The Battle of Mount Badon

Ambrosius, Arthur and the Defence of Britain  
by Alistair Hall 
Raven Fell Limited, 2019. (Kindle Edition). 

Review
Having a passionate interest in Arthur since childhood, some 50 years ago, author Alistair Hall set off on a historical detective trail with the aim of solving one of the greatest British historical puzzles; was King Arthur simply a legend or did he actually exist?

Alistair is convinced that Arthur was real and in his book The Battle of Mount Badon: Ambrosius, Arthur and the Defence of Britain he aims to prove it.

The front cover illustration appears to be Artorius (Clive Owen) from the awful 2004 film King Arthur directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring Owen and Keira Knightly.

We know this film was inspired by the theory, currently pushed by Linda Malcor and John Matthews the “historical advisors” to the film, that the origin of the Arthurian legend can be found in Lucius Artorius Castus a Roman officer stationed in Britain in the 2nd century apparently in command of a troop of Sarmatian cavalry, a theory rejected by most Arthurians as utter bollocks; which seems odd why the author would choose this as his book cover to entice us in?

Why the author would chose to associate his book with this film which gave a dreadful reinterpretation of Arthur as the Roman officer is not an encouraging start.

Alastair Hall tells us that in the year 2000 he began to believe that he had identified a number of locations for King Arthur’s battles. He held back for another 20 years before putting pen to paper.

Following a long discussion on the ending of Roman Britain, the centrepiece of the book is the history of Britain 430 to 470 in which Hall asserts his claim to have discovered the true identity of Arthur, but he also rewrites history and provides a new structure and chronology. But he concedes that in reality this book is about the outcome of more complex events that occurred a century before; the ending of Roman Britain.

The author's claim to prove the existence of Arthur is a bold one indeed, and his forensic research, as he calls it, suggests that the received history of the 5th century is incorrectly dated by as much as a generation since these events occurred in the North and followed the Roman evacuation. The majority of historians date the Battle of Mount Badon, accepted as a real event recorded by Gildas and Bede, to within ten years either side of 500 AD. In this book Hall moves the date of Badon back by a generation to fit his revised chronology.

He also tampers with the accepted geography to relocate the traditional landing site of Hengist and Horsa from Kent to 250 miles further north to the Humber, associating Vortimer’s last battle with Arthur’s first even though they are recorded as separate events in the Historia Brittonum. The other eleven battles of the Historia Brittonum, the Arthurian campaign, immediately follow occurring mainly, Hall argues, in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire culminating in the battle of Mount Badon at Bardon Hill in c.469.

Rising up from the Vale of the Trent, Bardon Hill dominates a region known as Charnwood Forest and the M1 road passes close by its summit, at 912 feet, the highest point on this motorway. Hall admits he was attracted to this hill as the site of Arthur's greatest battle simply because of the similarity of its name to Mount Badon. Sadly the heart of this hill has been ripped out and forms a massive quarry, the high quality granite used for many miles of road building. Yet, there is no more than a late legend to link Bardon Hill with the site of Arthur’s greatest victory.

Hall claims that through the centuries the story of the early Anglo-Saxon rebellion  and war has been misunderstood and misplaced. Bede recounted a tradition that the mythical progenitors of the Jutes,  Hengist and Horsa, landed in Kent but Hall claims that they were never that far south, but in fact on the east coast of England further north in Lincolnshire.

Hall identifies Arthur as Arthwys of the Pennines, son of Mor, and accordingly locates him in Elmet and as a result of his research claims that the historicity of the Dux Bellorum will no longer be in doubt.

Unfortunately the author has been influenced by tired old sources, Britannia: A History of Roman Britain by Sheppard Frere and Roman Britain and the English Settlements by R. G. Collingwood and J. N. L. Myers. Both now outdated.

And it's never a good sign when you see The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650 by John Morris listed among the author's sources. Unfortunately the image of post-Roman Britain constructed by Morris has stuck with so many self-styled historical detectives who seek to identify Arthur’s battle sites fighting back the Anglo Saxon onslaught from the east. Modern studies of the English is moving away from the “slash and burn” rhetoric of Gildas, a model that influenced all later writers for centuries.

I didn't dislike this book but it brings nothing new to the Arthurian debate; the usual investigation into identifying the battle sites which typically commences with the ending of Roman Britain, an examination of the sources, with a typically adjusted chronology and relocated geography, on this ocassion centred around Lincoln, Doncaster and Derby, to suit the author's argument. Camboglanna is the site of the strife of Camlann, surprisingly outside the author's own locality. I was certainly not convinced by the author’s claims, he fails to present an assertive argument that Arthwys was Arthur; you need more than just a hunch that you’ve identified the real person.

After making such a grand entrance on the front cover, Artorius is not mentioned in the text at all.

At £25 for a copy, and only available from the publisher plus £3.50 delivery, this is not a cheap book. This will seriously limit the books distribution. Fortunately I downloaded a Kindle edition at a reduced price of £2.99 from Amazon.



[Read during lockdown 2020]

* * *

Visions of Badon

Plotting Camlann: Letters from the Dead 

Part I



Rhonabwy's Dream
Mid-12th century Powys. Madog son of Maredudd the last prince to rule the whole of the kingdom (1132-1160 AD), has sent out a hundred men in every three commots to search for his rebellious brother Iorwerth who has been raiding into England. In these days Powys stretched from Montgomeryshire to Flint, including parts of Merioneth and Denbigh.

One of Madog’s retainers on the quest was a man named Rhonabwy, who along with Cynwig Frychgoch of Mawddwy and Cadwgan Fras from Moelfre in Cynllaith come across the house of Heilyn Goch whilst seeking somewhere to stay for the night. Rhonabwy and his two companions are put up in a blackhouse, a building shared with cattle in which the floor is covered in dung. Cynwig and Cadwgan sleep on a blanket spread across flea-infested straw and twigs. Rhonabwy settled down on a yellow ox-skin on a dias. As soon as Rhonabwy fell asleep he was granted a vision.

Rhonabwy dreamt he was journeying with his companions across the plain of Argyngroeg and his intent was towards Rhyd y Groes on the Severn. As they travelled they came across a rider who said he was Iddawc the son of Mynyo but better known through his nickname Iddog Cordd Prydain (Agitator of Britain).

Arthur plays gwyddbywll with Owain - Alan Lee

Iddog tells Rhonabwy that was one of the messengers between Arthur and Medrawd his nephew, at the battle of Camlan and kindled strife between them because he was young and eager for battle. When he was sent by Arthur to seek for peace with Medrawd, charged with the fairest sayings he could think of, yet Iddog would say to Medrawd the most offensive words he could. And that, he says, is how the battle of Camlan was contrived. But three nights before the end of the battle of Camlan he left them, and went to Y Llech Las in Prydain (The Grey Rock in North Britain) to do penance, where he remained for seven years until he gained pardon.

They continued across the great plain of Argyngroeg to Rhyd y Groes on the Severn. A mile from the ford, on each side of the road, they see the mustering of a great host. When they came to the edge of the ford they saw Arthur sitting on a flat meadow. Troops of men are joining the host at the ford in preparation for a great battle.

A man identified by Iddog as Caradog Freichfras, son of Llyr Marini, said to Arthur that it was strange to see such a large host accommodated in such a confined space, and that it is even stranger that those who had promised to be at the battle of Badon by noon to fight Osla Gyllellfawr (Big-Knife) should still be at the ford. Arthur agrees with him and decides that they should go together and they set off toward Cefn Digoll.

Rhonabwy looks down the valley of the Severn to see two troops of men approaching the ford of the Severn. Iddog tells him these are the men of Norway and the men of Denmark. By the time they have caught up with the host, Arthur and his warriors have dismounted below Caer Faddon. Arthur now indulges in a game of gwyddbywll with Owain. As they play Arthur’s men and Owain’s Ravens began squabbling. As they play on it escalates to fighting with Owain’s Ravens killing the sons of the noblemen of the island of Britain. Arthur asks Owain to call off his ravens but he plays on. The game comes to an end when Arthur crushes the gwyddbywll pieces into dust. Owain lowered his banner and the ravens stop fighting.

Then twenty-four horsemen from Osla Gyllellfawr come to Arthur to ask for a truce for a month and a fortnight. Arthur takes counsel and asks an auburn haired man for advice. Iddog tells Rhonabwy that this auburn haired man is Rhun, son of Maelgwn Gwynedd, because no man gave more solid advice than him. Then 24 mules arrived loaded with gold and silver in payment for the truce.

Cai then got up and said that those wishing to follow Arthur should join him tonight in Cornwall, and with the great commotion Rhonabwy awoke having slept for nights and three days.


Next >> Rhonabwy's Dream: A Time Reversal


Source: 
Sioned Davies, The Mabinogion, OUP, 2007.

 * * * 

Badon and the Early Wars for Wessex

Badon and the Early Wars for Wessex, circa 500 to 710

David Cooper
Pen & Sword Military, 2018

From the publisher:
“David Cooper's book reappraises the evidence regarding the early battles for Wessex territory. It charts the sequence of battles from the c. AD 500 siege of Badon Hill, in which the Britons defeated the first Saxon attempt to gain a foothold in Wessex territory, to Langport in 710, which consolidated King Ine's position and pushed the Britons westwards. Discussion of the post-Roman British and Germanic factions provides context and background to Badon Hill, which is then covered in detail and disentangled from Arthurian legend. In considering how the opposing commanders are likely to have planned their campaigns, enduring principles of military doctrine and tactics are discussed, using examples from other periods to illustrate how these principles applied in Dark Ages Britain. Going on to follow subsequent campaigns of the West Saxons in southern Britain, a credible assessment is made of how these resulted in the establishment of a viable Wessex kingdom, two centuries after Badon. Grounded in the latest academic and archaeological evidence, David Cooper offers a number of new insights and ideas.”

David Cooper OBE is a retired British Army Lieutenant Colonel with 36 years' service. He was initially taught military history and doctrine by the Burnham lecturers at Sandhurst and later gained a Masters degree in Defence and International Affairs. In the latter part of his career David instructed young officers in doctrine and tactics and wrote related publications for the British Army. Due to an abiding interest in the period he began to study the Dark Age Wessex campaigns in detail in 2002, and this book is the result.

Contents
1. The Fifth-century Tribes of Britain
2. The Hampshire Avon Frontier
3. Doctrine, Organisation and Tactics
4. The British in the South West
5. The Badon Campaign
6. The Siege of Badon Hill
7. Cerdic to Ceawlin – The Early Gewisse
8. The Fall of the British Glastenning
9. Wessex, Mercia and Dumnonia
10. Conclusions

Dark Age Warfare
This book is of a similar ilk to King Arthur's Wars (Helion, 2016) in which author Jim Storr, a former soldier turned academic, set out to chart the progress of the Anglo-Saxon conquest by examining placename evidence and defensive man-made landscape features such as earthworks and dykes. Storr located the battle of Badon in Eastern England and did not seem aware that many of the dykes are actually of prehistoric construction.

In Badon and the Early Wars for Wessex, Cooper follows the trail of Ceawlin in establishing the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Wessex as recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, written several hundred years after the events. Most historians today treat the foundation legends of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms in England with a due amount of suspicion and terms such as ‘barbarian invasion’, used to describe the increasing presence of Germanic immigrants in Britain , are no longer considered befitting or accurate.

There are three main themes running through Cooper’s pages. Firstly, he argues that the Germanic rise to power has its roots in post-Roman Britain in which diverse warbands fought localised wars over territory. Secondly, the battle of Badon Hill was the first conflict of larger armies as these localised warbands began to form alliances. Thirdly, that Wessex was not established and then expanded by immigrant Germanic tribes but emerged from much more complex circumstances.

Cooper envisages the Hampshire Avon as the Germanic frontier immediately prior to the Badon campaign with British territories defined by the earthworks Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke. He argues, in consideration of that frontier, that Badbury Rings must have been the location of the battle of Badon Hill. Following the implication of Gildas writing in the 6th century, that Ambrosius, ‘the last of the Romans’, was probably the leader of the British led alliance at Badon.

Cooper uses chapters three, ‘Doctrine, Organisation and Tactics’, and five, ‘The Badon Campaign’ to discuss Dark Age battle tactics and takes us through the siege day-by-day in the next chapter. Here he introduces Sarmatian lancers as the charge of ‘Arthur’s cavalry’. 5,500 Sarmatian troops were sent to Britain in the 2nd century by Marcus Aurelius. They were stationed on Hadrian’s Wall and Ribchester (Bremetennacum) but there is absolutely no evidence for them fighting a campaign in Britain at that time, let alone their survival into the 6th century and fighting at the border of the Durotriges.

The very nature of this type of study demands a high level of conjecture owing to the limited primary sources.  But we are forced to question if people trained in modern conflict techniques have an advantage in relating to Dark Age warfare and the military tactics of poorly documented battles fought 1,500 years ago?

* * *

Arthur and the Saxons

The Road to Camlann Part III – The South East

“It is useless to look for Arthur's battle-sites anywhere but round about the area, once highly Romanized, in southern England, in the country south of the Thames and west of Kent. If it can be shown that enough remains to suggest identification of the battle-sites on the fringe of this area, the story of Nennius becomes credible.”1

Arthur's Battles and the Saxon Wars
If Arthur's battles were fought against the Saxons, and it is not certain they were, we might hope to find some trace in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. We find no records of Badon or Camlann, the high and low points of Arthur's career, among the early English; perhaps they are there, hidden from a form we might recognise, but in a different language.

The battle list contained within the 9th century Historia Brittonum (also known as 'Nennius' if you will) shows a series of battles that culminated in the twelfth at the battle of Badon. This account of the Britons fortunes seems to reflect Gildas (De Excidio Britanniae, ‘On the Ruin of Britain’) who, gives no dates but was writing before Maelgwn's death in 547 AD and certainly within living memory of the battle, places great significance to the ‘siege of Badon Hill’ (obsessio montis Badonicus) as the ‘final victory of our Country which has been granted to our time by the will of God.’

Anderitum Roman fort

Gildas tells us that the Britons took up arms and rallied under Ambrosius Aurelianus, the last of the
Romans and that, “from that time on now the citizens, now the enemy, were victorious ... right up until the year of the siege of Badon Hill, almost the last, not the least, slaughter of the villains, and this the forty-fourth year begins (as I know) with one month already elapsed, which is also [that] of my birth.”

In this passage it seems obvious that Gildas is saying is that he was born in the same year as the siege of Badon Hill and he was writing forty-three years and one month after that battle; we can thus date the battle to within a few years of either side of the year 500 AD.

Alternatively, it has been suggested saying that he is saying that the battle of Badon took place
forty-three years and one month after some other event not named by him in this sentence.

Bede closely follows Gildas in describing the fluctuating fortunes of the Britons, and the battle of Badon: “From that time on, now the citizens, now the enemy were victorious right up until the year of the siege of mount Badon, when there was no small slaughter of the enemy about forty-four years after their arrival in Britain.”2

Here Bede appears to have interpreted Gildas' statement as meaning that Badon occurred in the year of his birth, the forty-fourth year of the English settlement in Britain.

Bede claims the English Advent occurred in 449 AD. Badon, then must have occurred around 493 - 495. 449 is the year that the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the arrival of Hengist and Horsa in Ipwinesfleet, at the invitation of Vortigern the king of the Britons. Battles at Aylesford (455), Crayford (457) and Wippedfleet (465) followed, which resulted in the Britons conceding Kent and fleeing to London. This account is mirrored in the so-called 'Kentish Chronicle' of the Historia Brittonum, but with the names Hengist and Horsa meaning stallion and horse it raises suspicion of it being a purely mythical foundation story.

In the 10th century Welsh Annals, Badon [Bellum Badonis] is entered under year 72, which corresponds to A.D. 518, and reads,

“The battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were victorious.”

The Annals are the first to give these details, and the first to provide a precise date for Badon; there are no other extant sources for the 518 date. Frank Reno3 re-calibrates the dates of the Annals Cambriae by 19 years, a full lunar cycle, calculated from the Easter Tables, which once again brings the date for Badon to around 500 AD.

As Badon is the last battle in the 12 listed in the Historia Brittonum (Nennius), Arthur's battles must have all been fought prior to that date, and, following the Welsh Annals, Camlann 21 years later. We can therefore pinpoint Arthur's floruit within a window of around 480 to 520.

Sussex

If Arthur was the leader of the Britons at Badon it is unlikely he could have been around to fight Hengist and Horsa in the mid-5th century, the Britons were led by the sons of Vortigern against the Saxon in Kent. Indeed, if Arthur fought against the Saxons in the south-east during the last quarter of the 5th century his adversaries would have been Aelle and Cerdic. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records:

477 – Aelle lands at place called Cymenes ora with his three sons, Cymen, and Wlenking, and Cissa, in three ships. There they slew many of the Welsh; and some in flight they drove into the wood that is called Andred's leag.
485 - This year Aelle fought with the Britons at Mearcreades burnam.
490 - This year Aelle and Cissa besieged Andredes cester, and slew all that were therein; nor was one Briton left there afterwards.4

Aelle and the foundation of Sussex
According to the Chronicle, Aelle landed at Cymenes ora (ora = shore), which has been identified as a stretch of south-eastern coast between Selsey and Pagham. Andred's leag is the forest of Anderida, the Weald, which then stretched from Kent in the east to just north of Selsey in the west. Andredes cester is without doubt meant as the Roman Saxon Shore fort at Anderitum (now Pevensey castle) some 50 miles eastward along the coast from Selsey. From these two Chronicle entries we can see Aelle's progress from landing in 470 to the South Saxons spreading to Pevensey twenty years later. But the main area of Saxon settlement in the 5th century seems to have been between the river Ouse and Cuckmere. By the 6th century this had spread westward to the Adur, the opposite direction to the Chronicle.5

Pevensey Castle (Anderitum) - copyright English Heritage

The Chronicle tells us that in 485, in the midst of this reign, Aelle fought the Britons at Mearcreades burnam but does not record this as victory for the English. Mearcreades burnam has been interpreted as 'the river of the frontier agreed by treaty,' i.e the Ouse was the boundary of Saxon settlement, and the battle could have been an attempt by Aelle to break out beyond this boundary.6 At 480-feet Mount Caburn is one of the highest landmarks in East Sussex, on the summit is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, separated from the South Downs, by Glynde Reach, a tributary of the River Ouse.

Collingwood identifies Arthur's first battle ("on the river Glein") from the Historia Brittonum as the Glynde in eastern Sussex, at its confluence with the Ouse near Lewes beneath the Caburn (Caer Bryn = strong fort). A long barrow on Cliffe Hill, part of the Caburn, is known as the Warriors Grave, which may have been so-named in memory of a battle fought here. Ekwall7 accepts the Glynde as equivalent to the "river Glein” a site often favoured by scholars as the Glen in Northumberland, or the Glen in Lincolnshire.

If this was indeed Arthur's first victory as recorded in the battle list of the Historia Brittonum, the date, 485, fits perfectly with the dates suggested for the Arthurian campaign. Aelle seems to have been contained until he struck at Andredes cester (Pevensey) some five years later.

We then hear no more of Aelle in the Chronicle and there is no record of his death. Yet, Bede, the historian of the English peoples, tells us that Aelle was the first English king to hold sovereignty (bretwalda) over all the southern provinces south of the Humber.8

Traditionally Aelle is the leader of the Saxon's at Badon (c.495) along with Octha of Kent (son of Hengist?). Octha is identified with 'Osla Big-Knife' (Gyllellvawr) in Arthurian tradition; in Culhwch and Olwen he is one of Arthur's warband as they hunt the giant boar Twrch Trwyth, but drowns when he follows the boar into the Severn and the scabbard of his seax (Saxon long-knife) fills with water dragging him under; in the Dream of Rhonabwy he is Arthur's adversary at Badon (Caer Faddon).9

Badbury Rings, Dorset

Traditionally we are are told that Badon was fought at Bath, as this describes the ancient name of the city with the hot springs, an idea that has stuck since Geoffrey of Monmouth's fables; but surely Bath is far too west for a Saxon advance at this time. Even the favoured sites of Liddington Castle (Wiltshire) and Badbury Rings (Dorset) are too far west for a South Saxon advance, a battle site further east, nearer the territory of the South Saxons (suthsaexe) would make much better sense. Archaeological evidence for early Saxon settlement in Sussex has been found in burials at Alfriston, Selmeston, Bishopstone, Beddingham, Glynde, Saxonbury (Lewes) and Wooodingdean.

However, if the identification of Arthur's first battle on the Glynde (river Glein) and his penultimate, Badon, in the south-east are correct we should then also expect to find the other ten battles in this area of England. Collingwood does exactly that for eleven of Arthur's battles but fails to offer a candidate for Badon in the region of the South Saxons.10 Oddly, the south-east is one area of Britain largely absent of Arthurian tradition.

After Badon, Aelle disappears from the Chronicle and even Sussex fails to get a mention for 150 years; it seems almost certain that both Aelle and his sons were killed in the battle. Badon was without doubt such a resounding victory for the Britons, perhaps revenge for the slaughter of all the occupants of the fort at Andredes cester, that the archaeological record shows a cessation in Saxon expansion in the south from this time for several generations. Indeed, writing before 865, a monk from Fulda records Saxons from Britain landing at Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony, Germany, in 531, an event which is also supported by the account in Procopius who writes of 6th century migration from Britain to the land of the Franks across the Channel.

If Arthur's twelve battles were fought in the south of England then can we expect find the site of Camlann also in the same area?


Copyright © 2017 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/


Notes & References
1.  WG Collingwood, Arthur's Battles, Antiquity 11, 1929.
2.  Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Oxford, 2008.3. Frank D Reno, The Historic King Arthur, McFarland & Co, 1997.
4. Michael Swanton (Translator & Editor), The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997.
5. Mike Ashley, The Mammoth Book of King Arthur, Robinson, 2005.
6. Ibid.
7. Ekwall, English River Names, Oxford University Press, 1928.
8. Bede, op.cit.
9. Thomas Jones and Gwyn Jones, The Mabinogion, Everyman, New Edition, 2001.
10. Collingwood, op cit.

* * *

Arthur, Badon and the Cross

Ever since Constantine's vision of the Heavenly sign led him to victory early Christian armies have fought under the protection of the Cross.

The Cross goes Forth
On the night of 27th October 312 AD Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor from 306 to 337, is said to have received his famous 'Vision of the Cross'. Constantine's biographer Eusebius of Caesarea records that following the vision Constantine's soldiers daubed the sign of the Chi-Rho, one of the earliest forms of christogram, on their shields. The next day Constantine was victorious against his rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. Constantine's mother Helena was inspired to undertake a journey to the Holy Land in 326-28 in which, according to legend, she is said to have discovered the True Cross, parts of which she brought back to Constantinople.

The Constantine connection with York perhaps explains the regional interest in this cult in Northumbria from the 7th century; over more than 1,500 stone preaching crosses survive, most of which are located in the north, as evidence of a cult of the Cross in Anglo Saxon England. The cult of St Helena was centred on York, the place of Constantine's elevation following the death of his father 'Constantine Chlorus' in 306. Church dedications to Helena are ubiquitous in the north with over half found in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.1

Ruthwell Cross
(Wikimedia Commons)

The cult of the Cross is emphasised by the actions of the Northumbrian King Oswald who, perhaps imitating Constantine's vision, erected a wooden cross prior to his victory over Cadwallon at Hefenfelth (Heavenfield), near Hexham, in 633 AD.

A crumpled, folded cross found among the Staffordshire Hoard has a series of holes along the bottom indicating it was probably mounted on a pole or staff as a processional cross. As the cross was found among a hoard of predominately martial artefacts, the spoils of a war, it is likely to have been a cross carried into battle. The Hoard consists of over 3,500 items, providing over 5kg of gold, dated to the 7th or 8th century Mercia.

Further evidence of this northern cult can bee seen in the Ruthwell Cross, in Dumfries and Galloway, once part of Northumbria, a spectacular 7th century Anglian high cross. The cross has verses from the Old English poem 'The Dream of the Rood' carved into it in Old English runes and Latin which were probably added at later date.

During the Crusades there had been a tradition that the True Cross was carried into battle as a talisman or perhaps a supernatural weapon; it was used at the battle of Ramleh in 1103 and in almost every major engagement in the decades thereafter. A relic from the True Cross had been carried at the Battle of Hattin on July 4, 1187 by the bishop of Acre. The Christian Crusader army of Guy de Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, was annihilated at Hattin by the Muslim forces of Saladin. The Cross was last seen tied upside down to a lance and heading for Damascus. The loss of the True Cross and the city of Jerusalem prompted the call for the Third Crusade two years later.

The 10th century Cambro-Latin text the Annales Cambriae (Welsh Annals), a collection of historical notes compiled in the 10th century, lists several medieval conflicts but makes just one mention of this Christian icon being carried into battle. The entry for year 516 records a battle at Badon where Arthur carried the cross of Jesus and the British were the victors:

“516 - The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were the victors.” 

This entry in the Welsh Annals is clearly related to the well known passage in the 9th century Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) detailing the legendary King Arthur's twelve battles. At the eighth battle at the castle Guinnion Arthur is said to have carried an image of the Virgin Mary on his shoulders.

No doubt inspired by the Crusades, some 13th century manuscripts of the Historia Brittonum include glosses and marginalia in an attempt to explain the carrying of the Holy icon into battle which claim that the relic of the Virgin was preserved at Wedale after the legendary King Arthur brought it back to Britain after a journey to Jerusalem with a relic of the True Cross through which he achieved his victories.2

The Battle of Badon
That the battle of Badon was a historical event is not disputed; it is mentioned by the contemporary writer Gildas and a century or so later by Bede, by all accounts considered a reliable historian. More correctly the battle was the siege of Badon hill (obsessio Badonicus montis) according to Gildas, who wrote De Excidio Britanniae ("On the Ruin of Britain") around the middle of the 6th century. This was without doubt a major British victory which appears to have halted the Saxon advance for several generations. Indeed, archaeological evidence has been interpreted as seeing some Germanic invaders return to the continent.

Gildas records a running conflict between the Britons and the Saxons, that victory went sometimes to the home nation, sometimes to the invaders, culminating in the battle of Badon. The leader of the Britons in this campaign was Ambrosius Aurelianus, but Gildas does not specifically mention the British leader at Mount Badon. Bede, following Gildas as ever for this period, does not mention the leader at Badon either. However, he is named for the first time, in the later Historia Brittonum, as Arthur:

“The twelfth battle was on the mountain of Badon, in which there fell in one day nine hundred and sixty men from one charge [of] Arthur; and no-one slew them except him alone, and in all battles he was the victor.”

In efforts to trace Arthur's battles, the majority of Arthurians prefer a southern location for the battle of Badon. Geoffrey of Monmouth locates the Battle of Badon Hill at the Roman town of Bath. Today Little Solsbury Hill just outside the modern city of Bath is a favoured location, a view perhaps prejudiced by those seeking an element of truth in Geoffrey's fables.

Badbury Rings, Dorset, is another chief candidate. Visible today are the earthworks of the Iron Age hillfort, which was followed by a Roman posting station. Liddington Castle, Wiltshire, is another, the "Castle" refers to the earthen ramparts another Iron Age hillfort. It seems any ancient hill fort is a possibility.

Badbury Rings

Whatever the location, the battle of Mons Badonicus is the only one of all Arthur's twelve battles listed in the Historia Brittonum that can be positively verified from external sources and seen as a historical event as it is named by the near-contemporary 'historian' Gildas.

Gildas writes that the victory at Badon was the same year of his birth:

“From that time on now the citizens, now the enemy, were victorious ... right up until the year of the siege of Badon Hill, almost the last, not the least, slaughter of the villains, and this the forty-fourth year begins (as I know) with one month already elapsed, which is also [that] of my birth.”

Debate continues as the interpretation of the passage in Gildas on the dating of Badon. It may mean that the battle took place forty-four years and one month after Ambrosius, or that Gildas was writing forty-four years after the battle.  However, it is known that Gildas was writing before the death of Maelgwn (Maglocunus) of Gwynedd, as he launches into a personal tirade against this 'dragon of the island', who he accuses of embarking on a violent rule since the very beginning of his youth when he killed the king, his uncle, and his band of soldiers, with sword, spear, and fire. According the Welsh Annals, Maelgwn died in 547 AD.

In Bede (HE, Book I.16) the similarity to Gildas' passage is obvious:

“They had at that time for their leader, Ambrosius Aurelius, a modest man, who alone, by chance, of the Roman nation had survivcd the storm, in which his parents, who were of the royal race, had perished. Under him the Britons revived, and offering battle to the victors, by the help of God, came off victorious. From that day, sometimes the natives, and sometimes their enemies, prevailed, till the year of the siege of Baddesdownhill, when they made no small slaughter of those invaders, about forty-four years after their arrival in England.”

To Bede the lapsed forty-four years signified the coming of the English, Adventus Saxonum, i.e. forty-four years before Badon. Howard Wiseman suggests the date of the battle recorded in the Welsh Annals is derived from Gildas and Bede and not from an independent source.3

The Welsh Annals
Comparison of the Arthurian battle-list in the Historia Brittonum and the Welsh Annals entry for the Battle of Badon reveals a remarkably similar account to the battle at castle Guinnion. The Arthurian battle list contained within chapter 56 of the Historia Brittonum makes no mention of Arthur carrying the Cross at Badon, but includes at the centre of the passage:

“The eighth battle [was] in the castle of Guinnion, in which Arthur carried the image of Saint Mary the perpetual virgin on his shoulders, and on that day the pagans were put to fl ight and a great slaughter was upon them through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of Saint Mary his holy virgin mother.”

Caitlin (Thomas) Green has concluded that the Badon entry in the Welsh Annals cannot be regarded as an independent witness to Arthur’s historicity; as such the Annals account either derives from the Historia Brittonum or its source.4 Indeed, the Badon entry in the Annals indicates a high level of borrowing from the Historia.

Annales Cambriae

The Welsh Annals is a Cambro-Latin text compiled in the 10th century, surviving in a Latin manuscript of c.1100, recording events from c.447 to c.954. Studies have shown the text is related to surviving versions of the Irish annals, sharing early entries such as the deaths of Saints Patrick (457), Brigit (521), and Columba (595). The Welsh Annals consist of three primary stratum:

• 453 to 613 is based on a set of Irish annals,
• 613 to 777 is based on a north British chronicle,
• from the late 9th century compiled in St David’s, south Wales.5

The Welsh Annals conclude with the death of Rhodri, son of Hywel, a prince of South Wales, in 954 and were probably compiled shortly after. Some of the earlier entries are apparently derived from 8th century sets of Irish Annals. However, neither of the Arthurian entries,  Bellum Badonis or Guieth Camlann, appear in the Irish annals.

Other entries appear to be clear repetitions of erroneous statements found in the Historia Brittonum, such as the ascription of the baptism of the Northumbrian king Edwin to Rhun, the son of Urien, repeated in the Welsh Annals at year 626 AD, when the more reliable historian Bede states the holy sacrament was administered by bishop Paulinus (HE, Book II.14).

Another, the Welsh Annals entry for 630 AD, details when “on the Kalends of January the battle of Meigen; and there Edwin was killed with his two sons” seems to derived from the Historia Brittonum which states the two sons of Edwin fell with him in battle at Meicen.

Bede (HE, Book II.20) records Edwin being slain on the 12th October at the battle on the plain called Haethfeld (Hatfield Chase near Doncaster, Yorkshire). Welsh sources describe Meigen as an ancient district surrounding Long Mountain, Cefn Digoll, near Welshpool in Montgomeryshire.

The fetching of Myngan from Meigen to Llansilin is listed as one of the 'Three Missions that were obtained from Powys' in the Triads of the Island of Britain. The poem Moliant Cadwallon (In Praise of Cadwallon) lists a sequences of fourteen victories by Cadwallon over the English and includes the line, 'The camp of Cadwallon on the Severn and from the far side to Dygen, almost  the burning Meigen'.6 Dygen Freiddyn is the old name for Breidden Hill in Montgomeryshire, collectively a group of hills forming a northern extension of the Long Mountain. Clearly nowhere near south Yorkshire.

On the Shoulders of Giants
The transmission of these erroneous entries from the Historia Brittonum in to the Welsh Annals tells us much about the compilation of the text. Nicholas Higham has gone as far as providing a word count for the two Arthurian entries in the Welsh Annals and compared this to the Historia passage, chapter 56, of Arthur's battles, from the Latin:

[516]: Bellum Badonis, in quo Arthur portavit crucern Domini nostri Jhesu Christi tribus deibus et tribus noctibus in humeros suos et Brittones victores fuerrunt.

[537]: Gueith Camlann, in qua Arthur et Medraut corruerunt.

Higham notes that the Historia also uses the Welsh word 'Gueith' for battle rather the Latin 'Bellum' at the very next chapter (HB 57: Gueith Lin Garan) and the phrase 'tribus deibus et tribus noctibus' follows soon after at chapter 63 (the siege of Lindisfarne). From of a total of thirty-one words in the Arthurian entries in the Welsh Annals just five are original to that text, and one of these a personal name and the other a place-name, the rest can be found in the Arthurian passage of the Historia Brittonum, or very close to it.7

As long ago as the 19th century it was noted that some of the early entries in the Welsh Annals show signs of translation from Welsh. Thomas Price suggested that 'humeros suos' (Latin: 'on his shoulders') resulted from the confusion of Old Welsh scuit 'shield' with scuid 'shoulder'.8 As Thomas Jones notes, it would certainly be easier to envisage the picture of Christ's Cross engraved on Arthur's shield, as with Constantine's soldiers at the battle of Milvian Bridge, rather than his shoulder.9

Indeed, on observing the apparent confusion of scuit with scuid John Koch notes ‘that error of transmission is hardly likely to have come about twice’ and suggests that the Annals entry is more easily understood as derived from Historia Brittonum’s account.10

The Badon entry is very unlike the other early entries in the Welsh Annals which are short and factual, and free from miraculous and fictional elements. Jones suggests the reference to Arthur carrying the cross into battle bears the appearance of religious legend and is not convincing in either historical record or legend.11

In conclusion we are left to ponder whether the Badon entry in the Welsh Annals was taken from the battle-list in the Historia Brittonum; or if the original entry in the Welsh Annals was a simple chronicle record similar to other early entries, such as, “AD 516 – The Battle of Badon,” leader undefined as in Gildas and Bede, with the possibility of the later addition of the Arthurian material inspired by the Christian content around the eighth battle at castle Guinnion?


Copyright © 2015 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/


Notes & References
1. Antonina Harbus, Helena of Britain in Medieval Legend, DS Brewer, 2002.
2. Edmund Chambers, Arthur of Britain, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1927, reprinted 1966.
3. Howard Wiseman, The derivation of the date of the Badon entry in the Annales Cambriae from Bede and Gildas, Parergon 17, 2000.
4. Thomas Green, The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur, 1998.
5. Kathleen Hughes, The Welsh Latin Chronicles, Oxford University Press, 1974.
6. Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, Third edition, University of Wales Press, 2006.
7. Nicholas Higham, King Arthur: Myth-making and History, Routledge, 2002.
8. Thomas Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, 1849, referenced in Thomas Jones, The Early Evolution of the Legend of Arthur, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 1964.
9. Jones, op.cit.
10.  John Koch, General Editor and Antone Minard, Editor, The Celts: History, Life, and Culture,
ABC-CLIO, 2012
11. Jones, op.cit.

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