Cadell ap Rhodri

Medieval Kingdoms in Wales. The domain of Cadell ap Rhodri (later the Kingdom of Deheubarth ).

Cadell ap Rhodri (* 854/861; † 909 ) was the partial successor of his father Rhodris the Great in the period from 878 to 909, king of the medieval Celtic small kingdom Seisyllwg, which was in southwest Wales . He conquered the neighboring Welsh kingdom of Dyfed in the west and became the progenitor of the so-called Dinefwr dynasty, which ruled the kingdom (principality) of Deheubarth until the 13th century.

origin

origin

Cadell ap Rhodri comes from a very old Celtic ruling family, which according to tradition can be traced back to the historically verifiable Caswallon (for the Romans: Cassivellaunus ), which was built around the time between 60 and 48 BC. Lived at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in 54 BC. As the high king of the British, he headed the resistance against the second campaign in Britain by Julius Caesar . His descendants ruled the kingdom of Gwynedd for around four hundred years after the Roman legions withdrew in 410.

Closer ancestors

Closer direct ancestors of Cadell ap Rhodri in the male line included:

• Coel Hen (Coel the Old) who was ruler in northern Britain after the departure of the Romans around 410-430 and had to defend himself against attacks by the Picts and the Irish .
• Gwriad King of the Isle of Man (cl. C. 800) to whom the "Crux Guriad" (Cross of Gwriad) in Maughold on the Isle of Man (Isle of Man) commemorates. He was married to Esyllt ferch Cynan (Esyllt, daughter of Cynan) Princess of Gwynedd , a daughter of Cynan Dindaethwy ap Rhodri, King of Gwynedd (798-816), from which later the claim of his son, Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad († 844) ), based on this kingdom.

parents

The father of Cadell ap Rhodri was Rhodri the Great ( Welsh Rhodri Mawr ), also Rhodri ap Merfyn Frych (Rhodri, son of Merfyn the Freckled) called (* approx. 820; † 878). He became King of Gwynedd (844 to 878) in 844 after the death of his father , King of Powys (854 to 878) through the death of his maternal uncle in 854 and King of Seisyllwg (855 to 878) through the death of his brother-in-law in 871 and thereby to Ruler of much of Wales. This and the successful defense against attacks by the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings earned him the honorary title of "the great" as the first Welsh ruler.

The mother of Cadell ap Rhodri was Angharad ferch Meurig (* approx. 825 in Ceredigion in Wales). She was a daughter of Meurig ap Dyfnwallon, King of Seisyllwg (cl. C. 850) and the sister of Gwgon ap Meurig, the last King of Seisyllwg from this house, who drowned in 871 under circumstances that were not entirely clear, thereby creating the Seisyllwg kingdom her husband, Rhodri the Great fell.

Map of the realm of Rhodri the Great

Gwynedd, The Kingdom of Rhodris

The Morgannwg area

Life

King of Seisyllwg

Cadell ap Rhodri was born around 854, according to others in 861, as one of the younger sons of Rhodri the Great, who thanks to family politics and skill had united almost all of Wales in his hand. After his death, his empire was divided up into small kingdoms by dividing it among his three sons. Cadell received the Kingdom of Seisyllwg, which was in the south-western part of Wales, in this division. Today, the modern Unitary Authority Ceredigion , part of Carmathenshire and the Gower Peninsula correspond to this . The name is derived from King Seisyll, who ruled the kingdom of Ceredigion at the turn of the 7th to the 8th century. It is possible, but not certain, that the establishment of the Seisyllwg kingdom goes back to him. Seisyllwg is therefore not one of the oldest small kingdoms in Wales, as it only emerged from the amalgamation of the core region - the Kingdom of Ceredigion - with the regions of Cantref Mawr and Ystrad Tywi.

The Kingdom of Seisyllwg was ruled for centuries by the family of Cadell's mother, Angharad ferch Meurig (* approx. 825 in Ceredigion, Wales), who is derived from King Ceredig, a son of Cunedda, who lived around 470 and is the eponymous progenitor of Kingdom of Ceredigion applies. This family also includes the patron saint of Saint David, ( Welsh Dewi Sant ) († 589), who worked in the 6th century as a missionary, bishop and founder of monasteries and to whom St David's Cathedral in the city of the same name in the county of Pembrokeshire remembered at the westernmost point of Wales.

However, this dynasty, whose lineage is incomplete, ended with Gwgon ap Meurig, the brother of King Cadell's mother, who drowned as the last king of Seisyllwg from the house of Ceredig in 871, after which Cadell's father Rhodri the Great annexed his kingdom .

King of Dyfed

However, Cadell was ambitious, teamed up with his brothers and conquered the Welsh Kingdom of Dyfed, west of his lands. The last king of Dyfed, Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, was defeated by Cadell around the year 904 and then ritually drowned. His brother Rhodri ap Hyfaidd was then proclaimed king, but was overthrown and beheaded the next year. Cadell therefore followed as King of Dyfed. In order to give the transition of rule a legal basis, Cadell married his son Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) (* approx. 880, † 950) with Elen, the daughter of King Llywarch, who "inherited" the kingdom.

Ancestor of the Dinefwr dynasty

Dinefwr Castle

The branch of the descendants of Rhodri the Great, donated by Cadell ap Rhodri, is called the "Dynefwr Dynasty" after the Dinefwr Castle originally built by King Rhodri and later the residence of the Deheubarth kings. She ruled the kingdom of Deheubarth created by Cadell's son, Hywel Dda (which today corresponds roughly to Preserved County Dyfed ) until it was conquered by the kings of England in the 13th century.

progeny

Cadell von Seissyllwg had at least one son, Hywel Dda , also Howell the Good (around 880-950), who was able to achieve rule over almost all of Wales.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike Ashley : op cit. Chart 1 Celts (1) - Early Britain, p. 67
2. ↑ Mike Ashley: op cit. Pp. 67, 96 and 97
3. ^ Gwynfor Evans: Land of my fathers: 2000 years of Welsh history, Barnes & Noble (1993)
4. ↑ Mike Ashley, op. Cit.S. 422
5. ↑ Mike Ashley "The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens"; Constable Publishers, London, reprinted 2000; ISBN 1-84119-096-9 , p. 346
6. ↑ Mike Ashley op. Cit. P. 139

literature

• John Edward Lloyd : A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest. Longmans, Green & Co., 1911.
• John Davies : A History of Wales. Penguin, London 1993, ISBN 0-713-99098-8 .
• Mike Ashley : The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens. Carroll & Graf, New York, 1998, p. 151.
• Egerton Phillimore: The Annales Cambriae and Old Welsh Genealogies, from Harleian MS. 3859. In: Egerton Phillimore: Y Cymmrodor. IX. Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1888, pp. 141-183.

Web links

• Rhodri the Great (in English)
• Rhodri Mawr - King of Wales (About Dinefwr Castle in Carmathenshire, believed to have been built by Rhodri - in English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Rhodri the Great	King of Seisyllwg 878–909	Hywel Dda ap Cadell