CHAPTER VII - THE CYMRY AND THE SAXONS, A.D. 500—566

Summary

Never, for lucre or laurels,

Or custom, though such should be rife,

Adapting the smaller morals

To measure the larger life.

Mrs. Barrett Browning: No. III. in Italy, XVIII.

§ 1. On the death of Aurelius Ambrosius, King Arthur was elected Pendragon. No historic proof exists that he was crowned at Caerleon, by Archbishop Dyfrig, or that he held his court there; but the assertion accords with known facts, and the inference is natural that the Pendragon would rejoice in an opportunity of exhibiting his monarchical state, and exercising his supreme authority in a place which had been so long and so completely withdrawn from his own royal heritage.

In the year 501, Port and his sons, conducting Saxon re-inforcements, arrived on the coast of the Regni, and entered the harbour now called Portsmouth. Their landing was fiercely opposed by British forces commanded by King Arthur. Llywarch Hên, an eyewitness, has recorded in an elegy, still extant, the valour of the princely Geraint ab Erbyn of Dyfnant (Devon), who fell at Llongborth (Portsmouth) amid fearful slaughter. The result of the conflict is not clearly told either by the Cymric Bard or the Saxon chroniclers, but certainly the aggressors succeeded in landing.

In 508, Cerdic and his son Cynric, leading forth their army, were encountered by British forces, of which they slew Natan-leod the king and 5000 men.

In 514, Stref and Whitgar, the nephews of Cynric, accompanied by fresh Saxon tribes, arrived at the same point at which their uncle had landed nineteen years before.