Editing Battle of Badon (section)

==Historical accounts==
===Gildas===
The earliest mention of the Battle of Badon appears in [[Gildas]]' ''[[De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae]]'' (''On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain''), written in the early to mid-6th century. In it, the [[Anglo-Saxons]] are said to have "dipped <nowiki>[their]</nowiki> red and savage tongue in the western ocean" before [[Ambrosius Aurelianus]] organized a British resistance with the survivors of the initial Saxon onslaught. Gildas describes the period that followed Ambrosius' initial success:

{{quote|From that time, the citizens were sometimes victorious, sometimes the enemy, in order that the Lord, according to His wont, might try in this nation the Israel of today, whether it loves Him or not. This continued up to the year of the siege of Badon Hill (''obsessionis Badonici montis''), and of almost the last great slaughter inflicted upon the rascally crew. And this commences, a fact I know, as the forty-fourth year, with one month now elapsed; it is also the year of my birth.<ref>[[Hugh Williams (historian)|Hugh Williams]] (ed.), ''Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae'', Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1899, p. 61–63.</ref>}}

''De Excidio Britanniae'' describes the battle as such an "unexpected recovery of the [island]" that it caused kings, nobles, priests, and commoners to "live orderly according to their several vocations." Afterwards, the long peace degenerated into civil wars and the iniquity of [[Maelgwn Gwynedd]].

That [[King Arthur|Arthur]] had gone unmentioned by Gildas, ostensibly the source closest to his own time, was noticed at least as early as a 12th-century hagiography of Gildas which claims that Gildas had praised Arthur extensively but then excised him completely after Arthur killed the saint's brother, [[Hueil mab Caw]]. Modern writers have suggested the details of the battle may have been so well known that Gildas expected his audience to be familiar with them.<ref name=Green31>Green, p. 31.</ref>

===Bede===
The battle is next mentioned in an 8th-century text of [[Bede]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'' (''Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum''),<ref>The "[[Tiberius Bede]]" or C text. [[British Library]] MS Cotton Tiberius C.II. {{in lang|la}}</ref> which describes the "siege of Mount Badon, when they made no small slaughter of those invaders," as occurring 44 years after the first [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain]]. Bede refers to Ambrosius Aurelianus as the leader of the Britons at that battle, whose parents had perished 'in the storm' and who were 'of the royal race'.<ref>Bede. ''The [[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'', I.xvi.</ref><ref>L. ''...usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis quando non minimas eisdem hostibus strages dabant quadragesimo circiter & quarto anno adventus eorum in Britaniam.''</ref> Since Bede places that arrival just before, during or just after the joint reign in Rome of [[Marcian]] and [[Valentinian III]] in AD 449{{ndash}}456,{{efn|Per Bede's account. The actual dates of their reign were AD 450–455.<ref>Bede, I.xv.</ref>}} he must have considered Badon to have taken place between 493 and 500. Bede then puts off discussion of the battle {{ndash}} "But more of this hereafter" {{ndash}} only to seemingly never return to it.

Bede does later include an extended account of [[Germanus of Auxerre|Saint Germanus of Auxerre]]'s victory over the Saxons and [[Picts]] in a mountain valley (traditionally placed at [[Mold, Flintshire|Mold]] in [[Flintshire]] in northeast Wales), which he credits with curbing the threat of invasion for a generation.<ref name=b20>Bede, I.xx.</ref> However, as the victory is described as having been accomplished bloodlessly, it was presumably a different occasion from Badon. Accepted at face value, Saint Germanus' involvement would also place the battle around AD 430, although Bede's chronology shows no knowledge of this.

===Nennius and the Welsh Annals===
{{anchor|Arthur}}{{see also|Historicity of King Arthur}}

The earliest surviving text specifically mentioning Arthur in connection with the battle is the early 9th-century ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' (''The History of the Britons''),<ref>The "[[s:Nennius (DNB00)|Nennius]]" entry of the [[Dictionary of National Biography]] credits an 11th-century Irish edition by Giolla Coemgin with being the oldest extant edition of the ''Historia Brittonum'', but it apparently only survived in a 14th-century copy. Cf. Todd, James. ''[https://archive.org/stream/irishversionofhi00toddrich#page/n9/mode/2up Irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius]''. Irish Archaeological Soc. (Dublin), 1848. Accessed 6 February 2013.</ref> attributed to the Welsh monk [[Nennius]], in which the soldier (Latin ''mīles'') Arthur is identified as the leader of the victorious British force at Badon:

{{quote|The twelfth battle was on Mount Badon in which there fell in one day 960 men from one charge by Arthur; and no one struck them down except Arthur himself.<ref>L. ''Duodecimum fuit bellum in monte Badonis, in quo corruerunt in uno die nongenti sexaginta viri de uno impetu Arthur; et nemo prostravit eos nisi ipse solus.'' Mommsen, Theodore (ed.) ''[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/histbrit.html Historia Brittonum]''. Accessed 7 February 2013. {{in lang|la}}</ref><ref name=HBeng>Lupack, Alan (Trans.) ''The Camelot Project'': "[http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/nennius.htm From ''The History of the Britons'' (''Historia Brittonum'') by Nennius]". Retrieved 6 February 2013.</ref>}}

The Battle of Badon is next mentioned in the ''[[Annales Cambriae]]'' (''Annals of Wales''),<ref name=ACA/> assumed to have been written during the mid- to late-10th century. The entry states:

{{quote|The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights upon his shoulders [or shield<ref>The words for "shoulder" and "shield" being easily confused in [[Old Welsh]]: ''scuit'' (shield) vs. ''scuid'' (shoulder)]. Cf. Jones, W. Lewis. ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes'', [http://www.bartleby.com/211/1202.html Vol. I, XII, §2.] Putnam, 1921. Accessed 30 January 2013.</ref>] and the Britons were the victors.<ref>L. ''Bellum badonis inquo arthur portauit crucem domini nostri ihu xp'i . tribus diebus & tribus noctibus inhumeros suos & brittones uictores fuerunt.''</ref><ref name=ACAeng/>}}

===Geoffrey of Monmouth===
[[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s c. 1136 ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain'') was massively popular and survives in many copies from soon after its composition.<ref>The earliest two being the Cambridge 1706 II.I.14 and Berne Stadtbibliotek MS 568, both apparently from the year of composition. Cf. Griscom, Acton. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=gsQ-nT2taacC&pg=PA22 The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth]''. Longmans, Green, & Co., 1929. Accessed 7 February 2013.</ref> Going into (and fabricating) much greater detail, Geoffrey closely identifies Badon with [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], including having [[Merlin]] foretell that Badon's baths would lose their hot water and turn poisonous.<ref>Thompson. VII.iii.</ref> He also mixes in aspects of other accounts: the battle begins as a Saxon siege and then becomes a normal engagement once Arthur's men arrive; Arthur bears the image of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|the Virgin]] both on his shield and shoulder. Arthur charges and kills 470, ten more than the number of Britons ambushed by [[Hengist and Horsa|Hengist]] near [[Salisbury]].

Elements of the Welsh legends are added: in addition to the shield ''[[Pridwen]]'', Arthur gains his sword, ''[[Excalibur|Caliburnus]]'' (Excalibur), and his spear, ''[[Excalibur#Arthur's other weapons|Ron]]''. Geoffrey also makes the defence of the city from the Saxon sneak attack a holy cause, having [[Dubricius]] offer absolution of all sins for those who fall in battle.<ref name=HRBeng>Thompson, Aaron & al. (trans.) ''[http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/geoffrey_thompson.pdf History of the Kings of Britain]'', IX.iv. In Parentheses, 1999. Accessed 6 February 2013.</ref>