THE SCENE: The British king Elidurus came to power after his brother Archgallo was deposed for his tyrannical ways. Elidurus proved to be a highly moral and just king. His conscience, though, came back to bite his subjects when Elidurus felt so bad for his brother that he conspired to give him back the crown.
THE TEXT: When Elidurus had been King for some five years, he came upon his deposed brother one day when he was hunting in the Forest of Calaterium. Archgallo had wandered about through certain of the neighbouring kingdoms, seeking help so that he might recover his lost honour. He had found no support there and, coming to the point where he could no longer bear the poverty which had overtaken him, he had returned to Britain with a retinue reduced to ten knights. He was travelling through the above-named forest, seeking those whom he had in earlier times called his friends, when his brother Elidurus came upon him unexpectedly. The moment he saw him, Elidurus ran up to him, embraced him and kissed him repeatedly. When he had spent some time lamenting the misery to which Archgallo was reduced, Elidurus took him to one of his cities called Alclud and there he hid him in his own bedroom.
He then pretended to be ill and sent messengers through the kingdom for a whole year to request the princes under his jurisdiction to come visit him. They all assembled in the town where he lay and he ordered them each in turn to come into his bedroom without making a sound, saying that if they came in a crowd the noise of so many voices would make his head ache. Each believed his story and obeyed his order, entering his house one after the other. Elidurus ordered his servants, who had been forewarned of this, to seize each man as he came in and to cut off his head if he would not swear allegiance a second time to his brother Archgallo.
Elidurus submitted them all in turn to this treatment and by playing on their terror reconciled them to Archgallo. When this oath had been ratified, Elidurus led Archgallo to York and there he took the crown from his own head and placed it on that of his brother. It was for this reason that he was called the Dutiful, because of the brotherly love which he had shown towards Archgallo. The latter reigned for the next ten years, but without reverting to his earlier evil behavior.
– De Gestis Britonum, Geoffrey of Monmouth, 12 Century AD
