Tewdrig

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Tewdrig
birth_date=sixth century
death_date=
feast_day=April 1
venerated_in=Roman Catholicism

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imagesize=200px
caption="Death of Tewdric"
after a sculpture by J. Evan Thomas
birth_place=
death_place=Mathern, Wales
titles=
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=
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patronage=
major_shrine=Church of St Tewdrig, Mathern
suppressed_date=
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Tewdrig or Tewdrig ap Teithfallt (fl. sixth century) was a king of the post-Roman Kingdom of Glywysing. He abdicated in favour of his son Meurig and retired to live a hermitical life, but was recalled to lead his son's army against an intruding Saxon force. He won the battle, but was mortally wounded.

The context of the battle is one of Britons versus invading Saxons, without explicit religious overtones. However, since Tewdrig held to a religious lifestyle and was killed while defending a Christian kingdom against pagans (ie, the Saxons), by the standards of that day Tewdrig is considered to be a martyr and a saint. The Latin form of his name is given as Theodoric [Citation
last=Löffler
first=Klemens
year=1912
date=1912
editor-last=Herbermann
editor-first=Charles George
editor-link=Charles George Herbermann
contribution=Tewdrig
contribution-url=http://books.google.com/books?id=D5MRxHehuL4C&pg=PA542
title=The Catholic Encyclopedia
volume=XIV
publisher=The Encyclopedia Press
publication-date=1913
publication-place=New York
page=542
url=] and his feast day is April 1. [Citation
last=Owen
first=Robert
year=1880
date=1880
contribution=April 1
contribution-url=http://books.google.com/books?id=JIcXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA169
title=Sanctorale Catholicum or Book of Saints
publisher=C. Kegan Paul & Co
publication-date=1880
publication-place=London
page=169
url=] Tewdrig's name occurs frequently in the genealogies of South Wales, but the only substantive information about the person comes from the twelfth century "Book of Llandaff".

The "Book of Llandaff" places Tewdrig's story in the territory of the historical Kingdom of Gwent (the southeastern part of modern Monmouthshire), though it states that he was a king of Glywysing. The ancient histories of the kingdoms of Gwent and Glywysing are intertwined, and he may have ruled both kingdoms.

Tewdrig's story

While king of Glywysing, Tewdrig ap Teithfallt had been a patron of the Church at Llandaff, with a history of success in battle. At some point in his reign, he abdicated in favour of his son Meurig in order to live a hermitical life at Tintern, a rocky place near a ford across the River Wye. However, when a Saxon threat to the kingdom emerged, he returned to lead a defence. He was successful, but at a battle or skirmish at or near the ford (called "Rhyd Tintern"), he was mortally wounded. He asked to be taken to Ynys Echni (called Flat Holm in English) for burial, but got no further than Mathern on an inlet of the Severn estuary, where he languished briefly and died. King Meurig built a church on the spot and buried his father's body there, giving the surrounding land to the Bishops of Llandaff. The place became known first as "Merthyr Tewdrig" ("the burial-place of Tewdrig"), and later as "Mateyrn" ("place of a king") or Mathern. [ [http://education.newport.ac.uk/displayPage.aspx?object_id=8402&type=PAG University of Wales, Newport] ] E. T. Davies, "A History of the Parish of Mathern", 1990] Tewdrig's defence of his homeland was said to be sufficiently decisive that the Saxons would not dare to invade again for thirty years.There is a minor hagiographic element in this story from the "Book of Llandaff". On returning to secular service due to military necessity, Tewdrig is given the prophesy that he will be successful but will be mortally wounded; that a vehicle pulled by two stags, yoked, will appear and carry him towards his destination of Ynys Echni, but that he will die in peace three days after the battle.

Tewdrig's father, Teithfallt, had also been a king, and the "Book of Llandaff" notes that during his reign the Saxons had devastated the border regions, chiefly to the northwest near Hereford (ie, in the historical Kingdom of Ergyng), and also along the River Wye. Tewdrig's battle was a continuation of the ongoing warfare between the Britons and the intruding Saxons.

A number of sources, such as Ussher's "Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates" [Citation
last=Ussher
first=James
author-link=James Ussher
editor-last=Elrington
editor-first=Charles Richard
year=1847
date=1639
contribution=
title=The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D.
volume=VI
publisher=Hodges and Smith
publication-date=1847
publication-place=Dublin
page=82
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=solLAAAAMAAJ] (1639), cite Bishop Godwin's 1615 account of the medieval church at Mathern. Godwin said that he discovered a stone coffin by the altar in the church, containing the saint's bones, and that the skull was badly fractured. Ussher also repeats the account of the "Book of Llandaff".

Sources of information

The Book of Llandaff

The "Book of Llandaff" was written c. 1125, at a time when the bishopric at Llandaff was struggling against the competing bishoprics at Saint David's and Hereford. The book was written specifically to justify the claims of Llandaff, and Tewdrig's story provides the reason why his son, Meurig ap Tewdrig, donated the lands near Mathern to the see of Llandaff.

Other sources

Tewdrig is not mentioned by Nennius in the "Historia Brittonum" (c. 850). [Citation
last=Nennius
author-link=Nennius
year=1819
date=c. 850
editor-last=Gunn
editor-first=W.
contribution=
title=Historia Brittonum
publisher=John and Arthur Arch
publication-date=1819
publication-place=London
pages=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=CbosAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage] Lloyd's "History of Wales" (1911) mentions the "Book of Llandaff's" account of Tewdrig's combat at the crossing of the Wye, and notes that "Merthyr Tewdrig" is now called Mathern, but adds nothing further. [Citation
last=Lloyd
first=John Edward
author-link=John Edward Lloyd
year=1911
date=1911
contribution=
title=A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest
volume=I
edition=2nd
publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co
publication-date=1912
publication-place=London
pages=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NYwNAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover] Nedelec's "History of the Early Cambro-British Christians" (1879) retells the story from the "Book of Llandaff", adding a number of unattributed details which are colorful but inconsequential. [Citation
last=Nedelec
first=Louis
year=1879
date=1879
contribution=
title=Cambria Sacra, or The History of the Early Cambro-British Christians
publisher=Burns and Oates
publication-date=1879
publication-place=London
pages=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YapAAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage] Turner's "History of the Anglo-Saxons" (1799) repeats the accounts of the "Book of Llandaff" and Bishop Godwin (citing Ussher as the source), but then adds that the Saxons in question were those of Wessex, led by Ceolwulf. [Citation
last=Turner
first=Sharon
author-link=Sharon Turner
year=1852
date=1799
contribution=
title=The History of the Anglo-Saxons
volume=I
edition=Seventh
publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
publication-date=1852
publication-place=London
pages=285-86
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=iG8QAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover] No authority is provided for this claim.

The Iolo Manuscripts

The "Iolo Manuscripts" are a collection of manuscripts presented in the early nineteenth century by Edward Williams, who is better known as Iolo Morgannwg. Containing elaborate genealogies that connect virtually everyone of note with everyone else of note (and with many connections to "Arthur"), they were at first accepted as genuine, but have since been shown to be an assortment of manuscripts, transcriptions, and fantasies, many invented by Iolo himself. There are many references to Tewdrig and his genealogy. A list of works tainted by their reliance on the material presented by Iolo (sometimes without attribution) would be quite long.

References

Bibliography

*Citation
last=Rees
first=William Jenkins
year=1840
date=1840
contribution=
title=The Liber Landavensis, Llyfr Teilo
publisher=William Rees
publication-date=1840
publication-place=Llandovery
pages=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cEcLAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage — from MSS. in the Libraries of Hengwrt, and of Jesus College (English translation)
*Citation
last=Williams
first=Edward (Iolo Morgannwg)
author-link=Iolo Morganwg
year=1848
date=c. 1810
editor-last=Williams (ab Iolo)
editor-first=Taliesin
editor-link=
contribution=
title=Iolo Manuscripts
publisher=William Rees
publication-date=1848
publication-place=Llandovery
pages=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=TnBoaWNvArEC&printsec=frontcover

Citations