Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part IV

Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theodoric
exacted some pledges of the future loyalty of a people, whose
just hatred could be restrained only by their fear. A select band
of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators, was
delivered to the conqueror, as the hostages of the faith of
Childebert, and of their countrymen. On the first rumor of war,
or conspiracy, these guiltless youths were reduced to a state of
servitude; and one of them, Attalus, 107 whose adventures are
more particularly related, kept his master’s horses in the
diocese of Treves. After a painful search, he was discovered, in
this unworthy occupation, by the emissaries of his grandfather,
Gregory bishop of Langres; but his offers of ransom were sternly
rejected by the avarice of the Barbarian, who required an
exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble
captive. His deliverance was effected by the hardy stratagem of
Leo, a slave belonging to the kitchens of the bishop of Langres.
108 An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family.
The Barbarian purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of
gold; and was pleased to learn that he was deeply skilled in the
luxury of an episcopal table: “Next Sunday,” said the Frank, “I
shall invite my neighbors and kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force
them to confess, that they have never seen, or tasted, such an
entertainment, even in the king’s house.” Leo assured him, that
if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes
should be satisfied. The master who already aspired to the merit
of elegant hospitality, assumed, as his own, the praise which the
voracious guests unanimously bestowed on his cook; and the
dexterous Leo insensibly acquired the trust and management of his
household. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he
cautiously whispered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to
prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight,
the intemperate guests retired from the table; and the Frank’s
son-in-law, whom Leo attended to his apartment with a nocturnal
potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he
might betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this
dangerous raillery, entered his master’s bedchamber; removed his
spear and shield; silently drew the fleetest horses from the
stable; unbarred the ponderous gates; and excited Attalus to save
his life and liberty by incessant diligence. Their apprehensions
urged them to leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse; 109
they swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent forest,
and subsisted only by the accidental discovery of a wild
plum-tree. As they lay concealed in a dark thicket, they heard
the noise of horses; they were terrified by the angry countenance
of their master, and they anxiously listened to his declaration,
that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he
would cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on
a gibbet. A length, Attalus and his faithful Leo reached the
friendly habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their
fainting strength with bread and wine, concealed them from the
search of their enemy, and safely conducted them beyond the
limits of the Austrasian kingdom, to the episcopal palace of
Langres. Gregory embraced his grandson with tears of joy,
gratefully delivered Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of
servitude, and bestowed on him the property of a farm, where he
might end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this
singular adventure, which is marked with so many circumstances of
truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself, to his cousin
or nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours
110 was born about sixty years after the death of Sidonius
Apollinaris; and their situation was almost similar, since each
of them was a native of Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop. The
difference of their style and sentiments may, therefore, express
the decay of Gaul; and clearly ascertain how much, in so short a
space, the human mind had lost of its energy and refinement. 111

107 (return) [ The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of
Tours, (l. iii. c. 16, tom. ii. p. 193-195.) His editor, the P.
Ruinart, confounds this Attalus, who was a youth (puer) in the
year 532, with a friend of Silonius of the same name, who was
count of Autun, fifty or sixty years before. Such an error, which
cannot be imputed to ignorance, is excused, in some degree, by
its own magnitude.]

108 (return) [ This Gregory, the great grandfather of Gregory of
Tours, (in tom. ii. p. 197, 490,) lived ninety-two years; of
which he passed forty as count of Autun, and thirty-two as bishop
of Langres. According to the poet Fortunatus, he displayed equal
merit in these different stations. Nobilis antiqua decurrens
prole parentum, Nobilior gestis, nunc super astra manet. Arbiter
ante ferox, dein pius ipse sacerdos, Quos domuit judex, fovit
amore patris.]

109 (return) [ As M. de Valois, and the P. Ruinart, are
determined to change the Mosella of the text into Mosa, it
becomes me to acquiesce in the alteration. Yet, after some
examination of the topography. I could defend the common
reading.]

110 (return) [ The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius
Georgius) were of noble extraction, (natalibus... illustres,) and
they possessed large estates (latifundia) both in Auvergne and
Burgundy. He was born in the year 539, was consecrated bishop of
Tours in 573, and died in 593 or 595, soon after he had
terminated his history. See his life by Odo, abbot of Clugny, (in
tom. ii. p. 129-135,) and a new Life in the Mémoires de
l’Academie, &c., tom. xxvi. p. 598-637.]

111 (return) [ Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus
Gallicanis liberalium cultura literarum, &c., (in praefat. in
tom. ii. p. 137,) is the complaint of Gregory himself, which he
fully verifies by his own work. His style is equally devoid of
elegance and simplicity. In a conspicuous station, he still
remained a stranger to his own age and country; and in a prolific
work (the five last books contain ten years) he has omitted
almost every thing that posterity desires to learn. I have
tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of
pronouncing this unfavorable sentence]

We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and, perhaps,
artful, misrepresentations, which have softened, or exaggerated,
the oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the
Merovingians. The conquerors never promulgated any universal
edict of servitude, or confiscation; but a degenerate people, who
excused their weakness by the specious names of politeness and
peace, was exposed to the arms and laws of the ferocious
Barbarians, who contemptuously insulted their possessions, their
freedom, and their safety. Their personal injuries were partial
and irregular; but the great body of the Romans survived the
revolution, and still preserved the property, and privileges, of
citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use
of the Franks: but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from
tribute; 112 and the same irresistible violence which swept away
the arts and manufactures of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and
expensive system of Imperial despotism. The Provincials must
frequently deplore the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or
Ripuarian laws; but their private life, in the important concerns
of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was still regulated by
the Theodosian Code; and a discontented Roman might freely
aspire, or descend, to the title and character of a Barbarian.
The honors of the state were accessible to his ambition: the
education and temper of the Romans more peculiarly qualified them
for the offices of civil government; and, as soon as emulation
had rekindled their military ardor, they were permitted to march
in the ranks, or even at the head, of the victorious Germans. I
shall not attempt to enumerate the generals and magistrates,
whose names 113 attest the liberal policy of the Merovingians.
The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title of Patrician, was
successively intrusted to three Romans; and the last, and most
powerful, Mummolus, 114 who alternately saved and disturbed the
monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of count of
Autun, and left a treasury of thirty talents of gold, and two
hundred and fifty talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate
Barbarians were excluded, during several generations, from the
dignities, and even from the orders, of the church. 115 The
clergy of Gaul consisted almost entirely of native provincials;
the haughty Franks fell at the feet of their subjects, who were
dignified with the episcopal character: and the power and riches
which had been lost in war, were insensibly recovered by
superstition. 116 In all temporal affairs, the Theodosian Code
was the universal law of the clergy; but the Barbaric
jurisprudence had liberally provided for their personal safety; a
sub-deacon was equivalent to two Franks; the antrustion, and
priest, were held in similar estimation: and the life of a bishop
was appreciated far above the common standard, at the price of
nine hundred pieces of gold. 117 The Romans communicated to their
conquerors the use of the Christian religion and Latin language;
118 but their language and their religion had alike degenerated
from the simple purity of the Augustan, and Apostolic age. The
progress of superstition and Barbarism was rapid and universal:
the worship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes the God of
the Christians; and the rustic dialect of peasants and soldiers
was corrupted by a Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such
intercourse of sacred and social communion eradicated the
distinctions of birth and victory; and the nations of Gaul were
gradually confounded under the name and government of the Franks.

112 (return) [ The Abbe de Mably (tom. p. i. 247-267) has
diligently confirmed this opinion of the President de
Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 13.)]

113 (return) [ See Dubos, Hist. Critique de la Monarchie
Francoise, tom. ii. l. vi. c. 9, 10. The French antiquarians
establish as a principle, that the Romans and Barbarians may be
distinguished by their names. Their names undoubtedly form a
reasonable presumption; yet in reading Gregory of Tours, I have
observed Gondulphus, of Senatorian, or Roman, extraction, (l. vi.
c. 11, in tom. ii. p. 273,) and Claudius, a Barbarian, (l. vii.
c. 29, p. 303.)]

114 (return) [ Eunius Mummolus is repeatedly mentioned by Gregory
of Tours, from the fourth (c. 42, p. 224) to the seventh (c. 40,
p. 310) book. The computation by talents is singular enough; but
if Gregory attached any meaning to that obsolete word, the
treasures of Mummolus must have exceeded 100,000 L. sterling.]

115 (return) [ See Fleury, Discours iii. sur l’Histoire
Ecclesiastique.]

116 (return) [ The bishop of Tours himself has recorded the
complaint of Chilperic, the grandson of Clovis. Ecce pauper
remansit Fiscus noster; ecce divitiae nostrae ad ecclesias sunt
translatae; nulli penitus nisi soli Episcopi regnant, (l. vi. c.
46, in tom. ii. p. 291.)]

117 (return) [ See the Ripuarian Code, (tit. xxxvi in tom. iv. p.
241.) The Salic law does not provide for the safety of the
clergy; and we might suppose, on the behalf of the more civilized
tribe, that they had not foreseen such an impious act as the
murder of a priest. Yet Praetextatus, archbishop of Rouen, was
assassinated by the order of Queen Fredegundis before the altar,
(Greg. Turon. l. viii. c. 31, in tom. ii. p. 326.)]

118 (return) [ M. Bonamy (Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions,
tom. xxiv. p. 582-670) has ascertained the Lingua Romana Rustica,
which, through the medium of the Romance, has gradually been
polished into the actual form of the French language. Under the
Carlovingian race, the kings and nobles of France still
understood the dialect of their German ancestors.]

The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects, might
have imparted the most valuable of human gifts, a spirit and
system of constitutional liberty. Under a king, hereditary, but
limited, the chiefs and counsellors might have debated at Paris,
in the palace of the Caesars: the adjacent field, where the
emperors reviewed their mercenary legions, would have admitted
the legislative assembly of freemen and warriors; and the rude
model, which had been sketched in the woods of Germany, 119 might
have been polished and improved by the civil wisdom of the
Romans. But the careless Barbarians, secure of their personal
independence, disdained the labor of government: the annual
assemblies of the month of March were silently abolished; and the
nation was separated, and almost dissolved, by the conquest of
Gaul. 120 The monarchy was left without any regular establishment
of justice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis
wanted resolution to assume, or strength to exercise, the
legislative and executive powers, which the people had abdicated:
the royal prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample
privilege of rapine and murder; and the love of freedom, so often
invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among
the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire
of impunity. Seventy-five years after the death of Clovis, his
grandson, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to invade the
Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops of
Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories, were
excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched, without discipline,
under the banners of German, or Gallic, counts: their attack was
feeble and unsuccessful; but the friendly and hostile provinces
were desolated with indiscriminate rage. The cornfields, the
villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire: the
inhabitants were massacred, or dragged into captivity; and, in
the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these inhuman savages
were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious
Gontran reproached the guilt or neglect of their leaders, and
threatened to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and
arbitrary execution, they accused the universal and incurable
corruption of the people. “No one,” they said, “any longer fears
or respects his king, his duke, or his count. Each man loves to
do evil, and freely indulges his criminal inclinations. The most
gentle correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the rash
magistrate, who presumes to censure or restrain his seditious
subjects, seldom escapes alive from their revenge.” 121 It has
been reserved for the same nation to expose, by their intemperate
vices, the most odious abuse of freedom; and to supply its loss
by the spirit of honor and humanity, which now alleviates and
dignifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign. 1211

119 (return) [ Ce beau systeme a ete trouve dans les bois.
Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. xi. c. 6.]

120 (return) [ See the Abbe de Mably. Observations, &c., tom. i.
p. 34-56. It should seem that the institution of national
assemblies, which are with the French nation, has never been
congenial to its temper.]

121 (return) [ Gregory of Tours (l. viii. c. 30, in tom. ii. p.
325, 326) relates, with much indifference, the crimes, the
reproof, and the apology. Nullus Regem metuit, nullus Ducem,
nullus Comitem reveretur; et si fortassis alicui ista displicent,
et ea, pro longaevitate vitae vestrae, emendare conatur, statim
seditio in populo, statim tumultus exoritur, et in tantum
unusquisque contra seniorem saeva intentione grassatur, ut vix se
credat evadere, si tandem silere nequiverit.]

1211 (return) [ This remarkable passage was published in 1779—M.]

The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of their
Gallic possessions; but their loss was amply compensated by the
easy conquest, and secure enjoyment, of the provinces of Spain.
From the monarchy of the Goths, which soon involved the Suevic
kingdom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive some
national vanity; but the historian of the Roman empire is neither
invited, nor compelled, to pursue the obscure and barren series
of their annals. 122 The Goths of Spain were separated from the
rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenaean mountains:
their manners and institutions, as far as they were common to the
Germanic tribes, have been already explained. I have anticipated,
in the preceding chapter, the most important of their
ecclesiastical events, the fall of Arianism, and the persecution
of the Jews; and it only remains to observe some interesting
circumstances which relate to the civil and ecclesiastical
constitution of the Spanish kingdom.

122 (return) [ Spain, in these dark ages, has been peculiarly
unfortunate. The Franks had a Gregory of Tours; the Saxons, or
Angles, a Bede; the Lombards, a Paul Warnefrid, &c. But the
history of the Visigoths is contained in the short and imperfect
Chronicles of Isidore of Seville and John of Biclar]

After their conversion from idolatry or heresy, the Frank and the
Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with equal submission, the
inherent evils and the accidental benefits, of superstition. But
the prelates of France, long before the extinction of the
Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting
Barbarians. They disdained the use of synods; forgot the laws of
temperance and chastity; and preferred the indulgence of private
ambition and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal
profession. 123 The bishops of Spain respected themselves, and
were respected by the public: their indissoluble union disguised
their vices, and confirmed their authority; and the regular
discipline of the church introduced peace, order, and stability,
into the government of the state. From the reign of Recared, the
first Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the immediate predecessor
of the unfortunate Roderic, sixteen national councils were
successively convened. The six metropolitans, Toledo, Seville,
Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Narbonne, presided according to
their respective seniority; the assembly was composed of their
suffragan bishops, who appeared in person, or by their proxies;
and a place was assigned to the most holy, or opulent, of the
Spanish abbots. During the first three days of the convocation,
as long as they agitated the ecclesiastical question of doctrine
and discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their
debates; which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity.
But, on the morning of the fourth day, the doors were thrown open
for the entrance of the great officers of the palace, the dukes
and counts of the provinces, the judges of the cities, and the
Gothic nobles, and the decrees of Heaven were ratified by the
consent of the people.

The same rules were observed in the provincial assemblies, the
annual synods, which were empowered to hear complaints, and to
redress grievances; and a legal government was supported by the
prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy. The bishops, who, in
each revolution, were prepared to flatter the victorious, and to
insult the prostrate labored, with diligence and success, to
kindle the flames of persecution, and to exalt the mitre above
the crown. Yet the national councils of Toledo, in which the free
spirit of the Barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal
policy, have established some prudent laws for the common benefit
of the king and people. The vacancy of the throne was supplied by
the choice of the bishops and palatines; and after the failure of
the line of Alaric, the regal dignity was still limited to the
pure and noble blood of the Goths. The clergy, who anointed their
lawful prince, always recommended, and sometimes practised, the
duty of allegiance; and the spiritual censures were denounced on
the heads of the impious subjects, who should resist his
authority, conspire against his life, or violate, by an indecent
union, the chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself,
when he ascended the throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to
God and his people, that he would faithfully execute this
important trust. The real or imaginary faults of his
administration were subject to the control of a powerful
aristocracy; and the bishops and palatines were guarded by a
fundamental privilege, that they should not be degraded,
imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or
confiscation, unless by the free and public judgment of their
peers. 124

123 (return) [ Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the
apostle of Germany, and the reformer of Gaul, (in tom. iv. p.
94.) The fourscore years, which he deplores, of license and
corruption, would seem to insinuate that the Barbarians were
admitted into the clergy about the year 660.]

124 (return) [ The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the
most authentic records of the church and constitution of Spain.
The following passages are particularly important, (iii. 17, 18;
iv. 75; v. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8; vi. 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18; vii. 1;
xiii. 2 3 6.) I have found Mascou (Hist. of the Ancient Germans,
xv. 29, and Annotations, xxvi. and xxxiii.) and Ferreras (Hist.
Generale de l’Espagne, tom. ii.) very useful and accurate
guides.]

One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified
the code of laws which had been compiled by a succession of
Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric, to the devout Egica. As long
as the Visigoths themselves were satisfied with the rude customs
of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects of Aquitain and
Spain in the enjoyment of the Roman law. Their gradual
improvement in arts, in policy, and at length in religion,
encouraged them to imitate, and to supersede, these foreign
institutions; and to compose a code of civil and criminal
jurisprudence, for the use of a great and united people. The same
obligations, and the same privileges, were communicated to the
nations of the Spanish monarchy; and the conquerors, insensibly
renouncing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of
equity, and exalted the Romans to the participation of freedom.
The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation
of Spain under the reign of the Visigoths. The provincials were
long separated from their Arian masters by the irreconcilable
difference of religion. After the conversion of Recared had
removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts, both of the
Ocean and Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern
emperors; who secretly excited a discontented people to reject
the yoke of the Barbarians, and to assert the name and dignity of
Roman citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed
most effectually secured by their own persuasion, that they
hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to obtain by a
revolution; but it has appeared so natural to oppress those whom
we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the
praise of wisdom and moderation. 125

125 (return) [ The Code of the Visigoths, regularly divided into
twelve books, has been correctly published by Dom Bouquet, (in
tom. iv. p. 273-460.) It has been treated by the President de
Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. c. 1) with excessive
severity. I dislike the style; I detest the superstition; but I
shall presume to think, that the civil jurisprudence displays a
more civilized and enlightened state of society, than that of the
Burgundians, or even of the Lombards.]

While the kingdom of the Franks and Visigoths were established in
Gaul and Spain, the Saxons achieved the conquest of Britain, the
third great diocese of the Praefecture of the West. Since Britain
was already separated from the Roman empire, I might, without
reproach, decline a story familiar to the most illiterate, and
obscure to the most learned, of my readers. The Saxons, who
excelled in the use of the oar, or the battle-axe, were ignorant
of the art which could alone perpetuate the fame of their
exploits; the Provincials, relapsing into barbarism, neglected to
describe the ruin of their country; and the doubtful tradition
was almost extinguished, before the missionaries of Rome restored
the light of science and Christianity. The declamations of
Gildas, the fragments, or fables, of Nennius, the obscure hints
of the Saxon laws and chronicles, and the ecclesiastical tales of
the venerable Bede, 126 have been illustrated by the diligence,
and sometimes embellished by the fancy, of succeeding writers,
whose works I am not ambitious either to censure or to
transcribe. 127 Yet the historian of the empire may be tempted to
pursue the revolutions of a Roman province, till it vanishes from
his sight; and an Englishman may curiously trace the
establishment of the Barbarians, from whom he derives his name,
his laws, and perhaps his origin.

126 (return) [ See Gildas de Excidio Britanniae, c. 11-25, p.
4-9, edit. Gale. Nennius, Hist. Britonum, c. 28, 35-65, p.
105-115, edit. Gale. Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. Gentis Angloruml. i.
c. 12-16, p. 49-53. c. 22, p. 58, edit. Smith. Chron. Saxonicum,
p. 11-23, &c., edit. Gibson. The Anglo-Saxon laws were published
by Wilkins, London, 1731, in folio; and the Leges Wallicae, by
Wotton and Clarke, London, 1730, in folio.]

127 (return) [ The laborious Mr. Carte, and the ingenious Mr.
Whitaker, are the two modern writers to whom I am principally
indebted. The particular historian of Manchester embraces, under
that obscure title, a subject almost as extensive as the general
history of England. * Note: Add the Anglo-Saxon History of Mr. S.
Turner; and Sir F. Palgrave Sketch of the “Early History of
England.”—M.]

About forty years after the dissolution of the Roman government,
Vortigern appears to have obtained the supreme, though precarious
command of the princes and cities of Britain. That unfortunate
monarch has been almost unanimously condemned for the weak and
mischievous policy of inviting 128 a formidable stranger, to
repel the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His ambassadors
are despatched, by the gravest historians, to the coast of
Germany: they address a pathetic oration to the general assembly
of the Saxons, and those warlike Barbarians resolve to assist
with a fleet and army the suppliants of a distant and unknown
island. If Britain had indeed been unknown to the Saxons, the
measure of its calamities would have been less complete. But the
strength of the Roman government could not always guard the
maritime province against the pirates of Germany; the independent
and divided states were exposed to their attacks; and the Saxons
might sometimes join the Scots and the Picts, in a tacit, or
express, confederacy of rapine and destruction. Vortigern could
only balance the various perils, which assaulted on every side
his throne and his people; and his policy may deserve either
praise or excuse, if he preferred the alliance of those
Barbarians, whose naval power rendered them the most dangerous
enemies and the most serviceable allies. Hengist and Horsa, as
they ranged along the Eastern coast with three ships, were
engaged, by the promise of an ample stipend, to embrace the
defence of Britain; and their intrepid valor soon delivered the
country from the Caledonian invaders. The Isle of Thanet, a
secure and fertile district, was allotted for the residence of
these German auxiliaries, and they were supplied, according to
the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of clothing and
provisions. This favorable reception encouraged five thousand
warriors to embark with their families in seventeen vessels, and
the infant power of Hengist was fortified by this strong and
seasonable reenforcement. The crafty Barbarian suggested to
Vortigern the obvious advantage of fixing, in the neighborhood of
the Picts, a colony of faithful allies: a third fleet of forty
ships, under the command of his son and nephew, sailed from
Germany, ravaged the Orkneys, and disembarked a new army on the
coast of Northumberland, or Lothian, at the opposite extremity of
the devoted land. It was easy to foresee, but it was impossible
to prevent, the impending evils. The two nations were soon
divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. The Saxons
magnified all that they had done and suffered in the cause of an
ungrateful people; while the Britons regretted the liberal
rewards which could not satisfy the avarice of those haughty
mercenaries. The causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an
irreconcilable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms; and if they
perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the security of a
feast, they destroyed the reciprocal confidence which sustains
the intercourse of peace and war. 129

128 (return) [ This invitation, which may derive some countenance
from the loose expressions of Gildas and Bede, is framed into a
regular story by Witikind, a Saxon monk of the tenth century,
(see Cousin, Hist. de l’Empire d’Occident, tom. ii. p. 356.)
Rapin, and even Hume, have too freely used this suspicious
evidence, without regarding the precise and probable testimony of
Tennius: Iterea venerunt tres Chinlae a exilio pulsoe, in quibus
erant Hors et Hengist.]

129 (return) [ Nennius imputes to the Saxons the murder of three
hundred British chiefs; a crime not unsuitable to their savage
manners. But we are not obliged to believe (see Jeffrey of
Monmouth, l. viii. c. 9-12) that Stonehenge is their monument,
which the giants had formerly transported from Africa to Ireland,
and which was removed to Britain by the order of Ambrosius, and
the art of Merlin. * Note: Sir f. Palgrave (Hist. of England, p.
36) is inclined to resolve the whole of these stories, as Niebuhr
the older Roman history, into poetry. To the editor they
appeared, in early youth, so essentially poetic, as to justify
the rash attempt to embody them in an Epic Poem, called Samor,
commenced at Eton, and finished before he had arrived at the
maturer taste of manhood.—M.]

Hengist, who boldly aspired to the conquest of Britain, exhorted
his countrymen to embrace the glorious opportunity: he painted in
lively colors the fertility of the soil, the wealth of the
cities, the pusillanimous temper of the natives, and the
convenient situation of a spacious solitary island, accessible on
all sides to the Saxon fleets. The successive colonies which
issued, in the period of a century, from the mouths of the Elbe,
the Weser, and the Rhine, were principally composed of three
valiant tribes or nations of Germany; the Jutes, the old Saxons,
and the Angles. The Jutes, who fought under the peculiar banner
of Hengist, assumed the merit of leading their countrymen in the
paths of glory, and of erecting, in Kent, the first independent
kingdom. The fame of the enterprise was attributed 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 honor of fixing a
perpetual name on the country, of which they occupied 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 conquest of a
new world. 130 But this arduous achievement was not prepared or
executed by the union of national powers. Each intrepid
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, 1301 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. 131

130 (return) [ All these tribes are expressly enumerated by Bede,
(l. i. c. 15, p. 52, l. 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.]

1301 (return) [ This term (the Heptarchy) must be rejected
because an idea is conveyed thereby which is substantially wrong.
At no one period were there ever seven kingdoms independent of
each other. Palgrave, vol. i. p. 46. Mr. Sharon Turner has the
merit of having first confuted the popular notion on this
subject. Anglo-Saxon History, vol. i. p. 302.—M.]

131 (return) [ 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. l. ii. c. 5, p. 83.)]

A monk, who, in the profound ignorance of human life, has
presumed to exercise the office of historian, strangely
disfigures the state of Britain at the time of its separation
from the Western empire. Gildas 132 describes in florid language
the improvements of agriculture, the foreign trade which flowed
with every tide into the Thames and the Severn the solid and
lofty construction of public and private edifices; he accuses the
sinful luxury of the British people; of a people, according to
the same writer, ignorant of the most simple arts, and incapable,
without the aid of the Romans, of providing walls of stone, or
weapons of iron, for the defence of their native land. 133 Under
the long dominion of the emperors, Britain had been insensibly
moulded into the elegant and servile form of a Roman province,
whose safety was intrusted to a foreign power. The subjects of
Honorius contemplated their new freedom with surprise and terror;
they were left destitute of any civil or military constitution;
and their uncertain rulers wanted either skill, or courage, or
authority, to direct the public force against the common enemy.
The introduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal weakness,
and degraded the character both of the prince and people. Their
consternation magnified the danger; the want of union diminished
their resources; and the madness of civil factions was more
solicitous to accuse, than to remedy, the evils, which they
imputed to the misconduct of their adversaries.

Yet the Britons were not ignorant, they could not be ignorant, of
the manufacture or the use of arms; the successive and disorderly
attacks of the Saxons allowed them to recover from their
amazement, and the prosperous or adverse events of the war added
discipline and experience to their native valor.

132 (return) [ See Gildas de Excidio Britanniae, c. i. p. l.
edit. Gale.]

133 (return) [ Mr. Whitaker (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p.
503, 516) has smartly exposed this glaring absurdity, which had
passed unnoticed by the general historians, as they were
hastening to more interesting and important events]

While the continent of Europe and Africa yielded, without
resistance, to the Barbarians, the British island, alone and
unaided, maintained a long, a vigorous, though an unsuccessful,
struggle, against the formidable pirates, who, almost at the same
instant, assaulted the Northern, the Eastern, and the Southern
coasts. The cities which had been fortified with skill, were
defended with resolution; the advantages of ground, hills,
forests, and morasses, were diligently improved by the
inhabitants; the conquest of each district was purchased with
blood; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly attested by the
discreet silence of their annalist. Hengist might hope to achieve
the conquest of Britain; but his ambition, in an active reign of
thirty-five years, was confined to the possession of Kent; and
the numerous colony which he had planted in the North, was
extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The monarchy of the West
Saxons was laboriously founded by the persevering efforts of
three martial generations. The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest
of the children of Woden, was consumed in the conquest of
Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight; and the loss which he sustained
in the battle of Mount Badon, reduced him to a state of
inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant son, advanced into
Wiltshire; besieged Salisbury, at that time seated on a
commanding eminence; and vanquished an army which advanced to the
relief of the city. In the subsequent battle of Marlborough, 134
his British enemies displayed their military science. Their
troops were formed in three lines; each line consisted of three
distinct bodies, and the cavalry, the archers, and the pikemen,
were distributed according to the principles of Roman tactics.
The Saxons charged in one weighty column, boldly encountered with
their shord swords the long lances of the Britons, and maintained
an equal conflict till the approach of night. Two decisive
victories, the death of three British kings, and the reduction of
Cirencester, Bath, and Gloucester, established the fame and power
of Ceaulin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious
arms to the banks of the Severn.

134 (return) [ At Beran-birig, or Barbury-castle, near
Marlborough. The Saxon chronicle assigns the name and date.
Camden (Britannia, vol. i. p. 128) ascertains the place; and
Henry of Huntingdon (Scriptores pest Bedam, p. 314) relates the
circumstances of this battle. They are probable and
characteristic; and the historians of the twelfth century might
consult some materials that no longer exist.] After a war of a
hundred years, the independent Britons still occupied the whole
extent of the Western coast, from the wall of Antoninus to the
extreme promontory of Cornwall; and the principal cities of the
inland country still opposed the arms of the Barbarians.
Resistance became more languid, as the number and boldness of the
assailants continually increased. Winning their way by slow and
painful efforts, the Saxons, the Angles, and their various
confederates, advanced from the North, from the East, and from
the South, till their victorious banners were united in the
centre of the island. Beyond the Severn the Britons still
asserted their national freedom, which survived the heptarchy,
and even the monarchy, of the Saxons. The bravest warriors, who
preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge in the
mountains of Wales: the reluctant submission of Cornwall was
delayed for some ages; 135 and a band of fugitives acquired a
settlement in Gaul, by their own valor, or the liberality of the
Merovingian kings. 136 The Western angle of Armorica acquired the
new appellations of Cornwall, and the Lesser Britain; and the
vacant lands of the Osismii were filled by a strange people, who,
under the authority of their counts and bishops, preserved the
laws and language of their ancestors. To the feeble descendants
of Clovis and Charlemagne, the Britons of Armorica refused the
customary tribute, subdued the neighboring dioceses of Vannes,
Rennes, and Nantes, and formed a powerful, though vassal, state,
which has been united to the crown of France. 137

135 (return) [ Cornwall was finally subdued by Athelstan, (A.D.
927-941,) who planted an English colony at Exeter, and confined
the Britons beyond the River Tamar. See William of Malmsbury, l.
ii., in the Scriptores post Bedam, p. 50. The spirit of the
Cornish knights was degraded by servitude: and it should seem,
from the Romance of Sir Tristram, that their cowardice was almost
proverbial.]

136 (return) [ The establishment of the Britons in Gaul is proved
in the sixth century, by Procopius, Gregory of Tours, the second
council of Tours, (A.D. 567,) and the least suspicious of their
chronicles and lives of saints. The subscription of a bishop of
the Britons to the first council of Tours, (A.D. 461, or rather
481,) the army of Riothamus, and the loose declamation of Gildas,
(alii transmarinas petebant regiones, c. 25, p. 8,) may
countenance an emigration as early as the middle of the fifth
century. Beyond that era, the Britons of Armorica can be found
only in romance; and I am surprised that Mr. Whitaker (Genuine
History of the Britons, p. 214-221) should so faithfully
transcribe the gross ignorance of Carte, whose venial errors he
has so rigorously chastised.]

137 (return) [ The antiquities of Bretagne, which have been the
subject even of political controversy, are illustrated by Hadrian
Valesius, (Notitia Galliarum, sub voce Britannia Cismarina, p.
98-100.) M. D’Anville, (Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, Corisopiti,
Curiosolites, Osismii, Vorganium, p. 248, 258, 508, 720, and
Etats de l’Europe, p. 76-80,) Longuerue, (Description de la
France, tom. i. p. 84-94,) and the Abbe de Vertot, (Hist.
Critique de l’Etablissement des Bretons dans les Gaules, 2 vols.
in 12 mo., Paris, 1720.) I may assume the merit of examining the
original evidence which they have produced. * Note: Compare
Gallet, Mémoires sur la Bretagne, and Daru, Histoire de Bretagne.
These authors appear to me to establish the point of the
independence of Bretagne at the time that the insular Britons
took refuge in their country, and that the greater part landed as
fugitives rather than as conquerors. I observe that M. Lappenberg
(Geschichte von England, vol. i. p. 56) supposes the settlement
of a military colony formed of British soldiers, (Milites
limitanei, laeti,) during the usurpation of Maximus, (381, 388,)
who gave their name and peculiar civilization to Bretagne. M.
Lappenberg expresses his surprise that Gibbon here rejects the
authority which he follows elsewhere.—M.]