BATTLE 12
BATTLE No 12
at Mount Badon.
Throughout this study into the 'Twelve Battles' fought by Arthur, as listed in Latin by Nennius, the eleven we have already examined seem pretty secure in the concluded locations, dates, adversaries, and the reasons for those individual confrontations.
Battle No 12 is altogether in a different league as there are many of the 'Good and the Great' who attempt to negate Nennius's claim that it was a battle fought by Arthur, instead their preference is that it was a battle fought by Ambrosius, Arthur's predecessor. To counter that concept this writer has concluded that the sequence of the battles was as declared by Nennius, and as already accredited on this Web Page.
In that sequence Battle No 12 would have been fought long after Ambrosius had died/was killed in AD 497. There are more complex justifications for appreciating that the sequence attributed by Nennius was correct, but they will be dealt with in the book that will ultimately follow.
Here we shall take for granted that Battle No 12 on Nennius' list was indeed the twelfth battle fought by Arthur. Contrary to each and every account /interpretation of Arthur's Battles the conclusions arrived at in the already detailed part of this study shows clearly that those earlier eleven battles were each in a very specific general region not widespread across the whole of the Mainland as is the normal understanding of our writers.
It would be surprising therefore if Battle No 12 was on some distant mountain.
Apart from the usual claims for those eleven battles as having been fought across the Mainland in areas where Arthur had no business to be, there is for Battle No 12 at the stated Mons Badonis an alternative in original records.
Mons Badonis share the stage with the alternative presented to us in the name of 'Mynydd Ffaddon'. That occurs in the story 'Dream of Rhonabwy'. The story relates to a region in which Arthur did fight four battles that were not on Nennius' list. Nennius did not record those four battles because he was only concerned, at his time of his writing, with the history of the Britons. Those 'Britons'/ Brythons were the people living west of the Welsh Border.
That dream story confuses the activities of Arthur with other later heroes. Around the date of that battle at Mynydd Ffaddon, some 100 years after Arthur, there was a completely different series of battles being fought between the Britons of the west against the Angles and their allies in the east.
Those later battles were east of that which has been concluded by the experts to have been an imaginary border between Wales and that which by Nennius's day had become Angeln/Anglia the Angleland. That Angeln eventually became the first footings of 'England', England was born in the region around Ludlow – Wroxeter region. Because orthodox history has totally confused the locations of those battles fought in that border region, the whole subject becomes the remit for the rest of this study that will be covered in the book that will follow.
Knowing the fuller details of the Battle at Mynydd Ffaddon allows us to concentrate on 'Mons Badonis' that Gildas in 'AD 450 plus' first informed us was the site of the battle.
In none of the pontifications about the site of the 'Battle of Badon' by earlier writers only the authors of 'Journey to Avalon' recorded the fact that Gildas lived at one time in Llanilltyd Fawr and later at Llancarfan each very close to Mynydd Baedon, a hill at the rear of today's Margam Park, in Kenfig. Mynydd = Mount, Baedon = The Bay of Waves.
Communications being what they were in that period, when Gildas was describing this one and only battle, of the twelve of Arthur, it was probably the only battle of which Gildas had personal knowledge, or interest, and it was on his doorstep. To Gildas writing in Latin Mynydd Baedon translated easily to Mons Badonis. To Nennius , 200 years later, his Latin of the period converted it to Mons Badonicus.
The adversaries for the battle against Arthur were Ossa and Cerdic who surfaced from their Angle stronghold at Dinas Powys. A geographic reason for that attack was that Cynfig /Kenfig the town adjacent to today's Margam Park was then on the coast and was one of the most important ports along the Severn Estuary.
In the mediaeval period the port became sanded-up and today it is difficult to realise that it was once a port. There is every likelihood that the sanding up took place in AD 1606/7 when the Tsunami/Tidal Surge removed sand-dunes from the coast of Gwrhir and deposited them up river, others claim that the sand that now covers the Norman Castle on that site was wind blown. As a port the town would have been an important conquest for Ossa and Cerdic enabling them to control all sea approaches along the north bank of the Severn Estuary.
There was however another reason why they aspired to conquer that particular town as it lay exactly on the eastern border of Gwrhir with the western border of Glywysing. Gwrhir was theoretically the inheritance of Cerdic's wife Henwen/Hewena. Cerdic had failed two retake Gwrhir in Battle No 1 when he attacked on the south coast of Gwrhir, and in Battle No 7 on the western border of Gwrhir, so this latest attempt just shows Cerdic's determination in his attempts to regain that inheritance even though in the AD 519 of the battle he was about 75 years old and too old to be on the battlefield.
That, in part, was a possible cause of him losing his life at the hands of Cadwy in revenge for Cerdic killing his father, Gereint, in AD 508.
Traditionalists will find that difficult to accept as the Saxon records accredit Cerdic with being the first King of Wessex as of AD 495. The Saxon records cannot stand up to scrutiny.
The conclusions are therefore: -
The date was AD 519.
The site was Mynydd Baedon above Kenfig, Nr Bridgend.
The adversaries were Ossa and Cerdic against Arthur. Cerdic was killed and Ossa retreated to Keynt (West Gloucestershire)
The reason for the battle was an attempt by Cerdic to regain his wife's inheritance, and for Ossa to secure the southern coast of Wales for the Angles.
By way of confirmation Gildas, the first person to inform us of the Battle of Badon, declared that the battle was near the mouth of the Severn Estuary. The mouth runs as an imaginary line from Porthcawl Point, just outside the holiday resort of Porthcawl, to Bull Point near Ilfracombe. How one determines how near 'near' was in AD 519 is a personal judgement.
Porthcawl Point is about three miles from Kenfig, 'Rest Bay' the most likely point of arrival of the Angles, is about half of that.
Understanding that Battles Nos 1, 7, 9, and 10 were linked to Battle No 12 will show how the progression of events made sense in terms of the individual battle locations.
I rest my case! Unfortunately if my conclusions were to be generally accepted they will be seen not to be able to fit into the rest of Dark Age History., so either I am wrong in my conclusions or that there is something seriously wrong with our perception of the exact events of the later post- Arthurian period. Fitting the sites of these battles, the adversaries, the dates, and the reasons for the aggression, into the overall history of the Dark Age is the thrust of the book 'Arthur: A Dark Age Revisited' that hopefully will be completed shortly.
at Mount Badon.
Throughout this study into the 'Twelve Battles' fought by Arthur, as listed in Latin by Nennius, the eleven we have already examined seem pretty secure in the concluded locations, dates, adversaries, and the reasons for those individual confrontations.
Battle No 12 is altogether in a different league as there are many of the 'Good and the Great' who attempt to negate Nennius's claim that it was a battle fought by Arthur, instead their preference is that it was a battle fought by Ambrosius, Arthur's predecessor. To counter that concept this writer has concluded that the sequence of the battles was as declared by Nennius, and as already accredited on this Web Page.
In that sequence Battle No 12 would have been fought long after Ambrosius had died/was killed in AD 497. There are more complex justifications for appreciating that the sequence attributed by Nennius was correct, but they will be dealt with in the book that will ultimately follow.
Here we shall take for granted that Battle No 12 on Nennius' list was indeed the twelfth battle fought by Arthur. Contrary to each and every account /interpretation of Arthur's Battles the conclusions arrived at in the already detailed part of this study shows clearly that those earlier eleven battles were each in a very specific general region not widespread across the whole of the Mainland as is the normal understanding of our writers.
It would be surprising therefore if Battle No 12 was on some distant mountain.
Apart from the usual claims for those eleven battles as having been fought across the Mainland in areas where Arthur had no business to be, there is for Battle No 12 at the stated Mons Badonis an alternative in original records.
Mons Badonis share the stage with the alternative presented to us in the name of 'Mynydd Ffaddon'. That occurs in the story 'Dream of Rhonabwy'. The story relates to a region in which Arthur did fight four battles that were not on Nennius' list. Nennius did not record those four battles because he was only concerned, at his time of his writing, with the history of the Britons. Those 'Britons'/ Brythons were the people living west of the Welsh Border.
That dream story confuses the activities of Arthur with other later heroes. Around the date of that battle at Mynydd Ffaddon, some 100 years after Arthur, there was a completely different series of battles being fought between the Britons of the west against the Angles and their allies in the east.
Those later battles were east of that which has been concluded by the experts to have been an imaginary border between Wales and that which by Nennius's day had become Angeln/Anglia the Angleland. That Angeln eventually became the first footings of 'England', England was born in the region around Ludlow – Wroxeter region. Because orthodox history has totally confused the locations of those battles fought in that border region, the whole subject becomes the remit for the rest of this study that will be covered in the book that will follow.
Knowing the fuller details of the Battle at Mynydd Ffaddon allows us to concentrate on 'Mons Badonis' that Gildas in 'AD 450 plus' first informed us was the site of the battle.
In none of the pontifications about the site of the 'Battle of Badon' by earlier writers only the authors of 'Journey to Avalon' recorded the fact that Gildas lived at one time in Llanilltyd Fawr and later at Llancarfan each very close to Mynydd Baedon, a hill at the rear of today's Margam Park, in Kenfig. Mynydd = Mount, Baedon = The Bay of Waves.
Communications being what they were in that period, when Gildas was describing this one and only battle, of the twelve of Arthur, it was probably the only battle of which Gildas had personal knowledge, or interest, and it was on his doorstep. To Gildas writing in Latin Mynydd Baedon translated easily to Mons Badonis. To Nennius , 200 years later, his Latin of the period converted it to Mons Badonicus.
The adversaries for the battle against Arthur were Ossa and Cerdic who surfaced from their Angle stronghold at Dinas Powys. A geographic reason for that attack was that Cynfig /Kenfig the town adjacent to today's Margam Park was then on the coast and was one of the most important ports along the Severn Estuary.
In the mediaeval period the port became sanded-up and today it is difficult to realise that it was once a port. There is every likelihood that the sanding up took place in AD 1606/7 when the Tsunami/Tidal Surge removed sand-dunes from the coast of Gwrhir and deposited them up river, others claim that the sand that now covers the Norman Castle on that site was wind blown. As a port the town would have been an important conquest for Ossa and Cerdic enabling them to control all sea approaches along the north bank of the Severn Estuary.
There was however another reason why they aspired to conquer that particular town as it lay exactly on the eastern border of Gwrhir with the western border of Glywysing. Gwrhir was theoretically the inheritance of Cerdic's wife Henwen/Hewena. Cerdic had failed two retake Gwrhir in Battle No 1 when he attacked on the south coast of Gwrhir, and in Battle No 7 on the western border of Gwrhir, so this latest attempt just shows Cerdic's determination in his attempts to regain that inheritance even though in the AD 519 of the battle he was about 75 years old and too old to be on the battlefield.
That, in part, was a possible cause of him losing his life at the hands of Cadwy in revenge for Cerdic killing his father, Gereint, in AD 508.
Traditionalists will find that difficult to accept as the Saxon records accredit Cerdic with being the first King of Wessex as of AD 495. The Saxon records cannot stand up to scrutiny.
The conclusions are therefore: -
The date was AD 519.
The site was Mynydd Baedon above Kenfig, Nr Bridgend.
The adversaries were Ossa and Cerdic against Arthur. Cerdic was killed and Ossa retreated to Keynt (West Gloucestershire)
The reason for the battle was an attempt by Cerdic to regain his wife's inheritance, and for Ossa to secure the southern coast of Wales for the Angles.
By way of confirmation Gildas, the first person to inform us of the Battle of Badon, declared that the battle was near the mouth of the Severn Estuary. The mouth runs as an imaginary line from Porthcawl Point, just outside the holiday resort of Porthcawl, to Bull Point near Ilfracombe. How one determines how near 'near' was in AD 519 is a personal judgement.
Porthcawl Point is about three miles from Kenfig, 'Rest Bay' the most likely point of arrival of the Angles, is about half of that.
Understanding that Battles Nos 1, 7, 9, and 10 were linked to Battle No 12 will show how the progression of events made sense in terms of the individual battle locations.
I rest my case! Unfortunately if my conclusions were to be generally accepted they will be seen not to be able to fit into the rest of Dark Age History., so either I am wrong in my conclusions or that there is something seriously wrong with our perception of the exact events of the later post- Arthurian period. Fitting the sites of these battles, the adversaries, the dates, and the reasons for the aggression, into the overall history of the Dark Age is the thrust of the book 'Arthur: A Dark Age Revisited' that hopefully will be completed shortly.
