One of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s goals in writing The History of the Kings of Britain appears to be the establishment of a noble history for the British people. Covering nearly 2,000 years, Geoffrey’s text concerns a wide variety of historical aspects, such as laws, the geography of the land, the religious character of the people, the prized virtues of Britain, historical figures, politics, warfare, and myth. The amalgamation of these historical components creates a rich historical identity for the British people that in turn, creates the illusion of a unified British race (as opposed to a mix of several cultural groups) based on the continuous succession of the crown. The King, therefore, functions as a rallying figure: around the figure of the king, especially Arthur, a national identity is created for the British people.
Additionally, while Geoffrey is clearly interested in establishing a specifically British history, he is also concerned with placing the history of Britain within the larger trajectory of world history. Thus, we learn that the British people descend from the great Trojan people, and at different times Geoffrey mentions other significant events happening on the world stage, such as the founding of Rome (87) or the birth of Christ (119). By providing this context, Geoffrey effectively conveys to the reader the undeniable importance of the British people in world history. Britain, Geoffrey tells us, is one of the world’s supreme cultures, it responds to and influences world events, and it produces kings that rival any Caesar or Charlemagne.
It seems clear that Geoffrey is out to create a noble British history. Yet, why is this an important undertaking for Geoffrey circa 1137? According to at least one scholar, Geoffrey is participating in a 12th-century trend. During the first half of the 12th-century, Orderic Vitalis began to compile the history of the Norman people, Anjou boasted both the Gesta Consulum Andegavensium and the Historia Andegavensis, Flanders had the short history Genealogia Comitum Flandriae, the French produced Hugh of Fleury’s Historia Francorum, and the English continued the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[1] It appears that many of Geoffrey’s neighboring cultures—Normandy, Anjou, Flanders, France and England—were busy preserving their historical and cultural identities by composing historical accounts of their people. Geoffrey himself is amazed that no such thorough history of Britain exists. As he laments in his dedication, “Whenever I have chanced to think about the history of the kings of Britain, on those occasions when I have been turning over a great many such matters in my mind, it has seemed a remarkable thing to me that, apart from such mention of them Gildas and Bede had each made in a brilliant book on the subject, I have not been able to discover anything at all on the kings who lived here before the Incarnation of Christ, or indeed after the Incarnation. Yet the deeds of these men deserve to be praised for all time”(51). Clearly, Geoffrey believes that his text responds to this great lack of a thorough written account of British history. By penning the account himself, Geoffrey creates a noble history for the British people that rivals the accounts of his neighboring cultures.
[1] See J.S.P. Tatlock, “Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Motives for Writing His ‘Historia,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 79, No. 4 (1938).
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