Everything about Cadwallon Ap Cadfan totally explained
Cadwallon ap Cadfan (died
634) was the King of
Gwynedd from around
625 until his death in battle. The son and successor of
Cadfan ap Iago, he's best remembered as the
King of the Britons who devastated
Northumbria, defeating and killing its king,
Edwin, prior to his own death in battle against
Oswald of Bernicia.
The historian
Bede, writing about a century after Cadwallon's death, mentions that Edwin, the most powerful king in Britain, extended his rule to the
Isle of Man and
Anglesey. The
Annales Cambriae says that Cadwallon was besieged at Glannauc (Priestholm, or
Puffin Island), a small island off eastern Anglesey, and dates this to
629. Surviving Welsh poetry portrays Cadwallon as a heroic leader against Edwin. It refers to a battle at Digoll (Long Mountain) and mentions that Cadwallon spent time in
Ireland before returning to Britain to defeat Edwin.
According to
Geoffrey of Monmouth's
History of the Kings of Britain (which includes a fairly extensive account of Cadwallon's life but is largely legendary—for example, Geoffrey has Cadwallon surviving until after the
Battle of the Winwaed in
654 or
655), Cadwallon went to Ireland and then to the island of
Guernsey. From there, according to Geoffrey, Cadwallon led an army into
Dumnonia, where he encountered and defeated the
Mercians besieging
Exeter, and forced their king,
Penda, into an alliance. Geoffrey also reports that Cadwallon married a half-sister of Penda. However, his history is, on this as well as all matters, suspect, and it should be treated with caution.
In any case, Penda and Cadwallon together made war against the Northumbrians. A battle was fought at
Hatfield Chase on
October 12,
633 After this, the Kingdom of Northumbria fell into disarray, divided between its sub-kingdoms of
Deira and
Bernicia, but the war continued: according to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "Cadwallon and Penda went and did for the whole land of Northumbria". Bede says that Cadwallon was besieged by the new king of Deira,
Osric, "in a strong town"; Cadwallon, however, "sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, by surprise, and destroyed him [Osric] and all his army." After this, according to Bede, Cadwallon ruled over the "provinces of the Northumbrians" for a year, "not like a victorious king, but like a rapacious and bloody tyrant."
Furthermore, Bede tells us that Cadwallon, "though he bore the name and professed himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and behaviour, that he neither spared the female sex, nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them to tormenting deaths, ravaging all their country for a long time, and resolving to cut off all the race of the English within the borders of Britain."
The new king of Bernicia,
Eanfrith, was also killed by Cadwallon when the former went to him in an attempt to negotiate peace. However, Cadwallon was defeated by an army under Eanfrith's brother,
Oswald, at the
Battle of Heavenfield, "though he'd most numerous forces, which he boasted nothing could withstand". Cadwallon was killed at a place called "Denis's-brook".
Notes and references
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