Cadwallon

“ The son of this Prince, Cadwaladr, who lived and died in [28] the seventh century, is buried in the church of the place that bears his name, the “enclosure, or church, of Cadwaladr.” But the chief interest lies in his father, Cadwallon, and his cousin, Brian, who together won one of the last great battles in the cause of British freedom against the English conquerors.
Cadwallon, son of King Cadfan, and Edwin, son of King Ethelfrid of Northumbria, were both born about the same year in the island of Anglesey, or Mona, as the Celts call it ”

“ Whether the death of Cadwallon, the British king, with whom Penda's forces were allied when Edwin was defeated at the battle of Hatfield-chase, caused the Mercian monarch to invade Bernicia, to revenge his fall and defeat, or whether the love of conquest alone induced Penda to undertake this expedition, is not recorded, neither is it clearly made out that he was not present at the battle in which Cadwallon was slain. Whatever were his motives, he attacked and slew Oswald, without any apparent cause of quarrel, and in him perished one of the best of the Northern kings. ”

“ Cadvan, king of Gwynedd or North Wales, and probably also supreme king of all Wales, had been converted to Christianity by Beuno and had given him much land and promised more. Cadvan's son and successor, Cadwallon, carrying out his father's intentions, gave Beuno a piece of land called Gwaredog in Carnarvonshire, where he built a church, but the land being claimed by a widow for her infant son as having been his father's property, Beuno relinquished it and demanded compensation from Cadwallon, to whom he had given a golden sceptre in return for the land he had just lost. ”

“ Both Randulf, earl of Chester, and Madog ap Maredudd [q. v.] , prince of Powys, resented this, and in 1149 Madog joined with the earl to attack Owain, but was signally defeated at Counsillt. But Owain's power was still diminished by family feuds. In 1149 he was forced to imprison his son Cynan. In 1151 he drove his brother Cadwaladr from his refuge in Anglesea, and blinded and mutilated his brother Cadwallon, and his nephew, Cadwallon's son, Cunedda. Such vigorous and bloodthirsty measures secured his hold more firmly over Gwynedd. In 1155 he was able to lead an expedition against Ceredigion. ”

“ Cadwallon, was blinded by Henry II in 1165 (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 202; Gwentian Brut calls them Rhys and Cadwallon) ; (13) one daughter, Angharad, is mentioned, who was a full sister of Iorwerth, and therefore legitimate (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 212) , and who married Morgan ab Seisyll; (14) another daughter, whose name is not given, was betrothed early in Owain's reign to her cousin Anarawd ap Rhys ap Gruflrdd of South Wales. For the reputed son or Owain who is fabled to have discovered America, see Madog ap Owain Gwynedd. ”

“ That night, just before dawn, they moved out of camp, attacked the probably unsuspecting Britons, and inflicted upon them a crushing defeat. Many of the enemy must have perished on the wide moorland; some who probably fled southwards with Cadwallon, their king, were whelmed in the deep waters of the Tyne. ”

“ A small Northumbrian force gathered in 635 near the Roman Wall, and pledged itself at the new King's bidding to become Christian if it conquered in the fight. Cadwallon fell fighting on the "Heaven's Field," as after times called the field of battle; the submission of Deira to the conqueror restored the kingdom of Northumbria; and for seven years the power of Oswald equalled that of Eadwine. It was not the Church of Paulinus which nerved Oswald to this struggle for the Cross, or which carried out in Bernicia the work of conversion which his victory began. ”

“ In the seventh century also we find the House of Cunedda holding the same com- manding position in the person of Cadwallon [73] (the fifth in descent from Maelgwn) who was killed by Oswald in 635. Between Rhun and Cadwallon, however, the supreme power may have passed for a while into the hands of the house of Cadell Ddyrnllug of Powys, for we find Cynan Garwyn, the head of that family, battling against Anglesey, Dyved, Glywysing, and Gwent. [74] It is this house also which appears to have withstood Ethelfrith of Northumbria at the Battle of Chester in 617, in which Selyf ap Cynan Garwyn fell. ”

“ He is bent on asserting the old overlordship of Cunedda, Maelgwn, and Cadwallon over the whole of the Welsh kin from Anglesey to the river Wye. But in addition to this, he proceeds by diplomatic marriages to bring the land more directly under the sway of his house. By his marriage with Nest, sister of Cyngen, the last King of Powys of the line of Cadell Ddyrnllug, his son Rhodri becomes the immediate ruler of that kingdom in addition to his own. ”

“ The misdeeds of his son Roger against the Welsh, and especially his murder of the South Welsh prince, Cadwallon, which were visited on Roger by two years' imprisonment, seem to have involved the old baron in the king's displeasure, and at the time of his death his estates were in the king's hands. ”

“ The Anglian power was not thoroughly established over Wales, and already the destined rival of Northumbria, the Mercian kingdom, was rising into baleful pre-eminence. Singularly enough, it was from these two powers which are said to have sheltered Edwin in the time of his evil fortunes that his ruin came. Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, descended from that Maelgwn whom Gildas vituperated under the name of “The Great Dragon of the Island,” was son of Cadvan, at whose court, it is said, Edwin had passed his boyhood. ”

“ Gerguint had joined his brother Kentish princes, and together they had attacked the Roman camp left with the ships and had been beaten, and there had Gerguint been sorely wounded and, barely escaping, had been carried to the harbourage of his castle. The main body of the Britons was now within and about London, and Cadwallon was to make his last stand against the approaching army of Cæsar, which threatened the passage of a ford above the city. ”

“ The victors then ravaged the country, burning and plundering the houses, and slaughtering the people without regard to sex or age. Cadwallon remained in Northumbria, assuming the government, and ruling the people with great severity and cruelty, until he was slain in battle by Oswald, whilst Penda marched into East Anglia, which had become Christian, subdued it, and then took upon himself the title of Bretwalda. Thus fell the great and glorious Eadwine, the victor of [Pg 43] many fights, the Bretwalda of England, the first Christian King of the North, and the protomartyr of Northumbria. ”

“ According to the sole authority, the contemporary 'Annales Cambriæ,' he lived in the second period of Danish invasion, a time of great disorder in Wales as elsewhere, and first appears as the slayer of Cadwallon ab Idwal, king of Gwynedd, and the conqueror of his realm, which, however, he lost in the ensuing year. ”

“ Her beauties are minutely described by the biographer. By her Gruffydd had three sons: Cadwallon (who in 1124 slew his mother's three brothers, and in 1132 was slain by his cousins) , Cadwaladr [q. v.] , and Owain, afterwards famous as Owain Gwynedd [q. v.] He also had by her many daughters (ib.; the Life says five, and gives their names) , one of whom, Gwenllian, was the wife, first of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, and then of Gruffydd ab Rhys. Gruffydd was also the father of several illegitimate children. ”

“ Penda wages war against him, in alliance with Cadwallon, a Cambrian prince who hates the Saxon conquerors the more bitterly when become Christians. Encouraged by St. Columba in a vision, Oswald with a small force vanquishes the hosts of Cadwallon, who is slain. He sends to Iona for monks of St. Columba's order, converts his country to the Faith, and dies for her. The earlier British race expiates its evil revenge. ”

“ To Cunedda is attributed by tradition the first onslaught upon the Irish of Gwynedd (Nennius) , and to his grandson Cadwallon (wrongly called Caswallon) their final overthrow in their stronghold of Anglesey (Iolo MSS. Liverpool reprint, pp. 78, 81, 82) . ”

“ It goes on to say that after Rhodri's death, the Saxons were chased from Anglesey by its furious women.↑ The Brut places Cadwallon and Rhydderch's deaths together in 961.↑ The Brut y Tywysogion lists both Macht and his brother Godfrit as attacking and colonizing Anglesey in its entry for AD 968. ”

“ His father traced his ancestry back to Cadwallon, the last and greatest of the Cymbrian, or Welsh bards, whose only daughter married a celebrated Scotch warlock.
The hermit, seer, prophet, or whatever we may choose to call him, is no ignorant and uncultured boor. He is now old, almost beyond the memory of years, and his once{66} raven hair is white as the driven snow, but his form is still erect, his step free, neither is his natural strength abated. ”

“ The most important event that we have to record in his reign was the victory he obtained over Cadwallon, which occurred soon after he was seated upon the throne of Bernicia. Oswald was already celebrated for his piety, and previous to his battle with the Welsh king, he planted the image of the cross upon the field, holding it with his own hands, while111 his soldiers filled up the hollow which they had made in the earth to receive it. ”

“ From the remains described by Whitaker, it appears certain that some great battles in early times have been fought on the banks of the Douglas, traditions concerning which may have served for the foundation of the after statements of Nennius and others. There are some recorded historical facts which countenance this view. The British warrior, king of the Western Britons, Cadwallon or Cadwalla, [7] with his ally, Penda, defeated and slew Edwin, King of Northumbria, uncle of St. Oswald, in the year 633, at Heathfield. [8] Where Heathfield is we have no perfectly satisfactory evidence. ”

“ Belyn, a great man from Lleyn in Carnarvonshire, mentioned in the Triades, and is said there to have fought with Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, in Bryn Cenau in Rhos, in the county of Denbigh; probably he was one of Cadwallon’s generals; it is well known, and confessed by Beda himself, that that prince was a terrible scourge to the Saxons.
[11a] Garthan, the name of a fort or castle somewhere near the Severn.
[11b] This was the famous battle of Bangor-is-y-coed in Flintshire, after the murder of the monks, at the instigation of Austin, the first converter of the Saxons to Christianity. ”

“ But when Ethelfrid could by no means be brought to consent to it, she continued to live with Cadwan, till she was delivered of the son which she had conceived. A short time after her delivery, Cadwan also had a son born to him by the queen, his wife. Then were the two boys brought up together in a manner suitable to their royal birth, one of which was called Cadwalla, the other Edwin. When they were nearly arrived at men's estate, their parents sent them to Salomon, king of the Armorican Britons, that in his court they might learn the discipline of war, and other princely qualifications. ”

“ Whether the poets of the north really wrote any of the poems which in a modified form have come down to us or not, there can be no doubt that a number of lays attributed to them lived in popular tradition, and that under the sudden burst of glory which the deeds of Cadwallawn called forth and which ended in the disastrous defeat of 655, a British literature began to spring up, and was nourished by the hopes of a future resurrection under his son Cadwaladr, whose death was disbelieved in for such a long time. ”

“ Having thus obtained the victory, Cadwalla marched through the provinces of the Angles, and committed such outrages upon the Saxons, that he spared neither age nor sex; for his resolution being to extirpate the whole race out of Britain, all that he found he put to extreme tortures. After this he had a battle with Osric, Edwin's successor, and killed him together with his two nephews, who ought to have reigned after him. He also killed Aidan, king of the Scots, who came to their assistance. ”

“ Cadwaladr appears to have found his portion in his former conquests of Meirionydd and northern Ceredigion. The intruder from Gwynedd soon became involved in feuds both with his south Welsh neighbours and with his family. In 1143 his men slew Anarawd, son of Gruffudd of South Wales, to whom Owain Gwynedd had promised his daughter in marriage. Repudiated by his brother, who sent his son Howel to ravage his share of Ceredigion and to attack his castle of Aberystwith, Cadwaladr fled to Ireland, whence he returned next year with a fleet of Irish Danes, to wreak vengeance on Owain. ”

“ Cadwalla answered, that his sickness was the cause of it; to which the other replied, that he had sent over to Germany for more Saxons, to revenge the death of his brother Oswald upon them both. He told him further, that he had broken the peace of the kingdom, as being the sole author of the war and dissension among them; since Ethelfrid, king of Northumberland, and Ethelwald, his brother's son, had been by him harassed with a war, and driven out of their own country. He also desired leave, either to kill him, or banish him the kingdom. ”

“ The rape of the Welsh Helen excited great commotion, and Cadwgan, hurrying back in great anxiety to Ceredigion, found himself powerless to effect her restoration to Gerald. Ithel and Madog, sons of Rhirid, and Cadwgan's nephews, were incited by Richard of Belmeis to attack Owain, and even Cadwgan, who fled to an Irish merchant ship in the harbour of Aberdovey. After running all kinds of dangers, Owain escaped to Ireland, while Cadwgan privately retired to Powys. ”

“ But he himself was in a little room adjoining, at work with his turning apparatus, and he called to the baronet to join him there. The two were better friends than any other landholder and clergyman in the county—a significant fact which was in agreement with the amiable expression of their faces.
Mr. Cadwallader was a large man, with full lips and a sweet smile; very plain and rough in his exterior, but with that solid imperturbable ease and good-humor which is infectious, and like great grassy hills in the sunshine, quiets even an irritated egoism, and makes it rather ashamed of itself. ”