curred near Bath." 8 III. Its chronology is not clear. CHAP. The Welsh MSS. in the red book of Hergest, says, that 128 years intervened from the age of Gwrtheyrn to the battle of Badon, in which Arthur and the elders conquered the Saxons." ARTHUR was the British chieftain who so long resisted the progress of Cerdic. The unparalleled celebrity which this Briton has attained, in his own country and elsewhere, both in history and romance, might be allowed to exalt our estimation of the Saxon chief, who maintained his invasion, though an Arthur opposed him, if the British hero had not himself been unduly magnified into an incredible and inconsistent conqueror. 530. tory of THE authentic actions of Arthur have been so The prodisfigured by the additions of the minstrels, and of bable hisJeffry, that many writers have denied that he ever Arthur. lived 10 but this is an extreme, as objectionable as 7 Mr. Carte describes the Mount of Badon, in Berkshire, p. 205. Usher places the battle at Bath, p. 477. Camden also thinks that Badon Hill is the Bannesdowne, or that which overhangs the little village Bathstone, and exhibits still its bulwarks and a rampire. Gibson, ed. p. 470. 8 Gildas, in a passage of difficult construction, says, as we interpret, that it took place forty four years before he wrote, -annum obsessionis Badonici montis, qui que quadragessimus quartus ut novi oritur annus, mense jam primo emenso qui jam et meæ nativitatis est, s. 26. Bede construed it to mean the forty-fourth year after the Saxon invasion, lib. i. c. 16., but the words of Gildas do not support him. Matt. West. p. 186., places it in 520. Langhorn, p. 62., prefers 511. 9 See this published in the Cambrian Register, p. 313. Pryse, in his Defensio, p. 120., quotes a passage of Taliesen on this battle, which I have not observed among his printed poems. 10 His existence was doubted very early. Genebrard said, it might be inferred from Bede, Arcturum magnum nunquam extitisse. Chron. lib. iii. ap. Usher, 522.-Sigebert, who wrote in the twelfth century, complained that, except in the then newly-published British history, nullam de eo mentionem invenimus. 1 Pistori Rer. German. 504.-Our Milton is also sceptical about him. Many others are as unfriendly to his fame. BOOK 530. His birth. 13 the romances which occasioned it. The tales that all human perfection was collected in Arthur"; that giants and kings who never existed, and nations which he never saw, were subdued by him; that he went to Jerusalem for the sacred cross 12; or that he not only excelled the experienced past, but also the possible future 13, we may, if we please, recollect only to despise; but when all such fictions are removed, and those incidents only are retained which the sober criticism of history sanctions with its approbation, a fame ample enough to interest the judicious, and to perpetuate his honourable memory, will still continue to claim our belief and applause. THE most authentic circumstances concerning Arthur, appear to be these: He was a chieftain in some part of Britain near its southern coasts. As a Mouric, king of Glamorganshire, had a son named Arthur at this period 14, and many of Arthur's actions are placed about that 11 And, in short, God has not made, since Adam was, the man more perfect than Arthur. Brut. G. ab Arthur. 2 W. Archaoiol. p. 299. 12 Nennius, or his interpolator, Samuel, pledges himself that the fragments of the cross brought by Arthur were kept in Wedale, six miles from Mailross. 3 Gale, p. 114.-Langhorn, whose neat Latin Chronicle of the Saxon kingdoms I wish to praise for its general precision, adduces Jerom and others to prove that Britons used to visit Jerusalem, p. 47. 13 Joseph of Exeter, in his Elegant Antiocheis, after contrasting the inferior achievements of Alexander, Cæsar, and Hercules, with those of his flos regum Arthurus, adds, Sed nec pinetum coryli, nec sidera solem 14 Reg. Llandav. Ap. Usher, p. 519. district, it has been thought probable that the celebrated Arthur was the son of Mouric: but this seems to have been too petty a personage, and too obscure for his greater namesake, who is represented by all the traditions and history that exist concerning him to have been the son of Uthur. CHAP. III. 530. He is represented in the Lives of the Welsh Hisactions. Saints, with incidents that suit the real manners of the age. Meeting a prince in Glamorganshire, who was flying from his enemies, Arthur was, at first, desirous of taking by force the wife of the fugitive. His military friends, Cei and Bedguir, persuaded him to refrain from the injustice; and to assist the prince to regain his lands. 15 A BRITISH chief having killed some of his warriors, Arthur pursues him with all the avidity of revenge. At the request of St. Cadoc, Arthur submits his complaint to the chiefs and clergy of Britain, who award Arthur a compensation. 16 Ar another time, Arthur is stated to have plundered St. Paternus, and to have destroyed a monastery in Wales." These incidents suit the short character which Nennius gives of him, that he was cruel from his childhood. 18 It is stated, by Caradoc of Llancarvan, that Melva, the king of Somersetshire, carried off Arthur's wife, by force, to Glastonbury. Arthur, with his friends, whom he collected from Cornwall and Devonshire, assaulted the ravisher. The ecclesiastics interposed, and persuaded Melva to return her peaceably. Arthur received her, and 15 Vita S. Cadoci, Cott. MSS. Vesp. A. 14. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. Vita S. Paterni MS. Cei is mentioned as his companion in a poem of Taliesin's. 18 Nenn. c. 62. BOOK III. 530. both the kings rewarded the monks for their useful interference.19 ARTHUR also maintained a war against the Britons, in the north of the island; and killed Huel their king. He was greatly rejoiced at this success; because, says Caradoc, he had killed his most powerful enemy. Thus Arthur, by his wars, with his own countrymen, as much assisted the progress of the Saxons, as he afterwards endeavoured to check it, by his struggles with Cerdic. 20 HE may have fought the twelve battles mentioned by Nennius"; but it is obvious, from the preceding paragraphs, that they were not all directed against the Anglo-Saxons. He is represented by Nennius, as fighting them in conjunction with the kings of the Britons. It is clear from many authorities, that there were several kings at this time in different parts of Britain." But there appears, as the preceding pages have intimated, to have been a paramount sovereign; a Pen-dragon, or Penteyrn; who, in nominal dignity at least, was superior to every 19 Carad. Vit. Gild. MSS. King's Lib. Malmsbury mentions, in his History of Glastonbury, p. 307., one circumstance of Arthur sending Ider, the sun of King Nuth, on an adventure, after having knighted him; but it is too romantically narrated to be classed among the authentic facts. Giants have no right to admission into ordinary history. 20 Carad. 21 Nenn. c. 62, 63. He thus enumerates them:-1st, at the mouth of the river called Glen; 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th, on another river called Douglas, in the region of Linius; 6th, on the river called Bassas; the 7th, in the wood of Caledon; the 8th, in Castle Gunnion, where he adds that Arthur had the image of the cross and of Mary on his shoulders; the 9th, at Caerlon; the 10th, on the banks of the Rebroit; the 11th, on the mount called Agned Cathregonion; the 12th, on the Badon Hills. 22 The Cott. MSS. Vesp. A. 14., in the Lives of the Welsh Saints, mention several in Wales. other. Arthur is exhibited in this character 23; and his father Uthur had the same appellation.24 FOUR of the battles, ascribed to him by Nennius, have been ably illustrated by Mr. Whittaker." Mr. Camden and others had remarked, that the Douglas, on which Nennius had placed them, was a river in Lancashire. The historian of Manchester, whom I am happy to praise for his genius and energy, has commented on the positions of these conflicts with great local knowledge. His fancy, though often too prolific, and even on this portion of our history peculiarly active, yet describes these with so much probability, that we may adopt his sketches as history. We THE battle of Badon Hills, or near Bath, has been celebrated as Arthur's greatest and most useful achievement; a long interval of repose to the Britons has been announced as its consequence 26; yet it is curious to remark, that this victory only checked the progress of Cerdic; and does not appear to have produced any further success. hear not of the vindictive pursuit of Arthur, of the invasion of Hampshire, or the danger of Cerdic. The Saxon was penetrating onwards even towards Wales or Mercia; he was defeated, and did not advance.27 No other conflicts ensued. Arthur was content to repulse. This must have been 23 Trioedd 7. p. 3. 24 There is an elegy on Uthyr's death among the ancient British bards. See Welsh Arch. vol. i. 25 Hist. Manch. vol. ii. p. 43-45. 4to. ed. 26 This seems to be the battle mentioned by Gildas and Bede, which occurred when Gildas was forty-four years old. 27 Bede's expressions, taken from Gildas, express the general truth of these conflicts. "Now the natives, now their enemies conquered, until the siege of the Hills of Bath, when they (the Britons) did not give the least slaughter to their enemies," c. 16. p. 53. CHAP. III. 530. |