Cadfan ap Iago
Cadfan ap Iago (c. 569 – c. 617? 625? 634?) was King of Gwynedd (reigned c. 616 – c. 625). Little is known of the history of Gwynedd from this period, and information about Cadfan and his reign is minimal.[1]
The historical person is known only from his appearance in royal genealogies, from his grant to Saint Beuno for the monastery at Clynnog Fawr, and from his inscribed gravestone in St Cadwaladr's Church, Llangadwaladr.
Cadfan was the son and successor of King
Cadfan was succeeded as king by his son, Cadwallon ap Cadfan.
Gravestone
Cadfan's gravestone is at
Photographic image of the tombstone at St Cadwaladr's Church, Llangadwaladr
Inscribed c. 634 AD,
Saint Beuno
There are minor variations of these accounts, sometimes with the details rearranged, such as in Rice Rees' 1836 Essay on the Welsh Saints, where he says that Cadfan (rather than his son Cadwallon) was given the golden sceptre by Beuno.[10]
Fictionalization by and after Geoffrey of Monmouth
The largely fictional stories of ancient Britain written by Geoffrey of Monmouth use the names of many historical personages as characters, and the use of these names is a literary convenience made in order to advance the plot of Geoffrey's stories. One of these stories uses the names of Cadfan and other contemporary people, telling of how a certain Edwin spent his exiled youth at the court of King Cadfan, growing up alongside Cadfan's son, the future King Cadwallon. There is no historical basis for this story, as is readily acknowledged in the preface of works on the subject.[11]
Nevertheless, a "traditional" story arose blending Geoffrey's fiction with known history, implying that the future King Edwin of Northumbria had actually spent his youth at the court of King Cadfan, growing up alongside Cadfan's son, the future King Cadwallon. In point of fact, Cadwallon and Edwin were enemies with no known youthful connections: King Edwin invaded Gwynedd and drove King Cadwallon into exile, and it would be Cadwallon, in alliance with Penda of Mercia, who would ultimately defeat and kill Edwin in 633 at the Battle of Hatfield Chase (Welsh: Gwaith Meigen). The story that they had spent an idyllic youth together may have had a romantic appeal.
What is known from history is that in 588 King
See also
- Kings of Wales family trees
Notes
- ^ the pedigree is given as: ... map Rotri map mermin map etthil merch cinnan map rotri map Intguaul map Catgualart map Catgollaun map Catman map Iacob map Beli map Run ..., and from there back to Cunedda and his ancestors.
- ^ Phillimore, The pedigree is given as ... Cynan tintaeth6y. M. Rodri mol6yna6c. M. Idwal I6rch. M. Kadwaladyr vendigeit. M. Katwalla6n. M. Kad6ga6n. M. Iago. M. Beli. M. Run hir. M. Maelg6n g6yned ..., and from there back to Cunedda.
- ^ In the footnote. Sapientisimus here applied to him means simply, in the Latin of the period, a 'highly learned man', and presumably therefore an ecclesiastic. Compare the epithet of Gildas (Gildas Sapiens), implying clerical status, not natural wisdom.
- ^ A consistent version is given in W. J. Rees' 1853 Lives of the Cambro-British Saints
References
- Tout, Thomas Frederick (1885–1900). Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 190. .
- ^ Phillimore 1888, pp. 169–170.
- ^ Phillimore 1887, pp. 87.
- ^ Lloyd 1911:181, A History of Wales, Vol. I
- ^ Chadwick 1959, pp. 156.
- ^ Lloyd 1911:182, A History of Wales, Vol. I
- ^ Lloyd 1911:182, A History of Wales, Vol. I
- ^ Williams 1828:236, Clynog Vawr
- ^ Rees 1853, pp. 300.
- ^ Rees 1836:268, Essay on the Welsh Saints
- ^ Menzies, Louisa L. J. (1864), "The Legend of Cadwallon", Legendary Tales of the Ancient Britons, Rehearsed from the early Chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth, London: John Russell Smith, pp. 167–190
- Hunt, William (eds.), The English Church: From Its Foundation to the Norman Conquest (597 – 1066), vol. I, London: Macmillan and Co. (published 1901), p. 52
Sources
- ISBN 0-521-04602-5
- ISBN 0-7139-9098-8
- Lloyd, John Edward (1911), A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, vol. I (2nd ed.), London: Longmans, Green, and Co (published 1912)
- Phillimore, Egerton, ed. (1887), "Pedigrees from Jesus College MS. 20", Y Cymmrodor, vol. VIII, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 77–92
- Phillimore, Egerton (1888), "The Annales Cambriae and Old Welsh Genealogies, from Harleian MS. 3859", in Phillimore, Egerton (ed.), Y Cymmrodor, vol. IX, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 141–183
- Rees, Rice (1836), An Essay on the Welsh Saints, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, Rees
- Rees, William Jenkins (1853), Lives of the Cambro-British Saints, Llandovery: William Rees
- Rhys, John (1904), Celtic Britain(3rd ed.), London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
- Williams, P. B. (1828), "Historical Account of the Monasteries and Abbeys in Wales", in Rees, William Jenkins (ed.), Transactions of the Cymmrodorion, vol. II, London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 203–262, Part 4
- Williams, John (1844), The Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cymry, London: W. J. Cleaver