Chapter II - Ancient England Under the Early Saxons

by Charles Dickens

　　The Romans had scarcely gone away from Britain, when the Britonsbegan to wish they had never left it. For, the Romans being gone,and the Britons being much reduced in numbers by their long wars,the Picts and Scots came pouring in, over the broken and unguardedwall of Severus, in swarms. They plundered the richest towns, andkilled the people; and came back so often for more booty and moreslaughter, that the unfortunate Britons lived a life of terror. Asif the Picts and Scots were not bad enough on land, the Saxonsattacked the islanders by sea; and, as if something more were stillwanting to make them miserable, they quarrelled bitterly amongthemselves as to what prayers they ought to say, and how they oughtto say them. The priests, being very angry with one another onthese questions, cursed one another in the heartiest manner; and(uncommonly like the old Druids) cursed all the people whom theycould not persuade. So, altogether, the Britons were very badlyoff, you may believe.

　　They were in such distress, in short, that they sent a letter toRome entreating help - which they called the Groans of the Britons;and in which they said, 'The barbarians chase us into the sea, thesea throws us back upon the barbarians, and we have only the hardchoice left us of perishing by the sword, or perishing by thewaves.' But, the Romans could not help them, even if they were soinclined; for they had enough to do to defend themselves againsttheir own enemies, who were then very fierce and strong. At last,the Britons, unable to bear their hard condition any longer,resolved to make peace with the Saxons, and to invite the Saxons tocome into their country, and help them to keep out the Picts andScots.

　　It was a British Prince named Vortigern who took this resolution,and who made a treaty of friendship with Hengist and Horsa, twoSaxon chiefs. Both of these names, in the old Saxon language,signify Horse; for the Saxons, like many other nations in a roughstate, were fond of giving men the names of animals, as Horse,Wolf, Bear, Hound. The Indians of North America, - a very inferiorpeople to the Saxons, though - do the same to this day.

　　Hengist and Horsa drove out the Picts and Scots; and Vortigern,being grateful to them for that service, made no opposition totheir settling themselves in that part of England which is calledthe Isle of Thanet, or to their inviting over more of theircountrymen to join them. But Hengist had a beautiful daughternamed Rowena; and when, at a feast, she filled a golden goblet tothe brim with wine, and gave it to Vortigern, saying in a sweetvoice, 'Dear King, thy health!' the King fell in love with her. Myopinion is, that the cunning Hengist meant him to do so, in orderthat the Saxons might have greater influence with him; and that thefair Rowena came to that feast, golden goblet and all, on purpose.

　　At any rate, they were married; and, long afterwards, whenever theKing was angry with the Saxons, or jealous of their encroachments,Rowena would put her beautiful arms round his neck, and softly say,'Dear King, they are my people! Be favourable to them, as youloved that Saxon girl who gave you the golden goblet of wine at thefeast!' And, really, I don't see how the King could help himself.

　　Ah! We must all die! In the course of years, Vortigern died - hewas dethroned, and put in prison, first, I am afraid; and Rowenadied; and generations of Saxons and Britons died; and events thathappened during a long, long time, would have been quite forgottenbut for the tales and songs of the old Bards, who used to go aboutfrom feast to feast, with their white beards, recounting the deedsof their forefathers. Among the histories of which they sang andtalked, there was a famous one, concerning the bravery and virtuesof King Arthur, supposed to have been a British Prince in those oldtimes. But, whether such a person really lived, or whether therewere several persons whose histories came to be confused togetherunder that one name, or whether all about him was invention, no oneknows.

　　I will tell you, shortly, what is most interesting in the earlySaxon times, as they are described in these songs and stories ofthe Bards.

　　In, and long after, the days of Vortigern, fresh bodies of Saxons,under various chiefs, came pouring into Britain. One body,conquering the Britons in the East, and settling there, calledtheir kingdom Essex; another body settled in the West, and calledtheir kingdom Wessex; the Northfolk, or Norfolk people, establishedthemselves in one place; the Southfolk, or Suffolk people,established themselves in another; and gradually seven kingdoms orstates arose in England, which were called the Saxon Heptarchy.The poor Britons, falling back before these crowds of fighting menwhom they had innocently invited over as friends, retired intoWales and the adjacent country; into Devonshire, and into Cornwall.Those parts of England long remained unconquered. And in Cornwallnow - where the sea-coast is very gloomy, steep, and rugged -where, in the dark winter-time, ships have often been wrecked closeto the land, and every soul on board has perished - where the windsand waves howl drearily and split the solid rocks into arches andcaverns - there are very ancient ruins, which the people call theruins of King Arthur's Castle.

　　Kent is the most famous of the seven Saxon kingdoms, because theChristian religion was preached to the Saxons there (who domineeredover the Britons too much, to care for what they said about theirreligion, or anything else) by Augustine, a monk from Rome. KingEthelbert, of Kent, was soon converted; and the moment he said hewas a Christian, his courtiers all said they were Christians; afterwhich, ten thousand of his subjects said they were Christians too.Augustine built a little church, close to this King's palace, onthe ground now occupied by the beautiful cathedral of Canterbury.Sebert, the King's nephew, built on a muddy marshy place nearLondon, where there had been a temple to Apollo, a church dedicatedto Saint Peter, which is now Westminster Abbey. And, in Londonitself, on the foundation of a temple to Diana, he built anotherlittle church which has risen up, since that old time, to be SaintPaul's.

　　After the death of Ethelbert, Edwin, King of Northumbria, who wassuch a good king that it was said a woman or child might openlycarry a purse of gold, in his reign, without fear, allowed hischild to be baptised, and held a great council to consider whetherhe and his people should all be Christians or not. It was decidedthat they should be. Coifi, the chief priest of the old religion,made a great speech on the occasion. In this discourse, he toldthe people that he had found out the old gods to be impostors. 'Iam quite satisfied of it,' he said. 'Look at me! I have beenserving them all my life, and they have done nothing for me;whereas, if they had been really powerful, they could not havedecently done less, in return for all I have done for them, thanmake my fortune. As they have never made my fortune, I am quiteconvinced they are impostors!' When this singular priest hadfinished speaking, he hastily armed himself with sword and lance,mounted a war-horse, rode at a furious gallop in sight of all thepeople to the temple, and flung his lance against it as an insult.From that time, the Christian religion spread itself among theSaxons, and became their faith.

　　The next very famous prince was Egbert. He lived about a hundredand fifty years afterwards, and claimed to have a better right tothe throne of Wessex than Beortric, another Saxon prince who was atthe head of that kingdom, and who married Edburga, the daughter ofOffa, king of another of the seven kingdoms. This Queen Edburgawas a handsome murderess, who poisoned people when they offendedher. One day, she mixed a cup of poison for a certain noblebelonging to the court; but her husband drank of it too, bymistake, and died. Upon this, the people revolted, in greatcrowds; and running to the palace, and thundering at the gates,cried, 'Down with the wicked queen, who poisons men!' They droveher out of the country, and abolished the title she had disgraced.When years had passed away, some travellers came home from Italy,and said that in the town of Pavia they had seen a ragged beggar-woman, who had once been handsome, but was then shrivelled, bent,and yellow, wandering about the streets, crying for bread; and thatthis beggar-woman was the poisoning English queen. It was, indeed,Edburga; and so she died, without a shelter for her wretched head.

　　Egbert, not considering himself safe in England, in consequence ofhis having claimed the crown of Wessex (for he thought his rivalmight take him prisoner and put him to death), sought refuge at thecourt of Charlemagne, King of France. On the death of Beortric, sounhappily poisoned by mistake, Egbert came back to Britain;succeeded to the throne of Wessex; conquered some of the othermonarchs of the seven kingdoms; added their territories to his own;and, for the first time, called the country over which he ruled,England.

　　And now, new enemies arose, who, for a long time, troubled Englandsorely. These were the Northmen, the people of Denmark and Norway,whom the English called the Danes. They were a warlike people,quite at home upon the sea; not Christians; very daring and cruel.They came over in ships, and plundered and burned wheresoever theylanded. Once, they beat Egbert in battle. Once, Egbert beat them.But, they cared no more for being beaten than the Englishthemselves. In the four following short reigns, of Ethelwulf, andhis sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, they came back, overand over again, burning and plundering, and laying England waste.In the last-mentioned reign, they seized Edmund, King of EastEngland, and bound him to a tree. Then, they proposed to him thathe should change his religion; but he, being a good Christian,steadily refused. Upon that, they beat him, made cowardly jestsupon him, all defenceless as he was, shot arrows at him, and,finally, struck off his head. It is impossible to say whose headthey might have struck off next, but for the death of King Ethelredfrom a wound he had received in fighting against them, and thesuccession to his throne of the best and wisest king that everlived in England.