THE SCENE: King Vortimer was a British hero who played a key role in resisting the Saxon takeover of Britain. His patriotism and valor, however, were not enough to convince his countrymen to carry out his dying wish.
THE TEXT: As soon as he had won this victory, Vortimer started to hand back to the inhabitants of Britain the possessions of which had been removed from them. He treated them with affection and honour, and, at the request of St Germanus, restored their churches. A certain evil spirit which had found its way into the heart of his stepmother Renwein immediately became envious of this virtuous behavior of his and inspired her to plot Vortimer’s death. Renwein collected all the information she could about noxious poisons and then, by the hands of one of his servants whom she had first corrupted with innumerable bribes, she gave Vortimer a poison to drink.
The moment that famous warrior had swallowed it, he was seized with a sudden debility which left him no hope of survival. He immediately summoned all his soldiers to his presence, told them that he was dying, and shared out among them his gold and silver and whatever else his ancestors had accumulated. When the soldiers wept and wailed, he consoled them by saying that the road down which he was about to travel was the way of all flesh. He exhorted these brave young warriors, whose habit it had been to do battle at his side in his wars, to fight for their country and to do their utmost to defend it from hostile invasion.
Then an extremely bold idea came to him: he ordered a bronze pyramid to be constructed for him and set up in the port where the Saxons usually landed. After his death his body was to be buried on top of this, in the hope that if the barbarians saw his tomb they would reverse their sails and hurry back to Germany. None of them, he said, would dare to come near, once they set eyes on his burial-place. How great was the courage of this man, who was determined to be feared after his death by those whom he had terrified during his lifetime! However, once he really was dead, the Britons did quite differently, for they buried his body in the town of Trinovantum.
– Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, 12th Century AD
