Chester

by Brian Edward Rise

Town of Roman origin on the Dee river. The "Deeside Camp" or Devana Castra was an army base nearby. The name eventually was shortened to Chester, or "the Camp." Cair Legion, or City of the Legion is the name given to Chester in the Annales Cambriae which would make it the location of Arthur's ninth battle from the list in the Historia Brittonum.

Due to the distance of Chester from the early settlements of both Angles and Saxons, some argue that a scribal error in the battle list included a seventh century battle fought at Chester and that Arthur could not have fought the enemy here. However, Gildas asserts that during the Anglo-Saxon revolt in the mid-fifth century CE Anglo-Saxon raiding ranged all the way across Britain to the Irish Sea. A battle at Chester could fit into this time-frame and would support an early Arthur.

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