Arthur I, Duke of Brittany

Arthur I (29 March 1187 – 1203) was Duke of Brittany between 1194 and 1203. The posthumous son of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany and Constance, Duchess of Brittany, he was designated heir to the throne of the Kingdom of England, originally intended to succeed Richard I.

Early life

While Richard I was away on the Third Crusade, Constance took more independence for Brittany, and in 1194 had the young Arthur proclaimed its duke as a child of seven years.

When Richard I died in 1199, his brother John immediately claimed the throne of England, but much of the French nobility refused to recognize him as king, preferring Arthur, who declared himself vassal of Philip Augustus. This was sufficient provocation for John, who invaded France in 1202.

English invasion and Arthur's capture

Philip II of France recognized Arthur's right to Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Poitou, Arthur having invaded the last-named. But on 31 July 1202 he was surprised by forces of King John of England while besieging Mirabeau, where he was holding his grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine hostage. Captured by John's Barons, Arthur was imprisoned at Falaise in Normandy, guarded by Hubert de Burgh. At this time his sister Eleanor was also captured and imprisoned at Corfe Castle in Dorset. The following year he was transferred to Rouen, under the charge of William de Braose, and then vanished mysteriously in April 1203.

Disappearance

The puzzle of Arthur's disappearance gave rise to various stories. One account was that Arthur's jailers feared to harm him, and so he was murdered by John directly and his body dumped in the Seine. The Margam annals provide the following account of Arthur's death:

After King John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time, at length, in the castle of Rouen, after dinner on the Thursday before Easter, when he was drunk and possessed by the devil (ebrius et daemonio plenus), he slew him with his own hand, and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine. It was discovered by a fisherman in his net, and being dragged to the bank and recognized, was taken for secret burial, in fear of the tyrant, to the priory of Bec called Notre Dame de Pres. {See Bec Abbey}.

William de Braose rose high in John's favour after Arthur's disappearance, receiving new lands and titles in the Welsh Marches, so much so that he was obviously suspected of complicity, and indeed many years later, after conflict with King John, William de Braose's wife Maud de Braose personally and directly accused the King of murdering Arthur, which resulted in Maud and her eldest son, also William, being imprisoned and starved to death in Windsor Castle. William de Braose escaped to France, where he was supposed to have published a statement on what happened to Arthur, but no copy has been found.

Legacy

In literature

The death of Arthur is a vital ingredient in Shakespeare's history play King John, in which Arthur is portrayed as a child whose innocence dissuades Hubert de Burgh from committing the murder demanded by King John. However, Arthur soon dies after jumping from his place of confinement in an escape attempt. In the 19th century the Breton poet Auguste Brizeux wrote of Arthur in La chasse du Prince Arthur.

He is also the principal character of a highly inventive alternative history novel by the eccentric English writer Frederick Rolfe ('Baron Corvo'), entitled Hubert's Arthur, posthumously published by A. J. A. Symons in 1935. The novel started as a collaboration between Rolfe and Harry Pirie-Gordon, but in the event the latter only supplied the copious heraldic details pertaining to the characters. This is presented as the lengthy narrative of the aged Hubert de Burgh, who is supposed to have saved Arthur's life and accompanied him on crusade to the Holy Land, where he becomes King of Jerusalem and eventually returns to England, defeats King John and kills his son Henry Plantagenet (the historical Henry III) in single combat. The remainder of the book details the prosperous reign of King Arthur, his defeat of the Barons under Simon de Montfort, and his eventual miraculous death. Of all Rolfe's novels this one has never been reprinted, no doubt because of the strong strain of anti-semitism, which draws upon the myths of Christian boys martyred by Jews, such as St. Hugh.

In the novel Saving Grace by Julie Garwood, the heroine finds documents relating to Arthur's murder, committed under the orders of King John, by two of King John's barons. She is married to a Scottish Laird, Gabriel MacBain, to escape England, but is harassed by both King John's barons, and the English faction hoping to take down King John; each party unsure of how much she knows.

In music

In 1912 the Breton composer Joseph-Guy Ropartz composed a symphonic poem, La Chasse du Prince Arthur (Prince Arthur's Hunt) after the poem by Brizeux. The Breton folk-rock band Tri Yann have made a song about Arthur's life.

References

• M. Dominica Legge, "William the Marshal and Arthur of Brittany", Historical Research, volume 55 (1982)
• F. M. Powicke, "King John and Arthur of Brittany", The English Historical Review, volume 24 (October 1909), pp. 659-674
• Tudor Place

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