Wales in the Early Middle Ages
There was no sense of a coherent tribe of people and everyone, from ruler down to slave, was defined in terms of his or her kindred family (the tud) and individual status (braint).That era of struggle saw the Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, Cymry, meaning "fellow countrymen", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria.There was no sense of a coherent tribe of people and everyone, from ruler down to slave, was defined in terms of his or her kindred family (the tud) and individual status (braint).That era of struggle saw the Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, Cymry, meaning "fellow countrymen", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria.[citation needed] One king, Hywel Dda,(translating to 'Howel The Good' in English) came close to uniting Wales as a single nation.[2] In the late fourth century there was an influx of settlers from southern Ireland, the Uí Liatháin and Laigin (with Déisi participation uncertain),[3][4][5][6] arriving under unknown circumstances but leaving a lasting legacy especially in Dyfed.There is no evidence of warfare, a bilingual regional heritage suggests peaceful coexistence and intermingling, and the Historia Brittonum written c. 828 notes that a Welsh king had the power to settle foreigners and transfer tracts of land to them.[12] There is ongoing debate as to the extent of a lasting Roman influence being applicable to the early Middle Ages in Wales, and while the conclusions about Welsh history are important, Wendy Davies has questioned the relevance of the debates themselves by noting that whatever Roman provincial administration might have survived in places, it eventually became a new system appropriate to the time and place, and not a "hangover of archaic practices".The fourth century arrival of Irish settlers intertwined the royal genealogies of Wales and Ireland, with Dyfed's rulers appearing in The Expulsion of the Déisi,[16] Harleian MS. 5389[17] and Jesus College MS.[19] [20] While the better documented southeast shows a long and slow acquisition of property and power by the dynasty of Meurig ap Tewdrig in connection with the kingdoms of Glywysing, Gwent and Ergyng, there is a near-complete absence of information about many other areas.[23] The name of Powys is not certainly used before the ninth century, but its earlier existence (perhaps under a different name) is reasonably inferred by the fact that Selyf ap Cynan (d. 616) and his grandfather are in the Harleian genealogies as the family of the known later kings of Powys, and Selyf's father Cynan ap Brochwel appears in poems attributed to Taliesen, where he is described as leading successful raids throughout Wales.The early medieval human population has always been considered relatively low in comparison to England, but efforts to reliably quantify it have yet to provide widely acceptable results.Under extraordinary circumstances the genealogical interest could be stretched quite far: for the serious matter of homicide, all of the fifth cousins of a kindred (the seventh generation: the patrilinear descendants of a common great-great-great-great-grandfather) were ultimately liable for satisfying any penalty.Welsh custom contrasted with many Irish and Anglo-Saxon contexts, where the territory was named for the people living there (Connaught for the Connachta, Essex for the East Saxons).[44] Wales in the early Middle Ages was a society with a landed warrior aristocracy,[45] and after c. 500 Welsh politics were dominated by kings with territorial kingdoms.[50] Literary sources stressed martial qualities such as military capability, bold horsemanship, leadership, the ability to extend boundaries and to make conquests, along with an association with wealth and generosity.Clerical sources stressed obligations such as respect for Christian principles, providing defence and protection, pursuing thieves and imprisoning offenders, persecuting evildoers, and making judgements.[57] From the sixth to the eleventh centuries the king moved about with an armed, mounted warband,[58] a personal military retinue called a teulu that is described as a "small, swift-moving, and close-knit group".[76] Archaeological evidence consists partly of the ruined remains of institutions, and in finds of inscriptions and the long cyst burials that are characteristic of post-Roman Christian Britons.Landed proprietorship was the basis of support and income for all clerical communities, exploiting agriculture (crops), herding (sheep, pigs, goats), infrastructure (barns, threshing floors), and employing stewards to supervise the labour.[79] Clerical power was moral and spiritual, and this was sufficient to enforce recognition of their status and to demand compensation for any infringement on their rights and privileges.[81] While the synod was an important event in the history of England and brought finality to several issues in Anglo-Saxon Britain, Bede probably overemphasised its significance so as to stress the unity of the English Church.[83] His apocryphal prophecy of destruction is quickly fulfilled by the massacre of the Christian monks at Bangor Is Coed by the Northumbrians (c. 615), shortly after the meeting with Saint Augustine.Scholars have noted the partisan motives and inaccuracy of the characterisation,[85][86][87] as has The Catholic Encyclopedia, which also explains that the Britons using the 'Celtic Rite' in the early Middle Ages were in communion with Rome.[88][89] The early Middle Ages saw the creation and adoption of the modern Welsh name for themselves, Cymry, a word descended from Common Brittonic combrogi, meaning "fellow-countrymen".[94] The term was not applied to the Cornish people or the Bretons, who share a similar heritage, culture and language with the Welsh and the Men of the North.
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