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'Y^LE«¥JMH¥EI^SIIir¥o

1911

A HISTORY OF WALES

A HISTORY OF WALES

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE
EDWARDIAN CONQUEST

JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR

IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. I

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1911

t

PREFACE.
In this work it has been my endeavour to bring to
gether and to weave into a continuous narrative what
may be fairly regarded as the ascertained facts of the
history of Wales up to the fall of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
in 1282. In a field where so much is matter of conjec
ture, it has not been possible altogether to avoid specu
lation and hypothesis, but I can honestly say that I have
not written in support of any special theory or to urge
any preconceived opinion upon the reader. My purpose
has been to map out, in this difficult region of study,
what is already known and established, and thus to
define more clearly the limits of that " terra incognita "
which still awaits discovery. The task has not been
attempted in English since Miss Jane Williams (Ysga-
fell) published her History of Wales in 1869, and it
cannot be doubted, therefore, that it was time to under
take it anew.
The enterprise, it need scarcely be said, has been a
laborious one, and, as the occupation of somewhat limited
hours of leisure, has been spread over a considerable
number of years. In some respects this may have been
an advantage, but it has entailed certain drawbacks also.
Had the earlier chapters been written more recently,
they might have owed more than they do to the study
of such works as Dr. Holmes' Ancient Britain and
Professor Bury's Life of St. Patrick. For this and

vi PREFACE.
many other shortcomings I can but crave the indulgence
of the reader.
It has been my endeavour to indicate, in the foot
notes and elsewhere, my innumerable obligations to
other workers in this field of study. But I should wish
here to express my general indebtedness to Sir John
Rhys, Mr. Egerton Phillimore, Mr. Alfred N. Palmer,
and Dr. Hugh Williams for the pioneer work which has
so greatly facilitated the scientific study of Welsh history.
I owe to them what cannot be expressed in the debit of
citation and reference, namely, outlook and method and
inspiration. For assistance given to me ungrudgingly during the
progress of the work, I desire to thank Principal J. R.
Ains worth Davis, M.A., Professor T. F. Tout, M.A.,
Professor J. Morris Jones, M.A., Professor W. Lewis
Jones, M.A., Mr. Edward Greenly, F.G.S., Mr. Percy
G. Thomas, M.A., Mr. O. T. Williams, M.A., and the
Rev. T. Shankland.
Most of the primary authorities used are discussed in
some part or other of the book. The reader may notice,
however, that nowhere is there any full and systematic
discussion of the chronicles included in Annates Cam
bria and Brut y Tywysogion. I had originally in
tended to include a critical account of these authorities
in the work, but afterwards came to the conclusion that
the task was too ambitious for the present occasion and
must be separately undertaken. Let it suffice here to
say that I have throughout treated Brut y Tywysogion
and Brut (or Brenhinedd) y Saeson as two independent
translations of a Latin original partially (but by no
means fully) represented in MSS. B. and C. of Annates
Cambrice. The Map is intended to be of general service to

PREFACE. vn
those who may use the book, and does not reproduce
the political divisions of Wales at any definite point in
its history. For North Wales, however, it is approxi
mately correct for the year 1 200. Cantrefs are usually
indicated, but in Anglesey, Powys, Ceredigion and
Morgannwg, commotes are shown as there the more
important. In the spelling of Welsh names, I have sought to
observe the rules laid down in 1893 by the Orthogra
phical Committee of the Society for Utilising the Welsh
Language. My thanks are due to Miss E. M. Samson for the
compilation of the Index. JOHN EDWARD LLOYD.
Bangor, ist^November, 1910.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. PAGE
Preface  v
Index of Authors, Works, MSS., etc., cited in the Notes . . xiii
CHAPTER I.
THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS.
i. Paleolithic Wales . . . . . i
2. Neolithic Wales .  4
3. The Bronze Age  . 17
Note to § 11. — Cantrbf y Gwaelod  25
CHAPTER II.
THE HISTORIC DAWN.
1. First Contact with Civilisation ... ... 27
2. The Brythonic Settlement . 30
3. Wales at the Christian Era ... • • 37
4. Druidism  43
CHAPTER III.
WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE.
1. The Roman Conquest .... . . . . 47
2. The Roman Occupation  59
3. The Subject Tribes  . .81
Note to § 1. — CaratJcus .... ... 89
CHAPTER IV.
THE FIFTH CENTURY.

1. Britain Lost to the Empire .
2. The British Defence of Britain
3. The Beginnings of Christianity
4. The Brythonic Conquest of Wales
Note to § iv. — The Historical Triads
ix

9194
102 no123

x CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER V.
THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. PAGE
i. Maelgwn Gwynedd and his Contemporaries ... • 124
2. Gildas  *34
3. Monastic Founders of the Welsh Church  143
Note to § i.—Harleian MS. 3859  *59
Note to § 11.— MSS. and Editions of Gildas . ¦ ¦ .160

CHAPTER VI.
STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH.
1. The Men of the North ... .... 162
2. The Celtic Churches and Rome  171
3. Destruction of Cymric Unity by Northumbria .... 178
Note to § 1. — The Name "Cymry"  191
Note to § 11.— Bangor  192
CHAPTER VII.
THE AGE OF ISOLATION.
1. Determination of the Welsh Border  194
2. The Early Welsh Church : its Organisation . . . 202
3. The Early Welsh Church : Art and Literature . . . 219

CHAPTER VIII.
THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES.
1. The Cantrefs of Gwynedd  229
2. The Cantrefs of Powys  242
3. The Cantrefs of Deheubarth  256
4. The Cantrefs of Morgannwg  273
Authorities for Early Welsh Topography  280
Note — Rhbinwg, Esyllwg, and Fferyllwg . . . .281

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. xi
CHAPTER IX.
EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. PAGE
i. The Cenedl  . . 283
2. The Tref  291
3. The Cantref  300
4. The King  308
Note — The Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud  318
CHAPTER X.
THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS.
1. The Coming of the Northmen  320
2. The House of Rhodri the Great  323
3. Hywel the Good  . 333
4. Civil Strife and Foreign Alarms  343
Note A. — Welsh Attestations to Old English Charters . 353
Note B.— MSS. and Editions of the Welsh Laws . . -354

CORRIGENDA.

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129, „ 17.

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„ Aurelius,

from.
Aurelianus.

INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, MSS., ETC., CITED
IN THE NOTES.

A. S. Chr. The Anglo-Saxon or English Chronicles are quoted by reference to
the annal and sometimes to the MS. also. The text used is that of
Earle and Plummer (" Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel," revised
text, Oxford, i8g2) ; references to the introduction and notes of this edi
tion are given as Plummer, ii.
Ang. Sac. Anglia Sacra [ed. Hen. Wharton]. Two vols. London, 1691.
Ann. ad 1298. Annals from a.d. 6oo-i2g8 written in Breviate of Domesday
(K. R. miscellaneous books i.), ff. 29-35, and printed in Arch. Camb. III.
viii. 1(1862), 273-283.
Ann. C. Annales Cambria;. Ed. J. Williams Ab Ithel (Rolls Series), i860.
Ann. Cest. Annales Cestrienses [Mostyn MS. 157]. Ed. R. C. Christie (Lanca
shire and Cheshire Record Society, vol. xiv.). London, 1887.
Ann. Dunst. Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia in vol. iii. of Annales Monastici
(Rolls Series). London, 1866.
Ann. Marg. Annales de Margan in vol. i. of Annales Monastici (Rolls Series).
London, 1864.
Ann. Osen. Annales Monasterii de Oseneia in vol. iv. of Annales Monastici
(Rolls Series). London, 1869.
Ann. S. Edm. Annales S. Edmundi [Bury St. Edmund's] printed by Lieber-
mann in Ungedruckte Anglo - Normanische Geschichtsquellen from
Harl. MS. 447. Strassburg, 1879.
Ann. Theokesb. Annales de Theokesberia in vol. i. of Annales Monastici
(Rolls Series). London, 1864.
Ann. Ult. The Annals of Ulster or Annals of Senat. Issued by the Royal
Irish Academy (Dublin).
Vol. i. 431-1056 (ed. W. M. Hennessy). 1887.
ii. 1057-1378 (ed. B. MacCarthy). 1893.
iii. 1379-1541 ( „ „ ). 1895.
Ann. Waverl. Annales Monasterii de Waverleia in vol. ii. of Annales Monastici
(Rolls Series). London, 1865.
Ann. Wigorn. Annales Prioratus de Wigornia in vol. iv. of Annales Monastici
(Rolls Series). London, i86g.
Ann. Wint. Annales Monasterii de Wintonia in vol. ii. of Annales Monastici
(Rolls Series). London, 1865.
Antt. Legg. De Antiquis Legibus Liber; Cronica Maiorum et Vicecomitum
Londoniarum. Ed. T. Stapleton (Camden Society). London, 1846.
App. Land Com. Bibliographical, Statistical, and other miscellaneous Memor
anda, being appendices to the Report of the Royal Commission on Land
in Wales and Monmouthshire [Compiled chiefly by the Secretary, D.
Lleufer Thomas]. London, 1896.

xiv INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC.
Arch. Camb. Archseologia Cambrensis, the journal of the Cambrian Archaeo
logical Association. The capital Roman numeral denotes the series (I.
1846-9 ; II. 1850-4 ; III. 1855-69 ; IV. 1870-83 ; V. 1884-1900 ; VI. to date),
the uncial letter the volume (to which the year is added in brackets),
and the Arabic numeral the page.
Arth. Legend. Studies in the Arthurian Legend. By John Rhys. Oxford,
1891.
Asser. The Life of Alfred is quoted, by reference to the chapter, from the
edition of W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904). The notes, etc., of this
edition are cited as Stev.
B. Saes. The Welsh chronicle in Cottonian MS. Cleopatra B. v. ft. 111-1646,
there styled " Brenhined y Saesson," but by the Myvyrian editors " Brut
y Saesson " (Myv. Arch. II. 468-582 [652-684]), is cited by reference to the
annal.
B. T. Brut y Tywysogion. Ed. J. Williams Ab Ithel (Rolls Series), i860.
B- Willis, Bangor. Survey of the Cathedral Church of Bangor, with an ap
pendix of records. Collected by Browne Willis. London, 1721.
Bede, H. E. The " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum " is cited, by refer
ence to book and chapter, from vol. i. of " Baedae Opera Historica,"
edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896). References to the introduction,
notes, etc., of this edition are given as Plummer's Bede, with no. of
volume and page.
Bemont. Simon de Montfort, comte de Leicester. Par Ch. Bemont. Paris,
1884.
Ben. Abb. Gesta Regis HenriciSecundi Benedicti Abbatis. Two vols. Ed.
W. Stubbs (Rolls Series). 1867.
Blk. Bk. The Black Book of Carmarthen (Peniarth MS. 1 = Hengwrt MS. n)
is cited from the facsimile edition issued by J. Gwenogvryn Evans
(Oxford, 1888) and reproduced by the same editor in print (Pwllheli,
igo6). Another printed text will be found in IV. Anc. Bks. ii. 3-61.
Blk. Bk of St. David's. The Black Book of St. David's [an extent of the lands
and rents of the bishop in 1326 = Br. Mus. Add. MS. 34,125]. Ed. J.
W. Willis-Bund (Cymmrodorion Society). London, igo2.
Breconsh. (2). A History of the County of Brecknock. By Theophilus Jones.
Originally issued in two vols. (1805, 1809) ; reissued in one by Edwin
Davies. Brecknock, 1898.
Britannia. By W. Camden. Cited from the edition of 1600. (George Bishop,
London.)
Bruts. The text of the Bruts [Brut y Brenhinoedd, Brut y Tywysogion, etc.]
from the Red Book of Hergest. Edited by John Rhys and J. Gwenogvryn
Evans. Oxford, i8go.
Buch. Gr. ap C. " Buchedd Gruffydd ap Cynan " is cited (by page) from Arch.
Camb. III. xii. (1866), 30-45, 112- 128, with a further reference in brackets
to the page of Myv. Arch., second edition.
Bye-Gones. Notes contributed to the " Bye-Gones " column of the (weekly)
Oswestry Advertiser and separately published in yearly half-volumes.
C.I.L. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Vol. vii. (ed. Htibner, Berlin, 1873)
deals with the Latin inscriptions of Britain of older date than 500 a.d.
Cal. Close R. Calendar of the Close Rolls, prepared under the superintendence
of the Deputy Keeper of the Records.
Edward I. — vol. i. 1272-g. London, 1900.
Cal. Doc. Fr. Calendar of Documents preserved in France illustrative of the

INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC. xv
History of Great Britain and Ireland [from gi8 to 1206]. Ed. J. H. Round.
London, i8gg.
Cal. Pat. R. Calendar of the Patent Rolls, prepared under the superintendence
of the Deputy Keeper of the Records.
Henry III. — vol. i. 1232-47. London, igo6.
ii. 1247-58. „ igo8.
Edward I. — vol. i. 1272-81. „ 1901.
Camb. Biog. The Cambrian Biography. By William Owen [W. O. Pughe].
London, 1803.
Camb. Qu. Mag. The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine. London, 1829-33.
Camb. Reg. The Cambrian Register [edited by W. O. Pughe]. London.
Vol. i. 1796.
ii. i7gg.
iii. 1818.
Cambro-Br. SS. Lives of the Cambro-British Saints. Ed. W. J. Rees (Welsh
MSS. Society.) Llandovery, 1853.
[For a long list of corrections to be made in Rees' text, see Cymr.
xiii. 76-g6 (Kuno Meyer).]
Card. Priory. Cardigan Priory in the Olden Days. By E. M. Pritchard.
London, igo4.
Carlisle, Top. Diet. A Topographical Dictionary of the Dominion of Wales.
By Nicholas Carlisle. London, 1811.
Carm. Cart. Cartularium S. Johannis Bapt. [corrige Evang.] de Caermarthen
[Hengwrt MS. 440]. Privately printed for [Sir] T[homas] P[hillips].
Cheltenham, 1865.
Carnh. Hanes Cymru. Gan T. Price (Carnhuanawc). Crughywel, 1842.
Cart. Brec. See chapter xii. note 128.
Cart. Glouc. Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae
Ed. W. H. Hart (Rolls Series). London.
Vol. i. 1863.
ii. 1865.
iii. 1867.
Cart. Sax, Cartularium Saxonicum. Ed. W. de Gray Birch. London.
Vol. i. 1885.
ii. 1887.
iii. i8g3.
index, 1899.
Cartae Glam. Cartae et alia munimenta quae ad Dominium de Glamorgan
pertinent. Curante Geo. T. Clark.
Vol. i. Dowlais, 1885.
ii. Cardiff, i8go.
iii. 1891.
iv. i8g3-
Celt. Br. Celtic Britain. By John Rhys. London. Usually cited from the
(second) edition of 1884 (2), but sometimes from that of igo4 (3).
Celt. Folklore. Celtic Folklore. By John Rhys. Two vols. Oxford, igoi.
Celt. Heath. The Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic
Heathendom (Hibbert Lectures for 1886). By John Rhys. London,
1888.
Celt. Remains. Celtic Remains. By Lewis Morris [1700-65]. Ed. D. Silvan
Evans (Cambrian Archasological Association). London, 1878.
Charter Rolls. Calendar of the Charter Rolls, printed under the superinten
dence of the Deputy Keeper of the Records. London.
Vol. i. (1226-1257) — igo3.
ii. (1257-1300) — igo6.

xvi INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC.
Chron. Scot. Chronicum Scotorum [Trin. Coll. Dubl. MS. H. I. 18]. Ed. W.
M. Hennessy (Rolls Series). London, 1866.
Close Rolls. The Close Rolls, printed under the superintendence of the Deputy
Keeper of the Records (full text).
Henry III. vol. i. 1227-31. London, igo2.
ii. 1231-34. „ igos.
iii. 1234-37. „ igo8.
Cod. Dipl. Codex Diplomaticus Mvi Saxonici. Ed. J. M. Kemble (English
Historical Society). Six vols. London, i83g-48.
Cole, Docts. Documents illustrative of English History in the Thirteenth and
Fourteenth Centuries. Ed. H. Cole. London, 1844.
Comment. (2). Humfredi Llwyd Britannicae Descriptionis Commentariolum
[first published, Cologne, 1572]. Accedunt Aerae Cambro-Britannicae.
Accurante Mose Gulielmio [Moses Williams]. Londini, 1731.
Conq. Eng. (2). The Conquest of England. By J. R. Green. Second edition.
London, 1884.
Cont. Fl. Wig. The continuation of the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester
from 1118-1141, for which see Fl. Wig. ii. 71-136.
Coxe (2). A Historical Tour Through Monmouthshire. By William Coxe [first
published 1801]. Reissued by Davies & Co. Brecon, igo4.
Cyff Beuno. Gan Eben Fardd. Tremadog, 1863.
Cymr. The Cymmrodor, the magazine of the honourable society of Cym-
mrodorion. London, 1877 to date.
Davies, Diet. Antiquae Linguae Britannicae Dictionarium Duplex [Welsh-
Latin and Latin- Welsh : by John Davies of Mallwyd]. Londini, 1632.
De Nugis. Gualteri Mapes de Nugis Curialium [Bodleian MS. 851]. Ed. T.
Wright (Camden Society). London, 1850.
Diceto. Radulfi de Diceto Opera Historica. Ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series).
Two vols. London, 1876.
Diet. Nat. Biog. The Dictionary of National Biography. London, 1884-1904.
Domesd. The Domesday Survey is cited from the Record edition [1783], by
reference to the volume, the folio, the page (a or b) and the column ((1)
or (2)).
Dwnn. Heraldic Visitations of Wales. By Lewis Dwnn [fl. 1580]. Ed. S. R.
Meyrick (Welsh MSS. Society). Two vols. Llandovery, 1846.
Eadmer. The " Historia Novorum " and the " De Vita S. Anselmi " are
cited from the edition of Martin Rule (Rolls Series). London, 1884.
Eng. Hist. Rev. The English Historical Review. London, 1886 to date.
Evans, Diet. A Dictionary of the Welsh Language. By D. Silvan Evans.
Five parts. Carmarthen. A. 1887. B. 1888. C. i8g3. Ch. and D.
i8g6: E-Enyd, igo6.
Evans, Proverbs. Casgliad o Ddiarhebion Cymreig (A collection of Welsh
Proverbs). By J. Gwenogvryn Evans. Printed in the Transactions of
the Liverpool National Eisteddfod of 1884, pp. 528-584. Liverpool, 1885.
Evans, Rep. Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh language, issued by the
Historical Manuscripts Commission [The special commissioner for this
purpose was J. Gwenogvryn Evans].
Vol. i. pt. 1— Mostyn MSS. London, i8g8.
„ >> 2— Peniarth MSS. (first portion). „ i8gg.
„ „ 3 — Peniarth MSS. (second portion). ,, 1905.
Vol. ii. pt. 1— MSS. at Oxford, Cardiff, etc. „ igo2.
„ „ 2 — MSS. at Llanstephan. „ 1903.
,, ,. 3 — Panton and Cwrtmawr MSS. „ 1905.

INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC. xvii
Eyton, Itin. The Court, Household, and Itinerary of King Henry II. By R. W.
Eyton. London, 1878.
Eyton, Shrops. Antiquities of Shropshire. By R. W. Eyton. Twelve vols.
London, 1854-60.
Fenton (2). A Historical Tour Through Pembrokeshire. By Richard Fenton
[first published 1811]. Reissued by Davies & Co. Brecknock, 1903.
Feudal Eng. Feudal England. ByJ.H. Round. London, 1895.
Fl. Wig. Florentii Wigornensis Chronicon ex Chronicis. Ed. B. Thorpe
(English Historical Society). Two vols. London, 1848.
Flores. Flores Historiarum. Ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series). Vol. ii. (1067-
1264). London, 1890. [This is the chronicle formerly known as that of
" Matthew of Westminster ".]
IV. Anc. Bks. The Four Ancient Books of Wales. By W. F. Skene.
Vol. i. — Introduction : translations ; vol. ii. — Text : notes. Edin
burgh, 1868.
This work includes the following texts : —
1. Black Book of Carmarthen— ii. 3-61. (See Blk. Bk. above.)
2. Book of Aneurin (Cardiff Publ. Libr. MS. 1) — ii. 62-107.
3. Book of Taliesin (Peniarth MS. 2) — ii. 108-217.
4. Red Book of Hergest — portions only (Jesus Coll. MS. 1) — ii.
218-308.
The translations are by D. Silvan Evans, except the Book of Taliesin,
translated by Robert Williams of Rhydycroesau.
Gaimar. Lestorie des Engles. By Geffrei Gaimar. Ed. T. D. Hardy and
C. T. Martin (Rolls Series). London.
Vol. i. (text)— 1888.
ii. (translation) — i88g.
Geoff. Mand. Geoffrey de Mandeville. A Study of the Anarchy. By J. H.
Round. London, i8g2.
Gervase. The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury. Ed. W. Stubbs
(Rolls Series). Two vols. London, 1879-80.
Gesta St. Gesta Stephani. Ed. R. Howlett, in " Chronicles of the reigns of
Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I." (Rolls Series), vol. iii. London, 1886.
References in brackets are to the edition of R. C. Sewell (English
Historical Society), London, 1846.
Gibson. Camden's Britannia, translated into English, with additions. Ed.
Edmund Gibson. London, i6g5.
"The whole business of Wales was committed to the care of Mr.
Edward Lhwyd, Keeper of the Musasum in Oxford" (pref. to the
Reader, p. 3).
Gildas. Cited from " Monumenta Germaniae Historica," quarto series (Auctores
Antiquissimi), tomus xiii. ed. T. Mommsen (Berlin, i8g8).
Gildas and Nennius were issued separately in i8g4 as vol. iii. fasc. 1,
of " Chronica Minora saec. iv. v. vi. vii."
" Williams, Gildas " is the edition by Hugh Williams (Cymmrodorion
Society), London, i8gg.
For note on MSS. and editions of Gildas, see end of chap. v.
Gir. Camb. Giraldi Cambrensisi Opera. Ed. J. S. Brewer, J. F. Dimock, and
G. F. Warner (Rolls Series). Eight vols. London, 1861-1891.
Particular, works are referred to as follows : —
Itin. Itinerarium Kambriae.
Descr. Descriptio Kambriae. b

xviii INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC.
Gir. Camb. Giraldi Cambrensis Opera (continued).
Particular works are referred to as follows : —
De Rebus. De Rebus a se Gestis.
Top. Hib. Topographica Hibernica.
Exp. Hib. Expugnatio Hibernica.
Invect. De Invectionibus.
Sym. El. Symbolum Electorum.
Gemma. Gemma Ecclesiastica.
Men. Eccl. De Jure et Statu Menevensis Ecclesiae.
Spec. Speculum Ecclesiae.
Princ. Instr. De Principis Instructione.
Godwin (2). De Praesulibus Angliae. By F. Godwin. Ed. W. Richardson.
Cambridge, 1743.
Goss. Guide. The Gossiping Guide to Wales (North Wales and Aberystwyth).
Traveller's edition, issued annually. London, Oswestry, and Wrexham.
[Recent editions have been revised and amplified by Egerton Phillimore
— see pref.]
Gr. Celt. (2). Grammatica Celtica. By I. C. Zeuss. Ed. H. Ebel. Berlin,
1871.
Gw. ap Rhys. Hanes y Brytaniaid a'r Cymry. Gan Gweirydd ap Rhys [ac
eraill]. Llundain.
Cyf. i.— 1872.
Cyf. ii.— 1874.
Gw. Brut. The Gwentian Brut or " Brut Aberpergwm " is printed in Myv.
Arch. II. 468-582 [685-715] from a MS. dated 1764.
Gwydir Fam. The History of the Gwydir Family. By Sir John Wynne [1553-
1626]. Oswestry, 1878.
H. and St. Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and
Ireland. Ed. A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs. Oxford.
Vol. i.— i86g.
ii. pt. 1 — 1873 ; pt. 2 — 1878.
[For these two volumes, dealing with the Celtic churches, Mr. Haddan
was responsible (see pref. to vol. i.), though the second appeared after
his death.]
Harl. MS. 385g. See note appended to chap. v.
Hemingb. Chronicon Walteri de Hemingburgh. Ed. H. C. Hamilton (English
Historical Society). Two vols. London, 1848-g.
Hen. Hunt. Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum. Ed. T.
Arnold (Rolls Series). London, i87g.
Hist. Britt. The " Historia Brittonum " usually coupled with the name of
Nennius is cited from the same edition as Gildas (see above). For a
brief account of the "Historia" and of "Nennius," see chap. vii. §3.
Hist. Ch. York. The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops.
Ed. James Raine (Rolls Series). London.
Vol. i. — i87g.
ii.— 1886.
iii. — i8g4.
. Reg. The " Historia Regum Britanniae " of Geoffrey of Monmouth is
usually cited from the edition of J. A. Giles (London, 1844), but references
are occasionally made to the (unpublished) Berne MS. The readings
of this MS. I give on the authority of Mr. G. B. Matthews, who col
lated it in i8g8 and has kindly allowed me to make use of his notes.
Hoare, Itin. The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales. Trans
lated by R. C. Hoare. Two vols. London, 1806.

INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC. xix
Hoveden. Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene. Ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls
Series). Four vols. London, 1868-71.
Inq. p. mortem. Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, prepared under the
superintendence of the Deputy Keeper of the Records.
Vol. i. (Henry III.), London, 1904.
ii. (Edward I.), „ 1906.
Inscr. Chr. Inscriptiones Britanniae Christianae. Ed. Hiibner. Berlin and
London, 1876.
Iolo MSS. Iolo Manuscripts. Ed. Taliesin Williams (Welsh MSS. Society).
Llandovery, 1848. Reprinted by I. Foulkes, Liverpool, 1888.
Itin. Ant. Itinerarium Antonii Augusti. Ed. Parthey and Pinder. Berlin, 1848.
Jaffe (2). Regesta Pontificum Romanorum ad annum ng8. Ed. Ph. Jaffe.
Second edition. Leipzig.
Vol. i.— 1885.
ii.— 1888.
Jones and Freem. The History and Antiquities of Saint David's. By W.
Basil Jones and E. A. Freeman. London, 1856.
L. G. Cothi. Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi. Ed. John Jones (Tegid)
and Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain) (Cymmrodorion Society). Two
vols. Oxford, 1837.
Land of Morgan. By G. T. Clark (Cambrian Archaeological Association).
London, 1883.
Lap. W. Lapidarium Walliae. By J. O. Westwood. Oxford, 1876-g.
Leland, Wales. The Itinerary in Wales of John Leland in or about 1536-g.
Arranged and edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith. London, igo6.
Letters, Hen. III. Royal and other Letters illustrative of the reign of Henry
III. Ed. W. W. Shirley (Rolls Series). London.
Vol. i— 1862.
ii.— 1866.
Lewis, Top. Diet. A Topographical Dictionary of Wales. By Samuel Lewis.
Two vols. Cited from the first edition (London, 1833).
Lib. Land. The Text of the Book of Llan Dav, reproduced from the Gwysaney
MS. by J. Gwenogvryn Evans. Oxford, i8g3.
Lib. Nig. Liber Niger Scaccarii. Ed. T. Hearne. Second edition. London,
1774-
Lit. Eng. The History of Little England beyond Wales [ = Pembrokeshire].
By Edward Laws. London, 1888.
Lit. Kym. (2). The Literature of the Kymry [during the period 1080-1322].
By Thomas Stephens. Ed. D. Silvan Evans. London, 1876.
LL. Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales. Ed. Aneurin Owen (Record Com
mission). Two vols. London, 1841. (
Ven. Dim. Gw. = Venedotian, Dimetian, and Gwentian codes of this
edition (vol. i.).
Lat. A., B., C. = Peniarth MS. 28, Cott. MS. Vespasian E. xi., Harl.
MS. I7g6, as printed in vol. ii. 74g-go7.
Llyfr yr Ancr. The Elucidarium and other Tracts in Welsh, from Llyvyr
Agkyr Llandewivrevi [Jesus Coll. MS. 119]. Ed. J. Morris Jones and
John Rhys (Anecdota Oxoniensia). Oxford, 1894.
Lpool. W. Nat. Trans. Transactions of the Liverpool Welsh National Society.
Issued annually since 1886. b*

xx INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC.
M. Paris, Chron. Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica Majora. Ed. H. R. Luard
(Rolls Series). London.
Vol. iii.— 1876.
iv. — 1877.
v.— 1880.
Mab. The Text of the Mabinogion and other Welsh tales from the Red Book
of Hergest. Ed. John Rh;ys and J. Gwenogvryn Evans. Oxford, 1887.
Wht. Bk. indicates the readings of " Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch," as
edited by J. Gwenogvyrn Evans (Pwllheli, 1907 : pref. dated igog).
Mak. Eng. The Making of England. By John Richard Green. [First issued
in 1881.] London, 1885.
Marchegay. Chartes Anciennes du Prieure' de Monmouth. Publiees par P.
Marchegay. Les Roches-Baritaud, i87g.
Margam Abb. A History of Margam Abbey. By W. de Gray Birch. London,
i897.
Mat. Hist. Becket. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket. Ed. J. C.
Robertson and J. B. Sheppard (Rolls Series). Seven vols. London,
1875-85.
Med. Mil. Arch. Mediaeval Military Architecture in England. By George T.
Clark. Two vols. London, 1884.
Meyrick, Card. The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan. By
Samuel R. Meyrick.
(1) = original edition, London, 1808.
(2) = reissue by Davies & Co., Brecon, igo7.
Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina. Accurante J.-P. Migne.
Paris.
Mon. Angl. Monasticon Anglicanum. By Sir William Dugdale. Ed. Caley,
Ellis and Bandinel. Six vols. London, 1817-30.
Mon. Ant. Mona Antiqua Restaurata. By Henry Rowlands. Dublin, 1723.
[References in brackets to the second edition, London, 1766.]
Mon. Hist. Br. Monumenta Historica Brittanica — materials for the history of
Britain [to 1066]. Prepared by Henry Petrie and John Sharpe. [Lon
don], 1848.
Mont. Coll. Montgomeryshire Collections, historical and archaeological. Is
sued by the Powysland Club from 1867 to date.
Morris. The Welsh Wars of Edward I. By J. E. Morris. Oxford, igoi.
Mots Latins. Les Mots Latins dans les Langues Brittoniques. Par J. Loth.
Paris, i8g2.
Myv. Arch. The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales. Ed. Owen Jones (Myfyr),
Edward Williams (Iolo Morgannwg), and W. O. Pughe (Idrison). Lon
don. Vol. i. (poetry) — 1801.
ii. (prose) — 1801.
iii. (prose) — 1807.
[References in brackets to the second (one volume) edition, Denbigh,
1870.]
Nennius. See Hist. Britt.
Nenn. V. Nennius Vindicatus. Von H. Zimmer. Berlin, i8g3.
Norm. Conq. (3). History of the Norman Conquest of England. By E. A.
Freeman. Third edition (Oxford, 1877) of vols. i. and ii.
Not. Dig. Notitia Dignitatum. Ed. O. Seeck. Berlin, 1876.

INDEX OF A UTHORS, WORKS, ETC. xxi
Ord. Vit. Orderici Vitalis Historia Ecclesiastica. Ed. A. Le Prevost. Paris,
1838-55- [References are to book and chapter, but those in brackets to volume
and page of this edition.]
Orig. Cist. Originum Cisterciensium tomus i. Descripsit L. Janauschek
Vindobonae [Vienna], 1877.
Owen, Catalogue. A Catalogue of the MSS. relating to Wales in the British
Museum. By Edward Owen (Cymmrodorion Society). London.
Pt. i. (Cottonian and Lansdowne MSS.) — igoo.
ii. (Harleian MSS.) — igo3.
iii. (Charters and Rolls) — igo8.
Owen, Pemb. The Description of Pembrokeshire. By George Owen of Henllys
[1552-1613]. Ed. Henry Owen (Cymmrodorion Society). London.
Pt. i. i8g2.
ii. i8g7.
iii. igo6.
[Many of the notes are by Egerton Phillimore.]

Papal Letters. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great
Britain and Ireland — Papal Letters, ed. W. H. Bliss. London.
Vol. i. (ng8-i304) — i8g3.
Pat. Rolls. The Patent Rolls, printed under the superintendence of the Deputy
Keeper of the Records (full text). London.
Vol. i. (1216-1225) — igoi.
ii. (1225-1232) — igo3.
Pees. S. Wales. History of the Princes of South Wales. By G. T. O. Bridge-
man. Wigan, 1876.
Peckham. Registrum Epistolarum Johannis Peckham. Ed. C. T. Martin (Rolls
Series). London.
Vol. i. 1882.
ii. 1884.
Pen. MS. 147. See p. 281.
Penn. Tours in Wales. By Thomas Pennant [I726-I7g8]. Second edition, in
three vols. London, 1810.
Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. Magnum Rotulum Scaccarii de anno tricesimo primo
regni Henrici Primi. Ed. J. Hunter (Record Commission). [London] 1883.
Pipe Rolls, 2, 3, 4 Hen. II. The Great Rolls of the Pipe for the second, third,
and fourth year of Henry II. (1155-8). Ed. J. Hunter. London, 1844.
Pipe Rolls, 5, 6, 7, etc., Hen. II. Printed by the Pipe Roll Society (1884 to
date).
Polychr. Polychronicon Ranulphii Higden Monachi Cestrensis. Ed. C. Babing-
ton and J. R. Lumby (Rolls Series). Nine vols. London, 1865-86.
Powel. The Historie of Cambria. By H[umphrey] Lloyd. Ed. David Powel
[ob. I5g8]. London [1584].
This is cited from the reprint of 1811 (London). Humphrey Lloyd of
Denbigh (ob. 1568) originally compiled the work, which is based
upon " Brut y Tywysogion ". After his death, the MS. was en
trusted to Powel, who published it with large additions, indicated
thus t+t-
Powys Fadog. The History of Powys Fadog. By J. Y. W. Lloyd. Six vols.
London, 1881-7.
Ptol. Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia. Ed. C. Muller (Firmin Didot). Paris,
Vol. i. 1883.

xxii INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC.
R. de Torigini. The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni. Ed. R. Howlett in vol.
iv. (London, i88g) of " Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II. and
Richard II. (Rolls Series).
Radnorsh. (2). A General History of the County of Radnor. From the MS. of
Jonathan Williams. Compiled by Edwin Davies. Brecknock, igos.
[Williams's MS. was first printed in Arch. Camb. and was separately
issued in i85g (Tenby).]
Rec. Carn. Registrum vulgariter nuncupatum "The Record of Caernarvon"
[Harleian MS. 6g6]. Ed. Henry Ellis (Record Commission). [London],
1838.
Reg. Conway. Register and Chronicle of Aberconway [Harl. MS. 3725]. Ed.
Henry Ellis (Camden Miscellany, vol. i.). [London], 1847.
Reg. Sacr. (2). Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum. By W. Stubbs. Second
edition. Oxford, 1897.
Rev. Celt. La Revue Celtique. Paris, 1870 to date.
Rot. Chart. Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati. Ed. T. D. Hardy
(Record Commission). [London], 1837.
Vol. i. pt. 1 (ngg-i2i6).
Rot. Claus. Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi asservati. Ed.
T. D. Hardy (Record Commission). London.
Vol. i. (1204-1224) — 1833.
ii. (1224-1227) — 1844.
Rot. Fin. Excerpta e Rotulis Finium. . . Henrico Tertio rege. Ed. C. Roberts
(Record Commission). London.
Vol. i. (1216-1246) — 1835.
ii. (1246-1272) — 1836.
Rot. Norm. Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae . . . ed. T. Stapleton (Society
of Antiquaries). London.
Vol. i.— 1840.
ii. — 1844.
Rot. Pat. Rotuli Litterarum Patentium in Turri Londinensi asservati. Ed.
T. D. Hardy (Record Commission). [London.]
Vol. i. pt. i. (1201-1216) — 1835.
[An Itinerary of King John is appended to the introduction.]
Rot. regn. Joh. Rotuli de Liberate ac de Misis et Praestitis regnante Johanne.
Ed. T. D. Hardy. London, 1844.
Round, Anc. Charters. Ancient Charters prior to a.d. 1200. Ed. J. H. Round.
(Pipe Roll Society's vol. x.) London, 1888.
Royal Charters. Royal Charters and other documents relating to Carmarthen,
Talley, and Ty Gwyn ar Daf. By J. R. Daniel-Tyssen and Alcwyn C.
Evans. Carmarthen, 1878.
Rymer. Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae, etc. Ed. T. Rymer and R. Sander
son. Fourth edition, in four vols., by Clarke, Holbrooke, and Caley.
London, 1816-69.
Sax. Gen. The " Saxon Genealogies," or chaps. 57-65 of Hist. Britt. See
p. 116.
Sim. Dun. Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia. Ed. T. Arnold (Rolls Series).
London. Vol. i.— 1882.
ii.— 1885.
Song of Dermot. The Song of Dermot and the Earl — from Carew MS. 5g6
(Lambeth). Ed. G. H. Orpen. Oxford, i8g2.
V. refers to the lines of the poem, p. to the pages of this work.

INDEX OF A UTHORS, WORKS, ETC. xxiii
Spurrell, Carm. Carmarthen and its Neighbourhood. By William Spurrell.
Second edition. Carmarthen, i87g.
Stev. See Asser.
Str. Flor. The Cistercian Abbey of Strata Florida. By Stephen W. Williams.
London, i88g.
Stubbs, Const. Hist. The Constitutional History of England. By William
Stubbs. Third edition. Oxford.
Vol. i.— 1880.
ii.— 1883.
Sweetman. Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland in the Public Record
Office. Ed. H. S. Sweetman. London.
Vol. i. (1171-1251) — 1875.
ii. (1252-1284) — 1887.
Tanner. Notitia Monastica. By Bishop Thomas Tanner of St. Asaph. Ed. J.
Tanner. London, 1744.
Tax. Nich. Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae auctoritate P. Nicholai
IV., circa a.d. i2gi. Record Commission, 1802.
References are to the page and column (a or b).
Testa de Nevill. Sive Liber Feodorum temp. Hen. III. et Edw. I. [London]
1807.
Thomas, S. Asaph. A History of the Diocese of St. Asaph. By D. R. Thomas.
London, 1874.
Trans. Cymr. Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.
Issued sessionally from 1892-3 to date. London.
Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. London.
Trevet. Triveti Annales. Ed. T. Hog (English Historical Society). London,
1845.
Triads. Cited by reference to the three series (i. ii. iii.) printed in Myv. Arch.
II. 1-22, 57-75 (388-411), the Arabic numeral giving the number of the
triad. For some account of the Triads, see note to chap. iv.
Trib. System. The Tribal System in Wales. By Frederic Seebohm. London,
i8g5. [App. refers to the documents printed as Appendices.]
Urk. Spr. Urkeltischer Sprachschatz. By Whitley Stokes and A. Bezzen-
berger. GOttingen, 1894.
This is pt. ii. of the fourth edition of A. Fick, Vergleichendes
Worterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen.]
V. S. Columb. Adamnan's Life of St. Columba is cited from the edition of J. T.
Fowler. (Oxford, 1894.)
Valor Eccl. Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Henr. VIII. Six vols. (Record Com
mission.) London, 1810-34.
W. People. The Welsh People. By John Rhys and David Brynmor-Jones.
London, igoo.
W. Phil. (2). Lectures on Welsh Philology. By John Rhys. Second edition.
London, i87g.
Walt. Cov. The Historical Collections of Walter of Coventry. Ed. W. Stubbs
(Rolls Series). Two vols. London, 1872-3.
War of G. and G. The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill. Ed. J. H. Todd
(Rolls Series). London, 1867.

xxiv INDEX OF AUTHORS, WORKS, ETC.
Welsh SS. Essay on the Welsh Saints. By Rice Rees. London, 1836.
Wendover. Rogeri de Wendover Chronica. Ed. H. O. Coxe (English Histori-
cal Society). Four vols. London, 1841-4.
Wht. Bk. See Mab.
Williams, Aberconwy. The History and Antiquities of the Town of Aberconwy.
By Robert Williams. Denbigh, 1835.
Wm. Malm. The works of William of Malmesbury are cited as follows : —
G. R. = Gesta Regum \ Ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series). London,
H. N. = Historia Novella j 1887-g.
References in brackets are to the edition of T. D. Hardy (English His
torical Society, London, 1840).
G. P. = Gesta Pontificum. Ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (Rolls Series).
London, 1870.
Wm. Newb. Historia Rerum Anglicarum. Ed. Richard Howlett in " Chron
icles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I. " (Rolls Series),
vol. i. (bks. i.-iv. — 1884) and vol. ii. (bk. v. — 1885).
Woodward. The History of Wales. By B. B. Woodward. Two vols. Lon
don [1852].
Wotton. Cyfreithjeu Hywel Dda ac Eraill. Seu Leges Wallicae. Ed. Gul.
Wottonus, adiuvante Mose Gulielmio [Moses Williams]. London,
1730.
Wykes. Chronicon Thomae Wykes. Ed. H. R. Luard in vol. iv. of Annales
Monastici (Rolls Series). London, i86g.
Wynne. The History of Wales. By Dr. Powel. Newly arranged and im
proved by W. Wynne [ob. 1704]. London, i6g7-
[A new edition of the "Historie" of Powel, with additional matter,
taken mainly from the notes of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt. See
pref. 46.]
Yorke (2). The Royal Tribes of Wales. By Philip Yorke of Erddig [1734-1804].
[Original edition, Wrexham, i7gg.] Ed. R. Williams. Liverpool, 1887.
Zeit. Celt. Ph. Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie. Issued at Halle from i8g7
to date.

CHAPTER I.
THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS.1
I. Palaeolithic Wales.
The region now known as Wales was inhabited by man in the chap,
earliest period during which science has clearly shown him to L
have dwelt in the British Isles.2 In the Pleistocene Age of
geology,3 separated from our own by an interval which must
be measured by tens of thousands of years, a rude race of
hunters and fishers is proved by the discovery of its implements
— roughly chipped flints, carved fragments of bone and horn —
to have ranged the hills and valleys of Southern Britain and
waged a not unequal struggle with great beasts of prey, of
which many belonged to species now extinct. Our islands
had then no separate existence ; in the beds of what are now
the North Sea and the English Channel mighty rivers flowed
north and west to a coast-line far out in the Atlantic, which
lay where the i oo fathom line now marks the beginning of the
dip toward oceanic depths. The relics of pleistocene, or, as
he is more commonly termed (from the primitive fashion of his
stone weapons), palaeolithic man are found both in the beds of
ancient rivers, left high and dry as the stream has cut its way
down, and in caves, those natural houses — cool in summer and
1 In writing this chapter I have chiefly used the following : Boyd Dawkins,
Early Man in Britain; Evans, Ancient Stone Implements ; Beddoe, Races of
Britain; Taylor, Origin of the Aryans ; Munro, Prehistoric Scotland; Green-
well and Rolleston, British Barrows; Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the
Aryan Peoples ; Sergi, The Mediterranean Race ; Ripley, The Races of Europe ;
British Museum Guides— (i) The Stone Age, (ii) The Bronze Age, compiled by
C. H. Read.
2 It is assumed that Eolithic man belongs as yet to the region of hypothesis.
3 I follow the terminology of Prof. Boyd Dawkins, who makes the Pleis
tocene Age end with the beginning of the Neolithic.
VOL. I. I

2 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, warm in winter — of which man availed himself from the very
first. In South-eastern Britain it is the river drift which sup
plies evidence of the conditions of life in palaeolithic times ;
in Wales, on the other hand, our knowledge of the period is
entirely derived from the caves which abound in the carbonifer
ous limestone of the district.
The exploration of caves has yielded traces, indubitable
however slight, of the presence of palaeolithic man in four Welsh
regions, namely, the Vale of Clwyd, South Pembrokeshire,
Gower and the neighbourhood of Monmouth. In 1861, during
the excavation of the Long Hole in Gower, flakes of flint which
had been used for cutting were found amid the bones of extinct
mammals of the Pleistocene Age. It was about the same time
that the bone-bearing caves of the Tenby district were being
opened up ; here Mr. Laws discovered in the Coygan cave, not
far from Laugharne, a bone awl and a worked flint lying under
bones of the rhinoceros. In King Arthur's Cave, on Great Do-
ward Hill, near Monmouth, Mr. Symonds found flint flakes
among abundant remains of pleistocene mammals. Similar dis
coveries have also been made in the Denbighshire caves : in that
of Pont Newydd, one of the famous caves of Cefh Meiriadog,
palaeolithic implements came to light in association with bones
of the hippopotamus and the straight-tusked elephant, and the
presence of man was made doubly certain by the finding of a
human tooth. On the other side of the valley, Dr. Hicks ex
plored the Ffynnon Feuno and the Cae Gwyn caves, near
Tremeirchion, and in both discovered flint implements, with
bones of the mammoth and the rhinoceros. There would
seem to be no doubt, therefore, that palaeolithic man ranged
over the whole of Wales.4
The list of great mammals who disputed with him the pos
session of the country is an impressive one. It includes, in
addition to the mammoth, the rhinoceros (of two varieties),
the hippopotamus and the straight-tusked elephant, already
mentioned, the cave lion, the cave bear, the hyaena, the
bison, the reindeer, the Irish elk and the wild horse. When
the author of the third series of the Triads described the first
settlers of Britain as finding it full of "bears and wolves
4 Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, second edition (i8g7), pp. 520-1.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 3
and dragons and long-horned oxen " (eirth a bleiddiau ac chap.
efeinc ac ychain bannog),6 he was no doubt giving rein to a 1-
lively imagination, but the truth revealed by science is a hun
dredfold stranger than his ingenuous fiction.
The palaeolithic remains found in England and France have
enabled students of the subject to trace a gradual improve
ment in civilisation, showing itself at last in a quite surprising
degree of skill in carving and drawing. But the Welsh relics
are too few to furnish much evidence of the kind, and, so far
as they have been classified at all, appear to belong to a very
primitive type. Nor can it be said that their relation has yet
been finally determined to the glacial epoch of British geology,
an epoch falling within the limits of the Pleistocene Age, when
the greater part of Wales was wrapped in a curtain of ice and
snow as inhospitable as that which now envelops Greenland.
The high authority of Sir John Evans may be cited in support
of the view that the palaeolithic climate was not much colder
than that of our own day and that palaeolithic man was
post-glacial ; 6 Dr. Hicks, on the other hand, argues from the
evidence furnished by the Welsh caves that the characteristic
pleistocene mammals, with whose remains those of man are
so often associated, lived before the age of the glaciers, and,
with the palaeolithic race, disappeared as it laid its icy hand
on the soil.7
So far as Britain is concerned, the story of palaeolithic man
certainly ends abruptly. On the Continent, archaeologists
have met with some success in the effort to bridge over the
gap which severs this from the succeeding, the Neolithic Age.
In our own land this has not yet been done, and it must re
main highly probable that, as the strange beasts around him
disappeared from our valleys, so also did the cunning savage
who watched and entrapped them, and this without leaving
any of his posterity behind. Welshmen have inherited neo
lithic blood and the neolithic civilisation ; in the palaeolithic
man of Britain it is probable they have no part.
bMyv. Arch. ii. 57 (400).
6 Presidential Address at the Toronto Meeting (i8g7) of the British Associa
tion (Report of the Association for the year, p. 13).
7 Proceedings of the Geological Society, May, i8g8, ci.

4 HISTORY OF WALES.
chap. II. Neolithic Wales.
i. With the opening of the Neolithic or New Stone Age begins,
so far as is now known, the continuous history of man in
Wales. That period, in which the use of metal for the practi
cal purposes of life was unknown, was in time succeeded by the
Age of Bronze, when the newly discovered alloy of copper and
tin gave the hard cutting edge which folk needed for tools and
weapons, and this in turn by the Age of Iron, which may be
regarded as lasting to our own day. But no break separates
these periods from each other ; the arts introduced by neolithic
man into Britain — the management of domestic animals, the
making of pottery, the grinding of stone implements — have
never been forgotten ; the men who first practised them here
are still, there is no reason to doubt, plentifully represented in
the population of these islands. The beginning of each new
period marks an advance in culture and, probably, the arrival
of a new race, but the past has not been obliterated ; its
influence is still potent in the new era.
In the neolithic period the contour of the British Isles
presented the same general appearance as at present. Valleys
and plains had sunk so as to form encircling seas, whose
billows swept through the Straits of Dover and St. George's
Channel. The process of depression was, however, not yet
complete, for it has been shown by discoveries made in many
parts of our coast-line, notably in Wales, that tracts of mud and
sand now regularly washed by each tide were in neolithic times
covered with a luxuriant forest growth, giving no hint of the
neighbourhood of the sea. The blackened stumps of such a
forest were laid bare in the winter of 1 171-1 172, to the no small
perplexity of the wise men of Dyfed, by a great gale which
swept over the sands of St. Bride's Bay,8 and in recent years
submerged areas of the kind have been examined at Whitesand
Bay, near St. David's, at Barry,9 and at Borth, near Aber
ystwyth, and have proved to be land surfaces of the Neolithic
Age. It is clear, therefore, that during this period the Welsh
coast-line was, speaking generally, much further out to sea
than at present, and there may well have been a time within
8 Gir. Camb. vi. 100 (Itin. i. 13) ; v. 284 (Exp. Hib. i. 36).
8 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Aug. i8g6, pp. 474-8g.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 5
the memory of neolithic man when Anglesey was not an island CHAP.
and Cardigan Bay, which hardly anywhere exceeds twenty
fathoms in depth, was dry land. One is tempted to inquire
whether we may not have in the well-known Cantref y Gwaelod
and Traeth Lafan legends, which are stories of the submergence
of flourishing realms beneath the pitiless sea, reminiscences
handed down through many generations of the effects — at times,
perhaps, startling — of this gradual subsidence attested by geo
logy. In the original story of the Lowland Hundred, as told in
a poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen, there is no mention
of the embankment, invested with such interest for lovers of
literature by the sardonic humour of Peacock,10 nor is it a
drunken " Lord High Commissioner," but a mysterious maid,
servant of a magic well, who is blamed for the catastrophe.
Hence there can be no doubt that the tale is thoroughly primi
tive ; it remains, however, for students of folk-lore to say whether
this and kindred legends known to the Welsh people have any
special features which show them to embody genuine traditional
history, or whether they are merely specimens of a class of
story known in all parts of the world.
At what time neolithic man first crossed the channel and
the precise degree of civilisation he had attained at the time of
his arrival here are matters of conjecture, hardly as yet of
definite knowledge. The neolithic culture of Europe is be
lieved to have slowly arisen within the continent itself, perhaps
out of palaeolithic germs, during a period which began not less
than ten thousand years ago. Much progress had no doubt
been made before the long canoes, fashioned out of single tree
trunks, grated upon our shores and discharged their human
burthen, the first ancestors of the British people ; the Neolithic
Age must have been far advanced ere such an immigration
could have taken place. Probably the chief domestic animals —
the dog, the ox, the sheep, the goat, the pig — had been tamed ;
a rude kind of pottery was made ; skill had been acquired in
the grinding of smooth stone axes, which were highly polished,
10 " That the embankment is old, I am free to confess ; that it is somewhat
rotten in parts, I will not altogether deny ; that it is any the worse for that, I do
most sturdily gainsay. It does its business ; it works well ; it keeps out the
water from the land, and it lets in the wine upon the High Commission of Em
bankment" (Misfortunes <of Elphin, chap. ii.).

6 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, furnished with sharp edges and hafted in wooden handles.
I- Besides these weapons of polished stone, others were in use
which had been chipped into shape with the utmost care. For
shelter men betook themselves to caves, where the neolithic
level of occupation is often to be found above that of palaeolithic
times, or they dug themselves pits in the ground, or with their
stone axes cut timber and made square log huts. That they
were given to the regular tillage of the soil there is nothing to
show ; primitive folk would seem to have had little taste for
the toilsome pursuit of agriculture as long as an easier method
of making a living was open to them. They clothed themselves
in leathern garments, for the most part, though some use was
also made of a coarse linen, woven in a primitive kind of loom.
Their dead they laid to rest, in the crouching attitude of sleep,
in a cave or a stone chamber which, though encased in a
mound or a cairn, had an entrance which might be used for
further burials. By their side they placed the implements
which they took to be needful for the use of the departed in
the spirit life just begun.
Many generations, no doubt, went by ere the civilisation
just described reached the highlands of Wales. But there is
no lack of evidence that it rooted itself thoroughly in Welsh
soil. The limestone caves of Pembrokeshire and Denbighshire
were occupied by neolithic as well as by palaeolithic man, and
show us the former race in the early stages of its development.
In the Little Hoyle cave in Longbury Bank, near Tenby, bones
of the ox, goat (or sheep), pig and dog were found with charcoal
(the ashes of the primitive hearth), pottery, and implements of
bone and flint. The greater pleistocene beasts had by this time
entirely disappeared, but the brown bear, the wild horse and
the red deer still provided big game for the neolithic hunter.
In the exploration of this cave it was a matter of surprise to
find human bones, representing no less than nine individuals,
mingled in great confusion with the house rubbish above
described ; this, however, appears to have been due to an ac
cident which had let fall through the roof of the cave the
contents of the neolithic burying place above.11 A group of four
caves in the neighbourhood of Llanarmon in Yale, used partly
11 Lit. Eng. pp. 15-16.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 7
as dwelling-places and partly as tombs, illustrates the neolithic CHAP.
civilisation as found in North Wales. Remains of the same
domestic and wild animals were found as in the Little Hoyle ;
there were also " fragments of rude black pottery, hand made,
composed of clay worked up with small pieces of stone, to
prevent fracture while it was being subjected to the fire". A
few flint implements were discovered, but the most interesting
find was " a beautiful polished axe made of greenstone, with the
edge uninjured by use ". The caves of the Cefn Meiriadog
district were also inhabited in this age and have yielded remains
of the same type.12
On the Pembrokeshire coast a neolithic settlement of a
different kind, though probably of the same early stage, was
recently explored by Mr. Laws. Under the blown sand on
Giltar Head, near Tenby, a clay floor, hardened by fire and
covered with charcoal, came to light ; upon it lay flint and
bone implements, but the most valuable evidence as to the life
led by the men who had used it was derived from a large
refuse heap or "kitchen midden," of the kind which has
furnished Danish archaeologists with data of the highest value
for the early Neolithic Age. This contained the bones of
domestic animals, but greatly in excess of these in quantity
were the tons of shells of twenty-four varieties, which showed
that the dwellers in this seaside camp — a place, perhaps, of
summer resort — were great eaters of shell fish and by no means
relied entirely upon their cattle and upon the chase for food.13
In other countries much information about the Neolithic
Age has been gleaned from the vestiges of lake dwellings,
built for safety on piles or artificial islands at some little dis
tance from the shore. One such " crannog," to use the Irish
name, has been discovered in Wales, namely, in Llangorse
Lake, but the remains were too scanty to make it possible to
fix the age of its construction and occupation, since the lake
dwelling as such is not specially characteristic of any one of the
great prehistoric periods.14 There may also have been a lake
dwelling in Llyn Llydaw at the foot of Snowdon, for a lower
ing of the water level of this lake some years ago exposed to
12 Cave Hunting (1874), by Prof. Boyd Dawkins, chap. v.
13 Arch. Camb. IV. xi. (1880), 244-5.
11 Arch. Camb. IV. i. (1870), ig2-8; iii. (1872), 146-8.

I.

3 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, view a canoe of the early type known in Welsh as " cafn un-
pren," the hulk fashioned from a single tree, which is the most
primitive known form of boat.16
Stone implements of neolithic pattern have been picked up
in many parts of Wales,16 but, while they testify to the occupa
tion of the country for many centuries by neolithic man, they
tell us little else when they are not found in company with
other remains, domestic or sepulchral.
The neolithic burying places of Wales next claim attention.
In the new Stone Age the practice of burning the dead was
rarely followed, and it was also unusual to provide each corpse
with a separate grave ; instead, a vault or chamber was pre
pared, which was regarded as a house of the dead and opened
from time to time to receive fresh burials. Sometimes this
chamber was natural, a cave (as at Rhos Ddigre) ir or a cleft
in the rock ; 'sometimes it was excavated ; but, especially in the
later Neolithic Age, as greater skill was acquired in the hand
ling of large masses of stone, it was very commonly built of
boulders and loose stones, with a great slab for roof and an
other to keep the entrance. The whole was covered with a
mound of earth, for protection from the weather and from
beasts of prey, and then formed a " barrow," the Welsh " torn-
en " ; 18 or, if the ribs of the earth were thereabouts but thinly
coated with soil, small stones were used instead to form a
"cairn" or " carnedd ". Owing to the need of providing an
entrance passage, the structure was usually rather long in pro
portion to its breadth, but this was an accidental, not an
essential feature of it, and for this reason the term " chambered
barrow " is to be preferred, as suggesting a truer classification,
to the more familiar " long barrow ". The chambered barrows
and cairns of Wales have not yielded the abundant evidence
with regard to the civilisation and physique of neolithic man
which has been furnished by those of the South of England.
15 Arch. Camb. IV. v. (1874), 147-51.
16 See index to Evans, Ancient Stone Implements.
11 Cave Hunting, chap. v.
18 The simple form "torn" also occurs, as in Cwm Dom (where there is a
tumulus), near Llanfyllin, Bon y Dom, the original name of Moel y don, Angle
sey (Penn. iii. 16), and the line, attributed to Llywarch Hen,
Tom el wi than ( = Elwyddan) neus gwlych glaw,
for which see IV. Anc. Bks. ii. p. 291.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. g
Few of them remain in the cairn or barrow form, and of these CHAP.
many have been rifled of their contents and are only interest
ing to-day as structures. Such has been the fate of Carneddau
Hengwm, near Barmouth, two huge cairns, of which the larger
is 150 feet long ; it is possible, however, that all the chambers
have not yet been opened.19 The mound near Plas Newydd,
Anglesey, measuring about 150 by 100 feet and locally known
as " Bryn yr hin bobl " (The old folks' hill) was opened about
1730, but there is no record of the exploration.20 Not far off is
another carnedd, that of Bryn Celli Ddu, which appears in the
old one-inch Ordnance map as " Yr Ogof " (The Cave) ; here
the chamber has been almost entirely stripped of its covering,
but the entrance passage is still intact. Pennant records the
discovery of human bones in a very friable condition in this
chamber when it was first opened up ; a broken flint knife was
recently found there also, so that it was beyond any doubt a
neolithic burying place.21 Two of the chambered carneddi of
Wales have been explored since the scientific study of such
monuments began and accordingly have yielded some evi
dence, scanty though it be, as to the neolithic population of
the country. That of Park Cwm in the parish of Penmaen,
Gower, which measured about 60 by 50 feet in area, contained
the remains of some twenty or thirty skeletons in such disorder
as to show that the bodies must have been placed there in
succession and at long intervals. Some pottery came to light,
but there were no implements to indicate more precisely the
stage of civilisation which had been reached by the builders of
the carnedd. It may, nevertheless, be regarded as suggestive
of some progress in ideas and in manual skill that the four
chambers opened into a single corridor, instead of having each
its own means of access from the open air ; the feature is one
which appears in some of the " long barrows " of the neigh
bouring English counties.22 The carnedd at Tyddyn Bleidd-
yn, near St. Asaph, was of a simpler pattern ; in its two separate
19 Arch. Camb. IV. iv. (1873), 91-5.
2°Penn. iii. 21 ; Arch. Camb. IV. i. (1870), 51-8 (W. O. Stanley); xi.
(1880), 81-96 (E. L. Barnwell). For the name see vol. ii. of the Cambrian Register
(1799), p. 28g.
21Penn. iii. 53-4; Arch. Camb. I. ii. (1847), 1-6; III. xv. (1869), 140-7
(E. L. Barnwell); Griffith, Cromlechs of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire (1900).
'^Arch. Camb. IV. ii. (1871), 168-72.

id HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, chambers human remains were found, so huddled together

that the burials could not have been simultaneous ; there were
also bones of the domestic animals.23
Stripped of its casing of earth and stones, the neolithic
grave chamber became a cromlech. The bleak Atlantic winds
and rain storms of many a century and the misguided industry
of farmers and road menders in recent times have reduced a
great number of the chambered cairns and barrows of Wales to
the bare stone skeleton, so that cromlechs are far commoner in
the country than the structures just described. " Their massive
outlines, telling unmistakably of immense toil lavished upon
some great purpose and yet giving scarcely a hint as to what
this might be, have for ages whetted men's curiosity. Nothing,
indeed, can serve better to show how completely their original
use has been forgotten than the names which have been given
to them by the country folk in historic times. The cromlech
at Ashbury, in Berkshire, was known as early as the tenth
century as " Wayland's smithy," where the great smith god of
the Teutonic peoples plied his demon art.24 So in Wales very
many cromlechs bear the name of " Coeten Arthur " (Arthur's
Quoit) ; u one is " Bwrdd Arthur " (Arthur's Table), also known
as "Gwal y Filast" (The Lair of the Greyhound Bitch) ; 26 an
other is "Llety 'r Filiast" (The Greyhound Bitch's Lodging);27
another, " Barclodaid y Gawres " (The Giantess's Apronful) ; 28
another, " Llech y Drybedd " (The Tripod Stone),29 another,
" Ty Illtud " (Illtud's House).30 Cromlech itself appears, in
point of fact, to be a name of this description ; on the analogy
of " cromglwyd," 31 a wattle roof, it should mean a covering or
23 Cave Hunting, pp. 161-4.
24 Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus, v. 332. For the legend see Elton, Origins
of English History, second edition (1890), p. 127.
26 E.g., those at Llugwy, Anglesey (Penn. iii. 56), at Llanfair by Harlech
(Gibson, 661), and at Cefn Amwlch, Lleyn (Arch. Camb. I. ii. g7). Inquiring
for a " cromlech " at'Rhoslan, near Cricieth, I was told ,that nothing of the kind
was known there, but upon its appearing that what I wanted was to see " Coeten
Arthur," I was taken at once to the spot. Mr. J. E. Griffith says the name is
frequently given to " blocs perches ".
28 At Dol Wilym in Carmarthenshire (Gibson, 628).
27 On the Great Orme (Griffith's Cromlechs).
28 At Trecastell, Anglesey (ibid.).
29 Near Nevern, Pembrokeshire (Gibson, 638).
30 At Llanamwlch, Brecknockshire (ibid. 593).
31 For this form see Mab. 76 (cromglwyt).

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. if
sheltering stone, and in the Welsh version of the Bible this is CHAP.
the sole use : " cromlechydd y creigiau " stands for " clefts " or I-
" holes of the rocks ",32 It is George Owen of Henllys who,
writing in the same age as the translators of the Welsh Bible,
first applies the term to a megalithic structure ; the terms of his
references, however, to " the stone called Maen y gromlegh vpon
Pentre Jevan lande " 33 clearly show that he is quoting a popu
lar description (The Shelter Stone), without the least intention
of applying the name to this class of monument as a whole.
But, just as in the region round Harlech " Coeten Arthur " was
so common a name for these structures as to have almost
become at one time their usual designation,34 so in Anglesey at
the beginning of the eighteenth century they were " vulgarly
called by the name of cromlech," 36 and, through the writings of
Henry Rowlands and other Anglesey antiquaries, this came to
be the term by which they were generally known among the
English and Welsh writers who speculated as to their origin.
Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that the name is of
greater historical significance than the others which we dismiss
at once as mere freaks of popular fancy : no light, in short, is
cast upon the origin of the cromlech by any of the names it
bears. In the eighteenth century the theory was broached that
cromlechs were Druidical altars, probably because they are
especially common in Anglesey, which is known to have been
a centre of Druidical worship. Beginning at the end of the
seventeenth century with John Aubrey,36 the view that these and
other rude stone monuments were the handiwork of the Druids
32 Isaiah vii. 19 ; lvii. 5. Cf. also Jeremiah xlix. 16.
33 Descr. Pemb. i. 251.
34 " Nid oedd yn eich amser chwi, Syr, ond bargeinion bol clawdd, a ll£d
Haw o scrifen am dyddyn canpunt, a chodi carnedd neu goeten Arthur yn
goffadwriaeth o'r pryniant a'r terfyneu " (Y Bardd Cwsg, p. 62 of Prof. J.
Morris Jones' edition). See also Lewis Morris, Celtic Remains, p. 96, " Coeten
Arthur," i.e., King Arthur's Quoit. By this name a great many of those ancient
monuments in Wales are called, which by the moderns are supposed to have
been the altars of the Druids ; but in some places they are called " cromlech,"
pi. " cromlechau ". " Dolmen," it may be remarked, is not a term known in
Wales. It has been employed since about 1800 by French archaeologists as the
equivalent of the British cromlech, but there seems no reason why an English
writer should use it, save that the French have confused matters by using
" cromlech " in the sense of a stone circle.
36 Mon. Ant. 47 (Lond. 47). Cf. Gibson, 676. 38 Gibson, 637.

tz HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, acquired a marvellous hold upon the minds of the learned and

has only been driven from the field within the last thirty or
forty years. In Mono, Antique/. (1723) it appears fully grown —
the Druids, says the confident author, "had their Altars or
Cromleche, on which they perform'd the Solemnities of Sacrifice
and their sacred Rites of Aruspicy and Divination" ^ It was
useless to urge that local tradition knew nothing of any such
august associations, that the ordinary cromlech capstone was of
such a form and so poised that no priest could have sacrificed
upon it with dignity, and that many cromlechs had apparently
been until recently covered ; little impression was made upon
the fashionable creed until systematic research in the latter half
of the nineteenth century showed that the cromlech only differed
from the chambered sepulchral barrow in being the ruin of its
former self — the hard kernel which had defied the hand of time
and had only to fear what man could do.38 In the prehistoric
cemetery near Auray in Brittany, cromlechs, according to Mr.
Romilly Allen, " are to be seen in every stage of decay," 39 and
Wales is not without examples of the process of destruction.
Of the chambered mounds of the country, that at Bryn Celli
Ddu has been stripped almost, but not quite bare ; the crom
lechs of Llugwy in Anglesey, of St. David's Head, of St.
Nicholas in Glamorganshire, and of Llanamwlch in Breconshire
show traces of the vanished mound or cairn ; *° while the
cromlechs themselves survive in every degree of dilapidation,
from the complete chamber of " Cwt y Bugail " (Shepherd's
Hut), near Y Ro Wen, Carnarvonshire, to the single supporter
which is all that remains of " Yr Allor " (The Altar), near Rhos
Colyn.41 Fascinating as they have always been to the inquirer,
cromlechs cannot in the nature of things yield much evidence
as to the men who built and used them. Human bones and
pottery have in some cases been found within them, removing
37 P. 6g (Lond. 69).
38 A very full discussion of cromlech theories will be found in E. L. Barn
well's contributions on the subject to Arch. Camb. See III. vii. 49-55 ; xv. 118-
131 ; IV. iii. 81-125 ; xi. 8g ; V. i. i2g-36.
3'Arch. Camb. V. xvii. 221.
"Arch. Camb. III. xiii. (1867), 137; IV. iii. (1872), 143 ; IV. v. (1874), 72.
41 Both these cromlechs are included in Mr. J. E. Griffith's book. I am in
formed that " Cwt y Bugail " is not the local name of the cromlech, but of a
neighbouring cottage.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 13
all doubt as to their sepulchral character, but the only Welsh chap.
cromlech excavated to any purpose in recent times has been
that of Pant y Saer, near Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf, Anglesey.
Here in 1874 the Rev. W. Wynn Williams found, under a
large flat stone not previously disturbed, the remains of several
bodies buried in a contracted posture ; in the same cromlech
were other human remains, bones of the ox and pig, sea shells,
charcoal, and one bit of coarse pottery.42 The arrangement
of the bodies found underneath the slab makes it fairly certain
that this was a neolithic interment, whatever doubt may attach
to the remains found at a higher level, and, in general, it may
be said that cromlechs are products of the Neolithic Age,
though, when once erected, they may have been used for
burial by the people of later epochs.
Cromlechs are often found in groups, as at Plas Newydd,
at Ystum Cegid and at Carreg y Gof (Pembrokeshire), and the
idea is thus suggested that the neolithic raje dwelt together in
little settlements, bound together for common defence. If it
could be regarded as certain that the hill fortresses and the
cliff castles, fenced with ditch and mound and dry stone wall,
which are so frequently seen in Wales, had been planned and
set in order for their wars by neolithic tribesmen, the question
might be regarded as settled, and the New Stone Age might
be treated as an era of village communities. But the frequent
discovery of flint flakes and arrow heads in our primitive camps
does not prove them neolithic ; these smaller trifles were made
in stone, it appears certain, long after the introduction of metal
for the fashioning of the more substantial weapons of a warrior's
equipment,43 and it is beyond doubt that fortresses of this
kind were in general use as late as the time of the Roman
Conquest.44 That some of them may be neolithic is all, then,
that can with safety be asserted.
So far nothing has been said as to the physical type and
race affinities of the neolithic dwellers in Wales. Yet if, as
has been maintained, it is to this people the ancestry of the
modern Welshman must in a large measure be traced, the
i2Arch. Camb. IV. vi. (1875), 341-8.
43Munro, Prehistoric Scotland (i8gg), p. 203.
44 This has been conclusively proved in the case of the great walled fortress
of Tre'r Ceiri, Carnarvonshire, by excavations carried on in the summer of 1903.

14 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, matter is clearly one of great interest. Investigations in the
L " long barrows " of England have furnished a fairly definite
picture of the neolithic occupant of the Wiltshire and Yorkshire
uplands. He was short of stature, averaging about five feet
five inches in height (the women were under five feet), small
featured and small limbed. A low, narrow forehead, a thin,
shapely nose, eyebrows and lips which projected but slightly
beyond the plane of the face, gave an impression of mildness,
upon which it might not have been safe to presume. Most
important character of all, from the point of view of the
anthropologist, was the oval form of the head, as looked at
from above, i.e., the " long barrow " race were dolichocephalic
or long-headed, as distinguished from the brachycephalic or
round-headed races. Few communities, indeed, were more
pronounced in their dolichocephaly, for the average proportion
of the breadth of the skull to its length was as 71 or 72 to
100, a proportion expressed in scientific language by the
statement that the "cephalic index" was 71 or 72.45
If a comparison be now instituted between the few skeletons
of Neolithic Age discovered in Wales and this general descrip
tion, it will appear that the Welsh remains are in respect of
stature and the contour of the head of the same class as those
of England, with the exception that the Welsh skulls are not
so long, those from the Denbighshire and Flintshire caves
having an average index, not of 71 or 72, but of 76 or yy.u
This difference is not, however, important enough to warrant
us in supposing that the neolithic population of Wales was
not essentially the same as that of England.
No help is, of course, to be expected from neolithic tombs
in determining the question of the colour of the hair and the
complexion of the people of the New Stone Age. But the
probabilities are much in favour of black, curly hair and a
brunet rather than blond aspect. Later immigrations seem to
have been predominantly of fair-haired folk, and the facts point
to the dark element in the British population as the oldest. It
is in harmony with this view that dark eyes and hair are found
in the greatest preponderance in the western parts of the British
45 For the " long barrow race " see British Barrows, pp. 645-60 ; Prehistoric
Scotland, pp. 448-52.
46 Cave Hunting, p. 171.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 15
Isles and particularly in secluded spots, where there has been CHAP.
very little disturbance of the population. Thus the tables I-
compiled by Dr. Beddoe show Wales, in company with Corn
wall and the West of Ireland, as a land of dark folk, who no
where muster in greater strength than in the two old-world
centres of Rhayader and Beddgelert.47
When the neolithic inhabitants of Britain have been con
ceived of as a short, dark and long-headed people, it is not
difficult to find relatives for them on the Continent. Tacitus long
ago recorded the observation (doubtless) of Agricola, that the
swarthy visages and twisted locks of the South- Welsh tribe of
Silures pointed to their Iberian origin.48 The Iberians, the
oldest known inhabitants of the Spanish peninsula, are still the
dominant element in this quarter of Europe ; " the present
population of Spain," says Ripley, " is closely typical of that of
the earliest prehistoric period ". He adds that " it is cranially
not distinguishable either from the prehistoric Long Barrow
type in the British Isles or from that which prevailed through
out France anterior to its present broad-headed population of
Celtic derivation ".49 The early neolithic race type was, in fact,
uniform throughout Northern Africa, Spain, France, Italy and
the British Isles, to go no further afield ; Western Europe was
held by the race styled by some Iberian, and by others Medi
terranean. Its features and build are represented in modern
Britain by the short, dark Welshman of South Wales, possibly
its very qualities of soul and mind in the typical collier and
" eisteddfodwr," impulsive and wayward, but susceptible to the
influences of music and religion. Theories of this kind, which
offer a simple explanation of a great variety of facts, are eyed
with much suspicion by students whose work has made them
familiar with the real complexity of race problems. But no
more satisfactory explanation has yet been put forward of the
race affinities of neolithic man as he is seen in Britain ; the
Iberian or Mediterranean theory, indeed, has recently received
from one quarter unexpected confirmation. It has long been
47 Races of Britain (1885), pp. 185, 186. The results are conveniently mapped
in Ripley's Races of Europe, p. 318.
48 " Silurum colorati vultus torti plerumque crines et posita contra Hispania
Hiberos veteres traiecisse easque sedes occupasse fidem faciunt " (Agricola, xi.).
49 Races of Europe, p. 277.

1 6 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, known that Irish and Welsh, though as Celtic tongues they
l- draw the bulk of their vocabulary and inflexions from the
great Aryan fountain-head, have a syntax which is entirely
unlike that of the Aryan group of languages, and the conjecture
was natural that this arose through the adoption of Aryan
speech by a non-Aryan people, who perpetuated in the new
tongue the idioms of the old, in the manner of modern Welsh
men whose mastery of English is imperfect. To Prof.
Morris Jones is due the credit, however, of pointing out that
these anomalous idioms, for instance, the habit of beginning
the sentence with the verb (" dywedodd Arthur " for " Arthur
said ") and the suffixing of pronominal endings to prepositions
(ynddo = in him), are exactly paralleled in Egyptian and
Berber, and that the pre-Aryan language involved must ac
cordingly have been of the so-called Hamitic family.50 This
much, then, is certain — that before the advent of the first Celtic
invaders, i.e., as will shortly be seen, the beginning of the
Bronze Age, at least one of the languages (perhaps the only
one) spoken in Britain was nearly akin to that of the Berber or
Lybian race of North Africa. Should the attempt be made to
establish an African connection in other than linguistic matters,
there is no insuperable difficulty. The modern Berber is spare
in figure and averages five feet seven inches in stature ; his skin
is white and gives no suggestion of negro blood ; his hair is
usually dark and the blond type is rarely seen ; though dolicho
cephalic, he is not more so than the men of the Denbighshire
caves, with an average index of 76 or 75. "The Chawia,"
remark the authors of Libyan Notes (1901), " are, generally
speaking, remarkably European in their appearance ; many
might have passed for Irishmen or Scotchmen. The boys in
particular, when about the age of fifteen or sixteen, would,
if put into similar dress, be almost indistinguishable from
English lads of the same age." The race is hardy, industrious,
intelligent, and of independent spirit ; if due allowance be made
for the effect of long centuries of growth and contact with
civilisation, there seems no reason why it should not be taken
as fairly representing the neolithic folk of Wales. Even the
cromlechs are not wanting, and, though the art of building
great stone chambers for the burial of the dead in course of
50 See Appendix B. to W. People.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 17
time spread so far afield that as a race criterion it is somewhat CHAP.
precarious, it is surely of some significance that the " dolmen "
at Roknia in Algeria selected for illustration in Libyan Notes
might very well have been taken, if left undescribed, for a
typical cromlech from Anglesey or Pembrokeshire.
III. The Bronze Age.
Three events are associated with the Bronze Age in
Britain, viz., the adoption of a new material for the making of
weapons, the arrival of a new race, and the introduction of new
burial customs. How far these three events are to be con
nected with each other, whether the new customs were those of
the new race, whose victories were the natural outcome of
their possession of the new weapons, is no doubt open to
argument, but that bronze, the practice of cremation and a
broad-headed people make their first appearance in these islands
during the same epoch will hardly be denied. It will be con
venient first to deal with the new element in the population.
While the investigation of the neolithic chambered tombs
of England and Wales has never brought to light any but
long skulls, the round barrows and cairns in which bodies,
frequently, but not always, after a process of cremation, are
placed without the protection of a chamber, have yielded great
numbers of round or brachycephalic skulls as well as those
of the older form. The contrast between the two races goes
beyond the shape of the skull, and is indeed as complete as it
well could be. In height the new-comer averaged five feet
eight inches, being several inches taller than his neolithic op
ponent. Powerful of limb, with wide forehead, overhanging
eyebrows, prominent cheek-bones and ample jaws, he was
planned for immediate conquest, if we may not say for ultimate
victory in the struggle of races.61 In colouring he was most
probably light ; it is noteworthy in this connection that the
hair and eyes of the eighty-two broad-headed men examined
by Dr. Beddoe in Wales and the West of England were " very
much lighter, generally speaking, than those of the rest of the
local population ".52
There is every reason to suppose that this round-headed
61 British Barrows, pp. 637-45. ™ Races of Britain, p. 17.
VOL. I. 2

1 8 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, invader, who perhaps first crossed the channel about twelve
centuries before the Christian era, was the man who introduced
Aryan speech, in its Celtic form, into Britain. Within recent
years the Aryan question has undergone great modifications.
It is no longer considered necessary, in order to explain the
phenomenon of a great Aryan group of languages, that a single
Aryan race, living in a remote past in some definite region of
the East, should be supposed to have broken up in course of
time into Indo-Iranian, Celtic, Teutonic, Hellenic and other
branches and have scattered itself over the whole of what is
now the area of Aryan speech. Prehistoric archaeology has
shown that there is no evidence to support this theory of a
great migration from east to west, that on the contrary the
leading races of Europe have been settled in that continent
from early neolithic times, and that Aryan languages are and
have for ages been spoken by peoples of widely different
physical type. What the philologist has now to explain, there
fore, is not the extension of a race, but the diffusion of a
language, which was, no doubt, the language at first of a par
ticular race in some European or Asiatic district, but had the
exceptional fortune to be adopted by other surrounding races,
each of whom spoke it with its own accent and idiom, so that
it became a group of dialects, instead of a uniform tongue.
In view, then, of this altered aspect of the question, it is not
necessary to contend that the Bronze Age invaders of Britain
were of Aryan stock ; it suffices to show that they were nearly
akin to continental peoples who spoke an Aryan language.
At the close of the Neolithic Age a race of the same
physical type as the men of the British round barrows is found
in possession of the valleys of the Seine and Rhine, and even
as far afield as Northern Italy and the upper valley of the
Danube. Of this race it is clear that the round-barrow men
formed an offshoot, attracted to Britain by causes which cannot
now be ascertained. Now while the portion of this stock
which was settled in the valley of the Po became the progenitor
of the Umbrian people and the creator of Latin, the bulk of it
undoubtedly went to make the great Celtic nation of history,
speaking an Aryan language closely related to Latin, out of
which Welsh and Irish have in course of time developed. The
term Celtic is perhaps unfortunate, though there can be now no

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 19
question, in the domain of philology at least, of substituting chap.
another for it. It has been often pointed out that the name
Celt was never recognised as a national designation by the
whole of the family of tribes to whom we nowadays apply it ;
in Britain, for instance, it was quite unknown, and, until the
rise of comparative philology, no one would have dreamed of
looking for a Celt in these islands. Historically, the name
is that which the south-western wing of the Celtic-speaking
community bore among themselves when they first touched
the Mediterranean ; B3 owing to the establishment in this region
at an early date of a Greek colony at Marseilles, it became
widely diffused as the Greek term for the whole race, nor was
it until a later age that the name which the more northerly
tribes gave themselves, viz., Galatae, became generally known,
and, owing to its adoption by the Romans in the form Galli,
finally ousted the other as a general designation. In choosing
to speak, therefore, of the primitive Celtic race, philologists use
a phrase which is far from exact, but, so long as the true
position of the " Celts of history," the dwellers between the
Seine and the Garonne, is kept in mind, no confusion can arise
from the use of a term which has won for itself, as a symbol
of what is common to Gael and Brython, a very secure position
in the English language.
The primitive Celtic race was, however, not homogeneous.
No fact in connection with this group of languages is better
known than that it falls into two main divisions, the Goidelic
(to use the convenient terms coined by Sir J. Rhys) 54 and the
Brythonic. To the former belong the Celtic tongues spoken
in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, to the latter those of
Wales and of Brittany, together with the extinct Cornish.
Within the two divisions the linguistic barriers are not formid
able ; the gap is widest between Welsh and Breton, though
even in this case there is no reason why we should look back
more than fifteen centuries for the point of separation. But
the cleavage between the two divisions themselves goes deep
and shows itself in matters of the first importance. One of
the best-known points of divergence is the treatment of primi
tive QU ; while Goidelic long retained the original sound (it
93 See page 31 below. M In the first edition of Celtic Britain (1882).

I

20 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, is still heard in Manx), only reducing it to C within historic
times, Brythonic had in all words in which it occurred converted
it into P, by the double process of dropping the guttural and
modifying the labial, before the Brythonic peoples appeared
on the historic stage. Thus early Celtic " ^etveres " ( = four)
becomes in Irish " ceathair," but in Welsh "/edwar " and in
Breton "/evar " ; old Welsh " ma/ " answers to Irish " mac,"
which in the Ogam inscriptions is found as " magui " (in the
genitive), with the primitive sound unaltered. The differences
between Goidelic and Brythonic, of which one example has
been given, are so numerous and fundamental that it must be
supposed that the two peoples who spoke these two forms of
the language were either long separated from each other or
were not originally, despite the use of a common tongue, of
the same stock. Which, then, it will be asked, was the branch
which invaded Britain at the beginning of the Bronze Age?
The answer can hardly be a matter of doubt if the relative
position of Goidels and Brythons in our island group since the
beginning of history be present to the mind. The Goidelic
has always lain to the north-west of the Brythonic country,
which has interposed between it and the Continent ; before it
was proper (if it is now) to speak of a " Celtic fringe," there
was a Goidelic fringe, the remnant of an early Celtic migration
driven over mountain and sea by the pressure of a newer.
It was at one time believed that the Goidelic migration
to Britain was so complete as to leave no trace behind in the
Celtic area of the Continent. But of late the view has been
advanced that the historical Celts, the inhabitants of Central
Gaul, were to a great extent Goidelic in speech and that herein
lay the difference between them and their Galatic neighbours,
whose language beyond question belonged to the Brythonic
branch.65 The characteristic weapon of the Age of Bronze was the
bronze axe. At first, it was of the simplest form, reproducing
in metal the outlines of the neolithic celt ; perfectly flat, it had
no means of attachment to its wooden handle, which must
accordingly have been cleft to receive it. As the art of the
smith developed, more serviceable forms were devised ; in the
86 For the whole subject see W. People, chap, i., and Rhys, Celta and Galli
(1905).

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 2 1
palstave type there are stop-ridges which prevent the head of chap.
the axe from slipping too far back into its handle and a loop L
which enables 'head and handle to be firmly fixed by means of a
thong to each other. Last of all came the socketed axe, a shell
of metal into which the wooden haft was inserted. Side by side
with the development of the axe may be traced that of the
sword. The neolithic knife was first reproduced in bronze in
the form of a short squat dagger, secured by rivets to a wooden
or horn handle ; this grew in course of time into a long and
graceful , sword, of which the hilt as well as the blade might
occasionally be of bronze. At the same time the dagger
underwent another development and grew into a bronze spear
head, having a hollow stock for the insertion of the wooden
shaft The flint arrow head of the Neolithic Age held its own
undisturbed throughout this period, for no one seems to have
thought it wise to waste good bronze in the making of a missile
which the owner was quite likely to lose on the first occasion
of using it.
It is not probable that many, if indeed any, of these
developments were due to the ingenuity of British artificers.
Like the discovery of bronze itself, the revelation to the neo
lithic craftsman of the happy effect upon his unmanageable
copper of a moderate admixture of tin, they must be referred
to the Continent, with which the insular Celts, through their
kinsmen on the Rhine and Seine, no doubt maintained a con
nection. But if the ideas came from abroad, there is no lack
of evidence that the workmanship was to a great extent
domestic. The identity of the word for " smith '' in all the
Celtic languages suggests that the craft was known to the
Bronze Age men at the time of their arrival here ; 56 for later
periods there is the still stronger proof afforded by the dis
covery of the tools employed, including the moulds in which
the various weapons were cast. Many articles were no doubt
imported, and this would especially be the case in the late
Bronze Age, when work was being produced on the Continent
in which beauty of design was considered no less than mere
utility. The custom of cremation made its appearance in Britain in
B6See Urk. Spr. s.v. "goban," 114 (Irish "goba" = Welsh and Cornish
"gof").

22 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the early part of the Bronze Age. Whatever its precise
origin, it had no doubt a religious significance, and, far from
implying contradiction of the neolithic idea, that the existence
of the dead was a continuance in the spirit world of the life
once lived in this, it may well have been designed for the pur
pose of giving that idea a more reasonable expression. In
order that the human spirit might range freely in the new
sphere of its being, it was right that it should be delivered
from the incubus of the body. The corpse was first burnt to
ashes on a funeral pyre. This rite was still remembered by the
Welsh at the date of the composition of the so-called " his
torical " Triads, for in them it is told how a party rode on the
back of one horse to see the smoking bier of the men of
Gwenddoleu who had fallen in the fight of Arderydd.67 The
remains were then in most cases placed in a funeral urn, which
was a roughly shaped crock about a foot or a foot and a half
high, decorated with the characteristic patterns of the period.58
As in neolithic times, implements and trinkets of various kinds
were buried with the dead, though it is remarkable that hardly
any bronze axes or swords or spear heads have been found so
interred in these islands — they were perhaps too valuable to
be spared. In the disposition of the urn, no set custom seems
to have been observed ; sometimes it was enclosed in a " cist "
or small receptacle of flat stones, sometimes it rested mouth
downward on a single slab, and sometimes it had no protec
tion whatever. Over the whole a great barrow or cairn was
raised, which, as no passage had to be provided to a perma
nent grave-chamber, was naturally round in figure. The true
characteristic of the Bronze Age burial, as seen in the greater
part of Britain, is not, however, the shape of the covering
" crug " or " tomen," but the absence of an accessible chamber.
Though the fashion of burning the dead spread during this
age to every corner of the British Isles, and even established
itself in remote districts among people who long after the close
of the neolithic period still built sepulchral chambers,59 it did
67 " Ar eil marchlwyth aduc coruann march meibon eliffer gosgorduawr . . .
y edrych ar vygedorth llu gwendoleu yn arderyd " (Triad in Mab. 301).
88 The art of the Bronze Age is the subject of chap. ii. in Mr. Romilly Allen's
Handbook to Celtic Art (London, 1904).
69 Prehistoric Scotland, p. 478.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 23
not at once displace the older custom of simple burial. Bronze CHAP
Age barrows contain unburnt skeletons as well as bones which I-
have undergone cremation, and evidence which would other
wise be wanting is thus obtained as to the physical character
istics of the population during this period. The old race and
the new are found lying side by side, so that, while there can
be little doubt that the vigorous, athletic Celt was everywhere
master and lord, he must in many parts of the country have
spared for servile labour the older inhabitants of the soil. He
would especially need their help, if, as there is good reason to
think, he practised a primitive agriculture. The neolithic life
was, probably, purely pastoral, but comparative philology
shows that the peoples among whom the European form of
Aryan speech was evolved were familiar with the tillage of
the soil,60 though their implements were of the rudest, and this
conclusion is supported by the discovery of grain-crushers in
the round barrows of the Yorkshire wolds.61 In other re
spects, also, the civilisation which was the fruit of the union of
the two races was an advance upon that of the Age of Stone ;
the pottery made was of a better kind and was stamped with
geometrical patterns ; ornaments were more elaborate, among
them being handsome necklaces of jet, such as that of which
the remains were found in 1828 in a Bronze Age grave at Pen
y Bone, near Holyhead ; 62 while the occupation of hill fort
resses with their round stone huts shows the existence of a
tribal life, presided over by the tribal chieftain, the Celtic rix or
"rhi".63 The sepulchral monument did not always in this age take
the form of a cairn or barrow. Investigation of the stone
circles of Great Britain and Ireland has led to the conclusion
that very many of them are Bronze Age burying-places.
Though the greater triumphs of the megalithic builder, such as
Stonehenge and Avebury, can hardly be disposed of so lightly,
and may very well have had some religious purpose, the ordin
ary circle as seen in Wales, for instance, on the hills above Pen-
maen Mawr or in the parish of Llanidan, Anglesey, was no
doubt a place of burial. Barrows, both chambered and un-
60 See part iv. chap. v. of Schrader's work.
^British Barrows, pp. 114-5.
62 Ancient Stone Implements, p. 459. 6S Urk. Spr. 230.

24 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, chambered, are often found to have a ring of standing stones
around them, so that in the stone circle a part of the old form
of monument survives, after the barrow itself has been aban
doned as unnecessary. The simplest memorial of all is the
single standing stone or " maen hir " (long stone), which may
have had many purposes from time to time, but was certainly
often used to mark the resting-place of the dead. As in the
case of cromlechs, the traditional names of" meini hirion" are
no safe guide to their early history : " Llech Idris" (The Stone
of Idris),64 " Carreg y Bwgi " (The Bogey Stone) 65 and " Maen
Beuno " (The Stone of Beuno),66 for instance, but preserve the
speculations of a peasantry who knew nothing of the original
design of the monument.
Abundant remains of the civilisation of the Bronze Age
have been discovered in Wales, and this in all parts of the
country, so that it is clear that the conquering race of Goidels
in time made their influence felt in every corner of it. But
each successive tide of culture which has washed the shores of
Britain has made a belated appearance in Wales, and hence it
need not be supposed that the new era began in these western
highlands until long after it had obtained a firm foothold in
the south-eastern plain. That the Bronze Age of Britain was
far advanced ere its customs rooted themselves in Wales may,
indeed, be inferred from the rarity in Welsh burials of the
period of any other method of disposing of the dead than
cremation,67 and from the prevalence of highly developed forms
among the bronze weapons which have been collected on
Welsh soil. In the life of the little community whose home
and burying-place under the brow of a limestone cliff were
recently excavated by Prof. Boyd Dawkins near Newmarket
in Flintshire, the first contact with the new culture seems to
be brought to light.68 Charcoal, the remains of domestic
animals and a polished flint flake ; great numbers of human
bones huddled together in a square sepulchral chamber — here
was nothing which might not be neolithic. But the skulls,
64 Near Trawsfynydd.
65 Between Cellan and Llan y Crwys (Arch. Camb. IV. ix. 325).
68 Arch. Camb. III. iii. (1857), 2gg-3oo.
67 British Barrows, p. 21 (note 1).
68 Arch. Camb. V. viii. (i8gi), 71-2 ; Archaeological Journal, igoi, pp. 322-41.

THE PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. • 25
though for the most part long, included some of which the CHAP.
breadth indicated the presence of the newer race, and, most
convincing proof of all, the pottery was of unmistakable
Bronze Age pattern. Like many conquering stocks, the
Goidels who settled in Wales may have been a minority, a
military aristocracy ; it could hardly have fallen out otherwise
that in a later age the Silures should have still vividly recalled
in aspect and build their Iberian kinsmen. Nor is it likely,
from what is known of the Welsh tribes in the time of Caesar,
that Aryan agriculture made much headway in the country.
But the pottery, the weapons, and the burial usages of the
Bronze Age became ultimately as common in Wales as in the
rest of Britain. In Pembrokeshire, for instance, where the
number of cromlechs shows that neolithic ideas survived in
strength to a late period, as compared with the time of their
disappearance from the rest of South Wales, over thirty round
barrows, locally known as " tumps," have been excavated and
in almost all the remains found have been those of cremated
bodies.69 In the mountain-locked glen, sloping seaward,
where now stands the village of Penmaen Mawr, ensconced
in what was, until the making of the Chester and Holyhead
railway, one of the most secluded spots in North Wales, a
Bronze Age burial was in 1889 accidentally brought to light.70
The urns, shaped and decorated in the usual manner of the
period, were found resting mouth downward on flat stones ;
they were full of calcined bones. Further, to put beyond all
doubt the epoch to which they belonged, in each of two of
them a small bronze pin was discovered.71
Note to Chapter I. § ii. — Cantref y Gwaelod.
The story of the Submerged Hundred first makes its appearance in a poem
in the Black Book of Carmarthen (53b, 54a), written in the last part of the book,
and, therefore, about 1200. This poem has been often translated ; there is, for
instance, an English version in Meyrick's History of Cardiganshire (2), 153 and a
modern Welsh one in Cymru Fu (p. 6). The best is, however, the most recent,
89 Lit. Eng. p. 2g.
10 Arch. Camb. V. viii. (i8gi), 33.
71 It should be observed that Dr. T. Rice Holmes, in his recently published
Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Ccesar (Oxford, igo7), challenges many of
the accepted views as to the prehistoric civilisation of these islands, and, in par
ticular, the view that the Early Bronze Age invaders were Celts. The whole
subject must be regarded as still under discussion.

26 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. *at of Sir J. Rhys in the Cymmrodorion Transactions for i8g2-3 (pp. 14-16). from
I. which it appears that the Plain of Gwyddneu was overwhelmed by the sea by
reason of the wickedness of its inhabitants, who had given themselves up to eat
ing and drinking and insolent pride of heart. The person who let loose this
judgment upon the land was a maiden, perhaps called Margaret ("Mererid"),
who at a time of feasting suffered the waters of a magical well which was under
her charge to escape and overflow the country round. What the share of " wit
less Seithennin " was in the catastrophe is not apparent ; he survives it, however,
and is called upon to survey the melancholy scene. Such was the primitive
story ; it is supplemented in one point by the compiler of the earliest form of the
Pedigrees of the Saints (also dating from about 1200), who speaks of five " Saints "
as sons of King Seithennin of the Plain of Gwyddno, whose realm was swallowed
up by the sea (Myv. Arch. II. 24 [416]). For the germ of the modern legend,
which is in many ways a very different one, we have to look to the third series
of Triads, belonging to the sixteenth century; the third of the Three Arrant
Drunkards of Britain (a festive group unknown to the older triadic literature) is
there said to be Seithinyn the Drunken, King of Dyfed, who in his cups let the
sea loose over the Lowland Hundred, a region of fair cities and the patrimony of
Gwyddno Garanhir, King of Ceredigion (Myv. II. 64 [404]). The well maiden
has now disappeared, Seithennin has become the author of the mischief, and the
drowned kingdom is no longer his, but that of his neighbour Gwyddno. But
the famous embankment has still to be introduced into the story. It was to the
antiquary Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt (i5g2-i667) that the idea first occurred
of connecting the story of the Lowland Hundred with the natural causeway near
Harlech called by the peasantry, in that age as in this, " Sarn Badrig" or St.
Patrick's Causeway. The popular explanation no doubt was that this was the
saint's private road home to his beloved Ireland, but for Vaughan it is " a great
stone wall made as a fence against the sea," which he has no difficulty in sup
posing to have once been a rampart of the buried realm. Lewis Morris, in the
next century, took the same view, and, remembering the poem in the Black Book,
added a suggestion of his own, " that ,by drunkenness the flood-gates were left
open " (Celtic Remains, p. 73 ; cf. p. 390). But one more touch was needed to
give the narrative its modern form ; the business of the flood-gates must be speci
ally laid at the door of Seithennin, who must play the part of the drunken lock-
man. This is done in Owen's Cambrian Biography (1803) ; under the patronage
of so influential a student of Welsh antiquities, the story as thus rounded off
won great popularity and furnished an attractive theme for literary treatment.
Englishmen were made familiar with it by the fascinating pages of The Misfor
tunes of Elphin ; for Welshmen it was vigorously told in the verse of Hiraethog
and Ieuan Glan Geirionydd.

CHAPTER II.
THE HISTORIC DAWN.
(Use has been made of Elton, Origins of English History ; Evans, Coins
of the Ancient Britons ; Rhys, Celtic Britain ; Rhys and Brynmor-Jones,
Welsh People ; A. J. Evans, Rhind Lectures, as well as of the original author
ities, Cassar, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Ptolemy.)
I. First Contact with Civilisation.
As the Bronze Age draws to its close, there is more and more chap.
evidence of trade intercourse between Britain and the outer n-
world. The first civilised visitor to these shores would seem
to have been the Phoenician trader, who sailed from Southern
Spain to the south-western corner of Britain : —
There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam,
Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come,
And on the beach undid his corded bales.
It is true that the Cassiterides, the " Isles of Tin," whence the
Phoenicians obtained great quantities of this metal, so much
in request for the making of bronze, are no longer identified
with the Scilly Isles, but it is suggested with much probability
that they were the British Isles themselves.1 The Phoenicians
were careful to conceal their situation from the knowledge of
the rest of the world, so much so that Herodotus in the fifth
century B.C. doubted their very existence,2 and thus it came
about that when they finally came to light, as the result of the
voyage of Pytheas, under another name, geographers still con
tinued to locate the Isles of Tin off the north coast of Spain and
distinguished them from the isles of Albion and Ierne. Side by
1 The question of the situation of the Cassiterides is fully discussed in
Elton's Origins of English History, chap. i. But the view there put forward is
now abandoned in favour of that of Miillenhoff, for which see W. People, p. 61
(note) ; Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de Litterature Celtique, xii. (1902), pp.
4-11; Eng. Hist. Rev. xix. (1904), p. 140 (note).
2 OSre vli<rovs o?So KaaampiSas ioiaas (iii. 115).
27

28 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, side with this intercourse with Phoenician civilisation, which
n" seems to have had little or no effect upon the inner life of
Britain, there was communication, too, with the Celtic peoples
of the mainland. About six or seven centuries before Christ
the Celts of the Continent had attained a high degree of skill
in the designing and fashioning of weapons and ornaments ;
it was the era of what is known, from one of its important
seats in the Noric Alps, as the Hallstatt culture,3 and the im
portation into Britain in the late Bronze Age of bronze articles
of the Hallstatt type shows that there was at this time a trade
route which carried such articles across the Straits of Dover.
Britain was gradually being drawn into contact with the organ
ised communities which, clustering around the Middle Sea,
formed the civilised world of the day.
In the middle of the fourth century B.C. the Greeks, wide
as was their geographical knowledge, had no certain knowledge
of the islands in the Ocean beyond the region of the Celts.
But commercial rivalry came to the aid of geography. The
adventurous traders of the Greek colony of Massalia (Marseilles)
in Southern Gaul, having vainly sought to obtain access to the
regions beyond the Pillars of Hercules — our Straits of Gibraltar
— whence their Carthaginian competitors drew such abundant
stores of tin, resolved to send out into the unknown Ocean an
expedition which should either open up for them this market
or find a new one in the mysterious North-west. A learned
citizen of the place, one Pytheas,4 an astronomer, was placed
in charge, and under his guidance a voyage was made which
not only achieved the immediate commercial purpose, but also
added vast regions to the known world of Greek geographical
science. Having sailed right round the Spanish coast, the ex
pedition directed its course to Brittany and thence to the
Straits of Dover; Pytheas not only landed in Britain, but
spent a considerable time in the island, making himself fully
acquainted with at least the south-eastern portion and ascertain-
3 There is a concise account of the discoveries at Hallstatt and of their
significance in the second edition (igoo) of Munro's Rambles and Studies in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, chap. xi.
4 The works of Pytheas have long been lost, and our knowledge of his
doings is entirely derived from the incidental references of later (and often hos
tile) writers. Full justice is meted out to him in Elton's Origins of English
History, chaps, i. and ii.

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 29
ing that there would be no difficulty in obtaining from the CHAP.
mines of the Cornish peninsula an ample supply of tin for the
purposes of his employers in Marseilles. With good reason is
he regarded as the discoverer of Britain, its Columbus, who
first made it known to learning and civilisation.
The Brythonic Celts had not yet, so far as can be gathered,
made any settlements on the northern side of the channel.6
They held the opposite coast, from the estuary of the Rhine to
that of the Seine, but were still a purely continental people.
Yet it is probable that the two great islands which Pytheas
brought within the ken of Greek merchants and scholars were
even then known as the Pretanic Isles {at IIpeTTaviKal vr\croC),
a form preserved for many centuries by writers on geography.6
The truth is, this term has in origin no connection with
Britain or the Britons ; it is, on the other hand, closely related
to the Ynys Prydain of the Welsh, who never, save under the
influence of a misguided purism, speak of Ynys i?rydain.
Prydyn, the mediaeval Welsh name of Scotland, is clearly the
same word, and so too, Celtic philologists assure us, the Irish
name for the Picts, viz., Cruithni.7 Thus the Pretanic Isles
may mean the Pictish Islands and, as the form (with its p for
the Goidelic qii) is Brythonic, it receives the most natural ex
planation if we suppose it to be a name given to the group by
the Brythonic or Galatic dwellers on the northern coast of
Gaul (who perhaps learnt it from Goidelic predecessors), on
account of the large " Iberian " or Pictish element in its popula
tion. When it was desired to distinguish the two islands, the one
was called Albion, the other Ierne. According to the elder
Pliny, Albion was known to be a more ancient name than
Britannia,8 and this is confirmed by the fact that, in the forms
Alba, Alban (whence the Welsh " yr Alban " for Scotland), it
has long been used by the Goidelic peoples to denote either
5 This, the former opinion of Sir John Rhys (W. People, p. 75), is now
abandoned by him (Celt. Br. (3), p. 4).
8 Muller believes npeTTwiirij to be the true reading throughout Strabo's
Geography (Firmin-Didot edition, g6s). It is also the form regularly used by
Marcian of Heraclea (see Miiller's edition of the Minor Greek Geographers,
Paris, 1882, vol. i. pp. 5l6-7)-
7 Urk. Spr. 63 ; W. People, pp. 76, 7g.
8 " Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes " (Nat. Hist. iv.

30 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the whole or a substantial part of Britain. Albion was the
IL " white land," 9 whose gleaming cliffs were the constant wonder
of the continental Celts as they gazed across the blue waters
of the Channel, and thus the mediaeval Welsh scribe, though he
knew nothing of Celtic philology and was thinking only of the
Latin " albus," was happily inspired when he rendered it " Y
Wen Ynys " (The White Island).10
II. The Brythonic Settlement.
It was, perhaps, about the middle of the third century B.C.
that the Brythons began to settle in Britain.11 Their arrival
marks the appearance in the island of the third and last of the
three considerable race elements which have gone to the making
of the Welsh people. If it be contended that the first of these,
the Neolithic, was the most important in respect of its contribu
tion to the national physique and character, and that the second,
the Goidelic, was the source of the early political and social
institutions of the Welsh, it cannot be denied that it is to the
third we owe the Welsh language. Notwithstanding the alien
idioms to which reference was made in the last chapter as
traceable to an African origin, Welsh is historically an Aryan
and a Celtic tongue, the lineal descendant of the speech of the
men who, as Caesar says,12 first came hither, on hostile and
plunderous errands, in the age immediately preceding his own.
In the well-known exordium to the " Gallic War," Caesar
gives this people the general name of Belgae. But it may be
doubted whether this was really an ancient race-name which
they recognised among themselves. Caesar elsewhere 13 states
that most of the Belgic settlers in Britain retained as colonists
the tribal names which they had borne at home, and this is
known in some instances to have been the case ; there were,
9 Urk. Spr. 21 ; W. People, p. 77.
10 " Ar amser hwnnw y gelwit hi y wen ynys " (Brut y Brenhinoedd in Bruts,
58 ; cf. also 40).
11 So Dr. A. J. Evans in his Rhind Lectures. Cf. W. People, p. 5. As a
result of the Aylesford finds (Archaologia, Iii. 317-88), archaeologists are now
disposed to regard the Belgic settlement as a late Brythonic invasion of about
150 B.C. 12 Bell. Gall. v. 12 : " lis qui praedae ac belli inferendi causa ex Belgio
transierant . . . et bello illato ibi permanserunt atque agros colere coeperunt ".
13 Ibid. . " Qui omnes fere iis nominibus civitatum appellantur quibus orti
ex civitatibus eo pervenerunt "-

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 3'
for instance, Parisi to the north of the Humber as well as CHAP.
Parisii on the banks of the Seine, Atrebatii south of the Thames l '
as well as Atrebates where Arras now stands.14 But, strangely
enough, while there was in Britain a tribe of Belgae occupying
what may be called the Bath and Winchester region,15 no
corresponding tribe appears in Gaul, the name being applied
instead to a great tribal group, by no means closely knit
together. It would almost seem, therefore, as if the original
Belgae had, as Sir J. Rhys suggests,16 transferred themselves
lock, stock and barrel to Britain, but had left behind them in
Northern Gaul, in the wide extension of their tribal name, a
lasting memorial of the military supremacy which they had
once exercised in the region.
If any general name was current among the Brythonic or
Belgic tribes of Northern Gaul, it was probably Galat, or, if the
Latin be preferred to the Greek form, Galli. Diodorus of Sicily,
writing in the first century B.C., essays to correct the popular
misuse of the terms Celt and Gaul.17 The Celts (KeA/nw?), he
says, are those who inhabit the " hinterland " of Marseilles and
the regions adjacent to the Alps and the Pyrenees ; the country
bordering on the Ocean and the Hercynian Forest and away
east to Scythia belongs to the Gauls (PaXaTa?). It is the
Romans who have caused confusion by massing all together as
Gauls (TaXaTw; for Gallos). So wide, in fact, had the applica
tion of the name now become in Latin usage that Caesar could
find no better distinctive name for these northerners than
Belgae. The vogue of the Galatic name was the result of the career
of world-wide conquest upon which the Galatae embarked about
the beginning of the fourth century B.C. Celtic scholars derive
the word from a root which in Irish has yielded " gal," valour,
and in Welsh "gallu," to be strong, and thus explain it as
signifying " strong men," " braves ".18 Few races of fighters,
indeed, have left a more definite impression of themselves in
the pages of antiquity. For the invasion and settlement of
South-eastern Britain was but one of their achievements ; the
14 All four tribes are mentioned by Ptolemy (II. iii. 10, 12; viii. 10; ix. 4).
16 Be Kyai ko! triKeis' "l<TKa\is, "TSara ®epn&, OueWa (Ptol. II. iii. 13).
16 W. People, p. 6. 17 Diod. Sic. v. 32.
18 Urk. Spr. 107 ; Celt. Br. (2), 267, 298. Whitley Stokes appears to regard
Gallus as a word of different origin (Urk. Spr. 108).

32 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, sack of Rome in 390 B.C. was their work and the attack
n" upon Delphi in 278 B.C., while the name Galatia preserves to
all time a record of their great settlement in the heart of Asia
Minor. In some of these movements the Celts strictly so
called may have borne a part, but the originating impulse was
Galatic, spreading in every direction from the valley of the
Rhine. Thus the figure of the Galatic warrior looms large
in classical literature, and there is little difficulty in forming a
mental picture of the kind of man who came over in the
Brythonic host of invasion.19 He was of commanding height ;
Strabo testifies to seeing at Rome British lads who were six
inches taller than the tallest men in the city. The women,
inured to the same perils and even sharing the rough fortune
of battle, were built on the same scale, and possessed all the
spirit and daring of their spouses. The limbs of the Galat
were long and vigorous, but he was not well put together ;
his great, unwieldy frame, formidable by reason of its weight,
had not the compact agility of the more resourceful southerner.
He had the clear red and white complexion of the true blond ;
his hair was yellow or yellowish-brown, and so proud was he
of its golden tint that, in Gaul, at least, he was in the habit of
heightening the colour by means of a dye. His ample locks
were bound together in a mass above and behind the head ;
his chin was bare, but long moustaches drooped over the
mouth. His under-garment was a sleeved tunic, while on his
legs he wore the characteristic Gallic breeches, fitting loosely
round the ankle ; on his shoulders was a thick woollen cloak,
fastened in front by a brooch of delicate workmanship. Such
was the outer man ; in disposition the Galat was impetuous,
boastful, self-indulgent, a shedder of much blood, but brave,
hospitable, true to his honourable ideals and at bottom of
childlike simplicity. He was lavish in expense upon his own
adornment and that of his arms and warlike accoutrements,
but no money could buy from him the embalmed heads which
had been handed down to him as the grim trophies of his
ancestors' valour.
This portrait reveals to us, as was intended by the polished,
19 The account which follows is based upon Diod. Sic. v. 26-31, and Strabo,
IV. iv., the Firmin-Didot edition having been used in each case.

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 33
self-restrained observers to whom we owe it, the lineaments of CHAP.
a barbarian, but the race was nevertheless one, as these writers n'
themselves allow, of great capacity. In several important
respects, it had already made great advances in culture. Of
these the chief was perhaps the adoption of iron instead of
bronze for the manufacture of weapons and cutting imple
ments. The age of the Hallstatt culture, though it coincided
with the late Bronze Age of Britain and is only represented in
this country by bronze objects, was one in which considerable
progress was made in Central Europe in the adaptation of
iron to warlike and domestic uses, and thus, when the time
came for the Galatic tribes to play their part in the history of
the West, they were fully equipped in this respect. Sword,
lance-head and javelin were of iron ; so too, in many cases, the
metal fittings of the long shield which protected the warrior's
whole body and the metal brooch which pinned his cloak
around him. It is most probable that the use of iron was
introduced into Britain by the Brythonic invader, and that the
beginning of the British Iron Age thus coincides with the era
of the Brythonic settlement.
This is certainly the conclusion suggested by the small
number of barrows which can be assigned to the period between
the introduction of iron and the arrival of the Romans and by
the entire absence of barrows of the kind in Scotland and
Ireland, districts only slightly affected by the incoming of the
Brythons. But it was not the use of a new material alone
which distinguished the Galatic peoples as a progressive
community ; their skill in the working of metals, of bronze,
of silver, and of gold, no less than of iron, furnished them
with numberless articles of ornament, of which the artistic
beauty of design was every whit as remarkable as the ex
cellence of the workmanship. Nothing more free and graceful
can be imagined than the best decorative work of this age,
known sometimes as the Late Celtic, but on the Continent
associated with the name of La Tene, a Galatic fortress on
Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland which has yielded abundant
remains of the period. Though they lived in roughly timbered
huts of wattle-work and sat down to their meals on littered
straw covered with rugs of wolf- or dog-skin, the Galatic
chiefs had torques of gold about their necks, golden bracelets
VOL. I. 3

34 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, on their arms, and arms of offence and defence which, whether
n" of bronze or of iron, were richly moulded and incised by
artists of genuine ability.20
Two other evidences there are of the progress in civilisation
which the race had achieved at the time of its settlement in
our island — its mastery of horsemanship and charioteering and
its possession of a coinage. Strabo bears emphatic witness to
the former point ; the Gauls, he says, fight best on horseback
and supply Rome with its most efficient cavalry. He speaks,
too, as does Diodorus, of their use of chariots in war, and it will
be remembered how Caesar, when he came into contact with
this kind of fighting in Kent, was struck by the ease with
which his enemies managed their horses and by the reckless
daring of their movements.21 Nor is archaeological evidence
wanting of the important place occupied in Galatic life by the
horse and the wheeled vehicle. Horse trappings, and in par
ticular bridle bits, are among the commonest objects found
among Late Celtic remains, and at La Tene an entire chariot
wheel was discovered. The series of Gaulish coins begins
about 300 B.C., and is altogether derived by imitation from a gold
coin issued about the middle of the previous century by Philip
II. of Macedon ; 22 yet, though in this direction little artistic
originality was displayed, the mere existence of a coinage
shows that the multiplying needs of a community advancing
towards civilisation were making the old methods of barter
obsolete. There is little difficulty in understanding how a race thus
equipped overbore the opposition of the earlier inhabitants of
Britain and established flourishing colonies in the most attrac
tive parts of the island. Nor need there be much hesitation
as to the region where they first found a foothold. They
would naturally direct their skiffs in the first instance to Kent,
and, in conformity with this, Caesar states that Kent was
20 The questions connected with the introduction of iron into Britain and the
development of the Late Celtic style of decoration are discussed by Dr. Munro
in Prehistoric Scotland, chap, vii., and Rambles and Studies in Bosnia and Herze
govina, second edition, chap. xi. See also A. J. Evans, Rhind Lectures, and
J. Romilly Allen, Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times.
21 Bell. Gall. iv. 33.
22 Evans, Coins of the Ancient Britons, 1864 (Supplement published in
1890), pp. 23-5.

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 35
much the most civilised part of Britain and in its customs CHAP.
differed little from Gaul.23 This being the case, it is some- IL
what remarkable that the inhabitants of this district were not
known by any tribal name connecting them with a Belgic
tribe on the other side of the water. They were simply
termed Cantii, from the place name Cantion, which is said, like
Albion, to signify " white land ",24 This anomaly has led to the
ingenious conjecture that the true name for them was Brittones,
that as the van of the Belgic invasion they migrated bodily
from their first homes at the mouth of the Somme (where
there is still a village called Bretagne) and that this was how
their continental kinsmen came to apply the British name to all
inhabitants of our island. It must be remembered that the
Brythonic-speaking members of the Celtic family have always
dubbed themselves Brython, representing an old Brittones,
while the Goidelic-speaking members have in like manner
agreed to call them Bretain, for an older Brittani, so that,
whether the Kentishmen be the original Britons or not, the
term is properly confined to the Belgic or Galatic immigrants
of the Iron Age, who may henceforth be spoken of as Bry-
thons. Why both the Greeks and the Romans should have
preferred the Goidelic to the Brythonic form of the name
(Greek Bperravol,, Latin Brittani and, less correctly, Britanni)
has not yet been satisfactorily explained.25
The descriptions which Diodorus and Strabo give of Galatic
life and manners both on the Continent and in Britain are be
lieved to owe much to the travels of Posidonius, the Stoic
philosopher who traversed Spain, Gaul, and probably Britain
at the beginning of the first century B.C. These travels, how
ever, are not extant, and thus the first authentic account
of the Brythons in their island home is furnished by Julius
Caesar. When he made his famous expeditions in 55 and 54
B.C., they were firmly established in the south-eastern region.
In this, termed by him the " maritime part" of Britain, popula
tion was dense, agriculture flourished, sheep and cattle were
""'Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt . . .
neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine " (Bell. Gall. v. 14).
24 W. People, pp. 77, 78.
25 See for the whole question Celt. Br. (2), pp. 205-13, with the modifications
in W. People, pp. 6, 75-7. 3 *

36 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, to be seen in great abundance.26 Arriving at the season of
harvest, his troops were able on the first expedition to supply
themselves with corn at the expense of the British farmer.27
Nor was the art of war neglected ; the progress of the Roman
general was seriously opposed by men who were skilful in the
use of chariots and of horses and in the fortifying of positions
of natural strength ; some amount of political combination
there was also, for a number of the tribes had united to resist
the Romans under the leadership of Cassivellaunus, the first
dweller in these islands whose name has been handed down by
history. Much, no doubt, remained to show that the Bry-
thons were but a partially civilised race, for instance, the habit
of staining the body blue, indulged in by the Brythonic
" braves " when they went forth to battle,28 and certain singu
lar marriage customs. Yet the general view presented by
Caesar's narrative is undoubtedly that of a thriving and busy
people, whom there is no difficulty in imagining as the makers
and buyers of the beautiful creations of Late Celtic art.
Behind this prosperous Brythonic foreground, Caesar reveals
to us, in dim and shadowy tints, a background of savage life
of which, in all probability, he knew nothing from actual ob
servation. " The men of the interior," he says (distinguishing
them from those of the coastwise lands), " for the most part
sow no corn, but live on milk and flesh and clothe themselves
in skins." 29 They are, in short, a pastoral and not an agri
cultural people, alike in their food, their clothing and their
habits. Thus is briefly described the condition at this epoch
of the older inhabitants of Britain, those who, according to
their own traditions, were the autochthonous children of the
island, sprung from its very soil,30 but whom history recognises
as Iberians and Goidels, descended from prehistoric immigrants.
It is true that the Goidelic race, whatever may be said as to
28 " Hominum est infinita multitudo creberrimaque aedificia . . . pecorum
magnus numerus " (Bell. Gall. v. 12).
27 See especially Bell. Gall. iv. 32 (" frumentatum missa") and v. 17
(" pabulandi causa ").
28 " Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt " (v. 14) makes it clear that the
Brythons are included.
"Bell. Gall.v. 14.
30 " Pars interior ab iis incolitur quos natos in insula ipsi memoria proditum
dicunt" (v. 12).

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 37
the Iberian, practised agriculture, but, apart from the very CHAP.
summary character of Caesar's account and his qualification n"
" plerumque," one must remember that the seizure by the
Brythons of the best of the corn-growing regions would tend
to discourage the tillage of the soil among a race thrown back
upon the great pasture lands of the North and West. The
history of Wales shows clearly that a people familiar with
agriculture may be led by the physical conditions to relegate
it to a secondary place in the tribal economy and to give its
main strength to the rearing of sheep and cattle.
III. Wales at the Christian Era.
During the century which followed Caesar's attacks upon
Britain, the Brythons continued to advance in civilisation and
to encroach more and more upon their Goidelic and Iberian
neighbours. It was during this period that they developed an
inscribed coinage,31 and the range of Brythonic influence is well
shown by the wide extent of country over which specimens of
this coinage have been found. South-east of a line drawn from
the Wash to the Bristol Channel it was apparently (save in the
western peninsula) in general use, while occasional coins strayed
as far as the Tyne and the west of Cornwall.32 But no British
inscribed coin has yet been found within the limits of modern
Wales, and the impression is thus created, which is in the main
confirmed by other considerations, that this district remained
little affected by the Brythonic immigration and the culture
associated with it down to the very eve of the Roman conquest.
It was part of Caesar's " interior," a stronghold of primitive
ideas, of barbarous customs and of simple modes of life.
Using the information to be derived from the geographer
Ptolemy and other writers who dealt with Britain after its
occupation by the Romans, one may without much hazard
attempt an outline of the tribal divisions of pre-Roman Wales.
Along the northern shores of the Bristol Channel dwelt the
Silures, already referred to as an Iberian people. The only
place which is certainly known to lie within the ancient limits
31 " The introduction of a legend on British coins does not appear to have
taken place until about the period of the accession of his (i.e. Commios's) sons '
(Evans, Coins, p. 156).
33 See map in Evans, Coins, suppl.

38 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, of this tribe is Caerwent in Monmouthshire,33 but, in view of
the important part which they played in the resistance to the
Romans, no narrower theatre can be assigned to them than the
modern counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan and Brecknock.
Celtic scholars have so far been baffled in the attempt to ex
plain the name from Brythonic or Goidelic sources,34 and to
this extent the theory that the race was predominantly non-
Aryan finds confirmation. Yet traces of Celtic influence are
not wanting also ; one of the principal rivers of the district
bore the Celtic name of Isca, represented by the modern Usk,
and, whatever the meaning of the name Venta by which the
tribal centre was distinguished, its occurrence elsewhere leaves
little doubt as to its Celtic origin. It may be inferred, too,
from their willingness to accept, in the great struggle with
Ostorius Scapula, the leadership of the Brython Caratacus, of
the Catuvellaunian royal house, that the Silures set no impass
able barrier between themselves and the Celtic tribes of the
South-east. Yet, when all is said, they appear as a race apart,
confronting their foes with that stubborn spirit, incapable of
being melted by kindness or quelled by severity, which there
are good grounds for regarding as a specially Iberian character
istic.35 Hemmed in by the Forest of Dean on the east and
thus parted from the Dobuni, separated from the Belgae and
the Dumnonii by the Severn Sea, they held a position of
great natural strength and made full use of its military ad
vantages. To the west of the Silures came the Demetae. Ptolemy
alone of ancient writers mentions them, but their existence is
placed beyond doubt and their situation indicated by the per
sistence of the name Dyfed, which is derived from the old form
through the early Welsh Demet. Dyfed has had various
33 " Venta Silurum " is found both in the Itinerary of Antoine and the Geo
grapher of Ravenna. I know of no ancient authority for the form " Isca Silurum,"
and indeed the tribal name appears to have been added in such cases, not for the
purpose of distinguishing places of the same name, but in order to indicate the
tribal centre. Ptolemy only assigns to the Silures the town of BoiWaioy , which
is reasonably, but not certainly, identified with the Burrium ( = Usk) of the
Itinerary. 34 Celt. Br. (2), p. 306.
35 Strabo points out (IV. iv. 2) that the Romans found the Iberians much
more difficult to conquer than the Gauls. They husbanded their forces and
fought in small detachments, KyarptKus to\*jjlovvtgs.

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 39
meanings at various epochs in Welsh history, but it has never CHAP.
ceased to stand for a considerable region in South-western II-
Wales. In conformity with this, Ptolemy36 assigns to this
tribe the station of Maridunum, which can be none other than
our Carmarthen. As his Luentinum is further supposed to be
Llanio in Cardiganshire, it would appear safe to locate the
Demetae in the three modern counties of Carmarthen, Cardigan
and Pembroke. The tribe seems to have been reckoned for
all purposes, save those of precise geography, as a section of
the Silures, who probably held them in a kind of subjection ;
thus, according to the elder Pliny,37 the shortest passage from
Britain to Ireland, for which he gives the very low estimate of
thirty Roman miles, was " a Silurum gente ". If this be so, it
is right to extend to the Demetae the description given by
Tacitus of the dark-haired Silures and to regard them also as
a race of Iberian origin, as indeed is suggested by the figures
of Dr. Beddoe, who found as dark a population at Carmarthen
as at almost any Welsh centre at which he made his observa
tions.38 Celtic influences had no doubt been brought hither,
as further to the east, by the victorious Goidels ; a Celtic name,
Maridunum, was given to the fortress which stood at the head
of the tidal portion of the Towy ; but there is nothing to show
that the Brythons had made their way into this region before
the Romans appeared upon the scene.
It is not easy to say what people inhabited the north
western corner of Wales, the district which was in later times
the stronghold of Welsh independence. Ptolemy here fails us,
for, though it has until recently been taken for granted that he
assigned to the Ordovices the whole of North Wales, the places
mentioned by him as belonging to this tribe lie to the east,
near what is now the English border, and in reality this part
of his map, save for the name of a cape and that of a river, is
blank.39 Of Segontium and Conovium, stations in the district
36 II. iii. 12. ^ Nat. Hist. iv. 102. 38 Races of Britain, p. 185.
39 This does not appear from the map of Ptolemy's Britain contributed by
Dr. Henry Bradley to Archaologia (xlviii. 379). But in this the Toisobios River
is made to precede the cape of the Gangani and to belong to the north coast of
Wales, whereas the better reading adopted by Muller reverses this order and
so puts the mouth of this river somewhere near Portmadoc, an arrangement
which has the further advantage of bringing Ptolemy's M<W vrjtros into closer
connection with his North Wales.

40 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, of which mention is made elsewhere, he had apparently not
u- heard. The same impression, that Anglesey and Snowdonia
were not in the occupation of the Ordovices, is conveyed by the
passage in the Agricola of Tacitus40 which tells of the
subjugation of the latter ; they were all but annihilated in the
first campaign of the new general, who then, the narrative
continues, mindful of the necessity of pressing home his advan
tage and of not allowing the first impression of terror to wear
off, set himself seriously to the task of reducing Anglesey.
Only one clue is obtainable as to the condition of affairs at
this time in the Snowdon region, and this is furnished by the
Welsh name of the district, viz., Gwynedd. This is un
doubtedly ancient, appearing, as it does, in the form " Vene-
dotis" (a genitive, presupposing some such nominative as
" Venedas"), in an inscription at Penmachno, Carnarvonshire,
of the sixth or seventh century.41 The meaning is indicated
by the cognate Irish word, " fine," a tribe or sept, and Gwynedd
would thus denote a group or confederacy of tribes. If this
interpretation be correct, it will not be matter for wonder that
no general tribal name can be found which covers the whole
district ; the task of the investigator will rather be to distinguish
the individual tribes included in the group. Nor is it out of
the question to achieve something in this direction. Ptolemy
himself, when he gives the title of " Cape of the Gangani " 42 to
the extreme point of the Lleyn peninsula, supplies the name
of one tribe and suggests its Goidelic (or Iberian) origin, for
there were Gangani in the West of Ireland. The chronicler who
speaks of Degannwy as " arx Decantorum " 43 furnishes another,
and again a parallel form, " Decantae," is forthcoming, this time
from the Pictish North. The " Decangi " of Tacitus, dwelling
not far from " the sea which looks towards Ireland," 44 may be
regarded as a third Venedotian tribe, and, if the view of Sir J.
Rhys should be accepted, that the true form is " Deceangli," 45
40 Cap. 18.
41 Arch. Camb. IV. ii. (1871), 257-8. See Celt. Br. (2), p. 311 ; Urk. Spr. 270.
The inscription is No. 135 in Hubner's Inscriptiones Britannia Christiana.
42 II. iii. 2. Taytayaj/ is the reading of most of the MSS. and is much to be
preferred to Miiller's fanciful Kaiayyavav.
43 Harl. MS. 3859, printed in Y fiymmrodor, ix. (1888), p. 163. •• Arx " is
supplied from other sources.
44 Annals, xii. 32. 46 W. People, p. g4.

THF HISTORIC DA WN. 41
would naturally be assigned to Tegeingl or Northern Flintshire. CHAP.
Llanfihangel Din Silwy and Llanfair yng Nghornwy may II-
suggest that there were Selgovae and Cornavii in Anglesey,
while Porth aethwy and Din daethwy appear to be the '* creek "
and the "stronghold" of another of the tribes of the island.
Of the whole group, no less than of the Silures and the Demetae,
it may be said that the primitive Iberian element was pro
minent in it, tempered, no doubt, by a Goidelic admixture ; 46
here was the peculiar home of Druidism, hither fled those to
whom the civilisation of the Roman province was irksome ;
under the shadow of the venerable oaks of Mona the very air
was redolent of tradition and ancestral calm.
The fourth region of Wales, corresponding roughly to the
modern counties of Montgomery and Radnor with the adjacent
portions of Merioneth and Denbigh, was occupied by the
Ordovices, who, strong in the difficult nature of their country,
offered as fierce a resistance to the invader as did the Silures,
and were among the last tribes in Southern Britain to lay
down their arms. But, unlike the Silures, they represented
not the older but the newer elements in the population of the
island. Celts they undoubtedly were, for the tribal name is
derived from the Celtic root ord-, meaning "mallet" or
hammer ; 47 they were the " hammer-men," wielding in battle
the axe-hammers of stone which were in common use during
the Bronze Age and probably much later. But more than
this ; they are also believed to have been Brythons, leaders of
that Brythonic forward movement which in the first century of
our era was making rapid progress, the people, in short, from
whom the rest of Wales learnt the Welsh language.48 That
the tribe which held the land to the east, the Cornavii of our
Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, were of the Brythonic
race is known from the name of one of the places within their
bounds, viz., Pennocrucium (now Penkridge), which is pure
Brythonic for " the head of the mound " or " the place of the
chief of the mound ".49 Testimony of the same direct kind
46 The discoveries made in igo3 in the Venedotian stronghold of " Tre'r
Ceiri," crowning the eastern spur of the Rivals in Carnarvonshire, show that the
productions of Late Celtic, and even of Roman art, were making their way into
this region during the first century of our era (Arch. Camb. VI. iv. (1904), 1-16).
47 Celt. Br. (2), p. 303. isIbid., pp. 87, 217-8.
49 Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, publ. 1888, pp. 202-4 ; W. People, p. 7.

II

42 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, is not forthcoming in the case of the Ordovices, but two facts
make it highly probable that this was the centre from which
Brythonic influences radiated into North and South Wales ;
the district is entirely free from those evidences of a late
Goidelic occupation which occur throughout the rest of Wales,
and tradition knows nothing of any conquest of it in post-
Roman times such as elsewhere is attributed to the prowess
of the Brython. The men of Powys, to give the district its
mediaeval name, were of ancient standing in the land and
must have been already in possession when the Romans
appeared on the banks of the Severn and the Dee.
Of the degree of civilisation attained by the Ordovices
before their subjection to the Roman yoke a fair notion may
be formed from the remains discovered on the site of the
Glastonbury lake village in 1892 and subsequent years.50 The
date at which the history of this settlement comes to an end
is shown by the fact that no trace of Roman influence has yet
been observed by the explorers who have examined the site,
while on the other hand the culture to which the remains bear
witness is unmistakably Late Celtic in character. No coins
have yet come to light, so that the lake dwellers appear to
have resembled the Ordovices in making little or no use of
money ; in other respects, their civilisation has a thoroughly
Brythonic aspect and may well represent the normal state of
things all along the Brythonic frontier.
The site of the village, lying a little north of Glastonbury,
is now dry, but in former days the Mear Pool, of which a
remnant survived in the sixteenth century, no doubt spread
over the whole of the low-lying region between the Hartlake
and the Brue. Sixty to seventy low mounds mark the position
of as many round or oval houses, which once rose out of the
water, resting on foundations of timber and brushwood which
were secured in their places by rows of wooden piles driven
into the peat of the lake bottom. The floors of the huts were
of clay and in the centre of each was the hearth. In diameter
they varied from 20 to 35 feet. The walls were of timber,
60 For the account I give of the Glastonbury lake village I am indebted to
Mr. Arthur Bulleid's paper in the Proceedings of the Somerset Natural History
and Archceological Society for 1894, and to the reports made to the British As
sociation from 1893 to i8gg by the special committee appointed to superintend the
excavations.

the historic da wn. 43
filled in with wattle and daub ; in one case a doorstep and CHAP,
threshold were found intact. The dwellers in these huts are IL
shown to have been tillers of the soil by the discovery of an
iron reaping-hook and of a sickle of the same material, each
having its wooden handle attached ; the bones of their domestic
animals — ox, goat, sheep, pig, horse, dog, fowl — bear witness
to a fully developed system of rural economy. An iron horse-
bit and parts of a wheel show that they understand horseman
ship and the use of wheeled vehicles ; appliances for weaving
have also been brought to light. Among the objects of
domestic use mention should be made of the querns or hand
mills for grinding corn, the staved buckets and the Late Celtic
pottery. Bronze ornaments for the person, together with a
fragment of a bronze mirror, illustrate the lighter side of this
Brythonic culture, and are in keeping with that love of adorn
ment which the grave Strabo notes 51 as a Galatic weakness.
Finally, the very boats and ladders by means of which this
islanded community kept up communication with the outer
world have been preserved, so that the picture lacks nothing
to make it complete. IV. Druidism.
In dealing with the subject of this section, one is confronted
on the threshold, with the difficulty of reducing to sober pro
portions a theme upon which more misguided ingenuity has
been expended than, perhaps, any other within the range of
Welsh history. Edward Davies's treatise of six hundred pages
upon The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids™ is
but one of many works in which the creed, rites, institutions
and monuments of the Druids are described with a particularity
for which nothing in the ancient authorities gives any warrant,
and which is, in truth, only attained by the unrestrained
exercise of the imagination. History has little to tell of the
Druids of Gaul, still less of those of Britain ; except for some
three chapters in the Gallic War of Caesar, what is known
of the order is derived from the scanty incidental notices of
writers who do not seem to have had any first-hand knowledge
of the facts.
Undoubtedly, the Druidic system was one which deeply
61 IV. iv. 5. 52 London, i8og.

44 HISTORY OF WALES.
chap, impressed itself upon the imagination of the Roman world ;
otherwise (so slight was the interest taken in barbarian re
ligions) no account whatever of its features would probably have
been preserved. Its ruthless immolation of human victims
startled a society which was learning to be humane ; the curious
in matters of philosophy were attracted by the Druidic doctrine,
recalling that of the Greek Pythagoras, as to the transmigration
of souls ; while statesmen took note of the completeness of the
Druidic organisation, its hold upon the mass of the people, the
thoroughness of its educational discipline. As a whole, the
system was to the Roman mind strange and uncanny ; a fact
which lends support to the view 53 that it was not of Celtic
origin, in spite of its prevalence in the Celtic lands, but had
been taken over from some more primitive race (such as the
Iberian) which practised rites and observed customs long since
discarded by the Aryan peoples. According to Caesar, its
real home was Britain, whither accordingly inquirers went who
desired to drink at the undefiled fountain-head. In Britain, its
stronghold — indeed, the only district with which it is expressly
associated — is found to be the island of Mona, where the
Iberian element is on other grounds believed to have been im
portant, and thus another reason is furnished for regarding
Druidism as an importation into the Celtic world. The diffi
culty of explaining the word "druid" from Celtic sources
points in the same direction.54
If this view be accepted, it follows, as indeed is suggested
by Caesar, that the comparatively enlightened and philosophical
form of Druidism described at length in the sixth book of the
Gallic War is a modification of the true and unadulterated
Druidism, as depicted for us, with brief but vivid touches,
by Tacitus in his account of the attack of Suetonius upon
Anglesey.66 It may well be suspected that the highly de
veloped organisation which enabled the whole Gallic order to
meet annually, in the country of the Carnutes (the district of
63 Celt. Br. (2), p. 6g ; W. People, p. 83.
64 According to Dr. Whitley Stokes (Urk. Spr. 157), the etymology of
" druid " is still quite uncertain. No connection can be established with " derva,"
the Celtic original of " derw " (oak), or its congeners " dari," " darik," " daru,"
of the same meaning.
56 Annals, xiv. 30.

THE HISTORIC DA WN. 45
Chartres), under the presidency of an elective Arch-druid, for CHAP.
the trial and determination of causes from all parts of Gaul,
had been devised not long before Caesar's day in the interests
of some political movement. The account given of Druidism
in the Gallic War is believed to have been based to a great
extent on information supplied to Caesar by his friend Divi-
ciacus the ^Eduan, himself a prominent member of the order
and yet an admirer of Roman civilisation.66 With such a
man it would be a point of honour to put the very best face
upon the Druidic system, and, while he would recognise that it
was useless to strive to conceal the darker aspects of its ritual,
the merits of the Druids as teachers, judges, philosophers and
peacemakers would be emphasised by him in the fullest
manner. The Druids of Britain were men of a grim and forbidding
aspect, skilful in the use of the terrors of religion, and needing
no association with inhuman rites to appear awful in the eyes
of Roman soldiers. The gods to whom they appealed with
uplifted hands were fierce powers whose wrath could oftentimes
only be appeased by the shedding of human blood and whose
will was declared by the movements of tortured human
victims. No temples were raised for the worship of these
deities, but they were served in forest sanctuaries, where the
thick leafage and undergrowth shut out the gaze of the vulgar
and cast a gloom over the savage altars. Such is the picture
handed down by Tacitus, and little can be added to it save by
way of conjecture. It may be surmised that in Britain, as in
Gaul, the Druidic order included a guild of " bardi " or pro
fessional minstrels, for this is the readiest explanation of the
fact that when " beirdd " first make their appearance in Welsh
history, in the Laws of Hywel the Good, they are found to be
united in a regular organisation. Another character assumed
by the British Druid was certainly that of diviner and
68Diviciacus (a form which is to be preferred to the Divitfacus of the
ordinary editions of Caesar ; see Celt. Br. (2) p. 2g2) was an iEduan noble in con
stant attendance upon Caesar and high in his confidence during his wars in
Gaul. He had shown himself a friend of Rome for many years and had visited
the city to seek the help of the Senate against a neighbouring tribe (Bell. Gall.
vi. 12). That he was a Druid and professed knowledge of the future we know
from a reference in Cicero's De Divinatione (i. 41).

46 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, magician; this is the ordinary sense of the word "derwydd"

II.

in early Welsh literature, as in the lines of Cynddelw — 6T
Nis gwyr namyn Duw a dewinion byd
A diwyd Derwydon
O eurdorf eurdorchogion
Ein rif yn Riweirth afon
(" None knoweth, save God and the world's diviners and Druids assiduous,
how many were of us, that golden torqued host, at the river of Rhiweirth.")
But it will not do to assume, without trustworthy evidence and
against historic probability, that the Druids worshipped one
God, that they sacrificed on cromlechs, that their lore was cast
into the triadic form, and that it is represented in spirit and scope
by the documents put forward in their name by the bards of
Glamorgan in comparatively recent times.58 The idea that
Druidism was a British variety of the religion of the patriarchs,
presided over by dignified and benevolent sages, was begotten
by the political philosophy of the eighteenth century, which in its
superficial knowledge of savage life idealised the "state of nature"
and endowed with all the virtues the rude denizen of steppe
and forest. "What may be considered as the foundation of the
Order was the doctrine of Universal Peace and Good Will".
When William Owen Pughe writes thus in his Sketch of
British Bardism,59 he is under the influence of the idea to
which Locke gives expression in the words — " the woods and
forests, where the irrational untaught inhabitants keep right by
following Nature, are fitter to give us rules than cities and
palaces ".60 All ancient testimony is against him ; Druidism,
in short, represents, not the high-water mark of early British
civilisation, but a survival from the less civilised past.
57 Myv. Arch. I. 212 (155). The modern form " Rhiwarth " obscures the
derivation of the name from that of the Eirth, which here falls into the Tanat.
68 These documents have been thoroughly examined and their true history
elucidated by Prof. J. Morris Jones in Cymru, vol. x. (1896).
ssHeroic Elegies of Llywarch Hen (London, 1792), xxv.
60 Civil Government, bk. i. chap. vi.

CHAPTER III.
WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE.
I. The Roman Conquest.
(The chief authority for the events narrated in section i. of this chapter is
Tacitus ; to the editions of the Annals and the Agricola by Mr. Furneaux I am
accordingly much indebted. Among other works used mention may be made of
Mommsen's Provinces, Rhys's Celtic Britain, Evans's Coins of the Ancient
Britons, Henderson's Life and Principate of Nero (1903).)
CESAR attacked Britain, he tells us, because he wished to cut CHAP.
off from the tribes of Northern Gaul the assistance which in m'
their struggles against the power of Rome they constantly
received from this island.1 This reason may well have been the
real one, for though he does not record many instances of
British support afforded to the Gauls,2 there was between the
Brythonic settlers and the Belgae of the Continent so close a
connection in point of race and civilisation as to make joint
action in war and politics easy and, in fact, inevitable. The
Straits of Dover formed at this time no race frontier, but
flowed between two sections of the Belgic or Galatic world.
No doubt, in the course of the preparations for this somewhat
hazardous enterprise, other considerations were put forward,
fitted to recommend it to the rank and file of the army ; the
wealth of Britain, its mines of silver, the pearls of its coasts,
were not allowed to be forgotten ; 3 but, so far as the general
1"Quod omnibus fere Gallicis bellis hostibus nostris inde subministrata
auxilia intellegebat " (Bell. Gall. iv. 20).
2 Certain chiefs of the Bellovaci, having failed in a movement against Rome,
fled to Britain (ibid. ii. 14). The Veneti sought aid from Britain in 56 B.C. (ibid.
iii. 9). 3 Evidence of the disappointment which naturally followed is furnished by
the letters of Cicero, whose brother Quintus served in the second expedition.
Writing to Atticus, he says (Ad. Att. iv. 16) : " etiam illud iam cognitum est,
neque argenti scripulum esse ullum in ilia insula neque ullam spem praedae nisi
ex mancipiis " ; cf. " nulla praeda " in iv. 17. In a letter written to Quintus
47

48 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, was concerned, the main object of the two expeditions was
m' probably that which he achieved, namely, to convince the
British tribes that Rome was a dangerous power with which to
meddle, and that their safety lay in abstention from interference
with the affairs of Gaul.
It is, of course, not unlikely that, if Caesar had found the
British resistance less formidable than it proved to be, he might
have brought at least a portion of the island under the sway of
Rome, but there is nothing to show that the idea of a perma
nent conquest had in any way taken possession of him. When
he withdrew from Britain in 54 B.C., he did indeed stipulate
for the payment of a fixed annual tribute to the Roman people,
but the unreality of this arrangement must have been patent to
him, and it was made, not in order that a new province might
be added to the Roman Empire, but with the view of furnishing
an excuse, should necessity arise, for a fresh attack upon the
island. Whatever schemes may have floated in the minds of Caesar
and those who followed him as heads of the Roman state, it is
certain that after 54 B.C. no serious attempt was made to
conquer Britain for almost a hundred years. On two occasions
Augustus planned an invasion of the island,4 raising high
the hopes of his admirers; Virgil saw distant Thule enter
his service 5 and Horace exclaimed that this new triumph
would raise him forthwith to the rank of a god.6 But more
urgent business drew him aside from his purpose and he was
content, when his power became firmly established, to extend
a benevolent patronage to fugitive British princes, grounding
his inaction on the plea that the Empire was growing too big
to be manageable.7 Tiberius very readily fell in with this idea
(ii. 16) when news had just arrived of the landing, he says that the enterprise
"plus habet tamen spei quam timoris, magisque sum sollicitus exspectatione
quam metu," but after the receipt of another letter from Britain " de Britannicis
rebus cognovi," he writes (iii. 1), " ex tuis litteris nihil esse nee quod metuamus
nee quod gaudeamus ".
4 Dio Cassius, xlix. 38 ; liii. 22, 25.
8 " Tibi serviat ultima Thule " (Georgics, i. 30). Cf. Horace, Epodes, vii. 7,
and Georgics, iii. 25. All three references belong to the period 35-30 B.C.
6 " Prassens divus habebitur
Augustus adiectis Britannis
Imperio."
(Horace, Odes, III. v. 3. Cf. I. xxxv. 29. The year is 27 B.C.)
7 Agricola, 13.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 49
and left Britain alone; Gaius, familiarly known as Caligula, CHAP.
revived the notion of a conquest of the island, only to make it m"
ridiculous by his madcap tricks ; hence it was not until 43 A.D.,
in the early years of Claudius, that the Britons found arrayed
against them, with formidable intent and real purpose, those
legions which had tamed the rest of the Western world.
The opportunity for the expedition was probably afforded
by the death of Cunobelinus. This prince is shown by the
evidence of his coinage to have borne sway in the South-east of
Britain for a long period at the beginning of the first century
of our era. His capital was at Camulodunum, the modern
Colchester, as appears not only from the story of the Roman
conquest, but also from the inscriptions upon his coins.8 That
he belonged, however, to the Catuvellauni of mid-England and
not to the Trinovantes of Essex, is clear from the fact that his
father Tasciovanus coined at Verlamium (St. Albans)9 and
;that his sons are said by Dio Cassius to be Catuvellauni.10 It
is not too much to suppose, therefore, that he was of the family
of Cassivellaunus, the doughty antagonist of Caesar, and that
he carried on his dynastic traditions, having perhaps shifted
the seat of government for convenience of access to the sea.
Everything goes to show that he was a powerful, wealthy
ruler, with abundant resources and means to enforce his will.
He is last mentioned in A.D. 40, as having expelled from
Britain his son Amminius, whom Gaius ostentatiously received
but in no way helped to recover his own ; u when the Roman
army in another three years attacks the island, it is confronted,
not by the old king, but by two of his sons. It is obvious
that the removal of so conspicuous a figure in the political life
of Britain must have led to great confusion and change ; de
pressed parties would regain their courage, dynastic and tribal
'Evans, Coins of the Ancient Britons, pp. 284-348, 555-73.
9 Ibid., p. 225.
10 This point was overlooked by Mommsen (Provinces, i. 171). The view
taken in the text is that of Rhys (Celt. Br. (2), pp. 26-8).
11 Suetonius, Gaius, 44. The " Adminio Cynobellini Britannorum regis filio "
of this author was copied by Paulus Orosius (about 416) in the form " Minocy-
nobelinum Britannorum regis filium " (Hist. vii. 5, ed. Zangemeister). This pro
duced, in the pages of Nennius, a " Bellinus " son of " Minocanni " (cap. ig), who
figures conspicuously in later Welsh legend as Beli Fawr ap Manogan (Mab.
26, 88, 93). To Prof. Zimmer is due the credit of having worked out the true
pedigree of this mythological impostor (Nennius Vindicatus, 271-3).
VOL. I. 4

So HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, ambitions would revive; this was, it can hardly be doubted,
II1- the moment chosen by the Romans as the most suitable for
their enterprise.
The expedition was planned on a large scale. Four
legions, the Second (Augusta), the Ninth, the Fourteenth and
the Twentieth,12 were detached from the Rhine and the Danube
frontiers (where two new legions took their place), and formed,
with a very large body of auxiliary troops, an army of invasion
of not less than 50,000 men. At its head was set a capable
general, Aulus Plautius Silvanus, who had been for many years
in the service of the state and who proved himself on this
occasion fully worthy of the charge laid upon his shoulders.
He had under him able lieutenants, notably Flavius Vespas-
ianus, commander of the Second Legion, who was in later life
to wear the imperial purple. Claudius himself crossed the
Channel when the campaign was well advanced and took part
in the storming of Camulodunum, but, though he thus earned
the title of Britannicus and had other distinctions bestowed
upon him by the senate, the sixteen days he spent in the
island 13 can have had little effect upon the course of the cam
paign, and too much honour is done him when reference is
made to the " Claudian " conquest. Important as the enter
prise was, there is but one extant account of it, that of Dio
Cassius, the no doubt full narrative of Tacitus being in one of
the lost books of the Annals, and from Dio's pages it is difficult
to construct a story of the struggle which will suit the geography
of South-eastern Britain. It remains beyond doubt, however,
that the invaders were opposed by two of the sons of Cunobe-
linus, Caratacus and Togodumnus, the latter of whom died in
the course of the war, and the inference is a safe one, that the
tribe specially singled out for attack was the Catuvellauni,
whose power was shattered and whose rule over other tribes
came to an end. The seat of their authority, Camulodunum,
became the centre of the Roman province, where in a few
years a temple was set up in honour of the deified Claudius
and a colony of veterans was established. Among the tribes
12 A full discussion of the difficult problems connected with the movements
of these four legions during the era of conquest will be found in Engl. Hist. Rev.
xviii. (1903), pp. 1-23.
13 Dio Cassius, lx. 23.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 51
who were led by jealousy of the Catuvellauni to espouse the chap.
Roman cause and who were thus included in the new province m-
without having been first humbled by defeat were the Eceni
of our Norfolk and Suffolk,14 the " Boduni " of uncertain
situation,15 and the subjects of a certain Cogidumnus,16 prob
ably the Regni of Sussex. The subjugation of the south
west of the island appears to have been the work of Vespasian,
who is expressly said to have conquered the Isle of Wight n
and whose legion (the Second) is ultimately found at Isca in
the country of the Silures.
Plautius returned to Rome in A.D. 47 and was voted the
exceptional honour of an ovation, being the last private
citizen who received it under the Empire. With the accession
to office of the new legate of the province, Publius Ostorius
Scapula, the war enters upon a new phase and the Roman
forces are marshalled against the less civilised inhabitants of
Britain, the tribes of the North and the West. They had so
far had to deal only with the Brythonic or Galatic settlers of
the South-east, who had offered a stout resistance, but, when
once thoroughly defeated, were not unwilling to become sub
jects of the great Roman Empire. An agricultural people,
they could not carry on the struggle indefinitely without risk
of starvation ; a partly civilised people, they were not insen
sible to the attractions of Roman culture. With the wild
pastoral tribes of the hills, half Goidelic and half Iberian, it
was otherwise. As in later ages, the fact that they had no
stake in the soil, no rich crops to rot in the ground, no well-
built houses and barns which an enemy might burn, gave them
infinite mobility ; nothing was gained by an inroad on their
homes ; they must themselves be hunted out and brought to
bay. Moreover, Rome could not tempt them ; in the barbaric
simplicity of their life their one fierce desire was for indepen
dence. Hence, it is not at all surprising that this second stage
of conquest proved much more tedious and harassing than the
first, and that the slow progress made by the Romans in the
14 " Valida gens nee proeliis contusi, quia societatem nostram volentes acces-
serant " (Annals, xii. 31).
18 Dio, lx. 20.
18 " Quaedam civitates Cogidumno regi donatae : is ad nostram usque
memoriam fidissimus mansit " (Agricola, 14).
17 Suetonius, Vespasianus, 4. 4*

52 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, subjugation of the more backward tribes even encouraged the
IIL dwellers in the settled South-east to rise in revolt against
their new rulers.
When Ostorius assumed command, he found Britain south
of the Humber and east of the Severn nominally subject to
Roman rule, the Brigantes who dwelt north of the former
river in alliance with Rome, but the tribes of what is now Wales,
from the mouth of the Dee to that of the Wye, in a state of
active hostility, which showed itself in raids upon the recently
conquered districts. His first step was to make sure of the un
easy allegiance of the province itself, the lands bounded by the
Severn and the Trent,18 and this he did not accomplish with
out ruffling the susceptibilities of the friendly Eceni, who then
first learnt that, though never subjugated, they were a subject
people. Next, he attacked the Decangi, who had probably
been among the principal raiders of the border, and penetrated
so far into their country as almost to reach the shores of the
Irish Sea ; he repaid with interest their ravages, but they, true to
their highland methods, would not be enticed into the open
field, so that their strength was not really laid low. At this
stage, troubles among the Brigantes showed Ostorius the in
security of his position in this part of Britain ; having composed
them, he retired southward, and, if the narrative of Tacitus
gives a correct impression, henceforth devoted his energies to
the conquest of the Silures.
The strength of this tribe lay in their untamable, resolute
spirit and the rugged character of the country they occupied.
But they had at this moment the additional advantage of the
leadership of Caratacus, who, when all had been lost in the
East, had thrown in his lot with the rough hill-folk of the West,
strangers to him in speech and in manners, but his comrades
in love of liberty. He seems to have spent some three years
among the Silures and their neighbours, the Ordovices, organ
ising the resistance to the Romans and rendering infinitely
difficult the task which Ostorius had set himself. Of the details
of the struggle nothing is known, though it may be that some
faint tradition of it is preserved in the name " Caer Caradog"
18 I follow the suggestion of Bradley : " cunctaque cis Trisantonam et Sab-
rinam fluvios cohibere parat ". See Furneaux, Annals of Tacitus, vol. ii. p. 252,
and Celt. Br. (2), p. 80.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 53
borne by more than one hill-fortress in Southern Shropshire.19 CHAP.
It ended in A.D. 5 1 in the signal defeat of Caratacus, at a spot IH'
which it is now impossible to identify, since the description of
Tacitus carries the reader no further than this, that it was a
hill-fortress in the country of the Ordovices, protected on one
side by a river not easy to ford.20 Though the capacity of the
Silures for resistance was not seriously diminished, they now
lost their leader, who fled for safety to the Brigantes and by
them was handed over to his foes.
In the opinion of the authorities, the capture of this famous
chieftain, who had for so many years bidden defiance to the
Roman arms, afforded the proper opportunity for celebrating
in the capital with due ceremony the victories won in Britain.
Caratacus was led in triumph, with his kinsmen and dependants,
through the streets of Rome ; Claudius set up a triumphal
arch to commemorate the submission of eleven kings and the
first extension of Roman rule beyond the Ocean. But the
course of events soon showed that, so far as the tribes of the
West were concerned, the struggle was but just begun. Ostorius
thought it requisite to establish in the Silurian country a per
manent camp, which was no doubt fixed at Isca, the home in
later times of the Second Legion, but he found the utmost
difficulty in carrying out his design. The enemy set upon the
soldiers to whom the work had been entrusted, cut off foraging
parties, put the auxiliary forces to flight, and, by the system
of guerilla warfare afterwards so well known in Wales, even
shook the stability of the legions. In the midst of this ob
stinate warfare Ostorius died, overpowered, as was generally
supposed, by the weight of the difficulties with which he had to
contend. Immediate advantage was taken by the Silures of
19 There is a Caer Caradoc near Church Stretton (Penn. iii. 271-3), as well
as one near Clun (Gibson, 541, 551), which is also known as Gaer Ditches. The
" cair caratauc " of the Civitates of Nennius (p. 211 of Mommsen's edition) must,
on the other hand, have been, like other " caerau " in the list, a Roman city or
station : it is mentioned in the Book of Taliesin (" O gaer glut hyt gaer garadawc,"
IV. Anc. Bks. ii. p. 194), and by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Hist. Reg. vi. 15 ; viii. g)
and " Brut y Brenhinoedd " (Bruts, 140, 165) is arbitrarily fixed at Salisbury.
20 Notwithstanding the paucity of data, the question of the site of this battle
has been hotly debated among antiquaries. The favourite suggestions have been
the Gaer Ditches (Humphrey Llwyd, Camden), Coxwall Knoll in the same dis
trict (Hoare, Roy), Cefn Carnedd, near Llanidloes (Hartshome), and the Breiddin
near Welshpool (Arch. C. II. ii. (1851), 122-43 ; IV. x. (i87g), 272-83).

54 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the withdrawal of the strong hand of the governor ; before his
successor could arrive, the Second Legion had suffered a grave
reverse, and the first business of Aulus Didius Gallus was to
determine the lines of his frontier policy. He resolved to
abandon the attempt to subjugate the Silures ; during the five
years of his governorship (A.D. 52-57) the limits of the province
remained practically unaltered.21 Old age and satisfied am
bition are said to have had not a little to do with the adop
tion of this conservative attitude, but the total failure of the
persistent activity of Ostorius shows that it was not an un
reasonable one.
With the arrival of Quintus Veranius, the fourth of the
governors of Britain (A.D. 58), the policy of extension is re
sumed and the Silures are again attacked. But death cut short
the schemes of this governor before the end of his first year of
office, and the idle boast of his will, that in two years more he
would have reduced the whole country to subjection, suggests
that he had taken no true measure of the task before him.
He was followed by a soldier of the first rank, Caius Suetonius
Paulinus, who had won a great reputation by his achievements
in Mauretania and whose appointment to Britain signified that
the war was to be vigorously carried on. For a while he was
remarkably successful ; leaving the Silures, it would appear, to
themselves for the time being, he directed his attention specially
to the north-western side of the province, which was exposed
to the attacks of the Ordovices, of the Decangi and, as the
result of a change in tribal policy, of the Brigantes. It was
during this period, if not earlier, that strong camps were estab
lished at Lindum (Lincoln), Deva (Chester) and Viroconium
(Wroxeter), which became the head-quarters of the Ninth, the
Twentieth and the Fourteenth Legions respectively ; the second
and the third of these stations were connected with each other
and with the Kentish coast by the great military road known
to later ages as Watling Street. Having thus firmly established
his position at the mouth of the Dee, Suetonius resolved to
21 " Didius Gallus parta a prioribus continuit, paucis admodum castellis (i.e.,
forts, not legionary camps) in ulteriora promotis" (Agr. c. 14). Cf. Ann. xii.
40 : " arcere hostem satis habebat". With this testimony before one, it is diffi
cult to believe that " Didius seized the occasion to advance the head-quarters of
the Fourteenth and Twentieth Legions from Viroconium to Deva " (Henderson's
Nero, p. 205).

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 55
undertake the conquest of Mona, where the fertility of the soil CHAP.
and the protection given by the great mountain barrier of m"
Snowdonia enabled a large population to defy the arms of the
invader and where the rites of Druidism were still practised
undisturbed. He rightly judged that a blow struck here would
have a moral effect quite out of proportion to the actual injury
inflicted on the foe. In A.D. 60 or 6 1 22 the island was accord
ingly attacked ; flat-bottomed ships were specially constructed
in order to carry the legionaries across the shallows of the
Menai Straits, while the auxiliary cavalry, accustomed probably
to crossing tidal waters in their own homes, contrived to make
the passage on the backs of their horses. Tacitus, as his
manner is, gives hardly any clue as to the spot at which the
crossing took place ; the sands between Aber and Beaumaris,
where a good deal of the traffic for Ireland formerly entered
Anglesey, may be as confidently suggested as the narrower
reaches near Port Dinorwic favoured by many antiquaries.23
For the moment, the expedition was entirely successful ;
startled and awe-struck as the Roman soldiers were for a few
brief moments at the grim and forbidding spectacle which
awaited them on their landing, their practised valour soon
won the day ; the Druids and their attendant host were over
whelmed, the sacred groves were cut down, and measures were
at once taken for holding the island by means of a permanent
camp and garrison.
But once again the forward policy received a severe check.
At the moment of his triumph Suetonius received the news of
the great rebellion of the south-eastern tribes, led by the Eceni
and their heroic mistress, Boudica.24 The struggle which
22 a.d. 61 is the date implied in the narrative of Tacitus, but good grounds
have been advanced for believing that the rebellion really belongs to the previous
year. (See Henderson's Nero, pp. 477-8.)
23 The Rev. John Davies, rector of Newborough (d. i6gs), first suggested
the neighbourhood of Llanidan (Gibson, 675) and was followed by Rowlands in
Mona Antiqua, g8 (gg), who cites " Pant yr Yscraphie " as a place name in
point. 24 " Boadicea " is not found in any MS. and must, therefore, in any case be
rejected. Of the various forms actually recorded, Boudica is most favoured by
Celtic scholars, as a likely derivative of the root " boudi," victory, seen in Welsh
" budd " and " buddugol " (Urk. Spr. 176 ; Celt. Br. (2), p. 282). Thus it was a
fortunate hit of Theophilus Evans when in his " Drych y Prif Oesoedd " (1716)
he styled the queen " Buddug ". His other renderings of the old names, e.g.,
" Ploccyn " for Plautius, are less felicitous.

56 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, followed was a decisive one in the history of these islands ,
had the insurgents defeated Suetonius, Roman rule must have
come to an end in Britain. But even the signal victory which
the general won, over a force vastly outnumbering his own
and flushed by its early successes, left the situation greatly
modified. He fought with the Fourteenth Legion, together
with a detachment of the Twentieth and some auxiliaries ;
hence, the main body of the Twentieth was no doubt left to
hold Deva, while the Second (from which Suetonius, through
the inaction of the prefect of the camp, then in temporary
command, derived no assistance) remained stationed at Isca.
But, though the borders of the Western tribes were thus firmly
held, there could be now no question of any aggressive move
ment against them, when the whole province required from
the government the most anxious supervision and the most
skilful treatment, lest the wounds left by the great encounter
should become open sores. Suetonius, fit instrument as he
was of the policy of aggression and conquest, was now out of
place in a post which called for the exercise of powers of
diplomacy and pacification. He was recalled, and Publius
Petronius Turpilianus was sent in his stead to govern Britain,
with instructions to show clemency to the subject peoples and
to embark on no new enterprise against the still unconquered
tribes. When after a year or two he returned to Rome, his
place was filled by the appointment of another man of peace,
Lucius Trebellius Maximus, who was so little of a soldier as
not to be able even to earn the respect of his troops ; they
scorned the miser whose chief purpose seemed to be to amass
wealth at the expense of the province, and under him and his
no less weak, though more amiable, successor, Marcus Vettius
Bolanus, the legions of Britain were idle and disorderly ; the
purpose of completing the conquest of the island might seem
to have been finally abandoned.
It was reserved for a new imperial dynasty, the Flavian, to
extend the province to its natural limits by the subjugation of
all the tribes of the island save those of the extreme North.
Vespasian was first and foremost a soldier ; though his latest
honours had been won in the East, he had fought with dis
tinction in Britain under Aulus Plautius, and thus it was natural
that his accession to the supreme power should mark a new

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 57
epoch in the attitude of the government towards the British CHAP.
question. Energetic measures are once more in favour, as is II1-
seen in the appointment as governor in A.D. 7 1 of the emperor's
friend, Quintus Petilius Cerialis, who had crushed a formidable
rebellion in Gaul and held a high position as a soldier. Petilius
justified his appointment by breaking the power of the Brigantes,
the leading tribe of the island, whose independence had been
a menace to the peace of the province for twenty years. On
his return (A.D. 74), another man of mark was sent here by
Vespasian, namely, Sextus Julius Frontinus, the author of
extant works on the art of war and the construction of aque
ducts, a man who happily combined literary with practical
ability. He was, too, of a noble simplicity of character ; while
careful in the evil days of the tyrant Domitian to give no
reasonable ground of offence, he refrained from flattery, and
the words deserve to be recorded in which he declined the
honour of a monument to his memory : " The expense is un
necessary ; our memory will endure if we have deserved it by
our life ",25 Such was the general who now grappled success
fully with the task which had proved too thorny for his pre
decessors, the conquest of the Silures ; two or three lines in
the Agricola, as ill luck will have it, are the sole record handed
down of what must have been a very important series of cam
paigns, ending about A.D. 78 in the complete occupation of
our South Wales. Of the work of Frontinus all that can be
said is that it was never necessary to repeat it.
The third of the distinguished soldiers appointed by Ves
pasian to the governorship of Britain was the most famous of
all. Julius Agricola had already seen a good deal of service
in the island. At the beginning of his official career he had
been here as a military tribune, when he enjoyed the special
confidence of the governor, Suetonius Paulinus ; he had gone
through the great rebellion, and it may be surmised that the
moderation and justice of his rule as a governor were due in no
small degree to his experience in that year of the fatal effects
of rapine and oppression. After filling the usual public offices
in Rome, he had returned to take the command of the
Twentieth Legion, stationed at D£va, and had proved a loyal
subordinate to two commanders of such diverse types as Bolanus
26 Pliny, Letters, ix. ig.

58 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, and Cerialis. In A.D. 78, after some experience as governor
of Aquitaine and a subsequent nomination to the consulship,
he was chosen to complete the conquest of Southern Britain.
His admiring son-in-law dwells with filial pride upon the vigour
with which he entered upon the duties of his office. The
Ordovices were on the warpath and had just annihilated almost
the whole of a detachment of auxiliary cavalry which had been
stationed within their limits ; the summer was drawing to its
close, and it was, in the opinion of all, too late for measures of
reprisal. Nevertheless, Agricola resolved, immediately upon
his arrival, to attack the offending tribe and moreover to inflict
upon them so severe a chastisement as finally to deprive them
of their power to injure the province. With a force composed
of picked men from the legions under his charge, he breasted
the hills which cluster round the Upper Severn and the Dee
and utterly defeated in their mountain fastnesses this race who
were not to be tempted into the open country. Determined
to press to the uttermost the advantage he had won, he pushed
on for Mona,26 which he had seen slip from the hands of
Suetonius in the moment of victory. This time there were no
boats in readiness for such an enterprise, undreamed of alike
by friend and foe, but the auxiliary cavalry made short work
of the passage, and the suddenness of the attack placed
the island at Agricola's mercy. Thus at the beginning of
the year 79 the whole of our Wales had been reduced and the
general was free to devote himself to those more ambitious
schemes of conquest in the North which engrossed the remain
ing six years of his governorship. He probably spent the
winter of 78-79 at Deva, and it may be that we have a concrete
memorial of his activity there in the lead piping now in the
Grosvenor Museum at Chester which bears his name as " Legatus
Augusti pro praetore," i.e., governor of the province, and a
date equivalent to A.D. 79.27
28 Pennant is responsible (ii. 27) for the view that the general passed on his
westward march through a gap in the Clwydian range which he calls " Bwlch
Agricla," but which locally seems to be known as " Bwlch criglas " and " Bwlch
saeth cricaeth " (Arch. Camb. II. i. 8g). The name Agricola could not have
come down unaltered in such a connection ; it yields Aircol in old Welsh (Celt.
Br. (2), p. 256) and in modern Welsh would have been still further modified.
27 The piping was found in 1899 on the north side of Eastgate Street,
Chester. The inscription, in its perfect form, runs " imp vesp viiii t imp vii cos

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 59
After an obstinate struggle of rather more than thirty CHAP.
years, the Western tribes thus came under the direct rule of II1-
Rome. No more is to be learnt from written records as to
their fortunes until they emerge to view once again at the be
ginning of the fifth century. But, if their history is in this
sense a blank during the three centuries of Roman occupation,
much light has nevertheless been thrown upon this period by
the labours of archaeologists who have studied its remains, and
with the aid of their researches it is possible to form some idea
of the leading features of the Roman occupation of Wales.
II. The Roman Occupation.
(In all matters relating to the Roman occupation of Britain, Prof. Haver-
field's authority is paramount, and I have accordingly based much of what I have
to say upon his writings, only regretting for my own sake and that of other
students that he has never been prevailed upon to embody his unrivalled know
ledge of the subject in the form of a textbook. The sections contributed by him
to the illustrated edition of Social England (vol. i. 1901) have been of great
service, as also the chapter on Roman Britain in Authority and Archaeology (ed.
Hogarth, i8gg). I have, of course, made use of the seventh volume of the
Berlin Corpus Inscriptionum (ed. Hiibner, 1873), of Westwood's Lapidarium
Wallice (Oxford, 1876-g), and of the papers in Archaologia Cambrensis and the
Antiquary dealing with Roman sites in Wales and Monmouthshire.)
While the Roman Empire may be regarded from some
points of view as a military despotism, its headship the prize
of the successful soldier, its basis military force, it was by no
means the case that throughout its whole extent it presented a
military aspect. Broad regions lying at its heart — Gaul, Italy,
Greece, Asia — were without any garrison, the loyalty of the
inhabitants being sufficiently assured, and it was only in the
frontier provinces, such as Syria, Pannonia and the two
Germanies, which were newly conquered and exposed to bar
barian attack, that Rome showed herself as the true mother of
armies. The legions which maintained her power were dis
posed in a circle around the peaceful, well-governed provinces
of the centre; they were the watch-dogs which kept the
portals. Of the provinces in which, as the result of their position
on the border, the military element predominated, Britain was
cn ivlio agricola leo avg pr pr ". See Haverfield's Catalogue of Roman
Stones in the Grosvenor Museum (igoo), pp. 86, 87, 127.

60 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, one of the most important. Not only the fierce and stubborn
valour of the conquered peoples, but also the presence in
Caledonia and Hibernia of barbarians yet unconquered, made
it necessary to maintain a large force in the island ; during the
period of conquest, four legions, after the governorship of
Agricola, three, were stationed here, together with a large
number of auxiliary troops, so that the army of occupation
rarely fell below a tenth of the whole Roman force. But
the distinction between garrisoned and ungarrisoned districts
which is so marked in the Empire as a whole reappears within
the bounds of Britain itself. The troops were concentrated in
those parts of the province which lay open to barbarian in
vasion ; one legion at York, with a great force of auxiliaries
on or about the Wall, opposed a firm front to the Caledonians,
one at Deva and one at Isca, with other auxiliary troops,
guarded the Western coast against Irish irruptions. Meanwhile,
to quote Mr. Haverfield, the highest authority on the subject,
" the Midlands and the South-east of Britain were almost as
empty of soldiery as Italy itself. They contained a peaceful
population which was not unacquainted with Roman speech
and culture." 28 Though Britain was a poor province, which
could show nothing to compare with the rich and busy life of
Antioch, Lyons or Alexandria, it was not. in the settled South
east, without civil life of a kind, and it is only of the North
and West that one can say without reserve that the occupation
was that of a garrison in an unfriendly country, holding itself
in constant readiness for defence.
One region in the West had, indeed, an exceptional history.
So far as the available evidence goes, it would appear that the
Romans, during the second and third centuries, left the
peninsula of Devon and Cornwall to itself. There is no trace
of any military occupation of the district, no proof, on the
other hand, that its dwellers quietly accepted Roman civilisa
tion. While it is probable enough that Vespasian fought in
this region, his successors apparently left the Dumnonii to their
own devices, finding, it may be supposed, that they were not
likely to disturb the peace of the province. The tin mines
had for some reason ceased to yield their ancient tribute of
28 Social England, illustrated ed., i. p. 83.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 61
ore, and thus what might otherwise have been a strong motive CHAP.
for conquest was taken away.29 m-
North of the Severn Sea it was very different. With the
exception of the neighbourhood of the Wall of Hadrian, there
is no part of Britain which affords such ample evidence of the
presence of the Romans as an army in possession as Wales and
the Welsh border. The spade brings constantly to light traces
of the activity of the conquerors in this district, and they are
almost invariably traces of military occupation. A survey of
the country, dealing with the remains of the Roman period,
will make it clear how thorough that occupation was, and will
suggest the inquiry what the special dangers were against
which the province needed to be in this quarter so carefully
protected. At the point where the river Dee, emerging from the sand
stone bluffs through which it has urged its rapid course, swings
round into what is now the great Roodee meadow, but was
once a broad stretch of sand and the head of the river's ex
tensive estuary, the lines were early laid down of the military
station of Deva.30 Paulinus, it has already been suggested,31
had fortified the spot before he advanced on Mona, and one of
the tombstones preserved in the Grosvenor Museum, that of a
centurion who ended a long military career in the Twentieth
Legion, is believed to belong to this period.32 It is not likely
that the Cornavii, in whose territory the new station stood, had
previously any important settlement on the spot, for it seems
to have had no British name, and the Roman name, as in so
many other cases, was adopted from that of the river on which
the camp stood, the D£va or the " divinity," if we may accept
the explanation of Sir John Rhys.33 From the first it was the
permanent seat of the Twentieth Legion, Victorious, Valerian,
of which the name appears on countless titles which have been
29 For the history of Devon and Cornwall during the Roman occupation see
the Archaeological Journal, xlix. (i8g2), pp. 176-81, and the Edinburgh Re
view, April, i8gg, p. 389.
30 The best handbook to Roman Chester is Haverfield's Catalogue of the
Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum (Chester,
igoo). 31 See p. 54. 32 Catalogue, No. 54.
33 Celt. Br. (2), pp. 291-2. Whitley Stokes appears to question this etymo
logy (Urk. Spr. 145).

62 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, discovered on the spot. Another legion, the second " Adiutrix,"
n" has indeed left many signs of its presence in Deva, but its stay
in the island is known to have been short, hardly more than
fifteen years, and during this period the camp may have had a
double garrison.34 It was the Twentieth which, remaining in
occupation until the end of the Roman period, gave the place
its British name of " Caer Lleon," the " fort of the legion " : 36
twenty-five tombstones of its officers and men have at various
times come to light, and fragments of roof ornament show that
many a building in the settlement displayed the boar which was
the badge of this celebrated corps.36 Its members were drawn,
citizens of the Roman state though they all were, from the
most diverse parts of the Empire ; Syria, Spain, Gaul, Germany,
and Noricum were represented in its ranks, though the Western
element, as was but natural, largely predominated. Twenty
years' service on the banks of the Dee would tend to make
them all men of Deva, the place where their life-work was
done and their comrades and kinsfolk were buried.
It is not possible to say with precision what part of the
modern city of Chester was occupied by the original fortress.
Its centre probably lay not far from St. Peter's Church, where
the four ancient streets of the city met at right angles, for it is
in this neighbourhood that the foundations have been dis
covered of the more important buildings of the settlement.
The four streets may themselves be the direct successors of the
principal ways of the camp, as originally laid down in con
formity with Roman practice. What is now, however, certain,
as the result of discoveries made in 1887 and subsequent years,
is that the existing walls, from Morgan's Mount on the north
side to Newgate on the east, represent the defences of Deva in
that direction, as erected (either by way of extension or on old
foundations) about the end of the second century of our era, the
lower courses being in point of fact the original Roman work.
The special value of these discoveries was that they brought to
34 Catalogue, Introd. pp. g-10.
36 The earliest occurrence is in Bede (H.E. ii. 2 : " Carlegion "), who, how
ever, wrongly explains it as " ciuitatem legionwm ". See also the list of cities
in Hist. Britt. 211 (c. 66a " Cair Legion "). Leon in Spain was similarly so
styled as the head-quarters of the legion VII. Gemina (Eng. Hist. Rev. ii. (1887),
p. 645). 36 Catalogue, No. 200.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 63
light a great number of Roman tombstones which, on the chap.
occasion of this rebuilding of the wall, had been taken from m'
an adjacent cemetery and used as rough material to form a
backing for the well-worked masonry of the surface. Much
new material thus became available for the study of Roman
Chester, while at the same time, as the work of excavation
proceeded, no room was left for doubt as to the genuinely
Roman character of the walling. The northern and eastern
limits of Deva during the third and the fourth century are
therefore well ascertained ; it is still a matter of conjecture how
its western and southern walls ran, though most antiquaries
agree that the Castle heights were not included.
As a military station of the first class, Deva had an im
portant position in the system of roads which, in this country
as elsewhere in the Empire, was a conspicuous feature of
Roman civilisation.37 The earliest road laid down was no
doubt that by which the fortress was approached from the
south, known in later times as Watling Street and connecting
the station with Viroconium, Londinium, and the ports of
embarkation for Gaul. This road crossed the Dee, probably
by a ford, not far from the old bridge, which is mediaeval,
and thence ran southward to Aldford, where there was another
ford, across which the traveller made his way to the unidentified
station of Bovium and on to Wroxeter. The course of the
road from Chester to Aldford is well ascertained, and portions
of the original paving have been discovered, made of the red
sandstone of the district. Another road, leaving the fort by
the East Gate, ran by way of Condate, which is perhaps
Kinderton, near Middlewich, to Manchester, and thus supplied
the means of communicating with another great military centre,
Eboracum, the seat of the Sixth Legion. The North Gate
was the starting-point of a road which led to the fort at
Wilderspool on the Mersey, and thence to the stations which
guarded the western shores of the country of the Brigantes.
From the road-book known as the Itinerary of Antonine it
appears that a western road also left Deva, passing through
the station of Varae, not yet identified, to Caerhun and
Carnarvon. This in all probability branched off from the
37 For an account of the Roman roads running out of Chester see Watkin,
Roman Cheshire (1886), chap. iii.

64 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Wroxeter road some little distance to the south of the fortress,
HI' for direct access to the west was blocked by the wide spreading
sands and marshes of the estuary of the Dee.
Strongly posted, with a great river defending its southern
and western sides, protected by massive stone walls, garrisoned
by a strictly Roman force of over 5,000 heavy armed infantry,
Deva was above all else a place of arms, where everything
was subordinated to military considerations. It was a standing
camp, within the walls of which none but soldiers might dwell,
and though it had, no doubt, like other fortresses of the kind,
its outlying civilian settlements in the suburbs, there is nothing
to show that these were of special importance. Such trade as
was carried on was probably conducted in the interests of the
garrison ; the place was not, so far as we know, a colony, with
citizen rights, like the legionary fortress at Eboracum — it was
a great stronghold and nothing more.
On the western side of the Dee estuary lay the country of
the Decangi. Little has been found in this district in the way
of direct testimony to the Roman military occupation, and
even the course of the road to Caerhun has not yet been made
out, for the identification of Varae with Botffaru, the " bod "
or dwelling of Tyfarru, has no philological and scarcely any
other basis.38 But evidence is not wanting to show that, as
might be expected in a region so close to D£va, the Romans
were in full possession of the country and that their enterprise
turned its natural resources to practical use. Great quantities
of slag, of half-melted lead and of lead ore have been found
along the coast in the neighbourhood of Flint, and with them
Roman coins and trinkets, showing that the smelting of lead
drawn from the neighbouring hills was in Roman times a
regular industry in this district.39 It was here that the pigs of
lead bearing the legend " Deceangi " (often in a curtailed form)
38 Camden (Britannia, 602) was the first to argue that " Bod Vari " must
be the " Var(ae) " of the Itinerary (p. 231), which is said to be 32 miles from
Deva and 18 from Conovium. The old forms are, however, "Boteuuarul"
in Domesday (Cheshire, i. 26gai), " (B)ottyfarru " (Myv. Arch. II. 25 (416)),
"Buttanari" (Monasticon, ii. 387), "Bottewarm" (Mont. Coll. xxi. 332), and
" Bottervarm" (Tax. Nich. 287), all implying some such form as Bod Tyfarru.
Traces of Roman occupation are said to have been found at Pont Ruffydd, some
what to the west of the church (Arch. Camb. III. v. (1859), 128).
39 Perm. i. 71-2, 93-g.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 65
which have been found in various parts of Britain were made CHAP.
up and stamped so as to show the date and place of origin. In"
None have so far come to light in Flintshire itself, but two,
now preserved in the Grosvenor Museum, have been found in
the vicinity of Chester.40 All the known specimens are of
early date and show that lead mining was being briskly carried
on in the country of the Decangi within a few years after the
supposed date of the foundation of Deva.41
The wild North-west of Wales, known to later ages as
Gwynedd and inhabited in the Roman period by a mixed
Iberian and Goidelic population of primitive habits, was held
for the Empire by a group of forts, similar in plan and purpose
to those which clustered round the great Wall in the North of
Britain. Forts of this type reproduced, on a much smaller
scale, the features of the legionary fortresses ; like them they
were of rectangular form, with rounded corners, and were en
closed by a substantial stone wall. They were permanently
garrisoned, either by a detachment of the nearest legion, or,
more often, by a body of those auxiliary troops raised by the
Romans from among the subjects of their Empire who were not
citizens. At least five such forts are known to have been
built in the old Principality of North Wales represented by the
modern counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon and Merioneth, viz.,
at Caerhun, Carnarvon, Tomen y Mur, Caer Gai and Pennal,
and the roads which secured their communications are still in
a large measure traceable.42
The first named of these forts protected the passage of the
Conway and accordingly took its name of Conovium from that
of the river. Though Caerhun must be compounded from the
personal name Rhun, and cannot be, as Camden 43 and even
Edward Llwyd 44 supposed, a corruption of " Caer h£n," the
ancient city, its identity with the " Conovio " of the Itinerary
has never been questioned, and the discovery of the name on
a milestone in the district has lately set the matter beyond
possible doubt. The fort itself occupies rising ground a little
40 Catalogue, Nos. ig6, 197. 41 C.I.L. vii. Nos. 1204-6.
42 Few of the Roman forts of Wales have as yet been scientifically excavated,
and accordingly it may seem rash to assume that they were all occupied in the
same age and formed part of one system. The evidence at present available
seems, however, on the whole to favour this conclusion.
43 Britannia, 597. 44 Gibson, 670.
VOL. I. 5

66 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, distance from the western bank of the river, which is here tidal
m' and easily navigable by small craft ; it forms a square of about
one hundred yards, in the centre of which now stands the
parish church of St. Mary. The principal discoveries appear
to have been made in " Erw Gaer," or the Castle acre, which
lies between the fort and the river. Here the foundations of a
building were laid bare ; it contained the usual arrangements
for heating by means of a hypocaust or cellar furnace, and tiles
bearing the stamp of the Twentieth Legion afforded evidence
that it was meant for the use of that legion. Pottery of the
Roman period was found in abundance, together with a great
cake of copper, weighing over forty pounds, upon which was
a Latin inscription, showing that it was private property and
probably on its way to Rome.45
Caerhun stands in an amphitheatre of mountains, among
the loftiest in Eryri, which seem to forbid all progress to the
west. Through these the road from Deva to Segontium
threaded its way by the pass of Bwlch y Ddeufaen, rising
as it did so to a height of nearly 1,400 feet above the sea-
level. Passing over desolate moors which have never known
the plough, it is in this portion of its course easily re
cognised ; the raised " sarn " or causeway marks it out at once
from the ordinary British or mediaeval trackway. It descended
to the coast between Aber and Llanfair Fechan, and here was
found in 1883, on the farm of Rhiwiau Uchaf, the milestone
already referred to which marked the eighth (Roman) mile
" a Kanovio ".40 The stone was erected in the time of the
Emperor Hadrian (between A.D. 119 and A.D. 138), but there
is no need to suppose that this was the age in which the road
itself was laid down ; such monuments were of necessity re
newed from time to time, and a second milestone was, in fact,
discovered in the immediate neighbourhood of the first which
had been set up about A.D. 200, under Septimius Severus.47
From Aber to Carnarvon the line taken by the road has not been
ascertained, but its general direction may be inferred from the
discovery of a milestone of Caracalla (a.d. 21 1-2 17), near Ty
45 Penn. i. 87-8, iii. 136-7 ; Archaeologia, xvi. 127-34; C.I.L. vii. No. 1200;
Watkin, Roman Cheshire, p. 122.
aArch. Camb. IV. xiv. (1883), 170-1; Mont. Coll. xvii. 282-91.
"Ibid. xvii. 2gi-6. Both stones are now in the British Museum.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 67
Coch, Bangor,48 and one of Decius (a.d. 249-251), near Llan- CHAP.
ddeiniolen.49 m-
The fort of Segontium bore a Celtic name and was perhaps
so called from the river Saint,50 which here makes a great
curve to the south ere it falls into the Menai Straits. It did
not occupy the same position as the modern town of Carnar
von, but was placed on the higher ground within this curve,
where the parish church of Llanbeblig now stands. It was of
considerable size, covering about 6 acres, and had, no doubt,
some importance as the terminus of the North Welsh road and
one of the ports giving access to Ireland. The coins found on
the spot range from the time of Vespasian to that of the Con-
stantines, so that it may be assumed it was held from the end of
the first century, when Agricola, perhaps, built the fort, until
at least the middle of the fourth. One inscription has come to
light, recording that about A.D. 200 the first cohort of Sunici
repaired the conduit which supplied the place with water.
As this auxiliary force, drawn in the first instance from a
people who dwelt around the lower reaches of the Meuse, is
known to have been in Britain in the age of Hadrian, at the
beginning of the first century, the suggestion may be hazarded
that it formed the permanent garrison of Segontium.61
A passing reference should be made to the Roman occu
pation of Anglesey. No inscription or other clear witness to
the presence of Roman soldiery has been found in the island,
but it does not admit of doubt that Agricola's conquest of
Mona was permanent, and at least three sites are with some
probability pointed out as those of Roman military works
The very name of Caergybi (Holyhead), recalling as it does
Caerhun, Caergai, Caersws, Caerfyrddin and many others,
carries with it this suggestion, and serious consideration has
been given to the view of Pennant that the churchyard walls
48 Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, iv. (1832), p. 515 ; Arch. Camb. I. ii. (1847),
50-2 ; Lap. W. 183 ; C.I.L. vii. No. 1164.
isCamb. Quart. Mag. iv. p. 515 ; Lap. W. 173-4; C.I.L. vii. No. 1163.
60 Saint represents the old Welsh Segeint, seen in the " Cair Segeint " (which
may or may not be Carnarvon) of Hist. Britt. 166 (c. 25) and 211 (c. 66a), and
this again goes back to Segontion (Celt. Heath, pp. 272-3).
61Penn. ii. 412-4; Lap. W. 172-3; C.I.L. vii. No. 142; Arch. Camb. I. i.
(1846), 75-9, 177-82, 284-9 ; iii. (1848), 362-3 ; iv. (1849), 150 ; II. iv. (1853),
71-2 ; VI. v. (1905), 73-6. For the Sunici see Tac. Hist. iv. 66, and Pliny, Nat.
Hist. iv. 31. s*

68 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, were originally those of a small Roman fort which protected
the harbour.52 At Rhuddgaer, too, the " red fort " opposite
Segontium, Roman coins and pottery have come to light,63
while similar finds at Caerleb, in the parish of Llanidan, lend
support to the view that this was also a Roman station.54
From Segontium a road no doubt ran to the next fort to
be mentioned, which was situated not far from Trawsfynydd
in Merionethshire and was known in the Middle Ages as Mur y
Castell,65 but nowadays bears the name of Castell Tomen y
Mur. This line of communication is, however, no longer
traceable ; 56 only the northern and southern approaches to
this fort, each known by the traditional name of Sarn Helen,
i.e., " Helen's Causeway," 57 have been satisfactorily made out.
The former, starting, no doubt, from Conovium, is a well-marked
track over the hills between Dolwyddelan and Festiniog, passing
through Bwlch Carreg y Fran and giving its name to the ford
of Rhyd yr Halen. The latter, running due south, is visible
at Pen y Stryd (Street End) and for many miles along the
ridge which separates the valley of the Eden from that of the
Cain. What name was borne by the station which was thus
linked with the rest of the Roman world it is useless to con
jecture ; those who imagine it is to be found in the Heriri
Mons of " Richard of Cirencester " overlook the certainty
that this form was taken by Bertram, the forger of that work,
straight out of Nennius, who uses it for the Snowdonian region.58
Tomen y Mur 69 is placed on the south-western slope of a hill
52 Penn. iii. 75 ; Arch. Camb. IV. i. (1870), 359.
63 Arch. Camb. III. ii. (1856), 326-8; iii. (1857), 218-g ; vii. (1861), 37.
BiIbid. xii. (1866), 2og-i4; IV. ii. (1871), 63-4. It should be added that
there is evidence of the working of the Parys Mountain copper mines in Roman
times (C.I.L. vii. No. ngg).
66 Mab. 74 ; Bruts, 293 ; Myv. Arch. II. 547 (672), 603 (733).
56 There seems to be a bit of genuine Roman paving on the moors above
Bwlch Gwernog.
67 The northern road was known by this name in the time of Camden
(Britannia, 593), while Edward Llwyd called attention to its occurrence also
in the parish of Llanbadarn Odwyn, Cardiganshire, and between Brecon and
Neath (Gibson, 661). The association of this form with ancient lines of com
munication is certainly very remarkable ; Llwybr Hilyn and Moel Hilyn (not
" Heilyn," as in the maps), near Llanfyllin, Pen Ffordd Elen, near Penygroes,
and Sarn Hwlcyn, near Newmarket, may be cited as cases in point.
68 Hist. Britt. c. 40, where " in montibus heriri " is the reading of many MSS.
69 Penn. ii. 258; Arch. Camb. IV. ii. (1871), 190-202 ; C.I.L. vii. Nos. 143,
144, 145 ; Lap. W. 155-

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 69
which commands a wide view of the surrounding country ; its CHAP.
situation proclaims its character as a post of observation. It
was a small fort, of not more than half a acre in extent, but
very carefully built of non-local stone of the requisite hardness,
laid in unmortared but closely fitting courses. There is nothing
to show what body of troops was stationed here, but a number
of centurial stones have been discovered, recording the names
of Julius Mansuetus and of Perpetuus, two centurions whose
men had charge of certain sections of the building work. A
portion of the eastern gateway is still intact, testifying to the
care with which this work was done. The purpose of the
" tomen " or " mound " which occupies an angle of the walls
is obscure ; probably it is no part of the original fortress, but
was added in the Middle Ages, when the place was a residence
of the chieftains of Ardudwy.
Caergai,60 the next of the forts of this district to claim
attention, crowns a slight rise at the head of Bala Lake and
probably marks the point, though the Roman roads of the
district have not been satisfactorily traced, where the road
from Chester to Tomen y Mur branched off from that which
led to Pennal and the country of the Demetae. Camden 61
regarded the place as so called because built by a Roman
Caius, but the Cai with which tradition connects it is Cai Hir
ap Cynyr, the " Sir Kay the Steward " of the Arthurian
romances, of whom Spenser says, referring to Caergai,
His dwelling is low in a valley greene,
Under the foot of Rauran mossy hore. 82
The name is thus post-Roman in origin, like Caerhun and
Caergybi, and the history of the fort can only be deduced
from the remains found on the spot. Until 1885 these were
limited to coins, tiles and pottery, but in that year the lower
part of a monument of some description, which was possibly
sepulchral and contained a complete inscription, came to light.
It gives the name of Julius, son of Gavero, a soldier of the first
cohort of Nervii.63 This detachment of auxiliary troops, drawn
80 Penn. ii. 220; Camb. Reg. i. 191 ; Arch. Camb. V. ii. (1885), 196-204.
61 Britannia, 5g3.
82 Faery Queene, bk. i. canto g. " Rauran " comes from Saxton's map of
Merionethshire (1578), which places " Rarau uaure Hill " (Yr Aran Fawr) where
Arenig should be.
83 Chester Catalogue, No. 210.

10 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, from the North of Gaul and recorded as serving in Britain in
the time of Trajan,64 may well have formed the garrison of
Caergai. The fort at Cefn Caer,66 a little to the south-east of the
village of Pennal, has so far yielded no inscriptions, but the
quadrangular form of the defences, the coins and other small
objects discovered, and, last of all, the remains of a hypocaust
uncovered in 1 866, are unmistakable evidence of its character.
Like Tomen y Mur, it was built of stone conveyed from a
distance. Its purpose was clearly to protect the passage of
the Dovey ; a pitched way or " sarn " leads to the bank of
the river, which affords ready access for light vessels to the
sea and at the same time is fordable at low water. Of this
fort also the Roman name is unknown, for Camden's suggestion
that the name of the neighbouring town of Machynlleth points
to its being the " Maglona " (really Magloz^a) where a garrison
was kept in the last years of the Roman occupation, will not
hold water for a moment. The two names can have no con
nection, since Machynlleth is easily explained as the Plain
of Cynllaith, and wherever Maglova was, the context in which
the name occurs makes it necessary to look for it in the North
of England.66 There is, therefore, good evidence that the Romans were
in permanent military possession of Gwynedd during the
greater part of their stay in this island. The case is not
otherwise if 'we turn to the country of the Ordovices, which
became the Powys of a later age. Four forts in this district,
viz., at Caergwrle, Y Gaer, near Montgomery, Caersws and
Castell Collen bear witness to the thoroughness of the Roman
conquest. It should at once be said that there seems no pro
spect at present of the two towns assigned by Ptolemy to the
Ordovices being identified ; no one has yet ventured to locate
Brannogenium, and, though in the case of Mediolanium there
is the additional evidence of the Itinerary and the help of the
name itself, which denotes "the place in the midst of the
plain," 67 antiquaries have, from the days of Camden to our
own, propounded so many solutions of the problem that it is
84 C.I.L. vii. No. ng4.
8D Camden, Britannia, 589 ; Gibson, 651 ; Arch. Camb. III. xii. (1866), 542.
86iVor, Dig., 209. 87 Urk. Spr. 207, 236.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 71
not unreasonable to regard it as in the light of present know- CHAP
ledge insoluble. Only modern names can therefore be given
to the four forts now to be described ; yet their Roman origin
is none the less certain. Caergwrle,68 on the banks of the
Alun, was an outpost of Deva ; the tiles found on the spot
show that it was built by a detachment of the Twentieth
Legion. Here, as in the Flint district, the smelting of ore was
apparently carried on, and the remains dug up at Bryn Iorcyn,
a little to the south of Caergwrle itself, seem to suggest a
fairly flourishing settlement. A wide gap separates this from
the two Montgomeryshire forts, and none of the efforts made
to bridge it by conjectures as to the road system can be pro
nounced quite satisfactory. It would no doubt go a long way
to clear up the topography of this district if Mediolanium
could with any confidence be identified. Of the two forts
which secured the upper valley of the Severn the eastern
stands on the English bank of the river, a little below the
historic ford of Montgomery. Locally, it is known as " Y
Gaer," 69 which probably stands for some longer form like
Caerhun or Caergwrle, but for " Caer Flos," a name by which
it is sometimes distinguished, there appears to be no older
authority than the Ordnance Survey map published in 1836.
It is of considerable extent, occupying about 5 acres, but no
remains of any kind have so far been unearthed, so that it is
possible that it was not a standing camp, but merely served
for the purposes of a single campaign. Of greater interest is
the western fort, stationed at the meeting-place of three
valleys which give access to the heart of the Plynlimmon
mountain region. Caersws,70 which there is reason to think
is a shortened form of some such name as Caerswyswen, was
built of red sandstone on a low-lying site washed on the
southern side by the Carno and the Severn. It was almost
a square, with rounded angles and an area of about 7 acres.
The Cambrian railway station now occupies its south-west
corner and the farm-house of Pendre its centre. The inscrip-
88 Camden, Britannia, 605 ; Penn. ii. 46 ; C.I.L. vii. No. 1225 ; Lewis,
Top. Diet. s.v. Hope ; Arch. Camb. IV. ii. (1871), g7-8.
89 Penn. iii. igg; Mont. Coll. xvii. (1884), 105-8.
70 Gibson, 653 ; Penn. iii. ig2 ; Arch. Camb. I. iii. (1848), gi-6 ; Mont. Coll.
ii. (i86g), 46-65 ; C.I.L. vii. Nos. 1243, 1336 (533). For the name see L. G.
Cothi, i. 12 ; Camb. Quart. Mag. i. p. 34.

12 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, tions which have come to light from time to time are so elliptic
as to afford no information as to the character of the garrison,
but, as in the case of Caerhun, the remains have been dis
covered between the fort and the river of a building which was
probably a bath-house, and which is shown by the coins found
in its ruins to have been occupied as late as the second half of
the third century. The roads leading out of Caersws have
been partially traced, and one in particular is well preserved,
namely, that which strikes westward, along the valley of
Tarannon. This can hardly have been a line of communica
tion with any other fort, and is most naturally explained as
the road to the lead mines which it is believed the Romans
worked in the district of Dylife.
The southward road from Caersws led to Castell Collen,71
a fort on the banks of the Ieithon, not far from Llandrindod
Wells, which held in subjection the inhabitants of our Radnor
shire. It is of the usual rectangular form, with rounded angles,
and covers about 4 acres. At present, the defences have the
appearance of having been roughly thrown together and no
stone walling is to be seen ; but this is not surprising when it
is borne in mind that the ruins have for years been used as a
quarry, from which the farmers of the district have supplied
themselves with building stone. No inscriptions have been
found at Castell Collen itself, but it is most likely that the
centurial stone, recording the name of a centurion Valerius
Flavinus, which was found in pulling down the walls of the
neighbouring church of Llanbadarn Fawr, was originally from
this place. Coins, pottery and tiles have been found, and the
course of the road which runs south to the fort near Brecon
is well marked across the common at Howey and Llandrindod.
It may be of advantage, in order to give more definite
outlines to this survey of Roman Wales, to cast a brief glance
at the condition during this period of what is now the Welsh
border. Its northern end was occupied, it has been shown, by
a strong military post, and it will shortly appear that the same
may be said of the southern extremity. But the intervening
region is remarkably free from traces of military occupation.
In Herefordshire there is no Roman fortress, unless there be
71 Hoare's Giraldus Cambrensis (1806), I. clvi. ; Radnorsh. (2), pp. ng, 359 ;
Lap. W. 240.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE 73
One at Leintwardine, which is pretty certainly the " Bravonium " CHAP.
of the Itinerary.72 The same is true of Shropshire and South IH'
Cheshire. The type of settlement found in these regions is
one which is common in South-eastern Britain, but of which
no example occurs within the limits of the twelve counties of
modern Wales, namely, the Romano-British town, inhabited
by a civil population, in which the British element was large,
while the civilisation was Roman. Shropshire furnishes an
excellent instance of this type in Wroxeter,73 the Viroconium
of the Romans, once the most important centre of the district,
though long superseded by Shrewsbury. Among the inscrip
tions yielded by Wroxeter are two which commemorate soldiers
of the Fourteenth Twin Legion,74 and it has therefore been
supposed that in the early days of the occupation it was the
permanent station of that corps. While this may well have
been the case, the withdrawal of the legion from Britain about
A.D. 70 must have put an early end to the military importance
of Viroconium, which henceforward is a purely civil centre.
A British settlement had existed here before the conquest, in
connection, no doubt, with the ford across the Severn, and had
apparently been the tribal centre of the Cornavii.75 In Roman
times the place was a straggling town, spreading over 1 70 acres
of undulating land, which in the later days of the occupation
were enclosed within roughly built walls for protection against
barbarian attack. In its centre were public buildings of some
pretensions, including a large town hall and a complete set of
bath-houses. The multitude of small objects discovered during
the process of excavation, lamps, earthen and glass vessels,
finger rings, brooches, statuettes, door keys and workmen's
tools, bears ample witness to the busy and many-sided life
of this half Roman, half British community. Moreover, it was
a life which underwent no eclipse until the end of the period
of Roman occupation, as is proved by the discovery, in as
sociation with its remains, of coins of the second half of the
72 Archaeological Survey of Herefordshire (Westminster, i8g6), p. 4.
73 The remains at Wroxeter have been described by J. Corbet Anderson
(London, 1867), Thomas Wright (London, 1872), and G. E. Fox (Archaological
Journal, liv. (i8g7), pp. 123-73).
74 C.I.L. vii. Nos. 154, 155.
75 I infer this from the form " U(t)riconion Cornoviorum " handed down by
the Geographer of Ravenna.

74 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, fourth century. Wroxeter, in short, supplies abundant material
for those who would argue that the Britons were, within the
limits of the province, thoroughly Romanised.
Returning, however, to our survey of Wales, we are once
more on military ground. In the country of the Demetae no
certain traces of Roman settlement are to be found save the
vestiges of two, perhaps three, forts which, with their connect
ing roads, served -to maintain order in the district. A road
ran south from Cefh Caer into our Cardiganshire 76 which,
from the Wyre onwards, is clearly traceable and bears the
significant name of Sarn Helen.77 At the passage of the Teifi
it was guarded by the fort of Llanio,78 which may be the
Luentinum (or Luentium) of the geographer Ptolemy, though
the philological connection is not at all obvious. The ground
is now partly occupied by the farm-house and buildings of
Llanio Isaf and the lines of the original fortress are difficult to
trace. But four inscriptions which have been dug out of the
ruins point to the site as a military one, and one mentions (as
also does the inscription in the wall of Llanddewi Brefi church,
which is not far off) the second cohort of Astures, a body of
Spanish auxiliaries which is more closely connected with the
fort of Aesica (Great Chesters) on the wall of Hadrian,79 but
may well have occupied Llanio at one period of its history.
The other undoubted fort of this district was situated at Car
marthen,80 at the head of the tidal portion of the Towy, in a
strategic position which has many times proved of crucial im
portance in the history of Wales. It was a hill-fort of the
Demetae, known by the Celtic name of Maridunum ; under
the Romans it became a centre of roads which branched out to
the north, the east and the south-east. In the days of Giraldus
78 The fort placed by Haverfield (map in Social England, vol. i.) near " Llan-
badarn Vawr," Aberystwyth, owes its existence to confusion with Castell Collen,
which is near Llanbadarn Fawr, Radnorshire.
77 Gibson, 66i.
7SIbid. 645; C.I.L. vii. Nos. 148-50; Lap. W. 141, 142, 143; Ephemeris
Epigraphica, vii. p. 285 ; Arch. Camb. IV. ix. (1878), 353 ; V. v. (1888), 2g7-3i7 ;
vi. (i88g), 180-1.
79 C.I.L. vii. Nos. 732, 1228. The cohort was in Germany in the first cen
tury A.D., but appears in Britain as early as a.d. 105 (C.I.L. vii. No. ng4).
80 Gir. Camb. vi. 80 (Itin. i. 10) ; Charter of Henry II. in Carm. Cart. No.
78; Camden, Britannia, 578; Lap. W. g8-g ; Ephemeris Epigraphica, iii. I3g
Antiquary , l8g7, p. 231.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 75
Cambrensis the walls were still standing and their circuit was CHAP.
known as " the old city " ; but the bustling civic life of seven In'
centuries has obliterated all traces of them, and it is now only
possible to conjecture that Maridunum lay to the east of
mediaeval Carmarthen, St. Peter's Church and the Priory, but
not the Castle, being within its limits and the Parade re
presenting its river front. Remains of the usual description
have been found from time to time, but little of the history
of the place can be inferred from them, save that it was still
occupied at the beginning of the fourth century.
West of Maridunum the Romans do not seem to have
ordinarily travelled. The coast road to Isca is made to start
here in the Itinerary, as though no one who used a road-book
would be likely to have any business further west. Nor have
judicious antiquaries been able to find either Roman settlements
or Roman roads in Pembrokeshire.81 The Dimetian peninsula
seems, like the Cornish, to have been left to itself. But, in
addition to the north road to Llanio, two lines of communica
tion connected Carmarthen with the east. One of these led to
the forts on the Loughor and the Neath, in the Silurian
country; the other took the line of the Towy and, passing
not far from Llandeilo, as is shown by the milestone of the
Emperor Tacitus (275-276) found in the neighbourhood,82
kept the course of the river until it reached the hillock near
Llandovery, now crowned by the church of Llanfair ar y Bryn.
Here there is some evidence of the existence of a third
Dimetian fort.83 From this point the road, joined no doubt by
a branch from Llanio which can be clearly traced thence as far
as the ancient mines of Gogofau on the Cothi,84 struck eastward
across the watershed. Not far from the highest point, near the
old Black Cock Inn, a milestone has been discovered bearing
the name of Postumus (2 58-268).85 Thence the valley of the
Usk was followed to the fort at Y Gaer, near Brecon.
The character and extent of the Roman occupation of the
country of the Silures can best be understood by beginning
81 Lit. Eng. pp. 37-48. A Roman site has lately been discovered at Cwm
Brwyn, near Laugharne (Arch. Camb. VI. vii. 175).
82 Arch. Camb. III. iv. (1858), 346 ; Lap. W. g8 ; Eph. Epigraphica, iii. I3g.
83 Hoare's Giraldus, I. cl. 84 Lewis, Top. Diet. s.v. Cayo.
86 Hoare's Giraldus, I. cl. ; Breconsh. (2), p. 4g3 ; C.I.L. vii. No. 1161.

76 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, with the great military centre of the district, the legionary
fortress of Isca.86 Here, as in the case of Deva, it is unlikely
that a British settlement preceded that of the Romans, since the
latter had recourse, for the purpose of naming the site, to the
name of the river, the Usk, in Welsh the Wysg, which winds
majestically past it to the sea. It has already been suggested
that the station was first established by Ostorius 87 and that it
remained in Roman hands during the long struggle with the
Silures. To this period, perhaps, belongs the building dis
covered in 1 877, in which were found four coins of Vespasian.88
But the substantial evidence of the importance of Isca is mainly
of the second and the third century, when it was beyond any
doubt the standing camp of the second Augustan Legion and a
sister fortress to Deva, and thus acquired its Welsh name of
Caerllion,89 which English tongues have turned into Caerleon.
A large number of inscriptions have come to light, bringing out
clearly, on the one hand, the purely military character of the
settlement, and, on the other, the manifold interests represented
in the head-quarters of a legion. Flavius Postumius, legate of
the legion or of the province, restores the temple of Diana.
The barracks of the seventh cohort of the legion are rebuilt
from the foundations about A.D. 2 5 5 by order of the governor
of Britain and the local commander. One prefect of the camp
raises a votive altar to Fortune ; another joins his two sons
in a dedication which has in view the weal of the emperor
Septimius Severus and his sons, Caracalla and Geta. A
standard bearer of the Second Legion, whose native place is
Lyons, is buried by his heir. Tadia Exuperata raises, beside
her father's grave, a monument to her mother and also to her
brother, who died on an expedition to Germany. These in
scriptions have been found, not only at Caerleon itself, but
also at various places in the immediate neighbourhood, such as
Bulmore, Kemeys Inferior and St. Julian's, showing that the life
of the fortress overflowed into the surrounding country and
made the settlement one of the busiest in Roman Britain.
86 Hen. Hunt. p. 7 ; Gir. Camb. vi. 55-6 (Itin. i. 5) ; J. E. Lee, Isca Silurum,
London, 1862 (Supplement, Newport, 1868) ; C.I.L. vii. 36-42 ; Lap. W.
211-34. 87 P. 53. *sArch. Camb. IV. viii. (1877), 161.
89 Gildas (c. 10) is responsible for the incorrect form, " Legionwm urbs ".

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 77
The outline of the walls can still be traced, though there CHAP.
are few traces of the magnificence which Giraldus Cambrensis m'
saw, with the eye, possibly, of the historic imagination, and
not that of sight, for the duller Henry of Huntingdon asserts,
half a century earlier, that hardly anything of the walls is to
be seen. They enclosed a square of about fifty acres, in the
midst of which now stand the church and village of Caerleon ;
each side was pierced by a gateway, the position of which can
still be determined. The Castle Mound, situated without the
walls at their eastern angle, has been proved to be a mediaeval
work ; it partially covers the ruins of Roman buildings. The
circular earthwork which lies between the south-western wall
and the river has, on the other hand, been very generally
regarded as a place assigned to the sports and exercises of the
soldiery ; it occupies a plot of ground which, hemmed in as it
is by the river, must have been secluded and well suited for
such a purpose. Roads led from Isca in at least three direc
tions, eastward to Venta, northward to Burrium, and westward
to the forts of our Glamorganshire. A brief account of the
stations thus connected with the legionary centre will bring
this survey to a close.
Two of the forts which may be regarded as western out
posts of Isca have recently been excavated with interesting
results. It had long been suspected from the situation, the
name and the visible remains of the ancient stronghold of
Cardiff that it had commenced its history as a Roman station,
and this has now been proved by the spade-work set on foot
by the late Marquis of Bute, the owner of the Castle.90 The
Roman wall, over 10 feet thick, was found embedded in the
great earthen rampart which had been thrown over it by later
defenders of the spot to the extent of nearly two-thirds of its
length. At regular intervals along it appeared polygonal
bastions, and the north gateway, with its guard chambers, was
found to be in exceptionally good preservation. It had been,
apparently, long occupied and had been altered by the ad
dition of the bastions at the close of the period of Roman
occupation. The Cardiff fort was of some size, covering about
10 acres ; in the hills to the north was a smaller station, of
90 Archceologia, lvii. (igoi), 335-52 (J. Ward).

78 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, some 3-J- acres, near the church of Gelligaer,91 of which the
walls and gateways have also been remarkably well preserved.
" The raised sill of one of the portals is to all appearances,"
to quote an account of the excavations of 1 900, " as fresh to
day as when the camp was abandoned sixteen or seventeen
centuries ago. It shows the hollows worn by the chariot
wheels, the sockets in which the pivots of the great doors
turned, and the square hole into which the great bolt shot to
make all fast for the night, or when danger approached." 92
Close by a road, known as Heol Adda (Adam's Street), runs
along the ridge in the direction of the fort near Brecon.93
Forts, no doubt, guarded at intervals the road which ran
west from Cardiff to Carmarthen, but their sites have not yet
been ascertained, and all that can safely be said of them is
that the Nidum and Leucarum of the Itinerary must have
stood on the banks of the rivers so called, the Nedd and the
Llwchwr of to-day. The portion of the road between the
Ogwr and the Nedd has been specially productive of mile
stones ; one found near Pyle was inscribed with the name of
the usurper Victorinus (about 267),94 the two from the neigh
bourhood of Aberavon belonged to the age of Diocletian (284-
313),95 while the fourth, recently discovered at Melin Crythan,
also bore the name of this emperor.96
From the mouth of the Nedd a road struck across the hills
to the north-east, which is still clearly traceable for a large
part of its course under the name " Sarn Helen ".97 Its des
tination was the fort in the valley of the Usk, two or three
miles above Brecon, which has more than once been mentioned
91 Gelligaer was excavated with scientific precision by the Cardiff Natur
alists' Society in r8gg-igoi. A full account of the discoveries, compiled by Mr.
John Ward, was issued in igo3 (The Roman Fort of Gellygaer, London). The
fort, though very complete in its details, is not believed to have been held for
any long period.
nArch. Camb. VI. i. (igoi), 5g.
93 At Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil, which lies upon the line of this road,
traces of an important Roman settlement have lately been discovered, though its
character has not yet been determined. See Arch. Camb. VI. vi. (igo6),
ig3-2o8. 94 C.I.L. vii. No. 1 160 ; Lap. W. 40.
96 C.I.L. vii. Nos. 1158, nsg; Lap. W. 38, 41; Academy, 1st Aug., i8g6
(p. 86). 98 Antiquary, i8g4, i. p. 245. 97 Gibson, 661.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 79
as the goal of Roman roads in Mid Wales. " Y Gaer," 98 as CHAP.
it is locally known, had once a longer Welsh name, which it
does not seem possible to restore ; its Roman name, too, is
unknown. It was a large fort of 6 acres, with walls y\ feet
thick, and occupied a pleasant site near the confluence of the
Ysgir and the Usk. Tiles inscribed with the name of the
second Augustan legion furnish evidence that it was an outpost
of Caerleon, while the military character of the settlement
further appears from two tombstones from the immediate
vicinity. The one,99 known for centuries as " Maen y Moryn-
ion " (" The Maidens' Stone "), stands on the line of the Roman
road which runs east and west a little to the north of Y Gaer,
and, though sadly weather-beaten, still shows the sculptured
outlines of a Roman soldier and his wife. The other 10° was
discovered in 1877 in a field about a mile away, and is in
teresting as the gravestone of an officer or soldier of the
cavalry troop of Vettones, Spanish auxiliaries known to have
been in Britain from about A.D. 100,101 the approximate date
of the inscription. It is possible that the troop may in the
first century A.D. have formed the garrison of the station,
though later on it is found in the neighbourhood of the Wall
of Hadrian.102 The eastward road from this fort followed the course of
the Usk, in a line still easy to trace, to another, also known as
" Y Gaer," in the vale of the Rhiangoll, not far from Tretower.103
Theophilus Jones was the first to point this out as a Roman
site and to show how it broke the long stretch of road from
the Ysgir to the Gefenni. The ramparts, of the usual rect
angular form, are well marked, and tiles, coins and fragments
of building material supply the evidence of Roman occupation.
Nor can there be much doubt that the two stones found at
Tretower and bearing the names of the centurions Valens and
Peregrinus were taken from the ruins of Y Gaer. At Aber
gavenny few Roman remains have come to light, and it is
ssBreconsh. (2), p. 218; C.I.L. vii. No. 1222; Arch. Camb. II. ii. (1851),
167 ; IV. ix. (1878), 235 ; VI. iii. (igo3), 12.
99 Gibson, 5g3 ; C.I.L. vii. No. 152 ; Lap. W. 57.
100 Lap. W. 75-6; Ephemeris Epigraphica, iv. (1881), ig8
101 C.I.L. vii. No. ng3.
102 Ibid. No. 273 ; Ephemeris Epigraphica, vii. Nos. g79, g8o.
193 Breconsh. (2), pp. 416-7 ; C.I.L. vii. Nos. 146, 147; Lap. W. 54.

»o HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, therefore not certain that a fort here guarded the pass which
leads to the Herefordshire plains. At the same time the exist
ence at this spot of a station of some kind or other, styled
Gobannium from its position on the Gefenni, is clear, not only
from the Itinerary, but also from the direction of Stone Street,
the Roman road which runs south from Kenchester (Magna)
and has been traced as far as Abbey Dore.104 At Usk,105 the
Burrium of the Itinerary, there was certainly a fort, in the
neighbourhood of the present county gaol, where Roman tiles
and pottery have been found, together with fragmentary in
scriptions which tell of the activity at this spot of the ever-
busy Second Legion.
West and north of Caerleon, therefore, the military neces
sities to which it owed its existence had everywhere to be
recognised, to the all but absolute exclusion of Roman civil
life. It was only necessary to travel a few miles eastward to
enter a different atmosphere. Caerwent, it may be inferred
from its name of Venta Silurum, was a tribal centre before it
fell under Roman sway ; 106 its ruins have hitherto furnished no
evidence of the presence of a garrison in the Roman period, but,
so far as they have been excavated, suggest that it retained its
importance as a place of peaceful resort and habitation, where
luxury was not unknown. True, it was girt with massive
walls, but it can hardly have been necessary to build a fortress
of 40 acres in extent within 10 miles of Caerleon, and the
explanation of these defences no doubt is that, as in the case of
Wroxeter, they were raised at a late period of the Roman
occupation, when the old military system could no longer give
proper protection from barbarian attack, and each city had to
transform itself into a camp of refuge. From Caerwent it was
no long journey to Bath, the Aquae Sulis of the Romans, then
as now famous for its medicinal waters and frequented by
visitors from all parts of the province ; Gloucester, too,
was not far off, one of the few British towns which had
Roman civic rights — the whole region had been not merely
104 Archaeological Survey of Herefordshire, p. 14.
105 Camden, Britannia, 568 ; Arch. Camb. I. i. (1846), 188 ; Ephemeris
Epigraphia, iv. (1881), ig8, 206.
106 Proof of this has of late been afforded by the discovery of an inscription
(Athenaeum, 26th Sept., igo3).

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 81
subdued by Rome but had become an integral part of her CHAP.
Empire. m'
III. The Subject Tribes.
A question has now to be considered which thus far has
been only indirectly touched upon, but which must be answered
ere any wide view can be taken of the course of development
of Welsh history. What was the relation of the subject popula
tion of Wales, the conquered Silures, Demetae, Ordovices and
men of Gwynedd to this Roman civilisation which established
itself at so many points in the country ? Were they Romanised
as well as subdued, accepting, as other provincials did in
Western Europe, Roman institutions, learning the Latin tongue
and merging their distinctive tribal features in the general life
of the Empire ? Or did they live in tribal isolation, retaining
their Celtic speech and institutions and learning little from the
soldiers who moved in and out among them? These are
questions which will not be answered for us by any contempor
ary record ; for, save for some geographical particulars, nothing
is to be gleaned from the literature of the day as to the internal
history of Wales from the age of Tacitus to that of Gildas.
Only the evidence supplied by archaeology, by philology, and by
the later history of the country is at our service in this inquiry,
and this is in many ways so precarious that it is not surprising
that upon it widely different views should be founded.
It is desirable, however, at the outset to separate entirely
the question here under discussion, namely, the extent of
Roman influence upon Wales, from another and much more
complicated issue, namely, the extent of that influence upon
the province of Britain. Enough has been said in the previous
section to show that the Roman occupation of Wales differed
essentially in character from that of the rest of Southern
Britain and only found a parallel in what is now the North of
England. The presence of troops throughout the country
inevitably suggests a state of things very unlike that which
must have prevailed in the districts where it was not necessary
to brandish the sword. Moreover, the fact that Wales to this
day speaks a Celtic language and long retained an archaic
system of laws and institutions raises a presumption as to what
must have happened here which cannot be extended to the
VOL. I. 6

82 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, south-east, for it is only matter of conjecture what language
and what institutions were there overwhelmed by the tide of
Teutonic invasion in the fifth and sixth centuries. It would,
indeed, be not at all wonderful, but in conformity with the
earlier and the later history of Britain, if it should ultimately
appear that during the Roman period the corn-lands of the East
went a different way from the rough hill-pastures of the West.
The first point, then, which has a bearing on the question
of the relations of conquerors and conquered in Wales is the
military purpose of the two standing camps of Isca and Deva,
with their network of dependent forts. No one who knows
anything of the Roman army under the Empire will need to
be told that two legions were not quartered for at least a
couple of centuries on what is now the Welsh border without
very good military reasons. There were but three in Britain and
not many more than thirty in the whole Empire. It is a natural
suggestion that, as the Sixth Legion at York, with its auxiliary
forces, protected the north of the province from the barbarians
of Caledonia, so the Second and the Twentieth were responsible
for the defence of the west against possible attacks from Ireland.
But, though they no doubt performed this function, it is diffi
cult to think of it as their sole duty. While the northern
peril was real and instant, calling for unceasing vigilance and
for fresh measures of defence under each successive emperor,
the western is not once mentioned in any record of the time,
and its existence is purely a matter of inference. It was
surely for more potent reasons that these fortresses were main
tained on so large a scale and at so great a cost to the Empire.
Just as the northern force had to reckon, not only with attacks
from without, but also with the disaffection of the Brigantes,
who in the time of Hadrian annihilated the legion quartered
at York and for many years afterwards were restless and
defiant,107 so the legions of Chester and Caerleon were stationed
there quite as much to keep in subjection the Ordovices and
the Silures, whom it had taken so many years to subdue, as
to guard the coasts from piratical incursions.
But a people whom it was necessary thus to overawe can
hardly have been ordinary peaceable subjects of the Empire.
That they enjoyed political independence it is, of course, absurd
107 C.I.L. vii. 64 ; Pausanias, Graec. Descr. viii. 43.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 83
to imagine ; they no doubt bore the burdens of Empire, paid CHAP.
tribute, worked mines, and furnished recruits for the auxiliary 1 '
part of the army. But they so far held aloof from Roman
civilisation as to be a possible source of danger to the province,
and the very thorough way in which their country was covered
with military stations, while it allowed no room for tribal
leadership and tribal warfare, shows that they could not be
left to themselves, to work out their own destiny, so strong
was the old tribal feeling and so easy the return to the condi
tions which obtained before the conquest.
The positive evidence supplied by the character of the
Roman remains in Wales may be supplemented by the nega
tive evidence afforded by what is not to be found there. It
has already been stated that no Romano-British town of the
type so common in England, no Silchester or Wroxeter or
Bath, has yet been discovered in Wales strictly so called, though
Monmouthshire furnishes an instance in Caerwent. It has
now to be added that another feature of the orderly, peaceable
south-east, namely, the "villa'' or Roman country house, is
also notable by its absence, save in the district nearest Caerleon.
At the end of the eighteenth century the foundations of a
building were unearthed at Llanfrynach,108 Brecknockshire,
about half-way between the two " Gaers " of the county,
which have since been destroyed, but appear to have been the
remains of a " villa " . The discovery of a villa at Llantwit
Major was also recorded in 1888.109 Elsewhere nothing has
come to light to show that it was usual for wealthy civilians,
unconnected with the army, to live at their ease in Wales as
they did in the districts nearer Gaul. Here, again, the analogy
of the North of England suggests itself, for in the country of
the Brigantes no " villa " has been found much to the north
of York.110 So far as the evidence goes, the Romans had only
one interest in Wales beyond the military, namely, the mines
which native labour made profitable to the imperial exchequer.
But for these they might have been content to make the line
108 Breconsh. (2), pp. ig, 462.
109 Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, vol. xx. (1888), pp. 4g-6i.
The remains discovered at Ely, near Cardiff, in 1893 are now held to mark the
site of a small fort (Archaeologia, lvii. (1901), 335).
110 Edinburgh Review, April, i8gg, p. 386. The article is now understood to
be from the pen of Mr. Haverfield (Eng. Hist. Rev. xix. (1904), p. 629, note 10).
6*

84 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, from Isca to Deva the western frontier of the province and
to justify the abandonment of Wales in the same terms as
were used by Appian m to defend the withdrawal from Cale
donia — " we have the really valuable part of the island, and
stand in no need of the rest ".
The existence, again, of the Welsh language is a fact of
the first importance in its bearing on the question of Roman
influence in Wales. If, when the light of history once more
discloses, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, the peoples of
Cornwall, Wales and Strathclyde, they are found speaking not
a Romance but a Celtic language, the conclusion seems inevit
able that they had never ceased to do so, having escaped the
influences which elsewhere in Western Europe made Latin
universal. Efforts have been made to explain Welsh as a
language introduced at the close of the Roman period by
Brythonic invaders from the region of the two Walls,112 but
though this invasion undoubtedly took place and materially
aided the Brythonic form of the Celtic speech in its struggle
with the Goidelic, it is made to assume undue proportions
when it is deemed capable of wiping out Latin throughout the
whole of Wales and introducing Welsh in its place. It must,
therefore, be concluded that the inhabitants of Wales were so
far divorced from the main current of Roman life as to speak
a separate language, which linked them with the customs and
traditions of the past.
But, though they retained their Celtic speech, the Welsh
tribes were far from being unaffected by the influence of the
Latin which must have overflowed their country with the com
ing of the soldiers. Welsh contains a very large number of
Latin loan-words, of which some, no doubt, came in with the
acceptance of Christianity and a'[few as learned book-words,
but most as the result of contact with Roman civilisation
during the three centuries of military occupation.113 They
entered into the language in the same way as the English loan
words which abound in modern spoken Welsh, and which,
111 Hist. Rom., prooem. 5. 112 W. People, p. 503.
113 For the material employed in the following paragraphs I am chiefly
indebted to Les Mots Latins dans les Langues Brittoniques, by M. Loth (Paris,
1892). The lists on pages 42-45 I found especially useful. In the matter of the
Celtic roots I followed, of course, the Urkeltischer Sprachschatz of Dr. Whitley
Stokes (Gettingen, 1894).

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 85
despite the wrath of the purist in such matters, are steadily CHAP.
working themselves into an assured position in the language.
Now it is obvious that these loan-words do more than bear a
general testimony to intercourse between the Welsh and their
conquerors ; they indicate the points of contact. From them
it may be inferred in what regions of life and thought there
was borrowing from the richer civilisation of the conquering
people, while their absence in certain other spheres may be
taken as evidence that in these foreign influence did not tell.
It has, of course, to be premised that, on the assumption made
in these pages, namely, that the native speech of most of the
Welsh tribes was Goidelic, evidence drawn from the Latin
element in modern Welsh can only hold good for the tribe
who spoke Brythonic, to wit, the Ordovices of Mid-Wales.
But this need not in any way baulk us ; since there is no
reason to think that there was anything exceptional in the
relations between this tribe and the Roman power.
The first domain in which there is evidence of extensive
borrowing is the military. In the names of arms of offence
and defence there was no great change ; the sword (cleddyf),
the shield (ysgwyd), the javelin (gwaew) retained their Celtic
names,114 and only in the name of the arrow (saeth from
sagitta) is there any indication of the adoption of a new weapon.
What probably happened in this particular case was the sub
stitution of an iron tip for the old arrow-head of stone or
horn.115 But in military engineering and the like the old race
had everything to learn from the new. " Mur " (wall), " magwyr "
(the same), " ffos " (trench), " castell " (castle), " pont " (bridge),
" pabell '' (tent) are loan-words which show how considerable
was the borrowing in this direction. For two of the most
characteristic products of Roman military activity the Brython,
indeed, used native names ; the fort which held him to
obedience he called " caer," 116 the paved road which made
his mountains passable he termed " sarn," 117 or causeway.
114 Urk. Spr. 82, 3og, 281.
115 Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, tr. Jevons
(London, i8go), p. 233.
118 Even this may be from " castrum," though Stokes (Urk. Spr. 74) gives
a native " kastro- "- Prof. Morris Jones considers that the problem has not as
yet been solved.
117 Ibid. 313.

86 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. But in general it may be said that the evidence of language
supports the conclusion, to which on other grounds it is natural
to come, that in all that concerned warfare the tribesmen of
Wales were highly susceptible to Roman influence. One
remembers that there is no gift at the disposal of European
civilisation which is better appreciated by a primitive race than
the modern rifle.
Another sphere in which the influence of the conquerors
was paramount was that of letters. The Celts had no native
alphabet or system of writing ; in Gaul, Caesar states, their
men of learning, the Druids, used Greek characters (no doubt
borrowed from Marseilles) for business purposes, and thought
it wrong to commit their professional lore to writing in any
form.118 When the Brythons began to make use of an inscribed
coinage they adopted the Roman alphabet, and it will be seen
in a later chapter that, after the withdrawal of Roman troops
from the country, the inhabitants of Wales used in their
sepulchral inscriptions not only the Roman letters, but also
the Latin tongue. It is not surprising, therefore, to find in
Welsh a large number of loan-words which have to do with
reading and writing ; such are " llyfr " (book), " llythyr "
(letter), "ysgrif" (script), " ysgrifennu " (to write), " 116n "
(what is read), and " awdwr " (author). Be it observed that it
is the absence of literature in the strict sense, of written com
positions, to which these words bear witness ; the Welsh tribes
men had beyond a doubt their skilled poets and musicians,
whose flights of song were independent of literary aid, for the
leading terms connected with these two arts, such as " bardd "
(poet), " prydydd " (maker), " cerddor " (musician), " crwth "
(crowd), "telyn" (harp), "cathl" (song), " tant " (string),119
are of purely Celtic origin, being, for the most part, common
to Brythons and Goidels. But the songs and tales and sayings
of these minstrels, with whom were deposited the remnants of
Druidic tradition, were handed down orally, and it was only
from the foreigner that any knowledge of letters was to be
obtained. A third class of important loan-words is connected with the
home and its material civilisation, and witnesses unmistakably
118 Bell. Gall. vi. 14.
119 Urk. Spr. 162, 60, 80, gg, 69, 128. For " telyn " see W. Ph. (2,), 184.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 87
to the higher standard of comfort which was brought in by the CHAP.
Romans. The primitive Celt had his " ty " (house), with its In'
" to " (roof), its " aelwyd " (hearth), and its " drws " (door)
secured by a "clo" (bolt).120 But "ffenestr" (window),
" pared " (partition), " ystafell " (chamber), " post " and " col-
ofn " (pillar), " trawst " (beam), and " ceibr " (rafter) are all of
Latin origin, so that it must be concluded that familiarity with
Roman methods of building led to greater solidity of construc
tion among the Welsh in the domestic as in the military sphere.
It was much the same with the household furniture and
utensils. The bronze or iron cauldron (pair), in which the
meat of the household was boiled, was, with its attendant
spit (ber),121 an ancient feature of Celtic civilisation, which
enters into many of the early legends of the race ; of primitive
origin, too, were the earthen pot (crochan) and the spoon or
ladle (llwy).122 But the knife (cyllell), the dish (dysgl), the
metal pan (padell), the gridiron (cradell), the bowl (ffiol), the
chest (cist, arch), the candle (cannwyll), the three-legged stool
(trybedd), the couch (lleithig) and the chair of state (cadair)
were all gifts of Roman culture to the Welsh tribes. How the
old influences blended with the new is well seen in the bronze
strainer found at Cyngadel, near Laugharne, in the early part
of the last century.123 The vessel is of a familiar Roman type,
and, in view of the fact that it contained coins of Carausius,
must have been made for an owner accustomed to Roman
ways at the end of the third century of our era. But in its
design it reveals the hand of a native artificer, whose models
were not those in vogue among the metal workers of the Em
pire, but the graceful creations of Late Celtic art — an art by
this time extinct in the Romanised portion of Britain but still
vigorous among the independent tribes of Caledonia and
Hibernia. Significant as these groups of loan-words are, they are not
more so than the absence of important borrowing from the
Latin in other spheres in which the ruling people might have
been expected to dominate their half-civilised subjects. Hardly
any of the technical terms of Welsh law and politics, as they
emerge in the Middle Ages, are derived from Latin sources ;
129 Urk. Spr. 126, 127, 7, 158, 103. 121 Ibid. 61, 170.
122 Ibid, gg, 241. ™ Arch. Camb. VI. i. (1901), 24-38.

88 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, popular speech may employ such words as " ciwdod " (folk),
IIL " pobl " (people), " estron " (foreigner), and " gwig " (village),
but the language of the courts and of the text-books knows
(with the exception of " tyst," a witness, and a few others) no
such alien terms ; its"gwlad" (country), " tref" (settlement),
" alltud " (stranger), " cenedl " (kindred), "aillt" (serf), " bren-
hin " (chieftain), and "brawdwr" (judge),124 in short, the names
of the cardinal features of the Welsh system of law and society,
are of undoubtedly native origin. The impression thus created,
that Roman law, so potent a force in every country in which
Roman influence really made itself felt, found no permanent
foothold in Wales, will be deepened upon examination of the
substance of the Welsh codes. Though it is possible to discern,
especially if comparison be made with Irish legal ideas and
methods, the effect of intercourse with a people among whom
the central authority was strong, the main ideas reflected in
these codes are the primitive and tribal, and it is, in particular,
difficult to imagine any race which had gone through the mill
of Roman jurisprudence retaining the blood-feud and the
composition for manslaughter.
A few other indications there are which show the extent of
Roman influence in Wales. Certain personal names, such as
Ambrosius (Emrys), ^Eternus (Edern), Agricola (Aergol),
Tacitus (Tegid), and Donatus (Dunod), became popular among
the tribes, but this was chiefly, no doubt, as the result of the
introduction of Christianity and therefore at the close of the
period of Roman occupation. Two or three Roman sites,
such as Caerwent and Caerfyrddin, are also known to have re
tained, after the withdrawal of the troops, the names which they
had previously borne, but against these must be set a much
larger number, such as Caerhun, Caerlleon, Caerllion, Caergybi,
and Mur y Castell, of which the names are recent, or at any
rate have not come from Roman lips. Lastly, it has to be
added that, while excavation has not as yet done much in
Wales to bring to light actual vestiges of the British settle
ments of the Roman period, the scanty evidence which is
afforded in no way runs counter to the view of the matter
which has been put forward above. In 1 849 M,r. W. Wynne
124 Urk. Spr. 262, 137, 22, 77, 21 (see corrigenda), i6g. For " brenin " see
Celt. Br. (2), p. 282.

WALES UNDER ROMAN RULE. 89
Foulkes conducted a systematic exploration of the hill-fort- CHAP.
resses which crown the long mountain rampart to the east of IIIg
the Vale of Clwyd. There was clear evidence that they had
been occupied both during and after the Roman period. On
Moel Fenlli, Romano-British pottery was found in association
with a stone knife ; a hoard of coins, ranging in date over the
whole of the period of occupation, had also been exposed by a
chance fire on the heathy hillside.125 Moel y Gaer, too,
yielded Roman pottery, which lay beneath the defences upon
the original surface of the rock ; 126 pottery of the same type,
with flint arrow-heads and vestiges of iron, came to light on
Moel Arthur.127 Roman coins and fragments of " Samian "
ware were also found during the excavation of the ancient
dwellings on Holyhead Island, which appear to have been in
habited by a mining population in a very rudimentary stage of
culture.128 Roman civilisation, then, while it imported many new in
fluences into the old Celtic society, did not break up its essen
tial structure or sever its connection with the past. It left
Wales richer in many respects, its parting gift of a new re
ligion (to be dealt with in the next chapter) being the greatest
of all it bestowed, but the land remained a home of primitive
ways and ideas, the dwelling-place of a people who, taken as a
whole, had scarcely attained the level of culture of the Britons
of the south-east at the time of the Roman conquest.129
Note to Chapter III. § i. Caratacus.
The popular form, Caractacus, comes from the early editions of Tacitus, in
which the value of the Medicean MS., as the only independent authority for the
text of Annals, xi.-xvi., was not properly recognised. In this MS. the name ap
pears almost always as Caratac(us), and this is the form which, according to the
rules of Celtic philology, would yield the Welsh " Caradog". The name is to
be connected with " car-u," to love ; in Irish it is found as " Carthach," whence
the modern McCarthy (Celt. Br. p. 284 ; Urk. Spr. 71).
Welsh tradition knows nothing of a Caradog ap Cynfelyn 13° and has handed
mArch. Camb. II. i. (1850), 82-7. 12sIbid. 174-81. ™ Ibid. 181-5.
128 Cyttiau'r Gwyddelod, by the Hon. W. O. Stanley (London, 1871).
129 Vinogradoff , in his Growth of the Manor (London, 1905), takes very
definitely the view that the Romans did not attempt to uproot Celtic customs
and institutions in Western Britain, and that even in the rest of the country Celtic
speech and tradition survived. See bk. i. chap. 2.
130 There is a " Caratauc map Cinbelin " in one of the pedigrees in Harl. MS.
3859 (Cymr. ix. 176), but nothing seems to connect him in any way with the
Caradog under discussion.

90 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, down no recollection of the gallant deeds of the Catuvellaunian prince. Its
III. silence on this subject and on the no less stirring theme of the exploits of Boudica
is clear proof that it does not really carry us beyond the period of the Roman
occupation ; the so-called Historical Triads, while they may throw some gleams
of light on the sixth and the seventh centuries, can do nothing to enlighten
the darkness of the first. Even Geoffrey of Monmouth, ignorant as he was of
the writings of Tacitus, is silent as to the fame of Caratacus, whose eventful
career, had he known of it, would have provided him with the material for several
eloquent chapters. Two Caradogs are commemorated in the Welsh mediaeval
writings, but neither can be identified with the opponent of Ostorius. The one
is Caradog ap Bran Fendigaid, a figure in the mythological group of which the
doings are rehearsed in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. When his father
Bran the Blessed led an expedition to Ireland, he was left in charge of Britain
as the chief of seven ministers or guardians (" kynweissat ") ; his father's cousin,
Caswallon ap Beli, then came upon him, slew the other six under cover of a
magic veil which concealed everything save the death-dealing weapon, and took
the kingdom from him, so that he died of a broken heart (Mab. 35, 41 ; cf. W.
People, pp. 40-1). In accordance with this, Caradog ap Bran appears in the
Triads (though not in the oldest form of the triad — see Mab. 302 and Myv. Arch.
II. 12 (397)) as one of the Three Chief Ministers of the Isle of Britain (Myv.
Arch. II. 4 (389), and IV. Anc. Bks. ii. 458). The other Caradog known to
Welsh tradition is Caradog of the Stout Arm (Freichfras), a figure of the Ar
thurian cycle. He is represented as the son of Llyr Merini (Mab. 150, 261), as
chief counsellor to Arthur, as a friend of St. Padarn (Cambro-Br. SS. 193) and
as ancestor of the rulers of Brycheiniog (Breconsh. (2), pp. 28, 35) and of Morgan
nwg (Cymr. viii. 85). In spite of what is said by Camden (Britannia, 524) and
Rhys (Arth. Legend, p. 172), he appears to be clearly distinguished both from
the Caradog of the Mabinogi and the Caratacus of history.

CHAPTER IV.
THE FIFTH CENTURY.
I. Britain Lost to the Empire.
(In this section I owe much to the guidance afforded by Dr. Hodgkin in
Italy and her Invaders.)
The fifth century beheld the overthrow of that marvellous chap.
imperial system which had lasted so long that men had almost Iv-
come to regard it as immortal. Unable to resist any longer
the pressure of barbarian invasion, Rome bent her head to the
storm, and, though Constantinople carried on for centuries the
imperial traditions, the Teutonic flood submerged Western
Europe and swept away for ever the symbols of Roman great
ness. Yet it must not be supposed that the causes of this great
catastrophe were purely external. The barbarians of the North
had for ages threatened the borders of the Empire and had
occasionally broken through them in wild forays, but until the
beginning of the fifth century they had won hardly any lasting
successes ; some great captain or other had always arisen to
vindicate the honour of Rome and drive them back into their
forests. If they now succeeded, it was because the Empire had
lost, through internal decay, its power of effective resistance.
There was a general collapse of the arrangements for imperial
defence, and this, it has been pointed out,1 was the result of
the economic situation. The ill-advised measures of the govern
ment had reduced to misery and almost extinguished the
middle class of the provinces, the smaller landowners who
bore the main burden of taxation and whose industry and
frugality made them the backbone of the Empire. Wealth
1 Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Empire (1898), pp. 204-34.
According to Vinogradoff, Growth of the Manor, undue stress has been laid on
this element in the problem, which still remains unsolved (pp. 67-8, 73-4).
91

92 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, there was still in abundance, but it was in the hands of a few,
IV whose lands were tilled by servile labour and who contrived in
a great measure to evade their obligations to the state. Thus
the Empire fell as much, if not more, through its own weak
ness than through the might of the assailants.
Britain, as an outlying member of the Roman State, was
one of the first to feel the effects of this lowered vitality. At
the end of the third century it had been for a time cut off from
the rest of the Roman State through the achievements of
Carausius, the Belgic adventurer 2 who first showed the insular
strength of Britain and the ease with which an invader could
be held at arm's length, when once the control of the Channel
had been secured. The connection with Rome was, however,
restored by Constantius, the father of Constantine the Great,
and thenceforth maintained until the last quarter of the fourth
century ; it is not until the age of Gratian and Theodosius I.
is reached that plain signs appear of the coming dissolution.
Maximus, a Spanish soldier of humble origin, who had held
a minor post in the household of Theodosius when that
emperor was with his father in Britain,3 was stirred up by his
late master's sudden rise to make a desperate bid for greatness
himself. He found the troops which guarded Britain profoundly
discontented with the rule of Gratian and had no difficulty in
organising a movement for his own election as emperor.4
Crossing at the head of his army to Gaul he soon came face
to face with Gratian, whom he caused to be slain on 25th
August, 383. Gaul, Spain and Britain were now his, and for
2 He was, according to Sextus Aurelius Victor, who flourished in the middle
of the next century, " Menapiae civis " (De Ccesaribus, 39). As the contempor
ary panegyrist of Constantine calls Maximus an "alumnus" of Batavia (Pane-
gyrici Latini, ed. Baehrens, p. 163), I see no reason why we should look further
for his origin than the tribe of Menapii who dwelt in the region between the
mouths of the Scheldt and the Meuse. See, on the other hand, W. People, p. gg.
The name became popular in Britain and was borne by a contemporary of the
usurper Constantine who issued a coin found not long ago at Richborough (A. J.
Evans in Arch. Camb. V. v. pp. 138-63) and by a Christian who was buried in
a cairn near Penmachno (Carnarvonshire) somewhat later in the fifth century
(Lap. W. 175-6; Inscr. Chr. No. 136).
3 The abuse of Ausonius (Ordo Urbium Nobilium, v. 70) and of Pacatus
(Panegyrici Latini, ed. Baehrens, pp. 2g8-g) must rest on some fact of this kind.
4 " Invitus. . . imperator creatus," says Orosius (Adversum Paganos, vii.
34). But this was the emperor's standing excuse ; see the life of St. Martin by
Sulpicius Severus, c. 20. The form Clemens Maximus is due to a misreading of
a passage (ii. 4g, ed. Halm) in the Chronicle of Sulpicius.

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 93
several years he ruled them not unjustly, winning the favour CHAP.
of St. Martin of Tours, whose prejudice against a usurper he
contrived to overcome. But his ambition was not yet sated ;
in 387 he attacked Italy, having collected for the purpose a
great army of natives of Britain and Gaul.5 At first successful,
he was in 388 overthrown at Aquileia by Theodosius, who
thus regained Western Europe for its legitimate rulers, Valen-
tinian II. and himself. Such was the true career of the " Macsen
Wledig " (Prince Maxen) of Welsh romance ; in the mediaeval
accounts he is an emperor who has thirty-two crowned kings
as his vassals, who journeys from Rome to Carnarvon to wed
Elen, the daughter of a Welsh chief, and who recaptures the
imperial city, taken by his enemies during his absence, with
the aid of his wife's brave kinsmen.6 The story, fantastic
though it be, bears witness to the abiding impression made
upon the people of Britain by the personality and the exploits
of Maximus ; it is, moreover, noteworthy that history and
fable alike speak of him as one who enlisted the youth of
Britain in his military enterprises, thus weakening the province
in its struggle against its barbarian foes. Gildas perhaps puts
the matter too strongly when he alleges that Maximus despoiled
the country of all its soldiers and military supplies,7 but there
can be no doubt that the strength of the garrison was reduced
to carry out his ambitious schemes and that the way was thus
prepared for the final separation of Britain from the Empire.
A few years after the death of Maximus there was a
temporary strengthening of the army of occupation, as the
result of the energy and vigilance of Stilicho, the great general
and minister of the Emperor Honorius.8 But in 402 Stilicho
seems to have withdrawn, for service against Alaric and the
host of Goths who were invading Italy, the legion (probably the
sixth) which was specially charged with the defence of the
5Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, vii. 13. Pacatus refers to the " satelli-
tum Britannorum" of Maximus, who did his rough work in Gaul (Pan. Lat. p.
297)- 6 " Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig " (Prince Maxen's Dream) is one of the
stories included in the Mabinogion. For the Red Book text see Mab. 82-g2.
7"Exin Britannia omni armato milite, militaribus copiis, rectoribus licet
immanibus, ingenti iuventute spoliata, quae comitata vestigiis supra dicti tyranni
(i.e., Maximi) domum nusquam ultra remit" (c. 14).
8 Claudian, On the First Consulship of Stilicho, ii. vv. 250-5.

94 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, northern frontier of Britain.9 It was then, in all probability,
a sadly diminished body of soldiery which in 406 found its
communications with Rome cut by the Teutonic occupation of
a large part of Gaul, and in its alarm began to cast about for
the means of ensuring its own safety. Three emperors, Marcus,
Gratian and Constantine, were chosen in the space of a few
months ; the first two lost life and office in quick succession,
the third, although only a common soldier at the time of his
elevation, was more fortunate — he led his troops across the
Channel and made for himself a position in Gaul which he
maintained until 411. But the army which he carried off was
the last which held the province for Rome ; when the in
habitants learnt that it was henceforth no part of Constantine's
policy to defend Britain from barbarian attack, they ceased to
look to the Empire for protection, made their own military
arrangements and dismissed such civil officers of Rome as still
remained in the island.10 No doubt they still regarded them
selves as in theory members of the Empire, and the letter
in which Honorius in 410 exhorted them to strenuous self-
defence u should by no means be taken as a grant of independ
ence ; yet for all practical purposes Roman rule in Britain was
at an end. II. The British Defence of Britain.
By the withdrawal of the military protection of Rome, the
province was left at the mercy of three groups of barbarian
freebooters. The Saxons, a general name for the Low German
plunderers who came from beyond the Frisian country, had
menaced the south-eastern coast of Britain for more than a
century, for they were among the foes with whom it was the
special business of Carausius to deal when he took advantage of
9 Claudian, Gothic War, w. 416-8. Hodgkin (Italy and her Invaders, vol. i.
(2), 716) understands this passage of the Twentieth Legion, which is nowhere
mentioned in the " Notitia," and was, he suggests, in transit when that docu
ment was compiled.
10 Zosimus (vi. 5) is very explicit as to the steps taken by the Britons and is
probably following here the earlier narrative of Olympiodorus. Coulanges takes
the view that the " Roman officers " dislodged were merely those appointed by
the usurper Constantine and that this was a preliminary to a return to loyalty.
There is no hint in the narrative of anything of the kind. See L'Invasion Ger-
manique, Paris, i8gi, pp. 6-7.
11 Zosimus, vi. 10.

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 95
the possession of a fleet to make himself supreme in the island. CHAP
In order to check their piratical onslaughts, new military
arrangements had been made in this quarter of Britain ; forts
had been built and garrisoned on the threatened coast-line and
a new officer, styled Count of the Saxon Shore in Britain, had
been placed in command of the troops detailed for this service.
The Picts first appear under this name in the years following
the overthrow of Carausius and his successor, Allectus ; the
term soon gained favour as a convenient general description
of the unconquered tribes of Northern Britain, whose hostile
attitude was the chief military problem which had to be faced
by the governors of the province from the time of Agricola to
that of the usurper Constantine. " Painted folk " they certainly
were, tattooing their faces and bodies with the figures of birds
and beasts, but it is not certain that this was the real origin of
the name.12 Against the inroads of the Picts the province had
been fortified with especial care. Two great barriers had been
raised at different times to keep them at arm's length ; the
first, running from the Tyne to the Solway Firth, had been
constructed in the time of the Emperor Hadrian ; the second,
connecting the Forth and the Clyde, under his successor,
Antoninus Pius. It had not been found practicable to hold the
northern line of defence for more than a few years,13 but the
southern, of which the remains are still to be seen in great
abundance, was one of the most important links in the im
perial frontier system and was guarded at all times by a very
considerable force.
The third quarter from which the province suffered attack
was Ireland. It has already been suggested 14 that the danger
of Irish invasion was one against which provision was made
from the start, that this was, in fact, one reason for the estab
lishment of strong legionary stations at Chester and at Caerleon.
But it is only at the end of the period of Roman occupation
that evidence actually occurs of Irish inroads ; in 360 is found
the first mention of the " Scotti," as acting with the Picts in
certain raids in the region of the northern barriers.16 The
12 For another explanation see W . People, p. 7g.
13 This is the view of Prof. Haverfield (Social England, illustrated edition,
i. p. 92). Cf. also Edinburgh Review, April, i8gg, p. 376.
14 P. 82. 15 Ammianus Marcellinus, xx. 1.

96 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Scots, who were not for many ages to give to the land in which
they afterwards settled its modern name of Scotland, were
dwellers in the North of Ireland, and thus their association
with the Picts was natural, for the passage from Ulster to
Galloway, which is known to have been a Pictish country,
was easily accomplished. So Gildas speaks of their attacking
Britain from the north-west, while the Picts hailed from the
north.16 Partly, no doubt, they came by land, in which case
the obstacle set in their path was the Wall of Hadrian ; but many
crossed the Irish Sea in the rude skiffs they termed coracles,
whose dark hulls, says Gildas, might be seen creeping across
the glassy surface of the main like so many insects awakened
from torpor by the heat of the noonday sun and making with
one accord for some familiar haunt.17 How the western coast
was defended at this time is not at all certain ; the document
which forms the chief authority for the organisation of the
Empire at the beginning of the fifth century, the " Notitia
Dignitatum," shows no legion at Chester or Caerleon, the
Twentieth having disappeared and the Second being stationed
at Rutupiae, our Richborough, at this time the chief British
port on the Straits of Dover.18 On the whole, it seems likely
that the western system of frontier defence had been kept up
to a comparatively late period, but had broken down about the
time of Maximus.
A theory has, indeed, been put forward that during the
third and the fourth centuries of our era the western regions of
Britain were not only constantly ravaged, but to a large extent
settled by Irish sea-rovers.19 In this way is explained the
presence in Wales and the Cornish peninsula of a substantial
Goidelic-speaking element in the population, as unmistakably
evidenced by the inscriptions on their tombstones. A different
explanation has, however, been adopted in the foregoing
chapters, so far as Wales, at least, is concerned, namely, that
18 " Scottorum a circione, Pictorum ab aquilone " (c. 14).
17 C. ig. For Gildas see chap. v. is Not. Dig. 181.
19 See a paper by Prof. Kuno Meyer in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion
Society for 1895-6 (pp. 55-86). The view there expressed is endorsed by Prof.
Zimmer (The Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland, Eng. tr., 1902, p. 17) and
M. Arbois de Jubainville (Rev. Celt, xviii. p. 355). Sir John Rhys replies briefly in
W. People, pp. 82-3.

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 97
the Irish thus commemorated by inscriptions in their own chap.
tongue were the ancient inhabitants of the land, who had not Iv"
been dislodged by the advancing tide of Brythonic invasion
when the " Roman peace " put an end to tribal warfare. This
explanation, though not without its difficulties, certainly gains
force when regarded in the light of what is known as to the
Roman occupation of Wales. It has already been shown that
the road which led from Caerleon to Carmarthen was in regular
use in the age of Diocletian (284-3 13),20 and, if evidence of the
activity of the Romans in South Wales in the fourth century
is of the scantiest, this is equally true of the province of
Britain generally. There is, in short, no indication that the
conquerors so far relaxed their hold upon the west in the last
two centuries of their occupation of the island as to leave
room for a real settlement, carried out on a large scale by
Goidelic invaders.
At the same time, it is not only possible, but likely that
between the Goidels of Wales and those of the opposite coast
there was regular intercourse. Roman coins have been found
in great abundance on the east coast of Ireland,21 bearing
witness to a certain amount of commerce between the two
countries. Along with trade there may well have been a
certain amount of peaceful colonisation, leading to the forma
tion of ties of kindred between the subject and the independent
Goidels. Wherever and whenever the Romans relaxed their
hold, these ties would become important and would serve as a
basis for the building up of native dynasties. It is thus one
can most readily explain the interesting facts brought out by
the upholders of the invasion theory — that some of the Goidels
of South Wales were known by the same tribal name (" Kin
of Letan ") as the Ui Liathain, an Irish tribe settled between
Cork and Lismore,22 and that in the eighth century Tewdos
ap Rhain, king of Dyfed, was claimed by the Deisi of our
county Waterford as a descendant of one of their chieftains,
29 P. 78.
21 G. T. Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, second edition (1888),
p. 16. 22"Filii autem Liethan obtinuerunt in regione Demetorum et in aliis re-
gionibus id est Guir (et) Cetgueli " (Hist. Britt. c. 14). Cormac in his Glossary
also places a " Dind map Letani " among the Cornish Britons (s.v. mugeime).
VOL. I. 7

98 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Eochaid Allmuir, whose surname points him out as one who
IV- had sought his fortune beyond the sea.23
The task thrown upon the inhabitants of Britain by the
withdrawal of the Roman forces was, it will be seen, one of
grave difficulty. Nor is there anything to show that it was
not manfully entered upon and vigorously carried out. The
popular notion that, as soon as the legions departed, the
Britons weakly resigned themselves to their fate and offered
no serious opposition to their foes, rests entirely upon the
language of Gildas, whose object it undoubtedly was to convey
this impression. But Gildas writes more than a century after
the departure of the Roman army and in such dense ignorance
of the history of the island as to suppose that the Wall of
Hadrian and the forts of the Saxon Shore were only built on
the eve of the withdrawal, in order to help the distressed pro
vincials in the performance of their new duties. Moreover, he
writes with a purpose, which is to convict the British nation
(Briton though he is himself) of unfaithfulness to God, and to
show that its calamities flow directly from its vices. In the
earlier chapters of his work, misunderstanding a passage in the
history of his chief authority, Paulus Orosius, he makes the
truly astonishing statement that the conquest of Britain by the
Romans was a bloodless one, threats and judgments serving
instead of fire and sword, and the usual engines of war ! 24
Having thus begun by painting the Britons as shifty cowards,
he continues to represent them in that light as long as he can,
until he reaches victories of which the memory is so vivid that
he must perforce alter his tone. Little importance, therefore,
attaches to the general outlines of Gildas's picture, though it is
23 See the Irish tale edited by Prof. Kuno Meyer for vol. xiv. of the Cym-
mrodor. The Welsh form of the pedigree is to be found in Harl. MS. 3859
(Cymr. ix. 171) and Jesus College (Oxford) MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 86).
24 Orosius, following Suetonius (Claudius, 17), says (Adv. Pag. vii. 6) that
the emperor Claudius "sine ullo proelio ac sanguine intra paucissimos dies
plurimam insulae partem in deditionem recipit ". The ground had been so well
prepared by Aulus Plautius that the emperor himself, when he came over, had
nothing to do but receive the submission of foes already conquered. Gildas
takes the passage as meaning that at no stage were the Romans resisted : " im-
bellemque populum . . . non tam ferro igne machinis, ut alias gentes, quam
solis minis vel iudiciorum concussionibus . . . subiugavit" (c. 5). The " Par-
thorum pacem " mentioned earlier in the chapter is, of course, that in the time
of Augustus (20 B.C.), to which Orosius so often recurs (Adv. Pag. i. 1 ; iii. 8;
vi. 21).

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 99
likely enough that it preserves for us some valuable details, CHAP,
such as the appeal for help in 446 (or soon afterwards) to
Aetius, ruler of Northern Gaul in the name of Valentinian III.25
The facts are, that the Picts and the Scots were kept almost
entirely out of the province and that the Saxons only effected
a lodgment in it after a long struggle ; obscure as is the history
of the period, it may be regarded as certain that the place of
the Roman legions was taken by a fairly efficient fighting
organisation. In its main features the new system was, no doubt, a con
tinuation of the old. The existing walls and forts gave the
starting-point that was needed, and it was a simple matter to
appoint new officers in place of those who had left. According
to the " Notitia Dignitatum," 26 there were in Britain three
important military officials in the closing years of the Roman
occupation. The Count of Britain commanded forces which
were not assigned to the defence of any particular district, but
were available to meet any unexpected danger. The Count of
the Saxon Shore had under him the Second Legion and the
other troops which garrisoned the nine forts of the south-eastern
coast. The Duke of the Britains was in charge of Hadrian's
Wall, with the Sixth Legion and the garrisons of thirty-six forts
at his command. No clear trace has yet come to light of a
successor to the Count of Britain, though Sir John Rhys sug
gests that this was the real part played by Arthur, who is
commonly termed " emperor " by Welsh tradition.27 But the
duties of the other two officers appear to have been carried on
by certain Britons who were dignified with the title of " gwledig ".
Derived from a Celtic root signifying " authority, lordship," 28
this term in itself means no more than " prince, ruler," and is
so employed in mediaeval Welsh literature.29 It does not
seem, however, to be applied to any historical figure of later
2S Aetius might be addressed as " ter consul " not only in 446, but in any
year thereafter until his fourth consulship and death in 454.
28 Pp. 180, 182, 209. 27 W. People, p. 105.
28 Celt. Br. (2), p. 67; Urk. Spr. 262.
29 See, for instance, the proverb from the Red Book of Hergest printed by
Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans in the Transactions of the Liverpool Eisteddfod of 1884 :
" Gnawd gwin yn Haw wledig," i.e., " One expects wine in the hand of a prince ".
Cf. also Myv. Arch. I. 192 (142), where the Deity is called " gwledig gwlad orfod,"
" lord of the realm of fate ". », *

ioo HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, date than the middle of the sixth century, and thus the con-
IV" jecture of Sir John Rhys, that it is, in the names in which
it occurs, a Brythonic rendering of " dux " and " comes," has
much to recommend it.30 Of the four best-known wearers of
the title, Macsen Wledig belongs, of course, to the Roman
period; Cunedda Wledig and Ceredig Wledig are connected
with the North and appear to be guardians of the wall, while
Emrys Wledig, the Ambrosius Aurelianus of Gildas, is the
antagonist of the Saxons. Thus Cunedda and Ceredig may
be regarded as Dukes of the Britains, while Emrys is a British
Count of the Saxon Shore.31
It was inevitable that in the altered state of things the
military element should outweigh and reduce to insignificance
the civil. Rome had governed the province with the aid of
two distinct sets of officers ; and her civil functionaries, re
sponsible as they were for justice and finance, were no less
important than the captains of her troops. But, in ceasing to
form part of a great imperial system, Britain lost the impulse
which gave life and vigour to her civil institutions, and it was
but natural that power should now fall entirely into the hands
of the men who rendered the country the first and most neces
sary service by freeing it from its foes. One sign of this
shifting of the centre of gravity is the disappearance of the
cities as a political force in the island. City life, it would ap
pear, was at no time very highly developed in Roman Britain ; 32
yet it was to the cities Honorius wrote when he bade the
Britons defend themselves, and they might have been expected
to play some part in the struggle with the barbarians. There
is no evidence that they did so ; Gildas speaks in the next
century of their past glories, the solid walls, the lofty towers,
30 This view is expounded in Celt. Br. (2), p. 104 and W. People, pp. 105-8.
Skene had previously suggested that " gwledig " was the Welsh equivalent of
"imperator" (IV. Anc.Bks. i. p. 48). Geoffrey of Monmouth seems to have been
puzzled by the title in the case of Macsen, whom he styles " Maximianum senat-
orem " (Hist. Reg. v. 9).
31 A number of chiefs are styled " gwledig " in the Mabinogion (see Mab.
342), but the only one of them (save Macsen) of whom anything is known is
Amlodd Wledig, who is represented as the maternal grandfather of several not
able figures in British fable and history, including Arthur and Illtud. See Mab.
100 ; Myv. Arch. II. 25 (416) ; Cambro-Br. SS. 158, and Myv. Arch. II. 28g
(461). ¦2 Social England, illustrated ed., i. p. 83 (F. Haverfield).

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 101
the well-built houses,33 but in the ruin which marked the CHAP.
barbarians' progress they fell, according to him, without re- IV-
covery, and in his own age still lay in hideous overthrow,
desolate and untenanted.34 Calpurnius, the father of St. Patrick,
was a " decurio " or town councillor of some British city, but
this did not prevent a band of pirate Scots from plundering his
country estate and carrying off his young son into degrading
captivity.35 The case is typical and makes it easy to under
stand how in this crisis the cities lost such authority and
prestige as they had, and how those who could command
military force became the supreme arbiters of the destinies of
the island. Of what origin the men were who now stepped to the
front in Britain it is not very easy to say. Ambrosius
Aurelianus, says Gildas, was the son of one who had worn
the imperial purple, having, no doubt, been made emperor by
the Britons ; he appears in the narrative as the only man of
" Roman " race left in the island.36 He belonged, it is likely,
to a family founded by some Roman official. For Rome still
exercised her majestic sway over the minds of the Britons,
though she had ceased to command their obedience. St.
Patrick, in the middle of this fifth century, and Gildas, a
hundred years later, claim to be regarded as " cives," heirs
and custodians of Roman civilisation, in opposition to the
untamed barbarians. 37 Germanus of Auxerre, visiting Britain
in 429, makes the acquaintance of a great man who wields
" tribunician power ".38 Even a thoroughly Celtic king like
Voteporix, ruler of Dyfed in the days of Gildas, has graven on
33 C. 3. In this chapter Gildas has, I believe, used an old description of the
province, no longer applicable in respect of its account of the twenty-eight cities.
34 " Sed ne nunc quidem, ut antea, civitates patriae inhabitantur ; sed deserts
dirutaeque hactenus squalent " (c. 26). Mommsen must have overlooked this pas
sage when he hazarded the suggestion that the cities still survived, though ruin
ous, in the age of Gildas, and were centres, in the sixth century, of Latin speech
(preface to Gildas, p. 10).
35 See § iii. of this chapter. m C. 25.
37 For St. Patrick, see his letter to the subjects of Coroticus (Ceredig Wledig
of Strathclyde), addressed "non dico ciuibus meis atque ciuibus sanctorum Ro-
manorum, sed ciuibus daemoniorum ob mala opera ipsorum, qui barbarorum ritu
hostili in morte vivunt " (H. and St. ii. 314). For Gildas, see especially the end
of c. 26 : " Quippe quid celabunt cives, quae non solum norunt sed exprobrant
iam in circuitu nationes ? "
38 Bede, H.E. i. 18.

IV.

102 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, his tombstone no Celtic title, but the high-sounding style of
" protector ". 39 These are facts which show that, when it
was possible, the new rulers were glad to establish a connection
with the old order of things and to represent themselves as
lawful successors of the former officials.
But it is fairly certain that it was not so much the official
class as the wealthy landowners of Britain who supplied the
new leaders of the British people. In Gaul the old landed
families of the country, proud of their descent and tilling vast
estates by the labour of a peasantry little better than slaves,
form at this period the most prominent feature of provincial
society,40 and the conditions in the settled parts of Britain
were probably much the same. Wealth and the habit of
command would give members of this class the advantage
necessary to raise them to power in the general struggle for
ascendancy, and from it no doubt sprang the " tyranni " of the
fifth century, men like Cunedda Wledig and Vortigern, who,
whatever titles they may have assumed, were in point of fact
the founders of Celtic dynasties.
III. The Beginnings of Christianity.
(On the subject of the early British Church there is a considerable literature.
Nearly all the documentary evidence is given, in a most convenient form, in the
first and second volumes of , Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, for which
Mr. Haddan was responsible. The following works, dealing generally with the
subject, have also been used: Usher, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates
(Dublin, 1639) ; Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Oxford,
1881) ; Loofs, Antiquae Britonum Scotorumque Ecclesiae quales fuerint mores, etc.,
(Leipzig and London, 1882) ; Romilly Allen, Monumental History of the Early
British Church (London, i88g). More recently, the whole ground has been tra
versed and new questions raised by Hugh Williams in the " Christian Church in
Wales " (Transactions of Cymmrodorion Society for i8g3-4), by Haverfield in the
English Historical Review for July, i8g6 (vol. xi. pp. 417 et seq.), and by Zimmer
in his article on the Celtic Church in the Realencyclopddie fur protestantische
Theologie und Kirche (vol. x.), separately issued in an English translation in
1902 (London). For a searching review of the last named by Prof. Williams see
the Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie, iv. pp. 527-74 (Halle, 1903).)
No one has yet succeeded in penetrating the darkness
which hangs around the first preaching of Christianity in
Britain. Such was the fascination of the subject that legends
were certain to grow up around it, and mediaeval writers do
89 See pp. 115 and 132.
40 Dill, Roman Society, p. 167; Edinburgh Review, April, i8gg, p. 386.

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 103
not fail to bring hither apostles and other New Testament CHAP.
figures, such as Joseph of Arimathaea, as the first Christian
missionaries.41 Welshmen have been taught to believe that
the father of the great Caratacus accompanied his son to Rome,
there became a convert to the new faith, and, returning as a
missionary to his native land, won immortal renown as " Bran
the Blessed ",42 A very old story, which gained credit at Rome
as early as the end of the seventh century, tells how a pope
of the second century was asked by one " Lucius, King of the
Britains," to send a mission to this country, which became in
consequence a Christian land.43 Upon examination, these
and similar stories vanish into thin air, and all that is certain
is that at the beginning of the fourth century, when Christianity
secured the protection and patronage of the Emperor Constan
tine the Great, it had already obtained a footing and made
some progress in Britain. That the British martyrs honoured
in later ages, Albanus of Verulamium, Aaron and Julius of
Isca,44 suffered in the great persecution which preceded this
sudden change of fortune, may be reasonably supposed, though
Gildas, who had heard something of their story, is not able
to say so with certainty.46 The first ascertained fact in the
history of British Christianity is that in 314 the bishops of
three British churches, those of York, London and (probably)
41 H. and St. i. 22-4.
42 The Bran story is only found in the Third and latest series of Triads
(Myv. Arch. II. 61, 63 (402, 404)), and the related Iolo MSS. (100, 115, 135, 147).
It was unknown even to Theophilus Evans, as late as the appearance in 1740 of
the second edition of Drych y Prif Oesoedd. Rees (Welsh SS. 77-81) showed
that it could not be reconciled with what is known of Caratacus and his family.
No doubt Rhys is right in supposing (Arth. Legend, pp. 172-3) that the mischief
began with a misunderstanding of the name Bran Fendigaid (the Blessed).
43 The Lucius story, in itself incredible, was not known, it would seem, to
Gildas, Augustine of Canterbury or Aldhelm. It first appears in this country in
the works of Bede (H.E. i. 4 and v. 24 ; see also De Temporum Ratione in Opp.
vi. 305), who, however, drew his information from a Roman source, the Liber
Pontificalis. See H. and St. i. 25 ; Nenn. V. 140-6 ; Cymr. Trans. i8g3-4, 62-4
(Hugh Williams). Harnack has recently shown how the story originated; see
Eng. Hist. Rev. xxii. 767-70.
44 " Legionum (for legionis) urbis cives," says Gildas (c. 10). This might
refer either to Deva (Caerlleon) or Isca (Caerllion), but the local tradition (see
Lib. Land. 225, " territorium sanctorum martirum iulii et aaron ") must be
allowed some weight.
45,1 Ut conicimus " is the true reading (p. 31 of Mommsen's edition), " cog-
noscimus" occurring only in the inferior (Cambridge) MS. Ff. I. 27.

104 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Lincoln,46 attended a council summoned to Aries in Southern
Gaul to determine controversies which had arisen among the
churches of Africa. It was as the result of the expansion
of the new religion in an Empire in which communications
were good and ideas rapidly circulated, and not in consequence
of any notable missionary campaign, that the Christian faith
was first planted in this island.
During the next century, the last of the Roman occupation,
the area covered by Christianity, which was now the imperial
creed, was no doubt greatly extended, so that at the time of
the severance from the Empire the whole province, so far as
it was really Roman, may be regarded as Christian. Maximus,
for instance, was not only a Christian, but took pains to put
himself forward as a special champion of orthodoxy. It is
true that archaeology furnishes very little evidence of the
presence of Christians in the island during the Roman period,
but it has been already remarked that it tells us little of any
aspect of fourth-century life in Britain ; moreover, one very
important bit of evidence has recently been unearthed at
Silchester. Here, on the site of the little town of Calleva, a
Roman settlement which was built within the circuit of the
tribal fort of the Atrebates, the foundations were laid bare in
1892 of a building generally recognised to be a fourth-century
Christian church. It measured 27 feet by 42, was approached
at the eastern end by a porch, and had within the apse which
rounded off the western end a mosaic panel which probably
marked the position of a movable altar. In its design the
structure closely resembles the early basilicas of Africa and
Italy, and, as the earliest known place of Christian worship in
Britain, it is of altogether unique interest.47 Further light on
the advance made by Christianity in this century is to be ob
tained from the accounts of the Council of Rimini (359), at
which British bishops were present in such force as to make
the action of three of their number who took a line of their own
appear as that of an inconsiderable minority.48
48 The Corbey MS. has " colonia Londinensium '' (H. and St. i. 7). This
has been variously corrected, but the suggestion of Lingard, that it is an error
for " Lindensium," appears the most reasonable. See Eng. Hist. Rev. xi. p. 419
(Haverfield). "Ibid. xi. p. 424; Encyclopedia Britannica, 10th edition, vol. xxxii. p. 627.
48 Zimmer (Celtic Church, p. 4) shows how this is involved in the language
of Sulpicius Severus (Chron. ii. 41, ed. Halm : " tres tantum ex Britannia")

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 1 05
The question whether this growth of the new religion CHAP
extended in the fourth century beyond the bounds of the area
of which Roman civilisation was in full possession is a more
difficult one, and has given rise to widely divergent views. " It
is difficult to believe," says Prof. Hugh Williams, " that there
were Christian churches in Wales before the beginning of the
fifth century." 49 Prof. Zimmer, on the other hand, thinks it
likely that " Christianity was gradually spread throughout
Ireland in the fourth century by Irish-speaking Britons ".60
On the whole, the balance of evidence seems to favour the
former view. The army, it is said, was the part of the imperial
system which longest retained the leaven of paganism ; nowhere
was Christianity weaker than at the military centres.61 Hence
it is not surprising that scarcely a trace of it is to be found at
Isca or Deya or in the region of the Walls, and it will also
follow that the Welsh tribes and those of the North were not
likely to have heard much of the new creed from their nearest
Roman neighbours. Testimony, at any rate, is so far wanting that
any of the more primitive communities of the island had accepted
Christianity before the closing years of the fourth century.
About this time, however, a powerful impetus was given to
missionary work by the extension to Britain of the monastic
movement. Beginning in the deserts of Egypt, this passion
for a life of bodily mortification and freedom from common
joys and cares had travelled steadily westwards, and, in an age
of violence and self-indulgence, had thrown its potent charm
over many of the truest representatives of the Christian spirit.
At the end of the fourth century the monastic idea had been
popularised in Northern Gaul by St. Martin of Tours, and it is
probable that before his death, which is placed about 400,
disciples of his had reached Britain. One of their number, a
Briton called Nyniaw, is said, indeed, to have undertaken about
this time a mission to the Southern Picts and to have been
buried in their midst, at Whithem in Galloway, in a stone church
which he had dedicated to the memory of his revered master.
The story, which has been accidentally preserved in the pages
of Bede,52 may be regarded as typical of the way in which the
49 Cymr. Trans. 1893-4, 68- 60 Celtic Church, p. 26.
61 So Prof. Haverfield in Eng. Hist. Rev. xi. pp. 4ig (note 5), 423-4, 427.
62H.£. iii. 4. It is not expressly stated, but is a fair inference, that
Nyniaw was a disciple of St. Martin's.

106 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, new monastic enthusiasm proved a spur to missionary effort ;
no doubt it was by men who had been trained in the same
ascetic school, though not of necessity by the same teacher,
that the gospel was now preached in the wilds of Cornwall,
Wales and the North, and perhaps carried across the sea to
some of the tribes of Southern Ireland.53
A vivid glimpse of British Christianity, as it appeared some
thirty years later, is afforded by the narrative of the first visit
of Germanus.54 Pelagius, a British monk,66 adopted at Rome
about 400 the views as to original sin, free will, and Divine
grace ever since connected with his name ; their promulgation
gave rise to a furious controversy throughout the Christian
Church, St. Augustine and St. Jerome being the leading
champions of the orthodox or predestinarian theology. In
418 Pelagianism was finally condemned, so far as the Western
Empire was concerned, but the isolated position of Britain
enabled it to find an asylum there, after it had been banished
from Italy and Gaul. In 429 a synod of the bishops of Gaul
resolved to send across the Channel two of the most distin
guished of their number, Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of
Troyes, in order to uproot this dreaded heresy. They spent
several months in the island, and, according to the account of
Constantius, who wrote a life of Germanus about forty or fifty
years later, were entirely successful in their mission, in spite of
the influential support which the Pelagians were able to com
mand. Christianity had by this time clearly won, in some form
or other, the allegiance of the whole country, for heathenism
makes no appearance in the story ; the conflict lies solely
between heresy and the orthodox faith. The two envoys do
not confine their activity to the churches ; everywhere, in town
53 This seems to be involved in the reference of Prosper to " Scottos in
Christum credentes," s.a. 431.
64 Bede in this part of the Ecclesiastical History (i. 17-20) is simply a tran
scriber, the original source being the Life of Germanus by Constantius, a presbyter
of Lyons, written about a.d. 480.
65 For the British origin of Pelagius see H. and St. i. 15. The attempt of
Zimmer (Pelagius in Irland, Berlin, igoi, pp. 18-21) to prove him an Irishman
cannot be said to have been very successful (see Williams' review in the
Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie, iv. pp. 531-34). As the name was widely
diffused in the Empire, it is not probable it was a translation from the British ;
but if so, the modern Welsh equivalent would be Morien (cf. Iolo MSS. 42, 43)
and not Morgan, as in the Welsh version of the Thirty-nine Articles (Celt.
Heath, p. 22g, note).

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. i o 7
and country alike, where they can find audience, they deliver CHAP.
themselves of their message. The disputation between them
and their adversaries is a public ceremony, of which men,
women and children in great multitudes are spectators. News
arriving during the bishops' stay of a barbarian invasion of
the province, they enter the British camp and infuse a new
spirit of confidence into the soldiery, so that the invaders, having
been drawn into a narrow valley which is hemmed in by lofty
hills, are scattered by the mere noise of the shouts of " Alleluia "
sent ringing down from the o'erhanging rocks. The whole
narrative is suggestive of a Christian atmosphere, nor does the
statement that very many of the British soldiers sought baptism
from Germanus and Lupus seriously affect this impression, for
baptism was often deferred in this age by adherents of Chris
tianity until a late period of life.
Something maybe further learned of the British Christianity
of this period from the early life of St. Patrick. Into the many
vexed questions which cluster round the name of the so-called
apostle of Ireland it is not necessary here to enter, since their
bearing on the history of Wales is slight. But it is common
ground among the investigators who have busied themselves
with his career that the " Confession " and the " Letter to
Coroticus " are two genuine works of his, which may be safely
used as guides in threading the mazes of his history.66 They
bear, indeed, manifestly upon them, in their rough, uncouth
Latinity, their abrupt transitions, and their passionate earnest
ness, the marks of their origin as the work, not of a scholar
aiming at literary effect, but of a busy, zealous missionary
whose purposes are all of the practical order. It would appear
from them that the young Patricius came of a clerical family ;
his father was a deacon, his grandfather (or great grandfather)
a priest. Thus his ancestors had been Christians for several
generations ; their names also suggest that they represented the
Roman and not the Celtic element in the province. Patrick's
father was, indeed, a " decurio " 57 or member of the " curia "
68 See H. and St. (whose text I have used), ii. 2g6 ; Whitley Stokes, Tri
partite Life of St. Patrick (London, 1887), pref. xciii, c; Zimmer, Celtic
Church, pp. 27, 28 ; Eng. Hist. Rev. xvii. (igo2), p. 235 (J. B. Bury). ^
67 " Ingenuus sum secundum carnem, nam decurione patre nascor " (H. and
St. ii. 316).

lo8 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, or town council of some British city ; he belonged to the class
of smaller landholders and had an estate, worked by slaves,
not far from the village or posting-house of Bannaventa,68
which stood on Watling Street, about 1 2 miles north of Tow-
cester. Yet it would appear that the home language was not
Latin, for in the " Confession " Patrick says that he could not
write as others, who from earliest childhood had spoken the
same language ; he was compelled to translate his utterances
into a foreign tongue.59 It is a reasonable supposition that
he had been brought up to speak Brythonic. At the age of
sixteen or thereabouts, he was carried off by a band of ravag
ing Scots to Ireland — a fate, he says, which befell great numbers
at that time. For six years he served a master whose home
has been generally supposed to lie in the modern county of
Antrim, not far from Slemish mountain. There, drinking the
bitter cup of servitude and ignominy, he was deeply impressed
by the religious truths to which he had paid little heed in the
days of his boyish freedom and prosperity ; as he tended the
cattle of Miliuc, he spent long hours in prayer, until at last
a vision by night told him that the time of his deliverance
had come. He escaped from captivity, made a journey of
200 miles to a certain port, and there found a ship to take
him to Britain. After many privations and strange adventures,
he at last reached his home, little expecting to see Ireland again.
The purpose of preaching the gospel to the people of that
country, who were still almost entirely heathen,60 seems to
have gradually formed itself in his mind ; the claim of the
benighted race upon one who had learnt their language and
was familiar with their customs grew more and more insistent
and, as was natural in one so impressionable and highly strung,
took the shape of visions in which he heard the voices of those
who dwelt beside the western sea calling him to their aid.
Many years passed by ere he found means to obey the
58 This explanation of the " Bannauem taberniae " of the Book of Armagh
(H. and St. ii. 2g6) was first put forward by Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson in the
Academy for nth May, i8g5. It is accepted by Dr. Zimmer (Celtic Church, p.
43). For Bannaventa see Itin. Ant. 224, 22g.
89 H. and St. ii. 2g8.
80 " Hiberione, qui numquam notitiam (Dei) habuerunt, nissi idola et
inmunda vsque semper coluerunt, quomodo nuper facta est plebs Domini "
(H. and St. ii. 308).

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. 109
summons, and in the meantime he did not repair the defects CHAP.
of his early education. Thus, when at the age of forty-five or
so, having been for some time a deacon, he pressed upon the
church authorities of Britain the question of his consecration as
bishop for Ireland, the opposition was considerable. In the
" Confession " he bitterly complains of the treachery of one of
his most intimate friends, who revealed in full council, when
this matter was under discussion, an incident of the saint's
boyhood which Patrick had confided to him, in penitential
anguish of spirit, before entering on the diaconate. The affair
was all the more discreditable, in that this very friend had a
few days previously warmly congratulated Patrick upon his
expected promotion. The root of the opposition was in all
probability the question of training ; throughout the " Con
fession " Patrick writes as though he had to justify his mission
in the eyes of men who doubted his fitness for the work,
themselves masters of rhetoric, full of wisdom and knowledge
and learned in the law. The same attitude is taken up in the
" Letter to Coroticus " ; " if my own people recognise me not, a
prophet, be it remembered, has no honour in his own country ".61
There were also many to whom missionary effort made no
appeal, such as the men whom Patrick describes in so lively a
manner as jeering at him behind his back — " Why should that
fellow go and endanger his life among godless barbarians ? " 62
British Christianity in the first half of the fifth century was,
therefore, well organised, cultured, and in close touch with the
churches of Gaul. Patrick himself expresses the wish, could
he safely leave the great work he is doing in Ireland, to visit
the brethren in Gaul and meet the saints of that country face to
face.63 The conversion of the heathen was, perhaps, not being
officially undertaken with the zeal that might have been ex
pected, but the contagion of monasticism was seizing hold of
individuals and they, like Patrick and Nyniaw, were breaking
through all obstacles and carrying unaided the torch of the new
81 H. and St. ii. 316.
82 " Iste quare se mittit in.periculum inter hostes, qui Deum non nouerunt ? "
(H. and St. ii. 310).
63 H. and St. ii. 308-g. For the semicolon in the first line of p. 3og, substi
tute a note of interrogation. The passage, as Prof. Williams points out (Zeit
schrift fur Celtische Philologie, iv. p. 555), affords no help towards determining
the question whether St. Patrick ever actually visited Gaul.

1 1 o HISTOR Y OF WALES.
CHAP, faith into the darkness of barbarian lands. Such was the
aspect of affairs when the success of the Saxon marauders in
effecting a settlement in South-eastern Britain interposed a
heathen barrier between the British churches and those of the
nearest part of the Continent. Communication with Europe
was not, indeed, rendered wholly impossible ; at the western
end of the English Channel it was soon to grow more active
than ever through the British settlement of the Armorican
peninsula. But henceforward relations between British and
continental Christianity were casual and unauthoritative, as is
sufficiently shown by the fact that, when it is proposed by
Augustine of Canterbury, a hundred and fifty years later, to
re-establish them, the Celts are found to be still following rules
for the computation of Easter which had been abandoned by
Gaul about the time of the conquest of Kent.64
IV. The Brythonic Conquest of Wales.
(This is a subject which Sir John Rhys has made peculiarly his own and
treated fully in Celtic Britain, Celtic Folklore (Oxford, igoi), The Welsh People,
and Arch. Camb. V. xii. 18-39, 264-302. The inscriptions, both Ogam and Latin,
may be studied in Hiibner, Inscriptiones Britanniae Christianae (Berlin and
London, 1876) ; Westwood, Lapidarium Walliae (Oxford, 1876-9) ; Rhys,
Lectures on Welsh Philology, second edition (London, 1879) ; and the numerous
notices in Archaeologia Cambrensis, which has always extended to epigraphic
studies a very liberal patronage.)
The division of the responsibility for the defence of Britain
between a Northern and a Southern " gwledig," the one dealing
with the Picts and Scots, the other with the Saxons (whom it
will henceforth be more convenient to call the English), had
momentous consequences for the island. It led to the division
of the Britons themselves into two sections, each with its own
battle to fight and with little interest in that carried on by
its neighbour. It has often been confidently stated that the
natives of South-eastern Britain, when driven from their homes
by the English invaders, found a refuge in large numbers
in the mountains of Wales and thus became the ancestors of
the Welsh people.66 But for migration into Wales at this
84 H. and St. i. IS2.
65 Early exponents of this view are Geoffrey of Monmouth (Hist. Reg. xi.
10: " secesserunt itaque Britonum reliquiae in occidentales regni partes, Cornu-
biam videlicet in Wallias,") and William of Newburgh (Hist. Angl. ii. 5 : "qui
evadere potuerunt refugerunt in Wallias ").

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. 1 1 1
period from the East or from the South there is no evidence CHAP.
whatever ; it is, on the contrary, remarkable how little genuine IV'
Welsh tradition has to tell of the great duel in the South-east
between Celt and Saxon, while on the other hand it is circum
stantial in its account of the varying fortunes of the Britons of
the North. The story of Vortigern is, of course, known in the
West and the fame of Arthur penetrates there, but, save for a
few great names like these, it would seem that the dwellers in
Wales knew little of the course of the struggle which was
gradually making Britain England. Even their comrades on
the southern side of the Bristol Channel, the men of Devon and
Cornwall, they regarded as so divorced from them in interests
as not to include them with themselves in the name of " Cymry "
or "fellow-countrymen"66 which they willingly extended to
the Britons of the Solway and the Clyde. Thus the historian
of Wales is not concerned with the progress of the English
conquest until it has reached an advanced stage ; for him
the importance of the fifth century lies in quite another direc
tion. It was in this age that the Brythonic race secured a lasting
supremacy throughout Wales, winning over the Goidelic tribes
such victories as in time led to the total extinction of Goidelic
speech on this side of St. George's Channel. Different opinions
are held, as has already been pointed out, with regard to the
origin of the Goidelic element in the population of fifth-cen
tury Wales, but there is no room for doubt as to its existence.
Welsh popular tradition has always maintained that the
" Gwyddelod " (Irish) preceded the Welsh in many parts of the
country and has ascribed to them, under the name of " Cytiau
Gwyddelod" (Irishmen's huts), the round stone dwellings of
which the ruins were once so common on the bare slopes of the
Welsh hills.67 " Gryniau Gwyddelod " (Irishmen's ridges) are
also shown, the supposed vestiges of a primitive agriculture.
The tradition has left its mark in Welsh literature ; it appears
68 For the history of this name see p. 164.
87 Camden, in his account of Anglesey, refers to the fact that certain remains
in the island were known as " Hibernicorum casulae "- Llwyd (Gibson, 677) and
Rowlands (Mon. Ant. 27) were both familiar with the popular term " Cytiau
Gwyddelod," though they deemed it a misnomer. Cytiau may still be seen near
the South Stack, at Tre'r Ceiri, at Muriau'r Dre in Nant Gwynen, near Beddau
Gwyr Ardudwy, and above Bwlch Gwernog in Nanmor.

H2 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, in the lives of Welsh saints,68 in the Triads,69 and in the mem-
IV< oranda included in the " Iolo MSS ".70 Accordingly Dr. Basil
Jones (afterwards bishop of St. David's) was able in 1850 to
put forward in his Vestiges of the Gael in Gwynedd (pub
lished in 185 1) a considerable amount of evidence in support
of the view that the Gael, or as he is now more conveniently
styled, the Goidel, was in possession of North Wales at the
time of the collapse of Roman rule. But the decisive evidence
of Goidelic occupation (applying, however, rather to South
than to North Wales) came to light after the publication of this
book. It had long been known that in Ireland a mysterious
system of writing, known as Ogam and consisting of groups of
notches, had been in use in early times, but, the key to it hav
ing escaped the notice of scholars, ogam inscriptions remained
undecipherable, until in 1848 Dr. Graves unfolded the mystery
and showed how the alphabet was constructed. It was then dis
covered that a very large number of these inscriptions still
survived, particularly in the counties of Kerry, Cork and Water-
ford ; the language was invariably Irish, in an early stage of its
history ; the purpose of the inscription was in each case to
mark a burying-place. Some of the inscriptions appeared to
commemorate Christians, though this could not be positively
stated of the ogams as a whole. The ogam question took a
new and interesting turn when inscriptions in this character be
gan to be discovered in Wales. The careful scrutiny of Edward
Llwyd had in 1693 noted the ogams on a drawing of the Pool
Park stone, but he offered no conjecture as to their purpose ;
" as for ye stroaks on ye edges, I met with them on other tomb
stones, and I make not ye least question but this is also a
tombstone".71 Prof. Westwood in 1846 recognised as ogams
the marks on the edges of the Kenfig stone.72 It was not,
however, until 1859, when a reading of the ogams on the
St. Dogmael's stone was submitted to the Cardigan meeting of
the Cambrian Archaeological Association,73 that the Welsh in
scriptions of this class began to be systematically studied and
the facts ascertained which show how firmly the Goidelic race
was rooted in Wales at the epoch now under consideration.
88 Cambro-Br. SS. q"], 101, 124.
89 Third series, Nos. 8, 12 (Myv. Arch. II. 58, sg (401)).
79 Pp. 6g, 71, 78-g, 81-2, 196-7. " Arch. Camb. I. iii. (1848), 310.
™Ibid. I. i. (1846), 182. 73 Ibid. III. v. (1859), 345.

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 113
Some thirty ogam inscriptions have come to light in CHAP
various parts of Wales. Of these two only, the Pool Park
stone, which formerly stood on Bryn y Beddau, near Cloc-
aenog and the stone lately discovered near Brynkir, Carnarvon
shire,74 belong to North Wales, a circumstance which has
its importance, though it does not mean that this part of the
country had no Goidelic inhabitants. The rest are distributed
as follows — Brecknockshire, four ; Glamorganshire, two ; Car
diganshire, one ; Carmarthenshire, six ; Pembrokeshire, fif
teen. In every case in which the inscription is still legible, it is
found to be sepulchral, giving the name of the deceased with
(commonly) some indication of the parentage, while the occur
rence of the words " maqui " (son), " inigena " (daughter),
"avi"76 (grandson, descendant) makes it absolutely certain
that the language in which they are written is Goidelic or old
Irish. At the same time it is important to observe that twenty-
two out of the thirty Welsh ogams are accompanied by in
scriptions in Latin capitals and in the Latin language, which
appear in almost every case to be a reproduction of the Goi
delic epitaph in the more familiar tongue. In this respect the
ogam inscriptions of Wales present as a group a great contrast
to those of Ireland, for the Latin rendering is there a thing
almost entirely unknown. While, therefore, the wide area over
which these monuments are scattered makes it clear that
Goidelic was a familiar tongue at the time they were erected
throughout a large part of South Wales, it is equally certain
that Latin had so far established itself as the literary language
as to be used concurrently with the other in most of the ogam
sepulchral inscriptions.
These ogams, however, form only a small proportion of the
inscribed stones found in Wales which are assigned to the period
between the end of the Roman occupation and the beginning
of the ninth century. No less than seventy Latin inscriptions
of this age have at various times come to light, without reckon-
74 Gibson, 686 ; Arch. Camb. VI. vii. (igo7), g6.
75 n Inigena " (in modern Irish, " inghean ") appears as the equivalent of
" filia " in the Eglwys Cymun inscription (Arch. Camb. V. vi. (i88g), 224-32 ; x.
(i8g3), 285). " Avi," genitive of " avias, descendant, occurs, in the form
" awi," on the Llanwmio stone (now at Middleton Hall, Llanarthney). See
Inscr. Chr. No. 8g ; Lap. W. gi ; W. Phil. 2), 280. " Maqui," genitive of
" maquas," is fairly common.
VOL. I. 8

1 1 4 HISTOR Y OF WALES.
CHAP, ing the bilingual epitaphs mentioned above, and it becomes
necessary to discuss their relation to the Goidelic question.
The first point which claims notice is that the monoglot in
scriptions in Latin capitals are not separated from the Latin
ones on bilingual stones by any well-marked characteristics,
but appear to be of the same age and carved by the hands of
the same race. At the east end of the ruined church of Llan-
deilo, near Maenclochog, was discovered in 1 889 a bilingual
inscription to the memory of " Andagelli fili Caveti," but this
man's brother (presumably), named " Coimagni fili Caveti " was
commemorated by a Latin inscription only, which came to light
at the same time, after having been long built up into the
churchyard stile.76 A third stone, now in the churchyard of
Cenarth, but originally found in the same neighbourhood,
records, in Latin capitals only, the name of a third member of
this family, one " Curcagni fili Andagelli ".77 Moreover, it is
quite usual to find names which from their occurrence in ogams
are known to be Goidelic also figuring in monoglot Latin
epitaphs. Anglesey, where no ogams have as yet been dis
covered, furnishes two good instances in the " Cunogusi" of the
Bodfeddan stone 78 and the '' Maccudecceti " of that at Penrhos
Lligwy.79 Hence, while the ogam inscriptions furnish incontestable
evidence of the existence of a Goidelic population in the
districts in which they are found, they afford no reason for
limiting it to these parts of Wales. A comparison with Ireland
will show that the fashion of using the ogam alphabet did not
extend to every region settled by Goidels ; the character was
in common use only in the south of the island, and north of
Kildare a few sporadic specimens are all that have come to
light. It was in some part of Munster, no doubt, that this
kind of writing obtained its first foothold in Ireland, and for
some reason or other it had no great vogue outside that pro
vince. Similarly in Wales, the ogam stronghold is the region
78 Arch. Camb. V. vi. (i88g), 304-13.
77 Westw. 86 ; W. Phil. (2), 388. For the situation of the stone in 1743
see Arch. Camb. V. xiii. (i8g6), 134.
78 W. Phil. (2), 363 ; Lap. W. 192.
79 Inscr. Chr. No. 154 ; Lap. W. 189 ; W. Phil. (2), 361 ; Mon. Ant. 156 ;
Celt. Br. (2), p. 230.

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. 115
of Dyfed, where, no doubt, the character made its first appear- CHAP.
ance in Britain, and the fact that elsewhere, and particularly in
North Wales, it is sparsely represented only means that the
Goidels of these districts did not take kindly to it. It would,
in fact, appear that the really significant distinction is not that
between the ogam-yielding districts and the rest of the country,
but that which marks off the regions producing inscribed stones
with rude Latin capitals from those where they are practically
unknown. A line drawn along the course of the Clwyd, of
the upper Dee and of the Mawddach would in North Wales
mark off the district to the north-west in which these inscriptions
are fairly common from that to the south-east in which they
hardly ever occur. The corresponding line in South Wales
would run from the mouth of the Aeron to the great bend of
the Wye at Glasbury. In the angle between these two lines
lies the region known as Powys, the country of the Ordovices,
which has been treated above as a Brythonic region ; the con
clusion, therefore, seems irresistible that, as suggested by Sir
John Rhys,80 the custom of erecting over the grave of a notable
man or woman a standing stone with the name of the deceased
inscribed upon it was characteristically Goidelic and had little
or no currency among the Brythonic tribes. Inscribed stones
which commemorate Brythons are no doubt to be found, such
as the well-known Porius stone at Penystryd near Trawsfynydd,
but in the genuinely Brythonic parts of Wales their erection
was not a customary way of paying honour to the dead.
It should be said that no serious question can arise as to
the date of these inscriptions. While the earlier of them are
shown by the comparatively pure style of lettering to be very
little later than the end of the Roman occupation, there is
from this period onward a gradual deflection from the severity
of Latin capitals until a stage is reached, about the beginning
of the ninth century, when the whole inscription is in " minus
cules " or small letters of the Hiberno-Saxon type. At least
two of the stones bear the names of historical persons who
can be identified, namely, of King Voteporix of Dyfed 81 and
80 Celt. Br. (2), pp. 248-50.
81 Arch. Camb. V. xii. (1895), 303-13 ; xiii. (1896), 107 ; xv. (1898), 274. See
also the Academy for nth January, i8g6 (p. 35), and W. People, p. 503.
a *

n6 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. King Cadfan of Gwynedd,82 who flourished in the sixth and
IV- the seventh century respectively. As a class they belong
undoubtedly to Christian times. The majority of them have
been found on or near ecclesiastical sites ; very many have a
cross incised on the stone, in addition to the inscription. At
Cefn Amwlch in Lleyn two priests are commemorated, one
being the Hynog (" Senacus " on the stone) whose name is
still preserved in that of the neighbouring hill called " Bryn
Hynog ".83 Even as regards the ogams, which it is not un
natural to regard as of pagan origin, the connection with
Christianity is perfectly clear. More than half the Welsh
ogams have been found in close association with churches or
ancient chapels ; several have incised crosses, though in one or
two cases these may be the work of later Lands.
During the fifth and sixth centuries the process was going
on which gradually drove Goidelic speech altogether out of
Wales and made the country what it has remained, save for
the progress of English, to this day, a Brythonic-speaking land.
Unfortunately, the story of the change has not been recorded
by any contemporary writer ; such details as have survived are
embedded in traditional narratives, of which the authority is
not too high. Nevertheless, it does not seem impossible to
construct with their aid a fairly consistent account of the
Brythonic conquest. The primary authority is the portion of
the " Historia Brittonum," usually ascribed to Nennius, which,
occurring in two MSS. only, is known as the " Saxon Genea
logies " and is now recognised by scholars as a little Northum
brian or Cumbrian tract written at the end of the seventh
century and tacked on to the " Historia " proper.84 In this it
is said that the great-grandfather of Maelgwn Gwynedd was
"Cunedag," who with his eight sons came from the North,
from Manaw Gododin, and drove out the Scots from Gwynedd
with very great slaughter, so that they never returned.86 This
82 Mon. Ant. 156; Inscr. Chr. No. 149; Lap. W. igo-i ; W. Phil. (2), 364;
Celt. Br. (2), pp. 127-8.
83 Inscr. Chr. Nos. 144 and 145 ; Lap. W. 177-8 ; W. Phil. (2), 365-6. The
stones came from the site of an ancient chapel (Arch. Camb. V. xiii. 138).
84 Cymr. xi. 134-8 (E. Phillimore) ; Nenn. V. 74-81 ; Mommsen, Pref. to
Hist. Britt. (p. 117). Mommsen holds that the whole "Historia" may be of
this date. 86 Hist. Britt. 205 (c. 62).

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. 117
was 146 years before the reign of Maelgwn, a chronological CHAP.
indication which is at once precise and vague, but which, taken
in conjunction with the statement that Cunedda was Maelgwn's
great-grandfather, may be regarded as assigning him to the
beginning of the fifth century and the earliest years of the
period of British independence. The genealogies of Welsh
princes in Harleian MS. 3859, which were put together not
later than the middle of the tenth century, supply the links
which connect Maelgwn and Cunedda and furnish the latter
with a long pedigree.86 Maelgwn was the son of Cadwallon
La whir (the Long-handed), the son of Einion Yrth (the Im
petuous ?),87 the son of Cunedda ; as to the ancestors ascribed
to Cunedda, most of them may be disregarded, but the names
of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, namely, Edeyrn,
Padarn Beisrudd (of the Red Robe), and Tegid, wear a historical
aspect. In the same MS. is to be found an interesting account
of the sons of Cunedda. Their names are given, in tenth-
century orthography, as Osmail, Rumaun, Dunaut, Ceretic,
Abloyc, Enniaun Girt, Docmail, and Etern ; a ninth is added,
called Typiaun, who is said to have died in Manaw Gododin
before the great expedition and to have been represented in
the division of the Brythonic spoils by his son Meriaun. The
boundary of the nine, it is stated, was on the one hand the
Dyfrdwy (Dee) and on the other the Teifi, and they held very
many regions in Western Britain.88 Which these regions were,
though the MS. does not expressly mention them, may be
inferred from the bounds given and from certain pedigrees
which it contains, pedigrees of princes who traced their descent
to sons of Cunedda and were clearly rulers of cantrefs or larger
districts in North-west Wales. They were the districts which
still preserved the names of Cunedda's sons and grandson,
" Osmeliaun," which has not so far been identified, Rhufoniog,
Dunoding,89 Ceredigion, Aflogion (a cymwd of Lleyn),90 Dog-
88 Cymr. ix. 170. For the date of the MS. see Mr. Phillimore's introduc
tion. 87 Dafydd ap Gwilym speaks of " Brychan Yrth, breichiau nerthawg "
(Works, ed. Cynddelw, 1873, 108). Cf. Myv. Arch. I. 259 (187) : " A gwyr gyrth
am byrth yn burthyaw gorwlad ".
88 Cymr. ix. 182. 89 Mab. 73.
99 This appears in the various lists as Gaualogion, Ganelogyon, Is Clogyon,
etc. But the true form seems to be preserved in Jesus Coll. MS. 20, viz.,
" aphlocyawn" (Cymr. viii. 85).

118 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, feiling (the cantref of Dyffryn Clwyd),91 Edeyrnion and
IV' Meirionydd. Other authorities add nothing of value to the
story of the Brythonic conquest ; the statement of the " His
toria Brittonum " that Cunedda and his sons drove the Ui
Liathain out of South-west Wales appears to be, as Prof.
Zimmer holds,92 an unwarranted extension of the original
narrative, though, strangely enough, it is only in the region
of Cydweli (expressly mentioned in the " Historia ") that the
name of the Brythonic leader survives in " Allt Cunedda"
(Cunedda's Hill). As to the poem in the " Book of Taliesin "
which deals with Cunedda,93 it probably contains, as Sir John
Rhys has pointed out,94 some remnants of the primitive legend,
but the use of the false form " Cunedda/" which restores a
final " f " (= v) which never existed, shows that the writer is a
bard of the Middle Ages, handling material of which he has
not entire mastery.
Cunedda, it may safely be inferred from the names of his
immediate ancestors, Eternus, Paternus and Tacitus, came of
a family which, whatever its origin, had been for some time
Roman and not Celtic in its manner of life and its traditions.
Very probably the " red robe " of his grandfather Paternus
was a robe of state, marking out its wearer as a high Roman
official. Cunedda himself bore a Celtic name, which may
indicate that about A.D. 400 the Celtic element in the
province was beginning to earn for itself a quite unusual re
cognition, as the power of Rome visibly declined. Yet, if we
may trust the account given above, he gave Latin names to
three of his sons, Romanus (Rhufon), Donatus (Dunod) and
Eternus (Edeyrn), and there was also a Marianus (Meirion)
among his grandsons. His home lay near the Firth of Forth,
for Manaw Gododin, so called to distinguish it from Ynys
Manaw or the Isle of Man, was on the northern border of the
country of the Votadini, where Slamannan in Stirlingshire
still keeps the name alive. His title of " gwledig," it has al
ready been suggested, points to him as the successor of some
Roman general, and, if he really hailed from the North, no office
would seem to be more appropriate to his position than that
91 Owen, Pemb. i. 201, note by E. Phillimore. 92 Nenn. V. 92-3.
93 IV. Anc. Bks. ii. pp. 200-2; Myv. Arch. I. 71 (60-1).
84 Celt. Br. (2), pp. 118-g.

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. 119
of defender of the northern or the southern wall. It is fairly CHAP.
certain that he was a Christian, for not only does tradition IV'
connect him and his family with important missionary work
in Wales, but the names Donatus and Marianus are of dis
tinctively Christian origin.
Whether the men who gave their names to the districts
lying between the Teifi and the Dee were really the sons of
Cunedda and not rather his followers and lieutenants may be
open to doubt, but that they were the actual founders of
Brythonic chieftainships in this region can hardly be questioned.
Names like Ceredigion (Caraticiana), Rhufoniog (Romaniaca),
Meirionydd (Mariania), require a Ceredig, a Rhufon, a Meirion
to make them intelligible and the Cunedda legend supplies the
simplest and most reasonable explanation of their origin.
Moreover, the legend in its oldest form establishes the sons of
Cunedda in the precise part of Wales where history is prepared
to find them. None are assigned to the isle of Anglesey or
the opposite coast of Carnarvonshire, the Mon and Arfon of
Welsh writers, and this harmonises with the tradition that it
was in a later age that the Goidels were overcome in these,
their latest strongholds. On the other hand, none are alleged
to have made any conquests in Powys, which is thoroughly
consistent with the view that the men of this region were al
ready Brythons and not likely, therefore, to have had anything
to do with Cunedda's enterprise save as allies.
An interesting question is raised by this last consideration,
namely, how far Cunedda drew support from the Brythonic
element in Wales itself. Tradition is silent on the point, but
Sir John Rhys has adduced several reasons for thinking that
the Ordovices of Powys were sharers in his undertaking and
benefited largely by it.95 Rhyd Orddwy, near Rhyl, Cantref
Orddwyf, an old name of Meirionydd, and Dinorwig, which
is found as D'morddwig, seem to mark their progress into
Goidelic country, while at Penbryn, in Cardiganshire, is an in
scribed stone of the fifth century set up in memory of " Cor-
balengi Ordous," an Ordovician settler, it may well be believed,
who came into this district in the train of Ceredig.96 A Bry
thonic immigration on a large scale is indeed required by the
95 Celt. Br. (2), p. 302.
98 Gibson, 648 ; Inscr. Chr. No. 115 ; Lap. W. 146 ; W. Phil. (2), 37g.

120 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, facts of the case, for it is not at all likely, despite the talk of
IV- " expulsion " in the traditional accounts, that there was any
great displacement of the older population, and thus only the
arrival of a very numerous Brythonic colony would establish
that balance in favour of the language which enabled it ere
long to sweep Goidelic from the field.
According to tradition, the reduction of the Goidels of
Gwynedd was not completed by Cunedda and his sons. One
of the eight, Einion Yrth, did not, it may be noticed, give his
name to any cantref or cymwd, and the history of his de
scendants suggests that this was because he remained in the
fighting line, waging war until the end of his life against the
Goidels of Mon and Arfon. Be this as it may, it is to his son,
Cadwallon the Long-handed, that the credit is given by tradi
tion of finally securing Brythonic ascendancy in North Wales
by defeating the Irish in a great battle fought at Cerryg y
Gwyddyl, near Trefdraeth in Anglesey. This fight is first
mentioned in the Triad which speaks of the Three Fettered
Warbands of the Isle of Britain ; one of their number was the
warband of Cadwallon Lawhir, who, when fighting with
" Serygei " the Irishman at Cerryg y Gwyddyl in Anglesey,
tied to their feet the fetterlocks of their horses and so made
flight impossible, leaving victory and death as sole alterna
tives.97 Other accounts speak of the battle as fought at Llan
y Gwyddyl,98 but this was probably another name for the
same place.99 Henceforth, the Brythons were supreme in
North Wales; Cadwallon's son Maelgwn seems to have had
no difficulty with the newly conquered Goidels — on the con
trary, Gwynedd was the centre of his power. How long
Goidelic speech lingered on in this district it is not easy to say,
but it is not probable that it disappeared at once. The
97 Triads, first series, No. 4g = second series, No. 40 (Myv. Arch. II. 12, 16
(3gi, 3g7) ; Cymr. vii. I2g ; Mab. 305). Geoffrey of Monmouth makes " Cad-
uallo Leuirh rex Venedotorum " one of the vassal princes of Arthur (Hist. Reg. ix.
12). Cf. Bruts, 200. Caswallon is only found in late authorities, e.g., Iolo MSS.
81-2. 98 Iolo MSS. 78-9.
99 So Iolo MSS. 123. A stone circle in the parish of Towyn is (or was)
known by the name of " Eglwys y Gwyddel " (Arch. Camb. IV. v. (1874), 242).
Hence " Llan y Gwyddyl " and " Cerrig y Gwyddyl " are probably both popular
descriptions of some monument of the kind.

THE FIFTH CENTURY. 121
" Maccudecceti " inscription, for instance, belongs to the sixth CHAP.
rather than to the fifth century.100 IV-
Even less is known of the progress of the Brythons in the
South than in the North. Save for the occupation of Cere
digion, the activity of the house of Cunedda appears to have
been confined to North Wales, and it is only possible to con
jecture how the Brython gradually edged out the Goidel in the
Vale of Towy, in Dyfed and in the land of the Silures. The
Brythonic colonisers of the South were probably the Ordovices
of our Radnorshire, whence they pressed up the vale of the
Irfon into the region of Llandovery, Llandeilo and Llanelly.
A movement such as this might explain the undoubted fact
that few Latin inscriptions of this period have been discovered
between the Towy and the Tawe, and also the story as to the
conquests of Cunedda in Gower and Kidwelly. The Goidels of
South Wales would thus be split up into two divisions, those
of Dyfed and those of the Silurian country, and in each of these
two districts there is evidence that the ancient language lingered
for many generations. In Dyfed it was in use in the middle of
the sixth century, as is shown by the tombstone of Voteporix
which stood in Castell Dwyran churchyard, on the borders of
Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.101 St. David, if we may
believe his legend, found about the same time a " Scottus," that
is, a Goidel, named Baia or Boia in possession of the land on
which was afterwards established the saint's famous monastery
of Mynyw.102 In the other region, that of Morgannwg, evi
dence is likewise forthcoming of the late survival of Goidelic ;
in a rude Latin inscription at Merthyr Mawr, which is shown
by its lettering to be not earlier than the seventh century, re
ference is made by the man who set up the memorial to his
" scitlivissi," a word which Sir John Rhys regards as without
doubt Goidelic for " scout, newsbearer ". 103
Thus it is likely that the older Celtic tongue, ever threatened
by the victorious progress of Brythonic, nevertheless maintained
a precarious hold upon certain parts of Wales until the eve of
the Danish invasions. When it finally went, it left several
100 Hiibner places it in his second class (sixth and seventh centuries). See
Pref. to Inscr. Chr. xx.
191 See pp. 115, 132. ^Cambro-Br. SS. 124.
103 Inscr. Chr. No. 67; Lap. W. 15-7; Arch. Camb. V. xvi. (i8gg), 158-63.

IV.

122 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, legacies behind it. The syntax of the old language, which
was itself an inheritance from pre-Aryan times, profoundly
modified that of the new, giving modern Welsh those syntac
tical peculiarities which distinguish it so sharply from most
other languages of the Aryan family. Goidelic loan-words
remained in the Brythonic vocabulary, and many place-names,
such as Cenarth ( = Brythonic Pennarth) and Cwm Llwch (from
Goidelic "loch," a lake), continued to wear their Irish dress.
The folk-lore and legends of the conquered race also lived on,
and thus it was that Welsh children came to hear of the great
lawgiver, Dyfhwal Moelmud, of the wizard pilot and merchant,
Manawyddan son of Llyr, and of the wily enchanter, Gwydion
son of Don. Note to Chapter IV. § iv. The Historical Triads.
The form of expression known as the Triad, in which objects are grouped
together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness (e.g., " Three
things not easily restrained, the flow of a torrent, the flight of an arrow, and the
tongue of a fool ") is characteristically Welsh and is found in the earliest Welsh
literature. It has been supposed to be of Druidic origin, and passages from
Pomponius Mela and Diogenes Laertius have been quoted as containing triads
which were current in the Druidic schools (Edw. Davies, Celtic Researches,
London, 1804, pp. 150-1). But the passage cited from Mela (iii. 2, " ut forent
. . . manes ") is not a triad at all ; it simply states the Druidic doctrine of the
transmigration of souls. That from Diogenes (prooem. 5) is triadic in arrange
ment ; it does not, however, record an actual saying of the Druids, but is a sum
mary of teaching common to this order and to the gymnosophists of India. The
triad may more reasonably be connected with that reverence for the Trinity to
which Giraldus bears testimony (vi. 203 ; Descr. i. 18) and which, according to
him, was the source of the Welsh custom of sitting to a meal in groups of three.
Whatever may have been its origin, it was a rhetorical form which flourished
exceedingly in Welsh soil. Triads are found in the oldest Welsh MS., the Black
Book of Carmarthen (fo. 14 a, b), and in the ancient versions of the Welsh Laws
(see the " Three Stays of Blood " in LL. i. 456, 784 ; ii. 768, 890). References
to well-known triads occur also in the " four branches " of the Mabinogion (42,
43, 44, 49, 80, 94) and in the poems of the mediaeval bards ; see, for instance, the
reference to the " Three Open-handed Chiefs " in Myv. Arch. I. 293 (208). As
time went on, the mass of triadic literature grew more and more bulky, and it
ultimately became substantial enough to occupy a considerable proportion of the
third volume of the Myvyrian Archaiology.
The so-called " Historical " Triads, or Triads of the Isle of Britain, have to
do with the personages of early British history, of whom they tell a good deal
which is not to be found in other sources. The question of their historical value
is, therefore, of some importance. Two mistakes have commonly been made by
those who have drawn upon the Triads for historical material ; the worthless
third series has been treated as of equal value with the first and the second, and
it has been forgotten that the triad, as we have it, is not a literary record, but
merely preserves an oral tradition at a certain stage in its transmission. The
three series referred to are the three printed in the second volume of the Myvyrian

THE FIFTH CENTUR Y. 123
Archaiology ; it will be seen, if they are carefully examined, that their compilers CHAP.
had in the main the same triads before them, but each collection represents the IV.
work of a separate editor. Series i. (II. i-ig, upper text (388^4)) contains
ninety-two triads; it is not clearly shown by the Myvyrian editors how they
arrived at their text, but the fact that Peniarth MS. 45, formerly Hengwrt MS.
536, a MS. of the end of the thirteenth century (Evans, Rep. i. pp. 37g-8o), con
tains Nos. 7-45 of this series in the Myvyrian order (printed in IV. Anc. Bks. ii-
pp. 456-64) makes it fairly certain that it represents in the main an old collection.
Stephens boldly assigned it to the fifteenth or sixteenth century (Lit. Kym. (2), 4g4),
but the reference to " ystoria y Greal " (No. 61) on which he relied is'probably a
late addition. Series ii. (II. 1-22, lower text (3g5-3gg)) is taken from the Red Book
of Hergest ; a more accurate text will be found in Mab. 297-308. The Red Book
was written about the year 1400 (Evans, Rep. ii. p. 1), but there is evidence which
carries this second series somewhat further back, for Nos. 13-60 appear in Peniarth
MS. 12, formerly Hengwrt MS. 202, of the fourteenth century, and it would
seem that the MS., when complete, contained the whole series and that it was
from this source that the series was copied by the scribe who included it in the
Red Book (Cymr. vii. 8g-go, g5-ioo; Evans, Rep. i. pp. 305, 324). It should be
added that Stephens, when he sought (Lit. Kym. (2), 4g4) to date this series with
the aid of a supposed reference to Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1170), overlooked the obvi
ous fact that " owein gwyned " (Mab. 302) is a misreading of " o vein gwyned "
(Cymr. vii. g8).
Considerable use has been made in these pages of the triads of the first and
second series, in the belief that they have handed down genuine old traditions
and thus contain historically valuable matter, though with a mythical admixture.
The third series (Myv. Arch. II. 57-75 (400-11)) is of an entirely different char
acter. Nothing at all resembling it is to be found in any ancient MS., and the
history of the Myvyrian copy does not seem to go much further back than 1601.
This is much the fullest of the three series, not only in the number of triads (126)
which it contains, but also in its explanatory detail. The added matter is, how
ever, of a very suspicious kind ; it introduces a number of personages, such as
Hu the Mighty, Dyfnwal Moelmud, and Plenydd, who are not mentioned in the
other two series and of whom some are certainly mythical. An examination of
this series, which has been largely used by writers on Welsh history from the
time of Dr. Owen Pughe, leaves little doubt that it is the product of the unhappy
activity of the Glamorgan school of bards and antiquaries of the sixteenth century
(Cymr. xi. 126). For the historian it is almost wholly useless.

CHAPTER V.
THE AGE OF THE SAINTS.
I. Maelgwn Gwynedd and his Contemporaries.
(The material for this section has been chiefly derived from Gildas, for
whom see the next section, with the appended note.)
CHAP. Between the first settlement of the English in Britain and
v- the mission of Augustine lie 150 years which are not a whit
less important in the early history of Wales than in that of
England. During this period the Welsh tribes cast off all
traces of heathenism and of political subjection and, in common
with the more civilised Britons of the East, become well organ
ised Christian communities, ruled by powerful monarchs,
ministered to by a learned clergy, led to battle by champions
whose renown has not yet faded. This is the age of Maelgwn
Gwynedd, of Gildas and David, above all, of Arthur and his
knights of the Round Table. Did we know the true story of
these years, it would beyond a doubt be found to be no less
stirring and romantic than that which the deft hand of fable
has woven around the dim figures of that far distant day. But
the period is one for which we have, with one important
exception, no contemporary evidence ; were it not for Gildas,
it would be involved in all but total darkness. There is, indeed,
a mass of traditionary material, embodied in the Triads, the
lives of the Welsh saints, the Mabinogion, the narrative of
Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the works of the older poets, which
probably has, to a far greater extent than is usually supposed,
a substantial historical basis. But the clue to the interpretation
of this evidence, the touchstone which will enable the inquirer
to distinguish fact from fiction, history from legend, in this
wonderful medley has not yet been discovered, and accordingly
but sparing use has been made in these pages of tradition, in
124

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 125
spite of the temptations which it spreads in the path of him CHAP.
who would write a connected history of the Welsh people. V-
In the South and in the East the great struggle was going
on which had as its final issue the making of England, the
creation of a group of Teutonic states in which hardly a trace
remained of the language, the religion, and the institutions
of fifth-century Britain. It has been already remarked x that
the interest of the Welsh tribes in this struggle seems to have
been but languid and that they handed down few traditions of
it. The fame of Arthur, who vindicated the honour of the
British arms against the heathen invader in many victories,
stood high among them, but they seem to have had little
detailed knowledge of his achievements ; he was " the Emperor
Arthur," leader of a puissant band of warriors, but in the Welsh
romances which recount his great doings and those of his men,
the " Saeson," strangely enough, are not even mentioned.2
One is not disposed, on this account merely, to banish him to
the realm of myth, for there are many circumstances which
tend to establish his real historical existence. The name, it
has been pointed out, is probably of Roman origin and derived
from that of the Artorian clan ; 3 moreover, Gildas expressly
says that the battle of Badon Hill, fought about the year 500,
was a decisive victory for the Britons, giving them immunity
from hostile attack for a generation,4 and such a victory could
surely only have been won under the leadership of a great
captain. If Gildas refrains from giving the name of the
victorious commander, that is of a piece with the reticence
shown in this respect throughout his book ; it is with him the
exception to introduce a name, even where the narrative
obviously calls for it.6 But, while there can be little doubt
1 P. ill. 2 See the index to Mab.
3 Celt. Br. (2), p. 237. For the name of Artorius see Tacitus, Annals, xv. 71 ;
Juvenal, iii. 2g ; Social England, illustrated edition, i. p. g8. Many members of
the gens are included in Pauly-Wissowa.
4 Cap. 26. " Mons Badonicus " is still unidentified. The view of Guest
(Origines Celtics, ii. pp. 187-g) that it was Badbury in Dorset has been very
generally accepted, but Stevenson has shown (Eng. Hist. Rev. xvii. (igo2), pp.
633-4) 'nat tne names are not, as was supposed, identical.
6 See c. 23, where Vortigern is merely called " superbo " and "infausto
tyranno " ; c. 28, " immundae leanae Damnoniae," " sancti abbatis," and " legi-
tima uxore " ; c. 31,
" magistrum elegantem ".

126 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, that a great warrior named Arthur led the Britons to victory
about the beginning of the sixth century, the vagueness of
Welsh tradition 6 leaves the historian with no means of pinning
him down to any particular part of the country and furnishes
only negative evidence, for it may fairly be inferred from it
that Wales, at any rate, was not the theatre of his deeds of
prowess. On the whole, it is most likely that his wars were
waged in the South and East of the island, and it may be of
some significance in this connection that, according to the notice
in the Historia Brittonum, four of his battles were fought on
the river "Dubglas" in the region of "Linnuis," i.e., Lindsey.7
The districts which were under the sway of the " gwledig "
of the North-west do not seem to have tasted the bitterness of
this strife until far on in the sixth century. In the old age of St.
Patrick, about the year 450, a glimpse is afforded of the doings
of Ceredig Wledig, the " Coroticus " of his letter of denuncia
tion, who bore rule, it would seem, in the valley of the Clyde.8
He is a powerful prince, who not only successfully raids the
Irish coast and carries the natives off as slaves, but is also on
good terms with his neighbours, the Picts and the Scots, to
whom he is able advantageously to dispose of his ill-gotten
gains. He is also a Christian ruler, having holy men about
him and rendering alms to the Church ; in his attack upon him
for shameless disregard of the rights of Irish converts, St.
8 The Historia Brittonum, in which appears the oldest account of Arthur,
gives the names of twelve battles which he fought, winding up with " bellum in
monte Badonis" (c. 56). So far as the places can be identified, they belong to
the North and thus lend support to the theory of a Northern Arthur. But, to
judge from the inclusion of " in urbe legionis " (the battle of Chester, fought
about 615), the list is a miscellaneous one of famous battles of the period and
furnishes no clue to the real field of Arthur's operations. Some of the Welsh
romances give him a court at Caerleon (Mab. 162, 215, 244) ; older traditions
connect him with Celli Wig in Cornwall (Mab. 133, 135, 141, 301).
7 Lindens-es would yield Linnuis in old Welsh.
8 For the letter to Coroticus see H. and St. ii. 314-g. This prince was
long supposed to be Ceredig ap Cunedda, lord of Ceredigion (Welsh SS. p. 135 ;
Todd, St. Patrick, p. 352 ; H. and St. ii. 314). But attention was called to the
fact that Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni, a seventh-century writer on the life of St.
Patrick, speaks of Coroticus as " Coirthech regem Aloo," i.e., Ail Cluade or Dum
barton (Stokes, Tripartite Life, pp. 271, 498), which is a much more likely home
than South Wales for an associate of Picts and Scots. " Ceretic guletic " ap
pears in the pedigree of the princes of Strathclyde at a point consistent with
the floruit here suggested, viz., a.d. 450 (Cymr. ix. 173). The phrase " quem
ego ex infantia docui " in the letter appears to point to the end of St. Patrick's
career as the time of its composition.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 127
Patrick can appeal to the Christian sentiment of his court and CHAP.
remind the warriors of Coroticus, whose conduct has put them V-
outside the pale of Roman citizenship and made them the
comrades of demons and fellow to the Pict and the Scot, that
the glory of an earthly realm may vanish as a cloud, or as
smoke that is scattered by the wind. The vices of Coroticus
and his followers are those of the prosperous and strong, of
men who hold a responsible position, but despise restraint;
there is no hint that the British community had anything to
fear from without, or that heathen peoples not so well in hand
as the Picts and the Scots were surging at the gates.
A like impression of masterful strength, unbridled and un
dismayed, is conveyed by the picture painted by Gildas of the
British rulers of his day. No doubt, the barbarian ravages,
with their sequel, the heathen occupation of a large part of
Britain, fill a large place in his narrative, and it is from him that
modern historians have chiefly derived their conception of the
conquest as a process of savage extermination. But, lurid as
is the landscape when he sets himself to depict the devouring
tide of conquest, it is, it should be remembered, a story of the
past, of what befell Britain before he was born. That siege of
Badon Hill, which happened in the year of his birth (and he
wrote at the age of forty-three), saw the last and decisive
victory of the British arms ; wars with external foes have now,
he says, ceased ; the time is one of prosperity and skies are
serene.9 Unless we are entirely to discard the evidence sup
plied by Gildas, it must be believed that the first stage of the
English conquest and occupation came to an end about the
beginning of the sixth century, to be followed by a truce of
half a century, and that it was not until 550 or thereabouts
that a second onward movement began, threatening this time
the Britons of the North and West and reducing them ere
long within very narrow limits. The rulers whom Gildas ad-
9 C. 26. I follow Zimmer (Nenn. V. 100) and Mommsen (pref. to Gildas, 8)
in understanding Gildas to say that the year of Badon Hill and that of his
own birth was the forty-fourth, reckoning backwards, from that in which he
wrote. As he wrote before the death of Maelgwn in or about 547, the year
referred to cannot have been much later than 504, while the fact that Gildas
lived until about 570 makes it probable it was not much earlier. The entry in
the chronicle in Harl. MS. 3859 ascribing "bellum badonis" to the year 516
(Cymr. xi. 154) is of no particular authority, and with it goes the common
ascription of Gildas's work to the year 560.

128 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, dresses are men of assured position, harassed by no external
difficulties. Law and order are maintained in their territories ;
criminals are brought before the seat of judgment, thieves
hunted out and imprisoned, judicial oaths administered.10 They
have their troops, with which they wage war against each other,
their bards who celebrate their praises and clergy who are
much dependent on their favour.
Of the princes specially named and singled out for attack
by Gildas, the most notable is Maglocunus,11 in whom it is easy
to recognise the Maelgwn Gwynedd of Welsh tradition. Had
our knowledge of this vigorous ruler been drawn solely from
this latter source, he would, without a doubt, have been treated,
like Arthur, as a purely mythical figure and perhaps would
have been refined into a solar deity. But in the pages of the
De Excidio he is unmistakable flesh and blood. Taller in
stature than most of the chieftains of Britain and therefore well
deserving his title of " Maelgwn Hir " (the Tall),12 he overtops
them also in power. This position he has won by deeds of
violence ; many a neighbouring prince has been sacrificed to his
ambition, and his reign began, when he was but a raw youth,
with the overthrow of his maternal uncle,13 whose brave troops
he defeated and whose crown he usurped. His later years have
been stained by crimes no less heinous, the murder of his wife
and of a nephew, whose faithless spouse he was thus enabled
to marry. Yet, heavy as is the catalogue of misdeeds laid to
his charge, he is not without a certain tincture of nobleness.
He is a liberal giver, and no common tyrant would, in the
heyday of his greatness, have laid aside his royal dignity and
have withdrawn, as Maelgwn did, to the austere seclusion of a
monastic cell. All Christians must, it is true, deplore his sad
relapse into a life no less worldly and sin-ridden than before,
but the very making of the experiment proves him a prince of
no ordinary mould.
19 c. 27.
11 Cc. 33-6. The mediaeval form is always Maelgam, not Maelgtvyn.
Maelgwn is nowhere styled " gwledig," yet it is reasonable to assume that his
power rested on the continuance of some office of the kind.
"Myv. Arch. I. 476(318).
13 As the name of Maelgwn's mother is unknown, his " avunculus " cannot
be identified. Some have thought he might be Arthur (Sharon Turner, History
of the Anglo-Saxons, bk. iii. c. 3 ; Arth. Legend, 8).

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 129
Such was Maelgwn as he appeared to a contemporary who CHAP.
lashed his vices with no friendly hand, yet did not allow himself,
as he did in attacking others, to sink into the language of con
tempt. The details of his career which have been handed
down by tradition seem to harmonise well with the picture
drawn by Gildas. He was the son of Cadwallon Lawhir, who
finally overcame the Goidels of North Wales.14 With this
people, therefore, he is not represented as fighting ; on the
contrary, Gwynedd, in its Latinised form Venedotia, is the
centre and stronghold of his power,16 and his designation of
"island dragon" is naturally explained with reference to his
secure possession of Anglesey.16 His especial home seems to
have been the Creuddyn peninsula, where on the rock of
Degannwy, the ancient hold of the Decanti, was the "court of
Rhos " in which, according to the popular saying, he slept to
awake no more.17 His name is still preserved in the neighbour
hood in that of Bryn Maelgwn, a height not far form De
gannwy.18 Tradition agrees with Gildas in explaining
Maelgwn's advent to power as the result of a competition, but
describes it as one not of arms, but of constructive skill ; the
contest came off, we are told, on the sands in the estuary of
the Dovey, since known as "Traeth Maelgwn" (Maelgwn's
Strand), and Maelgwn owed his victory to the cunning artificer
who provided him with a floating chair, since he alone was
able to hold his ground against the incoming tide, before which
his rivals had to flee.19 What the germ of truth may be in
this story it is hard to tell, but it would seem, at any rate, to
embody the view that the son of Cadwallon was a masterful
man and one of many resources.
14 See the pedigrees in Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix. 170).
15 " Mailcunus magnus rex apud Brittones regnabat, id est in regione
Guenedotae" (Hist. Britt. c. 62).
16 " Insularis draco " (Gildas, c. 33). This is the view of Zimmer (Nenn.
V. 101) ; Rhys takes the island to be Great Britain (W. People, p. 106).
17 The passages which connect Maelgwn with Degannwy are mostly late
(Bruts, 234; Myv. Arch. II. 359 (547); ibid. (597); "Hanes Taliesin," as
printed in Lady Charlotte Guest's edition of the Mabinogion). But the place
was an " arx " of some consequence as early as the beginning of the ninth
century (Cymr. ix. 163, 164), so that the connection is a likely one. For the
original form of the proverb about Maelgwn's long sleep see Ann. C. s.a. 547.
18 The name is at least as old as Pennant's time (iii. 145).
19 LL. ii. 48-50 (Peniarth MS. 32, of about 1380, and another). Cf. Iolo
MSS. 73-4.
VOL. I. 9

130 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Tradition has something to say of the relations of Maelgwn
both with the Christianity and the bardism of his time. He
plays a prominent part in several of the lives of the saints,
which exhibit him as in frequent conflict with the religious of
his day, but as invariably brought to reason and repentance.
St. Brynach in Dyfed, St. Cadog in Gwynllwg, St. Cybi in
Anglesey, St. Fadarn in Ceredigion,20 and St. Tydecho in
Powys21 all had encounters with Maelgwn, which ended in
their obtaining from him substantial privileges for their monastic
foundations. St. Cybi received from him the royal "caer" or
" castellum " in Holyhead Island, which has ever since borne
the name of Caer Gybi, and had the legend of St. Deiniol, the
founder of Bangor in Arfon, survived, some similar statement
would doubtless be found in it explaining how the name of
Maelgwn Gwynedd came to be connected with the origin of that
monastery also.22 All is in keeping with the " largior in dando,
profusior in peccato " of Gildas, save that in the stories told by
the writers of the legends, the order of the epithets is reversed
and the almsgiving is the atonement offered for the crimes.
Gildas and tradition are, again, in accord in representing
Maelgwn as surrounded by a troop of sycophant bards. In the
passage which describes,23 with relentless invective, the king's
return from the pure life of a monk to his former dignity and
his ancient sins, it is said that he no longer hears the sweet
strains of ecclesiastical melody and the praises of God sung
by the tuneful voices of His servants, but worthless laudation
of himself, as the rascally, lying quacks who serve him spit out
their bacchanalian ravings. Though the fact is not expressly
stated, the nature of the antithesis makes it very likely that
the praises of Maelgwn were, like those of the Most High, set
to music, and that the men so scornfully treated by Gildas were
the bards of the royal court. Tradition has a good deal to
say of these bards, who to the number of twenty- four surrounded
Maelgwn on state occasions at Degannwy, but were confounded
by the superior skill, in magic no less than in the more legiti-
mCambro-Br. SS. 10-12, 50-6, 186-7, 191-2. al Camb. Reg. ii. 376.
22 That Maelgwn founded Bangor appears to rest at present on the author
ity of the C.C.C.C. MS. of John Ross (Joannis Rossi, Historia Regum Angliae,
Oxoniae, 1716, p. 65). Ross had visited Anglesey and Carnarvonshire in search
of material (ibid. p. 54).
23 C. 34 (end).

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 131
mate aspects of the poet's art, of the great Taliesin, who de- chap.
livered his master Elphin from the prison of thirteen locks in v-
which Maelgwn had immured him.24 Whatever view may be
taken as to the real nature of the conflict so described, it is
clear that Maelgwn was traditionally regarded as a patron of
native poesy and music.
This busy, restless career was cut short by the plague which
devastated Europe in the middle of the sixth century.26 Accord
ing to the chronicle preserved in Harleian MS. 3859, the year
was 547,26 but better authority is needed ere so precise a date
can be without question accepted ; it is enough to say that
probably it is not far wrong. The ancient proverb already
referred to, viz., " Hir hun Faelgwn yn Llys Rhos" (the long
sleep of Maelgwn in the court of Rhos"), suggests that he died
at Degannwy, but a more picturesque account says that, when
the Yellow Plague was roaming through the land in the guise
of a loathly monster, he took refuge from it in a church not
far from his court. "And Maelgwn Gwynedd beheld the
Yellow Plague through the keyhole in the church door and
forthwith died." 2r As to what it looked like, authorities are
not agreed ; in the Story of Taliesin, it is described as a
strange beast, with yellow eyes, teeth and hair; but in the
life of St. Teilo contained in the Liber Landavensis™ it is
a column of vapour rising from earth to heaven and sweeping
along the ground as a shower of rain sweeps along the low-
lying valleys. Terror gave it many shapes, and it was none the
less mysterious that it had laid low the mighty prince who
feared no face of man.
Four other British princes are attacked by name in
the De Excidio?9 Constantine30 is called "the tyrannical
24 " Hanes Taliesin ; " Iolo MSS. 73.
26 Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, i. p. 401. M Cymr. ix. 155.
'"Iolo MSS. 78, where the church is said to be Eglwys Rhos. Other ac
counts (Bruts, 234; Myv. Arch. II. 359 (547); ibid. (597)) merely say it was near
Degannwy. The "eglwys ybrodyr" of Jesus Coll. MS. 19 (Myv. Arch. II. 359
(471)) is perhaps explained by the appropriation of Eglwys Rhos to the Cistercian
abbey of Conway (after 1284, Maenan).
wLib. Land. 107.
29 For various views as to the five kings of Gildas see Usher, Antiquitates
(1639), 536-47; Celt. Br. (2), pp. 122-5; Nenn. V. 306-7; Gildas, ed. Hugh
Williams (i8gg), pp. 69-83. The four beasts (leo, pardus, ursus, draco) appear to
be taken from the Apocalypse (xiii. 2), where the dragon is supreme.
39 C. 28. 9 *

132 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, whelp of the unclean lioness of Damnonia," so that it is
V* probable he bore rule in the Devonian peninsula. " Aurelius
Caninus," 31 left solitary by the death of all his kin, is not
connected with any particular British region, but it is very
likely that we have in him the degenerate offspring, elsewhere
referred to by Gildas,32 of the great Ambrosius Aurelius or
Emrys Wledig, and in this case his kingdom must be looked
for in the neighbourhood of the English settlements rather
than in Wales. The two remaining kings may be confidently
placed on Welsh soil. " Vortiporius " 33 is described as the
tyrant of the Demetae, or men of Dyfed, the bad son of a good
father, a man who has grown grey in the devil's service and
who shows no sign of repentance as he draws near his end.
The pedigree of the royal line of Dyfed as recorded in the
eighth century included a "Guortepir," who was the son of
" Aircol," or Agricola, the Long-handed,34 and it is remarkable
that, while in the Liber Landavensis several gifts of land to
St. Teilo are associated with Aircol Lawhir,36 none such are
credited to his son. Even more interesting is the fact that in
1895 the tombstone of the object of Gildas's invective was dis
covered in the heart of his kingdom of Dyfed.36 It is a rude
standing-stone or "maenhir," with an inscription in Latin
capitals running across horizontally and another in ogam
characters along one of the edges. In the former, which is
headed by a wheel cross betokening that the dead man was a
Christian, the legend runs " Memoria Voteporigis protictoris " ;
the latter has nothing but the name, in its Goidelic form,
" Votecorigas ". The stone has latterly stood in the grounds
of Gwarmacwydd House, but it originally came from the church
yard of Castell Dwyran, which may have been a chapel at
tached to a manor of the rulers of Dyfed. It will be observed
31 C. 30. "Canine'' is the reading of the Cottonian MS. Yet the name
may really have been "Cuna(g)nus" (Cynan), as suggested by the Avranches
MS. (see p. 43 of Mommsen's Gildas), and the other form have been coined by
the author as a grim joke at the expense of Aurelius. Cf. his treatment of the
name of " Cuneglasus ".
32 C. 25 (end). 33C. 31.
34Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix. 171) ; Jesus Coll. MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 86) ; see
also the Irish forms in Cymr. xiv. 112.
36 Lib. Land. 125-30.
88 For references see p. 115. There is a good illustration of the stone in
Social England, vol. i. (1901), p. 173.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 133
that the stone, in addition to giving this prince the title of CHAP.
" protector," bestowed by the Romans in the declining years of
their Empire upon notable barbarian leaders and no doubt borne
by Voteporix hereditarily, is at variance with Gildas as to the
spelling of the name ; in this matter its authority is more
weighty than that of the man of letters, who may easily have
been misled by the idea of an analogy with such forms as
Vortigernus and the like.
" Cuneglasus " 37 was also, no doubt, one of the rulers of
Wales, for the pedigrees 38 include a certain " Cinglas," in
modern Welsh Cynlas, who was a son of Owain the White-
toothed, son of Einion, son of Cunedda, and therefore belonged
to the same generation as Maelgwn. There is nowhere any
indication of the seat of his power, but the probabilities are in
favour of some part of North Wales lying between Powys and
the region directly ruled over by Maelgwn. The ancient vill of
Cynlas 39 in Penllyn may commemorate his name ; his brothers
Engan and Seiriol founded churches in North-west Wales,40
and the Caradog King of Gwynedd who died in 798 appears to
have been his descendant.41 For Cynlas, Gildas has a special
hatred and contempt, explained, it may be, by the fact that
this king alone of the five is accused of active hostility to the
Church, being not only a contemner of God, but also an
oppressor of His clergy.42 His Celtic name is held up to scorn
and parodied in Latin as " Grey Butcher ". He has trans
gressed, not only after the fashion of his fellow-kings, by
warring against his Christian neighbours and by violating the
sanctity of the marriage tie, but also by direct attacks upon the
"saints" {i.e., monks), whose sighs and groans will one day
recoil upon him to his undoing.
37 c. 32.
38 Had. MS. 38sg (Cymr. ix. 172).
39 Until lately a township of the parish of Llandderfel, Merionethshire, now
in that of Llanfor in the same county.
40 At Llanengan in Lleyn and Penmon in Anglesey (Myv. II. 23 (415)).
41 Cf. the entry under the year 7g8 in Harl. MS. 38sg with pedigree No. iii.
in the same MS. (Cymr. ix. 163, 172).
42 " Dei contemptor sortisque eius depressor " (c. 32).

134 HISTORY OF WALES.

chap. II. Gildas.
v.

(The authorities mentioned in connection with Chapter IV. § iii. continue to
be important for the sixth century, and to them must be added Mommsen's edi
tion of Gildas, my obligations to which are very great. I have also used with
profit Williams's edition of the same author. Other sources, such as Rees's
Welsh Saints, are mentioned in the notes.)
It is now time to turn to the one figure of sixth-century
Wales who, revealed by his writings, stands out clearly among
the somewhat elusive shapes of that romantic age. Gildas did
not (save as an author) greatly impress his British contempor
aries, if one may judge from the neglect of his name and
achievements by the voice of Welsh tradition,43 but he has the
advantage of men who in his own day far outshone him in
renown in that his " little homily," 44 as he modestly calls it, is
the only literary effort of his age and country which has come
down to us, and thus while Arthur, Dewi, Illtud, Dyfrig and, to
a less degree, Maelgwn are but shadows, Gildas is a man of
whom it may be said that we have seen his face and heard him
speak. Little, indeed, is known of him outside his own work. Two
lives have been handed down which profess to tell his history,46
but so widely do they differ from each other in the tale they
unfold that many of the older school of critics imagined there
must have been two men of the name, viz., the author of the
De Excidio, born in the early part of the sixth century, and
a Gildas of the North, who belonged to an older generation and
had dealings with the great Arthur.46 It is now recognised
that "Gildas Albanius," as portrayed in the life ascribed to
Caradog of Llancarfan, is a figment of the monks of Glaston
bury, who desired to connect so famous a Briton with the early
history of their house and had a life written to order for the
43 No Welsh church is dedicated to Gildas. His name occurs several times
in the Mabinogion (107, 160, 258). but no legend is told of him. In the older
" Bonedd y Saint" he appears only as the father of saints (Myv. Arch. II. 25
(416)). 44 " Admonitiuncula " (c. 1).
45 For an account of the lives, MSS. and editions of Gildas see note ap
pended to this chapter.
48 This view was adopted from Bale and Pits by Usher (Antiquitates, i63g,
441-2), and subsequently by Stevenson (Pref. to ed. of Gildas, vi.). Schoell (de
ecclesiasticae Britonum Scotorumque historiae fontibus, Berlin, 185 1) showed
how baseless it was.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 135
purpose.47 Caradog's work (if it be really his) 48 contains some CHAP.
interesting Arthurian matter, put together before all stories V'
about the British king were made to match the portrait painted
by Geoffrey of Monmouth, but of the true history of Gildas
it hardly preserves a trace. The other life, written by a monk
of Rhuis in Southern Brittany, is far less open to suspicion ; its
historical setting is not, for the most part, inconsistent with
what is known of Gildas, and it is from some such foundation
as Rhuis, traditionally connected with his name, that genuine
records of his life and work might be expected to make their
appearance. Still, its evidence, as that of a late source, can
only be received after careful scrutiny and by way of supple
ment to the knowledge afforded by the De Excidio itself.
Gildas 49 was a native of Britain. Though he nowhere ex
pressly calls himself a Briton,50 the whole spirit of his treatise
is that of one who was addressing his fellow-countrymen. In
his preface he apologises for the uncompromising severity of
his tone ; let no one think him a misanthropist or a self-
righteous despiser of his kind ; he has a true pity for the woes
and misfortunes of the country and would rejoice to see them
remedied.51 He descants with genuine pleasure upon the
natural beauties of Britain, where, to quote familiar lines,
Every prospect pleases
And only man is vile.62
He claims a share in the martyrs of Britain, " lamps of exceed
ing brightness set alight for us, lest Britain should be involved
in the thick darkness of pitchy night".63 According to the
Rhuis life, he came from the fertile land of "Arecluta," which
lay (as its name implies) along the river Clyde ; this is a
statement there is no ground for disputing, and " Arecluta," in
47 Williams, Gildas, pp. 390-1.
48 Some doubt is raised by expressions which suggest that the author was
not a Welshman, e.g., "balnea . . . quod diligebatur a sua gente maxime" (c. 3)
and " Walenses indigenae " (c. 8).
49 The name is not of Latin origin and is not otherwise known among the
Brythonic peoples. It appears in the forms Gilda (Mab.), Gildus (Bede), Gillas
(Tighernach) and Giltas (Columbanus). Possibly it is Goidelic; cf. Mab. no,
where mention is made of a " Gilla goes hyd " (Gilla with the shanks of a hart)
who was the best jumper in Ireland.
50 According to Mommsen (pp. g-10), Gildas's "patria" (cc. 1, 2, 18, etc.)
means no more than " provincia ". " Mea patria " is certainly not found.
«C. x. 52C. 2. 63C. 10.

136 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, later Welsh Arglud, has been very reasonably identified with
v" the rich alluvial tract to the south of the Clyde between
Greenock and Glasgow.64 Thus Gildas was a North Briton,
but when it is further stated that his father "Caunus" was
king of this region, one is inclined to pause and remember how
many of the saints of this age are alleged to have been of royal
blood. Addicted as Gildas was to rhetorical depreciation of
himself and his merits, he would scarcely, in addressing
Maelgwn, have conceded that he was " of the meanest rank," 65
had his birth been as good as that of the redoubtable lord of
Gwynedd himself. Nor does his attitude towards the British
chieftains who built up their power on the ruins of the Roman
state, men whom he calls tyrants and kings not anointed of
God,56 favour the suggestion that he drew his own origin from
this class.
He was born, on his own testimony, in the year of the
battle of Badon Hill, i.e., in or about A.D. 500.57 Christianity
had by this time firmly rooted itself in the valley of the Clyde,
for Ceredig Wledig, who had ruled over this region some fifty
years earlier, was a professed, if a somewhat rudimentary Chris
tian. Gildas, it is to be noted, knows nothing of any survival
of paganism among those whom he recognises as his fellow-
countrymen : he has seen in the ruins of the deserted temples
monstrous effigies of gods worshipped aforetime ; he has heard
that mountains, hills and rivers were once invoked as divine ;
but all this is ancient history, which he will not, he says, rake
up against the men of Britain.68 He was brought up, it is clear,
in a purely Christian atmosphere.
No one will doubt that he received an excellent education.
Chafe as we may at the endless intricacies and involutions of
his style, insipid as we may find his sugared rhetoric, he was
beyond question a master of the Latin language, and the gulf
64 IV. Anc. Bks. i. pp. 173-4; Cymr. xi. 75. Arecluta, with the connecting
vowel (cf. " Aremor.cis geniibus " in Orosius, Adv. Pag. vi. n), must come from
an almost contemporary source. The district is still known for its heavy crops
of wheat. 66 " Licet vilissimae qualitatis simus " (c. 36).
68 " Ungebantur reges non per deum, sed qui ceteris crudeliores exstar-
ent " (c. 21).
67 See p. 125 and note g.
88 C. 4. The argument at the end of c. 38 implies that the men attacked
by Gildas were not open to the charge of idolatry.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 13?
which separates him, as a writer of Latin, from later British CHAP.
historians such as "Nennius" is immense. He commands a V-
wide vocabulary, is entirely at home in Latin syntax, and is
familiar with the Latin poets, notably Vergil.59 Of the Scrip
tures he had made an exhaustive study, and every reader of the
De Excidio remembers how large a part of that work is
made up of quotations, carefully marshalled, from holy writ.
The school in which Gildas acquired this knowledge was, ac
cording to the Rhuis life, that of " Hildutus," the St. Illtud of
Welsh tradition, under whose care, it is said, were many lads
of good family, receiving a training not only in divine but also
in secular learning.60 Something will be said in a later section
of the work and influence of Illtud ; here it is enough to note
that Gildas received an education which linked him closely with
the past, and that, while in effect one of the pioneers of a new
era, he drew his inspiration from the waning civilisation of
Rome and by temper and disposition was always of the old
order and not of the new. The literary culture of Rome, ere
it faded from Britain, cast over the young Gildas a spell which
bound him firmly to the end.
It was, no doubt, in the school of Illtud that he came under
another spell, that of monasticism. He became not only a
cleric, but also a monk,61 full of pride in his order and of con
fidence in it as the sole salvation of the world.. The monks
are in his pages the true " saints " of God ; 62 their convents are
cool caverns and safe hiding-places where the good may find
shelter from the attacks of the Evil One. As yet, the monastic
element in the British Church is not in the ascendant ; the men
whom Gildas singles out for praise are " very few," 63 a minority
in the Church, whom he leaves out of account, save for one or
two apologetic allusions,64 in his comprehensive indictment of
the British nation. The Church is not governed by monks ;
one reference there is to an abbot,65 but the ecclesiastics who fill
59 Pref. to Mommsen's ed., p. 6. 80 Ed. Mommsen, p. 92.
61 '• Clericorum in nostro quoque ordine " (c. 65) is so interpreted by
Williams (p. 160).
62 See cc. 28 (sanctorum choris), 34 (sanctorum speluncas).
83 " Paucis et valde paucis " (c. 26). Cf. "paucissimos bonos pastores "
of c. no.
84 See c. 65 (ab his veniam impertiri, etc.).
65 " Sub sancti abbatis amphibalo " (c. 28).

138 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the scene are bishops and priests, whose power arises out of
their office and has nothing monastic about it. Thus the party
to which Gildas attached himself, though it threw its subtle
charm for a time over the great Maelgwn, was not the dominant
one in the island, and it was from no vantage-ground, save that
of sincerity and zeal, that he hurled at his contemporaries the
ringing challenge of the De Excidio.
The work had been long in preparation when at the age of
forty-three he gave it to the world. Ten years had gone by
from the time when its design had first taken shape in his mind
and still he shrank from its publication, until at last he was
overcome by the entreaties of his brother-monks and a sense of
what was due from him as a witness for God's truth. He had
not the official standing of a bishop 66 or the authority of a
teacher of wide renown ; 67 Britain, he pleads, has its recognised
watchmen and rulers, and it scarce becomes the mere hand and
foot, the humble instruments, to usurp the office of the warning
lips and the vigilant eye. But the need of a clear testimony
was too great to allow of any further postponement ; that very
year 68 deeds had been done which must be exposed in their
true villainy ; and thus, as Gildas puts it, the long-standing debt
was finally paid.69
No hint is given in the De Excidio as to the place of its
composition. The view that Gildas was at the time in Brittany
and launched it across the Channel 70 rests on no better
authority than the Rhuis life,71 where it was almost inevitable
that such a statement should be found, and it is rendered very
unlikely by the use of the word " transmarine " to describe the
continental sources used by the author in default of native
authorities.72 If the work, as seems most probable, was written
in Britain, it surely made its appearance in a British state of
which the ruler had not the honour to figure in its pages, for
it can scarcely be believed that, as Zimmer has suggested,73
88 The Annals of Inisf alien seem to style Gildas "episcopus," but in the
Stowe Missal he appears, with St. Columba, among the " sacerdotes" and not
the " episcopi " (Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 240), and
this is doubtless the sounder tradition.
87 He says he is not " conspicuo ac summo doctori " (c. 1).
68 " Hoc anno " (c. 28). t>» C. 1.
70 Mon. Hist. Br., pref., 60, note 2. 71 Ed. Mommsen, p. 97.
72 " Transmarina relatione " (c. 4, end). 73 Nenn. V. 308.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 139
it was composed by Gildas in some monastery in the heart of CHAP.
that south-western corner of the island of which the great men
are all held up to public reprobation. It has been pointed out
that, so far as can be seen, not one of the five kings pilloried by
Gildas belongs to the British country which at that time
stretched from Chester to Dumbarton, a country on which the
English invader had as yet made little impression.74 May not
his work have been written here, under the protection of a king
who, while too bad for a formal blessing, was too good for
cursing in the heroic vein which was thought necessary to meet
the case of the hardened sinners of the South ?
It was no part of the purpose of Gildas to write a history
of Britain. His aim is that of the preacher and reformer, and
the whole of his treatise, which he occasionally styles a
" letter," 75 is meant, in its narrative no less than its admonitory
portions, to subserve the one moral end. If a good deal of
history is introduced, this is because history, as handled by
Gildas, has its lessons to teach. He is a disciple of Paulus
Orosius, the Spanish presbyter who rather more than a century
before had set the fashion of writing history with a homiletic
purpose, and, like Orosius, he has for his theme " the lusts
and the retributions of sinful men, the conflicts of the world
and the judgments of God ".76 He would have it understood
that the miseries of Britain in bygone days, miseries which he
paints in the darkest colours, were the direct result of the
wickedness and perversity of the natives of the island, and that,
though a season of prosperity and peace has now succeeded,
continuance in evil-doing will bring back the old calamities.
Thus Gildas is of the order of prophets and not of historians,
and what he says must be viewed in relation to the ethical
purpose which constantly swayed him.
In one respect he was ill fitted to do justice to the new
world which was being formed around him. It was a world in
which the barbarian, the Celtic element, was daily growing more
powerful, and Gildas was Roman to the finger-tips. His
favourite name for his fellow-countrymen is " cives," citizens ; 77
74 Nenn. V. 308.
76 See cc. 1 (in hac epistola), 93 (huic epistolae). In c. 37 the Cottonian
MS. has " flebilis haec querulaque malorum huius aevi historia ".
78 Adv. Pag. vii. 43. 77 See cc. 4, 19, 26, 28, 32.

mo History of wales.
CHAP, with them he contrasts the nations round about, the Saxon
v foe, the fierce hordes of Picts and Scots, shaggy-haired and of
indecent nakedness,78 barbarians, in short, with whom he re
cognises no bond of union. The Latin language is his tongue ; 79
for Celtic names he has nothing but contempt. Throughout
the story of Rome's dealings with the island — a story often
grotesquely remote from the real facts — the men of Rome are
the powerful lords and protectors, the men of Britain cowardly
slaves who rebel when their masters' backs are turned, but
who cannot stand in their own strength. No one is praised by
name after the departure of the Romans save Ambrosius
Aurelianus (Emrys Wledig), sole survivor in the catastrophes of
the fifth century of the Roman and imperial race.80
Gildas cannot have had many who sympathised with him
in this attitude and, as an upholder of legitimism against the
ever-thickening growth of British chieftaincies, must have been
indeed a voice crying in the wilderness. Was he isolated, too,
in his onslaught upon the lives of the men who ruled at this
time in Church and State ? That there were men of influence
who did not share his passionate conviction that Britain was
rushing headlong to ruin seems open to no doubt. He blames
such for their indifference to the immorality of the age, though
he has no charge to make against them personally.81 There
are false prophets abroad, he intimates, doctors filled with a
spirit of contrariness, whose words are smoother than butter
and who cry " Peace, peace ! " when there is no peace.82 They
were opportunists and friends of compromise, who condoned
the vices of monarchs and gladly accepted their gifts to the
Church — gifts which, in the opinion of Gildas, were no substi
tute for repentance and reform.83 The British Church was by
this time a well-developed organisation. Its bishops and priests
were numerous ; their offices were valuable and worth taking
much trouble to secure.84 In such a society there would be
many, even among the reputable and diligent members, who
would place loyalty to the institution before fidelity to a lofty
78 c. 19.
79 " Tribus, ut lingua eius exprimitur, cyulis, nostra longis navibus " (c.
23). The Avranches MS. reads 'Latina," which is, no doubt, the right inter
pretation, for, if Gildas had meant to use the Brythonic loan-word "longa"
(Welsh " Hong "), he would not have added " navibus ".
89 C. 25. 81 Cc. 69, no. 82 C. 40. 83 C. 42. 84 Cc. 66, 67.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 141
and perhaps unattainable standard ; Gildas the iconoclast CHAP.
would be in their eyes a dangerous fanatic and they would do Vl
their utmost to counteract his influence.
But it is not at all likely that they succeeded. The evils
against which he so strenuously inveighed were real evils, the
natural result of a long period of wealth and abundance in the
history of a little community cut off from the rest of Europe.
As to the crimes so definitely laid to the charge of the five
princes there could, at any rate, be no doubt, and there is every
reason to suppose that the earnest and fiery eloquence of the
De Excidio did arouse an echo in many hearts. This may
be inferred from the esteem in which " Gildas the Wise " 85 was
held by later generations and from the remarkable progress of
monasticism in the second half of the sixth century. He was,
in fact, justified by the event. He foretold calamities as the
inevitable issue of the licence and presumption of his age, and
two calamities of the first magnitude ere long befell the British
race — the yellow plague, spreading terror and ruin as it went,
and the renewal of barbarian aggression, putting an end to the
long truce between Briton and Saxon and reopening the con
flict for the mastery of the island. Though the evidence for
the progress of this conflict comes chiefly from traditional
sources and is, therefore, a somewhat uncertain guide, it seems
possible to trace, in the Saxon Chronicle, for instance, the rise
of a forward movement on the part of the English about the
year 55086 which would afford a vivid contrast to the " present
security" described by Gildas, and, coupled with the devasta
tions of a great pestilence, would not fail to turn men's minds
to thoughts of repentance and atonement. In the general
humiliation Gildas would be recognised as a true seer, and the
party to which he was attached, the monastic and ascetic one,
would gain the upper hand in the British Church.
If it may be assumed that the De Excidio was written
not long after 540, Gildas lived for a quarter of a century after
wards to wield great influence in the Celtic Church. The date
of his death cannot be precisely given, but it was not far from
86 The title "Sapiens" is given to Gildas by Ann. C. MS. C, the Cam
bridge MS. Ff. i. 27, and the Book of Leinster (Stokes, Tripartite Life of St.
Patrick, p. 514).
mMak. Eng. pp. 91-2.

142 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the year 570.87 He spent this closing period of his life, it
would seem, in organising and directing the powerful monastic
movement which had now laid hold upon the Celtic commun
ities. In Wales and Cornwall, it is true, there is little evidence
of influence directly exercised by him ; the offence given by his
attacks upon the monarchs of those regions was not so easily
forgotten. But elsewhere, his authority was high. In the
North, his account of the English settlement was used in the
next century by the author of the Saxon Genealogies and
in the eighth by the Venerable Bede. Both lives, discordant
though they are in most other respects, agree that he under
took a mission tour to Ireland, which the Rhuis life connects
with the reign of Ainmire mac Setna, king of Erin about
568.88 Here monasticism had already found a congenial soil ;
Clonmacnois had been founded by St. Ciaran, Clonard by the
elder Finnian, and Clonfert by the elder Brendan. But the
advent of so notable a champion of the " perfect way " must
have been a source of much encouragement to those of the
same school of thought, and it is this, no doubt, which lies be
hind the somewhat mysterious statement made in an eighth-
century Irish tract that the second order of Irish " saints," be
longing to the latter half of the sixth century, received their
ritual from Bishop David and Gildas and a third Briton.89
That Gildas was held in high esteem in his lifetime among the
monks of Ireland is made certain by the fact, recorded by
Columbanus before the sixth century was out, that " Ven-
nianus," probably Finnian of Moville, consulted the famous
author as to the treatment of those inmates of monasteries who
left their abbots without permission to take up the life of the
anchorite.90 Gildas, it is said, replied in a very charming letter,
and some of the fragments bearing his name which have been
preserved in Irish collections refer, in fact, to this very subject.
These fragments show, not only how the words of th& British re
former were valued, but also that, like many another reformer,
he spent the evening of his days in checking and keeping with-
87 This is the date implied in the entry in Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix. 155).
Cf. the Annals of Tighernach (Rev. Celt. xvii. (1896), p. 149), Ann. Ult. s.a. 569
(repeated s.a. 576), Ann. Inisf. s.a. 570.
88 Ed. Mommsen, p. 94. 89 H. and St. ii. pt. 2, 2g3.
90 Gildas, ed. Mommsen, p. 21 ; ed. Williams, pp. 256-7, 415.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 143
in bounds the tendency and spirit which he had done so much CHAP.
to rouse by the eloquent outpourings of his youth. He has to
deal, no longer with sloth and indifference, but with misplaced
energy and misguided zeal.91
There need be no hesitation about accepting the statement
of the Rhuis life that he died in Brittany. It is confirmed by
the existence of monasteries at Rhuis and elsewhere claiming
him as their founder and patron,92 by the occurrence of his name
in an early Breton litany,93 and by the Breton origin of one of
the two old MSS. of the De Excidio?^ Thus Gildas ended
his days in a species of exile, dwelling among the descendants
of those harassed Britons whom he had described as seeking
homes across the sea with loud lamentations, and chanting
beneath the bellying sails their piteous refrain : " Thou hast
given us as sheep appointed for meat and hast scattered us
among the heathen". With some reason might he have an
ticipated another champion of righteousness in the well-known
words: " I have loved the law of God and hated iniquity ; there
fore I die in exile".
III. Monastic Founders of the Welsh Church.
Gildas does not mention the name of a single ecclesiastic of
his own time, and even leaves in obscurity the " very few " whom
alone he regards as true sons of the Church. It is necessary,
therefore, to turn to other sources in order to learn who were in
this century the leading figures in the British Church, and this
later evidence, dealing as it does with men who have been for
ages the theme of religious legend, has to be used with great
circumspection. In the early part of the century the figure of Illtud 95 seems
91 For the fragments of Gildas see H. and St. i. 108-12 ; Mommsen, pp.
12, 86-8 ; Williams, pp. 255-71.
92 A cape at the mouth of the Loire is known by his name.
93 H. and St. ii. pt. 1, 82.
94 The Avranches MS. formerly belonged to the abbey of Mont St. Michel
(Mommsen, p. 14).
96 The life of Illtud printed in Cambro-Br. SS. 158-82 (from Cott. MS. Vesp.
A. xiv.), though put together about 1 100, at Llanilltud Fawr itself, is not consistent
with the old authorities, making the saint die, for instance, at Dol in Brittany.
Possibly, as Prof. Hugh Williams has suggested (Cymr. Trans. i8g3-4, no),
two men of the same name have been confused, the one an Armorican, the
other a denizen of Greater Britain.

144 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, to stand out with some distinctness. The earliest extant life of
V' a British saint, that of Samson of Dol, which belongs in all
probability to the seventh century,96 represents " Eltutus " 9r as
the head of a great monastery, which was also a school of the
highest reputation, for the abbot was " of all the Britons best
skilled in Holy Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New,
as well as in every kind of learning, such as geometry, rhetoric,
grammar, arithmetic and the knowledge of all arts ; in divination,
too, he was well proven and he had foreknowledge of the future ".
To this school young Samson was sent that he might be trained
for a position in the Church ; according to later accounts, he
had as fellow-pupils Gildas, Paul Aurelian, and even Dewi,
though the evidence for the last of these three names is not con
vincing.98 The situation of Illtud's monastery is not indicated
(though the writer of Samson's life had been there in quest of
material),99 but it seems certain it was in South Wales, and no
site has better claims than Llanilltud Fawr, the Lantwit Major
of to-day.100 Wherever it stood, the school seems to have wielded
98 Printed by Mabillon in Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, i. 165
(Paris, 1668) and by Sollerius (to whose text my references are made) in the great
Acta Sanctorum, July (28), vi. 573-gi (Venice, I74g). The internal evidence
points unmistakably to a date in the century following Samson's death (Cymr.
xi. 127 ; Liverpool W. Nat. Trans. i8g6-7, 100), which is also suggested by such
a form as " Tigerinomale," occurring in the dedication, pp. 573a, 5876. All
the other lives are, as Sollerius says, derived from this, and I cannot except that
printed by Plaine, from Andeg. MS. 7ig, in Analecta Bollandiana, vi. (1887), 77-
150, which appears to me in many passages to introduce confusion into the
Bollandist text. The reference to Germanus (d. 448) as Illtud's teacher (p.
575ft) I regard as an early interpolation ; it raises insurmountable difficulties of
chronology. « P. 575ft. " Eltutus " yields the Elltud of Llanelltud, Merionethshire. The
/lltud of the South seems to have been a Goidelic form (Urk. Spr. 41).
98 Life of Paul Aurelian (founder of S. Pol de Leon in Brittany), as printed
by Plaine in Analecta Bollandiana, i. (1882), 2og-58 and Cuissard in Rev. Celt.
v. pp. 417-58 ; Rhuis life of Gildas. The former bears date 884. For Dewi, see
below. 99 " In cujus magnifico monasterio ego fui " (5756).
100 The later writers have confused two places which the author of the life
of Samson keeps quite distinct, viz., the " monasterium " of Illtud and the " in
sula" (also a monastery; cf. Cymr. Trans. i8g3-4, TI3)> founded "non longe ab
hoc monasterio " by the priest-monk Piro (578ft). The latter may well have been
Caldy Island (the " Enis Pir " of Gir. Camb. vi. 92 (Itin. i. 12)), where remains
have been found of an early settlement of the kind (Lap. W. 106-8 ; Arch. Camb.
V. xiii. (1896), 98-103) ; the former might be Llanilltud Fawr, if "non longe"
were taken loosely as a traveller's casual estimate. In the life of Paul, Illtud's
school is represented as being at the place " quem nunc Iltuti monasterium

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 145
great influence upon British society. It trained not only Gildas, CHAP.
but, as has been indicated above, other young men of energy and
ability who took up the monastic idea ; nay, even Maelgwn
Gwynedd himself, according to a likely interpretation of a
passage in the De Excidio™1 was one of Illtud's pupils, a
fact which would help to explain his brief divergence into the
life of the cloister. This was, in fact, the permanent part of
the great abbot's work ; he gave new life and vigour to mon
asticism, but he founded no British school of learning. Tales of
his austere seclusion at Oystermouth 102 and at Llanamwlch103
were reverently heard by later generations, but his fame as a
scholar almost entirely perished. He spent his whole life in
Britain and probably died about 540.104
Of the men of the next generation, the contemporaries of
Gildas, none has so well attested a history as Samson.105 He
was not of royal birth, though later ages connected him with
Uthr Bendragon and Emyr Llydaw,106 but belonged to the
class which stood next in order, the royal courtiers and
servants whose pride and boast it was to be the foster fathers
of kings.107 His father, Ammon, was a man of Dyfed
(Demetiana patria), his mother, Anna, came from another
South Welsh district, viz., Gwent (de Ventia). It was not at
first intended to make him a cleric, for his father held the
order in no little contempt,108 but the mother's influence was
used on the side of the Church and at the age of five Samson
entered the school of Illtud. Here he made great progress in
dicunt " and also on an island " Pyrus nomine Demetarum patriae in finibus sita "-
The Rhuis life of Gildas does not mention Piro, but he says that Illtud and his
flock dwelt in a barren island, " quae insula usque in hodiernum diem Lanna
Hilduti vocitatur " (ed. Mommsen, p. g3).
101 " Habueris praeceptorem paene totius Britanniae magistrum elegantem "
(c. 36.) See Cymr. Trans. i8g3-4, log.
102 Nennius, c. 71 (Mirabilia). For the identification with Oystermouth
see Arch. Camb. IV. xi. (1880), 155.
103 Gir. Camb. vi. 28 (Itin. i. 2) ; Breconsh. (2), 452.
104 For the Illtud dedications, which are chiefly in Glamorganshire, and for
modern accretions to his legend, see Welsh SS. pp. 178-81.
196 For the Bollandist and other lives see note g6.
wiolo MSS. 107, in, 132. The " annun du " (= Antonius the Black) of
Myv. Arch. II. 24 (415) was probably a different person from Samson's father.
107 " Altrices regum " (574a). For the custom see LL. i. 788 ; Gir. Camb.
vi. 211, 225 (Descr. ii. 4, g) ; Bruts, 27g.
108 ¦¦ TJtpote qui semper minister terreni regis fuisset " (575a).
VOL. I. IO

146 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, learning, was ordained deacon and afterwards priest by Bishop
Dubricius, and seemed to be marked out by his ability and
sanctity as Illtud's successor. But Illtud had a nephew,
advanced to the priesthood, who looked upon the abbacy as
family property and his lawful inheritance, and with the aid of
his brother, who was at the time cook, sought to rid himself of
his rival by means of poison. The attempt failed, but it con
vinced Samson that the monastery could no longer be his
home. He therefore transferred himself to the abbey of Piro,
where by the favour of Dubricius he became, first, cook or
steward (pistor) and then, on the death of Piro, abbot. During
his tenure of the latter office he visited Ireland, having been
persuaded to undertake the journey by certain Irish scholars of
distinction who were passing through the country on their way
back from a pilgrimage to Rome.109 A true son of his age,
Samson found his hunger for the things of the spirit only
partially satisfied by life in a monastic community ; after ruling
the house for a year and a half, he resolved to quit it for the
solitude of a hermitage. Taking with him three companions,
he finds a spot to his mind on the banks of the Severn;
the three live in a deserted fort, where they build a church to
which Samson resorts on Sundays, but he himself withdraws to
a cave in the trackless forest and his hiding-place is long un
known. He is, however, discovered and against his will made
abbot of one of the famous houses of Britain. The day comes
round when the bishops of Britain annually meet in synod to
raise, according to their custom, three of their clergy to the epis
copal dignity. Two candidates are in readiness, but who the third
is to be remains uncertain, until Dubricius designates Samson for
the honour. It is now revealed to the new bishop that he must
become " peregrinus," must leave his native country and spend
the rest of his life in service across the seas. With the journey
through Cornwall and the voyage to Brittany, Samson's career
in Britain closes ; on the other side of the channel he appears
as the founder of Dol and other monasteries and the successful
champion of one Breton count against another. The life brings
him into association with Childebert, king of Paris from 5 1 1
109 .1 Quidam peritissimi Scoti de Roma venientes " (582a). That they had
acquired their learning (didicisse) in Rome is an embellishment of the later writer
(Anal. Boll. vi. 101).

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 147
to 558, and, in harmony with this, he is found signing, as CHAP.
" Samson peccator episcopus," the decrees of the council held at V'
Paris in 555 or 557.110
A prominent part was played in the early history of Samson
by Dubricius. He moves mysteriously, indeed, across the
stage, appearing with the authority of a bishop or overseer in
various South Welsh monasteries, but with no hint furnished
of the place from which or the sphere within which he exercised
his sway. Yet he is clearly a genuine sixth-century ecclesiastic
and may not be dismissed as one of the many unsubstantial
shapes which were drawn into the vortex of the great Arthurian
legend. He is in that company by the deliberate design of
Geoffrey of Monmouth, who also invented for him his arch
bishopric of Caerleon on Usk, so that there might be a fitting
dignitary to preside over the crowning of the puissant king.111
The purely native tradition knows nothing of Dyfrig in this
connection ; the tales it has to tell are of his marvellous birth,
of the fame of his school at " Henllan on the Wye," moved
after seven years to " Mochros" in the same region, and of his
retreat at the end of his life as an anchorite to that favourite
haunt of British saints and goal of British pilgrims, Bardsey
Island.112 An attempt was made in the twelfth century to con
nect Dubricius with the see of Llandaff; his relics were trans
lated from Bardsey in May, 1 1 20, by Bishop Urban, and
installed with much ceremony in the South Welsh cathedral.113
But the chief churches dedicated to him114 are to be found
110 H. and St. ii. 75. There are no Welsh dedications to Samson, but he
is commemorated in Cornwall (Southill), Guernsey and the Scilly Isles. His
archbishopric of York is due to Geoffrey of Monmouth (Hist. Reg.v'm. 12); in
the pages of Giraldus Cambrensis, also, he plays an impossible part (H. and St.
i. i4g). 111 Hist. Reg. viii. 12; ix. 1, 4, 12, 13, 15. The mention in ix. 12 of the
"trium metropolitanarum sedium archipraesules, Londiniensis videlicet, Ebo-
racensis, necnon ex urbe Legionnm Dubricius " suggests that Geoffrey had seen
somewhere the names of the British bishops present at the Council of Aries
(H. and St. i. 7) and anticipated the conjecture of Stillingfleet (Origines Brit-
annicce, ed. Pantin, 1842, i. p. 115).
112 Life in Lib. Land. 78-84. The life by Benedict, a monk of St. Peter's,
Gloucester (printed in Anglia Sacra, ii. 654-61), is later and adopts the fables
of Geoffrey. 113 Lib. Land. 84-6.
114 Llanfrother (now extinct), with its chapels of Hentland and Ballingham ;
Whitchurch by Monmouth.

148 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, within the limits of Archenfield in Herefordshire, the Welsh

V.

Erging, making it likely that this, rather than any other dis
trict in South Wales, was the special scene of his activity.
What is certainly known of Dyfrig is that he was a bishop who
used his influence on behalf of monasticism, and must there
fore have been, in sympathy and aims, of the party of
Gildas.116 Leaving the little group of men associated with the career
of Samson, the student finds himself with scarcely any sure
guide to the history of the great mass of Welsh " saints," 116 the
founders in the sixth and seventh centuries of the principal
parish churches of Wales. As to nearly all of them, it may be
said that nothing has been handed down by tradition save their
parentage, the names of the churches dedicated to their memory
and presumed to have been founded by them, and the dates of
their festivals, the feast day marking in each case the anniver
sary of the saint's happy translation to a better world.117 Thus,
to take an instance, Tydecho is said to have been the son of
Anhun Ddu, son of Emyr of Brittany, to have founded the
churches of Llanymawddwy (with its chapels of Mallwyd and
Garthbeibio) and Cemais and to be commemorated on December
1 7th.118 There is no reason why particulars of this kind should
115 The obit given in Harl. MS. 3859, which is equivalent to a.d. 612 (Cymr.
ix. 156) , is pretty certainly fifty or sixty years too late.
118 Of the "saints" of Wales, St. David is the only one canonised (about
1120) by the Roman Church. The term was used by the Celtic Church in the
sense of Gildas (see note 62 above), i.e., monk.
117 The oldest form of " Boneddy Saint " (Genealogies of the Saints) is that
printed (from a Hafod MS.) in Myv. Arch. II. 23-5 (415-6). This is found in
various MSS. of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such as Peniarth MSS.
16 and 45 (Evans, Rep. i. pp. 33g, 37g). The documents printed in Iolo MSS. 100-
153 are greatly inferior in value, having been compiled at a much later period by
ignorant and reckless antiquaries (see the criticisms of Phillimore in Bye-Gones,
i8go, pp. 448-9, 482-5, 532-6). In his Essay on the Welsh Saints (London, 1836),
Rice Rees makes the fullest use of the material supplied by the " Bonedd " MSS.,
the dedications and the feast days of Welsh churches and similar data, and
though the conclusions adopted (e.g., as to the archbishopric of Caerleon, p. 173)
will in many cases not stand the test of modern criticism, the book still remains
most useful for purposes of reference. The ground is now being worked afresh
in the admirably full and judicious Lives of the British Saints (S. Baring-Gould
and J. Fisher), of which two volumes (A-E) have been issued.
118 Myv. Arch. II. 24 (415) ; Welsh SS. 218. There was a legend or life of
St. Tydecho, now lost, which brought him into conflict with Maelgwn Gwynedd;
it is only known from a metrical version of it by Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn (fl.
1480), printed in Camb. Reg. ii. 375-7.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. I49
not be in the main authentic, for it is certain that they were CHAP.
kept on record from a very early period. " Many times," says Vr
the author of the life of Samson, " have I heard read at St.
Samson's altar, when mass was sung, the names of both his
parents." 119 The founding of monasteries and churches appears
in the same life as an ordinary incident in the career of a
monastic devotee,120 and it would seem extremely probable
that the memory of the "saint" who set apart the site of a
monastery for religious uses, perhaps after a severe course of
fasting such as is described by Bede,121 would be carefully pre
served on the spot. Thus a form like " Llandysilio" would be
explained as " Tysilio's monastery," 122 and its extension over
the whole of Wales would create no difficulty, when it was borne
in mind that the sixth-century " saint " was habitually a migrant,
regarding the call to pilgrimage and travel in distant lands as
a high spiritual distinction. The solemn observance of the day
of a holy man's death, also, was a custom inherited by the
Celtic Church from primitive times,123 and there is every reason
to think that the dates connected with the names of the patron
saints of Welsh churches are, for the most part, genuine anni
versaries. But, though these brief notices are no doubt trustworthy
in the main, they are embodied in documents so recent that it
is not safe to use them for the purpose of detailed historical
reconstruction. Many errors there must be, the result of a
careless transcription, of confusion between persons of the same
or of similar names, of attempts to give a favourite saint a little
added height and dignity. As long as means do not exist of
n9P. 574a.
120 n Confirmatis itaque in bonis operibus his omnibus atque ad monasteria
fundanda sugges-tis " (5806) ; Samson's mother expresses the hope that very soon
he will be able, as bishop, to consecrate " monasteria quae nobis suggeris fundanda
et ecclesias construendas "¦
«i H.E. iii. 23.
122 The original meaning of "llan " (Celtic " landa") is an open space or
Cleared enclosure, as in " gwinllan," " ydlan " (Urk. Spr. 239). It acquired in
British speech the specialised sense of " monastery " (Life of Gildas, ed. Momm
sen, c. 27 ; Life of S. Pol de Leon, Rev. Celt. v. p. 440), and, in Wales, owing to
the prevalence of churches founded by monks, came at last to mean "church "
simply. 123 -phe custom is referred to in the early life of Samson, " magnifica ilia ac
sancta annualis solennitas . . . imminet " (5874-5880) ; indeed from this point
the life is really a saint's day homily. Cf. Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, ii. 45.

15° HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, tracking these errors, it is best to regard this whole group of

v.

facts as bearing abundant witness to the vigour and activity of
the British monastic movement of the age of Gildas, and not
to seek to erect upon it any more elaborate historical super
structure. It might have been expected that the history of some at
least of these notable pioneers of the faith would have been
illustrated by the inscriptions of the period, which is fruitful in
monuments of the kind and these of a distinctively Christian
order. But, in point of fact, only a few fitful gleams of light are
to be derived from that quarter. In one case only has time
unearthed what would seem to be the original tombstone of a
founder in the spot which still bears his name. The stone which
records the burial of "beatus Saturninus" and "sua sa(ncta)
coniux," who had no doubt also embraced the monastic life,
was found in Llansadwrn churchyard, not far from Beau
maris, in the early part of the eighteenth century,124 and, as it
is certainly not later than 5 50, may be taken to belong to the
" Sadwrn " to whom the foundation of the church is ascribed.125
In another case, the saint's tombstone came to light some miles
away from the church which bears his name, but this need cause
no difficulty, even if it were certain that the stone was in its
original position. The " Vendesetli " of this Llannor inscrip
tion undoubtedly represents the form which Gwynhoedl would
assume in the fifth and sixth centuries, and there is no difficulty
in supposing it to have been meant to commemorate the
founder of Llangwynodl, an ancient church in the same region
of Lleyn.126 In like manner, it may be presumed that the
stone found at Tyddyn Holland, near Llandudno, which is now
read " Sanctanus sacerdus," marked the grave of Sannan, the
founder of Llansannan in Denbighshire.127 It remains to
124 Inscr. Chr. No. 153; Lap. W. 188; W. Phil. (2), 363; Arch. Camb.
V. xiii. (i8g6), i3g.
125 Rhys calls attention (Cymr. xviii. 32-3) to the difference between Sadwrn
(Saturnus) and Sadyrnin (Saturninus). But, according to Carlisle, Top. Diet.,
the annual fair of Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire, was held on the same day
(Oct. 5) as that of Llansadyrnin, which suggests that the two names were used
interchangeably. The longer was perhaps an affectionate diminutive.
128 Inscr. Chr. No. I3g ; Lap. W. 180; W. Phil. (2), 366-7 ; Arch. Camb.
I. ii. (1847), 201-3 I IV- viii. (1877), 141-4; Urk. Spr. 265.
127 La?. W. 182; W. Phil. (2), 370-2; Arch. Camb. V. xiii. (1896), 138;
xiv. (i8g7), 140-2. Rees (Welsh SS. 240) confounds Sannan, whose day was

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 151
mention the case of Paulinus, which' is by no means so clear. CHAP.
In the life of St. David by Rhygyfarch it is said that the saint v"
received instruction for many years from "Paulinus scriba,"
who led a holy life in a certain unnamed "insula" and had
around him many disciples.128 Paulinus, in short, was head of
a monastic school of the same type as Illtud's. No hint,
however, is given as to where it stood. That it was situated at
Whitland or " Y Ty gwyn ar Daf " (The White House on the
Taf) in Dyfed is pure conjecture, resting on no ancient au
thority;129 the foundations associated with the name of Paul
inus are Llangors church in Breconshire 13° and the chapel of
Ystradffin, anciently known as " Capel Peulin," on the borders
of Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire.131 If regard be now
had to the early inscriptions bearing the name, they will be
found to be three. One on a stone now in Margam church is
the epitaph of" Cantusus," set up (so the legend is construed) by
his father " Paulinus " ; 132 another at Llandysilio in Dyfed marks
the resting-place of "Clotorigi" (Clodri) son of " Paulini " ; 133
the third, found at Maes Llanwrthwl and now kept at Dolau
Cothi, Carmarthenshire, is more elaborate and may be thus
rendered — "Keeper of the faith and constant lover of his
country, Paulinus lies here : he was a most devoted follower of
the right ".134 It is possible that this last inscription, with its
13th June (see Mostyn MS. 88) and who was connected with St. Winifred (Penn.
ii. I7g), with S. Senan of Scattery Island, Clare, who was commemorated on 8th
March. 128 Cambro-Br. SS. 122. See also p. 137 ; Lib. Land. gg.
129 whitland is a township in the parish of Llangan and, until the founda
tion of the Cistercian abbey, had no ecclesiastical associations.
130 See Arch. Camb. IV. xiv. (1883), 44-5, 144, 146, 153, 154, for twelfth-
century references to Llangors as the church of St. Paulinus.
131 It is " Capel Pylyn " in Speed's map of Carmarthenshire, and is reason
ably identified by Rees (Welsh SS. 187) with the chapel of St. Paulinus mentioned
as subject to the abbey church in a Strata Florida document of I33g (Str. Flor.
App. Ii.).
132 Inscr. Chr. No. 77; Lap. W. 38-g ; Arch. Camb. V. xvi. (i8gg), 145-6.
The stone was formerly at Port Talbot and was a Roman milestone before it was
converted into a gravestone.
133 Inscr. Chr. No. g7 ; Lap. W. 111-2; W. Phil. (2), 3g7-8. In Celtic
Folklore, p. 535, Rhys seeks to connect the " marinilatio " of this stone with
the church of Paulinus at Llangors.
134 Gibson, 624 ; Inscr. Chr. No. 82 ; Lap. W. 7g-8i ; W. Phil. (2), 392.
When first described by Llwyd, the stone was a footbridge at " Pant y Polion,"
which is, I am informed still the name of a field on Bron Deilo farm, opposite
Maes Llanwrthwl.

152 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, emphatic terms of praise, may record the virtues of the Paulinus
V- of tradition, but, in view of the fact that the name was in
common use at this period, even this must not be regarded
as certain, and, in general, it may be said that the history of
this " saint " cannot be eked out by means of the " Paulinus "
inscriptions. In the case of the more famous of the Welsh "saints,"
further evidence is available in the shape of regular lives,
recording for the edification of the faithful the great deeds and
marvellous experiences of men who appear in a variety of
trying situations as the constant favourites of Heaven. Lives
of this kind no doubt contain in most cases a substantial
nucleus of truth and may be used, if due caution be exercised,
for historical purposes. But, as they are in their very nature
panegyrics of particular saints, in which everything is subordin
ated to the enhancement of the hero's glory, the element of
exaggeration (not to speak of the avowedly miraculous) is from
the beginning not absent and it grows more and more pro
nounced as the story is told and retold in successive ages.
Hence it is much against the lives of the great monastic
founders of Wales — Dewi, Padarn, Teilo, Cadog, Illtud and
Cybi — that not one of them can in its present form be assigned
to an earlier date than the era of the Norman Conquest, that is
to say, five hundred years after the period with which these
documents are concerned.135 It would be folly for this reason
to question the existence of Dewi and his companion saints, or
to deny that they founded many of the churches which bear
their name, but it must be held that we know little of their real
history. Great as is the fame of Dewi Sant, who has for ages
been recognised as the patron saint of Wales, for the historian
he is but a lay figure compared to Gildas.
The life of Dewi,136 better known as St. David, is, it should
135 Most of these lives were edited, with English translations, by W. J Rees
for the Welsh MSS Society in Lives of the Cambro-British Saints (Lland very,
1853). It is to be regretted that the text of this volume, in the words of Rhys
(W. Phil. (2), 425), " teems with inaccuracies " ; for a long list of important cor
rections see Cymr. xiii. 76-96. The principal MS. source used for this edition
was Cottonian MS. Vespasian A. xiv. (ff. 13-94), written about 1200 ; the lives
of St. David, St. Cadog, St. Gwynllyw, and St. Illtud appear, however, to have
been composed about a century earlier (Cymr. xi. 127-g).
136 rjewi represents the popular and Daiydd the learned form assumed by
David in Welsh (Loth, Mots Latins, 160).

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 153
be said, in all likelihood the oldest and most trustworthy of the CHAP.
group. It was written about 1 090 by Rhygyfarch, son of Bishop
Sulien of St. David's, who belonged to a family of scholars and
had access to such records as the cathedral could supply.137
It certainly seems, in its account of the early monastic discipline
of St. David's, to embody ancient materials and to describe
institutions which had long fallen into abeyance. Thus, in spite
of its late date and general legendary air, this life perhaps merits
closer attention than most compositions of the class to which
it belongs. St. David, according to this narrative, was the son
of Sanctus, a king of Ceredigion, and Nonnita, a nun of Dyfed ;
he was born in the latter region, at the spot on the north shore
of St. Bride's Bay now marked by St. Nonn's Chapel,138 when
King Tryffin and his sons ruled over Dyfed. The date thus
indicated, viz., about 520,139 is probably not far wrong; as to
the parentage, all that can be said is that the reverence shown
towards the memory of Nonnita, or, to use the better-known
form, Non, not alone in Wales, but also in Cornwall, Devon and
Brittany, seems to give her an assured historical position, though
the idea that she was a nun at the time of St. David's birth may
fairly be set down as due to a misunderstanding of her name.140
In later life she probably became, like Samson's relatives, a
convert to the monastic life, and hence the churches dedicated
to her at Llannon 141 and Llanerchaeron in Cardiganshire,
Llannon in Carmarthenshire, Alternon in Cornwall, Bradstone
in Devon and Dirinon in Brittany.142 Sanctus or Sant is a much
137 Cambro-Br. SS. 117-43. For Rhygyfarch (" michi autem qui Ricemar-
chus nominor ") and his connections, see chap. xii. extra note. On this life de
pend that composed by Giraldus Cambrensis (iii. 377-404) and the Welsh
" buchedd," for the earliest text of which see Llyfr yr Ancr, 105-18.
138 Fenton (2), 63 ; Jones and Freem. 227, 243 ; Arch. Camb. V. xv. (1898),
345-8- 139 The pedigree of the royal house of Dyfed makes " Triphun " the grand
father of " Guortepir," the " Vortipori " of Gildas (Cymr. ix. 171).
140 Several instances of the personal name " Nonnita " occur (W. Phil. (2),
404), one in a Cornish inscription of about this period (Inscr. Chr. No. 10 ; Arch.
Camb. V. xii. (1895), 54). Gir ldus had the " sanctam monialem" of Rhygy
farch before him, but thought it desirable to suppress it. No importance need be
attached to statements providing Non with local connections (Myv. Arch. II. 23
(415), 37-8 (423) ; Iolo MSS. 82-3, 101, no, 124).
141 A chapel (now ruined) under Llansantffraid (Arch. Camb. V. xiv. (i8g7),
165-6). 142 " Buhez Santes Nonn," a Breton miracle play, was found in a MS. of
about 1400 at Dirinon and printed at Paris in 1837 ; the text was re-edited by

iS4 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, more shadowy personage, and better evidence than we have at
present is needed to prove that St. David was of royal blood
and grandson of Ceredig ap Cunedda Wledig.143
The saint, it is further said, was baptised by St. Ailbe of
Emly144 (who died about 530) and spent his earliest years at
Henfynyw,145 Cardiganshire, in a school apparently taught by
one " Guistilianus," a bishop and his cousin on the father's side.146
After taking priest's orders, it is added, he went to the school
of Paulinus, already mentioned, and was there for very many
years. It would seem as if in these passages two different
accounts of St. David's education had been combined, more
especially as the ninth-century life of Paul Aurelian offers a
third, mentioning " Sanctum Devium " among the famous pupils
of Illtud.147 Rhygyfarch's next excursion is into the region of
pure legend, when he tells how his hero founded, before he made
his home in Mynyw, twelve famous monasteries, among them
being the well-known English foundations, Repton, Croyland,
Leominster and Bath ! He is on surer ground when he brings
the saint back to Mynyw, in its Latin form, Menevia, and re
counts the struggles he had with the chieftain of the district, one
" Baia Scottus," whose fort is still shown at " Clegyr Foia "
(Boia's Rocks),148 ere he was allowed to settle peaceably in
"Glyn Rhosin," the little valley ever since inseparably associ-
E. Ernault in Rev. Celt. viii. pp. 230-301, 405-gi. The story is taken entirely from
Rhygyfarch's life, save for some additions from Geoffrey of Monmouth.
143 Sanctus is " Sant " in the older Welsh authorities (Myv. Arch. II. 23
(415); Llyfr yr Ancr, 106), the form "Sandde" being an eccentricity of the
Iolo MSS. (82, 101, no, 124). He does not appear in the pedigree of the royal
house of Ceredigion, which is carried to Ceredig through a son " Iusay "
(Cymr. ix. 181). In the " Buhez," Ceredig is named as the saint's father.
144 " Helue Menevensium (read, Muminensium) episcopo." He probably
owes his place in the legend to the existence near St. David's of a Llaneilfyw or
St. Elvie's. 145 1 follow the explanation of Giraldus (iii. 384), that the " Vetus Rubus "
of Rhygyfarch is a translation of Henfynyw by some one who thought, as
Giraldus did himself, that Mynyw was from the Irish muine, a bramble.
148 Possibly the " Justinianus " whose astonishing legend is given in Cap-
grave's Nova Legenda Angliae (ed. Horstman, igoi, ii. pp. g3-s) and who was
commemorated at Llanstinan and at Capel Stinan, near St. David's (Fenton
(2), 64 ; Jones and Freem. 224).
147 Ren. Celt. v. p. 421.
148 Excavations conducted by Mr. Baring-Gould in igo2 showed that the
spot had been occupied by a people in the Early Iron stage of civilisation (Arch.
Camb. VI. iii. (ig03), 1-11). It need not be supposed that Boia and his clan
were much above this level.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 155
ated with his name. That he found a Goidel in possession CHAP.
in this remote corner of Dyfed is most likely 149 and opposition
to a monastic settlement may well have come from a self-willed
landowner who did not at all repudiate the name of Christian.
After the settlement in St. David's, the life suggests that,
save for one important exception, the saint's wanderings came
to an end and that henceforth his energies were devoted to the
work of organising and controlling the monastic community he
had got together in this remote angle of Britain. The exception
is the journey to Jerusalem which, according to the legend, he
made in company with Padarn and Teilo and which had as its
issue his consecration as " archiepiscopus " by the Patriarch, but
this passage in the life is without doubt purely mythical, the
intention being to show that St. David was not beholden for his
episcopal authority to any ecclesiastic in the West. Though
he was reverenced in later ages in Devonshire,150 in Cornwall,151
and in Brittany,162 and was in close intercourse with the mon
astic founders of Ireland, with men like St. Maedhog of Ferns 153
and St. Senan of Clare,154 there is nothing to show that he
travelled in those regions ; the influence he wielded was as
abbot of the monastery of Mynyw or Tyddewi and the founder
of daughter monasteries in other parts of South Wales.
The type of monasticism which prevailed at St. David's was
of the most rigorous kind. The abbot himself was known as
" Dewi Ddyfrwr," 166 David the Waterdrinker, and for ages his
successors were under a solemn obligation to abstain from
meat.156 In the picture drawn by Rhygyfarch of the ancient
but vanished order of the fraternity, monks are seen yoked to
the plough in place of oxen, others dig and hoe the ground
149 P. 121. 169At Thelbridge and at Ashprington.
161 At Davidstow. 152 At S. Divy, near Landerneau.
163 The " Aidus " of the life in Cambro-Br. SS. 232-50. In Rhygyfarch's
text he appears as " Aidanus " (130) and " Maidoc" (133), the latter being an
affectionate derivative from the former name (Arch. Camb. V. xii. (i8g5), 36-7).
Ferns, the seat of his monastery, is " Guernin " in the one passage and
"aquilento," i.e., marsh (absurdly rendered " north " on p. 436!), in the other.
lsiActa Sanctorum, March, vol. i. (8th day), 7720 (Venice, 1735).
165 Life of Paul Aurelian (Rev. Celt. v. p. 421), Rhygyfarch (118), Giraldus
Cambrensis (iii. 379), LL. ii. 318, Iolo MSS. 300, 301. Lib. Land. 128 suggests
a somewhat different interpretation, and Mr. Phillimore regards the original
meaning of the epithet as an open question (Owen, Pemb. 206-7).
156 Gir. Camb. vi. 104 (Itin. ii. 2).

156 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, in religious silence, others carry saws for the felling of timber.
No one may claim anything as his own, not even the sorry
skins he wears ; the careless use of such a phrase as " my book "
is an offence to be expiated by severe penance. It would
appear certain, therefore, that St. David's was a monastery of
that stricter pattern which caused Gildas, if the extracts cited
under his name on this subject are really his,157 so much anxiety
in his later years. Monks, he complains, are forsaking their old
allegiance in many monasteries of the ancient and less exacting
type in order to join communities having a more rigorous ideal,
in which the eating of meat, the drinking of all beverages save
water, the use of horses and carriages are abjured. Bread is
eaten by measure ; oxen are discarded so that the zeal of the
brethren may show itself in the drawing of ploughs, and mean
while, such is the burden of his lament, there is a notable
falling off in Christian charity and a dangerous uprising of the
pharisaic spirit. If Gildas and David did, as is dimly suggested
by these extracts, champion opposing schools of ascetic thought,
it is certain that the school of David left the deeper impress
upon the Welsh mind ; as Christianity had in the first instance
made good its foothold in Wales through the powerful appeal
of monasticism, so now Celtic enthusiasm cast its suffrage in
favour of the more uncompromising exponents of the monastic
creed. That St. David was a bishop 168 may be without hesitation
believed, and no doubt every abbot who succeeded him in the
headship of the monastic community of Mynyw held the same
office. He may even, by contrast with men of inferior fame
and influence, have been known as " archiepiscopus " or " chief
bishop".159 But there is no warrant for supposing that he
sought to wield any authority as metropolitan, or archbishop
in its later sense, over the British Church, either from St. David's
or any other centre. Geoffrey of Monmouth, having made
Dubricius Archbishop of Caerleon, is naturally led to indicate
David as his successor in that dignity ; 160 Rhygyfarch is less
187 Printed by H. and St. (i. 108-13), Mommsen (pp. 86-8) and Williams
(pp. 256-70), who are all disposed to regard them as genuine.
158 He ;s styled " Dauid episcopus moni iudeorum" in Harl. MS. 3859
(Cymr. ix. 156).
"9 For this use of the title see Cymr. Trans. 1893-4, I3I-
180 Hist. Reg. ix. 15 ; xi. 3.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 157
concerned about ecclesiastical order, and, while claiming for his CHAP.
hero the position of metropolitan, represents the office as con- v
ferred upon him by general acclamation after his wonderful
preaching to the multitudes assembled at the Synod of Brefi.
But in the days of St. David the system of dioceses, under
which each bishop has assigned to him for his exclusive rule
a definite extent of territory, was clearly not known in Wales,
and still less could there be an archbishop recognised as supreme
from end to end of that country.
Nothing could well be more legendary than the account of
the Synod of Brefi as it has come down to us. The Pelagian
heresy has revived (though Gildas, it should be noted, has not
a word to say about a relapse which, had it really occurred,
must have deeply moved him), and 1 1 8 bishops meet at Brefi
in Ceredigion to proclaim the true faith to the immense throng
there gathered together. But not one of them can make
himself heard, and matters are at a standstill until it is suggested
that Daniel and Dubricius shall fetch the Saint of Mynyw.
David is with difficulty persuaded to return with them to the
synod and leaves them on the way to raise from the dead the
only son of a widow. But, when at last he reaches Brefi, he is
master of the situation ; the ground beneath his feet rises into
a little hill (on which now stands the church of Llanddewi),
and his voice, resonant as the sound of a trumpet, reaches the
farthest limits of the assembly. Fantastic as is this story, the
Synod of Brefi may not itself be mythical ; it is known from
Bede 161 and from the life of St. Samson 162 that the bishops of
the Britons were accustomed to meet in such gatherings, and,
if there was no occasion to discuss Pelagianism, there were
other burning questions, notably those connected with the
monastic life, which made counsel and joint action very neces
sary. St. David died, as is well known, on the 1 st of March ;
the year of his death cannot, unhappily, be fixed with the same
precision. Probably that intended by the Irish Chronicon
Scotorum, viz., 588, is not far from the mark,163 and he would
181 H.E. ii. 2. 182 P. 5836.
183 The entry is simply " Dauid Cille Muine " . So Tighernach (Rev.
Celt. xvii. p. 158) has " Dabid Cille Muni " ; Harl. MS. 3859 also leaves out
the " obiit ". Thus all three notices clearly come from a common, probably

158 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, thus be a contemporary of Gildas, but somewhat younger.
The fame he acquired in later ages, culminating in his adoption
by Welshmen generally as the patron saint of their country, is
to be explained by the very large number of churches (Rees
reckons fifty-three 164) in all parts of South Wales which were
regarded as under his protection. In many cases the dedica
tion is probably not one which dates from St. David's own day,
but, when all deductions have been made, it still remains true
that, within the limits of South Wales, he had an exceptional
position in respect of the many important churches, like
Llangyfelach in Gower, Llanarthneu on the Towy,165 Glascwm
in Elfael, and Dewchurch Magna in Herefordshire, which
owned allegiance to his memory. The only saint who seems
to have been regarded as in any way his rival was Cadfael,
familiarly known as Cadog and Catwg, the founder of Llancar-
fan in Morgannwg, and a saint of great reputation in that
quarter of Wales.166 In the life of Cadog, written about 1075
by one Lifric, who was son to Bishop Herwald of Llandaff and
" magister " of Llancarfan,167 it is said that David summoned
the Synod of Brefi while Cadog was away on pilgrimage and
that his reluctance to take precedence of so distinguished a
saint was only overcome by the strict injunctions of an angel.
When Cadog returned, no one for a while ventured to tell him
what had occurred, and, when at last the news was broken to
him, he gave vent to most unsaintly anger, which was only
appeased by another angelic interposition. It is noteworthy in
this connection that none of the ancient churches of the king-
an Irish, source, and the later date implied in the Welsh chronicle, viz., a.d. 601,
is perhaps due to an attempt to connect the saint with the " Sinodus urbis
legion " ascribed to that year (Cymr. xi. 156). If the statement of Rhygyfarch,
that he died on a Tuesday, were to be accepted, the year might be given with
some confidence as 58g.
184 Welsh SS. 45.
186 Llanarthneu appears in a poem by Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, a contem
porary of the Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd, as "llan adneu " (Myv. Arch. I. 271
(ig4) ; Lit. Kym. (2), 155). It is, therefore, no doubt, the " Depositi Mona
sterium" of Cambro-Br. SS. 117, " adneu" being the Welsh legal term for a
deposit (LL. i. 244, 258, 484; Wotton, Glossary, s.v.). At the same time, this
current derivation was probably wrong, Arthneu being really a proper name ; cf.
the " Ian hardneu " of Lib. Land. 27g.
188 His life, from Vesp. A. xiv., is printed in Cambro-Br. SS. 22-g6. For
the name Cadfael (in old Welsh, Catmail), see pp. 25, 28.
187 Cambro-Br. SS. 80; Lib. Land. 271, 273, 274.

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 159
dom of Glywysing, lying between the Tawe and the Usk, are CHAP.
dedicated to St. David ; this was the special domain of Cadog,
who was sprung from the princely house of the district, his
father Gwynllyw (commemorated at St. Woollo's, Newport)
being the ruler who gave his name to the ancient cantref of
Gwynllwg.168 Thus there would appear to be some ground
for the belief that Dewi and Cadog were not close fellow-
workers, while both tradition and the evidence of dedications
go to show that Dewi worked harmoniously with the other two
monastic pioneers of the South, with Padarn or Paternus of
Llanbadarn Fawr in Ceredigion and with Eliud, familiarly
known as Teilo, the patron of many a Llandeilo in South
Wales.169 But, if there was jealousy in Glamorgan of the fame
of the Demetian saint, the rivalry of Cadog never became
elsewhere serious, for his renown always remained a strictly
local affair. Note to Chapter V. § i. — Harleian MS. 3859.
This MS., which at one time belonged to the abbey of Montauban in the
South of France, includes, among other writings unconnected with Wales, a
copy of the Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius (ff. I74ft-i8gft), followed
by a set of Latin annals, a number of genealogies of Welsh and Cumbrian
princes, a list of British cities, and the tract De Mirabilibus Britanniae (ff. 189ft-
ig8). Various estimates have been given of the age of this little collection ;
Petrie assigns it to the tenth century (Mon. Hist. Br. 68), Hardy to the eleventh
(Catalogue of Materials for British History, i., No. 778), Maunde Thompson to
the beginning of the twelfth (Cymr. ix. 145-6). The point is not, however, of
the first importance, since it has been clearly shown that the Harleian MS. is
not an original in respect of these documents, but is derived from an older MS.
written in the Hiberno-Saxon hand. The parent MS. may be confidently as
signed to the end of the tenth century, in view of the fact that the principal
pedigree given is that of Owain ap Hywel Dda, who died in g88, and that the
annals come to an end in his reign. This conclusion is also supported by the
spelling of the Welsh names, which are uniformly in the Old- Welsh form.
The MS., therefore, represents a tenth-century contribution to the history
of Wales, and the information given in the annals and the genealogies is of high
value. Both have been printed, with scrupulous care, by Phillimore in the ninth
volume of the Cymmrodor (152-83), where also will be found a full introduction
(141-51). Less satisfactory is the edition of the annals in the volume entitled
Annales Cambriae, which appeared in the Rolls series in i860 under the editor
ship of John Williams Ab Ithel. Harl. MS. 3859 is MS. A. of this edition, in
which it is awkwardly combined with MSS. B. and C. of the thirteenth century.
iesCymr. vii. 118-g; xi. 40-1. The oldest known form of the name is
given in Harl. MS. 38sg, viz., Guinnliguiauc (Cymr. ix. 167), for Gwynllywiog.
189 For the lives of Padarn and Teilo see Cambro-Br. SS. i88-g7 and
Lib. Land. 97-117 respectively. Both contain friendly references to St. David.

160 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. The annals begin with a year which appears to be a.d. 444 and run on, so
V. far as the marking of the years is concerned, to 977, though the last event re
corded is under 954. The year of our Lord is nowhere given, the only addition
to the successive entries of " an(nus) " being the figure set against every tenth
year which gives the number of that year, counted from the first (see the fac
simile in the Rolls edition). As a record of events set down from year to year,
these annals obviously belong to St. David's; after 809 no bishops are men
tioned save those of that see, while of them there is a fairly complete account.
It is known from the story of Asser that learning was not without its devotees
at St. David's during this age. But, while the later entries are undoubtedly of
contemporary authority, the earlier ones have no claim to be put on the same
footing. It has often been pointed out that the basis of the chronicle was
furnished by some Irish source, also used by Tighernach and the Irish annalists
who followed him (Mon. Hist. Br. 92-3 ; Ann. C. xv. xvi. ; Cymr. xi. 139).
Nor is it unlikely that, as suggested by Skene (Chronicles of the Picts and Scots,
1867, xxviii.), it was this Irish document which provided the starting-point of
a.d. 444, otherwise not easily explained, for the Annals of Ulster assign to this
year the foundation of Armagh and the beginning, therefore, of organised
Christianity in Northern Ireland. But, besides this foreign source, the earlier
annals depend to a great extent on the Historia Brittonum, and probably upon
other similar traditional accounts of the doings of the Britons. In the eighth
century the notices are predominantly northern, and are, for the most part, such
as would naturally occur in a Strathclyde chronicle. It is not until the age
of Offa is reached that the entries begin to wear the aspect of a contemporary
record kept in South Wales, and it is from this point only that the chronicle
takes the position of a historical authority of the first class.
Note to Chapter V. § ii. — MSS. and Editions of Gildas.
Gildas's work was not popular in the Middle Ages (" raro invenitur," says
William of Newburgh, who had lighted upon a copy) and few MSS. are available
for the determination of the text. Of those extant the most important is Cot-
tonian MS. Vitellius A. vi., which belonged to the abbey of St. Augustine,
Canterbury, and was written in the eleventh century. It was used by the early
editors of Gildas, but suffered severely in the Cottonian fire of 1731 and was
thus neglected in the nineteenth century, until Mommsen showed in 1894 that
much of it was still legible and of great value for purposes of textual criticism.
In the same edition another important MS. was used, viz., that now kept in the
public library of Avranches (No. 162), which came originally from the neigh
bouring abbey of Mont St. Michel. The readings of this MS. had not been
given in any previous edition ; it is of the end of the twelfth century, and, though
corrupt and interpolated, supplies a useful check upon the Cottonian MS.
There are two MSS. of Gildas in the Cambridge Public Library; Dd. i. 17
came from Glastonbury and belongs to about 1400 ; it is clearly a copy of the
Cottonian MS. and is valuable chiefly as evidence of what that MS. once con
tained. Ff. i. 27 was the property of the Cistercian abbey of Sawley in York
shire and is a thirteenth-century MS. It is a copy of a MS. written by one
Cormac, in which great liberties were taken with the original.
The first editor of Gildas was the Italian Polydore Vergil, who used the
Cottonian MS. and one akin to that of Avranches. This edition appeared in
1525. In 1568 John Josselin, Latin secretary to Archbishop Parker, published a
second, based upon the Cottonian MS. and its Cambridge derivative, Dd. i. 17.
Thomas Gale next included Gildas in his Scriptores XV. (Oxford, i6gi), and for
the first time made use of the older Cambridge MS., Ff. i. 27, by no means to the

THE AGE OF THE SAINTS. 161
advantage of the text. Nearly a century and a half went by ere another attempt CHAP.
was made to give to the world a text of Gildas, and the edition of Joseph Steven- V.
son, published by the English Historical Society in 1838, was in some respects
the least satisfactory of all. Stevenson relied on the Cambridge MSS. and the
early editions, and appears to have taken it for granted that no better authorities
were to be found ; the Cottonian MS. he does not even mention. Gildas finds
a place in the huge volume entitled Monumenta Historica Britannica (1848) and
also, with the omission of the historical portion, in the first volume of Councils
and Ecclesiastical Documents (London, i86g), but both Mr. Petrie and Mr.
Haddan, while aware of the importance of the Cottonian MS., believed it to be
lost and brought no fresh material to the study of the text. In i8g4,179 however,
appeared the Monumenta Germaniae Historica edition, under the superintendence
of Mommsen ; for this full use was made both of the Cottonian and the Avranches
MSS. and textual problems were for the first time adequately discussed in a de
tailed introduction. In the edition issued by Hugh Williams for the Cymmro
dorion Society (i8gg-i90i), the text of Mommsen is reprinted with an English
translation and notes.
Gale was the first to divide the work into " Historia " (cc. 1-26) and " Epis-
tola" (cc. 27-110), the source of this error (in which he was followed by Steven
son) being the fact that the MS. to which he pinned his faith, viz., Ff. i. 27, ends
with c. 26. In no other MS. is there any break at this point, and the monk of
Rhuis, in his life of Gildas (p. 97), joins the end of c. 26 to his citation of c. 27
in the most natural manner possible. What the original title of the work was it
is difficult to determine ; in the Cottonian MS. it was apparently described as
De Excidio Britanniae.
The authenticity of the De Excidio as a real production of the early sixth
century is no longer seriously questioned. The MSS. are all of late date, but
the extensive use of the work by Bede, who mentions " Gildus " by name (H.E.
i. 22), makes it impossible to suppose it of later date than a.d. 700, and the efforts
of Thomas Wright (Biographia Britannica, i. 115-35) and A. Anscombe (Academy,
1895) to find a place for it, either as a whole or in part, in the seventh century have
been quite unsuccessful.
The Rhuis life was first printed from a defective Fleury MS. in Dubois'
Floriacensis Bibliotheca (1605), 429-63, whence it was taken by Bolland for the
Acta Sanctorum (Jan. (29), II. 958-67). Mabillon in Acta Sanctorum Ordinis
S. Benedicti (i. 138-52) used a Rhuis MS. to supply some of the defects of the
Fleury MS., but was not able to add the missing close. Mommsen edits (pp.
gi-106) from the printed sources. In c. 34 reference is made to an event stated
to have happened in 1008, but it is not unlikely that, as Williams suggests
(Gildas, p. 318), these later chapters are an addition to the original life, furnishing
no clue as to its date. The Glastonbury life was first printed by Stevenson in
his edition of Gildas, from Burney MS. 310 (British Museum), written in the
priory of Finchale, near Durham, in 1381, and a MS. copied from this in the
sixteenth century (Royal MS. 13 B. vii.). Phillimore pointed out in i8go (Cymr.
xi. 7g) how the most valuable MS. of all, C.C.C.C. MS. I3g (which is of the
twelfth century), had been neglected, and cited some of its readings. Mommsen's
text (pp. 107-10) is based on this and the Burney MS.
170 This is the date of the separate issue of the " Gildas and Nennius " fasci
culus — the whole volume (torn, xiii.) is dated i8g8.

VOL. I. 1 1

CHAPTER VI.
STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH.
(For this period I have made much use of Mr. Plummer's editions of Bede's
Ecclesiastical History and of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Celtic Britain is still
indispensable. Mr. Skene devoted much labour to the elucidation of the history
of this period and embodied the fruit of his researches in The Four Ancient Books
of Wales and Celtic Scotland. But his analysis of the material he used was not
sufficiently searching, and many of his conclusions rest in consequence on a very
insecure basis.)
I. The Men of the North.
CHAP. The first event on record in the history of the struggle between
the English and the Britons who were under the sway of the
northern gwledig is the foundation by Ida of the kingdom of
Bernicia. Bede gives the year as 547,1 a date which he no
doubt inferred from the particulars given in the old list, kept
from an early period, of Northumbrian kings and the years of
their rule.2 Whether Ida founded an entirely new settlement or
was raised to the dignity of king by a body of Anglian warriors
already established on the Northumbrian coast is a point as to
which information is wanting, but it is likely that any colony
previously settled in this region was insignificant, and that it
was from the middle of the sixth century that the Britons who
1H.E. v. 24.
2 The references to the treatment of the " infaustus annus," 633-4, m H.E. iii.
1, 9, afford absolute proof that there was such a list in existence in Bede's time
and that he regarded it as a trustworthy record. In point of fact, the Moore
MS. of H.E. has appended to it (see Mon. Hist. Br. 2go) a table of this kind
which appears to have been entered in the MS. in 737, two years only after the
historian's death. It gives the length of Ida's reign, with Bede, as twelve years,
and the data it furnishes, assuming that iEthelfrith died in 616, would fix the
accession of Ida at 547. The same list appears, with the accidental omission of
the one-year King Glappa, in the Saxon Genealogies (Hist. Britt. c. 63) ;
Simeon of Durham has it also (Hist. Reg. § 12), but with a number of errors of
transcription. The list in Fl. Wig. i. 6 differs in important respects ; it appears
to me to have been altered so as to bring it into conformity with the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, s.a. 588. 162

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 163
dwelt on the banks of the Forth, the Tweed and the Tyne had CHAP. VI
reason to be genuinely alarmed at the progress of the Teutonic
invader. The centre of Ida's power is indicated by the fact
that tradition ascribes to him the foundation of Bamborough,3
a coast castle between Berwick and Alnwick, which long
remained an important royal stronghold. The people over
whom he bore rule called themselves Baernice,4 a name which
was possibly derived from that of the Brigantes who anciently
occupied this region 5 and was transferred into Welsh in the
forms Byrneich and Bryneich.6
During the second half of the sixth century war must have
been all but incessant between the Bernician interlopers and
the older inhabitants of these northern lands. No details of
the conflict have, however, been handed down, save the brief
notices contained in the little tract which a Briton of the
district put together at the end of the seventh century and
which now appears, in four MSS., at the end of the Historia
Brittonum. In this document (commonly known as the
Saxon Genealogies')7 the names are mentioned of five kings
of Bernicia who succeeded Ida and preceded ^Ethelfrith, and of
two of them it is said that British chieftains waged war against
them. These were Theoderic, a son of Ida, who reigned from
572 to 579 — "against him Urien and his sons valiantly did
battle" — and Hussa, who was king from 585 to 592 — "against
him the four kings, Urien, Rhydderch the Aged, Gwallog and
Morgan, fought".8 In 592 a grandson of Ida, ^Ethelfrith
son of ^Ethelric, obtained the crown, a man whom Bede terms
a very Saul for plundering his enemies ; no English leader, he
says, made himself master of more British land, either by
driving out the Britons or reducing them to servitude.9 Thus
3 A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 547. Cf. also the difficult passage in the Saxon
Genealogies (Hist. Britt. c. 61, end), which I read: " (i)unxit (as in the "Nen-
nian " recension) Dinguayr(u)i guurth Berneich," i.e., he joined Dinguarwy, or
whatever the form should be, to Bernicia. So Zimmer, Nenn. V. 307 ; on p: 80
he has another suggestion.
4 A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 634. 5 Celt. Br. (2), pp. 113-4.
6 Byrneich is the older form ; see Mommsen's edition of the Hist. Britt. pp.
201 (Berneich, Bernech), 204 (Birneich), 205 (Berneich, Birnech); Bruts, 101
(Byrneirch), 102 (Byrneich), 103 (Byrneich).
7 See note on p. 116.
8 Hist . Britt. c. 63. The dates are calculated from the list of kings referred
to above. 9 H.E. i. 34- II *

164 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, at the end of the century Bernicia had become, out of small
beginnings, a most formidable power.
It seems most probable that it was this struggle, continued
by the Britons with varying but on the whole decidedly
adverse fortune until the middle of the seventh century, which
created the national name of Cymry.10 Hitherto, the general
designation of the race holding power between the Severn and
the Forth had been " Britons," in modern Welsh " Brython " ;
this distinguished them alike from the Goidels, Scotti, or Irish
on the one hand and from the English on the other. But in
the extremity which now beset them, in face of the resistless
advance of the English, not in Bernicia alone, but in the
kingdom of Deira also, to the south of the Tees, and through
out Mid Britain, Brython and Goidel would seem, along the
whole of this line, to have agreed to cast aside race distinctions
and to recognise only the common name of " Combroges " or
" fellow-countrymen," fighting for freedom under the authority
of one gwledig. Only thus does it seem possible to explain
the late appearance of the name in history, its extension to the
North, where it is still preserved in Cumberland, the " land of
the Cymry," and its failure to reach the Britons of Devon,
Cornwall and Brittany, between whom and the more northerly
Britons there was kinship, but, so far as can be seen, no
martial alliance.
The leaders of the Cymry in this long and obstinate
conflict were the men known to tradition as " Gw£r y Gogledd,"
the Men of the North.11 No single figure towers above the
rest, as in the age of Arthur or of Maelgwn Gwynedd, though
it may be presumed that the office of gwledig was still in
existence ; the Britons were clearly much divided and fought
under the leadership of local chieftains. Four of these are
mentioned in the Saxon Genealogies as opponents of Hussa,
viz., Urien ap Cynfarch, Gwallog ap Llyenog, Morgan (ap
Coleddog ?) and Rhydderch ap Tudwal. Others whose names
10 The view here adopted is that of Rhys (Celt. Br. (2), pp. 115-6, I3g ; W.
People, p. 26). For the derivation and application of the name, see the note ap
pended to this chapter.
11 Peniarth MS. 45 (formerly Hengwrt MS. 536) gives " Bonedd Gwyr y
Gogledd" (Pedigrees of the Men of the North), as printed in IV. Anc. Bks. ii.
p. 454. But these pedigrees are to be found in a much more trustworthy form in
Harl. MS. 38sg, as printed by Phillimore in Cymr. ix. 169-82.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 165
have been handed down are Llywarch ab Elidyr (surnamed the CHAP.
Aged), Clydno Eiddin, Gwrgi and Peredur his brother, Gwen-
ddoleu ap Ceidio. Of most of these little can be said save that
they seem to be real historical personages, but' of one or two a
few facts are authentically recorded. The author of the Saxon
Genealogies had for some reason or other a special interest in
Urien,12 whom he describes as the most brilliant war-leader on
the British side ; he besieged the English for three days and
three nights in the island of Lindisfarne,13 but, in spite of his
services to the cause of British freedom, fell a victim to the
jealousy of Morgan, who contrived his death in the course of
the expedition. Urien continued to be for many centuries,
under the name of Urien of Rheged, a figure of importance in
Welsh legend, but his exploits against the Irish of South Wales,
the fame of his son Owain, lord of three hundred ravens, and of
his daughter Morfudd, beloved of Cynon ap Clydno Eiddin, and
his death at the hands of Llofan Llawddifro, all belong to the
realm of fable rather than of history.14 Rhydderch ap Tudwal,
known to the older writers as Rhydderch the Aged,16 but in
later times as Rhydderch the Open-handed (Hael),16 is another
British leader who may be said to be something more than a
name for the historian. In Adamnan's life of St. Columba,17
written at the end of the seventh century, he is spoken of as a
friend of that saint, who ruled at the Rock of Clyde, the Allt
Glud of the Britons, now known as Dumbarton.18 He had
many enemies, of whom he stood in daily fear, and in his
12 In addition to the account of Urien himself, there are references to a son
Rhun (c. 63) and a great grand-daughter Rhiein(melth) (c. 57).
13 " Insula Metcaud ". Cf. " Inis Metgoit " of Tighernach (Rev. Celt. xvii.
p. 182). 14 See Arth. Legend, cap. xi., where perhaps overmuch emphasis is placed
on the mythological element.
16"Riderch hen" in the pedigree (Cymr. ix. 173) as in the narrative
(c. 63). 18 He appears, with Nudd and Mordaf, as one of " Tri hael Ynys Prydain "
(Triad i. 8 = ii. 32 = iii. 30).
17 I. 15.
18 The old- Welsh form, Alt Clut, in which " Alt " = hill, height, is found
in the Namur MS. of Bede (H.E. i. 1) and in Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix. 166) ;
it seems to be preserved also in the name of the Arthurian warrior " tarawc allt
clwyt " (Mab. 138). More common, however, is the Irish Ail (= rock, the
" Petra " of Adamnan and H.E. i. 12) Cluaithe, whence the ordinary Alclud.
Dumbarton is Dunbretan, the fort of the Britons.

1 66 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, anxiety sent a private message to the prophet of lona to know
whether he was destined to fall by their hands. Columba's
answer was that he would escape all their wiles and die in his
own house, reposing on his couch of feathers, a prophecy
which, according to Adamnan, was literally fulfilled. Rhy
dderch and Columba being on these terms, it is easy to credit
what Jocelin of Furness, writing at the end of the twelfth
century, says of the relations between the ruler of Dumbarton
and another saint of the period, viz., Kentigern or Cyndeyrn, the
founder of Glasgow.19 The hostility of " Morken," who may be
the "Morcant" or Morgan of the Saxon Genealogies, had
driven Kentigern from the banks of the Clyde to North Wales,
where he founded the monastery of Llanelwy or St. Asaph.
But when Rhydderch obtained supreme power in the North,
there was a change of attitude towards Christianity, or rather,
it may be supposed, towards monasticism ; the new ruler was
in full sympathy with the aims of Kentigern and invited him to
return to his old field of operations. There was a memorable
meeting at Hoddam (in Dumfriesshire), where the saint for
a time took up his abode ; in the course of a few years the
monastic centre of Glasgow was founded, not far from Rhy-
dderch's stronghold of Dumbarton. It has been suggested that
Rhydderch attained his commanding position as the result of
the battle of Arderydd, fought at Arthuret, near Carlisle, about
575, and that he then defeated a semi-pagan host and achieved
a Christian victory ; 20 but in the course of ages, so thick a
legendary haze has gathered round the history of this famous
encounter 21 that one may not venture to say more of it than
19 Life as edited by A. P. Forbes in The Historians of Scotland (vol. v.
Edinburgh, 1874), cc. 23, 24, 29-33.
29 IV. Anc. Bks. i. pp. 66, 175. Harl. MS. 3859 assigns " bellum armterid "
to the year 573 (Cymr. ix. 155), but its dates ought not hereabouts to be accepted
without question. All the known forms of the name, including " Armterid "
and the " Arywderit" of Blk. Bk. 2ft, 316, imply the spelling Aideiydd, and Skene
had no ground for using the form Axdderyd, save the wish to support his view that
the site of this battle was in the neighbourhood of Arthuret, a little north of
Carlisle. Arthuret was, however, Ariuret in the thirteenth century (Tax. Nich.
319) and the identification, which rests on a passage in the fifteenth-century
edition of the chronicle of Fordun (ed. Goodall, Edinburgh, 1759, i. 135-6),
mentioning a battle " cunctis in hac patria constitutis satis noto, quod erat in
campo inter Lidel et Carwanolow situato," needs no such illicit garnishing.
21 For the legends about Rhydderch and Arderydd and various interpretations
of them, see the mediaeval Latin poem entitled " Vita Merlini " (Die Sagen von

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 167
that it was a triumph won by Rhydderch over Gwenddoleu ap CHAP.
Ceidio.22 Possibly it was the real turning-point of his career ; '
his power, at any rate, was by some means or other firmly
established, for the family of Rhydderch, in a collateral branch,
furnished kings of Cumbria or Strathclyde for many genera
tions.23 How the Cymry fared in their struggle with the Anglian
kings of Deira and with the chieftains who won Mid Britain
for the Teutonic race it is beyond the power of the historian to
say, for we have no trustworthy information on the subject
until Bede raises the curtain upon the doings of ^Ethelfrith at
the beginning of the seventh century.24 The most prominent of
the princes of the Southern Cymry in this age was Rhun, son
of Maelgwn Gwynedd, who succeeded to his father's authority
in North Wales about 550, but tradition has nothing to say of
any fighting between him and the English. Yet it leaves in
the mind a fairly definite impression of the man as one of the
notable figures of the second half of this century.26 In the
mediaeval romance known as The Dream of Rhonabwy, Arthur
and his knights are represented as receiving from their enemy,
Osla of the Broad Knife, a request for a six weeks' truce. The
king gathers his counsellors together to consider the proposal
and thereupon the whole group makes its way to the spot
where a great, tall man, with red-brown, curly hair, sits apart.
Rhonabwy in his vision asks the reason of this extraordinary
Merlin, San-marte, Halle, 1853) ; the Welsh poems printed in IV. Anc. Bks. ii. pp.
3-5, 18-28, from the Black Book of Carmarthen; Davies's Mythology and Rites
of the British Druids (London, 1809), pp. 469-74; Lit. Kym. (2), ig8-267; Diet.
Nat. Biog. s.v. Rhydderch Hael.
22 The name of Gwenddoleu is perpetuated in Carwhinelow, near Arthuret,
anciently Caerwyndlo (Bye-Gones, 1st Oct. i8go, p. 483) and Carwanolow (note
20 above). 23 See Harl. MS. 3859, Pedigrees V. and VI. (Cymr. ix. 172-3).
24 The elaborate speculations of Dr. Guest, as contained in Origines Celticae
(London, 1883), have been accepted to a surprising extent by Stubbs, Freeman,
Green and other writers of sound judgment. But they rest on the flimsiest foun
dations, and in particular take no account of the established rules of Celtic or
Teutonic philology. See W. H. Stevenson in Engl. Hist. Rev. xvii. (1902), pp.
625-42. 26 For Rhun see Harl. MS. 3859, Pedigree I. (Cymr. ix. 170) ; Jesus Coll.
MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 87) ; Mab. 159, 160 ; LL. i. 104 ; Triad i. g = ii. 8 = iii. 25
and i. 22 = ii. 43 = iii. 28 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Rowlands (Mon. Ant. p. 148)
makes him give his name to Caerhun on the Conway, which is perhaps rightly
so explained.

1 68 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, proceeding, and is told that this is Rhun ap Maelgwn Gwynedd,
VI' whose privilege it is that all shall come and take counsel of
him, not he of others. Rhun and Arthur did not, of course,
live in the same age ; yet the privileged position assigned to
Rhun in the story may well be an echo of a real predominance
held by him as gwledig in succession to his father. The refer
ence to his stature seems, also, a historical touch : for the
poets call him " Rhun Hir " 26 (it will not be forgotten that
Maelgwn o'ertopped his fellow-princes) and there is a triad, the
Three Golden-shackled Men of Britain, which makes him out
to have been of so gigantic a frame that special arrangements
were necessary for getting him seated on a horse's back.
One incident only in Rhun's career is recorded, and this
brings him into relation with the Men of the North. Accord
ing to the story preserved in the oldest copy of the Venedo-
tian version of the Welsh Laws,27 Elidyr the Bounteous was
slain, while on a visit to North Wales, by the men of Arfon at
Aber Meweddus, not far from Clynnog.28 This brought down
upon the district a punitive expedition from the North, led by
Rhydderch Hael, Clydno Eiddin and other chieftains of the
Cumbrian region, who gave Arfon to fire and sword. How
Rhun comported himself during the progress of this avenging
onslaught is not stated, but, when it was over, he organised a
great counter expedition, which carried the arms of Gwynedd
as far as the Forth. It was to supply historical grounds for
the claim of Arfon to lead the van in the Venedotian host that
this narrative was first put on record, and the tale is duly told
how the battle stood still on the banks of the northern river
until a message from Gwynedd ended all strife by an authorita
tive decision in favour of the men of Arfon. Nevertheless, in
spite of some legendary features, the tradition probably rests
on a basis of fact, and shows, what one is very ready to be-
™Myv. Arch. I. i8g (140).
27 Peniarth MS. 2g (Black Book of Chirk), referred to as A. in Owen's edition
of the Laws. It is of the early part of the thirteenth century. The section
" Breiniau Arfon " is also found in E., which is a transcript of A. See LL. i.
104-6. 28Eben Fardd drew attention in Cyff Beuno (Tremadog, 1863) to the
fact that a brook which runs into the Desach from Bron yr Erw is called " yr
afon Wefus " (p. 66). A link between this and the " Mewedus " of MS. E. of the
Laws (Camb. Reg. ii. 308) is supplied by " Moweddus," included in a list of the
possessions of Clynnog church in Rec. Cam. 257.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 169
Heve, that the struggle with the English was not too absorbing CHAP.
to allow room for internal conflict. VL
There is excellent evidence that these encounters, whether
with the foreign foe or among the Cymry themselves, were the
theme of poets who sang their glories, while they were still
recent, in the Brythonic tongue. It has been already shown
that the Welsh tribes retained, in spite of the Roman occupa
tion, their native system of poetry and music, owing its origin,
most likely, to the Druidic discipline.29 Thus there is no
difficulty in accepting the statement of the Saxon Genealogies
that in the age of Ida, i.e., about 550, Talhaearn the "Father
of Fantasy " was famous in poesy, and that Aneirin, Taliesin,
Blwchfardd, and Cian, known as the Wheat Singer, were all
at the same time renowned composers of British verse.30
It is true that of the five names thus signalised only the first
two were known to Welshmen of the Middle Ages, and even
the fame of Aneirin was not as widely diffused as might
have been expected,31 but this tells in favour of the notice
as really ancient and not the product of the Middle Ages, when
Welshmen had different ideas as to the great singers of the
sixth century. At that period the "Cynfeirdd" or "Primi
tive Poets " of the Welsh people were understood to be Aneirin,
Taliesin, Merlin (in Welsh Myrddin) and Llywarch the Aged ;
Talhaearn, Cian and Blwchfardd had been forgotten,32 and two
29 See p. 86.
39 Hist. Britt. c. 62 : " Tunc Talhaern Tataguen in poemate claruit, et Neirin
et Taliessin et Bluchbard et Cian, qui vocatur Gueinth (read Guenith) Guaut, simul
uno tempore in poemate Britannico claruerunt ". For explanations of this passage
see Nenn. V. 103, and Cymr. xi. 135. Three MSS. read " Tata«guen," whence
the ridiculous " Talhaiarn Tad Tangwn " of Iolo MSS. 77 ; cf. 79 and 128.
31 This is suggested not only by the "et Neirin," for an original oneirin, of
Harl. MS. 3859, but also by the gross blunder made in " Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch "
and afterwards in the Red Book of Hergest in copying Aneurin's title of " mech-
deyrn beirdd," i.e., prince of bards, which is taken to be "merch Teyrnbeirdd,"
daughter of Teyrnbeirdd ! See Cymr. vii. 98-g. The mediaeval form is always
Aneirin. 32 Talhaearn and Cian are both mentioned in the poem called "Angar
Cyfyndawt " (Myv. Arch. I. 34-5 (35) ; IV. Anc. Bks. ii. p. 130, 131), but it may be
conjectured that the poet was drawing upon Nennius. Llanfair Talhaearn in Den
bighshire is an ancient chapel of the cathedral of St. Asaph, dedicated to the
Virgin, and owes its name to its position in the township of Talhaearn (Thomas,
St. Asaph. 386). In the Black Book of Carmarthen the title "Tad awen " is
given to one " tedei " (fo. 32a), from whom is derived the " Tydain Tad awen "
of the Third Series of Triads (Nos. 57, 92, 93) and Davies's Celtic Researches
(159, 160) and Mythology (193, 526).

iio HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, other names had taken their place in the roll of great bards of
the sixth century, of which it may be said that Myrddin has a
suspiciously mythical air and that Llywarch H£n was a chieftain
of whose devotion to bardism there is no satisfactory evidence.
To what extent the poems ascribed in mediaeval MSS. to
Taliesin and Aneirin may be regarded as the work of those
poets is a question which has occupied critics for a century
and has not yet received a final solution.33 It is indeed certain
that not one of these poems has come down in a sixth-century
dress, and certain, also, that many of them were written in the
Middle Ages with an eye to political conflicts then raging and
were merely assigned to an ancient bard, as were the Myrddin
poems, for stage effect. But it still remains doubtful whether
some of these warlike strains, in which the setting is Cumbrian
rather than Welsh, primitive rather than mediaeval, may not
embody fragments of the older music, fitted to the diction of a
later age. This is a possibility which has to be seriously con
sidered in the case of the principal work attributed to Aneirin,
the "Gododin".34 Though it no doubt contains many late
additions, its principal theme, the ill fortune of the Brython on
the field of Catraeth, seems to belong to early Cymric history
and to have nothing to do with the Wales of the Middle Ages.
Catraeth has not been satisfactorily identified,35 but Gododin
or Gododdin has been generally taken to be the country of the
Otadeni or Votadini, placed by Ptolemy between the Tyne and
the Forth.36 The difficulty of interpreting the poem also
deepens the impression of antiquity it conveys ; it wears the
aspect of a genuine relic of a long-forgotten strife, a massive
boulder left high on its rocky perch by an icy stream which has
long since melted away.
The men went to Catraeth ; merry was the host.
The grey mead was their drink and their poison too.
33 The chief works dealing with the question have been Sharon Turner's
Vindication of the Genuineness of the Ancient British Poems (London, 1803),
Stephens' Literature of the Kymry (Llandovery, 1849), Nash's Taliesin (London,
1858), and Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales (Edinburgh, 1868).
34 For the Gododin see Myv. Arch. I. 1-16 (1-20) ; IV. Anc. Bks. i. pp. 374-
4og ; ii. pp. 62-g2, and the editions by John Williams Ab Ithel (Llandovery, 1852)
and Thomas Stephens (published in parts by the Cymrodorion Society, 1888).
36 For the philological objections to Catterick see Arth. Legend, 240-1.
38 W. People, p. 98.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 171
Such was the melancholy story — a tale of valour and high daring CHAP.
brought to the biting of the dust by lack of self-governance, a VI"
tale the pitiful recollection of which, though it told of humiliation
and defeat, the Cymry diligently kept alive through the ages.
II. The Celtic Churches and Rome.
" He who acts as guide to the barbarians, let him do penance
for thirteen years, that is, if there does not ensue a slaughter of
Christian folk and the shedding of blood and lamentable cap
tivity. When these follow, let the man abandon his arms and
spend the rest of his life in penance." 37 Such was the temper
in which the Cymry waged their conflict with the English ; the
war against the heathen invader was to be a crusade, in which
no relations were to be permitted with the enemy, and what
in other wars was common desertion became treason to the
Christian faith. Briton and Englishman were forbidden to have
dealings with each other, and the mutual suspicion and hostility
thus engendered brought it about that no effort was made by
the older inhabitants of the island even to convert the new
comers to their own religion. In the Life of Beuno, a saint who
belongs to the beginning of the seventh century, it is said that,
after having been for some time settled at Berriew, near the
Severn, Beuno one day heard an Englishman's voice on the
further side of the river egging on his dogs to the chase of a
hare. Whereupon he turned where he stood and without delay
went back to his followers, bidding them make up their baggage
and prepare for instant removal. " For," said he, " the kinsmen
of yonder strange-tongued man whose voice I heard across the
river setting on his dogs will obtain possession of this place, and
it will be theirs, and they will hold it in ownership." 38 The
life is late and the incident may be fictitious, but the spirit
breathed in these words was most certainly that which possessed
the British Church in St. Beuno's day.39 Where the English
man planted his foot, it was held that there was no place for
missionary effort.
37 This is one of the canons attributed to the synod of the " Grove of Vic
tory " (H. and St. i. 118).
ssLlyfryr Ancr, 120-1 ; Cambro-Br. SS. 14-5. " Buchedd Beuno" is as
cribed to the thirteenth century (Cymr. xi. I2g).
39 Bede complains of it (H.E. i. 22).

112 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. This was the posture of affairs when in 597 a Roman mis
sion despatched by Pope Gregory I., under the leadership of
Augustine, head of the convent of St. Andrew's in the imperial
city, landed. in Kent and secured the adhesion to the Christian
faith of its king, Ethelbert, and the Kentish people. Ethelbert
was not only king of Kent, but had also made himself overlord
of all the English kingdoms south of the Humber ; hence, his
change of religion at once affected a very wide area, quite apart
from its importance as the first step in the process of winning
England for Christianity. After the preliminary difficulties had
been overcome and the work of the mission set on a firm basis,
Augustine was certain to avail himself of the far-reaching
authority of the Kentish king to get into touch with the
Christians of the unconquered West, and the question of the
relations which were to exist between him and the British
Church would call for immediate settlement.
For 150 years there had been no intercourse between the
Christians of the British Isles and those of the Continent,
with the exception of that carried on through Brittany,
the British colonists of which appear to have had almost
as little to do with their Frankish neighbours as had the
insular Britons with their English foes. The state of things
which now arose was the fruit of this isolation ; the Celtic
Churches had not shared in the general movement of Western
or Latin Christianity, but had travelled in a path of their own
making. Conservative in some respects, they had innovated in
others, and their successful breaking of new ground, their con
version of the heathen Picts, the fame of their seats of learning,
had given them confidence in themselves and made them little
disposed to give up at the bidding of an outside authority
customs and institutions which had come down from the early
ages of Christianity. Hence the situation was one which re
quired careful handling, and it was unfortunate for the cause
which Gregory had at heart that his representative had none of
the gifts of a diplomatist, but relied on the authority bestowed
upon him by the pope and thus assumed from the first that
supremacy which he should have attained by policy and self-
restraint. Gregory himself, it should be said, showed little
appreciation of the true nature of the problem when he handed
over to Augustine all the bishops of Britain, " so that thou mayst

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 173
teach the unlearned, fortify the weak by thy exhortations, and CHAP.
by the exercise of thy authority reduce the perverse to obedi
ence ".40 Ecclesiastics who had long been accustomed to the
fullest independence were not likely to be won over by this rough
and ready adaptation to their case of the methods of the school
master. There was no insurmountable barrier, it would seem, between
Augustine and the British bishops.41 No theological differences
parted the Roman from the Celtic Church, for the notion that
the latter was the home of a kind of primitive Protestantism,
of apostolic purity and simplicity, is without any historical basis.
Gildas shows clearly enough that the Church to which he be
longed held the ideas current at Rome in his day as to the
sacrifice of the eucharist and the privileged position of the
priest.42 The Roman missionaries knew of nothing against the
Christians of Britain before they landed in the island, but on
the contrary held them in high esteem for their reputed holiness
of life,43 nor is it to be supposed that Augustine would have
asked them to join him in preaching the gospel to the English
if he had not known them to be, from the Roman point of view,
of unquestionable orthodoxy.44 It was, no doubt, the case that
they had not been used to acknowledge any special authority
over other churches as vested in the Bishop of Rome ; in
the eye of Gildas,45 every bishop sits in the chair of St. Peter
and has entrusted to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Yet this was due to Celtic isolation and not to any anti-Roman
feeling; the Irish missionary Columbanus, sturdy champion
though he was of Celtic independence in matters ecclesiastical,
nevertheless says of the pope — "By reason of Christ's twin
apostles'(P^ter and Paul), you hold an all but celestial position,
and Rome is the head of the world's Churches, if exception be
made of the singular privilege enjoyed by the place of Our
i0H.E. i. 27 (Plummer, p. 53).
41 On the whole question see H. and St. i. 152-5 ; Warren, Liturgy and
Ritual of the Celtic Church, pp. 63-82 ; Zimmer, Celtic Church in Wales and
Ireland, pp. 60-1 ; Cymr. Trans. i8g3-4, gg-101, 103-7.
42 Williams, Gildas, p. I5g.
43 See the letter of Laurentius and his comrades in H.E. ii. 4.
44 The views of F. V. Conybeare on this subject (Cymr. Trans. i8g7-8, 84-
117) have been shown to be baseless by H. Williams (Zeit. Celt. Ph. iv. 541-5).
45 C. 66 (sedem Petri apostoli inmundis pedibus usurpantes). Cf. c. iog.

174 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Lord's resurrection (Jerusalem) ".46 When this much was con
ceded, it was but a short step to the acknowledgment of such
claims as were put forward by Rome at this early stage in the
history of the papal power.
The only extant account of the conferences which took place,
probably in 602 or 602, between Augustine and the leading
clergy of Southern Britain, is that contained in the Ecclesi
astical History of the Venerable Bede.47 As a witness, Bede
labours under the disadvantage of being a warm partisan of the
Roman against the Celtic party, the breach being still unhealed
when he wrote in the early part of the following century. But,
prejudiced as he was, he had the instincts of a historian, and
his narrative allows us to see pretty plainly the point of view
of the opposite party. If he tells the story of the blind man
whom the Britons could not cure, but who forthwith received
his sight from the Roman envoy, he has also preserved the
much more interesting anecdote, which he got, no doubt, from
a British source, of the hermit who, when consulted by his
fellow-Britons as to the line of action they should follow, bade
them take their cue from Augustine's own bearing and deport
ment — if he paid them the courteous attention of rising on their
approach, let him be submissively heard as a true servant of
Christ ; if, on the other hand, he kept his seat, in arrogant
assumption of superiority, let them have nothing to do with
him. Augustine, according to the story, did not rise, and from
that moment the spirit of discord and suspicion had the upper
hand. Whatever measure of historical truth may lie in this
story, it has undoubtedly symbolic value ; it contains the British
justification of the refusal to work with the new Archbishop of
Canterbury, and in recording it Bede gives proof of his honesty
and diligence as a chronicler of the past, his willingness to
make use of any material that lay ready to his hand.
The first conference, arranged with the help of King Ethel
bert, took place not far from the estuary of the Severn at a
spot (probably the modern Aust) which long bore, in memory
48 Letter to Boniface IV. in Monumenta Germaniae Historica (new series),
Epistolae, torn. iii. pp. 174-5. Cf. Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic
Church, pp. 38-g.
" H.E. ii. 2. For the date see H. and St. iii. 4, and Plummer's Bede, ii.
P-73-

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 175
of the event, the name of Augustine's Oak.48 Certain bishops CHAP.
and divines attended on behalf of the Britons, and, having
listened to the demands of Augustine, asked that the matter
should be adjourned for the consideration of a fuller and more
representative assembly.. This was duly arranged; to the
second conference there came seven British bishops and many
learned men, especially, says Bede, from the great monastery
of Bangor, presided over at that time by abbot Dunod. The
reference is undoubtedly to Bangor on the Dee, where a monas
tery had been established in the middle of the sixth century by
Deiniol or Daniel, the founder of the original Bangor on the
Menai Straits.49 It seems likely that the conference was held
not far off, and the " Sinodus urbis , legion " assigned by
Harleian MS. 3859 to the year 601 50 may well refer to some
clerical assembly got together at Chester in connection with
these negotiations. It would be of the utmost interest to know
who were the leading figures on the British side, but the
attempt even to fix the sees of the seven bishops who met
Augustine is a hopeless one,51 and all that is certainly known
is that the conferences were a failure. According to Bede's
account, Augustine expressed his readiness to overlook many
peculiarities of the Celtic Churches which were contrary to uni
versal Christian custom, if only they would in three respects
make a fresh beginning ; let them adopt the Roman calculations
for fixing the Easter of each year, " complete " the ordinance
of baptism as was done at Rome, and join him in preaching the
gospel to the English, and all would be well. But to none of
these things would the Britons consent, nor, adds the narrative,
would they accept Augustine as archbishop.
Throughout the period of severance between the Celtic and
the Roman Churches great stress was laid on the divergence with
48 11 Augustinaes Ac " is not found out of Bede and no identification can
therefore be confidently put forward. But it is in favour of Aust, the Austreclive
of Domesday (i. 164ft, 2)- tnat it was known in Welsh as Penrhyn Awstin (Triad
i. 30 = ii. 56) and that it appears as " aet Austin " in the charter of 6g2 or 6g3
which bestowed it on the see of Worcester (Cod. Dipt. i. 35). Green's objection
(Mak. Eng. p. 224) disappears if we take Bede to be speaking of the boundaries
of his own day.
49 See note appended to this chapter.
59 Cymr. ix. 156. The ascription of the death of Gregory to the same year
is possibly an inference from Bede's " interea " at the beginning of H.E. ii. 2.
51 H. and St. i. 148 and iii. 41 ; Plummer's Bede, ii. p. 75.

176 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, regard to Easter. Like the question of the proper form of
clerical tonsure, which Augustine does not seem to have raised,
though it was keenly debated between the two parties in later
times,52 it forced itself on men's notice as a visible sign of dis
cord, since the sudden transition from the gloom of Holy Week
to the rejoicings of the Day of Resurrection was an event in
the Christian year to catch the attention of the most careless,
and to see one Christian still keeping the Lenten fast while
another by his side was in the midst of the Easter revels 63
brought out in the clearest fashion how far they were from
dwelling as brethren in unity together. Nevertheless, the
divergence was one which did not issue from any theological
principle, but was due entirely, as has already been suggested,
to the long separation between the Celtic Christians and those
of the Continent. From an early period it had been agreed to
celebrate our Lord's Resurrection, not, like His Nativity, on a
fixed date, but at the season of the Jewish Passover, historically
so closely connected with it. The Passover has always been
observed on the day of full moon (known as the fourteenth) of
the first month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, that month
being the one which coincides with the spring equinox. When
it was further decided that the Easter festival should always be
held on Sunday, itself a weekly celebration of the Resurrection,
and not on the day which happened to be that of the paschal
full moon, the elements of a complicated problem had been got
together, and for many centuries no agreement as to a uniform
system seemed possible.54 The Celtic Churches accepted the
principles stated above ; their Easter was not a fixed date, nor
did it ever fall on any other day than a Sunday. But the rules
which they followed in determining which Sunday should be
Easter Day in any particular year were those which had been
current in Rome at the beginning of the fourth century, while
in the meantime at Rome itself changes had been successively
adopted which had produced an entirely new system. In this
way it came about that, as the result of one rule, the Celtic
62 Plummer's Bede, ii. pp. 353-4.
53 This occurred in the royal household of Northumbria under Oswy (H.E.
iii. 25). 54 For a full and lucid account of the technical questions involved see A.
Giry, Manuel de Diplomatique (Paris, i8g4), pp. 141-54. The Celts, as Zimmer
says (Celtic Church, pp. 110-1), followed the older " supputatio Romana ".

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 177
Easter often anticipated the Roman by a week, while occasion- CHAP.
ally, through the operation of another, it would fall no less than
four weeks later. Among the Celts 25th March was the earli
est possible Easter Day, 21st April the latest, while at Rome
the range of oscillation was from 22nd March to 2 5th April. As
a result of these conflicting calculations, it was the exception
for the two Easters to coincide.55
There is considerable doubt as to the meaning of Augus
tine's second demand, with reference to the " completion " of
baptism. It is most often understood as implying the absence
of the rite of confirmation66 or some defect in the manner in
which confirmation was carried out.67 As, however, this par
ticular element of discord is not elsewhere touched upon, it was
clearly not one of the first magnitude. The same cannot be
said of the British refusal to accept Augustine's third condition,
namely, that Briton and Roman should join hands in the
great undertaking of the evangelisation of the English king
doms. It is, unfortunately, nowhere stated in express terms
why this task was declined, so that the grounds of the refusal
can only .be conjectured. Race hatred, the fruit of a century
and a half of race conflict, will no doubt supply a partial ex
planation, as it explains the fact that nothing had yet been
done by the Britons themselves in this direction. But the con
viction is forced upon one that this was not the sole reason,
and it is a fair inference from the narrative of Bede that the
claim of Augustine to exercise ecclesiastical supremacy over
the whole island was the real stumbling-block. Where pride
of race told was in indignation at the thought that the British
Churches, the origin of which lay far back in a distant past, were
to be disposed and ordered at the will of a mere missioner to
the English, living among these Christians of yesterday and
making their interests at all times his first consideration. The
Britons may even have pictured to themselves the spectacle,
which was actually witnessed in little more than fifty years, of
an Englishman seated in the chair which it was sought to invest
with such dignity and authority.
The breach having been once made, there is no doubt that
the Britons did their best to keep it open. They made use
55 See the tables of Giry, pp. 187-8, 212-3.
58 Plummer's Bede, ii. pp. 75-6. B7 Trans. Cymr. i8g3-4, 103-6.
VOL. I. 12

178 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, against those who conformed to the Roman system of that
weapon of excommunication which had already been found by
the Celts a far too handy resource in their domestic disputes
about monasticism.68 "It is to this day," writes Bede in 731,
" the fashion among the Britons to reckon the faith and religion
of Englishmen as naught and to hold no more converse with
them than with the heathen." 59 This had begun as early as
the time of Laurentius, the next successor of Augustine at
Canterbury, who complains that one Dagan, an Irish bishop,
had not only refused to eat at his table, but would not take his
food anywhere under the roof which sheltered him.60 In the
days of Aldhelm, who died in 709, the Britons would make no
use of pots and pans which had served for a Saxon meal until
they had been thoroughly cleansed and scoured.61 It was a
losing battle which the Celtic Churches were fighting, since they
could not hope to maintain their traditions, which were tradi
tions merely and represented no great principle, against the
growing influence of Rome, yet it was fought none the less
bitterly for that reason.
III. Destruction of Cymric Unity by Northumbria.
At the beginning of the seventh century the English attack
upon the Cymry became, in the hands of ^Ethelfrith, a most
threatening movement. For the first twelve years of his reign,
viz., from 592 to 604, he was, if the author of the Saxon Gene
alogies is to be trusted,62 king of Bernicia only, his southern
border being the Tees, or possibly the Tyne ; 63 in the latter
year he annexed the neighbouring English kingdom of the
Deiri (known in Welsh literature as Deifr),64 expelling from
68 See the fragments ascribed to Gildas (H. and St. i. 108-12).
™H.E. ii. 20. ™Ibid. 4. 81 H. and St. iii. 271.
82,1 Eadfered Flesaurs (the epithet has not been explained) regnavit duodecim
annis in Berneich et alios duodecim in Deur ; viginti quatuor annis (so H.E. i.
34) inter duo regna regnavit " (Hist. Britt. c. 63). It is true that the acceptance
of this chronology involves the abandonment of the usual view, based on entries
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that Deira was annexed by Ethelric, ^thelfrith's
father, on the death of Mile as early as 588. But a much better authority than
the Chronicle, viz., Bede's short chronicle (Mon. Hist. Br. g6), speaks of the Eng
lish north of the Humber as under the rule of Kings Mile and ^Ethelfrith in the
days when Kent was receiving the gospel, so that there is no difficulty in accept
ing the statement that the former lived until 604.
83 For the limits of Bernicia southward see Plummer's Bede, ii. p. 120.
84 Rhys (Celt. Br. (2), p. 291) connects Deifr with the Welsh "deifr,"

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 179
it the young Edwin, son of its former king, ^Elle. He now CHAP
held an exceedingly strong position, and, though the predomi
nance of Ethelbert prevented him from exercising much influ
ence south of the Humber, north of that river he was without
a rival. In 603 he had been attacked by Aidan, king of the
important Irish or " Scottish " colony which had established
itself in Argyll, with a large army which probably included
a contingent of Cymry from the region of the Clyde ; but Aidan
sustained a crushing defeat at Degsastan (The Stone of Degsa),65
probably Dawston at the head of Liddesdale.66 " From that
day to this," says Bede, " no king of the Scots dwelling in
Britain has dared to take the field against the English race."
It was probably the distinction he achieved through this victory
which emboldened ^Ethelfrith soon after to lay his hands upon
Deira, and it resulted from this further acquisition that he was
brought into touch with the southern Cymry, with the men of
Gwynedd and of Powys and the dwellers along the Mersey and
the Ribble.67 Thereupon opened the second stage in the
relations between the English and the Cymry- — that which led
in the space of about fifty years to the final separation of the
northern from the southern section of the defeated nation and
thus set Wales and Strathclyde travelling their several ways.
By what route iEthelfrith pushed forward to Chester there
is nothing to show. But it was near this city that, about the
year 615,68 he won his most famous victory over the Britons.
Bede gives in his Ecclesiastical History 69 some account of
waters, and assumes an original Debria or Dobria. It is strange, if this be so,
that the labial is not represented in the early forms Deur (Sax. Gen.), Deiri and
Deri (Bede).
86 H.E. i. 34. 88 IV. Anc. Bks.i. 177.
87 In Iolo MSS. 86, " Teyrnllwg " is said to be the ancient name of the
region between the Dee and the Cumbrian Derwent. But this is probably a mere
inference from the name Cadell Deyrnllwg, which in its oldest form, as given in
Hist. Britt. c. 35 (ed. Mommsen, p. 176), is " Catell Durnluc" (the Blackhanded).
See Cymr. vii. 119.
88 Bede gives no date, but says incidentally that Augustine (oft. 604 or 605)
had died " multo ante tempore ". This rules out the conjectures of the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicles (605, 607) and points to the period 610-6. Harl. MS. 38sg
assigns " Gueith cair legion " to 613 (Cymr. ix. 156), which is also the year im
plied in Ann. Ult. s.a. 612. The notice in Tighernach is as follows : " K. ui
(which, if correct, would be 611 or 616) . . Cath (the battle of) Caire Legion ubi
sancti (i.e., the monks) occissi sunt et cecidit Solon mac Conain rex Bretanorurr
et Cetula rex cecidit. Etalfraidh uictor erat, qui post statim obit" (Rev. Celt.
xvii. pp. 170-1). 69 H.E. ii. 2.
12 *

Jtf

VI

180 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the battle ; unhappily, he was only interested in what may be
regarded as an accident of the struggle. It was his purpose to
show that on this occasion a prophecy uttered many years be
fore by Augustine was fulfilled, to the effect that, if the British
clergy would not join him in preaching to the heathen English,
they would assuredly be the victims of their barbaric rage.
Accordingly he tells the familiar story of the appearance on
the battle-field, after a three days' fast, of many hundreds of
monks from the not far distant monastery of Bangor, who were
stationed in what was supposed to be a place of safety under the
protection of one Brochwel,70 and from that post of vantage
began to implore the blessing of God upon the arms of their
fellow-countrymen. yEthelfrith asked the meaning of this
strange spectacle, and, on being told, bade his troops forthwith
carry by storm the citadel of prayer ; " for," said he, " if they
cry to their God against us, they fight against us as surely as
do those who bear weapons ". The command was obeyed ;
Brochwel and his men fled at the first onset, and no less than
twelve hundred " saints " are said to have been put to the
sword. Such was the massacre of the monks of Bangor — a
piteous tragedy, yet one which beyond a doubt had often been
paralleled in the relentless warfare between the pagan invader
and his Christian foe. As to the main issues of the battle,
Bede has nothing to say, except that ^Ethelfrith's decisive vic
tory was not won without considerable loss on his own side.71
This disposes of the view, which is also, it may be added, in
consistent with the later history of Cheshire,72 that the battle
of Chester was at once followed by a Northumbrian occupation
of the plain around the city.73 Genuine as the victory was,
it was pretty certainly not one to have results of this kind :
^Ethelfrith withdrew from the district, and shortly after, in 6 1 6,
79"Brocmail" can hardly be Brochwel Ysgythrog, ruler of Powys, for his
grandson, Selyf ap Cynan, was slain in this very battle. Nor is it likely he is
the " Brocmail" of the year 662 in Harl. MS. 38sg (Cymr. ix. 158). The name
was, in fact, a very common one; see Cymr. ix. 177, 178, 179, 181, 182, and, for
the early form " Brohomagli," Inscr. Chr. No. 158, Lap. W. 202, W. Phil. (2),
372- 71 " Non sine magno sui exercitus damno."
72 Cymr. x. 23 (A. N. Palmer). The dialect of Cheshire is Mercian in its
affinities, not Northumbrian ; see Darlington, Folkspeech of South Cheshire
(Eng. Dialect Soc, London, 1887).
nMak. Eng. pp. 242-5 and map.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMR I AND THE ENGLISH. 181
met his death on the banks of the Idle in battle against Raed- CHAP.
wald of East Anglia.74 VI"
So far as can be seen, the leader of the Cymry in the battle
of Chester was Selyf (or Solomon), son of Cynan of the White
Car son of Brochwel of the Tusks, who, as representative of the
ancient line of kings of Powys, was the natural defender of
the valley of the Dee.75 The Welsh and the Irish notices of the
battle name him as the most notable among the slain, and one
of the Triads reckons him among the British heroes who were
avenged from their graves ; 76 this may be a reference to the
mythical British victory, which, according to Geoffrey of Mon
mouth, almost immediately wiped out the disgrace of the day of
Chester,77 or it may be merely an allusion to the fact that
iEthelfrith lived but a short time to enjoy his triumph. There
is no evidence that the forces of Gwynedd took any part in the
battle, for, though the chronicle in Harl. MS. 3859 assigns to
the same year the " falling asleep " of Iago (Jacob), son of Beli 78
and grandson of Rhun ap Maelgwn,79 it does not connect the
event with its notice of " Gwaith Caerlleon " ; moreover, " dor-
mitatio " is almost always used of the death of an ecclesiastic
and suggests that Iago, if at any time king of Gwynedd, had by
this time resigned that office and withdrawn to the quiet of a
monastery.80 Thus the ruler of M6n and Arfon and the in
heritor of the claims of Maelgwn Gwynedd at the time was
probably Cadfan, who appears in the pedigrees as the son of
74 H.E. ii. 12. As to the date, the year 616 appears to be the one which is
required by the figures of Bede ; see H.E. i. 34 ; ii. 14 ; and especially ii. 20. It
is also the year implied in the old list of Northumbrian kings (Mon. Hist. Br.
go). That MS. E. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has 617 is of no importance, in
the light of the evidence drawn from older and better authorities.
75 For the pedigree of Selyf see Cymr. ix. I7g (Harl. MS. 3859) ; viii. 87
(Jesus Coll. MS. 2 o (Evans, Rep. ii. p. 31)). " Garwyn " appears in the Old- Welsh
form " Carguinn " in Cambro-Br. SS. 79, as corrected in Cymr. xiii. 80 ; cf.
also the "garrvin'' of Blk. Bk. fo. 146. " Ysgythrog " is from " ysgythr," a
tusk, for which see LL. i. 312, Mab. 122, 135.
78 Triad i. 65 = ii. 30 = iii. 76.
77 Hist. Reg. xi. 13. Palmer thinks the second battle may be historical and
may underlie the " Gwaith Perllan Fangor " of Triad i. 66-7 = ii. 38 (Cymr. x.
22-3). 78 Cymr. ix. 156. 79 Ibid. 170.
89 Triad i. 39 = ii. 29 = iii. 48 says, indeed, that one of his own men cleft
his skull with an axe, but this may be due to confusion with Iago ab Idwal, who
was killed " a suis " in 1039. Iago ap Beli was reputed a benefactor of the
cathedral church of Bangor (Browne Willis, Survey, 184).

1 82 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Iago ap Beli.81 Nothing is known of this king from any ancient
literary source,82 but the caprice of time, which has overwhelmed
so many other memorials of vastly greater interest, has spared
us his tombstone.83 After long serving as the lintel of the
south door, it is now within the church of Llangadwaladr in
Anglesey, and its inscription reads " Catamanus rex sapien-
tisimus opinatisimus (most renowned) omnium regum," language
which is reasonably interpreted to mean that he claimed, as
hereditary " gwledig," a primacy among the chieftains of the
Cymry.84 As the foundation of the church is traditionally
attributed to Cadfan's grandson, Cadwaladr,85 the inscription may
not actually date from the year of the king's burial, but the
form of the name 86 and the characters employed point pretty
clearly to the seventh century.
If Cadfan is to be reckoned among the obscurer personal
ities of Welsh history, his son and successor Cadwallon 87 holds
a place in the forefront of those who have earned the grateful
remembrance of the Welsh race by vigorous championship of
the national cause. The memory of his great duel with Edwin
of Northumbria, carried on with marked ill fortune for many
years, but ending in the defeat and death of the English king,
deeply impressed itself on the minds of his fellow-countrymen,
so that Edwin became the typical English antagonist,88 and every
bold defender of the freedom of Wales was hailed as a new
Cadwallon.89 This was, indeed, the last great struggle between
81 Cymr. ix. 170. Though this is fairly good authority, the number of
names (five) in the pedigree between Maelgwn (ob. circa 550) and Cadwaladr
(oft. 664) makes one a little sceptical.
82 Geoffrey of Monmouth (Hist. Reg. xi. 13 ; xii. 1) is here, as elsewhere, a
mere romancer.
S3Mon. Ant. 156(157); Arch. Camb. I. i. (1846), 165-7; Inscr. Chr. No.
I4g ; W. Phil. (2), 160, 364 ; Lap. W. igo-i.
siCelt. Br. (2), pp. 127-8. 88 Myv. Arch. II. 33 (421).
88 Brythonic " Catamanus," for an earlier " Catwmanus," is on its way to
become the old Welsh " Catman ".
87 For the pedigree see Cymr. ix. 170. Bede's form " Caedualla " is due to
the influence of the name of Ceadwalla of Wessex.
88 See Myv. Arch. I. ig4 (143), where a twelfth-century militant bard says —
Gwalchmai y'm gelwir, gal Edwin ac Eingl.
(" Gwalchmai am I called, a foe to Edwin and every Englishman.")
Cf. Blk. Bk. fo. 24a (IV. Anc. Bks. ii. 17) — a poem of about the same date.
89 See the poem from the Red Book of Hergest in Myv. Arch. I. 121-2 (96-
7) ; IV. Anc. Bks. ii. 277-9, which has no relation to the battles fought by the
Cadwallon ap Cadfan of history and must commemorate the deeds of some
mediseval prince.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 183
Briton and Englishman for supremacy in the island, and the CHAP.
overthrow of Edwin for a brief space raised hopes that Britain
might yet be snatched from the grasp of the Teutonic conqueror.
The fall of Cadwallon a year later scattered these hopes to the
winds, and, though the contest with Northumbria was not
abandoned, it had henceforth little prospect of success, and on
the death of Penda, who furnished it with Mercian support, it
came suddenly to an end.
The death of ^Ethelfrith in 6 1 6 had brought about a dynastic
revolution in Northumbria. Power was seized by Edwin, the
representative of the royal line dislodged from Deira in 604,
and thus, while the two kingdoms still remained under one head,
it was the southern and not the northern realm which now
wielded supremacy. Edwin had spent his youth — he was now
thirty-one — in exile, fleeing from court to court to escape the
ruthless enmity of iEthelfrith ; during his wanderings he had
lived in East Anglia, and also, if we may accept the evidence
of the Triads, in Gwynedd, for his name is included in a trio of
" Three Chief Oppressors of M6n, nurtured within the island ".90
He soon showed the energy and resolution to be expected from
one who hadi been trained in the austere school of adversity.
Attacking the British kingdom of Elmet, or Elfed, as it would
now be written, which lay around our Leeds, he completely
subdued it and drove King Ceredig from his throne.91 By this
conquest the chief barrier which parted Deira from the Irish
Sea was removed, and very shortly afterwards Edwin must have
effected that breach between the Cymry of the North and those
of Wales which the battle of Chester foreshadowed, but did not
actually bring about. His relations with the other English
kingdoms, over all of which save Kent he established his ascend
ancy, his acceptance of Christianity at the instance of a Roman
missionary from Canterbury, and his assumption of something
like imperial state invest his short reign with great interest, but
for the historian of Wales his most notable achievement was
his conquest of what Bede calls the Mevanian islands, lying
90 1. 81 = ii. 56 (end). Geoffrey of Monmouth's account (Hist. Reg. xii. 1)
of the nurture of Edwin and Cadwallon together no doubt rests on this tradition.
91 Hist. Britt. c. 63; Mak. Eng. pp. 253-7. F°r Ceredig see H.E. iv. 21
(" rege Brettonum Cerdice ") ; he may be the " Ceretic " of Harl. MS. 3859, s.a.
616 (Cymr. ix. 157), but in that case the year is most probably wrong.

1 84 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, between Britain and Ireland,92 in other words, of Anglesey and
Man. Such a conquest implies the equipment of a fleet, which
was probably fitted out at Chester ; 93 not only was this necessary
for any operations against the Isle of Man, but it was repeatedly
shown under the Norman and early Plantagenet kings that
nothing could be effected against Anglesey without naval assist
ance, so strong were the natural defences of the island on the
landward side. With a fleet in possession of the Irish Sea,
troops flushed with victory over the Britons of Elmet, and
borders secured from attack by the greatness of his name, Edwin
entered upon what was the first English invasion of Wales with
notable advantages in his favour.
It may be judged from Cadwallon's later history that there
was no lack of spirit in the defence. But tradition has nothing
to say of his share in the campaign, and only commemorates
the valour of one Belyn of Lleyn, who is described as fighting
Edwin with his " teulu " or warband at " Bryn Edwin " in
Rhos,94 and also at Erethlyn, near Eglwysfach, in the same
region.95 Rhos, lying as it does between the Clwyd and the
Conway, was just the region in which to oppose the progress
of any expedition making its way to Anglesey, and the Hill of
Edwin may be that known at present under the slightly altered
form of Bryn yr Odyn, not far from Llanelian. The brave
stand of Belyn and his doughty followers was, however, made in
vain, for the struggle closed, after having been waged apparently
for some years, with the retreat of Cadwallon to the little island
of Priestholm or Ynys Lannog, off the coast of Anglesey, where
92 H.E. ii. 5, g. The description given of the two islands in t. g shows
clearly that Anglesey is meant to be one, but Bede had no warrant for extending
the name " Mevania " to this island, which is always Mona and M6n in the
ancient writers. As for " Meuania," it is found in certain authors, e.g., Orosius
(Adv. Pag. I. ii. § 82), as a name of the Isle of Man, being probably a misread
ing of "Menauia," which again is the Celtic " Manavia " or Manaw (Celt.
Heath, pp. 663-4).
93 Mak. Eng. p. 257.
94 Triad i. 4g = ii. 40 = iii. 27. That Belyn belongs to history and not
merely to fable is shown by the " Belin moritur " of Harl. MS. 38sg, s.a. 627
(Cymr. ix. 157).
90 Triad ii. ig, in which " yn " must be read before Erethlyn (Erythlyn in
the Red Book). The name appears in the old one-inch Ordnance map as
" Hiraethlyn " ; for the better form " Pennant Ereithlyn " see Thomas, St.
Asaph, p. 538.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 185
he was hemmed in by Edwin's fleet.96 It was now, in all CHAP.
probability, that the flight to Ireland took place,97 which is
vouched for by tradition 98 and which must have made Edwin's
triumph for the moment complete.99
But ere long the wheel of fortune took a sudden turn.
Cadwallon, on his return to Wales, entered into an alliance with
Penda, who had stepped forward as the leader of the Mercians,
the English settlers in the basin of the upper Trent.100 The
motives of Penda are not difficult to discern ; he was a pagan
and remained until his death the chief upholder of heathenism
among the English ; he resented as a Mercian the ascendancy
of Northumbria. There is more to wonder at in the attitude
of Cadwallon, for never before, so far as can be seen, had Briton
and Englishman made common cause in any quarrel that had
arisen in the island. The British king had, however, realised,
in the light of recent events, that his first concern must be to
98 " Obsessio Catguollaun regis in insula glannauc " — Harl. MS. 385g, s.a.
62g (Cymr. ix. 157). As the fall of Edwin is assigned to 630, the year is prob
ably 632. 97 Celt. Br. (2), p. 131.
98 Triad i. 34, which says, however, that he was an exile for seven years.
Geoff. Mon., in deference to the tradition, takes Cadwallon to Ireland (Hist. Reg.
xii. 4), but soon moves him on to Brittany (" Armoricam," whence the " Ar-
morcicam " of Reginald's life of St. Oswald — Sim. Dun. i. 345 — cf. 350), so that
he may be restored by Breton help. A poem in the Book of Taliesin (IV. Anc.
Bks. ii. p. 206 ; Myv. Arch. I. 74 (62)) has a reference to the story —
Pan dyfu gatwallawn Dros eigyawn iwerdon.
(" When Cadwallon returns o'er the Irish sea ") —
but the poet is no doubt using the old tradition in the interests of some prince of
his own day.
99 Wm. Malm, was the first to suggest that Anglesey was so called in con
sequence of Edwin's reduction of it, the name being really " isle of Angles or
English " (Gesta Regum, ed. Hardy, i. 6g). There are many objections to this
derivation. One fails to see why the very brief occupation under Edwin should
have led the English ever afterwards to speak of this as by pre-eminence their
island. Further, the name does not make its appearance until the eleventh
century ; Alfred's version of H.E. ii. 5, 9, has " Monige " for the Mevanian islands
(Plummer's Bede, ii. p. 94) and MSS. C. and D. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
have s.a. 1000 the same form for Anglesey (Mon. Hist. Br. 407). " Angles ege "
is first found in MS. E. s.a. 1098. Philological difficulties have also been pointed
out (Academy, 2nd June, 1894, p. 458) and altogether, the derivation proposed by
Dr. H. Bradley and supported by Mr. W. H. Stevenson (Descr. Pemb. i. 322-3)
is much to be preferred. Starting from the form Ongulsey found in the Orkneyinga
Saga (Rolls ed., p. 70), they connect the name with the Norse ongull, a fiord,
and interpret as " the island of the strait ".
100 H.E. ii. 20. According to some Welsh pedigrees, Cadwallon married
Penda's sister (Bye-Gones, 1st Oct. 1890, p. 480).

1 86 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, break the power of Edwin, and that in the furtherance of this
purpose he must not be over scrupulous as to the means he
employed. He had no reason to dread the triumph of Mercia,
a state as yet in its infancy, and Penda's religion was no
stumbling-block to one who did not regard the English Chris
tians, followers of the ways of Rome, as brethren in the faith.
In 633 Cadwallon and Penda met Edwin in battle, defeated and
slew him, and for a time had Northumbria at their feet. The
scene of this memorable encounter cannot, unfortunately, be
fixed with certainty. Bede gives the name of the place as
Haethfelth and conveys the impression that it was in Deira, or
not far distant from its borders ; 101 accordingly, Hatfield, near
Doncaster, has been a popular identification.102 The Saxon
Genealogies, on the other hand, speak of this battle as " bellum
Meicen," 103 and later Welsh traditions connect it with the
Meigen which is known to have lain somewhere near the
Breiddin, on the borders of Montgomeryshire and Shropshire.104
On the whole, it is most likely that the battle was fought in the
north, at a spot known to the Cymry as Meigen, and that this
was subsequently confused in Welsh literature with the more
familiar Meigen on the confines of Powys.
During the year which followed the overthrow of Edwin,
Northumbria was entirely at the mercy of the British king
and his Mercian ally.105 It was treated as a conquered country
and pitilessly ravaged ; no respect was> paid by either of the
two victors to the nascent Christianity of the district. Cadwallon
was the dominant spirit, and it is clear that his policy was
191 See the reference in H.E. ii. 14 (end) to ravages which followed the
fight. The Berne MS. of Hist. Reg. xii. 8 has, it should be noted, "hedfeld "
and not " Hevenfeld," as in Giles's edition. Geoffrey knows only the English
names of the battle-fields of this period.
192 Smith in Mon. Hist. Br. 171 ; Mak. Eng. pp. 269-71 ; Plummer's Bede,
ii. pp. 115-6.
103 Hist. Britt. c. 61, which is the source of the entry in the chronicle in
Harl. MS. 385g, s.a. 630. For an explanation of the " Meicuren " of the Rolls
editor (Annales Cambriae, ed. J. Williams Ab Ithel, i860, p. 7), see Cymr. ix.
157 ; xi. 147.
104 Triad i. 63 = ii. 15 suggests that Meigen was in Powys, and the poem
styled " Marwnad Cadwallon " associates it with the Severn and Dygen (IV.
Anc. Bks. ii. p. 277; Myv. Arch. I. 121 (g7)), the latter being in full Dygen
Freiddin (Myv. Arch. I. ig3 (142)). According to Iolo MSS. 18, there was a
place of the name (" Meigen Cil Ceincoed "), on the banks of the Rhymni.
108 H.E. ii. 20; iii. I.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 187
purely destructive ; his aim was not to subjugate Northumbria, CHAP.
but to ruin it. On the death of Edwin, Bernicia and Deira
had again become separate kingdoms ; a son of ^Ethelfrith's,
Eanfrith, had seized the crown of the northern, a cousin of
Edwin's, Osric, that of the southern state. Cadwallon set him
self to make an end of both rulers. He defeated and slew
Osric in the summer of 634, finding his opportunity when that
prince endeavoured to shut him and his army within the circuit
of a walled town ; 106 in the autumn of the same year he lured
Eanfrith to his camp and despatched him also. With a very
large army, to which had flocked, no doubt, the Cymry alike
of the north and of the south, in eager expectation of a final
triumph over the Saxon foe, he planted himself in the heart of
Northumbria, on the hills that slope northwards towards Hex
ham and the Tyne.
A second son of ^thelfrith's, named Oswald, had, however,
at once stepped into the place of his brother Eanfrith, and, with
a small body of troops on which he could thoroughly rely,
marched south to contest with Cadwallon the supremacy of
Bernicia. The two brothers had spent the reign of Edwin in
exile among the Scots of Argyll and had there been imbued
with the principles of the Christian faith, which they received,
of course, in their Celtic form. Eanfrith's creed was, it would
seem, but lightly held, for he abandoned it on his accession ;
Oswald, on the other hand, had embraced the new religion
with all the earnestness of a singularly noble character, and
the tale was long told how, on the day before the battle which
he fought with Cadwallon, he had set up a rough wooden cross,
the first ever seen among the English of those parts, and had
knelt at its foot with his soldiery to pray for victory in the
coming struggle. The spot bore the name of Heavenfield ;
it lay close to the Roman Wall, not far from the point where
this is cut by the North Tyne, and the devotion of later ages,
which held the place to be one of the most sacred in North
umbria, raised there the chapel of St. Oswald's, which marks
it to this day.107 The following night Oswald's army resumed
106 Often supposed to be York, but Bede obviously did not know its name.
107 H.E. iii. 2. There is nothing in the narrative of Bede to suggest that
there was any fighting at " Hefenfelth " or St. Oswald's. On the contrary, he
states explicitly that Cadwallon and his army were overwhelmed at "Denises-

188 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, its march and at daybreak surprised the host of Cadwallon, as
I- it lay encamped some 10 miles further south, on the banks of
a stream now known as Rowley Water. In spite of the dis
parity of numbers, the rout of the British was complete and
the death of Cadwallon made it irretrievable defeat.108
The year of Cadwallon's ascendancy in the North showed
that, though the courage of the Cymry ran high, they did not
possess the secret of rule. They 'failed to follow up their
victory in the field by any measures which might incline the
defeated Northumbrians to accept their overlordship, and
accordingly the question whether they would reconquer the
island or be driven into the highland regions of the West was
really settled by the events of this year. Some time went by
ere the contest with Northumbria was abandoned, but its issue
was henceforth certain.
Oswald established himself as king of the whole of North
umbria, and, according to the testimony of Bede,109 was not
inferior in the extent of his power to Edwin himself. But no
such struggle with the Cymry as marked his predecessor's reign
is coupled either by history or by tradition with his name, and
nothing is known of his relations with the successor of Cad
wallon, if indeed any Welsh prince was able at this time to
assert his claim to the office of " gwledig ". His chief enemy
was Penda of Mercia, and it was Penda who, in 642, when he
had ruled over the Northumbrians for some eight years, at
tacked and slew him in the battle of Maserfeld.110 There is
burna," which has been shown to be several miles to the south (Plummer's Bede,
ii. pp. 122-3). This harmonises well with the fact, to which Bede and an equally
good authority, Adamnan (Vita Sancti Columbae, i. 1), bear witness, that Os
wald, with a much smaller army, won his victory over the thousands of Cad
wallon by means of a night march, followed by an attack at dawn. It was, says
Adamnan, " felix etfacilis . . . victoria ".
108 In the Saxon Genealogies the battle is called " bellum Catscaul " (Hist.
Britt. c. 64), whence the "ca«tscaul" of Harl. MS. 385g, s.a. 631 (Cymr. ix.
157). Skene's derivation of the name from " cad ys guaul," the battle at the
Wall (Celtic Scotland, 1876, i. p. 245), is quite impossible, not to speak of the high
probability that the battle was not fought at the Wall at all. The recent habit
of dating it 635, instead of 634, is due to a misunderstanding of Bede (Plummer's
Bede, ii. p. 121).
109 H.E. ii. 5 ("sextus Oswald . . . hisdem finibus regnum tenuit ").
110 Ibid. ii. g-13 ; for the date see v. 24. The Sax. Gen. calls this " bellum
Cocboy" (Hist. Britt. c. 65), a name which cannot be used either for or against
the Oswestry identification.

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 189
no evidence that the Cymry had any part or lot in this battle, CHAP.
though it would seem probable that it was fought not far from
their borders. For, while no ancient authority furnishes any
hint as to the situation of the battle-field, a local tradition,111
which was in existence at the time of the Norman Conquest,
fixed it at Oswestry, the Oswald's Tree (in Welsh " Croes
Oswallt," i.e., Oswald's Cross), from which the place derived its
name, being taken to be the wooden post or stock on which
was set by Penda's orders the head of the fallen king. When
Oswald came to be regarded as an English saint and martyr,
a church was raised on the spot to his memory ; hard by may
still be seen Oswald's Well, once highly esteemed for its healing
virtues and at that timet overshadowed by Oswald's Ash, of
which remarkable legends were also told. On the whole,
there is much in favour of this identification ; it is implied in
Bede's account of the miracles which signalised the spot that
it lay in a wild region sometimes visited by British wayfarers,112
and there can be no difficulty in imagining the Mercians as
having pushed so far west,113 for Penda's name is preserved in
that of Llannerch Panna, near Ellesmere,114 and perhaps in
that of Pontesbury between Shrewsbury and Montgomery.116
The victory of Maserfeld made Penda for many years the
chief power in Southern Britain. Northumbria became again
a divided kingdom, and the Mercian leader was able not only
to control affairs in Deira, but also to harass by constant
plundering expeditions the furthest limits of Bernicia, ruled
over by Oswald's brother, Oswy.116 So far as can be judged,
he had at all times the support of the Cymry, and about 645
111 See the life of Oswald by Reginald of Durham, printed in part by T.
Arnold in the Rolls edition of Simeon of Durham (vol. i. 1882), and especially
pp. 350, 356-7. The earliest mention of Oswestry by that name is in Earl Hugh's
charter to Shrewsbury abbey (Mon. Angl. iii. 520 " Oswaldestre " ; in the foun
dation charter it is " ecclesiam sancti Oswaldi," ibid.).
112 H.E. iii. 10 (" quidam de natione Brettonum . . . iter faciens iuxta ipsum
locum ").
113 Green, who supposed that Shrewsbury did not become English until the
time of Offa (Mak. Eng. pp. 4ig-2o), was thereby led to set aside the view that
Maserfeld was in North-west Shropshire.
114 This name, which may be a translation of the English Penley (Bye-Gones,
1st Oct. i8go, p. 480), appears in Peniarth MS. 176 in the more regular form of
Llanerch Banna (Evans, Rep. i. pt. 2, p. g7g). For Panta, the Celtic spelling of
Penda, see Hist. Britt. cc. 60, 64 ; Rev. Celt. xvii. pp. 181, 185, ig4.
115 Pontesberie in Domesd. i. 255ft, *¦ 116 H.E. iii. 16, 17.

190 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. a struggle, noticed only by the Irish annalists,117 took place
VI" between Oswy and the Britons of Strathclyde or of Wales, in
which it is highly probable that Penda played a secret, if not
an open part. Gwynedd was ruled over at this time by
Cadafael son of Cynfedw, who was not of the stock of Maelgwn,
but is ranked by the Triads among the Three Peasant Kings
of the Isle of Britain.118 Cadwallon had, indeed, left a son
Cadwaladr, but he was probably at the time of his father's
death of tender years, and would seem to have had to wait for
his crown 'for a considerable period. Other Welsh leaders of
the period are not known to history, but there is little doubt
that they acted with Penda, and that most of them were in the
army which in 655 ll9 marched upon Bernicia with the inten
tion of overwhelming Oswy. It was the crisis of that king's
career ; he was shut up in the strong fortress of Iudeu, which
lay somewhere near the Firth of Forth,120 and was forced to
deliver up to Penda the treasures of the royal hoard, the heir
looms he had received from his ancestors and the rich spoils
of many a victory over the Britons. These the Mercian king
distributed, with the pride of a conqueror, as largess to his
followers, and the delight of the Cymry at recovering their
ancient possessions made memorable for years to come the
" Restoration of Iudeu ".121 The army then returned in triumph,
and it was probably as the serried hosts were passing through
Deira, in the careless mood of men who had achieved their
purpose, that Oswy burst upon them and in the battle of
Winwaed Field 122 routed the great confederacy, slew the
117 Tighernach in Rev. Celt. xvii. p. 186 (Cath Ossu inter eum et Britones) ;
Ann. Ult. s.a. 641.
us I. 76 = ii. 5g = iii. 26. III. 48 seeks to make him the murderer of Iago
ap Beli ; it is not a very likely story.
us Bede gives the date in H.E. v. 24.
120 Celt. Br. (2), pp. 133, 151, 268 ; W. People, pp. 115-6. The difficulty in
identifying the "urbem quae vocatur Iudeu " of the Sax. Gen. (Hist. Britt. c.
64, end) with the " urbem Giudi " of H.E. i. 12, which is almost certainly Inch-
keith, might be met by supposing that Bede had confused an " urbs Giudi " and
an " insula Giudi ".
121 1 follow the Sax. Gen. here rather than Bede, because the phrase " At-
bret Iudeu " must have had its origin in an actual restoration. " Atbret " is now
" edfryd " ; cf. Gr. Celt. (2), p. goo.
122 ]\f0t yet identified, though, with Bede's words before one (" hoc autem
bellum rex Osuiu in regione Loidis . . . confecit "), it is difficult to avoid placing
it in the West Riding. The suggestion that here (H.E. iii. 24) " Loidis " means

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 191
implacable enemy of his house, and finally freed Northumbria CHAP.
from the domination of Penda and his British allies. Cadafael VI-
escaped destruction by making for Gwynedd with all his men
the night before the encounter, which led the wits of the day
to affix a new epithet to his name, viz., Cadafael Cadomedd,
" The Battle-seizer who battle declines ",123 But among the
thirty noble leaders who fell around Penda there must have
been no small number of Britons, the last of their race seriously
to contest with the English the supremacy of the isle of
Britain. Oswy's victory enabled him to reach a height of power and
influence attained by no earlier English king. He was recog
nised alike by Saxon, Angle, Briton, Pict and Scot as the
supreme ruler of Britain, and after his death in 671 a good
part of his authority was retained by his son Egfrith. This
final victory of Northumbria over the Cymry put an end to the
existence of the latter as a united force and irrevocably divided
the Cumbrians from the Welsh. Thus the year 65 5 forms an
epoch of great importance in the history of the Welsh people ;
it closes the period of definition, during which they were
gradually marked off from the other inhabitants of these
islands and constituted a separate people ; it brings upon the
stage a nation, isolated and self-contained, dependent hence
forth upon its own resources for its development.
Note to Chapter VI. § i. — The Name " Cymry "-
Zeuss first proposed in 1853 the "Combroges" derivation and cited the
similar form " Allobroges," explained by an early commentator on Juvenal,
Satires, viii. 234, as meaning " men of another land " (Grammatica Celtica, first
ed., p. 226). It has now been generally adopted ; see Urk. Spr. 221 ; W. People,
p. 26. Among obsolete derivations mention may be made of the following.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, in order to explain Cambria, the Latinised form of
Cymru, invented a Kamber, son of Brutus (Hist. Reg. ii. 1), who does not appear
in the original Brutus legend, as given in various forms in the Historia Brit
tonum. Theophilus Evans (Drych y Prif Oesoedd, ed. 1740 and reprint of igo2,
p. 7) in 1715 derived Cymry from Gomer, son of Japheth, who had from the
time of Josephus (Ant. Jud. I. vi. 1) been regarded as the ancestor of the Gauls
(Hist. Britt. c. 18 : " primus, Gomer, a quo Galli "). This derivation soon ac-
Lothian seems far-fetched ; it would be unlike Bede not to warn his readers that
the name is not the same as that which he mentions in ii. 14, where the reference
is unmistakably to a region in Deira.
123 Hist. Britt. c. 65. The Sax. Gen. call the battle " strages Gai campi "
(probably translating some such form as " Maes Gai ").

I92 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, quired great popularity among Welshmen, who have not yet given up the habit
VI. of speaking of themselves as " hil Gomer " and of their language as " yr Omer-
aeg". A more specious explanation was that which connected Cymry and
Cimbri, the name of a tribe now definitely assigned to the Teutonic family,
though long supposed to be Celtic (Rev. Celt. xix. p. 74). This was first put for
ward in the sixteenth century by Humphrey Llwyd (Commentariolum, ed. Moses
Williams, London, 1731, pp. 65-6) and caught the fancy of many capable his
torians, including the penetrating critic, Thomas Stephens (Lit. Kym. first ed.,
i84g, Pref.). John Walters proposed in his Dissertation on the Welsh Language
(1771) a native derivation, from "cyn" = first, original and "bro" = country,
giving the word the sense of " aborigines " (so W. O. Pughe's Dictionary, s.v.
Cymmro), but, as is pointed out by Zeuss (Gr. Celt. (2), p. 207), this combination
yields, not " Cymro," but "Cynfro". For the distinction between the two
prefixes "kom, kon " and "kentu," see Urk. Spr. 86 and 77. It ought, per
haps, to be added that the ever delightful George Borrow makes an original
contribution of his own to the discussion of this question, which shall be given in
his words: "The original home of the Cumro was Southern Hindustan, the
extreme point of which, Cape Comorin, derived from him its name " (Wild
Wales, appended note).
The main facts as to the early use of the name are given by Phillimore in
Cymr. xi. g7- 100. Its first appearances are in connection with the history of
Cumbria, not of Wales, and it was only very slowly adopted by Welsh writers
as a substitute for the ancient " Brython," " Brittones " Thus it is unknown, not
only to Gildas, Bede and Nennius, but also to Asser, the Liber Landavensis,
and the compilers of the older parts of the Annales Cambriae. But there is one
important exception ; " Cymro," " Cymraes " and " Cymry " are of fairly common
occurrence in the Welsh Laws, and, although the MSS. of these are of compara
tive late date, the terminology they employ is no doubt ancient. See LL. i. g6,
98, 152, 206, 208, 508, 530, 646, 6g4, 750 ; ii. g4, 100, 114. In these passages, how
ever, the " Cymro " appears to be, not so much a member of a particular race, as
one holding a definite legal status. He is usually distinguished from the " all tud "
or landless man, and occasionally from the " caeth " or slave. He is, in fact, the
"treftadog" or "priodor," whether bond or free, the man who has landed
property or expectations. It is possible, therefore, that the term had a legal
before it had a historical application and the use of " Cymry " in the sense of
"co-proprietors" may have prepared the way for its adoption as a badge of
national union. Note to Chapter VI. § ii. — Bangor.
The idea that " bangor " denotes in Welsh a primitive type of monastery
is due to the Glamorgan school of antiquaries, one of whom expressly says (Iolo
MSS. 114) : "the bangors preceded the monasteries and afterwards disappeared,
with the exception of those which became monasteries ". The theory took its
rise from the fact that some half-dozen Celtic ecclesiastical sites actually bear
the name; to these the writers of the Iolo MSS. added another dozen, such as
Bangor Illtud (Llanilltud Fawr) and Bangor Dathan (Caerwent), which were
entirely of their own invention. It was a further help to this explanation that
the name Bangor had long been explained as derived from " ban," high, conspicu
ous, lofty, and " cor," a choir (see Davies, Diet. s.v. ban). But it has lately been
pointed out that, where " bangor " occurs as a common noun, it has a very dif
ferent meaning, viz., the binding part of a wattle fence (Evans, Diet, s.v.), and
the suggestion has been put forward that the first monastic site so called took
its name from the wattle enclosure surrounding it, while the other monasteries

STRUGGLE OF THE CYMRY AND THE ENGLISH. 193
were called Bangor in honour of the first and most famous (A. N. Palmer in Cymr. CHAP.
x. 16-7 ; cf. Cymr. xi. 83-4). If this be so, there can be little doubt that the VI.
original Bangor was that on the Menai Straits, known to this day among Welsh
men as " Bangor Fawr (the Great) yn Arfon," and to be identified with the
" Bennchor moer in Britannia " the burning of which is mentioned by Ann. Ult.
s.a. 631 (really 634). This monastery is commonly said to have been founded in
the early part of the sixth century, so that the famous Bangor of Belfast Lough,
established by Comgall about 558 (Chron. Scot, and Ann. Ult. s.a.) may well
have been modelled upon it. Nor is there any difficulty in regarding Bangor
Iscoed, which is Bede's "Bancor" and " Bancornaburg," as an offshoot also ;
the true tradition appears to make Deiniol, the founder of episcopal Bangor, its
patron saint (see below). Of the other places bearing the name little need be
said. Bangor on the Teifi is an ancient church dedicated to St. David (Myv.
Arch. I. 271 (ig4)), but there is nothing to show that it was ever the seat of an
important monastery. Capel Bangor near Aberystwyth was not an ecclesiastical
site until i83g ; it takes its name from the adjacent farm of Maes Bangor.
The " Bancornaburg " oiH.E. is, of course, an English derivative, explained
as meaning " the stronghold of the men of Bangor " (Plummer's Bede, ii. p. 75).
The existence of the form and Bede's use of the present tense (" vocatur ") are
not favourable to the view which is sometimes expressed (Cymr. *. 15) that the
monastery did not survive the famous massacre of ^Ethelfrith's day. It has not
been observed that the name was still current, in the form " Bankeburw," at the
end of the thirteenth century (Tax. Nich. 248).
" Dinoot," which represents the old Welsh Dunot (with the narrow «), from
the Latin Donatus (Celt. Br. (2), p. 304), is given by Bede as the name of the
abbot of Bangor-on-Dee in Augustine's time. But a little consideration will show
that this cannot be the father of Deiniol and the son of Pabo Post Prydain men
tioned in the old genealogies (Cymr. ix. 174 ; Myv. Arch. II. 23 (415)) and in the
Triads (i. 11 = ii. 31 = iii. 71). For this Dunodis everywhere represented, not
as a " saint," but as a mighty warrior ; he belongs, moreover, to the beginning
and not to the end of the sixth century. There is, so far as I know, only one
passage which can be cited in support of the ascription of this church to Dunod
ap Pabo, viz., Iolo MSS. 105, and elsewhere in these notices (113, 127, 129) the
view is taken that it was Deiniol who had the chief share in the matter of its
foundation. That this is the sounder tradition is shown by the fact that two of
the ancient chapels of Bangor, viz., Marchwiel and Worthenbury, are dedicated
to Daniel, that there was in the parish a " Daniel's Well " (Cymr. a. 19) and that
the parish wake or annual festival followed St. Deiniol's day, formerly nth Sep
tember (Iolo MSS. 152 ; Evans, Rep. i. p. 17), but now, as the result of the change
of style, 22nd September (Arch. Camb. IV. vii. (1876), 297 ; Thomas, St. Asaph,
p. 7gg). It is, of course, quite possible, and even likely, that Bede's " Dinoot " was
of the family of Deiniol.

VOL. I. 13

CHAPTER VII.
THE AGE OF ISOLATION.
I. The Determination of the Welsh Border.
chap. THOUGH there is little contemporary evidence as to what took
vn- place in Wales during the two hundred years which followed the
battle of Winwaed Field, the indirect evidence leaves no doubt
as to the political condition of the country. Fromi the royal
genealogies preserved in Harleian MS. 3859 and from the
Welsh laws, no less than from the scanty notices of the
annalists, it may with confidence be inferred that the Welsh
were during this period under the rule of minor chieftains,
"kings" of districts which were often of less extent than a
modern Welsh county, and that, if any one of these claimed, by
right of ancestral dignity, pre-eminence among his fellows, the
utmost to which he could attain was an honorary primacy,
carrying with it no important practical consequences.1 The
ambitious hope of recovering Britain from English domination
had for ever faded and with it had ended the mission of the
gwledig ; henceforth, the conflict with the English would be a
border warfare, waged against the kings and ealdormen of
Mercia, in countless skirmishes and border forays, under many
local leaders, and centuries would go by ere the spectacle
would again be beheld of a great national movement led by a
prince whose authority was recognised by the whole of Wales.
In this and the following two chapters the history of this
period of subdivision and local independence will be treated,
not chronologically, for any attempt to weave the scattered
strands into a thread of continuous narrative must prove a
failure, but topically, each branch of the subject being taken
separately. The establishment of a border between the English
•See p. 231 below.
194

THE A GE OF I SO LA TION. 1 9 5
and the Welsh peoples, the progress of the Welsh Church, the CHAP.
geographical and territorial divisions of Wales, the social life
and the characteristic institutions of the Welsh will be in turn
discussed, and the way will thus be prepared for the study of
mediaeval Wales, when a certain measure of stability has been
reached in these matters and the main interest lies once more
in the action of individual princes and of their opponents.
Little is known of the process by which the boundary
between the English and the Welsh was evolved. No record
has been preserved of the English conquest of Cheshire, Shrop
shire or Herefordshire, and one can but conjecture the course
of events in this region during the seventh and the eighth
centuries. On the whole, it appears likely that it was the
earlier and not the later of these two centuries which witnessed
the triumphs of Mercia along the border, and that the great
age of territorial expansion was that of Penda (d. 655) and his
energetic son, Wulfhere (d. 675). Chester and its neighbour
hood, though not occupied by ^Ethelfrith as the result of his
famous victory,2 probably fell into Mercian hands not long
afterwards ; this may well have been one effect of the fall of
Cadwallon. If it may be supposed that St. Werburh had a
convent here before the translation of her relics to the place
from Hanbury in 874, it was thoroughly English as early as
680, for she was a daughter of King Wulfhere.3 To this it
may be added that the fact that Bede gives the monastery of
Bangor Iscoed an English name, viz., Bancornaburg,4 implies
that, when he wrote in 731, the English border was not far
from the Dee. In Shropshire the evidence is in the same
direction. It has already been suggested that Penda's name is
preserved in that of Llannerch Panna, near Ellesmere, and
that the battle of Maserfeld was fought at Oswestry.6 In the
next generation, Wulfhere gave his name to a Wulfheresford in
the hundred of Mersete,6 which was known to the Welsh as
2 See p. 180.
3 Fl. Wig. i. 32, 265. The date of the translation is from Higden, who was
a monk of St. Werburgh's (Polychr. vi. 126).
4 H.E. ii. 2. 6 P. 189.
8 " In Merset hund. Rogerius comes tenet Wlferesforde. Rex Edwardus
tenuit " (Domesd. Shrops. i. 25gft, 2). No identification is suggested by Eyton
(Shrops. xi. 43). 13 *

196 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. " Rhyd Wilfre ar Efyrnwy," 7 and must, therefore, have been
VH" close to Llanymynech or Melverley. Shrewsbury itself is not
mentioned until a comparatively late date,8 but the nunnery at
Wenlock, not far to the south-east, was founded by St. Milburh,
who was a cousin of St. Werburh,9 so that this district must
have been in English hands before the end of the seventh
century and was not won for Mercia, as has been sometimes
supposed,10 by the victorious sword of Offa. That English
Herefordshire was also conquered about the middle of the
seventh century (if not earlier) does not admit of any doubt.
This was the region of the Hecana or Magesaetas, who formed
a separate kingdom under Merewald, a brother of Wulfhere,11
and from about 680 a separate diocese, with Hereford as the
seat of the bishop.12 The Liber Landavensis, compiled from
old records at Llandaff in the twelfth century, places as early
as the age of Oudoceus, i.e., the first half of the seventh century,
the overthrow of the Britons in the triangle formed by the
Dore, the Worm and the Wye,13 and it is indeed evident that,
in the interests of the security of Hereford, this tract of country
must have been seized about the time of the foundation of the
city. The general effect of the evidence, therefore, is to make
7 Mab. 144.
8 The earliest reference to Shrewsbury (if the document be genuine) is to be
found in Ethelred's charter to Wenlock, done in 901 " in ciuitate scrobbensis "
(Cod. Dipl. ii. 137). It next appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS. F. s.a.
1006. 9F1. Wig. i. 33, 265; Wm. Malm. G.R. 78, 267 (i. no, 36g-7o).
10 Green (Mak. Eng. pp. 419-20 ; cf. also maps on pp. 395 and 429) adopted
too readily the statement of Welsh writers that Offa conquered the country
between the Wye and the Severn and thus brought about the transference of the
capital of Powys from Pengwern (i.e., Shrewsbury) to Mathrafal on the Vyrnwy.
The first to put forward this view was David Powel in his Historic of Cambria
(1584), and it does not appear that he had any warrant for doing so (see p. 17 of
reprint of 1811). There was an ancient tradition that Shrewsbury, which has
been long known to Welshmen as " Amwythig," had once borne the name of
" Pengwern " and that on the site of St. Chad's Church had stood the palace of
Brochwel Ysgythrog, prince of Powys (Gir. Camb. vi. 81 (Itin. i. 10), i6g (Descr.
i. 4) ; Historia Monacellae in Arch. Camb. I. iii. (1848), 139). But nowhere in
the older sources is it suggested that the ruin of Pengwern was brought about by
Offa. Rhys thinks (Celt. Br. (2), 141) that " Scrobbesbyrig " is a translation of
" Pengwern ".
11 Fl. Wig. i. 265.
12 Ibid. 41, 238; H.E. v. 23 (Ualchstod), with Plummer's notes (ii. 341;
cf. also 222).
13 Lib. Land. 133-4.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 197
it fairly certain that at the beginning of the eighth century, the CHAP.
age of the greatness of Mercia, that state had already reached, "'
in the main, its westernmost limits, and that the work of Offa,
important though it was, lay rather in the direction of definition
than of conquest.
During the years 716 to 757 Mercia was ruled by Ethelbald,
who was the principal English monarch of his day, holding
Wessex for the greater part of his reign in subjection and tower
ing above Northumbria and its feeble line of kings. There is,
however, no record of any warfare carried on by him against
the Welsh,14 and all that is known of the border conflict which
no doubt went on incessantly during this period is that in or
about 722 the Welsh won two victories in South Wales, the
one at a " Pencon " or " Pencoed," not yet identified, and the
other at Garth Maelog, which was probably the place of that
name near Llanbister in Radnorshire.16 It is under Ethelbald's
successor Offa, who was king of Mercia from 757 to 796, that
the struggle between Welsh and English again emerges into
the light of history, just at the stage when the final limit is
being set to the westward progress of English colonisation.
Offa was one of the most powerful kings of the early
English period, formidable in Kent, Wessex and East Anglia,
and dealt with as an equal by his mighty neighbour, Charles
the Great. Thus it is not at all surprising that he should have
shown vigour and resourcefulness in his treatment of the Welsh,
to whom his realm lay open from the Severn to the Dee. A
battle of Hereford between Welsh and English is recorded
under the year 760 ; 16 whether he was concerned in this it is
14 By the " Wealas " of A.S. Chr. 743 I understand, as generally in this
part of the Chronicle, the West Welsh, or men of Cornwall and Devon. Ethel-
bald came to the aid of Cuthred as his overlord.
15 " Bellum hehil apud cornuenses. gueith gart mailauc. cat pencon. apud
dexterales brittones. et brittones uictores fuerunt in istis tribus bellis " (Harl.
MS. 3859 in Cymr. ix. 160). The present Caerfaelog, or Cyfaelog, close to the
village of Llanbister, was formerly " Gardd (for Garth) Vaelog " (Dwnn i. 266).
Another possible identification is with Garth Mailwg, near Llantrisant, Gla
morganshire ; there is, however, some evidence that this is properly Garth Mjlwg
(Lib. Land. 384). I know no reason why Garth Maelog should be placed,
as is done by Powel (p. 12), in North Wales.
18 " Bellum inter brittones et saxones, id est gueith hirford " (Harl. MS.
3859 in Cymr. ix. 161). The Dyfnwal ab Tewdwr mentioned in the same annal
was a prince of Strathclyde ; see the pedigree on p. 172.

r-98 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, not possible to say, but his name is expressly coupled by
VI1- Harleian MS. 3859 with two raids which were made upon
Welsh territory in 778 and 784.17 These attacks seem to have
been made on so large a scale as to attract the special notice
of the chronicler, but they were probably not intended as part
of any scheme for the conquest of Wales, for the enterprise
particularly connected with the name of Offa is the boundary
dyke which he caused to be raised along the Welsh border, and
the rearing of which at enormous cost must be looked upon as
a deliberate closing of the era of conquest.18 Attempts have,
indeed, been made to discredit the traditional account of the
origin of this great earthwork and to show that it is much
older than the age of Offa. But they have been signally un
successful. It is true that the older English and Welsh
chronicles, for the most part, have nothing to say of the digg
ing of the dyke, but the testimony of Asser,19 a Welshman
familiar with England who wrote less than a century after Offa's
death, outweighs the silence of the other sources and makes it
all but absolutely certain that the popular name of the dyke
preserves the true account of its origin. It has been pointed
out that the form and disposition of this entrenchment prove
it to have been cast up by an Eastern folk for protection
against dwellers in the West ; the ditch or fosse is always on
the western side, and wherever the line of a cliff or escarpment
is followed, the face of this is always to the west. That the
dyke is also post-Roman is clear from the discovery in it at
the Ffrith, near Hope, of relics of a Roman settlement which
were disturbed when it was erected, and when the theory that
it was prehistoric has thus been disposed of, there seems no
11 Cymr. ix. 162. The entry in Ann. C. MS. C. s.a. 70,5, " Vastatio Rienuch
ab Offa" no doubt refers to an expedition into Dyfed (Rheinwg), which antici
pated that of Cenwulf in 818.
18 A. N. Palmer has admirably discussed the leading problems connected
with the dyke in Cymr. xii. 65-86. See also Arch. Camb. II. i. (1850), 72-3 ;
III. ii. (1856), 1-23; III. vi. (1860), 37; IV. vi. (1875), 275-81, and Stevenson's
Asser, pp. 204-5.
19 " Rex nomine Offa qui vallum magnum inter Britanniam (his usual name
for Wales) atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare facere imperavit" (c. 14).
The passage was copied by Sim. Dun. ii. 66, and a little later by the author of
the twelfth-century life of St. Oswald (Sim. Dun. i. 353). There is no allusion
to the dyke in Harl. MS.3859, Ann. C, or the older Bruts; what is said on the
subject by the Gwentian Brut (Myv. Arch. II. 473-4 (686) ) should be entirely dis
regarded.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 199
reason for depriving Offa of the credit of the undertaking, CHAP.
which has been ascribed to him by English and Welsh .tradition
alike for the past ten centuries.
According to Asser, the dyke ran from sea to sea, and in
order to be a complete boundary, it was no doubt requisite
that it should do so. Both the northern and the southern end
are, however, difficult to trace. No vestiges of the dyke have
been found to the south of Bridge Sollers on the Wye,20 about
6 miles above Hereford, unless the entrenchments which line
the east bank of that river between Monmouth and Chepstow
are to be regarded as part of the great work. From the
fourteenth century to the time of Pennant it was supposed that
the northern end lay at Basingwerk, near Holywell,21 but the
earthworks here, though locally known as " Clawdd Offa,"
were shown in the first edition of the Tour of 1773 22 to be part
of Wat's Dyke, which, lying a few miles to the east of Offa's
Dyke, runs parallel to it as far as the borders of Montgomery
shire.23 The western dyke probably touched the sea not far
from Prestatyn,24 but its course, except for a short length near
Newmarket, is quite uncertain through the greater part of
Flintshire. Near Treuddyn Church its traceable course begins ; 25
the line of the " vallum " may thence be followed without
serious interruption through AdwyV Clawdd (The Gap in the
Dyke), Ruabon, Chirk Castle Park, Selatyn, Llanymynech and
Llandysilio to the Severn. Here intervenes a break of about
5 miles and it is reasonable to suppose that the river itself
was treated for this distance as the boundary. At Buttington
the dyke re-appears and thence runs southward through Forden,
Lymore near Montgomery, Mainstone, Knighton (the Welsh
20 Archaeological Survey of Herefordshire (i8g6), p. 7.
21 Higden (Polychr. ii. 34) was the first to place the end of the dyke between
Basingwerk and Coleshill (collem carbonum). He was followed by Gutyn Owain
in the Book of Basingwerk (B.T. MS. E. p. 8), Humphrey Llwyd (Comment.
(2), 64), and Edward Llwyd (Gibson, 587).
22 Penn. i. 31.
23 For Watt's Dyke, or " Clawdd Wad," see Penn. i. 34g-50. Palmer thinks
it may also have been thrown up by Offa (Cymr. xii. 75). The notion that the
space between the two dykes was neutral ground cannot be traced further back
than Churchyard's Worthiness of Wales (1587).
24 Arch. Camb. III. iv. (1858), 335-42 (Guest) ; Cymr. xii. 7g-8o.
25 For the course of the dyke see the old maps (one inch to the mile) of the
Ordnance Survey, Sheets 7g, 74, 60, 56'; Penn. i. 350-2 ; Radnorsh. (2), pp. 123-4
Archaeological Survey of Herefordshire, p. 7.

200 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, name of which is " Tref y Clawdd," the Town on the Dyke), and
VIL Discoed to Knill, near Kington in Herefordshire. Hencefor
ward its course is broken ; a portion has been traced near
Lynhales and another on the north side of the Wye near
Bridge Sollers, but beyond the latter point, as has been already
stated, no sign of it can be perceived ; for reasons which can
only be conjectured, Offa did' not think it necessary to place
any barrier between himself and the men of Ewias and Erging.26
It is obvious that a power which possessed no standing army
could have made no other use of this dyke than as a boundary,
the violation of which it visited with penalties, and such, it
must be supposed, was the purpose of Offa in erecting it. In
the twelfth century it was believed that by an ordinance of
the builder of the dyke every Welshman found with a weapon
on the eastern side of it had his right hand forthwith cut off.27
Whether such a decree was ever issued by Offa or not, it may
safely be said that the main intention of the dyke was to mark
definitely the frontier between the two races and so to signify
to the Welsh on the one hand, how far they might come, and
on the other, that no further aggression at their expense was
intended. What was English was to remain so, but no more
Welsh " trefs " were to be turned into English " hams " and
" tons ". It is probable that for many years the border had
not sensibly advanced ; while the plains had been won with
comparative ease, the tide of invasion had washed in vain
against the immovable ramparts of the Welsh mountains, and
on the lower slopes of these the line was now drawn which
was to separate English and Welsh for centuries and indeed
separates them at many points to this day.
A study of the older place names along theidyke brings out
clearly the fact that it was a real national border line. To the
east of it the village names are of English origin, Suttons,
Astons, Actons, Middletons, Newtons of the ordinary type ; 28
to the west, the names are, save for some exceptions to be
28 The ordinary view, that the Wye served as the boundary from Bridge
Sollers to Monmouth, seems to me to leave the Welsh much too near Hereford
for that city's safety.
27 John of Salisbury (Polycraticus, vi. 6) ascribes the law to Harold, Walter
Map (De Nugis, ii. 17, p. 86) to Offa, but with the substitution of " foot " for
" right hand ".
28 This was noticed by Humphrey Llwyd (Comment. (2), 64-5).

VII.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 2.
presently noted, Welsh in formation, from Rhuddlan and CHAP.
Diserth in the north to Bleddfa and Llangynllo in the south.
In Flintshire, it is true that the facts have been somewhat
obscured by the process of reconquest carried on by the Welsh
in later years ; yet the help of Domesday is hardly needed to
enable one to see Preston in Prestatyn, Westbury in Gwespyr,
Merton in Mertyn, Bishopstree in Bistre,29 and thus to bring
to life again the English settlement which once occupied the
region of Englefield or Tegeingl almost as far as the Clwyd. In
the neighbourhood of Wrexham, Chirk and Oswestry, the dyke
still forms the dividing line between the two peoples, 'as it does
in the Welshman's popular phrase, when he speaks of England
as " y tu draw i Glawdd Offa " (the other side of Offa's Dyke).
In Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire the English village
names extend at certain points a mile or two to the west of the
dyke; cases in point are Leighton, Forden, Hopton, Water-
dine, Pilleth, Cascob and Radnor.30 These are ancient Eng
lish settlements, for they are mentioned in Domesday, and it
must be understood that hereabouts, even after the making of the
dyke, the process of English colonisation for a little time went on
without check. The portion of the dyke just north of the Wye
seems to have become obsolete as a frontier not long after its
erection, as the result of the settlement of Eardisley and the
surrounding villages, which threw the Welsh back upon the
outlying ridges of Radnor Forest.
By the action of Offa the border between Welsh and Eng
lish was thus to a large extent fixed. The border warfare was,
however, not brought to an end, nor yet the forays into the
heart of Wales by means of which Mercia at this time demon
strated her strength and kept the Welsh in awe. In 796, the
year of the death of Offa, a battle was fought at Rhuddlan, in
which, it may be conjectured, the English sought to defend
their new frontier in Tegeingl.31 Under Offa's successor, Cen-
29 The Domesd. forms are Prestetone (26ga, 2), Wesb(er)ie (ibid.), Meretone
(2690, 1) and Biscopestreu (26ga, 2).
39 Trans. Cymr. i8gg-igoo, 123-4.
31 " Bellum rud glann " (Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix. 163). The entry
" Caratauc rex guenedote apud saxones iugulatur " comes two years later (7g8) in
all the old authorities, and it was not until the time of Powel (p. 17) that the two
notices were merged and the foundation laid for the popular account of the de
feat of Caradog in the battle of Rhuddlan Marsh (Morfa Rhuddlan).

202 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, wulf, the English in 816 harried Rhufoniog, which lay west ot
VIL the Clwyd, and the region ofSnowdon itself; in 818 they
penetrated into Dyfed. Cenwulf died in 821 at Basingwerk,32
perhaps in the course of a new campaign against the Welsh,
nor did his death, though it marks the end of the period of
Mercian greatness, lead to a cessation of the attacks upon the
men of the west, for in 822 the Welsh fortress of Degannwy,
once the secure stronghold of Maelgwn Gwynedd, was destroyed
and the realm of Powys was overrun. Shortly afterwards,
however, the supremacy of Britain passed from Mercia to
Wessex, and, when Mercia further began to feel the weight of
the Norseman's sword, the Welsh were able to breathe more
freely.
II. The Early Welsh Church : its Organisation.
While the kings of Mercia were confining the Welsh
people within limits which grew daily narrower, the Welsh
Church was also being more and more cut off from the rest of
the Christian world. Little by little the Celtic communities
outside the borders of Wales adopted the Roman Easter and
so abandoned the original Celtic position, that the insular tradi
tions ought to be maintained against any innovation hailing
from the Continent.33 First, the Southern Irish yielded to
Rome during the papacy of Honorius I. (625-38); next,
the Northumbrian Church, an offshoot of lona, declared for the
See of Saint Peter at the famous Synod of Whitby in 664.
Through the influence of Adamnan, abbot of lona and bio
grapher of St. Columba, the Northern Irish followed suit at the
very 'end of the seventh century. lona itself was for some
years obdurate, but after seeing its Pictish branches forced to
accept the Roman customs, gave up the struggle in 718. It
was probably about this time that the Britons of Strathclyde
gave way, and about 705 a large section, if not the whole, of
the men of Devon and Cornwall were won over to the Roman
cause by Abbot Aldhelm of Malmesbury. In the middle, of the
eighth century it is most likely that the people of Wales were
32 " Transit el liu de Basewerce," says Geoffrey Gaimar (v. 2240), a late au
thority, but here quoting, no doubt, some lost record.
33 Zimmer, Celtic Church (igo2), pp. 77-86 ; H. and St. ii. 6; i. 673.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 203
the only considerable community of Christians in these islands CHAP.
who maintained the old attitude of isolation from Rome.
This position of solitary protest could not be long retained,
and accordingly it is not surprising to find the Welsh in their
turn forced to give way in the early part of the reign of Offa.
The submission to Rome was all the more thorough inasmuch
as it was not, apparently, brought about by foreign arms but
by a peaceful revolution within the country itself. In the year
768, says the sole authentic record of the event, " Easter was
altered among the Britons, the reform being the work of that
man of God, Elbodugus ",34 According to the untrustworthy
Gwentian Brut,35 South Wales did not yield without a conflict,
but it is obvious that the particulars which it gives have been
invented in order to bring out the independence of that part
of the country and its unwillingness to follow the North in
basely truckling to Rome. History knows nothing of any
struggle of the kind, and the character of the prime mover in
the matter suggests that the change was really due to the
feeling of the abler and more spiritual leaders of the Welsh
Church that they were, by a meaningless conservatism, cutting
themselves off from the religious life of Christendom. Elfodd
(for such would be the modern Welsh form of the name of
Elbodug) 36 is a somewhat shadowy figure, but it may be in
ferred from the epithet " homine Dei " that he was a monk ; 37
tradition makes him a member of the monastic community
of Caer Gybi or Holyhead.38 He must have embarked upon
his movement of reform at a comparatively early age, for he
lived more than forty years after its successful completion, to
die in 809 with the title of " chief bishop in the land of
Gwynedd".39 This greatness, however, he attained in later
34 " Pasca commutatur apud brittones emendante elbodugo homine dei "
(Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix. 162).
35 S.a. 755.777, 8og.
38 The "Elbodugo," "Elbodg" of Harl. MS. 385g and the " Elvodugi,"
"Elbobdus"of the MSS. of Nennius (ed. Mommsen, pp. 143, 207) represent
the old Welsh Elbodug and Elbodu, to be compared with Arthbodu (Lib. Land.
80) and Gurbodu (ibid. 230). Cf. Gr. Celt. (2), p. 22; W. Phil. (2), 386.
37 Trans. Cymr. i8g3-4, i2g. Cf. the Welsh " meudwy," a hermit, which is
for " meu duiu," servus dei (Urk. Spr. ig8).
38 Myv. Arch. II. 42 (425). Other evidence seems to point to a connection
with Abergele (Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 351).
39 " Elbod(u)g archi episcopus (in) guenedote regione migrauit ad dominum "
(Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix. 163).

204 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, life ; his victory, there is reason to think, was not the victory
1 ' of the prelate or man of affairs, but of the scholar and stu
dent. Nennius in the next generation introduces himself
as author with the proud title of " disciple of Elfodd," 40 whom
he elsewhere styles " most saintly of bishops " ; 41 incidentally,
he allows us to see that his master was a student of the
works of Bede.42 Slight as are these indications, they seem
to show that it was the learning and devotion of Elfodd
which won this battle for him, and no authority which he
wielded as metropolitan or as bishop of Bangor, titles, be it
observed, one is not warranted in attaching to his name.43
Thus the schism between the Christians of Wales and those
of the rest of Western Europe came to an end, for the sub
mission in respect of the observance of Easter undoubtedly
carried with it submission in regard to other points of difference
so far as these were considered to be a breach of Catholic unity.
Welshmen came, in common with other dwellers in the Western
world, to regard Rome as the centre of the religious world, and
Welsh princes and prelates adopted the fashionable habit of
pilgrimage to the holy city which held th& bones of St. Peter
and St. Paul.44 Nevertheless, the Welsh Church still retained
in many respects the marks of its Celtic and monastic origin ;
acknowledgment of the supremacy of Rome by no means
implied at this period the acceptance of a uniform system of
worship and church organisation, so that there was still room
left in Wales for the growth of distinctive features of church life.
It will now be convenient to take a brief survey of that life as
it manifested itself in the centuries preceding the Norman
Conquest. 40 " Ego Nennius Elvodugi discipulus " (ed. Mommsen, p. 143).
41 " Elbobdus episcoporum sanctissimus " (ed. Mommsen, p. 207).
42 It was Elfodd and another bishop, one " Renchidus," who pointed out to
him that Edwin of Northumbria was really baptised by Paulinus of York, and
not, as the old British record alleged, by Rhun ab Urien. Nennius cut the knot
by treating the two men as one and the same.
43 " Archi episcopus " was at this time a title of honour merely and did not
necessarily imply metropolitan authority (Trans. Cymr. i8g3-4, 131). Elfodd is
styled bishop of Bangor by late writers only (Gwentian Brut s.a. 755 ; Iolo MSS.
117, 127), who could not imagine an Archbishop of Gwynedd seated at any other
place. 44 Recorded instances are those of Cyngen of Powys in 854, Hywel (of what
line is uncertain) in 886, Hywel Dda in 928, and Bishop Joseph of Llandaff in
1045.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 205
The salient fact in the history of the Welsh Church at this CHAP.
time is that the principal churches, those having ancient tradi
tions and a position of honour and prestige, were in the hands
of communities of clergy which in origin, whatever they may
have in time become, were monasteries.45 Primitive Welsh law
divides churches into two classes, viz., " mother churches " and
those of less consideration.46 The former are treated as always
having an abbot (abad), who should be a cleric and lettered
(dwyfol lythyrwr), with a community or " clas " of canons
(cynonwyr), including at least one priest (offeiriad). In the
smaller churches there are no abbots or canons, but merely
parsons and priests. The "clas" was an important and re
sponsible body ; it received the half of all payments made to the
church,47 succeeded to the movable property of the abbot when
he died,48 and decided finally all disputes arising among its
members.49 Though the " claswyr " are not styled monks, but
canons, the title of their chief officer, the abbot, and the manner
in which they consumed in common the revenues of the Church,
afford strong evidence that the " clas " was at first a monastery,
smaller, no doubt, than the great monastic establishments of
the sixth and seventh centuries, but of the same general type
and in many cases, for instance at Llantwit and St. David's,
carrying on the traditions of the age of the saints.50
This view of the organisation of the Welsh Church in the
early Middle Ages does not rest for support solely upon the
statements of the Welsh Laws ; it is confirmed by many inci-
45 The otherwise admirable discussion of this subject in A. N. Palmer's essay
on "The Portionary Churches of Medieval North Wales" (Arch. Camb. V. iii.
(1886), 175-209) would have gained greatly in point if the evidence for the
monastic origin of mother churches had been fully appreciated.
48 LL. i. 78-80 (Ven.) ; 432-4 (Dim.) ; ii. 842 (Lat. B.)
47 LL. i. 434 (§ 3) ; ii. 842 (§ 6). 48 Ibid. ii. 10 (§ 27). 49 Ibid. (§ 28).
50 For other references to the " clas," see LL. i. 106 (clas Bancor a rey
Beuno) ; ii. 63 (yclaswyr ar personeit ; kanys vynt yssyd berchenogyon ar yr
eglvys) ; Buchedd Gr. ap Cynan in Arch. Camb. III. xii. (1866) 42 (ar escop ae
athraon a holl clas er arglwyd dewi). " Monastica classis " is found in Rhygy
farch's life of St. David (Cambro-Br. SS. 127), a phrase which suggests a deriva
tion from " classis" = " corpus, collegium" (Ducange s.v.). The word occurs
in place names ; Higher and Lower Clas are two hamlets of the parish of
Llangyfelach, an ancient Dewi church ; Clas Garmon is a township of the parish
of St. Harmon's ; Treclas contains the parish church of Llanarthne, for which
see note 165 to chap. v. The head of the body of clergy at Caergybi (Holyhead)
was styled " penclas " (Penn. iii. 73).

206 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, dental references to the churches themselves to be found in the
VIL literature of the period. The Liber Landavensis, for instance,
bears witness to the existence of many monastic churches in
South Wales ; the head of the church of Llancarfan (anciently
Nant Carfan) is described as " abbas Sancti Catoci " 51 and
" abbas Carbani vallis " ; 52 at Llantwit Major there is " abbas
Sancti Ilduti,"63 at Llandough, near Cardiff, " abbas Docguinni".54
Abbots also appear at Caerwent, Moccas, Garway, Welsh
Bicknor, Llandogo and Dewchurch, and, if, as is most likely,
" princeps " was but an alternative title, Bishopston in Gower
and Penally may be added to the list.65 In 1188 the church
of Llanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth, had an abbot, though
in this case, as in others in Wales at this period, the title was
held by a layman, who, having first got himself recognised as
the advocate or guardian of the shrine, had afterwards ap
propriated its landed endowment.66 Nor was the case different
in North Wales. In 1147 there was an abbot of Towyn in
Meirionydd,67 while in 856 the death is recorded of a " princeps "
of Abergele.68 Llandinam had its abbot in the middle of the
twelfth century,59 and as late as the fifteenth the memory sur
vived of the abbot and " claswyr " of Llanynys.60 The churches
61 Lib. Land. 140, 143, 144 (Catmaili, the older form, occurs on p. 131).
62 Ibid, passim. For the form Nant Carfan, see also the colophon to Cara
dog's Life of Gildas (ed. Mommsen, p. no), and the life of Gwynllyw in
Cambro-British Saints (p. 149). Geoffrey of Monmouth seems to be responsible
for Llan Carfan (Hist. Reg. xii. 20).
68 Lib. Land, passim. " Abbas lannildut " occurs once (145).
64 Ibid, passim. For the identification see Margam Abb. 3.
86 Ibid. 222 (guentonie urbis), 164 (mochros), 166 (lann guruoe), 164 (lann
garthbenni), 223 (lann enniaun, id est lann oudocui), 164 (lann deui), 145 (lann
cynuur ; cf. 239, in monasterio sancti cinuuri, id est lann berugall), 149 (aluni
capitis). 68 Gir. Camb. vi. 120-1 (Itin. ii. 4).
67 " Moruran abat y ty gwvn " (Bruts, 315 ; B.T. 174) has been generally
taken for an abbot of Whitland, but the part played by him is altogether unsuited
to a Cistercian monk and the difficulty vanishes when it is remembered that
Cynfael, the scene of the incident, is close to Towyn Meirionydd.
08"Ionathan princeps opergelei moritur " (Harl. MS. 3859 in Cymr. xi.
165). For the ancient importance of Abergele church see Thomas, St. Asaph,
pp. 350-2. 89 " Dolfin abbas Llandinan " (the correct form of the name) is among the
witnesses to a Trefeglwys charter granted by Madog ap Maredudd, who died in
1160 (Arch. Camb. III. vi. (i860) 331).
89 According to a petition of Griffin Young to Pope Boniface IX. (Papal
Letters, iv. 349), the revenues of Llanynys (in Dyffryn Clwyd) were anciently
divided into twenty-four portions called " claswriaiethe," instituted for the main-

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 207
mentioned in this list are among the oldest and most important CHAP.
in the country, so that it is plainly not with monasteries in the
ordinary sense of the term that we have to do, but with the
general framework of church organisation.61
In the case of the four cathedral churches, the title of abbot
was from the first merged in that of bishop, always regarded
in Wales as the more honourable, notwithstanding that in
Ireland and Scotland matters were usually reversed. Yet
evidence is not wanting that they, too, were served by com
munities of the same pattern. When Bishop Bernard of St.
David's (1 11 5-1 148) came into possession of his see, he found
there a body of " claswyr," who regarded the cathedral revenue
as a common stock for their support and had not divided it, as
was usual elsewhere, into canonries or prebends for the main
tenance of a fixed number of clergy.62 They were continuing
the traditions of the " monasterium " of Asser's day. Llandaff
is also termed a " monasterium " ; 63 it rejoiced, indeed, in the
name of archmonastery, which was probably meant to emphasise
its supremacy as the mother house over the other convents
founded in honour of St. Teilo.54 Were there any ancient
accounts of Bangor and St. Asaph, they would probably tell the
same tale. It is, indeed, likely that chance alone determined
which of the many monasteries founded in the sixth century
should permanently become episcopal sees. At the beginning
of the tenth century seven important churches in the kingdom
of Dyfed were traditionally known as " esgoptai " or episcopal
houses.66 Mynyw headed the list and still retained its bishop.
tenance of twenty-four perpetual portionaries called " abbatathelaswyr " (i.e.,
abad a chlaswyr). To one of these, the portion of David the priest, was assigned
the cure of souls. I am indebted to Mr. J. R. Gabriel for calling my attention
to this document.
81 The fact that " llan," meaning at first a monastery, came to be applied to
all churches alike is further proof of the monastic origin of the older Welsh
Churches. See note 122, chap. v.
82 Gir. Camb. iii. 153 (Men. Eccl. ii). The form " glaswir " for " claswyr "
is, of course, inaccurate, but the substitution of g for c in this word seems to have
been not uncommon. Thus Jocelin of Furness explains Glasgu as " cara
familia" (Life of St. Kentigern, ed. Forbes, p. 182) and " Y Klas ar Wy " (Pen.
MS. 147), which was Clastbirig in the twelfth century (Fl. Wig. s.a. 1056 in
Mon. Hist. Br. 608), has since become Glasbury.
83 Lib. Land. 144, 214. 84 Ibid. 74, 75, 129; Cymr. xi. 131-2.
85 LL. i. 556-8 (Dim.) ; ii. 7go-i (Lat. A.), 86g (Lat. B.). The section on
" saith esgopty Dyfed " is clearly primitive and in all probability formed part of
the original " law of Hywel ".

208 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. But the other six houses, viz., " Llan Ysmael " (St. Ishmael's on
VIL Milford Haven), "Llan Degeman" (Rhoscrowther), "Llan
Usyllt" (St. Issell's near Tenby), " Llan Deulyddog " (Carmar
then), and a " Llan Deilo " and a "Llan Geneu "which cannot
be identified, were presided over by simple abbots, and only in
the higher status and privilege of these dignitaries was there
any substantial recognition of the former standing of these
churches as episcopal sees.66 Llanbadarn Fawr in Ceredigion
is another ancient church which early mediaeval tradition alleged
to have been at one time the seat of a bishop,67 and it can hardly
be doubted that other Welsh monastic centres were also ruled
by bishop-abbots until the time came when the ideas of
Christendom as to the necessity of parcelling countries into
dioceses, with one bishop for each of these divisions, were
accepted by the Welsh and the four principal houses of St.
David's, Llandaff, Bangor and St. Asaph were recognised as
supreme in their own quarter of Wales.68
Scarcely any direct evidence is to be got as to the life of
the Welsh monastic communities in the days of their early
zeal and activity. But the indications are that it did not differ
greatly from the manner of life led by the monks of Ireland
and Scotland during the same period, so that what is known
from the life of St. Samson69 and the early British peniten-
68 For the situation of the seven churches see Aneurin Owen's notes (LL.
i. 559); Fenton (2), 218-g; Descr. Pemb. i. 2g6, 304, 307, 308, 310. There is
nothing to indicate which Llandeilo was meant, and several churches with this
dedication, e.g., Llanddowror and Llandeilo Abercywyn, lie between St. Issell's
and Carmarthen. No Llangeneu is now to be traced in Dyfed. Lat. A. clumsily
introduces "Egluyss Hwadeyn," i.e., Llawhaden, into the list, thus betraying,
as in § 13 (p. 791), the hand of a St. David's editor.
87 Gir. Camb. (vi. 121-2 (Itin. ii. 4)) expressly states, what is implied in the
" metropolis alta" and"antestes . . . Paternus" of the poem ofleuan ap Sulien
(H. and St. i. 665), that Llanbadarn was once " cathedralis ". It was no doubt
on the strength of this tradition that Geoffrey of Monmouth made Cynog
" Lampaternensis ecclesiae antistes " (Hist. Reg. xi. 3). While the tradition
itself is of historical value, no importance should be attached to the notice in Gw.
Brut, s.a. 720, implying there was a bishopric of Llanbadarn at that date, and it
is very unlikely, too, that the " Idnert " stone found at Llanddewi Brefi com
memorates, as Edward Llwyd suggested, the murdered bishop of Gerald's
account (Gibson, 644 ; Lap. W. 140 ; Inscr. Chr. No. 120).
68 Some evidence of the monastic origin of Bangor and St. Asaph is afforded
by the statement of Gir. Camb. (vi. 170 (Descr. i. 4)) that the former was
under the patronage " Danielis abbatis " and by the reference to St. Kentigern's
foundation of a monastery in " Llyfr Coch Asaph " (Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 179).
89 Cited from the Bollandist text ; see note g6 to chap. v.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 209
tials 70 may be pieced out with the aid of Bede and of Adamnan, chap.
the biographer of St. Columba. It is certain, in the first place, VIL
that the monks did not inhabit a single building, but lived in
separate huts or cells, which were surrounded by a wall or
rampart, after the pattern of that which girt the various
buildings of a royal court or " llys ".71 This was the " llan," or
enclosure ; within it were also the church, the abbot's cell, the
" hospice " for the entertainment of visitors, and such necessary
outhouses as the kiln in which corn was dried to fit it for the
mill. None of these buildings were of stone, any more than
those set up within the precincts of a " llys," which are known
to have been of timber and wattle. The very church was of
wood, for, according to Bede, stone churches were almost
unknown among the Britons.72 It is not surprising, under
these conditions, that not a vestige remains of the buildings of
any early Welsh monastery and that no part of any Welsh
church now standing is anterior in date to the coming of the
Normans.73 Entrance into the community was through the monastic
vow, which was taken in the church on bended knee 74 and was
known as the vow of perfection.75 The man thus became one
of the " brethren," a body of comrades among whom there was
complete equality, but who owed unquestioning obedience in
all things to their spiritual father, the abbot.76 There were
often other officers who relieved the abbot of some of his
70 Cited from H. and St. i. 113-20. The MS. (Paris 3182) comes from
Fecamp Abbey and ultimately from Brittany. It is of the eleventh century
(Bradshaw, Collected Papers, i88g, pp. 473-4).
71 See, especially, V.S. Columb., with its references to the "ecclesia" or
" oratorium " (i. 8, 32 ; iii. 23), the " hospitium " (i. 31, 32 ; ii. 39), the abbot's
cell (i. 35 ; iii. 21, 22), and the " canaba " (i. 45). In i. 3 mention is made of the
"vallum monasterii" at Durrow. There was a hospice in the monastery of
Piro (Acta SS. July, vi. 5796).
72 " Ecclesiam de lapide, insolito Brettonibus more " (H.E. iii. 4). In Lib.
Land. 277, the erection of a wooden church about 1060 at Llangarran in Archen
field is mentioned, and it would seem likely that churches generally in that
district were of light construction, in view of the large number which Bishop
Herwald is said to have consecrated during the fifty years of his episcopate.
73 So, substantially, Allen in Monumental History of the British Church
(1889), p. 43.
74 V.S. Columb. i. 32.
78 H. and St. i. 118 (§9).
76 " Offensus quis ab aliquo debet hoc indicere abati, non tamen accusantis
sed medentis affectu, et abas decernat " (H. and St. i. 115 § 18).
VOL. I. 14

2 1 o HIS TOR Y OF WALES.
CHAP, duties, a priest who offered the eucharistic sacrifice,77 a cook or
VI1' steward who saw to the food supply,78 occasionally a teacher 79
and a scribe.80 But none of these trenched in any way upon
the authority of the abbot. Election by the monks appears to
have been the regular mode of appointing an abbot in the
larger monasteries, but considerable influence was exercised by
the bishops of the district,81 and another important factor made
itself felt at, an early period, namely, the force of blood re
lationship. Although the inmate of a monastery was regarded
as having divorced himself from all family ties, it was neverthe
less the fact that abbots sought to secure for their own relatives
the succession to their offices. One instance of the kind has
already been given ; it will be remembered that Illtud had a
nephew who confidently expected to succeed to the position
held by his uncle and who was filled with jealousy when he
saw that the dazzling virtues of Samson might bring about the
ruin of his hopes.82 This incident reveals clearly the exact
situation ; there was no rule of hereditary succession, but merely
a presumption in favour of relatives, which would not stand
against the claims of a really brilliant outside candidate.
Nevertheless, it is worthy of note that, of the eight abbots who
ruled over lona and its daughter houses in the seventh century,
all save one are known to have been relatives, near or distant,
of St. Columba.83 In the dependent monasteries, the heads of
77 See Lib. Land, for " presbiter Catoci " at Llancarfan (268, 272, 273),
"sacerdos" and "presbiter S. Ilduti " at Llantwit (257, 272), " sacerdos " and
"presbiter Docunni" at Llandough (249, 258, 268, 272), " presbiteri tathiu " at
Caerwent (270). In the Book of St. Chad (Lib. Land. pref. xlvi) is " sacerdos
teiliav ".
78 When Samson is made " pistor " of Piro's monastery, he is thus ad
dressed by Dubricius : " omnia bona quae in hac cella, Deo donante, abundant ad
dispensandum tibi praecipio " (5816). Elsewhere in the life the " pistor " and
the " oeconomus " are distinguished (577-8).
79 Lib. Land, has "doctor Catoci" (273), "magister sancti catoci" (271,
274). Cf. Cambro-Br. SS. 82-3, for the constitution of the " clas " at Llantwit
Major. 80 " Dissaith scriptor " (Lib. Land. 224) recalls the " scribe " of Irish mon
asticism, for whom see Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 18.
81 Samson was elected abbot in place of Piro by the suffrages of the monks
("consilio facto . . . omnes voluerunt "), but Dubricius was the moving spirit
(582a). 82 577ft. Compare the story told in the same life of the desire of Dubricius to
hand on his office to an unworthy favourite (probably a relative called Morinus
(589a)). 83 See the genealogical table in Fowler's edition of V.S. Columb.

THE A GE OF I SO LA TION. 2 1 1
which were appointed, by the abbot of the parent community, CHAP.
there was still further scope for the exercise of family partiality ; VI1,
the appointment by St. Columba of a maternal uncle as head
of " Hinba insula " 84 and by St. Samson of a paternal uncle as
head of the monastery ceded to him in Ireland 86 are instances
of what was no doubt a common practice. The inherent right
of noble blood to rule was in this age not questioned, either in
Church or State, and when a family of good birth had once
given an abbot to a particular monastery, their interest in it
and influence over it tended to become permanent.
The monks were at first entirely supported out of the lands
immediately attached to the monastery, which they tilled with
their own hands. Other endowments were regarded with
suspicion, as likely to lower the high spirit of monastic self-
denial,86 and though they inevitably came, as the monastery
grew in reputation, until each important " llan " had scores of
rent-yielding estates in different parts of the country, this was
a departure from primitive ways and ideas. All the early
authorities agree in representing the monks as engaged in
agriculture and the care of cattle. " He who breaks his hoe,"
runs one of the provisions of the monastic code ascribed to
Gildas, " where it had no fracture before, let him pay for the
damage by extra work or keep a special fast." 87 They went
out to their various tasks, assigned to them by the abbot or his
representative, in the morning and spent a long day in the
fields, to return at nightfall for the one set meal of the day.88
The fare was of the plainest, its main constituents 'being bread,
butter, cheese, eggs, milk and vegetables, but meat and beer
were not altogether excluded, save in the monasteries bound
84 V.S. Columb. i. 45.
86 582ft. " Avunculus " is used for " patruus ".
88 Bede says of the Irish monks who settled in Northumbria under Oswald
and Oswy that none of them accepted " territoria ac possessiones ad construenda
monasteria, nisi a potestatibus saeculi coactus" (H.E. iii. 26).
87 H. and St. i. 115, §26.
88 The " discipuli " of Piro went out in the morning " ad opus exercendum "
(57gft). Cf. V.S. Columb. i. 37 (fratres, post messionis opera, vespere ad
monasterium redeuntes) ; iii. 12 (dum fratres, se calceantes, mane ad diversa
monasterii opera ire praepararent) ; iii. 23 (ad visitandos operarios fratres . . .
in occidua insulae Iouae laborantes parte). The monks of Bangor Iscoed lived
" de labore manuum suarum " (Bede, H.E. ii. 2). H. and St. i. 114, § 15, shows
that the " cena " covered a good deal more than half the daily ration of food.
14 *

212 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, by rules of special severity.89 Drunkenness, though esteemed
a serious offence, was not altogether unknown.90
Manual labour was, of course, not the sole occupation of the
monks. Much time was given to the study of the scriptures,91
and writing absorbed the energies of those brethren who had
special qualifications for this work.92 There was each day and
night a regular succession of services in the church, when
portions of the Psalter were chanted in Latin, the universal
language of the Western Church.93 On Sundays and saints'
days there was also a celebration of holy communion, while the
holiday character of the day was further marked by a general
cessation of labour and a more generous diet.94 Wednesdays
and Fridays, on the other hand, were days of fasting 95 and the
season of Lent was always observed with great rigour.96 The
saints' days observed included not only the festivals recognised
by Christendom at large, but also the anniversaries of the great
figures of the Celtic Church, whose death-days were treated as
heavenly birthdays and made an occasion for feasting and
rejoicing.97 Hard work and assiduous devotion were not the only means
of moral discipline provided by this ancient monastic system.
There were also severe penalties for all lapses from the monastic
standard of purity and simplicity. The monastic virtues were
humility, readiness to obey, almsgiving, and above all, chastity,
and any breach of these obligations was punished in proportion
to the gravity of the offence. In the more serious cases a period
of " penitence " was prescribed, during which the offender was
excluded from communion, placed upon fasting diet, and
required constantly to ask pardon for his sin. Penitents were
sometimes grouped together in particular monasteries, where
they were sent to work out their discipline ; often, however, they
89 H. and St. i. 113, §1; 115,122; ng, §11.
99 For legislation dealing with it see H. and St. i. 114, § 10 ; 118, § 2 ; ng,
§§3,4; for the actual case of Piro see the life of St. Samson, 582a.
91 V.S. Columb. i. 24.
92 Columba was a notable scribe (ii. 8, g, 16 ; iii. 15).
93 H. and St. i. 115, § ig; Williams, Gildas, p. 282.
94 V.S. Columb. ii. 1, 44; iii. 12, 17.
MIbid. i. 26; Bede, H.E. iii. 5.
"Dubricius spent every Lent in the monastery of Piro (5816).
97 V.S. Columb. ii. 45 ; iii. 11 ; Life of St. Samson.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 213
were banished to distant countries, the enforced pilgrimage being CHAP.
added as a further item to the sum of penance.98 VI1'
In their relations with the outside world the early Celtic
monks resembled the friar rather than the cloistered monk of
mediaeval times. Custom did not limit them to the precincts of
their monastery, but, subject to the authority of their abbot,99
allowed them to wander hither and thither on errands appropriate
to their calling. In the early period, when heathenism had not
completely relaxed its hold upon the country, they went about
preaching,100 and thus the monastery came to be regarded, not
merely as a home for pious recluses, but also as the natural
ecclesiastical centre of the district in which it stood. Monks
were often charged with special commissions which took them
far from their place of settlement, or were suffered as " peregrini "
to undertake long journeys on which they had set their hearts.101
A monk might even be sent forth, with a number of companions,
as bees from an old hive, to found a new community, and, in
the days when ascetic fervour was at its height, it was always
the ambition of such a band to discover some desert island or
dell in the heart of the forest in which they might live the life
of self-denial.102 Thus it was that the isles of the Atlantic
coast1 in Ireland and Scotland came to be "isles of the saints,"
that the islands of Priestholm, Bardsey, St. Tudwal, Ramsey,
Caldy and Barry on the Welsh seaboard also offered asylum to
men weary of the turmoil of the world, and that on the main
land many a monastic "Diserth" or "desert" arose in what
was once a forest solitude.103
It must, of course, be understood that the picture of Welsh
monastic life which has just been drawn will only hold good
98 For the penitential system see H. and St. i. 113-20; Williams, Gildas,
pp. 272-5. 99 V.S. Columb. i. 6. 19° Bede, H.E. iii. 5, 26 ; Life of St. Samson.
101 The "peregrinus" appears in Bede (H.E. iii. 19), the Life of St. Samson
(582ft, 584a), and V.S. Columb. ii. 39; iii. 7. The British bishop Marcus in the
ninth century spent the end of a long and busy life in voluntary exile at the
abbey of St. M£dard, nearSoissons (Mommsen's Nennius, pp. 120, 172).
192 V.S. Columb. i. 6, 20; ii. 42.
103 For this use of " desertum " and its Welsh and Irish equivalents see
Cymr. Trans. 1893-4, 113 ; Descr. Pemb. i. 260. Three churches in Wales bore
the name, viz., " Y Ddiserth yn Nhegeingl " (Bruts, 369), " Y Ddiserth yn Elfael "
(Pen. MS. 147) and " Y Ddiserth yn Rhos " (Evans, Rep. i. p. 971), now Llansant-
ffraid Glan Conway.

214 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, for the early monks, those who founded the Welsh Church in
VIL the sixth, seventh and, one may perhaps add, eighth centuries.
As the primitive ideals lost their fascination, as the monasteries
gathered wealth and the monk's life became one of ease, main
tained at the expense of the labour of others, degeneration set
in, and the havoc caused by the Danish attacks of the ninth
century added another element of disorder. How rapidly a mon
astic system might absorb, like some subtle poison in the veins,
the secular spirit is shown by Bede's letter to Archbishop Egbert
of York, in which he complains that within thirty years the
monasteries of Northumbria, once famous for their unworldly
purity, had to a large exent become secular institutions, in
which no monastic rule was observed. The two most important
changes which affected the Welsh communities were the growth
of territorial endowment and the abandonment of the celibate
life. The first process must have begun early; it was the
natural way in which a prince or wealthy landowner paid honour
to the memory of the local saint or atoned for some injury
done to the Church. On the margins of the Book of St. Chad,
a MS. of the Gospels which was at Llandaff during the ninth
century and part of the tenth, are several entries of that period
typical of the method by which the greater churches grew rich. 104
" This writing sheweth," runs one, " that Rhys and the tribe of
Grethi have given to God and St. Eliud {i.e., Teilo) Trefwyddog
... its render is forty loaves and a ram in the summer, in the
winter forty loaves, a sow and forty sheaves (of oats). . . . He
that shall keep this compact shall be blessed, he that shall break
it shall be cursed, of God."105 Such were the gifts which in the
course of three or four centuries made St. David's, Bangor,
Llandaff, St. Asaph, Clynnog, Llancarfan, and other churches the
centres of groups of manors or hamlets of rent-paying serfs.
The abbot was no longer an apostle, a worker of miracles, a
terror to evil-doers, but simply a mighty landowner. The vow
194 The marginalia of the Book of St. Chad are given in facsimile, with a full
discussion of their meaning, in Lib. Land. pref. xlii.-xlviii and the accompanying
plates. See also Bradshaw, Collected Papers, 1889, pp. 458-61.
105 n Mannuclenn " is not otherwise known, but, judging from the ordinary
"dawn bwyd" of a South-Welsh servile " tref" as given in the Laws (LL. i.
532-4, 770), I regard "sheaf" or "handful" (from "manucla" = manua, a
bundle) as a far more likely explanation than the " sucking pig" of Lib. Land.
xiv.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 215
of poverty, though still so far observed that the monk had no CHAP.
property of his own, had lost most of its meaning through the VU"
great accession of riches to the community. As for the vow of
celibacy, that probably went more gradually, as the result of
the position held by the monks in so many cases as clergy in
the chief or mother church of the locality. Although the monk
took a vow which put marriage out of the question, no such
solemn obligation was entered into by the cleric, and the
objection to a married clergy, though very general in the Middle
Ages and enforced by reformer after reformer, did not rest upon
any fundamental law of the Church ; it was partly a matter of
sentiment, arising out of the belief that the monastic ideal was the
higher one, and partly a matter of policy, based on well-founded
dread of the rise of a system of hereditary succession. Whether
in any particular age and country the clergy were actually
married men and founded families depended upon the local
public opinion, and in Wales it seems clear that in and after the
ninth century clerical marriage and family property in church
offices were pretty firmly established. Among the clergy who
witness the grant of freedom to Bleiddud son of Sulien and his
heirs entered in the Book of St. Chad is " Cuhelyn son of the
bishop," i.e., of the Bishop Nobis who then presided over
Llandaff,106 and in the same century another Bishop Nobis,
seated at St. David's, was followed in the see by a relative
named Asser, who became famous as the biographer of King
Alfred.107 At the era of the Norman Conquest the system had
reached its height. The sons and grandsons of Sulien, who was
Bishop of St. David's from 1073 to 1078 and again from 1080 to
1085, were the leading clergy of the diocese for the best part of
a century, and when Giraldus Cambrensis says that in Wales sons
regularly succeed their fathers in church livings,108 his statement
is confirmed by the evidence of the Liber Landavensis that this
was quite the rule in the district of Archenfield, then altogether
Welsh, at the end of the eleventh century.109 While there are
no documents which make it possible to trace the gradual dis-
198 Lib. Land. xlvi.
107 " Expulsione illorum antistitum qui in eo (i.e., St. David's) praeessent,
sicut et Nobis archiepiscopum (for this title see note 43), propinquum meum, et
me expulit " (c. 79).
108 Works, iii. 130 ; cf. vi. 214 (Descr. ii. 6). 109 Lib. Land. 275-7.

216 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, appearance of the celibate ideal, it is indubitable that a change
VI1' of this kind was brought about, were there no evidence other
than that afforded by St. David's, where in the sixth century
Dewi preached and practised a pitiless austerity and in the
thirteenth century the canons lived with their wives, as Giraldus
complains, under the very shadow of the cathedral.110
Yet there were, let it not be forgotten, certain communities
which kept the primitive discipline as late as the time of
Giraldus, favoured by their isolation from the world. One
such occupied Priestholm,111 off the easternmost point of
Anglesey, a body of hermits who still followed the custom of
maintaining themselves by the labour of their own hands and
whose rigorous asceticism was such that no woman was ever
allowed to, enter the island. The soil was hallowed by the
bones of departed anchorites without number, and the very
animals of the place, it was believed, were in league with the
powers above, for any quarrels which ruffled the surface of this
peaceful and sheltered community were forthwith avenged by
inroads made on its supplies by the little field-mice of the
island. Bardsey, the " Ynys Enlli " of the Welsh, was held
by a group of hermits of the same pattern,112 and had, in con
sequence, a high reputation throughout Wales for sanctity.
The dearest wish of the Welsh warrior or poet, as he approached
the end of his stormy career, was to be buried in " the beauteous
isle of Mary," where the heaving ocean made a girdle round
the churchyard and where he might share the sleep of twenty
no Works, iii. 128-g. In South Wales the law recognised as legitimate the
sons of clerics who had not taken priest's orders, but the son of a priest was " be
gotten against law" (LL. i. 444 (Dim.) ; 760 (Gw.) ; ii. 857 (Lat. B.)).
111 Gir. Camb. vi. 131 (Itin. ii. 7). The name Priestholm (Priests' isle) is of
Scandinavian origin. In Welsh the island was known originally as Ynys Lannog
(" insula glannauc " in Harl. MS. 385g — Cymr. ix. 157), from the mythical
Glannog, father of Helig Foel and grandfather of certain local saints (Bonedd y
Saint in Myv. Arch. II. 24, 30, 45 (416, 4ig, 426)). This is the name which Gir.
Camb. gives as " Enislannach " and, in an unfortunate excursion into the fields
of Welsh etymology, explains, by reference to " llan," as " insula ecclesiastica ".
Ynys being a feminine noun, the disappearance of the g, which led him into this
pitfall, is quite regular for Welsh of this period. " Ynys Seiriol," due to the
close connection of the island with Seiriol's church of Penmon, appears to be
much later, while " Puffin Island " is a modern tourists' designation.
112 Gir. Camb. vi. 124 (Itin. ii. 6). Rhys derives the Welsh name from an
original Ynys Fenlliand connects it with Benlli Gawr (Arth. Legend, 354).

THE A &E OF ISOLA TlON. 2 1 7
thousand saints, " the pure-souled dwellers of Enlli ",113 Nor CHAP
were these stricter communities confined to the islands of the
coast ; there was one at Beddgelert,, in the rocky heart of
Snowdon, a body of clergy who led a celibate life and were
given to self-denial and the practice, as became their situation
on 'the confines of Eifionydd, Ardud wy, Arfon and Arllechwedd,
of hospitality.114 These groups of celibates or " meudwyaid " 115 appear to
have been the only monasteries in the strict sense which sur
vived among the Welsh at the era of the Norman Conquest.
There, were no Benedictine houses until the Norman conquerors
of South Wales brought into the country this type of
monastic foundation, and upon the native Welsh, it will be
seen in a later chapter, no impression was made by any move
ment of this kind until the middle of the twelfth century, the
great age of Cistercian expansion. Thus the men under vows
(diofrydogion) mentioned in the Welsh Laws, who have abjured
women, the eating of flesh, and riding on horses, men of
peculiar sanctity whose concurrence gives special virtue to a
judicial oath, are probably the members of these celibate com
munities,116 together with another class which was to be found
at all times in Wales from the introduction of Christianity to
the age of the Protestant Reformation, namely, solitary hermits,
dwellers in isolated cells. This type remained unchanged,
however much communities might alter, throughout the ages ;
the holy man consulted by the British clergy before they went
to their second conference with Augustine117 is represented six
centuries later by Wechelen, the hermit of Llowes in Elfael, who
was regarded by the whole countryside as a prophet and a
113 See the " Deathbed of Meilyr the Poet " (Marw Ysgafyn Veilyr Brydyt —
" ysgafyn " is explained in Mots Latins, 215) in Myv. Arch. I. ig2-3 (142). The
translation in Lit. Kym. (2), 13-5, gives the general sense, but is not to be
trusted in details. For an important early account of Enlli see Lib. Land. 1-5
(story of Elgar).
114 Gir. Camb. iv. 167. The place is not named, but is clearly Bedd
gelert. 115 For " meudwy" see note 37 above.
118 LL. i. 408, 5g4 (Dim.), 688, 750 (Gw.) ; ii. 769, 794, 803 (Lat. A.), 836,
850 (Lat. B.) — all South- Welsh texts ; the inclusion of " gwyr diofrydog " in
a " rhaith " was not apparently usual in Gwnyedd. Some of the texts have
" Uiein " for " cic "-
117 Bede, H.E. ii. 2.

2 1 8 HIS TOR Y OF WALES.
CHAP, healer of the sick and whose guidance and ghostly counsel
' were sought, poor and illiterate though he was, by so consider
able a person as Giraldus Cambrensis.118 The " gwr ystafellog "
(chambered man) appears in the Laws, in virtue of the pay
ment due on his death to the lord of the district in which he
lived,119 and from the same source it is known that there were
women anchorites, singular among all Welshwomen in that
they also paid this " ebediw " or heriot, which was otherwise
only exacted from men.120 This was because other women
paid an " amobyr " or marriage- fee, which would never be
come due in the case of a woman vowed to life-long seclusion.
The " mother churches " of monastic origin were well dis
tributed over the whole of Wales, and 'their position in the
earlier ages of Welsh Christianity is accurately defined in the
name which has been given them of " missionary churches "121
Every important " clas " had its " out-stations," to use the
language of modern missions, for each of which one or more
of the members was responsible and which became in time a
chapel of the, mother church. Thus the " clas " of Cybi at
Holyhead had chapels at Bodedern, Llandrygarn and Bodwrog,
while in Powys traces of the supremacy of Meifod as the old
ecclesiastical metropolis of the district in which it stood are
found as far afield as Llanfair Caereinion and Alberbury. In
this way may be explained the rise of a very large number of
the churches which ultimately, through the assignment to them
of the tithes of certain definite areas around them, became the
parish churches of to-day. They were at first the mission
stations of the mother churches. But a number of churches
remain which cannot be accounted for in this way, and these,
it is reasonable to suppose, were erected by the efforts of laymen,
who wished to make provision for their own spiritual needs.
Churches built in this way seem to have been far fewer in Wales
118 Works, i. 89-93 (De Rebus, iii. 2) ; i. 175 (Invect. vi. 20).
119 LL. i. 492, § 24 (Dim.), 686, § 11 (Gw.) ; ii. 12 (from a Venedotian
source), 7g7 (Lat. A.), 885 (Lat. B.) all fix his " ebediw " at 24d.
129 LL. i. g6, § 52 (Ven.), 4g2, § 25 (Dim.), 686, § 12 (Gw.) ; ii. 12, 7g7
(Lat. A.), 885, which give the payment variously as I2d. and i6d. Aneurin Owen,
following Moses Williams (Wotton, 585), translates " ystafellog " as " cottar "
(i. 687), but the " sanctimonialis " of Lat. A. and B. is conclusive as to the mean
ing. 121 Palmer in Arch. Camb. V. iii. (1886).

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 219
than in England, possibly because building in wood was so CHAP.
much simpler and less costly that there was here no occasion to
invoke the aid of wealth when a new sanctuary was to be raised.
But the "king's chapels," the churches built for the use of the lord
of territory and his train at the principal courts of his kingdom,
were certainly of this type. According to what seems to be
the old law, the chapel of the court, in which the men of the
court worshipped,122 was one of the buildings which the king's
villeins were to put up and keep in repair ; 123 it had a per
manent chaplain, who lived in the " maerdref," the hamlet
attached to the court,124 but its chief officer was the " offeiriad
teulu," the king's priest, who followed the king as he travelled
from court to court, acted as his chaplain and secretary, and
received the bulk of the religious offerings of the king and his
courtiers.125 He was the real parson of the royal chapels and
his office was naturally in the gift of the king.126
III. The Early Welsh Church : Art and Literature.
(The chief authority upon Celtic art in Christian times is the late J. Romilly
Allen, whose book on the subject, dealing also with the earlier art of the pagan
epoch, appeared in igo4- Use has also been made in this and other chapters of
the handbook written by Mr. Allen for the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, entitled The Monumental History of the Early British Church
(London, 1889). The stones are fully described in Lap. W. — discoveries made
after 1879 are dealt with in Arch. Camb. See also articles by Mr. Allen in Arch.
Camb. V. x. (1893), 17-24; xvi. (i8gg), j.-6g.)
What has been said of the ruling tendencies in the Welsh
Church during the centuries which followed the age of Gildas
and Dewi suggests that, though much quiet and enduring
mLL. ii. 68, § 6g.
123 The "cappel" appears in Dim. (LL. i. 486) and Gw. (i. 772), and was
found, there is reason to think, in the copies of the laws used in the compil
ation of Lat. A. and B. — see ii. 785, 828. In Ven. (i. 78) the list of nine buildings
is otherwise made up, but this may well be due to the fact that in the thirteenth
century royal chapels were no longer built in the old haphazard fashion.
124 The " offeiriad teulu," like other members of the court, had no house
there; he lodged with "caplan y dref" (LL. i. 358, 634), " sui capellani " (ii.
755)i or " cappellani sub eo servientis " (ii. 8ig, 8g7). In Ven. (i. 16, 52) this
officer is styled " clochydd," i.e., bellringer or sexton.
125 Ven. i. 16-18 ; Dim. i. 364 ; Gw. i. 638.
126 « Ni ddyly esgob bersoni neb ar sapelau y brenin heb ei ganiad " (A
bishop ought not to appoint any one to the king's chapels without his consent)
 Ven. i. 18, MSS. A., E. MSS. B., D. read differently, but assert the same
principle.

Hit HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, work was done, there was a loss of originality and a declension
VIL from early spiritual ideals. This impression is not removed if
one looks at the intellectual output of the period, the per
manent records of its activity in the spheres of literature and
art. It was not a great epoch or an epoch of great men ;
though in touch with Ireland,127 the home at this time of a
valuable culture of native growth, Wales was but feebly moved
by this life across the sea and rather shared the backwardness
of the rest of Britain and of Western Europe.
Of the architectural work of the period it is impossible to
judge, for it has been already stated that nothing remains of
any church built in Wales before the Norman Conquest.128
Even if it be true that all churches of the time were not of
wood, and occasionally one was built of stone, it seems clear
that the conditions were such that architecture had as an art no
scope for development.129 The only memorials in stone which
have survived as evidences of the artistic culture of the period
— and these are fairly abundant — are the carved stone crosses
and inscribed stones which stood in the graveyards and on
other consecrated spots connected with the early churches. In
respect of these a direct succession may be observed from the
standing stones bearing inscriptions in Latin capitals or ogam
characters, or both, which were discussed in Chapter IV. of this
work. At first the stones are without ornament, save an oc
casional incised cross, and the later date is inferred merely from
the form of the letters, which are no longer capitals but of the
type known as minuscule. There is a stone of this description
in the churchyard of Llanwnnws, Cardiganshire, which is be
lieved to be of the early part of the ninth century and bears a
Latin legend that may be thus rendered : " Whosoever may
decipher this name, let him utter a benediction on the spirit
of Hiroidil son of Carotinn ".13° Still older is the inscription
on the stone at Caldy Island ; to the old ogam epitaph was
127 The British bishop Marcus, to whom the copyist of the Vatican MS.
erroneously ascribes the Historia Brittonum, was educated in Ireland in the
early part of the ninth century (Mommsen's Nennius, pp. 120, 172).
128 P. 2og. 129 Allen, Celtic Art, p. i7g.
139 " Quiamque explicauent hoc nomen det benedixionem pro anima hiroidil
filius carotinn " (Arch. Camb. V. xiv. (i8g7), 156-8). See also Inscr. Chr. No.
122; Lap. W. 144; Arch. Camb. IV. v. (1874), 245-6, and V. xiii. (1896), 135.
The "nomen " is the xps which is placed at the head of the cross.

THE A GE OF I SO LA TION. 2 2 1
added about A.D. 750 the following: "And I have marked it chap
with the sign of the cross. I beseech all that pass hereby vii.
to pray for the soul of Cadwgan." 131 Meanwhile the art of
illuminating manuscripts had reached a high pitch of perfection
in Ireland, and a special Irish style of decoration had been
evolved, in which the curves and spirals of the earlier Celtic
world were grafted upon the interlacing ribbon and key-pattern
work of Christian art and results achieved of wonderful com
plexity and artistic merit. Nothing more beautiful of its kind
can be imagined than the illuminated border and initial work
in the Book of Kells, a copy of the gospels prepared in the
first half of the eighth century for the use of one of the most
famous of the monasteries of St. Columba. In the course of
time the principles of design followed in the decoration of
books were applied to the ornamentation of stone monuments,
and the sculptor's art produced the graceful stone crosses,
covered with intricate ornament, of which many examples are
to be found in Scotland and Ireland. The ninth century is
believed to have been the age in which the highest degree of
skill was attained by the Celts in craftmanship of this kind.132
In Wales the same causes were at work, evolving a native art
of sculpture out of primitive and Christian decorative elements,
but with less felicitous results. A good deal of carving in the
Celtic style was at this period executed in the country ; nearly
a hundred stones — if fragments be taken into the reckoning —
with Celtic ornament upon them have come to light in such
ancient centres of church life as Penmon, Corwen, Meifod, St.
David's, Margam, Llantwit Major, Penally, Nevern and Llanba
darn Fawr. But it is agreed that the Welsh crosses are inferior
in design and workmanship to the Irish ones ; spirals are almost
wholly absent, there is little figure sculpture, and there is less
grace of form. The new style of decorating tombstones was
adopted in Wales, but the artists and gravers had not the Irish
cunning. Among the more notable of the Welsh crosses may be
mentioned the two at Nevern and Carew, the former 12 and
131 " Et singno crucis in illam fingsi : rogo omnibus ammulantibus ibi exorent
pro anima catuoconi " (Arch. Cam. V. xiii. (1896), 98-103). See also Inscr. Chr.
No. g4; Lap. W. 106-8; Fenton (2), 251.
™ Celtic Art, pp. 286-8.

222 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the latter 14 feet high. The Carew cross bears, as was often
V !" the case with these elaborately sculptured monuments, the
name of the artist, who appears to have been one Maredudd of
Rheged.133 An important group of these carved tombstones
belongs to Glamorgan, where over thirty stones showing Celtic
ornament have at various times been discovered. The Gla
morganshire crosses, of which twelve belong to Margam and
Llantwit Major, are often of remarkable form, having a short,
broad shaft and a round head, and bear singular inscriptions,
such as this on a stone at Llantwit Major : " In the name of
the Supreme God begins the cross of the Saviour which Abbot
Samson prepared for his soul and for the soul of King Ithel
and Arthfael and Tecan ".l34 It is noteworthy that the inscrip
tions on these crosses, when they extend beyond the mention
of a name, are (with one exception) l35 written in Latin and
not, as in Ireland, in the vernacular speech, which may be
regarded as showing that such culture as was maintained in the
Welsh Church ran on the traditional Roman lines, and was not,
like the Irish, a native growth, drawing its inspiration from
popular sources. The custom of setting up tombstones with
minuscule inscriptions and Celtic ornament lasted as late as
the end of the eleventh century and the advent of the
Normans, for in 1891 there was discovered in St. David's
Cathedral a memorial of this kind to Hedd and Isaac, sons
of Bishop Abraham, who presided over the see from 1078 to
1080.136 Beyond the carved and inscribed stones little remains to
tell of the degree of progress attained by the Welsh in artistic
performance at this time. There is no evidence that they had
the Irish skill in illuminating, for, though the Book of St. Chad
was for a considerable time at Llandaff and was then known
133 Inscr. Chr. No. g6; Lap. W. ng; Arch. Camb. V. xii. (i8gs),
186-igo. 134 .1 in nomine di summi incipit crux salvatoris quae preparauit Samsoni apati
pro anima sua et pro anima iuthahelo rex et artmali et teca(n) " (Inscr. Chr. No.
62 ; Lap. W. 12 ; Arch. Camb. V. xvi. (i8gg), 147-150).
136 This is the well-known stone preserved in Towyn Church, the inscription
on which has never been satisfactorily explained and is possibly not genuine.
See Inscr. Chr. No. 126 ; Lap. W. 158 ; Arch. Camb. V. xiv. (i8g7), 142-6
(Rhys). 13«Arch. Camb. V. ix. (1892) 78 ; x. (1893), 281.

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 223
as " Efengyl Teilo," 137 it came there by purchase 138 and may chap.
well have been produced by Irish art. Ancient bells, of the VIL
quadrangular Celtic form, have been found in two or three
places in Wales, but only in one case was there any ornament.139
Learning did not wholly die in the monasteries of Wales.
It is known, from the existence of MSS. of Ovid, of the poet
Juvencus, and of Martianus Capella, in which many of the
words are interpreted in old Welsh of the ninth century, that
the studies of the monks were not confined to the text of the
Scriptures, but ranged over a fairly wide field.140 Nevertheless,
the bad Latin of the inscriptions shows that composition in
that language was at a low ebb, and there are in fact but two
works written by Welshmen between 600 and 1050 which have
survived, neither of them of much literary merit, though they
are full of interest for the historian. They are the Historia
Brittonum usually connected with the name of Nennius, and
Asser's De Rebus Gestis JElfredi. Many problems, into which
it is not possible here to enter, cluster round the former of
these two works ; the date at which it was first put together,
its original author, the relations to each other of the various
MSS., are still under discussion.141 But some facts stand out
with sufficient clearness and enable an estimate to be formed
of the significance of the work as an index to Welsh culture.
About the year 800 a little collection of tracts on the history
137 " Sit maledictus a deo et a teiliav, in cuius euangelio scriptum est " (Lib.
Land. xlvi.).
138 « Emit gelhi Alius arihtiud hoc euangelium de cingal . . . et dedit pro
anima sua istum euangelium deo et sancti teliaui super altare " (Lib. Land, xliii.).
It is probably of the eighth century (Celtic Art, p. 175).
139 Arch. Camb. IV. ii. 271-5 ; Celtic Art, pp. ig6-2oi. The famous bell of
St. David, called " Bangu " and kept at Glasgwm, was probably of this type (Gir.
Camb. vi. 18 (Itin. i. 1)).
140 For the old Welsh glosses see Bradshaw, Collected Papers, pp. 281-5,
453-88; IV. Anc. Bks. ii. pp. 1, 2, 311-4; Gr. Celt. (2), 1054-1063; Arch. Camb.
IV. iv. (1873), 1-21.
141 Earlier editions of the Historia Brittonum (Gale, Scriptores XV. g3-
I3g, i6gi ; Gunn, i8ig ; Stevenson, 1838 ; Petrie, Mon. Hist. Br. pp. 47-82)
have been superseded by that of Mommsen (Monumenta Germaniae Historica :
Chronica Minora saec. iv. v. vi. vii. — Berlin, i8g4), in which there is a complete
critical apparatus, and use is made of an important MS. not known to the earlier
editors, viz., the Chartres MS. of about a.d. goo. In Nennius Vindicatus (Berlin,
i8g3) Zimmer had for the first time shown the true relation of Nennius to the
work so commonly cited under his name, and in Mommsen's edition the
" Nennian " passages are printed separately.

224 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, and geography of Britain was known in Wales in a number of
VI1, copies; it included the Saxon Genealogies, which has been
treated in the earlier chapters of this book as a 'valuable author
ity for the sixth and seventh centuries,142 and the rest of the
collection may possibly be quite as old.143 One copy, from
which is derived nearly all the extant MSS., was transcribed
by a man who had a special interest in the ruling family of
Buellt and Gwerthrynion, districts bordering on the upper
waters of the Wye ; 144 a somewhat later copyist wrote in the
fourth year of Merfyn Frych, ruler of Gwynedd, i.e., about 829.146
Another copy, compiled about 800, was the work of one
" Nennius," or, to use the Welsh form, Nyniaw, who calls him
self a disciple of Bishop Elfodd and freely edits the original
" volume of Britain," as he terms it, which he has in his hands.146
It is beyond dispute that the original author of the Historia
Brittonum and its editor Nennius were very unskilful writers
of Latin and had a very limited knowledge of the general
course of history. The gulf between them and Gildas as Latin-
ists is immense ; fault may no doubt be found with the over-
elaborate style of the older writer, but it was at any rate the
fruit of profound study. The matter, too, of the Historia
reveals to us a community in which folk-lore takes the place of
learning. Use is made of some of the historians whose works
142 See note 84 to chap. iv.
143 This is Mommsen's view (Introd. 113, 117), as against Zimmer, who holds
that the Historia was written about 800 (Nenn. V. § 10).
144 All MSS. save the Chartres MS., which is an imperfect copy, have the
passage (c. 4g), " Fernmail ipse est qui regit modo in regionibus duabus Buelt et
Guorthigirniaun," and the descent of Ffernfael from Vortigern. According to
Jesus Coll. MS. 20, Ffernfael's cousin Brawstudd was married to Arthfael of
Morgannwg (see Pedigrees IX. and XIV. in Cymr. viii. 85, 86), which would
indicate that this king flourished about 800 — a conclusion also to be drawn from
the number of generations between him and Vortigern.
148 The reference to the " annum quartum Mermini regis " (c. 16) is not found
in the Chartres MS. or in the Irish version, and does not belong, therefore, to the
original text of the Historia, or, apparently, to the Nennian edition. The
year is no doubt the same as that given in many MSS. as a.d. 831 (Mommsen,
p. 146), for it is not likely that Merfyn Frych obtained the throne of Gwynedd
until the death, recorded by Harl. MS. 38sg under the year 825 (Cymr. ix. 164),
of Hywel ap Rhodri, the last male representative of the line of Cunedda. 831
may easily, in fact, be an error for 82g (observe that the year of the passion is
given as 7g6), the precise year required if Merfyn succeeded in 825.
148 As a disciple of Elfodd, Nennius must have lived about 800, and the same
conclusion is suggested by the fact that the Historia was known under his
name to the Irish scholar Cormac (836-go8).

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 225
were current in ecclesiastical circles, of Jerome, of Prosper and CHAP.
of Isidore,147 but inferences are drawn from the writings of
these reverend fathers which would have greatly surprised them.
Because the chronicle of Jerome used for the earlier part of the
Roman period is without the computation of the year by means
of its consuls, while the continuation of Prosper has them, it is
gravely said that in the time of the Emperor Maximus " there
began to be consuls at Rome and never afterwards were they
called Caesars " ! 148 An old list of seven emperors who visited
Britain is taken, and it is assumed that save for the visits of
these seven the Britons were independent of Rome ; then the
writer adds that, while he has only found the names of seven
" in the ancient traditions of our elders," the Romans speak of
two more ; these, however, are Septimius Severus and Con
stantius, whom he has already, without realising the fact,
included in his list.149
Nennius, it has already been said, styles himself a disciple
of Elfodd, from which it may be inferred that he, flourished
about the year 800 and belonged to the party which desired a
closer connection between the Welsh Church and the rest of
Christendom.160 No copy of the Historia exactly represent
ing his edition of the work seems to have been preserved, but
it has been reconstructed in its main features by the skill of
Zimmer and Mommsen. In his preface Nennius represents
himself, as was the manner of his kind, as an original compiler
rather than a mere editor ; " I have," he says, " gathered to
gether all I could find not only in the Roman annals, but also
in the chronicles of the holy fathers Hieronymus, Eusebius,
Isidorus and Prosper, and in the annals of the Irish and the
English and in our own ancient traditions ".161 Elsewhere he
lays aside the pretence of originality and speaks with the voice
of the mere copyist : " But since my master, priest Beulan,
thinks the Saxon and other genealogies useless, I have refrained
from copying them, but I have written out the ' Cities ' and
the ' Marvels of Britain,' as other scribes have done before
147 Mommsen, Introd. 114-5. 148C. 26 (Mommsen, p. 166).
149 For the original list see the Chartres MS. (Mommsen, p. 163, note 4).
159 See section ii. of this chapter.
151 From the shorter preface. The longer is only found in one late MS.
and is spurious (Mommsen, Introd. 126).
VOL. I. 15

226 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, me".162 His purpose was to produce a new and enlarged
VIL edition of the Historia, but he found himself sadly destitute
of material. The doctors of Britain, he complains, have kept
no records of the history of the race ; incessant war and pesti
lence have dulled the senses of the Britons, so that they have
ceased to care about the memorials of their past.153 It must be
confessed that Nennius did little to improve the text of the
Historia. He had learnt from readers of Bede that to
Paulinus, and not Rhun ab Urien, was due the credit of the
conversion of Edwin of Northumbria,154 and he knew that
Septimius Severus died at York.155 But it is an unhappy guess
which identifies the mythical Ceredig, Hengist's British inter
preter, with the historical king of that name who ruled the
northern Elfed in the days of Edwin,156 nor is it of any great
advantage to have the lineage of Brutus, the progenitor of all
Britons, traced to the accursed Ham instead of the more re
putable Japheth.167 Genuine as was the patriotism of the
disciple of Elfodd, he had undertaken a task which was beyond
the compass of his narrow powers.
A hundred years later another Welsh scholar appears in
the person of Bishop Asser of St. David's.168 A relative of
Bishop Nobis, brought up in the famous monastery of Dewi and
gradually promoted from the grade of scholar, through that of
priest, to the highest dignity the place could offer him,159 Asser
162 Mommsen, p. 207.
153 Preface. It is remarkable, as Zimmer points out (Nenn. V. 133), that
the expression " hebitudo gentis Britanniae " is echoed in the early ninth century
MS. (so Bradshaw) which speaks of the alphabet invented by " Nemniuus" in
answer to the taunts of an English scholar, who said the Welsh had no native
alphabet ; this the Welshman did " ut uituperationem et hebitudinem deieceret
gentis suae" (Gr. Celt. (2), 1059).
154 See note 42 above. 155 Mommsen, p. 165.
186 Ibid. p. 178. 167 Ibid. p. 151.
158 I have, of course, used the recent edition of the life of Alfred by
W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904), in which the many difficult questions
raised by the text of this work are for the first time fully and scientifically
treated. 159 11 nja tam sancta loca, in quibus nutritus et doctus ac coronatus (i.e.,
tonsured) fueram atque ad ultimum ordinatus " (Stev. p. 64). I understand the
last phrase to refer to his elevation to the episcopate ; for, despite Stubbs (Reg.
Sacr. (2), 217), it would seem clear that only a bishop of St. David's could speak
of "omnia quae in sinistrali et occidentali Sabrinae parte habebam" and
couple himself with Nobis as one of the "antistites" of the " parochia Sancti
Degui ".

THE AGE OF ISOLATION. 227
was in every respect a child of the Welsh monastic system, chap.
Other influences, Irish and Breton, had in all probability con
tributed to the ripening of his scholarship,160 but it is undoubtedly
to the credit of St. David's that, when King Alfred was en
deavouring to revive learning in Wessex by gathering foreign
teachers at his court, it was able to furnish at least one man
who could assist him in his design. Asser himself has told the
tale, how the king summoned him from the further limits of
the West to a conference which took place between them at
Dean 161 in Sussex, how Alfred appealed to him to leave Wales
and join the circle of scholars at the court, how he hesitated to
abandon the interests entrusted to him in his native country,
and how he finally agreed to a division of his time between the
old and the new responsibilities. A long illness which kept
him a prisoner for many weary months at Caerwent 162 postponed
the fulfilment of the bargain, but it was ultimately approved,
from motives of policy, by the monks of St. David's, and from
this time forth Asser's connection with Alfred and with England
was intimate, until he died bishop of Sherborne about 910.163
Such a career leads one to look with interest into the work
produced by Asser as an author. But the biography of Alfred
is in many ways an unsatisfactory piece of writing. Its tone
and spirit are admirable ; throughout there is genuine enthus
iasm for the patient, earnest hero who grappled with so many
difficulties and ever set the loftiest ideals before him. But the
arrangement is confused and shows no unity of purpose ; the
style is of the inflated and rhetorical type which was affected
by many Western writers at this period ; and nothing could be
more abrupt than the conclusion. Asser stands on a distinctly
higher level as an author than Nennius, but he is manifestly
180 Stev. (xciii.) thinks the Frankish element in Asser's work may have come
through Breton channels.
161 Near Eastbourne (Stev. 312).
182 So Stev. (313-4) understands the " Wintonia civitate" of the text, at
once disposing of the serious difficulties raised by the ordinary rendering
" Winchester ". Caerwent (which is " guentonia urbs " in Lib. Land. 220, 222)
was an ancient ecclesiastical centre, owing its foundation to one Tathiu or
Tatheus (Cambro-Br. SS. 255-64 ; Lib. Land. 222, 243 ; ibid. 270, mentions
five " presbiteri tathiu "). It also lay on the old Roman road which would take
Asser from Wessex to St. David's.
183 A.S. Chr. MS. A. s.a. Harl. MS. 3859 gives the year as go8 (Cymr. ix,
167). 15 *

228 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, inferior as a literary artist to Gildas, and, while posterity will
ever be grateful to him for the picture of the good king he
served, his work cannot be said to remove the impression that
the life of the Welsh Church at this time ran a somewhat slug
gish and pedestrian course.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES.
(For the materials of this chapter I have had to depend mainly upon my
own studies, save that invaluable help has been derived from the notes of Mr.
Egerton Phillimore in the various Cymmrodorion volumes and elsewhere.)
I. The Cantrefs of Gwynedd.
It will now be convenient to undertake a general survey of the chap.
political condition of Wales during the period 650 to 850, and VI11-
this will of necessity be at the same time a topographical
account of the country as it then was, since the story will not
admit of being treated with reference to one central point, but
must be separately told for each one of the many tribal areas
into which Wales was at this time divided.
Anglesey,1 the, Mona of primitive times and the Mon of
mediaeval and modern Welsh, has been throughout the historic
period a political unit. It is true that it is divided into three
cantrefs, but these bear upon them, in their names of Cemais,
Aberffraw and Rhosyr,2 the marks of their origin as areas
mapped out by, the government with reference to the three
principal courts of the chieftains of the island. The six
commotes into which the three cantrefs are subdivided wear a
more ancient aspect, but even they do not appear, with the
possible exception of Tindaethwy,3 to represent old tribal
distinctions or anything but administrative convenience. Save
for the great fen known as Malltraeth Marsh, which separates
the commote of Menai from that of Malltraeth, the island has
no important physical barriers; it lies low and, in marked
contrast to the opposite mainland, has no mountain ranges or
1 For the derivation of the name see chap. vi. note gg.
2 The documents which record the names of the cantrefs and commotes of
Wales are discussed in the note appended to this chapter.
3 See p. 41. 22g

230 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, high table-lands.4 Hence it acquired importance in very early
VI11' times as the great corn-growing district of North Wales ; its
proud sons dubbed it " M6n, the mother of Wales," since the
abundant crops it yielded were sufficient, they said, to maintain
the whole of Wales for one year.5 In Bede's time it was
known for its fertility,6 and the number of parish churches it
contains is an incidental proof of its ability in the Middle Ages
to support a large population. It thus became, as soon as the
Goidelic elements in it had been thoroughly subdued to the
Brythonic, the chief seat of political power in Gwynedd and the
residence, in particular, of the line of kings which claimed to
represent Cunedda Wledig and Maelgwn Gwynedd. Physical
and political causes combined to prevent in Anglesey that
division into minor chieftaincies which was so common a
spectacle in other parts of Wales.
After the fall of the great Cadwallon, the house of Cunedda
was represented by his son Cadwaladr, who was king among
the Britons in the days of Oswy of Northumbria.7 None of his
deeds have been recorded, yet he must have been a figure of
some distinction, for the bards of later ages regarded his name
as one to conjure with, and in days of national depression
foretold his return, as was fabled of Arthur also, to lead the
Cymry to victory.8 He died in the great plague of 664 9 and
4 According to App. Land Com. 25g, only 188 acres of the surface of the
county lie at a higher elevation than 500 feet above sea-level.
5 Gir. Camb. vi. 127 (Itin. ii. 7), 177 (Descr. i. 6). Prydydd y Moch was
familiar with the title; see Myv. Arch. I. 2gg (211).
eH.E. ii. g (frugum prouentu atque ubertate).
7"Dum ipse (Osguid) regnabat, venit mortalitas hominum, Catgualart
regnante apud Brittones post patrem suum, et in ea periit" (i.e., Cadwaladr)
(Sax. Genealogies in Hist. Britt. c. 64).
8 Cf. the lines in the " Hoianau " (Blk. Bk. fo. 30ft ; IV. Anc. Bks. ii. p. 26),
A phan del Kadualadir y orescin mon
dileaur Saeson o tirion prydein.
(" And when Cadwaladr comes to seize Anglesey, the English will be driven from
the pleasant isle of Britain.")
9 The plague in the reign of Oswy which, according to the Saxon Genea
logies, carried off Cadwaladr, can hardly be any other than the famous pestilence
of 664, for which cf. Bede, H.E. iii. 27. The chronicle in Harl. MS. 3859
gives the year of the king's death as 682, but it is of inferior authority to the Sax.
Gen. Geoff. Mon. introduced another element of confusion by identifying Cad
waladr with Caedualla of Wessex and making him die, accordingly, at Rome on
20th April, 689 (Hist. Reg. xii. 14, where the Berne MS. reads " Cheduallam
iuvenem," and 18, where " mayarum ' is to be read for the " majurum " of
Giles).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 231
it is likely, notwithstanding his martial reputation, that he CHAP,
spent the close of his life as a monk, for the church of Eglwys vm'
Ael or Llangadwaladr in Anglesey claims him as its patron
saint and founder, and churches were dedicated to him in other
parts of Wales.10 The situation of Llangadwaladr, some two
miles from Aberffraw, suggests that this had already become
the chief dwelling-place of the family, not to speak of the fact
that Cadfan's tombstone is in the same church, carrying back
the connection with the district a couple of generations earlier.11
Henceforth Aberffraw, a cluster of dwellings on the little lift
which rises above the sand-flat at the mouth of the Ffraw, was
the " principal seat " of Gwynedd,12 and its possession was held
to confer a dignity and precedence which no other title could
supply. The successors of Cadwaladr were men of no note, whose
sway did not extend, it would seem, beyond the limits of
Anglesey. The death of Rhodri Molwynog, son of Idwal, son
of Cadwaladr, is recorded under the year 754,13 and the family
then passes out of sight until in the early part of the ninth
century two sons of Rhodri, Hywel and Cynan, are found
battling against each other for the lordship of Mon. In 816
the death of Cynan, whose chief stronghold was in the commote
of Tindaethwy, left the field clear for Hywel, who no doubt
ruled over Anglesey until his death in 825. When Hwyel
died, the male line of Maelgwn Gwynedd was at an end and
its claims were transferred to another house by Ethyllt, the
daughter of his brother Cynan.14
It may be mentioned that there were other royal courts in
Anglesey than that of Aberffraw. In Talybolion, Cemais15
commanded the little harbour of Porth Wygyr, widely known
10 Welsh SS. 2gg-3oi. In 1352 the vill of " Eglussell " was held " de sancto
Cadewaladre rege " (Rec. Cam. 46).
11 See p. 182.
12 " Eisteddfa arbennig " is the phrase of the Dimetian Code (LL. i. 346).
13 " Rotri rex brittonum moritur " (Harl. MS. 385g in Cymr. ix. 161). Other
sources add nothing of value save Rhodri's pedigree and distinguishing epithet,
the latter not yet satisfactorily explained (Cymr. ix. i6g-7o ; Bruts, 257 ; Cymr.
viii. 87). 14 The chief authority is Harl. MS. 3859 (chronicle and pedigrees). Ann. Ult.
also record s.a. 815 (= 816) the death of " Conan mac Ruadhrach rex Britonum ".
It has been very generally assumed that Merfyn Frych succeeded immediately on
the death of Cynan Tindaethwy ; on this point see chap. vii. note 145.
16 Rec. Cam. 63-5.

232 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, in the Middle Ages as the northernmost point of Wales,16 while
Twrcelyn had its royal manor at Penrhos Lligwy.17 Llanfaes,
not far from Beaumaris (which is a creation of Edward I.), was
the court of Tindaethwy 18 and before Newborough commenced
its career as an English-made borough, it had been, under the
name of Rhosyr, the centre of the commote of Menai.19 This
was in accordance with the rule that each commote should
have its own "llys" or royal vill, at which the lord of the
country received the renders of the men of that commote,
whether freemen or serfs. In addition, there were in the
island two important ecclesiastical centres, the " clas " founded
by Cybi at Caer Gybi,20 under the shadow of the mountain —
the highest in Anglesey— known to English sailors as the Holy
Head,21 and the similar foundation of Seiriol at Penmon, with
its offshoot on the adjacent isle of Priestholm or Ynys Lannog.22
Penmon and Caergybi flank the island on its eastern and
western sides respectively, and readers of Matthew Arnold will
hardly need to be reminded of the tale told of the two founders,
that they journeyed once a week to meet each other at the
wells of Clorach, "in the bare midst of Anglesey," until the
Western saint, ever facing the warm beams of the sun, became
Cybi the Swarthy (Cybi Felyn), while his companion from the
East, with the sunlight always falling upon his back, remained
Seiriol the Fair (Seiriol Wyn).23
Facing Anglesey, in one long serrated line, are the heights
18 Cymr. xi. 43. It is the " portus Yoiger " of Gir. Camb. vi. 165 (Descr.
i. 1) ; for other early references see Myv. Arch. I. 74 (62), 194 (143), 270 (ig3) ;
Triad i. 5 = iii. 65.
17 Rec. Cam. 70-2.
18 There is an interesting survey of Llanfaes, as it was in I2g4, the year
before that in which the building of Beaumaris was commenced, in Trib. System,
APP- PP- 3, 4-
wRec. Cam. 83-5. 29 See pp. 130, 218.
21 The fourteenth-century English romance of "Gawain and the Green
Knight " brings Gawain past " alle the iles of Anglesay " and " the Holy Hede "
(w. 6g8-7oo, ed. Morris).
22 See p. 216. That Penmon was a monastic church of the ancient type is
made certain by the grant in 1237 to the prior and canons of Ynys Lannog of
" totam abbadaeth (i.e., abbacy) de Penmon " (Mon. Angl. iv. 582).
23 The story first appears in the notes to Richard Lloyd's Beaumaris Bay
(1800), p. 2, though it was known to Lewis Morris (Celt. Remains, p. 351). It
should be explained that in his well-known sonnet (" East and West ") Matthew
Arnold misses the precise point of the two epithets and so tells the legend not
quite convincingly.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 233
of the " stronghold of Gwynedd," 24 the region known to the CHAP.
Welsh as Eryri, " the haunt of the eagles," 25 and to the
English by the no less romantic name of Snowdon, " the hill of
snows ",26 This was the mountainous rampart which, stretch
ing from the mouth of the Conway to the Rivals, at all times
protected Anglesey and the intervening district of Arfon from
serious attack on the landward side, and few sights are more
impressive than the distant prospect of this mountain wall,
rising in peak after peak along the horizon, as it may be seen
from Aberffraw and many another point of vantage in Southern
Anglesey. Nor was Eryri merely a barrier of crag and moor
land, a rocky, marshy wilderness. Hidden within its folds
were mountain glens, such as Nant Peris in Arfon and Nant
Ffrancon in Arllechwedd, where the herbage was of the finest
and the woods sheltered deer and nurtured swine. Just as it
was reckoned that Anglesey could feed with corn the entire
population of Wales, so it was held that the pastures of Eryri
could furnish grazing for all the sheep and cattle in the country.27
It was not, only a citadel, but a citadel which, in the summer
season, at any rate, could not easily be starved into submission.
The region which lay opposite to Anglesey, from the
summit of the Rivals to the river Cegin between Bangor and
Llandegai, was appropriately known as Ar-fon, i.e., the land
over against Mon.28 The cantref thus named extended not
only between the limits just specified, but also far into the
heart of Eryri ; the vale of Nantlle and the pass of Llanberis
24 " Kedernit gwyned " (Mab. 62, 63). Cf. Bruts, 2g2 : " mudaw hyt
ymynyded eryri. Kanys kadarnaf lie adiogelaf y gael amdiffyn yndaw rac y llu
oed hwnnw". 25 The Hist. Britt. (c. 40) contains a reference to " montibus Hereri " (ac
cording to some MSS. " Heriri "), where was situated the " arx " of Ambrosius,
i.e., Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert. It is not so long since eagles ceased to
haunt these mountains — see Williams, Observations on the Snowdon Mountains
(1802), pp. 2, 3.
28 An early instance of the use of the name is to be found in A.S. Chr. s.a.
iog5, MS. E. (Snawdune). It is properly the equivalent of Eryri (Gir. Camb. vi.
135 (Itin. ii. g)) or Snowdonia, and was not used in the Middle Ages, as now, to
denote merely the summit. The Welsh name of this, known to every Welshman
to-day as " Y Wyddfa," was anciently " Y Wyddfa Fawr," or the Great Burial-
place, since the bones of Rhita the Giant were supposed to be entombed in the
cairn which crowned it (Celt. Folklore, pp. 474-g).
27 Gir. Camb. vi. 135 (Itin. ii. g), 170 (Descr. i. 5).
28 Gir. Camb. vi. 124 (Itin. ii. 6).

234 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Were within its borders. It is aptly described by the author of
Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig as a land of which the seaboard
ran side by side with the champaign, the woodlands with the
mountain.29 The cantref was conceived as divided into four
strips or belts, the maritime, the agricultural, the forest and the
highland belt, rising in terrace fashion above each other until
the central mass of Snowdonia was reached. It was a rich and
diversified country and nourished a race of great independence
of spirit. The men of Arfon claimed it as their right to lead
the van in the hostings of Gwynedd and therewith demanded
many other privileges, such as the liberty to fish in the three chief
rivers of the district (probably the Saint, the Gwyrfai and the
Llyfni), the right to declare, against their neighbours of other
cantrefs, the boundaries of Arfon, and the privilege of sleeping,
when they visited the king's court, in the " neuadd " or common
hall with the royal heir and the squires of the court.30 Arfon
was a true tribal district, in which tribal consciousness was
keen and alert. At some period or other in its history, the
ancient cantref was, like many another, divided into two com
motes. The river Gwyrfai, flowing from Llyn Cawellyn under
the foot of Snowdon to the western end of the Menai Straits,
furnished the dividing line, and from that day to this has
separated the commote or hundred of Uch Gwyrfai (Above
Gwyrfai) from that of Is Gwyrfai (Below Gwyrfai). The can
tref contained several notable civil and ecclesiastical sites.
Oldest of all was Carnarvon,31 the Segontium of the Romans,
known to the Welsh as Caer Saint yn Arfon and often more
briefly as " Y Gaer yn Arfon," which is the source of the modern
name. Legend had much to say of the past glories of
this place. It was the burial-place of Constantine the Great
and the home of Elen of the Hosts, the British wife of the
Emperor Maximus. Here Bran the Blessed was found by the
bird which brought under its wing the tale of the woes endured
by his sister Branwen in Ireland, and here Beuno the saint up-
29 " Gwlat a oed kyhyt y maestir ae mor. kyhyt y mynyd ae choet " (Afaft.
83). 89 " Breiniau Arfon " (The Privileges of Arfon), a tract found in two MSS. of
the Ven. Code (LL. i. 104-6).
31 For references to Carnarvon see Hist. Britt. c. 25 ; Mab. 34, 88 ; Cambro-
Br. SS. 18. A charter in favour of Penmon priory was issued by Llywelyn ab
Iorwerth at " Kaerinarvon " on 15th October, 1221 (Mon. Angl. iv. 582).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 235
braided King Cadwallon for offering to him land which had chap.
been unlawfully wrested from its infant proprietor. The fort VIIL
on the hill of Llanbeblig — for it was the building of the
Edwardian castle which drew Carnarvon down to the margin
of the strait — was clearly the ancient centre of the cantref, the
original home of its chieftains, though in later times it was
eclipsed in importance by Dolbadarn.32 The two chief sanctu
aries of Arfon were Bangor and Clynnog. Of the former,
Bangor Fawr yn Arfon, the seat of the bishops of Gwynedd,
some account has already been given ; 33 it is enough to say
here that the whole of the north-eastern corner of the cantref,
from the Cegin to the modern village of Portdinorwic, formed
part of the possessions of the see, and that a solid barrier of
Church land thus intervened between the men of Arfon and
those of Arllechwedd.34 The " clas " of Celynnog Fawr was
little inferior in importance to that of Bangor ; it had lands in
Lleyn and Anglesey as well as in the neighbourhood of the
church, and St. Beuno, its founder and protector, was reckoned
among the mightiest of saints. Not many years have elapsed
since the whole countryside brought their children to Beuno's
Well to be healed of their ailments, and paid an annual tribute
to Beuno's Chest (Cyff Beuno) to ensure the prosperity of their
flocks and their herds.35
To the east of Arfon lay Arllechwedd, for the most part a
rugged, stony region, a land of declivities, as its name implies,
and hence playing no important part in the early history of
Wales. Its two strips of fertile, low-lying territory, the one
bordering on the sea and the other on the river Conway,
which was the eastern limit of the cantref, were known re-
32 Rec. Cam. (17-22) shows the tenants of Is Gwyrfai as joining in the main
tenance of the manor of Dolbadarn.
33 See note appended to chap. vi. 34 Rec. Cam. g3-5, 231.
35 The " clas " of " Beuno," with that of Bangor, was to protect the special
rightsof the men of Arfon (LL. i. 106). Clynnog is C«lynnog, the hamlet of
holly trees ; see B. Saes. s.a. gyj and 1151 (B.T. is wrong in both passages) ;
Llyfr yr Ancr, 124 ; Buck. Gr. ap C, 36. Clynnog Fechan was close to
Llangeinwen, Anglesey, and belonged to Clynnog Fawr (Arch. Camb. I. i. (1846),
310-11 ; Rec. Cam. 257). There is a list of the possessions of the house in
Rec. Cam. 257 (cf. Arch. Camb. I. iii. (1848), 253-5). For the antiquities and
traditions of the place see B. Willis, Bangor, pp. 2gg-305 ; Penn. ii. 396-400 ;
Arch. Camb. I. iii. (1848), 247-57; "Cyff Beuno," a Welsh account of the
parish by Eben Fardd, schoolmaster and poet (Tremadoc, 1863).

236 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, spectively as Arllechwedd Uchaf (Upper) and Arllechwedd Isaf
(Lower) and with these two commotes was associated that of
Nant Conwy,36 which lay west of the Conway from Dolgarrog
to its source. The royal court of Arllechwedd was at Aber of
the White Shells (Gwyn Gregin),37 a favourite residence of the
later rulers of Gwynedd ; Trefriw, perched on the hillside just
above the highest reach of the tidal portion of the Conway,
was the manor of Nant Conway when the district came into
the hands of the English, but Dolwyddelan must have been at
one time the chief stronghold of the lord of the commote. The
Church had no great foothold in Arllechwedd until the found
ation of the Cistercian abbey of Aberconwy in 11 86; there
was no important " clas " within its bounds, and probably none
of its churches stood higher in popular repute than that of St.
Tudclud at Pennant Machno (now condensed into Penmachno),38
which is shown by its ancient Christian tombstones to be a
foundation of the fifth or sixth century.39
The great tongue of land thrown out by Eryri to the west
has long been known by the name of Lleyn, which is said to
signify the land of spearmen.40 It is a remote, sea-locked
region, lying off the track of the main currents of Welsh life,
but its green straths and swelling knolls, only here and there
broken into by mountain masses, are fertile and luxuriant, and
the district has always maintained a considerable population.
Three commotes went to make up the cantref of Lleyn.
Dinllaen, so called from the " dinas " or cliff castle on the little
peninsula of Porthdinlleyn, was the northernmost, stretching
from the Rivals to Cam Fadryn ; its royal manor was at
Nevin.41 From Cam Fadryn to Aberdaron a second com-
38 So Pen. MS. 163 (Evans, Rep. i. p. g52), which is right on this point against
the other old lists. The five churches of the commote are assigned to the dean
ery of Arllechwedd in the Norwich Taxation (Arch. Camb. V. xi. (i8g4), 30) and
the silence of the Statute of Rhuddlan as to Nant Conwy is only to be explained
by the assumption that it was included in " candreda de Arthlegaph ".
37 The full name is given in Pen. MS. 147 (Evans, Rep. i. p. gi3) and Myv.
Arch. II. 30 (4ig).
38 Penanmagno in Rec. Cam. g, Pennam'achno in the Norwich Taxation
(Arch. Camb. V. xi. (i8g4), 30). Llyfr John Brooke (Evans, Rep. i. p. gi3) and B.
Willis, Bangor, p. 274, give the name of the saint correctly ; in Ecton's The
saurus (third edition, p. 4gs) it is printed as Tyddud, which misled Rees (Welsh
SS. 332). 39 Inscr. Chr. Nos. 135-7 ! Lap. W. 175-7.
40 Celt. Folklore, i. p. 226. « Rec. Cam. 35.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 237
mote extended, which apparently took its name of " Cymyd- chap.
maen " from a famous " Maen Melyn " or " Yellow Rock " VIII<
forming part of the promontory which faces Bardsey.42 The
court of this commote was at Neigwl.43 The third commote,
which skirted the shores of Cardigan Bay from St. Tudwal's
Isles to the river Erch, originally bore the name of Cunedda's
son Afloeg, but Afloegion was in time corrupted into Gaflogion
and Cafflogion.44 Pwllheli was the ancient centre of this com
mote.45 The church lands of Lleyn were extensive, for, in
addition to the numerous vills which were the property of the
see of Bangor and those which belonged to Clynnog Fawr, the
cantref itself contained the important " clas " of Aberdaron,
whose abbot was lord of a very considerable part of Cymyd-
maen.46 Pilgrims were constantly passing through to Bardsey,
and the necessary provision for them helped to give the
church a special title to the wide domains which it held in the
peninsula. There is scarcely anything to show who ruled in Arfon,
Lleyn and Arllechwedd in the eighth century. But the mention
in Harl. MS. 3859 of a King Caradog of Gwynedd who was
slain by the English in 798 47 leads one to surmise that the
pedigree of Hywel ap Caradog to be found in the same au
thority 48 is that of the royal line of his district. It goes back to
Cynlas (no doubt the Cuneglasus of Gildas), cousin of Maelgwn
Gwynedd and great-grandson of Cunedda.49 As it is not carried
beyond Hywel, who belonged to the early part of the ninth
century, it may be conjectured that the three cantrefs were,
42 " Maen Melyn Lleyn " is close to Braich y Pwll. It was famous in the
fourteenth century ; see Dafydd Nanmor's reference in his " cywydd " to the
golden hair of Llio of Gogerddan —
Mae'r un lliw a'r maen yn Llyn.
('Tis of the same hue as the stone in Lleyn.)
43 Rec. Cam. 38. A farm near Llandegwining still bears the name of Maer-
dref. 44 See p. 117. 45 Under the name of Porthely (Rec. Cam. 25, 2g, 31, 32).
46 There are early references to the church and clergy of Aberdaron in Buch.
Gr. ap C. (116; Myv. Arch. II. sg6 (72g)) and B.T. p. 122 (Bruts, 2gs ; B.
Saes. s.a. 1112 (= 1115)). For the "abadaeth" as a territorial area see Rec.
Cam. 252 (composition of the year 1252 between the abbot of Bardsey and the
secular canons of Aberdaron), and cf. the " abadaeth " of Penmon (Mon. Angl. iv.
582). 47 " Caratauc rex guenedote apud saxones iugulatur " (Cymr. ix. 163).
48 Cymr. ix. 172. 49 See p. 133.

238 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, under Merfyn Frych, combined in one kingdom with the ancient
' realm of Anglesey. Henceforth M6n and Arfon are rarely
divorced from each other.
The rugged heights which surround the north-eastern corner
of Cardigan Bay were, according to tradition, the portion of
Cunedda's son Dunod (Donatus), and here, therefore, was the
cantref of Dunoding.50 It was, says the primitive narrator of
the story of King Math, the best of all cantrefs for a young
man to rule over,61 which may be taken to mean that as a
rough and craggy region, it tried and disciplined the powers of
the budding chieftain, not suffering him to fall into ignoble sloth
and self-indulgence. It was cut in twain by the broad tidal
estuary known as " Y Traeth Mawr " (The Great Sands), which
was previous to its reclamation from the sea in 1 8 1 1 a most
formidable barrier, and it thus fell at an early date into the
commotes of Eifionydd and Ardudwy, names which soon
eclipsed and drove out of current use the ancient one of
Dunoding. Eifionydd, named after Dunod's son, Eifion,62 was
the northern commote ; it lay between the Erch and the Traeth,
and, in historical times, the home of its lords was on the rock
now crowned by the ruins of Criccieth Castle, though there is
reason to think that the mound at Dolbenmaen marks the site
of an earlier royal residence.53 Ardudwy was a large but thinly
populated area ; from the Festiniog valley in the north to the
Mawddach estuary in the south it was chiefly moor and
mountain, but a fertile strip along the coast was known as
Dyffryn Ardudwy (The Plain of Ardudwy). Among the famous
sites within it were Harlech, where Bran from the height of the
Castle rock watched the coming of the ships which brought the
king of Ireland and his train to beg the hand of his sister
Branwen,54 and Mur y Castell, where Llew held his court amid
69 For the name see, in addition to the ordinary lists, Jesus Coll. MS. 20
(Cymr. viii. 85), Iolo MSS. 122, Mab. 73. On the analogy of Glywysing and
Dogfeiling, the ending should be -ing and not-ig. Ffynnon Dunawd, near
Eisteddfa in Eifionydd, probably commemorates a saint and not the son of
Cunedda (Y Gestiana, gan Alltud Eifion : Tremadoc, i8g2, p. g).
81 Mab. 73.
02 " Ebiau(n) map Dunaut map Cunedda " (Cymr. ix. 178). For the form
cf. Meirionydd, Elenydd and Maelienydd.
05 Bye-Gones, viii. (igo3-4), P- 18o.
04 Mab. 26 (hardlech yn ardudwy ynllys idaw).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 239
the broken walls of the dismantled Roman encampment.55 It CHAP.
was a land which bred hardy wielders of the lance,66 a nurturer
of warriors rather than of churchmen, for neither here nor in
Eifionydd were there in early times any churches of the first
rank and the ancient church holdings were not considerable.
The local dynasty, tracing its origin to Dunod ap Cunedda,
appears to have held its own until well on in the tenth century.67
The districts so far dealt with belonged to the ancient
Gwynedd, sometimes called by way of distinction Gwynedd
above Conway.58 East of the river Conway came Gwynedd
below Conway, which does not seem to have been entitled to
the name originally, for the natural explanation of the name
" Y Berfeddwlad " (The Middle Country) which it also bore is
that it was the land which lay between Gwynedd and Powys.69
The four cantrefs of the Middle Country were Rhos, Rhufoniog,
Dyffryn Clwyd and Tegeingl,60 belonging for the most part to
the great upland plateau of eastern North Wales, but cleft by the
rich expanse of the Vale of Clwyd, a fertile, corn-growing tract
of which each cantref had its share. Rhos was bounded by the
Clwyd, the Elwy, the Conway and the sea ; along the east
bank of the Conway it sent a long arm southwards as far as
Capel Garmon. The Llandudno peninsula was included in it
and formed the commote of Creuddyn, which is now in a
different county from the main body of the cantref, but was
anciently reckoned one of its members. One may, indeed,
surmise from the name Eglwys Rhos that this was the original
Rhos from which the cantref took its title and that the deriva
tion is to be sought in the Goidelic word for " promontory "
rather than in the Brythonic for "moor".61 The two other
55 Mab. 74 (Iys idaw yn y lie a elwir mur y castell). The fort is described
on p. 68.
88 " Sunt ... his in partibus lanceae longissimae " (Gir. Camb. vi. 123
(Itin. ii. 5)).
67 None of the persons named in the Dunoding pedigree in Cymr. ix. 177-8,
appear elsewhere, so that dating is difficult, but the usual method of calculation
(three generations to a century) will bring Cuhelyn, with whom the pedigree ends,
to about g3o.
58 <i Gwyned ewch Conwy " (B. Saes. s.a. 1175). 69 Cymr. xi. 174.
89 In a document in Rymer (4), i. 267, dated 30th April, 1247, the four
" cantredos " of " Pernechelad " are given as " Ros, Rowennok, Defrencluc et
Anglefeld ".
81 Both are derived from the same Celtic original (Urk. Spr. 312).

240 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, commotes were Uwch Dulas and Is Dulas, to the west and east
VHI" respectively of the little river Dulas. Of the sites of the cantref,
none ranked higher than Degannwy, the royal manor of
Creuddyn, associated by tradition with the glories of the rule of
Maelgwn,62 known to have been a stronghold in the ninth
century,63 and only eclipsed as the principal fortress of the
district when Edward I. built Conway on the opposite side of
the river. Possession of the rock of Degannwy, which, like
that pictured in " The Bard,"
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
was hotly contested in the long border strife between Welsh
and English, and its vicissitudes furnish no bad index of the
alternate rise and fall of the fortunes of the men of Gwynedd.
The cantref also contained some important churches, such as
Abergele, once the mother church of a wide district, but after
wards reduced to a state of dependence upon St. Asaph,64 and
Llandrillo or Dinerth, a church of similar standing.65
Rhufoniog was an inland cantref; the broad moorlands of
Hiraethog were for the most part within its limits, which to
the north and east were defined by the Elwy, the Clwyd and
the Clywedog. The river Aled furnished the dividing line of
the two commotes of Uwch Aled and Is Aled ; there was a
third commote, called Ystrad or Cymeirch, which lay between
the Lliwen and the Clywedog. Rhufoniog plays no important
part in the early history of Wales ; though there must have been
a fortress on the limestone rock of Denbigh, the Welsh Dinbych,
long before the time of Edward I., it is only then that the place
enters into the light of history, and no list has been preserved
of the princes of this region or of the neighbouring cantref of
Rhos during the period which preceded the absorption of the
district in the realm of Gwynedd.66 Much of it, in fact, was in
episcopal hands ; the bishop of Bangor had Llanrhaeadr,67 and
82 P. I2g. 6a P. 202.
64 Thomas, St. Asaph, pp. 350-1. For the " princeps opergelei " who was
head of the " clas " in 856 see Cymr. xi. 165.
86 Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 548. It was an important church in 1137 (Buch.
Gr. ap C. 128 (734)).
86 Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 816 mentions a " regnum Roweynauc " in a notice
clearly derived from an ancient source.
97 Rec. Cam. 112.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 241
no small proportion of the revenues of the bishop of St. Asaph chap.
was drawn from the manors of the see in Henllan, Llansannan, VI11'
Llannefydd and Llangerniew.68
Dyffryn Clwyd was a much richer cantref, though it did not
cover the whole of the famous vale, but only the southern por
tion, from Bodffari to Derwen. The most important of the
three commotes into which it was divided bore the name of
Dogfeiling 69 and it is a reasonable assumption that this was once
the designation of the whole cantref, marking it out as the realm
of Dogfael, son of Cunedda Wledig.70 Like Rhufoniog, it has
no recorded early history, though there is in this cantref as in
the other a site pretty clearly indicated by its name and its
natural advantages as that of an early stronghold. Ruthin,
which is by interpretation Rhudd-ddin, the red fort, occupying
a ridge of red sandstone in the centre of the Vale, was the centre
of the commote of Dogfeiling and became the seat of the lord's
castle when at the end of the thirteenth century Dyffryn Clwyd
was transformed into a marcher lordship. Ecclesiastically, the
cantref, with the adjacent commote of Cymeirch, was associ
ated with Gwynedd above Conway, for, when evidence is forth
coming as to the boundaries of the Welsh dioceses, it is found
to be part of the diocese of Bangor, though surrounded by that
of St. Asaph.71 The fact has also to be noted — and here may
lie the explanation of the anomaly — that the bishop of Bangor
was a principal owner of land in the cantref, being lord of
almost the whole of the commote of Llannerch, which consisted
of the modern parishes of Llanfair and Llanelidan.72
The fourth cantref included in the Middle Country was
known to the Welsh as Tegeingl.73 Under the later princes
of Gwynedd, Tegeingl was a region which took in the whole
of our Flintshire as far south as Connah's Quay and Cilcen, and
98 Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 180.
89 Evans (Rep. i. p. gi4, footnote g) gives, from Cardiff MS. 14, the constituent
parishes of the three commotes of Dyffryn Clwyd.
79 Descr. Pemb. 201 (note by E. P.).
71 This was the case at the time of the Norwich Taxation of 1254 (Arch.
Camb. V. xi. (i8g4), 31). In i85g Bangor gave up the deanery of Dyffryn Clwyd
in exchange for that of Cyfeiliog.
72 Rec. Cam. 113-5.
73 The accent falls on the first syllable. For the suggested derivation from
the tribal name " Deceangli," see Celt. Br. (2), pp. 81, 2go ; Arch. Camb. V. ix.
(1892), 165 ; W. People, p. 94.
VOL. I. 16

242 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, was divided into the three commotes of Rhuddlan, Coleshill and
Prestatyn. But it has already been shown that this district
was seized by the English of Mercia not later than the end of
the eighth century,74 and all the evidence goes to show that the
bulk of it remained in English hands until it was reconquered
by Owain Gwynedd in the twelfth. Even the names of the
commotes show how late was the organisation of this country
as a Welsh cantref, for they bear the names of the castles built
by the Normans to secure their hold upon the district. At the
period which is now under consideration, Tegeingl was a part
of Mercia, save perhaps the portion around Llanelwy or St.
Asaph, where the bishops of this quarter of Wales maintained
a precarious and uneasy footing on the storm-swept frontier be
tween the two races. It is true that nothing is known with any
certainty of the history of the see before the twelfth century,
but the place was then regarded as a bishop's seat of old stand
ing and some ancient title no doubt underlay the extensive
claims of the successors of St. Kentigern to territorial lordship
in the northern part of the Vale of Clwyd.
II. The Cantrefs of Powys.
Central Wales may be regarded as a broad table-land, through
which rivers great and small furrow their way in winding courses
to the sea, but which has few clearly marked mountain ranges or
stretches of fertile plain. The ancient kingdom of Powys 76 took
in most of this region, extending in its widest limits from the
neighbourhood of Mold to the river Wye, near Glasbury and
Hay.76 It included some productive districts, such as the lower
valley of the Dee and the well-watered meadows of the upper
Severn, so that its children were not altogether without warrant
in hailing it as " Powys, the Eden of Wales ".77 But most of it
74 Pp. 201-2.
78 The view of Zeuss (Gr. Celt. (2), pp. 1053-4), that the name is to be con
nected with the "poues = quies" of the Oxford glosses and to be interpreted as
meaning " settlement," still holds the field (Celt. Br. (2), p. 218).
78 In the " Dream of Rhonabwy " (Mab. 144) the limits of Powys are given as
" oporford (i.e., Pulford, near Chester) hyt yg gwauan yg gwarthaf arwystli " (some
point near Llangurig in South Montgomeryshire). But this was in the twelfth
century, after the separation from the province of " Rhwng Gwy a Hafren ".
77 "Powys paradwys Cymry" (Myv. Arch. I. 114 (g2) ; IV. Anc. Bks. ii.
p. 25g).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 243
was pastoral upland, a country well fitted to be the nurse of a CHAP.
race of hardy, independent warriors, lovers of tribal freedom, m"
haters of the sluggish and toilsome life of the lowland tiller of
the soil, and tenacious holders of ancient privileges.78 Such
were the men of Powys, inheritors of the old Brythonic tradi
tions, in whom incessant warfare with the Mercian English
kept alive the ancient tribal characteristics.
Tribal independence does not seem, however, in this case
to have brought about the division of the country into separate
chieftaincies, for, so far as the scanty records show, there was
but one kingdom of Powys and this maintained its unity until
it was absorbed in the kingdom of Gwynedd in the ninth cen
tury. The founder of the dynasty was one Cadell Ddymllug
(the Blackfisted ?), a contemporary of St. Germanus.79 He was,
so the story ran, the swineherd of the tyrant King Benlli, and,
when the gates of the royal stronghold were churlishly shut
against the saint and his companions, offered the shelter of his
cottage to the men of God and killed and dressed for their
supper the calf of his solitary cow. The inevitable sequel fol
lows ; fire from heaven struck the citadel of Benlli (which was
probably perched on Moel Fenlli 80 in the Clwydian range), so
that it was instantly consumed and never again rebuilt, while
Cadell and his nine sons became kings of Powys. Their pro
geny still ruled the country when the Historia Brittonum, which
is our authority for the legend, was composed.81 Whatever
may be the historical basis of the story, it is certain that the
family which governed Powys during the period 600-850 traced
their origin to Cadell. The Selyf ap Cynan who fell in the
battle of Chester was his descendant in the seventh generation,82
78 See Cynddelw's poem entitled " Breiniau Gwyr Powys" in Myv. Arch.
1.257(186). 79 Hist. Britt. cc. 32-5 ; pedigrees in Harl. MS. 385g, as given in Cymr. ix.
I7g, 181, 182, with Phillimore's notes. The old Welsh " Durnluc," for which
see Cymr. vii. ng, was altered at an early date (see, for example, Jesus Coll.
MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 87) to " Deyrnllwg," and thus was evolved the mythical
region of Teyrnllwg, placed by Iolo MSS. 86, between the Dee and (apparently)
the Cumbrian Derwent.
89 The hill-fort on Moel Fenlli was occupied in the Roman period (p. 8g
above) and there is a Llanarmon, under the patronage of St. Germanus, not far
off. 81 " Et a semine illorum omnis regio Povisorum regitur usque in hodiernum
diem " (Hist. Britt. c. 35). The passage is found in all the MSS. of the Historia.
82 P. 181. 16*

244 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, and the Elise to whose memory was erected the monument
Vm" popularly known as " Eliseg's Pillar " stood as his representative
in the tenth.83 Elise was the son of Gwylog and Sanan, daughter
of Noe ab Arthur of Dyfed ; 84 he flourished in the middle of
the eighth century, and, so far as can be ascertained from old
readings of the now obliterated inscription on his monument,
waged successful war against the English. His grandson Cadell
died king of Powys in 808 86 and was succeeded by his son
Cyngen. Under Cyngen the realm of Powys was reduced to
sore straits, for in 822 it was overrun by the English, but this
was but a temporary check, since Cyngen, who set up the stone
cross to his great-grandfather's memory, was clearly in posses
sion of Ial, and speaks, indeed, of the whole realm of Powys
as though it were under his sway. After a long reign he closed
his career with a pilgrimage to Rome, where he died in or about
854, the last king of Powys of the line of Cadell.86
During the period which is now being dealt with much of
what was reckoned Powys in later ages was in the hands of
the English. The line of Offa's Dyke not only ran through
Tegeingl, but also intersected the districts known in the Middle
Ages as the commotes of Ystrad Alun and Yr Hob and of
Maelor, the English Bromfield ; it left little to the Welsh save
moor and mountain. It would appear that the ancient home
of the kings of Powys in this part of their dominions was the
commote of Ial, a long strip of upland which took in the
western part of the valley of the Alun and abutted upon the
Dee where it works its devious way through the gorges of
Llangollen. Here was the hill-fort, named after Bran, a famous
figure of Celtic story,87 which guarded the upper waters of the
83 The inscription on " Eliseg's Pillar " is only known from a transcript by
Edward Llwyd. See Penn. ii. 7-10 ; Arch. Camb. I. i. (1846), 17, 32 ; VI. ix.
(igog), 43-8. At present hardly a word can be read (Lap. W. 200). Romilly
Allen points out that in form the monument belongs to a well-known Mercian
type (Arch. Camb. V. xvi. [i8gg], 19). According to Phillimore, Llwyd's Eliseg-
is probably a misreading of Elisei, which represents Elisedd, the old form of
Elise and Elis (Cymr. ix. 181).
84 Cymr. ix. 175. 88 Harl. MS. 3859 s.a. m Ibid.
87 A doublet of the name Dinas Bran appears to be preserved in Dinbren or
Dinbran, the name of the township in which the castle stands. See Goss.
Guide, pp. 130-1. The township is now, with the rest of the parish of Llangollen,
in the Nanheudwy division of the hundred of Chirk, but appears to have been
originally in Ial.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 24S
" wizard stream " ; here was the pillar which told of the valour CHAP.
of King Elise, and here was the ancient church, Llanarmon yn
Ial, which commemorated the services of St. Germanus to the
founder of the fortunes of the house of Powys.88 Ial was the
heart of Northern Powys and remained in the possession of the
Welsh as long as they retained their independence. Higher
up the Dee was the small commote of Glyndyfrdwy, not yet
rendered famous by the exploits of its great chieftain, Owen
Glyndwr, and still more to the west the valley broadened out
into the plain of Edeyrnion, a commote which took its name
from Edern, or Eternus, ap Cunedda. No record is preserved
of any dynasty deriving its origin from Edern and it is probable
that the district, with the two subsidiary commotes of Dinmael
and Glyndyfrdwy, was at an early date brought under the sway
of the rulers of Powys. It included one important church, that
of Corwen or Corfaen,89 where there is an ancient cross of the
same type as Elise's Pillar.90
Westward of Edeyrnion lay the border cantref 91 of Penllyn,
of which the centre was Llyn Tegid or Pimblemere,92 now
Bala Lake. Ardudwy and Meirionydd hemmed it in on the
west and it was thus exposed to the attacks of the men of
Gwynedd, to whom it ultimately fell in the days of Llywelyn
ab Iorwerth. Encircled by lofty mountains, which enclose as
in a girdle the broad waters of the lake and their fringe of
meadows, the land is one of legend rather than of history,
playing but a small part in the conflicts of mediaeval Wales, but
rich in romantic memories. It was the realm of Gronw the
Radiant, who stole the love of the magic bride of Llew Llaw
88 It was probably the Llanarmon to which Gruffydd ap Cynan made a
death-bed gift of ten shillings (Buch. Gr. ap C. 128 (734)). There was a special
cult of Germanus in Powys, for the five principal churches dedicated to him are
within the old bounds of the province (Rees, Welsh SS. 131; add to the four
mentioned Castle Caereinion). In this connection it is interesting to note that
the saint was mentioned in the inscription on Elise's pillar.
89 For the old form see Bruts, 324; B. Saes. s.a. 1164; Tax. Nich. 286;
Arch. Camb. I. ii. (1847), 241.
m Arch. Camb. V. xvi. (i8gg), ig.
91 So treated in all the lists, though styled a cymwd in the Statute of
Rhuddlan (LL. ii. go8) and the Record of Carnarvon (261).
92 The name first appears in Gir. Camb. vi. 176 (Descr. i. 5), where the form
is " Pemmelesmere ". Rejecting the impossible derivation from " pum plwyf," the
five parishes of Penllyn, one may suggest that Penllyn itself furnishes the first
element of the compound.

246 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Gyffes and perished miserably by the hand of the injured hus-
VI11' band ; 93 Llywarch the Aged, warrior and poet, is said to have
lived there in the sixth century and to have held his court on
the mound near Llanfor Church which bears his name ; 94 even
the great Arthur took his place among the legendary heroes of
the lakeside, for was not Caer Gai the'home of his foster-father
Cynyr and the, young Cai ap Cynyr the companion of his boyish
sports ? 95 Caer Gai may have been the royal residence at the
head of the lake from which the district took its name of
Penllyn (Lakehead), although in later times Y Bala, which
signifies " The Outlet," 96 was the seat of the chief stronghold
of the region.
The mountain ridge which divides the valley of the Dee
from that of the Ceiriog formed the backbone of the commote
of Nanheudwy,97 which included an important church, once the
mother church of a wide area,98 but apart from Llangollen
was undistinguished. Another commote of the second rank
was Cynllaith, watered by the stream from which it took its
name and having as its centre the church of Llansilin. Sych-
arth, which was perhaps the ancient " llys " of the commote, had
not yet become famous as the home of Owen Glyndwr.
Further south came the rich commote99 of Mochnant, the
" fair wooded country " of a mediaeval Welsh poet,100 where the
valley of the Tanat broadens out into a fertile plain beneath
the very shadow of the Berwyn range. In the twelfth century
political conflicts brought about a division of this region into
the two commotes of Uch Rhaeadr and Is Rhaeadr (Above and
Below Rhaeadr), and from that day to this the rushing stream
93 Mab. 74-81. The mound at Pont Mwnwgl y Llyn anciently bore, it is
said, the name of Gronw Befr (Penn. ii. 215).
94 " Pabell Llywarch Hen," a stone enclosure, and " Castell Llywarch," a
mound, have long been known at Llanfor (Camb. Reg. i. ig2 ; Evans, Rep. ii.
p. 453 ; Penn. ii. 2og ; Lewis, Top. Diet. s.v. Llanvawr).
98 See Goss. Guide, p. 153 ; Celtic Folklore, p. 6g3 ; note 62 to chap. iii.
above. 98 Gibson, 662 ; Evans, Diet. s.v.
97 This form may represent " Nannau Dwy," " the glens of Dee ". Cf. the
" Nanneudui" of Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1132.
98 Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 505-6.
99 The original Mochnant was a commote (Mab. 62, kymwt ym powys a
elwir . . . mochnant).
188 Llywarch ap Llywelyn calls it " uochnant kein amgant coedawc" (Myv
Arch. I. 305 (215)).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 247
which takes its name from the well-known waterfall in the CHAP.
Berwyns has been a boundary line, first separating Powys VIIL
Fadog from Powys Wenwynwyn and then the county of Den
bigh from that of Montgomery. But the region is naturally
one ; it found its ecclesiastical centre in Llanrhaeadr Mochnant,
the church of St. Doewan, which was still served by a college
or community of clergy as late as the days of Edward I.101
Pennant, the church of the female saint Melangell, was also an
ancient sanctuary, remarkable to this day for the girth of its
venerable yews, but it lay hid in a fold of the mountains, re
mote from the centre of the commote, and can never have held
the dominant position of Llanrhaeadr.
The river Cain gave its name to the cantref of Mechain,102
which took in the whole of the valley of this stream and was
bounded on the south by the river Efyrnwy, now known as the
Vyrnwy. A great forest in its centre divided it into the com
motes of Mechain Uwch Coed and Mechain Is Coed (Above
and Below the Wood).103 It was one of the most desirable
parts of Powys, with abundance of land suited for tillage and
no lack, at the same time, of fish and game. " Llys Fechain,"
the court of the cantref, stood on the banks of the Cain to the
east of Llanfyllin, and its site is probably indicated by the
mound known as Tomen Gastell.104 " Llan Fechain," the
prince's chapel, dedicated to that special patron of Powys, St.
Garmon, was not far off. But Llanfechain was far outshone
in importance as a holy place by the church of Meifod, on the
southern border of the cantref.105 Founded by a scion of the
royal house of Powys, Tysilio son of Brochwel of the Tusks
(Ysgythrog), ruled by a "clas" which could offer bards and
other wayfarers a regal hospitality, and wielding authority over
the daughter churches of Pool, Guilsfield, Alberbury and
191 Tax. Nich. 286a (ecclesia de Rauraeader) ; Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 520.
192 For the first part of the name ( = field, plain) see Urk. Spr. ig8, s.v.
magos. It is seen also in Machynlleth, Mathafarn, Mathrafal and Mallwyd
(Goss. Guide, cxix.).
103 The townships of the two commotes of Mechain, save for the parish of
Llanfyllin, are given in App. Land Com. 451.
104 Llys Fechain is a township in the parish of Llanfechain (Thomas, St.
Asaph, p. 755).
195 For the church of Meifod see Thomas, St. Asaph, pp. 774-81 ; for
Tysilio, Welsh SS. 277-7g. Cynddelw's poem is printed in Myv. Arch. I. 243-7
(177-9)-

248 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Llanfair Caereinion, Meifod was the premier church of Powys,
VIIL and, until the foundation of the Cistercian abbeys of Ystrad
Marchell and Valle Crucis, was the chosen burial-place of its
kings.106 Its praises were sung by Cynddelw —
Stately is the holy place by candle shine,
Gracious its men with their long drinking-horns of flashing blue.107
It was " a privileged monastery," a " sepulchre of kings," lift
ing its proud head above the flooded meadows of Efyrnwy.108
A number of smaller commotes lined the Severn from
Melverley to Berriew. Deuddwr, the land of the " two waters,"
occupied the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Vyrnwy
and the Severn ; Ystrad Marchell lay around the church of
Guilsfield, of which the Welsh name is Cegidfa (Hemlock
Field) ; Llannerch Hudol was a small tract to the south and
west of Welshpool. The dwellers in these lands fronted the
Mercian villages on the western slopes of the Long Mountain,
Buttington, Leighton, Forden, and the rest, and, keepers as
they were of the fords of the Severn, were chiefly intent upon
the border warfare. Romance might tell of the halcyon days
when Arthur and his attendant knights had spread their camp
for a full mile along the river in the plain of Argyngroeg,109
but such ease and security were not known in the age of
Offa. It is possible that Pool itself, called Welsh Pool to dis
tinguish it from Poole in Dorset, may owe its origin to an
English settlement,110 thrown across for the defence of a ford,
though there was on the hillside hard by a Welsh ecclesiastical
foundation, known to the natives as Trallwng Llywelyn, or
Llywelyn's Bog.111 A little further south was the strong post
106 Madog ap Maredud (d. 1160) and Gruffydd Maelor (d. 1191) were buried
at Meifod. 197 " Berth y Hoc wrth lieu babir,
Berth y chlas ae chyrn glas gloyuhir."
" Pabir " is a variant of " pabwyr," the two being derived from different forms
of "papyrus" (Mots Latins, p. 192). "Clas" and "Hoc" both suggest the
monastic origin of the church ; the latter, from the Lat. " locus" (Mots Latins,
p. 182 ; Gildas, ed. Williams, p. 262), is retained in the compound form " mynach-
log". 108 u Breiniauc loc," " guydva brenhined," and " balch y Hoc rac y llifeir-
yeint " are the phrases referred to.
199 Mab. 148.
110 It would otherwise have hardly had an English name.
m Bruts, 290, 33g. The name is explained by Edward Llwyd (Gibson,
653) ; cf. also Cymr. xi. 39, where a number of similar forms are given.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 249
of Castell Coch, which became in later times, under the name CHAP.
of Powis Castle, the principal fortress of Southern Powys. m'
The ancient capital of this region was, however, in a remoter
and safer quarter. Mathrafal, regarded in Welsh mediaeval
literature as the " principal seat " of Powys and one of the
three royal residences of Wales,112 stood on the banks of a
tributary of the Vyrnwy, a little above Meifod. In front was
a fertile plain, yielding the necessary produce for the royal
kitchen and stable ; behind stretched in wave after wave the
rolling hills of the great commote of Caereinion. Thisiwas the
heart of Southern Powys, where its princes might hope to find
in their direst extremity a refuge from English or Norman
attack. In the cantref of Cydewain, which lay between the Rhiw
and the Severn, was the church of Aberriw (now Berriew),
where St. Beuno fled from before the face of the invading
English,113 and the fortified steep of Dolforwyn, fabled by some
to have witnessed the drowning of the hapless Sabrina in those
dim days of which Geoffrey of Monmouth has told the story
with such surprising particularity.114 A cantref which filled a
far larger space in Welsh history was Arwystli, the land of the
head waters of the Severn. It was originally, no doubt, a part
of Powys, but an early connection sprang up between its
chieftains and the realm of Gwynedd, so that it was frequently
treated as belonging rather to Aberffraw than to Mathrafal,
and, in particular, it became permanently attached to the
bishopric of Bangor.115 As in the case of Mechain, its two
commotes were known as Uwch Coed and Is Coed, from a
stretch of forest in the midst of the cantref; the respective
manors or royal courts appear to have been at Talgarth, near
Trefeglwys, and Caersws. There were also in the cantref two
notable churches. Llandinam was the mother church of
Trallwng is now pronounced Trallwm ; cf. " carlwm " for the older " carlwng "
(Evans, Diet. s.v.).
112 LL. ii. 50, 380, 584. It should be added that the position of Mathrafal
is not as well attested as that of Aberffraw and Dinefwr, and the story of the
transference of the capital thither from Shrewsbury in the eighth century is of
modern growth (note 10 to chap. vii.).
113 Chap. vi. note 38.
uiHist. Reg. ii. 5. Local tradition, and not Geoffrey, is responsible for
fixing the site of the tragedy here (Penn. iii. 186).
115 Trans. Cymr. i8gg-igoo, 157.

ago , HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Llanidloes and Llanwnnog ; it had an abbot as late as the
VIIL twelfth century and was still held by a group of clergy at the
time of the Edwardian conquest.116 Llangurig was not so
wealthy, but could also boast of a " clas," as well as of a patron
saint, St. Curig, who was in high esteem as a worker of miracles
in the surrounding district.117 The bishop of Bangor had a
manor at Llanwnnog, to which he no doubt resorted when his
duties brought him to Arwystli.118 Beyond Arwystli was
Cyfeiliog, the westernmost of the commotes of Powys proper,
which just touched the sea at the head of the tidal estuary of
the Dovey. Its position on the confines of Gwynedd, Powys
and Deheubarth made it the scene of many a conflict, and often
did war rage around the stronghold of the chief at Tafolwern.
The sister commote of Mawddwy was sheltered, on the other
hand, by the beetling crags of Aran Fawddwy, and its history
was uneventful ; in its inmost retreat was " y Llan ym
Mawddwy," the spot hallowed by the bones of St. Tydecho,
who had withstood the great Maelgwn Gwynedd himself, and,
it was reverently believed, still kept watch and ward over the
fair fields of the commote.119
The cantref of Meirionydd may be reckoned as in some
measure a part of Powys, for its ancient name was Cantref
Orddwy, or the cantref of the Ordovices.120 But, from the
time of the Meirion or Marianus (grandson, as was alleged, of
Cunedda) who gave it its more familiar name, it appears to
have been for many generations under the rule of its own
dynasty, represented about 870 by a certain Cynan ap
Brochwel.121 One or two interesting names occur in the
pedigree of this line. Gwrin Farfdrwch (of the Ragged Beard),
asArch. Camb. V. xi. (1894), 29 (Arustly) ; III. vi. (i860), 331 (Dolfin abbas
Llandinan) ; Tax. Nich. 2gib. Llandina» is the old spelling; see Cymr. xi.
46-7. 117 The township of Llangurig (divided into Llan i fyny and Llan i waered)
formed the manor of" Clas Arwystli " (App. Land Com. 451). See Gir. Camb.
vi. 17-8 (Itin. i. 1) for the virtues of St. Curig's crosier.
usRec. Cam. 115.
119 Camb. Reg. ii. 375-8. The poem there printed calls Tydecho
" Crefyddwr cryf o Fawddwy
Ceidwad ar eu holl wlad hwy."
(" A great man of religion from Mawddwy and guardian of all their land.")
129 Celt. Br. (2), pp. 302-3.
121 Pedigree XVIII. in Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix. 178).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 251
who perhaps gave his name to the neighbouring church of CHAP.
Llanwrin, furnished Geoffrey of Monmouth 122 with one of the vm"
figures of his ever-shifting panorama, that of the just and cle
ment king who found the ancestors of the Irish cruising aim
lessly about in the seas to the north of Britain and gave them
the island in which they afterwards became so mighty
a people. Another of the line bore the name of Idris,
still commemorated in that of the loftiest of the many heights
of Meirionydd ; for Cader Idris was the chair of no Druid or
astronomer, but takes its name from a brave descendant of
Meirion, who fell in battle on the banks of the Severn about
630.123 The realm which obeyed this forgotten dynasty ex
tended from the estuary of the Dovey to that of the Mawd-
dach and further included the valley of the Wnion. It was a
land of rocky confusion, where crag rose above crag; " shaggy
and fearsome," says Giraldus, beyond any other region of
Wales.124 Shepherds perched on two opposing peaks might
exchange abuse in the morning, but the day, he avers, would
be far advanced ere they could meet in the valley bottom to
settle their differences. Yet Meirionydd had its stretches of
fertile soil. In the heart of the cantref, where the Disynni
spreads itself out ere it is lost in Cardigan Bay, was " Tywyn
Meirionydd," the Sandy Plain of Merioneth, where St. Cadfan
founded in the sixth century a notable church.125 Towyn was
not inferior in importance to any save the two cathedral
churches of North Wales ; it was the mother church of the
whole of the commote of Ystum Anner,126 it had an abbot in
the twelfth century,127 and, again recalling Llandinam, was
held by a number of clergy in the days of Edward I.128 Like
™Hist. Reg. iii. 11, 12.
12311 strages sabrine et iugulatio iudris " (Harl. MS. 3859, s.a. 632 — Cymr.
ix. 158). Cf. the notices of Tighernach — " cath Iudruis rig Bretan (the battle of
Idris, king of the Britons) qui in eo cecidit " (Rev. Celt. xvii. (i8g6), p. 182) — and
of the Annals of Ulster, s.a. 632 (=633) — " bellum Iudris regis britonum ". The
date is in harmony with the position of Idris in the pedigree. Cf. Goss. Guide,
7g ; it should, however, be added that in the Celtic annals " jugulatio " often
refers, as probably here, to ordinary killing in battle, and does not of necessity
imply throat-cutting.
124 Gir. Camb. vi. 122-3 (Itin. ii. 5).
126 There is a full account of Cadfan in Welsh SS. 213-5. For the so-
called Cadfan stone see note 135 to chap. vii.
128 B. Willis, Bangor, p. 276. 127 Note 57 to chap. vii.
128 Tax. Nich. 291b.

2 S 2 HISTOR Y OF WA LES.
CHAP. Meifod, the place had its poet, one Llywelyn Fardd,129 who
sang in the twelfth century of the
Lofty fane of Cadfan by the margin of the blue sea,
and prayed for its welfare —
Prosper may its turf and its corn and its seed,
nor forgot its abbot, the liberal rewarder of poetic merit, for at
Towyn there was Peace and mead borne in vessels
And easy converse exchanged with a bard.
Less is known of the civil sites of the cantref. It was divided
by the Disynni into the two commotes of Talybont and Ystum
Anner, two names which may indicate two ancient seats of the
lords of Meirionydd, for there is a mound at Talybont (near
Llanegryn), and Ystum Anner can be located at Llanfihangel
y Pennant, where stands the fortified rock of Castell y Bere.
But history speaks of castles also at Cynfael, near Towyn, and
Cymer, near Dolgelly, and it is not easy to say which strong
hold was the temporal, as Towyn was the spiritual, centre of
the district in the days of its independence.
The southern portion of the ancient Powys was known in the
Middle Ages as " Rhwng Gwy a Hafren," the land betwixt Wye
and Severn.130 It was a district which formed no part of the
patrimony of the rulers of Powys descended from Bleddyn ap
Cynfyn (d. 1075), but many circumstances point to its having
once been included in the province. Tradition alleged that
the southern limit of Powys was Rhyd Helyg on the Wye, near
Hay ; 131 in 1 1 76 Bishop Adam of St. Asaph sought to estab
lish a claim to the whole of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, no doubt
on the plea that his diocese covered the whole of Powys,132
129 Myv. Arch. I. 360-2 (248-50). If one sets aside as the work of a later
hand the poem to Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, the rest of the poems
attributed in the Myvyrian Archaiology to Llywelyn Fardd fall naturally into
the latter half of the twelfth century. The common date, 1230-1280, is a clumsy
attempt to reconcile hopeless anachronisms.
180 The form occurs, not only in the lists of cantrefs and commotes, but also
(in Latin) in Gir. Camb. i. 30, 35 (De Rebus, i. 5, 6) ; vi. ig (Itin. i. 1).
131 Iolo MSS. 31 ; Camb. Qu. Mag. iii. 403.
132 The claim to Kerry was avowedly only a first step or trial of strength.
See Gir. Camb. i. 32-3 (totam . . . terram usque Vagam (Wye) . . . occupare
proposuit).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 253
while the early history of our Radnorshire, so far as it can be CHAP.
unravelled, seems to make it an Ordovician country.133 VI11,
Setting aside the two small commotes ofKeri 134and Cymwd
Deuddwr,135 of which the former is now in Montgomeryshire,136
Rhwng Gwy a Hafren comprised the commote of Gwerthrynion
and the cantrefs of Buellt, Elfael and Maelienydd. Buellt,
being so much of our Brecknockshire as lies north of the Epynt
range, was not entitled geographically to be reckoned among
the lands between the Wye and the Severn, but the Historia
Brittonum shows that about 800 it was joined with Gwerthry
nion under the rule of Ffernfael,137 and thus it was no doubt
included in the term as the definition of a political area. The
mountains of the north of Buellt are separated from those of
the south by the broad valley of the Irfon, and here, or close
by, were the chief sites of the cantref, the courts of the four
commotes of Treflys, Penbuellt, Dinan and Is Irfon,138 the
ancient church of Llanafan Fawr, where the tomb of Afan
Buellt was shown, chief of the saints of this region,139 and St.
David's church of Maes Mynis, which dominated Is Irfon and
was the mother church of Llanfair ym Muellt (St. Mary's in
Buellt), the modern Builth.140 Gwerthrynion was on the
opposite, side of the Wye, occupying the region between that
river and the Ieithon. The name is obviously formed from
133 On the whole question see the discussion in Owen, Pemb. i. 203 (Phitli-
more). 134"Keri" is mentioned in Mab. 62. The modern village bearing the
name is properly Llanfihangel yng Ngheri (Pen. MS. 147 in Evans, Rep. i.
P. 9i5)- 135 Omitted from the lists. It is represented by the parish of Llansant-
ffraid " Cwm Toyddwr " — see Pen. MS. 147 (Evans, Rep. i. p. gi5, K. dayddwr) ;
Reg. Conway, p. g (Comottewthur) ; Owen's Pemb. i. 203. The "two waters"
are the Wye and the Elan ; from the latter is probably derived another name of
the commote, viz., Elenyddor Elenid (Mab. 62; Gir. Camb. i. 117; vi. ng, 138,
171, 173 ; W. People, p. 45 ; Owen's Pemb. i. 203).
138 In all the lists of cantrefs and commotes Ceri is associated with Gwerthry
nion or Maelienydd, not with Cydewain or Arwystli ; this is also implied in its
position in the diocese of St. David's and was common ground between the dis
putants in 1176 (Gir. Camb. i. 35 (De Rebus, i. 6)).
137 Hist. Britt, cc. 48, 49 ; note 144 to chap. vii. above.
138 Treflys is close to Llangammarch, Llys Dinan, near Newbridge on Wye.
The court of Is Irfon was probably at Llanfair, where Builth Castle was after
wards raised ; Penbuellt would seem to have been in the southern part of Llan
gammarch parish (Carlisle).
139 Welsh SS. 208-9. 149 Ibid. 53.

254 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Gwrtheyrn, better known in its older guise of Vortigern, and
VI11- the legend of the country was that the notorious bearer of that
name had fled hither to escape the fulminations of St. Germanus,
and that after his death his descendants had been settled in the
commote as its rulers.141 Some alleged that the tyrant had
actually come to his shameful end in "the castle of Gwer
thrynion on the river Wye," by which is probably meant
Rhayader, but there were several other claimants for this
distinction.142 It is certain, however, that the early chieftains
of Gwerthrynion traced their origin to Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau,
and it should further be noted that here, as in other quarters of
Powys, there was a church under the patronage of Germanus.
St. Harmon's, where there is known to have been a " clas," 143
was probably pointed out by tradition as the spot where the
saint, with all the clergy of Britain, prayed on the bare rock
for forty days and forty nights for the conversion of the
reprobate king.144
South Radnorshire was occupied by the cantref of Elfael,
separated from Buellt and Brycheiniog by the swift-running
stream of the Wye. Save along the banks of this river the
cantref was a region of grassy highlands and did not rank as
one of the coveted tracts of Wales. The broad-backed chain
of hills to the south of Aberedw served to divide it into the
commotes of Uwch Mynydd and Is Mynydd (Above and Below
the Mountain), which had in Norman times their respective
castles of Colwyn and Painscastle ; what strongholds had in
earlier days been held by the native chieftains in these two
commotes there is little evidence to show. Of the ancient
churches of Elfael the most notable was undoubtedly Glascwm.
It was one of the greater Dewi churches, founded, as was
believed, by the saint himself,145 and here was kept a most
precious legacy of his, the portable bell called " Bangu " which
was endowed with miraculous powers.146 In the White Bard
i41 Hist. Britt. cc. 47-9.
142 Triad i. 91 = ii. 6. For the other stories see Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v.
Vortigern. 143 ''Clas Garmon " is the name of one of the two townships of St.
Harmon's (Carlisle).
144 Hist. Britt. c. 47.
148 Life by Rhygyfarch in Cambro-Br. SS. 123.
148 Gir. Camb. vi. 18 (Descr. i. 1). Cf. Cambro-Br. SS. 136 (nola).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 255
of Brycheiniog's catalogue of the churches raised in honour of CHAP.
St. David it is the VIIL
Church by the green hillside,
Towering among the thickets, a sanctuary that faileth not.147
Its "clas" was a daughter community of the great house of
Mynyw, and Glascwm thus came to be regarded as a manor of
the bishop of St. David's, whose rights in the place have not
yet become wholly extinguished.148
In its physical features the cantref of Maelienydd,149 ex
tending from the Teme to Radnor Forest and the neighbour
hood of Llandrindod, was not dissimilar. The Ieithon was its
principal river, winding its way south through miles of gorse-
clad moor and upland pasture. From an early period the
cantref was divided into three commotes,160 which took their
names from the principal royal residences within them.
Rhiwlallt lay along the Lug, where stood, near Llangynllo,
the spot, known to the English as Weston, which originally
bore the name.161 The "swydd" or "shire" of Buddugre
was the northern portion of the cantref, the particular Buddugre
or " Hill of Victory " which formed the centre of this commote
being on the banks of the Ieithon.162 The " swydd " of Diniei-
thon was the southern limb of Maelienydd, and no doubt the
" din," or fortress, on the Ieithon from which it took its name
was that of Cefn Llys, where the river winds around and almost
isolates a steep hill which must have been in primitive as in
Norman days a natural stronghold of great importance. Of
the saints of Maelienydd none could compare in importance
147 <¦ a glascwm ae eglwys gyr glas uynyt
Gwyteluod aruchel nawd ny achwyt " (Myv. Arch. I. 271 (194)).
The Red Book text has " «chwyd," with the same meaning.
148 Black Book of St. David's, 291, 331 ; Carlisle, Top. Diet.; App. Land
Com. 445.
149 No doubt derived from a proper name which would in old Welsh be
Mailgen. There is no ancient authority for the form " Moelynaidd " favoured
by Jonathan Williams (Hist. Radn. passim). The deanery of Maelienydd in
cluded Keri and Gwerthrynion, and some of the lists appear to make the cantref
no less extensive; in the oldest, however, that in Dom. viii., it has three com
motes only.
169 For a list (not very carefully put together) of the parishes and townships
of these commotes see Radnorsh. (2), 142 (Nos. 3, 4, 8).
181 L. G. Cothi, 23g, 243, 245, 246, 330.
152 It is the " Bedd Ugre " of the maps. For the true form see Bruts, 409,
Cymr. ix. 328 ; for the meaning and other instances, Evans, Diet. s.v.

25 6 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, with Cynllo, the sphere of whose influence, in this and the
' neighbouring district of Gwerthrynion, included no less than
thirteen modern parishes.153 His principal church was at
Llanbister, to which accrued the largest income of any church
in the archdeaconry of Brecon.154
III. The Cantrefs of Deheubarth.
The original " dextralis pars Britanniae " or " Deheubarth
Kymry " embraced the whole of South Wales, in which sense
the term is used by Asser156 and by those who drafted the
charters in the Liber Landavensis.us But in later parlance 157
the name Deheubarth came to be restricted to the realm, which
included most of the South Welsh area, formed by the accretion
of Ceredigion, Ystrad Tywi and Brycheiniog around the ancient
kingdom of Dyfed, and in this sense it was exclusive of Gwent
and Morgannwg. In the present section an attempt will be
made to trace the earlier history of the constituent elements of
this later Deheubarth.
Ceredigion, the territory which Ceredig ap Cunedda is said
to have carved for himself out of the country of the Demetae,
appears to have had throughout its history the same borders
as the modern county of Cardigan,158 which thus hands on the
tradition of the territorial unity of this district. Its bounds
are given by a man of Ceredigion in the eleventh century159
as follows — to the east, lofty mountains ; to the west, the ocean ;
north and south, broad rivers (i.e., the Dovey and the Teifi) —
and this is still a good general description. The eastern
boundary, from Glandovey to Lampeter, crosses and recrosses
the watershed of Plynlimmon in somewhat devious fashion, but
it is still true to say that Ceredigion is a land between the
mountains and the sea, with all its rivers, including the two
153 1 refer to Llanbister, Llangynllo, Nantmel and their chapels as given by
Rees (Welsh SS. 351).
184 Tax. Nich. 2746 (Lanbyst, £30 : 13 : 4).
185 C. 80. Cf. note in Stev. 233-4. Asser more than once has " Britannia "
in the sense of Wales (cc. 7, 79 (bis)).
nsLib. Land. 161, 162, 163, i6g, 192, 212, 223, 230, 237.
187 In B.T., for instance.
188 There is some evidence of an extension of Ceredigion at one period so
as to include the cantref of Cemais (Owen, Pemb. i. 222-3), but this can only
have been a temporary success of its chieftains.
169 Ieuan ap Sulien of Llanbadarn about logo (H. and St. i. 664-5).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 257
which make its northern and its southern border, running CHAP.
westward. Its eastern barrier of lonely moorland, though
lacking the beauty of outline of the Snowdonian range, served
a similar defensive purpose, and the stranger who set greedy
eyes on Ceredigion, whether Brython or Norman or Englishman,
usually made his attack from the north or from the south.
For some 400 years, if the evidence of the royal pedigree 160
is to be trusted, this country was ruled by the descendants of
Ceredig. Some of the names recorded are undoubtedly his
torical. Seisyll, whoiwas king about 730, embarked on a career
of conquest and added to Ceredigion the three cantrefs of Ystrad
Tywi, the whole dominion being henceforth known from the
name of its founder as Seisyllwg.161 The death of his son
Arthen is chronicled under the year 807.162 The last of the
line was Gwgon ap Meurig, a great grandson of Arthen, who
is recorded to have been drowned in or about 871 ;163 his sister
Angharad was married to Rhodri the Great, king of North
Wales,164 and it was thus, no doubt, that Seisyllwg became
incorporated with Gwynedd and Powys in one realm, which
was shortly afterwards divided among the sons of Rhodri.
Ceredigion is always spoken of as a land of four cantrefs.166
But the names of the cantrefs were, with the exception of that
of the northernmost, not generally current ; the well-known
divisions of the country were the ten commotes into which the
four cantrefs were divided. Penweddig,166 or, as it was some
times called, " Y Cantref Gwarthaf," 167 " the uppermost " cantref,
formed an exception ; the Ystwyth, stretching across the whole
of Ceredigion, supplied it with a well-marked southern border,
and it was thus a clearly defined and well-known area. It
contained three commotes, of which Geneu'r Glyn lay north of
the Clarach, Perfedd (so called as the midmost of the three)
180 Cymr. ix. 180, No. xxvi.
181 This is inferred from Mab. 25, where " Seisyllwch " is explained to be
Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi combined. Cf. Basil Jones, Vestiges of the Gael
in Gwynedd (Lond. and Tenby, 1851), pp. 61-2 ; Cymr. xi. 56. Seisyllwg is also
mentioned in LL. ii. 50 and Triad iii. 14.
182"Arthgen rex cereticiaun moritur " (Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix. 163).
163 " Guoccaun mersus est rex cetericiaun " (ibid. 166). 164 See p. 325.
imMab. 25, 5g; Str. Flor. Appendix, xxi.
188 The dd is implied in the "penweiic" of Blk. Bk. fo. 33a and the
" Penwethig " of Gir. Camb. vi. 175 (Descr. i. 5).
187 Bruts, 410. Cf. " hyt yggwarthaf keredigyawn " (Mab. 62).
VOL. I. 17

258 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, between the Clarach and the Rheidol, and Creuddyn between
VIIL the Rheidol and the Ystwyth.168 Forts and castles of all ages
were dotted over this border land between North and South
Wales, among the most notable being the hill-fortress of
Pendinas, anciently known as Dinas Maelor.169 The neigh
bouring harbour of Aberystwyth had not yet been formed, and
Ystwyth and Rheidol fell into the sea a mile or so apart.
Penweddig had ecclesiastical no less than military importance,
for there was in it a " clas " of the first rank, that of Llanbadarn
Fawr, founded by Padarn or Paternus of Brittany, which was
once the seat of a bishop and still retained its abbot in the
twelfth century.170 Llanbadarn was the mother church of the
whole of Penweddig,171 and the community held as church land
that part of the commote of Perfedd which lay next the sea.172
A slender Celtic cross over 8 feet high still stands in the
churchyard 173 as a memorial of the pre-Norman glories of the
place, which are also faintly suggested by the chronicler who
tells us that it was pillaged by the Danes at the end of the
tenth century.174
Of the remaining commotes of Ceredigion, the northernmost
was Mefenydd, which lay along the southern bank of the
Ystwyth, from the sea to Cymwd Deuddwr. To the south
west came the little commote of Anhuniog, so called, no doubt,
from an Annun or Antonius,175 long forgotten,, who ruled over
it ; it reached as far as the Aeron. The south-eastern angle
of Ceredigion belonged to the commote of Pennardd, an ex
tensive region which took in Tregaron, Llanddewi Brefi and
188 Lewis Morris gives the bounds of the crown manor of Creuddyn in a docu
ment printed in Meyrick, Card. (1), 555-67. The (old) borough of Aberystwyth
lay outside this manor, but it was probably taken out of the commote of Creuddyn,
the northern and southern boundaries representing the old channels of the
Rheidol and Ystwyth respectively. See the plan in the Report of the Boundary
Commissioners of 1831. Morris also gives (ibid. 568) the bounds of the crown
manor of Perfedd ; the commote of the name included in addition Llanbadarn
and its manor of Vainor.
189 Brython (1860I, iii. 331 ; Evans, Rep. i. p. 724. It was also known in
Welsh legend as Rhiw Faelor (Triad ii. 11).
179 See pp. isg, 208.
171 It is the only church in the cantref mentioned in Tax. Nich.
172 The church claimed all the land between the Clarach and the Rheidol by
donation of Maelgwn Gwynedd (Cambro-Br. SS. ig2).
173 Arch. Camb. V. xiv. (i8g7), 152-3. l7iAnn. C. s.a. 988.
176 Haminiog and Harminiog are modern corruptions. For Annun = An
tonius see Cymr. x. 86 ; Mots Latins, pp. 132-3.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 259
the site of the future abbey of Strata Florida. In these three CHAP.
commotes, sometimes grouped with Penweddig under the name VI11'
of Uch Aeron (Above Aeron), the most famous of the early
sites was Llanddewi Brefi, known through the length and
breadth of Wales as the scene of the miracle wrought by St.
David when the hill of Brefi rose beneath his feet and formed
a pulpit from which he addressed the synod and the attendant
crowds there gathered together.176 The " clas " which was sub
sequently formed there was naturally a daughter-house of St.
David's, and Llanddewi, with the moorlands which rise above
it to the east, became an episcopal manor and forest,177
From Caron
To the banks of the Towy, that fair and beauteous stream ;
From the Black Pool, where once was wrathful encounter,
To the Twrch, divider of lands and rocks.178
Is Aeron, or Ceredigion below Aeron, consisted of four
commotes. Of these Caerwedros was a coast region, extending
to Llangrannog ; its castle stood, at any rate after the Norman
Conquest, a short distance from Llwyn Dafydd.179 Mabwnion
spread its length from the neighbourhood of Aberaeron to that
of Lampeter ; part of the rich vale of Aeron, praised by the
White Bard for its meadows of clover and the wealth of acorns
in its woods,180 fell within the compass of this commote. The
two remaining commotes lay along the northern bank of the
Teifi, one of the greater streams of Wales, in which the beaver
still built in the days of Giraldus Cambrensis, though no longer
to be found in any other river of Southern Britain.181 It was
a river of salmon, also, in which the coracle men took, as they
do to this day, great catches of fish in the swirling eddies below
178 See p. 157.
177 Blk. Bk. of St. David's, 197-203 ; App. Land Com. 444 ; Meyrick, Card.
(2), 250. The act of 1536 added " Landway Ureny," until then a marcher lord
ship, to Cardiganshire.
178 " O garawn gan yawn gan ehoec
Hyd ar dywi auon uirein a thee
Or llyndu lied vu Hid gyhydrec
Hyd ar twrch teruyn tir a charrec."
— Gwynfardd Brycheiniog in Myv. Arch. I. 272 (195).
179 Meyrick, Card. (2), 233.
180 " A henuyniw dec o du glennyt aeron
Hyfaes y meillyon hyfes goedyt." — Myv. Arch. I. 271 (194).
181 Gir. Camb. vi. 114 (Itin. ii. 3), 173 (Descr. i. 5).
17 *

260 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the rocks of Cilgerran.182 Iscoed and Gwinionydd, with their
southward-sloping valleys and their meadows fringing the Teifi,
were the two most desirable commotes of the land of Ceredig,
and here was Rhuddlan Teifi, the Red Bank on the Teifi, where
Pryderi, the legendary king of South Wales, entertained to his
loss and dire misfortune the cunning Northern wizard, Gwydion
ap Don, and his companions.183 In later times the royal
residence of Gwinionydd was at Pen Coed y Foel, near Llan-
dysil,184 and the bishop of St. David's had also an important
manor in this region of which the ancient church of Dewi at
Bangor was the centre.186 Iscoed, too, had its sites of legendary
and historical interest, though Cardigan town and castle had as
yet no existence. At Crug Mawr was the conical hill, still a
conspicuous object in the landscape around Cardigan, which
legend associated with the cure of melancholy ; he who bowed
thrice before it would never again suffer weariness of soul,
"though he might wander solitary in the uttermost parts of
the earth".186 Penbryn, on the sea coast, was another im
portant early centre ; here was the standing stone of Corba-
lengi,187 and the discovery in the same neighbourhood of Late
Celtic bronze objects resembling spoons188 shows that it was
a scene of active life in the shadowy period following the
Roman Conquest.
Crossing the Teifi from this part of Ceredigion, the traveller
of olden time found himself in the kingdom of Dyfed, which
occupied the south-western peninsula of Wales. This was one
of the last regions to feel the force of the Brythonic conquest,
and more than one indication is afforded of the continuity here
between the older life and the new. The country kept the name
of its pre-Roman settlers ; it was ruled by the same dynasty
from the fifth century to the tenth, and further by a house which
had no connection with Cunedda Wledig. No conquests by
the kings of Dyfed are recorded ; they represented the ancient
and declining race ; theirs was a waning star, and it was their
part gradually to yield to the encroachments of the Brythons
182 Gir. Camb. ibid. For the coracles see pp. 201-2 (Descr. i. 17).
183 Mab. 61. Pentre Rhuddlan, near High Mead, indicates the site.
184 Meyrick, Card. (2), 192. 1S5Blk. Bk. of St. David's, 211-35.
188 This is the last of the " mirabilia Britanniae " (Hist. Britt. c. 74).
187 See p. ug. 188 Arch. Camb. IV. i. (1870), 205-7.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 261
until their whole realm fell at last into the lap of a scion of the CHAP.
house of Gwynedd. VI11-
At one time the Demetian country had formed a consider
able part of the area of South Wales, and men spoke loosely
of the whole land to the north of the Bristol Channel as
Demetia.189 But first had come the loss of Ceredigion ; then,
in the early part of the eighth century, the broad lands between
the Teifi and the Tawe had been reft from Dyfed by the
prowess of Seisyll ; 190 until at the time of the Danish invasions
the name had come to be restricted to the narrower region
which is the Dyfed of mediaeval literature. It was now bounded
by the sea, the Teifi, the Tywi, and a line connecting these
two rivers which may be taken as running due north from
Carmarthen. The modern county of Pembroke was thus
entirely included in Dyfed, but to it has to be added a sub
stantial part of Carmarthenshire if an idea, however rough, is to
be formed of the extent of the ancient kingdom. Its seven
cantrefs 191 were of very diverse physical aspect, from the barren,
rocky moors of Pebidiog to the sandy shores of Penfro, warmed
by the southern sun, and the rich alluvial meadows of Cantref
Gwarthaf. But, taken as a whole, it was a goodly realm, as
may without difficulty be gathered from the circumstance that
in the eleventh century it fell not only speedily, but irredeem
ably, into Norman hands.192
The kings of Dyfed drew their origin, according to one
account, from a national hero of the name of Dimet,193 ac
cording to another, from a branch of the royal line of the
Deisi in Ireland,194 but in either case from no Brythonic source.
At the beginning of the sixth century the dynasty was repre-
189 The various applications of the name Dyfed are fully discussed by Mr.
Phillimore in Cymr. xi. 56-7 ; Owen, Pemb. i. 45-6, igg, 224, 257-8.
imHist. Britt. c. 47 mentions an " arcem Guorthigirni quae est in regione
Demetorum iuxta flumen Teibi ". The reference is, no doubt, to the fortified
" Craig Gwrtheyrn " which stands near Llandysul, but on the south side of the
river and therefore in the later Cantref Mawr.
191 Mab. 1, 25, 44, 57, 5g; Gir. Camb. vi. 93 (Itin. i. 12); 166 (Descr. i. 2).
192 The Welshman and the Norman united in its praise; "nyt oes seith
cantref well noe wy," says Pryderi in the story of Manawyddan (Mab. 44) :
" terrarum omnium Kambriae totius . . . tarn pulcherrima est quam potissima,"
are the words of Giraldus (vi. 93).
193 See the pedigree (No. ii.) of the house in Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix.
171). 194 Cymr. xiv. 112.

262 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, sented by Aircol or Agricola of the Long Hand,195 whose name
indicates that he inherited some Roman traditions, and who is
further alleged to have been a good friend of the monastic
movement of his day. St. Teilo was a subject of his, born at
or near Pen Alun (now Penally) in the cantref of Penfro, and
some of the lands in this neighbourhood, claimed in a later age
by the see of Llandaff as heir to the saint, are maintained to
have been given by the liberal hand of Aircol. His son and
successor was the Vortiporius of Gildas, who bore the Roman
title of protector and was buried at Castell Dwyran Church in
the centre of his kingdom.196 He, it need scarcely be said,
was no patron of the monks, though it is equally certain that
he professed the Christian religion. The crown of Dyfed
passed on to men of lesser note ; early in the eighth century
it was worn by Rhain ap Cadwgan, in whose reign, no doubt,
befell the loss of Ystrad Tywi, for the diminished realm thus
left to the Western dynasty is occasionally called Rheinwg, by
contrast with the Seisyllwg of the conqueror.197 Rhain's
grandson Maredudd died in 796,198 on the eve of the Danish
invasions, and it may be conjectured that the disorder which
followed, nowhere more signally than in Dyfed, pushed the
ancient dynasty into the background, for, after the death of
Maredudd's grandson Tryffin in 814,199 all trace of it is lost,
until in the age of Asser one Hyfaidd ap Bledri is found ruling
over the district, with a hereditary claim based on the descent
of his mother from Maredudd.
The northernmost cantref of Dyfed was Cemais, which
stretched along the coast from the Teifi to the Gwaun and
southward across the Preselly range as far as the moors which
fringe its southern slopes. It thus included the only mountain-
195 Lift. Land. 118, 125-7, I29t *3°- His court of " Lis castell " is tradition
ally located at Lydstep, near Tenby (Arch. Camb. III. xiii. (1867), 366 ; Lit. Eng.
pp. 81, 188). In the Blk. Bk. his grave is vaguely said to be in Dyfed (fo. 350;
IV. Anc. Bks. ii. p. 35). Cf. Owen, Pemb. i. 223, for a reference to Aircol in the
Book of Taliesin, quite misunderstood in IV. Anc. Bks. i. p. 448, and Evans, Diet.
s.v. Aercol. For the Latin origin of the name see Celt. Br. (2), p. 256, and
Mots Latins, p. 131.
19|S Pp. 115, 132. He was " boni regis nequam fili(us)," says Gildas (c. 31).
197 See note on Rheinwg, Esyllwg and Fferyllwg appended to this chapter.
198 11 Morgetiud rex demetorum (moritur)," Harl. MS. 3859 (Cymr. ix. 162-3).
190 11 Trifun filius regin moritur" (ibid.). His uncle Owain, through whose
daughter the crown descended to Hyfaidd, died in 811 (ibid.).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 263
ous tract to be found in Dyfed, a region dotted over with CHAP.
cromlechs, cairns and barrows, fraught with ancient memories, l '
the scene of many a romantic story. It was at Preselly the
barons of the legendary King Pwyll met to expostulate with
him upon the absence of an heir to the crown ; it was there
that the giant boar called " Y Twrch Trwyth " killed no less
than eight of Arthur's knights.200 The saint of the district
was Brynach Wyddel (the Irishman), whose principal church
was at Nanhyfer (now Nevern),201 lying half-concealed in a fold
of the leafy valley of the Nyfer. This was for centuries the
most important ecclesiastical site in Cemais ; ogam inscriptions
mark it out as a Christian burying-place of the early period ; 202
an elaborately carved Celtic cross over 12 feet high bears testi
mony to its standing in the age of the Danish incursions ; 203
the massive church is a witness to its mediaeval importance.
Cemais was divided by the river Nyfer into the two commotes
of Uch Nyfer and Is Nyfer, but there is no evidence to enable
one to fix the ancient royal seats of these divisions. To the
west of the Gwaun came the cantref of Pebidiog, which opposed
a rocky front to the sea at St. David's Head ; it resembled
Anglesey, Giraldus observes,204 in its bare and wind-swept
aspect, but had not the kindly soil which made amends for the
uncomely mien of the northern island. Poor as the country
was, it was the home of a notable community, for here, in the
little valley of Hodnant, within a few miles of the westernmost
cape of Dyfed, was the church of Mynyw or Menevia, the
mother-monastery of all the churches of Dewi. It is unneces
sary to repeat here what has been said in earlier chapters of the
fame of " Ty Ddewi " (David's House), of its origin in the sixth
century, of the austerity of its " clas," and of the tradition of
learning there maintained.205 Towards the end of the eighth
w"Mab. 18, 138.
291 Nanhyfer is for Nant Nyfer, " the valley of the Nyfer," and appears in
Harl. MS. 3859 (if a little slip of the scribe, who wrote " irc/mer," be corrected)
as "nant nimer" (Cymr. ix. 165).
202 The " Vitaliani " stone came originally from Nevern, and, after serving as
a gatepost on Cwm Gloyn farm, is now there once more (Gibson, 638 ; Arch.
Camb. V. xiii. (1896), 2gi). Another ogam inscription was discovered in the
church in 1904.
203 Gibson, 638-9; Inscr. Chr. No. 103; Lap. W. 100; Arch. Camb. V. xvi.
(i8gg), 26.
204 Wks. vi. 127 (Itin. ii. 7). aos See pp. 154-6, 227.

264 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, century the chronicle now most nearly represented by Harl.
VI11' MS. 3859 began to be regularly kept at St. David's, and from
this time forth there is a tolerably complete record of bishops
of the see, beginning with Sadyrnfyw the Liberal, who died in
83 1.206 No stone remains of the pre-Norman church and
buildings, save a few fragments of tombstones bearing Celtic
ornament, and no account has survived of the revenues of the
"clas" at this period, though it may be assumed that they
included, not only rents from distant manors, but also a very
considerable annual render from estates in Pebidiog itself. It
is, indeed, possible that the cantref as a whole had no other
lord in early times save the successor of St. David.207
In the three southern cantrefs of Dyfed the traces of the
ancient Welsh life have been almost entirely obliterated by the
Norman Conquest and the Flemish and English settlements.
The old place-names have disappeared, save in a few isolated
cases ; the old legends have been forgotten — only the carved
and inscribed stones, monuments like the great Celtic cross at
Carew, remain to tell, and this in the barest outline, the story
of a civilisation which has been swept away as thoroughly as
that which the invading English found in South-eastern Britain.
Especially has this been the case in Rhos, the cantref which,
lying between the West Cleddau, Milford Haven, and St. Bride's
Bay, perhaps took its name, as did its namesake in the Berfedd-
wlad, from the promontory which it pushed out into the sea.
Of the pre-Norman history of Rhos all that can be said is that
it had a notable saint in Ismail or Ysfael, nephew of St. Teilo,
whose church at St. Ishmael's or " Llanisan yn Rhos " was one
of the seven bishop-houses of Dyfed.208 Deugleddyf, a small
cantref which lay, as its name indicates, between the eastern
and the western Cleddau, furnishes little more to record ; the
church of Llanhuadein (now Lawhaden) was its chief ecclesi
astical site and this had from an early period been a dependent
church of St. David's, so that the place became an important
298 " Saturbiu hail miniu moritur " (Cymr. ix. 164). The name appears as
" Sadurnueu " in the catalogue transcribed by Giraldus (not, it would seem,
without some confusion of the chronological order) from the records of the see
(Wks. vi. 102-3 (Itin. ii. 1)).
207 LL. i. 558 says Mynyw was to render nothing to the lord of Dyfed.
W3LL. i. 558 ; ii. 790, 869; Welsh SS. 252 ; Owen, Pemb. i. 307.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 265
episcopal manor.209 Penfro, the " land's end " of Dyfed,210 a CHAP,
long, low peninsula skirting the southern edge of Milford
Haven, is in better case ; the early history of this cantref has
not been so completely forgotten. It had in Rhoscrowther,
formerly Llandegeman, one of the bishop-houses of Dyfed ; 2n
even better known were Penalun (now Penally), one of the
leading churches which honoured St. Teilo, and the ancient
monastery of Ynys Byr, or Caldy Island, with its ogam inscrip
tion linking the settlement with the beginnings of monastic
enthusiasm. Other famous sites, of which the associations
were secular, were Arberth (our Narberth) in the north, the
chief seat of Pwyll and his son Pryderi and the scene of most
of their surprising adventures, Llonion, now absorbed in the
bustling activities of Pembroke Dock, which was famous
throughout Wales for its crops of barley,212 and Dinbych y Pys-
god (of the Fish), which was thus distinguished from its name
sake in Rhufoniog, and was a stronghold of the lords of Dyfed
ages before the English learned to call it Tenby.213 Though
Penfro was among the first of the seven cantrefs to fall under
foreign rule and to lose its Welsh features and traditions, its past
had been too brilliant to be altogether forgotten or to be obliter
ated by English " ton " and Norman " castle ".
Eastern Dyfed was almost entirely included in the great
Cantref Gwarthaf (the Uppermost Cantref), which extended
from Narberth to Carmarthen and was made up of no less
than eight commotes. Efelffre lay east of Narberth, Peuliniog
— the land of Peulin or Paulinus — to the north, between the Taf
and the eastern Cleddau ; 214 Laugharne and Henllan Amgoed
299 Blk. Bk. of St. David's, 137-67.
219 Pembroke, like Builth, Brecknock, Cardigan and Kidwelly, is properly
the name of a district, usurped in course of time by its principal castle. The
cantref of Penfro is probably represented by the deanery of Pembroke or Castle-
martin, for which see Owen, Pemb. i. 304-g.
211 LL. i. 558; Fenton (2), 218-g.
212 " Amhynny y diharhebir o heid Honyon " (Pen. MS. 12 = Heng. MS.
202, in Cymr. vii. 132). The Red Bk. has " llouyon " (Mab. 307), and in the
first series of triads (No. 30) the name has become " Uonwen ". There is a
reference to " llys Llonion " in " Cywrysedd Gwynedd a Deheubarth " (Myv.
Arch. I. 73 (62)) and to its maer in LL. ii. 87g, line 4 (amitei and llonion should
be separated) ; cf. also Lib. Land. 124, 255 ; LL. ii. 306 ; Lit. Eng. p. gi.
213 The maer of " Dyubyt " (read " Dynbyc ") appears in LL. ii. 87g (cf.
306). Gir. Camb. (Wks. iii. 353) speaks of the abundance offish in the harbour.
214 Owen, Pemb. i. 388-g.

266 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, indicate the position of Talacharn and Amgoed ; Ystlwyf or
' Ysterlwyf centred in Llanddowror ; 216 Penrhyn, as its name
shows, occupied the peninsula between the Taf and the
Tywi ; 216 Derllys came north of this,217 and, last of all, Elfed,
stretching along the western bank of the Gwili, was the border
commote on the side of Ystrad Tywi. In this wide region
there were many places which had importance in early times,
but it suffices to mention Llan Deulyddog, one of the seven
bishop-houses, built within the shelter of the ruined walls of the
Roman Maridunum,218 Meidrum, one of the greater Dewi
churches, the " high-roofed fane, within the churchyard walls of
which a host might meet," of the White Bard of Brycheiniog,219
and Y Ty Gwyn ar Daf (The White House on the Taf), a
royal residence of the princes of Dyfed which was afterwards
made for ever famous by Hywel Dda. The seventh cantref of
Dyfed was Emlyn, lying opposite to Ceredigion on the south
bank of the Teifi. It was divided by the river Cuch into the
commotes of Uwch Cuch and Is Cuch, which have ultimately
fallen into different counties, so that the Cuch forms the
boundary here between Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.
The most notable ecclesiastical site of Emlyn was Cenarth on
the Teifi, the church of St. Llawddog, where there was a re
markable salmon-leap, said to be the work of the holy man
himself.220 Whether any earlier fortress preceded the Norman
castle of Cilgerran there is no evidence to show.
The three cantrefs annexed by Seisyll to the realm of
Ceredigion were known collectively as Ystrad Tywi, or Strath
Towy, which was a convenient geographical description, but
brings out unmistakably the fact that the district had no
ancient or traditional bond of union. A number of commotes
to the north and west of the Tywi were grouped together
under the name of Y Cantref Mawr (The Great Cantref) ; others
216 Owen, Pemb. i. pp. 206, 213. 218 Ibid. p. 206.
217 The place now known as Derllys is, curiously, not within the modern
hundred of Derllys at all, but in the parish of Merthyr and, therefore, in the
hundred of Elfed.
218 " Lann toulidauc ig cair mirdin " (Lib. Land. 62 ; cf. 124, 254).
219 .. a dewi bieu bangeibyr yssyt
Meidrym le ae mynwent y luossyt" (Myv. Arch. I. 271 (ig4)).
For the episcopal manor there see Blk. Bk. of St. David's, 234-41.
220 Gir. Camb. vi. 114 (Itin. ii. 3).

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 267
between the Tywi and Brycheiniog formed Y Cantref Bychan CHAP.
(The Little Cantref), while the third cantref (Cantref Eginog)
was made up of the three commotes which lay between the
Tywi and the Tawe. The arrangement was artificial, being the
result of a reconstruction which followed upon the ruin of the
older and wider Dyfed. The Great Cantref was a broad upland
region, bounded by the Tywi, the Teifi and the Gwili ; there
was good land along the margin of these rivers, but most of
the soil was covered with a dense scrub, which afforded excel
lent cover for fugitives or for irregular troops, and thus made
Y Cantref Mawr a stronghold of Welsh independence in the
troublous times which were experienced by South Wales after
the coming of the Normans.221 In area the cantref rivalled Y
Cantref Gwarthaf in Dyfed, containing no less than seven com
motes, of which the situation may be roughly indicated as
follows. Mabelfyw and Mabudryd, names which explain them
selves as of dynastic origin, were the commotes which lay
along the Teifi, the former including Pencarreg, the later
Pencader. Widigada, extending from the Gwili to the Cothi,
marched with Dyfed and was near neighbour to Carmarthen.
Catheiniog, the land of St. Cathen ap Cawrdaf,222 came next
in order in the eastward direction ; the church of Llangathen
was within its limits. Maenor Deilo, or the Manor of St.
Teilo, occupied the rich tract along the banks of the Tywi
from Dinefwr to Llanwrda : 223 north of this was Mallaen, which
ended in the moorlands of southern Ceredigion. The seventh
commote was Caeo, which took in the upper valley of the
Cothi and thus formed the heart of the cantref, the inmost
retreat in a land where nature ever gave the sons of the soil
her kindly, overshadowing protection.
In the Cantref Mawr was situated, in the commote of
Maenor Deilo, the "principal seat" of the realm of Deheubarth,
221 " Kantaredum magnum, . . . copiosa silvarum condensitate australis
Kambriae civibus tutissimum in necessitate refugium" (Gir. Camb. vi. 80 (Itin.
i. 10)). 222 Welsh SS. 280.
223 Part of this district, in the parishes of Llandeilo and Llansadwrn, lies
in the modern hundred of Perfedd, which represents the two northern commotes
of the Cantref Bychan. But the arrangement seems to be too complicated to be
really ancient, not to speak of the express statement of Gir. Camb. (Wks. vi. 172
(Descr. i. 5)) that the Tywi was the dividing line between the Great and the Little
Cantref.

268 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the royal residence, the possession of which carried with it
the primacy among the rulers of South Wales. This was
Dinefwr,224 an ancient stronghold which stood on the summit
of a little hill overhanging the north bank of the Tywi. Its
early history, like that of Aberffraw and Mathrafal, is unre
corded, but there was, no doubt, good reason for the position of
honour it held in mediaeval tradition. Not far off was the im
portant church of Llandeilo Fawr, a principal "clas" of that
saint, which contested with Llandaff and Penally the distinction
of being the resting-place of his body.226 As a Teilo church it
was claimed in the twelfth century by the see of Llandaff,226 but
the hold of the bishop of St. David's over the place, however
acquired, was substantial and the name Tir Esgob (Bishop's
land) still preserves the memory of the episcopal manor of
Llandeilo.227 St. David's had other possessions in the cantref,
notably at Abergwili, which after the Reformation became
the principal residence of the bishop.
The Cantref Bychan only deserved its name by comparison
with the Cantref Mawr, for it lined the southern bank of the
Tywi for a distance of thirty miles, from Ystrad Ffin (The
Border Strath) to a point not much above Carmarthen. It
was, on the other hand, of no great breadth, forming a long
strip of territory which was divided at two points so as to make
three commotes. Of these Hirfryn was the northernmost,
lying between the Tywi and Cantref Buellt ; Y Cymwd Perfedd,
or the Middle Commote, came next, extending to the Black
Mountains ; Is Cennen, so called because it was, for the most
part, on the seaward side of the river Cennen, was the western
limb, including within its bounds the upper waters of the
Llwchwr. In the Cantref Bychan were Llanarthneu, a " clas "
of St. David which, according to the saint's legend, had the
custody of the mystic gifts bestowed before his birth upon his
father,228 Myddfai, a royal manor, where in later times there
224 First mentioned in Lib. Land. 78 (" gueithtineuur," the "work" of
Tinevwr). Cf. Gir. Camb. vi. 80-1 (Itin. i. 10), 172 (Descr. i. 5) ; LL. i. 346,
ii. 831 ; Letters, Hen. III. i. 176 ; Cymr. xi. 45.
226 A peaceful solution was provided, we are assured, by the miraculous ap
pearance of three bodies (Lib. Land. 116-7).
228 Lib. Land. 56, 62, 77-8, 133, 254. 227 Blk. Bk. of St. David's, 262-75.
228 Cambro-Br. SS. 117. For the grounds of the identification see chap. v.
note 165.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 269
dwelt a remarkable race of hereditary physicians,229 and that CHAP.
eagle's nest of the lords of Is Cennen, perched on the top of a
tall limestone bluff, the castle of Carreg Cennen.230.
According to the lists, the third cantref of Ystrad Tywi
was' known as Cantref Eginog. But this was a name which
gained no popular currency ; men knew the district only by the
names of its three commotes, Cydweli, Carnwyllion and Gwyr.
The occurrence of the form " Gwyr and Cydweli " 231 suggests
that originally there were but two, and that Carnwyllion was
carved out of Cydweli, which continued to be the name of the
western half of this land between the Tywi and the Llwchwr.
Thus the " land of Cadwal " 232 bordered on the former of these
two rivers, dipping in gentle curves to its broad and sandy
estuary, while the " land of Carnwyll " 233 lay along the other,
rising in mountainous masses which confronted the eastern sun.
The third commote of this cantref, which retains its ancient name
in the slightly altered form of Gower, was the largest in all Wales ;
it included not only the cliff-bound peninsula which stretches
westward from Swansea, but also the wilder country to the
north, between the Llwchwr and the Tawe, as far as the foot
of the Black Mountains. Within it were the ancient fanes of
Llangyfelach, one of the most important of the Dewi churches,
which is still an episcopal manor,234 Ystum Llwynarth, now
known as Oystermouth, where Illtud lived in holy seclusion
and the credulous in later ages pointed out an 'altar which hung
in mid air, with no visible support,235 and Llandeilo Ferwallt,
which as a "clas" of Teilo was claimed by the bishops of
229 For " Meddygon Myddfai " see the work published under that name by
the Welsh MSS. Society in 1861 (Llandovery).
239 The castle is first mentioned in 1248 (B.T. s.a.), but it would seem to be
an ancient stronghold from the fact that from it is derived the name of the town
ship of Trecastell in which it stands.
231 « Gujr (et) Cetgueli " (Hist. Britt. c. 14). Gwyr and Cydweli are frequently
mentioned in Lib. Land., but there is only one reference to Carnwyllion (p. 247),
and this in a thirteenth-century addition to the original MS.
232 Owen, Pemb. i. 200.
233 According to Cambro-Br. SS. 22, corrected as to the spelling in Cymr.
xiii. 77, " Cornouguill " gave his name to " Cornoguatlaun ".
234 Cambro-Br. SS. 123, 136 ; Blk. Bk. of St. David's, 284-g ; App. Land
Com. 445. The place is styled a " monasterium " in both the passages from
Rhygyfarch's life.
235 Hist. Britt. c. 71, where the form is "Loyngarth"; Cambro-Br. SS.
177 ; Arch. Camb. IV. xi. (1880), 155.

270 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Llandaff and thus acquired its modern name of Bishopston.236
vni" The homes of the ancient lords of Gower are not so easy to
indicate ; at Castell Llwchwr (or Loughor) some stronghold may
have formed a link between the Roman fort and the Norman
castle, but there is no good evidence of the fact. Swansea was
in all probability but a stretch of sand, the haunt of sea-gull
and plover.
Between the broad-backed 'Epynt range, the towering mass
of the Black Mountains of Talgarth and the graceful peaks of
the Brecknock Beacons lie the fertile valleys of the Usk and
the Llynfi, here contracting in narrow woodland passes and
there broadening out in luxuriant meadows. This was the
land of Brycheiniog, which extended from Buellt and Elfael on
the north to Gwent and Morgannwg on the south, and thus
included the whole of our Brecknockshire save the first named
of these four districts. From the earliest time of which Welsh
tradition speaks, Brycheiniog was an independent realm ; its
foundation was attributed, not to any scion of Cunedda or re
presentative of the Brythonic race, but to one Brychan, who
was, on the father's side, at least, of Irish, i.e., Goidelic, origin
and from whom the country acquired the name it has ever
since borne.237 Brychan is one of the most shadowy figures of
Welsh legend ; twelve sons and twenty-four daughters, most
of whom are said to have adopted the religious life, are assigned
to him in the ancient lists, and the story tellers of Brecknock
had much to tell of him and his deeds of prowess, of the hot
temper which threw bold critics into jail and flung whatever
was nearest to hand at the bearer of evil tidings, of his marvel
lous ride to meet the hosts of Deheubarth 238 with the fetter
238 Lib. Land. Index, s.v. L. Mergualt.
237 The earliest references to Brychan are in Gir. Camb. vi. 31-2 (Itin. i. 2)
and De Nugis, 77-g, both especially valuable because of the familiarity of Giral
dus and Walter with Brecknock and its people. The tract " De Situ Brychen-
iauc" in Cottonian MS. Vespasian A. xiv. (ff. 100-ni), written about 1200 and
printed in Cymr. xix. 24-7, contains the earliest account of Brychan's origin
and descendants, and was probably copied from a still older source (Cymr.
vii. 105-6; Owen, Catalogue, p. 22). For other accounts see Cymr. viii. 83-4
(Jesus Coll. MS. 20), Breconsh. (2), Appendix No. vi. (Cognacio Brychan,
from Cott. MS. Dom. i.), Myv. Arch. II. 2g (418-g), Iolo MSS. in, 118-21,
140, Welsh SS. 136-60. I follow the figures of Jesus Coll. MS. 20, supported,
as far as the daughters are concerned, by Giraldus.
238 The MS. of Map (Bodl. 851) has "regem . . . de Heulard" (De Nugis,
77), which I take to be a copyist's error for " regem Deheubard "

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 271
hanging to his horse's foot, and of the crushing defeat he CHAP.
inflicted on the invaders, whose mutilated bodies furnished VI11'
material for three great cairns heaped up on the field of
slaughter. It was to Brychan, through his son Rhain Drem-
rudd (the Red-eyed), that the later kings of Brycheiniog traced
their descent, and, notwithstanding the large element of fable
in the usual accounts of him, he may perhaps be regarded as
the real founder of the dynasty. The pedigree has, however,
come down in a corrupt form,239 and it is not possible to fix
with any certainty the place in it of the two or three historical
kings of the country. All that can be said is that in the
seventh century one Awst (Augustus) seems to have been the
ruling prince of Brycheiniog,240 that somewhat later Tewdwr
ap Rhain and Elwystl ab Awst divided ,the sovereignty between
them, until Elwystl was treacherously murdered by Tewdwr,241
and that in the age of Alfred the realm was possessed by
Elise ap Tewdwr.242 Brycheiniog retained its independence
until the tenth century was well advanced.
The region was divided into 'three cantrefs,243 and the names
of two of these, viz., Cantref Selyf (the cantref of Solomon) and
Cantref Tewdos (the cantref of Theodosius), suggest that this
took place in connection with the division of the territory at
some period in its history between three coinheritors.244 But
the early conquest of Brycheiniog by the Normans had, as in
Rhos and Penfro, the effect of obscuring, though it did not
quite obliterate, the ancient local divisions, so that little can be
said with confidence of the cantrefs of this district or of the
commotes into which they were divided.246 Previous to the
239 It was for some reason or other not included in the collection in Harl.
MS. 38sg. In Jesus Coll. MS. 20, No. viii. (Cymr. viii. 85), there appears to be
some confusion with the line of Dyfed.
249 Lib. Land. 146, 154.
241 Ibid. 167. There are no data to enable one to fix the age of Gwrfan.
242 Asser, c. 80.
243 11 Xribus cantaredis distincta conseritur " (Gir. Camb. vi. 28 (Itin. i. 2)).
244 An annotator of the list of cantrefs and commotes in Cott. MS. Domitian
i. fo. 1246, says that this happened on the division of Brycheiniog between the
three sons, Selyf, Tewdos and Einon by name, of Einon ap Gruffydd ab Elise.
Einon had the cantref of Talgarth.
245 A comparison of the lists will show that Dom. viii. and the Red Book
give radically different accounts of the composition of the three cantrefs ; the
former is followed by Pen. MS. 163 and (substantially) by Pen. MS. 50, but the
account in the Red Book is to be preferred for several reasons — in particular, it

272 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Norman invasion, the chief royal residence of the country was
VI11, Talgarth, where Brychan himself is said to have held kingly
state;246 commanding the vale of Llynfi, it guarded the ap
proach which was most likely to be chosen by an invading
English host. One of the commotes of Brycheiniog bore the
name of Llywel, so that it is not unreasonable to suppose that
Trecastell, near Llywel Church, was another of the ancient strong
holds of the kingdom. A third was Ystrad Yw, which stood
in the little valley of the Rhiangoll and gave its name to a dis
trict which formed the south-eastern corner of Brycheiniog.247
Of notable churches there was no lack in this quarter of Wales.
The principal saint of the region was Cynog, son of Brychan,
who suffered martyrdom ; Merthyr Cynog (the " martirium " of
Cynog) was the place of his burial and held a position of cor
responding importance.248 Another member of the same family,
Cynidr, a grandson of Brychan, was also of high repute as a
patron in Brycheiniog ; to him belonged Y Clas ar Wy (the
"clas" on the Wye), which the English termed Glasbury.249
Llangors, one of the few churches which preserved the memory
of Paulinus, was another ancient ecclesiastical centre ; it is ex
pressly termed a monastery, i.e., a " clas," and was held by the
bishops of Llandaff, who paid occasional visits to the reedy
banks of Llyn Syfaddon.260 Nor was the sister see of St. David's
unrepresented, for as the White Bard, himself a native of Bry
cheiniog, reminds us —
is not tainted with the error which divides Ystrad Yw into three cymwds, viz.,
Ystrad Yw, Crug Hywel and Eglwys Iail. The latter two represent in reality
Ystrad Yw Isaf and Ystrad Yw Uchaf, Eglwys Iail being an old name of Llangy-
nidr. 246 Cambro-Br. SS. 23. Talgarth is, perhaps, the Garth Matrun of p. 272.
ii7Arch. Camb. VI. iii. (1903), 82-4.
248 Welsh SS. 138-9. The torque of St. Cynog was famous in the twelfth
century (Gir. Camb. vi. 25 (Itin. i. 2), 112 (ii. 2)) and the church of Merthyr was
a hundred years later the best endowed in the deanery of Brecon (Tax. Nich.
273)- 249 The connection of Cynidr (for whom see Welsh SS. 148-9) with Glasbury
is clear, notwithstanding that his place as patron of the parish has long been
taken by St. Peter. See Cambro-Br. SS. 274 (sancti Kenider de Glesbyri), Cart.
Glouc. i. 314-6, iii. 5 (ecclesiam sancti Kenedri) and Arch. Camb. IV. xiv. (1883),
227 (Kenedereschirch). There is still a Ffynnon Gynid(r) in the parish. Other
churches originally dedicated to the same saint are Kenderchurch in Archenfield,
which is the "lann cinitir lann i cruc " of Lib. Land. 277, Llangynidr and
Aberysgir. 269 Lift. Land. 146, 238, 255.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 273
Garth Bryngi is Dewi's honourable hill, CHAP
And Trallwng Cynfyn above the meadows ; VIII.
Llanfaes the lofty — no breath of war shall touch it,
No host shall disturb the churchmen of Llywel.281
It may not be amiss to recall the fact that these posses
sions of St. David's brought here in the twelfth century, to re
side at Llandduw as Archdeacon of Brecon, a scholar of Penfro
who did much to preserve for future ages the traditions of his
adopted country. Giraldus will not admit the claim of any region
in Wales to rival his beloved Dyfed, but he is nevertheless
hearty in his commendation of the sheltered vales, the teeming
rivers and the well-stocked pastures of Brycheiniog.252
IV. The Cantrefs of Morgannwg.
The well-sunned plains which, from the mouth of the Tawe
to that of the Wye, skirt the northern shore of the Bristol
Channel enjoy a mild and genial climate and have from the
earliest times been the seat of important settlements. Roman
civilisation gained a firm foothold in the district, as may be seen
from its remains at Cardiff, Caerleon and Caerwent. Monastic
centres of the first rank were established here, at Llanilltud,
Llancarfan and Llandaff, during the age of early Christian en
thusiasm. Politically, too, the region stood apart from the rest
of South Wales, in virtue, it may be, of the strength of the old
Silurian traditions, and it maintained, through many vicissitudes,
its '.independence under its own princes until the eve of the
Norman Conquest. It had its own bishop, seated at Llandaff,
and never acknowledged the supremacy of David, whose sway
was so mighty in the rest of Deheubarth.
Until the middle of the seventh century the political history
of the district is obscure.253 Tradition spoke of a King Glywys,
who ruled over the greater part of it, namely, that portion be
tween the Tawe and the Usk afterwards known as Glywysing,
and whose sons, including Gwynllyw, the father of St. Cadog,
divided their father's realm between them.254 But the dynasty
sslMyv. Arch. I. 271 (ig4). 252 Wks. vi. 33, 36 (Itin. i. 2).
253 Without accepting every document contained in the Liber Landavensis
as authentic, one may use the evidence supplied by the compilation in drawing
the broad outlines of the history of the period, and this I have endeavoured to do.
254 Cambro-Br. SS. 22, 145. The antiquity of the form Glywysing is shown
by its appearance in Hist. Britt. c. 41 (Gleguissing in the best texts), the chronicle
VOL. I. 18

274 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. was short-lived ; in a generation or two its place was taken by
VIII. another, represented about* 630 by one Meurig ap Tewdrig, who
held not only Glywysing but also the region between the Usk
and the Wye known from the ancient tribal centre of Venta or
Caerwent as Gwent. The legend ran that Meurig's father Tew
drig had been mortally wounded in conflict with the English
at the ford of Tintern on the Wye,255 and it is most probable
that this river now formed the boundary between the two races
for a considerable distance from its mouth. In due course,
Meurig was succeeded by his grandson, Morgan ab Athrwys,256
known as Morgan Mwynfawr or the Benefactor; this prince
was a contemporary of Rhain of Dyfed and Seisyll of Ceredigion
{circa 730), so that it was pretty certainly from him the realm
gained the name, in later ages so familiar, of Morgannwg.257
Morgan was succeeded by his son Ithel ; in the next generation
a division of the realm seems to have taken place between the
sons of Ithel. Ffernfael ab Ithel, who died in 77 5,258 was king
of Gwent, where also his descendants bore rule,259 until the line
ended with his grandson, Ithel ab Athrwys, in 848.260 The
other sons, Rhys, Rhodri and Meurig, seem to have been kings
of Glywysing, but the course of events west of the Usk in the
in Harl. MS. 385g, s.a. 864 (Cymr. ix. 165), and Asser, c. 80 (Gleguising). It
did not include Gwent, and, on the other hand, while it included Gwynllwg
(Cambro-Br. SS. g$), it was not, as is alleged in Iolo MSS. 18, a mere alias ot
it. In Lib. Land, the term seems often to be used loosely as an equivalent of
Morgannwg (see pp. 137, 156, where Gwent is included), but this may well be
due to the ignorance of the compiler.
256 Lift. Land. 141-2.
268 Athrwys does not seem to have ruled himself, unless he was under king
in Gwent (Lib. Land. 165-6).
267 This view differs from that of Mr. Phillimore (Owen, Pemb. i. 208), who
ascribes the origin of the name to Morgan the Aged (d. g74). It certainly does
not occur in any good authority of older date ; on the other hand, the " seven can
trefs of Morgannwg " were not as a whole under the rule of the later Morgan, and
it seems but natural to suppose the name came into existence at the same time as
Rheinwg and Seisyllwg. Since the elder Morgan's grandson Ffernfael died in
775, I do not think he can well be the " Morcant " of Harl. MS. 3859 s.a. 665 ;
he belongs rather, with Rhain and Seisyll, to the beginning of the eighth century.
288 Harl. MS. 3859 s.a. (Cymr. ix. 162).
269 This may be inferred from the grants ascribed to Ffernfael and his sons
in Lib. Land.
260 " Iudhail rex guent a uiris broceniauc (Brycheiniog) occisus est " (Harl.
MS. 3859, s.a. in Cymr. ix. 165). His pedigree is given in the same MS. (Cymr.
ix. 181-2) as far back as Tewdrig and, stopping short with him, implies that he
left no descendants.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 275
middle of the ninth century is involved in much obscurity, for, CHAP.
when the political arrangements of the district of Morgannwg vm'
are once more clearly revealed, about 870, Gwent is under the
sway of a great-grandson of Ithel, one Meurig ab Arthfael ap
Rhys,261 while Glywysing has as its ruler one Hywel ap Rhys,
of quite uncertain pedigree.262
Like Dyfed, Morgannwg was reputed a land of seven
cantrefs.263 Six of these were generally known ; they were
Gorfynydd, Penychen, Y Cantref Breiniol ("The Privileged
Cantref"), Gwynllwg, Gwent Iscoed and Gwent Uchcoed (" Be
low " and " Above the Wood "). As to the seventh there was
less agreement ; the likeliest view is that it lay in our Hereford
shire, where the two regions of Erging (Archenfield) and Ewias
remained thoroughly Welsh up to the time of the Norman Con
quest. The first five of these cantrefs bordered on the sea ;
each had its tract of fertile land along the coast and behind this
a wide extent of mountain or forest ; the " bro " or champaign
country was thickly peopled, while the " blaenau " or mountain
glens, now among the busiest seats of industry in the Empire,
were left to the browsing cattle and the hunter's quarry. From
the mouth of the Tawe to that of the Thaw (anciently the Nadd-
awan) stretched the cantref of Gorfynydd ; 264 here were the
ancient churches of Margam and Llanilltud Fawr, the former
of unknown history,266 the latter a wealthy foundation, main-
281 For Meurig's pedigree see Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix. 182. His posi
tion is indicated in Lib. Land. 200, 226.
282 The pedigree of Hywel ap Rhys is not to be found in Harl. MS. 38sg,
probably because Owain ap Hywel Dda was unwilling to recognise the rights of
the family. In Jesus Coll. MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 85, No. ix.) he is connected with
Ithel ap Morgan, but the pedigree is a generation or two too long and its details
are not attested by other authorities.
263 Mab. 5g. Cf. Cambro-Br. SS. 145 : " septem pagos rexit Gulat mor-
gantie," though this is a wrong use of Gwlad Forgan.
284 So termed in the Red Book of Hergest (Bruts, 412) and therefore to be
explained, it may be, as the land beyond the mountain (from the point of view of
Gower). Other forms found are Gorenydd (so practically in Cymr. ix. 331), Gor-
wennydd (Triad iii. 14) and, most unsatisfactory of all, Gro Nedd. For the bound
ary between Gorfynydd and Penychen see Cambro-Br. SS. 53. The commotes
of the two cantrefs, as usually given, appear to me to be subsequent in date to the
Norman Conquest. They are the " members " of the lordship of Glamorgan, and
do not include its main body, now known as the Vale or " Bro". Cf. Owen,
Pemb. i. 427.
265 Marga» (the m does not occur in any ancient authority) was originally the
name of a district, probably a commote of Gorfynydd; see Geoff. Mem. ii. 15 ;
18 *

276 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, taining with dignity the traditions of the days of Illtud, and
VI11' both remarkable for the many examples they had to show of
elaborate carving in the Celtic fashion. The wheel crosses of
Margam and Llanilltud, adorned with intricate plait-work, form
a group of monuments of great interest and bear witness to the
existence in Gorfynydd in the ninth and tenth centuries of a
school of carvers in stone of considerable technical facility.266
The inscriptions which many of them bear have not cast much
light upon the history of the period ; probably, however, one
may recognise the Hywel ap Rhys of Asser and the Liber Landa-
vensis in the person who speaks in the following epitaph from
Llanilltud : '' In the name of God the Father and the Holy
Spirit Houelt set up this cross for the soul of his father Res ",267
Llanilltud may well have been a royal burying-place, for its
abbot was one of the three great ecclesiastics of the diocese of
Llandaff and the revenues of its " clas '' were drawn from many
a manor of Morgannwg.268 Across the Thaw was the cantref
of Penychen,269 extending as far as the Taff ; this also contained
two ecclesiastical centres of the first rank, the one the seat of
the bishop of Morgannwg, the other at Nant Carfan (corruptly,
Llancarfan),270 the principal " clas " of St. Cadog and a match
in affluence and historic dignity to the notifar distant Llanilltud
Fawr. The abbot of Nant Carfan ruled over a community of
thirty-six canons, who included a priest, a master or teacher, a
sexton, and three custodians of sacred relics ; broad lands around
"in pago Kambriae qui, post interfectionem Margani, eius nomine, videlicet Mar-
gan, hucusque a pagensibus appellatus est ". Merthyr Mawr was within it (Lib.
Land. 224).
288 Lap. W. 8-15, 25-30; Margam Abb. chap. x. ; Arch. Camb. V. xvi. (i8gg),
136-68 ; Allen, Celtic Art, p. 186.
287 Rhys does not accept this identification (Arch. Camb. V. xvi. (i8gg),
155), but this is because he is concerned to show that the stone may be of as
early a date as the seventh century. As against this date see Allen, Celtic Art,
p. I7g. 288 See Lift. Land, passim for "abbas sancti Ilduti" ("abbas Lannildut,"
145). The " abbas Carbani vallis " (or " Sancti Catoci ") and the " abbas Doc-
guinni " (of Llandough near Penarth — Margam Abb. 3) appear no less frequently.
There is no direct evidence as to the possessions of Llanilltud, but the statement
of Cambro-Br. SS. 168 (habentes . . . singuli suam villam) rests, no doubt, upon
fact. 289 The district appears (as Penn Ohen) in Wrmonoc's life of Paul Aurelian
(Rev. Celt. v. p. 418), and was therefore a well-known area in the ninth
century. 279 See chap. vii. note 52.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 277
the settlement provided the means of its support.271 There CHAP.
was nothing essentially different in the organisation of the VIIL
cathedral church of Llandaff. The place of the abbot was
taken, indeed, by the bishop, but in other respects the analogy
was close. A " priest of Teilo " represented the later dean ;
twenty-four canons (if not a greater number) formed the " clas "
or " household " of the saint,272 and if the territorial claims of
Llandaff, as put forward by enterprising bishops, were more
ambitious than those of Llancarfan, this was a circumstance due
to the wider distribution of Teilo churches than of those which
claimed the protection of Cadog.
The Taff and the Rhymni, flowing south from the mountains
of Brycheiniog in parallel valleys but a few miles apart, were
the western and eastern boundaries of Cantref Breiniol. Wherein
the privilege of this cantref stood is not stated by tradition ; it
is possible, indeed, that the name is of later date than the
Norman Conquest of Glamorgan, for there are some indications
that the ancient title was Senghenydd, a term limited in later
times to that part of the cantref which lay north of the ridge
of Cefn On.273 The district contained no important church or
ecclesiastical manor and may, therefore, have always been, as
it certainly was in later ages, the chief seat of civil power in
Morgannwg. But there is no good evidence that the site of
Cardiff Castle was occupied by any royal residence in the
interval between the ruin of the Roman fort and the choice of
271 Cambro-Br. SS. 82-g6. Both the "presbiter" or " sacerdos " and the
" magister " or " doctor " of St. Cadog find a place in Lib. Land. (258, 268, 272,
273. 274)-272 The "sacerdos teiliav" and the " familia teliaui" are mentioned in the
marginalia of the Book of St. Chad (Lib. Land, xliii. xlvi.) ; for the former see
also Lib. Land. 247, 258, 264, 273. Bishop Urban gives the number of canons
(Lib. Land. 88).
273 The " Tref Eliau in Seghenid " of Lib. Land. 255-7 has been supposed
to be Roath (ibid. 382) and was certainly on the coast. Thus the term at this
date included Cibwyr or Kibor, as well as the Senghenydd of later times, for the
limits of which see Owen, Pemb. i. 258, and Arch. Camb. IV. viii. (1877), 264-g.
Before its division into the commotes of Uwch Caeach and Is Caeach, Senghenydd
was itself a commote, which is what Giraldus means when he calls it the fourth
part of a cantref (vi. 170 (Descr. i. 4) ; cf. 34 (Itin. i. 2) — " kemmoti, id est,
quartae partis cantaredi "). It may be added that the way in which he seems in
this passage to leave Cibwyr out of account in his analysis of the constitution
of the diocese of Llandaff suggests that the authority he followed used Seng
henydd in the older and wider sense. The " Sein Henyd " of B.T. (Bruts, 353,
355, 35g, 360, 363) is a place in Gower.

278 HISTORY OF WALES.
Chap, the, spot by Robert Fitz Hamon as the head of his newly won
VIIL lordship.274 The remaining cantref of the old realm of King
Glywys lay between the Rhymni and the Usk ; it took from
his son Gwynllyw the name of Gwynllwg which, in the form
Wentloog, has survived to the present day.276 On a height
near the mouth of the Usk, looking out over the marshy flats
of the Severn estuary, was the church of Gwynllyw (now St.
Woollo's), served by a " clas," ruled by an officer, who, though
he once may have been an abbot, was in more recent times a
dean, and consecrated in the affections of the cantref by many
a tale of miraculous help rendered to the men of Gwynllwg
in their days of sore need and tribulation.276 Another church of
high standing in the cantref was Bassaleg, a " basilica " 277 of
which the ancient traditions were submerged by the devouring
tide of the Norman Conquest, but which is known to have been
the mother church of most of the land between the Rhymni
and the Ebbw.278
The two cantrefs of the kingdom of Gwent occupied the
region enclosed by the Usk, the Wye, the Monnow and the sea.
A great forest, of which a large portion still remains under the
name of Wentwood, divided the low-lying tracti along the Bristol
Channel from the northern uplands and thus parted the realm
into Gwent Iscoed and Gwent Uchcoed.279 Of these two
divisions the seaboard one, though much the smaller, was the
more important. It was famed for its fertility ; the renown
of the wheat and the bees of Maes Gwenith, on the banks of
the Troggy, passed for a proverb throughout the whole of
274 So Mr. J. S. Corbett in the Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists'
Society, vol. xxxiii. (igoo-i), pp. 26-7. Mounds of the type of that on which the
keep is erected are no longer regarded as pre-Norman.
276 See chap. v. note 168.
278 Cambro-Br. SS. 145-57 (Vita S. Gundleii). The " decanus ecclesie "
is mentioned on p. 156.
277 The derivation is suggested by Prof. Hugh Williams (Gildas, p. 29).
Notwithstanding the occurrence in mediaeval Welsh literature of the form
Maesaleg, this cannot be the Campus Elleti of Hist. Britt. c. 41, which is
rather to be looked for in the neighbourhood of the Palus Elleti of Lib. Land.
148, i.e., near the river Thaw in S. Glamorgan.
278 In addition to the chapels of Henllys and Risca assigned to it by Rees
(Welsh SS. 342), Machen, Bedwas, Mynydd Islwyn, and Coed Cernyw were
regarded as chapels of Bassaleg about 1100 (Cartae Glam. i. 2).
279 " Coit guent " is mentioned in Lib. Land. 262 (bounds of " Hennriu in
Lebinid ").

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 279
Wales.280 Here the princes of Gwent held court,281 and here CHAP.
was Caerwent, from which the region took its name, once the
Silurian capital — if we may dignify it with such a name — but
since the days of St. Tathan the ecclesiastical and not the civil
centre.282 The saint was reputed to have been a famous
teacher, the head of a " studium " or college of the same mon
astic type as that of Illtud ; he founded a " clas " of the first
rank, of which an abbot had the direction. All the men of
Gwent revered him as the father of their land, its guardian and
the avenger of its wrongs. In Upper Gwent there were no
sites of like importance. It was a thriving land, dotted over
with churches, but its traditions were matters of local interest,
which had not caught the fancy of Wales at large. The bishop
of Llandaff, it should be added, drew no small part of his in
come from the prosperous plains of Gwent ; important manors
at Llangadwaladr (now Bishton),* Merthyr Tewdrig or Mathern,
Llaneuddogwy or Llandogo, and in the valley of the Trothy
sent their produce to maintain the state of the great monastery
on the Taff.283
Two outlying members of the older Morgannwg remain to be
noticed, namely, Ewias and Erging.284 The former lay between
Brycheiniog and the valley of the Dore — a land of long and
narrow mountain glens, of which the streams run southward
side by side to the Monnow. Most of it is now included in
the county of Hereford, which has also absorbed the richer
280 Triad i. 30 = ii. 56 = iii. 101. The place is a little north of Llanfair
Discoed (Owen, Pemb. i. 236).
281 The royal court of " Lisarcors " was somewhere in lower Gwent
(Cambro-Br. SS. 156), and so too the " palacium " to which King Caradog ab
Ynyr moved when he resigned Caerwent to St. Tathan, for it was between that
city and the Severn, perhaps at Caldicot (Cambro-Br. SS. 259).
282 The life of St. Tathan, a saint's day homily (" cuius hodiernam festivi-
tatem celebramus," p. 263) composed by a Norman writer (observe the use of
" indigene " on p. 264), is to be found in Cambro-Br. SS. 255-64. Caerwent
Church is now dedicated to St. Stephen, but evidence is not lacking to show that
Tathan was the original patron — see Ann. Theokesb. s.a. 1235 (p. 96) ; Iolo
MSS. 114, 132, 151. Hence the "presbiteri tathiu" of Lib. Land. 270 are
clergy of Caerwent ; the " abbas guentonie urbis " appears on p. 222, and on pp.
243, 245 a "lector urbis guenti ".
283 Lib. Land. 180-3, I4I"3> I56i etc. ; Tax. Nich. 280 ; App. Land Com.
446. 284 The translator of " Brut y Brenhinoedd " perversely renders the
" Wissei " and " Gewissei " of Geoff. Mon. as " Ergig ac Euas," the latter, it
may be remarked, a late Welsh form (Bruts, 109, 127, 252).

280 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, district of Erging, known to the English by the name of Arch-
' enfield. Erging was bounded by the Wye, the Worm and the
Monnow ; though so close to the gates of Hereford, it was a
stronghold of Welsh customs and ideas as late as the end of the
twelfth century. The Welsh saints were honoured throughout
the district, and among them St. David had a great church at
Much Dewchurch,285 and Dyfrig, who 'was (if we may believe
his legend) by birth and residence a man of Erging, a group of
churches which commanded the allegiance of the dwellers
along the winding banks of the Wye.286
AUTHORITIES FOR EARLY WELSH TOPOGRAPHY.
I. Lists of Cantrefs and Commotes.
Four lists of the cantrefs and commotes of Wales are to be found in MS.,
representing the work of four editors or compilers. The oldest is probably that
contained in Cottonian MS. Domitian viii. ff. 119-206 (printed, not very ac
curately, in Leland's/ri»«iwy,ed. 1769, v. 16-20), for, though the writing is said
to be of the fifteenth century, the forms of the names imply an original of the
twelfth or thirteenth (Cymr. xi. 168). Next comes the list in the Red Book of
Hergest, cols. 377-80, written about 1400 and printed, first in the Myvyrian
Archaiology, II. 606-12 (737-40), where it is printed onjthe lower half of the
page, and more recently by Rhys and Evans in Bruts, 407-12. A third list
occurs in Hengwrt MS. 34 = Peniarth MS. 50 (Y Cwta Cyfarwydd), pp. 133-8,
written about 1450 and printed in Cymr. ix. 326-31. The fourth is in Hengwrt
MS. 352 = Peniarth MS. 163, pp. 57-60, and was transcribed by Gruffydd
Hiraethog in the year 1543 ; it will be found in full in Evans, Rep. i. p. 952-54.
The upper list in the Myvyrian Archaiology (II. 606-13 (735-7)) is substantially
that of Gruffydd Hiraethog.
Not one of these lists can be implicitly trusted, though they go far to correct
each other's errors. The Cottonian list is defective in the section Ceredigion and
throughout is atrociously spelt, but in other respects it is fairly accurate. Its
order is — Y Berfeddwlad, Powys (including Arwystli), Gwynedd (including Pen
llyn), Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, Deheubarth, Morgannwg. The chief mistakes are
the misplacement of Nant Conwy, the transposition of Uwch and Is Rhaeadr
(this runs through all the lists save that of Gruffydd Hiraethog), the omission of
Buellt and serious confusion in Gwynllwg and Gwent. The Red Book list fol
lows the order — Y Berfeddwlad, Gwynedd (including Penllyn, Cyfeiliog, and
other border districts), Powys (including Arwystli), Rhwng Gwy & Hafren,
Deheubarth, Morgannwg. In the North Wales portion there are many errors,
but the Dyfed and Ystrad Tywi sections are almost flawless. The older Peniarth
list follows the same order as Dom. viii. but places Arwystli at the end of Gwy
nedd ; its chief defect is wrong bracketing, which extends to nearly every section.
Morgannwg, where it was written, naturally shows the fewest blunders. Gruff
ydd Hiraethog's order is his own, viz., Gwynedd (including Arwystli and Penllyn),
Powys, Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, Deheubarth, with Morgannwg and Gwent sand
wiched between Brycheiniog and Dyfed. This list professes to be based on a
288 Rees, Welsh SS. 53. 286 Chap. v. note II4.

THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF WALES. 281
survey (y messvrwyd ac i rranwyd ac i rivwyd) of all Wales made by Llywelyn ap CHAP.
Gruffydd (06. 1282), who, however, was never in a position, despite the extent of VIII.
his rule between 1267 and 1277, to make any survey of the kind. It is full of in
accuracies, such as those which mark the treatment of Cantref Bychan and Can
tref Mawr, and names many commotes, such as Penal, Hafren and Trefdraeth,
which had no real existence. Its unsupported evidence is of the very slightest
value. II. Boundaries of Cantrefs and Commotes.
Really ancient evidence on this head is most difficult to obtain, but there was
so much continuity in the matter of local divisions, notwithstanding political
changes, that late authorities may often be used with advantage. In many parts
of Wales the rural deaneries corresponded closely to the civil areas, and assistance
may therefore be derived from Tax. Nich. 272-94. The survey printed in Rec.
Cam. 1-89 is arranged under commotes, so that for the counties of Anglesey and
Carnarvon our information is pretty full. Modern hundreds and manors often
preserve the ancient boundaries ; for a list of the former and their constituent
elements, see App. Land Com. 362-76, and for particulars as to crown, episcopal
and private manors, ibid. 437-75. Hengwrt MS. gg = Peniarth MS. 147,
written about 1566, contains (pp. 5-22) a list of parishes (printed in Evans, Rep.
i. pp. gn-20), grouped to a large extent under the old territorial names, but the
scheme is only partially carried out and not always quite correctly. Special
sources of information for particular districts are indicated in the footnotes to this
chapter. III. Maps.
No ancient map of the cantrefs and commotes of Wales is known to me.
That of William Owen (Pughe), published in 1788 in the third edition of War
rington's History of Wales, is very largely guess-work of a clumsy kind, and it
is to be regretted that the authors of The Welsh People should have given it a
place in their book.
Note to Chapter VIII. — Rheinwg, Esyllwg and Fferyllwg.
That names of districts might be formed in Welsh by the addition of -wg I
to personal names is clear from the well-established cases of Morgannwg, |
Gwynllwg (for Gwynllyw — wg) and Seisyllwg. An instance is to be found in i
Hist. Britt. c. 70, where mention is made of a region styled " Cinlipiuc," of un
known situation, but certainly named after some Cunalipi (Arch. Camb. IV. '
xiii. (1882), 163-4) or Cynllib. The cases of Rheinwg, Esyllwg and Fferyllwg,
nevertheless, present in one way or another no small difficulty. The clearest in
dication of the position of Rheinwg is to be found in the life of St. Padarn in
Vesp. A. xiv., in which a tripartite division of South Wales between Padarn,
Teilo and Dewi is said to have been made ; Padarn took Seisyllwg, Teilo Mor
gannwg — " regnum autem Rein hec predicta iura ab episcopatu Sancti David
accepit " (Cambro-Br. SS. ig6-7). St. David's domain can have been none other
than Dyfed, and as the pedigrees show that Rhain (in Old Welsh, Regin) ap
Cadwgan, Seisyll ap Clydog, and Morgan ab Athrwys ruled over Dyfed, Cere
digion and Glywysing respectively about the beginning of the eighth century, the
three names appear to fit easily, on this explanation, into their places. They
are also found in conjunction in Pen. MS. 32 (MS. D. of the Welsh Laws), where
they appear to be intended to explain what was meant by Deheubarth (LL. ii.
50). Rheinwg is, therefore, taken to be Dyfed by Basil Jones ( Vestiges of the
Gael, pp. 61-2) and Phillimore (Cymr. xi. 141). Some other passages which might
be cited do not so easily lend themselves to this conclusion ; for instance, the

282 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. "Vastatio Rienuch ab Offa " of Ann. Camb. MS. C. s.a. 795 and the allusions in
VIII. Cambro-Br. SS.77, 79, to attacks on Glamorgan by kings of " Reinuc" Aneurin
Owen was probably led by these references to suppose a connection with Rhain
Dremrudd, son of Brychan, and hence his gloss to Reinwg in LL. ii. 50, note 6,
'¦ a district in Brecknockshire ". For this view there is something to be said ; the
notion that " Ereinwg " was the Welsh name for Southern Herefordshire has, on
the other hand, nothing to support it. It was first put forwarcT by Humphrey
Llwyd (Comment. (2), 94) and popularised by Camden (Britannia, 550) ; in all
likelihood it owes its origin to the Offa passage quoted above.
Esyllwg, there can be little doubt, is an antiquaries' form, having no genuine
root in history. Welshmen did not give to their territories the names of wo
men ; moreover, the only Esyllt who appears in Welsh records is the famous
Iseult of romance. Those who used the name claimed, in fact, a different origin
for it, which, in the light of modern 'philology, has only to be stated to be
promptly dismissed ; they regarded it as the Welsh equivalent of Sjluria 1 Its
real source, as can easily be shown, was a misunderstanding of Seisyllwg. This
name having become obsolete and its application forgotten, the passage in the
Laws (already mentioned) in which it occurs became corrupt (cf. LL. ii. 50,
584, Comment. (2), i6g, and Iolo MSS. 74). Humphrey Llwyd found the form
"Syllwc" in some MS. and forthwith leapt to the conclusion that the region
meant was that oftKe Silures (Comment. (2), 102). The view gained acceptance
and " Esyllwg " (the reading of some copies) found its way as a supposed ancient
name for Morgannwg into the third series of Triads (Nos. 14, 16, 37) and the
notices printed in the Iolo MSS. (86). Camb. Reg. ii. 8 contains a tremendous
list of alleged variants of Esyllwg (land) and Esyllwyr (people) ; like other lists in
the same article, it is the coinage of the ingenious and original contributor.
Fferyllwg is another form open to the gravest suspicion. Ffcryll or Fferyllt
is the Welsh mediaeval name of the poet Vergil, and, owing "to the bard's reputa
tion in the Middle Ages as a necromancer, became a common noun, denoting an
alchemist (whence the modern " fferylliaeth," chemistry) or worker in metal
(Mots Latins, pp. 167-8; W. Ph. (2), 205). But no character in Welsh history
bears the name, and there is no .early instance of the use of Fferyllwg to denote
" Rhwng Gwy a Hafren " (Iolo MSS. 86). I believe the origin of the form is to
1 be found in the old name of Hereford which appears as Fernleg (Camden,
i Britannia, 553), Ferieg (Comment. (2), 94) and Fferleia (Radnorsh. (2), 108).
| This became Ferlgx (Camb. Reg. i. 57 ; Brecons£~j2)'~'p. 36) ; Fferregs (Bre-
* consh. (2), p. 38), and, when written by Welshmen, Fferyllwg (Gw. Brat. s.a. 838).

CHAPTER IX.
EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS.
(As indicated in the text, this chapter is primarily based upon the evidence
afforded by the Welsh Laws, though much valuable matter for purposes of
illustration is to be gleaned elsewhere. For an account of the MSS., editions
and history of the Law of Hywel see chap, x., appended note. The following
are the chief modern works which deal with the subject of the chapter ; Das Alte
Wales, von F. Walter (Bonn, 1859) ; Hubert Lewis's Ancient Laws of Wales
(1889) ; Seebohm's Tribal System in Wales (1895) ; Rhys andjBrynmor Jones's
Welsh People (chap, vi.) ; VinogradofPs Growth of the Manor, book i. (1905) ;
Wade-Evans's Welsh Medieval Law (1909). In the notes references to the laws
are only given in support of statements not easily verified ; the note appended
to the chapter explains why no use has been made of the Triads of Dyfnwal
Moelmud.)
I. The Cenedl.
FOUR leading institutions supplied the framework of the civil chap.
organisation of Wales in the early mediaeval period. They IX-
were the cenedl, the tref, the cantref and the brenin, or, to use
terms of more general application, the kindred, the hamlet, the
tribe and the chief. The first was the basis of society, for the
Welsh were, and long continued to be, in that stage in which
the tie of kinship is paramount, overshadowing all other rela
tions. " They are above all things," wrote a keen observer in
the twelfth century, " devoted to their clan, and will fiercely
avenge any injury or dishonour suffered by those of their
blood." 1 The second was the economic unit, the area of co
operation for the production of food, both by tillage of the soil
and otherwise. The third was the political and judicial unit,
the district within which men acted together for peace and
war, for the trial of causes, both criminal and civil, and for
the maintenance of the chieftain and his court. In the fourth
appears the monarchical element, binding together the com
munity under one authority — a costly burden from the economic
1 Gir. Camb. vi. 200 (Descr. i. 17).
283

284 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, point of view, but able to offer in return, not only guarantees for
the preservation of order within the state, but also — what was
no less prized — satisfaction to the spirit of tribal pride and
security from the inroads of detested rivals.
Our knowledge of these institutions in their detailed work
ing comes chiefly from the documents known as the Welsh
Laws, which are to be found in various widely differing editions
of the twelfth and succeeding centuries, but are ultimately to
be traced to a code prepared, as tradition avers, under the
direction of Hywel the Good in the early part of the tenth.
What precisely was done by Hywel and his advisers will be
discussed in a later chapter ; here it is sufficient to say that,
while the code is our chief source of information for these
institutions, it did not bring them into existence. The cenedl,
closely bound up as it is with the blood- feud, is incontestably
of ancient origin, linking the Welsh of the Middle Ages with
their prehistoric ancestors. The tref appears, under that name,
in the ninth century records entered in the Book of St. Chad,
and is already an organisation for the regular supply of food.2
Gildas bears ample witness to the fact that in the sixth century
his countrymen were ruled by kings, whose power rested on
the possession of military force, and who tried, imprisoned and
punished criminals as part of the daily business of kingship.3
As to the cantref, it may be in name of more recent upspring-
ing than the other three, but the tribe or " gwlad " it repre
sented undoubtedly had its roots far back in the history of the
Welsh people.
The cenedl was the kindred or clan, extending far beyond
the household or family, but not to be confounded, on the
other hand, with the larger community formed by the people
or tribe. It corresponded to the Latin "gens," the Greek
<yivo<;, the Teutonic " sib," and the Irish " fine ''. It was the
body of kinsmen descended from a common known ancestor
who, recognising their relationship, acted in concert in all
family matters, such as giving in marriage, acknowledging
sons, and, above all, waging the family feuds and ending them
2 " Treb guidauc ... hie est census eius " (Lib. Land. xiv.).
3 See especially c. 27("reges habet Britannia . . . iudices . . . belliger-
antes . . . fuies insectantes ... in sede arbitraturi sedentes . . . vinctos in
carceribus habentes "). In c. 109 there is a reference to " catastam poenalem ".

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 285
by the payment and receipt of compensation. The unity of CHAP.
this body was maintained by the agnatic principle ; the kin- IX-
ship, that is to say, which bound it together was reckoned ex
clusively through males, so that a man could only belong to
one cenedl, which did not include his wife, his mother, or any
maternal relative. In this respect the Welsh appear to have
followed a rule which was widely current among the Aryan
races.4 Unlike the '¦' gens," but like the " fine," the cenedl was
further limited by being confined to kindred within a certain
degree of relationship. The fifth cousin (in Gwynedd the
sixth) was, at least for matters of the first importance, the out
side man ; " beyond this degree," the lawyers alleged, " there
can be no computation of kinship ".5 Within this limit, on the
other hand, every man knew his pedigree accurately ; to quote
Giraldus once more, " the most ordinary folk among this people
keep careful count of the family pedigree ".6
The cenedl was so far organised as to have regular officers,
with privileges substantial enough to make it worth while to
pay the king a fee for admission to them.7 Of these officers
the chief was the pencenedl, the " caput " or " magister gentis,"
whose duty is described in general terms as " to act with his
kinsman <in every need that might beset him ".8 He was the
guardian, the champion against oppression, the corrector, too,
if there should be occasion,9 of the men and women of his clan.
The office was not hereditary, in the sense of descending
directly from father to son,10 and so differed from the kingship
of the tribe ; rather it was elective, the heads of households
of the cenedl choosing one of their number, when a vacancy
occurred, to hold it for life.11 Among a people who had no
4 Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, tr. F. B. Jevons
(London, 1890), pp. 3g7-g.
6 LL. i. 226 (Ven. MS. B.). The difference in practice between Gwynedd
and the rest of Wales explains the discrepancies which caused perplexity to
Hubert Lewis (Ancient Laws, pp. 83-4) and Seebohm (Trib. System, pp. 78-81).
6 Gir. Camb. ut supra.
7 Dim. II. xxiii. 54, 55 = Lat. A. II. xvii. 5,3 = Lat. B. II. xxxix. 3, ±.
8 Ven. II. xix. 3. For the expression "ymyrru ag un yn rhaid " see Mab.
133-4- 9 Dim. II. viii. 20.
10 Gw. II. xl. 10, where it is added : " oes uodawc yw pen kynedlaeth ".
11 Details are wanting as to the method of election, but several points are
clear. The office was held for life (see previous note) ; it did not pass automati
cally (as suggested in LL. ii. 516 — " hynav o wr cyvallwy yn y genedl "), for the

286 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, nobility, as distinguished from the free tribesmen, > the pencenedl
Ix" naturally ranked high in the social scale, and, judged by the
worth of his life and honour in the tribal tariff, was only in
ferior in dignity to the immediate kin of the crown.
It was one of the specific duties of the pencenedl to stand at
the head of his clan when it was necessary for the body to take
action in respect of the receiving or denying of a son. The
institution of marriage was, as one might expect in a Christian
land, recognised and in honour among the Welsh, and in
volved important legal rights and obligations. But it was not
a rule of Welsh law, at any rate in Gwynedd, that only sons
born in wedlock should be deemed legitimate, should be
members of their father's family and inherit his possessions.12
The evidence of the legal texts, both direct and indirect, leaves
no doubt that foreign censors had in the main good grounds
for asserting that in Wales no distinction was made between
lawful and natural children.13 Not only had the teaching of
the Church been without effect in this particular, but, what was
still more remarkable in a community so tenacious of ancient
customs, there had been a departure, too, from the Aryan ideal,
which required in the freeborn son pure blood on the mother's
no less than on the father's side.14 In Wales it is clear that,
when once the fact of paternity had been established by the
proper legal procedure — the oath of affiliation not rebutted by
legal denial — the son passed at once into his father's cenedl
and could not henceforth be shut out from any of its privileges.
It was the father who ordinarily denied or received, but, as
the law allowed affiliation many years after the birth of the child,
law finds it necessary to provide for a possible vacancy (Ven. II. xxxi. ig = Dim.
II. viii. 30 = Gw. II. xxxix. 41 = Lat. A. II. viii. 19 = Lat. B. II. xliv. 6) ; it was
held by an " uchelwr " or head of household (Ven. II. xviii. 8).
12 Ven. II. xvi. 2 is quite explicit as to the opposition on this point between
" Cyfraith Hywel " and " Cyfraith Eglwys ". Some of the other texts draw a
distinction between lawful and unlawful sons (e.g., Dim. II. viii. 27), but the
rules as to affiliation everywhere observed leave it hardly doubtful what the real
practice was.
18 " Paternam hereditatem filii inter se, tam naturales quam legitimi, herili
portione dividere contendunt" (Gir. Camb. vi. 225. (Descr. ii. g)). Cf. H. and
St. i. 514 (gravamen No. 18 of church of St. Asaph against Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd) and the provision of the Statute of Rhuddlan (LL. ii. g25) : "quod
bastardi de cetero non habeant hereditates et eciam quod non habeant propartes
cum legitimis nee sine legitimis "-
14 Schrader, op. cit. pp. 3gi-2.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 287
some provision was necessary in the event of his being dead. CHAP.
Then it was that the pencenedl, with seven men of the clan,
took the place of his deceased kinsman and either " swore the
lad away from the cenedl " 15 or formally received him into it.
In Gwynedd there was a ceremony of reception, no doubt of
ancient origin. The pencenedl took the hands of the youth
within his own and kissed him, " for a kiss is the token of kin
ship ". He then placed the right hand of the youth in that of
the eldest of the assembled kinsmen, who also kissed him in
token of the new relationship. Thus the boy passed from
hand to hand until the last of the group was reached.16
The admission of a son to a cenedl was not only a matter
of importance for the near kin, whose rights of inheritance
were affected ; it touched every member of the clan as adding
another name to the long list of those who might claim his
help in the matter of the payment of galanas. The vendetta,
or blood-feud, was still an institution of undoubted vigour and
vitality in mediaeval Wales. So keen was the clan feeling of
solidarity, so strong the bonds which united the cenedl, that no
man could injure or insult, still less pursue to the death, the
humblest of its members without drawing down upon himself
the unanimous hostility and vengeance of the whole kin. Time
could not extinguish the mortal quarrel ; " they are ready," says
Giraldus, "to avenge, not only new and recent injuries, but
also ancient and bygone ones, as though but lately received ". 17
At an early stage, however, the idea of compensation emerged
as the corrective of the evils of a perpetual state of private war ;
the feud, if there was no other way of ending it, might be
bought off. To this problem, then, the law addressed itself; in
a case of "galanas"18 or "enmity" arising out of a violent
death — and how the killing cameabout, whether by accident or
15 u Gwadu mab o genedyl " (Ven. II. xxxi. 7 ; Dim. II. viii. 30). The oath,
as Hubert Lewis says (Ancient Laws, pp. 15-16), had strict reference to the fact
and was not a mere refusal to receive.
18 Ven. II. xxxi. 25.
17 Gir. Camb. vi. 200 (Descr. i. 17). There was a proverb which ran
" Hir y bydd chwerw hen alanas " (Evans, Proverbs, p. 560).
18 From gal, gelyn, a foe. Galanas came to mean not only the effect of the
feud, the wergild, or blood money, but also its cause, the deed of slaughter.
Incidental evidence of the antiquity of the term is furnished by its survival, in
the form " galnes," " galnys " ( = satisfaction for slaughter), among the Strath-
clyde Britons (Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vol. i. (1845), pp. 299-300).

288 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, in self-defence or in cold blood, did not in the least affect the
IX situation19 — under what conditions might the honour of the
one clan be appeased and the safety of the other secured. In
the first place, provision was made for a formal declaration ot
war ; the charge of manslaughter must be publicly made and
an interval left for the legal reply. This might take the form
of a denial, supported by the oaths of a body of compurgators,
or, failing this, there was an undertaking to pay the " galanas,"
wergild, or murder fine, the amount of which was fixed, in a
scale duly graduated according to rank, for every member
of the community. It is unnecessary to enter here into the
elaborate arrangements prescribed by the laws for the collection
and division of the galanas fund ; for the present purpose it is
enough to say that every member of the cenedl of the
" llofrudd " (red hand) had to contribute a share fixed in
amount by the degree of his relationship, and every member
of the cenedl of the slain man received a share calculated upon
the same principle. The matter was further complicated by
the inclusion for the purposes of galanas of kin on the female
side, a practice which was not strictly consistent with the idea
of the cenedl as a purely agnatic body, but which finds more
than one parallel elsewhere.20 At last, after many conferences
and much spinning of legal subtleties, the last penny was paid
and " everlasting concord " established between the two kins.
Should a single penny, however, be wanting of the galanas
money, all that had been done was of no avail ; the law " set
vengeance free," since " a part is not the whole," and, though
all the rest of the money was retained, the " llofrudd " might,
for want of this one penny, be slain with impunity.21 So
narrowly did the ancient spirit of tribal honour watch its rights,
so grudgingly did it yield to the state — for it was the king
who, for a substantial consideration, took the leading part in
the exaction of galanas — the power of setting limits to its in
born liberty of self-defence.
laLL. ii. 42, 44 (§§ 11, 12). The rule Dim. II. i. 35 = Lat. A. II. ii. 33
= Lat. B. II. i. 14 shows that killing in battle might give rise to galanas ; the
West Saxon law under Ine (§ 34) was in almost identical terms.
20 It was also the English custom. Cf. Vinogradoff, Growth of the Manor,
pp. 9-11. 21 Ven. III. i. 18 (MS. B.). The phrase, " cyfraith a ryddha ddial," occurs
in Dim. II. viii. 14.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 289
Considerable independence was enjoyed by the adult CHAP.
members of the cenedl, and there are few traces, in the case of IX"
men, of that absolute paternal power which gave Roman fathers
entire control of the destinies of their sons. In the matter of
holding land, the patriarchal principle, which conceded no rights
to the son while the father was alive, still held good among the
higher classes, but otherwise the attainment of majority brought
with it emancipation. At the age of fourteen22 the young
tribesman was withdrawn from the control of his father, who
might no longer correct him,23 and he became in the eye of
the law a fully responsible person. His independence was
secured by the provision that he was now to come into posses
sion of his rightful share of the family goods ; 24 he might then
choose his career, might enter the royal service in some
capacity, might tempt fortune in some distant land, or, if of
home-keeping disposition, might settle in a house of his own on
some corner of the family land and join in the cultivation of
the patrimony under his father's direction.26 Such was the
position of the " bonheddig cynwynol," the " gentleman born,"
the scion of a free stock ; the son of an aillt or villein reached
manhood and responsibility at the same age, but his freedom
to rove was limited by the laws of villein tenure.
The independent householder was naturally also the married
man, and the laws facilitated early marriage by providing that
at the age of twelve a girl should come into possession of her
goods, the share of the family property which she was entitled
to carry with her to a husband.26 She still remained, however,
under the government of her father and other relatives until
marriage was effected, for the essence of a regular marriage
from the point of view of Welsh law was the formal bestowal
of the bride by her kindred.27 Whatever may have been usual
in the way of invoking a blessing from the Church, a ceremony
which, it is to be remembered, the canon law did not treat as
22 Ven. II. xxviii. ; Dim. III. ii. 8 ; Lat. B. II. xliv. 3, 4.
23 Ven. II. xxviii. 8.
24 " Medu y da " (ibid.). " Da," i.e., goods, chattels, must always be care
fully distinguished from land, the ownership of which passed under entirely
different conditions.
25 The rules for the division of land on an uchelwr's death show that his
sons were already settled upon it in various detached homesteads.
28 Ven. II. xxx. 27See especially Ven. II. i. 75.
VOL. I. 19

290 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, indispensable, the Welsh conception of a lawful marriage was
one which recognised the ancient rights of the cenedl over its
daughters, in which the father uttered the fateful words, " Maiden,
I have given thee to a husband," 28 and the pencenedl received his
fee from the bridegroom in recognition of the rights of the
kindred as a whole.29 It is likely enough that in primitive
times the whole clan was solemnly consulted ; in the story of
Cilhwch and Olwen, the giant Yspaddaden Pencawr refuses to
give the hand of his daughter until the matter has been laid
before her four great-grandfathers and her four great-grand
mothers, all of whom are alive ; 30 in later practice, no doubt,
the business was arranged more simply. It appears to have
been more usual to wed within the clan than without it;
" marry in the kin and fight the feud with the stranger " 31 was
an old tribal saying, and Giraldus testifies how widely diffused
in Wales among all classes was the custom, notwithstanding
that it wasi reprobated by the Church, of marrying near kindred.32
The wedded wife, though no special privileges were enjoyed
by her children on the ground of their legitimacy, was herself
protected in many ways by the law. Her husband had not, as
in ancient Rome, the power of life andi death over her ; in
everything which concerned galanas she was still a member of
her native cenedl and liable to be avenged by her father and her
brothers.38 Nor might she be beaten, save for serious offences
specified in the codes.34 While she had a limited control over
all the joint property of thei household, including the portion
she had herself brought to the common stock, she had also
certain personal possessions which were exclusively hers and of
which nothing could deprive her.35 Most important of all, the
28 Dim. II. viii. 73 = Gw. II. xxxix. 35 = Lat. A. II. xx. 41 = Lat. B. II.
xxiii. 37.
29 Ven. II. xix. 1. It was but 24d. (a usual figure in the case of official fees),
and cannot, therefore, be treated as a relic of the bride-price. As no other
payment was made by the bridegroom to the relatives of the bride, it must be
supposed that all traces had disappeared of the fact that originally the husband
bought his wife from her kindred.
30 Afaft. 119.
31 •• Dyweddi o wngc, galanas o bell " (Evans, Proverbs, p. 550). " Dyweddi "
= marriage in old Welsh, the preliminary ceremony of betrothal being unknown.
32 Gir. Camb. vi. 213 (Descr. ii. 6). 3S Ven. III. i. 38 (MS. B.).
34 Ven. II. i. 3g ; Dim. II. xviii. 6.
38 These included the " cowyll " or " hood," which is the Morgengabe of
the Germans, the gift of the bridegroom to the bride on the morning after the

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 291
law gave her considerable protection against arbitrary divorce. CHAP.
The Church had not succeeded in making the marriage tie Ix'
indissoluble ; the ancient rule that a man might put away his
wife, if so minded, was still valid, and in certain cases, for
instance, when a king's wife bore him no heir,36 was deemed to
be' very salutary. But the law took care that it should not be
frivolously put into operation by providing for a substantial
payment, known as "agweddi," to the divorced woman, and
allowed even this only during the first seven years of marriage ; 3T
after the lapse of this period, the husband who had grown weary
of his spouse and desired a younger partner had to resign to
the first wife the half of all his possessions, exactly as if the
separation had been brought about by his death.38
The study of the cenedl reveals to us the oldest elements
in Welsh society, those which had resisted the influence of
Roman law and government, of Christian ethical teaching, and
of royal authority as exercised by Welsh chiefs. It carries us
back into the Celtic foreworld, and discloses a system not at
all unlike, in spite of variations of detail, that which prevailed
among the Irish. It was the continuance of this system far
on into the Middle Ages, when feudalism and the canon law
had elsewhere wrought such mighty changes, which gave Welsh
life its piquant interest, its individual tone and colour.
II. The Tref.
The structure of Welsh society as an aggregation of kins
having been examined, it next falls to consider its relation to
the land which it occupied and from which it drew its susten
ance. Largely pastoral in its activities, concerned in the rearing
of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, it was also to some ex-
wedding, and anything which the wife might have subsequently received from her
husband in atonement for his offences against her.
38 In the story of King Pwyll of Dyfed, it is related how the men of the land
began to clamour at the end of the third year against an alliance which had
yielded no royal heir (Mab. 17-18).
37 From the mention of " resipiscendi poena statuta " one may infer that it
was this system which led Giraldus to talk of marriages on trial as usual among
the Welsh (vi. 213-4 (Descr. ii. 6)).
38 A wife irregularly married, without the concurrence of the kindred, was
not entitled to the full " agweddi," though she might not be put away without
some compensation. At the end of seven years she attained the status of *
wedded wife. 19 *

292 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, tent agricultural, tilling the soil for crops of oats, barley and,
1 more rarely, of wheat. The woodlands nurtured bees, which
furnished the mediaeval substitute for sugar; firewood and
building material were supplied from the same quarter. Hunt
ing, hawking and fishing were open to the free tribesman as
means of adding to the family larder. Clothing was made at
home by the inmates of the household, and only articles of
special value were imported. Thus each community was to
a very great extent self-supporting and economically complete ;
the calling of the smith, which was in great honour because it
furnished the warrior with his weapons, was the only industrial
one which appears to have been definitely specialised.39 At
the same time there was within the community itself some
degree of organisation and division of labour, the lower classes
serving the higher, and this leads to the consideration of the
various grades into which Welsh society was anciently divided.
As among other primitive peoples, there was at the bottom
of the social ladder a slave class, supplying most of the manual
labour needed and possessing hardly any rights. The " caeth,"
whether male or female, was the absolute property of his owner ;
he belonged to no cenedl, and, if he were killed, no galanas
arose ; the slayer had merely to recompense his master for the
loss.40 If a slave struck a free man, he was liable to the loss
of his right hand ; 41 if he sought to escape from his thraldom,
he might be recaptured anywhere, and the captor received
a reward.42 The class was probably at one time largely re
cruited by war, but in a later age it was no doubt chiefly main
tained by that active slave trade which was kept going by the
Danes of Ireland, notably at the ports of Bristol and Chester.43
It was by means of slaves that much of the field-work of a
Welsh homestead was performed ; cutting and clearing wood,
digging, and the like were thus accomplished, and so, too, the
menial housework, grinding corn in the family quern, baking
39 Smithcraft ranked with bardism and holy orders as one of three free
vocations which a villein might not follow (Ven. I. xliii. n = Dim. II. viii. 7 =
Lat. A. II. viii. 10 = Lat. B. I. xix. 2).
40 Dim. III. iii. 8 ; Gw. II. xl. 23.
41 Ven. III. i. 34; Dim. II. xvii. 44; Gw. II. v. 32 ; Lat. A. II. xv. 18 ; Lat.
B. II. xxii. 17.
42 Dim. II. xvii. 4g ; Lat. A. II. xvi. 1, 2; Lat. B. II. xxii. 23, 24.
43 Conq. Eng. (2), pp. 443-5.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 293
and washing.44 The lot of a slave was more or less irksome CHAP.
and unpalatable according as the owner was of lower or higher
rank ; the sewing-maid who served the queen was happily
placed,45 while life was not worth living, if a current proverb
is to be believed, for the thrall who was fated to do service to
a villein.46. A second class which stood outside the tribal system was
that of " alltudion " or aliens. The alltud, or " other-country
man," 47 was naturally in very many cases the foreigner from
England, Ireland or the Continent, living in Wales as an exile,
a hostage, or an adventurer, but foreign speech and alien birth
did not, in the sight of the law, form the essence of the alltud
status. What really made the alltud was the want of attach
ment to the soil ; he was the man who had no claim upon any
land in the district, whether as villein or free tribesman, the fifth
wheel in the coach, for whom there was no place in the system
of the country.48 Nevertheless, if he chose to settle in the
district, he received full legal protection, and his descendants
might in time be recognised as proprietors. He was required
to place himself under the protection of some owner of land,
who gave him the foothold on the soil which he required ;
during three generations the bargain was revocable and the
alltud tenant might leave, on condition of halving his chattels
with his lord ; the fourth man— such, at least, was the custom
of Gwynedd 49 — became a landowner, and at the same time a
villein bound to perpetual service.
All who held land or were entitled in due course to succeed
to it were reckoned proprietors, inheritors or Cymry.60 Each
was a member of some cenedl, with a definite " braint " or legal
status ; high and low, they were parts of one system. Never
theless, a broad and well-defined barrier separated the villein
44 Ven. III. i. 33; Dim. II. xvii. 38, 47; Gw. II. vii. 17. For lavatrix =
ancilla, see Lat. A. II. xviii. 12; Lat. B. II. xiii. 12, lv. 1, lvi. 1.
46 Dim. II. viii. 4g mentions "nottwyd gwenigyawl y vrenhines," which is
to be translated " the needle of the queen's domestic ".
48 " Da angheu ar eidywc taeawc " (Evans, Proverbs, p. 546).
47 From a primitive " allo-touto-s," perhaps seen in the " matribus ollototis
sive transmarinis " of a Roman inscription from Binchester (Urk. Spr. 22).
48 See especially Ven. II. xiv. 1, 2, and xv. 8. 49 Ven. II. xvi. 20-6.
60 It is important to observe that the term " Cymro " was not a badge of
freedom, but included the aillt as well as the bonheddig. See note appended to
chap. v.

294 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, holder of land from the free-born member of the tribe. The
aillt or taeog, for he was known indifferently by either name,
as well as by the borrowed one of " bilain," 61 was distinguished
in many ways as belonging to an inferior social grade. He was
subject to a lord, who might be the king, or one of the free
landowners. He had no place in the free court of the district
in which he lived. Hunting and hawking were for him forbidden
amusements, and therefore he received no more compensation
for any dog of his which might be killed than was paid for a
farmyard cur, or for any bird he lost than the value of a hen.62
He might not leave the tillage of the soil for any liberal occupa
tion ; smithcraft, the> bardic order, the Church were all closed
against him.63 He might not, indeed, quit the community in
which he was bred and born, the corner of the social system
which the law provided for him, and if he took to flight and
deserted his lawful station, he paid forfeit with all his posses
sions, which were immediately seized by his lord.54 All the
conditions of his life show that he was regarded as by pre
eminence the cultivator of the soil, the man whose industry as
farmer and stockbreeder was necessary to the life of the com
munity. Little light is thrown by the laws upon the way in which
the aillt of an uchelwr or free landholder served his master and
was associated for work with his fellows.55 The code of Hywel
was put together, primarily, in the interests of the crown, and
accordingly in the documents derived from it matters in which
the king had no concern are only incidentally treated. As to
the king's aillts, there is, on the other hand, some information,
and this reveals the villeins who provided for the needs of
the court as grouped together in communities known as trefs.
61 Aillt is the usual term in Ven., taeog and bilain in the other codes. Aillt
is connected by Whitley Stokes (Urk. Spr. 21, as modified by 327) with the
Irish " alt, ailt " = house, and taeog is no doubt from " ty," but the meaning is
" a slave having a house " and not, as the " verna " of Davies, Diet, suggests,
" a slave born in the house "- " Alltud " and " aillt " have been much confused
by late writers, but in the authoritative legal texts they are always carefully
distinguished. 82 Ven. III. xiv. 17 ; Dim. II. xiv. 18 ; Gw. II. xxi. 12 ; Ven. III. xv. 10.
53 See note 3g above.
64 Dim. I. xxix. 6; II. xii. 5 ; Gw. I. xxxv. n; xxxvi. 12.
88 Ven. II. xvi. 20-6 deal with uchelwrs' alltuds and aillts, and suggest that
they were under much the same rules as those of the king.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 295
The tref was originally the " house " or " dwelling-place " ; 66 a CHAP.
secondary meaning which it acquired was "hamlet, village," IX-
and this is what seems to be denoted in the case of these
villeins — the group of villein homesteads clustered together for
the purpose of common cultivation of the surrounding land.67
Each taeogdref or villein hamlet was responsible as a whole for
what was due from it to the king, and, while each man had his
own house, farm stock and farm buildings, it is clear that for
the important business of ploughing there was co-operation.
The heavy wooden plough was drawn by a team of eight
oxen, and to furnish these the tref clubbed together ; each
taeog became a member of what was known as a " cyfar " or
plough fellowship, and it was a rule that in no taeogdref might
the annual ploughing begin until every man had found his
cyfar.58 Each day's ploughing produced an " erw " or " cyfair,"
a strip of ploughed land of which the dimensions varied in
different districts, but which was usually about ten times as long
as it was broad.69 When twelve erws had been ploughed, they
were assigned in accordance with a standing rule among the
contributors to the ploughing, including not only the owners of
the oxen and the plough, but also the ploughman and the ox-
tender, the latter being not a " driver " but a " caller " (geilwad),
for he walked backward in front of the team and relied even
more upon the power of his voice than upon his ox-goad.60
It is likely that each hamlet had its ploughman and its caller,
who made ploughcraft their special business. Whether the
land ploughed by a villein plough-team had been previously
58 Urk. Spr. 137, 334. The word occurs in the sense of "house" in the
ninth-century glosses of Martianus Capella (Arch. Camb. IV. iv. (1873) 4) ; this
is also the meaning which explains "adref," "athref," and "gartref " and very
many of the trefs of local nomenclature.
67 " Trefgordd " is also used to denote the villein hamlet ; Dim. II. ii. 12,
compared with Gw. II. ii. 12, shows that it was used interchangeably with tref.
58 Gw. II. xix. 2. Ploughing began on gth February (Ven. III. vii. 4).
89 " Cyfar" = co-tillage, and " cyfeir " (now " cyfer," an acre) = a day's
tilth, are carefully distinguished in the texts (for " cyfeir " see Ven. III. vii. 4 ;
xxii. 236, 237; xxiv. 13), though not inAneurin Owen's translation. MSS. D. B.
C. J. K. of the Ven. code clearly identify the " cyfeir " and the " erw " in III.
xxiv. 3 (" erw y gwydd a honno a elwir cyfeir y casnad "). A. N. Palmer has
made a special study of the various customary acres of Wales ; see especially
Arch. Camb. V. xiii. (1896), 1-19.
80 " Stimulatore praeambulo sed retrogradu " (Gir. Camb. vi. 201 (Descr.
i. 17)). " Geilwad" = driver is found in Job xxxix. 7.

29& HISTORY OF WAL£S.
CHAP, allotted as arable land to the villeins individually or was
common for this purpose to the whole of the tref is not made
clear by the laws,61 but it is certain that the erws lay in open
fields, unprotected by ditches or hedges, and that it was cus
tomary to plough virgin soil from time to time in order to get
the benefit of unexhausted land.
The tref of villeins, which as a cluster of homesteads is
often styled "trefgordd," acted together for other ends than
that of tillage. The cattle of the tref grazed together in the
wide pastures which surrounded it under the eye of the village
herdsman or " bugail," 62 whose dog walked out at the head of
the herd in the morning and followed its rear at night, a valiant
protector against the wolves of the forest, not a penny inferior
in legal worth to the best ox in the herd.63 There was also a
village smithy, a village kiln for the drying of corn, and a bath-
hut, in which water was heated for special ablutions.64
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the "taeogdref" or
villein hamlet is that its folk held their land, not by right of
kinship, but as members of the community. Land of this
description, the Venedotian code explains, is not to be divided
(like family land) between brothers, but the king's officers are
to apportion it equally between all the men of the tref, whence
it is known as " tir cyfrif " (reckoned land).65 It is further ex
plained that no land of this kind can revert to the lord for
want of heirs, since, as another passage puts the case, the son's
share of his father's erw is, in such a tref, no greater than that
81 Ven. II. xvi. 22, referring to men who have become aillts, says they have
their homesteads and land attached to these and " eu tir namyn hynny yn dir
swch a chwlltyr (i.e., arable land) rhyngddynt". On the other hand, III. xxiv.
17 suggests that the partners in the "cyfar" had land of their own which they
could require the team to plough when it was their turn to receive an " erw ".
82 " Bugail, " which now means shepherd, is properly neat-herd or cattle-tender
(Urk. Spr. 178). For " bugail trefgordd," tending the cattle of different owners,
see Ven. II. iv. 8 ; Dim. II. viii. 81 ; Gw. II. xxviii. 24. Lat. A. calls him " pastor
communis uille " (II. v. 8) ; so Lat. B. II. xvi. 8.
88 Ven. III. xiv. ig ; Dim. II. xiv. 18 ; Gw. II. xxi. 14 ; Lat. A. II. xxiv. 30 ;
Lat. B. I. xiii. 26.
84 Ven. III. iii. 20 ; Dim. II. viii. 36 ; Gw. II. xxxix. 16 ; Lat. A. II. iii. 14 ;
Lat. B. II. vi. 11.
85 Ven. II. xii. 6 ; xviii. 7. It may be said, with reference to Vinogradoff,
Growth of the Manor, p. g3, that in the laws, as in the extents, " tir cyfrif" is
clearly always villein land. Save in the Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud (for which
see note appended to this chapter), there is nothing to suggest that a system of
co-tillage existed in mediaeval Wales among the free tribesmen.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 297
of the furthest man in the tref.66 There was no general shift- CHAP. TV
ing of the homesteads, for the law provided that each man
should remain in undisturbed possession of his " tyddyn," with
the home croft of four erws,67 and further laid down the rule
that a taeog should be succeeded in this holding by his young
est son.68 But as to the general arable land, on whatever
principle it was tilled, whether as private or as communal
property, it is clear that it was not subject to any rights of
inheritance, but was regarded as a common fund for the main
tenance of the whole tref. Every taeog's son in the village, if
he had attained the age of fourteen and was not, as the young
est son, his father's destined successor, was entitled, on each dis
tribution, to a man's share of the land which was being divided.
Thus the village community is to be found on Welsh soil,
though only among the unfree cultivators. It is natural to re
gard this class, holding a servile position and having few privileges,
as the descendants of a conquered race,69 and the system of ten
ure under which they worked is obviously ancient, telling of the
long settlement on the land of the cultivating community. In
view of what has been said in the early chapters of this history,
one may therefore without undue boldness recognise in these
aillts and taeogs the remnant of the Iberian people, the oldest
tillers of the soil in Wales, reduced to servitude by wave after
wave of Celtic conquest, by the might of the ancestors of the
free tribesmen, whose institutions are now to be examined.
Besides the true tref, or village community of servile tenants,
there was another tref, termed the free tref, which seems to
have acquired its name through being, like the other, a definite
area within which there was joint responsibility for the render
due to the king. Every commote was divided into trefs,
some of which were bond and some free ; the free trefs, no
less than the bond, paid each its annual contribution towards
the maintenance of the court.70 But the free tref was not a
86 Ven. II. xxi. 2 ; LL. ii. 56, 64.
87 For the home croft of four or eight erws, which went with every home
stead or " tyddyn," see Ven. II. xii. 1 ; Dim. II. xxiii. 1 ; Gw. II. xxxi. 1.
88 LL. ii. 64.
89 Lewis, Ancient Laws of Wales, p. 47 ; W. People, p. 215 ; Vinogradoff,
Growth of the Manor, p. 25.
70 The Venedotian code makes the " maenol," containing four trefs, the unit
which paid the king the free render of £1 (i. 188). But all the particulars it gives

298 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, hamlet or body of villagers ; there is clear evidence that the
households of the better class in Wales were not grouped to
gether in villages, but were scattered here and there over the
face of the country. Observers were struck by the difference
in this respect between England and Wales ; " they do not
foregather in cities, villages or castles," says Giraldus,71 "but
inhabit the woods like anchorites," and Archbishop Peckham a
century later noticed the same love of solitude.72 It may be
pointed out that the map of Wales bears witness to this day
to the divergence between English and Welsh custom in the
matter of the distribution of the rural population.73 Most of
the Welsh parish churches stand almost alone, the houses, in
stead of forming a group as in England, with the church as its
centre, being pretty evenly dispersed over the whole parish.
The free tref was constituted by marking off a number of these
scattered holdings and associating them in responsibility for
the payment of a fixed portion of the free render of the com
mote. Such a tref might very well be occupied by a body
of kinsmen, since kinsfolk would naturally settle together; it
would be separated from other trefs by well-marked barriers.74
But it would not be, like the taeogdref, a society of joint tillers
of the soil, with interests closely intertwined, but merely a group
of private owners, each pursuing his own way and holding his
land separately.
In the free tref the landowner was the man variously known
as the uchelwr (high man), gwrda (goodman) and breyr.75 For
under this head have an air of unreality ; from the phrase " y dref uchaf (i.e.,
next to Arfon) o arllechwed " used in Mab. 63 of Creuwyrion (for which see Rec.
Cam. 12-13), it would appear that in Gwynedd, as elsewhere, the term "tref"
was used to denote the fiscal unit which became the " villa " and township of
later times. Vinogradoff (148) points out how among the English artificial and
composite " tuns " were formed for administrative and judicial purposes on the
analogy of the real village settlements.
71 " Non urbe, non vico, non castris cohabitant ; sed quasi solitarii silvis
inhaerent " (Gir. Camb. vi. 200 (Descr. i. 17)).
72 " II ne habitent pas en semble, mes menit chescun loinz de autre " (H. and
St. i. 570).
73 The distinction is one between Celtic and Teutonic practice, as pointed out
by Meitzen. See the contrasted maps in Social England (igoi), i. pp. 164, 165.
74 For the meer between two trefs see Ven. II. xxi. 1 ; xxv. 1 ; Gw. II. xxxii. 1, 5.
76 Breyr is a purely South- Welsh term, while uchelwr occurs chiefly in Ven.,
often in the form " mab uchelwr," in which, as in " mab aillt," " mab sant,"
the prefix merely indicates the gender. Gwrda is commoner in general literature
than in the laws.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 299
the attainment of this position it was necessary not only to be CHAP.
of free birth, a member of a free cenedl, but also to have been
fully emancipated, to have been freed by death from the con
trol of father and paternal grandfather. This, it has been
stated above, was not necessary for the holding of personal pro
perty or " da " ; the " boneddig cynwynol " might be a house
holder and owner of cattle, but he had no rights over the family
land while his father was alive.76 Thus the uchelwrs were not
only a wealthy, but also an experienced class, who naturally
took a leading position in all the affairs of the country ; they
were the nearest approach to a nobility to be found in Welsh
society77 and are sometimes dignified by that title.78 They
had alltuds and aillts who did them service ; they hunted the
deer in their forests and took the fish which were caught in
their weirs. Each lived in a " neuadd " or hall, which, although
rudely built of timber and wattle, like all the buildings of the
Welsh, was a much more substantial affair than the mere " ty "
of the taeog.79 It was the privilege of the uchelwr to possess
a harp80 and he was a recognised patron of travelling bards.81
He was the man of leisure and dignified ease, the organ of the
public opinion of his commote, the adviser, the critic and the
defender of the crown.
Nevertheless, the uchelwr was not the absolute owner of
the land under his control. He had but a life interest in it, and
could not give, sell or bequeath any part of it, to the detriment
of the family whose patrimony it was.82 It passed on from
generation to generation by fixed laws of inheritance, which
might not be set aside. The first principle observed was equal
division on the death of an uchelwr among all sons. Daughters
were excluded, because it was not for them to carry on the
family traditions, but by marriage to secure heirs for other
76 Ven. II. xxviii. g.
77 The triad defining the three sorts of men as a king, a breyr, and a villein
(LL. i. 350) excludes a nobility in the ordinary sense.
78 See LL. ii. 1083 (index, s.v. nobilis) and Gir. Camb. vi. 166 (Descr. i. 2 :
" nobiles qui Kambrice Hucheilwer quasi superiores viri vocantur ").
79 Ven. III. xxi. 2, 3. 80 Ven. I. xliii. 2 = Dim. II. viii. 10.
81 Dim. I. xviii. 1 ; Gw. I. xix. 2 ; Lat. A. I. xxii. 2 ; Lat. B. I. xxi. 10. I
take the reference to the taeog to be contemptuous and a reflection on the taste
of the bard who could choose such a patron.
82 Ven. II. xv. 8 ; LL. ii. 270.

3oo HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, proprietors.83 All sons, on the other hand, took equal shares,
since the purpose of the law was to maintain the tribe, not to
keep the estate intact. Such favour as was shown fell to the
lot, not of the eldest, but of the youngest son, for it was he
who, among uchelwrs and villeins alike, succeeded to his father's
homestead,84 the others being expected to remain in the
homes they had made for themselves on the family land during
their father's lifetime. But the law went further even than
this in its benevolent determination to provide a fit main
tenance for every uchelwr and ordained that, after the equal
division between brothers, there might be on occasion a similar
division between first cousins and even one between second
cousins, so as to prevent the rise of marked inequalities
between uchelwrs who were nearly akin to each other. Thus
arose a subdivision of the cenedl — the group of men descended
in the male line from a common great-grandfather ; they could
inherit from each other in default of issue and formed the body
which it was necessary to consult before any part of the land
could, for however good a reason, be disposed of to an out
sider.85 III. The Cantref.
The survey of mediaeval Wales which was undertaken in
the eighth chapter showed us a country divided into regions
called cantrefs, each of which was again divided into two, three
or more commotes. Both the cantref and the commote are
repeatedly mentioned in the laws, but upon examination it be
comes evident that they are not two separate institutions, the
one subordinate in its working to the other, like the English
shire and hundred ; though the geographical facts at first sight
suggest this, they must not be so interpreted. The leading
feature of the commote is its court, for the trial of disputes
among the free tribesmen, and this is sometimes called the
court of the commote or the cantref. But nowhere is there
83 Ven. II. xv. i ; Dim. II. xxiii. 7 is less rigid, recognising a daughter's
claim in the absence of any male heir. This relaxation is said in the Statute of
Rhuddlan (LL. ii. g25) to be " contra consuetudinem Wallensem antea usitatam,"
but it may be that the stricter rule was confined to Gwynedd.
84 The obvious exception in the case of the successor of a chief is duly noted
in LL. ii. 578, 686.
86 LL. ii. 270.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 301
any shadow of a suggestion that a case might be taken from CHAP,
the commote to the cantref, as from a lower to a higher court,
or that there were two distinct sets of officers for the two areas.
In the laws it is the commote which appears as the living and
active body, the references to the cantref being for the most
part perfunctory, with a smack of antiquity about them.86 It
is further to be noticed that the commote does not appear in
the earliest Welsh records,87 while the names of the Welsh
commotes wear in the main a much more modern air than
those of the cantrefs. The conclusion is, therefore, not to be
resisted that the commote or " neighbourhood " is of compara
tively recent origin ; when the cantrefs had become, through
the growth of population and the development of more settled
habits, too large to be convenient areas of tribal co-operation,
they were divided by agreement into smaller districts, each of
which had henceforth its own independent organisation.88
There is good reason to think that this step had not been
taken in South Wales before the appearance of the Normans,
and that the commote dates from the end of the eleventh
century.89 The machinery of the commote, therefore, is in origin that
of the cantref, and, during the period which is now under con
sideration, it is with the cantref only that one has to deal. A
further question naturally arises, whether the cantref itself is a
primitive institution and may not have been the fruit of an
early attempt at constitutional reform. This is certainly sug
gested by the derivation of the name ; the area formed by the
86 Ven. knows only of the court of the cymwd, but Dim. II. viii. no and 116
have " brawdwr cymwd neu gantref" and "llys cymwd neu gantref" is a
common phrase in LL. ii. The only passage in which an office is associated
with the cantref is Gw. II. xl. g, where the king's footholder or " troediog " is
called " eisteddiad cantref, " a phrase which is no doubt to be regarded as an
archaism. The cantref continued, of course, to be of importance as a geographi
cal area after losing its political importance ; see Dim. II. viii. 14 ; xxiii. 47-g ;
Gw. II. xxxix. 5.
87 The term is not to be found in Lib. Land. It occurs twice in Mab. (31, 62).
88 Gr. Celt (2). pp. ig2, 207 ; Urk. Spr. 87.
89 The usual list of the commotes of Morgannwg, besides including such
obviously late forms as Tir yr Iarll and Tir yr Hwndrwd (" Tirhundred " in the
Cottonian list), does not appear to account for Bro Morgannwg at all. In Dyfed
again, Penfro, which was originally the name of a cantref, could not have
become the name of a commote also until " Castell Penfro " had come to be
known by the shorter title.

IX

3°2 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, grouping of a " hundred houses " or " hamlets " (can tref) would
seem to be of unmistakably artificial origin. In point of fact,
there is good evidence that the cantref is the historical suc
cessor of the " gwlad " or " tud," i.e., country or tribe, the body
of free tribesmen who, either as ancient settlers or as Brythonic
immigrants, held sway as an independent community within
bounds which clearly marked them off from their neighbours.90
At some period which cannot now be precisely ascertained, the
larger gwlads, such as M6n, Ceredigion, Brycheiniog, Ystrad
Tywi, were divided into cantrefs, the smaller, such as Meiri
onydd, Dyffryn Clwyd, Buellt, became cantrefs themselves,91
and thus the cantref everywhere took the place of the tribe as
the means of enforcing justice and as the link between people
and crown.
The cantref court was an assembly of the uchelwrs of the
cantref, who as heads of households represented all the freemen
of the tribe. There was no fixed place of meeting ; indeed, it
was customary in cases of dispute as to land to meet on the
land which was the subject of the lawsuit.92 The king pre
sided, or, in his absence, his official representative ; it was his
" llys " or " gorsedd," the " high seat " of his jurisdiction.93 In
South Wales, the assembly formed, nevertheless, a1 considerable
check upon his power, for it might, by its " dedfryd gwlad," or
"judgment of country," declare him to have acted oppressively
and obtain the reversal of the deed which had incurred its
censure.94 Giraldus bears witness to the extent to which in
90 " Gulat " is used for cantref (or cymwd) in the " Privilegium Teliaui " in
Lib. Land. 120 (line 10), and the "gladoet" of Ven. II. ii. 4 must be cantrefs.
Gwlad and cantref are treated as synonymous in Dim. II. viii. 14 ; Gw. II. xxxix.
5 ; the " henwryeyth gwelat " of Lat. A. II. ix. 15 are the " heneuydyon cantref"
of Lat. B. II. xxiv. 45. "Tud," the Irish tuath (Urk. Spr. 131), is of rarer
occurrence; cf. however, the "castell teirtut" of Lib. Land. 134, said to be the
meeting-point of Cantref Bychan, Cantref Selyf and Buellt.
91 It is quite possible that at the time of the later division some of the smaller
centres became commotes, as not requiring to be divided, and were then grouped
together in artificial cantrefs, which never had a separate existence. This
appears to have been the case in Powys, where many of the cantref names have
an unreal ring and are not known otherwise than from the lists.
92Ven. II. xi. g (a hynny ar y tir), 10 (dyfod ar y tir).
93 For " gorsedd " = court see Ven. II. xi. 51; Dim. II. viii. 15 ; LL. ii. 8
(§ 24). In Mab. 8, 32, 166, and in place names, it has the meaning of " mound,"
" tumulus," possibly because it was a royal habit to hold session on elevations of
the kind. 94 Dim. III. i. 17 ; cf. II. viii. i3g.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 303
>
the south the royal dignity and supremacy were prejudiced by CHAP.
this aristocratic independence ; the realm of Deheubarth, he
says, though much larger than either Gwynedd or Powys, is
not so desirable a heritage, by reason of the number and
insubordinate temper of its uchelwrs.96 It is hardly fanciful to
find in this difference between the political atmosphere of the
north and that of the south the chief explanation of the fact
that the princes who worked most successfully for Welsh unity
were in the main of northern origin. At the stage of political
development which the Welsh people had now reached, aristo
cratic freedom meant tribal isolation and weakness, while royal
power in capable hands made for national union and strength.
And in South Wales, not only did the uchelwrs keep a tight
hold of the reins in matters of government, they also retained
to the full their ancient judicial powers. In Gwynedd and
Powys, though the king's gwrdas still sat on his right and on
his left as the assessors of his court, their functions were purely
ornamental ; in every commote there was an official or pro
fessional judge, who took the business of judgment out of
their hands.96 There was no such officer in the south ; " in
Deheubarth," says the Dimetian code, " there is in every court
a great number of judges, as aforetime before the days of
Hywel the Good, to wit, every owner of land by privilege of
that land, though it be not land of office ".9T
The tribal court dealt, it would appear, with all such
questions requiring judicial settlement as arose among the free
tribesmen. Of these the most important was the determina
tion of disputes as to who was the lawful owner of land, a
matter settled, as has been said, on the land itself, in full court,
after elaborate pleadings and counter-pleadings. Besides the
judges and the parties, there were in attendance the clerk or
recorder, the " rhingyll " or usher and summoner of the court,
and, in many cases, two professional pleaders, whose duty it
was to conduct the parties through the mazes and pitfalls
spread for the unwary by primitive rules of legal procedure.98
96 Gir. Camb. vi. 166 (Descr. i. 2).
96 Ven. II. xi. 10; Dim. I. xxxi. 1 ; II. viii. no. 97 Dim. I. xxxi. 2.
98 The employment of a " tafodiog" or pleader was optional in the south
(Dim. II. ix. 5) ; in Ven. II. xi. 10, the presence of a " cynghaws " on each side
is assumed. That the advocate was a professional lawyer appears from LL. ii.
98 (§ 7), 146 (§ 33). For the " gwallawgeir " or "faulty word " see Dim. II. viii. 78.

304 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Silence was proclaimed in the field/ and no one might help
IX- plaintiff or defendant by any suggestion save his " canllaw " or
"hand-rest," the friend specially assigned for this purpose.
Witnesses gave evidence as to recent facts ; the important
question of ancestry was settled by the testimony of neighbour
ing landowners, which might not be i gainsaid. The decision
rested with the judges, who in South Wales chose one of their
number to preside and announce the verdict.99 Such in a few
words was the nature of the proceedings in an action of "kin
and stock " ; other suits are not so fully described, but it may
be assumed that they followed in great measure the1 lines of
this, the most important. There was a process for obtaining
temporary possession of land which was being claimed in the
court, a process open only to the son of a former occupant and
known by the remarkable name of " dadanhudd " or " uncover
ing ". It is explained, and no doubt rightly, as the assertion by
the son of his right to uncover the fire on the family hearth in
succession to his father.100 In the Welsh house, it is known
from other sources, the fire, burning on an open hearth in the
centre of the floor, was at bedtime covered up with peats or
logs, so as to keep it gently smouldering until the morning,
when it was again uncovered and set blazing with the aid of
fresh fuel.101 If the son claimed the right to uncover his dead
father's hearth, it can only have been as the priest of a long-
forgotten ritual, as the lawful head of the house ministering to
the ancestral hearth-spirits, and thus the action of " dadanhudd "
preserves in its name the one known trace among the Welsh of
that ancestor-worship which was so widely practised among
Aryan peoples, and has been held to be of greater significance
for their religious history than the nature-worship rendered so
familiar to us by the classical writers.102
"Dim. II. viii. 114.
100 LL. ii. 140-2 (§§ 26, 27) ; Wotton, 565 ; Evans, Diet. s.v. Moses Williams
aptly cites a couplet : — " Anhuddwyd aelwyd ; Duw a welo
Dodi un heddyw a'i dadanhuddo ".
101 Gir. Camb. vi. 184 (Descr. i. 10) says " igne sicut die, sic et nocte tota,
ad pedes (concubantium) accenso ". Cf. Ven. II. i. 31 ; Lat. A. II. xix. 11 ; Lat.
B. II. xxiii. 33.
102 The subject in general is discussed in Coulanges, La Cite Antique and
W. E. Hearn, The Aryan Household (London, 1870), its bearing on " dadanhudd "
in Trib. System, pp. 81-3. There is no authority for the form " dad«nhudd " and
little warrant for the translation " reuncovering".

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 3°5
Another matter which came under the notice of the court CHAP.
of the cantref was the determination of boundaries.103 It is to
be observed, however, that more was involved in this than the
ascertaining of the facts. Facts were, in an early Welsh court,
often quite subordinate to status, and the mere will of the
landowner of " higher privilege " was enough to give effect to
his desire to extend his boundaries at the expense of a less
privileged neighbour. Thus the Church meered against the
king, the king against his subjects, the uchelwr against the
aillt, the aillt against the alltud. Fable reflects the spirit of the
law when it tells how the young prince Geraint of Cornwall
traversed the borders of his realm with a company of guides,
the best men of the land, and "the furthest mark which was
shown him, this he ever seized on as his own ".104 The law for
bade the carrying of the custom to ridiculous and violent ex
tremes, but the love of encroachment remained deeply rooted
in the national disposition ; " the digging up of boundary
ditches, the removal of landmarks, the outstripping of bounds,
the occupation and extension of lands by hook or by crook,"
says Giraldus Cambrensis, " are a passion with this people be
yond any other race." 105
There was much that was primitive in the criminal law ad
ministered in the cantref court, while at the same time modern
conceptions of crime as an offence against the well-being of the
whole community and of penalty as a matter for the state and
not for the injured individual had made considerable headway.
The law of galanas, discussed in the first section of this chapter,
retained most of the ancient leaven, being little more than an
attempt to 'regulate and keep within bounds the primitive right
of revenge. Where, however, there was no question of loss of
life, offences were for the most part dealt with, not on the basis
of tribal custom, but on the assumption that they touched the
honour and prestige of the king, for whose broken peace
due atonement must be made. Fighting, violent seizure of
another's goods, attacks on the honour of women, involved
the payment of a "dirwy " or special fine of twelve cows ; a
" camlwrw " or fine of three cows was levied for a large number
103 For the law of meering see LL. i. 196, 536, 542, 762, 764, 774 ; ii. 76,
90, 148-50. 184 Mab. 268. 10B Gir. Cam. vi. 211 (Descr. ii. 4).
VOL. I. 20

306 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, of minor offences, such as contempt of court, neglect of official
x> duty, unauthorised meddling with another's property. Penal
ties were imposed not only upon principal offenders, in case of
murder, theft or house-burning, but also upon those who in one
way or another were sharers in their guilty enterprises ; this
inclusion within the scope of the law of the " affeithiau " 106 or
"affections" of a crime was no doubt an innovation due to
some early reformer, for that it was of recent origin is shown
by the fact that no part of the fine exacted from an accomplice
to murder went to the relatives of the murdered man.107
Theft, as was usual in primitive communities, was punished
with great severity ; it was taken for granted that the thief
caught with the stolen property in his possession would fall a
just victim to his captor's rage,108 and the law only interposed
to secure a fair trial of the issue whether there had been theft
or not ; upon condemnation the flagrant thief was ignomini-
ously hanged.109 The suspected thief who did not succeed in
legally establishing his innocence was not executed, but escaped
on payment of a heavy fine. As was inevitable, the adaman
tine rigour of the law of theft led to very careful definition of
the crime. It was distinguished from violent seizure, which
was esteemed comparatively venial, from taking in ignorance,
and even from taking without permission, provided that there
was in this last case no attempt at concealment or denial.110
Finally, a remarkable provision in some of the codes exempts
from the doom of theft the starving man who, after begging
for three days, and receiving nothing, helps himself to the food
which he needs to keep him alive.111 That every man had the
right to live was a principle of the law/and the sentiment of the
country demanded that every person of substance should keep
open house, not only for ordinary travellers, but also for the
106 A loan-word from the Lat. affectus, which had in law the sense of
" animus, consilium".
107 So Ven. III. i. n, where the question is argued on grounds of principle
against the " rey " whose view is doubtless embodied in Dim. II. iii. 13.
188 Cf. Maine, Ancient Law, tenth ed. (1885), pp. 378-9.
109 The captured thief, apparently a mouse, but really a wizard in that shape,
is destined for the gallows in the story of Manawyddan (Mab. 54-5).
110 " Lledrad," " trais," " anoddeu " and " anghyfarch " are defined in Ven.
III. ii. 52-5 ; Dim. III. vi. 23-6. There was no penalty for "anoddeu " and only
a camlwrw for " anghyfarch ".
111 Dim. II. viii. 94 = Lat. B. II. x. 1.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 307
destitute and the friendless. Giraldus did but state the posi- CHAP. TV
tion in round, set terms when he said : " Beggars are unknown
among this people, for all houses are open to every one alike.
Liberality, especially in the form of hospitable entertainment,
is deemed by them to be the chief of virtues." 112
It is scarcely necessary to say that criminal procedure ex
hibited little of that careful sifting of evidence which is char
acteristic of a modern law court. The business of the cantref
authorities was to get the parties face to face and then to com
mit the issue to the arbitrament of the powers above, invoked
on either side by solemn 1 oaths. Every charge was made upon
oath and, broadly speaking, had to be met in the same way,
testimony as to the facts being usually not admitted. But the
single oath of the accused was rarely sufficient to rebut the
charge ; the presumption was too strong against him, and he
was required to clear himself by means of a " rhaith," or jury,
who supported him in his protestation that he was innocent.
In South Wales the "rhaith gwlad" or "jury of the country"
upon which an accused person had to rely was apparently
chosen from among the members of the court 113 and numbered
no less than fifty men. What had originally been an appeal
to heaven on the part of the man's kinsmen had become some
thing very like an appeal to the public opinion of the cantref.
The religious character of the proceedings was, however, never
entirely forgotten ; oaths were sworn upon relics of the saints,
and, as special penalties were believed to be in reserve for the
men who by perjury dishonoured these visible symbols of a
power not yet defunct, there was great anxiety to secure and
tender to the opposing party the relic which had the greatest
fame in the district as the avenger of any false oath that might
be sworn upon it.114 Gospels were of less account in this re
spect than such precious objects as the torque of St. Cynog
or the bell of St. David kept at Glascwm, for the saints of
Wales, like those of Ireland, were held to be pitiless in venge
ance when their ire was kindled by an indignity.116
The system of civil and criminal law which has been lightly
112 Gir. Camb. vi. 182 (Descr. i. 10). U3 Dim. II. viii. 135, 136.
114 For the seeking of relics see Ven. II. xxxi. 6; Dim. III. vi. 19; Gw. II.
xxxvii. 1.
115 Gir. Camb. vi. 26, 27 (Itin. i. 2), 130 (ii. 7).
20 *

308 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, outlined in this section — and limits of space will not allow the
treatment of the subject on a more extended scale — was not
confined in its working to the cantref court. Its rules were
observed in the supreme court, in which the " ynad llys " or
royal judge decided the disputes of the circle surrounding the
king, in the courts held by the " maer " and the " canghellor "
for the villein hamlets of the cantref,116 and in those, altogether
exempt from royal jurisdiction, in which bishop and abbot dis
pensed justice to their tenants. Yet it may well be believed that
the court of the cantref, representing the ancient tribal freedom,
was its true source and that other courts borrowed from this,
the oldest, their ideas as to law and legal procedure.
IV. The King.
From the earliest period at which it is possible to study
the organisation of the Welsh tribes, they were under the rule of
chiefs or kings, whose power was substantial and unquestioned,
backed as it was by the possession of troops. Of Ireland it
has been said that it is " doubtful whether the public force at
the command of any ruler or rulers was ever systematically
exerted through the mechanism of Courts of Justice ".117 The
evidence for Wales is in quite the opposite direction ; as has
already been pointed out, the kings of Gildas were energetic
in the administration of justice,118 and in the codes the figure
of the chief or " arglwydd " is everywhere the dominant one,
securing the observance of the law and profiting heavily by its
penalties. This much had been done for the Celts of Britain
by the spectacle of the majesty of Roman justice ; they never
abandoned the conception of the magistrate as one who " bear-
eth not the sword in vain ". The law of Hywel was compiled
at the instance of a chief; it began with and discussed on the
amplest scale the rites and customs of the court ; it protected
the royal interests at every turn. No satisfactory view of the
social and political institutions of the early Welsh is, therefore,
to be obtained without taking into fullest account the position,
the privileges and the power of the king.
116 The court of the "maerdref " appears clearly in Ven. I. xxxiv. 8; xxxvi.
10 ; II. xx. 3, and it may be inferred from II. xviii. i that there were similar
courts, under the " maer " and the " canghellor," in the other unfree hamlets.
117 Maine, Early History of Institutions, third ed. 1880, p. 43.
118 P. 128.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 309
The head of the tribe was no longer known by the old Celtic CHAP.
title of rex or " rhi " ; 119 he was the " brenin," the " high " or IX
" noble " one, 120 the " arglwydd," the " lord " or " master," and less
commonly, the " tywysog," the " captain " or " leader ",121 He
might be the lord of a single cantref, playing with all ceremony
and dignity the part of a monarch on that narrow stage, or
master of the fifteen cantrefs of Gwynedd, with a principal seat
at Aberffraw. No distinction is made by the codes in respect
of title or ordinary legal status between the great and the little
chief; all are "brenhinoedd" and "arglwyddi" alike, and the
supreme rulers of Deheubarth and of Gwynedd are only dis
tinguished from their fellows by the larger amount due to them
as compensation for dishonour.122 The number of minor chiefs
is a standing characteristic of Welsh political history down to
the age of the loss of national independence ; while the success
ful ambition of the bolder princes, bent on conquest and
aggrandisement, was a force which ever tended to reduce it,
there was another which no less persistently worked in the
direction of increase. This was the habit of regarding the
kingdom as an ordinary estate, liable on the death of the owner
to division among all his sons.
No rule is given in the codes on the important question
of the succession to the crown. The one point which they
make clear is that the matter was settled, not on the occurrence
of a vacancy, but in anticipation, during the lifetime of the
reigning chief. The " edling," 123 or next successor, held a
119 Urk. Spr. 230. " Rhi " appears in poetry only, and the feminine " rhiain "
usually denotes "dame, lady" (cf. however, the " rieingylch " of Gw. II. xxxv. 2).
120 Urk. Spr. 171 ; Celt. Br. (2), p. 282.
121 Urk. Spr. 26g. Though "tovisaci" appears in an early Welsh inscrip
tion (Inscr. Chr. No. isg; W. Ph. (2), p. 372; Arch. Camb. V. xv. (i8g8), 373-7),
it is a title unknown to the laws, and appears to have come into ordinary use as a
translation of the Lat. princeps. " Teyrn " (from " tegernos," Urk. Spr. 126) is
occasionally found (LL. i. 342, 660, 678).
122 For the use of " brenin " and " arglwydd " interchangeably see especi
ally Ven. II. vi. 28 ; the " guastraut arglyides " of Lat. C. I. i. 24 is the " gwast-
rod y frenhines " (queen's groom or squire) of the other codes. Dim. I. ii. 5 is
decisive as to the use of " brenin " for chiefs of the second rank.
123 A loan-word from the English " astheling " = one of noble or royal
birth. The native term " gwrthrych " or " gwrthrychiad " is occasionally found ;
see Ven. I. v. 1 (MSS. B. D.) ; Dim. I. v. 1 ; Gw. I. xiii. 2 ; Lat. A. I. v. (heading) ;
Mab. 105. " Gwrthrych " is literally " what is looked at, an object " ; the edling
probably got the name from his place in the royal hall, where he sat facing the
king.

3io HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, prominent and honoured position in the court of every king ;
he had no land of his own, but was maintained by the royal
bounty, being the chief personage in that motley company of
officials, troopers, menials, youths and vagrants which made up
the king's recognised following or "gosgordd". He was of
the king's near kin, is described, indeed, as his son, his brother
or his nephew, but it is nowhere said in the ancient authorities 124
that he was of necessity the eldest son, and might only be a
brother, if sons were wanting. It is, therefore, possible that
the edling, like the Irish tanist, at one time obtained his position
by election and did not step into it by mere right of birth.
On the other hand, it should be remembered that, owing to
the existence of the office of "penteulu," or captain of the
guard, one usually important reason for making the monarchy
elective, viz., the military needs of the tribe, did not here apply.
And, if regard be had, not to the legal authorities, but to the
historical facts, it will appear at once that what was customary
was the succession of the eldest son to the principal part of
the royal inheritance, with the assignment to younger sons of
certain cantrefs of less importance. The completeness of the
cantref in itself, as a political and economic area, made this a
fatally easy policy, and the tendency to division was further
encouraged, as Giraldus points out,125 by the institution of
fosterage. In accordance with ancient custom,126 royal infants
were not brought up at the court, but at a very tender age
were placed under the care of foster-parents, to whom they
became united by lifelong ties of affection. "Foster-father"
and " foster-brother " were terms of respect and endearment,
while kings' sons who were brethren by blood grew up strangers
to each other, knowing each other as brothers only by repute.
Moreover, as the foster-parents were uchelwrs of wealth and
influence, each one a power in his own cantref, every claimant
for a share in the division of the realm had behind him the
weight of the support of some locality, desirous of honour for
its favourite prince.
124 LL. ii. 304 (xxxix. 2) is from Peniarth MS. 36c, which is not earlier than
the end of the fifteenth century (Evans, Rep. i. p. 370).
128 Gir. Camb. vi. 211-2 (Descr. ii. 4).
128 The ancestors of St. Samson are described as " altrices regum " ; see
chap. v. note 107.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 3"
The privileges which fell to the lot of the successful candi- CHAP.

date for the dignity of " brenin " were many and various. In
the figurative language of the law, he had eight " pack-horses,"
or agencies which, without effort or trouble on his part, brought
wealth and laid it at his feet.127 One was the sea, for any
wreckage which its waves 'might bring ashore was accounted
royal spoil.128 Another was the waste, the land claimed by no
tref and subject to no kind of occupation ; this he might grant
to alltuds for settlement in return for a fee.129 Another was
the thief who, not having been caught with his theft in hand,
was allowed to pay a price for his neck ; that price was forfeit
to the king. Another was the offender whose crime was
expiated by the payment of a " dirwy," or the lesser offender
who made his peace with a " camlwrw " of three kine ; " dirwy "
and " camlwrw " alike went to swell the wealth of the chieftain.
Every man and every woman not subject to a lesser lordship
paid to the crown a fee of specified amount, the woman on
marriage, the man on succeeding to land or other property;
the man's "ebediw" (often treated as a death duty) and the
woman's " amobyr " were usually of the same amount, and it was
a rule of law that neither was due from the same person more
than once.130 Most sweeping claim of all, the " brenin " was,
in respect of movable property, treated as the universal heir
in default of children. While the dead man's land might be
claimed by any relative within the degree of second cousin,
none but a son or a daughter could touch his cattle and house
hold belongings, and if he had left no child, the " rhingyll " of
the cantref forthwith made his appearance and seized the whole
as the "marwdy" (house of death) of the lord. In South
Wales, the influence of the Church had secured recognition of
the right of a dying man to make bequests out of his property
127 Ven. I. xliii. 12 = Dim. II. xi. 2 = Lat. A. II. xii. = Lat. B. I. xx.
128 Ven. II. xvi. 6 ; Dim. II. xxiii. 37, 38.
129 The waste is always the king's (in Latin "desertum regis") and there
is no trace of any authority exercised over it by the community or tribe. See
Ven. II. xvi. 21 ; xviii. 7 ; Dim. II. xii. g ; Gw. I. xxxv. 1 ; Lat. A. I. xxvii. 2 ;
Lat. B. II. xxiv. ig ; xl. 21.
130 Ven. II. i. 55. The " ebediw " is the heriot of Anglo-Saxon law, as
may be seen from the case of the " penteulu " (Ven. I. vii. 23) and from the fact
that the portion of the ebediw of a king's villein anciently payable to the lord
was sixty pence, i.e., the value of an ox (Lat. A. II. xxii. 8). For the equality
of " amobyr " and " ebediw " see Lat. B. II. xxxix. 5 ; LL. ii. 574.

IX.

312 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, on his death-bed, and thus the lord only got a " marwdy " in
IX" case of sudden death. In Gwynedd it was not open to a man to
bequeath anything he had, and even the goods of a bishop,
save his books and official vestments, passed on his death into
the royal hands.131
These manifold sources of income, being casual and
uncertain in their nature, were not to be relied upon for the
daily maintenance of the chief and his retinue. This was pro
vided by a system of food renders, which were brought as
tribute by free and bond subjects alike for consumption in the
royal court of the cantref; the king had also, it should be
added, his own demesne land, tilled for him by the aillts of
the maerdref or hamlet of the court, and considerable use was
made of the right of " cylch " or free quarters. There may
have been a time when the king himself went on progress
among his people, who received him in hospitable wise in
their own homes ; 132 in the laws, however, there is no mention
of a royal " cylch " of this description, and only the members of
the court appear as going on circuit. The queen, the captain
of the guard with his men at arms, itinerant bards from
another country, the royal horses, dogs, and hawks with their
custodians, were at various seasons sent round the cantrefs,
to quarter themselves chiefly upon the villeins. But the
" gwest " 133 or entertainment of the king, if it ever took this
form, had in historical times assumed a different aspect. The
cantref was divided into a number of trefs, of which some
were bond and some free ; each tref was made jointly respon
sible for the render twice a year to the royal residence in the
cantref of a specified quantity of food and provender. The
tribute of the free tref was known by the honourable name of
" gwestfa," or entertainment due ; it was a " gwledd," or
feast,134 provided by a " cwynosog," or supperer,135 who prob-
131 The Venedotian rule appears clearly from Ven. II. i. 13 ; for its special
application to bishops (but not abbots, whose goods passed to their convents),
see LL. ii. 10 and the St. Asaph gravamina of 1276 (H. and St. i. 512). The
South Welsh custom (of which there are traces in the north : cf. Ven. II. xxviii. 9,
MS. D, and H. and St. i. 513, No. 7) is mentioned in Dim. II. viii. 62. " Cym-
ynnu " is the Lat. commendo.
132 This is suggested by the Mab. phrases "cylchu Dyfed" (46) and
"cylchu ei wlad" (59) used of Pryderi and Math respectively.
183 Used for " cylch " in Gw. I. xv. 13.
134 Ven. I. ix. 25. 135Gw. II. xxxix. 45 ; xl. 8.

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 3*3
ably attended to represent his tref on the evening when it CHAP.
was consumed.136 Its chief constituents were flour, beef, mead
or other liquor of the kind, and oats for the horses ; 137 in later
times it might, instead of being paid in its original form, be
commuted for the sum of one pound, and it is of interest to
note that in 1352 the render of the free vill of Gloddaeth in
Creuddyn to the Prince of Wales still stood at this amount.138
The villein trefs, notwithstanding the extent to which they
were burdened by the system of progresses, were not free from
the liability to provide food ; their contributions were known
as " food gifts " and consisted chiefly of meat (mutton in
summer, pork in winter), cheese, butter and loaves of bread.139
Thus the whole cantref worked together for the mainten
ance of the royal court which formed its centre. This was
the " llys " or " castell," at one time also called the " manor "
or " maenol ".14° Here were the king's summer pastures,
ranged over by his great herds of cattle, the produce of fine
and forfeit and border foray. Here was the "board land,"
tilled for the service of the court by the only Welsh villeins
who, like those of mediaeval England, gave their labour as the
rent of their holdings. Here was the " maerdref," the hamlet
in which they lived together at the castle gates, ruled by the
" maer biswail," the " dung bailiff," whose epithet contemptu
ously distinguished him from the great "maer" or bailiff of the
cantref. And here was the group of buildings, enclosed within
a strong wall, which constituted the royal palace of the Welsh
138 Cambro-Br. SS. 156 mentions a dean of the " clas " of S. Woollo's,
Newport, who " visitavit curiam Lisarcors apud inferiorem Guentoniam, con-
vivio regali functus ; sic consuetudo erat tunc temporis per patriam ".
137 The pork and bacon of Ven. II. xxvi. 1 do not find a place in the free
renders of South Wales.
138 Rec. Cam. 1.
139 The Book of St. Chad furnishes two early instances of the renders of
servile trefs ; see Lib. Land. xiv. and chap. vii. note 105. The transference of
the lordship from the tribal chief to the Church in these cases, typical of scores
of others, did not, of course, affect the obligation of the tenants.
140 ¦< Maenoc " (in Gwynedd, " maeno/ ") is a word of undoubted native
origin, occurring in the marginalia of the Book of St. Chad (Lib. Land, xlvii.).
It has nothing to do with the English manor, but is connected with " maen "
(stone) ; probably it was first applied to the stone-girt residence of the chief, so
as to distinguish it from the ordinary tref. Thence were derived the later mean
ings— (i) group of villein trefs (Lat. A. II. xiii. 9) ; (ii) a division of the cymwd in
Gwynedd, scarcely to be distinguished from the ordinary tref (Ven. II. xvii.).
For fuller discussion see Cymr. xi. 32-4, 57-8 ; W. People, pp. 218-9.

314 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, chief. The testimony of Giraldus is hardly needed to convince
us that the Welsh of his day had no lofty stone-built towers or
stately halls ; 141 for the language of the codes and the poverty
in remains of such sites as Aber and Aberffraw show indubit
ably that all the buildings of the " llys " were timber structures,
more substantial, no doubt, than those of the ordinary free
household, yet essentially temporary and of little value.
Security was not neglected ; the castle wall had a gate,
narrowly watched by a porter, whose house was just behind
it ; the place was strong enough to .be used for the custody of
prisoners ; 142 and all night long, from the evening horn-blast
until the opening of the gate in the morning, the watchman,
a freeman of the country who had no daylight responsibilities,
kept a close vigil and guarded the castle from nocturnal attack.
But the buildings so protected were of the simplest kind.143
The chief was the " neuadd " or hall, an oblong structure rest
ing on six wooden uprights, of which two were placed at the one
end, with the door between them, and two at the other ; the
central couple, having between them the open hearth, divided
the hall into an upper section, or " cyntedd," where the king
and the greater officials sat at their meat, and a lower section,
or " is cyntedd," assigned to the less distinguished members of
the royal train. Next in importance was the chamber, or
" ystafell " ; this was the king's private apartment, where he
passed the night,144 and it was also the queen's ordinary day-
room, since it was not in accordance with ancient custom for
women to join in the festivities of the neuadd. The outhouses
or subordinate structures included a kitchen and larder, a
mead brewery, a kiln or drying-house, a stable, a barn and a
dog-house. All these the villeins of the cantref were to put up
and keep in repair, a further proof, if one were needed, that they
were of light construction and called for no exercise of the
builder's art.
The king was served by a number of officers, whose duties
141 Gir. Camb. vi. 200-1 (Descr. i. 17).
142 Ven. I. xxxvi. 6; Dim. I. xxii. 2; Gw. I. xxxix. 7; Lat. A. I. xviii. 7;
Lat. B. I. xxi. 16.
143 In Mab. 46 mention is made of "teiy llys" at Arberth and in parti
cular of the " neuadd," " ystafell " (so Wht. Bk.), " hundy," " meddgeU " and
" cegin ".
144 u Ystafell y brenin yr hon y bo yn cysgu ynddi " (Ven. I. xi. 4).

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 315
and privileges were carefully defined by the laws. Each had CHAP.
his appointed seat in the neuadd when the court was gathered
together for the evening's festivity, each his proper lodging for
the night in or about the castell, each his horse from the royal
stable and his clothing from the royal store. The most re
sponsible was the judge of the court, who decided all the dis
putes of the court and was, moreover, the king's perpetual
counsellor, always with him, and required to be always sober.145
He was admitted to his office at a solemn ceremony held in
the chapel of the court, when he swore to do justice ; he then
received the symbols of his dignity, a throw-board from the
king and a gold ring from the queen.146 The judge of the
court was the official examiner of all candidates for minor
judicial posts in Gwynedd ;147 the great gate of the castle was
thrown open to receive him, and he slept at night either in the
king's chamber or with his head on the cushion on which the
king had sat in the neuadd on the previous day. Thus was
concrete expression given to the idea, which redounds not a
little to the credit of a warlike people, that "judgeship is the
greatest of all temporal things ". 148 Other officers of the first
rank were the " offeiriad teulu " or court priest, who was the
king's secretary and the incumbent of the royal chapel, the
'' distain " or steward,149 who was in supreme control of the
castle, its furniture and the store of food and drink within it,
and the " gwas ystafell " or chamberlain, who looked after the
ystafell, guarded the royal treasure, and was the king's special
messenger. A chief falconer, a chief huntsman, and a chief
groom, each with a troop of underlings, had custody of the
hawks, the dogs, and the horses which ministered to the out
door recreations of the court. For the minstrelsy of the
neuadd the "bardd teulu," or court poet, was responsible,
though the pencerdd, or chaired bard, the head of the bardic
fraternity in his country, might occasionally be present and in
that case would take the lead. There were also attached to
the court a physician, a mead-brewer, a cook, a doorkeeper, a
candle-bearer, a smith, a woodman (who replenished the hearth) ,
146 Ven. I. xliii. 1 ; Dim. II. viii. ig, no. 146 Dim. I. xiv. 20, 21.
147 Ven. III. preface. 148 Gw. I. xiii. 2g.
149 The "distain "is the English " discthegn " (Cod. Dipl. No. 715— cf.
Kemble, Saxons in England, ii. p. log).

3i<5 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, and a cupbearer. The footholder held the king's feet in his
lap during the evening's revelry and guarded him from mis
chance during the riotous hours of carousal ; the silentiary, who
through the day was the distain's agent and deputy, struck the
pillar opposite the king, and from time to time demanded
silence ; the rhingyll, the usher of the commote court, had also
duties in the neuadd, for it was his business to stand in front of
the hearth and protect the timber-built hall from the destruction
by fire in which the recklessness of the festive company might
but too easily involve it.
But beyond a doubt the most important element in the con
stitution of the court was the " teulu ". In modern Welsh this
word signifies " family," and there has been in consequence a
very general failure to understand the nature of the old institu
tion so termed, efforts being made to interpret it in terms of
kinship.160 As a matter of fact, members of a royal " teulu "
were completely divorced from family life, for the word has in
this connection its original meaning of " house-host," 161 and the
" gwr ar deulu " was a guardsman or trooper, belonging to the
royal bodyguard or standing company of household troops.162
The teulu was a body of horsemen, fed, clothed and mounted
by the king and in constant attendance upon him.163 It was
commanded by the " penteulu," or captain of the guard, who
was always a near relative of the reigning chief and in his ab
sence took his place in the hall.154 The company might
number as many as one hundred and twenty,165 and it is easy
to see that the possession of this little force, constantly under
arms, was a source of great strength to the lord of a cantref in
his dealings with his subjects. All the more was this the case
in that the loyalty of the teulu was no mere affair of contract ;
imCamb. Reg. i. 205.
161 Gr. Celt. (2), p. 1068; Urk. Spr. 321. "Gosgordd" had anciently the
same sense; see Gr. Celt. (2), p. 1067 (Familia, goscor pi teilu).
152 Ven. I. vii. 13 makes this definition certain.
163 Ven. I. vii. 16, 22 ; LL. ii. 68 (§ 6g).
164 In Mab. 144 Madog ap Maredudd of Powys offers his brother Iorwerth
the office of " penteulu ". Their father Maredudd appears to have been " pen
teulu " to his nephew Owain ap Cadwgan in 1113 (Bruts, 2gi). None but very
late authorities use the term to denote an ordinary pater familias.
188 This was the number of each of the three faithful and of the three faith
less warbands (Mab. 305) ; Gruffydd ap Llywelyn had a warband of 140 in 1047
(Trans. Cymr. i8gg-igoo, 132-3, 168-g).

EARLY WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 317
the bond which united its members to their lord was one of CHAP.
sentiment and honour, and it was held to be their duty to cling
to him in the hour of his sorest need, to die in his defence and,
if need should be, even in his stead. " Three faithless warbands
of the Isle of Britain," runs an ancient triad, " the warband of
Gronw the Radiant of Penllyn, who refused to receive instead
of their lord the poisoned shaft aimed by Llew Llaw Gyffes ;
the warband of Gwrgi and Peredur, who deserted their lords
at Caer Greu, and they under bond to fight Eda of the Great
Knee on the morrow, in which fight they were both slain ; and
the warband of Alan Fergant, who stealthily left their lord on
the road to Camlan — the number of each of these warbands
was one hundred and twenty men." 156 In the teulu, in short,
is to be found the Welsh representative of the English warband
or company of gesiths ; one may go still further back and say
it embodies the spirit of the "comitatus," as described by
Tacitus in his account of the Teutonic foreworld. In Wales,
as in the primeval forests of Germany, it was a lifelong disgrace
for the warrior-client to return alive from the battle-field on
which the master lay dead ; to defend the life and honour of
one's lord, to make all one's own achievements merely tributary
to his renown, was the holiest of obligations.157
It is abundantly clear that the teulu was not merely used
by the king to suppress domestic disorder and to repel ex
ternal enemies. A plundering expedition into a " gorwlad " or
neighbouring kingdom is treated by the laws as an ordinary
incident in the routine of its duties, and minute directions are
given for the division of the spoil, which, it is assumed, will be
chiefly in the form of cattle.168 Once a year, indeed, for a
period of six weeks, the king might lead, not the teulu merely,
but all the men of his realm upon a warlike incursion into some
distant land ; even the aillts sent from each villein tref a man
with an axe and a pack-horse to make rough quarters for the
host.159 Yet life was not quite so hazardous and insecure as
188 Triad i. 35 = ii. 42 (Mab. 305) = iii. 81. The story of Gronw will be
found in Mab. 80 ; "Eda Glinfawr (or gawr) " is Eata, father of Archbishop Egbert
(Hist. Britt. c. 61), whose association with Gwrgi and Peredur (06. circa 580) is
an anachronism. 167 Tacitus, Germania, cap. xiv.
158 yen. I. vii. 14, 18 ; xi. 11 ; xiv. 7 ; Dim. I. xvii. 11 ; x/iii. 2.
159 ven. I. xliii. 15 ; II. xix. 7, 11 ; Dim. II. xi. 5, 6 ; Gw. II. xxxv. 2, 7 ; Lat.
A. I. xxvi. 1 ; Lat. B. I. xviii. 12, 17.

3i 8 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, these plans for systematic border warfare would suggest.
The lands of the church enjoyed unbroken peace, and, as they
were extensive and often lay along the borders of cantrefs, the
points at which a conflict might take place were not so numer
ous as might at first be supposed. Moreover, it was not the
fashion to fight at all seasons of the year, for instance, in the
middle of winter, when the weather was cold and cattle were out
of condition.160 Such limitations as these explain the popular
saying quoted by Giraldus, that the eagle knows the place where
it may find its booty, but not the time, while the raven, that
other grim satellite of war and carnage, can tell the time, but
knows not the place.161
Note to Chapter IX. — The Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud.
In the royal pedigrees in Harleian MS. 385g a " Dumngual moilmut " ap
pears as a grandson of Coel HSn and grandfather of " Morcant bulc," who may
be the " Morcant " of Hist. Britt. c. 63. This reference makes it likely that there
was a historical person who bore the name, a Northern British prince flourishing
about a.d. 500. The next mention of Dyfnwal Moelmud is in the Historia
Regum of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who makes him the son of Cloten, king of
Cornwall, and ruler over all Britain about 450 B.C. Dyfnwal is represented as
the author of the " leges quae Molmutinae dicebantur . . . quae usque ad hoc
tempus inter Anglos celebrantur " ; they dealt with such matters as the right of
sanctuary in temples and the peace of the great roads, and were translated from
the original British into Latin by Gildas and by King Alfred from Latin into
English (Hist. Reg. ii. 17 ; iii. 5). It is surely a mistake to find in these par
ticulars any echo of an old tradition current among the Welsh as to Dyfnwal,
which handed down his name as the primeval British legislator ; the " Molmu-
tine " laws of Geoffrey are in repute, not in Wales, but in England, and are ex
tant in the English tongue. A much more natural explanation presents itself ;
Geoffrey, who undoubtedly used the old Welsh pedigrees as a quarry for proper
names, found there his " Dunwallo Molmutius " and was subsequently led, by
some haphazard similarity of names, to ascribe to him certain old English laws
of the same general character as those embodied in " Leges Henrici Primi " and
similar compilations. Such a course would have been quite consistent with his
literary methods, as witness his assignment of the Mercian law (" Merchenelage "
in the Berne MS.), also said to have been translated into English by Alfred, to
an early British queen of the name of Marcia (iii. 13).
In the Codes there is no mention of Dyfnwal, save in one passage (Ven. II.
xvii.) of the Venedotian Code, where he appears as the author of the institu
tions, and, in particular, of the measures of length and of area in force in the
island until the age of Hywel Dda. It is pretty certain that this Code was com
piled about the beginning of the thirteenth century, in an age when the narrative
of Geoffrey had become the common literary property of Western Europe, and
when one finds Dyfnwal described in it as "mab iarll Cernyw," the conclusion
180 The teulu left the king and went on progress after Christmas (Ven. I. vii.
22). 181 Gir. Camb. vi. 136 (Itin. ii. g).

EARL Y WELSH INSTITUTIONS. 3 1 9
is inevitable that the lawyer's ideas on this subject were derived, not from native CHAP.
tradition, but from the pages of romance. Genuine Welsh tradition knows, in IX.
fact, nothing of this shadowy figure but his name (cf. Mab. iog) ; he is not
mentioned in the older triads and first makes his appearance in the untrustworthy
third series (Nos. 4, n, 36, 57, 58).
In 1807 the editors of the Myvyrian Archaiology printed in their third
volume (pp. 283-318) " Triodd Dyvnwal Moelmud, a elwir Triodd y Cludau a
Thriodd y Cargludau," to the number of thirty-four, followed by a much more
bulky collection of " Triodd Gwladoldeb a Chywladoldeb," numbering 248. The
MS. was a transcript made in 1685 by Thomas ab Ifan of Tre Bryn, near Coy-
church in Glamorgan, " o hen lyfrau Syr Edward Mawnsel o Vargam " (1634-
1706). Its originals are not now known to exist, and can in no case have been
much older than the sixteenth century. In language and spirit the triads are
thoroughly modern, and everything goes to show that they are the work of some
Glamorganshire antiquary who at the close of the Middle Ages adopted this
vehicle for the expression of his political aspirations, delineating the Wales
that he desired to see under the guise of a description of a golden age in the
prehistoric past. The writer had obviously a considerable knowledge of the old
Welsh system, but in his day it was largely obsolete and accordingly he often
goes astray in a manner which would not have been possible for a genuine Welsh
lawyer. A conspicuous instance is the way in which he confounds the " alltud "
and the " aillt," e.g., in No. 66, " aillt neu estron a wladycho yng Nghymru ".
The statements made as to certain persons having a " spear allowance " for
their support (Nos. 166, igg, 200, 23g, 240) receive no warrant from any other
authority and seem to rest on a misunderstanding of the " ceiniog baladr " or
" spear penny " which could be claimed in certain cases by those who were mak
ing up the amount of a " galanas " fine. A similar mistake is probably at the
root of the theory advanced that every Cymro was entitled to five free erws (Nos.
61, 65, 68, 70, etc.) ; No. 83 adds " cyfar gobaith " or " co-tillage of the waste,"
but neither the erws nor the co-tillage find any place in the genuine old docu
ments and it is probable that the former, ample as is the space they occupy in
the compiler's ideal reconstruction, have been evolved out of the four erws of the
home croft which went with each homestead when a proprietor's land was
divided on his death.
It will thus be seen that the Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud ( = book xiii. in
LL. ii.) are not only valueless as records of the age before Hywel Dda, but do
not even furnish good evidence as to ordinary questions of Welsh law and custom
in a later age. One cannot but feel that to use them, in however guarded a
fashion, is to introduce an element of unreality into the discussion of the history
of Welsh institutions, and in the foregoing pages they have been left entirely out
of account.

CHAPTER X.
THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS.
(Asser and the various editions and versions (B.T. and B. Saes.) of the
Annales Cambriae have supplied most of the material for this chapter. Mr.
Stevenson's edition of the Vita Mlfredi, Green's Conquest of England, and
Todd's War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, among modern books I have used
with great profit.)
I. The Coming of the Northmen.
CHAP. WITH the opening of the ninth centuryia new element entered
X- into the history of Western Europe, which profoundly
affected the course of events in every country between the
Baltic and the Mediterranean. The Western Seas, undisturbed
since the Low German marauders had made their home in
Britain by the shadow of war or piracy, and fearlessly used as
a peaceful highway by monastic pilgrims without number, sud
denly swarmed with fierce and intrepid buccaneers, whose
vessels sailed from Scandinavian creeks to, the uttermost parts
of Europe, and whose piratical impulses were not tempered by
the least tincture of respect for the Christian religion. The
advent of the Northman everywhere marked a new era, checked
the growth of the nascent civilisation which was slowly rising
out of the ruins of the old, gave the reins of power to prowess
and physical force, and created the feudal system. No region
was more thoroughly shaken by the Norse inroads than the
British Isles ; in few countries did they leave a more lasting
impression, and it becomes important, therefore, to consider in
what manner they affected Wales.
The fact soon becomes evident that, much as the country
was exposed to the attacks of the Northmen, and long as it
continued to be in danger from them, their total effect was
comparatively slight. Further research may yet establish points
320

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 321
of contact between the Welsh and the old Norse language1 CHAP.
and literature, and even between the institutions of the two X-
races, but the salient fact remains that nowhere on Welsh soil
was there any permanent Scandinavian settlement. History
records no sustained attempt at anything of the kind, and, if it
be replied that the contemporary annals are meagre, it may be
added that the evidence of Welsh place names does but confirm
the negative conclusion drawn from the silence of the chroniclers.
There is, it need hardly be said, abundant evidence of the
familiarity of the sea-rovers with the features of the Welsh
coast ; headland, islet and harbour still bear the names which
were given them by the bold navigators who cruised around
them on their adventurous quests, and the Norse names, through
the medium of English, are now more widely known than the
original Celtic ones. Thus the ancient M6n became " Anglesey," 2
the " island of the strait " ; " Gwales," far out in the Western
Sea, became " Grasholm," the " grassy islet " ; 3 " Abergwaun "
became " Fishguard," the " place of fish ".4 Holms, like Priest
holm and Flatholm, fiords like Milford and Haverford, wicks
like Goodwick and Oxwich, eys like Ramsey, Caldy and
Swansea tell their tale of Scandinavian flitting to and fro among
the rocks and inlets of the Welsh seaboard.6 But all traces of
the Northmen disappear as one leaves high-water mark and
strikes inland. Even in Pembrokeshire, where the undoubted
evidences of Teutonic settlement on a large scale have beemcon-
nected by some writers with the viking movement, it is clear on
examination of the place names in point that they are much
1 Prof. Kuno Meyer informs me that there are but two loan-words of un
doubted Norse origin in Welsh, viz., " iarll " and " tarian".
2 See note gg to chap, vi. Angle, on Milford Haven, also takes its name
from the strait (old Norse ongull) at the mouth of the Haven (Owen, Pemb. i.
322). 3 Mab. 40, 41 ; Owen, Pemb. i. 112 ; Lit. Eng. p. 72. The thirteenth-
century MS. of the De Excidio of Gildas known as Camb. Ff. I. 27 has a marginal
note stating that the work was written in " Guales insula marina " (ed. Mommsen,
11), so that this lonely islet, like many another of its kind, was traditionally as
sociated with the early anchorites of Wales.
4 Owen, Pemb. i. 225 (note by Sir John Rhys).
8 A list (which, however, requires some revision) is given of the Welsh
names of this class in Taylor, Words and Places, pp. 117-8 (1888 ed.). The early
forms of Swansea, viz., Sweinesie (Gir. Camb. vi. 73, reading of MSS. R. B.),
Sweynesia (ibid. 172), Sweinesham (Ann. Marg. s.a. 1212), Sweynese (Ann. C.
p. log), and " Sweynesse " (Tax. Nich. 272), show that it is unconnected with
" swan " or " sea " and is really the " ey " of some piratical Sweyn.
VOL. I. 21

322 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, more likely to be of Anglo-Norman than of Scandinavian origin.6
The prevailing element is the English " -ton " ; no instance is
to be found of the Northern " -by ". 7 Williamston and Johnston
and Jeffreyston are intermingled with Gumfridston and Her-
brandston and Haroldston in such a manner as to forbid the
assumption that we have to do with a heathen settlement of the
viking age, and the historian is relieved from the necessity of
finding a place for an encroachment upon the kingdom of Dyfed
of which no hint is to be found in the ancient chronicle of St.
David's or in the laws of Hywel the Good.
But, if there was no colonisation, such as took place in East
Anglia, in the Hebrides, around Dublin and York, there were
marauding expeditions without number ; in this respect Wales
had no immunity. The attacks probably began as soon as the
viking boats had learnt to range over the seas which divide
Ireland from Great Britain, that is to say, in the closing years
of the eighth century. If, as seems most probable, the Isle of
Man was visited in 7Q8,8 Anglesey cannot have had a long re
spite and the monastic communities of Ynys Seiriol, Caer Gybi,
and Bangor must have early borne the brunt of an attack which
was specially directed against the defenceless sanctuaries of the
Celtic coast. The " gentiles," or heathen folk, as they are termed
in the Welsh annals, are first definitely recorded as having
relations with Wales in an annal of the year 850, when they are
said to have slain a certain Cyngen ; 9 three years later Anglesey
was ravaged by the "black gentiles".10 Isolated notices like
these merely afford a glimpse of what must have been going on
8 Taylor (loc. cit.) and Laws (Lit. Eng. pp. 70-3) argue in favour of a Norse
settlement, but Rhys and Jones (W. People, p. 27) will allow nothing substantial,
and the Rev. J. Sephton, in a letter from which I am kindly permitted to quote,
says that he "can see nothing very distinctively Norse" in the -ton names of
Pembrokeshire and therefore is " compelled to regard the wicking settlement as
doubtful ".
7 Tenby is not an instance, since it is merely a corruption of the Welsh
Dinbych, well attested as the ancient name of the place. See chap. viii. note 213.
8 Todd, War ofG. and G. Introd. xxxv.
9 Harl. MS. 38sg (Cymr. ix. 165) has " cinnen," for which " cincen " should
no doubt be read, in harmony with Ann. C. MS. B., B.T. and B. Saes.
10 Harl. MS. 38sg (ibid.). The " gentiles nigri " are the Dubhgaill or "dark
foreigners" of the Irish Chronicles, who appear upon the scene in 851 and con
test with the Finngall or " white foreigners " the possession of Ireland. The two
sets of invaders are believed to have been Danes and Norsemen respectively
(Todd, War ofG. and G. Introd. lxii).

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 323
in Wales throughout the ninth century ; they suggest, without chap.
describing, an era of general devastation and insecurity, the
detailed history of which can never be written. No doubt there
were parts of the country which offered little temptation to the
invader; the rocks of Eryri and Meirionydd, the uplands of
Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi gave scanty scope for plunder or
profitable settlement, and the viking ships seem rarely to have
visited the broad expanse of Cardigan Bay.11 But the corn
lands of Anglesey, so open to attack by sea, the pleasant creeks
and anchorages of Dyfed, and the fertile regions to which the
Severn estuary gave easy access were beyond a doubt exposed
to continual inroads, a few of which have been recorded, while
scar and holm and wick tell vaguely of the rest.
In Wales, as in other parts of Western Europe, the attacks
of the Northmen shook society to its foundations and in par
ticular did fatal injury to the work of culture carried on at the
religious centres, but, as the crisisi produced in Wessex a
deliverer in the person of Alfred, so among the Welsh it brought
to the front a new dynasty, which henceforth sways the destinies
alike of the North and of the South until the extinction of native
rule.
II. The House of Rhodri the Great.
Upon the death of Hywel ap Rhodri Molwynog in 825, the
direct male line of Maelgwn Gwynedd appears to have come to
an end. A stranger possessed himself of the throne of Gwynedd
and the royal seat of Aberffraw. Merfyn Frych (the Freckled)
was descended from Llywarch H£n ; his father, Gwriad, had
married a daughter of Cynan ap Rhodri, so that he was not
altogether without a hereditary claim to the crown, but it was
a claim which would probably have been of little account had
it not been backed by personal force and distinction.12 Merfyn
came, according to bardic tradition, " from the land of Manaw," 13
11 No place name of Scandinavian origin is to be found between Bardsey
and Fishguard, with the doubtful exception of Harlech (W. People, p. 27).
12 Merfyn is the " Mermini regis " of Hist. Britt. c. 16 ; see note 145 to
chap. vii. above. His paternal ancestry is given in Buch. Gr. ap C. 30 (721) and
Jesus Coll. MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 87) ; for his mother Etthil or Ethyllt see Harl.
MS. 385g (Cymr. ix. i6g) ; Celt. Folklore, p. 480.
13 " Meruin vrych o dir manaw" (" Synchronisms of Merlin" in IV. Anc.
Bks. ii. p. 222; Myv. Arch. I. 141 (no)). 21 *

324 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, and may thus be supposed to have appeared on the scene to
put an end to the confusion which ensued on the death of
Hywel, though whether his starting-point was the Isle of Man
or that other Manaw on the banks of the Forth where it is more
natural to look for a scion >of Llywarch Hen, must remain an
open question.14 He established himself firmly in Gwynedd
and allied himself to the royal house of Powys by marrying
Nest, daughter of Cadell ap Brochwel.15 For nineteen years
he maintained his power against all rivals and against the
Danish irruptions, and on his death in 844 he was able to hand
it on to his son Rhodri, surnamed the Great.16
No one will contest the right of Rhodri to a title which he
earned, not only by strenuous and gallant resistance to the
northern marauders, but even more by his success in uniting
the greater part of Wales, so long divided into petty states, in
a single realm. The kingdom he founded, though it did not
retain its unity for any length of time, afforded future ages an
instance of what could be achieved in this direction and set
before ambitious princes a goal towards which their efforts
might be directed. How deeply his countrymen were impressed
by his achievements may be seen from the hold which his
dynasty acquired upon Wales ; to be of the blood of Rhodri
Mawr was henceforth the first qualification for rule, alike in
Gwynedd and in Deheubarth. The story of Rhodri's rise to
supreme power has not been preserved .for us by any chronicler,
but the two principal steps may be dated within a year or two
and partially explained. The first was the acquisition of
Powys ; it was in 855 that Cyngen, the last of the ancient
dynasty of that region, died a pilgrim at Rome, whither he had
14 Skene (IV. Anc. Bks. i. p. g4) favoured Manaw Gododin, as did the present
writer in the Diet. Nat. Biog. (i8g4). But the discovery in i8g6 in the Isle of
Man of an inscription of about the ninth century which runs "Crux Guriat "
(The Cross of Gwriad) undoubtedly strengthens the case for the insular origin of
Merfyn (Zeit. Celt. Ph. i. 48-53).
16 Jesus Coll. MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 87). This account, harmonising as it
does with Harl. MS. 38sg, is to be preferred to the common one, which reverses
matters, making Nest the mother of Merfyn and Ethyllt or Esyllt his wife.
18 " Annus cccc. mermin moritur. gueith cetill " (Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix.
165). The attempt of Gw. Brut (s.a. 838) to connect these two notices (" Gwaith
Cyfeiliawc, lie bu ymladd tra thost rhwng y Cymry a Berthwryd (i.e., Burhred)
brenin Mers, ac yno y lladdwyd Merfyn Frych ") is a good instance of the way
in which the compiler of this version of the Brut supplied the lack of material by
pure invention.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 32S
been driven by old age and misfortune ; 17 if he left sons, which CHAP,
seems unlikely, they were forthwith ousted by Rhodri, who
through his mother Nest was the old king's nephew.18 Defeat
had perhaps abated somewhat the high spirit of the men of
Powys and prepared them to accept a deliverer from the fast
nesses of Snowdon ; for of late it had gone hardly with them in
the perennial conflict with Mercia. Mercian greatness was, in
deed, at an end, but with the rise of a new power in the South a
new danger had arisen ; the Mercians, no longer standing in their
own strength, had begun to invoke the aid of their West Saxon
overlords, and in 830 Egbert, in 853 ^Ethelwulf had led armies
against the Welsh whose victories were no doubt chiefly gained
at the expense of the border realm of Powys.19 The second
acquisition of importance made by Rhodri was that of Seisyllwg,
the state formed rather more than a century earlier by the
union of Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi. This addition to his
realm must have been made soon after 872, when Gwgon, the
last of the kings of Ceredigion, met his death by drowning ; 20
Rhodri's marriage to Angharad, the dead king's sister, while it
gave him no sort of legal claim to the province, made it easy
for him to intervene and invested his sons with rights there
which would be more generally recognised.21 At his death
Rhodri held in his grasp the whole of North Wales and such
portion of the South as was not included in the kingdoms of
Dyfed, Brycheiniog, Gwent and Glywysing.
Despite these successes, Rhodri was at no period of his
long reign free from the menace of Danish invasion. Refer-
17 " Cinnen (read Cincen)rex pouis in roma obiit " (Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr.
ix. 165 — for the pedigree see ibid. 181). The year implied is 854, but there is
reason to think that from about 850 this chronicle is one year behind the true
reckoning. See especially the entry under 866, instead of 867, of the fall of York
and the assignment to 878 of the death of Aedh Finnliath, an event known from
the precise chronological data in Chron. Scot, to have occurred in 87g. Chron.
Scot, is believed to be correct from 805 to go4 (Introd. xlvi).
18 Three sons of Cyngen are mentioned in Harl. MS. 38sg, pedigree No. xxxi.
(Cymr. ix. 182), but they do not appear in the chronicle as kings of Powys and
probably did not survive their father.
19 A.S. Chr., 828 (for the true date see Plummer, ii. 73) ; ibid. 853 (cf. Asser,
c. 7). It will be observed that Green (Conq. Eng. (2), p. 80) has hastily credited
.SLthelwulf with a conquest of Anglesey which was really a Danish achievement
(see note 10 above).
20 Harl. MS. 38sg, s.a. 871 (Cymr. ix. 166).
21 Jesus Coll. MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 87 (No. xxi.).

326 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, ence has already been made to the ravaging of Anglesey in
X' 85 3 (or 854) by the Dubhgaill or " black " Danes who had newly
appeared in Irish waters and attacked the earlier settlers of
Norse origin. In 856 Rhodri avenged himself by killing their
leader Horm.22 Nevertheless, he is still found fighting the
" black gentiles " at the close of his life ; the " gwaith dyw Sul "
or " Sunday's fight " fought in Anglesey in 877 23 must have
been an encounter with a heathen foe, and its issue is shown by
the statement in the Irish Chronicles that Rhodri, king of the
Welsh, in this year sought safety in Ireland from the attacks
of the " black gentiles ".24 In the following year he was back
in Wales, to fall a victim, along with his son (or brother)
Gwriad, to English enmity.25 The manner of his death is un
known, but that the loss was fiercely resented may be gathered
from the fact that a rout of the English some years later was
triumphantly hailed as " God's vengeance for the slaughter of
Rhodri". Six sons were left by Rhodri to carry on his line, and, after
a fashion which, to the injury of the country, widely prevailed
in mediaeval Wales, his broad realm, so laboriously built up,
was divided between them. Little is known of the distribution
of the various provinces, — indeed, only three of the sons,
Anarawd, Cadell and Merfyn, are mentioned by name in con
temporary records.26 But it is clear that Anarawd, as the
eldest, took possession of Anglesey and the adjacent parts of
Gwynedd, and most probable that Cadell received as his share
a substantial domain in South Wales, where his descendants
ruled for many generations. What portion fell to Merfyn can
only be conjectured, for he founded no house and nothing is
recorded of him in authentic sources save the bare fact of his
death.27 This is nevertheless known of the sons of Rhodri, on
32 Ann. Ult. s.a. 855; Chron. Scot. s.a. 856.
23 " Gueith diu sul in mon " (Harl. MS. 38sg in Cymr. ix. 166).
24 Ann. Ult. s.a. 876 ; Chron. Scot. s.a. 877.
26 " Rotri et Alius eius guriat (MS. B., B.T. and B. Saes. have " frater " and
" brawd") a saxonibus iugulatur" (Harl. MS. 38sg). Ann. Ult. s.a. 877 (=878)
also says that Rhodri was slain by the English.
26 Jesus Coll. MS. 20 (Cymr. viii. 87, No. xx.) gives the names of the other
three as " Aidan, Meuruc, Morgant ".
27 Anarawd is described by an editor of Nennius who wrote in gi2 as " regis
Moniae, id est mon, qui regit modo regnum Wenedotiae regionis, id est Guernet "
(Hist. Britt. ed. Mommsen, p. 146). That he was the eldest son maybe inferred

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 327
the testimony of their contemporary, Asser of St. David's,28 CHAP.
that they were a vigorous brood, working strenuously together
for the overthrow of the remaining dynasties of the south. In
Dyfed, Hyfaidd ap Bledri, himself the terror of the wealthy
" clas " of St. David's, dreaded the violence of the new lords of
Seisyllwg ; in Brycheiniog, Elise ap Tewdwr, of the line of old
Brychan, also feared for his crown ; and, though for the moment
Hywel ap Rhys of Glywysing 29 and Brochwel and Ffernfael ap
Meurig of Gwent were chiefly perturbed by the activity of the
Mercians, they too had much to apprehend from any revolution
which might establish the house of Rhodri in Brycheiniog. Thus
arose the political situation which is described by Asser as hav
ing existed for a good many years at the date of his composi
tion of the life of Alfred in 893.
That great king's famous victory over the Danes in 878
had given him a commanding position in Southern Britain.
Not only did he gain undisputed authority over the whole of
Wessex, but, on the death about this time of Ceolwulf, the last
king of Mercia, he assumed the control of as much of the
ancient province as remained in English hands, while entrusting
its actual rule to an ealdorman named .cEthelred, with the
hand of his daughter ^Ethelflaed. It was but natural that the
minor Welsh kings should seek from Alfred the protection
which his known love of justice would dispose him to give, and
thus it came about that Hyfaidd, Elise, Hywel, Brochwel and
Ffernfael all placed themselves under his patronage and became
from the prominence assigned to him by Asser and from the fact that he held
his father's paternal inheritance. Late authorities furnish full details, which
grow more precise as time goes on, as to the division of Wales between the sons
of Rhodri Mawr; see Gir. Camb. vi. 166-7 (Descr. i. 2, 3) ; Powel, 2g ; Gw.
Brut. s.a. 873 ; Iolo MSS. 30-1. Even the earliest of these accounts is full of
errors ; the statement of Giraldus that Cadell survived his brothers and thus
obtained for himself and his descendants the monarchy of all Wales is in flat
opposition to the testimony of the chronicles and was no doubt concocted to sup
port certain South Welsh claims ; he has further complicated matters by trans
posing Merfyn and Anarawd and making the former's daughter Afandreg a son.
28 In c. 80 of the life of Alfred (ed. Wise, pp. 4g-so ; Mon. Hist. Br. 488 ;
Stev. 66-7) there is a most valuable account of Welsh politics in the period 880-
93, and the ease with which the author moves in a field in which a later forger
would have infallibly shown his ignorance is a weighty argument in favour of the
authenticity of the work (Stev. lxxv.).
29 I think it very unlikely that this is the Hywel whose death at Rome is
recorded in Harl. MS. 3859, s.a. 885, since Hywel ap Rhys is associated in Lib.
Land. 236, with Bishop Cyfeiliog of Llandaff, who belongs to the tenth century.

328 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the vassals of a monarch who could succour them by land and
by sea. Asser explains, in his apology for his desertion of his
native St. David's, how the situation thus created enabled him
to serve his beloved monastery even better at Alfred's court
than he could have done at home ; the friend and companion
of Hyfaidd's overlord was in a position to set limits to Hyfaidd's
tyranny in a way impossible for the simple bishop of St. David's.
It was now the turn of Anarawd and his brothers to find
their power fettered and their triumphant progress brought to
a stand. With Mercia they had contended not unequally ; a
raid upon Eryri conducted by ^Ethelred in 88 1 had been
arrested by Anarawd at the mouth of the Conway, and the
victory of Cymryd — the day of divine vengeance for Rhodri —
had been won with great slaughter of the foe.30 In order to
secure himself against further attacks from Mercia, Anarawd
had then entered into an alliance with the Danish king of York,
whose realm, embracing as it did the ancient Deira, extended
to the Mersey and possibly took in also the peninsula of Wir-
ral. But 'the Danes proved indifferent allies, and gradually
Anarawd came to the conclusion that it was his interest also,
no less than that of the minor chieftains of the country, to
make his peace with the strong ruler of Wessex. He found
Alfred in no wise loth to respond to his advances ; paying
him a ceremonious visit at his court — the first of the kind on
record paid by a Welsh to an English king — he was received
as befitted his rank and treated with marked generosity. It
was a part of Alfred's statesmanship to lead the other Chris
tian princes of the island to regard him as their natural lord
and protector against heathen attack, and thus it was that
Wales came formally under the supremacy of Wessex ; Gwy
nedd under Anarawd was recognised as standing in the same
relation to the West-Saxon king as did Mercia under ^Ethelred,
and the basis was laid of the homage which in later ages was
regularly demanded from all Welsh princes by the English crown.
30 Harl. MS. 3859 (s.a. 880; it is still a year in arrear— cf. the annal 887
with the Irish notices of the death of King Cerbhall of Dublin) has the simple
entry: " Gueit conguoy digal rotri adeo " (the battle of the Conway : Rhodri
avenged by God). In Wynne, 37-9, there is a detailed narrative, possibly derived
from records of the see of Bangor (cf. B. Willis, Bangor, p. 184), which, while it
contains some legendary features, appears nevertheless to embody a genuine
tradition.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 329
At the moment when Asser was placing these events on CHAP.
record, English overlord and Welsh king were alike preoccupied X"
with a new danger in the renewal of the Scandinavian attacks
on an extensive scale. For some years the peril had seemed
to be over, and Asser's pages show no sense of its urgency.
But the pirate bands had merely transferred their operations to
the Continent, and, upon undergoing a crushing defeat at Louvain
in 891, had laid their plans for fresh incursions into England,
where they appeared at the end of 892. 31 The army led by
Haesten included not only warriors from over sea, but also
Danes of Deira and East Anglia, who looked upon the hostings
as agreeable breaks in the monotony of farm life ; it swept
Southern Britain during the four years 892-6 from sea to sea,
ravaging without mercy in summer and passing the winter in
some fastness specially chosen and prepared for the purpose.
In the chronicle of its movements Wales and the Welsh border
occupy a prominent place ; some impulse, possibly the desire to
get into touch with the Danish settlements in Ireland, constantly
drew it west. In 893 it is found at Buttington, close to the
confluence of the Severn and the Wye,32 where it was beset by
a joint army of English and Welsh ; Mercians and West Saxons
on the one hand, men of Gwent and Glywysing on the other,33
reduced it to sore straits, and, after great slaughter, drove what
remained of it back to Essex. Before the close of the year it
had repaired its broken ranks, hadi become again formidable,
and, after a long march which was not suspended by night or
by day, had taken possession for the winter of the ruined walls of
Chester. The Mercians followed hard upon its heels and cleared
the country round of all supplies of food ; hence it was forced
early in 894 to replenish its stores by a raid on North Wales.
It may be conjectured that Anarawd received some English
31A.S. Chron. MSS. A. B. C. D. s.a. 893-7 tell the story in detail.
Plummer shows (ii. 108, no) that the dating must be set back a year in the case
of each of these annals.
32 See Plummer, ii. iog-10. Buttington by Chepstow tallies much better
with the data of the Chronicle — especially with the composition of the English
army and its leaders — than does Buttington by Welshpool.
33 So I interpret the "sumdael thaes NorS Weal cynnes" of A.S. Chr. The
idea of Green (Conq. Eng. (2), pp. 172, 173, 183) that other Welsh, under the
leadership of Anarawd, were in alliance with Haesten is plainly inconsistent with
the evidence, and seems to have arisen out of a baseless impression that Anarawd
did not submit to Alfred until 897.

33o HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, help to repel this invasion ; he had at any rate English troops
at his command when in the following year he plundered
Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi, a blow directed most probably at
his brother Cadell.34 During most of 894 and 895 the Danes
were busy in the neighbourhood of London ; at the end of the
latter year they were once more in the Severn valley, encamped
for the winter at Quatbridge, which cannot have been far from
the modern Bridgenorth. This became the starting-point for
the last great raid, in the spring of 896, which devastated not
only the adjacent parts of Mercia, but also the Welsh districts of
Brycheiniog, Gwent and Gwynllwg.35 In the summer of this
year the great confederacy was dissolved ; the men of Deira
and East Anglia returned to their homes, while the wandering
pirates turned their attention once more to the banks of the
Seine. The closing years of Alfred's reign were comparatively
peaceful, but his death, in or about 90 1,36 was followed by
another period of struggle and unrest. The Welsh now found
themselves between two fires, for, while the danger of invasion
from the Scandinavian settlements in Ireland and the North
was no less a matter of apprehension than before, attention had
to be paid to the doings of Mercia also, since Edward the Elder
was too much occupied with schemes of his own to control its
aggressive spirit as had been done by his peace-loving father.
In 902 the Celtic element won a temporary triumph over the
Scandinavian in Ireland ; Dublin was cleared of its heathen
folk37 and very many of them, under the leadership of one
Ingimund, made their way to Anglesey, intending, no doubt, to
found a new settlement in the island.38 They were stoutly
resisted by the inhabitants and forced to look elsewhere for
34"Anaraut cum anglis uenit uastare cereticiaun et strat tui " (Harl. MS.
3859, s.a. 8g4 (= 8g5)).
36 " (N)ordmani uenerunt et uastauerunt loycr et bricheniauc et guent et
guinnliguiauc " (ibid. s.a. 8g5 (=896)).
38 Harl. MS. 3859 records the death of " Albrit rex giuoys " (i.e., of the
Gewissae) s.a. goo, and thus tends to support the ordinary dating in goi.
37 Ann. Ult. s.a. 901 ; Chron. Scot. s.a. go2.
38 Harl. MS. 38sg has s.a. go2 (= go3) " Igmunt in insula mon uenit. et
tenuit maes osmeliavn " (a place not yet identified). A more detailed account of
the adventures of " Hingamund " (= Ingimundr) is to be found in a fragment of
an Irish Chronicle printed by J. O'Donovan in i860 for the Irish Archaeological
and Celtic Society (pp. 225-37). Though the MS. is a late transcript, it seems
to embody some genuinely historical material.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 331
a foothold, which they ultimately found, if an Irish account is CHAP.
to be trusted, in the neighbourhood of Chester. This was a
concession due, it would appear, to the famous " lady of the
Mercians," ^Ethelflaed, daughter of Alfred and wife of the
Mercian ealdorman, who during her husband's lifetime and for
seven years after his death led and governed the Mercian folk
with such intrepid energy that one accepts without surprise the
Welsh and Irish designation of her as a queen.39 She had
already repaired the fallen ramparts of the ancient stronghold
on the Dee, rightly estimating its great importance as the key
to North- Western Mercia, and realising that in Danish hands it
would be a perpetual menace to her power.40 She maintained
her position there, the Irish chronicler tells us, against fierce
onslaughts on the part of Ingimund and his men, and then
proceeded to buttress the Mercian state by building other forts
along the borders specially open to attack. Scarcely anything
is known of ^Ethelflaed's relations with the Welsh; the one
event recorded in, this connection can1 have been but an incident.
In the early summer of 916 she invaded the realm of Bry
cheiniog, stormed a royal stronghold near Llyn Safaddon, and
captured the queen and a number of followers of the court.41
The reigning chief was probably Tewdwr ab Elise, the son of
the contemporary of Asser,42 and, whatever may have been his
offence against his powerful neighbour, his attitude affords no
clue to the solution of the much more important question as
to the relations between ^Ethelflaed and the house of Rhodri.
But a little light is thrown upon this matter by the disposition
of the great lady's fortresses ; though the sites of all have not
been identified, it seems likely that some were built on the
eastern frontier of Mercia, for instance, at Chirbury,43 and in
39"^Elfled regina obiit" (Harl. MS. 385g, s.a. giy); " Eithilfleith, famos-
issima regina Saxonum, moritur" (Ann. Ult. s.a. gi7).
48 A.S. Chr. MSS. B. C. s.a. go-j.
41 Ibid. s.a. gi6. Camden saw that " Brecenan mere " must be Llangorse
Lake (Britannia, p. 562), but the exact position of the " llys " is not easily de
termined. 42 In Lib. Land. 237-g, " teudur filius elised," king of Brycheiniog, has dealings
with Bishop Llibio of Llandaff, who succeeded Cyfeiliog in g27 and died in g2g.
43"Cyric byirig" (A.S. Chr. MSS. B. C. s.a. gis) appears to be Chirbury,
which had an ancient church and was head of a hundred before the Norman
Conquest (" Cireberie " in Domesd. i. 253ft I). rather than Chirk, which takes its
name from the river Ceiriog (old Welsh Ceriauc) and had no importance in
Anglo-Saxon times.

33 2 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, this case she and the leaders of the Welsh can scarcely have
been upon entirely friendly and easy terms. It is most probable
that her death in 918,44 in the midst of her career of conquest,
came as a relief to men who knew not whither she might next
turn her victorious arms.
Edward the Elder at once seized upon the opportunity
which was now afforded him of becoming direct ruler of the
whole of Mercia and was thus brought into immediate relations
with the princes of Wales. His policy was that of his father,
one of friendship and protection in return for submission and
homage. He had already given proof of kindly sentiments
towards the Welsh people. In 915 a viking host had sailed
from Brittany into the estuary of the Severn, and, landing on
the southern coast of Wales, had spread ruin over Gwent and
Glywysing ; their daring onslaught carried them as far as Erging,
and here, not many miles from Hereford,! they captured Bishop
Cyfeiliog of Llandaff, and, rejoicing in their good fortune, led
him a prisoner to their ships.45 Edward at once came to the
relief of the hapless prelate, and, on payment of a ransom of
forty pounds, obtained his release from the clutches of his
heathen captors, nor was it until this transaction was complete
that vigorous measures were taken for the expulsion of the
Danes, who ultimately withdrew by way of Dyfed to their
kinsmen in Ireland. Thus it was only to be expected that on
yEthelflaed's death the Welsh princes should readily acknow
ledge the sway of the West-Saxon king ; " Hywel and Clydog
and Idwal," according to the official chronicle kept at Win
chester, "with all the North Welsh (i.e., Welsh) race, sought
him as their lord ".46 A new generation of chiefs had arisen
since the days of Asser; of the sons of Rhodri, Merfyn had
died in 904, Cadell in 909 (or 910), Anarawd in 91 6. 47 Idwal
44 Harl. MS. 38sg gives the year as gi7 and would seem to be still a year
behind; see the entry under go7 of the death of " Guorchiguil, " placed by B.
Saes. in the same year as the death of King Cormac of Munster, i.e., go8.
"M.S. Chr. MSS. A. B. C. D. The date is no doubt rightly given by B. C.
D. as gi5. Lib. Land. (231-7) makes " Cimeilliauc " a contemporary of Brochwel
ap Meurig of Gwent and Hywel ap Rhys of Glywysing and gives 927 as the year
of his death. There is fairly good evidence that the early bishops of Llandaff
exercised authority in Erging.
i3A.S. Chr. MS. A. s.a. 922, the year being actually 918.
47 Harl. MS. 3859 s.a. gog, gis ; Chron. Scot, (after go4 a year in arrear)
s.a. 908, 915 ; B. Saes. s.a. 901, B.T. p. 18 (for Merfyn).

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 333
the Bald, son of Anarawd, now ruled over Gwynedd, Hywel CHAP.
and Clydog, the sons of Cadell, in the south.
III. Hywel the Good.
One prince only, among the many who bore rule in Wales
in the Middle Ages, was honoured by posterity with the title
of " Good " — a circumstance which in itself imparts a peculiar
interest to the reign of Hywel Dda.48 Yet history has hardly
anything to tell of the personal traits of one who gained for
himself so secure a place in the affections of his fellow-country
men ; the facts of his life, as handed down by the ancient
sources, are extremely meagre, and, though they reveal in
some measure the greatness and distinction of the man, leave
much unexplained, so that even in the briefest outline of his
career the historian must not seldom invoke the aid of con
jecture. He was the son of Cadell ap Rhodri, and when he and his
brother Clydog — a younger brother, it may be inferred from
the order of the names — offered submission to Edward the
Elder in 918, it is safe to conclude that they were rulers of
Seisyllwg, which they had divided between them in accordance
with Welsh custom. But it is most probable that Hywel had
also by this time come into possession of Dyfed. No king of
that region appears after the death in 904 of Llywarch ap
Hyfaidd, who was doubtless the last of the old line,49 and, as
Hywel is known to have married his daughter Elen,60 it seems
clear that, either then or shortly afterwards, the realm came
into the hands of Cadell's eldest son as the result of the marriage
alliance. Clydog did not long survive the submission of 918 ;
two years later he died,51 when it may be presumed that Hywel
obtained the whole of Seisyllwg ; united to Dyfed, it formed
the kingdom of Deheubarth, a compact area which covered
the whole of the South-west of Wales from the Dovey to the
Tawe. The foundation of this kingdom, which was that of
48 The title does not appear in Harl. MS. 3859 or any other contemporary
source, but obtained an early currency from the prefaces to the editions of the
Laws. 49 " Loumarch filius hiemid moritur " (Harl. MS. 3859 s.a. 903).
80 Pedigrees Nos. i. and ii. (Owain ap Hywel) in Harl. MS. 385g.
61 " Clitauc rex occisus est " (Harl. MS. 3859, s.a. 919).

334 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. Rhys ap Tewdwr and, save for Norman acquisitions, of Rhys
ap Gruffydd, is the first notable event in the history of Hywel.
The next was his visit to Rome in 928, an undertaking
which finds no true parallel in the life of any other Welsh
prince.52 Two earlier instances are no doubt recorded of pil
grimage on the part of Welsh chieftains to the Holy City,53 but
of both Cyngen of Powys and the unknown Hywel of 886 it
is said that they died at Rome, so that it is clear that the journey
was a penitential effort at the close of a busy and not too
scrupulous reign, intended to smooth the pathway to a better
world. Hywel's visit does not at all suggest the repentance of
a dying man ; he returned to Wales to wield the sceptre with
vigour and marked intelligence for twenty years, and must have
been in this year of pilgrimage a man in the full prime of his
career. What took him so far out of the common-place round
of princely life in Wales in his day must have been, one cannot
doubt, that breadth of sympathy, that enlightened interest in
the life of other nations than his own which come to light in
other parts of his history. There is good reason to think
that he made Alfred, in whose reign he was doubtless born, his
model and exemplar ; Alfred had twice visited Rome as a boy
and had maintained the connection by frequent gifts to the
holy see, and it was thus to be expected that, when Hywel
found himself free to undertake this journey, he should adven
ture upon it. Rome itself was in this age scarcely worthy of
the veneration lavished upon it by the Church of the West ;
whether the pope to whom Hywel made his obeisance was
Leo VI. (928-9) or Stephen VII. (929-31), he was probably in
either case a creature of the notorious Marozia.64 But, though
there may have been little in the atmosphere of the city to
sustain the fires of a high spiritual enthusiasm, the historic
memories of the spot must have cast their spell over the
wanderer from distant Dyfed, and each league of the long and
82 " Higuel rex perrexit ad romam " (Harl. MS. 38sg, s.a. g28). The date
may be correct, as the chronicle seems hereabouts to right itself and soon after
wards to get a year in advance of the true dating. The battle of Brunanburh, the
death of Athelstan, that of Olaf Godfreyson (Abloyc rex), the devastation of
Strathclyde and the murder of Edmund are all post-dated a year.
63 See note 44 to chap. vii.
84 Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, Eng. trans.
iii. pp. 282-3.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 335
perilous journey must have left its impress upon the mind of CHAP.
one so observant and so ready to learn.65 x'
The remarkable feature of the years which followed Hywel's
return is his close association with the English court. Edward
the Elder had died in 924 or 925 at Farndon on the Dee, hav
ing been summoned to this region by a revolt of the city of
Chester, in which the neighbouring Welsh were concerned.56
He was succeeded by Athelstan, who showed the utmost energy
and resolution in maintaining and extending the power which
of late had fallen to the king of Wessex. It would appear
that about 926 or 927 he summoned the leading Welsh princes
to Hereford, imposed a tribute upon them of gold, silver, cattle,
hunting dogs and hawks, and fixed the Wye as the boundary
between the two races in that part of the country.57 Hywel
of West Wales and Owain of Gwent (son of Hywel ap Rhys)
are expressly mentioned in a MS. of the English Chronicle as
having submitted to Athelstan ; 68 of Idwal Foel there was a
story current that the English king for a time deprived him of
his realm,59 so that his position at this juncture is not quite cer-
85 According to an early editor of Ven. (LL. i. 216), whose statements were
copied into certain South Welsh MSS. (LL. i. 342, MSS. S. and Z.), Hywel when
at Rome sought the approval of the pope for his laws and obtained it. Not only
is it highly improbable that papal authority was ever given to laws which so fre
quently run counter to those of the Church, but there are also chronological ob
jections. The compilation of the code belongs to Hywel's later years, not to the
early period of his reign, for he was not in a position to undertake the task until g42.
66 Wm. Malm. G.R. i. 144 (i. 210). The authority used by William for this
part of his account of Athelstan's reign was an ancient metrical life, written most
probably during the king's lifetime (Stev. Asser, 184, n. 4). The mention of
Chester shows that Farndon by Holt is intended, not Faringdon (suggested
by Plummer, ii. 380-1). " Fearndun " was literally translated into Welsh as
" Rhedyn-fre " in the name " Siat Rhadynfre " found for St. Chad in Myv. Arch.
II. 52 (42gj.
87 Wm. Malm. G.R. i. 148 (i. 214).
58y4.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. g26. The names are introduced parenthetically
(" Huwal West Wala cyning . . . Uwen Wenta cyning") into an account of
Athelstan's dealings with the Danes of Deira on the death of their king Sitric in
g27, and it is not really intended to state that the Welsh and other kings men
tioned met at " Ea mot" on the 12th of July (Plummer, ii. 136). Plummer (ii.
addenda viii.) thinks that " West Wala " must be Cornwall, and that the reference
is not to Hywel the Good, but to an otherwise unknown Cornish ruler. This is
not, of course, impossible, but it is surely a simpler supposition that West Wales
is used in this passage in an unusual sense. " Yuein," son of Hywel ap Rhys,
appears in a notice in Lib. Land. 236 of the time of Bishop Cyfeiliog.
59 Wm. Malm. G.R. i. 142 (i. 206). This story does not come, it would
seem, from the metrical life, and has the suspicious feature of making Idwal king
of all the Welsh.

336 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. tain. It will be seen that Athelstan was bent upon turning
into a real subordination the formal submission demanded from
the Welsh by Alfred and Edward, and what is notable is the
manner in which Hywel accepted the situation and did his best
to turn it to account. Valuable evidence is furnished on this
head by the English land-charters.60 These documents are
usually attested by a large number of witnesses, members of
the assembly of " witan " or " wise men " which approved the
grant, and, as Athelstan adopted the policy of summoning his
" subreguli " or under-kings to occasional meetings of this body,
the names of Welsh princes are often found among those of
the attesting counsellors, taking precedence of those of earls
and thegns, and sometimes even of those of bishops. Some of
these charters rest under considerable suspicion, since their text
has only been preserved in cartularies or charter-books compiled
at a much later date by monastic houses which were very jeal
ous of their rights and not unwilling to forge documentary
evidence in support of them in case of need. Nevertheless,
though it is not possible to accept the testimony of every charter
for the facts which it professes to record, some are undoubtedly
genuine, and even in the forged charters the names of the wit
nesses are probably drawn from authentic documents. It-is,
therefore, a significant fact that Hywel is of all the Welsh princes
the most prominent in this connection ; from '928 to 949 his
name is appended to every charter which has Welsh signatures
and is among them placed first ; in three cases he is the only
under-king who joins in the grant. He is often supported by
Idwal Foel and Morgan ab Owain of Morgannwg, and once by
Tewdwr ab Elisedd of Brycheiniog, but no prince seems to have
entered so heartily into Athelstan's design of linking Wales with
England by this system of attendance at the English court. All
that is known of Hywel points him out as a warm admirer, not
only of Alfred, but also of English civilisation ; he led no ex
pedition across the border, but instead secured to Athelstan the
faithful allegiance of his brother chiefs, even in that year of re
bellion, 937, when the league against Wessex included the
Scots, the Danes and the Strathclyde Britons, and only the
Southern Britons held aloof. English influence is manifest in
the law of Hywel and betrays itself even in the naming of his
80 See note A appended to this chapter.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 337
sons, for Edwin ap Hywel Dda bore an English name,61 which CHAP.
was possibly given him out of compliment to the young son of
Edward the Elder who perished in 933.
Hywel was now about to reach the zenith of his career and
to become, as he is termed in the codes, " by the grace of God
ruler of all Wales ".62 This was a position he certainly did not
hold during the life of Idwal Foel ab Anarawd, for the evidence
makes it clear that Idwal and Hywel ruled North and South
Wales respectively under the overlordship of Athelstan.63 But
in 942 Idwal, never quite easy under the English supremacy,
seems to have broken into revolt against the power of the new
king Edmund ; he and his brother Elisedd met the Saxon
in battle and were both slain.64 In the natural course the
sovereignty of Gwynedd should have passed to the sons of
Idwal, Iago and Idwal, the latter often called Ieuaf (or
" Junior ") to distinguish him from his father. Hywel, how
ever, now appeared upon the scene, and, driving out the young
heirs,65 made himself master of Gwynedd and, most probably,
of Powys also. It is quite impossible to say whether there
were good grounds, recognised as valid by Welsh public opinion,
for this act of aggression ; one may nevertheless conjecture that
the revolution was favourably viewed by the English, and no
attempt to reverse it was made while Hywel lived. Whether
81 He died in g54 (Ann. C. ; B.T. s.a. g52). The form " Guin," found in
Ann. C. MS. B., is due to a misunderstanding of "Eiguin".
82 " 0 rat Duw . . . brenhin Kymry oil " (Dim. i. 338). Cf. Lat. B. ii. 814 :
" Dei gratia atque providentia rex Howel . . . totius Wallie principatu prae-
sidebat pacifice " All the texts of the laws emphasise in their prefaces the ex
tent of his rule.
63 See the charters mentioned in the note at the end of this chapter and note
58 above. 64 " Iudgual et filius eius elized a saxonibus occiduntur " (Harl. MS. 38sg,
s.a. g43). The year was that which followed the death of Olaf Godfreyson,
shown by Irish records to have happened in g4i. The MS. followed by Ann.
C. MS. B., and B.T. makes Idwal son of Rhodri, but the ordinary account,
contained in Jesus Coll. MS. 20, No. xxvi. (Cymr. vii. 88), is to be preferred as
better suiting the chronological data. As to Elisedd, " filius " would seem to be
an early error of transcription for " frater," corrected in the older texts of B.T.
(but not in B. Saes.), which have " urawt " (Bruts, 261 ; B.T. p. 20) ; see
Dwnn, ii. 10, 16; Harl. MS. 385g, s.a. g46 (=g45) — " Cincenn filius elized
ueneno periit " ; Carlisle, s.v. Hawarden (" Cynan ap Elis ap Anarawd ").
68 " Iago et Ieuaf, quos Howel e regno expulerat " (Ann. C. MS. C. p. 18,
n. 20). It was at this period of his life, no doubt, that Hywel issued the coin,
the only one known to have been struck for a Welsh prince, which is described
by Mr. Carlyon-Britton in Trans. Cymr. igo5-6, 1-13.
VOL. I. 22

338 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, justified or not, it united Wales almost as completely as any
recorded movement in its history. Morgannwg and Gwent
still retained their independence under the sons of Owain,
Cadwgan and Morgan the Aged,66 but this was a part of Wales
which never, save for a few years under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,
entered into any wide-embracing Welsh realm.
The events of 942 prepared the way for the crowning and
distinctive achievement of Hywel's life, namely, the reduction
of the varying royal and tribal usages of Wales to a uniform
and consistent system, accepted by the whole country and
permanently embodied in a written code. No direct evidence
exists that this work was actually done by Hywel save the
statements made in the various copies of the code itself,
and none of these copies are of older date than the end of the
twelfth century. But the unanimity with which they ascribe
this great legal reform to the " good " king, and the un
challenged assumption throughout Welsh literature that the
work was his, without suggestion of a rival for the honour,
constitute as strong a proof as tradition can well supply; if
Hywel was not the author of the code which bears his name,
how came he to be singled out from among his fellows and
invested by later generations of Welshmen with this unique
distinction ? It may well be believed that the task was the
principal object he set before himself in his career ; the union
of Dyfed and Seisyllwg under his rule would bring him in early
life face to face with the inconveniences of conflicting tribal
custom, the example of Alfred, always ihis guiding star and
embodiment of the princely ideal, would invite him to the
beneficent path of legislative reform, and his foreign experience
would teach him how much the Welsh had still to learn ere
social institutions among them could rest on a firm foundation.
88 Morgan HSn succeeded his father Owain ap Hywel (the " Uwen Wenta
cyning" of A.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. 926) about g3o and long survived Hywel,
dying at a patriarchal age in g74. His brother Gruffydd, who was king of
Gower in 928 (Lib. Land. 239-40), was killed in 935 (or g34) by the men of
Ceredigion (Ann. C. MSS. B. C. ; B.T. ; B. Saes.). The third brother,
Cadwgan, appears in Lib. Land. 224-5 as " Catguocaun rex filius Ouein" and
lord of the region of Margan about g40 ; his death in battle against the English
is recorded about gso (Harl. MS. 3859; Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T.). "Caducon "
may be the correct reading, instead of " Cadmon," in Cart. Sax. iii. 3g, in which
case Cadwgan, with his brother Morgan and Hywel Dda, was at the court of
Edred in g4g.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 339
He was obliged to wait for many years for the realisation of CHAP.
his hopes, but at last the whole of Wales lay at his feet and the X'
hour was ripe for his enterprise.
According to the unanimous testimony of the prefaces to
the various versions of the code,67 Hywel's first step was to
summon a representative assembly, in which each cantref68
was represented by six men, to his hunting lodge of Y Ty
Gwyn ar Daf (The White House on the Taff), now marked
by the village of Whitland in Carmarthenshire.69 No other
national gathering of the kind is recorded in Welsh history
until the fifteenth century, but the occasion, it should be
remembered, called for very exceptional measures. The laws
of the Welsh were not the creation of any legislator, owing
their origin to the royal fiat and capable of being altered by the
same authority. They were the ancient customs of the race,
handed on in each tribe as a precious heirloom from generation
to generation, preserved by the tradition of the elders, and
having the sanction of immemorial antiquity. In order to
annul or modify them, nothing short of the assent of a national
conclave wasi sufficient, and an editor of the Venedotian code
lays down the principle that no part of the law of Hywel itself
can be abrogated save by leave of a body as large as that
which met at Hywel's behest.70
The prefaces state that the conference was held in Lent 71
and occupied the whole six weeks of that season, so that the
deliberations must have been long and the revision of the laws
entered into with great thoroughness. They give discrepant
accounts of the way in which the final text of the revision was
arrived at, the Dimetian and the Gwentian prefaces ascribing
87 LL. i. 2, 214-6 (Ven.), 338-42 (Dim.), 620-2 (Gw.) ; ii. 74g (Lat. A.), 814
(Lat. B.), 8g3 (Lat. C).
88 Only MSS. B. D. of Ven. have " cantref " (cf. however, C. D. K. in pref.
to bk. iii. p. 214), the other MSS. and codes reading " cymwd". But the sub
stitution of the cymwd, the actual, for the cantref, the archaic area in MSS. of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is more easy to explain than would be the
reverse process. Reasons have already been given (p. 301) for thinking that
the cymwd had not come into existence in the age of Hywel Dda.
69 For Whitland see chap. v. note I2g.
70 Ven. i. 216 (MSS. C. D. K). Other passages which illustrate the doctrine
of the necessity of national assent for all new laws are to be found in Dim. i. 594
(heading of III. ii.) ; LL.' ii. 394 (§ 43) ; De Nugis, ii, 22 (antequam in contrarium
decreta ducent publica, nihil novum proferamus).
71 Gw. and Lat. B. omit this detail.

340 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, the actual compilation of the new code to a commission of
twelve laymen and one cleric, while the other MSS. seem to
assign the task to the whole assembly.72 It is most probable
that some small body of men practised in the law was charged
at the end of the conference or during its sessions with the
business of embodying its decisions in writing, but one can
hardly go further and believe with the author of the Dimetian
code that the commission did everything and that the Lenten
assembly was solely occupied with fasting and prayer. Many
hostile interests had to be reconciled, many discordant usages
brought into harmony and the general will enforced against
local peculiarities — all of it work, not for a drafting committee,
but for a genuine popular assembly. It was, no doubt, ere the
assembly broke up that the formal proclamation of the new
laws was carried out and a solemn malediction laid upon all
evil-disposed men who should infringe the dooms thus set forth
by national assent.
Many lawyers of repute must have lent their aid to Hywel
in his great undertaking, but nothing is known of any of them
save Blegywryd ab Einon. In the various copies of the
Dimetian Code, Blegywryd is made to play a leading part in
the proceedings at Whitland ; he is the " master " or " scholar "
who acts as clerk to the twelve lay commissioners, and later
texts dub him Archdeacon of Llandaff and send him to Rome
with the deputation which, it is alleged, went thither to obtain
for the new code the benison of the holy see.73 It is clear that
from this source no trustworthy information about him is to be
gleaned, but there are other references to him of a less doubt
ful complexion. Some rudely formed Latin hexameters found
in two or three late copies of the laws would seem to have
been originally written at the end of a copy of the code trans
cribed by Blegywryd for the use of the court of Hywel and
its judge, Gwrnerth Lwyd of Is Cennen.74 In these he is
72 MSS. S. Z. name the commissioners, but the list is merely one of famous
lawyers, without regard to chronology. Morgeneu and Cyfnerth were the com
pilers of the Gwentian Code (Gw. i. 622, MSS. U. X.), Goronwy ap Moreiddig
was a lawyer one of whose dicta is quoted in Dim. II. xviii. 37, and both he and
Gwair ap Rhufon were authors of editions of the laws said to have been used by
Iorwerth ap Madog in the compilation of Ven. (i. 218).
73 MSS. S. Z. For the supposed visit to Rome on this special business see
note 55 above.
74 Pref. to LL. i. xxxiv. (Bodl. MS.) and MSS. S. Z. (i. 342). Sir J. Rhys.in

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 34*
described as teacher of law to the household of Hywel, and it CHAP.
is implied that his knowledge of the law and his power of x
exposition were of an exceptional kind. In agreement with
this the Liber Landavensis speaks of "that most famous
man, Blegywryd son of Einon," as intervening in 955 in a
quarrel between the see of Llandaff and the king of Gwent
and forbidding a breach of the law of sanctuary.75 Another
reference in the same authority suggests that his home lay in
Gwent and, in direct opposition to the statements in the codes,
sets him down, with his brother Rhydderch, as a layman.76
It would seem likely, on the whole, that Blegywryd was not a
churchman (Welsh lawyers, in point of fact, were not drawn
from the ranks of the clergy),77 and that while he gave his
services, so highly prized in his generation, to the king of
Deheubarth in the great enterprise of his reign, he returned
after Hywel's death to his native hamlet in the plains of
Gwent.78 No copy of the original code of Hywel has survived in any
form,79 for nob only are all extant MSS. of the laws of later
date that 11 50, but they represent improved and enlarged
editions of the law book of Whitland, compiled from time to
time by distinguished lawyers for the use of particular districts
or communities. Three of these recensions, written in Welsh,
the original language of the code, have, by reason, no doubt,
Cymr. xviii. 115-7, discusses these verses and supplies a corrected text from the
Oxford MS. They are clearly ancient, having been torn from their true place
as a colophon, and are the source of many of the statements made in late MSS.,
such as that of Dim. i. 340 as to the writing of three law books and the assertion
of MSS. S. Z. (i. 342) that Blegywryd was doctor of civil and canon law ! The
" iudex cotidianus " is the " ynad llys," who dispenses justice from day to day
in the " llys peunyddiol " of Dim. i. 344.
75 Lib. Land. 219. The mention of "houel britannicum regem" is, of
course, an anachronism, but it is possible that the name read originally Owain
ap Hywel. 78 Ibid. 222. The " Bledcuurit " who appears among the clergy on p. 230 can
hardly be identified with the lawyer of Hywel's day, for the grant he witnesses
was made by the Hywel ap Rhys of Asser.
77 See especially Dim. II. viii. 124 for the disability which excluded a cleric
from the office of judge in a secular court.
78 That Blegywryd was of this region is suggested by his appearance in
955 at the church of SS. Iarmen and Febric, probably St. Arvan's (Lib. Land.
219, 405), and by his witnessing with his brother (ibid. 222) the grant of " Cair
Nonou," which was not far from Caerwent and Llanfihangel (by Roggiet ?).
79 For a discussion of the history and relationship of the chief MSS. of the
laws see note B. appended to this chapter.

342 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, of their excellence of form and substance, long ago ousted all
others, so that all the existing MSS. in Welsh are copies of the
Venedotian, the Dimetian, or the Gwentian Code, or have been
compiled out of these three sources. The Venedotian Code has
the advantage of the other two in respect of the age of its
oldest MS., for the Black Book of Chirk dates from about 1200,
while no extant copy of either of the other two can be ascribed
to an earlier date than the fall of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. Never
theless, there is good reason to suppose that it is in substance
comparatively recent, having been compiled about or not long
before 1200 by one Iorwerth ap Madog as a special law book
for North-west Wales. The Gwentian Code (to give it the
title by which it has of late become generally known, though
no evidence for its connection with Gwent or with Morgannwg
has been adduced) appears to be also a compilation, to be
ascribed, perhaps, to Morgeneu and his son Cyfnerth, who are
mentioned as the authors in two or three of the MSS. The
Dimetian Code seems to have best preserved, both in substance
and in arrangement, the original Law of Hywel, but it is ob
viously a greatly amplified edition of that law and contains a
reference to an enactment made by the Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd,
who died in 1197. Of greater antiquity, probably, than any
of the Welsh texts are the Latin versions, of which three are
printed in the Record edition of the laws. Their divergence
is too marked to allow it to be supposed that they represent an
original Latin draft by one of Hywel's clerks, from which the
earliest Welsh editions were translated ; they were clearly
themselves translated at different times from different Welsh
originals, in order to enable foreign ecclesiastics to understand
and administer the national customs. But they appear to be
based on older Welsh texts than any which have come down
to modern times, and the matter which is common to them
may be taken as the nearest approximation we are ever likely
to attain to the code which was promulgated by Hywel.
Hywel died in 949 or 950,80 having done something for
Welsh unity by his career of conquest, but far more by his work
as a legislator. The realm he founded died with him, but the
80 Harl. MS. 3859 has " Higuel rex brittonum (a title only previously be
stowed in this MS. upon Rhodri Molwynog) obiit " under the year corresponding
to 950.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 343
code he gave to Wales was the beginning of Welsh jurisprud- CHAP

ence ; it was the solid foundation upon which the lawyers of
later ages built at i their leisure in the practice of a noble and
peaceful profession. Though local customs still continued and
were embodied in local documents, the conception of one law,
valid for the whole of Wales, took its rise from the measures of
Hywel and was developed by the activity of the legal com
mentators — in this domain the Welsh people early arrived at
national self-consciousness. IV. Civil Strife and Foreign Alarms.
Hywel the Good was not able to hand over to his descend
ants the authority he had acquired in North Wales, and accord
ingly the realms of Gwynedd and Deheubarth once more owned
different rulers and waged war upon each other. The ninety
years which followed the death of the legislator are filled with
barren strife, with provincial feuds and family quarrels, seeming
to lead to no result ; in spite of a multitude of claims, the man
had not yet arisen who could gather the whole nation around
his banner and breathe life and force into the national aspira
tions. In the background, meanwhile, was the double menace
of the sea-rovers and the English, which the Welsh might only
forget at their peril ; ever and anon they were roughly re
minded, by piratical raid or border foray, that their ancient
enemies were at their gates, in readiness for the hour of weak
ness or disunion.
It will perhaps be best to take the dynastic history of
Gwynedd, Deheubarth and Morgannwg separately and there
after to discuss briefly the relations of these states with the
English and with the "gentiles." of the opposite coast of
Ireland.81 On the death of Hywel, the men of Gwynedd at
81 The last entry in Harl. MS. 3859 belongs to the year 954, and henceforth the
historian has to rely upon the two later editions of the Menevian annals, known as
MSS. B. and C. of Ann. C. B.T. and B. Saes. often supply valuable additions.
The notices are meagre at this point and it is often difficult to distinguish the
various princes named Idwal, Rhodri, etc. As to chronology, it should be
observed that B. Saes. antedates by two years the killing of Congalach, king of
Ireland, in 956 (Ann. Ult. and Chron. Scot. s.a. 955 ; War of G. and G. xcvii.
44) and the visit of Edgar to Chester in 973 (for the year see Plummer ii. 160),
but only by one year the death of Edgar in 975 and the expedition of Godfrey
Haroldson (see note 120 below) in g87. One adds, therefore, two years to its
dates until g72 (= g74) and one year afterwards.

X.

344 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, once threw off the southern yoke and marched to meet the
X' sons of the dead king under the leadership of their own princes,
Iago or Jacob and Idwal or Ieuaf, the sons of Idwal the Bald.
The battle was fought at Nant Carno, in the region of Arwystli,
on the borders of North and South Wales, and was a victory
for the sons of Idwal, who were thereby secured in the posses
sion of Gwynedd, and, it may be, of Powys also. Peace and
good neighbourhood, nevertheless, were not at once established
between the two houses. In 952 Iago and Idwal led their
men as far south as Dyfed on an errand of fire and slaughter ;
the sons of Hywel in 954 retaliated by a march into the Conway
valley, where their progress was checked not far from Llanrwst
and a defeat inflicted upon them which emboldened the men of
Gwynedd to pursue them into Ceredigion. After these reverses,
the southern folk forbore for a time to harass the house of
Idwal and devoted their energies to other enterprises. Left to
themselves, the rulers of Gwynedd spent their strength in civil
war ; in 969 Ieuaf was taken prisoner by his brother Iago and
henceforth plays no part in the affairs of the kingdom, though
he seems to have languished in captivity until 988. It was
Iago's turn next to feel the edge of misfortune ; after a tempor
ary defeat in 974, from which he seems to have recovered, he
was taken captive in 979 by the son of his dispossessed brother,
and Hywel ab Ieuaf thereupon became king of Gwynedd.
Hywel retained this position for six years, and on his death in
985 was succeeded by his brother Cadwallon. The line of
Idwal the Bald then lost for some years its royal rights in
Gwynedd, for in 986 Maredudd ab Owain of Deheubarth
invaded the realm, slew the new king and annexed the northern
to the southern, state.
Of the three sons of Hywel the Good who fought with the
sons of Idwal, Rhodri died in 953 and Edwin in 954,82 leaving
Owain undisputed ruler of Deheubarth, a dignity which he held
until his death in 988. The dynastic position of Owain was a
strong one ; his brothers had left no heirs, and thus he was the
sole representative of Cadell ap Rhodri, as well as of the native
line of Dyfed, which had ended with his mother Elen. It is
not surprising, therefore, that he should have taken special pains
82 See note 61 above.

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 345
to get together a permanent record of his claims. Both the CHAP
chronicle and the genealogies contained in Harleian MS. 3859
were unmistakably compiled in the reign of Owain ap Hywel
Dda, though the actual copy in which they are preserved is of
later date.83 The chronicle is based upon the annals kept
throughout this period at St. David's ; its purpose is to record
particulars of the persons mentioned in the genealogies, and it
was originally intended to bring it as far as the year 977 — an
intention not quite fulfilled. The pedigrees immediately follow ;
the first is that of Owain, tracing his descent from Cunedda and
Maelgwn and Rhodri the Great ; the second is that of his mother,
going back to Voteporix of Dyfed and that prince's , father,
Agricola of the Long Hand. A number of other pedigrees are
then inserted, giving the lineage of the ancient princes of Powys,
Strathclyde, Morgannwg, Ceredigion, Meirionydd, and other dis
tricts, but it is remarkable that in not a single instance are
these lists brought down to Owain's own day ; 84 there is no
mention of Idwal and his sons or of Morgan of Morgannwg —
it must be supposed that Owain desired to represent himself as
the one lawful heir of the ancient dynasties, alike in North and
South Wales. Nevertheless, as was noted above, he took no
active steps after the battle of Llanrwst to enforce his preten
sions to the throne of Gwynedd ; he and his son Einon, who
now appears upon the stage, turned their arms instead upon
Morgannwg : in 960 Owain crossed the Tawe and ravaged the
border cantref of Gorfynydd ; 85 in 970 and again in 977 Einon
laid waste the plains of Gower, of which the chiefs of Morgannwg
had perhaps got temporary possession. It was on an enterprise
of this kind that Einon met his death; in 984 the "uchelwyr"
of Gwent fell upon him and slew him, in vindication, no doubt,
of provincial liberties which he was seeking to destroy. Owain
was now growing too old for the labours which were imposed
by tribal ideas upon a Welsh prince, and his place was taken by
his son Maredudd, who proved his mettle at the outset of his
career by his conquest of Gwynedd from Cadwallon ab Ieuaf.
83 See note on this MS. appended to chap. v.
84 No. xvii. (line of Dunoding) is the only one which is brought down to the
tenth century, ending about g30.
85 B. Saes. s.a. gs8 has " goryuyd " (for " goruynyd "), of which I take the
"Goher" oi Ann. C. MS. C. and the "Gorwyd" ofB.T., MS. C. to be corrupt
forms.

346 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP. The thirteen years of the rule of Maredudd (986-999 8S)
form something of a contrast to the time of confusion just
described, in that this prince maintained a hold over both North
and South Wales and opposed a bold front both to the English
and to the Norse buccaneers. He is recorded to have led a
raid into Maes Hyfaidd, or the plain of Radnor, where he no
doubt sacked the Mercian villages of the neighbourhood ; 87 in
his dealings with the sea-rovers, too, he showed an alert and
resourceful spirit, redeeming their captives by the payment of a
large ransom. For the times he was a man of mark, not un
deserving of the title bestowed upon him by the Bruts of " most
famous king of the Britons ".88 Yet his reign was a troublous
one, disturbed by foreign attacks and by movements in favour
of his nephew, Edwin ab Einon, and the sons of Meurig ab
Idwal, who sought to win back Gwynedd for the old line. On
his death his work was entirely undone ; Gwynedd was regained
by a scion of Idwal the Bald in the person of Cynan ap Hywel
ab Ieuaf, who ruled for six years (999-1 005),89 while a veil falls
over the history of Deheubarth which suggests the beginning
of a period of anarchy unexampled even in that turbulent
age. What is most noteworthy in the period now reached is the
success of men who were out of the direct line of succession
from Rhodri the Great in seizing royal authority in Gwynedd
and Deheubarth. Such a successful pretender was Aeddan ap
88 The chronology of this reign is tolerably certain, the true date being found
by adding one year to the date of B. Saes. Observe the following correspond
ences : —
B. Saes. g86 — " marwolaeth ar yr ysgrybyl " = the murrain of Ann. Ult.
g86 (= g87), A.S. Chr. MSS. C. D. E. F. g86, and Fl. Wig. g87.
B. Saes. g88 — D. of " glumayn vab abloyc " = the killing of Gluniarainn,
son of Olaf Cuaran, in Ann. Ult. g88 (= g8g) and Chron. Scot. g87 (= g8g).
B. Saes. ggs — Burning of "Arthmatha" = destruction of Armagh in Ann.
Ult. ggs (= gg6), Chron. Scot. gg4 (= gg6) and Tighernach (Rev. Celt. xvii.
P- 35o). 87 " Maes Hyfaidd" means, of course, the vill, and not, as Woodward sup
posed (i. 203), the county of Radnor. See Trans. Cymr. i8gg-igoo, p. 125.
88 " Clotuorussaf vrenhin y brytanyeit " (Bruts, 264). So B. Saes. s.a.
998. 89 About the year 1000 there appears to be confusion in the dating of B.Saes.
The " Ivor porthalarchi " of 1001 is Ivarof Port Lairge or Waterford, who died in
1000 (Ann. Ult. s.a. 999 ; Chron. Scot. gg8). With the annal 1005 we return,
however, to the system of adding two years, for the first year " decemnouenalis
cicli " was, of course, 1007 (Giry, Manuel de Diplomatique, p.ig3).

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 347
Blegywryd, who, after a reign of uncertain length, was killed, CHAP.
with his four sons, by Llywelyn ap Seisyll in 1018. Another
was Rhydderch ab Iestyn, king of South Wales from 1023 to
1033, and founder of a house which, though it failed to retain
its hold upon the crown of Deheubarth, nevertheless played a
prominent part in Welsh history during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Of wider fame than either was the Llywelyn men
tioned above. Nothing is known of the origin of his father
Seisyll ; he had, however, if the pedigrees are to be trusted, some
royal blood in his veins through his mother Prawst, daughter
of Elise ab Anarawd 90 and he further strengthened his position
by marrying Angharad, daughter of King Maredudd.91 His
own energy and force of character did the rest : by his overthrow
of Aeddan and his defeat at Abergwili (1022) of the Irish pre
tender Rhain, who claimed to be a son of Maredudd, he attained
a commanding position in Wales, which, despite his brief
enjoyment of it (he died in 1023),92 was long remembered by
his fellow-countrymen 93 and not only stimulated the ambition
of his son Gruffydd but gave him a great initial advantage in
the struggle for supreme power.
During these vicissitudes the region of Morgannwg remained
under its own princes and for the most part escaped the revolu
tions which distracted the rest of Wales. Glywysing, to which
the name of Morgannwg was now frequently restricted, and
Gwent still formed separate realms, but the kings of Gwent of
Asser's day had, apparently, left no descendants, and both
kingdoms fell into the hands of the posterity of Hywel ap Rhys
of Glywysing. Arthfael ap Hywel was king of Gwent in the
time of Bishop Cyfeiliog of Llandaff, who died in 927 ; 94 he was
90 Dwnn ii. 10, 16 (Prawst is the right spelling — Owen, Pemb. i. 2g4). See
note 64 above and Trans. Cymr. i8gg-igoo, p. 125, to which it may be added that
Hawarden was probably in English hands and not at all likely to have been the
home of a Welsh chief.
91 Bruts, 2g6-7 ; Jesus Coll. MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 88.
92 The date, given by B. Saes. as 1021, is fixed by the Irish evidence, for the
death of " Leobelin," king of the Britons, is entered in Chron. Scot. s.a. 1021
= 1023), Ann. Ult. s.a. 1023, and in Tighernach (Rev. Celt. xvii. p. 363).
93 B.T. (p. 36) and B. Saes. (s.a. 1020) tell a wonderful tale of the pro
sperity enjoyed by the Welsh in Llywelyn's time, with which should be compared
what is said in Lib. Land. 253 of his successor, Rhydderch ab Iestyn, and in War
ofG. and G. pp. 136-40, of Brian Boru.
94 Lib. Land, 236 (hiugel rex filius ris . . . filiorum suorum yuein et
arthuail), 237.

348 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, succeeded by his son Cadell, who died in 942.95 A new dynasty
then came into possession, represented in 955 by Noe ap
Gwriad 96 and carried on by his son Arthfael, whose murder
of his brother Elise and solemn atonement by the gift of land
to Bishop Gwgon (d. 982) are recorded in the Liber Landa-
vensis.97 The sons of Elise, named Rhodri and Gruffydd,
next ruled over Gwent,98 but about 1020 gave place to one
Edwin ap Gwriad,99 of unknown origin, who was the last
independent king of this region, holding it until he was dis
possessed, blinded and imprisoned by Meurig ab Hywel of
Morgannwg.100 Meanwhile, the house of Hywel ap Rhys had
retained a firm hold of the country west of the Usk. The three
sons of Owain ap Hywel had each some authority in this region,
but the death of Gruffydd in 934 (or 935) and of Cadwgan in
949 (or 950) finally left the whole land under the sway of
Morgan the Aged,101 whose long reign did not close until 974.
The next in succession was Owain ap Morgan, whose sons Rhys
and Hywel carried on the line into the eleventh century.102
The close connection between the Welsh princes and the
court of Wessex which marked the reign of Hywel the Good
continued for some years after his death. It would appear
that Edred and the advisers of Edwy were anxious to main
tain the policy of Athelstan and to encourage the attendance
of the Welsh at meetings of West Saxon magnates. Accord
ingly there is evidence of the presence in 955 of three leading
chiefs at the court of Edred, viz., Morgan the Aged, Owen ap
Hywel Dda and Iago ab Idwal. But, when Edgar came to the
throne, there was a reversal of this line of action, and henceforth
no Welsh attestations are to be found in the charters of English
kings. What occasioned the change it is not easy to discover ;
possibly it was held that the attempt at conciliation had been
a failure, and with no Hywel to advocate peace and friendship
with the English, it was in fact little likely to succeed. Of one
95 Lib. Land. 223, 224 ; Ann. C, B.T., B. Saes. (s.a. g4i). Harl. MS. 385g
has (s.a. g43) " Catel filius artmail ueneno moritur ". For the true date see note
64 above. 98 Lib. Land. 218. 97 Ibid. 244-6.
98 Ibid. 251, 252. 99 Ibid. 24g-5i.
189 Ibid. 255-7. 101 See note 66.
102 Lib. Land. 246, 252, 246-7. Hywel ab Owain died in 1043 (Ann. C,
B.T. and B. Saes.).

THE AGF OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 349
thing'one, may 'feel' certain, namely,7- that the return to the old CHAP.
relations of mutual suspicion betokened no real weakening of
the English hold upon Wales.103 Edgar, as is well known, was
an active and strenuous monarch, and his possession of a fleet
would make him specially formidable to the Welsh. The
story that he imposed upon Ieuaf an annual tribute of three
hundred wolves may be mere legend,104 but the account of the
submission to him at Chester in 973 of all the chief kings of
these islands, including those of the Welsh, is not to be disposed
of so readily.105 Both the Welsh and the English contempor
ary chronicles speak of a great gathering of vessels at the " city
of the legion," presided over by Edgar himself; the English
narrative is further supported by independent evidence when
it states in addition that six kings there met the overlord of
Britain and swore to be faithful to him and to act with him
by sea and by land. That the six (or the eight, if the latter
account be accepted) included Welsh princes is highly probable,
even though it may not be possible to identify more Welsh
names than that of Iago ab Idwal in the list handed down by
tradition. It is, of course, a good deal more difficult to accept
the picturesque detail that Edgar sat at the helm while the
eight kings rowed him in his barge from the castle to St. John's
Church and back again — -surely a romantic embellishment of
the plain, unvarnished fact of the submission. Edgar the
Peaceable, the statesman and wise administrator, was not the
man to hazard the substance of his power by a theatrical dis-
103 Green (Conq. Eng. (2), pp. 323-4) seems to misinterpret the situation.
104 Wm. Malm. G.R. i. 177 (i. 251). " Iudval(us) " is Idwal, the true name
of Ieuaf. 105 For the naval gathering see Ann. C. MS. C, Bruts, 262 (where " edwart "
is a slip), and B. Saes. s.a. g7i. The two Welsh chronicles wrongly translate
" urbe legionum " as " kaer llion ar wysc," instead of Caerlleon ar Ddyfrdwy ;
in the Gw. Brut (p. 691), the inconsistency of this with the English account is
solved by bringing Edgar to Caerleon in 967 and to Chester in 968 ! For the
submission see A.S. Chr. MSS. D. E. F. s.a. 972 (=973 — see note above);
Stevenson has shown (Eng. Hist. Rev. xiii. pp. 505-7) that there is good evidence,
dating from about gg6, of the trustworthy character not only of this entry, but
also of the fuller account in Fl. Wig. i. 142-3, so far as it names eight kings, and
among them, those of the Cumbrians and the Scots. Florence's " Jacob " is,
no doubt, Iago ab Idwal ; " Huwal " and " Juchil " offer some difficulty, for Hywel
ab Ieuaf did not obtain power until g7g, while Ieuaf (or Idwal) lost it in g6g.
Wm. Malm. G.R. i. 165 (i. 236) probably borrowed his account from Fl. Wig.
(Asser, ed. Stev. lxii).

3So HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, play of it, to the humiliation and mortification of his royal
x' vassals. His hold upon the coasts of Wales was patent to all
and needed no such advertisement.106
The English king did not long survive his great triumph
at Chester, and after his death in 975 the forces of dissolution
began to make themselves felt in the West ¦ Saxon realm, so
that, with England parcelled out among great ealdormen, the
crown ceased to be much concerned with the doings of the
princes of Wales. As in the days before Alfred, it was the
ruler of Mercia who now kept an eye upon the movements of
the Welsh and directed punitive expeditions against them.
Already, in 956, ^Elfhere had been invested with the Mercian
earldom,107 and in 967 had ravaged the lands of Iago and
Ieuaf;108 in 983, at the end of his long tenure of office, he is
found acting with Hywel ab Ieuaf of Gwynedd in an 'attack
upon Einon ab Owain of Deheubarth, which the latter repelled
with much slaughter.109 After the banishment of ^Elfhere's
son ^Elfric in 985, there was for many years a vacancy in the
earldom of Mercia, and it is not easy to say who the ^Ethelsige
was of the expedition of 992, when Edwin ab Einon obtained
the help of an English force to harry the dominions of his uncle
Maredudd.110 But in 1007 Mercia received an earl once more
in the person of the notorious Eadric Streona ; hence it is
Eadric who in 1012 leads the English attack upon Mynyw, an
attack which may well have been made by sea, with the aid of
some of the Danish ships taken this year by King Ethelred
into his service.111 The Eilaf who in 1022 repeated this raid
upon the ancient seat of St. David112 was not Earl of Mercia
108 According to the records of the cathedral church of Bangor, Edgar
founded the neighbouring church of St. Mary, or Llanfair Garth Brannan (B.
Willis, Bangor, p. 183 — cf. 72).
107 Crawford Charters, 84.
10SB.T. alone introduces iElfhere (MS. C. Alfre) into this annal, and it
may be the case that its compiler has inadvertently doubled the notice of g83.
189 Ann. C. (Alfre), B.T. (Aluryt), B. Saes. s.a. 982 (Alfred).
110 Ann. C. MS. B. supplies the form " Edelisi " from which /Ethelsige is
inferred (e.g., by Freeman, Norm. Conq. i. (3) 285).
mAnn. C. MS. B. has " Edris," MS. C. " Edrich," pointing clearly to
Eadric Streona (Norm. Conq. i. (3), p. 351). His companion " Ubis " has not
been traced.
™"Eilaph venit in Britanniam (i.e., Wales) et vastavit Dyvet et Mene-
viam " (Ann. C. MS. C). This was Eglaf or Eilifr, a Dane in the service of Cnut
(Norm. Conq. i. (3), p. 447).

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 3S1
(a position held^under Cnut by Leofwine), but he clearly filled CHAP.
some post of authority on the border, for the life of St. Cadog
calls him "an English sheriff" and tells how he invaded Mor
gannwg with a mixed force of Englishmen and Danes and so
alarmed the clergy of Llancarfan that they carried off the
shrine of their saint to the mountain retreat of Mamheilad.113
Moreover, if there is no record of any Welsh invasion conducted
by Earl Leofwine, it was his son Edwin who led the English on
the fatal day of Rhyd y Groes/14
Throughout the whole of this period the hapless inhabitants
of Wales had to bear the brunt of the piratical onslaughts of
the sea-rovers, which were more frequent and more difficult to
foresee and ward off than invasions from over the English
border. It was unusual during the half-century between 950
and 1000 for more than five years to pass without a Danish
attack upon some quarter of Wales important enough to be
recorded in some chronicle of the time.115 Anglesey, Lleyn,
Dyfed and the shores of the Severn especially suffered from this
scourge, but no part of the coast was wholly secure. As in
the ninth century, the raiders were chiefly attracted by the
plunder of the monasteries ; the sack of Aberffraw, the royal
seat of Gwynedd, in 968 stands alone, for the other places said
to have been raided by the foreigners were all the sites of
important churches. Holyhead was despoiled in 961, Towyn
in 963, Penmon in 971, Clynnog in 978,116 Mynyw (St. David's)
in 982, 988 and 999, and in 988 a whole series of sanctuaries,
including Llanbadarn Fawr, Llandudoch (St. Dogmael's), Llan
illtud and Llancarfan. It need scarcely be said that much of
the plunder took the form of saleable captives, for the Danes
were traders as well as pirates and the slave trade was one
of the most flourishing branches of their commerce.117 Two
thousand captives are said to have been carried off by Godfrey
son of Harold from Anglesey in 987, and in 989 Maredudd
113 Cambro-Br. SS. 77. 114 See p. 360.
lwAnn. C. records the attacks of 971, 982, g87, g88, ggg and 1002, B.T. and
B. Saes. in addition those of g6i, 963, 968, 972, 978, g8o and gg3. A.S. Chr.
MSS. C. D. E. s.a. gg7 mention a raid on the coast of Morgannwg ("on
NorSwalum") not noticed in the Welsh annals.
116 B. Saes. (s.a. g7y) has here the right reading— "y diffeithwyt lleyn a
chelynnauc vaur". As Ann. C. MS. C. says that Hywel won his victory of the
following year with " gentile " aid, it is probable that " saeson " in this annal is
a mistake of the original of B.T. and B. Saes.
117 Conq. Eng. (2), p. 118.

352 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, redeemed very many of his subjects from thraldom at a cost of
one penny aihead. The centre of Danish power in the western
seas was the city of Dublin, where Anlaf Cuaran ruled from
about 945 until his abdication in 980 and was succeeded by
his sons Gluniarainn (i.e., Iron-knee) and Sitric of the Silken
Beard.118 But, though the "sons of Abloec" (Anlaf) in 961
ravaged Holyhead and Lleyn, this house is less prominent in
the tale of ruin and slaughter than that of Limerick, where a
Danish dynasty had been established in the ninth century
which also became master of the Hebrides and the Isle of
Man.119 Magnus or Maccus son of Harold, of this line, in 971
made a descent upon Penmon, while his brother Godfrey, who
succeeded him about 977, appears on four occasions as the
leader of a flotilla bound for Wales in pursuit of booty. In
972 he ravaged Anglesey ; in 980 he helped Cystennin ab Iago
in an attack upon the same island which was directed against
Hywel ab Ieuaf; in 982 he invaded Dyfed ; in 987 he and his
Danish host, in a third irruption into Anglesey, won a victory
over the Welsh, the fame of which — for a thousand of the
enemy were left dead on the field and two thousand carried
into captivity — penetrated to Ireland and was thought worthy to
be preserved in the annals of that country.120 The Welsh of
the age of Maredudd ab Owain had no more persistent or
pitiless foe than Godfrey Haroldson.
At the very end of the tenth century the Danish peril was
still as instant and real as at any time during the previous two
hundred years. In 999 St. David's was pillaged and its Bishop
Morgeneu was slain. The evil day was long remembered, not
only by reason of its tragic history, but also because the
bishop's death was deemed to have been of the nature of a
judgment. He had been the first of all the long line of suc
cessors of Dewi to break the custom of the see and to eat meat ;
no one, therefore, was surprised to hear that on the night of his
death a bishop in Ireland had encountered his ghost, wailing
and showing his wounds, with the pitiful cry — " I ate flesh and
am become carrion ".121
118 War of G. and G. pp. 280-7, 288. 119 Ibid. pp. 271-2.
120 The " Cath Manand" of Ann. Ult. s.a. g86 (= g87), won by " mac
Aralt " and the Danes, with the slaughter of a thousand men, must be the same
as that recorded in Ann. C, B.T. and B. Saes.
121 Gir. Camb. vi. 104 (Itin. ii. 1).

NOTE A. TO CHAPTER X. Welsh Attestations to Old English Charters.
Some fourteen old English Charters are attested by Welsh princes, and the evidence they furnish may be disposed in tabular form
as follows^ —

Cart.

Cod.
Sax.
Dipl.
No.
Date.
Place. King.
Under-kings mentioned.
Authority for the Text.
No.
Vol.
P.
No.
Vol.
p.
I
663
II.
342
IIOI
V.
1 go
April 16,
928.
Exeter. Athelstan.
Howel, Juthwal, Wurgeat.
Winchester Cartulary (Ad.MS.
15,350). Marked as spurious
by Kemble.
2
675
II
361
1 103
1)
19S
June 21,
931-
Worthy, „
Hants.
Huwal, IuSwal, Morcant,
Eugenius.
MS. Claud. B. vi.
3
677
J J
364
353
II.
171
Nov. 12,
93i-
Luton. , ,
Howael, IuSwal.
Cott. Charter viii. 16 — an orig
inal charter in Br. Mus.
4
68g
1 )
380
1 107
v.
206
Aug. 30,
932.
Middleton. ,,
Howel, IuSwal, Morcant,
Wurgeat.
The same as No. 1.
5
697
II
397
363
II.
193
Dec. 16,
Kingston. ,,
Huwol.
MS. Vitellius A. xiii.
6
702
1
404
364
11
194
933-
May 28,
934-
Winchester. ,,
Howael, IuSwal [Morcant],
Teowdor.
Cott. Charter Aug. ii. 65.
7
7°3
11
406
352
1)
169
June 7,
934?
Nottingham. „
Howael, Morcant, IuSwald.
Reg. Alb. of York. Marked by
Kemble as spurious.
8
705
)l
410
IIIO
v.
215
Dec. 16,
Frome. „
Huwal.
The same as No. 1.
9
716
"
424
367
II.
201
934-
Dec. 21,
937-
Dorchester. ,,
Eugenius, Howel, Morcant,
Iuthua.
Malmesbury Register. Marked
by Kemble as spurious.
10
721
!J
429
369
! 1
204
937-
— „
Howel.
Canterbury Charter E. 206.
n
882
III.
38
426
I>
296
949-
— Edred.
Howael, Marcant.
Cott. Charter viii. 6 — a fac
simile of a lost original.
12
883
39
424
292
949-
,»
Howael, Morcant, Cadmon.
C.C.C.C. MS. cxi.
r3
gog
>»
7i
433
It
3°3
955.
) 1
Morcant, Owen, SyferS,
Jacob.
A MS. of the Soc. of Anti
quaries, No. Ix.
14
937
>!
"5
451
11
325
956.
Cirencester. Edwy.
Ast, Eadgar, Morgant.
MS. Tiberius A. xiii.
a
354 HISTORY OF WALES.
NOTE B. TO CHAPTER X. MSS. and Editions of the Welsh
Laws.
CHAP. The history of the various texts of the law of Hywel in Welsh and Latin is far
X. too large a subject to be discussed within the limits of a note, but an attempt may
perhaps be made to indicate the principal features of the problem and to furnish
some evidence on behalf of the statements made in the body of this work.
No progress can be made with the study of the subject until it is recognised
that the Welsh MSS. fall into three distinct groups, representing three recensions
of the original law of Hywel. The Venedotian, the Dimetian, and the Gwentian
Codes, to use the names commonly applied, must be separately dealt with in any
edition of the laws which is to be of service to the historical student. Ignorance
of this fundamental fact very largely destroyed the value of the edit io princeps of
the laws, prepared by Dr. William Wotton (1666-1726), with the assistance of
Moses Williams (1686-1742), and issued after Dr. Wotton's death by William
Clarke, his son-in-law, under the title, Cyfreithjeu Hywel Dda ac Eraill seu
Leges Wallicae, etc. (London, 1730). Moses Williams was a good Welsh
scholar, but by selecting as the main text to be printed Titus D. II., a MS. of the
Venedotian Code (= Aneurin Owen's B.), and representing all departures from it
in the form of various readings, he introduced a confusion upon which learning
spent itself in vain. Leges Wallicae preserves for us some readings not else
where to be found in print, notably from the lost Wynnstay MS. which Wotton
styles LL, and the translation and glossary were valuable pioneer work. But
fruitful study of the laws only became possible on the appearance of the edition
undertaken by Aneurin Owen (i7g2-i85i) for the Record Commission, which
was published in 1841. In this the three codes are separately printed, each
with the various readings of the MSS. of its class ; the supplemental matter
found in many MSS. forms a second volume ; each of the Latin MSS. is printed
in extenso. Another advantage possessed by this edition over that of 1730 is
that adequate use is made in it of the great Hengwrt (now the Peniarth) collection
of MSS., which is rich in copies of the laws, but was little used by Wotton and
Williams. Exception may be taken to the editor's choice of MSS. in some cases
(for the strange neglect of Peniarth MS. 30 (= Hengwrt MS. 12), see Evans,
Rep. i. pp. 361, 367), but in the main the Record edition is of such a character as to
place the student under very great obligations to it, and, short of printing each
MS. as a separate text, it is difficult to see how, in the main, it could have been
more usefully arranged.
The oldest extant Welsh MS. is a Venedotian text, viz., Owen's A. (Pen.
MS. 2g = Heng. 26), known as the " Black Book of Chirk". Old as it is, its
ascription by Owen (i. Pref. xxvi.) to " the early part of the twelfth century " is a
mistake ; the date suggested by Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans (Rep. i. p. 35g) is about
1200, and reasons will be given below for thinking an earlier one to be unlikely
on other than palasographical grounds. Other important Venedotian MSS. are
B. (Cott. MS. Titus D. II.), which dates from the end of the thirteenth century
and records the customs of Gwynedd below Conway (e.g., as to the amount of the
amobyr payable by a king's aillt ; cf. LL. i. g$, note 38, with the sum said in
Rec. Cam. to be due under this head from the villein trefs of Creuddyn) ; C.
(Caligula A. III.), written between 1225 and 1250 (Evans, Rep. i. Pref. to Pt. 2, p.
viii) ; Pen. MS. 30, which is of the thirteenth century, and G. (Pen. MS. 35),
which is of the last quarter of that century (Rep. i. p. 367). In spite of the age of
the oldest MS., the Venedotian Code appears to embody a late recension of the
law of Hywel. The passage in C. (LL. i. 218 " Ar llevyr hvn ") in which this is
expressly asserted and the name of the compiler given as Iorwerth ap Madog
would, no doubt, carry little weight if unsupported by other evidence (see Evans,

THE AGE OF THE SEA-ROVERS. 355
Rep. i. Pt. 2, Introd. viii), but the name of lorwerth occurs in other passages of CHAP.
undoubted authority (i. 104, 2g2 ; ii. 20) as the editor of the code, dealing freely X.
with older material, and the whole structure of the work, departing as it does
widely from all other arrangements of the laws (note, for instance, its treatment of
the protections, sarhads and lodgings of the king's officers in bk. i), supports the
view that it is an independent compilation. Moreover, a reference to the Historia
Regum of Geoffrey of Monmouth (i. 184 : " Dywynwal moel mud . . . mab . . .
yarll kernyw " — cf. Hist. Reg. ii. 17) and another to the order of Knights Hospi
tallers (i. 170 : " Teyr gorsetua . . . abat ac escop ac hyspyty "), both occurring
in the original text, as evidenced by E. (a transcript supplying the lacunae of A.),
show that this compilation cannot have been made before the middle of the twelfth
century. Indeed, if C. is right in giving the full name of lorwerth as lorwerth ap
Madog " vap Rahawt " (i. 292), the work can hardly have been put together before
the first years of the thirteenth (to which A. is ascribed), for his brother, Einion
ap Madog " ab Rahawd" (in the case of so rare a name as Rhahawd, a mere
coincidence is not to be thought of), was the contemporary of Gruffydd, the
eldest son of Llywelyn ab lorwerth (Myv . Arch. I. 3gi (266)). It may well be
the case that the code was compiled at the bidding of Llywelyn, who desired to
emphasise the supremacy of Gwynedd by the issue of the laws in a distinctively
Venedotian form.
The oldest extant MSS. of the Dimetian Code belong to the end of the
thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century, that is, to the period
immediately following the loss of independence. O. (Pen. MS. 36A) is deemed by
Dr. Evans (Rep. i. p. 369) to be the oldest of all, preceding by some years L. (Titus
D. IX.), which was adopted by Owen as the main text of his edition of the code and
is assigned to the neighbourhood of the year 1300. This version of the laws
embodies legislation by Rhys ap Gruffydd of South Wales (II. xxxi. g) and its
compilation must therefore be ascribed to the period 1150-1250. In its structure it
conforms pretty closely to what one may suppose the original code of Hywel to
have been, but the material has been amplified and supplemented. The special
references to South- West Wales (I. ii. 6 ; II. xxiv. ; II. xxxi. g) quite justify the
title which has been bestowed upon it of the Dimetian Code.
The so-called " Gwentian " Code is found in a group of MSS. of which the
oldest are U. (Pen. MS. 37) and V. (Harl. MS. 4353), assigned by Dr. Evans to
the end of the thirteenth century. It may be inferred from U. that the compilers
of the code were one Morgeneu and his son Cyfnerth, who wrought the old law of
Hywel into a version resembling the Dimetian Code, but shorter and more con
cise. According to i. 218, lorwerth ap Madog used, among other, sources, " the
book of Cyfnerth ap Morgeneu," and this is confirmed by the reference in Ven. I.
xvi. 8 (end), introduced by " rey adeueyt " (some maintain), to a rule which is
peculiar to the Gwentian Code (see Gw. I. xvi. 21). The code is therefore older
than 1200, but cannot, notwithstanding what is said in the late MS. S. (i. 340) of
" Morgeneu ynat" and his son " Kyfnerth," be pushed back as far as the age of
Hywel himself, for "yn oes Hywel Dda" was already, when it was drawn up,
a distant past (I. xxxv. ig). As to its local connections, there is nothing to
connect it with Gwent, where indeed Welsh rule came to an end before 1100;
I. ii. 3 points rather to Deheubarth.
Three Latin versions of the laws are printed in the second volume of Aneurin
Owen's edition. The first (Lat. A.) is taken from Pen. MS. 28, which is assigned
by Dr. Evans to 1175-1200, and is, therefore, older than any Welsh text. If one
may judge from the inclusion in it of the section (II. xviii.) on the "Bishop-
houses " of Dyfed (with the unauthorised addition to the list of Llawhaden), it is a
Dimetian MS. and perhaps belonged to a bishop of St. David's. The second
Lat. B.) is from Br. Mus. MS. Vespasian E. XI. of the beginning of the four

356 HISTORY OF WALES.
CHAP, teenth century; it is also distinctly Dimetian (cf. II. xiii. Iv. Ivi.), but contains
X. material drawn from various sources. The third (Lat. C.) is also from a British
Museum MS., Harl. I7g6, and is ascribed to the thirteenth century. Though in
no way connected with the Venedotian Code, it is a Venedotian MS., as shown
by the reference to the supremacy of the king of Aberffraw (I. v.), while the dis
tinction drawn (p. go6) between the cattle of " Mon " and those from " vltra
Menei " is evidence of an Anglesey origin.
It has been maintained that the law of Hywel was originally written in Latin
and that the Welsh codes are therefore translations, in so far as they draw upon
a common stock. In the absence of direct evidence, it is difficult to say what
happened at Ty Gwyn ar Daf, but, so far as the extant Latin texts are concerned,
they may safely be ranked as adaptations for a special purpose from Welsh ori
ginals. Not only single words, but whole clauses and sentences are left un
translated (see Lat. A. II. ii. 22 ; xi. g ; Lat. B. I. xxvi. 2 ; II. xx. 10 ; Lat. C. xiii.
9) ; technical terms are differently rendered in the three texts — thus, for penteulu
we have " penteylu " in the first, " princeps militie " in the second, and " pater
familias " in the third ; while such various renderings as the following are incon
sistent with the notion that there was current in Wales a primitive Latin text as
old as the time of Hywel : —
Lat. A. II. i. 1. Animalium que usui hominum sunt necessaria.
Lat. B. I. ix. 29. Animalium que necessaria sunt ad opus hominum.
Lat. C. xiv. 7. Animalium quae necessaria sunt ad usus humanos.
The versions would appear to have been made for the benefit of ecclesiastical
landowners and judges who did not know Welsh. Lat. B. II. Iv. 1, for instance,
explains (" solent enim Wallenses") the Welsh system of counting " galanas "
scores ; Lat. C. i. 1 adds to the usual statement that the laws of the court have
the first place the pious qualification, " secundum seculum ". Lat. B. II. xlix.
(De Variis Iniuriis) embodies a number of ecclesiastical canons, ancient but hav
ing no reference to the forms of Welsh law (H. and St. i. 127).
It thus becomes clear that no MS. in Welsh or Latin preserves for us the
original code of Hywel. The Latin, no less than the Welsh, MSS. speak of the
time of the great legislator as a bygone age (Lat. A. II. xxiv. 32 ; xiii. 2 ; Lat.
B. I. xiii. 31 ; II. xi. 4). The nearest approach to evidence of what was con
tained in the first law-book is the consensus of all codes and versions, and there is,
in point of fact, so much in common between them as to make this criterion not
unserviceable.

END OF VOL. I.

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