Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T15:59:29.450Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘King Arthur’ and Cadbury Castle, Somerset

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Dai Morgan Evans
Affiliation:
24 Avenue South, Surbiton, Surrey KT5 8PJ, UK. E-mail: .

Abstract

The major excavations at Cadbury Castle, Somerset, which took place in the 1960s, owed their inspiration in part to the identification of the site as ‘Camelot’, thus forging an association with ‘King Arthur’. John Leland, the sixteenth-century antiquary, was the author of this identification and this paper considers how he might have arrived at this conclusion. Factors identified include the role in Tudor politics of ‘King Arthur’ and of the owners of the site – the Hastings family. Consideration of the evidence of later writers on the site, both national and local, shows their almost total dependence on Leland's original description, but the evidence of the Hereford Mappa Mundi suggests a new dimension. It is suggested that the interpretation of the archaeology of the site would benefit from a clearer understanding of John Leland's description and of Tudor and Stuart activity at the site.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Airs, M 1995. The Tudor and Jacobean Country House: A Building History, StroudGoogle Scholar
Alcock, L 1972. By South Cadbury is that Camelot’: The Excavation of Cadbury Castle 1966–1970, LondonGoogle Scholar
Alcock, L 1995. Cadbury Castle, Somerset: The Early Medieval Archaeology, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Anglo, S 1968. Spectacle, Pageant and Early Tudor Policy, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Aubrey, J 19801982. Monumenta Britannica: or, A Miscellany of British Antiquities by John Aubrey (ed Fowles, J), 2 vols, SherborneGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J C, Freeman, P W M and Woodward, A 2000. Cadbury Castle, Somerset: The Later Prehistoric and Early Historic Archaeology, Engl Heritage Archaeol Rep 20, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bates, E H 1900. The Particular Description of the County of Somerset. Drawn up by Thomas Gerard of Trent, Somerset Rec Soc 15, LondonGoogle Scholar
Batten, J 1870. ‘Somersetshire Sequestrations (Part 2)’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist, 16, 1334Google Scholar
Beer, B L 2004. ‘John Stow (1524/5–1605)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 52, 982–6, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Bendall, S 2004. ‘John Speed (1551/2–1629)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 51, 771–3, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Bennett, J A 1890. ‘Camelot’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist, 36, 119Google Scholar
Biddle, M 2000. King Arthur's Round Table, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Camden, W 1586. Britannia, 1st edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Camden, W 1610. Britain, or a chorographical description of the most flourishing kingdomes, England, Scotland and Ireland… translated… by Philémon Holland, LondonGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P 1986. ‘John Leland and the contents of English pre-Dissolution libraries: Glastonbury Abbey’, Scriptorium, 40, 107–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P 1988. Glastonbury Abbey, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P 2001. ‘The discovery of the Holy Cross of Waltham at Montacute, the excavation of Arthur's Grave at Glastonbury Abbey and Joseph of Arimathea's burial’, in Carley (ed) 2001, 303–8Google Scholar
Carley, J P (ed) 2001. Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian Tradition, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P 2004. ‘John Leland (?1503–52)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 33, 297301, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, D 2003. The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066–1284, LondonGoogle Scholar
Chandler, J 1993. John Leland's Itinerary: Travels in Tudor England, StroudGoogle Scholar
Christiansen, P 2004. ‘John Selden (1584–1654)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 49, 694705, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Costen, M 1992. The Origins of Somerset, ManchesterGoogle Scholar
Craig, D H c 1985. Sir John Harington, Boston, Mass.Google Scholar
Cross, C 1966. The Puritan Earl: The Life of Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntingdon, 1536–1595, London and New YorkCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cross, C 1969. The Letters of Sir Francis Hastings 1574–1609, Somerset Rec Soc 69, FromeGoogle Scholar
Davey, J E 2005. The Roman to Medieval Transition in the Region of South Cadbury Castle, Somerset, BAR Brit Ser 399, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drayton, M 1612. Poly-Olbion, LondonGoogle Scholar
DeCoursey, C 2004. ‘Edmund Howes (1602–31)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 28, 515, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Dumville, D N 1977. ‘Sub-Roman Britain:history and legend’, History, new ser, 62, 173–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, P W M 2000. ‘Antiquarian and archaeological research 1542–1965’, in Barrett et al. 2000, 68Google Scholar
Girouard, M 1966. Robert Smythson and the Architecture of the Elizabethan Era, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gray, H St George, 1913. ‘Trial excavations at Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, 1913’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist, 59, 124Google Scholar
Harris, J and Higgott, G 1989. Inigo Jones: Complete Architectural Drawings, The Drawing Center, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J H (ed) 1969. William Worcestre: Itineraries, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Harvey, P D A 1996. Mappa Mundi: The Hereford World Map, HerefordGoogle Scholar
Herendeen, W H 2004. ‘William Camden (1551–1623)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 9, 603–14, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hunter, J 2003. ‘Taliesin at the court of Henry VIII. Aspects of the writings of Elis Gruffydd’, Trans Honourable Soc Cymmrodorion, new ser, 10, 4156Google Scholar
Jones, T 1960. ‘A Welsh chronicler in Tudor England’, Welsh Hist Rev, i (1960–3), 117Google Scholar
Lloyd-Morgan, C 2001. ‘From Ynys Wydrin to Glasynbri: Glastonbury in Welsh vernacular tradition’, in Carley (ed) 2001, 161–77Google Scholar
McNulty, R 1972. Lodovico Ariosto's ‘Orlando furioso’. Translated into English Heroical Verse by Sir John Harington, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Mead, W E 1925. The Famous Historie of Chinon of England, by Christopher Middleton, to which is added The Assertion of King Arthure, translated by Richard Robinson from Leland's Assertio inclytissimi Arturii, together with the Latin original, Early Engl Text Soc, orig ser, 165, LondonGoogle Scholar
Morgan, P 1971. ‘Elis Grufudd of Gronant – Tudor chronicler extraordinary’, Flintshire Hist Soc J, 25, 920Google Scholar
Musgrave, W 1719. Belgium Britannicum in quo limites, fluvii, urbes…, LondonGoogle Scholar
Parsons, J C 2001. ‘The second exhumation of King Arthur's remains at Glastonbury, 19 April 1278’, in Carley (ed) 2001, 179–83Google Scholar
Pierce, H 2004. ‘Margaret Pole (1473–1541)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 44, 706–9, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Piggott, S 1985. William Stukeky: An Eighteenth-century Antiquary, 2nd edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Prescott, A L 2004. ‘Michael Drayton (1563–1631)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B), 16, 894–8, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Radford, C A R and Cox, S J 19541955. ‘Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist, 99/100, 106–13Google Scholar
Rivet, A L F and Smith, C 1979. The Place Names of Roman Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Simpson, J 1980. British Dragons, LondonGoogle Scholar
Speed, J 1676. Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Starkey, D 1998. ‘King Henry and King Arthur’, Arthurian Literature, 16, 171–96Google Scholar
Stow, J 1604. Summarie of the chronicles of England diligently collected, abridged and continued unto this present year of Christ, 1604 by John Stow, LondonGoogle Scholar
Stow, J 1631. Annales, or a general chronicle of England. Begun by John Stow, continued and augmented with matters forraign and domestique, unto the end of this present yeere 1631. By Edmund Howes, Gent., LondonGoogle Scholar
Stukeley, W 1724. Itinerarium Curiosum, or, An account of the antiquitys and remarkable curiositys in nature or art, observ'd in travels thro’ Great Brittan, 1st edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Summerson, J 1966. The Book of Architecture of John Thorpe in Sir John Soane's Museum, Walpole Society, 40, LondonGoogle Scholar
Thomas, C 1969. ‘Are these the walls of Camelot?’ and ‘The quest for Arthur's Britain’, Antiquity, 43, 2730 and 138–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toulmin Smith, L (ed) 1907. The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543, Parts I to [XI], I, LondonGoogle Scholar
Vinaver, E (ed) 1967. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, 2nd edn, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Watts, V 2004. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Watkiss, L and Chibnall, M 1994. The Waltham Chronicle, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Westrem, D S 2001. Hereford Map: A Transcription and Translation of the Legends, with Commentary, TurnhoutGoogle Scholar