In Defence of King Arthur

Part 5 - The Story of Arthur

In Defence of King Arthur,

by a Canadian Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Part 5 - The Story of Arthur

Ambrosius would be poisoned by a treacherous Saxon, and Uther [Arthur’s father] would become king. Years later, when Uther died, the Saxons called over more of their countrymen from Germany to over-run and to kill the Britons. The provincial leaders of Briton assembled and asked Dubricius, the archbishop of the City of the Legions [Caerleon], to place the crown of Briton on the young Arthur.

“Arthur was a young man only fifteen years old; but he was of outstanding courage and generosity, and his inborn goodness gave him such grace that he was loved by almost all the people. Once he had been invested with the royal insignia, he observed the normal custom of giving gifts freely to everyone. Such a great crowd of soldiers flocked to him that he came to an end of what he had to distribute. However, the man to whom open-handedness and bravery both come naturally may indeed find himself momentarily in need, but poverty will never harass him for long. In Arthur courage was closely linked with generosity, and he made up his mind to harry the Saxons, so that with their wealth he might reward the retainers who served his own household. The justness of his cause encouraged him, for he had a claim by rightful inheritance to the kingship of the whole island. He therefore called together all the young men who I have just mentioned and marched on York.”

Arthur wished to battle the Saxon invaders, who had usurped his ‘rightful inheritance’ to the kingship of Briton. The Saxon leaders assembled a vast army of Saxons, Scots, and Picts, whiled six hundred ships with more men arrived from Saxony. Arthur sent messengers to his cousin Hoel in Armorica (Brittany) in France, who then sent 15,000 troops to help Arthur. Arthur and Hoel then marched to meet the Saxon army and defeated them. The Saxons promised to leave all their gold and silver, if Arthur permitted them to return to Saxony. Arthur permitted them to leave but to take with them nothing but their boats. Once the Saxons had sailed, they reneged on their promise and turned back to Briton and began to lay waste to the countryside. Arthur marched south to meet the Saxons at Bath, and told his men:

“Although the Saxons, whose very name is an insult to heaven and detested by all men, have not kept faith with me, I myself will keep faith with my God. This very day I will do my utmost to take vengeance on them for the blood of my fellow-countrymen. Arm yourselves, men, and attack these traitors with all your strength! With Christ’s help we shall conquer them, without any possible doubt!”

Geoffrey was portraying Arthur as one of the first Christian kings of Briton. After the Diocletian persecution of the Christians in 393, and after the final Roman army withdrawal around 401, the invasions of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes destroyed most of what was left of the Christian churches in eastern Briton. But the Christian churches survived in the unconquered western part of the island.

And I think this was to say that now that the Roman legions had left Briton, they didn’t have to keep that Roman Empire culture anymore, that they shouldn’t just go back to a pagan culture, as represented by the Saxons, but something better should be tried. Now, Christianity was a new religion at that time, and like Judaism, had been trying to survive under the Roman Empire. While the Britons were converting to Christianity, the prophet Mohammad wouldn’t be born for another 100 years, and the Khazars wouldn’t convert to Judaism for another 200 years or so.

During the battle, the Saxon leaders and thousands of others were killed, and the remaining troops fled towards their ships. But Arthur sent Cador, the duke of Cornwall, after the fleeing Saxons, and Cador seized their ships first, and then cut the Saxons to pieces. Arthur marched north to confront the Scots and the Picts, and besieged them at Loch Lomond.

[I’m not sure if Arthur took the high-road or if he took the low-road to get to Loch Lomond, but it should be something to muse upon.]

Meanwhile, Gilmaurius, king of Ireland, arrived with ‘a horde of pagans’ to help the besieged Scots. Arthur raised the siege of the Scots, and marched to meet the Irish, defeated them ‘mercilessly’ and forced them to return home to Ireland. Arthur now turned back against the Scots and Picts ‘with unparalleled severity’. When the bishops of Scotland begged pity of Arthur, Arthur was moved to tears and granted a pardon to their people.

Arthur then went to York where he met three brothers who had been princes before the Saxon invasion, and he gave them the kingships of Scotland – Albany, Moray, and Lothian. The next summer, Arthur sailed to Ireland and again defeated the horde of Gilmaurius, and all the princes of that country surrendered. Arthur then sailed to Iceland and subdued the island. Upon hearing this, the kings of Gotland and Orkneys came and promised tribute to Arthur. Arthur returned to Briton, and he established the whole of his kingdom in a state of lasting peace and then remained there for the next twelve years.

Arthur later sailed to Gaul, that was under the Roman Tribune Frollo, who ruled in the name of Emperor Leo. After failing to defeat Arthur, Frollo quit the field and fled to Paris. After a month of siege, in order to stop the people from dying of hunger, Arthur agreed to Frollo’s request to meet in single combat – “whoever was victorious should take the kingdom of the other”. When Arthur had defeated Frollo, Arthur subdued the remaining provinces of Gaul. Then Arthur returned to Paris, and called an assembly of the clergy and the people, and settled the government of the realm peacefully and legally.

With Gaul now pacified, Arthur returned to Briton, and held a plenary court ‘to renew the closest possible pacts of peace with his chieftains’, at Caerleon, the City of the Legions, a city that was adorned with royal palaces and with two famous churches – to the martyrs Julius and Aaron, and also a college, where Arthur used astronomers, not magicians, to forecast the future.

“The city also contained a college of two hundred learned men, who were skilled in astronomy and the other arts, and who watched with great attention the courses of the stars and so by their careful computations prophesied for King Arthur any prodigies due at that time.”

And here we see the importance of Merlin – how did Briton change from the magicians of Vortigern to the astronomers of Arthur? Through Merlin – the stepping stone from magic to science. Merlin was not a return to the ‘alleged’ druid magicians, but a return to ancient Celtic astronomers – before their destruction under the Roman Empire! That’s the real Merlin – not the romantic evil wizard of a Hollywood romance, but as a stepping stone out of the mysticism of the Roman magicians.

Now, invited to this meeting, were all the kings of Briton and Scotland, and all the leaders of the provinces of Briton, and all the kings of the ‘Islands’ – Ireland, Iceland, Gotland, Orkneys, Norway and Denmark, and the leaders of the provinces of Gaul – “… there remained no prince of any distinction this side of Spain who did not come when he received his invitation. There was nothing remarkable in this: for Arthur’s generosity was known throughout the whole world and this made all men love him.”

But most interesting in this assembly, were the leaders of the church in Briton – the archbishops of the three metropolitan sees: London and York, and ‘Dubricius from the City of the Legion … who was the Primate of Briton and legate of the Papal See …’

“… the saintly Dubricius, who for a long time had wanted to live as a hermit, resigned from his position as Archbishop. David, the King’s uncle, whose way of life had afforded an example of unblemished virtue to those whom he had instructed in the faith, was consecrated in his place.”

Geoffrey is talking about David – who became Saint David, the patron saint of Wales – who is Arthur’s uncle!!! [although sometimes, the translation from the manuscripts have ‘uncle’ for ‘nephew’ or ‘cousin’, and so maybe David was Arthur’s cousin.]

And it was then that Arthur received twelve envoys with this letter from Lucius Hiberius, the Procurator of the Roman Empire, who was outraged at Arthur:

“I am amazed at the insolent way in which you continue your tyrannical behaviour. I am even more amazed at the damage which you have done to Rome ... that by your criminal behaviour you should have insulted the Senate, to which the entire world owes submission, as you well know. You have had the presumption to disobey this mighty Empire by holding back the tribute of Britain, which tribute the Senate has ordered you to pay, seeing that Gaius Julius Caesar and other men of high place in the Roman State had received it for many years.

You have torn Gaul away from that Empire … and you have laid hands on all the Islands of the Ocean, the kings of which paid tribute to my ancestors from the first moment when the might of Rome prevailed in those regions.

As a result, the Senate has decreed that punishment should be exacted for this long series of wrongs which you have done. I therefore order you to appear in Rome, so that you may submit yourself to your overlords and suffer the penalty of whatever sentence they may pass … If you fail to arrive, I shall invade your territory myself and do my best to restore to the Roman State all that you have taken from it by your insane behaviour.”

This letter was read aloud to Arthur and to all the assembled kings and other leaders, who then met to consider what to do. Arthur told them that when these lands were snatched from the Empire, the Empire made no effort to defend them, but now the Empire was demanding tribute!

“… I do not consider that we ought to fear his coming very much, seeing with what a trumped-up case he is demanding the tribute which he wants to exact from Britain. He says that he ought to be given it because it used to be paid to Julius Caesar and those who succeeded him. When these men landed with their armed band and conquered our fatherland by force and violence at a time when it was weakened by civil dissensions, they had been encouraged to come here by the disunity of our ancestors. Seeing that they seized the country in this way, it was wrong of them to exact tribute from it. Nothing that is acquired by force and violence can ever be held legally by anyone ...”

One after the other, the kings of Briton and Scotland and the Islands, and the leaders of the neighbouring provinces of Gaul, all pledged their troops and to enter his service. And Arthur left his nephew Mordred and his Queen Guinevere in charge of defending Briton, and sailed with his army to Gaul – to meet the Emperor’s army.

Much is told by Geoffrey of the story of their meeting, of the different strategies and of the battles that followed – this seems to be the most important part of the story of Arthur – and of Arthur addressing his troops before the battle at the valley of Saussy:

“… No doubt they imagined, when they planned to make your country pay them tribute and to enslave you yourselves, that they would discover in you the cowardice of Eastern Peoples. Perhaps they have not heard of the wars you waged against the Danes and Norwegians and the leaders of the Gauls, when you delivered these peoples from their shameful allegiance to the Romans and forced them to submit to my own overlordship ... Just as in times gone by the ancestors of the Romans had harassed the forefathers of the Britons with their just oppression, so now did the Britons make every effort to protect their freedom, which the Romans were trying to take away from them, by refusing the tribute which was wrongly demanded of them.”

Arthur is saying that after he defeated the Saxon invaders of Briton, he then delivered these peoples from the Roman Empire! And now he was defending that newly-won freedom from the Empire!

In the end, after ferocious fighting, the Britons won the day, and Lucius was killed – pierced through by an unknown hand. Arthur had his body sent back to the Senate in Rome, with the message that there would be no tribute from Briton. Arthur’s plan had been that once the Roman army was defeated in the field, then Arthur would set off for Rome.

What if Arthur had been able to march to Rome, and freed Rome from the Empire?

But while he was making his way across the mountains into Italy, word came that his nephew Mordred, who Arthur had left in charge of Briton, had put the crown on his own head, and was ruling with Queen Guinevere! Arthur now had to turn back from his march on to Rome and he sent Hoel to restore peace among the Gauls, and then he made his way home to Briton.

Mordred had made an agreement with Chelric, the Saxon leader, to bring 800 hundred ships to join him, in return for which he would receive much of the island to rule. Mordred also brough the Scots and Picts and Irish into his alliance, and he marched with his army to meet Arthur when he landed. After a third brutal and bloody battle, Mordred’s army was defeated, and both Mordred and Chelric were killed.

“Arthur himself, our renowned King, was mortally wounded and was carried off to the Isle of Avalon, so that his wounds might be attended to. He handed the crown of Briton over to his cousin, Constantine, the son of Cador Duke of Cornwall; this in the year 542 after our Lord’s incarnation.”

There is much controversy regarding the location of the Isle of Avalon, and regarding the year of Arthur’s death, and whether Arthur actually died, and if he will someday return.

But I think that Geoffrey showed that Arthur was the hero of the independence of Briton – both from the Saxon invaders and from the Roman Empire; and that Geoffrey’s idea of Arthur’s return is not a physical return, but a return of the spirit of Arthur, and a return of the people of Briton to their independence – including from today’s modern variant of the Roman/Saxon/Norman usurpers – the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, i.e. the House of Windsor.

[quotes are from the ‘History of the Kings of Briton’, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe]

[next week - part 6 - the Land of the Faerie Queene]