Britannia Antiqua. Or ancient Britain brought within the limits of authentic history

Chapter I. Face

Vindication of the Histories of Asser, Gildas and Nennius, and of the ancient British Poets : with observations on the Historical Triads : and on ancient British Coins . 1-16

Chapter II

Scrutiny and dissection of the work of Nennius, and remarks on Gildas as an historian ; also observations on the epic poem of the Cambreis, and on the other works of the elder Gildas (Gildas Albanius) .... 17-80

Chapter III

Contributions to the earlier part of the British history of the sixth century, comprising the life, reign, and acts of Arthur Mabuter, king of the Britons, pp. 81-190 : viz. Part 1. His birth, parentage, and chronology of his reign . . . . .81-115 Part 2. Miscellaneous particulars relating to him 116-132 Part 3. His expeditions to Gaul ; and the War of C»mlan ...... 133-152 Part 4. His kindred, friends, adherents, and contemporaries ..... 152-163 Part 5. The discovery of his remains, etc. . -. 163-190 CONTENTS. VIII

Chapter XXI. Page

Miscellanea relating to ancient British history, geography, and ethnology ; viz., Remarks on Julius Sextus Frontinus, the classic author, proprætor in this country in the first century. — Forts in the rear of the Roman Wall on the northern coast. — Ancient Britons in Armorica. — Supposed grant of lands by Constantine of Armorica to the church of Llandaff.. — Hengist. — The Demetæ in Britain and their territories. — Eboracum or York, its rank as a Roman town. — Bemarks on the three Chesters. — The Girvii. — The Prophecies of Gwinclan. — Historical sources of the British Chronicles. — Merddin Emmrys, and his history as disguised by tradition. — Varying accounts of the parentage of Caractacus reconciled. — Cunedda. — Supposed proof of the former existence of Druidical tree circles in Sussex. — The Descriptio Utriusque Britanniæ, the supposed lost work on Britain of John de Salisbury, the friend of Becket. — Unique Inscription referring to the Fourteenth Roman Legion. — Territories of the Northern Britons. — Ancient London. — Ostorius, the Roman proprætor, in Britain ....... 361-375 MAP of the territories of the Northern Britons, and those of Bernicia, etc., etc. . . . to face page

Chapter I Asser

etc BRITANNIA ANTIQUA.

CHAPTER I. THE AUTHENTICITY ASSERTED OF THE HISTORICAL WORKS OF ASSER, GILDAS

AND NENNIUS, AND OF THE ANCIENT BARDIC POEMS OF BRITAIN: TOGETHER WITH REMARKS ON THE ANCIENT BRITISH TRIADS AS MATERIALS FOR HISTORY. It might seem almost superfluous to vindicate the genu ineness of the works of the three historians whose names are mentioned as above, and who, for ages past, have held their position, and received such share of attention, as the barbarousness of their age might seem to warrant ; and, imperfect recorders as they are of the times they have selected to illustrate, much light, indeed, do they throw on a lengthened series of events, which, without their aid, would be involved in the darkest obscurity. Yet, as one modern writer of reputation has considered their works as little better than forgeries, and as unworthy of being used as authorities in history, and has repeatedly brought the subject forward, it may be as well to canvass the question ; in order either to receive the evidence supplied by them, if worthy of credit, or to repudiate it if spurious.

Mr. Wright, the gentleman alluded to, cannot be justly dis pleased with a fair discussion of their authenticity and genuineness : more especially as he must be sensible that we are only supporting the opinion ofthe majority of histo rical readers, with whom these ancient writers have hitherto passed current. In executing our task we shall have to controvert a series of objections which, be it understood, if substantiated, would tend to subvert, not only the earlier B [chap. 2 ANCIENT BRITISH HISTORIANS. secular histories of our island, but the earlier church his tories as well. It may excite surprise, that a writer of undoubted talent, learning, and extensive acquirements, as the one on whom we now animadvert, should place himself in so untenable a position ; but the opinions, it is believed, were adopted in the earlier part of his literary career, and not duly re considered since.

However, under whatsoever circumstances the said views may have been formed, there is no question but that the cause of historical literature is much indebted to Mr. Wright, for bringing forward his objections on the said authors in a tangible shape, and collecting them, as it were, in one focus. The best way of treating our subject is to state the objections against our three early historians seriatim, and to show that they are wholly void of any due basis : the con sequence of which will be, the fully and completely evinc ing the genuineness of these three ancient writers, and thex restoring them to their proper position as recorders of events in their own respective eras. As far, then, as Asser is concerned, the attack first ap peared in vol. xxix. ofthe Archæologia, for 1842, pp. 192 201; afterwards in Mr. Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria, 8vo., 1842, vol. i. pp. 405-41 3.

We will state the objections accordingly in due order, as they appear in the last mentioned work, and afterwards endeavour, as briefly as possible, to make their entire futility clear and manifest. Objections as in the Biographia Britannica Literaria, there alleged to show that the Life of Alfred by Asser, bishop of Sherborne, is spurious. Obj. 1. — The uncertainty of the identification of the presumed author of the Life of Alfred. For whereas Alfred, in the preface to his Pastorale, addresses a certain ecclesi astic as "Asser, my bishop", that person must have been an English bishop, from the mode of address employed ; but no Asser, an English bishop, is mentioned in that age, except Asser, bishop of Sherborne ; and Alfred, in the same preface, addresses another person, named Wulfsige, as the bishop of Sherborne {Biographia Literaria,8vo. ,1842 vol. i pp. 405-6). ».] 3 AUTHENTICATION OF ASSER.

Obj. 2. — The improbability that Alfred should have taken sufficient interest in Asser, before he had seen him, to in vite him from Wales to his court ; and that Asser hesitated to come (vol. i. p. 408). Obj. 3. — The improbability that the Life of Alfred should be written in his lifetime, when he was in the vigour of his age (in his forty-fifth year) ; and that Asser, his biographer, who is believed to have survived him five years, should not have continued it (vol. i. p. 408). Obj. 4. — That the Life is an unskilful compound of his tory and of legend (vol. i. p. 408). Obj. 5. — That the historical part of it, i.e. that from 851 to 887 is evidently a mere translation from the Saxon Chro nicle, with a few personal anecdotes added ; whereas the Saxon Chronicle, according to the writer of the objections, was not in existence, most probably, till long after Alfred's death (vol. i. p. 409).

Obj. 6. — That the Life contains matters that could not have been written by bishop Asser ; such as the statement which makes Alfred, a prince, complain that his education had been so neglected in his youth, that, when in child hood he was desirous of learning, he could not find instruc tors (vol. i. p. 409). Obj. 7. — That he takes from a legendary Life of St. Neot the account of Alfred's misfortunes at Athelney, which he has added to what is said on the point in the Saxon Chro nicle (vol. i. p. 409). Obj. 8. — That this Life of St. Neot, from which Asser copied, was not written till the year 974 ; there being every reason to suppose that it was not indited till his relics were removed into Huntingdonshire in that year (vol. i, p. 410). The above series of objections may be considered as not without interest, as containing the strongest arguments which can be brought against the genuineness of Asser's Life of Alfred.

We will, however, merely answer them gene rally, noticing one or two of the principal ones, which, if they be shown not to be of importance, the others, which are quite subordinate to them, may be safely passed by. None of them, we may affirm without risk, are of a very overwhelming nature. First, as to the identification of Asser, and whether he were bishop of Sherborne, or not. The ambiguous passages ANCIENT BRITISH HISTORIANS. CHAP. in the preface to Alfred's Pastorale are usually accounted for thus. Alfred, we elsewhere find, had given him the church of Exeter, with a certain district annexed to it, which the king might have considered his bishopric, and addressed him accordingly, as having given him a bishop's jurisdiction within it. Thence he might have been styled "Asser, my bishop", Wulfsige then being bishop of Sher borne ; while on Wulfsige's death he might have been made bishop of Sherborne itself.

That he was bishop of Sherborne is stated in various ancient documents, and among them in the Latin copy of Alfred's will. We cannot cite Cambrian accounts to corroborate Asser's biography as we find it in his Life of Alfred. However, there is but little doubt that he was the Geraint Vardd Glas of the Cambrians, of whom it is recorded that he lived about the year 900. He was a poet and grammarian, and his reputation in that age would appear to have been great; but his literary works, with the exception of a few frag ments, are lost (see Owen Pughe's Cambrian Biography , 12mo, 1803 ; and Richard's Eminent Welshmen, 8vo, 1852). Besides this testimony, it appears from the Chronicle of Caradoc of Lancarvan, that there was an ecclesiastic named Asser appointed archbishop of St. David's in 905 ; who must have been the same as our Asser.

The said Caradoc records his death in the ensuing year, 906. We now come to what may apparently be considered his main objection, namely, that Asser's Life of Alfred contains passages which show that the Saxon Chronicle has been in many places copied into the historical part. We may here bring forward the Anglo-Norman poet, Gaimar, against the objection ; — an author whom Mr. Wright himself has edited. Gaimar distinctly says that Alfred caused the Saxon Chronicle, or the Book of Winchester, to be compiled from such materials as could be found. (See his Estorie des Eagles, as edited in the Monumenta Historica Britannica, v. 2316, et serf., and v. 3451 ; and also his Episode, v. 33). Asser, then, might as easily have compiled from the Saxon Chronicle, as an author of the time of George III might have done from the London Gazettes of that reign ; and con sequently all difficulty on that head is thus at once removed.

The next principal objection is, that the Life of Alfred, by Asser, purporting to be written in the year 887, has re- «.] 5 AUTHENTICATION OF GILDAS. ference to the Life of St. Neot, which is believed not to have appeared till the year 974. The answer to which is, that the same may easily be credited to be nothing more than marginal references, which have been gradually taken into the text, from time to time, in copies made in monasteries of Asser's Life of Alfred. This might have been by the way of adding further details, and might have been more readily done as the passages in question were taken from the life of a saint. The foregoing objections being thus answered, Asser may be considered as restored to the universal and uncon ditional acceptance with which his work has ever been re ceived both in medieval and modern times.

We now turn to vindicate another of our ancient historians against the attacks of the same modern writer. Objections against the authenticity and genuineness of Gildas, by the author before cited. These may be found in vol. xxxii. of the Archæologia, and in the Biographia Britannica Literaria ; as also scattered about in various detached works and periodicals by the same pen. We may now principally collect them from the Biographia Literaria. Obj. 1. — That the accounts of Gildas are legendary, con fused, and contradictory. In particular, that the chrono logies given in the two Narratives of his life ; the one attributed to Caradoc of Lancarvan, and the other to a monk of the monastery of Rhuys, in Normandy, are totally in consistent {Biographia Britannica Literaria, vol. i., p. 124) ; and that in regard to reconciling their contradictory data, it is not admissible to allege that there were two persons ofthe name [Ibid. p. 123).

Obj. 2. — That from the invectives it contains against the British clergy, the most due and practical conclusion is that it was a forgery, by some Anglo-Saxon or foreign priest, concocted during the controversies which took place between the two churches in the seventh century {Ibid. p. 128, and the Archæologia, vol. xxxii. p. 335). Our answer to these objections, as in the case of those against Asser, will be brief; because any lengthened reply would be wholly unnecessary. [CHAP. 6 ANCIENT BRITISH HISTORIANS. We would observe of the name Gildas, that it is generic, and implies "Princeps — minister", that is, the "Prince, the priest"; and consequently any prince or nobleman becoming an ecclesiastic, would be entitled to the appellation. Dr. C. O'Conor, in his Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, part ii. p. xxix., informs us, that he believes he could find a thousand persons of the name of Gildas connected with Irish literature.

We do not want so many for our argument ; but most writers, as archbishop Usher, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Petrie, Dr. O'Conor, and others, suppose that there were two per sons in this country of that name, which will fully remove all difficulties of chronology. In short, the dates which respect the first Gildas, as traceable in various ancient works (see the account of Gildas in the Britannic Researches, p. 166), go down in a regular series from the year 425 to 512; and those which refer to the second, from 492 to 570 [Ibid.). In answer to Mr. Wright's second objection, it does not at all apply : for not only ill-feeling existed between the Latin communion and the British churches on account of the Easter controversy, which began about the year 634, and ended in the year 762, by the appointment of Elbodus, archbishop of Gwynedd by the Pope ; but also it arose as early as the middle of the fifth century, on account of the Pelagian heresy, as is sufficiently notorious.

We find that the mission of Germanus to Britain, in the interest of the Latin church, to combat the doctrine of Pelagius, took place as early as the year 429. (See Bede's Ecclesiastical History, i. l7, and Prosper's Chronicle.) We will now notice the objections set forth against Nennius, by the same author, in the two literary vehicles before cited. Objections against the genuineness of the British history of Nennius, from the Biographia Britannica Literaria and the Archæologia. Obj. 1. — That the work of Nennius is a forgery, as con taining allusions of a later date than the seventh (eighth) century, which was the era of the ecclesiastic of that name, the disciple of St. Elbodus, whom the fabricator intended to personate {Biographia Literaria, vol. i. pp. 137-140). Obj. 2.-— That the genealogies were introduced by the '•] 7 AUTHENTICATION OF NENNIUS. forger with the intent of confirming the fictitious date he assigned to the history; but that imperfectly understanding chronology, he has fully convicted himself, by introducing anachronisms {Ibid. vol. i. p. 140).

Obj. 3. — That the history of Nennius is an absolute for gery, fabricated just before the history of William of Malmesbury was written, which appeared in the year 1135 {Archæologia, vol. xxxii. p. 337); or otherwise it is of an uncertain date {Ibid. p. 338). We may observe on these objections, that we may well understand them to have had considerably more weight at the time they were made, some twelve years ago, than they can have at the present time, when every thing relating to the first publication of the history of Nennius, owing to the labours of the Hon. Algernon Herbert, and the Rev. Dr. Todd, is so much better understood. We now do not suppose any edition of the seventh century ; and why not \ Because those two gentlemen, in their Dublin Edition, 4to. 1847, very incontestably ascertained that the first manuscript edition was in the year 822, by Marcus, a Briton, who was an Irish bishop ; ancl that the editions properly of Nennius do not come in till about the middle of the ninth century ; and that afterwards there was a reproduction, in 946, of the edition of Marcus, with additions from the Nennian editions.

The fact of these editions is now notorious, and we have adverted to them elsewhere ; and we need not do more here than refer to the statement supplied by the Irish Nennius, which, we believe, has not been con tradicted. This explanation will of course remove the two first objections, which it immediately meets ; as also the third, which seems only a species of corollary from them. The most mistakeable points connected with Nennius are in this way put right : and thus we have given a few rea sons why this author, together with Asser and Gildas, should be continued among our early historical authorities. We have not intended to disparage Mr. Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria, which is a history of Anglo-Saxon and Norman literature, and is obviously otherwise a work of merit, and contains much fruit of his own manuscript researches ; but have felt bound to endeavour to correct what we conceive his erroneous views in respect to the subject on which we have animadverted. [chap. 8 HISTORICAL MATERIALS.

The Ancient British Poets. It should not excite surprise, that the compositions of these primitive poets, going back, as they do, to consider able antiquity, should have been attacked and considered spurious by some. They have been so ; and in the begin ning ofthe present century there has been a certain amount of controversy respecting them, in which the late eminent critic and scholar, Sharon Turner, took a part. That con troversy has now mostly died away ; and we find a distinguished author, lately deceased, the Hon. Algernon Her bert, who paid much attention to Celtic literature, receiving unreservedly these ancient compositions. The controversy, nevertheless, has not so entirely disappeared but that some lurking scepticism maybe occasionally traceable. One of the works which most readily presents itself is a work by the same author whose views we have lately had occasion to scrutinize, — who, in the Wanderings of an Antiquary, as published in the Gentleman s Magazine, October, 1853, and also separately, has consigned the bards, or rather their productions, to a mere ideal existence, and supposes that they have been personated by modern forgers, who have taken advantage of popular prepossessions and prejudices, and composed poems in their name.

So thought Mr. Rit son half a century ago, and some others of that day, when the Macpherson question was more particularly mooted ; and this question of the Cambrian bards would appear to be the sequel to that. We now propose a few remarks on the genuineness of the productions attributed to these writers, which may very appropriately follow up the vin dication of our three ancient and important historians, which we have submitted to our readers in our previous pages. If, then, the numerous Welsh poems, extending from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, were forgeries, they must have been fabricated much in the same way that Pere Hardouin supposed that the ancient classics, Avith an exception of Pliny's Natural History and a few other works, were pro duced ; that is, as it were, by a simultaneous consent and a species of conspiracy of a whole body of men of genius and learning, and great impostors, too, at the same time ; impostors, indeed, necessarily of surprising magnitude. !■] 9 ANCIENT BRITISH POETS.

This monstrous supposition, we need scarcely say, never obtained currency among the literati of that time ; nor will the readers of the present day be very readily inclined to receive the corresponding one in regard to the Cambrian poets. It comes too much under the head of bold scepticism. We may therefore express a regret that a writer of undoubted learning and talent, and in many instances of sound judgment, should have again agitated the question, which it appears scarcely justifiable to do. We will enter upon the topic : but as to do so fully would only be to go over the same ground as has been so satisfac torily traversed by the eminent Sharon Turner, — who has devoted a volume to the subject, entitled his Vindication of the Ancient British Poets, 8vo, 1803,— it will suffice to offer some few observations ; not with the idea to treat of it in all its branches, like Sharon Turner, but to show summa rily the genuineness of the Cambrian bards, on an incon trovertible basis.

First, we may observe, that the antiquity and obsolete ness of the language entirely suit some of the older bards, as Taliesin and Aneurin. So ancient is their diction, that they are not, without the greatest difficulty, comprehensible to the moderns. There is also an entire correspondency in the subjects of which they treat to their respective times. You see traces in them of still lurking Druidism ; the peculiar, wild manners of the sixth century ; the primitive customs of bardism ; and the Saxon war still in its earlier stages. With all this, these ancient poets, some of them, are contained in manuscripts as early as the twelfth cen tury : as, for instance, in the Black Book of Carmarthen, in the Hengwrt library. Consequently, this nefarious gang of forgers, whose existence we are obliged to admit, if the Cambrian bardic poems be forgeries, must have been actively at work, regardless of the troubles of their country just previous to its final fall ; and just before, too, the era of Giraldus Cambrensis, who must have grossly neglected his duty as an historian, in not having given a full account of their proceedings.

We imply, then, that these ancient compositions were in existence as early as the twelfth century : and here, as corresponding to their antiquity, it will be right to point out the remarkable and very frequent recurrence of ellipses c [chap. 10 HISTORICAL MATERIALS. in them, which is very highly significant. Ellipses in com position are not a characteristic of the later period of the middle ages ; but rather, the contrary, a wearisome fulness. We may account for it in the earlier Welsh bards, that writing their poems not without some view of vocal per formance, they omitted many connecting lines for the sake of brevity ; and thus it happens that these productions have only reached us in this form. Take Taliesin's poem, the Battle of Argoed Lhvyfain, and it will clearly appear that about as many lines necessary for connexion have been left out as are inserted.

The use of rhyme, again, has been objected to against the authenticity of the Welsh poetical compositions of the earlier period ; but Sharon Turner, in his Vindication of the Ancient British Poets, pp. 250-267, shows the employment of it, by numerous instances, between the fourth and ninth centuries ; and quotes a passage from St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo in the fifth century, relative to its adoption, and the reasons for it. The author of the Biographia Britannica Literaria (vol. ii. Introduction, p. 11) erroneously supposes that rhyme was a new feature in poetry in the twelfth century, and that it was first adopted by Hilarius, a poet of that era. Giraldus Cambrensis has no express treatise on the Welsh bards ; but in his Liber Distinctionum, c. 9, he men tions their "Cantores historici", which implies that he knew of the existence of the poems ; for if they were historical singers, it surely must be implied that their songs, the sub ject of their singing, were written.

Having Welsh manuscripts as old as the twelfth century, there is of course no dispute as to the existence of Cambrian bards from that period. We find a series of them in the work of Sharon Turner. We can obtain some testimony from them of the earlier bards of all, and may take the following proofs from his pages. Elidir Sais, a Cambrian poet, lived between the years 1160 and 1220, and mentions both Taliesin and Merddin Wyllt, who both lived in the sixth century. — Einiawn ap Gwgawn lived between 1200 and 1260, and mentions Llowarch Hen, a Cambrian bard of the sixth century. Phylyp Brydydd lived between 1200 and 1250, and men tions Taliesin. — David Benvras, who lived between !■] 11 THE TRIADS. and 1240, notices Merddyn Wyllt, Llowarch Hen, and Aneurin and his Gododin, and has an allusion to Taliesin, though he does not mention his name. — Llygad Gwa, who lived between 1220 and 1270, alludes to a passage in Ta liesin about Ida, king of Northumberland, styled the "Flamddwyn", or the Flame-bearer. — Gwilym Dhu, who lived between 1280 and 1320, mentions Taliesin and his " Flame-bearer", Llowarch Hen, and Merddin Wyllt.

These, like the first, were all Welsh poets ; and seven others, who lived previous to the year 1400, mention one or the other of the bards of the sixth century, whose names are given as above, and hint nothing of their spuriousness. Enough, therefore, may possibly have been said to show that the poems of the early Welsh bards are not " pseudo-ancient", as the author of the Biographia Britanniea Literaria asserts, and that their principal productions, at least, are genuine. The British Historical Triads. These ancient relics may, with great propriety, be sub joined to Asser, Gildas, and Nennius, and to the early British poets ; and a few observations on them may not be irrelevant. They are about as old, in their present shape, as the tenth or eleventh century, having been formed out of a prior work of the seventh century, broken up for that purpose.

This appears to be the main fact connected with their origin ; and as they are found at times to be much disparaged in various quarters, as to their antiquity, it is necessary to advert to that point. It is objected that there are portions of them which relate to events as late as the twelfth century ; and that the language in which they are written, pretty much corresponds to the same date ; and, consequently, that they are no more than fictions con cocted at that era. In brief answer it may be replied, as it is not intended to go into this subject at any length, that, had the numerous historical materials in the Triads been fictions of the twelfth century, they would have been worked up with greater extravagancies, according to the custom of the times ; whereas there are scarcely more in credible circumstances in them than are usually mixed up with early Middle Age histories, and many of their details are very satisfactorily confirmed from independent sources. [chap. 12 historical materials.

Now as the objectors do not pretend to deny the princi pal facts, — indeed, they neither deny nor admit them, but merely object to the form in which they appear, — the general credibility of the contents of the Triads must be left to rest on its own basis ; a course we must pursue with all medieval histories, — and, indeed, with many modern ones. But with regard to the two objections which have been noticed, it seems an obvious remark, that, as from time to time, new transcripts of the Triads have been made, both modern additions have been united with them, and the language modernized. Many of our standard his tories, we find, have had professedly modern additions, as time has progressed ; and the orthography of Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope, is now given in a modernized form, very different from that which they had at the time their works appeared ; and if, in the case of the Triads, the phrase and diction, as well as the orthography, may have been much altered, the greater latitude allowed to an editor and reproducer of literary works in the middle ages, must be considered.

The text of some few writers of ecclesiastical histories, or of other authors, who, from some reason, were much esteemed, may have been kept sacred ; but we find that neither the language of Gildas, nor of Nennius, has come to us unaltered ; particularly of the latter ; ancl that the text of some of the ancient British poets has been much varied. We shall have an opportunity to advert briefly to this point again. In the meanwhile, a few words may be necessary on the characteristic features of these ancient compositions. The Triads form an unique class of literary productions, for there is nothing similar to them in the literature of the whole of Europe. We may commence by observing, that the practice of iteration and reiteration forms a somewhat peculiar and very notable circumstance in ancient British poetry : that is to say, an emphatic reiteration, not of precisely the same ideas, but of ideas as nearly similar as could be selected, introduced, with the recurrence of the same formulary, at stated intervals.

We are inclined to think that this is a legitimate part and parcel of the materia poetica; and it is certainly a means of producing a striking effect, as used by Llowarch Hen in his Moranad, or monody on the death of Urien Rheged, and in his other poems ; *•] 13 THE TRIADS. by Aneurin in his Gododin ; and by Taliesin in his Battle of Menao, and in his Recompense of Urien. It was not, how ever, adopted by the Greeks or Latins ; nor has it been by our English poets, probably from the fear of the notable fault of tautology, which, it must be confessed, has been in part incurred, though its bad effects have been avoided, and it has been improved into an exquisite beauty by the skilful management of the Celtic versifiers. This practice must have suited the taste of the times, from obtaining the currency it did ; and it is extremely probable that it sug gested the species of reiteration which we find in the compositions which form our present subject of remark, although they are not in verse but prose.