Battle of Mons Badonicus
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Mons Badonicus (English
Mount Badon, Welsh
Mynydd Baddon) was a battle between a force of Britons
and an Anglo-Saxon
army, probably sometime between 490 and 517 AD. Though it is believed to have been a major political and military event, there is no certainty about its date, location or the details of the fighting. In the 9th century work Historia Brittonum, the victory is attributed to the battle-leader Arthur
and various later texts follow this attribution, though the only near-contemporary account of Badon, written by Gildas
, does not mention Arthur nor does it explicitly state the identity of the victors.
(On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), written by the monk Gildas
in the mid 6th century. Gildas writes the battle resulted in 'the last great slaughter' of the the Anglo-Saxon
invaders by the Britons
after a period of violent warfare. According to Gildas, the consequences of Badon had been to halt Anglo-Saxon expansion up to the time of his writing, but the battle and its aftermath had not restored the Britons to their earlier prominence.
Gildas appears to say that the battle ("obsessio"—a siege
) occurred in the year of his birth, forty-four years before his time of writing. This would place the battle sometime in the late 5th or early 6th century. However, he does not appear to give the names of the leaders, or offer any information about the location, the course of the battle, or its tactical victors. This reticence was characteristic of Gildas's history in general. Later medieval writers often associated the battle with the legendary King Arthur
; however, no text decisively dated before the 9th-century Historia Britonnum mentions Arthur in relation to the battle.
Some modern scholars suggest that Gildas' text implies that Aurelius Ambrosius was the Briton leader at Badon. Chapter 25 describes Aurelius as leading the Britons in their early skirmishes against the Saxons. Modern editions of Gildas include a space between this chapter and the next, which mentions Mons Badonicus; this has been interpreted as implying that time had passed between Aurelius and the final victory at Mons Badonicus. However, the space does not appear in the manuscripts; without it, the two sections can be read as implying that the victory at Badon was part of Aurelius' campaigns.
.) These sites include:
All of these depend on theories or speculations of scholars, built upon a poverty of evidence. The battle may have been on the frontier between the territories of the native British inhabitants and the Anglo-Saxon invaders, perhaps near the Wansdyke
.
Or there may have been an Anglo-Saxon attack deep into British territory in an attempt to reach the Severn estuary and separate the Welsh
from the Britons of the southwest. "Obsessionis Badonici montis" in Gildas
's chapter might mean that the Anglo-Saxon army went too far into hostile territory and was surrounded and trapped on a hilltop in the Cotswolds
. The Saxon strategic objective was ultimately achieved following the Battle of Deorham
in AD 577.
The Annales Cambriae
, found in the Harleian recension of the Historia Brittonum, preserve an entry for AD 665 that records "The second battle of Badon" (bellum Badonis). While pointing to an engagement between two kingdoms of the 7th century, it is debatable which kingdoms these may be and whether this battle is recorded in other historical records of Britain or England. It could be a duplicate of the first battle, which had been passed through another oral transmission route with information changed on the way.
had become identified as the leader of the victorious British force at Mons Badonicus. The earliest known text to mention Arthur in this regard is the 9th-century Historia Brittonum. Chapter 56 attributes to Arthur victory in twelve battles, the last of which is at Mons Badonicus, where Arthur single-handedly slew 960 men. Arthur is again mentioned as the victor at Mons Badonicus in another ostensibly early source, the Annales Cambriae
. Under the entry for 516, the Annales say that Arthur fought at Badon carrying "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulders for three days and three nights…", and emerged the victor. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth
followed these texts in describing Arthur's victory at Mons Badonicus in his influential pseudohistory Historia Regum Britanniae
. Subsequently, this appeared in a number of medieval chronicles and romances.
That Arthur is not mentioned in the earliest source, Gildas, was noticed as early as the 12th century. The 12th-century Life of Gildas claims that Gildas had in fact written extensively about Arthur, but then angrily excised him from the text after Arthur killed his brother, Huail. Modern writers have suggested the details of the battle were so well known that Gildas would have expected his audience to be familiar with them. At any rate, the Historia and Annales taken together are used as evidence that Arthur fought at Badon.
However, the consensus among scholars is that the Annales entry was directly based on the Historia. This part of the Annales occurs only in manuscripts of a late date, and is largely derived from earlier sources. Additionally, the wording in the entry is very similar to a mention in the Historia of a different battle, Guinnion. According to the Historia, at Guinnion, Arthur "carried the image of holy Mary ever virgin on his shoulders", and put his enemy to flight. Scholars such as Thomas Jones and N. J. Higham argue that the Annales entry is based directly on the Historia, with the obscure battle of Guinnion replaced with the more famous Badon, and the icon of Mary replaced with the more common cross. The Historia itself is not considered reliable for this period of history.
writes
Taking his cue from Gildas' temporibus nostris G.H. Wheeler suggested that the span of time between the battle and Gildas' writing was considerably less than 44 years and that Gildas cannot have been counting backwards.
D. McCarthy and D. Ó Cróinin propose that Gildas' 44 years and one month is a reference to the 44th year of an 84-year Celtic Easter
cycle used in Britain in Gildas' day; the cycle in question commenced in January, 438 AD, allowing them to date the battle to February, 482 AD.
offers the date 516, which few modern scholars accept. Annales Cambriae entries after 525 appear to have been transcribed from contemporary tables for the calculation of Easter
; entries before 525 are much less reliable. One of the modern scholars who does accept this date is the historian Geoffrey Ashe
, who suggests that Mons Badonicus occurred in 516, but was just one of a string of British victories. According to Geoffrey Ashe, Gildas may have been referring to Aurelius' first victories as occurring near the time of his birth, which Ashe suggests was around 473, while Mons Badonicus may have occurred much later.
(David, the patron saint of Wales), Saint Cadoc
and Saint Gildas report that Gildas visited the abbey of Ty Gwyn in 527 or 528 and objected to Dewi/David being placed in charge of it at such a young age.
These biographies of early church leaders, mostly written in the 11th century, may for propaganda purposes have invented, exaggerated, or borrowed miracle
s, and altered days of death, but some argue that their authors had no reason to distort mundane facts such as the dates and places of meetings. Further, these three Lives are independent of each other, their authors drawing from records (since lost) or traditions at the abbeys the saints lived in—St Davids for David, Llancarfan
for Cadoc, and Rhuys in Brittany
for Gildas.
Rhygyfarch's Life of David says that David had ten years' education under St. Paulinus (St. Pol de Leon) before becoming Abbot
of Ty Gwyn. This suggests that David's birth could hardly have been later than 514. Rhygyfarch also says that Gildas preached to David's mother, Saint Non
, while she was pregnant with him. If Gildas was old enough to be preaching at that time it is implausible to place the date of his birth, and therefore of the Battle of Mount Badon, later than 498.
All of these point to some kind of reversal in the fortunes of the invading Anglo-Saxons.
Archaeological evidence collected from the cemeteries of the pagan Anglo-Saxons suggests that some of their settlements were abandoned and the frontier between the invaders and the native inhabitants pushed back some time around 500. The Anglo-Saxons held the present counties of Kent
, Sussex
, Norfolk
, Suffolk
, and around the Humber
; it is clear that the native British controlled everything west of a line drawn from the mouth of the Wiltshire Avon
at Christchurch
north to the river Trent
, then along the Trent to where it joined the Humber
, then north along the river Derwent
and east to the North Sea
, and also controlled a salient
to the north and west of London
, and south of Verulamium
, that stretched west to join their main territory. The Britons defending this salient could securely move their troops along Watling Street
to bring reinforcements to London or Verulamium, and thus keep the invaders divided into pockets south of the Weald
, in eastern Kent
, and in the lands around the Wash
.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Mount Badon, Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
Mynydd Baddon) was a battle between a force of Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
and an Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
army, probably sometime between 490 and 517 AD. Though it is believed to have been a major political and military event, there is no certainty about its date, location or the details of the fighting. In the 9th century work Historia Brittonum, the victory is attributed to the battle-leader Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
and various later texts follow this attribution, though the only near-contemporary account of Badon, written by Gildas
Gildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...
, does not mention Arthur nor does it explicitly state the identity of the victors.
Location and date: uncertain
The earliest source to describe the Battle of Mons Badonicus is De Excidio et Conquestu BritanniaeDe Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae is a work by the 6th-century British cleric Gildas. It is a sermon in three parts condemning the acts of Gildas' contemporaries, both secular and religious, whom he blames for the dire state of affairs in sub-Roman Britain...
(On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), written by the monk Gildas
Gildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...
in the mid 6th century. Gildas writes the battle resulted in 'the last great slaughter' of the the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
invaders by the Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
after a period of violent warfare. According to Gildas, the consequences of Badon had been to halt Anglo-Saxon expansion up to the time of his writing, but the battle and its aftermath had not restored the Britons to their earlier prominence.
Gildas appears to say that the battle ("obsessio"—a siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
) occurred in the year of his birth, forty-four years before his time of writing. This would place the battle sometime in the late 5th or early 6th century. However, he does not appear to give the names of the leaders, or offer any information about the location, the course of the battle, or its tactical victors. This reticence was characteristic of Gildas's history in general. Later medieval writers often associated the battle with the legendary King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
; however, no text decisively dated before the 9th-century Historia Britonnum mentions Arthur in relation to the battle.
Some modern scholars suggest that Gildas' text implies that Aurelius Ambrosius was the Briton leader at Badon. Chapter 25 describes Aurelius as leading the Britons in their early skirmishes against the Saxons. Modern editions of Gildas include a space between this chapter and the next, which mentions Mons Badonicus; this has been interpreted as implying that time had passed between Aurelius and the final victory at Mons Badonicus. However, the space does not appear in the manuscripts; without it, the two sections can be read as implying that the victory at Badon was part of Aurelius' campaigns.
Place
A number of sites for the battle have been proposed, most in present-day England and Wales. (For a list of candidates, see Sites and places associated with Arthurian legendSites and places associated with Arthurian legend
The following is a list and assessment of sites and places associated with King Arthur and the Arthurian legend in general. Given the lack of concrete historical knowledge about one of the most potent figures in British mythology, it is unlikely that any definitive conclusions about the claims for...
.) These sites include:
- Liddington CastleLiddington CastleLiddington Castle, locally called Liddington Camp, is a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hill fort in the English county of Wiltshire....
, above the village of BadburyBadbury, WiltshireBadbury is a hamlet of the civil parish of Chiseldon in Wiltshire.There is evidence that in 955 King Eadred granted Badbury, then containing twenty-five hides, to Saint Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey. The manor of Badbury was held by the Abbey at the time of the Domesday book, when it was...
(Old EnglishOld English languageOld English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
: Baddan byrig) near Swindon in the Marlborough Downs commanding the east/west transit along The RidgewayThe Ridgewaythumb|right|thumb|The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countrysideThe Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road...
track route thus preventing further expansion by the Saxons in the Thames ValleyThames ValleyThe Thames Valley Region is a loose term for the English counties and towns roughly following the course of the River Thames as it flows from Oxfordshire in the west to London in the east. It includes parts of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, North Hampshire, Surrey and west London...
region and protecting the Avon and Severn valleys. - Badbury Hillfort / Badbury RingsBadbury RingsBadbury Rings is an Iron Age hill fort in east Dorset, England, dating from 800 BC and in use until the Roman occupation of 43 AD.-Iron Age:...
, an Iron AgeIron AgeThe Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hill fort in DorsetDorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. - Solsbury HillSolsbury HillLittle Solsbury Hill is a small flat-topped hill and the site of an Iron Age hill fort. It is located above the village of Batheaston in Somerset, England. The hill rises to above the River Avon which is just over to the south. It is within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
near Bath, suggested by Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
. Bath was known to the Saxons as æt Bathum ("at the Baths"), Hatum Bathum (dative plural "Hot Baths"), Bathumtun, and Bathanceaster (where ceaster derives from the Latin castra, "camp"). There are various hills not far from Bath, and any of them might have been the location of the battle. The word "bath" is GermanicGermanic languagesThe Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, but "Badon" may be a Celtic name. Bath's Roman name was Aquae Sulis, but the area (and the neighbouring Solsbury Hill) was populated for millennia before the arrival of the Romans. - BuxtonBuxtonBuxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...
, a spa townSpa townA spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...
and the site of a Roman bath. - Bardon HillBardon HillBardon Hill is a hill in the civil parish of Bardon near Coalville, Leicestershire. It the highest point in Leicestershire and the National Forest, above sea level. The hill has two very distinct faces – one half preserved as a site of special scientific interest , the other removed by Bardon Hill...
. - Bowden Hill in Linlithgow
- Bathampton DownBathampton DownBathampton Down, is a flat limestone plateau in Bathampton overlooking Bath, and the River Avon, Somerset, England.There is evidence of man's activity at the site since the Mesolithic period including Bathampton Camp, an Iron Age hillfort or stock enclosure...
All of these depend on theories or speculations of scholars, built upon a poverty of evidence. The battle may have been on the frontier between the territories of the native British inhabitants and the Anglo-Saxon invaders, perhaps near the Wansdyke
Wansdyke (earthwork)
Wansdyke is a series of early medieval defensive linear earthworks in the West Country of England, consisting of a ditch and a running embankment from the ditch spoil, with the ditching facing north. It runs at least from Maes Knoll in historic Somerset, a hillfort at the east end of Dundry Hill...
.
Or there may have been an Anglo-Saxon attack deep into British territory in an attempt to reach the Severn estuary and separate the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
from the Britons of the southwest. "Obsessionis Badonici montis" in Gildas
Gildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...
's chapter might mean that the Anglo-Saxon army went too far into hostile territory and was surrounded and trapped on a hilltop in the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
. The Saxon strategic objective was ultimately achieved following the Battle of Deorham
Battle of Deorham
The Battle of Deorham or Dyrham was fought in 577 between the West Saxons under Ceawlin and Cuthwine and the Britons of the West Country. The location, Deorham, is usually taken to refer to Dyrham in South Gloucestershire. The battle was a major victory for the West Saxons, who took three important...
in AD 577.
The Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...
, found in the Harleian recension of the Historia Brittonum, preserve an entry for AD 665 that records "The second battle of Badon" (bellum Badonis). While pointing to an engagement between two kingdoms of the 7th century, it is debatable which kingdoms these may be and whether this battle is recorded in other historical records of Britain or England. It could be a duplicate of the first battle, which had been passed through another oral transmission route with information changed on the way.
Arthurian connection
By the 9th century, the legendary King ArthurKing Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
had become identified as the leader of the victorious British force at Mons Badonicus. The earliest known text to mention Arthur in this regard is the 9th-century Historia Brittonum. Chapter 56 attributes to Arthur victory in twelve battles, the last of which is at Mons Badonicus, where Arthur single-handedly slew 960 men. Arthur is again mentioned as the victor at Mons Badonicus in another ostensibly early source, the Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...
. Under the entry for 516, the Annales say that Arthur fought at Badon carrying "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulders for three days and three nights…", and emerged the victor. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
followed these texts in describing Arthur's victory at Mons Badonicus in his influential pseudohistory Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
. Subsequently, this appeared in a number of medieval chronicles and romances.
That Arthur is not mentioned in the earliest source, Gildas, was noticed as early as the 12th century. The 12th-century Life of Gildas claims that Gildas had in fact written extensively about Arthur, but then angrily excised him from the text after Arthur killed his brother, Huail. Modern writers have suggested the details of the battle were so well known that Gildas would have expected his audience to be familiar with them. At any rate, the Historia and Annales taken together are used as evidence that Arthur fought at Badon.
However, the consensus among scholars is that the Annales entry was directly based on the Historia. This part of the Annales occurs only in manuscripts of a late date, and is largely derived from earlier sources. Additionally, the wording in the entry is very similar to a mention in the Historia of a different battle, Guinnion. According to the Historia, at Guinnion, Arthur "carried the image of holy Mary ever virgin on his shoulders", and put his enemy to flight. Scholars such as Thomas Jones and N. J. Higham argue that the Annales entry is based directly on the Historia, with the obscure battle of Guinnion replaced with the more famous Badon, and the icon of Mary replaced with the more common cross. The Historia itself is not considered reliable for this period of history.
Gildas
GildasGildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...
writes
ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis ... quique quadragesimus quartus ut novi orditur annus mense iam uno emenso qui et meae nativitatis estwhich has been translated in more than one way. An earlier reference by Gildas to the same event—de postrema patriae victoria quae temporibus nostris dei nutu donata est—establishes that the battle was fought "in our time".
- It may mean "at/to the year of the siegeSiegeA siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
of Mount Badon ... which happened 44 years and one month ago, and which is [the year] of my birth". King MaelgwnMaelgwn Hir ap CadwallonMaelgwn Gwynedd was King of Gwynedd . More formally his name was Maelgwn ap Cadwallon , also known as Maelgwn Hir . He was father of Rhun "Hîr"....
of GwyneddKingdom of GwyneddGwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...
was still living when Gildas wrote this, therefore Gildas wrote this on or before AD 547. This suggests AD 503 as a terminus ante quem for the battle. - BedeBedeBede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
treated this passage in his paraphrase as saying that the battle was—he inserted "about"—44 years after the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain, which Bede (not Gildas) said was in 449. Though Bede's circiter reveals that he does not wish to give the impression that Gildas' dating is accurate, adding 44 years to 449 gives the date 493 for the battle. Adding 44 years to 447 (when Thanet was conceded to Hengist) gives the date 491 for the battle. Some would argue that Bede's copy of Gildas was much closer to the original than any now extant; however the age of a manuscript (especially one no longer existing) is not a conclusive guide to its accuracy.
Taking his cue from Gildas' temporibus nostris G.H. Wheeler suggested that the span of time between the battle and Gildas' writing was considerably less than 44 years and that Gildas cannot have been counting backwards.
D. McCarthy and D. Ó Cróinin propose that Gildas' 44 years and one month is a reference to the 44th year of an 84-year Celtic Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
cycle used in Britain in Gildas' day; the cycle in question commenced in January, 438 AD, allowing them to date the battle to February, 482 AD.
Annales Cambriae
The later Annales CambriaeAnnales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...
offers the date 516, which few modern scholars accept. Annales Cambriae entries after 525 appear to have been transcribed from contemporary tables for the calculation of Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
; entries before 525 are much less reliable. One of the modern scholars who does accept this date is the historian Geoffrey Ashe
Geoffrey Ashe
Geoffrey Ashe is a British cultural historian, a writer of non-fiction books and novels.-Early life:Born in London, Ashe spent several years in Canada growing up, graduating from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, before continuing at Cambridge.-Work:Many of his historical books are...
, who suggests that Mons Badonicus occurred in 516, but was just one of a string of British victories. According to Geoffrey Ashe, Gildas may have been referring to Aurelius' first victories as occurring near the time of his birth, which Ashe suggests was around 473, while Mons Badonicus may have occurred much later.
Lives of the Saints
Some British saints' hagiographies indirectly support a date closer to 493 than 503. The Lives of Dewi SantSaint David
Saint David was a Welsh Bishop during the 6th century; he was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and a relatively large amount of information is known about his life. However, his birth date is still uncertain, as suggestions range from 462 to...
(David, the patron saint of Wales), Saint Cadoc
Cadoc
Saint Cadoc , Abbot of Llancarfan, was one of the 6th century British Christian saints. His vita twice mentions King Arthur. The Abbey of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire, which he founded circa 518, became famous as a centre of learning...
and Saint Gildas report that Gildas visited the abbey of Ty Gwyn in 527 or 528 and objected to Dewi/David being placed in charge of it at such a young age.
These biographies of early church leaders, mostly written in the 11th century, may for propaganda purposes have invented, exaggerated, or borrowed miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s, and altered days of death, but some argue that their authors had no reason to distort mundane facts such as the dates and places of meetings. Further, these three Lives are independent of each other, their authors drawing from records (since lost) or traditions at the abbeys the saints lived in—St Davids for David, Llancarfan
Llancarfan
Llancarfan is a rural village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The village, located west of Barry near Cowbridge, has a pub and a well-known parish church, the site of Saint Cadoc's 6th-century abbey, famed for its learning...
for Cadoc, and Rhuys in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
for Gildas.
Rhygyfarch's Life of David says that David had ten years' education under St. Paulinus (St. Pol de Leon) before becoming Abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of Ty Gwyn. This suggests that David's birth could hardly have been later than 514. Rhygyfarch also says that Gildas preached to David's mother, Saint Non
Saint Non
Non was, according to Christian tradition, the mother of Saint David , the patron saint of Wales.-Legend:...
, while she was pregnant with him. If Gildas was old enough to be preaching at that time it is implausible to place the date of his birth, and therefore of the Battle of Mount Badon, later than 498.
Effects of the battle
However uncertain the place, date, and participants of this battle may be, it clearly halted the Anglo-Saxon advance for some years.- The Anglo-Saxon ChronicleAnglo-Saxon ChronicleThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
is silent about this battle, but documents a gap of almost 70 years between two major Anglo-Saxon leaders (BretwaldaBretwaldaBretwalda is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
s) in the 5th and 6th centuries. - ProcopiusProcopiusProcopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
records a story, told to him by a member of a diplomatic delegation from the FranksFranksThe Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
, including a group of AnglesAnglesThe Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
, which mentioned that some Anglo-Saxons and British found their island so crowded that they migrated to northern GaulGaulGaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
to find lands to live on. - There are other tales from the mid-6th century about groups of Anglo-Saxons leaving Britain to settle across the English ChannelEnglish ChannelThe English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
.
All of these point to some kind of reversal in the fortunes of the invading Anglo-Saxons.
Archaeological evidence collected from the cemeteries of the pagan Anglo-Saxons suggests that some of their settlements were abandoned and the frontier between the invaders and the native inhabitants pushed back some time around 500. The Anglo-Saxons held the present counties of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, and around the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
; it is clear that the native British controlled everything west of a line drawn from the mouth of the Wiltshire Avon
River Avon, Hampshire
The River Avon is a river in the south of England. The river rises in the county of Wiltshire and flows through the city of Salisbury and the county of Hampshire before reaching the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour in the county of Dorset....
at Christchurch
Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch is a borough and town in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. The town adjoins Bournemouth in the west and the New Forest lies to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in...
north to the river Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
, then along the Trent to where it joined the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
, then north along the river Derwent
River Derwent, Yorkshire
The Derwent is a river in Yorkshire in the north of England. It is used for water abstraction, leisure and sporting activities and effluent disposal as well as being of significant importance as the site of several nature reserves...
and east to the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
, and also controlled a salient
Salients, re-entrants and pockets
A salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. The salient is surrounded by the enemy on three sides, making the troops occupying the salient vulnerable. The enemy's line facing a salient is referred to as a re-entrant...
to the north and west of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and south of Verulamium
Verulamium
Verulamium was an ancient town in Roman Britain. It was sited in the southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, Great Britain. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon...
, that stretched west to join their main territory. The Britons defending this salient could securely move their troops along Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
to bring reinforcements to London or Verulamium, and thus keep the invaders divided into pockets south of the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
, in eastern Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, and in the lands around the Wash
The Wash
The Wash is the square-mouthed bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in the United Kingdom...
.