that it was on this account he became recognized as gwledig. The occupation of so much land, however, by his followers could hardly have been acceptable to the older inhabitants, especially to the Romani about the estuary of the Severn, whose supremacy would now be constantly challenged by these new comers. From this time also dates a close connexion between North Wales and that further and transmarine North whence Cunedda and his Sons had come, a connexion which can be traced for centuries afterwards.[1] It is possible that Cunedda may have been a gwledig before he entered Wales, and that he might even have held the post of Dux Britanniae[2] which implied the military leadership of the northern province, but the place and time in which he lived, his ' uncouth ' name, and the so-called ' tribal ' character of his settlement in Wales, all mark him as a 'barbarian' who may indeed have received honours from the imperial government, but only as the usual last and desperate remedy in the face of a ruin which was inevitable. The fact, however, remains that the House of Cunedda henceforth continued supreme in Wales for nine centuries, providing the Welsh with the
- ↑ See, for instance, the remarkable passage in the Book of Gwynedd, where Rhun, son of Maelgwn Gwynedd, is described as fighting in the North, apparently on the banks of the river Forth (Anc. Laws I. 104 ; Celtic Britain, 3rd ed. 126). Add to this the exploits of Cadwallon and the North Welsh usurper Cadavael between the Humber and the Forth. Hist. Britt. cc. 61, 64, 65 (Chr. Min. III. 204, 207-8) ; Celtic Britain, 3rd ed. 131-5.
- ↑ Celtic Britain, 3rd ed. 118-20.
