Henry Treece’s The Great Captains

Henry Treece’s The Great Captains was published in 1956. It belongs to his Celtic Tetralogy of historical novels.

As well as being a poet Henry Treece (1911-1966) was a prolific British writer of historical fiction, some of it aimed at children and some being for adults.

The Great Captains is very much historical fiction for adults. It deals with the King Arthur story but ignores the idealised romanticised approach taken by medieval sources (such as Malory) and by later writers. It is an attempt to write a realistic account of what might have happened.

It’s unlikely that King Arthur actually existed but the legends may have some historical basis. He may have been based (perhaps very loosely) on one or more actual historical figures.

Treece’s novel cannot be appreciated with taking into account the historical background. Britain became a Roman province under the Emperor Claudius in 43AD. The province became very Romanised culturally. In 410AD, with the western empire beginning to crumble, the Roman legions were withdrawn and Britain was left to fend for itself. By the later stages of the occupation Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Arthur supposedly lived about a century after the Romans abandoned the province by which time the gradual conquest by Germanic tribes such as the Angles, Jutes and Saxons was well under way.

In his novel Treece assumes that the Christianisation of Britain was fairly superficial and that a gradual reversion to paganism was taking place.

Ambrosius is an old man, almost blind. He is the Count of Britain which makes him the emperor’s representative and gives him nominal authority over the various petty kinglets. By this time no-one even knows if there still is an emperor. He is accompanied everywhere by a young man, Medrawt (Mordred), who believes himself to be Ambrosius’s chosen successor. At that time Ambrosius will hand him his sword, a symbolic mystical act which will make him the new Count of Britain.

The journey to the west apparently with the idea of asserting Ambrosius’s authority over the western kings. During a feast at the court of Uther Pendragon Uther’s son Artos the Bear (who is of course Arthur) seizes Ambrosius’s sword and thrusts it into a log. Artos challenges any man there to draw the sword from the log. Medrawt tries and fails. Artos succeeds. To his own considerable surprise Artos is now Count of Britain.

It is at this point that Artos starts to believe that he has a destiny. He begins the pursuit of his dream. That dream is to unite the British kingdoms, re-establish Roman civilisation in Britain and drive out the Saxons. Pursuing a dream can be a good thing or a bad thing. For Artos it will prove to be both.

Artos has a son by Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere) and is as a result in disgrace owing to the fact that that Artos and Gwenhwyfar have the same father.

There is more than one Gwenhwyfar in this tale.

Artos pursues his dream. Medrawt, felling that his own destiny has been snatched from him, broods. Battles are fought and won. Sometimes victory is sweet, sometimes it is bitter. Perhaps the dream never was achievable and yet Artos makes it a reality. Perhaps it should have remained a dream. And perhaps Artos has no choice other than to pursue it.

There’s no magic in this story, apart from one very brief scene involving Merlin. This is however a world in which concepts such as destiny and omens are seen as very real. Treece understands that the past is in many ways an alien civilisation.

Artos/Arthur’s religious beliefs are uncertain. He seems to be tempted to return to belief in the old gods of paganism. His motivations are vaguely mystical rather than religious. He is also certainly ambitious and his belief in his own destiny and his belief in Britain’s destiny are not clearly separated in his mind.

Artos/Atthur is a hero, but a flawed and tragic one. Maybe he’s simply attempting the impossible, trying to recreate a golden past that has been irretrievably lost.

This novel was written in 1956 so it’s slightly ironic and slightly sceptical approach (with a dash of cynicism) was refreshing at that time and deconstructing myth and history had not yet become such a dominating and tedious approach.

The Great Captains is superb historical fiction and is very highly recommended.