King Budic III of Brittany, Brother-in-Law of King Arthur

There are several figures in the Arthurian legends who can correctly be referred to as King Budic of Brittany. However, one of them had a particularly close relationship with Arthur, in that he was Arthur’s brother-in-law. We will call him Budic III. What do we know about the connection between this Budic and Arthur? Can Budic be identified as a historical figure? Do we know anything about his career? This article will examine the answers to those questions and others.

Who Was King Budic III of Brittany?

King Budic III was a king of Brittany in the Arthurian legends. He first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, written in c. 1137. In this text, he is the father of a king named Hoel. About these figures, Geoffrey writes:

“Hoel was the son of Arthur's sister by Budicus, king of the Armorican Britons.”

According to this, Budic’s wife was a sister of King Arthur, and their son together was this Hoel. Budic himself is called a king of the Armorican Britons. Unfortunately, Geoffrey does not reveal the name of this sister of Arthur’s.

Some later records claim that she was Gywar, but this is contradicted by the weight of tradition. Gywar, in fact, appears to have been a completely different sister of Arthur’s. She was the wife of Lot of Lothian and mother of Gawain, making her much too young to have been the wife of Budic and mother of Hoel.

In fact, it seems that there is actually no source anywhere which gives a name for Budic’s wife that can plausibly be understood as the unnamed woman mentioned by Geoffrey.

The Third Budic

The reason for referring to this Budic as ‘the Third’ is because there are two previous figures in records about early medieval Britain who also had that name. In fact, both of them are also recorded as kings of Brittany.

The first one of these two earlier kings is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth as well. He is the king of Brittany who takes in Aurelius Ambrosius (Arthur’s uncle) and Uther (Arthur’s father) when they have to flee Britain as children.

On this basis, Budic I must have lived long before Arthur’s time, being of the generation of his grandfather if not even earlier.

The second Budic was much closer to Arthur’s time, but it appears that he was not the one who is mentioned in the Arthurian legends. He appears in the Life of St Melor, written in the eleventh or twelfth century. He is recorded as being the father of Meliau and of a daughter who married Count Conomor. This would place the birth of Budic before the turn of the sixth century.

Indeed, there is a record of Budic slaying a chieftain called Marchell, who is likely the same as a certain Marchil recorded as besieging Nantes in about 497. Thus, the birth of this Budic is generally placed in c. 480.

On the other hand, the Budic who appears in the Arthurian legends as the brother-in-law of King Arthur would logically have been of the same generation as the British king, indicating that they would have been born at about the same time.

Given the evidence for Arthur being active well into the sixth century (contrary to the dates seen in the Annales Cambriae, which are likely mistakenly backdated by about thirty-three years), this would suggest that the Budic who married his sister was born around c. 500.

Thus, there is good evidence for identifying King Budic of Brittany, the brother-in-law of King Arthur in the Arthurian legends, with the third Budic of Brittany.

The Historical Budic III of Brittany

King Budic III is one of the rare Arthurian characters who can be identified with some confidence with a historical figure. The fact that Budic is said to have married a sister of Arthur suggests that he had connections to South Wales, since that is the region with which Arthur is most strongly associated.

Furthermore, as we have seen, the familial connection between this Budic and King Arthur suggests that they were born at about the same time, or around the year 500.

On the basis of these two pieces of evidence, it is very likely that Budic III can be identified with a figure who appears in a twelfth-century record known as the Life of St Oudoceus. This record tells the story of the life of the titular religious figure, whose father was named Budic.

Based on the chronological details provided in this record, scholar Peter Bartrum concluded that this Budic would have been born in c. 500. As we can see, this is a perfect match for when Budic the brother-in-law of King Arthur should have been born.

This same Budic of the Life of St Oudoceus is also said to have spent some time in South Wales, which strengthens the connection between the two figures.

Based on this chronological information about Budic the father of Oudoceus, Bartrum went on to suggest that he may well be the same as a king of Brittany named Bodic who is mentioned by Gregory of Tours, a sixth century historian. This historical King Bodic is presented by Gregory as dying in c. 570. Scholar Rachel Bromwich also supported this identification.

The location, the name, and the chronology are all consistent with identifying this historical King Bodic with the King Budic who appears in the Life of St Oudoceus.

Therefore, it is very likely that we can identify King Budic III of Brittany, the legendary brother-in-law of King Arthur, with the historical King Bodic of Brittany from the sixth century and the King Budic who appears in later records as the father of Oudoceus. This basic conclusion was supported by Bromwich, in contrast to Bartrum, who regarded Geoffrey’s Budic as entirely fictional.

Family

The fact that we can likely identify the legendary Budic with these two independently-attested Budics helps us to fill out a lot of information about his family.

Parents

Nevertheless, the one big question mark surrounding Budic is his lineage. What we do know is that, at least according to the Life of St Oudoceus, his father’s name was Cybrdan. However, nothing is known about Cybrdan himself.

The aforementioned Life tells us that Budic was a member of royalty, but that is all the information that it provides. The fact that he is described as having a fleet is also consistent with this.

However, with the explicit information we have, we can reasonably deduce a few facts. Firstly, the fact that Cybrdan does not appear in any record as the king of Brittany suggests that he never had that status.

Secondly, in contrast, the fact that Budic was chosen to be the new king after the death of the previous king suggests that he was not a distant prince. Rather, he must have been fairly close to the throne.

Likely Lineage

Therefore, the most reasonable suggestion would appear to be that Cybrdan was the brother of the previous king of Brittany. This would allow Budic to have been close to the throne while also explaining why Cybrdan does not appear as a king of Brittany anywhere.

The unnamed king of Cornouaille whom Budic succeeded appears to have died around c. 540, going by the date of the birth of Oudoceus (broadly following the dates in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints: Fifth Edition). Therefore, we are looking for a king who ruled for much of the first half of the sixth century.

Since the native territory of Budic is explicitly said to have been Cornouaille, and that was the territory over which he became king, his father Cybrdan cannot have been the brother of King Ionas. While the chronology is mostly consistent, Ionas was a king of Domnonee, not Cornouaille.

Ionas had married the daughter of the previously-discussed Budic II, who is recorded as the king of Cornouaille. Nothing is known of this Budic which would extend his rule past 540.

Therefore, the most likely conclusion is that Cybrdan was the brother of Budic II. This would perfectly accommodate the dates of both Budic II (c. 480) and Cybrdan’s son, Budic III (c. 500). It would also accommodate the use of the name ‘Budic’, since names were often reused within dynasties.

This would make Budic III the grandson of a king of Cornouaille called Daniel.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no information at all about the mother of Budic III.

The King Whom Budic III Succeeded

It is worth clarifying that it is unlikely that Budic III directly succeeded Budic II. That is, Budic II does not appear to have been the king who died just before Budic III returned to Brittany and was made king. The reason for concluding this is that there is reason to believe that Budic’s own children also fled to Dyfed at about the same time as Budic III.

The basis for this conclusion is as follows: The Life of St Paul of Leon states that Samson and Iudual, a king of Brittany, were cousins. Thus, Samson was somehow related to the kings of Brittany. His father, Amon, is identified in later tradition as Annun ap Emyr Llydaw (a generic title for the king of Brittany). Given Samson’s alleged relation to the kings of Brittany, this is plausible.

The mother of Iudual and wife of Ionas is recorded as being a daughter of Budic II. Thus, for Iudual and Samuel to have been cousins, it makes a great deal of sense for Samson’s father, Amon, the son of ‘Emyr Llydaw’, to have been the son of Budic II.

Amon and his brother, however, are described in the Life of St Samson (an early and valuable hagiography) as residing in Dyfed as court officials of the king of that region.

The fact that Amon and his brother, likely the sons of Budic II, were in Dyfed in the first half of the sixth century serving as court officials of the king of that country is consistent with little else other than that they were exiles there, just as Budic III is said to have been.

This suggests that Budic II was not responsible for the exile of Budic III, the son of Cybrdan, for it makes little sense for him to have also exiled his own sons.

Budic II is recorded as having a brother named Maxentius, and he is recorded as being deposed by Tewdrig, a king of southeast Wales, around the year 500. Thus, in view of all the facts, the most plausible conclusion is that Maxentius took the throne back for himself at some point, thus driving out Budic III and the sons of Budic II.

Thus, King Maxentius of Brittany is the most likely candidate for the king whom Budic III succeeded.

Children

In the Arthurian legends, the only son assigned to Budic III is Hoel. This son’s name also appears as ‘Hywel’ and ‘Howel’. He was a powerful king, apparently as a subking under his father, and one of Arthur’s greatest allies. He can likely be identified with Hoeloc, recorded as the father of Leonorius and Tudual.

However, the information from the Life of St Oudoceus and Gregory of Tours reveals that Budic III had other sons as well. From the former, we learn that he was the father of Ismael, Tyfei, and Oudoceus, all of whom are recorded as saints, prominent religious figures.

From the latter, the writings of Gregory of Tours, we learn that he had a son named Theuderic. He was the successor of Budic. This indicates that Hoel died before the end of his father’s rule, hence why Gregory does not mention Hoel as Budic’s successor.

The fact that Hoel had siblings does not contradict what Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote. Although he does not make it explicit, he does tell us that Hoel had a niece. She must have either been a daughter of a sibling of Hoel, or otherwise a daughter of a sibling of Hoel’s wife.

Wives

It would appear that Budic had at least two wives. The basis for this conclusion is that, as mentioned earlier, Budic’s son Oudoceus was evidently born in c. 540. However, since Hoel was involved in some of Arthur’s battles against the Saxons (which the Historia Brittonum strongly implies continued until the reign of Ida of Bernicia, which began in c. 547), Hoel must have been born long before that.

The gap between the birth of Hoel and the birth of Oudoceus must have been so great as to almost certainly require two different wives for Budic.

Therefore, Hoel would have been the son of Budic’s first wife, with Oudoceus being the son of his second wife.

Budic’s Second Wife

This second wife is explicitly identified in the Life of St Oudoceus as Anauued (also spelt ‘Anawfedd’). She is described as the daughter of Ensic, elsewhere recorded as the father of Teilo. This would make Oudoceus, born to Budic and Anawfedd, the nephew of Teilo, which is exactly what the Life says that he was.

The mother of Anawfedd, meanwhile, was an otherwise unknown woman named Gwenhaf the daughter of the equally-unknown Liuonui.

As well as being the mother of Oudoceus, Anawfedd was also the mother of Budic’s two older children, Ismael and Tyfei.

Budic’s First Wife

Regarding the first wife, the mother of Hoel, Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us directly that this was a sister of King Arthur. Unfortunately, he does not tell us who this sister was, nor does any subsequent source provide us with a plausible identity.

The only name provided to her in some sources is Gywar, but the weight of tradition shows that this was actually the name of a much younger sister of Arthur, the sister who married Lot of Lothian and became the mother of Gawain and Mordred.

This first wife, whose name we cannot know, was probably also the mother of Theuderic, the successor of Budic. The reason for stating this is that Theuderic is not mentioned among the children of Budic and Anawfedd.

Career

By combining the information from a variety of records, we can reconstruct a fairly detailed account of Budic III’s life and career.

Marriage to Arthur’s Sister

Let us begin with what is chronologically the earliest information available about him. As claimed by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Budic married the sister of King Arthur. He was evidently young at the time, probably being no more than twenty years of age.

Budic and his unnamed wife had a child named Hoel. At some later date, they likely had a son named Theuderic.

During this period, Budic was not a king of Brittany, but was only a prince. It would appear that his father, Cybrdan, was also a prince, likely being the brother of King Budic II of Cornouaille.

Exile

For unstated reasons, Budic III was driven out of his country. Since he only returned upon the death of the king of Cornouaille, it seems to be a reasonable assumption that it was the king who forced his exile.

While we can only speculate, perhaps a dynastic struggled emerged between Maxentius and Cybrdan. Since Maxentius had been deposed at some point in the early sixth century by Tewdrig, he would have had good reason to attempt to get his lands back. This likely led to Budic III and his cousins, the sons of Budic II, fleeing the country.

 As per the Life of St Oudoceus, Budic III fled to South Wales. Specifically, he went to Dyfed, the western part of the country. He stayed there during the reign of Aircol Lawhir, king of that region. Eventually, he took a wife for himself and had two sons with her, Ismael and Tyfei.

Ascendency to the Throne

After an unstated period of time, which evidently lasted at least several years, the king of Cornouaille died. This was most likely Maxentius. The brother of Maxentius, Budic II, had either died naturally by this time, or he was killed during Maxentius’ overthrow.

In any case, the death of Maxentius left a dynastic problem. Thus, messengers were sent from Brittany to request that Budic III return and become their new king. As we have seen, he was most likely the nephew of the two previous kings, Budic II and Maxentius. Thus, he was a logical choice for their successor.

Whatever his exact relation to them, Budic III returned to Brittany with his family and became the king of Cornouaille. At the time, his wife was pregnant with Oudoceus. She gave birth to him after they arrived back in Brittany.

Help from Teilo

The Life of St Oudoceus does not provide us with any further information about Budic. However, this is not the only Life that he appears in. He also appears in the Life of St Teilo, which was written at about the same time.

According to both Lives, Teilo and many others from southern Britain fled to Brittany to escape the effects of a terrible plague known as the Yellow Plague, or the Yellow Pestilence. While there, the Life of St Oudoceus informs us that Teilo met his nephew Oudoceus and brought him back to Britain.

However, the Life of St Teilo provides us with more information about what happened during the period in which Teilo was away in Brittany.

After the worst effects of the plague had passed, Teilo decided that it was time for him and the rest of the Britons to go back to Britain. This greatly distressed Budic, who did not want to lose such a great religious leader. He went to Teilo with a large army and bowed down to him, pleading for him to stay.

The specific reason given by Budic was that his country had recently been attacked by a great serpent. It is later identified as a dragon. Teilo then approached the monstrous serpent and miraculously led it to the sea.

This is not the only medieval account about a dragon with a ‘pestiferous breath’ terrorising Brittany in the sixth century. It seems very likely that these accounts are all related to one or more of the plagues and comets reported by Gregory of Tours.

Appointment of Teilo

Even so, Budic wanted Teilo to stay. Thus, he approached Teilo with a large body of troops and Bishop Samson of Dol (perhaps the most prominent bishop in Brittany at that time) and pleaded with him to remain.

As an incentive, Budic offered to Teilo the position of bishop of Dol. Teilo accepted, having been told to do so by an angel in a dream.  Thus, Teilo became the new bishop of Dol in the place of Samson.

Interestingly, this same account appears in Geoffrey’s Historia Regum Britanniae. It is presented as happening around the same time as Arthur’s special coronation, over twelve years after his victory at Badon.

The only difference between the two accounts is that Geoffrey presents this appointment as being made by Hoel, the son of Budic. This is not necessarily a contradiction. It can simply be understood as being a case of a subking and an overking being involved in the same event. Similarly, the Book of Llandaff reports that one donation of land was given by King Meurig on behalf of his son Athrwys.

Death and Succession

According to the information provided by the contemporary historian Gregory of Tours, the death of King Bodic (that is, King Budic III) occurred in c. 570. This probably happened quite soon after the previously-mentioned event.

When he died, his surviving son (not including those who had gone on to live religious lives) was Theuderic. Budic had made a mutual oath with another Breton king, Macliau, to defend the sons of whichever one of them died first.

Despite this oath, Macliau drove Theuderic out of the country after Budic’s death. There is reason to believe that Theuderic fled to Dyfed like his father had decades before him. In any case, Theuderic was able to reclaim the kingdom in 577, thus continuing his father’s dynasty.

Budic III in Welsh Records

Budic III is mentioned in Welsh records, although not with any prominence. He only ever appears in Welsh texts as the patronymic of Hoel, usually called Hywel. However, his name ‘Budic’ is not used. Instead, the name used for this Budic is Emyr Llydaw.

This is actually a title, which translates to ‘Emperor of Brittany’. The word ‘Emyr’ appears to be related to the Latin ‘imperator’. It can also be used in the lesser sense of ‘king’ or even ‘lord’. Meanwhile, ‘Llydaw’ was one of the names for Brittany used in medieval texts.

Thus, ‘Emyr Llydaw’ is a purely descriptive title, and there is no reason to conclude that it was only ever used for Budic III. In fact, there is evidence that it was also used by Budic II, since he is the best candidate for the father of the figure known in Welsh records as Annun ap Emyr Llydaw.

Emyr Llydaw appears in numerous genealogical records, but it is only in his role as the father of Hywel (Hoel) that we can identify him with any confidence as Budic III.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Budic III was a king of Brittany in the sixth century. According to the Arthurian legends, he was the brother-in-law of King Arthur, having married Arthur’s sister. The name of this sister is, unfortunately, a mystery. The son of this union was Hoel, a prominent ruler of Brittany who aided Arthur in his wars.

This Budic can definitely be identified with Budic ap Cybrdan. His father Cybrdan was most likely never king himself, but was probably the brother of kings Budic II and Maxentius, making Budic III their nephew. He can also be identified with the King Bodic mentioned by Gregory of Tours.

Sources

Bartrum, Peter, A Welsh Classical Dictionary, 1993

Bromwich, Rachel, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, 2014

Davies, John Reuben, The Book of Llandaf and the Norman Church in Wales, 2003

Baring-Gould, Sabine and Fisher, John, The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain – Volume I, 1907

Budic

Hoel