Chapter 1

Chapter 1
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Where from this Arthur, noble king,

Whence Celtic voices proudly ring?

Did Judah’s daughter softly sing,

To Roman fatherhood did bring?

 

 

Chapter 1:  King Arthur’s People

 

 

            King Arthur lived approximately AD 475 - 542, and was the High King of the Britons, who were by that time a mix of the Celtic, British, and Roman people of the British Isles.  He had several castles, one of the chief ones being called, in the French language, Camelot.  Practically every region of the British Isles claims him today.  It seems every researcher declares his castles, and especially the chief residence, to be in different areas.  I’ll happily leave that argument to them, and touch on some other areas that they don’t discuss much.  Was Arthur a real person?  Was he a real king?  Yes, and yes.  Who were his people and where did they come from?  Let’s take a small step back in time and see exactly who he was.

 

Arthur’s Pedigree

            Arthur was a descendant of the famous Celtic King Caradoc, called Caractacus by the Romans.  He descended from the Israelite, Joseph of Arimathea; the British, Old King Coel; and the Roman, Constantine the Great.  So how did the Celts come to intermarry with the Israelites, British, and Romans?

            According to the ancient British histories, the Britons came to the Isles about 1130 BC, with the arrival of a man named Brut, Brute, or Brwt.  Almost nothing is known about this important event.  It is so vaguely mentioned, that many historians discount it entirely.  However, it is in line with the royal genealogies.

            An Israelite mining colony was established in 1000 BC, or before, in the area of present-day Cornwall, in southwestern England.  King Solomon is mentioned as being linked with this tin mine.  Solomon also owned a lead mine, and although its location is unknown, there was an important lead mine near the tin mine. 

            Before Arthur’s people were called Celts, they called themselves Cymry or Cimmerians.  Archaeologists say they have found evidence of them as far back as 600 BC in the British Isles, and further back in Europe.  Does this indicate they were in central Europe first and migrated west?  Quite likely.  The Celts or Gaels were in Spain, Britain, France, Scandinavia, the Alps, and some say in Russia and even in northern India, as far back as the seventh century BC.

            Historians say the Celts were once spread out across the entire continent of Europe, but were gradually driven west by the Germanic peoples, who were also Celtic tribes.  Eventually, Arthur’s tribe, the Belgae, lived only in the British Isles and in northwestern France. 

In the eighth century BC the city of Rome was established, and by the fifth century BC the Romans began to explore and then to invade, not only the entire Mediterranean area, but also Europe and eventually Britain as well.  The Romans sought, not to push other people out, but to rule them, and therefore to tax them.  In the fourth century BC, Celts moved into northern Italy, sacked Rome, and established Galatia in present-day Turkey. 

            The Romans invaded Britain in 55 BC, but were unable to sustain an occupation.  They returned in force in AD 43.  The army left permanently in AD 410, when Rome was again threatened by invaders - Celts, in fact.  However, many Romans had married Britons during these centuries, and many of them and their descendants chose to stay in Britain.  By the time Arthur was born about AD 475, the Germanic peoples, called Anglo-Saxons, already had a foothold in southeastern Britain.  Within a hundred years, Arthur’s tribe was relegated to the western part of the islands.  Nowadays, the Welsh are believed to be the surviving descendants of Arthur’s Celts.

 

Israelites in Britain

            These three groups - Britons, miners, and Celts - were all closely related peoples, although the merging was not necessarily peaceful.  By 500 BC, these appear to be of one culture, which showed characteristics of all three groups.  Descendants of Brut were still ruling; the mines were still making the descendants of Solomon rich in Israel; and the Druidic priesthood oversaw all the Celts from Ireland to India.  Joseph of Arimathea and his small group were welcomed into the area from Jerusalem in AD 36.  By the time of King Arthur, hundreds of years later, these people were beginning to self-destruct.  It was the loss of their own religion that did more to destroy them than did both the Roman and Saxon invaders.  But those stories will come a little bit later.

            The British founder, Brut, was a refugee prince from the city of Troy about the time of its destruction.  This would have been about 1183 BC.  Romulus and Remus were credited with the founding of Rome, and were also claimed to be descendants of survivors of Troy.  So where did the city of Troy come from?  Dardanus, a grandson of Judah, is named in the royal genealogies as the founder of Troy.  Does this mean that both the Romans and the Britons are Jews?  “Not so fast!” say modern historians, “There’s not enough evidence yet!”  Both ‘histories’ are thought likely to have been invented (by different cultures and at different times) merely to give Roman and Celtic peoples the supposed right to rule.  Fascinating!  Did the ancients believe that claiming to be Jews, or descendants of Judah, would give them more authority? 

            Just what authority did Judah have?  We need to take a giant step back in time and understand exactly who Judah was.  Let’s start at the beginning.

Chapter 2

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