The Saxons delighted in the perpetration of cruelties, and were themselves regardless of danger. They carried on their predatory warfare chiefly by sea; launching their vessels most cheerfully during the prevalence of the wildest storms, because they took it for granted that their intended victims would, at such moments, be least prepared to escape or to resist them. When the first of these bands arrived in England, they came under the guidance of two nobles, Hengist and Horsa, whom they had themselves elected as leaders in a piratical expedition; and whom they continued to obey, only because the war, in which they became engaged, lasted during the lifetime of those who began it.
Danes.
The religion of the Anglo-Saxons, as they imported it into Britain, was a wild and hideous polytheism, which demanded from its votaries, among other rites, the occasional offering up of human victims. Of some of their gods we retain a remembrance in the names which still attach to the days of the week. They worshipped the Sun, thence our Sunday; the Moon, thence our Monday; Tiw, thence Tuesday; Woden, thence Wednesday; Thurse, thence Thursday; Friga, thence Friday; and Saterne, whence Saturday.
About the year 800, the Danes, a nation of sea rovers and robbers, began to infest England. This country had been divided into seven kingdoms, called the Saxon Heptarchy; but these had been condensed into three, and at last the whole Saxon portion of the nation became subject to one king, for the first time. This king was Egbert. He died in 836, and the sceptre passing into feeble hands, the country was exposed to the incursions of the people whom we have mentioned above.
The Danes came from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and in many respects resembled the Saxons. They were pirates by profession, who took to themselves the appellation of Sea-kings; and Europe has never produced a race of men more stained with the crimes of treachery and cruelty. Not content, like the generality of savage warriors, to slay, without remorse, all by whom they were opposed in battle, the Sea-kings appeared to delight in the infliction of unnecessary torture; razing to the ground every town of which they obtained possession, and slaughtering men, women, and children indiscriminately upon its ruins.
Normans.
It would lead us beyond our present limits to detail all the struggles with these invaders of Britain. It is sufficient to say that they continued for many years, and spread desolation over the country. The wars occasioned by the Danes were replete with suffering, cruelty, and crime. They were finally checked, and many who had settled in the country were driven away; but others became mingled with the inhabitants, and made another ingredient in the compound of British blood and bone.
The last introduction of foreign people into Britain took place in 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy in France, came with an army, and triumphed over king Harold in the battle of Hastings, and established himself and his family on the throne. Many French people came over with William and settled in the country. The French language became the language of the court and the laws, and French customs were largely introduced among the people.