III.  COMING OF THE SAXONS.—­Compelled by the increasing dangers and troubles immediately around the city of Rome to abandon their distant dependencies, the Roman legions evacuated Britain, and left the people, who had become enervated, spiritless, and unaccustomed to the use of arms, a prey to their fierce neighbors, both from Scotland and from the continent.

The Saxons had already made frequent incursions into Britain, while rival Roman chieftains were contesting for pre-eminence, and, as early as the third century, had become so troublesome that the Roman emperors were obliged to appoint a general to defend the eastern coast, known as comes litoris Saxonici, or count of the Saxon shore.[1]

These Saxons, who had already tested the goodliness of the land, came when the Romans departed, under the specious guise of protectors of the Britons against the inroads of the Picts and Scots; but in reality to possess themselves of the country.  This was a true conquest of race—­Teutons overrunning Celts.  They came first in reconnoitring bands; then in large numbers, not simply to garrison, as the Romans had done, but to occupy permanently.  From the less attractive seats of Friesland and the basin of the Weser, they came to establish themselves in a charming country, already reclaimed from barbarism, to enslave or destroy the inhabitants, and to introduce their language, religion, and social institutions.  They came as a confederated people of German race—­Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and Frisians;[2] but, as far as the results of their conquest are concerned, there was entire unity among them.

The Celts, for a brief period protected by them from their fierce northern neighbors, were soon enslaved and oppressed:  those who resisted were driven slowly to the Welsh mountains, or into Cornwall, or across the Channel into French Brittany.  Great numbers were destroyed.  They left few traces of their institutions and their language.  Thus the Saxon was established in its strength, and has since remained the strongest element of English ethnography.

IV.  DANISH INVASIONS.—­But Saxon Britain was also to suffer from continental incursions.  The Scandinavians—­inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark—­impelled by the same spirit of piratical adventure which had actuated the Saxons, began to leave their homes for foreign conquest.  “Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their ships, and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement."[3] To England they came as Danes; to France, as Northmen or Normans.  They took advantage of the Saxon wars with the British, of Saxon national feuds, and of that enervation which luxurious living had induced in the Saxon kings of the octarchy, and succeeded in occupying a large portion of the north and east of England; and they have exerted in language, in physical type, and in manners a far greater influence than