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King Uther
Uther Pendragon ( ; the Brittonic name; , or ), also known as King Uther (or Uter), was a legendary King of the Britons and father of King Arthur. A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down in the 12th century by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (''History of the Kings of Britain''), and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in most later versions. He is a fairly ambiguous individual throughout the literature, but is described as a strong king and a defender of his people. According to Arthurian legend, Merlin magically disguises Uther to look like his enemy Gorlois, enabling Uther to sleep with Gorlois' wife Lady Igraine. Thus Arthur, "the once and future king", is an illegitimate child (though later legend, as found in Malory, emphasises that the conception occurred after Gorlois's death and that he was legitimated by Uther's subsequent marriage to Igraine). This act of conception o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matter Of Britain
The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the list of legendary kings of Britain, legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth's (''History of the Kings of Britain)'' is a central component of the Matter of Britain. It was one of the three great Western Literary cycle, story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne and his Paladin, companions, as well as the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology and classical antiquity, classical history. Its pseudo-chronicle and chivalric romance works, written both in prose and verse, flourished from the 12th to the 16th century. Name The three "matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic ' ("Song ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Regum Britanniae
(''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a fictitious account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the List of legendary kings of Britain, kings of the Britons over the course of two thousand years, beginning with the Troy, Trojans founding the Britons (historical), British nation and continuing until the Anglo-Saxons assumed control of much of Britain around the 7th century. It is one of the central pieces of the Matter of Britain. Although taken as historical truth until the 16th century, it is now considered to have no value as history. When events described, such as Julius Caesar's Caesar's invasions of Britain, invasions of Britain, can be corroborated from contemporary histories, Geoffrey's account can be seen to be wildly inaccurate. It remains, however, a valuable piece of medieval literature, which contains the earliest known version of the story of Leir o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the University of Valencia states the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly coincided with the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages. Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English literary variety broke down and writing in English became fragmented and localized and was, for the most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470), and aided by the movabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Cavalry
Roman cavalry (Latin: ''equites Romani'') refers to the horse-mounted forces of the Roman army throughout the regal, republican, and imperial eras. In the regal era, the Roman cavalry was a group of 300 soldiers called ''celeres'', tasked with guarding the Kings of Rome. Later their numbers were doubled to 600, then possibly 1,800. All of the cavalrymen were patricians. In the republican era, the general name for the cavalry was equites and these united consisted of the equestrian class and the first class, with a group of 300 cavalrymen in every legion. They were divided into 10 groups of 30 men. Each group elected three leaders known as '' decuriones''. Later the Roman cavalry stopped using Roman citizens as cavalrymen and relied on Auxilia and foreign recruits. Roman cavalrymen wore a Corinthian helmet, bronze chestplate, and bronze greaves. Later mail was adopted into the army. Their arms included a lance ('' lancea''), a long sword ('' spatha''), and a short throwi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draco (military Standard)
The ("dragon" or "serpent", plural ) was a military standard of the Roman cavalry. Carried by the , the was the standard of the cohort, as the eagle () was that of the legion. The may have been introduced to the Roman army after the Dacian Wars by Dacian (see Dacian ''draco'') and Sarmatian units in the second century. According to Vegetius, in the fourth century a was carried by each legionary cohort. Literary descriptions The Greek military writer Arrian describes the in his passage on cavalry training exercises, calling it "Scythian": The Scythian banners are ''dracontes'' held aloft on standard-length poles. They are made of colored cloths stitched together, and from the head along the entire body to the tail, they look like snakes. When the horses bearing these devices are not in motion, you see only variegated streamers hanging down. During the charge is when they most resemble creatures: they are inflated by the wind, and even make a sort of hissing soun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert De Boron
Robert de Boron (also spelled in the manuscripts "Roberz", "Borron", "Bouron", "Beron") was a French poet active around the late 12th and early 13th centuries, notable as the reputed author of the poems and ''Merlin''. Although little is known of Robert apart from the poems he allegedly wrote, these works and subsequent prose redactions of them had a strong influence on later incarnations of the Arthurian legend and its prose cycles, in particular through their Christianisation and redefinition of the previously ambiguous Grail motif and the character of Merlin, as well as vastly increasing the prominence of the latter. Life Robert de Boron wrote ''Joseph d'Arimathe'' for a lord named Gautier de Montbéliard and he took on the name Boron from the village of Boron near Montbéliard in today's eastern France (formerly a part of the Holy Roman Empire). What is known of his life comes from brief mentions in his own work. At one point in ''Joseph'', he applies to himself the title of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bromwich
West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwest of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, cultures and Black Country dialect, dialect. West Bromwich had a population of 103,112 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. Initially a rural village, West Bromwich's growth corresponded with that of the Industrial Revolution, owing to the area's natural richness in ironstone and coal, as well as its proximity to canals and Rail transport, railway branches. It led to the town becoming a centre for Coal mining in the United Kingdom, coal mining, Brickworks, brick making, the iron industry and metal trades such as nails, springs and guns. The town's primary economy developed into the engineering, manufacturing and the Automotive i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vexillological Symbol
Vexillological symbols are used by vexillologists to indicate certain characteristics of flags, such as where they are used, who uses them, and what they look like. The symbols were created by vexillologist Whitney Smith and then adopted by the International Federation of Vexillological Associations (FIAV) in the early 1970s. Vexillologist Željko Heimer added the symbols for normal and historical in the early 1990s. Status and design symbols Vexillological symbols describe information on a flag's recognition status and design. Usage symbols The usage symbols are based on a grid of two rows representing use on land and use on water, and three columns representing private use, public use, and military use. Each circle in the grid indicates the flag has one or more of the following six basic usages: A single design may be associated with no usages or multiple usages. Heimer suggested an additional row for air ensigns, but it has not been adopted by FIAV. The air ensign r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Camlann
The Battle of Camlann ( or ''Brwydr Camlan'') is the legendary final battle of King Arthur, in which Arthur either died or was mortally wounded while fighting either alongside or against Mordred, who also perished. The original legend of Camlann, inspired by a purportedly historical event said to have taken place in the early 6th-century Britain, is only vaguely described in several medieval Welsh texts dating from around the 10th century. The battle's much more detailed depictions have emerged since the 12th century, generally based on that of a catastrophic conflict described in the pseudo-chronicle ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. The further greatly embellished variants originate from the later French chivalric romance tradition, in which it became known as the Battle of Salisbury, and include the 15th-century telling in '' Le Morte d'Arthur'' that remains popular today. Etymology The name may derive from a Brittonic ''*Cambo-landa'' ("crooked/twisting-enclosure" or "crook ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mordred
Mordred or Modred ( or ; Welsh: ''Medraut'' or ''Medrawt'') is a major figure in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle ''Annales Cambriae'', wherein he and Arthur are ambiguously associated with the Battle of Camlann in a brief entry for the year 537. Medraut's figure seemed to have been regarded positively in the early Welsh tradition and may have been related to that of King Arthur's family, Arthur's son. As Modredus, Mordred was depicted as Arthur's traitorous nephew and a legitimate son of King Lot in the pseudo-historical work ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', which then served as the basis for the subsequent evolution of the legend from the 12th century. Later variants most often characterised Mordred as Arthur's villainous bastard son, born of an incestuous relationship with Morgause, his half-sister, the queen of Lothian or Orkney named either Anna, Orcades, or Morgause. The accounts presented in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illegitimacy
Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''bastardy'', has been the status of a child born outside marriage, such a child being known as a bastard, a love child, a natural child, or illegitimate. In Scots law, the terms natural son and natural daughter carry the same implications. The importance of legitimacy has decreased substantially in Western countries since the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the declining influence of Christian churches in family and social life. A 2009 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that in 2007 a substantial proportion of births in Western countries occurred outside marriage. Law England's Statute of Merton (1235) stated, regarding illegitimacy: "He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' was published by the famed London printer William Caxton in 1485. Much of Malory's life history is obscure, but he identified himself as a "knight prisoner", apparently reflecting that he was either a criminal, a prisoner-of-war, or suffering some other type of confinement. Malory's identity has never been confirmed. Since modern scholars began researching his identity the most widely accepted candidate has been Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire, who was imprisoned at various times for criminal acts and possibly also for political reasons during the Wars of the Roses. Recent work by Cecelia Lampp Linton, however, presents new evidence in support of Thomas Malory of Hutton Conyers, Yorkshire. Identity Most of what ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
