It’s time to get back to the story line. Today, we’ll talk about King Arthur’s strategy for his campaign in Gaul. My previous short article, ‘King Arthur’s European Campaign‘, has an overview of the history and legend behind this campaign, and the article, ‘Why Did Anthemius Ally with the Britons?‘, discusses why the Roman Emperor would want to ally with King Arthur in Gaul.
Now, why would Arthur want to join the Romans in a war in Gaul? We can only guess at the reasons he would do this. I use the historical and legendary hints as the background for the novels of my series, The Arthurian Age. In short, it may have been equal parts altruism and hubris. Arthur was revered as the leader who led a resurgence of the Britons against foreign adversaries. Perhaps the success went to his head. Perhaps he saw it as a way to ensure the long-term security of Britain. The upcoming third novel in the series, Three Wicked Revelations, will delve into this question.
I wrote The Retreat to Avalon largely to explore the practical application of the theories behind the research of the eminent historian, Geoffrey Ashe, and focused on the core of the premise: the war in Gaul with the Visigoths. I found Geoffrey’s thesis entirely cogent, but having been involved in wartime operations, I wondered about the strategic, tactical and logistical problems that would be faced by a military leader in the 5th century. Was such an expedition even possible? What decisions led to the locations and events?
As you may know, I stick to history as we know it when writing my novels. The lack of direct proof of Arthur and his activities makes it impossible to know for sure if any of what I describe may have happened. But there are references to draw from history, and the legendary stories may have correlating hints. The rest has to be conjecture, but it must be plausible conjecture that doesn’t go against known history. So for the purposes of this article, we’re going to assume that King Arthur existed, that he was known as Riothamus to the Romans, and that the Battle of Déols was between Arthur and Euric, King of the Visigoths.
Sometime around 468 AD, King Arthur, basking in a British resurgence, gets a letter from the Roman Emperor, Anthemius, asking for an alliance against the Visigoths in Gaul. Arthur agrees to the alliance, and now has to develop a strategy for success in Gaul.
The Situation
At home the Britons are enjoying a measure of relative peace won after decades of bitter struggle. The Irish and Picts have given up on major incursions and only engage in minor piracy and occasional small raids. The Anglo-Saxons, while not pushed out of Britain, have been cowed to the point that their expansion has been stopped, and in many places reversed. Arthur believes that Britain is secure enough for him to mount a foreign expedition, as long as the British nobility don’t fall back into their quarrelling ways.
His ally, the Roman Empire, is a mess of political infighting, assassinations, and struggles to hold its borders. The eastern empire, under Leo I, isn’t always in synch with the western emperor, currently Anthemius. Both halves deal with high-level generals and politicians who have their own agendas that often are in conflict with their emperors’. The Eastern empire will be a source of trade and money, but no military help. Anthemius has promised money and an army to join Arthur.
Even though the empire still claims Gaul, it is effectively out of Rome’s control. The Visigoths control Spain and southern and eastern Gaul, virtually up the the Leger River (the Loire). Saxons control the city of Namnetis (Nantes) and the River Leger from the Atlantic nearly to Andecava (Angers). They also have settlements on coastal Armorica (around present-day Normandy).
Northern Gaul, including Armorica, is under the control of the barely-competent Syagrius, who became ruler after his father’s mysterious death a few years earlier. Syagrius is still closely aligned to Rome and promises to help Arthur. However, he has made a risky alliance with his Frankish neighbor to the north, Childeric I, and it remains to see what comes of that.
Spoiler: History finds it a decision Syagrius will regret.
Letavia (Brittany), on the westernmost tip of Armorica, is essentially an independent region of small British colonies loosely tied to the noble families of Britain. It doesn’t have enough of a population to draw an army from, but it is a reliable foothold in Gaul.
Western Gaul is held by the Burgundians, a Germanic tribe that Rome settled in the region as allies when they couldn’t be kept out of the empire any longer. Gundioc, their king, is friendly but unwilling to engage in war with the neighboring Visigoths.
North of Gaul, the Franks are growing in power. Arbogast controls the Roman city of Treveris (Trier), and while he claims to represent Rome, he is essentially independent and struggles to maintain his realm against the Franks and other Germanic tribes. He’s unlikely to be any help or hindrance.
The Mission
Anthemius is trying to bring parts of the western empire, lost to Germanic tribes, back under empire control. His joint expedition with Leo to retake the rich grainfields of North Africa from the Vandals ended in disaster, so he turned his eyes towards the Visigoths. Alternately allies and enemies, the Visigoths had essentially taken over Spain and Southern France. They claimed to be vassals of Rome, but acted independently and continued to expand their control, taking over eastern Gaul, nearly up to the Leger. To re-assert Roman control in Gaul, Anthemius wants Arthur to establish a foothold in the region south of the Leger, where both Visigothic and Roman control is thin. Arthur should try to avoid a major military confrontation with Euric until Anthemius and Syagrius are able to send reinforcements.
Execution, Support, and Command
Arthur estimates he can raise, supply and move an army of about 12,000 soldiers. A large army, but not out of the question for the era. This would be sufficient to gain his foothold and wait for the Romans to join him. Arthur figures he can get most of the troops by using his position as High King of the Consilium to beg, barter or bully the other rulers of the Romano-British kingdoms. This is also an opportunity to build alliances with the northern British kingdoms that are not members of the Consilium, namely Berneich, Alt Clut, Nouant, and the Gododdin. If he could convince, or more likely bribe, these kingdoms into joining the expedition, it would be a foot in the door to Arthur’s dream of unity among all Britons.
Arthur will have monetary support from the Empire and be able to gain supplies from the Roman populace he liberates from the Visigoths. For them, it’s mostly trading one tax collector for another, but at least Arthur isn’t Arian, and operates under Roman authority. Arthur will also get supplies from Syagrius. More importantly, Syagrius will supply an army, augmented by Frankish troops through his alliance with Childeric. Finally, Anthemius will bring a Roman army to join with Arthur and Syagrius, once the foothold is established. With their combined armies, they will be able to defeat Euric, return Gaul to Roman control, and reestablish normal trade routes.
Arthur tapped a place on the map. “Pictavis is ideally placed in terrain as a gateway between southern and northern Gaul. The walled city sits upon a strong position on a promontory over the river and would be ideal to hold while our allies advance from other points.”
The Retreat to Avalon, Chapter Nine
The ideal location for Arthur to establish his foothold and wait for reinforcements is Pictavis, modern Poitiers. The city’s strong position at a major geographic crossroads in Europe made it a vital strategic stronghold from Antiquity through the Medieval era. It is on the edge of the Visigothic zone of control, so not heavily garrisoned, and the Roman inhabitants are not fond of paying taxes to distant Arian Visigoths.
To get there, Arthur will have to get his army to Gaul and then to Pictavis. He doesn’t have a navy to speak of, nothing like the Romans had a century before, so moving the army to Gaul is his first challenge after raising the army. There is barely enough merchant shipping to handle the increase in trade, vital to raising money, so Arthur finds his ships in an unexpected way: he hires Saxons to transport his troops. After all, they were famed seafarers and happy to take anyone’s money. The Britons and Romans generally referred to any seafaring Germans as Saxons, and the Germanic tribes didn’t necessarily see themselves as allies of other Germanic tribes. In addition, any Saxons working for Arthur wouldn’t be raiding Britain.
Still, moving 12,000 troops, their equipment and supplies is a big undertaking. It would require between 200 and 300 of the sort of ships available to them. That wasn’t an option, so Arthur will move the troops to a staging point in Letavia, specifically Aletum, near modern Saint-Malo. This is a secure location in Gaul to gather his troops and supplies and make other preparations for the campaign, such as scouting and espionage. And as any good military commander knows, the last thing you want are bored soldiers standing around, looking for trouble. So as the troops gather, Arthur will send them on raids against the Saxon settlements in Armorica, to the east. It will give them combat experience as well as reduce the threat of Saxon attacks from there as the campaign proceeds.
There’s one more challenge for Arthur between Aletum and Pictavis: the Saxons of the Loire. According to the thin historical record, the Saxons controlled the Loire between the Atlantic Ocean and the city of Angers. There were many islands along the river for them to occupy, but they must also have controlled the walled town of Nantes. Supplying 12,000 soldiers and their mounts would require roughly 300 sheep worth of meat and 20 tons of grain, cheese, oil, salt, wine and other supplies, per day! If Arthur is going to cross the Loire and have secure lines of supply and communications back to Letavia and Syagrius, he’ll need to capture Nantes.
In 469, Arthur has his army assembled in Gaul and ready to move. He, Anthemius and Syagrius have put together a sound strategy. But as the old military maxim goes, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”.
We’ll see how that first contact went in the next post. Thanks for coming by, and as always, I love to hear from you in the comments.
