HAP.

X. from the Conquest, to the Death o/'^Mary I. 39

" Raging Waves, and more hideous" Rocks.

F. Daniel, in his History of theFrench Mihtia, fays, they not only wereperfect Navigators, but fought at Seawith so much Cunning, as well as Va-lour, that it was very dangerous to haveany Thing to do with them.

Si r Walter R aleigb seems not to havehad so great an Opinion of the SaxonNavigation. The Saxons, says he,when they were drawn in by the Britons ,came hither by Sea : And, after thatTime, finding, that without Shippingthey could neither defend themselvesnor exercise any Trade, they began tomake lo me Provision for a Navy, Inchas it was. Which being first consideredof by Egbert, Alfred, Edgar, andEthelred, they augmented it.

Oc t h a and Ebiffa, two Leaders of theSaxons, invited hither by Vortigern, atthe Persuasion of Hengijl, who broughtover a great Number of armed Vesselswith them, extended their Dominion,on the Northern Coast of this I stand:And Allor, or Ælla, with his SonsCifa and Cimerius, on the Southern, whowith a powerful Navy, soon becameMasters of the Seas to the Southward ofScotland. The former had, among o-ther Ships, forty arm’d Vessels, calledCiula (or Keels) with which failing a-bout that Kingdom, they invaded aridspoiled the Orcades, and took Possessionof many Istes beyond the Mare Fref-cum, or Frith of Edinburgh.

Thus the Saxons established theirDominion over the Britijh Seas, bythe Power of their Fleets; at the sameTime as their Armies extended theirConquests over the Britons by Land.But minding their Sovereignty at Landmore than at Sea, their Naval Strengthfell, by Degrees, to Decay ; This, how-ever, cannot have been very soon, be-cause we find that Of a, King of theMercians , (and one of the chief of theHeptarchy ) disputed the Freedom ofNavigation with Charles King of France,afterwards stiled Charlemain.

The famous Egbert I. who reducedthe Saxon Heptarchy to a Monarchy, andWas the first King of all England , got,in th^ Year 840. a potent Navy toge-ther, to support his Right: And not on-ly recovered the former Reputation ofthe Saxons by Sea, but raised it to agreater Height, than it had ever beenbefore: But it soon fell to Decay a-gain.

Numb. III.

The Danes and Normans observingthis Decay, it was aTemptation to themto infest this Island, and commit fre-quent Robberies in the Britifi Seas, ina fort of Long Boats, or Gallies, oftheir own Inventions, with which theyused to be too hard for the Anglo Saxons,

'till Aljred, the Son of Ethelred I. caus-ed a great Number of other Ships to bebuilt, longer, deeper and nimbler thanthose of the Danes, with forty and moreOars; By which Means he gained manyVictories, drove those Invaders out ofth eEnglif Seas, restored the Defence ofthem, and recovered the absolute Do-minion over them, which was trans-mitted to the succeeding Kings.

Athelstan, in particular, was avictorious Prince, and Master of a pow-erful Navy, with which he defeatedan Iris Fleet of Six Hundred Sail,headed by their King Analavus, whomhe obliged to quit the Briti/h Seas.

Edgar, equipp’d a very numerousFleet,(some fay of thirteenHundredSail,and others make Thousands of them,)which he divided into several Squa-drons, (sometimes three and sometimesfour) and sent them out to guard theSeas, and to secure the Coasts, each inthe respective Stations assigned them.

This Monarch, likewise, assumed, withthe Title of King of England, that ofall the Kings of the Islands, and of theOcean lying about Britain, as appearsby an old Record of his in which areth AeWoxE:AltitonantisDei JargifuaCle- ExChartamentia,qui efRex Regum, Ego, Edgarus, Fundam. Ec-Anglorum Basileus, omniumque Regum f */Wigorn.Infularum, Oceanique Rritanniani cir-cumjacentis, cundfarumque Nation um quainfra earn includuntur, Imperator & Do-minus, Scc. That is, " By the abun-" dant Goodness of Almighty Gon,

" who is the King of Kings, I, Edgar,

" King of England, and of all the" Kings of the Islands, and of the O-" cean lying round about Britain, andCs of all the Nations that are includedwithin the Circuit thereof, Suprearn" Lord and Governour, Ac. (

Edgar was so jealous of this Right,that he used to fail every Year, inSpring, round his Dominions, in Tokenof his absolute Sovereignty over theSea; which he always maintained verycarefully against Incroachers. For thisCircumnavigation he made Use of hisseveral Fleets, in their respective Sta-tions : Each Fleet, if we may credit

D some