Elidurus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elidurus was a legendary British king, whose alleged fate Geoffrey of Monmouth described in his Historia Regum Britanniae (3rd book, chap. 17ff.), A historically highly unreliable account of English history, written around 1136 .

Accordingly, Elidurus was the third son of King Morvidus and was raised to the throne after his very tyrannical older brother Archgallo was overthrown . After five years of reign he met his fallen brother by chance on a hunt in the forest, relinquished his throne and forced the nobles of his kingdom to recognize Archgallo as king again. For this extraordinary testimony of brotherly love, he was nicknamed the pious or the virtuous . In contrast to his previous administration, Archgallo now ruled fairly and died after ten years in power. Elidurus then came back to the throne, but after a few years his younger brothers Ingenius and Peredurus overthrew him by military means, imprisoned him in Trinovantum (allegedly the earliest name of London ) and divided the kingdom among themselves. More than seven years later, after the death of his younger brothers, Elidurus was freed from his subjects and was now able to rule Britain for the third time - and this time in peace. He behaved extremely righteously and remained king until his death. He was followed by an unnamed son of his eldest brother Gorbonianus .

literature