Editing Vortigern (section)

===Gildas===
The 6th-century cleric and historian [[Gildas]] wrote ''[[De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae]]'' ({{langx|en|On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain}}) in the first decades of the 6th century. In Chapter 23, he tells how "all the councillors, together with ''that proud usurper''" [''omnes consiliarii una cum superbo tyranno''] made the mistake of inviting "the fierce and impious [[Saxons]]" to [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|settle in Britain]].<ref>Gildas, ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', chapter XXIII, text and translation of the quoted passage in {{cite web |url=http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artsou/gildvort.htm |title=Gildas and Vortigern |first= Robert |last=Vermaat |work=Vortigern Studies |access-date=2010-01-28 |publisher=Vortigernstudies.org.uk}}</ref> According to Gildas, apparently, a small group came at first and was settled "on the eastern side of the island, by the invitation of the unlucky [''infaustus''] usurper". This small group invited more of their countrymen to join them, and the colony grew. Eventually the Saxons demanded that "their monthly allotments" be increased and, when their demands were eventually refused, broke their treaty and plundered the lands of the [[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]].

It is not clear whether Gildas used the name Vortigern. Most editions published currently omit the name. Two manuscripts name him: ''MS. A'' (Avranches [[Manuscript|MS]] 162, 12th century), refers to ''Uortigerno''; and ''Mommsen's MS. X'' (Cambridge University Library MS. Ff. I.27) (13th century) calls him ''Gurthigerno''.<ref name=snyder>{{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Christopher A. |author-link=Christopher Snyder (historian)|year=1998 |title=An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons A.D. 400–600 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |publication-date=1998 |location=University Park |page=305 |isbn=0-271-01780-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFxFkwmnRJMC&q=Gurthigerno&pg=PA305 }}</ref> Gildas never addresses Vortigern as the king of Britain. He is termed a [[usurper]] (''tyrannus''), but not solely responsible for inviting the Saxons. To the contrary, he is portrayed as being aided by or aiding a "Council", which may be a government based on the representatives of all the "cities" (''civitates'') or a part thereof. Gildas also does not consider Vortigern as bad; he simply qualifies him as "unlucky" (''infaustus'') and lacking judgement, which is understandable, as these mercenaries proved to be faithless.

Gildas adds several small details that suggest either he or his source received at least part of the story from the [[Anglo-Saxons]]. The first is when he describes the size of the initial party of Saxons, stating that they came in three {{lang|ang|cyulis}} (or "keels"), "as they call ships of war". This may be the earliest recovered word of English. The second detail is his repetition that the visiting Saxons were "told by a certain soothsayer among them, that they should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years, should plunder and despoil the same."<ref name=snyder/> Both of these details are unlikely to have been invented by a Roman or [[Celtic Britons|Brittonic]] source.

Modern scholars have debated the various details of Gildas' story. One topic of discussion has been about the words Gildas uses to describe the Saxons' subsidies (''annonas'', ''epimenia'') and whether they are legal terms used in a treaty of ''[[foederati]]'', a late [[Roman Empire|Roman]] political practice of settling allied barbarian peoples within the boundaries of the empire to furnish troops to aid the defence of the empire. Gildas describes how their raids took them "sea to sea, heaped up by the eastern band of impious men; and as it devastated all the neighbouring cities and lands, did not cease after it had been kindled, until it burnt nearly the whole surface of the island, and licked the western ocean with its red and savage tongue" (chapter 24).