Ceretic of Elmet (or Ceredig ap Gwallog) was the last king of Elmet, a Britonnic kingdom that existed in the West Yorkshire area of Northern England in sub-Roman Britain.
Bede records that Hilda of Whitby (born 614), a member of the Deiran royal family, was taken to the court of King Ceretic, after fleeing from the Northumbrian usurper, Æthelfrith of Bernicia. Bede describes Ceretic as "King of the Britons", perhaps meaning just the Britons of that area. When Edwin of Deira returned to power in 617, Ceretic was expelled, supposedly due to complicity in the poisoning of Hilda's father, and his kingdom was annexed to the Kingdom of Northumbria. He is probably the Ceretic whose death is recorded in the Annales Cambriae in 616 (which should be corrected to 617 or soon afterwards). [1] He is generally thought to be identical to Ceredig ap Gwallog, a 'Man of the North', whose father, Gwallog ap Lleenog, is associated with Elmet by the poet, Taliesin.
Northumbria was an early medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now Northern England and South Scotland.
Strathclyde was a Brittonic kingdom in northern Britain during the Middle Ages. It comprised parts of what is now southern Scotland and North West England, a region the Welsh tribes referred to as Yr Hen Ogledd. At its greatest extent in the 10th century, it stretched from Loch Lomond to the River Eamont at Penrith. Strathclyde seems to have been annexed by the Goidelic -speaking Kingdom of Alba in the 11th century, becoming part of the emerging Kingdom of Scotland.
Edwin, also known as Eadwine or Æduinus, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He was the second monarch to rule both of these northern English kingdoms and the first to convert to Christianity. After he fell in battle, he was venerated as a saint.
Æthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death around 616 AD at the Battle of the River Idle. He became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development and the unification of the later kingdom of Northumbria. He was especially notable for his successes against the Britons and his victory over the Gaels of Dál Riata. Although he was defeated and killed in battle and replaced by a dynastic rival, his line was eventually restored to power in the 630s.
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England.
Deira was an area of Post-Roman Britain, and a later Anglian kingdom.
Elmet, sometimes Elmed or Elmete, was an independent Brittonic Celtic Cumbric-speaking kingdom between about the 4th century and mid-7th century.
Cadwallon ap Cadfan was the King of Gwynedd from around 625 until his death in battle. The son and successor of Cadfan ap Iago, he is best remembered as the King of the Britons who invaded and conquered Northumbria, defeating and killing its king, Edwin, prior to his own death in battle against Oswald of Bernicia. His conquest of Northumbria, which he held for a year or two after Edwin died, made him one of the last recorded Celtic Britons to hold substantial territory in eastern Britain until the rise of the Welsh House of Tudor. He was thereafter remembered as a national hero by the Britons and as a tyrant by the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria.
Tytila was a semi-historical pagan king of East Anglia, a small Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Early sources, including Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, identify him as an early member of the Wuffingas dynasty who succeeded his father Wuffa. A later chronicle dates his reign from 578, but he is not known to have definitely ruled as king and nothing of his life is known. He is listed in a number of genealogical lists.
Hilda of Whitby was a saint of the early Church in Britain. She was the founder and first abbess of the monastery at Whitby which was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby in 664. An important figure in the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, she was abbess in several convents and recognised for the wisdom that drew kings to her for advice.
Keredic was a legendary king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. The origin of Geoffrey's character is unknown, but he is not depicted as a Saxon. According to Geoffrey, Keredic's rule was so unpopular that the Saxons enlisted the aid of an army of Vandals from Ireland to drive him from his kingdom.
Ceretic, Ceredig or Keredic may refer to:
The Timeline of conflict in Anglo-Saxon Britain is concerned with the period of history from just before the departure of the Roman Army, in the 4th century, to just after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
Gwallog ap Llênog was possibly a sixth-century ruler of Elfed, a region in the wider area memorialised in later Welsh literature as the 'Old North'. The evidence for Gwallog's existence survives entirely from two poems of spurious date and several other references in semi-legendary genealogies and literature well beyond his era. If this later material is to be believed, he was a member of the Coeling, a family which is supposed to have been prominent across several kingdoms in northern Britain in the sixth century. He is probably best remembered for his role in the Historia Brittonum as an ally of Urien Rheged. As with many figures of this period, he attracted much interest in later Medieval Welsh literature.
Hereswith or Hereswitha, also spelt Hereswithe, Hereswyde or Haeresvid, was a 7th-century Northumbrian saint. She married into the East Anglian royal dynasty and afterwards retired to Gaul to lead a religious life. Hereswith's sister was Saint Hilda, founder of the monastery at Whitby. Details of her life and identity come from Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, the Anglian collection and the Lives of Edwin of Northumbria and Hilda of Whitby.
Events from the 7th century in England.
Urbs Iudeu was a city, whose location is now unknown, which according to the ninth-century Historia Brittonum was besieged in 655 AD by Penda, King of Mercia, and Cadafael, King of Gwynedd.
The Battle of the River Idle was a major victory for Rædwald of East Anglia over Æthelfrith of Northumbria in 616 in what is now Nottinghamshire.