The Battle of Camlan according to Geoffrey of Monmouth:
While King Arthur is on campaign against the Romans in Gaul he entrusted the governance of Britain to Mordred. Mordred took the crown for himself and was living adulterously and out of wedlock with Queen Guinevere, who had broken the vows of her marriage. In his own words, Geoffrey prefers to say nothing further on this matter, however he does describe the battle which King Arthur fought against his treacherous nephew. Geoffrey says he heard this from Walter of Oxford, the man he claims gave him a certain ancient book in the British tongue that he translated into Latin for his ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ (Historia Regum Britanniae, c.1138).
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| Gallos, Tintagel |
Geoffrey’s story continues: On hearing of Mordred’s usurpation Arthur quickly set sail for Britain. Mordred inflicted great slaughter on Arthur's army as they attempted to land at Richborough in Kent. Auguselus, The King of Albany and Gawain, the King's nephew, were among those that perished that day. Eventually Arthur's men secured landfall and forced Mordred's army to flee.
Mordred's army regrouped and marched on Winchester the following night. On hearing this Queen Guinevere fled from York to the City of the Legions (Caerleon) and took the vows of the nuns at the church of Julius the Martyr and promised to lead a chaste life.
After burying his dead soldiers on the third day after landing Arthur marched on Winchester and besieged his nephew Mordred who had taken refuge there. Mordred refused to abandon his plans and pitched battle ensued with his uncle, the King. Having suffered heavy losses Mordred once again fled from the battlefield and made for Cornwall by ship.
Arthur followed him to the River Camblam where Mordred’s forces was waiting for him. Mordred drew his men into battle order, now determined to either win or die. Mordred still had sixty thousand men under his command from which he mustered six divisions. In each he placed six thousand, six hundred and sixty six armed men. From the remainder he formed one single division which he placed under his own command, having assigned leaders to each of the others.
Arthur was also marshalling his army. He divided his men into nine divisions of infantry, each drawn up in a square, with a right and left wing, appointing a commander to each.
Combat commenced with great slaughter on both sides. Arthur with a single division of 6,666 men charged at the squadron where he knew Mordred was. They hacked their way through with their swords as Arthur continued to advance, inflicting terrible slaughter as he went. At this point Mordred was killed and many thousands of his men with him.
The others in Mordred's army did not flee but carried on fighting and massed together under their leaders to stand their ground. Arthur himself 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 Britain to his cousin Constantine, the son of Cador Duke of Cornwall, this in the year 542.1
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And so Arthur enigmatically disappears from Geoffrey's Historia as mysteriously as his arrived; from his conception at Tintagel, as a result of the magic arts of Merlin, to his mortal wounding at Camlan, Geoffrey gives Arthur a mythical dimension and created an immortal national hero.
Later Geoffrey elaborated on the death of Arthur in his poem Vita Merlini (c.1151), in which the King is taken to a mystical Otherworld island paradise the 'Island of Apples' which he undoubtedly meant to be the same place as the 'Isle of Avalon' of his main history, to be healed of his wounds by his kinswoman Morgan where she lives with her sisters. But in this later poem Geoffrey does not actually name Avalon. Thus, Arthur disappears to this mysterious island, mortally wounded but there is no grave for Arthur.
The River Camel
Clearly Geoffrey has taken the name of the third and final battle between Arthur and Mordred from the 10th century Welsh Annals (Annales Cambriae) which recorded the battle in which Arthur and Mordred fell in the year AD 537. Geoffrey placed Camlann on the River Camblam in Cornwall where both Arthur and Mordred perished in this most savage conflict.
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| Camlann entry in Annales Cambriae |
The chronicle entry in the Welsh Annals merely states “The battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell: and there was plague in Britain and Ireland”. Any further elaboration is due entirely to Geoffrey’s imagination and his ability as a creative writer to embellish snippets of history with fantastic stories. From the entry in the Welsh Annals we cannot even be certain that Arthur and Mordred were on opposing sides, let alone in a love triangle involving Arthur’s queen.
No doubt drawn by the name of the river Camel in Cornwall this place was identified by antiquarians and historians long ago as the site imagined by Geoffrey to be Camblam. This is perhaps unsurprising as in his Historia Geoffrey provides Arthur with a close connection to Cornwall: he is named in the Prophecies of Merlin (Book VII of the Historia) as the Boar of Cornwall; he is conceived at Tintagel by Merlin’s magic arts; Cador, Duke of Cornwall, was his trustiest adviser who was also father of Arthur's chosen heir and cousin Constantine; his mother Ingerna was Duchess of Cornwall; and his wife Ganhumara (Guinevere) was said to be of Roman stock and raised in Cornwall by Cador. And then Geoffrey’s story turns full circle and Arthur is mortally wounded in Cornwall at the river Camblan only a few miles from the place of his conception.2
According to local legend the battle took place on the River Camel at a place today named Slaughterbridge, Camelford, presumably in memory of the carnage. Nearby, on the bank of the River Camel at the water’s edge lies an ancient stone known as King Arthur Stone, or Arthur’s Tomb, first recorded by the Cornish antiquarian Richard Carew in 1602. The stone was recorded in the 18th century as having been used as a footbridge at Worthyvale from where it was removed and placed in its present location as a feature in Lady Falmouth’s secret garden. Today this stone is registered as an ancient scheduled monument and currently included on the at risk register owing to its location on the river bank where it is susceptible to water damage from high water levels.
The 3m long stone has survived in remarkably good condition with its inscription apparently complete. The main inscription is in Latin and there is also an Ogham script on one side making it one of only six such memorial stones in south west England. The Ogham inscription, first recorded in 1875, occurs on Christian monuments of the 5th - 6th centuries AD. The use of inscriptions in both Latin and Ogham, and the formula employed in the Latin inscription combined the style of the lettering suggests a 5th-6th century to 8th century date.
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| The Latinus Stone |
Back in the early 17th century Carew claimed the inscription on the stone bore Arthur's name. The final two letters 'M….AR...' has led to interesting theories based on the interpretation as representing 'Magni Arturi', or Arthur the Great.
Lewis Thorpe visited the site in 1960 and describes the stone as having partially defaced lettering in mixed classical and rustic capitals, the letters straggling and irregular. However, Thorpe was still able to decipher the inscription: ‘LATIN. . .IIC IACIT FILIVS M . . . AR. . .’ for which he offers the possible translation: ‘Latinus hic iacet filius Merlini Arturus’.3
Unfortunately, these are both misreadings of the last three letters as this stone has nothing to do with King Arthur. Historic England interpret the Latin inscription as:
`LATINI [H]IC IACIT FILIUS MA. . . RI' = `the body of Latinus lies here, son of Ma'.4
Latinus was possibly an unknown local Celtic chieftain, otherwise unrecorded. Ma was possibly of full name Macari or Macarus, again unknown
However, according to Geoffrey, Arthur was not buried at Camlann, but thereafter taken to Avalon, which may be nearer the battle site than we think.
The First Avalon?
Today this site is part of the themed visitor centre now known as ‘The Vale of Avalon’, formerly the Arthurian Centre, off the B3314, at Slaughterbridge, Cornwall, about 4 miles south-east of Tintagel.5
The Centre hosts an indoor exhibition of Arthuriana and Cornish history with gift shop, but appears to be permanently closed and said to be open only on Heritage Open Days 2026 (*see note 6). The area next to the Centre is known as Camlann – purportedly the legendary site of King Arthur's last battle.
From the exhibition centre you can walk through the grounds, past the remains of the deserted medieval village, across the battlefield, down to a viewing platform above the river Camel to view the main attraction; the 6th century Arthur Stone lying on the bank close to the water’s edge.
Today the area is known as Worthyvale but the Domesday Book of 1086 record the name of the manor that this site lies on as – GUERDEVALAN. This is a Cornish word derived from the word for "Vale of Apples" and is claimed by the Arthurian Centre as the earliest reference to ‘Avalon’.
However, it need be little more than a reference to an orchard as there is no known mystical association with the place. Certainly this is not the place Geoffrey had in mind for Avalon as he elaborates on the mythical island in the Vita Merlini.
Unsurprisingly, given the purported local connection with Arthurian legend, the Cornish ‘Latinus’ stone is seen as a relic of the battle of Camlann. However, the original location of the stone is unknown; it has clearly been moved from its place of origin. An alternative argument associates the stone with a battle fought in AD 825 at a place called Gafulford, which has been interpreted as an earlier form of the name Camelford. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle simply records for that year "The Westwealas (Cornish Britons) and the Defnas (Men of Devon) fought at Gafulforda" without naming the victors - however it has been suggested that the battle secured the south-west border of Wessex. The date of the battle being close to the dating of the Latin inscription on the Latinus stone.
The site of the battle of Gafulford is unknown. The problem with the ‘Gafulford = Camelford’ proposal is that Camelford is deep in Cornwall and unlikely to be the site of a border conflict with an expanding Wessex. Thus, Galford, near Lewdown in Devon is considered the most likely in the context of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. In conclusion the stone may simply be a memorial unconnected to any battle.
Alas, the Latinus stone has as much to do with Arthur as Camelford has with Camlann and we should reject both in any serious search for Arthur’s last battle.
Notes & References
1. Here I follow Lewis Thorpe’s translation of the Historia Regum Britanniae from Camb. Univ. Libr. MS.1706 as printed by Acton Griscom in 1929]. Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Books, 1966, pp.257-261.
2. O J Padel, CMCS, No 8 Winter 1984, pp.1-29: pp.8-9.
3. Thorpe, pp.259-60.
4. Historic England: An early Christian memorial stone 380m south east of Worthyvale Manor
5. ‘The Vale of Avalon’ formerly the Arthurian Centre, off the B3314, at Slaughterbridge, Cornwall.
6. At the time of posting The Vale of Avalon (The Arthurian Centre), Slaughterbridge, was NOT listed as an event on The Heritage Open Day page (Cornwall).
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