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Article ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY ILLUSTRATED BY TOPOG... ← Page 2 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anglo-Saxon History Illustrated By Topog...
of the betrothal of Rowena to Vortigern , stands as a single example of the sacrifice of an English maiden of kingly race for a great political purpose . Previous to the conversions , of which Ethelbert set the example , these intermarriages were , from religious influences , difficult . The religion of Weden was at that time tolerant , and not propagandist ; and an Englishman would , on such grounds of opinion , have refused a Christian woman for a wife , or refused his daughter to a Christian . Thus Ethelbert married Bertha , " and as his conversion was brought about so were most of the conversions of the English kings brought about , by Christian queens . There was , however , the strong feeling of the pride of race / which made Englishmen unwilling that the chosen people of the Almighty , to whom empire and mastery were given , should , by intermarriage with heathens , be "brought to the
vileness of heathens . A Germanic Christian , from France or Friezland , or England , was wedded because she was of pure blood ; but a heathen Christian woman of Wales brought with her impurity , and the offspring of such connections , whether under a form of marriage
or concubin age , were , in the eye of th e community , as much slaves by birth and slave stained , as a free mulatto is at this day , in the convictions of the English , in the southern States , or the West Indies . The heathen Christians of Wales were as much despised as the heathen idolaters of Slavonia , and no child of such races could take
his father ' s kingship , lot in the land of the township , mark , or gan , or other birthright , but any kinsman would bring against him the blot of heathen blood , make him unlaw-worthy , and thereby consign him to the state of a thrall . Were his mother a princess , she and her offspring were only looked upon as slaves ; and for a slave to claim the rights of kingship was a deed which any freeman might praiseworthily punish by shedding the blood of the offending miscreant at
the first opportunity . In the case of the higher political rights , the son of a heathen mother had to contend not merely with the pride of the clans of which the English communities were made up , but more particularly was he obnoxious to the more imperious pretensions of the sons of
Weden . Uniting in themselves the divine claims of descendants of the gods of Walhall and the political pretensions of kingly descent , they gradually erected themselves into a sacred race endowed with the sole prerogative of kingshi p * As tlwjir claim , as against their own countrymen , rested on the purity of their descent from the gods , so to allow of the contaminations of their blood was to expose
the prerogatives of their race and caste to peril . The prejudices of the English and their kindred against the heathens were deep rooted ^ and an atheling would vainly have arrogated to himself the birthright of a son of Weden if he could be pointed at as having a Slavonian , Welsh , or Greek mother . Many of the higher clans and leaders , not of the house of Weden , shared in its blood through the intermarriages of their fathers , and while they gave way to the assumptions of the caste
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anglo-Saxon History Illustrated By Topog...
of the betrothal of Rowena to Vortigern , stands as a single example of the sacrifice of an English maiden of kingly race for a great political purpose . Previous to the conversions , of which Ethelbert set the example , these intermarriages were , from religious influences , difficult . The religion of Weden was at that time tolerant , and not propagandist ; and an Englishman would , on such grounds of opinion , have refused a Christian woman for a wife , or refused his daughter to a Christian . Thus Ethelbert married Bertha , " and as his conversion was brought about so were most of the conversions of the English kings brought about , by Christian queens . There was , however , the strong feeling of the pride of race / which made Englishmen unwilling that the chosen people of the Almighty , to whom empire and mastery were given , should , by intermarriage with heathens , be "brought to the
vileness of heathens . A Germanic Christian , from France or Friezland , or England , was wedded because she was of pure blood ; but a heathen Christian woman of Wales brought with her impurity , and the offspring of such connections , whether under a form of marriage
or concubin age , were , in the eye of th e community , as much slaves by birth and slave stained , as a free mulatto is at this day , in the convictions of the English , in the southern States , or the West Indies . The heathen Christians of Wales were as much despised as the heathen idolaters of Slavonia , and no child of such races could take
his father ' s kingship , lot in the land of the township , mark , or gan , or other birthright , but any kinsman would bring against him the blot of heathen blood , make him unlaw-worthy , and thereby consign him to the state of a thrall . Were his mother a princess , she and her offspring were only looked upon as slaves ; and for a slave to claim the rights of kingship was a deed which any freeman might praiseworthily punish by shedding the blood of the offending miscreant at
the first opportunity . In the case of the higher political rights , the son of a heathen mother had to contend not merely with the pride of the clans of which the English communities were made up , but more particularly was he obnoxious to the more imperious pretensions of the sons of
Weden . Uniting in themselves the divine claims of descendants of the gods of Walhall and the political pretensions of kingly descent , they gradually erected themselves into a sacred race endowed with the sole prerogative of kingshi p * As tlwjir claim , as against their own countrymen , rested on the purity of their descent from the gods , so to allow of the contaminations of their blood was to expose
the prerogatives of their race and caste to peril . The prejudices of the English and their kindred against the heathens were deep rooted ^ and an atheling would vainly have arrogated to himself the birthright of a son of Weden if he could be pointed at as having a Slavonian , Welsh , or Greek mother . Many of the higher clans and leaders , not of the house of Weden , shared in its blood through the intermarriages of their fathers , and while they gave way to the assumptions of the caste