Arthur

The legendary British king who is described in medieval romances as the leader of a knightly fellowship called the Round Table. It is said that he rallied the British against the Anglo-Saxon invaders and that behind the legend there may be a sub-Roman warleader who filled such a role. Though his name does not survive in contemporary records, he may have led the British at the battle or siege of Mount Badon which stopped the Saxon advance c 490 AD for some fifty years hence. All the historical references to him in the chronicles of Bede, Gildas, Nenius, Geoffrey of Monmouth and others were written between 100 and 600 years after the event, so they are considered unreliable for archaeologists. The search probably started with the monks of Glastonbury, who in 1191 claimed to have found the burial of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere inscribed with the words, "Here lies Arthur in the Isle of Avalon buried". Various locations as far apart as Cornwall and Scotland are claimed as the site of Mount Badon; the refortified Iron Age hillfort of Badbury Rings in Dorset seems the most credible possibility. The site of Arthur's court at Camelot may be the historical site of South Cadbury. Excavations carried out at South Cadbury revealed an important fortified settlement of the 5th and 6th centuries which could have been the center from which British resistance to the Saxons was organized.

There is little resemblance between the legendary chivalric hero of medieval romance and the 5th-century British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus or Arthur. The problem for historians and archaeologists is that there are no contemporary accounts of King Arthur and his battles, and all the historical references to him in the chronicles of Bede, Gildas, Nenius, Geoffrey of Monmouth and others were written between 100 and 600 years after the event. By the late 15th century, when Malory’s chivalric stories about the Knights of the Round Table and the search for the Holy Grail were written, legend and history had become inseparable. However, the obsessive search for proof of Arthur’s existence and places connected with his name continued. The search probably started with the monks of Glastonbury, who in 1191 claimed to have found the burial of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere inscribed with the words ‘Here lies Arthur in the Isle of Avalon buried’. Various locations as far apart as Cornwall and Scotland are claimed as the site of Mount Badon; the refortified Iron Age hillfort of Badbury Rings in Dorset seems the most credible possibility. Serious consideration has also been given to the site of Arthur’s court at Camelot, even though the name is undoubtedly an invention of French medieval poets. ‘Camelots’ exist from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh to Tintagel in Cornwall. Excavations carried out at South Cadbury in Somerset in the 1960s revealed an important fortified settlement of the 5th and 6th centuries which could have been the centre from which British resistance to the Saxons was organized.