5.13. Arthur is resisted by Mordred the vsur|per from arriuing in his owne land, they ioine battell, Gawaine is slaine and his death lamented by Arthur, Mordred taketh flight, he is slaine, and Arthur mortallie wounded, his death, the place of his buriall, his bodie digged vp, his bignesse coniec|turable by his bones, a crosse found in his toome with an inscription therevpon, his wife Guenhera buried with him, a rare report of hir haire, Iohn Lelands epitaph in memo|rie of prince Arthur. The xiij. Chapter.

Arthur is resisted by Mordred the vsur|per from arriuing in his owne land, they ioine battell, Gawaine is slaine and his death lamented by Arthur, Mordred taketh flight, he is slaine, and Arthur mortallie wounded, his death, the place of his buriall, his bodie digged vp, his bignesse coniec|turable by his bones, a crosse found in his toome with an inscription therevpon, his wife Guenhera buried with him, a rare report of hir haire, Iohn Lelands epitaph in memo|rie of prince Arthur. The xiij. Chapter.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 3 4 5 _KIng Arthur at his returne into Britaine, found that Mordred had cau|sed himselfe to be made king, & hauing alied himselfe with Cheldrike a Sax|on (not him whome Galfride, as ye haue heard,Rather Cer|dicke as Le|land thinketh. supposeth to haue béene wounded & slaine before) was readie to resist his landing, so that be|fore he could come on land, he lost manie of his men: but yet at length he repelled the enimies, and so tooke land at Sandwich, where he first arriued, and ioining in battell with his enimies, he discomfited them, but not without great losse of his people: speciallie he sore lamented the death of Gawaine the brother of Mordred, which like a faithfull gentleman, regarding more his honour and loiall truth than néerenesse of bloud and coosenage, chose rather to fight in the quar|rell of his liege king and louing maister, than to take part with his naturall brother in an vniust cause, and so there in the battell wa slaine, togither also with Angussell, to whom Arthur afore time had com|mitted the gouernment of Scotland. Mordred fled from this battell, and getting ships sailed westward, and finallie landed in Cornwall King Arthur caused the corps of Gawaine to be buried at DouerGawaine bu|ried at Douer (as some hold opinion:) but William Malmesburie sup|poseth, he was buried in Wales, as after shall be shewed. The dead bodie of Angussell was conueied into Scotland, and was there buried. When that Ar|thur had put his enimies to flight, and had know|ledge into what parts Mordred was withdrawne, with all spéed he reinforced his armie with new sup|plies of souldiers called out of diuerse parties, and with his whole puissance hasted forward, not resting till he came néere to the place where Mordred was incamped, with such an armie as he could assemble togither out of all parties where he had anie friends. ¶Héere (as it appéereth by Iohn Leland, in his booke intituled, The assertion of Arthur) it may be douted in what place Mordred was incamped: but Geffrey of Monmouth sheweth, that after Arthur had discomfi|ted Mordred in Kent at the first landing, it chanced so that Mordred escaped and fled to Winchester, whi|ther Arthur followed him, and there giuing him bat|tell the second time, did also put him to flight. And fol|lowing him from thence, fought eftsoones with him act a place called Camblane, or Kemelene in Corn|wall, or (as some authors haue) néere vnto Glasten|burie.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 This battell was fought to such proofe, that finallie Mordred was slaine,Richard Tur|ner. with the more part of his whole armie, and Arthur receiuing diuers mortall wounds died of the same shortlie after, when he had reigned ouer the Britains by the tearme of 26 yéeres. His corps was buried at Glastenburie aforesaid, in the churchyard, betwixt two pillers: where it was found in the daies of king Henrie the second, about the yeere of our Lord 1191, which was in the last yéere of the reigne of the same Henrie, more than six hundred yéeres after the buriall thereof. He was laid 16 foot déepe vnder ground, for doubt that his enimies the Saxons should haue found him. But those that dig|ged the ground there to find his bodie, after they had entered about seuen foot déepe into the earth, they found a mightie broad stone with a leaden crosse fa|stened to that part which laid downewards toward the corps, conteining this inscription:

Hîc iacet sepultus inclytus rex Arthurius in insula Aualoniae.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 This inscription was grauen on that side of the crosse which was next to the stone: so that till the crosse was taken from the stone, it was vnseene. His bodie was found, not inclosed within a toome of marble or other stone curiouslie wrought, but with|in a great trée made hollowe for the nonce like a trunke, the which being found and digged vp, was o|pened, and therein were found the kings bones, of such maruellous bignesse, that the shinbone of his leg being set on the ground, reached vp to the middle thigh of a verie tall man: as a moonke of that abbeie EEBO page image 92 hath written, which did liue in those daies, and saw it. ¶But Gyraldus Cambrensis (who also liued in those daies, and spake with the abbat of the place, by whom the bones of this Arthur were then found) affirmeth, that by report of the same abbat, he learned, that the shinbone of the said Arthur being set vp by the leg of a verie tall man (the which the abbat shewed to the same Gyraldus) came about the knée of the same man the length of three fingers breadth, which is a great deale more likelie than the other. Furthermore the skull of his head was of a woonderfull largenesse, so that the space of his forehead betwixt his two eies was a span broad. There appéered in his head the signes and prints of ten wounds or more: all the which were growne into one wem, except onelie that whereof it should séeme he died, which being greater than the residue, appéered verie plaine. Also in ope|ning the toome of his wife quéene Gueneuer, that was buried with him, they found the tresses of hir haire whole and perfect, and finelie platted, of colour like to the burnished gold, which being touched, im|mediatlie fell to dust. The abbat, which then was go|uernour of the house, was named Stephan, or Hen|rie de Blois, otherwise de Sullie,Henricus Ble|censis seu Soli|acenfis. Io. Leland. nephue to king Henrie the second (by whose commandement he had serched for the graue of Arthur) translated the bones as well of him as of quéene Gueneuer, being so found, into the great church, and there buried them in a faire double toome of marble, laieng the bodie of the king at the head of the toome, and the bodie of the quéene at his féet towards the west part. ¶The writer of the historie of Cambria now called Wales saith,Dauid Pow. pag. 238, 239. that the bones of the said Arthur, and Guene|uer his wife were found in the Ile of Aualon (that is, the Ile of Alpes) without the abbeie of Glasten|bury, fiftéene féet within the ground, & that his graue was found by the meanes of a Bardh, whome the king heard at Penbroke singing the acts of prince Arthur, and the place of his buriall.