Time Line

All of these dates covering approximately 140 years are speculative and open to debate.

C402 One of the two British legions is recalled to Rome for defense. The Sixth Victrix will never return to Britain.

C406 Contact between Rome and Britain is severed. The remaining Roman army in Britain mutinies and proclaims one Marcus as emperor, but he is immediately assassinated.

C407 Gatian is proclaimed emperor but lasts only four months. Constantine III is proclaimed, and withdraws the remaining legion to Gaul to rally support for his cause. This is the practical end of the Roman empire in Britain.

C408 Without the Roman legions, Britain endures devastating attacks by the Picts, Scots and Saxons.

C409 Britons take matters into their own hands, expelling weak Roman officials and fighting for themselves.

A period of rule by petty tyrants follows.

C438 Possible birth of Ambrosius Aurelianus, scion of the leading Roman-British family on the island.

C440-50 Period of civil war and famine in Britain caused by the ruling council's weakness and inability to deal with Pictish invasions; situation aggravated by tensions between Pelagion/Roman factions. Vacated towns and cities in ruin. Migration of pro-Roman citizens toward west. Country beginning to be divided, geographically, along factional lines.

C441 Gallic Chronicle records (prematurely) that "Britain, abandoned by the Romans, passed into the power of the Saxons."

C445 Vortigern comes to power in Britain.

C446 Britons (probably the pro-Roman party) appeal to Aetius, Roman governor of Gaul, for military assistance in their struggle against the Picts and the Irish (Scots). No help could be sent at this time, as Aeitius had his hands full with Attila the Hun.

C446 Vortigern authorizes the use of Saxon mercenaries, known as foederati, for the defense of the northern parts against barbarian attack. To guard against further Irish incursions, Cunedda and his sons are moved from Gododdin in northern Britain to northwest Wales.

C450 In the first year of Marcian and Valentinian, Hengest (Saxon leader) arrives on shores of Britain with "3 keels" of warriors, and are welcomed by Vortigern.

C457 Death of Vortigern. Vitalinus (Guitolinus) new leader of pro-Celtic Pelagian faction. Battle of Aylesford (Kent) in which Ambrosius, along with sons of Vortigern, Vortimer and Cateyrn, defeat Hengest for the first time.

C458 Saxon uprising in full-swing. Hengest finally conquers Kent, in southeastern Britain.

C458-60 Full-scale migration of British aristocrats and city-dwellers across the English Channel to Brittany (the "second migration"). British contingent led by Riothamus (perhaps a title, not a name), thought by some to be the original figure behind the legends of Arthur.

C460-70 Ambrosius Aurelianus takes full control of pro-Roman faction and British resistance effort; leads Britons in years of back and forth fighting with Saxons. British strategy seems to have been to allow Saxon landings and to then contain them.

C465 Arthur probably born around this time.

C466 Battle of Wippedesfleot, in which Saxons defeat Britons, but with great slaughter on both sides. Mutual "disgust and sorrow" results in a respite from fighting "for a long time."

C466-73 Period of minimal Saxon activity.

C470 Battle of Wallop (Hampshire) where Ambrosius defeats Vitalinus, head of the opposing faction. Ambrosius assumes High-Kingship of Britain.

C473 Men of Kent, under Hengest, move westward, driving Britons back before them "as one flees fire."

C477 Saxon chieftain, Aelle, lands on Sussex coast with his sons. Britons engage him upon landing but his superior force drives them into the forest (Weald). Over the next nine years, Saxon coastal holdings are gradually expanded in Sussex.

C485-96 Period of Arthur's "Twelve battles" during which he gains reputation for invincibility.

C486 Aelle and his sons overreach their normal territory and are engaged by Britons at battle of Mercredesburne. Battle is bloody, but indecisive.

C490 Hengest dies. His son, Aesc, takes over and rules for 34 years.

C495 Cerdic and Cynric, his son, land somewhere on the south coast, probably near the Hampshire-Dorset border.

C495 Cerdic and Cynric, his son, land somewhere on the south coast, probably near the Hampshire-Dorset border.

C496 Britons, under overall command of Ambrosius and battlefield command of the "war leader" Arthur, defeat Saxons at the Siege of Mount Badon.

C496-550 Following the victory at Mt. Badon, the Saxon advance is halted with the invaders returning to their own enclaves. A generation of peace ensues. Corrupt leadership, more civil turmoil, public forgetfulness and individual apathy further erode Romano-British culture over the next fifty years, making Britain ripe for final Saxon "picking."

C501 The Battle of Llongborth (probably Portsmouth) where a great British chieftain, Geraint, King of Dumnonia, was killed. Arthur is mentioned in a Welsh poem commemorating the battle.

C508 Cerdic begins to move inland and defeats British king Natanleod near present-day Southampton.

C515 Death of Aelle. Kingdom of Sussex passed to his son, Cissa and his descendents, but over time, diminished into insignificance.

C519 Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) founded with Cerdic its first ruler.

C530-40 Mass migration of Celtic monks to Brittany (the "third migration").

C534 Death of Cerdic. Cynric takes kingship of Wessex.

C542 Battle of Camlann, according to Annales Cambriae. Death (or unspecified other demise) of Arthur (according to Geoffrey of Monmouth).

Most stories date the end of the Dark ages, and the beginning of Anglo-Saxon England from this battle, for opposition to the Saxons' invasion and the consequential settling of England in huge numbers had all but disappeared.

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