Extent of the Eng CHAP. II. chieftain to defend him, that invitation was only the occasion, and not the cause, of the Conquest which now began. 449-597. We cannot seriously doubt that, in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries, a succession of tribes of kindred origin, all of them of the same Low-Dutch' stock, and speaking essentially the same Low-Dutch language, landed at various points of the British coast, gradually forced their way inland, and founded permanent Teutonic Kingdoms. Before lish domi- the end of the sixth century the Teutonic dominion stretched nion and of from the German Ocean to the Severn, and from the English Channel to the Firth of Forth. The northern part of the island was still held by Picts and Scots, tribes whose exact ethnical relation to each other hardly concerns us.3 And the whole west side of the island, including not only modern Wales, but the great Kingdom of Strathclyde, stretching from Dumbarton to Chester, and the great peninsula containing Cornwall, Devon, and part of Somerset, was still in the hands of independent Britons. The the inde pendent British states at the end of the sixth century. 1 I use, as a technical term, this correct and old-fashioned description of the class of languages to which our own belongs. The English language is simply Low-Dutch, with a very small Welsh, and a very large Romance, infusion into its vocabulary. The Low-Dutch of the continent, so closely cognate with our own tongue, is the natural speech of the whole region from Flanders to Holstein, and it has been carried by conquest over a large region, originally Slavonic, to the further east. But, hemmed in by Romance, High-Dutch, and Danish, it is giving way at all points, and it is only in Holland that it survives as a literary language. It should always be borne in mind that our affinity in blood and language is, in the first degree, with the Low-Dutch, in the second degree with the Danish. With the High-Dutch, the German of modern literature, we have no direct connexion at all. 2 The proper Scots, as no one denies, were a Gaelic colony from Ireland, the original Scotia. The only question is as to the Picts or Caledonians. Were they another Gaelic tribe, the vestige of a Gaelic occupation of the island earlier than the British occupation, or were they simply Britons who had never been brought under the Roman dominion? The geographical aspect of the case favours the former belief, but the weight of philological evidence seems to be on the side of the latter. But the question is one which, as far as purely English history is concerned, may safely be left undetermined. PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 15 struggle had been a long and severe one, and the natives CHAP. II. often retained possession of a defensible district long after the surrounding country had been occupied by the invaders. It is therefore quite possible that, even at the end of the sixth century, there may have been within the English frontier inaccessible points where detached bodies of Welshmen still retained a precarious independence. It is still more probable that, within the same frontier, there still were Roman towns, tributary to the conquerors rather than occupied by them.1 But by the end of the sixth century even these exceptions must have been few. The work of the Conquest, as a whole, was The Engaccomplished. The Teutonic settlers had occupied by far the greater part of the territory which they ever were, in the strictest sense, to occupy. The complete supre- plished by macy of the island was yet to be won; but that was to be won, when it was won, by quite another process. lish Con quest, as a whole, accom 597. difference lish Con other Teu The English Conquest of Britain differed, in several Points of important respects from every other settlement of a Teu- between the Engtonic people within the limits of the Roman Empire. Everywhere else the invaders gradually adopted the lan- quest and guage and the religion of the conquered. If the con- tonic conquerors were heathens at the time of their settlement, quests. they gradually adopted Christianity. If they had already adopted Christianity in its Arian form, they gradually exchanged their heretical creed for that of the Catholic Church. Everywhere but in Britain the invaders gradu- Gradual ally learned to speak some form, however corrupt, of the tion of the language of Rome. The Teutonic conquerors of Italy, conquerors Spain, and Gaul have indeed infused into the Romance in religion, language, Romaniza elsewhere 1 It seems quite certain that the English seldom, if ever, at once &c. occupied a Roman or British town. The towns were commonly forsaken for a while, though they were in many cases resettled by an English population. The only question is whether the towns, in any cases, preserved a sort of half independence after the conquest of the surrounding country. CHAP. II. languages of these countries a large proportion of words of Teutonic origin. Still the language of all those countries remains essentially Latin; the Teutonic element in them is a mere infusion. Everywhere but in Britain the invaders respected the laws and arts of Rome. The Roman Law was preserved, side by side with the Barbaric codes, as the rightful heritage of the conquered people; and, in the process of ages, the Roman Law gradually recovered its position as the dominant code of a large portion of continental Europe. Everywhere but in Britain the local divisions and local nomenclature survived the Conquest. Nearly every Gaulish tribe recorded by Cæsar has left its name still to be traced on the modern map. In Britain everything is different. The conquerRetention ing English entered Britain as heathens, and, after their by the English of their settlement in Britain, they still retained the heathen worship of their fathers. They were at last converted to and hea- Christianity, but it was not by the Christians whom they found in the island, but by a special mission from the common ecclesiastical centre. Our Bishopricks and ecclesiastical divisions are not, as in Gaul, an heritage of Roman times, representing Roman political divisions. Our episcopal sees are foundations of later date than the English Conquest, and the limits of their dioceses answer, not to anything Welsh or Roman, but to the boundaries of History of ancient English principalities. And, as the English in the Eng Britain retained their religion, so they also retained their language, and retained it far more permanently. A few Celtic, and a still fewer Latin,2 words found their way Teutonic language then worship. lish lan guagea LowDutch tongue with a Romance infusion. 1 In Northern Gaul the name of the tribe is commonly preserved in the modern name of its chief town, the original name of the town itself being dropped. Thus Lutetia Parisiorum has become Paris. But in Aquitaine and Provence, the cities commonly retain their original names, as Bourdeaux and Toulouse. 2 Words like street and chester; this class is excessively small. See Max Müller, Science of Language, Second Series, p. 269. TEUTONIC CHARACTER OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 17 into English from the first days of the Conquest, and CHAP. II. a somewhat larger stock of Latin ecclesiastical terms1 was naturally brought in by the Christian missionaries. But, with these two very small classes of exceptions, the English language retained its purely Low-Dutch character down to that great infusion of Romance words into our vocabulary which was a result, though not an immediate result, of the Norman Conquest. And, to this day, though the Romance infusion divides the vocabulary of our dictionaries with our natural Teutonic speech, it still remains only an infusion, an infusion greater in degree, but essentially the same in kind, as the Teutonic infusion into the Romance languages. As it is impossible to put together the shortest French sentence without the use of Romance words, so it is impossible to put together the shortest English sentence without the use of Teutonic words. But it is possible to compose sentence after sentence of French without a single Teutonic word, and it is equally possible to compose sentence after sentence of English without a single Romance word. In Britain too the arts of Rome perished as utterly as the language and the religion of Rome; arts, language, and religion were all brought back again at a later period and in a corrupted form. The laws of Rome perished utterly; they exer- Slight and cised no influence upon our insular jurisprudence, until, ence of the in times after the Norman Conquest, the Civil Law was Roman introduced as something utterly exotic. And even then England. our insular jurisprudence was too strong for it; the Imperial legislation never gained that supremacy which it gained in most parts of the Continent, and even in the Scottish portion of our island. In England again the local Local nonomenclature is throughout essentially Teutonic. A few of England great cities and a few great natural objects, London on the essentially Thames and Gloucester on the Severn, still retain names Words like Mass, Priest, Bishop, Angel, Candle. C late influ Law in menclature Teutonic. CHAP. II. languages of these countries a large proportion of words of Teutonic origin. Still the language of all those countries remains essentially Latin; the Teutonic element in them is a mere infusion. Everywhere but in Britain the invaders respected the laws and arts of Rome. The Roman Law was preserved, side by side with the Barbaric codes, as the rightful heritage of the conquered people; and, in the process of ages, the Roman Law gradually recovered its position as the dominant code of a large portion of continental Europe. Everywhere but in Britain the local divisions and local nomenclature survived the Conquest. Nearly every Gaulish tribe recorded by Cæsar has left its name still to be traced on the modern map. In Britain everything is different. The conquerRetention ing English entered Britain as heathens, and, after their by the English of their settlement in Britain, they still retained the heathen worTeutonic ship of their fathers. They were at last converted to language and hea then wor ship. Christianity, but it was not by the Christians whom they found in the island, but by a special mission from the common ecclesiastical centre. Our Bishopricks and ecclesiastical divisions are not, as in Gaul, an heritage of Roman times, representing Roman political divisions. Our episcopal sees are foundations of later date than the English Conquest, and the limits of their dioceses answer, not to anything Welsh or Roman, but to the boundaries of History of ancient English principalities. And, as the English in the Eng lish lan guagea Low Dutch tongue with a Romance infusion. Britain retained their religion, so they also retained their language, and retained it far more permanently. A few Celtic, and a still fewer Latin,2 words found their way 1 In Northern Gaul the name of the tribe is commonly preserved in the modern name of its chief town, the original name of the town itself being dropped. Thus Lutetia Parisiorum has become Paris. But in Aquitaine and Provence, the cities commonly retain their original names, as Bourdeaux and Toulouse. 2 Words like street and chester; this class is excessively small. See Max Müller, Science of Language, Second Series, p. 269. |