . They first landed on the eastern side of the island, by the invitation of the unlucky king, and there fixed their sharp talons, apparently to fight in favour of the island, but, alas! more truly against it." (Bohn's Edit., sec 23, p. 310.)

NENNIUS,

floruit

From NENNIUS, another British historian, who

X Century. flourished in the tenth century, we shall cite more

fully.

In his Historia Britonum he says

"After the abovesaid war between the Britons and Romans, the assassination of their rulers, and the victory of Maximus who slew Gratian, and the termination of the Roman power in Britain, they were in alarm forty years.

6 The age of Gildas may be inferred from his account of the siege of Bath-hill-" until the year of the siege of Bath-hill, when took place also the last almost, though not the least slaughter of our cruel foes, which was, as I am sure, 44 years and one month after the landing of the Saxons, and also the time of my own nativity." (Bohn. Ed., s. 26, p. 313.)

Vortigern then reigned in Britain. In his time the natives had cause of dread, not only from the inroads of the Scots and Picts, but also from the Romans, and their apprehensions of Ambrosius.

"In the meantime, three vessels, exiled from Germany, arrived in Britain. They were commanded by Horsa and Hengist, brothers, and sons of Wihtgils, Wihtgils was the of son Witta, Witta of Wecta, Wecta of Woden, Woden of Frithowald, Frithowald of Frithuwulf, Frithuwulf of Finn, Finn of Godwulf, Godwulf of Geat, who, as they say, was the son of a god, not of the omnipotent God, but the offspring of one of their idols. Vortigern received them

as friends, and delivered up to them the island, which is in their language called Thanet, and by the Britons Ruym. The Saxons were received by Vortigern 447 years after the Passion of Christ, and, according to the tradition of our ancestors, from the period of their first arrival in Britain to the first year of the reign of K. Edmund, 542 years, and to that in which we now write, which is the fifth of his reign, 547 years." (Sec. 31, pa. 396, Bohn's Edit.)

"At length Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, valiantly fought against Hengist, Horsa, and his people, drove them to the Isle of Thanet, and thrice enclosed them within it, and beset them on the western side." (Ib. s. 43, p. 404.)

"Four times did Vortimer valourously encounter the enemy; the first has been mentioned, the second was upon the river Darent, the third at the Ford, in their language called Epsford, though in ours Set-thirgabail; there Horsa fell, and Catigern, the son of Vortigern. The fourth battle he fought was near the stone on the shore of the Gallic sea, where the Saxons, being defeated, fled to their ships." (Ib. sec. 44, pa. 404.)

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Octa, after the death of his father Hengist, came from the sinistral part of the island to the kingdom of Kent, and from him have proceeded all the kings of that province to the present period." (Ib. sec. 50, pa. 408.)

"GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF KENT:

"Hengist begat Octa, who begat Ossa, who begat Eormenric, who begat Ethelbert, who begat Eadbald, who begat Ercombert, who begat Egbert." (Ib. sec. 58, pa. 412.)

floruit

ETHELWERD (who flourished also in the tenth ETHELWERD, century) was of noble birth, being descended from x Century. K. Etheldred, brother to K. Alfred. He says

"The person who especially gave this counsel was Vurthern, who at that time was king over all, and to him all the nobility assented. They preferred to procure assistance to them from Germany. Already two young men, Hengist and Horsa, were pre-eminent. They were the grandsons of Woden, king of the barbarians, whom the Pagans have since raised to an abominable

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