ANGLO-SAXON AN appellation given to the language spoken by the English Saxons, in contradistinction from the true Sax on, as well as from the modern English. Also the name given to the people, who conquered England, after the Romans had left it, and who spoke the language so call ed. Of these invaders, and ultimately conquerors, the first army arrived under Hengist and Horsa, in the year 450, from Germany.
1. Ancient Germany comprehended all that is call ed modern Germany, and the whole of Denmark and Sweden, with a good many districts besides. The na tions of this extensive tract, though different in many circumstances, had all a common origin and language, and resembled each other in habits of life and in civil polity. This resemblance particularly obtained among those German tribes, whom the Britons (unhappily for themselves) called over to defend them from the Picts and Scots ; their original seats being contiguous within that peninsula, called the Cimbric Chersonesus, which is bounded by the Elbe on the south, by the German Ocean on the west, and by the Baltic Sea on the north and east. Here dwelt the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes ; from the predominance of the first of these na tions, the latter too often received the same appellation. The chief seat of the proper Saxons was Holstein ; though, after the departure of the Franks for Gaul, they spread along the sea-coast to the banks of the Rhine. The Angles are said to have been a tribe of the Suevi, whose bravery, in Cxsar's time, is well known. This tribe settled, after many migrations, in that part of Germany which is now the dutchy of Slcswic, and from that country they embarked with greater spirit, and in greater numbers, than the other Germans, so that they had the honour of making our modern name, as a nation, the derivative of theirs. The Jutes, who were a tribe of the Gaetx, inhabited the extremity of the Cimbrie Chersonesus, which is still called Jutland, and is bound ed on the south by that country which once belonged to the Angles. Bands of adventurers from the Frizians,
and other German tribes, joined the invaders, and also settled in Britain. These promiscuous conquerors have been since known in history by the common appellation of Anglo-Saxons. The battles which they fought in subduing England, and amongst themselves, during the heptarchy, as well as their contests with the Danes and Normans, in short, their military and political history, will come under the article England. It is proposed, however, in the present article, to take a view of the set tlements which they established, of their character and appearance as a people, and of the state of manners, laws, arts, government, religion, and literature, that generally obtained among them, from the first accounts of them to the fall of Harold.
2. After the miserable Britons had been driven to their mountains in Cornwall and Wales, by numerous and new howls of invaders, who succeeded those under Ilengist and Horsa, the Saxons founded, at different intervals, during a space of 135 years, seven different kingdoms, of which the boundaries were nearly as follow : 1. Mercia, containing sixteen counties, Huntingdon, Rutland, Lincoln, Northampton, Leicester, Derby, Not tingham, Oxford, Chester, Salop, Gloucester, IVorces ter, Stafford, Warwick, Buckingham and Bedford. The Angles had chiefly settled iu this last district ; Leices ter was its metropolis.
2. Northumberland was also principally inhabited by Angles. It was originally composed of two kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira; of these Bamborough and York were the chief cities.
S. Wessex comprised Hants, Berks, and Wilts, Som erset, Dorset, Devon, and part of Cornwall, with the Isle of Wight. Winchester was its chief place.
4. Sussex had only itself and Surrey. Chichester was the capital.
5. Kent had Canterbury for its capital.
6. Essex was another kingdom, comprising what is now the county of Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hert fordshire. London was its metropolis.