BOOK III. 490. 3 to scale the walls, a division of the Britons attacked them from the woods behind: to repel them the Saxons were compelled to desist from their assault on the city. The Britons retired from the pressure of their attack into the woods, sallying out again when the Saxons again advanced to the city. This plan was successfully repeated with great loss to the assailants, till Ella conceived the idea of dividing his Saxons into two bodies; one to storm, the other to cover the attack. This measure succeeded, and the Saxons burst into the city; but, irritated by their loss, disgraced their conquest by one of those barbarous actions which history ought never to mention without horror, and which no events or reasons can justify: the inhabitants were put to the sword. This was a conquest not far distant from the shore; so that this Saxon kingdom was rather permitted by the Britons to exist than extorted from their national opposition. Ella's settlement was probably considered as a colonisation, that would have no important consequences to the British people. It became the kingdom of Sussex. As this state was never formidable to the others, nor is much mentioned afterward, there is no reason to imagine that Ella made any great progress; but Ella is commemorated as the preponderant Saxon chief at that time in England: his 3 Hen. Hunt. p. 312. He adds, that the city was never rebuilt, but remained apparently in his times in a state of ruin, which showed to the passenger how noble a place it had been. 4 Sax. Chron. 15. "Ne wearth thær forthon an Bryt to lafe." Our ancient chroniclers make often small differences in their chronologies. Thus the Sax. Chron. dates this event in 490, Flor. Wig. 491, and Ethelwerd, 492. 5 Sax. Chron. 71. Bede, lib. ii. c. 5. conquests were therefore superior to those of Hengist and his son, who were his contemporaries. This is another circumstance, which shows the mistake of attributing such extensive desolation and triumphs to Hengist. Both he and Ella appear to have been satisfied with the possession of the provinces they invaded. It was the next warrior who spread consternation through Britain, resisted the genius of Ambrosius and Arthur, and by his successes ensured safety to the intruders in Kent and Sussex. CHAP. II. 490. 495. Invasion of EIGHTEEN years after Ella, another powerful colony of Saxons arrived in the island, under the Cerdic. auspices of Cerdic, who also derived his genealogy from Woden. The first essay was made with five ships; but the battles and conquests of its leaders display either abilities of the most superior kind, or an accumulation of force far beyond that which had assailed the other parts of the island. The place of his primary descent is by no means clear. The modern name, which would correspond with the ancient appellation of Cerdices Ora, has not been preserved. Both Yarmouth and Southampton have had their advocates; but 6 Sax. Chron. 15. Flor. Wig. 205. Cerdic was the ninth descendant from Woden by his son Boldæg, and his great grandson Freothogar. Allowing thirty years for a generation, this would place the existence of Odin about 225, which is near the time when the Francs accomplished their voyage from the Euxine. 7 Yet Higden, in his Polychronicon, makes Cerdicesore that quæ nunc dicitur Gernemouth, p. 224., which (if we could rely upon it) would decide that Yarmouth was the spot. Camden mentions a striking fact in favour of the claims of Yarmouth, "The place is called by the inhabitants at this day, Cerdicksand." Britan. 390. Gib. 8 This position is thought to be warranted by comparing the Saxon Chron. p. 18., which mentions the arrival of the nepotes of Cerdic at Cerdicesora, in 514, and Matt. West., who states their arrival in oc BOOK 495. 501. a remarkable passage in the Saxon Chronicle, which indicates that he attacked West Saexnaland six years after his arrival induces a belief that his first attempt was on some other part of the island. IN the same year that Cerdic assaulted the district afterwards denominated Wessex, a band of his allies, under Porta, effected a landing with the companies of two ships at Portsmouth, and defeated the Britons.10 Others came thirteen years afterwards, under Stuf and Wihtgar. It was in the battles with Cerdic that the strength of the Britons and Saxons seem to have been first opposed to each other with a national magnitude, and for many years with varying success. It was not till twenty-four years after his arrival that Cerdic and his son are noticed to have established the kingdom of Wessex." Of the conflicts which he had with the Britons during these twenty-four years, the Saxons have left scarcely any notice. As Cerdic did not arrive in any part of England till forty-six years after Hengist, he found a new generation of Britons, with different kings and chiefs from those who had employed and fought with the conqueror of Kent. Gwrtheyrn, Guor cidentali parte Britanniæ, p. 184.; but this is not conclusive evidence. Mr. Whitaker thinks, that all Cerdic's operations were confined to Hampshire, vol. ii. p. 61. 9 Sax. Chron. p. 15. So Ethelwerd, 834. Sexto etiam anno adventus eorum occidentalem circumierunt Britanniæ partem quæ Westsexe nuncupatur. 10 Sax. Chron. p. 17. Flor. Wig. 205. Ethelw. 834. 11 Thus the Sax. Chron. 519. "Her Cerdic and Cynric West-Saexna rice onfengun," p. 18. Flor. Wig. "regnare cœperunt," p. 208. Ethelwerd, "in ipso anno facietenus cœperunt regnare," p. 834. So Huntingdon to the same date, "Regnum West Sexe incipit," p. 313. temir, and Ambrosius, had long been dead. The Britons were in possession of all the island but Kent and Sussex; and when Cerdic attacked them, they were at liberty to have employed all their forces against him, as Ida had not yet arrived, nor had the Angles expatriated themselves. THE only British king whom the Saxons mention in the battles that preceded the establishment of this West Saxon kingdom was Natanleod, and he appears but in one great battle, in which he fell in 508.12 This was something like a national conflict between the two contesting races. Cerdic increased his own strength by auxiliary forces from the Saxons in Kent and Sussex, and Natanleod assembled the greatest army of Britons that had yet met the Saxons together. He directed his main attack on their right wing, where Cerdic commanded, and drove it from the field; but, too eager in pursuit, he allowed this chieftain's son to move on him in the rear, and the victory was wrenched from his grasp.13 He fell with 5000 Britons; and such was the extent of his disaster, that all the region near the scene of conflict became afterwards called by his name." This victory gave Cerdic a firm position in the island, though it did not enable him yet to found a kingdom. THE subsequent battles of Cerdic and his friends with the Britons, which the Saxon writers have recorded, are but few. In 514 his kinsmen, Stuf and Wihtgar, made their incursion on Cerdicesore. In 519 Cerdic and his Son Cynric obtained a victory at Cerdices-ford, which appears to have first laid 12 Sax. Chron. p. 18. Flor. Wig. 206. Ethelwerd, 834. 14 Sax. Chron. III. 508. 15 BOOK the actual foundation of the West-Saxon kingdom, as from this time the Saxon Chronicle dates the reign of the West-Saxon kings. The struggle lasted the whole day with varying success, but in the evening the Saxons conquered. In 528, another conflict is mentioned at Cerdices-leah, but its issue is not stated: and, in 530, Cerdic and his son took the Isle of Wight with great slaughter. In 534, Cerdic died." He does not appear to have done more than to have maintained himself in the district where he landed; but his posterity enlarged his settlement into a kingdom, so powerful as to absorb every other in the island. 552. 556. 18 His son Cynric defeated the Britons at Searobyrig; and four years afterwards at Beranbirig. In this last battle the Britons made peculiar exertions to overcome their invaders. They collected a large army; and, taught by former defeat the evil of disorderly combats, their leaders attempted an imitation of better discipline. They were formed into nine divisions; three in front, three in the centre, and three in the rear, apparently to act as a reserve; their archers and horse were arranged like the Romans. The Saxons observing the array, condensed themselves into one compact body, and made an attack in this mass which proved irresistible. 19 15" Her Cerdic and Cynric West Seaxna rice onfengun:" after mentioning the battle, it adds, "siththan ricsadon West Seaxa cynebearn of tham dæge." Sax: Chron. p. 18. 16 Hen. Hunt. 313. Camden places the battle at a ford of the Avon, at the place now called Charford, in Hampshire. 17 Sax. Chr. 20. Flor. Wig. 219. I think Somner goes too far from the line of Cerdic's operations, when he guesses this to be Chardsley, in Buckinghamshire. 18 Sax. Ch. 20. Flor. Wig. 220. This is placed at Banbury, in Oxfordshire; the other at Salisbury. 19 H. Hunt. p. 314. This ancient author, from sources now lost, |