General Notes

Brutus left Italy, went to Greece then to the island called Alban whichhe called Briton.
Brutus of Troy, also of Britain (Welsh: Bryttys), was the legendaryfounding king of Britain and great grandson of Aeneas, according toGeoffrey of Monmouth. Exiled from Italy for the accidental killing of hisnatural father Silvius, Brutus liberated a group of Trojans living inslavery in Greece and led them forth, received a vision during thiswandering that he would found a kingdom in a land inhabited by giants,then after numerous battles in the region of the city of Tours in Gaul,he settled in Britain with the aid of his fellow Trojan Corineus, wherethey slew the giants living in that island. He is said to have foundedthe city Troia Nova, later named London. The Celtic tribe that dwelt inthe area of London was called the Trinovantes, and one early name of thecity named it after them. He created a code of laws for his people beforehis death. He reigned 23 years. By Ignoge he had three sons — Locrinus,Kamber, and Albanactus — whom on Brutus's death divided the islandbetween them.

Geoffrey fixes the time of his death with the statement that Eli waspriest in Judea and the Ark of the Covenant was captured by thePhilistines, the sons of Hector reigned in Troy, and Aeneas Silvius wasruling Alba Longa in Italy.

Although the Historia Britonum, from which Geoffrey drew the core of thisstory, claims Britain was named after Brutus, this personage has no basisin actual fact, and is generally considered a medieval fiction created toprovide a distinguished genealogy for one or more Welsh royal families.The Historia Britonum not only describes Brutus as a descendent of Troybut also places him in the Trojan genealogy, which he probably createdhimself to relate Troy to the Christian God.

Brutus became part of the Matter of Britain, a pseudo-historical accountof the events of that island, which was widely accepted as historicalfact until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when reliablehistorical records and inscriptions were available and studied byscholars who gradually disproved much of it — but is still occasionallycited in popular or ceremonial accounts in contemporary England.