Kings and Queens of England: Brutus

Brutus is one of the legendary monarchs of pre-historical Britain – that is, Britain before any credible recorded history became available. There may have been some kind of a Brutus in some distant history but, if there were, he is unlikely to have shared any of the features or events attributed to him by, most famously, the early English chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey wrote the Historia Regum Britanniae in around 1136 CE and his intention was to provide a solid basis for the origin and provenance of the British people. In common with people from many other countries, British people of the past were gratified to believe that they were, however distantly, descendants of the noble Brutus of Troy and, hence, part of the great historical tradition outlined by the epics of Homer and Virgil. The story of Brutus also lent some religious justification for the home of the British since it was supposed that he at one stage during his wanderings came across a Temple of Diana and, dropping off for a nap there, was visited by the goddess who informed him where he should start his new nation. Such stories as these are useful to help people justify their ownership of a particular piece of land, legitimize (if necessary) their effort to expel other people (who may in fact be the indigenous people) and offer religious backing for the use of violence to prevent anyone else taking up residence there.

In any case, Geoffrey gives us a Brutus who is a grandson of Ascanius, who was himself the son of the great Trojan prince Aeneas who was forced to wander the Mediterranean looking for a home as a result of the successful Greek siege of the city. As a child, it was prophesied of Brutus that he would be a great man but would also cause the death of both of his parents – well, his mother died in childbirth but it seems a little unfair to blame any child for that. His father is supposed to have been killed in a case of mistaken identity when the boy was in the vicinity. Brutus is then bereft and goes off on his own, eventually coming across a group of leader-less Greeks and he persuades them to follow him – he is also given a Greek wife, Ignoge, although women seem to play minor roles in his life. After visiting the Temple of Diana, Brutus then leads his band to Britain and establishes his seat there in a place now occupied by London. He ruled as king for more than twenty years and, after his death, his kingdom was divided among his three sons in a way that will remind some readers of King Lear.

Brutus of Troy is not the same as Brutus Greenshield, who is another legendary king of Britain but in this case from a native British heritage and a hero of quite a different stripe.