Vortigern

“ Cities and manors; goods and treasure; they are thine as constable. Thy will is my pleasure. Do swiftly that which it is seemly should be done." Vortigern was very subtle. None knew better how to hide away his greed. After he had taken the strong towers, the treasure, and the riches to himself, he went again before the king. "Sire," said he, "if it seem good to the king, my counsel would be that he should send to the Picts of Scotland to seek of them horsemen and sergeants to have with him about his household. In that place where the battle is perilous we can call them to our aid. ”

“ Why do we not kill him, that Vortigern may enjoy his crown? Who is so fit to succeed as he? A man so generous to us is worthy to rule, and deserves all the honour and dignity that we can bestow upon him."
8 After this, breaking into Constans' bed-chamber, they fell upon him and killed him, and carried his head to Vortigern. ”

“ To himself he thinks: 'Imma and I are lost! I cannot get out without leaving the imprint of my steps in the snow'—"
"And what did he do?" asked Vortigern, more and more interested in the story that threw an undefined sense of uneasiness in his heart. "How did the two escape from their perilous plight, the poor lovers!"
"Imma, a robustious doxy, a girl both of head and resolution, descends by the window, bravely takes the archchaplain on her back, and, without tripping under the beloved burden, crosses a wide courtyard that separates her quarters from one of the corridors of the palace. ”

“ These things they represented to the king, and endeavoured to dissuade him from entertaining them, lest they might, by some treacherous conspiracy, prove an overmatch for the native inhabitants. But Vortigern, who loved them above all other nations on account of his wife, was deaf to their advice. For this reason the Britons quickly desert him, and unanimously set up Vortimer his son for their king; who at their instigation began to drive out the barbarians, and to make dreadful incursions upon them. ”

“ Vortigern is found in the country east of the river Usk and north of it along a line drawn from about the town of Monmouth to that of Llanidloes; [60] and Ambrosius, as we have already seen, in Glywysing, roughly equivalent to modern Glamorganshire. Things reached a long-remembered crisis when Vortigern in the fourth year of his reign, being the year marked by the consulship of Felix and Taurus, that is, A.D. 428, invited the Saxons [61] of the ' Saxon Shore ' to his assistance. ”

“ REIGN OF VORTIGERN.
At this time Vortigern was King of Britain; a man calculated neither for the field nor the council, but wholly given up to the lusts of the flesh, the slave of every vice: a character of insatiable avarice, ungovernable pride, and polluted by his lusts. To complete the picture, as we read in the History of the Britons, he had defiled his own daughter, who was lured to the participation of such a crime by the hope of sharing his kingdom, and she had borne him a son. ”

“ The Britons were sorely troubled at this matter, and prayed the king not to put such affiance in the outland folk, for they wrought much mischief. They complained that already were too many pagans in the land, working great shame and villainy to the people. "Separate thyself from amongst them," they said, "at whatever cost, and send all, or as many as may be, from the realm." Vortigern made answer that he might not do this thing. He had entreated the Saxons to the land, and they served him as true men. So when the barons hearkened to his words they went their way to Vortimer. ”

“ This catastrophe appears to have ended Vortigern’s sovereignty in the south, and he fled to his own Welsh realm. There is a wild legend that Germanus called down fire from heaven upon him, but Germanus had died in Gaul some years before. The motive of the legend is obvious: no fate was too terrible for the hated dynast who had betrayed Britain, and the temptation to bring in Germanus must have been irresistible. Vortigern’s genealogy appears to have been well known, and his descendants were ruling in south-east Wales ten generations later. ”

“ The king then flees with his wives to the west and there perishes miserably, consumed by fire from heaven.
The next to deal with the story of Vortigern was Geoffrey of Monmouth, who manipulates it with his customary skill. The British king is identified with the Gerontius who figures in the history of Britain about 409, and Bede's brief notice of this man is expanded into a narrative which tells how Vortigern, at first simple earl of Wessex (‘consul Gewisseorum’) , raises to the throne and then supplants Constans, once a monk and the son of Constantine of Brittany. ”

“ It seems clear, however, that Vortigern made use of them to protect his kingdom against the Picts and Scots, and rewarded them for their services with a grant of land. Later we find the Britons at war with the new-comers, now established in Kent, and four battles are fought, in the last of which, according to the Historia Brittonum, the king's son Vortemir, their leading opponent, is slain. The Historia Brittonum is our only authority for the marriage of Vortigern with the daughter of Hengest before the war. ”

“ Enter Catagrinus, Hengist, and Horsus, with Saxon troops, in grand procession.
Cata. Here halt we then, and let the trumpet sound. [Trumpet sounds. Officer appears on the walls.
Off. Say, be ye friends or foes?
Cata. My father sent us hence to Saxony;
Go, say our embassy is now fulfill’d. [Trumpet sounds.
Yet soft, that sound proclaims his quick approach.
Heng. Throughout the ranks let each man be prepar’d,
To hail our new ally, King Vortigern.
[Pg 31]
SCENE IV.—GATES OPEN.
Vortigern appears in robes of majesty, followed by the Barons and British troops.
Catagrinus kneels to Vortigern. ”

“ My hand alone shall draw him from the abbey, and set him before you as your king." But all the lords of the council kept silence, for a horrible thing it seemed in their eyes that a monk should wear the mantle of a king. Vortigern, purposing evil in his heart, took horse, and rode swiftly to Winchester. He sought Constant at the abbey, praying the prior of his courtesy that he might speak with him in the parlour. "Constant," said he, "thy father is dead, and men seek to bestow his throne upon thy brothers. Such honour is not seemly, for thine is the crown and seat. ”

“ The legend is thus told: when Vortigern found himself unable to contend with the treacherous Saxons, whom he had, in the year 449, invited into Britain, he determined, by the advice of his Magicians, on building an impregnable fortress in Snowdon. ”

“ Hengist, with a low bow, returned him thanks, and said, "The possessions which you have given me in land and houses are very large, but you have not yet done me that honour which becomes my station and birth, because, among other things, I should have had some home town or city granted me, that I might be entitled to greater esteem among the nobility of your kingdom. I ought to have been made a consul or prince, since my ancestors enjoyed both those dignities." "It is not in my power," replied Vortigern, "to do you so much honour, because you are strangers and pagans ”

“ The Picts, doubting nothing but that they would gain the victory as they had done before, carried themselves hardily, and struck fiercely with the sword. They fought thus stoutly, and endured so painfully, since they were shamed to do less than was their wont. But their evil custom was broken, for the Saxons gained possession of the field. Since by these Saxons, and their aid, Vortigern was delivered of this peril, he gave them their wages, and added thereto of his bounty. On Hengist he bestowed fair manors, and goods, and great riches, so that love lasted between them for a long space. ”

“ Vortigern received them as friends, and delivered up to them the island which is in their language called Thanet, and, by the Britons, Ruym. [33] Gratianus Aequantius at that time reigned in Rome. The Saxons were received by Vortigern four hundred and forty-seven years after the passion of Christ, and, [34] according to the tradition of our ancestors, from the period of their first arrival in Britain, to the first year of the reign of king Edmund, five hundred and forty-two years; and to that in which we now write, which is the fifth of his reign, five hundred and forty-seven years. ”

“ There is no evidence that Vortigern intended to give up this island, at that period, to the Saxons; the arrangement he made had nothing new in it. Centuries before, the Britons had crossed the sea, and fought in the wars of the Gauls; they had also aided the Romans: it was a common custom for one nation to hire the assistance of another; when the time of service was over, the soldiers either returned to their own country, or settled down amongst the native tribes, whom they had defended, as in Britain, many of the Romans and Gauls had done before-time. ”

“ Vortimer and Catigern, the two sons of Vortigern by a former marriage, now took the command of the Britons, with whom the Roman settlers in the island appear to have joined; all resolved to make head in one common cause, and to drive the Saxons out of Britain. Hengist and Horsa, to strengthen their force, formed a league with their old brothers in plunder, the Scots and Picts, and war once more broke out in the land, more terrible in its results than it had ever been in the struggles between the Britons and the Romans. ”

“ At length Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, valiantly fought against Hengist, Horsa, and his people; drove them to the isle of Thanet, and thrice enclosed them within it, and beset them on the Western side.
The Saxons now despatched deputies to Germany to solicit large reinforcements, and an additional number of ships: having obtained these, they fought against the kings and princes of Britain, and sometimes extended their boundaries by victory, and sometimes were conquered and driven back. ”

“ The latter is said to have called in the Saxons; and it is certain that (a.d. 449) he hailed the two brothers Hengist and Horsa, * who were cruising as Saxon pirates in the British Channel. These individuals being ready for any desperate job, accepted the invitation of Vortigern, to pass some time with him in the Isle of Thanet. They were received as guests by the people of Sandwich, who would as soon have thought of quarrelling with their bread and butter as with the friends of the gallant Vortigern. From this date commences the Saxon period of the history of Britain. ”

“ In the legend of Merlin and Vortigern we find the Dragon so completely developed into a merely warrior-like symbol that its moral character has to be determined by its colour. As in the two armies of serpents seen by Zoroaster, in Persian legends, which fought in the air, the victory of the white over the black foreshowing the triumph of Ormuzd over Ahriman, the tyranny of Vortigern is represented by a red dragon, while Aurelius and Uther are the two heads of a white dragon. ”

“ The Scots were firm, and fought us, man to man:
Four thousand souls have perish’d.
Heng. Good heav’ns! Enter another Officer.
What’s thy business?
2nd Off. Fourteen thousand troops have join’d our army,
And with them your fair daughter;—look, she comes! Enter Rowena.
Row. (Kneeling.) O! joy once more to see my father’s face.
Heng. Rise, rise, my child!
Row. First with my kisses let me dew this hand,
And round a father’s neck these arms entwine. Enter Soldier.
Sold. From London, Vortigern is on his march ”

“ On account of this armed expedition, the tribe of the Cambrians became so deficient in armed men, that the Irish Picts invaded them; and therefore Vortigern was forced to invite the Saxons to expel the invasion. And the Saxons, observing the weakness of the Cambrians, treacherously turned their arms against them, and by combining with the Irish Picts and other traitors, they took possession of the lands of the Cambrians, and also their privileges and their crown. ”

“ This statement is unworthy of notice in an historical point of view, being manifestly a corrupt account of the arrival of Hengist as related by Geoffrey of Monmouth. But the story of Vortigern is not improbable, and has at least furnished the origin of the words wæs hæl and drinc hæl, as used at convivial meetings in this country; for whatever may have been said or imagined concerning any previous custom of health-drinking among the Saxons or other German nations, it is certain that no equivalent term with our wassel is to be found in any of the Teutonic dialects. ”

“ The king with his company, appeared at the feast; and mixing with the Saxons, who, whilst they spoke peace with their tongues, cheerished treachery in their hearts, each man was placed next his enemy.
After they had eaten and drunk, and were much intoxicated, Hengist suddenly vociferated, "Nimed eure Saxes!" and instantly his adherents drew their knives, and rushing upon the Britons, each slew him that sat next to him, and there was slain three hundred of the nobles of Vortigern. ”

“ If the Welsh legends speak truly, the first settlement of the Saxons on British soil was caused by the unwisdom of the native kings. We are told that Vortigern, the monarch who ruled Kent and south-eastern Britain, was so harried by the Picts and Scots that he sent in despair to hire some German chiefs to fight his battles for him. The story may be true, for in the decaying days of the Roman empire the Pg 15 Cæsars themselves had often hired one barbarian to fight another, and the British king may well have followed their example. ”