Colonial Preoccupations in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s De gestis Britonum

Abstract

Nearly three quarters of the way through the sweep of legendary history that constitutes Geoffrey of Monmouth’s De gestis Britonum, the narrative grinds almost to a halt. Whereas parts of the history had glossed over dozens of kings and hundreds of years, sometimes in a page or two, the pace of events leading up to the reign of King Arthur had steadily slowed, only to arrive at a near standstill in Geoffrey’s description of Arthur’s Plenary Court. It is a moment of great political importance, the celebration of the king’s victory both over the Saxons who had plagued the realm for a generation and over much of what is now France: like several of his more successful predecessors on the British throne, Arthur returns to Britain a conqueror. The Plenary Court held to stage Arthur’s coronation and to celebrate his glorious new order takes place on Pentecost in the Welsh city of Caerleon: “Located in Glamorgan on the River Usk at a lovely site not far from where the Severn empties into the sea, it had an abundance of riches greater than that of any other city and was thus an excellent place to hold a high feast.”1 No expense is spared, Geoffrey reminds his Anglo-Norman readers, and he treats them to lavish descriptions of the coronation processions, the splendid regalia, the celebratory games, and the feasting for many hundreds of guests – all of which seem calculated to drive home the fact that ancient Britain had attained a cultural pinnacle: “Britain had at that point acquired such a state of dignity that it surpassed all other kingdoms in its courtliness, in the extravagance of its fineries, and in the polished manners of its citizens.”2 In their enjoyment of the trappings of a cultural modernity characterized by courtly behavior and fine clothing (and later by Europe’s first literary description of a tournament), the ancient Britons under King Arthur revel in a Caerleon that stands as the metropole of expansive