Elisedd ap Gwylog

Elisedd ap Gwylog (Elisedd son of Gwylog), also Eliseg ap Gwylog, († around 755) was king of Powys , one of the historical Celtic kingdoms located in the eastern part of Wales , which established there after the retreat of the Roman Empire after 410 AD . originated. He successfully tried to defend and consolidate his empire against the expansionist efforts of the Kingdom of Mercia . However, he is best known for the memorial column erected in his honor, the Pillar of Eliseg, which was erected by his great-grandson around 855.

The column of the Eliseg near the Cistercian Abbey of Valle Crucis in Wales in today's damaged condition

origin

Elisedd comes from the so-called Gwrtheyrnion / Gwertherion or Gwerthrynion dynasty, which had its center of rule in the Welsh Commote (district) Gwrtheyrnion in Mid Wales (Welsh: Canolbarth Cymru), north of the River Wye ( Welsh Afon Gwy ). According to tradition, it is derived from the marriage between the Roman - Celtic warrior prince of the 5th century Vortigern (Welsh: Gwrteyrn) and Princess Severa, a daughter of Magnus Maximus , who was called to be Roman Emperor by the Roman troops in Britain in 383 has been. This descent is also recorded in the text of the column by Eliseg.

The closer progenitor of Elisedds was Brochwel ap Cyngen, known as a war hero and hunter, better known as Brochwel Ysgithrog (* approx. 560), who was King of Powys in East Wales and, according to tradition, left numerous descendants.

Little more is known of Elisedd's father than his name and the approximate dates of his life. His name was Gwylog ap Beli, he was born around 695 and died in 725 as King of Powys. Neither the name nor the origin of Elisedd's mother is known.

Life

Defensive battle against the Anglo-Saxons

The life of King Elisedd was essentially shaped by the given geographic location of his kingdom, which extended in the east of Wales to the area of ​​modern Shrewsbury and the neighborhood to the expansive Anglo-Saxons . His kingdom of Powys was therefore exposed to massive pressure from the Anglo-Saxons from the neighboring eastern border areas, the later counties of Cheshire , Shropshire and Herefordshire , for centuries . It was in particular the Kingdom of Mercia that posed a massive threat under Aethelbald , King of Mercia (716–757). King Aethelbald pursued an expansive policy, annexing a number of previously independent or at least autonomous small kingdoms and thereby achieved a supremacy among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which Aethelbald underlined by accepting the title "rex Britanniae" (King of all of Britain). This was a bit of an exaggeration, however, since, according to the contemporary scholar and historian Beda Venerabilis, he ruled (only) all of England south of the River Humber.

As a result, Elisedd ap Gwylog came under pressure several times. While his father occasionally succeeded in pushing back the Anglo-Saxons after 705, later - during the reign of King Aethelbald - the area of ​​the later county of Shrewsbury was lost to the Kingdom of Mercia. Only in elaborate and long-lasting battles - the column of Eliseg speaks of nine years - was King Elisedd able to maintain the independence of his empire and even to regain isolated territories that had been lost.

This stubborn resistance from King Elisedd, who was able to incorporate the city of Oswestry (in the English county of Shropshire in the West Midlands ) into his domain and was therefore perceived as a threat, prompted King Aethelbald of Mercia to set up the so-called “ Wat's Dyke ”, a 64 km walk to erect a long embankment to demarcate his lands from Elisedd's Kingdom of Powys.

Relocation of the residence

Probably around 717 Elisedd moved the royal court from the old capital Viroconium Cornoviorum (originally an important Roman town, today the small village of Wroxeter in the English county of Shropshire about 8 km southeast of Shrewsbury) to Mathrafal Castle (now in ruins), about 10 kilometers northwest of the town of Welshpool (Welsh Y Trallwng) in the valley of the River Severn (Welsh: Vyrnwy). Mathrafal served as the residence of the Powys kings and princes from the 8th to the 13th centuries until the castle was destroyed in 1212 by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, ruler of the Welsh Kingdom of Gwynedd .

The column of the Eliseg

The most important element that reminds of King Elisedd of Powys is the memorial column named after him, called “Pillar of Eliseg”, also called “Elise's Pillar” or “Croes Elisedd”. It is a stone column - originally a cross - which is located near the Cistercian Abbey of Valle Crucis in Denbighshire in Wales and was erected by Cyngen ap Cadell († 855) King of Powys in honor of his great-grandfather Elisedd ap Gwylog.

On this pillar is one of the longest inscriptions in England, dating from before the Viking invasion. The part of the now completely weathered Latin text that concerns Elisedd reads roughly as follows in free translation:

“Concenn son of Cattell, Cattell son of Brochmail, Brochmail son of Eliseg, Eliseg son of Guoillauc.

Concenn's great-grandson of Eliseg built this stone for his great-grandfather Eliseg. The same Eliseg who reunited the Powys legacy after nine years of fighting the hinges by sword and fire.

Whoever reads this hand-written stone should bless the soul of Eliseg ”.

This column was overturned in the English Civil War (1642–1649) by the so-called "Roundheads" - the supporters of the parliamentarians in the war against Charles I - the absolutist King of England (1625–1649). The Welsh scholar Edward Lhuyd (* 1660, † 1709) examined the column and copied the text in 1696. The lower part of the column is lost, the upper half was erected again in 1779.

Marriage and offspring

The name and origin of Elisedd's wife are unknown.

Children:

Elisedd had at least one son:

• Brochfael ap Elisedd , King of Powys (755? –773). He succeeded his father Elisedd as King of Powys, but remained far behind him as ruler, as he lost all the territories his father had conquered in the first half of the 8th century.

literature

• John Edward Lloyd : A history of Wales. From the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest . Green, London 1948 (2 vols., Reprint of the London 1911 edition).
• Mike Ashley : The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens . Carroll & Graf Publ., New York 1998, p. 151, ISBN 1-8411-9096-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Wolfgang Böhme : The end of Roman rule in Britain and the Anglo-Saxon settlement of England in the 5th century . In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz , Vol. 33 (1986), pp. 468-574, ISSN  0076-2741 .
2. ↑ Geoffrey von Monmouth (Wal .: Gruffudd ap Arthur): Historia Regum Britanniae (around 1135).
3. ^ Mike Ashley: The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens , p. 151.
4. ^ Beda Venerabilis: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Church history of the fishing rods). Molesley, London 1869.
5. ↑ Margaret Worthington: Wat's Dyke. An Archaeological and Historical Enigma . In: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library , Vol. 79 (1997), No. 3, pp. 177-196, ISSN  0301-102X .
6. ^ John Davies: History of Wales . Penguin Books, London 1993, ISBN 0-14-014581-8 (EA London 1990).
7. ^ Robert Gunther : Life and letters of Edward Lhwyd, second Keeper of the Musaeum Ashmoleanum (Early science in Oxford, Vol. 14). Davisons of Pall Mall, London 1968 (unaltered reprint of the Oxford 1945 edition).

predecessor	Office	successor
Gwylog ap Beli	King of Powys 725–755	Brochfael ap Elisedd