King Coel

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Notes

Was Old King Cole a Member of the Roman Coelius Gens? A Speculative Article by JRM Kyle The name Cole, or "Coel" (recorded in the ancient Welsh genealogies as "Coyl" and "Koel") is certainly Celtic British. Few have highlightd that Coel - spoken as "Coelius" in Latin (Latin having no letter "K") - is also an equally well-known Roman family (Gens) name. Coel, or Coelius might have been the Roman family name of King Cole of Aryrshire (PF Turner in "The Real Kig Arthur" mentions this possibility in passing), and he might have been a member of that well known-Roman Gems. King Coel is recorded in ancient Welsh chronicles as the High King of North Britain, descended from Pre-Roma British Royalty. His kingdo, sometimes referred to as the "Kingdom of Kyle," included the many smaller kingdoms which would later be ruled by his descendants including: North Rheged, South Rheged, Dunoting, Elmet, Caer-Guendoleu, "Pecset: (Peak?) and the Goutoddin. He was the progenitor of many royal lines and according to tradition, he was the gggg-grandfather of King Arthur. The boundaries of his kingdom, which came into existence at the moment of the Roman adminisration's withdrawal, appear to coincide precisely with the area under the command of the Dux as detailed in the Notitia Dignitatum. There is no record of any collapse or barbarian invasion at the time, until King Cole was slain in battle by the Irish "Scots".