Caradog ap Meirion

Caradog ap Meirion (730? - 798) (in Latin: Caratacus , in English: Caractacus ) was a king of Gwynedd.

It probably succeeded his cousin Rhodri the Bald person, the neighborhoods of 754, and declared being, like this last, a descendant of legendary the Cunedda (first king of Gwynedd).

Caradog went down from Owain Danwyn, one of wire of Einion the Top and grandson of Cunedda. Owain was lord of Rhos, a small county which belonged to Gwynedd. The title of lord of Rhos being itself tranmis until him, Caradog could make use of it to assert the throne of all the kingdom with died of Rhodri.

The date on which Caradog usurped the throne of Gwynedd remains still dubious, but the most probable period was that which followed the death of Rhodri between 754 and 768. In the same way one is unaware of if it actually succeeded Rhodri or if someone else would have had a front transitory reign right.

It was into 754 that the bishop of Gwynedd, Elfoddw, managed to convince the Welsh church to adopt the catholic system to calculate the date of the Easter. This point had remained outstanding between the Roman church and the Celtic church in spite of the Synode of Whitby which took place before one century. Although the name of Caradog is not officially associated there, one can suppose that such a decision making would not have taken place without the support a powerful and secular Welsh king. However only Caradog seems to meet these conditions, which thus seems to indicate that in 754 it was to be already gone up on the throne. If this assumption is admitted, it should then be supposed that Caradog was to have made safe its position already well, and had thus perhaps succeeded Rhodri before the death of this last.

As for the majority of the Welsh leaders of the time, the reign of Caradog was marked by the constant threats of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms close to England. It is told that Caradog died at the time of a battle against Coenwulf, the king of Mercie at the time of a battle in Snowdonie (English name of most of Gwynedd). But of other accounts report that he would have been strangled at the time of the instigation of Cynan, the son of Rhodri.

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