Historia Regum Britanniae
Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Historia Regum Britanniae (
English:
The History of the Kings of Britain) is a
pseudohistorical account of
British history, written around
1136. It chronicles the lives of the
kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the
Trojans of
Homer's
Iliad founding the
British nation and continuing until the
Anglo-Saxons assumed control of Britain around the
7th century. It is one of the central pieces of the
Matter of Britain.
It has no value as history—when events described, such as
Julius Caesar's
invasions of Britain, can be corroborated from contemporary histories, Geoffrey's accounts can be seen to be wildly inaccurate—but is a valuable piece of medieval literature, which contains the earliest known version of the story of
King Lear and his three daughters, and introduced non-Welsh-speakers to the legend of
King Arthur.
The
Historia begins with the
Trojan Aeneas, who according to Roman legend settled in Italy after the
Trojan War. His grandson
Brutus is banished, and, after a period of wandering, is directed by the goddess
Diana to settle on an island in the western ocean, which he names "Britain" after himself.
The story continues chronologically, taking in such rulers as
Bladud, who uses magic and even tries to fly;
Leir, who divides his kingdom among his three daughters according to how much they profess to love him, a story which
Shakespeare used as the basis of his tragedy
King Lear; and
Dunvallo Molmutius, who codifies the Molmutine Laws. Dunvallo's sons,
Belinus and
Brennius, fight a civil war before being reconciled, and proceed to sack
Rome (based on the sack of Rome in 390 BC by the
Gallic leader
Brennus).
Caesar's invasions of Britain are opposed by
Cassibelanus. There is a brief notice of a king called
Kymbelinus, on whom Shakespeare based his play
Cymbeline. Then
Claudius invades, opposed by Kymbelinus's sons
Guiderius and
Arvirargus. The line of British kings continues under Roman rule, and includes
Lucius, Britain's first
Christian king, and several Roman figures, including the emperor
Constantine I, the usurper
Allectus and the military commander
Asclepiodotus.
After the Romans leave,
Vortigern comes to power, and invites the
Saxons under
Hengist and
Horsa to fight for him as mercenaries, but they rise against him, and Britain remains in a state of war under
Aurelius Ambrosius and his brother
Uther Pendragon, assisted by the wizard
Merlin. Uther's son
Arthur defeats the Saxons so severely that they cease to be a threat until after his death. In the meantime, Arthur conquers most of northern Europe and ushers in a period of peace and prosperity that lasts until the Roman emperor
Lucius Tiberius demands that Britain once again pay tribute to Rome. Arthur defeats Lucius in Gaul, but his nephew
Modred seizes the throne in his absence. Arthur returns and kills Modred, but, mortally wounded, he is carried off to the isle of
Avalon, and hands the kingdom to his cousin
Constantine.
With Arthur gone, the Saxons return, and become more and more powerful. The line of British kings continues until the death of
Cadwallader, after which the Saxons â€" the
English â€" are the rulers of Britain.
Geoffrey claimed to have translated the
Historia into Latin from "a very ancient book in the British tongue", given to him by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, but few scholars take this claim seriously. Much of the work appears to be derived from
Gildas's 6th century polemic
The Ruin of Britain,
Bede's 8th century
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the 9th century
History of the Britons ascribed to
Nennius, the 10th century
Welsh Annals, medieval Welsh
genealogies and king-lists, the poems of
Taliesin, the Welsh tale
Culhwch and Olwen, and some of the medieval Welsh Saint's Lives,
[Lewis Thorpe, Introduction to The History of the Kings of Britain, Penguin, 1966, pp. 14-19] expanded and turned into a continuous narrative by Geoffrey's own imagination.
The history of Geoffrey forms the basis for much
English lore and literature as well as being a rich source of material for
Welsh bards. It became tremendously popular during the
High Middle Ages, revolutionising views of British history before and during the Anglo-Saxon period despite the criticism of such writers as
William of Newburgh and
Gerald of Wales. The prophecies of Merlin in particular were often drawn on in later periods, for instance by both sides in the issue of
English influence over
Scotland under
Edward I and his successors.
The
Historia was quickly translated into Norman French verse by
Wace (the
Roman de Brut) in 1155; into Middle English verse by
Layamon (the
Brut) in the early 13th century; and into three different Welsh prose versions by the end of the 13th century.
[A. O. H. Jarman, Geoffrey of Monmouth, University of Wales Press, 1965, p. 17.] For many centuries, the
Historia was accepted at face value, and much of its material was incorporated into
Holinshed's
16th century Chronicles.
Modern historians have regarded the
Historia as a work of fiction with some factual information contained within. John Morris in
The Age of Arthur calls it a "deliberate spoof," although this is based on misidentifying Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, as
Walter Map, a satirical writer who lived a century later.
[John Morris. The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650. Barnes & Noble Books: New York. 1996 (originally 1973). ISBN 0-7607-0243-8]Almost two hundred medieval manuscripts of the
Historia survive, dozens of them copied before the end of the twelfth century. Even among the earliest manuscripts a large number of
textual variants, such as the so-called 'First Variant', can be discerned. These are reflected in the three possible prefaces to the work and in the presence or absence of certain episodes and phrases. Certain variants may be due to 'authorial' additions to different early copies, but most probably reflect early attempts to alter, add to or edit the text.
Unfortunately, the task of disentangling these variants and establishing Geoffrey's original text is long and complex, and the extent of the difficulties surrounding the text has only been established recently.
* John Jay Parry and Robert Caldwell.
Geoffrey of Monmouth in
Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Roger S. Loomis (ed.). Clarendon Press: Oxford University. 1959. ISBN 0198115881
* Brynley F. Roberts,
Geoffrey of Monmouth and Welsh Historical Tradition, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 20 (1976), 29-40.
* J.S.P. Tatlock.
The Legendary History of Britain: Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and its early vernacular versions. University of California Press. Berkeley. 1950.
* N. Wright, ed.,
The Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 1, Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568 (Cambridge, 1984)
* N. Wright, ed.,
The historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 2, The first variant version : a critical edition (Cambridge, 1988)
* J. C. Crick,
The historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 3, A summary catalogue of the manuscripts (Cambridge, 1989)
* J. C. Crick,
The historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 4, Dissemination and reception in the later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1991)
* J. Hammer, ed.,
Historia regum Britanniae. A variant version edited from manuscripts (Cambridge, MA, 1951)
* A. Griscom and J. R. Ellis, ed.,
The Historia regum Britanniæ of Geoffrey of Monmouth with contributions to the study of its place in early British history (London, 1929)
* M. D. Reeve, 'The transmission of the
Historia regum Britanniae ', in
Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (1991), 73--117
* E. Faral,
La légende Arthurienne: études et documents, 3 vols. (Paris, 1929)
* R. W. Leckie,
The passage of dominion : Geoffrey of Monmouth and the periodization of insular history in the twelfth century (Toronto, 1981)
