Hengist (or Hengest in Old English) and Horsa are two brothers from Jutland (Denmark) who, according to tradition, led their people during the invasion of Great Britain and founded the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom on the island :the kingdom of Kent, in the south-east of England.
They were - according to the Venerable Bede, in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written by anonymous hands no earlier than the 8th century - invited by the Breton king Vortigern in 449 to help the Bretons to defend against the Picts and Scots to the north.
They then settled in Kent and fought under the orders of Vortigern before revolting against him. Horsa died at the Battle of Aylesford and Hengist became king of the Saxons who were on the island.
While the names of Hengist and Horsa may be mythical, historians generally agree that in the 5th century a Jute chief and his warriors arrived in Kent to serve as mercenaries in the turf wars between the Bretons. Also, it is likely that the tradition recorded by the story of Hengist and Horsa is reminiscent of the origins of the settlement of the Jutes in Kent.