permanent settlement of the Anglo-Saxons under one point of view, we have glanced from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the seventh century. We may now retrace our steps over part of that dark and utterly confused interval; but in doing so we shall not venture into the perplexing labyrinth presented by the more than half fabulous history of the Heptarchy, or seven separate and independent states or kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons. Modern writers have assumed, that over these separate states there was always a lord paramount, a sort of Emperor of England, who might be, by inheritance or conquest, sometimes the king of one state and sometimes the king of another. This ascendant monarch is called the Britwalda, or Bretwalda, a Saxon term, which signifies the wielder, or dominator, or ruler, of Brit (Britain). According to Bede and the Saxon Chronicle, seven or eight of the Saxon princes in irregular succession bore this proud title; and perhaps it may be inferred from Bede's expressions that the other six kings of the island acknowledged themselves the vassals of the Bretwaldas. We are not thoroughly convinced of any such supremacy (even nominal), and in the real operations of war and government we continually find each state acting in an independent manner, as if separate from all the rest—a proof at least that the authority of the lord paramount was very limited or very uncertain. As, however, their whole history is uninteresting, and as it is easier to trace the reigns of the more marking monarchs than to enter into seven separate dynasties, we shall follow the modern example.

1 Mr. Kemble utterly rejects the idea of there ever having been any such lord paramount:-"Much less," says he, "can we admit that there was any central political authority, recognized, systematic, and regulated, by which the several kingdoms were combined into a corporate body. There is, indeed, a theory, respectable for its antiquity, and reproduced by modern ingenuity, according to which this important fact is assumed; and We are not only taught that the several kingdoms formed a confederation, at whose head, by election or otherwise, one of the princes was placed, with imperial power, but that this institution was derived by direct imitation from the custom of the Roman empire; we farther learn, that the title of this high functionary was Bretwalda, or Emperor of Britain, and that he possessed the imperial decorations of the Roman state." This learned author, who considers the Roman part of the theory, as adopted by Palgrave, very well exploded by Lappenberg-though the latter gives far too much credence to the rest-then proceeds to refute what Rapin, Sh. Turner, and others have said on the subject, and sums up his own ideas upon it as follows:-"I therefore again conclude that this so-called Bretwaldadom was a mere accidental predominance; there is no peculiar function, duty, or privilege anywhere mentioned as appertaining to it; and when Beda describes Eadwini of Northumberland proceeding with the Roman tufa or banner before him, as an ensign of dignity, he does so in terms which show that it was not, as Palgrave seems to imagine, an ensign of imperial authority used by all the Bretwaldas, but a peculiar and remarkable affectation of that particular prince."-Saxons in England, vol. ii. p. 18.

ELLA, the conqueror of Sussex, and the founder, there, of the kingdom of the South Saxons—the smallest of all the new states-was the first Bretwalda, and died, little noticed by the English chroniclers, about the year 510. After a long vacancy, CEAWLIN, King of Wessex, who began to reign about 568, stepped into the dignity, which, however, was contested with him, by ETHELBERT, the fourth King of Kent, who claimed it in right of his descent from Hengist, the brother of Horsa. The dispute led to hostilities; for long before the Anglo-Saxons had subdued all the Britons, they made fierce wars upon one another. The first example of this practice, which must have retarded their general progress in the subjugation of the island, was set by Ethelbert, who, after sustaining two signal defeats from his rival, and many other reverses, during the twentytwo years that Ceawlin reigned, acquired the dignity of Bretwalda (A.D. 593) soon after that prince's death. Ceawlin, by the law of the sword, had taken possession of the kingdom of Sussex, and seems to have fought as often against his Saxon brethren as against the Britons.

The grand incident under the reign of this, the third Bretwalda, was the conversion of himself and court by Augustine and forty monks, chiefly Italians, who were sent for that purpose into Britain, by Pope Gregory the Great. Ethelbert's change of religion was facilitated by the circumstance of his having espoused a Christian wife shortly before. This was the young and beautiful Bertha, sister or daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, to whom, by stipulation, he granted the free exercise of her religion when she came into first, that that word, Bretwalda, arises from a clerical error; and, secondly, that the right word has nothing to do with Britain at all.

"Let us now inquire," says he, "to what the passage in the Saxon Chronicle amounts, which has put so many of our historians upon a wrong track, by supplying them with the suspicious name Bretwalda. Speaking of Ecgberht, the chronicler says: 'And the same year King Ecgberht overran the kingdom of the Mercians, and all that was south of the Humber; and he was the eighth king who was Bretwalda.' And then, after naming the seven mentioned by Beda, and totally omitting all notice of the Mercian kings, he concludes: The eighth was Ecgberht, King of the West Saxons.'

"Now it is somewhat remarkable, that of six manuscripts in which this passage occurs, one only reads Bretwalda; of the remaining five, four have Bryten-walda or wealda, and one Breten-anweald, which is precisely synonymous with Brytenwealda. All the rules of orderly criticism would, therefore, compel us to look upon this as the right reading; and we are confirmed in so doing, by finding that Ethelstan, in one of his charters, calls himself also 'Bryten-wealda calles theses ealondes' -ruler or monarch of all this island. Now, the true meaning of this word, which is compounded of wealda, a ruler, and the adjective bryten, is totally unconnected with Bret or Bretwealh, the name of the British aborigines, the resemblance to which is merely accidental; bryten is derived from breitan, to distribute, to divide, to break into small portions, to disperse; it is a common prefix to words denoting wide or general dispersion, and, when coupled with wealda, means no more than an extensive, powerful king-a king whose power is widely extended.”—Kem

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the island. Ethelbert's close connection with the more enlightened nations of the Continent, and his frequent intercourse with French, Roman, and Italian churchmen, who, ignorant as they were, were infinitely more civilized than the Saxons, proved highly beneficial to England; and in the code of laws which this prince published before his death, he is supposed to have been indebted to the suggestions and science of those foreigners, although the code has far more of the spirit of the old German lawgivers than of Justinian and the Roman jurisconsults. This code was not octroyed, as from an absolute sovereign (a quality to which none of the Saxon princes ever attained), but was enacted by Ethelbert with the consent of the states of his kingdom of Kent, and formed the first written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; the second being the code of the Burgundians, published a little later; and the third, that of the Longobardi or Lombards, which was promulgated in their dominions in the north of Italy, about half a century after Ethelbert's code. As King of Kent, Ethelbert's reign was a very long and happy one; as Bretwalda he exercised considerable authority or influence over all the Saxon princes south of the Humber. He died in 616, and was succeeded, as King of Kent, but not as Bretwalda, by his son Eadbald. The Anglo-Saxons at this period were very volatile and fickle in their faith, or very imperfectly converted to the Christian religion. Passionately enamoured of the youth and beauty of his step-mother, Ethelbert's widow, Eadbald took her to his bed; and as the Christians reprobated such incestuous marriages, he broke with them altogether, and returned to his priests of the old Teutonic idolatry. The whole Kentish people turned with him, forsook the missionaries and the churches, expelled the Christian bishop, and again set up the rude altars of the Scandinavian idols. Such a relapse as this was not uncommon among the recently converted heathen of other countries; but the sequel is curious, and makes our Saxon ancestors appear like a flock of sheep following the bell-wether. Laurentius, the successor of Augustine in the archbishopric of Canterbury, prevailed on Eadbald to put away his step-mother, and return to his fold; and no sooner had the king done so, than all his subjects returned with him, without murmur or disputation.

We have said that Eadbald did not succeed to the dignity of Bretwalda. It appears, however, he made a claim to it, and that the other princes refused their concurrence and obedience. The dignity of Bretwalda would seem, from this and other instances, not to have been obtained by regular and free election, but to have been conceded to him who showed himself ablest to maintain

his claim to it by the sword. The three first Bretwaldas, Ella, Ceawlin, and Ethelbert, were Saxons or Jutes; but now the dignity passed to the more powerful Angles, in the person of REDWALD, about the year 617. Redwald was King of East Anglia, and by profession a Christian, having been converted some years before by the Bretwalda Ethelbert. But his wife and people were attached to the old idolatry; and, yielding to their importunities, he re-opened the temples, taking care, however, to place a Christian altar by the side of the statue of Woden,' in doing which he no doubt hoped to conciliate both parties. During his reign the Scots, who had renewed hostilities in the north, were beaten by the now united and extended Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. At a later period Redwald himself was hostilely engaged with the Northumbrian king Edilfrid, who is said to have destroyed more Britons than all the other Saxon kings. armies of the Saxon kings met on the banks of the river Idel, in Nottinghamshire, where victory, after a sanguinary engagement, rested on the crest of the Bretwalda. Edilfrid was slain.

The

EDWIN, the fifth Bretwalda, succeeded (about 621) both to the dignity of Redwald and the kingdom of Edilfrid; and so successful was he in his wars and his politics, that he raised Northumbria to a superiority over all the Saxon kingdoms, thus transferring the ascendency from the south to the north of the island. After wavering some time between the old national faith of the Saxons and Christianity, Edwin was converted by the preaching of Paulinus, a Roman missionary, and the influence of his fair wife Edilberga, who was daughter of Ethelbert, the Bretwalda and King of Kent, and a Christian before she married Edwin. The happiest effects are asserted to have followed the conversion of the hitherto ferocious Northumbrians. Edwin added the Isles of Man and Anglesey to his Northumbrian dominions; and was so powerful, that all the Saxon kings acknowledged his authority, and paid him a kind of tribute. According to some accounts, he also maintained a supremacy over the Scots and Picts. In writing to him, in the year 625, the pope styles Edwin "Rex Anglorum"-King of the Angles, or English. In his person the dignity of Bretwalda had a significant and clear meaning; but he did not hold it very long. About the year 633, Penda, the Saxon Prince of Mercia, rebelled against his authority; and, forming an alliance with Ceadwalla, or Cadwallader, the King of North Wales, he fought a great battle at Hatfield, or Heathfield, near the river Trent, in which Edwin was defeated and slain (A.D. 634). The alliance of one party of the Saxons with the Welsh, to fight

1 Bedo.