Aurelianus and Arthur: Warrior Legends
When we create the history of a country or region we rely on archaeological artifacts and primary sources, among others. Primary sources are first-hand accounts of people, places, and events that happened during the writer’s lifetime. Combined with artifacts, they provide a somewhat accurate account of the culture of a people during a specific time and in a specific place. For instance, it is clear that throughout the 400s Germanic speaking immigrants traveled across the North Sea and arrived and settled in Britannia. Angles arrived from lands around the River Elbe (now the Czech Republic and Germany), Saxons from Schleswig or Germany, Jutes from Denmark, and Frisians from the northern shores of the Netherlands. How do we know this? Partly because the burial practices of the Saxons (and the Germanic tribes in general) were markedly different from Celtic and indigenous burials in Britannia. Saxons favored furnished inhumanations. In other words, they buried their dead along with their most valuable items; for instance, weapons and belt fittings for Germanic mercenary soldiers; combs, brooches, and necklaces for women. So, when we find Saxon burial places throughout Brittania increasing during the 5th century where only Celtic or indigenous burials were previously recorded, we can infer that not only were Saxons travelling to Britannia, they were staying and displacing others.
With new technology, information gleaned from artifacts is increasing, and thank goodness for that because primary sources from the 5th century are rare! Even Gildas did not start writing his account of life in Britannia until the 6th century! His narrative was written from oral memory, which may or may not be influenced by the fact that he was a Christian monk who had been protected and supported by the Romans during their occupation. Nevertheless, because his work has so influenced later histories and our views of Britannia at that time, let us take a look at a legendary figure he introduces in De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae and another very similar famous figure created in the years that followed.
Ambrosius Aurelianus is described by Gildas as the ‘High King of the Britons’ after Vortigern. He goes on to say that he was a Celtic Roman of noble birth who took refuge in France during Vortigern’s rule and returned to Britannia in the late 400s to battle the Anglo-Saxon immigrants. Ambrosius is also mentioned in The Venerable Bede’s History of the English Church and People. Bede, an eighth-century monk of the monastery of Jarrow, informs us that “under his [Ambrosius’s] leadership, the Britons took up arms, challenged their conquerors to battle, and with God’s help inflicted a defeat upon them.” Nennius, a monk of Bangor, also wrote that Ambrosius displayed prophetic powers, that he was a rival whom Vortigern dreaded, and that he was “the great king of all the kings of the British nation.” Not to be outdone, Geoffrey of Monmouth stated that Ambrosius was one of Constantine III’s three sons, that he successfully battled Vortigern, had the Saxon leader Hengist killed, became high king of the Britons, and was ultimately poisoned by the Saxons.
In his History of the Britons, three hundred years later, the Welsh Monk Nennius created the legendary Arthur, another 5th century “king.” According to Nennius, Arthur was a war chief (dux belorum) with superhuman abilities. He led Welsh resistance to the west Saxon advance, fighting and winning 12 battles and killing 960 Saxons in one battle alone. In one scene, he describes Ambrosius and Arthur fighting the Saxons together with the image of the mother of Jesus sewn on their shields, igniting the broken spirits of their countryman.
Descriptions of both Ambrosius and Arthur reflect them as Christians honoring the Celtic policy of clientship known as ‘celsine’. As described by monk writers, celsine was the practice of a weaker individual or group placing themselves under the protection of a stronger authority in times of need. Once the crisis had passed, the arrangement was dissolved. They theorized that after their Roman protectors deserted them, Celtic individuals may have hired Saxon mercenaries to defend them against the Picts, Scotti, and other Saxons. They didn’t realize that these mercenaries would not honor the pact and that protection came not only with a monetary cost but with the possibility that they would decide to take some land and stay.
Both Ambrosius and Arthur are representatives of what historians like Gilda and Nennius considered the ‘last of the Romans’: those who embodied the highest values and greatest virtues of ancient Roman civilization at different times in history. Gildas exalts Ambrosius as a true Christian hero as does Nennius with Arthur. Although to date there is no tangible evidence that Ambrosius and Arthur existed, they may very well provide clues to how some individuals felt about the changes to Britannia’s population. These individuals mourned Britannia of the past and feared for their future. They viewed newly arrived immigrants as threats and longed for military superheroes to “make Britannia great again.”
