Let us apply these observations to the early events of Saxon history: of Kent indeed we have the vague and uncertain notices which I have mentioned: even more vague and uncertain are those of Sussex and Wessex. Of the former, we learn that in the year 477, Ælli, with three sons, Cymen, Wlencing and Cissa, landed in Sussex; that in the year 485 they defeated the Welsh, and that in 491 they destroyed the population of Anderida[50]. Not another word is there about Sussex, before the arrival of Augustine, except a late assertion of the military preeminence of Ælli among the Saxon chieftains. The events of Wessex are somewhat better detailed; we learn that in 495 two nobles, Cerdic and Cyneríc, came to England, and landed at Cerdices ora, where on the same day they fought a battle: that in 501 they were followed by a noble named Port, who with his two sons Bieda and Mægla made a forcible landing at Portsmouth: and that in 508 they gained a great battle over a British king, whom they slew together with five thousand of his people. In 514 Stuff and Wihtgár, their nephews, brought them a reinforcement of three ships; in 519 they again defeated the Britons, and established the kingdom of Wessex. In 527 a new victory is recorded: in 530, the Isle of Wight was subdued and given to Wihtgár; and in 534, Cerdic died, and was succeeded by Cyneríc, who reigned twenty-six years[51]. In 544 Wihtgár died. A victory of Cyneríc in 552 and 556, and Ceawlin’s accession to the throne of Wessex are next recorded. Wars of the Westsaxon kings are noted in 568, 571, 577, 584. From 590 to 595 a king of that race named Ceól is mentioned: in 591 we learn the expulsion of Ceawlin from power: in 593 the deaths of Ceawlin, Cwichelm and Crida are mentioned, and in 597, the year of Augustine’s arrival, we learn that Ceólwulf ascended the throne of Wessex. Footnote 49: The Homeric poems and those of the Edda are obvious examples: but nothing can be more instructive than the _history_ which Livy and Saxo Grammaticus have woven out of similar materials. Footnote 50: Sax. Chron. under the respective dates. Footnote 51: Cerdic and Cyneríc landed in 495, after forty years Cerdic dies, and Cyneríc reigns twenty-six more! Meagre as these details are, they far exceed what is related of Northumberland, Essex or Eastanglia. In 547 we are told that Ida began to reign in the first of these kingdoms; and that he was succeeded in 560 by Ælli: that after a reign of _thirty_ years[52], he died in 588 and was succeeded by Æðelríc, who again in 593 was succeeded by Æðelfrið. This is all we learn of Northumbria; of Mercia, Essex, Eastanglia, and the innumerable kingdoms that must have been comprised under these general appellations, we hear not a single word. ----- Footnote 52: