for legislators or generals. Competitors for power arose, and divided the people into different parties. The Scots and the Picts took advantage of these civil dissensions, and the Britons were finally obliged to seek assistance from the Saxons, or submit to the power of a merciless foe. This invitation was accepted, which proved, in the end, the utter destruction of the nation.

Dover was, without doubt, a port in the time of the Romans, as appears by the Itinerary of Antoninus; and has continued so through the Saxon, Danish, and Norman ages, to the present time.

This was reckoned the place of the greatest importance, within the extensive jurisdiction of the Count of the Saxon Shores; thus denominated by the Romans, on account of the frequent descents and depredations of these northern pirates, who chiefly infested the coasts of Kent and Norfolk. The Saxons called the officer, or commander, Warden of the Cinque Ports; who was, upon any sudden invasion of the enemy, always ready to oppose them, with the united strength of these towns, and their dependants.

Dover was so eminent in the reign of Edward the Confessor, that, by Doomsday Book, it appears of ability to arm twenty vessels, and to maintain them at sea for fifteen days together in the king's service, each ship carrying twenty-one able men; and for this service, the king not only granted to the inhabitants a free toll, and many other privileges, but also pardoned them all manner of suits and service to any courts whatsoever.

The expense of such armaments being afterwards, however, found too burdensome for the Cinque Ports, several other towns in Kent, and the adjoining counties, were made members, and bore a part of the charge, which will be more fully noticed under its proper head.

Mr. Hasted gives the following account of a quarrel which happened in 1051, during the reign of Edward the Confessor, between Eustace, earl of Bolougne, and the inhabitants of this place.

"In the year 1051, an accident happened here, when least expected, which brought earl Godwyne, then governor of Dover Castle, to the brink of destruction, and gave king Edward an opportunity of discovering his enmity to him, which he had hitherto concealed, merely

through fear of his power. Eustace, earl of Bolougne, who had married Goda, the king's sister, being come to visit Edward, some of his attendants, who were sent before to provide lodgings in this place, insisted upon having them in a house contrary to the will of the owner; whereupon a quarrel arose, and a townsman was slain. This so exasperated the inhabitants, that they immediately fell upon the earl's retinue, killing several, and wounding many more; earl Eustace himself, who had entered the town in the midst of the tumult, with difficulty escaping their fury.* Godwyne, enraged at this affront, hastened with his complaint to the king, who commanded him to march with his power, and vindicate the injury done to the earl of Bolougne. But he excusing the fact, and adding, in a haughty tone, some severe reflections on the insults of foreigners, so highly provoked the king, that after his departure, he determined to punish him for his insolence."

*Hasted's History of Kent, page 51 of the General History. Mr. Harris relates this circumstance in a different manner: and says, that the quarrel arose from one of the messengers of earl Eustace being slain, by the townsman whom he would have forced to afford him lodgings. Harris' History of Kent, page 102.

"How privately soever this matter was transacted, the earl had notice of it, and immediately put himself in a condition to resist the king and his enemies. He raised forces out of Kent, Suthsex, and Wessex; and soon after sent a message to the king, requiring him to deliver up earl Eustace and his followers, that they might make satisfaction for the disturbance they had committed; threatening, in case of refusal, to declare open war against him. But the earl, discerning that the king's army was not inferior to his, submitted to end the quarrel by a treaty.”*

Shortly after the Conqueror had been seated on the English throne, a great part of the town, which had been improved by divers additional buildings, was destroyed by a dreadful fire.†

King Henry met the earl of Flanders at Dover, in the year 1101, to sign a treaty be

* The king caused a general assembly to be held at Gloucester, where the earl came with his sons, but so well attended, that he had nothing to fear. Edward, therefore, hiding his resentment, was forced to suffer him to depart. After this, the treaty was set on foot at London, which ended in the disgrace of Godwyne and his sons. Hume's England, vol. 1, page 165.

+ The whole town was destroyed except twenty-nine houses. Lambard's Perambulation.

tween them; and Richard the First, in 1189, embarked at this place, with one hundred ships, and eighty gallies, in his way to the Holy Land.

In the reign of Henry the Third, the inhabitants of Dover, and the Cinque Ports, joined the discontented Barons, and fitted out their fleet to guard the coast, to prevent the king's receiving foreign aid.

In the reign of Edward the First, while two cardinals were treating of a peace between England and France, who were then engaged in a war equally destructive to both kingdoms, the perfidious French landed in the night, and burnt, without destinction, most of the dwellings of the inhabitants, and several religious houses. After this disaster, the town and haven fell to decay; and though succeeding monarchs endeavoured to raise it from its calamitous ruins, it remained in a desolate condition; and, in after ages, the suppression of religious houses, with the loss of Calais, deprived the industrious inhabitants of all relief and commercial advantage.

King John visited Dover in the year 1213, and again in 1216, when Louis, the dauphin, landed at Stonar from France. The king's army, being most of them foreigners, refused