King Cole or Coel is the name of a figure, or multiple figures with similar names, prominent in British literature and legend since the Middle Ages. Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen (Coel the Old), a leader in Roman or Sub-Roman Britain and the progenitor of several kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd ("the Old North"), the Brythonic-speaking part of northern England and southern Scotland. Later medieval legend told of a Coel, apparently derived from Coel Hen, who was the father of Saint Helena and the grandfather of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Other similarly named characters may be confused or conflated with the Welsh Coel. The traditional "King Coel" may be the historical basis for the popular nursery rhyme "Old King Cole".[1]
Coel Hen appears in the Harleian genealogies and the later pedigrees known as the Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd (The Descent of the Men of the North) at the head of several post-Roman royal families of the Hen Ogledd.[2] His line, collectively called the Coeling, included such noted figures as Urien, king of Rheged; Gwallog, perhaps king of Elmet; the brothers Gwrgi and Peredur, and Clydno Eiddin, king of Eiddin or Edinburgh.[2][3] He was also considered to be the father-in-law of Cunedda, founder of Gwynedd in North Wales, by his daughter Gwawl.[4] The genealogies give him the epithet Godebog, meaning "Protector" or "Shelterer".[2] The poem Y Gododdin mentions some enmity between the "Sons of Godebog" and the heroes who fought for the Gododdin at the Battle of Catraeth.[3]
As an ancestor figure, Coel Hen compares to Dumnagual Hen, who is likewise attributed with founding kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd. According to Welsh tradition the region of Kyle was named for Coel, and a mound at Coylton in Argyll was regarded as his tomb.[5] Projections back from dated individuals suggest that Coel Hen lived around AD 350–420, during the time of the Roman departure from Britain.[3] In his widely criticized book[6] The Age of Arthur, historian John Morris suggested that Coel may have been the last of the Roman Duces Brittanniarum (Dukes of the Britons) who commanded the Roman army in northern Britain.[7] According to Morris he may have taken over the northern capital at Eburacum (York) to rule over what had been the northern province of Roman Britain. Upon Coel Hen's death, his lands would have been split between his sons, Garmonion and Cunedda II, and later his grandsons, Dunwal Moelmut, Cunedda III, and Gwrwst Ledlwn, thus creating the many old northern kingdoms of Britain.
In his Historia Anglorum, Henry of Huntingdon mentions that a King Coel of Colchester was the father of Saint Helena and therefore the grandfather of Constantine the Great.[8][9] The same claim appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, in a passage using some of the same words. Henry appears to have written this part of the Historia Anglorum before he knew about Geoffrey's work, leading J. S. P. Tatlock to conclude that Geoffrey borrowed the passage from Henry, rather than the other way around.[10] The source of the claim is unknown, but it may have come from a lost hagiography of Helena.[10]
Geoffrey's largely fictional Historia Regum Britanniae expands upon Henry's brief mention, listing Coel as a King of the Britons following the reign of King Asclepiodotus.[11] He states that, upset with Asclepiodotus's handling of the Diocletianic Persecution, Coel began a rebellion in the duchy of Caercolun (Colchester), of which he was duke. He met Asclepiodotus in battle and killed him, thus taking the kingship of Britain upon himself. Rome, apparently, was pleased that Britain had a new king and sent a senator, Constantius Chlorus, to negotiate with Coel. Afraid of the Romans, Coel met Constantius and agreed to pay tribute and submit to Roman laws as long as he was allowed to retain the kingship. Constantius agreed to these terms but, one month later, Coel died.[11] Constantius married Coel's daughter, Helena, and crowned himself as Coel's successor. Helen subsequently gave birth to a son who became the Emperor Constantine the Great, giving a British pedigree to the Roman imperial line.[12]
| Preceded by Asclepiodotus |
Legendary kings of Britain | Succeeded by Constantius |