The Medieval Kingdom that was Erased from History

In the 17th century, a very old poem was discovered, possibly dating back to the late 600s. It's fractured and incomplete, but it mentions something remarkable. It mentions a place known as Penguern. This may seem innocuous, but asides from one other equally damaged poem, this would be the only mention of this place for centuries. It seems that these two fragmented poems preserved the only mention of whatever this Penguern was. That is, until the 12th century, where we meet a man called Gerald of Wales. He wrote a sort of travel diary about his journey through, well, Wales, preserving countless amounts of local history, including something very peculiar. On page 139, Gerald elects to tell us about the three ancient capitals of Wales. Two of them are one is very strange. According to Gerald, the ancient capital of this kingdom, Poes, was known as Penguern, apparently now called Shrewsbury in England. Gerald had unknowingly just resurrected a 600-year-old mystery that was so lost to time, historians were not even aware that something was missing. This single sentence would lead scholars down a rabbit hole for centuries, as they try to find a kingdom that seems to have been intentionally erased from history. This is the story of the missing kingdom of Penguern. So what exactly do we know so far? Well, we have two poems, one from probably the 7th or 8th century, and another from sometime around the 9th. Both are fractured, but for our purposes today, invaluable, as they seem to place Penguern somewhere in Shropshire, mentioning the towns of Lichfield, Basschurch and Massafield as being somewhere nearby, along with a river turn. We also have Gerald's single comment, placing this mysterious Penguern, or more specifically the court of Penguern, right here. This is Shrewsbury, the former home of Charles Darwin before he moved to the grave, and for about 200 years, it was common knowledge to English historians that the Penguern mentioned in these poems could be found right here. There's a boat club named after it, and a street. Articles from 1829 and 1878 proclaim it as a certainty, as does this newspaper from 1897. However, there is a seemingly obvious caveat. Penguern is a Welsh name, meaning either a hill with a grove of alder trees or a swamp. But the name of Shrewsbury in Welsh is not Penguern, it's Amoythig, and has been Amoythig for ages. The oldest reference I could find is in the 11th century, possibly the 9th, and historians agree that this name is at least as old as the medieval era. Scholars, as you can see, simply believed that this Penguern was an older name that was eventually replaced, but no one seems to agree on when or how this could have happened, a debate that is not helped by no one being able to figure out what Amoythig even means. The second poem, which uses Penguern, might even post-date the name Amoythig by over a hundred years. What we are relying on then is a single sentence from Gerald of Wales, an unreliable narrator who is most likely just relaying something that someone had told him. This tells us that the memory of Penguern seems to have been alive, but that already by the 12th century its location had been lost. The problem we have is that this is oral history. Oral history is extremely valuable, but is way less reliable. If something changes in a spoken record, then that information may be replaced forever. Regardless though, what we can establish is that while Penguern was probably in Shropshire, we don't have any proof that Shrewsbury was ever called by this name. So what we know really is that even though there are places called Penguern in Wales, this Penguern was probably somewhere over here. But where, and even when, would be a mystery for over 1,100 years. So perhaps it's time to fast forward to when the poems were discovered, so that we can take a look at them ourselves. The first poem is called Maronaeth Cyndhalan. It covers the exploits of the only named king of Penguern, Cyndhalan, son of Cyndruin. This poem claims that his notoriety was known as far as the island of Ynys Môn, but one achievement in particular is highlighted, his raid on the monastery of Lichfield, which the Welsh called Caer Thuit Goed, the City of the Grey Woods. Cyndhalan, alongside his son Morfael, are said to have attacked and defeated the son of Pid here, and carried off a hoard of treasure from the monastery. And while this doesn't reveal to us where Penguern might have been, it does narrow down when it might have been. You see, the monastery of Lichfield was of course a Christian establishment, but the English kingdom here, Mercia, only became Christian in 655, so this raid must have occurred no earlier than this. To support this, in 635 the new king of Mercia was named Peda, and historians believe that this name was related to this Welsh name of Pid, or in other words, Cyndhalan seems to have defeated one of Peda's sons. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for Peda, he only ruled for one year before his kingdom was annexed by his neighbours, the Northumbrians. So if Cyndhalan defeated Peda's son in battle, we can assume that this was during Peda's rule, meaning that this raid must have occurred between 655 and 656. So we know that Penguern was somewhere in Shropshire, probably not in Shrewsbury, but likely somewhere nearby. It was supposedly a royal court, although there was evidently some sort of kingdom as well, and according to Gerald, Penguern was supposedly the capital of the kingdom of Powys, and their only known king, Cyndhalan, was apparently famous across north Wales, in particular for his raid against the monastery of Lichfield, which has to have taken place around the years 655 to 656. Now we have a year and a rough place, so what was happening in the east of Wales at this time? Before we continue, I'd like to give a quick shout out to the sponsor of this video, Atlas VPN. Internet privacy and security has never been easier, with Atlas VPN's summer deal of a premium subscription, which you can grab right now for only $1.83 a month, with 3 months extra for free. Atlas VPN provides some of the most affordable online protection, with a 30 day money back guarantee. Not to mention their ability to give you real and organic search results, stopping ads, trackers and malicious links, which is what I found most useful while using Atlas VPN. By using Atlas VPN, you can get the best deals while shopping online, and unblock a whole bunch of region locked content on your favourite streaming services, as well as being able to use Atlas VPN on an unlimited number of devices, all under one subscription. So grab Atlas VPN's summer deal today, and get one of the best and most affordable deals on the market for only $1.83 a month, with an extra 3 months free and a 30 day money back guarantee. Protect your internet privacy and security by clicking the link in the description below, but be quick as this is a limited time offer. Thank you. So, eastern Wales and western England in the 7th century. If we can understand what was going on, then maybe we can figure out some clues about Pengywyrn. A couple of decades prior to this raid in Lichfield, other Welsh monarchs were active in the area. However, this time they were here in peace. King Cadwathlon of Gwynedd had formed an alliance with King Penda of Mercia. Their enemy? The English Kingdom of Northumbria. The Northumbrians had been encroaching on Mercian territory, and 616 they had killed and attacked the King of Gwynedd at the Battle of Chester, providing motivation for both powers to join forces and take revenge. At the Battle of Hathfelth in 633, the King of Northumbria would be killed. We're told that Cadwathlon and Penda rampaged throughout the entire country following this victory. The monk Bede even lamented that Cadwathlon was going to destroy all of the English. However, Cadwathlon was killed by the new Northumbrian King Oswald at Heavenfelth in the following year. Oswald had pushed the Mercians back all the way to Shropshire, which is where our King Cynthalan and Pengywyrn come back in. You see, Mercia seems to have sought another Welsh ally to once again help them defeat the Northumbrians, and this time they found one in Cynthalan, which brings us to our second poem, Cani Heledd. It was probably written sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries. Historians such as Domville favour a later date, but others such as Hyam, Breeze and Rowland prefer the 9th, so we're going to go with this one. In this poem, we're told that Cynthalan served as an ally to the King of Mercia in a single battle, Maes Cogwe in 642, where the King of Northumbria was once again slain. Cynthalan probably sided with Mercia because of the imminent threat that the Northumbrians posed. He likely considered them the greater of two evils. Cynthalan may have also had a personal reason for this fight. Do you remember that battle at Chester? Well, Welsh poetry, specifically the triads, preserve the names of the three gatekeepers of Chester, presumably the men who led the final defence of the city against the Northumbrians. Gwgon of the Red Sword, Madog, son of Rhyn, and Gwion, son of Cyndruin, aka Cynthalan's brother. So, we can add to what we know so far, namely that Cynthalan was in an alliance with Mercia in 642, but by 655, something had changed. So now we know when Penguin was, and roughly where, but we can get more specific, once again thanks to Canny Heleth, and it's here that I'm going to give you a very brief Welsh lesson. You see, Canny Heleth just means the Song of Heleth, innocent enough, but Maronad Cynthalan means the Elegy of Cynthalan, as in something you write after someone dies. By examining this final poem, we can come to the end of what little story we have on Penguin, and we can see how it might not just be bad luck that almost no records of his existence survive. We are told by Heleth Cynthalan's sister, that at some point after the battle of Maes Cogwe, Penguin would once again find itself in conflict with his English neighbours, and these conflicts are supposedly all her fault, as she laments that it was her tongue that brought disasters to Penguin. We don't know exactly what these disasters were, except for the final one, where we are told Cynthalan and two of his brothers march to defend a town on the River Tyrn from an invasion by the Welsh term for the English. According to Heleth, this town was laid to waste. Cynthalan and his brothers were killed in the battle, and Heleth and her maidens were forced to flee to the hills. From these hills, they suddenly see the palace of Penguin in flames. Once night falls, they go to the smouldering ruins, where Heleth proclaims that Cynthalan's hall is dark tonight. They then find and take the body of the king from the battlefield to the church of Basa, where Heleth finally laments that her family are now all gone. When Penguin burned and Cynthalan died, it seems that all of the records and memories of this place were erased by their invaders, and then forgotten for centuries. The elegy of Cynthalan was probably written soon after his death, around the late 7th century, but this Cani Heleth was likely written way later, since this church of Basa is an English establishment and wasn't consecrated for a few hundred years. And following Gerald's comment in the 12th century, this kingdom would seemingly fade completely out of history. However, there is one final line in this poem that we haven't had a look at. One final line that almost everybody seems to have ignored for centuries. Despite Gerald claiming that Penguin was in Shrewsbury, this poem never mentions the town. However, it does mention something else. Following the destruction of Penguin, Heleth is said to have stood at Din Lleirechon and looked over the old lands of Penguin. So, what on earth is Din Lleirechon? And could this provide us our final clue? Din Lleirechon is made up of three pieces. Din is the word for a fort or a city. Lleire is a bit more abstract, roughly defined as a space in general or a specific place for something. So, Din Lleire means the place for or of a city, either in the present or likely in this case, the past tense. So, are we aware of an old city somewhere around Shropshire with the name Lleirechon? Yes, the old Roman city of Wyriconium. If we remove the Roman suffix, we get the old Prothonic root of Wyricon, which appears to have entered Welsh as Gwrecon in the 9th century and Gwregon in modern Welsh. The English similarly called this place Wrecon or Wreconcaster or Wroxeter today. So, it appears that this 9th century poem was referring to the old city of Wyriconium. But was this Roman city the royal court that we just saw destroyed by the English? No. From archaeology, it appears that Wyriconium was abandoned at the latest by AD 550, about a century before the raid on Lichfield could have taken place. But there is another Wrecon close by, a big pile of dirt and rocks known today as the Reakin, home to a colossal hillfort that was once likely the capital of the Prothonic tribe of the Cordnoiae until they were conquered by the Romans and settled in the nearby Wyriconium. Historians such as Melville Richards and Thomas Stevens have suggested that perhaps our Lleis Pen Gwern, Cunderlands Hall, may have been up here. It is a commanding view of the seventh and well within marching distance of the Tern, Lichfield and the Church of Basa. But wasn't this old hillfort abandoned? Well, yes, but as the Roman Empire began to decline more and more in Britain, no longer providing the security against invaders that they once used to, dozens if not hundreds of hillforts would become reoccupied. And if you lived in Wyriconium in the 550s and were suddenly aware of large, powerful polities encroaching on your borders, why wouldn't you move to the much more defensible hill right next door? It's a solid theory if only because it's essentially the one and only clue that we have. But still others disagree. Most recently the historian John Davis has suggested that Pen Gwern was actually located here, in an old fort known as The Birth. Here, two naturally forming hills once jutted out of a pool of water, forming a perfect defensive site. What makes this a good location for Pen Gwern is its proximity to Bath's church, aka the Church of Basa, or that place that Cynthalan was buried in. Do you remember how I said that Cani Heleth must have been written much later, because Bath's church is named after an Englishman, so it likely wouldn't have existed prior to the English conquest? Well, The Birth may be the answer to this. Unfortunately, there is a major flaw in this theory, as archaeological excavation has revealed that this fort seems to have been abandoned by the late Iron Age, hundreds of years before even the Roman Empire set foot on this island, let alone a king from the 7th century. Furthermore, many of the places in Cani Heleth use names that are derived from English. Even this Din Lleirecon uses the English Recon rather than the Welsh Guracon. We know that Anglo-Saxons also named many of their conquered lands after their new landowners, so perhaps Cynthalan was buried in a pre-existing religious community that was later renamed to the Church of Basa, and then the original name may have simply been forgotten over the centuries. We have now covered the entire story of what we know about Pen Gwyn, so let's add to this. We've seen that Pen Gwyn was somewhere in Shropshire, but now we can see that it was very likely right here on the Recon Mountain. We know that Cynthalan allied with Mercia in 642 and became enemies with them by 655, but we now know that sometime after this raid, he was slain by an English enemy, after which Pen Gwyn was destroyed and nearly all records of its existence appear to have been erased. A poem commemorating Cynthalan was written sometime soon after, with another one lamenting the destruction of Pen Gwyn in the 9th century, quite a bit later, until finally Gerald of Wales tells us that apparently, popular imagination of Pen Gwyn had made it a part of the Kingdom of Poes, with its capital in Shrewsbury. We're now left with only three big questions, right here. Who exactly destroyed Pen Gwyn? Why was it commemorated again 200 years later? And is there any merit to it being associated with Poes, or did Gerald just make a mistake? The slogan, as I mentioned, are the English, but it's a very rare name for the English. The much more common word is Saeson in Welsh, from the Latin Saxons. So, which group of English destroyed Pen Gwyn? The most obvious candidate would be the Mercians. They were a large and powerful kingdom right on their border, so perhaps they destroyed this kingdom as revenge for the raid on Lichfield. But that leaves us with two questions. Why was such a harsh response provoked from the Mercians? They had been allies with Pen Gwyn before, and would a simple raid really constitute the destruction of the entire royal family? Also, why would Cynthalan attack his former ally? A different candidate comes to us via the historian Peter Bartram, who suggests that we shouldn't be looking to the Mercians at all, but instead to the north, at Cynthalan's old enemies of the Northumbrians. You see, the Northumbrian king Oswe had annexed northern Mercia in 655. That's when the south became Christianised under Peda, and is our earliest date for the raid on Lichfield. However, Peda was slain in 656, and for the next three years, the entire kingdom would be ruled by Northumbria. The historian Peter Bartram has suggested that it's within this three year period that the events of Cani Heleth took place. Cynthalan could have raided the monastery at Lichfield when it was under Northumbrian control, and Cynthalan had helped to previously kill the king of Northumbria at the Battle of Maes Cogwe in 641, meaning that these two weren't exactly friends. Heleth even laments that it was her tongue that caused the which Bartram suggests is alluding to her urging her brothers to go and raid their neighbours. Perhaps it was her idea to loot Lichfield after the king of Mercia had been deposed. But finally, why such a harsh response? Well, do you remember that Battle of Maes Cogwe, where Cynthalan and Peda slew the Northumbrian king Oswald? Well, the new king Oswe was his brother. It's often forgotten that at the end of the day, these figures are not just markers on a map, they were people. Oswe may well have enacted such a harsh response against Penguern because he knew that their king had killed his brother, just as Cynthalan may have assisted Mercia against the Northumbrians in the first place, because they slew his brother at Chester. With that, we come to our final question. Why did this kingdom become associated with Poeis so much later? You may have noticed that I've hardly brought up Poeis at all, because these poems don't really mention the kingdom, aside from both the authors of Cynthalan's Elegy and the Cani Heleth being from Poeis, which is interesting but it's not concrete. Regardless, by the 12th century, Gerald of Wales had clearly heard that Lice Penguern was the ancient capital of this kingdom. So how did this happen? There's the obvious possibility that Gerald just made it up. We can't fully trust these ancient sources and inconsistencies can just be attributed to mistakes, but what if he didn't? It's not unreasonable to assume that he'd heard it from somewhere and he didn't have the motivation to make this up at all. So was Penguern a part of Poeis? This kingdom stretched from Arwustli in the south to Caerleonfara in the north. Is it possible that their borders extended just a bit to the east? Sure, Penguern or Dinlle Recon may have just been a hillfort within this kingdom, although this does present a few problems. Firstly, the known kings of Poeis are always associated with this region of Wales. The oldest kings supposedly had their power base in north Wales, not in Wirikonion. In fact, no king of Poeis prior to this date is even mentioned controlling Wirikonion. Furthermore, one of these old kings, Brochwell, left quite a mark on this region of the country, as several poets referred to the land around the Machnant, or indeed the entirety of what is now Montgomeryshire, as Gwlad Brochwell, the country of Brochwell, and one of these poems is the Canny Heleth. If this 9th century poem believed Poeis and Penguern to be one and the same, why does it never call Cynthalan's lands Poeis? And why does it refer to lands outside of Shropshire with a traditional name for Poeis? Furthermore, when was Cynthalan supposed to have been king? He isn't a member of the traditional dynasty. In fact, we only know of one of his ancestors, his father, Cyndruin. If Cynthalan was just a regular king of Poeis, then when and why would his power base move all the way to here? And why wouldn't he be included in any of the genealogies? There is a point to counteract this though, and that lies once again in Wirikonion. I've mentioned how it was a Roman city, but its proper designation was a Kiwitas, a city that had some of its own autonomy, and in Britain these usually functioned as a new centre of government for the local Prothonic tribe. The Kiwitas of Wirikonion was the centre of the Konoa'i tribe, like I mentioned, which covered the lands of what would one day become Penguern, and most likely this area, which would one day become Poeis, as the people living here did not seem to have their own local Kiwitas. So, when the Roman legions withdrew, this local government likely did control these regions, meaning that if Penguern, whose capital moved from the Kiwitas to the Rikon, and Poeis were separate, which would explain these questions would also have to explain how these two became separate, and we can. You see, Poeis appears to come from the Latin pagus, the name for the rural provinces outside of the Kiwitas, and it's been theorised by the historian T. Charles Edwards that the kingdom of Poeis developed from the rural provinces that broke away from the local Kiwitas of Wirikonion. If this theory is correct, then when the Roman legions withdrew, leaving the Kiwitas of Wirikonion to fend for itself, perhaps the rural outskirts, isolated geographically from this city, broke away into their own kingdoms, before eventually being united into this kingdom of the pagus. This would appear to provide our origin story for these two kingdoms, once a single Kiwitas representing the Konoa'i tribe, until being abandoned by the Romans, and splitting in two, with one centre in the north, and one to the east in Penguern, with separate royal families. Penguern being separate from Poeis would explain how and why Cynthalan would suddenly appear as a king all the way over here, completely unconnected to the royal family, as he was simply just a king of somewhere else. The separation might even be attested in old Welsh sources as well, as the eulogy of a 6th century king of Poeis named Cynon proclaims his victories over nearly all of his means Cornwall. You might notice that Cynon is not recorded as invading anyone to his east, despite invading in every other direction. You might also notice that Cornwall is hundreds of miles away, and would require going through other hostile kingdoms. Why would the king of Poeis spend weeks, if not months, leading an army to invade a random part of Britain? The historian Charles Edwards believes that he didn't, and instead that perhaps this Cernu was referring to the Cornoae. By removing the Latin declension, we get Corno, the original Brythonic root name of this tribe, which sounds very similar to Cernu. So perhaps Cynon really invaded his eastern neighbours, and this word was simply mistranslated when the manuscript was copied 600 years later, from Cornu to Cernu, then mistaken for, well, Cernu, meaning Cornwall. But this also poses one final question. Why would this 9th century poem suddenly start lamenting the destruction of Penguern again? And why would its authors, including the author of Cynon's eulogy, written shortly after his death, be from Poeis? You might be thinking that this eulogy writer simply fled west, but the author proclaims himself that he was already living in Poeis. So perhaps Penguern and Poeis were separate, but maybe Cynon really did rule both kingdoms, not as an official and legitimate successor though, but as a usurper. We know that Cynon's power base and lineage were disconnected from Poeis, and that they'd been disconnected from each other for centuries. So if he had conquered this kingdom, that would explain why he isn't included in the royal genealogies. In fact, there were two other usurpers around this time, and both of these men only had their father's names recorded, with the rest of their ancestry being completely unknown, just like Cynon. This may also explain why the 9th century Cani Heledd recounted the glory days of the kingdom of Penguern. At this time, the kingdom of Poeis no longer existed. It had been carved up between the English kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd, so some historians have suggested that the Cani Heledd sought to call back on a time when Poeis ruled lands far into England, when Cynon of Penguern controlled these lands of Brochwell and expanded their borders to the east. This would also answer the question as to why a Poeisian poem would even seek to recount the glories of a foreign king. Perhaps it simply wasn't. But this does beg the question of how and when Penguern began to rule Poeis, but this can be theorised too, if we look once again to the Battle of Chester. Three kings fought in this battle, Iago of Gwynedd, Cadwal of Ross, and Selyv of Poeis, alongside a bunch of other warriors, including, as we've seen, Cynon's brother. All three of these kings were probably killed in this battle, and while we don't have a lot of details, the royal succession seems to have gone just fine in Gwynedd and Ross, with the sons of the kings, Cadvan and Idgwin, inheriting their respective thrones. In Poeis though, Selyv doesn't seem to have been so lucky, as he isn't recorded as having any ruling descendants. Two sons are mentioned, but they don't seem to have ruled. Instead, 300 years later, a stone pillar would be constructed, proclaiming the illustrious ancestry of the king of Poeis, and on it, a man named Eliseg ap Guilog is commemorated as having annexed the inheritance of Poeis from the power of the English. Soon after, a royal genealogy would be composed, revealing to us that this Eliseg was the great-grandson of King Selyv's brother, who, like his son and grandson, is never recorded as being king. Following Selyv's death, we have about a century-long gap, where there are no recorded kings of Poeis, so what on earth happened here? Eliseg's commendation would lead us to suggest that English had annexed the entire kingdom, but we don't have any record of this. In fact, the Northumbrians who invaded Chester didn't even occupy the neighbouring Mercians until 656, which leads us to another possibility. Maybe it was Cunthalan. We know that he was fit and healthy enough to lead a raid by 656, so he was probably alive during the Battle of Chester. Perhaps he or his father decided to take military action against their neighbour following the death their king, interrupting their succession until the eventual demise of Penguern by at least 659. Perhaps this led to a brief occupation by the Mercians once they drove the Northumbrians back, either militarily or just politically, until Eliseg rose up and reinstated Poeis' independence. We don't know when this had occurred, but the historian Peter Bartram has roughly estimated Eliseg to have been born in the 680s, which gives us a window of some time in the 8th century. The historian Cary Mound suggests that perhaps Poeis was occupied by the Mercians, but that this occupation was very brief, as during this time the Mercians had to face aggressions from both Northumbria and their southern neighbours of Wessex, and while they did eventually establish their supremacy over much of southern England, one well-timed revolt during a period where, as Mound puts it, Mercia would not have had the men or resources to spare could have easily been successful. To support this, we know that Poeis was independent again by at least the 750s, as the King of Mercia, Offa, decided to build a massive ditch and wall between the two of them. Furthermore, this wasn't some military installation to exert power. This ditch weaves around important rivers and fortifications, leaving them to the Welsh. This cloud Offa looks much more like a agreed upon boundary, perhaps as a compromise between a newly resurgent Poeis and a Kingdom of Mercia with no more soldiers to spare. This theory relies on putting together a lot of very small pieces of evidence, all of which could be disagreed with, but I think we have a solid idea here. With that being said, let's finally recap the entire history of Penguin, a medieval kingdom that was erased from history. Prior to the Roman invasion of Britain, a Celtic-speaking tribe named the Cornoae lived in this area, likely centred on a hillfort right here. When the Romans conquered this region, this hillfort was abandoned, and the Ciutat of Wyreconium was settled in its stead. Eventually, the Roman legions who provided the safety and security left, and the already crumbling Roman city inherited the governance of the area. This Ciutat seemed to have controlled the land that would one day become both Penguin and Poes, but these rural provinces, the Pargus or the Pargi, seemed to have revolted against the Ciutat, leading to, eventually, two major centres of power in the region, the Kings of Poes in the north, and the remaining rulers of Wyreconium in the east. By the year 550 at the latest, Wyreconium was abandoned, and the old hillfort on the was likely reoccupied, becoming the royal court known as Llys Penguin. We can wager that there were conflicts between the two. Cynan of Powys likely invaded them alongside literally all of his neighbours, but eventually they would team up to defend the city of Caerleonfawr against the English kingdom of Northumbria, with one of Cynan's brothers being killed defending the city, alongside Selyf, the King of Poes. Cynan himself may have been king at this point, or perhaps his father still ruled, but either way, it appears that they may have invaded the kingdom, as no further Kings of Powys are recorded until Eliseg, a century later, is said to have revolted against the English. Cynan was ruling by at least 641, as he then accompanied Penda, the King of Mercia, and aided him in defeating and slaying the King of Northumbria at the Battle of Maes Cogwey. However, this victory would be only temporary, and by 655, the North of Mercia would become occupied by the Northumbrians. Sometime between this year and 656, possibly at the urging of his sister Helev, Cynan launched an attack on the monastery at Lichfield, defeating the King of Mercia's son and ransacking the settlement. Unfortunately, this king would be killed in 656, and Oswald of Northumbria soon assumed control over the entire kingdom. Annoyed at the transgressions of his much smaller neighbour, and not forgetting that it was their king who helped slay his brother, Oswald may have been the one who attacked the Kingdom of Penguern on the River Tern, killing Gungdalan in battle and burning the royal palace of Lys-Penguern, wiping out the entire royal family and erasing all records we had on the kingdom, eliminating it from history for centuries. Oswald may have annexed the lands of Powys too, as they were also ruled by Penguern, or this may have come later, after Mercia regained its independence. But either way, these lands appear to have been dominated by the English for nearly a century afterwards. Gungdalan would be buried in Basschurch, perhaps in a pre-existing Welsh religious community, and his elegy would be written in his newly conquered Powys. This kingdom would eventually reassert its independence under King Elisec, and soon a colossal ditch would be constructed between it and Mercia, forming a boundary between the two kingdoms for a century, until eventually, Powys would be invaded by both of its neighbours again. During this time, the second of our only three surviving mentions of Penguern would be composed, hearkening back to a day where the king of this land ruled a country that extended far to the west and east. And eventually, in the 12th century, Gerald of Wales records that Penguern, at least by some, had become reimagined, not as a conquering neighbour, but as the old capital of Powys, with its location being moved from the once important Reichen to the then important Shrewsbury, sealing its fate in history for hundreds of years, until historians with what little records we have managed to piece together what perhaps the kingdom of Penguern really was. Thank you very much for watching. If you want to hear about another mysterious kingdom, I made a video on the missing kingdom of Reynouk, which you can click on here.