1. The First invaders were Jutes, under two chieftains, Hengist and Horsa, who had been banished, and were in search of a new home, when Vortigern, a British prince, called in their aid against the Picts and Scots (A.D. 450). Their reward was the isle of Thanet, then separated from Kent by an estuary. The British legend goes on to relate how Vortigern, for the love of Rowena, Hengist's daughter, ceded the rest of Kent to Hengist, and himself renounced Christianity; how his son Vortimer, taking up the British cause, drove out Hengist; how Rowena poisoned Vortimer; and how the restored Vortigern recalled Hengist, who soon afterwards, at a conference held at Stonehenge between 300 chiefs of each nation, bade his followers massacre the Britons, of whom 299 fell; Vortigern alone being spared, at the cost of Essex, Sussex, and Middlesex, as his ransom, and these counties formed the kingdom of Hengist and of his son Ochta. It is certain, however, that these three provinces did not become Saxon till much later; and the whole story seems to be an invention of the Welsh bards to palliate the weak resistance of their countrymen.

According to the more trustworthy story of the Saxon writers, Hengist and Horsa landed in Kent, at Vortigern's invitation (in A.D. 450), to oppose the Picts and Scots, who had advanced to Lincolnshire, and whom they easily defeated. They invited others of their countrymen to the fertile island, and formed a settlement in Kent, which was given them in consideration of their past and future services. But war soon broke out between the Britons and their strange allies. In 455 Horsa was killed in battle at Egelesford (Aylesford). In 457 Hengist and his son Eric completely routed the Britons at Creccanford (Crayford), and drove them out of Kent, over which Hengist and his son reigned, the former for 40 years, and the latter for 24. From the surname of Eric, Esc (the Ash-tree), the succeeding kings of Kent were called Esc-ings or Ash-ings (sons of the Ash-tree). The most powerful of them was Ethelbert, the fourth after Eric, who began to reign A.D. 568, and was the first Christian king of the Saxon race in England. After him we hear little of the kingdom of KENT.

2. The Second Settlement of the German invaders is said to have been made A.D. 477, when Ella and his three sons landed in Sussex with a body of Saxons in three ships. In 490 they took the fortress of Andredes-ceaster (the Roman Anderida, Pevensey), and Ella assumed the title of King of the SOUTH SAXONS (South-sexe) or Sussex, to which he added Surrey. His capital was Chichester, named after his son Cissa, who succeeded him some time between 514 and 519. His descendants reigned long; their names are lost; but we preserve their division of Sussex into rapes.

3. The Third Settlement was effected in 495 by a body of Saxons who landed on the eastern side of Southampton Water, under Cerdic and his son Cynric. They met with firm resistance, and held their ground with great valour till 514, when they were reinforced by Cerdic's two nephews, Stuf and Wightgar, who are called Jutes. They were rewarded with the Isle of Wight, which was now conquered, with many other districts. At last, in 519, a great victory over the Britons at Cerdices-ford (Charford) in Hampshire gave Cerdic the right to assume the royal title, and he founded the great kingdom of the WEST SAXONS (West-sexe) or Wessex.

Cerdic's further progress to the west was checked by the heroic ARTHUR, prince of Damnonia or Cornwall, whose name, with those of his queen and his "Knights of the Round Table," in association with the enchanter Merlin, has formed the theme of the earliest and latest British poetry, from the lays of the Cambrian bards to the Idylls of the King;'-a most curious example of a mythical period interposed between two ages of certain history. But all these fables scarcely justify a doubt of Arthur's real existence, or of his defence of the British cause.

Cynric, the son of Cerdic (534-560), added to the kingdom, and fixed its capital at Winton-ceaster (Winchester), the Venta Belgarum of the Romans.

4. The Fourth body of the invaders, in A.D. 527, founded the kingdom of the EAST SAXONS (East-sexe) or Essex, including Middlesex. Its first king was Escevine or Ercemvine. His son Sleda having married a daughter of Ethelbert, the kingdom became subject to Kent.

5. The Fifth Settlement was made by the Angles, who founded the kingdom of EAST ANGLIA about the middle or end of the sixth century. Besides parts of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon, it included the counties named after the two tribes of the North-folk (Norfolk) and the South-folk (Suffolk). Its first king was Uffa, from whom his successors were named Uffingas (sons of Uffa). further history of East Anglia is little known.

The

6. The Sixth kingdom was that of NORTHUMBRIA, also founded by the Angles, A.D. 517, in the country between the Humber and the Forth. In this region there were two British states, Deira (Deifyr), between the Humber and the Tyne, and Bernicia (Berneich), between the Tyne and the Forth. In 547 Ida landed, with a body of Angles, at Flamborough Head, and became king of Bernicia, while Ella founded another kingdom in Deira. After some years of hostility the two kingdoms were united, and, on the accession of Edwin, the son of Ella, they received the name of Northumbria, A.D. 617.

7. A Seventh kingdom was formed in the March, that is, the

border-land west of East Anglia and Deira, and hence called MERCIA, under Penda, about 626; and it was afterwards extended to the Severn, so as to embrace all the midland counties. It was divided by the Trent into North and South Mercia.

These seven kingdoms, founded in about a century and a half from the first Saxon invasion, formed what is called the HEPTARCHY. But they were not, at any one time, all independent of each other.

There were also states still belonging to the Britons. These were, first, DAMNONIA, or West Wales (Welsh, Walsch, being the German for Foreigners), which included Cornwall and Devonshire; CAMBRIA, or Wales; CUMBRIA, or Cumberland, with Westmoreland and Lancashire, and part of Yorkshire; and the two kingdoms of REGED and STRATHCLYDE, between the two Roman walls, in the south-west of what is now Scotland. The fact that the population of the Scotch lowlands was chiefly Saxon is important in the subsequent history of the country. The British kingdoms were at times united under one chief, called PENDRAGON, who claimed to represent the Roman emperors. Other bodies of Britons crossed the Channel into Armorica, in the north-west of Gaul, which was thence called BRITTANY. With these exceptions the Britons were so completely subdued that even their language was replaced by that of their conquerors. But the Celtic words in English confirm the Welsh traditions, that many of the Britons were left as slaves among the Saxons. Among the Saxon kingdoms there were continual conflicts, and each chieftain aspired to the dignity of BRETWALDA or supreme king. This rank seems to have arisen out of the need for a common leader against the Britons, Picts, and Scots; and it was probably elective. The first Bretwalda was Ella king of Sussex; the second Ceawlin, grandson of Cerdic, of Wessex; the third was Ethelbert king of Kent, in whose reign Christianity was introduced among the Anglo-Saxons.

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Three Anglo-Saxon youths were exposed for sale in the marketplace at Rome when Gregory (afterwards Pope Gregory the Great) was passing by. Struck by their fair and open countenances, he asked of what nation they were. "Angles," was the answer. Say rather, Angels,” replied he, "if they were only Christians. But of what province?" Deira." De ira!" said he; "yes, they are called from the wrath of God to his mercy. And who is their king?" His name is Ella or Alla." 'Allelujah!" he exclaimed; the praises of God must be sung in their country." He at once undertook the mission, but the Romans retained him at home; and on his accession to the Papacy he sent to Britain a Roman monk, AUGUSTINE, at the head of forty missionaries. After some delay in Gaul, from the dread of danger among the fierce Saxon heathens, Augustine landed in Kent in 597. He found Ethelbert favourably disposed, owing to his marriage with the Christian princess Bertha, daughter of Caribert king of Paris. The king assigned him a residence in the Isle of Thanet, and received him to a conference; and in a short time Ethelbert and many of his subjects were baptized. Augustine was made by Gregory archbishop of Canterbury and Metropolitan of all the British churches. Augustine also founded the see of Rochester. Soon after, Sebert king of Essex, the nephew

of Ethelbert, received the faith from MELLITUS, who became the first bishop of London. The cathedral of St. Paul's was erected, as already mentioned (p. 7), on the site of a temple to Diana, and another church was dedicated to St. Peter on Thorney Island, an islet formed by a small tributary of the Thames, now the site of Westminster Abbey. In 627 Edwin king of Northumbria was converted by PAULINUS, a bishop who was introduced by his queen, Ethelburga, the daughter of Ethelbert. He was baptized in a temporary church dedicated to St. Peter, soon replaced by a cathedral, which became the seat of the archbishopric of York, and the centre whence Christianity spread over the north.

The name of Ethelbert is famous also in the civil history of England, for his enactment of the first written laws made by any of the Saxon kings. He cultivated intercourse with the continent, and his reign forms a bright epoch in the history of English civilization. He died in 616, after a reign of fifty years.

The fourth Bretwalda was REDWALD king of East Anglia, who defeated and killed Ædefrid, the usurping king of Northumbria, and restored Edwin the son of Ella to his kingdom, about 617. EDWIN became the fifth and greatest of the Bretwaldas; and his authority was acknowledged by all the Anglo-Saxons except in Kent. He reclaimed his subjects from their licentious lives; and it was said that a woman or child might openly carry about a purse of gold without fear of violence or robbery. The affection of his servants was unbounded. He fell in battle with Penda king of Mercia in 633, and Northumbria relapsed into a state of disorder, which lasted, with some bright exceptions, till it was united to the other kingdoms under Egbert.

It was reserved for Wessex to give the first Saxon king to all England. This kingdom had reached to great prosperity under Ina, who began to reign in 688, and was famed for his justice, policy, and prudence, especially towards his subjects of the British race. From his brother Ingild was descended, in the fourth generation, the prince who first united England under one sceptre. EGBERT'S great natural gifts received a fine culture in the courts and armies of Charles the Great; and, in the same year in which the German Empire of the West was founded by that monarch's coronation, Egbert was called by the nobles of Wessex to the throne, A.D. 800. The gradual extinction of all the original royal houses in the other six kingdoms left him the sole direct descendant of the first conquerors, who claimed their descent from Woden. Of the other kingdoms Mercia alone was powerful, but it was now declining. Its king, Penda, has already been mentioned as the successful enemy of Edwin of Northumbria. He was defeated and slain in his turn by the Northumbrian Oswy, who was the sixth