Legitimagte Pagan Marriages

[Voord 99]

Yes, KAP’s sharp Cymric/Roman divide is very unlikely to be an accurate representation of how things worked.

The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath is definitely a good example.  Take its famous pedimental sculpture of a (sort of) Gorgon’s head.  (Can be found here:  https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/walkthroughs/temple-pediment). In some ways that’s “Roman” — the fact of it being a stone sculpture used to decorate a stone temple, for one thing, is something utterly unknown before the Roman conquest.   But stylistically, it’s got more in common with pre-Roman art than it does with anything that would have been on a temple in Italy.  Romano-British is a thing, hybridizations and remixes of cultural elements from different sources.  Not all of them neatly “Roman” or “British,” either — think of the Mithraeum in London.  The Roman Empire was a space in which an awful lot of different cultures mixed and interacted.

KAP’s notion that there would have been separate and culturally different “Cymric” elites living outside cities and “Roman” elites living in them is particularly unlikely to have been true.  That is not how it worked in the Roman period, at least.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Voord 99

[JonL]

Are you strong and popular enough to fend off a rival claim from a cousin who would usurp your lands and titles on the pretense that your lineage is illegitimate?

If so, then it's legitimate.

[Darius West]

On 3/18/2022 at 2:07 AM, JonL said:

Are you strong and popular enough to fend off a rival claim from a cousin who would usurp your lands and titles on the pretense that your lineage is illegitimate?

If so, then it's legitimate.

To paraphrase Stalin:  "You have a cousin, you have a problem.  Remove the cousin, no problem." 🙂

You paraphrased the issue well JonL.  

Of course the same likely holds true for other parts of Arthurs Kingdom too, but to a lesser degree.  I mean, anyone can choose to feel aggrieved about succession and go on a rampage to get their "fair share", or usurp an absentee landlord by popular acclaim.  This is likely why plenty of lords prefer to stay at home and keep their thumb on problems of this nature, rather than staying at Camelot or galivanting around the countryside questing.