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the south “called Wight” and one “between Ireland and Britain, called Eubonia, or

Man”; hence it was once known as “Britain and its three islands”.

Our final early historian is Geoffrey of Monmouth who wrote the History of the Kings
of Britain (De Gestis Britonum Regum Britanniae) around 1136. He also adds no new
geographical information, apart from mentioning the River Humber. He repeats some
of the above writers word for word. But his opening is striking: straight to the
promised land: “Britain, the best of islands. It provides in unfailing plenty everything
that is suited to the use of human beings.”

To sum up, the geographical prefaces to these histories are all very similar and
indeed borrow facts from their predecessors. All portray the offshore islands as a
promised land. like the Goldilocks story (not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not
too dry). Yet despite this, the tones and purposes of these histories are very
different.

Gildas is a preacher and complainer; his history, virtually a sermon, is written in
flowery language. He furiously attacks the post-Roman British kings of his day. Their
sinfulness has incurred a terrible punishment from God: the invasions of the Angles
and Saxons.

Bede is the consummate professional, careful in his use of sources and, as his title
suggests, he has a vision of a united country, a Christian England.

Nennius is a rag-bag historian, uncritically piling up his sources. He is mostly
remembered for being the first to actually name King Arthur (Gildas is the first to
refer to his battles but in his typically annoying way doesn’t name him).

Geoffrey of Monmouth is the great fantasist, a brilliant and influential writer but a
truly terrible historian. His fame rests on launching the mythical, visionary kingdom

of King Arthur. We will return to each of these historians later; Bede when we look at
the creation of England, Gildas, Nennius and Geoffrey to help us make sense of King
Arthur.

Having written their brief prefaces, these historians have nothing more to say about
the geography of Britain. They were all monks; they cared about the church and the
Godliness (or otherwise) of rulers. To them, history was shaped by God, not
geography. But all seemed to agree that the offshore islands were in several respects
some sort of promised land.