Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The Book of Llandaf and the Early Welsh Charter
- 2 The Origin of the Llandaf Claims
- 3 The Charters in the Book of Llandaf: Forgeries or Recensions?
- 4 The Authenticity of the Witness Lists
- 5 The Integrity of the Charters
- 6 The Chronology of the Charters
- 7 The Status of the donors and Recipients of the Charters
- 8 The Fake Diplomatic of the Book of Llandaf
- 9 The Book of Llandaf: First Edition or Seventh Enlarged Revision?
- 10 A new Approach to the Compilation of the Book of Llandaf
- 11 The Evidence of the Doublets
- 12 The Book of Llandaf as an Indicator of Social and Economic Change
- 13 The Royal Genealogical Framework
- 14 The Episcopal Framework
- Appendix I Concordance and Chart Showing the Paginal and Chronological Order of the Charters
- Appendix II Maps of Grants to Bishops
- Bibliography
- Index
- Studies in Celtic History
13 - The Royal Genealogical Framework
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The Book of Llandaf and the Early Welsh Charter
- 2 The Origin of the Llandaf Claims
- 3 The Charters in the Book of Llandaf: Forgeries or Recensions?
- 4 The Authenticity of the Witness Lists
- 5 The Integrity of the Charters
- 6 The Chronology of the Charters
- 7 The Status of the donors and Recipients of the Charters
- 8 The Fake Diplomatic of the Book of Llandaf
- 9 The Book of Llandaf: First Edition or Seventh Enlarged Revision?
- 10 A new Approach to the Compilation of the Book of Llandaf
- 11 The Evidence of the Doublets
- 12 The Book of Llandaf as an Indicator of Social and Economic Change
- 13 The Royal Genealogical Framework
- 14 The Episcopal Framework
- Appendix I Concordance and Chart Showing the Paginal and Chronological Order of the Charters
- Appendix II Maps of Grants to Bishops
- Bibliography
- Index
- Studies in Celtic History
Summary
In the seventh century the main division in southern Wales was between Dyfed (derived from the tribal name Demetai, recorded by Ptolemy) in the south-west and Gwent (from Venta Silurum, Caer-went) in the south-east, while Ergyng (from Ariconium), to the north of Gwent, had its own kings. By the ninth century, however, Ergyng was dependent on Gwent, and Dyfed and Gwent were no longer adjacent: the old western part of Gwent (Glamorgan), now known as Glywysing from the legendary ancestor Glywys, and the eastern parts of Dyfed – Ystrad Tywi, Gŵyr (Gower), and Cydweli (Kidwelly) – were sometimes named as separate regions. In the 880s, as we know from Asser, Glywysing and Gwent were independent kingdoms, ruled respectively by Hywel ap Rhys and by Brochfael and Ffernfael, sons of Meurig, but from ca 893 Hywel's son Owain may have ruled both kingdoms, being described as ‘king of the people of Gwent’ in the D-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 927. Owain's son, Morgan ab Owain (ob. 974), later remembered as Morgan Hen or Morgan Mawr, seems to have inherited this role, while allowing his brothers to be sub-kings in Gower and western Glywysing, areas disputed with Dyfed in the second half of the tenth century. His name probably survived in the name of the more restricted kingdom of Morgannwg (Glamorgan), the name which had superseded Glywysing by ca 1000. Gwent, by contrast, fell into the hands of a new dynasty, that of Rhydderch ab Iestyn (ob. 1033), and his sons and grandsons are prominent in the south-east in the latest charters in the Book of Llandaf.
While the identity and relationships of the kings mentioned in the later parts of LL are mostly straightforward, the earlier kings present many problems, not least because of ambiguities and disagreements in the extant south-eastern genealogies. These genealogies will be discussed in chronological order of attestation, starting with the Harley genealogies, before turning to LL itself in order to see how far the genealogies agree with the charters of Sequences i and ii, and the earlier part of Sequence iii.
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- Information
- The Book of Llandaf as a Historical Source , pp. 117 - 156Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019