The followinglist of legendary kings of Britain (Welsh:brenin y Brythoniaid orbrenin Prydain) derives predominantly fromGeoffrey of Monmouth's circa 1136 workHistoria Regum Britanniae ("the History of the Kings of Britain"). Geoffrey constructed a largely fictional history for theBritons (ancestors of theWelsh, theCornish and theBretons), partly based on the work of earlier medieval historians likeGildas,Nennius andBede, partly from Welsh genealogies and saints' lives, partly from sources now lost and unidentifiable, and partly from his own imagination (see bibliography). Several of his kings are based on genuine historical figures, but appear in unhistorical narratives. A number ofMiddle Welsh versions of Geoffrey'sHistoria exist. All post-date Geoffrey's text, but may give us some insight into any native traditions Geoffrey may have drawn on.

Geoffrey's narrative begins with the exiledTrojan princeBrutus, after whom Britain is supposedly named, a tradition previously recorded in less elaborate form in the 9th centuryHistoria Brittonum. Brutus is a descendant ofAeneas, the legendary Trojan ancestor of the founders ofRome, and his story is evidently related to Roman foundation legends.

The kings before Brutus come from a document purporting to trace the travels of Noah and his offspring in Europe, and once attributed to the Chaldean historianBerossus, but now considered to have been a fabrication by the 15th-century Italian monkAnnio da Viterbo, who first published it. Renaissance historians likeJohn Bale andRaphael Holinshed took the list of kings of "Celtica" given by pseudo-Berossus and made them into kings of Britain as well as Gaul.John Milton records these traditions in hisHistory of Britain, although he gives them little credence.

Historia Brittonum, which is a history of theCeltic Britons written in northWales in 829–30, claims that the Celtic Britons were descended from Trojans from the ancient city ofTroy, who were the first to settle on the island of Britain.^[1] It is also claimed in Historia Brittonum, as well asHistoria Regum Britanniae byGeoffrey of Monmouth, that the firstking of the Britons wasBrutus of Troy and that the island of Britain was named after him.^[2][3][4]

Lucius was a legendary 2nd-century king of the Britons traditionally credited with introducing Christianity intoBritain. Lucius is first mentioned in a 6th-century version of theLiber Pontificalis, which says that he sent a letter toPope Eleutherius asking to be made a Christian. The story became widespread after it was repeated in the 8th century byBede in hisEcclesiastical History of the English People, who added the detail that after Eleutherius granted Lucius' request, theBritons followed their king in conversion and maintained the Christian faith until theDiocletianic Persecution of 303. Later writers expanded the legend, giving accounts of missionary activity under Lucius and attributing to him the foundation of certain churches.^[5]

There is no contemporary evidence for a king of this name. In 1904Adolf von Harnack proposed that there had been a scribal error inLiber Pontificalis with 'Britanio' being written as an erroneous expansion for 'Britio', a citadel ofEdessa, present dayŞanlıurfa in Turkey. The name of the king of Edessa contemporaneous withPope Eleutherius wasLucius Aelius Aurelius Abgar VIII.^[5]

Des grantz geanz ("Of the Great Giants"), a 14th-century Anglo-Norman poem, contains a variant story regarding Albion, the oldest recorded name for Britain, and also contains a slightly different list of kings.^[6][7] The poem states that a colony of exiled Greek royals led by a queen called Albina first founded Britain but before their settlement "no one dwelt there".^[8] Albina subsequently gave her name first to Britain, which was later renamed Britain after Brutus. The poem also attempts byeuhemerism to rationalise the legends of giants; Albina is thus described as being "very tall", but is presented as a human queen, a descendant of a Greek king, not a mythological creature.

The Albina myth is also found in some later manuscripts ofWace'sRoman de Brut (1155), attached as a prologue.^[9]

Scota, inScottish mythology, and pseudohistory, is the name given to the mythological daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh to whom theGaels andScots traced their ancestry. Scota first appeared in literature from the 11th or 12th century and most modern scholars interpret the legends surrounding her to have emerged to rivalGeoffrey of Monmouth's claims that the descendants of Brutus (throughAlbanactus) founded Scotland.^[10][11] However some early Irish sources also refer to the Scota legends and not all scholars regard the legends as fabrications or as political constructions.^[12] In the Scottish origin myths,Albanactus had little place and Scottish chroniclers (e.g.,John of Fordun andWalter Bower) claimed that Scota was the eponymous founder of Scotland and the Scots long beforeAlbanactus, during the time ofMoses.

Geoffrey synchronises some of his monarchs with figures and events from the Bible, Greek, Roman and Irish legends, and recorded history. These are given in the "Synchronisation" column of the table below. Geoffrey dated Brutus' arrival in Britain (and subsequent founding of the Trojan-British monarchy) to 1115 BC.^[13] Geoffrey's book was later retold by Wace (in French) andLayamon (in Middle English); the final column represents Layamon's version.

After the death of Cadwallader, the kings of the Brythons were reduced to such a small domain that they ceased to be kings of the wholeBrythonic-speaking area. Two of his relatives, Yvor and Yni, led the exiles back fromBrittany, but were unable to re-establish a united kingship. TheAnglo-Saxon invaders ruled the south-eastern part of the island of Great Britain, which would become England, after that point in time under theBretwaldas and later thekings of England. The heirs to the Celtic-British throne continued through the Welsh kings ofGwynedd until that line was forced to submit itself to thePlantagenets in the 13th century. Princes and lords of Gwynedd ruled until the reign ofDafydd III, who ruled from 1282 to 1283. His death marked the end of the house of Brutus.Owen Tudor, grandfather ofHenry VII of England, was a maternal descendant of the kings of Gwynedd; Henry's marriage withElizabeth of York thus signified the merging of the two royal houses (as well as the feuding houses ofYork andLancaster).

Annius of Viterbo in 1498 claimed to have found ancient fragments fromBerossus detailing the earliest settlement of 'Celtica', including the British Isles, by Samothes, a son ofJapheth, son ofNoah, after theGreat Flood. These fragments were later revealed to have been forged by Annius himself, and are now known as "Pseudo-Berossus". The fragments can be found in Asher (1993) and include a king list. Before being revealed as a hoax, the list found its way intoJohn Bale'sIllustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum (1548),John Caius'Historia Cantabrigiensis Academiae (1574),William Harrison'sDescription of England (1577),Holinshed's Chronicles (1587) andAnthony Munday'sA briefe chronicle (1611).^[14]

Iolo Morganwg, between 1801 and 1807, published a series ofWelsh Triads he claimed to have discovered in manuscript form, with the help of the antiquarianWilliam Owen Pughe. These were later revealed to be a mixture of forgeries by Morganwg and Williams' alterations to authentic triads.^[15][16] Exactly how much "authentic" content there is of Morganwg's published work remains disputed by scholars today. Morganwg's triads describe the earliest occupation of Britain (Prydain) and contain a pseudo-historical reign of kings, beginning withHu Gadarn, the "Plough King".^[17]

Hu Gadarn is described by Morganwg in his triads as being the earliest inhabitant of Britain having travelled from the "Summerland, calledDeffrobani, whereConstantinople now stands" in 1788 BC.^[18] He is credited as having founded the first civilisation in Britain and introduced agriculture. Morganwg'sBarddas (1862, p. 348) further states that this king is descended from Hu, but that, after a huge flood (seeAfanc), only two people,Dwyfan andDwyfach, survived from whom the later inhabitants of Britain descended. The Welsh clergymanEdward Davies included this myth in hisCeltic Researches on the Origin, Traditions and Languages of the Ancient Britons (1804):

First, the bursting of the lake of waters, and the overwhelming of the face of all lands, so that all mankind drowned, excepting Dwyvan and Dwyvach, who escaped in a naked vessel and from then the Island of Britain was re-peopled.

Several 19th-century Christian authors—for example,Henry Hoyle Howorth^[19]—interpreted this myth to be evidence for the Biblical flood of Noah, yet in Morganwg's chronologyDwyfan andDwyfach are dated to the 18th or 17th century BC, which does not fit the Biblical estimate for the Noachian deluge.^[20]

Tea Tephi is a legendary princess found described inBritish Israelite literature from the 19th century.^[21][22] Revd F. R. A. Glover, M.A., of London in 1861 publishedEngland, the Remnant of Judah, and the Israel of Ephraim in which he claimed Tea Tephi was one ofZedekiah's daughters. Since King Zedekiah of Judah had all his sons killed during the Babylonian Captivity, no male successors could continue the throne ofKing David, but, as Glover noted, Zedekiah had daughters who escaped death (Jeremiah 43:6). Glover believed that Tea Tephi was a surviving Judahite princess who had escaped and travelled to Ireland, and who married a localHigh King of Ireland in the 6th century BC who subsequently became blood linked to the British monarchy.^[23] This theory was later expanded upon by Rev. A.B. Grimaldi, who published in 1877 a successful chart entitledPedigree of Queen Victoria from the Bible Kings and later by W.M.H. Milner in his bookletThe Royal House of Britain an Enduring Dynasty' (1902, revised 1909).Charles Fox Parham also authored an article tracing Queen Victoria's lineage back to King David (through Tea Tephi) entitledQueen Victoria: Heir to King David's Royal Throne.^[24]

The Tea Tephi-British monarchy link is also found inJ. H. Allen'sJudah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902, p. 251). A central tenet of British Israelism is that the British monarchy is from theDavidic line and the legend of Tea Tephi from the 19th century attempted to legitimise this claim. Tea Tephi, however, has never been traced to an extant Irish source before the 19th century and critics assert she was purely a British Israelite invention.^[25] A collection of alleged bardic traditions and Irish manuscripts which detail Tea Tephi were published byJ. A. Goodchild in 1897 asThe Book of Tephi. the work is, however, considered pseudo-historical or a forgery.

There is though a queen called Tea in Irish mythology who appears in theAnnals of the Kingdom of Ireland.^[26] She is described as the wife ofÉrimón aMíl Espáine (Milesian) and dated to 1700 BC (Geoffrey Keating: 1287 BC). These dates are inconsistent with the British Israelite literature which dates Tea Tephi to the 6th century BC, but later British Israelites, such as Herman Hoeh (Compendium of World History, 1970), claimed that the Milesian Royal House (including Tea) was from anearlier blood descendant of the Davidic Line who entered Britain around 1000 BC (citingRuaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh's reduced chronology).^[27] Linked to Glover's original claims of Tea Tephi, are Grimaldi and Milner's theory thatJeremiah himself in the company of his scribeBaruch ben Neriah travelled to Ireland with Tea Tephi and that they are found described in Irish folklore and old Irish manuscripts. Some British Israelites identify Baruch ben Neriah with a figure called Simon Berac or Berak in Irish myth, while Jeremiah withOllom Fotla (or Ollam, Ollamh Fodhla).^[28] However, like Tea Tephi, there has long been controversy about these identifications, mainly because of conflicting or inconsistent dates. In 2001, theBritish-Israel-World Federation wrote an article claiming they no longer subscribed to these two identifications, but still strongly stick to the belief that the British monarchy is of Judahite origin.^[25][29] In an earlier publication in 1982, Covenant Publishing Co. admitted that Tea Tephi could not be traced in Irish literature or myth and may have been fabricated by Glover, but they clarified they still believed in the Milesian Royal House-Davidic Line bloodline connection (popularised by Hoeh).^[30]Herbert Armstrong (1986) also took up this legendary connection.^[31]

• List of governors of Roman Britain
• List of legendary rulers of Cornwall
• List of kings in Wales from the Matter of Britain
• Bretwalda, an Old English word meaning 'ruler of Britain' used in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle to refer to some Anglo-Saxon kings

• Geoffrey of Monmouth,Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) –online at Wikisource
• Pseudo-Berossus,The Travels of Noah into Europe –online at Annomundi.com
• Raphael Holinshed,Chronicles: "The History of England" Vol 1 –online at Project Gutenberg
• John Milton, "The History of Britain",Prose Works Vol 2 –online at The Online Library of Liberty

• Asher, R. E. (1993).National Myths in Renaissance France: Francus, Samothes and the Druids. Edinburgh University Press.
• Charles W. Dunn, in a revised translation ofSebastian Evans,History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth. E.P. Dutton: New York. 1958.ISBN 0-525-47014-X
• 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
• John Jay Parry and Robert Caldwell.Geoffrey of Monmouth inArthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Roger S. Loomis (ed.). Clarendon Press: Oxford University. 1959.ISBN 0-19-811588-1^[1]
• 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.

• Arthurian characters
• British monarchs
• British traditional history
• Geoffrey of Monmouth
• Legendary British kings
• Lists of British monarchs
• Welsh mythology
• Mythological kings

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