Neda, take a deep, calm breath. I remembered something about a theory a hoax concerning "Arthur's Grave". This from a webpage titled Arhtur's Burial Cross
Beside Gerald's report written in "Liber de Principis instructione" c.1193, there were several other versions of the discovery of the grave and cross which appeared in various chronicles over the years. Each account was a bit different from the others and either included or omitted details which the others did not. At least five different versions of the inscription on the cross have been reported, and this inconsistency in the details of the story has led many scholars to think that a great hoax was being perpetrated by the Glastonbury monks for the purpose of generating pilgrim traffic to their abbey.
Adding to the suspicions aroused by the above inconsistencies, the case for a "monastic hoax" gains more strength when we consider that there were several obvious motives for it:
* the monks' beloved abbey church, the most glorious in all England and possibly in all of Christendom, had been destroyed by fire in 1184, just a few short years before.
* the abbey's greatest pilgrim attraction, the "Old Church," England's oldest Christian structure which dated back many hundreds of years, had been burned up with it.
* the abbey's chief benefactor, the recently deceased Henry II, was no longer in a position to finance their efforts to rebuild and the new king, Richard, was more interested in using his money to go "Crusading."
A popular legend, current among the British people, claimed that King Arthur had never actually died and that he would one day return to his people when their need was great. While it is easy for modern people to discount a story like that, the twelfth century was an age of great credulity, and since no one could point to the location of Arthur's actual burial place, the legend couldn't be so easily discounted. Amazingly enough, no one had ever even claimed to know where the grave was, let alone try to identify it. A verse from the Welsh "Stanzas of the Graves" (aka The Graves of the Warriors of Britain), states:
There is a grave for March, a grave for Gwythur,
a grave for Gwgawn Red-sword;
the world's wonder, a grave for Arthur
The historian, William of Malmesbury, confirms that the whereabouts of Arthur's burial place is unknown, and that silly legends have been created as a result:
. . .tomb of Arthur is nowhere beheld, whence the ancient ditties fable that he is yet to come.
Given the immediate need for cash to rebuild their abbey, the death of their chief benefactor and a willingness to engage in questionable practices to serve what they believed was a noble end, it would take no great leap of the imagination to expect that the Glastonbury monks would come up with some other scheme to raise funds. In King Arthur, it would seem that they had a ready-made solution to their problems: a major legendary figure whose grave could attract all the pilgrims that the Old Church did, and, at the same time, enhance the abbey's reputation for sanctity and prestige as the final resting place of saints and kings.
This is from lower on the webpage:
What We Know About the Cross:
* A cross was found during the excavation of a grave site next to the Lady Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey.
* The date of the discovery was reported as taking place in 1190 (Adam of Domerham) and 1191 (Ralph of Coggeshall). This discrepancy can be accounted for by allowing for inaccuracies in the calendar that was in use in the late 12th century.
* Adam of Domerham said that Arthur's grave was discovered 648 years after his death. If we take Geoffrey of Monmouth's word for it, the date of the Battle of Camlann and, presumably, his death was 542. The simple addition of 542 + 648 = 1190.
* The cross was said to be "leaden".
* The cross was fastened to the underside of a stone slab located seven feet down (the actual bones were found at the 16 foot level), and the inscription was turned in toward the stone slab.
* There are five different reported versions of how the cross was inscribed (see above).
* Gerald of Wales' account states that the inscription was on one side of the cross. He also says that the inscription included a reference to Guinevere. Camden's illustration of the cross shows the inscribed side, but there is no mention of Guinevere, there.
* The letterforms used in the inscription are not consistent with any known fifth or sixth century script, but are more likely to be of the tenth century.
* The earliest and most contemporary account of the dig is by Gerald of Wales (aka Giraldus Cambrensis, aka Gerald de Barri).
* Ralph of Coggeshall's account states that Arthur's grave was located, accidentally, while digging a grave for a monk whose fervent desire was to be buried between the pyramids.
* Gerald of Wales' account, said that the grave site location was given to the monks by Henry II, after it had been specifically revealed to him by a Welsh bard. It stated also that there was only one coffin (actually a hollowed-out log, split into two sections, one each for Arthur and his queen) and that the cross specifically mentioned her by name.
* Adam of Domerham, writing in 1290, and John of Glastonbury, around 1350, tell us that there were two tombs and add the interesting detail that while the digging was being done, the grave site was surrounded by white draperies or curtains.
* The Margam account stated that there were three separate coffins (one each for Arthur, Guinevere and Mordred) and that the wording on the cross did not mention Guinevere.
* Geoffrey of Monmouth was the first to use the term Isle of Avalon, but he didn't equate it with any geographic place. The first equation of Glastonbury and Avalon came in Gerald of Wales' account.
* There are three common elements in the five inscriptions: King Arthur, burial or interrment and Avalon. The following syllogism can be constructed using those common elements: Arthur's last resting place is the Isle of Avalon, Arthur lies in Glastonbury, therefore Glastonbury is the Isle of Avalon.
* The only drawings of the cross (that we know of) were done by William Camden for the 1607 and 1608 editions of his historical work, "Britannia." There was some variation in the shapes of the letters between the two editions.
* The usually reliable John Leland, writing in "Assertio Inclytissimi Arturii," having held the cross in his hands during a visit to the abbey around 1542, said that it measured nearly a foot in length.
* The cross was attached to the top of the marble coffin in which Arthur and Guinevere's bones were reinterred in 1278 by Edward I.
* The cross remained there until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, after which it spent the next hundred years or so in the Reverstry of the parish church of St. John Baptist, Glastonbury (Bodleian Rawlinson B.416A, folio 10v, see Carley, p. 178 )
* The Cross disappeared from view and wound up, in the early 18th century, in the posession of a certain Mr. William Hughes, Chancellor of Wells.
Oh, I forgot this bit from the middle of the page:
"Here lies buried the famous King Arthur with Guinevere his second wife in the isle of Avalon"
That's right "second wife".
King Arthur's Burial Cross