page_title: History of Medieval Cumbria
section_title: Rheged
hierarchical_section_title: History of Medieval Cumbria / Early Medieval Cumbria, 410–1066 / After the Romans: warring tribes and the Kingdom of Rheged, c. 410–600 / Rheged
caption_attribution_description: English: self taken
context_page_description: The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse, Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study.
context_section_description: Pabo was present at the Battle of Arfderydd (Arthuret) in 573, which may have been fought for control of the Solway. Peredur and Gwrgi were also there, and these two were supposedly descendants of the Coeling family (Coel Hen) as well as being first cousins of Urien Rheged, (c. 550 – c. 590) so may have been associated with the Rheged area. The sources that mention the battle, however, (the Annales Cambriae and Aneirin's poem Y Gododdin) mention neither Rheged nor Urien, (casting doubt in the minds of some on the existence of both). It may be that Urien took advantage of the confusion and weakness as a result of this savage battle to make his move to take over Rheged, or maybe he did this after the deaths of Peredur and Gwrgi some years later (the brothers were killed fighting the Angles in 580 or 584).
  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. However, one archaeologist points out that there is no archaeological evidence in Carlisle or elsewhere to suggest the location of a 'capital' of Rheged, and the interpretations of the literary sources are equally suspect. Rheged could have been a name for a territory, or a people occupying an area, or both. A consideration of the landscape aspects of the question by the same archaeologist, suggests that the Eden valley or the Rhinns / Machars area of Dumfries and Galloway offer the best places in which to locate a sub-Roman kingdom (but probably not both).
  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 lack of documentary or even archaeological evidence from this period of Cumbria's history has meant that history and legend have become intertwined and the fragments of certainty have become the basis of local myth. One of Cumbria's greatest heroes is Urien Rheged's son, Owain (usually Ewain in Cumbria), who is supposed to have lived at Castle Hewen, believed to be a Romano-British hillfort south of Carlisle. The poetic sources name him as the last king of Rheged (c. 590), having fought with his father against the Angles of Bernicia.
  The Battle of Catraeth, fought by the Brythons (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: The Eden Valley between Appleby and Penrith, an area referred to affectionately as the heartland of Rheged in the praise poems of Taliesin
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