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"The twelfth battle was on Badon Hill and in it nine hundred and sixty
men fell in one day, from a single charge of Arthur's, and no-one lay them
low save he alone.": It was at the Battle of Mount Badon that tradition
says the Saxon advance into Britain was finally halted. It was Arthur's
greatest victory and, not surprisingly, there are many claimants for its
location. Forts are preferred since Gildas, in his De Excidio Britanniae",
more properly called the battle a "siege" and nearby Rivers Avon strengthen
claims. Possibilities include Bowden Hill, Lothian; Dumbarton Rock, Strathclyde;
Mynydd Baedan, Glamorgan; Little Solway Hill, Somerset; or Brent Knoll,
Somerset. Modern theory, however, suggests one of the many Badbury's around
the country: in Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire
and Lincolnshire. Liddington Castle, near Badbury in Wiltshire, seems most
popular at present. Welsh tradition backed up by Geoffrey of Monmouth is,
however, almost certainly correct in identifying the battle site with Bath,
Caer Baddon, or, at least somewhere in its vicinity. Bathampton Down has
been suggested.
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