History of the Kings of Britain 11 - Uther Pendragon Becomes King

This is the eleventh reading taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain and it takes us up to the time of King Arthur.

Aurelius Ambrosius is poisoned by a Saxon pretending to be a monk and the sky is lit up by a comet with a long tail. This tail appears to be a dragon and Merlin identifies it as a portent for the rule of Uther who then takes the crown and is surnamed ‘Pendragon’ on account of this star. He defeats the son of Vortigern and the sons of Hengist, but then becomes besotted with the Duke of Cornwall’s wife.

Merlin uses his arcane knowledge of herblore to transform Uther into the likeness of the Duke so that he might get in to Tintagel castle and sleep with her. The child that was conceived that night was Arthur and the following day, the Duke is killed in battle by Uther’s troops. The woman is then free to marry Uther and they have another child together, Anna. Uther then becomes old, frail and unable to walk but still he manages to get the upper hand with the Saxons, even while being carried on a stretcher.



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