The Battle of Tettenhall

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the Battle of Tettenhall (sometimes called the Battle of Wednesfield or Wōdnesfeld) as taking place near Tettenhall, Staffordshire, on 5 August 910 AD. A combined force of Mercians and West Saxons slaughtered a raiding army of Northumbrian Vikings somewhere near Wolverhampton.

Saints and Saxons
In 909 Edward the Elder of Wessex and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, sent a combined West Saxon and Mercian host against the Northumbrian Danes who controlled much of northern England. The Anglo-Saxon army harried the Danes for five weeks, who at the end of which were forced to accept the terms of the King of Wessex.

In the same year the bones of the Northumbrian royal saint Oswald were seized from Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire in what seems to be an unrelated raid into Danish territory; the noble rulers of English Mercia, Æthelred and Æthelflæd, are thought to be responsible. Æthelflæd, The Lady of the Mercians, in particular was responsible to relocating saints' relics into her fortified towns (burhs), such as St Bertelin at Stafford and Runcorn and established St Werburgh's relics at Chester.

Oswald was the Anglo-Saxon King of Northumbria from 633 to 642. Bede tells us that he asserted his authority over all the peoples of southern England. Oswald died at Maserfelth, on 5th August 642 AD, commonly thought to be near Oswestry, in present-day Shropshire (later part of Æthelflæd's Mercia), at the hands of the last pagan king of Mercia, Penda. If the identification of the battle site with Oswestry is correct, and it is far from certain, Oswald was deep into Mercian territory. Penda is well known for regicide; five kings fell to his sword. In this case he ordered Oswald's head and forearms be hacked off and fixed on stakes at the battle site. The pagan warlord must have had good reason for mutilating Oswald's corpse, in what bears indications of some kind of pagan sacrificial tradition of desecration of the royal corpse.

St Oswald monument, Oswestry

A year after the conflict at Maserfelth Oswald's brother Oswiu journeyed to the battle site and collected Oswald's head and forearms. The head went to Lindisfarne priory and was interred with St Cuthbert, finally resting at Durham Cathedral where it remains to this day. An uncorrupted arm went to Bamburgh and Peterborough claimed another. Some years later, between 675 – 697, Osthryth (Oswald's niece) collected his remains, presumably just the torso and legs that remained, from the battlefield and brought them to Bardney Abbey in Lindsey (modern Lincolnshire).

In 909 Oswald's remains (in part) were rescued by a Mercian force and translated to the Mercian church of St Peter's at Gloucester, rededicated as St Oswald's Priory established by Æthelred and Æthelflæd.

Slaughter at Woden's Field
In the following year the Northumbrian Danes retaliated by invading English (western) Mercia. With King Edward in Kent, the Vikings raided as far as the Bristol Avon. Turning for home the Vikings crossed the Severn and harried along the western bank until they reached Bridgnorth. They then struck into the Midlands but by now an English army under King Edward was in pursuit. Somewhere in Staffordshire, just north of Wolverhampton they were ambushed by a force of Mercians, with the West Saxons coming up behind. The combined Anglo-Saxon forces annihilated the Viking raiding army, which must have been a sizeable force as three kings are named among the casualties. And the date of the slaughter; 5th August, the feast day of St Oswald.

The location of Tettenhall

The Chronicle of Æthelweard (d.998) records the battle:

“After a year the barbarians broke the peace with King Edward, and Æthelred, who then ruled the Northumbrian and Mercian areas. The fields of the Mercians were ravaged on all sides by the throng we spoke about, and deeply, as far as the streams of the Avon, where the boundary of the West Saxons and Mercians begins. Then they were transported across the river Severn into the west country, and there they ravaged great ravagings. But when rejoicing in rich spoil they returned towards home, they were still engaged in crossing to the east side of the river of the river Severn over a pons, to give the Latin spelling, which is called [C]antbricge by the common people. Suddenly squadrons of both Mercians and West Saxons, having formed battle-order, moved against the opposing force. They joined battle without protracted delay on the field of Wednesfield; the English enjoyed the blessing of victory; the army of the Danes fled, overcome by armed force. These events are recounted as done on the fifth day of the month of August. There fell three of their kings in that same 'storm' (or 'battle' would be the right thing to say), that is Healfdene and Eywysl, and Inwaer also hastened to the hall of the infernal one, and so did senior chiefs of theirs, both jarls and other noblemen.”

The Anglo-Saxon victory was a turning point in the recovery of the Danelaw from which the Northumbrian Danes never recovered and subsequently are not recorded venturing south of the River Humber again leaving Edward and his Mercian allies to concentrate on conquering the southern Danelaw in East Anglia and the Five Boroughs of east Mercia.

In 911, the year after the battle of Tettenhall, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, died. He was succeeded by his widow Æthelflæd who from that moment on was known as the “Lady of the Mercians.”

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Æthelflæd Funeral Procession

A re-enactment of an Anglo Saxon funeral procession was held in Gloucester yesterday (Saturday 9th June) to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians and eldest daughter of Alfred the Great.

The funeral re-enactment is part of a weekend of events called Æthelflæd 1100 recalling the story of Aethelflaed who led the Mercians in the 10th century fight against the Vikings to recover territory lost to the Danelaw. Following the death of her husband Æthelred, Lord of Mercia, in 911 she ruled Mercia alone for seven years until her death.

Following her death at Tamworth on 12th June 918 she is said to have been buried at St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester, alongside Æthelred.

The palanquin containing the body of Æthelflæd (played by actress Samantha Swinford) arrived at Gloucester Docks by Viking longboat at 12pm.

It was carried by pall-bearers dressed as black monks through the city to at a specially prepared Anglo Saxon encampment at St Oswald's Priory, where the Rev Canon Nikki Arthy delivered a memorial speech in honour of the Last Mercian Queen.

It is estimated that around 10,000 people turned out to see Æthelflæd carried through Gloucester city centre.

>> Gloucester funeral procession honours Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians
BBC News Gloucestershire 10 June 2018

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Æthelflæd 1100

AD 918 - This year Ethelfleda, lady of the Mercians, with the help of God, before Laminas, conquered the town called Derby, with all that thereto belonged; and there were also slain four of her thanes, that were most dear to her, within the gates.

But very shortly after they had become so, she died at Tamworth, twelve days before midsummer, the eighth year of her having rule and right lordship over the Mercians; and her body lies at Gloucester, within the east porch of St. Peter's church. - [ASC]

The Death of the Last Mercian Queen
2018 marks the 1100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflæd the last Queen of the Mercians.

On 12th June 918 Æthelflæd, the ‘Lady of the Mercians’ took her last breath at Tamworth, the capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, before being finally laid to rest in St Oswald’s Priory at Gloucester, alongside her husband Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians.

'Æthelflæd' at Tamworth

The Mercian Register records nine burhs built by Æthelflæd in three years (912 - 915) in the war against the Vikings to recover Mercian territory lost to the Danelaw agreement: Scergeat, Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury, Warwick, Chirbury, Weardbyrig and Runcorn. Æthelflæd also re-fortified Chester and Gloucester.

In 917 Æthelflæd's Mercians took Derby but lost four thegns in the battle. The following year she gained control of the burh at Leicester, peacefully. Later in 918 the people of the Viking capital of York pledged allegiance to Æthelflæd. Following the fall of York Mercia was all but recovered by the Anglo-Saxons.

The next entry in the Mercian Register states Æthelflæd died at Tamworth.

Whether she was struck down by a sudden illness or suffered a wound in the battle of 917 that would ultimately lead to her death from the injuries we shall never know for certain.

Her body was taken to Gloucester where it was interred “within the east porticus of St Peter's church” (St. Oswald's Priory), next to her husband Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians (d.911).

To celebrate 1100 years of  Æthelflæd's passing there will be events held at both Tamworth and Gloucester, key locations in her history.

Gloucester will be celebrating this occasion with a series of living history, archaeological and musical events, including:

Friday 8 June to Sunday 10 June - Living History at St Oswald’s Priory
Saturday 9 June – Saxon Funeral Procession (12pm from Gloucester Docks)
Sunday 10 June – Blackfriars Talks:

• Aethelflaed And Gloucester: The Golden Minster - Carolyn Heighway And Michael Hare
• Women Warlords and Warrior Queens - Janina Ramirez
• Aethelflaed: England's Founding Mother - Tom Holland

See: Gloucester's Warrior Queen

Tamworth will be holding a serious of special events in July, including:

Thursday 12 July - lecture on Aethelflaed - Michael Wood
Friday 13 July - Aethelflaed in Stafford – Martin Carver

A new six-metre tall statue of the Anglo-Saxon legend “Lady Aethelflaed” constructed by artist and sculptor Luke Perry is now in position on the roundabout outside Tamworth Railway Station.

See: Visit Tamworth


A County Town Forgets
Martin Carver claims that Æthelflæd was the founder of Stafford, the county town of Staffordshire, when she constructed a burh here in 913.

But all we have here at Stafford is a white plaque outside the Shire Hall in celebration of 1100 years of Stafford in 2013......and no celebrations are planned in the County town for 12 June in commemoration of her death.

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Æthelflæd: The Last Mercian Queen

Child of the Viking Wars
Æthelflæd was born around 870 AD, the first child of the famous Anglo-Saxon King Alfred the Great, then a young prince (ætheling) at the peak of the Viking invasions of England. Having ravaged East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia the Vikings now turned their attention to Wessex, the last remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

Alfred is one of only two English monarchs to be given the epithet “the Great” and the first King to style himself  the “King of the Anglo-Saxons”. The life of Alfred and his family was dominated by the Viking wars of the late 9th and early 10th centuries.

Æthelflæd at Tamworth Castle

At the time of Æthelflæd's birth the forces of Wessex were commanded by Alfred's older brother, King Æthelred and Alfred himself. Alfred is recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in 868 in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Ivar the Boneless and his Great Heathen Army invading the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia.

Wessex seemingly had a special relationship with Mercia. Alfred's wife Ealhswith was said to be at least of noble birth, if not a Mercian princess; her mother Eadburh was a descendant of Coenwulf of King Mercia who ruled the kingdom after Offa. Ealhswith's father was Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini, one of the old tribes of Mercia, thought to have been based at Gainsborough in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire. The marriage of Alfred and Ealhswith at Gainsborough in 868 was likely connected in some way with an alliance between Wessex and Mercia. This alliance was to continue with Æthelflæd's marriage to Æthelred, Lord of Mercia.

Just two years later the Vikings arrived in Wessex at the end of 870 with nine engagements fought in the following year. In 871 AD, Alfred defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown in Berkshire. The following year, Alfred took the throne after the death of his brother Æthelred and reigned until his own death in 899. Throughout his life Alfred was troubled by health problems; it is thought that he likely suffered from Crohn's disease.

Alfred was a great believer in education and argued for teaching in 'English' rather than Latin. He commissioned the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a record of the history of the Anglo-Saxons. Many copies were made of the oldest oldest manuscript, the Winchester (or 'A' text) Chronicle, commenced in the 9th century, and distributed to monasteries were it was maintained and updated. Nine manuscript versions survive.

The Danelaw

However, despite the success of Alfred's Anglo-Saxon forces at Ashdown, the Vikings continued to devastate Wessex and Alfred was forced to withdraw to the Somerset marshes. It is likely his family, including the young Princess Æthelflæd, went with him. From Somerset Alfred continued to launch surprise attacks against the Vikings.

In 878 Alfred gathered his forces and defeated the Vikings in the Battle of Edington. Alfred made peace with Guthrum, the Viking king, who received baptism. In 886 AD, in an effort to bring peace to the  land, Alfred negotiated a treaty with the Vikings in which England was divided “between the Rivers Thames and Tees”, with the north and the east declared to be territory of the Danish Vikings, a territory which would later be termed as the “Danelaw”.

Alfred had recovered Wessex by constructing burhs at strategic points in the kingdom. The burh, or burg, (plural = 'byrig') was a fortified settlement, today recognised as an important stage in the evolution of the medieval English borough; even today the regular street layouts and boundaries of some ancient burhs can be found preserved in modern urban boroughs.

Many burhs were constructed on former Iron Age hillforts or Roman fortifications, often linked by Roman roads. New settlements were constructed in naturally defended positions, such as in the crook of a river, defended on three sides by water. The largest examples were at Warwick, Wallingford and Alfred's Winchester, with perhaps the best-preserved examples found at Wallingford and Wareham where substantial banks and ditches are still visible. However many defy positive identification.

If the primary function of the burh was defence its secondary role was as a local administrative and commercial centre, with the burhs at Bridgnorth, Buckingham, Chester, Hertford, Tamworth, Maldon, Stafford and Warwick achieving municipal status in the Middle Ages.

After his death in 899, Alfred's policy of burh construction to re-establish Wessex as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom was adopted by his children Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd in the recovery of the territory surrendered to the Vikings in the Danelaw; Æthelflæd is credited with the construction of ten Mercian burhs.

Biography of a Warrior Queen
We know much of the “Life of King Alfred” from a biography wrote in 893 by a Welsh monk by the name of Asser. Yet there is no biography of his daughter, Æthelflæd, the remarkable woman who led the reconquest of Mercia, clearly influenced and inspired by her father's fightback against the Vikings against all the odds.

A charter of 887 records Æthelflæd as the wife of Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, the marriage probably took place a few years earlier. Æthelflæd and Æthelred had one child, a daughter called Ælfwynn. It is claimed that after the pains of childbirth Æthelflæd was then celibate. Æthelflæd fostered Æthelstan, the son of her brother, Edward the Elder, and heir to the throne, destined to become the first king of All England.

After the death of the last Mercian king Ceolwulf II in 879, Æthelred ruled the western half of the kingdom; eastern Mercia was by now under control of the Vikings. In 888, 889 and 896 Æthelflæd witnessed charters of Æthelred. In 901 Æthelflæd and Æthelred are recorded as presenting land and a golden chalice to the shrine of Saint Mildburg at Much Wenlock church in Shropshire. Æthelred's descent is unknown, but it is suggested his roots lie in the Gloucester area.

Detail on Æthelflæd is extremely brief, in historical terms it can be argued that she played a minor role in the unification of England between the reigns of Alfred and Aethelstan. The lack of information of her achievements portrays West Saxon bias of much of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle (A text) which at this time was concentrating on Edward the Elder and Wessex.

There are glimpses of Æthelflæd in Asser’s Life of Alfred the Great, Aethelweard’s Chronicle, the Annales Cambriae, and the Irish chronicles, yet, the story of Æthelflæd's battles against the Vikings and burh constructions is to be found in the so-called Mercian Register.

As stated above, the oldest manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is known as  the Winchester, or A text. This version of the Chronicle does not use the Mercian Register and concentrates on the achievements of the kings of Wessex, as stated. The Mercian Register was added to manuscripts B and C, forming a discreet, but significant, part of the Chronicle filling a gap in these versions of the Chronicle for the years 915 to 934. The Register also appears in manuscripts D and E, placing further emphasise on its absence from the A text of Wessex.

The Mercian Register covers the years 902 to 924, focusing on events between 909-919, the major achievements of Æthelflæd's reign leading up to the reconquest of Mercia at the time of her death. Æthelflæd appears in eight out of twenty entries which begin with the death of her mother Ealhswith in 902, continues with the death of her father Alfred, the accession of her brother Edward the Elder, the death of her husband Æthelred Lord of the Mercians, and the removal of her daughter Ælfwynn. The last entry is in 924 when Æthelstan, her foster son, is chosen by the Mercians as king. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Register disappears from the Chronicle as swiftly as it appeared.

St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester

Æthelflæd is depicted in a monument in front of Tamworth castle, erected in 1918 in celebration of a thousand years since her death at the Royal palace of the Mercians. Æthelflæd is shown with one arm around a young boy, presumed to be Æthelstan; in the other hand she grips the hilt of a sword, emphasising the two elements of her reign; family and war.

Æthelflæd was half-Mercian through her mother Ealhswith and was beloved by the Mercians who claimed her as one of their own; on the death of her husband Æthelred Lord of the Mercians, the year following the famous Anglo-Saxon victory over the Vikings at Tettenhall in 910, she was proclaimed Myrcna hlædige, “Lady of the Mercians” and ruled the realm alone in the face of Viking adversity until her death in 918.

Following her death at Tamworth on 12 June Æthelflæd was taken to Gloucester to be interred with her late husband Æthelred in St Oswald's Priory.

* * *

A Message in the Stones

The Lost Tomb of King Arthur at Glastonbury Part II

“The tombe of Arthur in shining blacke stone was in front of ye altare. Ye can see hys size even now, an ye wis, in ye claye, and certain fragmentes that yet are for hym to seeke. Blacke and scarlet and golde was ye choire, save where they didde paint ye leaves in greene, and somme tyme browne where ye clausteres were.......The churche he was soe grete there was room enow in ye aisles and soe across ye altare in front of hym by Arthur's tombe.” 


The Company of Avalon
In 1908 when the Bath and Wells Diocesan Trust acquired the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey they appointed Frederick Bligh Bond as director of excavations. At the time Bond was an architect practising in Bristol and an acknowledged authority on church architecture having overseen the restoration of a number of churches; at the time Bond must have appeared to be the ideal appointment to restore the overgrown ruins of the Abbey.

But unknown to the Church authorities at the time Bond had been a member of the Society for Psychical Research since 1902. He was also a member of the Theosophical Society and a Freemason. He used knowledge he had gleaned from these societies to unearth the ruins of the Abbey with remarkable success without the need to dig lengthy exploration trenches, unearthing chapels that showed no evidence above ground with remarkable accuracy.

Today Bond is remembered mainly for his occult practices in communications with the monks of Glaston; one of the first documented examples of psychic archaeology but a method clouded with controversy. Bond claimed to have commenced communications with the abbey monks in 1907, before he had been appointed by the Church of England.

In 1918 Bond's book 'The Gate of Remembrance' was published which revealed his excavations had been guided by psychic communications with the dead monks of the Abbey, which he termed the 'Company of Avalon'. Bond had been holding automatic writing sessions with Captain John Bartlett, aka John Alleyne, as a medium.

Bond asserts that the monks had instructed him where to dig in response to questions he asked. However, sceptics argue that Bond possessed sufficient knowledge of church architecture to have calculated the layout of the Abbey with reasonable accuracy. Perhaps.

But Bond was an Arthurian and soon after his appointment he searched for evidence of the King's black marble tomb in front of the high altar. Among Bond's earliest excavations at the Abbey, from 1908–9, a search was carried out at the east end of the Great Church. Here he found many fragments of black marble-like stone found in the  vicinity of the high altar. One small fragment displayed part of arm in chain-mail & was suggested as being a relic from the tomb of Arthur. The antiquarian John Leland visited Glastonbury Abbey in the 1530's, just a few years before the Dissolution, but never mentioned any effigies in his description of King Arthur's tomb – but the monks of Glaston had. Today this artefact is exhibited in the Abbey museum among the display featuring the 12th century exhumation of King Arthur's grave.

Later Bond would turn his attention to the site of Arthur's grave south of the Lady Chapel but was dismissed by the Church of England before he could start excavations. Later Courtney Ralegh Radford, who visited Bond's excavations at Glastonbury as a child, would pick up the baton; there is evidence that Radford was influenced by Bond's earlier work at the Abbey.

Radford later referred to Bond as good an archaeologist, as good as any of his day. Bond had written up his excavation reports and published them in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological Society. His drawings were few but of exceptional quality, providing highly detailed records of stone constructions found in trenches. However, from around fifty sittings with the monks that he recorded only about half of these got in to the book The Gate of Remembrance; one gets the feeling that there must have been a lot of information from the 'Company of Avalon' that he did not pass on to his general readership.

The Message
Bond had been meticulous in his measurements of the abbey buildings, clearly the dimensions were critical. Bond claimed the Glastonbury medieval church builders had used ‘Gematria’, an ancient science using embedded mathematical formulae contained in Biblical texts. This was a continuation of the original layout of the site facilitating esoteric knowledge, the mason's code, used in the construction of the Old Church. Today it is recognised that ancient sites such as the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge show evidence of the use of Gematria in their design, but Bond, with his theories of sacred geometry and psychic archaeology, was a hundred years too early to be acceptable, if ever, to the Church. It seemed their relationship was destined to come to an inevitable conclusion.

Bond had presented this information at lecture on the measures of the Lady Chapel in 1916, which he must have realised would disturb the Dean of Wells, Armitage Robinson, listening in the audience and not be well received by the Church. It is not certain when Bond first learnt of Gematria; it may have been the monks of Glastonbury who introduced him to the subject, yet a year before the publication of The Gate of Remembrance, Bond and Thomas Simcox Lea completed a new book entitled 'Gematria: A preliminary investigation of the cabala contained in the Coptic Gnostic books and of a similar gematriain the Greek text of the New Testament'.

A sitting in August 1917 the Company of Avalon make clear reference to the subject:

“That which the brethren of old handed down to us, we followed, ever building on their plann. As we have said, our Abbey was a message in ye stones. In ye foundations and ye distances be a mystery—the mystery of our Faith, which ye have forgotten and we also in ye latter days. 

“All ye measures were marked plaine on ye slabbes in Mary's Chappel, and ye have destroyed them. So it was recorded, as they who builded and they who came after knew aforehand where they should build....... In ye floor of ye Mary Chappel was ye Zodiac, that all might see and understand the mystery...... Braineton, he didde much, for he was Geomancer to ye Abbey of old tyme.”

The 74ft grid

Bond was convinced that Glastonbury Abbey had been laid out to a geometric pattern of 74ft squares (37 x 2) and argued that there had been no divergence from the symmetry of these squares over the centuries right up to the time of the last Abbot (Whiting), as the last construction, the Edgar Chapel, conforms to this pattern.

Bond observed that the outer measurement of the total length of the Great Church from St. Mary's Chapel, is 592 feet (8 x 74) with the width of the Nave and Quire being one square each. However, this measurement only works if the Edgar Chapel, at the east end of the church complex, is extended into a (polygonal) apse as Bond claimed, rather than finishing in a straight wall. Bond published this in his plan of the chapel in 1909. Two years later a previously unknown 18th century manuscript from the collection of Colonel Wm Long of Clevedon, came to light and was found to show the two inclined wall-sections of the apse. The dimensions given, 87 feet by 49 feet, in the Wm Long manuscript only work as an internal measure if the apse is included, thus substantiating Bond's claim.

The Edgar Chapel showing polygonal apse

The Key to the Temple
Of all the Abbey buildings, the Lady Chapel, said to be built on the site of the Old Church (vetusta ecclesia), is the most intriguing and mysterious. On the resumption of excavations after the War this is where Bond now turned his attention in his search for King Arthur's grave.

The early 12th century Chronicler William of Malmesbury was invited to record the history of the Abbey around 1125, and wrote, “This church, then, is certainly the oldest I know in England, and from this circumstance derives its name (vetusta ecclesia).... In the pavement may be seen on every side stones designedly inlaid in triangles and squares, and figured with lead, under which, if I believe some sacred enigma to be contained, I do no injustice to religion.” This would appear to be a direct reference to the markings on the floor of the Mary Chapel as communicated to Bond by the Company of Avalon, as noted above.

Bond found that the Lady Chapel, and it follows the preceding vetusta ecclesia, was laid out to a geometric pattern known as the vesica piscis, the intersection of two interlocking circles, each centred on the perimeter of the other, the ratio of the width of the vesica to its height is the square root of 3.

The pointed oval figure of the vesica was symbolic of the union of Heaven and Earth in the body of Christ and used to enclose depictions of the Virgin, being used in the layout of many Gothic cathedrals. An example of a vesica pisces, intersected by St Michael's sword, can be seen in the cover of the Chalice Well at Glastonbury, designed by Bond of course.

Chalice Well, cover designed by Bligh Bond

In recording the dimensions of the Lady Chapel, Bond found the breadth between the faces of the central buttresses measured 37 feet and the length is approximately 64 feet where the points of the vesica touch the outer faces of the end walls. He identified another vesica external to this embracing the plinth-course, and a third marking three-quarters of its length. Each vesica contains a rhombus of two equilateral triangles. Their measures, Bond claimed, being symbolic of the sacred geometry using Gematria.

In 1921 Bond uncovered the remains of the so-called 'St David's Pillar', north of the Lady Chapel. This pillar was set up in the late 15th century, probably replacing something older said to mark the eastern extremity of the Old Church. Attached to the pillar was a brass plaque, found among the abbey ruins but now lost, which gave the dimensions of the Old Church as such:

“And lest the site or size of the earlier church should come to be forgotten because of such additions, he [St David] erected this column on a line drawn southwards through the two eastern angles of the same church, and cutting it off from the aforesaid chancel. And its length was 60ft westward from that line, its breadth was truly 26ft; the distance from the centre of this pillar from the midpoint between the aforesaid  angles, 48ft.”

St David's Pillar (1921)

This circular platform was constructed of small stones set in poor mortar & measuring 7.5 feet in diameter, the soft material in the centre of the platform was excavated to a depth of about 4 feet and contained 14th-century fragments. Bond suggested that this platform was a late reconstruction of an earlier monument thought to represent a pyramid erected to mark eastward extension of the vetusta ecclesia. However, excavations were suspended at a depth of 5 feet due to the many interments encountered. Sadly, all evidence of the Old Church were lost when Abbot Beere constructed the crypt (St Joseph's Chapel) below the Lady Chapel around 1500.

In plan Bond constructed a hexagon within a circle enclosing the Lady Chapel and, using sacred geometry, determined that St David's Pillar was set at one of the six points of a hexagram. It followed that William of Malmesbury's pyramids and therefore the site of King Arthur's grave would lie on the same circle that enclosed this hexagram to the south side of the Lady Chapel.

The Geometry of the Lady Chapel

He now turned his attention to the south side of the Lady Chapel, but before Bond could cut any turf and commence excavations he was dismissed and all archaeological work at the Abbey ceased. Bond's occult methods proved just too much for the Church to bear any longer.

Yet Bond had never claimed to be communicating with the dead monks of Glastonbury, he considered he had tapped into a collective memory. However, such methods were totally unacceptable to Bond's paymaster, the Church of England, and he was effectively banished from the Abbey. He left Britain for America in 1926 to work for the American Society for Psychical Research. 

Following Bond's dismissal any physical evidence for the apse at the end of the Edgar Chapel was obliterated, and, like much of his controversial work, covered over by the Church authorities. We would have to wait another 40 years before the archaeologist's trowel would turn the earth south of the Lady Chapel in search of Arthur's grave.


Copyright © 2018 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk



References:
Frederick Bligh Bond, F.R.I.B.A.,The Gate of Remembrance: The Story Of The Psychological. Experiment Which Resulted In The Discovery Of The Edgar Chapel At Glastonbury. With A Record Of The Finding Of The Loretto Chapel In 1919. Third Edition, Marshall Jones, 1920.
Stephan A. Schwartz, The Secret Vaults of Time: Psychic Archeology and the Quest for Man's Beginnings. First published 1978, this edition Hampton Roads, 2001.

* * *

The Lost Tomb of King Arthur at Glastonbury

Part I

“The memory of Arthur, the celebrated king of the Britons, should not be concealed. In his age, he was a distinguished patron, generous donor, and a splendid supporter of the renowned monastery of Glastonbury; they praise him greatly in their annals. Indeed, more than all other churches of his realm he prized the Glastonbury church of Holy Mary, mother of God, and sponsored it with greater devotion by far than he did for the rest. When that man went forth for war, depicted on the inside part of his shield was the image of the Blessed Virgin, so that he would always have her before his eyes in battle, and whenever he found himself in a dangerous encounter he was accustomed to kiss her feet with the greatest devotion.” [Gerald of Wales, Liber de Principis Instructione]


King Arthur in Avalon
The discovery of King Arthur's grave at Glastonbury in 1191 was probably the most significant single event at the Abbey, having a considerable impact on its fortune; by the 16th Century, the wealth of Glastonbury was second only to Westminster. When an audit was carried out for Henry VIII the Abbey was home to 54 monks and its annual wealth was declared as in excess of £3,000, a huge amount for the time. But how did Arthur become associated with Glastonbury?

From the very beginnings of the Arthurian Chronicle tradition and Romance literature in the 12th century King Arthur is linked with Glastonbury. In the Life of Gildas (Vitae Gildae) written around the middle of the 12th century by Caradoc of Llancarfan at the request of the Glastonbury monks, the tale of Guinevere's (Gwenhwyfar) abduction appears for the first time. Melwas, the king of the Summerland, holds her captive at Glastonbury leading to a stand off with King Arthur, who has mustered the armies of Devon and Cornwall. The issue is resolved by Gildas, then abbot of Glastonbury, and in return Arthur grants lands to the Abbey.

Geoffrey of Monmouth was the first to introduce 'Avalon' to the Arthurian Canon as the place where the mortally wounded King is taken after the battle of Camlann, but Geoffrey never linked Glastonbury to Avalon. That would come just a few years later when a French tale claimed the family of Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail, the dish that Jesus used at the last supper, to the Vales of Avalon. The lead burial cross found in Arthur's grave (now lost) had confirmed Glastonbury was Avalon.

In John of Glastonbury's Cronica, Arthur visits a chapel at Beckery and witnesses a strange mass with the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child (a similar episode is described in the Perlesvaus at St Augustine's chapel). This causes Arthur to change the arms on his shield to bear the Virgin as stated in the 9th century account in the History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) at the 8th battle at Castle Guinnion. The shield is also described in the 10th century Welsh Annals (Annales Cambriae) in the account of Arthur's victory at Badon. At Beckery the Virgin presented Arthur with a crystal cross (now also lost) which was processed at the Abbey during Lent.

The discovery of Prince Arthur's tomb by the inscription on the leaden cross
John Mortimer, 1797 (British Museum, Creative Commons license)

Bones and Black Marble
The discovery of King Arthur's grave was during the emergence of the Plantagenets, a dynasty with a curious fascination with Arthurian history. This was the time of the Crusades, the emergence of the Gothic cathedrals, and the first stories of King Arthur and the Grail. According to Gerald of Wales, the Plantagenet King Henry II had been told of the location of Arthur's grave by a bard:

"The abbot had the best evidence from the aforementioned King Henry, for the king had said many
times, as he had heard from the historical tales of the Britons and from their poets, that Arthur was
buried between two pyramids that were erected in the holy burial-ground." Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae c.1216]

Writing in the first quarter of the 12th century, and likely before Caradoc of Llancarfan composed Vitae Gildae, William of Malmesbury recorded the existence of these two pyramids south of the Lady Chapel, bearing some inscriptions which he found difficult to read even then and considered them indeed ancient in his day. William had unrestricted access to the Abbey library but failed to connect King Arthur with Glastonbury in anyway. It would appear that in William's time the Glastonbury monks were blissfully unaware of who laid in their Old Cemetery.

A devastating fire on St Urban's Day 1184 destroyed much of the Abbey buildings at Glastonbury, including the Old Church (Vetusta Ecclesia), said to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathea himself. Whether the first Glastonbury church had been founded by the disciples of Christ or not, William of Malmesbury said it was certainly the oldest church he knew.

But it wasn't until two years after the death of Henry II in 1189 that the monks decided to excavate in the Old Cemetery. Another version of the discovery of  King Arthur's grave claims the monks were digging a grave in the cemetery for a brother who had died and requested to be buried between the pyramids and they found Arthur's remains purely by chance. However, less than a decade after the fire the monks carried out an excavation in the ancient cemetery in 1191, digging where King Henry had apparently suggested. The monks discovered the bones of a tall man bearing evidence of weapon trauma and a woman with blond hair. An inscribed leaden cross found in the grave identified these bones as the mortal remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere lying in the Isle of Avalon. Gerald's account of the discovery of Arthur's grave was written within a couple of years of the event:

“Although legends had fabricated something fantastical about his demise (that he had not suffered death, and was conveyed, as if by a spirit, to a distant place), his body was discovered at Glastonbury, in our own times, hidden very deep in the earth in an oak-hollow, between two stone pyramids that were erected long ago in that holy place. The tomb was sealed up with astonishing tokens, like some sort of miracle. The body was then conveyed into the church with honor, and properly committed to a marble tomb. A lead cross was placed under the stone, not above as is usual in our times, but instead fastened to the underside. I have seen this cross, and have traced the engraved letters — not visible and facing outward, but rather turned inwardly toward the stone. It read: "Here lies entombed King Arthur, with Guenevere his second wife, on the Isle of Avalon.” [Gerald of Wales, Liber de Principis Instructione, c.1193]

As we have noted above, accounts of the discovery vary between reports, Gerald of Wales provides the most detailed as he visited the Abbey shortly after the discovery and handled the bones and burial cross, but was almost certainly not an eye witness to the exhumation as suggested by some commentators. Although the discovery is considered a hoax by today's archaeologists and historians it was not challenged at the time and no alternative burial site for King Arthur was claimed by any other ecclesiastical establishment in competition to Glastonbury.

After the exhumation we hear nothing more of Arthur and Guinevere's bones and it is unclear of their whereabouts except for a brief entry in the Annals of Waverley which states that they were held in the treasury in the east range of the abbey church, awaiting a more fitting location. However, it is possible that the tomb itself was the same marble tomb that Gerald had seen on his visit to the Abbey shortly after the exhumation in 1191. It would seem the tomb must have been located in the Lady Chapel as that was the only building completed at that time, before being moved at a later date.

Nearly ninety years after the exhumation the bones were moved to the prestigious position before the High Altar in the newly built Great Church  during a visit by King Edward I and Queen Eleanor to Glastonbury Abbey at Easter on 19th April 1278.

Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and The Hammer of the Scots, was an Arthurian enthusiast; he claimed to have recovered King Arthur’s crown when he defeated the Welsh Prince Llewellyn and of course he is intimately associated with the Round Table at Winchester. On his journey to Glastonbury he had visited South Cadbury hillfort, later identified by John Leland as King Arthur's 'Camelot'.

Adam of Damerham, a monk at the abbey and eye witness to the translation, describes King Edward's visit in 1278, as such:

“The Lord Edward....with his consort, The Lady Eleanor, came to Glastonbury to celebrate Easter....The following Tuesday....at dusk, the lord king had the tomb of the famous King Arthur opened. Wherein, in two caskets painted with their pictures and arms were found separately, the bones of the said king, which were of great size, and those of Queen Guenevere, which were of marvelous beauty......On the following day.....the lord king replaced the bones of the king and queen each in their own casket, having wrapped them in costly silks. When they had sealed, they ordered the tomb to be placed forthwith in front of the high altar, after the removal of the skulls for the veneration of the people.”

In December 1331, King Edward III and Queen Philippa visited Glastonbury Abbey, following a similar itinerary to his grandfather Edward I, paying due respects at King Arthur's tomb having also visited South Cadbury on route. They prayed before the High Altar where the tomb was then located between the tombs of the Saxon Kings, Edmund the Elder to the north and Edmund Ironside to the south.

The black marble tomb containing the remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere remained there in the Great Church, but for one minor move in 1368 when Abbot Walter de Monnington in extending the choir moved the High Altar, relocating the three Royal tombs to maintain their prominent positions.

King Arthur's leaden burial cross was laid on top of the black marble tomb where it remained in peace for 261 years until the Dissolution in 1539.


Copyright © 2018 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk


References:
The Tomb of King Arthur by Gerald of Wales (Author), John William Sutton (Translator) - from The Camelot Project  2001

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The Quest at Glastonbury Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey holds a special place in popular culture; the site possesses a long history embellished with a rich mythology and inspired esotericism that brought the Somerset town to the spiritual centre of the New Age. It is very easy to become entangled in this mystical web and struggle to see the slim threads of truth at Glastonbury.

It is claimed that this is the site of the earliest Christian Church in Britain, founded by Joseph of Arimathea and the reputed burial place of the legendary King Arthur. But, alas, it seems science can shatter any myth and here archaeology has failed to find evidence to support the claims of the Abbey's Medieval monks.

Eight different directors have lead thirty six seasons of archaeological investigations between 1904 and 1979 but little in the way of archaeological reports has been documented from these 20th century excavations.

The Glastonbury Abbey Archaeological Archive Project, a joint venture by the University of Reading and Glastonbury Abbey, has revisited the archaeological archives and artefact collections of Glastonbury Abbey and came to the conclusion that the myths surrounding the abbey were made up by the monks to make Glastonbury one of the richest monasteries in the country.

In 1125 William of Malmesbury completed “De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie” after Abbot Henry of Blois had invited him to write the history of the Abbey. William pronounced it was indeed the oldest church he knew and repeated the Glastonbury claim that the first church on the site was established by missionaries in AD 166, or possibly even earlier, dating back to the time of Christ’s apostles, although he seemed to doubt this assertion himself and did not mention Joseph of Arimathea. William also failed to connect Arthur's grave with Glastonbury; in his history of the English kings he stated that “Arthur's grave is nowhere seen”.

Later versions of William's work were considerably altered by the Abbey monks to add foundation to the Glastonbury Legend. In the 14th century John of Glastonbury wrote his chronicle (Cronica Sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie) of the Abbey history continuing the work of Adam of Damerham and drawing heavily on William's book. It is in John's Cronica that the 'Prophecy of Melkin' appears for the first time, claiming that Joseph of Arimathea sleeps in the Isle of Avalon.

The Project team of 31 experts assert that the medieval monks deliberately designed the layout of the rebuilding in the 12th century to emphasise the ‘earliest church’ story, supplementing the Glastonbury Legend, and providing the abbey with a mystical feel; these myths appear to have clouded the judgement of the twentieth century archaeologists.

The Project re-examined the work of Ralegh Radford who excavated the Abbey site in the 1950s and 1960s and proclaimed to have discovered the site of King Arthur’s grave, as exhumed by the monks in 1191.

Radford had used Medieval sources such as Gerald of Wales: The Discovery of the Tomb of King Arthur, from 'Liber de Principis Instructione' (On the Instruction of Princes) c. 1223, to locate Arthur's grave:

“Although legends had fabricated something fantastical about his demise (that he had not suffered death, and was conveyed, as if by a spirit, to a distant place), his body was discovered at Glastonbury, in our own times, hidden very deep in the earth in an oak-hollow, between two stone pyramids that were erected long ago in that holy place. The tomb was sealed up with astonishing tokens, like some sort of miracle. The body was then conveyed into the church with honor, and properly committed to a marble tomb. A lead cross was placed under the stone, not above as is usual in our times, but instead fastened to the underside. I have seen this cross, and have traced the engraved letters — not visible and facing outward, but rather turned inwardly toward the stone. It read: 'Here lies entombed King Arthur, with Guenevere his second wife, on the Isle of Avalon'.” [The Camelot Project ]

Project leader Roberta Gilchrist states that the monks were desperate for funds for restoration works following the devastating fire of 1184; “The monks also deliberately designed the rebuilt church to look older in order to demonstrate its ancient heritage and pre-eminent place in monastic history, using archaic architecture style and reused material to emphasise the Abbey's mythical feel. This swelled pilgrim numbers and the Abbey's coffers.”

The strategy paid off; by the end of the Middle Ages, Glastonbury Abbey was the second richest monastery in England.

The following posts will look at the work at Glastonbury carried out by the foremost archaeologists in the history of the Abbey excavations; Frederick Bligh Bond and CA Ralegh Radford in their respective searches for King Arthur's Tomb.



Copyright © 2018 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk

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