History’s Costliest Pay Dispute?
With the dispute over pay and unfulfilled conditions as an excuse, the Saxons launched a massive onslaught. It lasted for decades, until the Britons won a crucial victory at the Battle of Mons Badonicus, sometime around 500. That temporarily stopped the invaders, who by then had overrun roughly half of Romano-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. Although King Arthur is a mythological figure, archaeology supports a Saxon setback around 500.
The pattern of steady Saxon settlement expansion westward and replacement of Britons suddenly reversed. Briton settlements began to expand eastwards, as they displaced the Saxons and reclaimed previously lost lands. That supports accounts of a major Briton victory sometime around 500. The Britons’ reprieve proved only temporary, however. The Anglo-Saxons recovered, resumed their expansion at the expense of the Britons, and eventually conquered and settled nearly all of what is now England. The indigenous Britons lost their most productive lands, and their last independent remnants were pushed into the peripheral regions of Cornwall and Wales.
