| Transcript |
| · | Britain's Irish King |
| 0:04 | · | 1,500 years ago, in the west of Great Britain, we can find a reference to |
| 0:08 | · | an extremely unusual event. A man named Serygei 'Wyddel' is |
| 0:14 | · | slain in battle by a local king, who had apparently instructed his men to shackle |
| 0:19 | · | themselves to their horses before the fight, so that they wouldn't think about fleeing. |
| 0:23 | · | And while this is a bit odd on its own, what's weirder is that this story is the only mention |
| 0:28 | · | of this battle in any contemporary source, and the only mention ever of this name: Serygei. |
| 0:37 | · | Even stranger still, is his epithet, 'Wyddel', which is Welsh for 'the Irishman'. |
| 0:44 | · | An Irish king, with a name never found anywhere else, who ruled, |
| 0:49 | · | fought, and died… in Wales. Strange! Over the next millennia and a half, this |
| 0:56 | · | story would be transformed and adapted, leading to arguments over who the men involved really were, |
| 1:01 | · | where this battle really took place, or if it even really happened at all, until eventually, |
| 1:06 | · | it was almost forgotten entirely. This is the mystery of Britain's Irish king. |
| · | Cadwallon |
| 1:25 | · | I am going to ask you to do a monstrous task: remember two people. |
| 1:31 | · | We've met the first one, Serygei, the Irishman. The second is his rival king, |
| 1:36 | · | Cadwallon [7], the "long arm". According to a 14th century bard, he received this epithet because his |
| 1:44 | · | arms could touch the ground when he was standing upright [2]... which I'm not sure is true. |
| 1:50 | · | Regardless, these men did apparently do battle, but the only medieval source ever mentioning this |
| 1:55 | · | is a Welsh Triad [7], a trio of short sentences designed to help a bard or poet's memory [6]. |
| 2:02 | · | Basically, they were summaries, grouped with two other, similar summaries. |
| 2:06 | · | In this case, the men that fought in this battle were one of the three fettered, |
| 2:11 | · | or shackled, or torqued warbands of Britain, and they apparently fought Serygei at a place |
| 2:17 | · | known as Cerrig y Gwyddyl, the "Irishman's Rocks" on the island of Ynys Mon [7]. |
| 2:21 | · | A place which is most commonly thought to be here [7][5], a field with the same name, |
| 2:28 | · | although both the rocks and the Irishman are no longer present. |
| 2:33 | · | And that's it. We have the summary, two men, a place, and nothing more. |
| 2:39 | · | And it's not unusual for these stories to be forgotten, plenty, if not the majority, |
| 2:43 | · | have been, but Cadwallon is a bit different, because he's claimed as one of the earliest |
| 2:49 | · | ancestors to the kings of what would become the most powerful kingdom in Wales [2]… you'd |
| 2:54 | · | think that would give him a bit of credit, but they didn't care about Cadwallon. |
| 2:59 | · | In the 9th century a big piece of propaganda for this kingdom, Gwynedd, |
| 3:03 | · | was produced [14]. They gave themselves a new ancestor: an apparent, and historically dubious, |
| 3:09 | · | grandfather for Cadwallon named Cunedda [18], and he was better than his grandson in every way. |
| 3:16 | · | Because while Cadwallon might have defeated an Irish king on Ynys Mon, |
| 3:19 | · | Cunedda supposedly defeated and drove out the Irish from the entire country [8][18]. |
| 3:25 | · | Cadwallon was subsequently relegated to a name in a genealogy [2], his battle against an Irish |
| 3:30 | · | king was deemed chronologically impossible [8], left out of the royal origin stories, and then |
| 3:36 | · | completely forgotten by everyone. Sorry Cadwallon, maybe you should try being better next time. |
| 3:47 | · | Except… in one place. One place preserved the memory of Cadwallon and Serygei, but it wasn't |
| 3:56 | · | some village near the site of the battle, in fact it wasn't even on the same island. |
| 4:01 | · | Instead, the people of Caergybi, Holyhead in English, had a much |
| 4:05 | · | more unusual memory of these events. |
| · | Caergybi |
| 4:17 | · | Near the very start of the 16th century, |
| 4:19 | · | a Welsh poet named Lewys Mon included an odd passage in one of his works. |
| 4:25 | · | He references this ancient battle between Cadwallon and the Irish, |
| 4:28 | · | a piece of history that, as we've seen, hadn't been popular for over 700 years. |
| 4:34 | · | One problem though, he doesn't mention Cerrig y Gwyddyl at all, instead he claims that the |
| 4:40 | · | battle was fought near Caergybi [9]. The historian Rachel Bromwich notes that |
| 4:45 | · | Lewys was from this area, so what we're seeing here is very likely a local story, |
| 4:49 | · | one that adopted a forgotten bit of history from centuries prior, and |
| 4:52 | · | moved it 1,931,208 cm north… or 12 miles [9]. And by the end of the century, we would see this |
| 5:02 | · | reinforced. In David Powel's 'Historie of Cambria' from 1584, the following passage is included: |
| 5:09 | · | "The Irish… did overrun the isle of Mon, and were driven thence by |
| 5:13 | · | Cadwallon Lawhir… who slew Serygei their king with his own hands at Llan y Gwyddyl, |
| 5:20 | · | which is the Irish church at Holyhead [46][5]". So here, we're introduced to another location, |
| 5:26 | · | the 'Church* of the Irishman', apparently the name of a church in Caergybi, and the new location of |
| 5:32 | · | Cadwallon and Serygei's fateful battle. So, these were both likely drawing on some |
| 5:38 | · | sort of local legend [9], moving this battle from Ynys Mon to Caergybi, and specifically to a church |
| 5:44 | · | named after the Irish. It was prominent enough to be featured in a book about the history of Wales, |
| 5:50 | · | which is more consideration than it ever got from the kings of Gwynedd, but unknown enough |
| 5:54 | · | for no one to question the final battle being at the previously unmentioned Llan y Gwyddyl. |
| 6:01 | · | And from here, the story would get picked up, by my count, 12 more times across the |
| 6:07 | · | next 4 centuries, which is one mention, on average, every 33.3 years, the same |
| 6:12 | · | amount that I mention my son that I hate. |
| · | The 1700s |
| 6:19 | · | Now, if you've watched this channel before, |
| 6:22 | · | you won't be surprised to learn that, whilst researching this topic, |
| 6:25 | · | I got a little sidetracked asking: "How many times did this story come up, |
| 6:29 | · | where did it come up, and how much did it change over the course of approximately 400 years?" |
| 6:34 | · | And after spending an entire day researching it, I might as well tell you all about it, |
| 6:38 | · | otherwise this will all have been for nothing. …all….. for nothing….. |
| 6:43 | · | Although, this is an important question. As I said, the kings of Gwynedd didn't care about |
| 6:47 | · | this story at all, for the next four centuries it was entirely left to the folklore of a town that |
| 6:52 | · | wasn't even at the original battle site. Seeing how much Serygei's story changed can give us |
| 6:57 | · | insight not only into the local legends, but it may provide some clues into this lost event. |
| 7:04 | · | After 1584, the next time this story comes up is in an alleged account of Sir Richard Wynn |
| 7:10 | · | sometime in the 1600s that closely agrees with the 'Historie of Cambria', only adding the detail that |
| 7:14 | · | the Irish were "destroyed completely" [9]. I could then find nothing for about a century, |
| 7:20 | · | until the historian Peter Bartrum brought up a letter from 1733, |
| 7:24 | · | which mentioned that the "Bedd Serigin Wyddel" was one of the "marvels of Cybi" [5]. |
| 7:30 | · | Now, "bedd" means grave, which is a very interesting detail because now Serygei |
| 7:34 | · | seems to have just been defeated at Caergybi, but apparently he had a grave, and a famous one. |
| 7:41 | · | But 42 years later is when we hit the real jackpot: 'A History of the Island of Anglesey', |
| 7:46 | · | which adds a lot of new details, some of which are a bit… questionable. |
| 7:51 | · | We're first told Cadwallon went to fight Serygei in the year 450, because these Irish had recently |
| 7:57 | · | invaded Ynys Mon and slain numerous people near a "strong fort" called Din Dryfol, at a |
| 8:04 | · | place that was now known as Cerrig y Gwyddyl. Cadwallon defeated them, and pushed them back |
| 8:09 | · | to Caergybi, where their fleet was docked, and slew Serygei with his own hands. He then built |
| 8:15 | · | a fortress, the walls currently around the church at Caergybi, which were apparently known as "Mur |
| 8:20 | · | Cadwallon", "Cadwallon's wall" [42]. The first detail that stands out is that |
| 8:26 | · | the author of this text brings back Cerrig y Gwyddyl, but instead of the site of their battle, |
| 8:31 | · | it seems to have commemorated a random slaughter. Cadwallon's actual first battle |
| 8:43 | · | location isn't named, but the final defeat is once again at the familiar Caergybi. |
| 8:49 | · | One more oddity is that the author claims these walls around the church were built by Cadwallon, |
| 8:54 | · | but in reality they're Roman, this was a Roman fort [aw]. Granted, the author probably didn't |
| 9:00 | · | know this, but the extra detail of the walls being named after Cadwallon is very interesting. Unless |
| 9:06 | · | they're mistaken, we can assume that it was again another local story, perhaps connecting |
| 9:11 | · | our Cadwallon to this fortress, although there's always the chance that it's named after someone |
| 9:16 | · | else. The walls were restored in the 17th century [aw], they could've picked up this name then. |
| 9:23 | · | The second piece of intrigue that this author tells us are the alleged details |
| 9:26 | · | of Serygei's grave. We've seen that this tradition already existed by 1733, |
| 9:31 | · | but we're now given much more detail. Apparently, Serygei was buried in the corner |
| 9:36 | · | of this Roman fort, and a chapel, called Eglwys y Bedd, the chapel of the grave, |
| 9:41 | · | was built on top of him. According to the author, this chapel was often |
| 9:45 | · | known to the Welsh… as Llan y Gwyddyl [43]. Finally, he claims that Serygei was made a |
| 9:51 | · | saint by the Irish, but that his shrine that used to be in the chapel was carried off by |
| 9:57 | · | Irish raiders, according to a… "chronicle" [43]. [show google earth, since wind sounds playing] |
| 10:01 | · | What we've seen here then is an odd marrying of the original Triad to the local folklore first |
| 10:06 | · | brought up in the 1500s. Cerrig y Gwyddyl is the site of a defeat, but Cadwallon isn't said to have |
| 10:12 | · | fought here. When he finally vanquished him, it was in Caergybi, in Llan y Gwyddyl, which |
| 10:18 | · | this author tells us is another name for this chapel of Eglwys y Bedd, finally |
| 10:22 | · | locating this previously unspecified place. |
| 10:29 | · | We have a few more texts in the 1800s. |
| · | The 1800s |
| 10:35 | · | In 1824 we see this story again, although by now it's been acknowledged |
| 10:39 | · | that the walls of Caergybi are Roman [37]. But in 1833 we got a few more interesting details. |
| 10:45 | · | In this 'History of the Island of Mona', Cadwallon for the first time since the original Triad, |
| 10:51 | · | slays Serygei at Cerrig y Gwyddyl [39]… sort of. Because 152 pages later, we're back at Caergybi. |
| 11:01 | · | The author cites a letter from 1693 claiming that the ancient name of this place was Llan y Gwyddyl, |
| 11:08 | · | and that the chapel of Eglwys y Bedd got its name because of all the Welsh and Irish |
| 11:12 | · | that died during Cadwallon and Serygei's final encounter [40]... simultaneously claiming that |
| 11:17 | · | Serygei died twice, at two separate locations. Two sources from 1844 and 1879 both compound the |
| 11:26 | · | idea of Serygei being made a saint, with the first claiming he was canonised by the |
| 11:30 | · | Irish [47], and the latter by the Welsh [41]. And strangely, a book from 1852 then again claims |
| 11:36 | · | that Serygei was slain in two locations, Cerrig y Gwyddyl [48], and Llan y Gwyddyl, although |
| 11:41 | · | they claim that Cadwallon himself founded this chapel after his victory [49]. |
| 11:47 | · | Finally, for this century, we have one more major lore drop. As we saw before, Cadwallon |
| 11:52 | · | was deemed less cool and propagandistic than his historically-dubious alleged grandfather Cunedda, |
| 11:58 | · | and if Cunedda drove out all the Irish, how could his grandson have defeated an Irish king? |
| 12:05 | · | Well, the historian R. Rees, in 'An Essay on the Welsh Saints' in 1836 answers this question, |
| 12:11 | · | by saying that Cunedda just… left Ynys Mon out, that the Irish retreated there, and that Cadwallon |
| 12:17 | · | dealt the final blow [44][45]. |
| 12:24 | · | Wow. That was a lot of reading, and quite the work out for a guy like me who only learnt how to read 2 weeks ago. |
| 12:30 | · | But, to summarise what we've seen: The Welsh Triads tell us, briefly, |
| 12:35 | · | of an ancient battle between king Cadwallon of Gwynedd, and Serygei "the Irishman". |
| 12:40 | · | Cadwallon apparently defeated Serygei at Cerrig y Gwyddyl on Ynys Mon, but unfortunately for him, |
| 12:44 | · | by the 9th century, no one cared. However, by the 1500s, we find that the |
| 12:50 | · | town of Caergybi, 12 miles to the north, did actually care, and that they adopted |
| 12:55 | · | Cadwallon and Serygei's battle, moving the location to the nearby Llan y Gwyddyl. |
| 13:01 | · | From the 1500s to the end of the 1800s, we're told that the local chapel of Eglwys y Bedd is |
| 13:06 | · | the mystical Llan y Gwyddyl, and that Serygei was buried underneath. We're told that he was |
| 13:11 | · | canonised by the Irish, and maybe the Welsh too, but that his shrine was lost to Irish raiders… at |
| 13:16 | · | some point. We're finally told again that Serygei did die at Cerrig y Gwyddyl… but at the same time |
| 13:23 | · | they claim that he also died at Caergybi. It's a mess really, it's what you'd expect |
| 13:27 | · | from looking at 300 years of local stories, myths, and unsubstantiated claims. It's worth |
| 13:33 | · | acknowledging that these writers from centuries ago likely had access to sources we don't have, |
| 13:38 | · | but it's also worth noting that none of them have expanded on the details of the original Triad, |
| 13:44 | · | they seem to only have information on the more contemporary local legends, |
| 13:49 | · | and while some of their claims seem reasonable, a lot of them are unfortunately completely |
| 13:53 | · | unprovable, which we'll come to later. Finally, we come to the 20th century, |
| 13:58 | · | where this story was scrutinised further, but also covered in a very important work, just before |
| 14:04 | · | mentions of Serygei stopped almost entirely, as you can see from this almost comical graph. |
| · | The 1900s |
| 14:19 | · | 1903, 'A Book of North Wales' by S. Baring-Gould. |
| 14:24 | · | After reading so many texts inadvertently arguing with each other over whether Cadwallon |
| 14:28 | · | won at Cerrig y Gwyddyl, or at Caergybi, it was a massive relief to finally see something different, |
| 14:34 | · | because Baring-Gould claimed this king won several battles at Irish strongholds before |
| 14:40 | · | pushing the them back to Caergybi, and the example he gives is a battle at Din Sylwy [32]… over here, |
| 14:48 | · | all the way to the east. Of course by "reliving", |
| 14:52 | · | I mean massively confusing. I spent ages trying to find where else had this battle been mentioned, |
| 14:58 | · | or been called an Irish fortress? I couldn't find anything, and the reason |
| 15:02 | · | for that will become clear in a few minutes. Moving on for now, the rest of the details are |
| 15:07 | · | mostly what we've seen already. Cadwallon slays Serygei by his own hand in Llan y Gwyddyl, which |
| 15:12 | · | was constructed on the spot that he died [32]. Baring-Gould calls the Welsh "freaky" |
| 15:16 | · | for glorifying an enemy commander, compares this to the glorification of the Boers [32], and says |
| 15:21 | · | that the walls of Caergybi are so uncouth that they cannot possibly have been Norman, or Roman, |
| 15:26 | · | so therefore must have been Welsh [34]... rude! Finally, he claims that this beautiful depiction |
| 15:34 | · | on the church is of Serygei holding a short sword [34]. Unfortunately this isn't provable, it could |
| 15:43 | · | be him, although no one else has ever mentioned this, and I think he might be holding a trowel. |
| 15:49 | · | Or at least that's what I first thought, because towards the end of my research I found a book |
| 15:54 | · | from 1913 that was quite critical of some elements of the local legend, |
| 15:59 | · | particularly of those brought up in the 'History of the Island of Anglesey', and they also claimed |
| 16:04 | · | that this was a statue of Serygei [35]. Asides from that, they also question if Serygei |
| 16:09 | · | was actually ever made a saint, there aren't any other references to him in Wales, and apparently |
| 16:14 | · | the Irish don't ever mention him either [35], and in another blow they point out that the author of |
| 16:18 | · | the original claim that Serygei had a shrine that was carried off by Irish raiders, never specifies |
| 16:23 | · | where he got this information from, casting doubt on the entire idea of him being canonised [35]. |
| 16:30 | · | Their criticism of the 1775 source is great, but seeing another claim that this statue was |
| 16:34 | · | Serygei caught me off guard, because I wasn't expecting to find an actual depiction of him, |
| 16:38 | · | let alone two claims of one… until I noticed the author of the book… S. Baring-Gould [35]. |
| 16:46 | · | Nice try, he almost got me, but in the end Mr Baring-Gould is still the only person to |
| 16:51 | · | ever claim that this statue is Serygei. Finally, we come to the last text I want |
| 16:58 | · | to mention, and the last major appearance Serygei and his story ever really made. |
| 17:04 | · | The 1912 publication 'A History of Wales' by John Edward Lloyd, a man |
| 17:08 | · | nicknamed the "father" of Welsh history [19]. Lloyd's work is different to everything we've |
| 17:13 | · | seen so far, because this was a proper historical book with sources and citations and analysis, |
| 17:18 | · | rather than local stories with unsubstantiated claims, and of all the claims made over the |
| 17:23 | · | centuries, Lloyd relays very, very few of them. He brings the story back to the original Triad, |
| 17:30 | · | one of the very few authors who did, by telling us that, according to tradition, |
| 17:34 | · | Cadwallon completed the conquest of North Wales from the Irish, that he shackled his men to their |
| 17:39 | · | horses so that "victory and death" were the only outcomes, and finally that he defeated |
| 17:44 | · | Serygei at… Cerrig y Gwyddyl, not Caergybi [38]. Sweeping away the evolving tale that we've just |
| 17:50 | · | seen woven over the past 300 years. He does, however, reconcile one of the |
| 17:56 | · | oldest details I mentioned, Llan y Gwyddyl, an unspecified chapel near Caergybi that was |
| 18:01 | · | eventually claimed as an alternate name for the local chapel of Eglwys y Bedd. |
| 18:06 | · | Lloyd notes that in the parish of Tywyn, 55 miles to the south, there is a stone circle |
| 18:11 | · | with the name "Eglwys y Gwyddyl" - "chapel of the Irishman". He reasons that, if these stones can be |
| 18:18 | · | known as an Irish chapel… who's to say that our "Irishman's Rocks" and "Church of the Irishman" |
| 18:23 | · | aren't two names for the same place [38]? The source he cites also makes a very unusual |
| 18:29 | · | point that I'd never heard before, the author here claims that apparently it's quite common |
| 18:34 | · | in Wales to name "traces of ancient houses or walls" after the Irish [36]. And while |
| 18:39 | · | that isn't very specific, I think I found what he was talking about, because while there are a few |
| 18:44 | · | examples of medieval structures being named after the Gwyddel… the vast majority of the |
| 18:49 | · | objects bearing their names... |
| 18:51 | · | are ancient. |
| · | The Irishman's Monuments |
| 18:57 | · | Cerrig-y-Gwyddyl [5], Cerrig-Gwyddyl [5], Craig-y-Gwyddyl, Crugyn Gwyddel |
| 18:59 | · | [23], Tomen-y-Gwyddel [24], Bryn-y-Gwyddel, Bedd-y-Gwyddel, |
| 19:03 | · | Eglwys-y-Gwyddelod [20], Eglwys-y-Gwyddelod 2 [22], Muriau'r Gwyddelod [25], |
| 19:07 | · | and Irish Joe's Cafe in Rhyl |
| 19:09 | · | … wait. |
| 19:14 | · | All across Wales we can find |
| 19:16 | · | ancient monuments named after the Irish. Although looking at this map I think |
| 19:20 | · | you'll be able to see a very interesting pattern. There are only 2 in south Wales, |
| 19:25 | · | 2 in Powys, one in Ceredigion, and 5 in Gwynedd. What's even more strange is that this isn't all of |
| 19:32 | · | them, because there are 7 more that are not only named after the Irish, but that all have the same |
| 19:37 | · | name: Cytiau'r Gwyddelod, "Irishman's huts". And of these 7 Irishman's huts, |
| 19:44 | · | all of them are located in western Gwynedd [27][29][21], and 3 of them |
| 19:48 | · | are found in the vicinity… of Caergybi [9]. These huts are a series of roundhouses that |
| 19:54 | · | are at least 2,500 years old [26][30]. There are the remains of 20 to the west of the town today, |
| 19:59 | · | but there could have once been as many as 50 [26][30], not to mention the ones found |
| 20:03 | · | to the south [29] and the east [27]. And these circular huts are the reason |
| 20:07 | · | why Baring-Gould thought Din Sylwy was an Irish fortress! Do you remember when I said |
| 20:12 | · | we'd come back to that? Well after I spent ages trying to find where he got this from, |
| 20:17 | · | I eventually discovered it was his own theory. He claimed that there are faint traces of these |
| 20:22 | · | cytiau within the ancient fort, and despite the various Roman-era findings, he believed |
| 20:27 | · | that it must date to the post Roman Irish [33]. You may not be surprised to learn that that isn't |
| 20:32 | · | considered very historically accurate nowadays. There is apparently a circular structure inside, |
| 20:38 | · | but the place was full of Roman artefacts, and Iron-age one [28], meaning the fort was |
| 20:42 | · | very likely built by the Britons, not the Irish, and that Cadwallon probably didn't |
| 20:46 | · | besiege an Irish king here. |
| 20:52 | · | But what we can say for certain, |
| 20:54 | · | is that there is a prevailing mythology across Wales, particularly in western Gwynedd, |
| 20:59 | · | that associates several ancient stone monuments with the Irish, and Cerrig-y-Gwyddyl, whatever |
| 21:05 | · | these 'stones' once were, is no exception. This isn't a story you can read about, it's one |
| 21:11 | · | that I found accidentally while researching this topic [36][9] and spending the day going through |
| 21:15 | · | archeological databases, but it is there. And it is especially dense around Caergybi, |
| 21:22 | · | right where local tradition would claim Cadwallon slew Serygei, right where the Irish king of |
| 21:27 | · | Ynys Mon was supposedly defeated, and buried. |
| 21:36 | · | Is this why these stories became connected? The |
| · | Ynys Mon |
| 21:39 | · | Irish king dying in the town surrounded by the Irishman's huts? Maybe, or maybe not, |
| 21:46 | · | we don't know. And to be honest, we can't know. The details, as we've seen, are extremely difficult to parse. |
| 21:55 | · | The historian Rachel Bromwich points |
| 21:57 | · | out the connection to these Irishman's huts, but she also says that the location of Caergybi is |
| 22:02 | · | a "probable enough" site for the battle [9]. A historian in 1904 theorised that Serygei was |
| 22:07 | · | a corrupted Norse name, and that this story must be from way later, and just… randomly |
| 22:12 | · | connected to an otherwise unknown 5th century king [10]. The modern historians Bartrum and |
| 22:17 | · | Bromwich both disagree with this though [10][5], with the former stating that there probably is a |
| 22:21 | · | historical basis for this story, and the latter suggesting that Serygei was instead some sort |
| 22:25 | · | of corrupted Irish name, which would make sense, although as I said at the very start, this is the |
| 22:30 | · | only time this name has ever occurred, we have no idea what it originally was in Irish [5]. |
| 22:37 | · | And it's no wonder that even the name of Cadwallon's opponent was forgotten, |
| 22:40 | · | because as I've already said, none of the details of this story survive. In the minds |
| 22:45 | · | of the 9th century kings of Gwynedd, Cadwallon's historically dubious grandfather did all the work, |
| 22:50 | · | driving out the Irish, giving Gwynedd a totally unbiased claim to the entire country [18], and |
| 22:54 | · | leaving these people as nothing more than the apparent creators of these ancient monuments. |
| 23:01 | · | This does, of course, disagree with a lot of historical evidence… actually any historical |
| 23:06 | · | evidence. It's completely chronologically possible that Cadwallon fought an Irish king |
| 23:11 | · | around the year 500, according to Bromwich [8], as inscribed stones have been found across Wales |
| 23:16 | · | bearing Irish names that continued into the 6th century [8][17], both in Latin, |
| 23:20 | · | and in the old Irish alphabet Ogham [11]. In fact, according to the historian T. |
| 23:25 | · | Charles-Edwards, their presence on Ynys Mon is particularly noticeable, |
| 23:29 | · | where we have four definite Irish inscribed names, and no definite Welsh ones [12][13]. |
| 23:37 | · | The Irish were prominent in Wales, both here in Gwynedd and beyond, despite what their kings would |
| 23:42 | · | have you believe. They left inscribed stones [13], they left place names [14], and in the south, |
| 23:46 | · | they even had an entire dynasty [16][14][17], so it's not at all out of the question that at around |
| 23:51 | · | the year 500, a Welsh king could have fought and defeated an Irish one on Ynys Mon [8][5]. |
| · | Serygei | Sirigi |
| 24:02 | · | But that's all we can really know, that the Irish were here, |
| 24:07 | · | and that the kings of Gwynedd soon made their home |
| 24:09 | · | on this island for the next 700 years [18]. Cadwallon apparently had his court here in |
| 24:15 | · | northern Ynys Mon [2], and the chief court of the kings of Gwynedd would be here at |
| 24:19 | · | Aberffraw [15], to the south. Cadwallon's alleged son, king Maelgwn, also apparently possessed the |
| 24:25 | · | Roman fort at Caergybi [3]. His great-great-great grandson was buried on this island, and his |
| 24:31 | · | gravestone rests in a church that was rebuilt and named after his son, Cadwallon's alleged |
| 24:37 | · | great-great-great-great-great grandson [1]. Gwynedd's link to this island was also |
| 24:43 | · | strengthened in their own 9th century propaganda, where Cunedda not only drove the Irish out of |
| 24:48 | · | all of Wales, but his almost certainly mythical sons also founded numerous kingdoms in the area, |
| 24:54 | · | covering what was at the time all of Gwynedd… giving them an ancestral claim |
| 24:58 | · | to almost all of their lands... except for the territories known as Arfon, |
| 25:03 | · | and the island of Ynys Mon [14][18]. Their hold was clearly strong enough here, that they saw no |
| 25:09 | · | need to fabricate some sort of ancient claim. So, did Cadwallon conquer Ynys Mon from an |
| 25:16 | · | Irish king? It seems so, at the very least it's plausible [9][5]. Was there |
| 25:21 | · | a battle at Cerrig-y-Gwyddel? Probably, but was it at this field? We don't know, |
| 25:26 | · | there was a Cerrig-Gwyddyl on the eastern side of the island [5], and the original location |
| 25:31 | · | easily also could've just been lost. By the 16th century, Cadwallon had also |
| 25:36 | · | supposedly slain Serygei at Llan y Gwyddyl in Caergybi, but we don't know where this came |
| 25:40 | · | from. Is it a lost detail from the original story? Was it really just an alternate name |
| 25:45 | · | for Cerrig-y-Gwyddel? Bartrum points out that in a 13th century genealogy, the battle takes |
| 25:51 | · | place at Llam y Gwyddyl, "Irishman's leap", and he suggests that Llan y Gwyddyl was just a later |
| 25:58 | · | mistake [5]. If that's the case, then where's Llam y Gwyddyl? Where did this detail come from? |
| 26:04 | · | Was this a place near Caergybi, where the tale then could've easily been adopted by the locals, |
| 26:09 | · | or was Llan y Gwyddyl really a local chapel, allowing the two names to easily conflate? |
| 26:15 | · | We don't know, we can't know, in fact… we might never know, |
| 26:20 | · | this is a story from 1,500 years ago, it's a miracle we know anything about it at all. |
| 26:35 | · | All we can say then is that Cadwallon probably slew an Irish king named Serygei at a place called |
| · | Maelgwn |
| 26:41 | · | Cerrig-y-Gwyddel somewhere on Ynys Mon. Were there more battles? Almost certainly, |
| 26:54 | · | the existence of this Triad proves that there was a story that needed to be remembered, |
| 26:59 | · | but whatever that story was, has been forgotten. Maybe there was a final encounter at Caergybi, |
| 27:05 | · | and while Serygei probably wasn't slain there, and he almost certainly wasn't buried underneath |
| 27:09 | · | Eglwys y Bedd, for a very long time, to a lot of people, this story was important, |
| 27:13 | · | and that's worth something. Cadwallon's alleged son held this fortress [3], who's |
| 27:18 | · | to say that his father's final victory wasn't in the Roman walls of Caergybi? |
| 27:25 | · | We don't know exactly what happened to king Cadwallon. The rulers of Gwynedd claimed him |
| 27:29 | · | as their ancestor, and according to them his successor was a man named Maelgwn, |
| 27:34 | · | who they claimed was his son, but as I've alluded to throughout the video, history |
| 27:39 | · | can be a lot more complicated than that [2]. In the mid-6th century, a monk wrote an angry |
| 27:45 | · | sermon, blaming the Briton's problems on their violent and tyrannical kings, |
| 27:50 | · | which included Maelgwn, who the monk claimed had come to the throne at a young age… |
| 27:55 | · | by killing his mother's brother [4]. Was Cadwallon really Maelgwn's father, |
| 28:02 | · | or was he his uncle [31]? Was Maelgwn's ancestry rewritten to include descent from a known figure, |
| 28:08 | · | the man who conquered Ynys Mon, rather than whoever his real father was? Or was |
| 28:13 | · | Maelgwn really his son? Did Cadwallon's unknown brother-in-law just rule upon his death until |
| 28:18 | · | Maelgwn took the throne from him? We don't know. All we have on Cadwallon is essentially a blurb, |
| 28:25 | · | the kings of Gwynedd were happy to claim descent from him, happy to claim that his |
| 28:28 | · | potentially murderous nephew was really his son, and happy to rule from the island he conquered, |
| 28:34 | · | but his story, his legend, wasn't good enough, except for the people of Caergybi. |
| 28:42 | · | These Roman walls contain a church today, dedicated to the eponymous St Cybi, |
| 28:47 | · | who was given the fortress in the 6th century by king Maelgwn [3]. Cadwallon's supposed son, |
| 28:53 | · | at the site of his supposed victory. And in 1748, having gone disused for many years, |
| 29:03 | · | Eglwys y Bedd was partially torn down [34]. |
| 29:07 | · | Thank you for watching. |
