A History of English Literature | Page 9

to harry the
southern and eastern shores of Britain, where the Romans were obliged
to maintain a special military establishment against them. But early in
the fifth century the Romans, hard-pressed even in Italy by other
barbarian invaders, withdrew all their troops and completely abandoned
Britain. Not long thereafter, and probably before the traditional date of
449, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons began to come in large bands with
the deliberate purpose of permanent settlement. Their conquest, very
different in its methods and results from that of the Romans, may
roughly be said to have occupied a hundred and fifty or two hundred
years. The earlier invading hordes fixed themselves at various points on
the eastern and southern shore and gradually fought their way inland,

and they were constantly augmented by new arrivals. In general the
Angles settled in the east and north and the Saxons in the south, while
the less numerous Jutes, the first to come, in Kent, soon ceased to count
in the movement. In this way there naturally came into existence a
group of separate and rival kingdoms, which when they were not busy
with the Britons were often at war with each other. Their number varied
somewhat from time to time as they were united or divided; but on the
whole, seven figured most prominently, whence comes the traditional
name 'The Saxon Heptarchy' (Seven Kingdoms). The resistance of the
Britons to the Anglo-Saxon advance was often brave and sometimes
temporarily successful. Early in the sixth century, for example, they
won at Mount Badon in the south a great victory, later connected in
tradition with the legendary name of King Arthur, which for many
years gave them security from further aggressions. But in the long run
their racial defects proved fatal; they were unable to combine in
permanent and steady union, and tribe by tribe the newcomers drove
them slowly back; until early in the seventh century the Anglo-Saxons
were in possession of nearly all of what is now England, the exceptions
being the regions all along the west coast, including what has ever
since been, known as Wales.
Of the Roman and British civilization the Anglo-Saxons were ruthless
destroyers, exulting, like other barbarians, in the wanton annihilation of
things which they did not understand. Every city, or nearly every one,
which they took, they burned, slaughtering the inhabitants. They
themselves occupied the land chiefly as masters of scattered farms,
each warrior established in a large rude house surrounded by its various
outbuildings and the huts of the British slaves and the Saxon and
British bondmen. Just how largely the Britons were exterminated and
how largely they were kept alive as slaves and wives, is uncertain; but
it is evident that at least a considerable number were spared; to this the
British names of many of our objects of humble use, for example
mattoc and basket, testify.
In the natural course of events, however, no sooner had the
Anglo-Saxons destroyed the (imperfect and partial) civilization of their
predecessors than they began to rebuild one for themselves; possessors

of a fertile land, they settled down to develop it, and from tribes of
lawless fighters were before long transformed into a race of
farmer-citizens. Gradually trade with the Continent, also, was
reestablished and grew; but perhaps the most important humanizing
influence was the reintroduction of Christianity. The story is famous of
how Pope Gregory the Great, struck by the beauty of certain Angle
slave-boys at Rome, declared that they ought to be called not Angli but
Angeli (angels) and forthwith, in 597, sent to Britain St. Augustine (not
the famous African saint of that name), who landed in Kent and
converted that kingdom. Within the next two generations, and after
much fierce fighting between the adherents of the two religions, all the
other kingdoms as well had been christianized. It was only the southern
half of the island, however, that was won by the Roman missionaries;
in the north the work was done independently by preachers from
Ireland, where, in spite of much anarchy, a certain degree of
civilization had been preserved. These two types of Christianity, those
of Ireland and of Rome, were largely different in spirit. The Irish
missionaries were simple and loving men and won converts by the
beauty of their lives; the Romans brought with them the architecture,
music, and learning of their imperial city and the aggressive energy
which in the following centuries was to make their Church supreme
throughout the Western world. When the inevitable clash for
supremacy came, the king of the then-dominant Anglian kingdom,
Northumbria, made choice of the Roman as against the Irish Church, a
choice which proved decisive for the entire island. And though our
personal sympathies may well go to the finer-spirited Irish, this
outcome was on the whole