Download Arthur, Warlord and King

Arthur, Warlord and King.
Investigating the legend.
By: Prof. Roland Rotherham
Throughout the ages many legends have grown around many
heroes, some of these fascinating people can clearly be
categorised as ‘Myth’, in other words they are stories without a
basis in fact but every now and again one hero emerges in that
which we can call ‘Legend’, that is to say a story that has been
based on a factual person or events in history. One of these
characters is the man who will become known as King Arthur and
whose stories are as vibrant now as when they were first told a
thousand years ago.
In our search for Arthur it is first necessary to identify the period in
history in which he is supposed to have operated, this is the same
for any investigation, for if we do not know ‘When’ how can we
ever find out ‘Who’ and ‘How’ ?
So, our search must start in the island of Britain at the time when
the Roman Empire is starting to withdraw back to its capital,
Rome, the mother of empires. As with many great powers before
and since, the Romans had over stretched themselves and their
territories where so vast that it became more and more impossible
to administrate. This and the fact that the Roman central
government and its emperors where increasingly corrupt and
dissolute made the task even harder.
Rome had been the conquerors of most of the known world and
had held it in their power for over four hundred years ! This was an
incredible feat. To give you some idea of the time scale let us
imagine that the Roman legions are leaving right now, today, that
means that they would have arrived and taken possession when
England was ruled by the great queen Elisabeth 1st and Holland
was ruled by William of Orange, truly an enormous occupation,
indeed, probably the longest occupation of any nation by another
in history.
This then gives us our starting point, something around the year
400 ad. We can only imagine the chaos that was left as the legions
withdrew taking with them not only troops but also the support for
those troops that was essential for the running of the empire. Such
groups as horse trainers, builders, armourers and leather workers,
bakers, brewers and even teachers for the children, in fact the
whole substructure of the empire travelled with the army, as it
withdrew so did everyone who relied on it for their income.
In Britain the country was divided into small independent
kingdoms, each with its own ruler. When Rome had arrived they
decided to keep the small kingdoms separate as it made a divided
people easier to handle. So it was that each ruler of each kingdom
tried to obtain more power than his neighbours, (Such is the
human way), and soon the country was busy fighting itself with
each little king and warlord trying to get more land and power by
fair means or by foul.
The people who inhabited the land by this time however were not
the same Celtic race that Rome had subdued; they were in fact a
mixture of Celt and of the Romans who had lived there for so long.
Given such a period of time it is only normal that the two people
would eventually form marriages with locals and then their children
would also marry and so on. This left Britain populated by a people
who were Celtic in many aspects and yet very Roman in others.
Also, remember that many of the Romans who had arrived were
not Italian Romans but members of the Roman army from the
other lands they had conquered, Spanish, German, Ethiopian,
Belgian, indeed, almost any nationality, because serving as a
Roman soldier or member of it’s administration gave you Roman
citizenship and this was highly prized as with it came many
benefits including deals on land purchase and a pension, a pretty
good deal all in all.
It is hardly surprising therefore that while the country was divided
between itself, in the constant struggle for power, that other
nations would start to cast their eyes on the island of Britain with a
view to obtaining it for their own uses.
It has been suggested in some of the stories told that the Saxons,
a Germanic people, where invited into Britain by a man called
Vortigern, a supposed ‘High King’ to help him as mercenaries, or
paid soldiers, who he refused to pay and they, accordingly, took
land and towns by force to make up for his treachery. The truth is a
little different I’m afraid. Certainly there was a man called Vortigern
and he did indeed hold a position similar to ‘High King’ having
obtained some of the smaller kingdoms for his own but as to the
Saxons arriving in Britain at this point is where truth is different
from the stories.
The truth is that Germanic people started arriving in Britain, in
particular on the east coast and south east coast, during the latter
years of the Roman occupation. By the time the 5th century had
arrived they had certainly spread but most of this was due to the
original settlers being pushed further inland by more invaders from
their own country. The majority of the early Saxon settlers were in
fact Frieslanders from the north German coast and from northern
Holland, they were followed by Jutes from Schleswig Holstein and
then later by more people from the main body of the German
people as the Huns and Goths pushed them out of their own heart
land.
After a while because of the sheer volume of people arriving into
Britain it was not long before the Saxons were in control of most of
central and eastern Britain and a good deal of the south too. This
then is the country of Arthur and the state of the country during his
life.
We can get a very good idea of the state of things at this time by
reading a book called ‘The Ruin of Britain’ by a monk called
Gildas. He was actually writing within just a few years of these
events and his is one of the few accounts that survive from this
period.
He tells us of the fighting and the treachery of the little kings and
also of the arriving dangers but he also tells us of the fact that
there is no real hero to save Britain, just another land grabbing
warlord who wants his share of the spoils of war while fighting the
Saxons. Could this be Arthur? If it is he is less than complimentary
about of the kings and mentions the great warlord as a ‘Tyrant’ but
never mentions his actual name. Most confusing and annoying too
as his document is the only one from the period that could give us
definite answers. So if we want more clues we must look
elsewhere and see where our search will take us.
The first time we actually come across the name ‘Arthur’ is in the
book ‘The Historia Brittonum’ written by the monk Nennius around
the year 800 ad. He compiled a number of histories and placed
them into one volume. But, even he does not call Arthur a king but
a ‘Leader of battles’ who fought with the British kings. If we look at
the name Arthur it might give us a clue as to why we can not find
him listed as a king in his own right and that is because the actual
word ‘Arthur’ is NOT a name but a title and means ‘The Great
Bear’, therefore we are looking at a name he was known by and
not a name he was christened with.
Nennius does give us some excellent information in his work
however as he describes people and events that we can place
actual dates to and that means we can get even closer in our
search for the ‘Real’ Arthur.
He tells us of twelve battles that are listed in his book as the
‘Campaigns of Arthur’ and these battles together with the names of
their locations gives us a marvellous view of the area of fighting
between the Britons and the Saxons. He tells us that the 1st was at
the mouth of the river called Glein, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th were on
another river called the Douglas in Lindsey. The 6th was on the
river Bassus, which we now know was in South Staffordshire near
to the ancient city called Lichfield and the 7th was in the Celyddon
Forest (Celyddon Coed). The 8th was in Guinnion Fort where he is
supposed to have fought with the image of the Virgin Mary on his
shield and the 9th was in the City of the Legion, (Present day
Chester). The 10th was by the river Tryfrwyd and the 11th on Agned
Hill. The final and 12th battle was his greatest victory and was on
Mount Badon. After this final encounter Britain had peace for
almost 40 years and they say that in all twelve battles he was
victorious.
This man called Arthur was surely, indeed, a hero of the greatest
quality if he was so victorious and could ensure a period of such
prolonged peace that the Saxons were too afraid to launch another
campaign against him for such a long time. But one thing remains
a strange fact, he did not ‘Drive the Saxons out of the country’ as
we are sometimes told, he just stopped them advancing any
further than they already had.
Alright, now we know something of Britain at the time of Arthur
and we also know something of his military campaigns but what
about the actual man himself. If we actually met the man known as
Arthur, or to be more accurate ‘The Arthur’, what sort of person
would we be looking at and what could we expect as his
background and training. What kind of man would this hero be?
Well let’s see if I can try and show you.
To commence our picture we have to travel to the north of Britain
in the area that borders ‘Hadrian’s Wall’, that fantastic structure
that was built by the Romans as the very northern-most border of
the empire. Here we would find a tribe of people called the ‘Alani’,
a nation that fought for the empire of the Roman’s as cavalrymen,
so expert were they in the use of the horse in battle. The Alani
originally came from the steppes near modern day Russia and
they developed a highly sophisticated culture centred around the
horse.
We also know that the Alani carried a dragon banner into battle
and this again is something that is attributed to Arthur. They have
left their name in many areas of the north of Britain in such towns
as Alanbridge and Alancote. Keep in mind that when the legions
left in the early 5th century they left those who had settled locally
and who had become ‘Romano British’ and chose to remain
behind when the body of Rome left.
Therefore, in the north of Britain we have a group of men who
have married local girls and whose descendants served in the
cavalry with the legions and were trained in the Roman way of
fighting from a horse, this is something that the Saxon is not used
to doing being mainly foot warriors.
During the middle of the 5th century we know that these cavalry
troops and their families where offered land if they would move
from the north and settle in the land known as ‘The Welsh
Marches’, or the area that now separates England and Wales.
Many of them took this opportunity to relocate and moved to their
new lands on the promise that they would provide mounted
warriors to help with the Saxon problem.
From this group of people then we may see the origin of Arthur’s
race. A mix of Eastern European Romans and local Celts. The
Arthur may even have had slightly almond shaped eyes and his
skin may have been a pale olive in colour. It is reasonable to
assume that he would have been reasonably tall for the period
(Around 5 feet 8 inches), and more than likely he would have been
muscular and without an amount of body-fat due to the fact that he
and his people led such an active life.
My personal view is that he would wear either a beard or even a
large moustache as both of these were popular with Celt and
Alani. His clothing would have been almost Roman in appearance
and would have been comprised of a helmet with cheek and neck
guards and more than likely a plume of horse hair cascading from
the top of the helmets crest. The body armour may again have
been almost Roman in design with a leather jerkin covered in
brass or bronze scales. We should expect him to be using
breeches probably of wool or again of leather and these would be
tucked into knee-high boots laced up the front. During warm
weather a type of long legged sandal could also be used. Around
his shoulders would be a woollen cloak and at his side he would
be carrying a short stabbing sword very similar to the ‘Gladius’ in
pattern but perhaps a little longer. He would, without exception,
have carried a shield and this may have carried an early Christian
symbol such as the ‘Chi Rho’ or even, perhaps, the image of the
Virgin as we have been told. His equipment would have been
finished with a spear and then our warlord would have been ready
for any occasion.
The men following him would have been dressed in a similar
fashion and so with this gathering of fearsome warriors we have
the very start of the body of troops that legend will turn into ‘King
Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table’.
As to the ‘Round Table’ itself, this may have originated with the
men meeting at one of the old Roman amphitheatres that
remained in Britain at this time, a particularly fine one being at
Caerleon, where, we are told, Arthur held his court. Indeed,
Caerleon is mentioned by a 12th century writer, Geoffrey of
Monmouth, as being Camelot itself.
From the areas around Wales and in the South West of Britain the
warlord, the Arthur, would have commenced his campaigns
against the Saxons and ride into legend as the greatest hero of
them all.
The campaigns fought by this war leader however are now being
investigated as being not a series of counter attacks but perhaps
as being a series of engagements fought with the aim in mind of
buying time for the Britons as they started to engineer their great
evacuation of Briton across the stretch of water, now known as the
English Channel, into a new home territory which would become
known as ‘Brittany’, literally ‘Little Britain. This may be one of the
reasons why that beautiful country has so many Arthurian legends,
because it was to there that the leaving Celts made home just after
the time of the Arthur and during the valuable period of peace that
his military campaigns had bought. Perhaps they were, after all,
merely a delaying tactic to buy time for his people.
The next mention of Arthur that we get is in the early 12th century
and in a book entitled ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ by
Geoffrey of Monmouth who we mentioned earlier. In this work we
are finally confronted with ‘King’ Arthur and from then on he has
never been known as anything else. Geoffrey wrote his work as a
serious history but upon reading it we very quickly find out that it is
history as seen through the eyes of legend, and yet there are telltale glimpses of fact that come through the story that give us
tantalising pieces of history from the era that has become known
as the ‘Dark Ages’.
But was any of this relevant to our ‘Historical’ Arthur? Well it just
may have been. By using the very few documents that survive
from the period we can collect names and dates that are verifiable
with known history and by using these we can put together a
possible identity of our warlord Arthur, for crowned king he never
was.
It is possible though that his people, the Alani, who had settled in
the Welsh Marches and in the South West of Britain, had over a
period of time gathered to themselves such large areas of land that
they appointed their own overlord, who would have been to all
intents and purposes a prince and here we may find our Arthur.
The main area of Alani population is now known as Powys and
here we find the seats of power of their war lords or princes. In
Llangollen we can even see a remarkable stone monument called
the ‘Pillar of Eliseg’, on this we are told was inscribed the family
tree of the dark age princes of Powys and their descendants. By
using these names and matching them to dates in other
documents and dates in which they are mentioned we can draw a
fairly accurate picture of which princes were ruling where and
when during this time. We can even point at one prince in
particular as being the possible Arthur, a warlord by the name of
Owain Ddantgwynn.
But even though we can match him by place and date it is still not
proof positive that he is our man. That is the aspect of this period
that I have found most interesting, you can get so close and then
when you think you have reached your goal something or
someone appears in the picture and throws you completely of
track. Let us just say that at this moment it is POSSIBLE that
Owain Ddantgwynn may be one of the candidates to be the
historical Arthur.
No matter who he was, it is the emergence of the legends and
their endurability that has gained a place in history for this
particular hero and whether or not he existed as a king or a
warlord the importance of his legends became so strong that many
factual kings and leaders based their own ideals on those of the
stories that arose around this dark age leader of battles. that
legend turned Arthur into the epitome of virtue and his war band
into the immortal ‘Knights of the Round Table’.
How the legends came to be will be the subject of another study
paper, however, this one must end here as it is only possible to
give you the briefest of outlines in the space allowed. I do sincerely
hope though that you will take the opportunity to read further on
this fascinating subject as it is still one of the great unsolved
mysteries that still exists in our modern world.
Good hunting !!
Prof. Roland Rotherham
Further reading:
‘The Age of Arthur’: Prof. John Morris
‘King Arthur, The True Story’: G Phillips & M Keatman.
‘Camelot and the Vision of Albion’: G Ashe.
‘The History of Britain’ Nennius.