Editing Uther Pendragon (section)

==''Historia Regum Britanniae''==
[[File:History of the Kings (f.72) Uthr Bendragon.jpg|thumb|left|Uther Pendragon in a crude illustration from a 15th-century Welsh version of ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'']]

Uther is best known from Geoffrey's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (1136) where he is the youngest son of King of Britannia, Constantine. His eldest brother Constans succeeds to the throne on their father's death, but is murdered at the instigation of his adviser [[Vortigern]], who seizes the throne. Uther and his other brother, [[Ambrosius Aurelianus|Aurelius Ambrosius]], still children, flee to [[Brittany]]. Vortigern makes an alliance with the [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxons]] under [[Hengest|Hengist]], but it goes disastrously wrong. Aurelius and Uther return, now adults. Aurelius burns Vortigern in his castle and becomes king.

With Aurelius on the throne, Uther leads his brother in arms to [[Celtic Ireland|Ireland]] to help [[Merlin (wizard)|Merlin]] bring the stones of [[Stonehenge]] from there to Britain. Later, while Aurelius is ill, Uther leads his army against Vortigern's son Paschent and his Saxon allies. On the way to the battle, he sees a comet in the shape of a dragon, which Merlin interprets as presaging Aurelius's death and Uther's glorious future. Uther wins the battle and takes the epithet "[[Pendragon]]", and returns to find that Aurelius has been poisoned by an assassin. He becomes king and orders the construction of two gold dragons, one of which he uses as his standard.

He secures Britain's frontiers and quells Saxon uprisings with the aids of his retainers, one of whom is [[Gorlois]], [[Duke of Cornwall]]. At a banquet celebrating their victories, Uther becomes obsessively enamoured of Gorlois' wife Igerna (Igraine), and a war ensues between Uther and his vassal. Gorlois sends Igerna to the impregnable castle of [[Tintagel]] for protection while he himself is besieged by Uther in another town. Uther consults with Merlin who uses his magic to transform the king into the likeness of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igerna at Tintagel. He spends the night with her and they conceive Arthur, but the next morning it is discovered that Gorlois had been killed. Uther marries Igerna and they have a daughter called Anna (in later romances she is called [[Morgause]] and is usually Igerna's daughter by her previous marriage). Morgause later marries [[King Lot]] and becomes the mother of [[Gawain]] and [[Mordred]].

Uther later falls ill and the wars against the Saxons begin to go badly. He insists on leading his army himself, propped up on his horse. He defeats Hengist's son [[Octa of Kent|Octa]] at [[Verulamium]] ([[St Albans]]), despite the Saxons calling him the "Half-Dead King". However, the Saxons soon contrive his death by poisoning a spring which he drinks from near Verulamium.<ref name=":0">[[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' [[Wikisource:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 6#5|6.5–9]], [[Wikisource:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 8#1|8.1–24]].</ref>

Uther's family is based on some historical figures; Aurelius Ambrosius is Ambrosius Aurelianus, mentioned by [[Gildas]], though his connection to Constantine and Constans is unrecorded. It is possible that Uther himself is based at least partially on Tewdrig, a historical king of Glywysing in the sixth century, given the strong similarities between their death stories. Depending on the source, Uther may either be the son of [[Constantine III (Western Roman emperor)|Constantine III]], as is related in the Welsh Triad 51,<ref name=":2" /> or he may be the son of [[Constantine (Briton)|Constantine]] of Dumnonia, as related in Monmouth's ''History of the Kings of Britain''.<ref name=":3" />