"The happy ages of history are never the productive ones." -- Hegel

THE COMING OF THE SAXONS, OR ENGLISH
449(?) A.D.

THE BATTLES OF THE TRIBES--BRITAIN BECOMES ENGLAND

36. The Britons beg for Help; Coming of the Jutes, 449 (?).

The Britons were in perilous condition after the Romans had left the
island (S33). They had lost their old spirit (SS2, 18).[2] They were
no longer brave in war or faithful in peace. The Picts and Scots[3]
attacked them on the northwest, and the Saxon pirates (S29) assailed
them on the southeast. These terrible foes cut down the Britons, says
an old writer, as "reapers cut down grain ready for the harvest."

[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified
List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be
found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others
are in parentheses.
[2] Gildas, in Bohn's "Six Old English Chronicles"; but compare
Professor C. Oman's "England before the Norman Conquest," pp. 175-176.
[3] The Picts and Scots were ancient savage tribes of Scotland.

At length the chief men wrote to the Roman consul, begging him to help
them. They entitled their piteous and pusillanimous appeal, "The
Groans of the Britons." They said, "The savages drive us to the sea,
the sea casts us back upon the savages; between them we are either
slaughtered or drowned." But the consul was busy fighting enemies at