Vortigern
High King Vortigern (a.k.a. Vortigern the Tyrant)
Vortigern was the brother-in-law of High King Constantin. When Constantin was murdered by a Pictish spy, Vortigern convinced the High Collegium to elect the bookish and spiritually oriented Constans, son of Constantin, as High King. Vortigern steered the kingdom through Constans, until Constans himself was murdered by the Pictish bodyguard Vortigern had chosen for him. Vortigern killed the Picts when they brough Constans's head to him, and this led to war with the Picts throughout Britain.
In order to gain aid against the Picts, Vortigern brought Saxon mercenaries from the continent.
In 447, Vortigern was elected High King by the Collegium. With the power this gave him, Vortigern gave more and more land and power to the Saxons.
Eventually, Vortigern fell in love with Rowena, the daughter of the Saxon Cyning Hengest, and married her, giving Hengest half of the land of the Cantii as the bride price. When the Cantii chief objected, Vortigern had him executed for treason. Rowena bore a son named Cerdic to Vortigern.
As Vortigern grew closer and closer to the Saxons, his own sons Vortimer and Katigern conspired to rebel against him in 456. Vortimer sent the Saxons against his sons and both sons were killed.
However, Vortigern truly earned his epithet as "Vortigern the Tyrant" when his Saxon allies called together British warriors for peace talks at the Giant's Dance and then slaughtered the greatest warriors of Britain in an act of treachery known as the Night of Long Knives.
Increasingly paranoid, Vortigern withdrew to Mount Snowdon to build the fortress of Ganarew while the Saxons ravaged the countryside. Despite the best efforts of his architects, however, the castle crumbled each morning. Druids told Vortigern that he must sacrifice a man with no father on the mountain to make his castle stand. This man was Merlin, who revealed to Vortigern that a red and a white dragon were fighting under the hill, and told Vortigern this was a prophecy of the imminent coming of Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther. With Merlin's aid, Vortigern was able to construct the fortress so that it would not fall, and so Merlin's life was spared.
When it seemed that Vortigern and his Saxons would take all of Britain, the Pendragon brothers Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther arrived in Britain with a host of exiles and rallied the people. Ultimately, Vortigern retreated to his fortress of Ganarew on Mount Snowdon. Merlin instructed Aurelius Ambrosius to use fire against the fortress, and Vortigern was burned alive in his tower.
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