Every battle the Britons fought only prepared them for a new defeat, by weakening their strength and displaying the inferiority of their courage.

Vortigern, instead of a steady and regular resistance, opposed a mixture of timid war and unable negotiation.

In one of their meetings, wherein the business, according to the German mode, was carried on amidst feasting and riot, Vortigern was struck with the beauty of a Saxon virgin, a kinswoman of Hengist, and entirely under his influence.
Having married her, he delivered himself over to her counsels.
[Sidenote: A.D.

452] His people, harassed by their enemies, betrayed by their prince, and indignant at the feeble tyranny that oppressed them, deposed him, and set his son Vortimer in his place.

But the change of the king proved no remedy for the exhausted state of the nation and the constitutional infirmity of the government.