King Arthur's family

Arthur in William Henry Margetson's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1914)

King Arthur's family grew throughout the centuries with King Arthur's legend. Many of the legendary members of this mythical king's family became leading characters of mythical tales in their own right.

Medieval Welsh tradition[]

Uther Pendragon by W. H. Margetson (1914)

In Welsh Arthurian pre-Galfridian tradition, that is, from before the time of Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), Arthur was granted numerous relations and family members. Several early Welsh sources are usually taken as indicative of Uther Pendragon being known as Arthur's father before Geoffrey wrote, with Arthur also being granted a brother (Madog) and a nephew (Eliwlod) in these texts.^[1] Arthur also appears to have been assigned a sister in this material – Gwalchmei is named as his sister-son (nephew) in Culhwch and Olwen, his mother being one Gwyar.^[2] Culhwch and Olwen, the Vita Iltuti and the Brut Dingestow combine to suggest that Arthur's own mother was named Eigyr.^[3]

The genealogies from the 13th-century Mostyn MS. 117 assert that Arthur is the son of Uthyr, the son of Custennin, the son of Cynfawr, the son of Tudwal, the son of Morfawr, the son of Eudaf, the son of Cadwr, the son of Cynan, the son of Caradoc, the son of Bran, the son of Llŷr. Regarding Arthur's own family, his wife is consistently stated to be Gwenhwyfar, usually the daughter of King Ogrfan Gawr (variation: 'Gogrfan Gawr', "[G]Ogrfan the Giant") and sister to Gwenhwyfach, although Culhwch and Bonedd yr Arwyr do indicate that Arthur also had some sort of relationship with Eleirch daughter of Iaen, which produced a son named Kyduan (Cydfan).^[4] Kyduan was not the only child of Arthur according to Welsh Arthurian tradition – he is also ascribed sons called Amr (Amhar),^[5] Gwydre,^[6] Llacheu^[7] and Duran.^[8] (See the Offspring section for further information about Arthur's children.)

In addition to this immediate family, Arthur was said to have had a great variety of more distant relatives, including maternal aunts, uncles, cousins and a grandfather named Anlawd (or Amlawdd) Wledig ("Prince Anlawd"). The latter is the common link between many of these figures and Arthur: thus the relationship of first cousins that is implied or stated between Arthur, Culhwch, Illtud, and Goreu fab Custennin depends upon all of their mothers being daughters of this Anlawd, who appears to be ultimately a genealogical construct designed to allow such inter-relationships between characters to be postulated by medieval Welsh authors.^[9] Arthur's maternal uncles in Culhwch and Olwen, including Llygatrud Emys, Gwrbothu Hen, Gweir Gwrhyt Ennwir and Gweir Baladir Hir, similarly appear to derive from this relationship.^[10]

Other medieval literature[]

Guinevere by W. H. Margetson (1914)

Relatively few members of Arthur's family in the Welsh materials are carried over to the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth and chivalric romancers. His grandfather Anlawd Wledic and his maternal uncles, aunts and cousins do not appear there, and neither do any of his sons or his paternal relatives. Only the core family seem to have made the transition: his wife Gwenhwyfar (who became Guinevere), his father Uther, his mother Eigyr (Igerna) and his sister-son Gwalchmei (Gawain). Gwalchmei's mother – Arthur's sister – failed to make the journey, Gwyar's place being taken by Anna, the wife of Loth, in Geoffrey's account, whilst Modredus (Mordred) is made into a second sister-son for Arthur (a status he did not have as Medraut in the Welsh material).^[11]

Morgan le Fay by W. H. Margetson (1914)

In addition, new family members enter the Arthurian tradition from this point onwards. Uther is given a new family, including two brothers and a father,^[12] while Arthur gains a sister or half-sister, Morgan, first named as his relative by Chrétien de Troyes in Yvain.^[13] A new son of Arthur, named Loholt, is introduced in Chrétien's Erec and Enide.^[14] Another significant new family-member is Arthur's other sister or half-sister initially known as Orcades (Morgause), the daughter of Gorlois and Igerna (Igraine) and mother of Gawain and Mordred in the romances (replacing Anna in this role). A third half-sister, Elaine, is also added at this time. Through the sisters, Arthur is given further nephews (Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth and Gawain by Morgause; Galeschin by Elaine; and Yvain by Morgan), who all become Knights of the Round Table. He and his half-sister Morgause also have a son, Mordred, who would later be the cause of his death. Various works furthermore mention or feature his nieces and occasionally also different nephews.

There are furthermore various other more distant family members, such as the case of the historical Romano-British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus being turned into his uncle (Uther's brother) in Goeffrey's tradition deriving Arthur's lineage from the self-proclaimed Western Roman Emperor Constantine II of Britain, who in this version of the legend is presented as Arthur's grandfather. One important figure of no actual blood relation to Arthur is Ector, who in the stories of Arthur's incognito youth is often secretly his adoptive father following the death of Uther soon after his birth.

Offspring[]

Although Arthur is given sons in both early and late Arthurian tales, he is rarely granted significant further generations of descendants. This is at least partly because of the premature deaths of his sons, who in the later tradition usually (and prominently) include Mordred. In some cases, including in Le Morte d'Arthur,^[15] Guinevere's failure to produce a legitimate heir contributes to the fall of Arthur.

Amr is the first to be mentioned in Arthurian literature, appearing in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum:

"There is another wonder in the region which is called Ercing. A tomb is located there next to a spring which is called Licat Amr; and the name of the man who is buried in the tomb was called thus: Amr. He was the son of Arthur the soldier, and Arthur himself killed and buried him in that very place. And men come to measure the grave and find it sometimes six feet in length, sometimes nine, sometimes twelve, sometimes fifteen. At whatever length you might measure it at one time, a second time you will not find it to have the same length – and I myself have put this to the test."^[16]

Why Arthur chose or was forced to kill his son is never made clear. The only other reference to Amr comes in the post-Galfridian Welsh romance Geraint, where "Amhar son of Arthur" is one of Arthur's four chamberlains along with Bedwyr's son Amhren.^[17]: 231

Gwydre is similarly unlucky, being slaughtered by the giant boar Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch and Olwen, along with two of Arthur's maternal uncles. No other references to either Gwydre or Arthur's uncles survive.^{[18][17]: 132, 134}

Another son, known only from a possibly 15th-century Welsh text, is said to have died on the field of Camlann:

Sanddef [Bryd Angel] drive the crow

off the face of Duran [son of Arthur].

Dearly and belovedly his mother raised him.

Arthur [sang it]^[19]

More is known of Arthur's son Llacheu. He is one of the "Three Well-Endowed Men of the Island of Britain", according to the Triad 4, and he fights alongside Cei in the early Arthurian poem Pa gur yv y porthaur?.^[20] Like his father is in Y Gododdin, Llacheu appears in the 12th-century and later Welsh poetry as a standard of heroic comparison and he also seems to have been similarly a figure of local topographic folklore too.^[21] Taken together, it is generally agreed that all these references indicate that Llacheu was a figure of considerable importance in the early Arthurian cycle.^[22] Nonetheless, Llacheu too dies, with the speaker in the pre-Galfridian poem Ymddiddan Gwayddno Garanhir ac Gwyn fab Nudd remembering that he had "been where Llacheu was slain / the son of Arthur, awful in songs / when ravens croaked over blood."^[23] The romance character based on him, Lohot, also dies young.

Medraut/Mordred is a major exception to this tradition of a childless death for Arthur's sons. Mordred, like Amr, is killed by Arthur – at Camlann – according to Geoffrey of Monmouth and the post-Galfridian tradition but, unlike the others, he is ascribed two sons, both of whom rose against Arthur's successor and cousin Constantine III with the help of the Saxons. However, in Geoffrey's Historia (when the motifs of Arthur's killing of Mordred and Mordred's sons first appear), Mordred had not been yet actually Arthur's son.^[24] His relationship with Arthur was reinterpreted in the Vulgate Cycle, as he was made the result of an unwitting incest between Arthur and his sister.^[25] This tale is preserved in the later romances, with the motif of Arthur knowing by Merlin that Mordred would grow up to kill him; and so by the time of the Post-Vulgate Cycle Arthur has devised a plot, Herod-like, to rid of all children born on the same day as Mordred in order to try to save himself from this fate.^[26] The Post-Vulgate version also features another of Arthur's illegitimate sons, Arthur the Less, who survives as long as Mordred but remains fiercely loyal to Arthur.

Other literature has expanded Arthur's immediate family further. Arthur's daughter named Hilde is mentioned in the 13th-century Icelandic Þiðreks saga (Thidrekssaga), while the Möttuls saga from around the same period features a son of Arthur by the name Aristes. Rauf de Boun's 1309 Petit Brut lists Arthur's son Adeluf III as a king of Britain, also mentioning his other children Morgan the Black and Patrick the Red by an unnamed Fairy Queen.^[27] The 16th-century romance Tom a Lincoln features the eponymous hero, Arthur's son by the Fairy Queen named Caelia. Through Tom, Arthur is further given grandsons, referred to as the Black Knight and the Faerie Knight. Melora (Mhelóra), the heroine of the 16th-century Irish romance The Adventures of Orlando and Melora (Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando), dresses as a man and becomes known as the Knight of the Blue Surcoat in order to save her lover Orlando from Merlin's spell. Later, a number of early modern works have occasionally given Arthur more of different sons and daughters.^[a]

Bloodline claims[]

Supposed direct lineage from King Arthur has been professed by some English Monarchs, especially the ones of Welsh descent. Among them were the 15th-century King Henry VII (through Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon^[28]), who even named his first-born son after Arthur, and the 16th-century Queen Elizabeth I.^[29] In Highland Scotland, the descent from King Arthur remains included in rival genealogies of both Clan Arthur and Clan Campbell.^[30]

Notes[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Bromwich, R. Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978).
• Bromwich, R. and Simon Evans, D. Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992).
• Bryant, N. The High Book of the Grail: A translation of the 13th century romance of Perlesvaus (Brewer, 1996).
• Coe, J. B. and Young, S. The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend (Llanerch, 1995).
• Green, T. "The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur", Arthurian Resources.
• Green, T. "Tom Thumb and Jack the Giant Killer: Two Arthurian Fairytales?" in Folklore 118.2 (August, 2007), pp. 123–40.
• Green, T. Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007) ISBN 978-0-7524-4461-1.
• Higham, N. J. King Arthur, Myth-Making and History (London: Routledge, 2002).
• Jones, T. and Jones, G. The Mabinogion (London: Dent, 1949).
• Lacy, N. J. Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation (New York: Garland, 1992–96), 5 volumes.
• Padel, O. J. Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000) ISBN 978-0-7524-4461-1.
• Roberts, B. F. "Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae and Brut Y Brenhinedd" in R. Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and B.F. Roberts (edd.) The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), pp. 98–116.
• Rowland, J. Early Welsh Saga Poetry: a Study and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge, 1990).
• Sims-Williams, P. "The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems" in R. Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and B.F. Roberts (edd.) The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), pp. 33–71.
• Tichelaar, Tyler R., King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition (Reflections of Camelot) (Modern History Press, 2011).

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