Foundation Legends, Origines Gentium, and Senses of Ethnic Identity: Legitimising Ideologies in Medieval Celtic Britain

Abstract

Societies in the Middle Ages underwent a fundamental change in their mode of organisation as they moved from being organised around concepts of kin rule to being ordered around the power exercised by kings over defined territories. Even though this state-making process led to the creation of a landscape that was inherently impersonal in nature, kings strove to legitimise and justify the existence of the new state to their subjects. Their principal method of engendering a sense of loyalty towards their kingdom or early state was through the promotion of certain group ideologies. A variety of these legitimising ideologies were utilised by societal leaders, including foundation legends of kingdoms, origin legends of people, and the promotion of senses of ethnic identity. By drawing on evidence from two Celtic societies in the British Isles, namely Wales and Ireland, it is argued that legitimising ideologies experienced a general increase in their geographical scale throughout the Middle Ages. It is suggested that the main reason for this general trend was the increasing use, and subsequent increasing maturity, of state institutions within medieval society. Such institutions enabled medieval rulers to govern larger territories in a more efficient manner and, as a consequence, legitimising ideologies of an ever-increasing geographical scale were needed in order to justify the rule of those particular political units. It is concluded that these legitimising ideologies were principally political constructs, which were manipulated by medieval rulers in order to justify their rule of an evolving state landscape.