chapter fifteen summary

Author: * Walensis Volcae - 25 Posts on this thread out of 64 Posts sitewide.
Date: Jun 6, 2004 - 10:28

* The penultimate stage in our search for the real king Arthur comes with the battle of Camlann, which according to Geoffrey of Monmouth was Arthur's last battle. Also, according to the Annales Cambriae, it is where Arthur diedtogether with Merdraut. We have therefore attemped to locate the elusive Camlann and identify the enigmatic Medraut.

1.According to the Annales, in 539 there was the 'strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut perished'. We are told nothing else, neither where nor why it occured, nor even if Arthur and Medraut fought on opposite sides. Unfortunately, other than this entry no other Dark Age manuscript mentions Camlann or Medraut.

2. Geoffrey of Monmouth is the earliest writer to provide any details of Medraut and the battle of Camlann. According to Geoffrey, Medraut was Arthur's nephew who tries to take over the kingdom but failed when both men died in the battle. The battle of Camlann was probably the result of an internal struggle amongst the Britons themselves, since Gildas tells us that from the battle of Badon until the time of his writing external warfare had ceased, although the country had been rached by internal feuding.

3. Since the Annales have proved inaccurate in dating Badon, their dating of Camlann should be treated with caution. It is highly unlikely that Arthur was fighting in 539. It is more probable that the end of Arthur's reign coincided with the abandonment of Viroconuim, for at this time internal conflict had broken out against the Britons; in which case Camlann occurred somewhere around 520.

4. Medraut, as it appears in the Annales, is a welsh name. The spelling Modred that Geoffrey employs is Cornish. The Welsh and Cornish languages derive from Brythonic. Geoffrey's use of the Cornish dialect implies that this is where the details of his Modred story survived. During the sixth century, however, Cornwell was merely a part of the kingdom of Dumnonia, which also included Devon and part of Dorset.

5. If Modred had Dumnonia connections, and if the battle of Camlann occuerred in the second decade of the sixth century, it would certainly have involved Cunomorus, whose name is on the sixth-century Drustanus stone, and who appears to have been ruling in Dumnonia at this time. Since we find the 'Cun' name affix of the Cunedds family in his name, he may have been a Votadini prince despatched to maintain control of the remote province of Dumnonia.

6. As this is consistent with Geoffrey and with the medieval romances that tell of Arthur installing his nephew Modred in Cornwell, perhaps Cunomorus was Arthur's nephew, the real Modred. We have have seen that king Mark seems to have been based on Cunomorus; perhaps Modred was also. There is certainly evidence of confusion between these two people in some works of Welsh literature, which sometimes give Mark and sometimes Modred ruling in Cornwell.

7. In Geoffrey's account, Modred is able to lead the rebellion by forming an alliance with the Saxons. Such a scenario is certainly possible in the early sixth-century. The fact that Cedric had been able to establish himself in Hampsire so soon after Badon suggests he had help, and since there is archaeological evidence for the expansion of Dumnonia across Dorset at this time, an alliance between Cunomorus and Cerdic may explain the success of both kingdoms, Dumnonia and Wessex.

8. Evidence for an alliance between Cunomorus (called Cynfawr in the genealogies) and Cerdic comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which tells us that Cerdic's son and successor was called Cynric. This is not only a half British, half Saxon name, suggesting he was of mixed blood, but also contains the Votadini name affix 'Cyn'. As it seems to have been a common practice at the time to seal an alliance between Saxon and Briton dynasties by marriage, the name 'Cynric' is an indication of an alliance between Dumnonia and Wessex.

9. According to the Chronicle, in 519 Cerdic's Saxons fought a battle at Certicesford(now Charford, a few miles South of Salisbury), which marked the end of their expansion for another three decades. Since it is the only recorded battle of the period, it is very possible that the battle of Certicesford is the battle of Camlann. (Certicesford was not the original British name for the site as it means, literally, Cerdic's Ford.) If this is the case, then the battle of Certicesford may have been an attempt by Arthur to drive a wedge between the joint forces of Cunomorus and his ally Cerdic.

# Too much, i been on here typing and being interupted by they know who for four hours, so no proof read on this one either, i hope its not too much of a mess.