Arthur I, Duke of Brittany

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

While Richard was away on the Third Crusade, Constance took more independence for Brittany, and in 1194 had the young Arthur proclaimed as its Duke.

When Richard died in 1199, his brother John immediately claimed 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 excuse for John, who invaded France in 1202.

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

The puzzle of his disappearance gave rise to various stories. One account was that Arthur's jailors 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.

William de Braose did rise high in John's favor after Arthur's disappearance, so much so that he was suspected of complicity, and indeed many years later, after difficulties with John, William's wife Maud de Braose directly accused the king of murdering Arthur, which resulted in Maud and her eldest son being imprisoned and starved to death therein. William escaped to France, where he was supposed to have published a statement on what happened to Arthur, but no copy has been found.

Arthur in literature

The murder of Arthur is a vital ingredient in Shakespeare's history play King John. 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 and intermittently enjoyable 'alternative history' novel by the eccentric English writer Frederick Rolfe ('Baron Corvo'), entitled Hubert's Arthur, posthumously published by A.J.A. Symonds 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 underSimon 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 Catholic anti-semitism, which draws upon the myths of Christian boys martyred by Jews, such as St. Hugh.

Arthur 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. The lyrics may be found here. (Note : the words of the song are in Middle French and seem to come from an anonymous manuscript, probably dating from the 1400s)

Preceded by: Constance	Duke of Brittany 1194–1203	Succeeded by: Guy
Preceded by: Richard	Count of Anjou 1199–1203	Succeeded by: —

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