Cunedda

Cunedda ap Edern (in Latin: Cunetacius , in English: Kenneth ) (386 - 460), also known under the name of Cunedda Wledig ( the chief in Welsh) was a Breton king warlike country of the Gododdin, which founded the royal dynasty of Gwynedd in the north of the Wales

Genealogy

The word Cunedda britonnic drift of the word (Breton old) counodagos , which means “good lord”. Its genealogy is recalled until Padarn Beisrudd, which can literally result in Paternus with the Scarlet Dress . Traditionally, one imagines Padarn like a Roman officer (or britto-Roman) of relatively high row to which it Emperor Magnus Maximus had entrusted the troops of the Votadini (Scottish tribe) stationed in the area of Scotland of Clackmannanshire, towards 380, or a little earlier. But it could also have been a frontier chief to whom one had granted a Roman military station, practices already attested at the time along the border of the Empire. One supposes that the station of Padarn in Scotland was dealt with by his/her son, Edern (in Latin Aeturnus ), which fell finally to the son of this last: Cunedda.

Polemics

Cunedda and its ancestors led Votadini against the incursions Pictes and Irish to the south of the Hadrian's Wall. Then Votadini were established in the north of the Wales to defend the area against an Irish invasion. Cunedda was installed in person on the territory of the venedotians, which was to become the center of the kingdom of Gwynedd. Two assumptions were suggested to try to explain this action:

Either Cunedda acted under the orders of Maximus (or its successors)
Or it acted under the orders of Vortigern, the high king of the British of the beginning of the period following the era postromaine.

PC Bartrum locates the event between the end of the decade 370 (in favor of Maximus) and that of 440 (in favor of Vortigern).

Several historians questioned the assumption according to which Cunedda acted under the orders of Rome. David Dumville rejects in block the concept even of delocalization of féodés between Scotland and Wales, especially if one considers the political state of Roman Great Britain which would have had evil to exert a power centralized in V^ème century. Moreover, Maximus died in 388 and Constantin III left Great Britain with the last Roman military forces in 407, less than one generation later. It appears then doubtful that Rome could exert a direct influence on the military actions of Votdini, whether it is via Maximus or any other emissary.

Maximus (or its successors) could possibly have left the control of the borders to the local war leaders on more moved back date, but probably not in the years 370. The archaeological excavations show however that the Irishmen actually settled in the peninsula of Lleyn and could actually have also carried out incursions far Wroxeter in the neighborhoods from IV^ème century, but it is difficult to conceive that the Romans or the British could organize a sufficient defense.

Certain theorists, like Sheppard Brother, supposed that it was undoubtedly Vortigern which, by adopting elements of Roman diplomacy, made delocalize Votadini in the south in the same way that it invited the colonizers Saxons to protect from other areas of the island. If this version of the events is followed, Vortigern would have ordered in Cunedda and its subjects to be established in Wales to react vis-a-vis the Irish incursions. This would then have taken place before the year 442, date on which the old Saxon allies rebelled against Vortigern.

The supposed grandson of Cunedda, Maelgwn Hir ap Cadwallon, was a contemporary of Saint Gildas and the Annales Cambriae (yearly of Wales) fix its death in 547. But it is necessary to take into account the fact that the genealogies of the first Welsh is questioned and the majority of the texts mentioning the number and the identity of the heirs to Cunedda date only from X^ème century. But by holding them for asset and by going up the chronology, the assumption of Sheppard Frere is held.

Unfortunately, one knows almost nothing Cunedda itself. Probably celebrated for its force, its courage and its aptitude to rejoin the forces romano British in difficulty of the area, he managed to establish an advantageous political marriage with Gwawl, girl of Coel Hen (the chief of Eboracum, which would correspond today to York) and would have had nine wire. It is thought that Cardigan (Ceredigion in Welsh) and Merioneth (Meirionydd in Welsh) would have received their name of two of these wire: Ceredig and Meirion.

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