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 • • • 
 
 • • • 
 
 • •• • 
 
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 9life of Hing ^ttljur 
 
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 THE 
 
 iltfe of Hing ^Irtfiur : 
 
 FROM ANCIENT HISTOlUAl^S-iND '•« 
 AUTHENTIC DOGLWENTS^;*; >*• :%: [ 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 
 
 Ne tut men^oigne, ne tut veir, 
 
 Ne tut folie, ne tut saver : 
 
 Tant out li contur cont6, 
 
 E li fablur tunt fabl^ 
 
 Pur lur contes enbelir, 
 
 Ke tuz les funt h fables tener. 
 
 Le Brut de maistre Wace. 
 
 No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. 
 
 Gray. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR PAYNE AND FOSS, PALL-MALL J 
 
 AND HARDING, TRIPHOOK, AND LEPARD, 
 
 FINSBURY SQUARE J 
 
 BY WILLIAM NICOL, CLEVELAND-ROW, ST. JAMES'S. 
 
 1825. 
 
.5 
 
 hAiN 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The curious work now offered to the world 
 was prepared for the press by Mr. Ritson, with 
 a view to immediate publication, a short time 
 before his death ; and the character of the 
 writer is sufficiently established to justify the 
 editors hope of its favorable reception. 
 
 The difficulty of the subject may be partly 
 estimated from doubts having been actually 
 entertained by the author, during his early 
 researches, as to the identity of his hero, and 
 fears lest the real Arthur might not, after all, 
 be found : 
 
 " So many of his shadows * had he * met. 
 And not the very king." 
 
 It is proper to add that the orthography 
 latterly adopted by Mr. Ritson, however ex- 
 cellent, has not, on account of its singularity, 
 been preserved. 
 
 Stockton upon Tees, 
 May 2, 1825. 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface, - - - - p. i. 
 
 The Life of King Arthur, - - 3 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 No. I. Extracts from the lives of Welsh 
 saints, - - 143 
 
 No. II. The answer of the abbot of Ban- 
 gor to Augustine, the monk, word 
 for word, in Welsh and English, 
 
 155 
 No. III. British and Welsh saints, 167 
 
 No. IV. Welsh saints, - - 160 
 
 No. V. Cornish saints, - 164 
 
 No. VI, Breton saints, - - If 1 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 No character, eminent in ancient history, has 
 ever been treated with more extravagance, men- 
 dacity and injustice, than the renowned Arthur, 
 the illustrious monarch and valiant commander 
 of the Britons. Extolled by some, as greater in 
 power, more victorious in war, more abundant 
 in dominion, more extensive in fame, than either 
 the Roman Julius or the Grecian Alexander ; his 
 very existence has, by others, been, positively 
 and absolutely, denied. In the year 1138, being 
 the third of king Stephen, appeared an elaborate 
 work, in a classical style, and containing two 
 short pieces of elegiac poetry, of singular elegance 
 for that age,* intitled '' Historia Britonurtij or 
 
 * Divaj)otensnem(mm, terror sylvestrihus apris ; 
 
 Ciii licet amfractus ire per aethereos, 
 
 Infernasque domos; terrestria jura resolve, 
 
 Et die quas terras nos habitare velis ? 
 
 ■ Die certam sedem qua te venernbor in aevum, 
 
 Qua tibi virgineis templa dicabo choris ?" 
 
 This elegy, thus Englished by Pope : 
 
 *' Goddess of woods, tremendous hi the chace 
 To mountain boars and all the savage race ! 
 B 
 
ii PREFACE. 
 
 regum Britanniaey*\ in which this celebrated so- 
 vereign, as, at least, in consequence thereof he 
 
 Wide o'erth' aethereal walks extends thy sway, 
 
 And o'er th' infernal mansions void of day ! 
 
 On thy third reatotbok down ! unfold our fate, 
 
 And say what region is our destin'd seat ? 
 
 Where shall we next thy lasting temples raise ? 
 
 And choirs of virgins celebrate thy praise ? 
 was, according to the author in question, the address of 
 Brutus to the oracular statue of Diana, in the island of Leo- 
 gecia, which he said nine times, himself holding, before the 
 altar of the goddess, the vase of the sacrifice, full of wine and 
 the blood of a white hart ; having encircled the altar four times ; 
 and poured the wine into the fire ; and laid down upon the 
 hart-skin, he, at length, slept. About the third hour of the 
 night, it seemed to him that the goddess stood before himself, 
 and in this manner bespoke him : 
 
 " Brute, sub occasum soils, trans Gallica regno. 
 Insula in oceano est, undique clausa mari; 
 
 Insuk in oceano est, habitata gigantibus olim. 
 Nunc deserta quidem ; gentibus apta tuis. 
 
 Hanc pete, namque tibi sedes erit ille perennis : 
 Siefiet natis altera Troja tuis. 
 
 Sic de prole tua reges nascentur : et ipsis 
 Totius terrae subdit^is orbis erit :" 
 
 Englished by the same poet (see Milton's Poems, by Warton, 
 1791, P. 364) : 
 
 " Brutus, there lies beyond the Gallic bounds 
 An island which the western sea surrounds. 
 By giants once possess'd ; now few remain 
 To bar thy entrance, or obstruct thy reign. 
 
PREFACE. iii 
 
 became, is represented as a hero of such magni- 
 tude, that, having succeeded Uther Pendragon, 
 
 To reach that happy sliore thy sails employ : 
 There fate decrees to raise a second Troy, 
 And found an empire in thy royal line. 
 Which time shall ne'er destroy nor bounds confine." 
 This island, of course, was Britain, then called Albion, at 
 which he arrived in good time, and which was inhabited by 
 no one, except a few giants. (B. 1, C. 11, 16.) 
 
 Whether these two elegies were composed by Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth may be, reasonably, doubted. Henry, arch-deacon 
 of Huntingdon, appears to have been the best elegiac poet of 
 that age. 
 
 t The title varies in the different manuscripts and printed 
 copies. There are three editions, in Latin, under these titles : 
 ** Britannie utriusque reguni et principum origo et gesta in- 
 signia ah Gaffrido Monemutensi ex antiquis&imis Britanni ser- 
 monis monumentis in Latinum sermonem traducta et ab [Jolianne 
 Badio] Ascensio cura et impendio magistri Luonis Cavellati hi 
 lacem edita. [Parisiis, MDVIII : quarto] : the second edition 
 [MDXVII], by the same printer, differs very little, and in no- 
 thing of consequence, from the former ; the third : ** Galfredi 
 Monumetensis historice. regum Britannia" apud " Rerum Bri- 
 tannicarum [^Hieronimo Commelino edito]: Lvgdiini, do. I o. 
 Lxxxvxi: folio. Beside the English version by Aaron 
 Thompson, in 1718, 8vo : and it is a very common manu- 
 script. It is sometimes, called Liber Briiti ; and the anony- 
 mous author of The Chronicle of Jervaux (falsely attributed to 
 John Bromton, abbot of that monastery, in the time of Henry 
 the sixth) calls it (in Latin) not only " The history of the 
 Britons," or, " The British book ;" but, likewise, " The book 
 of the gests [or actions] of the Britons, vulgarly call'd " Le 
 Brut" (see Co. 725,1153). 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 his father, in the kingdom of Britain, he made a 
 sudden assault upon the Saxons, and put them to 
 flight ; that Hoel, his nephew, king of the Ar- 
 morican Britons, sent him fifteen thousand men ; 
 that he made the Saxons his tributaries 5 that he 
 granted a pardon to the Scots and Picts j that he 
 honoured Augusel with the scepter of the Scots, 
 Urien with that of Murray, and Lot with the 
 consulship or dukedom of Loudonesia or Lothian j 
 that he added to his government Ireland, Iceland, 
 Gothland and the Orkneys; that he subdued 
 Norway, Dacia, or Denmark, Aquitain and Gaul, 
 now France 3 that he held his grand coronation- 
 feast at the city of Legions or Caerleon, in Gla- 
 morganshire, to which came the kings of Albany 
 or Scotland, Murray, Venedotia or North-Wales, 
 Denietia or South-Wales and Cornwall ; the 
 archbishops of London, York and Caerleon ; the 
 consuls, dukes, or earls, of the principal cities ; 
 all of whom are enumerated by the most barba- 
 rous names ; the kings of Ireland, Iceland, Goth- 
 land, the Orkneys, Norway, the Dacians or Danes 
 and the Ruteni; the consul (or earl) of Bolonia ; 
 the Duke of Normandy, his butler ; the duke of 
 Andegavia or Anjou, his sewer j the twelve peers 
 of France j* the Duke of the Armorican Britons, 
 
 * The mention of these twelve peers is a strong proof that 
 the author of the British History had read the no less fabulous 
 life of Charlemagne, by a Pseudo-Turpin, which also sug- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 with his nobility, who walked with so great an 
 equipage of ornaments, mules and horses, as was 
 difficult to describe ; that, beside these, no prince 
 of any price remained on this side of Spain, who 
 came not at that proclamation : Nor was it won- 
 derful : for, the munificence of Arthur being 
 divulged through the whole world, had allured 
 every one into the love of him : that, upon this 
 occasion, he received a letter from Lucius Tiberius, 
 general of the Romans (but totally unknown to 
 the Roman historians), demanding justice for 
 tribute withheld, and injuries done j and threat- 
 ening war on his refusal ; which is inserted at 
 length, with the deliberative speeches and argu- 
 ments of his privy- council, pro and con.; that 
 they unanimously agreed upon a war with the 
 Romans j that Lucius Tiberius, called together 
 the eastern kings against the Britons ^ that Ar- 
 thur killed a Spanish giant of monstrous size ; 
 that the Romans attacked the Britons with very 
 great force, but were put to flight by them j that. 
 
 gested to hini a name for Arthur's sword. This romance is 
 conjectured, by the French antiquaries, to be of the eleventh 
 century ; and was originally printed, in Latin, in •' Germani- 
 carum qtiatuor celebriores vetustioresqiie chroiwgraphi, ^c. 
 Francofurti, a Simone Schardio, 1566, folio ; a licentious ver- 
 sion, however, in French, having been already published by 
 Robert Gaguin, in 1525, 4to. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 in a prodigious battle^ for numbers and slaughter, 
 Lucius Tiberius was killed, and the Britons ob- 
 tained the victory ; that part of the Romans fled 
 and the rest, of their own accord, surrendered 
 themselves for slaves ! ! ! Events never heard 
 of before this miraculous history.* 
 
 This wonderful book was ushered into the 
 world by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welshman, 
 and, in process of time, that is, in the year, 1151, 
 bishop of Saint- Asaph, though, by no means, 
 the only prelate who has owed his advancement 
 
 * The Danes, likewise, are introduced, long before that 
 people were known in Britain, their first irruption being in 786, 
 144 years after the supposed death of Arthur. Gormund, 
 king of the Africans is, doubtless, Guthrmi or Godrun, vulgarly 
 called Gormund, king of the Danes, who, having been defeated 
 and made prisoner by king Alfred, was, at his instance, bap- 
 tized, in 878; and even " the forest of Canute," who died ir> 
 1036, is nientioned in Merlin's Prophecies, about 430 : accu- 
 rate chron(;logy ! Moreover, in the forged laws of Edward the 
 confessor, it is said " thatthelawof/bi/c-mote was ' founded' by 
 Arthur [a British prince to make Saxon laws], who was for- 
 merly the most famous king of the Britons and so consolidated 
 and confederated the whole kingdom of Britain for ever in 
 one. By the authority of this law, the aforesaid Arthur 
 expelled the Saracens, and enemies from the kingdom." 
 {LL. Anglo-Sax. p. 204.) Edward, who made the law, wa» 
 born after 1002 and Arthur, who is said to have died in 542, 
 availed himself of " the authority of this law" made after 
 1042. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 to publications of a similar nature j* who, in his 
 prefatory chapter, being a sort of epistle dedica- 
 tory to Robert earl of Gloucester, the natural 
 son of king Henry the first, who died in 1146, 
 in which, also, he notices that monarch, whose 
 death had happened in 1135, says, " When, re- 
 volving many things with myself and oftener con- 
 cerning many things in my mind, I fell into the 
 history of the kings of Britain, I imputed it into 
 a wonder, that within the mention which Gildas 
 and Bede had made of them in a creditable trea- 
 tise, I could find nothing of the kings who had 
 inhabited Britain before the incarnation of Christ : 
 nor, even, of Arthur and the many others who 
 succeeded after the incarnation : when both their 
 actions were worthy of the praise of eternity, and, 
 by many people, as if inscribed, pleasantly and by 
 heart, were reported. To me, thinking these 
 things and of such like, many times, Walter 
 
 * Girald Barry, another Welshman, commonly called Gi- 
 raldus Cambrensis, and, by Leland and Camden, for whatever 
 reason, Silvester Ciraldus, a voluminous writer, was elevated, 
 for the like cause, to the see of Saint David, in 1214 j as was, 
 likewise, John Bale, of equal notoriety, to the see of Ossory, 
 in 1552 and, in later times, according to honest Tom Hearne, 
 " the reverend and learned doctor White Kennett, dean [and, 
 afterward, Bishop] of Peterborough, whose Jidelity and candour 
 and veracity," he says, are very conspicuous and toell known to 
 the world** (Preface to the fth volume of Leland's Itinerary.) 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 archdeacon of Oxford, a man learned in the ora- 
 torial art and in foreign histories, brought a 
 certain most ancient book of the British language, 
 which, from Brute, the first king of the Britons 
 down to Cadwalader son of Cadwalo, proposed 
 the acts of all daily and in order with very beauti- 
 ful orations. By his request, therefore, induced, 
 although within foreign gardens 1 had not col- 
 lected fine words, nevertheless, content with a 
 homespun style and my own reeds, I caused to 
 translate that book into the Latin language."* 
 
 * This mart was Walter of Wallingford, otherwise Calenius, 
 who was archdeacon of Oxford between, at least, 1103 and 
 1152 (see Le Neve's Fasti, and Tanner's Bibliotheca) and, by 
 no means, Walter de Constantiis, who, according to Le Neve, 
 succeeded in 1175, but, probably, much sooner, as be is so 
 styled in the character of a witness to a charter of Henry the 
 second, granted in 1168 (see Charlton's History of Whitby, p. 
 137); much less Walter de Mapes, who did not succeed before 
 1196 and continued to 1223>a difference of * 69' years after 
 the deatli of Geoffrey bishop of Monmouth, who died in 1154. 
 In a copy of Geoffrey's book in Welsh, intitled " Ystori Breiihi- 
 nocdhi y Brytannied o uaitJi Galfridus Monemuthensis guedi i 
 chy viei thy yn Gymraeg,'' described by Lhuyd as in the pos- 
 session of Mr. Vaughan of Hengwrt, is the following entrj 
 in Welsh : " 1 Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, translated this 
 liK)ok out of British into Latin and, afterward, in my graver 
 years, have again done it into Bi'ltish :" a very likely story, 
 indeed ! which, however, puts an end to all pretences of a 
 British original : There is no likeilhood or, even possibility, at 
 the same time, either that Walter Calenius (who, by the wd^ 
 had that appellation from Wallingford in Berkshire, the place 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 He, afterward, in a letter to Alexander bishop 
 of Lincoln, (from 1123 to 1147), says, *' The love 
 
 of his birth, the Latin name whereof is Caleva [qu. Calena] (See 
 Leland's Itinerary, IX. 50) or Waher de Mapes was a Briton, 
 or understood the British language ; which no Englishman, it 
 is believed, has ever been known to acquire or even to culti- 
 vate, unless it be Sharon Turner, the historian of the Saxons 
 and the defender of the Welsh bards j and to find a Welshman, 
 at a period, when the Welsh were enemies, not subjects, to the 
 king of England, when their princes were cohtinually be- 
 headed or hanged, and the whole people, in fact, universally, 
 by the English, despised and detested, archdeacon of Oxford, 
 would be not a little extraordinary, and is certainly unparal- 
 lelled in the ecclesiastical history of England. That the mo- 
 dern Welsh, indeed, do not distinguish the original from the 
 translation, admitting them to have both, is evident from their 
 antiquaries having begun to prmt a palpable translation, in The 
 Cambrian Register, as the original. Lambarde, who voucheth 
 his possession of a Welsh copy, older, in his opinion, than 
 Monmouth's translation, seems, in this conjecture, to have been 
 no less unhappy than he was in mistaking a few lines of Robert 
 of Gloucester for a Saxon fragment which substantiated the 
 Story of Brute. He, clearly, therefore, could be no judge of 
 manuscripts. Carte, who seems suflSciently inclined to credit 
 the authenticity of the British history, allows that the copy in 
 Jesus-college, which Wynne asserts to be the same which 
 Geoffrey made use of, ** doth not seem so ancient as the time 
 of Geoffrey" (1, vi;) and " is, evidently, according to Warton, 
 " not older than the sixteenth century. There is reason," he 
 adds, " to suspect that most [he might have safely said, all] of 
 the British manuscripts of this history are translations from 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth" (I. a 4). " In the library of the 
 family of Davies, at Llanerk in Denbighshire," he says, " is a 
 copy of Geoffrey's book hi the hand-writing of Gutty n Owen, 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 of thy nobility, Alexander bishop of Lincoln, 
 compels me to translate the prophecies of Merlin 
 
 a celebrated Welsh bard and antiquary, about the year 1470, 
 who ascribes it to Tyssilio, a bishop, and the son of Brockraael- 
 Yscythroc Prince of Powis" (Ibi.) Lewis Morris, in one of his 
 letters, mentions this manuscript, and says ** I have cleared 
 the matter to Mr. Carte, that he is the greatest advocate for 
 the British history, as we had [r. that we have] ." (^Cambrian 
 register, II. 489.) In another letter, however, to Carte him- 
 self, he says, " You surprise me with Tyssilio's history of Bri- 
 tain ; I have read of no Tyssilio a scholar" {Ibi. II, 484.) The 
 fact is, that Lhuyd speaks of " a chronicle written by Tyssilio, 
 which," says he, *' I find inserted in H. Salbury's manuscript 
 Catalogue of Welsh words, and was extant, as I have been, 
 credibly, informed, within these fifty years" (Archceologia, 
 p. 225). It appears, also, that Archbishop Usher had said, 
 when a young man, that he had seen an old book called " Ec' 
 clesiae Bri tannicae Historia, autore Tyssilio filio Brochmaeli 
 regis Powysii :" which book, however, had been lost, or carried 
 to Rome, before 1680, (Cambrian Register, 1, 27). So much 
 for the history of Tyssilio, which Guttyn Owen has confounded 
 with the Welsh translation of Geoffrey's British romance. The 
 editors of " The Myvyrian archaiology of Wales," who have 
 published in the second volume of that work, two Welsh 
 Translations, one under the other, intitled BrutTysilio and 
 Brut G. ah Arthur as two originals, alledge that " The 
 first of these chronicles should have been called after the name 
 of Walter de Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford [an office, it has 
 been, already observed, he did not attain till upwards of forty 
 years after the death of Geoffrey of Monmouth, so that he 
 must have written this chronicle before he was born] ; for there 
 is no authority for asserting that Tysilio wrote any thing 
 beside some poetry" (preface vi.) 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 from British into Latin, before I had written the 
 history which I had begun of the acts of the 
 Britons : for I had proposed to finish that first 
 and explain this work subsequently : lest, while 
 each labour should be in hand, my capacity 
 should the less suffice to either. However, be- 
 cause I was secure of pardon, which the subtile 
 discretion of thy judgment would readily be- 
 stow, I have put to the little books my rude pen, 
 and, in a plebeian stile, interpreted a language to 
 thee unknown."* These prophecies, therefore, 
 are inserted about the middle of the book, in 
 which the history is afterward prosecuted. The 
 last chapter is couched in these words : *^ The 
 kings, however, of those who, from that time, 
 succeeded in Wales, I permit, in matter of writ- 
 ing, to Caradoc of Llancarvan, my contemporary : 
 the kings, truly, of the Saxons to William of 
 Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon : whom 
 I enjoin to hold their peace concerning the 
 kings of the Britons, inasmuch as they have not 
 that book of the British language, which Walter 
 archdeacon of Oxford imported out of Britain : 
 which concerning the history of these [kings] 
 being veraciously edited in honour of the afore- 
 
 * This bishop, a man of learning himself, was, also, a great 
 patron and encourager of men of learning. It was to him, 
 likewise, that Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, dedicated his 
 history of England. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 said princesj in this manner into the Latin lan- 
 guage I have taken care to translate." It ap- 
 pears, from a very sensible letter of doctor 
 Lloyd, bishop of Saint Asaph, to Thomas Price, 
 printed in Owen s British remains j that this famous 
 history made its first appearance in the year 
 1138.* Henry of Huntingdon, in an epistle to 
 Warin the Briton, which is inserted in several 
 manuscripts of his history, and, according to 
 bishop Lloyd, in some editions of Sigebert's 
 chronicle, with the additions of Robert de Monte, 
 otherwise de Torineioj or of Thorigny, f to whom 
 Geoffrey appears to have sent, or he had himself 
 procured, an early copy of the British history and 
 
 * About the year 1100, according to Warton, Walter, arch- 
 deacon of Oxford procured in Armorica an ancient chronicle in 
 the British or Armorican language, in titled "Brut-y-Brerihined ;'" 
 though neither Geoffrey nor any other ancient writer says any 
 such thing, and though he himself, directly referring, in two 
 different places (I, sig. a 4. n. t, e c, n. z), to Geoflfrey's origi- 
 nal, proves, in a third (I, sig. a 4, n. r. a 4 b, n. 3), that no 
 such original exists. 
 
 t The bishop quotes " App. Thor. [r. Flor.'] Wigorn." but 
 there is no Appendix in either edition, nor does it contain this 
 epistle. This Robert de Torineio or de Monte, published an 
 edition, of Sigebert's chronicle, which he interpolated and pol- 
 luted with the new inventions of Geoffrey of Monmouth. See 
 bishop Lloyd's Letter to Thomas Price, already, referred to. 
 Warin would seem to have, previously to his enquiry of the 
 archdeacon, acquired something upon the story of Brutus by 
 hear-say. 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 Huntingdon thus addresses his friend : " Thou 
 enquirest from me, O Warin the Briton, man 
 gentle and facetious, why, narrating the actions 
 of our country, I have begun from the times of 
 Julius Cesar, and omitted the most flourishing 
 reigns, which were from Brutus unto Julius : I 
 answer thee, therefore, that neither by word nor 
 writing, very frequently enquiring after the 
 knowledge of those times, was I ever able to find 
 it : such a violent death of oblivion overshadows 
 and extinguishes the successful glory of the diu- 
 turnity of mortals. Nevertheless, in this year, 
 which is from the incarnation 1139, as I was 
 travelling to Rome, with Theobald archbishop of 
 Canterbury, at Bee, where the same archbishop 
 was abbot, I found, to my great astonishment, 
 writings of the aforesaid things. Forasmuch as 
 I there met with Robert de Thorigny, a monk of 
 the same place, a man, as well of divine as of 
 secular books a most studious searcher and ac- 
 cumulator : who, when he questioned me con- 
 cerning the order of the history of the kings of 
 England, by me published, and that which he 
 asked of me had willingly heard, brought to me 
 a book to read, about the kings of the Britons, 
 who held our island before the English ; the ex- 
 tracts of which kings, as it becomes in an epistle, 
 very briefly, that is, I send to thee with great 
 pleasure." He then gives a list of Geoffrey's 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 kings, a sort of epitome, that is, of the British 
 history, and concludes by saying : " These are 
 the things which to thee, most dear Warin the 
 Briton, I have promised in few words, of which, 
 if thou desirest more prolixity, thou must, dili- 
 gently, enquire after the great book of Geoffrey 
 ap Arthur, which I found at the monastery of 
 Bee, where thou wilt find the aforesaid things 
 treated with sufficient prolixity and clearness. 
 Farewell." It, therefore, by this account, 
 plainly appears that Henry had actually published 
 the first seven books of his history (in some 
 copies whereof the above letter is inserted be- 
 tween the seventh and the eighth, in others at 
 the end) before the year 1139, and, also, before 
 he had ever seen or heard of the British history 
 of Geoffrey ap Arthur, or any other book on the 
 same subject. Yet it is asserted, by a late En- 
 quirer into history, that *' He was the first Eng- 
 lish writer who adopted the fables of GeoflFrey of 
 Monmouth,"* whom he, likewise, never after- 
 ward, in the course of five additional books, once 
 mentions, nor follows in the minutest respect j 
 being, it would seem, fully satisfied, upon mature 
 reflection, or further enquiry, of his total want 
 of veracity. The British history, therefore, had, 
 
 * Enquiry into the history of Scotland, II, 153. That he was 
 the *' worst of the old English historians," is equally illiberal 
 and untrue. 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 manifestly, never been seen, or heard of, either 
 in Briton or elsewhere, before the year 1138, as 
 it is next to impossible that so well informed 
 and, to all appearance, so industrous and inquisi- 
 tive, a historian as Henry of Huntingdon, a man, 
 at the same time, of eminence and affluence, 
 should not have met with a copy of it or known, 
 at least, the nature of its contents : but the fact 
 is glaring and notorious, that, with an excep- 
 tion of the extracts here and there interspersed 
 in Geoffrey's book, (which, certainly, traces the 
 hand of a prodigious scholar for his age,) from 
 Cesar's Commentaries, Bede's ecclesiastical his- 
 tory, Gildas's querulous epistle on the destruc- 
 tion of Britain, and Nennius's Eulogium Britan- 
 niaej the legends of saint Alban, saint Dubricius, 
 saint Ursula, or others, not a single name or in- 
 cident, which occurs in that work, is to be found 
 mentioned or alluded to by any writer or in any 
 book, before the above sera.* That the Britons 
 
 * Henry of Huntingdon, it is true, has a *' Coel rex Britan- 
 nicus de Colecester" (306), who, likewise, occurs in the British 
 history ; which, at first, looks a little suspicious : but, surely, if 
 disposed to plagiarise, he would never have been contented 
 with *' Old king Cole,'^ and it is, in fact, certain that he had not 
 seen Geoffrey's book till sometime after the publication of the 
 seven first books of his own. This respectable historian, how- 
 ever, according to Warton, *' began his history from Cesar 
 and it was only on further information that he added Brute" 
 (I. 120) ; an assertion, at the same time^ without the least 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 This new-ancient history was^ immediately 
 upon its appearance, or, as soon, at least, as 
 
 would or could impose upon such and so many distinguished 
 personages with the most abominable forgery, the most ex- 
 travagant falsehood, and the most brazen faced impudence, is 
 by no means a proof of those circumstances : as we never find 
 him reviled by, or on the part of, any of these illustrious 
 characters, for so gross an imposition. This, no doubt, is very 
 much in his favour ; but it may be urged, with equal force, on 
 the other hand, that the book which he produced, as a history, 
 is, certainly, a series of palpable and monstrous lies j that, 
 neither Walter Calenius, nor any other, friend or favourer, of 
 or near his own age, not even his own countryman, Girald 
 Barry, who, being himself a bishop, might, naturally, have 
 been expected to have stood forward in the defence of such 
 an illustrious precursor, whose steps, in his prelatical pursuit*, 
 he had followed with such good fortune : not a solitary Welsh- 
 man to support him, in any respect, but by following his ex- 
 ample ; that the pretended original has never been found, nor 
 any, the least, evidence adduced in favour of its authenticity ; 
 that there have been forgers, of as much art, talent, falsehood 
 and impudence, in other ages, whose literary impostures have, 
 for a time, at least, been, altogether, as successful : Joha 
 Fordun, for instance. Hector Bois, Annius of Viterbo, George 
 Buchanan, James Macpherson, Thomas Chatterton, and a 
 variety of other such respectable characters. It is a thousand 
 pities that John Pinkerton had not flourished in the age, and 
 enjoyed the friendship of Geoffrey of Monmouth; that he 
 might have certified, with his sacred signature, the integrity 
 and truth of the original manuscript of that veracious historian, 
 as he did the no less genuine Shaksperiana, of William Henry 
 Ireland. (Samuel, his father, had no hand in this forgery, 
 though it cost him his life). 
 
PREFACE. xix 
 
 copies could be procured, seized, with avidity, 
 by the eager and the weak, whose zeal and 
 ignorance disqualified them from distinguishing 
 between history and fable * Alfred of Beverley 
 
 • A Welsh translation of GeofFrey ap Arthur's British his- 
 tory, under the title of '* Brut Breninodd ynys Prydain : neu 
 Brut y Breninod," or " Brut Tysilio" has been inserted in a 
 late publication intitled " The Mjvyrian archaioiogy of 
 Wales," although the editors allow that "there is no authority 
 for asserting that Tysilio wrote any thing, beside some poetry" 
 and that this chronicle " should have been called after the 
 name of Walter Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford, who " did 
 turn this book out of Welsh into Latin and, in his old age, 
 turned it the second time out of Latin into Welsh." It it 
 absolutely impossible, that Walter Mapes (made archdeacon 
 of Oxford ia 1197) was any way connected with GeoflFrey of 
 Monmouth, who died in 1154) or that he or any other Walter, 
 archdeacon of Oxford, did actually translate or was capable of 
 translating, Geoffrey's book, either backward or forward, nor 
 can 6ny thing be more absurd than to illustrate one translation 
 by another, both from a common origuial. If, indeed, any 
 reliance could be placed in the genuineness of the Afallenau 
 Myrddin, or Merlin's orchard, supposed to have been written 
 by Myrddin ap Morfryn or Myrddin wylt, Merlinus Sylvestiis or 
 Caledonius, about the year 550, and mentioning Medrawd, Arthur, 
 Gwenhwyfar and the battle of Camlan, nothing would more 
 effectually tend to prove that either Geoffrey or his British 
 author, had worked, at least, on ancient materials : but, unless 
 a manuscript could be produced, in the Welsh language, an- 
 terior to the twelfth century, (which it is believed, does not 
 exist,) the probability is very powerful that every remnant of 
 British literature, whether poetical or historical, in which mer- 
 c 2 
 
xxiv PREFACE. 
 
 Merlin^ in fact, he fables to have been born of 
 an incubus- devil-father of a woman : to whom, 
 beside, as if taking after his father, he has attri- 
 buted the most excellent and extensive prescience 
 of things to come : when, as'suredly, and with 
 true reasons and the sacred writings, we are 
 taught, that the devils, secluded from the light 
 of god, by no means foreknow things to come 
 by contemplation, but collect certain future 
 events from signs, better known to them than 
 to us, more by conjecture than knowledge. 
 Finally, in their ever so much subtler conjec- 
 tures, they are often deceived and deceive : 
 when, yet, by the prestiges of divinations, with 
 the unskilftd, they may arrogate to themselves 
 the prescience of things to come, which they 
 assuredly have not. Truly, the perspicuous 
 fallacy of the divinations of Merlin is in these 
 events which are known to have happened in 
 the kingdom of the Engles after the death of 
 the before-named Geoffrey, who translated the 
 trifles of these divinations out of British : to 
 which, as it is not vainly believed, he added 
 much from his own fiction. Moreover, to those 
 which happened either before him or in his own 
 days, he, in such wise, tempered his own fictions, 
 which he, certainly, could easily do, that they 
 might receive congruous interpretation. Beside, 
 
PREFACE. XXV 
 
 in his book, which he calls Tlie historij of the 
 Britons, how petulantly and how impudently 
 HE LIES, almost, through the whole, no one, un- 
 less acquainted with the old historians, when he 
 shall dip into his book, is permitted to doubt. 
 For he, who hath not learned the truth of things 
 done, admits, indiscreetly, the vanity of fables. 
 I omit how many of the acts of the Britons^ be- 
 fore the empire of Julius Cesar, this man hath 
 feigned or, feigned by others, hath written them 
 as authentic. I omit whatsoever he has raved 
 in praise of the Britons, against the faith of 
 historical truth, from the time of Julius Cesar, 
 under whom the Britons began to be of the 
 Roman empire until the time of Honorius the 
 emperor, under whom the Romans, by reason 
 of the more urgent business of the republic, 
 voluntarily departed from Britain. Certainly, 
 the Britons, the Romans departing, become 
 their own masters, yea rather left to themselves, 
 to their own ruin and exposed as prey to the 
 Picts and Scots, are read to have had a king 
 Vortigern, by whom, for the protection of the 
 kingdom, the Saxons or Engles, under their 
 leader Hengist, came into Britain -, the barbaric 
 irruptions they repelled for a time, but, after- 
 ward, having spied the fertility of the island and 
 the sloth of the natives, the league being broken. 
 
xxvi PREFACE. 
 
 they turned their arms against those by whom 
 they had been invited : who being shortly 
 routed^ their Avretched remains, which are now 
 called Welsh, they straitened in impassable 
 mountains and woods, and had, by a series of 
 succession, most brave and widely governing 
 kings : of whom were Ethelbert, the great 
 grandson of Hengist, who, his empire being ex- 
 tended from the Gallic sea into the Humber, 
 took up the light yoke of Christ, at the preach- 
 ing of Augustine j Alfred, who, presiding over 
 the Northumbrians, subdued, at once, the Bri- 
 tons and the Scots, with vast slaughter 5 Edwin, 
 who, succeeding to Alfred, reigned, at the same 
 time, over the Engles and the Britons 5 Oswald, 
 his successor, who governed all the people of 
 Britain. It will be evident, that these things, 
 according to the historical truth displayed by 
 the venerable Bede, are authentic : all things 
 which this man has taken pains to write, con- 
 cerning Arthur, and either his successors, or, 
 after Vortigern, his predecessors, partly by him- 
 self, partly, also, by others, have, it is evident, 
 been feigned, either by the unbridled passion of 
 lying or even for the sake of pleasing the Bri- 
 tons, of whom a great many are reported to be 
 so brutish, that they are said to expect that 
 Arthur is yet^ as it were, about to come, nor can 
 
PREFACE. xxvii 
 
 they bear to hear that he is dead * Finally, he 
 makes Aurelius Amhrosius succeed to Vortigern (the 
 
 * Certainly, such a tradition existed among the Britons or 
 Welsh, before the time of Geoflfrey of Monmouth. It is 
 mentioned by William of Malraesbury, who, observing that 
 the sepulchre of Arthur had never been discovered, adds, 
 " whence the antiquity of elegiac songs and fables, that he is 
 yet to come." (B. 3, P. 115.) 
 
 Master Wace, in his Roman de Brut, a liberal translation 
 from Geoffrey of Monmouth, finished in 1155, after relating the 
 battle of Camblan, proceeds to tell us, modestly enough : 
 
 ' Artur, si la geste ne ment. 
 El qiierfii nafre mortelement, 
 En Avalon sejit mener. 
 Pur se$ plaes mediciner ; 
 Uncore i est, Breton Vatendent, 
 Si com il dient e entendent ; 
 De la vendra, uncore pot vivere. 
 Meistre Wace, ki fist cest livere, 
 Nen volt plus dire de sajin 
 Ke en dist le prophete Merlin : 
 Merlin dist de Artur outdrait, 
 Ke sa mort autuse serreit. 
 Li prophete dist veritCy 
 Tut tens en ad lom puis dote, 
 E dutera co crei tut dis 
 Sil est mort u ii est vifs." 
 
 (" — Arthur himself thore 
 Men sais he wonded sore. 
 For his wondes wer to drede, 
 Therfor, thei did him lede 
 
xxviii PREFACE. 
 
 Saxons^ whom Vortigerii had sent for, being de- 
 feated and expelled) egregiously reigning in the 
 
 Into the ' ile' of Avaloun 
 
 And thus sais ilka Bretoun : 
 
 That olyve ther he es, 
 
 Man in blode and in flesch 
 
 And after him yit thei loke. 
 
 Maister Was, that ' made' this boke, 
 
 He sais no more of his fine 
 
 Than dos the prophete Merlyne : 
 
 Merlyn sais, full mervailous 
 
 That Arthur [s] dede was doutous ; 
 
 Therfor, tlje Bretons drede 
 
 And sais he ly ves in lede : 
 
 But I say thei trowe wrong 
 
 If he * ly ve' his life is long ; 
 
 Bot the Bretons loude lie. 
 
 He was so wonded him burd die.") 
 
 (Robert of Brunne.) 
 The French, in fact, have an old romance, in manuscript, 
 intitled, " Roman d'Arthus le rethor^" (that is, Arthur restored 
 or revived). Alanus de Insulis or Allan of Lile, who wrote a 
 book under the following title and died in 1202 : 
 
 " Prophetia Anglicana [1. Britatinica] et Homuna : hoc est, 
 Merlini Ambrosii Britanni, ex incubo olim, ante annos mille 
 ducentos in Anglia [1. Britannia'] nati vaticijiia, a Galfredo 
 Monumetensi Latine conscripta, una cum septem explanationum 
 in eandem prophetam, excelientissimi sui temporis oratoris, poly- 
 historis [falso] et theologi ;" Francofurti 1608, octavo. In this 
 book, after reciting this part of one of the pretended propecies 
 of the visionary Merlin (apud Galfredi Monumetensis Historia 
 regum Britanniae, L. 7, c. 3), which speaks of A ** boar of 
 
PREFACE. xxix 
 
 whole of Britain, and to him gives Uther-Pen- 
 dragon, his brother, for successor, reigning with 
 
 Cornwall," who shall give his assistance. — " The house of 
 Romulus shall dread its fierceness and his end shall be du- 
 bious :'* this boar Allan applies to Arthur, and thus proceeds : 
 ** Most, truly, indeed, as at this very day, the various opinion 
 of men proves concerning his life and death : but, if you do 
 not believe me, go into the Armorican kingdom, that is Less- 
 Britain, and i>roclaim, through the ways and streets, Arthur is 
 dead, in the manner of other dead men, and, then, certainly, 
 you will prove by the thing itself that the prophecy of Merlin 
 is true ; if, nevertheless, you should be thence able to escape 
 free ; but you [will] either be stifled by the curses of the hearers 
 or, certainly, be overwhelmed with stones (B. 1, P. 19, 20). 
 It may be fairly inferred that, about this time (as, in fact, it is 
 proved by William of Malmesbury), that this notion had be- 
 come a proverb, in use to ridicule those who were ever ready 
 to believe any thing, manifestly, impossible or absurd. This 
 occurs in the 57th epistle of Petnis Blosensis (Peter of Biois), 
 who was contemporary with Allan de insulis. 
 
 " Quibus si credideris 
 
 Expectare poteris 
 
 Arturum cum Britonibus." 
 This idea seems to be, continually, running in his head, for, in 
 the 34th epistle : " As yet," he says, " I conceive the wishes 
 of a more fortunate event and, peradventure, with the Britons, 
 I tarry for Arthur, about to come, and, with the Jews, expect 
 the Messiah," 
 
 " In Sicily," according to Gervase of Tilbury, " is mount 
 .<Etna. . . In the desert of this mountain the natives relate 
 that the great Arthur hath appeared in our times. For when, 
 on a certain day, the keeper of the palfrey of the bishop of 
 
XXX PREFACE. 
 
 no unequal power and glory -, inserting more 
 things about his Merlin, by a profuse liberty of 
 
 Catania would have beat the horse committed to him, the horse, 
 by a sudden impulse of lasciviousness [or] fatness, leaping and 
 betaking himself to his own liberty, fled. Being sought, by the 
 servant following him, through the arduous and precipitous 
 parts of the mountain and not found, fear arising to the foot- 
 man, he sought him about the obscure parts of the mountain. 
 Why more words ? a most narrow, but plain place was found : 
 the lad came into a most spacious plain, pleasant and filled 
 with all delights and there, in a palace constructed by wonder- 
 ful art, [saw] Arthur, lying on a couch of royal furniture and 
 when, from the stranger and foreigner, he demanded the cause 
 of his arrival, the cause of his journey being known, he iiume- 
 diately caused the bishops palfrey to be brought and com- 
 mended to the servant that it should be restored to the bishop ; 
 adding, that he there, of old, in a battle, with Mordred, his 
 nephew and Childeric, general of the Saxons, his wounds every 
 year bleeding afresh, had long remained sick ; yea, ratlier, as 
 I received from the natives, he destined bis presents to that 
 prelate, which were seen by many, admired by more, with 
 fabulous novelty. But, in the forests of Britain, Greater or 
 Less, similar things are reported to have happened, the foresters 
 relating it, that they, in every other day, about noon and in 
 the first dead times of nights, under the full moon, the moon 
 shining, have very often seen a number of men hunting and 
 the noise of dogs and horns, who, to those enquiring, affirm 
 that they are of the society and family of Arthur." (Otia im- 
 jierialia (Scrip, Bruns. Leibnitii, 1, 921). This seems to re- 
 semble the familia Hellequini; sec Speculum historiale Vincentii. 
 The Sicilians, of this day, have a tradition that the British 
 Arthur is still preserved alive with them, by liis sister Morgan, 
 
PREFACE. xxxi 
 
 lying. To Uther-Pendragonj being deceased^ he 
 makes Arthur, his son, to succeed in the kingdom 
 of Britain, the fourth from VortigerQ, as our 
 Bede puts Ethelbert, the patron of Augustine, 
 in the kingdom of the Engles, the fourth from 
 Hengist. Therefore, the reign of Arthur and 
 the entry of Augustine into Britain ought to con- 
 cur. But how much the mere truth of history 
 will prejudicate the falsity contrived in this 
 place, may be clearly seen by the quickness of 
 
 La fata Mm-gana, whose fairy palace, a singular phaenomenon, 
 is occasionally seen from Reggio, in the opposite sea of Mes- 
 sina. (See Swinburne's Travels in the two Sicilys, II, 263.) 
 
 " Because he [Arthur]] is said to be buried in the monasterial 
 church oS Glasinbery [Glastonbury], with this kind of epitaph : 
 
 Hicjacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexquefuturus, 
 it is believed by the vulgar that he still lives and, as it is siing in 
 comedies, is about to come by surprise, to restore the dispersed 
 and exiled Britons to their own. (Scotichronicon, see Hearne's 
 edition, p. 218). 
 
 Cervantes, upon whatever authority, put the following re- 
 lation into the mouth of Don Quixote : " Have not your wor- 
 ships read the annals and histories of England whence are 
 treated the famous actions of king Arthur, . . of whom is an 
 ancient and common tradition in all that kingdom of Great 
 Britain, that this king did not die, but, by the art of enchant- 
 ment was converted into a crow, and that, in process of time, 
 he is to return to reign and to recover his kingdom and sceptre : 
 for which reason it was never proved, that, since that time to 
 this, * an' Englishman hath killed a crow." (Part T, chap, xiii.^ 
 
xxxii PREFACE. 
 
 the mind, even by one sand-blind. This Arthur, 
 however, he makes famous and respectable over 
 all men, and wills that he should be as great in 
 his actions, as it has pleased him to feign. Fi- 
 nally, in the first place, he makes him to triumph, 
 at pleasure, over the Engles, Picts and Scots: 
 afterward to subjugate to his dominion, Ireland, 
 the Orkneys, Gothland, Norway, Denmark, 
 partly in battle, partly, also, by the sole terror 
 of his name. To these, likewise, he adds Ice- 
 land, which, according to some, is called ultima 
 Thule, that to that Briton, in truth, may appear 
 to belong that which was flatteringly said to 
 Augustus the Roman, by a noble poet : 
 iihi serviet ultima Thule. 
 
 Afterward, he makes him to vex the Gauls,* in 
 battle and over them, in a short time subdued, 
 most happily to triumph : whom Julius Cesar, 
 with the greatest dangers and labours, could 
 scarcely subjugate in ten years : that the least 
 finger, namely, of the Briton may appear [hea- 
 vier] than the loins of the great Cesar. After 
 these victories, he brings him back into Britain, 
 
 * Not the Gallos, or people, but Gallias, the countries, Cis- 
 alpine and Transalpine Gaul. The Franks, however, and not 
 the Gauls, had the possession of the latter country in Arthur's 
 time, having served the original inhabitants pretty njuch as 
 the Saxons did the Britons. 
 
PREFACE. xxxiii 
 
 with manifold triumph and makes him^ with the 
 subdued kings and princes, celebrate a most fa- 
 mous feast, at which are present three arch- 
 bishops, namely, of the Britons, of London, of 
 Caerleon, and of York 3 whereas, the Britons, in 
 fact, never had one archbishop. For Augustine, 
 having received the pallium from the Roman 
 pontiff, was made the first archbishop in Britain. 
 But the barbarous nations of Europe, also, for- 
 merly converted to the faith of Christ, content 
 with bishops, did not regard the prerogative of 
 the pallium. In fine, the Irish, Norwegians, 
 Danes, Goths, when, formerly, they are known 
 to have been christians and to have had bishops, 
 have, in our time, begun to have archbishops,* 
 Thence the fabler, that he may carry his Arthur 
 to the highest pitch, makes him to denounce 
 
 * It is probable that our author has been a little too hasty 
 in asserting that the Britons had no archbishops : saint David 
 is, constantly, in old Welsh manuscripts, called archbishop of 
 Menevia ; as saints Dubricius and Teliaus are archbishops of 
 Landaff. 
 
 " About a year after [905]," says Caradoc, " died Asser, 
 archbishop of Wales" (906. " Obiit Asser, Canibriae archie- 
 piscopus"). Historie of Cambria [1584] ; Usher, 52. Asser, 
 bishop of Sherburn, who wrote annals " 0# the actions of 
 Alfred," and died in 910, mentions an archbishop " Novis 
 (or Nonis) propinquum meum" (P. 49.) 
 D 
 
xxxiv PREFACE. 
 
 war against the Romans : before this war, in 
 single combat, to overthrow a giant of wonderful 
 size J whereas, after the times of David, one can 
 read of no giant. In the sequel, by a more pro- 
 fuse license of lying, he makes to assemble 
 against him, with the Romans, the great kings 
 of the whole world : that is to say, of Greece, 
 of Africa, of Spain, of the Parthian s, of the 
 Medes, of the Iturians, of Libya, of Egypt, of 
 Babylon, of Bithynia, of Phrygia, of Syria, of 
 Boeotia, of Crete, and relates that all were by 
 him defeated in one battle : whereas Alexander, 
 that great man, and famous in all ages, sweated 
 for twelve years in overcoming the princes in 
 some of such great kingdoms. Certainly, he 
 makes the little finger of his Arthur heavier than 
 the loins of Alexander the great, especially when^ 
 before this victory of so many kings, he makes 
 him commemorate to his followers, in a ha- 
 rangue, the subduction of thirty kingdoms, al- 
 ready made by himself and them. But our 
 fabler could not find so many kingdoms in our 
 globe, beside those mentioned^ which, certainly, 
 he had never subdued. Does he dream of ano- 
 ther globe, having infinite kingdoms, in which 
 those things happened which he has above-men- 
 tioned ? forasmuch as, in our globe, such things 
 never happened. For how could the ancient 
 
PREFACE. xxxf 
 
 historiographers, to whom it was great care to 
 omitj in writing, nothing memorable, who are 
 even known to have committed to memory in- 
 different things, pass over in silence this incom- 
 parable man and his acts, above measure remark- 
 able? How, I say, came they to suppress in 
 silence either Arthur, monarch of the Britons, 
 more noble than Alexander the great and his 
 acts, or Merlin, prophet of the Britons, equal to 
 our Isaiah and his sayings ? For what less has he 
 attributed, in the foreknowledge, that is, of 
 future things, to his Merlin, than we to our 
 Isaiah : unless that he did not dare to insert in 
 his prophecies. These things said the lord, and was 
 ashamed to insert. These things said the devil; 
 forasmuch as this ought to suit a prophet, the 
 son of an incubus demon? As, therefore, the 
 ancient historians have made not the slightest 
 mention of these things, it appears that whatso- 
 ever things, about Arthur and Merlin, this man 
 has published in writing, to feed the curiosity of 
 the imprudent, are feigned from liars : and it is 
 to be noted, that he, afterward, relates that the 
 same Arthur, mortally wounded in battle, having 
 disposed of his kingdom, went, to have his 
 wounds cured, into that island, which the British 
 fables feign, of Aval on : not darine^for fear of 
 ^2 \ 
 
xxxvi PREFACE. 
 
 the Britons, to say that he is dead/' whom yet, 
 in truth, the brutish Britons expect to come. 
 But, of the successors of Arthur, he lies with 
 equal impudence, attributing to them, until, al- 
 most, the seventh generation, the monarchy of 
 Britain, and making petty kinglets and ministers 
 of those whom the venerable Bede says were the 
 bravest kings of England, nobly governing uni- 
 versal Britain. As, therefore, to the same Bede, 
 of whose wisdom and sincerity it is not lawful to 
 doubt, faith, in all things, should be had : that 
 fabler, with his fables, without doubt, should be 
 rejected by all." 
 
 Doctor Powell, who republished the abridge- 
 ment of Geoffrey's history by Ponticus Virunnius, 
 along with the itinerary and description of Wales 
 by Girald Barry, in 1585, observes in his preface 
 to the first of those treatises that the faith of 
 Newbrough in this matter is not proved to him : 
 because, he says, '' in our annals, written three 
 hundred years before, I find it declared, in terms, 
 that this William (who is there called Gwilym 
 
 * Certainly, his exact words are these : " That famous king 
 Arthur was mortally wounded [in Cornwall, at the river Cam- 
 bula], who, thence, being carried into the island of Avallon 
 [apples] to be cured of his wounds, to his kinsman Constantine, 
 the son of Cador, duke of Cornwall, he judged in the year 
 from the incarnation of the lord 542. (B. xi. C. ii.) 
 
PREFACE. xxxvii 
 
 b^ch, that is Gulielmus parvus, Guillaume Peiyt, 
 or William Little),* after the death of Geoffrey 
 Arthur, bishop oiElguen (otherwise Saint Asaph), 
 when he had sought for the bishopric, about 
 1165, and suiBfered a repulse, and being illtreated 
 by David, the son of prince Owen, thence to 
 have taken cause of back-biting and, afterward, 
 vomited the venom of his malice upon the Bri- 
 tish nation, which, to a prudent reader, also, 
 will," he thinks, " easily appear, from the acri- 
 mony and bitterness of his writing :" in answer 
 to which, one need only say, with honest Tom 
 Hearne : '* I wish Powell had described the 
 very words of these annals, and indicated in what 
 place or in what library, he found it." 
 
 Even Girald Barry, himself a Welshman and 
 a bishop, calls the British history a lying book : 
 " Sicut FABULOSA Gulfridi mentitur historia.*'f 
 The same author, likewise, mentions a Welsh- 
 man, in his own time, whose name was Melerius ; 
 he was expert in magic and familiar with devils. 
 Inspecting a book full of lies and either written 
 
 * He is found under all these names (except the Welsh) ; 
 was bom at Bridlington, in 1135 and, from his being a canon 
 of Newbrough, near Coxwold, in Yorkshire, is usually called 
 Gulielmus Newbrigensis or William of Newbrougg. Sec 
 Hearne, Cave, Tanner, <J-f . 
 
 t Description of Wales C. 7. 
 
xxxviii PREFACE. 
 
 falsely or even containing in itself what was 
 false, he straitway, though he were, altogether, 
 illiterate, put his finger to the place of falsehood. 
 It happened, upon a time, the unclean spirits too 
 much insulting him, that he put in his bosom 
 the gospel of saint John ; when, instantaneously, 
 these devils, flying like birds, all entirely va- 
 nished : which gospel being, afterward, taken 
 away and the history of the Britons, written by 
 Geoffrey Arthur, substituted in its place, for the 
 sake of the experiment, not, only, to his whole 
 body, but, also, to the book put upon him, they 
 sat a long while, more frequently and more 
 offensively than usual. -^ It is not, therefore, true, 
 that John Wethamstede, abbot of Saint-Albans, 
 and a writer of great merit, about the year 1460, 
 was " the first opposer of the story of king Brute,** 
 as bishop Nicholson asserts, from " John Stow's 
 preface to his chronicle 3*' neither does it appear 
 where Whethamstede has made such opposition ; 
 which, however, will, undoubtedly, do him cre- 
 dit when discovered.! The history of Geoffrey, 
 bishop as he was, has been, likewise, pronounced, 
 
 * Itinerary of Wales, B. I. C. 5. 
 
 t His words, as cited, by Nordeu, in his Speculum Br it an- 
 rue, 1593, p. 3, are " Totus processus de Bruto illo est poeticus, 
 potius quam historiciis :" but whence he had them docs not 
 appear. 
 
PREFACE. xxxix 
 
 without the least ceremony or respect, by myn- 
 heer Scriver, a Butch critic, " a great, heavy, 
 long, thick, palpable and most impudent, lie: 
 which," says he, *' the learned will know with- 
 out my admonition or demonstration,"* and sir 
 William Temple has declared, " That it is a tale 
 forged at pleasure, by the wit or folly of its first 
 author, and not to be regarded, "f 
 
 It must, indeed, respecting the Britons or 
 modern Welsh, be confessed, that no people in 
 the world can have more vanity or less judgment. 
 As conclusive proofs of this assertion, they have 
 all along believed and still do believe, not only 
 the authenticity of the celebrated history, of 
 which we are, at present, discussing the merits, 
 but, also, its internal veracity and even infallibi- 
 lity, as if the offspring of divine inspiration, 
 though abounding as we have seen and shall see, 
 more and more clearly, in looking over it, a lie 
 in every leaf, with the most extravagant and 
 absurd events 5 and being, throughout, altogether 
 contradictory to and contradicted by, the Roman 
 and Saxon history, and that, in short, of every 
 ancient nation. To prove, if j)ossible, in a 
 stronger degree, the singular propensity and 
 perverseness of this extraordinary people, John 
 
 * Sheringham, p. 8. 
 
 t Introduction to the historu of England. 
 
xl PREFACE. 
 
 Lewis, esquire, barrister at law, one of its most 
 esteemed antiquaries, as they call them, and, in 
 the bulk, at least, if not the matter and merit, 
 of his work, its principal historian, having, about 
 the year 1613, composed or compiled, what he 
 was pleased to intitle, '' The history of Great- 
 Britain, from the first inhabitants thereof, till 
 the death of Cadwallader, &c." being printed 
 and published at London, in a large and pompous 
 folio, in 1729, and edited, with a parallel intro- 
 duction, by one Hugh Thomas, another Welsh- 
 man, equally idiotical. This verbose historio- 
 grapher, not content with the series of British 
 kings, invented or improved by Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth and commencing with Brute, great- 
 grandson of ^neas, 1159 years before the chris- 
 tian sera, has deduced his chronology '' from the 
 floude to Brute," on the immaculate authority of 
 " The five books of antiquities of Berosus [the 
 Chaldean]," one of the infamous and long- be- 
 fore-exploded, forgeries of John Annius of Vi- 
 terbo, a monk of the order of saint Dominick, 
 edited at Rome in 1497, folio -, which one might 
 be well assured would be greedily swallowed by 
 the Welsh antiquaries, among whom was Hum- 
 phrey Llwyd, in Mr. Camden's opinion, one of 
 the best of his time; who, in his " Britannica 
 descriptionis commentariolum (Colonice, 1568Jj. 
 
PREFACE. xli 
 
 speaking of the antiquity of the British tongue, 
 he addSj '' Antiquissimam etiam fuisse ex Beroso, 
 Annio, Giambullario et Postello, liquet" : ad- 
 mirable authorities, no doubt, for a Welsh an- 
 tiquary! The first monarch of this more ancient 
 series is ^' Gomer, the father of [the] Cymhri 
 and Gaules," the second, Samothes, Dis orDis- 
 celta ; and so he goes on, to Magus, Sarron, 
 Druys, Bardus, Longus, Lucus, Celtes, Galates, 
 Narbon, Lugdus, Belgius, Jasius, AUobrox, 
 j^gyptus, Parys, Olbius, Galates, junior y Namnes 
 and Francicus : all perfect nonentities and men 
 of straw ! To this mendacious, impudent, and 
 absurd farago, the romance of Geoffrey Arthur, 
 which, certainly, has no inconsiderable smack of 
 both scholarship and talent, is truth and lustre. 
 It is, nevertheless, held in the highest credit and 
 estimation by the modern Welsh, as the forgeries 
 of Hector Bois, adopted by Buchanan and even 
 introduced by Lewis, as affording suitable com- 
 panions for his ante-Biuteian kings, are by the 
 Scots. 
 
 To return, however, to " the long-lost Arthur 5" 
 who, after being so highly extolled by the right- 
 reverend father in god, Geoffrey, lord bishop of 
 Saint-Asaph and his herd of plagiarists and pa- 
 rasites, as the greatest, richest, most powerful, 
 valiant, glorious and successful monarch, that 
 
xlii PREFACE. 
 
 ever reigned in the world, has, not only had his 
 sovereignty, valour, glory and good fortune, but, 
 even, his very existence, positively and absolutely 
 denied, by an author of the eighteenth century, 
 of scarcely less notoriety than that accomplished 
 prelate of the twelfth j whom, however he may 
 imitate in one instance, he widely differs from 
 in another 5 his lordship being a " Cumri" and 
 a " Celt," his emulator, a '' Goth" or " Pik," a 
 Pikish-Goth or Gothick-Pik. '' The reader," 
 according to this learned historian, " need hardly 
 be told, that Arthur was, merely, a name given, 
 by the Welch, [Welsh] to Aurelius Amhrosius 
 their Roman defender against the Saxons" fEn- 
 quiry, I, 76) : he refers, in support of this modest 
 and veracious assertion, to Gildas, C. 25 and 
 Bade, I, 16; meaning, no doubt, Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth, B. 8, C. 2 3 with the same facility 
 and integrity, as he is, on other occasions, ac- 
 customed to cite John Fordun under the name 
 of William of Malmesbury (see Enquiry, II. 203, 
 Wil. Malms.) in whom no such thing is to be 
 found : but consult, Fordun, B. 4, C. 44 -, again 
 II, 220 : '' But William of Malmesbury [John 
 Fordun] says, that Malcom [Malcolm] only per- 
 mitted Duncan, his grandson and heir, who was 
 possessed of Cumberland, to pay homage for 
 that province : this plain account sufficiently 
 
PREFACE. xliii 
 
 refutes the usurpative style of the Saxon chroni- 
 cle" and the words of Wynne, the sophisticator 
 of Carddoc, for those of that author (Enquiry 
 I, 96J. Neither Gildas, in fact, nor Bede, though 
 both mention (not, indeed, Aurelius Amhrosius, a 
 corruption of Geoffrey of Monmouth) Amhrosms 
 Jurelianusj (followed by Girald Barry) says any 
 such thing, never once naming or any way al- 
 luding to Arthur. Even Geoffrey himself makes 
 them distinct personages, and, that they actually 
 were so, will, sufficiently, appear by the direct 
 and positive testimony of Nennius, William of 
 Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon and Carddoc 
 of Llancarvan ; all ancient and respectable his- 
 torians. As for the first, he died long before the 
 rest were born 5 although not one of the latter 
 ever had or saw a copy of Geoffrey's history, as 
 he himself boasts, except Henry of Huntingdon, 
 who did not meet with it, till after he had pub- 
 lished, at least, the first seven books of his own. 
 He, nevertheless, reasserts, " That Arthur was 
 Aurelius Ambrosius is certain, but the Arthur of 
 Welch history is a non-existence" {Enquiry, 
 I, 76) : an assertion just as true as that Alexan- 
 der the great was Julius Cesar, or Merlin the 
 prophet, John Pinkerton. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 KING ARTHUR. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF KING ARTHUR, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Of the Britons, 
 
 1 HE most ancient author, from whom we have 
 any account of the Britons is, unquestionably^ 
 Julius Cesar J who, in the year of Rome 698, be- 
 ing the 55th before the vulgar aera, invaded 
 Britain, for the first time, and, in the following 
 year, repeated the attempt j having, on both oc- 
 casions, had many severe, though, in some mea- 
 sure, successful, engagements with the natives ; 
 but, assuredly, not succeeding in his project to 
 subjugate the island to the Roman dominion : 
 since, as the historical poet, Lucan, makes Pom- 
 pey observe : 
 
 " Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis ?"* 
 The energy, in fact, and vigour of their attacks 
 or repulses, their military manoeuvres and pecu- 
 
 * L. 2. V. 572. 
 
4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 liar methods of war, many of which are de- 
 scribed by Cesar, sufficiently prove them to have 
 been^ at this period, a brave, resolute and war- 
 .like nation;. "The Britons themselves," accord- 
 'ihg to t'acUus; '•'^diligently performed the levy 
 •ar/d tributes and the esnjoined taxes of the empire, 
 if injuries were absent : these they bore grievously, 
 now subdued, that they should obey, not yet, 
 that they should be slaves. Therefore, when 
 the deified Julius, first of all the Romans^ having 
 entered Britain with an army, although he 
 affrighted the inhabitants by a prosperous battle 
 and may have obtained the coast, may be thought 
 to have shewn it to posterity, not delivered it."* 
 '^The interior part of Britain," says Cesar, 
 " was inhabited by those^ whom born in the 
 island itself they said to be deduced from me- 
 mory J the maritime part by those, who, for the 
 sake of carrying on plunder and war, had passed 
 over from the Belgs. , . . Of all these, by far 
 the most humane, were those who inhabited 
 Kent : which country was all maritime nor dif- 
 fered much from the Gallic custom, "f " As to 
 the rest," according to Tacitus, ^' those mortals 
 who, in the beginning, cultivated Britain, 
 whether natives or strangers, as among barba- 
 
 • Life of Julius Agricola, 13. 
 t Of the Gallic war, B. 5. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 5 
 
 rians, being little known. The habits of their 
 bodies [were] various, and from these argu- 
 ments : for the red hair of those inhabiting 
 Caledonia [and their] large limbs asserted a Ger- 
 manick origin.* The swarthy countenances of 
 the Silures and their hair for the most part curled 
 and Spain placed opposite to them, made faith 
 that the ancient Iberians had passed over and 
 occupied these seats ; the next to the Gauls are, 
 also, like them : whether by the virtue of their 
 origin enduring or whether by lands running in 
 adverse [Britain] , the state of the climate have 
 given the habit to their bodies : nevertheless, to 
 one estimating into the whole, it was credible 
 that the Gauls occupied the neighbouring soil. 
 You would discover their sacred rites by the 
 persuasion of their superstitions : their speech 
 being not much diflferent, the same audacity in 
 dangers called for and, when they came, the 
 «ame terror in refiising them.f They appear, 
 
 * These circumstances, however, in historians much more 
 ancient than Tacitus, are, expressly, asserted to be the charao- 
 teristics of the Gauls. 
 
 t Life ofAgricola, P. 11. The difficulty of ascertaining the 
 origin of aii ancient nation is, universally, acknowledged : the 
 Homans, even, were ignorant of their own. It is, however, pe- 
 culiarly, difficult to investigate whence the Britons, originally, 
 came : was it from Gaul, where, there was a nation of Britons, 
 |>iaced upon the river Samara, now the Somme, inthe province 
 
 E 
 
6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 in Caesar's time, as was tbe case, indeed, down to 
 a very late period, to have been governed by 
 
 of Picardy, running between Abbeville and Saint-Vallery, up 
 to Amiens. There is, certainly, a strong analogy between 
 Gallia and Wallia, Gaxils and Walls. This subject will afford 
 discussion at some future period. How came they by the 
 name of Britons, in such ancient times ? What is its etymology ? 
 A curious and important object of disquisition. Why had the 
 Britons, in the sixth century called their country Wallia, as 
 it appears in the awdyl vraith of Taliesin (Myvyrian archai- 
 ology of Wales, 1, 95) ? They seem to have adopted, from the 
 Romans, the fabulous idea of having come from Troy. In the 
 Hanes Taliesin, Taliesin's history {Ibi, 19, 20) is the following 
 stanza : 
 
 ** Mi afum yn Africa 
 
 Cyn adeilad Roma 
 
 Mi a ddoetkym yma 
 
 At wedillion Troia." 
 
 (I have been in Africa 
 
 Before Rome was built, 
 
 I have come here 
 
 To the remnants of Troy.) 
 
 In another poem of Taliesin, already mentioned, Awdyl vraith, 
 a principal class of metres (Ibi, 92, 94) is the subsequent 
 stanza : 
 
 " Och dduw, mor druan 
 Y daw V ddarogan 
 Drwy ddirvawr gwynvan 
 I lin Troea:' 
 (0 god ! how wretched I'm become 
 The prophecy concerns me much. 
 Through lamentation infinite. 
 
 The line of Troy.) 
 
KING ARTHUR. 7 
 
 several petty kings or chieftains j to one of 
 whom, Cassivelaun, '' whose borders," he says, 
 '* from the maritime cities a river divided, which 
 
 These extracts are translated as literally as possible. It 
 seems, therefore, that the bard had imagined his countrymen, 
 as the Romans pretended, to be Trojans and to have come, 
 with Brute, into Britain, after the destruction of Troy ; pos- 
 sibly, he received his information from Virgil's Aeneis, with 
 which, at least, Gildas was familiar, as he cites, in his 14th 
 chapter, part of th6se two lines : 
 
 *' Non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis 
 Exiit, 0ppositasque evicit gurgite moles.'* 
 
 (L. 2, V. 496, 7.) 
 
 Their descendants, the present Welsh, call themselves 
 Cynmry or Gynmry, in Latin, Cumbri or Cambri; a name, 
 however, used neither by Gildas, Bede nor Nennius nor, in 
 short, by any historian, before Geoffrey of Monmouth (except 
 by Fabian Ethelwerd (P. 844), who, manifestly, means the in- 
 habitants of Cumberland, which name, likewise, occurs in the 
 Saxon chronicle (Eumbjia-lanb, p. 115) and, apparently, 
 meaning bastards. (See Glos. LL. Wal. voce Cymmerjad.) 
 William Owen, in his Welsh dictionary, explains " Cymro, 
 s. wt. — fl. cymry (cy-bro) A Welshman. Cyrary," he says, 
 *• is the universal appellation by which the Welsh call them- 
 selves ;.... and the name," he asserts, "is, undoubtedly, the 
 origin of the Cimbri and Cimmerii, in ancient authors :" The 
 Cimbri and Cimmeni however, were, notoriously, two as dif- 
 ferent people as it is possible for two people to be : the former, 
 who were Germans, were never heard of before the T^Oth year 
 before Christ ; whereas, the Cimmerii (who are mentioned by 
 Homer, 907, and by Herodotus, 469, years before him) made 
 war on Alyattes the second, king of Lydia, who began to 
 
8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 was called the Thames, about eighty miles from 
 the sea. To him, in former times, with the re- 
 maining cities, the continental wars had passed 
 between : but, the Britons, being thoroughly 
 moved by our arrival, the whole had set him 
 over the war and the government." He, like- 
 wise mentions Mandrubatius, a chief of the Trino- 
 bantes, now Londoners, who had fled to him, for 
 protection, in Gaul, that he might avoid the fate 
 of his father, Imanuentius whom Cassivelaun had 
 put to death. In Kent, alone, it seems no less 
 than four kings presided, Cingetorix, Carnilius, 
 Taxigulus, and Segonax. Another of these petty 
 princes is noticed hy Florns: '^ Caesar," he says, 
 " in his second expedition, pursuing the Britons, 
 in the Caledonian woods, put, likewise, one of 
 the kings of the Cavelani in chains." t Cassive- 
 
 reign in the 619th year before Christ and reigned 57 years. 
 The Saxons caUedthem, ll)ala]r,lUealapUJeallap (Wawls) 
 lUealh, tUaelijrcman, UJaelj-e, UJilj-c, UJylij-c (Welsh) 
 UJealhajf , foreigners, strangers or barbarians, for what reason 
 cannot be ascertained ; and those of South- Wales, UJallejl- 
 pente (Saxon chronicle and Lye's dictionary.) The Cumry, 
 Taffy says, are Cimpri, Cimerii, or Gomerii, from Gomer of the 
 olt testament, as hur is creat etymolochist ant font of an olt 
 peticree. 
 
 t Those people, though precisely so named, are supposed 
 to have been the natives of Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire^ 
 and some adjoining counties. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 
 
 laun, in fine, on the loss of a great battle, sent 
 ambassadors to sue for peace, which application, 
 Caesar, stipulating a tribute and receiving hos- 
 tages, appears to have complied with. He re- 
 turned to Gaul and never after revisited Britain 
 nor (excepting that *' Caligula, being in Germany, 
 did no more than receive the submission of Ad- 
 minius, the son of Kinobelin, a British prince, 
 who, being forced from his father, came over to 
 him, with a small body of troops 3 yet, as if the 
 whole island had been surrendered to him, be 
 sent bouncing letters to Rome upon it")* was 
 any further attempt made till the reign of 
 Claudius, 
 
 * Suetonius, Caligula, c. 44. 
 
 II 
 
10 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Of Carddoc, a British king". 
 
 When (in the year of the vulgar sera 51) Osto- 
 riusj the propraetor, fought a battle against the 
 Britons, in which the latter were defeated. 
 " This victory,' according to Tacitus, " was 
 famous, and the wife and daughter of Carddoc 
 (Caractacus) y [prince of the Silures, inhabitants 
 of present South-Wales, ''whom," the author 
 says, '' many perilous and many prosperous 
 things, had exalted so high, that he far ex- 
 celled the other generals of the Britons,"] his 
 brethren, also, being received into surren- 
 der. He himself (as, for the most part, unsafe 
 things are adverse) when he had entreated the 
 faith of Cartismanduaj queen of the Brigantes, was 
 chained and delivered to the victors, after the 
 ninth year, when the war in Britain [was] be- 
 gun : whence his fame carried into the islands 
 and, spread about the nearest, was, likewise, 
 celebrated through Italy, and they desired to see 
 him, who had, so many years, disdained our 
 riches. So that not, at Rome, truly, the name 
 
KING ARTHUR. H 
 
 of Carddoc was ignoble ; and Caesar, whilst his 
 grace extolled [him], added glory to the con- 
 quered. The people, moreover, being called, as 
 to a famous spectacle. The praetorian cohorts 
 stood in arms, in the field, which lay before ihe 
 camp. Then the royal clients walking in state, 
 trappings and torques and what things he had 
 got in external wars, being brought over: by 
 and by, his brethren and his wife and his 
 daughter : lastly he himself being presented. 
 The supplications of the rest were degenerate, 
 out of fear : but not Carddoc, either with a de- 
 jected look or asking mercy with words. When 
 he stood up to the tribunal, he spoke in this 
 manner : *' If how much nobility and fortune 
 was mine, so much moderation had been of pros- 
 perous things, I had come into this city a friend 
 rather than a captive nor disdained, to be born of 
 famous ancestors, governing many nations, to 
 receive a treaty of peace. My present lot, as 
 much as it is dishonourable to me, so is it mag- 
 nificent to thee : I have had horses, men, arms, 
 riches ; what wonder j if I have lost these 
 against my will ? Whether, if you [Romans] 
 will govern all, does it follow, that all should 
 receive slavery ? If, incontinently, being given 
 up, I should be delivered -, neither my fortune 
 nor thy glory, would grow famous and the pu- 
 
12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 nishment of me will be followed by oblivion : 
 but, if thou shouldst preserve me safe, I shall 
 be an everlasting example of thy clemency." At 
 these [words] Caesar granted pardon both to 
 himself and his wife and his brethren."* 
 
 • Annals, B. xii, 36. It is, by no means probable that 
 Carddoc actually delivered this speech, though he might have 
 said, through an interpreter, something becoming his situation. 
 This is only what Tacitus conceives he should or might have 
 said. The practice seems to have been introduced by livy, an.d 
 ended, perchance, in GeoiFrey of Monmouth. 
 
KING ARTHUR. IS 
 
 CHAP. ni. 
 
 Of Venusius, Paulinus Suetonius, Prasutagus, 
 and Boudicea. 
 
 After Carddoc was taken, Venusius, chief in 
 the science of warfare, and in the city of the 
 lugantes, and being long faithful, was defended 
 by the Roman arms, when he held queen Cartis- 
 mandua in matrimony, discord having, by and 
 by, risen and, straightway, also, against the 
 Romans, he had taken [up] hostilities : but, at 
 first, it was, only, contested among themselves, 
 and Cartismandua, by wily arts, cut off the bro- 
 ther and near of kin of Venusius.* 
 
 When Paullinus Suetonius obtained the Britons, 
 he made ready to fall upon the isle of Mona,f 
 strong in inhabitants and a receptacle of refugees, 
 and built ships, with a plain bottom, against a 
 narrow and uncertain shore. So the foot-soldiers, 
 following the horsemen in the ford or higher, 
 among the waters, swimming after the horses, 
 
 * Tadti Annales. L. 12, $ 40. 
 
 t Mon, in British, now Anglesey, or the Engles-isle, so named 
 by the Saxons. 
 
14 THE LIFE OF 
 
 passed over. On the opposite shore stood the 
 army in battalia, close with arms and men, the 
 women, running, to and fro, in the manner of 
 furies, their vests being funereal, their hair dis- 
 heveled, bore torches and the druids, round 
 about, their hands being lifted up, pouring-out 
 direful prayers, astonished the soldiers with the 
 novelty of the sight, that, as if, with members 
 sticking together, they would oflFer an immove- 
 able body to wounds. Afterward, at the exhort- 
 ations of the general and they themselves stimu- 
 lating each other, lest they should fear a female 
 and fanatic crew, they brought up the ensigns 
 and threw down those opposing and involved 
 them in their own fire. Afterward, a guard 
 being set over the vanquished and the groves, 
 sacred to their cruel superstitions, being cut 
 down : for they held it lawful to worship [upon] 
 the altars with captive blood and consult their 
 gods with the entrails of men. Suetonius acting 
 these things a sudden revolt of the province was 
 announced.* 
 
 PrasutaguSj king of the Icenians, famous by 
 long opulence, had inscribed Caesar and his two 
 daughters his heir, thinking, by such obsequious- 
 ness, his kingdom, and, likewise, his household, 
 
 * Taciti Annates, L. 14, § 29. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 15 
 
 to be far from injury j which turned out the 
 contrary : insomuch that, the kingdom by cen- 
 turions, the houses by slaves, were wasted, like 
 as those taken by force. Now, for the first time, 
 his wife, Boudicea,* was *^ afflicted' with scourges 
 and his daughters were violated and whosoever 
 were the principal of the Icenians, as if they had 
 received the whole region for a gift, they were 
 stripped of their ancient possessions and their 
 relations were held among the slaves of the king. 
 Already (in the 62d year of the vulgar sera) [to] 
 Suetonius, the fourteenth legion, with their stan- 
 dard-bearers and the soldiers of the twentieth 
 legion and the auxiliaries out of the nearest, 
 were, almost, sent ten thousand armed men : 
 but the forces of the Britons, everywhere, by 
 battalions and troops, rejoiced, exceedingly, how 
 great a multitude, nowhere else and with a mind 
 so savage, that their wives, likewise, they drew 
 with them, as witnesses of their victory, and put 
 them in waggons, which they had set upon the 
 outermost place of the field. Boudicea, carrying 
 her daughters, before her, in a chariot, as she 
 approached to every nation, testified, " It to be 
 usual, indeed, for the Britons to wage war : but 
 
 * Otherwise, Boodicia (Tacitus, elsewhere) ; Voadica (Vit?t 
 A^ricolae) ; ^av^axot, (Bunduica), Dion. 
 
16 THE LIFE OF 
 
 then not, as being sprung from such great ances- 
 tors, having lost a kingdom and riches 3 but, 
 only, as one out of the common people, having 
 lost her liberty, to revenge her body, wasted by 
 stripes, the chastity of her daughters violated : 
 that the lusts of the Romans had proceeded so 
 far, that not bodies nor, even, old-age or vir- 
 ginity unpolluted, they should leave. Neverthe- 
 less, that the gods of just vengeance were pre- 
 sent : that a legion had fallen, which had dared 
 the battle :* that the rest were hidden in their 
 camps or were looking about flight. Not so 
 much as the noise and clamour of so many thou- 
 sands, much less their assaults and hands would 
 they endure. If they would consider with them- 
 selves the forces of armed men, if the causes of 
 war, it behoved to conquer or fall, in that battle. 
 That is destined to a woman : let the men live 
 and be slaves !" Suetonius, truly, did not keep 
 silence in so great a danger : who, although he 
 confided in valour, he, nevertheless, mingled 
 exhortations and prayers. . . Such ardour followed 
 the words of the general, and so much did the 
 soldier, old and with much experience of battles, 
 bestir himself, to the flinging of piles, that the 
 
 * At " The Colony," as the Romans called it, otherwise 
 Camolodunum, now Colchester : it resembled Chelsea-hospital, 
 in so far, as it was the residence of the invalids of the legions. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 17 
 
 event was certain, should Suetonius give the sign 
 of battle and, in the first place, the legion, with 
 steadfast pace and retaining the straits of the 
 place for a defence, broken forth as a wedge, 
 after the enemy creeping along nearer had ex- 
 hausted his darts with a certain throw. The 
 same attacks of the auxiliaries and the horsemen, 
 spears being outstretched, broke through the 
 line, which was opposed and strong. The rest 
 offered their backs, in difficult flight, because, 
 their waggons laid about, barred the passages 
 and the soldiers did not restrain, truly, the 
 slaughter of the women, and the cattle, pierced 
 with darts, had increased the heap of bodies. 
 Illustrious praise and equal to ancient victories 
 was obtained in that day : forasmuch as, there 
 were those who reported, little less than 80,000 
 of Britons to have been slain -, almost, 400 of 
 soldiers being killed, nor much more wounded. 
 Boudicea ended her life by poison.* 
 
 * Taciti Annales, L. 14, § 25. Dio, however, gives a dif- 
 ferent account of this British virago : ** For the most part, Bun- 
 duica, a British w^oman, sprung from a royal race, persuaded 
 those [Britons] that they should, openly, carry on a war with 
 the Romans ; she who, not only, presided over them with great 
 dignity, but, likewise, conducted every war; nourishing 
 greater spirits than became a woman : for the army being 
 assembled, to 1,20,000 of men, she mounted upon a tribunal, 
 made of moorish turves, in the Roman manner : a woman with 
 
18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 a very large body, a fierce look, a very sour face, a rough 
 voice, who let her very thick hair and the same very yellow,* 
 reach down to her buttocks. She carried, also, a large gold 
 torques and wore a robe covered over with different colours and 
 bound hard to her bosom, to which she had overcast a tliick 
 cloak, connected with the help of a brooch : which habit she, 
 not only, at that time and at others, always, used, but with a 
 spear, likewise, taken into her hands, with which she amazed 
 all present, she spoke after this manner : " Truly," &c. [The 
 speech is too long to recite, and may not be genuine.] When 
 she had said these words, she sent a hare out of her bosom, in 
 order to an omen being taken : which, afterward, ran luckily ; 
 the whole multitude, with joyful minds, shouted together. 
 Then Bunduica, with her hand raised to heaven, I thank thee, 
 said, Adraste and a woman myself, invoke thee a woman not 
 reigning over Egyptian porters, as Nitocrisi; not over Assy- 
 rian merchants, as Semiramis (for these we have received, 
 already from the Romans) nor, again, over the Romans them- 
 selves, as, a little before, Messalina, afterward, Agrippina, now 
 Nero, who, being called by the name of a man, is in fact, a 
 woman : that which I have been able to understand of him, 
 that he sings with voice and harp and that he is dressed like 
 women : but am set over men, Britons, who have learned, not 
 to till fields nor to be mechanics, but to wage wars, in the best 
 manner : who, as all other things, so they esteem their children 
 and wives to be common among themselves and, therefore, also, 
 reigning over these women, who exercise the same valour with 
 their husbands. When, therefore, I may obtain a kingdom 
 among such kind of men and women, I pour out my prayers to 
 
 * Hentzner says of our Queen Elizabeth, who seems, in 
 more instances than one, to have resembled the British Bun- 
 duica, " she wore false hair and that red." 
 
 t A celebrated queen of Babylon, mentioned by Herodotus. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 19 
 
 thee and intreat from tliee victory, health, liberty, against 
 injurious, dishonest, insatiable and wicked men : if such beings 
 are to be called men, who are washed in hot water, eating 
 meats, sumptuously prepared, drinking pure wine, besmeared 
 with ointments, lying softly, coupling with boys and those past 
 their date, and serving a harper, indeed, a bad one. Not to 
 me, I beseech, not to you, for the remaining time, let this 
 Neronia or Domitia to govern ; singing, she should rule the 
 Roman people : for he is worthy who would serve a woman of 
 this kind, whose tyrarmy so long a space of time, already, he 
 should sustain. Thou, truly, lady, I entreat alone, wouldst 
 rule over us. (Cassii Dionis Historia RomanOy Ham, 1752, 
 folio II, 1003.) 
 
 Bunduica, having destroyed two cities of the Romans, ap- 
 pointed toward the captives a most execrahle punishment, 
 ** it truly was very cruel and very barbarous, because they 
 ' suspended the most noble and most honourable women naked 
 and sewed their paps cut olF to their own mouths, that they 
 might seem to eat them and, afterward, transfixed those very 
 women, with very sharp stakes, through the whole body, ac- 
 cording to its length, and did all these things, performing, 
 at once, the ceremonies of their religion and feasting and bear- 
 ing themselves, lasciviously, as well in their other temples as, 
 especially, hi the grove of Andat6 : for so they called Victory 
 and worshipped her, most earnestly." (^Ibi, 1008.) Bunduica 
 was extinguished by disease and many, grievously, bewailed 
 her and buried her, magnificently. (I6j, 1011.) 
 
20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Of Agricola and Calgac. 
 
 I N the 78th year of the vulgar sera lulius Agri- 
 cola arrived in Britain : in 80^ he penetrated to the 
 firth of Forth: in 82, having passed over [thefirth] 
 in the first ship, he vanquished nations, unknown 
 at that time, in frequent, at once and prosperous 
 battles : in 84, he came to the Grampian -mount,* 
 which now the enemies had sitten upon : for 
 the Britons, nothing broken by the event of the 
 former fight, and expecting revenge or slavery. 
 Forthwith, more than thirty thousand of armed 
 men were beheld and, hitherto, flowed in all the 
 youth and with whom the raw and green age, 
 famous in war and every one bearing his honours : 
 when, among many generals, one excelling in 
 valour and race, by name Calgac, who, to the 
 multitude, demanding battle, delivered a speech* 
 They received the oration cheerful and with 
 a song of barbarous manner and shouting and 
 
 * A hill in Buchan, now called Mm-mmind. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 21 
 
 dissonant clamours. Agricola having spoken j 
 immediately, a running to arms. The dreadful 
 battle commenced, which is unnecessary to de- 
 scribe here -, suffice it to say, the Britons were 
 defeated, with the slaughter of ten thousand j of 
 the Romans no more than three hundred and 
 forty fell. The Britons, wandering and with the 
 mixed wailing of men and women, to draw the 
 wounded, to call the entire, to desert their 
 houses and through anger, of their own accord, 
 to set them on fire : to choose lurking places 
 and, straightway leave them, and it appeared, 
 sufficiently, some to have been cruel toward 
 their wives and children, as much as they com- 
 passionated them. The next day opened the 
 face of victory more widely : everywhere a vast 
 silence, secret hills, houses smoking afar oflF, no 
 one meeting the spies : by whom, into every part 
 dismissed, where uncertain vestiges of flight nor 
 any where found the enemies to" be gathered 
 round.* Thus Tacitus. 
 
 * Rolt, the historian, observes, that (in 1746) " the Duke 
 of Cumberland issued a proclamation for disarming such of 
 the clans as refused to surrender themselves; a camp was 
 ^stablislied at Fort- Augustus, whence several detachments 
 were sent to ruin and depopulate the rebellious country j 
 where the devastation was so great, that, for the space of fifty 
 fuiles, neither house, man, nor beast was to be seen ; which wai 
 F 
 
22 THE LIFE OF 
 
 For some centuries after this, the history of 
 Britain is very obscure. It was, in fact, a Roman 
 province and, generally, speaking, perfectly tame 
 and submissive.* If, however, we may believe 
 two, comparatively, late historians, Dio, that is, 
 and Herodian, the Britons were not essentially 
 improved, in their dress or manners, by their 
 intercourse with the accomplished masters of 
 the world, who had strong garrisons in every 
 part of the island : some of the generals, occa- 
 sionally, usurping the purple. 
 
 the entire subjugation of this fierce and intractable people, 
 whom neither tlic Romans nor Saxons could reduce, and who 
 had often bid defiance to their native kings." Conduct of the 
 Powers of Europe, IV, 212.) [Every man of taste remembers 
 and admires (and it was originally the author's uitention to 
 insert) the beautiful and pathetic lines of Dr. Smollett on this 
 disgraceful proceeding, beginning, 
 
 " Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn." EdJ] 
 
 * Jove fix'd it certain, that whatever day 
 
 Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away. 
 Pope's Homer. 
 
KING ARTHUR. «3 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Of the Britons, Picts, and Scots. 
 
 About the year of the vulgar sera, 360, the 
 Britons began to be harassed by two barbarous 
 nations, from the north and west, which, like 
 devouring locusts, swarmed over the island and 
 extended their depredations from beyond the 
 Scotish sea or firth of Forth, up even to the 
 gates of London. These savages were denomi- 
 nated (whether by themselves or their enemies 
 is uncertain) Picts and Scots -, they, formerly, 
 had established themselves, for some indefinite 
 time, in the north of Caledon or modern Scotland -, 
 the Scots in Ireland, whence they came over in 
 swarms, to associate with their allies, in the 
 plunder and devastation of the now enervated 
 Britons j but whence they had come, originally, 
 is a fact which it has not been possible to ascer- 
 tain. The Romans, after building for the Bri- 
 tons or teaching themselves to build, walls for 
 their protection : a precaution, by the way, they 
 never either observed themselves or recom- 
 
24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 mended to their subjected provinces, on any 
 other occasion : well knowing that it is the 
 heads, the hearts, the hands, of men, which are 
 to defend them from their enemies, and not 
 ditches or mounds.* This, however, being as 
 it may, the Romans, in or about the year 404, t 
 either not esteeming the island capable or wor- 
 thy, of defence or, possibly, judging their pre- 
 sence and forces of greater importance to the 
 state, in Gaul or Italy, withdrew, not, only, with 
 their own legions, but with all the flower of the 
 British youth, never *^ after' to return 5 and now 
 the northern wolves, regarding neither walls 
 nor ditches, leaped over the borders, in number- 
 less herds, ravaging and devouring all before 
 them. The wretched and enervate Britons, in 
 the year 446, not able nor, even, willing, to help 
 themselves, had recourse to their old masters 5 
 
 * ** The strength of a city," said Agesilaus, king of Sparta, 
 ** does not consist in its walls, but in the courage of the inha- 
 bitants." The poet Alcizus was of the same mind : " Not 
 stones nor timber," he says, " nor the art of builders are cities ; 
 but, wherever there are men, themselves how to preserve 
 knowing, there are walls and cities." (Spartan manual, P. 72.) 
 
 [t The precise time, when the Roman legions finally aban- 
 doned Britain, cannot be ascertained, as the chronology of the 
 age is scanty and confused : according, however, to Bede, 
 (L. 1. c. 11. 12. 13.) that important event appears to have 
 taken place a few years later. Erf.] 
 
KING ARTHUR. -25 
 
 addressing them, as Gildas assures us, in a que- 
 rulous and whining tone, to the following effect : 
 '^ To Aetius, thrice consul. The groans of the 
 Britons (and, after a few words complaining,) 
 The barbarians drive us back to the sea -, the sea 
 drives us back to the barbarians 3 between these ^ ^, 
 
 arise two kinds of deaths, we are either killed ,^ * 
 
 or drowned."* They received, however, no 
 assistance, and were left entirely to the mercy 
 and discretion of their ferocious enemies. 
 
 * C. 17. This epistle is interpolated in Polydore Virgil's 
 editiofli with a passage written by himself. 
 
36 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Of Vortigern, king of Britain and the invitation, 
 arrival and success of the Saxons. 
 
 In the year of the vulgar sera 428 and long 
 before, king Vortigern sat on the throne of Bri- 
 tain or governed, at least, the southern, eastern 
 and western parts of that kingdom or might, 
 possibly, as had, formerly, been the case with 
 the Britons and appears, even, to have been so 
 at this period, as it, likewise, was, both then and 
 long after with the Scots (as the Irish were then 
 named), only, to have the predominant power 
 or military command over his fellow- potentates. 
 This monarch, [of whose] descent or title to the 
 crown very little is delivered by writers of re- 
 putation for their age and authenticity,* being, 
 
 * Samuel, the scholiast or interpolator of Nennius, as cor- 
 rected by Bertram, gives this computation : From Rufus and 
 Rubellius unto Stilicho consul, there are 371 years, and from 
 Stilicho unto Valentinian, son of Placidia [Flavius Placiditis 
 Valentinianus Casar, consul with Flavins Theodosius Augustus^ 
 425] and the kingdom of Vortigern, 25 : and from the reign of 
 Vortigern unto the discord of Guitolin and Ambrose, which is 
 
KING ARTHUR. 27 
 
 completely harassed and overpowered by his 
 barbarous and active enemies, determined, with 
 the advice of his council, to call in the assistance 
 of the Saxon pirates, who had now, at least, for 
 a couple of centuries, infested, occasionally, the 
 narrow seas and the coasts of Britain • insomuch, 
 that long before the Romans abandoned the 
 island, they had a great officer, whose duty it 
 was to protect both, under the title of comes lit- 
 toris Saxonici per Britanniam (the count of the 
 Saxon shore through Britain). The Britons, 
 therefore, in 449, sent over ambassadors, who, 
 in a stile even more pitiful than that they had, 
 already, used toward the Romans, addressed the 
 Saxons to this effect : " Most good Saxons, the 
 wretched Britons, wearied with the frequent 
 attacks of enemies and very much worn down, 
 having heard the victories by you, magnificently, 
 
 Gualop, that is, Catguoloph [the battle of Guoloph] Vortigern 
 held the empire in Britain, Theodositis and Valentinianus (430^ 
 and, in the 24th year of his reign, the Saxons came into Bri- 
 tain, Flavins Protogenes and Flavins Asturius or Turcius the 
 second Asturius, being consuls, 449 and, from the year, in 
 which the Saxons came into Britain and were taken up by 
 Vortigern, unto Flavius Anicius J nstinianus Augustus and Fla- 
 vins Theodorus Paulinus, the last consul of the west, 85, [534], 
 See Bertram's edition, p. 96, and the Fasti consulares. 
 
28 THE LIFE OF 
 
 achieved, have sent us to you, supplicating that 
 you would not withhold from them your assist- 
 ance. The land, broad and spacious and filled 
 with a plenty of all things, they offer to yield to 
 your dominion. Under the protection of the 
 Romans, we have, hitherto, freely lived j after 
 the Romans, we are ignorant of better than you : 
 therefore, we seek to fly under the wings of your 
 valour : with your valour, with your arms, only, 
 can we become superior to the enemy's and, 
 whatever kind of service you impose upon us, 
 we shall, willingly, sustain."* Complying with 
 this request, as, they said, the staunch to the 
 Britons and, always, alike ready in their neces- 
 sity and advantage (having, no doubt, in their 
 piratical expeditions, surveyed the advantages 
 of the country with the eyes of a hawk), they 
 came over, according to saint Gildas, " the 
 Jeremiah of Britain," in three keels or long 
 ships, and, after having performed their contract, 
 by driving the old enemies out of the kingdom 
 and received the solid reward of provinces and 
 shires and counties, in the best and richest part 
 of the island, they, forthwith, entered into an 
 alliance with those identical enemies, whom 
 
 • Wittichind, B. 1, c. 2» This writer, everywhere calls the 
 Britons Bracti. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 39 
 
 tl^ey had so recently defeated^ and turned their 
 arhis against their employers, whom, at length, 
 they drove out of the country or confined to 
 the mountainous and barren districts of Wales, 
 Cornwall and, for some time, the adjoining 
 shires. 
 
so THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Of the arrival of Hengist, and Vortigern's mar- 
 riage with Romwen his daughter. 
 
 XlENGisT, a Saxon prince, forasmuch as he was 
 a man learned and subtle and skilful, when he 
 had looked upon the inactive king and upon his 
 people, because they were without arms, a coun- 
 cil being held, said to the British king. We 
 are few, if thou wilt that we send to our coun- 
 try, that we may invite soldiers of the soldiers 
 of our country and the number may be the more 
 ample to fight both for thee and for thy nation ; 
 and the king this same [thing] allowed : who, 
 incontinently, sent and the messengers passed 
 over the Thetick valley,* who returned vdth 
 seventeen keels and the soldiers chosen came in 
 them and, in one keel, came a beautiful and very 
 graceful damsel : she was the daughter of Hen- 
 gist. After the keels had come, Hengist made 
 a feast to king Vortigern and to his soldiers and 
 
 * That is, the German ocean, or part of what is now called 
 the North- sea ; from Thetys, the goddess of the waves, the 
 pretended mother of Achilles. See Claudian passim. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 31 
 
 to his interpreter, who was called Cerdkselmot* 
 Hengist, therefore, ordered the damsel to minis- 
 ter wine and ale to them, who were very much 
 intoxicated and glutted.t Those drinking, Satan 
 entered into the heart of Vortigern, that he loved 
 her very much, and he requested her from her fa- 
 ther by his interpreter and said every thing that, 
 for her, thou canst request from me, thou shalt 
 obtain, although the half of my kingdom, and 
 Hengist, a council being held with his elders, who 
 
 * This is Samuel's passage in the margin of some of the 
 manuscripts, and appears, in the text of Bertram's edition, in a 
 different character and between crotchets : " No Briton of the 
 Britons knowing the Saxon tongue except this Briton : let him 
 study, who reads, by what event it happened for this very 
 man to understand the Saxon speech." Cerdic is, certainly, a 
 Saxon name and the note is, singularly, shrewd for a Welshman. 
 
 t That" this lady's name was Rowena^ who came out of her 
 chamber, bearing a golden bowl, full of wine : approaching, 
 then more near to the king, with bended knees, said, Laverd 
 King,wacht heil [r. plajZOJib cmj. yxs hael. Lord king, 
 be of health] ! But he, her face being seen, admired her grace 
 very much and grew hot : then interrogated his interpreter, 
 what the damsel said and what he ought to answer : to whom 
 the interpreter said, she called thee lord king and honoured 
 [thee] by the word of salutation : what, however, thou oughtest 
 to answer, is Drinc /leii [Dpmc hael ! Drink health] ! Vor- 
 tigern, then, answering Drinc hcdy ordered her to drink and 
 took the bowl from her own hand and kissed her and drank," 
 seems to be the invention of Geoffrey of JMonmouth (B. 6, c. 12.) 
 
32 THE LIFE OF 
 
 had come with him from the island of Anglen,* 
 asked from them what they should demand [of 
 the king,] for the damsel, one counsel was to 
 them all, that they should demand the region 
 which in their tongue is called Canthguaraland, 
 but in our tongue Ghent (Kent) and he gave it 
 to them, king Guorangon reigning in Kent and 
 being ignorant that the kingdom of himself was 
 delivered to the pagans and he himself alone into 
 their power : too much sorrow disturbed him 
 because his kingdom, secretly, treacherously and 
 imprudently, was given to the foreigners and so 
 was the damsel given to him into marriage and 
 he slept with her and loved her very much.f 
 
 * " Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens 
 oppidum capitale, quod sermone Saxonico Sleswic nuncupatur, 
 secundum verb Danos Haithaby." (Ethelwerdus, L, 1 : that is. 
 Old England is situate between the Saxons and the Jutes, 
 liaving a chief town, which, in the Saxon language is called 
 Sleswickf but, according to the Danes, Haithaby.^ 
 
 i Nennius, C. 36. 
 
KING ARTHUR. S3 
 
 CHAP. VIIL 
 
 Of Hengist's advice to king Vortigern. 
 
 He n g I s t said to the king, I am thy father and 
 will be to thee a counsellor, and, ever be unwil* 
 ling to neglect my counsel, because thou shalt 
 not fear thyself to be overcome by one man nor 
 by one nation ; that, my nation, is mighty. I 
 shall invite, therefore, my son with his brother's 
 son : those men are warriors, that may fight 
 against the Scots and give thou, to them, the 
 regions which are in the north, hard by the wall, 
 which is called Gual,^ and he ordered that he 
 should invite them : whom he invited, also, 
 Ochta and Ahisa with forty keels. But they 
 themselves, when they navigated about the Picts, 
 wasted the Orkney islands t and came and oc- 
 
 * Thus, in C. 19.—" muruin et aggerem a mari usque ad 
 mare, per latitudinem Britannia . , ,et vacatur Britannico ser- 
 mone Gual." 
 
 t Orchades insulas. The mare Fresicum as here or Frisicum 
 litus, as Joceline hath it, in the life of saint Kentigem, is not, 
 as Camden says, the firth [of Forth] , but the mare internum, of 
 Richard, or Irish sea. 
 
34 THE LIFE OF 
 
 cupied many regions and islands* beyond the 
 Fresick sea, that is, that which is between us 
 and the Scots, as far as to the confines of the 
 Picts ; and Hengist, always invited the keels to 
 himself, by little and little, so that they left the 
 islands from which they came without inhabitant j 
 and when his people had increased both in va- 
 lour and in multitude, they came to the above- 
 said Cantuarian region, t 
 
 In the year 455, Hengist and Horse fought 
 with Vortigern, the king, in the place which was 
 called ^glesford (now Ailsford, in Kent, at the 
 bank of the river Medway) and his brother Horse 
 was slain and, afterward, Hengist and his son, 
 ^sc, enjoyed the kingdom.^ 
 
 In the year 457, Hengist and ^sc fought with 
 the Britons, in the place which was called Crec- 
 canford (now Crayford, in KentJ § and there slew 
 four men (generals) and the Britons, afterward, 
 departed from Kent and, with great fear, fled to 
 London. 1 1 
 
 In the year 465 Hengist and ^sc fought with 
 
 • Probably meaning the Hehudes or ^budte corruptly He- 
 brides, and, at present, the Western isles. 
 
 t C. 37, 
 
 X Of Kent, that is, Chro. Saxo. p. 13. 
 
 § ** Crecanford, quod est Crickelade." Leland's Collectanea, 
 I. 218. 
 
 II Chro. Saxo, ibi. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 35 
 
 the Welsh, nigh Wyppedes-fleot (now Wipped- 
 fleet in Kent) and there slew twelve aldermen, 
 all Welsh j one, also, of their own, a very noble 
 man, whose name was Wipped, was there slain.* 
 In the year 473, Hengist and Msc fought with 
 the Welsh, and took numberless spoils, and the 
 Welsh fled from the Engles, as if there had been 
 a fire.t 
 
 * Chro. Saxo. ihi. 
 
 t Ihi. He died 40 years after his arrival, in 489. See 
 Henry of Huntingdon, p. 312. JEx, his son, reigned 34 years 
 and, as he succeeded his father, must have died in 623. (Ibi 
 and Chro. Sax. p. 14.) Many more battles were fought by the 
 Saxons against the Britons : in the year 577, Cuthwin and 
 Ceawlin fought against the Britons and slew three kings, Corn- 
 mail and Condidan and Favinmail, in a place which is called 
 Deorham and took tliree cities, Gloucester, Cirencester, and 
 Bathancester (now Bath) ; In 607, iEthelfrid [king of the 
 Northumbrians, a pagan] led his army to Leicester, and there 
 killed numberless Britons. There, also, were slain two hun- 
 dred monks [of the abbey of Bangor, living by the labour of 
 their hands] who came thither to pray for the army of the 
 Britons. Brocmail was called their general, who with fifty, 
 more or less, thence escaped : In 710, Ina and Nun, his 
 kinsman, fought with Gefent, King of the Britons {Saxm 
 chronicle). 
 
S6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 What counsel the Britons gave to king Vortigerii 
 and the use he made of it. 
 
 After these things^ therefore, the king in- 
 vited to himself all his great men, that he might 
 ask from them, what he should do : but they 
 said. Go thou into the most remote borders of 
 thy kingdom, that thou mayest build a fortified 
 tower, in which thou mayest defend thyself: 
 because the people whom thou hast taken upon 
 thee hate thee and, with treacherous fraud, will 
 kill thee and the whole regions, which thou hast 
 loved, will occupy, with thy whole people, after 
 thy death. Afterward, truly, the king himself 
 with his magicians, went forward, about to en- 
 quire after the tower and wandered over many 
 regions and many provinces and, by no means, 
 finding that which they sought, lastly, they came 
 to that region which is called Guent, and he, 
 going round about, in the mountains of Heriri 
 (that is, Craig-eriri, the rock of the eagles) by 
 the natives, Snaudun, (Snowdon) in English, at 
 length obtained, in one of the mountains, a place. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 37 
 
 in which it was convenient to build a tower and 
 the magicians said to him. Make the tower in 
 this place, because it will be most safe from the 
 barbarous people for ever. He, therefore, ga- 
 thered together artificers, that is, stone-cutters 
 and they gathered together stones and wood: 
 but, when every matter was gathered together, 
 in one night it was entirely taken away and, 
 for three times, he ordered it to be gathered 
 together and it nowhere appeared.* Then he 
 called to himself his magicians, and asked them, 
 what was this cause of malice and why it should 
 happen? But they answered to him, saying, 
 [unless] he could find a child without a father, 
 that thou mayest have one who should be slain 
 and the tower sprinkled with his blood, never shall 
 it be built for ever.f Such a boy, being found, 
 says to the king (after a quantity of lies, which 
 are, likewise, in Geoffrey of Monmouth's British 
 history) : Thou, therefore, go from this tower, 
 because thou art not able to build it, and wander 
 over many provinces, that thou mayest find a 
 secure tower j I, indeed, will remain here 5 and 
 the king said to the youth. By what name art 
 thou called? He answered, I am called Am- 
 brose J and the king said. Of what progeny 
 
 • Samuel, CC. 39, 40, t Id. C. 40. 
 
 t This boy is not intended for Ambrose-Merlin, according to 
 
 G 
 
88 THE LIFE OF 
 
 art thou risen ? but he replied : One of the con- 
 suls of the Roman nation is my father. Then 
 he gave to him the tower with all the provinces 
 of that country (West Britain) and, he himself, 
 with his magicians, came to the left (that is. 
 North) of Britain and fled, as far as the region 
 which is called Guennesij* and built the city 
 which is called by his name Cair-Guorthigirn 
 \^Guasmoric, near Lugubalia'] (Carlisle), he there 
 built that city, which, in English is called Palm- 
 chester.t 
 
 the interpolator of the history of Nennius and, as it is in 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, but, certainly, Ambrosius Aurelianus, 
 (a great general and, in process of time, king of Britain) as 
 will appear by the sequel, and who has been here confounded, 
 with Merlin. 
 
 * He withdrew into North Wales, in Latin, Venedotia, after- 
 ward Gwentt at present in Monmouthshire, upon the Severn^sea. 
 Gale. 
 
 t Samuel, C. 4S, 
 
KING ARTHUR. 39 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Of the second arrival of saint German, and how 
 Vortigern, flying to his tower, followed by the 
 saint, was, in the night, burned, with his do- 
 mestics. 
 
 Saint German, truly, preached to Vortigern 
 that he would make himself an alien from the 
 illicit mixture of his own daughter, and convert 
 himself to the lord : but he, as far as to the 
 region which, from his name had received its 
 name, that is to say, Guorthirnianum (Vortigern* s 
 land), miserably, fled, that he might lie with his 
 women. Saint German, therefore, pursued him, 
 with all the clergy of the Britons, and there re- 
 mained forty days and as many nights and prayed 
 upon a stone and there stood, by day and by 
 night and, in the mean time, Vortigern, as far as 
 Vortigern* s tower, which he had built and im- 
 posed upon his own name (that is. Din- Girtigmt, 
 Vortigern' s tower) and in the region of the 
 Dyveti (the inhabitants of West Wales, now 
 Pembrokeshire,) near the river Teibi (now the 
 Teivy or Tywy), ignominiously, departed. Saint 
 g2 
 
'40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 German, however, followed him, in his usual 
 manner, and there fasting, with all his clergy, 
 for three days and as many nights, for good 
 cause, remained j in the fourth night, truly, the 
 whole tower, about the hour of midnight, fell, 
 on a sudden, by fire sent from heaven (that is, 
 lightning) ; the celestial fire burning and Vorti- 
 gem, with all his people who were with him 
 and, with his own wives, ended his life,* [534.] 
 
 * Samuel, C. 48. He adds : This is the end of Vortigern, 
 as I found it in the book of the blessed German, others, how- 
 ever, have said otherwise. " Forasmuch as all those of his 
 family were hated for his crime, between potent and impotent, 
 between slave and freeman, between monks and laics, between 
 small and great, and he himself, while, wandering, he went from 
 place to place, finally, broke his heart and died, without praise.** 
 (C. 49). Others, however, have said, the earth to be opened, 
 which swallowed him up, in the night, in which his tower was 
 burned about him, because any relics of those who were biurned 
 with him in the tower, were not found (C. 50). 
 

 KING ARTHUR. 41 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Of the three principal battles which Vortimer, 
 the eldest son of king Vortigern, waged against 
 the Saxons. 
 
 1 H E first battle was upon the river Derwent ; 
 the second, upon the ford, which is called in the 
 Saxons tongue Episford, but in that of the Britons 
 Sathenegahail, and there fell Hors, with the son 
 of Vortigern, whose name was Cantigern : the 
 third battle, in the field near the stone of a mo- 
 nument, which was placed upon the bank of the 
 Gallic sea, and the barbarians were defeated and 
 they themselves returned in flight unto their 
 keels, entering into them in a womanish manner. 
 But he, after a little interval of time, was dead, 
 and, before his death, he adverted to his family, 
 that they would place his sepulchre in the port, 
 from which the Saxons went out upon the bank 
 of the sea : " In which I commend to you, 
 although, in another part, the port of Britain 
 they hold and inhabit, yet in this land they shall 
 pot remain into eternity." They, however, con- 
 
42 THE LIFE OF 
 
 temned his commandment and interred him in a 
 place in which he had not reigned : for he was 
 buried in Lincolnshire : but if they had observed 
 his commandment, without doubt, by the prayers 
 of saint German, they would have obtained what- 
 soever they had asked. But the barbarians, in 
 great numbers, returned j when Vortigern was 
 their friend on account of his wife [whom he 
 loved, to that pass, that no man dared to fight 
 against them, because they, courteously, cajoled 
 the imprudent king, nevertheless, acting a fraud- 
 ful purpose with a viper's heart*] and no man 
 was able, courageously, to drive them out j be- 
 cause not by their own valour they possessed 
 Britain but by the divine will [and by reason of 
 the very great sins of the Britons, god so per- 
 mitting] : who can endeavour to resist against 
 the will of god 5 but as the lord wills, so he 
 acts, and he himself governs and reigns.f 
 
 Vortigern had three sons : the first, Vortimer : 
 the second, Cantegirn : the third, Pascent, .... 
 The fourth, Faust, who was born to him of his 
 daughter, whom saint German baptized, nourished 
 and taught, and built a large place upon the bank 
 of the river which is CEilled Renis^ and consecrated 
 
 * Samuel's interpolations, or marginal notes, 
 t Nennius, C. 45. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 43 
 
 it to himself, and remains until this day,* and 
 he had one daughter, who, as we have said, was 
 the mother of saint Faustm the second 
 
 • That is, when Nemiius wrote his history, (of which this 
 chapter is a genuine, part,) which was in or ahout the year 
 858. There is nowhere to be found any precise date of Vor- 
 tigern's death. The last certain event of his life is the death 
 of his son, Vortimer, who died in 467, and whom he is supposed 
 to have survived : but it seems probable that he was dead 
 long before 500. Moses Williams, who, at the end of his 
 edition of Humphrey Llwyd's " Brittannica descriptionis com- 
 mentariolum'* (London, 1731, 4to.) inserted certain " Mra cam- 
 brobritannictB," of no antiquity, in fact, or authority, admits the 
 year 392 will not answer for that in which Vortigern died, 
 though he conjectures (from these fallacious tera of which 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth's fabulous history is manifestly the 
 ground-work) that be was born in that year. 
 
44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. xn. 
 
 Of Nazaleod. 
 
 jLhe Britons, in fact, seem, about this periorf^,^ 
 to have been in no want of valorous and able 
 commanders, for, beside Vortimer, Cantigern 
 and Pascent, the three legitimate sons of king 
 Vortigern, who were valiant leaders along with 
 Ambrose Aurelian, we have an account, in the 
 histories of Henry of Huntingdon, (archdeacon 
 of that bishop from 1110 to 1155) corroborated 
 by the authority of the Saxon chronicle and of 
 Fabius Ethelwerd, of a great battle, between the 
 Saxons and the Britons, in the year 508. I am 
 about to write, says the former, the battle which 
 Nazaleod (Natanleod or Nataleod), the chief 
 king of the Britons, fought against Certic and 
 Cinric, his son, in the sixtieth year of the arrival 
 of the Engles. Nazaleod, verily, was a man of 
 great name and great pride, from whom that 
 region was called Nazaleoli (Natanleag, now 
 Natley), which is now called Certichesford.^ 
 
 * Now Cherford, as Carte thinks, between Corfe-castle ami 
 the sea» in the isle of Purbeck {History of England, 1, 199jf» 
 
KING ARTHUR. 45 
 
 All the multitude of Britain, therefore, being 
 gathered together, Gertie and his son requested 
 aid, in affairs of the highest consequence, from 
 Esc, king of the Kentish and from Ella, the great 
 king of the South-Saxons, and from Port and his 
 sons,* who had lately arrived, and they appointed 
 two wings for the battle, Gertie governed the 
 right and Ginric, his son, the left. The battle, 
 therefore, being begun, king Nazaleod, seeing 
 the right wing the more excellent, rushed upon 
 it himself and all his forces, that this, which 
 was the bravest, he might at first overthrow : 
 the banners, therefore, being thrown to the 
 ground and the battalion forced through, Gertie 
 betook himself to flight and a very great slaugh- 
 ter was made of his battalion at the moment. 
 The left wing, however, led by the son, seeing 
 that the right wing of his father would be de- 
 stroyed, rushed on the backs of the pursuers and 
 the battle was, vehemently, aggravated and there 
 fell king Nazaleod and his army took to flight 
 and there were slain of them five thousand 3 to 
 the rest, indeed, swiftness was protection. The 
 Saxons, therefore enjoyed the prerogative of 
 victory, and quiet was given to them for not 
 
 There is, also, another place called Charford, m Hampshire, 
 which is not less likely to be the true one. 
 
 ♦ This Port seems to have given his name to Portsmouth. 
 
4(5 THE LIFE OF 
 
 many years^ and auxiliaries came to them, brave 
 and numerous.* 
 
 * 312. That Nazaleod, as Carte and others have pretended, 
 was Ambrosius Aurelianus, under another name, is the grossest 
 absurdity possible. This author has, already, mentioned, 
 Ambrosius, and would scarcely have introduced him by a dif- 
 ferent name, without explaining the reason. Beside, Nazaleod 
 was slain in this battle [in] 508, and Ambrosius appears to 
 have been living long afterward. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 47 
 
 CHAP. xni. 
 
 Of Ambrose Aurelian. 
 
 Some of the miserable remains of the Britons, 
 caught, unawares, in the mountains, were slain 
 by heaps : others, exhausted by famine, coming 
 in, surrendered themselves to perpetual slavery 5 
 if, by that mean, they could escape immediate 
 butchery, which was the highest favour granted : 
 others sought transmarine countries, with great 
 howling, as it were, for their sea- cheer, in this 
 manner, under the folds of the sails, — singing : 
 Thou hast given us like sheep for eating, and scat- 
 tered us among the gentiles:* others, in moun- 
 tainous hills, menacing, craggy, walled, and 
 very thick woods and marine rocks, constantly, 
 reckoning their life to be in the most imminent 
 peril, although, fearful, continued in the coun- 
 try. The time, therefore, intervening a little, 
 when the most cruel spoilers had retired home, 
 the remains, strengthened by god (to whom the 
 most miserable citizens fled for succour, on all 
 
 * Fsalm xliv. 11. 
 
48 THE LIFE OF 
 
 sides, from divers places, as eagerly as bees from 
 a storm approaching their hive), entreating him, 
 all at once, with their whole heart and (as it is 
 said) loading the skies with their numberless 
 vows, lest they should be destroyed by universal 
 slaughter, the leader being Ambrose -Aurelian, 
 a modest man (who, peradventure, of the Roman 
 nation, alone survived the collision of such a 
 tempest, his relations, who wore the purple, 
 being slain in the same, whose progeny, then, 
 (in the author's time,) had greatly degenerated 
 from the virtue of their ancestors), they took 
 up strength, provoking the victors to battle, to 
 whom, the lord assenting, the victory fell * 
 
 In the seventh year of the arrival of the Saxons 
 in Britain [454] , was fought a battle at Milles- 
 treu :f in the beginning, therefore, Hors smote 
 the battalion of Cantigern, with such vigour, 
 that, in the manner of dust, being dispersed, it 
 was overthrown, and slew the king's son, lying 
 prostrate. Vortimer, however, his son, a man, 
 truly, very stout, from moving oblique, broke 
 the battalion of Hors, and Hors himself, the 
 bravest of men, being killed, the remains of the 
 cohort fled to Hengist, who, when he had en- 
 
 ♦ Gildas (Josselin's edition), C. 25. 
 
 t iEgelsthorp, ^gelesford, Ailsford, in Kent, at the bank 
 of the river Medway. This battle has been mentioned already. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 49 
 
 countered the wedge of Ambrose, invincibly, 
 then, therefore, the weight of the battle was 
 turned upon Hengist, and, being straitened by 
 the bravery of Vortimer, when he had long per- 
 severed, not without great loss of the Britons, 
 being overcome, he, who had never before fled, 
 fled now : but, in the following year, Vortimer, 
 the flower of youths, perished by disease, with 
 whom, both at once, the hope and victory of the 
 Britons were extinct.* Vortigern reigned in 
 Britain, and, while he continued to reign, was 
 molested from the fear of Ambrose.f From the 
 reign of Vortigern unto the discord of Guitolin 
 and Ambrose were twelve years, which was 
 Guoloppum, that is, Catguoloph.X Vortigern had 
 three sons : the third, Pascent, who reigned in 
 two regions, that is, Guelth and Fortigernianum, 
 after the death of his father, giving his suflFrage 
 to Ambrose, who had been a great king among 
 all the regions of Britain. § William of Malmes- 
 
 ♦ Henry of Huntingdon, P. 310. According, however, to 
 the Saxon Chronicle, the year, in which this battle was fought, 
 was 455, the British general, king Vortigern, the place, Egeles- 
 ford : unless they have been different engagements. 
 
 t Nennius, C. 28. 
 
 J Idem (Samuel potiits), C. 1, p. 96, 97, of Bertram's 
 edition. 
 
 $ Idem, C. 5, p. 131, 186, 198, of Bertram's edition. 
 " Were not," asks Girald Barry, " the [Britons] brave in 
 
so THE LIFE OF 
 
 bury, indeed, says, that " Ambrose, the sole 
 survivor of the Romans, after Vortigern, was 
 monarch of the realm,"* 
 
 war ... in the reign of Aurelius Ambrosius? whom, even,*' he 
 adds, " Eutropius praises" i^Anglia sacra, II, 448). In fact, 
 however, Eutropius, ends his history in 364, 200 years before 
 the aera of Ambrose ; whose Latin name, moreover, was Ambro- 
 sius Aurelianus, not Aurelius Amhrosius, as he was, first, deno- 
 mmated by Geoffrey of Monmouth ; so that the bishop of 
 Saint-David's had swallowed the gross falsehood of the bishop 
 of Saint- Asaph. John Lewis, a Welsh lawyer, whose folio 
 " History of Great Britain" is replete with forgeries and false- 
 hoods, takes this Amhrosius Aurelianus for S[ain]t Ambrose. 
 According to John of Tynemouth, in the life of Dubricius, that 
 place is Ambrose's-mount, which is now vulgarly called Stan- 
 henges (Usher's Antiquitates, p. 241.) 
 
 * B. 1, p. 9 (Frankfort edition, 1601, folio). However, it 
 must be acknowledged that this respectable historian, who 
 commences his work with the arrival of the Saxons, knew very 
 little of the Britons, and that the little information he had was 
 gleaned from a polluted manuscript of Nennius, which he ap- 
 pears to have taken for the work of Gildai, though he names 
 neither. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 51 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 Of Arthur's birth. 
 
 Arte UR was born at Padstow in Cornwall.* 
 
 It seems impossible to deduce the descent of 
 Arthur from any authentic source. At the end 
 of David Williams's '' History of Monmouth- 
 shire" are two diflferent pedigrees of this great 
 monarch, formed partly from the British history 
 and partly in the imagination of two Welshmen, 
 who could not distinguish a lie from a fact. 
 That such has been the character of a Cambrian 
 genealogist is ^^manifest from the life of saint 
 Cadoc> a Welshman, extant in a Cotton manu- 
 script of the thirteenth century (Vespasian, A. 
 XJV, of which further notice will be taken) j 
 where his pedigree is thus accurately deduced : 
 " Augustus Cesar genuit Octavianum, Octavianus 
 genuit Tiberium, Tiberius genuit Gaium, Gaius 
 
 • '* Ex charta topographica Anglic^* (Leland's Collectanea, 
 111,47). It will appear, hereafter, that he was king of both 
 Cornwall and Devonshire ; though he might have possessed 
 royal territories in Wales, it is not, however, known where. 
 
62 THE LIFE OF 
 
 genuit Claudium, Claudius genuit Vespasianum,*' and 
 so forth. This gross absurdity, however, is far 
 exceeded, by the pedigree of Lhywarch-h^n, in 
 William Owen's edition of his '^ Heroic Elegies," 
 p. vii. No wonder, therefore, that the phrase of 
 " fole Briton" should have become proverbial 
 in the thirteenth century.* Even the Bollandist 
 editors of the ^' Acta Sanctorum ^ allude to this 
 '^ familiar fatuity," as they call it, of the Welsh 
 people, in feigning genealogies, and refer to 
 Alford, at the year 508, number 8, in what 
 manner it is said, that Arthur " drew his origin, 
 by his mother, from that noble leader, Joseph of 
 Arimathea, who buried the lord:" for they 
 write, according to these learned Jesuits, that 
 " Helianis, the nephew of Joseph, begat Joshua, 
 Joshua begat Aminidab, Aminidab begat Cas- 
 tellors, Castellors begat Mavael, Mavael begat 
 Lambord, his son, who begat Igerna, of whom 
 Uther-Pendragon begat the noble and famous 
 Arthur." t Owen, in a later book, of which 
 more will be said hereafter, asserts, without the 
 slightest authority, that Arthur, was " the son 
 of Meirig ab Tewdrig, and the twentieth in 
 descent from Bran ab Llyn," and, in 601, '* was 
 
 * Peter Langtoft's Chronicle^ as translated by Robert Man- 
 ning, p. 167. 
 
 t Mali, III, 587. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 63 
 
 a chieftain of the Silurian Britons," and, in 517, 
 '^ was elected, by the states of Britain, to sove- 
 reign authority." 
 
 Uther-Pendragon (in English, dragons -head), 
 the reputed father of Arthur, may, possibly, have 
 taken that surname from the form of his helmet 
 or his crest. The most ancient author (if one 
 may believe him to have actually been the com- 
 poser of what has been ascribed to him) who 
 appears to have made mention of this Uther, is 
 Taliesin, surnamed Benbeirdh (the head or chief 
 of the bards^j who flourished (as they say) in 
 the sixth century, and is, certainly, mentioned 
 by Samuel, the interpolator of Nennius, £not] 
 long after 858. He appears to have written the 
 Marwnad or elegy, of Uther, which is found 
 among manuscripts of some antiquity :^ his 
 name, however, does not occur in the poem 
 itself, though that of Arthur does, which, cer- 
 tainly, adds nothing to its credit, and has either 
 been composed or interpolated after the appear- 
 ance in 1139, of GeoflFrey of Monmouths British 
 history, before the publication whereof Arthur 
 is never mentioned by any authority unless 
 Samuel or some other interpolator of Nennius, if 
 
 • " Marunad Ythyr, Uthuri epitaphiu7n" [Uthers elegy]. 
 (Lhuyd's Archieologia Bntannica, p. 264.) 
 
 H 
 
54 THE LIFE OF 
 
 they deserved to be so called.* The next writer, 
 that seems to have noticed his name, without 
 knowing it, is this Samuel or some other inter- 
 polator, who says, " Artur, Latinl translatum, 
 sonat ursum horribilem vel malleum ferreum, quo 
 franguntur ' molas' leonum. Mabuter, Brittanicl, 
 filius horribilis, Latins ; quoniam d, pueritia sua 
 crvdelisfuity\ Mab, however, is agreed to mean 
 son, and, though ythr signify horrible, in one 
 sense ; Ythyr, in another, is a proper name, 
 synonymous with Uther ; so that Mab-Uther 
 seems to be the patronymic of Arthur, and though 
 this might be his name of baptism, the other 
 (Uthers-son) may have been a common method, 
 as in fact it was and is to this day among the 
 Welsh people to take the surname of ap Rhees, 
 ap Richard, ap Hugh, and the like, in addition 
 to the baptismal name, and, hence, the frequent 
 corruptions of Preece, Prichard, Pugh, &c. Ap, 
 or ab, is a contraction of Mdb, a son, " and used," 
 according to the dictionaries, " to serve, for- 
 merly, between the sons and the fathers name, 
 
 * Edward Williams, the bard and poet, does not think this 
 elegy attributed to Taliesin, either genuine or ancient. 
 
 t C. 61 . (" Arthur," that is, " translated into Latin, sounds 
 horrible bear or iron mallet, [by which are broken] the ' jaw- 
 bones' of lions. Mab-uter, in British, is, in Latin, horrible son j 
 because from his birth he wascruel." 
 
KING ARTHUR. 66 
 
 instead of a surname, as Mac did, at a still ear- 
 lier period 3 thus, in the interpolations to Nen- 
 nius, the pedigree of Pascent, the third son of 
 Vortigern, king of Britain, and who reigned, 
 after his father, for a few years, runs thus : 
 " Theuduhr Jilius Pascent, Mac Ap-guocan, Mac 
 Moriud, Mac Guortheneu, Mac Guitaul, Mac Ap 
 Glovi : * at Arthurs feast, (as described by Geof- 
 frey of Monmouth) : " Beside the consuls came 
 heroes of no less dignity, who are thus enume- 
 rated : Map-Papo, Map-Coil, Mab-Eridur, Map- 
 Hogoit, Map-Claut, Map-Cledauc^ Mab-Bagan, 
 Map-Goit, Map-Trunat, Map-Catel, Map-Ne- 
 ton."t It must be admitted that Uther-Pen- 
 dragon is not mentioned by any historian, | ex- 
 cept Geoflfrey ap Arthur, who does not, in fact, 
 deserve the name of one : but it is, nevertheless, 
 highly probable that Arthurs entire name was 
 Arthur Mab-Uther. 
 
 • C. 52. t B. 9, C. 12. 
 
 ^ Even the Welsh " triads," which, frequently, mention 
 Arthur, and are quoted by the Welsh as a very ancient autho- 
 rity, though not believed to have been written earlier than 
 the twelfth century, and, certainly, not before Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth, are silent about such a name altogether" (Owens 
 Cambrian biographyf p. 17.) 
 
66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Of Arthurs name. 
 
 " The reader," according to Pinkerton, " need 
 hardly be told that Arthur was merely a name 
 given by the Welsh to Aurelius Amhrosius, their 
 Roman defender against the Saxons :" to this 
 he adds, '' See Gildas, C. 25, Beda, I, 16 :"* 
 where nothing like it can possibly be found. 
 Neither Gildas nor Bede mentions Arthur nor 
 even Aurelius Amhrosius, a name invented, for 
 the first time, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, whom 
 this writer is apt, as he has done upon this oc- 
 casion, to consult, and cite some more respect- 
 able historian. The name of the British king 
 mentioned by Gildas and Bede is, in fact, AmbrO' 
 sius Aurelianus. If '' Arthur was, merely, a 
 name given by the Welsh'* to Amhrosius Aurelianus 
 (the other being a fictitious name), how then 
 comes Geoffrey of Monmouth, so far from bring- 
 ing them together, to relate the latter to be dead 
 
 • Enquiry into the history of Scotland, I, 76, Note 9. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 57 
 
 before the former was born ? " Art-uir, Mr. Pin- 
 kerton says, signifies the chief or great man :" 
 but no such etymology is to be discovered in the 
 vocabulary of Lhuyd nor in the several dictiona- 
 ries of Richards and Ov^en : this, therefore, is 
 another absurdity, a greater, even, than that of 
 Samuel, the interpolator of Nennius, who calls 
 Arthur horrible bear, and, in fact, arthj certainly, 
 means a hear, as ythr does horrible. How hap- 
 pened it, at the same time, that so accomplished 
 a scholar should be ignorant that Arthurs name, 
 as expressed in Latin, actually occurs to the 
 Roman satyrist, Juvenal, four centuries, at least, 
 before Arthur was born : 
 
 " Cedamus patria, vivant Arturios isthic, 
 Et Catulus—."* 
 
 He is, repeatedly, too, called Arthurius as well 
 by Carddoc, as in the Cotton-manuscript of the 
 lives of the Welsh Saints, (Vespasian, A. XIV) 
 of the 13th century, and, always Arturius, by 
 Leland, throughout his Assertio Arturii/* 
 
 In a book written and published by William 
 Owen, in titled "The Cambrian biography or his- 
 torical notices of celebrated men among the 
 ancient Britons [and modern Welsh] :" London, 
 1803, the author says, under the name of 
 
68 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ARTHUR, "It has been, generally, inferred 
 that the great achievements of this hero created 
 those illusory actions and scenes depicted in the 
 Mabinogion or juvenilities, and some authors, with 
 this phantom before their eyes, have denied ex- 
 istence to the true Arthur of history." (p. 13.) 
 Edward Lhuyd, indeed, in his catalogue of Bri- 
 tish manuscripts,* mentions Mabinogi, as extant 
 in the red book of Hergest, which he describes 
 as a little book, containing certain fabulous 
 petty histories of the very ancient British nobles, 
 of which he had seen a copy, in four parts, from 
 which he gives a few short extracts in Welsh 
 and Latin. In Owens dictionary, he explains 
 " Mabinogi [plural mabinogion, from mabinawg, 
 mabin, youthful, boyish, mab, a boy, a son], ju- 
 venility j juvenile instruction; the amusement 
 of youth ; the title of some ancient tales. Ma- 
 hinogi Jesu Grist, The infancy of Jesus Christ :" 
 apparently, a childish book or book for children, 
 like "Mother Goose's tales." So far, so good. 
 He thus proceeds : *^ That there was a prince of 
 this name, as Nennius represents, f who often led 
 the Britons to battle against the Saxons, in the 
 commencement of the sixth century [as Geoffrey 
 
 • Archaeologia Britannica, Oxford, 1707, folio, p. 262. 
 t It is mentioned by Samuel, who appears to have inserted 
 scholia or glosses, but never once by Nennius himself. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 69 
 
 of Monmouth says], there ought not to be any 
 doubt J for he is mentioned by Llywarch,* Merd- 
 dinjf and Taliesin,X poets who were his 'con- 
 temporaries* and is, often, recorded in the triads, 
 
 " WHICH ARE DOCUMENTS OF UNDOUBTED CRE- 
 DIT** {Ihi.J. As to the historical triads, no an- 
 cient manuscript is to-be found, and, most pro- 
 bably, they are after Geoffrey of Monmouth and 
 the Mahinogi : they are, manifestly, too childish 
 and ridiculous to be of any ' authority.' '' Such," 
 however, is " the outline of Arthurs portrait, as 
 exhibited by the bards and the triads. The hero 
 of that name, in the dramatic tales, called Mahi- 
 nogion, is, totally, of different features and, in 
 
 * Moses Williams, a Welshman and a scholar, positively, 
 asserts, in a note on Humphrey Llwyds Comrnentariolum 
 (P. 115) that ** Yarthur [as inLlywarchs elegy upon Geraint 
 ap Erbin] is not Arthur, but larddur ; peradventure, lard' 
 dur ab Diwrig, who, very frequently, occurs in our manu- 
 scripts." 
 
 t Merlin the wild, the author of Afallenau or The apple- 
 trees, which appears to have been interpolated, with the names 
 of Medrawd, Arthur and Wenhwifarf after the publication of 
 the British history of GeoflFrey of Monmouth, who, actually, 
 wrote the life of this Merlin in Latin verse, 1147". 
 
 X That Arthur, as victor at the battle of Badon, fought about 
 512, is mentioned in a pretended elegiac poem of Taliesin of 
 which there is no * memorial* known to be extant eitlier in 
 print or manuscript, except a single stanza, inserted and trans- 
 lated into Latin, by Sir John Prise. 
 
60 THE LIFE OF 
 
 factj altogether, another personage. The last is, 
 then, a mythological character, of times so an- 
 cient as to be far beyond the scope of history :" 
 which, indeed, is no bad character of Welsh 
 literature in general. "His attributes in the 
 Mabinogion point him out as such : memorials of 
 this being and of several others connected with 
 him are, even, written in the heavens, for cer- 
 tain constellations bear their names. Arthur is 
 the Great-bear. Telyn Arthur or The harp of Arthur 
 is, also, the British appellation for the constella- 
 tion Lyray This, to be sure, is a very curious 
 anecdote of Welsh history : we read of David, 
 king of the Jews, having a harp, but, this is the 
 first time, we have heard of the harp of the 
 " mythological" king Arthur, *' There are some 
 very extraordinary things to be found," adds this 
 perspicacious and far-sighted Welshman, " con- 
 cerning the mythological Arthur, in the Mabino- 
 gion, and, particularly, in the story of Culhwck 
 and Olweuj wherein we recognize adventures, 
 which must have had a common origin with 
 those of Hercules and the Argonautick voyage* 
 (P. 15, 16) : this is, certainly, a singular instance 
 of the modesty of this '^ maganaiz' Briton, as, it 
 might have been, naturally, expected, that " the 
 mythological Arthur" of the Mabinogion, carried 
 up his descent many thousand years beyond Her- 
 
KING ARTHUR. 61 
 
 cules or the Argonauts, This " common origin," 
 however, has the coequal propensity to forgery 
 and falsehood, which is found no less among the 
 ancient Greeks than the coeval Welsh. The 
 Arcturus or bear-ward, was never [called] the 
 constellation of " The greater-bear." 
 
62 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Of the death of Howel. 
 
 GiLDAs, a most holy man, was the contempo- 
 rary of Arthur, king of the whole of Greater- 
 Britain,* whom loving, he loved, whom he, al- 
 ways, desired to obey. His twenty- three brothers, 
 nevertheless, resisted the rebellious king afore- 
 said, not willing to suffer his dominion; but 
 frequently put him to flight, and expelled him 
 from the forest and the battle. Howel, the elder, 
 by birth, an assiduous warrior and most fa- 
 mous knight, obeyed no king, not even Arthur. 
 He afflicted him, he excited between both the 
 greatest fury. He, very frequently, came from 
 Scotland,t he kindled fires, he carried away 
 spoils, with victory and praise : whereupon the 
 king of universal Britain, hearing the magnani- 
 mous youth to have done such things, and to do 
 
 • This can only mean Wales or part of Wales, and is termed 
 Greater Britain in opposition to Less or Little Britain. In the 
 middle of the sixth century, the greater part of England was 
 in tlje possession of the Saxons. 
 
 t Cau or Kau, the father of these twenty-four brethren, was 
 a petty king of Strath-Clyde. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 6» 
 
 others equals pursued the most victorious and 
 best of youth, so that the natives said and hoped 
 he was about to be their king. In this hostile 
 pursuit, however, and in a warlike meeting, in 
 the Isle of Man,* he slew his enemy the plun- 
 derer. After that slaughter, Arthur, the con- 
 queror, came back, rejoicing, very greatly, that 
 he had overcome his strongest enemy. t Gildas, 
 
 * Myna, in the manuscript now citing. Mona (Anglesey), 
 erroneously by Caesar. Humphrey Llwyd (in his Britanniccs. 
 descriptionis commentariolum," re-edited by Moses Williams, 
 1731, 4to., p. 132) says " There yet remains a fragment of the 
 ancient writer Gildas the Briton, ... in the library of Henry 
 earl of Arundel, in which these words are had : ** Britain hath 
 three islands, Wight against Armorica : the second is situate in 
 the navel of the sea, between Ireland and Britain : its name 
 Eubonia, vulgarly Manaw." Bede calls it " The Menanian 
 islands ; and Henry of Huntingdon," the Menavian island, and 
 vulgarly called Man." (Jb. p. 133). " Nee procul hinc est Mon- 
 muthia, nohis Mynwy a conctirsu Mouse et Vagae dicta," 
 (Ibi. p. 103.) llichard of Cirencester says it had been called 
 Maenaeda, and was then called Manavia. 
 
 t " There is yet extant," according to Sir John Prise, '* a 
 place in North Wales, which still retains the memory of this 
 slaughter, and has standing a huge stone, bearing the name of 
 this Howel, as was the custom with the ancients to perpetuate 
 the memory of such kind of things." (Defence, &c. p. 143.) 
 If this be true, the slaughter did not happen in the Isle of Man, 
 but in North-Wales, where the stone stands, and which in the 
 sixth century, [may have] been called the Isle of Mynwy. Menay 
 is a river in Anglesey. " Of Gildas," says Girald Barry, 
 
64 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the historiographer of the Britons, ruling and 
 preaching in the city of Ardmach [in Ireland], 
 heard that his brother had been slain by Arthur. 
 He grieved at the hearing, he wept with groans, 
 that the dearest brother, for the dearest brother, 
 prayed daily for the fraternal spirit. He prayed, 
 moreover, for Arthur, the pursuer and slayer of 
 his brother, fulfilling the apostolic command, 
 which says, '' Pray for those who persecute you 
 and bless those that hate you." In the mean 
 time, the most holy Gildas, the most venerable 
 historiographer, came to Britain.* The arrival 
 
 *' who so bitterly inveighs against his own nation, the Britons 
 say that on account of his brother, prince of Albany, whom king 
 Arthur had killed, being offended, he wrote these things: whence 
 also, many excellent books, which he had written, concerning 
 the acts of Arthur, and in the praises of his nation, the death 
 of his brother being heard, as they assert, he cast them all into 
 the sea : by reason of which thing, you find nothing of so great 
 a prince expressed in authentic writings." 
 
 (Be illau, Wal. c. 27.) 
 
 By " the king on the Clyde, with whom Arthur fought,** 
 Mr. Sharon Turner, who quotes " Usher, p. 676,'* seems to 
 mean this Howel, at p. 677. Arthur, however, fought no king 
 on the Clyde. 
 
 *Pinkerton pretends that the saint and the historian were two 
 different men." Gildas Alhanius," he says, " or the saints must 
 be carefully distinguished from that Gildas, who wrote the 
 book De excidio Britonum [Britannice] : and who lived a cen^ 
 tury after . . . Caradoc of Llancarvon [Llancarvan] , the Welrfi 
 
KING ARTHUR. 65 
 
 of Gildas the wise being heard by king Arthur, 
 and the primates, abbots and bishops, of all Bri- 
 tain, numberless individuals, out of the clergy 
 and people came together, that they]might appease 
 Arthur for the abovesaid homicide." But, he, 
 as he had at first done, the rumour of his brothers 
 death being known, granted a pardon to the 
 enemy requesting it : he gave him a kiss, and, 
 with the gentlest mind, blessed him. This done, 
 king Arthur, grieving and crying received, from 
 
 {Welsh] historian wrote the life of St. Gildas, who was only re- 
 markable for superior piety, and was no writer" (Enquiry, II, 
 275). Yet this identical Carddoc, in his life of Saint Gil- 
 das, here cited, expressly says, that teaching, at Glastonbury, 
 he, there wrote the history of the kings of Britain : '* Ibi scrip- 
 sit historias de regibus Britannie." (c. 20) ; and, repeatedly 
 calls him " Brittonum historiographus" (c. 10) ; and " vene- 
 rabilis historiographus" (c. 11.). A different life of this Saint, 
 likewise, by an anonymous Monk of Ruys, frequently printed, 
 though it disagree in many particulars with this of Caridoc, still 
 preserves the identity of the historian and the saijit ; and even, 
 gives an extract from his book : that Gildas the saint was a 
 different person from the " British Jeremiah," as Gibbon calls 
 him, and was no writer, are two ignorant assertions. Leland, 
 Bale, Pits and Tanner, it is true, enumerate, among them, no 
 less than seven Gildases, all distinguished with an appropriate 
 epithet, as, Gildas Albanius, Gildas Badonicus, Gildas Bannocho- 
 rensis, Gildas Cambrius, Gildas Hibemicus, Gildas Quartus 
 and Gildas Sapiens-, to which Dempster, adds Gildas Aldanus, 
 and some one else, by way of joke, Gildas Fictitius. 
 
66 > THE LIFE OF 
 
 the bishops standing by, penance and made 
 amends, in as much as he was able, till he ended 
 his life."* 
 
 • " Thus one man, in his time, plays many parts, 
 His acts being seven ages .'* 
 
 It must be admitted, liowever, there, really, is a Gildas, who 
 was none of these, and has no addition, but merely flourished 
 in the ninth century und left a work intitled, " Liber de com- 
 jmto (Cotton MSS. Vitelllus, A. xii), with a prefatory epistle to 
 Rabanus Maurus (inserted in Usher's " Veterum epistolanim 
 Hibei-nicamm Sylloge :" Dub. 1632, 4to. p. 55). 
 
 Gildas, beside, as we are informed by Leland, [appears] to 
 have written books intitled Cambreidos (a metrical version, it is 
 likely, of the British history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who 
 came into the world upward of five centwies after Gildas had 
 gone out of it), ** found 80 years and upward, before that time, 
 in the Irish isles, and carried hito Italy" (Collectanea, V, 57), 
 " by one Blasius Biragics, in 1460," as Bale says. Whether 
 this be what is contained in the Cotton manuscript, (Julius 
 D, xi.) ascribed by Bale, in whose hand it seems to have been, 
 to a certain Gildas, who flourished, according to that fabulous 
 writer, in 860 (" Teste Baleo") : it is, frequently, quoted by 
 archbishop Usher, in his " Antiquitates," and begins, 
 
 " Primm ah Ytalia post patrisfata relegat.'* 
 
 Ponticus Virunnius, who abridged Geoffreys British History, 
 has some things which are not to be found, precisely in that. 
 This is an extract : ** Now the name of the damsel [Claudius's 
 daughter, see that history, B. 4, c. 15.] was Gennissa, 
 (although the poet Gildas calls her Invenissa, [luvenissa] .... 
 and so a city was there made [by Claudius] . . . and to be 
 composed histories and verses, and the poems Cambres, of 
 
KING ARTHUR. 67 
 
 which, also, in the fifth book of epigrams, Gildas, the famous 
 British Poet, sajrs : 
 
 " Jucunda toties cecini tibi carmina Cambres," 
 and said, Sambuca thou rushest from Venus, now to thee Om- 
 nidasituus becoraes vile. Now sambuca is a triangular musical 
 instrument (they vulgarly called it a harp), whereof part is 
 broad, and being concave is held to the breast, the fingers 
 clatter upon the chords, in French they vulgarly call it Ban- 
 dose [Q. Bandore, Mcmdore, F. Pandore, Drayton's, Works,ll. 
 736} ... so, also, Apollonius detracted Typanon for TympanoUf 
 and Basamon for Balsomon, so Sabuca for Sambuca, and more- 
 over it seems to insinuate as if he himself were the writer of the 
 Cambrean song, and from the sphere of Venus the sweetness of 
 melody to descend, or, even, Cambre that is Britain, as above, 
 it is the British book, as are Caesars commentaries, or any Bri- 
 tish book, which was read at Rome, for, always was Britain 
 learned, even in Greek, or the Poem of Gildas is not to be 
 doubted." Powells edition, 1585, L. 4, P. 28). Lily Gregory 
 Gyrald has these words : •* I remember me to have read Gildas 
 a British Poet far more ancient (as I think) than these [I have, 
 just mentioned], whose elegiack poem appeared to me to be 
 written with wonderful facility nor therefore to be, wholly con- 
 temned : which, afterward I, also found cited in a very ancient 
 British history." (Opera, L. B, 1696, folio, II, 306.) By this 
 " very ancient British history" he must either mean GeofiVey of 
 Monmouth or Poiiticus Virunnius : he is, certainly, deceived 
 in imputing an elegiack poem to Gildas. Bale (amongst pal- 
 pable falsehoods and forgeries) imputes to his Gildas Albanius, 
 1, Versus vaticiniorum: ** O rabiem Britonum quos copia dip 
 vit :" 2, De Sexto cognoscendo : " Ter tria lustra tenent quum." 
 [MS. Bib. Bod. Digby, 186 : Tanner] : 3, Super eodem Sexto : 
 " Cambria Camewan Anglis :" 4. Versus Gilde de Sexto rege 
 Hibemie, MS. Bod. 2086, 2157. 
 
68 THE LIFE OF 
 
 In one of the Cambridge manuscripts of Gildas, Cormac, 
 who, in or about the 12th century, prefixed heads for the first 
 twenty chapters, which have great merit and are mistaken by 
 many, as being the genuine work of Gildas ; but that is, cer- 
 tainly, not the case, as, in the same manuscript, his scholia or 
 glosses run through the margin, but have not been printed (ex- 
 cept a few extracts in Ushers Antiquities, the writer whereof 
 thus challenges his right to what he had done, in the following 
 epigram at the end : 
 
 *' Historiam Gildae Cormac sic perlege script am 
 Doctoris digitis sensu, cultuque, redactam, 
 HtEc tenues superat, multos carpitque superbos.** 
 
KING ARTHUR. 69 
 
 CHAP. xvn. 
 
 Of the rape of Gwennimar, Arthurs queen. 
 
 Glastonbury was besieged by Arthur, the 
 tyrant, with a numberless multitude, on account 
 of Guennemar, his wife, violated and ravished, 
 by the unjust king Melvas, in Somersetshire, and 
 there brought, on account of the refuge of the 
 inviolate place, on account of the fortifications 
 of reeds, and of a river, and of a marsh, for the 
 sake of protection. The rebellious king had 
 sought the queen for the compass of one year j 
 he heard, at length, that she was remaining in 
 that place j he moved the army of all Cornwall 
 and Devonshire, and made ready for a battle 
 against his enemies. This seen, the abbot of 
 Glastonbury (Gildas, likewise, bearing him com- 
 pany), entering between the armies, advised 
 Melvas, his king, that he should, peaceably, - 
 restore the ravished queen. She, therefore, was 
 restored, by whom she had been to be restored, 
 through peace and benevolence. These things 
 being transacted, the two kings, who came to 
 the temple of saint Mary, to visit and to pray, 
 I 
 
 #■ 
 #*** 
 
70 THE LIFE OF 
 
 gave to the abbot many territories, the abbot 
 confirming the beloved fraternity, for the peace 
 had and for the benefits which they had made, 
 and, more amply, those which they were about 
 to make. Thence the two kings returned paci- 
 fied, promising, reverently, to obey the most 
 reverend abbot of Glastonbury, and never violate 
 the most holy place nor, even, things subject to 
 the principal placet 
 
 ♦ Vita sancti Gildae, manuscriptus regis, 13 B. VII. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 71 
 
 CHAP. XVIII, 
 Of the battles of Arthur. 
 
 I N or about the year 457, the Saxons prevailed 
 and increased, not a little, in Britain. Now, 
 Hengist being dead,* Ochta, his son, went over, 
 from the leftt part of Britain, to the kingdom of 
 the Cantuarians, and from him are sprung the 
 kings of that country. Arthur fought against 
 them, in those days, that is to say, the Saxons 
 with the kings of the Britons j but he himself 
 was the general of the wars, and in all the battles 
 was conqueror. I The first battle was in the 
 mouth of the river Glem.§ The second and third, 
 and fourth and fifth [battle] upon another river^ 
 
 • He was the first Saxon king of Kent, and died in 488. 
 
 t The left, it is said, means the north, because the priest, in 
 aaying mass, looks toward the east : though, it is believed to be, 
 elsewhere, otherwise accounted for. 
 
 t Samuels additions to Nennius's Historia Britonum, C.62. 
 
 § The Cambridge manuscript used by Gale, under the name 
 of Gildas, reads Glein, and, in the margin is Devonia [Devon- 
 shire] and Gleni ; but more rightly, he says Glem in Lincoln" 
 
72 THE LIFE OF 
 
 which is called Duglas, which is in the region 
 Linuis.^ The sixth battle [was] upon the river 
 which is called Bassas.f The seventh battle was 
 in the wood of Caledon, that is, Catcoit Celidon.X 
 
 shire, where is now Glemford? There is, however, a river 
 Glen in Northumberland, which gives name to Glendale. Thus, 
 in the old ballad of" The hontyng of the Chymat ;" 
 
 " Glendale gljtteryde on their armor bright." 
 
 * Linuis or Linnis, which appears to be Lancashire, in which 
 is a river, called the Dowglas, which runs by Wigan and goes 
 into the sea toward Latham, and is the only one of that name, 
 it is believed, in the south of Britain (See Leland's Itinerary, 
 V, 96). The etymon of Duglas, in Welsh, is du (dubh, black) 
 and glas (blue or gi-een). 
 
 t Bassos.^ Where is now Boston, Gale, This, however, 
 only shows his folly, Boston being a contraction of Saint-Bo- 
 tulphs-town. Q. Basford, in Staffordshire. 
 
 X Cath-coit.'] In the margin of the Cambridge manuscript, 
 Comubiae [Cornwall] : but, in the Cotton one, also ascribed to 
 Gildas, more rightly, (as Gale thinks,) in Lincolnshire : for this 
 reason, as it seems : " On the other part at the Aufona [at this 
 day the Nen or Wella7id'] inhabited, with the Carnabii Bri- 
 gantes and neighbours to the ocean, the Coitanni, ' is' a tract 
 of ground overgrown with woods, which, like other woods of the 
 Britons, was called Caledonia : of this, however, the historian 
 Florus makes mention." (Richard of Cirencester, p. 26.) He 
 has, likewise, two other Caledonian woods, one of which he 
 places in Kent, the other in the most distant northern part of 
 Scotland. The words of Florus, being said of Caesar : '^ Pur- 
 suing the same Britons into the Caledonian woods he put one 
 of the Cavelanian kings in chains," (B. 3, C. 10.) Who, liow- 
 
KING ARTHUR. 73 
 
 The eighth battle was in the castle Gunnion. The 
 ninth battle was waged in the city Legion [which 
 in British, is called Kaerleun].^ The tenth battle 
 was waged on the shore of the river which is 
 called Ribroit.f The eleventh battle was in the 
 mount which is called Agned Cath-Regonion.X 
 The twelfth battle was in the mount Badon, in 
 which fell, in one day, eight [r. four] hundred 
 and forty men, from one bout of Arthur, and no 
 man overthrew them but himself alone."§ 
 
 ever, the Cavelani were, does not appear. Humphrey Llwyd 
 imagines they may be " The Cattivellani [K'alof iXXavoi] P^ 
 Dio, or the Cattieuchlani of Ptolemy, now Hertford and Buck- 
 inham, shire mountaineers." (Com. p. 31.) 
 
 * NowCaerleon-upon-Usk, or Caer-Legion, upon Dee, now 
 West-Chester. 
 
 ! t Trathtreveroit [Traithenrith or Rhydrhwyd,'] Gildas manu- 
 script, Arderit, Cotton manuscript and Prise and a Chronicon 
 Walliae, manuscript, cited by Gale, probably Aerae Britan- 
 nic(E, adjinem. H. IJwyd, Commentariolum, 17 SI, 4to. p. 142, 
 Arderydd. 
 
 X In the margin of the Cotton Gildas : "in Sumerseteshire, 
 quern nos Cath-bregion." {Cath or c&d, in Welsh, signifies 
 battle.] "These battles, together enumerated, appear to be 
 waged in the space of forty years and more, and although, all 
 here seem to be attributed to Arthur, nevertheless, they appear 
 to have been waged, under Vortigem, Ambrosius and others," 
 says Gale, but without quoting the slightest authority. 
 
 § Historia Britonum, C. 63. The battle of Badon, accord-, 
 iug to the computation of Archbishop Usher, was fought in the 
 
74 THE LIFE OP 
 
 year 520, which date, with his usual weakness, he takes froifflf 
 Matthew of Westminster. *• The Badouick mount," upon the 
 best, because the oldest authority, that of Gildas, " was neat 
 the mouth of the Severn ; and, therefore, cannot be Bans- 
 downe or any hill over Bath, though it may be true that the 
 British name of that city was Caer-Badon, yet Bath is, in na 
 wise, near the mouth of the Severn : and, consequently, the 
 situation of Mount Badon is not now known. The birth of 
 Gildas happened in the year of this battle : but he does not 
 give a precise date throughout his book. His words are these : 
 ** Et ex eo tempore [466] nunc civei, nunc hostes mncebant ... 
 usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis, qui prope Sabri- 
 num ostium habetur, novissimaeque ferme defurciferis non mi-' 
 nimae stragis, quique quadragesimus quartus (ut novi oriter 
 [alias orditur] annus, mense jam primo emenso, qui jam et 
 meae nativitatis est." (^Historia de excidio Britanni(Z, C. 26). 
 In English thus : " And from this time," that is " now the 
 citizens, now the enemies conquered . . . until the year of the 
 siege of the Badonick mount, which is near the Severn-mouth, 
 and which was, almost of the last, not of the least overthrow of 
 the villains, and which, as I know, begun the forty-fourth year 
 the first [or, one] month being now elapsed, which, also, was 
 [that] of my nativity." Bede, nearly in the same words, which 
 he, certainly, however, misunderstood, supposes the 44th year, 
 hitended by Gildas, to be that of the arrival of the Saxons [449] ; 
 and, in consequence of this erroneous computation, fixes the 
 siege of the Badonick mount to the year 492. Archbishop 
 Usher, after a quotation, in his usual manner, from Geofi'rey of 
 Monmouth,* proceeds as follows (though neither his Latin or 
 
 * " If one were desired to mention a work capable of shewing 
 that an authour may be vastly and profoundly learned, with- 
 out possessing common judgment. Ushers Antiquitates Britan- 
 nicarum Ecclesiarum might be produced as an instance. Yet ...» 
 
KINC^ .ARTHUR. 75 
 
 English is worth giving) : ** As to what belongs to the time of 
 t*ie battle, Bede notes this overthrow of the Saxous to have been 
 made about the fortieth and fourth year of their coming into 
 Britain ; referring that number of years declared by Gildas to 
 things before-hand j whereas the time, in which those things 
 were written by him, seems to have been regarded : forasmuch 
 as if he had said, from the Badonick slaughter the fortieth and 
 fourth year then to have begun to be numbered j one month 
 of that year, being, at that time elapsed : and himself to have 
 known it from his age j because, he himself had learned, from 
 his parents, the year both of his own birth and of that victory 
 to have been the same. Therefore, Matthew, the florilegist^ 
 [who knew nothing of the matter] delivers this battle to have 
 been made in the year of grace 520 : a British chronologer, 
 also, [equally ignorant] giving his vote ; whom we have already 
 shewn to have numbered from the Badonick battle [of which 
 no man of any capacity has ever attempted the exact aera] to 
 tlie fall of Arthur 22 years [Above, C. 12] : which being 
 granted, both Gildas, in that year, to have been brought into 
 light, and, in the year 564, by him written this epistle of his 
 which we have, the corollary will be alike."* This authentic 
 Welsh chronologer, whom the archbishop here refers to, is Sir 
 John Prise, as firm a believer in Geoffrey of Monmouth, or his 
 followers, as himself. In the pages of the Welsh knights book 
 (121, 122), quoted, by Usher, in the margin of his Antiquities, 
 p. 216> are these words : " Item in chronicis Brytannice scriptis 
 
 had his judgment equalled his learning and diligence, he would 
 have been the most valuable antiquary that the British islands 
 ever produced." (Pinkerton's Enquhy into the History of 
 Scotland, 1, 106.) It is, certainly, a just character. Camden 
 and Heame, however, and many others, are little better, and 
 Stukeley is below contempt. 
 
 ♦ Britan. Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, C. 13, P.;254. (1687, 
 folio.) 
 
ye THE LIFE OF 
 
 antiqiiissimis," palpable extracts from that writer, who fixes the 
 fall of Arthur to the year 542, and, published by Moses Wil- 
 liams, at the end of his edition of Humphrey Llwyds " Britan- 
 nicae descriptionis commentariolum," (London, 1731, 4lo.), 
 which he calls " Aer(e Cambrobritannicts," which end in 1254, 
 and are nothing but a despicable farrago of no real antiquity, 
 but servilely plagiarised, from the British history, so far as it 
 goes. It is an unfounded assertion, that the Welsh either have 
 or ever had an authentic history or chronology before the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 Doctor Smith, the learned editor of Bede, after giving the 
 «rords of Gildas, " Quique quadragesimus, &c." adds, *• which, 
 being considered the number of years declared by Gildas, ap- 
 pears to be rather the time of writing than the arrival of the 
 Saxons : for Gildas, that is, to have written a year from the 
 Sardonic fight, 44 the year to himself, in the first place was 
 memorable, to whom, also, was that of his birth. If this be 
 the true interpretation," he adds, " it will give another chrono- 
 logy of this time."* This, no doubt, may be the true construc- 
 tion, yet, as Gildas specifies neither the date of the battle, nor 
 tliat of his birth, nor that of writing his querulous epistle, the 
 former cannot be, possibly, ascertained to be 520, nor the 
 latter 564. The year of his death is known, upon good autho- 
 rity (that of the Ulster annals^, to be 570 ; so that, by com- 
 puting, backward, to the battle of Badon, it is impossible to 
 fix it higher than 526. Still neither Matthew of Westminster 
 nor Sir John Prise or his modem Welsh chronicles, pilfered 
 from that notorious fabrication Geoffrey of Monmouths " His- 
 tory of Britain,'' will afford any decisive authority that 520 was 
 the exact year ; as, in 570, Gildas would be only 50 years old 
 at his death, which is highly improbable, as the monks and 
 
 * Note on Bedes Ecclesiastical History, B. l,c. 16. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 77 
 
 hermits, by their habitual temperance, generally attained a 
 very great age. 
 
 If Taliessin were the contemporary of Arthur (and, certainly 
 the name of this bard is mentioned, among others, in the addi- 
 tions to Nennius's ** History of the Britons,") and the poem 
 supposed, to allude to this engagement be genuine, they would 
 be decisive evidence in favour of Arthur and his victory at Ba- 
 don-mount. The same bard mentions him again in the Martonad 
 Uthyr Pendragon (*' Myrvyrian Archaiology of Wales,'" 1,72), 
 but in no other poem. In the same collection are three dialogues, 
 between Arthur, Cai and Glewlwyd (I, 167^ ; between Arthur 
 and Gwenhwy var (1, 175^ j and between Arthur and Eliowlod 
 (1, 176.^ Lhuyd mentions a very ancient Welsh poem, in 
 Jesus College, Oxford, intitled " Englynion yr ei-yr, a dialogue 
 between Arthur and an eagle." (Archeeologia, P. 256^. Arthur 
 is, likewise, repeatedly mentioned, in a dialogue '* between 
 Trystan and Gwalchmai CI, 178^ ; and, with both Gwenhwy- 
 far and Medrawd, in the Afallenau of Merlin the wild : if, that 
 is, these poems can be proved of sufficient antiquity. He is not, 
 however, according to Moses Williams, the Y Arthur who oc- 
 curs in a poem of Lly warch-h^n, as Sir John Prise, Lewis and 
 William Owen, doubtless, by a corruption of some of the ma- 
 nuscripts, as Williqms, though a man of some learning, was yet 
 a Welshman, and, certainly, would never have given up Ar- 
 thur, if he had not been satisfied of the forgery or sophistica- 
 tion of that name [y Arthur or i Arthur, for Yarthur] : his 
 words being Yarthur non Arthurus est, sed lardurus, larddur, 
 forte larddur ab Diwrig, qui in nostris codicibus manuscriptis 
 saepius occurrit."* Carte says that Llywarch mentions, in his 
 poems, that he had been at the court of King Arthur : but 
 nothing of that kind is to be found in Owens edition, 
 
 * Humfredi Lhoyd, Britannicae descriptionis commentario- 
 lum Accurante Mose Gulielmio, Londini, 1731," p. 115. 
 
78 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 Of Arthurs dominions and royal palaces. 
 
 X HE dominions of the British kings were, pro- 
 bably^ not very considerable. The best authority 
 for the situation of Arthurs kingdom seems to be 
 a passage in Carddocs life of Saint Gildas : when 
 he had laid siege to Glastonbury, the castle or 
 palace of Melvas, king of Somerset, who there 
 detained Guennimar, his queen, '' He thither 
 moved the army of whole Cornwall and Devon- 
 shire :"* which seems to denote that he had the 
 power of those provinces, and, consequently, 
 was king thereof. He might, however, be styled 
 king, or a king of Britain, which appears to have 
 been a usual custom with the British kings. He 
 might, nevertheless, have had territories, in South 
 Wales ; but, certainly, was not king of Gwent, 
 which was possessed by Arthrius or Arihruis, ap- 
 parently, a different name and of a distinct race 
 or family, which is much better known than that 
 of our Arthur, whom one may safely venture to 
 
 * c. n. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 7^ 
 
 call king of Cornwall. The tradition, preserved 
 by Leland, of his being born in Padstow, ap- 
 pears, likewise, to afford some countenance to 
 his being of that country j of which there are 
 other circumstances, by no means irrelative : 
 more plausible, at least, than any thing concern- 
 ing his life or actions, related in Geoffrey of 
 Monmouths '' History of Britain," or the Welsh 
 legends, which are founded upon it j as this 
 people, it is certain, have not the life of a single 
 saint, containing any anecdote, or, even, the 
 name of Arthur, or any of his ancestors, des- 
 cendants or other connections, which is not pos- 
 terior to, and polluted by, that false and fabulous 
 compilation ; except that of Saint Gildas, by Ca- 
 rddoc of Llancarvan, whom Geoffrey himself, 
 along with William of Malmesbury and Henry 
 of Huntingdon, orders '' to be silent concerning 
 the kings of the Britons [of which he had treated], 
 since they had not that book of the British 
 speech, which Walter [of Wallingford], arch- 
 deacon of Oxford, brought out of Britany." 
 
 With respect to Arthurs palace, " They report 
 that a certain man [named] Dihoc, a prince of 
 Less-Britain, by incestuous fornication, polluted 
 his own daughter and of her begot Saint Kyned : 
 who, in a province, by name Goyr,* at one mile 
 
 * Gwyr^ Gower, or Gower-Iand, a promontory upon the 
 
80 THE LIFE OF 
 
 from the palace of Arthur, being brought to 
 light, and in the island, which, in British, was 
 called Ynis'Weryn, in Latin, Insula turbae [the 
 isle of trouble], not without a miracle, for eigh- 
 teen years, educated, in Glamorganshire, with 
 Saints David, Theliau and Patern, connected by 
 necessity, passed away the time of his remaining 
 life : in that peninsula, doubtless, which is called 
 Western-Gower, and, at the sea, serves a place, 
 noted to this day by the name of Saint-Kenets- 
 chapel."* A passage in the life of Saint Iltut 
 expressly speaks of Arthurs palace, though it 
 does not name it : " The magnificent knight, 
 Bican, in the mean time, hearing the magnifi- 
 cence of king Arthur, his cousin, desiring to 
 visit the court of so great a conqueror, deserted 
 that which we call Further-Britain, and came, 
 sailing, where he saw the greatest abundance of 
 knights. t There, likewise, being honorably 
 received and rewarded to his warlike desire, his 
 
 Severn-sea, now in Glamorganshire Cformerly Morganwg), 
 now called Worms-head. Within this territory were several 
 old castles : as, for instance, Swinesey ('that is, in Saxon, the 
 water of sea-hogs or porpoises ; now Swansea,) Guible, Penrise, 
 and " Lochor-castle^* standing' on the hither side of Lochor- 
 river, in the lordship of Gower." (Lelands Collectanea, III, 94.^ 
 
 * Ushers Antiquities (from John of Tinmouth^, p. 275. 
 
 t This must be false, as there were no knights in the sixth 
 century. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 81 
 
 desire of taking presents being fulfilled, he de- 
 parted most grateful, from the royal court."* 
 
 *^'The public report of those inhabiting the 
 roots of the Camaletic mount, affirms, extols, 
 sings the name of Arthur, the inhabitant, for- 
 merly, of the castle, which safne, in time past, 
 being both magnificent and very strongly forti- 
 fied, and in a very high prospect, where the 
 mount rises up, was situate. Good gods ! how 
 many [are] here of the most deep ditches ! How 
 many are here of trenches of cast-out land ! Fi- 
 nally, what precipices ! and that I may finish in 
 few [words], it seems to me, truly, a miracle 
 of both art and nature."f 
 
 '* At seges est ubi Troiafuit, stabulantur in urbe, 
 Et fossis pecudes altis, valloque tumenti 
 Taxus et astutcE. posuere cubilia vulpes." 
 
 " At the very south ende of the chirch of South 
 Cadburi, standith Camallate, sumtyme a famose 
 town or castelle, upon a very tone or hille won- 
 derfully enstrengthenid of nature : to the which 
 
 * Fo. 42, b. So that, it would seem, John of Tinmouth was 
 mistaken in attributing the journey to Iltut, the son of Bican, 
 himself: See Usher, 252. 
 
 t Lelands Collectanea, V. 28, 29. The three Latin lines 
 are extracted from the Architkrenius of John Hanvil, of which 
 there were two editions, but no printed copy is now known to 
 exist. 
 
S2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 be two enteringes up by [a] very stepe way : one 
 by north-est, and another by south-est. The 
 very roote of the hille wheron this forteres stode 
 is more than a mile in cumpace. In the upper 
 parte of the coppe of the hille be 4 ditches or 
 trenches, and a balky wauUe of yerth, betwixt 
 every one of them. In the very toppe of the hille, 
 above all the trenchis, is magna area or campus 
 of a 20 acres or more by estimation, wher, yn 
 dyverse places, men may se fundations and 
 rudera of walles. There was much dusky blew 
 stone that people of the villages therby hath 
 caryid away. Much gold, sylver and coper of 
 the Romaine coynes hath be found ther yn 
 plouing : and lykewise in the feldes in the rootes 
 of this hille, with many other antique thinges, 
 and especial [ly] by este. The people can telle 
 nothing ther, but that they have hard say that 
 Arture much resortid to Camalat."* 
 
 * Lelands Itinerary II, fo. 46, 47 ; p. 75, 76. In Mart 
 d^ Arthur we find " Camelot which is now called Winchester," 
 distinct places in the old French romance of Lancelot. That 
 Arthur, however, should be able to keep his court either at 
 Winchester or in its neighbourhood is rather doubtful, as it is 
 believed, that, during the most part of the sixth century, this 
 country was in the actual possession of the Saxons. That he 
 might have resided at Caer-went, in Monmouthshire, the ruins 
 whereof are said to be still visible, which may, in later times^ 
 have been confounded with Caer-Wynt, now Winchester , h 
 very possible. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 83 
 
 " Arthures-hall [in the hundred of Trigg, 
 Cornwall], a place so called, and, by tradition, 
 held to be a place whereunto that famous king 
 Arthure resorted. It is a square plot, about sixty 
 foot long and thirty-five broad 3 situate on a 
 plain mountain, wrought some three feet into 
 the ground, and, by reason of the depression of 
 the place, there standeth a stang or pool of water, 
 the place set about with flat stones."* 
 
 "Three dear times," according to the Welsh 
 triads, [were] in the isle of Britain : one of them 
 was when Medraut [Modred] came to the palace 
 of [his uncle] Arthur, in Kelliwic, in Cornwall ; 
 he left neither meat nor drink in the palace un- 
 consumed, and pulled Gwenhuyfar [his queen], 
 likewise, out of her royal throne, and hit her a 
 blow. The second dear time was when Arthur 
 came to the palace of Medraut ; he left neither 
 meat nor drink in the palace, nor, in the hun- 
 dred."! This tripod of two feet may seem to 
 
 • Nordens Description of Cornwall, p. 71 : an engraving of 
 " Arthures-hall" is given in the same page ; and " Arthnres- 
 hall, a decayed place," occurs in his map. 
 
 t. These triads or threes (in Welsh, " Triodh ynys Prydain") 
 are the name of a book, wliich, for its imputed antiquity, and 
 authentic anecdotes, these people hold in very high esteem, 
 alledging it, with their accustomed extravagance, to be not less 
 than of one thousand years, or even " of the seventJi century." 
 
84 THE LIFE OF 
 
 have given rise to the following nursery- rhyme : 
 
 "I went to Tatfys house, 
 Taffy was not at home, 
 
 Taffy came to my house. 
 
 And stole a marrow-bone."* 
 
 (Letter from Lewis Morris, Cambrian Register, I. 350 ; and 
 account of the life of Lljwarch h^n, prefixed to William Owens 
 edition of his Heroick Elegies, &cc. p. viii. note). It mentions, 
 however, the ecclesiastical historian Bede, who died in 731, 
 and Morgan Muyn-vaur, king of Glamorgan, whose death 
 happened about 972, and savours too much, it must be con- 
 fessed, of Geoffrey of Monmouths British history, to be, even, 
 coeval with that book, which, as has been, elsewhere, proved, 
 first appeared in the year 1138. Of whatever age it may be, 
 it contains a variety of the adventures of king Arthur, and 
 other Welsh heroes, the names of his knights, courtiers, officers, 
 wives, mistresses, and the like ; but, most probabl^^, nothing, 
 except fable and romance. Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, who 
 was bom in 1592, and died in 1666, had proposed and pre- 
 pared an edition of this book, in Welsh and English, with 
 notes ; but it never appeared, nor is it certainly known what 
 became of it, or where it is. The most ancient manuscript of 
 these ti'iades is the Lhyvr koch o Hergest, or red book of Her- 
 gest, now in Jesus-college, Oxford, and the most modern, belike, 
 in the Harleian library, number 4181, with a partial transla- 
 tion by Hugh Thomas, and corrected, in many parts, by W. T. 
 fWilliam Thomas ?] with additions of his own. 
 * Gammer Gurtons garland. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 86 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Of the death of Arthur. 
 
 L E L A N D, speaking of the Alan, a river in Corn- 
 wall, says, "By this ryvere Arture fowght his 
 last feld, yn token whereof the people fynd there, 
 yn plowyng, bones and harneys."* John, abbot 
 of Burgh [Peterborough, that is, about the year 
 1260], according to the same antiquary, had, in 
 his annals, committed these [words] to his faith- 
 ful papers : *' King Arthur, about to die, hid 
 himself, lest at such an event, his enemies should 
 insult, and his friends, being confused, should be 
 molested." t There seems, in fact, some truth in 
 this anecdote; since it does not appear to have 
 been known, for 640 years, to any person in the 
 kingdom, where his or his wifes body had been 
 interred. William of Malmesbury, a Somerset- 
 shire man, and very intimate, no doubt, at Glas- 
 tonbury -abbey, who is supposed to have died in 
 1143, expressly says that "the sepulchre of 
 Arthur was never seen." It would appear a most 
 
 * Itinerary, VII, 114. t CoUectaMa, V, 44. 
 
ae THE LIFE OF 
 
 extraordinary circumstance that the bodies of 
 Arthur and his queen could have been interred 
 in the public cemetery of Glastonbury-abbey, 
 with all the usual processions, dirges and 
 ceremonies of the abbot and monks, without 
 which no interment was ever permitted in such 
 a place, and that this should be unknown to 
 those who actually assisted in and performed 
 the ceremony.* 
 
 • This may be thus accounted for : the abbot and monks of 
 Glastonbury were a very diflferent set from tliose of Henry the 
 Seconds : being Britons or Welsh, it is probable, they kept no 
 registers, or, if they had kept any, they might be destroyed by 
 the Saxons, who, for some time were Pagans. The precise 
 year of Arthurs death lias never been, and, most likely, never 
 will be ascertained. 
 
KING ARTHUR, 87 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Of Noah, the son, and Walwen, the nephew> 
 of Arthur. 
 
 "Noah (Noe), the son of Arthur, fulfilling the 
 commandment of the apostle, saying, " Give and 
 it shall be given to you :" and, elsewhere, ' as' is 
 said, "The hand extending [itself] shall not be 
 indigent," gave, for the commerce of the celes- 
 tial kingdom, in the first time, the land Penna- 
 lun, vt^ith his territory, without any assessment 
 to [any] earthly man, but only to god and the 
 archbishop Dubricius and LandafF, founded in 
 honour of Saint Peter 5 and to all succeeding him 
 and Llan-Teilo-maur, upon the bank of the 
 Tyvi, with his two territories, where Teliau, the 
 pupil and disciple of saint Dubricius, frequents 5 ♦ 
 and the territories of the North- Welsh,t upon 
 the bank of the river Tay : Noah putting his 
 hand upon the four gospels, and commending, 
 in the hand of the archbishop Dubricius, thin 
 
 * Teliau succeeded Dubr cius, as archbishop, in 512. It 
 is not known how long the latter had continued in the see. 
 t Aquilensium. 
 
68 THE LIFE OF 
 
 alms for ever, with all his refuge^ and with all 
 his liberty in field and in woods, in water and in 
 pastures, under an everlasting curse, whosoever 
 from that day in future,* should separate from 
 the church of Landaff, the aforesaid lands, and 
 with his dignity : Amen. Of the laicks, Noah 
 is the only witness, with a numberless power of 
 men. Of the clerks, truly, the archbishop Du- 
 bricius, Arguistil, Ubelbui, Lovann, Lunabui,. 
 Conbran, Guorvan, Ethearn, Ludnou, Gurdocui, 
 Guernabui. Be peace in their days, and abun- 
 dance of things to those who shall confirm the 
 gift ; and to those who shall violate it [let] their 
 sons be orphans and their wives widows."* 
 
 * In antea. 
 
 t Monaiticon Anglicanum, III, 190, (from the register of 
 Landaff). This is the only instance which occurs^ apparently in 
 that register, with the name of Arthur, so spelled : the king of 
 Gwent, son of Mouric, king of Morganwg, and father of Mor- 
 cant, is, uniformly called Arthritis or AHhruis ; who appears a 
 different personage, and was of a later age, being contempo- 
 rary with Comegern or Comergwyn, bishop of Landaff, about 
 600. If, therefore, the battle of Badon were actually fought 
 by king Arthur (who, at the same time, is not here called a 
 king, nor appears, even, to be living at the time his son executed 
 this grant, in the presence (amongst other witnesses) of the 
 archbishop Dubricius, who died in 512 : so that he is near ten 
 years too soon, as Arthniis is above twenty too late. Sir John 
 Prise, who appears to have had the register of Landaff (now in 
 Lichfieldcathedrdi, where it is called Saint Chads book), only 
 notices this grant from a certain Noe, son of Arthur (p. 127). 
 
KING ARTHUR. 89 
 
 ** In the province of Wales, which is called 
 Ros> was found the grave of Walwen, who was 
 the not-degenerate nephew of Arthur out of his 
 sister and reigned in that part of Britain, which 
 hitherto is called Walwertha : a knight most 
 famed in valour, but, from the brother and ne- 
 phew of Hengist, being driven out of his king- 
 dom, first compensating his exile by their great 
 damage. Communicating, deservedly, to the 
 praise of his uncle, that the fall of his tottering 
 country he put off for many years. But the 
 grave of Arthur was never seen, whence the 
 antiquity of trivial songs fables him yet to come : 
 as to the rest, the grave of the other, as I have 
 said before, was found in the time of king Wil- 
 liam [1086], upon the shore of the sea, fourteen 
 feet long, where, by some, he is asserted to have 
 been wounded by his enemies and cast out to seaj 
 by some he is said to have been killed by the 
 citizens in a public feast. The knowledge of 
 the truth, therefore, wavers in doubt, although 
 neither of them has wanted to the defence of his 
 fame."* 
 
 * William of Malmsbury, B. 3, p. Iln, (eflitioa of Frank- 
 fort, 1601, folio.) Geoffrey calls -Walwen, WalganuSy by 
 others he is called Galganus, Gawain, Gawin or Wawint the 
 W and G being convertible in Welsh. The date, 1086, 
 and the 21st year of the king, is in Lelands Collectanea, I, 
 417 : but how he came by it does not appear. 
 
90 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 Of Arthurs popularity. 
 
 William Somerset, monk of Malmesbury^, 
 who appears to have died in the year 1143, has 
 these words : [Vortimer] being extinct, the 
 strength of the Britons withered away [and] 
 their hopes, being impaired, flowed back, and 
 now and then had [things] suddenly gone worse 
 ' if* Ambrose, the sole svrvivor of the Romans 
 who, after Vortigern, was monarch of the realm, 
 had not weighed down the swelling barbarians, 
 with the glorious acts of the warlike Arthur. 
 This,*' he says, " is the Arthur of whom the 
 elegiac songs of the Britons, at this very day, 
 dote :* worthy, it is plain, whom not fallacious 
 fables should have dreamed, but veracious his- 
 tories should have spoken, forasmuch as he long 
 
 * Be gcstis regum Anglorum, L. 1, C. 1, p. 9. " Bnttonum 
 nugtE :" these nug(B or elegiac songs or poems, usually com- 
 posed on the fall of great heroes, are elsewhere (L. 3, p, 115), 
 called " antiquitas naeniarum," a word of the same meaning, 
 have not come down to us in a single instance. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 91 
 
 sustained his falliug country and whetted the 
 broken citizens to war.t 
 
 " This country," says Girald Barry, bishop of 
 Saint-Davids, speaking of Wales, " except from 
 the north, is shut up, on all sides, by lofty moun- 
 tains, having on the west, the mountains of the 
 cantred Bachan, on the south, the southern 
 mountains, the principal of which is called Cadair 
 Arthur, that is, Arthurs chair, on account of the 
 twin points of the promontory, looking in the 
 manner of a chair ; and forasmuch as the chair 
 was situate in a high and arduous place, it was 
 by vulgar nuncupation assigned to Arthur, the 
 highest and greatest king of the Britons."* 
 
 Sir John Prise gravely remarks, " Not far from 
 this lake [_Lhyn-Tegyd, near Harlech] is a place 
 called Caergay, which was the house of Cray, 
 Arthurs foster-brother/'f 
 
 * Tbi. It is highly probable, nevertheless, that this vene- 
 rable monk, who commences his history with the Saxon kings, 
 knew very little of the history of the Britons, and still less of 
 king Arthur, and that all the information he had was derived 
 from an apparently imperfect and interpolated copy of Nenniutf 
 whom, however, he never once names. What he says of " ve- 
 racious histories" of Arthur, seems to prove that there was no 
 such thing either in England or Wales. 
 
 • Itinerarium CambriiB, L. 1, C. 2. 
 
 t Description of Wales, (prefixed to Caradoca Historie d 
 Cambria, by Lhoyd and Powell, 1584, 4to. b. 1.) p. 9. 
 
92 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ^'. Artures hille is iii good Walsche miles 
 south-west from Brekenok, and in the veri toppe 
 of the hille is a faire welle spring. This hille of 
 summe is countid the hiest hille of Wales, and in 
 a veri clere day, a manne may see from hit a part 
 of Malvern -hilles, and Glocestre, and Bristow, 
 and part of Devenshir and Corn wale."* 
 
 " In the isle of Anglesey are several cromlechs, 
 which they there call Arthurs quoits." f 
 
 " Withyn a myle of Perith, but in Westmer- 
 land, is a ruine, as sum suppose of a castel, 
 withyn a flite-shotte of Loder and as much of 
 Emot water, stonding almost as a mediamnis be- 
 twixt them. The ruine is of sum caullid the 
 round-table, and of summe, Artures castel." J 
 
 " On this ry ver," says Froissart, mistaking the 
 Tyne for the Esk, " standeth the towne and 
 castell of Carlyel, the whiche some tyme was kyng 
 Arthurs, and held his courte there often-times."§ 
 
 A parish, in Cumberland, is called by '' The 
 name of Arthuret or Arthurs-head :"|| 
 
 " Etterby [a township, in the parish of Stan- 
 
 • Lelands Itinerary, V. 70. 
 t Wrights Louthiana, Part 3, Page 11. 
 t Lelands Itinerary, VII, 52. 
 $ English Translation, 1525, fol. vii, 6. 
 II History of Cumberland, by Nicolson and Burn, 1777, 4to. 
 p. 471. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 93 
 
 wix, in Eskdale-ward, Cumberland], in old writ- 
 ings is called Arthuri burgum [Arthurs-borough], 
 which seems to imply that it had been a consi- 
 derable village. Some affirm, its name from 
 Arthur, king of the Britons, who was in this 
 country, about the year 550, pursuing his victo- 
 ries over the Danes and Norwegians, [r. the 
 Saxons, the " Danes and Norwegians" did not 
 arrive in Britain for three centuries after the 
 death of Arthur] " .^ 
 
 Two old ballads, upon the subject of king 
 Arthur, printed in bishop Percys Reliques of an- 
 cient English poetry, suppose his residence at Car- 
 lisle J and one of them, in particular, says, 
 
 " At Tearae-WadliiJg his castle stands." 
 
 Thus, likewise, in an ancient Scotish metrical 
 romance, of great merit, 
 
 " In the tyme of Arthur an aunter bytydde. 
 By the Tunie-Wathelan, as the boke telles. 
 When he to Carlele and conquerour kydde, ^c.** 
 
 " Tearne-Wadling," according to the inge- 
 nious editor of the above-mentioned Reliques, and 
 which, as he observes, is evidently the Turne 
 Wathelan of the Scotish poem), ''is the name 
 
 • History of Cumberland, f. 454. 
 
94 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of a small lake near Hesketli in Cumberland^ on 
 the road from Penrith to Carlisle. There is a 
 tradition/* he adds, " that an old castle once 
 stood near the lake, the remains of which were 
 not long since visible :" Team or Tarn, in the 
 dialect of that country, being still in use for a 
 lake. The tradition is, that either the castle or 
 a great city was swallowed up by the lake (which 
 is now called Armanthwaite, from an estate it 
 adjoins and belongs to, and may be still seen, 
 under favourable circumstances, at its bottom. 
 
 Walter de Percy, by a charter, in the time of 
 Richard the first, confirms, amongst other tene- 
 ments, to Roger de Bagot, all the land, which he 
 had under the way that led to Werverton, which 
 was called ''Arthurs buttes/' in the territory of 
 Crathorne, in Cleveland.* 
 
 To the east of Guisb rough, in Yorkshire, within 
 sight from the road to Whitby, stands 
 
 " Freebro's huge mount, immortal Arthurs tomb.V 
 
 The memory of this illustrious monarch, on 
 account of his heroick actions and celebrated 
 
 • Original charter in the archives of Thomas Crathorne, of 
 Crathorne, esquire. 
 
 t Cleveland'prospect, by John Hall Stevenson, esquire, author 
 of "The crazy tales," and several other poems of humour and 
 excellence. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 95 
 
 name, received distinguished honour, in being 
 placed in the heavens, as a constellation of him- 
 self, and his war- chariot, amongst the stars. 
 This appears from an ancient poem of the seventh 
 century, composed by Aldhelm, abbot of Malmes- 
 bury, afterward, bishop of Sherborne, who died 
 on the 25th of May, in the year 709, and ob- 
 tained the dignity of sainthood, being canonised, 
 it is presumed, by the bishop of Rome. The 
 verses are : 
 
 DE ARTURO. 
 
 Sydereis stipor turmis in vertice mundi, 
 Essedafamoso gesto cognomine vulgi, 
 In gyro volvejis ivgiter non vergo deorsum, 
 Cetera ceu properant ccelorum lumina ponto. 
 Hoc ' dono ditor quonlam' sum proximus axi. 
 * Ryphms Scytice qui latis' montihus errata 
 . Vergilias (Kqxians numeris in arce polorum ; 
 Cui pars inferior stygia letheaque palude 
 Fertur * infemi'fundo succumbere nigro,* 
 
 (Of Arthur. 
 
 With starry troops I am environed, in the pole of the world j 
 I bear a war-chariot with a famous surname of the vulgar. 
 Rolling in a circle, continually, I do not decline downward. 
 As the other luminaries of the heavens hasten to the sea. 
 
 • S. Aldhelmi Poetica nonnulla, . . Mog^mtia:, 1601, 12mo. 
 (p, 63.) 
 
96 THE LIFE OF 
 
 I am enrich'd with this gift, forasmuch as I am next to the pole. 
 He who wanders in the Ryphaean mountains of Scythia, 
 Equaling, in numbers, the Seven-stars, in the top of the poles ; 
 Whose lower part, in the stygian und lethean marsh, 
 Is reported to fall down in the black bottom of hell.) 
 
 In Scotland^ near Falkirk^ hard by the Carron, 
 was, anciently, a Roman building, of a round 
 form, demolished by the Gothic owner of the 
 ground on which it stood, one named Sir 
 Michael Bruce, to repair a mill, which relic of 
 antiquity bore the name of Arthurs-hof, or 
 Arthurs-oon (or oven.) As a just judgment 
 upon this sacrilegious act, the above mill was, 
 soon after, swept away by the river. It is re- 
 markable that Gawin Douglas, bishop of Dun- 
 keld, a noted poet, has described this erection in 
 the milky way : 
 
 ** Of every steme the twynkling notis he. 
 That in the stil hevin move cours we se, 
 Arthurys-hufe and Hyades, betaiknyng rane, 
 Syne Watling-strete, the Home and the Charle-wane."* 
 
 It is as little known that Arthurs-Plough 
 has likewise obtained immortality, by an ever- 
 
 * The third hoo'ke of Eneados, p. 85, Ralph Thoresby says, 
 «* Churl-wel is from ceojll, Agricola, and Charles-wain, the 
 Ceojily or countryman's wain, is from the same original." (To- 
 pography of Leeds, 1715, folio, p. 268.) 
 
KING ARTHUR. 97 
 
 lasting situation in the celestial sphere : for this 
 interesting piece of information we are indebted 
 to dan John Lydgate, monk of Bury, who takes 
 occasion to observe : 
 
 '* But to shypmen that be discrete and wyse. 
 That lyste their course prudently devyse. 
 Upon the sea have suffysaunce ynoughe. 
 To gye their passage by Arthourys-ploughe."* 
 
 • Troye-boke, C. 3. If one may believe William Owen, 
 elsewhere alluded to, Arthurs-h^rp is "the British appel- 
 lation for the constellation Lyra." 
 
98 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. xxni. 
 
 Of the discovery, after many centuries, of the 
 remains of king Arthur and his queen. 
 
 A PARTICULAR relation of the discovery of the 
 bodies or bones of this monarch and his queen, 
 between six and seven hundred years after the 
 supposed and probable time of their deaths,* 
 hath been, with due elaboration and prolixity, 
 brought forth, by his countryman, Girald Barry, 
 otherwise Giraldus CambrensiSjf who died bishop 
 of Menevia or Saint-Davids, in 1229, which, 
 however, it will not seem impertinent to give, 
 at length, from his own Latin, as follows : 
 
 " The memory of Arthur, the famous king of 
 the Britons, is not to be suppressed, forasmuch, 
 as of the excellent monastery of Glastonbury, of 
 which he, also, was the patron, he had been, in 
 
 • There is no certainty in the date of this event : nor can 
 any credit be given to Geoffrey of Monmouth, or any of his 
 folIoMrers. 
 
 t Leland gives him the name of Sylvester Giraldus, in which 
 he is followed by Camden and bishop Godwin j for what rea- 
 son or upon what authority cannot be ascertained. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 99 
 
 his days, a principal benefactor and magnificent 
 benefactor. Histories much extol him : for, be- 
 fore all the churches of his realm, he most loved, 
 and, before the rest, with far greater devotion 
 promoted, the church of the holy mother of God, 
 Mary, of Glastonbury : w^hence, vv^hen the war- 
 like man was alive, in the fore part of his shield, 
 he had caused to be painted the image of the 
 blessed virgin ; that, internally, he might, always 
 have her, in the contest, before his eyes 3 whose 
 feet, also, when he was, in the moment of en- 
 gagement, he had accustomed to kiss with the 
 greatest devotion.* His body, however, which, 
 as fantastic, in the end, and, as it were, by a 
 spirit, translated to a great distance, neither to 
 death obnoxious, fables have been feigned. In 
 these our days, at Glastonbury, between two 
 pyramidal stones, formerly erected in the sacred 
 burying-ground, hid very deep in the earth, in a 
 hollow oak, and marked with wonderful, and, as 
 
 • This puif preliminary, in which there is not a word of 
 truth, he had either amplified from some interpolated copy of 
 Nennius or Geoffrey of Monmouth, or from some legend hi the 
 abbey, or been paid for fabricating. He was no more than an 
 occasional visitor, though, by his relationship to the king, and 
 his connections at court, he might have had an eye upon it 
 himself, and this rigmarole stuff been calculated to cajole the 
 monks. 
 
100 THE LIFE OF 
 
 it were, miraculous tokens, was found,=* and, 
 into the church, with honour, translated, and to 
 a marble tomb decently commended : whence, 
 also, a leaden cross, a stone being put under it, not 
 infixed on the upper part, as it is wont, ought to 
 be, rather, in the lower part, which we, also, have 
 seen, for we have handled [it], contained these 
 letters, and not rising up and standing out, but 
 more within, turned to the stone : Hic jacet 
 
 SEPULTUS INCLITUS REX ArtHURUS CUM WeN- 
 NEVEREIA UXORE SUA SECUNDA IN INSULA AvAL* 
 
 L0NIA.I Here, however, occurred very many 
 noble things, for he had had two wives, of whom 
 the last had her interment at the same time 
 
 * Matthew Paris says, ** In the same year [1191], were 
 found, at Glastonbury, the bones of the most famous king of 
 Britain, Arthur, hid in a certain most ancient stone coffin, 
 about which two most ancient pyramids stood erected, in which 
 were letters defaced : but on account of too much barbarism 
 and deformity, they could, in no wise be read. Now they 
 were found on this occasion : for while they dug there, that 
 they might inter a certain monk, who this place of sepulchre, 
 with vehement desire, in his life, had wished ; they found a 
 certain stone-coffln, to which a leaden cross had been put over, 
 in which was defaced, Hic jacet inclytus Britonum rex 
 
 ArTHURUS, in insula AVALONIS SEPULTUS (P. 138.) 
 
 This coflin, Leland obsei-ves, he never heard of, and did not 
 believe. 
 
 i Gumnimar, Guenever, Winifred : (see Lliuyds Arckao- 
 logia, p. 225, Co. 2 :) " Bychedh Guenvreui : Vita Sancttt Wi- 
 
KING ARTHUR. 101 
 
 with himself, and her bones were found, at the 
 same time, along with those of her husband, so 
 distinct, nevertheless, that two parts of the sepul- 
 chre, toward the head, had been deputed to con- 
 tain the bones of the man ; the third, also, toward 
 the feet, were to contain the bones of the woman 
 apart : where, also, a yellow lopk; cxlihe yToman's 
 hair was found, with its original entirety and .90- 
 lourj which> a certain mo^k er'reediJy srJ^tcfie.d* 
 with his hand, and being lifted up, the whole im- 
 mediately fell into dust.* When, however, some 
 tokens of the body there found, from his writings, 
 some, from the letters impressed on the pyra- 
 
 nifredae." Leiand remarks, that Silvester (as he calls him) 
 here added something to the inscription of his own head 
 (^Collectanea, II, 12) ; meaning the words " cum Wen- 
 nevei-ia uxore sua secunda;''* which will be more full explained 
 hereafter. 
 
 Uaher (in his Index chronologicus, at the year Dxlii) says, 
 " That she may appear to be called second, in respect of another 
 Guenever, married, by Arthur, in the very beginning of his 
 reign ; whom, by Melvas, king of Somerset, ravished at the 
 year 509, from Carddoc of Llancarvan, we have observed." 
 Carddoc, however, gives no such date, nor had Usher any, the 
 slightest, authority for it, but his own fancy : there not being 
 one single date throughout the Vita Gilde. 
 
 * He has something more upon the shameful violence of 
 this monk ; but the manuscript is too much burned to permit 
 one to make out the whole : it is entirely omitted by sir John 
 Prise, though it was then entire. 
 
 L 
 
102 THE LIFE OF 
 
 mids, although very much destroyed by too great 
 antiquity, some, likewise, through visions and 
 revelations, made to good and religious men, 
 chiefly, nevertheless, and most evidently, the 
 king of England, Henry the second, as he had 
 heard it from an ancient historical singer, a 
 Uriton,"* ir».t>mated the whole to the monks, that 
 
 . *. '* Aj[en?;y, no s;j3all part of an army being raised, came 
 into Wales to levy the rest, and thence to sail from Saint- 
 Davids into Ireland, with the hope of obtaining which he 
 wholly burned. While he acted these things, being, on ac- 
 count of his dignity, entertained by the kinglets of Wales in 
 feasts, he heard bards singing in concert to the harp not with- 
 out pleasure, using an interpreter. There was one, truly, 
 among the rest, the most learned in the knowledge of antiquity. 
 He, the praises and famous actions of Arthur being performed, 
 comparing with him Henry as a future conqueror, with many 
 names, so sung, that the kings ears were wonderfully both 
 tickled and delighted : in which time, also the king chiefly learn- 
 ed this from the bard,that Arthur had been buried at Avalon, in 
 the sacred cemetery : whence, the bard being munificently dis- 
 missed, for the indication of so great a monument, required 
 of Henry of Blois or of Soilli, his nephew, who then, or 
 A LITTLE AFTER, from abbot of Bermondsey, was elected pre- 
 fect to the island of Glastonbury, that he with the most ex- 
 quisite diligence, would narrowly search for the sepulchre in 
 the inclosure of the sacred cemetery. It was several times 
 tried, and, at length, with great difficulty found." (Lelands 
 Assertio Arturii. Collectanea, V, 49.) This interview of kmg 
 Henry the Second and the bard at a feast m Wales, seems to 
 have been worked up by Leiand himself; as Girald Barry 
 
KING ARTHUR. 103 
 
 very deep, to wit, in the earth, for sixteen feet 
 at the least, they would find the body, and not 
 in a monument of stone, but in a hollowed oak j 
 and, therefore, the body had been so deeply 
 placed, and, as it were hid, that it might, in no 
 wise, be found by the Saxons, occupying his 
 island, after his death, whom, by so great a 
 labour, being alive, he had conquered, and, 
 almost wholly destroyed j and, for this reason, 
 also, letters, the indexes of truth, impressed with 
 certain things, were turned inwardly to the stone, 
 that, at that time, also, those things which it 
 contained, it might hide, and sometimes hide, 
 and sometimes, too, in place and time, divulge. 
 That, however, which is now called Glaston- 
 bury, was anciently called the Isle of Avalon : 
 for, the whole island, as it were, is beset with 
 marshes : whence, it is called in British, enis 
 
 only says, that " king Henry the second, as he had heard 
 from a historical singer, an ancient Briton " (Ibi. II, 10) j and 
 all his authority for it appears to be an anonymous monk of 
 Glastonbury : " William of Malmesbury," he says, " would 
 have come forward, as the third witness, unless death had 
 taken him away [47 years, that is,] before the discovery of the 
 sepulchre." Henry had not been in Wales since 1169, and 
 Arthurs bones were not discovered until 1191 or 1192, whereas 
 he died on the 6th of June 1189; and Henry de Sayle was 
 not abbot till the 29th of September in that year. 
 
104 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Avallm, that is the apple-bearing island, for, 
 with apples, which, in the British tongue, are 
 called aval, that place formerly abounded : 
 whence, also, Morganis, a noble matron, and 
 governess, and patroness of those parts, and, 
 also, near in blood to king Arthur, after the 
 battle of Kemelen [Camblan], carried Arthur, 
 to be cured of his wounds, into the island which 
 is now called Glastonbury.* It had, likewise, 
 been formerly called, in British, mis gutrin, the 
 glassy island, from which word, the Saxons, 
 afterward coming, called that place Glastonbury ; 
 for, glas, in their tongue, means glass, and buri 
 is called a castle or city. It is to be known, 
 also, that the discovered bones of Arthur were 
 
 * Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British history, mentions 
 nothing of Morgan, (who, in other romances of Arthur, is 
 that roonarchs half-sister, and a powerful fairy), and only 
 says, " But, that famous king Arthur was mortally wounded 
 who thence, to be cured of his wounds, was carried into the 
 Isle of Avallon" (B. 11, c. 21), without explaining that name 
 to mean Glastonbury, which never once appears, by that name, 
 throughout his book ; and, in his metrical life of Merlin the 
 Caledonian, places it in a distant part of the globe, whither, 
 also, Arthur is conveyed in a boat or ship, and where Morgan, 
 skilful in surgery, is the eldest of the kings nine daughters. 
 He forgot the proverb. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 105 
 
 so large that, also, the saying of the poet might 
 appear to be fulfilled ia these things : 
 
 ** Grandiaque effbsHs mirabitur ossa sepulchris**"^ 
 
 For, his thigh-bone being put by that of the 
 tallest man of the place, whom, also, the abbot 
 shewed to us, and fixed to the earth close by the 
 foot of that man, it reached full three fingers 
 beyond his knee. The bone, also, of his head, 
 as if it were capacious and thick, to a prodigy or 
 shew ', so that between the hair of the eye-lids, 
 and between the eyes, the space would fully 
 contain a hand -breadth. There appeared in it, 
 however, ten wounds or more, all which, except 
 one greater than the rest, which had made a 
 large gap, and which alone seemed to have been 
 mortal, had come together into a solid cicatrice. f 
 
 * Virgilii Georgicon, L. 1, V. 497. 
 
 t Book of the instruction of a prince (Julius, B. XIII, Dis- 
 tinction, chap. 20); and Leland's Collectanea, II, 11. Sir 
 John Prise has given a similar extract from a different work of 
 Girald, usually called JUber distinctionum (no other title occur- 
 ing), and not the Speculum ecclesie, as it is sometimes impro- 
 perly called, that being an entirely different work, and not by 
 Girald ; both extant in the Cotton MS. Tiberius, B. XIII. It 
 begins, as Prise has it: ** Porro quoniam, &c." but reads, 
 " fdfmle conjingi,*' not fabulose ; and (P. 131) " Morgani," 
 not Morgain lefaye, a puerile interpolation. The title of that 
 chapter is *' De sepulcro regis Arthuri ossa ejus continente apud 
 
106 THE LIFE OF 
 
 With respect to the circumstance of Arthurs 
 second wife, the Welsh antiquaries pretend that 
 he had no less than three wives, every one 
 
 Glastoniam in nostris diebus invento et plurimis drciter hec 
 notahilibus occasionaliter adjunctis :" that of chap. 10 : " Quod 
 rex Arthurus precipuus Glastoni . ," The manuscript has been 
 much injured, by the fire of 1731, and is partly illegible : but 
 there does not appear, in Prise, any additional circumstance 
 to the narrative already given : he first states the passage be- 
 ginning, " Regnant e nostris, &c." (p. 130.) Porro, &c. Now, 
 it being very certain that Henry de Saliaco, de Sayle, or de Soilli, 
 likewise, called Henry Sully or Swansey, was not abbot before 
 Michaelmas, 1189, being the first year of Richard the first, 
 he could not, therefore, possibly, have assisted at the disinter- 
 ment of Arthur, in the presence or, even in the reign of Henry 
 the second (see Willis's Mitred abbeys, I, 103). An extract 
 by Leland, from -a paper he met with in the library of Glas- 
 tonbury-abbey, says, " The bones of Arthur were raised from 
 the sacred cemetery, in the year 1189, by Henry Sully, abbot 
 of Glastonbury (Collectanea, III, 154) : which, by no means, 
 removes the difiiculty. In other extracts, this discovery is 
 dated 1191 (1, 264, 280, V. 54^, and 1192 (244). See, also, 
 Adam de Domerham, p. 341, and John of Glastonbury, 
 p. 182. Randal Higden says, that the body was found under 
 the year 1180 (Collectanea, II, 372) : and David Powel, in his 
 interpolated and vitiated edition of Caradocs Annals, (1585, 
 4to. b. 1. p. 238) says, " This yeare [1179] the bones of 
 noble Arthur, and Gwenhouar his wife, were found in the Isle 
 of Avalon.*' At any rate, the discovery, if made in the pre- 
 sence of Henry the second, could not be in the time of Henry 
 de Soilly, or if made by Henry de Soilly, could not be in the 
 presence of Henry the second. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 107 
 
 named Gwenhwyfar-j "^^ the first> the daughter of 
 Gwryd Gwent^ cauled, by som, Corytus j the 
 second, the daughter of Uthyr ap Gredawgol, 
 cauled, by som, Crediolus -, and the third, the 
 daughter of a giant, cauled Gogfran Gawrj" 
 and that the Wenever or Guenever, whose bones 
 were discovered along with his own^ and whose 
 name occurred in his epitaph " was not his last 
 wife :"* so that he appears to have had one after 
 he was dead. To prove, however, the singular 
 consistency of these infallible Cambrians, it ap- 
 pears, from their favourite *' 7Viot7^," Triades or 
 Triads, that these three Gwennhuyvars were not 
 the wives of Arthur, but '^ Three prime dam- 
 sels" residing at his court; and that his '' three 
 wives or mistresses, were Judee^ daughter to 
 Arvy the tall, and Garvy White -hams, daughter 
 to old Henin, and Guyl, daughter to Endaut."t 
 
 Leland, mentioning the two chapters of Gi- 
 rald, concerning Arthur^ in what he mistakenly 
 calls his book De specuoo ecclesie, adds, that he 
 had, in another book, read Ihe same translation 
 to have been made in the ocginning of the reign 
 of Richard [1191]. Neif^her, he observes, does 
 Girald there affirm that he was present at the 
 
 * Lewis, p. 185, 196 ; Prise, 134. 
 t Harley manuscripts, Num. 4181. 
 
108 THE LIFE OF 
 
 translation of the remains, but that Henry, the 
 abbot, shewed him the cross, with the bones, 
 found a short time before, in the sepulchre of 
 Arthur i and reports this inscription of the 
 cross : *' Hie jacet sepultus inclytus rex Arturius in 
 insula AvallonicB cum Wenneria uxobe sua se- 
 CUNDA3" whereas, says he, in the cross, which 
 they now shew (and which he had himself seen), 
 THERE IS NO MENTION OF HIS WIFE. They crcctcd, 
 as he elsewhere tells us, a leaden cross about a 
 foot long, which, also, he says, I have contem- 
 plated with most curious eyes, containing, in 
 Roman capitals, rudely engraved, the following 
 words : " HiG jacet sepultus inclytus rex 
 Arturius in insula Avalonia."* 
 
 * Collectanea, V, 45. This is the cross of which Camden 
 has given the figure, and facsimile inscription, imposing it, 
 either by design or ignorance, upon his readers, as the one 
 mentioned by Giraldus ; which he could not but have known, 
 ■when he read and transcribed either that original writer, or 
 Leland, or sir John Prise, was not the fact : he has, in- 
 deed, now and then, the cullibility of honest Leland, and ex- 
 presses or implies his belief in Joseph of Arimathea, Arthur, 
 Guy, Bevis, and so forth, the heroes and creatures of romance, 
 for whose existence he knew he could cite no authority, of 
 which, at least, he would not have been ashamed. Matthew- 
 Paris, in the third place, gives it thus : " Hic jacet inclytus 
 Britonum rex Arturius in insula Avalonia sepul- 
 tus:" so that the epitaph of Arthur has nearly as many 
 
 v 
 
KING ARTHUR. 109 
 
 There is nothing wonderful in the circum- 
 stance of this worthy and industrious antiquary, 
 becoming a complete dupe to this imposture, 
 when not less than three of the greatest mo- 
 narchs that ever tyrannised in any part of Britain, 
 were, to use a vulgar phrase, completely taken 
 in: "^ Henry the second, king of England," as 
 Leland observes, '' in the grant of his donation, 
 in which he subscribes to the ancient privileges 
 of the monastery of Glastonbury, plainly affirms 
 himself to have seen th« donation of Arthur :"* 
 which the no less pious than dexterous monks 
 of the blessed mother of god, had, indisputa- 
 bly, forged, as they did the legend of Joseph of 
 Arimathea, their pretended original founder, the 
 charter of saint Patrick, the life of that saint by 
 William of Malmesbury, whom they made to write, 
 ** Of the antiquity of the church of Glastonbury," 
 not less than fifty years after his death, the history 
 of Melkin, and other legendary rhodomontades, 
 with which their precious archives abounded.. 
 King Richard the first, having, upon his visit to 
 
 various readings as that of Jesus Christ. Leland, at the 
 same time, laments that one whose authority he, deservedly, 
 very much favoured, should have added some redundant words 
 of his own to the epitaph in the inscription^ : meaning, in fact, 
 the aforesaid Matthew Paris. 
 • Collectanea, V, 6, 32, SS, 34. 
 
110 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Glastonbury, to behold the resurrection of the 
 royal bones, as it is presumed, been presented 
 with the best sword of the noble Arthur, chris- 
 tened by his prelatical historian, Caliburn, trans- 
 ferred it, as the most valuable relick in the 
 world, to Tancred, king of Sicily.* They even 
 produced his great seal, in wax, of an age ante- 
 rior, by five centuries, to the use of seals in 
 Britain, with the following pompous inscription : 
 
 PaTRICIUS ArTURIUS BRITANNIiB GaLLI^ GER- 
 MANIC Dacije imperator :" which, having some- 
 how or other found its way to Westminster, 
 Leland, if not our best, at least, our most 
 ancient, antiquary, who had met with a reference 
 to its situation in Caxtons chronicle, and the 
 simplicity of whose honest narrative can, scarcely, 
 be now, by his most profound admirer, perused 
 without a smile, went down to the abbey on 
 purpose to examine it, and has given a very 
 minute, and, doubtless, very accurate, descrip- 
 tion of this singular curiosity. 
 
 * Chro, J. Bromtm, Co. 1195. 
 
KING ARTHUR HI 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Of Gildas. 
 
 O I L D A s"(who was probably contemporary with 
 Arthur in the former part of his life, being born 
 on the day of the battle of Badon, and who, appa- 
 rently, wrote at an advanced age) represents the 
 Britons, of his own time, as " a parcel of cowards 
 and rascals, who gave their backs for shields, their 
 necks to swords (a cold fear running through 
 their bones), and held up their hands, to be 
 bound, in the manner of a woman : so that it 
 was carried out, far and wide, into a proverb, 
 and derision^ that the Britons were neither brave 
 in war, nor faithful in peace."* In another 
 place, he says, '^ that, on account of the rapine 
 and a^ arice of the princes, on account of the 
 iniquity and injustice of the judges, on account 
 of the idleness and sloth of preaching of the 
 bishops, on account of the luxury and evil man- 
 ners of the people, they lost their country."t 
 
 * C. 4, (Josselins edition, p. 86.) 
 
 i Lelands Collectanea, I, 399 ; Ushers Antiquitates, 289. 
 This passage, extracted from an epistle of Akuinus Albinw 
 
112 THE LIFE OF 
 
 '^ Britain/' he exclaims, "has kings, but ty- 
 rants j has judges, but, unjust 3 often plundering 
 and^ shaking, but the innocent j vindicating and 
 patronising, but criminals and robbers j having 
 many waives, but harlots and adultresses -, often 
 swearing, but perjuring themselves j vowing, 
 also, continually, but nearly lying ; making war, 
 but making civil and unjust warsj through the 
 country greatly following thieves, and those who 
 sit with them at table, not only loving, but, also 
 rewarding ; giving alms largely, but heaping up 
 out of the country an immense mountain of 
 crimes 3 sitting on the bench to decide, but, 
 rarely, enquiring the rule of right justice 3 the 
 harmless and humble despising j the blood- 
 thirsty, the proud, parricides, soldiers and adul» 
 terers, enemies of god, if their lot, as it is said, 
 he will take away (who with his very name were 
 
 (Alcuin, a Saxon) Opera, Paris, 1617, co. 1535 and 1668), 
 does not occur in the printed copies ; either, therefore, it 
 must be the sense of Gildas in the phraseology of Alcuin, or 
 the present text is defective. Leland, however, elsewhere 
 observes, ** It appears, from many places in this distinction 
 [the first, that is, of bishop Barrys book, intitled De institu- 
 tione principis] Girald not to have used any other copy of 
 Gildas, tlian that which is now publicly read" (Collectanea, II, 
 10.) The genuine words of Gildas, therefore, seem to occur 
 in the next sentence. 
 
 # 
 
KING ARTHUR. IIS 
 
 earnestly to be destroyed), extolling, as they are 
 able, to the stars ; having many bound in prisons, 
 whom, by their own fraud, rather than demerit, 
 they squeeze, loading them with chains : re- 
 maining swearing among the altars, and these 
 same things, as if vile stones, a little after 
 despising."* 
 
 ♦ Josselins edition, p. 24. One would imagine, that Gil- 
 das, like Merlin, had possessed an incubus of prophecy, and 
 was describing, if the same country, at least, a very different 
 people. He died in 570. 
 
114 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 Of Nennius and Samuel. 
 
 -M E N N I u s, a Briton, was the disciple of saint 
 Elbodj* and flourished (as the phrase is) in the 
 year 858, and in the twenty-fourth year of Mer- 
 vin, king of the Britons.f He seems, at first, to 
 have called his book *' EulogiumBritannie,''X a-f- 
 ierward ^' Historia [or " Gesta"\ Britonum : which 
 
 * See Bertrams edition, p. 93, 95, 143. That Nennius 
 was a monk of the monastery of Bangor is a mistake of Gale, 
 continued, with equal fo%, by Bertram. " Elbodius [bishop of 
 LlandafT] , and archbishop of North-Wales [died in the year 
 809] ; before whose death, the sun was sore eclipsed." (Hw- 
 tory of Cambria, p. 20,) This monastery was destroyed long 
 before 858. 
 
 t Ibi. p. 94, 104. Whitaker, in his " History of Man- 
 chester," (II, 40, 4to. edition), asserts, that " Nennius is really, 
 prior to Gildas, the former having written about 550, and the 
 latter about 564 : the time of Gildas is well enough hit upon ; 
 but that of Nennius, is a blunder, and not the only one in his 
 fabulous history. 
 
 i No ancient manuscript has «, but, always, e -, and such 
 a circumstance would [be] a certain criterion of forgery. 
 The English, uniformly, make use of the «, but the earliest 
 Roman manuscripts never have that diphthong j bat, univer- 
 sally, ae. 
 
KING ARTHUR. U5 
 
 he tells us in his preface, that '' partly from the 
 traditions of the greater [men], partly written, 
 partly, even, from the monuments of the old in- 
 habitants of Britain, partly, also, from the chro- 
 nicles of the holy fathers, that is to say, Jerome, 
 Prosper, Eusebius, and also, from the history of 
 the Scots [Irish] and Saxons, although our ene- 
 mies, not as I willed but as I was able, complying 
 with the commands of my elders, this little his- 
 tory, from what place soever collected, I have 
 accumulated by saying something to no pur- 
 pose." 
 
 This book, however, considering its antiquity, 
 might have been held in great esteem, though, as 
 books were at that time, it abounds with tradi- 
 tion and fable : and, what is very strange, half 
 of the manuscripts, it is believed, are attributed 
 to Gildas, and many are anonymous : William of 
 Malmesbury appears, from a few extracts, to 
 have had a copy, but did not know the name of 
 the author: Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, 
 had another copy, which would seem to have 
 been imputed to Gildas, whom he names. It, 
 unfortunately, fell into the hands of one Samuel,* 
 a Briton, and disciple to Beularius, a priest, who, 
 
 * Bale calls this man " Samti^l Beulanius," and archbishop 
 Usher, after him, "with equal ignorance, " Samuel Benlan." 
 (p. 206). 
 
116 THE LIFE OF 
 
 either, interpolated and polluted the text, or, 
 merely, according to the practice of that period, 
 acted the part of a scholiast, by filling the mar- 
 gin, as Eustathius served Homer, and Servius, 
 Virgil, &c. with scholia or glosses j which, falling 
 into still worse hands, were inserted, from time 
 to time in the text, so that a genuine copy of 
 Nennius, as originally written, would be difficult 
 lo meet with. 
 
 In the year 613 (according to Bede, or 607, 
 upon the authority of the Saxon chronicle), 
 the most brave Aedilfrid [tEJ elj!jii^], king of the 
 Engles [then pagans], a great army being col- 
 lected, gave, at the city of Legions (which was 
 called, by the Engles, Legacaestir [Lejaceajtjie], 
 by the Britons, however, more rightly Carlegion 
 [now Chester], a very great slaughter of that 
 perfidious people : and when, the battle being 
 about to be done, he saw their priests, who had 
 assembled to pray god for the soldier managing 
 the battle, to stand apart in a safer place, he 
 enquired who these were, and what they had 
 assembled in that place about to do. Now 
 a great many of them were from the monastery 
 of Bangor,* in which so great a number of 
 
 * •• Tweh'e miles from Chester" (Lelands Collectanea, II, 
 601). 
 
KING ARTHUR. 117 
 
 iHonks is reported to have been, that when the 
 monastery was divided into seven parts, with the 
 rulers set over them, no portion of these had less 
 than three hundred men, who all were accus- 
 tomed to live by the labour of their own hands. 
 Of these, therefore, a great many, at the re- 
 counted battle, a three-days-fast being accom- 
 plished, had assembled, with others, for the 
 sake of praying, having a defender, named 
 Brocmail, who should protect them, intent to 
 their prayers, from the swords af the barbarians. 
 When king Aedilfrid had understood the reason 
 of their coming, he said : '^If, therefore, they cry 
 to their god against us, and, certainly, they 
 themselves, although they do not bear arms, 
 fight against us, who are persecuted by their im- 
 precations adverse to us :" he, therefore, or- 
 dered, in the first place, the arms to be turned 
 upon them, and so destroyed the other forces of 
 that abominable militia, not without great loss 
 of his own army. They report, about two thou- 
 sand men, of those who had come to pray, to 
 have been extinct in that battle, and only fifty to 
 be fallen in flight. Brocmail, turning, with his 
 soldiers, their backs, at the first coming of the 
 enemy, left those whom he ought to have de- 
 fended, unarmed, and exposed to the smiting 
 swords.* 
 
 * Bede, B. 2, C. 2. 
 M 
 
118 THK LIFE OF 
 
 Tanner^ from whatever authority, in his note 
 on Lelands life of Nennius, says, '* he got away 
 from this slaughter, at Chester, and travelled 
 over Wales, and the neighbouring islands of the 
 Scots [Irish], that he might propagate and con- 
 firm the christian religion." The Nennius, how- 
 ever, he is speaking of, wrote in 858 j the battle 
 of Chester happened in 607, a difference of up- 
 wards of 250 years ! 
 
 Leland, who had called this historian ** an un- 
 certain author," not knowing the work, at any 
 rate, to be that of Nennius. In a note, however, 
 he speaks of '' Ninnius or Nennius, a Briton, the 
 disciple of Elbod, the author of the chronicle, 
 whereof Thomas Sulmo made him a copy : for 
 he had an exemplar, not mutilated and without a 
 preface, [a sufficient proof, however, that it was 
 actually mutilated], as," he says, '^mine was."* 
 He, afterward, " From the annotations, which 
 were inscribed in the margin of the ancient book 
 of Nennius, which,'* says he, '''I borrowed of 
 Thomas Sulmo 3" and, after a few extracts, adds ; 
 ''So I have found, that to thee, Samuel, that is, 
 infant of my master Beulan, in this page I have 
 written. From these words, the conjecture is, 
 for Samuel to have been author of the annota- 
 tions, which were in the margin of Nennius.'* 
 
 * Collectanea, II. 45. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 119 
 
 He says of him : "He writes confusedly, and 
 without judgement, also with filthy words, not 
 doubting him to insert fables, any more than old 
 wives." In the margin he adds : " Mention is 
 made of a certain Nennius, in the life of saint 
 Finnan."* This, however, could not, possibly, 
 be Nennius, the historian, who wrote, as already 
 said, in 858, and was not a monk of Bangor, 
 but one of the same name, who was a monk 
 thereof, and would seem, from Tanner, to have 
 escaped from the battle of Chester, in 607- As 
 to the three Irish saints, named Finan, they all 
 appear to have died in the sixth century j as the 
 Scotish ones did in the seventh. Gale inserts 
 the marginal annotations of Samuel (which, in 
 the best, if not all, the manuscripts, are in the 
 margin), between crotchets in the text; Ber- 
 tram, who published his edition at Copenhagen, 
 never saw the manuscripts, but relies upon Gale j 
 only he distinguishes the interpolations, some- 
 times, as well by crotchets, as italics, and in- 
 verted commas, and sometimes, with inverted 
 commas alone : which deforms his book, at 
 least, if it shews no want of judgement, as the 
 marginal annotations, usually attributed to Sa- 
 muel, are, frequently, by others, and should 
 either have been inserted in notes, under the 
 
 • Collectanea, II. 47. 
 
]20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 text, or^ after the text, or by way of appendix. 
 From the 60th chapter, (at the end of which are 
 these words, '' Hie expliciunt a Nennio Idiio, cor- 
 rupts, Gilda sapiente composita] conscripta), he 
 marks all the remaining chapters (including Ar- 
 thurs battles), with inverted commas, as some 
 passages are, likewise, between crotchets, and in 
 italics. It appears, from William of Malmes- 
 bury, that the nameless copy he had, contained 
 the battle of the Badonick mount, " fretus 
 imagine dominlecB matris, quani armis suis in- 
 sueratj &c." but these words are not in Bertrams 
 edition, nor the story, under the battle of 
 Badon. Henry of Huntingdons extracts (from 
 '*^Gildas the historiographer") are much more 
 considerable and more consonant to the manu- 
 scripts, than those of William of Malmesbury ; 
 but neither the monk nor the archdeacon no- 
 tices Arthurs fabulous [journey] to Jerusalem j 
 so that, if any new manuscript of Nennius be 
 ever found, that absurd story will not be there 
 to pollute it. It is said, by the Welsh editors of 
 ''The Myvyrian archaiology of Wales" (II, vii) : 
 " There is a copy of Nennius, in the Vatican- 
 library, the oldest that is known, undoubtedly, 
 written in the beginning of the tenth century, 
 which contains the story of Brute.*' These My- 
 vyrian archaiologists seem to suppose, " the 
 
KING ARTHUR. 121 
 
 ^ unfounded' story of Brute to be the criterion 
 of the most ancient and perfect copy of Nennius : 
 although there is not a single copy, ancient or 
 modern, manuscript or printed. Gale or Ber- 
 tram, wherein '' the story of Brute" does not 
 occur ! a manifest proof that they have never 
 perused nor ever seen a copy of NenniuSj as it 
 stands staring every one in the face, who can 
 either read or see, in the second and third chap- 
 ters, and in the genuine words of the original 
 author : " Britannia insula d quodam Bruto va- 
 catur*' (C. 2) : " Et sic venii ut in nativitate il- 
 lius mulier est mortua et nutritus est filius vocat- 
 umque est nomen ejus Bruto," (C. 3). A Welsh- 
 man, however, who wanted '' the story of Brute," 
 would, naturally, have recourse to the British 
 history of Geoffrey of Monmouth : the pink of 
 veracity! William Owen, in his "Cambrian 
 Biography,*' asserts that Nennius, an historian, 
 flourished toward '^ the close of the eighth cen- 
 tury," but is the year 858, in which Nennius, 
 with his own hand, records himself to have 
 finished his book, in "the close of the eighth 
 century ?" " Like Gildas and Tysilio,'' he adds, 
 " he edited a breviary of the history of Britain, 
 [which was, certainly, done by neither Gildas 
 nor Tysilio] . . . and the same subject was con- 
 tinued by Marcus, whose original copy is in the 
 
122 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Vatican-library. A very valuable edition/* he 
 says, " with a commentary, is now preparing for 
 the press, by the reverend William Gunn, [of 
 Norwich], which will clear up and rectify the 
 obscurities and errors in the editions by Gale 
 and Bertram :'* this, indeed, we shall be glad to 
 see 5 but, it is to be hoped, that this reverend 
 editor is not a Welshman. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 1^3 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Of the translation of the bones of king Arthur 
 and his queen, by king Edward the first and 
 queen Eleanor. 
 
 In the year of the lord, 1276, king Edward, son 
 of Henry the third, came with his queen to 
 Glastonbury. In the tuesday, truly, next fol- 
 lowing, the king, and all his court were enter- 
 tained at the expenee of the monastery : in 
 which day, in the twilight of the evening, he 
 caused the sepulchre of the famous king Arthur 
 to be opened, where, in two chests, their images 
 and arms being painted, he found the separate 
 bones of the said king of wonderful magnitude. 
 The crowned image, truly, of the queen. The 
 crown of the kings image was prostrate, with 
 the abscision of the left ear, and with the ves- 
 tiges of the wound of which he died. A manifest 
 writing was found upon each. In the morrow, 
 that is to say, on Wednesday, the king the bones 
 of the king, the queen the bones of the queen, 
 being rolled in [two] several precious palls, shut- 
 ting up again in their chests, and putting on 
 
124 THE Life of 
 
 their seals, commanded the same sepulchre to 
 be, quickly, placed before the high altar, the 
 heads of both being retained without, on account 
 of the devotion of the people, a writing of this 
 kind having been put within : " These are the 
 bones of the most noble king Arthur, which in 
 the year of the incarnation of the lord 1278, in 
 the 13th kalends of May [19th of April], by the 
 lord Edward, the illustrious king of England, 
 were here so placed : Eleanor, the most serene 
 consort of the same king, and daughter of the lord 
 Ferrand, king of Spain, master William de Mid- 
 dleton, then elect of Norwich, master Thomas de 
 Becke, archdeacon of Dorset, and treasurer of 
 the aforesaid king, the lord Henry de Lascy, earl 
 of Lincoln, the lord Amad4 earl of Savoy, and 
 many great men of England, being present.* 
 
 * Lelands Collectanea, V. 55, from a monk of Glaston- 
 bury. Leland, on liis visit to Glastonbury-abbey, seems ta 
 have found two other epitaphs of Arthur and his wife, which 
 being among his papers, have been inserted in the Collec- 
 tanea, III, 18, and are as follows : 
 
 " Epitapkium Arthuri." 
 " Hicjacet Arturus,fios regum, gloria regni^ 
 Quern mores probitas commendant laude perenni." 
 " Versus Henrici Swansey, abbatis Glaston." 
 " Inferius ad pedem ejusdem.^' 
 " Arturijacet hie conjux tumulata secunda, 
 Qm<e meruit codos, virtutum prole /ecunda," 
 
KING ARTHUR. 125 
 
 '' King Edward, in 1289, being at Caernarvon 
 [in Wales], the crown of Arthur, with other 
 jewels, was rendered to him."* 
 
 * Lelands Coll. 346, 404. 
 
L26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 X. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIL 
 
 Of the Abbey of Glastonbury. 
 
 ■i H E B E was^ certainly (if one may believe Ca- 
 rddoc of Llancarvan, in his life of saint Gildas), 
 a monastery at Glastonbury, of British institu- 
 tion and inhabited by an abbot and monks, in 
 the sixth century : but it is, equally, certain that 
 no English historian has given the least account 
 of it or been, in any wise, acquainted with it. 
 Saint Dunstan and the Saxon abbots and monks, 
 who came thither in the tenth century, not 
 knowing any thing of the establishment of former 
 times nor having any authentic chronicles, had 
 recourse to the forgery and fabrication of lying 
 legends, of James the son of Zebedee, Simon 
 Zelota, Simon Peter and saint Paul : Aristohulus, 
 Claudia- Rufina J the twelve disciples of Philip, 
 Joseph of Arimathea, Taurinus, Eutropms, Timo- 
 thy, Novatus, Praxed, Prudential Lucius, Fagan, 
 Duvian, Aaron, saint Patrick and many more 
 such nonentities : all forgery and falsehood, gree- 
 dily, swallowed and vomited up by archbishop 
 Usher and other pretended antiquaries, to the 
 
KING ARTHUR. 127 
 
 pollution of true history and the everlasting dis- 
 grace of English literature. Glastonbury, ac- 
 cording to William of Malmesbury (who ap- 
 pears to have known nothing of its ancient British 
 church,) *' was a town [in Somersetshire] placed 
 in a certain marshy recess, which, nevertheless, 
 might be approached both by horse and foot." 
 ** There," he says, '' in the first place, king Ina,* 
 by the advice of the most blessed Aldhelm, built 
 a monastery, having bestowed thereon many 
 manors and which at * that * day [1142] are 
 
 * This Ina, Inas or Ini, as appears from Bedes ecclesiastical 
 history and the Saxon chronicle succeeded Ceadwal, king of the 
 West Saxons, in the year 688 and, after a reign of 37 years, 
 went to Home (as Ceadwal had done before), in 7^5 and there 
 lived till the day of his death. According to the latter autho- 
 rity, he built that monastery at Glastonbury ; of which, how- 
 ever, Bede says nothing nor, even, once notices that place 
 throughout [his] history, though living at the time and very 
 attentive to ecclesiastical matters. Aldhelm, abbot of Malmes- 
 bury and, afterward, bishop of Sherborne, died in 709 , William 
 of Malmesbury writing his life, in which, he says, that, "Alfred 
 commemorates a trivial song, which is hitherto sung by the 
 common people, to have been made by Aldhelm." He, like- 
 wise, mentions Arcivil, son of the king of Scotland [r, Ireland : 
 there was no other Scotland at that time] and says, " He pro- 
 cured whatsoever [he could] of the literary art, but was so far 
 hungry, that he committed himself to the judgement of Ald- 
 helm : that, by the file of perfect wit, his Scotish [r. Jrisli] 
 scabbiness might be scraped." Aldhelm wrote a letter, in 680, 
 to Gerunt, king of the Cornish-Britons, concerning the tonsure. 
 
128 THE LIFE OF 
 
 named and, truly, in the various vicissitudes 
 of the times, but the successions [and] assem- 
 blys of monks, not failing, the place shone until 
 the arrival of the Danes, under king Alfred [868]. 
 Then, truly, as the rest, being desolated for 
 some years, it wanted its usual inhabitants. 
 Moreover, whatsoever the fury of wars had de- 
 stroyed, Dunstan [abbot, 942],* who had, before, 
 being a monk of that place, led there a solitary 
 life, excellently, repaired. Afterward, truly, by 
 the liberality of king Edmund [941-946], all 
 former appendages and, with these, having ob- 
 tained, many more, he built an abbey : such 
 as no where in England was or would be.t 
 So much was the extent and convenience of the 
 foundations, so much the fairness and antiquity 
 of the books, abound. Patrick,'' he says, '*^lies 
 there (if the thing were worthy to believe), by 
 nation a Briton, a disciple of the blessed German, 
 bishop of Auxerre, whom, being, by pope Coe- 
 lestin, ordained a bishop, he sent apostle to the 
 Irish : who, for many years, doing his labour in 
 the conversion of that nation, the grace of god 
 co-operating was, somewhat, advanced ; at length, 
 
 * Simeon Dunelmensis, sub anno. 
 
 t "Glastonbury," which his [Edgars] father [Edmund] he 
 himself perfected." (Ethelred, Of the genealogy of the kings^ 
 Becem scriptores, co. 359.) 
 
KING ARTHUR. 129 
 
 being admonished by the irksomeness of a pere- 
 grination full of years, at once, also, by a near 
 old age, thinking to return into his own country, 
 he there closed his day."* This story of saint 
 Patrick, (whose history is, sufficiently, credible 
 so far as it relates to Ireland) is, manifestly, false j 
 since, from every Irish life of this saint and, 
 even, by his own '' Confession,'' he neither was, 
 ever, abbot of Glastonbury, as the legends of 
 that monastery assert, or, even, in any part of 
 Britain, from the time of his being carried off, 
 when not quite sixteen, from the western part of 
 Albany (now Scotland)! into Ireland (then Scot- 
 land), amongst other captives to be sold, to the 
 day of his death. These worthless monks filled 
 their monastery with forgery and falsehood. 
 The " charia sancti Patricii/* so ably confuted by 
 
 * Of the acts of the bishops, B. 2, p. 254. 
 
 t His father, Calporn, a deacon, the son, formerly, of Potit, 
 a priest, who was in a village Bonavem Tabemie (or, according 
 to Probus, Bannave Tybumie, a country not far from the western 
 sea), had a little farm Enon hard by, where he gave himself up 
 to capture. There is, in archbishop Ushers " Veterum episto- 
 larum Hibemicarum sylloge ; Dublinii, 1632, 4to. p* 32, in the 
 epistle of Cumraian an Irishman (born 592, died 661, Cave) 
 to Segien, abbot of Hy, these words : — " Primum ilium quern 
 sanctus Patricius papa noster tulit et facit ; in quo Lund i 
 xiiii. usque in xxi. regulariter et equinoctium a xii. kalend. 
 April, obstrvatur. " 
 
130 THE LIFE OF 
 
 sir Thomas Ryves,* seems to have been one of 
 their first attempts : this they forged in the per- 
 son of saint Patrick and made him tell a parcel of 
 fables about their pretended antiquities and sup- 
 posititious saints, and this palpable forgery sir 
 James Ware was so weak as to print, as a ge- 
 nuine work, in his '' Opuscula" of saint Patrick 
 {Londini, 1656, 8vo.) This, however, was not 
 sufficient, but, the more firmly to establish the 
 falsehood, forged, in the name of William of 
 Malmesbury, ** The three books, Avhich of the 
 life of saint Patrick, he wrote to the monks of 
 Glastonbury,'' sometime, no doubt, after the 
 death of this honest and worthy monk : which 
 book Leland found in the library of the priory 
 of Twinham in Hampshire, and gives a pretty 
 long extract from it.f Neither was this the only 
 work they attributed to him. Little, indeed, 
 did he think, when for the sake of devotion, he 
 attempted to cut off the finger of saint Carddoc, 
 whose body was about to be translated, and who 
 saved his finger from pollution, by a galvanick 
 grasp, that, having been so laborious a histori- 
 ographer, in his lifetime, he was, likewise, to be 
 
 * " Regiminis Anglicani in Hibernia defensio, adversus Ana- 
 lecten [David Roth] . Libri tres. Autore Tho. Ryvio I. C. regis 
 advocato. Londini, 1624, 4to. p. 48. 
 
 t Collectanea, II. 273. This was a house of Austin cauons. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 131 
 
 compelled to labour for his brethren of Glaston- 
 bury^ after his death : this, however, is an authen- 
 ticated fact, for, exclusive of the forged life of 
 saint Patrick, already mentioned, " Tho. Gale, Th. 
 Pr. (that is to say, in other v^^ords, doctor of divi- 
 nity)," at Oxford, among his elaborate Historice 
 Britannic<E, Saxonicce, Anglo'Danicae, scriptores 
 XV. (1691, folio) has the epistle " de excidio 
 Britannue" of Gildas, who, as he says (in Latin) 
 " wrote other things" [none of which, however, 
 he, certainly, ever saw, or knew what any of 
 them was]. '' Of him," he adds, '' William of 
 Malmesbury, in [his book] " De antiquitate Glas- 
 ioniensis ecclesice, p. 296 [thus speaks] : " Gildas, 
 the historian ; to whom the Britons owe [it], if 
 any thing of knowledge they have amongst other 
 nations." Now, it, unfortunately, happens, that 
 this respectable historian never had the satisfac- 
 tion of meeting with a copy of Gildas's querulous 
 epistle J nor does he ever quote it, or, even, 
 once mentions his name. It is a still more unfor- 
 tunate circumstance for this learned doctor, 
 since William of Malmesbury, in his undisputed 
 and indisputable work '' Of the acts of the kings 
 of the Engles " (B.3, p. 115), expressly asserts, 
 that ^' the grave of Arthur was never seen :'* 
 this he said between the years 1135 and 1142, 
 in the later of which he is, likewise, supposed to 
 
132 THE LIFE OF 
 
 have died : but his supposititious namesake, who- 
 soever he was, no less expressly, asserts, " I 
 omit to speak of Arthur, the famous king of the 
 Britons, in the cemetery of the monks [of Glas- 
 tonbury], between two pyramids, interred with 
 his wife."* Now, it is a notorious fact that the 
 grave of Arthur was, utterly, unknown, not only 
 to William of Malmesbury, in 1 142, but, cer- 
 tainly, to any one, not, even, to a single abbot or 
 monk of Glastonbury, before the year 1191 or 
 1192 (as elsewhere, already, evinced), since, ex- 
 clusive of those dates, repeatedly, occurring in 
 the extracts of Lelands Collectanea, two monks 
 of that church, who appear as its historians, in 
 their own names, Adam, of Domerham, that is, 
 and John of Glastonbury, both in print : the 
 former of whom attributes the discovery of Ar- 
 thurs bones to king Henry the second, who died 
 on the 6th of July, 1189, and Henry of Sayle, 
 the abbot, who, as we have seen, was not in that 
 situation till some monthsa fter the kings death, 
 and the latter, in the same year : both of them, 
 in their respective accounts, lying, manifestly, 
 according to the habit of a Glastonbury monk. 
 Now, between the year of the real William of 
 Malmesburys death, and the discovery of Arthurs 
 grave, for the sake of a round number, without 
 
 * Page 306. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 133 
 
 cavilling about a year more or less, is the diflfer- 
 ence of fifty years : so that this learned professor 
 of theology, who had the manuscript transcribed 
 or, it may be, transcribed it himself, and both pub- 
 lished and quoted it, must, inevitably, pass for 
 one who should not have meddled with the pub- 
 lication of old manuscripts which he did not un- 
 derstand 5 and this not being the only blunder 
 he has committed, even, as it will appear in the 
 publication of this spurious book : though, as 
 the queen, in Hamlet, exclaims, 
 
 " One woe doth tread upon anothers heel !'* 
 
 for Thomas Hearne, who has acquired the repu- 
 tation of a great antiquary, from the prodigious 
 number of volumes, mostly in Latin and, partly, 
 in black letter, he edited, generally, if not, 
 always, by subscription, and the liberal pa- 
 tronage of Robert and Edward, successively, 
 earls of Oxford, though his subscribers may, per- 
 adventure, have, now and then, had no little 
 difficulty to make some of them out or, haply, 
 conjecture why they should have been published 
 at all : as, according to a certain epigrammati- 
 cal wit : 
 
 " Pox on*t, quoth Hme, to Thomas Hearne, 
 Whatever I forget you learn.'* 
 
 N 
 
134 THE LIFE OF 
 
 However this may be, honest Thomas actually 
 reprinted, before the compilations of Adam of 
 Domerham, the forged book of William of 
 Malmesbury '' of the antiquity of the church of 
 Glastonbury/' which must necessarily and ma- 
 nifestly have been composed fifty years after his 
 death, the date of which [1142] he had got 
 from John Pits, as Gale had done before him : 
 but, as a proof of his candour, though not of his 
 judgement, he says in his preface to the reader : 
 " I do not dissemble, that a long time ago, the 
 most illustrious Gale edited William [of Malmes- 
 bury]. Yes, truly, the edition of Gale abounds 
 with many errors, gross and foul 5 as, also, many 
 omissions are discovered therein :" 
 
 " Thus one fool lolls his tongue out at another. 
 And shakes his empty noddle at his brother."* 
 
 * After all, it must be acknowledged, that, though Gale and 
 Heame, undoubtedly, evinced a considerable want of both 
 judgement and knowledge, in the duplicate publication of this 
 spurious book : yet Leland is not without blame, as such a 
 bombastical, fabulous, and absurd book as his " Commentarii 
 de scriptoribus Britannicis," certainly, is, in which this identi- 
 cal forgery is by him (as well as Bale) attributed to William of 
 Malmesbury, though it was not printed before 1709. How- 
 ever, it must be confessed, that Tanner is the most to blame, 
 since he implicitly transcribes not only the prolix falsifications 
 of Iceland, but those of Bale and Pits and Thomas Dempster. 
 Neither Camden, indeed, nor Usher, nor Browne Willis, nor 
 
KING ARTHUR. 135 
 
 With respect to this fictitious book^ of which 
 so much has been said, it seems a compilation of 
 various forgeries of the monks of Glastonbury, 
 who were, particularly, addicted to that crime, 
 that is to say, by their legends of pretended 
 saints that never existed) then forged charters 
 and grants, of property they never possessed j 
 their fabricated relics of pigs bones j* their cru- 
 cifixes, which, occasionally, spoke and some- 
 times shed blood : all these puppet- shews, how- 
 ever, were calculated for pilgrims and bigoted 
 fools, who flocked in crowds, with their pecuni- 
 ary, and, it may be, in some instances, terri- 
 torial offerings 3 which brought grist to the 
 mill, and satiated the gluttony of a parcel of fat 
 and lazy monks, who passed their time in eating, 
 drinking, and sleeping 3 braying like so many 
 zisses, at stated times, which was, impertinently, 
 called singing and serving god. So much for 
 the monks of the abbey of Glastonbury : and now 
 for a few specimens of the forged and spurious 
 book of the pseudo-William of Malmesbury : 
 
 '' It is read in the gests of the most illustrious 
 king Arthur, that, when in a certain festival of 
 
 Richard Gough, (Sepulchral monuments, J, xciii), had perspi- 
 cacity to discover that a book which relates a circumstance 
 which did not happen till 50 years after the death of the im- 
 puted author, cannot, possibly, have been written by him. 
 * See Chaucers Pardoners tale» 
 
136 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the birth- day of the lord,, at Caerleon, a most 
 brave youth, the son, to wit, of kingNuth, called 
 Ider, had been decorated with military ensigns, 
 and the same, for the sake of being experienced, 
 into the mount of frogs, now called Brentknowl, 
 where it had been given out to be three giants, 
 most infamous for their evil deeds, was led to be 
 about to fight against them j the same knight, 
 going before Arthur and his attendants and not 
 knowing it, having attacked, valiantly, the said 
 giants, massacred them with marvellous slaugh- 
 ter: who being destroyed, Arthur coming up, 
 finding the said Ider fainting by too much la- 
 bour, and having fallen into a trance, altogether, 
 without power of himself, the same as if dead was 
 lamented with his companions. Returning, 
 therefore, to their own homes, with ineffable 
 sorrow, the body which was thought lifeless, 
 until a vehicle had been destined thither to bear 
 it away. Reputing himself the cause of his 
 death, because he had come to his assistance too 
 late, when, at last, he came to Glastonbury, he 
 there instituted twenty-four monks for the soul 
 of the same knight, possessions and territories, 
 for their support, gold and silver, chalices, and 
 other ecclesiastical ornaments, abundantly be- 
 stowing."* 
 
 * Of the antiquity of the church of Glastonbury, p, 307. 
 
KING ARTHUR. 137 
 
 Among ''the possessions given to Glaston- 
 bury, by the Engles converted to the faith," is 
 the follow^ing donation by the same king : 
 
 ''In the first place, king Arthur, in the time 
 of the Britons, gave Brentemaris, Poweldon, 
 with many other lands situated in the confine, 
 for the soul of Ider, as above is touched, which 
 lands by the Engles, then Pagans, coming upon 
 them, being taken away, once more, after their 
 conversion to the faith, they restored with many 
 others/'* 
 
 "Of the two pyramids." "That which is, 
 almost, unknown to all, I shall willingly declare, 
 if I should be able to get at the truth, what those 
 pyramids will to themselves j which placed, by 
 some feet, from the old church, surround the 
 cemetery of the monks : the higher, truly, and 
 nearer to the church hath five storys and the al- 
 titude of twenty-six feet j this, by reason of its 
 too great age, although it threatens ruin, hath, 
 nevertheless, some spectacles of antiquity, which, 
 plainly, may be read, although, they may not be 
 fully understood. In the higher story, truly, is 
 an image made in the pontifical habit. In the 
 second, an image holding forth a royal pomp 
 and the letters : Her, Sexi and Blisyer. In the 
 
 * Of the antiquity of the church of Glastonburtf, p. 326. 
 
138 THE LIFE OF 
 
 thirdj nothing less than the names : Wemerest, 
 Bantomp, Pinepegn. In the fourth : Hats, Puh 
 fred and Eanfled. In the fifth, which, also, is 
 the lower ; an iittage and this writing : Logpor, 
 Peslicas and Bregden, Spelpes, Hyin Gendes, Bern. 
 The other pyramid, truly, hath eighteen feet and 
 (four) story s, in which these are read : Hedde, 
 bishop, and Bregored, and Beormald. What these 
 may signify, not, rashly, I define, but, from sus- 
 picion, I collect, more within, in hollow stones 
 to be contained the bones of those, whose names 
 are read more without. Certainly, Logpor is for 
 certain asserted to be, of whose name Log peres- 
 beorh was called, which now is called Mount- 
 acute. Bregden from whom Brenta-cnoltej which 
 now is called Brentamerse. Beorwald, notwith- 
 standing, the abbot after Hemgisel, of whom 
 and the rest, who may occur."* 
 
 * Of the antiquity of the church of Glastonhiry, p. 306. 
 These names are, clearly, those of Saxons interred in this ce- 
 metery, and, of course, cannot be very ancient and, at any 
 rate, they do not concern king Arthur : further than if it can 
 be proved, that his bones were found between these two pyra- 
 mids. Beorwald: is Beortwald, archbishop of Canterbury, 
 ■who died 731 (Sason chronicle) ; Bern : Beorn, general, burned 
 in Silton, 780, or Beorn, earl, killed by Swain and buried at 
 Winchester, 1046. (lb.) Eanfled : Eanfled, daughter of king 
 Edwm, born 626. (lb.) Hedde bishop : Hedde, bishop of 
 Winchester, died 703. (lb.) 
 
KING ARTHUR. 139 
 
 " There is/' says Leland, '' in the archives of 
 Cambridge the table of a charter formerly be- 
 stowed by Arthur in favour of the students."^* 
 This charter is inserted at length, in John Cays 
 first book " Of -the antiquity of the university of 
 Cambridge :" printed at London, 1568, by Henry 
 Bynneman, 8vo. p. 68, 69, and republished by 
 Hearne, along vv^ith " Thomas Cays Assertion of 
 the antiquity of the university of Oxford,'* (Ox- 
 ford, 1730, p. 48). It begins thus: ''Arthur, 
 being supported, by god, in the regal dignity, to 
 all his [lieges] greeting,'' and thus ends : 
 " Given in the year from the incarnation of the 
 lord 531, the seventh day of April, in the city of 
 London :" So that it would seem that the doc- 
 tors and students of the university of Cambridge 
 were no less dexterous in diplomatick forgery 
 than the abbot and monks of the convent of 
 Glastonbury. 
 
 * Collectanea, V, 27. In the library at Naward-castle, 
 near Brampton, in Cumberland, belonging to the earl of Car- 
 Ible, is still preserved, standing on the floor, a huge volume 
 of three vellum leaves, being the original legend of Joseph of 
 Arimathea, which Leland beheld with admiration, on his visit 
 to Glastonbury-abbey. 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
143 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Extracts from the lives of Welsh saints. 
 
 A Cotton-manuscript, in the British -museum, 
 described by the title of Vespasian, A. XIV, con- 
 tains (amongst other things) the lives of four- 
 teen Welsh saints, archbishops, bishops, abbots, 
 and confessors (to wit) 1st, The life of saint 
 Gundlei, king and confessor; 2d, The life of 
 saint Cadoc, bishop and martyr : 3d, The life of 
 saint Iltut, abbot : 4th, The life of saint Teliau, 
 archbishop of Llandaf, 512 : 5th, The life of 
 saint JDuhricius, archbishop of the same see, died 
 512 (being succeeded by Teliau) :t 6th, The life 
 of saint David, archbishop of Mynynw {Menevia, 
 afterward, from himself, Saint-Davids), who died 
 in 546, written by Ricemarch, bishop of Saint- 
 Davids, who died in 1096::}: 7th, The life of 
 
 . t Another life of saint Dubricius, 7. 
 X Another life of saint David, by Girald Barry, bishop of 
 Sahit-Davids, who says " it was reported saint David to have 
 been the uncle of king Arthur." {Anglia Sacra, II, 628.) 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 saint Bernac, confessor : Sth, The life of saint 
 Patern, bishop : 9th, The life of saint Clitauc, 
 king and martyr : 10th;, The life of saint Keby^, 
 bishop :§ 11th, The life of saint Tathei, con- 
 fessor : 12th, The life of saint Carantoc, con- 
 fessor : 13th, The life of saint Aidui, bishop : 
 14th, The life of saint Brendan, abbot, (which 
 wants the last leaf). The Ist, 2d, and 8th 
 lives, make mention of king Arthur, containing, 
 frequently, an anecdote, a tale or a miracle, 
 whence it is inferred that they have been writ- 
 ten after the publication of Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouths '^History of the kings of Britain," 
 in 1139 and [are] consequently, a series of 
 fables, and forgeries : although the manuscript 
 which contains these lives is, apparently, of the 
 thirteenth century. The first instance, in the 
 life of saint Gundlei, is related as follows : 
 '' King Gundlei, being now established in his 
 kingdom, greatly, desired, with a flagrant aflfec- 
 tion, that there should be united to him, in law- 
 ful marriage, a certain damsel sprung from a 
 most noble lineage, of elegant beauty, indeed 
 and, likewise, in form, highly, decorous and 
 clothed with golden vests, whose name was 
 Gladusa, the daughter of a certain kinglet, called 
 Brachan, on account of her most odoriferous 
 
 * Another life of saint Keby, 14. 
 
APPENDIX. 145 
 
 fame. He, from that time sent a great many 
 messengers to the father of the virgin, who were, 
 very earnestly, to require, that she might be 
 betrothed to him as his wife. But the father of 
 the damsel, the message being received, indig- 
 nant and replete with fury, refused to betrothe 
 his daughter to him, and despised the messen- 
 gers and dismissed them without honour. They, 
 bearing this hardly and, informing their lord 
 what had been done toward them, retujrned : 
 which being heard, the king, raging, with too 
 much fury, armed, as soon as possible, three 
 hundred servants, in order that they might 
 carry off the premised damsel by force. Then 
 straightway, taking the journey, that he might 
 come to the court of the prescribed king, 
 called Talgard, they found the beforementioned 
 virgin, sitting at the door of her chamber with 
 her sisters and listening to chaste discourse, 
 whom, incontinently, taking by force, they re- 
 turned with a speedy course : which [ill-tidings] 
 being received, her father Brachan, in grief of 
 heart, touched, inwardly, at the loss of his most 
 d^ar daughter, with tears, called to his assistance 
 all his friends and companions, to bring her 
 back. All his auxiliaries summoned being now 
 assembled, with swift courses, he pursues the 
 enemy and his accomplices j whom, when Gundlei 
 
146 APPENDIX. 
 
 had beheld, he ordered, repeatedly, the said 
 daughter to be brought and caused her to ride 
 with him. He, however, without flying, but 
 step by step, carrying with him the young 
 woman on a horse, preceded the army, expect- 
 ing his knights, and manfully exhorting them to 
 battle. But Brachan, with his forces, boldly, 
 attacking the hostile king and, likewise, his at- 
 tendants, two hundred being overthrown, pur- 
 sued them to a hill, in the confines, as it were, of 
 each country, which, in the British tongue is 
 called Bochr'uicarn, which is interpreted a stony 
 way. But, when Gundlei, sound in body, with 
 the before-noticed virgin, although lamenting 
 the very great slaughter in fighting with his ad- 
 versaries, had reached the bounds of his terri- 
 tory, behold ! three most brave heros, Arthur, 
 with his two knights,* Kay, that is, and Bedver, 
 sitting upon the top of the aforesaid hill, playing 
 at dice. They, forsooth, discerning the king, 
 with the damsel, approaching them, Arthur, 
 therefore, too much inflamed with unlawful de- 
 sire toward the love of the young woman, and full 
 of iniquitous thought, said to his companions. 
 Know, that I am, vehemently, inflamed to the 
 earnest desire of this damsel, whom the knight 
 
 * There were no knights in Arthurs time nor (as has been 
 before observed) for many centuries after him. 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 carries on horseback : but they, prohibiting him, 
 said. Far from thee be it to commit so great a 
 crime : for we are used to help the needy and 
 the troubled, who, hard by this straight, run- 
 ning together from the battle, shall come up the 
 sooner : but, he replied, For-as-much-as, you 
 rather wish to succour him than, violently, to 
 take away from him the damsel for me, go meet 
 them and, diligently, enquire which of them is 
 the heir of this country. They, forthwith, de- 
 parting and enquiring, according to the kings 
 precept, Gundlei answers. Witness god and all 
 the most learned of the Britons ! that I profess 
 myself to be the heir of this land. The messen- 
 gers being returned to their lord and having re- 
 lated to him what they had heard from him, 
 Arthur and his associates, being armed, rushed 
 upon the enemies of Gundlei and, their backs 
 being turned, put them to flight, with great con- 
 fusion, to their own country. Then Gundlei, 
 triumphing by the support of Arthur, proceeded 
 with the prescribed virgin, Gladusa, to his pa- 
 lace. Therefore, these things being transacted, 
 king Gundlei allied to himself, in lawful mar- 
 riage, the prescribed daughter of Brachan, by 
 name Gladusa." (Folio 17, b.) The second in- 
 stance, in the life of saint Cadoc, is related thus : 
 '' In the same time a certain leader of the Britons, 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 most brave^ by name Liges-Sauc, son of Eliman, 
 by surname, also, Lau-hiir, alike. Long-hand, 
 killed three knights of Arthur, the most illus- 
 trious king of Britain. As to the rest, Arthur 
 pursuing him on every side, he nowhere found a 
 safe place and no one durst defend him for fear 
 of the aforesaid king, until, at length, fatigued 
 by very frequent flight, he came, a fugitive, to 
 the man of god : who, having compassion of 
 his sufferings confiding in the lord, very gra- 
 ciously, received him. Nothing, truly, fearing 
 Arthur, he remained, therefore, with him, in the 
 region Gunliauc, safe for seven years, Arthur 
 being ignorant : which being rolled away, the 
 same, again, betrayed to the aforesaid king, at 
 last, for the sake of pleading that which by force 
 with the man of god, he would, in no -wise, dare 
 to contend, he came with a very great force of 
 knights to the river Osk. Messengers, therefore, 
 being directed to the king, the man of god en- 
 quired from him if he would appoint the contro- 
 versy ^ to' the arbitrament of sage judges. But 
 he acquiesced. For saint Cadoc, out of three 
 several parts of that same country, David, to wit, 
 Teliau, Iltut and Dochou, being sent for, with 
 many other clerks and the elder judges of all 
 Britain being gathered together, as far as to the 
 bank of the very great river Osk, be, himself. 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 preceding, in like manner, met. There, also, in 
 the manner of enemies, from each part of the 
 river, discussing the cause, with bitter words, 
 they litigated, a very long time, on both sides. 
 After this respite of altercation, however, the 
 more learned men of the judges decreed Arthur, 
 for the ransom to every one of the men killed, 
 ought to receive three best oxen. Others, truly, 
 enacted a hundred cows to be granted to him for 
 the price of the prescribed men : for in ancient 
 times, among the Britons, this kind of judge- 
 ment and that price were established by the mi- 
 nisters of kings and dukes. This being accepted, 
 Arthur, insulting, refused the cows of one co- 
 lour, but it contented him to receive those disco- 
 loured (to wit) in the fore part of a red, in the 
 hinder part, truly, of a white colour, distinct, 
 with very much backwardness of gestures. 
 Those, for-as-much-as, because they should have 
 found cattle of this kind of colour, being alto- 
 gether, ignorant, hesitated what counsel they 
 should take upon these things. Wherefore the 
 man of god, in the name of the three persons, 
 commanded the young men of the council, so far 
 forth as nine or, like as, some confess, a hundred, 
 heifers, to drive to himself, of whatsoever colour 
 they should be. That, however, the before-noted 
 beasts were brought before the eyes of himself 
 O 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 and of the other servants of god. By the divine 
 work, for the depraved desire of Arthur, in the 
 before-essayed colours, for the benevolent prayer 
 and vv^ish of the just, they v^^ere, straightway, 
 changed [into different colours]. The train of 
 the whole clergy, however, and many others the 
 faithful of god assembled together by that blessed 
 man, beholding this miracle, rejoiced with great 
 joy, very much glorifying god. Moreover, the 
 man of the lord consulted, how far, by right, the 
 before-rehearsed oxen [he] ought to drive and, on 
 each side, the company of the judges answered : 
 Right, truly, those collected together, ' thou ' 
 [oughtest] to drive to the middle of the ford. 
 He, therefore, drove them as far as that place, 
 and Arthur, Chei and Bedguur ran to them, the 
 rest sitting on the shore. But Chei and Bedguur, 
 desiring, earnestly, drew them, with the hands, to 
 the other shore, by the horns, but, immediately, 
 between their hands, aU seeing, by the divine 
 will, they were transformed into bundles of fern : 
 which prodigy Arthur beholding, that to himself 
 the injury was discharged, for the reason it had 
 been set upon him." 
 
 The next instance is the visitation of saint 
 Iltut to the court of king Arthur : " Hearing a 
 magnificent knight of king Arthur, his cousin- 
 german, his magnificence, he desired to visit 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 the court of so great a conqueror, he deserted 
 that which we call the further Britain and came, 
 sailing, where he saw the greatest abundance of 
 knights. There, likewise^ being received with 
 honour, and enriched to military desire. His 
 desire, however, of taking gifts being fulfilled, 
 he departed, most grateful, from the royal 
 court." (Fo. 43.) The next instance appears in 
 the life of saint Patern, which is thus related : 
 "When Patern, after many labours, rested in 
 the church of Mauritania,^ a certain tyrant 
 walked up and down these regions, on all sides, 
 by name Arthur ; who, on a certain day, coming 
 to the cell of the holy bishop, and speaking to 
 him, beheld his tunick (which, woven with gold, 
 he had been enriched with, at his ordination, by 
 the patriarch of Jerusalem) and, stabbed by the 
 zeal of envy, requested it : to whom the saint 
 said. This tunick is not deserved by any great 
 man, whomsoever, but, only, by a clerk conse- 
 crated to god. He, however, being displeased, went 
 out of the monastery and, again, indignantly, re- 
 turned, as if to take it away by force against the 
 counsels of his earls. Now, one of the disciples, 
 seeing him coming back in a fury, ran to saint 
 Patern and said. The tyrant, who, hence, before 
 
 * A corruption of " Llan-Padem-vaiir" or the great church 
 of [bishop] Padern, m Cardiganshire. 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 went out^ is returned with insulting fury. Patern 
 said. Nay, rather, let the earth swallow him up ! 
 which being said, immediately, the earth opened 
 its mouth and swallowed Arthur up to the chin : 
 who, therefore, acknowledging his guilt, began 
 to praise god and saint Patern ; until, humbly, 
 entreating pardon, the earth sent him forth up- 
 ward. Then the saint to the king (imploring 
 his pardon with bended knees) granted a kind 
 look.*' This miracle, likewise, occurs in the life 
 of saint Patern, inserted" in the Acta Sanctorum, 
 Aprilis, II, 378. He died about 560. (Folio 79, 
 b.) 
 
 The last instance is that in the life of saint 
 Carantoc, which, by the compilers of the Acta 
 Sanctorum (Maii, III, 585), is '*^ suspected of 
 much falsehood:" *' In these times Cato and 
 Arthur reigned in this country, inhabiting in 
 Dindraithou and Arthur going about, that he 
 might find a most powerful, huge [and] terrible 
 serpent, which had wasted twelve parts of a field 
 (to wit) Carrum and Carantoc came and saluted 
 Arthur, who, rejoicing, received a blessing from 
 him, and Carantoc asked Arthur whether he had 
 heard where his altar had arrived, and Arthur 
 answered : If I shall have a price, I will tell 
 thee J and he said : What price dost thou require ? 
 He answered : That thou leadest the serpent 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 which is near to thee, that we may see if thou 
 beest the servant of god. Then the blessed Ca- 
 rantoc went and prayed to god, and, forthwith, 
 canae the serpent, with a great noise, as if it were 
 a calf running to her mother, and bowed its head 
 before the servant of god: as if it were an 
 obedient to his lord, with a humble heart and 
 meek eyes, and put his stole about its neck and 
 led it as if it were a lamb, nor raised its quills or 
 claws,* and its neck was as if it were the neck of 
 a bull of seven years : that the stole could, 
 scarcely, go round it. Afterward, they went to- 
 gether and saluted Cato and were well received 
 by him, and he led the serpent into the middle of 
 the hall and fed it before the people, and they en- 
 deavoured to kill it. He left him not to be 
 killed, because he said it had come from the 
 word of god : that it should destroy all the sin- 
 ners which were in Carrum, and that he would 
 show the virtue of god by it, and, afterward, 
 went out at the gate of the tower and Carantoc 
 loosed it and commanded it, that, departing, it 
 should hurt no man nor return any more, and it 
 went and continued as the ordinance of god 
 beforesaid and took the altar, which Arthur had 
 
 * These, it is to be presumed, are the peculiar properties of 
 a Welsh serpent, composed of a porcupine and an owl : quills 
 and claws. 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 intended to make into a table, but whatsoever 
 was put upon it was thrown at a distance and 
 the king requested from him that he might re- 
 ceive Carrum, by a public instrument, for ever- 
 lasting and, afterward, built a church there. 
 Afterward, came a voice from heaven, that the 
 altar should be thrown into the sea. Next after 
 that Cato sent Arthur that he should ask about 
 the altar and it was told to them, that it had 
 been driven into the mouth of the Guellit, and 
 the king said : In like manner, give to him the 
 twelve parts of the field, where the altar was 
 found/' (P. 90.) 
 
APPENDIX 155 
 
 No. IL 
 
 The Answer of [Dionothus] the Abbot of Bangor, 
 to Augustino the monk, requiring subjection to 
 the Roman church, about the year 603 ; in Welsh 
 and English ; (word for word) : out of Spelman's 
 Concilia.* 
 
 Bid yspys a diogel i chwi, yn bod ni hoU un ac arall 
 yn uvydd ac ynn ostyngedyg i Eglwys Duw ac ir 
 paab o Ruvain, ac i bool kyur grissdion dwyvol, i 
 garu pawb yn i radd mewn kariad perflfaith, ac i helpio 
 pawb, o honaunt a gair a gweithred i vod ynn blant 
 i dduw : ac amgenach uvydddod no hwn nid adwen 
 i vod ir neb ir yddych chwi yn henwi yn baab he yn 
 daad o daade yw gleimio ac yw ovunn. Ar uvydddod 
 hwn ir yddym ni yn barod yw roddi ac yw dalu iddo 
 ef, ac i pop krisdion yn dragviryddol. Hevyd in ydym 
 in dan ly wodraeth esgob Kaerllion ar Wysc yr hwn 
 ysydd yn olygwr dan dduw arnobm ni y wneuthud i 
 ni gadwyr ffordd ys brydol. 
 
 Be it known and certain to you, that we are all 
 and singular obedient and subject to the church of 
 god and to the pope of Rome, and to every pious 
 
 * This is, in all probability, the oldest and best authenti- 
 cated specimen of the British or Welsh language now extant. 
 Sir Henry had it from an old MS. of Peter Mostin, a Welsh 
 gentleman, copied, no doubt, from one still older. 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 christian, to love every one in his degree with perfect 
 charity, and to help every one of those, and by word 
 and deed, to be the sons of god : and other obedience 
 than this I know not due to him whom you name the 
 pope, or the father of fathers to challenge and to 
 require. But this obedience we are ready to give and 
 pay to him, and to every christian for ever. More- 
 over we are under the government of the bishop of 
 Caerleon upon Usk, who is superintendent under 
 god over us to make us keep the spiritual way. 
 
Appendix. isr 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Britisli and Welsh Saints. 
 
 Aaron and Julius, martyrs ; 1st of July, about 304. 
 
 Aidui. 
 
 Alban, martyr. 
 
 Almedha, virgin and martyr ; 1st August, in the sixth 
 century. 
 
 Amphibalus, a nonentity ; being only a name given 
 by Gildas to St. Albans cloak. 
 
 Asaph, bishop ; 1st May, tovi^ard the beginning of the 
 seventh century. 
 
 Augul, bishop and martyr ; 7th of February. 
 
 Barcian, confessor. 
 
 Barruc, confessor, disciple of St. C^doc ; 27th of Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Benedict, abbot 
 
 Bemach, confessor ; 9th of March. 
 
 Brendan, abbot; 17th of May. Irish. 
 
 Cadoc or Sophias, bishop and martyr ; 24th of Ja- 
 nuary, in the sixth century. 
 
 Cadroe, abbot ; 6th of March, 988. 
 
 Carantoc, confessor; 16th of January, in the sixth 
 century. 
 
 Cinvarch, the disciple of St. Dubricius. 
 
 Clytauc, king and martyr ; 3d of November. 
 
 Constantine, king, monk, and martyr ; 11th of March. 
 
 Cradoc, confessor ; 14th of April. 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 Crisant and Dario, martyrs ; 1st of December or Fe- 
 bruary. 
 
 Cuthman, confessor ; 8th of July. 
 
 Daniel, bishop of Bangor ; died about 545. 
 
 David, archbishop of Menevia j 1st of March, 644. 
 
 Decuman, confessor. 
 
 Dochelm, confessor ; 8th of July. 
 
 Dochow, priest and confessor ; 15th of February. 
 
 Dubricius, archbishop and confessor; 14th of No- 
 vember, 512. 
 
 Elvan, bishop, and Meduin ; 1 st of January, about 198. 
 
 Faustinian and Juventia, martyrs ; 16th of February. 
 
 Gildas, the wise, abbot ; 29th of January, in the sixth 
 century. 
 
 Gistlian, bishop and confessor. 
 
 Gundlei, confessor ; 29th of March. 
 
 Iltut. 
 
 Ismael, bishop and confessor; 16th of June. 
 
 Julius. See Aaron. 
 
 Justinian, contemporary with Sts. Daniel and David. 
 
 Keby, bishop and confessor ; 7th of November. 
 
 Keyne, virgin ; 8th of October, in the fifth or sixth 
 century.* 
 
 Kieran, bishop and confessor. 
 
 Kigwe, virgin ; 8th of February. 
 
 Kyned, contemporary with Sts. David, Theliau, Pa- 
 tem, &c.* 
 
 * This saint was the son of Dihoc, prince of Little Britain 
 by his own daughter ; and was born in a province, by name 
 Goyr, about a mile from the palace of king Arthur. See 
 Usher, 275. 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 Luidger, bishop and confessor ; 26th of March. 
 
 Maidoc, bishop and confessor. 
 
 Ninian, bishop and confessor j 16th of September. 
 
 Nonnita, mother of St. David. 
 
 Oudoceus, bishop of Landaf ; llth of July, 663. 
 
 Patern, bishop and confessor; 16th of April, about 
 
 660. 
 Patrick, bishop and confessor ; 17th of March. Irish. 
 Tavanauc, confessor ; 25th of November. 
 Teliau, or Theliau, bishop ; 9th of February, 544. 
 Teuderi, confessor ; 29th of October. 
 Tisoi iMonasticon AngUcanum), III., 202. 
 Winifred, virgin and martyr 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Welsh Saints. 
 
 These names are extracted from the " Achey yr 
 Santy,'^ a MS. in the Harleian library, number 4181, 
 containing- the pedigrees of several British saints, 
 (taken out of an old Welsh MS. written upon vellum, 
 about 1250), then late in the custody of Edward 
 Lhuyd of the Ashmolean museum. Those within 
 crotchets are from *^ The pedigrees of severall 
 British saints, taken out of an old Welsh manuscript 
 of Mr. John Lewis of Lhuynweney, in Radnorshire, 
 wrote about the time of Queen Elizabet^h :" (also in 
 Harl. MS. 4181.) 
 
 [Arianwen.] 
 
 Assa. 
 
 Avan Buellt [Ascun Buelld ] 
 
 Beuno. 
 
 [Brychan.] 
 
 Buan. 
 
 Cannen. 
 
 Carannauc 
 
 CoUen. 
 
 [Deiniol.] 
 
 Deinyoel. 
 
 Deunauc. 
 
 Dewi. 
 
 Doevael. 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 [Dwynwen y mon.] 
 
 [Dyfnawg.] 
 
 [Eda elyn vawr.] 
 
 Edern. 
 
 [Eiluwy.] 
 
 Einyaun Vrenhin. 
 
 Elaeth Vrenhin. 
 
 [Elerw.] 
 
 Elhaern. 
 
 [Elnog.] 
 
 Emgen Merch Vaelgun Guyned. 
 
 [Esdyn.] 
 
 [Garmon.] 
 
 [Gawr.] 
 
 Gildas mab kadu [vab Kaw o Bridain.] 
 
 [Glydav.] 
 
 Gorust. 
 
 Guenan. 
 
 Gurhel. 
 
 [Gurnerth.] 
 
 Guydvarch. 
 
 Guynlleu. 
 
 [Gwaurdhydh verch Vrychan.] 
 
 [Gwen verch Vrychan.] 
 
 [Gwenvrewi.] 
 
 [Gwrie.] 
 
 Hen wyn . 
 
 [Henwau.] 
 
 [Idaw.] 
 
 Idloes. 
 
 [Jestin ap Geraint ap Erbyn.] 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 KadeU. 
 
 [Kattuc] 
 
 Katvan sant yn Henlli. 
 
 Katvarth sant yn Aberych. 
 
 Katwalaudyr Vendigeit. 
 
 [Kededr.] 
 
 fKederig verch Vrychan.] 
 
 Keiday. 
 
 [Keidraw.] 
 
 [Kenedlon.] 
 
 Kowy. 
 
 [Krisdoffis.] 
 
 Kybi. 
 
 [Kwywen vab ' Kaffi of Llyn.'] 
 
 [Kynant.] 
 
 Kyngar. 
 
 [Kynvran.] 
 
 Kynvelyn. 
 
 [Lhydhelyn or Trallwng.] 
 
 Llendat. 
 
 Llenyan Llauyur. 
 
 pLleydhad ag Eithras.] 
 
 Llywelyn or Trallyng. 
 
 Madrun. 
 
 Maelrys. 
 
 Melangell. 
 
 [Melyd Esgob Lhyndain.] 
 
 Merchyll. 
 
 Nidam. 
 
 [Noydaw or Predyr gwynog meibion Gildas ap Kaw o 
 
 Brydain.] 
 [Oswalt.] 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 Ovyhael. 
 
 Padam. 
 
 Patric. 
 
 [Pawl vab Pawlpolins.] 
 
 [Peblig.] 
 
 Pedrauc. 
 
 [Pedwg.] 
 
 Pedyr. 
 
 Peris sant kardinal o Revein 
 
 Podo a Gu3mnm. 
 
 [Rydegawg.] 
 
 [Saeran.] 
 
 [Sant Fred verch duthach Wyddel.] 
 
 [Silwen verch Geraint vab Erbyn.] 
 
 [Sliav, or Eliaw Keimad.] 
 
 [Tadwystl.] 
 
 [Tair Gwelly.] 
 
 [Tair Gwragedh.] 
 
 Tecvan. 
 
 Tedetho. 
 
 Tegei. 
 
 Teilyau. 
 
 Trunyav. 
 
 Tussiliau map Brochmael. 
 
 Tutclut a Gvennoedyl. 
 
 [Tydew verch Vrychan.] 
 
 [Tydwall.] 
 
 [Tydwen.] 
 
 [Tyfrydawg.] 
 
 Tyssul. 
 
 Tyvredauc. 
 
 Ystyphan. 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. V. 
 Cornish Saints. 
 
 Advene, Advent, Athawyn, or Adwenj one of the 
 twenty-four children of Brochan, prince of Wales, 
 all of whom were saints, martyrs, or confessors, 
 in Devonshire and Cornwall, leading the life of a 
 hermit. (See Lelands Collectanea, III. 153; 
 and Camden.) 
 
 Allan or Allen. 
 
 Alwys. 
 
 Austell, hermit, (Lelands Collectanea) ; Trinity sunday, 
 Q. 31st of May. 
 
 Beryan. 
 
 Blazey {Blasius) ; two bishops and a martyr; all 
 three on the 3d of February. (.Acta SS.) 
 
 Breage or Breock, a native of Ireland, bishop of Ar- 
 morica, obliged to fly to Guernsey, for his oppo- 
 sition to Arianism, and died there : others say 
 that he outlived the persecution, returned to his 
 bishoprick, and there died, in 556, S. Breacca : 
 See Lelands Itinerary, III. 15. 
 
 Brewer, William, son of sir William Brewer, knight, 
 bishop of Exeter, 1223-44. This, at the same 
 time, is a singular instance of a saint by a surname. 
 
 Bruard or Buard. 
 
 Budoc or Budoke, an Irishman. See Lelands Itine-' 
 vary, III. 25. 
 
 Burien. 
 
APPENDIX 165 
 
 Carac, Carock or Carrock. 
 
 Carantoc or Karantoc, son of Keretic, king of Britain. 
 See Lelands Itinerary, III. 195. 
 
 Cleer, {Clara, virgo, or (7/arw*, presbyter and martyr.) 
 
 Cleather, Clether or Cleder, one of the twenty-four 
 children of Brochan. 
 
 Columb, virgin and martyr; 16th of March. (See 
 Camdeni Epistolce, p. 91. 
 
 Constantine, king, monk, and martyr ; 1 1 th of March, 
 666. (Domesday-book.) 
 
 Credan. See Lelands Collectanea, I. 10. 
 
 Creed. 
 
 CuUan. 
 
 Dachuna, a man in Botraeme (Bodmin). See Le- 
 lands Collectanea, I. 10. 
 
 Daye, Dey, or Dye, of Gaul. 
 
 Diep. 
 
 Dilic, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 
 Dominick. 
 
 Earney. 
 
 Earth, Erth or Erne. 
 
 ■ Endelion, Endelyan or Endelient, one of the twenty- 
 four children of Brochan. (See Lelands Col- 
 lectanea, III. 163) } of Menevia or Saint Davids, 
 663. 
 
 Enedor. 
 
 Erme or Ermets, (Norden, Hermes,) confessor; 28th 
 of August. 
 
 Ernan or Ervan, (Q. Hernon, bishop of St. Davids ?) 
 
 Erne, (Norden.) 
 
 Erth. See Lelands Itinerary, III. 20. 
 P 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 Eual, Eval, Uval or Vuel (Norden). 
 
 Ewe, Eva, or Tew, (Iwy, John of Tinmouth). 
 
 Ewste or Just, bishop and martyr. 
 
 Gennis, {Genesius) ; 25th of August. 
 
 Germain, bishop and confessor. 
 
 Germoe or Germoke. See Ldands Itinerary^ III. 
 
 16. 
 Germore. 
 Geron. 
 
 Gillet. See Juliet. 
 
 Ginoc or Ginoke, (Lelands Itinerary ^ III. 36.) 
 Gluvias, 
 Gomonda. 
 Goran or Gurran ; lived solitarily, in a vale, in a small 
 
 cottage i which, leaving, he delivered up to saint 
 
 Petroc. {Monasticon Anglicanwn, I, 213.) 
 Grade, (Norden). 
 Guendern, Wendem or Wendron, 
 Guenor, (Lelands Collectanea, 1 213.) 
 Guerrir, (Domesday-book.) 
 Guinow. See Winnow. 
 Gulwal. 
 
 Gwenap or Wenap. 
 
 Helie, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 Hydrock. 
 Illogan. 
 Issey, Issoye, or Yse, one of the twenty-four children 
 
 of Brochan. 
 Ive, Ithe or les, (Lelands Itinerary, III. 21.) 
 Jona, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 Jue. 
 
APPENDIX. l«r 
 
 Julian, one of the same children. 
 
 Juliet. See Gillet. 
 
 Just. See Ewste. 
 
 Kanane, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 
 Keby, Cuby or Key, son of Solomon, king, duke, or 
 earl of Cornwall, about 350. 
 
 Kenven. 
 
 Kenwel, (Norden.) 
 
 Kerender, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 
 Keri, one of the same children. 
 
 Kevern, {Keiven or Coemgen^ an Irish saint.) 
 
 Keyne, virgin, a Welsh saint. 
 
 Kew, (Norden.) 
 
 Kilberd or Kibberd, (N^.rden.) 
 
 Levan, (saint Livin), an Irish bishop, martyred in 656, 
 
 Maben or Mabyn, one of the twenty-four sons of 
 
 Brochan. 
 Macra. 
 Madern. 
 Marnarch. 
 Marvenne. 
 
 Maw or Mawe. At Saint Mawes, in Lelands time, 
 was "a chapelle of hym, and his chaire of stone, 
 and his welle." (.Itinerary, III. 30.) 
 Maudit or Mawes. (See Lelands Itinerary^ III. 
 
 29.) 
 Mawnan, Mawnon or Mawnoun. (See ibi, 24.) 
 Medan. (See Lelands CoUectaneay I. 10.) 
 Meline, Mellion or Mullian. 
 
 Melor, son of Melian, king of Cornwall. See Le- 
 lands Itinerary , III. 194. 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 Menfre, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 Meren, Menyn or Merewen, another of the same 
 
 children. 
 Merther, (Norden.) 
 Metherion. 
 
 Meva and Gissey, or Issey. (Norden.) 
 Mewan, abbot of Ghe, in Britany. 
 Mewbred. 
 Minver. 
 Mogun. 
 Moran, Moren or Morwen, one of the twenty-four 
 
 children of Brochan. 
 Nectan or Nighton, another of the same children. 
 Nedye. 
 Neoth or Niot, of Hunstock, buried at Hartland. 
 
 His monastery is mentioned in Domesday-book. 
 Newlin. (See Lelands Collectanea ^ I. 116.) 
 Nunn. 
 Olave. 
 
 Patem, a Welsh saint, of the sixth century. 
 Penan, {Keran or Kiaran, an Irish saint. See Usher, 
 
 413.) 
 Petherwick, Petherick or Petroc, abbot ; 4th of June, 
 
 in the sixth century. (See Monasticon ^nglicanum, 
 
 I. 213, CO. 1.) He had a monastery in Cornwall, 
 
 which was ruined by the Danes. See Roger of 
 
 Howden, 427.)* 
 
 * " In this same year [ll^T] Martin, a canon regular of the 
 church of Bodmin, carried oflF by stealth, the body of saint 
 Petroc, and, flying with him, brought him into Britany, to the 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 Petherwyn. 
 
 Pratt. 
 
 Pynneck. 
 
 Roch, a native of Languedoc, died the 16th of August, 
 1327. 
 
 Rumon. 
 
 Sampson, archbishop of Caerleon. 
 
 Stedians. 
 
 Tallan (Q. Allan). 
 
 Tamalanc, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 
 Teath, {TatheuSy confessor.) 
 
 Tedda, one of the twenty^four children of Brochan. 
 
 Tissey (Q. Issey). 
 
 Tudy {Deus'dedity or A~deo-datus, archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 654. Q. 
 
 abbey of Saint Meveu : which being found out, Roger, prior 
 of the Church of Bodmin, with the sounder part of his chapter, 
 went to the King of England the father, [Henry II. that is, 
 his eldest son, being, at the same time, Henry III.] and 
 effected so much toward the king, that commanding, he sent to 
 the abbot and convent of saint Neven, that without delay they 
 should render the blessed Petroc to Roger, prior of Bodmin, 
 and, unless they did, the king commanded Rowland of Dinant, 
 justiciary of Britany, that he should take up that holy body 
 by force, and deliver it to the aforesaid prior of Bodmin : 
 which being heard, the abbot and convent of saint Meven, 
 taking care before-hand to the indemnity of their church, and 
 not daring to resist the kings will, rendered that body, with- 
 out any diminution, to Roger, prior of Bodmin, swearing upon 
 the holy gospels, and upon the relicks of the saints, that the 
 very same body, and not another, with all integrity, they 
 rendered." {Idem, 667.) 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 Tue. (Norden.) 
 
 Veep or Wymp, one of the twenty-four children of 
 Brochan. 
 
 Verion, Verryan or Virion. 
 
 Wencu, one of the twenty-four children of Brochan. 
 
 Wenher, one of the same children. 
 
 Wenn, another of them. 
 
 Wensent, another. 
 
 Winnow, {Guenau, a Breton saint) ; 31st of Novem- 
 ber. 
 
 *^* All these names are, or a couple of centuries ago, were 
 preserved in those of parishes, chapelries, towns, villages, ham- 
 lets or single houses j the anniversary of each saint being 
 known upon the spot. It would seem, however, that many 
 such places, which bore the appellation or prefixture of saint, in 
 Nordens time, have now lost it. 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Breton Saints. 
 
 Aaron, monk ; 22d of June, in the sixth century. 
 Arraagil, confessor; 16th of August, 653. 
 Brioc, bishop j 1st of May, in the fith or sixth cen- 
 tury. 
 Eoharn, hermit and martyr ; 1 1th of February, about 
 
 1020. 
 Geneva, bishop of Dol ; 29th of July, 639. 
 Gildas, abbot ; 29th of January, 670. 
 Gohard, bishop and martyr j 26th of June, 843. 
 Guenau ; 3d of November. 
 Guinol^. See Winwaloe. 
 Gurloes, abbot ; 25th of August, 1057. 
 Gurval, bishop of Alethen ; 6th of June, in the seventh 
 
 century. 
 Joava or Jovin, of Leon^ ; 2d of March, in the sixth 
 
 century. 
 Leonorius, bishop ; 1st of July, in the sixth century. 
 Mein, 21st of June. 
 Meriadoc, bishop of Veneti ; 7th of June, in the 
 
 seventh century. 
 Ninnoc, virgin ; 4th of June, in the eighth century. 
 Patern, bishop ; 16th of April, about 660. 
 Rioc, monk of Landevenecj 12th of February, in 
 
 the fifth century. 
 Ronan, bishop and hermit j 1st of June, in the sixth 
 
 century. 
 Samson, bishop of Dol ; 28th of July, about 566. 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 Solomon, king and martyr ; 25th of June, 874. 
 Tudwal, Tugdual or Tugwal, bishop of Trecore ; 30th 
 
 of November. 
 Tuian, abbot ; 1st of February. 
 Turian or Turiav, bishop of Dol ; 13th of July in the 
 
 eighth century. 
 William, bishop of Brioc j 29th of July, 1237. 
 Winwaloe, abbot of Landevenec j 3d of March, in the 
 
 sixth century. 
 
 London : Printed by W. Nicol, 
 Cleveland Row, St. James's. 
 
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
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