Ceredigion

“ 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. ”

“ Rhys was now master again of Ceredigion; in 1167 he joined the princes of Gwynedd in an attack on Powys, which gave him the district of Cyfeiliog, and afterwards in a long but successful siege of the royal castle of Rhuddlan. Next year he built a castle at Aber Einion, and twice invaded Brecknock, the first time unsuccessfully, the second with such a show of power as to win for him favourable terms of peace from the justiciar, Richard de Lucy [q. v.] ”

“ All the 'wise men' of Gwynedd gathered round Llywelyn at Aberdovey, where, in a sort of Welsh parliament of magnates, Dyved, Ceredigion, Ystrad Tywi, and Kidwelly were partitioned among a number of rival princelings. Alarmed at Llywelyn's power, the faithless Gwenwynwyn went over in 1216 to King John, 'treating with contempt his oath to the chieftains of England and Wales and violating his homage to Llywelyn' (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 291) . Llywelyn vigorously expostulated with his vassal for breaking his faith, and, finding remonstrance fruitless, invaded his dominions. ”

“ In 1121 he supported Henry when that king invaded Powys, and entirely deserted the sons and grandsons of Cadwgan (Brut y Tywysogion, sub an. 1118) . During his old age he put his sons over the remoter cantreds of his dominions, and they ravaged Powys and Ceredigion in many a bloody foray. ”

“ Every king in the Deheubarth having fallen, with the exception of the King of Ystrad Tywi and Ceredigion, it is only natural that his curia principalis should assume a unique position in Welsh eyes. Dinevwr does not become historic until it stands alone as the stronghold of the last great native princes of South Wales. ”

“ The Welsh chronicler speaks of this castle as the key of all Wales, an exaggeration certainly, but it was undoubtedly the most important stronghold of South Ceredigion. [H. W.]
Cilgerran, or Dingeraint (Fig. 41) .—This castle was certainly built by Earl Roger; [923] a castle of great importance, in a magnificent situation. Like nearly all the castles in our Welsh list, it was repeatedly taken by the Welsh and retaken from them. The present masonry is of the 13th century, but the original motte-and-bailey plan is quite discernible. ”

“ The famous synod of Brefi, an historical fact clouded by miraculous details, probably took place early in the 6th century, when at a largely attended meeting of the Welsh clergy held at Brefi, near the source of the Teifi, St David’s eloquence for ever silenced the champions of the Pelagian heresy. In the 10th and 11th centuries the coast of Ceredigion suffered much from the inroads of the Danes, and in later times of the Normans and Flemings; but on the whole the native inhabitants seem to have maintained a successful resistance. ”

“ Thus Anglesea, Carnarvon, Merioneth and Flint were erected in North Wales; whilst out of the districts of Ystrad Tywi and Ceredigion in South Wales, the old dominions of the house of Dynevor, the counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan were formed. The old Welsh land tenure by gavelkind was, however, still permitted to remain in force amongst the natives of all Wales, whilst it was henceforth arranged to administer justice in the eight counties by special royal judges, and in the Marches by the officers appointed by the various lords-marchers according to the terms of their tenure. ”

“ CADWALADR (d. 1173) , the son of Gruffudd, the son of Cynan, was the son and the brother of the two most famous north Welsh princes of their time. During his father's lifetime he accompanied his elder brother, Owain, on many predatory excursions against rival princes. In 1121 they ravaged Meirionydd, and apparently conquered it. In 1135 and 1136 they led three successful expeditions to Ceredigion, and managed to get possession of at least the northern portion of that district. In 1137 Owain succeeded, on Gruffudd ap Cynan's death, to the sovereignty of Gwynedd or North Wales. ”

“ Cadfan departed on his way, and David and his companions set their faces northwards. They were not a solitary party. The road swarmed with priests and monks, and was trodden also by many laymen and some few women whom devotion or curiosity drew to the synod of the bishops at Brefi in Ceredigion. As evening drew on, the abbot-bishop of Menevia led his tired followers up the slope of a wooded hill, where he knew were dry caverns to pass the night in, and a spring of water. ”

“ SPIRIT OF A LIVING MAN IN A FIELD.
I heard the following story in the neighbourhood of Llanddewi, about my own grandfather, the late Mr. John Evans, of Gogoyan, who died about fifty-five years ago. (The “Hiriaid Gogoyan” were descended from Gruffydd Hir o Llanfair, great-great-grandson of Gwaethfoed) ; so saith Gwynionydd, in his book on “Enwogion Ceredigion.” But now for the story:—
Mr. Evans one day had gone to Aberystwyth, either riding or driving as this was in the days before the introduction of railways into that part, the distance was over twenty miles. ”

“ There remain therefore (excluding Buallt mentioned separately) the gwlads or patrias of Ceredigion, Dyved, Ystrad Tywi, Brycheiniog, and Morgannwg with Gwent. The first four comprise fifty-two cymwds, [33] and the last about twenty-five, exclusive of Cantrev Coch between the Wye and Gloucester. That there was some aggression on the part of Howel against Morgannwg with Gwent is clear from the dispute between him and King Morgan mentioned in the Book of Llandav (247-9) , a Welsh translation of which precedes the Cwta Cyfarwydd list of the cymwds and cantrevs of Wales. ”

“ He realised that the best way of securing this was by interesting King Henry in his nephew's welfare. But he did not neglect to conciliate the goodwill of his own subjects. On 19 Oct. 1238 he gathered together all the princes and barons of Wales at the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 327) . There they all swore oaths of fealty to Davydd as his successor. As Gruffydd still resisted, he was deprived of all his lands but the cantred of Lleyn. In his new-born zeal for peace Llywelyn deprived one of his chieftains of his lands for murdering his brother. ”

“ This we may dismiss at once as being the very reverse of the course of Welsh history. Every patria or gwlad must once have had its own curia principalis, and it is only after the fall of every gwlad in South Wales except Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi prior to circa iioo that Dinevwr comes into prominence. ”

“ 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 next year the murder of Iorwerth by his nephew Madog put Powys, which Iorwerth had lately governed, into the king's hands. He then gave it to Cadwgan, who thus once more acquired lands of his own. But Madog, already deprived of Ceredigion, was determined not to yield Powys as well to his uncle. Meanwhile Cadwgan, ‘not imagining mischief,’ returned to his dominions. Surrounded by Madog's retainers at Trallong Llewelyn, he as usual conducted himself weakly. All his own attendants fled. Unable to fight, unwilling to flee, he fell an easy victim to his enemies. ”

“ Cardigan, in Welsh Aberteifi, from its situation near the mouth of the Teifi, and Brecon, in Welsh Abcrhonddu, from its site near the confluence of the Usk and Honddu, are examples of corrupted Welsh names in common use—Ceredigion, Brychan—which possess in addition pure Celtic forms. In the third division, English place-names are tolerably frequent everywhere and predominate in the Marches and on the South Wales coast. Even in so thoroughly Welsh a county as Cardiganshire, English place-names are often to be encountered, e.g. ”

“ The expedition reached Pencader, where Rhys was overcome. He returned with Henry to England, and on 1 July 1163 did him homage at the council of Woodstock (R. Diceto, Rolls edit. i. 311) . But in 1164 he was again in revolt, destroying castles in Ceredigion, and when, in the autumn of 1165, Henry led an army against the princes of North Wales, Rhys was one of the confederate chiefs who met to oppose him at Corwen. The king's failure encouraged him to attack Cardigan Castle, which he took at the beginning of November, with the aid of a clerk, one Rhygyfarch ”

“ It was thought that there should be one king over the whole people,but it was very rarely that every part of Wales obeyed one king. The country was divided into smaller kingdoms. In many ways Gwynedd was the most powerful. It was very easy to defend; for it was made up of the island of Mon (Anglesey) , the promontory of Lleyn, and the mountain mass of Snowdon. Its steep side was thus towards England,and its cornlands and pastures on the further side. It was also the home of the family of Cunedda, from Maelgwn to the last Llywelyn. ”

“ The bare river flows through bare mud. This enormously wide valley is, for the most part, a soft, dark marsh, on which a thin vegetation struggles to maintain a dank existence. But even from Rhyl there are agreeable views of what the Welsh call Dyffryn Clwyd, the Vale of the Flat, “the Eden of Wales.” Three miles away, over an absolutely level and barren space, the wooded knolls and the dark towers of Rhuddlan advance almost to the centre of the valley, and have a fine impressiveness when they are thrown into relief by the shadow of some passing cloud. ”

“ Like Aberystwyth, its sea front is a shallow crescent, but vaster, with a larger town expanding back of it, and with loftier and sublimer headlands, at either end, closing it in a more symmetrical frame. But I should say that its sea was not so blue, or its sky either, and its air was not so soft or dry. Morally it is more constantly lively, with a greater and more insistent variety of entertainments. For the American its appeal might well have begun with the sight of his country’s flag floating over a tennis-ground at the neighboring watering-place and purer Welsh town of Rhyl. ”

“ On the north was Gwynedd; in the centre, Powys; on the south, Deheubarth or South Wales. As St. David’s was the premier see of the four Welsh dioceses, so Gwynedd was even more markedly the first among the three Welsh Kingdoms. Its ruler, when a sufficiently strong man to enforce it, had a recognised right to the title of “Pendragon” and the lip homage of his brother princes. When a weak one, however, filled the precarious throne, any [Pg 13] attempt to exact even such an empty tribute would have been a signal for a general outbreak. ”

“ The vale here contracts, and the grand mountain masses rapidly close in, forming the hollow of “Cwn Llan,” where Snowdon is observed to tower with greater majesty than in any other position. Beneath his darkening front, and encompassed by a noble amphitheatre of mountains, is Plas Gwynant, the truly romantic seat of Mr. Vaudrey. At this precise spot the beauty of the scenery increases wonderfully, and the spectator is lost in an endless variety of rock, and wood, and flood, and mountain. Llanberis Vale may be more sublime, no valley in Wales is equally beautiful. ”

“ The Princes of Powys and South Wales were absolved from their oath of homage to the ruler of Gwynedd, which Principality shrank once more to the banks of the Conway. In the meantime Griffith with his young son Owen was left by Henry to languish in the Tower, till, filled with despair, he made a bold bid for freedom. Weaving ropes out of his bed-clothing he let himself down by night from his prison window; but, being a corpulent man, his weight was too much for such slender supports, and he fell from a great height to the ground, breaking his neck upon the spot.
Dafydd makes war on the English. ”

“ It is true that the standard of Wales, with its red dragon, once floated victoriously on the side of this hill, and the short grass has been dyed with the blood of the Flemings, who mustered here to chastise that stout rebel, Owen Glyndwr, and were thoroughly chastised by him instead. But in themselves the heights of Plynlimmon are a little uninteresting. Short grass and rushes are all that grow upon them, and though their rounded outlines have a dignity of their own, the lack of colour makes them rather desolate. It is not till the Wye has passed Llangurig that it begins to earn its fame. ”

“ Rhayader, whose name means “the Falls,” is a typical Welsh market-town, asleep save on market and fair days, when it becomes one mass of shouting drovers, frightened cattle, buxom women with their great baskets, and gaitered farmers eagerly discussing the latest topic.
Above this town the Wye is no longer a stately river, but a straggling mountain stream, which makes its way through a wild and ever-rising country from its source in a spring on the side of Plynlimmon. ”