(Arthurian Knight, by Charles Ernest Butler (1864–1933), [Public Domain] via Creative
Commons)
The History of the Kings of Britain, completed in 1136 by a man known as Geoffrey of
Monmouth, is admired for popularizing the legends of Merlin and King Arthur. Geoffrey
of Monmouth’s tales inspired romantic writers throughout Europe to write
Arthurian stories of knighthood and chivalry. You can read about that aspect of
The History of the Kings of Britain,
HERE. In this article, however, let’s look at something even more
interesting—the outlandish claims of conquest that Geoffrey of Monmouth
attributed to the ancient Britons. Even though almost every page in The History of the Kings of Britain has
to be read with extreme caution in terms of historical accuracy, the work was so
well written that the bizarre ‘history’ is highly enjoyable and entertaining.
One of the first major
historical events that Geoffrey of Monmouth tweaked in favor of the Britons was
the sack of Rome around 390 BCE. In the historical version of the sack of Rome
by the Gauls, the Senones tribe led by their chief, Brennus, besieged and
pillaged the city of Rome. After the Romans surrendered to the Gauls, they also
had to hand over a lot of their wealth. This traumatic event is considered one
of the key events that inspired Rome to dramatically develop their military. In
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s version of this event, however, Chief Brennus was a
Briton who had lost his position in Britain to his older brother Belinus, who
had also managed to subjugate Norway. Brennus then fled to Gaul, where he was
made chief of the Senones. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, after Belinus and
Brennus had a few more wars amongst themselves, the two joined forces to invade
Rome, leading to the sack of the great city.
Now for the Arthurian
stories. Geoffrey of Monmouth seems to place King Arthur’s father,
Utherpendragon, in the 5th and 6th century CE, and his adventures mainly
revolve around wars between the Britons and the Saxons. Geoffrey placed King
Arthur in the 6th century, after King Clovis of the Franks had become Catholic,
and he was given a much more elaborate string of conquests in The History of the Kings of Britain.
Geoffrey of Monmouth
basically left nothing untouched by King Arthur—he wrote that Arthur went to
war in Britain with the Saxons, the Picts, the Scots and the Irish. He also
apparently subdued Iceland, Gotland, Gunhpar, the Orkneys and somehow
subjugated all of Norway and Denmark. Then Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that
Arthur invaded Gaul (which would have historically been controlled mostly by
the Franks), taking Normandy, Gascony and Aquitania. Next, the Romans arrived
to challenge King Arthur (even though the Western Roman Empire had already
fallen by the 6th century CE) and the Roman army also fell to Arthur’s Britons.
Just when all of Europe seemed ready to fall to the might of the Britons,
Mordred rebelled against King Arthur. While suppressing the rebellion, Arthur
was injured and was carried away to Avalon, where he disappeared.
So, as you can tell, Geoffrey
of Monmouth was very creative with his book, The History of the Kings of Britain. To end with a corny
conclusion, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book only had tiny tidbits of real history mixed
into a gigantic soup of fiction and myth—yet, despite it all; it was a very
delicious and enjoyable soup.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
- The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Classics, 1966.
- http://www.ancient.eu/Western_Roman_Empire/
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hengist
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brennus-Gallic-leader-flourished-4th-century-BC
- http://www.ancient.eu/article/910/
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