Aurelanii Wars

The Aurelanii Wars (407–537 A.D.) were a series of civil wars and invasions that took place on the island of Great Britain shortly before and immediately after Rome's withdrawl from the province. It began in 407 when Governer Constantine of Britain was declared "Emperor of the West" by his troops (as his father Magnus Maximus was before him), and set off for Europe to bring the rest of the Empire under his rule. Constantine III was captured and executed in 411 A.D.

This left a power vaccume to be filled in Britain. Vortigern, a tribal king from Western Britain, bought his way to the throne of High King and began giving tracts of land in the south away to Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Northern Germany in exchange for thier service as mercenaries against the invaiding Scots from Ireland and the savage Picts from Northern Scotland. This caused Vortigern to become unpopular with several other tribal kings and even his own sons.

In 437 A.D., Ambrosius and Uther Aurelianus (the surviving sons of Constantine III) arrived on Britain's shores. They began a campaign to overthrow Vortigern and drive off the Saxon mercenaries, who they saw as worse invaiders than thier fellow Celts from Ireland and Scotland. They were accepted by the Pro-Roman faction of warlords and appealed to Rome for help in 446 A.D., but were told that the island must look to it's own defenses.

In 448 A.D. Ambrosius and the Bishop Germannius delt a devastating blow to both the Scots and Picts. This caused anti-Saxon sentiment to grow as they were becoming less necessary for Britain's defenses and were in fact causing more conflict and carnage themselves. However two years later a Jutish Warlord by the name of Hengest returned to the island with three ships of troops, determined to make good on Vortigern's promise of land grants in the south. The kingdom he established in the southeast became known as Kent and this event is known as Adventus Saxonum.

Soon after, more Saxons began invading and Vortigern was finally killed in battle by the new King of the Britons, Ambrosius Aurelianus. The Briton and the Saxon were now clearly enemies. In 465 A.D. King Ambrosius won a magnificent victory over the Saxons at Wippedsfleet, but was poisoned immediately after the battle. His brother, Uther, was declared king and assumed the title "Pendragon" (meaning "commander",i.e. "Uther Pendragon"="Magnificent Commander"). He took up where his brother had left off and began rebuilding Britain's defenses with the aid of his advisor Myddrin or Merlin. He was a very able king, but was assassinated by Saxons five years later. For some time to follow, Britain was without a High King.

In 485 A.D. a military commander from the West began a series of victorious battles that caused some to wisper of his "invincibility". He was the son of King Uther, hidden away all these years by Merlin and Cynyr, Lord of Caer Goch (aka Sir Ector)and his name was Arthur. This new and energetic warlord began drawing knights, warlords, princes, and tribal kings to his allegiance and could not be stopped, no matter the foe- no matter the ground. In 496 A.D. Arthur led an army of Britons against the Angles and Saxons at Mount Badon. His victory sent the invaiders back to the sea and Arthur was crowned King Arthur Aurelianus Pendragon (Arthur Pendragon=Cruel Commander).

Arthur was loving of his citizens and a just ruler, but was equally cruel to his enemies and a true blood-thirsty madman in battle. Arthur ruled a mostly united kingdom with even the Scots of Dalriada and the Picts of Caledonia pledging allegiance. Few minor battles were fought until 525 A.D. when Arthur departed for Europe to attempt building a "Mutual Christian Defense" against pagan invaiders across all of Europe. These attempts ultimately failed and only kept Arthur away from his kingdom fighting others' battles in Gaul and Italy.

In his absence, domestic problems began to grow. Saxons were on the move again and even some of his own knights began to impose thier greed on the subjects of Britain. Eventually even his own nephew Prince Mordred of Lothian ignited a civil war by uniting with disgruntled Picts and Saxons. Mordred wanted the crown for himself and cared nothing for the price his own countrymen would pay. His power was further consolidated by an alliance with the corrupt King Maelgwn of Gwynedd and others who believed that Arthur's time as the "Cruel and invinsible Commander" had passed.

In 534 A.D. an older and heart-broken King Arthur returned to find his island in chaos. His first action was to attack the Saxon kingdom of Wessex and kill thier King Cerdic. Next he tried his great skill at politics to prevent civil war, but he had been gone for far too long. In 537 A.D. Arthur and those remaining loyal to him met Mordred and Maelgwn's forces on the field at Camlann. Both forces were almost completely destroyed. Maelgwn fled the battle with his remaining troops leaving Mordred and Arthur to slay each other as the conflict came to a close. Arthur had payed for victory with his life and named Constantine, the young king of Dumnonia as his successor to the throne.

The rulers in Britain that followed the Aurelanii were weak and quarrelsome. As a result, the Saxons soon conquered most of the island (naming it England) and confined the Britons to modern day Wales and southern Scotland.