More information : (ST 50093885) King Arthur's Tomb. The position of the tomb in which the supposed remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were finally deposited after their viewing in 1278 by King Edward and Queen Eleanor, was discovered during excavations in 1934. The facts and conclusions about King Arthur's alleged burial at Glastonbury seem to be as follows:
King Arthur's tomb and remains are reputed (on the authority of 12th century historians Ralph of Coggeshall and Giraldus Cambrensis, and of 13th century Glastonbury monk Adam of Domerham) to have been found in 1191 in the old cemetery of the monastery, accompanied by an inscribed leaden cross (seen and illustrated by Leland, in Britannia, 1607; but unfortunately lost in the 18th century) commemorating either Arthur alone (Ralph of Coggeshall, Adam of Domerham, Leland) or Arthur and Guinevere (G, Cambrensis). The monks in fact carefully reburied two bodies, and in 1278 disinterred them again and exhibited them to Edward I as those of Arthur and his consort. They were reburied again in a tomb in front of Glastonbury high alter which was broken up at the Reformation and the bones lost. The whole business is best explained as an elaborate monastic fraud based on some anonymous remains and exploiting Arthur's popularity after publication of Geoffrey of Monmouth's `Historia Britonum' in the mid 12th century. Ralegh Radford considers that the epigraphy of the cross inscription is 10th century and might have been a later version of the inscription on a 6th century memorial stone discarded when tidying up the cemetery in the 10th century, but he does not dismiss the possiblity of an insufficiently skilled 12th century forgery which could antiquate its letter forms no further back than the 10th century. (1-3)
Addtional reference - leaden cross (4) |