King Arthur's Battle for Britain

Eric Walmsley

Description

For the first time, convincing locations have been found for all King Arthur's battles.The inspiration for King Arthur's Battle forBritain came from Eric's discovery of an ancient Latin text in the British Library that listed the twelve battles of King Arthur. This presented an immediate challenge because only a few of the battle sites mentioned had been previously identified. After a decade searching mountains and moors throughout Britain, guided by references from early sources, Eric believes he has found convincing locations for all of Arthur's battles.By developing an imaginary scenario for each battle in the chronological order of the text, a believable storyline has emerged depicting Arthur's struggle to defend his country against nine different enemies, including dissident Britons as well as the invading Angles and Saxons. Eric has also discovered that it was Arthur's own kith and kin who plotted his demise at the battle of Camlan. By linking clues interwoven with early poetry and legendary texts, Eric has been able to suggest the name of the Romano-British city most likely to have been King Arthur's 'Camelot' and has also identified the site of Arthur's military headquarters in the west.His search for new evidence confirms the location of Camlan and reveals the real Isle of Avalon, where Arthur was finally laid to rest.King Arthur's Battle forBritain will appeal to anyone interested in the Arthurian period and the legend of KingArthur. Eric has been inspired by Geoffrey Ashe's The Quest for Arthur's Britain and John Morris'The Age of Arthur.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Ancient history
• Middle Ages

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781780887173
• Langue: English

Extrait

KING
ARTHUR S
B ATTLE FOR B RITAIN
E RIC W ALMSLEY
Copyright 2013 Eric Walmsley
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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To my friend and mentor Frank Hopton
How lucky you are, Britain
More blessed than any other land,
Endowed by Nature with every benefit of soil and climate
Your winters are not too cold,
Your summers are not too hot,
Your cornfields so productive,
Your herds innumerable,
The dairy herds overflowing with milk.
The Emperor Constantine, 310 AD.
C ONTENTS
List of Maps Illustrations
Introduction
1 The Evidence for Arthur: Clerics and Kings
2 The Evidence for Arthur: Texts and Poetry
3 Vortigern, Ambrosius and Arthur
4 Arthur s First Battle at the Mouth of the River Glein
5 Arthur s Four Battles on The River Blackwater
6 A Roman Wedding
7 The Battle of Bassas
8 The Battle of the Caledonian Forest
9 Our Lady s Island
10 The Battle of Castell Guinnion
11 The Battle in the City of the Legion
12 Arthur s Rubicon and the Battle of Tribruit
13 The Battle of Mount Agned
14 The Battle of Badon
15 The Strife of Camlan and the Isle of Avalon
16 Arthur s Last Battle
17 The Voyage to Avalon
Epilogue: Arthur Emeradaur
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
L IST OF M APS I LLUSTRATIONS
Map of Arthur s Britain. C.M. Walmsley
Arthur s Battle List from the earliest manuscript of Historia Brittonum compiled by Nennius, Harleian MS 3859. By permission of the British Library, London
The Roman City of Camulodunum. Map of Camulodunum Colonia by permission of Essex Records Office: ERO Archivists @ essex.gov.uk
The Roman City of Viroconium. From an illustration by Alan Sorrell, courtesy of Shropshire Council.
Map of Britain, showing possible sites for Arthur s Battles. C.M.Walmsley
King Icel s warships approaching the east coast of Britain. From a painting by Albert Seville. www.photos.com Image 92831840
The River Glen joining the River Welland at Surfleet, Lincolnshire. Photo Kate Jewell cj [e-mail]
Aerial photograph of the mouth of the River Glen at Surfleet. Google Earth.
Caesar s Camp Iron Age Village, Easthampstead, Berkshire. Bracknell Forest Council
The River Blackwater near Farley Hill, Berkshire. Photo Helen White
South Cadbury Castle, Somerset. Photo Jim Eastaugh
Illustration of the south-west gateway of Cadbury Castle. Eric Walmsley
Tarras Water and Broomholm Fort from Tarrasfoot Hill, Dumfries Galloway. Photo, Walter Baxter
Loch Voil near Balquhidder, Stirling. Photo Stuart Low
Devil s Cauldron, Comrie, Perth Kinross. Photo Tom Parnell
Prydwen Sails for Ireland. Model of a Roman Merchant Ship, Science Society Picture Library, Science Museum, London. Composite photograph with StormySea www.photos.com image 87714201, by Pinewood Studios Photographic Centre
The Derrynaflan Chalice. This image is reproduced with the kind permission of the National Museum of Ireland. National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.
Castell Dinas Bran, Denbighshire, North Wales. Photo Gareth Houghton
Aerial photograph of the Roman Fortress of Gariannonum, Burgh Castle, Norfolk. Mike Page, [e-mail]
Illustration of Deva, Roman Chester, the City of the Legion by kind pemission of the artist, David Swarbrick.
Illustration of the Roman elliptical building at Chester, by kind permission of Julian Baum. Julian Baum, [e-mail]
Illustration of Pictish Boats. Image from Pictish Warrior AD 297 - 841 by Paul Wagner, illustrated by Wayne Reynolds Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford.
Aerial photograph of the mouth of the River Trent, North Lincolnshire, Richard Lee.
Mynedd Llangynidr, Brecon. Photo, Gordon Scammell, [e-mail]
Insignia of 436 Troop Carrier Group (USAAF) based at RAF Membury from 1944. This military wall art was rescued in 1995 and transported to the museum at RAF Welford by the Ridgeway Military Aviation Research Group; by kind permission of the Chairman, Donald Summers. Photo, Eric Walmsley
Aerial photograph of RAF Membury Airfield, Berkshire, August 1944. English Heritage, kindly supplied by Roger Day.
The north-eastern ramparts of Membury Hillfort, Berkshire. Photo, Eric Walmsley
Our Lady s Island, Wexford, Ireland. Photo, Oliver Doyle
The Afon Dyfi Valley, towards Maes Y Camlan, Gwynedd, North Wales. Photo, Aaron Jones
Illustration Le Mort d Arthur by James Archer. Manchester City Art Gallery
The Mawddach Estuary near Fegla Fach, Gwynedd. Photo, Liz Dawson
Fegla Fach, looking west towards Barmouth, Gwynedd. Photo, Liz Dawson
The Mawddach Estuary, Nature s Symmetry . Photo, Claire Carter
Eardownes Great Standing Stone, also known as the Buncarrick Standing Stone, County Wexford, Ireland. Photo, 1998 Pip Powell
Book-cover design by Jonathan Walmsley 2012
I NTRODUCTION
The inspiration for this book came to me following a visit to South Cadbury Castle, Somerset, in the late summer of 1969 when Leslie Alcock and his team of young archaeologists from the University of Wales were in the final stages of exploring the site.
Their excavation revealed that this formidable fortress had been re-occupied during the late fifth and early sixth centuries AD, when the ramparts and walled defences of the fort had been extensively rebuilt.
The dramatic discovery of the remains of a fortified gate-tower that had once guarded the south-western entrance to the fort, and the locating of an Arthurian feasting-hall on the summit plateau of the castle caused so much national interest and excitement that many came to believe the long-held local rumour that South Cadbury Castle was indeed Arthur s Camelot.
Soon after the completion of the Cadbury-Camelot project in 1970, Leslie Alcock summarised the archaeological findings in his book Arthur s Britain , a comprehensive study in which he reviewed a number of Arthurian documents, highlighting key texts that supported the argument for the existence of Arthur, not as a legendary king whose court was at Camelot, but as a powerful Dark Age military leader who rallied his warriors to defend Britons against the savage attacks of Angles, Saxons, Scots and Irish marauders who were hell-bent on the destruction of Britain.
One particular text caught my attention: it was a list of Arthur s twelve battles, copied in immaculate hand-written Latin from an earlier Welsh war-poem or battle-list rescued from a collection of early historic documents by an intelligent cleric called Nennius in the early ninth century. Known as the Historia Brittonum or History of the Britons , Nennius compilation is an invaluable treasure of early British history that includes a Northern British History as well as a record of Easter Annals , perhaps better known as the Annales Cambriae.
It appears something of a miracle that these historic documents relating directly to Arthur s lifetime, albeit copies of copies of the original texts, have survived to the present day, preserved intact for almost twelve-hundred years; and if we can accept that the major events recorded in these texts are authentic and part of a genuine attempt to preserve the early history of Britain, then it is our good fortune to have access to material that not only reveals details of Arthur s battle for Britain, but also provides, within the Annales , a timeframe for the events described.
Armed with an authentic list of Arthur s battles, I considered the idea of bringing the battles to life in an imaginary form but in the style of a drama-documentary that would be based as far as possible on known historical facts relating to the Arthurian period. But before I could put pen to paper two major problems arose: first, it appeared that of the twelve battles listed by Nennius, only two or three of the battle-sites mentioned could be located with any certainty; secondly, I soon discovered that authentic factual references to Arthur and the events of his era were extremely limited.
Consequently my search for Arthur s battle-sites was both arduous and time-consuming; but after more than a decade searching windswept moors, rivers, mountains and lakes in England, Wales and Scotland, whilst poring over maps of Ancient and Roman Britain, I believe that I have at last solved the enigmatic problem associated with the obscure names of Nennius Latin list by finding convincng locations for all Arthur s battles, including Camlan.
For the dramatic action of the battle scenes I have relied very much on my own imagination, coupled with some strategic and tactical guesswork on behalf of the opposing army commanders that inevitably relates to the geographical features of each battle-site; and this has been achieved by close reference to the Ordnance Survey Landranger maps of the areas in question.
With ideas, stories and references gleaned from the earliest sources, I have attempted to flesh-out the bare skeleton of Nennius battle-list in the style of a war-correspondent s report from the battle-front, cover