King Arthur Lives

Who Was the Real King Arthur?

When it comes to King Arthur, history and legend get mixed up quick. But at least some points are clear. First, forget about the Knights of the Round Table; 12th-century French and German poets invented those stories. What's more, the real Arthur never ruled all of Britain. He would have been a regional ruler, perhaps given military authority to lead the fight against the Saxons.

Caesar Artorius?

Before the time of King Arthur, Rome ruled Britain for some 400 years. Over those centuries, the native Celts became thoroughly Romanized. In fact, if there was a historical Arthur, his real name was probably the Roman "Artorius."

By the early 5th century, however, the western Roman Empire was collapsing. In 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome, and the emperor recalled many of his legions to defend Italy. That left Britain undefended, with the un-Romanized Saxons, Angles, Picts, Franks, and Scots menacing the island from all sides. Attackers soon landed on the coast and began roaming the countryside--murdering, pillaging, and seizing slaves.

Around 425, a Briton called Vortigern (probably not a name but a title, meaning "high chief") apparently hired several hundred Saxons as mercenaries to fight the Picts. His strategy backfired when the Saxons quit moonlighting for the Britons but kept their day jobs--raping and pillaging--and operated from a secure base within Britain itself.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

According to early legend, Arthur rallied the Britons and won a great victory at Mt. Badon that contained the Saxons for a generation. But then, while the king and his army were off fighting in Gaul, a disloyal relative named Mordred seized power. By some accounts, Mordred was Arthur's nephew; by others, his son. Either way, Arthur returned to battle Mordred at a place called Camlann, where he killed the rebel but died from his own wounds.

In the following decades, the Angles and Saxons pushed the Britons back to Wales, Cornwall, and eventually across the English Channel to Brittany (in modern France). From these distant lands, the Britons told stories of how Arthur was not dead but merely waiting for the time when he would lead them into a new golden age.

Story or History?

When the Romans left Britain they took their historians with them, so it's hard to know how much of Arthur's legend is actual history and how much is just story. The earliest Briton source--a moral tract by a 6th-century monk named Gildas--mentions the battle at Mt. Badon but doesn't say anything about Arthur.

The earliest undisputed reference to Arthur doesn't show up until 300 years later, in the Historia Brittonum, a compilation of historical and geographical information by the 9th-century Welsh antiquary Nennius. According to Nennius, Arthur was the hero of Mt. Badon (and eleven other battles).

Finally, in the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth gave Arthur a full life story in his Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain"), one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. This account is similar to the one you already know--including a magical advisor named Merlin and a death scene that included transport to Avalon. French poets added Launcelot, of course.

Mark Diller
July 7, 2004

 

Want to learn more?
Live life like a Roman soldier among the Britons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/vindolanda_01.shtml

From: KnowledgeNews