ARTHUR

village on the DouglasMoultrie county line, east-central Illinois, U.S. Founded in 1872 as a farming centre, it was originally called Glasgow and later renamed for the brother of Robert Hervey, president of the Paris and Decatur Railroad. Members of the Old Order Amish settlement, a conservative religious group in the area since 1865, have contributed to the character of the community. Horse-drawn buggies, the mode of travel for many Amish, share the country roads and village streets with automobiles. Agriculture (grain and livestock) is the mainstay of the economy, supplemented by some light industry, including a broomcorn-processing plant. Inc. 1877. Pop. (1990) 2,112. legendary British king who appears in a cycle of medieval romances (known as the matter of Britain) as the sovereign of a knightly fellowship of the Round Table (q.v.). It is not certain how or where (in Wales or in those parts of northern Britain inhabited by Brythonic-speaking Celts) these legends originated or whether the figure Arthur was based on a historical person. See also Arthurian legend. Assumptions that a historical Arthur led Welsh resistance to the West Saxon advance from the middle Thames are based on a conflation of two early chroniclers, Gildas and Nennius, and on the Annales Cambriae of the late 10th century. The 9th-century Historia Brittonum of Nennius records 12 battles fought by Arthur against the Saxons, culminating in a victory at Mons Badonicus. The Arthurian section of this work, however, is from an undetermined source, possibly a poetic text. The Annales Cambriae also mention Arthur's victory at Mons Badonicus (516) and record the Battle of Camlann (537), in which Arthur and Medraut fell. Gildas' De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (mid-6th century) implies that Mons Badonicus was fought in about 500 but does not connect it with Arthur. Another speculative view, put forward by R.G. Collingwood (Roman Britain and the English Settlements, 1936), is that Arthur was a professional soldier, serving the British kings and commanding a cavalry force trained on Roman lines, which he switched from place to place to meet the Saxon threat. Early Welsh literature, however, quickly made Arthur into a king of wonders and marvels. The 12th-century prose romance Kulhwch and Olwen associated him with other heroes, this conception of a heroic band, with Arthur at its head, doubtless leading to the idea of Arthur's court. duke of Brittany and nephew of the king in Shakespeare's King John. As the son of John's deceased elder brother, Geoffrey, the child Arthur is the rightful heir to the throne of England and thus serves as a focal point for the king's enemies. Arthur's unfortunate death by misadventure rather than assassination contrasts with the fates of the doomed young princes at the instigation of their royal uncle in Shakespeare's earlier play Richard III.