Year 808 (DCCCVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 808th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 808th year of the 1st millennium, the 8th year of the 9th century, and the 9th year of the 800s decade.
Maelgwn Gwynedd was king of Gwynedd during the early 6th century. Surviving records suggest he held a pre-eminent position among the Brythonic kings in Wales and their allies in the "Old North" along the Scottish coast. Maelgwn was a generous supporter of Christianity, funding the foundation of churches throughout Wales and even far beyond the bounds of his own kingdom. Nonetheless, his principal legacy today is the scathing account of his behavior recorded in De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae by Gildas, who considered Maelgwn a usurper and reprobate. The son of Cadwallon Lawhir and great-grandson of Cunedda, Maelgwn was buried on Ynys Seiriol, off the eastern tip of Anglesey, having died of the "yellow plague"; quite probably the arrival of Justinian's Plague in Britain.
The Kingdom of Powys was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern two-thirds of the modern county of Powys and part of today's English West Midlands. More precisely, and based on the Romano-British tribal lands of the Ordovices in the west and the Cornovii in the east, its boundaries originally extended from the Cambrian Mountains in the west to include the modern West Midlands region of England in the east. The fertile river valleys of the Severn and Tern are found here, and this region is referred to in later Welsh literature as "the Paradise of Powys".
Cadfan ap Iago was King of Gwynedd. Little is known of the history of Gwynedd from this period, and information about Cadfan and his reign is minimal.
Saint Deiniol was traditionally the first Bishop of Bangor in the Kingdom of Gwynedd, Wales. The present Bangor Cathedral, dedicated to Deiniol, is said to be on the site where his monastery stood. He is venerated in Brittany as Saint Denoual. In English and Latin his name is sometimes rendered as Daniel.
Cyngen ap Cadell or also (Concenn), was King of Powys from 808 until his death in 854 during a pilgrimage to Rome.
Brochwel son of Cyngen, better known as Brochwel Ysgithrog, was a king of Powys in eastern Wales. The unusual epithet Ysgithrog has been translated as "of the canine teeth", "the fanged" or "of the tusk".
Elisedd ap Gwylog, also known as Elise, was king of Powys in eastern Wales, son of Gwylog ap Beli.
Cadfan ap Cadwaladr, Lord of Ceredigion was the elder son of Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd, the brother of Owain Gwynedd, King of Gwynedd and overlord of all Wales. His mother was his father's first wife, Gwerfel ferch Gwrgan. He was probably born in Ceredigion, where his father held extensive estates. His father was banished in 1144. He should not be confused with Cadell ap Gruffydd, King of Deheubarth, who took Ceredigion from Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, son of Owain Gwynedd, in 1150. Cadfan probably spent the rest of his life in exile in England. He married Gwenllian, a daughter of Owain Cyfeiliog. He is known to have had only one daughter: Tangwystl ferch Cadfan.
Cadell or Cadel is an old Welsh personal name derived from the Latin Catullus. As a surname, it derives from the Welsh patronymic "ap Cadell". Notable people with the name include:
Saint Dunod was the first Abbot of Bangor Iscoed of north-east Wales.
Elisedd ap Cyngen ap Cadell
Ial or Yale was a commote of medieval Wales within the cantref of Maelor in the Kingdom of Powys. When the Kingdom was divided in 1160, Maelor became part of the Princely realm of Powys Fadog, and belonged to the Royal House of Mathrafal. Yale eventually merged with another commote and became the Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, later a royal lordship under the Tudors and Stuarts.
Nest ferch Cadell was the daughter of Cadell ap Brochfael, an 8th-century King of Powys, the wife of Merfyn Frych, King of Gwynedd.
The Royal House of Mathrafal began as a cadet branch of the Welsh Royal House of Dinefwr, taking their name from Mathrafal Castle. They effectively replaced the House of Gwertherion, who had been ruling the Kingdom of Powys since late Roman Britain, through the politically advantageous marriage of an ancestor, Merfyn the Oppressor. King Bleddyn ap Cynfyn would join the resistance of the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, against the invasion of William the Conqueror, following the Norman conquest of England. Thereafter, they would struggle with the Plantagenets and the remaining Welsh Royal houses for the control of Wales. Although their fortunes rose and fell over the generations, they are primarily remembered as Kings of Powys and last native Prince of Wales.
Cadfan, sometimes Anglicized as Gideon, was the 6th century founder-abbot of Tywyn and Bardsey, both in Gwynedd, Wales. He was said to have received the island of Bardsey from Einion Frenin, king of Llŷn, around 516 and to have served as its abbot until 542.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 801–900 to Wales and its people.
