In 402AD, Constantine’s son, also Constantine, was king having invaded Britain reportedly at the request of Guithelimus, the Archbishop of London, to defend against the growing intrusions of the Anglo Saxons, but was murdered by an unknown Pict in 420AD. His son Constans who had wished to avoid all the perils of kingship had become a monk at Winchester, but was sought out and made High King by the northern leader Vortigern and ruled for seventeen years until, having fallen out with Vortigern, was himself killed and Vortigern assumed the role, thus earning himself the title of “usurper” from Gildas. It was Vortigern who first brought Anglo Saxon mercenaries, led by Hengist and Horsa, into the country to aid him in repelling attacks from Pictish and Scottish raiders in return for promises of land.
It should not be assumed that these titles such as “High King” or “King of the Britons” indicates nationwide acceptance of one sovereign, although Vortigern would seem to have wielded much authority in his time, so much so that he was even able to arrange the migration of an entire tribe, the Votadini under their leader Cunedda, who were forced to leave Lothian and made to resettle in North Wales as a buffer against raiders from Ireland. Cunedda was celebrated as a strong leader and did much to stop the many raids from north of Hadrian’s Wall by the Picts. This relocation on Vortigern’s orders can be seen as part of his attempt to halt the increasing incursions from foreign invaders as well as from his former Saxon allies who had rebelled against his rule. Cunedda married the daughter of Coel Hen, the ruler of Eboracum, the modern York.
He is said to have had nine sons and the early Welsh kingdoms of Ceredigion and Meirionyydd were supposedly named after his two sons, Ceredig and Meirion. Cunedda’s successors went on to establish the kingdom of Gwynedd. Alliances and mergers were constantly being made and broken as noted by Tacitus many years before, the situation being further muddled by the interference of Rome who would award the title “King of the Britons” to whoever was currently in favour.
By the last years of the fifth century, the formerly prosperous and once orderly Britain had descended into tribalism. Large areas in the South East were in the control of the invading Anglo Saxons from North Germany, driving the natives northward and westward while the Celtic Britons remained preoccupied with appointing and deposing various kings. To make matters worse, the entire empire was hit by an outbreak of plague, similar to the Black Death in medieval times. The plague reached Britain in 446AD, the rising death toll adding to the breakdown in civil order.
In the middle of the sixth century, the monk Gildas wrote of the ruin of Britain by the Anglo Saxons, a race he describes as “hateful to God”. He tells of the destruction wrought by the invaders in haunting detail, “in the middle of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies covered with livid clots of congealed blood looking as though they had been squeezed together in a press, and with no possibility of being buried save in the ruins of their houses or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts”.
If ever the Celts needed a leader it was now and if they did not have one, he would need to be invented. Step forward Arthur, styled “King of the Britons” by some writers, although history mostly records him as a war leader. Some believe that Arthur was an authentic historical figure while others think him a romantic wish fulfilling myth, indeed the very name Arthur can be traced to a number of possible roots such as the Roman Artorius (meaning ploughman) or to the Welsh “Art” meaning “Bear”. Tag this to “Ur”, old Welsh for “Man” and we have Arthur or Bear Man, i.e., man of strength.
The name might even derive from the Saxon “Ar Thur” or the Eagle of Thor. It was not unusual for leaders to be known by a title that indicated strength and power, the name Vortigern has the meaning “Great King”, while both the names Hengist and Horsa have root meanings of “powerful horsemen”. The probable truth is that Arthur was a romantic amalgam of many Celtic leaders involved in the fight against the Anglo Saxons.
It has been pointed out that no reference to Arthur was recorded by Bede, Gildas or the Chronicle and this omission has been used to discount his existence. It must be remembered however, that these writers wrote from an Anglo Saxon point of view and would not necessarily wish to give him currency.
Much of what we know about Arthur comes from the pen of Geoffrey ap Arthur, later known as Geoffrey of Monmouth in his “Historia Regum Britaniae”, written in the twelfth century, but the first reference to him appears in 594AD when the northern monk St Gildas records a character known as “The Bear”. A reference to the name is also found in the writings of the Welsh monk Aneirin, who, in a passage in his poem Y Gododdin, tells of a warrior who “glutted black ravens on the ramparts of the fort though he was no Arthur”. There are later references to him in the “Historia Britonium”written by Nennius in 830AD, although none refer to him as king. He is described as “Dux Bellorum” or Duke of Battle.
The Welsh Easter Annuals, or Annales Cambriae, thought to have been written in the period that they cover, mentions Arthur by name and noted that, in the Battle of Baydon, thought to have taken place in 516AD, “Arthur carried the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were victors”. This passage need not be taken literally, it may be a reference to an amulet of some sort containing a fragment of the True Cross or, more likely, a poor translation of the word shoulder for shield and could indicate an armorial design.
The modern received view of King Arthur is one of round tables, chivalry, Camelot, courtly behaviour and brave and noble knights such as Lancelot and Galahad, arising from tales by the twelfth century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, who claims that his tales were translations of an ancient Celtic document found in Armorica (Britanny) by Walter Mapes, Deacon of Oxford. The first reference to Excaliber and the sword in the stone legend appears in the twelfth century French writer Robert de Boron’s story “Merlin”.
Sir Thomas Malory added his own slant to the legends in his “Le Morte d’Arthur” written three hundred years later, but the reality is rather more mundane. The very word chivalry has changed its meaning many times and originally referred to a company of mounted knights or simply being a knight. In title deeds, reference to land held in chivalry can imply land tenure held in which military service was owed. Other meanings include worthy action in battle. It was to be another 500 years before the modern meaning of moral and knightly conduct came into use.
Arthur is claimed as the King of almost every Celtic kingdom from Cornwall to Scotland and it would be of use to examine his roots a little more carefully.
Geoffrey of Monmouth recorded that Arthur, the son of Uther Pendragon was from Breton stock, his grandfather, Constans, having been sent to Britain by King Aldrien of Britanny who had been asked to help rescue the country from the turmoil created when the Romans left. The name Pendragon, from the Welsh for Head Dragon or Chieftain was often bestowed on a leader and Uther may well have been a composite character similar to his son. Geoffrey believed that Arthur’s grandfather was none other than Constantine, the last self styled Emperor of Britain, who had withdrawn the last of the Roman garrison to Gaul in 407AD, but more of this later.
One of the earliest battles recorded took place in 429AD, somewhere in the mountainous west or north between the native Britons and an alliance of Saxons and Picts, known as the Alleluia Battle. The British forces were led by St Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre who had been sent by the Pope to suppress the Pelagian Heresy, which taught that men could achieve salvation through their own efforts rather than from divine grace. St Germanus was an excellent choice, having had military experience as well as a reputation as a miracle worker. The story is first told in “The Life of the Saints” written by Constantius of Lyon around 480AD and repeated in Bede’s “History of the English Church 200 years later.
The beleaguered Britons sought the help of Germanus to stop this tide of invaders and he promised to direct the battle in person. The historians tell of Germanus placing his newly baptised troops in hiding all around the valley through which the invaders must come.
As the raiders confidently advanced, Germanus raised his staff and three times shouted “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia”. The whole army joined in the shout and the hills rang and echoed with their cries. The enemy column panicked, thinking that the very hills were falling on them threw away their weapons and fled, many drowning in the nearby river in their haste to get away.
We now return to Vortigern who, having disastrously invited Hengist and Horsa to Britain was virtually deposed by his son Vortimer who was the real leader in the ensuing battle of Aylsford where some success was had in driving out the Saxons but at the cost of his brother Catigem’s life. The battle of Crayford in 457AD however, was a disaster with the Saxons reportedly killing four thousand Britons; the remainder abandoned the defence of Kent and fled to London. Some flavour of the time, plus the alignments and intrigues of rulers can be deduced from Vortigern, having been sidelined by his son, married Rowena, the daughter of Hengist. Seeing a threat from Vortimer, she persuades Vortigern to have his son poisoned and to resume his own rule which continued until 480AD. His reign heralded yet more success to the invading Saxons with Vortigern either unable or unwilling to make a strong stand against them.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle cites many invasions and battles during this period. In 466AD, a great battle was fought between Hengist, Horsa and the Britons, called Welsh by the invaders (that being a Saxon word meaning “foreigner”) at a place called Wippedesfleot. During this battle, twelve Welsh Ealdormen were killed, plus one of the invading commanders called Wipped. It is likely that the battle site was named in his honour. The Chronicle goes on to relate that these invasions were clearly unacceptable to many of the indigenous population, among which was a certain Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Roman Briton who, with his brother Uther, was smuggled abroad to Britanny during the upheaval following the murder of Constans. In his Historia Brittonum, Nennius again writes that Ambrosius was the son of Constantine, had “worn the purple” and was thus rightful heir to Britain.
He returned to Britain, landing at Totness, and raised his own army to oppose both Vortigern and the Anglo Saxons. It is known that he fought against Vortigern’s General Vitolinus at a placed named Guoloph, thought to be near Wallop in the modern Somerset and, having won, went on to attack and subsequently kill Vortigern by burning him to death in a tower. He went on to capture and execute Hengist at what is now Conisburgh.
Nennius names Ambrosius as “king among all kings in the British nation” and goes on to state that he was given “the fortress with all the kingdoms in the western part of Britain” although it is not known how much of the land he actually ruled. It is also known that in 495AD, his forces won a great victory over the Anglo Saxons at the battle of Mount Badon, thought to be in the region of Bath in Somerset, or near Liddington Castle near Badbury Wiltshire, and, as a result, according to the writer Gildas, stemmed the tide of invasion for over forty years.
This agrees with other sources who confirm that a relative peace existed between the two sides for many years after the battle. It must also be remembered that the writers of both sides would put history in a favourable light to themselves, thus, the Chronicle will relate many Saxon victories, but not defeats, whereas the native writers would place events in a manner advantageous to themselves.
The Chronicle states that the Saxons Cerdic and Cynric landed at Cerdicesora (probably Calshot in Hampshire) in the year of the Baydon Hill battle 495AD. It relates that they fought the Welsh “on the same day”, Welsh being a common term for the native Britons, coming from the Saxon “waelisc” meaning foreigner or slave. A passage relating to 514AD reads virtually the same apart from the names of the leaders now named as Stuf and Wihtger. This and many other similarities are due to the form in which the Chronicle is written, being based on a nineteen year cycle used to calculate Easter dates. In a probable attempt to unite the warring factions Ambrosius appointed Vortigern’s third son Pascent as king of Buellt and Gwertheyrion. Pascent was clearly not content and in 501AD, arranged for Ambrosius to be poisoned by a renegade Saxon called Eoppa.
Perhaps this is the point at which we can get closest to the legend and actuality of the Arthurian stories. Uther, the brother of Ambrosius, was also his staunchest ally, fighting at his side throughout the campaigns launched by Ambrosius against the Anglo Saxons. He also commanded his brother’s forces in Ireland when an expedition was launched to subdue its wild inhabitants. He became king on the death of his brother and took the crown under the title Uther Pendragon after a dragon shaped comet that appeared in the sky at the time of his brother’s death.
He was a tireless leader spending his reign fighting against the Saxons and the Irish in the north from his base at Pendragon castle in Westmorland. He suffered heavy losses against the Angle Osla who, with his Jutish ally Octa, won a resounding victory against Uther at York, but Uther gathered fresh troops and turned the tables in his ensuing victory at Mount Damen.
He later travelled further north to help the Kings of Strathclyde in their struggles against the Scots. Legend has it that he fell in love with Ygerna or Igraine, wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall and tried to have the couple stay with him in London. The Duke, aware of Uther’s passion, took his wife back to Cornwall. Uther invaded the Duchy and persuaded his magician Merlin to transform him into the likeness of Gorlois and to magic him into Ygerna’s room at Tintagel castle. The result of this union was Arthur and in the Malory story “Le Morte D’Arthur”, he has to hand over the new born infant to Merlin to bring up “as he sees fit”. Following the death of Gorlois, Uther married Igraine and later gave Igraine’s sister Morgause to King Lot of Lothian.
Growing old and sick, Uther was again forced to go to the aid of his ally King Lot in his battle against the Northern Angles who were besieged in St Albans. He was successful, but the fleeing Angles poisoned the water supply and within a few days, Uther and many of his men were dead. It would be natural that Arthur succeeded to his father’s crown and indeed, Nennius states that Arthur became King of the Britons in 521AD at the age of fifteen and ruled for twenty one years before being killed in battle. The Chronicle also claims that his sister Anna married King Budicius of Britanny and, rather confusingly, later married Loth of Lodonesia who went on to become King of Norway.
It is of no surprise that most of the legends originate from early Welsh writing. With the Anglo Saxons having taken most of the country and the natives pushed to the fringes, it is natural that Arthur’s name would be preserved by the people who most needed a saviour and many of the legends tell of him, not dead, but sleeping in a cave awaiting the call to rise again and drive out the invaders. The tales of the Round Table, Merlin, Morgan le Faye etc were all embroidered from scraps of old myths by the medieval writings of Malory. The tale of the sword Excaliber, for example, first appears in the tenth century in Robert de Boron’s tale “Merlin”, while the first mention of Camelot was by a French writer in the twelfth century.
Gildas adds his bit by bringing the battle of Mount Badon forward to 516AD and refers to Ambrosius Aurelianus as the victor. This is continued by St Bede the Venerable in his “Historia Ecclestica gentis Anglorum” written in 731AD, who states that the Baydon (or Badon) battle was fought in 493AD and again names Ambrosius as the victor. This Ambrosius is the probable prototype Arthur from a native point of view, while the invaders Aesc, son of Hengist, or Cerdic fulfil the similar heroic role in the Saxon version. Cerdic was certainly the founder of the Saxon Kingdom of Wessex or the land of the West Saxons, while other invaders built the mini kingdoms of Sussex and Essex. The Jutes took over much of the south east and the Angles moving northward, the Southfolk in Suffolk and the Northfolk in Norfolk, all give testimony to how thorough was the takeover of the Celtic lands.
The writer Nennius states that Arthur fought twelve battles against the Saxons, the last being at a place called Camlann in 537AD, described by Tennyson as “the last dim, weird battle of the west”, where he and his half brother Mordred were killed. One of the Roman forts on Hadrian’s Wall was named Cambloganna, meaning “crooked glen” which historians believe translates to Camlan. If this was indeed the site of the battle it is more likely that his opponents were Picts or Scots rather than Anglo Saxon. Varying legends have him buried in Avalon or Glastonbury.
The writer Nennius lists the twelve battles and there has been much research carried out to place their location. Nennius lists the battles as follows, “the first was on the River Glein, the second, third, fourth and fifth on the River Dubglas, the sixth on the River Bassas. The seventh was in the Caledonian forest that is, Cat Coit Celidon. The eighth battle was in Fort Guinnon where Arthur “carried the image of the image of St Mary on his shoulders and that day the pagans were turned to flight and a great slaughter was made on them”. The ninth battle took place in the City of the Legion. The tenth battle was on the shores of the River Tribuit, the eleventh on the mountain called Agned. The twelfth battle was on Mount Baydon in which nine hundred and sixty men fell in one day from one attack by Arthur and no one killed them but him alone”. Despite the apparent detail, the list seems to have been lifted from an earlier Welsh battle poem and used to lionise Arthur, the figure of 960 could therefore be a romantic Welsh construct of “three three hundreds and three score”, written to liven up the rather bald original?
It is interesting to note however that efforts to locate the battle sites take us not westward, but to the north. The reference to the Caledonian forest is clearly northern as is Mount Agned, now identified as Brenemium the Roman fort at High Rochester in the Cheviots. Other sources confirm that battles did indeed take place at these sites, but often many years apart. There was a battle at Mount Agned fought by the King of Solway, Uriel of Rheged, but this took place some fifty years after Arthur’s supposed existence.
That many battles were fought against the invaders in this period is not in doubt, but the balance of opinion would indicate that Arthur was an amalgam of many heroic leaders, his exploits growing with every telling until he becomes the romantic, chivalrous, courtly knight that we know today. If he existed at all it is far more likely that he was a northern ruler or battle leader and not the West Country lord of Avalon and Camelot fame.
The legend tells that Arthur fell at the Battle of Camlann, killed by his brother Mordred. The Welsh Annals of 573AD provides part of the scant written evidence and relates, “The strife at Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut fell”. There exists another passing reference to the battle in the “Ystrad Fflur Chronicle” recording the death of one Derfei Gadarn at Camlann in 550AD. Alternatively, there is a battle recorded in the Annals of Ulster between Aedan, king of Dalriada and the Picts of Miathi, (an ancient kingdom centred around the Forth) which is recorded as the Battle of Manann, fought in 582AD, and in which Artur son of Aedan was killed .
The Annals of Tigernach also refer to the Battle of Circinn in 596AD in which an Artur was killed. Some think this was the Camlann battle and that Mordred was a Pictish chief. Geoffrey of Monmouth states that Arthur was killed at the Battle of Camelford at the other end of the country. Perhaps all these battles were one and the same despite the difference in dates and places. It was certainly a time of violent struggles and many battles would have been woven into songs and stories. Truth or legend, may he rest in peace, he provided a rallying point when hope was needed and later provided the basis of legends of the Round Table and knightly chivalry beloved by generations of schoolboys.
As to the actual truth of Arthur’s existence, I leave it to the twelfth century writer, Ranulf Higden to have the last word, “Many men wonder about this Arthur, for it is only Geoffrey among all the chroniclers who praises him so much, and they ask how it is possible to know the truth about the things which are said of him. For according to Geoffrey he conquered thirty kingdoms and it is very strange that the chroniclers of Rome or France, or of the Saxons say nothing about such a great man in their histories, when they talk about the lesser deeds of more humble men. Geoffrey says that he is surprised that Gildas and Bede do not mention Arthur in their works, but I find it much more surprising that Geoffrey praises him so much when other, older writers, true and famous historians, do not mention him at all. Nevertheless, it seems that the custom is for each nation to extol beyond reason one of their own people, as the Greeks did with their Alexander the Great, the Romans with their Octavian, the English with their King Richard the Lionheart and the French with their Charlemagne. Thus did the Britons extol Arthur; and they do this, as Josephus explains, partly to enjoy a good story, partly to please their readers, and partly to exalt their own blood”.
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