Brenhinoedd y Saeson (also Brenhinedd y Saesson) is the medieval title of a Middle Welsh annalistic chronicle. [1] The name means 'the kings of the English'.
It is known from two medieval manuscripts:
Brenhinoedd y Saeson is closely related to the chronicle known as Brut y Tywysogion, known in two version named after the manuscripts Peniarth 20 and Oxford, Jesus College 111 (The Red Book of Herges t). Brenhinoedd y Saeson's main source is the Latin chronicle related to Annales Cambriae from which the two versions of Brut y Tywysogion derive. But it also includes material drawn from English sources. These include a version of the Annals of Winchester, William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum and (indirectly) Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum. It also draws on materials from the Welsh Marches, including a version of the annals known from the Breviate of Domesday manuscript (London, National Archives, MS E. 164/1) which also contains the so-called Breviate Chronicle (known as the B-text of Annales Cambriae).
As a result, Brenhinoedd y Saeson contains more material relating to the English kings than the two versions of Brut y Tywysogion.
The annals in the Black Book of Basingwerk are dependent on the Cotton Cleopatra version up to the latter's final entry in 1198. They then draw on both the Peniarth 20 and Red Book of Hergest versions of Brut y Tywysogion to 1282. The continuation of the Peniarth 20 Brut y Tywysogion is the source for the years up to 1331, after which the material is probably the work of Gutun Owain himself. [2]
Brenhinoedd y Saeson is so named in the two medieval manuscripts in which it survives. David Dumville has argued that as Brut y Tywysogion is not given that name in medieval manuscripts, the name Brenhinoedd y Saeson should be used not only of the chronicle found in Cotton Cleopatra B V and the Black Book of Basingwerk, but also for the two versions of Brut y Tywysogion as well. [3] In general academic usage, however, it is usual to differentiate between Brenhinoedd y Saeson and Brut y Tywysogion. [2]
The Annales Cambriae is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later editions were compiled in the 13th century. Despite the name, the Annales Cambriae record not only events in Wales, but also events in Ireland, Cornwall, England, Scotland and sometimes further afield, though the focus of the events recorded especially in the later two-thirds of the text is Wales.
Nennius is a mythical prince of Britain at the time of Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain. His story appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (1136), a work whose contents are now considered largely fictional. In Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia he was called Nynniaw.
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Brut y Tywysogion is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. Brut y Tywysogion has survived as several Welsh translations of an original Latin version, which has not itself survived. The most important versions are the one in Robert Vaughan's Peniarth MS. 20 and the slightly less complete one in the Red Book of Hergest. The version entitled Brenhinoedd y Saeson combines material from the Welsh annals with material from an English source.
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Brut y Brenhinedd is a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin Historia Regum Britanniae. About 60 versions survive, with the earliest dating to the mid-13th century. Adaptations of Geoffrey's Historia were extremely popular throughout Western Europe during the Middle Ages, but the Brut proved especially influential in medieval Wales, where it was largely regarded as an accurate account of the early history of the Celtic Britons.
The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales is a printed collection of medieval Welsh literature, published in three volumes by the Gwyneddigion Society between 1801 and 1807. Until John Gwenogvryn Evans produced diplomatic editions of the important medieval Welsh manuscripts, the Myvyrian Archaiology provided the source text for many translators of medieval Welsh material. It was founded, and funded, by Owen Jones, who engaged William Owen Pughe as editor, and Edward Williams, better known as Iolo Morganwg, to search Wales for manuscripts.
A number of medieval chronicles of the history of Wales survive, notably the 9th century Historia Brittonum and the 10th century Annales Cambriae. These early chronicles are written in Latin, while from the 12th century, some are composed in Middle Welsh. The oldest surviving manuscripts of chronicles kept in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth date to the 13th century.
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Brut y Saeson is a Welsh-language chronicle running from the death of Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon in 682 to the reign of Richard II (1377–99) of England. The name means the brut or chronicle of the English.
Gwriad ap Merfyn or ap Rhodri was a 9th-century prince of Gwynedd in northern Wales. He is an obscure figure, sometimes being listed as Rhodri the Great's brother and sometimes as his son.
Einion ab Anarawd (c.1130–1163) was the son of Anarawd ap Gruffydd.
Peniarth 20 is an early Welsh manuscript, written on parchment, that is part of the Peniarth collection in the National Library of Wales. It is also known as the Chronicle of the Princes because it contains an important version of the chronicle Brut y Tywysogion. Daniel Huws, the leading authority on Welsh manuscripts, has argued that the majority of Peniarth 20 dates from circa 1330. A date around the 15th century had previously been offered by J. Gwenogvryn Evans.
The History of the Kings, or Brut y Brenhinedd, is a Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. The manuscript, which was copied in the late fifteenth century, is probably the only illustrated Welsh-language medieval narrative. It is part of the Peniarth Manuscripts collection at the National Library of Wales.