A Brief History of the Celts

by Peter Berresford Ellis

  Kings were regarded as divine. They descended from the gods and usually had to ritually mate with a goddess, a recurring theme in Irish mythology. The traditions of Hindu and Celtic kingship, as seen in early Irish sources, are particularly close and the fortunes of the king were seen as being fundamentally bound to the fortunes of the land. Ritual marriage took place between the king and the land in various symbolic forms. Rituals and tests were practised in choosing a king. There were sacred inauguration stones, such as the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny), which was known as the Stone of Scone and on which Scottish kings were inaugurated. This was looted from Scotland by Edward I and remained in Westminster Abbey until 1997 when it was returned to Scotland. The teaching was that the inauguration stones for kings and chieftains gave a loud cry if they recognised the foot of a rightful king.

  Certain rituals particularly delineate Celtic society as Indo-European. In the bull festival, or tarbhfheis, a bull was slain and a Druid feasted on the flesh and drank of a broth made from the cooked animal. He then went into a meditative trance, while four others chanted over him, and he was thought to receive a vision of the next true king. Bulls, revered for strength and ferocity and virility, were venerated by all the Celtic peoples. The esteem in which they were held can be judged from numerous figurines and statuettes and other artwork dating from the seventh century BC. Bull sacrifice is found on the famous Gundestrup Cauldron, where there is an image of a slain bull, and its importance is all-pervasive in the Celtic world. Queen Medb invaded Ulster to steal the Brown Bull of Cuailgne when its owner, Daire mac Fiachniu, refused to part with it.

  Another ritual is described by Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) in his Expurgatio Hibernica. He describes the inauguration ceremony of an Irish king where a mare was ritually slaughtered and the king-elect ate of the flesh of the beast then drank and bathed in a broth made from the carcass. It was a ritual in which the king sought fertility for himself and his people. This may have symbolised a ritual mating with the horse goddess Epona (epos, a horse) who came to be adopted even by the Romans. Horse sacrifice also appears in another Indo-European culture, in the Hindu ritual of asvamedha.

  Caesar suggests that some tribes of the Belgae were familiar with a dual monarchy – two kings sharing the throne. He mentions in particular the tribe of the Eburones. Certainly dual monarchy occurs several times in more recent Irish king lists where brothers often shared the throne, for example Fergus and Domnall, sons of Muirchertaig, who ruled in AD 566, or Cellach and Conall Cáel, sons of Máele Cobo, who ruled in AD 654, or Diarmait and Blathmac, sons of Aedo Sláine, who ruled in AD 665. We also find two Celtic rulers leading a combined Celtic army to threaten Rome in 223/222 BC – Aneroestes and Concolitanus.

  Caesar mentions that some Celtic kings exercised authority on both sides of what is now the English Channel. We learn that Commius, the king of the Atrebates in Gaul (discounting the boast that Caesar had made him a king – he had probably merely recognised him as such), also exercised sovereignty over the Atrebates of southern Britain. Caesar also refers to the Suessiones: ‘They had been ruled within living memory by Diviciacus, the most powerful king in Gaul, who controlled not only a large part of the Belgic country, but Britain as well.’ Diviciacus appears to have ruled about 100 BC.

  We find that King Marcus Cunomorus of Cornwall in the sixth century AD also ruled Carhaix in Cornouaille in Brittany. There are other references to Celtic kings exercising authority both in Britain and on the Continent.

  However, Caesar suggests that kingship was falling out of fashion among the Celts of southern and central Gaul and was being replaced by a magisterial rule. He believed that, among the Aedui, kings had been replaced by elected magistrates drawn from the aristocrats. As this was the form of government that Rome had adopted in 510 BC, following the expulsion of their kings, perhaps Caesar misread the situation, especially if these tribes were practising dual kingship and the Celtic electoral form, instead of the autocratic kingship with which Rome was more familiar. He might well have seen in the two kings, whose powers were delineated by law and limited by the rights of their nobles and peoples, the two consuls who governed Rome. In the case of the single Aedui ‘magistrate’ elected from the aristocracy, Caesar might have misunderstood the system of kingship which emerges in the ancient Irish Brehon Laws, whereby a king was elected by members of certain aristocratic families; the eldest son did not automatically succeed to his father’s throne, as we shall see.

  It is interesting to note that the Germanic branch of Indo-European adopted a different linguistic concept for kingship. The words ‘king’, ‘könig’ and ‘koning’ are derived from the Indo-European root gen, a people, a nation, or descent. The word is found in Greek and Latin, as well as old Irish. We come near to understanding why the word developed into a term for the office of king when we find in old Irish the phrase that a king was appointed do thaobh a ghlun ngeineamha – by virtue of his ancestry.

  This ancestry was all-important for the appointment of kings. The Celtic form of kingship seems to be a descendant of the Indo-European form, and it survived into the Irish Laws of the Fénechus. It was not until the seventeenth century AD that this law system was eradicated from use in Ireland by English colonial law. We can see from comparisons with other known Celtic systems, such as the form of government in Galatia, that the Fénechus or Brehon system was representative of the wider Celtic system.

  Kings did not succeed by primogeniture; that is, the eldest son did not necessarily become the successor of his father. It was necessary for the survival of the people to have a strong man on the throne, strong in mind as well as strength, one who could defend his people against any threat from without or within. So the man who showed a fitness for the post could be a younger son of the previous king just as well as an elder son; indeed, he could be a brother of the king, an uncle even, or a cousin or grandson. The choice was usually made within three generations and it was those three generations who usually approved of the choice. Often, and this emerges in the Brehon Laws, the successor to the king was appointed during the king’s lifetime to prevent dispute. In Ireland, this form was called tanistry and the heir-apparent was the tanist or ‘second’.

  We find traces of matrilineal descent among certain Celtic groups. The Venerable Bede believed that the Picts, a Brythonic Celtic population in Scotland which became absorbed into a Goidelic-speaking homogeneous society, had a matrilineal kingship. However, this is not proven although we find a late Irish tradition that the Picts acquired womenfolk from the Irish on condition that their kingship should pass through the female line.

  If kingship among the Celts was usually patrilineal, how can we account for the appearance of female rulers such as Onomaris, Cartimandua and Boudicca, and for the obviously prominent positions of the ‘Vix princess’, the ‘Rheinheim princess’ and other women who apparently ruled in their own right? We shall be dealing with the remarkable position of women in Celtic life later. It is clear both from grave finds and from reports among the classical writers that women could and did occupy high social positions, even ruling a tribe or, like Cartimandua, a confederation of tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus puts these significant words into the mouth of Boudicca: ‘This is not the first time that the Britons have been led to battle by a woman.’

  Certainly in Irish literature we find Queen Medb as the real leader of Connacht and her husband Ailill deferring to her dominant personality. The genealogies of Ireland and historical accounts mention one female high king, Macha Mong Ruadh (Macha of the Red Hair), recorded as the seventy-sixth monarch and daughter of Aedh Ruadh who founded the palace of Emain Macha (Navan) near Ard Macha (Armagh). The date of her death is recorded as 377 BC and she is listed as the only female ruler in the period before Christ.

  The Brehon Laws have only one reference to female rulers. This occurs in the Bretha Cróilge which contains a list of categories of women who are prominent in society, including a ‘woman who turns back the streams of war�
�� and is ‘the ruler of hostages’ (those taken in battle). There also survives the twelfth-century AD collection of genealogical lore about Irish women, which we have previously referred to, the Banshenchas.

  However, most references to the office of kingship do demonstrate a patrilineal model. One possible explanation for the existence of female rulers lies in the fact that, according to the Brehon Laws, the banchomarbae or female heir could inherit full property rights if there were no male heirs. Perhaps, therefore, the woman could also become ruler if there were no male heirs? According to Dr Sophie Bryant: ‘Although the rule of female succession existed under the Brehon Law, it may generally be regarded as a proof of late date in the author who asserts it as a rule; and it must be rejected from any statement of the ancient law of succession.’ Dr Bryant places the date for the establishment of female succession as the late sixth century AD. Yet how does she explain the earlier existence of female rulers?

  The Hallstatt period is divided into four phases by archaeologists. A and B correspond to the period 1200–800 BC or the Bronze Age. From 800 BC we find the start of the Iron Age or Hallstatt C, ending in 600 BC. This third period is the time of the rise of the wealthy kings and their rich burial mounds. This was also the time of the building of great fortified settlements. Around the major burial chambers of the kings have been discovered warrior graves, less wealthy than those of the kings and more numerous, thus demonstrating the rise of a powerful aristocracy to support the kings.

  In the Hallstatt D period, 600–475 BC, the rich graves of these Celtic kings tended to have shifted to the west, to south-western Germany and along the westward Rhône, west to the Loire and north to the headwaters of the Seine. These graves show trading links with the Mediterranean, especially with Greece and Etruria. The reason is simple. The kings had moved their seats of power to be on the river-trading routes opened up by the establishment of the Greek trading colony at Massilia (Marseilles) near the mouth of the Rhône. One of the features of the Hallstatt princely graves is that there were no weapons of war, swords and shields, placed within them. In graves of the later La Tène period, swords, helmets, shields and other weapons become common. Can we deduce anything from this change? Does it imply that the early Celtic kings were not so much warriors as civil leaders, but that their descendants were more war-oriented?

  Some of the best-surviving graves of the Hallstatt Celtic rulers have been excavated only in recent decades. One of the most unusual was found at Vix, near Châtillon-sur-Seine in the Côte-d’Or. This stands at the headwaters of the Seine whose name derives from the Celtic Sequana, a river goddess whose worship is attested by a wealth of votive offerings found near the source of the river. The ‘princely grave’, as it was designated, was excavated in 1953 and dated to the end of the sixth century BC. What distinguished it from the majority of kingly graves was that it contained the skeleton of a thirty-five-year-old woman. She lay on the chassis of a four-wheeled wagon or chariot which obviously served as a bier. The wheels had been removed and placed against the inner wall of the timber chamber.

  That she was a noble of importance could be seen by her golden torc made from 480 grams of gold. The other items included a bronze krater with a capacity of 1100 litres, the biggest surviving vessel of its kind from this period. The finds from this spectacular grave are in the municipal museum of Châtillon-sur-Seine.

  Not far away, 5 kilometres south of the hill of Mont Lassois, a further four princely graves were discovered, also dating from between the sixth and fifth centuries BC. These finds, archaeologists argue, indicate that this was the centre of a powerful Celtic kingdom.

  The krater demonstrates that the Hallstatt kings were trading with the Mediterranean: it is of fine Greek workmanship and contained wine – grapes were not grown at this period north of the Alps. Archaeologists have found many wine jars (amphorae) in the area dating from the sixth century BC.

  Although the ‘princess of Vix’, as she is known, was unusual, there are further examples of the graves of prominent noble women. The later grave of the fourth century BC found at Waldalgesheim, 5 kilometres west of Bingen, in North Rhine, Westphalia, showed a noble woman with the remains of a two-wheeled wagon, a golden torc, two gold arm-rings, and a bronze jug. These are to be seen in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum. Another noble woman was found in a chariot burial grave at Wetwang Slack in Yorkshire, in the territory of the Parisii. A further grave from the fourth century BC, known as that of the ‘Rheinheim princess’, produced some 200 pieces of jewellery and personal effects, including a gold torc, armlets, a mirror and gilt-bronze wine flagon. This was discovered in 1954 during sandpit excavations. The burial chamber was originally part of a group, and the body of the ‘princess’ was found in an oak-lined chamber.

  Almost due south of Vix is Camp de Château, a hilly area in the Furieuse valley in the French Jura. Archaeological finds here, including some wagon burials, dated to around the late sixth century BC, would indicate that this was the site of another rich ‘princely seat’.

  Excavations in 1978–79 uncovered one of the richest of the kingly graves. This was found under a low mound in a field at Hochdorf, in the Baden-Würtemberg region. It was estimated that the original mound would have been 6 metres high and 60 metres in diameter. The burial chamber, entirely lined with wood and hung with drapes and tapestries, was in excellent condition.

  The Celtic king had lain in his tomb undisturbed for 2500 years. He lay on a great bronze couch, some 3 metres long, the couch being supported by eight female figurines mounted on wheels. In punch dot carving, the bronze couch was decorated with images of warriors, dancers and wagons. Traces of fabric, probably of clothes and hangings and upholstery, were found, some of them embroidered. Fabrics hanging from the walls and decorations of flowers and boughs of symbolic trees adorned the interior.

  The king himself was a man of forty years old, standing 1.87 metres (6 foot 2 inches), obviously tall and strong in life. He wore a gold belt plate, a decorated dagger encased in gold. There was the traditional gold torc at his neck, and gold bracelet on his arm. Amber beads and gold and bronze brooches were probably laid on his chest for they had fallen nearby. He appeared to have been wearing ankle-length boots with curled or pointed toes. They had gold embossed fittings with holes for laces. An iron razor, a wooden comb and a conical bark hat had been placed near his head. Fish hooks and a quiver of iron-tipped arrows were nearby. He lay, significantly, on the western side of the tomb – the west being the direction of the Otherworld. The phrase ‘to go west’ was used as a euphemism for death until this century in English. To the east stood a four-wheeled wagon or chariot with iron and bronze plates. Bronze decorative horse harnesses were nearby together with other items such as an iron axe, spear and a fine set of bronze dishes. Hanging on hooks on the south wall were nine large drinking horns, nine being a significant number in Celtic myth.

  Nine was always the number of the immediate bodyguard of kings in Irish myth. Queen Medb travelled with nine chariots, two of them before her, two behind, two at her side and her son in the middle. King Loeghaire, setting out to arrest St Patrick, ordered nine chariots ‘according to the tradition of the gods’, while Bricriu was guarded by eight swordsmen, and Fionn Mac Cumhail had eight companions. The number nine occurs in other forms and it has been argued that the ancient Celtic week consisted of nine nights followed by nine days.

  The fact that this king, while a man of wealth and power, was not buried with weapons, such as are found in warriors’ graves, but with items depicting feasting and hunting and fishing, might mean that he was not perceived as a man of war.

  At Grafenbühl, in the eastern part of the town of Asperg in the Ludwigsburg area, archaeologists unearthed the skeleton of a man in his thirties in a central grave chamber, clearly another wealthy Celtic king. While there were the remains of a chariot, several pieces of furniture and a drinking vessel, the grave had been plundered and more valuable items taken. It has now been built over.

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p; Two royal graves of the Hallstatt period were excavated at the nearby village of Hirschlanden. The most significant find was two life-sized statues (stele). The first, discovered in 1964, was thought to be of a ‘warrior’, but when the second one was found in 1997 it was correctly claimed as a Celtic ‘prince’. The figures were thought to have stood on top of the graves.

  In the same area in 1879 another royal grave was excavated in Kleinaspergle but the central chamber proved to have been plundered. The original grave had a height of 6 metres and diameter of 60 metres. Indications were that this was a tomb of someone of great significance. In a neighbouring chamber the grave robbers had missed a richly endowed tomb with jewellery and drinking vessels, including two Attic dishes from Greece and some imported pottery dating from c. 450 BC; these were decorated by Celtic craftsmen with layers of gold foil. All the finds from the area are now in the Würtembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart.

  One of the best-known ancient Celtic royal centres is at Heuneburg, on the west bank of the Danube, in the Sigmaringen district. It was occupied from the Bronze Age down to the Middle Ages, but reached a peak of importance in the sixth and fifth centuries BC when the royal centre covered an area of 3 hectares enclosed by fortified walls, some standing nearly 4 metres high. Nearby were several royal grave mounds including that of Hohmichele, one of the biggest Celtic grave mounds in Central Europe.