In
Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth was a British clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
's
Historia regum BritanniaeThe Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
, a fictional account of the
kings of the Britons,
Caradocus (
middle WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
:
Karadawc) was titular king of the Britons in the absence of Emperor
Magnus MaximusMagnus Maximus , also known as Maximianus and Macsen Wledig in Welsh, was a Hispano-Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire from 383 until his death, in 388, by order of Emperor Theodosius I.-Life:...
, who had left to campaign in
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
.
Caradocus was the
DukeThis article is about British history. For the soul group "Legendary Dukes" that originated in the 1960s, please see Wilmer and the DukesLegendary Duke of Cornwall appears as a title in pseudo-historical authors as Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth. The list is extremely patchy, and not every...
of
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
during the reign of
OctaviusOctavius was a legendary king of the Britons in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, an early account of the rulers of Britain....
. It was he who suggested to Octavius that he should wed his daughter to Maximus and unite
BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
with
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
through that union. When Octavius agreed to the idea, Caradocus sent out his son, Mauricius, to Rome as to deliver the message to Maximus.
Conan MeriadocConan Meriadoc was the semi-legendary 4th century leader of the earliest Brythonic settlement in Armorica and supposed founder of the house of Rohan....
, the king's nephew, did not approve and nearly attacked Maximus when he landed near
SouthamptonSouthampton is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
. Only when Caradocus arrived was peace restored. They dispersed and Octavius handed Maximus the kingship and retired, as Caradocus rallied behind Maximus. Five years after Maximus became king of Britain, he left the country to ravage the land of Gaul. He left Britain in the hands of Caradocus, who became the king unofficially. He ruled Britain for a number of years until he died and was succeeded by his brother,
DionotusIn Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, a fictional account of the rulers of Britain, Dionotus was a legendary King of the Britons during the campaigns in Gaul led by Emperor Magnus Maximus. The curious thing about this king is that the Welsh chronicles, which parallel most of...
.