Editing Cadwallon ap Cadfan (section)

== History ==
As with other figures of the era, little is certainly known of Cadwallon's early life or reign. The primary source of information about him is the ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'' of the Anglo-Saxon writer [[Bede]], who is strongly critical of him. Cadwallon consistently appears in the genealogies of the [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Kings of Gwynedd]] as the son of [[Cadfan ap Iago]] and a descendant of [[Maelgwn Gwynedd]] and [[Cunedda]].<ref>[http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/history/harleian_genealogies/1.html Harleian genealogy 1].</ref><ref>[http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/history/jesus_college_20/22.html Jesus College MS 20 genealogy 22].</ref> Historian [[Alex Woolf]], however, presents the case that the genealogists have erroneously inserted Bede's Cadwallon into the pedigree of the unrelated Kings of Gwynedd as son of Cadfan. Instead, Woolf suggests that Bede's Cadwallon was the ''Catguallaun liu'' found in genealogies as son of ''Guitcun'' and grandson of [[Sawyl Penuchel]], rulers in the ''[[Hen Ogledd]]'' or Brythonic-speaking area of northern Britain.<ref>Woolf 2004.</ref>

Cadwallon was affected by the ambitions of [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin]], [[List of monarchs of Northumbria|King of Northumbria]]. Bede, writing about a century after Cadwallon's death, describes Edwin, the most powerful king in Britain, conquering the Brittonic kingdom of [[Elmet]] (now western [[Yorkshire]]) and ejecting its king, [[Ceretic of Elmet|Cerdic]]. This opened the door to the [[Irish Sea]], and Edwin successfully extended his rule to the "Mevanian Islands" – the [[Isle of Man]] and [[Anglesey]].<ref>Bede, ''H. E.'', [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book2.html Book II], chapter 9. Bede calls these two islands the Mevanian Islands.</ref> The ''[[Annales Cambriae]]'' says that Cadwallon was besieged at Glannauc (now [[Puffin Island (Anglesey)|Puffin Island]], a small island off eastern [[Anglesey]]), and dates this to 629.<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/annalescambriae.html ''Annales Cambriae''], 629.</ref> Surviving Welsh poetry and the [[Welsh Triads]] portray Cadwallon as a heroic leader against Edwin. They refer to a battle at Digoll (Long Mountain) and mention that Cadwallon spent time in [[Ireland]] before returning to Britain to defeat Edwin.<ref>D. P. Kirby, ''The Earliest English Kings'' (1991, 2000), pages 71–72.</ref>

According to [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (which includes a fairly extensive account of Cadwallon's life but is largely legendary — for example, Geoffrey has Cadwallon surviving until after the [[Battle of the Winwaed]] in 654 or 655), Cadwallon went to Ireland and then to the island of [[Guernsey]]. From there, according to Geoffrey, Cadwallon led an army into [[Dumnonia]], where he encountered and defeated the [[Mercia]]ns besieging [[Exeter]], and forced their king, [[Penda of Mercia]], into an alliance. Geoffrey also reports that Cadwallon married a half-sister of Penda.<ref>Geoffrey of Monmouth, ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', Part Eight: "The Saxon Domination."</ref>

Penda and Cadwallon together waged war against the Northumbrians. The [[Battle of Hatfield Chase]] on 12 October 633<ref name="Date"/> ended in the defeat and death of Edwin and his son Osfrith.<ref name="Hatfield">Bede, ''H. E.'', [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book2.asp Book II], chapter 20.</ref> After this, the Kingdom of Northumbria fell into disarray, divided between its sub-kingdoms of [[Deira]] and [[Bernicia]],<ref name="Osric">Bede, ''H. E.'', [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book3.html Book III] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513234140/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book3.html |date=2011-05-13 }}, chapter 1.</ref> but the war continued: according to the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', "Cadwallon and Penda went and did for the whole land of Northumbria".<ref>''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', manuscript E, year 633. Translated by [[Michael Swanton]] (1996, 1998).</ref> Bede says that Cadwallon was besieged by the new king of Deira, [[Osric of Deira|Osric]], "in a strong town"; Cadwallon, however, "sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, by surprise, and destroyed him [Osric] and all his army."<ref name="Osric"/>

After this, according to Bede, Cadwallon ruled over the "provinces of the Northumbrians" for a year, "not like a victorious king, but like a rapacious and bloody tyrant."<ref name="Osric"/> Furthermore, Bede tells us that Cadwallon, "though he bore the name and professed himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and behaviour, that he neither spared the female sex, nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them to tormenting deaths, ravaging all their country for a long time, and resolving to cut off all the race of the English within the borders of Britain."<ref name="Hatfield"/> Bede's extremely negative portrayal of Cadwallon as a genocidal tyrant cannot be taken at face value. Cadwallon's alliance with the Anglo-Saxon Penda undermines Bede's assertion that Cadwallon had attempted to exterminate the English.<ref name=Koch316>Koch, p. 316.</ref> Additionally, the fact that [[Cædwalla of Wessex]] a generation after Cadwallon's death bore a name derived directly from the British ''Cadwallon'' suggests that Cadwallon's reputation could not have been so poor among the Saxons of Wessex as it was in Northumbria.<ref name=Koch316/>

The new [[List of monarchs of Northumbria|king of Bernicia]], [[Eanfrith of Bernicia|Eanfrith]], was also killed by Cadwallon when the former went to him in an attempt to negotiate peace. However, Cadwallon was defeated by an army under Eanfrith's brother, [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald]], at the [[Battle of Heavenfield]], "though he had most numerous forces, which he boasted nothing could withstand". Cadwallon was killed at a place called "Denis's-brook".<ref name="Osric"/>