
Cadell ap Rhodri (854–909) was King of
Seisyllwg, a minor kingdom in
southwestern Wales, from about 872 until his death. The son of
Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd, Cadell was in turn the father of
Hywel Dda, who eventually came to rule most of
Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
and caused
Welsh laws to be codified. Cadell is considered the founder of the Welsh royal
House of Dinefwr.
Life
Cadell was the second son of King
Rhodri the Great of
Gwynedd
Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...
and
Angharad ferch Meurig, a princess from
Seisyllwg.
He was named after his great great grandfather Cadell ap Brochwel of Powys, whose daughter Nest was the mother of his paternal grandfather
Merfyn Frych.
His older brother was
Anarawd (Rhodri's successor as king in Gwynedd), and
Merfyn, assumed to be a younger brother due to the pattern of inheritance of terriitories, is sometimes said to have been installed as
King of Powys. His father was said to have six sons in all but the records are inconclusive on details.
In either 871 or 872, his mother Angharad's brother
Gwgon, King of Seisyllwg, drowned crossing the River Llychwr in the
Gower while fighting "black pagans" (taken to mean
Viking invaders). Gwgon died without leaving an heir, and Rhodri Mawr became steward over the
kingdom of Seisyllwg (Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi). Although Rhodri was unable to make a legal claim to the throne, he was able to install Cadell as a vassal king through his maternal line of descent.
Cadell had four known sons:
Hywel Dda, Clydog (d. 920), Morgan and Cadwgan. Cadell and Hywel together also conquered
Dyfed in 904905, establishing Hywel as the king in that region, strengthened by Hywel's marriage to Elen, daughter of
Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, King of
Dyfed (d. c. 904). Cadell left his territorial holdings to his sons
Hywel and Clydog on his death in 909.
After his brother's death, Hywel ruled the two kingdoms jointly as
Deheubarth.
Cadell had two other sons, Morgan and Cadwgan, who attended the coronation of
Eadred, king of England from 946 to 955, alongside Hywel on 26 August 946.
[ ]
See also
*
Kings of Wales family trees
Footnotes
References
A history of Wales from the earliest time John Edward Lloyd, 1911
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cadell Ap Rhodri
House of Dinefwr
850s births
909 deaths
10th-century Welsh monarchs
Welsh princes
9th-century Welsh monarchs