Merfyn Frych

Merfyn Frych or Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad ( Merfyn the Freckled, son of Gwriad; † 844 ) was the first of his house, who ruled 825-844 This North West Wales Celtic kingdom of Gwynedd. Its meaning he owes but more the fact that he was the father of Rhodri the Great, who succeeded after centuries of division to unite a large part of Wales in one hand.

Origin

Origin

Merfyn Frych comes from a very ancient Celtic royal family, which can be traced back to the tradition according to the legendary British King Beli Mawr ( Beli the Great). This was probably a historical ruler who succeeded as the first, with some Celtic tribes in Britain, but his life was so overgrown with myths so that it is difficult to recognize historical facts. He lived a generation before the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar ( 55 BC ), since this tradition by his son Caswallon or Cassivellaunus ( cl 60-48 BC) came face to face as an opponent.

For more ancestors

Coel Hen ( Coel the Old ), the Welsh traditions (such as the Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd, " The descendants of the men of the North" ) around 350-420 as King Hen Ogledd ( "Old North" ), ie, speaking in britonisch area of northern England and southern Scotland named in the Roman or post-Roman Britain, the ancestor of some royal dynasties.

Llywarch Hen ap Elidyr ( Llywarch the old man, the son of Elidyr ) was King of Rheged ( in North West England and South West Scotland ) and from the Isle of Man ( c. 560-595 ). As his mother, who was a daughter of the King of Gwynedd Maelgwyn heritage, he could probably extend his rule on belonging to the Kingdom of Gwynedd Isle of Anglesey. Llywarch however, was by its nature less a ruler as a poet, therefore renounced prematurely on the crown and settled with his relatives, the kings of Gwynedd and Powys low as Poet Laureate (see also Englynion y Clyweid, " The sayings of the wise "). Order 582, the Isle of Man conquered by King Aedan of Dalriada.

Parents

Merfyns father was Gwriad ( Guriat ) ap Elidyr ( Gwriad son of Elidyr ), which had prevailed about the year 800 again as king of the Isle of Man, which was not easy, because at that time the island was inhabited primarily by Irish and he therefore was regarded as a stranger. Presumably he succeeded with the support of his father, the king of Gwynedd. At Merfyns father that reminds of this in Maughold in the north of the Isle of Man ( Isle of Man ) and granted " Crux Guriad " ( Cross of Gwriad ).

Merfyns mother was Essyllt ( Ethyllt ), a princess of Gwynedd. She was a daughter of Cynan ap Rhodri Dindaethwy, King of Gwynedd ( 798-816 ), whose trunk line of tradition after more than Coel Hen also up on Cassivellaunus ( cl 60-48 BC) - the British opponent of Julius Caesar - is returned. In her later raised by Merfyn claim is based on the succession to the throne in the Kingdom of Gwynedd.

Life

King of the Isle of Man

King of Quinedd

Through his mother, who was descended from the Royal House of Gwynedd, he had an at least theoretical hereditary right to the crown of this kingdom. Therefore he pursued with personal interest the long-standing power struggle that his grandfather Cynan ap Rhodri Dindaethwy Molwynog, who reigned as King of Gwynedd 798-816, with his brother Hywel ap Rhodri Molwynog, delivered.

In this family dispute ultimately won Merfyns great uncle Hywel, which his brother drove 816 to 825 and ruled as King of Gwynedd. After the death of his maternal great-uncle, King Hywel in the year 825 succeeded Merfyn - probably due to lack of male heirs closer - establishing itself as a ruler in Quinedd and thus also to reign over two kingdoms.

In Quinedd it thus came to replace the hitherto ruling dynasty, from the semi-mythical king Cunedda Wledig ap tetrahedra ( Cunedda the emperor, son of tetrahedra ) is derived, who had come to 420 from northern Britain to North Wales, where his descendants then about 400 years reigned as kings of Quinedd.

External threats

Both kingdoms were exposed to external threats.

After the Icelandic Landnámabók describing the settlement of Iceland and the Icelandic saga Eyrbyggja captured a short time later, the Norwegian commander Ketill flatnefr ( Ketill flat nose ) on behalf of Harold Fairhair, King of Norway ( 872-930 ), the Hebrides and established himself as king. It also became part of the Scandinavian sphere of control.

Defense against the Anglo-Saxons

This defeat of the forces of King Beornwulf was momentous, as it led to the collapse of the hegemony of the Kingdom of Mercia and thus to a reorganization of power relations within the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, in that now the kingdom of Wessex rose to become the leading Anglo-Saxon power. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes to that King Egbert after the conquest of Mercia as the seventh " Bretwalda " (about: High King of Britain) was considered.

Merfyn is in a contemporary complement to the Historia Brittonum of the historian Nennius - probably a bit exaggerated - known as " King of the Britons ". It occurs ( Welsh: Llyfr Coch Hergest ) in the Red Book of Hergest in the prophecy of future kings as Merfyn Frych from the country Manau ". Merfyn died after the Annales Cambriae in 844 at the Battle of Cyfeillog at Ketell in Wales.

Marriage and issue

Merfyn was married to Princess Nest of Powys, a daughter of Cadell ap Brochfael, King of Powys ( 773-808 ). Children:

• Rhodri the Great ( in Welsh ): Rhodri Mawr ap Merfyn Frych ), King of Gwynedd ( 844-878 ), King of Powys ( 854-878 ) and King of Seisyllwg ( 855-878 )
• Gwriad ap Merfyn Frych