However, they spared Vortigern, who ransomed himself by giving the Saxons Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, and other unnamed districts.

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

Vortigern marries Rowena that night, is very pleased with her, but brings upon himself the hatred of his nobles and three sons.

The ambassadors inform Vortigern that Hengist does not intend to stay with Vortigern nor does Hengist intend to attack his countrymen, but rather he has brought his men because he thought Vortimer was yet living, so that he could defend himself.

Yet now that he, Hengist, no longer doubts the death of Vortimer, Hengist submits himself and his people to the will of Vortigern, so that he will accept whomever Vortigern likes among his men, and send the rest back to Germania.

However, this proved no hindrance to his coronation, for Vortigern himself performed the ceremony instead of a bishop.

The only escapees from this slaughter were said to be Vortigern himself.

The treacherous Vortigern took the throne for himself.

Vortigern had only one performance at the Drury Lane Theatre before Ireland admitted he had forged the documents and written the plays himself.

Merlin himself kills Vortigern with the aid of the magical sword Excalibur, given to him as a gift by the Lady of the Lake.

So Vortigern himself with the elders by birth of his people the matter and carefully thought over what they might do.

Chapters 43 – 45 indicate that Vortigern's son Vortimer, not Vortigern himself, rose against the Saxons and engaged them in four battles.

But there are smaller snippets of tradition preserved in the Historia Brittonum: in Chapter 31, we are told that Vortigern ruled in fear of Ambrosius ; later, in Chapter 66, various events are dated from a Battle of Guoloph ( often identified with Wallop, ESE of Amesbury near Salisbury ), which is said to have been between Ambrosius and Vitolinus ; lastly, in Chapter 48, it is said that Pascent, the son of Vortigern, was granted rule over the regions of Buellt and Gwrtheyrnion by Ambrosius.

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

Hengist's daughter was given to Vortigern, who slept with her and deeply loved her.

At the time, Vortigern was in what is now Canterbury, and upon being informed of " the arrival of some tall strangers in large ships ," he ordered that they be received with peace and led to him.

" " Hengist and Horsus " appear as antagonists in William Henry Ireland's play Vortigern and Rowena, which was touted as a newly-discovered work by William Shakespeare in 1796, but was soon revealed as a hoax.

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

Vortigern (; ; ; ; ), also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons.

" Nennius " was the first to blacken the name of Vortigern.

Writing shortly before Geoffrey of Monmouth, William added much to the damnatio memoriae of Vortigern: " At this time Vortigern was King of Britain ; a man calculated neither for the field nor the council, but wholly given up to the lusts of the flesh, the slave of every vice: a character of insatiable avarice, ungovernable pride, and polluted by his lusts.

Geoffrey states that Vortigern was the successor to Constans, the son of the usurping emperor Constantine III.

Like the Historia Brittonum, Geoffrey adds that Vortigern was succeeded briefly by his son Vortimer, only to take the throne again when Vortimer is killed.

One of Vortigern's most notorious literary appearances is in the play Vortigern and Rowena, which was promoted as a lost work of William Shakespeare when it first emerged in 1796.

In some versions of the legend, Vortigern was Constantine's seneschal.

This continued for many weeks until Vortigern was advised to seek the help of a young boy born of a virgin mother.

Vortigern, following the advice of his councillors, was planning to kill the boy in order to appease supernatural powers that prevented him from building a fortress here.

It has long been known that there is a pool inside of the fort, but when the archaeologist Dr H. N. Savory excavated the hill fort between 1954-6, he was surprised to find that not only were the fortifications of about the right time frame for either Vortigern or Ambrosius, but that there was a platform above the pool as described in the Historia Britonum.

Vortigern, King of the Britons, was under attack from other tribes and called for assistance.

Gwrangon was king of Ceint in the time of Vortigern according to Nennius.

At the end of the story in Chapters 40 – 42, Vortigern hands over to Ambrosius " the fortress, with all of the kingdoms of the western part of Britain.

This interpretation is supported by the negative character of all of the stories retold about Vortigern in the Historia Brittonum, which include his alleged practice of incest.

Vortigern, Hengist's daughter, Vortigern's other wives, and all other inhabitants burned to death.

After the brothers are brought before him, Vortigern looks over their company and observes that the brothers " excelled all the rest both in nobility and in gracefulness of person.

* 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.

Although there are more persons named Vortigern ( nine persons in Ireland named Vortigern, Fortchern or Foirtchern are known ), all but one are commoners.

The weak and unpopular former monk became a puppet, putting all but the title of his office into the hands of Vortigern.

The settlers, however, manipulate Vortigern into allowing them to increase their numbers and granting them more land, eventually including all of Kent.

Hengistus, as he had said, spoke out, and all the three hundred elders of King Vortigern were slaughtered, and only he was imprisoned, and was chained, and he gave to them many regions for the ransom of his soul ( i. e. life ), that is Est Saxum, Sut saxum Middelseaxan, with other districts under his control which they named.

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.

Vortigern finds such a youth in Ambrosius, who rebukes the wise men and reveals that the cause of the disturbance is two serpents buried under the ground.