Hi Roxana,

Although writing a generation afterward, the period of Saxon stagnation occurred during his own lifetime. IF there was a period of peace overseen by Arthur then I can't see why he wouldn't be named - he would be the dominant figure of his time. He only talks about one person from that period in terms that are in any way complimentary - and that's Ambrosius Aurelianus. I appreciate that there were political reasons for naming some, and castigating others, but the omission of Arthur would seem at odds with the rest of the Excido. There is certainly nothing that hints at a recent high kingship (an institution that doesn't appear in Britain, only in Ireland).

This is the relevant text:

"After a certain length of time the cruel robbers returned to their home. A remnant, to whom wretched citizens flock from different places on every side, as eagerly as a hive of bees when a storm is threatening, praying at the same time unto Him with their whole heart, and, as is said, Burdening the air with unnumbered prayers,that they should not be utterly destroyed, take up arms and challenge their victors to battle under Ambrosius Aurelianus. He was a man of unassuming character, who, alone of the Roman race chanced to survive in the shock of such a storm (as his parents, people undoubtedly clad in the purple, had been killed in it), whose offspring in our days have greatly degenerated from their ancestral nobleness. To these men, by the Lord's favour, there came victory.

<TRADITIONAL PARAGRAPH BREAK>

From that time, the citizens were sometimes victorious, sometimes the enemy, in order that the Lord, according to His wont, might try in this nation the Israel of to-day, whether it loves Him or not. This continued up to the year of the siege of Badon Hill, and of almost the last great slaughter inflicted upon the rascally crew. And this commences, a fact I know, as the forty-fourth year, with one month now elapsed; it is also the year of my birth.
But not even at the present day are the cities of our country inhabited as formerly; deserted and dismantled, they lie neglected until now, because, although wars with foreigners have ceased, domestic wars continue."

To me this reads as one continuous section - and it is noteworthy that the point is made that the cities are deserted because of continuing war among the British. This does not, to me, imply a period of peace. It simply states that Ambrosius Aurelianus manages to present a united front against the Saxons. The implication is that, after Badon, whatever coalition of forces AA managed to forge fell apart.

Pete

God is our guide! from field, from wave, From plough, from anvil, and from loom; We come, our country's rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction's doom: We raise the watch-word liberty; We will, we will,we will be free!