author
Gildas
A 6th-century British monk, he is remembered for writing one of the few surviving firsthand accounts of post-Roman Britain. His fierce, moralizing prose helped make De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae a key source for early British history.
1 Audiobook
On the Ruin of Britain
by Gildas
About the author
Little is known for certain about Gildas, but reliable reference works describe him as a British monk and writer of the 6th century. He is best known for De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), a Latin work that blends history, warning, and religious criticism.
That book matters because it is one of the very few surviving contemporary sources for Britain after the end of Roman rule. Rather than telling events as a calm chronicle, Gildas writes as a preacher, condemning the failures he saw in rulers and clergy while reflecting on the troubles of his age.
Traditions about his life differ, but major biographies also connect him with monastic life and with Brittany, where a monastery came to bear his name. Even with the uncertainties around his biography, his writing remains central to how later generations have understood early medieval Britain.