Brutus of Troy
Categories: British traditional history | English folklore | City founders
Brutus of Troy (Welsh: Bryttys) was the legendary first king of the Britons and a great grandson of Aeneas, according to the Historia Regum Britanniae written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century. He is speculated to have lived approximatedly 1100 BCE and reigned for 23 years in Britain.
Monmouth's Legend
Brutus was exiled from Italy for the accidental killing of his natural father Silvius. In exile, he liberated a group of Trojans living in slavery in Greece. He apparently received a vision during this wandering, foretelling of a kingdom inhabited by giants that Brutus would conquer. He led his people westward and, after numerous battles in the region of the Gallic city of Tours, he settled on the island of Albion.
With the aid of Corineus, the Trojans slew the giants living in that island and Brutus renamed the land Britain, founding a new kingdom therein. He is said to have founded the city Troia Nova, much later named London. He created a code of laws for his people before his death. By his wife, Ignoge, he had three sons-Locrinus, Kamber, and Albanactus-whom on Brutus's death divided the island between them.
Geoffrey fixes the time of his death with the statement that Eli was priest in Judea and the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines, the sons of Hector reigned in Troy, and Aeneas Silvius was ruling Alba Longa in Italy.
Speculation and Facts
Despite Monmouth's claim that Britain is named after Brutus, this personage has no basis thus far in history. He is generally considered a medieval fiction created to provide a distinguished genealogy for one or more Welsh royal families which survived the Norman Conquest.
The claim that London was first named "Troia Nova" may derive from the fact that the Celtic tribe that dwelt in the area of London was called the Trinovantes, and one early name of the city named it after them. Use of the Welsh Chronicles as well as such speculative authors as Nennius and Gildas creates many problems, especially with the genealogy of Brutus. Nennius places him in a Trojan Genealogy which was most likely fabricated to relate the ancestors of the Trojans to the Christian God. The contradictions this presents with the classical Trojan genealogies, relating the Trojan royal family to Greek gods, is only too apparent.
Brutus Now
Brutus became part of the Matter of Britain, a pseudo-historical account of the events of that island that was widely accepted as historical fact until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when reliable historical records and inscriptions were available. Brutus has been studied by scholars for generations and they gradually disproved much of it although it is still occasionally cited in popular or ceremonial accounts in contemporary England.
| Preceded by: {{{before}}}}|before=Trojans}} | {{{title}}} {{{years}}}}|title=Mythical British Kings|years=}} | Succeeded by: {{{after}}} |