Talk:Conan Meriadoc
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I've got some family history about Conan, but I don't know if it should go in the main article as it's word-of-mouth through our family.
These days there's some people with the surname "Connan" who claim to be descended from a barbaric King of Brittany from the dark ages. The "facts" are as follows:
Conan was originally a Welsh prince. He arranged to marry the daughter of the King of Cornwall. He worked as a mercenary in Germany for a while, and then went to Cornwall to pick up his bride. On arriving he found an army gathering on the borders of Cornwall, which he attacked. This was the Army of Macsen Weldig (Magnus Maximus). For some reason that seems to not be clear, they stopped fighting and Conan swore fealty to Macsen, who was about go to Rome.
Conan joined Macsen, who told him he could have Brittany if he took and held it. Conan went to Brittamny with his Welsh mercenaries, and committed genocide on the inhabitants. He promised land and a wife to all the soldiers who helped him.
He then contacted his future father-in-law to see if he could spare any women for his men to marry. Cornwall sent 10,000 women to Brittany. His daughter Ursula (later St Ursula) told his father she would only marry Conan if she could take 10,000 virgins on a pilgrimage of the holy sites of Europe.
Ursula started off.
Meanwhile, back in Brittany, Conan found that the women sent as wives for his men spoke Cornish, not Welsh. He knew that linguistic integrity was one of the keys to a strong kingdom. Being a very practical man, he solved this problem by having the tongues cut out of all the women before they were married off.
Conan joined Magnus, and together they took Rome. Ursula met Conan there, they were married by the Pope, and had a son, who was sent back to Cornwall for safe keeping. Ursula continued her pilgrimage north to Cologne, where she ran into Attila the Hun, various miracles happened and she was martyred.
Meanwhile Conan devastated Greece whilst helping Magnus fight the Eastern Emporer. For some reason after the defeat of Magnus Conan was sent home. The King of Cornwall however would not release his grandson to Conan, and keep him to be future King of Cornwall, and as a hostage to Conan's good behaviour. The King of Cornwall shortly died, Conan was (as father of the "official" heir, who was only a young boy) appointed regent of Cornwall, but took the Kingdom, thus being King of Brittany and Cornwall.
He then married Anne, the Sister of St Patrick. From this union came the Kings of Brittany, later the Dukes of Brittany and eventually the male line expired with the father of Margeret, the wife of Geoffry, elder brother of King John of England. That union produced Arthur of Brittany, who was murdered by John. Arthur would have been the rightful King of Greater and Lesser Britain.
Supposedly my family is somehow descended from Arthur, despite the fact that he was killed as a young teenager, and spent most of his life from 12 to 16 in the Tower of London.
I have no doubt that the above is very inaccurate historically, yet it's the story that been in our family for about 1700 years. Should the "facts" be added to the article as part of the legend? Johnpf 21:14, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
