was a man, who urging his success not less by artifice than courage, and giving free scope to his natural ferocity, preferred effecting his purpose rather by cruelty than by kindness. He left a son named Eisc;[1] who, more intent on defending, than enlarging, his dominions, never exceeded the paternal bounds. At the expiration of twenty-four years, he had for his successors, his son Otha, and Otha's son, Ermenric, who, in their manners, resembled him, rather than their grandfather and great grandfather. To the times of both, the Chronicles assign fifty-three years; but whether they reigned singly, or together, does not appear.
After them Ethelbert, the son of Ermenic, reigned fifty-three years according to the Chronicle; but fifty-six according to Bede. The reader must determine how this difference is to be accounted for; as I think it sufficient to have apprized him of it, I shall let the matter rest.[2] In the infancy of his reign, he was such an object of contempt to the neighbouring kings, that, defeated in two battles, he could scarcely defend his frontier; afterwards, however, when to his riper years he had added a more perfect knowledge of war, he quickly, by successive victories, subjugated every kingdom of the Angles, with the exception of the Northumbrians. And, in order to obtain foreign connections, he entered into affinity with the king of France, by marrying his daughter Bertha. And now by this connection with the Franks, the nation, hitherto savage and wedded to its own customs, began daily to divest itself of its rustic propensities and incline to gentler manners. To this was added the very exemplary life of bishop Luidhard, who had come over with the queen, by which, though silently, he allured the king to the knowledge of Christ our Lord. Hence it arose, that his mind, already softened, easily yielded to the preaching of the blessed Augustine; and he was the first of all his race who renounced the errors of paganism, that he might obscure, by the glory of his faith,
- ↑ According to Sprott, Hengist died in 488, and was succeeded by his son Octa, vel Osca. Osca died a.d. 408, and Esc, his son, ascended the throne. In the year 522 Ermenric, the father of king Ethelbert, reigned. Ethelbert became king of Kent in 558.
- ↑ The difference seems to have arisen from carelessness in the scribe; as the Saxon Chronicle states him to have ascended the throne a.d. 560, and to have died 616: which is exactly fifty-six years, although it asserts him to have reigned only 53.
