Magnus Maximus was a Celtiberian who became Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian.
Princess of Wales is a title used since the 14th century by the wife of the prince of Wales. The princess is a likely future queen consort, as the prince of Wales is a title reserved for the heir apparent to the British throne. When the title was first recorded it was not connected to the English throne, it developed in an independent Wales when it was held by Eleanor de Montfort, the wife of the native prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. The current title-holder is Catherine.
Brân the Blessed is a giant and king of Britain in Welsh mythology. He appears in several of the Welsh Triads, but his most significant role is in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, Branwen ferch Llŷr. He is a son of Llŷr and Penarddun, and the brother of Brânwen, Manawydan, Nisien and Efnysien. The name "Brân" in Welsh is usually translated as crow or raven.
Saint Elen, often anglicized as Helen, was a late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales. Traditionally, she is said to have been a daughter of the Romano-British ruler Octavius / Eudaf Hen and the wife of Magnus Maximus / Macsen Wledig, the 4th-century emperor in Britain, Gaul, and Spain who was killed in battle in 388. Although never formally canonized by Rome, Elen is traditionally considered a saint in the Welsh Church; in English she is sometimes known as Saint Helen of Caernarfon to distinguish her from Saint Helena.
The Mabinogion are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created c. 1350–1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and created by various narrators over time. There is a classic hero quest, "Culhwch and Olwen"; a historic legend in "Lludd and Llefelys", complete with glimpses of a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from the later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that it has been argued that they are not even a true collection.
Coel, also called Coel Hen and King Cole, is a figure prominent in Welsh literature and legend since the Middle Ages. Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen, a c. 4th-century leader in Roman or Sub-Roman Britain and the progenitor of several kingly lines in Yr Hen Ogledd, a region of the Brittonic-speaking area of what is now northern England and southern Scotland.
Cunedda ap Edern, also called Cunedda Wledig, was an important early Welsh leader, and the progenitor of the Royal dynasty of Gwynedd, one of the very oldest of Western Europe.
Beli Mawr was an ancestor figure in Middle Welsh literature and genealogies. He is the father of Cassivellaunus, Arianrhod, Lludd Llaw Eraint, Llefelys, and Afallach. In certain medieval genealogies he is listed as the son or husband of Anna, cousin of Mary, mother of Jesus. According to the Welsh Triads, Beli and Dôn were the parents of Arianrhod, but the mother of Beli's other children—and the father of Dôn's other children—is not mentioned in the medieval Welsh literature. Several royal lines in medieval Wales traced their ancestry to Beli. The Mabinogi names Penarddun as a daughter of Beli Mawr, but the genealogy is confused; it is possible she was meant to be his sister rather than daughter.
Welsh mythology consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celtic mythology and history were recorded orally by specialists such as druids. This oral record has been lost or altered as a result of outside contact and invasion over the years. Much of this altered mythology and history is preserved in medieval Welsh manuscripts, which include the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. Other works connected to Welsh mythology include the ninth-century Latin historical compilation Historia Brittonum and Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae, as well as later folklore, such as the materials collected in The Welsh Fairy Book by William Jenkyn Thomas (1908).
Conan Meriadoc is a legendary British Celtic leader credited with founding Brittany. Versions of his story circulated in both Brittany and Great Britain from at least the early 12th century, and supplanted earlier legends of Brittany's foundation. His story is known in two major versions, which appear in the Welsh text known as The Dream of Macsen Wledig, and in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Both texts associate him with Magnus Maximus, a Roman usurper against the Valentinianic dynasty who was widely regarded as having deprived Britain of its defences when he took its legions to claim the imperial throne. Conan's cousin or sister, Saint Elen, is said to have been Macsen Wledic's wife.
Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd was Princess consort of Deheubarth in Wales, and married to Gruffydd ap Rhys, Prince of Deheubarth. Gwenllian was the daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan (1055–1137), Prince of Gwynedd and Angharad ferch Owain, and a member of the princely Aberffraw family of Gwynedd. Gwenllian's "patriotic revolt" and subsequent death in battle at Kidwelly Castle contributed to the Great Revolt of 1136.
Merfyn Frych, also known as Merfyn ap Gwriad and Merfyn Camwri, was King of Gwynedd from around 825 to 844, the first of its kings known not to have descended from the male line of King Cunedda.
Segontium is a Roman fort on the outskirts of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, North Wales. The fort, which survived until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, was garrisoned by Roman auxiliaries from present-day Belgium and Germany. It was the most important military base and administrative centre in this part of Britain.
Cinuit may have been an early ruler of the Brittonic kingdom of Alt Clut, later known as Strathclyde, in Britain's Hen Ogledd or "Old North". The Harleian genealogies indicate that he was the son of Ceretic Guletic, who may be identified with the warlord Ceredig rebuked by Saint Patrick in one of his letters. According to the same pedigrees, he was the father of Dumnagual Hen, an important but obscure ancestor figure in Welsh tradition. The later genealogy Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd replaces Cinuit as Dumnagual's father with a certain Idnyuet, said to be the son of Maxen Wledic. However, the Bonedd does include a "Cynwyd Cynwydion" in the ancestry of Clydno Eiddyn, and a Triad attached to the text mentions the "three hundred swords of the Cynwydion" as one of three formidable north British war bands, along with those of Coel Hen and Cynfarch.
Dyfnwal Hen or Dumnagual Hen was a ruler of the Brittonic kingdom of Alt Clut, later known as Strathclyde, probably sometime in the early 6th century. His biography is vague, but he was regarded as an important ancestor figure for several kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain. As an ancestor figure, he compares to Coel Hen, another obscure figure credited with founding a number of northern dynasties.
Llŷr is a figure in Welsh mythology, probably originally a deity, probably derived from Irish Ler, father of Manannán mac Lir. Other than his progeny and odd titbits, his identity remains obscure.
Ewyas was a possible early Welsh kingdom which may have been formed around the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century. The name was later used for a much smaller commote or administrative sub-division, which covered the area of the modern Vale of Ewyas and a larger area to the east including the villages of Ewyas Harold and Ewyas Lacy.
Alain II Hir, "Alain II the tall",, also known as Alan Hir was a king of Brittany who succeeded his father Iudicael as King of Cornouaille; not to be confused with the contemporary Judicael, the King of Domnonee who was son of Iudhael, King of Domnonee. He was the grandson of Hoel III, King of Brittany and descended from Aldroen, grandson of Conan Meriadoc of the Welsh tale Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig via his son Gwereg, the historical "Erec" from the Breton Romance Erec et Enide. He was the father of a supposed figure named Ifor who ruled Cornwall after reconquering it from the West Saxons and then left it to his nephew either Idwal Iwrch, King of Gwynedd or his son Rhodri Molwynog, King of the Britons as versions of the story vary, and his daughter, who in welsh genealogical manuscripts is either the mother or wife of Idwal Iwrch and possible mother of the aforementioned Rhodri Molwynog. According to Welsh tradition he was a 4th great nephew of Arthur by the marriage of Arthur's sister Elen to Hoel II of Brittany.
Amlawdd Wledig was a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain. The Welsh title [G]wledig, archaically Gwledic or Guletic and Latinised Guleticus, is defined as follows: "lord, king, prince, ruler; term applied to a number of early British rulers and princes who were prominent in the defence of Britain about the time of the Roman withdrawal; (possibly) commander of the native militia ".
