Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
When the Roman Empire formally withdrew from Britain, you had several statelets emerge in its absence, by a mixture of native sons and Celtic tribal chieftains declaring themselves kings over the civitates. Save for the fact that the entire Roman military apparatus minus the local militia bailed out and these states depleting their meager manpower through fighting each other, I say an important factor but not THE factor in the Romano-Britons losing out to the Saxon invaders was tradition of equal* division of the father's lands amongst the sons as opposed to giving it to the eldest as practiced by the Celts and Germanic people.
Example: Coel Hen (a semi-legendary figure) ruled over most of northern Britain from his capital at Eboracum from the 380s to 420. Upon his death, his kingdom was divided between his two sons Ceneus and Gorbanian who would form the kingdom of Bernaccia. Upon Ceneus' death in 450, his lands were split amongst Gurgustus, first king of Rheged, and Mor inherited the lands around Eboracum. In addition, the Angles were awarded Deywr by Ceneus to settle in exchange for military service against the Picts; they would declare independence a century later as the kingdom of Deira.
How can you end the tradition of dividing one's assets and replace it with primogeniture so that the eldest son would inherit everything? In a best case scenario, you have in northern Britain a reasonably sized kingdom with enough local manpower to defend it from raids without relying too much on mercenaries from across the sea, and in time, maybe expand to the smaller civitates in the southeast.
Example: Coel Hen (a semi-legendary figure) ruled over most of northern Britain from his capital at Eboracum from the 380s to 420. Upon his death, his kingdom was divided between his two sons Ceneus and Gorbanian who would form the kingdom of Bernaccia. Upon Ceneus' death in 450, his lands were split amongst Gurgustus, first king of Rheged, and Mor inherited the lands around Eboracum. In addition, the Angles were awarded Deywr by Ceneus to settle in exchange for military service against the Picts; they would declare independence a century later as the kingdom of Deira.
How can you end the tradition of dividing one's assets and replace it with primogeniture so that the eldest son would inherit everything? In a best case scenario, you have in northern Britain a reasonably sized kingdom with enough local manpower to defend it from raids without relying too much on mercenaries from across the sea, and in time, maybe expand to the smaller civitates in the southeast.