Note from the author
For the purpose of producing episodes for this blog, I have found it neccessary to deal with the history of Wales in blocks, between certain dates. So the next period I am concentrating on is the one between the departure of the Romans, which in Wales' case I am taking as 383, and the arrival of the Vikings, which I am taking to be 795 and certainly 850, when there appears to be more regular references to them. I am aware that history is not as deinitive as this, and that certain events happen independently of the time frame I have specified and overrun these dates. For example, the creation of Deheubarth in c.920 by Hywel Dda out of the territories of Seisyllwg and Dyfed, and later Brycheiniog , and the creation of Morganwg which occurs in 942, when Morgan Hen Fawr unifies Gwent and Glywissing. These events occur outside of the dates I am mainly concentrating in the next series of blogs, ie the dark ages in Wales up to the first contact with the Vikings, but it seems the obvious place to take the evolvement of these Kingdoms in one episode. I will recap such events when I deal with the next block of history.
Introduction
The immediate period following the collapse of Roman rule is a very difficult one to interpret as the records we have are vague and at times contradictory, even after the Roman departure, which left the Celtic Britons to fend for themselves some parts of Roman organised society remained in place. This tenacious survival by the Romano - Celtic Britons and their descendants in the western kingdoms was to become the foundation of what we now know as Wales, with Powys, Gwent and Gwynedd in particular, continually wrestling with the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex to define the frontier between the two peoples, having lost much of what is now the West Midlands to Mercia in the 6th and early 7th centuries, a resurgent late-seventh-century Powys checked Mercian advancement resulting in Aethebald of Mercia building Wats' Dyke, to defend the recently acquired lands.
The Roman departure from Wales seems to have released a vacuum, which was filled by attackers and opportunists, fragmenting the area into numerous independent kingdoms, the main attacking threat initially came from Irish raiders who held influence in Dyfed and Breicheiniog and for a time in North Wales, before being driven out by Cunnedda of the Gododdin from Yr Hen Gogledd, who founded the Kingdoms of Gwynedd and Ceredigion. In the South and East Vortigern whose family had lived in Glevum (Gloucester) before the Romans departed, imposed himself as leader of Powys, Buellt, Ergyng and Gwerthrynion, whilst Gwent and Gywissing originated from a defensive strategy by Eugenius son of Magnus Maximus
This is the time when Vortigern appears as a military leader of the Celtic Britons and in the middle of the fifth century he invited mercenary Angles, Saxons and Jutes to defend Britain from the Picts and Scots but by 500 they had switched from defenders to marauders and along with the Picts and Scots were tied up in a general land grab, another Celtic leader at this time was Ambrosius (Emrys Wledig) It is against this backdrop that the newly formed and evolving Welsh Kingdoms try and establish themselves, whilst still defending themselves from attack from in particular the Irish and the Anglo Saxons. Before looking at the evolvement and development of the Welsh Kingdoms, I will introduce the periods' main political and military players.
The Irish threat. In the fourth century, the Roman Empire had grown increasingly unstable and barbarian attacks increased along its borders. The legions in Wales and England were withdrawn to counter threats on the Continent. By 390 A.D., there were no remaining Roman troops in Great Britain, leaving Brittania essentially undefended. The period was marked by tumultuous politics, and the raids of Irish pirates were a constant threat, in 405 under Nial they ravaged the coast of Wales and made several settlements in western Wales, the areas of Dyfed and Brycheiniog in particular were heavily colonized by Irish settlers. In fact the role of of Irish tribes in this era appears to be a mix of invited defenders such as the Deisi in Dyfed, and aggresive attackers such as the Ui Laithin of Munster who were eventually driven out of North Wales by Cunedda and the Votadini tribe from the Strathclyde area of Yr Hen Gogledd. The organisation of the defensive strategy of this period such as the bringing Cunedda to North Wales and the Deisi tribe to Dyfed is usually attributed to the Roman official Magnus Maximus (Macsen Wledig) before he left in 383 in an attempt to become Roman Emperor
The Anglo Saxon threat. The Anglo-Saxon advance was reversed in c.496 at a battle called Mons Badonicus and some Saxons left Britain at this time to resettle on the Continent. This however was only a temporary setback for the Saxons and by 550, their dominance had been re-established in southeastern England and Northumbria. In Wales they attempted to establish control over the Wye valley, Wales' Eastern border was constantly threatened by the expanding Anglo Saxon Kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia who strove to secure the fertile plains of the lowlands and push the Welsh into the upland regions, but in the decisive Battle of Pont y Saeson battle in 630 the Welsh of Gwent repulsed their advance and pushed them back beyond the River Wye, this largely unheralded victory helped establish the independance of Wales at the time, the Welsh resistance continued against the Northumbrians, who had allready overcome the Brythonic tribes of Scotland, but failed to conquer in Wales despite many invasions of North Wales. However the Anglo Saxon threat was relentless and continued up to the late 7th and early 8th centuries, the western border of the Kingdom of Mercia to a large degree, defined the Eastern borders of Wales and in the years 650-800, it expanded to the Dee, Wye, and Severn rivers at the expense of the Welsh kingdom of Powys, and in the first quarter of the 8th century, in an effort to better defend their new territory, they erected an earthwork barrier, known as Wat's Dyke, extending from the Severn to the Dee estuary.
Yr Hen Gogledd (The Old North)
Yr Hen Gogledd is a Welsh term used to refer to those parts of what is now Northern England and Southern Scotland where the peoples were Brythonic speaking. By 550, the region was controlled by the Brythonic speaking peoples except for the eastern coastal areas of Bernicia and Deira, which were controlled by the Angles. To the north were the Picts, and to the Northwest the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Riata. The relationship between Wales and the Old North is substantial with many Welsh and the Men of the North considering themselves to be one people.
The main Brythonic speaking Kingdoms of Yr Hen Gogledd were
Alt Clud or Ystrad Clud – a kingdom centred at what is now Dumbarton in Scotland. Later known as the Kingdom of Strathclyde, It operated as an independent realm before being absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 11th century.
Elmet – centred in western Yorkshire, survived into the early 7th century.
Gododdin – centred in Southeast Scotland and Northeast England, noteable as the homeland of Cunedda.
Rheged – centred in Cumbria
It would be too simplistic to portray this period as just the native, Brythonic speaking Britons defending against the intruding Anglo Saxons, as the Brythonic tribes were not united, and acted independantly to defend their territories as there are many examples of alliances being made across the different ethnic groups, such as
- An alliance of Britons fought against an alliance of Britons at the Battle of Arfderydd.- Aedan mac Gabrain of Dal Riata appears in the Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd, a genealogy of the Men of the North, and fought with the Britons against the Northumbrians.
- The Northumbrian King Oswiu married a Briton who may have had some Pictish ancestry
- A marriage between the Northumbrian and Pictish royal families would produce the Pictish king Talorgan
- Cadwallon ap Cadafan of Gwynedd allied with Penda of Mercia to defeat Edwin of Northumbria
However the story of the demise of the Brythonic Kingdoms of the Old North is the same story of the rise of Anglian Northumbria from two coastal kingdoms to become the premier power in Northern Britain, with the Brythonic part of this region being absorbed in the 7th century. Also the Anglo Saxons did differentiate between themselves and the native Brythonic speaking Kingdoms, describing them all as Welsh meaning "foreigner" or "not one of us", it was only when they had absorbed all the English Kingdoms, that the term only applied to the people of what we now regard as Wales infact bards such as Aneirin (the reputed author of Y Gododdin) are thought to have been court poets in the Old North. These stories and bards are held to be no less Welsh than the stories and bards who were actually from Wales.
Cunedda
One of the traditional stories relating to the creation of is derived from the arrival in Wales of Cunedda and his sons as "Men of the North". Cunedda himself is held to be the progenitor of the royal dynasty of Gwynedd, one of the largest and most powerful of the medieval Welsh kingdoms, and an ongoing participant in the history of the Old North. Cunedda, incidentally, is represented as a descendant of one of Magnus Maximus' generals, Paternus, who Maximus appointed as commander at Alt Clut. Votadini troops under Cunedda relocated to North Wales in order to defend the region from Irish invasion, specifically the Ui Liathain of Munster, Two explanations for these actions have been suggested: either Cunedda was acting under the orders of Maximus or Vortigern, the high king of the British in the immediate post-Roman era. The range of dates runs from the late 370s, which would favor Maximus, to the late 440s, which would favor Vortigern.
Vortigern (Welsh - Gwrtheyrn) c.370-459 and Ambrosius (Emrys Wledig)
The lands of Vortigern's sons indicate that his power-base stretched across the western Midlands of England, Gwent, Powys, Buellt and Gwrtheyrnion (in north-west Radnorshire), the latter area, being named after him. According to the inscription on the famous 'Pillar of Eliseg', Vortigern married a daughter of the Emperor Magnus Maximus named Severa and it was probably this imperial link which enabled him to take control of Britain as some kind of high-king, probably around AD 425, and gave him a line of descent leading to the royal family of Powys.
When the British ruler Constantine was murdered by Pictish assassins, Vortigern urged that the late rulers eldest son, Constans, be acknowledged ruler, despite the fact that he was a monk. Vortigern became the young boy's chief advisor, but soon plotted his death and seized control, Constans' younger brother, Aurelius Ambrosius fled to Brittany. However, this was not a good time to take on the governance of Britain, for, as Nennius, put it, "during his rule in Britain he was under pressure, from fear of the Picts and the Irish ... and, not least, from dread of Ambrosius." The latter did not return until 437 when he fought and defeated Vortigen at the Battle of Wallop. The raids from the Picts the Irish on the west coast grew in frequency and by around 440, the organised defence of the nation had more or less collapsed. Vortigern decided to employ Jutish mercenaries Hengist and Horsa to repel the Picts. In return, they were given land. This deal went horribly wrong as they revolted, killing Vortgans' son in the process. However further foreign invasions obliged Vortigern to once more to ask for Anglo-Jutish help around 451, but again they renaged, and plying Vortigern with drink, they persuaded him to hand over the Kingdom of Ceint (Kent) to them in return for the hand of Hengest's beautiful young daughter, Rhonwen.
In 455, Vortigern's sons, Vortimer and Cadeyrn raised an army and fought Hengest at the disastrous Battle of Derguentid (Crayford) after which Hengest's men chased the British army back to London. Vortimer was subsequently poisoned by his step-mother, Rhonwen. The following year, the less decisive Battle of Rithergabail (Aylesford) appears to have been a British victory, though Cadeyrn was killed. Eventually a peace conference was called at Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire; but the Anglo-Jutes unexpectedly pulled knives from their shoes and massacred the whole British contingent save for Vortigern himself. The king was ransomed in return for control of Essex, Middlesex and Sussex. This event was to become known as the 'Night of the Long Knives'.
Vortigern fled to the extremities of Wales where he built an impregnable stronghold on the southern slopes of Yr Aran, above Beddgelert (Gwynedd). According to foklore after construction began, it was found that, each night, the previous day's work was destroyed by unknown forces. Vortigern consulted the druids, who suggested he look for a young fatherless boy, born of the fairies, whose sacrifice would placate the gods and allow for the fortress to be finished. Vortigern's men searched throughout Britain until just such a boy was discovered, most commonly it is said in Caer-Fyrddin (Carmarthen). The boy, called Myrddin Emrys, shortened to Merlin, laughed at the druids and explained that the building works collapsed because they were shaken by the battling of two fierce dragons buried beneath the mountain. The white dragon, representing the Anglo-Saxons, was defeating the red Welsh dragon, thus prophesying their eventual conquest of the majority of Britain. With the dragons removed, the fortress was completed,
Ambrosius Aurelianus continuing their feud ousted Vortigern who fled once more, to a hillfort at Caer Guorthigan on the Teifi in Dyfed, where in c459 it was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground, killing Vortigern who was inside.
Other fortifications associated with Vortigern are at Arfon in Gwynedd, Carn Fadrun in Gwynedd, Clwyd in Powys, Llandysul in Dyfed, Rhaedr Gwy in Powys, Snowdon and Stonehenge.
Magnus Maximus
I gave a profile of Magnus Maximus, in the previous post, but to recap, he was assigned Roman Commander in Britain in 380, in 383 Maximus took advantage of the growing contempt for the failing Roman emperor Gratian by revolting and invading Gaul with a large army. In preparation, he took various steps to preserve the security of Britain, it has been suggested that he organised the peacefull settlement of the Irish Deisi tribe in Dyfed to defend the area, and also organised Cunedda and the Votadini tribe from Yr Hen Gogledd (Southern Scotland) to deal with the aggressive Irish Uí Liatháin Kingdom of Munster, and drive them out of North Wales. He also shored up the defences of Wales to protect the west coast from Irish raiders,