King Camber
Camber, also Kamber, was the legendary first king of Cambria, according to the Geoffrey of Monmouth in the first part of his influential 12th-century pseudohistory Historia Regum Britanniae. According to Geoffrey, Cambria, the classical name for Wales, was named for him.
Camber was the son of Brutus, and a descendant of Aeneas of Troy. Upon his father's death he was given Cambria, while his younger brother Albanactus got Alba (the territory corresponding to modern Scotland; from Welsh Yr Alban) and his older brother Locrinus received Logres (corresponding to England; from Welsh Lloegr) and the title of King of the Britons. When Albanactus was murdered by Humber, King of the Huns, Camber joined Locrinus in attacking and defeating him.
Like many of the characters reported by Geoffrey, Camber has no historical basis but is the product of Geoffrey of Monmouth's imagination, invented largely for political ends within the contemporary Anglo-Norman world.[1]
References
- ^ See for instance J. S. P. Tatlock's classic study, The Legendary History of Britain (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1950).
