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Constantine — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Saint Constantine

The historical Constantine of Dumnonia may have influenced later traditions, known in southwestern Britain as well as in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, about a Saint Constantine who is usually said to have been a king who gave up his crown to become a monk. The Cornish and Welsh traditions especially may have been influenced by Gildas, in particular his adjuration for Constantine to repent; the belief may have been that the reproach eventually worked.

The two major centers for the cultus of Saint Constantine were the church in Constantine Parish and the Chapel of Saint Constantine in St Merryn Parish (now Constantine Bay), both in Cornwall. The former was established by at least the 11th century, as it is mentioned in Rhygyfarch's 11th-century Life of Saint David. At this time it may have supported a clerical community, but in later centuries it was simply a parish church. The Chapel at Constantine Bay had a holy well, and was the center of its own sub-parish.

The Annales Cambriae (Welsh Annals) and the Annals of Ulster record the conversion of a certain Constantine; these may be a reference to the Cornish saint and therefore to the historical figure. Several subsequent religious texts refer to Constantine, generally associating him with Cornwall, often specifically as its king. The Life of Saint David says that Constantine, King of Cornwall, gave up his crown and joined Saint David's monastery at Menevia. The Vitae Petroci includes an episode in which Saint Petroc protects a stag being hunted by a wealthy man named Constantine, who eventually converts and becomes a monk. Here Constantine is not said to be king, but a 12th-century text referring to this story, the Miracula, specifically names him as such, further adding that upon his conversion he gave Petroc an ivory horn that became one of the saint's chief relics. A number of other traditions attested across Britain describe saints or kings named Constantine, suggesting a confusion and conflation of various figures.

Other sites in Southwestern Britain associated with figures named Constantine include the church of Milton Abbot, Devon; a chapel in nearby Dunterton, Devon; and a chapel in Illogan, Cornwall. The two Devon sites may have been dedicated instead to Constantine the Great, as local churches were subject to Tavistock Abbey, dedicated to Constantine the Great's mother Helena. In Wales, two churches were dedicated to Constantine: Llangystennin (in Conwy) and Welsh Bicknor (now in Herefordshire, England). The church in Govan, a parish in present-day Scotland, was also dedicated to a Saint Constantine.

Historia Regum Britanniae

Geoffrey of Monmouth includes Constantine in a section of his Historia Regum Britanniae adapted from Gildas. As he does throughout the work, Geoffrey alters his source material, recasting Gildas' reproved kings as successors, rather than contemporaries as in De Excidio. In addition to Gildas, Geoffrey evidently knew the Dumnonian genealogy essentially as it appears in Geraint and Enid and similar sources. He further adds a number of other details not found in earlier sources, identifying Constantine as a son of Cador, a Cornish ruler known in Welsh tradition as Cadwy mab Geraint. Notably, Geoffrey's Constantine is King Arthur's kinsman and succeeds him as King of the Britons. Norris J. Lacy and Geoffrey Ashe suggest Geoffrey made this Arthurian connection based on an existing tradition locating Arthur's birthplace in southwest Britain. However, noting that the earliest references place Arthur in northern Britain rather than the southwest, Rachel Bromwich considers the connection an arbitrary invention by Geoffrey, perhaps suggested by his earlier inventions of familial ties between Arthur and Constantine the Great and the Roman usurper Constantine III. Geoffrey calls Constantine Arthur's cognatus, or blood relative, but does not specify the exact relation, causing much confusion for later writers.

In Geoffrey, Arthur passes his crown to his relative Constantine after being mortally wounded by the traitor Mordred in the Battle of Camlann. Geoffrey identifies Gildas' "royal youths" as Mordred's two sons, who, along with their Saxon allies, continue their father's insurrection after his death. After "many battles" Constantine routs the rebels, and Mordred's sons flee to London and Winchester, where they hide in a church and a friary, respectively. Constantine hunts them down and executes them before the altars of their sanctuaries. Divine retribution for this transgression comes three years later when Constantine is killed by his nephew Aurelius Conanus (Gildas' Aurelius Caninus), precipitating a civil war. He is buried at Stonehenge alongside other kings of Britain.

Latin scholar Neil Wright considers Geoffrey's changes to Gildas to be deliberate reformulations that produce a more sympathetic picture of Constantine and his successors. For Wright, identifying the "royal youths" as traitors justifies the killing, reducing Constantine's offence from murder to sacrilege (for killing the traitors in sanctuary). Overall, scholars regard Geoffrey's depiction of Constantine as pessimistic, highlighting how little of Arthur's legacy survives his death.

Medieval romance and prose tradition

Constantine does not figure strongly in the Arthurian romance traditions or prose cycles. He is absent from the French Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles, in which Lancelot and his kin kill off Mordred's sons, and no successor to Arthur appears. Some scholars find this omission significant. Rosemary Morris suggests these versions downplay the issue of a designated heir to Arthur to heighten the stakes of Mordred's usurpation and to magnify Lancelot's role in the story. Richard Trachsler writes that the exclusion of an heir adds a sense of finality to the Arthurian story after Arthur's death.

Constantine does appear in some medieval works. In Jean d'Outremeuse's 14th-century Ly Myreur des Histors, Lancelot installs Constantine on the throne after Arthur's death. He is king of Britain in some versions of the Havelok the Dane legend, beginning with Geoffrey Gaimar's 12th-century Estoire des Engleis. He is also mentioned as Arthur's successor in the 14th-century English alliterative poem known as the Alliterative Morte Arthure, following Arthur's war with the Romans and his subsequent mortal battle with Mordred. Other English romances that reference Constantine in passing include the 14th-century The Awntyrs off Arthure and Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, written around 1400. Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos's 16th-century Portuguese novel Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Távola Redonda fuses Constantine with the ubiquitous Round Table knight Sagramore, creating "Sagramor Constantino", Arthur's son-in-law and heir. As king, he forms a new Round Table to defeat the old enemies and continue the glory of Arthurian Britain.

Constantine's relation to Arthur varies widely in these later works. Many works leave it unstated, while others follow the chronicles in making Constantine Arthur's nephew. Several romances, especially English works, cast him as Arthur's grand-nephew, with Cador being the son of a (generally unnamed) sister of the king.

Constantine also appears as Arthur's heir in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, including sections adapted from the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Malory makes several changes to his source material that expand Constantine's role. Malory has Arthur designate Constantine and Baldwin of Britain as regents before going off to fight the Romans, a role that the Alliterative Morte ascribes to Mordred. Eugène Vinaver suggests that Malory modelled this change after Henry V's appointment of John, Duke of Bedford and Bishop Henry Beaufort as regents. Others finds it likelier that Malory simply wanted to replace Mordred in the Roman war narrative. Malory also expands Constantine's role after Arthur's death, saying that he ruled honourably and restored the Bishop of Canterbury to his seat. Scholars note that this expansion closes the book on a much more optimistic note than Malory's sources, indicating that Arthurian ideals lived on under Constantine.