There was an interim in British History between the Post-Roman Period and the Anglo-Saxon Era which was a creative epoch with a character all of its own, a time described by writers as an era of prosperity, famous quests by celebrated folk-heroes, and tournament-games to entertain the public, and that was the Age of Arthur. The Roman Empire, overrun by barbarians, laid in ruins. The civilized world had been engulfed in barbarism. For a season Britain sank from the daylight into an apocalyptic abyss, called "The Dark Ages", during which was brooding the rise of a new order, the Arthurian Age, which was born out of the anxious birth-pains of these savage, lawless, and dangerous times. And, out of this chaotic darkness there suddenly came on the scene a conquering hero, emerging as a phoenix from the smoldering ashes of the Roman Era in Britain, whose appearance shown like the sun in its strength, who beat back the invading barbarians over-running the country and snatched Britain from the barbarism that had overtaken Europe, and dispelled the dark night of despair and began a new day of hope, introducing a new age. His name was Arthur, and he appeared at precisely the right time in British History for him to have become the culture-hero which he has come to be. Arthur, a mighty warrior renowned for his courage, bravery, and valor, celebrated by poets, song-writers, and authors for over a thousand years, is always presented as what an ideal leader would be. Arthur, the dispossessed heir of Britain‘s old royal house, gathered together a following of knights and waged war to restore civilization in Britain out of the anarchy which had overtaken the country after the evacuation of the Roman troops upon the fall of the Roman Empire to barbarians. Arthur brought order out of chaos; re-established the rule of law in a lawless age; and held back the barbarians [Anglo-Saxons], who threatened to engulf the whole of Britain in barbarism. Britain was the last province of the old Roman empire to fall to the barbarians; who, during Arthur‘s reign, were partially civilized and to a small degree integrated into British society. Arthur brought national prosperity back to Britain and reigned with justice and peace in great glory as Britain’s famous "legendary" king at Camelot Castle, and introduced a new age to which he gave his name, the Arthurian Age. It was an age of chivalry in by-gone days of yore, when knighthood was in flower, which later generations looked back to as a "Golden Age". It was an age of the stuff that legends come from, of gallant knights and their damsels fair, of showy pageantry, gorgeous dress, and dazzling display, which all took place for one brief shining moment in the midnight of the Dark Ages. In reference to the verse from the song in the theatre play "Camelot" that says: "don’t let it be forgot that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment which was known as Camelot". Geoffrey Ashe, the author, points out, "the difference between one brief shining moment and nothing at all is a very great difference." Is it any wonder that such a person, and we may as well call him Arthur as any other name, became such a legendary hero?

Arthur, called the first "worthy" of the Middle Ages, the British Charlemagne, famous in history, legend, and romance, became a renowned king in British History around whom an epic literature grew up over time, who, himself, evolved in medieval romance into the central figure of numerous tales about his knights, many of whom became celebrated figures themselves. Arthur is a point of national pride for the British People. For he took an insignificant nation and within a few years made Britain into a mighty kingdom, the richest and most civilized country in Europe in his time, which almost overnight became a world-power, and gave birth to a legend that shines like a light down the corridor of time from his time through the centuries to our present time. And, Arthur founded a dynasty whose descendants still occupy the British throne. The present British monarch, H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, is 46th in descent from King Arthur [counting King Henry VII exactly 30th in descent from King Arthur], through a blood-line traceable over 1500 years; and even beyond over another 1500 years through Arthur’s ancestors to Brutus, called Britain’s first king, whom Arthur claimed as his ancestor in the "Brutiad". The "Brutiad" was a chronicle King Arthur commissioned the clerks in his court to write, which is the "certain very ancient book" that Geoffrey of Monmouth said his "Historia Regum Britanniae" was its translation from the British [Welsh] language into Latin.

The historicity of King Arthur can hardly be called into question, although there are some who have. There are some who easily dispose of ancient testimony and thus doubt his very existence as if he was merely a figure of fable, while some think that Arthur is a combination of several historical characters who were absorbed into the single figure of Arthur over time, however, the prevailing opinion among legitimate scholars is that Arthur really existed and was a real-life person. Here we have three different theories of who Arthur was, which raises the question which theory is the correct one. Did Arthur really exist? Yes, he did exist according to the evidence we have. And, there are considerations which favor Arthur as an historical figure. The fact that an immense tradition has grown up over the centuries with Arthur as its chief hero is good evidence that he did in fact once live. There is not much doubt that the mass of medieval romance about King Arthur is based on a real person. As for the myths that have crept into Arthur’s story, this does not mean that Arthur was not a real-life figure when one considers the process by which fabulous tales entered into the historical record of Charlemagne during the Middle Ages, and, of course, there is no doubt that Charlemagne was a real-life person notwithstanding the mass of legendary stories about him.

It is not at all to be believed that Britain was without a leader or king during the early sixth century. There is no person asserted to have been in that office during that period except Arthur, and, if not Arthur, then who?

The fact that the name Arthur suddenly comes into popularity around the time that Arthur was suppose to have lived would indicate that Arthur was a real person and that he gave his name fame, for before his time the name was uncommon and very rare. In the years following Arthur's death, people began naming their sons "Arthur". For example, the British duke Pabo Post, the ruler of the Pennine Mountains in England, gave the name Arthur to one of his sons; so did the Welsh king Congar of Demetia; as well as the Scottish King Aedan of Dalriada; and the Irish prince Coscrach of Leinster; and also the Gallic ruler Petreius Cocta, a Roman/Byzantine officer in France; each gave the name Arthur to one of their sons. If not because they were inspired by a real person whose name was Arthur, then why?

Too, many of characters associated with Arthur we know from the Arthurian legends may be identified with people who are known to have been real persons, existing historical figures who lived in Arthur’s time.

The problem is that the archives of Arthur’s reign were either lost or destroyed during the period of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest, or decayed forgotten in some monastery-library, however, some fragments of those lost archives survived and surfaced in the twelfth century from which William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and others, obtained some of the information in their writings in addition to various legends, old poems, ballads, and tales [oral tradition], and passing references to Arthur in ancient annals, old chronicles, and biographies of his contemporaries. If most of the contemporary records no longer exist, then modern scholars should consider seriously the writings of these medieval historians, who still had access to early records now lost. It is probable that Arthur would have been forgotten except as a shadowy legendary figure unless for the survival of those few fragmentary records, which are collected here and put together and fitted into the known historical facts to re-construct the story of Arthur's life.

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note: the evidence

The historical evidence for proofs of Arthur’s existence rests upon the following sources:

(a) The earliest mention of Arthur by name appears in the "Annales Cambriae" ("Welsh Annals"), which is a chronicle of early British History written in Latin by medieval Welsh monks as an on-going record of events from the 5th-century to the 10th-century. The text begins in Year 445 and ends in Year 977, however, the text is back-dated to Year 425 and the last entry in the chronicle was made in 954. There are two entries in the chronicle that refer to Arthur by name: the first is for Year 72 of the Easter Cycle, which may be reckoned to be Year 517 (New Style) (516 Old Style), and reads that Arthur won the Battle of Mount Badon [or Badon Hill, which temporarily halted the Anglo-Saxon advance]; and, the second entry is for Year 93, that is, Year 538 (NS) (537 OS), and reads that Arthur and Medraut [Mordred] fell in the Battle of Camlan. The entry Year 72 (Year 517) refers to the "2nd" Battle of Mount Badon, or Badon Hill, between Arthur and Osla "Big-Knife", the Angle king; Cissa, the Saxon king; and Aesc, the Jute King of Kent, who had joined forces with Arthur's arch-nemesis Cerdic of Wessex, who considered himself the "rightful king". The "1st" Battle of Mt. Badon had taken place in 493 between Aella of Sussex and Theodoric and Marcellus, the co-commanders of the Visi-Gothic Biscay Bay Fleet and Army; and, the "3rd" Battle of Mt. Badon, according to the "Annales Cambriae" took place in Year 664 [not 665, off a year here] between Cadwaladr of Gwynedd and Wulfhere of Mercia. The point here is that the "Annales Cambriae" mentions other people who are known to have been historical persons, so that the view that Arthur was a fictitious figure would be contrary with the character of the "Annales Cambriae", hence Arthur must have been a real-life person.

(b) Arthur is referred to in the Welsh "Triads". The "Triads" is not early Welsh literature strictly speaking, but is a compilation of ancient British trivia of what were originally more detailed sagas passed down through the centuries by Celtic bards that preserve the knowledge of notable historical events, themes, and persons, in early British literature, which are written in groupings of threes, hence the title. The triple groupings acts as a mnemonic device to produce a pattern of versification which gives order to oral tradition. The "Triads" give somewhat of a record of early British history derived from ancient legends which were compiled and committed to writing during the 9th century and preserved in manuscripts dating from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. The "Triads", however, do not give a totally authentic account of events, themes, or persons, they record, for modern scholarship has found in the "Triads" an embroidery of fable spun around hard kernels of some known historical facts. Triad # 21 says that Medrawd (Mordred) revolted against King Arthur while he was on an expedition against the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and it is well authenticated in history that the Franks, over whom Arthur reigned at this time, and their allies, which included Britons, did invade Italy against the Byzantines and besieged Rome a whole year from March 537 to March 538, with Arthur their un-named leader.

(c) Gildas, who was Arthur’s contemporary, in his "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae" (539), eludes to Arthur, however, does not mention Arthur by name. He mentions the British victory at Mount Badon but does not give the names of the combatants, very likely because those details would already be known to his readers, for most of the events which he described in his "De Excidio" were still within the living-memory of his readers when he wrote.

(d) The "Myvyrian Archaiology", a collection of ancient Welsh texts, compiled from medieval materials by Owain Jones (1801-7), includes various writings of early Welsh bards, e.g., Taliesin, Myrddin Wyllt, Aneirin, Llywarch Hen, Golyddan, and others, who were either Arthur’s contemporaries or lived in the next generation or the following one, who mention Arthur by name. For example, Aneirin, in his "Gododdin" (593), which he wrote to commemorate the Battle of Catraeth [Catterick], makes an off-handed reference to Arthur in passing when he says that a certain warrior, Gwawrddur, was valiant in battle but "was no Arthur" [verse 1234]. For the comparison he made to hold any weight the fame of Arthur in his time must have been considerable! There is reference made by later writers to the now lost works of Aneirin which included his "Life of Arthur".

(e) Nennius, a Welsh cleric, commissioned by Rhodri Mawr to write his dynasty’s story, in his "Historia Brittonum" (858), using now lost materials as his sources, such as "The Annals of the Romans", the "British Chronicles", the various writings of early British saints, etc., says that Arthur was the victor of the Battle of Mount Badon, which Gildas had earlier referred to without mentioning the leaders of the opposing armies.

(f) In the "Mirabilia", which is attached to the Harleian Text of Nennius’ "HB" (# 73), there are references to Arthur.

(g) The Welsh poem, "The Stanzas of The Graves" (900), mentions Arthur, saying, "the world’s wonder a grave for Arthur", that is, he was buried in an un-marked grave whose site was unknown.

(h) The "Saints' Lives", that is, the biographies of various saints written by numerous authors [many unknown] between the 600s and the 1100s; such as the "Vita Gildae" ["Life of St. Gildas"], by Caradoc of Llancarfan (1140); mention Arthur by name. Many of these biographies have been collected together under one cover and are found in the medieval manuscript marked "Vespasian", A. XIV., in the British Museum.

(i) The "Mabinogion" (1050), a collection of early Welsh tales, recorded in writing but told orally for centuries, contain five stories with Arthur in them.

(j) William of Malmesbury, considered a usually reliable historian, in his "De Rebus Gestis Regum Anglorum" (1125), made reference to Arthur and to all of the legends that had developed around Arthur by his time.

(k) Henry of Huntingdon, in his "Historia Anglorum" (1129), comments on Arthur’s battles.

(l) Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose "Historia Regum Britanniae" (1136) is generally considered today not to be historical but based on historical facts. He gives an account of Arthur’s life, which was not denied by William of Newburgh, the sharpest controversialist of his time.

(m) Geoffrey Gaimar published "Estoire des Angles" (1145) [now lost], the French version of the Arthurian story, which was quoted by later writers.

(n) Mention of Arthur is made in other medieval documents, such as "The Black Book of Carmarthen" (1150), the "Armorican Chronicle" of Mont. St. Michael (1150); and, the "Caledonian Chronicles" (1150).

(o) Robert Wace wrote "Roman de Brut" (1155) which gives more Arthurian information.

(p) Chretien de Troyes, one of the greatest medieval romance writers, wrote (1160-90) five important works: "Perceval"; "Ywaine"; "Erbic et Enide", "Cliges", and "Lancelot". His "Perceval" (1160) was later expanded by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his "Parzival" (1210), which centuries later was the inspiration for Wagner’s opera "Parsifal" (1882).

(q) Layamon published "Brut" (1190), which was the English translation of either the French "Roman de Brut", by Wace; or the earlier French work "Brut" [now lost], by Geoffrey Gaimar.

(r) the "English Chronicle" (1225), by Ralph of Coggeshall, mentions the discovery of Arthur’s grave in 1190 and the two accounts of the exhumation of the body by Gerald of Wales in his "Liber de Principis Instructione" (1193).

(s) Jacob van Maerlant (1261) wrote a book, "Historie van den Grale", now in the library of The Hague, which mentions "the British king Utherius Pendraco" and his son "King Arthurus" that gives details of Arthur’s life which are unknown in surviving British literature.

(t) the "Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesiae" (1300), by John Seen, a monk at Glastonbury Abbey, gives much Arthurian materials.

(u) the "Polychronicon" (1350), nine volumes on world history by Ranulf Higden, a Benedictine monk, says that Arthur gave Wessex to Cerdic as his kingdom in Year 519; the year Arthur restored the old British aristocracy to their ancestral estates.

(v) the "Morte d’Arthur" (1485), by Thomas Malory, includes many early French and British traditions.

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The story of King Arthur, and the stories of his knights were popularized in medieval romance, which mingles fantasy with reality, and, was one of the favorite readings in Europe from the 12th to the 15th century, and again became popular reading in the 19th century as it continues to be to the present time.

The conception of Arthur took place at "Eastertide", Year 479, during a lull in the fighting between the native Britons, under his father, Euther[ius] "Pendragon", and the Saxon invaders, under Aella of Sussex, who conquered the country.

The conquest of Britain by the "Saxons" (so-called) took place under Aella (Elli) of Sussex, who, and his brother Alesa (Elsa) of Wessex, were the leaders of a horde of barbarians, which included the remnants of the Huns, whom the Britons collectively called "Saxons". Aella and Alesa, accompanied by Seaxa of Essex, the leader of the only true Saxon invaders, invaded Southern England about the sametime that Icel "The Angle", an Anglican prince and leader of a horde of Angles, invaded Northern England. They were joined by the Jutes under their leader Oisc (Aesc) of Kent; and, within three years the barbarians had overrun the country.

King Euther put up a desperate defense, and won a great victory in the Battle of St. Alban’s. The Saxons were soundly defeated in the battle, however, instead of rolling back the Saxons into their ships and out of the country, Euther's scandalous lust for Igraine (Ygerne), wife of the Cornish Duke Gorlois, caused a feud between Euther and Gorlois which broke-up the British leadership. The civil war among the Britons gave the Saxons the time to regroup their forces. Meantime, Euther captured Gorlois' fortified camp at Tinblot [or Dimilioc] and came upon Gorlois and slew him. It was evening, and he stripped the corpse of its armor and then upon Gorlois' horse and in disguise in Gorlois' armor Euther[ius] went to Gorlois' Castle, Celliwig Castle, and gained access to Ygerne (Igraine), and Arthur was conceived that night. Meantime, some of Gorlois' men find Gorlois' naked body and carried it back to Celliwig Castle, and Euther's deception was discovered. Euther was slain there that night in Celliwig Castle by Gorlois' men. Celliwig [Kelliwic] Castle has been identified with variously Castle Killibury or Callington, Celliwith, or Kelly Rounds, which is a hill-fort in the parish of Esloshayle.

Arthur was the posthumous son of King Eutherius [the Welsh Uthyr "Pendragon"] of Britain, born [illegitimately] out of wedlock of the duchess Igraine (Ygerne) [the Welsh "Eigyr"], widow of Duke Gorlois (Glois) of Cornwall, and, daughter of King Amlawd "Wledic" (Anblaud "The Great") of Britain, who gave birth to Arthur early Christmas morning (25 December) Year 479 in a monastery at Tintagel in Cornwall where his mother, Igraine, had taken refuge when the Saxons overran Cornwall and took Celliwig Castle [seat of the Cornish kings/dukes] and massacred its inhabitants, the royal court and the castle's garrison. The monastery at Tintagel was built on the site of an old pagan temple sacred to the Celtic sun-god Artaois (Artaius). The ruins of the monastery have been identified and still may been seen in Cornwall today.

Arthur's father, Eutherius, was the younger brother of the British "Riothamus" ["High-King"] Ambrosius, whom St. Gildas says was the son of a Roman emperor. Geoffrey of Monmouth identifies Arthur’s family, which was the British branch of the Roman imperial house, the Caesars, who had established themselves in Britain in 286 when Carausius, descendant of earlier Roman emperors, established himself in Britain as its king, ending the great interregnum, and founding a new dynasty descended from the Roman emperors. The Roman Emperor Commodus had earlier abolished the British Monarchy in 184, following a civil war in Britain among the heirs of native British royalty over the throne; sparked by the sudden and unexpected death of King Lucius in 180/181, who died leaving behind an only child, an infant daughter, Gwladys. The heirs of the Old British Royal House were still there in offices of government in Roman service during the Roman Era of Britain. After the fall of the Roman Empire there arose competition for the British throne from the heirs of the old Roman imperial house in Britain, of whom Arthur was the sole male heir. Then there was also the barbarian kings, who claimed to be the successors to both the Roman-British imperial house, which had displaced the Old British Iron Age Royal House. Arthur's father, Eutherius [the Welsh Uthyr], was called "yr vthyr pen draco", meaning "the awesome [or marvelous] chief prince", as his brother’s army-commander, during Ambrosius' reign.

Arthur’s mother, Ygerne (Igraine), was the daughter of Britain’s last king before the Anglo-Saxon Conquest of the country, namely, Amlawd "Wledic", who had been elected King of Britain in an assembly of the British nobles to succeed the late King Euther on the British throne. Amlawd "Wledic" descended from the pre-Roman British Iron Age Royal House, which had been overthrown by the Romans. Igraine (Ygerne), Arthur’s mother, died in childbirth and the monks at Tintagel cared for the infant themselves. Morgan "Le Fai", Arthur’s half-sister [same mother], age six, who had accompanied her mother, was also left in the monks' care. She assisted the monks in Arthur’s care, until such time she could be taken safely to a far-away nunnery where the nuns took Morgan "Le Fai" into their care.

The story that King Euther and Ygerne got married; or the argument that since Gorlois was dead at the time of Arthur’s conception, and other such like stories were invented to hide Arthur’s illegitimacy; just like the story that Ambrosius and Eutherius were the brothers of King Constans rather than his sons because he had taken the vows of a monk. Constans, as a prince, already had a son by his first late wife at the time he entered a monastery and took vows; but later was extricated from the monastery by Vitalinus, the commander of the tribal militias, the "dux gewissi", who set him on the British Throne. Constans, as king, remarried and had two more sons, Ambrosius and Eutherius. It would be chronologically impossible for Ambrosius and Eutherius to be their father’s younger brothers. Constans reigned as British Emperor. His father, King Constantine II of Britain, co-reigned as Constantine III with Honorius as Roman Emperor. He was the son of the Roman Emperor Maximus, the cousin of Theodosius "The Great", both, descendants of Constantine "The Great", who descended from the main-line of the Roman emperors from the daughter of the Roman Emperor Octavius, the grandson of Julius Caesar's sister.

Arthur's name may be a form of the name of the Celtic sun-god Artaois (Artaius) since Arthur was born with a birthmark and the sun-god was depicted in Celtic Mythology with a similar birthmark [representing sun-spots]. Arthur’s name is also a form of the Roman name Artorius. Arthur’s name could also have derived from the Celtic word "artr" meaning "bear", and is an element found in compounds of names of numerous Welsh kings, such as the Welsh kings Artmail (Artfael), Arthavad, and Artwys. One can only guess why the monks gave Arthur his name.

The morning of Arthur’s birth there burst a meteor or comet over Tintagel [like the Star of Bethlehem, or Caesar's Star, or King David’s Star, or Napoleon’s Star; however, this one is called "Arthur's Star"] which was reported to have illuminated the night-sky and shone down upon Tintagel and was seen not only in Britain but also in Ireland and France, which was interpreted as an omen.

Almost immediately after Arthur’s birth rumors began to spread among the Britons that an heir of their old royal house had survived and was being brought-up secretly by British patriots, which troubled the reign of Britain's Barbarian-King Aella, the usurper.

479-493 (17) AELLA "THE SAXON" or "THE TYRANT", conqueror, ruled Britain in those days. Aella had conquered the country and had usurped the British throne left vacant upon the death of Arthur’s father, the late king, Eutherius (Uthyr), called "Pen Draco" or "Pendragon".

Aella "The Tyrant" or "The Saxon" of Sussex, the first Anglo-Saxon "Bretwalda" ["King of Britain"], was Britain's first Barbarian-King. He was oppressive and reigned with an iron hand. Aella, however, uneasily wore the crown for rumors of the birth of an heir of the old royal house troubled him. These rumors gave hope to the oppressed Britons who had not forgotten the legends of "a coming king", who, according to legend, would arise amid the ruins of his nation when the sceptre was in the hand of an usurper and would vanquish the stranger and restore Britain to a new Golden Age. These legends were known to King Aella by native British bards in the royal court about the time his astrologers reported the wondrous star seen lately over Britain and connected it to these legends, saying that the star announced the birth of the foretold British hero-king.

It was rumored that the monks of Tintagel harbored a mysterious child, and, when Aella heard the rumors of the birth of an heir of the old royal house, which the Britons connected to the legends, he searched to slay the infant. The legend that Aella slew all the new-born infants in Cornwall was probably a tradition taken from the episode of "the massacre of the innocents" by King Herod in his efforts to kill the Christ-Child and was added later to the story. The monks of Tintagel, warned that King Aella sought to slay the child, fled with Arthur and took ships and crossed the English Channel to Armorica [Brittany] though briefly delayed on one of the channel islands [Jersey] due to a storm.

The whereabouts of Arthur was discovered by King Aella’s agents some months later and the child’s guardians smuggled Arthur back to Britain and gave him to British patriots, who were active in the British resistance against the Saxon conquerors.

The British underground was led during this period by one called "The Fox". Welsh annals record three un-named patriotic leaders: one in the 480s called "The Fox" [identity unknown]; one in the 490s called "The Wolf" [identity unknown]; and, one in the early 500s called "The Bear" [who was Arthur in his early years].

The news spreads among the Britons of the existence of King Euther’s posthumous son identified by a birthmark, the "purple pimpernel", which looked like a clover-leaf tattoo on his left backside. The rumors sparked insurrections to arise against King Aella to place the infant on the throne. Aella ruthlessly suppressed the British uprisings and ravaged British lands to punish the rebellious Britons.

The child Arthur in the care of British patriots narrowly escaped capture on one or more occasions and was eventually entrusted first to the British princess Cywed, the child’s aunt, his mother’s half-sister, and, oddly enough, the sister-in-law of the "Saxon" King Aella as the widow of his late brother, Alesa, his and her second marriage. The British princess, Cywed, had retired from public life on the death of her Saxon husband and had secretly kept contacts with the British underground. She was later recalled to court and there she represented Arthur as her late husband’s son, and thus deceived King Aella into rearing the very child whom he sought to slay. Arthur was reared incognito in Aella's Castle along with the other children at court most of whom were the children of British nobles held hostage by King Aella to insure the loyalty of their parents. The children at court nicknamed Arthur "wart" for his birthmark which later exposed his secret as the "lost prince". Aella's Court was filled with intrigue and plots were uncovered almost daily against the regime. There is a story that Aella, who had no sons only a single daughter, Adela, deceived into believing that Arthur was the posthumous son of his late brother, betrothed Arthur to his daughter with the intention of making him his heir. Their marriage however never took place, for the deception was soon to be known. Meanwhile, rumors that the "lost prince" lived continued to trouble King Aella's Court. And, just when the controversy was about to be dismissed as a myth the whole country was electrified to learn of his existence under Aella’s very nose. The deception was discovered when King Aella one day happen to casually inquire of the other children at court why they had nicknamed Arthur "wart". Arthur was put into the castle dungeon but three days later just before he was scheduled to be executed was rescued by British patriots through secret members of the British underground in Aella’s Castle. They, according to legend, handed Arthur over secretly to Merlin "The Magician", upon his departure from Aella’s Castle. He had been summoned to present himself to King Aella and entertain the royal court with magic tricks. Cywed was banished for her part in the deception or fled and lived abroad in exile the remainder of her life.

In myth Arthur appears as "the sorcerer’s apprentice" while at Merlin's Castle, which was located on Bardsey Island, situated off the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula in North-West Wales. Merlin, after educating the boy, gave Arthur to Sir Ector (Auctor), a retired knight, for him to foster, but did not tell him who Arthur was, only that he was an orphan. Sir Ector already had two foster-sons, Kaye (Caius) and Mark (Marcus), the orphaned sons of the late British-Roman general Marcus Aurelius, who had been on Ambrosius' staff. Sir Ector had reared Kaye and Mark from their early childhood and had come to think of them as his own sons. Arthur, however, was treated like a step-son by Sir Ector and had the duties of a "page" while at Ector’s Castle [called "Kaye's Fort", i.e., "Caer Gai"], which was located in the remote mountains of Snowdon in Penllyn, near Bala, in Wales. Arthur there worked in the kitchen as a scullion and also outside in the stockyard as a swineherd. It was said that Arthur as a boy was skilled in playing the flute. Near-by on Mount Arvaius [Eryri, Snowdon] there lived one of the few survivors of "the giant race", Retho, who terrified the region. It was said that he ate human flesh and had a cloak made from the beards of the men he slew. Arthur as an early teen slew the giant and became a local boy-wonder. Arthur sometime during his early teens encountered "the prophet", Saint Patrick [who had retired to the monastery at Glastonbury Abbey], and was baptized by the saint. Arthur appears in his early teens as the squire of Sir Kaye (Caius Aurelius). Some of Arthur’s exploits during his early years are touched with comedy: for example, the episode of the "Three Frivolous Bards", in which Rhahawd (Rhaawt; Rhyawd), Bedivere (Bedwyr), and Arthur (Artr) masquerade as troubadours; or, the episode of the "Three Red Ravagers", in which Arthur tags along with three knights, namely, Kaye, Bedivere, and Marchell (Marcellus), who made a pig-rustling raid on a local lord, King March of Cornwall, while Tristan [who was King March's swineherd] had gone to meet Isolde (Iseult); and, the episode in which Gwynllyw, King of Glamorgan, eloped with Gladys, daughter of King Brychan of Brecon, with Brychan in pursuit. Gwynllyw and Gladys, fleeing over a hill, come upon Sir Kaye, Bedivere, and Arthur playing dice. Arthur takes an un-welcomed interest and confronts Brychan reminding him that he was on Gwynllyw's land. It angered Sir Kaye, and he rebuked Arthur calling him a "cocky brat". Kaye appears in medieval romance as sarcastic, self-centered, and a stubborn bully, who was mean to Arthur during the boy’s early teens, however, on the positive side, he is described as a fearless warrior and later was said to have been "the finest horseback rider" among Arthur’s knights.

Meantime, rebellion was spreading among the Britons as Aella's rule came to be more and more oppressive, and the Britons sent appeals to the Empire for help. Their appeals were called "the groans of the Britons" in early Welsh annals. The Empire however was virtually non-existent at this time. There was no sitting emperor and the governors of the provinces were ruling their respective territories independently of each other and only nominally recognized the reign of the empress ARIADNE at Constantinople, who, without surviving issue, sent the imperial regalia back to Rome authorizing the pope to crown another emperor. The emperors after that all received their crown from The Church. The imperial dignity was now conveyed by the pope as "translator imperium".

493 (X) THEODORIC "THE ELDER" and (X) MARCELLUS, the commanders of the Visi-Gothic Biscay Bay Fleet, under the orders of the Ostro-Gothic king Theodoric "The Great", the Byzantine viceroy of Italy and the "western provinces", i.e., Western Europe, were sent to Britain with an imperial army of mixed ethnic origins in response to British appeals, and were welcomed by the native Britons as liberators. Theodoric and Marcellus defeated the Saxons and their allies, the Picts and the Irish; and slew the Saxon "Bretwalda", Aella, in the "1st" Battle of Mount Badon [or Badon Hill] Year 493 [which may have been located in Dorset], along with Isung (Icel), King of Angles, who had joined forces. Too, Theodoric and Marcellus slew the Pict king Drust II "Gurthimoch" in another battle; and in still another battle slew the Irish king Angus of Munster, who had invaded Britain. The Britons were exhorted by a speech given by St. Dubriticus (Dubric), the British Primate, before the "1st" Battle of Mount Badon. Theodoric and Marcellus decisively defeated the Anglo-Saxons and pushed them from the upper Thames Valley thus allowing the Britons a chance to breathe again. Theodoric "The Elder" and Marcellus appear briefly as military-governors of Britain in the service of the Ostro-Gothic king Theodoric "The Great", who was the Byzantine Viceroy of the empire's "western provinces", that is, Western Europe, representing the Roman/Byzantine Empress Ariadne. Theodoric "The Elder" was a Vandal prince in Roman service and was a cousin on his mother's side of the Ostro-Gothic king Theodoric "The Great". Marcellus may be identified with the Roman general Marcellinus who had earlier fallen-out with Ricimer, the army-commander of the western European armies, and withdrew to Dalmatia. There he appealed to the eastern emperor, Zeno, who appointed him the Governor of Illyria [Yugoslavia]. He later appeared in Italy, Gaul, and Spain. He is identified with Marchell, also called Marchil Chillon, who campaigned in Brittany and besieged Nantes (497). Theodoric and Marcellus revived the old constitution of Roman Britain after the collapse of the Saxon regime in Britain following the [1st] Battle of Badon Hill. Theodoric and Marcellus left the office of "Count of Britain" vacant; but, appointed the Cornish king, Natlod "Wledic", as "Count of the Saxon Shore"; the Brigantae prince, Uchdryd "Wledic", as "Dux Britanniarum"; and, the Cymric prince, Kasanault "Wledic", as "Duke of Wales". Britain, after the departure of Theodoric and Marcellus, sank into anarchy, and the British Primate, St. Dubriticus, assumed a leadership role over the local British rulers in an effort to prevent the disunion of the nation in the absence of a king. He was able to do this because he was popular with the British people; and, he established a provisional-government to co-ordinate a national defense.

494 (X) ST. DUBRITICUS (DUBRICUS) (DUBRIC; DYFRIG), called "ecclesiae episcopus", first appears as Bishop of Llandaf. He later succeeded Tremmorius as Arch-Bishop of Caerleon. And, lastly, he appears as Primate of Britain and Legate of the Apostolic See. It is said of him that he was so eminent for his piety that he could cure sick people by his prayers. He wore a long gray colored robe, for which he was called "His Grey Eminence". St. Dubriticus, in office as acting regent or governor, went about restoring Christianity in Britain. The pagan altars set up by the heathen Saxon king Aella were all destroyed and everyone helped in repairing the churches. Too, attempts were made by St. Dubriticus at the conversion of the pagan Saxon settlers in Britain, but with little results. The Saxons steadfastly held to their pagan religion and heathen practices, and resisted efforts to integrate them into British society.

Once there was no king civil war was inevitable and feuds among the local lords soon broke-out for each regional ruler thought how to best secure and maintain his own position so that separate interests arose without regard for the general welfare and the nation broke-up with the shires gaining their independence. The plight of the people was desperate as the local lords strove among themselves for supremacy, and in the distress and anxiety of the times the people began clamoring for a king. St. Dubriticus therefore in an attempt to reunite the shires and revive the nation called for a truce among the warring island-lords and summoned the people to assemble concerning "the making of a king". There were a number of pretenders who came forward presenting their claims; yet, after hearings on the suits of the claimants St. Dubriticus could not decide on a candidate and submitted the matter to the pope in Rome. It was at this time that the pope, St. Gelasius, wrote his "Epistle to the Britons", and in it suggested to let God decide. He sent along with the epistle a crown. The crown was probably the old British crown inherited by Constantine "The Great" from his mother, Saint Helena, daughter and co-heiress of the British King Cole [II], which had been added to the imperial regalia when Constantine, the King of Britain, who, associated in the reign of his mother, Queen Helena of Britain, succeeded his father, Constantius "Chlorus", the Roman Emperor, on the imperial throne.

Meantime, according to legend, Bishop Bryce, while praying for a sign from Heaven, had a vision of King Vortigern's war-memorial as an angelic voice spoke to him, saying: "who so pulleth out Caesar’s Sword from Vulcan’s Anvil shall he King of Britons be; for God shall withhold it from everyone save from him whom He shall choose".

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note: "EXCALIBUR"

Caesar’s Sword, called "crocea mors", meaning "yellow death", because its blade gleamed brightly in the sun and it was fatal to all it pierced, according to myth, had been the sword of the god Mars, forged by Vulcan [the smith of the gods] and bestowed to the Trojan prince Aeneas by the goddess Venus, his mother. Aeneas saw the sword fall from Heaven as he stood on the future site of Rome and heard the words: "with this, conquer". The sword was among the relics of the old Roman kingdom but was lost during the period of the Roman Republic and rediscovered by Julius Caesar as a young man who believed that through it the gods had appointed him "King of The World". The sword is identified with the sword called "Marmyadoyse", forged by Vulcan, and owned at different times by Hercules, Alexander The Great, and Julius Caesar. It is sometimes wrongly identified with King David’s Sword called "L'Espee as/aus/az Estra[i]ngnes Renges", which sword apparently was in the possession of the "Lady of The Lake", the abbess of a religious order of nuns, from whom Arthur was to later acquire it. There is reference made to the sword called "Caledfwlch" in Welsh tradition, which is identified with the sword called "Caladbolg", "Caladcholg", "Caladcolc" in Irish tradition, which was owned by several Irish, Scottish, and Welsh kings, which probably maybe identified with King David’s Sword? Caesar lost his sword in Britain in hand-to-hand combat with the British king Nennius, who was mortally wounded in the fighting and the sword was buried with him. The sword remained in his grave throughout the Roman Era in Britain. In post-Roman times the sword was removed from his grave by the British King Vortigern, who, to display the trophy, had the sword hammered into a crack in "an anvil of iron a foot high" which was set atop "a great stone four-square" and displayed to the public in the town-square of London as a war-memorial to commemorate the initial victory of the Britons over the Romans in the battle in which the sword was captured about 500 years earlier; but sometime before London fell to the Saxons the war-memorial was moved to a churchyard at Silchester where the episode of "The Sword in The Stone" took place. The sword was a tempting treasure to possess and inevitably people came along trying to withdraw it but none could, and someone engraved on it just below its hilt the words [in rude Latin]: "...ex cal[ce]liber[ace]…", meaning "[much treasure] to free from stone [of iron]", hence, the sword came to be called "Excalibur". GM, in his "HRB", calls the sword "Caliburnus". In French Romance it is called "Calibor[e]", "Escalibor[e]", etc. Malory, in his "Morte d’ Arthur", written from a variety of existing sources, calls the sword "Excalibur", which is the common English form of its name, and gives the details of how Arthur acquired it. Malory tells us that the sword was imbedded in an anvil and not in a stone, but that the anvil set on top of the stone. He drew this information from "The Vulgate Cycle", which is a collection of Arthurian stories put together by an anonymous writer between 1215 and 1235. "The Vulgate Cycle" includes an early account recorded by Robert de Boron, a Burgundian poet, who wrote, circa 1190s, of how Arthur was chosen king in the tale of "The Sword in the Stone".

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It was published throughout the isles that "who so ever pulls out the sword of the anvil and stone is right wise king of Britain born". There were however some who opposed the thing as superstitious and argued that rulers should be chosen by the people in a free election rather than imposed upon them by God by means of some miracle. [Here is contrast the doctrine of "divine right" versus the godless theory of "democracy".]

Nevertheless, people came from all over the islands on the appointed day and some even came from the European continent. Everyone tried all day long to free the sword, but the sword held fast and none could even stir it, and it seemed that the miracle had not worked and after three days everyone returned to their homes in unbelief and the marvelous sword was forgotten. Britain was still without a king and civil wars again broke-out as it was now an open contest for the throne.

Civil wars raged in Britain over the following years among the rivaling island-lords, no one of whom was pre-eminent, each hoping to seize the British Crown for himself. St. Dubriticus eventually arranged another truce and this time the island-lords all agreed to settle the disputed succession in a tournament and that the crown be the prize to the winner.

On New Year’s Day Year 495 a great tournament was held in Britain in which its contestants all competed for the nation’s crown. Arthur, the 15-year-old squire of Sir Kaye [a knight], was assisting Kaye into his armor during the tournament as Kaye's turn was approaching for him to enter the games when it was discovered that Kaye's sword was missing. Kaye sent Arthur to fetch it but unable to acquire it spots the sword in the anvil atop the stone four-square and unaware of its significance withdraws it and returns with it to Kaye. Kaye scolds Arthur saying that it was not his sword when Sir Ector who was standing there took the sword in hand and read the inscription to his amazement and enquired of Arthur where he had gotten the sword as a crowd began to gather around him. The news that someone had pulled out the "sword in the stone" swept quickly through the great crowd of people at the tournament. Everyone was soon enquiring about this teenage squire. Sir Ector did not believe his story and Arthur was taken back to the site and the sword was put back into the anvil and Arthur was challenged to pull it out. Kaye protested saying that anyone could pull the sword out now that it had already been done, and pushed Arthur aside and attempts himself to pull it out but the sword held fast. A riot broke-out as Kaye was pushed aside by others shoving and grabbing at the sword but none could withdraw it. Some voices were heard in the crowd demanding to let the boy try his hand at it, and to everyone’s astonishment Arthur withdrew it. Some said that it was a miracle and that the boy must be the one whom God had chosen to be king, but there were doubters who demanded that the test be repeated to make sure. The test was repeated with everyone putting their hands to the sword but again only Arthur could withdraw it, and that with ease. "Is not this boy our king?", said some; while others said "how can this boy save us?" The nobles enquired of Sir Ector as to who the lad was but Sir Ector could not tell them only that he was an orphan. The nobles were reluctant to have a boy of unknown parentage on the throne, saying "there were others more noble than he", for it was not then known that Arthur was the "lost prince" who had been the talk of the country a decade earlier. St. Dubriticus, the British Primate, took an immediate liking to Arthur and exclaimed to the people "see ye him whom God hath chosen that there is none like him", and the people shouted "God save the king!" St. Dubriticus, the papal legate, then, despite the objections of the nobles, anoints Arthur with holy oil and sets the crown upon his head and proclaims him king to the cries of the people shouting "long live the king!" St. Dubriticus prophesized that Arthur would be the founder of a great royal-line whose future was to rule the world which at a later time the "sun would never set on the British empire". Thus, a 15-year-old squire was elevated to the British Throne due to a miracle.

He was not at first recognized as king except by the Church and by those people who believed that the episode of "The Sword in The Stone" was a miracle wrought by God, for the nobles were doubters and refused to acknowledge Arthur as king, and, elected Natlod "Wledic" [Natanleod] king as the people’s choice rather than accepting a 15-year old squire as king whom St. Dubriticus claimed was God’s choice. Arthur, therefore, had to fight to establish his kingship. Arthur was deserted except for about thousand believers who became his constant companions and in consequence of his rejection became a freebooter at the head of a marauding party and was called "The[…]Soldier" [adjective missing, perhaps "Tin"] and also was called "The Bear" due to a pun on his name, for the British [Welsh] word "artr" meaning "bear" is spelt the same way as the British [Welsh] name Artr which was a form of the Roman name Artorius, anglicized as Arthur. Arthur forgives Kaye’s attempt to steal the glory, and Kaye joins Arthur’s party as one of his knights. Kaye was not well-liked; and many of Arthur’s knights hated Kaye for his habit of scorning them in mirth. Arthur and his followers wander about Britain redressing wrongs during his early years, on one adventure after another, while fighting dissident Britons opposed to his kingship. Arthur on one adventure met the Devil in the guise of the "Questing Beast" at Blackingstone Rock at Hel Tor in Devonshire, and was inveigled to sin, for which Arthur was rebuked by St. Dubriticus. It was probably around this time also that Arthur had a confrontation with St. Cadoc, the Abbot of Llancarfan. The saint gave sanctuary to a man accused of killing three of Arthur’s soldiers. Seven months later when Arthur discovered that this man was being protected by St. Cadoc, he goes to the abbey and demands that the saint turn the man over to him for justice. St. Cadoc refuses but agrees to a compromise in which the saint gives Arthur a hundred cattle, and Arthur recognizes the right of the Church to grant sanctuary to outlaws. Next, Arthur enlists the help of St. Carannog in riding the town of Carrum in Somerset of a mad-man reeking havoc, and in return gave the saint some land in the town on which he built a church. For his part, Arthur donates to the church an altar, which he stole from another church in a hostile parish. Legend says in between the time Arthur stole the altar from one church and donated it to another that he tried to use it as a table, however, every time he set something on it that object was supernaturally thrown off.

Too, Arthur was quick to intervene in feuds between regional-rulers. In the war between Gwythyr ap Greidiol and Cyledr Wyllt ap Nwython, Gwythyr gained victory and captured Cyledr Wyllt, but Arthur forced peace between them, and made Gwythyr release Cyledr Wyllt and all his other prisoners. In the "Life of St. Gildas" the figure of Arthur is described as a "tyrannus" and a "rex rebullus" who claims to rule the whole island but is opposed by other Britons. Arthur first wars against a league of six regional kings and after defeating them, then, wars with a league of eleven regional kings. Nentre (Neutre), called King of Garlot [Galore] [the identity of Garlot is unsure], is one of the rebel kings who refused to accept Arthur as high-king, but relents and joins Arthur as one of his vassals, and marries one of Arthur's step-sisters. Then, a league of five regional kings rose up against Arthur and enlisted foreign support, but were defeated by Arthur. Huail (Hueil), called Cuillus in the "Life of St. Gildas", the son of Caw, Duke of Valentia, was the leader of a guerilla-band of outlaws. He led raids on towns under Arthur’s protection, and Arthur hearing about it pursued Huail and chased him to the Isle of Man where he slew him. Huail had several brothers, called the "sons of Caw", who later rose up in a major rebellion against Arthur. Huail’s youngest brother, St. Gildas, growing up, was resentful of Arthur over slaying his brother.

The requisitions Arthur made from the monasteries of Britain to which he was driven to feed his followers during his early struggling years depleted monastic lands and estranged their proprietors and caused Arthur to loose the support of the Church. Though he had come to be popular with the public at large, there are legends in which both the clergy and the nobles can and do stand up to him.

495-501 18. NATLOD "WLEDIC" (NATHANUS "LAUDATUS") [called "NATANLEOD" in the "ASC"], the son of the earlier British king Amlawd "Wledic" (Anblaud "The Great"), who had been elected king by the British nobles opposed to Arthur, meantime, was occupied in suppressing a rebellion in Britain of its barbarian settlers, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, which may have been led by the British prince Cerdic, another rival to the British throne. Natlod "Wledic", King of Britain, granted Cerdic by charter the county of Hampshire as his estate in 495, and Cerdic took the title "ealdorman". Cerdic held office as "Count of the Saxon Shore" under King Natlod "Wledic", and, he also held the title "dux gewissorum", which meaning is debatable. For some reason Cerdic was expelled by King Natlod "Wledic"; and he went abroad and hired foreign mercenaries, Saxons, and returned with them [under their own leaders, Colgrin and Baldulf] and fought Natlod "Wledic" to recover his estate. After six years of fighting, Cerdic defeated and slew Natlod "Wledic" in the Battle of Netley Marsh, Year 501, and took back possession of his estate.

501-504 19. CERDIC [III] succeeded Natlod "Wledic" as King of Britain, and contended with the claimant, Arthur, his predecessor’s former rival, over the British Throne. This was the first of the three reigns of Cerdic of Wessex, or this is the first of three different people of the same name to successively hold that title, which is feasible because there were several contemporary British princes who bore that name. The name "Cerdic" is an anglicized form of the Latin "Caratacus", the British hero-king and resistance-leader at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, whose name enjoyed a sudden popularity in post-Roman Britain as the Britons re-discovered their native heritage. Cerdic [III], the "dux Gewissae", succeeds Natlod "Wledic" as King of Britain, Year 501. He established his capital city or castle in Hampshire at Winchester; reigned three years; during which Cerdic waged war against his nemesis Arthur. Arthur eventually overcame Cerdic in the Battle of Bath (504). And, after three years of campaigns against the barbarian settlers in Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, as well as against the Scots, Picts, and Irish, Arthur was finally recognized as the nation’s king (507).

The situation in Britain, under attack by Scots, Irish, and Picts, combined with the rebellion of the Anglo-Saxons, induced some of the British local lords to seek the assistance of Arthur and his 1000 knights. And, Arthur was twelve times elected by the league of the British local lords as "dux bellorum" ["War-Lord"] ["generalissimo"] over the next twelve years (495-507) and fought twelve battles, and was as many times victorious. Perhaps the office of "comes Britanniae" ["Count of Britain"] was revived here under another name, that is, "dux bellorum"?

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Legend says that Merlin worked magic for Arthur to help him win his battles in his early years. MERLIN "THE MAGICIAN" or "THE WIZARD" or "THE SORCERER" (born c.420; died c.520) has been confused in legend with three other figures, whom modern scholarship refer to as: (a) Myrddin "Embrys" [Merlin-I], the son of the daughter of a local British lord who had become a nun, called variously Mariana, Optima, and/or Ganieda, who was raped by an unknown man. Myth says that his father was an incubus, that is, a demon spirit, and, fortunately, was baptized at birth, which was said to have negated the evil in his nature while leaving his powers intact. Already a mystic in his youth, Merlin first prophesized to King Vortigern. He was later the court magician of the British kings: Ambrosius, his brother Eutherius, and, the Saxon King Aella, as well as Artorius (Arthur), during his early years. His professional career covered about sixty years, circa 450-510. The story of Merlin’s early years came to be mixed-up with the story of the early years of the British king Ambrosius, the Welsh Embrys "Wledic", due to the combination of a tale about an orphan boy [which both were] and a tradition about the site of the hill-fort called "Dinas Emrys", which was onetime the residence of Ambrosius (Embrys "Wledic"), from whom the fort derives its name. And, (b) Myrddin "Wyllt", the son of a princess [daughter of King Meurig ap Maredydd of Demetia/Dyfed], who had become a nun, via her liaison with Mordryn Frych, a prince of Gododdin, formerly her fiancee. Myrddin "Wyllt" [Merlin-II], a Welsh bard, was possibly named after the original Merlin. He is called in the "Triads" to have been one of the "Three Skilful Bards" at King Arthur's Court, who appears in the last decade of Arthur’s reign, circa 525, who wrote for Arthur and his successors over the next sixty years, circa 525-585. And, (c) Myrddin "Caledonius" [Merlin-III], who appears at the court of Rhydderech Hael of Strathclyde, circa 585-610, who was a Scottish bard, who fled into the Caledonian Woods, hunted by Rhydderch Hael and his men, who went insane as a result of his misfortunes and passed his remaining years as an outlaw and a madman in the Caledonian Woods where he lived in a savage state for many years, c. 600-625.

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In his first campaign, Arthur fought the Irish invaders of Wales as the ally of the local Welsh lords, who all fought under Arthur as his generals, who was over them as "War-Lord" ["dux bellorum"]. Nennius says that Arthur fought "cum regibus Brittonum sed ipse dux erat bellorum" ["along side British kings but he was himself the leader of battles"]. The battles mentioned by Nennius are not in the order in which they chronologically took place. Arthur campaigns against the Irish in Wales for over three years and beats back the Irish king Illann of Leinster and checks his advance. Arthur decisively defeated Illann and his allies in the Battle of Caerleon, Year 499, after which Arthur drove the Irish out of Wales and commandeered the Navy of Demetia [Dyfed] and cleared the seas of Irish ships. Arthur, afterwards, held his first court at Caerleon that year and made treaties with the various local Welsh lords, among whom were: (a) Cadwel "Lauhir", [1st] King of Gwynedd [Venedotia] [who during Arthur's Welsh War defeated and slew Serigi Wyddel, the Irish king of Gwynedd, and expelled the Irish from Gwynedd, where he established himself as its king] (499); (b) Aergul "Lawhir", King of Demetia [Dyfed] [who drove the Irish "Ui Liathan" out of Demetia [Dyfed] and became King of Demetia]; (c) Ceidyaw (Caw), Duke of Powys [formerly Duke of Valentia]; (d) Poulentius, King of Gower; (e) Gwynllyw [son of Glywys "Cernyw", King of Glywysing], [1st] King of Gwynllwg (499); (f) Gwrawd "Gwent", [1st] King of Gwent; and others, including (g) Meirion, [1st] King of Meirioneth [to which he gave his name; representing a branch of Cunedda’s Guledig’s descendants; who came from Lothian to Wales and drove the Irish out of Meirioneth, where he established himself as its king] (499).

It was while Arthur was campaigning in Wales that he met and married Guinevere (Gwenhwyfar), daughter of Gwrawd "Gwent", the King of Gwent [a major Welsh regional kingdom]. She was the first of Arthur’s three wives who have all been confused in medieval romance and are all called Guinevere. In the "Triads" (# 56), the three wives of Arthur are said to have been: (1) Guinevere, daughter of Gwrawd "Gwent" (Cywryd "Ceint") (Kywryt "Keint"), King of Gwent, who we know from the Welsh genealogies; (2) Winlogoto, also called Guinevere [Guinevere-II], daughter of Ogyrvan "Gawr" [Gogfran "The Giant"], identified with the Ostro-Gothic King Theodoric "The Great" of Italy [formerly the Roman/Byzantine viceroy of the western Roman empire]; and (3) Ganhumara [also called Guinevere, or Guinevere-III], daughter of Gwythyr ap Greidiol, identified with Gwerthefyr, King of Gwerthrynion [a local Welsh state]. There are variant versions of the parentage of Arthur’s three wives in the sources. In the "Vulgate Cycle" (1215-35) one of his wives is called the daughter of Leodegan, King of Carmelide, but this is doubtless in reference to one of Arthur’s mistresses. In the "Scalachronica" (1350), by Thomas Gray, one of Arthur’s wives is called the daughter of the King of Biscay, but here again is another reference to one of Arthur's mistresses.

After pacifying Wales, Arthur campaigned in Cornwall [South-West England]; Brittany [North-West France]; and Southern England. The campaign began with the rebellion of Cerdic of Hampshire in 501 who was joined by his relatives Maglaurus of Armorica, Henwen[ius] of Cornwall, and Aganippus, a Judeo-Gallic prince, who were married to three sisters who were Cerdic's aunts. Aganippus, however, seeing that the tide of fortune had turned in Arthur's favor, joined up with Arthur. Bieda and Maegla [called "sons of Port" in the "ASC"], may be identified with Budic[ius] [I] and Maglo (Maglaurus), co-rulers of Brittany, sons of Arch (Erek), the late King of Armorica [Brittany]. They come to Britain as Cerdic's allies in two ships of Bretons, and landed at Portsmouth, where the ["1st"] Battle of Llongborth was fought, and slew Yardur, the British commander, one of Arthur's generals. In the ["1st"] Battle of Llongborth [at Portsmouth] Arthur defeated and slew Henwen[ius] and Maglaurus. Maglaurus is identified with Maglo in the "ASC", and his brother Budic[ius] is identified with Bieda in the "ASC", whom Arthur pursued across the English Channel and slew in the siege of Nantes.

There were three battles of Llongborth; the "1st" at Portsmouth, in 501, in which Geraint "Llyngesoc", King of Devonshire, was killed in the civil war between Arthur and Cerdic; the "2nd" at Llamborth in Penbryn, Ceredigion, in 540, in which Loholt, one of Arthur’s illegitimate sons, was killed fighting invading Vandals, whom GM called "Africans"; and, the "3rd" at Langport in Somerset in 712, the Britons under Geraint "Feddw" fighting the Anglo-Saxons.

Arthur held court in Brittany at Nantes that year, 501, and settled the affairs of that country and made a treaty with its new king Hoel I "The Great" who became one of Arthur’s vassals. He also married one of Arthur's half-sisters.

Arthur campaigned in Cornwall upon returning to Britain, and slew the Cornish prince Ricco, who was another possible pretender to the British throne. Arthur held court in Cornwall at Celliwig Castle after that and made a treaty with the new Cornish duke Cundag as well as with Cadwy of Devon and Cynwyr of Somerset who all joined him in his campaign against Cerdic of Hampshire. Here, Arthur, who had been born in Cornwall, was called the "Boar of Cornwall" referring to Merlin’s prophecy.

Arthur, after a three year campaign, finally decisively defeated Cerdic in the Battle of Bath (504), in which Colgrin, the barbarian chieftain, was slain, after which Cerdic either fled again to the European continent into exile, or was killed in the battle. GM says he was killed in the battle. Baldulf, the brother of Colgrin, was killed earlier upon his discovery when he entered Arthur’s camp disguised as a harper to learn Arthur's plans. That year Arthur held court in Cerdic's Castle at Winchester. Arthur, having expelled the rival British king Cerdic, was now free to deal with the barbarians then ravaging the countryside, and set out on a systematic campaign to subdue them.

First, the Saxon settlements in Southern England were subdued by Arthur; then, the Jute settlement in Kent. Riculf, the dispossessed British heir of Sussex, was made King of Sussex under Arthur’s overlordship. Seaxa, the Saxon King of Essex, submitted to Arthur and became one of his vassals, but later rebelled and was slain in battle fighting Arthur. His son Sichelm appears as one of Arthur's knights, and later as his father's successor in Essex as a sub-king under Arthur's overlordship. And, Oesc (Aesc), the Jute king in Kent, submitted to Arthur and became one of his vassals.

After pacifying the Saxons in Southern England Arthur proceeded against the Angles in Northern England and defeated them under their king Osla "Big-Knife", who withdrew into York to stand siege. Arthur besieged York but with winter approaching he abandoned the siege and withdrew to London where he spent the winter of 504/505. Arthur held court in London from where he sent out messengers to all of the remaining British island-lords who were not already with him to come and join him, and Arthur was joined in London by nearly all of the British local lords and their militias, and some "free lancers" came from Ireland and France. That spring Arthur renewed his campaign against the Angles and defeated them in the Battle of Lincoln, after which Osla "Big-Knife" submitted to Arthur and became one of his vassals. For a while, Osla "Big-Knife" was one of Arthur’s favorite vassals, however, they later again became enemies. Arthur held court at York after that where he spent the winter of 505/506. There, at York, were three dispossessed royal brothers, formerly kings, Leudonus (Loth), Urien[s], and Auguselus, whom Arthur restored to their regional-kingdoms. Loth (Leudonus) had been one of the rebel kings hostile to Arthur in his early years, but now became a loyal supporter. Too, the See of York had been without an incumbent since St. Samson fled the city just before its capture by the Angles ten years earlier, and Arthur appointed his own chaplain Piramus to fill the position as York’s new Arch-Bishop.

After pacifying Northern England Arthur marched onto Scotland against the Picts, Irish, and Scots, who were warring with the Britons of Strathclyde, and were besieging Dumbarton. Arthur raised the siege of the city and relieved its king Dynfwal "Hen", and pursued the invaders into their own homelands. Arthur campaigned in Scotland (506) and defeated the Scots under their king Domgart in the Battle of Loch Lomond, and defeated the Picts under their king Galam "Erilich" in the Battle of Caledon Woods [somewhere in the Scottish wilds], and defeated their Irish allies, under the Irish prince Gilmore (Gille-more; Gillamwri) in the Battle of Moray, after which the Irish fled back to their ships and back to their own country. Domgart, the Scot king, retired into a monastery and the Scottish prince Comghall was set on the Scottish throne by Arthur. Galam I "Erilich", the Pict king, was killed in the Battle of Caledon Woods, and Arthur set the Pictish prince Neiton II "The Saint" on the Pictish throne. The druids welcomed Arthur as he marched at the head of his army into Scone after the Battle of Caledon Woods as the "awaited one" of druidic lore. Arthur wintered in Scotland that year consolidating his rule over the country, and held court at Scone where he received the homage of all the tribal chiefs of the northern tribes.

After pacifying Scotland Arthur commandeered the Navy of Strathclyde and defeated the Irish in a naval battle in the Irish Sea. Then Arthur landed in Ireland with the British Army and campaigned for three months and defeated the Irish under their High-King Lugaidh in the Battle of Douglas (507), which was located in County Leix. The Irish High-King Lugaidh fled the battlefield pursued by Arthur's soldiers who caught up with him at Achadh Farcha where they slew him. His son, Prince Gilmore [who had escaped Arthur in Moray], was captured after the battle, and was kept in Britain locked-up in prison by Arthur for nearly 30 years. The Irish chiefs, thunderstruck by Arthur’s "lightning-war", all surrendered and gave homage to Arthur acknowledging his overlordship, and Arthur took the title "King of Ireland" in addition to his other titles.

There was an interregnum in the native Irish monarchy for five years following the Battle of Leix [or Douglas]; from 507 until 512 during which Ireland was under the rule of a "governor" [or "viceroy"] appointed by King Arthur as his personal representative, supported by a squad of Arthur's soldiers.

Irish folklore collected from Irish oral-tradition is not favorable towards "Arthur of Britain", who appears in Irish sources as a rapacious invader with little similarities to the Arthur of medieval romance. The official propaganda however put out by his spin-doctors was that Arthur was the messianic Irish culture-hero "To-ad-ni-sed" [="the awaited one"] of Irish Folklore, whom the Irish druids welcomed with open arms. Arthur was installed "King of Ireland" at Tara while sitting on the "La Fail Stone" by druid-priests. He celebrated the ritual of "Feis Temrach" ["Feast of Tara"], that is, "sleeping" with a personification of "sovereignty" in accordance to Irish tradition. Arthur held court in Ireland at Tara and settled the affairs of the country. It was Arthur who founded the chivalric Irish knighthood "Order of the Shamrock". He also reintroduced the "boraimhe" ["tax"].

After pacifying Ireland Arthur set sail and subdued the Isle of Man and the "Sudreys" [Hebrides] and received the homage of their leaders, including the King of Skye; and steered the fleet around Scotland and established his authority in the "Nordreys" [the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands, and the Faroe Islands]; and even went as far as Iceland [Annwfyn], which over the years, was made into a penal colony to which British criminals were sent. Arthur headed for home with autumn approaching, and his return to Caerleon late that summer was wildly celebrated by the Britons.

The Britons rallied to Arthur from all sides on his return home in triumph from his conquests. The Britons were now so enthusiastic in favor of Arthur as king that almost the entire population of Britain gathered to renew the British kingdom amid wildly celebrated festivities at Caerleon where Arthur held court. Ulfyus, one of his father’s knights, became Arthur’s chamberlain. Kaye, his foster-brother, became Arthur’s Seneschal. Baudwin, one of his father’s diplomats, became Arthur’s Constable; even his father’s court-magician, Merlin, became his court-magician. And, Arthur’s uncle, St. David, became the British Primate.

507-537 20/01. ARTHUR revived the British kingdom Year 507 and reigned over the whole of the British Isles. Though he had been anointed and crowned by St. Dubriticus, the British Primate, in 495, and was recognized by most of the British nobles after expelling Cerdic in 504 yet it was not until 507 that Arthur actually took possession of the kingdom having finally established his kingship after twelve years of fighting. All the local kings in the British Isles came to Caerleon in 507 and swore their allegiance to Arthur acknowledging him as "rex omnium Britons", that is, "King of All Britons", in a ceremony officiated by St. Dubriticus. The saint said mass, resigned his office voluntarily thinking that his work was done, gave a farewell address, and withdrew from public life to lead a hermit’s life. He died several years later; and came out of retirement only once to rebuke Arthur for the sin, that is, the adultery with Morgan "Le Fai" his half-sister. It was at this time that the person called "His Grey Eminence" of Arthur’s early years disappears from the scene.

Merlin also disappears from the scene about this time. Arthur replaced St. Dubriticus as Arch-Bishop of Caerleon with St. David, his uncle [mother’s half-brother, or step-brother], who had been a student of St. Illtud (Iltutus) of Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan. St. David held a synod of British bishops at Caerleon in 507 to settle some religious questions with Arthur in attendance presiding over the proceedings.

Foreign embassies and many distinguished visitors were received by Arthur at his court. An envoy from Constantinople representing the eastern emperor [Anastasius] called Arthur "a new Alexander" and granted Arthur the insignia of the consulate; and, one from Rome representing the pope [Symmachus] called Arthur "defender of the faith" for having forced the pagan Anglo-Saxon barbarians in Britain to undergo baptism. The Danish king Rolf "Krake" paid a visit to Arthur at Caerleon on his way back to Denmark from visiting Theodoric "The Great", the Ostro-Gothic King of Italy [formerly Byzantine viceroy], at Ravenna, Year 507.

Letters were sent abroad by Arthur who invited distinguished men and "free lances" [unconnected knights] from far and wide to come to Britain and join his service. Theodoric and Marcellus, the commanders of the Visi-Gothic Biscay Bay Fleet, who lost their harbors in France with the conquest of the Visi-Gothic Kingdom of Toulouse by the Franks under Clovis (507), came to Britain and joined Arthur’s service. Lancelot also appears around this time. He, not knowing what Arthur looked like, wrestles with Arthur, and, upon his discovery fearing what he had done, drops to his knees, and Arthur invited him to join up with his knights. Lancelot (French: Lancelin) is to be identified with the French duke Wlanc[a] of the "ASC", called son of Liban[us] [var.: Ban[um]], King of Samur [Maine-et-Loire], and not to be confused with the British nobles Loth[an] (Leudonus), /or Llenlleawc (Lenlag), [or Llywch "Wydell" /or Llwch "Lleawc"], all contemporary rulers, which some writers have done. There were others, including: (a) Prince Valiant of Denmark; (b) Cliges, which is obviously the person’s nick-name, whose real name may have been Justin, a Byzantine prince; (c) Esclabor, a Saracen, called "Le Mesconeuz", came from the Middle East along with (d) his brother, Arphasar, and became knights in King Arthur’s service; (e) the Jewish prince Julian of Canaan; (f) Acanor [son of Orians], called "Le Lait Hardi", was a "black man", from Nubia, or Ethiopia, or Kenya; (g) Aliduke, an Indian prince; (h) Palamides, a Persian prince; and (i) Xiaoyan, a Chinese prince. Cosmac Inddig, one of Arthur’s knights, may be identified with Cosmas Indicopleustes, who, a Byzantine explorer, onetime journeyed up the Nile River in Africa, and traveled to India and Ceylon about AD 525, possibly in Arthur’s service.

The personal features and traits of Arthur are given in various stories about him found in legend, such as the tale of "Culhwch and Olwen" in which we are told that none was as handsome as Bedivere (Bedwyr) or Drych "ail Cibddar" except Arthur, meaning that Arthur was a handsome man; and other stories tell us that Arthur was clean shaven and had his hair cropped short after the manner of the Romans, unlike the barbarians who wore beards and had long hair. It was said that he had an instant effect on people, that is, he was very charismatic. He was kind, yet firm. In disposition he was sociable, in rebuke he was formidable, and in exhortation he was persuasive. He was contemplative, introspective, and philosophic on one side, while another side of him was energetic, aggressive, and ruthless. Too, it was said that he had flaming red hair, green eyes, and fair skin.

Soon, Arthur got the reputation of a righter of wrongs, and to his subjects he personified justice, law, and order. Note, however, that in the biographies of the saints the hostile tone towards Arthur is so strikingly at variance with the reputation Arthur has in legend that Arthur must have appeared to some of his contemporaries to have been a fearsome tyrant.

It was while Arthur was holding court at Caerleon that Morgan "Le Fai" paid him a visit. She was his half-sister [same mother] and wife of Urien[s] of Gorre [by whom she was the mother of Ywaine]. Neither knew at the time that they were half-brother and half-sister; and Arthur slept with her, and Mordred was conceived in this adulterous act which was to have terrible consequences. It was this unwitting act of incestuous adultery which was to bring about Arthur’s ruin at the hands of the illegitimate son it produced. St. Dubriticus appeared briefly in public one last time to rebuke Arthur, saying: "ye have done a thing of late which God is displeased with, for ye have laid by your sister and by her ye have gotten a child who shall destroy you". Arthur learned of his parentage at this time from Morgan "Le Fai" who recognized his birthmark, for she as a little girl had briefly helped to care for Arthur when he was an infant, before they were split-up and given to different guardians. From this time onwards Arthur was identified with the "lost prince" of the 480s, that is, the missing posthumous son of the British King Uthyr "Pendragon", though some doubted the identification and thought him an imposter. Nevertheless, despite his identity, it was still him who pulled the sword from the anvil on the stone.

In Year 508 Cerdic, who considered himself the "rightful" king, returned to Britain with foreign mercenaries, and re-claimed the throne. He won a victory against one of Arthur’s generals, Ystadder, and slew a legion of 5000 men; however, was defeated in another battle by Arthur, whose presence among his soldiers always inspired them to fight the harder in battle. Seaxa of Essex, one of Cerdic's supporters, was killed in battle. And, Cerdic fled back to the European continent and into exile. Too, that year, Arthur suppressed "Cadwy’s Revolt", quelled a Saxon uprising in Sussex, and settled a feud among Riculf of Sussex, Sichelm of Essex [who succeeded Seaxa, his father], and Lothan of Deifyr [Deira].

Meantime, that same year, 508, Clovis "The Great", re-founded the Frankish kingdom, after re-unifying the provinces of Roman Gaul [except Brittany and Provence] in three major campaigns, which were: (1) in 486 he fought the Romans, or Gallo-Romans, under Syagrius, the last Roman Governor of Gaul, and removed what remained of Roman rule in Gaul, and Gaul became a Teutonic state; (x) in 496 he repulsed an invasion by the Germans; (2) in 500 he subdued the Burgundians, and Burgundy became a French province; and (3) in 507 he drove the Visi-Goths in France across the Pyrenees into Spain and conquered the Visi-Gothic Kingdom of Toulouse, which he annexed to his other French territories. Clovis "The Great" made Paris his royal seat, or capital city, in Year 508, and Gaul thereafter was called France.

The "Triads" tell us that Arthur’s three main courts were at Caerleon Castle in Wales; at Celliwig Castle in Cornwall, and at Penrhyn Rhionydd [York] in Northern England. His favorite residence, however, was "Camulodunum", that is, Camelot Castle [Cadbury Castle] at South Cadbury, near Sparkford, in the shire of Somerset, in Southern England. Arthur transferred his court to Cadbury Castle [Cadwy’s Castle], called "Camelot" ["Camallate"], Year 508, and it became his main seat or preferred residence. The castle was originally a Bronze Age hill-fort, and developed into an Iron Age town, served as a Roman fort during the Roman occupation of the country, and, Arthur refurbished the hill-fort and made it into his palace. A recent dig by archaeologists have confirmed that the site was refortified and reoccupied at roughly the date ascribed to Arthur. The castle covered the whole 18-acre hill-top plateau, and its walls were sixteen feet thick, made of stones in a framework of wooden beams. Its massive refortification implies an occupant with great resources. The outline of one of its rooms cut into the bedrock of the plateau was measured at 70 feet long and 35 feet wide, which no doubt was the "great hall" of Camelot mentioned in medieval romance. Arthur’s Court at Camelot was so lavish and splendid that a visiting encyclopedic from France marveled at its opulence and wrote about it.

According to the medieval prior, Nicholas Cantelupe (d1441), Cambridge College, one of England’s major universities, was founded by or received its charter originally from King Arthur circa Year 508. Its first dean was Boethius [the Welsh St. Buitte], a Roman philosopher, who was among the scholars, craftsmen, and artisans, sent to Arthur by Theodoric "The Great" of Italy.

It was said that Merlin fell victim to the witch Nimue ["Mad Mim"], who learned a spell in one of Merlin's books on magic, and entrapped him frozen in an ice-block in a cave, circa 508. This happened sometime during the tenure of Boethius as the first dean of Cambridge College; and Arthur gave Merlin’s old books on magic to Boethius, which he later took with him to Rome upon his return home.

There was discovered by some clerics in King Arthur’s Court reference in the classics that the Britons before the Roman Conquest had made voyages to an opposite continent across the western ocean. Arthur, therefore, sponsors expeditions to the New World which were the forerunners of those of St. Brendan [an Irish monk], Madoc [a Welsh explorer], and others. Could there have been Red Indians at King Arthur’s Count? There is a Toltec legend that King Chalchiuhtlanetzin of Mexico received an embassy of "white men" from across the "eastern ocean" during his reign (510-550), see: "King Arthur in America", by Alan & Barbara Lupack. The opposite continent [America] was all but forgotten after the Age of Arthur due to the Anglo-Saxon Conquest but was remembered in British Legend as "Avallon" and was called "the promised land of the saints". Too, sometime, we find in various sources Arthur styled by the title "King of Avallon [America]", for some unrecorded episode somehow associated with Canada, or America.

In 510 Arthur took the British Navy to the aid of Hoel I "The Great", the King of Brittany [Armorica], one of his vassals, in repelling a sea-borne attack by the Visi-Goths of Spain. Many of the Breton royal house fled to Britain, including Budic [II], who sought refuge at the court of King Aircol "Lawhir" of Demetia [Dyfed].

In 511 Arthur repelled an invasion of Britain by attacking Danes, Norse, and Jutes; and also suppressed a rebellion of the barbarians [Anglo-Saxons] in Britain. Aesc of Kent was expelled by Arthur that year. Cerdic of Wessex, returned again that year to Britain with another force of foreign mercenaries, but was once more defeated by Arthur and fled back into exile.

The next year, 512, Arthur carried the war with the Scandinavians overseas and attacked them in their homelands, which was Arthur’s "North Sea War". Johannes Magnus, a Swedish historian of the sixteenth century, speaks of the expedition of Arthur to Scandinavia, and narrates the circumstances which led to it. Arthur occupied Hlade, the Norse capital, and made a treaty with the Norse king Olbricht; and occupied Jellinge, the Jute capital, and made a treaty with the Jute king Gebolf; and occupied Leire, the Danish capital, and made a treaty with the Danish king Aschille. Tysilio's "Chronicle" also gives an account of Arthur’s expedition to Scandinavia, however, the details of it vary so much as to show that Tysilio had never seen the account given by Johannes Magnus.

Meantime, the imposition of the "boraimhe" [tax] in Ireland in 512 caused a national uprising against Arthur’s appointed governor, possibly Mordec "Mwndrg" of Dal-Fiatach, and the Irish chiefs elected the Irish prince Muirchertach "Mac Erc", King of Ailech, as the Irish High-King or "King of Ireland", who reigned until 518 when Arthur conducted his second Irish campaign.

Too, civil wars were raging in France among the sons of the late French king, Clovis "The Great", who had all set themselves up as rival kings. The Visi-Goths of Spain, still smarting from the loss of their territory north of the Pyrenees, saw this as their opportunity to avenge themselves of their earlier defeat by Clovis "The Great" and possibly regain their lost French territory, and invaded France. This brought foreign intervention, and Britons from Britain, Ostro-Goths from Italy, and Bretons from Armorica [Brittany], came to France, drove out the Visi-Goths, and carved up the country among themselves, making the sons of Clovis their vassals, ending the civil wars among them.

Tysilio, in his "Chronicle", tells us that Arthur invaded France to take part in wars going on there. The Britons under Arthur invaded France from the north in Year 513 and occupied Northern France; while the Bretons from Armorica [Brittany] under Hoel I "The Great" [one of Arthur’s vassals] invaded France from the west and occupied Western France; while Ostro-Goths from Italy under Theodoric "The Great" invaded France from the south and occupied Southern France. Arouz, Count of Flanders, resists Arthur’s advance, but is overcome. Meanwhile, Claudas, Lord of Bourges, resists the advance of Hoel I "The Great", but Arthur shortly comes to Hoel's aid and defeats Claudas and his allies, that is, other French dukes, after which all the other French nobles called for a truce and came to terms with Arthur. Arthur, and his vassals [including Hoel I "The Great" of Armorica], met with Theodoric "The Great" at Lyons in great pomp and ceremony where they made a treaty dividing France between them.

It was at this time that Arthur married Theodoric's daughter, Winlogoto, doubtless for political purpose. Arthur abruptly sent Guinevere a letter of divorce, who thereupon entered a convent at Caerleon, where she resolved to live a chaste life among the nuns in the church of Julius The Martyr, and became herself one of their order. Winlogoto (Guinevere-II) is described in a well known Welsh nursery-rhyme as "bad when little, worse when great". Legend says that Winlogoto [also called Guinevere, i.e., Guinevere-II] came from a noble family of the Romans. Indeed, her father, Theodoric "The Great", called Ogrfan (Ogyrvan; Gogvran) "Gawr", i.e., Gogfran "The Giant" in British folklore, though the King of the Ostro-Goths, was at the same time also a Roman citizen, and had been commissioned to govern the western empire [Europe] as a Roman/Byzantine viceroy representing the eastern empress, Araidne. He later broke ties with the eastern empire following the empress' childless death, and governed the western empire as a Roman consul just like in the days of the republic.

The rebel Roman viceroy Theodoric "The Great", the Ostro-Gothic King of Italy, invited Arthur to join him and his allies [neighboring states] in an alliance against the eastern empire. Thus, a western alliance of seven states was formed opposing the eastern empire, which were: the Ostro-Gothic kingdom in Italy; the Visi-Gothic kingdom in Spain; the Vandal kingdom in North Africa; the Frankish kingdom in Gaul; the Burgundian kingdom in Switzerland; the Thuringian kingdom in Germany; and, the Celto-Roman kingdom in Britain.

For the next three and a half years Arthur resided in France much to the displeasure of the Britons. Arthur held court in Paris in 513 and issued a proclamation assuming the title "King of France" [in addition to his other titles], and summoned the French nobles and clergy to assemble and re-organize the country’s government-system. France was divided into twelve great provinces by Arthur, each of which was governed by a duke [or, count], who together were called the "Twelve Peers of France". They included: Clarrus, Duke of Neustrie; Hugues, Count of Blois; Jeffres (Jaufre), Duke of Anjou; Eliavre[s], Count of Touraine; Borellus, Count of Maine [Cenomania]; Gwitard, Count of Poitou; Ontzlac, Duke of Aquitaine; Escobar, Duke of Gascony; Aglovale, Duke of Champagne; and others. The mythical figure Gwilenhin, called "King of France" in the tale of "Culhwch and Olwen", whose name is a corruption of "Gwilyn Hen" [William "The Old"], who is one of those present at Arthur's Court in Paris, is an allusion to William "The Conqueror" in Arthurian Romance; just like other heroes of a different time or age were anachronisms wrongly made contemporaries of Arthur by the romance writers in medieval times. Arthur built a castle in Paris as his residence on the future site of the French Bastille, and built a church, Old Notre Dame [which is attributed to Clovis by French writers], and dedicated it to "The Virgin" Mary, whom Arthur adopted as his personal matroness, and possibly as his ancestress, which is the modern Protestant position that Joseph and Mary, after Jesus' virgin-birth, had other children; while the Catholic and Orthodox views are that the mother of Jesus, the "Virgin"-Mary, was "ever virgin" throughout her marriage. However, at this time in history, the "The Virgin" Mary was generally believed to be the mother of "other children" after Jesus was virgin-born, and, Saint James, the eldest of Jesus siblings, was considered to be the ancestor of King Arthur, through the Kings/Dukes of Armorica [Bretagne; Brittany], the Prefects of Provence, and, the Bishops of the Jerusalem "Mother" Church.

While Arthur was overseas, Morgan "Le Fai", his half-sister, incited a rebellion in Britain. Legend says that Morgan "Le Fai" practiced the "black arts" and became a witch and troubled the kingdom. She became a designing and wicked person and was Arthur's most implacable enemy. She was constantly conspiring against Arthur to set her son, Mordred (Modred: Medraut), on the British throne. She was joined in her rebellion by her second husband, Guigomar, Lord of Avalon, identified with Guiomar (Guiner), a Breton noble, who raised an army in Armorica [Brittany]; and, joined by Margan [another Breton noble]; as well as by Fingar, an Irish sub-king; who all came to Britain with their forces in 514 upon the invitation of Morgan "Le Fai", but were repulsed by the Cornish duke Cunedag, and were defeated in a series of battles fighting Theodoric and Marcellus, whom Arthur dispatched against them. Theodoric caught up with Fingar before he could get back to his ships and slew him, while Cunedag slew Margan in another battle. Guiner (Guigomar) escaped back to Armorica, however, was pursued by Theodoric and slain. Marcellus was killed in battle in Armorica fighting the rebellious Breton co-heir Maxentius, who was afterwards expelled following his defeat in battle fighting Theodoric. Meantime, in Britain, the barbarian settlers [Anglo-Saxons] renewed their attacks on their Briton neighbors, who had begun fighting among themselves in regional-wars. The barbarian exile Aesc of Kent returned and was received back by the Jutes of Kent as their king, and he began attacking the Britons. The Saxons in Britain received support from the arrival of more barbarians from the European continent who came at their invitation; among whom were a huge force of Lombards under Cissa (Pissa), who arrived about this time and joined up with the Saxons and Franks of Sussex, and began ravaging the surrounding British countryside. Cerdic of Wessex, in exile, saw his opportunity here and returned to Britain at this time with more foreign mercenaries, who were: (a) Jutes, under their leaders Stuf and Uhtgar; (b) Danes, under their leaders Bodvar and Hotter; and (c) Norse, under their leader Elsing, a so-called "sea-king"; whom the Britons called "Saxons" as a generic name for all of the barbarian invaders. Cerdic and his hired "Saxon" mercenaries defeated and slew Theodoric in the Battle of Charford (514), and Cerdic reclaimed the British throne and reigned a second time as "King of Britain". Cerdic here married Morgan "Le Fai" for political purpose. She was his third wife, and he was her ?sixth husband [unsure how many husbands there were]. Cerdic designated his wife's son, Mordred, as heir to the British throne or high-kingship, while his own son, Creoda, was designated as the heir of the Wessex sub-kingdom.

Meantime, on the European continent, Arthur was busy fighting the Geats [who had come from Sweden] under their king Ginchtalac (Hygelac); as well as the Germans [called "Allemanni" meaning "all-men"] under their king Segnius; and also the Moriani [Flems] under their king Cheulf. They were all at length defeated by Arthur and his French vassals (515). Too, Tysilio’s "Chronicle" tells us that Arthur, with his French vassals, also fought the Burgundians.

In addition to these events, the birth of Llacheu, Arthur’s son by Winlogoto, while Arthur was in France, meantime sparked the revolt in Britain of Amhar (Anir; Enir), Arthur’s son by Guinevere, who was supported by many of the British nobles, especially by those opposed to Mordred (Modred; Medraut), among whom were the "sons of Caw"; and soon the entire island of Britain was in rebellion.

After numerous delays Arthur returned to Britain in 516/517 by what time the whole country was in chaos. There are some historians who think that if Arthur had of returned immediately after the rebellion of the barbarians [Anglo-Saxons] broke out there might have never been an Anglo-Saxon England. It is ironic how Arthur who fought the ancestors of the English, the Anglo-Saxons, was turned into a king of "England" in medieval romance. Arthur defeated his son’s rebel army in battle at Archenfield in Herefordshire, and among the dead was King Arthur’s son, Prince Amhar, called the British Prince Absalom. His burial mound is Wormelow Tump, near the spring called Gamber Head, in Ercing [Ariconium], Herefordshire. He was survived by an infant son, Cadrod (Catraut), Arthur's grandson, who was brought up by his mother, Aerea, Amhar's widow, daughter of Brychan’s daughter, Gwrgan, and her husband, Cadrod, son of Porthor "Gotto", who raised her son, Cadrod, in Brychan’s Court, in Brecon, a local Welsh state. [Cadrod is sometimes confused with another British prince of another generation with the same name, the son of Cynwyd Cynwydion, a regional-ruler in Northern England, who lived in the late sixth century rather than the mid-sixth century. There are three persons having the name Cadrod who lived in three consecutive generations, whose biographies have blended together over the course of time.] Arthur, after subduing the rebellious Britons, campaigned against his rival Cerdic as well as against the barbarians in Britain who meanwhile had joined forces. They were joined by the Irish under Mac Erc's brothers, Cairill and Feradach. They, at length, were defeated by Arthur in the "2nd" Battle of Mount Badon [Badon Hill], Year AD 517 (NS) (516 OS). The British troops before battle were addressed by St. David who told them to put a leek [the plant] in their caps to distinguish themselves on the battlefield. The leek after that became a national symbol. Legend says that Arthur carried the "Cross of Christ" on his shoulders into the battle. It was the cross that St. Helena had discovered on an archaeological dig in Jerusalem. It was claimed to be the "True Cross" and was originally kept in The Church of The Holy Sepulchre, which was built in Jerusalem by Constantine "The Great" to house it, and was later kept in Old St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome until it was brought to Britain by St. Bran "The Blessed" [who had been a hostage in Rome, from 473 to 476] at a time when The Church had sunk to selling its relics. The so-called "True Cross" appears in British History as the Welsh "Croes Naid". The "Annales Cambriae" ("Welsh Annals") records: "Year 517 (NS)/516 (OS): The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days on his shoulders, and the Britons were victorious." It has been suggested that for "shoulder" we should read "shield" on the basis that the Welsh word for "shoulder" is "vsgvydthe", and the Welsh word for "shield" is "ysgwyd", which has been generally accepted by modern scholarship, however, we are told by the sources that the image of the "MaDonna and Child", that is, the Virgin Mary and the Christ-Child, were painted on Arthur’s shield as his heraldic device, which contradicts the generally accepted interpretation of the reference. The site of the battle is unsure. It has been suggested that the battle site was the Badbury Rings near Wimborne, Dorset, however, there are other suggested sites. Osla "Big-Knife", the Angle king, who had been one of Arthur's favorite knights, surrenders, and is reconciled to Arthur. Cerdic was captured attempting to flee and was imprisoned [and/or executed] by Arthur. Feradach, co-commander of the Irish Army, was killed, but his brother Cairill survived and signed a treaty with Arthur on behalf of his brother, the Irish king Mac Erc. And, Aesc, the Jute king, escaped capture and fled back into exile.

After Badon Hill, Arthur, still embittered over the rebellion of his son, Amhar, went about punishing the rebellious Britons with terrible severity and ravaged the whole British Isles (517-518). It was at this time that Arthur conducted his second Irish campaign to bring the Irish king Muirchertach "Mac Erc" into submission, and re-conquered Ireland [called the "western island"], and re-convened the Irish "General Assembly" [the Irish "Feis"] at Uisneach, in Connaught, and, the Irish chiefs again swore their allegiance to him. Then, returned to Britain and ravaged more of the countryside. Everyone was forced to re-new their oath of allegiance to Arthur. This was carried out by Arthur’s agents who were relentless in rooting-out all of the terrorists’ cells of rebels in the British Isles and France. His agents were overzealous, and some of their methods were quite severe. The clergy of Britain came to Arthur with bare feet and the relics of the saints in their hands, and begged relief from his terrible wrath and for mercy for the offenders. Arthur was moved by the bishops and repented and pardoned the offenders, Year 518. It was at this time that Arthur took to religion (so to speak) and to that period in his life belongs the episode of "The Search for The Grail".

The Holy Grail was the cup or chalice that Jesus used at the "Last Supper" with which He instituted the "eucharist", the rite of the "bread and wine" (Lk. 22:20), to commemorate the sacrifice of His Body [the bread] and His Blood [the wine] as God’s "paschal-lamb" (Gen. 22:8; compare Jn. 1:29; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:19). It replaced the "Passover" among Christians, who regard the rite (Ex. 12:21) as an Old Testament proto-type of "...Christ, Our Passover..." (1 Cor. 5:7). The Levitical animal-sacrifices (Lev. 1-7) are among the Old Testament proto-types of the New Testament Sacrifice of Jesus. The Holy Grail supposedly contained some of Jesus' Holy Blood collected by Joseph of Arimathea, however, according to Christian doctrine, Jesus, having accomplished His Sacrifice, following His resurrection Easter Sunday, collected His spilled Holy Blood, which could not decay, and, acting, as it were, as the High-Priest fulfilling the "Day of Atonement" (Lev. 16), which New Testament doctrine interprets as an Old Testament proto-type, presented His Holy Blood in Heaven for the sins of the human-race (Heb. 9:12). The true Holy Grail which contains Jesus' Holy Blood sits today upon the high-altar in the celestial temple in Heaven, while its terrestrial counterpart became a holy relic. The Holy Grail symbolized the "New Covenant" instituted by Jesus, and it was to Arthur's Kingdom [and, later to the Crusader-Kingdom of Jerusalem] as what the "ark-of-the-covenant" was to the ancient Judaic kingdom of Israel.

The quest for The Holy Grail proved to be a lethal obstacle course that killed many of Arthur’s knights. Legend says that Galahad and his party of knights discovered and captured the Holy Grail and brought it back to Camelot Castle to Arthur.

The Holy Grail was found in the possession of Anfortas II, the Grail-King, who was relocated to Britain under King Arthur's patronage, and was given the old iron age hill-fort at Castell Dinas Bran, at Llangollen, in Clwyd, Wales, as his estate. His family, descendants of Joseph of Arimathea, that is, the "Grail-Kings", served as the official "keepers" of the holy relic, which was kept in an old Roman temple that was refurbished to house it, the one at Lydney Park in the Forest of Dean about nine miles north-east of Chepstow in Gloucestershire. It is situated on a hill overlooking the River Severn. The temple complex was a hybrid of architectural types. Its basic plan was that of a Celto-Roman shrine with a central inner sanctum surrounded by a portico. The Holy Grail was later returned to the Church of The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Helyas "The Swan-Knight", epic-hero of the First Crusade 1096-99, the last Grail-King, and, the first Grand-Master of the Knights-Templar, who, upon entering Jerusalem [accompanying his son, Geoffrey of Bouillon, the leader [army-commander] of the First Crusade] placed the Holy Grail himself on the high-altar (1099). Later, the Holy Grail was taken out of Jerusalem to Acre at the time of Jerusalem’s fall to the Muslims either in 1187 and/or 1244, and there remained at Acre until 1291 when it was taken by the Knight-Templar Guillaume [III] de Beaujeu to Antioch and entrusted into the care of Tibald de Gaudin, the city’s bishop. The Holy Grail after that disappears from history until 1910 when there was found in the ruins of a church at Antioch, a cup, containing an inner cup, that is thought by able scholars to be the Holy Grail. The inner cup is plain silver, however, its container, the outer cup, is exquisitely carved silver with the figures of Christ and His disciples at the "Last Supper". The outer cup was obviously made to hold the inner cup, as a sacred, precious object older than itself. The artistic style and workmanship is considered to be of first century date. The Holy Grail, now called "The Chalice of Antioch", eventually came into the possession of the Cloister's Museum in New York City and is privately owned today by the Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY.

Other relics were sought by Arthur, and Arthur attempts to acquire "The Robe" [reputed to have been Christ’s robe] from St. Paternus of Llanbadarn, but the saint would not let him have it. The "Life of St. Padarn" contains the story in which Arthur takes the robe, or tunic, from the saint; and reports that as Arthur was carrying it away the saint prayed for a miracle to recover the robe whereupon the earth opened up and Arthur was immediately buried up to his chin and must promise to return the robe and beg the saint to forgive him in order for his release. The "Lance of Longinus", the spear used by the Roman soldier Longinus with which he pierced the side of Jesus while on The Cross, was sought and given to Arthur by an ambassador of the Ostro-Gothic king Theodoric "The Great" of Italy, who and Arthur were allies. It was carried in the Grail Procession which was a procession observed whenever The Holy Grail was moved from place to place.

Easter Sunday, the 28th of March, Year 519, is the "starting date" of Modern British History, for in that year King Arthur unified Britain, Ireland, and France, into a "United Kingdom", and founds a "new order" ["novus ordo"]. Legend says that Arthur reigned over thirty kingdoms throughout the British Isles and France. King Arthur imposed unity over-ridding the regional-kings by having everyone swear an oath of allegiance to him personally as equally subjects of the crown. This loosened tribal ties and gave greater autonomy to individual families, resulting in the place of the "tribe" being taken by the "people". That caused a new nationality to develop around a common allegiance to the crown, and from that grew political and cultural unity and a common existence and a new Golden Age dawned in Britain, that is, the Arthurian Age.

The old Roman constitution was discarded by Arthur who adopted one based on Christian values, and Arthur formulated a legal code which became famous and inspired others to imitate. Arthur also dropped the old Roman calendar which was still in use and adopted one putting Year 1 at the birthday of Jesus Christ instead of the founding of Rome, but was incorrectly calculated by Exiguus [a mathematician], to be Year 753 of Rome [off from four to seven years] and the error has since been standardized in all modern calendars. Exiguus was formerly at Theodoric’s Court at Ravenna, Italy; then, he appears in medieval romance at Arthur’s Court at Camelot Castle, Britain; and, we know later he was at Justinian’s Court at Byzantium.

The clergy, nobles, and militias of Britain, Ireland, and France, were called by Arthur to assemble to ratify the new constitution, and a decree was published proclaiming the United Kingdom on Easter Sunday, the 28th of March, Year 519, and at Pentecost Arthur was crowned king in a coronation ceremony officiated by the papal legate Theon II, the [last] Arch-Bishop of London and "British" Primate.

The Church from the time of King Arthur has been associated with the inauguration of British monarchs. The most important features of the coronation service which were formulated from ancient tradition by British bishops for King Arthur have remained a part of the coronation service for British monarchs since. The acts of acknowledging [formerly designating], proclaiming, and acclaiming kings proceeded the coronation ceremony itself. Also, parliament cannot under any circumstances bestow the throne, it can only announce its submission to whoever God has called to the throne. The monarch would ride in a grand procession from the palace to the church or abbey where the coronation was to take place to the cheers of the people. The coronation service began with the presentation of the monarch to the congregation by the British Primate [the nation's spiritual-leader]. A clerk then read a regnal-list of the Kings of Britain and/or the monarch’s own genealogy, which was his, or her, title deed to the throne. That was followed by the recognition of the monarch by the congregation in the church, or abbey. The oath whereby the monarch promises good government [which was a contract with God as well as with the people] was inserted here at this point in the service in 1689, following the "Bloodless Revolution", and was not a regular feature of the coronation service until modern times. The monarch was then given a copy of the "Bible" [called "the most precious thing that the world affords"] which he or she is admonished to meditate therein "day and night". The "Eucharist" replaced old pagan rituals and the rite of animal-sacrifice. The pagan rite of "The Bath" was replaced with the Christian rite of "baptism". It has since been dropped from the service. The anointing of the monarch with holy oil or chrism symbolizing the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was performed next before the high-altar. That rite entered the service in imitation of the anointing of the Old Testament kings. It identified the monarch as the "Lord’s [God's] Anointed", which is a phrase in the Bible that portrays the monarch as a messiah-like figure. Indeed, the monarch as God’s vicar is suppose to mirror or reflect the majesty of God, and that is why a monarch is addressed as "majesty", to mirror God's majesty. The presentation of the royal regalia and the crowning of the monarch by the British Primate was followed by the enthronement of the monarch by the clergy formally investing the monarch with the kingdom. Afterwards, the nobles swore their fealty and paid homage to the monarch. The shire militias were all presented with their colors by the monarch and they then swore their allegiance. That has now become a separate service. The coronation banquet, which was a grand-scale feast which followed the coronation service, has been discontinued in recent times. The people then cheered the newly crowned monarch as the royal party returned back to the palace in a grand procession through the city's streets.

There were certain aspects of Arthur’s coronation which differed from subsequent coronations. For example, the crown which was used at Arthur’s coronation was the "Le Cercle d’Or", that is, the "crown of thorns", which was placed on Christ’s head when He was presented to the people. The holy relic was kept by the family of Joseph of Arimathea for centuries. It had since, however, been gold-plated to preserve it and had been adorned with precious gems. It had been kept in the castle "Li Chasteaux au Cercle d’Or", and was sent to London for Arthur’s coronation. Too, the robe which was put on Arthur during the investiture during the service was Christ’s Robe which St. Paternus, who had possession of it, agreed to temporarily loan to Arthur for his coronation. And, Arthur was crowned while seated on a sacred stone, called "The Stone of Destiny" which was "Jacob’s Pillar", called "God’s House" (Gen. 28:22), which stone represented the "stone [that] was cut without hands" (Dan. 2:34-35), which stone is identified with "Christ, Our Rock" (1 Cor. 10:4), and had been the foundation stone upon which sat the "ark-of-the-covenant", whose lid, called "the Mercy seat", doubled as an altar and as God’s very throne (cp Ex. 37:9 & Ps. 99:1), in the Jerusalem Temple.

Arthur, a child of destiny born under a wondrous star, introduced into Britain the doctrine of the "divine right of kings", that is, a ruler as "the one sent by destiny" [referring to "The Sword in The Stone" episode] as an ideology of kingship and as the authorization of his right to rule and as the cult of his dynasty giving the British Monarchy a divine mandate, and adopts the motto: "Dieu et Mon Droit" ["God, and My Right"]. The monarchy was claimed to have been founded by God and its occupants, the British monarchs, who were considered to be God’s representatives and as such were expected to reflect God’s majesty. Thus, the royal office did not originate with a "contract" with the people [which concept was the prevailing thinking of the generations of the 1642, 1688, and 1776 rebellions], not even by the consent of the people; for the people could not delegate any power to the person who was their sovereign, but the royal office was a "gift" from God to the British people and therefore of divine origin. The monarchy was shaped to conform with the established theology of Christianity and to the example of the Old Testament kings. The monarchy was based on Isaiah 33:22 where all the functions of government, that is, the judicial, the legislative, and executive, were invested in the monarch, whether a king or a queen-regnant. The monarchy which at the same time is both a person and an institution was likened to the person and office of Christ, and the constitution of the state was likened on the model of the ideal state of the future kingdom of Christ to foreshadow it. The monarchy is to illustrate Christ's future kingdom in human society depicting God’s purpose of royalty to be ultimately realized in Christ, during whose absence the monarch reigns by "God's Grace" ["Dei Gratia"] as the "Lord's Anointed" or God’s vicar with powers from above. The monarchy was the rule of God manifest in human form. Indeed, in the Bible the king is referred to as "the Son of God" (Ps. 2:6-7), and is portrayed as the visible representative of the invisible God, occupying God’s throne (1 Chr. 29:33), as representing God to the people; while at the same time the king is also referred to as "the Son of Man" (Ps. 8:4) as the corporate embodiment of the people, the symbol of the nation, as representing the people to God. And, since it is from God, as the "giver of life", that the nation derives its vitality; hence, it is through the king, the visible symbol of God on earth, that God’s bounty flowed to His people. Thus, the monarchy was all important to the people. The monarch, as the shepherd [leader] of his flock, the people, had these responsibilities: (1) to feed the sheep/people [meal-tickets to the country's poor]; (2) to provide shelter for the homeless [vouchers for public housing] ; (3) to clothe the sheep [goodwill stores]; (4) to attend to its wounds if a sheep was hurt [the rite of the "royal touch" begun in England by King Arthur and later revived by Edward "The Confessor"], which equates in modern times as socialized medicine by which the king [or, the state] provided health services]; and (5) to defend the sheep [maintenance of a police-force to guarantee everyone's personal security within the country, and armed-forces to defend the country against foreign aggressors]; and, in return, the people would attend upon the monarch to his/her needs and give him/her worship. [see: "Kings or People: Power and the mandate to rule", by Richard Bendix].

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note: from The Holy Family to The Royal Family, that is, the (so-called) "Jesus' Dynasty"

The most remarkable re-invention of itself was when the British Royal House, founded by King Arthur, redrew it genealogical-charts to show "The Virgin" Mary ["Virgo Maria"], or "The Blessed Mary" ["Beata Maria"], to have been its ancestress, by way of through her son, Saint James, one of Jesus' so-called "brothers" (Matt 13:55), giving British Royalty enormous prestige.

The veneration of the Virgin Mary was introduced into Britain by Arthur, who made it a part of the cult of his dynasty, and adopted the Virgin Mary as his personal matroness, and claimed "The Virgin" Mary as his dynasty's ancestress. This genealogical-link was later redefined to conform with the accepted religious doctrine of the times, which the Council of Trullo in 692 declared it to be official church doctrine that Mary was "ever virgin". Hence, Saint James became either an adopted son, or a step-son of the "Virgin Mary".

The Medieval Welsh Royal House, that is, the House of Rhodri "Mawr", which were King Arthur's descendants, also claimed "The Virgin" Mary as its ancestress. In the "Descriptio Kambriae" its author Giraldus Cambrensis wrote that the Welsh bards retain the genealogies of the Welsh princes in their memories [oral-tradition] from Rhodri Mawr (Roderic "The Great"), the first King/Prince of Wales, to "Beatam Virginum" ["Blessed Virgin"].

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The aristocracy [nobility] [descendants of British tribal chiefs, royal bastards, including descendants of foreign royalty or nobility who had estates in Britain] and the gentry [the so-called "upper class", descendants of clan captains, or wealthy commoners] were institutionalized at this time by King Arthur in the context of the constitution and became distinct estates defined in the British peerage each with a specific status and titles which were published in the "Notitia Dignitatum" ["List of Offices"] which was compiled by the clerks in Arthur’s Court. There were three estates: royalty; the nobility; and, the gentry. The various titles of rank in the nobility were: a baron [the lowest rank], above him was a viscount, above him was an earl or count, above him was a marquis, and above him was a duke. The gentry, the class below the nobility, held titles from knights and esquires to gentlemen.

It was at this time that Arthur restored the old aristocracy of Britain to their ancient estates. The "Polychronicon" records that Arthur in Year 519 gave Wessex to Cerdic, however, there were several contemporary British royals who had the name Cerdic, thus, the question arises as to the identity of the Cerdic to whom Arthur invested the Wessex kingdom.

The local Welsh kingdom of Powys, claimed by rivaling dynasties, was given by Arthur to the British prince Cynan "Clotrydd", who represented a new dynasty in Powys.

Cadwal "Lauhir", King of Gwynedd, was killed in the "2nd" Battle of Mount Badon [or Badon Hill] and left a disputed throne. His brother, Owain "Danwyn", was the claimant [which verifies the uncertainty of Maelgwn‘s parentage], however, Arthur appointed his illegitimate son, Maelgwn, whose mother Meddyf was Cadwal Lauhir's widow, as a compromise candidate, which represented the establishment of a branch of Arthur’s descendants as the regional-kings of a local British shire.

Gwybei "Drahog" was another dispossessed British prince restored to his ancestral estate, and appears that year as King of Yorkshire.

An "officialdom" or chancery made up of an hierarchy of officers and clerks was established by Arthur as well as an administration [composed of twelve departments] and a state bureaucracy [composed of seventy bureaus] employing thousands in a civil service. The circle of the "Three Peers" were the viceroys of Britain, Ireland, and France. The committee of forty-two counselors were Arthur’s personal advisors. Arthur transformed his court into the Byzantine fashion, for tradition says that he held court in the fashion of his wife, and that can only refer to his second wife, Winlogoto, Theodoric’s daughter, for Theodoric "The Great", an Ostro-Goth prince, was reared at the imperial court at Constantinople as the emperor’s "ward" and modeled the Italian Court at Ravenna after it. There was a strict court ceremony observed and much store was set on public display of pomp and pageantry as a means to emphasize the divine nature of the monarchy, and there developed in Arthur’s Court a code of etiquette which was to characterize the Age of Chivalry, which was then dawning. The ideals of the Code of Chivalry, that is, not only to be brave, courageous, and bold in battle, but also to be modest, honorable, courteous, charitable, magnanimous, polite, gallant, dutiful, good-mannered, etc., and above all to be loyal to the king.

Nine orders of chivalry or knighthood were instituted by Arthur, enrolling distinguished men from all the world’s countries. They were: (1) Order of The Holy Grail; (2) Order of The Round Table; (3) Order of The Garter; (4) Order of the Thousand Knights; and, the orders of the (5) Rose; (6) Leek; (7) Thistle; (8) Shamrock; and (9) Lily [Fleur-de-Lis]. Those belonging to the Order of the Holy Grail had to live pure lives. Its "keepers" [the "Grail-Kings"] were hereditary in Joseph of Arimathea’s descendants. The Order of The Holy Grail was a religious order of the Holy Mother Church hijacked by Arthur, who annexed the pontificate to his regime. The Order of the Round Table was sometimes called "The Fellowship of the Ring" for a ring its members wore as an insignia of the order. The table was round so that none of its members were in-equal in precedence. It was the first use of a common table in world-governments. The inspiration for the order grew from the assembly of Arthur’s knights at the old Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon, which was round and could accommodate 6000 people, whose ruins may still be seen there, where Arthur often held court in his early years. Later, upon the official founding of the order, an actual round-table was made. It was not one piece of furniture, but a round ring, with gaps for servants to pass through to wait upon those seated at the table, somewhat like the round-table in the United Nations building in New York City. The Round Table sat 150 knights. In the open center of the ring-table there was a large block of stone upon which set The Holy Grail whenever the order would meet. The "siege perilous" was a vacant seat at the Round Table reserved for the "Grail-Knight" or "Keeper of The Grail". It was so called for when a certain knight tried to sit on it he suddenly dropped dead allegedly because God had deemed him "unworthy"; analogous to the Bible episode found in 1 Chr. 13:9-10. The Order of the Garter was instituted to commemorate the neckerchief, sash, or girdle that Gawayne wore in the "Beheading Game" with "The Green-Knight", which was a damsel’s garter its lady wearer had given to Gawayne for good luck. Its members wore a garter as the insignia of the order. Membership was restricted to the monarch, the heir, and twenty-four honorary knights [usually retired prime-ministers, retired generals, or distinguished personalities deserving of public honor]. Gawayne, a young man, accepts the Green-Knight’s challenge to play the "Beheading Game" when none of Arthur’s twelve champions do, which begins his career and he comes to be a famous knight. In the "Beheading Game" the challenger proposes that the volunteer strike a blow to the challenger's neck, but if the volunteer misses or somehow the challenger survives then the volunteer must allow the challenger a reciprocal blow. The twelve champions comprised a fraternity of Arthur’s twelve most distinguished knights. The Order of The Thousand Knights was instituted to commemorate Arthur’s original one thousand followers. It was an order of merit and membership was restricted to the monarch as "Grand-Master" and one-thousand "worthies". It was an order to recognize those whose accomplishments contributed to society, or culture, or the arts and/or sciences. The orders of the Rose, Leek, Thistle, Shamrock, and Lily, were military orders of the knighthoods of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and France [respectively].

Legend says that Arthur’s knights, restless in times of peace, sought glory on difficult "quests" rather than on the battlefield and gained individual popularity and fame for themselves, and some became legendary folk-heroes. Tournaments provided Arthur’s knights with opportunities to perfect their military skills. It was the custom of King Arthur to hold court with all his knights on the major feasts days of the year, and have tournament games. The "chevaliers" were the company of the queen’s knights.

Legend gives Arthur three ancestral-lines, which were: (1) his descent-line from Saint James; (2) his descent-line from the Roman Emperors; and (3) his descent-line from the ancient kings and queens of Britain, which appeared in the introduction of the "Brutiad", which gave Arthur three titles. The "Brutiad" was a now lost literary epic about pre-Roman Britain's Iron Age national dynasty, called the "Brutiads" or "Brutikids", and its succession of pre-Roman British kings from Brutus, the first one, through a long list of his descendants, to Lucius, the last one, who was followed by "the hundred-year interregnum" during the period of the republic. It was written either by the clerics in King Arthur's Court or by the king's chronicler, Blaise (Blaire; Bloyse; Blihis), who was allegedly its author. The "Brutiad" records King Arthur's ancestry from Brutus; and very likely Arthur claimed to be the restorer of the ancient British kingdom and the re-founder of its former dynasty, of which he apparently considered himself to be the heir. This would explain the alternate genealogies of Arthur given in British tradition and literature. Arthur, very likely, commissioned the "Brutiad" to be written to glorify the country's old national dynasty, whose kings he adopted as his ancestors; for it gave Britain a national epic, and gave Britain an identity separate from the Roman Empire and its other former provinces, and gave Britain a national consciousness, which the country badly needed after nearly a century of civil wars and the break-up of the nation that followed the long period of Roman occupation and rule.

The reunion of the Eastern [Orthodox] Church and the Western [Catholic] Church in 519 was opposed by Arthur for that it might lead to the submission of the western states to the eastern empire, and Arthur [just like King Henry VIII, his descendant] broke from the Roman Church and found the British or Celtic Church, claiming the equality of St. Paul’s with St. Peter’s. The church in Britain was nationalized by Arthur and the pontificate was united to the crown. Arthur clashed with dissident bishops loyal to Rome over the issue; and Arthur suppressed all opposition in Britain, France, and Ireland. St. David held a synod presided over by King Arthur to formulate the creed, usages, and organization of the Celtic Church. It was the first "Protestant" Church. The church in Britain was organized under a hierarchy of bishops, abbots, and vicars, who all recognized the British Primate as their "governor", who was appointed by the king, who doubled as the supreme pontiff, or pope. This came about after the failure of Arthur's scheme to reunite all the world's churches back under the primacy of the Jerusalem Church, the Mother-Church, headed by a supreme-pontiff, which office was to be restricted to the male-line descendants of Saint James, that is, "The Holy Family", which would eliminate the threat of reviving the Roman Empire and set the stage instead for reviving the empire of Constantine The Great's "Christendom", that is, "The Empire of Christ" on earth. The scheme collapsed upon the insistence of the eastern emperor to accept the compromise that it was his prerogative to appoint the pope. St. David, while touring Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, to show the willingness of the British/or Celtic Church to accept the primacy of the Jerusalem Church, returned the "True Cross" to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, and was ordained Bishop of Britain by the church's patriarch. The next year, 520, Arthur presided over a synod in France, and the following year, 521, presided over a synod in Ireland. Clonard Monastery [which became a famous missionary-base] was founded in Ireland by St. Finnian in 521 under Arthur’s patronage.

St. Gildas deplored Arthur's "New Order" in Britain and especially St. David's extremism and appealed to the pope. The Bishop of Rome [Hormisdas] held counter-synods and denounced Arthur's brand of Christianity as "a form of pelagianism" but was hardly in a position to do little more.

In 521 we find Arthur back on the European continent suppressing uprisings in France, the Netherlands [the Benelux countries], Burgundy, and West Germany. He toured Scandinavia that year to settle unrest among the "Normans" [= Norse, Swedes, and Danes].

The beloved son of Arthur and Winlogoto, Llacheu (Lechou), was murdered as a young boy, in 523, at the instigation of Morgan "Le Fai" by Adolange, a treacherous French knight in Arthur's service. The despicable Adolange had onetime served as regent of Britain during one of Arthur's absences, and was then serving as Arthur's steward and advisor. He carried the severed head of Llacheu in a wooden chest and threw it into the lap of Queen Winlogoto as she sat enthroned in court next to her husband, King Arthur. Fighting broke out in the royal court in an attempt to overthrow Arthur and set Morgan Le Fai's son, Mordred, on the throne; but Arthur’s knights prevailed and Adolange and his accomplices were killed in the botched coup. The stories of Llacheu, Arthur’s son by Winlogoto, and that of Loholt, one of Arthur’s illegitimate sons begotten by one of his mistresses, are confused in medieval romance, doubtless due to the similarities in the spellings of their names. The murder of Prince Llacheu, Arthur’s 2nd son, left Arthur without any immediate heir, except Mordred, his senior illegitimate son. Too, the late Prince Amhar, Arthur’s eldest son, was survived by a son, Cadrod, Arthur’s grandson, who was another candidate for the throne.

The illegitimate son of Arthur and his half-sister Morgan "Le Fai", Mordred (Modred; Medraut), was officially Arthur’s nephew although it was well-known that Arthur was his father. He was sent to Arthur’s Court by his mother on his coming-of-age, and even though Arthur disliked the young man he allowed him to stay and prove himself as a knight. Mordred came to be very popular with the people and was favored by the British public as a possible successor.

There was an attempt to assassinate Arthur which was thwarted by the efforts of Sir Erec (Erex), one of Arthur’s twelve champions [formerly a Scandinavian pirate], and the same year, 523, Queen Winlogoto [called Guinevere] was kidnapped by Melwas, the Duke of Somerset. It was Sir Kaye who was escorting Guinevere and her ladies-in-waiting and their entourage when they were held-up by Melwas and his knights. There are variant forms of Melwas' name, i.e.: Melvas, Meleagant, Malvasius, Maheloas, etc. He carried-off Guinevere, and brought her to his castle. Arthur spent a year looking for her, while regional disputes among local lords began popping up all over the country. It was discovered that she was being held captive by Melwas, Duke of Somerset, and Arthur besieged his castle. The queen was rescued by Lancelot while the abbots of the nearby monastery at Glastonbury were in the process of arranging her release. St. Gildas and Arthur appear to have made a brief reconciliation at this time. Melwas was exiled to Iceland [which was then a penal colony] for his part in the conspiracy, and that is why he appears as the "King of Iceland" in medieval romance. Winlogoto (Guinevere-II) fell in love with Lancelot, her rescuer, and he with her; but kept it a secret. The struggle between love and loyalty was played-out in their affair. The affair of Lancelot and Guinevere-II (Winlogoto) may have been innocent at first when it began, but during the following year developed into a full-blown relationship, and the next year after that they were caught in questionable circumstances in a trap set by Morgan “le Fai”. The scandal was made public knowledge by three of Arthur’s knights, namely, Agravaine, Colgrevance, and Accolone [one of Morgan Le Fai's paramours], who all accused Winlogoto with adultery and Lancelot with treason. Lancelot was compelled to champion the queen versus her three accusers in a joust in which Agravaine was killed, and, according to myth, was miraculously brought back to life by Lancelot who prayed over his corpse. Arthur did not want to punish them but had to abide by the legal code he himself had instituted, and, according, annulled his marriage to Winlogoto, and adultery being a capital-crime was sentenced to be burned at the stake [the fire supposedly cleansing the soul as was then superstitiously thought to do]. Lancelot and his followers however arrive in time to rescue the ex-queen though it meant fighting his fellow knights of The Round Table, and civil war broke-out in Britain between factions of the Knights of the Round Table. Lancelot and his followers were defeated by Cerdic of Wessex [one of Arthur’s vassals], in 526/527, and Lancelot fled with Winlogoto to his castle in France. [It is recorded in the "ASC" that Cerdic won a battle against the Britons in 526/527, but the statement is misleading, for it does not tell us that Cerdic’s men were also Britons, and that this was a civil war among Britons and not a war of conquest by foreign invaders.] Arthur pursued them to France and laid siege to Lancelot’s castle. A truce was arranged, and Arthur, Winlogoto (Guinevere-II), and Lancelot met secretly to decide what to do, for they did not have the heart to fight one another. Lancelot went off into self-imposed exile and Winlogoto entered a convent and became a nun. Later, Lancelot secretly returned to Britain and searched for the ex-queen, and found her in a nunnery. They were dismayed and overawed by the harm which their love had caused, and she tells Lancelot to go back to his own country and take a wife; but Lancelot shocked by the suggestion says that he would never be so false to her. The tense and final meeting, in the presence of others, ends with both heartbroken, and Lancelot rides away on his horse weeping. The meeting broke the agreement she had made with her ex-husband, and when the news reached Arthur she was carried-off into life-long captivity far-away to the north in Scotland near Dundee. She was imprisoned in a fort at Barry Hill in Strathmore, and a well-known sculptured stone at the neighboring kirk of Meigle marks her grave. Lancelot became a hermit and went insane, however, years later, came to his senses, but too late at Camlan [where Arthur fell in battle] ended his days as a priest.

Following the resolution of the Lancelot-Guinevere affair, Arthur, while in France, turned his attention to the civil wars going-on among his French vassals and conducted another campaign in France, Year 527. The campaigns of Ambrosius/Arthur in France are mentioned in the "Vita Sancti Uuohednouii" ("Life of St. Goeznovius") (1019), by William of Bretagne, who calls Ambrosius/Arthur "King of the Britons". It is recorded somewhere that Cerdic of Wessex took part with Arthur in a campaign in France, in 527, against Claudas, Lord of Bourges, a rebel French noble.

Meantime, while Arthur was in France, Mordred (Modred) led a minor rebellion in Britain. Arthur, after pacifying France, returned to Britain and suppressed Mordred’s [first] rebellion. Mordred was banished from Arthur’s Court, but still remained a popular figure among the British public. Too, that year, Arthur conducted his third Irish campaign to suppress a rebellion there, and Ireland again came under Arthur's vassalage.

The marriage of Arthur to Ganhumara (Guinever-III), his third wife, in 528, the daughter of Gwrthevyr II, King of Gwerthrynion, a regional Welsh state, produced another son, Gwydre, whom Arthur designated as his heir.

Things settled down at court for a while to the usual daily business until a letter came to Arthur from the Byzantine Emperor Justinian which roused the court out of its routine in anticipation for war. Justinian "The Great", the eastern emperor, considered himself the obvious overlord of the rulers who had established themselves in the old western provinces of the Roman Empire and sent letters to the capitals of the western states in Year 528 exhorting them to submit and recognize his overlordship, thus, reviving the old empire. Arthur, on receipt of the letter, summoned his vassals and read them the letter and they all pledged him their support and to supply troops for his army. Arthur sent Justinian a defiant reply, which angered Justinian who then gathered a vast army from the eastern provinces to retake the western provinces, which all except Britain had become "barbarian" kingdoms, and reunite the empire. Geoffrey of Monmouth misunderstood his sources, and, in his "HRB", confused the story of Arthur with the story of his uncle, Ambrosius, which is understandable because of the similarities of both campaigns. Ambrosius, not Arthur, was active during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Leo I "The Great", who dispatched an army to the old western provinces to fight Ambrosius, not Arthur. The mistake Geoffrey of Monmouth made was picked-up by later medieval writers who also misplaced Arthur in history, which has added to the confusion of Arthur’s place in history. Needless to say, the western capitals were all in a flurry of activity over the threatened invasion of the eastern empire, and there was unrest in Britain as the future suddenly seemed uncertain.

It was at this time that Arthur got the notion of going on the offensive himself and conquering Europe and reviving the Roman Empire, whose revival had long been the desire of its former provinces. Arthur, therefore, Year 528, proclaimed himself emperor opposing Justinian and adopted imperial titles and styles, though the British people hardly approved of his actions for it meant the abandonment of the nationalist state and the restoration of the Roman constitution. Thus, we read in the "Black Book of Carmarthen": "yr amherawdyr Arthvr" ["the emperor Arthur"]; too, in some of the stories about Arthur collected in "The Mabinogion" we find Arthur is referred to as "emperor"; and, the classic Procopius, a contemporary Byzantine writer, wrote: "quidem tyrannus Arthvrivs nominee", which refers to Arthur as a rival-emperor. The classic Procopius confirms Arthur’s place in history, and settles the dispute about identifying Arthur with his uncle Ambrosius. Arthur thus could be called "the British Charlemagne". Arthur has sometimes been called the last Roman emperor and the first medieval king. The title "emperor" has remained in the political vocabulary of Britain from the time of Arthur (5th/6th cent.), or actually from the time of Carausius (3rd cent.), the first British emperor, Arthur's ancestor and/or predecessor, through the centuries to modern times to King George VI Albert, who dropped the title in 1947 as the last emperor in Europe.

Britain was converted by Arthur back into a diocese into three provinces, that is, Northern England/Southern Scotland, Southern England, and Wales, which the "Triads" call the "Three Tribal Thrones of Britain", on Arthur’s re-instatement of the old Roman constitution. Arthur appointed Caradog (Cerdic) "Strong-Arm" of Devonshire (Carados "of the Dolorus Tower") as Count of the Saxon Shore [Southern England]; appointed Gyrthmwl "Wledic" as "Dux Britanniarum" [Northern England/Southern Scotland]; appointed Maelgwn "Hir" of Gwynedd as "Prince of Wales"; and, over them, appointed Eleutherius "of the Great Army" [identified with Elifer "Gosgorddvawr" of Gododdin] as Count of Britain [army-commander].

France, occupied by foreigners, favored union with the Empire and revolted against foreign occupation (529). Arthur crossed over to France and quelled the rebellion (530), but the following year, while Arthur was busy in Britain putting down an uprising of the Saxons, the French again rebelled (531), and soon Arthur was back in France to reclaim his French kingdom (534).

A huge invasion force was sent by Justinian, the eastern emperor, against the rebellious western states, under his army-commander Belisarius in a large-scale offensive in Year 533.

Arthur in response mobilized his "Grand Army" [numbering 183,000 soldiers] and the next year crossed over to the continent to fight the Byzantines. Geoffrey of Monmouth records a dream Arthur had while sailing across the English Channel in which there was a gigantic struggle between a horrifying bear at whose growling every shore quaked and a terrifying winged-dragon whose fiery breath scorched and burned the great bear. Arthur believed that the dream was about the war he was to fight against the Byzantines, for Justinian was called "the horrible bear" ["ursus horribilus"] and Arthur had adopted the dragon as an ensign since it had been his father’s ensign upon the restoration of the Roman constitution and had a winged-dragon painted on his shield as his Roman heritage "coat-of-arms".

Upon landing in France, Arthur proceeded to reclaim his continental possessions which were in rebellion against him. His first actions were to repulse an invasion of Brittany by the Visi-Goths of Spain; after which he proceeded against the rebellious Franks. Arthur won back his French kingdom on defeating his rebellious French vassals in battle, Year 534, in which the French king Thierri I of Metz was killed along with many of the French nobles. Too, Arthur also suffered loss in the battle by the death of one of his illegitimate sons, who served his father as one of his generals, Cerdic, whose mother, Ysave, was the daughter of Cauritus of Gwent, who possibly may be identified with the second of three contemporary individuals all called Cerdic of Wessex. Arthur wintered in Paris, 534/535, and that spring marched into Burgundy where he restored the heir of its royal house, who earlier had been expelled by the Frankish king Thierri I. Arthur, occupying Burgundy, threatened to invade Italy against the Ostro-Gothic king, Theodatus, an usurper, who, not wanting to fight Arthur, came to terms with him and ceded Provence [Southern France] to Arthur in exchange for peace. The Ostro-Goths withdrew from Provence in 535 and Arthur occupied the whole of France. He appointed Palomides, a desposynic prince, as Duke of Provence. Arthur wintered again in Paris, 535/536, and that spring returned to Provence due to the threat of invasion by the Byzantines who meanwhile had invaded Italy and had expelled the Ostro-Goths. Arthur crossed the Alps during winter-time in the snow, like Hannibal before him and Napoleon after him, and invaded Italy against the Byzantines. Arthur fought some battles and captured some cities in Northern Italy, and made Milan his headquarters. Arthur held court at Milan, Italy, the winter of 536/537, and there puts together a coalition against the Byzantines, and was joined by the Ostro-Gothic king, Witiges, who occupied Verona; Thibert (Theodebert) of France; Amalafrit of Thuringia [Germany]; Leodgar of The Netherlands [the Benelux countries]; the Visi-Gothic king, Theudis, of Spain; and Sigebert of Burgundy. A deputation of senators and cardinals from Rome came to Arthur at Milan and offered him the imperial crown. Belisarius tried to breakup the western alliance and negotiate a separate peace. He offered Britain to the Ostro-Goths if they would join him against Arthur, and the Ostro-Goths asked the enemy general Belisarius to be their king. The scheme of Belisarius to breakup the alliance was a failure, and that spring Arthur and his allies marched together against the Byzantines, and, Belisarius, the Byzantine Viceroy of Italy [Western Europe], withdrew in the face of such a sizeable force into Rome to stand siege. Rome was besieged by the armies of the western alliance for one year, from March 537 to March 538.

Meantime, in Britain, the assumption by Arthur of imperial titles and styles had come to be very unpopular for fears that if he were successful in restoring the western empire that Britain would loose its independence and would be absorbed by the revived empire at large which had happened before in the time of Constantine “The Great”, Arthur’s ancestor, who as King of Britain became Roman Emperor also, and brought Britain with him into the Roman Empire. British fears grew into unrest and eventually into open rebellion as Arthur continued winning battles on the European continent; and when it appeared that Arthur was about to take Rome itself some of the British nobles came to Mordred, Arthur’s illegitimate son, and offered him the British crown.

537-538 (X) MORDRED (MODRED; MEDRAUT), usurper, a popular favorite of the British people, seized the British throne while Arthur was overseas in 537 (Oct.) and reigned for about five months as King of Britain. Mordred is described in one "Triad" (# 52) as coarse and brutal to his royal charge. He is called in another "Triad" (# 51) as one of the "Three Dishonored Men" of Britain. Geoffrey of Monmouth's story in the "HRB" that Guinevere (Ganhumara) was living adulterously with Mordred is untrue. In fact, Mordred, upon being offered the crown, dragged Guinevere (Ganhumara) from her throne and struck a blow upon her, called in a "Triad" one of the "Three Harmful Blows" of Britain, and, thereupon, placed her under house-arrest, along with St. David [who could have caused him trouble] and Baudwin (Baudewynne), whom Arthur made Constable of Britain when he first became king, who sometimes functioned as King Arthur's "Prime-Minister", whom Arthur had left in charge in Britain during his absence.

Under the name Chelric in the "HRB" Cerdic of Wessex joins Mordred's rebellion and hired foreign mercenaries [under their leader, Bruning] to hold Britain against Arthur in anticipation of Arthur's return. The "Cronica" says: ...since Medred (Mordred) feared Cerdic alone, in order to gain Cerdic's favor he gave him seven shires, which were added to Wessex [three shires, that is, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Wiltshire]. Here is another Wessex origin-story, however, the reference may mean that it was at this time that Cerdic founded the "united" Wessex kingdom.

The news of Mordred’s rebellion came to Arthur at the zenith of his career while he was besieging Rome. He handed over the command of the "Grand Army" to his army-commander, Eleutherius "of the Great-Army", and departed for Britain accompanied only by 1000 cavalry of knights, and arrived in Britain sometime around Christmas. Mordred with 80,000 foot-soldiers marched to Dover to oppose Arthur’s landing. It was a scene of terrible carnage, casualties ran high on both sides as Arthur and his knights came ashore. Arthur succeeds in beating back Mordred and lands, and Mordred withdrew to regroup his forces. Next, Arthur and his knights ride to rescue his queen, "Ganhumara" (Guinevere-III), who was held captive by "Modred, Bruning, and Cerdic", at Winchester, which episode is depicted on a bas-relief at the Cathedral of Modena, in Italy. Sir Kaye appears as "Che" on the bas-relief as one of Arthur’s knights.

Legend says that Arthur and Mordred fought three battles: the first in Kent at Richborough, where Arthur came ashore; the second in Wessex at Winchester, where Arthur liberated his queen, Ganhumara, and his government's officials; and, the third and last in Cornwall at Camelford, then called Camlan. Arthur caught up with Mordred in Cornwall, where Mordred was waiting for him. The "Annales Cambriae" records: "Year 538 (NS)/537 (OS): The Battle of Camlan, in which Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) fell...". Legend says only seven persons survived the battle, out of the thousands who fought in it. Bede reports that there was an eclipse of the sun "from prime to terce" [morning to 9AM] on that date, the 16th of February, Year 538, and, according to legend, the sun did not come out that morning until after the battle was over. Hence, by comparing legend to known historical facts, in this case "The Venerable" Bede's account of events, we can arrive at the date of the fateful battle. Geoffrey of Monmouth misdated the death of Arthur in his "Historia" to be Year 542, whereas the "Annales Cambriae" date the death of Arthur in Year 538 (New Style)/537 (Old Style). The "New Style" calendar dates "New Year’s Day" to be the 1st of January, whereas the "Old Style" calendar dates "New Year’s Day" to be the 21st of March, that is, the first day of spring [the season]. Legend says that the battle was fought on a Thursday. The Battle of Camlan ["cam" + "glan" = "crooked-bank"] was fought according to tradition in Cornwall at Camelford along the Camel [Cambla] River at "Slaughter Bridge". Legend says Arthur and Mordred fought hand-to-hand combat, and Mordred was killed and Arthur was mortally-wounded in the near-by water-meadow on the river-bank where the stream had cut a steep bluff. Modred laid dead, and Arthur, mortally-wounded, staggered away along the river bank and was gone. Here, a man and a time pass forever into the nation's history.

It is unclear what happened to Arthur. Legend says that Arthur was carried off the battlefield and laid by a near-by lake by the knights Lucius and Bedivere [or Gifflet in one story]. Lucius expired from his wounds, and Arthur realizing that he was dying, according to legend, gave the sword "Excalibur" to Bedivere [or Gifflet] and told him to cast it into the near-by lake, which is thought to be Dozmary Pool, on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, and reluctantly doing so, according to myth, an arm and hand came up out of the water and caught it and brandished the sword thrice and vanished away with it into the lake, and it was thus forever lost, however, according to British records, the sword "Excalibur" appears in the royal regalia of British monarchs until the time of King Richard I "Lion-Heart", who gave the sword to the Sicilian king Tancred in 1191 while on his way to the Holy Land as the leader of the Third Crusader. The reason why he did so was that while King Richard and the English Army had stopped off in Sicily to rest, having marched six months, the English Army in an outbreak of drunken revelry went on a rampage of raping and looting. The incident incensed Sicily's King Tancred, and King Richard realizing that his soldiers had offended Sicily's King Tancred and that the English Navy would need to stop off again in Sicily for supplies on his return home made amends by giving Tancred the famous sword "Excalibur", which was a priceless treasure that Sicily's King Tancred was delighted to possess. Here, the famous sword disappears from history.

Then, according to legend, a barge appeared on the lake or sea-shore with ladies in it and traditionally among them were three queens, and Arthur was taken on board and sailed off to the "Isle of Avallon" where his wounds could be attended to. The Isle of Avallon is usually identified with Glastonbury, for "Avallon" = "Afallen" is Welsh for "apple-trees", thus, the "Isle of Avallon" means "Isle of Apple-Trees", and Glastonbury was then and even into the tenth century an isle or a cluster of islets surrounded by swamps and lakes and abounding with apple-trees. This is confirmed by Giraldus Cambrensis in his "De Instructione Principium" (1194) who says that "what is now called Glastonia [Glastonbury] was anciently called "Insula Avallonia", for it was like an isle, or a group of islets, wholly surrounded by marshes, where there grew many apple-trees, whence its ancient name". He repeats this in his "Speculum Ecclesiae" (1216), and adds: "Avallonia is so called from British "aval" which means "apple", because the place abounded in apple-trees...". Vivien, called "Lady of The Lake", was then the abbess of a convent of nuns which was located on an islet in the middle of a lake at Glastonbury. She and the nuns of her convent may have been the ladies on the barge. It was probably to the convent where she was abbess that Arthur was taken to recover from his wounds, however, died on the way or shortly before arriving there. There is a story that Bedivere found Arthur on the morrow dead in a chapel at Glastonbury. He enquired of the caretaker there who told him that "at midnight here came a number of ladies and brought hither this corpse and prayed me to bury it, and here offered an hundred tapers". The body was recognized by Bedivere to be that of Arthur. This, of course, is legend, for it is not known what became of Arthur, and a query arose over his passing that gave rise to the myth that Arthur was still alive and that he would someday reappear in a time of national crisis, the "once and future king" myth that was popular in medieval folklore, which some see as a prophecy fulfilled in the Tudor Dynasty which descended directly in the male-line from King Arthur, and under which dynasty England-Wales began building an empire. Legend says that Bedivere, stricken with grief, became a hermit, but died shortly thereafter. The news of Arthur’s death was concealed for as long as possible in order not to rouse the barbarians, says Matthew of Westminster in his "History". The site of Arthur’s grave was kept secret to prevent its desecration by the barbarians. The knowledge of its whereabouts was eventually lost as those who knew its location died off, however, that may not be the case. It is claimed that about 650 years later a Welsh bard, who happened to be well versed in ancient British folklore, divulged the site of Arthur’s grave to King Henry II of England, saying that Arthur was buried in an unmarked grave in the Glastonbury Abbey cemetery between two obelisks that marks the site. The monks of Glastonbury in 1191 did find a grave there, but was it Arthur’s grave? The skeleton of Arthur was found in a rough coffin made of a hollowed-out tree-trunk buried 16 feet deep, and a metal cross was found buried with it which was inscribed: "memoria Artvrivs, rex omnivm Brittonivm, imperator". Giraldus Cambrensis wrote of the exhumation of Arthur’s body, and recorded the inscription on the Glastonbury Cross. It has been said by some linguists that the style of the Latin inscription betrays the cross as twelfth-century in origin, but that is debatable. Unfortunately, the cross disappeared in the eighteenth-century and without it to examine by modern methods there is no way to verify that it was Arthur's grave. It has been suggested that it was a hoax; that the monks at Glastonbury discovered an unmarked grave and subsequently claimed it as Arthur's to attract pilgrims to raise money for the abbey which was badly in need of repairs, and made the cross and inscribed those words on it as "proof" identifying it as Arthur’s grave. If that was the case, their scheme worked. The announcement of the discovery of Arthur’s grave created excitement all over Britain, and an eager public flocked to Glastonbury and poured money into the abbey’s coffers. The skeleton of Arthur was removed and placed in a marble sarcophagus in Glastonbury Abbey in front of the high-altar in 1278 where it remained until 1539 when Glastonbury Abbey was ransacked and all of its possessions plundered by the town's peasants, who dragged its last abbot up the hill of Glastonbury Tor where he was drawn-and-quartered by the mob. The sarcophagus was opened during the rampage and its contents stolen; and whatever became of Arthur’s remains is unknown. Today, the site of Arthur’s grave is marked by a notice-board in the midst of the abbey’s ruins.

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note: the Arthurian Genealogies

The Arthurian Genealogies were suppressed in the interest of "political correctness". For a whole generation people would shudder at the very mention of Arthur’s name, and he was one topic that polite society for a whole generation never talked about. It would explain the absence of Arthur’s name in contemporary records as well as the suppression of all records of his descendants; as in the case of Vortigern and his descendants, which cover-up is well-known and shows that it did happen, and certainly did so also in Arthur’s case. Here, one asks whether there is any indication that God was going to continue to express His kingship through Arthur’s descendants. The answer may be found in the prophecy which calls Arthur the "once and future king"; which does not mean that Arthur would return in person, but signifies the restoration of the fallen dynasty to the kingdom, which did eventually happen with the succession of the Tudor Family to the throne.

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part 1: ancestors

Both the "Bonedd Yr Arwr" and "Mostyn MS 117" begin with a sequence that is found in the "Aedd-Mawr Pedigree", that is, "Llyr, Bran, Caradoc"; next, the tradition of Eudaf "Hen", King of Britain, his daughter, Elen, wife of Maximus (Macsen "Wledic"), and his nephew, Kynan (Conan "Meriadoc", King of Armorica), who contends for the throne, then gives a list of the ancestors of King Arthur’s mother, Ygraine; while "Mostyn MS 117" and "Bonedd Yr Arwr-2" attempts to cover-up the ancestry of Arthur’s father from the Roman emperors and to make him the descendant of ancient British kings [which, he is, through several descent-lines from female-links]. The "Bonedd Yr Arwr" and "Mostyn MS 117" are attempts by their authors to make Arthur the representative of an ancient British royal lineage, to nationalize Arthur so to speak; just like the clerics in Alfred The Great’s Court, when compiling the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" substituted the royal British pedigree of Cerdic of Wessex for a royal Anglo-Saxon pedigree.

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ancestral-line "A": British Kings; descent of the title to the throne, royal-line

01. BRUT[US] "The Trojan", circa 1100BC, founds Iron Age monarchy

02(a) Loegre, bro of (2b) Kambre & (2c) Alafon

from whom descends:

56/64(a) BELI "MAWR" ["THE GREAT"], King of Britain, bro of 56/64(b) Bran

57/65(a) Lludd I, King of Britain, bro of (57/65b) Llefelys, King of Gaul [France]

58(a) Gwryth [Gurgust; Gwrwst] "Barbtruc", King of Britain, bro of (58b) Galamh [Milidh], King of Ireland, id. with ?Milesius

59. Perydd [Pyr; Pir], King of Britain

60. Capoir, King of Britain

61. Digueillus, King of Britain

62(a) Heli, co-king, bro of (62b) Mile, co-king, bro of (62c) Kian, co-king

63(a) Lludd II, co-king, bro of (63b) Nemed II, co-king, & (63c) one un-named bro, poss. id. with Cas "The Exile", father of Huu "Gadarn", i.e., "The Mighty"

64. Ivor [Iovir] [Eborcus], King of Britain

five generations: 65,66,67,68,69

70. AEDD MAWR ["THE GREAT"], King of Britain

71. Brut[us] II "Darianlas"/"Taryanlas", King of Britain

72(b) Leil [Lleon] "Ici", co-king, bro of (72a) Annyn "Tro", co-king, & (72c) Evelac [Evalh] "Cor", co-king

73. Rhun "Hudibras", aka Run "Paladyr Bras", King of Britain

74. BOADICEA [Boudicca], warrior-queen

= Prasutagus [Prwswtwg], King of Britain

75(a) Aheanua (dau), sis of (75b) Lanosea (dau)

= Marius, King of Britain 87-95, son of Arviragus, King, & Vanessa

76. Coilus I, aka "OLD KING COLE", King of Britain 95-154

=3 Lucille, dau of Lucius Artorius Castus, Roman Prefect

77. Lucius "The Saint", King of Britain

= Gwladys, dau of (76) Sarclotus, a desposyni prince, & (75) Eurgain,

dau of (74) Coellyn [St. Cyllin], son of (73) CARATACUS, hero-king

78. Gwladys, heiress (179-235)

= Cadfan, Lord of Cumbria

79. Strada (dau)

= Coilus II [Cole], King of Britain 305

80. "SAINT" HELENA (d328), queen

1= Constantine "Chlorus", King of Britain 305, Roman Emperor 306

81. CONSTANTINE I "THE GREAT",King of Britain 306;Roman Emperor 312 (d337)

=1 Gwladys [?concubine]

82. Constance (dau)

= Eudaf I "Hen", aka Octavius I "The Old", King of Britain

83. [H]Elen "Luyddog", queen/empress

= MACSEN "WLEDIC", aka MAXIMUS, King of Britain 382, Roman Emperor 383-388

84. Constantine II-King of Britain 406-409; III-Roman Emperor 409-411

= Severa, dau of Honorius, bro of RE Theodosius I "The Great"

85. Constans "The Monk", aka Konstant "Vynarch", King of Britain

= Marcia, dau of Stilicho, &, sis-in-law of Roman Emperor Honorius

86. Euther[ius] "Pen Dragon", aka Uthyr "Pendragon", King of Britain,

bro of Ambrosius, King of Britain & Roman Emperor

= Ygerne, dau of Amlawd "Wledic", King of Britain

87. ARTHUR

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ancestral-line "B": descent of Roman & British emperors, imperial-line

X. Tiberius Carisius Quaestor

= Julia Minor, sister of JULIUS CAESAR

from whom descends:

01. Aurelius Carisius

whose mother descended from Julia, daughter of OCTAVIUS CAESAR

02. Mausaeus

03. CARAUSIUS, "1st" British Emperor

= Oriuna, dau of Coilus II, sis of St. Helena & Esuvia

04. Genseris, claimant

= dau of Esudamos "Senos", Rex Cornubiensium", sister of BK Ascla

05. Carausius [II], claimant/usurper

= Flavia, dau of Flavius Sanctus, Roman Governor

06. Flavia (dau)

= Eucherius, Roman Governor, bro of "Count" Theodosius

07. MAXIMUS, King of Britain 382, Roman Emperor 383-388

= [H]Elen [II] "Luyddog, Queen/Empress

08. Constantine-II 'The Blessed", King of Britain 406; III-Roman Emperor 409-411

= Severa, dau of Honorius, bro of RE Theodosius "The Great"

09. Julian Caesar, royal heir

= Martiana, dau of BE Marcus Actius (406)

10. MARCIA, Empress/Queen, last of the imperial line

=3 Vortigern, King of Britain

11. Scotnoe (dau)

=3 Amlawd "Wledic", King of Britain

12. Ygerne [Igraine] (dau)

= Euther[ius] "Pen Draco", King of Britain 473-479

13. ARTHUR

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ancestral-line "C": from the Holy Family to the Royal Family; descent-line

01. MARY "THE VIRGIN"

02. "SAINT" JAMES, 1st Bishop of the Jerusalem Church (ex 62), one of JESUS' so-called "brothers"

03. Jude [Judas Justus] "Gaiso", 3rd Bishop of the Jerusalem Church 107-111

04 Elzasus [El-Kasai], Prefect of Province

06. Nahshon, aka Nascien I, Prefect of Province (135)

07B Cyleddon, Bishop of Alexandria (150), bro of  ?(07A) Dolihane, Prefect

08. Narpus [Warpus], Prefect of Province

09. Nascien II, Prefect of Province

10. Gallienus Quiriacus, Prefect of Province

11. Helyas [Elijah], Prefect

12. Isayes [Isaac], Prefect

13. Ionans [Johanan; Jonaanz], visits Bp of Rome (318)

14B Geronticus, Prefect of Viennensis, bro of (14A) Saracint[us], Prefect, bro of (14C) Fridolin[us]

15. Agripanius "The Master's Kin"

= Thametes, sis of Eudaf "Hen", King of Britain

16. Conan "Meriadoc", 1st King of Armorica [Brittany; Bretagne] 383-421

= Darerea

17. Gradlon I "Mur", King of Armorica 437-445

= Tigridia

18. Dahutte (dau)

= Kynwal "Kanhwch", King of Cornwall

19. Amlawd "Wledic", King of Britain

=3 Scotnoe

20. Ygerne (dau)

= Euther[ius] "Pen Draco", aka Uthyr "Pendragon", King of Britain

21. ARTHUR

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part 2: Arthur's Family

Arthur (b 25 Dec 479; d 16 Feb 538), the illegitimate son of King Eutherius "Pen Draco", the Welsh Uthyr "“Pendragon", who succeeded his childless older brother King Ambrosius of Britain, who is recorded by St. Gildas [fifth century] to have been the son of a Roman emperor; hence, Arthur was technically a Roman prince descended from the Roman emperors. Arthur, King of Britain, 495, 504, 507, founded the "original" U.K., that is, the union of Britain, Ireland, & France, in 519; but the union did not survive with France and Ireland both leaving the union.

=1(498) Guinevere (div 513), daughter of Gwrawd "Gwent", King of Gwent (Gawrwyd Ceint) (Kywryt "Keint"), whose pedigree, like those of Cole "Godebog", King of Gododdin; or Urbanus (Erp; Erb), the King of Glamorgan; or Gwyddno (Guithno) "Garanhir", King of Strathclyde; are on record and traceable without any breaks to the old Iron Age [pre-Roman] British royal house, thus, each could have been claimants to the British throne, which was achieved after the Arthurian Age when one of its off-shoots, the Kings of Wessex, "anglicized" during the Anglo-Saxon Era, attained to the British throne as the Kings of England. Gwrawd "Gwent" had a cousin, Cauritus [form of the name "Cerdic"], whose daughter Ysave, wife of Taredd "Wledic", was one of King Arthur’s mistresses, and the mother of his illegitimate son, Cerdic. The pedigree of the family of Queen Guinevere is given in Bartrum’s "Tracts".

=2(513) Winlogoto (div 527), daughter of the former "viceroy" over the western Roman empire, the Ostro-Gothic King, Theodoric I "The Great" (Ogyrvan "Gawr"; Gogfran "The Giant"), called "King of Italy" in history-books.

=3(528) Ganhumara, daughter of Gwerthefyr, identified with Gwythyr, King of Gwerthrynion, whose kings were styled as "King of Britons" and represented the royal house of Vortigern, the "Dark Age" King of Britain, and, through Vortigern another descent-line is traceable to the Iron Age [pre-Roman] British Royal House.

issue of 1st wife:

(a) [H]Elen[a] [probably named after his ancestress St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine "The Great"], a daughter, born 498, said to have been a sickly child and died before her first birthday, 499.

(b) Amhar (Ambris) (499-517), the variants of his name include Anir; Enir. The epithet "Fardd" in "Magna Carta" [the "Aedd Mawr Pedigree"] may be a copyist's error? His name is spelt Enir in "MC"; spelt Amr in "HB"; spelt Anir in "H". He assumed the throne on the rumor that his father, Arthur, had been killed in battle in France, and, in one document (Hedge 432) Amhar is called "a worthy successor of his great parents"; however, on the news that Arthur was alive, he became the British Absalom and raised a rebellion to hold the island against his father, but was defeated by his father, upon Arthur's return to Britain, Year 517, and Amhar was killed by some of Arthur's soldiers during the route of the remnant of his forces. He was survived by his widow, Aerea, the daughter of Cadrod (Cadraith) [and, his wife Gwrgan, daughter of St. Brychan], the son of Porthor "Gotto", the son of Gotto, the son of Vortigern, begotten of his 5th wife, Ronwen, daughter of Hengest, King of Kent [whom Vortigern had designated as his heir] [note: the sister of Vortigern's son Gotto was Alice, called "Mother of the English", as the wife of the first Anglo-Bretwalda, Aella of Sussex, and ancestress of English kings], and, survived by a son, Cadrod "Calchvynydd", who, raised by his mother and her parents, came forward as a claimant in the chaos that followed the murder of Hual, the boy-king, and his mother, Queen Lorile (Lenore; Lunette). It is through Amhar, Arthur’s son by Guinevere [his first wife], that descent-lines from King Arthur are traceable, and, if Maelgwn is accepted as Arthur's illegitimate son then through him another descent-line from Arthur is traceable. Too, Arthur had at least five or more illegitimate sons, through whom other descent-lines are traceable.

issue of 2nd wife:

(c) Llacheu (Lechou; Loholt) (514-523), a son, who was murdered in his youth, Year 523, and his head inside a box was tossed into his mother's lap while sitting next to her husband, King Arthur, during a formal state audience, with the entire court assembled in the throne-room. He is not to be confused with Lohoot, one of Arthur’s illegitimate sons, who was killed in the "2nd" Battle of Llongborth, Year 540, whose name is similar, who appears in the Welsh "Triads" as one of the "three fearless men" of Britain, whom Chretien de Troyes described as "a young man of great merit".

(d) Brennus (515-565), a son, whose mother, fearing that Arthur would kill the child not believing that it was his own, which suspicion was raised by rumors, sent him to be raised in her father’s palace at Ravenna, a town and army-base in Italy, where the later Roman emperors made their residence outside of Rome. It is said that he became a Roman/Byzantine general; and possibly may be identified with the half-brother of the Roman/Byzantine general Belisarius [same mother].

(e) Lenore (Lunette) (Lorile; Luned) (516-552), identified as Luned (Lynet) in the Welsh romance "Owain and Luned", in which she loves Owain but is a political pawn for those in power. Luned/Lorile (Lenore) =1 [name], King of Northumbria [Lothian]; =2 [her step-father] Votepore [his 4th =], BK 538; =3 Cinglas [his 3rd =]; =4 Maelwgn [his 5th =]; and, wife of another king; =5 [name]. St. Gildas (5th cent.) called her "a troublesome person". Hoel's father had been Maelgwn "the Dragon of The Isle", the illegitimate son of King Arthur by the wife of a British regional-king. Queen Luned/Lorile [sometimes Lenore] governed the country during the minority of her son, Hoel, 547-552. The queen and her son, the boy-king, were both murdered in a conspiracy of the Saxon dukes in the royal court, in 552.

(f) Argante (Urganda), a daughter, whose mother was unsure whether the child’s father was Lancelot, her paramour, or Arthur, her husband; and, throughout her childhood the girl hoped that Arthur would recognize her as his daughter, but he never does.

issue of 3rd wife:

(g) Gwydre (Votireus) (529-538), who is not to be confused with one of Arthur's illegitimate sons whose name was also Gwydre, who legend says was killed 528 in "the great boar-hunt". The story that he was a sickly boy is confused with a story about Lleu, his half-brother. Gwydre grew up a sickly-child, and significantly younger than his half-brothers, who were already grown when he is born. The author of this piece of information added that Amhar and Lechou, or Anir and Lleu in other stories, the older half-brothers of Gwydre, had matured into "wicked young men", who hate their neglectful father. In the chaos that followed Arthur's death, his son, Gwydre was murdered, age 9, Year 538, along with the boy's mother, Queen Ganhumara, Arthur’s widow.

(h) Arwena, posthumous daughter (538-585), who was the mother of Blythan, a knight in the service of King Ceawlin of Wessex, called "King of Britain", whose daughter [name] (555-600) was the wife of [identity uncertain].

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The order of birth of Arthur's illegitimate issue is uncertain; medieval romance gave Arthur several illegitimate children, among whom were:

(a) Modred (Mordred; Medrawt), an illegitimate son begotten during a one-night-stand with his half-sister Morgan "Le Fai", in 506, though, officially he was Arthur’s nephew. Mo[r]dred was sent by his mother to King Arthur's Court when he came of age; Arthur did not like the boy but allowed him to stay and prove himself as a knight. He rebelled the first time against his father while Arthur was in France during the Lancelot/Guinevere affair, which rebellion collapsed on Arthur’s return, and he was banished from court, and returned to his mother’s house. Later, he was the focus of a nationalistic coup while Arthur [who had turned "European", which was unpopular in British attitude] was overseas. It was during the "Italian Campaign" at the climax of Arthur's career. It was Arthur's plan to revive the "original [Roman] empire", that is, to unify Europe into a super-state, which was the whole point of the expedition. Mordred, encouraged by the British nobles, rebelled the second time and usurped the British throne. When the news reached Arthur, he turned over command of his "Grand-Army" to Eleutherius "of the Great Army" [id. with Eliffer "Gosgorddvawr", King of Gododdin], and hurried back to Britain, where Modred was killed in battle, 16 Feb. 538, and, his father, King Arthur, was mortally wounded and disappears from history. Mo[r]dred was survived by the off-spring of three woman. His 1st wife [or mistress], Aefa, was the mother of a daughter, Maeve, the wife of Arne, son of Prince Valiant of Denmark, and, mother of Inga, the wife of [name]. His 2nd wife, Cwyllog, daughter of Gawolane (Caw), was the mother of two sons, Melhan (Melyon; Meleon) and Morwen (Morcar), both murdered in 538. ?And, his 3rd wife [or mistress], Danu, was the mother of his posthumous daughter, Thenu, wife of [name].

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alternative-line: ancestry of Cerdic of Wessex

(b) Cerdic of Wessex has recently been identified by Geoffrey Ashe with one of King Arthur's sons who bore that name. It is no surprise that Arthur would have given the name "Cerdic" to one of his sons, which was a very popular name among British royalty at that time, and would have given him an estate, which in this case was Wessex. In medieval romance we find that King Arthur, who had numerous mistresses, begot Cerdic of his mistress Ysave, wife of Taredd "Wledic", daughter of Cauritus (Cerdic), Duke/King of Gwent. This identification is based on the "ASC" 534 date of Cerdic’s death; for the Cerdic who died in 534 was King Arthur’s son, who was killed in his father's [Arthur’s] 534 French campaign. If this identification is the correct one we would still have an alternative genealogy for Cerdic, however, it would not be through pre-Roman British kings [except through female-links] but through the Roman emperors, who were King Arthur's male-line ancestors.

There is also the possibility that Cerdic of Wessex may have been as many as three contemporary persons who bore that name who successively held office as duke, ealdorman, or king of Wessex!?!, which would be another theory (below).

(c) Malgan (Maelgwn) "Hir" or "Gwynedd", an illegitimate son, from a "tryst" with Meddyf, wife of Cadwel "Lauhir" of Gwynedd, daughter of Maeldaf "Hnaef" [son of Dylan Draws] and his wife [the sister of Tristam], which questions rose: was he Arthur's son, or the son of Cadwal "Lauhir", King of Gwynedd; or possibly the son of Owain [ap Edeyrn], King of Edeirnion; or the son of Meirion, King of Merioneth; who, apparently, were other of Meddyf's lovers; however, Arthur sees something of himself in Maelgwn that he likes and adopts Maelgwn and raises him, wanting to believe that the boy is his; but Maelgwn holds a grudge against Arthur over the treatment of his mother, whom he banished when her harlotries came to embarrass of the whole country. Maelgwn [Malgan] appears in the genealogies as the son of Cadwal "Lauhir"; however, "successor" is a more appropriate term than "son" [which relationship was questionable]; for after the death of Cadwal "Laudir", Arthur appointed Maelgwn (GM’s Malgo) as sub-king of Gwynedd as Cadwal Lauhir’s successor, and it is recorded that way in the Welsh regnal-lists. Indeed, he was only the successor of Cadwal "Lauhir" as King of Gwynedd and actually the son of King Arthur, who put him in that office. This would explain a few things; and would give Arthur another descent-line. Maelgwn’s epithet "Dragon of The Isles" hints of his Arthurian affiliation; whose shield or flag was emblazoned with a "red dragon". His 5th marriage to his "supposed" half-sister [different mothers] was technically considered incestuous despite the uncertainty of his parentage; and he was obliged by the clergy, the nobles, and public opinion, to annul the marriage. Maelgwn was forced to abdicate by Cerdic (Keredic) of Britain, his successor as Britain's king; and Maelgwn entered a monastery and became a monk. He came out of retirement in 541and ruled Britain in a triumvirate of three co-dukes, of whom he was one.

(d) Smerbe (Smerevie; Smeirbhe), an illegitimate son of Arthur by Lassie, the daughter of the Duke of Argyle.

(e) Cinnede, an illegitimate son of Arthur by Maeve of Munster, Ireland, the daughter of its king; proposed as the ancestor of the Kennedy Family & its branches.

(f) Arawn, an illegitimate son of Arthur, father of Arian, king/duke, ancestor of Aeron (dau), queen, wife of a "barbarian king", prob. Ceolwulf, King of Mercia, the parents of Alfleda, wife of Wigmund, a Mercian noble, parents of Edburh, wife of Ethelred Mucil, Earl of the Gainis, the parents of Alswintha, wife of Alfred "The Great", [1st] King of England.

(x) other sons and daughters: include Archfedd (dau), 3rd wife of Lleu "Frodded Farfog", the mother of Efadier and Gwrial, Arthur's grandsons.

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descendants

England's King Henry VII sent John Lleiaf, a priest, and Guttyn Owain, a bard, to Wales to research the Tudor ancestry from local records. The Lleiaf-Owain Commission deduced King Henry VII's descent from Rhodri "Mawr", the first King of Wales, and, from him, via Llywarch "Hen", from the Dark Age British King Cole "Godebog", a descendant of Britain's pre-Saxon and pre-Roman royal house, which is recorded in a series of genealogies in the Jesus College collection (JC # 17-23), however, the earliest annalistic texts to the nature of the ancestry of Rhodri "Mawr" was sometime earlier obscured by medieval clerics, doubtless due to the political climate of the times. The findings of the Lleiaf-Owain Commission contradicted a long-time tradition in the Tudor Family that had been passed down from generation to generation that King Arthur was its ancestor. Henry VII did not promote the findings of the commission, but instead promoted his family's tradition that King Arthur was his family's ancestor. The Arthurian Tradition was maintained by the Tudors despite the commission's findings, and later scholarship has shown that John Lleiaf and/or Guttyn Owain very likely misidentified "Llywarch" in the "Aedd Mawr Pedigree" with "Llywarch "Hen" in the "Cole Godebog Pedigree", which error now corrected authenticates the Arthurian tradition in the Tudor Family. The error by the Lleiaf-Owain Commission was accepted by "academia" until 1710 when the "Aedd Mawr Pedigree" was deciphered by a university student coupled with more documentary evidence and genealogical data surfacing by which the descent-line connecting the Tudor kings to King Arthur could be traced by putting the various pieces of genealogical data together like a jigsaw puzzle to make the whole picture. It was discovered that in all probability the patrilineage of Rhodri "Mawr" to Cole "Godebog" was invented to provide a genealogical justification for his title "Rex Brittonum" since Cole "Godebog" was known to have descended from pre-Roman British kings. The Tudor Family's "Arthurian Tradition" was not taken into account by the Lleiaf-Owain Commission primarily due to the fact that the genealogy of King Arthur had been earlier suppressed by medieval clerics, just like in the case of Vortigern for example; and research was just then uncovering genealogical data from recently discovered medieval manuscripts theretofore unknown that gave the missing pieces of the puzzle to complete the genealogy of the Arthurian Dynasty and its descendants. For, the King Arthur we know of legend is totally opposite the King Arthur portrayed in the "Lives of The Saints", whose authors described Arthur as an Anti-Christ figure. The only people who wrote and kept records in King Arthur's time were church clerics; and they had no love for Arthur and made every effort to vilify him by their malicious slander in their writings. In fact, the phrase "meibion eillion" ["veibion eillion"], meaning "male hereditary villeins", that is, "serfs" [see "Kings, Chronicles, and Genealogies", by David Thornton, page 91, footnote # 74], was adopted by early medieval clerics to refer to Arthur's Dynasty and its generations. The phrase certainly referred to Arthur's illegitimacy and probably had its origin in the slanderous rumor that King Eutherius was not his father, but rather his father was one of his mother's [Ygerne's] servants ["villeins"].

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LINE A: main-line

He = Wynyn (Wen), a British princess, and begot seven sons and three daughters, who were:

(1.1) Cyndywyn (mur 556); (1.2) Cyndeyrn "Wledic", anti-king 560-565; (1.3) Condidan (Cynheiddon), rival-king 571/573-577; (1.4) Gwrmyl "Cadgyr-Farch" (d581), whose marriage to a peasant woman caused a royal scandal at the time, which tainted their son; (1.4.1) Cynfeddw [rival king 613, killed 614], who was reared by his mother after his father's early death; (1.5) Llywarch [not to be identified with Llywarch "Hen" of the "Cole Godebog Pedigree"], the father of two sons, (1.5.1) Idwal "Valch" [ancestor of the dynasty's main-line, extinct in the male-line 729] and (1.5.2) Dwywg [ancestor of Rhodri "Mawr", the first King of Wales, 872]; (1.6) Yspwys, Lord of Ercing [Ergyng] (d581) [the ancestor of the Tudors of England and other Welsh families]; (1.7) Cynferch, rival-king 581-593; (1.8) Andrive; one of whom was the 2nd wife of Cynwyd "Cynwydion" [of the "Cole Godebog Pedigree"] and the mother of Cadrod (Cadros) of Kelso, that is, the third person with the name Cadrod in three successive generations. It is no wonder that the three are sometimes confused with each other; and, (1.9) Saraide; (1.X) Rexelle

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= identity of her husband unsure; may have been a Mercian prince; died before wife's accession

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LINE B: secondary-line, the "Rhodri Mawr Pedigree"

= Celenion, a Manx princess, eventual heiress of the Isle of Man

= Telri of Manaw

= Esyllt, eventual heiress of Gwynedd [Maelgwn's line], which was a collateral Arthurian descent-line

= Nest, eventual heiress of Powys

[note: Patrick Sims-William concluded in his article "Historical Need and Literary Narrative: A Caveat from Ninth Century Wales", The Welsh History Review, vol. 17 (1994), page 17, that Merfyn "Frych" came from the Isle of Man and that he descended on his father's side from a "descent-line of Britons who must had been of some importance", since his family-line had married into the Manx royal house]

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LINE C: secondary-line, the Tudor Family Pedigree

= [name], the sister of St. Samlet of Gwent

= Tegau, the daughter of Tudor "Mawr" of Brittany, the mother, not wife, of Alltu "Redegog"

= Margaret, the English heiress

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note: The descendants of King Arthur are still traceable in the male-line to the present time to the Anwyl Family, which family still resides in Britain, and, which family actually represents the House of Arthur genealogically, though not historically nor legally, as does Britain's present Royal Family, which descends from the heiress of the dynasty's main-line.

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