Chapter III: Britain After the Romans (3)

It is usually stated by modern writers that Ida landed in 547 with a
body of Angles, and founded the kingdom of Northumberland, but the
older authorities give no countenance to the idea of a colony under
Ida. Nennius has no hint of his having come into the island from the
Continent. Bede, in the short chronicle annexed to his History, has
‘Anno 547, Ida regnare cœpit, a quo regalis Nordanhymbrorum prosapia
originem tenet et duodecim annis in regno permansit.’ This statement
is repeated by the _Saxon Chronicle_, which adds, ‘And built
Bambrough, which was at first enclosed by a hedge, and afterwards by a
wall,’ and by Florence of Worcester. Simeon of Durham has simply, ‘Ida
rex annis regnavit xi.’ William of Malmesbury, however, connects Ida
very clearly with the earlier settlements; for, after narrating how
Octa and Ebissa seized the northern parts of Britain, he says, ‘Annis
enim uno minus centum, Northanhimbri duces communi habitu contenti,
sub imperio Cantuaritarum privatos agebant: sed non postea stetit hæc
ambitionis continentia, seu quia semper in deteriora decliva est
humanus animus, seu quia gens illa naturaliter inflatiores anhelat
spiritus. Anno itaque Dominicæ incarnationis quingentesimo
quadragesimo septimo, post mortem Hengesti sexagesimo, _ducatus in
regnum mutatus_, regnavitque ibi primus Ida, haud dubie nobilissimus,
ætate et viribus integer; verum utrum ipse per se principatum
invaserit, an aliorum consensu delatum susceperit, parum definio.’ The
first writer who mentions the colony is the anonymous author of the
tract ‘De primo Saxonum Adventu,’ and he is copied by John
Wallingford. After repeating the usual statement, ‘Ida primus rex ex
Anglis cœpit regnare in Northanhymbrorum provincia,’ he adds, ‘Venerat
autem Ida comite patre Eoppa cum lx. navibus ad Flamaburch, indeque
boreales plagas occupans, ibidem regnavit duodecim annis.’ The
statement seems to be adopted from the account of Octa and Ebissa’s
colony.

Footnote 174:

These names, Bernicia and Deira, are taken from the British names of
the same districts, Deifr and Byrneich. Nennius has a curious notice
which shows that these Anglic kingdoms did not first arise from
colonies as late as 547. He says of Soemil, four generations before
Ella, ‘Ipse primus separavit Deur o Berneich.’ The race from which
Ella sprang must have been some generations before in the country.

Footnote 175:

Contra illum quatuor reges Urbgen et Riderchen et Guallauc et Morcant
dimicaverunt.—_Gen. Nennius._ The genealogy of these four kings is
given in the Welsh pedigrees annexed to Nennius.—_Chron. Picts and
Scots_, pp. 15, 16. The reader is referred to the _Four Ancient Books
of Wales_, vol. i. pp. 336-355, for the historical poems relating to
the battles fought in this war.

Footnote 176:

The Chronicle annexed to Nennius has, at 573, ‘Bellum Armterid,’ to
which a later MS. adds—‘Inter filios Elifer et Gwendoleu filium
Keidiau; in quo bello Gwendoleu cecidit: Merlinus insanus effectus
est.’—_An. Camb._ A more detailed account will be found in the
Proceedings of the S. A. Scot. (vol. vi. p. 91), in a notice of the
site of the battle of Ardderyd. The Welsh genealogies annexed to
Nennius, as well as those in the tract on the Gwyr Gogled, or men of
the north (_Four Ancient Books of Wales_, ii. 455), show us very
clearly the native and the Roman party. The former are in both
documents traced to Coil Hen, who is supposed to have given his name
to the district of Kyle in Ayrshire, and to them belonged both Eliffer
and Gwendolew. The latter are brought by both from Dungual Hen, or the
aged, but in this document he is made grandson of Maxim Guletic, or
Maximus the emperor; but in the former and older account he is
grandson of Ceretic Guletic, whose pedigree is traced from Confer or
Cynfor, the reputed father of Constantine, who usurped the empire in
406. This Ceretic, the Guletic or leader of the North Britons, being
four generations earlier than Rhydderch, must have lived in the middle
of the fifth century, and I do not hesitate to identify him with the
Coroticus to whom St. Patrick addressed his letter written between 432
and 493. It is addressed ‘ad Christianos Corotici Tyranni subditos.’
It is to be given to his soldiers, ‘tradenda militibus mittenda
Corotici.’ He will not call them his fellow-citizens (civibus meis),
St. Patrick being a native of Strathclyde—sed civibus dæmoniorum. He
calls them ‘Socii Scotorum atque Pictorum apostatarum’—the Scots and
the apostate Picts of this region. And again he says that his sheep
have been plundered by robbers—‘jubente Corotico ... traditor
Christianorum in manus Scottorum et Pictorum;’ and again that ‘ingenui
homines Christiani in servitute redacti sunt, præsertim
indignissimorum pessimorum apostatarumque Pictorum.’ It shows
Coroticus as the Guletic, or one of the Tyranni who succeeded the
Romans in command of soldiers, and in close contact with apostate
Picts. This falling off of the Britons and Picts will be further
illustrated in another part of this work. For a more detailed account
of the Men of the North, see the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, vol.
i. chap. x., and the genealogical tables there given. Among the
descendants of Dungual Hen will be found another grandson, Nud, also
called Hael or liberal, whose son Dryan fought at Ardderyd; and at
Yarrow, in the centre of the districts more especially connected with
the Roman party, a stone has been found with the following
inscription, part of which only can be read:

HIC MEMOR IACETI
LOIN : : : NI : : : : : :
PRINC
PE : : NVDI (LIBERALI)
dVMNOGENI · HIC IACENT
IN TVMVLO dVO FIlII
LIBERALI

This inscription appears to contain the name of Nud Hael or Liberalis,
and the word Dumnogeni probably connects him with the Damnonii whom
Ptolemy places here.—_Proceed. S. A. Scot._ vol. iv. p. 539.

Footnote 177:

Reeves’s _Adamnan_, ed. 1874, pp. 15, 136. Adamnan was born in
624.—_Ib._ p. 244.

Footnote 178:

Contra illum Urbgen cum filiis dimicabat fortiter. In illo tempore
aliquando hostes, nunc cives, vincebantur.—_Nennius, Gen._ It is
invariably assumed that Flamddwyn was a title borne by Ida, but there
is no authority whatever for it. It is merely asserted by writers on
Welsh history without proof. The epithet is only mentioned by the
Bards in two poems: the Gweith Argoet Llwyfein or Battle of Leven
Wood, and the Marwnat Owein or Death-song of Owen, son of Urien. In
the one Urien and his son Owen are described as fighting against
Flamddwyn, and in the other Owen is slain by Flamddwyn. (See _Four
Ancient Books of Wales_, i. 265, 366; ii. 413, 418.) It is clear,
therefore, that it was Theodoric, against whom Urien with his sons
fought valiantly.

Footnote 179:

His temporibus signo Nordanhymbrorum præfuit rex fortissimus et
gloriae cupidissimus Aedilfrid, qui plus omnibus Anglorum primatibus
gentem vastavit Brittonum.... Nemo enim in tribunis, nemo in regibus
plures eorum terras, exterminatis vel subjugatis indigenis, aut
tributarias genti Anglorum, aut habitabiles fecit.—Bede, _Hist. Ec._
B. i. c. xxxiv.

Footnote 180:

See _Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 127. Tighernac records, at 606, the
death of Aidan, son of Gabran, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign
and seventy-fourth of his age. This places his birth in 533, and the
commencement of his reign in 569. He did not, however, succeed Conall
on the throne of Dalriada till 574. There were, therefore, five years
during which he reigned elsewhere before he became king of Dalriada.
Welsh tradition connects him with the battle of Ardderyd as one of the
contending parties; and in the tract on the Gwyr y Gogled, or Men of
the North, he appears among the Roman party as grandson of Dungual
Hen. His mother was Lleian, daughter of Brachan of Brecheniauc. There
is a tract in the Cotton MSS. (Vesp. A, xiv.), ‘De Brachan Brecheniauc
et cognatione ejus,’ which states that Brecheniauc or Brecknock, in
South Wales, received its name from him, and that he was son of
Aulach, son of Cormac, king of Ireland. It gives him ten sons and
twenty-six daughters, but while some of these sons and daughters are
connected with localities in South Wales, others are stated to have
founded churches or died in the north. Thus Arthur is buried in Manau
or Manann, Rhun Dremrudd was slain with his brother Rhawin or Rhuofan
by the Saxons and Picts, and both founded churches in Manau; Nefydd
was a bishop in y Gogledd, where he was slain by Saxons and Picts. Of
the daughters Beithan died in Manau; Lleian was mother of Aidan; Nevyn
was mother of Urien; Gwawr was mother of Llywarch Hen; Gwrgon Goddeu
was wife of Cadrawd Calchvynydd, and the sepulchre of Brychan is said
to be in an island called Yny Brychan, near Manau. The history of two
different persons of the same name is here obviously combined, and one
of the Brychans, the son of Aulach, is closely connected with Manau,
and brought in contact with the Picts and Saxons. His daughter Lleian
was mother of Aidan, and through her he may have inherited rights
connected with it, and thus appear among the British knights engaged
in the struggle which terminated with the battle of Ardderyd in 573.
The other Brychan was probably Brychan, son of Gwyngon, who appears in
the _Liber Llandavensis_ (p. 456) as a donor of lands to Bishop
Trychan, and among the witnesses are Dingad and Clydawg, two of the
sons who are connected with Wales.

Footnote 181:

582 or 583, Cath Manand in quo victor erat Aidan mac Gabrain.—_Tigh._

590, Cath Leithrig la h-Aidan mac Gabrian.—_Ib._

596, Jugulatio filiorum Aidan i Bran Domangart et Eochad Find et
Artuir i Cath Chirchind in quo victus est Aedan.—_Ib._

Footnote 182:

Reeves’s _Adamnan_, ed. 1874, p. 12. The author cannot identify the
battle of Leithrig, but Adamnan tells us that Artur and Eochoid Find,
two of Aidan’s sons, were killed in the battle of the Miathi, which
identifies it with the battle of Chirchind, fought in 596. This was
the last year of St. Columba’s life. It is difficult to fix the
locality of this battle. Circinn was a name applied to the district of
which Maghgirginn or Mearns, now Kincardineshire, was a part, but
Aidan could hardly have penetrated so far east. Dr. Reeves thinks it
may have been at the place now called Kirkintulloch. The term
‘Barbari’ is applied by Adamnan both to Picts and Saxons, but the name
Miathi seems to belong to the Picts. The same war may have embraced
Saxons also, as Domangart, slain the same year, perished, according to
Adamnan, in battle ‘in Saxonia.’

Footnote 183:

Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ B. i. c. xxxiv. Tighernac has, in 600, ‘Cath
Saxonum la h-Aedain ubi cecidit Eanfraith frater Etalfraich la Maeluma
me Baedain in quo victor erat.’ The Irish annalist ignores Aidan’s
defeat, and fixes upon Maeluma’s success in cutting off Theobald with
his troops. By some it has been supposed that Dalstone in Cumberland
was the scene of this battle; but while the word Degsastane passes
naturally into Dawstone, it never could have formed Dalstone.