Brutus of Troy
Brutus (
Welsh:
Bryttys), a descendant of the
Trojan hero
Aeneas, was known in medieval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of
Britain. This legend first appears in the
Historia Britonum, a 9th century historical compilation attribued to
Nennius, but is best known from the account given by the 12th century chronicler
Geoffrey of Monmouth in his
Historia Regum Britanniae. However, he is not mentioned in any classical text and cannot be considered to be historical.
The
Historia Britonum states that "The island of Britain derives its name from Brutus, a Roman consul" who conquered both
Spain and Britain. A more detailed story, set before the foundation of Rome, follows, in which Brutus is the grandson or great grandson of Aeneas. Following Roman sources such as
Livy and
Vergil, the
Historia tells how Aeneas settled in Italy after the
Trojan War, and how his son
Ascanius founded
Alba Longa, one of the precursors of Rome. Ascanius married, and his wife became pregnant (in a variant version, the father is Ascanius's son
Silvius). A magician, asked to predict the child's future, said it would be a boy and that he would be the bravest and most beloved in Italy, and was put to death by Ascanius. The mother died in childbirth. The boy, named Brutus, later accidentally killed his father with an arrow and was banished from Italy. After wandering among the island of the
Tyrrhenian Sea and through
Gaul, where he founded the city of
Tours, Brutus eventually came to Britain, named it after himself, and filled it with his descendants. His reign is synchronised to the time the High Priest
Eli was
judge in
Israel, and the
Ark of the Covenant was taken by the
Philistines.
[Historia Britonum 7, 10-11]A variant version of the
Historia Britonum makes Brutus the son of Ascanius's son
Silvius, and traces his
genealogy back to
Ham, son of
Noah.
[Morris 1980, p. 19.] Another chapter traces Brutus's
genealogy differently, making him the great-grandson of the legandary Roman king
Numa Pompilius, who was himself a son of Ascanius, and tracing his descent from Noah's son
Japheth.
[Historia Britonum 18] These Christianising traditions conflict with the classical Trojan genealogies, relating the Trojan royal family to
Greek gods.
Yet another Brutus, son of Hisicion, son of Alanus the first European, also traced back across many generations to Japheth, is referred to in the
Historia Britonum. This Brutus's brothers were Francus, Alamanus and Romanus, also ancestors of significant European nations.
[Historia Britonum 17-18]Geoffrey of Monmouth's account tells much the same story, but in greater detail.
[Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae 1.3-18, 2.1] The magician who predicts great things for the unborn Brutus also foretells he will kill both his parents. He does so, in the same manner described in the
Historia Britonum, and is banished. Travelling to Greece, he discovers a group of Trojans enslaved there. He becomes their leader, and after a series of battles and some judicious hostage-taking, forces the Greek king Pandrasus to let his people go. He is given Pandrasus's daughter Ignoge in marriage, and ships and provisions for the voyage, and sets sail.
The Trojans land on a deserted island and discover an abandoned temple to
Diana. After performing the appropriate ritual, Brutus falls asleep in front of the goddess's statue and is given a vision of the land where he is destined to settle, an island in the western ocean inhabited only by a few giants.
After some adventures in north Africa and a close encounter with the
Sirens, Brutus discovers another group of exiled Trojans living on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, lead by the prodigious warrior
Corineus. In
Gaul, Corineus provokes a war with Goffarius Pictus, king of
Aquitaine, after hunting in the kings forests without permission. Brutus's nephew Turonus dies in the fighting, and the city of
Tours is founded where he is buried. The Trojans win most of their battles but are conscious that the Gauls have the advantage of numbers, so go back to their ships and sail for Britain, then called
Albion.
Brutus renames the island after himself and becomes its first king. Corineus becomes ruler of
Cornwall, which is named after him.
[It is interesting that Cornwall is given a distinct identity predating England, Scotland or Wales. Cornishmen and women continued to regard themselves as descendents of Corineus until well into the early modern period.] They are harrassed by the giants, but kill all of them but their leader,
Gogmagog, who is saved for a wrestling match against Corineus. Corineus throws him over a cliff to his death. Brutus then founds a city on the banks of the
River Thames, which he calls Troia Nova, or New Troy. The name is in time corrupted to
Trinovantum, and is later called
London.
[The name Trinovantum, supposedly derived from Troia Nova, is derived from the Trinovantes, a people of Iron Age Britain.] He creates laws for his people and rules for twenty-four years. After his death the island is divided bewteen his three sons,
Locrinus (
England),
Albanactus (
Scotland) and
Kamber (
Wales).
Brutus became part of the
Matter of Britain, a pseudo-historical account of the events of that island that was widely accepted as historical fact until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when reliable historical records and inscriptions became available. Brutus has been studied by scholars for generations and they gradually disproved much of it although it is still occasionally cited in popular or ceremonial accounts in contemporary
England.
*Translation of
Historia Brittonum from J.A. Giles,
Six Old English Chronicles, London: Henry G. Bohn 1848.
Full text from Fordham University.
*John Morris (ed),
Nennius: Arthurian Period Sources Vol 8, Phillimore, 1980
*Geoffrey of Monmouth,
The History of the Kings of Britain, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin, 1966
The British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Aaron Thompson, revised and corrected by J. A. Giles, 1842
