King Arthur's family

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.

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

Medieval Welsh tradition

 

Uther Pendragon by W. H. Margetson (1914)

In Welsh Arthurian pre-Galfridian tradition, meaning 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 son of Gwyar is named as his nephew in Culhwch and Olwen, son of his sister and cousin (it does not specify if Gwyar is his father or Arthur's otherwise unknown sister), the Vita Iltuti and the Brut Dingestow combine to suggest that Arthur's own mother was named Eigyr.^[2] Culhwch and Olwen also gives Arthur's half-brother as Gormant, son of Arthur's mother and Ricca, the chief elder of Cornwall, a parallel of later stories of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.^[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 Uthyr (Uther), his mother Eigyr (Igerna), and his sister-son Gwalchmei (Gawain). The place of Gwalchmei's mother Gwyar's was taken by Anna, the wife of Loth, in Geoffrey's account, whilst Modredus (Mordred) was made into her second son (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 known by several names including Morgause, daughter of Gorlois and Igerna (Igraine) and mother of Gawain and Mordred, replacing Anna in the romances. They may be joined by a third half-sister, today best known as Elaine. Drawing on earlier sources, Richard Carew mentions another sister from Igraine and Uther, named Amy.^[15] The overall number of Arthur's sisters or half-sisters varies between the different romances, ranging from as few as one or two to as many as five (in which case one of them may die early).^[16] Their names and roles also vary, as do their husbands (most commonly including the British kings Lot, Urien and Nentres, the last one of them being largely interchangeable with the other two).^[a]

Through the sisters, Arthur is given further nephews (Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris and Gareth by Morgause; Galeschin by Elaine; and Yvain by either Morgan or the fourth sister), who all become Knights of the Round Table. The Brut Tysilio makes Gorlois also the father of Cador, who is thus Arthur's half-brother through Igraine; Cador's son Constantine succeeded Arthur as king of Britain in the Historia Regum Britanniae. Various works mention or feature Arthur's 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 Geoffrey'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, featuring as secret foster-father of the young Arthur in much of the romance tradition, thus also making Ector's son Kay Arthur's foster brother.

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,^[18] Guinevere's failure to produce a legitimate heir contributes to the fall of Arthur.

In the early Welsh tradition, Mordred (Medraut) was merely a nephew of Arthur, who had three different sons; however, their stories are largely lost. 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.^[19]

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.^[20]: 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.^{[21][20]: 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]^[22]

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?.^[23] 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.^[24] Taken together, it is generally agreed that all these references indicate that Llacheu was a figure of considerable importance in the early Arthurian cycle.^[25] 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."^[26] The romance character based on him, Lohot, also dies young.

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 was not Arthur's son.^[27] 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.^[28] 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.^[29] The Post-Vulgate version also features another of Arthur's illegitimate sons, Arthur the Less, who survives for as long as Mordred but remains fiercely loyal to Arthur.

Other literature has expanded Arthur's immediate family further. His daughter named Archfedd is found in only one Welsh source, the 13th-century Bonedd y Saint.^[30] A 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 named Aristes. The eponymous Samson the Fair from another Norse work, Samsons saga fagra, is Arthur's son as well. Rauf de Boun's 1309 Petit Brut lists Arthur's son Adeluf III as a king of Britain, also mentioning Arthur's other children Morgan le Noir (Morgan the Black) and Patrike le Rous (Patrick the Red) by an unnamed Fairy Queen.^[31] Later on, a number of early modern works have occasionally given Arthur more of different sons and daughters.^[b]

Bloodline claims

Supposed direct lineage from King Arthur has been professed by some English monarchs, especially the ones of Welsh descent, among them the 15th-century King Henry VII (through Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon^[32]), who even named his first-born son after Arthur, and the 16th-century Queen Elizabeth I.^[33] In the Scottish Highlands, the descent from King Arthur remains included in rival genealogies of both Clan Arthur (MacArthur) and Clan Campbell,^[34] whose traditions involve Arthur's son variably known as Merbis, Merevie, Smerbe, Smerevie or Smereviemore (according to the Campbells, from his second marriage to a French princess named Elizabeth^[35]).^[36] In Iberia, medieval and early modern genealogies attributed Queen Baddo, wife of the 6th-century Visigothic King Reccared I, as a daughter of British King Arthur.^[37]

Notes

1. In the Vulgate Merlin, for instance, Arthur's mother Ygraine "had five daughters, three by her husband the duke and two by her first husband, one of whom King Lot took as his wife, King Neutres [i.e. Nentres] another, King Urien the third, and Caradoc, who was father of King Aguisant of Scotland, the fourth, who had died, while the fifth was in school in Logres."^[17]
2. 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. Another example is the eponymous protagonist of Henry Fielding's 18th-century play Tom Thumb. In Walter Scott's 18th-century poem The Bridal of Triermain, Gyneth, Arthur's daughter from his romance with a half-djinn queen Guendolen, is punished by Merlin for her vanity by being put to magic slumber for several centuries until she is found and awakened with a kiss. A Scottish fairy tale included in the 19th-century compilation Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Vol. III) features Arthur's illegitimate son Moroie Mor who is raised by his mother in obscurity in a forest before becoming a great knight.

References

1. T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.145–51; P. Sims-Williams, "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 at pp.53-4.
2. R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5.
3. Parker, Will (2016). "Culhwch and Olwen Translation". Culhwch ac Olwen. Footnote 133. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
4. See T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.151–5; R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.76–7, 107-08 -- the latter note that the sons of Iaen appear to have been kinsmen of Arthur on their father's side, not Arthur's father's side, i.e. they were Arthur's in-laws via their sister.
5. Historia Brittonum, 73 and also the romance Geraint and Enid, which mentions an "Amhar son of Arthur".
6. R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), lines 1116-7.
7. R. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), pp.416–8.
8. J. Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: a Study and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge, 1990), pp.250–1.
9. R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5
10. These maternal uncles are named at lines 251-2, 288-90: R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992).
11. B. F. Roberts, "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 at pp.112–3.
12. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 8.1.
13. Arthurian Romances trans. W. Kibler and C. W. Carroll (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1991)
14. Lancelot of the Lake. Oxford University Press. 2000. p. 428. ISBN 9780192837936.
15. Carew, Richard (1769) [1602]. The Survey of Cornwall and an Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the English Tongue. E. Law and J. Hewett. p. 78.
16. "Bibliographical bulletin of the International Arthurian Society". 15 March 1954. Retrieved 15 March 2023 – via Google Books.
17. Lacy, Norris J. (22 January 2024). Lancelot-Grail: The story of Merlin. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-234-7.
18. Cherewatuk, Karen (2006). Marriage, Adultery and Inheritance in Malory's Morte Darthur. Vol. 67. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781843840893. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt81j5x.
19. Historia Brittonum, 73.
20. Jones, T.; Jones, G. (1949). Mabinogion. London, UK: Dent.
21. Bromwich, R.; Evans, D. Simon (1992). Culhwch and Olwen. An edition and study of the oldest Arthurian tale. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press. lines 1116–1117 and note "on Gwydre".
22. Rowland, J. (1990). Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A study and edition of the Englynion. Cambridge. pp. 250–251.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
23. R. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), no. 4; P. Sims-Williams, "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 at p.43.
24. O. J. Padel, Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), pp.55–6, 99; P. Sims-Williams, "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 at p.4.4.
25. T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.168-9.
26. J.B. Coe and S. Young, The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend (Llanerch, 1995), p.125.
27. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 11.2-4.
28. Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation trans. N. J. Lacy (New York: Garland, 1992-1996).
29. See A. Varin, "Mordred, King Arthur's Son" in Folklore 90 (1979), pp.167–77 on Mordred's birth, its origins and Arthur's reaction to his dream.
30. Sullivan, Tony (14 July 2022). The Battles of King Arthur - Tony Sullivan - Google Books. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 9781399015318. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
31. Arthur's Children in Le Petit Bruit and the Post-Vulgate Cycle by Ad Putter, University of Bristol.
32. "The Tudor Connection to King Arthur • Sean Poage". 10 December 2018.
33. "Queen Elizabeth I". CHILDREN OF ARTHUR.
34. "Clans touch swords in battle to crown Arthur as their own". www.scotsman.com.
35. "Highland papers". 14 April 2024.
36. Ashley, Mike (1 September 2011). The Mammoth Book of King Arthur. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 9781780333557. Retrieved 15 March 2023 – via Google Books.
37. Sirantoine, Hélène (January 2021). "Baddo, "Daughter of Arthur, King of England": Some Medieval Evidence of the Arthurian Filiation Attributed to a Sixth-Century Visigothic Queen". Viator. 52 (1): 137–170. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.130885. S2CID 249835361.

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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