X.

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST.

IN speaking of Britain before the Romans, I made no mention of the legend in which Brutus, the greatgrandson of Æneas, is said to have given his name to Britain. Widely believed as it was in the Middle Ages, it is manifestly a fable from beginning to end. We cannot say the same of the legend which has for its hero-perhaps I should rather say its chief character--Vortigern, the betrayer of Britain. This, it can scarcely be doubted, has at least the basis of truth. There is no reason for disbelieving in the existence of a Vortigern. This legend, then, I shall therefore briefly tell before passing on to the history.

THE LEGEND OF VORTIGERN.

"Vortigern, King of Kent, seeing that the Picts troubled him by land and the Saxons by sea, thought to himself, I shall do well if I can set these robbers the one against the other.' So he spake to one Hengist, their chief. 'Let us make alliance together:' and to this Hengist consented, and he made

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a feast to which he called King Vortigern. Now Hengist had a daughter Rowena, who was exceeding fair, and the maiden stood at the board and served the king with mead. When the king looked upon her, he loved her; and he said to Hengist, for his reason had gone from him, 'Give me the maid to wife, and I will give you the kingdom of Kent.' To this Hengist consented; but the nobles of the land would not have the stranger to rule over them. Therefore they put down Vortigern from his place, and made Vortimer his son king in his stead. And Vortimer fought against Hengist and the Saxons; three times he fought against them, till he drove them out of the land. Then for five years Hengist wandered over the sea in his ships. But when the five years were past, Vortimer died, and Vortigern was made king as he had been before. Thus said Hengist to him, 'Give me the kingdom, according to your promise.' Vortigern answered him, 'Let me ask counsel of my nobles.' So the nobles assembled themselves three hundred in all, and for every British noble there was also a Saxon chief. But as they sat together, Hengist cried aloud,' Draw your daggers!' and as he spake, each Saxon smote the Briton that sat by his side, and slew him. So the three hundred fell in one day all save King Vortigern, for him they spared by command of Hengist. And after this the strangers held the land without further question."

When we pass from legend to history, we find ourselves in what may be called a kind of twilight. It is not wholly dark, but the light is dim; it shows

only a few great facts that are unquestionably true, perhaps a few figures that are the figures of men who really lived.

The first coming of the English is assigned to the year 449." Hengist and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, King of the Britons, sought Britain; first in support of the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them." These are the words of the shortest and, we may suppose, the earliest form of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A longer form gives us some more particulars, the truth of which there is no reason for doubting, that the reason why King Vortigern asked the help of the two chiefs, leaders as they were of a people that had harried the shores of Britain for centuries, was, that they might help him against the Picts, and that they came with three ships, and that they were rewarded for their service with land in the south-east of the island. Further on it adds that these first-comers were Jutes, dwellers, ie., in the country which is still known by the name of Jutland. Both forms of the Chronicle give the name of the place were Hengist and Horsa landed as "Ypwines fleot," or "Heopwines fleot." There is little difficulty in making out that this is Ebbsfleet, near Ramsgate, in the district which is still called the Isle of Thanet, and which was then separated from the mainland by a channel, navigable at high water by ships, and at low water to be crossed only by a single ford.

For some years Vortigern's new friends were content to remain in the place which had been allotted to them. At first, indeed, they were not strong enough to venture upon any other course. The

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crews of three ships, even if these were of the largest size, could scarcely have numbered more than five. hundred men, and so small a force did not think it worth their while to turn against those who fed and paid them. Meanwhile they were growing stronger. "They sent," says the Chronicler, "to the Angles; and bade them be told of the worthlessness of the Britons, and the richness of the land." And the writer goes on to describe how there came men from the three tribes of Germany, from the Old Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. Doubtless this refers, as far as its mention of the Old Saxons and Angles is concerned, to a later time; but we may feel sure that a report of the good land on which they had settled, and of the ease with which it might be won, was carried across the sea to their kinsman in Jutland. Six years after their first landing they were strong enough to move. When we next hear of them they are some way from the Isle of Thanet, of which the westward boundary is the Stour. In 455, "Hengist and Horsa fought with Vortigern the King on the spot that is called Aylesford." The battle, we may guess, was fiercely contested, for Horsa was slain. "Hengist afterwards took to the kingdom with his son Esc." Two years afterwards we hear of another battle. By this time the invaders have made their way still further westward, for "Hengist and Esc fought with the Britons on the spot that is called Crayford,2 and there slew four thousand men." The battle ended in a decisive victory for the

I

Aylesford is on the Medway about four miles below Maidstone.

2 The Cray is a little stream which falls into the Darent.

Jutes. "The Britons then forsook the land of Kent, and in great consternation fled to London." We shall find London serving again and again as a safe shelter when the descendants of these invaders were themselves invaded from the sea.

Then, if the chronicles of the British may be trusted, came a change of fortune. The unlucky prince, who had called in these dangerous allies to his help, and was now unable to resist them, was overthrown by another enemy, Aurelius Ambrosianus, a Roman by descent. Aurelius, having conquered his rival, turned his arms against the invaders, and drove them back into the territory which they had first occupied. For the eight years between 457 and 465 the Chronicle is a blank. Then comes the record of another battle, fought at a place called "Wippedsflect," from the name of a Jutish chief, who fell there. It ended in a complete victory for the invaders. "This year Hengist and Horsa fought with the Welsh, nigh Wippedsfleet; and there slew twelve leaders, all Welsh." After another great interval of silence, came in 473 the record of another great victory. "This year Hengist and Esc fought with the Welsh, and took immense booty. And the Welsh fled from the English like fire." Then was founded the first of the English kingdoms, Kent. Hengist is said to have ruled it until the year 479, and to have been succeeded by his son Esc, from whom the line of Kentish princes received the title of Escings.

I Welsh means 66 foreigner"; the invaders, by a strange yet common figure of speech, calling the native people "foreigners."