'THE Ballad of the White Lady' was a tragic romance known for centuries in Tamworth, and often recounted to newcomers.

It was a story from Arthurian legend which originated, as many such stories did, in the Middle Ages.

However, modern historians are gradually discovering that there must once have been an heroic war-leader whose prowess in battle and whose ability to rule justly made him renowned and remembered down the centuries.

The ballad may once have been written down, but it was also handed-down in the tales told when people gathered around the firesides during long winter evenings in the halls of castles.

It concerned a fateful duel one day in the meadows below the castle between Sir Lancelot du Lac and Sir Tarquin, two knights of King Arthur.

They had ridden out on many exploits together, but while Lancelot won acclaim, Tarquin was regarded as a rebel, gathering around him his own band of followers.

Events culminated in Tarquin taking the White Lady to live with him at his castle at Tamworth, where he had imprisoned some of Arthur`s knights.

The chivalry which Arthur engendered in his knights caused them to pursue among their many duties the rescue of damsels in distress, even when sometimes these were unwilling to return.

The White Lady may have been the subject of a rescue bid – but she had apparently not wanted to be rescued, and after her lover Tarquin was slain in combat by Lancelot she died of her grief, her distraught spirit being said to haunt the meadows still.

Sir Thomas Ferrers of Tamworth Castle, knighted in 1461, knew about the ballad and had a larger-than-life-size fresco painted on the wall of the great banqueting hall, by an artist who worked suspended from the ceiling in some discomfort for weeks.

The Ferrers were literate and appreciative of the arts, and into all things esoteric and traditional, and events at that time could have provided the impetus for this work of art.

Sir Thomas Malory's 'Morte d`Arthur', an epic poem printed by William Caxton in 1485, proved tremendously interesting and was circulated around a wide readership, one of the first books to be published from the earliest-known press.

This was the year in which King Richard III was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field and the new King Henry VII came to reign.

Many of the collected tales of King Arthur and his knights had been highly embellished to appeal to readers, and became associated as much with France and other areas of Europe as with here, detracting from their importance as possible historical occurrences.

Malory's work, however, centred on Britain.

The Malory (Mallory) family to which Sir Thomas Malory belonged, were prosperous landowners. They acquired Chartley Castle and its Tudor Hall, and also Groby, Leicestershire.

A Richard Mallory held Breedon-On-The-Hill, all these estates later being owned by the Shirley and Ferrers families who joined in marriage, and who also came into Tamworth Castle.

Lord Ferrers, recalling a very old ballad and displaying a work of art taken from a legend popular at the time, obviously wanted the scene imprinted on Tamworth. Or did he, as an academic, believe Tamworth had a place in Dark Age history?

It must have done, since in the 8th century King Offa of Mercia would not have built tremendous defences around what is now the town centre of Tamworth if there had been nothing to defend.

The earliest-known mention of a royal residence at Tamworth was in the 7th century during the reign of King Wulfhere of Mercia who made it a fort from which he warred with King Cyndyllan of Powys, his mother Cynewise`s cousin.

Most of Staffordshire and Shropshire had in fact been part of the Kingdom of Powys.

Such a strategic point above the confluence of two rivers would have been ideal for defence, and the fact there have been so many Stone-Age and Iron-Age relics discovered in the area, points to settlement since earliest times.

The year of the duel in local tradition is quite specific. It was 519 A.D. What was happening in the country during that time?

There was only one record for that year in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The Anglo-Saxon Aldermen Cerdic and Cynric, father and son, who had landed on the south-west coast a few years before, established the Royal House of Wessex that was to rule most of the south-west for centuries.

The early Chronicles were written in retrospect, from tradition, and it seems as 'Cynric' especially is a royal Welsh name, this was obviously not an invasion of Anglo-Saxons but one of the many battles between British Kings all over these islands, in the aftermath of Roman rule.

Welsh records tell of heroic kings who fought off Irish raiders and who established an early Celtic Christianity before the religion of Rome arrived here.

The Chronicles tell nothing of what happened in this area during that year, but its known from other sources and from archaeology that towns all along what was then the border with the Welsh, ruined in the revolts during Roman occupation, were rebuilt and re-occupied about this time.

The Anglo-Saxons, or rather the Angles of the Midlands, became settled by the late 6th century, and the Mercian Royal House was established by both British and Angle, many of whom had intermarried.

They had much in common, in both religion and culture.

Tamworth was until recent times on the county boundary, with the castle actually in Warwickshire.

'Gwych' was the British name for Warwick, and Arthgallus 'mighty bear' was the first Earl of Warwick.

Local legends tell of his brave exploits and of those of his successor Mordred who wielded a tree stripped of its branches, in battle.

The bear and ragged staff then became the emblem of Warwickshire, given, it is said by Lord Leicester, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who owned Drayton Manor and whose wife Lettice inherited Chartley.

Was Arthgallus really Arthur, and his successor his son Mordred who in the legends rebelled against his father?

Was there a Lancelot and a Tarquin?

Modern writers have identified Lancelot as a king of a territory in Wales, while Tarquin, which was obviously a description, meant the 'Tarquinnean' from Etruria now Tuscany, Italy.

He was also associated with Mancetter, near Atherstone, where archaeology has revealed a huge Romano-British village and fort that continued in occupation for centuries.

The fresco on the wall of the great hall of the castle was completely obliterated in the late 18th century during the time of George, 4th Viscount, later Marquis Townshend, which is difficult to understand, as he was supposed to have been an antiquarian; and so a valuable part of our heritage was hidden away forever.

While Rossetti and his pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood later popularised Arthurian legend anew with their dramatic art, successive artists also found yet more tales to illustrate.

The American artist Newell Convers Wyeth later painted a picture depicting the stand-off between Lancelot and Tarquin in the meadows below a castle.

A lady dressed in white and riding a white palfrey is seen in the background. It was she who had asked if Lancelot was looking for combat as the keeper of the castle took on all comers.

Tarquin's defeat, however, to Lancelot's surprise, caused her much distress.

Perhaps typical of the ordinary, everyday, romantic emotional upheavals in life that our ancestors found so fascinating.

While the story of the White Lady and the duel below the castle cannot be proved, this is to show that there were many links between all the historical people who could have been responsible for propagating the legend and, contrary to the belief of some historians, it is certain Tamworth was not in the 6th century an isolated settlement in the middle of a wasteland, but part of a thriving, prosperous community, near the earliest-known highway across Britain, the Watling Street.

This was an area steeped in Celtic tradition, much of which re-emerged after the Romans left.

Indeed, there were many heroes and heroines who influenced people's thoughts and ideas and who shaped our culture into what it is today.