Porrex I was a legendary king of the
Britons as accounted by
Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the son of
Gorboduc and his death began a dynastic civil war.
In the final years of Gorboduc's life, Porrex waged war with his brother,
Ferrex. He planned to ambush his brother but his brother fled to
Gaul
Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...
to enlist the aide of Suhard, the king of the
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
. When Ferrex returned with a large Gaulish army, Porrex attacked and Ferrex and the army were defeated. Some time after, his mother, Judon, avenged Porrex's murder of Ferrex and hacked him to pieces in his sleep. His death sparked a civil war which would not be resolved until the reign of
Dunvallo Molmutius. His death shifted the dominant
genealogical royal house of
Brutus to another house,
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
.
[Geoffrey of Monmouth (1982): ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', translated with an Introduction by Lewis Thorpe, Guild Publishing London, p. 88]
Later tradition
Porrex was a central character in
Thomas Norton and
Thomas Sackville's play ''
Gorboduc'' (1561).
References
{{Geoffrey of Monmouth
Legendary British kings