Brutus

by Brian Edward Rise

The great grandson of the Trojan Aeneas, according to a jumbled Welsh legend in the Historia Brittonum. Brutus led a group of wandering Trojans to Britain, then called Albion, in the twelfth century BCE. Geoffrey of Monmouth greatly expands the story saying that the island was renamed Britain and the people Britons after Brutus.

Several works based upon Geoffrey use Brutus in their titles, namely Wace's Roman de Brut and Layamon's Brut along with several Welsh chronicles, since Brutus is credited with starting Britain's legendary monarchy that goes all the way through Arthur.

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