Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Treachery of the Long Knives

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

According to legend, sometime in the 5th century, a king of the Celtic Britons named Vortigern hired Anglo-Saxons mercenaries to help him fight his domestic enemies to hold his grip on power. His plan worked really well. Until it didn’t. And then it blew up in his face. Learn more about the Treachery of the Long Knives on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to legend, sometime in the 5th century, a king of the Celtic Britons named VordaGern hired Anglo-Saxon mercenaries to help him fight his domestic enemies to hold his grip on power. His plan worked really well, until it didn't, and then it blew up in his face. Learn more about the treachery of the long knives on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day, or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens.

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The island of Great Britain was originally an island that was inhabited by Celtic peoples. It was later occupied by Rome became a Roman province. Yet the people who live on the island didn't end up speaking a Celtic or Romance language. They ended up speaking a language that belonged to the Germanic family of languages. The following story might have had something to do with how that happened. More on that in a bit. The events in question date back to the late 5th century. This is a period of British history that has

some major holes. The Roman Empire had collapsed and nothing had really arisen to take its place. There were many warlords and kings who vied for power. This was the period of time when, according to legend, King Arthur would have ruled. So pretty much everything from this period is kind of questionable. One of the rulers at that time was a warlord named Vortigern. He was the leader of the Britons in the wake of the Roman collapse. From what accounts we are told,

he got to his position via a lot of duplicity and skullduggery. Supposedly, he had wormed his way into a position of influence with the Romans and took advantage of that to usurp the throne. The two rightful heirs were a pair of young brothers named Orelius Ambrosius and Uther, and they were sent overseas for their education. Vordegern, having assumed the throne, had a hard time holding on to power. He was constantly dealing with incursions from the Picks and the Scots in the north. He was also dealing with the potential of an armada joining the two brothers to take back the throne.

His solution to deal with these problems was to hire mercenaries. Hiring mercenaries wasn't necessarily a bad idea. It had been done throughout history with various levels of success. Vordegern contracted out the work to two Saxon brothers by the name of Hengist and Horsa. They would bring in Germanic mercenaries to fight off the picks and the Scots on behalf of the Britain king. In exchange for their services, Vortigern offered the Saxons the Isle of Thanet to settle on. Today, the island is actually a peninsula in the county of Kent. But 15 hundred years ago, it was an island separated by a 600-meter channel.

The Saxons brought over at least 18 warships full of warriors, and probably maybe many, many more over time. And there was something else that Henghis brought over with him, his daughter, Rowena. Rowena was, by all accounts, very beautiful, and Vortigern was smitten with her. One evening at a banquet hosted by Hengist, Rowena reportedly got Vortigern so drunk that he offered Henghis anything he wanted for Rueina's hand in marriage. Hengist asked for the entire kingdom of Kent because of Rowena's royal lineage, and supposedly, Vortigern agreed. The Saxons now had a foothold in the island of Britain. Also, supposedly at this banquet, Rowena taught Vortigern the German custom of toasting.

Supposedly, when a Saxon raised their drink and said, Vacht Heil, you had to raise your drink, and respond, drink Hyle. And this is supposedly how the tradition came to Britain. Over time, the Britons became jealous of the favoritism shown to the Saxons by Vortigern, and they rebelled. Specifically, Vortigern's eldest son, Vortimer, led a rebellion against his father and dethroned him. His brother Categern dueled with Horsa, the brother of Hengist, and they both died. Vordigern and the Saxons were eventually pushed back to the island of Thanet.

Hengist asked Vordogern to have a meeting with Vortimer, the now king, and while they were meeting, the Saxons slipped away and went home. However, the Saxons were not done with Britain. Rowena was still with Vortigern, and Vordemer eventually died. Rowena convinced Vordegern to invite Hengis back to Britain and secretly sent a message. to her father that Vortimer had passed away. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Hengist rallied an army of 300,000 men and a fleet of ships to transport them.

You can't really hide an army of 300,000, and soon the Britain nobles began to express her outrage at what they saw as a betrayal. Rulina passed word of this to her father, and he switched his plan. He sent a message to Vordogurn that he only wanted to assemble such a large army because he thought Vortimer was still alive.

What he agreed to do was hold a peace conference where the Saxon leaders would meet the Britain leaders unarmed, and then Vordegern could pick which Saxons would stay and which would return home. The meeting took place on the Salisbury Plain, which is also home to Stonehenge. The Britain nobles arrived dressed in their finery without weapons or armor. The Saxons also arrived without armor, and apparently without weapons. They ate and drank and had a good time. However, at the appointed moment, Hengis stood up and shouted,

Nemit Aura Saxis, which was in the Saxon language that the Britons couldn't understand. It meant, get your knives. At that moment, all of the Saxons present pulled out knives hidden in their boots and stabbed the Britain who was closest to them. The orders were to kill everyone, men and women, and totally wipe out the entire Britain nobility. Save for one person. Vortigern. Because of his relationship with Rowena, he was spared and instead,

he was held hostage. The event became known to history as the treachery of the long knives. The 300,000 Germanic invaders all landed in Britain, and that was the beginning of Anglo-Saxon hegemity. And it's why we all now speak English. Or so the legend goes. Because everything I've just told you might never have happened. In fact, it almost certainly didn't happen at the level of detail that I mentioned. The earliest mention of this event was in the Historia Britonium, which was written 400 years after the supposed event took place. Likewise, Joffrey of Monmouth wrote about it in the Historia Regum Britannia in the 11th century. Most historians don't even know if Vortigern was real. Some suspect that Vortigern might have just been a title and not the name of an actual person.

Regardless if it's fact or fantasy, the treachery of the long knives has become a part of history. In 1934, a series of Nazi political killings were known as the Knight of the Long Knives. In 1964, British Prime Minister Harold McMillan fired seven members of his cabinet, which was also known as the Knight of the Long Knives. There have been several other occasions in history where something unexpected happened quite suddenly, usually firings or murders, which is referred to by the term Long Knives. Sort of like how any political standal is now given the suffix, gait. So the treachery of the Long Knives is one of those historical stories that has relevance,

even if it is or isn't true. The historical record from the 5th century Britain is so bad that we'll never really know what parts of the story are true, if any. The associate producers of Everything Everywhere Daily are Peter Bennett and Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please join the list of patrons over at patreon.com. And also remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you two can have it read on the show.