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FAMOUS PEOPLE

KING LEAR:
The story of KING LEAR which is best known is the one told in SHAKESPEARE's play. But the original story, used as SHAKESPEARE's major source, is found in "THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN" by GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH. GEOFFREY is a shadowy figure, who probably lived at CAERLEON ON USK in Monmouthshire. From 1129 to 1151 he seems to have lived in Oxford, where he was probably a canon of the secular college of ST GEORGE. It was while he was here that he wrote the "HISTORY". In 1151, he became Bishop Elect of ST ASAPH, in present day Flintshire, dying there in about 1155.

His "HISTORY" is really not history at all but a collection of legends, stories and sheer invention, giving a very different picture of the history of Britain to the now accepted one. In his version, the first King of Britain was BRUTUS, great grandson of the Greek warrior AENEAS, ruling in about 1120 BC. His LEAR is the son of BLADUD and is supposed to have begun his reign around 753 BC, the traditional date of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus. GEOFFREY's story differs greatly from that in the SHAKESPEARE play, most noticeable in that GEOFFREY's CORDELIA survives her father to rule as Queen for a further five years.

According to GEOFFREY, BLADUD - LEAR'S father - was a sorcerer who experimented with flying. But when he finally built a pair of wings and tried to fly himself, he crashed onto the Temple of Apollo in Trinovantum and " was dashed into countless pieces".

It is at this point that the story of LEAR begins:

"After BLADUD had met his fate in this way, his son LEAR was raised to the kingship. LEAR ruled the country for sixty years. It was he who built the city on the River Soar which is called KAER LEIR after him in the British tongue, it's Saxon name being LEICESTER.."

It is interesting to note that the traditional ancient name for the Soar was "LEIRE".

GEOFFREY's and SHAKESPEARE's accounts coincide for much of the early part of the story. LEAR asks each of his daughters in turn which one of them loves him most. GONERIL and REGAN, his two older daughters, flatter their father outrageously, much to the old man 's delight but his youngest daughter, CORDELIA, is a different matter. Seeing how her sisters have tried to deceive the old man, she answers his question differently. According to GEOFFREY, she says:

"My father, can there really exist a daughter who maintains that the love she bears her own father is more than what is due to him as a father? I cannot believe that there can be a daughter who would dare to confess to such a thing unless, indeed, she were trying to conceal the truth by joking about it. Assuredly, for my part, I have always loved you as my father, and at this moment I feel no lessening of my affection for you. If you are determined to wring more than this out of me, then I will tell you how much I love you and so put an end to your enquiry. You are worth just as much as you possess, and that is the measure of my own love for you".

As in SHAKESPEARE, the old King is outraged and divides the kingdom up between GONERIL and REGAN and their husbands, the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany. But is is here that the stories begins to diverge. In GEOFFREY's version, CORDELIA is sent to Gaul to marry AGANIPPUS, KING OF THE FRANKS, in exchange for huge amounts of gold and silver.

Some years later, when LEAR is "weak with old age", the husbands of his daughters rebel against him and set themselves up as rulers. But Albany, the husband of GONERIL, also agrees to maintain the old man, together with a retinue of 140 knights. This arrangement continues for two years, until GONERIL announces that the old man's retinue is too expensive and must be cut back to just thirty. In fury, LEAR leaves and goes to stay with REGAN and her husband CORNWALL. Things go well for a while, but in less than a year, REGAN too is demanding that her father dismiss his "court". Unwilling to agree and unable to return to GONERIL, he crosses the sea to Gaul in rags to find his beloved CORDELIA, realising at last that she was right to be suspicious of her sisters' motives.

CORDELIA sends messengers to dress her father as a King and brings him into the court of AGANIPPUS, where he announces that he has been expelled from the realm of Britain by his own daughters and that he has come to them so that he might recover his kingdom. He is received with honour and granted all the ceremony due to a King until he can return in triumph.

GEOFFREY takes up the story again:

"Meanwhile, AGANIPPUS sent messengers throughout the whole of GAUL to summon all the men there who could bear arms, so that with their help he might endeavour to restore the kingdom of Britain to his father-in-law LEAR. When this was done, LEAR marched at the head of the assembled army, taking his daughter with him. He fought with his sons-in-law and beat them, thus bringing them all under his dominion again."

It is the end of the story that is of special interest to CHARNWOOD:

"Three years later, LEAR died; and AGANIPPUS, King of the Franks, died too. As a result, LEAR's daughter CORDELIA inherited the government of the Kingdom of Britain. She buried her father in a certain underground chamber which she had ordered to be dug beneath the RIVER SOAR, some way downstream from LEICESTER. This underground chamber was dedicated to the two-faced God Janus: and when the feast day of the god came around, all the craftsmen in the town used to perform there the first act of labour in whatever enterprise they were planning to undertake during the coming year".

CORDELIA then ruled for a further five years but killed herself when she was captured during a rebellion by her sisters' sons.

So KING LEAR is reputedly buried "beneath the RIVER SOAR, some way downstream from LEICESTER". In other words, in CHARNWOOD. Not surprisingly, no firm evidence of this chamber has been discovered but if it is anywhere, it is probably somewhere close to BIRSTALL or WANLIP. As it happens, there is a stretch of water called KING LEAR'S LAKE in this area which is now part of WATERMEAD COUNTRY PARK. But as this was only created from a disused gravel pit - and only given that name - very recently, this would seem to have more to do with marketing and memorial making than history.

Then again, if KING LEAR is buried in CHARNWOOD, why not here.....?