The Most Important Defections in History
Here’s our list of four of the most significant, prominent defectors, in chronological order:
Alcibiades The history of earth-moving betrayals goes all the way back to the Pelopennesian War, when the city-states of Athens and Sparta, with their allies, duked it out over who was going to dominate Greece. Alcibiades rose to prominence in Athens in a period of relative peace, but quickly began to advocate for rekindling the war as he saw that several of Sparta’s client states were ripe for revolt. This led to a failed effort to defeat the Spartans in a land war, after which Alcibiades became an advocate for sending a massive expedition to attack Sicily and use resources from there to continue the war with Sparta. Unsurprisingly, Alcibiades’s popularity reached a low point, and he defected to Sparta. He wasn’t done yet – he would later defect to Persia and then return to Athens – but he may have helped the Spartans most when he was still with his native state: the debacle of the Sicilian expedition crippled Athenian power and ultimately played a role in the ability of Sparta to achieve victory.
Marcus Junius Brutus Short of Judas Iscariot, Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger may be the most famous betrayer in history, and it’s possible that his betrayal had more aftershocks than any other. Once a great friend of Julius Ceasar, the de facto and later de jure ruler of Rome from 49-44 BC, Brutus was in a group of Senators who became increasingly uncomfortable with Caesar’s power. Led by Brutus, they decided to assassinate Caesar, famously on the Ides of March in 44 BC. The action led to a power vacuum and a war to fill it, with Brutus and his senatorial allies on one side and the triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus on the other. Brutus was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Philippi, and Octavian went on to defeat Mark Antony en route to becoming Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome.
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick Neville was perhaps the single most important figure in the Wars of the Roses in England in the fifteenth century. One of the wealthiest and most powerful English nobles of his era, Warwick quarreled with Henry VI’s chief minister, the Duke of Somerset, and threw his hat in with Richard, the Duke of York, in a rebellion against the crown. Ultimately, this led to York’s son Edward being proclaimed King in 1460, with Warwick as his most important minister. This period of relative calm was short-lived, however, as Edward sought to work independently of the man who had won him his throne. Meanwhile, by 1469, plots abounded to restore Henry VI to the throne. Warwick decided to join the dethroned King, and briefly led him to victory. Ultimately, though, French intervention led to victory of the Yorkist side.
Benedict Arnold What American schoolchild hasn’t heard the name of Benedict Arnold? One of the first and most effective commanders in the Continental Army, Arnold served with distinction at the Battles of Ridgefield and Saratoga, and eventually became a Major General. But he was embittered by the fact that he was frequently passed over for promotions in spite of his track record of success – even going so far as to submit letters of resignation to George Washington several times over the course of the war, who refused them each time. By 1778, he was bitter enough that he was plotting to go over to the British, and in 1780, he initiated a plot to surrender the strategically important West Point, which was under his command, to General Clinton. When the plot was exposed, he fled to become a general for the British – the most infamous American traitor in history.
[Top pic via Wikimedia Commons – Brown University. Alcibiades Pic via Wikimedia Commons - Marie-Lan Nguyen. The conspirators encircle Caesar Pic via Wikimedia Commons - Karl von Piloty. Richard Nevlle pic via Wikimedia Commons – John Rous. Benedict Arnold pic via Flickr – Marion Doss.]
