Medieval manuscripts are weird.
[♪ What Does Anybody Know About Anything? - Chris Zabriskie ♪]
From imagery of knights fighting snails, to bizarre stories of moles raining from
the sky. It would be difficult to find a more unusually depicted era in history.
But some of the strangest and most mysterious, occurrences in these manuscripts are much more
subtle. Single names of kings, events and cities that don't exist anywhere else. And sure, kings
come and go, they fade in and out of living memory, but areas, places are permanent, people continue to
live in them for centuries. So when we find a handful of names relating to a kingdom whose
location seems to be all over the place, whose kings appear to have ruled in different areas, and
whose name isn't even spelled consistently, then it becomes very mysterious indeed. Let's explore the
story of a lost kingdom in medieval Britain and, see how an entire piece of history went missing.
Our story starts in the 17th century. Sir John Cotton, an English baronet, donates his library
of ancient manuscripts to the public, and among them is a very curious specimen. 'Cotton Domitian
A 1', the name for a composite of various different manuscripts, including a collection of papers that
historians have dubbed the 'Annales Cambria', a chronicle which covers events in medieval Wales
with some mentions of Ireland and England too, and among these events is a very mysterious entry:
"AD 795: King Offa lays waste to Rheinwg". That's an interesting name and it's not one that ever
occurs again in this manuscript, in fact it's so obscure that this entry doesn't even appear in
the other two versions of the 'Annales Cambria'. We don't have many clues as to where this place
was. The man mentioned, Offa, was the king of Mercia, so if he invaded this "Rheinwg" then
it could have conceivably been anywhere outside of Mercia, although the spelling
would place it somewhere in Wales, as many Welsh kingdoms ended in a "-WG", but more on that later.
And we know that king Offa was certainly active in Wales, as two earlier entries tell us that he
raided into the country, recording attacks in 784, and specifically into South Wales in 778. However
as I said we are given no specific information as to where this Rheinwg actually was, which
tells us that this region was probably famous enough not to warrant any further explanation,
making all the more mysterious as to how we lost this location only a few centuries later.
our second and third clues come from two other manuscripts, dated to the
late 11th century, known as the 'Life of St Padarn', and the 'Life of St Cadog'.
two biographies of two Welsh Saints who were both alive in around the 5th Century.
In the first source we're told that St Padarn, along with two of his contemporaries (St Teilio
and St Dewi) divided the lands of South Wales to form three separate dioceses, in Seisyllwg, Morgannwg,
and Rheinwg. There's that name again, and here we can see why "Rheinwg" was probably a Welsh
name, as the "-wg" ending is present in all three of these places, and it simply denoted that the land
is named after a person. So in English we could call these "Morgan's Land", "Seisyll's Land", and "Rhain's Land".
"Seisyllwg" is also a rare name, but the 'Life of St Padarn' tells us explicitly that it makes up
the land of Ceredigion, an area located here (although some sources make it a bit larger).
Morgannwg was much more famous as it was named after a king, Morgan, who ruled a Welsh kingdom
known as Glywysing in the 10th century, and this name still survives today. But frustratingly
Rheinwg is again not described in any detail! We can only assume that it at least covered
the parish of St Davids (who supposedly took the land), but aside from that we can only guess.
Dr Ben guy suggests that, due to this manuscript being from the 12th century, that it might
have intended Rheinwg to cover what was then the Diocese of St Davids, a huge amount of land
stretching all across South Wales, which fits in geographically with the other two names, but again
we don't have any proper mention of Rheinwg's territory, but at least this narrows us down a bit
to probably somewhere in South Wales. Our third clue also gives us our first discernible fact
that Rheinwg was evidently a kingdom, as we have references to several "kings of Rheinwg", so if we can
identify these leaders then we might be able to narrow down its location. The first king we have is
again found in the 'Life of St Cadog', where we are introduced to a certain "Maredudd, king of Rheinwg".
By the time this biography was written, there had already been four kings named
Maredudd, all of which were located in this area known as the kingdom of Dyfed.
Now, as we've seen, Rheinwg was probably somewhere in South Wales, likely covering at least the
parish of St David's, and now we're told one of its Kings was from Dyfed, a kingdom
that fits all of these criteria. But you might have noticed that I said our first king was
from Dyfed, as the 'Life of St Cadog' names two other kings: one named Cynan, and another
named Rhain, who both separately led an invasion of Morgannwg from Rheinwg in around the year 500.
If they invaded Morgannwg, then Dyfed could still be a strong contender for the lost location, as the
two kingdoms bordered each other. The problem, though, is that we only have one king Cynanand around the
year 500, and that would be Cynan, king of Powys, a kingdom all the way to the north here, great!
And this so-called "Rhain of Rheinwg" isn't much help either, as the only Rhain we have in this
time period is the king of Brycheiniog, located over here. So despite Dyfed seeming like a good
candidate, only one of the three kings of Rheinwg actually seems to have come from this region.
Cynan, the outermost king, does have a saving grace though, we're told he conquered Brycheiniog during his rule.
So was St Cadog simply naming him after an area that he had taken? It's a possibility, but
then why would he also name Maredudd as the king of Rheinwg? So for now we have at least two candidates
for the lost location of Rheinwg: Dyfed, and Brycheiniog. Both of these kingdoms are in South Wales, and Offa
could have conceivably raided either of them (although Brycheiniog would have been much closer).
Dyfedincludes the land of St Davids, who we're told took the lands of Rheinwg for his diocese, but
only one of the three kings of Rheinwg is actually from here. Brycheiniog meanwhile has two of the kings,
and if you recall from the start of this video, the author of the life of St Cadog may have
used Rheinwg to refer to the medieval Diocese of St Davids, which did include this area but if
just Brycheiniog was known as Rheinwg, would they have used this name to cover the entire region?
This discrepancy seems to have gone unnoticed by more contemporary historians and writers though,
as even by the 12th century, only a hundred years after the Saints Lives were written, the location
of Rheinwg seemed to have already begun to have been forgotten. Walter Map, an English courtier,
wrote a fictional story set in the kingdom of Brycheiniog at this time, and he would refer to
this as the "Land of Reynos". This location was also supported by the 16th century poet Lewys ab Edward
and the 19th century historian Aneurin Owen, both of which claimed that Rheinwg was named after king
Rhain, who was that "Rhain of Rheinwg" that I mentioned earlier, although only Lewys would provide a
description, believing the land to have encompassed the regions of Brycheiniog, Rwng Gwy a Hafren, and Buellt.
Aneurin's work, a translation of the medieval Welsh laws, would provide some valuable insight
though, as it contains a passage describing how the kingdoms of South Wales, namely Rheinwg, Morgannwg, and
Seisyllwg, sent representatives to elect a high king of Wales. Which is interesting, as this is the exact
same trio of names that we found in the 'Life of St Cadog', the first clue that we examined,
although unfortunately all that this tells us is that Rheinwg was somewhere in South Wales.
While the location of Rheinwg may have begun to have been forgotten by the 12th century, by the
1500s the location would be entirely lost. We can see that in the book 'Britannia' by the historian
William Camden, which contained a whole paragraph dedicated to figuring out exactly where Rheinwg was.
He believed that this kingdom was centred around the city of Caer Rhain, which he
thought was a location just outside of Hereford, a Roman city known as Ariconium.
His conclusion was that this entire area, known in English as Archenfield, was the lost kingdom of
Rheinwg, due to the fact that the Welsh names sound a bit similar, and he also believed this Caer Rhain
was named after king Rhain of Brycheiniog. This shaky conclusion was fairly popular at the time, and the
Welsh cartographer Humphrey Llwyd even used this information to help formulate his map of Wales.
He wrote that this region of "Herefordshire Beyond the Wye" was known as "Ereynuc" in Welsh,
and we can even see it here: "Reinuc", just south of Hereford and the only map to ever show it by name.
Despite this, as we've already seen, the location is disputed.
Modern historians have generally disregarded Herefordshire, even though a city here might
bear king Rhain's name, it doesn't fulfil any of the other requirements.
Which leaves us with one final piece of the puzzle, and it's this final piece that can give
us our best clue. We've seen what Rheinwg is, we can theorise roughly where it might have been, but WHO
exactly is it named after? Who is this King Reign? And could he tell us where Rheinwg might have been?
If we look at the Welsh genealogies we run into some good and bad news. The good news is that we
have three King Rhains, perfect right? It must be one of these! Unfortunately, two are from Dyfed,
and one is from Brycheiniog... just like the other three kings... which doesn't narrow down at all!
The most recent of the Rhains ruled from 796 till 808, and there isn't really anything
remarkable about him. He ruled over Dyfed, which fills on some of our requirements, but
he has no connection to Brycheiniog. Speaking of which, this kingdom also has a king Rhain,
if you remember he's the one that that city near Hereford might be named after.
He was a lot older, ruling sometime in the 5th Century, and according to one of the
Peniarth manuscripts, he ruled over a big chunk of Mid Wales: known as Brycheiniog, Rwng Gwy a Hafren, and Buellt.
It is not unreasonable that this land could have been named after him, this kingdom was
on the border with Mercia, so Offa could have invaded it in 795, and two of the named kings
of Rheinwg evidently controlled these lands. But it doesn't include the parish of St Davids so why,
would the biography of St Padarn associate the name with this area? And why would the biography of
St Cadog name one of the kings of Dyfed as a king of Rheinwg if it was located in Brycheiniog?
Our last king Rhain is once again from Dyfed, he ruled a bit later, sometime in the 8th Century,
but once again we just encounter the same problems: yes, he ruled the parish of St
Davids, and one of the kings of Rheinwg was definitely from here, but two of them were not.
However, there is something very interesting about this King Rhain, he was bordered to the
north by the kingdom of Ceredigion, who at this time was ruled by a man named
Seisyll, like "Seisyllwg", waht the Life of St Padarn called Ceredegion, bordering somewhere called Rheinwg!
Based on these similarities, some historians have theorised that the name Rheinwg has its origins
around here, although unfortunately the only information we have to go off is from folklore.
in the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh myths, a king of Dyfed is said to have
ruled over the region of "Seisyllwg", which included Ceredegion, and this region known as "Ystrad Tywi".
And since we have evidence that Ystrad Tywi was a part of Dyfed, some historians have theorised that
perhaps king Seisyll of Ceredegion conquered this region from Dyfed, resulting in this enlarged
kingdom being renamed as "Seisyllwg" in his honour, and the shrunken Dyfed being named as "Rheinwg" in
some sort of medieval equivalent of a roast. Can you see the problem though? This has nothing to
do with Brycheiniog. Perhaps it's possible that there are two Rheinwgs, and if every clue we
have this ends up being split between Dyfed and Brycheiniog, maybe they're just two separate entities.
If only we had something that would bring these two kingdoms together...
[*Tyres Screeching*]
Oh wait, what's this? If we take a look at the list of the kings of Dyfed, and compare it to the list
of the kings of Brycheiniog, something very weird comes up. Three of the names are the exact same!
And by the looks of things, somewhere around the 7th century the king of Brycheiniog died without
a son, allowing the husband of his daughter (the king of Dyfed), to come in and take the throne.
We're told that the next three kings of Dyfed also became the next three kings
of Brycheiniog, and their names were Cathen, Cadwgon, and Rhain.
The king of Dyfed, home to the parish of St Davids, and one of the three kings of Rheinwg,
also ruled Brycheiniog, the land bordering Mercia, which was home to the final two kings of Rheinwg,
and all of this is wrapped under a kingdom that bears his name: Rheinwg, "Rhain's Land".
So maybe, just maybe, this kingdom wasn't actually a kingdom at all, but a geographical term used to
refer to the combined lands of Dyfed and Brycheiniog. That would match the description of St Davids
parish by St Padarn, and all three of the named kings of Rheinwg would be from this area. And just
like what we saw in the Welsh laws and the life of St Padarn, combining this term Rheinwg, with
Seisyllwg, and Morgannwg, covers the whole of South Wales, and makes a nice matching Trio of names as well.
This theory is supported by modern historians such as Ben guy and Peter Bartrum, and although
the idea of Rheinwg being named after a shrunken Dyfed still comes up, this hypothesis is
the only one to actually cover all of the criteria of this missing medieval kingdom.
So it looks like for now that we may have solved this mystery, but who knows, maybe
someday we'll discover an ancient reference to a long-lost "King Rhein Oog" in the middle of
Great Britain, and we'll have to start this whole process all over again!
Thanks for watching.