A HISTORY OF ESSEX Facing the mouth of the Colne and guarding the estuary of the Blackwater was the fortress of Othona or Ithanceaster, now located with general approval at Bradwell-on-Sea. So long as the Count of the Saxon shore had garrisons and ships at his disposal, this approach to the interior would not have been available ; and it was not till the central govern- ment had collapsed, that the Teutonic immigrants who were pouring inland all along the eastern coast from Kent to the Firth of Forth would be able to penetrate the swampy belt that formed the Essex shore, and, ascending the rivers, plant their settlements inland. Implicit confidence cannot be placed in the tradition professing to date the arrival of the East Saxons, and practically nothing is known of the course of affairs in this part of Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries. No territory, says Lappenberg, 1 ever passed so obscurely into the hands of an enemy as the north bank of the Thames where the kingdom of the East Saxons comprised the counties of Essex and Middlesex. The year 527* is mentioned, he continues, as that of the first landing of the Saxons there under ./Escwine, whose name reminds us of ./Esc, the prince of the Teutons on the south shore of the Thames. His father's name, OfFa, points however to a connection with the royal house of Mercia. Another account makes Sleda the first king of the East Saxons in 587,* and this is a much more likely date for the settlement of the people whose relics are described in the following pages, though it is just possible that there were Teutonic colonists on the coast before the departure of the Romans and that the Saxon shore was so called on this account. If they differed to any extent from the Romanized Briton, their remains have yet to be discovered. An interesting piece of evidence is however afforded by the coinage of the post-Roman period. It was not until about 600 that the English replaced their feeble copies of Roman and Merovingian coins by a creation of their own called the sceatta, and this denomination was current till the close of the eighth century, when the penny was intro- duced. Yet of all the sceattas those with the name Lundonia are alone in being of silver so base that it becomes a question whether they should not be described as copper coins. Gold pieces also occur, and it is significant that the two classes of Roman coins current in this country were of these two metals, whereas the preference for silver coins was in some sort a badge of the Teutonic nations.* It would seem therefore that London retained some degree of autonomy while the various Anglo- Saxon kingdoms were growing up in other parts of the country ; and it is fairly certain that the East Saxons were supplied with coined money from London till the days of ./Ethelred II., who set up local mints' at Maldon and Colchester. 1 History of England under 4ngh-Saxon Kings (Thorpe's translation), i. 112.
- Henry of Huntingdon. 3 William of Malmesbury.
4 Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Coins (British Museum), i. p. xx. 6 Others were established later at Horndon, Harwich (?) and Witham. 316
