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During the 1st century BC, King of Britons Lludd “LLaw Ereint” ap Beli Mawr (80 – 18 BC) ruled from the same locale as the present-day City of London. He was so generous with his philanthropy toward the locals when building fortifications around the settlement that they called him “the silver handed”. After construction, the grateful citizenry named the fortification Lluddain after him. As time passed, the ever-burgeoning city’s name evolved into London. Lud Gate (demolished in 1760), Ludgate Circus, and Ludgate Hill are vestiges of his fame in the history of the City of London.
He was undoubtedly one of the young tribal chieftains under the command of Cassivellaunus whose army repelled Julius Caesar‘s two invasions of Britain (55 and 54 BC). Both attempts were essentially raiding and reconnaissance expeditions conducted during a relative lull in Caesar’s military activity to conquer Gaul. Defeated by the Britons during the first effort in only making landfall before being forced to retreat, he may well have achieved at least a battlefield standstill during the second, but remaining to fight another day wouldn’t have been prudent, especially considering the Roman army wouldn’t have been equipped to occupy hostile conquered territory for any length of time and the unfinished business of the conquest of Gaul. In 43 AD Emperor Claudius more than redoubled the enterprise, however, with an invasion force fully equipped to both sucessfully conquer and occupy most of Britain thanks to Caesar’s commentary about his experience.
There’s considerable doubt amongst historians that Llud ever existed and was thus ascribed as a figment of the imagination of 12th-century monk Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain. However, Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) believed in the story so passionately that she commissioned the sculpture of him and his two sons that was installed near the crest of Ludgate. Moreover, he was also known as Nuadu (or Nudd), the Celtic god-king who temporarily lost his rulership of Briton after the amputation of one of his hands during a battle; given a fully functional silver hand by another god, he regained the supremacy. Perhaps the people of Lluddian regarded him in the same light if their benefactor was restored to his rightful position as their sovereign, perhaps after the death of Belgic warlord Cassivellaunus in 30 BC.
LLud was the son of Prophetess Anna Ferch Mathonwy (130 BC – ), who was a daughter of Saint Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of Jesus of Nazareth. Legend has it that Saint Joseph brought the Holy Grail of the Last Supper to Glastonbury, England, whereupon he retired at his estate there. He had been a prosperous tin merchant who served as a Roman administrative governor of Cornwall, overseeing mining operations and ore shipment, primarily to Judea. Nevertheless, the marriage of a Celtic Druid high priest to a Hebrew princess represents only the third time in British history of noteworthy religious significance to the British Royal bloodline (the first being the marriage of Heremon (fl. 800 BC), the second High King of Ireland, to Tamara Tea Tephi, daughter of Zedekiah (Mattaniah) (22nd & last King) of Judah.
Well, as long-lived stories go, as survived for centuries to continue to fashion the basis for contemporary religious and other beliefs of a hierarchical nature, this wonderful one is particularly compelling.
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Lludd “Llaw Eraint” ap Beli Mawr, King of Britons, Founder of the City of London (Ludgate)
Birth 80 BC in of London, Middlesex, , England
Death 18 BC in London, Middlesex, England
agnatic descendant of Brutus of Troy (1150 – 1091 BC) 1st King of Britons, Eponymic Founder of Britain ; agnatic forebear of Gwrtheyrn Vortigern Vorteneu 370 – 460), King of Britons
58th great-granduncle COELING-ALBA-FINLAY-COLLINS
61st great-grandfather ASGARD-ALBA-LEROY-MAULAY-LA POINTE-MOREAU-GIROUX-MERON-BRULE
62nd great-granduncle ROHAN-LANDRY-BOURG-CYR-BRULE
63rd great-grandfather COELING-SAXON-WESSEX-HOWARD-WOOD-COLLINS
63rd great-granduncle STRATHCLYDE-VERE-WARREN-HOLLAND-SIMMONS-COLLINS
64th great-grandfather SAXON-WESSEX-HOWARD-WOOD-COLLINS
67th great-granduncle BRETAGNE/ROHAN-FITZALAN-MOWBRAY-HOWARD-WOOD-COLLINS
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Beli Mawr aka Heli Belenos, King of Britons
Birth 99 BC in England
Death 72 BC in England
59th great-grandfather …MACALPIN-FINLAY-COLLINS
62nd great-grandfather LE ROY – ROYAL BLOODLINE
63rd great-grandfather ROHAN-LANDRY-BOURG-CYR-BRULE
64th great-grandfather STRATHCLYDE-VERE-WARREN-HOLLAND-SIMMONS-COLLINS
64th great-grandfather SAXON-WESSEX-HOWARD-WOOD-COLLINS
68th great-grandfather BRETAGNE/ROHAN-FITZALAN-MOWBRAY-HOWARD-WOOD-COLLINS
SOURCES
Nuada Fuildon (Elcmar) AIRGETLAM MacEOCHAID
The Patricians, A Genealogical Study – Ebook Editions US$5.95
Steven Wood Collins (1952 – ) Antiquarian, Genealogist, Novelist