According to medieval legends, there was a Trojan migration to Britain several generations after the Trojan War. For centuries, the British believed this legend wholeheartedly. Today, most scholars dismiss it as medieval fiction. However, a new book presents an argument that this legend actually has a firm basis in fact.
The legend of Brutus and the Trojan migration to Britain
The legend that there was a migration of Trojans to Britain first appears in full in the Historia Brittonum. This is a text about the history of the Britons. It was written by a Welshman around the year 830.
According to this document, Aeneas of Troy and his family migrated to Italy after the Trojan War. This part of the legend also appears in ancient Greek and Roman records. After Aeneas came Ascanius and Silvius, both of whom also appear in ancient sources.
However, according to the Historia Brittonum, Aeneas’ grandson or great-grandson was named Brutus. After tragically being responsible for the deaths of his parents, he was exiled. He traveled around part of the Mediterranean for a while, but then he and his band of followers arrived in Britain and settled there, founding a new kingdom. His descendants were named Britons in his honor, and the island was called Britain for the same reason.
The Trojan kings of Britain: Myth or history?
April 2024 saw the release of a new book which examines this legend, entitled The Trojan Kings of Britain: Myth or History? This book makes the case that the key reason why most scholars today dismiss this legend as fiction is because of a chronological mistake concerning Brutus.
Based on the fact that Brutus supposedly lived only a few generations after Aeneas, this would apparently place him around 1100 BCE. Modern sources regularly claim Brutus does not appear in any record prior to the Historia Brittonum, making it obvious that he is fictional.
However, there are some issues with this conclusion. As The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights, the Historia Brittonum actually calls Brutus a Roman consul. In fact, it describes him directly as the “first to hold the consulship.” This would identify him as Lucius Junius Brutus, a figure who appears in many ancient Roman records.
Confirming this is the fact that the Historia Brittonum provides an alternative genealogy for Brutus. This alternative tradition places Brutus several generations after Numa Pompilius, a king who likely lived in the seventh century BCE.
The historical Brutus of Troy
What this means is that the Brutus who appears in the Historia Brittonum was not invented by the writer of that document. Rather, he is simply a distorted version of the historical Lucius Junius Brutus. This Brutus really was the first to hold the consulship, and he really did live a few generations after Numa Pompilius.
This would mean that the supposedly fictional Brutus of Troy was not fictional at all. He really existed, and, in fact, he is very well attested to in the ancient Roman sources. He lived in the second half of the sixth century BCE.
How does this harmonise with the tradition that Brutus lived just a few generations after Aeneas? The book The Trojan Kings of Britain points out that many genealogies in medieval British documents are demonstrably abbreviated. Therefore, there is no reason why this could not also be the case with Brutus.
More significantly, however, the book highlights how modern research and discoveries support the conclusion that the Trojan War occurred centuries after the traditional date. In fact, the earliest records on the founding of Rome actually place Aeneas just a few generations before Lucius Junius Brutus, too.
The Trojan migration to Britain
Having established that the legendary Brutus of Troy was really nothing more than the historical Lucius Junius Brutus, the book The Trojan Kings of Britain investigates whether or not there is any evidence for a migration from Italy to Britain around 500 BCE.
To be clear, the legend does not claim that Trojans migrated directly from Troy to Britain after the fall of their city. As we have seen, the claim is that Brutus and his men traveled from Italy to Britain. The Trojan connection only exists inasmuch as the Romans believed themselves to be Trojan descendants.
Furthermore, the legend of Brutus also states that he settled in Gaul (France) for some time before moving on to Britain. With this in mind, we would expect to see evidence of Italics settling in Gaul around 500 BCE. Sometime shortly after, we would expect to see evidence of whatever new Italo-Gallic culture resulted from that migration spreading across to Britain.
Evidence of Italics in Gaul
The book The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights evidence that Italics (alleged Trojan descendants) did settle in Gaul around 500 BCE. This was exactly when the La Tène culture emerged among the Celts in Gaul. Scholars acknowledge that the style which characterizes the La Tène culture is based on Etruscan art.
Furthermore, the La Tène Celts used Etruscan chariots. They also buried the chariots in the graves of the elite class just like the Etruscans did. In addition, they created statues in the Italic style and placed them above or outside elite graves, as per an early Etruscan custom.
The graves themselves were square or rectangular in shape in contrast to the circular mounds used in the pre-La Tène era. This may relate to the fact that the houses of the Gallic Celts were rectangular, and it was an Etruscan custom to style tombs on the houses of the living.
This is just some of the evidence for an Italic migration to Gaul around 500 BCE that The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights. There is also evidence from the culture, language, and religion of the La Tène Celts.
Across to Britain
Shortly after the La Tène culture emerged in Gaul, there is evidence it spread to Britain. For example, the fifth-century BCE saw the arrival of La Tène artifacts in Britain. More significantly, the practice of elite chariot burials spread to Britain by at least as early as 450 BCE. Most scholars agree this was a result of a migration of a warrior elite class from Gaul, although there continues to be debate over the size of the migration.
In any case, the book The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights evidence that a warrior elite class traveled from Italy and settled in Gaul circa 500 BCE and then continued on from there to Britain shortly after. In this way, it can be argued that the archaeology confirms the legend of Trojan descendants migrating to Gaul and then Britain in the time of Lucius Junius Brutus.
