History of the Kings of Britain 6 - Claudius Comes to Britain

Part six of the series of Narrations taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ deals with King Arviragus, who may well have been the Caractacus spoken of in the Roman histories. Arviragus married the daughter of emperor Claudius and made a treaty of peace with Rome, but soon after he died the Picts started rebelling with the help of a Scythic King called Sodric who had arrived looking to marry British women.

Marius defeated Sodric and after Coilus we get to King Lucius who famously changed the custom of the land from Druidry to Christianity. The stone circles and temples were re-consecrated to Christ and three Arch-Bishoprics were created, with the previous Flamens becoming Bishops. Soon after Lucius died in 156AD the persecutions of Diocletian started and Britain saw it’s first martyrs in Saint Albans, a place still named after one of those martyrs to this day.



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