Ambrose Aurelian

Ambrose mentions Guild in his work “On the Perdition of Britain” and speaks of him with respect as the leader of the Britons who defeated the Saxons, and it is mentioned that his parents “ ... dressed, no doubt, in purple ... ” were killed, and the descendants still rule, although " ... degenerated from grandfather kindness ... ". Of the descendants of Ambrose, Gilda mentions Aurelian Canin , convicting him of the betrayal of the ideas of his ancestors and the outbreak of a fratricidal war. Judging by the words of the Guild, Aurelian Kanin was the last of the Aurelian family: " ... you are left, I say, alone, like a drying tree in the middle of a field ... " ^[4] . Misfortune the Venerable wrote about Ambrosia Aurelian as well as about the “venerable husband” ^[5] .

When the Visigoths invaded Rome, the Roman legions left Britain. But probably not all warriors returned to the continent. The guild, who wrote more than a hundred years after these events, testifies: “... The brutal robbers (that is, the Saxons ) returned home. The remnants of the unfortunate inhabitants began to gather from different directions ... In order not to be completely destroyed, they took up arms and opposed their winners under the leadership of Ambrosia Aurelian. He was a respectable husband, the only one of the Romans who survived the storm in which his parents died . ” By “storm” here is meant the revolt of the Saxons against the British, during which the country was ruined.

Ambrose is mentioned in the essay attributed to the bard Taliesin , “The Graves of Warriors” (Englynnion Y Bedeu), written in three verses in the form of “ Englyn milwr”. The poem is contained in the Black Book of Carmarthen . Ambrose is dedicated to the 14th stanza, preserved in the Peniarth 98B manuscript , in which it appears immediately under three names: Ann ap Lleian ( Wall. Ann ap Lleian ), Ambrose ( Wall. Emmrys ) and Merlin Ambrose ( Wall. Merddin Emmrys ). In the first name, “Lleian” can be translated as “nun”, thus Wall. Ann ap Lleian can be translated as "Ann, the son of a nun," ( Eng. Ann son of the Nun ) ^{[7] [8]} .

Ambrose Aurelian - a possible prototype of the legendary King Arthur or Merlin . One way or another, he appears in almost all sources related to Arthur.

At Nennius the name of Ambrose is mentioned for the first time in connection with the fears of Vortigern even before the arrival of the Saxons:

Gwortigirn reigned in Britain then, and while reigned he trembled before the Picts and Scottes, Ambrosia and the Romans feared

- Nenny. History of the Britons

The chronicler Nennius names the younger Ambrosia in Welsh Embreis Guletic. In his History of the Britons, young Ambrosius shows miracles of foresight before the British king Gwortigirn ( Vortigern ). Their meeting takes place at the foot of the Herer Mountains ( Snowdon ), where once there was a fortification called "Dinas Emrys" - "Ambrosia Fortress". According to legend, when Vortigern first tried to erect this fortress, in one night it was destroyed by unknown forces. Sorcerers advised to appease evil spirits by sacrificing to them a boy born without a father. This boy turned out to be Ambrosius. Instead of obediently sacrificing, he shamed the sorcerers and revealed to the king the true reason for his disasters: at the place where Vortigern tried to build a fortress, a sign is kept in the ground for him: two painted dragons, from which the scarlet defeats the white. This symbolizes the victory of the Britons over the Saxons. As a reward, Vortigern not only spared the young man, but also awarded him with a knighthood and lands. The Chronicle of Nennius clearly confuses the two characters: although everyone considers Ambrose “miraculously born without a father,” the young man himself claims to be the son of a Roman consul ^{[10] [11]} .

Galfrid of Monmouth Ambrosius has Uncle Arthur, brother and predecessor to the throne of Britain by his father Uther . Galfrid considered Aurelian the son of Constantine III , who proclaimed himself emperor of Britain. He also retells the legend of the youth's prophecy with the same details, but in his version it is not Ambrosius, but a completely different person - the future wizard Merlin .

Galfrid's contemporary, William of Malmesbury , calls Aurelian "... the last surviving Romans to become monarch after Vortigern suppressed arrogant barbarians with the help of Arthur ... ".

Ambrosius, the sole survivor of the Romans, who became monarch after Yortigern, quelled the presumptuous barbarians by the powerful aid of warlike Arthur.

- William of Malmesbury. Chronicle of the Kings of England, London: Henry G Bon. York street. Covent Garden. 1847

The fourteenth-century Scottish chronicler, John Fordansky , in his Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, outlines the information gathered from the Guilds and the Troubles about Aurelian, but adds that for the exile of the Anglo-Saxons he went to an alliance with Constantine, king of the Scottes, and made an attempt to form a similar alliance with Dorstan, the king of the Picts. However, he was ahead of Khengist, the king of the Saxons, who managed to send ambassadors to the Picts first. Thus formed two alliances - the Britons and the Scottes against the Saxons and Picts. The British alliance with the Scottes continued after the death of Constantine, with his nephew Kongale. ^[12]

The historian of King James VI, Richard Burton , in The History of the Scottish Kingdom reports with reference to the Scottish chronicles that Aurelian nevertheless managed to conclude an alliance with the Picts, and moreover, that after the defeat of Hengist, he married the daughter of the King of the Picts. ^[13]

According to some historians ^[3] , there were two Ambrose Aurelian, father and son. The first of them died in the late 440s, in enmity with Worthingern. It is assumed that Gilda writes about him, referring to the tragic death of Aurelian's parents and he is mentioned in Colofon Eliseg ^[14] , as the Roman king killed by Wortingern, and this is also mentioned by Nenny when he writes that Worthingern was afraid of him and that he participated in the in 437. The son is precisely that Ambrose, who according to Guild and William of Malmesbury became the winner of the Anglo-Saxons. It is assumed that he was born several years before the death of his father.