Arthur’s Conquest of Rome and Imperial Coronation is the culmination of Arthur’s campaign against the Roman demand for tribute and a dramatic enlargement of his claimed sovereignty. The narrative turns a dispute over whether Britain owes obedience to Rome into a campaign that ends with Arthur crowned emperor by the Pope. Its account of victory is also an account of rule: Arthur answers Roman authority with a rival claim, wins submission by arms, and then presents himself as a ruler responsible for justice, restraint, and the distribution of rewards.

The Roman demand and Arthur’s answer

The immediate conflict begins when twelve aged Roman ambassadors arrive at Arthur’s court bearing olive branches. They speak for Emperor Lucius, demand Britain’s tribute, and invoke Julius Caesar’s conquest and the precedent of earlier payments. The demand is framed as a command of imperial authority, backed by a threat of war and punishment if Arthur refuses. Some young knights at court want to attack the envoys, but Arthur forbids anyone to insult or harm them, orders that they be properly lodged and supplied, and reserves his answer for consultation with his council.

Arthur’s refusal goes beyond rejecting the payment. He declares that he owes no tribute to Lucius or any earthly prince, Christian or heathen, and claims the sovereignty of the empire by the right of his predecessors, the former kings of Britain. He tells the ambassadors that he will march on Rome to take possession and subdue those who resist. Before they depart, he has the treasurer give them generous gifts and pay their expenses, and appoints Sir Cador to escort them from the country. The contrast is deliberate: Arthur rejects Rome’s authority while observing the obligations of hospitality toward its messengers.

The alliance assembled for the campaign gives Arthur’s claim a collective political foundation. King Anguish of Scotland urges him not to submit and offers twenty thousand fighting men at his own expense, recalling the exactions imposed on earlier generations under Roman rule. The king of Little Britain promises thirty thousand, and other lords and knights pledge forces according to their means. With this support behind him, Arthur gives the ambassadors his formal answer in the presence of his lords: he will neither acknowledge Roman overlordship nor pay tribute, but intends to claim the empire. He again provides for the envoys’ departure, including their passage from Sandwich and their journey through Flanders, Almaine, the mountains, and Italy to Lucius.

Victory over Lucius

The campaign reaches its decisive military turn when Arthur’s forces defeat the Roman host. Arthur fights where the Romans are thickest, wielding Excalibur and rescuing his people; Sir Gawaine and the other Knights of the Round Table also distinguish themselves. Lucius and Arthur meet in combat, and after Lucius wounds Arthur, Arthur strikes him down with Excalibur. The emperor’s death sends the Roman army into flight, and Arthur’s forces pursue it. The narrative reports more than one hundred thousand Roman dead, then turns from the scale of victory to Arthur’s treatment of those who served him: he orders his own dead buried according to their rank and directs surgeons to tend the wounded without stinting on remedies.

Arthur also makes the defeat into a message for Rome. Among the dead are Lucius, the Sultan of Syria, the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia, seventeen other kings, and sixty Roman senators. Arthur has the bodies embalmed, wrapped in many layers of cloth, placed in lead chests, and identified by their shields, arms, and banners. He sends three surviving senators with the remains to the Roman authorities, bearing letters and instructions to report the defeat. The bodies are presented as the tribute Rome had demanded; Arthur warns that he will bring further payment in person if Rome remains unsatisfied. The senators advise Rome not to renew the war against a conqueror whose power, and whose fellowship of knights, they regard as beyond that of any earthly prince.

From military occupation to imperial rule

After the victory, Arthur’s host proceeds through Lorraine, Brabant, Flanders, Almaine, Lombardy, and Tuscany. A Tuscan city refuses to submit and is besieged; Arthur’s forces assault it, but when the duchess and Countess Clarisin plead that an assault will kill the innocent, Arthur halts the attack and puts the duke’s fate under his judgment. The duke’s eldest son surrenders the keys. Arthur sends the duke to Dover as a lifelong prisoner and assigns revenues for the duchess and her children, while appointing lords to govern the conquered lands and establish laws there. The episode joins military coercion to the distribution of protection and authority, though the duke’s permanent captivity also marks the severity of Arthur’s settlement.

At Urbine, Arthur’s advance guard wins the city and raises his banner on its walls. Arthur responds by ordering that no one under his command mistreat any lady, wife, or maid, and, on entering the city, comforts those in distress and appoints a captain from his own country. Milan then sends large sums and submits, offering homage and fealty for its lands and promising an annual million in gold for Arthur’s lifetime. Arthur continues through Tuscany, taking towns and castles; those that refuse obedience are laid waste. The narrative thus sets negotiated submission and protection alongside conquest by force, showing the different terms by which Arthur extends his rule.

The remaining senators and leading cardinals eventually come to Arthur to seek peace. They ask for six weeks to gather the Romans and prepare to crown him emperor with the customary anointing. Arthur accepts their proposal, stipulating that the coronation will be at Christmas and that he may hold his Round Table with his knights as he chooses. At the appointed time, he enters Rome and is crowned by the Pope with the full ceremonial splendor the romance describes. He stays there for a time, establishes his lands from Rome to France, and grants lands and realms to his servants and knights according to their deserts. He makes dukes and earls and enriches his followers, with the narrative emphasizing that neither rich nor poor has cause to complain. Sir Priamus, who had become a Christian after his encounter with Gawaine, receives the duchy of Lorraine and pledges lifelong service.

Return and significance

Once the conquest is declared complete, Arthur’s lords and knights ask to return home to their wives and rest after their long absence. They say that the war and its honors are finished; Arthur agrees that it is unwise to tempt God and orders preparations for the return to England. Before setting out, he forbids his men, on pain of death, to rob or seize provisions or other goods along the way: they must pay for what they take. Having made conquest the basis of a new imperial settlement, he insists that the homeward march itself observe an enforceable rule of conduct.

Arthur crosses the sea and lands at Sandwich, where Queen Guenever meets him. The people receive him nobly in each city and borough, presenting gifts in welcome. The return closes the campaign by bringing the emperor back into the relationships and public recognition of his British realm. In the book’s structure, the Roman campaign concludes the account of Arthur’s conquest of Lucius and is followed by the sixth book, devoted to Sir Launcelot du Lake. The episode’s decisive reversal is political as well as military: Rome’s demand that Arthur acknowledge its supremacy ends with Rome’s representatives carrying home the bodies of its defeated leaders, its senators seeking peace, and its Pope crowning Arthur emperor.