country 'between the Severn Sea and Poole Harbour',[1] which was the part of Britannia where, with the south-east of Wales, the Roman interest was strongest. As late as the close of the seventh century it is still possible for a writer in that neighbourhood to be conscious of Roman imperial sentiment and to speak of Latin as nostra lingua. In view of the general decay of things Roman his life is embittered. The descendants of Ambrosius are still there but how ' greatly degenerated from their ancestral nobleness ' ![2] In this neighbourhood therefore we should perhaps expect the office of gwledig to linger on until the catastrophe of the year 577. But already, with the death of Arthur, the centre of political interest in Wales has passed permanently in the person of Maelgwn Gwynedd to the House of Cunedda. Henceforth the political history of Wales may be treated quite apart from that of the Devonian peninsula, although the actual cleavage did not take place till the Battle of Deorham.
At the time when Gildas writes his Epistola, Maelgwn Gwynedd is certainly the leading king in Wales as was afterwards his son Rhun.[3] In the seventh century also we find the House of Cunedda holding the same com- manding position in the person of Cadwallon[4] (the fifth in
- ↑ Rhys's Celtic Britain, 3rd ed. 107.
- ↑ Excid. Brit. c. 25 (Chr. Min. III. 38, 40).
- ↑ In addition to the remarks of Gildas in the Epistola, chs. 33-6 (Chr. Min. III. 44-8) and of the author of the Historia Brittonum, ch. 62 (ibid. III. 205), see the traditions of Maelgwn as supreme king (Anc. Laws II. 48-50, 584) and his exploits in different parts of Wales as recorded in the Vitae Sanctorum (Rees's Cambro-British SS.). As to Rhun, see Anc. Laws I. 104-5 and the Vita S. Cadoci (Cambro-Brit. SS. 52-5).
- ↑ Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales II. 431-5, where the exploits of Cadwallon in different parts of Wales are referred to.
