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Post-Roman Britain

Southern Britain's Lost Kingdoms

by Peter Kessler, 1 April 1999. Updated 14 February 2007

Part 2: Lost Kingdoms

Evidence for the survival of sub-Roman territories in the Midlands is extremely thin, as this area was quickly overrun by Angles in the late fifth century. But to the south and west the Britons clung on doggedly into the seventh century.

 

Cynwidion

Cynwidion, traditionally centred on Northampton (in modern Northamptonshire) and Dunstable (Roman Durocobrivae, modern Bedfordshire, just to the north-west of Luton), and certainly south of Powys, was one such kingdom.

Its borders, of course, are unknown, and although the background to its creation is based on oral evidence which was not written down until the ninth century at the earliest, there is archaeological evidence to back up the story.

The youngest son of Arthwys of the Pennines, Cynfelyn, moved south along with his own son soon after the date which is most usually ascribed to the death of Arthur, presumed 'High King' of Britain and more likely a battle leader or dux in the Roman fashion.

As Arthur was probably the last of a short series of Britons to be able claim any kind of national control, a power vacuum probably emerged in the early sixth century during which late Celtic kingdoms could be founded in land which had previously been protected by whatever sub-Roman imperial power had survived.

Cynfelyn found willing followers in the Chiltern Hills where he set up his state. His son altered the name to reflect its location, 'Calchwynedd' (meaning 'chalk hills'), and the evidence suggests that, despite Anglian pressure to the near east, there was a Romano-British presence in the area until well into the seventh century. Undated earthworks were thrown up probably for this reason.

The Iclingas who eventually formed Mercia and many other groups of the Middil Engle (Middle Angles) were already entering the Midlands by the time of the state's founding, and it seems they forced their way south from the territory of Caer Lerion in the Leicester region.

One can imagine the Calchwynedd territory slowly shrinking in the face of Middle Angle advances from east and north, eventually losing Dunstable and becoming bottled up in the Chilterns until the end came and the state collapsed some time in the early 600s, either before or relatively soon after Elmet not far to the north.

The region had already been partially settled in the west by the Ciltern Saetan (Chiltern Saxons).

Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills contain territory which was probably easy to defend for the warriors of the post-Roman kingdom of Cynwidion, at least initially and in part, but Angles and Saxons who formed the Ciltern Saetan cut them off to the west and eventually forced their collapse


 

A SEVEN PART FEATURE:
Part 1: Intro
Part 2: Cynwidion & Pengwern
Part 3: Gloui, Dumnonia, & Ceint
Part 4: Celemion & Colun
Part 5: Venta, Lerion, Lundein, Went
Part 6: Linnius, Rhegin, & Weith
Part 7: Lost Kings

Pengwern

Some of those territories which adjoined Cynwidion seem highly likely, given the evidence, to have been based on old Roman cities and Roman cantrefi (the Roman-inherited equivalent of modern boroughs).

Caer Luit Coet (Roman Letocetum, modern Wall in southern Staffordshire) was the place to which the rulers of Glastenning fled (from their lost Dumnonian sub-kingdom in Somerset).

It was also the capital of the eastern half of a territory which was known as Pengwern, which apparently consisted of three sub-kingdoms, all governed directly or indirectly by an over-king himself (there is little evidence to suggest the territory fragmenting in the seventh century, so its central authority must have retained overall control).

It is likely that Pengwern had been divided between sons in the Celtic tradition, becoming sub-kingdoms based perhaps at Caer Guricon (Roman Viroconium, modern Wroxeter just east of Shrewsbury in Shropshire), Caer Magnis (now Kenchester, just west of Hereford in Herefordshire), and Caer Luit Coyt.

Caer Guricon has provided the most extensive archaeological evidence for the survival of the Roman way of life during the fifth to sixth centuries in Midlands Britain.

Not much is known about the formation of this territory other than that it seems to have been the eastern half of the Paganes territory in the late fifth century. By 613, the ruler in Pengwern was Cyndrwyn Fawr ('the Great', although his other nickname was 'the Stubborn').

Constantine probably ruled from Caer Magnis (and was probably a younger brother), while a second brother, Morfael ap Glast, was ruler of Glastenning and then gained Caer Luit Coyt in eastern Pengwern.

Cyndrwyn Fawr fought in battle against Æthelfirth of Bernicia at the Battle of Caer Legion (Chester, in Cheshire) in 613 alongside the rulers of Gwynedd, Powys, and Dumnonia. It seems that he survived the fight to die around 620. The territory passed to his son, Cynddylan, who ruled for around thirty-six years before Pengwern fell in 656.

Cynddylan's capital, Llys Pengwern, is traditionally said to have been the Saxon foundation of today's Shrewsbury, but that capital was more likely to be the Berth at Baschurch, just to the north. There are indications that there was also an outpost at Din Guricon, the hill fort on the Wrekin which overlooks Caer Guricon, but such were the incursions of the Iclinga Angles to the east, and various Saxon groups to the south, that a more defendable site than the old Roman town was required by this time.

Cynddylan's exploits are remembered in the Marwnad Cynddylan and the Canu Heledd (a cycle of poems which were named after Cynddylan's sister, and which were originally attributed to Llywarch Hen of South Rheged, erroneously as it turned out - none of the work of this poet-king has survived).

They tell Heledd's lament at the destruction of the territory of Pengwern, and of Cynddylan and his family. Cynddylan had been far from idle during his reign, and had also formed a strong alliance with Penda of the Mercians. They had fought together against the invading Northumbrians, particularly at the Battle of Maes Cogwy (Oswestry, Shropshire) in 642 (and see 'related links' in the sidebar for an examination of just how closely bound the Mercians and Pengwerians may have been).

Here they were successful, killing their northern enemy, King Oswald. This appears to have brought Pengwern fourteen years of comparative peace but, in 656, after Penda's death, Oswald's brother, Oswiu, found his way clear to wreak revenge on Cynddylan.

He overran Llys Pengwern, and the Pengwernian king was brutally hacked down along with several of his brothers. He was buried at Eglwysseu Bassa (Baschurch, Shropshire) and the royal court dispersed (perhaps returning to the land of its cousins in Gwynedd).

With the territory now undefended and largely in the hands of Oswiu while he was overlord of the Mercians, western Pengwern was settled by Saxon groups which moved up from the territory of the West Saxons, along with the Hwicce who occupied southern reaches of the territory.

They made the most of the sudden power gap to found small kingdoms which were based on Caer Guricon (the modern name 'Wroxter' has evolved from the Saxon 'Wrocenset', which itself is a rendering of the Roman 'Viroconium'), and Caer Magnis (the Magonset Saxons also derived their name from the former Romano-British name).

By the beginning of the eighth century, the Anglian Mercians had gained overall control of the region.

Roman Viroconium
The old Roman fort at Viroconium, one of their largest settlements, was substantially and skilfully rebuilt in timber between about 530-570, and then mostly dismantled by 600, during the period in which Pengwern may have achieved a semblance of independent Romano-British rule

 

 

 

     
Text copyright © P L Kessler, from various notes and sources. An original feature for the History Files.