The History of Leicester Author:James Thompson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1876 Original Publisher: F. Hewitt Subjects: Leicester, Eng Leicester (England) History / General History / Europe / Great Britain Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy... more » the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Honorius having withdrawn his troops from Britain in 411, it is on record that in the year 441, Britain, after many bloody encounters, was reduced under the rule of the Saxons. At this time, then, Ratas passes into another stage of its history -- gradually, no doubt, and by n0 means in that abrupt manner in which it might be supposed to do ; but the empire of Rome then ceased directly to influence it in respect to law, language, policy, religion, and all those matters that constitute the sum total of social and political government. It was left to encounter whatever fate might be in store for it, without help from any foreign quarter, and with a future uncertain and unpromising. THE SAXON AND DANISH PERIOD. A. d. 450 To 1066. Chapter II. On the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons from this island, immigrants of a totally different race and character began, by degrees, to settle on the eastern and in. its midland districts. A people who came from the banks of the Elbe, and the district known as Angeln or Anglia, and were thence called " Angles," after subjugating the natives, selected the midlands as their future home ; and they gave the name " Angle "-land or England to this country, and Mercia to the central province. For many generations they occupied the land in separate communities ; but after the lapse of about one hundred and forty years subsequent to the departure of the Romans, the Mercians acknowledged one chieftain named Crida. They had not as yet recognized any fo...« less