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Map of south-east Wales
Medieval south-east Wales. Glywysing is the number "9" west of Gwent.[1]

Meurig ab Arthfael[a] (or Mouric, ruled c.848-874) was King of Gwent in south-east Wales in the mid-ninth century. In some periods Gwent was combined with the neighbouring kingdom of Glywysing (Glamorgan), and he may have ruled both territories with the title King of Glywysing, which had a higher status. Meurig's sons Brochfael ap Meurig and Ffernfael ap Meurig were only kings of Gwent, and they were probably subject to their cousin Hywel ap Rhys, King of Glywysing.

Background

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The boundaries and names of Welsh kingdoms varied over time in the early medieval period.[3] In the seventh century, south-east Wales was a single kingdom called Gwent, but by the ninth century Charles-Edwards thinks that it had been divided between Glywysing (later Morgannwg and Glamorgan[3]) in the west and Gwent (now Monmouthshire[4]), the eastern part of the old Gwent, with the king of Glywysing having the higher status.[5] Davies thinks that it is more likely that the old Gwent remained a single kingdom now called Glywysing. She comments: "kings associated with 'Glywysing' made grants all over the south-east and there is nothing in the Llandaff evidence to sugggest any clear territorial limits within the south-east".[4]

Territory

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Wendy Davies (followed by Charles-Edwards) states that Meurig gave grants in Glywysing and Gwent, and that he ruled them both as king of Glywysing.[6] Charles-Edwards suggests that he and his brother, Rhys ab Arthfael may have been kings of Glywysing at different times.[7] The historian Patrick Sims-Williams dissents, arguing that the charters placing Meurig in Glywysing were forged, and that he had no power outside Gwent.[8]

Charters

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Book of Llandaff
Folio from the Book of Llandaff

Charters in the twelfth-century Book of Llandaff show Brochfael in his early years witnessing his father's charters, and later making grants as king. In about 868, King Meurig surrendered the church at Tryleg and returned it to Bishop Cerennyr in the presence of Brochfael and Ffernfael.[9] Welsh kingshad large landed estates.[10]

In around 850 charters issued by Meurig ordered all ecclesiastical property in lay ownership to be released, perhaps in an attempt to abolish lay ownership of churches. Davies comments that the Llandaff charters give an "impression of lawlessness and of the arbitrary use of royal power by those who held it." Meurig is one of the few exceptions, as he seems to have attempted to protect ecclesiastical immunity, but he cannot have been wholly successful as charters continued to grant churches in the tenth and eleventh centuries.[11]

Several charters witnessed by Meurig record grants by laymen to ecclesiastics. Two charters dated to around 850 record grants to Bishop Grecielis: Fauu gave Cilpedec (Kilpeck) church with its land and Cuinncum returned Cum Mouric (Little Dewchurch?) church to the bishop.[12] A charter dating to around 860 grants Lann Mocha (St Maughans) to Archbishop Dyfrig's church.[13] Around 870, gave a church at Saint-y-Nyll (north of St Brides-super-Ely) to Bishop Cerennyr.[14]

Death

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Historians of Wales do not agree when Meurig ab Arthfael's died. Thomas Charles-Edwards thinks that he may be the Meurig whose death is recorded in the Annales Cambriae under 849,[15] but Wendy Davies thinks that 874 is more likely. Commenting on charters in the Book of Llandaff, she writes "the claims of the relative chronology of the witness sequence are such as to suggest that Meurig ab Arthfael, the King Meurig of grants 169b-171b, 199bii (214?), 216b, 225 died in 874 rather than 849".[16]

Legacy

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Meurig is mentioned by Asser in his biography of Alfred the Great: "Hywel ap Rhys (the king of Glywysing) and Brochfael and Ffernfael (sons of Meurig and kings of Gwent), driven by the might and tyrannical behaviour of Ealdorman Æthelred and the Mercians, petitioned King Alfred of their own accord, in order to obtain lordship and protection from him in the face of their enemies."[17]

Davies states that the royal line descended from Meurig ended with Brochfael.[18][b]

Notes

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  1. ^ The middle words "ap" (before consonants) and "ab" (before vowels) in medieval Welsh names mean "son of".[2]}
  2. ^ Gwriad ap Brochfael is listed in a genealogy of Hywel ap Rhys, but in the view of the genealogist Peter Bartrum this is an error and he may have been a son of Brochfael ap Meurig and father of Noë ap Gwriad, king of Gwent in the 950s. In that case, Davies' statement that Meurig's line ended with Brochfael would be incorrect.[19]

Citations

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  1. ^ Lloyd 1911, endpapers; Charles-Edwards 2013, pp. 14, 553.
  2. ^ Moore 1990, p. 13.
  3. ^ a b Charles-Edwards 2013, p. 14.
  4. ^ a b Davies 1978, p. 91.
  5. ^ Charles-Edwards 2011, p. 76.
  6. ^ Charles-Edwards 2011, pp. 76–79; Davies 1978, pp. 82, 95.
  7. ^ Charles-Edwards 2011, p. 79.
  8. ^ Sims-Williams 2019, p. 122.
  9. ^ Sims-Williams 2019, pp. 121–122; Davies 1978, p. 177.
  10. ^ Davies 1978, pp. 98, 183.
  11. ^ Davies 1978, pp. 59, 106, 132.
  12. ^ Davies 1979, pp. 106–107.
  13. ^ Davies 1978, p. 166; Davies 1979, p. 94.
  14. ^ Davies 1979, p. 119.
  15. ^ Charles-Edwards 2011, p. 77.
  16. ^ Davies 1978, pp. 19 and n, 1, 70.
  17. ^ Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 27, 93–96, 262-263 n. 183.
  18. ^ Davies 1978, p. 95.
  19. ^ Bartrum 1993, pp. 60, 336, 508; Charles-Edwards 2011, pp. 76–77.

Sources

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  • Bartrum, Peter (1993). A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A. D 1000. Aberystwyth, UK: The National Library of Wales. ISBN 978-0-907158-73-8.
  • Charles-Edwards, Thomas (2011). "Dynastic Succession in Early Medieval Wales". In Griffiths, R. A.; Schofield, P. R. (eds.). Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages. Cardiff, UK: University of Wales Press. pp. 70–88. ISBN 978-0-7083-2446-2.
  • Charles-Edwards, Thomas (2013). Wales and the Britons 350–1064. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821731-2.
  • Davies, Wendy (1978). An Early Welsh Microcosm: Studies in the Llandaff Charters. London, UK: Royal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901050-33-5.
  • Davies, Wendy (1979). The Llandaff Charters. Aberystwyth, UK: National Library of Wales. ISBN 978-0-901833-88-4.
  • Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael, eds. (1983). Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources. London, UK: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-044409-4.
  • Lloyd, John Edward (1911). A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest. Vol. 2 (1st ed.). London, UK: Longmans, Green & Co. OCLC 1074958012.
  • Moore, Donald (April 1990). "The Indexing of Welsh Person Names". The Indexer. 17 (1): 12–20. ISSN 0019-4131.
  • Sims-Williams, Patrick (2019). The Book of Llandaff as a Historical Source. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-78327-418-5.
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