| Battle of Mount Badon | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAnglo-Saxon conquest of Britain | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Romano-Britons Celtic Britons | Anglo-Saxons, and possibly alsoJutes and other Germanic tribes. | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown (possiblyAmbrosius Aurelianus and/orArthur) | Unknown (possiblyÆlle of Sussex,Cerdic of Wessex orOcta of Kent) | ||||||
TheBattle of Badon, also known as theBattle of Mons Badonicus,[a] was purportedly fought betweenBritons andAnglo-Saxons inPost-Roman Britain during the late5th or early6th century.[1] It was credited as a major victory for the Britons, stopping the westward encroachment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms for a period.
The earliest known references to the battle, by the British clericGildas, date to the 6th century. It is chiefly known today for the supposed involvement of the man who would later be remembered as the legendaryKing Arthur; although it is not agreed that Arthur was a historical person, his name first appears in the 9th-centuryHistoria Brittonum, where he is mentioned as having participated in the battle alongside the Brittonic kings as a war commander, though is not described as a king himself. Because of the limited number of sources, there is no certainty about the date, location, or details of the fighting apart from the result being a victory for the Britons.[2][3]
Almost all scholars agree that this battle did take place. Gildas, who wrote within living memory of the battle (he claims to have been born in the same year it was fought), does not mention Arthur or the names of other British leaders who took part, nor does he provide the names of the Saxon leaders. Gildas also does not describe it as an actual open battle, but rather as a siege. It remains unclear whether the Saxons were besieging the Britons or the Britons were besieging the Saxons.[4]
The earliest mention of the Battle of Badon appears inGildas'De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), written in the early to mid-6th century. In it, theAnglo-Saxons are said to have "dipped [their] red and savage tongue in the western ocean" beforeAmbrosius Aurelianus organized a British resistance with the survivors of the initial Saxon onslaught. Gildas describes the period that followed Ambrosius' initial success:
From that time, the citizens were sometimes victorious, sometimes the enemy, in order that the Lord, according to His wont, might try in this nation the Israel of today, whether it loves Him or not. This continued up to the year of the siege of Badon Hill (obsessionis Badonici montis), and of almost the last great slaughter inflicted upon the rascally crew. And this commences, a fact I know, as the forty-fourth year, with one month now elapsed; it is also the year of my birth.[4]
De Excidio Britanniae describes the battle as such an "unexpected recovery of the [island]" that it caused kings, nobles, priests, and commoners to "live orderly according to their several vocations." Afterwards, the long peace degenerated into civil wars and the iniquity ofMaelgwn Gwynedd.
ThatArthur had gone unmentioned by Gildas, ostensibly the source closest to his own time, was noticed at least as early as a 12th-century hagiography of Gildas which claims that Gildas had praised Arthur extensively but then excised him completely after Arthur killed the saint's brother,Hueil mab Caw. Modern writers have suggested the details of the battle may have been so well known that Gildas expected his audience to be familiar with them.[5]
The battle is next mentioned in an 8th-century text ofBede'sEcclesiastical History of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum),[6] which describes the "siege of Mount Badon, when they made no small slaughter of those invaders," as occurring 44 years after the firstAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. Bede refers to Ambrosius Aurelianus as the leader of the Britons at that battle, whose parents had perished 'in the storm' and who were 'of the royal race'.[7][8] Since Bede places that arrival just before, during or just after the joint reign in Rome ofMarcian andValentinian III in AD 449–456,[b] he must have considered Badon to have taken place between 493 and 500. Bede then puts off discussion of the battle – "But more of this hereafter" – only to seemingly never return to it.
Bede does later include an extended account ofSaint Germanus of Auxerre's victory over the Saxons andPicts in a mountain valley (traditionally placed atMold inFlintshire in northeast Wales), which he credits with curbing the threat of invasion for a generation.[10] However, as the victory is described as having been accomplished bloodlessly, it was presumably a different occasion from Badon. Accepted at face value, Saint Germanus' involvement would also place the battle around AD 430, although Bede's chronology shows no knowledge of this.
The earliest surviving text specifically mentioning Arthur in connection with the battle is the early 9th-centuryHistoria Brittonum (The History of the Britons),[11] attributed to the Welsh monkNennius, in which the soldier (Latinmīles) Arthur is identified as the leader of the victorious British force at Badon:
The twelfth battle was on Mount Badon in which there fell in one day 960 men from one charge by Arthur; and no one struck them down except Arthur himself.[12][13]
The Battle of Badon is next mentioned in theAnnales Cambriae (Annals of Wales),[14] assumed to have been written during the mid- to late-10th century. The entry states:
The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights upon his shoulders [or shield][c] and the Britons were the victors.[15][16]
Geoffrey of Monmouth's c. 1136Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain) was massively popular and survives in many copies from soon after its composition.[note 1] Going into (and fabricating) much greater detail, Geoffrey closely identifies Badon withBath, including havingMerlin foretell that Badon's baths would lose their hot water and turn poisonous.[17] He also mixes in aspects of other accounts: the battle begins as a Saxon siege and then becomes a normal engagement once Arthur's men arrive; Arthur bears the image ofthe Virgin both on his shield and shoulder. Arthur charges and kills 470, ten more than the number of Britons ambushed byHengist nearSalisbury.
Elements of the Welsh legends are added: in addition to the shieldPridwen, Arthur gains his sword,Caliburnus (Excalibur), and his spear,Ron. Geoffrey also makes the defence of the city from the Saxon sneak attack a holy cause, havingDubricius offer absolution of all sins for those who fall in battle.[18]
There is considerable scholarly debate as to the exact date and location of the battle, though most agree that it took place in southern England sometime around the turn of the sixth century.
Dates proposed by scholars for the battle include 493, 501 and 516.[19] Daniel McCarthy andDáibhí Ó Cróinín have posited that Gildas' 44 years and one month is not a reference to the simple chronology but a position within the 84-year Easter cycle used forcomputus at the time by the Britons and theIrish church. The tables in question begin in January 438, which would place their revised date of the battle in February 482.[20]
Andrew Breeze, in a 2020 book, argues that the Battle of Badon or "Braydon, Wiltshire" took place in 493, deducing that Gildas was writingDe Excidio in 536, in the middle of theextreme weather events of 535–536, because he cited a "certain thick mist and black night" which "sits upon the whole island" of Britain, but not the subsequent famine in the year 537. Breeze concluded that Badon was fought "(...) in southern Britain, was fought in 493 and had nothing to do with Arthur."[21]
Though academics have never reached any consensus, Mount Badon’s location has traditionally been sited in the hills aroundBath, most notably atBathampton Down. Tim and Annette Burkitt have proposedCaer Badden (Latin:Aquae Sulis; nowBath, Somerset), some 20 miles northeast of the Roman mines atCharterhouse, on the basis of theWelsh Annals as well as archaeological and toponymic evidence.[22][23]
Susan Hirst,Geoffrey Ashe andMichael Wood argue for the site ofLiddington Castle on the hill aboveBadbury (Old English:Baddan byrig) in Wiltshire west ofSwindon. This site, an Iron Agehill fort with signs of sub-Roman occupation, commandsThe Ridgeway, which connects theRiver Thames with theRiver Avon andRiver Severn beyond.[24][25][26] From a very different etymological approach,Andrew Breeze also put forward a site near Swindon: arguing thatBadon must be etymologicallyBrythonic rather than English (thus eliminating Bath from consideration as its name is entirelyGermanic) and that Gildas's toponym (Badonici Montis) is a corruption ofBradonici Montis, Breeze positsRingsbury Camp nearBraydon northwest of Swindon as the site of the battle.[27]
The similarly namedBadbury Rings inDorset have also been argued to be the location of the battle.[28] David Cooper agrees that this is the most likely site and has provided the most comprehensive analysis of the battle available to date.[29]
A number of scholars have suggested locations outside southern England.William Forbes Skene believed the battle to have occurred at a substantial hillfort onBowden Hill nearLinlithgow on the basis of it overlooking one of Britain's manyRiver Avons, specifically theAvon in Falkirk.[30] Thomas Green proposed a site nearBaumber inLincolnshire (recorded asBadeburg in theDomesday Book) on the basis of archaeological evidence for a major early Saxon presence in the region and the similarity of the phrase"in regione Linnuis", used for a site in Nennius' list of Arthur's battles, to the Roman name forLincoln (Lindum Colonia) and the subsequent early EnglishKingdom of Lindsey.[31] Archaeologist Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews described Green's proposal as "so far removed from the mainstream yet based on sound reasoning that it deserves serious consideration."[32] Bernard Mees proposes on linguistic grounds that the sources for theHistoria Brittonum were ofnorthern origin, and that of hillforts containing the element "Bad",Arbury Camp inNorthamptonshire is a possibility.[33][34]
Some authors have speculated thatÆlle of Sussex may have led the Saxon forces at this battle.[35] Others reject the idea out of hand.[36] In book 9 of his workHistoria regum Britanniae,Geoffrey of Monmouth mentions a certain Cheldric[37] as a Saxon war leader who fought at Bath during the same period, so other scholars suggest that (due to similarities of names) Cerdic of Wessex was the Saxon leader during the battle.
The A Text of theAnnales Cambriae[14] includes the entry: "The first celebration of Easter among the Saxons. The second battle of Badon. Morgan dies."[16][38] The date for this action is given in theAnnales Cambriae as AD 665;[14] however the B Text does not include the text mentioning "the second Badon".[39]
The 13th-centuryVulgate Cycle, a French prose romance retelling of the Arthurian legend, replaced the Battle of Badon with theBattle of Clarence (spelling variants:Clarance,Clarans,Clarenche,Clarens). In the first round of fighting, a coalition of British kings is defeated by the Saxons (or theSaracens in some subsequent versions, including that byThomas Malory). In the second phase, Arthur joins the battle and enemy forces are destroyed, driving invaders into the sea.
Apart from the professional scholarship, various communities throughout Wales and England have their own traditions maintaining that their area was the site of the battle. These include (besides Badbury Rings and Bathampton Down),[40] the mountain of Mynydd Baedan nearMaesteg in South Wales, andBowden Hill in Wiltshire.[41]
King Arthur leads theKnights of the Round Table into battle against the Saxons led by Hengist in thePrince Valiant comic strip series episodes 1430 (5 July 1964) and following.[42] The battle is mentioned in the 1975 comedy filmMonty Python and the Holy Grail as one of the many questionable feats of Sir Robin, who in the film's bardic narration is said to have "personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill".[43] The battle is featured prominently in 1997'sExcalibur: A Novel of Arthur byBernard Cornwell, in the book's second part, "Mynydd Baddon", in which the armies of Angle and Saxon kingsAelle andCerdic, aided by Celtic traitors led byLancelot, are defeated in an epic battle by an uneasy alliance of various British and Irish kingdoms. The author combines various medieval accounts of the battle, such as it beginning as an Anglo-Saxon siege of a hilltop (here initially desperately defended byGuinevere, who is depicted as a brilliant strategist and rallying figure[44]) and having Arthur's cavalry appear with the sign of the cross on their shields (here a requisite demanded by the Christian kingTewdric for him to also join the battle), to create a more grounded and realistic depiction than the ones from his medieval sources.[45] The 2004 filmKing Arthur ends in a climactic battle scene occurring alongHadrian's Wall as the mostly Romano-British forces of Arthur defeat those of the Saxon kings Cerdic and Cynric, at a heavy cost to Arthur.[46]
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