ILLTUD THE TERRIBILIS MAGISTER MILITUM AND HIS SON, ARTHUR: AN OUTLINE OF A NEW/OLD THEORY

           Liddington Castle, Badbury

Illtud = terribilis [miles]

Illtud =                magister militum

                           princeps militum

             Uther    Pen           dragon

Sometimes you get lucky and things are simple. But then you make the mistake of complicating them through personal bias.

I wanted a Northern Arthur - for a variety of reasons. Thus when I came to the certain conclusion that Uther was St. Illtud, I immediately employed the Sawyl of the Uther elegy and in the tradition of the saint to move Arthur's father north to Ribchester, home of Sawyl Benisel.

I even chose to ignore the Uther-Mabon relationship.

And I did this despite some truly significant findings made concerning Illtud's father and place of origin. 

For Illtud's father Bican and his homeland of Llydaw was a distorted reference to Bicknor and Lydbrook in what had been the ancient kingdom of Ercing, a region rife with Arthurian associations. Bicknor itself, an English place-name, had earlier been the Church of Constantine and in the Galfridian tradition, a Constantine is the father of Uther.

But it didn't stop there. The Bican of Bicknor and Lydbrook had their perfectly matching counterparts at Bican Dic and Lyd Brook at Badbury in Wiltshire. Liddington Castle is the Badon mentioned in the context of the Second Battle of Badon in the Welsh Annals.

And still I clung to my Northern Arthur!

Until just a short time ago, when I realized the Cefn Digoll ("unbroken or continuous ridge") of the Welsh DREAM OF RHONABWY, where Badon is situated, was a rolocation of the Ridgeway on Wiltshire, which runs right at the foot of Liddington Castle.

The same Ridgeway connects Liddington with nearby Barbury Castle, the Fort of the Bear. The Arth- of the name Arthur was linked by the Welsh with their name for bear, 'arth.'

So two Welsh sources identified Badon as the Liddington Castle of

Illtud!

But wait - there's more!

The Roman period name of the Liddington Badbury, according to Rivet and Smith (in THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN) was...

DUROCORNOVIUM

A name that contained the same British word that yields Cernyw, i.e. Cornwall. Yes - the very Cornwall were Arthur was traditionally placed.

Now, combine all that with the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE's account of a nonvictorius battle by the Gewissei at Barbury near Liddington, followed by a 36 year gap before another unsuccessful incursion into Wiltshire, and we have what appears to be the Arthur story. 

And the only good place for the Battle of Badon in that narrative is right after the failed attempt by the Saxons and their allies to take the Bear's Fort.

Chronological questions abound, of course. I've discussed those in the past and may treat of them again in the near future.

As for the Arthurian battles, I've shown that they are Cymracized versions of the ASC's Gewissei battles. Meaning that Arthur was the chief military leader against those Saxons who would eventually found the Kingdom of Wessex.

Seems that I will definitely be writing a new book on Arthur sometime in the future. Maybe a good project for my retirement?