SEEKING FOR UNITY
The period between the departure of the Romans and the coming of the
Normans was one of political chaos. Wales almost immediately became
divided, rival kings and chieftains ruling over different parts of
the country. To follow in any detail the petty strivings of these
men would be pure waste of time. They fought for no principle;
neither are there any signs of nobility of purpose or of a wide and
enlightened patriotism. Only the faintest outline of the political
history of Wales during the period need be given.
Great as were the benefits conferred upon Britain by the Romans, in
one respect their rule had been harmful--they had accustomed the
subject people to rely upon them for the defence of the island. It
was always the policy of Rome to draw soldiers from one province and
to send them to garrison another province in some distant part of the
far-flung {35} Empire. The martial ardour of the British youth was
not quenched; but instead of serving in Britain and so learning to
defend their own land, they were sent across the Pyrenees, to the
Danube, and into Asia Minor. When the Empire itself began to be torn
with political dissensions in the later years of the fourth century,
adventurous Roman generals began to aspire to the higher positions.
One of these, a Spanish soldier, Maximus by name (in Welsh legend
Macsen Wledig), rose against the emperor Gratian. In Britain he
collected a large army with which he defeated and slew Gratian. In
A.D. 388, however, he was himself overthrown at Aquileia. The great
soldier Stilicho was appealed to by the despairing Britons, harassed
by foes on every side; but all the forces at his disposal were needed
for the more urgent task of protecting the older and more valuable
frontiers of the Empire.
For purposes of defence Britain had been divided into two
provinces--the north, commanded by a Dux Britannorum, or, as he was
called in Welsh, the _Gwledig_; and the south-east, commanded by the
Count of the Saxon Shore. Of these the first is the more important
in Welsh history. The most famous holder of the office was Cunedda.
His seat of {36} government originally was in the north; but being
compelled to give way to the Picts, he led his Brythons into Wales,
where he established himself at Deganwy on the Irish Sea. One of the
greatest of Cunedda's descendants was Maelgwn Gwynedd. He perceived
that if Wales remained composed of a number of petty independent
principalities no other fate could possibly await it than to be
swallowed up piecemeal by the foreigners. Accordingly, partly by
argument and partly by artifice, he persuaded the other chieftains to
acknowledge him as the heir to Roman power, and to bow to his
overlord ship. This was about the year A.D. 550. Nevertheless the
Saxon advance continued. Under their leader Ceawlin they marched up
the Severn valley; and, in the year 577, won a great victory at
Deorham, the result of which was that they reached the Bristol
Channel, thus cutting off the inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall for
ever from their kindred in Wales. Some little time later Ethelfrith,
king of the Angles, marched against Chester, won a battle there in
613, and established his power as far as the Irish Sea. This meant
that a wedge was driven in between the people of Wales and the Welsh
people of Strathclyde. Meanwhile all along the border {37} English
power was being consolidated under the able and vigorous kings of
Mercia; and soon Offa's Dyke was raised to mark the boundary. Thus
by the middle of the seventh century Wales had assumed what were to
remain to all intents and purposes ever afterwards its geographical
limits. Internally the country was forming itself into the principal
territorial divisions which remained until superseded by the shire
system of Edward I. The extreme north was called Gwynedd. Next came
Powys, roughly corresponding to our Montgomeryshire. Modern
Cardiganshire was called Ceredigion. Corresponding to Pembrokeshire
was Dyfed. Carmarthen represents the ancient Deheubarth, and
Glamorgan the ancient Morganwg; while between the Usk and the Wye was
the principality of Gwent.
By the close of the eighth century the struggle between Celt and
Saxon had abated somewhat of its severity; but no sooner was the
strife over than the Danes appeared on the scene, a menace alike to
England and to Wales. The most famous of Welsh champions in the
fight against the Danes was Rhodri Fawr, whose reign began in 844.
In many respects Rhodri resembles his great contemporary Alfred of
Wessex. He consolidated his power, {38} built a fleet, and kept the
invaders at bay. But after his death in 877 dissension and discord
again prevailed. The Danes renewed their attacks; and the famous
law-giver Howel Dda proved quite incapable of dealing adequately with
the situation. Howel died when things were at their worst, leaving
one child, his daughter Angharad. Fortunately this girl was married
to a man of commanding personality, Llewelyn ap Seisyll, a good
statesman and a capable soldier. He succeeded in bringing the whole
of Wales under his sway, in restoring order, and in keeping out both
Danish and Saxon invaders. But towards the close of his life, in
1022, the Danes again arrived in renewed strength; and the old king's
successor, Griffith ap Llewelyn, became a fugitive, while anarchy
prevailed throughout the land. Llewelyn, however, proved to be one
of the greatest rulers that Wales has ever had. In 1038 he returned
from exile, overcame all resistance, drove back the Mercians, deposed
the reigning pretenders, and made himself undisputed ruler of the
whole country from the Dee to the Severn. Griffith was a man of wide
vision who looked beyond the frontiers of Wales. He perceived that
the great enemy of his country was Harold of {39} Wessex; and in
order to be strong enough to resist him he married Eadgyth the
daughter of Harold's great rival Aelfgar, earl of Mercia. For some
time Griffith was successful; but in 1063 Harold organised a campaign
on a big scale. He himself marched into Wales from Bristol; while
Tostig, with another army, invaded Gwynedd. Wales was harried with
fire and sword; and in the midst of it all Griffith was murdered by
one of his own discontented followers. But the English conqueror had
only just placed the country under the government of Griffith's two
brothers, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, when he was summoned to attend to
sterner tasks by the death of Edward the Confessor.
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