The lineage and early reign of King Arthur's father Uther

¶ … King Arthur's Birth

King Arthur was the son of Uther and the grandchild of Constantine. Before the birth of Arthur, his grandfather, Constantine, was the king of Logres. Uther had two brothers named Constans, the eldest, and Aurelius Ambrosius. Constans was a monk and wanted to become a priest. However, when Constantine died, Constans was forced to become the next king because of Vortigern's, a councilor in the House of Constantine, will to make him the king. Constans was taken out of the church to become the successor of his father.

The ruling of Constans as the king was not successful because of his weak and naive personality. He relied so much to Vortigern who became his adviser. Unfortunately, Vortigern was untrustworthy. Behind the power that he received as the primary adviser of Constans was an evil desire to seize the kingship of Constans. This desire turned into reality when he killed the Pictish mercenaries to seize Constan's throne.

On the side of Constan's brothers, Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther, they migrated to Amorica because of their foster-parents' fear that the two brothers will be killed by Vortigern. Vortigern ruled Logres and befriended the Saxons who came to his kingdom. He fell in love and married Rowenna, the daughter of Hengist who was one of the leaders of the Saxons.

Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther

Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther did not let the murder of their brother, Constans, just passed by without revenge. When the two came to manhood, they started their revenge to Vortigern.

They burned Vortigern's palace. Along with it was Vortigern who was burned to death.

The death of Vortigern paved the way for Aurelius to become the king. As the king, Aurelius fought the Saxons to drive them away of Logres. Horsa, one of the leaders of the Saxons, was killed in the battle while Hengist was captured and executed. Aurelius also fought with Octa, the son of Hengist, which led to Octa's defeat.

Aurelius' kingship brought about the re-establishment of Logres. He was soon poisoned by Paschent, Vortigern's son. Aurelius was buried in a Stonehenge, a large circle which was built out of Merlin's advice.

Uther, the King

Uther became the next king after his brother Aurelius Ambrosius. His kingdom was called Uther Pendragon because one night, he and Merlin saw a comet that passed by two dragons. Similar to Aurelius, his brother, Uther fought against Paschent. He and his men successfully won the battle against Paschent because of Gorlois' advice. Gorlois was a duke of Cornwall.

Uther's kingdom had a celebration because of their victory in wars. In such celebration, Uther met and fell in love with the woman, Igraine, who was destined to become the mother of King Arthur. However, Igraine was already married to Gorlois. The love and lust that Uther had for Igraine became obvious which led to threatening Gorlois of having war with him. Gorlois then left Uther Pendragon to form his defense.

Tintagel, being the strongest castle of Gorlois, became the hiding place of Gorlois for protecting his wife. However, with Merlin's magic, Uther was able to disguise as Gorlois and enter Tintagel. Everyone was fooled by Uther's disguise including Igraine. One night, Igraine slept with Uther, thinking that he was Gorlois. It was because of this that Arthur was conceived.

During the same night that Uther, under his disguise, slept with Igraine, Gorlois was killed in a battle in another castle. Uther heard the news and under the disguise as Gorlois, he fooled Tintagel that is still alive. The next day, Uther went back to his castle and received the confirmation that Gorlois was already dead. Because of this, Cornwall was commanded to surrender to Uther.

The death of Gorlois led to Uther marrying Igraine. By that time, Igraine was already conceiving Arthur. Igraine and Uther also had a daughter a year after Arthur was born. Their daughter's name was Anna.

Uther's Death

Uther had a battle with Octa, the son of Hengist, again during the time that Arthur was over ten years of age. Octa came to Uther's kingdom for revenge. He was joined by Colgrim who was then the king of the Saxons in Germany. In this battle, Uther was ill. Uther left the responsibility commanding his army to Lot, who unfortunately was not successful in leading Uther's army. Because of this, Uther was forced to fight the war again where Octa was once again defeated.

Uther died because of poisoning when the people of Colgrim put poison in the well where Uther gets his drink. Similar to his brother Aurelius, Uther was buried in the Stonehenge.

The Round Table

According to legends, the round table was an ingenious solution of King Arthur to resolve the jealousy that arises between his vassals and noble members. It was said that every WhitSunTide, King Arthur and his vassals and nobles hold a meeting. In such meetings, everyone desires to seat at the head of the table, or near King Arthur, to gain the feeling of being more important than the others. Because of this, jealousy arises between the members. To solve this problem, King Arthur had a special table built for the meeting. The table was designed to be round and big. In such sense, because the table is round, no one can be said to be first or more important than the others. Also, the seats of the table had their turn to each member of King Arthur's vassal and noblemen.

Other stories say that the Round Table was designed and constructed by Merlin as a wedding gift to King Arthur and Guinevere. All the seats of the Round Table was being occupied by Arthur's vassals and nobles except for one seat. This seat, according to Merlin, will be occupied by the best knight and that knight that Merlin speaks about was Lancelot with whom Queen Guinevere fell in love with and ran away with.

The Death of King Arthur

Upon knowing the relationship that was happening between Lancelot and Guinevere, King Arthur went to Brittany to follow and punish the two. King Arthur let Mordred, the supposed heir of King Arthur because Arthur had no child, to take responsibility of Camelot while was away. Unfortunately, Mordred was a greedy man. He wanted to get the Kingdom soon so he made the people of Camelot believe that King Arthur is already dead. When King Arthur went back to Camelot, he overthrew Mordred. However, Mordred had already started the establishment of his own army. Soon, Mordred and King Arthur had a battle. Mordred was killed by King Arthur but Arthur was also hurt badly. From such battle, Arthur also died because of the injuries that he got.

Other Myth on King Arthur

Following is a summary of a myth on King Arthur, as extracted online from EBK.COM.

King Arthur's Childhood

Uther, the High-King of Britain fell in love with the Lady Igraine, but she was already married to Gorlois, the Duke of Tintagel.

King Uther decided he must marry Igraine. So he took his army and fought with Gorlois. Gorlois was killed.

King Uther married Igraine and they had a son named Arthur. He was born at Tintagel Castle.

This was a very dangerous time and attacks by Saxons happened a lot. So King Uther gave his baby son to his wizard, Merlin, for safety.

Merlin sent Arthur away to be raised in the countryside by Sir Ector. He grew up with his foster brother, Kay. He never knew who his real parents were.

The Sword in the Stone

When King Uther died, no-one knew he had a son. So there was lots of arguing about who should be High-King of Britain.

Suddenly a mysterious stone magically appeared in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Sticking out of it was a huge sword. There was a message on it. It said that whoever pulled the sword from the stone was the rightful High-King of Britain.

Lots of the local kings (or 'tyrants') tried to pull the sword out. It was magically stuck fast though and the arguing carried on.

Years later, Arthur had grown into a fifteen-year-old lad. It was time for his elder foster-brother, Kay, to go to his first tournament (where knights practiced fighting). So the family went to London.

Arthur got into trouble because he had forgotten Kay's sword. So he went off to look for one.

He found the sword in the stone and pulled it out easily.

Arthur gave the sword to Kay. Kay noticed the message and everyone wanted to know who had pulled the sword from the stone.

At first, no-one believed that Arthur had done it. But he repeated what he had done. Everyone was amazed.

Rebellion Against King Arthur

Arthur was crowned King by St. Dubricius.

However, 11 of the local kings would not agree to him being High-King. They did not want to have to do what a fifteen-year-old told them to. They started a rebellion (a war against the proper ruler).

Merlin helped King Arthur to rule Britain. He took him to a magical lake. Merlin's friend, the 'Lady of the Lake' lived there beneath the water. She gave Arthur a magic sword called 'Excalibur'.

Excalibur was kept in a magic scabbard. If you used Excalibur in a fight, you would always defeat your opponent. If you had the scabbard, you would always be protected from being hurt yourself.

Arthur led a big army against the 11 rebel kings. There were many battles, but Arthur had Excalibur, so he won. The kings agreed that Arthur should be High-King.

King Arthur the Successful

Arthur set up his Royal palace at Camelot.

When Arthur was a bit older, he married a princess named Guinevere. She was the daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard. As a wedding present, her father gave them a huge round table.

All the knights in the country wanted to be soldiers for King Arthur. The bravest of them were allowed to sit at the round table. They were known as the 'Knights of the Round Table'. Because it was round, the positions of all the seats were equal. No-one could say they were more important because they sat at the end.

The Saxons were still attacking the British.

Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table fought against the Saxons in many battles. They finally defeated them at the Battle of Mount Badon.

Everyone was happy and felt very safe again.

Arthur thought he was doing a better job than the Roman Emperor in Italy. He decided to take his army to Europe. After a lot of fighting, the Emperor agreed to give the western half of Europe to Arthur.

Back in Britain, the Knights of the Round Table had lots of adventures. Some rescued princesses. Some fought dragons or bad knights. Many of them went to look for a religious cup called the 'Holy Grail'.

King Arthur is Lied to the best and bravest of the Knights of the Round Table was called Sir Lancelot. He came from Brittany (in France) and was King Arthur's friend.

He was also very handsome and Queen Guinevere fell in love with him.

The two would sneak away from the palace to spend time together. King Arthur had no idea what was going on.

King Arthur's nephew was called Mordred. He was an evil man. He found out what Guinevere and Lancelot were doing and he told King Arthur.

Lancelot ran away, but Queen Guinevere was taken to court. The judges decided she should be burnt to death.

Lancelot rescued her and they escaped to Brittany.

Arthur took a big army across the English Channel to Brittany. He wanted to punish Lancelot and Guinevere.

Evil Sir Mordred

King Arthur left Mordred in charge while he was away in Brittany.

As Arthur had no children, Mordred was going to inherit the kingdom when Arthur died; but he could not wait.

Mordred told everyone that King Arthur had been killed fighting in Brittany. People believed him and Mordred made himself High-King of Britain.

Luckily, Arthur heard about what was going on. He returned to Britain with his army.

Mordred had given away lots of money and so some people liked him. They helped him put together his own army and start a rebellion (a war against the proper ruler).

The armies of Arthur and Mordred fought at the Battle of Camlann. Unfortunately, Arthur did not have Excalibur's scabbard with him. It had been stolen by his wicked sister, Morgan Le Fay.

The battle was so bad that only a few people were left alive at the end. Two of these were King Arthur and Mordred.

They fought each other in single combat. Arthur killed Mordred, but was very badly hurt himself.

The Death of King Arthur

Arthur knew he was going to die. He gave Excalibur to Sir Bedivere. He told him to return it to the magical lake.

Bedivere pretended to do what he was told; but he hid Excalibur under a bush instead.

Arthur asked Bedivere what happened when he threw the sword into the lake. Bedivere said that it sank.

Arthur knew he was lying and told him to go and do the job properly.

Bedivere threw the sword into the lake. He saw the hand of the 'Lady of the Lake' come out of the water to catch it.

Three Queens arrived in a boat and took Arthur away to the Isle of Avalon.

It is thought that he died there soon afterwards.