“aka Magnus (Guletic) Maximus


382-383 11. MAXIMUS

the Welsh Macsen "Wledic", whose full name was Magnus Clemens Maximus, obtained the appointment to the governorship of Britain in 376 on a third tour-of-duty there. His first tour-of-duty had been as a young captain during the governorship of his uncle Theodosius [368-9]; his second tour-of-duty in Britain was as one of the colonels of his father Eucherius, during his father’s second-term as Britain’s governor, in 371; and, now Maximus returned to Britain a third time, in 376, this time as its governor. He, meantime, had served with Theodosius in Africa in 373, who had been sent by the Roman Emperor Valentinian I to put down an uprising of the Moorish rebel-king, Firmus. Then, just before his appointment to the British governorship, Maximus assisted Lupicinus, the “magister militum per Thracias”, in settling “barbarians” inside Roman territory. Maximus had just returned to London from campaigning in Scotland against the Picts at the time of Octavius’ death in 382. Maximus was offered the British Crown in right of his wife, Elen, Octavius’ daughter, the British heiress, by the British Senate, and Maximus succeeded his late father-in-law on the British throne, and reigned as King of Britain. His succession was opposed by Conan “Meriadoc”, whose strong-willed mother, Thametes, the late king’s sister, the leading-figure in the nationalist party, feared that the succession of Maximus would lead to greater control of Britain by the empire, and pressured her son to assert his claim. The story of a civil war between Maximus and Conan “Meriadoc” is given in the “HRB“. It ended in a stalemate, and the succession-question was resolved by a compromise. Maximus gave Conan “Meriadoc” the province of Armorica [Brittany], the peninsula of North-West France, as a kingdom in compensation for yielding his claim to the British throne to him; and Conan and his supporters migrated there. This was the first of three British migrations to Armorica in North-West France, which came to be called “Brittany”, that is, “Little Britain” [in contrast to “Great Britain“], now the French province of “Bretagne”.

The next year the Roman Emperor Gratian called Maximus into account for his actions, and for allowing the Britons to have made him their king, and ordered him to resign his commission as a Roman officer, to which Maximus refused and rebelled and declared himself emperor, and civil war broke-out between Maximus and Gratian.

MAXIMUS on adopting imperial titles and styles in 383 relinquished his title to the British throne to CARADOC[US] (Cerdic II), the King/Duke of Cornwall, who had been one of his supporters, who, following his election by the British Senate, which was only a formality, for which he was called in the “Triads” of the “three conventional monarchs” of Britain. He held the British throne as a client-king under Maximus, the Roman Emperor. Maximus collected the Roman troops in Britain and departed for the continent and left Britain to Caradoc[us]. There are some historians who propose that it was at this time, upon the elevation of Caradoc[us], King/Duke of Cornwall, as “King of Britain”, in 383, that Maximus gave Conan “Meriadoc” the province of Armorica as his kingdom; and the other Conan/Kynan obtains Cornwall, in 389, the year after Maximus’ death, which was given to him by his uncle, the British King Octavius II “The Young“ (later).

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