EBK Activity Sheets

 


De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae
The Last Remaining Book written in King Arthur's Time.


De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae - © Nash Ford Publishing
 
  • This was a book written in Latin by the British hermit and writer, St. Gildas.
  • The title is also in Latin. It is pronounced 'Day Ex-id-ee-oh et Con-quest-oo Brit-ann-ee-eye'. It means 'The Ruin & Conquest of Britain'.
  • Gildas said that he wrote it 44 years after the Battle of Mount Badon. This was supposed to have been a famous victory for King Arthur over the Saxons.
  • We don't know when this battle took place. Historians think it was sometime around AD 500.
  • De Excidio was a religious book. In it, Gildas had a big moan about the state of Britain since the Roman Army had left. He told all the people in charge and the priests in the British Church what a bad job they'd made of things.
  • Gildas also wrote, in this book, about things that happened in Britain before and during King Arthur's time. He wrote about:
    • The 'proud tyrant' who was called 'Vortigern' by a later Anglo-Saxon writer named Bede
    • King Ambrosius who led the Britons
    • The Battle of Mount Badon (though he does not mention King Arthur)
    • Five local kings who were ruling in Britain at the time he was writing. He did not like them.
  • Activity Sheet available.

 

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