6. Roman Britons Discovered the Serious Downside of Using Mercenaries
Saxon raiders devastated Roman Britain during the fourth century. Reasoning that “it takes a thief to catch a thief”, the Romano-Britons hired Saxons as mercenaries, and settled them on British soil. In exchange, the Saxons promised to defend Britain from other barbarians. However, after settling in, the Saxons complained that the Romano-Britons had skimped on the supplies they had been promised. A meeting to resolve the dispute was arranged between native nobles led by a Vortigern, and the Saxons led by two chieftains named Hengist and Horsa. Unfortunately for the locals, the Saxons’ idea of resolving the dispute was to suddenly murder the Britons during the conference, sparing only Vortigern. Declaring the treaty void because the locals had failed to live up to its terms, the Saxons launched a massive onslaught against Britain, and forced Vortigern to sign a treaty that ceded them southeastern England.
That only whetted the Saxons’ appetite, so they launched a war of conquest to seize the entire province, displace the locals, and replace them with Germanic settlers. They were joined by Jutes, from today’s Jutland in Denmark and Lower Saxony in Germany, plus Angles, from today’s Schleswig-Holstein, between Germany and Denmark. The onslaught lasted for about 30 years, until curbed by a British victory at the Battle of Mons Badonicus, circa 500. That temporarily stopped the invaders, who by then had overrun about half of what had been Roman Britain. It was this period of warfare that gave rise to the stories of King Arthur, the heroic monarch who led the Britons against the Saxons. In the end, however, the Britons lost their most productive lands, and their last independent remnants were pushed into the peripheral regions of Cornwall and Wales.