Main Menu | List of entries | finished

BRUT(ES). Brutus, grandson of Aeneas, was the legendary founder of Britain, named after him, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) I.4-15. Jean le Maire de Belges, in Illustrations de Gaul et singularités de Troie (c. 1506), says that the Bretons are descended from Brutus, first king of Brittany, reflecting Geoffrey's claim.

Chaucer addresses the Envoy of his Complaint to his Purse to the "conqueror of Brutes Albyon." "Albion" is the ancient Celtic name for Britain; the conqueror is Henry Bolingbroke, who deposed Richard II and became Henry IV in 1400. The word conquerour was used by Henry in the proclamation read at his election to the crown; a petition from All Souls MS 182 addresses Henry as "le gracious conquerour d'Engleterre."

Brutes, the ME genitive case of Brut, occurs in medial position, Purse, 22.


Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae, ed. J. Hammer, 25-34; ibid., History of the Kings of Britain, trans. L. Thorpe, 56-71; M.E. Giffin, Studies in Chaucer and his Audience, 89-106; M.D. Legge, "The Gracious Conqueror." MLN 68 (1953): 18-21; J. Seznec, Survival of the Pagan Gods, trans. B.F. Sessions, 24; Wace, Le Roman de Brut, ed. J.I. Arnold.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

Main Menu | List of entries | finished