The Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the
Kings of Britain) is a pseudo-history in Latin prose
that relates the legends of the pre-Saxon kings of
Britain. Written by GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH in
about 1138, the Historia is highly significant in the
Western literary tradition because it is the text that
first introduced King ARTHUR to the mainstream of
European literature.
Geoffrey was born in Monmouth in southern
Wales in about 1100. He may have been Breton
rather than Welsh. In either case he would have
been familiar with the legendary Celtic British
hero Arthur, renowned for having defeated the
Saxons at the Battle of Badon. Three different dedications to the Historia—one to Robert, earl of
Gloucester, one to King Stephen along with
Robert, and one to Count Waleran Beaumont—
suggest Geoffrey’s attempts to gain favor with the
king and his supporters for purposes of preferment: Robert had first supported Stephen for the
crown, then shifted allegiance to his half-sister,
Matilda, who invaded England in 1139, and precipitated a civil war. Waleran was one of Stephen’s
loyal supporters. Geoffrey’s shifting dedications
suggest the shifting alliances of those troubled
times. Ultimately, Geoffrey’s efforts paid off when
he was named bishop of St. Asaph in 1151.
But in the Historia, Geoffrey had produced a
work of tremendous appeal. Some 200 Latin manuscripts of the Historia are still extant, attesting to
the popularity of the text in the late Middle Ages.
Geoffrey clearly was familiar with GILDAS and
BEDE, whom he mentions in his introduction. He
also drew material from NENNIUS, particularly in
his descriptions of some of Arthur’s battles and of
some of the “marvels” of Britain. But he says in his
dedication that Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, had
given him a “certain most ancient book in the
British language” that told the history of all the
British kings. The consensus among modern
scholars is that such a book never existed, that Geoffrey drew most of his material from legend and
some from his own vivid imagination. The citation
of that “ancient book” is likely the result of medieval writers’ tendency to cite authorities to lend
credibility to their work. Most readers saw Geoffrey’s Historia as factual history even through the
Renaissance, during which it provided source material for playwrights, such as Shakespeare, looking
for familiar historical incidents to dramatize. Most
modern readers, however, have no difficulty reading the Historia as fiction.
The Historia begins with the life of Brutus, greatgrandson of the Trojan Aeneas. Exiled from Italy for
accidentally killing his father, Brutus becomes leader
of a group of Trojan captives in Greece. He leads
them out of captivity, eventually to settle on the island of Albion, which is renamed Britain after him.
Thus for hundreds of years, through their mythical
founder Brutus, the British people traced their lineage to the Roman nation founded by Aeneas, and,
ultimately, back to Troy itself.
The Brutus story is followed by brief histories of
a series of kings without much to distinguish
them, until the detailed and romantic story of King
Lear and Cordelia. Another series of kings follows
(containing the story of Gorboduc). The next
major story concerns Belinus and Brennius, two
brothers who contend for the British throne, are
eventually reconciled, and end by conquering Gaul
and ultimately capturing Rome itself.
After another series of kings, Geoffrey deals
with the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar and
the exploits of later Romans, and includes the story
of Cymbeline. Book 5 of the text provides another
long series of kings, culminating in Constantine,
who becomes emperor of Rome.
The longest, most detailed, and most important
part of the Historia occurs in books 6 to 11. The
story here begins with Vortigern, who usurps the
British throne from its rightful heir, Aurelius Ambrosius. Vortigern foolishly invites Saxons into
Britain as mercenaries, but they slaughter the
British nobility at a conference and desolate the
country. Vortigern flees and is ultimately overthrown by Aurelius Ambrosius and his brother
Uther Pendragon. Aurelius is able to stop the Saxons but is killed, and Uther becomes king. With the
aid of the seer and sorcerer Merlin, Uther begets
Arthur.
When Arthur becomes king at the age of 15, he
defeats the Saxons and then subdues the Picts and
Scots. He invades Ireland and conquers it as well as
Iceland. He becomes a great emperor, defeating
Norway and Denmark and then all of Gaul. Required by a Roman emissary to pay tribute to
Rome, Arthur rejects the demand and invades the
Roman Empire. He defeats the Roman Lucius and
is poised to take Rome itself when he receives word
that his kingdom has been usurped in his absence
by his nephew Mordred, who has allied himself
with the Saxons and has also betrayed him with his
wife, Guenevere.
Arthur has no choice but to return to Britain
and fight the usurper. He defeats Mordred at the
River Camel but is mortally wounded. He is carried off from the battle to the Isle of Avalon, where
his wounds will be “attended to.”With such an end,
Geoffrey gives some credence to the “Breton
hope”—the legendary belief among the Welsh and
Bretons that Arthur was not dead but would come
again.
Geoffrey’s book ends anticlimactically with the
pathetic history of the last British king, Cadwallader, the ultimate collapse of the British monarchy, and the victory of the Saxons.
The climactic story of Arthur was what made the
Historia popular, and it must be acknowledged that
Arthur became popular through the Historia. In
Geoffrey, Arthur is an epic hero who falls through
the turning of Fortune’s Wheel. He is also a messianic hero as he had been to the British people for
hundreds of years. The chief outline of Arthur’s career—his “miraculous”birth, his achievement of the
crown, his creation of a world-renowned kingdom,
his betrayal by his wife and nephew, his wounding
and admittance to Avalon—all is created by Geoffrey’s story. In Geoffrey’s text, Arthur wields a sword
called Caliburn, holds court in the city of Caerleon,
is associated with the magic of Merlin, and has a
heroic and rash nephew named GAWAIN. All of these
details form a backdrop for the later ROMANCE writers like CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES and MARIE DE FRANCE to
fill in with details of Arthur’s knights and further
adventures. But the outline of the whole history of
Arthur remains essentially the same even through
Thomas MALORY’s great compendium of Arthurian
tradition at the end of the 15th century.
Bibliography
Geoffrey of Monmouth. The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Edited by Neil
Wright. Cambridge: Brewer, 1985.
Tatlock, J. S. P. The Legendary History of Britain.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950.
Thorpe, Lewis, trans. The History of the Kings of
Britain. London: Penguin, 1966.