reminds as of the appeal made by Æschinês, in the contention
between the Athenians and Philip of Macedôn, respecting Ampbipolis, to the primitive dotal rights of Akamas son of Thêseus
—and also of the defence urged by the Athenians to sustain their
Conquest of Sigeium, against the reclamations of the Mityleneans,
Therein the former alleged that they had as much right to the
place as any of the other Greeks who had formed part of the
notorious armament of Agamemnôn.[1]
The tenacity with which this early series of British kings was defended, is no less remarkable than the facility with which it was admitted. The chroniclers at the beginning of the seventeenth century warmly protested against the intrusive scepticism which would cashier so many venerable sovereigns and efface so many noble deeds. They appealed to the patriotic feelings of their hearers, represented the enormity of thus setting up a presumptuous criticism against the belief of ages, and insisted on the danger of the precedent as regarded history generally.[2] How this controversy stood, at the time and in the view of the illus-
- ↑ See above, ch. xv. p. 458; also Æschinês, De Falsâ. Legatione, c. 14; Herodot. v. 94. The Herakleids pretended a right to the territory in Sicily near Mount Eryx, in consequence of the victory gained by their progenitor Hêraklês over Eryx, the eponymous hero of the place. (Herodot v. 43.)
- ↑ The remarks in Speed's Chronicle (book v. c. 3. sect 11-12), and the preface to Howes's Continuation of Stow's Chronicle, published in 1631, are curious as illustrating this earnest feeling. The Chancellor Fortescue, in impressing upon his royal pupil, the son of Henry VI., the limited character of English monarchy, deduces it from Brute the Trojan : " Concerning the different powers which kings claim over their subjects, I am firmly of opinion that it arises solely from the different nature of their original institution. So the kingdom of England had its original from Brute and the Trojans, who attended him from Italy and Greece, and became a mixed kind of government, compounded of the regal and the political." (Hallam, Hist Mid. Ages, ch. viii. P. (illegible text), page 230.)
their origin from Francus son of Hector; that the Spaniards were descend-ed from Japhet, the Britons from Brutus, and the Scotch from Fergus." (Ibid. p. 140.)
According to the Prologue of the prose Edda, Odin was the supreme king of Troy in Asia, "in eâ terrâ quam nos Turciam appellamus Hinc omnes Borealis plagæ magnates vel primorcs genealogias suas referunt, atque principes illius urbis inter numina locant : sed in primis ipsum Priamum pro Odeno ponunt," etc. They also identified Tros with Thor. (See Lexicon Mythologicum ad calcem Eddae Saemund, p. 552. vol. iii.)
