of Italian and German unity. In the Dark Age the difficulty was accentuated by the fact that, even given a unity achieved by a capable ruler, the mind of the age as reflected in the Leges Barbarorum, of which the Laws of Howel are the Welsh exemplar, compelled that unity to be divided after his death among his sons. Charlemagne himself had so to divide his empire ; the same necessity rested on Rhodri the Great. The policy therefore inaugurated by Mervyn Vrych, and continued by Rhodri and his successors, marks the beginning of a fresh epoch in our travail as a people to the full consciousness of our national entity.
The possessions of Rhodri then after his death in 877 were divided among his sons, of whom the best known, and those whose posterity played the largest part in later Wales, were Anarawd and Cadell. From Anarawd (died 915) the later kings of Gwynedd traced their descent, and from Cadell (died 909) both those of Powys and those of Deheubarth. It appears therefore that in the division of territories after Rhodri's death, the kingdom of Powys sooner or later fell into the hands of Cadell, together with Seisyllwg. The policy of bringing all Wales by politic marriages under the direct control of the family of Rhodri was now continued by one of the greatest princes whom the House of Cunedda had hitherto produced, namely, Howel the Good, the son of Cadell. Howel by his marriage with Elen, daughter of Llywarch, the last king of Dyved, who died in 903, became the immediate ruler of that kingdom ; and as the line of Dyved had claims on Brycheiniog through Cathen, son of Ceindrech, a lady who in her day appears to have
