From Ambrosius Aurelianus to Arthur: the Creation of a National Hero in Historia Brittonum

From Ambrosius Aurelianus to Arthur: the Creation of a National Hero in Historia Brittonum Angélica Varandas* The 5th century witnessed the occupation of vast territories within Europe by barbarian invaders who led to the collapse of the Roman Empire and to the emergence of a new period in western civilization known as the Middle Ages. In order to attend to the defense of Rome from the siege of the Goths, the Romans abandoned Britain in 410. As a result, it was soon occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, who first set foot on the island in 449, apparently invited by the Celtic king, Vortigern. Yet, this invitation was not regarded with sympathy by the British and, as an ever-growing number of Saxons began to reach the British shores, inlanders tried hard to maintain the unwelcome guests far from their country. Conflicts between the Celtic British and the English Saxons lasted for an extended period of time, and went on even after the occupation of what is now England by the Saxons. These reorganized the territory into a heptarquy of seven kingdoms which would last until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Celts who did not accept the new Germanic government fled to areas such as Brittany or Little Britain in France, or were pushed away to Wales, Scotland and Cornwall. However, in spite of their final defeat, the Celts cherished a special moment of national pride, during which they were the victors and when everything seemed to herald their strength and superiority. We are referring to the Battle of Mount Badon, also known as the Battle of Badon Hill, allegedly fought between 482 and 516. This conflict culminated with the Celts’ astounding triumph over the invaders, who suffered a crushing defeat and great humiliation. Badon was, therefore, viewed as a huge British success which halted the Anglo-Saxons for some time, thus fostering patriotic feelings. This battle is first mentioned by Gildas, a British cleric, who, in the 6th century, wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Conquest and Ruin of Britain). In this work, he blames his compatriots for the countless battles, conflicts and disasters that overcame the British, claiming that their sins and corrupt behaviour, similar to those of the Children of Israel, had been the cause of the Germanic incursions and of the country’s ruin. The invasion of the Saxons is, therefore, understood as a punishment sent from God to the British. These were doomed not to survive for long as a result of their cowardice and weak personality, which made them incapable of forming an organized army to fight back. By stating this idea, Gildas is, in fact, undermining British social and political structure. * ULICES, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon “A SCHOLAR FOR ALL SEASONS” 178 “A SCHOLAR FOR ALL SEASONS” Gildas’s text was of paramount importance both for the way the British came to identify themselves as a people, and the way the Saxons understood them. By providing such a negative image of the British, this text promoted the belief that this people had no social identity whatsoever, thus encouraging the formation of Anglo-Saxon society. Gildas says that the Battle of Badon Hill took place in the year he was born. He does not mention Arthur.1 Instead, he associates this battle with the figure of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Roman leader of noble character, as the text states in English translation:2 After a time, when the cruel raiders returned to their home, God strengthened the survivors. Distraught citizens fled to them from different locations, as avidly as bees to the beehive when a storm is overhanging, and with all their hearts implored (…) that they might not be destroyed to the point of extermination. Their leader was a gentleman, Ambrosius Aurelianus, who perhaps alone of the Romans had survived the impact of such a tempest; truly his parents, who had won the purple, were overcome in it. In our times his stocks have degenerated greatly from their excellent grandfather. With him our people regained their strength, challenged the victors to battle and with the Lord acceding the victory fell to us. From then on now our citizens, and then the enemies conquered. (…) This lasted up until the year of the siege of Badon Hill, almost the most recent defeat of the malefactors and certainly not the least. That was the year of my birth; and as I know since then forty-four years and one month have already passed. (Coe and Young 1995: 5) According to Gildas, Ambrosius Aurelianus is the main leader of the several battles that opposed the British to the English in the late 5th century, although his figure is not known from any other historical source. In the Excidio, he appears as a military leader coming from a family of Roman military tribunes (tribuni militum), for the text mentions that his family ‘had won the purple’, perhaps as a reference to a purple band, which was a privilege assigned to senior officers in the Roman legions. However, that same expression may allude to Ambrosius’s aristocratic background, since aristocrats also wore a purple band on their clothes to denote their social class. He was then of high birth, his family was Roman and he was 1 In his Descriptio Cambriae (Description of Wales), written in 1194, Gerald of Wales gives his opinion about the absence of Arthur from Gildas’ work: ‘The Britons maintain that, when Gildas criticized his own people so bitterly, he wrote as he did because he was infuriated by the fact that King Arthur had killed his own brother, who was a Scottish chieftain. When he heard of his brother’s death, or so the Britons say, he threw into the sea a number of outstanding books which he had written in their praise and about Arthur’s achievements. As a result you will find no book which gives an authentic account of that prince.’ (Higham 2002: 59) 2 Therefore, the Battle of Badon Hill might have taken place in 482. The Annales Cambriae (The Annals of Wales), written at the end of the 10th century, state that the same battle occurred in 516. ANGÉLICA VARANDAS 179 probably a Roman or a Romano-Briton. He was perhaps also a Christian, for Gildas states that he won battles with the help of God. Apparently, he managed to organize an army to fight against the Saxons, whom he defeated though not for long, as the text goes on saying that ‘from then on now our citizens, and then the enemies conquered’. It seems that this was the situation in Gildas’s time, still a troubled period of alternating victories and defeats, the last battle having been fought at Badon Hill where, once more, the British won over the English. We may, then, ask if Ambrosius was their leader. Although the text is not clear about this issue, we can assume that this was the case. If another man had led that conflict, Gildas would have said so. For why would he name Ambrosius and not the man who had played the leading role in ‘the most recent defeat of the malefactors’, as he says? 3 De Excidio Britanniae is an important text because it is the only surviving source for the events that took place during the period known as the Dark Ages in Britain, as it is almost contemporary to the occupation of England by the Anglo-Saxons and to the conflicts that opposed the British to the English.4 Therefore, it is still considered one of the best sources of information on the Anglo-Saxons’ arrival into the British Isles, before Historia Ecclesiatica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) written by Bede two hundred years later, in 731. Based on Gildas, Bede maintained the idea that the British were a doomed race although he did not refer to the Saxon occupation as a divine punishment. Quite on the contrary, he portrays the English as a chosen people elected by God to defeat the British, whom he depicts as a people alienated from divine Grace with a fate similar to that of fallen angels. His work can be read as praise to the English and it was, in fact, dedicated to the king of Northumbria — Ceolwulf. From Bede’s text onwards, the idea of a common English identity gained strength in Britain, no more a Celtic soil, but an English nation. Following Gildas’s account of the Battle of Badon Hill, Bede says that it took place forty-four years after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into the British Isles, which he believes to have occurred in 449. Hence, the Battle of Badon Hill was fought in 493. He also associates it with Ambrosius Aurelianus. Hitherto, the records of the Battle of Badon Hill and of the Saxon occupation of England, though sparse, do not differ much. But a few years later, in the 9th century, a change in these records occurs. A different character enters the scene, opening a new page in the book of British history. In 829-30, in Gwynedd (Northern 3 See Padel (1994) and Wood (1999). 4 Yet, recently some critics have argued that the historical events that the text narrates may be not so accurate due to its moral tone, as Coe and Young (1995: 2) point out: ‘Even here, where Gildas is describing events in a manner we would usually term historical and chronological it is uncertain how much his account of the recent centuries can be relied upon: first because we cannot be sure of the extent to which the text has been manipulated for the purpose of moral instruction; and second because of his lack of sure knowledge about the recent past’.

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