Ascension of Vortigern

 
Vortigern was chosen ‘chairman’ or ‘High Lord’ of the council [1] in London, probably in
425.
He must have been at that moment around 39 years old. He was of course a member of a
powerful family, probably the Vitales. The ancestry of his family is documented in the
Historia Britonum.
Around 407, he married Sevira, the second daughter of Maximus Magnus, who had been co-
emperor for 5 years. The date of the marriage is derived from the birth date of Sevira: about
20 years earlier. The fact that Maximus had two very young daughters before his death in
388, is attested. I assume that young Vortigern and Sevira had a similar age. This suggests
that he was born around 386. Most upper-class marriages at the time were arranged. It was
about politics and money. Love was not important. They married during the years of
Constantine III, co-emperor and alleged British usurper.
Vortigern remained the leader of the British senate for some 20 years (425 - about 445). He
would die in (modern) Wales around 447-452 (a few years after the great rebellion) at an age
of 61 to 68, probably in the neighbourhood of his birthplace.
The birth date and subsequent dates in Vortigern’s life are a reconstruction. They are partly
based upon the mention on the (click) Pillar of Eliseg, of his marriage with Sevira. There are
many reasons to believe that this message is genuine. The pillar was erected during the early
9th century. At that time a king was a king solely because of his male ancestors. Referring to
a female ancestor (Sevira) was pointless. There are no indications that Sevira ever had
become important. Maximus had daughters. Other sources attest this. However, their names
were nowhere mentioned but the one on the pillar. He also had a son, Flavius Victor.
Referring to him would have been more in line with the tradition that only male ancestors
were important. In reality Flavius Victor died too young, but the question is whether people
knew that in the 9th century. Strange enough, the pillar was meant to honor the Welsh
dynasty of Powys. As Vortigern was considered by Gildas and Bede to be a traitor to the
Welsh cause, his name upon a Welsh pillar is rather surprising. Hence my belief that the text
onto the pillar is authentic.

Another consequence is that the date 425 (Nennius’ Historia Britonum) for the ascension of
Vortigern is more likely than 446 (Bede’s date). Becoming chairman of the British senate at
an age of ±39 is very plausible. Bede’s date would have made him about 62 years old.
Although possible, it would have made him a very old man for the time. It’s much less in line
with all the tales we know about Vortigern such as the incest slur. The question also can be
raised whether the British senate would have chosen such an old man to lead Britain in those
difficult times.
The name Vitalinus (a detail reported by Nennius) is a strong indication that he was a
member of the proto-English upper-class in Britain. In Welsh, the name is written Guithelin
or similar, although the texts in Welsh appeared later. We can apply here the comparison with
the first name ‘William’. William is the modern version of Wilhelm. This name was
transformed in French into Guillaume. The conversion of ‘wi’ into ‘gui’ in the
(para-)Brythonic languages is something like a rule. Applying this rule backwards upon
Guithelin gives us Whittlin(g) in its original language. The colour refers to one’s hair. ‘–ling’
means ‘related to’ or ‘family’. One ancestor of this family must have had white hair, most
probably when he was young. Names like ‘De Witte’ or ‘Weissman’ are common in the
Dutch language group or in Germany.

Whittling is therefore far from an exceptional name, in all the German-like languages. This is
the clue that the family was of eastern-Briton origin. It is at the same time an indication that
at least a part of Britain spoke a German-like language. I reject the idea that the family issued
from German immigrants. The basis of the wealth of the family was like everywhere else in
the Empire agricultural, which was not easily acquired. In most cases, the owners of the land
were natives. A translation or adaptation in Latin (Vitalinus) often meant an embellishment of
the original name. White in Latin is alba. The name Whittling could have been translated into
Albanus or similar. The choice for Vitalinus is not the result of a poor knowledge of the Latin
language. Even in Latin, the family referred to its proto-English character. The reason can be
guessed: their whole lifestyle depended upon their name and prestige.
Like most of the important families at the time, the Vitalinus family must have possessed vast
agricultural estates all over Britain. Later events (it is known that Vortigern returned to
Wales after his demise) let us believe that the family had land in south-Wales or
neighbourhood, although the ancestral family propriety was probably situated somewhere in
Wessex, modern Oxfordshire or Berkshire. This region was probably Welsh territory during
the Bronze Age. Vortigern was probably born in this Greater-Wales or Proto-Wales region
[2]. It’s there that the young Vortigern grew up. As a member of a proto-English family he
must have spoken proto-English with his parents, and as a young boy he must have picked up
the proto-Welsh language from his local friends. At school he learned to read and write in
Latin.
The picture emerging from the sources is of an intelligent and well-educated man. He
probably made an exemplary carrier in the Brito-Roman administration and had been
appointed for that reason as the head of his family. This position enabled him to become
some sort of ‘chairman’ of the council, not the least because he was and remained a partisan
of a centralized government.
Vortigern adopted a Welsh honorific name. Gwr-teyrn: Gwr or Gor is Brythonic (Welsh) for
‘over’, ‘upper’ and teyrn means ‘leader’, ‘important man’, not ‘tyrant’! In those days ‘teyrn’
had no connotation about rank. Any leader was called ‘teyrn’, even the most low ranking
ones. The council had a small problem: all its members were ‘teyrns’. So, Vortigern was
called ‘upper-leader’, ‘chairman’, which is not the same as ‘high-king’ or ‘overlord’. A royal
or high ranking aristocratic ascent was not implied. This qualification became soon his name.
Gildas would later use the similarity between ‘teyrn’ and the Latin ‘tyrannus’ to mock the
man.

The classic tradition dictated that ‘Vortigern’ should have adopted a honorific Latin name, as
Maximus Clemens Magnus did.  His Welsh name must have referred to his Welsh
background. A classic Latin honorific name would have put him on the pro-Roman side. A
Welsh name can be considered as a gesture toward the moderate Welsh. Many moderate
Welsh lived in the Northwest of modern England (Liverpool-Manchester area). It was
important to keep them on the side of the majority, or they were necessary to obtain a
majority in the council. The name Vortigern was like himself: a compromise. It is possible
that ‘Vortigern’ Vitalinus was the first to have this honorific name and that he had successors
who adopted the same ‘title’.
Vortigern got the difficult task to appease trouble in the council. To summarize the problems:

( 1) the question whether Britain was still a part of the Roman Empire or not was not solved.
At that time, a majority of the council members still fancied the Empire, a growing minority
rejected it.
(2) The southwest lords (and Welsh?) wanted to get rid of the ‘Anglo-Saxon rule’ = the way
eastern lords ruled, consolidated and expanded their power by using Anglo-Saxon
guardsmen. Only a centrally led army was a legal army, so was argued. It was warned that
that ‘guard system’ would lead to a complete decentralization of Britain. However, most east-
British lords regarded their ‘Saxon’ solution as just temporary.
(3) The authority of the British senate had to be restored, but some eastern lords saw no
advantage there. So Vortigern faced opposition from west and east.
The ‘Anglo-Saxon rule’ or housecarl system proved to be too successful. So much so that
more and more ‘Anglo-Saxons’ were lured into Britain. None of this was officially organized
or even legal, which eventually led to some sort of degradation of the quality of those
soldiers. Too many young, untrained, inexperienced Germans presented themselves in eastern
Britain. The local authorities noticed the trend and urged ‘London’ to take measures.
Vortigern would become famous as the ruler who ‘invited’ the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ into Britain.
During the 5th century the Roman way of ruling and organizing became gradually
abandoned. In Britain is was all about ‘devolution’ and the Anglo-Saxon housecarls would
greatly contribute to that.
 
About ‘V’
The Roman Character ‘V’ could be pronounced as ‘w’, ‘oo’, ‘v’ or even aphonically. The
early and original pronunciation of the word ‘vinum’ was ‘winum’. In English it’s ‘wine’, in
Dutch ‘wijn’ and in German ‘wein’. The northern people of Europe kept the original
pronunciation. In the south, Latin and Brythonic speaking parts of the Empire, the ‘v’
pronunciation emerged gradually, and eventually replaced completely the ‘w’-sound.
Vitalinus has to be read like Witalin(us). Pronounce the ‘a’ aphonically, and you are pretty
close to the original name Whittling. Vita means ‘life’ in Latin and can be understood as
vital. The underlying message is: the family is alive (and kicking?) and vital for the country.
At the same time, it was not prepared to adopt a full Latin translation, like Albanus, for it is
proud of its eastern-British (people who spoke a different language than the West of Britain)
origin. It is likely that the Welsh preserved longer the original pronunciation’.
 
[2] Several places in modern Wales claim to be the place where Vortigern died. This is
probably also the place where he was born.
Name = Title ?
Compare with Caesar: all emperors after Caius Julius Caesar were called ‘Caesar’. Cardinal
Ratzinger adopted the name Benedictus when he became pope, suggesting a certain point of
view, a program. This papal tradition dates from the Roman Empire. The choice of the name
‘Vortigern’ suggests three things:
(1) He had the ambition to become the leader of all British lords. Devolution was to be
excluded.
(2) The use of the Welsh language instead of Latin suggests the intention to cut all links with
the Roman Empire. Britain would not meddle with Rome any more. This was also a message
to the Catholic Church. This detail is important as a heresy grew successful in Britain. It was
also a signal to the growing group of partisans of ‘independence’.
(3) The main opposition in the council was on the southwest (and Welsh) side. Vortigern
expressed the ambition to become lord of all Britons, especially the Welsh, using the
moderated against the extremists. Vortigern was not a king in the classic meaning of the
word. Royalty is inherited. Vortigern was clearly elected.

Vortigern acts
 
What Vortigern did was to rubber-stamp officially the hiring of Anglo-Saxons, as they
proved to be valid soldiers, but he added more organization and control. This was
the Adventus Saxonum and it happened with the approval of omnes consiliarii, all
consultants (=members of the council). The hiring of fully qualified warriors now became the
official aim. The German candidates had to be approved, selected, trained, and only then
appointed to their final destination. At the same time, a new, official message was sent to
North-Germany: Britain needed the best and only the best. As a counterpart, higher wages
were promised for whom would match the requirements. The coming of the Anglo-Saxons
became well organized. This proves that Britain was still capable of organizing things
centrally, on a national level. There is a possibility of an intention to form a new central army
with Anglo-Saxons, but commanded by the British senate, as some sort of counter weight for
the increasing power of some local lords [1].
In 428 a certain Hengest-the-Jute came with the 3 reported ‘keels’ of men, estimated at
some 75 warriors in total. He probably landed in London. People must have remembered that
Hengest was amidst the first to be welcomed officially. Hengest was at that moment an ex-
officer from the guard of the late Hnaef the Dane (see the Finnesburgh fragment - Beowulf).
He was probably in his early thirties. His former position made possible to appoint him as
one of the officers of the new selection and training committee. It is unlikely that Hengest
immediately obtained a top-ranking position. The isle (today: peninsula) of Thanet, today
Ramsgate - Margate on the east Kentish coast, became the official place of reception for the
new arrivals. It must have been the first place in Britain where Hengest was sent to.
The men on Thanet were probably paid by the lords who still had a shortage of Anglo-Saxon
warriors or housecarls. As soon as most had sufficient ‘stock’, the ‘Thanet system’ was
abandoned. At that moment, Hengest and his men probably joined the Kentish upper-class
leader(s).