Kingdom of Rheged

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Northern Britain in the 6th century

The Kingdom of Rheged was a kingdom of the Britons in post-Roman Britain . In the poetry it is counted to the so-called Hen Ogledd (Welsh for "Old North"). The residents of Rheged spoke Kumbrisch , a British language related to Old Welsh that is now extinct .

Location and origin

Rheged developed from the Roman civitas of the Carvettii tribe . The Carvettii were native to Cumbria , with their territory extending to Hadrian's Wall , Stainmore and the central Lake District and which formed the nucleus of Rheged, with the Carvettii emerging under a new tribe name after the Roman administration withdrew.

Although the exact extent of Rheged is not described in the poetry, it is assumed that Rheged was in north-west England and extended into south-west Scotland. The center of the kingdom was in the traditional county of Westmorland , but also included parts of the counties of Cumberlands and Dumfries and Galloways . Rheged's neighbors around 600 were the British Kingdom of Strathclyde in the north, the British Kingdom of Gododdin in the northeast, and the Anglish Bernicia in the east . In the southeast, Rheged bordered the Anglish Deira and, until its conquest by Deira, on the British Kingdom of Elmet . The southern border of Rheged seems to have formed a British kingdom by 616. Whether this was Powys , Gwynedd or Rhos , however, cannot be clearly determined in view of the lack of sources. After 616, Northumbria , which had emerged from the union of Bernicia and Deira, was also Rheged's southern neighbor.

The valley of the river Eden in the heart of Rheged

The name of the Kingdom of Rheged appears regularly as an addition to the mention of a certain Urien in early Welsh poems and genealogies . Its military successes over the Anglish Bernicia and its king Æthelfrith towards the end of the 6th century are reproduced in the Historia Brittonum , in which Urien is presented as a kind of great king who exercised the leadership of the British kings of the north in the war. In Taliesin's poems , Urien is celebrated as the "ruler of Rheged". The location of the Rheged area in north-west England is evidenced by the mention of Uriens as "Ruler of Llwyfynedd", who is identified with the valley of what is now the Lyvennet River .

The administrative center of Rhegeds was generally assumed to be Cair Ligualid , today's Carlisle , which had developed from a settlement of originally military character into a civil settlement of regional importance. This definitive assignment of Carlisle as the main town of Rheged was doubted and the possibility of other places, namely Dunragit ("fortress of Rheged") or Rerigonium / Penrionyd , which was located near Loch Ryan, was considered. New excavations at Trusty's Hill Fort at Gatehouse of Fleet now indicate that the center was located there.

Results of place name research indicate that Rheged extended to Dumfries and Galloway for at least a certain period of its history, as evidenced by the place name Dunragit . The fact that Rheged should have extended as far as North Yorkshire in the area around Catterick , which is implied by the mention of Uriens as "ruler of Catraeth", is impossible and can be traced back to the influence of the Gododdin poems. Just as problematic is the mention of a Recedham in the Domesday Book , which led to the assumption that Rheged could have extended into southern Lancashire near what is now Greater Manchester .

The kings of Rhegeds

In the manuscript of the so-called Harleian Genealogies , an old Welsh pedigree recorded around 1100, the origin of Urien is traced back to the legendary Coel Hen , who may have had a dominant position in northern Britain in the 5th century. Of the rulers named in the list, only three can be verified by other sources:

Descendants of Uria are mentioned in later literary sources:

In the Central Welsh treatise "The Origin of the Men of the North" ( Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd ), the manuscript of which is from the late 13th century, but the text is older, namely from the 12th century, another genealogical table is given in which a certain Llywarch Hen , whose father Elidyr Lydanwyn was a son of Meirchion, appears next to Urien. This has led to the assumption that Rheged was divided into a northern and southern half, with the southern half being said to have extended to Lancashire and Cheshire . However, this cannot be deduced from the sparse sources.

Irish settlement in Rheged

There are signs of an Irish presence in Rheged. Christian missionaries from Ireland were active in post-Roman Cumbria, even if the area was officially Christian at the time of Roman rule . The Irish presence is reflected in the names of several churches previously dedicated to Saint Columba . It also seems likely that Irish traders, pirates and settlers have stayed in Rheged all the time.

The end of Rheged

During the reign of Æthelfrith von Bernicia in the first decades of the 7th century, Rheged seems to have been independent. After the union of Bernicias with Deira to form the Anglish Kingdom of Northumbria in the first half of the 7th century, Rheged was incorporated into this. However, it is not clear how this happened. Rieinmellt, a daughter of Rhoedd ap Rhun, married Oswiu probably before 638, so there is a possibility that Northumbria took over Rheged in a peaceful manner, with the same person, Oswiu, inheriting both empires.

After the rise of Rheged in Northumbria, Kumbrian was gradually replaced by Old English , but persisted in remote highland areas until the 12th century. The British character of Rhegeds survived on behalf of the former county of Cumberland and what is now Cumbria, both of which contain the element of Cymry .

Rheged today

The Rheged Center near Penrith in Cumbria offers tourist, cultural and culinary offers in the region as well as exhibitions and films on the history of Rheged. The Rheged Center has the largest turf- covered roof in Europe.

See also

Web links

Commons : Rheged  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ KH Jackson: Language and History in Early Britain , p. 9.
  2. ^ N. Higham: The Kingdom of Northumbria , p. 82.
  3. ^ K. Dark: Britain and the End of the Roman Empire, p. 199.
  4. ↑ J. Koch: Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia , p. 1499
  5. ^ P. Hunter Blair: Roman Britain and Early England , p. 154.
  6. ^ A. Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men , p. 22.
  7. ↑ Nennius: HB , 63.
  8. ^ N. Higham: The Kingdom of Northumbria , p. 83; Canu Taliesin , no.35 .
  9. ↑ Canu Taliesin , no.36 .
  10. ↑ Canu Taliesin , no.37
  11. ^ I. Williams: The Poems of Taliesin , xlv.
  12. ^ P. Hunter Blair: Roman Britain and Early England , p. 111.
  13. ↑ M. McCarthy: Rheged. an Early Historic Kingdom near the Solway , p. 377.
  14. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-38679324
  15. ↑ http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/01/2017/the-fiery-demise-of-a-vitrified-hillfort-in-scotland
  16. ^ KH Jackson: Angles and Britons in Northumbria and Cumbria , p. 68.
  17. ↑ Canu Taliesin , no.37 .
  18. ^ N. Higham: The Kingdom of Northumbria , p. 83.
  19. ↑ J. Koch: Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia , p. 1498.
  20. ^ Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts , Harleian Genealogies , 7.
  21. ^ P. Bartrum: A Welsh Classical Dictionary , p. 645.
  22. ↑ Canu Taliesin , no.44 .
  23. ↑ Annales Cambriae , p. a. 626.
  24. ↑ Nennius: HB , 63.
  25. ↑ Nennius: HB , 57.
  26. ↑ Trioedd Ynys Prydain : Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd , pp. 238-239.
  27. ^ M. McCarthy: Rheged: an Early Historic Kingdom near the Solway , p. 368.
  28. ^ A. Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men , p. 29.
  29. ^ A. Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men , p. 31.
  30. ↑ Nennius: HB , 61.
  31. ↑ Rosemary Behan: Catch this . In: The Daily Telegraph , October 31, 2001. Retrieved November 7, 2009. ( English )

literature

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Secondary literature

  • Leslie Alcock: Arthur's Britain. History and Archeology, AD 367-634. Harmondsworth, London 1973, ISBN 0-14-021396-1 .
  • Peter Clement Bartrum: A Welsh Classical Dictionary. People in History and Legend up to about AD 1000. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 1993, ISBN 0-907158-73-0 .
  • Peter Berresford Ellis: Celt and Saxon . Constable, London 1993, ISBN 0-09-472160-2 .
  • Ken Dark: Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Tempus, Stroud 2000, ISBN 0-7524-2532-3 .
  • David N. Dumville: "Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists", in Peter H. Sawyer and Ian Wood (Eds.): Early Medieval Kingship , Leeds 1977, p. 72-104, ISBN 0-906200-00-8 .
  • Nicholas J. Higham: The Northern Counties to AD 1000 . Longman, London 1986, ISBN 0-582-49275-0 .
  • Nicholas J. Higham: Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons. Seaby, London 1992, ISBN 1-85264-022-7 .
  • Nicholas J. Higham: The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350-1000 . Sutton, Stroud 1993, ISBN 0-86299-730-5 .
  • Peter Hunter Blair: Roman Britain and Early England, 55 BC-AD 871. Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh 1963, ISBN 0-17-711044-9 .
  • John T. Koch: Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia , ABC-CLIO Ltd, Oxford 2006, ISBN 1-85109-440-7 .
  • Kenneth H. Jackson: Language and history in Early Britain. A Chronological Survey of the Brittonic Languages ​​1st to 12th c. AD Four Courts, Dublin 1953, ISBN 1-85182-140-6 .
  • Kenneth H. Jackson: "Angles and Britons in Northumbria and Cumbria", in Henry Lewis (Ed.): Angles and Britons , University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1963, pp. 60-84
  • Stephen Johnson: Later Roman Britain . Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1980, ISBN 0-7100-0432-X .
  • Mike McCarthy: "Rheged: an Early Historic Kingdom near the Solway", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 132 (2002), pp. 357-381
  • Patrick Sims-Williams: "The Death of Urien", Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 32 (1996), p. 25-56
  • Alfred Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men: AD 80-1000 , Edward Arnold, London 1984, ISBN 0-7131-6305-4 .
  • Christopher A. Snyder: The Britons (Peoples of Europe). Blackwell, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-631-22260-X .
  • Ifor Williams (Ed.), The Poems of Taliesin . Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin 1968