page_title: History of Cumbria
section_title: Rheged
hierarchical_section_title: History of Cumbria / Medieval Cumbria / Early medieval Cumbria, 410–1066 / Rheged
caption_attribution_description: Personal photograph taken by Mick Knapton, April 2005.
context_page_description: The history of Cumbria as a county of England begins with the Local Government Act 1972. Its territory and constituent parts however have a long history under various other administrative and historic units of governance. Cumbria is an upland, coastal and rural area, with a history of invasions, migration and settlement, as well as battles and skirmishes between the English and the Scots.
context_section_description: The extent of Rheged is disputed: none of the early sources tells us where Rheged was located. Some historians believe that it was based on the old Carvetii tribal region – mostly covering the Solway plain and the Eden valley. Others say that it may have included large parts of Dumfriesshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. The Kingdom's centre was based, possibly, at Llwyfenydd, believed to be in the valley of the Lyvennet Beck, a tributary of the River Eden in east Cumbria, or, alternatively, at Carlisle.
  The little that is known about Rheged and its kings comes from the poems of Taliesin, who was bard to Urien, King of Catraeth and of Rheged (and possibly overlord of Elmet). It is known, from the poetic sources, that under Urien's leadership the kings of the north fought against the encroaching Angles of Bernicia and that he was betrayed by one of his own allies, Morcant Bulc, who arranged his assassination after the battle of Ynys Metcaut (Lindisfarne) around 585 AD.
  The Battle of Catraeth, fought by the British (c. 600 AD) to try to recover Catraeth after Urien's death, was a disastrous defeat for them. Aethelfrith, the victor, probably received tribute from the kings of Rheged, Strathclyde and Gododdin (and maybe even from the Scots of Dalriada) thereafter.
caption: Walls Castle, Ravenglass: the possible site of the Arthurian Lyons Garde or St Patrick's birthplace
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