King Arthur was an Englishman

On Monday 6 January 2014 comedian Griff Rhys Jones is presenting a programme A Great Welsh Adventure showing on ITV at 8 p.m. in which he explores the notion that King Arthur was from mid-Wales.  I have not yet seen the programme but from the trailer it seems he has made the cardinal error of conflating the two King Arthurs.

The legend

The first King Arthur - the legendary one associated with the Holy Grail - was a Celtic God.  The origins of his story certainly have close connections with South Wales - see my book The Wonderful History of the Sword in the Stone (www.amazon.com) for details and previous blogs on the subject.

The history

However, there was a real High King called Arthur wo reigned from around 500 AD to 543 AD making him one of our longest reigning monarchs.  It is often claimed there is no evidence for his existence but this inaccurate.  There are numerous perfectly respectable documentary references to him, more than for any other High King of the period, so no reason to suppose he didn't exist. He is mentioned in the lives of four contemporary saints, St Brynach, St Carantoc, St Illtud and St Dyfrig (Dubricius) as well as by historians Nennius and Gildas. 

Nenniius is regarded as slightly suspect but Gildas was writing shortly before 560 AD (he mentions Maelgwn Fawr as still alive and he died of the yellow plague in 560 AD) and was probably writing within about ten years of Arthur's death, the exact date of which is recorded in the chronicle Book 14 in Malory's Mort D'Arthur.  This date fits comfortably with all the other references so it is reasonable to accept it as accurate. 

The claim for his non-existence rests largely on the fact that he is not mentioned at all in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle but the Saxons only mentioned their victories and we know they suffered numerous defeats at the hands of Arthur which explains their silence on the subject.

Where does Arthur come from?

We first meet Arthur in the life of St Brynach when he is around eighteen years old.  He is accompanied by his friend and companion Cato, indicating that these are Romano-British boys.  Arthur is at this time not a king but a prince of Dumnonia, the old British kingdom roughtly corresponding to Somerset, Devon and parts of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire - thus he is 'English' rather than 'Welsh'. 

It was one of the wealthiest kingdoms of post-Roman Britain with a thriving villa society attested to by the archaeology of the area.  That Arthur is a prince we know from the fact that he makes a grant of land to SS Brynach, Carantoc and Illtud to allow them to found their monasteries.  The lives of early saints are not always reliable but they are usually pretty sound when it comes to land grants as they were often used in the Middle Ages to support the legal claim of the monastery to its foundation lands. 

Arthur is of the Aurelian dynasty, the hereditary kings of Dumnonia, and successor to Ambrosius Aurelianus.  We know this because his successors, Constantine and Conanus both bear the family name Aurelianus.  He was therefore Artorius Aurelianus.  The Aurelians regarded themselves as the descendants of the Emperor Constantine whose mother Helen was British.  Whether Arthur is the son or nephew of Ambrosius is not clear.  Gildas describes his mother, clearly a formidable woman, as a 'she-dragon' meaning a female warlord, but he does not give us her name or say whether she is the wife or sister of Ambrosius.  In the life of St Carantoc, before he is king, Arthur is described as 'lord of the west' but this does not extend far into Wales.  The Liber Landavensis gives him a connection to the Silurian Kings.  His grandfather is said to be Cystennyn Gorneu who is said to have founded churches in Erging (Hereford, Gloucester and Gwent) and his father's sister was married to Pebiau ab Urb ab Erbin, King of Gwent and Erging.  St Dubricius was of the same family which accounts for the fact that he is said to have crowned Arthur High King circa 500 AD.

Dunster Archaeology

What is particularly exciting about these early saints' lives is that they connect Arthur with Dunster in Somerset as his home base.  Recent aerial photography has shown the outline of the Roman fort at Dunster at the foot of the bluff, not under the mediaeval castle on top of the hill.  Dunster was the principal port on the south side of the Bristol Channel in the fifth century.  It silted up in the 12th century and trade moved up the channel to Bridgwater and then later to Bristol.  Dunster is now about two miles inland.  Arthur would have been based at the fort and when excavations begin there is a fair chance that some physical evidence of his reign may emerge.

I am of course teasing when I say that Arthur was an Englishman.  There were neither Welsh nor English in the sixth century.  He was a Briton who regarded himself as a Roman.

In the meantime you can check out the references:

The Life of St Brynach can be found in Thomas Wakeman's Lives of the Cambro-British Saints which can be downloaded free from http://www,arcguve.org/streamlivesof thecambrobritishsaintsThomasWakeman

Gildas and Nennius are both available free on the internet and the archaeology can be found by searching 'Dunsterarchaeology'.