Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Cadwallon ap Cadfan
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|King of Gwynedd from c. 625 to 634}} {{Use British English|date=July 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Cadwallon ap Cadfan | type = monarch | succession = [[List of rulers of Gwynedd|King of Gwynedd]] | image = History of the Kings (f.99.v) Cadwallon fab Cadfan.jpg | caption = Cadwallon ap Cadfan, from [[History of the Kings (Peniarth 23C)|Peniarth 23C]] | reign = c. 625 β 634 | predecessor = [[Cadfan ap Iago]] | successor = [[Cadafael, King of Gwynedd|Cadafael]] | house = [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|House of Gwynedd]] | spouse = | issue = [[Cadwaladr]] | father = [[Cadfan ap Iago]] | death_date = 634 ([[Battle of Heavenfield]]) | burial = }} '''Cadwallon ap Cadfan''' (died 634)<ref name="Date">A difference in the interpretation of Bede's dates has led to the question of whether Cadwallon was killed in 634 or the year earlier, 633. Cadwallon died in the year after the [[Battle of Hatfield Chase]], which Bede reports as occurring in October 633; but if Bede's years are believed to have actually started in September, as some historians have argued, then Hatfield Chase would have occurred in 632, and therefore Cadwallon would have died in 633. Other historians have argued against this view of Bede's chronology, however, favoring the dates as he gives them.</ref> was the [[List of rulers of Gwynedd|King of Gwynedd]] from around 625 until his death in battle. The son and successor of [[Cadfan ap Iago]], he is best remembered as the [[King of the Britons]] who invaded and conquered [[Northumbria]], defeating and killing its king, [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin]], prior to his own death in battle against [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald of Bernicia]]. His conquest of Northumbria, which he held for a year or two after Edwin died, made him one of the last recorded [[Celtic Britons]] to hold substantial territory in eastern Britain until the rise of the [[Wales|Welsh]] [[House of Tudor]].<ref>Koch, p. 315.</ref> He was thereafter remembered as a national hero by the Britons and as a tyrant by the [[Anglo-Saxons]] of Northumbria. == 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" β 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 71β72.</ref> According to [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (which includes a fairly extensive account of Cadwallon's life but is largely legendary β 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 [[CΓ¦dwalla 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"/> == See also == * [[Family tree of Welsh monarchs]] == References == {{Reflist}} == Sources == * {{cite book |last= Koch |first=John T. |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year= 2006}} * [[Alex Woolf]], "Caedualla ''Rex Brittonum'' and the Passing of the Old North", in ''Northern History'', Vol. 41, Issue 1, March 2004, pages 5β24. == External links == * {{PASE|18147|Cadwallon 1}} {{s-start}} {{s-reg}} {{s-bef | before = [[Cadfan ap Iago]] }} {{s-ttl | title = [[List of rulers of Gwynedd|Kings of Gwynedd]]| years = c. 625 β 634}} {{s-aft | after = [[Cadafael, King of Gwynedd|Cadafael]] }} {{s-reg | leg }} {{s-bef | before = [[Cadfan ap Iago]] }} {{s-ttl | title = [[List of legendary kings of Britain|King of Britain]] }} {{s-aft | after = [[Cadwaladr]] }} {{s-end}} {{Geoffrey of Monmouth}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadwallon ap Cadfan}} [[Category:6th-century births]] [[Category:634 deaths]] [[Category:Year of birth unknown]] [[Category:Anglo-Saxon warriors]] [[Category:Monarchs of Gwynedd]] [[Category:People of medieval Wales killed in battle]] [[Category:7th-century Welsh monarchs]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page
(
help
)
:
Template:Authority control
(
edit
)
Template:Cite book
(
edit
)
Template:Geoffrey of Monmouth
(
edit
)
Template:Infobox royalty
(
edit
)
Template:PASE
(
edit
)
Template:Reflist
(
edit
)
Template:S-aft
(
edit
)
Template:S-bef
(
edit
)
Template:S-end
(
edit
)
Template:S-reg
(
edit
)
Template:S-start
(
edit
)
Template:S-ttl
(
edit
)
Template:Short description
(
edit
)
Template:Use British English
(
edit
)
Template:Use dmy dates
(
edit
)
Template:Webarchive
(
edit
)