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townspeople, sewed many animals tails to his cloak to ridicule him. And he prayed that the
522 The following account is entirely omitted from GoM. He (11:8) merely states that: The city I have
mentioned was captured and burnt. This is a significant item of evidence against the supposition that the
Welsh chronicle is merely a translation of Geoffrey s Latin Historia.
523 GoM (11:10) states that it was Gormund who handed Lloegria to the Saxons.
524 As in LXI = GoM (11:10) = Theonus.
525 GoM (11:10) names him as Tadioceus.
526 i.e. Augustine, who came over in AD 597.
527 Bede, who usually revels in the miraculous, fails to mention this.
528 Ethelbert.
529 LXI = Tre y riw. GoM omits the place. Given the riw element, could it not be Rochester?
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townspeople [from that day on] should themselves have tails.530
And from that place he proceeded to London and made enquiry there of the archbishop and the
learned clerks whom the Saxons had scattered. And he was told that the archbishop of Caerleon-
on-Usk, with seven bishops serving him, was worshipping [God] devoutly, and [that in that place
were] also monasteries and sacred choirs in them praising God and the saints. And [foremost]
amongst these was the great monastery of Bangor, [which is] Maelor in the Saxon tongue. And
there, not reckoning the priors and servants, were one hundred and twenty monks who lived by
the work of their hands. And the abbot of the monastery was Dinawd,531 and none in his day was
more learned than he.
And on seeing this Augustine was glad, and he sent to Dinawd and exhorted him to come and
preach [the Gospel] to the Saxons to try to win them to the faith. But Dinawd replied to him that
it was not meet that he should preach the faith to such a wicked people as this, who had come from
overseas and [who] through treachery and betrayal had murdered our kin and robbed them of their
rightful inheritance, [for], It is not our concern to preach to them, not to serve them, nor [indeed
to serve] any man in the land save the archbishop of Caerleon-on-Usk. For he is [the head of our
church], the highest [spiritual authority] in the land! 532
And when Ethelbert,533 king of Kent, heard of it, he sent to Ethelfrith,534 king of Northumbria,
and to as many lords as the Saxons possessed [over them], and commanded them straightway to
descend upon Dinawd and his monastery, and to heap retribution upon him for his perfidy. And
as many of the Saxons as there were in the land, came to Caerleon-on-Usk. And Brochwel, lord
of Powis,535 was lord also of the Kymry, and there were with him a great number of monks from
530 This account does not appear in Bede. However, Manley Pope (p. 212) states: This seems to be
the real origin of the fabulous tradition, that Kentish men were born with tails; and which in later times was
revived, and said by the Papists to have happened to them [the men of Kent] at the time of the
Reformation.
531 GoM (11:12) = Dinoot. Bede uses the same spelling. Manley Pope (pp. 212-3) puts an interesting
gloss on this episode. He states that this Dunod (as he spells it) was the son of Pabo, the Pillar of Britain .
Daniel, Dunod s son - note the married clergy of the British church - was to found Bangor in
Carnarvonshire after the destruction of Bangor in Denbighshire in AD 604. He states moreover that the
following passage on the massacre of the British Christians has been: ...carefully managed, so as to avoid
giving offence to the church of Rome. It tells only what could not be concealed [as does Bede]. The
following passage, quoted by Spelman, from an ancient manuscript in the Mostyn collection, gives the
speech of Dunod more fully, and whatever be its date, it certainly gives the opinion of the British church
truly. Know and be assured, that we all jointly and severally, are in humility ready to defer to the Church
of God, the Pope of Rome, and every sincere and pious Christian; so to love everyone according to his
station, in perfect charity, and to assist them all by word and deed, so that they may become children of
God. But as to further deference than this, I know of none, which he whom ye call Pope, or father of
father s, can claim or demand. The deference which I have stated, we are ever ready to pay to him, and
every Christian. Moreover, we are subject to the Bishop of Caerleon on Uske, who is, under God, our
superintendent to keep us in our spiritual path. In the British Church the bishops were elective. The
Gospel of St John was its principal authority. Saints and martyrs were not regarded as intercessors. The use
of the cross, except perhaps in baptism, was held to be an abomination; and also that of images....The
Romish monks have here interpolated a false and invidious sentence, importing that the Welsh absolutely
refused to preach to the Saxons.
532 The earliest argument, it appears, against papal supremacy in Britain and the innovative changes
to the Church calendar that Rome had recently introduced through Dionysius Exiguus. Would Geoffrey of
Monmouth as a Cistercian monk, or indeed any other good catholic author of the 12th century, have dared
to invent such an argument, or may we take its existence as a further token of authenticity?
533 LXI = Edelffled, an error, it seems, for Ethelbert (see note 534).
534 LXI = Edelffled, otherwise Ethelfrid, Saxon king of Northumbria. Bede (1:34) records that he drove
the Scots out of England in the year AD 603, the eleventh year of his reign which lasted twenty-four years
in total. Ethelfrith thus ruled the Northumbrians from AD 592-616. The massacre here spoken of at Bangor,
occurred in AD 604.
535 LXI = Brochwel Essgithroc. GoM (11:13) = Brochmail. Manley Pope adds this from a manuscript
called MS. Guttyn Owain: There Brochwel made a stand against him, and a bloody battle was fought, since
called the Battle of Bangor Garden. But after long contesting the day, Brochwel was forced to retreat
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every monastery in those lands held by the Britons, especially from [the great monastery of]
Bangor. And they, the warriors of the Britons, gave battle to the Saxons, and Brochwel went to
Bangor to summon to him all [the monks of the] Britons. And when Ethelfrith saw such a vast
multitude of monks [gathered there], and perceiving that because of them [praying to God] there
would be a great slaughter [amongst the Saxons], he commanded that one thousand two hundred
of the monks of Bangor should be put to the sword.
And these were the princes of the Kymry who came to Bangor, to Brochwel s aid, namely,
Bledric,536 earl of Cornwall, and Meredith,537 king of Dyfed, and Kanvan,538 lord of Gwynedd.
And there was a mighty battle between them and the Saxons, in which many were slain on either
side. But at the last the Britons won the day, and Ethelfrith was wounded and made to flee,
escaping with [the rest of] the Saxons. And the number of Saxon dead was ten thousand and sixty
and six. And to the Kymry were lost Bledric, earl of Cornwall, and many with him, for he
sustained [the fury of] the battle more than any other man. And all the Kymry rallied together and
came to Caerleon-on-Usk.
And in council it was ordained that they should anoint Kadvan, the son of Iago, king over
them. And he pursued Ethelfrith and the Saxon host across the Humber. And there did Ethelfrith
muster an army and fight with Kadvan. And as their armies closed with each other [for battle], so
peace was declared between them upon these conditions, that Ethelfrith should be lord [of all
lands] beyond the Humber, and Kadvan [should rule] this side of the Humber. And they bound
themselves with hostages to this pact.
And then a quarrel arose between Ethelfrith and his wife over a mistress that he had, and
Ethelfrith expelled his wife from the kingdom even though she was with child. And she came to
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