battle of Llongborth, which Arthur directed, it was the valour of Geraint that arrested the bard's notice; and his elegy, though long, scarcely mentions the commander, whose merit, in the frenzy of later fables, clouds every other. As an effusion of real feeling, this poem may be supposed to possess less of flattery and more of truth in its panegyric. It speaks of Arthur with respect, but not with wonder. Arthur is simply mentioned as the commander and the conductor of the toil of war; but Geraint is profusely celebrated with dignified periphrasis (1).

In the same manner Arthur appears in the Afallenau of Myrddin; and in Taliesin he is mentioned as a character well known and reverenced (2), but not idolised; yet he was then dead, and all the actions of his patriotism and valour had been performed. Not a single epithet is added, from which we can discern him to have been that whirlwind of war which swept away in its course all the skill and armies of Europe. That he was a courageous warrior is unquestionable; but that he was the miraculous Mars of the British history, from whom kings and nations sunk in panic, is completely disproved by the temperate encomiums of his contemporary bards.

One fact is sufficient to refute all the hyperboles of Jeffry, whose work has made him so extravagantly great. Though Arthur lived and fought, yet the Anglo-Saxons were not driven from the island, but gradually advanced their conquest, with progressive dominion, whether he was alive or whether he was dead. Reflecting on this unquestionable fact, we may hesitate to believe that Arthur was victorious in all his battles (3), because, if he wielded the whole force of Britain, and only fought to conquer, what rescued Cerdic, Ella, the son of Hengist, and the invaders of Essex and East-Anglia from absolute destruction?

The Welsh triads notice many of Arthur's friends and warriors; and mention one stanza as his composition. But this must be mere tradition.

Sef ynt fy nhri chadfarchawg,
Mael hir, a Llyr Lluyddawg;
A cholofn Cymru Caradawg (4).
To me there are three heroes in battle;
Mael the tall, and Llyr with his army,
And Caradawg the pillar of the Cymry.

(1) As" the glory of Britain-the terrifier of the foe-the molester of the enemy -the great son of Erbin-the strenuous warrior of Dyvnaint." Llywarch, p. 3-7.

(2) Myrddin styles him modur tyrfa, king of a multitude. Afall. 1. W. A. 153. (3) Nennius, c. 62., says, this, "in omnibus bellis victor extitit." But the author quoted by Higden, p. 224., says more probably of Cerdie, who often fought with Arthur, "si semel vinceretur, alia vice acrior surrexit ad pugnam."—Gildas, s. 26., implies an alternation of victory previous to the battle of Bath. --The MS. Chron. Divis. cited by Langhorn, 70., affirms it.

(4) Trioedd 29. p. 62.

His death.

Arthur perished at last ingloriously, in a civil feud with Medrawd his nephew, who is said to have engrossed the affections of Gwenhyfar, his wife. But as the blow of Arthur on Medrawd is mentioned as one of the most mischievous blows in Britain (1), this may have been the immediate cause of Medrawd's hostility.

The character of Medrawd has been branded with much reproach by the Welsh, because their favourite Arthur perished in the war which he excited. But there is a triad, which records his gentleness, good nature, and engaging conversation; and declares that it was difficult to deny him any request (2). He must have been powerfully supported, to have raised an army capable of confronting Arthur in the field. Maelgwn, who reigned in Gwynedd, seems to have been one of Medrawd's allies; for Gildas inculpates him for having destroyed the king his uncle, with his bravest soldiers (3).

542.

The conflict took place at Camlan, where both Arthur and Medrawd fell (4): Arthur, mortally wounded, was carried out of the field. From the coast of Cornwall he was conveyed into Somersetshire. Sailing along the shore they reached the Uzella, which they ascended, and the king was committed to the care of his friends in Glastonbury (5), but their skill could not avert the fatal hour.

cealed.

The death of Arthur was long concealed, and a wild His death contale was diffused among the populace, that he had withdrawn from the world into some magical region; from which at a future crisis he was to reappear, and to lead the Cymry in triumph through the island. Why this fiction was invented, we may now in vain inquire. It could not repress the ambition of the Saxons, because the temporary absence of Arthur was sufficient to favour their wishes; and if his living authority could not prevent British insurrection, was it probable that his residence in another region would avail? Yet Taliesin industriously sang that Morgana promised, if he remained a long time with her, to heal his wounds; and it is notorious that the return of Arthur was a fond hope of the people for many ages. Perhaps it was an illusion devised to avert the popular vengeance from those who, by aiding Medrawd, had contributed to produce the lamented event (6); or perhaps some, affecting to reign in trust for Arthur,

(1) Trioedd 51. p. 13.

(2) Trioedd 83. p. 18.

(3) Gildas, p. 12.

(4) This battle is placed in 542, by the Annals in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 648.; by many authors cited by Usher, Ant. p. 521.; and by Jeffry and the Welch Brut ab Arthur.

(5) See Jeffry's curious poem, his best work, MSS. Cott. Lib. Vesp. E. 4. See also Giraldus Spec. Eccles. dist. ii. c. 9. cited apud Usher, p. 523.

(6) Matth. Westm., p. 192., declares that the king voluntarily concealed himself while dying, that his enemies might not triumph, nor his friends be molested.

conciliated the public prejudice in favour of their government, by thus representing that they governed only for him.

His family.

Of the family of Arthur we know little. We hear of Noe in Caermarthenshire, reputed to be his son; another son, Llechau, is celebrated as an accomplished warrior (1). His sister Anna married Llew, brother of the famous Urien, and son of Cynvarch; Medrawd was her son (2). The marriage of Anna united the kings of the northern Britons in consanguinity with Arthur.

His remains dis

But though the friends of Arthur concealed the place covered in 1189. of his interment, a future age discovered it. In the year 1189, when romance had begun to magnify his fame, his body was diligently sought for in the abbey of Glastonbury. The circumstances attending this search give us the first clear and historical certainty about this celebrated man, and are therefore worth detailing. They have been transmitted to us by Giraldus Cambrensis, who saw both the bones and the inscription, as well as by a monk of the abbey; and the same facts are alluded to by William of Malmsbury, a contemporary, and by others.

The substance of the account of Giraldus is this (3). Henry the Second, who twice visited Wales, had heard from an ancient British bard, that Arthur was interred at Glastonbury, and that some pyramids marked the place. The king communicated this to the abbot and monks of the monastery, with the additional information, that the body had been buried very deep to keep it from the Saxons ; and that it would be found not in a stone tomb, but in a hollowed oak. There were two pyramids or pillars at that time standing in the cemetery of the abbey. They dug between these till they came to a leaden cross lying under a stone, which had this inscription, and which Giraldus says he saw and handled -"Hic jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arthurus in insula Avallonia (4)." Below this, at the depth of sixteen feet from the surface, a coffin of hollowed oak was found containing bones of an unusual size. The leg-bone was three fingers (probably in their breadth) longer than that of the tallest man then present. This man was pointed out to Giraldus. The skull was large, and showed the marks of ten wounds. Nine of these had concreted into the bony mass, but one had a cleft in it, and the opening still remained; apparently the mortal blow (5).

(1) MSS. Vesp. A. 14. p. 57. Trioedd. 10. p. 3.

(2) See the genealogy in Mr. Owen's Life of Llywarch.

(3) This account of Giraldus corresponds with that of the monk of Glastonbury, which Leland has extracted in his Assert. Art. p. 50.; and Usher in his Antiq. p. 117. Malmsbury more briefly alludes to it, De Ant. Glast.

(4) A fac-simile of this inscription is given in Gibson's Camden, p. 66.; and in Whitaker's Manchester, part ii. Dr. Whitaker was told that the cross had then lately been in the possession of Mr. Chancellor Hughes, at Wells. The form of the letters suits the age of Arthur.

(5) Matthew Paris notices the discovery of the bones, but says that it was occa

Giraldus says, in another place, that the bones of one of Arthur's wives were found there with his, but distinct, at the lower end. Her yellow hair lay apparently perfect in substance and colour, but on a monk's eagerly grasping and raising it up, it fell to dust (1).

The bones were removed into the great church at Glastonbury, and deposited in a magnificent shrine, which was afterwards placed, in obedience to the order of Edward I., before the high altar. He visited Glastonbury with his queen, in 1276, and had the shrine of Arthur opened to contemplate his remains. They were both so interested by the sight, that the king folded the bones of Arthur in a rich shroud, and the queen those of his wife; and replaced them reverentially in their tomb (2).

The circumstances of Arther's funeral could be known only from Welsh traditions. Giraldus has left us one of these: "Morgan, a noble lady, proprietor of this district, and patroness of the Abbey, and related to Arthur, had the king carried, after the battle of Camlan, to the island called Glastonbury to heal his wounds (3). The same facts are alluded to by Jeffry, in his elegant poem, which entitles him to more literary respect than his history, and which contains more of real British traditions (4).

The pyramids or obelisks that are stated to have marked the place of Arthur's interment, long remained at Glastonbury. They had images and inscriptions, which have not yet been understood, but which do not seem to relate to Arthur (5). A sword, fancied to have been his caliburno, was presented by Richard the First, as a valuable gift, to the king of Sicily (6).

These are the only circumstances which we can present to the reader as Arthur's authentic history. The romances about him contain several names of real persons, and seem occasionally to allude to a few real facts. But their great substance and main story are so completely fabulous, that whatever part of them was

sioned by their digging the grave of a monk, who had an earnest desire to be buried in that spot. It is not improbable that this may have been a further inducement with the convent to have the spot dug.

(1) Girald. Institutio Principis. ap. Lel. 47. This work still remains in MSS. in the British Museum.

(2) Mon. Glast. Lel. 55.

(3) Gir. in Speculo Ecclesiastico, MSS. Brit. Mus.; and ap. Lel. 44.

(4) It is still in MSS. in the British Museum. Since it was noticed in this work, Mr. Ellis has given an account of it, with extracts, in his History of the Early English Romances.

:

(5) On one of the sides of the pyramid that was twenty-six feet high, with five sides, was a figure in a pontifical dress on the second side was a royal personage, with the letters Her, Sexi, Blisyer on the third, Wemerest, Bantomp, Winewegn : the other sides had also inscriptions. The smaller pyramid was eighteen feet high, and had four sides with inscriptions. W. Malms. de Antiq. Glast. Gale, iii. p. 306., as collated in my copy by Hearne

(6) Usher, p. 121.

once true, is overwhelmed and lost in their fictions and manifest falsifications both of manners and history.

CHAPTER IV.

Establishment of the Anglo-Saxons in East Anglia, Mercia, and Essex. in Northumberland. - Battles with the Britons.

Kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira.

While Cerdic and his son were conflicting with Arthur, and the other British kings and chiefs who opposed them in Hampshire and the adjoining regions, several adventurers from the nation of the Angles in Sleswick arrived on the eastern coast of the island. The chronology of their invasions cannot be more definitely stated than by the date which an old chronicler has affixed to them, and which accords so well with the other facts on this subject, that it may be considered as entitled to our attention. Another more ancient has mentioned that many petty chiefs arrived in East Anglia and Mercia in the reign of Cerdic, and fought many battles with the natives; but as they formed no kingdom and were numerous, their names had not been preserved (1). The year in which the invasions began to occur is placed by the other annalist in 527 (2).

First arrivals in
East Anglia.

527.

Kingdom of Essex founded.

530.

Contemporary with these assailants, a body of Saxons planted themselves in Essex, and protected on the south by the kingdom of the Jutes in Kent, and on the north by the adventurers in East Anglia, they succeeded in founding a little kingdom, about 530 (3), which has little else to attract our notice, than that it gradually stretched itself into Middlesex, and obtained the command of London, then but a flourishing town of trade, though destined in a subsequent age to become the metro. polis of all the Jute, Saxon, and Angli kingdoms of the island.

In this state of the contest between the British nation and their Saxon invaders, while the Britons, yet masters of all the island, from the Avon to the Cornish promontory on the west, and to the Frith of Forth on the north, were resisting and arresting the progress of the son of Cerdic on the one hand, and the unrecorded adventurers in Norfolk and Suffolk on the other, the most formidable invasion occurred on the coast above the Humber, which the natives had yet been called upon to oppose. In 547, Ida led to the region between the Tweed and the Frith of Forth, or accompanied, a fleet of forty vessels of warriors, all of the nation of the Angles (4). Twelve sons were

Ida arrives in Bernicia. 547.

(1) H. Huntingd. p. 313.

(2) Matt. Westm. p. 188.

(3) The first king was Erkenwin, who died 587. Matt. Westm. p. 200. (4) Flor. Wig. In provincia Berniciorum, " p. 218. So Nennius calls him the first king of Bernicia, p. 114.