I I LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA GIFT OF MRS. BRUCE C. HOPPER THE L> MAKING OF ENGLAND BY JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A., LL.D. HONORARY FELLOW OF/JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE" " SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE" ETC. toitl) ittaps NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1882 ^ PREFACE. The present work is only a partial realization of an old-standing project of mine, for it is now some ten or twelve years since I made collections for, and actually began, a history of England up to the Nor- man Conquest. This work, however, was interrupt- ed by the preparation of my Short History, and has since been further delayed by my revision and ex- pansion of that work ; and, now that my hands are free, the state of my health forbids my carrying out this earlier plan in its full extent. I have thought it better, therefore, to gather up and complete what I could of the history of the earlier times up to the union of England under Ecgberht; and this the more because these years form a distinct period in our national history whose interest and importance have, I think, still to be fully recognized. They form, in fact, the period of the Making of England — the age during which our fathers conquered and settled over the soil of Britain, and in which their political and social life took. the form which it still retains. The centuries of administrative organization which v j PREFACE. stretch from Ecgberht to Edward the First, the age of full national development which extends from Ed- ward's day to our own, only become fully intelligible to us when we have fully grasped this age of nation- al formation. I cannot but feel, therefore, that it is no slight misfortune that such a period should re- main comparatively unknown ; and that its strug- gles, which were in reality the birth-throes of our na- tional life, should be still to most Englishmen, as they were to Milton, mere battles of kites and of crows. Whether I have succeeded in setting these struggles in a truer and a more interesting light, my readers must decide. The remoteness of the events, the comparative paucity of historical materials, no doubt make such an undertaking at the best a haz- ardous one ; and one of the wisest of my friends, who is, at the same time, the greatest living authority on our early history, warned me at the outset against the attempt to construct a living portraiture of times which so many previous historians, themselves men of learning and ability, had left dead. Perhaps it is my own vivid interest in the subject which has en- couraged me, in spite of such a warning, to attempt to convey its interest to others. In doing so, how- ever, I have largely availed myself of some resources which have been hitherto, I think, unduly neglected. Archaeological researches on the sites of villas and towns, or along the line of road or dyke, often fur- nish us with evidence even more trustworthy than that of written chronicle ; while the ground itself, PREFACE. v ji where we can read the information it affords, is, whether in the history of the Conquest or of the Set- tlement of Britain, the fullest and the most certain of documents. Physical geography has still its part to play in the written record of that human history to which it gives so much of its shape and form ; and in the present w T ork I have striven, however imper- fectly, to avail myself of its aid. I may add, in explanation of the reappearance of a few passages, relating principally to ecclesiastical matters, which my readers may have seen before, that where I had little or nothing to add or to change I have preferred to insert a passage from previous work, with the requisite corrections and references, to the affectation of rewriting such a pas- sage for the mere sake of giving it an air of novelty. John Richard Green. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. BRITAIN AND ITS FOES. A.D. PAGE Britain Fortunate in the Moment of its Conquest 1, 2 Rapidity of its Organization and Development 2, 3 Shown in its Roads and its Towns 3> 4 But this Civilization of Little Depth 5 Britain indeed little more than a Military Colony 6 Its Civilization Hindered by the Physical Character of the Country . 7, 8 Its Downs 9 Its Waste and Fen IO Its Woodlands ll Effect of this on the Provincials 12 Probable Severances between the Romanized and Un-Romanized Pro- vincials J 3 This Heightened by Misgovernment and Disaffection .... 14 The Severance perhaps Accounts for the Success of the Pictish Inroads 14, 15 While Picts Attack by Land, Scots and Saxons Attack by Sea . . 15 The Pirate-boats of the Saxons 16 Letter of Sidonius Describing their Piracy 16,17 Their Work mainly Slave-hunting 17 Effect of their Presence in the Channel 18,19 Creation of the Saxon Shore 19, 20 Fortresses of the Saxon Shore 20 The Roman Troops Strong Enough to Guard Britain to the Last . . 21 Withdrawal of the Roman Troops 21,22 The Province Defends itself for Thirty Years .... 23, 24 But at Last Strives to Divide its Foes by Calling in Pirates against the Picts 24,25 CHAPTER I. THE CONQUEST OF THE SAXON SHORE. 449-r. 500. 449. Three Jutish Keels Land in Thanet 26 Their Landing-place at Ebbsfleet 2S Their Encampment in Thanet 29 The Jutes Aid the Britons 3 1 X CONTENTS. A.D. 455. 457. 465. 465-473. 477. 477-491. 491. 480-500. c. 480. Quarrel between Jutes and Britons . Obstacles in the Way of Jutish Attack Their Sack of Durovernum March on the Medvvay Valley Battle of Aylesford .... Battle of the Cray Drives Britons to London . Revolution in Britain under Aurelius Ambrosianus Aurelius Drives Back the Jutes into Thanet . The Fortress ofRichborough The Final Overthrow ofthe Britons at Wipped's-fleet Conquest of the Rest of the Caint .... The Jutes Forced to Halt by Physical Obstacles Descents of the Saxons on either Flank of the Caint Saxon War-bands under fiLWz. Land at Selsea The Coast slowly Won by these South Sexe . Siege of Anderida Roman Life here as Shown in Villa at Bignor Descents of Saxons in District North of the Thames Fall of Camulodunum Character ofthe Settlement of these East Sexe Barriers which Prevent their Advance into the Island Landing of the Engle Their German Home-land Their Conquest of East Anglia .... Settlement of the North-folk and South-folk . Probably Refrained from Attacking Central Britain Their Settlement Completes the Conquest ofthe Saxon Shore 3i 32 33 33 34 35 36 36 36 37 37,38 38 38,39 40 4i 4i 43 44 45 45 47 47 48 49 50 5i 52 CHAPTER II. CONQUESTS OF THE ENGLE. c. 500-r. 570. The Bulk of Britain still Guarded by Strong Natural Barriers . 53, 54 The Engle Stretch Northward along the Coast 54 e. 500. They Conquer the District about Lindum 55 Settlement of the Lindiswara 56 Other Engle Seize Holderness 56 And Establish a Kingdom of the Deirans in the Wolds and District round 58 Eboracum 58, 59 500-520. Fall of Eboracum 60 Conquest of the Plain of the O use 61 Conquest of Eastern and Western Yorkshire 62, 63 Flight of the Britons Shown in Remains at Settle 64 Attack of the Engle still further North 65 The Roman Wall. 66 Little Permanent Change Wrought by Pictish Inroads ... 67, 68 500-547. Conquest and Settlement ofthe Engle in the Basin ofthe Tweed . 68,69 CONTENTS. x i A.D. PAGE 547. Ida Sets Up the Kingdom of the Bernicians at Bamborough . . . 69 547-c. 580. Slow Advance of these Bernicians from the Coast 70 The Engle in the Valley of the Trent 72 Physical Character of the Trent Valley 72 Descent of the Engle from Lindum 73 The Snottingas Settle on the Edge of Sherwood 75 The Bulk of the Engle Follow the Fosse Road to the Valley of the Soar 76 550. Fall of Ratae and Settlement of the Middle Engle 76 Meanwhile the Gyrwas Break in on the Towns around the Wash . . 77 Their Two Tribes, the North and South Gyrwas . . . . 78, 79 The Engle Attack our Northamptonshire ...... 79 Its Physical Character at this Time 80 Settlement of the South Engle 80 c 560. Advance of the West Engle 81 The Pec-saetan Settle in our Derbyshire 81 The Rest of the West Engle in our Staffordshire 82 The West Engle become Known as Mercians, or Men of the March . 82 CHAPTER III. CONQUESTS OF THE SAXONS, c. 500-577. Character of British Coast to the Westward of Sussex .... 83 The Estuary of the Southampton Water Leads up to Gwent ... 84 Attempts of Saxons Known as Gewissas to Penetrate by this Estuary . 84 Conquest of the Gwent in Battle of Charford 85 Cerdic and Cynric become Kings of the West Saxons .... 85 Gewissas Repulsed by Britons at Mount Badon 86 Conquest of the Isle of Wight, and Settlement of Jutes in it . . .87 Long Pause in West-Saxon Advance 87 Physical Barriers that Arrested them 88 Cynric again Advances to the West 88 Fall of Sorbiodunum 89 Settlement of the Wil-saetan 90 Victory of the West Saxons at Barbury Hill Makes them Masters of the Marlborough Downs 91 Conquest of our Berkshire 92 Britain now Open to the West Saxons 93 They are Able to Advance along the Upper Thames • • • • 93 Obstacles which had till now Prevented the English Advance from the Mouth of the Thames 94 The Water-way Blocked by the Fortress of London • • • • 95 Original Character of the Ground about London .... 95~97 London not a British Town 97 Its Site the Centre of a Vast Solitude 98 Its Rapid Growth under the Romans 99. 100 Its Importance as the Centre of their Road System . . . .101 Stages of its Growth 101,102 495-514. 519. 519. 520. 530. 520-552. 552. 552. 552-556. 556. x ii CONTENTS. A.D. PAGE Its Later Greatness 102 It long Resists Successfully the East Saxons and the Jutes of Kent . 103 Advance of the East Saxons on our Hertfordshire 104 540-560. Fall of Verulamium 105 560-568. Fall of London 105,106 Settlement of the Middle Saxons 106 Growth of Kent since its Conquest 107,108 568. The Fall of London Sets the Jutes Free to Advance to the West . . 109 Meanwhile the West Saxons are Advancing on the Same Tract from the West '. 109 Their Road Open to them by the Fall of Calleva . . . . 110,111 Their Advance along the Thames Valley 112 568. They Meet and Defeat the Jutes at Wimbledon 113 Settlement of the West Saxons in our Surrey 114 The District of the Four Towns 114-116 The Icknield Way Guides the West Saxons to it 117 They Cross the Thames at Wallingford 119 571. Cuthwulf's Victory at Bedford 119 West Saxons Occupy the District of the Four Towns .... 120 The Close of their Advance to the North probably Due to the Presence of the Engle in Mid-Britain 121 577. They Attack the Severn Valley 122 League of the Three Towns against them 123 577. Their Victory at Deorham 124 Their Settlement as the Hwiccas along the Lower Severn, on the Cots- wolds, and by the Avon 125,126 CHAPTER IV. THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CONQUERORS. At the Battle of Deorham Half Britain has become English . . . 127 Henceforth the Work of the English is that of Settlement rather than Conquest 127, 128 Character of the Settlement Determined by that of the Conquest . . 128 Characteristics of the Conquest — (1) The Weakness of the Attack 128 (2) Stubbornness of the Defence 129 (3) Nature of the Conquered Country 129 Hence the Slowness of the Conquest and the Driving-off of the Con- quered People 130 The Britons not Slaughtered, but Driven Off 131 Proofs of this Displacement — (1) The New Inhabitants Know themselves only as English- men 133 (2) The Unconquered Britons Know them only as Strangers . 133 (3) Evidence of Local and Personal Names .... 134 (4) Evidence of Language 135 CONTENTS. Xlll (5) Evidence of Changed Institutions . . . (6) Evidence Drawn from Destruction of Towns (7) Evidence Drawn from the Change of Religion . . 138, But Roman Britain still Influenced the New England — (1) It Gave it its Limits (2) It Determined the Bounds of Kingdoms and Tribes . 141, (3) It Influenced the Social Settlement But in all Other Ways Roman Life Disappeared The Change Shown in the Conquest of Kent (1) The Caint in Roman Times (2) The Caint after the Jutish Conquest .... 145, The New English Society that Sprang up on this Ruin . . . 147, The Slowness of the Conquest Allows the Transfer of the Whole Eng- lish Life The Settlement that of Numerous Separate Folks Traces of such Folks in Kent But Early Fusion of such Folks in Three Great Kingdoms . . 152, And Recognition by the Three Kingdoms of a National Unity Character of the Ensrlish Civilization . (1 (2 (J (4 (5 (6 (7 The Folk itself. Its Shape Drawn from War (1 (2 (3 (4 (5 (6 The Englis (1 (2 (3 (4 (5 (6 (7 (8 The Saxons Long in Contact with Rome .... Their Early Art Their Literature . . . ... . .156, Their Moral Temper 158, Their Religion 160, Its Weak Hold on the Settlers 162, Their Military Life 164, 166, The Host The Military Organization Shapes the Civil Organization . The Hundred-moot and Folk-moot . . . .170, The King . . . Eorl and Ceorl The Thegn Township 175, Its Boundaries 177, The Freeman's Home The Farm and its Labor 180, The Bond of the Kin 182, The Common Holding of Land The Unfree The Slave The Tun-moot 187, 36 37 39 40 42 42 43 43 44 46 48 49 5i 5i 53 53 54 54 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 67 69 7i 72 73 74 76 78 78 81 83 84 85 86 CHAPTER V. THE STRIFE OF THE CONQUERORS. 577-617. Change of Relations between Conquerors and Conquered Early Severance between the Two Races 1S9 190 XIV CONTENTS. 583. 591. c. 584-589. Before 597. Before 588. 585-588. 588. 588. 593. 597. 597. 601. 603. 604. 604. ?607. on th e Older Wessex Shown in the Story of Beino This Passes Away with the Battle of Deorham The Britons no longer Driven from the Soil .... Their Increasing Numbers as the Conquest Spreads Westward Change, too, in Relations of the Conquerors themselves They Divide into Greater and Lesser Powers After-history a Strife of the Greater Powers for Supremacy . The West Saxons under Ceawlin the Leading English Power Ceawlin's March on the Upper Severn Valley Storm of Uriconium .... Ceawlin Defeated at Faddiley Rising of the Hwiccas Throws Ceawlin Back Ceawlin Defeated at Wanborough . Internal Troubles of the West Saxons . ./Ethelberht of Kent Seizes the Opportunity His Marriage with Bertha Canterbury iEthelberht's Supremacy Its Limits War between Bernicians and Deirans Gregory and the English Slaves at Rome Death of ^Ella Conquest of Deira by the Bernician King yEthelric The Union of the Two Kingdoms in Northumbria The Three Great Kingdoms fairly Established ^Ethelfrith Succeeds yEthelric as King of Northumbria . Roman Mission to the English under Augustine TEthelberht Receives the Missionaries in Thanet They Settle at Canterbury . . . . Future Issues of their Coming Conversion of yEthelberht and his People Gregory's Plan for the Ecclesiastical Organization Augustine's Interview with the Welsh Clergy Condition of the Britons at this Time The Stubbornness of their Resistance Disorganization of What Remained of Britain Rejection of Augustine by the British Clergy . Consolidation of the British States . Its Result a Revival of the British Strength . Alliance of Northern Britons with the Scots . Their Force Crushed by yEthelfrith in the Battle of Daegsastan Northumbrian Supremacy Established over Northern Britons .(Ethelberht at last Resolves to Carry Out Gregory's Scheme Establishment of Bishop at Rochester Bishop Set over the East Saxons at London .... Raedwald, King of East Anglians, Baptized at ^Ethelberht's Court The East Anglians Reject Christianity Fall of ^Ethelberht's Supremacy of Britain , 193- 195. 190, 191 192 192 193 194 195 195 196 198 199 200 201 202 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 210 211 211 211 212 212 213 213 214 215 216 6,217 217 218 218, 219 219, 220 . 221 . 222 . 223 . 224 . 225 225, 226 226, 227 . 228 228, 229 229 • 230 • 230 21 A.D. 613. 616. 617. 617. CONTENTS. xv PAGE Raedwald Establishes a Supremacy over Mid-Britain .... 230 This Revolution Aided by the Troubles of the West Saxons . .231 And by yEthelfrith's Embarrassments with the House of JEWa, . . 232 The House of ^Ella Finds Shelter among the Welsh, who are Attacked by ^Ethelfrith ^ 232 Position and Importance of Chester in Roman Times .... 233 ^Ethelfrith's Victory at Chester 234, 235 Results of this Battle on the Britons and on Northumbria . . . 236 yEthelfrith Drawn to the South by the Weakness of Wessex and Fall of Kent 238 The East Saxons Revolt from Kent at ^Ethelberht's Death . . . 238 iEthelfrith Brought into Collision with Raedwald by the House of ./Ella 239 Eadwine Seeks Shelter in East Anglia 240 Hesitations of Raedwald 241 Eadwine and the Stranger 242 ^Ethelfrith Defeated by Rsedwald at the Idle 243, 244 617-633. 626. 627. 626-655. 628. 633. 634. 635-642. 635. 635. CHAPTER VI. THE NORTHUMBRIAN SUPREMACY Eadwine Established as King of Northumbria The Kingdom of Elmet Eadwine's Conquest of Elmet His Power at Sea, and Conquests of Anglesea and Man He Establishes his Supremacy over Mid-Britain . His Victory over the West Saxons .... Eadwine Supreme over All the English save Kent . Character of his Rule over Northumbria . He is Pressed by his Kentish Wife to Become Christian The Northumbrian Witan Accept Christianity The New Faith Rejected in East Anglia Rising of the Mercians Penda King of the Mercians Penda Becomes Supreme over Mid-Britain His Battle with the West Saxons at Cirencester . Probable Annexation of the Hwiccan Country Strife between Penda and Eadwine for East Anglia Alliance of Penda with Cadwallon .... The Hatfield Fen Eadwine Defeated and Slain by Penda at Hatfield . Northumbria Broken Up into its Two Kingdoms . Penda Conquers East Anglia Oswald King of the Bernicians .... Battle of the Heaven-field From this Time the Struggle of the Welsh is a Mere Struggle of Defence Oswald Calls for Missionaries from Ireland . 617-659. 246, 55. Self- 245 247 249 250 251 251 252 252 255 256 257 258 258 259 259 260 260 261 262 264 264 265 266 268 268 269 XV J CONTENTS. A.D. PAGE Influence of its Physical Characteristics on the History of Ireland . 269 Early Ireland a Huge Grazing-ground 270 Its Primitive Institutions 271 Its Contrast with the Rest of Europe 272, 273 Story of Patrick 274 The Conversion of Ireland 275 The Irish Church Moulded by the Social Condition of Ireland . 276, 277 Influence of the Celtic Temper on Irish Christianity .... 27S Its Poetic and Romantic Temper 279 The Foreign Missions of the Irish Church 280 635. Aidan Summoned by Oswald to Lindisfarne 281 The Irish Missionaries in Northumbria 281, 282 Oswald Re-establishes the Northumbrian Supremacy . . . 283, 284 642. Oswald Slain by Penda at the Maserfeld 286 Northumbria again Broken Up 2S7 642-670. Osvviu King of the Bernicians 287 Penda Ravages Bernicia 287 651. Oswiu Reconquers Deira . 288 Final Restoration of Northumbria 289 652. Conversion of Penda's Son Peada 290 Conversion of the East Saxons 291 654. Penda Reconquers East Anglia 292 Penda Attacks Osvviu 293 655. Penda Defeated and Slain at the Winwaed 293 Wreck of the Mercian State 294,295 Oswiu Supreme over all the English 296 659. Revolt of the Mercians under Wulfhere ' . 296-298 Abandonment by Northumbria of her Effort after Supremacy . 298, 299 (A r ote on the Impcrium of the Early Kings) .... 298-300 CHAPTER VII. THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOMS. 659-690. With the Failure of Northumbria National Union Seems Impossible . 301 Entry of a New Element into English Life in the Church . . . 301 All the English States save Sussex now Christian 302 The Organizing Force of Roman Christianity 302 But the Dominant Christianity in Britain now Irish .... 303 Activity of the Irish Church in the North after the Winwaed . . . 304 651-676. The Mission Work of Cuthbert 304-308 The Irish Church Devoid of Organizing Power 308 The Success would have Brought About a Religious Schism in Britain 308, 309 The Roman Party in Northumbria 310 Benedict Biscop its Head 312 Still more Energetic Action of Wilfrid 312 664. The Irish Party Defeated at the Synod of Whitby 313 CONTENTS. XVII G69. 659-675. 661. 669-672. 673. 690. c. 650-652. 673. 675-678. G75-704 709. 678. 670-685 670-675 675. The Synod Averted the Religious Isolation, and Secured the Rel Oneness of England Importance of the Primacy in the Reunited Church Theodore, Named Primate by the Pope, Lands in Britain Mercia now the Most Active English State . Wulf here King of the Mercians .... Re-establishes the Mercian Supremacy in Mid-Britain Extends it over Essex, Surrey, and Sussex Theodore Journeys over All England He is Everywhere Received as Primate . His First Ordering of the English Dioceses . Calls a Council at Hertford Influence of these Councils on National Development Establishes a School at Canterbury Influence of this School on English Literature Ealdhelm in Wessex Conquest of the Forest of Braden by the West Saxons Maidulf Sets Up his " Burh " of Malmesbury . Ealdhelm's Work in this Forest Tract . Theodore's Second Organization of the Dioceses . The English Dioceses Coextensive with the Kingdoms Theodore Subdivides them by Falling Back on the Tribal Demarcations He Divides the See of East Anglia His Division of the Mercian See Mercia Under King /Ethelred The Monastic Movement of this Time Based on — (i) A Passion for Solitude .... (2) Social Impulse which Followed it The Monasteries Rather Social and Industrial Centres than Effect of this Impulse in Reclaiming the Country . The Forest of Arden The Foundation of Evesham The Fens of the Wash Guthlac at Croyland The Thames Valley . The Nuns of Barking Survey of the Rest of Mid-Britain Theodore Invited to Organize the Church in Northumbria Ecgfrith, King of the Northumbrians .... • His Conquest of Northern Lancashire and the Lake District Carlisle and its Continuous Life .... Ecgfrith's Triumphs over the Picts .... Ecgfrith Defeats Wulfhere and Recovers Lindsey . Condition of Northumbria Monastic Colonies along the Coast .... Ebba's House at Coldingham Relations'of these Monastic Colonies to the Realm, and its Defence They Bring Labor again into Honor PAGE gious • 3H 3 X 5. 3i6 3i7 3i3 318 8,319 3i9 321 321 322 323 3.324 325 326 326, 327 328, 329 33o 330 33i 332 Relig 10US 34 333 333 334 335 335 336 338, 339 340 1,342 342 344 345 46, 347 347 347 347 343 349 35o 35o 351 352 353 354, 355 B XV111 CONTENTS. Influence of the Movement on Poetry Hilda's House at Streonashalh Story of Caedmon Character of Caedmon's l'oem .... Influence of the Monastic Movement on Art . Greatness of Bishop Wilfrid .... 678. Theodore Divides the Northumbrian Dioceses Wilfrid Appeals to Rome and is Exiled from Northumbria He Takes Refuge among and Converts the South Saxons 679. War between Mercia and Northumbria .... Ecgfrith Forced to Cede Lindsey 682. Theodore Creates Two Fresh Bishoprics in the North . 684. Attack of the Northumbrian Fleet on the Shores of Ireland 685. Rising of the Picts against Ecgfrith Cuthbert's Words of Ill-omen 685. Ecgfrith and his Army Slain by the Picts at Nectansmere Wilfrid Submits to Theodore and is Restored to York . 690. Theodore Dies Later Completion of the Work of Organization by the Development a Parochial System, by the Endowment of the Clergy, and by Provision of Discipline within the Church . , PAGE • 356 356, 357 • 353 358, 359 361, 362 363 363 3 6 4 364 366 366 366 366 367 367 368 368 369 of the 369,370 CHAPTER VIII. THE THREE KINGDOMS. 690-830. Silent Influence of Theodore's Work in Promoting National Unity The Political Disunion Seems Greater than Ever . Weakness and Anarchy of the West Saxons since Faddiley But their Real Strength not Diminished .... 682. King Centwine Drives the Britons to the Quantocks 685. Ceadwalla Unites All the West Saxons Under his Rule . Conquers Sussex and the Isle of Wight .... 688. Fails in an Attack on Kent and Withdraws to Rome 688-726. Ine Reunites the West Saxons after an Interval of Anarchy 688-694. Forces Kent, Essex, and London to Own his Supremacy 710. Attacks the Kingdom of Dyvnaint .... Founds Taunton in the Conquered Territory . Somerset after its Conquest Mingling of the Two Races seen at Glastonbury . Seen too in the Double City of Exeter . Ine Divides the Bishopric of Wessex 715. He Repulses the Mercian King Ceolred at Wanborough Fresh Outbreak of Anarchy in Wessex . 726. Ine Dies on Pilgrimage to Rome .... 718-757. ^Ethelbald King of Mercia 728-733. /Ethelbald Overruns all Wessex .... 733-754. His Supremacy Owned by all the Southern English 37 371 37i i,372 372 373 374 374 374 375 375 376 377 378 379 379 380 381 3Si 382 383 334 384 CONTENTS. A.D. 754. 685-705. 673-735. 735. 738-758 740. 750. 756. 758. 690. 718-753. 758-796. 773. 777. 779. 754-786. 787. 787. 794. 803. 802. The West Saxons Rise and Defeat ^Ethelbald at Burford Meanwhile Northumbria Stands Apart from the Rest of Britain Aldfrith King of Northumbria Peaceful Growth of Learning under his Rule . This Learning Summed Up in Basda His Life at Jarrow His Learning and Works .... His Ecclesiastical History .... The Story of his Death His Scheme of Religious Reformation in the North Ecgberht becomes Archbishop of York . His Brother Eadberht King of the Northumbrians Eadberht Repulses both the Mercians and the Picts Takes Kyle from the Britons of Strathclyde . York under Eadberht The School of York under Ecgberht Eadberht Defeated by the Picts Eadberht and Ecgberht both Withdraw to a Monastery . The After-history of Northumbria one of Weakness and Anarchy Change in the Character of our History England becomes Linked to the Rest of Western Christendom The Change Brought About by the Joint Work of English Missionaries and the Franks Growth of the Frankish Kingdom ..... The Franks under Pippin Support the English Missionaries Mission of Willibrord Mission Work of Boniface Conversion of Germany by the English Missionaries Its Results on the History of the Papacy and the Empire It Draws the Frankish Power into Connection with the English doms ........... Britain now Definitely Parted into Three Kingdoms Losses of Mercia after the Battle of Burford .... Offa King of Mercia Offa Recovers Kent, Essex, and London Drives the West Saxons from the District of the Four Towns Drives the Welsh from Shropshire ...... The West Saxons Conquer Devon Ecgberht, Driven out of Wessex, Takes Refuge at the Frankish C Offa Creates the Archbishopric of Lichfield .... Effect of this had it Lasted Policy of the Franks towards the English Kingdoms Friendly Relations of Charles the Great and Offa . Offa, however, on his Guard against Charles .... English Exiles at the Frankish Court Offa Seizes East Anglia His Successor Cenwulf Suppresses the Mercian Archbishopric Ecgberht becomes King of Wessex XIX PAGE 384 385 385 385 386 387 388 389, 390 391 392 392 392 392 392 394 395 396 396 397 397 397 398 399 399 400,401 401,402 403 king urt 403 405 405 406 406 406 406 407 408 409 409 410 411 412 413 414 416 416 41S xx CONTENTS. A.D. PAGE 808. The Northumbrian King Eardwulf Restored by Fope and Emperor . 419 815-825. Ecgberht's Conquest of Cornwall 420 Close of the Struggle with the Britons 420 825. Beornwulf of Mercia Attacks Ecgberht 422 His Defeat at Ellandun 422 Ecgberht Seizes Kent and Essex . 422 825-827. East Anglia Rises and Defeats the Mercians 422 829. Ecgberht Conquers Mercia 422,423 829. Northumbria Submits to Ecgberht 423 All Englishmen in Britain United under one Ruler .... 424 LIST OF MAPS. PAGE I. The English Kingdoms in 600 to face 26 II. Roman Kent 30 III. Eastern Britain . -39 IV. Eastern Britain 46 V. Mid-Britain 57 VI. Northern Britain 67 VII. Mid-Britain 71 VIII. Central Britain 74 IX. Eastern Britain 7S X. Southern Britain 85 XI. Early London 9 6 XII. Southern Britain no XIII. Eastern Britain .120 XIV. Western Britain 122 XV. Britain in 580 197 XVI. Southern Britain 203 XVII. Britain in 593 209 XVIII. Britain in 616 237 XIX. Britain in 626 253 XX. Britain in 634 267 XXI. Britain in 640 285 XXII. Britain in 658 297 XXIII. Britain in 665 3 21 XXIV. Southwestern Britain 32S XXV. Mid-Britain from 700 to 800 337 XXVI. Southwestern Britain 377 XXVII. Britain in 750 3 S 3 XXVIII. Britain in 792 417 XXIX. Southwestern Britain 421 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. INTRODUCTION. BRITAIN AND ITS FOES. The island of Britain was the latest of Rome's introd. conquests in the West. Though it had been twice The attacked by Julius Caesar, his withdrawal and the conquest inaction of the earlier emperors promised it a con- tinued freedom ; but, a hundred years after Caesar's landing, Claudius undertook its conquest, and so swiftly was the work carried out by his generals and those of his successor that before thirty years were over the bulk of the country had passed beneath the Roman sway. 1 The island was thus fortunate in the moment of its conquest. It was spared the 1 In these few introductory pages, I need scarcely say that I do not attempt to write a history of Roman Britain. Such a history, indeed, can hardly be attempted with any profit till the scattered records of researches among the roads, villas, tombs, etc., of this period have been in some way brought together and made acces- sible. What I attempt is simply to note those special features of the Roman rule which have left their impress on our after- his- tory. I 2 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. introd. pillage and exactions which ruined the provinces of Britain Rome under the Republic, while it felt little of the 3 Foes tS evils which still clung to their administration under the earlier Empire. The age in which its organiza- tion was actively carried out was the age of the An- tonines, when the provinces became objects of spe- cial care on the part of the central government, 1 and when the effects of its administration were aided by peace without and a profound tranquillity within. The absence of all record of the change indicates the quietness and ease with which Britain was trans- formed into a Roman province. A census and a land-survey must have formed here, as elsewhere, indispensable preliminaries for the exaction of the poll-tax and the land-tax, which were the main bur- dens of Rome's fiscal system. Within the province the population would, in accordance with her inva- riable policy, be disarmed ; while a force of three legions was stationed, partly in the north to guard against the unconquered Britons, and partly in the west to watch over the tribes which still remained half subdued. Though the towns were left in some measure to their own self-government, the bulk of the island seems to have been ruled by military and financial administrators, whose powers were practi- cally unlimited. But, rough as their rule may have been, it secured peace and good order; and peace and good order were all that was needed to ensure 1 Capitolinus says of Antoninus Pius, " With such diligence did he rule the subject peoples that he cared for all men and all things as his own. All the provinces flourished under him." Hadrian's solicitude was shown by his ceaseless wanderings over the whole Empire, and by the general system of border fortifications of which his wall in Britain formed a part. tO'UllS. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 3 material development. This development soon made introd. itself felt. Commerce sprang up in the ports of Brit- Britain ain. Its harvests became so abundant that it was Foes, able at need to supply the necessities of Gaul. Tin mines were worked in Cornwall, lead mines in Som- erset and Northumberland, and iron mines in the forest of Dean. The villas and homesteads which, as the spade of our archaeologists proves, lay scat- tered over the whole face of the country show the general prosperity of the island. The extension of its road system, and the up- Roman growth of its towns, tell, above all, how rapidly Brit- ain was incorporated into the general body of the Empire. The beacon-fire which blazed on the cliffs of Dover to guide the vessels from the Gaulish shores to the port of Richborough proclaimed the union of Britain with the mainland ; while the route which crossed the downs of Kent from Richborouo-h O to the Thames linked the roads that radiated from London over the surface of the island with the o-en- eral net-work of communications along which flow- ed the social and political life of the Roman world. When the Emperor Hadrian traversed these roads at the opening of the second century, a crowd of towns had already risen along their course. 1 In the southeast Durovernum, the later Canterbury, con- 1 The bulk of these towns undoubtedly occupied British sites, and were probably only modifications of communities which had already taken a municipal shape in the interval of rapid native de- velopment between the landing of Caesar and the landing of Clau- dius. But these, after all, can have been little more than collec- tions of hues, like the Gaulish communities which had risen under like circumstances ; and the difference between such a community and the meanest Roman town was even materially immense. 4 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. introd. nected Richborough with London. In the south- Britain west Venta, or Winchester, formed the centre of the Foes. Gwent, or open downs of our Hampshire ; while goutv provincials found their way to the hot springs of Bath, and Exeter looked out from its rise over the Exe on the wild moorlands of the Cornish peninsula. Colchester and Norwich stand on the sites of Ro- man cities which gathered to them the new life of the eastern coast ; and Lindum has left its name to the Lincolnshire which was formed in later days around its ruins. Names as familiar meet us if we turn to central Britain. The uplands of the Cots- wolds were already crowned with the predecessor of our Cirencester, as those of Hertfordshire were crowned by that of our St. Albans ; while Leicester represents as early a centre of municipal life in the basin of the Trent. Even on the skirts of the prov- ince life and industry sheltered themselves under the Roman arms. A chain of lesser places studded the road from York to the savage regions of the north, where the eagles of a legion protected the settlers who were spreading to the Forth and the Clyde. Caerleon sprang from the quarters of another legion which held down the stubborn freedom that linger- ed among the mountains of Wales, and guarded the towns which were rising at Gloucester and Wroxeter in the valley of the Severn ; while Chester owes its existence to the station of a third on the Dee, whose work was to bridle the tribes of North Wales and of Cumbria. 1 1 It is in the age of the Antonines that we first get a detailed knowledge of Britain in the geographical survey of Ptolemy, which gives us the towns of the native tribes (Monum. Hist. Brit., pp. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 5 It is easy, however, to exaggerate the civilization introd. of Britain. Even within the province south of the Britain in.fi its Firths the evidence of inscriptions 1 shows that large Foes, tracts of country lay practically outside the Roman /m Z^ ect life. Though no district was richer or more peo-"j^?/*'? w t l of britain. pled than the southwest, our Devonshire and our Cornwall seem to have remained almost wholly Cel- tic. Wales was never really Romanized ; its tribes were held in check by the legionaries at Chester and Caerleon, but as late as the beginning of the third century they called for repression from the Emperor Severus as much as the Picts. 2 The valleys of the Thames and of the Severn were fairly inhabited, but there are fewer proofs of Roman settlement in the valley of the Trent; and though the southern part of Yorkshire was rich and populous, Northern Britain, as a whole, was little touched by the new civ- ilization. And even in the south this civilization can have had but little depth or vitality. Large and important as were some of its towns, hardly any inscriptions have been found to tell of the presence of a vigorous municipal life. Unlike its neighbor Gaul, Britain contributed nothing to the intellectual riches of the Empire ; and not one of the poets or rhetoricians of the time is of British origin. Even x.-xvi.) ; and in the account of its roads and towns given in the Antonine Itinerary (ibid, xx.-xxii.). A few milestones survive, and the names of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, which they bear, fix the general date of this road-making. 1 See Hiibner, Inscriptiones Britannia? Latinae (forming the sev- enth volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, published at Berlin, 1873), a book which must furnish the groundwork of any history of Roman Britain. 3 There are few inscriptions of Roman date from Devon and Cornwall ; none from Wales. 6 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. iNTRop. moral movements found little foothold in the island. Britain When Christianity became the religion of the Em- and its • Foes, pire under the house of Constantine, Britain must have become nominally Christian ; and the presence of British bishops at ecclesiastical councils is enough to prove that its Christianity was organized in the ordinary form. 1 But as yet no Christian inscription or ornament has been found in any remains of ear- lier date than the close of the Roman rule ; and the undoubted existence of churches at places such as Canterbury, or London, or St. Albans, only gives greater weight to the fact that no trace of such buildings has been found in the sites of other cities which have been laid open by archaeological re- search. its life Far, indeed, as was Britain from the centre of the military. Empire, had the Roman energy wielded its full force in the island it would have Romanized Britain as completely as it Romanized the bulk of Gaul. But there was little in the province to urge Rome to such an effort. It was not only the most distant of all her Western provinces, but it had little natural wealth, and it was vexed by a ceaseless border warfare with the unconquered Britons, the Picts, or Caledonians, beyond the northern firths. There was little in its material resources to tempt men to that immigration from the older provinces of the Empire which was the main agent in civilizing a new conquest. On 1 Stubbs and Haddan (Councils of Great Britain, i. 1-40) have collected the few facts which form the meagre evidence for the ex- istence of Christianity in Britain. Even of this meagre list, some are doubted by so competent an observer as Mr. Raine (Historians of the Church of York, Introd. p. xx. note). THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. ~ the contrary, the harshness of a climate that knew introd. neither olive nor vine deterred men of the south Britain from such a settlement. The care with which every a F 0e s. 3 villa is furnished with its elaborate system of hot-air flues shows that the climate of Britain was as intol- erable to the Roman provincial as that of India, in spite of punkas and verandas, is to the English ci- vilian or the English planter. The result was that the province remained a mere military department of the Empire. The importance of its towns was determined by military considerations. In the ear- liest age of the occupation, when the conquerors aimed at a hold on the districts near to Gaul, Col- chester, Verulam, and London were the greatest of British towns. As the tide of war rolled away to the north and west, Chester and Caerleon rivalled their greatness, and York became the capital of the province. It is a significant fact that the bulk of the monuments which have been found in Britain re- late to military life. . Its inscriptions and tombs are mostly those of soldiers. Its mightiest work was the great wall and line of legionary stations which guard- ed the province from the Picts. Its only historic records are records of border forays against the bar- barians. If we strive to realize its character from the few facts that we possess, we are forced to look on Britain as a Roman Algeria. It was not merely its distance from the seat of rh y^^ J aspect of rule or the later date of its conquest that hindered Britain. the province from passing completely into the gen- eral body of the Empire. Its physical and its social circumstances offered yet greater obstacles to any effectual civilization. Marvellous as was the rapid 8 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. introd. transformation of Britain in the hands of its con- Britain querors, and greatly as its outer aspect came to dif- a Foes t8 ^ er from that of the island in which Claudius landed, it was far from being in this respect the land of later days. In spite of its roads, its towns, and its mining- works, it remained, even at the close of the Roman rule, an " isle of blowing woodland," a wild and half- reclaimed country, the bulk of whose surface was oc- cupied by forest and waste. The rich and lower soil of the river valleys, indeed, which is now the fa- vorite home of agriculture, had in the earliest times been densely covered with primeval scrub ; and the only open spaces were those whose nature fitted them less for the growth of trees — the chalk downs and oolitic uplands that stretched in long lines across the face of Britain from the Channel to the Northern Sea. In the earliest traces of our histo- ry, these districts became the seats of a population and a tillage which have long fled from them, as the gradual clearing-away of the woodland drew men to the richer soil. Such a transfer of population seems faintly to have begun even before the coming of the Romans; and the roads which they drove through the heart of the country, the waste caused by their mines, the ever-widenins: circle of cultivation round their towns, must have quickened this social change. But even after four hundred years of their occupation the change was far from having been completely brought about. It is mainly in the natural clearings of the uplands that the population concentrated itself at the close of the Roman rule, and it is over these dis- tricts that the ruins of the villas or country-houses of the Roman landowners are most thickly scattered. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. g Such spaces were found, above all, at the extremi- introd. ties of the oreat chalk ranges which srive form and Britain character to the scenery of Southern Britain. Half- a £ oe s. S way along our southern coast, the huge block of up- ^ land which we know as Salisbury Plain and the Marl- d70. which is represented by our Towcester. Even as late as the Middle Ages the western half of its area, from the ed^e of the Fens as far inland as Rocking-- ham and Kettering, was still one of the largest for- ests of the island ; and in earlier days this forest had stretched yet further towards the Nen. 1 It was through this huge woodland that the Engle from the Wash would have to struggle as they mounted the upland ; and their progress must have been a slow one. Their fellow -invaders from the valley of the Soar had an easier task. Alone: the head- waters of the Nen the upland became clearer ; and though fragments of woodland such as the oak woods that lingered on around Althorpe and Holm- by linked Rockingham with the vaster forest of Ar- den, and thus carried on the forest line across Cen- tral Britain from the Severn to the Wash, yet open spaces remained for settlement and communication. 2 It was across this clearer ground that the Watling Street struck after it had mounted from Stony- Stratford and emerged from the woods of Whittle- bury ; and here it was that the bulk of the new set- tlers raised their homes around the " home-town " of their tribe, the Hampton which was known in after- 1 For Rockingham and its forest, see a paper by Mr. G. T. Clark, Archseol. Journal, xxxv. 209. 2 By Elizabeth's day sheep-farming, for which this district was renowned, had made this part of the shire "a great open pasture," as now. But the woodlands were still thick about Towcester and Rockingham (Camden, Britannia, ed. 1753, i. 511). THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 8 1 days as Northampton to distinguish it from the char p. South-Hampton beside the Solent. conquests While Engle bands were thus pushing up the £ ng i e e Soar to Ratas and the upland which formed the c ."jJoo_ southern brink of the Trent basin, others must have c - 570, been advancing along the great river beyond the rh s. l J est bounds of the Middle English to near its junction with the Tame. As they struck to the north up the valleys of the Derwent and the Dove into the moor- lands of the Peak, these seem to have become known as the Pec-saetan ; but their settlement in what was the later Derbyshire would necessarily be a scanty and unimportant one. Of far greater importance was the advance of their fellows to the west. Spread- ing along the quiet open meadows beside the Tame, the invaders as they fixed their " worth " of Tarn- worth on a little rise above its waters at their union with the Anker, saw the dark and barren moorlands of Cannock Chase stretching like a barrier across their path. Lichfield, " the field of the dead," may, as the local tradition ran, mark the place of some fight that left them masters of the ground beneath its slopes ; but the Chase itself was impassable. At either end of it, however, a narrow gap gave access to the country in its rear. Between its northern extremity and the Needwood which lay thick along the Trent, the space along the channel of the great river was widened by the little valley of the Sow. Between its southern end and the dark edge of Ar- den, which then ran to the north of our Walsall and Wolverhampton, interposed a like gap of open coun- try through which the Watling Street passed on its way to the Severn. By both of these openings the 6 g 2 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. char n. West Engle, as this folk of conquerors at first called conquests itself, pushed into the open tract between Cannock Engie. and the low line of moorlands thrown down from c.^oo- the heights of Mole Cop in the north, which marks c.j)70. the water-parting between the basins of the Severn and the Trent. Stafford, the " Stone-ford," marks their passage over the Sow to the head-waters of the great river which had led them through the heart of Central Britain, though the woods thrown out from Needwood across the district of Trentham must have long hindered them from penetrating to its northern founts. Here, however, they were brought for a while to a stand ; for that these moorlands long remained a march or border-land between Engle and Welshman we see from the name by which the West English became more commonly known, the Mer- cians, or the Men of the March. 1 1 The date of the conquest of Mercia can only be a matter of in- ference, as we have no record of any part of the winning of Central Britain. Florence of Worcester, ed. Thorpe (vol. i. p. 264) says, " post initium regni Cantuariorum principium exstitit regni Merciorum," which tells us nothing ; but if Penda was (E. Chron. a. 626) fifty when he began his reign in 626 (Baeda, ii. 20, seems to put this in 633), he was born about 576, when we may take it his people were already on the upper Trent. This squares with Huntingdon's state- ment, " Regnum Merce incipit, quod Crida ut ex scriptis conjicere possumus primus obtinuit " ( Hist. Angl. ed. Arnold, p. 53), a fact which he inserts between Ceawlin's overthrow at Fethanlea in 584 and his death in 593. Crida, or Creoda, was Penda's grandfather: " Penda was the son of Pybba, Pybba of Creoda " (E. Chron. a. 626). The setting-up of a king would, no doubt, follow here as elsewhere a period of conquest under ealdormen which would carry us back to near the middle of the century for the first attack on the head- waters of the Trent. The conquests of the Middle Engle would of course precede those of the Mercians. We may gather from the limits of the bishopric of the Mercians that the Pec-ssetan of our Derbyshire were only a part of these West Engle. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 83 CHAPTER III. CONQUESTS OF THE SAXONS. c. 500-577. With the settlement of the Mercians the work Th J West baxons. of the Eno-le in Central and Northern Britain was o done. But we have still to follow the work of the conquerors who through the same memorable years had been making themselves masters of the south. While the Engle had been winning one flank of the Saxon Shore, the Saxons were as slowly winning an even more important district on its other flank. 1 To westward of the strip of coast between the Andreds- weald and the sea which had been won by the war bands of /Ella, the alluvial flat whose inlets had drawn the South Saxons to their landing in Chich- ester Water broadened into a wider tract around a greater estuary, that of the Southampton Water, as it strikes inland from the sea-channels of the So- lent and Spithead. This opening in the coast was already recognized as of both military and commer- cial importance. It was the one break in the long line of forests which, whether by the fastnesses of the Andredswcald or by the hardly less formidable fastnesses of our Dorset, stretched like a natural barrier along the whole southern coast of Britain ; 1 From this point we are again on distinctly historic ground, as the Chronicle records every step in the conquest of Wessex. 8 4 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, hi. for though woodlands lay even here along the shore, conquests it was in a thin line broken by the estuary and by saxons. the channels of its tributaries, and cleft by the roads c 500^577 tnat run f rom Winchester to Porchester or along the valley of the Itchen. 1 By either estuary or roads it was easy to reach the upland of the Gwent, and to strike across it into the very heart of Britain. The importance of such a point was shown by the reso- lute resistance of its defenders ; and the Saxons who attacked it during the latter years of the fifth cen- tury seem to have failed to make any permanent settlement along the coast. The descents of their leaders, Cerdic and Cynric, in 495, ' at the mouth of the Itchen, and a fresh descent on Porchester in 50 1, 3 can have been little more than plunder raids; and though in 508 4 a far more serious conflict ended in the fall of five thousand Britons and their chief, it was not till 514 that the tribe whose older name seems to have been that of the Gewissas, but who were to be more widely known as the West Saxons, actually landed with a view to definite conquest. 6 Pushing up the Itchen to the plunder of Winches- ter, they must have been already masters of the 1 For these woodlands, see Guest, E. E. Sett. pp. 31, 32. I again follow mainly the guidance of this paper, as far as the West-Saxon conquests are concerned, up to the battle of Bedford. a E. Chron. a. 495. 3 E. Chron. a. 501. 4 E. Chron. a. 508, and Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. ed. Arnold, p. 46, who adds that the West Sexe were aided here by the Kentish men and South Sexe. 5 E. Chron. a. 514. My inferences from the entries in the Chron- icle are here somewhat different from those of Dr. Guest ; nor have I felt justified in adopting his ingenious theory as to the struggle of 508. See Guest, E. E. Sett. pp. 55-60. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 85 downs around it when they turned to clear the Brit- ons from the forests in their rear; for a fight at Charford on the lower Avon in 519 seems to mark the close of a conflict in which the provincials were driven from the woodlands whose shrunken remains meet us in the New Forest, and in which the whole district between the Andredsweald and the lower Avon was secured for English holding. 1 The suc- chap. in. Conquests of the Saxons. c. 500-577. Conquest of Hamp- shire and Isle of Wight. cess at Charford was followed by the political organ- ization of the conquerors ; and Cerdic and Cynric became kings of the West Saxons. 2 Here, however, 1 E. Chron. a. 519 ; yEthelweard, a. 519. 3 E. Chron. a. 519. 35 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, in. their success came to an end. Across Avon the conquests forest belt again thickened into a barrier that held Saxons, the invaders at bay ; for when in the following year, c. 500^577. 5 20 ' t ne y clove their way through it to the valley — of the Frome, eager perhaps for the sack of a city whose site is marked by our Dorchester, they were met by the Britons at Badbury or Mount Badon, 1 and thrown back in what after-events show to have been a crushing defeat. The border-line of our Hampshire to the west still marks the point at which the progress of the Gewissas was arrested by this overthrow; 2 and how severe was the check is shown by the long cessation of any advance in this quarter. We hear only of a single battle of the West Sexe 3 during the rest of the reign of Cerdic; while the Jutes who had aided in his descents, and who had struck up the Hamble to a clearing along its course where the villages of Meon Stoke and West and East Meon still preserve a memory of their settle- ment of the Meonwara, 4 turned to the conquest of 1 Gildas, Hist. sec. 26. For the identification of this battle with that of Mount Badon, and of its site with Badbury in Dorsetshire, see Guest, E. E. Sett. pp. 61-63. 2 The position of Sorbiodunum, which was still in British hands, gives at least one firm standpoint in the question of West-Saxon boundaries at this time. The limits which Guest assigns them (E. E. Sett. pp. 64, 65) to north and east — reaching as far as the Cherwell and Englefield — seem to me inconsistent with their later campaigns ; in fact, I can hardly doubt that Hampshire, as a whole, represents the West-Saxon kingdom after 520. 3 E. Chron. a. 527. 4 Baeda, Hist. Eccl. i. 15 : " De Jutarum origine sunt Cantuarii et Vectuarii, hoc est, ea gens quae Vectam tenet insulam, et ea quae usque hodie in provincia occidentalium Saxonum Jutarum natio nominatur, posita contra ipsam insulam Vectam." Politically the Meonwara went with the Isle of Wight, and not with Wessex. See^ Wulfere's grant to ^Edilwalch ; Baeda, Hist. Eccl. iv. 13. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 87 the island that lay off the Solent. In 530 Cerdic and chap, m. Cynric subdued the Isle of Wight, but it was in the conquests interest not of their own people but of its allies, for saxons. the new settlers of the island, the Wightgara, whose c 5( ^7 577t name survives in their town of Carisbrook or Wight- — gara-burh, were not West Sexe, but Jutes. 1 Small as it was, the conquest was a memorable one ; for with it ended for centuries the work of the Jutes in Brit- ain. Causes which are hidden from us must have diverted their energies elsewhere ; the winning of Britain was left to the Saxon and the Engle ; and it was not till Britain was won that the Jutes returned to dispute it with their old allies under the name of the Danes. 2 But the conquest of the isle had hardly less si©-- £? me °f nincance for the West Sexe themselves. If they om. turned to the sea, it was that landwards all progress seemed denied them. Not only had the woodlands of the coast proved impassable, but the invaders of the Gwent found barriers almost as strong on every side. Higher up on their western border the fortress of Sorbiodunum, or Old Sarum, guarded the valley of the Avon and blocked the way to Salisbury Plain, while to eastward of the Gwent ran the thickets of the Andredsweald, and beneath its northern escarp- ment stretched a forest which for centuries to come filled the valley of the Kennet. The strength of these natural barriers was doubled by strongholds which furnished the Britons with bases for defensive operations as well as with supplies of fighting-men ; for while Silchester or Calleva barred the march of 1 See passage quoted above. Baeda, Hist. Eccl. i. 15. 3 Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 46. 38 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, in. the Gewissas across the tract between the Andreds- conquests weald and the Thames, Cunetio, on the site of our Saxons. Marlborough, held the downs to the north, and c 500^577 guarded the road that led from Winchester to the Severn valley. How formidable these obstacles were we see from the long inaction of the West Saxons. While the Engle in the north were slowly fighting their way across Yorkshire or Lincolnshire, their rivals in the south lay quiet for thirty years within the limits of our Hampshire. From the position, in- deed, of their central "tun" of Hampton (our South- ampton), it would seem as if their main settlement was still on the coast, and as if the ruins of Win- chester were left silent and deserted in the upper downs. What broke this inaction — whether the Britons had grown weaker, or whether fresh reinforcements had strengthened their opponents — we do not know. We hear only that Cynric, whom Cerdic's death left King of the West Saxons, again took up the work of in- vasion in 552 by a fresh advance on the west.' Win- chester was the meeting-point of five Roman roads ; and of these one struck directly westward, along the northern skirts of the woodlands that filled the space between the lower Itchen and the mid-valley of the Avon, to the fortress of Old Sarum. 2 Celt and Ro- man alike had seen the military value of the height from which the eye sweeps nowadays over the grassy meadows of the Avon to the arrowy spire of Salis- bury ; and admirable as the position was in itself, it had been strengthened at a vast cost of labor. The 1 E. Chron. a. 552. 2 See map in Guest's E. E. Settlements in Southern Britain. num. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 8 9 camp on the summit of the knoll was girt in by a cha p- in- trench hewn so deeply in the chalk that from the conquests inner side of it the white face of the rampart rose a saxons. hundred feet high, while strong outworks protected,, 5 ^ 577 the approaches to the fortress from the west and from the east. 1 Arms must have been useless against such a stronghold as this ; and, though the Britons were " put to flight " before its investment, the reduction of Sorbiodunum was probably due rather to famine or want of water than to the sword. But its fall brought with it the easy winning of the Conquest district which it guarded, as well as the downs on Wiltshire. whose edge stood the strange monument, then as now an object of wonder, to which the conquerors as they marched beside its mystic circle gave the name of the Hanging Stones, Stonehenge. The Gewissas passed over the Stratford, or paved ford by which the road they had followed from Winchester passed the river, to the westernmost reaches of the Gwent, the district we now know as Salisbury Plain. To the south of them as they marched, behind the lower Avon and its little affluent of the Nadder, a broken and woodland country whose memory lingers in Cranbourne Chase screened the later Dorsetshire from their arms ; " but in their front the open downs offered no line of defence, and the Gewissas could push along the road from Old Sarum unhindered till they reached the steep slope down which the up- 1 G. J. Clark, " Earthworks of the Wiltshire Avon," Archacol. Jour- nal, xxxii. 290. 2 The name of " Britford," which still clings to a passage over the Avon in this quarter, may mark a point in the new border-line where the Briton still faced his foe. 90 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. land fell into the valley of the Frome. How roughly Conquests their march was checked at this point by the dense Saxons, forests which filled the Frome valley we see from the c 5 ^7 577 fact that these woodlands remained in British hands — for more than a hundred years ; and the significant name of " Mere " preserves for us the memory of the border -bound which the Gewissas were forced to draw along the western steeps of their new conquest. The conquerors turned back to settle in the land they had won — in the river-valleys which scored the surface of the downs, in the tiny bends and grassy nooks of the vale of Avon, or in the meadows along the course of its affluent, the Wil or Wiley. It was probably in the last that the main body of the in- vaders fixed their home ; for it was the Wiley, and the little township, or Wil-ton, which rose beside it, which gave them from this time their new name of Wil-saetas. From this time, indeed, the Gewissas, or West Saxons, felt the need of local names for the peoples into which conquest broke them as they pushed over the country. But the character of these names shows the looseness of the bonds that held such " folks " together. Each knew itself simply as a group of " saetan," or " settlers," in the land it had won — Wilt-saetan in the lands about the Wiley, Dor- saetan in the forest tract through which wound the " dwr " or dark water of the Frome, Somer-saetan or Defna-sastan in lands yet more to the west. Cynric's But there was little to detain Cynric in the tiny •vales and bare reaches of upland which his arms had as yet given him; and in 556, only four years after the fall of Old Sarum, he pushed forward again along a road that led from Winchester northwest- * THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. q X ward in the direction of Cirencester and the Severn, chap. m. Descending the deep escarpment which forms the conquests northern face of the Hampshire Downs, he threaded saxons. his way through the woodlands of the vale of Pewsey, 5 ^7 577 whose relics survive in the forest of Savernake, and again mounted the slopes on the further side of them. Here he made himself master of the town of Cunetio and of the upland which lay about it by a victory on the very brink of the downs at Barbury Hill. 1 The ground, however, of which he thus became lord was far from affording any obstacle to further advance ; on the contrary, its very character seemed to draw the Gewissas onward to new aggressions. The Marlborough Downs are, in fact, the starting-point from which the second and greatest of its chalk ranges runs across Southern Britain. The upland trends to the northeast under the name of the Ilsley Downs till it reaches a gap through which the Thames strikes southward to its lower river-valley ; then rising again in the Chilterns, it broadens at last into the Gwent, in which the East Anglians had found a home. In its earlier course this rang-e nat- O urally called Cynric's men to a fresh advance ; for from the downs above Marlborough the high ground runs on without a break to the course of the Thames. This tract, however, like that which they had trav- ersed in the Gwent, must have been a scantily peo- pled one ; and its invaders would turn with eager- ness to the more tempting district which lay in the lower ground on either side of it. The northern 1 " Byran-byrig," E. Chron. a. 556 ; Guest, E. E. Sett. p. 67 ; Hunt- ingdon, Hist. Angl. ed. Arnold, p. 51, gives large details of this bat- tle, but we do not know his authority for them. 92 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. face of the downs consists of a line of steep cliffs, Conquests looking out over a vale through which the stream Saxons, of the Ock pours its waters into the Thames. On c. 500^577. tne ^ ace °f trns escarpment the traveller still sees, drawn white against the scanty turf, the gigantic form of a horse which gives the vale of White Horse its name, and which tradition looks on as a work of the conquering Gewissas. Another monu- ment of their winning of this district lingers in the rude stones called Weyland Smith's House, a crom- lech of primeval times where the Saxons found a dwelling-place for the weird legend of a hero-smith which they brought with them from their German homeland. Conquest The White Horse glimmers over a broad and of Berkshire, fertile region, whose local names recall for us the settlement of the conquerors in hamlets that have grown into quiet little towns like Wantage, the future birthplace of ^E If red, or in homesteads that crowned the low rises or " duns " which overlooked the valley, such as the dun where the Farrings planted their Farringdon, or another dun at the confluence of the Ock and the Thames, where the West Saxon Abba chose the site for a dwelling-place which grew in later days into our Abingdon. On the south the downs fell in gentler slopes to the vale of the Kennet, whose silvery stream ran through masses of woodland, past the ford at Hungerford and the " new burh " of the conquerors which sur- vives in Newbury, to the low and swampy meadows where it meets the Thames, as the river bursts from its cleft through the chalk range to open out into its lower valley. In these meadows the house of THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 93 the Readings planted a settlement which has grown chap, m. into the busy town that preserves their name. Still conquests further to the east the invaders pushed their way saxons. into the tangled woodland that stretched along the c 5 ^1 511 , low clay flats which bordered the southern bank of the Thames, and where the predominance of the box, or bearroc, may have given in after -days its name of " Bearrocshire," or Berkshire, to the whole tract of valley and down which this fresh advance added to the dominions of the West Saxons. 1 With its conquest the winning of the southern The vaUe y ... of the uplands was complete. And with the winning of Thames. these uplands the whole island lay open to the Gewissas ; for the Andredsweald, which had held back the invader for half a century, was turned as soon as the West Saxons stood masters of the Southern Gwent, and their country now jutted for- ward like a huge bastion into the heart of uncon- quered Britain. Only on one side were the obstacles in their way still serious. The woods of Dorsetshire, with the thick wedge of forest which blocked the valley of the Frome beneath the Wiltshire Downs, were for long years to hold any western advance at bay; but elsewhere the land was open to their at- tack. On the northwest easy slopes led to the crest of the Cotswolds, from whence the Severn valley lay before them for their prey. On the north their march would find no natural obstacles as it passed up the Cherwell valley to penetrate either to the central plain of Britain or to the Wash. Above all, to the eastward opened before them the valley of 1 For these woodlands, N see Guest's E. E. Sett. p. 32. The Kennet valley was not disafforested till the time of Henry the Third. 94 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, in. the Thames. From its springs near the crest of the Conquests Cotswolds the river falls quietly to the low ground saxons. beneath the Marlborough Downs, and then turns c. 500^577. abruptly to the south to hew a channel through the line of chalk uplands, and thus part the Berkshire heights from the Chilterns. Once out of this narrow gorge, it bends round the woodlands where the ad- vanced guard of Cynric's men were feeling their way into the fastnesses about Windsor, and, rolling in a slower and larger current eastward through the wide valley that lies between the north downs and the East- Anglian heights, after a course of two hun- dred miles it reaches its estuary and the sea. its No road can have seemed so tempting to the earlier invaders as this water-road of the Thames, leading as it did straight from the Channel to the heart of Britain through an open and fruitful coun- try; and it was by this road that their advance seemed destined to be made when they settled on either side of its estuary in Essex and in Kent. But a century had passed since these settlements, and the Thames valley still remained untouched. Tempting as the road seemed, indeed, no inlet into Britain was more effectually barred. On either side the river-mouth, at but little distance from the coast on which East Saxon and Kentishman were en- camped, long belts of woodland and fen stretched to the very brink of the Thames. On the south of it the fastnesses of the Weald found their line of defence prolonged by huge swamps that stretched to the river, and whose memory is still preserved by the local names as by the local floods of Rother- hithe and Bermondsey. To the north as formidable THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. g^ a line of defence presented itself in the tangled chap, m. forest whose last relics survive in the woods of conquests Epping and in the name of Hainault, and this bar- saxons. rier of woodland was backed by the swamps of the c 5 ^7 577i lower Lea to the rear of it. The one line of ad- vance, in fact, open to an invader was the course of the Thames itself, and the course of the Thames was blocked by the fortress of London. The commercial greatness of London has TCi2.d& The siie °f r . ... . , r ^ r London. men forget its military importance, but from the first moment of its history till late into the Middle Ages London was one of the strongest of our fortresses. Its site, indeed, must have been dictated, like that of most early cities, by the advantages which it pre- sented as well for defence as for trade. 1 It stood a't the one point by which either merchant or invader could penetrate from the estuary into the valley of the Thames ; and in its earlier days, before the great changes wrought by the embankment of the Romans, this was also the first point at which any rising ground for the site of such a town presented itself on either shore of the river. Nowhere has the hand of man moulded ground into shapes more strangely contrasted with its natural form than on the site of London. Even as late as the time of Caesar, the soil which a large part of it covers can have been little but a vast morass. Below Fulham the river stretched at high tide over the ground that lies on either side 1 Rev. W. J. Loftie, " London before the Houses," Macmillan's Magazine, xxxiv. 356. To this paper we may add Dr. Guest's re- marks on ancient Middlesex in his " Aulus Plautius," Archoeol. Journal, xxiii. 159. See, too, Quarterly Review, July, 1880, "Mid- dlesex." 9 6 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, hi. of its present channel from the rises of Kensington conquests and Hyde Park to the opposite shores of Peckham Saxons, and Camberwell. All Pimlico and Westminster to c. 500^577. tne north, to the south all Battersea and Lambeth, all Newington and Kennington, all Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, formed a vast lagoon, broken only by EARLY LONDON. (Local names around of later date.) Stanford'* tieag-il E$tabt little rises which became the " eyes " and " hithes," the "islands" and " landing- rises," of later settle- ments. Yet lower down to the eastward the swamp widened as the Lea poured its waters into the Thames in an estuary of its own — an estuary which ran far to the north over as wide an expanse of marsh and fen, THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 97 while at its mouth it stretched its tidal waters over chap. hi. the mud flats which have been turned by embank- conquests ment into the Isle of Dogs. 1 Near the point where s °axons. the two rivers meet, a traveller who was mounting c 50 ^ 577 the Thames from the sea saw the first dry land to which his bark could steer. The spot was, in fact, the extremity of a low line of rising ground which was thrown out from the heights of Hampstead that border the river-valley to the north, and which passed over the sites of our Hyde Park and Hol- born to thrust itself on the east into the great morass. This eastern portion of it, however, was severed from the rest of the rise by the deep gorge of a stream that fell from the northern hills, the stream of the Fleet, whose waters, long since lost in London sewers, ran in earlier days between steep banks — banks that still leave their impress in the local levels, and in local names like Snow Hill — to the Thames at Blackfriars. The rise or "dun" that stretched from this tidal NotaBrit- isn town. channel of the Fleet to the spot now marked by the Tower, and which was destined to become the site of London, rose at its highest some fifty feet above 1 Guest, " Aulus Plautius," Archseol. Journal, xx'iii. 179. "When the Romans under Aulus Plautius came down the Watling Street to the neighborhood of London, they saw before them a wide ex- panse of marsh and mud bank, which twice every day assumed the character of an estuary sufficiently large to excuse, if not to justify, the statement of Dion, that the river there emptied itself into the ocean. No dykes then retained the water within certain limits. One arm of this great wash stretched northward up the valley of the Lea, and the other westward up the valley of the Thames." "The' name of London refers directly to the marshes, though I can- not here enter into a philological argument to prove the fact " (p. 180). 7 9 8 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, in. the level of the tide, and was broken into two parts Conquests by a ravine through which ran the stream which saxons. has since been known as the Wallbrook. Such a c. 500^577. position was admirably adapted for defence ; it was, indeed, almost impregnable. Sheltered to east and south by the lagoons of the Lea and the Thames, guarded to westward by the deep cleft, of the Fleet, it saw stretching along its northern border the broad fen whose name has survived in our modern Moor- gate, Nor, as the first point at which merchants could land from the great river, was the spot less adapted for trade. But it was long before the trader found dwelling on its soil. Old as it is, London is far from being one of the oldest of British cities ; till the coming of the Romans, indeed, the loneliness of its site seems to have been unbroken by any settle- ment whatever. The " dun " was, in fact, the centre of a vast wilderness. Beyond the marshes to the east lay the forest track of Southern Essex. Across the lagoon to the south rose the woodlands of Syden- ham and Forest Hill, themselves but advance-guards of the fastnesses of the Weald. To the north the heights of Highgate and Hampstead were crowned with forest masses, through which the boar and the wild ox wandered without fear of man down to the days of the Plantagenets. Even the open country to the west was but a waste. It seems to have formed the border-land between two British tribes who dwelt in Hertford and in Essex, and its barren clays were given over to solitude by the usages of primeval war. 1 1 Guest, " Aulus Plautius," Archaeol. Journal, xxiii. 167: "Merely a march of the Catuvellauni, a common through which ran a wide THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. ^ With the coming of the Roman, however, this sol- chap. m. itude passed away. 1 We know nothing of the set- conquests tlement of the town ; but its advantages as the first saxons. landing-place along the Thames secured for it at c 5( ^7 577 once the command of all trading intercourse with ■ — ° . Roman Gaul, and through Gaul with the empire at large. 2 London. So rapid was its growth that only a few years after the landing of Claudius London had risen into a flourishing port, the massacre of whose foreign trad- ers was the darkest blot on the British rising under track-way, but in which was neither town, village, nor inhabited house. No doubt the Catuvellauni fed their cattle in the march, and there may have been shealings here to shelter their herdsmen." " I have little doubt that between Brockley Hill and the Thames all was wilderness from the Lea to the Brent." 1 Guest ("Aulus Plautius," Archaeol. Journal, xxiii. 180) suggests the Roman origin of London. " When in the autumn of 43 Aulus Plautius drew the lines of circumvallation round his camp, I be- lieve he founded the present metropolis of Britain. The notion entertained by some antiquaries, that a British town preceded the Roman camp, has no foundation to rest upon, and is. inconsistent with all we know of the early geography of this part of Britain." Much has been made of its name, but " Llyn-dyn," or whatever the Celtic form may be, is as likely to be the designation of a spot as of a town on it. An almost conclusive proof, however, that no such town existed west of the Fleet may be drawn from the line of the old British road from Kent (the predecessor of the Watling Street), which, instead of crossing the river, as in Roman and later times, at the point marked by London Bridge, passed, according to Higden, to a point opposite Westminster, and, crossing the river there, struck north along the line of Park Lane and Edgware Road (Loftie, "Roman London," Archaeol. Journal, xxxiv. 165). Such a course is inconsistent with the existence of a town on the site of the later London ; in fact, the rise of such a town is the best explanation of the later change in the line of this road, which brought about its passage by the bridge. 2 As we have seen, vessels from Gaul simply crossed the Channel to Richborough, and avoided the circuit of the north Foreland by using the channel of the Wantsum, through which they passed by Rcculver into the Thames. IO o THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. Boadicea. 1 But the town soon recovered from the conquests blow. If York became the official capital of the saxons. province, London formed its actual centre, for by one c 500^577 °^ * ne man y advantages of its site it was necessarily — the point from which the roads of the conquerors radiated over the island. Such a point would natu- rally have been found at Richborough, where the line of communication with the body of the empire passed the Channel at its narrowest part. But Kent, as we have seen, was shut in by barriers which made com- munication with the rest of the island impracticable, save at the single spot where the road, thus drawn inland from Richborough, found a practicable pas- sage over the Thames. And this spot was at Lon- don ; for London was the lowest ground on the tidal waters of the river on which it was possible to build a bridge ; and, even before a bridge was built, it was the lowest ground where passage could be gained by a ferry. But once over the river, the difficulty of divergence was removed, and it was thus that roads struck from London to every quarter of Britain. 2 As the meeting- point of these roads, the point of their contact with the lines of communication be- tween the province and the Empire, as well as the natural port for the bulk of its trade, which then lay 1 For " Roman London," we have numerous papers, especially in the Archaeologia, by Mr. Wright, Sir William Tite, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Black, and Mr. Roach Smith, and a separate treatise by the last author on " The Antiquities of Roman London." See, too, Mr. Loftie's "Roman London," in Archseol. Journal, xxxiv. 164. 2 Roads such as the Fosse Road or the Icknield Way are of earlier than Roman date ; and their direction was determined by very dif- ferent social and political circumstances from those of Britain in the Roman times (see Guest, "Aulus Plautius," Archseol. Journal, xxiii. 175). THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. IOI exclusively with the Mediterranean and the Channel, chap, m. London could not fail to grow fast in population and conquests , . , of the Wealth. Saxons. From the traces of burial, indeed, which we find c . 50 ^r 577> over part of the ground, it seems almost certain that , r m o ' _ Its growth. the earlier city was far from extending over the whole of the space embraced within the existing Roman walls. It is possible that Londinium at first only occupied the height to the eastward of the Wallbrook, which then ran in a deep channel to its little port at Dowgate, and that its northern bound was marked by a trench whose memory survives in the name of our " Langbourne " Ward ; while the ground to the westward as far as the Fleet was still open and used for interments. But buildings soon rose over the ground outside these narrow bounds. We find traces of villas and pavements stretching over the earlier grave-grounds ; and by the close of the third century at latest London had spread over the whole area of the rise east of the Fleet between the Thames and the Moor. It was this London that was girt in by the massive walls which were probably raised by Theodosius, 1 when the inroads of the Picts and the descents of the Saxons first 1 The ease with which the Frankish soldiers, after the fall of Al- lectus, fell back on and plundered London suggests that it was then without defence. The reign of Valentinian seems the most proba- ble date for raising walls after this time ; and the coins found along its course point to the second half of the fourth century. There are signs, too, that the wall was raised in some haste, and under the pressure of urgent necessity ; for it is carried over cemeteries and the sites of existing houses, covering even their encaustic pavements in its course ; and fragments of building and sculptures are found worked into it. I02 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, nr. made walls necessary for the security of towns in conquests Britain. Saxons. But the city spread even beyond these wide c. 500^577 DOUn cls. Houses of citizens studded the country r — around its walls, and bordered the roads which Its impor- tance, struck westward along the hollow bourne, or Hol- born, and northward along our Gracechurch Street. Outside the walls, too, lay a ring of burial-places at Shoreditch and elsewhere ; while a suburb rose across the river on the site of the present Southwark. One of the most laborious works of the Roman set- tlers was the embankment of the lower channels of the Thames and of the Lea ; and it was on ground thus gained from the morass across the river at our Southwark that dwellings clustered whose number and wealth leave hardly a doubt that they were already linked by a bridge with the mother city. 1 Of London itself, however, we know little. Tradi- tion places a temple of Diana on the spot where the Christian missionaries raised in after -time the Church of St. Paul, and here on this higher ground some statelier public buildings may have clustered round it. But the scarcity of stone and abundance of clay in its neighborhood were fatal to any archi- tectural pretensions ; and from the character of its remains the town seems to have been little more than a mass of brick houses and red -tiled roofs, 1 " When the foundations of the old bridge were taken up, a line of coins, ranging from the Republican period to Honorius, were found in the bed of the river. . . . The completeness of the series can only be accounted for on the supposition that a bridge, pre- ceded, perhaps, by a rope or chain ferry, was very early thrown across the Thames" (Lottie's "Roman London," Archaeol. Journal, xxxiv. 172). THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. I0 ^ pierced with a net-work of the narrow alleys which CHAP - in- passed for streets in the Roman world, and cleft conquests throughout its area by two wider roads from the saxons. bridge. One of these led by a gate near our Bish- C . 5 ^I 577> opsgate to the northern road, the other by a line which is partly represented in our Cannon Street to Newgate and the west. But if it fell far beneath many of the British tow T ns in its outer seeming, as it fell beneath York in official rank, London sur- passed all in population and wealth. Middlesex possibly represents a district which depended on it in this earlier, as it certainly did in a later, time ; and the privileges of the chase, which its citizens enjoyed throughout the Middle Ages in the woodland that covered the heights of Hampstead and along the southern bank of the river as far as the Cray, may have been drawn from the rights of the Roman burghers. In the downfall of the Imperial rule, such a town London would doubtless gain a virtual independence ; but invaders. through the darkness of the time we catch only a passing glimpse of its life, when the Britons, after their rout at Crayford, fled from the Jutes to find shelter at " Lundenbyryg." ' Its power, however, was seen in the arrest of the invaders as they neared its southern suburb ; for the western border of Kent represents, no doubt, fairly enough the point at which the Londoners were able to hold the "Cant-wara" at bay on the edge of the morass that stretched from Southwark to the Dulwich hills. Hardly were these southern assailants brought to a standstill when 1 E. Chron. a. 457. I0 4 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, in. London must have had to struggle against assailants conquests on the northern bank of the river. Here, however, Saxons, the attack was probably a fainter one. Not only c 500^577 was the line of forest and marsh along the lower — channel of the Lea impenetrable, but the woodland and mud flats of Southern Essex offered little temp- tation to the settlers who might have pressed for- ward in this quarter. The energies of the East Saxons were, in fact, long drawn elsewhere ; for their settlements lay mainly in the north of the district to which they gave their name, where a clearer and more fertile country offered them homes in the val- leys of the Colne and the Stour; and even here their numbers must have been too small to push in- land, for half a century seems to have elapsed after their first settlement before they were strong enough to advance from the coast into the interior of the island. Fail of When the time came for such an advance, it lay miitm. naturally up the river-valleys in which they had set- tled ; and these led through thinner woodland to a point in the downs where Saffron Walden still marks an open " dene " that broke the thickets of the waste or " Weald." Once on these downs, the East Saxons found themselves encamped on the central uplands of the line of chalk heights whose extremi- ties had already been seized by their brethren in Berkshire, and by the Engle in the eastern counties. Though the tract was traversed by the great road which ran across Mid-Britain from London to Ches- ter, the road to which the English gave its later name of Watling Street, it was a wild and lonely region, whose woodlands, even in the days of the THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. I05 Norman kings, made travel through it a dangerous chap^hi. business. 1 At this time it probably formed the dis- conquests trict of Verulamium, a town which stood near the saxons. site of the present St. Albans. Verulamium was c 50 ^ 577 one of the oldest towns in Britain ; and, in spite of the wild tract in which it stood, its position on the main road from London across Mid-Britain gave it a wealth and importance which are still witnessed by the traces of an amphitheatre, the extent of its walls, and the expanse of ruins from which the abbey and abbey-church of later days were mainly construct- ed. Since Christianity had become the religion of the Empire, it had won celebrity as the scene of the martyrdom of a Christian soldier, Alban, who was said to have suffered under Diocletian, and whose church was a centre of Christian devotion. 2 But neither its wealth nor its sanctity saved it from the invaders. Its fall was complete ; and for centuries to come the broken and charred remains of the town were left in solitude without inhabitants. 3 The fall of Verulamium, and the settlement of its Fail of conquerors in the downs about it, must have fallen on London as a presage of ruin. A hundred years 1 Guest, " Four Roman Ways," Archaeol. Journal, xiv. 1 14. 2 Gildas, Hist. cap. 10; Baeda, Hist. Eccl. i. 7. 3 Our only guides to the date of the conquest of Hertfordshire are the date of the earlier conquest of Essex, which, as we have seen, can hardly have been long before a.d. 500, and that of the fall of Verulamium. That Verulamium had fallen before 560 is shown by the lament over its ruin in Gildas (Hist. sec. 10) ; but its fall can hardly have been much earlier. The bounds of the diocese of Lon- don, which represent the kingdom of Essex, show that the Hert- fordshire men were part of the East Saxons. The present shire of Hertford, however, is far from coinciding in its limits with those of the East-Saxon realm or diocese. io 6 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. had passed away since Hengest's men had fallen conquests back baffled from its neighborhood ; and in the long saxons. interval its burghers may have counted themselves c 500^577. sa f e from attack. But year by year the circle of in- vasion had been closing round the city. The con- quest of Kent had broken its communications with the Continent, and whatever trade might struggle from the southern coast through the Weald had been cut off by the conquest of Sussex. That of the Gwent about Winchester closed the road to the southwest, while the capture of Cunetio interrupted all communication with the valley of the Severn and the rich country along its estuary. And now the occupation of Hertfordshire cut off the city from Northern and Central Britain, for it was over these chalk uplands that the Watling Street struck across the central plain to Chester and the northwest, and it was through Verulamium that travellers bent round the forest block above London on their way to the north. Only along the Thames itself could London maintain any communication with what re- mained of Britain; and even this communication must have been threatened as the invaders crept down the slopes from the north through the wood- land which crowned the rises of Hampstead and Highgate, or descended by the valleys of the Brent and the Colne on the tract which retains their name of Middle-Sexe. The settlers in this district, indeed, seem to have been unimportant, and the walls of the great city were still strong enough to defy any di- rect attack. But when once the invading force had closed fairly round it, London, like its fellow-towns, must have yielded to the stress of a long blockade. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. IO y Although no record remains of its capture or sur- chap. m. render, 1 the course of events seems to give the date conquests of its fall pretty clearly. It was certainly in English saxons. hands by the opening of the seventh century; 2 and 0.5^577. its fall is the one event which would account for a movement of the Kentishmen which we find taking place, at the moment which we have reached, along the southern bank of the Thames. 3 Since the death of Hengest, the kingdom of Kent Kent. had played no direct part in the conquest of Britain. Jutes had, indeed, mastered the Isle of Wight, and Jutish houses had joined the Saxon war bands in their winning of Southern Britain ; but the Jutish kingdom itself had rested quietly within its earlier limits between the Channel and the Thames. Under the great-grandson of Hengest, however, ^Ethel- berht, who was born in the year of the fall of Sor- biodunum, and who mounted its throne as a child a little later, it again came boldly to the front. 4 Narrow 1 " Good reasons may be given for the belief that even London itself for a while lay desolate and uninhabited" (Guest, "Conquest of Severn Valley," Archaeol. Journal, xix. 217). 2 In 604 it was in the hands of King Saeberct of Essex : " Orienta- lium Saxonum . . . quorum metropolis Lundonia civitas est " (Baeda, Hist. Eccl. ii. 3). And it passed into those of his sons (ibid. ii. 5). 3 The settlers in the district west of London are known after- wards as the Middle Saxons. But that they were only an offshoot of the East Saxons is clear from the fact that, with London, they always belonged to the kingdom of Essex, and that Middlesex still forms a part of the East-Saxon bishopric of London. 4 The date of .^Ethelberht's birth is given in the English Chron- icle, a. 552 (in the late Canterbury copy). Baeda says that at his death, in 616, "regnum . . . quinquaginta et sex annis gloriosissime tenuerat " (Hist. Eccl. ii. 5), which fixes his accession in 560. He was thus only eight years old when he became king, and sixteen when he fought at Wimbledon. io 8 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap^iii. as were its bounds, indeed, Kent equalled in political conquests power the wider realms which were forming about saxons. it. It remained, as of old, one of the wealthiest and c. 500^577. most flourishing parts of Britain. The ruin of Hen- gest's wars had been in some part repaired by the peace which had existed since its conquest a hun- dred years ago ; for while the Gwent and the Thames valley were still being wasted with fight and ravage, the Cant-wara were settling quietly down into busy husbandmen along its coast, or on its downs, or in the fertile bottoms of the river -valleys that cleft them. It was a sign of this tranquillity that the district had, even before ^thelberht's day, resumed that intercourse with the Continent which the de- scent of the Jutes had for a while broken off; and that only a few years later we find men versed in the English tongue, the result of a commerce which must have again sprung to life ready at hand in the ports of Gaul. 1 Kent and With wealth and strength drawn from a century London. ... of peace, as well as with the pride which it drew from the memory of its earlier share in the conquest of Britain, Kent hardly needed any other stimulus to nerve it to efforts for a wider sway. But when ^Ithelberht looked out from his petty realm with dreams of sharing in the general advance of his race, the boy-king found himself shut in on every side save one by English ground. To the southwest lay Sussex and the Andredsweald; to the north, over the Thames, lay the land of the East Saxons ; and only directly to the west, between the north downs and 1 Bseda, Hist. Eccl. i. 25. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. I09 the Thames, did any tract of British country offer chap, hi. itself to his arms. In this quarter the Jutes had conquests been baffled for a hundred years by the barriers in saxons. their way, by the wooded fastnesses of the Dulwich c 5( ^7 577 heights, the tangled swamp which stretched from these heights to the Thames, and the forces which would pour from London across its bridge to the suburb that occupied the site of the future South- ward From the line of the Medway the West- Kentish warriors had crept forward along the strip of shore between Blackheath and the Thames, past Woolwich and Greenwich, to the edge of this mo- rass ; but here the border - line of Kent marks the limit of their advance. Nothing but the fall of the great city could remove the hindrance from their path ; and we can hardly err in believing that it was the capture of London by the East Saxons which at last enabled the Jutes to force their way across the border, and to march in 568 on the tract to the west. 1 But yEthelberht had hardly struggled through the WestSax- marshes and entered on this long- coveted district s!iche"ter. when his progress w r as again roughly barred. He found himself face to face, not with the British, but with an English foe ; for the conquests of the West Saxons had brought them, as we have seen, to the western extremity of the very tract on which yEthel- berht was advancing from the east. Their overrun- ning of Berkshire and the Marlborough Downs had carried them to the border of the Thames valley, and the course of the great river led them forward 1 E. Chron. a. 568. I IO THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap, hi. to the country along its banks. Only one obstacle conquests lay in their path. Of the ring of fortresses that en- saxons. closed the Gwent, Calleva Atrebatum, the modern c. 500^577. Silchester, which stood on the edge of the upland where the roads from Winchester and Old Sarum united on their way to London, alone remained in British hands. Silchester 1 presented a marked con- trast to the towns which the Gewissas had as yet at- tacked. The fortresses of the Saxon Shore had been built simply as fortresses, and their small walled citadels stood apart from the general mass of habita- 1 For Silchester, see paper by Mr. Joyce, Archseol. Journal, xxx. 10. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. Iir tions near them. In towns such as York, on the chap, hi. other hand, we see the first military settlement of conquests the Roman conquest rising within the earlier walls, saxons. but at last so utterly outgrowing them that the bulk c 5 ^T 577 of the town lay in undefended suburbs, and the walled city contained little more than the quarters of troops and officials. Silchester belongs to neither of these classes. Originally the seat of a British tribe, its position in the heart of the island had deprived it of any military importance during the earlier ages of the Roman occupation, while it sheltered the town from the border forays that alone broke the Roman peace. It was not till the decay of the Empire brought trouble at last to its gates that inland towns, such as Calleva, were compelled to seek shelter in a ring of walls, and within these walls the whole town was naturally enclosed. It is this cause which ac- counts for the disproportion between the walled area of one town and another in Roman Britain, between the few acres enclosed by the walls of York and the space enclosed by the walls of Silchester or London. The circuit of the walls of Silchester is about three miles round ; and their irregular and polygonal form; if we compare it with the regular quadrangle of Richborough or Lincoln, shows that Calleva was a fortified city, and not a city which had grown up within or around a fortress. Mutilated and broken down as it is, the wall, with the wide ditch that still partially encircles it, enables us to realize the mili- tary strength of the town. In the midst of its net- work of narrow streets lay a central forum, round which stood the public offices and principal shops of the place ; while one side was wholly occupied by a j j 2 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. huge basilica, or justice-hall, whose central nave was conquests sustained by two rows of stately Corinthian pillars, saxonl and closed at each end by a lordly apse. Remains kZTm such as these show that the Roman tradition was c. 500-577. still strong among the citizens of Calleva ; and it may have been with the Roman eagle at their head, and in the Roman order, that its men marched against the West Saxons. But all was in vain. We know nothing of the rout of the burghers, or of the siege and ruin of their town. It is only the discovery of a legionary eagle, hidden away, as it would seem, in some secret recess, and there buried for ages be- neath the charred wreck of one of its houses, that tells its own pathetic tale of the fall of Silchester. 1 Battk of The fall of this city opened to the West Saxons Ton." the road to the west. By its capture they had, in fact, turned the flank of the Andredsweald. The impenetrable tract whose scrub and forest and clay bottoms had so long held the assailants of Southern Britain at bay lay between the two lines of chalk uplands, the south downs and the north downs, which diverged from the Gwent, on which the West Saxons had stood so long. But the capture of Cal- leva brought them fairly round the extremity of the Andredsweald, and opened for them the tract that lay between the north downs and the Thames. From Silchester a road led through the heart of this tract to the south of the Bearrocwood, which filled the bend of the river about Windsor, traversed the wild heaths of Bagshot — then, as for ages later, a lonely stretch of heather and sand — and, dipping into 1 Joyce, " Silchester," Archaeol. Journal, xxx. 25. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. II5 the marshes that still leave their trace on the see- chap, m. nery about Weybridge, pushed through the thick conquests woodlands which hid the gentle windings of the saxons. lower Mole 1 till it reached a little town which oc- c 5 ^I 577 cupied the site of our Kingston. 2 Here the road crossed the Thames by a ferry, to strike along its northern bank towards London ; and that the West Saxons made no attempt to follow its course across the river adds force to the supposition that the city and the district about it were already in English hands. 3 But even in the country between the Thames and the downs their way was barred by an English rival. Right in their path, as they lay at Kingston, stretched the low rise of a broad, open heath, which extended from the river's brink at Put- ney 4 to the height or dun which was to be known from some later settler as Wibba's dun, or Wimble- don. The heath was studded with barrows that marked it as the scene of earlier conflicts ; and an older entrenchment, which covered seven acres of its surface, may have been occupied by the forces under ^Ethelberht. But a century of peace had left the Jutes no match for veterans who were fresh from the long strife about the Gwent. The encounter of 568 was memorable as the first fight of Englishmen with 1 The local names show how thickly this district was wooded. 2 Numerous remains have been found, which prove that a Roman station existed at Kingston. 3 That they had no objection to crossing the river in itself is clear from the fact that they crossed it but a few years later into the ter- ritory of the Four Towns. This was British soil ; and had our Middlesex been British soil, they would as naturally have crossed at Kingston. * The older form of this name, Putten-heath, tells its own tale. 8 II4 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. Englishmen on British soil; 1 but the clay went Conquests against the young Kentish king : his army was Saxons, thrown back across the Wandle on its own border, c. 500^577. an d tne disputed district, the Surrey of after-days, became from that moment a land of the West Saxons. T Towm* Only one portion of the Thames valley now re- mained in British hands, the tract along its northern bank from the Chilterns to the Cotswolds ; and it was into the heart of this district that the West- Saxons penetrated as soon as they had mastered Surrey. Close over against their settlements in Berkshire lay a region which was subject to four British towns, now known to us only by their later names of Eynsham, Bensington, Aylesbury, and Len- borough, the last of these a small hamlet near the present Buckingham. 2 The district comprised, in fact, the valleys of the Thame and the Cherwell, as well as of a few streams yet further to the westward, such as the Woodrush, the Evenlode, and the Lech ; while to northward it stretched across the bounds of the Thames basin into the basin of the Wash, and reached in a narrow strip to the Ouse. It lay within a natural framework of river and woodland that marked it off from the rest of Britain. On the east- ern side ran the escarpment of the Chilterns, whose chalk downs were covered with scrub and brush- wood as well as broken with deep bottoms, which made them for hundreds of years to come almost impenetrable to an army, and which effectually shel- tered this tract from any aggression on the part of 1 E. Chron. a. 568. - E. Chron. a. 571. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 115 the Middle Saxons. To the west, between the dis- CHAr - Iir - trict of the Four Towns and the slopes of the Cots- conquests wolds, ran a line of woodlands and marshes that saxons. have left their traces in Wyclrwood and Canbury c . 5(^77. Forest, and in the tangled and difficult channels of the streams which drain them. These lines of de- fence drew together to the northward, and were linked by the woodlands about Towcester and the marshy meadows of the Ouse ; while along the south- ern border of the district ran the Thames, then a deeper and more rapid river than now, guarded from near the site of the present Oxford to that of Abingdon by almost impenetrable woods, and along the bend from Goring to Henley by the fastness of the Chiltern hills. As one looks westward from the Chilterns now- Their dis- adays over Aylesbury Vale, the district of the Four Towns stretches away in undulating reaches of green meadow-land, dotted with hamlets and homesteads that nestle beneath copses and tree-clumps, the clay bottom of some primeval sea out of which low lifts of oolite rise at Aylesbury and Brill. Then, as now, the country was fertile and well peopled. The river Thame, which flows through the heart of it, gathers its waters from the Chiltern slopes, and, running westward till it passes the little town to which it gives its name, turns from that point abruptly to the south by Chalgrove Field to the Thames. On the upper waters of the stream lay a town which is represented by our Aylesbury, crowning with the church, or Eglwys, 1 to which it possibly owed its 1 Another derivation is from JEgil, the sun-archer of Teutonic mythology. H6 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. English name, a low rise of oolite that commanded conquests the district from the base of the Chilterns as far as saxons. the town of Thame. A line running close beside c 500^577 Thame marks the present shire line between Buck- ingham and Oxfordshire, as it may then have marked the boundary between the territory that owned the rule of Aylesbury and that which owned the rule of Bensin^ton. The district of this last town would thus comprise the lower valley of the Thame, with the country along the Thames, into which it falls, from the ed°:e of the Chilterns to its bend north- ward towards Oxford, and would cover much the same ground as the southeastern portion of the present Oxfordshire. The western portion of the same county seems to be coextensive with the dis- trict of Eynsham, the country of the Cherwell val- ley from Banbury to Oxford, a district bounded westward by the woods and marshes of the present Gloucestershire border, parted from that of Bensing- ton perhaps by the rise of Shotover, and touching the districts of Aylesbury and Buckingham to the east in an irregular line, of which Brill may have been an outpost. The district of Lenborough or Buckingham, which lay along the Ouse to the north of its three confederates, possibly reached eastward as far as the quiet meadows of Cowper's Olney and the limits of Bedford, and was bounded in other di- rections by the territories of Towcester and Ayles- bury. 1 1 I have been guided, in tracing these boundaries, by the lie of the ground itself, and what we know of its natural features at this time, as well as by the limits of the actual shires. But a more careful examination of the local "dykes," etc., is needed before one can THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. n y It was from the south that the West Saxons struck CHAp - m. this country of the Four Towns. The conquests of conquests Cynric had planted them, as we have seen, on the saxons. Ilsley and Marlborough Downs ; in other words, on c 5( ^T 577i the westernmost portion of the chalk range that, — starting from the Gwent of Hampshire, runs by icknield these downs and the Chilterns to the uplands of East Anglia. Along the base of the slopes in which this range fronts the lower country to the north ran one of the earliest lines of British communication. Its name of the Icknield Way connects this road with the Iceni, whom the Romans found settled in our Norfolk and Suffolk, and points back to days in which this tribe stood supreme in Southeastern Britain, and when the road served as their line of traffic and of military communication with the Gwent of Hampshire and the mining district of Cornwall. 1 Seldom climbing to the crest of the down, and equal- ly avoiding the deep bottoms beneath the slopes of the escarpment, its course recalls a time when the wayfarer shrank equally from the dangers of the open country and from the thickets and marshes which made the lower grounds all but impassable. arrive at more than probable conclusions on the subject. It is needful, too, to bear in mind that the shires of this district probably owe their actual form to administrative arrangements of the tenth century ; and that though they may have preserved the boundaries of older tribal divisions, they do not everywhere exactly coincide with them. Thus, part of the present Hertfordshire, as the dio- cesan limits show, belonged originally to the district of the Four Towns, and remained West Saxon till the establishment of the Danelagh. Bedfordshire, again, is made up of more than the dis- trict of the " Bedecanford" of Cuthwulf's day. 1 For the Icknield Way, see Guest, " Four Roman Ways," Archaeol. Journal, xiv. 109. TI 8 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. The road long remained one of the main thorough- conquests fares of the island ; pilgrims from the west traversed Saxon! it throughout the Middle Ages on their way to the c 500^577 sm ' nie °f St. Edmund at Bury ; and but two cen- turies ago lines of pack-horses carried along it bales of woollen goods from the manufacturing towns of the eastern counties. B Bcdfoni ^ was a l° n g tne Icknield Way, therefore, that the West Saxons would naturally have pushed into the heart of the island. But their advance had been brought to a standstill by a sudden gap in the line of heights — the gap through which the Thames, turn- ing abruptly to the south, cuts its way through the downs to its lower valley and the sea. It was this obstacle of the great river which had bent them to their march along its southern bank and their con- quest of Surrey. But Surrey once won, their ad- vance along the line of the chalk downs was re- sumed ; and the barrier of the river was forced at a spot whose name preserves for us the memory of the invaders. Just before the Thames enters the gap beneath the Chilterns, the Icknield Way crossed it by a ford, which was recognized for a thousand years as the main pass across the river. Here prob- ably the Romans first crossed into Mid-Britain, and it was by the same point that the Norman con- queror made his w r ay after Hastings into the heart of the island. With the single exception, indeed, of Halliford, near the Conway Stakes, this was the low- est point in its course in which the Thames, under its then tidal conditions, could be forded at all. 1 It 1 Guest, "Campaign of Aulus Plautius," Archaeol. Journal, xxiii. 163, 165, 175. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. ng was by this ford, the Wallingford, or Ford of the chaf^ih. Wealhas ' or Welshmen, as the conquerors called it, conquests /-. 1 i i • • of the that the West Sexe must have passed the river in S axons. 5 7 1. 2 Their leader was Cuthwulf, another son of c go ^g 77 Cynric, a brother of Ceawlin and Cutha, eager, it may be, to rival the achievements of his father and brother in war. Of the events of this campaign, however, we know but one, the battle with which it closed. From the spot at which it was fought, it seems as if Cuthwulf s raid had carried him from Wallingford by the Icknield Way along the western slope of the Chil terns as far as Bedford before the forces of the Four Towns could gather at the news of the foray, intercept him as he fell back from the valley of the Ouse, and force him to an engagement. 3 But whatever were the circumstances which brought about the battle, victory fell, as of old, to the free- booters, and the success of Cuthwulfs men was fol- lowed by the ruin of the Four Towns of the league. The last raid of the West Saxons had brought Haitof i west i>ax- them to the verge of Mid-Britain. That they paused om. at this point in their advance to the north, and that the upper Ouse at Bedford remained the boundary of their conquests in this quarter, may probably be explained, like their previous turning -away from London, by the fact that the country which they had reached was already in the hands of English- 1 It was by this name, which means " strangers," or "unintelli- gible people," that the English knew the Britons; and it is the name by which the Britons, oddly enough, now know themselves. 2 "The name of the earlier conquerors still lives in the neighbor- ing Englefield " (Freeman, Norman Conquest, iii. 542). 3 E. Chron. a. 571 ; Guest, E. E. Sett. p. 71. 120 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. men. No written record, indeed, fixes the dates of conquests the winning of Central Britain ; but the halt of of the Saxons. Cuthwulf is a significant one. In the years that c 500^577 followed the victory of 571 the West Saxons must have spread over the country they had won, over an area which roughly corresponds to that of the shires Stanford* Geographical Estali. of Oxford, Bedford, and Bucks. To the eastward, therefore, their settlements were pushed along the clay flats of the upper Ouse, along the valley which lies between the chalk ranges of the Chilterns and the oolitic upland of our Northamptonshire. On the Chilterns, as we know, the East Saxons had for THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. I2I some while been settled about Hertford ; but that chap. m. the West Sexe made no effort to push further to the conquests east can only be explained by the presence of other saxons. Englishmen in that quarter. No natural obstacles c> 5 ^7 577# arrested their march along the Ouse ; neither forest nor hill forced them to halt at the point in its course which is marked by the little town of St. Neots, or to draw their border-line from it along such lines as the little stream of the Kym. 1 We can only account for such a halt by supposing that, across this border- line on the course of the lower Ouse, the ground which now forms our Huntingdonshire had been occupied before 571 by the Engle folk whom we find in later days settled there. That the Eno-le were at the same time masters of At i ackon o bevem the upland which stretched like a bar across Cuth- valley. wiilf's Road to the north is less certain ; for in this quarter, as we have seen, the dense screen of forests along the southern slopes of Northamptonshire might of themselves have held the West Saxons at bay. But the conquest of the Trent valley must now have been going on ; and the presence of Englishmen on the northern upland is the best explanation of the sudden wheel which the West Saxons now made to the west. Directly westward, indeed, they were still not as yet to press ; for the woods of Dorsetshire baffled them, and those of the Frome valley long proved a protection to the Britons of Somerset. Nor, for reasons we are less able to discover, did they push up the oolitic slopes from our Oxford- 1 I do not rely wholly on the fact of the present shire line; for here language serves as a more definite boundary. Bedfordshire men still speak a Saxon, Huntingdon and Northamptonshire folk speak an Engle, dialect. 122 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. shire to the brow of the Cotswolds, where the town conquests of Corinium challenged their arms. It may have saxonl been that the tangled streams, the woodlands, and c 500^577 tne P ass over tne Thames at Lechlade, which pro- — tected this district, were still held too strongly by Stanfords ideographical EstaO* the forces of the city. But on their northwestern border, in the interval between these lines of attack, lay a third line which was guarded by no such bar- riers, the line of the lower Severn valley, and it was on this tract that the West Sexe poured from the THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 12 t > Wiltshire Downs in 577. ' The country was richer chap. in. than any they had as yet traversed. Nowhere do conquests the remains of both private and public buildings saxons. show greater wealth and refinement than at Corin- c 5C ^ 577 ium, the chief town of the Cotswolds, which stood on the site of our Cirencester, and which was sur- passed in wealth and importance among its fellow- towns only by York, London, and Colchester. 8 Be- low the Cotswolds, in the valley of the Severn, Gle- vum, the predecessor of our Gloucester, though small- er in size, was equally important from its position at the head of the estuary, and from its neighborhood to the iron-works of the forest of Dean. Less than these in extent, but conspicuous from the grandeur of its public buildings, Bath was then, as in later times, the fashionable resort of the gouty provincial. Its hot springs were covered by a colonnade which lasted down to almost recent times; and its local deity, Sul, may still have found worshippers in the lordly temple whose fragments are found among its ruins. 3 The territory of the three towns shows their power, for it comprised the whole district of the Cotswolds and the lower Severn, with a large part of what is now Northern Somersetshire. It stretched, therefore, from Mendip on the south as far north- ward as the forest which then covered almost the whole of Worcestershire. This fertile district was 1 As to this inroad, I follow, in the main, Dr. Guest's paper, " On the English Conquest of the Severn Valley," Archacol. Journal, xix. 195. 2 Guest, " Conquest of Severn Valley," Archaeol. Journal, xix. 195. For Corinium, see paper by Mr. Tucker, Archaeol. Journal, vi. 321. The modern Cirencester "does not occupy more than one third of the area of the Roman city." 3 The Roman remains at Bath have been described by Mr. Scarth in numerous papers, some of which may be found in the Proceed- ings of the Somerset Archaeological Society. I2 4 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. in. thickly set with the country-houses and estates of conquests the wealthier provincials. On either side of a road saxonl that runs through the heart of it, from Cirencester c 500^577 to Aust Passage over the Severn, as well as along the roads which linked the three cities together, these mansions stood thickly ; and that of Wood- chester is, perhaps, the largest and most magnificent whose remains have as yet been found in Britain. 1 Two courts, round which ran the farm buildings and domestic buildings of the house, covered an area five hundred feet deep and three hundred broad. Every colonnade and passage had its tessellated pavement. ; marble statues stood out from the gayly painted walls ; while pictures of Orpheus and Pan gleamed from amid the fanciful scroll-work and fret- work of its mosaic floors. Battle of it W as from houses such as these, and from the Deorham. . . . three cities to which they clung, that the army gath- ered which met the West Saxons under Ceawlin as they pushed over the Cotswolds into the valley of the Severn. But the old municipal independence seems to have been passing away. The record of the battle in the Chronicle of the conquerors con- nects the three cities with three kings ; and from the Celtic names of these kings, Conmael, Condidan or Kyndylan, and Farinmael, we may infer that the Roman town party, which had once been strong enough to raise Aurelius to the throne of Britain, was now driven to bow to the supremacy of native chieftains. 2 It was the forces of these kings that met Ceawlin at Deorham, a village which lies north- 1 Wright, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, pp. 229-240. 2 E. Chron. a. 577. Guest, " Conquest of Severn Valley," Archseol. Journal, xix. 194. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. I2 ^ ward of Bath on a chain of hills overlooking the chap, hi. Severn valley, and whose defeat threw open the conquests country of the three towns to the West-Saxon arms, saxons. Through the three years that followed, the invaders c 50^577. must have been spreading over the district which this victory made their own. Westward, if Welsh legend is to be trusted, their forays reached across the Severn as far as the Wye. 1 To the south they seem to have pushed across the Avon past the site of the future Bristol, and over the limestone mass of Mendip, whence they drove off in flight the lead- miners who have left their cinder -heaps along its crest, till they were checked in their progress by the marshes of Glastonbury. 2 In the southwest they were unable to dislodge the Britons from the forest of Braden, the woodland that filled the Frome val- ley; and this wedge of unconquered ground ran up for the next hundred years into the heart of their territory. But in the rich tract along the lower Severn which the site of their victory overlooked their settlements lay thick. Here, in the present Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, the settlers bore the name of the Hwiccas, 3 a name which took a yet 1 Guest, "Conquest of Severn Valley," Archaeol. Journal, xix. 195. 2 Guest, " Welsh and English in Somerset," Archoeol. Journal, xvi. 109-1 17. 3 Theodore set the "bishop of the Hwiccas" at Worcester; and his diocese included both the counties of Worcester and Gloucester as well as the adjacent districts. This seems to prove that " Hwic- can " was the older name for the settlers along the whole of the lower Severn, the Cotswolds above it, and Southern Warwickshire ; and Florence (a. 897) places Cirencester " in meridionali parte Wic- ciorum " — which would confirm this. Earle, "Local Names of Gloucestershire," Archaeol. Journal, xix. 51. 52, connects the name 126 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. m. wider range as from the valley of the Severn the in- conquests vaders spread over the upland of the Cotswolds to saxonl settle round the fallen Corinium, and found homes c. 500^577. along the southern skirts of the forest of Arden. with our Wychwood, spelled in 841 " Hvvicce-wudu," and which, though in Oxfordshire, is within a short distance of Gloucestershire, and marks the water-shed between the Severn and the Thames. He seems, however, to limit the Hwiccas to Gloucestershire, and to give Worcestershire to the Magesaetas, whom Mr. Freeman places in Herefordshire and Shropshire (Norman Conquest, i. 561). Stanford's Geographical tttabf THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 127 CHAPTER IV. THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CONQUERORS. With the battle of Deorham and the winning o{ Th f, a s eo f settlement. the lower Severn valley, we enter on a new age of our history. The conquest, indeed, was far from being complete ; for when Ceawlin paused in his ca- reer of victory, half the island still remained 11 n- conquered, and the border-line of the invaders ran roughly along the rise that parts the waters of Brit- ain, from Ettrick across Cheviot, along the Yorkshire moors to the Peak of Derbyshire, thence by the skirts of Arden to the mouth of Severn, and across the estuary of that river, by Mendip, through the woods of Dorset to the sea. But the country within this line comprised all that was really worth win- ning, for the wild land to westward and northward had little to tempt an invader. Though the tide of invasion, therefore, still crept on, it crept on slowly and uncertainly ; and from this time the energies of the conquerors were mainly absorbed, not in winning fresh land, but in settling in the land they had won. We pass, then, from an age of conquest to an age of settlement. But, dim as was the light that guided us through much of our earlier story, it is bright be- side the darkness that wraps the first upgrowth of English life on British soil. No written record tells us how Saxon or Engle dealt with the land he had I2 S THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. iv. made his own; how he drove out its older inhabi- The settle- tants, or how he shared it among the new; how the Se n c2 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. iv. that they were utterly strange to the Roman civil- The settle- ization ; indeed, the mere presence of Saxon vessels Se n con- in the Channel for a hundred years before their querors. descent upon Britain must have familiarized its in- vaders with what civilization was to be found in the provinces of the West. It was not the temper of the conquerors that gave its character to the con- quest of Britain so much as the temper of the con- quered. The displacement of the conquered people was only made possible by their own stubborn re- sistance, and by the slow progress of the conquerors in the teeth of it. Slaughter, no doubt, there was on the battle-field or in towns like Anderida, whose long defence woke wrath in their besiegers. But, for the most part, the Britons cannot have been slaughtered; they were simply defeated, and drew back. Proofs of The proofs of such a displacement lie less in iso- driwai of \ated passages from chronicle or history than in the the fis nt ' broad features of the conquest itself. 1 When Hen- gest landed in Thanet, he found Britain inhabited by a people of Celtic and Roman blood, a people governed by Celtic or Roman laws, speaking the Welsh or Latin tongue, still sharing to a great ex- tent the civilization and manners of the Empire from which they had parted, and at least outwardly conforming to the Christian faith which that Em- pire professed. The outer aspect of the land re- mained that of a Roman province; it was guarded by border fortresses ; it was studded with peopled cities ; it was tilled by great landowners whose villas 1 Stubbs, Constit. Hist. i. 70. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. j,, rose proudly over the huts of their serfs. But when chap. iv. Ceawlin turned from the battle-field of Deorham, the The settie- face of the Britain that lay behind him was utterly t he n con- changed. So far as the English or Saxon sword had querors - reached — to the eastward, that is, of the line which we have drawn through Central Britain — the coun- try showed no sign of British or Roman life at all. The tradition both of conquerors and of conquered tells us that an utter change had taken place in the men that dwelt in it. They knew themselves only as Englishmen, and in the history or law of these English inhabitants we find as yet not a trace of the existence of a single Briton among them. 1 The only people that English chronicle or code knows of as living on the conquered soil are Englishmen. Nor does the British tradition know of any other. Had Britons formed part of the population in the land which had been reft away by the invader's sword, they must have been known to their fellow- Britons beyond the English border. But in the one record of such a Britain that remains to us, the his- tory of Gildas, there is no hint of their existence. 2 To him, as to his fellow-countrymen, the land of the Englishmen is a foreign land, and its people a for- eign people. 1 From the close of the sixth century, when the conquest took wider bounds and a new character, we find a different state of things in the newly annexed districts. Here I am speaking strictly of the earlier age of conquest and of the portion of Britain which it covered. 2 There is, indeed, a single phrase (Hist. cap. 25, " alii fame confecti accedentes, manus hostibus dabant in aevum servituri "), which speaks of the surrender of Britons to their conquerors ; but such captives would at such a time be sold into slavery, and the mention of them only makes the silence of Gildas elsewhere the more significant. 17A THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. iv. The contemporary tradition, then, is everywhere The settle- the same ; and it is confirmed by every fact which thTcon- meets us in the path of our story. Had the older querors. inhabitants remained as serfs or as a dependent peo- Evidence p} e among their conquerors, as the older inhabitants ' of Gaul remained among the Franks, or those of Italy among the Lombards, we should find a state of things in some degree like to that of Italy or Gaul. We should find, at any rate, some traces of the provincials in the history of the joint popula- tion; some traces of their cities and their country- houses; some of their names mingling with those of the new-comers ; some remains of their language, their religion, their manners, and their law. But in conquered Britain we find not a trace of these things. The designations of the local features of the country, indeed — the names of hill and vale and river — often remain purely Celtic. There are " pens " and " duns " among our uplands, " combes " in our valleys, " exes " and " ocks " among our running waters. But when we look at the traces of human life itself, at the names of the villages and hamlets that lie scattered over the country-side, we find them purely English. The " vill " and the " city " have vanished, and in their stead appear the " tun " and " ham " and " thorpe " of the new settlers. If we turn from the names of these villages to those of the men who live in them, the contrast becomes even stronger. So far as existing documents tell us anything, they tell us that Roman and Welshman wholly vanished from the land. When Gregory of Tours writes the story of Gaul after its conquest by the Franks, we meet in the course of his narrative with as many THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. : 35 Roman names as Frank. But in the parallel history chap, iv. of Britain after its conquest by the English which The settle- we owe to Basda, we meet with no British or Roman t he con- names at all. He gives lis, indeed, the names of queror8 - Britons in districts which still remained free from English rule ; but amid the hundreds of men and women whom he records as living and acting in the new England, there is not pne whose name is not almost certainly English. 1 It is the same with language. Latin, which had Ev j dence 00 of lan- been the official tongue of the province, the Ian- guage. guage of its soldiers and civil administrators, and probably that of its citizens, withdrew before the invader to the southwest and the west. When it again appeared in Eastern Britain, it came as a for- eign tongue brought in by foreign missionaries, and needing interpreters to explain it to the men it found there. 2 The British tongue — the tongue, that is, of the mass of the population even under Roman rule — though it lived on as the tongue of the Britons themselves in the land to which they withdrew, has left hardly a trace of its existence in the language which has taken its place over the conquered area. 3 1 I do not know of any that have even been claimed as British save Coifi and the West Saxon Ceadwalla. 2 Baeda, Hist. Eccl. i. 23, 25 ; id. Vit. Abbatum, ed. Stevenson, p. 141 . 3 The Celtic words in our earlier English were first collected by Mr. Garnett in his Philological Essays. They are few, and mostly words of domestic use, such as basket, which may well have crept in from the female slaves who must here and there have been seized by the invaders. It must be remembered, too, that we have no means of ascertaining when such words became English ; and that after the change in the character of the conquest — that is. from the seventh century — Welsh words, like Welsh names, would naturally 136 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap- iv. There is the same utter change in government, in The settle- society, in law. The Roman law simply disap- thTcon- peared ;' and no trace of the body of Celtic customs querors. w hj cn f orm the Welsh law can be detected in the purely Teutonic institutes which formed the law of the English settlers. The political institutions that we find established in the conquered land, as well as the social usages o£ the conquering people, are utterly different from those of the Roman or the Celt ; not only are they those which are common to the German race, but they are the most purely German institutions that any branch of the German race has preserved. 2 Evidence pi ac j any fragment of the older provincial life sur- of towns, jo ± vived, the analogy of other provinces shows that it would have been that municipal organization which filter in from the mixed population of Western and Southwestern Britain. 1 Stubbs, Constit. Hist. i. 11. 2 Stubbs, Constit. Hist. i. 6 : " If its history is not the perfectly pure development of Germanic principles, it is the nearest existing approach to such a development." Again, at p. 1 1 : " The polity developed by the German races on British soil is the purest product of their primitive instinct. . . . The institutions of the Saxons of Germany long after the conquest of Britain were the most perfect exponent of the system which Tacitus saw, and described in the Germania ; and the polity of their kinsmen in England, though it may not be older in its monuments than the Lex Salica, is more entirely free from Roman influences. In England the common germs were developed and ripened with the smallest intermixture of foreign elements. Not only were all the successive invasions of Britain, which from the eighth to the eleventh century diversify the history of the island, conducted by nations of common extraction, but, with the exception of ecclesiastical influence, no foreign inter- ference that was not German in origin was admitted at all. Lan- guage, law, customs, and religion preserve their original conforma- tion and coloring." THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. ^7 elsewhere handed down the tradition of the Empire. CH *r- iv, In the Roman world political and social life had The settie- been concentrated in its towns, and we have seen Secon- how great a part they played in the times which fol- queror8, lowed the withdrawal of the Roman rule. But with the English conquest the towns disappear. Though the Englishmen, like other Germans, shrank from dwelling within city walls, a native population, had it survived here as it survived elsewhere, would have remained, subject indeed, but unchanged, in its older homes. But as the conquest passed over them, the towns of Roman Britain sank into mere ruins. Some never rose from their ruins. Anderida re- mained a wreck of uninhabited stones in the twelfth century, 1 and its square of walls remains lonely and uninhabited still. Silchester and Uriconium, large as they were, have only been brought to light again by modern research. The very sites of many still remain undiscovered. Such a permanent extinction, however, was seldom possible, for the local advan- tages which had drawn population to hill or river- ford in Celtic or Roman times began again to tell as the new England itself grew populous and indus- trial, and the sites of these older cities became nec- essarily the sites of the new. But their repeopling was only after centuries of desolation and neglect. We have no ground for believing that Winchester had risen on the site of the Belgic Gwenta before the middle of the seventh century. 2 Cambridge was 1 Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (ed. Arnold), p. 45. a The local traditions place the hallowing of the new church there in 648. See Rudborne, Hist. Major, and Annales Eccl. Wint. ( Anglia Sacra, i. 189, 288). i3§ THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap. iv. still a heap of ruins in the eighth century, 1 though it The settle- had risen to fresh life in the tenth. The great mili- the D con- tary station of Deva was still the " waste Chester " querors. that ^thelfrith left it, when ^thelfked four hun- dred years after made it her Chester on the Dee. 2 And even when life returned to them, it was long before the new towns could again cover the whole area of their ruined predecessors. It was not till Cnut's time that York could cover the area of Ebu- racum. It was not till after Dunstan's day that Canterbury grew big enough to fill again the walls of Durovernum. It was not till the very eve of the conquest that London itself stretched its dwellings over the space which lay within the walls of Lon- dinium. 3 The new towns, too, grew up as new towns. Of the life or municipal government of their Roman predecessors they knew nothing. They in- herited no curials or decurions. Their municipal constitution, like their social organization, was of a purely English type. 4 Evidence The faith of Britain perished as utterly. Nothing: of fcltgioit- , . brings home to us so vividly the change which had passed over the conquered country as the entire dis- appearance of its older religion. Had the conquest of Britain been in any way like the conquest of Italy or of Gaul, its religious issue could hardly have been other than theirs. Had the Britons been 1 Bseda, Hist. Eccl. iv. 19. 2 Flor. Wore. (ed. Thorpe) : "Civitatem Legionum, tunc temporis desertam." E. Chron. a. 894 : " Anre waestre castre." 3 At all these three towns the parishes furthest from the new starting - point within the walls are, as the dedications of their churches show, of these dates. 4 Stubbs, Constit. Hist. i. 105, and note. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. j ^g left existing on the soil as a subject population, pay- chap, iv. ins: tribute to or tilling the lands of foreign lords, The settle- the change of faith would most probably have been t he n con- a change in the religion of the conquerors, and not querors - of the conquered. To judge from the stubbornness with which the Romanized peoples rejected heathen- dom, and from the facility with which the Teutonic races elsewhere yielded to the spell of Christianity, it was not the Britons who would have become wor- shippers of Woden, but Engle and Saxon who would have become worshippers of Christ. But even if we suppose the invaders to have retained their old re- ligion, the religious aspect of the land, as a whole, would have been little altered. In no instance did the Teutonic conquerors wage a religious war on the faiths of the conquered people. To barbarous races, indeed, who look on religion as simply a part of the national life, proselytism or persecution is impossible. The heathendom of the invaders would have been confined to their own settlements, and the whole British population would have re- mained Christian as before. Its churches, its priest- hood, its ecclesiastical organization, its dioceses and provinces, its connection with the rest of the West- ern Church, would have gone on without material change. But what we find is the very reverse of this. In the conquered part of Britain Christianity wholly dis- appeared. The Church, and the whole organization of the Church, vanished. The few religious build- ings of whose existence we catch a glimpse survived only as deserted ruins. So far was any connection with Western Christianity from existing that all the 140 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. chap^iv. rest of the Christian world, whether of the Celtic or The settle- Roman obedience, lost sight of the conquered part thTcon- of Britain altogether. When Rome long afterwards querors. S0U ght to renew its contact with it, it was as with a heathen country ; ' and it was in the same way as a heathen country that it was regarded by the Chris- tians of Ireland and by the Christians of Wales. When .missionaries at last made their way into its bounds, there is no record of their having found a single Christian in the whole country. What they found was a purely heathen land ; a land where homestead and boundary and the very days of the week bore the names of new gods who had displaced Christ, and where the inhabitants were so strange to the faith they brought that they looked at its wor- ship as magic. 2 It is hardly possible to conceive a stronger proof that the conquest of Britain had been a real displacement of the British people ; for if Wo- denism so utterly supplanted Christianity, it can only have been because the worshippers of Woden had driven off from the soil the worshippers of Christ. influence Complete, however, as was the wreck of Roman of Roman , r . Britain ™ life, complete as was the displacement up to this Ush. point of the older British population, the past his- tory of the island was not without its influence on the new settlers. Its physical structure, to a great extent, dictated the lines of their advance, the extent of their conquest, and their political distribution 1 Baeda, Hist. Eccl. i. 23. The first Roman missionaries thought of returning home rather than of encountering these heathen : " redire domum potius quam barbaram, feram, incredulamque gen- tem, cujus ne linguam quidem nossent, adire cogitabant." 2 Baeda, Hist. Eccl. i. 25. THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. I4I over the conquered soil, as it had dictated the con- chap, iv. quest and settlement of the races that had preceded The settle- them. The province, indeed, gave its bounds to the Xecon- new England. It was not the island of Britain