Book One

Summary

For ‘all worthy people who wish to undertake its reading’, the author promises to ‘write down in the language of France’ the previously ‘hidden history of a noble king who once reigned in Britain’. Why it was so long hidden, and how it was carried across the sea from Britain, ‘you’ll know when I begin my promised history. But first I wish to record which people originally colonised the island, and then pass from ruler to ruler until I come to that noble king whose story I mean to tell.’

Chapter I

The Trojan Kings of Britain

‘Four hundred and thirty years before the beginning of the illustrious city of Rome, founded in Italy by Romulus and Remus 752 years before the incarnation of Christ,’ the beautiful Helen was abducted by Paris and taken to Troy. The Greeks, led by Agamemnon, took a fleet of 1,134 ships to Troy and besieged the city for 10 years, 7 months and 12 days, suffering losses of 886,000 men; the Trojans for their part lost 677,000 before the city was captured by treachery, whereupon a further 273,000 died. Aeneas escaped the carnage and destruction with some 3,400 others and made his way to Italy, where he was well received by King Latinus.

In time Aeneas’s great-grandson was conceived; it was foretold that he would kill his father and mother, but after wandering through many lands he would finally achieve ‘the highest pinnacle of honour’. Sure enough, his mother died in giving birth to him, and then, at the age of fifteen, he accidentally killed his father with an ill-aimed arrow while hunting. The boy, Brutus, was sent into exile.

He travelled first to Greece, where he found the descendants of Helenus, son of the Trojan king Priam, living in slavery under the rule of Pandrasus, king of the Greeks. Brutus, now grown into a wise and mighty warrior, led the Trojans in victorious revolt, capturing King Pandrasus and securing from him the hand of his daughter Innogen along with ships and supplies to enable the survivors of Troy to escape their servitude in Greece.

They landed first at the island of Loegetiam, deserted after being laid waste by pirates. In an abandoned city they found a temple of Diana, where a statue of the goddess gave answers to any questions asked of it.