CHAP. I.--_Modred makes a great slaughter of Arthur's men, but is
beaten, and flees to Winchester._
Of the matter now to be treated of, most noble consul, Geoffrey of
Monmouth shall be silent; but will, nevertheless, though in a mean
style, briefly relate what he found in the British book above-mentioned,
and heard from that most learned historian, Walter, archdeacon of
Oxford, concerning the wars which this renowned king, upon his return to
Britain after this victory, waged against his nephew. As soon,
therefore, as the report, of this flagrant wickedness reached him, he
immediately desisted from his enterprise against Leo, king of the
Romans; and having sent away Hoel, duke of the Armoricans, with the army
of Gaul, to restore peace in those parts, returned back with speed to
Britain, attended only by the kings of the islands, and their armies.
But the wicked traitor, Modred, had sent Cheldric, the Saxon leader,
into Germany, there to raise all the forces he could find, and return
with all speed: and in consideration of this service, had promised him
all that part of the island, which reaches from the Humber to Scotland,
and whatever Hengist and Horsa had possessed of Kent in the time of
Vortigern. So that he, in obedience to his commands, had arrived with
eight hundred ships filled with pagan soldiers, and had entered into
covenant to obey the traitor as his sovereign; who had also drawn to his
assistance the Scots, Picts, Irish, and all others whom he knew to be
enemies to his uncle. His whole army, taking pagans and Christians
together, amounted to eighty thousand men; with the help of whom he met
Arthur just after his landing at the port of Rutupi, and joining battle
with him, made a very great slaughter of his men. For the same day fell
Augusel, king of Albania, and Walgan, the king's nephew, with
innumerable others. Augusel was succeeded in his kingdom by Eventus, his
brother Urian's son, who afterwards performed many famous exploits in
those wars. After they had at last, with much difficulty, got ashore,
they paid back the slaughter, and put Modred and his army to flight.
For, by long practice in war, they had learned an excellent way of
ordering their forces; which was so managed, that while their foot were
employed either in an assault or upon the defensive, the horse would
come in at full speed obliquely, break through the enemy's ranks, and so
force them to flee. Nevertheless, this perjured usurper got his forces
together again, and the night following entered Winchester. As soon as
queen Guanhumara heard this, she immediately, despairing of success,
fled from York to the City of Legions, where she resolved to lead a
chaste life among the nuns in the church of Julius the Martyr, and
entered herself one of their order.
CHAP. II.--_Modred, after being twice besieged and routed, is killed.
Arthur, being wounded, gives up the kingdom to Constantine._
But Arthur, whose anger was now much more inflamed, upon the loss of so
many hundreds of his fellow soldiers, after he had buried his slain,
went on the third day to the city, and there besieged the traitor, who,
notwithstanding, was unwilling to desist from his enterprise, but used
all methods to encourage his adherents, and marching out with his troops
prepared to fight his uncle. In the battle that followed hereupon, great
numbers lost their lives on both sides; but at last Modred's army
suffered most, so that he was forced to quit the field shamefully. From
hence he made a precipitate flight, and, without taking any care for the
burial of his slain, marched in haste towards Cornwall. Arthur, being
inwardly grieved that he should so often escape, forthwith pursued him
into that country as far as the river Cambula, where the other was
expecting his coming. And Modred, as he was the boldest of men, and
always the quickest at making an attack, immediately placed his troops
in order, resolving either to conquer or to die, rather than continue
his flight any longer. He had yet remaining with him sixty thousand men,
out of whom he composed three bodies, which contained each of them six
thousand six hundred and sixty-six men: but all the rest he joined in
one body; and having assigned to each of the other parties their
leaders, he took the command of this upon himself. After he had made
this disposition of his forces, he endeavoured to animate them, and
promised them the estates of their enemies if they came off with
victory. Arthur, on the other side, also marshalled his army, which he
divided into nine square companies, with a right and left wing; and
having appointed to each of them their commanders, exhorted them to make
a total rout of those robbers and perjured villains, who, being brought
over into the island from foreign countries at the instance of the
arch-traitor, were attempting to rob them of all their honours. He
likewise told them that a mixed army composed of barbarous people of so
many different countries, and who were all raw soldiers and
inexperienced in war, would never be able to stand against such brave
veteran troops as they were, provided they did their duty. After this
encouragement given by each general to his fellow soldiers, the battle
on a sudden began with great fury; wherein it would be both grievous and
tedious to relate the slaughter, the cruel havoc, and the excess of fury
that was to be seen on both sides. In this manner they spent a good part
of the day, till Arthur at last made a push with his company, consisting
of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men, against that in which he
knew Modred was; and having opened a way with their swords, they pierced
quite through it, and made a grievous slaughter. For in this assault
fell the wicked traitor himself, and many thousands with him. But
notwithstanding the loss of him, the rest did not flee, but running
together from all parts of the field maintained their ground with
undaunted courage. The fight now grew more furious than ever, and proved
fatal to almost all the commanders and their forces. For on Modred's
side fell Cheldric, Elasius, Egbrict, and Bunignus, Saxons; Gillapatric,
Gillamor, Gistafel, and Gillarius, Irish; also the Scots and Picts, with
almost all their leaders: on Arthur's side, Olbrict, king of Norway;
Aschillius, king of Dacia; Cador Limenic Cassibellaun, with many
thousands of others, as well Britons as foreigners, that he had brought
with him. And even the renowned king Arthur himself was mortally
wounded; and being carried thence to the isle of Avallon to be cured of
his wounds, he gave up the crown of Britain to his kinsman Constantine,
the son of Cador, duke of Cornwall, in the five hundred and forty-second
year of our Lord's incarnation.[220]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 220: The mention of Constantine brings Geoffrey's work into
connection with that of Gildas: the reader may perhaps from this point
detect some slight degree of verisimilitude in this otherwise fictitious
narrative.]
CHAP. III.--_Constantine meets with disturbances from the Saxons and
Modred's sons._
Upon Constantine's advancement to the throne, the Saxons, with the two
sons of Modred, made insurrection against him, though without success;
for after many battles they fled, one to London, the other to
Winchester, and possessed themselves of those places. Then died Saint
Daniel, the pious prelate of the church of Bangor; and Theon, bishop of
Gloucester, was elected archbishop of London. At the same time also died
David, the pious archbishop of Legions, at the city of Menevia, in his
own abbey; which he loved above all the other monasteries of his
diocese, because Saint Patrick, who had prophetically foretold his
birth, was the founder of it. For during his residence there among his
friars, he was taken with a sudden illness, of which he died, and, at
the command of Malgo, king of the Venedotians, was buried in that
church. He was succeeded in the metropolitan see by Cynoc, bishop of the
church of Llan-Patern, who was thus promoted to a higher dignity.
CHAP. IV.--_Constantine, having murdered the two sons of Modred, is
himself killed by Conan._
But Constantine pursued the Saxons, and reduced them under his yoke. He
also took the two sons of Modred; and one of them, who had fled for
sanctuary to the church of St. Amphibalus, in Winchester, he murdered
before the altar. The other had hidden himself in a convent of friars at
London, but at last was found out by him, brought before the altar, and
there put to death. Three years after this, he himself, by the vengeance
of God pursuing him, was killed by Conan, and buried close by Uther
Pendragon within the structure of stones, which was set up with
wonderful art not far from Salisbury, and called in the English tongue,
Stonehenge.
CHAP. V.--_Aurelius Conan reigns after Constantine._
After him succeeded Aurelius Conan, his nephew, a youth of wonderful
valour; who, as he gained the monarchy of the whole island, would have
been worthy the crown of it, had he not delighted in civil war. He
raised disturbances against his uncle, who ought to have reigned after
Constantine, and cast him into prison; and then killing his two sons,
obtained the kingdom, but died in the second year of his reign.
CHAP. VI.--_Wortiporius, being declared king, conquers the Saxons._
After Conan succeeded Wortiporius, against whom the Saxons made
insurrection, and brought over their countrymen from Germany in a very
great fleet. But he gave them battle and came off with victory, so that
he obtained the monarchy of the whole kingdom, and governed the people
carefully and peacefully four years.
CHAP. VII.--_Malgo, king of Britain, and a most graceful person, addicts
himself to sodomy._
After him succeeded Malgo, one of the handsomest of men in Britain, a
great scourge of tyrants, and a man of great strength, extraordinary
munificence, and matchless valour, but addicted very much to the
detestable vice of sodomy, by which he made himself abominable to God.
He also possessed the whole island, to which, after a cruel war, he
added the six provincial islands, viz. Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, the
Orkneys, Norway, and Dacia.
CHAP. VIII.--_Britain, in the flame of a civil war under king Careticus,
is miserably wasted by the Saxons and Africans._
After Malgo succeeded Careticus, a lover of civil war, and hateful to
God and to the Britons. The Saxons, discovering his fickle disposition,
went to Ireland for Gormund, king of the Africans, who had arrived there
with a very great fleet, and had subdued that country. From thence, at
their traitorous instigation, he sailed over into Britain, which the
perfidious Saxons in one part, in another the Britons by their continual
wars among themselves were wholly laying waste. Entering therefore into
alliance with the Saxons, he made war upon king Careticus, and after
several battles fought, drove him from city to city, till at length he
forced him to Cirencester, and there besieged him. Here Isembard, the
nephew of Lewis, king of the Franks, came and made a league of amity
with him, and out of respect to him renounced the Christian faith, on
condition that he would assist him to gain the kingdom of Gaul from his
uncle, by whom, he said, he was forcibly and unjustly expelled out of
it. At last, after taking and burning the city, he had another fight
with Careticus, and made him flee beyond the Severn into Wales. He then
made an utter devastation of the country, set fire to the adjacent
cities, and continued these outrages until he had almost burned up the
whole surface of the island from the one sea to the other; so that the
tillage was everywhere destroyed, and a general destruction made of the
husbandmen and clergy, with fire and sword. This terrible calamity
caused the rest to flee whithersoever they had any hopes of safety.
CHAP. IX.--_The author upbraids the Britons._
"Why foolish nation! oppressed with the weight of your abominable
wickedness, why did you, in your insatiable thirst after civil wars, so
weaken yourself by domestic confusions, that whereas formerly you
brought distant kingdoms under your yoke, now, like a good vineyard
degenerated and turned to bitterness, you cannot defend your country,
your wives, and children, against your enemies? Go on, go on in your
civil dissensions, little understanding the saying in the Gospel, 'Every
kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation, and a
house divided against itself shall fall.' Since then your kingdom was
divided against itself; since the rage of civil discord, and the fumes
of envy, have darkened your minds, since your pride would not suffer you
to pay obedience to one king; you see, therefore, your country made
desolate by impious pagans, and your houses falling one upon another;
which shall be the cause of lasting sorrow to your posterity. For the
barbarous lionesses shall see their whelps enjoying the towns, cities,
and other possessions of your children; from which they shall be
miserably expelled, and hardly if ever recover their former flourishing
state."
CHAP. X.--_Loegria is again inhabited by the Saxons. The Britons, with
their bishops, retire into Cornwall and Wales._
But to return to the history; when the inhuman tyrant, with many
thousands of his Africans, had made a devastation almost over the whole
island, he yielded up the greater part of it, called Loegria, to the
Saxons, whose villainy had been the occasion of his arrival. Therefore
the remainder of the Britons retired into the western parts of the
kingdom, that is, Cornwall and Wales; from whence they continually made
frequent and fierce irruptions upon the enemy. The three archbishops,
viz. the archbishop of Legions, Theon of London, and Thadiocus of York,
when they beheld all the churches in their jurisdiction lying level with
the ground, fled with all the clergy that remained after so great a
destruction, to the coverts of the woods in Wales, carrying with them
the relics of the saints, for fear the sacred bones of so many holy men
of old might be destroyed by the barbarians, if they should leave them
in that imminent danger, and themselves instantly suffer martyrdom. Many
more went over in a great fleet into Armorican Britain; so that the
whole church of the two provinces, Loegria and Northumberland, had its
convents destroyed. But these things I shall relate elsewhere, when I
translate the book concerning their banishment.
CHAP. XI.--_The Britons lose their kingdom._
For a long time after this the Britons were dispossessed of the crown of
the kingdom, and the monarchy of the island, and made no endeavours to
recover their ancient dignity; but even that part of the country which
yet remained to them, being subject not to one king, but three tyrants,
was often wasted by civil wars. But neither did the Saxons yet obtain
the crown, but were also subject to three kings, who harassed sometimes
one another, sometimes the Britons.
CHAP. XII.--_Augustine, being sent by pope Gregory into Britain,
preaches the gospel to the Angles._
In the meantime Augustine was sent by pope Saint Gregory into Britain,
to preach the word of God to the Angles, who, being blinded with pagan
superstition, had entirely extinguished Christianity in that part of the
island which they possessed. But among the Britons, the Christian faith
still flourished, and never failed among them from the time of pope
Eleutherius, when it was first planted here. But when Augustine came, he
found in their province seven bishoprics and an archbishopric, all
filled with most devout prelates, and a great number of abbeys; by which
the flock of Christ was still kept in good order. Among the rest, there
was in the city of Bangor a most noble church, in which it is reported
there was so great a number of monks, that when the monastery was
divided into seven parts, having each their priors over them, not one of
them had less than three hundred monks, who all lived by the labour of
their own hands. The name of their abbat was Dinooth, a man admirably
skilled in the liberal arts; who, when Augustine required the subjection
of the British bishops, and would have persuaded them to undertake the
work of the gospel with him among the Angles, answered him with several
arguments, that they owed no subjection to him, neither would they
preach to their enemies; since they had their own archbishop, and
because the Saxon nation persisted in depriving them of their country.
For this reason they esteemed them their mortal enemies, reckoned their
faith and religion as nothing, and would no more communicate with the
Angles than with dogs.
CHAP. XIII.--_Ethelfrid kills a great number of the British monks, but
is at last routed by the Britons._
Therefore Ethelbert, king of Kent, when he saw that the Britons
disdained subjection to Augustine, and despised his preaching, was
highly provoked, and stirred up Ethelfrid, king of the Northumbrians,
and the other petty kings of the Saxons, to raise a great army, and
march to the city of Bangor, to destroy the abbat Dinooth, and the rest
of the clergy who held them in contempt. At his instigation, therefore,
they assembled a prodigious army, and in their march to the province of
the Britons, came to Legecester, where Brocmail, consul of the city, was
awaiting their coming. To the same city were come innumerable monks and
hermits from several provinces of the Britons, but especially from the
city of Bangor, to pray for the safety of their people. Whereupon
Ethelfrid, king of the Northumbrians, collecting all his forces, joined
battle with Brocmail, who, having a less army to withstand him, at last
quitted the city and fled, though not without having made a great
slaughter of the enemy. But Ethelfrid, when he had taken the city, and
understood upon what occasion the monks were come thither, commanded his
men to turn their arms first against them; and so two hundred of them
were honoured with the crown of martyrdom, and admitted into the kingdom
of heaven that same day. From thence this Saxon tyrant proceeded on his
march to Bangor; but upon the news of his outrageous madness, the
leaders of the Britons, viz. Blederic, duke of Cornwall, Margadud, king
of the Demetians, and Cadwan, of the Venedotians, came from all parts to
meet him, and joining battle with him, wounded him, and forced him to
flee; and killed of his army to the number of ten thousand and sixty-six
men. On the Britons' side fell Blederic, duke of Cornwall, who was their
commander in those wars.