Cadwallon ap Cadfan
Cadwallon ap Cadfan († 634), also Cadwalader, Caswallon or Catgublaun was a king of the Welsh Kingdom of Gwynedd .
He was the son of Cadfan ap Iago and after the death of his father around 625 he became king of Gwynedd, which at that time stretched over North Wales and to the north of the Mersey , perhaps even to Carlisle . He is said to have been married to a daughter of Pybba , the King of Mercia . There was deep enmity between his empire, the Welsh Gwynedd and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . The Anglo-Saxon King Æthelfrith had decisively defeated the Welsh in 613 at the Battle of Chester . In revenge for this defeat, Cadwallon sacked Northumbria in 629, but was defeated by Edwin , the successor of Æthelfriths at Morpeth , and driven back to Wales. There he was besieged on the island of Glannauc, probably Priestholm near Anglesey, and finally had to flee to Ireland in 631.
As early as 632 he returned to Wales and, although he was a Christian himself, allied himself with his brother-in-law Penda , the pagan king of Mercia. Together they invaded Northumbria and on October 12, 633 defeated Edwin's army at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, northeast of Doncaster . Edwin and his son Osfrith fell in battle, and Northumbria was subsequently sacked by the victors. In the looting, the Welsh under Cadwallon are said to have outdone their pagan allies. Cadwallon vowed to expel all Anglo-Saxons from England. The Bishop of York, Paulinus , fled to Kent with Edwin's widow and their children . After this defeat, Northumbria fell back into two kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia . Although Osric von Deira allied with Eanfrith von Bernicia and both abandoned their Christian faith, presumably to win the Mercier for themselves, they were defeated and killed by Cadwallon in 634. In the same year, however, Oswald , a younger brother of Eanfrith and nephew of Edwin, gathered a new army and allied himself with Domnal , the Irish-Scottish king of Dalriada . Cadwallon's outnumbered army was caught by Oswald and Domnal north of Hadrian's Wall and defeated at the Battle of Heavenfield . Cadwallon was initially able to escape, but was overtaken and killed at Denisebun. With the defeat and death of Cadwallon, the Anglo-Saxons regained dominance over northern England.
In Gwynedd, Cadafael ap Cynfedw seized power after his death. Cadwallon's son Cadwaladr was able to regain power in Gwynedd after his death in 654.
literature
- William Richard Wood Stephens: Cædwalla (d.634) , in: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume VIII. Macmillan, Smith, Elder & Co., London and New York 1886, p. 201
Web links
- John Edward Lloyd: [1] Cadwallon ap Cadfan (d. 633) . In: Welsh Biography Online . The National Library of Wales, accessed November 14, 2013
Individual evidence
- ↑ Welsh Biography Online: Cadwaladr. Retrieved October 20, 2013 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cadwallon ap Cadfan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cadwalader ap Cadfan; Caswallon ap Cadfan; Catgu blue |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | King of Gwynedd |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 6th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 634 |