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Like the other provinces of
the empire, later Roman Britannia possessed a Christian
Church. Five British clerics had attended the Council of
Arles in 314. They included three bishops (one from York and
two others - possibly from London and Leicester), a priest and
a deacon. Many of the British had maintained their Christian
faith, even exporting it to Ireland, through the period when
the pagan Germanic peoples had gradually taken control of the
eastern part of the island.
Ergyng was the cradle of one
of the several British bishoprics which ultimately formed the
diocese of Llandaff. The
recorded origins of the bishopric of Ergyng lie with the
activities of St Dyfrig, or Dubricius, in what is now southern
Herefordshire. Dyfrig seems to have emerged from the local
Romano-British population and may have been active in the 5th
century. A bishopric
seems to have been based at St Constantine's Church at
Garthbenni by 500 AD.
With English pressure growing on its original centre in south
Herefordshire, the focus of this bishopric appears to have
migrated westwards, finally settling at Llandaff in the late
10th or early 11th centuries. The Book
of Llandaff (compiled in the 12th century from
earlier sources)
claims that Dyfrig was the first in a direct line of Bishops
leading to the then Bishop of Llandaff, Urban, consecrated in
1107. In the Llandaff version, Dyfrig was followed
sequentially by first St Teilo, then St Oudoceus as
territorial bishops presiding over a diocese in the standard
contemporary Roman fashion. Such territorial diocese may have
not only continued, but expanded, in the immediate post-Roman
period.
Ergyng had its own dynasty of
kings in the 6th and 7th centuries.
King Erb of Gwent and Ergyng granted land to the church in
about 555 AD His son Peibio was 'King of Ergyng'. Peibio was
followed by Cinuin and Gwyddgi, who were followed in turn by
Gwrgan. Gwrgan is the last person recorded as King of Ergyng,
and probably died in about 645. Gwrgans daughter, Onbraust,
married
Meurig of
Glywysing/Gwent, and
Athrwys was their son,
unifying both kingdoms.
This process, by which smaller
kingdoms and territories became part of larger ones, reversing
a presumed post-Roman fragmentation, must have taken place in
all parts of Britain, although the records are sparse.
Alliances were formed, often between Germanic and British
kingdoms. Larger groupings would in themselves have
encouraged smaller kingdoms to seek alliances with larger
neighbours. Ultimately, even the larger kingdoms merged - by
the early 9th century, Powys, weakened by its
struggle with Mercia, was absorbed by Gwynedd.
Ergyng, as a distinct entity,
seems to have retained some sort of separate political
existence after it lost its own kings. Recognisably separate
groups of leading men of Ergyng, Gwent and Glywysing continued
to be present, in their respective areas, at the granting of
charters into the 8th or 9th centuries.
The process by which Ergyng
came to be dominated by the English-speaking Mercians remains
obscure, but certainly happened in stages over a long period
of time.
In 722 the British won a
victory over the English at Pencon (this is likely to
be Pencoyd in Archenfield where numerous human bones were
found some years ago). The victor
would have been King Ithel ap Morgan, and the result
would have been the continuation of the rule of Glywysing in
Ergyng. The existence of a separate Ergyng polity of at least
some sort in this period is suggested by a grant of land to
the church by one Rhiadaf in about this time. Rhiadaf
purchased the land for this purpose and granted in the
presence of Ithel and the elders of Ergyng - presentia
iuthaili regis et nobilium seniosum ercycg. The price may
have included booty for it consisted of 24 items (possibly
cattle), and a Saxon woman, a precious sword and valuable
horse (saxonica muliere et gladio pretioso et equo ualente)
(The Book of Llandaff, p185).
However, the initiative passed
to the Mercians by 743 when
Cuthred of Wessex joined the
Mercian king,
Ęthelbald, in laying waste the border lands.
Ithel had regained control of
at least the greater part of Ergyng in 745, and returned 11
churches there to its bishop, Berthwyn, after the Saxon
devastation. The grant returning these churches is recorded
in the Book of Llandaff which tells of the
destruction of the border towards Hereford by the 'most
treacherous Saxon race' (saxonica gente infidelissima).
In the mid 9th century Mercian
expansion south of Hereford led to the annexing of northern
Ergyng. Writing in the 12th century the author of the 'Life'
of St Oudoceus (Euddogwy) says that at this time the area was
lost to the English 'from Moccas to the Dore to the Worm to
the Tarader'. This may have been as a result of a campaign by
King Burgred of Mercia and his father-in-law,
King Ęthelwulf
of Wessex.
When
Alfred the Great came to
the throne of Wessex in 871 the Danes controlled most of
England. His successes against them gained him great influence
in Britain. His daughter Ęthelflaed married Ęthelred the
ruler of Mercia. Although Alfred and his son-in-law and
daughter co-operated against the Danes, Mercia independently
continued its historical struggle with the Welsh. The southern
Welsh asked for Alfred's protection and thus conceded his
overlordship.
In 917 the Danish jarls Ohtor
and Hroald sailed up the Severn estuary and attacked the
southern Welsh coast. Bishop Cyfeiliog of Ergyng was seized
and taken on board their ships. The fact that it was the
English king Edward who ransomed him for forty pounds
illustrates his role as protector.
Ęthelflaed died in 918 and her
brother, Alfred's son Edward the Elder, deprived her daughter Ęlfwynn
of authority in Mercia and established one English
kingdom.
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