During the Saxon heptarchy, London was the metropolis of the kingdom of the East Saxons, and was then, as we are told by Bede, a princely mart-town, governed by a magistrate called a Portreve, that is, a governor or guardian of a port. We find this city then first called London-Byrig, which they soon after changed into Lunden-Ceaster, Lunden-Wye, Lundenne, Lunden-Berk, or Lunden-Burgh. At length Augustine the Monk, having introduced christianity into England, in the year 400, he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, when he ordained Mellitus bishop of the East Saxons, who had a church erected for him in this city by Ethelbert, King of Kent. Thus London first became the seat of a bishop; but this prelate was afterwards expelled, and paganism again for some time publicly established. The history of the heptarchy is so very defective, that no mention is made of this city from the year 616, to that of 764. After this last period we find that London frequently suffered by fires, and was twice plundered by the Danes; the last time they transported an army in 350 ships up the Thames, and landing near London, soon reduced and plundered it; when looking upon it as a convenient fortress, whence they might at pleasure invade the kingdom of Wessex, made it a place of arms, and left in it a considerable garrison; but the wise and brave Alfred recovered the city, drove out the invaders, and then not only repaired the wall and towers, but embellished the city with additional buildings. But we have no account of the nature of the buildings or the edifices erected, only that in the year 961, there were but few houses within the city walls, and those irregularly dispersed; most of them being without Ludgate, so that Canterbury, York, and other places, contained more houses than London. The city having no bridge, the citizens cross’d the Thames by means of ferries.