The Church Fathers · c. 530–545
On the Ruin of Britain
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae
Gildas · c. 500–c. 570
What it is
A furious sermon on the Saxon conquest as divine judgement, naming five British kings and denouncing them and the clergy in scriptural language.
Why it lasted
The only substantial British account written within living memory of the Saxon settlement, and the earliest source behind the Arthurian tradition.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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