CHAP. II.
On the immediate consequences of the abdication of the country by the Romans, and the probable fate of Lynn.
Section I.
Character of the Anglo-Saxons, with general observations on the invasion and conquest of this country by them, and their barbarous treatment of the inhabitants.
The Saxons, who soon succeeded the Romans in the possession of this country, were never very remarkable for forming and encouraging projects of improvement, or for cultivating the arts of peace. They were, indeed a very different sort of people from the others, and possessed all their bad qualities without any of their good ones. They had long been distinguished as a fierce and lawless race, a nation of pirates, and freebooters, like the modern Algierines, whose chief delight consisted in predatory expeditions, and all manner of acts of violence and brutality, which passed with them for national virtue, patriotism, and military glory.
Long before they had effected any settlement in Britain, they used to make frequent descents upon the coast, particularly that of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. To guard against which, the Romans not only kept a fleet cruising in these seas, but also built a chain of forts in the most convenient places, which they had well garrisoned. These forts were nine in number, and extended from Brancaster to Yarmouth, and thence down a considerable way along the coast; and (as was before observed) the troops here stationed, a good part of which consisted of cavalry, were under the command of an officer called, The Count of the Saxon shore. This provision, or precaution, however, proved, too often, but a very imperfect security against the sudden inroads of those ancient and daring marauders. [229]
Of all the nations of the north, the Saxons appear to have been the most barbarous and most sanguinary. The Francs, who conquered Gaul, were a civilised people compared with them. Of the use of letters they were totally ignorant. All knowledge that had not some affinity with piracy, or tendency to improve their system of rapine and devastation, was by them held in the utmost contempt and abhorrence. Gildas, who was born but a few years after their arrival in this country, describes them as a most fierce and detestable people, “a nation odious both to God and man.” [231] They were invited here to assist the inhabitants in opposing the incursions of the Picts and Scots; but they soon turned their arms against their infatuated employers, and converted the war into a system of extermination.
Their countrymen on the continent long retained the original character of their nation. During many ages they continued preeminent for their bloodthirsty disposition and savage manners. Charlemagne subdued them, after a thirty years war, and forced them to become converts to his Christianity, and submit to baptism; but their ferocity he did not subdue, nor had their conversion any effect towards humanizing them. They were, however, called Christians: which was like calling evil, good, or Satan, an angel of light. These Saxon Christians, in the twelfth century, quarrelled with the Venedi, a neighbouring nation, because they objected against embracing their Christianity, and refused to renounce their own paganism, which they seemed to prefer, for its cheapness. The former they found to be an institution attended with an expence which they could but ill support. Bishoprics were to be erected, with large revenues, Monasteries to be endowed, and an annual tribute, under the name of tithes, to be paid by the whole country. Against this the Venedi remonstrated, to Bernard Duke of Saxony, the christian champion. They protested that they were very poor, and unable to bear any heavy burden, such as providing for the maintenance of priests, and especially for the dignity and parade of mitred prelates; that they were fully determined to suffer any extremity, even to abandon their country and state, rather than submit to so tyrannical an oppression. This firm opposition of theirs to the will of the christian potentate, or rather the Saxon tyrant, involved them in a long and bloody war, the final issue of which was, their utter extirpation, by Henry Duke of Saxony, surnamed the Lion, the great champion of the church on that occasion. The cruelty with which he disgraced his victory, was horrible. Few revolutions in history were attended with such circumstances of barbarity, or proved so destructive to the ancient inhabitants. [232] Even Charlemagne, after he had subdued the Saxons, by a long and bloody war, did not attempt to destroy their whole race, but only transplanted a part, and the remainder he endeavoured to reconcile to his empire by the establishment of his Christianity. But the Saxons, by far more cruel than the Francs, were of all conquerors the most destructive, extending the utmost rigour of the sword against those who dared to contend with them for liberty or empire.
“In the same ferocious manner, (says the historian) their ancestors some centuries before had behaved in Britain, where they either massacred or expelled the greatest part of the natives, who had invited them over to their assistance. None of the other nations that overran the Roman Empire behaved with such cruelty to the conquered inhabitants, or were inflamed with such rancour and animosity, as to attempt to convert those provinces into deserts. The Goths, the Burgandians, the Lombards, instead of massacring the Romans in cold blood, and endeavouring to extirpate their whole race, enacted very just laws in favour of those people, in consequence of which the Romans and those fierce barbarous, their conquerors, were considered in the same light as fellow citizens. Theodorick king of Italy, a Gothic prince, upon sending an army into Gaul, makes use of these words to his general, which deserve to be inscribed on pillars of brass, “Let other kings delight in the plunder and devastation of the towns they have subdued; we are desirous to conquer in such a manner, that our new subjects shall lament their having fallen too late under our government.” [233]
How much happier had it been for the Britons to have been invaded by Theodorick than by the Saxons!