ABSTRACT
The acceptance or the rejection of British story in this century was weighted with political import, for it was bound up with the fight between the king and Parliament. The rapid development of interest in the Saxons is attributable to this conflict, which sent the defenders of the rights of the common people to a study of Saxon law. With the growth of Parliamentary power the attack upon the British became more virulent and developed along two lines: the refutation of the settlement of the country by Brutus and the detraction of Arthur, the greatest British hero. The learned Selden in 1616 translated and edited Fortescue's De Laudibus Legum Angliae to refute the absolutism of James. During the uneasy days of the Civil War Merlin's fame was used to lend credence to all sorts of predictions and prophecies, and the strictly political nature of Merlin's prophecies disappeared.
