Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn
(fl. c. 616–c. 641)David E. Thornton
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/51395Published in print: 23 September 2004 Published online: 23 September 2004
Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn (fl. c. 616–c. 641), king in Wales, was son
of Cyndrwyn of Powys. He seems to have been an important ruler in the southern part of the kingdom of Powys during the middle
decades of the seventh century. Knowledge of him and his dynasty is restricted almost exclusively to a series of elegiac poems composed perhaps no earlier than the ninth century, one of which takes the form of a eulogy by his sister Heledd on his death at English hands. Cynddylan's territory encompassed parts of western Shropshire and south-east Montgomeryshire into which Powys still extended at the start of this period. His seat of power was called ‘Pengwern’, which some have identified as Shrewsbury. Furthermore, in one poem he is termed the lord of Dogfeiling: this was an area outside Cynddylan's traditional territories but it may have come under the control of his dynasty if the power of the kings of northern Powys declined
following the killing of Selyf Sarffgadau at Chester between 613 and 616. Cynddylan's father, Cyndrwyn, is credited with a large progeny (the extant lists of which omit Cynddylan himself), and it is possible that the dynasty was (or claimed to be) Cadelling, that is,
descendants of the Powysian dynastic founder Cadell Ddyrnllug. The activities of Cynddylan's dynasty and its chronology are sketchy to say the least. Cynddylan may at least once have raided Anglesey, if reference to his presence at Menai on that island is reliable. His brother Gwion is said to have been one of the allies of Selyf
Sarffgadau against Æthelfrith of Northumbria at Chester between 613 and 616. Cynddylan himself may have fought against the Northumbrian king Oswald as an ally of Penda of Mercia at the battle of Maserfelth, near Oswestry, in 641. The location of this battle would certainly have been of interest to Cynddylan, and Penda was not averse to forging alliances with Welsh kings. However, whether Cynddylan was among Penda's Welsh allies at the battle of ‘Winwaed’ in 655 is impossible to determine. The putative alliance with Mercia did collapse at some point because Cynddylan is said to have launched a raid beyond the River Tern into Lichfield. If this attack was directed against the Mercians, it possibly caused them to counter-attack by striking against Cynddylan at his home at
‘Pengwern’. Here he and many of his kinsmen were slain, leaving only Heledd to bemoan the deaths and the consequent collapse of
the dynasty. The date of these attacks on Lichfield and ‘Pengwern’ are difficult to determine, though some would date the second to a point after the restoration of Mercian power under Wulfhere in 659.
