Gwendolen, also known asGwendolin, orGwendolyn (Latin: Guendoloēna) was a legendary ruler of ancientBritain.

As told byGeoffrey of Monmouth in his historical accountHistoria Regum Britanniae, she was the repudiated queen of KingLocrinus until she defeated her husband in battle at theRiver Stour. This river was the dividing line betweenCornwall andLoegria, two key locations in ancient Britain. After defeating the king, she took on the leadership of the Britons, becoming their firstqueen regnant.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gwendolen was one of the daughters of Corineus, king of Cornwall, and one of Brutus's warriors. Gwendolen was married toLocrinus, the eldest of King Brutus' three sons, and had a son namedMaddan.^[1] Upon her father Corineus' death, Locrinus divorced her in favour of his Germanic mistress,Estrildis (by whom he already had a daughter who was namedHabren). Gwendolen then fled to Cornwall, where she lived for a few years. After having built up a large army, she waged war against her ex-husband, King Locrinus. In a battle near the River Stour, Locrinus was killed. Gwendolen then assumed his throne and ruled independently, as her father had reigned in Cornwall. After having both her husband's mistress,Estrildis, and her daughter,Habren, drowned in theRiver Severn (Old Welsh: Habren), the ancient British monarch reigned peacefully for fifteen years. She then abdicated in favour of her son and lived out the remainder of her life in Cornwall.^[2]

TheHistoria Regum Britanniae says that at the time of her death Samuel was judge inJudaea,Aeneas Silvius was rulingAlba Longa, andHomer was gaining fame in Greece. She is mentioned in Spenser's poemThe Faerie Queene (1590) as Gwendolene, and appears in themythopoeic writings ofWilliam Blake as one of the twelveDaughters of Albion. In the 20th century feminist critics have cited her as an example of a powerful woman healing a fractured Britain with her rule.^[3]

• British traditional history
• Cornish people
• Legendary monarchs
• Mythological queens
• European people whose existence is disputed
• Repudiated queens
• Women in ancient European warfare
• Women in war in Britain

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