Cross-Border Merlinian Prophecy and The Six Kings to Follow John, c. 1312-1450

This chapter explores the cross-border contexts of The Prophecy of the Six Kings to follow John, also known as the Last Six Kings of the English – a work attributed, in its various iterations, to Merlin. A partially ex eventu prophetic English king list represented by animal ciphers, its historical and futurist vision spans the reigns of Henry III (the lamb), Edward I (the dragon), Edward II (the goat), and Edward III (the boar), followed by two future rulers: the ass who is deposed by the mole, who in turn is attacked by a lion, a wolf, and a dragon, and after whose reign England is no more. The ass and the mole were identified in the fifteenth century as Richard II and Henry IV, identifications that were once incorrectly understood by twentieth-century historians to be key to the prophecy’s original moment of composition. It was placed contemporary with, and understood to speak to the interests of, the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr and his English allies – Henry Percy, the earl of Northumberland, and Edmund Mortimer – who were interpreted as the dragon, lion, and wolf. Now accepted as a text with its origins in the early decades of the fourteenth century, the Six Kings is of interest to scholars of both English and Welsh prophetic literature in relation to the wider question of its sources, legacies, and translations. In this chapter I am engaged with the situation and re-situation of the prophecy between England and Wales, from its early thematic correspondence with Welsh prophetic motifs via its Galfridian source materials, to English associations of the Six Kings with Owain and its complex fifteenth-century reception in Wales through which the Six Kings tradition emerges as politically and linguistically plural. I focus on two sequences from the Six Kings which proved to be among the most influential within wider insular prophetic traditions: the boar of Windsor who conquers Britain and much of Europe, and the lion, dragon, and wolf whose alliance spells the end of English hegemony.