'A matter to none but the men of the Island of Britain'. Historical revisionism and the assertion of Brittonic primacy in Breudwyt Maxen Wledic

Abstract

abstract:The short Middle Welsh prose tale Breudwyt Maxen Wledic is a work brimming with historiographical significance. Much of this interest revolves around the tale's title character Maxen, a figure based upon the late antique Roman tyrant Magnus Maximus, who was raised to imperium by his soldiers in Britain before pursuing power on the continent. Maximus appears in genealogical tracts as a means of imbuing native dynasts with an imperial heritage, and Breudwyt Maxen is generally understood as an extension of that foundational impulse. In contrast, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the composer of the tale intentionally rendered a negative characterization of Maxen, minimizing his accomplishments and his efficacy as a leader, while simultaneously inflating the roles of the Brittonic characters in the text. In doing so, the tale recontextualizes the Roman past of contemporary Wales, attributing tangible remains of Roman military occupation embedded in the landscape instead to Brittonic prowess and ingenuity. Such ideological work may represent a desire on the part of the compiler to respond to trends in twelfth- and thirteenth-century English historiography, particularly Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose De gestis Britonum recounts a version of the Maxen tale as part of a larger narrative of Brittonic decline and sovereignty loss. Breudwyt Maxen, then, may be read as an effective rejoinder to narratives of Brittonic abasement.