A.D.

Page

of foreign Origin and Studies, and Minstrels who impli-

citly followed them

27

-

CHAP. II.

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

Peculiar Circumstances which contribute to render Bri.

tain the natural Seat of maritime Power

29

The general Movement of the pastoral Tribes originated

in that of the Huns from the North of the Wall of

China to the Caspian

29

Successive Pulsations of this Movement through other
Tribes

SO

Slow Progress of the Saxons in the Invasion of Britain 30

457-477. Establishment of the Jutes in Kent, and of the South

Saxons on the Borders of Sussex

31

519. Successes of Cerdic, at the Head of the West Saxons,

against the West Britons

31

547. Principalities of Deira and Bernicia, formed by the Angles

in the North

31

585. State of the Island during the Period called the Hep.

tarchy

31

596.

St. Augustine and Forty other Missionaries sent by Pope

Gregory to convert the Saxons: they found both the

Christian Religion and the British Language extinct in

the Saxon Territory

32

Miracles ascribed to St. Augustine : mistaken, but honest

Enthusiasm may account for many Pretensions ascribed

to wilful Imposture

33

Ascendancy of one Saxon State over the Rest : Authority

of Bretwalda ; (800) Egbert, King of Wessex, acquires

great Power under this Title

34

823. His Authority as Bretwalda acknowledged in all the Pro-

vinces South of the Humber

35

836. But at his Death, this Power is weakened by a Partition

of his Dominions

35

At this Point, just on the Approach towards regular Go-

vernment, Britain begins to be ravaged by the Barba-

rians of Scandinavia, called Normans in France, Danes

in England

35

871. Alfred, his early Life

36, 37

876. Ravages of the Danes : “ All the Saxons are defeated but

Alfred their King”

38

877–880. He bursts from his Retreat, defeats Guthrun the Danish

Chief, compels him to evacuate Wessex, and attempts

to settle and civilise his Followers, by granting him the

Country to the North and East, on Condition of his sub-

mitting to Baptism

39

880_895. Fifteen Years' Peace

39

895_899. Invasion of Hastings : in providing for Defence, Al-

fred improves Ship-building

39

.

A.D.

Page

Character of Alfred: extraordinary Union of Energy in

War with the Arts of Peace: his Poetry and Trans

lations

41

901–1068. Fourteen Kings; Ten of them Descendants of Alfred,

Three Scandinavians, and One a powerful Saxon Lord:
the more prominent Events during this Period can

alone be here related

The Christian Church was the only Institution transmitted

entire from the Romans to the Barbarians ; Progress of

Ecclesiastical Power

43

Origin of Clerical Celibacy: Corruption engendered by it;

its Value as an Instrument of Ecclesiastical Ambition

by destroying all Ties but those of the Order • 4447

The monastic Orders called forth by a Reaction of reli.

gious Zeal, when the secular Clergy had reached a high

Pitch of Corruption : primitive Hermits : Monasteries :

Rule of St. Benedict

48

901. Edward the Elder

225. Athelstan : Confederacy against him by the Britons, Scots,

and Danes ; his Victory over them at Brunnanburgh 50

941. Edmund the Elder: Edred

50

855. The Monks begin to signalise themselves as an ambitious

Body

50

Dunstan, his Attempts to enforce clerical Celibacy, and

reduce Monasteries to the Rule of St. Benedict 51, 52

His violent Conduct respecting an uncanonical Marriage

of Edwin : his Exile

53

959. Edgar obliges his Brother Edwin to divide his Dominions

with him : (960) on Edwin's Death he reigns over the

whole

53

Dunstan recalled and made Archbishop of Canterbury 54

977, 978. Synods of Calne and Winchester : miraculous Preten-

sions of Dunstan not necessarily fraudulent, though

unfounded

55

970, Marriage of Edgar with Elfrida; tragical Circumstances

attending it

56

975. Death of Edgar: Succession disputed between Edward

-

.

A.D.

1036

1042.

1044.

1051.

1066

“ A royal

Page

of the Thames : he dies in November, and Canute the

Dane succeeds to the Territory of both Nations :-

under him the Danish Sway regularly commences : his

Character

61

(Nov. 12.) Death of Canute: Harold his Son succeeds 63

Ineffectual Attempts of Etheldred's Sons, Edward and

Alfred : treacherous Murder of the latter

63

Hardicanute, Son of Harold

63

Edward, Ethelred's Son, succeeds on the Death of Hardi-

canute, without Opposition, after Twenty-seven Years

of Exile

63

Influence of Godwin, Earl of Kent

64

His Influence afterwards eclipsed by that of the Normans,

Friends of Edward during his Exile

66

William, Duke of Normandy, visits Edward

67

(Jan. 4.) Death of Edward : his Character :

Anchorite"

68, 69

Harold, Son of Godwin, crowned by the Saxon Chiefs :

he is opposed by his Brother Tostig

69

(Sept. 25.) The Army of Tostig defeated

69

(Sept. 28.) William, Duke of Normandy, lands in Sussex 71

View of the Saxon Institutions.

Antiquaries have adapted their Representations of our

ancient Constitution to their own particular Views; both

Parties agreeing in the fundamental Error of supposing

it a mature System

71

Governments are not framed by a Model : occasional Acts

harden into Usages, and Usages govern Men long before

they are embodied in written Laws

72

The Saxon Kings : the Wittenagemote

74

Prelates, Earls, Thanes

75

Shire-gemote, or Folk-mote

76

Inferior Classes; Ereemen and Slaves, Ceorles, Villains :

Manumission

77

Numbers of the respective Classes : Doomsday-book 78

Pecuniary Punishment of Crimes : graduated Were for

the Murder of Persons of different Rank

79

Saxon Origin of our Titles of Rank, and of the English

Language

81

Close Connection of Language with Thought and Feel.

ing

82

Saxon Writers: Venerable Bede born, A. D. 663, died 735 83

To him we owe all English History from the Landing of

the Saxons till his own Time

84

The Saxon Chronicle

84

Asser's Life of Alfred

85

Lives of the Saints ; Welsh Triads

85

Scottish Chronicles and Poetry; Macpherson's Ossian

Irish Chronicles

88

-

.

663

.

. 86

A.D.

912,

1035.

1066.

Page

William Duke of Normandy; the Establishment, by his

Ancestor Rollo, of a Scandinavian State in Neustria 89

Some expelled Norwegians founded a Republic in Iceland

in the ninth Century, where Literature and Liberty

converted these Barbarians for two Centuries into a

civilised People

90

Neustria ceded to Rollo, Son of the Earl of Orkney, by

Charles the Simple

90

William the Conqueror, fifth Duke of Normandy in lineal
Descent from him

90, 91

Assertion of William that Edward had bequeathed the

Crown to him ; no hereditary Right in either William

or Harold

92

Harold had sworn to support William's Claim

94

Pope Hildebrand founds, on this Circumstance, a Bull in

favour of William and excommunicating Harold; and,

by thus assuming the Disposal of a Kingdom, completes

the Papal Usurpations

95

(28th of September) William lands at Pevensey in Sussex 97

(14th of October) Battle of Hastings; Death of Harold
(December) Coronation of William ; his contemptuous

Compassion towards Edgar, who had been for some time
acknowledged as King

100, 101
After re-establishing Peter's Pence as an Acknowledge.
ment for the Favour of the Pope, he returns to Nor.

mandy

(December) he returns to suppress an Insurrection - 102

Doubtful Struggles in the North and West

103

Edgar Atheling acknowledged King in the North, aided

by a Danish Army; William defeats the Allies, and

commits atrocious Devastations

104

He distributes the Lands of the conquered to his Followers 105

Many Saxons fly from England; Hereward fortifies a

Camp in the Isle of Ely

During a blockade, the Monks of Ely betray him

The Saxon Primate deposed; Lanfranc Archbishop 107

William returns to Normandy; another ineffectual Effort

of Edgar Atheling

108

Review of the Causes which contributed to the Success of

William

-

- 101

1067.
1068.
1069.

• 106
• 107

A.D.

1087.

Page

Son Robert; personal Combat of the Father and Son,

unknown to each other

111

(9th of September) Death of William; his Character 111, 119

Two legal Revolutions completed in this Reign, the Separ.

ation of the Ecclesiastical from the Civil Judicature, and

the Consummation of the Feudal System

113

Without the former, it is probable that the Spiritual

Power would have been predominant over every other 114

With regard to the Feudal System, the most reasonable

Supposition is, that it was gradually prepared in Anglo-

Saxon Times, and finished by the Norman Invaders 114

Character of the Feudal System

. 115-117

WILLIAM IL

1087_1110.

1087.

1100.

(26th of September) proclaimed and crowned at West-

minster

117

In resisting his Brother Robert, he is obliged to seek the

Aid of the English, which opens the way for Concessions

to them

118

His Government an Union of Rapacity with Prodigality - 119

(August) his Death in the New Forest, by an Arrow shot

by Sir Walter Tyrrell glancing against a Tree

119

Commencement of the Crusades during his Reign ; Peter

the Hermit

119

Strange Union of religious with other Motives apparently

discordant, which prompted them

Miseries endured by the Crusaders

(14th of July) Jerusalem taken by Assault

121

Were the Crusades just? It was a Defence of an Exercise

of Religion older than the Mahometan Power

124

It is no valid Objection to a just Motive, that Ambition

may easily convert it into a Pretext

Wars to impose Religion are the most execrable Violation

of human Rights; Wars to defend it, their most sacred

Exercise

- 121

- 121

1099.

126

HENRY I.

1100.

1100—1135.

(August) Crowned at Westminster, after a faint Resist-

ance from the Adherents of Robert, then on his Return
from Palestine

126
Attempts to conciliate the English by promising to restore