Two daies together how the battel tronglie tood:
Pendragon’s worthie son, who waded there in blood,
Three hundred Saxons slew with his own valiant hand.”
It is a truly marvellous account which is given of Arthur’s valorous conduct at the battle of Badon. Wearing his breastplate, his gold helmet with the dragon device upon it, and taking his sword Excalibur, his spear Ron, and his shield Pridwen, he first received a blessing from the Bishop Dubritius and then headed his force against the Saxons, who received the attack in a wedge-formation, as was their custom. The issue of the battle long remained in doubt. The fighting was of the most desperate character on both sides, and at the close of day the Saxons had the advantage. Next morning the contest was resumed, Arthur storming the mount and being at a disadvantage by having the lower position. His personal example, however, fired his troops with courage. Drawing his sword and uttering the name of St. Mary he rushed among the enemy and dealt such strokes that a man fell each time. In all 470 Saxons lay dead as the result of that terrific onslaught, and the Britons rushing in at the right moment completed the Saxon rout. This was the end of a long campaign which had taken Arthur through Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, and Somerset. The date of the battle, as is usual with Arthurian dates, cannot be fixed. It is given by different chroniclers as 493, 511, as 516 in the Annales Cambriæ, and as 520.
It is surprising that Badon[23] should remain vague and undefined, when the sites of some of the other and less important battles are in most cases not dubious and are easily ascertained. We know, for example, that Barham Down, or Barendowne, the scene of one of the last encounters with Mordred, was near Canterbury; and the fact that thereabouts was an Anglo-Saxon cemetery may either be testimony to the fact, or may have suggested to the chroniclers the likelihood of its being an ancient battlefield. Mr. Ritson traced the localities of the other Arthurian struggles to the banks of the Glen in Lincolnshire and of the Duglas in Lancashire; he thought Bassas might be Bashford in Staffordshire, though others favour Boston in Lincolnshire; Cathbregion was in Somersetshire, and so forth. Of these battles we have no details in Malory. On the other hand, we have a long account of the expedition to Italy undertaken by Arthur against the Emperor of Rome after the latter had presumed to demand tribute from him. His complete humiliation of the Emperor’s subjects is, of course, insisted upon. Prisoners were taken in large numbers and compelled to become Christians; a duchess besought him to spare the women and children, and Arthur thereupon issued magnanimous orders; the keys of cities were brought to him by young men, and his march through northern Italy was one continuous triumph. “Then he rideth into Tuscany,” says Malory in his most laconic style, “and winneth towns and castles, and wasted all in his way that to him will not obey.” Finally the senators offered him allegiance, and the noblest cardinals in Rome came voluntarily to him and “prayed him peace.” Arthur accepted their gifts, and decided to hold his Table Round, “with my knights as we liketh,” in Rome at Christmas. Then, having been crowned by the Pope “with all the royalty that could be made,” he apportioned the realms among his knights and servants, and returned to England, landing at Sandwich,[24] where the queen and a large company were waiting to receive him. King Arthur, his knighthood, his undefeated warriors, and his almost miraculous battles, are perhaps more a theme for the poet than for the historian. Such lines as Lytton’s accord with the romance, and realise the aspirations of the unsubjugated tribe and of those who sang its fame and prophesied its future triumph.
“Rings Owaine’s shout,—rings Geraint’s thunder-cry,
The Saxon’s death knell in a hundred wars;
And Cador’s laugh of triumph:—through the sky
Rush tossing banderolls swift as shooting stars,
Trystan’s white lion—Lancelot’s cross of red,