CHAPTER IV

BRECON CATHEDRAL

l)& former Priory Church of St. John

M ^ ^ t h e Evangelist at Brecon, counted the

J finest ecclesiastical edifice in Wales with

the exception of the cathedrals of St.

David’s and Llandaff, now ranks with them as a

cathedral— that of the new diocese of Swansea and

Brecon. It was fitting that the bishop's throne should

be installed in the church of Brecon instead of in

huge, busy and not very attractive Swansea, quite

apart from the fact that at the town beneath the

towering Brecknock Beacons there was a building

not unworthy of cathedral rank, that is to say as far

as pretensions go in Wales, whose cathedrals are on

a modest scale.

Brecon, as a town, probably dates from the vith

century or even earlier, but the name by which it is

now known is no older than the xith century, being

in fact the appellative given by the Norman barons

who at the prompting of William I. set themselves

lo the conquest of South Wales. Its Celtic name is

Aberhonddu, but it has always been one of the chief

i owns of the principality of Brycheiniog, now known

i. Ifrecknockshire.

The early history of Wales is extremely obscure

127

128 B reco n C ath ed ral

and the extant records are little more than the reflections of tradition. Except in the extreme south-east,

where Legio II. Augusta stood on guard at Isca Silurum (Caerleon), and at a few points along the coast , the Romans seem always to have allowed the tribesmen of wild and rugged Cambria to remain very much to themselves, as the Indian frontier clans have usually been left, except at such times as they violently abuse their privileges. Situated as Wales was, it is likely enough that there was much cross-migration between it and Ireland, and there may have been a considerable Irish influx before the time of Irish hostility in theivth and vth centuries!


The policy of Rome during

the later period was decidedly to encourage settlements of warlike aliens within the bounds of the empire,

and there is good reason to believe that this was the

policy followed in Britain.

There is therefore, in default of better evidence,

no reason to question the Welsh tradition that Brycheiniog was founded by an adventurous chief named

Brychan, who, on his father’s side, was of Irish

descent— not by a British Cambrian, or by one of

the sons of the great Cunedda, who, about 400,

expelled the Irish invaders from North Wales.

A t the same time, Brychan had some kind of legal

claim to rule the district in which his father had

settled, since the latter had married a British woman,

But in those wild days the only right respected ill

Cambria was the right of the sword. A great deal

might be said about this founder of a local dynaniy

which played its part in Welsh history for six ceiiim in

and more, but when so scholarly and painstaking an

The State of Brycheiniog 129

historian as M r. Lloyd calls him one of the most

shadowy figures in the annals of the country, the

English writer may be pardoned for sparing his words.

The pedigree of the lords of Brycheiniog has come

down in a corrupt form, and the sequence of names

is not very certain. But it may be accepted as a proven

fact that the state was really founded by, and named

after, a chief named Brychan.

During the Dark Ages the principality appears as

involved in the customary Welsh dynastic quarrels

and almost endemic civil wars as well as in the perennial struggle with the English enemy to the eastward. In the vnth century there is mention of a

prince of Brycheiniog named Awst (Augustus or

Augustinus), showing that even yet the influence of

Rome was faindy felt by the wild mountaineers of

Wales. Its capital seems generally to have been

Talgarth, not Aberhonddu.

There is a tradition that Brychan himself was born

at the Roman station of Gaer, three miles from Brecon,

which is now in course of excavation, but it would

not be quite safe to accept this as a fact. The Kymric

princes of Wales seem to have been as little addicted

10 establishing themselves within Roman walls as

die English, In any case Gaer was quickly abandoned

for Talgarth.

Brycheiniog might appear to be tolerably well protccted by nature, but access into the mountains by

die valley of the Usk is not difficult, and thus in the

1 Kill century the Vikings made their appearance there.

This was in 896, when the Viking Great Army under

dir leadership of Haesten was endeavouring vainly

Aberhonddu mold river honddu brycheniog hawarden flint ceredigion talgarth lwhill fort abergaveny gold
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