The Entire History of Brecon // Ancient Welsh History Archeology Documentary

In the 4th century AD, a new force arrived on the western lands of Britain. Just as the Romans pulled out from the south and the east of the island, sending their now meagre defences to the continent to deal with persistent barbarian incursions, long-suppressed native British leaders began to throw off the imperial yoke of far-off Rome. And yet, new foes were on the way too. From the east, Germanic fighters had greedily watched the splendour of Britannia ebb away. And from the west, heading out along well-established trade routes and seaways, Irishmen scattered to the winds found their way to Cornwall, Wales and as far inland as Viriconium in the Midlands. Their existence can be seen on hundreds of inscribed stones with Irish Ogham inscriptions, all along the western coasts of Britain. And in multitudes of written Roman accounts. Free-roaming mercenaries. Migrating warrior lords. Refugees. Amazingly, these early medieval travellers can now be seen in DNA evidence too. In recently excavated burial grounds in Ireland, many young men were found to have been born overseas, or at least spent significant amounts of time in far-off lands. Presumably before heading back home with their plunder, to be buried in elite cemeteries. For the Irish, this was the age of heroes, seen in epic tales written down later, like the expulsion of the Deci. The stories tell of dynasties of roaming warriors, heading overseas to find their fortunes on distant shores. Often heading home once they'd done so, but not always. In some places, those freebooting warriors became so much more. For this is the age of heroes in Wales too. In the northern Welsh kingdom of Gwenedd, any potential dynasts worth their salt, portrayed themselves as descended from the Old North. Men from British kingdoms north of Hadrian's Wall, who'd come down to fight off Irish invaders in the wake of the Roman collapse. To keep the place British. In the Brecon Beacons however, where mountains loom and enemies dwell in all directions, it's the Irish who are at the top of the royal pedigrees. For the rulers of the early medieval kingdom of Breconog, which once held sway here, the Irish freebooters are the key to their lineage. Specifically, one man. Brickon Breconog. The figure who gave the place its name. Staying around to carve out a kingdom here in this rugged, starkly beautiful landscape. A landscape which has changed little since those ancient days. And that kingdom, supposedly established by Brickon in the 5th century, would survive well into the 11th, weathering Mercian and West Saxon attacks, before its independence was finally stamped out by Norman invaders. The foothold established here, eventually leading to the total conquest of much of Wales. And yet, despite Welsh, English and Norman incursions, the region retained a uniquely Welsh character. Of course, the kingdom supposedly established by Brickon was already very old. Its language and its culture dating back to the Celtic Britons who once ruled the whole island in the days before Rome. The Silores of southern Wales and their neighbours the Dematae were immensely powerful fighters who'd held out longer than most against the Romans. They're still visible today in the immense hill forts that dot the landscape. And the Roman forts too, built to pacify them. My name's Pete Kelly. I'm a writer and a filmmaker. This is my dad and my brother. In the summer of 2021, we took a trip to Brickon to find out a little of the history of this ancient land. Finding hill forts, castles and fortresses along the way. Let's go. A series I recently watched, which works nicely as a follow-on to this video, is The Normans. An epic look at those conquerors from northern France who put an end to so many of the ancient realms of Britain. You can watch The Normans on Magellan TV, the number one documentary streaming service on the web and sponsor of this video. Like Netflix, but entirely for knowledge. When researching my own documentaries, I often find myself watching science, space and of course, history content from Magellan's massive catalogue of programmes. Or just when I want to unwind, there's loads of great stuff for that too. You can watch on your phone, your tablet, your laptop or your TV. And vast amounts of it is in 4K. Follow my link in the description now to start your month-long free trial today. Now, back to the ancient past. Head west from the Midlands, you'll see traffic jams and petrol stations, sausage rolls and pork pies. Eventually, trees give way to rolling hills and mountains beyond. Rising all the way to the border. The land of the cheese and ham toasty beyond. On our way, we pass over the ancient earthworks of Offa's Dyke, built in the 9th century to keep the barrier between English and Welsh. Next, it's Abergavenny, site of a Roman fortress as well as a great Norman keep. Here, in 1175, took place the brutal massacre of a local leader under the promise of safe passage. A real-life Red Wedding. And then, it's on to Wales proper. The landscape begins to change. When we arrive at our Airbnb, I realise with glee that there is a hillfort clearly visible just across the valley. It's a small one, but before nightfall, I just about manage to get a look. And there are many more on the way. This region around the River Usk is simply filled with them. Some small, some moderately sized, others much larger. In the morning, we head out to have a look at another one just down the valley. Just to be confusing, this one has the same name as the one from the night before. Though of course, what they were actually called by the people who lived here is completely lost. When these places were in their prime, over 2,000 years ago, they would have had large wooden walls around them. Beacon fires and hearth smoke clearly visible from one to the next. Perhaps originally sacred sites, a little like nearby Penny Fan. They ultimately grew into significant centres of commerce and activity. And places of refuge during attack. For Celtic Britain was an especially violent place. Cattle raids, wars and squabbles between dynasts especially common. Actively encouraged even in the culture. In around 60 BC, just before the Romans first came to Britain, we get a rousing description of what Britain would have been like from the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus. It is also their custom, when they are formed for battle, to step out in front of the line and to challenge the most valiant men from among their opponents to single combat. Brandishing their weapons in front of them to terrify their adversaries. And when any man accepts the challenge to battle, they then break forth into a song. In praise of the valiant deeds of their ancestors. And in boast of their own high achievements. Revelling all the while and belittling their opponents. And trying, in a word, by such talk, to strip him of his bold spirit before the combat. During this era of Iron Age arms race, every valley seemed to have a hillfort. And Brecon is vulnerable from many sides. They needed defence. One of the biggest in this region, looming over the town of Brecon, is Penny Crug. Though many of these sites existed from the Neolithic all the way through the Bronze Age and beyond. They are stunning places. But of course, all things must come to an end. We can but wonder how the Lords of Brecon reacted when they heard the murmurings of a new people arriving in the south. Masters of their corner of the world for a thousand years. For all time perhaps, according to the stories they told themselves. Hearkening back to the mighty deeds of their ancestors. And yet, it is with good reason that all of those stories are now lost. The people here must have listened with bated breath as messengers arrived to recant the great wars fought against this new foe. Of how the insurmountable fortresses of the Southlands fell one by one. Even the mightiest of them all at the place we now call Maiden Castle. And then, he arrived. A resistance fighter famed in all of Britain. Asking for aid against this impossibly strong foe. He was Caratacus. But the Silurus and Demetei had reputations of their own to uphold. They chose war. What resulted was a brutal campaign between Roman and Britain. Onwards the foreigners pushed. Often getting newly incorporated Spaniards and Germans to do the real fighting for them. Still, they faced setback after setback. Finally, at a great battle on the Shropshire Hills, Caratacus was subdued, chained and sent to Rome as a trophy. Never to set foot in his homeland again. But the tribes, they kept fighting. For decades. Eventually, by around 75 AD, an outpost fortress was established near here, in Brecon. Right in the middle of hillfort country. Just one of many around the frontier. This is Secusium. It's so obscure there aren't any signs. And it's almost completely forgotten today. But here it is. In the early 1920s, straight from the horrors of the First World War, pioneering archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler came here to dig. Uncovering evidence of the cavalry detachment who once called the place home. 500 men, living in an especially provocative position, right by the heartlands of Celtic rulers. We can imagine the tentative standoffs here. Occasional raids on the walls. Supply ships heading up the Usk to ferry in much needed goods, and of course, pay. Guerrilla war raging on with the natives. One of those men who came here to serve, fragments of his life having been found on a tombstone excavated by Wheeler, was a young cavalryman named Candidas. His eyes no doubt fixed on potential citizenship in the empire after a service of 20 years. Candidas was one of around 500 men recruited from the recently romanised Vetonese in Hispania. Excellent soldiers, the Vetonian cavalry played a significant part in the conquest of the Welsh tribes. Particularly the ever warlike Silurians. But there was a lot to be confident about, for Candidas had backup. His fort was just one of a chain of similar bastions strewn across the region. Just a day's march away down the Usk valley at modern day Abergavenny, stood Gubanium. And larger bases at Carmarthen, Llandowery, Cardiff, and finally the legionary base at Caerleon, home to thousands of soldiers, weren't too far away. And yet, despite all the grandeur of the forts, the persistent determination of men like Candidas, and the doggedly powerful cultural assimilation, the Roman occupation in Wales was never really much more than skin deep. Most people continued to live in much the same way as they had before. And unlike further east, few large settlements developed. Yet, for hundreds of years, the Romans remained as overlords. But they were always stretched thin here, and by the 4th century, the place was largely self-ruled again. Of course, the world had changed, and there was no going back to the time before Rome. Christianity, a central facet of life for 1500 years to come, had arrived. Where once druids and wizards had walked, we can now imagine the mountain at Pen-y-Fan frequented by holy men, mystics, and hermits. Even with hundreds of tourists all around, it feels strange up there. Ancient cairns sit atop the peaks. It's otherworldly. Closer to the gods, perhaps. It's no surprise that the place can clearly be seen from every hillfort all around. And yet, the people here were now largely demilitarised and decentralised. They'd known nothing but peace for hundreds of years. But across the sea was a land warlike still, and that land was coming to British shores. In the mid-6th century, when the churchman Gildas wrote his fiery polemical on the ruin and conquest of Britain, he has much to say on the various rulers of Wales. Of Cuniglasus, Constantine, Maglicunus, Dragon of the Island, Vortiporius, suggested by some to be a distant relative of the famous Lord Vortigern of the King Arthur story. Yet, of Brecon, ever the mysterious land, we hear nothing at all. However, a vast array of later written sources do tell us much about this era. Or at least, the stories later generations told about it. We have an immense array of tales from this Bardic tradition, and perhaps most important of all, detailed genealogies and lists of the kings of old, painstakingly maintained from one generation to the next. So we're told. It all began, so one story goes, with the arrival of a Roman emperor. Magnus Maximus to be precise, known as Maxon in the Welsh tales. One of the foremost military leaders in the Western Empire, and a giant in the Welsh sources. He came here, we're told, to appoint one of his trusted followers to command. A Greek named Antonius the Black, as the leader of the British tribe known as the Demetae, whose lands stretched from Pembrokeshire to Brecon. Maximus, described as Antonius' father in some sources, then gathers together a great army of Welshmen to march triumphant on Rome. It's a difficult tale to believe, clearly written hundreds of years after the events it purports to describe. And yet, Maximus is a very real figure, who really did raise troops in Britannia to face off rivals in Gaul and Hispania. So, embedded within the more fanciful narratives, there may well be some kernels of truth to be found. Early medieval Wales is a fascinating time, very much a continuation of that world which came before, though on a smaller, more localised scale. And yet, on the landscape, almost nothing of that time remains today. It wasn't just Romans and Greeks who show up in the old tales, but Irishmen too. As early as the 4th century, the western lands of the Demetae, which would later become known as Dyfed, seem to have fallen under the rule of expansionist Dynasts from beyond the sea. A migration of Dessie Magnates, perhaps originating in the Irish province of Munster, being described in several later tales. As well as the Kinglysts of the rulers of Dyfed themselves. We're told the takeover was largely peaceful. In the north, it was different. Raiders from Leinster took the Flynn Peninsula, which still bears their name today, and according to the 9th century Historia Brittonum, threatened the rest of Gwynedd too. Until they were expelled by the legendary King Cyneda and his warrior sons. Military British leaders from Menorga Dovin, a kingdom of the Old North. Perhaps similarly exploiting the opportunity to carve out a kingdom for themselves. Enter the First King of Brecon. If the tales are to be believed, a contemporary of King Arthur. A 12th century saint's life portrays him as an antagonist to the mythical king, involving himself in the machinations of the British rulers. Whether this is a half-remembered nod to genuine politicking that led to the seizure of a crown, we'll likely never know. Though the stories that grew up around Brecon are innumerable, the kingdom itself is named for him after all. It is to these later stories that we must look for the origins of this patriarchal figure. According to those later Celtic saints' lives, a genre known as hagiography, Brecon, perhaps a Welsh version of the Irish name Brochan, was born in Ireland. The son of an obscure prince, Anlac, and his wife, Markle, heiress of a Welsh kingdom, Garth Madron, based, you guessed it, in the Brecon Beacons. According to the tales, Brecon simply travelled over the sea with his wife and was given the keys to the kingdom. Given the complete absence of contemporary sources, the truth of this claim is impossible to say, but the rest is history. One of the most interesting aspects of Brecon's life, and a fact difficult to explain away entirely as legend, is the sheer number of offspring he is said to have produced. Sons and daughters spread far and wide all across Britain and even beyond to Brittany. The numbers ranging from a respectable 12 to an astronomical 63. A dizzying number of whom apparently travelled south from Brecon into Cornwall and North Devon, where they preached and evangelised to followers, and where they are now venerated as saints. It may be that many of these alleged children were in fact fabricated by later generations, retrospectively added in to genealogies by those wishing to claim descent from one of the so-called Holy Families of Britain. Yet nevertheless, it's hard to look at Brecon during this era without acknowledging the impact that this giant of a figure had on the kingdom, and its self-image. But what did that kingdom actually look like? The Brecon Beacons is a land of waterfalls, mountains and lakes. The largest of these natural lakes is at Langorse, today famous for its fishing and camping holidays. A thousand years ago, it had a very different role. In 1925, archaeologists made an astonishing discovery here, when a near-complete dugout boat was pulled out of the muddy shore. Later radiocarbon dating placing it around the 9th century AD. And that's not all, for a man-made island stands on the water here. A crannog, or lake dwelling, constructed of massive planks of oak, with layers of stone, soil and brushwood on top. Identified as early as the 19th century, the Flangorse crannog has been extensively excavated in recent years, uncovering numerous high-status items. For a time, this may well have been the seat of the kings of Brecon. And interestingly, one of the items found here, a bronze hinge indicating an 8th or 9th century date, is decorated in a similar manner to those coming out of Ireland, where crannogs, which require a large amount of manpower to build, are similarly often associated with kingly power. Some crannogs have their origins back in the Iron Age, and the age of this one is still a debated point. Soon enough though, as far as the incredibly patchy historical records are concerned, Brecon, and its royal family, was Welsh through and through. Depending on which manuscript you read, it was either Brecon's son or grandson, Rayne the Red-Faced, who succeeded him, founding a dynasty which would rule until the mid-7th century. During the time of the fifth king, Idwalon, in the 6th century, the kingdom faced off against aggressive warbands from the north. For Powys, under its king, Cynon Garwin, was on the warpath, invading many of its neighbouring lands, including Brecon. Amidst the chaos which ensued after Cynon's death however, Idwalon's son, Rywalon, was able to seize back the kingdom, beginning a lengthy series of complicated political back and forth between Brecon and the other kingdoms. For hundreds of years to come, each one attempting to invade and annex the others, in order to create a single unified Wales. Unfortunately for Brecon, smaller than its neighbours, and now vulnerable given the relative ease with which Cynon had managed to control it, it would not be a victor. Rywalon was the last direct male descendant of Brecon reported in the histories. His daughter married Clotton, King of Divyd, unifying both realms under a single monarchy for a time. That union would last for a hundred years to come. In the mid-8th century, it was Ceisal, the King of Ceredigion's turn to invade, cleaving apart Divyd and Breconog. A number of rulers attempted to keep the union intact, and a series of complicated power struggles again ensued, ultimately with the kingdoms being cleaved apart. At this point, records about who ruled in Breconog become even more vague and inconsistent than before. Whether the place exercised full autonomy once more is unclear, and genealogies become especially confused. Finally, by the time of King Alfred in the 9th century, we have a contemporary historical account to draw from. According to Alfred's biographer, Aser, Elisedd ap Tudor, King of Breconog, harassed by persistent Viking raiders, made common cause with the Anglo-Saxon ruler in order to defend his realm. It wouldn't do much good though, as in the spring of 896, a massive army of Norsemen devastated the southern Welsh kingdoms, including Breconog. According to Aser, Elisedd didn't just fear the Norsemen, but the kings of Saesluig and Gwenedd too. Much larger kingdoms than his own, and historically more powerful. Ruled by the sons of the expansionist Rodri the Great, the most powerful king in Welsh history up until that point. And yet, when the next invasion came, it wasn't the men of Gwenedd who led it. In 916, we're told in the Anglo-Saxon sources that it was Alfred's daughter, Æthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, who sent an army to Brecon. Allegedly to avenge the murder of an abbot and her companions, Echbright. Though a wider political aim shouldn't be ruled out. Soon afterwards, a ruler of Brecon, Hwegan, is said by a 14th century source to have died alongside the Danes at the Mercian siege of Derby, during the English reconquest of the Danelaw. During that attack on Brecon, it was Thlangor's lake that was the target. Æthelflaed's forces came in, burned the place, and took 33 captives. Including the queen. Not long after, Hwegan's son, Driffin, was forced by the first king of the English, Æthelstan, to pay tribute. And Tudor Ap Elysed is reported to have witnessed a charter at the English royal court in 934. Along with Huild Dár, foremost Welsh king of the time, who'd incorporated Brecon into his own kingdom. Very nearly unifying Wales under a single monarch. It's not known for certain, but given this situation of vassalage to the English crown, it's possible that Welshmen from Brecon fought alongside Æthelstan at the great battle of Brunanburgh in 937. After this point, independent Breconog fades from memory. Gerald of Wales tells us that after Tudor's death, the land was divided between his three nephews. Each ruling a small canton. Presumably under the rule of the kings of Deobath. And subsequently, the next king to nearly unify Wales. And the only one to be fully successful. Originating in Gwynedd. Griffith Ap Llywelyn. Soon after though, Griffith died in battle against Harold Godwinson in 1063. But just three years later, an entirely new force arrived in Britain. And it was time for Saxon and Welshmen alike to make common cause. Many rebellions and wars broke out against Norman rule in England. And one of the most revered in particular, was that of Anglo-Saxon earl and folk hero, Edric the Wild. His was one which only worked because of significant support from across the border in Wales. In 1070 however, a reckoning was on the way. When William FitzOsborne, the first earl of Hereford, crossed over the border to mop up the rebels, his Norman forces would never leave. Three Welsh kings were overthrown and a permanent presence established. A presence that can still very much be seen today. For hundreds of years to come, these French-speaking marcher lords would dominate Brecon. Building immense castles, developing knightly retinues and learning how to do war. Faced with periodical uprisings against their rule, this was the training ground of their warriors. The staging ground for an invasion of Ireland by the end of the 12th century, and a new age for Britain. But that's a story for another day. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video. It really does help me out a lot and it allows me to keep making these things. Let me know where you'd like to see me visit next in the comments, and I'll see you next time.