Hywel ap Cadell

“ For as Rhodri would bring all Wales under the direct sway of one family, so Howel would bring the whole of the Welsh people under one law. A common rule implied a common law, and in order that men might know what this common law was, it had to be codified and thereby reduced to writing. This was the task to which Howel applied himself, and by having laid a sound foundation he occupies a foremost place not only amongst the rulers of the Welsh people, but also amongst all those who have distinguished themselves throughout the centuries by their devotion to the cause of Wales. ”

“ In the second place, by substituting romance for history, it has surreptitiously concealed the steady and unbroken development of Cymric nationality from the day that Cunedda and his Sons established themselves in Wales at the commencement of the fifth century. Not only have authentic traditions been distorted to make them fit with the romance, not only has the memory of important historic events been for ever lost, but the very idea of the evolution of Wales from the primitive little kingdoms of the fifth century has been blurred in the national consciousness. ”

“ The obstacles in the way of the unity of Wales were stupendous, such as no bare coercion could overcome. We have seen their like on a modern and larger scale in the story of Italian and German unity. In the Dark Age the difficulty was accentuated by the fact that, even given a unity achieved by a capable ruler, the mind of the age as reflected in the Leges Barbarorum, of which the Laws of Howel are the Welsh exemplar, compelled that unity to be divided after his death among his sons. Charlemagne himself had so to divide his empire ; the same necessity rested on Rhodri the Great. ”

“ There was a legend current in later times that Rhodri the Great, erroneously regarded as king of all Wales, damaged the Welsh cause irretrievably by sharing his kingdom among his three sons, giving, according to one version, Gwynedd to Mervyn, Powys to Anarawd, and Deheubarth to Cadell. [86] Nothing can be further from the truth than the impression left by this tale. For as we have seen, Rhodri's aim was to consolidate Wales by substituting the rule of his own family for that of many families. Princes of the blood of Rhodri alone were to govern the land directly from one end to the other. ”

“ Thus the unity of Roman Britannia became definitely a thing of the past. Henceforth Wales is free to evolve its own life. The unity of Cymric Britannia will now replace that of Roman Britannia, with this difference, that the latter was possibly never more than an official idea to be preserved, whereas the former becomes a national ideal to be attained. ”

“ With its advent in Britannia about the end of the fourth century Welsh national history commences, and with the death of its last important representative, Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, in 1282, the first half of the same history closes.
The occupation of the northern and western portions of Britannia by Picts and Scots threw the old population of south-eastern Wales and the country between the Severn Sea and the Wiltshire Avon into a state of alarm. The Britons of the Devonian peninsula began to migrate in large numbers to Armorica on the mainland, where they founded Britanny. ”

“ They war against one another, like the Saxons against the Jutes of Kent and Hampshire or against the Angles, the smaller and weaker kings seeking to preserve their independence, and the stronger kings anxious to make themselves paramount. Add to this the invasions from the west and north, the emigration of the Bretons, the isolation from the civilizing centres of the mainland and the consequent decay of commerce and culture—and we have ample explanation of the increasing difficulties of maintaining the old official unity of Britannia together with the final abandonment of the same. ”

“ The reign of this king becomes in consequence the appropriate finale of a long and glorious era of Welsh history. All this of course is purely fictitious, as Cadwaladr's death marks no known break of any kind in the perfectly clear development of Welsh nationality. Geoffrey's Cadwaladr in fact is a composite personage created out of Geoffrey's own confusion of Cadwaladr and his father, Cadwallon, and Ceadwalla of Wessex . As there were kings in Wales before Cadwaladr, so there were kings, and far greater kings, after him. ”

“ Cunedda protects Britannia from the Scots. Emrys likewise protects Britannia from the anti-Britannic policy of Vortigern and his allied Saxons. It represents the Roman tradition as opposed to the barbaric or 'tribal' interest of the native kings. And perhaps, above all, it in some way symbolizes the unity of Britannia, which in this case is what every gwledig would seek to preserve as the Roman legacy handed over to his special care. It would devolve on him to guard Britannia against all invasion and insult whether from the west, north, or east. ”

“ The legend of course echoes the ideas and possibilities of later times when men had come to see that, conducive as was the rule of one family instead of several families to keeping folk of the same kin together, yet the rule of one man was still more conducive to that desirable result. ”

“ The 'Men of the North' were almost certainly for the most part Britons both by race and language, but all who were free amongst them called themselves at a later period, even if not already, by the name Cymry, that is, compatriots.
Cunedda is one of the very few to whom Welsh literature assigns the rare title of gwledig, [50] a term which denotes the ruler of a territory, apparently as distinct from that of a community of persons, which is a very important distinction in view of ' tribal ' custom. ”

“ Until at least the oldest Latin law books and the best MSS. of the Books of Gwynedd and Blegywryd have been so reproduced with analytical summaries and indices that the reader may readily discover what they contain (a task here essayed with regard to the Book of Cyvnerth) the study of native Welsh law must suffer, and every treatise professing to deal with it as a whole must prove inopportune. ”

“ Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries what may be called Welsh Wales, as distinct from Norman Wales, [27] was divided into the three main divisions of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth. As the result of the important battle of Mynydd Carn in 1079, [28] Gwynedd and Deheubarth henceforth remained under the rule of the House of Gruffydd ap Cynan and that of Rhys ap Tewdwr, respectively. Powys continued as before to be governed by the House of Bleddyn. These three families were all sprung from Rhodri the Great and were consequently of the true Cymric lineage of Cunedda Wledig. ”

“ The divisions had been far too long established to perish in a night, especially those into Upper and Lower Britain, but it is probable in view of the troubles, which would afflict the land both from within and without, that the leading civil officials had to give way to the military governors, who alone persisted to protect the Roman tradition. These were the Dux Britanniae in the north, now probably in charge of the land from the Wall of Hadrian to the Humber and Mersey, constituting perhaps one of the provinces of Caesariensis or Lower Britain ”

“ The law is the law of Howel, but it is the law of Howel as modified and amplified both by the varying customs of different parts of Wales and also by the changes which are taking place throughout three and a half critical centuries in the general life of the people. ”

“ The expression Cunedda Wledig in this case would point to Cunedda as a ruler of territory (gwlad) whilst Cunedda and his Sons would indicate his character as a ' tribal ' king. Almost all who are known to have borne the title of gwledig can be proved to have lived within a century or so about the end of Roman rule in Britain. The three best known, Maxen, Cunedda, and Emrys, are all credited with being in some way connected with the Roman officialdom or race, so that there can be little doubt that gwledig is a Welsh rendering for a Roman title, perhaps the Comes Britanniae. ”

“ The common opinion is that Howel Dda lived in Deheubarth and especially in Dyved, [17] but in the light of the above passage he generally dwells in Powys. Moreover, the manner in which the White House is spoken of as being the king's hunting-lodge 'when he came to Dyved' seems to bear out the same idea. It is true that the preface to the Book of Cyvnerth appears to restrict Howel's dominions outside Powys, and it is curious that Powys appears to be the very division of Wales wherein that compilation had its origin. ”

“ King Howel, who was surnamed Good, that is, da, put together the laws of Britannia moderately and temperately with the unanimous consent and after the careful consideration of the wise men of his kingdom, namely, the men of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth, who had assembled together in one place before his tribunal. ”

“ This then leaves us the country around the upper reaches of the Thames, and all to the west of it, including Wales plus the Devonian peninsula. Without for the moment attempting to define closely its eastern boundary we identify Upper Britain, Britannia Superior, with the territory west of a line drawn from Chester (which is included) to the Wiltshire Avon or thereabouts. ”

“ The Books of Gwynedd, Blegywryd, and Cyvnerth, however, are produced in such a way that the various MSS. of each particular class are interblended, so that it is with the greatest difficulty that any particular one may be distinguished. ”

“ Vortigern is found in the country east of the river Usk and north of it along a line drawn from about the town of Monmouth to that of Llanidloes; [60] and Ambrosius, as we have already seen, in Glywysing, roughly equivalent to modern Glamorganshire. Things reached a long-remembered crisis when Vortigern in the fourth year of his reign, being the year marked by the consulship of Felix and Taurus, that is, A.D. 428, invited the Saxons [61] of the ' Saxon Shore ' to his assistance. ”

“ This class therefore appears to represent a 'Book of Deheubarth'. Unfortunately again Aneurin Owen named them the 'Dimetian Code', that is, the code of Dyved, although there appears to be no reason why they should be confined to this particular patria, and not made to cover the whole of that Deheubarth which was held to be subject to the King of Dinevwr. The preface of this class mentions a certain Blegywryd who is described as the cleric appointed in Howel's convention at the White House to reduce the revised laws to writing. ”

“ There are besides other serious defects, so that, valuable as the work undoubtedly is, and great as is our indebtedness to this early and scholarly editor, it has become imperative that it should be done afresh. ”

“ Given that a people dwelt beyond the Wall, it would be commonly classed with the Picts whether it was racially Pictish or otherwise. These two peoples entered Britannia from over the water, [46] the Scots invading the west coast and effecting settlements in various districts ; [47] and the Picts starting from due north and landing on the seaboard from Anglesey to the mouth of the river Dee. ”

“ It will be noticed that none of the codices now extant of the Book of Cyvnerth and the Book of Blegywryd date from before the last quarter of the thirteenth century, probably after the death of Llewelyn ap Gruffydd in 1282. Those which are antecedent to this period are the following, which are enumerated in order of time : —
Peniarth MS. 28. Latin; 1175-1200. Peniarth MS. 29 (= MS. A) . Welsh; Book of Gwynedd ; about 1200. Harleian MS. 1796. Latin; 1200-1250. [26] Brit. Mus. ”

“ For it is nowadays commonly and even dogmatically asserted that it divided the Britons of the North from those of Wales, whereas there is no evidence forthcoming that these were ever united by land. Late Glamorganshire legends ascribe the name of Teyrnllwg [77] to a supposed Cymric patria lying appar- ently between the river Dee and the river Derwent in Cumberland, a name based on erroneous etymology as to Durnluc in Catel Durnluc, that is, Cadell Ddyrnllug, the king who founded the royal stem of Powys. ”