1 V ■kum*t^^R ^^^Si5<*St)^^^JiK^ t:»,<.A V c.i, ^ 4' tA^ya I University of California. FROM THE I.TBKAKV OF DR. FRANCIS LIEBER, Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, New York. THK GIFT OF MICHAEL REESE, 0/ SiJH Francisco. 1S73. ^.'. ^ V I REYOLUTIOJS^S IN ENGLISH HISTORY, > BY ROBERT VAUGHAN, D.D VOL. I. REVOLUTIONS OF RACE. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON^ & COMPAISTY, 346 & 348 BKOADWAY. 1860. \ I PEEFACE. XN this work the reader will not find everything he -*" would expect to find in a publication bearing the title of a History of England. But it is intended that these pages shall include so much of the past as will suf- fice to give full presentation and prominence to the great changes in the history of this country, showing whence they have come, what they have been, and whither they have tended. My narrative, accordingly, while not de- scribed as a History of England, is designed to serve the purpose for which all such histories have been profess- edly written. English* history embraces much in com- mon with the history of Europe, together with much that has been characteristic of itself; and it is reasonable that Englishmen should be more interested in what has been special to their country, than in details which might have had their place in the history of any one among a large family of states. The question to which this work is designed to present an answer is — What is it that has IV PREFACE. made England to be England ? My object is to conduct the reader to satisfactory conclusions in relation to this question, by a road much more direct and simple than is compatible with the laws to which the historian usually conforms himself when writing the general history of a nation. Our busy age needs some assistance of this nature. But while the spirit of our times is sufficiently dis- posed to appreciate directness and compression in author- ship, it is, I am aware, by no means disposed to accept superficiality in the place of thoroughness. I do not affect to be unacquainted with what modern Avriters have published on English history ; but it is only due to my- self to state, that on no point of importance in relation to my object, have I allowed myself to be dependent on such authorities. In many instances, when I have con- tented myself with citing a modern author, it has not been until after an examination of the sources adduced in support of his statements. It has been my earnest wish that this work should be the result throughout of a fair measure of independent research and of independent thought. The sense in which I use the term * Revolution ' scarcely needs explanation. The word is meant to com- prehend the great phases of change in oiu* history, due place being assigned to the great cause in regard to each of them. Down to the close of the fourteenth century, change among us comes mainly from the conflicts of race. Under the Tudors, the great principle of revolu- PREFACE. tion is religion ; under the Stuarts, that principle gives place considerably to the principles of government. The first question to be settled was the question of race ; the next concerned the national faith ; and the next the fu- ture of the English Constitution. Many causes contrib- uted to the strength of these leading causes of action, but through their respective periods these are felt to be leading causes, and the effects which flow from them are all more or less impressed by them. In the progress of Great Britain since 1688, no single cause has acquired the prominence of the causes above mentioned. In taking up such a theme as the Revolutions in English History, it is probable that no two writers would be agreed as to the best method of dealing with it — or as to the principle that should determine the selection of material, and where to stop. On these points, and on many beside, I have to throw myself on the candour of the reader. The course I have taken has been chosen after the best thought I could bestow on the subject. In the further prosecution of my object, I hope to avail myself freely of the rich material in the State Paper Office, still in manuscript, and which, thanks to the pres- ent Master of the Rolls, is becoming more accessible every day for the purposes of history. Heath Lodge, Uxbeidge, 1859. CONTENTS BOOK I. CELTS AND ROMANS. CHAPTEE I. THE EAELY INHABITAXTS OF BEITAIN. Prehistoric period, Phoenicia, . Phoenician history, Greek testimony, Voyage of Himilco, Polybius, Diodorus — ^Strabo, Britain as described by the Romans, PAGE 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 Ancient British states, . Races of ancient Britain, . Caledonians — ^ Picts and Scots, . , . Question of a Pre-Celtic race, Physical features of the an cient Britons, . PAGE 8 9 10 11 11 CHAPTEE II, EEVOLUTION BY THE SWOED. Rome in the time of Ca)sar, Caisar's policy in invading Britain, . News-vending in ancient Eome, . . . Caesar's preparations, The landing, Submission and revolt, Second submission, . Second invasion, Military operations, . Cassivelaunns, . Departure of Oajsar, . British resistance. Subsequent progress, Caligula's expedition, Plautius and Claudius, Plautius and Ostorius, Defeat of the Icenians, . Caractacus and the Silures, 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 28 28 29 Caractacus in Eome, . The Britons not subdued, Suetonius, .... Slaughter of the Druids, . Roman oppression, . Revolt under Boadicea, . Massacre of the Romans, Slaughter of the Britons, Julius Agricola, . The Caledonians, Battle of Ardoch, Conquest completed, Adrian and Antoninus, . Comraodus — disorder, Campaign — wall of Severus, The Scots — Carausius, . Theodosius — Maximus, . Departure of the Romans, Work of the sword in Brit am, 31 82 82 38 35 35 36 39 40 41 42 43 44 44 45 46 48 49 49 vm CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. EFFECT OF THE ASCENDENCY OF THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN ON GOVERNMENT. PAGB Celtic popular assemblies, . 51 Kings — Revenue — The Druids, Roman government, . Roman colonization, . Provinces in Britain, 52 53 53 54 Colonies — Municipia — Latian towns, 55 The prefect and procurator, . 56 Revolution in government, . 57 Roman force in Britain, . . 59 CHAPTER IV. REVOLUTION IN RELIGION. British Druidism, ... GO Doctrine of the Druids, . . 61 Sacred groves, .... 62 Religious rites, .... 63 The Romans intolerant of Druidism, .... 63 Christianity, . . . . 64 Fictions and misconceptions, 65 Legend of King Lucius, . . 67 The probable truth, ... 69 Persecution under Diocletian, 70 Council of Aries, ... 71 Pelagius and Celestius, . . 72 Lupus and Germanicus, . . 73 Summary, . . . . . 73 CHAPTER V. EFFECT OF THE ROMAN ASCENDENCY ON SOCIAL LIFE. End of Druidism — Fine arts — General culture, Roman cities in Britain, . Influence of Roman cities. Revolution in manners, . Caesar on British morals. Summary, .... Distribution of race, . Agriculture, 75 Clothing— Art, . 76 Impediments to British civi- lization, .... 78 British earthworks, . 78 Roman civilization, . 80 Mines— Coals — Metals, . 81 Roman roads, 81 Educated life, . . . 82 83 84 85 86 87 89 93 BOOK II. SAXONS AND DANES. CHAPTER I. SOURCES OF ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY. British authorities, ... 95 Gildas— Nennius, ... 97 Scandinavian poetry and tra- dition, 98 Anglo-Saxon writers — Bode, 99 Saxon Chronicle, ... 99 Ancient laws, . . . .100 Anglo-N'orman writers, . . 101 Authority of the Anglo- Norman writers, . •: .102 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER II. THE MIGRATION. PAGE Britain aa Je^t by the Romans, 104 Picts and Scots, . . . .104 Repulsed by the Britons, . 105 Final departure of the Ro- mans, 106 Picture of Britain by Gildas, 106 The Saxons, .... Hengist and Horsa, . Saxon and British accounts, Rise of the Octarchy, British resistance. Summary, .... PAGB lor 109 110 111 112 112 CHAPTER III. RISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — EGBERT. Anglo-Saxon wars, . Design of the Saxon invaders. Office of Bretwalda, . The Heptarchy, . Northumbria, Mercia, .... Offa and Charlemagne, 114 115 115 117 118 119 120 Murder of Ethelbert, . 121 Progress of Wessex, . . 122 Cedwalla— Ina, . 122 Egbert, 124 Elective monarchy, . 125 Why continued, . 125 Tendencies towards unity, 126 CHAPTER IV. RISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHELSTAN. "VVessex, Mercia, and Nor- Danes in Wessex, 137 thumbria, .... 128 Alfred at Reading, . 138 Danger from the Danes, . 129 Ashdune, .... 138 Descent of the Danes, 129 Progress of the Danes, . 140 Causes of the movement. 130 Alfred's retreat, , 142 Intentions of the Danes, . 131 Battle of Ethadune, . 143 Ragnar Lodbrog, 133 Treaty with Guthorm, . 143 Inguar and Ubbo, 134 Invasion under Hastings, 145 Check at Nottingham, . 135 Edward and Athelstan, . 146 Battle of Kesteven, . 135 Battle of Brunanburgh, . 146 Danish ravages, . 136 Athelstan king of England, 147 King Edmund, . 137 CHAPTER y. RISE OP THE DANISH MONARCHY. Edmund succeeds Athelstan, 148 Insurrection, .... 149 Ed wy— Edgar, . . . . 149 Edward the Martyr — Ethel- red the Unready, . . . 150 Massacre of the Danes, . . 151 Edmund Ironside, . . .154 Canute becomes king, . . 156 Retrospect, 156 Ancient and modern England, 157 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. EFFECT OF THE SAXON AND DANISH CONQUESTS ON THE DISTEIBUTIONS OF EACE. PAGE Diversities of race, . . .159 Location of the Britons, . . 161 The Angles in Northumbria, 163 PAGB Location of the Danes, . .164 Norwegians in Cumberland, . 165 CHAPTER YIL BEVOLUTION IN RELIGION IN ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. Religion — its potency, . Saxon heathendom, . . . Odin worship — Other dei- ties, . . . Story of Balder, . . . . Evil deities— Fates, . Worship, Summary on Saxon heathen- dom, . . . . . Christianity, . . . . Augustine, . . . The British bishops, . lona and its missionaries, Aidan, 169 Work of Scottish mission- ITO aries in England, . 188 Progress of Christianity, 189 171 The new faith not pure, . 192 173 The old faith and the new, 193 174 Results from this revolutioi] 175 in religion, 194 Priestly power, . 195 177 Policy of the clergy, 196 179 Life of Wilfrid, . . . 199 181 Odo and St. Dunstan, 206 183 Edwy and Elgiva, . 209 186 Better effects of Christianity, 211 187 Bede, Biscop, and Aidan, 218 CHAPTER VIII. REVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT IN ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. Feudal relations, . . .216 Landholding, . . . .219 Confederations of settlers, . 220 Local government, . . . 221 Free and the Not-free, . . 221 Noble by birth and by service, 224 The family, 226 The tithing and hundred,. . 227 The wergild, .... 229 The Witanagemote, . . .229 Shires and people, . . . 232 Different holdings of land, . 232 Rise of towns, .... 233 Government in towns, . . 235 The king, 236 The king's household, . . 237 Jurors and compurgators, . 237 Trial by ordeal, . . . . 238 Summary of the revolution in government, . . . 239 CHAPTER IX. REVOLUTION IN SOCIAL LIFE IN ANGLO-SAXON BIUTAIN. Agi'ioulture, . . . . 241 Draining and embankments, 242 Handicraft and foreign trade, 243 Intellectual life, .... 244 Music and poetry, . . . 245 Prose literature 247 Culture of the Danes, ^ . 248 Science in Anglo-Saxon iBrit- ain 250 CHAPTER X, CONCLUSION. CONTENTS. BOOK III. NORMANS AND ENGLISH. CHAPTEK I. THE NOEMA^TS IN NOEMANDT. The !N"ormans, .... Northmen in France, Rollo, first duke of I^^ormandy, William I., Eichard I. and II. Richard III., Robert the Devil, William the Conqueror, . Society in Normandy, Christianity, .... Defective civilization of the Normans, Norman legislation and gov- ernment, PAGE 256 Origin of chivalry, . PAei 265 257 Character of the Normans, . 265 258 Story of Harold's pledge to 259 William, 266 260 Death of the Confessor, . 267 260 Landing of William, . 268 261 Tostig and Hardrada, 269 262 Battle of Stamford Bridge, 270 Harold's limited resources, . 273 263 William's proposal, . 273 Harold's reply, ... 274 265 Battle of Hastings, . . . 275 CHAPTER XL THE CONQUEST IN ITS EELATION TO PEOPEETY. Submission of the English, . 279 William's coronation, . . 279 His pretensions, .... 280 Displacement of the Saxons 281 Distribution of manors, . . 281 Opinion of Selden and Hale, Feudal tenures, .... Knight service and soccage, . Military power — State of towns. 283 284 284 285 CHAPTER III. THE COXQIJEST IX ITS EELATION TO THE PEOPLE. Why the battle of Has- tings was so decisive, . Subsequent resistance, . Siege of Exeter, State of the north, . . William's devastation, Removal of the Saxon clergy, Anglo-Norman clergy, . Agricultural population, . Serfs and free tenants, . Confederation at Ely, Fate of the Alfgars, . 296 286 Here ward, .... 297 287 Death of Waltheof, . 298 287 Anglo-Saxon women. 299 288 Last form of resistance, . 300 289 Change in English feeling, 300 Cumberland outlaws, 302 291 Robin Hood, 303 292 Retrospect, .... 304 293 Rise of towns, . 306 294 Lord Macaulay and the 295 Normans, 307 CHAPTER lY. THE CONQUEST IN ITS EELATION TO GOVEENMENT. Common law and statute law, .... . .309 Feudalism in England, . . 310 Feudal incidents, . . . 310 Meeting at Salisbury, . .311 Rule of the Conqueror, . . 312 Xll CONTENTS. PAGE Laws of the Confessor, . .312 Trial by jury — its origin, . 314 Jurors and taxation, . . .316 Jurors and parliament, . . 317 King's court — and council, . 318 Judicial power of the council, 819 King's relation to the law, . 320 Itinerant judges, . . . 323 Growth of popular power, . 323 Two great principles, . . 825 Source of authority among * the Germans, . . . .825 PAGE Judicial corruption, . . . 326 Wealth of the Crown, . . 328 Subsidies — tenths and fif- teenths, 329 Imports and exports, . . 329 Good from the Conquest, . 330 Distinctions of race much eflfaced, 381 Popular liberty, . . . .331 King John and the barons, . 332 Magna Charta, . . . . 335 CHAPTER V. THE CONQUEST IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHUECH. Spiritual courts, . . . 888 Transubstantiation, . . . 339 Celibacy of the clergy, . . 889 Lanfranc, . . . . . 840 The married clergy, . . . 843 Anselm, 844 His dispute with Rufus, . . 345 Henry I. — Investitures, . . 346 Exemption of monasteries, . 350 Thomas a Becket, Constitutions of Clarendon, . Policy of the crown. Progress of the dispute, . Becket's violence and death, Popular feeling, ... Result of the controversy, . Religion, . . . . '. Religious persecution. 351 355 356 357 360 360 361 361 365 CHAPTER YI. THE CONQUEST IN ITS RELATION TO SOCIAL LIFE. The Conquest injurious to industry, 366 Improvement — imports, . . 367 The Cinque ports — the Jews, 368 Regulations concerning trade, 370 History of Longbeard, . . 371 Patronage of learning, . . 376 Lay schools, .... 877 Universities, .... 377 Arab literature, . Aristotle, .... Anglo-Norman historians, Civil and canon law, Romance literature, . Geoffrey of Monmouth, . Norman architecture, Retrospect, .... 381 381 382 883 385 387 890 391 BOOK IV. ENGLISH AND NORMANS. CHAPTER I. INFLUENCE OF THE WARS OF ENGLAND ON THE ENGLISH NATIONALITY. Henry IIL— His wars, . . 894 Edward I. — A naval victory, 395 Invasion of France, . . . 897 Wars of Edward L, . . . 398 Edward IIL— Effect of his wars, . . . -, . . . 400 Henry V. — Issue of wars with France, .... 403 CONTENTS. xm OHAPTEE II. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. Progress of industrial power, Impeded by piracy, . Middle Age navy, . IsTaval triumphs, .... Trade impeded by legisla- tion, . . ... Prejudice against foreign merchants, .... Introduction of weavers. Merchants of the Staple, PAGE 407 Companies, PAGE 413 408 The English engage in for- 408 eign trade, .... 413 409 Agriculture, .... 414 A corn law, 416 410 Free labour, .... 416 Parliament regulates wages, . 417 410 Value of labour in the four- 411 teenth century. 419 412 Retrospect, 420 CHAPTER III. INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN ENGLAND FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. The English language, . . 422 French metrical romance, . 424 British traditions, . . . 425 Vision of Fiers Plowman, . 427 Chaucer, 428 English prose — Maundeville — Wycliffe, . . . .431 Occleve and Lydgate, . . 433 Progress of art, . . . 434 Comparative rudeness of Mid- dle-age life, .... 436 The universities, . . . 437 City life, 437 CHAPTER lY. POLITICAL LIFE IN ENGLAND FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. Trade and freedom, . 439 The king's council, . 489 Representative principle. 440 The Great Charter, . 441 Its immediate effects. 441 First House of Commons, . 444 Rising influence of towns, . 445 Parliaments under Ed- ward I., 446 Hereford and Norfolk, . 449 The statute De Tallagio non Goncedendo, .... 451 Political life under Ed- ward I., 455 Edward as a legislator, . 457 Parliaments under Ed- ward II., 458 Civil war, 46'>, Galveston, 403 The Spencers — Battle of Boroughbridge, . . . 464 Deposition of the king, . . 465 Edward III. — settled form of parliament, . . . 466 Power of the Commons, . . 468 Tonnage and poundage, . . 470 Law of treason, .... 471 Liberties gained, . . . 472 Historical significance of par- liamentary history, . . 475 Condition of the people, . 475 Free and skilled labour, . . 476 The English aristocracy not a privileged noMesse, . . 476 Growth of independence, . 477 Condition of the suffrage, . 477 Purveyance grievances, . . 478 Popular discontent, . . . 479 Wat Tyler, . , . . .480 XIV CONTENTS. OHAPTEE V. RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. Papal power — Its culminat- PAGE Social life in the counties. PAGE 497 ing point, 488 Population of towns. 497 The papacy versus the na- The Franciscans, 498 tional churches, . 484 Become city missionaries. 499 Peter's pence, ... 485 Their benevolence and suc- King John's tribute, . 485 cess, . ... 500 The custom of provisors. 486 Become learned. 501 Commendams, - . 488 Rapid deterioration, . 503 General Corruptness, 488 Chaucer's pictures of society. 504 Ecclesiastical diplomacj, 488 Wycliffe, 506 Grostete, 490 Proceedings against him. 509 The pope's collectors. 490 Opposes the doctrine of Eesistance, under Edward transubstantiation. 511 HI., 491 His opinions, .... 511 The popes at Avignon, . 493 Remonstrance of the Wyc- Papal schism, .... 494 liffites, 514 Retrospect, 495 Impolicy of the clergy, . 515 Laws in revolutions, . 495 Retrospect, . . . 516 BOOK V. LANCASTER AND YORK. CHAPTER I THE REACTION. Accession of Henry IV., . 518 His policy, . . . . . 519 Persecution, 519 Sawtree and Badby, . . 520 Reforming spirit of the Com- mons, 521 Arundel's constitutions, . . 523 Lord Cobham, .... 525 Persecutions under Chiche- ley, ... . . .525 Excesses of the reformers, . 527 Clergy at fault, .... 527 Reaction in Oxford, . . . 528 Decline of learning, . . . 531 The aristocracy during the Civil war, . . . .532 CHAPTER II. THE DAWN. English constitution, . . 536 Friars and the Clergy, . . 537 The new opinions embraced by clergymen, . . . 540 The people, . . . . . 541 Some encouragement of learning, . ... . 542 The duke of Gloucester, . . 543 CONTENTS. XV Earl of Worcester, Earl Rivers, Lord Littleton, . Sir John Fortescue, State of science, . Printing, Probabilities of the future, . Historical function of the papal power, .... Decline of the papal supre- macy, Policy of the pontiffs, PAGE 543 544 545 545 547 549 550 550 551 552 Corruption general, . . . 554 Revival of literature and art 555 Leo X, — Scepticism in Italy, 557 Prospects of society on the opening of the fifteenth century, 558 Richard IIL, . . . .560 Accession of the house of Tudor, 560 Rule of Henry VIL,. . . 561 His ecclesiastical policy, . . 562 BOOK L CELTS AISTD ROMANS, CHAPTEE I. THE EAELY II^HABITAIS^TS OF BEITAEN^. THE man who treads the greensward of Dover Cliff for book i. c> Chap. i. the first time, will feel that before him is the passage which must have been made by some of the earliest settlers in Britain. The white coast of Gaul stretches along in the distance, and the track of voyagers in the unknown past seems to be still upon those waters. On those waters, too^ the dark sides and the floating sails of the multitude of ships under the command of Caesar seem to be still visible. But in the age of Caesar many centuries must have j)assed since the first rude wicker-boat grazed its oxhide covering on our shore and landed the first man. Some hundreds of winters must then have come and gone since the first at- tempt was made to penetrate our primeval forests, or to compass our stagnant marshes. Far back, even then, must the day have been when the eye of man — that probably half-naked and wondering new-comer — fell for the first time on the waters of the Thames and the Humber, the Severn and the Mersey. But man comes in his season : and now the day will come when the borders of the Tliames shall be no longer a wilderness, and when from the banks of the Vol. I.— 1 ii CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. Mersey other sounds sliall be heard than those of untamed animals m search oi prey. But how soon change by the hand of man began to make its appearance in Britain is a point on which we can- not speak with exactness. Rude nations do not write his- tories, aiid it is not until they begin to cast off their rude- ness that civilized nations begin to write history for them. We know, however, that the merchants of Phoenicia were the people to open the first communication between this isl- and and distant countries. It is the commercial spirit that gives to Britain her place for the first time in history. So we were called from our obscurity by the kind of enterprise which was to be the source of our ultimate greatness. Phoenicia. rj^^^Q ^^pjp Qf ^j^g coast of Syria kuowu to the ancients as Phoenicia, did not measure much more than a hundred miles in length, and scarcely twenty in breadth. Along the inland border of Phoenicia rose the snow-covered mountains of Lebanon, with their slopes and ravines darkened here and there by their ancient cedars. From those highlands roots were sent off as rocky promontories into the sea. The coast was thus broken up into a succession of bays, which became harbours, and fitting places for fortresses and wall- ed cities. Tlie Phoenicians knew well how to use such ad- vantages. As the mariner spread his sail in front of the city of Aradus, and with a favouring breeze from the land, turned the high prow of his vessel towards Egypt, every few miles placed him abreast with a new city. Tripolis, Berytus, Sidon, Tyre — all rose thus in succession from the sea. ■ The land between those cities was studded with cities of less importance, and with villages. Everywhere the signs of industry were visible, in the culture of the field, of the vine, and of the olive. The relation of this chain of cit- ies to the countries eastward of them, and westward, was for many centuries the same with that of the great cit- ies of Italy in the Middle Ages. Phoenicia and Italy had their place at about the middle of the civilized world ; and both were the means, in their time, of enabling the one half of the human family to interchange commodities with the other half. THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF BEITAIN. 3 The greatness of the Phoenician power dates from a book i. thousand years before the age of Augustus. Its prosperity -^' ^ continued unabated during the first half of that intervaL hmu^y^^ Its ships visited every shore of the known world, and often penetrated into the unknown. In those remote times, Phoe- nician navigators made their way" to Cape Finistere, and learnt to strike across the open sea to Britain. In such ad- ventures the Cynosure, the last light in the Little Bear, was their chosen polestar. The Cynosure beams upon us as brightly as ever, but the Phoenician mariner is gone. Great military monarchies are bad neighbours to small commer- cial states. It is in the nature, also, of such states, that they should rely too much on the aid of mercenaries — a danger- ous weapon. The tendency of their wealth, too, is ever to- wards concentration and oligarchy. In time, the few who govern become divided by feuds between their rival houses, and the many who are governed become lost to pa|:riotism. So weakness within is all that 'remains to be opposed to strength from without. From these causes the soldier pow- er prevailed at length in the history of Phoenicia over the merchant poAver. The glory of the past became wholly of the past. In modern Tyre the fisherman dries his nets on the ruins of ancient palaces.* But if Phoenicia was the first to discover the island of Greek testi- Britain, it is to Greece w^e owe the first literary notices con- ™^°^ " corning it. When Paul preached to the men of Athens on Mars Hill, four centuries and a half had passed since Herodotus had read his History to the ancestors of the same people. That number of years in our own history * Xenoplion's description of a Phcenician vessel shows that the Phoenicians greatly excelled the Greeks as seamen. ' The best and most accurate arrange- ment of things I ever saw, was when I went to look at the great Phoenician ship. For I saw the greatest quantity of tackling separately disposed in the smallest stowage. You know that a ship comes to anchor or gets under way by means of many wooden instruments and many ropes, and sails by means of many sails, and is armed with many machines against hostile vessels, and carries about with it many cooks for the crew, and all the apparatus which men use in a dwelHng-house for each mess. Beside all this the vessel is filled with cargo, which the owner carries for his own profit. And all that I have mentioned lay in not much great- er space than will be found in a chamber large enough conveniently to hold ten beds. All this too lay in such a way that they did not obstruct one another, so that they needed no one to seek them, and there were no knots to untie and cause delay, if they were suddenly wanted for use.' — (Economicus. Kemick's Phoenicia, c. vii. CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK I. Chap. 1. Voyage of Himilco. would take us back to the days of Henry Y. and tlie battle of Agincourt. Time does not become less by distance ; but, like all other objects, it seems to do so. In the age of Herodotus the kings of Eome had all passed away, and the patricians and plebs were committed to their great struggle. But the historian, while he makes no mention of Rome, deems it proper to state that, if he has not spoken concern- ing ' the islands called Cassiterides, whence tin is imported,' it is because he had ^ no certain knowledge of them,' — a manner of expression which implies that the things rumored at that time concerning the islands so named must have led his auditory to expect information on that subject. That tin and amber are brought, says the historian, from the extreme parts of Europe is unquestionable.^ The word Cassiterides would have conveyed no meaning to a Briton or a Gaul. The word cassiteros for tin, is first found in Homer, but it does not appear to have been of Greek origin. There is no room to doubt, that in the Scilly Islands, we have the remains of the Cassiterides of Herodotus. Aristotle flourished a century later tjian Herodotus. In a passage which has been attributed to that philosopher, it is said that beyond the Celtse (Gaul) there are ' two very large Islands called Britannic, Albion, and lerne ; ' and that near to Britain there are not a few small islands. Aris- totle might readily have learnt thus much from the Phoeni- cian seamen of his time ; but both the date and the author- ship of the work in which this passage is found are doubtful.f It was while Aristotle was teaching at Athens, that is, in 360 B.C., that the Carthaginians sent their great captain Himilco into these regions on a voyage of discovery. Tliis navigator explored the seas and coasts of Britain, and some fragments from the report made by him have reached us. These fragments are found in the ancient poem of Festus Avienus. Himilco is there made to speak of this island, and especially of the point where the sea separates the Land's End in Cornwall I'rom the island beyond, in the fol- lowing terms : ' Here rises the head of the promontory, in olden times named (Estrymnon, and below, the like-named * Hist. lib. iii. § 115. \ De Mundo, % 3. THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN. 5 hay and isles ; wide tliey stretcli and are ricli in metals, tin book l and lead. Here a numerous race of men dwell, endowed ^^^' with spirit, and with no slight industry, husied all in the cares of trade alone. They navigate the sea in their barks, built, not of pines or oak, but, strange to say, made of skins and leather. Two days long is the voyage thence to the Holy Island (once so called), which lies expanded in the sea, the dwelling of the Hibernian race ; at hand lies the isle of Albion.'* In this passage, notwithstanding some obscure expres- sions, there is a clear reference to the Scilly Islands, to •Mount's Bay, and Mount St. Michael. In our maps, the Scilly Islands consist of small dots sprinkled at various dis- tances on the sea. Albion, which is still near to those isl- ands, was then no doubt much nearer, and the distance to Hibernia is not more than eighty miles. The mines of that district continue to yield large supplies of tin. It is not found anywhere in Britain except in that neighbourhood, and in a few places in the adjoining county of Devon. Spain, also, is said to have yielded some supplies of this metal ; but in the Scilly Islands we see the Cassiterides (the tin isl- ands) of Herodotus. "With the testimony of the Carthaginian admiral we Poiybius. must connect that of a Greek general. Between Himilco and Poiybius there is the lapse of two centuries. Himilco, however, is our better guide. But we learn from Poiybius that many had ^ discoursed very largely' in his time about the gold and silver mines of Spain, and about ' the Bri- tannic Isles and the working of tin ; ' and he accounts it necessary to offer a sort of apology for not doing something of the same sort himself His language shows very clearly that a century before the Roman invasion, and among those who spoke the Greek language, enough was known concern- ing Britain to make intelligent men desirous of knowing more.f "We owe something, accordingly, to Poiybius, a man who added much of the virtue and wisdom of a sage, to the skill and courage of a soldier ; but we owe more to that ancient mariner who was the first to survey our coast, * Heeren's Ancient Nations. f Hist. lib. iii. c. 57. O CELTS AND EOMAXS. BOOK I. to sound our shores, and to become familiar with those Brit- Chap. 1. ., .,.., isn seas m which so many brave men were to do brave deeds in the time to come. Diodoras But amon . . . . t->,. Britain, we have to mention the historian Diodorus Siculus and Strabo the geographer. Both these authors were con- temporary with Caesar and Augustus, both were men whose lives were given to the production of the works which bore their names, and their fragments concerning Britain are much more certain and satisfactory than will be found in preceding writers. The Britain they describe is not so much the Britain of Kent, which Csesar had recently made known to them, as the Britain of Cornwall, as previously known to Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks. Diodorus regards Britain as an island, and has attempted a description of its extent and form. The Britons, he writes, ' who dwell near that promontory of Britain which is called Belerium (the Land's End), are singularly fond of strangers ; and, from their intercourse with foreign merchants, are civilized in their thanners. These people obtain tin by skilfully work- ing the soil which produces it. The soil being rocky, has hard crevices from which they work out the ore, which they fuse and reduce to a metal. When they have fonned it into cubical shapes, they convey it to a certain island lying off Britain, named Ictis ; for at the low tides, the intervening space being dry land, they carry it thither in great abun- dance in waggons.' At low tides, says the historian^ the places which seemed to be islands become peninsulas. ' Here the merchants purchase the tin from the natives, and carry it across into Gaul ; whence it is conveyed on horses, through the intervening Celtic land, to the people of Massalia, and to the city called !N"arbonne.'"^'' It will be seen that this ac- count of the Cornwall Britons agrees substantially with that given by Himilco three centuries earlier. Strabo writes : ' The Cassiterides are ten in number, and lie near eacli other in the ocean towards the north from the haven of Artabri. One of them is a desert, but the others are inhabited by men in black cloaks, clad in tunics, * Lib. V. c. 21, 22, 38. I THE EAKLY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN. 7 reacliing to the feet, and girt about tlie breast. Walking b^k l with staves, and bearded like goats, they subsist by their cattle, leading for the most part a wandering life. And having metals of tin and lead, tlrese and skins they barter with the merchants for earthenware, and salt, and brazen vessels. Formerly the Phoenicians alone carried on this traffic, by Gadeira (Gibraltar), concealing the passage from every one : and when the Romans followed a certain ship- master, that they might also find the mart, the shipmaster, out of jealousy, purposely ran his vessel upon a shoal, and leading on those who followed him into the same destruc- tion, he himself escaped by means of a fragment of the ship, and recovered from the state the value of the cargo he had lost.''^ Strabo adds, that subsequently the Romans discov- ered this passage to Britain, and availed themselves of it, though much more circuitous than the journey by land. Two writers among the Greeks of Alexandria are cited by Diodorus and Strabo as authorities for what they relate con- cerning Britain, viz. Eratosthenes and Artemidorus — and these authors, no doubt, derived their information from their neighbours, the PhoBnicians. But it is to Roman authorship, beginning with Caesar, Britain as that we are indebted for our earliest knowledore of Britain by the eo- thrus beyond the islands and the coast of Cornwall. From these authorities taken together, we learn that half a century be- fore the Christian era, Britain w^as more or less peopled over its whole surface. The Celts of Gaul are described by those writers as divided into a multitude of nations. Tacitus reck- ons them as sixty-four. f Appian raises the number to four hundred.:!: Judging from the number of clans which have divided the Highlands of Scotland between them down to very recent times, it is easy to suppose that the nations, and still more the tribes, in Celtic Gaul were very numerous. We know that this distinction between nation and tribe ob- tained in Britain. The people of Kent in the time of Caesar * Lib. iii. e. 5. Some suppose the men seen in ' black cloaks,' and wearing long beards, to have been the Druids, not the population generally. But the . official costume of the Druids was white, not black. \ Ann. iii. 44. X Be Bel. Civil, ii. Tl. 8 CELTS AND EOMANS. cha? 1.' ^^1*® *^^^ common name of Cantii, but that general designa- tion compreliended at least four tribes, eacli governed by its own j)rince or chieftain.* Of the nations in possession of the British territory south of the Clyde und Forth eighteen centuries since, history makes distinct mention of twenty-five. Concerning the number of tribes included in these nations our information is imperfect. Some of them, as- will be supposed, were much more populous than others, and covered a larger territory. Ancient It is clcar, also, that even amons: those rude communities British ti i i p i states. something like a balance-of-power theory was m operation. The weak found comparative safety in being allied with the strong, and in becoming parties to the rivalries between the more powerful. There were great powders and less in the Britain of those days, as there have been great powers and less in Europe in later times. The Silures, for example, the subjects of the well-known Caractacus, who are said to have had their origin and centre in the neighbourhood of the Wye, included the Ordovices and the Dimetge of K'orth "Wales among their allies, and could call their warriors to- gether from the whole length of territory betw^een the Usk, on the borders of Glamorganshire in the south, and the Dee of Cheshire in the north, and from over the breadth of coun- try between the Malvern Hills and the AVrekin in the east, and St. George's Channel in the west. The Brigantes were a still more powerful people. Tlieir lands measured the breadth of the island, from the seaboard of Yorkshire on the one side to that of Lancashire on the other. It, in fact, em- braced all the northern counties of modern England. The Cantii, as before stated, were in possession of Kent. The Belgse peopled Hampshire and Wiltshire. The greater part of Middlesex, including London, was in the hands of the Trinobantes. Tlie Danmonii are found almost everywhere south of the river Ex. Along the east coast, between the Thames in the south, and the land of the Brigantes in the north, w^ere the Iceni and the Coitanni. The spaces between these greater nations were occupied by many smaller, and * De Bel. Gal. iii. 1. Caesar has given the names of the chiefs. THE E^-RLY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN. 9 the greater nations had become such by gradually absorbing book l many of less magnitude.* The question now comes — Of what race were these com- Kaceof . ^ A -rr ancient munities ? The answer of Caesar is, that those oi Kent and Britain, its neighbourhood were an immigrant race from Belgic Gaul. This he learnt from the Belgians themselves ; and their representations were confirmed by what he saw on his first and second invasions. One of his pretences for these invasions was, the assistance the Britons had rendered to their brethren and allies in Gaul, when the latter were in arms against the Romans.f It is clear from subsequent au- thorities, that the people of the whole island were so far one in condition, customs, and language, as to be evidently of the same race. If some exception should be made in the case of the Picts, who became formidable in the Lowlands of Scotland at a later period, and of the Gaels, who have been always confined to the Highlands of that country, we can only say that we do not regard the difference, even in these cases, as amounting to a difference of race. If the general statement now made be correct, to know the race of the Belgic Gauls in the time of Csesar, is to know the race of the British at that time. The common opinion is, that the Belgge were a branch of the great Celtic family Nine-tenths of our most competent authorities are of this judgment, and nine-tenths of the evidence on the case is with them. That the Germans and Celts bordered upon each other, and mixed in some degree together upon the territory now known as the Low Countries, may be admitted. But that circumstance is consistent with the fact that the lan- guage of all the known communities of Britain was found to be Celtic, and not German. The language of Wales is not the language of the Germans ; the Gaelic speech is not the speech of that people. ISText in importance to the evi^ dence from identity in language, is the evidence from iden- tity in religion. Druidism, so different from Odinism, was * Ptolein. viii. 2. Antonin. Itinerary. Baxter's Gloss. Brit. Horsley's Britannia Romana — passim. Tacitus says the subdivisions of the British peo- ple, and the consequent jealousies, prevented their acting together, and were constantlv favourable to the success of the Romans. — Vita Agric. xii. t De Bel. Gal. 10 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. Chap, 1. Picts and Scots. dominant in Britain, and not less so in Celtic Gaul. Caesar, indeed, says that the inhabitants of the interior of Britain were born in the island, while those on the sea-coast were recent settlers. But he does not say to what extent this was the case, l^or does he say that the difference was a difference of race. Had he taken up such a rumour, or re- corded such a conjecture, it could have weighed little against the evidence in our possession. The Picts— the supposed ancestors of the Lowland Scotch ■ — do not make their appearance in history under that name before the close of the third century of the present era. The controversy in regard to the origin of this name and people has been great and very bitter. They have become Germans, Scandinavians, Gaels, Britons, or nondescripts, ac- cording to the bias of our historians and antiquaries. From the remains of their language, as well as from other circum- stances, the most reasonable, and now the most general opinion is that the Picts were from the common Celtic stock, and for the most part Britons. The natives who were not disposed to submit to the Roman sway, would naturally be drawn together along some comparatively safe border of the Roman territory, and would prove troublesome to those within it. Ptolemy makes these northern tribes to have been seventeen in number.*" The Gaelic clans of the Highlands were also Celtse. But their language, and their geographical position, seem to shut us up to one of two conclusions — either that they must have come into that part of Britain from Ireland, or that they were the remains of an aboriginal race which had been forced into those mountain fastnesses, into the Isle of Man, and into Ireland itself, by the pressure of subsequent invad- ers. There are some difficulties in the way of the latter supposition, but evidence, upon the whole, seems to pre- ponderate in its favour. The Gaelic tongue is not British. Its only affinity is with the Irish. The word Ahe7\ in Welsh, as in old British, denotes the estuary of a river, or any outlet of waters. The word Inve7\ in Gaelic and Irish, * Worsaac's Primeval Antiquities of Denmark. Wilson's Prehistoric An- nals of Scotland^ 470-473. Latham's Ethnology of the British Islands^ c. iv. THE EAELY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN. 11 has tlie same meaning. The word Aber is so nsed, as a bookl prefix to names of places, along a line extending from South — '- Wales to the l^orth of Scotland, marking off a territory to the right of that line as pervaded by the British tongue and race. The word Tnver is commonly used for the same pur- pose through the Highlands to the left of that line, be- speaking the prevalence there of a tongue and race which are rather Irish than British. Thus, while the British tongue sounds along from Aberystwith to Aberdeen, the Gaelic makes itself heard from Inverary to Inverness.^ That Britain was in some deo^ree peopled bv a pre- Question of "^ a pre-Celtic Celtic race is an opinion familiar to the learned. But the race, evidence on which it rests is too fragmentary and uncertain to be available for history. There may have been, as our Northern antiquaries teach, an age of stone implements, and an age of bronze, preceding that age of iron which had come in the time of Csesar.f But the line between those ages cannot be well defined, and the two former must be reckoned pre-historic. The race of the stone period, who had so far degenerated from the civilization of those eastern lands whence their progenitors had long since migrated, must have passed away long before the age of Caesar, like the vegetation of their own forests, leaving scarcely a trace behind. Concerning the physical features of the inhabitants of SfuJefof Britain at the commencement of the present era, ancient Britons!*^' writers have said but little. The description of the- trading and peaceful Britons of Cornwall, with their long beards, long tunics, and long walking-staves, is manifestly a description that must not be deemed applicable to the Britons beyond that district. The Britons seen by Caesar, though living in a colder latitude than the people of Corn- wall, were comparatively naked. They were clad in skins. They stained their bodies with woad, covering them with purple figures ; a custom not necessarily barbarous, inas- * Kemble's Saxons in England^ ii. p. 5. In Scotland there are eleven names of places commencing with the one prefix, and twelve commencing with the other. In Wales there are seven names commencing with aber — not one with inver. — Latham's Ethnology of the British Islands, c. v. f Worsaae's Primeval AntiquUies of Denmark. 12 CELTS AND EOMAXS. BOOK I, much as it lias been common among British seamen within our own memory. Its design could hardly have been to give fierceness to their aspect ; it was the effect rather of a rude love of ornament. They w^ore a moustache, but no beard. Tlieir hair fell long upon ^ their shoulders ; and they were brave and skilful in w^ar. Strabo speaks of some Britons seen by him at Rome as being taller than the Gauls, but more slightly built ; their hair, also, was less yellow; and there was a want of symmetry in their lower limbs. There were no men in Eome so tall by half a foot.* It is possible, however, that these men were seen in procession ; and if so, they would be picked men, and not a fair sample of their race. Tacitus says the Britons varied in their physical appear- ance. Tlie Caledonians had ruddy hair and large limbs. The Silures were more of an olive complexion, and their hair mostly dark and curling — suggesting an Iberian origin, and something in common perhaps between the proud Cas- tilian and the countrymen of Caractacus. The tribes in- habiting the present Lowlands of Scotland he describes as a fierce people ; the Silures as powerful and brave ; and the Britons generally as not incapable of submission if mildly treated, but as passionate and uncontrollable under oppression. TIerodian, describing the expedition of the Emperor Severus against the Caledonians, writes : ' Tliey know not the use of clothing, but encircle their loins and necks with iron, deeming this an ornament and an evidence of opulence, in like manner as other barbarians esteem gold. They puncture their bodies with pictured forms of every sort of animals ; on which account they wear no clothing, lest they should hide the figures on their bodies. They are a most warlike and sanguinary race, carrying only a small shield and a spear, and a sword girded to their naked bodies.'t If we accept this account as trustworthy, it will be clear from the pages of Tacitus and Dion Cassius, that the Britons of the south, even in the first century, were * Lib. iv. c. 5, § 2. f Lib. iii. c. 24. THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN. 13 greatly in advance of the rudeness of the north three cen- ^J?? i* turies later. Boadicea is described as a woman of queenly presence. "When addressing her men of war, she wore a rich golden collar, and a parti-colored floating vest, drawn close about her bosom, and over that a thick mantle fasten- ed with a clasj). Her hair was of a yellow color, and fell in j)rofusion to her waist. Such, in brief, were the early inhabitants of Britain. More will be said of the state in which the Romans found them as we proceed to mark the change introduced by the coming in of that new power. Some rough experiences then came on the rude communities of this island. For civilized men do not often estimate the suffering of the not civilized according to a law of humanity. It is deemed enough to estimate it according to a law of caste. The blood of the rude flows^-their hearts are broken — but what of that ? Is such blood human — do such hearts really feel ? CHAPTER II. EEVOLUTIOI^ BY THE SWORD. c?iA? 2' ^^■'■^'^''^ Caesar meditated tlie invasion of Britain, the great Ro^nTtbe Koman Republic was not dead, but every new breath c™s^a?^ seemed to betoken the action of a malady that must soon prove fatal. Marins, Sulla, and Catiline had done their work, and their history had revealed the general corrup- tion of their times. Faction had come into the place of pa- triotism. Selfishness had consumed public spirit. All that men like Cato and Cicero could do, in the face of the ene- mies of the commonwealth, was to break the force of a fall which had become inevitable. Laws which had been just and wise so long as the citizens to be governed by them were virtuous and few, were made to subserve all evil pur- poses now that the citizens had become to the last degree unprincipled, and had grown to be almost innumerable. The province of government had been restricted to the nar- rowest limits, that good men might be secured against oppression. But the time had come in which bad men abused the liberty which good men had known how to use. l^owhere w^as it more needed than in Rome that the govern- ment should be strong ; but nowhere was a government of that nature more impracticable on the basis of existing law. Rome had become a den of desperate gamesters, and the winnings which the chances of the game were to distribute consisted of the plunder to be obtained from the world-wide provinces which the armies of the republic had subdued. Time was, when men in Rome cared about guarding the public honour, and augmenting the public virtue ; but the great care had now come to be how to appropriate public functions, as means of access to the public wealth. EEVOLUTION BY THE SWOED. 15 ]S"o man knew better than Caesar that when a republic book l has passed into such a state its days are numbered. It ^°*^^' ^' deserves to perish, and it will assuredly perish. It has lost ncTtn'tST the power of self-government, it needs a master, and it is BSlm °' the law of Providence in such cases that the master shall come. But who was to be this presiding spirit? Caesar judged, and judged rightly, that he was himself more compe- tent than any other man to seize that position, and to hold it. But it became him to move with caution. If he had no equal, he had competitors : these must be dealt with, and affairs must otherwise be ripened for the catastrophe. Ceesar must add to his power by adding to his celebrity ; and he must weaken the government still more, by giving more strength to the factions which preyed upon it. It was this policy that had disposed him to extend the war in Gaul into Germany, and that suggested the importance of annexing Britain to the territories of the republic. Every such achievement was estimated according to its value as capital in the hands of skilful instruments in Home. Caesar, accordingly, was not only careful to do great things, but careful also to secure that due reports should be made of them in all useful connections by men at his service. His successes in his late campaign had been emblazoned among all parties in the capital by such means. His inva- sion of Britain — a land known in Rome more from fable than from history — was an event which admitted still more of a colouring from the marvellous. For whether Britain was really an island, or part of another continent, was a question left to be determined by Agricola a century and a half later.* We scarcely know how to conceive of the news-vending Newsvend- /? ••1.11 ^ ins: in ot a great city m which there were no printing-presses and Eome. no newspapers. But where there is little reading we may be sure there will bo much talking. In the absence of jour- nalism men had their expedients for doing what is now done by that means. The baths of Home were the clubs of * Tacit. Vita Agric. § 10. ' First under Agricola, and now under Severus it has been clearly proved to be an island.' — Dion Cassius, lib. xxxix. § 51. Xiphi- lin. lib. Ixvi. § 20. parations. 16 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. tliose days and tlie centres of every sort of association — '-' Many of tlieir departments were open to all comers, and were filled witli idlers. Not only in such places, but with the crowds which followed some patrician to his home, or gathered at the corner of almost every street, in every saloon, in every supper-party, in every gathering of per- sons, from the highest to the lowest, the man with the latest news never failed of an eager welcome. As the plot thick- ened, the agents of Caesar became more numerous: they spread themselves into all public and private relations ; and the final blow to the expiring liberties of the commonwealth was struck by their hand. Such was the policy of Csesar when he resolved on the enterprise which has associated his name with the early history of Britain. Caesar's pre- Csesar had brought his campaign in Gaul to a close. He had taught the Germans to respect the authority of Rome ; and, though the season was far advanced, he flattered himself that he might do something in Britain which would be favourable to the object of his ambition. From the country of the Morini, between Calais and Boulogne, he saw the white coast of the unexj)lored land — the great cape- land, as many supposed, of some new world. Merchants in constant intercourse with Britain were interrogated concern- ing the country and its inhabitants. But the traders were more disposed to befriend their customers than to further the projects of the military aspirant who pressed them with such questions. An officer was sent to explore the coast. But appearances were such that he did not venture to land. Meanwhile vessels were collected in great numbers from all parts. The intention of the Boman general was no secret .among the Gauls. Every sail, and every boat, that crossed the Channel gave new warning to the Britons. Conferences took place in regard to the course best to be taken. Cogsar relates that, as the result of these deliberations, a messenger was sent to him stating that the Britons were not indisposed to place themselves under Boman protection. But the rep- resentative authority of this messenger must have been very limited. The reception given to Caesar, when attempt- ing to land on the British shore, was not the reception to REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 17 have been expected from a people prepared to submit book i. without a struggle to the yoke of an invader. chapjj. The haven of AYissen, a little to the south of Calais, is The cm- the point from which Caesar is supposed to have embarked, and pai"" Tlie ships containing the infantry, besides galleys for the ^'*' officers, were eighty in number. The cavalry had been left to embark at Boulogne, in vessels which had been detained at that place by unfavourable winds. The shipping at Wissen, with their two legions of infantry, put to sea about ten at night, and made their appearance on the British coast about the same hour the next morning. The islanders had been vigilant. They were not taken by surprise. The high lands about Dover and the green slopes descending to the sea, were covered with armed multitudes, mostly on foot, but many in w^ar-chariots. Everywhere there was move- ment, and shouts from a great sea of voices, which promised no friendly greeting to the strangers. To land on a steep shore in the face of such assailants The land- is felt to be impossible. The ships, accordingly, are seen ^°°" moving along the cocist northward, in search of a more convenient inlet. After sailing some seven or eight miles, they come to a level and open space, near where the town of Deal now stands ; and there the prows of the vessels are turned towards the beach, and landing is to be attempted. But the natives have moved upon the land side by side with the enemy upon the sea, and are prepared to meet him as before. Horsemen and footmen are there in great numbers. They rush down to the edge of the waters. Many advance into the sea, challenging the veterans to descend from their ships. But the surf runs high, and the soldiers hesitate to commit themselves to such uncertain footing in the face of so bold an enemy. For some time fortune seems to be on the side of the Britons. The military resources at the com- mand of the Romans appear to be exhausted. Something needed to be done to check the audacity of the barbarians, and to compel a portion of them at least to retire to a greater distance. For this purpose several of the lighter vessels are made to run upon the shore, and from their lofty prows, which serve the purpose of towers, archers and Vol. L— 2 18 CELTS AND ROilANS. BOOK L slingers do mucli execution upon the natives, tliinning their — '-' numbers, and diminishing their ardour. Still the soldiers seem to distrust their ability to reach the land — and it is be- coming doubtful whether the legions may not be compelled to leave the coast of Britain baffled, and virtually defeated. At this juncture a standard-bearer rushes into the water, and raising aloft the Roman eagle, calls on all who do not mean to see that symbol of the power of Eome pass into the hands of the enemy to follow him and protect it. Many soldiers now leap without orders from the ships, and forming themselves into ranks as they best can, they press quickly and steadily, with shield and sword, upon the Britons. The beach is soon cleared, soldiers hasten from all the ships to the land, and the discipline of the Romans pre- vails over the untaught daring opposed to them. Submission Tho waut of couccrt and unity, evils especially incident and revolt. tt t . .,. , .. , -n to small and uncivilized communities, prevented any rally- ing of the forces of the Britons after this discomfiture. In a few days the nearest tribes consented to send hostages. But while negotiations were in progress, the second division of ships, with the cavalry, after appearing in sight, was sud- denly dispersed by a storm. The shipping, too, in which the infantry had crossed, was so injured by the foul w^eather, and by the influx of a high tide, for which the invaders, in their ignorance of the coast, were not prepared, as to leave the soldiers who had landed without the means of re- turn, should disaster render such a course expedient. In these altered circumstances the Britons withdrew secretly from the camp ; the people everywhere removed their cattle and substance ; and a vigorous attempt was made to ensure the departure of the enemy by leaving them without the means of subsistence. British Caesar found his forascers everywhere beset and inter- war-char- ^ «' • i i iot- cepted. Tliey were safe only as protected by a considerable force. In these excursions the Romans felt the want of their cavalry, and the war-chariots of the natives greatly disconcerted them. These chariots had scythes fastened to the axle. The warriors who manned them threw themselves upon the ranks of the enemy, and added destruction with REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 19 tlie spear and the sword to that inflicted by the scythe, book l Nothing could exceed their skill and conrage in the manage- ffL.' ment of these machines. They guided their horses with much dexterity, and leaped from the car to the groimd, and from the ground to the car, with surprising rapidity. The commander of the chariot held the reins, and the one or more who rode with him did his bidding — much as we now see represented in the reliefs on the walls of Thebes and Nineveh. But a few destructive onsets sufliced to put the Komans on their guard ; and as they never came to close fighting without being victors, the Britons soon became sensible that the invaders had resources at command which they could not hope to overcome. Overtures for peace were renewed and hostages prom- The second ised. Cgesar, though he had proved equal to the exigencies ^" ™^*^^**°- which had surrounded him, was not insensible to his dan- ger. He listened gladly to the proposals made to him, and embarked at once for the coast of Gaul, leaving the Britons to send the promised hostages after him. The best that could be made of the doubtful fortune Eeioicings which attended this enterprise was made of it in the reports ^° ^™*^* sent to Rome. Fictions of all sorts were there clustered about it by those who expected to profit by such inventions. The Senate was convened to deliberate on the tidings, and a festival of twenty days was decreed in honour of an event which had so signally enlarged the territories of the state, and which promised to raise even the rude people of Britain to a place among civilized nations. Of this event, says Dion Cassius, Caesar himself spoke in lofty terms, and the Romans at home entertained a wonderfully high opinion. But Caesar well knew that the work said to have been accomplished in Britain was still to be done. It was well that the most should be made of this first attempt. But if not followed by something more decisive, neither the for- tunes of the general, nor the military reputation of the le- gions, would be found to have gained much by the experi- ment to which they had committed themselves. Before leaving Gaul for the winter, Caesar had assigned to his army its occupation during that interval, and had 20 CELTS AND EOMANS. BOOK I. given special instruction tliat a larger number of transjDorts — '-' and e^alleys than had been recently broui^ht together should Second in- , , , . ^ *^ ^ ^ * _P vasion— bc placcd at his service without delay. On his return Embarka- ■'■ *^ tion and from Italy in the sprint:, he found that the different harbours between Ostend and Boulogne were prepared to supply him with more than six hundred vessels, besides twenty-eight galleys. These transports had been all built for the occa- sion. They were now launched, and concentrated on the point where the five legions destined for this second inva- sion of Britain had been assembled. But during the first five-and-twenty days the wind continued to bloAV from the north. Towards sunset on the first day of favourable weather this multitude of vessels put to sea, darkening its surface for some miles in breadth and distance, as they floated off towards Britain. On the break of day they found them- selves drifted by the tide, and by a westerly wind, consider- ably beyond their intended point of landing. By the return of the tide, however, and the help of their oars, they appear to have retraced their way to the entrance of Sandwich haven, beyond the mouth of the Stour, the sj)ot now known as Pegwell Bay. The Britons were not ignorant of the preparations which- •were being made during the winter in the harbours along the coast of Gaul, and knew the force with which the enemy was about to descend upon their shores. Of the hostages for which Csesar had stipulated, a few only had been sent ; and this failure was alleged as a sufiicient reason for a sec- ond expedition. To hazard a general engagement with such an army was felt by the Britons to bo dangerous. In this instance, accordingly, no attempt was made to resist the landing. But the natives had assembled in great numbers, and were prepared to watcli the movements of the enemy, and to avail themselves of every possible advantage against him. cjpsar'smi- Csssar Icamt that the Britons had taken their position raSons!^^ ou the sliorc of a small river — ^probably the Stour, about twelve miles distant. Having made provision for the safety of his ships, and left a guard of ten cohorts and three hun- dred horse in charge of them, he put his army in motion. REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 21 under cover of the night, and by daybreak came upon the book i. Britons on the ground they had chosen. The natives with- °^^' drew to a retreat near at hand, which, in the times of their wars with each other, had been fortified by a dyke and mound, and further strengthened by a stockade. Caesar conducted his assault on this place w4th much caution ; but the Britons had guarded against being surrounded, and after keeping the enemy in check for some time they retired, without material injury, towards the interior. Csesar pre- pared to move in the same direction. But a messenger now came with tidings that a storm had separated the ships from their anchors, and dashed them against each other, many of them being stranded, and wrecked, so as to have become useless. Caesar commanded the soldiers to fortify their camp, and returned himself under a strong escort to the shore. The loss, liowever, did not prove to be so serious as reported. Forty transports were abandoned as worthless, but the remainder were put nnder repair. Every man who had followed the trade of a carpenter was taken from the ranks to be employed in this service. Workmen were also brought over from Gaul. During the next ten days and nights the sounds along the shore near Pegwell Bay were those of« a busy dockyard. The damages being by that time repaired, Caesar, to prevent a recurrence of such mis- chief, gave orders that the vessels should be drawn up on shore, and that the force left to protect them should strength- en its position by raising an entrenchment on the land side of their encampment. The news of this disaster had given new courage to the cassive- Britons. Hostilities with each other, in which they w^ere engaged even at the moment of Caesar's appearance among them, were now suspended, and the belligerents agreed to act together against the common enemy. The command of this combined force was given to a chief known to us by the name of Cassivelaunus, who ruled a people occupying a dis- trict of Middlesex bordering upon the Thames. His fight- ing men consisted of a lai*ge body of footmen, besides horse- men and charioteers. Cassivelaunus possessed a consider- able advantage in his knowledge of the woods and marshes, 22 CELTS AND EOMANS. BOOK I. and of the concealed pathways of the country. He hovered on the march of the Romans, galled them from ambuscades and thickets, and assailed them vigorously with his horsemen and chariots, often on ground where attacks by such means were not to have been expected. But one enterprise of this nature brought him into collision with a large body of cav- alry on forage, and with a complete^ legion of infantry fol- lowing to sustain it. In this encounter the slaughter of the Britons was so great that no second assault on that scale was attempted. This advantage gained, Caesar ventured further into the country. He appears to have crossed the Medway near Maidstone, and the Thames at a place called Coway Stakes, near Chertsey — a spot were the old river still curves its w^ay beautifully, while on the level land the rude forest has given place to the rich meadow and the cottage homestead. At this point, where alone the river was fordable, the natives had driven stakes in the water, and had lined the bank on the opposite side with a stockade. The cavalry entered the river first, the infantry followed close upon them, and could with difficulty keep their chins above the w^ater in their passage. But both divisions succeeded in making their way to the opposite bank, and the natives were soon forced from their defences. The war from this time was one of devastation, each party striving to cut off all means of subsistence from the other. Csesar restored a king whom the Trinobantes, a peo- ple inhabiting part of Essex and Suffolk, had deposed. Five other communities, with their chiefs, made their sub- mission. As a last expedient Cassivelaunus urged the peo- ple of Kent to attack the cohorts which Caesar had left on the coast, and to endeavour to destroy his ships. But the assault, though made with promptitude and vigour, w^as not Theiinai succcssful. Tlic ucxt cvcut was the submission of Cassive- -dep.arture lauuus liimsclf I and Caesar, who had consumed much more of Cibsar. ..,. ., T«ii«i tnne m this enterprise than comported with his plans, readily accepted the promise of tribute from the different peoples belonging to the strip of territory he had visited, and taking with him hostages for the payment, he returned to Gaul. EEVOLrTION BY THE SWOED. 23 His cliief spoil from this expedition was a large number of book i. ,. ". CuAP.2. captives.'' Our knowledge of wliat Caesar did in Britain comes mainly vaiue of from liis own pen. He lias not, perhaps, exaggerated histiSy-** own losses. In one view, his policy would not dispose him British to underrate the country he had invaded, or the people whom he had been at so much pains to subdue. On the other hand, it must be remembered that he did not accom- plish the work to w^hich he had committed himself, and he may have been willing that the region should be judged as not worthy of greater effort. His account of Cassivelaunus places that chief before us as a man whose genius had raised him above his contemporaries. But the jealousy with which his power was regarded by his neighbours was fatal to tlie unity which could alone have made resistance success- ful. Even the Roman yoke would seem to have been pre- ferred by some to the undue ascendency of this native prince. They were brave men, however — not a few of these old Brit- ons ; magnanimous and unselfish men, in their way, pre- pared to hazard every possible loss, rather than lose their rude sense of independence and freedom. It w^as this feel- ing in the past w^hich had made Borne great. But such feeling was now ahnost wholly of the past. The lawlessness of the republic was about to give place to the order of a military despotism : and during the next hundred years Rome is so much occupied in a struggle to conserve weighty interests nearer home, as to be little incliuBd to engage in an enterprise so costly as would be necessary to ensure the conquest of Britain. Augustus, indeed, threatened something of this nature more than once. The tribute im- posed by Csesar was rarely paid, and his successor was wise in not attempting to enforce the payment. Augustus con- * Of the importance attached to this alleged conquest of Britain by Caesar and the Romans, we may judge from the following passages in Dion Cassius : ' To what purpose (said CaDsar) have I so long possessed the proconsular power, if I am to be enslaved to any of you, or vanquished by any of you here in Italy, and close to Rome — I, by whom you have subdued the Gauls and conquered the Brit- ons' (lib. xli. § 34). ' But here, within these walls, he (Cffisar) perished by con- spiracy, wl\o had led an army evert into Britain in security' {ibid. § 49). ' To be trodden underfoot (said Augustus) by an Egyptian woman would be unworthy of us, we who have vanquished the jGauls — and passed over to Britain' (lib. 4, §24). -\ 24 CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK I. tented himself with levying a tax on British goods imported — '-' into Gaul and into the Ehine provinces. Tiberius followed the example of his predecessor in this respect, and the joint reign of these two princes extended to nearly eighty years.* Progress of Durin^: the century which followed the departure of Britain pit ^t»«'i durinsthe CsBsar irom the shores ot iiritam, the country appears to tury. have made considerable advances. Commercial cities had grown up and become flourishing along the whole coast from Friesland to the Rhine, especially along the banks of that great river. It is evident that the Britons had become considerable traders in all those quarters. The site of mod- ern London was passed and repassed by Csesar, but nothing existed there at that time to attract his attention. lie does not name it. A hundred years later, Londinum had not only come into existence, but had become a place of great traffic. Tlie people resident there, were partly foreigners, who had settled there for the purposes of trade, and partly natives who were disposed to occupy themselves in industri- ous callings. Tlie most powerful prince at that time in Britain was Cunobeline, the successor of Cassivelaunus as king of the Trinobantes. Camulodunum, his capital, stood on the ground wdiere Colchester has since stood. Coins were struck there in his name, with Latin inscriptions, which bespeak considerable progress in art and trade, and a free intercourse, not only with Gaul, but with countries more remote. Camulodunum w^as only one among many cities which, with their adjacent towns and villages, covered the large territory subject to the sway of Cunobeline. In these later times the curious and the idle in Rome were often gratified by seeing distinguished persons of both sexes among them from this island. In the popular literature of Rome mention is often made of Britain, and the mention is of a kind to show that the Britons of the time of Claudius must have been a very different people from those described by Caesar. There is, indeed, room to suspect, tljat as Caesar could not conquer Britain, he had his reasons for conveying the impression that it was not really worth conquering. * Tacitus, Agric. § xiii. EEVOLUTION BY THE SWOED. 25 However this may have been, the Britain which did ulti- book l Chap. 2. mately submit to the autliority of Rome was certainly a country of considerable industry and wealth. If the Britons of Caesar's time were w^ont to delight in human sacrifices, to paint or staiA their bodies in barbarous fashion, and to have the wives of a family in common, nothing of this would seem to apply to the Britons described by Tacitus and Dion Cassius. This is a fact of importance in relation to our early history, and should be marked by the student. In the time of Caligula, who succeeded his uncle Malcontent Tiberius, Cunobeline banished his son Adminius. Thetoiiomofor redress, exile threw himself at the feet of the emperor, and affected to surrender tlie British territory to Eoman protection. Caligula announced the event to the Senate and to the peo- ple as an affair of great moment, and gave orders that an army of two hundred thousand men should be at once assembled on the coast of Gaul. The army was brought together. In its presence the royal galley was rowed off with much ceremony into the sea. The emperor then return- ed to the land, ascended a lofty throne, and amidst the sound of trumpets gave signal to his soldiers as if for an engagement. But when the legions inquired for the enemy, ^^^'^^J^"^^ they were told that they had witnessed the conquest of the ocean, and that they were to disperse and gather shells on the beach as in token of their triumph ! Such are the men who come to be masters over armies and nations when armies and nations come to deserve no better. Tlie syco- phant Senate decreed to this man the honours of a triumph. This was in a. d. 40.^" We hear no more of Adminius. But three years later a British prince named Beric solicited help from the Emperor Claudius against his competitors for power in this country. It thus seems to have grown into a usage for aggrieved parties in Britain to make their appeal to Rome ; and it was in vain, it seems, that the Britons demanded that such malcontents should be delivered up to them. The emperor did not want a pretext for the invasion of Britain. The * Suetonius, Calig. 46, 4Y. Dion Cass. lix. § 25. 26 CELTS AND EO:MANS. BOOK I. CuAP. 2, Invasion under Plau- tius and Claudius. non-payment of the tribute was a sufficient plea. Clau- dius remembered that Caesar's invasion of Britain, futile as it was, had contributed not a little to his fame ; and he hoped that he might accomplish what that great commander had only attempted. But Aulus Plautius, a general of high reputation, was chosen to collect the necessary forces, and to commence the war. The general found his legions strongly opposed to the enterprise. They spoke of the treachery of the British coast, and of the difficulties that w^ould arise from the nature of the country, and the mode of warfare pursued by the people. They became, in fact, mutinous. But the emperor insisted on obedience, and after a while they returned to their duty. The force embarked consisted of four legions, about twenty-five thousand men, besides a complement of auxiliaries, probably not less numerous. The adverse weather which the armament encountered was very much what the veterans had predicted. But the ships had been separated into three divisions, as a precaution against local disasters; and after sorne delay landing was effected by them all without resistance, apparently at Kicli- borough, Lymne and Dover. The Britons had heard of the mutinous spirit among the soldiers, and had been willing to believe that the project would be abandoned. But this false confidence was soon at an end. The duty of resistance rested mainly with the Trino- bantes, who were in the first rank among the Britons of the south. Cunobeline, the king of that people, deputed the command to his sons Caractacus and Togodumnus. The Britons knew the disadvantage that would attend them in an open encounter with such an enemy. They con- trived to annoy the invaders from tlie skirts of the forests and the marsh, and from the banks of rivers. In this kind of w^arfarc the general found his auxiliaries more available than his legions. To the astonishment of tlie natives, tlie Batavian horse swam across a broad river and attacked them on the opposite bank. Tliis river we suppose was the Thames. If not the Thames, it must have been the Severn, and our knowledge on this sxibject, limited as it is, forbids our supposing that Plautius had penetrated so far. In BEVOLUTION BY THE SWOED. 27 one of these river conflicts, Togodumnns, the British leader, book l was slain. On most occasions the advantage seems to have — - been with the Eomans. But though much danger had been braved, nothing decisive had been done. It was in this campaign that Vespasian, the emperor of a later day, gave the first proof of his high military genius. In his pur- suit of the enemy he was one day so hemnjed in that his escape seemed to be impossible. But his son Titus, who saw his danger, rushed upon his assailants with such ardour that they fell in all directions, and his father was saved.* Plan tins no doubt knew that to acquire distinction in this war, whether deservedly or not, would be grateful to the emperor. He was to apprise his sovereign if the pos- ture of affairs should be such as to require his presence ; and his presence was hardly solicited before he was on his way towards the army encamped near the Thames. The camp was impatient for his arrival. It was a new thing for the legions to have an emperor at their head, not merely on parade, but in a real war. All were intent on some achievement worthy of the occasion. Camulodunum itself was the first point of attack. That city consisted of a large enclosure including, beside the residence of the chief, many of the houses and huts of his people, with space used for the shelter of flocks and herds in time of danger. The Trinobantes faced the enemy in front of their capital. But the issue was against them. Claudius was hailed as ' imperator ' by the army several times in the space of six- teen days, which seems to say that it cost more than one struggle to accomplish the fall of so powerful a section of the British people. But the subjection was complete. Claudius returned to Rome. The Senate not only decreed him a triumph, but gave him the name of Britannicus, pro- vided that the name should pass from the father to the son, instituted annual games in commemoration of the event, and reared triumphal arches in Rome and in Gaul.f Claudius, on leaving Britain, assigned the territory north * Dion Cass. lib. Ix. § 30. Suetonius, Claud, xvi.-xxiv. Tacitus, Ac/ric. xiii. f Dion Cass. lib. Ix. § 23. 28 CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK T. of tlie TKames to tlie care of Plantius, and that on the — '- ' soutli side of the river to Yespasian. But Britain was not yet conquered. The natives were still for the greater part in arms. Caractacus was not among those who had made submission. He ceased not to harass the detachments under Plantius. "VYliatever loss he sustained seemed to be sj)eedily repaired, and the courage of himself and of his followers remained unbroken. During the five years that Plantius held command in Britain Caractacus pursued this course towards him without intermission. In the south Yespasian kept his footing, but with difiiculty, and at the cost of fight- ing more than thirty battles. Plantius In A.D. 50, Publius Ostorius was appointed srovernor of by Ostorius. Britain. He found the country in a very unsettled state. The winter season was approaching. The new general hav- ing a new army to command, the Britons presumed that he was not likely to commence operations before the spring. Filled with this idea, they began ravaging the different parts of the island that had submitted to the Boman yoke. Ostorius saw that the enemy must be at once made sensible that they had a man of promptitude and vigor to deal with. He summoned his cohorts, and marched rapidly from place to place. The Britons were generally taken by surprise, and cut to pieces or dispersed. To secure the advantages thus gained, a chain of forts was raised along the banks of the Avon and on the Gloucestershire side of the Severn. It was hoped that the malcontent feeling among the Britons w^ould be shut up by this means within the space beyond those rivers. Defeat But the Iccuians, whose country embraced a great part iceniaus, of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, and who had not hitherto committed themselves against the Bomans, now took up arms on the side of their country. Some adjacent states joined them, and an undue estimate of their strength, so common with uncivilized men, disposed them to challenge a decisive action. The spot chosen by them was enclosed by a high embankment of earth, leaving only one point as an entrance from the level ground. This seemed to render the Roman cavalry useless. But Ostorius EEVOLTJTION BY THE SWOKD. 29 ordered the men to dismount, and to join witli tlie infantry book i. in storming the place. Tlie assault was successful. The — '—' Britons, shut in by their own fortifications, and pressed from many points, were thrown into disorder. But their courage did not fail them. ' They fought to the last,' says Tacitus, * and gave signal proofs of heroic bravery.' From the country of the Icenians Ostorius marched against the disaifected in Cheshire and Lancashire. But Cheshire and Lancashire were very rude and thinly peopled districts in those days. The Britons in those parts avoided any general engagement. While overrunning those quarters, news came that the Brigantes, on the other side of the York- shire hills, were in arms. Scarcely had tranquillity been restored in that direction, when it was reported that the Si- lures had again taken the field. The Silures, besides being the bravest, and tlie most skill- an™tho*^"^ ed in their own kind of warfare, among the Britons, were enures. filled with confidence at this juncture by the presence of Caractacus — a chief whose valour and enterprise had made his name familiar to the whole island. 'No man better knew the country, and no man could better avail himself of its advantages against an enemy. Having drawn to his stand- ard from his own territory, and from other parts, all who were most disposed to look on submission to Rome as servi- tude, he resolved to place his fortune on the issue of a bat- tle. The spot chosen by him is supposed to have been near the hill called Caer-Caradoc, in Shropshire, where the wa- ters of the Clune and the Tame join. The slopes descend- ing from this position were rough and steep, and it was pro- tected in other parts by a rampart formed of huge stones, while the land below was bordered by a river, not formida- ble, but in places of uncertain footing. Between. the moun- tain fortress and the river, Caractacus disposed his warriors in the order of battle. The chiefs were seen busy in mar- shalling their followers. All did what they could to banish the idea of fear, and to stimulate their men to the utmost. Caractacus himself was in every part of the field, and his brave v/ords, as he flew from rank to rank, called forth shouts of applause. All bound themselves by a solemn oath 30 CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK I. Chap. 2. Defeat of Caractacus. to prefer death to slavery. The sight was not a IJttle men- acing. Ostorius looked at it with misgiving. First he saw a river to be forded ; then a stockade to be forced ; then a steep and craggy hill-side to be surmounted ; and last, a suc- cession of rude forts to be taken, which the fierce multitude before him were prepared to defend to the utmost. But the Roman soldiers did not share in the manifest hesitancy of their general — they showed themselves impatient for the onset. Yalour can do all things, was their cry, and the ofiicers joined in the cry of their men. Let it so be, was the answer of Ostorius. The general looked carefully to the ground, and having marked the weaker points of the enemy, gave the signal for battle. The river was soon crossed, and tlie Romans made their way to the parapet. But there the missive weapons of the natives fell like hail upon their as- sailants, and the advantage was with the Britons. Checked thus formidably, Ostorius ordered his, men to advance under a military shell — a sort of roofing over their persons formed by conjoining their shields. Under this covering they once more approached the parapet, and succeeded in levelling the loose and massive stones which had served the Britons as an elevated breastwork. Tlie Britons retreated in some disorder to the summit of the hill ; the Romans pressed eagerly upon them under a destructive shower of darts. In the hand-to-hand struggle which ensued matters were not equal. 'No helmet covered the head of the Briton, no coat of mail protected his breast. The swords and javelins of the legions, and the sabres and spears of the auxiliaries proved irresistible. Tlie slaughter which followed was great, and the issue was decisive. Among the captives were the brother, the daughter, and the wife of Caractacus. The bat- tle of Caer-Caradoc was to the Britons what the battle of Hastings became to the Anglo-Saxons. If there was a dif- ference, it consisted mainly in the fact that the struggle of the Britons in defence of their freedom before that day, and their efforts to recover it when really lost, were greater than will be found in the corresponding period of Anglo-Saxon history. But the cause of this difference should perhaps be sought-, not so much in the greater courage of the Brit- KEVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 31 on, as in the better power of calculation possessed by the book l Saxon. ""H^- ' Caractacus,' says Tacitus, ' fled for protection to Cartis- "is en- mandua, queen of the Brigantes. But adversity has no Eome. friends. By that princess he was loaded with irons, and delivered up to the conqueror. He had waged war with the Romans during the last nine years. His fame was not con- fined to his native island : it passed into the provinces and spread all over Italy. Curiosity was eager to behold the heroic chieftain who for such a length of time made head against -a great and pow^erful empire. Even at Eome the name of Caractacus was in high celebrity. The emperor, willing to magnify the glory of the conquest, bestowed the highest praise on the valour of the vanquished king. He assembled the people to behold a spectacle worthy of their view. In the field before the camp the praetorian bands were drawn ap under arms. The followers of the British chief walked in procession. The military accoutrements, the harness and rich collars, which he had gained in vari- ous battles, were displayed with pomp. The wife of Carac- tacus, his daughter, and his brother followed next ; he him- self closed the melancholy train. The rest of the prisoners, struck with terror, descended to mean and abject suppli- cations. Caractacus alone was superior to misfortune ! With a countenance still unalterated, not a symjDtom of fear appearing, no sorrow, no condescension, he behaved with dignity even in ruin.' We all remember the interest with which we have read this passage of history in our early years, the sympathy with which we have listened to the fitting and noble senti- ments which the captive prince has been made to utter on that occasion, and the delight with which we have seen the chains of the captives struck off, and heard the gracious words with which both the emperor and the empress pro- nounced them free.* On the following morning the Senate described the victory over Caractacus as not inferior in im- portance to the great events in the past days of Roman his- * It is probable that in the quiet and prosperous times before the invasion under Claudius, Caractacus was under the care of Koman teachers. No prince in Gaul would have been without that advantage. 32 CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK I. tory — as when Syphax was led in chains through the city Chap. 2. by Publius Scipio, when Pertinax aj)peared among them as the captive of Lucius Paulus, and w^hen kings and princes were seen by the Koman people at the chariot wheels of other commanders.* not'sS-*^"^ But even the fate of Caractacus did not extinguish the ducd. hopes of the Silures. Tliey fell incessantly upon all stragglers and small detachments of the enemy. In one instance two whole cohorts were cut off and destroyed by them. Other tribes, encouraged by their successes, joined them in this kind of warfare. Ostorius had so much experience of this nature that he learnt to describe the Silures as- a people who would never be conquered — their extirpation only, lie said, could bring peace to the Roman settlement in Britain. In the midst of these hostilities Ostorius died. The Britons looked on the event as more important to them than a great victory. Before the arrival of his successor a chief named Yenusius, then at the head of the countrymen of Caracta- cus, defeated a whole legion under the command of Manlius Yalens. Avitus Didius Gallus was the officer sent in the place of Ostorius. Didius restored the confidence of the army by a severe defeat of the Britons. But Didius was an old man, not equal to the vigorous prosecution of such a war. The conduct of it was left in consequence, for the most part, to subordinate officers. One of these, however, gained a victory over a considerable army of Britons. In A. D. 58 Didius was succeeded by Yeranius, who made suc- cessful incursions into the territories of the disaffected, but died within a year after his arrival. The chief command in Suetonius. Britain then passed to the hands of Caius Suetonius Pauli- nus, one of the ablest generals in the service of the empire. Suetonius was a man of great ambition, bent on being not I less distinguished than the greatest commander of his time ; and Britain was the field in which this dream of eminence was to be realized. f Yenusius, who had defeated the Eoman legion under Manlius, had married Cartismandua, the queen of the Bri- * Tacitus, Ann. xii. 82-38. Agric. xiv f Ibid. xii. 40 ; xiv. 29. Hist. iii. 45. REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 33 gantes, the woman wlio had betrayed Caractacus. The dis- book i. affection called forth among the subjects of Cartismandua "^^' by her treachery, and some other causes, led to a civil war, in which the party adhering to the queen sought the pro- tection of the Romans ; while Yenusius, her husband, who had been her armour-bearer, and whom she had married since she became queen, called upon her to surrender her sovereignty to him, and placed himself at the head of the Britons who were in arms against the invaders. Since the defeat of Caractacus, Yenusius was the most able com- mander among the natives. Suetonius was aware that religion, hardly less than pa- sianghtw triotism, contributed to keep alive the disaffection of the Druids. Britons. In their transactions with the Gauls the Romans had learnt to regard the Druids with distrust and aversion. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, so firmly avowed by those ministers of religion, and received with so much confidence from their lips by their people, was an offence to the Roman, who was pleased to regard his own scepticism on all subjects of that nature as a result to be expected from civilized modes of thought. In this Druid teaching, the natural in man gave the lie to the artificial, and the artifi- cial could hardly fail to be displeased. This presumption of barbarism, moreover, was a presumption of which a po- tent use was made. The hold upon the future which this doctrine gave to the Druid made him master of the present. By filling the mind of the people with false hopes from this source, he could at pleasure stimulate them to insurrection and to the most daring enterprises. Thus the Druids were politically formidable ; and to prepare the way for their ex- termination, the most atrocious things were laid to their charge. Historians, orators^ and poets contrasted the dark forests of the priests of Gaul and Britain with the sylvan scenes which had been sacred to religion in Greece and Italy ; and to the gay ceremonies and the festive pleasures of their own worship, they opposed the Druid priests slay- ing human victims, lustrating the trees of the forest with 'human gore, and calling up every horror that might scare the imagination, and make the worshippers their victims. Vol. I.— 3 34 CELTS AND KOMAKS. BOOK I. In reading such descriptions it becomes ns to remember that — '-' it had been ruled that the Druids should be disposed of, and it had become expedient to give the bad name as prelimi- nary to that proceeding. Even Augustus infringed his gen- eral law of tolerance by forbidding any observance of the Druidical rites in Kome. Tiberius went further, and Clau- dius not only decreed the extinction of those rites even in Gaul, but acted on that decree with much rigour. In Brit- ain, the island of Mona, now Anglesea, was known to be the stronghold of the Druids, and Suetonius resolved to as- sail them in that retreat. Ostorius had carried the Roman eagles far in that direc- tion. There were British roads along which infantry and cavalry might march even to such distances, without diffi- culty ; but the baggage and provision departments would remain to task the patience and ingenuity of a commander. The approach of. Suetonius to the Menai Strait .would prob- ably be from Chester. On reaching its bank, the general issued orders that flat-bottomed boats should be prepared to convey the infantry across. The cavalry were to endeav- X our to ford, and if that should be found impracticable, the men were to take their place in the boats, and to draw their horses through the ^ater after them. We shall allow Taci- tus to describe the scene which presented itself as the Eo- man soldiers approached the opposite shore, and what fol- lowed when a landing was secured. ' The shore of the isl- and was lined with the hostile araiy, in which were women dressed in dark and dismal garments, with their hair stream- ing to the wind, bearing torches in their hands, and running like furies up and down the ranks. Around stood the Druids, with hands spread to heaven, and uttering dreadful prayers and imprecations. Tlie novelty of the sight struck our soldiers with dismay, so that they stood as if petrified — a mark for the enemy's javelins. At length, animated by their general, and encouraging one another not to fear an army of women and fanatics, they rushed upon the enemy, bore down all before them, and involved them in their own fires. The troops of the enemy were completely defeated, a garrison placed in the island, and the groves which had REVOLUTION BY THE SWOED. 35 been the consecrated scenes of tlie most barbarous supersti- book l tions were levelled to the ground.' '^ Such were the sights ^"^' ^' to be seen some eighteen centuries since, on a spot where modern science has erected some of its most wonderful tro- phies. The Menai Strait is at present almost a fairy land, so rich is it both from art and from nature. Coupled with the surrounding scenery, and seen under the sunlight of a summer evening, it is one of the most beautiful scenes in Europe, hardly exceeded in loveliness by the shores of Greece or the passage of the Bosphorus. While the severe policy of Suetonius, so characteristic oppressive of the military history of ancient Rome, was producing its Komans. * natural effect on the mind of the Britons, another feature of the Eoman ascepdency, was calling forth the effects no less natural to it elsewhere. The destructiveness of the Roman sword was not more notorious than the rapacity of Roman officials. The writings of Roman authors teem with evi- dence on this subject. In the times now under review, the solicitude of nearly all educated men in Rome was to secure some government appointment, and having obtained it, to use every available expedient to make it as productive as possible, and in as short a time as possible. The descriptions of the extortion, fraud, and violence resorted to by this class of men, are often so revolting as to seem almost incredible. Of wrongs in this form a full share fell to the lot of the subju- gated Britons. I^ero was now upon the throne, and the sea- son was one of more than ordinary licence among the impe- rial officers in the provinces.f Prasutafi^us, who ruled over the Iceni, had lon^ been the insurrec- ^ ' . 7 o tj^jn under ally of Rome. He was known to be a man of some wealth ; Boadicea. and in the hope of securing at least the half of it to his fam- ily, he left it to be divided equally between his daughters and the emperor. But Catus, the procurator, seized the whole, and the military at the same time took possession of the country. Boadicea, the widow of Prasutagus, protested against these proceedings. To punish her presumption, she was scourged in the manner of a slave ; and her daughters were taken from her by the officers and dishonoured. If * Tacit. Ajin. xiv. 30. Agric. xiv. f Tacitus, Ann. lib. xiv. 36 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. such a course could be taken towards such persons, we may Chap. 2, imagine what the grievances were which often fell on par- ties in inferior conditions. In fact, it is easy to believe that the language of the Britons at this juncture was such as Tacitus has attributed to them. Our sons, they said, are torn from us, and made to serve in the Roman annies, as if it became them to be prepared to die for anything rather than for their country. Our houses are entered at all hours by mean and licentious officials, who rob us according to their pleasure. The head of the military plays the tyrant over our persons, and the head of the government plays the spoliator in regard to our substance ; and between them they make life not worth possessing, if to be possessed only under such conditions. Tlie rich and the , poor are fast de- scending to one level, and the strong are made to submit to every sort of humiliation from the hands of the weak. Our forefathers resisted Caesar, and the enemy was taught to re- spect our coast for a hundred years to come. To be as free as our fathers, we have only to be as resolved and as brave.* That the Britons thought and felt in this manner we can readily believe, whatever doubt we may have of their abil- ity to express themselves exactly in such terms. Massacre of While Suctonius was engaged in his expedition against mans".^ Moua, discoursc to this effect became general and loud among the natives ; and the treatment of Boadicea and her daughters sufficed to raise the embers of disaffection, every- where existing, into a flame. The Britons assembled in vast multitudes. Every day added to their numbers. Their first onset was at Camulodunum. In that settlement, for some weeks before, strange sights, and unnatural voices, at the dead of night, had seemed to betoken the approach of some great calamity. "When the outbreak began, the Brit- ons reduced everything in Camulodunum to ashes, putting the garrison, and every stranger, to the sword. Tlie ninth legion marched in the direction of that colony in the hope of being in time to save the garrison. But they were met by the insurgents, surrounded, and the whole of the in- fantry destroyed. Petilius, the commander, and a portion * Tacitus, Ann. lib. xiv. REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 3T of the cavalry, were all tliat could escape. Catus Decianus, ^^^^ ^ the obnoxious procurator, with the courage generally found — - in such men, hurried to the coast, and sought refuge in Gaul. Suetonius, on receiving tidings of these events, prepared to move southward. He had achieved a difficult enterprise, but he had now to retrace his steps, and to find himself beset * with new dangers. He found the country everywhere in the hands of the insurgents. In the language of Tacitus — ' He marched through the midst of the enemy to Londinum [London], which was not yet honoured with the name of a colony, but considerable from the resort of merchants and from its trade. Here, hesitating whether he should make that town the seat of war, he considered how weak the gar- rison was, and, warned by the check which Petilius had in- curred by his rashness, he determined to preserve the whole by sacrificing one town. Xor did the tears and lamenta- tions of the people imploring his assistance, prevent him from giving the signal for marching, though he received into his army all who were disposed to follow him. But all those whom the w^eakness of sex, or the infirmities of age, or attachment to the place, induced to stay behind, fell into the hands of the enemy. The same calamity befel the municipal town of Yerulam.' '^ The historian adds, that seventy thousand citizens and allies were said to have per- ished in those places. We are disposed to think, however, that the number of the slain has been greatly exaggerated. It is not probable that the population left in such circum- stances, in the town of Yerulam, and in a place ' not yet honoured with the name of a colony,' could have amounted to seventy thousand. But that the destruction was terrific in extent, and meant so to be, may be readily believed. Everything rested now with the skill and firmness of Suetonius. Such w^as the fear w^hicli had been difiused by these disasters, that the second legion hesitated to join his standard. By collecting contributions of men from every garrison, he succeeded in raising his army to ten thousand, including cavalry. With this force he determined to give * Ann. lib. xiv. §§ xxix. xxx. OO CELTS AND ROMANS. oha? 2.' ^»'^ttle to the multitude wliicli had obeyed the call of Eoa- dicea. The spot chosen by him gave him a dense forest in the rear, and an open plain in front. The legionaries were marshalled in a succession of deep ranks. The light-armed troops were disposed around in companies. The flanks were covered with the cavalry. The Britons were seen bounding from place to place in companies and groups. So flushed were they with their successes, and so confident of victory, that they had brought their women with them in waggons, to be the witnesses of their achievements. The Koman historians describe Boadicea as a woman above the ordinary stature, with a countenance expressive of lofty and resolute purposes. They speak, as we have seen, of her yellow hair descending to her waist ; of her richly coloured dress, and her ornaments of gold. So attired she rode, with her daughters, in her war-chariot, from rank to rank, ad- dressing patriotic sentiments to one tribe after another, on the eve of the battle. The drift of her appeal is said to have been, that she thought little of her descent from noble ancestors, or of her position as one possessed of sovereignty and wealth. She was before them as one of themselves, and as such was prepared to brave the worst in the cause of their common liberty. She was bent, also, on avenging the indignities that had been inflicted on her person, and the dishonour that had been done to her children. Proof enough had been given that no right or feeling of humanity could be safe where Eome should be ascendant. Death it- self was to be coveted if compared with life under such a rule. But the gods, who had borne long with this wicked- ness, would bear with it no longer. Hitherto their enemies had fallen before them, or fled to their hiding-places. It w^as only needful they should be brave as heretofore, and the fate of the second legion would be that of the army now in their view. Their shouts, their numbers, and their. cour- age would do all. But come what may, should the men consent to live and to be slaves, as for herself, a woman, her resolve was to be victorious or perish. Suetonius, we may be sure, needed no one to remind him that a day had come which would cover him with dis- EEVOLIJTION BY THE SWOKD. 39 honour, or do much to gratify his long-cherished thirst of book l military renown. We can imagine him, as he passes on his — - ' war-liorse from rank to rank, and as he glances, with closed lip and darkened brow, on the vast but ill-directed multi- tude spread out before him. It was natural he should speak on that day as Tacitus tells us he spoke — that he should ex- press his scorn of the savage hordes which had dared to face the legions of Rome ; and that he should aim to stimulate the courage of his men, by setting forth the shame and dis- aster that must be attendant on defeat, and the certainty that their discipline must more than suffice to counterbal- ance any want of numbers, should they only acquit them- selves with their wonted fidelity and fearlessness. When the strife began, the legionaries received the first onset of Defeat and the Britons in silence, but retained their lines unbroken. th^Britons. They then formed themselves into a wedge-shape, and marched steadily onward ; the auxiliaries ranged themselves after the same manner ; and the cavalry bore down upon the enemy with their spears levelled, everywhere clearing their way before them. The first charge, however, did not decide the fortunes of that dreadful day. The Britons ral- lied once and again. The legionaries were in danger of being exhausted ; but the issue was in their favour. The natives, once thoroughly disordered, the waggons served to impede their flight, and the destruction which followed was horrible. Men, women, children, the very beasts which drew the carriages of the Britons, all perished under the w^eapons of an enraged soldiery. Eighty thousand natives are said to have fallen on that day ; and it should be re- membered that those who give us these numbers had the means, not only of estimating their own work, but of giving it a permanent record. Boadicea was faithful to her vow — she sought death by poison, rather than fall into the hands of such an enemy.* Tlie natural sequence to this field of blood would have chaiig*in . /> 11 the Boman been a reign of terror, even more terrible than any that policy, had preceded. But the imperial government saw with * Tacit Ann. xiv. 31-39. Vita Agric. xv. xvi. Xiphilin. ex Dione in Neron. 40 CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK I. alarm the. dangers to which its legions, and its entire author- — '-' itj in Britain, had been exposed, and became concerned that a more jnst and lenient spirit should be infused into the administration for the time to come. Suetonius, to whom such a policy could not be acceptable, was ere long recalled. Tarpilianus, Trebellius, and Bolanus, who became successively governors, sought peace rather than conquest. Eight years from' the defeat of Boadicea thus passed. But by this time the affairs of the empire had become more set- tled. Yespasian, who had served in Britain, had become emperor, and during the eight years that followed, war was carried on with vigour against the Brigantes and the Si- lures. Petilius Cerealis, a man of the highest military rep- utation, conducted this war ; and he was succeeded in com- mand by Julius Frontinus, who so acquitted himself as not to suffer in comparison with such a predecessor. After five years of hostility the Brigantes were made to profess them- selves the allies of Rome ; and three years later, the war against the Silures was pushed with such vigour into the retreats and fastnesses of their country, that their strength was finally broken, and fear of serious annoyance in the fu- ture from that quarter came to an end.* Govern- Tliesc cvcuts prepared the way for the administration of ment of Ju- ... liusAgri- Cueius Julius Amcola, whose name has been made so fa- cola. C5 ^ 7 miliar to later generations -by the pen of Tacitus, his son-in- law. Agricola, in common with Yespasian, had seen con- siderable service in Britain. On his arrival, the Ordovices, one of the most warlike of the British tribes, had surprised a detachment of cavalry, and utterly destroyed them. Ag- ricola summoned the army from its winter quarters, and re- suming the old policy of governing by terror, he all but an- nihilated the offending nation. In the fourth year of his administration Agricola had extended his conquests so far northward, that to form a boundary of the Eoman province in that direction, he con- structed a chain of forts from the mouth of the Clyde across to the mouth of the Forth — that is, from Dumbarton to * Tacit. Ann. xiv. 3'7-39. Vita Agric. viii. xvi. xvii. Hist i. 9-60; ii. 97. REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 41 Edinburgh. His subsequent campaign along the eastern book i. coast beyond the Forth, cannot be said to have been sue- - ^f^L?' cessful. In one respect it was a novelty in British warfare. The fleet of the Komans on the sea co-operated with the army on the land, carrying stores, making descents on the coast, and otherwise aiding the plans of the general. The Roman encampment, as it moved from place to place north- ward of the spot where Edinburgh now stands, exhibited a singular mixture of cavalry, infantry, and sailors — the sol- diers and the seamen vieing with each other in their different tales of adventure, but all prosecuting their common enter- prise in the same buoyant and hopeful spirit. In the one great engagement of that season the advantage w^as with the Romans ; but their losses were considerable and the issue could not be regarded as decisive. It was in the eighth and last year of his administration that the military genius of Agricola achieved its great w^ork. In this enterprise the army included several cohorts of Britons, who by this time had been successfully initiated into the discipline of the Roman soldier. Tlie Caledonians — the tribes inhabiting the north and Expedition the north-west of Scotland — appear to have regarded this cIS- campaign as likely to determine the future of their country. Dismayed as they had been at times by the skill and appli- ances of the Romans, if not by their courage, they were very far from having abandoned hope. Old feuds were forgot- ten. The feeling of patriotism prevailed over that of tribe or clan. The contributions of armed men from different quarters amounted to more than thirty thousand. Both youth and age, such as might have pleaded for exemption, were present, eagerly proffering their service. Among the chiefs at the head of those many gatherings, the greatest was an experienced leader named Galgacus. Highly im- passioned appeals are said to have been made by Galgacus to the Caledonians on the one side, and by Agricola to the Romans on the other. Both parties saw the interests at stake, and both were impatient for the fray. On the one side country and freedom were the issue, on the other hon- our and life. 42 CELTS AND EOMANS. BOOK I. Chap. 2. Battle of Ardoch. Agricola marshalled his eight thousand auxiliary infant- ry in the centre, and posted his three thousand cavalry as wings to the footmen. Tlie legions were drawn up in the rear, at the head of the entrencliments — a reserve of Roman blood which was not to be spilt unless necessary. The Caledonians stretched their rank to a formidable width on the rising ground which they had chosen. But their more advanced line was ranged along the more level ground to- wards the foot of the acclivity. Considerable space remain- ed between this line and the advanced cohorts of the Ro- mans. In that space the cavalry and charioteers of the Caledonians rushed to and fro in great excitement. Tliis show of numbers and spirit produced its impression. Agri- cola spread out his force to a greater breadth, that it might be less unequal to that of the enemy. But every man felt that what was thus gained in space was lost in strength. Some of the officers suggested that the legions in reserve should advance to the lines. But Agricola was not dispos- ed to follow such counsel. He at once dismounted, sent away his horse, and placing himself near the colours of the infantry, the spot where the danger was expected to be thickest, gave the signal for battle. The fight began with missive weapons, which were thrown from a distance. In this kind of fighting the Cale- donians, and the Britons generally, were more skilled than the Romans. Agricola saw that the advantage was not with his men. He accordingly gave orders that some of the cohorts should charge the enemy with the sword. This turned the scale. The small shields and the long unpointed swords of the Caledonians, left them almost defenceless in a close encounter with such an enemy. The cohorts not only used their short swords with great dexterity, but dashed the bosses of their shields on the exposed heads and faces of their foes. Everything yielded to this onset. Other cohorts followed the example thus set tliem, and with like success. In the meanwhile the charge of the Caledonian horsemen and charioteers had been so furious, that the Roman cavalry had given way. The narrowness of the place neutralized discipline by preventing anything like a regular combat. REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 43 From this cause, and from the inequalities of the ground, book i. the greatest confusion ensued. Horses without riders, char- — - iots with no one to guide them, rushed from the ranks, and augmented the disorder. The reserved Caledonian force on the liill now descended to the strife, and, by outflanking the Eomans, hoped to fall upon their rear. But Agricola com- manded four squadrons of horse to charge this reserved force, which they did, and having passed through the line, wheeled round and fell upon the enemy from behind. This was the crisis of the struggle. All that followed was car- nage. Many of the Caledonians fled in panic where there was no danger. Others refused to fly, and sold their lives as dearly as brave men in such circumstances could sell them. ]^ot until nightfall did the Eomans desist from the pursuit and the slaughter, chasing the fugitives to their last hiding-places in the hills, the forests, and the marshes. Ten thousand of the Caledonians fell in this engagement. Tlie loss of the Romans was little more than three hundred. Such are the advantages of military art and discipline over mere military courage. This battle is supposed to have taken place in a district known as the moor of Ardoch, at the foot of the Grampians in Perthshire. We can readily imagine the picture which the Eoman historian describes as seen from the moor of Ardoch on the following day — the deep and melancholy silence that had come into the place of the cry and uproar of the battle ; the hills deserted ; the houses of the natives in the distance disappearing in fire and smoke ; not a man to be found by any search for him ; all a vast and dreary solitude. By this victory Amcola may be said to have completed completion T /> 1 . 1 1 ■!-> 11 ofthecon- the conquest oi the island. But, as commonly happens quest of where sovereignty is despotic, the general served a jealous and an ungrateful master. Domitian recalled the successful soldier to Eome, and Agricola, on his return, consulted his safety by retiring to private life for the remainder of his days. In Britain his genius had achieved nearly all that could be accomplished ; and by encouraging the arts of peace wherever the sword had ensured tranquillity, he had 44 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. set an example of the kind of service in which his successors — '-' were to find their chief occupation.* tranSity Through eighty years from the death of Domitian, the aSS. imperial sceptre passed into the hands of wise and virtuous princes, and those years were to Britain years of peace. In A. D. 122 the Emperor Hadrian visited this island, in pui-su- ance of his plan to inspect in person every part of his do- minions. During his stay, that prince caused a rampart of earth to be raised across the island from the Tyne to the Solway, which became known in aftertimes as the wall of Hadrian.f But in the reign of Antoninus Pius it was deemed prudent to restore the northern boundary of the province to its ancient limits as fixed by Agricola, and the works which that general had constructed across from the Clyde to the Forth were strengthened by a line of defence similar to that which Hadrian had raised more southward. The Caledonians had given frequent signs of disquietude, and the intention of this proceeding was to keep them more efiiectually in check.:]: Accession of Qu the acccssiou of the Emperor Commodus in a. d. 180, Commodus ^ ^ ^ ' -disorder, this long interval of tranquillity came to an end. The con- duct of the man in possession of the throne was such as to ensure disorder elsewhere. The Caledonians made their way to the southward of the wall of Antoninus, and were joined by many of the Britons in the northern district of the province. Ulpius Marcellus, the Roman general, a man of worth and capacity, succeeded, after several engagements, in checking the revolt, and in obliging the Caledonians to retire within their own borders. But in this instance also, the successes of the general made him an object of jealousy to his master ; and concerning military proceedings in Brit- ain after the dismissal of Marcellus, we know nothing for some years, except that the discords among the legionaries in these parts seemed to keep place with the rapacity and corruption of the praetorians in Bome.§ * Tacitus, Vita Agric. xviii.-xl. f Script. Hist. August. Vita Hadrian. 51-5*7. Xiphil. 1. 792. Eutrop. viii. 7. X Script. Hist. August. Vita Ant. Pii, 132; Eutrop. viii. 8. § Script. Hist. Aug. Vita Commod. 2*75 et seq. ; Xiphil. lib. Ixxii. § 8. REVOLUTION BY THE SWORD. 45 In A. D. 192 we find Clodius Albinus at the liead of the book l army in Britain ; and "B-ve years later, this general puts forth — '— his claim to the purple in opposition to Septimius Severus. The two competitors met in that year near Lyons, where the defeat of Albinus was decisive. To prosecute this scheme Albinus had withdrawn the largest possible force from Britain. The Caledonians and northern tribes had seized on the occasion to assert their independence, and to make incursions southward. So serious had the aspect of affairs become, that Severus campaign himself, though advanced in age, and a great sufferer from Severus. gout, resolved to assume the command of the aiTny in this distant region. The emperor was borne from place to place on a litter, but prosecuted the war with extraordinary ar- dour. The campaign, from its being chiefly through woods and marshes, proved to be, not only laborious and protracted, but most costly of human life. Xiphiline makes the loss of the Romans to have been fifty thousand. Ultimately the Caledonians were made to sue for peace, and peace was granted them.* The memorable event in connexion with this enterprise was the erection of the famous wall of Severus. Tliis wall was raised nearly on a line with that of Hadrian, but it did not consist, as in the former case, of a mere embankment of earth. It was constructed of stone, twelve feet in height, and eight feet in thickness, with towers and stations at given spaces along the whole distance. Parallel with the wall was a military way and a dyke — and all these works were extended from Tynemouth on the eastern coast of the isl- and, to Bowness on the western. During two years the em- peror employed his legions on this stupendous undertaking. The result was such as to justify even that amount of labour. Tlirough a century and a half from this time the Caledonians rarely attempted to disturb the peace of the country thus protected. This wall was of course perpetually garrisoned and guarded.f * Aurel. Victor, in septhn. Jlerodian, iii. 20-22, 46 ; Xiphil. ex Dione, in Sev. f Xiphil. ex Dione, Sever. Orosius, vii. 11. Spartian. Vita Sev. Eutrop. Horsley, Brit. Horn. 61, 62, 116-158. 46 CELTS AND KOMANS. BOOK T. Chap. 2. Another interval of tranquil- lity. Division of the empire — Carau- sius. But domestic anxiety, in addition to age and impaired health, weighed heavily on Severus. His sons, Caracalla and Geta, were two of the most unprincipled and profligate men of the age — ready to purchase the gratification of their passions by any amount of crime. In the city of York, two years after the conclusion of his campaign against the Cale- donians, the emperor died — more, w^e have reason to believe, from grief than from disease. His two sons were left joint heirs to his authority. The young men were at enmity with each other, but both hastened to leave Britain that they might seize on the honours awaiting them in Rome, and surrender themselves to the pleasures that w^ould be there at their command. At this point another long interval occurs through which we find nothing, or next to nothing, in Eoman authors con- cerning Britain. It is probable that the seventy years which followed from a. d. 211 to a. d. 284 were years of peace. The wall of Severus fenced off inquietude from the north. Submission had become general and settled in the south. Had there been commotion and bloodshed, history, which is so much occupied in recording such events, would not have been silent. The progress of order and industry is noiseless and imperceptible, and estimated truly only by the wise. In A. D. 284 Diocletian became emperor. In his time the empire was parcelled out between four princes — be- tween himself and Maximian as emperors, and Galerius and Constantius as Csesars. In the division of territory between these princes, Gaul and Britain fell to the lot of Constan- tius. But before this division had taken place, a fifth com- petitor had made his appearance. Carausius, an ofiicer of distinction, had been sent by Diocletian to suppress the pi- racies of the Franks and Saxons, who began about this time to infest the narrow seas, and the coasts of Gaul and Brit- ain, as freebooters. Carausius, however, was more intent upon enriching himself than upon executing the commands of the emperor. To escape the punishment with which he was menaced, he seduced the fleet committed to his charge from their allegiance, entered into an alliance with the REVOLrTION BY THE SWORD. 47 pirates, and at last prevailed on tlie military in Britain to book l accept liim as their chief. Maximian had deemed it prudent f^Ii?' to sanction this usurpation. In a.d. 292 Constantius deter- mined that an effort should be made to bring it to an end. But before the war had extended from Gaul to Britain, Carausius was assassinated by Alectus, one of his officers, who assumed the purple in his stead. Alectus had been in possession of his ill-acquired power about three years, when he was defeated and slain ; and the accession of Constantius to supreme authority in Britain, was hailed by all but the lawless as the advent of a deliverer.* These events belong to the year a.d. 296. l^ine years later, Diocletian and Maximian resigned the purple ; and Constantius became emperor. But his imperial honours were of short duration. In the following year he died of sickness in the city of York. His son Constantine, after- wards Constantine the Great, then in Britain, became his successor. The reign of Constantine extended to something more than thirty years, and that interval was to Britain an interval of order and j)rosj)erity.f But by this time the marauding tribes in the northern The picts part of the island had come to be laiown by the names of '^°'^^^<**^ Ficts and Scots, and their incursions southward had grown to be more bold and frequent. The Emperor Constans, the second son of Constantine, engaged in a formidable expedition to chastise these intruders, but history reports little concern- ing the result In the struggle between the usurper Mag- nentius and Constantius, the third son of Constantine, Brit- ain shared, in common with the other provinces of the em- pire, in the miseries entailed by the rage of faction and of civil war.:}: But, from this time onward, the great trouble in this isl- and arises from rude hordes of Caledonians on the land, and from the piratical attacks of the Franks and Saxons by sea. The inroads of the Ficts and Scots had never been so suc- * Eutrop. ix. 659. Aurelius Victor, in Constant. Mimen. Panegyr. 8. \ Aurelius Vic. in Vita Constantin. Eumen. Panegyr. 9. Eutrop. x. 1, 11. X Ammian. Marcelli. xx. c. 1 ; xiv. c. 5 ; xv. o, 5 ; xxii. c. 3. Eutrop. x. 6. Zosimus, ii. 48 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. cessful and destructive as in the space from a.d. 364 to a.d. '^- 367* Adminis- In the year last mentioned, Tlieodosins, one of the ablest tration of •^ ' ' Theodosius. and wiscst gcncrals of the age, came to Britain to punish these marauders. He found that they had penetrated to the heart of the country, from the Tyne to the Thames. The new general came upon them near London, laden with booty, and bearing away men, women, and children as cap- tives. In a short time he forced the depredators, not only beyond the wall of Severus, but from the north of the Tyne to the north of the Clyde and Forth, and once more made the wall of Antoninus the boundary of the province, repair- ing its injuries, and adding to its places of strength. Cabals and treachery had weakened the Boman army ; corruption had taken root in the civil service ; but in Theodosius the province found the wise ruler and the able general. Both in the civil and military departments such improvements were realized, that the whole country seemed another home to those who dwelt in it. The new governor was soon re- called ; but the effects of his administration remained, and a grateful people flocked in multitudes towards the point of his embarkation, and lamented his departure as that of a father. It was the son of this Tlieodosius who became em- peror under that name.f « '^^B^t^' ^^^^ interruption to the years of prosperity which follow- and Brit- ' ed Came from the ambition of Maximus, an officer in the ^^y- ... Roman army in Britain who aspired to the purple, and who induced the army and people of Britain to support his pre- tensions. Maximus had married the daughter of a British prince, had served under Theodosius the elder, and had done much to impart security and prosperity to the province. He British youth whom he had trained to arms, followed his fortunes on the Continent. They contributed to his early successes, and most of them survived his fate, but they never returned. Tliey found their future home in the terri- tory known as Armorica, to which they gave the name of Brittany. Some years later they were joined by a large * Ammian. Marcel, xx. c. 1 ; xxvii. c. 9. f Ammian. Marcel, xxvii. e. 7 ; xxviii. 3, 7. Claudian. -Panegyr. Tlieod. EEVOLrTION BY THE SWQED. ' 49 body of tlieir countrymen, who had been led into Gaul under book l similar circumstances.* jiap^. Through the twenty years subsequent to the fall of Max- withdraw- imus, the distractions and weakness of the empire led to a SaSs. gradual reduction of the army in Britain, until in a.d. 412, the last remnant was withdrawn. The story which remains is the melancholy one of which we shall have to speak else- where — the inroads of the Picts and Scots, the alleged pusillanimity of the Britons, and the invitation to the Saxons. Such as we have described was the revolution brought The work of about by the sword in Boman Britain. The island, from sword in Cornwall to the Grampians, passes into new hands. But this change is not the work of a day, or of a generation. It is achieved at great cost, and it is sustained at great cost. The Britons disputed every inch of ground once and again before surrendering it. The courage, the skill, and the spirit of endurance with which they defended their rude home and independence entitle them to our admiration. In such chiefs as Cassivelaunus and Caractacus we see what some of the greatest men in our later history would have been in the same circumstances. But after a while leaders of that order cease to appear. The warlike passions of the people cease to be what they had been. They dwell on the soil on which their fathers dwelt, but they have become men without a country. British authority, from being every- where, ceases to be anywhere. The race which was once the sole possessor of the soil, retains its humblest homestead only upon sufferance. Ingenuity and industry are encour- aged, but it is that they may be taxed. The able-bodied may become soldiers, but it is, for the most part, that they may be expatriated and, add to the strength of the power by which they have been themselves vanquished. This, however, is no uncommon course of events in the history of nations. It is generally the precursor of some- thing better, and, from the first, brings its good along with its evil. In this instance, an island which before the age * Sozomen. Hist. vii. 721. Prosper in Chron. An. ?87. Gildas, c. 11; Nennius, xxiii. Rowland's 3Iona, 166, 16Y. Vol. I— .4 50 * CELTS AND EOMANS. cha? 2* ^^ Csesar had been a comparatively unknown land — an ob- ject ratlier of imagination than knowledge to civilized men — comes to be an opulent province in the most powerful empire the world had ever seen ; and, through several cen- turies, a field for the display of the highest virtues and talents which that empire could furnish. Tlie distance be- tween the barbarous and the civilized can only be narrowed by degrees. The evil is, that civilized man is often more disposed to icse than to elevate those who are beneath him. CHAPTER III. EFFECT OF THE ASCENDENCY OF THE EOMANS IN BEITAIN ON GOVERNMENT. rPHE usages which served the purpose of law among eook i. -■- the Britons are but imperfectly known to us. It is cer- "'^^' ' tain that the government of the different nations w^as mo- assemwies narchical, or by chieftainship. Of course the chief, as in all cTitsf such communities, was much influenced by the feeling of his tribe or nation. Strabo describes the Belgse, and the Gauls generally, as easily brought together in great numbers on public matters. On such occasions every man was for- ward to express his indignation against any kind of wrong inflicted on himself or his neighbour. One person was in- vested with authority to secure order. If any man at- tempted to interrupt a speaker he was admonished by this functionary to be silent ; and should he disregard a third admonition, the sword of the officer was used to disgrace the offender, by depriving him of so much of his mantle as made the remainder useless.* Such conferences, no doubt, took place among the Britons. But the order of succession to the supreme authority ap- British pears to have been more fixed and hereditary among the ^^°^^' Britons than among the Gauls. Exceptions to this rule did, no doubt, arise, but the rule remained. Thus the Trinoban- tes besought Caesar that Mandubratius, the son of their late chief, might be invested with the authority of his father, and be protected in the same against the ambition of Cas- sivelaunus.f In later times, more than one British prince * Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4, § 2. Caesar, de Bel. Gal. iv. v. Tacit. Vita Agric. f Caesar, iii. 1. 52 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. souglit the intervention of the authority of Eome on this — '-' plea.* It is clear, also, that the law of succession was re- spected even when a woman happened to be the next by birth. Thus Cartismandua was the reigning queen of the Brigantes, Boadicea of the Iceni. Revenae. The revcnue of the British kings must have been raised by rude and irregular means. It came from three sources — from their own lands and possessions ; from contributions made by their people ; and from their allotted share in all booty, whether taken from an enemy, or, after the black- mail process, from neighbouring tribes. Civil autho- Tlic authority of these chiefs was restricted almost exclu- rity of tho . -, . ^ t , . , Druids. sivcly to qucstious 01 peace and war ; and even m these cases, it was at their peril to slight th-e auguries of the Druids. f What the notions of right were which determined the conduct of one community towards another, or of one man towards another, we can only conjecture, as it was a part of tli^ policy of the Druids that law should never be committed to writing. Csesar, who mentions this fact, informs us that the Druids made use of writing on other occasions. What was known among the Britons under the name of law, had been thrown into verse, and passed from the memory of one generation of priests to another. Many years were occupied in the effort to acquire the knowledge so conveyed. Nor was this all — the Druids were not only the depositaries of law, they were its administrators. Every- thing legislative and judicial came thus under a priestly influence, and took a theocratic shape — -after the manner of those eastern countries from which the Celtic tribes had migrated. Tlie people were to believe, accordingly, that the voice of their laws was the voice of their gods. Fines, torture, and death were the punishments of crime, whether against person or property, varying according to the magni- tude of the offence. Tlie rule by terror was rigorously adjusted, as in the case of all such communities. Evidence was admitted on oath, and might bo obtained by torture ; and acquittal might follow by compurgators or by ordeal. * Suetonius in Calig. 44. f Caesar, de Bel. Gal. i. 50. Diod. Sic. v. 354. Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. EEVOLUTION IN GOVEENMENTS. 53 Such is the sum of our knowledge, resting on evidence book l more or less satisfactory, in regard to government among the ^^^' Britons.* The change from a government by unvsrritten laws, to a Romaa government by means of laws committed to writing, and ment. reduced to a scientific system, is great. Such was one fea- ture of the change in relation to government in Britain intro- duced by the Romans. But this change was not accom- plished at once. It was the wise policy of the Romans to regulate the exercises of their power according to circumstances. Where nothing beyond an annual tribute could be safely demanded, they were wont to profess themselves content with that con- cession, leaving the state in other respects in its original independence. This was all that Caesar presumed to exact from the Britons as the fruit of his two costly invasions. As the sum in this instance is not mentioned, it is probable that the amount promised was not large. We know that it was a comparatively small number of the Britons only w^ho were parties to that transaction, and that the payment, whatever it may have been, soon ceased to be made. In the language of Tacitus the effect of the invasion by Csesar was to ' show' the island to the Roman legions, not to give them possession of it.f But where conquest and colonization were practicable, ?»?»?. co- -•- ^ -1 ■' Ionization. and could be made to yield honour and advantage, the aim of the Romans was to conquer and to colonize. Before the close of the first century of the Christian era, it was mani- fest that such objects might be realized in Britain, and we have seen the heavy price which Rome was prejDared to pay that Britain might be thus allied to it. The veterans in the Roman army were allowed to be gainers by any successful experiment of this nature, considera^ble portions of the con- quered lands being always assigned to them. People not connected with the army or with the Government, from Rome or other places were encouraged to seek a home for * Diod. Sicul. V. 354. Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4, 5. Csesar, de Bel. Gal. vi. 12-16. f Vita Agric. xiii. 54 CELTS AND EOMANS. BOOK I. industrial purposes in the settlements so formed, and miglit — '-' be vested with the privileges of Roman citizens. Hence the population in such places often grew with amazing rapidity. In regions which had been comparatively desert and barbarous, populous and opulent cities made their appearance in which the arts and refinements of Rome itself became suddenly naturalized. Such in this country was the early history of Caerleon and Lincoln, of Chester and York.-^ In the progress of things towards this issue, it sometimes happened that the Romans allowed the princes whom they had vanquished to retain the appearance of ruling as in time past. But this was only that both princes and people might be subdued more eifectually by degrees. It was easy to reign through a former king' by using him merely as a tax-gatherer. Used as a tool for such a purpose, the func- tionary soon became unpopular, and the people were not long unwilling to dispense with his presence altogether. Cogidumnus was a British prince who became a victim of this policy.f o/iiJman Wlicu, by mcaus of this nature, as well as by the sword, Britain. ^j^^ Romaus had become sole masters of Britain, they di- vided its territory into six departments. But the sixth of these provinces, lying to the north of the friths of the Clyde and the Forth, was a province in name more than reality. The Romans never obtained any permanent footing in those parts. ]!Tearly the same may be said of the fifth province, lying between the walls of Antoninus and Severus. That territory was subdued more than once, and more than once relinquished. But in the four remaining provinces the authority of Rome was ascendant and settled through more than three centuries. The first of these 23rovinces, under the name of Britannia Prima, embraced the whole of that part of England which measured the distance from the Kent shore of the Thames to the Gloucestershire side of the Severn, and reached southward to the Land's End. The * Tacitus, Affric. c. 15, 16. Ann. lib. xiv. c. 81. Palgrave's Common- wealth, X. 350-358. \ Tacit. Vita Agric. xiii. Hors. Brit. Rom. No. 76, pp. 192, 332. EEVOLUTION IN GOYEKNMENT. 55 second division embraced the whole of Wales, with some book i. strijjs of country which have since formed border lands to — - England. The great centre territory of England, bounded by the German Ocean on the east, and by the lands of AVor- cestershire, Shropshire, and Cheshire on the west, and ex- tending northward from the Thames to the Humber, was the third province, and bore the name of Flavia Csesariensis. Maxima Caesariensis, the fourth province, was limited on the east and west by the two seas ; and, measured north- ward, included the whole distance from the Humber to the Tyne.^ The settlements within these provinces were various, in MunuJip^r accordance with the general law of the empire. Tlie first To^ij^" in rank were the colonies. In these, which were only nine in number, the law and usage which obtained were, as nearly as possible, identical with those of Rome. Seven of these settlements are described as military colonies, two as civil. In the military colonies, the sons of soldiery, to whom shares in the neighbouring lands had been allot- ted, held them by a stern military tenure. 'Next in impor- tance to the colonies came the municipal cities. The in- habitants of these places were to a large extent Roman citizens, possessed their own magistrates, and within cer- tain limits enacted their own laws. But York and Yerulam were the only municipia in Britain. There were ten places which bore the name of Latian towns, where the imperial laws were administered, but in which the people were governed by their own magistrates, and every new magis- trate, after his year of service, became a Roman citizen. Magistracy in all these cities was hereditary in leading families, and vacancies were filled up on a principle of self- election, or by nomination. As corporations, they very much resembled the close corporations of this country which were swept away by the late Municipal Reform Act. In corrupt times, these offices, as they imposed the duty of levying taxes, proved anything but desirable. Yery severe penalties, accordingly, were provided against such as re- * Notitia Imperii, 49. Hors. Brit. Rom. 356 et seq. Henry's Hist. ii. app. 56 CELTS AND KOMANS. Chads' ^^^^^ ^^ ^ct when called upon to do so. After the fourth century, and as a protection against abuses, the citizens were empowered to choose a Defensor, who acted as a popular representative in relation to the aristocratic body of magistrates. In the cities of Gaul the bishops generally filled this ofiice. In cities not of the privileged class above named, the natives, and the residents generally, were not only subject to imperial laws, but were precluded from all share in the administration of them. In course of time these restrictions were in some degree infringed, but to this effect was the polity set up by the Eomans in Britain. To the last a strong line of demarcation was preserved between the conquerors and the conquered.^' The prefect. The authority to which all things within these settle- ments, and through the four provinces, were subject, was that of the prsetor or prefect. Both the civil and the mili- tary power was vested in this officer. He commanded the army, appointed magistrates, and regulated every part of the administration. He was invested with these powers by the emperor, and to him he was responsible ; but in all other relations his authority was supreme. During a long interval, large discretionary power was entrusted to the prefect, that he might be perpared to meet emergencies in distant provinces by more summary methods than the law could provide. This liberty, as will be supposed, was often grossly abused. In the reign of the Emperor Hadrian it came to an end. The ' perpetual edict ' issued by that prince made the laws which were imperative in Rome to be imperative in the provinces.f Procurator. The Only officer in the province who did not hold his appointment at the pleasure of the prefect was the procura- tor or qusestor. It belonged to this functionary, with his complement of officials, to collect the taxes, and to superintend everything relating to revenue. It often happened that the * Lipsius, de Magn. Rom. i. 6. The following are the names of the nine colonies: Kichborough, London, Colchester, Bath, Caerleon, Gloucester, Lin- coln, Chester. • In the age of the Antonines the distinction between the colo- nies, the municipia, and the Latian cities was much effaced, and as the empire further declined they may be said to have disappeared. — Palgrave's Common- wealthy c. X. f Tillemout, Histoire des Empereurs^ ii. 264. EEVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT. 57 procurator acted, and was expected to act, as a spy on the BpOK i. proceedings of tlie prefect, making his report to the emperor — - concerning any excesses, or any suspicious proceedings in that quarter. In other instances the two officials were manifestly on terms understood between them, each leaving the other to make the best for himself of his position. But it was supposed that the imperial interests would be more secure by being placed thus in two hands, than by being left altogether in one. From experience, the tendency was to widen the distinction between these two authorities, rather than to diminish it. Thus in Roman Britain the powers of government passed J^« ^^1^^^' wholly out of the hands of the natives, and remained to the ^^^l^' end in the hands of the conquerors. The British princes gradually sunk into obscurity, and bowed at length, in common with their subjects, to the power which it had been found vain to resist. The two elements — the con- querors and the conquered — never blended. British youths were trained to arms, but it was, for the most part, that they might be drafted off to foreign service. Others were trained to arts, but it was that they might be tamed by such pursuits, and made passive, not that they might be- come qualified for public life, or rise to any political in- fluence. The resistance of the natives had been so pro- longed and determined, that the hope of any healthy amalgamation between them and the invaders was not en- tertained until the season for acting upon it with effect had passed. Supposing the imperial laws to have been purely ad- ministered, the change introduced must have secured to the Britons great advantage in all suits between subject and subject. Their old Druid usages could hardly have given them the same degree of protection in such cases. And beyond a doubt the protection of property, and the en- couragement of industry, conferred by the Romans, was an immense advance on anything of that nature which had existed previously, or could have existed under any other influence. But the laws in relation even to such matters were not always purely administered. Before the time of 58 CELTS AND EOMANS. ch??8' H^^^^^i^ii) their authority seemed everywhere to diminish with the distance of the province to which they were to be applied ; and after that time, the Britons had often too mnch reason to complain of the arbitrary and corrupt pro- ceedings of their superiors. Tlie account given by Tacitus of the reforms introduced by Agricola, shows pretty clearly what the ordinary state of things had been. He began with the reform of his own household, removing all slaves and freedmen from public offices. In regard to taxation, he took care, it is said, that the assessments should be just and equal. He put a check also on the tax-gatherer, whose extortions, real or suspected, were often more the ground of disaffection than the tax itself. Collectors, it seems, had been used to require that all the produce of a district should be brought to some fixed place, where the producer should appear, and have the privilege of purchasing his own property at the reduced value fixed upon it by the government. By this custom, the expenses of carriage were added to the tax, and the feeling of dependence was wan- tonly embittered. Functionaries who could deem them- selves at liberty to pursue such a course must have been an evil race to live under. In case of hardship in this form, or in any other, the Briton might appeal to the prefect ; and if justice did not. come from that source, the next appeal lay to the emperor. But it is obvious that only the wealthy could carry their suit to that ultimate tribunal, and the wealthy among the Britons were few. Had it been possible to guard against such abuses, even the advantage to be derived from just laws justly ad- ministered may be too dearly purchased. In Britain, that political education of the people which comes naturally from the usages of self-government, was wholly wanthig. The Britons were viewed too much as mere material to be used up in armies, or to be made as productive as possible in the hands of a revenue collector. But ruin is the natural issue of all governments based on such maxims. In general, if the governed are not found to possess sufficient energy to cast off the yoke, they perish from . exhaustion — the governed in the meanwhile being destroyed by their vices. EEVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT. 59 Mucli land passed into the hands of the emperors by a book i succession of confiscations, and more by their harsh custom of seizing on the property of all who died childless. It often happened that no man would take these government lands on the hard terms proposed, and in that case the little cul- ture bestowed on them was by forced, tliat is, by slave labour. The far greater part of the land, however, remained in the hands of the natives, but on conditions that were very onerous. The land-tax alone absorbed one-third of the net produce. Other taxes were levied in seaports, in all places of traffic, and in every man's home. For, besides the great tax on land, there were taxes on the sale of merchandize and of slaves, on mines, and on the person in the form of a poll-tax. Payments w^ere also made to the government from all property left by will, and from all funerals. Only by imposing such burdens was it possible to sus- Eoman tain so great an army as was generally stationed in this Britain, island. In the early times of the Homan ascendency in Britain, the army of occupation consisted of four legions, some 25,000 men, which, with the usual complement of auxiliaries, must have raised the settled force of the country to more than 50,000. The army in the field on some occa- sions could not have been less than 50,000, irrespective of the numbers distributed in the various stations. From the Notitia Imperii^ the official record of the functionaries and forces of the empire about the close of the fourth century, we learn that the army in Britain consisted at that time of two legions in place of four, but the total force then may be reckoned as 32,700 foot, and 4800 horse, in all 37,500 men.* The revenue adequate to sustain such a military establishment, and a civil establishment of corre- sponding magnitude, must have been great — much too great to have been furnished by the Britons, had not their con- dition been a great remove from barbarism. * Horsley's Britannia Romana^ book i. chap. vi. ; book ii. chap, i., where the reader may find ample information on this subject. CHAPTER IV. REVOLUTION Ilf EELIGI01S-. BOOK I. Chap. 4. Druidism — Britain its clioson asylum. Its theocra- tic theory. C^SAE, describes the religion of Gaul and Britain as tlie same. He furtlier relates that the priests of Gaul who were desirous of becoming profoundly learned in the Druid lore, generally passed some time in Britain for that pur- pose.* The religion which the Celtic tribes brought with them from the East did not seek contact with other races, and coveted secrecy for the exercise of its more sacred rites. As this command of seclusion failed them in Gaul, they appear to have sought it in Britain ; and even here to have retreated from the more populous and exposed regions on its southern coast, to the interior of the country, and to some of its remotest solitudes, as in the island of Mona. But where there is secrecy there will be suspicion ; and the imagination of the classical writers has not failed to people the forest temj)les of the Druids with such forms of super- stition and cruelty as were supposed to be natural to those who covet darkness rather than light. Enough of super- stition and cruelty there was, but poetical inventions are of value only as poetry.f Tlie name Druid is supposed to have been derived from the oak, which was an object of special veneration with the priests of Gaul and Britain. :(: We have seen that the laws of the Britons were deposited in the mind of the Druids, and administered by them. So that they were not only priests, but in effect both legislators and magistrates. In this fact their Oriental origin is clearly indicated. Tliey were the ministers of a theocracy. So much were they * Bel. Gal. vi. 13. f Lucan. Phars. Hi. 897. X Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 44 ; Diod. Sicul. lib. v. EEVOLTJTION IN BELIGION. 61 venerated, that even peace and war, which seemed to be book l almost the only questions left purely to the authority of — '-' their kings, was a matter virtually under their control. The intervention of a Druid, we are told, was enough to stay the arm of combatants even when their rage was at the highest."^ There were some distinctions of rank among them, and females were allowed to participate in the honours of the office. Besides the ordinary Druids, who attended to the usual priestly services, there appears to have been a limited class who were accounted the inspired persons — the minstrel poets and prophets of their order. The services of the Druids as priests and magistrates, and the fact that they alone possessed any knowledge of medicine, or of use- ful science generally, gave them command of a revenue which must have beep large as coming from such a people. Above all, the spiritual power supposed to be vested in them was terrible. The body and soul, the present and the future, of the people for whom they ministered, were sup- posed to be in their hands.f There is no room to doubt that the Druids had, in The popular common with all the sacred castes of the East, their secret Druidism. and their open doctrine. What the tenets or speculations were which might be divulged to none but the initiated, can be to us only a matter of conjecture. It is probable that they embraced traditionary conceptions, of a philosoph- ical and religious nature, much more elevated than the doc- trine taught to the people. In the popular doctrine, the future existence of the soul had a prominent place ; but it was a future existence in which the retribution came from the conditions through which the soul passed in a series of transmigrations. ITot less prominent were the lessons of the Druid on the duty of worshipping the heavenly bodies, and a multitude of divinities to whom the attributes, if not the names, of the gods of Greece and Rome were ascribed. It is highly probable that the moral teaching of the Druids was comparatively pure, dscountenancing perfidy and violence, * Diod. Sicul. lib. v. c. 31. Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. f Caesar, de Bel. Gal. vi. 13. Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. Pomponius Mela, de Situ Orbis, lib. iii. c. 2. Ammian. Marcel, xv. Diod. Sic. v. 62 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I, Chap. 4. Sacred groves. and inculcating good nciglibourhood in the time of peace, no less earnestly than bravery and self-sacrifice in the time of war. Without high moral worth in some form, the Druids could hardly have been the object of so much vener- ation.* The oaks of Mamre served as a temple to the Hebrew patriarch. The shadow of the oak w^as the temple of the Druid. Among a people with whom large covered build- ings had no existence, there would be no such buildings for religious worship. To this fact, probably, more than to any lofty conception of the Supreme Being, we should at- tribute the Druid usage of worship in the open air, or beneath no other roofing than the overshadowing of ancient trees. But the secret places in these groves were as sacred as the recesses of any temple. These natural sanctuaries, with their dim religious light, had been planted, cleared, and cultivated so as to serve most of the purposes for which spacious buildings are raised ; and by the glimpses of them permitted on special occasions, not less than by their con- cealments, they were made to diffuse a religious fear over the mind of the multitude. Bude stones, dispersed in the form of avenues and circles, some of them adjusted in the cromlech shape, others so placed as to be altar-stones, were the only approaches towards architecture to be seen in these sacred inclosures. The stones so disposed were sometimes all but unhewn, as in the once famous temple at Abury in "Wiltshire. At other times they are reduced into shape by the tool of the workman, and raised into artificial structures by mechanical skill, as at Stonehenge. In the figures described by them there was no doubt a mystic significance, but on this subject our moderns have speculated to little purpose. We should add, that the cause which made the Druid worship to be a worship without temples, made it to be a worship without images. In the history of bar- barous nations, the rudest conceivable sculpture has suf- fered to connect polytheism with idolatry. But the Druids w^ere intelligent enough to see that their object would not * Ccesar, de Bel. Gal. vi. 13. Mela, iii. 2. Pliny, xxx. 1. V. c. 31. Amm. Mar. xv. 42V. Cicero, de Div. i. 41. Diod. Sic. lib. REVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 63 be served bv the aids of this nature within tbeir reach. Their ^}pc>K l 'J . Chap. 4 instinct appears to have taught tliem that, m regard to such objects, remoteness and invisibility are better sources of impression.* It must be confessed that in these aspects of Druidism nmidic T 1 . . ./> T ritual. there is something elevated and impressive, it compared with the systems which have obtained among many nations in the same stage of their history. The ceremonies, too, of the Druid worship, were not without their picturesque fea- tures. Their festivals were frequent, and celebrated with music and dancing, and choral hymns in honour of their divinities. In the month of August the grand ceremonial of cutting the misletoe from the oak took place. The chief Druid ascended the tree clothed in white, and severed the branch with a golden knife. Priests stood below with a large white linen cloth open to receive the branch as it fell. Two white bulls, fastened by their horns to the sacred tree, were then offered in sacrifice, and great rejoicings and feast- ings foUowed.f But the ritual of the Druids was not on all occasions of this comparatively harmless description. Their sacrifices rose in value with their sense of danger. Hence, in times of great public exigency, even human victims were offered, and these in great numbers. We have all seen in imagina- tion that colossal image of wickerwork, resembling the figure of a man, which was sometimes set up by them, the interior filled with human beings, that the whole might be consumed to ashes amidst the noise of instruments and shoutings, much in the manner of the suttee ceremonial only of late abolished in India.:}: It is easy to see that the points of antagonism would be special re- strong between such a system and the kind of rule con- ff c^Ssm templated by the Romans. It was inevitable that the sue- ject^of^the cess of the Roman power should prove fatal to that of the ^^^^^ * Gen. xxxi. Tacit, de Mor. German, ix. Mona Antiqua, vii.-ix. Pliny, N'at. Hist. xvi. 44. Maxim. Tyr. Diss, xxxviii.. Lucan, iii. 412. f Plin. iVa^. Hist. xvi. 44. Poland's Hist. Druids, 69-Y4. \ Ctesar, de Bel. Gal. vi. 16. Diodorus (lib. v. c. 31) and Strabo (lib. iv. c. 4) both speak of the Druids as sometimes striking the man devoted to sacrifice with their weapons, and as affecting to see future events in the throes of their victim. 64: CELTS AND EOMANS. BOOK I. Chap. 4. Introduc- tion of Christi- anity. Druids. So long as the two existed together, the people were in the condition of being required to serve two mas- ters. The priests of most other countries, with more limited pretensions, might be tolerated, but here there could be no compromise. As we have seen, the Druid was not only a priest. He may be said to have made the law, and he ad- ministered it ; and the foe with whom he now had to deal could know nothing of such authorities in other hands than its own. 'No doubt the occasional cruelties of the Druid worship contributed, along with these causes, to the destruc- tion of the order. The fact that the Romans suppressed the religion of the natives — suppressed it with violence and bloodshed — would not dispose the Briton to look with favour on the religion of that people. We do not 'find, accordingly, that the gods of Rome ever became naturalized in this country. Tliis might have happened if scepticism in regard to the claims of those gods had been less prevalent among their professed worshippers, and if the Roman ascendency in Britain had been more genial. The event shows, that the power which annihilated Druidism was to give Britain Christianity, and not another paganism. ITot that anything of that nature was intended. But it was inevitable that the Roman roads should become lines of communication, facilitating the travel of all sorts of people, and of all sorts of news, from the most distant parts of the empire. So the way was opened for the entrance of the Christian faith. The pride of ancestry, rarely wanting in individuals, ex- ists invariably in communities. I^ations wdiicli have not been able to discover a satisfactory origin for themselves, have spared no pains to invent one. Their beginnings as a people, and the beginnings of everything characteristic and honourable in their history, have been to them themes of interest on which they have bestowed no little embellish- ment. It would be pleasant to be able to assign the introduc- tion of Christianity into Britain to some very definite and very creditable source. But this Providence has not per- mitted. On this subject we possess abundance of fable. REVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 65 beneath which it is often difficult to find the true residuum char l of history. The blow struck at the Druid power in Mona by Sueto- nius was decisive. The prophecies of that proud order had then come to nothing. The Britons had not prevailed. Tlie gods in whom they trusted had not shielded them. The Druids had perished on their own altars. Their ene- mies had desecrated and destroyed their most sacred re- treats. In these facts were the seeds of change. The ground was thus prepared, but by what hand was Fictions the next seed sown ? The first preaching of the Gospel in cept^M ""' Britain has been ascribed to St. James, to Simon Zelotes, to tEntri-^ Joseph of Arimathea, and to the Aristobulus mentioned by chmti-^ St. Paul. But all these narratives may be taken simply as ^°^ ^' so much illustration of that credulity, and love of fable, which distinguished the writers of the Middle Age, espe- cially the monks.^ It has been maintained by some that Pomponia Grse- story of cina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, who was governor of Brit- gtoK* ain from a.d. 43 to a.d. 47, v/as a Christian. The facts which are supposed to warrant this opinion are the following. In Pome, in a.d. 56, Pomponia was charged with having em- braced some ' foreign superstition ; ' on that charge she was tried in the presence of her husband and was acquitted ; and subsequently, when a lady whom she tenderly loved had been treacherously put to death, slie had a continual sorrow, and would never cease to wear mourning. f It will be seen that these facts furnish no evidence that Pomponia, the wife of Aulus Plautius in Pome in a.d. 56, had been his wife, and been with him in Britain in a.d. 45 ; nor any evi- dence that the foreign superstition wliich she was said to have embraced was Christianity. Her acquittal, and her continual sorrow, are evidence rather of a contrary nature. Had she been a Christian, she would hardly have failed to confess herself such ; and it was not the manner of Chris- tians in those days to sorrow as those who have no hope. * Stillingfleet, Origines Britannicce. Ussher, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates.. Henry, Hist. Eng. book i, c. 2. \ Tacit. Annal. xiii. Vol. I— .5 66 CELTS AND KOMANS. Chap. 4 All attempt lias been made to identify Pudens, a friend Of Claudia, of Martial the poet, and Claudia, a British lady whom he married, with the Pudens and Claudia mentioned by St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy. But the mention of Pudens and Claudia by Paul is in a.d. 67 ; and the marriage of the Pudens and Claudia known to Martial, and who are described as then in the flower of their age, did not take place until twelve, it may be twenty, years later. In addi- tion to which, the Pudens and Claudia whose marriage the poet celebrates, were persons expected to be pleased with his invoking all the heathen divinities to be present with their usual benedictions on the occasion ; and the bride- groom at least is well known to have been a person not likely to be found cultivating the friendship either of an aged Christian apostle, or of a young Christian evangelist.* The only other names associated with the supposed intro- duction of Christianity into Britain entitled to notice, are those of St. Paul and King Lucius. Conjectures In suppoi't of tlic claim of St. Paul, it is alleged that to st! Paul. Venantius Fortunatus, a Bishop of Gaul, and Sempronius, a Patriarch of Jerusalem, have both stated explicitly that this apostle preached the Gospel in Britain. But it is to be remembered that Fortunatus writes as a poet in the sixth century ; that the language of Sempronius is cited from a panegyric on the apostle delivered in the seventh century. Testimony coming so late, and from such sources, can be of no real value. But it is added that many other writers, some of them living two centuries earlier, assert that St. Paul preached the Gospel in the ' western parts ' — an ex- pression which was often used as comprehending Britain. Such expressions, however, were often used as not compre- hending Britain, or any territory near it. This testimony, accordingly, is too vague to be of any weight. It is further urged that there was an interval between the first imprison- ment of St. Paul in Pome, and his second imprisonment, in which he might have extended his labours to Britain, and in * Martial, lib. xi. ep. 13, 54. 2 Tim. iv. 21. Martial, it seems, was a man who could cast ridicule on the sufferings of the Christians. — ^Paley's JSvid. part i. c. 2. EEVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 67 which it is probable he did, inasmuch as we do not find book l . i, . •ill Chap. 4. him conspicuously occupied durmg that period elsewhere. Here, again, it is to be remembered, that the release of the apostle from his first imprisonment in Eome, appears to have taken place in a.d. 63 or 64, and hig second commit- ment was in a.d. 67. But in a.d. 6T he wrote liis second letter to Timothy ; and he there speaks of his having re- cently been at Troas, at Corinth, and at Miletum ; and of his having been occupied about affairs in Thessalonica, in Dalmatia, in Galatia, in Ephesus, and in Asia generally. It is scarcely too much to say, therefore, that it was not pos- sible that the apostle should have made a journey to Brit- ain in the interval between his first and second imprison- ment — and, of course, to prove the possibility in this case, would be by no means to prove the fact l^ov does it accord with our conception of a man who had a right to speak of himself as Paul the aged, to suppose that he added to all the occupations above indicated, in the short space of three or four years, the great labour that must have been incurred even to have made a hasty visit to this remote island.* Concerning the story of King Lucius, the statement of Bede is, that he was ' Kins; of Britain : ' that in the year King ^ ° 7 ./ Lucius. A.D. 156 he sent a letter to Eleutherius, Bishop of Rome, praying that by his authority he might be allowed to pro- fess himself a Christian ; and that this pious wish being com- plied with, Christianity retained its footing in this island from tliat time.f Wennius, Abbot of Bangor, who is sup- posed to have written about the close of the seventh cen- tury, says that, in 'a.d. 167, King Lucius, with all the Brit- ish chiefs, received baptism from the hands of messengers sent by the Eoman emperors, and by Pope Evaristus.'J It would require large space to point out the strange confu- sions in history and chronology included in these brief state- ments. "Whence Bede or I^ennius obtained their informa- tion we know not. But here we have Lucius as * King of * Stillingfleet, Antiquities. Cave's Lives of the Apost. ii. 290. 1 Tim. i. 3 ; 2 Tim. iv ; Tit. i. 5 ; iii. 12 ; Acts xiv. xv. xviii. xix. f Bede, IJccles. Hist. lib. i. c. iv. % Hist. Brit. c. 18. 68 CELTS AND EOMAKS. CHA^i' Britain,' leading ^ all the British chiefs' to baptism, at a time when the Romans had long since dispensed with the services of kings in this island, and when, if the very race had not ceased to exist, their being permitted to reign had come to an end. Here, too, we find the emperors of Eome taking upon them, in a.d. 167, to patronize Christianity, and, in conjunction with the Bishop, or rather the ' Pope' of Rome, sending forth legations of Christian priests to ac- complish the work of conversion among heathen men at the outposts of their empire ! That Pope Evaristus might be the favoured instrument in this memorable proceeding, it is contrived by l^ennius that a man who had died in a.d. 109 should be alive in a.d. 167. Bede, on the other hand, that he might assign this honour to Pope Eleutherius, makes that ecclesiastic to have been Bishop of Rome when he had still many years to serve in offices more humble. Gildas, our oldest British authority on British history, was a monk of Bangor, and lived in the middle of the sixth century ; but it is manifest, that of this marvellous story about King Lucius, Gildas knew nothing, nor of any story resembling it. Euse- bius, the careful chronicler of all such events., is in like manner silent. The fact is, that between the age of Gildas and Nennius, it had come to be regarded as a matter of im- portance that the clergy of the British churches, who had sought refuge in Wales, should be able to make out as good a claim to a Roman and apostolic origin as the clergy who had been sent by Pope Gregory to convert the Anglo- Saxons ; and this tale concerning Lucius appears to have been the fabrication of some British ecclesiastic, intended to meet this exigency, and to put the clergy of "Wales upon as honourable a footing as their neighbours. In an age so little critical on matters of history, this was not a difficult work to accomplish.* But the question may still be asked — are we, then, left * The credulity even of such men as Ussher and Stillingfleet, in regard to the fictions which have obtained currency touching the introduction of Christian- ity into this country, is not a little surprising. The evidence which Ussher would have adduced from an ancient coin, said to bear the sign of a cross, and to have the name of Lucius indicated in the letters L. U. C, has been shown by Mr, Hal- lam to be altogether fallacious. See the paper on this whole story in the Arche- olocfia, xxxiii. 208 et seq. REVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 69 without any knowledge as to when or how Christianity first ^p^^ l became known in this island ? Our answer to this question „ — - . . 1 1111 ^^® proba- is, that we may imagine the probable, where we cannot {»*'»*/ ^ to attain to the certain. The known may be sufficient to war- J,'^^;^'^'" ^^ rant highly reasonable conjecture as to the unknown. We f^^%^, know that communication between Britain and the Con- ^^"• tinent became regular and settled in the apostolic age. We know also that before that age had closed, Suetonius had destroyed the power of the Druids. Through more than two centuries from that time Britain was in a state of com- parative tranquillity. The legions and auxiliaries trans- ported to this country often consisted of men who had been long resident in Gaul, and in other parts of the empire, where, before the end of the first century, Christianity had been widely propagated. Trade intercourse with this coun- try increased rapidly, and brought with it the usual inter- changes of thought. Christians in those days, moreover, were zealous in an extraordinary degree — as Pliny's letters to Trajan abundantly show — in endeavours to diffuse their doctrine. Tlie Christian soldier made it a matter of daily talk with his comrades. The Christian merchant found oc- casion for discourse upon it amidst his buying and selling. The rich Christian taught it to his slave, and the Christian slave dared to speak of it to his master. Every Christian had his mission. His sacramental pledge had been, not only to hold the truth unto the death, but to endeavour by all available means to make it known to others. It is prob- able that the public teaching of Christianity was little known until these more obscure but earnest efforts had sufficed to bring very many to profess themselves Christians. Having resolved to annihilate Druidism, the concern of the Roman would naturally be that his own religion should come into its place. Hence any conspicuous mode of at- tempting to make proselytes to a new and unrecognized faith would be viewed with suspicion and discouraged. Tlie first converts would probably be made in the colonies and towns, but the more open exercise of worship would take place in districts less subject to the eye of authority. It is to the jealousy of this authority that we are indebted for 70 CELTS AND ROMANS. ch^4" ^^^ earliest authentic information concerning the Christian religion in Britain. ^fBtiSlh"^ Towards the close of the reign of Diocletian the obscu- uSdio- ^^*7 ^^ which the professors of the Gospel in Britain appear to cietian. havo bccn content to remain was to continue no longer. The persecution which had dragged such men into fame in other provinces, for some years past, now began to do its work in this island. It is not probable that Constantius, who had recently put an end to the usurpation of Carausius and Alectus in Britain, was a party to these proceedings. The blame rests, we have reason to think, on some subordi- nate who was disposed to gratify his love of rule by availing himself of the imperial edicts against the Christians — man- dates which had been disregarded under the late usurped authority. The account given by Bede is, that a man named Alban, residing at Yerulam, sheltered a Christian priest from the search of his persecutors, and that, being w^on by the holy demeanour of his guest, Alban became himself a Christian. So that, when soldiers came to demand that the priest should be delivered into their hands, Alban presented himself in the place of the man whom he had concealed, declaring himself a Christian. Of the miracles w^hich gaA^e their splendour to his martyrdom we need say nothing. But that there was a martyr at Yerulam of the name of Alban, who was afterwards canonized, and from whom the town of St. Albans derives its name, may be accepted as history. Bede relates, moreover, that many more, of both sexes, and in other places, suffered in like manner, and makes special mention of ' Aaron and Julius,' citizens of the ' Ilrbs Legionum' — that is, of Caerleon on the Usk — as having shown themselves faithful unto death.* Gildas, Orosius, and Bede all relate that this persecution having come to an end on the accession of Constantius, the father of Constantino the Great, the persecuted in Britain left their hiding-places in ' the woods and deserts, and secret caves ; rebuilt the churches which had been levelled to the ground, and raised many new edifices in honour of the martyrs.'f These descriptions seem to imply that before * Bede, Eccles. Hist. lib. i. c. 6, 7. + Ibid. lib. i. c. 8. REVOLUTION IN BELIGION. 71 the close of the reign of Diocletian the Christians in Britain cha? l must have been numerous, and have been possessed of con- siderable substance. Nine years after the close of the Diocletian persecution, British Constantino assembled the council of Aries, in which five ec- the Sincii clesiastics are reported as present from Britain — three under the title of bishops, the fourth as a priest, the fifth as a dea- con. The first bishop was from York, the second from London, and the third probably from Lincoln. The whole number of bishops present from the western provinces, in- cluding Africa, was thirty-three. It is clear, therefore, that in the early part of the fourth century the worship and organization of the Christian communities in Britain had become so well known and settled, as to secure them a re- cognised place in the great Christian commonwealth of those times. We may presume that the acts of the council of Aries were received as law by the Christians of Britain in the fourth century. The members of that council showed themselves careful to ensure that the men who ministered in holy things should be men of a blameless life, and that the j)rivileges of the Christian fellowship should be restricted to persons whose lives were distinguished by Christian con- duct, and by fidelity to their profession. No bishop was to obtrude in the province of another bishop ; no bishop was to be ordained without the presence and concurrence of seven other bishops ; clergymen were not to be usurers, nor to be wanderers from place to place, but to be resident in the place in which they were ordained. Deacons were not to administer the eucharist. Among the persons to be suspended or excluded from communion were females who had married heathen husbands, charioteers in public games, actors in theatres, or clergymen who had betrayed their brethren, or delivered up the sacred books and sacred things of the church into profane hands in the times of persecution. No person who had once been baptised in the name of the Trinity was to be rebaptised. No person excommunicated by one church was to be received by another.* * Labbe, Concil. ed. Harduin. i. tius. 72 CELTS AND KOMANS. cha?4' ^^^ Arian controversy began about a.d. 317. Eight orth^y y^^^s IsiteY it led to the assembling of the memorable council ^h^ch^rch. ^^ ^ice. Some of the Britons are said to have taken the heterodox side in this dispute. But if the infection existed, it must have been very partial and temporary. Athanasius, Jerome, and Chrysostom, all proclaim the Britons as faith- ful to the Mcene doctrine. The loose expressions of Gildas and Bede on this point must be judged in connexion with such facts.* British mo- Mouasticism obtained root in Britain in the fourth cen- nacnism — fnd^cSes- ^^^^J' And if the speculations of Pelagius, a monk of Ban- gor, might be taken as a sample of the intelligence of his order, we should be disposed to think favourably of the mental training to be realized in the monasteries of Britain in those days. Pelagius was a man of pure life, of consid- erable learning, of some ethical acuteness, and well ac- quainted with the leading ecclesiastics of his time, and with the affairs of the Church generally. "Nov is there any room to doubt his sincere piety. His great antagonist Augustine, chamj)ion of orthodoxy as he was, is magnanimous enough to say of him, ' I not only loved him once, I love him still.' His errors are all of the kind most common in the history of opinion — the errors of reaction. Scandalized by the evils he saw resulting from a false dependence on ritualism, and on priestly service in the sacraments, and not less by the covert excuse for sin which had become prevalent among the ortho- dox under the plea of the moral inability of man, Pelagius laboured to give prominence to the moral and spiritual side of the Christian life, as embracing a department of truth and duty which the Church was in danger of forgetting or neglecting. But his halting-place was not the right one. Pressed by opponents, he learnt to deny that there is any inherent bias towards evil in man. Every man, he taught, has power from himself to obey the law of God ; and his salvation depends on tlie purity of his life, not on anything speculative or outward. In Christianity, as presented in the Scriptures, there is a transcendent teaching, and through it a divine influence comes to aid man in all moral and * Stillingflect, Antiquities^ 1%. REVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 73 Spiritual effort. This is the substance and mission of the book l Gospel. It does not, he maintained, bring redemption or — '- salvation in the sense commonly understood. In Celestius, a brother monk, who was also a native of Britain, Pelagius found a coadjutor, his equal in zeal, his superior, it is said, in the subtlety of his reasoning. By their joint labours a controversy was raised which agitated both the East and West for some time. It does not appear that either Pelagius or Celestius ever Preaching visited this island after the publication of their opinions had ana oerma- made them notorious. Bede, however, relates that in a.d. 429, tain, the Pelagian doctrine had been so far embraced in Britain, • that the native clergy became alarmed, and solicited help from their more skilful brethren in Gaul, whence the new doctrine had come to them. As the result, a number of the Gallic clergy came to Britain, with the bishops Lupus and Germanus at their head ; and these holy men, it is said, having filled the land with the fame of their miracles, so confuted the heretics, in the presence of great multitudes of people, that they were brought to confess their errors.* These events belong to the early part of the fifth century, summary of By that time the natives of Britain may be said, we think, tion in reii- to have abandoned their heathenism. Much of its influence no doubt survived, but the new faith had become ascendant. Great was the revolution in ideas, in dispositions, and in usages which this change involved. The Christianity pro- fessed may not have been of the most enlightened descrip- tion ; but it gave to the people of this country their first true conception of the Infinite, and it raised their thoughts to Him as to their Father through Christ. Humanity in Christ was before them as presenting the great manifestation of the Divine, the great pattern of the Human, Time was to develop the germ of intellectual and spiritual change in- cluded in this fact. With this new object of worship came new views of human duty and of human destiny. Tlie reign of horrors, so often shadowed forth in the rites of the Druid grove, was succeeded by the calm and benign influence of a Christian worship ; and this new apprehension of the Great * Ecdes. Hist i. c. vii. 74: CELTS AND KOMANS. c2a?4' ^^^^^^ ^^ humanity was inseparable from a new apprehen- sion of humanity itself. It is thus that religious enlighten- ment comes to be one of the surest guarantees for enlighten- ment in regard to all feeling and all action. Tliis revolu- tion in religion, long advancing in secret, became visible and consolidated in the fifth century. The new faith bid fair to leaven the entire mind of the country. Its effect on that portion of the British race which was to survive the approaching troubles was deep and permanent. The Brit- ons are no more known in history as pagans. Those of them who are found in the fastnesses of Wales after the de- parture of the Romans, and after the invasion of the Saxons, are Christian Britons, with a Christian hierarchy, a Chris- tian literature and a Christian civilization sufficiently strong to eradicate whatever remains of their old faith or usage may still have been left with them. All these acquisitions they must have carried with them into their mountain homes. There was no channel of communication through which they could have received them afterwards. We have seen, however, that it is much easier to show that these ab- origines of Britain did really become Chrstians in those early times, than to say exactly when, or by what means, this revolution was brought to pass. CHAPTER V. EFFECT OF THE E0MA:N" ASCENDENCY ON SOCIAL LIFE. AMOE'G the industrial arts, that of procuring the means book i. of subsistence is manifestly one of the most necessary ^ ~^jo and primitive. Barbarous tribes obtain their food, in a gj^^jfg'^® great degree, by hunting, fishing, and by expedients to en- snare animals. In the time of Caesar, the rudest inhabi- tants of Britain would seem to have passed considerably beyond that stage. Those who did not till the ground reared abundance of cattle. Many, especially in the country bordering on the southern coast, cultivated their lands with manure and with the plough, and were wont to supply themselves with corn and other products by such means.* It was the manner of the Romans to encourage agricul- ture in every country that became subject to their sway. The rich products of the East were soon naturalized to a large extent in the less favoured climate of the West. The vine, the olive, and many luscious fruits, such as the apricot, the peach, and the orange, passed from Italy into Spain and Gaul. Britain shared largely in these influences. The veterans who founded colonies became zealous cultivators of the lands which fell to their share, and taught the Brit ons, both directly, and indirectly, to excel in such labours.f In the fourth century the corn produced in this island was conveyed in large quantities to other provinces of the em- pire, especially to Gaul and Germany. Upon an emergency, in A.D. 359, more than eight hundred vessels were employed * Caesar, de Bel. Gal. v. 10-12. f Scriptores Rei RusticcB a Gesnero, torn. i. were clothed 76 CELTS AND ROMANS. c?iA?5^* ^^ carrying grain from Britain to the Ehine.* N'or was it in tlie field only that the skill and, industry of the British hus- bandman became visible. His vines, his trees bearing pleasant fruits, and his gardens generally, bore witness to the facility with which he could learn what his conquerors were prepared to teach.f Indeed, there is good reason to suppose that our agriculture was in a more prosperous state under the Romans, than at any subsequent period in our history during the next thousand years. Bri^ns^ Next to the need of food man feels the need of clothing. In the time of Caesar, many of the inland tribes of Britain had probably little better clothing that the skins of animals, their bodies being in great part naked. But we are not ob- liged to conclude that those skins w^ere not prepared with some skill for their use ; and we have seen, that some cen- turies earlier, there were Britons known to the Phosnicians who wore garments of cloth.;}: At the commencement of the Christian era the Gauls produced woollen cloths of various textures, and could dye them of various colours. Tlie man- ufacture of linen is an advance beyond the manufacture of woollen ; and this know^ledge was familiar at that time to the Gauls. Scarcely anything of this nature could have been known in Gaul, and have been unknown to the Belgic settlers in Britain.§ The costume of Boadicea is described as rich and queenly, and that of the men and women of distinction about her would bear some resemblance to it.|| Ancient writers often speak of the Gauls and Britons as one people in regard to all such exercises of skill. Pliny describes the simple process by which the people of both countries managed to bleach their linen s.^f The accounts which ancient writers have given of the * Ammianus Marcel, lib. xviii. c. 2. Zgsimus, Hist. lib. iii. c. 5. f Script. Hist. August. 942. Tacitus, Vita Agric. xii. X Caesar, de Bel. Gal. v. 14. Pomponius Mela, iii. c. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 11. Strabo, lib. iii. c. v. § 11. § ' The Gauls wear the sagum, let their hair grow, and wear short breeches. Instead of tunics, they wear a slashed garment with sleeves, 'descending a little below the hips. The wool of their sheep is coarse, but long : from it they weave the thick saga called laines.' — Strabo, lib. iv. c. iv. § 8. Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. viii. c. 48, xxii. c. 2. Diodorus. II Xiphilin. in Nero. ^ Nat. Hist. xix. c. 1 ; xx. c. 19 ; xxviil. c. 12. REVOLrTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. Y7 ancient war-cliariot, show that the useful arts must have chaks.' been in an advanced state in Britain before the first Koman useful invasion. All these writers concur in praising the skill, and Stt^"^' even the elegance, displayed in the construction and man- ao*ement of these machines. It is clear, from what we know of the war-chariot, that there must have been Britons at that time who were good smiths, carpenters, and wheelwrights. Such men would be capable of building houses, and of producing furniture, after a manner unknown among nations in the lower state of barbarism. The scythes fas- tened to the axle of the chariot, and the weapons used by the warrior, bespeak considerable proficiency in the work- ing of metals.'^ Then there was the harness, which, rude as it may have been, must have been adapted to its purpose by many arts that would have their, value in many pro- cesses besides that of harness-making. We have abundance of evidence that the Britons of both sexes were disposed to a profuse use of ornament in dress. Gold was worn about the wrists and arms, and on the breast. The tovo — a twisted collar for the neck — was often of that precious metal. Dur- ing more than two thousand years that ornament is known to have been in use among the Celts. The tore was a sym- bol of rank, and the numbers of them taken from the Gauls w^ere often among the richest spoils of the Eomans in their wars with that people. They are mentioned as among the trophies in the procession in which Caractacus made his ap- pearance.f Many of the trinkets found in the burial-places of the pagan Britons are of inferior substance. They are found in bronze, in amber^ and in glass ; but those of more costly substance were in use. Many of these articles were no doubt imported, but many were native productions, and evinced the native skill. The comforts of home-life — the * The Gauls do not appear to have used the chariot in war. Some critics have come to doubt whether the British war-chariot was really scythed. But the evidence in favour of the common opinion on that point is not, I think, to be set aside. \ Titus Manlius, as we have all read, was named Torquatus, from the tore which he tore from the neck of a gigantic Gaul. Aneurin, the great Welsh bard, who wrote in the sixth century, laments the loss of several ' golden torcked sons ' in the memorable battle of Cattraeth. Some three hundred Britons who wore that mark of rank are said to have fallen on that day. 78 CELTS AND EOMANS. BOOK I. Chap. 5. Causes un- favourable to civiliza- tion in ancient Britain. British earth- works. homestead, the furniture, and the food, could hardly have been obtained from a distance. There were, however, many causes which precluded the Britons before the age of Caesar from making all the provi- sion for their wants in this respect which they might have m'ade. Britain in those early times was parcelled out be- tween many separate communities, who were almost per- petually at war with each other ; and the buildings of to- day were too often reared with the feeling that destruction might come npon them to-morrow. Csesar and Strabo indeed tell us that the Britons gave the name of a city to a collection of rude huts enclosed by a mound or stockade.* In the Britain which Csesar saw, the places of security were no doubt much of that description. But the strongest earthworks of the Britons," even in those days, were not in forests, but on high lands, wherever such lands were avail- able. Many of the positions thus chosen by them were afterwards occupied as beacon and military stations by the Romans, though the Roman encampment was required to be square, while the British works were always circular. This latter form, in many of the earthworks which remain over a large portion of the island to this d^y, demonstrates their early British origin, occupied and disturbed as they have often been since, not only by the Romans, but by Sax- ons and Danes. Of such works Caesar saw nothing. The Malvern Hills, Little Doward, Bass-church, and Silchester are among the localities remarkable for British works of this description. In the last-mentioned place there have been the traces of a town regularly mapped out, and enclosed with stone walls, which should be attributed, we think, on various grounds, to British skill before the invasion under Claudius. It should be remembered that the life of the Britons even to the time of this second invasion, continued to be to a large extent a herdsman's life ; and that these fortified places were not so much places of residence, as places of safety for themselves and their flocks in time of danger. Caesar him- self speaks of the houses he saw in Britain as resembling * Strabo, lib. iv. Rowland's Mona, 38, 39. Cassar, de Bel. Gal. iv. 12. REVOLUTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. Y9 those in Gaul. Now Gaul was not a country of wigwams, i^,^^^ l It contained cities of considerable strength and beauty. — '—' Before the close of the first century, when the Romans had still their conquest to achieve in this country, London, as we have seen, had become a place of great traffic, and of many thousand inhabitants. Early in the second century, Ptol- emy makes mention of nearly sixty cities then existing in Britain. Some of these cities the Romans had created, but much the greater number consisted" of Roman settlements fixed on British roads, and grafted on British towns. Ex- eter, for example, had been the capital — the place of gen- eral gathering, for the people of that part of Britain from the earliest time. It was thus almost everywhere. The old sites became the home of the new masters. In the in- terior and remote districts, the dwelling-places of our ances- tors at the time of the first Roman invasion, were no doubt for the most part of a very humble description. They were generally circular in form, constructed of wood, the spaces between the framework being filled up with mortar or clay, the covering being of reeds or thatch. Tlie roof was of a cone shape, with an opening at the summit to admit light, and to give egress to the smoke, the interior presenting a rounded apartment with its fire on the earth in the centre. "Wretched as such hovels may be deemed, large portions of the subjects of great monarchies in modern Europe have been hardly better housed. Such erections as Stonehenge, through reared by Druids, evince a knowledge of mechanics which cannot be supposed to exist apart from much useful knowledge beside. The whole track of the Celtic tribes, in their migration from the east to the west, is marked by such monuments. The works of this nature at Abury in Wilt- shire are of greater extent than those of Stonehenge, and those of the temple of Carnac in Gaul were greater still.* * The following passages descriptive of the character and manners of the Gauls in the age of Caesar are no doubt applicable substantially to the Britons at that time : ' The entire race which now goes by the name of Gallic, or Galatic (Gauls), is warlike, passionate, and always ready for fighting, but otherwise sim- ple, and not malicious. If irritated, they rush in crowds to the conflict, openly and without any circumspection, and thus are easily vanquished by those who employ stratagem. For any one may exasperate them when, where, and under whatever pretext he pleases : he will always find them ready for danger, with 80 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK T. Chap. 5. Koman civilization introduced. The aptness of the Britons to learn whatever Ganl, or Rome itself, could teach, is amply attested by Tacitus, whose in- formation must have come from the best authority — from the great Agricola.* But the settlement of the Romans, of course introduced both the useful arts and the embellishments of life, in the maturity which had then been given to them among the most civilized nations. The fraternities and corporations of weavers, and of other crafts, which were protected and pa- tronized by the Roman State, soon made their appearance in this country, as in the other provinces of the empire, and the artisans in Rome produced few articles of utility or lux- ury that were not also produced in Britain. "Winchester was to the people of those times very much what Leeds and Manchester have since become to ourselves.f nothing to support them except their violence and daring. Nevertheless, they may be easily persuaded to devote themselves to anything useful, and have thus engaged both in science and letters. The most valiant of them dwell towards the north and next the ocean. Of these they say the JBelgce are the bravest, and have sustained themselves single-handed against the Germans, the Cimbri, and the Teutons — their equipment is in keeping with the size of their bodies. They have a long sword hanging at their right side, a long shield, and lances in pro- portion ; together with a maclaris, somewhat resembling a javelin. Some of them also use bows and slings ; they have also a piece of wood resembling a pilum, which they hurl, not out of a thong, but from their hand, and ta a further distance than an arrow. They principally make use of it in shooting birds. To the present day most of them lie on the ground, and take their meals seated on straw. They subsist principally on milk and on all kinds of flesh, especially that of swine, which they eat fresh and salted. Their swine live in the fields, and surpass in height, strength, and swiftness. To persons unaccustomed to approach them they are almost as dangerous as wolves. The people dwell in great arched houses, constructed of planks and wicker, and covered with a heavy thatched roof. They have sheep and swine in such abundance, that they supply sagae and salted pork, in plenty, not only to Rome, but to most parts of Italy. Their gov- ernments were for the most part aristocratic. Formerly they chose a governor every year, and a military leader was always selected by the multitude. To their simplicity and vehemence the Gauls join much folly, arrogance, and love of orna- ment. They wear golden collars round their necks, and bracelets on their arms and wrists, and those who are of any dignity have garments dyed, and worked with gold. This lightness of character makes them intolerable when they con- quer, and throws them into consternation when worsted.' — Strabo, book iv. e. 4. Among the Britons, as we have seen, monarchy or chieftainship was hereditary, but in nearly all other respects the Belgae and the Cantii were the same people, * Vita Agric. xxi, Gough's Camden^ i. 141. Arcficeoloffia, xv. 184. Horsley's Britannia JRomana. Akerman's Archceoloyical Index^ 44, 45. There are many remains of British earthworks in Oxfordshire, and more in Dorset. Cyclops Cliristianus. In the learned work with this title, Mr. Herbert attempts to show that the stone structures above mentioned are the work of Christian Britons after the departure of the Romans. But his case is by no means made out, f In all the Roman cities there were incorporations of operatives and arti- EEVOLTJTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 81 ^Yit\l this new taste and skill in so many things, would ^^^f^ come new taste in matters of furniture and ornament. The ^ — ^-' Pottery. useful and the elegant in pottery were produced in great quantities in many parts of this island. Large traces of this branch of industry, dating from the time of the Eomans, have been discovered in Kent, ^Northampton shire, and else- where. The terra cotta produced by the same artists, was also in a beautiful style of workmanship. From the abun- dance of such remains on the sites of all the Koman stations, and from other evidence, it is clear that the use of pottery was much more common among the Romans than it is among us. It is no longer to be doubted that ornaments from jet, or what is now called cannel coal, were produced in Roman Britain, and that our ancestors were familiar thus early with much skilful workmanship in glass. We find also that the Romans were by no means igno- Mines- rant of the mineral treasures to be found in Britain. They metais. burnt coals on the banks of the Tyne and elsewhere in those old days. They amassed large wealth by working mines for iron, and lead, and tin, and copper ; and false hopes were sometimes raised by their coming upon a vein of sil- ver, and even upon gold. Their principal iron works were in the forest of Dean ; and in the forest of Anderida, now the Weald country of Sussex and Kent. The Roman coins often found in the scorise of these deserted works, as well as the abundance of Roman pottery, determine the date and origin of such works. The Roman citizen disposed to make himself acquainted Roman with the island of Britain towards the close of the third cen- tury, would of course consult some Itinerary setting forth its principal towns and roads. Our modern railway-map gives us something very like the chart that would be placed ficers, answering very much to the trade guilds familiar to us in the later times of British history ; but these incorporations were known in law by the name of ' colleges.' These associations were intimately connected with religion, included a principle of caste, and have been variously described as fraternities and repub- lics. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that they should have been at times pro- hibited as politically dangerous. — Palgrave, c. x. 331-335. See Horsley's £rii. Rom. 33*7-342, for evidence showing that colleges of this description were early introduced into Roman Britain. Du Cange, Gloss, voce * Gyntecium.' Cod. Theod. iii. lib. x. tit. 20. Vol. I.— 6 CELTS AND ROMANS. BOOK I. Chap. 5. before him. The trunk lines of our new iron roads go to a great extent along the track of the old military routes in Eoman Britain. The cities and towns which form the termini of our main lines now, were most of them existing as terminating points then, and their names are only slightly, if at all changed. It is true the Eomans generally con- structed their roads in direct lines, crossing alike the hill and the valley. Where such inequalities occur we now do our best to desert the old pathways. But the greater part of England is comparatively level ground. The road from Dover to London passed through Canterbury and Kochester in those days, as in later days. To leave London through the line of street now known as Bishop sgate, was to enter upon a road which sent off its branches to the Humber and the Tyne, the Mersey and the Solway. Leaving London by the outlet now known as Ludgate, a smooth and safe road would be found open into Devonshire or South Wales, stretching from Gloucester to Shrewsbury, and striking oiF to St. George's Channel. Between these main lines were many branch lines, covering the w^hole land wdth a busy network of communication, connecting the greater cities with the population of the smaller towns and villages. Many of these roads passed through the dense forest, bor- dered on the stagnant marsh, pursued their arrowlike course across the desolate moorland, or opened to the wayfarer the sight of blue hills and rich valleys, full of beauty, and of the signs of industry, wealth, and civilization. At short inter- vals along these roads, as on the banks of so many rivers, Roman stations made their appearance, with villas, and buildings of every description, clustered about them.* Educated But the Romau villa supposes an advance in art beyond man Bri- the barcly useful. The humblest form of handicraft implies a measure of education and of mental development. But the social life of the Romans embraced that intellectual life which results from the direct and indirect influence of science, letters, and general taste. To what extent were the Britons found capable of appreciating such refinements ? * Horsley's Britannia Romana, book iii. Journal of tJie Archceolopical Association, i. 1-9 ; ii. 42, 86, 164-1G9, 324, 339, 349. Wellbeloved's TorA- under the Romans. Whitaker's Manchester. Moule's Essay on Roman Villas* REVOLUTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 83 Tlie Druids of Gaul and Britain, according to the testi- book l mony of nearly all our earlier authorities in relation to ^ — '-' ■I 1 T 1 . • • 1 . . Close of them, were men who owed their position to their science P"""'*^ ^^■ T . /V5 . fluence. and learning, even more than to their office as priests. They are described as being profound students in physiology, botany, medicine, and surgery ; in arithmetic, geometry, mechanics, and astronomy. They are even said to have ex- celled in geography. In these descriptions there is no doubt much exaggeration. But it is certain that the Druids affected to be in possession of extraordinary knowledge on all these subjects ; and that whatever they knew was mixed up with pretensions to supernatural powers, and made to subserve their priestly rule. Their knowledge, besides being thus misapplied, and of necessity limited, and mixed with much error, was always the knowledge of a separate order of men, if not of a caste. It came to the people, in consequence, only indirectly, and rarely as a real advantage. So that when the Romans swept away the Druids, and took the natives under their own guidance, they had to com- mence the education of their new allies, as regarded any knowledge of letters, from the beginning."^' Tacitus describes the course ffiven to the occupations and Thetino ^ ^ arts — and tastes of the Britons towards the close of the first century, general 1 • 1 1 culture. To wean them from tendencies that were ever disposing them to acts of insubordination ' Agricola held forth the baits of pleasure, encouraging them, as well by public as- sistance as by warm exhortations, to build temples, courts of justice, and commodious dwelling-houses. He bestowed encomiums on such as cheerfully obeyed : the slow and un- complying were branded with reproach ; and thus a spirit of emulation diffused itself, operating like a sense of duty. To establish a plan of education, and to give the sons of the leading chiefs a tincture of letters, was part of his policy. By way of encouragement he praised their talents, and al- ready saw them, by the force of their native genius, rising superior to the attainments of the Gauls. Tlie consequence * Strabo, lib. ii. 138 ; iv. 181, 197. Diod. Sic. ii. 47 ; v. 31 ; xii. 36. Mela, iii. 2, 12. Ammian, Marcel, xv. 9. Caesar, de Bel. Gal. vi. 13, 14. Brucker, Hist. Fhilos. i. 314-316. Rowland's Ifona, 84. 84 CELTS AKD ROMANS. cha? 5.' ^^^ t^^^ t^^y who had always disdained the Eoman lan- gnsige began to cultivate its beauties.'* This scheme of education, to be sustained bj the funds of the State, and to be controlled by that authority, was in accordance with the edicts and usages of the empire. Such establishments existed in the principal cities of every pro- vince. The design was to impart such a spirit and com- plexion to the educated life of every community subject to the sway of Rome as should be favourable to that sway. In such schools the youth of Britain studied the language and literature of Rome, and became familiar with science and art as known at that time to the Roman citizen. So pre- valent did the use of the Latin language become, that Gil- das speaks of the native tongue as having become almost ob- solete. But this statement must be received with great lim- itation. The Latin tongue never rooted itself among the Britons as it did among the Gauls. Brittany was the only province in Romanized Gaul that retained the Celtic tongue ; and there it was preserved mainly through the influence of settlers from this country. Tlie traces of the Latin language which survived in Britain after the departure of the Ro- mans were small. In the Roman settlements, and in their immediate neighbourhood, the fact no doubt was as Gildas has stated. In such districts the Latin was the language generally spoken. In their costume, their houses, their amusements, and even in their religion, the British in such places almost ceased to be British. Of the mansions, the villas, the porticos, the baths, the temples, the theatres, and other structures which adorned such localities, fragments only remain. The long centuries of barbarism and violence which followed were not favourable to the preservation of such monuments. Yestiges, however, from the wreck of that epoch of civilization in our history, may be seen in every museum, and are excavated almost daily from the sites on which it flourished. dSTs^ii '^^^ reader who has seen Pompeii, or who has a just con- Britain. ception of that place from representation, may judge, with- * Vita Agric. xxi. BEVOLUTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 85 out tear of mistake, concerning tlie appearance of tlie Ro- book l man liouses and cities in Britain. The walls of the towns were of substantial and enduring masonry, rarely less than ten or twelve feet in thickness, and generally from twelve to fifteen feet in height. At given distances they were strengthened with round and projecting towers, and the gates appear to have been of wood, braced in various ways with iron. To a modem, the streets would seem narrow, the houses diminutive ; but the entire space included with- in the walls was not great. Even the walls of Colchester included little more than a hundred acres, those of Kenches- ter about twenty, those of Lymne twelve, those of Richbor- ough only four. It is probable that London itself did not then consist of more than three or four streets broad enough for wheels, those being the streets which led to the great outlets ; but from which there branched off numberless lanes and alleys, as paths only to persons on horseback, or to foot-passengers. This sense of smallness is felt, we presume, by every one who visits Pompeii, unless prepared for its inspection by more than usual preliminary study. But if the general scale of things in one of our Roman cities would be deemed contracted, the ornament in the houses of the wealthy would be regarded as profuse, and the conve- niences, in the way of apparatus for warming, for baths, and the like, would be accounted extraordinary, as found within such limits. You see the floors covered with tesselated pavement ; the walls frescoed with decorative paintings. The window-frames are filled with glass. The ceilings are rich in colouring, and in elaborated workmanship. The furniture is, for the most part, elegant and ornate. Alto- gether, the interior is such as would be seen in the houses of the wealthy in Italy, and in Rome itself. Of course the owners of such residences were not often natives, nor always Italians. Such houses w^ere mostly the liomes of military men, of government . functionaries, and of successful mer- chants and landholders from all parts of the empire. One of the most memorable seats of Roman opulence inflaenceof • T-> • • i^ 1 1 • TT 1 • the Roman and taste m iiritam was CaerJeon, on the river U sk, in cities. Monmouthshire. Caerleon stood at a good centre point in 86 CELTS AND EOMANS. ch?? 5* relation to the large territory of the Silures. On that spot, the bravest and the most powerful of the British tribes, sub- dued by the sword, were to be further subdued by the fas- cinations of art. According to the descriptions of Giraldus Cambrensis, the Roman antiquities on the site of Caerleon even so late as the twelfth century, must have been of as great magnitude as the ruins which have marked the site of Athens in our own time.* What Caerleon was to the Si- lures in the west, York was to the Brigantes, the great na- tion of the north ; and Colchester and St. Albans stood in a similar relation to the Iceni, and to the other native tribes of the east and south. Between these great points, as we have seen, the land was studded with cities or stations ; all of which exhibited, on a larger or a smaller scale, the same signs of civilization and wealth. "When Christianity had gained a place among the Brit- ons, a new field was opened for the development of the tastes thus acquired. The learning of Pelagius and Celestius — British scholars known wherever the Latin language «was spoken — was derived, we must suppose, from those public schools which the Romans had founded. In this manner the civilization of Rome, no less than its sword, was made to operate in favour of the Gospel. Christianity commends itself to intelligence and culture. Wherever it is to live, it must either find a soil of that nature, or create it. Change in Sucli chansTes would, of course, affect the manners of the the manners 07.. of the Britons. In this respect they had differed little from tribes in the same condition. While the greater part of the island was uncleared and undrained, the wild Indian sort of life * Itiner. Camh. lib. i. c. 5. Caerleon is situated on the right hand of the Usk, which winds in considerable breadth and force through a rich valley. Two miles lower down, the river passes the now prosperous town of Newport, whence it widens rapidly, and soon discharges itself into the Bristol Channel. The land as you ascend the river to Newport is level, but as you approach ' the City of the Legion,' the valley is seen to be enclosed by a crescent of beautiful hills. The loftiest of those hills, on the Glamorganshire side of the valley, bears the name of Twymbarlwm (Tymbarlum). On that elevation there was a strong Roman encampment, which could hold easy communication with the powerful garrison on Campdown, on the opposite side of the Channel, and indeed with the whole extent of country from the Malvern Hills to Swansea. Of the antiquities of Caerleon the only indication now above ground is a rich basin-formed meadow, which marks the site of the old amphitheatre. There is, however, in the modern town, a neatly built museum, containing a good collection of antiquities from the ancient city. EEVOLTJTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 87 whicli would be natural to many of the inhabitants may be ^^ '• imagined. But the more organized and settled communities had certain usages and characteristics in common. An an- cient historian speaks of the Cornish Britons as being plain and simple in their manners, as wholly free from the craft and fraudulence so commonly found among the more civil- ized tribes of those times.'^ Tacitus, speaking of the Brit- ons as the Komans had found them down to his time, says : ' They are willing to supply our armi-es with new levies ; they pay their tribute without a murmur ; and they per- form all the services of the government with alacrity, pro- vided they have no reason to complain of oppression. When injured, their resentment is quick, sudden, and im- patient ; they are conquered, not broken-hearted ; reduced to obedience, not subdued to slavery.' f Our rude ancestors had, as will be supposed, their sea- sons of festivity, when the song, the lyre, and the dance con- tributed to their enjoyment. On the occasion of a marriage, or the successful issuft of a war, and at given periods of the year, pleasure in these forms returned. Considerable change, we may be sure, came over their usages in this respect when they fell under the sway of the Romans. Their wars among themselves then came to an end. Many of them also be- came Christians, and by such, pagan customs would be wholly, or in great part, abandoned. Concerning the domestic habits, and the general morals ^e'^sritono of the Britons, our opinion will be very low if we credit one ~cSon. statement made by Csesar. According to this historian, the male members of a family, however numerous, had their wives in common, and the children borne by a wife passed for the children of her accredited husband.:!: It may be questioned, however, whether Csesar had such knowledge of the Britons as to warrant him in making this statement. He could only have made such a report from hearsay ; and we have no means of knowing what that hearsay was really worth. We doubt if it was even partially true. The con- clusion may have been a hasty inference from appearances * Diod. Sic. lib. v. c. 21. •}■ Vita Agric. c, xiii. \ De Bel. Gal, v. 14. 88 CELTS AND ROMANS. cha? 5^ that should not have been so interpreted. The evidence which may be adduced as justifying scepticism on this point is various and considerable. It is well known that chastity in women, is in general rigorously exacted by men in rude states of society. Even among barbarians, there are natural instincts which operate as powerful safeguards in such relations — especially in a latitude like ours. Tacitus furnishes strong evidence to this effect in his account of the ancient Germans. It is Caesar himself, moreover, who states that the Britons differed in scarcely anything from the Gauls ; and among the Gauls, from whom the Britons derived their blood, their language, their religion, and their customs, no trace of any such usage is found. It is certain, also, that women among the Britons were held in high estimation. They shared in the honours of priesthood. The highest gifts pertained to them — inspi- ration, prophecy, the power of working miracles.* Females, when next in succession, became sovereigns, as we see in the case of Boadicea. Should a reigning ^ueen take to herself a husband, she did not cease to be the possessor of the su- preme power ; as we see in the history of Cartismandua, the queen of the Brigantes. It was the wrong done to the chastity of the daughters of Boadicea that filled the cup of indignation among the Britons to overflowing. We further learn from Tacitus, that it was the scandalous proceeding of Cartismandua in marrying beneath her rank, that helped to produce such disaffection among her subjects as to compel her to fly to the Romans for protection. To these consid- erations, and more of the same complexion, we have to add the material fact, that this charge against the Britons rests on the authority of Caesar alone.f * Pomponius Mela, iii, 2, f It should be added, that the literature of the Welsh, especially their eccle- siastical literature, goes far back in their history, and there is not a word in their laws, their traditions, or any of their writings, implying that any such custom had ever to be rooted out from among them. Neither Diodorus nor Strabo make any mention of this alleged usage, though both were familiar with what Cajsar had written. There is a passage, indeed, preserved from Dion Cassius, who wrote more than two centuries later, in which a British female is made to say, in defence of her countrywomen, that they only did openly with their equals, Avhat the Roman ladies did secretly with their inferiors. But this is not Caesar's story ; and even this may be more safely interpreted as an ingenious EEVOLUTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 89 Tlie Britons of both sexes who were in familiar inter- book l . . . CuAP. 6. course with the military officers, the civil functionaries, and the wealthy settlers in this country, could hardly have been persons of the manners which the custom described by the Roman general would suggest. The children from the fami- lies of the opulent, whether Britons or Romans, grew up together in the same public schools. The parents, too, of both classes, often shared in common in the pomp and ban- queting which took place in every Roman settlement, much as in Rome itself. We can easily imagine that the descend- ants of Caractacus were wont to meet the successors of Ostorius at the same board in the halls of Caerleon. In Yerulam, in Richborough, in Lincoln, in York, times came round for such gatherings. The eifect of this intercourse on the manners of the Britons is a matter of history. They did not fail to appreciate the refinements of their conquerors. They were only too willing to give themselves to such pleas- ures, and thus fell but too readily into the snare which had been laid for them. It is of a comparatively early stage in the revolution in taste and manners thus brought about that Tacitus writes in the following terms : ' The Roman ap- parel was seen without prejudice, and the toga became a fash- ionable part of dress. By degrees the charms of vice gained admission to their hearts ; baths, and porticos and elegant banquets grew into vogue ; and the new manners, which, in fact, served only to sweeten slavery, were, by the unsuspect- ing Britons, called the arts of polished humanity.'* Such was the course of change, for better and for worse, summary, which came upon social life in Britain through the ascend- ency of the Romans. Some of the great men who con- quered for Rome persuaded themselves that their con- mode of rebuking licentiousness in Rome, than as presenting a trustworthy re- port of what was really taking place in Britain. So Tacitus aimed to shame the degenerate Romans, by giving his own colouring to the manners of the Germans. Xiphiline, indeed, attributes the usage imputed to the Britons by Caesar, to the Caledonians in the time of Severus ; but this is mentioned as a feature of the barbarism which distinguished that people, and so as to imply that such was not the custom of the Britons generally. We do not think, however, that it was the usage of the ancient Caledonians any more than of the ancient Britons. The abbreviator of Dion Cassius is not a sufficient authority on tliis point, taken alone. * Vita Agric. xxii. 90 CELTS AND EOMANS. cha? 5^' 9.^^sts were on the side of humanity ; and some who ruled in the name of that power believed that they were ruling to that end. But these larger and purer purposes of the wise, were sadly counteracted by the narrow and selfish policy of the unwise. The system, indeed, when once consolidated, remained the same. But despotic authority, under the names, and under some of the forms, of liberty, was at its centre ; and the administrations related to that centre took their complexion from the character of the man who hap- pened to be enthroned there. The sway of virtuous princes secured comparative tranquillity and happiness to more than a hundred millions of people. But such intervals of pros- perity were only intervals. With the feeble and vicious ruler came the evils to be expected from such rule. On the whole, the condition of affairs in Roman Britain was fair and imposing on its surface, but hollow beneath. Corrup- tion in Rome never failed to become the parent of corrup- tion in all its dependencies. The distinctions of rich and poor obtained in some degree among the Britons even in their vanquished state. The arts of peace came into the place of the calamities of war. But even that change may not be a change for the better. What is gained in quiet and comfort, may be gained at a serious loss to virtue and manhood. By this process, the fidelity, the courage, and the national spirit, which had characterized the Britons in their rude state, were all deeply impaired. The men of sub- stance were flattered, baited with pleasure, and rendered harmless by such means ; and while the industrious fur- nished the conqueror with a revenue, the adventurous were made to replenish his armies in distant provinces. Such was the general policy of Rome. Britain was used so long as it could be used, and was abandoned when it could be used no longer. It had been civilized into helplessness, and it was then left to its fate. tiumraary. But rctribution followed in the wake of this policy. In the history of the Roman power, an army of mercenaries came by degrees to be the only instrument by which that power could be maintained ; and so, as might have been foreseen, the empire passed into the hands of that army. REVOLUTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 91 During four centuries of comparative poverty and hardship, book l Eome had grown wonderfully in her capacity both for con- — '-' quest and for government. During the next three centuries, her authority was gradually extended over the three con- tinents of the known world. In the centuries which follow, we see everything once distinctive of republican Rome be- come common to her world-wide provinces. We see the empire become the possession, either by accident or pur- chase, of some of the meanest and most wicked of mankind ; and Ave have to look, for the greater part, on enterprise without greatness, on splendour without reality, and on tranquillity which proves to be the tranquillity of decay. There is a majestic unity, a scientiiic grandeur, about the Roman law and its administratibn, which is apt to fas- cinate the imagination of some men. The fault we find with the Roman civilization is, that it gave the mind no object of public interest, and so did nothing to ensure that progress of thought, and that development of moral feeling, on which all true civilization must rest. In judging con- cerning civilization, we have to look first to the individual man, and to the amount of intelligence and virtue possible to him ; and we have then to look to what society would be where all should be thus enlightened and thus moral. In pur- suing this track of thought, the immediate effect must be, to feel how far the most civilized communities are from being really civilized. ^N'evertheless, here is the true con- ception of civilized life. It is real, in the measure in which it ensures intelligence and virtue to society, by ensuring it to the individuals of whom society is composed. It presents man at his best. All social tendencies are good but as they work towards this result. Tried by this test, the Roman civilization is lamentably wanting. Over persons and over provinces — over its great world, its tendencies were to de- press thought to one dead level, to shut in virtue to one dull routine, to dwarf and deform humanity rather than to elevate and perfect it. It told men they were at liberty to buy and sell, to get gain and to enjoy, on any scale. If more intellectually disposed, they might study antiquities, speculate in philosophy, become artists or poets ; but they y2» CELTS AND KOMANS. cn?? 5' ^^^s* ^ot presume to know anything about state matters. They must have no country, no dreams about patriotism or liberty. They must accept the imperial wisdom as always infallible, and never venture to question any of its proceed- ings. All the nobler aspirations of their nature must exist only to be checked, subdued, and to produce that sense of stifled nature, of heart-sickness, which a generous man so suffering can alone comprehend. Nor was escape possible except by flying to the outposts of barbarism, and conform- ing to a life worse than death. The sphere of this deadly pressure was not that of a nation only. It embraced the world. It clutched its victims everywhere. Overshadowed by such a power, even the things which were told that they might live, could not Ih/e. Despotism is a form of treason against humanity, and it is a law of nature that humanity shall never serve it with its best. Modem civilization has no doubt derived some advan- tages from the Roman laws, especially from those munici- pal laws which left to the cities of the empire some sem- blance of freedom when it had wholly disappeared else- where. But England owes really nothing to that source. Our laws are all from ourselves. They were born with us, and they have lived and grown with us. From the period we have now reached, the civil power of Rome ceases to have any connexion with English history. Its days are numbered. It is soon to be no more. The Britons But the Britous in the meanwhile are not to become ex- conqierors!'^ tiuct — are uot to dccay. Schooled by adversity, and ele- vated by the Christian influences which have taken root among them, they are to become intelligent, moral, devout, and are to be a people characterized by industry, and by high comparative virtue and hapniness, when some fourteen centuries shall have passed away. One of the earliest of those national sayings which show the kind of life this peo- ple were destined to live, is — ' Esteem the man who looks with love on the countenance of nature, on the works of art, and on the face of the little child.' Tlie sj)irit of reli- gion and of poetry remains with this people ; and if the question be asked, What are the qualities essential to the EEVOLIJTION IN SOCIAL LIFE. 93 true poet ? — the answer from the same remote past is : ' An book l ... - 1.1 Chap. 6. eye to see what is in nature, a heart to love it, and courage to follow it.' Instruction in his triad form is so old among the Britons, as to have been known to very ancient writers, both Latin and Greek, as the pages of Pomponius Mela and Diogenes Laertius show.* It will be proper to state in this place, that the effect of f^^l^^^^^ the conquest by the Romans, and of the system founded S SrV*"* upon it, was of a kind to leave very unequal traces of the ^'^l^^ *^ British tongue, and of the British people, over the surface of the country. The chain of mountains stretching from the Highlands of Scotland into Derbyshire, sometimes called the English Apennines, divides that portion of the island into two great sections. The slopes of these mountains de- scend on the one side towards St. George's Channel, on the other towards the German Ocean. The eastern side of this great watershed embraces the level and rich lands between the Humber and the Forth, and over that space the traces of the past are very conspicuously Eoman. But from the vale of Strathclyde, embracing a large tract of land in Dumbartonshire, from Cumberland, the old land of the Cumry, and along to the southward through Westmoreland, Lancashire, and the border counties of Wales, into Devon- shire and Cornwall, the natives remain more thickly on the * Lord Macaulay, in my humble judgment, greatly underrates both the Brit- ish and the Saxon periods in our history. His sympathy with his subject can scarcely be said to begin until the Norman chivalry makes its appearance among us. I select two instances from a single paragraph, in illustration of the remark which I have felt bound to make. His lordship says that the inhabitants of Britain, ' when first known to the Tyrian mariners, were little superior to the natives of the Sandwich Islands.' — Vol i, 4. Our earliest knowledge of the Britons from Tyrian sources describes them as comparatively civilized in their manners, as fond of strangers, as indus- trious, as skilful in working mines, as wearing tunics of cloth descending to the feet, as just in their dealings, and as possessing herds of cattle. (See p. 1.) Is this a picture of the Sandwich Islanders as discovered by Captain Cook ? His lordship further says : ' Of the western provinces which obeyed the Caesars, she [Britain] was the last that was conquered and the first that was flung away.' — Ibid. This may be true, and the conclusion which the antithesis tends to convey may be untrue. The remote and isolated position of this country made it the most difficult to reach while Rome continued strong, and the most difficult to retain when Rome had become weak. Some rich provinces in the east were acquired later, and flung away sooner. — Gibbon, vol. i. c. i. It is deeply to be regretted that the value of the most wonderful narrative this wonderful age has produced, should be so often impaired by strokes of rhetoric of this sort. 94 CELTS AND KOMANS. Cha?5^' g^'o^^^^j ^^^ have given the impress of their language ■ more generally to the objects which have survived them. The great northern line of road in those days, was not so much on the Lancashire as on the Yorkshire side of the Yorkshire hills, passing through Leicester, Lincoln, York, and J^ewcastle. This is one of the facts concerning the dis- turbance, and the new distributions of race, consequent on the settlement of the Romans in Britain, which contribute to explain some later facts in our history. The Eritons of Cumberland and Cornwall were linked together by the Si- lures, whose territories extended through Cheshire and Shropshire down to the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel. In the western half of the island, thus marked oif for the most part by mountains or rivers from the eastern half, the Britons have never been more than partially displaced. Over this surface they have been largely amalgamated with other races ; first with the settlers who came in with the Romans, and afterwards with Saxons and Danes. On the more southern and eastern side of the island, the blood which prevailed, even in the Roman period, was much more the blood of the stranger, or of a mixed race. BOOK II. SAXONS AND DANES CHAPTEE I. SOUECES OF AITGLO-SAXON HISTORY. C^S AR, the greatest of generals, and Tacitus, the great- book ii. est of historians, have been our chief authorities in rela- tion to Roman Britain. More than a hundred Continental writers belonging to the first four or five Christian centuries have supplied fragments of information concerning this island. But many of those references are very brief, and of small value. Our best guides, next to Caesar and Taci- tus, have been Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Dion Cassius. Other lights have crossed our path at intervals, but made no stay — and now that we are about to pass from the Roman period to what was to follow, the twilight deepens. For our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon history we depend ^^^^^^^ ^^ on three sources — on British writers ; on the heathen poetry ^a¥on'iiis. and traditions of the north of Europe ; and on the Christian ^°^y- literature of the Saxons in Britain after they were convert- ed. Welsh history is by no means so barren a theme as is British aa- •^ "^ T 1 thorities. commonly supposed. But it does not throw much light on the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The work published under the title of Annals of Wales is one of the most BOOK Chap. 96 SAXONS AND DANES. II- meagre productions imaginable. Under some years there is no entry, and down to 1066 the average for each year does not exceed half a line. Tliis scantiness may be evi- dence of antiquity, but it is an antiquity that yields nothing, or next to nothing. The Chronicle of the Princes is fuller, more like the Saxon Chronicle^ but it does not commence before the year 681, and its references to anything passing beyond the Welsh territory are few. The Chronicle of Ca- radoc is copied from the above, with some traditionary mat- ter intermixed.* From these last sources, and still more from what is now known concerning the laws and institu- tions of the Welsh in times before the Conquest, a much more favorable conclusion than is generally adopted may be arrived at in regard to the civilization of that people. It will appear, as we proceed, that Anglo-Saxon Britain may be said to have been subject to the last, not only to a difference between Danish law and Saxon law, but to three distinct codes of law — the laws of Northumbria, of Mercia, and of Wessex being in many respects different from each other. So it was in those days with the Britons. There was the Yenedotian code for ]S"orth "Wales, the Dimetian code for South Wales, and the Gwent code for the south- east portion of that territory. The laws of the Celts on the western side of the Severn and of Offa's Dyke, had much in common ; but they had also their differences, and it was thus w^ith the Teutons on the eastern side of that line. Tlie best known of these old British codes is that of Howell the Good. It may be traced to the first half of the tenth century. But it was itself, as may be imagined, a di- gest from laws and usages much more ancient. f In these ascertained laws and institutions of Wales there * Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. Folio. 1841. f ' Howell the Good, son of Cadell, prince of Cymru, summoned to him six men from every cantrev (one hundred townships) in all Cymru, to the White House on the Tav, in Dyved, and those of the wisest men in his dominion ; four of them laics, and two clerks. The cause for bringinj:; the clerks was, lest the laics should introduce what might be contrary to Holy Scripture. ' And they examined the laws : such of them as might be too severe in punish- ment, to mitigate ; and such as might be too lenient, to render more vigorous. Some of the laws they suffered to remain unaltered ; others they willed to amend ; others they abrogated entirely ; and they enacted some new laws.' — Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales^ book iii. c. i. SOURCES OF ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY. 97 is mucli to interest the historical student. He will possibly book il 1 . 1 ^ IT Chap. 1. be surprised to see how a people accounted so rude contriv- ed to place restrictions on the royal power, to distinguish between the legislative and executive functions of a state, and to leave as little as possible in the administration of law to the discretion of the magistrate. J^ot less unexpect- ed, perhaps, will be the evidence of the care taken to deter- mine the limits between governing and governed ; to define the duties of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant ; to classify offences ; to settle principles of evidence, and to adjust penalties to offences ; to ensure a sober main- tenance to the ministers of religion ; to encourage com- merce ; and to confer honour on gifted, learned, and scien- tific men.* All these seeds of civilization were in their course of de- velopment among the Britons, from the times when the greater number of them retreated westward. But many did not so retreat, and Anglo-Saxon history was to be affected considerably by these facts. Tlie British writers, however, to whom we owe most in relation to English history, are Gildas, Nennius, Asser, and, ^VG suppose we must add, Geoffrey of Monmouth. There were three writers of the name of Gildas, who Hildas. were contemporaries, or nearly so. Tlie author of the his- torical work under that name was a monk of Bandon, in I^orth Wales. He appears to have become thoroughly Eo- manized in his tastes, and to have brought a very bad tem- per to the work of disparaging all, whether Britons, Scots, or Saxons, who were not of that party. Tliis ammus is so manifest, that some have doubted if he was really a Briton. His prejudices in this respect have led him to make state- ments which are known to be false ; and there is no doubt that his colouring generally is greatly exaggerated. Of course these facts are to be borne in mind in any use that is made of Gildas.* Becent criticism has shown that the work which has Nenmua. been so long attributed to J^ennius, was probably written * Ancient Laws mid Institutes of Wales, book iii. c. I. f Britannic Researches, by the Rev, Beale Poste, 165-180. Vol. I.— 7 98 SAXONS AND DANES. ^caS. ?' ^y ^ Briton named Marcus, who became a bishop in Ireland. The work is now assigned to the year 822, and the great object of the writer is said to have been, to do honour to the memory of St. Germanus and St. Patrick. Nennius edited, or republished, the work about forty years later, and it has since borne his name. Many parts of this production con- sist of worthless traditions ; but there is a vein of truth in it that may be separated to the purposes of history.* The same may be said of the old Welsh bards Aneurin, and Ta- liesin, and of the Chronicle by Tysilio — of which more pre- sently. sc ndina- ^^^ poctry of Scaudiuavia makes us acquainted with Ind°t?rdi*-'^ the Saxon and the Dane along those stormy creeks and bays tion. from which they launched forth as sea-kings some ten or twelve centuries since. It is well to know what those chil- dren of Odin were before the education of time and circum- stances had given their descendants their great w^ork to do in this island. The J^dda, and the Song of Zodhrok, have their uses in this way. One of the first lessons of Provi- dence to this seaman race was to give them a settled home, and to make them Christians ; and, that done, we find them abstaining, with singular simplicity and sincerity, from all mention of what they had been as pagans. In that respect, the past with them was in a memorable degree the past. It is only as Christians that they become historians, and then a considerable space had intervened since their land- ing as freebooters on the shores of Britain. The space, however, between those events, was not such as to allow tradition to become uncertain concerning the one or the other. The north had been to them a region of myth and fable. In Anglo-Saxon Britain there was no growth of that description. The imagination became otherwise occupied. Christian superstitions came into the place of pagan fictions. But it is not difiicult to distinguish between the supersti- tions, and the genuine history with which they are connected. f * See the edition of this writer published by the Irish Archaeological Society, and edited by the Rev. Dr. Todd and the Hon. Algernon Herbert. Dublin. 1848. f Mallet's Northern Antiquities. S0UK0E8 OF ANGLO-SAXON" HI8T0EY. 99 When the venerable Bede wrote his Ecclesiastical His- book il tory^ more than two centuries had passed since the landing — '- of Hengist and Horsa ; something more than a century had ^*^on intervened since the founding of the last of the Anglo-Saxon b««iTl wessex, the othcr, had been sufficiently lormidaDle as antas^omsts Mercia, and Northum- to dispose the Ans^lo-Saxon states towards any combined bna, in re- -^ *-" "^ lation to course of action from a sense of common danger. But the Britons . ^ scot?^ another cause of this indisposition towards union may be found where it has not hitherto been sought — viz., in the geographical positions of the several states of the Heptarchy towards each other. These positions were such as to fence off the whole border-land, both of the "Welsh and of the Scots ; and each of the great Saxon states bordering on those bad neighbours judged itself competent to deal with its own foes along its own line of territory, and was dis- posed to content itself with that wardenship as being prop- erly its own. We read nothing accordingly of allied forces as carrying on the wars of the Wessex men westward, or of the ISTorthumbrian men northward. Nor do we find the men of Mercia, whose lands lay between these two, acting at any time with either. The smaller states of the Hep- tarchy — ^Iient, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia — were shut off, as we have shown, both from the Britons and the Scots, by the strong curved belt formed by the three greater states, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. 'No force from Wales or Scotland could reach those lesser states without passing through the territory of these greater states. It was, in con- sequence, from the three more powerful Saxon states, and not from the Celt, either in the west or in the north, that KISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHEL8TAN. 129 the four lesser states of the Heptarchy had to apprehend book ii. danger. Eut a new foe is now about to assail both the greater Novelty of and the smaller kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain. This fr«m the foe is one who will seem to become only the more formida- ble the more he is resisted. He will necessitate a suspension of feuds. He will baffle in no small degree the best con- centrated means that can be directed against him. The enemy in this case, is a maritime enemy, and the sea-board of Britain is of great extent. The points of danger accord- ingly are many, and widely apart, and seem to require that the means of defence should be widely diffused. The great want of the exigency, accordingly, must be the want of confederation, and united action. But, from the nature of the attacks to be repelled, such action will be extremely difficult to realize. Every local force will be naturally disposed to look to its local interests and dangers. War between one Saxon state and another may come to an end, but combined operation for their common security will still be hard to accomplish. Had the concentration of the sov- ereignty in Anglo-Saxon Britain been realized earlier, the new invader might have experienced such a reception as would have taught him to seek his booty or his home else- where. But the English monarchy had barely come into existence, when it became exposed to dangers that would have tasked its resources to the utmost had it been old and consolidated. The power which was to pros- trate everything in France, might well prove formidable to the Saxons in Britain. Of the skill which experience gives in working from a centre, our ancestors of those days knew little ; and the intelligence and virtue necessary to subordinate the local to the general, prejudice to patriotism, ' was, as may be supposed, in a great degree wanting. Under the year Y8T the Saxon Chronicle records the First de- . . scent of the marriage of Brittric, the predecessor of Egbert, to Eadburga, Danes, the daughter of Offa, and then adds : ' In his days first came three ships of JSTorthmen, out of HaBrethaland. * And * Lappenberg says that, by Haerethaland we are, probably, to * understand Vol. I.— 9 130 SAXONS AND DANES. ^cLa?. 4* *^® reeve rode to the place, and would have driven them to the king's town, because he knew not who they were, and thej there slew him. These were the first ships of Danish men which sought the land of the English nation.' The next record of this description was in 794. Under that year we read : ' The Heathens ravaged among the Northumbrians, and plundered Egferth's monastery at Done-mouth ; and there one of their leaders was slain, and also some of their ships were wrecked by a tempest ; and many of them were there drowned, and some came on shore alive, and they were soon slain at the river's mouth.' These are our only notices of the descents of these ' Northmen — Danish men ' — and ' Heathens,' as they are called, before the ac- cession of Egbert. Country of The pcoplc tlius variously designated in the earliest men— aim noticcs of tlicm lu our anuals, were as diversified in orierin of their in- ' rrn i n i -r^ i . cursions. as the abovc terms would suggest, ihe shores of the Baltic, including Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, with their nu- merous islands, formed the country from which they came. What the Saxons had been in the sixth century, the Danes had become, in nearly all respects, in the ninth century — pirates ; but pirates capable of prosecuting their schemes of war and plunder upon a large scale, on the land or on the deep. After the first few experiments, their object in visiting Britain appears to have been to secure a settlement in the country, but a settlement which they seem to have contemplat- ed as to be made, not so much by subduing the natives, as by destroying them. Causes of We kuow uot the causes which prompted the first great mea™^^*'' Saxou movcmcut. The increase of numbers, the pres- sure of new tribes migrating westward, rival leaderships and convulsions — any, or all of these circumstances, might have contributed to give the stream of races the direction then taken by them. But we are not left so much in un- certainty in regard to the causes which disposed the North- men to direct their course towards Britain, in preference to seeking a settlement on shores nearer to their own. Tlie con- Hordeland in Norway, famed for its sea-kings, and which, at a later period, sent forth the unyielding discoverers of Iceland.' — Hist. ii. 12. RISE OF THE ENGLISH MONAKCHY — ATHEL8TAN. 131 quests of Charlemagne in Germany, and the sternness with book il which he insisted that all subdued by him to the condition — '-' of subjects, should profess themselves Christians, opposed a formidable barrier to migration southward. A few years only had intervened since the achievements of Charlemagne, in Germany, when these invaders begin to make their appear- ance in this country. It should be stated, also, that our own aristocratic law of primogeniture was rigoroi^ly enforced among those northern hordes. The eldest son inherited the property of his father. The younger sons were left to make acquisitions for themselves by such means as should appear to them expedient. Hence the Corsair life so commonly assumed among that people, and the ease with which a chief of capacity and daring could attract followers to his standard. The ter- rible scourge which came thus into action, passed along the shores of Flanders, Holland, France, and Ireland, and fell with memorable ejffect on Britain. ^ In 832 the Danes appeared in the Tl^ames, ravaged the Isle of Sheppey, and retired unmolested with their spoil. In the year following, an armament of five-and-thirty vessels entered the Dart, and Egbert, after a stubborn engagement, was compelled to leave the enemy master of the field. Two years later, another force landed in Cornw9,ll, and pre- vailed on some of the Cornish Britons to join their ranks. But in the next battle victory was on the side of the Sax- ons. Egbert died the following year. It was now evident that the obiect of the Danes was to intentions ^ . . 1 T . - of the secure a permanent looting in the country, and not simply Danes. to possess themselves of booty. Measures were taken to guard the coast more effectually. Military officers were stationed from place to place, that on the approach of an enemy the armed men of the district might be assem- bled to resist a landing. In the first year of Ethelwulf, who succeeded his father Egbert, three separate armaments appeared off the coast of Britain. Tlie king opposed him- self to one of these, but with what success is unknown. * Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Lappenberg, ii, 10-18, and note by Thorpe. Turner's Anglo-Saxons^ i. book iv. c 1, ^ f Chron. Sax. ad an. 832-836. BOOK Chap. 132 SAXONS AND DANES. II- Tlie force which landed at Southampton was defeated hj the - men of Hampshire ; but that which landed at Portland pre- vailed against the men of Dorset. The army which made its appearance in Lincolnshire in 838 was more powerful than any that had preceded it. The men who encountered the invaders perished by the sword or in the marshes ; and the enemy ravaged the country at pleasure from the Hum- ber to the Thames. The next year battles were fought, with great loss of life, at Canterbury, Rochester, and near London. In 840 Ethel wulf led his men against a force which had landed from thirty-five ships, but was defeated. The next four years in the Saxon Chronicle are blank ; but under the year 851 we find the following record : This year, Ceorl, the ealdorman, with the men of Devonshire, fought against the heathen men at Wicanbeorg, and there made great slaughter, and got the victory. And the same year king Athelstan, and Ealchere the ealdorman, fought on shipboard, and slew a great number of the enemy at Sandwich in Kent, and took nine . ships, and put the others to flight ; and the heathen men remained for the first time over the winter in Thanet. And the same year came three hundred and fifty ships to the mouth of the Thames, and the crews landed and took Canterbury and London by storm, and put to flight Beorht- wulf, king of the Mercians, with his army, and then went south over the Thame into Surry ; and there king Ethel- wulf and his son Ethelbald, with the army of the West Saxons, fought against them at Aclea [Ockley], and there made the greatest slaughter among the heathen army that we have heard reported to the present day.' But these partial successes did not free the country from the ]S"orthmen. In 853 there was destructive warfare in Thanet between the ' heathen men' on the one side, and the men of Kent and Sussex on the other ; and under the year 855 we find the following significant entry in the Chronicle above cited : * This year the heathen men for the first time remained over the winter in Sheppey ; and the same year King Ethelwulf gave by charter the tenth of his land throughout the kingdom for the glory of God ^nd his own RISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHELSTAN. 133 eternal salvation. And tlie same year he went to Rome in book il great state^ and dwelt there twelve months^ and then re- — '- turned homewards.' The reader would probably think th^^ the king who could be absent from his domain for such a space of time, at such a season, and on such an errand, was not inaptly described by Malmesbury, as a man more fitted to wear a cowl, than to wield a sceptre.* Ethelwulf died two years after his return from Rome. Ethelbald and Ethelbert, sons of Ethelwulf, had distin- guished themselves in the resistance made to the Danes, and had given an appearance of vigour to the reign of their father which the king himself could never have imparted to it. But history gives us no account of the military achieve- ments of these princes during the short period of their sove- reignty. Ethelbald reigned two years only ; Ethelbert died in 865, having reigned five years. Ethelbert was succeeded by Ethelred, the third of the sons of Ethel- wulf. It is from the accession of Ethelred to the throne of Wes- Recession of Ethelred, sex, at a time when so much was expected from Wessex by ^y^'^^l "^ the other states, that we have to date the most terrible suc- cesses and devastations of the JN'orthmen. The struggle now becomes national. The question now to be decided is, whether the Dane or the Saxon is to be the future possessor of England. From the armaments of the invader, it is clear that the object of his enterprise is thus large. The Saxons were now made to feel that the danger affected all, and could be resisted only by a union embracing all. But the history of the ravages which become so wide-spread from this time has some antecedents that should be men- tioned. In the last year of Ethelbert the Danes made a descent story of , Bagnar on l^orthumbria. That kingdom had assumed a sort of in- Lodbrog. dependence since the death of Egbert ; and at this time two chiefs, Osbert and Ella, had filled it with dissensions, * Dr. Lingard {H'ut. i. 211 et scq.) takes exception to this censure of Malmes- bury, and to soften the reproach cast upon Ethelwulf, and on the superstitious influences which made him what he was, the historian has represented the danger from the Northmen in this reign as much less than we know it to have been. — Chron. Sax. Asser, Vita Alfred. 134 SAXONS AND DANES. "cha?. "* ^^ competitors for rule. Ella at once turned his arms against the N"orthmen, defeated them, and made their leader pjjisoner. It proved that these depredators were only a remnant of a much larger gathering, whose point of desti- nation had been the coast of Britain. But many vessels had been wrecked ; and the chief who had been captured, was found to be no other than Ragnar Lodbrog, a man whose deeds had made his name the terror of every coast from the Baltic to Ireland. Twenty years since he had ascended the Seine, made himself master of Paris, and surrendered it to the Franks on condition of receiving 7000 pounds of silver as the price of its ransom. Ella doomed the veteran ma- rauder to death. He was cast into a dungeon of venomous snakes ; and the poetry of his people describes him as con- soling himself in his suffering by predicting that the ' cubs' — meaning his sons — would take good recompense for the loss of the ' boar.' * Enterprise This was in 865. In the next year Inofuar and Ubbo, oflngilar ./ o ? and Ubbo. SOUS of Ragnar, found themselves at the head of twenty thousand men, who were ready to share the fortunes of their chiefs, and to avenge the fat e of their father. The arma- ment appears to have been driven past the coast of ISTorth- urtibria by unfavourable winds. But a landing was se- cured without opposition on the neighbour coast of East Anglia. This army, great as it may seem, was not deemed equal to the object contemplated. The winter of 866-7 was in great part occupied in securing reinforcements, in collecting horses for cavalry, and in attempting to sow disunion among the natives. In Eebruary, the invaders began their march towards Northumbria, and in a fortnight they had fixed their head- quarters in York. Osbert and Ella, laying aside their dif- ferences, joined in an attack upon the enemy in the neigh- bourhood of that city. The onset was in favour of the as- sailants ; but in the fight within the city the courage of the ITorthmen became desperate, Osbert and the most distin- guished of his followers were slain, and it was the fate of * Asser, Vita Alf. Chron. Sax. Saxo Grammat. 176. Turner's Anglo- Saxons^ book iv. c. 3. RISE OF THE ENGLISH MONAECinr — ATHEL8TAN. 135 Ella to fall alive into the hand of the sons of Ragnar. His book ii. ribs were severed, his lungs were torn through the crevice — - thus made, and salt was thrown on the wounds. This kind of death, horrible as it may seem, was not uncommon among the I^orthmen. From that day England north of the Humber may be said to have been subdued. An army was stationed at York to secure the possession, and to protect in some meas- ure the industry of the country ; while a second, and a much larger army, directed its way southward. But at Nottingham the progress of this force was The cbeck checked. The army opposed to it was one of great strength, ham. It was led by the king of Mercia, and by Ethelred and his brother Alfred, from "Wessex. The l^orthmen shrank from the hazard of an engagement, and surrendered the place on condition of being allowed to retrace their steps northward. The DS,nes from E'ottingham then rejoined their country- men at York.* But the check thus given to the enemy was transient. The three years which followed before the accession of Alfred to the throne of Wessex, were years of memorable calamity to the people of Saxon Britain. Inguar, re- nowned for his far-seeing craft, and ITbbo, no less renowned for his ferocious bravery, led their forces, without opposi- tion, through Mercia into East Anglia. Another horde of adventurers, in the meantime, landed at Lindsey in Lincoln- shire, who possessed themselves of the rich monastery of Bardeney, plundered it, razed it to the ground, and put all the inmates to the sword.f In the absence of Burhed, the kin^: of Mercia, who chose Battle of Kesteven. to be otherwise employed, Algar, a young ealdorman, cele- brated for his patriotism and courage, is said to have sum- moned the bolder men of the marshes to his standard. Many obeyed his call, even monks are described as ex- changing the cowl for the helmet, and as resolved to defend their Christian homes to the last against the merciless pagans. Tolius, a lay brother of high military reputation, * Ckron. Sax. Asser. Snorre, 108. Pet. Olaus, 111. f Sax. Chron. Asser. 136 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. Chap. 4. led the contingent of this description from the Abbey of Croyland. The chivalrous men thus brought together faced the enemy at a place called Kesteven. In the desperate encounter on that spot three Danish kings were slain, and Algar and his followers chased the Danes to the entrance of their camp. Night then came on. In the morning came the alarming tidings that five kings and five jarls had reached the Danish camp during the night. Three-fourths of Algar's men now deemed their condition hopeless, and fled. But the small band left took the sacrament from the ecclesiastics, now their companions in arms, and resolved to oj)pose themselves to the last to the odds against them. The Danes buried their slaughtered kings, and then sharpened their weapons for the revenge to follow. But the wings and centre of the Saxons were found to be immo- vable. So well had they chosen their position, and such was their steady bravery, that through the whole Mj they defended themselves against showers of arrows, and the hea- vy swords of their assailants. Towards evening the Danes feigned a retreat. Algar had cautioned his men against this stratagem. But it was in vain. They descended in chase of the foe — and then began the carnage. For now they were encompassed by numbers, and the Saxons fell on every side. Algar and Tolius, indeed, with a few faithful adherents, regained the hill-side, and there kept the enemy at bay, until, covered with wounds, their bodies were added to the heaps of the slain. The few youths who gave report of this tragedy to the monks of Croyland, were the only survivors. Destructive From that battle-field the ' heathen army ' mi2:ht be March of ./ & the Danes, tracked by the conflagrations which marked its way. The wealthy abbeys of Croyland and Medeshamslede were de- stroyed, and no lives that could be reached were spared. The head of the abbot of Croyland was struck ofl on the steps of the altar. In storming Medeshamstede a son of Eagnar was wounded ; and, to avenge it, Ubbo, his brother, is said to have inflicted the death-wound on the abbot and eighty monks with his own hand. Huntingdon and Ely shared the fate of the places above named. The nuns of RISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHEL8TAN. 137 Ely, who were many of them from wealthy and noble fam- book n. ilies, suffered indignities worse than death. Tlietford was the next place taken, and that also was given to the flames. The good king Edmund opposed them in vain, and met a Martyrdom martyr's death at their hands. The name of St. Edmund EdSd. stands high in the Roman calendar in after ages. East An- glia now ceased to be a Christian state. The pagan leader Guthorm claimed it as his own. Mercia had shown nothing of its ancient prowess in this honr of tibial. It rested with the West Saxons to determine the race and the faith that should obtain in the future of Britain.* We have said that the Northmen now invaded Britain The East- Anglian m such numbers as to show that their obiect was not so Danes in- ^ vadeWes- much transient plunder as a settlement. But no country sex. could be productive under such masters. With them, to possess was to impoverish. Moreover, their restless and rov- ing habits, after a short interval of quiet, often became too strong to be controlled by their new resolutions. Nor was it possible that they should be without some sense of dan- ger, so long as a large portion of the country remained in the hands of a people who might possibly become strong, and who would not fail to be intensely disposed to use their strength in avenging the wrongs of the past. Some of these barbarian hordes, accordingly, having secured their booty, returned for a season to their homes ; while others, who might have been expected to settle in the acquisitions they had made, are found seeking new excitement in new adventures. Under such influences, in the early part of the year 871, a large division of the ' heathen army ' in East Anglia di- rected their course towards the lands of the West Saxons. This army was led by the two kings Bagseg and Ilalfdene, * That the Danes marched over the territory above named, and left upon it the terrible traces of their presence, we learn from the Saxon Chronicle, Asser, and other sources. But for the particulars concerning Algar, and the battle of Kesteven, we are indebted to the more doubtful authority of the history attrib- uted to Ingulf. I am disposed, however, on many grounds, rather to credit than distrust that narrative in this instance. It describes nothing which is not charac- teristic of the historical personages named, and of the struggle genei*ally between the belligerents. In this case there was nothing to be gained by invention, and the substance of the narrative is certainly truthful. 138 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. Chap. 4. The ealdorman Ethelwulf. Battle of heading. Battle of Aslidune. by Guthorm, by two distinguished chiefs named Sidroc. and by the jarls — or earls — Osbeam, Frene, and Harald. They ascended the Thames in their ships, and sending off detachments in different directions, overran the coast-lands and the south provinces of the West Saxon territory in great multitudes. The main division penetrated as far as Bead- ing, in Berkshire, and made themselves masters of that place, as a favourable point from which to convey their plunder by means of the river to the sea. On the third day after their arrival, a part of this divi- sion mounted their horses, and sallied forth into the country in search of spoil. The other part remained in the town, and occupied themselves in strengthening its fortifications. The men of Wessex had not expected such visitors at so early a season. But Ethelwulf, an ealdorman of that dis- trict, called all possessed of arms in his neighbourhood to- gether, and determined to attack the marauders before they should rejoin their confederates at Keading. He met them at a place called Englafield. In the resolute encounter which follow^ed, one of the jarls was slain, and the rest were put to flight.* Four days later, king Ethelred and his brother Alfred appeared before the walls of Heading. Tlie Danes were slow to accept the challenge thus given to them. But while the Saxons were busy in forming an encampment, the ene- my, rushed forth upon them, and took them by surprise. The battle which ensued was obstinate. The prospect of victory changed for some time from side to side. In the end the heathen men prevailed, and the body of the brave ealdorman Ethelwulf was among those who had fallen.f Enough, however, had taken place to show that the men of Wessex were likely to furnish much graver employment to their enemies than had been imposed upon them in the other Saxon states.:]: Four days only had passed w^hen Ethelred and Alfred were again prepared to take the field. Their place of meeting was Ashdune (or Aston) in Berkshire. The battle on that spot was a real trial of strength. The * Chron. Sax. 811. Asser, Vit. Alf. ■j- Chron. Sax. a.d. 871. Asser, Vita Alf. X Ibid. KISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHEL8TAN. 139 Danes felt that it became them to avail themselves of every ^^^ J possible advantage. The position they had taken was on an eminence, crowned with a short thick underwood, from which, as a kind of breastwork, it would be easy to gall the Saxons in attempting to reach the summit. Alfred was early at the foot of the hill, and prompt in his preparations for the fray. But Ethelred was at mass, and though ap- prised that the moment for action had come, refused to move until the last word should be pronounced by the priest. The king should have given the order for battle, but Alfred, having waited until waiting longer became perilous, raised the signal, and speedily the weapons of his followers were in full play upon the enemy. The fight became stubborn — • destructive — hand to hand. Ethelred soon joined his divi- sion, and charged boldly on the men under the kings Bag- seg and Halfdene. Brave deeds were done by the North- men on that day, but braver by the Saxons. At length the former began to waver, the Saxons rushed on with new courage, and the slaughter which ensued is described by an- cient writers as the greatest England had ever witnessed. Ethelred slew the king Bagseg with his own hand. Among the dead were the two Sidrocs, the three jarls Osbearn, Frene, and Harald, with many more who were accounted the flower and hope of the ^Northmen. The Saxons chased the fugitives from Aston to Reading, strewing the whole way with the slain.* But the calamity of these times was, that to sweep off these barbarians on any scale seemed to be to little pur- pose. The void of to-day was filled up with swarms of new-comers to-morrow. The hive which sent them forth seemed to be inexhaustible. Thus, within a few weeks af- ter the battle of Ashdune, came another at Basing in Hamp- shire, and another at Merton, near to Ashdune. In these engagements the West Saxons acquitted themselves with their wonted ability and courage ; but many of the bravest among them fell, and the enemy, though in neither case a victor, in both cases, to use the language of the old chroni- cle, ' kept the place of carnage.' It was at this juncture of * Asser, a.d. 8V1. Chron. Sax. 140 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. Chap. 4. Accession of Alfred. Increased power of the Danes. afFairs that Ethelred breathed his last — whether from wounds or natural causes is uncertain. His conduct on the whole had been such as to entitle him to the esteem and affection of his subjects. It is in such circumstances that Alfred, since known as the ' great,' comes to the possession of king- ly power.* The character and reign of Alfred have many claims to our attention. Our concern in this place is simply with the military events of his career, and their result. The sons of Ethelred were children ; and there was much in the past, and everything in the present, to prepare men for seeing in Alfred the natural successor to the throne. In place of the court pageants usual on an accession, the scenes awaiting the new king were such as menaced every- thing most -valued by himself and his subjects. Tlie strife before them was deadly, its issue to the last degree doubtful. Soon after the battle of Merton, strong reinforcements join- ed the army at Eeading. Bolder incursions were made into the neighbouring country. Weeks passed and Alfred found it impossible to raise an army capable of meeting such an enemy. His loss from the odds opposed to him at Wilton added to the discouragement of his subjects, and to the sense of weakness which weighed at this time on his own spirit. In twelve months, eight regular engagements had taken place, besides almost incessant skirmishing. Great had been the losses of the E"orthmen, but great also had been the losses of the king. In the meanwhile Alfred's sup- plies of men, expert in the use of the weapons of war, did not keep pace with those of his enemies ; nor was he at liberty to resort to plunder to replenish his exchequer. The issue was, that in the first year of his reign he consented, along with his thanes, to buy off the invaders. But it soon be- came known that all such compacts with that people were worse than useless. Tlie Mercians had tried the expedient. It impoverished them without giving them the promised se- curity. In 874 that once powerful kingdom ceased to exist. In that year, Burhed, its last king, sought an asylum in Eome. One Ceolwulf was set up by the Danes in his * Asser, 21-24. Chron. Sax. a.d. 8*71. Flor. Wigorn. KISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHELSTAN. 141 stead, but was used, as the Romans often used such men, as book il ' ' CuA.p. 4. a tool to bear the odium of their own extortions. Many of the Danes now settled in that country, and gave names to the localities of their choice which have descended to our times.* From 875 to 878 the gloom thickened over Anglo-Sax- on Britain. The old districts being exhausted, the pirate hordes began the exploring of new ground. A second ef- fort was made to bribe them to a distance, and to bind them by special means to their promise ; but the same per- fidy followed. They possessed themselves of Wareham and Exeter, as places of strength, and places whence they might readily descend to the sea with such spoil as they should obtain. Durine: these troubled years, however, the naval history Alfred ^ J ? ' ./ raises a of England may be said to have commenced. Alfred built fleet. or collected a number of ships, manned them wdth brave seamen, and by this means destroyed the greater part of a Danish fleet, w^hich had been driven by foul weather on the coast of Dorset. This was in 877. Tlie armament thus scattered or annihilated, was destined for the relief of Exeter. Tlie besieged, seeing no chance of succour, capitulated, giv- ing hostages to abstain from further hostilities in Wessex. But, reaching Gloucester, they renewed the work of pillage and destruction. The impoverished condition to which they had reduced all the Saxon kingdoms, prompted the banditti which now covered the land, to explore the barren homes of the Welsh, and of the Picts and Scots. But that proved a bootless errand. The last effort made at this crisis against these sons of the destroyer, was at Kynwith, where a feeble garrison resisted a rigorous siege, and surprising the besieg- ers in a sally, destroyed more than a thousand of them. And now the time had come in which the high spirit of the Saxon race appeared to have forsaken them. Many fled with such moveables as they could take with them to other countries ; the rest seem to have learned to look on their unhappy condition as a destiny, and to submit. f * Chron. Sax. a.d. SYl-SH. Asser, 24-26. f Chron. Sax. a.d. 8'73-8'7'7. Asser, 24-29. 142 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. Chap. 4. The lowest, stage of dis- order and depression. Alfred leaves his retreat Popular feeling is ever liable to these alternations. Its excesses in elevation and depression come from the same cause. To yield to tlie pressure of the many, whether for good or evil, is natural to man. Where all seem to obey, it is hard for the individual to resist. But there are some noble natures to whom such self-sustaining power is given, and who can hope where hope seems to have forsaken all beside. Alfred the king was one of these. He might have gathered his staff together, and have found high mili- tary service in other lands ; or hp might have journeyed as a pilgrim to that old Rome upon whose shrines he had gazed in his boyhood. In that case, what would have been the future of English history ? Tlie old northern paganism — which the Saxon had abandoned — would have again become ascendant. The religion of the Cross would probably have ceased. The barbaric customs of Scandinavia would have found a new home in Britain. The near prospect of that powerful English monarchy, towards which so many in- fluences had seemed to be converging, would have vanished. This island might have become, and have long continued,, the great rendezvous of sea-kings — the base from which they would have gone forth to spread their devastations, super- stitions, and barbarisms over the fairest provinces of Europe. Alfred could believe that this was not to be. He could have faith in God. To prevent such calamity, he could watch his last watch, offer his last prayer, do his last pos- sible deed. It is clear that he must have thought it pos- sible that even from this state of things there might be a return, and that it behoved him to be vigilant, patient, and ready. The selfish did not rule in this man — but the hu- mane, the patriotic, the religious ; and he has his reward. The seeds of the coming England were in that great heart ; though its ground-spring of action, we can readily suppose, was a simple sense of duty. During the winter of 87T-8 the king concealed himself among the woods and lowlands of Somersetshire. Miser- able was the shelter there found, and difficult often was it to obtain tlie poorest means of subsistence for himself and his few faithful followers. But with the new life of the KISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ^ATHELSTAN. 143 Bpring-time came new hope to the fugitives. We meddle book n. not now with the traditionary or the doubtful. Suffice it to say, that in the spring of 878 Alfred quitted Iiis retreat at Atlielney, and called the faithful men of the district to his standard, and that he soon found himself suiTOunded by a brave and loyal host, who gazed upon their king as upon one who had been dead and was alive again. Some weeks passed in collecting greater numbers, in severe military ex- ercises, and in some successful skirmishing. Wilts and Hants, as well as Somerset, sent their supplies of men and means. Tlie head-quarters of the Danes was at Chippenham. ^Jj^j*'^ Alfred marched in that direction. But the place where the two armies met was Ethadune, probably Edington, near Westbury, in Wiltshire. The White Horse on the side of Edington Hill, seen at different points to a distance of many miles across the vale beneath, is still recognized by the traveller as commemorative of the death-struggle which once raged on that eminence. The conflict was desperate on the part of the Danes, but decisive on the side of the Saxons. The l^orthmen were chased from that high border of Salisbury Plain, down the slope towards Chippenham, and no quarter was given. Chippenham itself was besieged, and after fourteen days was compelled to capitulate. The veteran Guthorm, the commander of the Danes in that place, some weeks later, professed himself a Christian. His chiefs for the most j)art followed his example. Alfred himself stood sponsor for his old enemy, and, though the passions of the past returned upon him at times with great force, and rendered him still in some degree unfaithful to the trust reposed in him, Guthorm ended his days in com- parative tranquillity, as the possessor of East Anglia, and still adhering to his new faith. Before his decease, the heathenism he had introduced had nearly disappeared.* Alfred deemed it wise to favour the disposition of the Alfred's Danes to remain in the land, stipulating, however, as the Guthorm. condition, that they should conform themselves to the order and habits of settled and civilized communities. He ap- * Chron. Sax. a.d. 8*78. Asser, 31 et seq. 144 SAXONS AND DANES. Effects of the wars with tho Danes. ^c£S. "■ P^^^s to have tliought that men so acquiring a home in the country, would come by degrees to have their own motives for resisting further invasion ; and that mixing gradually with the Saxons, they would contribute to the stability of the throne, and to the future unity and progress of the nation. The mischiefs of this policy were great, but possibly those of a contrary course would have been greater. We have seen that the invasions of the Northmen began to be foiTuidable in the reign of Egbert. The battle of Ethadune brought eighty years of war and destruction to a temporary close.* Great was the check given to all things conducive to social progress by these devastations. The previous wars of the Heptarchy, frequent and pregnant with evil as they were, had not been inconsistent with signs of improvement, both in social and religious life. But on all this the Danish invasions came as the hand of a de- stroyer. One good, however, came out of this wide march of evil. The reconstruction of the Heptarchy was impos- sible. Its machinery had been so crushed, its elements had been so consumed, that no one could hope to succeed in attempting to replace it, or anything resembling it. Korth- umbria, partly from the ravages of the Northmen, and partly from its own dissensions, had almost ceased to be a kingdom. The same was still more true of Mercia. Wes- sex, with its race of Cerdic represented in Alfred, became the destined centre of unity for the coming time. The natural course of the smaller eastern states was, that they should avail themselves of the safety which the weak may derive from their friendly relations to the strong. The years of peace which Alfred had won by successful war, were sedulously and wisely employed in adding to the military strength of his dominions. Mercia he had assigned to the able oversight of the ealdorman Ethelred, his son-in- law. Tlie Welsh princes readily acknowledged his author- ity ; and the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes were, in effect, if not in form, subject to it.f * The arms of the Northmen were novr turned mainly towards France. Chron. Sax. a.d. 881-88Y. f Asser, 36 et seq. Chron. Sax. a.d. 886, 894. Alfred's precautions. EISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ^ATHELSTAN. * 145 ITo thing less than the precaution thus taken could have book il saved the kingdom from the hands of the Northmen to- ^-, — o The inva- wards the close of the reign of Alfred. Hastings, a Danish Ji^y^^f'^®'' chief who had traversed Gaul and other countries almost at pleasure during the last forty years, resolved in 893 to at- tempt the establishment of a kingdom for himself in Brit- ain. His armaments were commensurate with his design. One fleet of eighty ships, conducted by Hastings himself, ascended the Swale, and took up its position on the north- ern coast of Kent ; the other, consisting of two hundred and fifty ships, landed its warriors on the south coast, near the point now known as Romney Marsh. Alfred took posses- sion of a high ground between these opposite points, and brought so much sagacity to his plans, that the movements of his antagonists, expert and treacherous as they proved, were thoroughly counter-worked. Baffled and scattered, they succeeded in making their devastations visible in widely distant parts of the island ; but their great scheme, after three years of toil, frustration, and loss, ended in fail- ure. The l^orthumbrian and East Anglian Danes became so far the partisans of Hastings as to suggest the expediency of measures that should secure a less doubtful allegiance from that quarter. Guthorm was now dead ; and Hastings subsequently found his home in the city of Chartres, the adjacent territory being ceded to him, on certain feudal con- ditions, by Charles the Simple.* In England, the Danes were now the dangerous element, ^gfter^oj., ISTot a few of them had learnt to live peaceably ; but it was fj^n the evident that their old propensities were so strong in others ^^^^^' as to dispose them to join almost any standard which prom- ised them a greater measure of independence and licence. With regard to organization and government, however, the Danes were in the ninth century very much what the Sax- ons had been in the fifth and sixth centuries. Experience had made them familiar with the action of small confeder- acies. Combined action on a large scale they had to learn as time and circumstances only could teach them. On this * * Chron. Sax. a.d. 894, 895. Asser. Ethelwerd. I'lor. Wigorn. ad an. 893, 894. Vol. I.— 10 146 SAXONS AND DANES. ^cliA?. 4' i^^aterial point the education of the Anglo-Saxons, as forced upon them by the events of the last four centuries, gave them a decided advantage. Edward^ Under Edward, the son and successor of Alfred, the Athektan. Auglo-Saxous availed themselves of this advantage with much effect. Before his death in 924, Edward had fully subdued the disaffected in the East Anglian states and in ]S"orthumbria, had annexed Mercia formally to Wessex, and was the acknowledged sovereign of a larger territory than had owned the authority of the most fortunate of his predecessors.* But if the authority of Edward exceeded that of the most potent among his precursors, the authority of Athelstan, who next ascended the throne of Cerdic, was still more weighty and extended. He asserted his sove- reignty, and with success, over E'orthumbria. He taught the Britons of Wales and Cornwall the expediency of sub- mission. Even the king of Scotland was among his depend- ents. indt?^° Great, however, as was this power of Athelstan, a crisis Aniaff. came in which he needed all his resources. He had given his daughter Editha in marriage to a E'orthman named Sightric, who had come to be possessed of a kind of roy- alty over Korthumbria. Sightric died within a year after his marriage and his baptism. Athelstan then seized on Nortlmmbria in right of his daughter. But Anlafi*, one of the sons of Sightric, was not disposed to submit to this summary proceeding. He fled before the power of Athel- stan at the time. But about ten years later he appeared in the Humber as the commander of a fleet consisting of more than six hundred vessels. The warriors in this confedera- tion were mostly sea-kings and their followers, but ulti- mately the army included many ^Northumbrian Danes, with larger contingents from the Scots and the Britons. Battle of Tlie two armics met at Brunanburgh in Korthumbria. burgh. Tlie numbers were greater than had been opposed to each other on the same field in British history since the issue of the struggle between the Celts and the Bomans. The battle * Chron. Sax. a.d. 901-924. Ingulph. 28. KISE OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY — ATHELSTAN. 147 of Brunanburgh raged from morning until evening ; but book il victory was with tbe Saxons. Anlaff escaped. Among the ^^ dead were five sea-kings and seven jarls, besides a son of the king of Scotland. The issue of that day made Athel- Athcistan Stan truly ' King of England.' Egbert, and even Alfred and England. Edward, ruled England as kings of "Wessex. But the mon- archy of Cerdic now absorbed every other within the limits of the country to which the name of England has since been given. ^ * Chron. Sax. Malms, de Reg. lib. ii. 26. CHAPTER V. EiSE OF THE da:n^ish mo:n^aechy. BOOK 11 Chap. 5. Edmund tion. ATPIELSTAE" was succeeded by liis lialf-brotlier Edmund, then about eigbteen years of age. Edmund had ac- AtSsSn quired reputation as a soldier at Brunanburgh. But the insir^iS fear which the genius of Athelstan had inspired having passed away, the Danes of l^orthumbria invited Anlaff to try his fortune anew in England. The Danes of Mercia, and many in East Anglia, it is said, joined in the revolt. Even Wulfstan, the archbishop of York played the traitor. Edmund encountered the enemy at Tamworth. The issue there was in favour of the insurgents. The scale, however, soon turned to the other side. The king besieged the rebels in Leicester ; and so menacing were his approaches, that AnlafF and Wulfstan made their escape by night. The end was, that through the intervention of Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, himself the son of a Dane who had fought against Alfred, Anlaff was permitted to retain the sover- eignty of the territory north of the Watling Street, and Ed- mund was reconciled to AYulfstan. But Anlaff died soon afterwards; and the two chiefs, Anlaff and Regnald, who were allowed to divide his territory between them, were finally deprived of their sovereignty by Edmund, who de- clared himself master of Korthumbria. The policy and the arms of Edmund were at length equally successful in the affairs of Wales and Scotland. * Edmund had reigned six years only when he fell by the dagger of Leof, an outlaw, during a religious festival at * Chron. Sax. a.d. 941-946. Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 924 et seq. Ethelwerd, chap. vi. Malms, de Reg. lib. ii. c. /?. EI8E OF THE DANISH MONARCHY. 149 Pucldechurcli in Gloucestershire. He left two sons; but book il they were yonng children, and the Witan chose Ed red his — '-' brother to be kinsr. Edred was crowned by Archbishop ^'ired- '-' '■' ^ continued Odo at Kino;ston. As usual, the first trouble of the new 'nqu'etude o ' from the sovereign came from the Danes of the northern counties. J^?an^"™' The nine years of his reign were almost wholly occupied ^'^°*^'' in quelling insurrection and faction in that part of his do- minions. But from this time we may date the final subjec- tion of l^orthumbria. The death of Edred was the result of a disease from which he had sufi'ered so long and so greatly, that the successes of his reign were attributed mainly to the able services of the notorious Dunstan, and to the wisdom of Turketul, the accredited minister of his affairs. "^ Edwy, the eldest son of Edmund, now became king, f ^Sr His reign is chiefly remarkable from the feud between him p^^er. and the ecclesiastics of his time, especially with Dunstan. But these circumstances belong to the religious history of this period. It must suffice to say iii this place, that a reign of two short years in the history of this unhappy prince, was more than enough to show that the time had come in which the civil power attempting to sustain itself in independence of the ecclesiastical, would need to be a power exercised with no ordinary firmness and sagacity, f Before the death of Edwy, Edgar, his younger brother, Edgar-an had taken possession of Mercia. He now became king, and '•<^«'^- is designated in history as ' the peaceful.' 'Not that he was incapable of military enterprise, nor that his reign passed away without an unsheathing of the sword. But Edgar, though dissolute enough in his habits, was careful to profit by the experience of his brother, and to make friends of the ecclesiastics. He did much also to conciliate the foreign settlers in Britain, by ceding to them privileges in accord- ance with their national usages. Above all, he raised a powerful navy to guard the shores of his dominions. His ships, divided into several armaments, went forth every spring to protect the coast against further descents from the * Chron. Sax. a.d. 946 et seq. Florence "Wigorn. ad an. 955-958, Malms. de Reg. lib. ii. c. 7. \ For the Romanist version of the quarrel between Edwy and St. Dunstan see Dr. Lingard ; for a more faithful version of the affair see Lappenberg. 150 SAXONS AND DANES. ^c^HA?."' vessels of the IS'ortlimen. The king himself sailed from year to year with them. By this time the most famous of the sea-kings had found settlements in various countries. The north was more quiet than it had been for some genera- tions past. And such adventurers as might be disposed towards new enterprises were taught by these signs of prep- aration to avoid the shores of Britain. Edgar was a man of intelligence and firmness, but as he died when not more than thirty years of age, these measures warrant us in sup- posing that he was influenced in his policy by heads of more experience than his own. In the ballad literature of the time he was lauded as the most powerful king that Eng- land had known. "^ the mLtyr. Edgar left two sons, Edward and Ethelred ; the first thirteen years of age, the second seven. Factions, civil and ecclesiastical, embroiled the commencement of the reign of Edward ' the Martyr.' In this fact, together with his mur- der, at the bidding of his step-mother Elfrida, while refresh- ing himself on a hunting excursion at her castle-gate, we possess nearly all we know concerning this ill-fated prince. Corfe Castle became memorable from this deed. Edward was then in the eighteenth year of his age, and the ■ third of his reign, f Ethelred Ethclrcd, the son of Elfrida, was now the only remaining ready? priuce of the blood. The fact that he was the son of the woman who had murdered his predecessor was felt as a difficulty. But it was not deemed a sufficient ground for pre- cluding him from the throne at the hazard of a civil war. The reign which had thus commenced in crime, is memo- rable for its shame and its disasters. K man could overlook blood-guiltiness. Providence seemed not so to do. The thirty-eight years during which Ethelred was king, are more full of suffering and humiliation than the like inter- val in any other period of English history. The l^orthmen begin to descend anew on the coast, in greater or smaller numbers, from year to year. After a * Chron. Sax. a.d, 95*7 et seq. Florence Wigorn. ad an. 960-9'75. Malms. de Reg. lib. ii, c. 8. There is much in the reign of Edgar that seems to confirm the account in Ingulf of the high capacity and influence of Turketul. f Chron. Sax. Malms, de Reg. lib. ii. c. 9. RISE OF THE DANISH MONARCHY. 151 while, no province, from the Land's End to the Orkneys, ^^^^ ^^^ or from East Anglia to St. Davids, is found to be secure from their approach. Everywhere they repeat the plunder, the devastation, and the merciless destruction of human life, which had marked the path of their precursors two centu- ries since. In the meanwhile attempts to concentrate the force of the country for its common safety are so feebly prosecuted, and are so easily frustrated by local factions and selfish considerations, that failure follows upon failure in sickening succession. Instances of individual or local coiirage and self-devotion occur, but end in nothing, from . the want of such a central influence as might secure unity by inspiring confidence. The command of such forces as were raised, was entrusted, for the most part, to men who, from their Danish origin, their Danish connexions, or other causes, betray, one after another, the confidence reposed in them ; and, strange to say, are seen rising to new responsi- bilities only to repeat their old treasons. Cruel to the weak, Ethelred was a craven before the strong. Seasons that should have been employed in collecting and marshal- ling the strength of his kingdom, w^ere surrendered to selfish and sensuous indulgence. Too ready was he to believe that the enemy with whom he had to do was one who might be bribed to seek other quarters, or at least into forbearance and quiet as settlers. Large sums were collected for this purpose, from time to time ; but the oaths exacted from the men who received them were forgotten almost as soon as uttered. By this wretched policy Ethelred became a tool in the hands of the enemy, by whose means the plunder of his own subjects was made more easy and efiectual than would otherwise have been possible. Twenty-four years had passed since the accession of M*^ng°' Ethelred, and the greater part of those years marked by the circumstances above mentioned, when the king resolved on a deed which lias covered him with infamy, and which, as might have been foreseen, was to bring heavy retribu- tion in its train. It was no secret that the Saxons regarded the Danes resident among them with distrust and hatred. The relation of these people to the common enemy ; and 152 SAXONS AND DANES. ^caS ¥' ^*^^^ more the fact that they had generally shown themselves much more disposed to favour than to repel the invaders, had given a special intensity to the feeling ordinarily sepa- rating race from race. ^"^ Ethelred, it would seem, had ceased to expect fidelity from this class of his subjects ; and, to save himself from the machinations of traitors within the camp, he determined that an attempt should be made utterly to destroy them. In the spring of the year 1002 secret orders were issued, that on the aj)proaching religious festival in honour of St. Brice, the Saxons should fall unawares upon the Danes, and put them to death. Tlie orders were kept secret ; and on the appointed day the massacre ensued, the fury of the pop- ulace in many places adding not a little cruelty to the work of destruction. It is supposed that the Danes must have num- bered at this time nearly a third of the inhabitants of Eng- land. We may be sure, therefore, that this destruction was rather local than general. It has been thought that the Danes whose removal was meditated were those only who, as retainers to the nobles, wore arms, and who had so often turned the arms entrusted to them to traitorous uses. But if such was the limit of the project, in execution it passed beyond those bounds. Where the massacre took place, neither sex nor age was spared. Among the victims was a distinguished J^orthman named Palig. This man had repaid the bounty of Ethelred by fighting under the stand- ard of hiS' enemies. Palig and his children were all doomed to die. Gunhilda, his wife, was a sister of Sweyn, the great Danish chieftain ; and in submitting with heroic dignity to her fate, after witnessing the death of her husband and her son, she is said to have predicted that all England Avould have ere long to meet a weighty reckoning for the deeds of that day. f Sweyn'sin- The ucxt year Sweyn made his appearance in England vasion. ^^ ^1^^ 1^^^^ ^^ ^ powerful army. Exeter-, through the 'treachery of its commander, passed into his hands. During * Ulfkytel, the ruler of East Anglia, was the only Dane who, in the lanj^uage of Malmesbury, ' resisted the invaders with any degree of spirit,' in the reign of Ethelred.— i)e Eeff. lib. ii. c. 10. f Chron. Sax. Florence Wigorn. ad an. 1002. Malms, de Reg. lib. ii. e. 10. RISE OF THE DANISH MONAUCHY. 153 four years, the country, with the exception of some fortified ^^^^ J^ places, was wholly at his mercy. Everywhere he came as an avenger — not only to plunder, but to consume by fire, and to cut down with the sword. At the end of the fourth year he consented to leave the island on condition of receiv- ing thirty-six thousand pounds of silver ; and that sum was paid to him. But the army under Sweyn had no sooner departed, than ind?r Thur another, no less ferocious, appeared under Thurchil. This ^^^^ chief affected to seek vengeance for the death of a brother, as Sweyn had sought it for the death of a sister. Another three years of unchecked exposure to Danish spoliation and cruelty now awaited the unhappy country. Elphege, the good archbishop of Canterbury, was doomed to see the peo- ple, the town, and the cathedral of Canterbury destroyed by these demons, and then to perish himself by their hands, from the blows inflicted on him while in their cups. Could he have descended to save his life by paying the price which had been fixed upon it, he might have been spared. Hav- ing ravaged half the kingdom, Thurchil consented to enter the service of Ethelred for the sum of forty-eight thousand pounds. This proposal was accepted, and the greater part of his followers showed a disposition to settle in the country. Sweyn had secretly consented to this invasion by Thur- second in- f^ 'J t/ vasion oy chil. But it did not accord with his plans that the result ^weyn. should be of this nature. He had sworn on the death of his sister to possess himself of the sovereignty of England. He now collected a force which promised to be equal to such an enterprise. The splendour as well as the greatness of this armament was a favourite theme with the poets of the age. The northern provinces submitted without resistance, and the Danish inhabitants rendered aid to their countrymen. Marching northward, where the conqueror expected oppo- sition, his instructions were that the towns should be given to the flames, that the churches should be deprived of everything valuable, and that every male should be put to the sword. And these mandates were fully acted upon. Ethelred and Thurchil shut themselves up within the walls 164 SAXONS AND DANES. ^cSS. "' ^^ London, which held out against every stratagem of the besiegers. But in all other directions the approach of the ISTorthmen scared away resistance. ciSmm- Sweyn retired to Bath. He there proclaimed himself self king, j^jj^g ^£ England, and summoned the chief men of Wessex to meet him in that place, and to swear allegiance to him. Even the capital began to waver in its fidelity ; so that Ethelred s.ent his family to E'ormandy, and sought conceal- ment himself in the isle of "Wight. But in less than a month from the time when the prospects of the English mon- arch had become thus gloomy, Sweyn died. Sweyn named his son Canute as his successor. The English rallied around Ethelred, and Canute was obliged to make a precipitate re- treat from the country. Canute" ^^ ^^^ ^^^ followiug year Canute returned, with a fleet and army described in glowing terms by ancient writers. Thur- chil had sought his pardon, and had obtained it. But Ethelred the ' Unready ' had done nothing to prepare him- self for this exigency. The vengeance he took on the natu- ralized ]N"orthmen, both by sword and by assassination, only added to the dangers of his position. Edmund, wearied apparently by this incompetency, assumed independence of his father ; but failed to collect a force sufficient to warrant his attempting to measure his strength with the enemy. Tlie army of Edmund quartered itself in the northern counties, while that under Canute roamed unimpeded through the south. Aifairs had come to this pass when Ethelred breatlied his last in London. Edmund, who was with him in his sickness, was proclaimed king by the citizens."^ brave'?e-^ Had Edmuud become king of England some forty years earlier, in the place of his father, it is probable that in him the peaceful and prosperous reign of Edgar would have been perpetuated. Tlie resources of the country at that time would have sufficed, under proper management, to have kept the JSTorthmen at bay ; and free action being thus secured to the springs of internal prosperity, England might have known nothing of a Danish dynasty, or of a Norman conquest. * Chron. Sax. Flor. Wigorn. Malms, de Beg. ii. c. 10. Hunting, v. 205, 206. Westmin. 201, 202. sistance of the Danes under Canute. EISE OF THE DANISH MONARCHY. 155 So general and so deep was the distrust of Ethelred during book ii. the latter years of his reign, that the national spirit appear- — '—' ed to have become extinct. The Northmen had learned to despise the natives, even when ten to one. But with the accession of Edmund the most inert became active, and a people who seemed to have lost all heart are seen rising into heroism. London alone had been strong enough to resist the invad- er. Canute now invested it with an army of twenty-seven thousand men. But Edmund passed through the enemies' ships in a boat by night. His call to the men of Wessex brought great numbers to his standard. Canute, leaving a division of his forces to watch the metropolis, marched at the head of a powerful army to meet the king. The two competitors faced each other at a place called Scearston. Battle of riM 1 1 T ' ^ .1 Ti'T Scearston. ihe battle was most obstmately sustamed on both sides. It lasted the whole day. The next morning it was renewed. In this second conflict Edmund caught sight of Canute. Rushing towards him, his battle-axe fell on the shield of the Dane with such force as to divide it asunder, and to wound his horse in the shoulder. Canute owed his life to the number of his followers who chanced to be on the spot. In this pending state of the struggle, Edric, a false Saxon, struck off the head of a slain warrior, and raising it aloft, cried to the English, ' See the head of Edmund your king.' For a moment the dismay intended to be produced by this stratagem became visible. But Edmund darted to an emi- nence, removed his helmet, and raising his voice to reassure his men, restored their confidence. The darkness of the second night came, and the combatants were still upon the field. But on the morning of the third day it was manifest that the greater loss had been on the side of the Danes ; and Canute, to recruit his forces, began to retrace his steps towards London. Edmund followed without delay. At Brentford a second engagement took place, in which the advantage was with the Danes ; but in the third engagement, near Oxford, the Xorthmen were signally defeated. Canute now raised the siege of London, and passed from the Isle of Sheppey into 156 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. Chap. 5. Compro- mise be- tween Ed- mund and Camito. Canute be- comes king of England. Retrospect. East Anglia,» ravaging tlie country in his way northward. Edmund was again upon his path. At Ashdown (Assing- don) another engagement took place. The Danes knew their condition to be perilous. To raise their couragCj Thurchil assured them that the omen from the flight of the raven had been eminently propitious. The traitor Edric, strange to say, was again in command, and was the first to fly.* Edmund, and the faithful among his followers, fought the whole day. The moon had risen for some hours before the deadly strife reached its close. On the morrow Edmund found that his losses, especially among the men of rank, on whom he had most reason to depend, had been alarmingly great. He retreated into Gloucestershire ; Canute followed, and another desperate encounter would have taken place, had not the partisans of the two leaders prevailed on them to agree to a compromise. In the adjustment made, the part of England south of the Thames was assigned to Edmund, that to the north fell to Canute. Only a few weeks later, Edmund perished by the hand of an assassin. Canute profited by this event, but it does not appear that he was privy to it. "Why Ed- mund: was called the ' Ironside ' is uncertain. The name was manifestly a fitting one, for his short experience of sov- ereignty, which required him to be prompt in putting on his armour, never allowed him to put it off.f Canute now became king of England, and two men of his race, Harald and Hardicanute, succeeded him in that dignity. The sovereignty then returned to the Saxon line in the person of Edward the Confessor ; and in its next change it passed to the Norman line, through Harold. From the battle of Hastings we date a new epoch in Eng- lish history. We have thus taken our retrospect of the Revolutions .effected by the Sword in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Its first great achievement we find in the ' Migration,' which trans- ferred the lands of England from the Celt to the Saxon. * This Edric appears to have been a singularly gifted villain, but he at length met with his reward from the hand of Canute. I'lor. Wigorn. ad an. 1007-lOlY. f Chron. Sax. Flor. Wigorn. Malms, de Reg. lib. ii. c. 10. Lappenberg, ii. 18'7-193. RISE OF THE DANISH MONARCHY. loT The second we see in those wars of the Heptarchy which book ii. issued in the concentration of the sovereignty in the house — - of Cerdic. The third is before us in the effect of the Danish invasions, which favoured the centralization of the sove- reignty by falling with much more disastrous effect on N^orth- umbria and Mercia than on "Wessex, and by pointing to the advantage of a common centre in that quarter. At the same time, we see in these invasions a grand impediment to the social progress that might otherwise have been realized. During the iirst two centuries after the landing of the Saxons, the wars of the Heptarchy are the great bar in the way of social improvement. During the two centuries which follow, the Danes become the great hindrance. Tliese facts cover nearly the whole space between the landing of Hengist and the invasion by the Duke of ]N"ormandy. The intervals of comparative quiet and security are few, and of short duration. The cliaracteristic features of the pe- riod are unsettledness, danger, and suffering. If we except the affair of the Pretender in 1T45, it is Ancient ■*- ^ ^ ' and modern now two centuries since England has seen war. How sig- England, nificant the contrast between the face of this same country during these two centuries, and during the two which pre- ceded the reign of Egbert, or of the two which followed ! Tlie land which was as a perpetual battle-field for ages, has ceased through two hundred years to see a soldier, except on parade. In this difference we see the effect, not only of a better consolidated monarchy, but of the better constitu- tional precautions by which the interests of society are guarded against the accidents of character in the person of the sovereign. The "Witan of the Anglo-Saxon seemed to exercise a weighty function on the demise of a king, and on some other occasions. But the king being once invested with the supreme power, the character of the man deter- mined the character of the times. The great want was, not only that there should be a central and supreme authority, but that the authority so recognised should have been better defined, better aided, regulated, and guarded, and, as the consequence, better obeyed. But the due subordination of the less to the greater, of the factious to the patriotic, be- 158 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK iL longs only to that advanced stage in the political education of a people which comes from experience — the experience of generations and centuries. Of course, underneath the changes before us on the surface of Anglo-Saxon history,' there were the, differences of race, of religion, and of usage, ever seething, and contributing their restless influences to one phase of change after another. How far these differ- ences were softened by Christianity, and by other causes, so as to prepare the way for the England of the future, we have still to inquire. CHAPTER VI. EFFECT OF THE SAXOIS^ AIS^D DANISH CONQUESTS ON THE DISTRIBUTIONS OF EACE. T HE strifes which come so constantly to the surface of cuap. e. Anglo-Saxon history had their roots far beneath. They Results were not effects without causes. The effects seem to indi- differences cate that the causes were pervading and of much force, and such was the fact. The great cause we no doubt find in the differences of race, and in the other differences consequent on that difference. The two great lines of distinction in this respect were those which separated — ^first between the Saxon and the Briton, and then between the Saxons, the Britons and the Danes. But there were lesser lines of separation beneath these, which tended in their measure to impart to the story of Anglo-Saxon Britain the complexion under which it is known to us. On the differences of this nature which obtained amon^ Diversities the Teutons who were the founders of the English Hep tar- among the chy, we shall allow the venerable Bede to speak. ' From sax'ons. the Jutes,' he writes, ' sprang the men of Kent, and the Wihtware, the tribe which now dwelleth in the Isle of Wight, and the other tribe in the country of the East Sax- on opposite to the *Isle of Wight, whom men still call by the name of the hundred of the Jutes. From the Saxons, that is to say, from the land now called the country of the Old Saxons, descended the East Saxons, the South Saxons, and the West Saxons. From the Angles, that is to say, from the country called Anglia (Anglen), and which from that time till now is said to have remained waste, between the provinces of the Jutes and the Old Saxons, descended sities, 160 SAXONS AND DANES. ^Cn^ ?.' ^^^® -^^^^ Angles, the Mercians, tlie race of the ITorthumbri- ans, and all the rest of the nations of England.' * th?se^dfve?-^ It will be seen that in this description precedence in re- gard to extent of territory, and, in consequence, witji regard to numbers, is assigned to the Angles, who took possession of the north and north-west portion of the island. The next position is assigned to the Saxons, who gave the name of ' Saxon ' to their several territories in the south and south- east. To the Jutes falls the smallest space, and the smallest influence. These tribes possessed much in common, but they were distinguished from each other in many respects — in dialect, in customs, in personal qualities. Many traces of these diversities are still perceptible in the several terri- tories which they respectively occupied. It is probable that along with these ' three tribes' there were considerable admixtures of Frisians, Franks, and even Longobards,f though not to such extent as to be readily traced by us at this distance of time. /The differences between these settlers — ^in speech, in physiognomy, in complexion, in the colour of the eyes and hair, and in dress and manners, were prob- ably much stronger than we are disposed to imagine. Many of the physical diversities still observable among us, though much softened by time, have descended from this source. Hence, too, many varieties in customs, such as the difference between the Wapentake of Yorkshire, and the Hundred of Sussex.:]: No thoughtful man will suppose that these varieties could exist without awakening more or less of a spirit of clannish pride and rivalry ; and we need not attempt to show what the effect of such passions has generally been among such communities. The history of the Highlands of Scotland, down to comparatively recent times, furnishes ample illustration on this point. Hence, in great part, the * Hist. lib. i. c. 15. f Procopius, de Bello Gothico, iv, 20, 93 et seq. Palgrave, i. c. 2. \ In the history of Anglo-Saxon legislation frequent reference is made, down to the time of Edward the Confessor, to the diiferenees between Wessex-law, Mercian-law, and Danish-law. Each people had their peculiar usj^gcs, which were recognised and respected on such occasions. See Laws of Alfred and Gothrun^ and Laws of Edward the Confessor. Edgar's laws recognise distinctions of this nature between Kentishmen, and South Angles, and North Angles. NEW DISTRIBUTIONS OF, RACE. 161 absence of all combination between the different states of book ii. . . Chap, 6. the Heptarchy, whether in opposing the incursions of the Britons along the western side of their territory, or of the Scots alone: the northern side. As the wars carried on with those foes subsided, internal feuds, from other causes, came into more vigorous action, and served to impose a long suc- cession of checks on all tendencies towards unity and im- provement. Much has been written concerning the supposed effect If^,';!, ^1}^'" of the Saxon invasion on the Britons. The fact that the Jhe7o"ca5o:i Britons kept together along nearly the whole of the western BritlThs. side of the island, from Cumberland to Cornwall, and the small traces of the British tongue along the parallel territory on the eastern side of that line, would seem to suggest that the effect of this memorable collision was, that the natives relinquished the one half of their land entirely to the in- vader, but retained firm hold on the other half. It is not probable, however, that the population of any of the Saxon states was without a considerable admixture of British blood. The keels of the Saxon freebooters can hardly be supposed to have brought settlers in sufficient numbers, and of both sexes, to warrant such an opinion. Greatly more was done ere long upon the soil than can be explained on such a supposition. That a large admixture of this kind took place along the border lands which separated between the two races is unquestionable. In the south and east, where the deteriorating effects of the Koman civilization were the most deeply rooted, the Saxons found the portion of the natives most habituated to submission. The most energetic, no doubt, sought a new home westward or north- ward, rather than submit to the new masters : but the more passive would often cling to the soil on any tolerable con- ditions. Then, concerning language, the difference between the two races in this respect is supposed by some to have been much exaggerated. According to Caesar, Britain was largely peopled from Belgic Gaul, and not less than one-third of the vocabulary of the Cymric tongue is said to consist of Vol. I.— 11 162 S4X0NS AND DANES. ^^OK 11. words derived from roots common to it and to the Bel- Chap. 6. gic.^ These affinities between the Cymric and the Saxon, if existing to anything like this extent, are enough to suggest that it may not be easy to say how far the one has really superseded the other. That in England, the Welsh has been to a very large extent superseded by the Saxon is cer- tain ; and we conclude, in consequence, that the Britons who dwelt amidst the conquering Saxons must have borne a small proportion in influence or numbers to the race which had subdued them. But that the Saxons were alive to the uses that might be made of the vanquished natives is not only in the highest degree probable from the facts of the case, but manifest from the records of history. It should be remembered, that considerable spaces intervened between the establishment of one Saxon state and another, so that the natives would know, as resistance became hope- less, what was to be expected from submission. So late as the year 900, the Britons of the West, that is, of the counties of Somerset, Wilts, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, joined their forces with the Danes against Egbert. Their princes were then finally prostrated, and the chief authority in those parts passed into the hands of the West- Saxon thanes. But the name of ' Weal-cynne,' by which those counties are designated in the will of Alfred, shows that the population remained for the most part British. Even so late as the time of Athelstan, Exeter, the capital of the Dumnonii from times preceding the conquest by the Romans, was governed by the joint authority of Britons and Saxons ; but from the age of that monarch, the inde- pendent power of the Britons of the West was confined to Cornwall, where the old Celtic has been the vernacular lan- guage of a portion of the inhabitants almost to jour own duy. The names of the leading men in the above counties, as preserved in Domesday^ are none of them British, and the English law had then become connnon to them all, at the same time it is certain that the English speech was still unknown to the main body of the people.'f * Palgrave, i. 27. f Palgrave, i. 410, 411. Proofs and Illustrations, 243, 244. In fact, the NEW DISTRIBUTIONS OF RACE. 163 Aloiiff the east coast we discover few or no traces of the ^poK n. ° Chap. 6. British. The population in those regions is more purely Saxon than in any other part of Saxon Britain down to the time of the Danish invasions. Of the footing retained by the Britons along the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel, through Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire into Cheshire, we need not speak. Northward from that point the old British element spreads more . or less for a while from west to east. We say little on the vexed question concerning the j^^^® j^"?^«' origin and history of the Picts and Scots. We have seen J^^*^ pf/t' that the Angles were stubbornly resisted in their endeav- f^^l^^. ours to possess themselves of the ample territory between ^™^"*- the Humber and the Forth. The Humber formed the bor- der line of the southern division of the ancient kingdom of iNTorthumbria, as the Forth was the boundary of the north- ern division. The population of that kingdom was made up of four nations — Angles, Britons, Picts, and Scots. The last three nations, in common with the first, were governed by their own chiefs or princes ; and when the chief of the Angles was strong, these chiefs paid him tribute ; whei;i that prince happened to be weak, they asserted their inde- pendence. These peoples were often subdued by the Angles, but never more than partially displaced. In the northern half of Northumbria the Picts and Scots were the most numerous ; in the southern half, the Angles -were the names of places in England are much more of an old British origin than is com- monly supposed, and warrant a strong conclusion as to the presence of the British with the Saxons to the latest period of Anglo-Saxon history. If there be any word that we are wont to account as certainly of Saxon origin it is the word ford, as a termination in the names of places — such as Brad/ore?, Stafford. But it is singular that this word does not occur in the names of places in those countries from which our Saxons and Northmen came. Other names, which they gave with frequency to places in this island, occur as often in the countries on the shores of the Baltic. But it is not thus with the word ford. In the British tongue, how- ever, we have the word fordd or ford, denoting a road or passage ; and the fact would seem to be that the word was adopted from the Britons, but with a some- what restricted appUeation to roads where they cross streams or rivers. We scarcely need say that the British influence must have been great which sufficed to ensure the continuance of local names at all upon this scale. — See Barnes's JHotes on Britain and the Britons. Names ending in combe — a valley, and in loai/ or wye — water, are evidently of British origin. Shakespeare is an Englishman, but the river's name with which his own is associated, Avon, is old British. ' The men of Arvon [Avon] with their ruddy lances.' — Ancient Laws of Wales, p. 50. 164: SAXONS AND DANES. ^cSif. ?* ^os* powerful on the eastern side of the hills of Cumberland and Yorkshire, the Britons on the western side. These com- parative numbers, moreover, and these relations to territory, appear to have remained much the same, as regarded the population, amidst all the revolutions of power among those who affected to govern them. The Britons of Cumbria, of Cambria, and of the West, with their chain of military sta- tions, reaching from the rock of Dumbarton to Mount St. Michael, have left traces of their blood and language along the whole of that distance. The ancient Cumber survives in the modern Cumberland^- which means the country of the Cymry, or, as it is sometimes written, the Cumry. From the Clyde to the Dee the Cumry were once the prevalent race. Even the power of Athelstan was not sufficient to awe them into subjection. They fought against him at Brunanburgh — showing, in that instance, as the Britons generally did, a greater disposition to side with the Danes than with the Saxons. In the West, extending from Som- erset to Cornwall, the characteristics of the British were gradually effaced by the ascendency, first of the Saxons, and afterwards of the Normans. In Cumbria the same change must be attributed to infusions from the Angles and the Scots, but more especially to an invasion of the province by . the Scandinavians in the tenth century. From the moun- tains of Wales the descendants of the ancient Cumry have seen their brethren in the west and north melt away in the great stream of mingling populations, while they have themselves retained their old Celtic speech, and their old features of Celtic nationality. Location of We havo sccu the extent to which the Danes became in England, posscssors of tlic English territory. In 876 Ilalfdene, the ISTorthman, divided Northumbria among his followers, who soon became cultivators of the soil which had so fallen to them. Tlie treaty of Alfred with Guthorm j)laced East Anglia — including JSTorfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, the Isle of Ely, a portion of Bedfordshire, and parts adjacent — in the hands of that chief, to be holden by him and his descend- ants in subordination to Wessex. Mercia — the territory of the great Offa — ^became a prey to these invaders, who at NEW DISTRIBUTIONS OF RACE. 165 length gave stability to their acquisitions in that quarter book ii. by the power which they concentrated in the Five Danish burgs — ^viz. Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford. Some make these burgs to be seven, including York and Chester. So some three-fourths of Anglo-Saxon Britain came to be, in a political sense, and for a time, Danish, the ruling power over that large surface of country- having passed into the hands of that people. The Angles, the Britons, and the Scots in those territories were all nu- merous, much more numerous than the Danes ; but the Danes, who found settlements among them, had been suffi- ciently strong to subdue them. We have seen that there were many oscillations of power between these new con- querors and the conquered ; but that the Danes were con- querors to this extent, and possessed such sway, though only for a season, is a fact that must have had much in- fluen e on the future. The policy of Alfred, when he had saved Wessex, was to cede to the Danes, upon conditions, the territories they had won, and to do all that might be done towards amalgamating the different races into one people. Throus'h all these influences the Danish blood in Eno;- General o ^ CI distribution land be ame the most prevalent in East Anglia ; next, along the eastern coast between the Humber and the Forth ; and next, in the midland counties, forming the kingdom of Mercia. In the west, the admixture was between the Sax- ons and the British. In all the lands to the north and north-west, it consisted in a large displacement of the Brit- ish element by the Anglian and Danish. All these facts, it will be seen, related to the position of the Danes in Anglo-Saxon Britain before the accession of Canute. Tlie formidable invasions which immediately pre- ceded that event, and the event itself, of course added much, both in the way of numbers and influence, to the Danish power in this country before the Conquest. During the latter half of the tenth century a powerful f^^l^^f^ l^orwegian migration appears to have set in, with little J^J^anJ" noise, but with much steadiness and effect, on Cumberland ^^"^°^^' and the parts adjoining. We have reason to suppose that 166 SAXONS AND DANES. ^cL^?. "* *^^^ migration did not pass the Yorkshire hills from the east. Its approach appears to have been by means of the Irish sea, and the Isle of Man, from the west. But so con- siderable was this movement at the time mentioned, that the traces of the Celtic population in those parts in the times which follow, are few and faint, while the traces of the Scan- dinavian, in the names of places and other remains, are still found almost everywhere. The link which had connected the Celts of the hill country of Wales with those of the hill country of Scotland, was thus displaced ; and the blood of the Northmen, either Danes or Saxons, became the domi- nant blood along the whole of the lowlands between the Mersey and the Clyde. Names ending in thwaite^^ 5y, and thorp^\ are of very frequent occurrence over that district ; and all these are of Scandinavian origin. But then they mingle freely with names ending in ton^ ham^ and worth, which are of Saxon origin. So it is over a great part of England : and, though the Saxon and the Danish languages included much in common, the prevalence of such names from the one or the other of those languages in a district, may be taken as a pretty certain indication of the preva- lence of race in that locality before the Conquest.:^ The Northmen who made their descent from the Solway on the shores of Cumberland, were probably of the same stock with those who, about the same time, had secured a footing in Pembrokeshire. Tlie names Wilford and Haver- ford, can hardly have been of Saxon origin. Tlie localities * ' Thwaite : Norwegian thveit, Danish tved. This is one of the most charac- teristic terms of our district, occurring the most frequently in Cumberland, which has about a hundred names in which it appears ; being also very common in Westmoreland, becoming scarce as we advance into Yorkshire, and ceasing alto- gether when we arrive at the more purely Danish district of Lincoln.' — The Northmen in Cumherlanct and Westmoreland^ by Robert Ferguson, 1856. The term thwaite was used to denote a ' clearing,' and occurs most frequently where there was much wood to be cleared. In Norway itself it occurs in some places more than others ; in many instances in our Lake districts, the term and its prefix have been transplanted from the mother country, as the names of places in Eng- land reappear in the United States. \ By is a termination denoting a dwelling-place^ or home, and is more Danish than Norwegian ; the same may be said of thorp, which denotes a village. :}: The Cumberland Britons, pressed by the Saxons and Northmen, seem to have retired by degrees into Wales, leaving little trace of themselves behind, except in some Celtic names of places which have survived them. There is noth- ing Celtic among the present inhabitants of the district. NEW DISTRIBUTIONS OF EACE. 16T do not answer to the Saxon use of the term/<9rtZ — but these book il places are truly described by the Norse word Jidrd^w\nQ\i — '-' denotes an arm of the sea. Tlie word hohn, too, applied to the Flsit-hoh7i and the Steei^-holm, in the Bristol Channel, is not the Saxon nor the British, but the IS'orwegian name for island/'^ It is to be remembered, then, that Saxons and I^orthmen were related as branches to one parent stem : and, what is more, that the same may be said of the IS'ormans, who were destined to .become so blended on our soil with both. But the ]^orthman had come as an intruder on the ground of the Saxon ; and this fact was fatal to the unity that might have enabled them to resist the next invader, to whom they were both to become subject. It is clear that the strength of the Banish element in Anglo-Saxon Britain was great — • much greater than is commonly apprehended ; and disas- trous in many respects as was the collision between the two races on our soil, it is probable that the two together fur- nished a better stamina for the England of a later age, than would have been furnished by the Saxon alone. It is not easy to say how much of our passion for the sea, and of our power there, have come from the blood of this later genera- tion of sea-kings who found their home among us. It is cer- tain that our great sea-captains, and our men of genius in all departments, have their full share of Danish names among them. But if the Danish race were to contribute towards our greatness in the end, it is not less certain that they proved a sad impediment to our progress in the be- ginning. It should, however, be distinctly remembered, that .the language of England, which was not to become Korman, never became Danish. It is thus " manifest that the race which continued to be the most diffused, and the most rooted in the land through all changes was the Anglian or Saxon. At the Conquest, the language spoken in the coun- try contained words from the Latin, more from the Danish, and more than is commonly supposed from the Celtic ; but its forms and its substance were those which had been * The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland, pp. 9, 10. 168 SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. introduced by the tliree great brandies of the migration, the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles, and especially by the latter, the destined root of England and of its English- men. * An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland^ by E. J. H. Worsaae. London, 1852. ' On the Races of Lancashire, as indicated by the Social Names and the Dialect of the County,' see Proceedings of the Philological Society, 1855. 'English Ethnography,' by Dr. Donaldson, Cambridge Essays, 1856. 'We entirely miss in English,' says Dr. Donaldson, ' any traces of the distinctive peculiarities of the Danish language. We do not find the article postfixed, there are great diflPerences in the numerals, the substan- tive verb follows a different form in the plural, and the peculiar negative particle, iklce, is never used in this island. From this last circumstance al6ne we feel con- vinced that the Danes exerted only a transitory and limited influence on the lan- guage and national characteristics of our ancestors.' — Ibid. CHAPTER VII. EEVOLUTIOiq^ IN EELIGIO]^ IN ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. RELIGIO]^ in some form is a want of humanity. All book ii. communities accordingly, even the lowest, have their e^,i~~ religions. The choice in history is always found to lie, not "heratef ^^ between any particular religion and no religion, but be- tween one religion and another, l^or is it just to suppose that a religion which may appear to us to be very unreas- onable, can never have been a religion deeply felt, or sin- cerely believed. As a rule, the men who sustain false relig- ions, are as firm believers in the religion they profess, as are the nations who sustain what we hold to be a more true and enlightened faith. Everywhere, in consequence, religion is one of the most its potency potent influences in making the man and the nation such as we find them. - l^o where is this more true than in the case of such rude communities as come before us in the history of the Saxons and the Danes. Strong are the relations between ignorance and credulity. Many causes may have contributed to make the religion of a people such as it is ; but religion once imbibed, becomes itself a cause of Avide and powerful influence. In this island the Saxon and the J^J^^JjJ^ Dane soon learnt to relinquish their heathenism. But the ^^^^^J"*^ Christianity which they embraced was much too narrow and intolerant to allow of their giving us any satisfactory account of their old religion when once they had embraced the new. Frequent as is the mention made by the Christian Saxons of the pagans of their own time, and of the preceding time, there is a remarkable absence in their w^ritings of any iro SAXONS AND DANES. BOOK II. Chap. 7. Their early- faith dete- riorated. Identity of religious faith be- tween the Saxon and the Dane. attempt to describe the nature of the heathenism once so familiar to themselves. So that onr direct information on this subject, especially as regards the Anglo-Saxons, is much more fragmentary and obscure than might have been ex- pected. * It is certain, however, that the objects of worship among the Anglo-Saxons were the same substantially with those recognised by the wide-spread German race on the Con- tinent. The mythology of the Teutonic nations as known to Caesar and Tacitus, was only partially developed, as com- pared with the shape which that worship had assumed some three or four centuries later, when the Saxons invaded Brit- ain. Tlie worship which the first Germanic settlers brought into the north of Europe is supposed to have recognised one Supreme Being, in a manner unknown among their de- scendants in later ages, f This purer faith the first emi- grants bore with them from the East, as they made their way along the track of territory between the Caspian and the Euxine. By degrees this belief gave place to a more complicated system of nature worship, and to hero and demon worship. In history, monotheism always declines where the authority of revelation fails. If that doctrine is to be secure as the faith of a nation, it must rest on some more intelligible ground than reason can present to the popular understand- ing. Creature worship, in some form or other, is natural to man. The immediate worship of an Infinite Creator is too hard for him. The chasm between the ordinary capacities of men and such an object of worship, is too great to be passed by any process of metaphysical thought possible to such capacities. The history of. all false religions, and the history of the larger portion of Christendom itself, furnishes evidence but too conclusive on this point. But whatever may have pre- * In the canons of the Anglo-Saxon Church, the remains of the old paganism among the people are never named but to be condemned ; and the topic often occurs. — See Ancient Laws and Institutes of England^ 18, 23, 24, '71-T4, 86, 162, 396, 39*7, 419. Persistence in heathen worship after the profession of Christianity became general was made capital. — Ibid. ■j- Mallet's Northern Antiquities^ c. iv. v. REVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 171 ceded, it is certain that the worship of the Saxons, Jutes, ^,9^^ ]^ ' -■■ ' ' Chap. 7. and Angles, in the fifth and sixth centuries, had become very much what the Danish worship is known to be in the ninth and tenth centuries. The gods worshipped by the Danes when they became invaders of Britain, were the gods after whom the Anglo-Saxons had named the days of the week three centuries earlier. During those centuries the Scalds of the E'orthmen may have expanded and embellish- ed the mythic fictions of their race, but the tree, though it had grown, was still the same tree. In the religious life of the Dane, accordingly, as indicated in the J^dda, we have beyond doubt the main elements of the religious life of the •Saxon, from whose earlier traditions the Edda itself was in great part derived. Our object in this place does not require that we should attempt to distinguish between the true and the false in the mythology of the northern nations. Our business just now is not with what the Saxon or the Dane should have believ- ed, but with what they did believe. Their divinities may have had some place in history, but they owe the character under which they are known to us to the forms of thought, and to the passions dominant among their worshippers. Such worshippers fashion their gods, and are fashioned by them. To know their deities, in consequence, is to know themselves. "With the Dane, and with the Saxon before him, Odin Y^y^ ^or- or Woden, was the great divinity. Amidst the cold and \ barren regions of the north, and amidst the storm and dan- ger of his Baltic winters, the Saxon had often heard from poet and from priest of the wonder-working life of Woden. How he learnt many centuries since, to hate the ambition of the Romans, and to despise the nations that submitted to it ; how he left his great city of Asgard in the far East, and passing the great seas of that eastern land, travelled west- ward ; how the warlike youth of all nations flocked to his standard ; how he passed along the territory of the Saxons, and Angles, and Jutes, in his way to conquests which cover- ed all the regions northward ; how he became the father of many kings, dividing among them many lands ; how, while 172 SAXONS AND DANES. ^caS ?' ^^^ could rush as a devouring flame over the battle-field, he could use most persuasive speech in prose and verse, knew many secret arts which gave him power over the seen and the unseen, and power to establish many wise laws ; how finding his end approaching, and scorning to die of a wast- ing sickness, he gathered his brave men about him, inflicted a succession of wounds upon his person, and spoke in those last moments of returning whence he came, to the home of the gods ; and how, having been worshipped while he lived, he became known when he had departed, as no other than the greatest of the gods, the father of creation, of gods and of men. The Mars, the Mercury, and the Apollo of the classical mythology appear to meet in the Woden of the Saxon and the N^orthman, but the warlike element is the prominent one. He was ' The terrible god, the father of slaughter, the giver of victory, the reviver of the faint in battle — naming those who should be slain.' Warriors go forth vowing to send to him so many ghosts from the field. These were his right, he receives them in the hall of Yal- halla — the place where all who die with weapons in their hands receive their reward. There the brave sit down with him at his feast. But here they bow in all things to the destiny of his will. They hear him often amidst the din of arms — see him often where the death-strife thickens. Even this, is not enough. Of Odin the J^dda says : ' He liveth and governeth during the ages ; he directeth everything which is high, and everything which is low ; whatever is > great, and whatever is small ; he hath made the heavens, ihe air, and man, who is to live for ever — and before the heavens and the earth this god existed.' I^otvonly Hengist and Horsa,- but all the founders of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, without exception, claimed to be, in some way or other, descendants of Woden. Over the north, and in this country, the name of Woden was given to the fourth dai^ef the week ; and the names of many places in England at this day, are names derived from the worship there paid to this deity by our Saxon ancestors.* * Mallet, liTorth Antiq. c. iii. v. Kemble's Saxons in England^ i. 343, 344. KEVOLUTION IN RELIGION. 173 Next to Woden as an object of veneration, stood Thor,\B<>OK ir. the most valiant of his sons. Thor gave his name to the/^ — - fifth day of the week among the Anglo-Saxons. In him the