The history of Great Britaine under the conquests of ye Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans Their originals, manners, warres, coines & seales: with ye successions, lives, acts & issues of the English monarchs from Iulius Cæsar, to our most gracious soueraigne King Iames. by Iohn Speed.

KING ARTHVR. 5.

[illustration]

ARthur the sonne of Vter, begotten as is said of La∣die Igren Dutchesse of Cornwall, was crowned * 1.1 King at fifteene yeeres of age, about the yeere of Christ fiue hundred and sixteene; or as Matthew of * 1.2 Westminster hath it, fiue hundred and eighteene. His prosperous entrance was enuied at by Lotho King of the Picts, and by Couran King of the Scots, who had * 1.3 married his owne Aunts, Anna and Alda, the two si∣sters of Ambrose and Vter, each of them expecting the Crowne before him, through the opinion and re∣pute of his bastardie, especially Lotho, who had is∣sue by Anna, Mordrad, and Gawan: the latter of which spent his life in the cause of that quarrell. His first proceedings were against the common ene∣mie the Saxons, whose Captaine Colgerne, he chased from Northumberland into Yorke; which Citie likewise he girt with a strait siege, notwithstanding Colgerne thence escaped into Germany, and of King Cherdick got succour for his Saxons, who with seuen hundred saile arriued in Scotland. Arthur aduertised of his great * 1.4 power, raised his siege, and drew towards London, and thence sent for aid to his Nephew Howel, King of Little Britaine in France, who came himselfe in person to ioyne with his Vncle.

These from South-hampton marched to Lincolne, which Citie Cherdick had strongly besieged, but was thence forced by Arthurs conquering sword. Twelue battels he fought against these Saxons (as Ninius re∣cordeth) with great manhood and victorie. The first was at the mouth of the Riuer Gleyne: the second, third, fourth, and fifth, vpon the Banks of Douglasse, in the Countie of Lineux: the sixth vpon the Riuer Bassus; the seuenth in the wood Calidon; the eighth neere to the Castle Guynien; the ninth in Wales, at the Towne Cairelien; the tenth at Trachenrith, or Ritho∣wode vpon the Sea side: the eleuenth vpon a hill na∣med Agned Cathergonien; and the twelfth at Bathe, or Bathen-hill, where the Britaines (as Beda saith) gaue the * 1.5 Saxons a very great ouerthrow; which (by Gyldas re∣port) happened fortie foure yeeres after the Saxons first arriuage into Britaine, the yeere wherein himselfe was borne.

Of Arthurs successe both at home and abroad, his great magnificence in Court and Countrey, his Banners, and foure Golden Swords borne before him, his Round Tables, and challenges of Martiall Honour, let Mon∣mouth * 1.6 the Writer, Newbery the Resister, and Leiland the Maintainer, be heard for me. But certaine it is (by the report of Malmesbury) that Arthur was a Prince * 1.7 more worthy to be aduanced by the truth of Records in war∣rantable credit, then by fables scandalized with poeticall fictions and hyperbolicall falshoods. Whose Banner was so often spread for the cause of Christianitie, and de∣fense of his Countrey, being the only proppe that vpheld the same. And lamentable it is, that the fame of this pu∣issant Prince had not beene sounded by a more certaine Trumpet: for to say the truth of his Writer euen in a * 1.8 word, hee was well skilled in Antiquities of tradition,

but as it seemeth, not any of ancient credit, so many toies and tales hee euery where interlaceth out of his owne braine, wherewith hee was charged while him∣selfe liued, insomuch as he is now ranged among those Writers whom the Roman Church hath censured to be forbidden.

This hurt therefore those ouer-zealous Monkes haue done to the Subiect whereof they wrote, that through an ouer-much conceited opinion, with the vertue and fame of the person, they haue mingled such matters as may iustly be reiected, whereby their worths are not only depriued of their truly-deserued honours, but which more is, euen their persons suspe∣cted to be nought else but fictions, as Hercules in Ouid, or Hector in Homer. And so hath Geffrey done by this most worthy Prince Arthur, whose warres against the Saxons for defense of this Iland, he hath enlarged with the Conquests of other Kingdomes and Countries, wherein he neuer came: which hath made not onely his Acts to be doubted of, but euen his person to bee called in question, whether any such Arthur euer ru∣led in Britaine. Yet with better regard to the Recor∣ders of his spreading fame, we grant both the man, and many honorable parts in him, though not in the like manner as they haue laid them downe. Neither are we straied so farre from the steps of credulitie, that we can beleeue no more then wee see, or that seeing, bee fore-stalled with a preiudicate opinion: for though we consent not to the fables of Homer, neither to the inuentions that Euripides and Sophocles made vpon the * 1.9 Battles of Troy, yet wee denie not but that there were Warres and Battles at Troy, wherein many Martiall acts vndoubtedly were performed: neither doubt wee of his person, as Seneca seemeth to doe of Iupiters, but * 1.10 acknowledge it with reuerence for truth, yet with this reseruation, that all is not Gospell which is written in Greeke. And had there not beene a truth of things whereupon Poets made their fables, there had beene at this day no fables of Poets in the world. And as Geffrey wondreth that neither Gyldas nor Beda doe mention Arthur nor his great deeds, so saith Randul∣phus, may we at Geffrey, that hath augmented them a∣boue the pitch of credulitie. But for the truth of this Prince, besides a Charter exemplified vnder the s•…•…ale of King Edward the Third, wherein mention is made of King Arthur, to haue beene a great Benefactour to the Abbey of Glastenbury, who as Iohn Rouse reporteth, * 1.11 had giuen Bren-march and other Demaines, to the va∣lue of fiue hundred Markes yeerely, to the said Mona∣sterie. His Armes (being an Escocheon, wheron a Crosse, * 1.12 with the Virgin Mary bearing Christ in her armes) cut in stone, and standing ouer the first Gate of entrance as yet, is said to be the Armes of that Abbey. And Io∣seph, the iudicious Monke of Excester, who followed * 1.13 King Richard the First in his warre for the Conquest of the Holy Land, in his poeticall verses extolleth Ar∣thur with Alexander, Caesar, and Hercules; yea and Ni∣nius, farre his ancient, calleth Arthur an Iron Mall, that both bruised and brake the Lions iawes asunder. * 1.14

Therefore of his person we make no doubt, though his acts haue beene written with too lauish a pen: nei∣ther consent we with those Historians that naturalize him for a Britaine, seeing that Ninius, Beda, Malmesbu∣rie, and himselfe seeme to speake the contrarie: for Ambrosius being the brother of Vter Pendragon, as we already from Beda haue shewed, was a Captaine de∣scended from the bloud of the Romans, whose parents saith Ninius, had worne the Purple Robe, and both of * 1.15 them the sonnes of Constantine, whose father in Bri∣taine against Honorius the Emperour had put on the said Robe. And by his naturall descent from the Ro∣mans, Arthur not only denied them Tribute, but also threatned to haue a Tribute from Rome: for in his Letters to that end sent vnto the Senate, thus in an old Manuscript we finde it indited: Vnderstand among you of Rome, that I am King Arthur of Britaine, and freely * 1.16 it hold, and shall hold; and at Rome hastily will I bee, not to giue you tr•…•…age, but to haue tr•…•…age of you: for Constantine that was Helenes sonne, and other of mi•…•… Ancestors con∣quered Rome, and thereof were Emperours, and that the•…•… had and held I shall haue your•…•… Godd•…•…s grace. Whereby is manifest his bloud was from the Romans. Let not therefore any of our Britaines take exceptions against me for this, neither that I enlarge not his fame, by the enlargement of his Empire in Russia, Lapland, and in making Norway his Chamber of Britaine, as if that Kingdome and Title should bee giuen him by the Pope, that indeed cuts large thongs out of other mens Leather: his Conquests of thirty Kingdomes, and kil∣ling of Denabus the huge Spanish Giant, & his combat with Frolo Gouernor of France, and with Lucius Hibe∣rus the Roman Legate, whose slaine body hee sent to the Senate for the tribute of Britaine by them deman∣ded: seeing that others before mee, farre more rip•…•… Historians, haue made both doubts and obiections against them. And therefore I conclude with this Ar∣thur, as Saint Augustine with the Athenians, whose men * 1.17 (saith he) were euer greater in fame then in deeds. And with Ninius will end with his saying; Arthurus pu•…•…a bat contra illos in diebus illis; & licet multi ipso no•…•…∣res essent, ipse tamen duodecies Dux belli fuit, Vi∣ctorque bellorum: Arthur made warre against them in those daies; and though many were more noble then be, yet was hee twelue times Generall in the Field, and retur∣ned Conquerour. But more constant is the memorie of his death, and place of his buriall, both which are re∣ported vpon warrantable credit: for Mordred the sonne of Lotho, whereof wee haue spoken, affecting the Crown, vpon a pretence of right from King Vter, and supposed bastardise of Arthur, gaue many at∣tempts, through the aid of his Picts, and assistance of the Saxons, to dispossesse him of that wherein he was seated: and lastly at * 1.18 Kamblan or Cambula in Cornwall (saith Leland) this British Hector encountring Mordred, slew him out-right, and receiued of him his owne deaths wound. The witnesse of this Field as yet are those peeces of Armour, horse-harnesse, and other habili∣ments of Warre, which are daily digged vp in tillage of the ground; vnlesse those reliques of Battle be the seales of that fight which Marianus writeth to haue * 1.19 beene in this place betwixt the Britaines and Saxons, in the yeere of our Lord eight hundred and twenty.

If then it bee true that Arthur heere died, this place we may say seemeth to be consecrated vnto Mars: for Tindagell Castle, standing hard by, first brought into the world this glorious Prince, for one of her nine Worthies, and Cambula againe receiued his last bloud. But from this place he was carried vnto Glastenburie in Somerset-shire, where he died the one and twentieth of May, in the yeere of our Saluation fiue hundred * 1.20 forty and two, after he had most victoriously raigned twenty six yeeres. His body was there buried, and six hundred yeeres after was taken vp, and found vpon this occasion: When Henry the second, and first Plan∣tagenet, had swaied the English Scepter to the last of his raigne, it chanced him at Pembrooke to heare sung to the Harpe certaine Ditties of the worthy exploits and acts of this Arthur, (by a Welsh Bard, as they were ter∣med, whose custome was to record and sing at their Feasts the noble deeds of their Ancestours) wherein mention was made of his death, and place of buriall, designing it to be in the Church-yard of Glastenburie, and that betwixt two Pyramides therein standing: whereupon King Henry caused the ground to be dig∣ged, and at seuen foot depth was found a huge broad stone, wherein a leadden Crosse was fastned, and in that side that lay downeward, in rude and barbarous letters (as rudely set and contriued) this inscription written vpon that side of the Lead that was towards the stone:

HIC IACET SEPVLTVS REX AR∣TVRIVS IN INSVLA AVALONIA.

Heere lieth King Arthur buried in the Ile of Aualonia.

And digging nine foot deeper, his body was found in the trunke of a Tree, the bones of great bignesse, and in his scull perceiued ten wounds, the last very great, and plainely seene. His Queene Guineuer, that had beene neere kinswoman to Cador Duke of Cornwall, a

Lady of passing beautie lay likewise by him, whose * 1.21 tresses of haire finely platted, and in colour like the gold, seemed perfect and whole vntill it was touched, but then (bewraying what all beauties are) shewed it selfe to be dust. Giraldus Cambrensis, a worthy Author and an eie-witnesse, is the reporter of this finding of Arthurs bones; and the Crosse of Lead, with the In∣scription, as it was found and taken off the stone, was kept in the Treasurie or Reuester of Glastenburie * 1.22 Church, saith Stowe, till the suppression thereof in the raigne of King Henry the eight, whose forme and rude letters we haue here expressed to thy sight.

[illustration]

The bones of King Arthur, and of Queene Gui∣neuar * 1.23 his wife, by the direction of Henry de Bloys, Ne∣phew to King Henry the second, and Abbat of Gla∣stenbury, at that present were translated into the great new Church, and there in a faire Tombe of Marble, his body was laid and his Queenes at his feet; which noble Monument among the fatall ouerthrowes of infinite more, was altogether raced at the dispose of some then in Commission, whose too forward zeale, and ouer hastie actions in these behalfes, hath left vnto vs a want of many truths, and cause to wish that some of their imployments had bin better spent.

Notes

• * 1.1

  5. An. Do. 516.
• * 1.2

  Matth. West•…•….
• * 1.3

  Scotia Chron.
• * 1.4

  Matth. West•…•….
• * 1.5

  Beda hist. Angl. lib. 1. cap. 16.
• * 1.6

  Monmouth. Wil. Ne•…•…. Leiland.
• * 1.7

  Wil. Malmes.
• * 1.8

  Of Ieffrey Ar∣thur, or Monke of Monmouth.
• * 1.9

  Hom. Iliad. lib. 5. Euripides. Sophocles.
• * 1.10

  Seneca in his Morals.
• * 1.11

  Iohn Rouse.
• * 1.12

  The Armes of Arthur.
• * 1.13

  Iosephus Isc•…•….
• * 1.14

  Arthur an Iron Mall.
• * 1.15

  Ninius. Malmesb. de ge∣st•…•… Reg. Angl.
• * 1.16

  A namelesse old Manuscript, chap. 154.
• * 1.17

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 10.
• * 1.18

  Camel•…•…ord.
• * 1.19

  Marianus Scotus.
• * 1.20

  Wal. sonne•…•… An∣tiq. Glasten. Arthur the con∣tinuance of his raigne.
• * 1.21

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 tresses of haire my •…•…e saw in a coffin digged vp in an old house neere Pauls in London, very beautifull in shew, but be∣ing touched, was nothing but dust.
• * 1.22

  Iohn Stow.
• * 1.23

  Arthurs bones in •…•…ombed.