When a Welsh kingdom conquered Saxon Northumbria

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 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 Edwin of Northumbria at the battle of Hatfield Chase.
The Welsh army took control of York, and they took Edwin’s head with them to parade to the people.

After killing king Edwin Cadwallon went onto occupy the kingdom. 
Soon after he was under attack, Bede says that Cadwallon was besieged by the new king of Deira, Osric, "in a strong town"; Cadwallon, however, "sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, by surprise, and destroyed him [Osric] and all his army''
Cadwallon then marched his troops all over the kingdom killing, raping and pillaging all who stood in their way, burning village after village after killing those who lived there.

 Bede also said Cadwallon ruled over the "provinces of the Northumbrians" for a year, "not like a victorious king, but like a rapacious and bloody tyrant. though he bore the name and professed himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and behavior, that he neither spared the female sex, nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them to tormenting deaths, ravaging all their country for a long time, and resolving to cut off all the race of the English within the borders of Britain."

 All this comes to an end at the battle of Heavenfield (read more about the battle here link)

 The Welsh were routed and Cadwallon was caught and killed at a place called the 'Brook of Denis',.

 This brought to an end of the short occupation of an English kingdom by the Welsh.

 My next post will cover king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn's destruction of Hereford and Leominster.

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