— that, at least, is a reasonable conclusion, though perhaps not a certain one to draw from the remarks that are made in it about the race and succession of the Kings of Kent. For we read in both the MSS. cited just now —
- 'In illo tempore Saxones invalescebant in magna multitudine et crescebant in Brittannia. mortuo Hengisto Ochta [Odhta, 31; Ottha, N] filius ejus advenit de sinistrali parte Brittanniae ad regnum Cantuariorum et de ipso omnes reges Cantuariorum [cantpariorum, M] usque in hodiernum diem [orti sunt; MSS. C, D, G, H, K, L, P, Q, which omit usque in h. d.].'
This Statement could no longer have been made with truth after A. D. 686 because in that year Mul, the brother of Caedwalla of Wessex, conquered Edric the King of Kent and usurped the government of his kingdom, which was under West Saxon rule for about seven years from that time. The Venerable Bede in his 'Historia Ecclesiastica', IV. xxiv. (p. 268), relates how, after the death of King Edric, 'regnum illud [sc. Cantuariorum] aliquod temporis spatium reges dubii vel externi disperdiderunt'; and Thomas of Elmham, who was treasurer of St. Augustine's at Canterbury in 1407, tells us in his history of that monastery that — 'iste vero Mulo in catalogo regum Cantiae annotari non debet, quamvis aliqui unum sibi in regimine annum ascribunt; sed potius illi sex anni quibus provincia Cantiae invasionibus hostium per Ceadwallam a regum successione cessavit, Withredo regi regnum jure haereditario recuperante notentur. Acta enim sunt haec circa annum Domiui DCLXXXVI' (ed. Chas. Hardwick, 1858, 'R. B. SS.' no. 8, pp. 237, 252). The Saxon Chronicle relates the terms of the peace that was made between Kent and Wessex in A. D. 694, and it is quite clear that the memory of the West Saxon Invasion was not allowed to die out in Kent; hence we may accept the temporal limitation unintentionally conveyed to us by the phrase usque in hodiernum diem.
Owing to the position of the 'Arthuriana' in the Vatican and Paris MSS. the words in illo tempore with which the passage quoted above commences refer naturally enough to the times immediately succeeding Vortigern. The statement usque in hodiernum diem is found only in these two MSS., as I said
