King Edward and King Arthur - HN1-05 Sarah Woodbury's Historical Notes

I'm Sarah Woodbury and this is a historical note about King Edward and King Arthur both Edward and Arthur have been the topic of other videos today I want to put them together specifically to talk about how the Normans in a Triumph of medieval propaganda claimed King Arthur for themselves even in the Middle Ages the story of King Arthur was well known King Edward was deliberately taking on the mantle of King Arthur in his conquest of Wales in order to justify that Conquest many historians don't believe King Arthur ever existed but medieval people were certain that he did the first mentions of him are in Welsh sources namely the Welsh Bard's teleacin and anadan writing in the 6th and 7th centuries respectively to them Arthur was a late Fifth and early 6th Century British war leader credited with holding back the Saxon advance for a generation with the coming of the Normans the story of this Welsh warlord who might not even have been a king with expanded and embellished in outright mythologized initially by Jeffrey of Monmouth Jeffrey's work was commissioned by Robert the Earl of Gloucester and the son of the king of England this was the first attempt by the Norman conquerors to justify their conquest of Britain as a whole by claiming a British hero for themselves as a means to cast themselves as the true inheritors of the Throne of Britain this theme was expanded upon over the next Century such that by the time of the Edwardian Conquest certain aspects of the tale were well established in the popular imagination including the notion of chivalry a round table and that Arthur had in fact been a king King Edward in particular sought not only to place himself within the lineage of Arthur but even to cast himself in the role of Arthur himself his first foray in that direction was when he and his wife Eleanor oversaw the quote re-burial of Arthur and Guinevere whose grades had been again quote discovered by the monks at Glastonbury then once the conquest of Wales was complete his work in this vein began in earnest in 1284 in a similar move to when he'd reburied Arthur's bones Edward discovered the bones of Magnus Maximus known in Welsh's maxinoletic and the grandfather of King Arthur [Music] he then re-buried these bones in carnarvon with great ceremony in a local church perhaps Saint Publix though no record of that location now remains Edward was following a well-known legend that Maximus had dreamed of a beautiful woman who would become his wife far away in Wales he would find her at her father's Court located at a great Castle he traveled all the way to carnarvon to find her at the former Roman Fort of segantium located on the hill above the present town and castle she was the daughter of the local ruler who'd moved into the fort after the departure of the Romans this site became maximus's seat in Wales and of course subsequently the seat of the Welsh princess who came after for this reason Edward made his castle at carnarvon his administrative Center for Wales thus putting himself directly in Arthur's lineage and claiming Arthur's throne in addition he brought his pregnant wife Eleanor all the way to carnarvon so she could give birth to Edward II here making him a prince of Wales a few months later in July of 1284 for his 45th birthday Edward traveled with this court to Shin de Lin located just south of carnarvon so we're here today because this is where King Edward the first spent his 45th birthday the reason is that according to the Welsh mythology even of the time Excalibur the sword and the stone was thrown into this Lake and this was where the Lady of the Lake resided and then a few weeks later at the end of July he took not only his court but much of the nobility of England to Nevin to hold the tournament which he called a round table in the spirit of King Arthur this tournament was explicitly intended to celebrate his conquest of Wales and award his Barons for their service to that end he cast himself in the role of Arthur and dubbed his various Lords in attendance with the names of Arthur's knights he even built himself his own Round Table if you visit Nevin today you can still go to the church where Sue Ellen at Griffiths worshiped as well as see the field where King Edward held his tournament Nevin was not only another seat of the Kings and princes of Gwyneth but also where the 12th century chronicler Gerald of Wales claimed to have found the writings of Merlin in large part because of these attempts on the part of Edward to incorporate his own mythology into the Arthurian legend by the 14th century the process of submerging and obscuring the Welsh Arthur into the French and English versions of him was all but complete even to the point that although one would be hard-pressed to find a moderate person who has never heard of King Arthur very few have ever learned that he was actually Welsh again we're camped right here you think thanks for watching my video you can click on the playlist or subscribe to my channel to see more there'll be a new video next week if you want to check out my books click on the link to my webpage [Music]

Channel: Sarah Woodbury

Views: 1,074

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Id: G3ZNi5fjwOA

Length: 6min 28sec (388 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 05 2022