A Dispute Over Mercenaries’ Pay Led to the Conquest of Britain
Throughout much of the fourth century, Saxon raiders devastated the Roman province of Britain. Then, in one of history’s worst “it takes a thief to catch a thief” brainstorms, the Romano-Britons struck a deal to hire the Saxons as mercenaries, and settle them on British soil. In exchange, the Saxons promised to defend Britain from other barbarians. Once they settled in, the Saxons complained that their hosts had skimped on the monthly supplies promised them. A conference to resolve the dispute was arranged between native nobles led by a Vortigern, and the Saxons led by two chieftains named Hengist and Horsa. However, the Saxons’ idea of dispute resolution was to suddenly murder the Britons mid-conference.
In what came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives (the first recorded use of the term), the Briton leadership was slaughtered, and only Vortigern was spared. Declaring the deal void, the Saxons forced Vortigern to sign a new treaty that ceded them southeastern England. It was still not enough. The Saxons continued to attack the Britons, and launched a war of conquest to seize the entire province, displace the locals, and replace them with Germanic settlers. They were joined by Angles from today’s Schleswig-Holstein, between Germany and Denmark, plus Jutes from today’s Jutland in Denmark and Lower Saxony in Germany.
