Paternus of the Scarlet Robe was born in the 4th century in the Old North, the Hen Ogledd, of Roman Britain. One traditional account states that he was a Romano-British official placed in command of Votadini troops in Clackmannanshire by Emperor Magnus Maximus against Pictish and Irish incursions south of Hadrian's Wall. The Life of Saint Padarn tells the story of how King Arthur tried to steal his tunic or Scarlet Robe.

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The name Cunedda comes from the Brythonic word "kunodagos" or good hound.

Cunedda led the Votadini troops to North Wales to defend the region against the Irish invasion, specifically the U� Liath�in, as mentioned in the Historia Brittonum. Cunedda established himself in the territory of the Venedoti, which would become the center of Gwynedd. Cunedda was probably acting under the orders of Vortigern, the high king of the British in the immediate post-Roman era. Upon the Romans evacuating the fort at Chester, Cunedda probably used it as his initial base for his campaign into Wales. It may have been Vortigern who, imitating Roman statecraft, moved the Votadini south, as he invited Saxon settlers to protect other parts of the island. Vortigern possibly instructed Cunedda and his Votadini soldiers to move to Wales in response to the Irish invasions no later than 442 when Vortigern's former Saxon allies rebelled. Cunedda was most likely celebrated for his abilities as a soldier and to rally the beleaguered Romano-British forces of the area. He secured a politically advantageous marriage to Gwawl, daughter of Coel Hen, the Romano-British ruler of Eboracum (York). The early kingdoms of Ceredigion and Meirionnydd were named after his sons Ceredig and Meirion.

The hill of Allt Cunedda near Cydweli, Carmarthenshire suggests his campaigns against the Irish extended from Gwynedd into to south-west Wales. Excavations in the 19th century revealed an Iron Age hill fort and several collapsed stone cists containing the well preserved skeletons of several men with formidable physical proportions. At least one of these was found in the seated position and another buried beneath a massive stone "shield" who had apparently been killed by a head wound. The bones appear to have been sent to various museums and have all since been lost. One of the hills was known as Banc Benisel and was supposedly the grave of a Sawyl Penuchel, a King of the Britons from late Iron Age. His epithet Penuchel or Ben Uchel means "high head" perhaps because of his height. According to the Welsh Life of Saint Cadoc, a king named Sawyl Penuchel held court at Allt Cunedda. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his "History of the Kings of Britain" from 1136, states Samuil Petnessil was a pre-Roman king of Britain, preceded by Redechius and succeeded by Pir. Much archaeological evidence was destroyed by Fenton's expedition in 1851 and it is not known if all the men buried at this site were contemporaries or if there were successive burials on a site with long term cultural significance. It is interesting to speculate that Cunedda himself may have been buried here, a site whose Iron Age notoriety may well have carried through the end of the Roman period and into the Dark Ages. Folk memories of people living near Allt Cunedda recorded by the Victorian antiquarians suggests an respect for this site of deep historic importance... 1,400 years later.

5V. CEREDIG Ap CUNEDDA (TEGID 1, PADARN 2, EDERN 3, CUNEDDA 4)

b.c.420 Brythonic Kindom of Manaw Gododdin
d.c.500

In the early 5th century Ceredig was one of his family invited to help expell the Irish invaders from Wales. He was rewarded with the southern part of the country bordering on Dyfed which was named Ceredigion after him. In the late 7th century the territory expanded and became the kingdom of Seisyllwg and after the union of Seisyllwy with Dyfed in the 10th century it was incorporated into Deheubarth. After the English conquest and Anglicized name Cardigan was given to the historic kingdom of Ceredigion.

d. 544 Ceredigion, Wales

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d.c.560

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d.c.600

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d.c.730 Somme, Picardie

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d.c.730

Seisyll ap Clydog was King of Ceredigion in the early 8th century. He gave his name to the later kingdom of Seisyllwg, which consisted of Ceredigion plus Ystrad Tywi. Seisyll appears in the list of kings of Ceredigion in the Harleian genealogies and is named as the son of Clydog or Clitauc Artgloys, the sixth in descent from Ceredig, the founder of Ceredigion. Harleian names him as the father of Arthgen, King of Ceredigion whom the Annales Cambriae record as dying in 807. (1)

Page from the Harleian Genealogy- 10th Century

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Ref:

(1) Harleian Genealogies & Annales Cambriae- BL, Harleian MS 3859

b.c.730
d. 807

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b.c.755
d.c. 841

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b.c.780 Cardiganshire, Wales
d. 871

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Ref:

A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest- John Edward Lloyd, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1912
Harleian Genealogies & Annales Cambriae- BL, Harleian MS 3859
Brut y Tywysogion- in "Archaeologic Cambrensis", Cambrian Archaeological Association, London, 1864- Vol. X, pp. 9 ff
Tim Powys-Lybbe's web page at: http://www.tim.ukpub.net