ABSTRACT
While the political intentions of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae have been thoroughly investigated, those of the Scottish chronicles have, for the most part, been neglected. An examination of the Scottish chroniclers’ portrayals of King Arthur, who in Scotland was often perceived as the embodiment of the threat from the South, can give considerable insight into their political views. Instead of losing the British king in the mythical twilight of legend, they brought him into the political present. To Scottish nationalists Arthur was the embodiment of every English ruler who had hoped to conquer Scotland; to the minority with British sympathies, however, he was a symbol of the reconciliation and union of all races of the island.
