The Mammoth Book of King Arthur

by Mike Ashley

  With no help from Europe, Britain was left to its own devices. The approach within each of the four provinces was probably different. With no surviving written record we do not know what happened and can only surmise from a vague knowledge of later history, all too much of which has to be viewed through the haze of myth. It becomes apparent, however, from the archaeological record, that every effort was made to continue with Roman life as much as normal. The area most affected was the heavily militarized zone in the north, in Britannia Secunda. Never really acquiring the civilized benefits of the south, it had been occupied and run by the legions and settled by legions’ families, who dominated and controlled the local British. If there was anywhere where the old native rivalries would surface, it was going to be in the north.

  2. Northern Britain

  Britannia Secunda contained the tribes of the Carvetii, Parisii and Brigantes, the last of which was the biggest and most rebellious. This was also the area under the control of the dux Britanniarum who would need to stamp his authority, not only in marshalling troops to fight back the Picts, but also to quell any internal rebellions. We do not know the name of the dux Britanniarum at this time, but a name that rapidly comes to the fore is Coel, or “Old King Cole.” The real Coel is so wrapped in legend that it is difficult to get at the truth.

  If Coel was not formally appointed as the Northern dux Britanniarum – and he might have been by Constantine III before the latter’s departure for Gaul – he almost certainly filled that role. His official base was at York, but the flimsy evidence that survives, most of it circumstantial, suggests that he operated primarily from Carlisle. It’s quite possible that Coel took over control of the old Roman province of Valentia if, as has been surmised, this was based in the north-west around Carlisle. Valentia had already shown a strong disposition to independence in the late Roman period, and would certainly have sought to reestablish itself as an independent state soon after the end of Roman authority.

  Genealogists would establish a pedigree for Coel, identifying descent from the early pre-Roman kings, with a line direct from Caswallon (see Table 3.2). Some genealogies identify his father as Guotepauc or Godebog, but most authorities now believe that Guotepauc was an epithet. In the old Brythonic tongue it means “protector” or “defender”, a title that fits the role of dux admirably.

  We do not know Coel’s tribal affiliations. Regardless of the genealogies, which suggest a descent from the pre-Roman Catuvellauni tribe, his forefathers could have come from any where, having been posted to help command Hadrian’s Wall. Coel, if not from the local Brigantes, may have been a seventh or eighth generation settler along the Wall. Coel is also associated with Kyle in Galloway – indeed some believe Kyle’s name comes from Coel, though really it comes from the gaelic word caol meaning ‘strait’ – so he may have been from the Novantae tribe.

  By all accounts Coel had rivals in the area between the walls. This area had never been under direct Roman control (unless it was Valentia), though the Votadini had been friendly towards Rome and probably provided a policing role. The territory of the Votadini stretched around the eastern coast from the Forth estuary to Hadrian’s Wall. The north-western part of their lands was known as the Manau Gododdin. Gododdin was, in fact, a Brythonic variant of the name Votadini, and later the whole tribe became known as the Gododdin. Over time, they became divided between the Manau in the north and the southern Gododdin, later Bryneich.

  The earliest known ruler of the Manau is Cunedda, grandson of Paternus who may have been a commander placed in control of the territory by Magnus Maximus. Cunedda was evidently something of a thug. An elegy to him, Marwnad Cunedda, attributed to Taliesin, calls him a “relentless raider,” and implies that he had control of all the lands between the walls and perhaps even south into Cumbria. At some stage Coel and Cunedda must have reached a treaty. The elegy describes how Cunedda’s warhounds “will constrain the Coeling in a truce of peace.” The genealogies state that Cunedda married Coel’s daughter Gwawl, which doubtless sealed the treaty. The rivalry between the Coelings and Cunedda is hinted at in another poem, Y Gododdin, which I will discuss in more detail later. This poem describes how the Gododdin “used to defend their land against the sons of Godebawc, wicked folk.” A picture of open and continuous warfare in the north with Coel seeking to stamp his overall authority becomes apparent.

  One other name emerges in the north via the writings of St. Patrick. He refers to a king Coroticus, who was slave trading with the Irish. Coroticus is believed to be Ceretic, who became a ruler of Strathclyde, the old tribe of the Damnonii, at about the same time that Cunedda ruled in the Manau. The genealogies suggest that Ceretic, like Cunedda, was descended from Romano-British who were probably military commanders in northern Britain (see Table 3.4).

  We do not know Coel’s precise dates, but it is probable that he was dead by the year 430. His territory was divided between his “sons” (if the genealogies are correct), though some of these may have been military deputies whom Coel appointed as a successor. One of these, Germanianus (called Garbanion by the British), although identified as a son, was almost certainly a high ranking military commander, whose name suggests either a Germanic origin or that he was a commander of Germanic troops. He probably received command of territory east of the Pennines, including York and the southern Gododdin, whilst another “son”, Ceneu, received the land west of the Pennines, including the territory of the Carvetii, later known as Rheged and which may have been Valentia. There was a third son, Dydrwr, who may have pre-deceased Coel, as we know no more about him, but otherwise we must presume he took command of some territory, possibly the Manau or land to the south that later became the kingdom of Elmet.

  At some stage, perhaps as part of a treaty with Coel, Cunedda went south, to North Wales, to lead the resistance against the Irish raiders. Cunedda’s son Tybion remained in the Manau but did not establish a dynasty, and it is probable that his territory was fought over by the sons of Coel. Cunedda’s shift to Wales is mentioned by Nennius in an infuriating section which has rankled scholars ever since.

  We will discuss Nennius’s Historia Britonum in detail later, but this part is best discussed here. In Section 62 he says:

  Maelgwn the Great King ruled the British in Gwynedd, for his ancestor [atavus] Cunedda, with his eight sons, had come from the North, from the country called Manaw Gododdin, 146 years before Maelgwn reigned and expelled the Irish from these countries with immense slaughter, so that they never again returned to inhabit them.

  If the 146 years runs from the start of Maelgwyn’s reign, usually regarded as 534, then it takes us back to 388AD. This means that Cunedda came down from the North to fight the Irish in Wales at the same time as the death of Maximus, and while Britain was still part of the Empire. We know that Eochaid had established a base in south-west Wales, in Demetia, at around this same time and it may be that, with a power vacuum left by Maximus’s death and that of his eldest son, the officials in Britain brought further troops down as a defence. This would make Cunedda a contemporary with Coel, but the likely dates of his descendants means that this date is too early.

  The genealogies list Maelgwyn as Cunedda’s great grandson. If we allow 25–30 years to a generation, that means that if Maelgwyn was at the height of his powers in the 530s, then Cunedda was probably most active in the 450s. This could be stretched back to the 430s. The alternative is that the genealogies are wrong. The word used to describe Cunedda’s relationship with Maelgwyn is atavus. As Leslie Alcock explains in Arthur’s Britain, this word can be used loosely to describe an ancestor, or more precisely to describe a great-great-great-grandfather. This adds two further generations, or another 50–60 years, exactly what is needed to fill the gap.

  The time span of 146 years is so precise that whoever first calculated it clearly had something specific in mind. It cannot be a copyist’s error because the years are written out in full – centum quadraginta sex. It could, of course, just be a false figure to reinfor
ce the authority of Cunedda’s descendants over North Wales in their rivalry with the rulers of Powys and Gwent. If it is, then we have no real guidance.

  But as we have seen, errors exist elsewhere relating either to the Easter cycle of 19 years, or to the gap between the incarnation and passion or death of Christ. The 146 years could have been calculated with a built-in error. The likeliest is the difference between the birth and passion of Christ, noted by Nennius as 35 years. Deducting this brings the gap to 111 years which, if deducted from 534, gives 423. This might suggest that Cunedda moved south after reaching an agreement with Coel. There might also have been an arrangement with Ceretic of Alclud, because by the mid fifth century there is a clear spread of control. Ceretic and his descendants ruled the land between the walls, the Coelings ruled northern Britain (sometimes called Brigantia), and Cunedda ruled Venedotia, with its base at Anglesey but spreading across North Wales.

  3. Southern Britain

  The position in the south was far less clear. There were three provinces: Maxima Caesariensis, the original base for the vicarius, with its capital at London; Flavia Caesariensis, with its capital at Lincoln, and the first (from the archaeological record) under major threat from the Saxon settlers; and Britannia Prima, which included Wales. North Wales was uncertain territory, not unlike Northern Britain. It was primarily a militarized zone with minimal Roman settlement, despite the legionary fortress at Chester and another major fort at Segontium (Caernarvon). This had been the area of the Deceangli and Ordovices tribes, both of whom, like the Brigantes in northern Britain, had been hostile to Rome. South-west Wales, the area of the Demetae, was the main focus for Irish settlement, and it is evident that with the withdrawal of troops by Magnus Maximus the Irish had succeeded in settling in Demetia and had established what became the kingdom of Dyfed. It is interesting that the name in the pedigrees at about the time of the Roman withdrawal is Tryphun, a Brythonic version of “tribune”, which may have been a rank and not a name.

  This arc, from Demetia through west and north Wales, rapidly shifted away from centralised Roman control. When Cunedda came down from Manau Gododdin to North Wales in the 420s, he was able to establish various territories for himself and his sons, that subsequently became the kingdoms of Gwynedd (Venedotia), Ceredigion and Meirionydd plus the smaller chiefdoms of Rhos and Dunoding. The tables at the end of this chapter show the emergence of these kingdoms and attempt to provide a chronology of their rulers.

  South Wales was another matter. Despite the original hostility of the Silures to the Romans, south Wales had become heavily Romanized as had the area later known as the Welsh Marches. This territory included the Severn basin and was the rich heartland of Roman Britain. Here were the towns of Gloucester, Worcester and Wroxeter, plus Cirencester, the biggest city in Britain after London.

  Just what happened here, both within this territory and between it and Maxima Caesariensis, is not entirely clear but, according to the accounts left by Gildas and Nennius, there was discord between various factions. Two names become prominent, Vitalinus and Ambrosius. Vitalinus, according to Nennius’s genealogies, came from the city of Gloucester, but is described by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the archbishop of London. Whether Geoffrey meant archbishop or someone in a senior magisterial role is not clear, but it may well be that Vitalinus made himself head of the province of Maxima Caesariensis, whilst Ambrosius took control of parts of Britannia Prima. Vitalinus, though, may have belonged to the Cornovii civitas as his grandson, whom we shall come to know as Vortigern, was regarded as the ancestor of the rulers of Powys, the kingdom that grew out of that civitas. Ambrosius, on the other hand, may have belonged to the Dobunni tribe which occupied the Severn estuary and parts of Somerset and Wiltshire. Their power struggle seems to have had consequences for both the provinces of Britannia Prima and Maxima Caesariensis and, in due course, for Arthur.

  The leading official in the civitas of Caerwent, out of which would emerge the kingdoms of Gwent and Glywysing, was probably Owain Finddu, another of the sons of Magnus Maximus. His name is given in one of the Welsh Triads, ancient triplets of verse used to memorise people and events (see Chapter 8). Triad 13 lists the “Three Chief Officers of the Island of Britain”:

  Caradawg son of Bran

  And Cawrdaf son of Caradawg

  And Owain son of Macsen Wledig.

  Owain was not Maximus’s eldest son – that was Victor, who was murdered soon after Maximus’s death in 388. Owain was Victor’s younger brother and, though we do not know his age, he may still have been quite young at the time of his father’s death, perhaps only in his early teens. This means he would have been in his thirties around the year 410 and, because of his parentage and seniority, may well have been appointed as deputy by Constantine III when he left for Gaul. The very phrase “chief officer”, rather than king or ruler, suggests a senior administrative role, such as provincial governor or possibly vicarius.

  It has been suggested that Owain (the British version of the Roman Eugenius), was the same person as the puppet emperor set up by Arbogast in 392. But Zosimus recorded the execution of Eugenius after the battle of Frigidius in 394, an event he is not likely to have got wrong.

  Through his mother, Owain was a grandson of Eudaf Hen, who could claim descent from Caratacus. Eudaf, the Brythonic version of Octavius, was almost certainly a high-ranking Romano-British official, who had held command in Gwent in the fourth century. Geoffrey of Monmouth calls him a duke of the Gewisse, and I shall explore what that means in more detail later. According to tradition, Eudaf married the daughter of the usurper Carausius, which is unlikely, as that would push his lifetime back to the dawn of the fourth century. His own daughter is supposed to have married the shadowy Carausius II, which may well be how the Carausius connection arose, and places Eudaf more satisfactorily in the middle of the fourth century. He was almost certainly dead by 410, but his power and influence had been strong, and many of the later rulers of southern Britain, including Arthur, would claim descent from him (see Table 3.1).

  Table 3.1 The Arthurian Patriarchs

  So it is possible that, in the decade after 410, the three leading officials in Britain were all based in Britannia Prima: Vitalinus in Wroxeter (though bishop of London), Ambrosius in Gloucester or Cirencester, and Owain in Caerwent.

  Eudaf’s own sons and grandsons were also active at this time, though not necessarily in Britain. Two of his sons, Cynan and Gadeon, had apparently supported Maximus in his bid for Empire in the 380s. In reward, Maximus made Cynan leader of the British who settled in Brittany around the end of the fourth century. The earliest known chieftain of Brittany was Cynan Meriadoc, and there is some confusion between him and Cynan ab Eudaf. Meriadoc is usually assigned dates towards the middle of the fifth century, whereas Cynan ab Eudaf must have been born in the mid fourth century, and was perhaps in his forties when he fought alongside Maximus.

  Gadeon joined Cynan in Brittany, and the two brothers may have ruled jointly. Almost certainly Cynan was dead by 410, and Gadeon may have been too. His successor Saloman has been accorded the dates 405–412 for his reign. Gadeon was old enough to have a daughter, Ystradwel, who allegedly married Coel, and if he had also fought alongside Maximus in the 380s, he must have been in his sixties by 405. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who frequently gets his facts back to front, reports of animosity between Cynan and Eudaf over the crown of Britain, with Cynan believing he was the rightful heir. This may mask a real tension that developed between Owain and Cynan.

  Legend remembers Owain as a strong, virile man, who fought the giant Eurnach, with both wielding tree trunks. The same legend records that although Owain defeated Eurnach the giant fell on Owain, killing him. This may all be fanciful, but at the core it may be a folk memory of Owain struggling against a greater authority whom Owain weakened, but who ultimately defeated him. That greater authority could well have been Vitalinus, or Vitalinus’s grandson Vortigern, who was also Owain’s brother-in-law, having married Maximus’s daughter Seve
ra. Owain’s tomb is recorded as being at Beddgelert in Snowdonia, which was near one of Vortigern’s strongholds. There is no further reference to Owain after Vortigern’s rise to power.

  As we have seen, the British gave their military leaders the title wledig. Magnus Maximus, for instance, was Macsen Wledig, and the title was also applied to Ceretic of Strathclyde, Cunedda of the Manau and Ambrosius the Younger (son of Vitalinus’s rival), who was called Emrys Wledig. There were about a dozen wledigs from the fifth and sixth centuries, some of whom are remembered only in later tales and legends, and it is difficult to know what part they played in the emergence of these kingdoms. One in particular stands out – Amlawdd Wledig. I shall discuss him in more detail later, but because he married a daughter of Cunedda, he must also have been fairly active around this period. Legend makes him the grandfather of Arthur’s wife Guinevere. He is associated with territory in South Wales and it is possible that he filled the vacuum left by Owain.

  There is no reason to believe that any other kingdoms emerged in the south at this time. Both the archeological evidence and, to a degree, the written record – primarily that left by Gildas – suggest that Roman life continued much as before for at least a generation. Whilst northern Britain and parts of west Wales were the scenes of fighting and increasing devastation, it was not until the 430s and 440s that the south began to be threatened by the more serious incursion of the Saxons. It was then that the seeds were sown for the Arthurian legend with the stories of Vortigern, Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon.