THE TURN OF THE ERMINE

An Anthology of Breton Literature

(Selected and translated by Jacqueline Gibson and Gwyn Griffiths)

The Invasion From Britain

ALGERNON HERBERT

Britannia After the Romans, 1836 (Extract)

The armies which Maximus led over to Gaul were chiefly composed of the natives of Britannia whom he enrolled into his service in numbers so great, that the island was never afterwards secure against the irruptions of the Scots, Picts, Saxons, and other marauding or piratical neighbours. Gildas, Tysilio and The Triadists are all agreed on deploring the drain of British manhood in this revolution of the declining empire, as one of the main sources of ruin to the island. [...]

   The British - though nominally Roman - reign of Carausius, followed by the mildness of re-conqueror Constantius and perhaps a somewhat incomplete re-conquest, brought back upon the stage some of those un_Romanised and Celtiic-tongued chiefs of clans, when the civilization and discipline of the Quinque Provinciae had previously  kept in obscure subjection in the remoter districts . Cynedda, the founder of the North-Welsh dynasty, established himself in Anglesea and the neighbourhood about A.D. 371; and at the same time with Maximus the emperor or tyrant, one Conan of Meriadawg ( now Denbighshire or a part thereof) made his appearance as a British chieftain. Maximus removed him into Gaul with a considerable power of native Britons and settled him in the maritime district called Armorica, the same which in consequence of that memorable settlement has since been termed Lesser Britain or Brittany. It was  a military colony of some strength in the first instance, soon after reinforced by the remains of the unfortunate armies of Maximus, and a century later, by refugees from this invaded and desolated island. Their establishment stood firm, and the fall of Maximus did not compel the emigrants to evacuate their new possessions. But they were not made independent of the Roman system of administration and the authority of the Roman magistrates was still maintained in the municipalities of that part of Gaul. The naval power of Maximus and the British, in the channel, could never have been shaken with such a formidable outwork as Armorica on its eastern shores. Excellent harbours, both deep and shallow, broad lagunes and the impregnable promontories - some of them even insulated at high water, rendered the Armorican Britain an inexpugnable barrier to Britain and British waters. But he was not wise unto the end.

   The Bruts relate that Maximus established Conan in the Gauls by virtue of a pacification between them, and after a war in which Conan had been worsted. It is indeed probable that Maximus acted with a double policy. The same Celtic clans, whom it was most useful both for example and immediate tranquility to transport, were those whose language and manners would keep them most distinct from the Romanising Gaul, and therefore make them the most efficient outwork to Brittania on that side. To bind them more effectually to the mother island, a multitude of British women were sent over to marry all amongst those colonies who had not wives; and the mischance of some of these adventurous damsels gave rise to the legend of the 11,000 virgins.

   Armorica was no barrier to Britannia as against the Picts or Saxons, whilst, by affording an obvious and natural asylum to those who wished to fly, it may have weakened her defence against them. But the passionate cumbrian Gildas, and the Welsh, are unreasonable in their condemnation of Maximus, who did not contemplate his own ruin, and still less that of the Roman empire itself, and actually employed the most vigorous means in his power to secure and civilize the island.

   This whole passage in the history of Maximus has been denied by the modern French writers, and that denial has been taken up by the historian of the Anglo-Saxons. It is Said that the Little Britain was not established in Armorica by him and Conan under him, and by surviving adventures in the unfortunate expedition, that no such man as Conan Meriadawg lived inthe fourth century, and that Little Britain was constituted no earlier than the middle of the fifth or beginning of the sixth  century, under the auspices of Rhiwallon a princely Briton who fled from the anarchy and Saxon and devastation of his island, in 513 according to most opinions, or in 453 according to Father Lobineau.

   The doubts raised upon this subject by Vignier, Vertot and others of the French, did not arise in fair unbiased argument. Their desire was to establish that no distinct sovereignty had existed in the Armorican Gaul previously to the establishment of the Merovingian Franks in that country. By such means they sought to justify the degradation of the British kings into counts, the claim of liege homage into lieu of simple homage, and all the series of usurpation which have made Brittany a part of France. There are many occasions for condemning the spirit of falsehood in the British chroniclers, but in this instance we need not mistrust the

       AT THIS POINT THE SUBSEQUENT PAGES GOT CAUGHT UP IN THE FIRE THAT BURNED DOWN MY PUB. SOME BOOKS, THIS ONE INCLUDED HAVE PARTS MISSING AND NEED TO BE RENEWED.