If Vortigern is accepted to have lived in the fifth century, then these people are the British whom the Saxons failed to subdue and who became the Welsh.

According to a well-known legend, Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, landed in 449 as mercenaries for a British king, Vortigern.

According to these sources Hengist and Horsa arrived in Britain as mercenaries serving Vortigern, King of the Britons.

In the Historia Brittonum Hengist had an unnamed daughter ( her name is first given in Historia Regum Britanniae as Rowena ) who seduced Vortigern, eventually leading to the Night of the Long Knives when Hengist's men massacred the Britons at a peace accord.

Later in the same work, Bede notes that Hengist was the father of Oeric, and that Oeric accompanied Hengist upon his invitation by Vortigern.

In the entry for the year 455 the Chronicle details that Hengist and Horsa fought with Vortigern at Aylesford and that Horsa died there.

The Historia Brittonum records that, during the reign of Vortigern in Britain, three vessels that had been exiled from Germania arrived in Britain, commanded by Hengist and Horsa.

" In 447 AD, Vortigern received Hengist and Horsa " as friends " and gave to the brothers the Isle of Thanet.

Vortigern allowed Hengist to send for more of Hengist's countrymen to come over to Britain and fight for Vortigern.

Hengist prepared a feast, inviting Vortigern, Vortigern's officers, and Ceretic, his translator.

" At the instigation of the Devil ", Vortigern fell in love with Hengist's daughter and promised Hengist whatever he liked in exchange for her betrothal.

Hengist told Vortigern that he would now be both Vortigern's father and adviser and that Vortigern would know no defeat with his counsel, " for the people of my country are strong, warlike, and robust.

" Hengist convened his forces and sent to Vortigern an offer of peace.

Hengist — here Geoffrey notes whose " years and wisdom entitled him to precedence "— responds for the company, stating that they have come from their homeland of Saxony, and that they had come to offer their services to Vortigern or some other prince.

Vortigern asks Hengist and Horsa if they will help him in his wars, and offers them land and " other possessions.

" Hengist and Horsa accept Vortigern's offer, settle on an agreement, and stay with Vortigern at his court.

In chapter 11, since Vortigern now owes his victory to Hengist and Horsa, he increases the rewards he has promised to two.

Vortigern gives Hengist " large possessions of lands in Lindesia for the subsistence of himself and his fellow-soldiers.

" Geoffrey refers to Hengist as a " man of experience and subtilty ," and records that Hengist told Vortigern that Vortigern's enemies assail him from every quarter, and that few of Vortigern's subjects love him.

Hengist continues that Vortigern's subjects threaten Vortigern and say that they will bring over Aurelius Ambrosius from Armorica to depose Vortigern and make Aurelius king.

The first recorded instance of a toast being offered occurred in A. D. 450 at a great feast given by the British King Vortigern to his Saxon allies.

Hengist asks Vortigen to allow him to send word to Saxony to bring over more soldiers so that the Saxon forces will be better able to oppose the call to depose Vortigern.

According to early historians such as the Venerable Bede and Gildas, whose writings were later brought together in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 449 Angles, Saxons and Jutes were invited to Britain by King Vortigern as mercenaries to help defend Britain against Picts and Scots.

Subsequently, a British leader named Vortigern is supposed to have invited continental mercenaries to help fight the Picts who were attacking from the north.

According to Nennius, Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower.

The story as reported in such sources as the Historia Brittonum and Gildas indicates that the British king Vortigern allowed the Germanic warlords, later named as Hengist and Horsa by Bede, to settle their people on the Isle of Thanet in exchange for their service as mercenaries.

Rosemary Sutcliff makes him the half-British half-Saxon offspring of Hengest's daughter and the British king Vortigern in her Arthurian saga, an ally of Arthur's treacherous son and the unifier of the Saxons.

Another significant detail which Bede added to Gildas ' account is to call Vortigern the king of the British people.

* Stories that explain why Vortigern granted land in Britain to the Saxons — first Thanet, in exchange for service as foederati troops ; then the rest of Kent, in exchange for the hand of Hengest's daughter ; then Essex and Sussex, after a banquet where the Saxons treacherously slew all of the leaders of the British, but saved Vortigern to extract this ransom.

Vortigern is said to have been the leader of the British in only the first battle, the opponents in the next three battles variously called " British " and " Welsh "— which is not unusual for this part of the Chronicle.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful Historia Regum Britanniae, the British king Vortigern married Rowena, the daughter of Hengist, with the civitas of the Cantiaci ( Kent ) as the bride-gift.

The British government under Vortigern unravelled, and civil war spread across the country.

The possibly contemporary British ruler described as a " proud tyrant " by Gildas, and identified with the ' Vortigern ' of Welsh tradition, is said to have made use of Saxon mercenaries.

For the years 449-455, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written c. 890, describes how King Vortigern ( a British tribal king ) invited the Angles to come and receive land in return for helping him defend against marauding Picts.

Two explanations for these actions have been suggested: either Cunedda was acting under the orders of Maximus ( or Maximus's successors ) or Vortigern, the high king of the British in the immediate post-Roman era.

Bede indicates that he was the son of Hengest, and came to Britain with him, with the permission of the British king Vortigern.

Vortigern, the British ruler alleged to have invited the Saxons to Britain is sometimes said to have owned land in nearby Builth Road on the Radnorshire side of the River Wye ; the site previously having been known as Cwrt Llechrhyd.

In the 5th century, British warlord Vortigern and his two sons, Vortimer and Catigern, took part in the Battle of Elstree, then called the Battle of Ailestreu, where the Saxon Horsa was killed.

Vortimer () is a figure in British tradition, a son of the 5th-century Britonnic ruler Vortigern.

The Chronicle does not name Vortimer, and in fact credit Vortigern as the British leader in one of the battles.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the years 449-454 records the arrival of large numbers of Angles and Jutes under Hengest and Horsa, defeating the British king, Vortigern, in 455.

Eventually the British king Vortigern invited Anglo-Saxon mercenaries to defend the borders, which backfired and led to the Anglo-Saxon invasion.