Baddo, "Daughter of Arthur, King of England": Some Medieval Evidence of the Arthurian Filiation Attributed to a Sixth-Century Visigothic Queen.

The elusive characterization of Baddo, wife of the sixth-century Visigothic king Reccared, as the offspring of the famous king Arthur has hitherto been considered an early modern invention of historiographers. This article, however, brings forth some evidence that allows us to trace the origin of such a surprising filiation back to the Middle Ages. Although the name of Baddo, attested in Visigothic documentation, was absent from sources during the remaining medieval centuries, a wife of Reccared emerges in two late thirteenth-century hagiographical texts composed in Zaragoza. Both present the queen as filia regis Artus, and the examination of their manuscript transmission makes it plausible that they were the source of early modern assertions relative to Baddo's Arthurian descent. Further analyzing the context and motives that led the hagiographer to include Arthur in Visigothic genealogies, this study contributes to ongoing discussions regarding the early circulation of Arthuriana in the Iberian Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]