Mulʹmutine Laws.

The code of Dunvallo Mulmutius, sixteenth King of the Britons (about B.C. 400). This code was translated by Gildas from British into Latin, and by Alfred into Anglo-Saxon. These laws obtained in England till the Conquest. (Holinshed: History of England, iii. 1.).

“Mulmutius made our laws,

Who was the first of Britain which did put

His brows within a golden crown, and called

Himself a king.”

Shakespeare: Cymbeline, iii. 1.

⁂ Mulmutius was the son of Cloten, King of Cornwall. (See Geoffrey of Monmouth, British History, ii. 17.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.