King Vortigern Hiring Mercenaries
King Vortigern was a ruler sometime during the 5th century according to the ancient histories. At the time the Picts were the greatest threats to the future and stability of Britain. King Vortigern was desperate to protect his land from its enemies. So he came up with the plan to hire the Saxons to come to Britain in order to fight as mercenaries against the Picts. Jutish brothers Hengist and Horsa arrived in Kent with three of their ships in order live there and fight under King Vortigern. The Saxons had an ulterior motive however and that was to eventually take the island for themselves.
At first the Saxons just asked King Vortigern for more supplies and food, always increasing their demands on the pretense of feeding their armies. They told the king that all of their demands needed to be met in order to the troops to be able to fight against the Picts. King Vortigern was happy to comply with the demands because the Saxons were successful at driving out the Picts. But this was only a temporary situation because King Vortigern never planned for if and when the mercenaries turned against him. His own forces were not enough to combat the Saxons that he had brought in.
Disputes between King Vortigern and the Saxons over payment arose after the successful ousting of the Picts. The negotiations failed to reach an agreement. Some accounts report that King Vortigern went as far as to marry Hengist’s daughter in order to broker an agreement between the two groups. But the Saxons mutinied and easily overthrew the kingdom. By around 457 the Britons were completely overwhelmed by the Saxon army and forced to flee Kent. For this reason, the Britons always remembered Vortigern as a treacherous king with some going as far as to slander his name by suggesting he engaged in an incestuous relationship with his daughter.