When a Welsh kingdom conquered Saxon Northumbria
Cadwallon ap Cadfan Historia Regum Britanniae We all know of the English invasions of our little old Cymru. The Saxons invaded a few hundred times and the Normans took 200 years of invasions to subdue the Welsh. However, the traffic wasn’t always one way. On numerous occasions, the Welsh have taken the fight to the English/Saxon/Norman’s on English/Saxon/Norman soil. I will cover many of these in future posts but I want to concentrate on what is probably the most successful (sadly very brutal) Welsh conquest. It is the invasion and occupation of the kingdom of Northumbria by King Cadwallon ap Cadfan. To the ancient Welsh, this occupation was hugely symbolic as to them it was the native Britons taking back land that belonged to them before the Saxons invaded. Cadwallon was remembered as a national hero by the Welsh, naturally, the Saxons saw him as a brutal tyrant. The invasion took place around 633 where Cadwallon joined forces with King Penda of Mercia, to defeat King Edw