Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/196

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Cadwallador
192
Cadwgan

warned by an angel in a dream, retired to Rome, where five years afterwards he died (12 May or 12 Kal. May 687–9). Thus was the prophecy of Merlin fulfilled. ‘Thenceforth the Britons lost the crown of the kingdom and the Saxons gained it.’ Ivor reigned only as a prince, and the death of Cadwaladr marks the end of the ‘Chronicle of the Kings’ and the beginning of the ‘Chronicle of the Princes’ (Geof. of Mon., Hist. Brit., bk. xii. ch. xiv–xix., or the Welsh Brut y Brenhinoedd in Myvyrian Archaiology, vol. ii., there called the Brut G. ap Arthur; shorter versions are in the Brut y Tywysogion (Rolls Ser.), p. 2, and Gwentian Brut (Cambrian Archaeol. Soc.), p. 2).

This story is plainly unhistorical, and the account of the voyage to Rome is obviously taken from the true history of Cædwalla of Wessex, who really died in Rome in 688. This accounts for the date being pushed forward from that given by Nennius or by the MS. A of the ‘Annales Cambriæ’ (682). There is, however, no reason for not accepting the earlier and simpler accounts of Cadwaladr. Even the fabled transference of the kingdom to the Saxons may express in a mythical form the plain historical fact that under Cadwaladr the struggle of the Britons against the Northumbrians came to its disastrous end by their subjection to the alien power. This can be done without admitting into history the ingenious conjectures which connect with the fall of the last British kings who played a foremost part in the general history of the island the attribution of the title of Bretwalda to the Northumbrian conquerors. Cadwaladr, as is shown by his name of the Blessed, was early reputed a saint. Churches were dedicated to him in various parts of Wales. Of these most historical interest belongs to Llangadwaladr, near Aberffraw, in Anglesea, where his grandfather, Cadvan, king of North Wales [q. v.], was buried, and of which he was reputed the founder.

[Besides original authorities mentioned above, see modern accounts in Skene's Introduction to the Four Ancient Books of Wales, i. 68–75; Prof. Rhys's Celtic Britain, especially pp. 130–136; and for his religious position, Prof. Rice Rees's Welsh Saints, pp. 299–301.]

CADWALLADOR, ROGER (1568–1610), divine, was a native of Stretton Sugwas, Herefordshire, and studied in the English colleges at Rheims and Valladolid. After being ordained he returned to England in 1594, and laboured on the mission, chiefly in his native county, for sixteen years. At length, on Easter day, 1610, he was apprehended and taken before Dr. Robert Bennet, bishop of the diocese, who committed him to prison, where he was very cruelly treated. He was condemned to death on account of his priestly character, and suffered at Leominster, on 27 Aug. 1610. He translated from the Greek Theodoret's ‘Philotheus; or, the Lives of the Fathers of the Syrian Deserts.’

[Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, 806; Challoner's Missionary Priests (1742), ii. 27; Panzani's Memoirs, 83; Foley's Records, vi. 207; Diaries of the English College, Douay, 241, 243, 247.]

CADWALLON. [See Cædwalla.]

CADWGAN (d. 1112), a Welsh prince, was a son of Bleddyn, who was the son of Cynvyn, and the near kinsman of the famous Gruffudd, son of Llewelyn, on whose death Harold appointed Bleddyn and his brother Rhiwallon kings of the Welsh. This settlement did not last very long, but Bleddyn retained to his death possession of a great part of Gwynedd, and handed his territories down to his sons, of whom, besides Cadwgan, four others, Madog, Rhirid, Maredudd, and Iorwerth, are mentioned in the chronicles. Cadwgan's name first appears in history in 1087, when, in conjunction with Madog and Rhirid, he led a North Welsh army against Rhys, son of Tewdwr, king of South Wales. The victory fell to the brothers, and Rhys retreated to Ireland, whence he soon returned with a Danish fleet, and turned the tables on his foes in the battle of Llechryd. Cadwgan escaped with his life, but his two brothers were slain. Six years later Rhys was slain by the Norman conquerors of Brecheiniog (1093), and Cadwgan availed himself of the confusion caused by the catastrophe of the only strong Welsh state in South Wales to renew his attacks on Deheubarth. His inroad on Dyved in May prepared the way for the French conquest of that region, which took place within two months, despite the unavailing struggles of Cadwgan and his family. But the Norman conquest of Ceredigion and Dyved excited the bitterest resistance of the Welsh, who profited by William Rufus's absence in Normandy in 1094 to make a great attack on their newly built castles. Cadwgan, now in close league with Gruffudd, son of Cynan, the chief king of Gwynedd, was foremost among the revolters. Besides demolishing their castles in Gwynedd, the allied princes penetrated into Ceredigion and Dyved, and won a great victory in the wood of Yspwys, which was followed by a devastating foray which overran the shires of Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester (Gwentian