ed to these dates; indeed, in
the latter case the story itself is open to suspicion on several grounds
(see WESSEX). For the movements which led to the foundation of the more
northern kingdoms we have no evidence worth consideration, nor do we know
even approximately when they took place. But the view that the invasion was
effected throughout by small bodies of adventurers acting independently of
one another, and that each of the various kingdoms owes its origin to a
separate enterprise, has little probability in its favour. Bede states that
the invaders belonged to three different nations, Kent and southern
Hampshire being occupied by Jutes (_q.v._), while Essex, Sussex and Wessex
were founded by the Saxons, and the remaining kingdoms by the Angli
(_q.v._). The peculiarities of social organization in Kent certainly tend
to show that this kingdom had a different origin from the rest; but the
evidence for the distinction between the Saxons and the Angli is of a much
less satisfactory character (see ANGLO-SAXONS). The royal family of Essex
may really have been of Saxon origin (see ESSEX), but on the other hand the
West Saxon royal family claimed to be of the same stock as that of
Bernicia, and their connexions in the past seem to have lain with the
Angli.

We need not doubt that the first invasion was followed by a long period of
warfare between the natives and the invaders, in which the latter gradually
strengthened their hold on the conquered territories. It is very probable
that by the end of the 5th century all the eastern part of Britain, at
least as far as the Humber, was in their hands. The first important check
was received at the siege of "Mons Badonicus" in the year 517 (_Ann.
Cambr._), or perhaps rather some fifteen or twenty years earlier. According
to Gildas this event was followed by a period of peace for at least
forty-four years. In the latter part of the 6th century, however, the
territories occupied by the invaders seem to have been greatly extended. In
the south the West Saxons are said to have conquered first Wiltshire and
then all the upper part of the Thames valley, together with the country
beyond as far as the Severn. The northern frontier also seems to have been
pushed considerably farther forward, perhaps into what is now Scotland, and
it is very probable that the basin of the Trent, together with the central
districts between the Trent and the Thames, was conquered about the same
time, though of