Writing c. 540, Gildas mentions that sometime in the 5th century, a council of leaders in Britain agreed that some land in the east of southern Britain would be given to the Saxons on the basis of a treaty, a "foedus," by which the Saxons would defend the Britons against attacks from the Picts and Scoti in exchange for food supplies. The most contemporaneous textual evidence is the "Chronica Gallica of 452", which records for the year 441: "The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule." This is an earlier date than that of 451 for the "coming of the Saxons" used by Bede in his "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum," written around 731. It has been argued that Bede misinterpreted his (scanty) sources and that the chronological references in the "Historia Britonnum" yield a plausible date of around 428.