Ambrosius Aurelianus
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Ambrosius Aurelianus was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas. He also appeared independently in the legends
Illustration of Emrys Wledig from a 15th-century manuscript of Brut y Brenhinedd (the Historia Regum Britanniae translated into Welsh)
Vortigern
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Vortigern, also spelt Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, known perhaps as a king of the Britons or at least connoted as such in the writings of Bede. Hi
Ambrosius Aurelianus
…brother of Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, as a ruler who precedes and predeceases them both. He also appears as a young prophet who meets the tyrant Vortigern; in this guise, he was later transformed into the wizard Merlin. Ambrosius Aurelianus is one of the few people whom Gildas identifies by name in his…
Meeting of Vortigern and Rowena painted by William Hamilton
Vortigern's Tower in a 14th century illuminated manuscript of Wace's Roman de Brut
Merlin reads his prophecies to King Vortigern. British Library MS Cotton Claudius B VII f.224, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Prophetiae Merlini.
Illustration in a fifteenth-century manuscript of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136). Vortigern and Merlin watch two dragons fighting. The red dragon represents the British and the white one the Saxons.