Elen of the Hosts



In the Chester Mystery Plays there is a garbled reference to the church of "Saynte Marie" in Rome. It occurs at the end of the The Nativity, in the final passage spoken by the Expositor (see panel right). Of all medieval drama, the Chester cycle is most closely associated with commentators such as the "Expositor" and the significance and function of these has been the subject of much debate.

The actual church can hardly be missed by any visitor to Rome, being sat on top of the Capitoline Hill right next to the Capitoline Museums and behind the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. The reference to this church in the mystery play touches on many myths and legends as well as some actual history. It is unclear just how much of these stories (true or otherwise) would have been known to the audience of the mystery plays, but a detailed look at them serves to illustrate the depth of the context of the plays as well as possible links to the influence of both widespread and local myths and legends. These myths include:


 * Early Roman myths about an emperor who would issue in a "Golden Age" based on the works of Vergil;
 * Early Christian myths about prophecy, based variously on Vergil and on either supposed Sybilline predictions or other oracular sayings and portents sometimes thought to have dubious origins;
 * The psuedo-historical legend of Constantine and Coel, mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon (c1088 – c1157) but made popular by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c1095 – c1155). This features Helen of Constantinople;
 * The legends around Magnus Maximus (Latin: Flavius Magnus Maximus Augustus, Welsh: Macsen Wledig) (c. 335–28 August 388) who was Roman Emperor in the western portion of the Empire from 383 to 388, but had a body of non-historical legend attached to him;
 * The legend of Saint Elen (Welsh: Elen Luyddog, lit. "Helen of the Hosts"), often anglicized as Helen of Caernarfon (to distinguish her from Helen of Constantinople), said to be a late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales. Traditionally, she is said to have been a daughter of the Romano-British ruler Eudaf Hen (Geoffrey of Monmouth calls him Octavius) and the wife of Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus);

The Chester Nativity
The version of the nativity in the Chester Mystery Plays is different from the one in the bible as it features a walk-on part by the Roman emperor Octavian/Augustus. The play moves from Joseph's house at Nazareth to the Emperor's court at Rome, partly to show why Octavian ordered the general tax but more importantly to evaluate the pax Romana into which the "Prince of Peace" was born. According to the Chester play, the Roman senate believe that the long peace and prosperity of Octavian's rule must be a sign of his divinity and request his deification, but Octavian recognises his own mortality and rejects the offer. He then consults a sibyl who foretells the birth of a child of greater power than he. The action in the Mystery Play returns to Bethlehem for the birth, but then reverts to Rome, where Octavian is granted a vision of the Virgin and Child in a star and orders his countrymen to worship the Child - something entirely fictional. In the course of the play the pax Romana is shown to have been based upon a primitive kind of early warning system, the Temple of Peace, "contrived by a fiend", so that Rome always had advance notice of rebellion. According to one version: "at Christ's birth, the structure collapsed, and subsequently a church has been built to commemorate the vision".

There was a Temple of Peace in Rome, but this was not built until 71 AD under Emperor Vespasian. The funds to create this grand monument were acquired through Vespasian's sacking of Jerusalem during the Jewish-Roman Wars. The interior and surrounding buildings were decorated with the treasures collected there by the Roman army. However, the rather peculiar appearance of Octavian/Augustus in the Chester Mystery Play would not have come as a surprise to the original audience. As is explained in detail below the "prophecy" aspect of the Mystery Play would have been familiar. It is even mentioned in the Banns:


 * "Of Octavian the Emperor, that could not well allow the prophecy of ancient Sibyl the sage, ye Wrights and Slaters with good  players in show lustily bring forth your well­decked carriage. The Birth of Christ shall all see in that stage. If the Scriptures awarrant not of the midwives' report the author telleth his author; then take it in sport"

Indeed, the story of the sibyl (and other prophets) was so well known that it occurs on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where five of Michaelangelo's seven prophets are also found in the Chester cycle: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Jonah and Joel.

Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
The local connection to Chester is that the "church" is Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. It was this church where Edward Gibbon was struck with the idea to write his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. As he wrote in his "Autobiography":




 * "It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.”

Gibbon was mistaken; this church was actually the former Temple of Juno Moneta: the protectress of the city's funds. Money was coined in her temple for over four centuries, before the mint was moved to a new location near the Colosseum during the reign of emperor Domitian. The church also contains the marble tomb of Cecchino Bracci, pupil and lover of artist Michelangelo who had dedicated a number of poems in his name. The tomb's design (not the carving) is by Michelangelo.

Originally the church was named Sancta Maria in Capitolio, since it was sited on the Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio, in Italian) of Ancient Rome; by the 14th century it had been renamed. A medieval legend included in the mid-12th-century guide to Rome, Mirabilia Urbis Romae, claimed that the church was built over an Augustan Ara primogeniti Dei, in the place where the Tiburtine Sibyl prophesied to Octavian the coming of the Christ: "For this reason the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar". A later legend substituted an apparition of Mary, frequently depicted in medieval art. In the Middle Ages, condemned criminals were executed at the foot of the steps; there the self-proclaimed Tribune and reviver of the Roman Republic Cola di Rienzo met his death, near the spot where his statue commemorates him. Mirabilia Urbis Romae ("Marvels of the City of Rome") is a much-copied medieval Latin text that served generations of pilgrims and tourists as a guide to the city of Rome. The original, which was written by a canon of St Peter's, dates from the 1140s. The text survives in numerous manuscripts. It is not considered an accurate work, even the Catholic Encyclopedia reports:


 * "Unhampered by any very accurate knowledge of the historical continuity of the city, the unknown author has described the monuments of Rome, displaying a considerable amount of inventive faculty."

The legend-filled Mirabilia remained the standard guide to the city until the fifteenth century and so is likely to have been available to the author of the Chester Mystery Plays. At first Sancta Maria followed the Greek rite, a sign of the power of the Byzantine exarch. Taken over by the papacy by the 9th century, the church was given first to the Benedictines, then, by papal bull to the Franciscans in 1249–1250; under the Franciscans it received its Romanesque-Gothic aspect. The arches that divide the nave from the aisles are supported on columns, no two precisely alike, scavenged from Roman ruins (it overlooks the forum). During the Middle Ages, this church became the centre of the religious and civil life of the city, in particular during the republican "renewal" of the 14th century, when Cola di Rienzo inaugurated the monumental stairway of 124 steps in front of the church, designed in 1348 by Simone Andreozzi, on the occasion of the Black Death.

The legend about Octavian (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) and the Sybil has a long and complex pedigree which dates back to the Roman poet Vergil (traditional dates 15 October 70 BC – 21 September 19 BC). In the Middle Ages, Virgil's reputation was such that it inspired legends associating him with magic and prophecy: both Christians and pagans would select a passage at random from Virgil’s works as method of divination. From at least the 3rd century, Christian thinkers interpreted Eclogues 4, which describes the birth of a boy ushering in a golden age, as a prediction of the nativity. In consequence, Virgil came to be seen as a "virtuous pagan" on a similar level to the Hebrew prophets of the Bible as one who had heralded Christianity. Dante Alighieri included Virgil as a main character in his Divine Comedy, and Michelangelo included the Sibyl on the ceiling painting of the Sistine Chapel. Virgil's legacy in medieval Wales was such that the Welsh version of his name, Fferyllt or Pheryllt, became a generic term for magic-worker, and survives in the modern Welsh word for pharmacist, fferyllydd. It is probable that the author of the Chester Mystery Plays had read Vergil and that the Christian interpretations of Virgil's Eclogue 4 would have been known to some if not many of those who made up the audience. If they didn't know then they have the Expositor to tell them "this is a true story". The Eclogue was written around 42 BC and it is thought that the collection was published around 39–38 BC, although there is debate over the exact dates.

A particular connection with Chester and North Wales is that Santa Maria in Ara Coeli is known for housing relics belonging to Saint Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine - the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and one who has a distinct connection to Britain. Just which relics are there is uncertain: her alleged skull is displayed in the Cathedral of Trier, in Germany. Portions of her relics are found at the basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome, the same is claimed by the Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles in Paris, and at the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers. The church of Sant'Elena in Venice claims to have the complete body of the saint enshrined under the main altar.

In Britain, a later legend, mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon (c1088 – c1157) but made popular by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c1095 – c1155), claimed that Helena was a daughter of the King of Britain, Cole of Colchester (see "Old King Cole" below), who (according to Geoffrey of Monmouth) allied with "Constantius" to avoid more war between the Britons and Rome: all of that is without any historical foundation. In the Chester mystery play the church has its name mangled: "The churche is called Saynte Marie - The sirname in a Racali". The links with Britain and eventually with Chester start with St Helen.

St Helen
Helena, or Saint Helena (Greek: Ἁγία Ἑλένη, Hagía Helénē, Latin: Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta; c. 246/248 – c. 330), was an Empress of the Roman Empire, and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, although he lived much of his life as a pagan, and later as a catechumen (κατηχούμενος, "one being instructed"), Constantine is traditionally believed to have only joined the Christian faith on his deathbed, being baptised by Eusebius of Nicomedia. He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared religious tolerance for Christianity in the Roman empire. Helena ranks as an important figure in the history of Christianity and of the world due to her influence on her son. In her final years, she made a religious tour of Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem, during which ancient tradition claims that she discovered the "True Cross".

At least twenty-five holy wells currently exist in the United Kingdom dedicated to a "Saint Helen". She is also the patron saint of Abingdon and Colchester. St Helen's Chapel in Colchester was believed to have been founded by Helena herself, and since the 15th century, the town's coat of arms has shown a representation of the "True Cross" and three crowned nails in her honour. Colchester Town Hall has a Victorian statue of the saint on top of its 50-metre-high (160 ft) tower. The arms of Nottingham are almost identical because of the city's connection with Cole, her supposed father.

Helen's links with Britain
Born outside of the noble classes, a Greek, possibly in the Greek city of Drepana, Bithynia in Asia Minor, Helena became the consort of the future Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and the mother of the future Emperor Constantine the Great. As Caesar, Constantius Chlorus defeated the usurper Allectus in Britain. Upon becoming Augustus in 305, Constantius launched a successful punitive campaign against the Picts beyond the Antonine Wall. Constantius Chlorus died at Eboracum (York) on 25 July 306. As he was dying, Constantius recommended his son to the army as his successor; consequently Constantine was declared emperor by the legions at York. There is some evidence for major repair work at Chester around 300, especially to the walls, at least half of which were rebuilt from the base up. Quite strangely, many tombstones of soldiers were used in the rebuilding of the walls and one explanation may be that Legio XX was not the unit stationed at Chester at the time. Another explanation is that the use of tombstones was something to do with the revolt by Carausius which had occurred in 286 and which was followed by the revolt of Allectus: Legio XX appears to have taken the side of the usurpers.

Works to Chester's walls on such a scale may be associated with the presence of the emperor. It is not known for certain whether either the older or younger Constantine ever visited Chester, but given their activities in the north of Britannia it is probable that they did - some secondary evidence being provided by Roman milestones found in North Wales. Examples of these milestones include RIB 2267 found about 6.4 km. west of Caerhun fort (Kanovium) and on the north side of the Roman road from Rowen (in the Conway Valley) towards Llanfairfechan, not far from Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen (‘Pass of the Two Stones’: the pass probably takes its Welsh name not from the two milestones originally standing there, but from the two menhirs which still stand there today).

Constantine's mother Helena came back into public life after Constantine became emperor - i.e. after his father had died. She was given full access to the Roman treasury to fund her search for holy relics. These she apparently found in profusion although most have now been dismissed as forgeries. They include: three "True Crosses", the sign off of the cross, a number of crucifiction nails, the crown of thorns, Christ's robe, Pontius Pilate's stairs, the relics of the three wise men, and Christ's crib (with hay). In many cases the association of the relics with Helena can only be dated to years after the particular relic was found. Helen of Constantinople has few links to Britain although the early English poet Cynewulf who may have been a Mercian living at the time of Plegmund, wrote his non-historical Elene of her.

Geoffrey of Monmouth
Constantius Chlorus' activities in Britain were reported with all his usual inaccuracy by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain (1136). According to Geoffrey, Constantius Chlorus is sent to Britain by the Senate after "Asclepiodotus", here a British king, is overthrown by Coel of Colchester. Coel submits to Constantius Chlorus and agrees to pay tribute to Rome, but dies only eight days later. Constantius Chlorus marries Coel's daughter Helena and becomes king of Britain. He and Helena have a son, Constantine, who succeeds to the throne of Britain when his father dies eleven years later. Similarly, the "History of the Britons" traditionally ascribed to Nennius mentions the inscribed tomb of "Constantius the Emperor" was still present in the 9th century in Segontium (near present-day Caernarfon, Wales). Segontium was founded by Agricola in AD 77 or 78 after he had conquered the Ordovices in North Wales. It was the main Roman fort in the north of Roman Wales and was designed to hold about a thousand auxiliary infantry. It was connected by a Roman road to Roman Chester.

In reality, Constantius Chlorus had divorced Helena before he went to Britain and Julius Asclepiodotus was a Roman praetorian prefect who assisted the western Caesar Constantius Chlorus in re-establishing Imperial rule in Britain following a revolt by Carausius (a Roman Naval commander in Britain) and later Allectus, his finance minister and eventual assassin. Monmouth is possibly confusing Helena with Elen ("Elen of the Ways") a semi mythical figure in Welsh traditional literature. Geoffrey was born between about 1090 and 1100, in Wales or the Welsh Marches and so it might be supposed he would have been familiar with Welsh legends.

In order to obtain a wife more consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 289, when he married Theodora, Maximian's daughter. Maximian (Latin: Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Herculius Augustus c. 250 – c. July 310) was Roman Emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn.

Carausius
The man Maximian appointed to police the Channel shores, Carausius, rebelled in 286, causing the secession of Britain and northwestern Gaul. Maximian failed to oust Carausius, and his invasion fleet was destroyed by storms in 289 or 290. Carausius held power for seven years, fashioning the name "Emperor of the North" for himself, before being assassinated by his finance minister Allectus. Carausius appears to have appealed to native British dissatisfaction with Roman rule; he issued coins with legends such as "Restitutor Britanniae" (Restorer of Britain) and "Genius Britanniae" (Spirit of Britain). Some of these silver coins bear the legend "Expectate veni", (Come long-awaited one), recognised to allude to a supposedly messianic line by the Augustan poet Virgil (the sixth and seventh lines of the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil), written more than 300 years previously. The last known reference to Legio XX (based at Chester) is on coins struck by the usurper Carausius, and it seems likely that Legio XX joined his side in the revolt.



Constantine himself also believed the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil (one text is here) could be interpreted as a prophecy about Christ. Many copies of the Roman historian Eusebius's Vita Constantini (The Life of Constantine) contain a transcript of a speech made by the emperor at a Good Friday sermon during the First Council of Nicaea (AD 325), in which the emperor re-imagines almost the entire poem line-by-line as a Christian portent (although a few are omitted because they overtly reference pagan characters and concepts). Some of Constantine’s interpretations are obvious: he argues that the "virgo" is a reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the "puer" in to Christ, and the "serpent" to the Serpent of Evil. However, Constantine has to stretch the wording in places to make it "fit" - and the usurper Carausius had done much the same thing to make a somewhat different point.

This association between Virgil and Christianity reached a fever pitch in the fourteenth century, when the Divine Comedy was published; the work, by Dante Alighieri, prominently features Virgil as the main character's guide through Hell. In the fifteenth century, a popular story concerning Secundian, Marcellian and Verian — who started out as persecutors of Christians during the reign of the Roman emperor Decius — emerged. The story claims that the trio were alarmed by the calm manner in which their Christian victims died, and so they turned to literature and chanced upon Eclogue 4, which eventually caused their conversions and martyrdom. The story seems possibly related to the myth of Saint Aaron and Saint Julius (or Julian) were two Romano-British Christian saints who were martyred around the third century. These saints have been associated with the Amphitheatre at Chester, but there seems little basis for that link.

It has also been proposed that the Amphitheatre was the site of possibly mass executions of the officers of Legio XX following the re-establishment of imperial rule following the overthrow of the usurper Carausius. There are certainly issues with how secure in his position Carausius was. What little documentation there is suggests his power was sea based, so it seems strange that could maintain control over land armies. However, Carausius was defeated not by an emperor but by a further usurper, Allectus, who lasted three years before the empire finally struck back.

Old King Cole
"Old King Cole" is a British nursery rhyme first attested in 1708 by William King (1663–1712) in his "Useful Transactions in Philosophy". There is much speculation about the identity of King Cole, and some consider it is unlikely that he can be identified reliably given the centuries between the attestation of the rhyme and the putative identities. It is often noted that the name of the legendary Welsh king Coel Hen can be translated 'Old Cole' or 'Old King Cole'. This sometimes leads to speculation that he, or some other Coel in Roman Britain, is the model for Old King Cole of the nursery rhyme. However, there is no documentation of a connection between the fourth-century figures and the eighteenth-century nursery rhyme. Further speculation connects Old King Cole and thus Coel Hen to Colchester. The "Colchester legend", claimed he was a ruler of Colchester in Essex and the father of Saint Helena, and therefore the grandfather of Constantine the Great. The 12th century legend originated from a folk etymology indicating that Colchester was named for Coel (supposedly from "Coel" and "castrum", producing "fortress of Coel"). However, the city was actually known as Colneceaster until the n was dropped in around the 10th century; its name likely comes from the local River Colne. In Monmouth's Historia, Coel grows upset with Asclepiodotus's handling of the Diocletianic Persecution and begins a rebellion in his duchy of Caer Colun (Colchester). He meets Asclepiodotus in battle and kills him, thus taking the kingship of Britain upon himself. Rome, apparently, is pleased that Britain has a new king, and sends senator Constantius Chlorus to negotiate with him. Afraid of the Romans, Coel meets Constantius and agrees to pay tribute and submit to Roman laws as long as he is allowed to retain the kingship. Constantius agrees to these terms, but Coel dies shortly after. Constantius marries Coel's daughter, Helena, and crowns himself as Coel's successor. Helena subsequently gives birth to a son who becomes the Emperor Constantine the Great, giving a British pedigree to the Roman imperial line and in particular a British cause for the adoption of christianity by the Romans.

The prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl
To complicate matters further there is a legendary apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy which was attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl. This appears in the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius which shares many elements with the Chester Mystery Plays and was a popular work in the middle ages - being filled with doom and gloom. The manuscript also notes the rise of an Emperor-Saviour figure, echoing the fourth century AD prophecy contributed to the legendary Tiburtine Sibyl. In common with the Chester cycle it starts with the Garden of Eden and relates that Antichrist would be opposed by the "Two Witnesses" from the Book of Revelation, identified with Elijah and Enoch (the same as in the Chester plays); after having killed the witnesses and started a final persecution of the Christians the Antichrist will be slain by the power of God through Michael the Archangel (again exactly as in the Chester Plays). Things then move towards a spectacular close in an apocalyptic end of the world: nine suns appear in the sky, each one more ugly and bloodstained than the last, representing the nine generations of mankind and ending with Judgment Day.

The story of the Tiburtine Sibyl has many parallels with that of Constantine's interpretation of the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil and the use of the Fourth Eclogue by the usurper Carausius. These apocalyptic prophecy texts had an enormous impact on medieval culture - the very fact that over a hundred manuscripts survive illustates their popularity. In Tudor times the government's view on phrophecy develloped, especially in the early Reformation. More "esoteric" activities such as prophecy in the form of astrology became a crime rather than an acceptable academic pursuit. By the time of Elizabeth even casting a royal horoscope was considered to be "constructive treason" (as in the case of Ferdinando Stanley's mother: Margaret Clifford). It was the state rather than the church which made "magic" more dangerous. One example is magical treasure hunting - which might be thought a relatively innocent pursuit. However, treasure was the property of the monarch and contempt for the monarch's property was akin to contempt for his person, an act of treason. In 1542 Parliament passed Henry VIII's Witchcraft Act (33 Hen. VIII c. 8) which defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later, but restored by a new Act in 1562, which transferred trial for witchcraft from the church to the ordinary courts. Under the Act it was illegal to:


 * "... use devise practise or exercise, or cause to be devysed practised or exercised, any Invovacons or cojuracons of Sprites witchecraftes enchauntementes or sorceries to the intent to fynde money or treasure or to waste consume or destroy any persone in his bodie membres, or to pvoke [provoke] any persone to unlawfull love, or for any other unlawfull intente or purpose ... or for dispite of Cryste, or for lucre of money, dygge up or pull downe any Crosse or Crosses or by such Invovacons or cojuracons of Sprites witchecraftes enchauntementes or sorceries or any of them take upon them to tell or declare where goodes stollen or lost shall become ..."

The general tendency to condemn "superstitious practices" co-incides in time with the end of the Chester Mystery Cycle performance, which came about in the 1560's and 70's. The Puritans moreover wanted all the sins, rituals, and superstitions that "smacked of Roman Catholic idolatry" thoroughly abolished from the realm and from the churches, including; the mass, the surplice, kneeling at the Lord's Supper, vestments, graven images, profane and sexually immoral stage plays, and the widespread profanation of the Sabbath.

Summary so far
The prophetic legend of Octavian and the Sybil as portrayed in the Chester Mystery Plays has its roots in the still extant church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, which is garbled in the Mystery Cycle as: "The churche is called Saynte Marie - The sirname in a Racali". This was, when the Chester plays were originally performed, a well known interpretation of the Roman poet Virgil's Eclogue 4. This same Eclogue had been used during the Roman empire by the usurper Carausius (after the year 286) previously a Roman Naval commander in Britain, and, very shortly thereafter by Emperor Constantine the Great (in the year 325).

Constantius Chlorus' activities in Britain were reported with all his usual inaccuracy by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain (1136). According to Geoffrey, Constantius Chlorus is sent to Britain by the Senate after "Asclepiodotus", here a British king, is overthrown by Coel of Colchester. Coel submits to Constantius Chlorus and agrees to pay tribute to Rome, but dies only eight days later. Constantius Chlorus marries Coel's daughter Helena and becomes king of Britain. He and Helena have a son, Constantine, who succeeds to the throne of Britain when his father dies eleven years later. In reality, Constantius Chlorus' wife Helena almost certainly never set foot in England.

Prophecy plays a large part in the Chester cycle.

Saint Elen
The complication introduced by Geofrey of Monmouth may arise from the similarly named Welsh princess Saint Elen (alleged to have married Magnus Maximus and to have borne a son named Constantine). The "Dream of Macsen Wledig" from the Mabinogion tells the story of how the Emperor of Rome experienced a dream in which he travelled to Wales, then met and became obsessed with a beautiful maiden named Elen.

Macsen Wledig


Magnus Maximus (Latin: Flavius Magnus Maximus Augustus, Welsh: Macsen Wledig) (c. 335–28 August 388) was Roman Emperor in the western portion of the Empire from 383 to 388. Maximus was born c. 335 in Gallaecia approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon, on the estates of Theodosius (the Elder), to whom he claimed to be related. Interestingly, some parts of Gallaecia came to be settled with Britons from Britain during the poorly documented period of the 5th–7th centuries. The more important part of this migration was possibly the settlement of Armorica (Brittany) - these settlers, whether refugees or not, made the presence felt of their coherent groups in the naming of the westernmost, Atlantic-facing provinces of Armorica, Cornouaille (Breton: "Kerne", cognate with "Cornwall") and Domnonée (Breton: "Domnonea", cognate with "Devon"). These settlements are associated with leaders like Saints Samson of Dol and Pol Aurelian, among the "seven founder saints" of Brittany.

In 350-353 there was a failed power-grab by Magnentius (303-353), followed by a bloody and arbitrary purge conducted by Paulus Catena on behalf of Constantius II Roman Emperor from 337 to 361, and son to Constantine the Great. This purge was conducted in an attempt to root out potential sympathisers of Magnentius in Britain, and aggravated by the political machinations of the Roman administrator Valentinus.

It is likely that Magnus Maximus was a junior officer in Britain in 368, during the quelling of the Great Conspiracy - a year-long state of war and disorder that occurred in Roman Britain near the end of the Roman occupation of the island. In the winter of 367, the Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall had rebelled, and allowed Picts from Caledonia to enter Britannia. At the same time, Attacotti, the Scotti from Hibernia, and Saxons from Germania landed in what might have been coordinated and pre-arranged waves on the island's mid-western and southeastern borders, respectively. Franks and Saxons also landed in northern Gaul. These warbands managed to overwhelm nearly all of the loyal Roman outposts and settlements. The entire western and northern areas of Britannia were overwhelmed, the cities sacked and the civilian Romano-British murdered, raped, or enslaved.

Maximus was a distinguished general; he served under Count Theodosius in Africa in 373, and on the Danube in 376, where his behavior was however described as greedy and reckless. Ammianus Marcellinus does not give him a good press:


 * "it was, as if at the choice of some adverse deity, that men were gathered together and given command of armies who bore stained reputations. At their head were two rivals in recklessness: one was Lupicinus, commanding general in Thrace, the other Maximus, a pernicious leader. Their treacherous greed was the source of all our evils" (Rerum Gestarum Libri Qui Supersunt XXXI.4.9)

Orosius is slightly more positive:


 * "Maximus, an energetic man, indeed, and honourable and worthy of the throne had he not arrived at it by usurpation contrary to his oath of allegiance, was made emperor almost against his will…" (Historium adversum paganos VII.34)

Assigned to Britain in 380, he defeated an incursion of the Picts and Scots in 381. In 383, as commander of Britain, he usurped the throne against emperor Gratian, who had not made himself popular by taking a band of Alan bodyguards and dressing in a similar fashion, alienating his Roman troops. By negotiation with emperor Theodosius I, he was made emperor in Britannia and Gaul the next year while Gratian's brother Valentinian II retained Italy, Pannonia, Hispania, and Africa. In 387, Maximus's ambitions led him to invade Italy, resulting in his defeat by Theodosius I at the Battle of the Save in 388. In the view of some historians, his death marked the end of direct imperial presence in Northern Gaul and Britain.

Macsen and Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth (Latin: Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, Welsh: Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; c. 1095 – c. 1155) gives a slightly inacurate account of Maxiumus and mentions how he withdrew troops from Britain:


 * The seventh emperor was Maximianus. He withdrew from Britain with all its military force, slew Gratianus the king of the Romans, and obtained the sovereignty of all Europe. Unwilling to send back his warlike companions to their wives, families, and possessions in Britain, he conferred upon them numerous districts from the lake on the summit of Mons lovis, to the city called Cant Guic, and to the western Tumulus, that is Cruc Occident. These are the Armoric Britons, and they remain there to the present day. In consequence of their absence, Britain being overcome by foreign nations, the lawful heirs were cast out, till God interposed with his assistance.

Geoffrey's sub-text here may be fairly obvious. Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula - close enough for Geoffrey to Normandy. Earlier scholars assumed that Geoffrey was Welsh or at least spoke Welsh: however, his knowledge of this language appears to have been slight. There is some suggestion that he spoke Breton and his parents may have taken part in William I's conquest of south Wales. Monmouth had been in the hands of Breton lords since 1075 or 1086, and the names Galfridus and Arthur were more common among the Bretons than the Welsh. When Geoffrey writes of "God's assistance" he may well be referring to the Norman/Breton conquest of Wales as the "lawful heirs". This fits very well with Geoffrey's claim that he was given a source for this period by Archdeacon Walter of Oxford, who presented him with a "certain very ancient book written in the British language" from which he has translated his history.

The first stage of Magnus Maximus "invasion" of Europe was to cross to north-western France. It is likely that the Celtic language spoken by the native Armoricans was not dissimilar from that spoken in southern and western Britain, so it makes sense to use Armorica as a staging area. Maximus's bid for imperial power in 383 coincides with the last date for any evidence of a Roman military presence in Wales, the western Pennines, and the fortress of Deva. Coins dated later than 383 have been found in excavations along Hadrian's Wall, suggesting that troops were not entirely stripped from it, as was once thought. In the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae written c. 540, Gildas says of Maximus:


 * "At length also, as thickets of tyrants were growing up and bursting forth soon into an immense forest, the island retained the Roman name, but not the morals and law; nay rather, casting forth a shoot of its own planting, it sends out Maximus to the two Gauls, accompanied by a great crowd of followers, with an emperor's ensigns in addition, which he never worthily bore nor legitimately, but as one elected after the manner of a tyrant and amid a turbulent soldiery. This man, through cunning art rather than by valour, first attaches to his guilty rule certain neighbouring countries or provinces against the Roman power, by nets of perjury and falsehood. He then extends one wing to Spain, the other to Italy, fixing the throne of his iniquitous empire at Trier, and raged with such madness against his lords that he drove two legitimate emperors, the one from Rome, the other from a most pious life. Though fortified by hazardous deeds of so dangerous a character, it was not long ere he lost his accursed head at Aquileia: he who had in a way cut off the crowned heads of the empire of the whole world."

Gildas also notes the consequences:


 * "Britain is left deprived of all her soldiery and armed bands, of her cruel governors, and of the flower of her youth, who went with Maximus, but never again returned."

There is some archaeological evidence to support this, and it does accord with certain later Breton traditions. Maximus is associated with the legendary British leader Conan Meriadoc, said to be the founder of Brittany. Conan Meriadoc is said to have been ordered by Maximus to settle his people in Brittany. Conan's story is recounted in a number of Breton sources such as the Life of Saint Gurthiern (c1118) and the Life of Saint Goeznovius (once thought to be written c.1019, but now dated later). The stories surrounding the lives of these Breton saints deal with the arrival of British peoples on the Continent, however some care is needed as "Goeznovius" may be influenced by Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136).

Having left with the troops and senior administrators, and planning to continue as the ruler of Britain in the future, his practical course was to transfer local authority to local rulers. Welsh legend supports that this happened, with stories such as Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig (English: The Dream of Emperor Maximus), where he not only marries a wondrous British woman (thus making British descendants probable), but also gives her father sovereignty over Britain (thus formally transferring authority from Rome back to the Britons themselves). The earliest Welsh genealogies give Maximus (referred to as Macsen/Maxen Wledig, or Emperor Maximus) the role of founding father of the dynasties of several medieval Welsh kingdoms, including those of Powys and Gwent. He is given as the ancestor of a Welsh king on the Pillar of Eliseg, erected nearly 500 years after he left Britain, and he figures in lists of the Fifteen Tribes of Wales.

Macsen and his Dream
The Dream of Macsen Wledig tells a different tale to Geoffrey of Monmouth. The story tracks his search for a fair maiden he sees in a dream, eventually bringing him to Britain, where he finds the lady he seeks. Learning that he has been replaced as emperor, he rushes back to Rome with his newly-wedded wife.

In brief, Macsen is out hunting and feels tied

A short Chronology of the relevant Emperors
By the time of Constantine the situation had become rather complicated


 * Constantine Chlorus: 305 to 306.
 * Constantine the Great: 306 to 337
 * Constantine II: 337 to 340.

Related Pages

 * Dark Ages;
 * Chester Mystery Plays;

Magnus/Macsen

 * Magnus Maximus – An overview of early sources;
 * The End of Roman Britain - Magnus departs;
 * Early British Kingdoms on Magnus;
 * Mabinogion on Magnus;
 * More on Macsen's dream;

Elen of the Hosts

 * Saint Elen Magnus' wife (Welsh: Elen Luyddog, lit. "Helen of the Hosts");
 * "Goddess, Saint and Ancestor - Elen of the Hosts" analysis of the Elen/Magnus tradition;

Brittany

 * European Kingdoms: Celts of Armorica;