Battle of Mons Badonicus

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In the Battle of Mons Badonicus (English Mount Badon, Welsh Mynydd Baddon) Romano-British and Celts inflicted a severe defeat on an invading Anglo-Saxon army sometime in the decade before or after 500. While it is a major political/military event of the 5th and 6th centuries in Britain, there is no certainty about its date or place. The earliest source does not name the commanders of the opposing forces but the victory was attributed to King Arthur by the 9th century.

Contents

1 Uncertainity of location and date
2 Effects of the battle
3 Second Battle of Badon
4 Portrayal in popular media

Uncertainity of location and date

The location of this battle is unknown, as is the name of the Romano-British leader. The polemical monk Gildas, a near contemporary who appears to state in his essay, De Excidio Britanniae or The Ruin of Britain that the battle occurred in the year of his birth, neither names the leader of either side nor provides any information that could help identify its location.

A number of places for the battle have been proposed; these are all in present-day England. (For a list of candidates, see Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend.) These sites include Bath, the town known to the Saxons as Baþon or Baðon and Badbury Hillfort. All of these depend upon theories or speculations of scholars built upon a poverty of evidence. A suggested location must take into consideration these points:-

The location of this battle probably lies on the frontier between the territories of the native British inhabitants and the Anglo-Saxon invaders; or it may have been the fate of a deep Anglo-Saxon invasion of British territory to try to separate the Welsh from the Britons of the southwest. "Obsessionis Badonici montis in Gildas's writings may mean that the Anglo-Saxon army, perhaps trying to reach the Severn estuary, went too far into hostile territory and was surrounded and trapped on a hilltop in the Cotswolds.
The Annales Cambriae, found in the Harleian recension of the Historia Brittonum, preserve an entry under the year 665 that records "The second battle of Mons Badonicus". While pointing to an engagement between two kingdoms of the seventh century, it is debatable which kingdoms this may be and whether this battle is recorded in other historical records of Britain or England.

The name of the participants is also debatable. The 9th century Historia Brittonum records traditions that name the Romano-British and Celtic leader as Arthur, while more recent scholarly speculation has suggested the Romano-British and Celtic leader could have been Ambrosius Aurelianus and the Saxon leader to be Aelle of Sussex, King of the South Saxons. An old Welsh poem ascribed to Taliesin (who lived in the last half of the sixth century), refers to "the battle of Badon with Arthur, chief giver of feasts… the battle which all men remember". In societal context, "chief giver of feasts" implies supreme leader.

Lastly, there is no clear evidence for the date of a battle. Gildas writes ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis… quique quadragesimus quartus ut novi orditur annus mense iam uno emenso qui et meae nativitatis est, which is disputably translated to mean "at/to the year of the siege of Mount Badon… which happened 44 years and one month ago, and which is [the year] of my birth". Since it appears that Gildas wrote this on or before 547, since King Maelgwn of Gwynedd was still living, this would suggest the date 503 or shortly before. However there is some ambiguity in this passage, for Bede interpreted this passage as stating the battle occurred 44 years after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. In this case, adding 44 years to the date 449 (when Bede believed his Anglo-Saxons first arrived in Britain), gives us the date 493. Adding 44 years to 447 (when Thanet was conceded to Hengist) places the battle in 491. Some would argue that Bede's copy of Gildas was much closer to Gildas's time than any extant; however the age of a manuscript (especially one no longer existing) is no guide to its accuracy.

The later Annales Cambriae offers the date of 516, which few modern scholars accept. (Annales Cambriae entries after 525 appear to have been transcribed from tables for the calculation of Easter that were contemporary; entries before 525 are much less reliable.)

Indirect support for a date for Mount Badon close to 493, rather than 503, comes from the Celtic Lives of the Saints. The Lives of Dewi Sant (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 miracles, 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 David's for David, Llancarfan for Cadoc, and Rhuys in Brittany for Gildas.

Rhygyfarch's Life of David says that he had ten years education under Saint Paulinus (Saint 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 in, at the latest, 514, it is implausible to place the date of Gildas's birth, and therefore of the Battle of Mount Badon, later than 498.

Effects of the battle

However uncertain the place, date, or participants of this battle may be, it clearly halted the Anglo-Saxon advance for some years. While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is silent about this battle, it documents a gap of almost seventy years between two major Anglo-Saxon leaders, or Bretwaldas, in the fifth and sixth centuries. Procopius records a story, told to him by a member of a diplomatic delegation from the Franks, including a group of Angles, which included that some Anglo-Saxons and British found their island so crowded that they migrated into northern Gaul 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 Channel, all of which point out the existence of 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 a number of their settlements were abandoned and the frontier between the invaders and the native inhabitants pushed back sometime around AD 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, and north along the river Derwent and then east to the North Sea, and an enclave to the north and west of London, and south of Verulamium, that stretched west to join with the primary frontier. The Britons defending this pocket 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.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says:-

571: Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda. 7 .iiii. tunas genom, Lygeanburg. 7 Ægelesburg. Benningtun. 7 Egonesham. 7 þy ilcan geare he gefor.
577: Her Cuþwine 7 Ceawlin fuhton wiþ Brettas, 7 hie .iii. kyningas ofslogon, Coinmail, 7 Condidan, 7 Farinmail, in þære stowe þe is gecueden Deorham. 7 genamon .iii. ceastro Gleawanceaster, 7 Cirenceaster, 7 Baþanceaster.
584: Her Ceawlin 7 Cuþa fuhton wiþ Brettas, in þam stede þe mon nemneþ Feþanleag. 7 Cuþan mon ofslog. 7 Ceaulin monige tunas genom, 7 unarimedlice herereaf, 7 ierre he hwearf þonan to his agnum.

571: Here Cuthwulf fought against Britons at Bedcanford and took 4 settlements: Limbury & Aylesbury, Benson, & Eynsham. And in the same year he died.
577: Here Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against Britons and they slew 3 kings: Coinmail & Condidan & Farinmail, in the place which is called Dyrham, and took 3 towns: Gloucester & Cirencester & Bath.
584: Here Ceawlin and Cutha fought against Britons in the place that is named Fethanleag [perhaps near [Stoke Lyne] in Oxfordshire ], and Cutha was slain, and Ceawlin took many settlements and countless war-loot, and in anger he turned back to his own land.

If this theory is accurate, these entries seem to show that the British defences in the English Midlands collapsed, and the peace that followed the Battle of Mons Badonicus ended, and the Anglo-Saxons obiterated the British Watling Street salient and united their areas and overran the London - Verulamium area and the plain of the Midlands. Loss of Bath would separate the Welsh from the Britons of the southwest. "Many settlements ... in anger" in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may point to a widespread violent "pacification" of the overrun British lands.

Second Battle of Badon

According to the Annales Cambriae, in the year 665 there was a second battle at Badon. It also lists for 665 the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity ("first Easter of the Saxons") and the death of one "Morgan". It is possible these three events are connected, if they are factual.

Portrayal in popular media

In the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot is said to have "personally wet himself in the Battle of Badon Hill".
The 2004 film King Arthur sets the battle south of Hadrian's Wall.
Bernard Cornwell, in his 'Warlord' Series, places the battle north of Bath.
In the 2005 PC game [[Rome: Total War|Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion]], there is a scenario based on the battle.

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