Wales in the early Middle Ages

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Post-Roman Welsh kingdoms. Wales.post-Roman.jpg
Post-Roman Welsh kingdoms.

Wales in the early Middle Ages covers the time between the Roman departure from Wales c. 383 until the middle of the 11th century. In that time there was a gradual consolidation of power into increasingly hierarchical kingdoms. The end of the early Middle Ages was the time that the Welsh language transitioned from the Primitive Welsh spoken throughout the era into Old Welsh, and the time when the modern England–Wales border would take its near-final form, a line broadly followed by Offa's Dyke, a late eighth-century earthwork. Successful unification into something recognisable as a Welsh state would come in the next era under the descendants of Merfyn Frych.

Contents

Wales was rural throughout the era, characterised by small settlements called trefi. The local landscape was controlled by a local aristocracy and ruled by a warrior aristocrat. Control was exerted over a piece of land and, by extension, over the people who lived on that land. Many of the people were tenant peasants or slaves, answerable to the aristocrat who controlled the land on which they lived. There was no sense of a coherent tribe of people and everyone, from ruler down to slave, was defined in terms of his or her kindred family (the tud) and individual status (braint). Christianity had been introduced in the Roman era, and the Celtic Britons living in and near Wales were Christian throughout the era.

The semi-legendary founding of Gwynedd in the fifth century was followed by internecine warfare in Wales and with the kindred Brittonic kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland (the Hen Ogledd) and structural and linguistic divergence from the southwestern peninsula British kingdom of Dumnonia known to the Welsh as Cernyw prior to its eventual absorption into Wessex. The seventh and eighth centuries were characterised by ongoing warfare by the northern and eastern Welsh kingdoms against the intruding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. That era of struggle saw the Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, Cymry, meaning "fellow countrymen", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria.

History

Wales as a nation was defined in opposition to later English settlement and incursions into the island of Great Britain. In the early middle ages, the people of Wales continued to think of themselves as Britons, the people of the whole island, but over the course of time one group of these Britons became isolated by the geography of the western peninsula, bounded by the sea and English neighbours. It was these English neighbours who named the land Wallia, and the people Welsh. The people of Wallia, medieval Wales, remained divided into separate kingdoms that fought with each other as much as they fought their English neighbours. Neither were the communities homogenously Welsh. Place name and archeological evidence point to Viking/Norse settlement in places such as Swansea, Fishguard and Anglesey, and Saxons settled amongst the Welsh in places such as Presteigne. It was the Norman invasion of England in 1066, which led soon after to incursions into Wales that overcame these rivalries, encouraging Welsh rulers to attempt to develop Wales into a unified state that could oppose this new threat. It was only in the final stages of conquest that Wales finally achieved this unity. It was the threat of invasion and conquest that created the nation of Wales. [1]

After the Roman withdrawal, Wales remained a rural landscape, controlled by warlords that formed a local aristocracy. Control was exerted over a piece of land and, by extension, over the people who lived on that land. Many of the people were tenant peasants or slaves, answerable to the aristocrat who controlled the land on which they lived. There was no sense of a coherent tribe of people and everyone, from ruler down to slave, was defined in terms of his or her kindred family (the tud) and individual status (braint).[ citation needed ]

The Roman era had brought Christianity, and the Celtic Britons living in the land that would become Wales, and elsewhere in Britain, were Christian throughout the era, and their legacy is found in the many place names of Wales that are prefixed by Welsh : llan, meaning a holy enclosure or church. The Welsh kingdoms arose in this period, in which the chieftains clashed with one another in internecine warfare, both in the territory that would become Wales (kingdoms such as Gwynedd) and across the Brittonic kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland (the Hen Ogledd).This was also a time of structural and linguistic divergence from the southwestern peninsula British kingdom of Dumnonia known to the Welsh as Cernyw prior to its eventual absorption into Wessex. Cernyw would become Cornwall and their language would become Cornish. The seventh and eighth centuries were characterised by ongoing warfare by the northern and eastern Welsh kingdoms against the intruding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. That era of struggle saw the Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, Cymry, meaning "fellow countrymen", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria.[ citation needed ]

One king, Hywel Dda,(translating to 'Howel The Good' in English) came close to uniting Wales as a single nation. He was king of Deheubarth but in 942 he intervened when Idwal Foel of Gwynedd was defeated in battle by Edmund, King of England. He thus took control of Gwynedd and Powys, making him ruler of all Wales except Morgannwg and Gwent. Hywel Dda instituted Welsh law, which was adopted across Wales, even after his kingdom was divided after his death. [2]

Irish settlement

Ogham.Inscriptions.Wales.jpg
Gaels in Wales.jpg

In the late fourth century there was an influx of settlers from southern Ireland, the Uí Liatháin and Laigin (with Déisi participation uncertain), [3] [4] [5] [6] arriving under unknown circumstances but leaving a lasting legacy especially in Dyfed. It is possible that they were invited to settle by the Welsh. There is no evidence of warfare, a bilingual regional heritage suggests peaceful coexistence and intermingling, and the Historia Brittonum written c. 828 notes that a Welsh king had the power to settle foreigners and transfer tracts of land to them. [7] That Roman-era regional rulers were able to exert such power is suggested by the Roman tolerance of native hill forts where there was local leadership under local law and custom. [8] Whatever the circumstances, there is nothing known to connect these settlers either to Roman policy, or to the Irish raiders (the Scoti) of classical Roman accounts.

Roman-era legacy

Forts and roads are the most visible physical signs of a past Roman presence, along with the coins and Roman-era Latin inscriptions that are associated with Roman military sites. [9] There is a legacy of Romanisation along the coast of southeastern Wales. In that region are found the remains of villas in the countryside. Caerwent and three small urban sites, along with Carmarthen and Roman Monmouth, are the only "urbanised" Roman sites in Wales. [10] This region was placed under Roman civil administration ( civitates ) in the mid-second century, with the rest of Wales being under military administration throughout the Roman era. [11] There are a number of borrowings from the Latin lexicon into Welsh, and while there are Latin-derived words with legal meaning in popular usage such as pobl ("people"), the technical words and concepts used in describing Welsh law in the Middle Ages are native Welsh, and not of Roman origin. [12]

There is ongoing debate as to the extent of a lasting Roman influence being applicable to the early Middle Ages in Wales, and while the conclusions about Welsh history are important, Wendy Davies has questioned the relevance of the debates themselves by noting that whatever Roman provincial administration might have survived in places, it eventually became a new system appropriate to the time and place, and not a "hangover of archaic practices". [13]

Earliest kingdoms

Medieval kingdoms of Wales are shown within the boundaries of the present-day country of Wales and not inclusive of all. Medieval Wales.JPG
Medieval kingdoms of Wales are shown within the boundaries of the present-day country of Wales and not inclusive of all.

The exact origins and extent of the early kingdoms are speculative. The conjectured minor kings of the sixth century held small areas within a radius of perhaps 24 km (15 mi), probably near the coast. Throughout the era there was dynastic strengthening in some areas while new kingdoms emerged and then disappeared in others. [14] There is no reason to suppose that every part of Wales was part of kingdom even as late as 700. [15]

Dyfed is the same land of the Demetae shown on Ptolemy's map c. 150 during the Roman era. The fourth century arrival of Irish settlers intertwined the royal genealogies of Wales and Ireland, with Dyfed's rulers appearing in The Expulsion of the Déisi , [16] Harleian MS. 5389 [17] and Jesus College MS. 20 . [18] Its king Vortiporius was one of the kings condemned by Gildas in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae , c. 540. [19] [20]

While the better documented southeast shows a long and slow acquisition of property and power by the dynasty of Meurig ap Tewdrig in connection with the kingdoms of Glywysing, Gwent and Ergyng, there is a near-complete absence of information about many other areas. The earliest known name of a king of Ceredigion was Cereticiaun, who died in 807, and none of the mid-Welsh kingdoms can be evidenced before the eighth century. There are mentions of Brycheiniog and Gwrtheyrnion (near Buellt) in that era, but for the latter it is difficult to say whether it had either an earlier or a later existence. [21]

The early history in the north and east are somewhat better known, with Gwynedd having a semi-legendary origin in the arrival of Cunedda from Manau Gododdin in the fifth century (an inscribed sixth century gravestone records the earliest known mention of the kingdom). [22] Its king Maelgwn Gwynedd was one of the kings condemned by Gildas in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae , c. 540. [19] [20] There may also have been sixth-century kingdoms in Rhos, Meirionydd and Dunoding, all associated with Gwynedd. [23]

The name of Powys is not certainly used before the ninth century, but its earlier existence (perhaps under a different name) is reasonably inferred by the fact that Selyf ap Cynan (d. 616) and his grandfather are in the Harleian genealogies as the family of the known later kings of Powys, and Selyf's father Cynan ap Brochwel appears in poems attributed to Taliesen, where he is described as leading successful raids throughout Wales. [21] Seventh-century Pengwern is associated with the later Powys through the poems of Canu Heledd , which name sites from Shropshire to Dogfeiling to Newtown in lamenting the demise of Pengwern's king Cynddylan; [24] but the poem's geography probably reflects the time of its composition, around the ninth or tenth century rather that Cynddylan's own time. [25]

Geography

Ancient land cover of southern Britain. South.Britain.ancient.land.cover.jpg
Ancient land cover of southern Britain.

The total area of Wales is 20,779 km2 (8,023 sq mi). [26] Much of the landscape is mountainous with treeless moors and heath, and having large areas with peat deposits. There is approximately 1,200 km (746 mi) of coastline [27] and some 50 offshore islands, the largest of which is Anglesey. The present climate is wet and maritime, with warm summers and mild winters, [28] much like the later medieval climate, though there was a significant change to cooler and much wetter conditions in the early part of the era. [29] [note 1] The southeastern coast was originally a wetland, but reclamation has been ongoing since the Roman era.

There are deposits of gold, copper, lead, silver and zinc, and these have been exploited since the Iron Age, especially so in the Roman era. [30] In the Roman era some granite was quarried, as was slate in the north and sandstone in the east and south. [31]

Native fauna included large and small mammals, such as the brown bear, wolf, wildcat, rodents, several species of weasel, and shrews, voles and many species of bat. There were many species of birds, fish and shellfish.

The early medieval human population has always been considered relatively low in comparison to England, but efforts to reliably quantify it have yet to provide widely acceptable results. [32]

Subsistence

Much of the arable land is in the south, southeast, southwest, on Anglesey, and along the coast. However, specifying the ancient usage of land is problematic in that there is little surviving evidence on which to base the estimates. Forest clearance has taken place since the Iron Age, and it is not known how the ancient people of Wales determined the best use of the land for their particular circumstances, [33] such as in their preference for wheat, oats, rye or barley depending on rainfall, growing season, temperature and the characteristics of the land on which they lived. Anglesey is the exception, historically producing more grain than any other part of Wales. [34]

Animal husbandry included the raising of cattle, pigs, sheep and a lesser number of goats. Oxen were kept for ploughing, asses for beasts of burden and horses for human transport. [35] The importance of sheep was less than in later centuries, as their extensive grazing in the uplands did not begin until the thirteenth century. [36] The animals were tended by swineherds and herdsmen, but they were not confined, even in the lowlands. Instead open land was used for feeding, and seasonal transhumance was practised. In addition, bees were kept for the production of honey. [37]

Society

Kindred family

The importance of blood relationships, particularly in relation to birth and noble descent, was heavily stressed in medieval Wales. [38] Claims of dynastic legitimacy rested on it, and an extensive patrilinear genealogy was used to assess fines and penalties under Welsh law. Different degrees of blood relationship were important for different circumstances, all based upon the cenedl (kindred). The nuclear family (parents and children) was especially important, while the pencenedl (head of the family within four patrilinear generations) held special status, representing the family in transactions and having certain unique privileges under the law. Under extraordinary circumstances the genealogical interest could be stretched quite far: for the serious matter of homicide, all of the fifth cousins of a kindred (the seventh generation: the patrilinear descendants of a common great-great-great-great-grandfather) were ultimately liable for satisfying any penalty. [39]

Land and political entities

The Welsh referred to themselves in terms of their territory and not in the sense of a tribe. Thus there was Gwenhwys ("Gwent" with a group-identifying suffix) and gwyr Guenti ("men of Gwent") and Broceniauc ("men of Brycheiniog"). Welsh custom contrasted with many Irish and Anglo-Saxon contexts, where the territory was named for the people living there (Connaught for the Connachta, Essex for the East Saxons). This is aside from the origin of a territory's name, such as in the custom of attributing it to an eponymous founder (Glywysing for Glywys, Ceredigion for Ceredig). [40]

The Welsh term for a political entity was gwlad ("country") and it expressed the notion of a "sphere of rule" with a territorial component. The Latin equivalent seems to be regnum, which referred to the "changeable, expandable, contractable sphere of any ruler's power". [41] Rule tended to be defined in relation to a territory that might be held and protected, or expanded or contracted, though the territories themselves were specific pieces of land and not synonyms for the gwlad.

Throughout the Middle Ages the Welsh used a variety of words for rulers, with the specific words used varying over time, and with literary sources generally using different terms than annalistic ones. Latin language texts used Latin language terms while vernacular texts used Welsh terms. Not only did the specific terms vary, the meaning of those specific terms varied over time as well. [42] For example, brenin was one of the terms used for a king in the twelfth century. The earlier, original meaning of brenin was simply a person of status. [43]

Kings are sometimes described as overkings, but the definition of what that meant is unclear, whether referring to a king with definite powers, or to ideas of someone considered to have high status. [44]

Kingship

Wales in the early Middle Ages was a society with a landed warrior aristocracy, [45] and after c. 500 Welsh politics were dominated by kings with territorial kingdoms. [46] The legitimacy of the kingship was of paramount importance, [47] the legitimate attainment of power was by dynastic inheritance or military proficiency. [48] A king had to be considered effective and be associated with wealth, either his own or by distributing it to others, [49] and those considered to be at the top level were required to have wisdom, perfection, and a long reach. [50] Literary sources stressed martial qualities such as military capability, bold horsemanship, leadership, the ability to extend boundaries and to make conquests, along with an association with wealth and generosity. Clerical sources stressed obligations such as respect for Christian principles, providing defence and protection, pursuing thieves and imprisoning offenders, persecuting evildoers, and making judgements. [51]

The relationship among people that is most appropriate to the warrior aristocracy is clientship and flexibility, and not one of sovereignty or absolute power, nor necessarily of long duration. [52] Prior to the tenth century, power was held on a local level, [53] and the limits of that power varied by region. [54] There were at least two restraints on the limits of power: the combined will of the ruler's people (his "subjects"), and the authority of the Christian church. [55] There is little to explain the meaning of "subject" beyond noting that those under a ruler owed an assessment (effectively, taxes) and military service when demanded, while they were owed protection by the ruler. [56]

Kings

For much of the early medieval period kings had few functions except military ones. Kings made war and gave judgements (in consultation with local elders) [55] but they did not govern in any sense of that word. [57] From the sixth to the eleventh centuries the king moved about with an armed, mounted warband, [58] a personal military retinue called a teulu that is described as a "small, swift-moving, and close-knit group". [59] This military elite formed the core of any larger army that might be assembled. The relationships among the king and the members of his warband were personal, and the practice of fosterage strengthened those personal bonds. [60]

Aristocracy

Power was held at a local level by families who controlled the land and the people who lived on that land. They are differentiated legally by having a higher sarhaed (the penalty for insult) than the general populace, by the records of their transactions (such as land transfers) [61] by their participation in local judgements and administration, [62] and by their consultative role in judgements made by the king. [55]

References to the social stratification that defines an aristocracy are widely found in Welsh literature and law. A man's privilege was assessed in terms of his braint (status), of which there were two kinds (birth and office), and in terms of his superior's importance. Two men might each be an uchelwr (high man), but a king is higher than a breyr (a regional leader), so legal compensation for the loss to a king's bondsman (aillt) was higher than the equivalent loss to the bondsman of a breyr. Early sources stressed birth and function as the determinators of nobility, and not by the factor of wealth that later became associated with an aristocracy. [63]

Populace

The populace included a hereditary tenant peasantry who were not slaves or serfs, but were less than free. [64] Gwas ("servant", boy) referred to a dependent in perpetual servitude, but who was not bound to labour service (i.e., serfdom). Nor can the person be considered a vassal except perhaps as a clerical self-description, as in the 'vassal of a saint'. The early existence of the concept suggests a stratum of bound dependents in the post-Roman era. [65] The proportion of the medieval population that consisted of freemen or free peasant proprietors is undetermined, even for the pre-Conquest period. [66]

Slavery existed in Wales as it did elsewhere throughout the era. [67] Slaves were in the bottom stratum of society, with hereditary slavery more common than penal slavery. Slaves might form part of the payment in a transaction made between those of higher rank. It was possible for them to buy their freedom, and an example of manumission at Llandeilo Fawr is given in a ninth-century marginalia note of the Lichfield Gospels . [68] Their relative numbers is a matter of guess and conjecture. [69]

Christianity

The religious culture of Wales was overwhelmingly Christian in the early Middle Ages. [70] Pastoral care of the laity was necessarily rural in Wales, as it was in other Celtic regions. [71] In Wales the clergy consisted of monks, orders and non-monastic clergy, all appearing in different periods and in different contexts. There were three major orders consisting of bishops (episcopi), priests (presbyteri) and deacons, as well as several minor ones. Bishops had some temporal authority, but not necessarily in the sense of a full diocese. [72]

Communities

Monasticism is known in Britain in the fifth century though its origins are obscure. The Church seemed episcopally dominated and largely consisting of monasteries. The size of the religious communities is unknown (Bede and the Welsh Triads suggest they were large, the Lives of the Saints suggest they were small, but these are not considered credible sources on the matter). [73] The different communities were pre-eminent within small spheres of influence (ie, within physical proximity of the communities). [74] The known sites are mostly coastal, situated on good land. [75] There are passing references to monks and monasteries in the sixth century (for example, Gildas said that Maelgwn Gwynedd had originally intended to be a monk). From the seventh century onward there are few references to monks but more frequent references to 'disciples'. [76]

Institutions

Archaeological evidence consists partly of the ruined remains of institutions, and in finds of inscriptions and the long cyst burials that are characteristic of post-Roman Christian Britons.

These long cyst burials occur in the southern Scottish lowlands, Wales, and the West Country of England. The grave is lined with stones, there are no grave goods, they often have an east-west orientation, and they date from a time before churches were commonly attached to cemeteries. They contrast with Anglo-Saxon burials, which followed a different inhumation custom. [77]

The records of transactions and legal references provide information on the status of the clergy and its institutions. Landed proprietorship was the basis of support and income for all clerical communities, exploiting agriculture (crops), herding (sheep, pigs, goats), infrastructure (barns, threshing floors), and employing stewards to supervise the labour. Lands that were not adjacent to the communities provided income in the form of (in effect) a business of landlordship. [78] Lands under clerical proprietorship were exempt from the fiscal demands of kings and secular lords. They had the power of nawdd (protection, as from legal process) and were noddfa (a "nawdd place" or sanctuary). [79] Clerical power was moral and spiritual, and this was sufficient to enforce recognition of their status and to demand compensation for any infringement on their rights and privileges. [80]

Bede's Ecclesiastical History

The notion of a separate Anglo-Saxon and British approach to Christianity dates back at least to Bede. He portrayed the Synod of Whitby (in 664) as a set-piece battle between competing Celtic and Roman religious interests. [81] While the synod was an important event in the history of England and brought finality to several issues in Anglo-Saxon Britain, Bede probably overemphasised its significance so as to stress the unity of the English Church. [82]

Bede's characterisation of Saint Augustine's meeting with seven British bishops and the monks of Bangor Is Coed (in 602–604) portrays the bishop of Canterbury as chosen by Rome to lead in Britain, while portraying the British clergy as being in opposition to Rome. He then adds a prophecy that the British church would be destroyed. [83] His apocryphal prophecy of destruction is quickly fulfilled by the massacre of the Christian monks at Bangor Is Coed by the Northumbrians (c. 615), shortly after the meeting with Saint Augustine. Bede describes the massacre immediately following his delivery of the prophecy. [84]

'Celtic' vs. 'Roman' myth

One consequence of the Protestant Reformation and subsequent ethnic and religious discord in Britain and Ireland was the promotion of the idea of a 'Celtic' church that was different from and at odds with the 'Roman' church, and that held to certain offensive customs, especially in the dating of Easter, the tonsure, and the liturgy. Scholars have noted the partisan motives and inaccuracy of the characterisation, [85] [86] [87] as has The Catholic Encyclopedia , which also explains that the Britons using the 'Celtic Rite' in the early Middle Ages were in communion with Rome. [88] [89]

Cymry: Welsh identity forms

The peoples of Britain according to medieval Welsh tradition. Britain.peoples.original.traditional.jpg
The peoples of Britain according to medieval Welsh tradition.

The early Middle Ages saw the creation and adoption of the modern Welsh name for themselves, Cymry, a word descended from Common Brittonic combrogi, meaning "fellow-countrymen". [90] [91] It appears in Moliant Cadwallon (In Praise of Cadwallon), a poem written by Cadwallon ap Cadfan's bard Afan Ferddig c. 633, [92] and probably came into use a self-description before the seventh century. [93] Historically the word applies to both the Welsh and the Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of the Hen Ogledd, and emphasises a perception that the Welsh and the "Men of the North" were one people, exclusive of all others. Universal acceptance of the term as the preferred written one came slowly in Wales, eventually supplanting the earlier Brython or Brittones. [94] The term was not applied to the Cornish people or the Bretons, who share a similar heritage, culture and language with the Welsh and the Men of the North. [95] Rhys adds that the Bretons sometimes give the simple brô the sense of compatriot.

All of the Cymry shared a similar language, culture and heritage. Their histories are stories of warrior kings waging war, and they are intertwined in a way that is independent of physical location, in no way dissimilar to the way that the histories of neighboring Gwynedd and Powys are intertwined. Kings of Gwynedd campaigned against Brythonic opponents in the north. [96] Sometimes the kings of different kingdoms acted in concert, as is told in the literary Y Gododdin . Much of the early Welsh poetry and literature was written in the Old North by northern Cymry.

All of the northern kingdoms and people were eventually absorbed into the kingdoms of England and Scotland, and their histories are now mostly a footnote in the histories of those later kingdoms, though vestiges of the Cymry past are occasionally visible. In Scotland the fragmentary remains of the Laws of the Bretts and Scotts show Brythonic influence, and some of these were copied into the Regiam Majestatem , the oldest surviving written digest of Scots law, where can be found the 'galnes' ( galanas ) that is familiar to Welsh law. [97]


See also

Notes

  1. The same change in climate was occurring around the entire North Sea perphery at this time. See Higham's Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons ( ISBN   1-85264-022-7, 1992): cooler, wetter climate and abandonment of British uplands and marginal lands; Berglund's Human impact and climate changes—synchronous events and a causal link? in "Quaternary International", Vol. 105 (2003): Scandinavia, 500AD wetter and rapidly cooling climate and the retreat of agriculture; Ejstrud's The Migration Period, Southern Denmark and the North Sea ( ISBN   978-87-992214-1-7, 2008): p28, from the 6th century onwards farmlands in Denmark and Norway were abandoned; Issar's Climate changes during the holocene and their impact on Hydrological systems ( ISBN   978-0-511-06118-9, 2003): water level rise along NW coast of Europe, wetter conditions in Scandinavia and retreat of farming in Norway after 400, cooler climate in Scotland; Louwe Kooijmans' Archaeology and Coastal Change in the Netherlands (in Archaeology and Coastal Change, 1980): rising water levels along the NW coast of Europe; Louwe Kooijmans' The Rhine/Meuse Delta (PhD thesis, 1974): rising water levels along the NW coast of Europe, and in the Fens and Humber Estuary. Abundant material from other sources portrays the same information.

Citations

  1. Johnes 2019, pp. 15–20.
  2. Johnes 2019, pp. 22.
  3. Laing 1975, pp. 93.
  4. Miller, Mollie (1977), "Date-Guessing and Dyfed", Studia Celtica, vol. 12, Cardiff: University of Wales, pp. 33–61
  5. Coplestone-Crow, Bruce (1981), "The Dual Nature of Irish Colonization of Dyfed in the Dark Ages", Studia Celtica, vol. 16, Cardiff: University of Wales, pp. 1–24
  6. Meyer, Kuno (1896), "Early Relations Between Gael and Brython", in Evans, E. Vincent (ed.), Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, Session 1895–1896, vol. I, London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 55–86
  7. Davies 1982, pp. 128.
  8. Laing 1990, pp. 112–113.
  9. Jones 1990 :153, An Atlas of Roman Britain, "The Development of the Provinces". The inscriptions better indicate military rather than civilian presence. For example, there are more inscriptions found at the Roman fort complex at Tomen y Mur near the coast of northwestern Wales than at either Segontium (near modern Caernarfon) or Roman Chichester.
  10. Jones 1990 :151, 154, 156, An Atlas of Roman Britain, The Development of the Provinces.
  11. Jones 1990 :154, An Atlas of Roman Britain
  12. Lloyd 1911 :84–88, History of Wales, "Wales Under Roman Rule". Tyst ("witness") is an anecdotal exception. Medieval Welsh law used native terms and concepts such as gwlad, tref, alltud, cenedl, aillt, brenhin, brawdwr, etc.
  13. Davies 1989 :33–34Patterns of Power in Early Wales
  14. Davies 1982 :102, Wales in the Early Middle Ages
  15. Davies 1982 :96–98, Wales in the Early Middle Ages
  16. Meyer, Kuno, ed. (1901), "The Expulsion of the Dessi", Y Cymmrodor, vol. XIV, London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 101–135
  17. Phillimore, Egerton (1888), "The Annales Cambriae and Old Welsh Genealogies, from Harleian MS. 3859", in Phillimore, Egerton (ed.), Y Cymmrodor, vol. IX, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 141–183
  18. Phillimore, Egerton, ed. (1887), "Pedigrees from Jesus College MS. 20", Y Cymmrodor, vol. VIII, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 83–92
  19. 1 2 Giles, John Allen, ed. (1847), History of the Ancient Britons, vol. II (Second ed.), Oxford: W. Baxter (published 1854), pp. 246–279 — in Latin
  20. 1 2 Giles, John Allen, ed. (1841), The Works of Gildas and Nennius, London: James Bohn, pp. 27–28 — English translation
  21. 1 2 Davies 1982 :94, Wales in the Early Middle Ages
  22. Charles-Edwards 2003 :9After Rome: c.400-c.800, Introduction (Fifth Century Britain). The inscription was "Cantiori Hic Jacit Venedotis Cive Fuit Consobrino Magli Magistrati", which he translated as "Cantiori lies here; he was a citizen of Gwynedd, a cousin of Maglus the magistrate". He dated the stone to the fifth or sixth century.
  23. Davies 1982 :102, Wales in the Early Middle Ages.
  24. Davies 1982 :99–102, Wales in the Early Middle Ages.
  25. Jenny Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the ‘Englynion’ (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 120-41.
  26. "England and Wales". European Land Information Service . Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  27. "Review and evaluation of heritage coasts in England" (PDF). Countryside Agency. naturalengland.org.uk. 10 February 2012.
  28. "Met Office: Regional Climate: Wales". Met Office website. Met Office. 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  29. Davies 1982 :5–9, Wales in the Early Middle Ages", "Land, Landscape and Environment".
  30. Jones 1990 :179–195, Atlas of Roman Britain, "The Economy".
  31. Jones 1990 :219, Atlas of Roman Britain
  32. Davies 2009 :XVIII:214, Looking backwards to the early medieval past: Wales and England, a contrast in approaches (2004).
  33. Jones 1990 :1–15, Atlas of Roman Britain, "The Physical Context".
  34. Davies 1982 :5–12, Wales in the Early Middle Ages, "Land, Landscape and Environment".
  35. Davies 1982 :39, Wales in the Early Middle Ages, "Economy".
  36. Davies 1982 :11, Wales in the Early Middle Ages, "Land, Landscape and Environment".
  37. Davies 1982 :39–41, Wales in the Early Middle Ages, "Economy".
  38. Davies 1982 :63, Wales in the Early Middle Ages.
  39. Davies 1982 :71–72, Wales in the Early Middle Ages.
  40. Davies 1989 :19–20, Patterns of Power in Early Wales.
  41. Davies 1989 :17, Patterns of Power in Early Wales.
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  97. Hoüard, David, ed. (1776), "Regiam Majestatem", Traités sur les Coutumes Anglo-Normandes, vol. II, Rouen, pp. 38–269. See, for example CAPUT XXXVI, and elsewhere. Page 164 shows Item 7 of Chapter 36, "7 Item, LE CRO, & Galnes & Enach ...".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Wales</span>

The history of what is now Wales begins with evidence of a Neanderthal presence from at least 230,000 years ago, while Homo sapiens arrived by about 31,000 BC. However, continuous habitation by modern humans dates from the period after the end of the last ice age around 9000 BC, and Wales has many remains from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age. During the Iron Age the region, like all of Britain south of the Firth of Forth, the culture had become Celtic, with a common Brittonic language. The Romans, who began their conquest of Britain in AD 43, first campaigned in what is now northeast Wales in 48 against the Deceangli, and gained total control of the region with their defeat of the Ordovices in 79. The Romans departed from Britain in the 5th century, opening the door for the Anglo-Saxon settlement. Thereafter, the culture began to splinter into a number of kingdoms. The Welsh people formed with English encroachment that effectively separated them from the other surviving Brittonic-speaking peoples in the early middle ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maelgwn Gwynedd</span> 6th-century king of Gwynedd

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambria</span> Latin name of Wales

Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, Cymru. The term was not in use during the Roman or the early medieval period. After the Anglo-Saxon settlement of much of Britain, a territorial distinction developed between the new Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the remaining Celtic British kingdoms. Latin being the primary language of scholarship in Western Christendom, medieval writers commonly used either the older term Britannia, as the territory still inhabited by Britons, or Wallia, a term derived from Old English, to refer to Wales. The term Cambria is first attested in Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century as an alternative to both of these, since Britannia was now ambiguous and Wallia a foreign import, but remained rare until late in the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cunedda</span> Founder of the Kingdom of Gwynedd

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.

Cadafael ap Cynfeddw was King of Gwynedd. He came to the throne when his predecessor, King Cadwallon ap Cadfan, was killed in battle, and his primary notability is in having gained the disrespectful sobriquet Cadafael Cadomedd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vortiporius</span> 6th-century King of Dyfed

Vortiporius or Vortipor was a king of Dyfed in the early to mid-6th century. He ruled over an area approximately corresponding to modern Pembrokeshire, and Carmarthenshire, Wales. Records from this era are scant, and virtually nothing is known of him or his kingdom. The only contemporary information about Vortiporius comes from the Welsh ecclesiastic Gildas, in a highly allegorical condemnation from his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. At the time the work was written, Gildas says that Vortiporius was king of Dyfed, that he was grey with age, that his wife had died, and that he had at least one daughter.

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.

Iago ap Beli was King of Gwynedd. Little is known of him or his kingdom from this early era, with only a few anecdotal mentions of him in historical documents.

Beli ap Rhun was King of Gwynedd. Nothing is known of the person, and his name is known only from Welsh genealogies, which confirm that he had at least two sons. He succeeded his father Rhun ap Maelgwn as king, and was in turn succeeded by his son Iago. Beli was either the father or grandfather of Saint Edeyrn.

Rhun ap Maelgwn Gwynedd, also known as Rhun Hir ap Maelgwn Gwynedd, sometimes spelt as 'Rhûn', was King of Gwynedd. He came to the throne on the death of his father, King Maelgwn Gwynedd. There are no historical records of his reign in this early age. A story preserved in both the Venedotian Code and an elegy by Taliesin says that he waged a war against Rhydderch Hael of Alt Clut and the kings of Gododdin or Manaw Gododdin. The small scattered settlement of Caerhun in the Conwy valley is said to be named for him, though without strong authority. Rhun also appears in several medieval literary stories, as well as in the Welsh Triads. His wife was Perwyr ferch Rhûn "Ryfeddfawr" and their son was Beli ap Rhun "Hîr".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhodri Molwynog</span> 8th-century king of Gwynedd

Rhodri Molwynog, also known as Rhodri ap Idwal was an 8th-century king of Gwynedd. He was listed as a King of the Britons by the Annals of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh people</span> Ethnic group native to Wales

The Welsh are an ethnic group native to Wales. Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynan Dindaethwy</span> King of Wales, King of the Britons

Cynan Dindaethwy or Cynan ap Rhodri was a king of Gwynedd in Wales in the Early Middle Ages. Cynan was the son of Rhodri Molwynog and ascended to the throne of Gwynedd upon the death of King Caradog ap Meirion in 798. His epithet refers to the commote of Dindaethwy in the cantref Rhosyr. Unlike later kings of Gwynedd, usually resident at Aberffraw in western Anglesey, Cynan maintained his court at Llanfaes on the southeastern coast. Cynan's reign was marked by a destructive dynastic power struggle with a rival named Hywel, usually supposed to be his brother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hen Ogledd</span> Area of northern Britain, c. 500 to c. 800

Yr Hen Ogledd, or in English the Old North, is the historical region that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands, alongside the Celtic Kingdom of Elmet. Its population spoke a variety of the Brittonic language known as Cumbric which is closely related to, if not a dialect of Old Welsh. The people of Wales and the Hen Ogledd considered themselves to be one people, and both were referred to as Cymry ('fellow-countrymen') from the Brittonic word combrogi. The Hen Ogledd was distinct from the parts of North Britain inhabited by the Picts, Anglo-Saxons, and Scoti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wales in the Roman era</span> Aspect of Welsh history

The Roman era in the area of modern Wales began in 48 AD, with a military invasion by the imperial governor of Roman Britain. The conquest was completed by 78 AD, and Roman rule endured until the region was abandoned in 383 AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wales in the Middle Ages</span> Period of history

Wales in the Middle Ages covers the history of the country that is now called Wales, from the departure of the Romans in the early fifth century to the annexation of Wales into the Kingdom of England in the early sixteenth century. This period of about 1,000 years saw the development of regional Welsh kingdoms, Celtic conflict with the Anglo-Saxons, reducing Celtic territories, and conflict between the Welsh and the Anglo-Normans from the 11th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manaw Gododdin</span> Part of the Brythonic-speaking Kingdom of Gododdin in the post-Roman Era

Manaw Gododdin was the narrow coastal region on the south side of the Firth of Forth, part of the Brythonic-speaking Kingdom of Gododdin in the post-Roman Era. It is notable as the homeland of Cunedda prior to his conquest of North Wales, and as the homeland of the heroic warriors in the literary epic Y Gododdin. Pressed by the Picts expanding southward and the Northumbrians expanding northward, it was permanently destroyed in the 7th century and its territory absorbed into the then-ascendant Kingdom of Northumbria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aeron (kingdom)</span>

Aeron was a kingdom of the Brythonic-speaking Hen Ogledd, presumed to have been located in the region of the River Ayr in what is now southwestern Scotland. It existed during the post-Roman era, perhaps earlier, and disappeared before or during the 7th-century conquest of the region by the ascendant Kingdom of Northumbria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of Welsh history</span> Published works on the history of Wales

This is a bibliography of published works on the history of Wales. It includes published books, journals, and educational and academic history-related websites; it does not include self-published works, blogs or user-edited sites. Works may cover aspects of Welsh history inclusively or exclusively.

References