sense, for military purposes, that the others are said to have been under his sovereignty; he was their war-king against the common enemy. This idea is supported by the statement of Nennius, that the Saxons when pressed by the Britons drew kings from Germany to rule over them in Britain. Afterwards the title was assumed by Ceawlin, and others, and it then implied a sort of honorary or imperial supremacy both in peace and war over their fellow kings; but it is remarkable that it was not taken by any of the Mercian rulers, though they were unquestionably the most potent princes of the Heptarchy.

Bede's list comprises Ella of Sussex, Ceawlin of Wessex, Ethelbert of Kent, Redwald of East Anglia, and Edwin, Oswald, and Oswy of Northumbria.

The appellation Bretwalda was revived by Egbert, as a glorious ancient title, but it does not appear to have been bestowed on any of his suc

cessors.

A.D. 495.

Cerdic and his son Cynric establish themselves in the west.

A.D. 501.

Port and his sons Bieda and Mægla land on the south coast.

A.D. 514.

Stuf and Wihtgar, the nephews of Cerdic, land in Britain.

A.D. 516.

establish the West Saxon kingdom (WESSEX).

To this period belongs whatever may be real of the achievements ascribed to the famous Arthur. Caradoc of Llancarvan mentions him as a petty prince in Somersetshire, whilst Nennius attributes to him triumphs over the Saxons in every quarter of the island; but it is only in Geoffrey of Monmouth that we read of his conquests abroad, which are so extravagant as to have caused some doubt as to his actual existence. It seems, however, not improbable that he gained a victory over the Saxons at Caer Badon (Bath, or Badbury) in 520, and that he met his death in the field at Camelon in 542.

Kentigern, a Scot, founds a bishop's

A.D. 519.

A.D. 560.

Ceawlin (Bretwalda) succeeds in

A.D. 565.

Columba, a priest from Ireland, converts the Northern Picts, and builds a monastery in Hii". Ethelbert (Bretwalda) succeeds in Kent*.

A.D. 568.

The West Saxons make war on Ethelbert, and drive him into Kent.

A.D. 571.

version of the Saxons, arrives with a few companions in Kent. Ethelbert receives them with kindness, and is baptised on Whitsunday, June 2.

Ceolwulf succeeds in Wessex. "He fought and contended incessantly against either the Angles, or the Welsh, or the Picts, or the Scots."

A.D. 599.

Redwald (Bretwalda) succeeds in

A.D. 600 (circa).

▾ Now Iona, one of the Inner Hebrides.

* Ethelbert's kingdom was originally larger than the modern county of the same name, but it was afterwards limited by the West Saxons. His accession is sometimes ascribed to the year 560, but this would appear to be a mistake, as he was then only eight years of age.

y Ella left a child, Edwin, only three years old, who, after many years of exile, became the first Christian king of Northumbria.

See section on Anglo-Saxon Laws.

The dates 599, 601, 602, 604 have also been assigned for these conferences, but that in the text is considered the best supported. The place is believed to have been Aust, on the Severn.

b The place was Bangor on Dee, near Wrexham, and 12 miles from Chester.

One MS. of the Saxon Chronicle places this battle in 605; the Cambrian Annals and the Annals of Tigernach in 613. The "prophecy" (or rather, denunciation) was uttered at the second conference of Augustine with the British bishops.

ABOUT this time Dynwal Moelmud, a descendant of the British settlers in

Armorica", is said, in the Welsh triads, to have come from that country, and having established his authority west of the Tamar and the Severn, to have been recognised as "king of the Cymry." He is described as "the best legislator that ever appeared, and the best in securing privilege and protection both to native and alien, lest any one should act wrongly and unlawfully." The laws ascribed to him, which are avowedly the basis of the legislation of Howel Dda, some three centuries later, minutely define the rights and duties of each class of the community, and exhibit the plan of an enlightened and orderly government such as it is historically certain never prevailed, either in Armorica or Britain. Their origin is indicated by the fact that the supreme dignity and privileges of the bardic order are dwelt on at length, and it seems probable that what we now possess is a mere poetic paraphrase, in which some traces of laws that had existed prior to the time of Howel Dda are preserved among a mass of fanciful rules, of which neither the age nor the authority can be satisfactorily determined.

m This is the era assigned by Mr. Aneurin Owen; earlier writers place him far before the Christian era. See A.D. 383.

Perhaps near Winwick, in Lancashire, but more probably near Oswestry, in Shropshire. Oswald, who had been baptized in his youth, while an exile in Scotland, was esteemed a saint and martyr, and commemorated in the early English Church on the 5th of August. "His sanctity and his miracles were afterwards manifested in various ways beyond his island, and his hands are at Bamborough uncorrupted." His head

being taken from the stake on which it had been fixed, was kept as a relic for a while, and then placed in the arms of St. Cuthbert, the bishop of Lindisfarne, which is commemorated by a sculpture in Durham cathedral. Nearly sixty churches are to be found in England dedicated to St. Oswald, but some probably belong to the bishop of Worcester of

the same name in the tenth St. Cuthbert, with St. Oswald's head. century.

4 A very long and questionable account of this transaction is to be found in a copy of the Saxon Chronicle, which appears to have belonged to the abbey of Peterborough; in the same manuscript there are several other notices of Medeshamstede, or Burh, and charters are cited, some of which are of doubtful authority.

Or Wilfrid, then abbot of Ripon, afterwards the well-known archbishop of York. See A.D. 678.

The project, however, was only gradually carried out. Seaxwulf, abbot of Peterborough, who succeeded Winfrid, agreed to the partition, contenting himself with Lichfield, the capital of Mercia, and sees were founded at Hereford in 676, at Lindisse in 678, and at Worcester and Leicester in 680. The see of Leicester was removed to Dorchester (near Oxford) about 200 years after, and Lindisse was absorbed by the united sees about 956. The first Norman bishop, Remigius, removed the see to Lincoln (probably in 1078), where it still continues. Lindisse is believed to be represented by Stow in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, where a church with traces of Saxon architecture remains.

Wilfrid, the introducer of the practice of carry: ing appeals to Rome, born about 630, was educated at the court of Northumbria, and, adopting the

D

priestly profession, went to Rome in 654, and on his return became tutor to the son of Oswy; he received from his royal patron the monastery of Ripon, and having at the synod of Whitby powerfully supported the Roman views, he was appointed to the archbishopric of York, which had remained unoccupied since the withdrawal of Paulinus. He then passed over into Gaul, to gilbert, bishop of Paris (formerly bishop of the West Saxons); but during his absence Chad was appointed to York, and Wilfrid, on his return, after assuming the power to appoint priests and deacons in Kent, in the vacancy of the see of Canterbury, before the arrival of Theodore, found himself obliged to retire to Ripon. In 669, however, Chad resigned York to him, and Wilfrid held it till 678, but having given offence by his pompous style of living, he was then driven out, and his vast diocese, which comprised the whole Northumbrian kingdom, was divided into the dioceses of York, Lindisfarne, and Hexham. Wilfrid now appealed to Rome, (passing the winter among the pagans of Friesland on his journey), and obtained a papal decree in his favour, but it was disregarded; he then visited the heathen South Saxons, and converted them. length, in 687, a portion of his diocese was restored.

At