A Catechism of English History Author:Elizabeth Missing Sewell General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1872 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. The Saxon Period. (a. h. 410 -- 979.) How did it fare- with the Britons when the Romans had left them ? They were troubled by the incursions of their neighbours, the Picts and Scots, and finding themselves quite helpless without the Romans, they entreated them to return. When the Romans refused, the Britons sent to ask protection from the Angles and Saxons, some of whom had already served the Romans and Britons as paid soldiers. To what race did the Angles and Saxons belong ? To a Teutonic race, which had settled in the north-west of Germany, and had separated into different tribes, the chief of whom were the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. These three tribes are jointly called Saxons or Anglo-Saxons. At the entreaty of the Britons, a body of them landed in the south of the island, and assisted the inhabitants to repel the Picts and Scots. When this was done they took possession of the country for themselves. Even before this it is tolerably certain that some settlement had been made by them on the east coast of Britain. Who led the first body of Saxons into Britain ? The leaders of the Saxons are said to have been two brothers -- Hengist and Horsa, whom the Saxons believed to be descended from their god Odin. Horsa is stated to have been killed in battle, butHengist, we are told, became King of Kent. The history of this period is, however, doubtful. How was Britain divided under the rule of the Angles and Saxons ? Into seven, and sometimes eight, kingdoms, namely, Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria, which was divided into Deira and Bernicia....« less