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 of the ' Saxon Shore ' to his assistance. The details of trie story have been rendered obscure by the misconceptions of later times, which transfigured Vortigern into a King of Britain who received continental supplies in the island of Thanet in order to withstand enemies who were threatening his country at the Wall of Hadrian ! Vortigern's invitation to the Saxons has consequently been magnified out of all reason, and completely torn from its true setting. It was certainly a blow aimed at the Romani of Britannia, which appears to have met with no small success seeing how the memory of Vortigern was afterwards execrated ; and it is clearly one of the remnant of the Roman faction who is originally responsible for the Excidium Britanniae of the pseudo-Gildas towards the close of the seventh century.

The office of gwledig, like that of the English bretwalda,