Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/12

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1. The Coming of the English.—We have seen that the Britons were much troubled, after the Romans left, by the Picts and Scots, tribes who spoke much the same language as the Britons themselves. Besides these enemies they had others of a different race, who came from the shores of the North Sea, especially from the low-lying lands about the mouths of the Elbe and Weser. These were the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, who before the Romans left Britain had often landed on the coast, and plundered the people, carrying off men, women, and children, and such booty as they could get. They were a fierce, strong, freedom-loving people, with blue eyes and long fair hair, and spoke a language we call Teutonic, somewhat like the Dutch language of to-day. In their own land they lived in tribes, with chiefs at the head who led in times of war, and helped to govern in times of peace. As their own country could not well support them, they took to the sea, and became skilled and hardy sailors. In their little vessels they crossed the North Sea, and plundered the coasts of Britain, Gaul, and Ireland. The poor Britons were so distressed by attacks from their various enemies that they called in two chiefs of the Jutes to help them against the Picts and Scots, hoping in this way to make one enemy fight the other. But Hengist and Horsa, after landing on the Isle of Thanet, A.D., 449, and defeating the Picts and Scots, began to slay and drive away the Britons and to take their lands for themselves.

The Jutes were soon followed by the Saxons, and last of all came the Angles, who gave the name of England to the southern part of the Island. But whether Jutes, Angles, or Saxons, they treated the Britons much in the same fashion. Unlike the Romans, who spared the conquered, they either killed the Britons or drove them westward into what is now Wales, Devon, and Cornwall. It took many years for these German tribes to get possession of Southern Britain, for the Britons at times fought desperately for their homes; but their resistance was of no avail. The Britons were either killed or driven out, and the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons