In the later Twelfth Century, the monastery at Glastonbury burnt. During the re-building, a great discovery was made: In a large oak casket buried deeply, workers found the remains of a man and woman, along with this inscribed leaden cross. (An eyewitness account of the find)

      The Latin inscription, dated much earlier than 12th-century calligraphy (and so probably not faked by the monks or the king), translates to: "Here lies buried the famous King Arthur on the Isle of Avalon."  (HIC IACET SEPVLTVS IHCLITVS REX ARTVRIVS IH IHSVLA AVALOHIA, or in regularized Latin: Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arturius in Insula Avalonia.) 

  ^    A scholar sketched that cross a few centuries ago. Unfortunately, it is now lost. (Click on the cross for a larger image.) 

 

What a find! Glastonbury had long been connected with Arthurian legends, i.e, the place where Joseph of Arimathea had brought the Holy Grail to rest and where the island of Avalon was supposed to be. This grave-site was immediately identified as the resting-place of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere because of the clues from the bodies (well de-composed; a very large male body; long blond hair on the cranium of the female which, according to one witness, crumbled at a touch) and because of the leaden cross with this inscription found in the tomb.

      Glastonbury Monastery itself was an important example of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norman integration. The modern historian Armitage Robinson called it a seventh-century "temple to reconciliation" between the indigenous Roman-Celtic-Britons and the aggresive invaders, the Anglo-Saxons. Geoffrey Ashe went further and saw in this integration the "birth of the United Kingdom."

      The Normans simply appropriated the legend and incorporated themselves into it. For example, one of  the Norman King Henry II's grandsons was named Arthur, but did not survive the opposition of King John to become another King Arthur of England.

       The Reformation brought an end to Glastonbury's existence as a religious center, since in the 16th century King Henry VIII took over leadership of the English Church, then "nationalized" the extensive lands held by Catholic monasteries. Today, there are only ruins left but the grave of Arthur and Guenevere is still central to the site as well as to those with Arthurian interests who come to the site in large numbers.