The Kingdom of Ceredigion

A sandwich is made up of at least three parts, the foundation, the seal and the constitution. Like a sandwich, the medieval Welsh kingdom of Deheba was too made up of three parts, its foundation, the kingdom of Ceredigion, its completing piece, the kingdom of Dovid, and its constituent parts, the disputed valley of the Tewi and the kingdom of Brighainiog. Today I am going to discuss in detail the first piece of this soil sandwich, the land that would father the patron saint of the Welsh and serve as a battleground for the Princes of Wales for centuries to come. Today I will tell you how this former Roman causeway would eventually go on to become one of the most powerful states in South Wales, and how this fledgling dynasty would fall victim to one of the most intriguing acts of propaganda in medieval history. I would like to begin this video by talking about the Brysans, the Iron Age natives that the Romans would encounter during their invasion. The tribe that lived in Ceredigion was probably the Demeter, who lived in large clusters of small hill forts and likely lacked any sort of centralised leadership, a factor that almost definitely played into the fact that these people go entirely unmentioned by either Julius Frontinus or Julius Agricola, the Roman governors who conquered Wales. I say that the Demeter probably populated Ceredigion, this is because we don't actually know for certain if they lived there. This land was bordered by another tribe, the Ordovices, and some older sources suggest that Ceredigion might have been split between the two. This is because of the presence of a very interesting piece of archaeology, an inscribed stone that contains some of the only evidence we have for the existence of the Ordovices. Of course, inscribed stones, much like the elderly, worsen when left exposed to wind and rain for 2000 years, but we can still make out that this stone is a grave for a man named Corbolengas, whose burial marker identifies him as an Ordovician in Ceredigion. However, more recent historians such as Charles Edwards interpret this stone as an indicator that this man was buried outside of Ordovician territory, and instead within the territory of the Demeter. The Demeter's neighbour, the Silurres, was conquered by Frontinus in 75 AD, and he would likely have made contact with them at this point. Unlike the Silurres and the Ordovicians, there were no great battles fought between these two, no widespread construction of military defences, and indeed no mention of this tribe by early Roman sources. Why? Finally, the Elders' natural history places this land in the territory of the Silurres, so is it possible that the Romans just believed that these people were one and the same? What does it have been like living next to a big city today? No matter how culturally distinct you claim to be, outsiders are always going to associate you with your big, organised, legion-defeating neighbour. Another theory, which, like my son, seems to have lost favour with more recent historians, is that the Demeter surrendered to the Romans peacefully, therefore not requiring any notice. This might explain the lack of Roman forts in southwest Wales, and the fact that Julius Frontinus managed to pacify this area by 78 AD, a three-year military campaign which surely would have yielded some mention. However, recent archaeological findings have forced this theory to, again like my son, be pushed away. A big fort was discovered at a place called Big Fort in Carmarthenshire, which in hindsight I'm sure was incredibly obvious. This Roman encampment covered an area of 9 hectares, 22 acres, putting into question the theory that the Demeter surrendered without bloodshed. Regardless of this, by the year 78 the Romans seemed to have completed their conquest of the land that would one day become Wales, and Ceredigion had now become the furthest frontier in western Britannia. Roman development was scarce in Ceredigion, we only know of two forts in this area, no population centres, civitas capitals or villas appear here. The two forts that we know of are at Trauscoed on the Ustruth River, and Llanio. Interestingly, the site of Llanio had been known for almost 300 years, apparently the locals were famous for their amateur archaeology on the remains. In 1887, the field on which the fort is located, which again has now become a very obvious place name, experienced a drought, leading crops to fail in a rather fort-shaped pattern. These two structures would form important links in the world's biggest game of northern crosses, linking the larger together with a road running along the west coast of Wales, called the Sarn Helen in Welsh. And this would drag Ceredigion, Wales and indeed the whole of Britain out of the shadows and into the knowledge of Mediterranean geographers. Ptolemy, in his book, Geography, shines some light onto this land in a very interesting way. Not only are the Demeter finally mentioned by name, a total of seven rivers in Wales are also named, two of which are located in Ceredigion, Now, the Tevi had always been a prominent historical boundary, defining the southern border of Ceredigion for nearly 1600 years. But the Ustwyth is an unusual choice. The modern town of Aberystwyth did not exist. In fact, as I said before, no large population centres existed in Ceredigion. So why include the Ustwyth, a smaller river that, at this time, would have been in the The historian W. H. Davies offers the explanation that it, along with some of Ptolemy's other unusual river choices, may have had something to do with the presence of a Roman fort, such as the one at Trauscoed. The Tevi is also mentioned in a later Roman guidebook as the Luctius, which I find fascinating. If you lived near the Tevi or the Ustwyth today, you could travel back in time to 2nd century Rome and there would be a chance that some people would actually know where you lived. Speaking of the 2nd century, it was probably during this time that the fort at Sanior was abandoned, with the site of Trauscoed being abandoned earlier, leaving Ceredigion seemingly devoid of Romans. In fact, this is really the end of Roman history in Ceredigion. Unlike in other parts of West Wales, this region's defences were not strengthened to protect against Irish raiders. It appears that hardly any Irish even settled in Ceredigion. There is a single Ogham-only inscription here, along with two Ogham Latin bilingual stones near the Tevi. Ceredigion seems to have become little more than a Roman road. Almost all of the Roman soldiers seem to have moved out of Wales by the year 390 at the behest of the rebel emperor Magnus Maximus, and by 405 the western coast of Wales were being heavily assailed by Irish raiders. Roman soldiers would never return to Ceredigion, or eventually even Britain. As W. H. Davies puts it, the empire disappeared mysteriously and silently from Wales. So what we have now is a relatively empty and disorganised land, ungoverned and undefended by the institution that had been controlling it for over 300 years. So what happened next? During the medieval era, we find that Wales had become divided into various administrative units, called Cantrefi, which were like counties, with their own courts that would act on the king's behalf. We do not know a lot about how these units came to be, but they do appear to be old. There are genealogical lists of kings from many of the Cantrefi and Gwynedd, and the Mabinogion mentions several as well. There is a theory that these divisions were drawn up very soon, if not immediately, after the Roman departure, reflecting the division of the land into small local chiefdoms in this new power vacuum. If we take this to be true, then it seems that Ceredigion was divided into four Cantrefi, and therefore possibly four kingdoms, at least according to the Mabinogion. The names of these Cantrefi have unfortunately been lost to us, except for the northernmost one, Penweddig, and the mythological Cantre of Gwylod, which may or may not be counted as one of the four, it did fall into the ocean, which might inhibit its chances. Again, I must stress that this Cantre Kingdom thing is just a theory, it seems to be supported by some historians, but it's still a difficult concept to prove. Regardless, the time of emperors was now over in Wales, the age of kings had begun. To find the so-called kings of Ceredigion, we must first look to see if anyone wrote anything about them down. Luckily, we're in a time where this was... common. People wrote stuff down all the time, it's just that most of it hasn't survived the 1500 year journey to the present day. If I wanted to be violently attacked by historians, I would call this period the Dark Ages, but I don't, so I won't. Let's look at one of the sources that has survived, the Annals Cambria, a 10th century chronicle detailing events in Wales between 447 and 954 AD, very specific and very useful. Within this document we find two references to the title Rex Ceredigion, the King of Ceredigion in Latin, held by a man named Arthgen in 807 and Gurcon in 871. These names are very important, not only for them being, I believe, the only written examples of this regal title, but they also allow us to fill in their ancestry. This is because another document was prepared around the same time as the Annals, probably at the behest of the same person, a pedigree of kings known today as the Harleian Genealogies. These genealogies contain a lot of information, divided neatly into 33 sections, with 31 pedigrees and two fun bonus parts that I'll get to in a second. In the 26th section, we can find these two names again. King Gurcon or Gurgon in Welsh is the last king on the list, and it is revealed that he was the great grandson of the other king, Arthgen, who himself is the 10th name on this list. Almost none of these kings are mentioned anywhere else in the Welsh sources, their names have been passed through like a guinea stone and have been lost to the of time. There are two names that are extra interesting however, Ceredig and Cunetha. Cunetha is a key figure in the founding myth of Gwynedd, and in fact we can find this myth in the Harleian Genealogies, located in those final two sections of the document. Now, as you may be able to tell by the length of my vowels, I didn't go to private school so I can't speak Latin, I can only give a rough translation. Cunetha had nine sons. Tibion, the firstborn, died in Mannaigododdon, so his son, Merion, divided Cunetha's possessions amongst the remaining sons. Asphal, Rivon, Donod, Ceredig, Avloig, Einion, Dogvyle and Edirne. These lands were located between the Duverdry and the Tevi. This is a lot to take in, so let me explain quickly. Cunetha was the probably mythical first king of Gwynedd. He lived in a Prothonic kingdom in the north of Britain called Mannaigoddon but was summoned either by the Britons or the Romans down to Gwynedd around the year 450, in order to expel the Irish population that had begun to colonise there. After he died, his lands were supposedly divided amongst his sons and that's how he ended up with these various Welsh kingdoms. As you can see, this document is implying that all these kingdoms got their names from their first rulers. Donod to Donoding, Rivon to Rivonyog, Edirne to Edirneon and Ceredig to Ceredigion. The Hullane Genealogies is telling us how Ceredigion was founded, how it got its name and who founded it. A son of the ancestor of the neighbouring kingdom of Gwynedd, who later would have a vested interest in this area. Hmm, keep that in mind, we'll come back to this later. But for now, we return to this list of faceless kings. Their accomplishments are unknown, their attributes and their shortcomings are all lost to time. In fact, without this information, the Hullane Genealogies seem to portray about 300 years of uninterrupted rule, with each king being followed in succession by his son. It's impossible to know what happened internally during this period but the Welsh now portray early Wales as a pretty harsh place, with famine, plague and war marking that landscape almost constantly. The borders don't appear to have changed at all in these three centuries. We can presume, if they even existed, that these four early kingdoms were united at some point, but again the finer details of this country have been lost. As you might have seen in my Gwynedd video, boundaries in Wales changed back and forwards constantly, and we shouldn't mistake the appearance of the status quo as a mark of an unchanging nation. Ceredig, son of Cynedda, was succeeded by his son Isau, whose brother was the father of Saint David, and he too, in turn, was succeeded by his son, Sirwyll, who was succeeded by Bobw, to Arthur Bobw, to Arthur Lewis, to Clodog. Whether this monotonous line of stagnation would all change, however, under the rule of King Saesyll. Saesyll does not appear by name in any of the contemporary Welsh sources, much like my son who is given no credit for his accomplishments. Instead, his actions can be determined from clues we can find in two places. Poes, Prince of Dyfed is the first story in this collection of tales, and at the end of it we can find some very interesting information. Prydery ruled the seven cantreves of Dyfed prosperously, and he was beloved by his people and by all around him, and at length he added unto him the three cantreves of Ustrad Tewi and the four cantreves of Cardigan, and these were called the seven cantreves of Saesyll. This paragraph introduces three new names that I'll explain first quickly. Dyfed was a neighbouring kingdom to Ceredigion. It too was originally inhabited by the same Brythonic tribe, the Demeter, but unlike Ceredigion there was a substantial settlement of Irish people here, both during and after the Roman occupation. Dyfed seems to have controlled this area, along with the Tewi valley to its east, known in Welsh as Ustrad Tewi. The final name, Saesallwg, written here with a ch, bears a striking resemblance to that king of Ceredigion I mentioned, Saesyll, and it comes up again in the Welsh laws, Cymraethol. This document contains a short section describing the crowning of Melgyn Gwynedd as the Supreme King of the Cymru. The place they appointed was on the Melgyn sand at Aberdyfi, and thereto came the men of Gwynedd, the men of Powys, the men of South Wales, of Saesallwg. So what we can see here is that some sort of area existed that was called Saesallwg. This country is referenced in the laws of Hywel Dda, along with its fellow southern Welsh kingdoms of Morgannwg and Rhaenwg, more on that in a second. And it apparently consisted of the kingdom of Ceredigion, along with the three contrary of Ustrad Tewi. As I said before, king of Ceredigion named after this expanded state is likely no coincidence, and historians have deduced from this information that sometime around 730 to 750 AD, King Saesyll of Ceredigion conquered the Tewi valley from King Rhaen of Doverd, which gives us a clue about this name. While authors several centuries later referred to this expanded Ceredigion as Saesallwg, they also seem to have occasionally referred to this shrunken Doverd as Rhaenwg. So Saesyll expands Ceredigion into Saesallwg, and Rhaen shrinks Doverd into Rhaenwg. This was the first seemingly only recorded expansion from Ceredigion that we have, and even with this one we have to deduce and presume it from later sources, although it is worth mentioning that some historians such as Charles Edwards do not agree on if this annexation was permanent, but that subject will be explored more in my video on Doverd. Some older sources do claim that Ceredigion had expanded before into the cantrip of Cymaes in Doverd, but this is very unlikely to be true, and is probably the result of an error in the account of the life of Saint Curannog, in which the southern boundary of Ceredigion is said to be the Gwyne river. This mistake probably stems from the fact that the archdiocese of Ceredigion was extended to the Gwyne, which would have been in Doverd, but this was not the boundary of the older kingdom. Regardless, following this expansion by King Saesyll, Ceredigion once again falls into the ocean of historical obscurity. The death of Saesyll's son Arthen in the year 807 is recorded in the Annals Cambria, but the throne passes down to his son Dubonwathlon, then to his son Muirigh and finally to Gugon, all without mention. All we have is a single death date, 872, when Gugon, king of Ceredigion, was drowned. Gugon was the last ruler of Ceredigion recorded in the Harleian genealogies. In fact, after his death, this kingdom does not appear again in any of the primary sources. So what happened? How did this ancient dynasty, that only a few centuries prior managed to double its territory, completely disappear from the historical record? There are two theories, with each one pertaining to one of Ceredigion's neighbours. In this video, I'm going to be exploring the older, more common theory that ties our kingdom's history into that of Gwynedd, with a new king, a new dynasty, and a new, more expansionist goal. In my next video on the Kingdom of Doverd, I will be explaining the theory put forth by the historian T. Charles Edwards, who suggests the idea that Ceredigion's conquests may not have been as permanent as we might have thought. It is not my place to decide which one is right, and which one is wrong. I want to explain both ideas to you, so that you can decide for yourself. With that out of the way, let's move north to the Kingdom of Gwynedd, who has just crowned their new king, Rhodri the Great. The story of Rhodri is for another video, but for now, all you need to know is that his father, Mervyn, had managed to take control of Gwynedd sometime after the year 825. Mervyn was probably from the Isle of Man, or possibly Mannaigoddon, or possibly Powys, and his descendants would control most of Wales for the rest of its independent existence. Not a lot of information is known about Rhodri. Despite his grand epithet and title as the literal father of almost all of the later Welsh dynasties, his role in the extinction of an independent Ceredigion and Powys is not explicitly mentioned anywhere. As I said before, following the death of Gogon in 872, Ceredigion no longer appears in any later sources, which we can see if we examine a source from 893, The Life of King Alfred, written by a Welsh monk in Alfred's court named Aser. Here Aser describes how the kingdoms of Wales submitted to King Alfred of Wessex in exchange for protection. The kingdoms of South Wales, Goloesing and Gwent, sought protection from the Mercians, but their neighbouring kingdoms, Rhaeniog and Dyfed, sought protection from the sons of Rhodri Mawr, who were Anarald and Cadeth ap Rhodri. As you can see from this map, there is a noticeable Ceredigion-sized piece missing, and neither Powys nor Ceredigion are mentioned as being threatened by either the Mercians or the sons of Rhodri Mawr. Furthermore, Dyfed and Rhaeniog sought protection from Gwynedd's aggression, despite the fact that they shouldn't share a border if Ceredigion and Powys were still independent. It seems reasonable to assume that Gwynedd's aggressive actions were the annexation of Ceredigion and Powys, and the subsequent campaign of Rhodri's sons. Rhodri also seems to have had a vested interest in this area, as the Jesus College pedigrees tell us that he was married to the sister of King Gogon, Angharad. Although this might sound like it would give him a claim to this kingdom, it is highly unlikely that inheritance could pass through a woman in these times. Instead, he was probably just in a very good position, as a powerful neighbour married directly into the royal court, and if he had a hand in Gogon's death, he would have been able to strike quickly. Regardless of how legitimate his claim was, it seems plausible that Rhodri Mawr became the ruler of Ceredigion following Gogon's death. There are no more kings mentioned, and indeed no mention of an independent Ceredigion ever again. Rhodri's sons retained control over these lands, and their aggressive actions would cause their neighbours to seek the assistance of Wessex. This expanded Gwynedd would also ally with Alfred eventually, and one of Rhodri's sons, Angharad, received Wessex's help when he marched into Ceredigion in 895. Which sounds very unusual, didn't I just say that this area was part of Gwynedd? Unfortunately for me, this loops back into those competing theories I mentioned a while ago, and as someone who forgot how to read about 10 years ago, this whole thing has been really difficult. There are three theories on this line, the first and oldest theory is that this was an act of rivalry between two of Rhodri's sons, Angharad controlling Gwynedd, attacking Caddas who controlled Ceredigion. However, the idea that Gwynedd was fully and neatly divided upon Rhodri's death is less popular amongst historians today. So instead, we are once again left with these two main theories, one towards Gwynedd, and one towards Dovid. Just like in my previous two theories, I'm going to be discussing the pro-Dovid theory in my Dovid video, so for now I'll be explaining the pro-Gwynedd theory, that rather than resting outright control, Dovid had started to contest the Toei Valley and Ceredigion with Gwynedd. A king of Dovid named Havithe had submitted to Alfred in exchange for protection against Gwynedd, but this ruler had died in 893, only two years before Angharad's campaign into Ceredigion and Ostred Toei. Havithe's successor may not have sought to continue Alfred's patronage, leading the king of Wessex to side with Angharad, who at this time had abandoned his alliance with the Danish kingdom of York in favour for an alliance with Alfred. Alternatively, Alfred may have just chosen to side with the sons of Rodri anyway, deeming them the more valuable and powerful alliance. Regardless of which one of these explanations you prefer, by the end of 895, it seems that Angharad had firmly secured Gwynedd's hold over Ceredigion. Although this land would continue to serve as a battleground between the rival descendants of Rodri Mawr, an independent kingdom would never again rise up out of this battlefield. In 905, the last king of Dovid was executed, and Caddeth of Rodri would conquer his kingdom, firmly establishing himself in south-west Wessex. Although, again, it is debated as to how separated these lands were from Gwynedd, this area would at least become fully independent by the time of Caddeth's son, Hulda. It was around this time that the Annals Cambria and the Harleyn genealogies were composed, illuminating, if only slightly, this murky period of history. These documents were created by the grandsons of Rodri Mawr, a man who was descended from Cynetha, the very first king of Gwynedd, whose offspring would conveniently become the founders of all of Welsh kingdoms, including Ceredigion, that were all currently under the control of Rodri's descendants. Something's not right here. These sons of Cynetha are not even mentioned by name until this document. In fact, the number of sons is not even consistent. Nennius claims there were 12 sons, but the Harleyn genealogies list 9. Additionally, the story of these 9 sons conquering and naming kingdoms after themselves is very convenient, not only because there are a lot of old Welsh stories that exist to explain place names, but, again, because all of these places are currently being controlled by the descendants of Rodri Mawr. Historians seem to agree that it is extremely likely that this story is manufactured propaganda used by the descendants of Cynetha in an attempt to justify their hold over these formerly independent territories. The Harleyn genealogies try to claim that Ceredigion, a country that was independent for centuries, was actually just founded by a descendant of Cynetha, just like Gwynedd and Eobard, even though there is no evidence that the early kings of Gwynedd were even active in this area. The list of the kings of Ceredigion is probably correct. We know they existed, and we don't have any reason to necessarily doubt these names, and the story of Ceredig may even be a real myth from Ceredigion. Was he this kingdom's own founding legend, a post-Roman Brythonic warlord who united the lands between the Dovi and the Tevi? Unfortunately, we just don't know. Whoever Ceredig was, a founding myth of a squandered country, or a piece of propaganda attempting to justify an occupation, his story and the story of this kingdom has been lost to time. Ceredigion was conquered, and while its saints would be venerated, its lineage, history, and culture would be lost. Soon, this kingdom would find itself repositioned in history, and rather than continuing as an independent state, it would instead be united with its old rival, Dovid, and together they would go on to be one of the most powerful and defiant kingdoms in the history of Wales, the Kingdom of Teheuath. Thank you very much for watching.