|
 Pengwern
(Eastern Powys)
Located on the eastern border of
Powys, Pengwern stretched
deep into the Midlands. For much of its existence it was part of Powys
being indivisible from it and bearing the same name as it. It
apparently remained so until the last quarter of the sixth century
(although some opinion maintains that it was always a constituent
territory of Powys). During at least some of that time one of its chief
cities (and possible capital) was probably Caer Guricon (the former tribal
capital of the Cornovii
tribe,
Roman
Viroconium, modern Wroxeter). There is evidence to suggest the abandonment
of Viroconium around 520, perhaps in exchange for a more defendable
location.
 Although
its exact origins cannot be proven, Pengwern as an independent kingdom,
or at least semi-autonomous subdivision of Powys, does appear to have
been formed only in the sixth century, well after the collapse of the
Post-Roman
central administration. It contained all of Powys' eastern territories.
By AD 600 it seems to have been made up of three sub-kingdoms based on
the cities of Caer Luit Coyt (now known as Wall, in southern
Staffordshire), Caer Magnis, and Caer Guricon, and the first two had
their own sub-kings. Originally, these would have been tributary
to Powys, and then subsequently to the ruler of Pengwern itself.
The first ruler was a son of Brochfael Ysgythrog of Powys, the probable
defender of Caer Legion (Chester) around 613, so it seems the division
was based upon the traditional
Celtic
practice of providing an inheritance for all sons, not just the eldest.
Then, according to what little source material remains, in the early
seventh century Morfael ap Glast, king of
Glastenning, secured
the eastern capital of Caer Luit Coyt during his lifetime. His younger
brother secured the remainder of the territory upon the death of their
father. The capital was moved to Llys Pengwern (the 'court of Pengwern'),
perhaps for security reasons - giving the territory its name and perhaps
defining any independent existence it may have had. The territory
survived as a bulwark against Anglian expansion in the Midlands until
the mid-seventh century.
While the territory is usually known as Pengwern, it is uncertain
whether this name was applied to all of it, being as it was the name
of just one fort. The kingdom might just as well have been named after
its last ruling dynasty, the
Dogfeilion kings.
However, Pengwern would have been a powerful name: 'gwern' would have
been pronounced 'wern' by the Romans, and would have been spelled 'vern'
by them if it had been written down (unlikely, as it was local slang
usage). The river that runs through the area, the Sabrina (modern Severn),
probably had the letter 'b' mangled into a 'v' and then a 'w' by the
local Cornovii/Gwynedd Britons.
Then they dropped the 'Se' from the front of Severn, turning Severn into
'Vern', which they pronounced 'Wern', and then altered later into 'Gwern'
as they came to do with any word beginning in 'w'. Also note that the
original British name for the Severn was Habren - the 's' at the start
was a Roman addition - so this would explain how the 's' was removed
from the name - to the Britons it had not been there in the first place.
That sort of mixed progression would occur only at places inhabited by
Romans in numbers that were sufficient enough to influence the name.
Such a concentration of Romans would have to be at the town of Viroconium.
Then when the locals in that town fled up the river to Pengwern, they
took their odd pronunciation with them (not even knowing that wern/gwern
was the same word as Hefren). Pen means 'head' or 'source', so the local
name became Pengwern, headwaters of the Severn, a strong and commanding
name.
Another possible explanation for the name from Mak Wilson still gives 'pen'
as 'head', but provides 'gwern' as the meaning of 'alder swamp'. This does
seem to rob the kingdom of some of the power and glory surrounding its name,
though. As for other names within Pengwern, Caer Luit Coyt (probably a later
misspelling of the more valid Caer Luit Coit or Luitcoit) came from the
Latin Lutocetum. It means 'half-wooded'. In the proto-Celtic word lists,
'letos' is a combining form and means 'half-', while 'coit' means 'wood'
or 'forest'. The modern name of this location, Wall, is either a descendant
of the Old English 'weald', meaning a wood or forest, or 'wealas', meaning
'Welsh'. It could be both, with the locals making a pun of it at the expense
of any native Britons living there.
(Information by Peter Kessler and Edward Dawson, with additional information
by Mak Wilson, from The Landscape of King Arthur, Geoffrey Ashe, from
Roman Britain: A New History, Guy de la Bédoyère, from History of
the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey of Monmouth, from the Historia
Brittonum (The History of the Britons), Nennius, from De Excidio
Brittaniae et Conquestu (On the Ruin of Britain), Gildas (both J A Giles,
Ed & Trans, 1841, published as part of Six Old English Chronicles
(Henry G Bohn, London, 1848)), from Marwnad Cynddylan (The Lament
for Cynddylan), from the Annales Cambriae, James Ingram (taken
from the Harleian manuscript, the earliest surviving version, London,
Everyman Press, 1912), and from External Link:
English Heritage.) |
613? |
In
one of the bloodiest and hardest fought battles of its time, several
British kings
form a coalition to halt Æthelfrith of
Bernicia at the Battle of
Caer Legion (Chester). Cearl of the
Mercians could also
be involved on the British side (according to scholarly theory). Iago of
Gwynedd and Selyf of
Powys are both killed, and
the battle is a disastrous British defeat. However, Æthelfrith does not
occupy the territory around Chester. Just who does is unknown, and the
entire history of this region from the post-Roman period to the tenth
century is extremely sketchy. One possibility is that the line of the
River Dee is successfully defended by the people living just to the west
of it - the Dogfeilion
- who are able to claim great prestige from being the victorious defenders
of the western Britons. Another possibility is that groups of Angles not
under Bernicia's control settle the region to the east of the Dee, and
are later subsumed within
Mercia.
Bledric
ap Custennin, king of
Dumnonia, dies
at the Battle of Bangor-is-Coed, which follows very soon afterwards. A
certain Brochfael is named as the commander of Caer Legion at this time,
and may be one of the sons of Powys' Brochfael, also the theoretical first
king of Pengwern named above. After this, the Dogfeilion kings appear to
move in on Pengwern (perhaps due to their theoretical defence of the Dee).
The monks of Bangor-is-Coed are present at the battle to pray for divine
support, but they too are slaughtered (the act is seen as divine retribution
for their refusal to help evangelise the
English in 603 - and see
one of Geoffrey of Monmouth's more accurate entries about this campaign via
the feature link). |
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