Journey to Avalon: The Final Discovery of King Arthur
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Journey to Avalon: The Final Discovery of King Arthur
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781609251468 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 01/15/1997 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 376 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
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Journey to Avalon
The Final Discovery of King Arthur
By Chris Barber, David Pykitt
Samuel Weiser, Inc.
Copyright © 1997 Chris Barber and David PykittAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-146-8
CHAPTER 1
BRITAIN IN ROMAN TIMES
The roman occupation of Britain lasted 350 years. During this period, the native Britons were first conquered and then gradually converted to the Roman way of life. Hundreds of forts were established and more than 6,000 miles of military highways constructed which transformed the prehistoric trackway system into a highly organized network of routes of a standard neither equaled nor surpassed until comparatively modern times.
Roman forts were always built at locations which were of strategic importance. Thus Chester, Wroxeter, and Gloucester were at positions from which Wales could be invaded, and at places where the plain could be defended from the incursion of the mountain tribes. Carlisle, York, and Lincoln all controlled important routes and were vital from a military point of view. London was the center of the military system which linked with all parts of Roman Britain, and from which supplies could be obtained in times of need. Beyond the Straits of Dover, the system of roads continued with the entire European network focused on Rome, giving rise to the old saying that "all roads lead to Rome."
One of the most important forts constructed by the Romans during their conquest of Wales was at Caerleon-upon-Usk in Gwent. In A.D. 75 they raised an earthen bank and surrounded it by a moat filled with water. By A.D. 110, a turreted stone wall measuring 540 meters by 450 meters had been built to enclose an area of 20 hectares. Gradually, a very impressive fortress town was constructed with considerable quantities of stone transported from Bath by barge down the Avon, across the Severn, and up the Usk.
The Second Augustan Legion was stationed here with Julius Frontinus commanding the garrison, which in its heyday consisted of some 6,000 men. This particular legion was a highly trained force which had been brought here to deal with the difficult problem of subduing the Silures, who inhabited this area and were led in battle by the brave Celtic king, Caratacus.
Caer Wysg (Fortress on the Usk) is the ancient name for the settlement, which was a center of trade used by the Britons long before the Romans arrived. But when the Romans settled here, they abolished the old British name and their new fort became known as Isca Silurum. They named it Isca after the River Usk, near which it stands, and Silurum after the local tribe to whom they referred as Silures. This was one of three legionary fortresses established in Roman Britain and it was their chief city in South Wales.
The name Caerleon is a Welsh rendering of Castra Legionum and the abbreviated title of the Legion's name—LEG II AVG has been found stamped on countless bricks uncovered during many years of archaeological excavation. When Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) came here in 1190, the Roman remains were still very impressive and he described them as follows:
[A]n ancient and authentic city, excellently and well built in olden times by the Romans. Many vestiges of its former splendour may yet be seen, mighty and huge palaces with gilded roofs in imitation of Roman magnificence ... a town prodigious in size, wonderful bath buildings, the remains of temples and theatres, all enclosed within fine walls, which are yet partly standing. You will find on all sides, both within and without the circuit of the walls, subterraneous buildings, water-pipes, and underground passages, and, more remarkable than all, stoves contrived with wonderful art to transmit the heat insensibly through the narrow flues up the side of the walls.
In sunshine, Caerleon certainly became a city of gold, for the many buildings were roofed with glazed brown tiles which caught and reflected the rays of the sun. Venta Silurum (Caerwent), just 13 kilometers away, must have been eclipsed by the rising splendor of Isca Silurum, which became the chief station of Britannia Secunda. It was here that the Praetor resided, the Roman eagle was deposited, and the principal courts of justice were located.
In A.D. 77, Julius Agricola arrived on the scene and subsequently became the most famous of the governors of Britain. He immediately turned his attention to the subjugation of the Ordovices and the Deceangli, who inhabited the area we know today as Clwyd. He went on to capture Anglesey. With the conquest of Wales thus consolidated, he was able to turn his attention to the north.
He established a base at Chester, which was then known as Deva, after the River Dee, and in A.D. 79 he overcame the Brigante tribe. Next he moved on to make his headquarters at Eboracum (York). From here he conducted his northern campaigns and consolidated his position with the construction of roads and a chain of forts. Eboracum became the base of the Ninth Legion and in later years it developed into the chief military center of Roman Britain, known as "Altera Rome"—the other Rome.
The Romanized capital of the Brigantes was situated about sixteen miles northwest of York and was called Insurium Brigantium. Today, the site is occupied by the village of Aldborough, which stands on the road that still marks the route followed by Agricola on his advance into Scotland. He pushed on via Stirling and Perth to reach Inchtuthill, where another important base was established. In due course, a whole chain of forts was constructed from the Firth to the Clyde and this became the northern limit of the Roman Empire. It was decided not to proceed any farther north because of the harsh mountainous terrain and the problems already experienced with the fierce Pictish tribes.
In about A.D. 121, the Emperor Hadrian visited Britain and, after taking a hard look at the problems being caused by the troublesome Picts, decided that a permanent northern frontier for his province should be established. The location which he selected was much farther south than Agricola's chain of forts;it linked the Tyne Gap from Bowness on the Solway Firth, to Wallsend on the Tyne. Known as Hadrian's Wall, this mighty example of Roman engineering, stretching across the "neck" of Britain, was built within five years. Throughout its length of nearly 112 kilometers (70 miles) it was defended by a chain of forts. At each Roman mile stood a mile-castle which provided quarters for the man on sentry duty. Two turrets were located between each mile-castle and these were used for signaling purposes. The wall was from 6 to 7 meters high and 2 to 4 meters thick. It is one of the most impressive monuments in Britain and perhaps the finest Roman military structure in the world.
When Antonius Pius acceeded in A.D. 138, a decision was made to establish another walled frontier farther north, along the line of Agricola's chain of forts from the Firth to the Clyde. This time, to speed up its construction, the defensive boundary was built of turf instead of stone and, at 59 kilometers long, it was half the length of Hadrian's Wall. It stretched from Old Kirkpatrick on the Clyde to Bridgeness near Corriden on the Forth and became known as the Antonine Wall. However, this outer northern boundary of the Roman Empire was subsequently abandoned and left to the mercy of the threatening tribes and the destructive forces of the elements, while the legions retreated to the greater security of Hadrian's Wall.
Reinforcements were sometimes sent from Caerleon to this northern outpost. For the Second Legion this would have meant a march of nearly three hundred miles along the great Roman highways. A posting to Hadrian's Wall must have been regarded with dread, and in winter the men guarding the wall must often have felt homesick and lonely as they stared north over a bleak and mist-shrouded landscape.
The purpose of these great walls was to enable the legions to defend the northern limits of their extended empire against a fierce tribe known as the Scottis. It seems surprising today to realize that this name was originally given to the people of northern Ireland, and until the tenth century, Scotti meant Irishmen and Scotia was Ireland. The Scottis from Ulster crossed the sea in large numbers and moved into the territory which became known as Scotland. They settled along the west coast to the north of the Antonine Wall (in the area now known as Argyll) and created the kingdom of Dalriada. Settlers from Ireland also came to Wales and settled in Dyfed and South Wales, where they implanted the Irish language and founded a kingdom of their own. One band also penetrated the Welsh mountains and established a dynasty in the area which later became known as Brycheiniog (Breconshire). Evidence of the distribution of these early Irish settlers is today revealed by their Ogham inscriptions on the many memorial stones of the fifth/sixth century period which have been found in the old counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, and Breconshire.
In A.D. 197, the Emperor Septimus Severus divided Britain into two parts, which became known as Upper and Lower Britain. Lower Britain was in the north of the island and was divided into Britannia Secunda and Flavia Caesarentis. The south became Upper Britain and was reorganized into Britannia Prima and Maxima Caesarentis. In the north, the two new provinces had their capitals at York and Lincoln, as they are known today. Britannia Prima in the south had its capital at Cirencester and the administration center for Maxima Caesarentis was London. It has been suggested that the Romans named the south of the country Upper Britain because this part of the island was nearest to Rome, while the territory farther away was regarded as Lower Britain.
The military command for Upper and Lower Britain was divided between three generals, who were given titles which are of particular significance, for this system of defense was continued by the Britons after the Romans departed. These titles were Comes Britanniae, Comes Litoris Saxonici, and Dux Britanniarum.
It was the Comes Britanniae (Count of Britain) who was the supreme military authority, with a roving commission to defend the country against foreign invasion. The other two were slightly subordinate officers under his command. For a long time after the departure of the Romans, the Britons kept intact the organization of defense which their conquerors had established during their years of occupation. It would seem that the position of Comes Britanniae as war leader was the same as Amherawdyr (Emperor), which is mentioned in early Welsh literature and is a title given to Arthur alone among British heroes.
When Saxon raiders began to harass the eastern shores of Britain, the Romans decided to erect a series of forts from the Wash to the Solent. These were placed under the control of an officer known as Comes Litoris Saxonici—the "Count of the Saxon Shore." He had the responsibility for guarding these coastal forts which had been erected as a bulwark against pirate raids. Saxon tribes from the Continent had plundered the British shores from the third century, but this chain of forts held them off at least until the middle of the fourth century.
The duty of the Dux Britanniarum was to guard Hadrian's Wall against the Picts and this must have been a daunting task for it was such a long frontier across the rugged Pennines. In 367, there was a particularly determined raid by the Picts and the Scots who succeeded in crossing Hadrian's Wall, while at the same time the Saxons landed on the east coast. This combined enemy force ravaged and destroyed as they advanced, causing the forces of the Count of Britain and the Count of the Saxon Shore to retreat.
Britain remained part of the Roman Empire until A.D. 410, when Rome fell into the hands of the Visigoths and the Roman legions were withdrawn from this island. The Emperor Honorius formally relinquished control of the province in a letter which informed the Britons that henceforth they would have to fend for themselves. This decision ended 367 years of Roman rule in Britain and put the island at the mercy of the Picts, Scots, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Britons were beset by enemies on all sides and it was not long before Picts from the north began raiding British territory in earnest.
After nearly four centuries of Roman rule, the Britons had come to feel safe under the protection of their conquerors and it would have been quite natural for them to continue the same system of defense.
The period which immediately succeeds the withdrawal of the Romans, and which includes the brief Celtic supremacy before the establishment of the Saxon kingdoms, is in many ways the most interesting period of our history.... It is the formative period which saw the birth of most of the languages, the ideals, and the traditions which still to-day predominate in the greater part of the British Isles.
—Nora Chadwick
CHAPTER 2
IN THE WAKE OF THE RED DRAGON
On a hill overlooking Caernarfon in Gwynedd stand the ruins of Segontium, a fortress built by Agricola in A.D. 78, prior to his invasion of Anglesey. When Nennius, a priest from South Wales, compiled his Historia Brittonum in about 800, he included a list of twenty-eight cities; Cair Segeint (Segontium) was one of them. Evidently, the ruins of this fort must have been impressive, otherwise they would not have been worthy of a mention.
In the Mabinogion story titled "The Dream of Macsen Wledig," Magnus Maximus, who was known in Welsh tradition as Macsen Wledig, is explicitly associated with Segontium. This romantic tale relates how Maximus dreamed of making a journey across the sea to a land where he crossed a mountain range to reach the "fairest and most level region that any mortal had ever seen." Near the mouth of a river, he came upon a castle where he observed a ceiling covered with gold and walls decorated with stones. In the great hall, he found a beautiful maiden, finely dressed and sitting in a golden chair. As in all fairy tales, he fell in love with her at first sight. Taking her in his arms, he sat down with her in the golden chair. At this point, just as the dream was getting interesting, Maximus woke up. But he could not get the beautiful girl out of his mind and he became obsessed with her memory. In due course, his quest to find her brought him to Aberseint, near the old Roman fort of Segontium in Gwynedd. Here he met the Princess Elen, who was exactly like the girl in his dreams, and they of course fell in love and married.
Magnus Maximus was, in fact, a Spanish officer who came to Britain as an official in the household of Count Theodosius the Elder in 368. After the Count departed, the Picts were soon on the rampage again, but Maximus succeeded in driving them back from Hadrian's Wall and, within the new provinces of Strathclyde and Manau Guotodin, the Britons were able to live in peace. His son Antonius Donatus was made responsible for Strathclyde, while the province of Manau Guotodin was placed under the Romano-British Prince Paternus of the Red Tunic, who is remembered as the grandfather of Cunedda Wledig.
Maximus traveled south to Gwynedd to rebuild and garrison the abandoned fortress of Segontium, which became his new headquarters. While he was there, he met and married the Princess Elen. She belonged to the ruling British family whose seat was at Caer Seint yn Arfon, which is the old name for Caernarfon. Her father was Eudaf Hen, otherwise known as Octavius the Old, who held the title of Dux Gewissei, i.e. Prince of Gwent, Erging, and Ewyas. The corresponding Welsh form of Gewissei is Iwys and this is preserved in Ewyas Harold and Ewyas Lacey in Herefordshire. In addition to Gwent, Eudaf's estate comprised that of the Hwiccas, a British and Christian people with whom the Anglo-Saxon settlers later intermingled. In later times, it was portioned out into the shires of Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, part of Warwick, and the district between the Wye and the Severn, which included the Forest of Dean.
By marrying this British heiress, Magnus Maximus gained control of the Segontium-based troops, who were to form his personal bodyguard. Elen received as her dowry possessions in the areas of Caernarfon, Carmarthen, and Caerleon, which is an indication of the extent of this important British family's sovereignty, extending in an "L" shape around the coast of Wales.
There is a tradition that Elen caused highroads to be constructed from one fortified town to another, and the evidence for such an association is very clear, for in Wales, Roman roads and old mountain tracks are called Sarn Elen, Ffordd Elen, and Llwybr Elen, meaning respectively Elen's Causeway, Road, and Path. From Segontium, Roman roads led through the mountains, eastward to Chester and southward to Carmarthen and Caerleon, portions of which are known to this day as Sarn Elen, "Elen's Causeway."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Journey to Avalon by Chris Barber, David Pykitt. Copyright © 1997 Chris Barber and David Pykitt. Excerpted by permission of Samuel Weiser, Inc..
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Table of Contents
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Britain in Roman Times
2. In the Wake of the Red Dragon
3. The Historical King Arthur
4. Land of the Silures
5. Cornish Connections
6. In Search of Camelot
7. The Round Table and Arthur's Knights
8. Soldier-Saints
9. Stories in Stone
10. Enemies of the Britons
11. The Battle of Llongborth
12. The King Goes to War
13. Victory at Badon Hill
14. The Battle of Camlan
15. Across the Sea to Avalon
16. Arthur—Duke of Brittany
17. The Glastonbury Grave
18. Did King Henry VII Know the Truth?
Appendices
I. The Literary Sources
II. Chronology
III. Why has the identity of King Arthur not been revealed before?
IV. Alternative Theories
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
About the Authors