Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/69

 apparently in Hampshire, and, though at first he was not successful, obtaied at length the assistance of Æsc and Ella, and defeated the Britons. Like the other invading chiefs, he received reinforcements in course of time from the continent, and then, extending his operations, founded the kingdom of the West Saxons, and conquered the Isle of Wight as the result of a great victory at Whitgaresburh, now perhaps Carisbrooke. From this distinguished rover, all the sovereigns of England, except Canute, Hardicanute, Harold the Dane, Harold II., and William the Conqueror, can undoubtedly trace their descent; and Cerdic himself is fabled to have been ninth in direct line from the god Wodan.

Thus the invasion of the Saxons, including the Angles and the Jutes, continued, by wave upon wave of healthy barbarians from Germany, until nearly all what is now England, and Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde, was covered by Saxon states. These fought among one another for the leadership. The tide of success ebbed and flowed, now one way and now another, until at length the only two important competitors for supremacy were the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.

For some time it seemed as if the struggle would terminate in favour of Mercia, especially during the reign of its great king Offa (757 to 796). Up to his day the Saxon princes in England, not being much troubled by foes from oversea, and having plenty of enemies inland, had paid little attention to the maintenance of that sea power whereby they had gained their new empire. But Offa looked without as well as within, and created a considerable navy, which found its justification in 787, when, for the first time, the Danes made an incursion with three ships "from Hæretha land, and plundered part of Northumbria, and in 794, when a monastery at the mouth of the Don was sacked. The Vikings did not fare well on either occasion. On the former, they were easily driven off with loss; on the latter, some of their vessels were wrecked. If Offa's successors had been as prudent as he was, and if internal dissensions had not opened the door to the enemy, these first efforts of the Danes might, perhaps, have been also their last for a long series of years. Unfortunately, the various Saxon kingdoms were still fighting among themselves, and, as for the Britons, they were glad to welcome the co-operation of any one,