Short History of Wales | Page 9

through Wales in heathen times, and it is said that three
white flowers rose behind her wherever she had put her foot.

CHAPTER V
--THE WELSH KINGS

The spirit of Rome remained, though Rome itself had fallen. And
Welsh kings rose to take the place of the Roman ruler, trying to force
the tribes of Wales--of different races and tongues--to become one
people.
The chief Roman ruler, at any rate during the later wars against the
invaders, was called Dux Britanniae, "the ruler of Britain." It became
the aim of the ablest kings to restore the power of this officer, and to
carry on his work, to rule and defend a united country. And I will tell
you briefly how the kings ruled and defended Wales for more than five
hundred years--how Maelgwn tried to unite it, how Rhodri tried to
prevent the attacks of Saxon and Dane, how Howel gave it laws, and
how Griffith tried to defend it against England.
Between 400 and 450 Rome left Wales to look after itself. An able
family, called the House of Cunedda, took the power of the Dux
Britanniae, and they translated the title into Gwledig--"the ruler of a
gwlad (country)." Of this family Maelgwn Gwynedd is the most
famous. It was his work to try to unite all the smaller kings or chiefs of
Wales under his own power as "the island dragon." It was a difficult
thing to persuade them; they all wanted to be independent. A legend
shows that Maelgwn tried guile as well as force. The kings met him at
Aberdovey, and they all sat in their royal chairs on the sands. And
Maelgwn said: "Let him be king over all who can sit longest on his
chair as the tide comes in." But he had made his own chair of birds'
wings, and it floated erect when all the other chairs had been thrown
down. Before Maelgwn died of the yellow plague in 547, his strong
arm had made Wales one united country, and had made every corner of
it Christian.
The new wave of nations, coming on as surely as the tide, began to beat
against Wales. The Picts came from the northern parts of Britain, and
Teutonic tribes swarmed across the eastern sea. The Angles came to the
Humber, and spread over the plains of the north and the midlands of
Roman Britain; the Saxons came to the Thames, and won the plains

and the downs of the south-east. In 577 the Saxons, after the battle of
Deorham, pierced to the western sea at the mouth of the Severn; they
crept up along the valley of the Severn, burning the great Roman towns.
Before they reached Chester and the Dee, however, they were defeated
at the battle of Fethanlea in 584. But the Angles soon appeared, from
the north; and after their victory at Chester in 613, they won the plains
right to the Irish Sea.
Wales was now surrounded on the land side by a people who spoke
strange languages, and who worshipped different gods, for the Angles
and the Saxons were heathens. From the sea also it was open to attack.
Sometimes the Irish came. But the most feared of all were the Danes,
whose sudden appearance and quick movements and desperate
onslaughts were the terror of the age. The "black Danes" came from the
fords of Norway, the "white Danes" from the plains of Sweden and
Denmark. The Danes settled on the south coast: Tenby is a Danish
name. Offa, the king of the Mercian Angles, took the rich lands
between the Severn and the Wye; but Offa's Dyke (Clawdd Offa) is
probably the work of some earlier people whose history has been lost.
It was only by incessant fighting that the enemy could be kept at bay.
Of all the kings who tried to defend his country against the enemies
which now stood round it, the greatest is Rhodri, called Rhodri Mawr-
-"the Great." From 844 to 877, by battles on sea and land, he broke the
spell of Danish and Saxon victories; and his might and wisdom enabled
him to lead his country in those dark days. Like Alfred of Wessex, who
lived at the same time and faced the same task, he stemmed the torrent
of Danish invasion and beat the sea-rovers on their own element. Like
Alfred, he left warlike children and grandchildren. One of the
grandsons was Howel the Good, who put the laws of Wales down in a
book.
Wales and England were now, both of them in their own way, trying to
become one country. It was seen by many that strength and peace were
better than division and war. In England, the Earls of Mercia and
Wessex tried to rise into supreme power. In