King Arthur's family

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Arthur in William Henry Margetson's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1914) Arthur by W. H. Margetson.png
Arthur in William Henry Margetson's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1914)

The size of King Arthur's family mirrored the size of his legend. Although always large, it particularly grew as the legend of King Arthur gained popularity throughout Britain. According to the earliest Welsh Arthurian tradition, Arthur has an extensive family network. This includes his parents Uther Pendragon and Eigyr (Igraine), his wife Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), his nephew Gwalchmei (Gawain), a brother, and several sons. His maternal lineage is also detailed, which includes his grandfather Amlawdd Wledig, a legendary king. His family tree was both simplified and expanded in shared British and French traditions. The two countries added characters from other medieval European chronicles and romances, which introduced new characters, such as Arthur's half-sisters, including Morgan, their children, including Mordred. Various rulers claimed to be descended from Arthur, in particular the House of Tudor and Scottish clans, reflecting the importance of his family legend in medieval and early modern genealogies.

Contents

Medieval Welsh tradition

Uther Pendragon by W. H. Margetson (1914) Uther Pendragon by W. H. Margetson.png
Uther Pendragon by W. H. Margetson (1914)

In Welsh Arthurian pre-Galfridian tradition, Welsh sources laid out a few close familial figures; Arthur had a father named Uther Pendragon, a brother called Madog, and a nephew (Eliwlod). [1] Arthur also appears to have had a sister in this tradition. She is unknown except in reference to Gwalchmei, son of Gwyar, who is said to be the child of Arthur's cousin and sister in Culhwch and Olwen . The Vita Iltuti and the Brut Dingestow both say that Arthur's mother was named Eigyr. [2] Culhwch and Olwen also names a half-brother, Gormant, the son of Arthur's mother and Ricca, the chief elder of Cornwall. This parallels later stories of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. [3]

The 13th-century genealogies in Mostyn MS. 117 lay out Arthur's ancestry in detail. He is the son of Uthyr, the son of Custennin, the son of Cynfawr, the son of Tudwal, the son of Morfawr, the son of Eudaf, the son of Cadwr, the son of Cynan, the son of Caradoc, the son of Bran, and the son of Llŷr. Regarding Arthur's own family, his wife is consistently said to be Gwenhwyfar. She is usually stated to have a sister named Gwenhwyfach and to be the daughter of King Ogrfan Gawr (who is sometimes called 'Gogrfan Gawr' or '[G]Ogrfan the Giant'). Culhwch and Bonedd yr Arwyr also indicate that Arthur had some sort of relationship with Eleirch, daughter of Iaen, resulting in a son named Kyduan (Cydfan). [4] Kyduan is not Arthur's only child in Welsh Arthurian tradition – he is also said to have sons named Amr (Amhar), [5] Gwydre, [6] Llacheu [7] and Duran. [8] (See the Offspring section for further information about Arthur's children.)

In addition to this immediate family, Arthur was said to have had a great variety of distant relatives, including maternal aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as a grandfather named Anlawd (or Amlawdd) Wledig ("Prince Anlawd"). Anlawd is the common link between Arthur and many of these figures. For example, the relationship between first cousins (implied or stated), between Arthur, Culhwch, Illtud, and Goreu fab Custennin, depends on all of their mothers being children of Anlawd. Arthur's maternal uncles in Culhwch and Olwen, including Llygatrud Emys, Gwrbothu Hen, Gweir Gwrhyt Ennwir, and Gweir Baladir Hir, are similarly related through Anlawd. [9] Some argue that Anlawd only exists as a means to allow medieval Welsh authors to interconnect figures with Arthur by acting as a genealogical link. [10]

Common medieval literature

Guinevere by W. H. Margetson (1914) Guinever by W. H. Margetson.png
Guinevere by W. H. Margetson (1914)

Geoffrey of Monmouth carried over relatively few members of Arthur's family in the Welsh materials. Arthur's grandfather, Anlawd Wledic, and his maternal uncles, aunts, and cousins do not appear there, and nor do his paternal relatives or any of his sons. Only the core family seems to have made the transition in Geoffrey's influential version: Arthur's wife Gwenhwyfar (who became Guinevere), his father Uthyr (Uther), his mother Eigyr (Igerna), and his nephew Gwalchmei (Gawain). Uther was given a new family, including two brothers and their father. [11] Gwalchmei's mother, Gwyar, instead became Anna, who was married to Loth, while Modredus (Mordred) became her second son (he was not her son under Welsh tradition, bearing the name Medraut). As many writers based their stories on Geoffrey's work, it was Geoffrey's version that remained popular, rather than traditional Welsh family trees. [12]

Morgan le Fay by W. H. Margetson (1914) Morgan le Fay by W. H. Margetson.jpg
Morgan le Fay by W. H. Margetson (1914)

In the chivalric romance branch of such common tradition, Arthur gains a sister or half-sister named Morgan, first identified as his relative by Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain . [13] Arthur's other sister or half-sister, sometimes known as Morgause, is a daughter of Gorlois and Igerna (Igraine). She replaced Anna in the romances as the mother of Gawain and Mordred. She and Morgan may also be joined by a third half-sister, today best known as Elaine. Drawing on earlier sources, Richard Carew mentions another sister of Igraine and Uther, named Amy. [14] The overall number of Arthur's sisters or half-sisters varies between the different romances, ranging from as few as one or two to as many as five (in which case one of them may die early). [15] Their names and roles also vary, as do their husbands (most commonly the British kings Lot, Urien, and Nentres, who are largely interchangeable). [a] Through his sisters, Arthur is given further nephews, who all become members of the Round Table. The sisters usually (but not always) had particular children in the romances. Morgause had Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth; Elaine had Galeschin; and either Morgan or a fourth sister had Yvain. Chrétien [17] and Wolfram von Eschenbach [18] wrote romances that mention or feature Arthur's nieces and occasionally additional nephews (for example, Lancelot is the son of Arthur's unnamed sister in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet, but nowhere else).

Arthur's son, named Loholt, was introduced in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec and Enide. [19] He is possibly based on one of Arthur's sons from Welsh tradition, Llacheu. [20] Geoffrey turns Ambrosius Aurelianus, the historical Romano-British leader, into Uther's brother. He also derives Arthur's lineage from the self-proclaimed Western Roman Emperor Constantine II of Britain, presenting him as Arthur's grandfather. Additionally, the chronicle Brut Tysilio makes Cador, son of Gorlois Arthur's half-brother, sharing Igraine as a mother. [21] In Geoffrey's Historia, Cador's son Constantine succeeds Arthur as the high king of Britain. One important figure with no actual blood relation to Arthur is Ector, who is featured as a secret foster-father of Arthur in much of the romance tradition, along with Ector's son Kay as the young Arthur's foster-brother.

Offspring

Although Arthur is given sons in both early and late Arthurian tales, he is rarely granted significant further generations of descendants. This is at least partly because of the usually premature deaths of Arthur's sons. In some cases, including in Le Morte d'Arthur , [22] their failure to produce a legitimate heir contributes to the fall of Arthur.

In the early Welsh tradition, Mordred (Medraut) was merely a nephew of Arthur, who had three different sons; however, their stories are largely lost. Amr is the first to be mentioned in Arthurian literature, appearing in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum :

There is another wonder in the region which is called Ercing. A tomb is located there next to a spring which is called Licat Amr; and the name of the man who is buried in the tomb was called thus: Amr. He was the son of Arthur the soldier, and Arthur himself killed and buried him in that very place. And men come to measure the grave and find it sometimes six feet in length, sometimes nine, sometimes twelve, sometimes fifteen. At whatever length you might measure it at one time, a second time you will not find it to have the same length – and I myself have put this to the test. [23]

Why Arthur chose or was forced to kill his son is never made clear. The only other reference to Amr comes in the post-Galfridian Welsh romance Geraint , where "Amhar son of Arthur" is one of Arthur's four chamberlains, along with Bedwyr's son Amhren. [24] : 231 

Gwydre is similarly unlucky, being slaughtered by the giant boar Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch and Olwen, along with two of Arthur's maternal uncles. No other references to either Gwydre or Arthur's uncles survive. [25] [24] : 132, 134 

Another son, known only from a possibly 15th-century Welsh text, is said to have died on the field of Camlann:

Sanddef [Bryd Angel] drive the crow

off the face of Duran [son of Arthur].

Dearly and belovedly his mother raised him.

Arthur [sang it] [26]

More is known about Arthur's son Llacheu. He is one of the "Three Well-Endowed Men of the Island of Britain", according to Triad 4, and he fights alongside Cei in the early Arthurian poem Pa gur yv y porthaur? . [27] Like his father is in Y Gododdin , Llacheu appears in the 12th-century and later Welsh poetry as a standard of heroic comparison, and he also seems to have been similarly a figure of local topographic folklore too. [28] Taken together, it is generally agreed that all these references indicate that Llacheu was a figure of considerable importance in the early Arthurian cycle. [29] Nonetheless, Llacheu too dies, with the speaker in the pre-Galfridian poem Ymddiddan Gwayddno Garanhir ac Gwyn fab Nudd remembering that he had "been where Llacheu was slain / the son of Arthur, awful in songs / when ravens croaked over blood." [30] The romance character based on him, Loholt (or Lohot), also dies young.

Mordred is a major exception to this tradition of Arthur's sons dying childless. Mordred, like Amr, is killed by Arthur – at Camlann – according to Geoffrey of Monmouth and the post-Galfridian tradition but; unlike the others, he is ascribed two sons, both of whom rose against Arthur's successor and cousin Constantine III with the help of the Saxons. However, in Geoffrey's Historia (where the motifs of Arthur's killing of Mordred and Mordred's sons first appear), Mordred was not Arthur's son. [31] His relationship with Arthur was reinterpreted in the Vulgate Cycle, as he was made the result of an unwitting incest between Arthur and his sister. [32] This tale is preserved in the later romances, with the motif of Arthur knowing by Merlin that Mordred would grow up to kill him; and so by the time of the Post-Vulgate Cycle Arthur has devised a plot, Herod-like, to rid of all children born on the same day as Mordred in order to try to save himself from this fate. [33] The Post-Vulgate version also features another of Arthur's illegitimate sons, Arthur the Less, who survives for as long as Mordred but remains fiercely loyal to Arthur.

Other literature has expanded Arthur's immediate family further. His daughter Archfedd is found in only one Welsh source, the 13th-century Bonedd y Saint . [34] A daughter named Hild[e] is mentioned in the 13th-century Icelandic Þiðreks saga (Thidrekssaga), while the Möttuls saga from around the same period features a son of Arthur by the name Aristes. The eponymous Samson the Fair from another Norse story, Samsons saga fagra , is Arthur's son who has a sister named Grega. Rauf de Boun's 1309 Petit Brut lists Arthur's son Adeluf III as a king of Britain, also mentioning Arthur's other children Morgan le Noir (Morgan the Black) and Patrike le Rous (Patrick the Red) by an unnamed Fairy Queen. [35] Later on, a number of early modern works have occasionally given Arthur more of different sons and daughters. [b]

Bloodline claims

A supposed direct lineage from King Arthur has been professed by some English monarchs, especially those of Welsh descent, among them the 15th-century King Henry VII (through Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon), [36] who even named his first-born son after Arthur, and the 16th-century Queen Elizabeth I. [37] In the Scottish Highlands, the descent from King Arthur remains included in rival genealogies of both Clan Arthur (MacArthur) and Clan Campbell, [38] whose traditions involve Arthur's son variably known as Merbis, Merevie, Smerbe, Smerevie or Smereviemore (according to the Campbells, from his second marriage to a French princess named Elizabeth). [39] [40] In Iberia, medieval and early modern genealogies attributed Queen Baddo, wife of the 6th-century Visigothic King Reccared I, as a daughter of King Arthur. [41]

Notes

  1. ↑ In the Vulgate Merlin, for instance, Arthur's mother Ygraine "had five daughters, three by her husband the duke and two by her first husband, one of whom King Lot took as his wife, King Neutres [i.e. Nentres] another, King Urien the third, and Caradoc, who was the father of King Aguisant of Scotland, the fourth, who had died, while the fifth was in school in Logres." [16]
  2. ↑ The 16th-century romance Tom a Lincoln features the eponymous hero, Arthur's son by the Fairy Queen named Caelia. Through Tom, Arthur is further given grandsons, referred to as the Black Knight and the Faerie Knight. Melora (Mhelóra), the heroine of the 16th-century Irish romance The Adventures of Orlando and Melora (Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando), dresses as a man and becomes known as the Knight of the Blue Surcoat in order to save her lover Orlando from Merlin's spell. Another example is the eponymous protagonist of Henry Fielding's 18th-century play Tom Thumb . In Walter Scott's 18th-century poem The Bridal of Triermain , Gyneth, Arthur's daughter from his romance with a half-djinn queen Guendolen, is punished by Merlin for her vanity by being put to magic slumber for several centuries until she is found and awakened with a kiss. A Scottish fairy tale included in the 19th-century compilation Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Vol. III) features Arthur's illegitimate son Moroie Mor who is raised by his mother in obscurity in a forest before becoming a great knight.

References

  1. ↑ T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.145–51; P. Sims-Williams, "The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems" in R. Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and B.F. Roberts (edd.) The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), pp.33–71 at pp.53-4.
  2. ↑ R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5.
  3. ↑ Parker, Will (2016). "Culhwch and Olwen Translation". Culhwch ac Olwen. Footnote 133. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  4. ↑ See T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.151–5; R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.76–7, 107-08 -- the latter note that the sons of Iaen appear to have been kinsmen of Arthur on their father's side, not Arthur's father's side, i.e. they were Arthur's in-laws via their sister.
  5. ↑ Historia Brittonum, 73 and also the romance Geraint and Enid , which mentions an "Amhar son of Arthur".
  6. ↑ R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), lines 1116-7.
  7. ↑ R. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), pp.416–8.
  8. ↑ J. Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: a Study and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge, 1990), pp.250–1.
  9. ↑ These maternal uncles are named at lines 251-2, 288-90: R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992).
  10. ↑ R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5
  11. ↑ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 8.1.
  12. ↑ B. F. Roberts, "Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae and Brut Y Brenhinedd" in R. Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and B. F. Roberts (edd.) The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), pp.98–116 at pp.112–3.
  13. ↑ Arthurian Romances trans. W. Kibler and C. W. Carroll (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1991)
  14. ↑ Carew, Richard (1769) [1602]. The Survey of Cornwall and an Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the English Tongue. E. Law and J. Hewett. p. 78.
  15. ↑ "Bibliographical bulletin of the International Arthurian Society". 15 March 1954. Retrieved 15 March 2023– via Google Books.
  16. ↑ Lacy, Norris J. (22 January 2024). Lancelot-Grail: The story of Merlin. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN   978-1-84384-234-7.
  17. ↑ Duggan, Joseph J. (October 2008). The Romances of Chretien de Troyes. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-13370-7.
  18. ↑ Groos, Arthur; Lacy, Norris J. (6 December 2012). Perceval/Parzival: A Casebook. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-136-51000-7.
  19. ↑ Lancelot of the Lake . Oxford University Press. 2000. p.  428. ISBN   9780192837936.
  20. ↑ Lacy, Norris J.; Ashe, Geoffrey; Mancoff, Debra N. (14 January 2014). The Arthurian Handbook: Second Edition. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-77744-1.
  21. ↑ Tichelaar, Tyler R. (31 January 2010). King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition. Loving Healing Press. ISBN   978-1-61599-066-5.
  22. ↑ Cherewatuk, Karen (2006). Marriage, Adultery and Inheritance in Malory's Morte Darthur. Vol. 67. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN   9781843840893. JSTOR   10.7722/j.ctt81j5x.
  23. ↑ Historia Brittonum , 73.
  24. 1 2 Jones, T.; Jones, G. (1949). Mabinogion. London, UK: Dent.
  25. ↑ Bromwich, R.; Evans, D. Simon (1992). Culhwch and Olwen. An edition and study of the oldest Arthurian tale. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press. lines 1116–1117 and note "on Gwydre".
  26. ↑ Rowland, J. (1990). Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A study and edition of the Englynion. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. pp. 250–251.
  27. ↑ R. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), no. 4; P. Sims-Williams, "The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems" in R. Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and B.F. Roberts (edd.) The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), pp.33–71 at p.43.
  28. ↑ O. J. Padel, Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), pp.55–6, 99; P. Sims-Williams, "The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems" in R. Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and B.F. Roberts (edd.) The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), pp.33–71 at p.4.4.
  29. ↑ T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.168-9.
  30. ↑ J.B. Coe and S. Young, The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend (Llanerch, 1995), p.125.
  31. ↑ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 11.2-4.
  32. ↑ Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation trans. N. J. Lacy (New York: Garland, 1992-1996).
  33. ↑ See A. Varin, "Mordred, King Arthur's Son" in Folklore 90 (1979), pp.167–77 on Mordred's birth, its origins and Arthur's reaction to his dream.
  34. ↑ Sullivan, Tony (14 July 2022). The Battles of King Arthur - Tony Sullivan - Google Books. Pen and Sword History. ISBN   9781399015318 . Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  35. ↑ Arthur's Children in Le Petit Bruit and the Post-Vulgate Cycle by Ad Putter, University of Bristol.
  36. ↑ "The Tudor Connection to King Arthur • Sean Poage". 10 December 2018.
  37. ↑ "Queen Elizabeth I". CHILDREN OF ARTHUR.
  38. ↑ "Clans touch swords in battle to crown Arthur as their own". www.scotsman.com.
  39. ↑ "Highland papers". 14 April 2024.
  40. ↑ Ashley, Mike (1 September 2011). The Mammoth Book of King Arthur. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN   9781780333557 . Retrieved 15 March 2023– via Google Books.
  41. ↑ Sirantoine, Hélène (January 2021). "Baddo, "Daughter of Arthur, King of England": Some Medieval Evidence of the Arthurian Filiation Attributed to a Sixth-Century Visigothic Queen" . Viator. 52 (1): 137–170. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.130885. S2CID   249835361.

Bibliography

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