Kingdom of Gwent

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Kingdom of Gwent
Teyrnas Gwent (
Old Welsh
)
5th century–c. 1075
(intermittently in union with Glywysing/in Morgannwg)
of Gwent
Coat of arms
Porth-is-Coed
Common languagesOld Welsh
Religion
Celtic Christianity
GovernmentMonarchy
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Formed after Roman withdrawal from Britain
5th century
• Various unions with Glywysing
6th century-c. 745
• Union in Morgannwg
(under Morgan Hen ab Owain)
942–974
• Union as part of Wales
(under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Wales
) 		c. 1055-1063
• Union in Morgannwg
1063-1074
• Norman conquest
1070-1090
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Roman Britain
Kingdom of Morgannwg
Kingdom of Morgannwg
Welsh Marches
Today part of

Gwent (

Glywyssing, it seems to have had a great deal of cultural continuity with the earlier Silures,[1] keeping their own courts and diocese separate from the rest of Wales until their conquest by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
. Although it recovered its independence after his death in 1063, Gwent was the first of the Welsh kingdoms to be overrun following the Norman conquest.

History

Establishment

The area has been occupied since the Paleolithic, with Mesolithic finds at Goldcliff and evidence of growing activity throughout the Bronze and Iron Age.

Gwent came into being after the

Brythonic languages from v to gu. The town itself became Caerwent, "Fort Venta".[2]

Early Gwent

See also:
Kings of Gwent

According to one

Black Mountains who won control of a wider area to the south.[3]

A later monarch was the Christian King

pagan Saxon invasion. From the 6th century, various kings would unite the kingdom of Gwent with Glywysing to the west, with Tewdrig's son Meurig doing so through marriage.[3] It has been suggested that Meurig's son, Athrwys, may be the origin for King Arthur
, although others consider this unlikely.

Morgannwg

In 931,

Canute.[4]

Destruction

Gwent's existence as a separate kingdom again temporarily ended when

Caradog ap Gruffudd re-established an independent kingdom in Gwent under his father's 2nd cousin Cadwgan ap Meurig.[3] In 1065 the area was invaded by Earl Harold of Hereford, who attempted to establish a base at Portskewett, but it was razed to the ground by Caradog, and Harold - having by then been crowned King of England - was killed at the Battle of Hastings the following year.[2]

With the Norman invasion of Britain, the Normans sacked south-east Wales and parts of Gwent in response to Eadric's Herefordshire rebellion in alliance with the Welsh prince of Gwynedd (and Powys), Bleddyn ap Cynfyn.[6] King Maredudd of Deheubarth decided not to resist the Norman encroachment on Gwent and was rewarded with lands in England in 1070,[7] at the same time as the chronicler Orderic Vitalis noted in his Historia Ecclesiastica that a Welsh king named "Caducan" (Cadwgan ap Meurig) suffered defeat in battle at the hands of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford.[8] With the Norman invasion of Wales extending westwards, Caradog's area of control moved into Deheubarth to the west, and in 1074 Caradog took over control over what was left of the war-ravaged Kingdom from Cadwgan ap Meurig.[8]

Norman Lordships

By Caradog's death in 1081 most of Gwent had become firmly under Norman control.

Marcher Lordships of Abergavenny, Caerleon, Monmouth, Striguil (Chepstow) and Usk. Welsh law as seen through Norman eyes continued, with Marcher lords ruling sicut regale ("like a king") as stated by Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester.[9]

The Normans lords freely built permanent stone

motte and bailey castles. The density of castles of this type and age is amongst the highest in Britain and certainly the rest of the Welsh Marches, with at least 25 castle sites remaining in Monmouthshire alone today.[10]

Conflict with the Welsh continued intermittently, although the Welsh Lord of Caerleon, Morgan ab Owain, grandson of King Caradog ap Gruffudd, was recognized by Henry II c. 1155,[11] with Caerleon remaining, in Welsh hands, subject to occasional struggles,[12] until William Marshal retook the castle in 1217 from Morgan ap Hywel.[11]

Extent

While the kingdom's northern and southern borders were unchanging (confirmed by the

cantrefi defined in medieval Welsh law. At its greatest extent, the kingdom of Gwent is said to have consistent of four Cantrefi:[13]

In the early post-Roman period, the later commotes of Ergyng and Ewyas were both kingdoms in their own right. However both kingdoms would lose power, eventually falling entirely under the control of the Kingdom of Gwent.

According to

Æthelstan met with the Welsh kings to Hereford in 926 where the border between the Kingdom of Gwent and the Kingdom of England was agreed at the Wye, removing Cantref Coch from Gwent's historic boundaries.[16][a]
The later county of
Wentloog.[18]

Legacy

Main articles: Monmouthshire (historic) and Gwent (county)

Despite the extinction of the kingdom by 1091, the name Gwent remained in use for the area by the Welsh throughout this period and later centuries. It was traditionally divided by the forested hills of Wentwood (Welsh: Coed Gwent) into Gwent Uwch-coed ("beyond the wood") and Gwent Is-coed ("below the wood"). These terms were translated into English as Overwent and Netherwent, the entire area sometimes being known as "Wentland" or "Gwentland".[10][19]

The Marcher Lordships were the basic units of administration for the next 450 or so years, until

Gwynllŵg or Wentloog) and Caerleon
to the west of it.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, writers again began using the name 'Gwent' in a romantic literary way to describe Monmouthshire. In the local government re-organisations of 1974/5, several new administrative areas within Wales were named after

Caerphilly (which included parts of Mid Glamorgan), and Monmouthshire. The name remains as one of the preserved counties of Wales used for certain ceremonial purposes, and also survives in various titles, e.g. Gwent Police, Royal Gwent Hospital and Coleg Gwent
.

Notes

  1. ^ William of Malmesbury's report of the Hereford meeting is not mentioned in the first volume of the Oxford History of Wales, Wales and the Britons 350–1064 by Thomas Charles-Edwards.[17]

References

  1. ISBN 0-7083-1826-6
    .
  2. ^ a b "South-East Wales in the Early Medieval Period". Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2008.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-86383-338-1
  4. ^ Thomas Nicholas, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales
  5. ^ A Brief History of the Town of Monmouth Archived 5 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 11 January 2012
  6. ^ Douglas, D. C., William the Conqueror, 1964: Eyre Methuen, London
  7. ^ John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.)
  8. ^ a b Orderic Vitalis (12th Century) Historia Ecclesiastica
  9. ^ Nelson, Lynn H. (1966). The Normans in South Wales, 1070–1171. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7083-2072-3
    .
  11. ^ a b Jenkins, Robert Thomas (1959), "MORGAN ap HYWEL", Dictionary of Welsh Biography, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, retrieved 2016-04-12
  12. ^ Jermyn, Anthony. "4: Caerleon Through the Centuries to the Year 2000 Archived 2013-06-20 at the Wayback Machine". 2010 Accessed 13 Feb 2013.
  13. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
  14. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Monmouthshire" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 729.
  15. ^ R. J. Mansfield, Forest Story, 1965
  16. ^ Stenton 1971, pp. 340–41; Foot 2011, p. 163.
  17. ^ Charles-Edwards 2013, pp. 510–19.
  18. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
    .
  19. ^ "Monmouthshire - William Camden's Britannia 1695 by Edmund Gibson translated by Edward Llwyd".

Bibliography

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