page_title: Vortigern
section_title: Geoffrey of Monmouth
hierarchical_section_title: Vortigern / Medieval accounts / Geoffrey of Monmouth
caption_attribution_description: English: Meeting of Vortigern and Rowena painted by William Hamilton
context_page_description: Vortigern, also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, known perhaps as a king of the Britons or at least connoted as such in the writings of Bede. His existence is nonetheless contested by scholars and information about him is obscure.
  He may have been the "superbus tyrannus" said to have invited Hengist and Horsa to aid him in fighting the Picts and the Scots. However, they revolted, killing his son in the process and forming the Kingdom of Kent. It is said that he took refuge in North Wales, and that his grave was in Dyfed or the Llŷn Peninsula. Gildas later denigrated Vortigern for his misjudgement and also blamed him for the loss of Britain. He is cited at the beginning of the genealogy of the early Kings of Powys.
context_section_description: The story of Vortigern adopted its best-known form in Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae. Geoffrey states that he was the successor of Constans II, the son of usurping emperor Constantinus III. Further, Vortigern used Constans as a puppet monarch and ruled the nation through him until he finally managed to kill him through the use of insurgent Picts. 
  Geoffrey mentions a similar tale just before that episode, however, which may be an unintentional duplication. Just after the Romans leave, the archbishop of London is put forward by the representatives of Britain to organise the island's defences. To do so, he arranges for continental soldiers to come to Britain. The name of the bishop is Guitelin, a name similar to the Vitalinus mentioned in the ancestry of Vortigern and to the Vitalinus said to have fought with Ambrosius at the Battle of Guoloph. This Guithelin/Vitalinus disappears from the story as soon as Vortigern arrives. All these coincidences imply that Geoffrey duplicated the story of the invitation of the Saxons, and that the tale of Guithelinus the archbishop might possibly give some insight into the background of Vortigern before his acquisition of power.
  Geoffrey is also the first to mention Hengest's daughter Rowena, who seduces Vortigern to marry her, after which his sons rebel. Geoffrey adds that Vortigern was succeeded briefly by his son Vortimer, as does the Historia Brittonum, only to assume the throne again when Vortimer is killed.
  While Vortigern is mentioned only rarely by the later stories of King Arthur, when he does he is usually the character described by either Geoffrey of Monmouth or Wace.
caption: The First Meeting of Vortigern and Rowena painted by William Hamilton
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