The Real War That Gave Rise to the Myth of King Arthur
In the early fifth century, the Roman Empire found itself under massive pressure from barbarian invaders on multiple fronts. So the Romans withdrew their forces from the far-off province of Britain, to use them in an attempt to hang on to territories they viewed as more vital. It is unclear if the Roman authorities at the time viewed the withdrawal from Britain as permanent, or just a temporary pullback, with plans to return once things settled down. As it turned out, the legions never returned, and Roman Britain was left on its own. The Romano-Briton were beset by their own invaders, most significantly the Picts in Scotland, and Saxons from across the North Sea. In what turned out to be a bad idea of epic proportions, the locals, perhaps reasoning that it takes a thief to catch a thief, decided to hire Saxon mercenaries and settle them in Britain, to defend them from other Saxons and similar barbarians.
The Saxons Expand
Once the Saxons settled in and got comfortable, they decided they wanted more. So they accused their hosts and employers of failing to meet their side of the deal, and charged them with shortchanging the Saxons on the supplies that they had been promised. The Romano-Britons sent their leaders to try and negotiate with the Saxons and reduce the tensions. Unfortunately for the locals, the Saxons’ idea of negotiation was to suddenly pull out their daggers during the sit-down, and massacre the native leaders. They spared just one of the locals, a leader named Vortigern, and kept him alive as a puppet ruler in exchange for his promise to grant the Saxons more land. The ensuing conflict, as the Saxons gobbled up more and more territory from the locals, gave rise to the tales of a mythical British leader, King Arthur, who valiantly fought against the invaders.