Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/190

158 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvin to the primitive Saxons ; and the common laws and language of the conquerors are described by the national appellation of a people which, at the end of four hundred years, produced the first monarchs of South Britain. The Angles were distinguished by their numbers and their success ; and they claimed the honour of fixing a perpetual name on the country of which they occu- pied the most ample portion. The Barbarians, who followed the hopes of rapine either on the land or sea, were insensibly blended with this triple confederacy ; the Frisians, who had been tempted by their vicinity to the British shores, might balance, during a short space, the strength and reputation of the native Saxons ; the Danes, the Prussians, the Rugians are faintly described ; and some adventurous Huns, who had wandered as far as the Baltic, might embark on board the German vessels, for the con- quest of a new world. 137 But this arduous achievement was not prepared or executed by the union of national powers. Each in- trepid chieftain, according to the measure of his fame and fortunes, assembled his followers ; equipped a fleet of three, or perhaps of sixty, vessels ; chose the place of the attack ; and conducted his subsequent operations according to the events of the war and the dictates of his private interest. In the invasion of Britain many heroes vanquished and fell ; but only seven victorious leaders assumed, or at least maintained, the title of kings. Seven independent thrones, the Saxon Heptarchy, were founded by the conquerors, and seven families, one of which has been continued, by female succession, to our present sovereign, derived their equal and sacred lineage from Woden, the god of war. It has been pretended that this republic of kings was moderated by a general council and a supreme magistrate. But such an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the rude and turbulent spirit of the Saxons ; their laws are silent ; and their imperfect annals afford only a dark and bloody prospect of intestine discord. 138 187 All these tribes are expressly enumerated by Bede (1. i. c. 15, p. 52, 1. v. c. 9, p. 190), and, though I have considered Mr. Whitaker's remarks (Hist, of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 538-543), I do not perceive the absurdity of supposing that the Frisians, &c. were mingled with the Anglo-Saxons. 138 Bede has enumerated seven kings, two Saxons, a Jute, and four Angles, who successively acquired in the heptarchy an indefinite supremacy of power and renown. But their reign was the effect, not of law, but of conquest ; and he observes, in similar terms, that one of them subdued the Isles of Man and Anglesey ; and that another imposed a tribute on the Scots and Picts (Hist. Eccles. 1. ii. c. 5, p. 83). [See below, note 171.]