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

in the 4th Century A.D 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 meager defenses 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 [Music] and yet new foes were on the way too from the East Germanic Fighters had greedily watched the Splendor of Britannia Eber way 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 ogum 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 Travelers can now be seen in DNA evidence too [Music] thank you 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 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 Desai stories tell of dynasties of Roman Warriors heading overseas to find their fortunes on Distant Shores [Music] often heading home once they've done so but not always [Music] in some places those freebooting Warriors became so much more for this is the age of Heroes in Wales too [Music] in the northern Welsh Kingdom of Gwyneth 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 reckoned 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 breckenarch which once held sway here the Irish freebooters are the key to their lineage [Music] specifically one man bricken brackenog the figure who gave the place its name [Music] 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 bricken in the 5th Century would survive well into the 11th weathering mercian and West Saxon attacks [Music] before its independence was finally Stamped Out by Norman Invaders [Music] 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 Brecken was already very old it's language and its culture dating back to the Celtic britons who once ruled the whole island in the days before Rome [Music] the silores of Southern Wales and their neighbors the demate were immensely powerful Fighters who'd held out longer than most against the Romans foreign they're still visible today in the immense Hill forts that dot the landscape and the Roman forts too built to pacify them [Music] [Music] my name's Pete Kelly I'm a writer and a filmmaker this is my dad and my brother the summer of 2021 we took a trip to Brecken to find out a little of the history of this ancient land finding Hill forts castles and fortresses along the way [Music] let's go [Music] 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 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 catalog of programs 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 [Music] 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 oh [Music] on our way we pass over the ancient Earthworks of offers 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 promise of safe Passage a real life Red Wedding [Music] and then it's on to Wales proper the landscape begins to change [Music] when we arrive at our Airbnb I realize with Glee that there is a hill Fort clearly visible just across the valley it's a small one but before nightfall I just about managed to get a look and there are many more on the way thank you this region around the river usk is simply filled with them some small some moderately sized others much larger [Music] in the morning we head out to have a look at another one just down the valley [Music] 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 [Music] 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 grew into significant centers of Commerce and activity and places of Refuge during attack [Music] [Applause] [Music] for Celtic Britain was an especially violent place [Music] at all raids Wars and squabbles between dynasts a specially common actively encouraged even in the culture 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 Diadora seculus [Music] 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 Praise of the Valiant Deeds of their ancestors and in boast of their own high achievements reveling 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 [Music] during this era of Iron Age arms race every Valley seemed to have a hill fort and brecon is vulnerable from many sides they needed defense one of the biggest in this region looming over the town of Brecken is Penny Krug 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 Brecken 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 [Music] hearkening back to the mighty Deeds of their ancestors uh [Music] and yet it is with good reason that all of those stories are now lost [Music] the people here must have listened with baited 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 [Music] a resistance fighter famed in all of Britain asking for Aid against this impossibly strong foe he was caraticus [Music] but the silorus and demate had reputations of their own to uphold they chose War [Music] 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 karatekus was subdued Chained and sent to Rome as a trophy never to set foot in his homeland again [Music] the tribes they kept fighting for decades eventually by around 75 A.D an outpost Fortress was established near here in Brecken [Music] right in the middle of hillfort Country just one of many around the frontier [Music] this is circusium so obscure there aren't any signs and it's almost completely forgotten today here it is thank you in the early 1920s straight from the Horus of the first World War pioneering archaeologist Mortimer wheeler came here to dig [Music] 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 [Music] and imagine the tentative standoffs here occasional raids on the walls apply ships heading up the usk to ferry in much needed goods and of course hey 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 Cavalry man named candidus his eyes no doubt fixed on potential citizenship in the Empire after a service of 20 years [Music] candidus was one of around 500 men recruited from the recently romanized vertonas in hispania excellent Soldiers the vertonian Cavalry played a significant part in the conquest of the Welsh tribes [Music] particularly the ever warlike silorians but there was a lot to be confident about for candidus add backup his fort was just one of a chain of similar bastions strewn across the region foreign [Music] Valley at modern day abergavenny stood gabbanium and larger bases at carmarthen landovery Cardiff and finally the legionary base at carleon home to thousands of soldiers weren't too far away [Music] and yet despite all the Grandeur of the forts the persistent determination of men like candidus and the doggedly powerful cultural assimilation the Roman occupation in Wales was never really much more than Skin Deep [Music] most people continued to live in much the same way as they had before and unlike further east few large settlements developed [Music] yet hundreds of years the Romans remained as overlords but they were always stretched thin here and by the fourth Century the place was largely self-ruled again [Music] 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 Penny fan frequented by holy man Mystics and Hermits [Music] tourists all around feel strange up there ancient cans sit Atop The Peaks otherworldly [Music] closer to the gods perhaps [Music] it's no surprise that the place can clearly be seen from every Hill Fort all around [Music] and yet the people here were now largely demilitarized and decentralized [Music] they'd know nothing but peace for hundreds of years but across the sea was a land warlike still and that land was coming to British Shores [Music] in the mid 6th century when the Churchman killed us wrote his fiery polemical on the ruin and conquest of Britain he has much to say on the various rulers of Wales [Music] glazes Constantine maglaconis Dragon of the island vortiporius suggested by some to be a distant relative of the famous lord vortegone of the King Arthur story [Music] yet of Brecken ever the mysterious land we hear nothing at all [Music] 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 perhaps most important of all detailed genealogies and lists of the kings of old [Music] 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 foreign to be precise known as Maxson 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 demate whose land stretched from pembrokeshire to Brecken Maximus described as antonius's father in some sources then gathers together a great Army of Welshman to March triumphant on Rome [Music] 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 [Music] early medieval Wales is a fascinating time very much a continuation of that world which came before though on a smaller more localized scale [Music] 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 fourth Century the Western lands of the demate which would later become known as divid seemed to have fallen under the rule of expansionist dynasts from Beyond the Sea migration of deci magnates perhaps originating in the Irish province of Munster being described in several later Tales as well as the rulers of David themselves we're told the Takeover was largely peaceful [Music] in the north it was different [Music] Raiders from Leinster took the Flynn Peninsula which still Bears their name today and according to the 9th century Historia protonum threatened the rest of gweneth II [Music] till they were expelled with a legendary King kunatha and his Warrior Sons military British leaders from menorga Dothan Kingdom of the old North perhaps similarly exploiting the opportunity to carve out a kingdom for themselves enter the first king of Brecken [Music] if the tales are to be believed in temporary of King Arthur 12th century Saints 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 will likely never know [Music] though the stories that grew up around Brecken are innumerable the kingdom itself is named for him after all [Music] 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 bricken perhaps a Welsh version of the Irish name brocan was born in Ireland [Music] son of an obscure Prince anlak and his wife Markle heiress of a Welsh Kingdom [Music] you guessed it in the Brecken beacons according to the tales Brecken simply traveled over the sea with his wife and was given the keys to the kingdom [Music] given the complete absence of contemporary sources the truth of this claim is impossible to say but the rest is history [Music] one of the most interesting aspects of bricken'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. dizzying number of whom apparently travels south from Brecken into Cornwall and North Devon where they preached and evangelized to follow us 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 into genealogies for those wishing to claim descent from one of the so-called holy families of Britain [Music] for the less it's hard to look at Brecken during this era without acknowledging the impact this giant of a figure had on the kingdom and its self-image but what did that Kingdom actually look like [Music] the Brecken beacons is a land of waterfalls mountains and lakes [Music] the largest of these natural lakes is at langos today famous for its fishing and camping holidays thousand years ago it had a very different role [Music] in 1925 archaeologists made an astonishing Discovery here when a near-complete Dugout boat was pulled out of the muddy Shore [Music] later radiocarbon dating placing it around the 9th Century A.D and that's not all for a man-made Island stands on the water here a chronic 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 flangors crannock 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 Brecken 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 Chronos which require a large amount of manpower to build are similarly often associated with kingly power [Music] some chronics 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 Brecken and its royal family was Welsh through and through [Music] depending on which manuscript you read it was either bricken's son or grandson reigned the red-faced who succeeded him founding a dynasty which would rule until the mid-7th century during the time of the fifth King idoland in the 6th century the kingdom faced off against aggressive War bands from the north for poets under its king kainan Garwin was on the warpath invading many of its neighboring lands including Brecken [Music] amidst the chaos which ensued after kainan's death however it wallan's son Riu Allen was able to seize back the kingdom beginning a lengthy series of complicated political back and forth between Brecken and the other kingdoms hundreds of years to come each one attempting to invade and Annex the others in order to create a single unified Wales [Music] unfortunately for Brecken smaller than its neighbors and now vulnerable given the relative ease with which kainan had managed to control it it would not be a Victor [Music] ruwalan was the last direct male descendant of Brecken reported in the histories his daughter married clotton king of divid unifying both Realms under a single monarchy for a Time [Music] that Union would last for a hundred years to come [Music] 8th Century it was sisal the king of caredigans turned to invade gaparte diffid and breckenog [Music] 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 brachnock become even more vague and inconsistent than before whether the place exercised full autonomy once more is unclear and genealogies become especially confused [Music] finally by the time of King Alfred in the 9th century we have a contemporary historical account to draw from [Music] according to Alfred's biographer Assa Ella said app 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 breconov according to ASA Ella said didn't just fear the Norseman but the kings of seiselwig and gweneth II much larger kingdoms than his own and historically more powerful [Music] ruled by the sons of the expansionist rodri the Great the most powerful King in Welsh history up until that point [Music] when the next Invasion came it wasn't the men of gweneth who led it [Music] 16 were told in the Anglo-Saxon sources that it was Alfred's daughter Ethel fled Lady of the mercians who sent an army to Brecken allegedly to avenge the murder of an Abbot and her companions act bright though a wider political aim shouldn't be ruled out [Music] afterwards a ruler of Brecken wagon is said by a 14th century source to have died alongside the Danes at the mercy and Siege of Derby during the English reconquest of the Dan Law [Music] during that attack on Brecken it was flangors Lake that was the target foreign 's forces came in burned the place and took 33 captives including the queen not long after huagan's son Griffin was forced by the first king of the English athelstan to pay tribute [Music] Tudor app ellised is reported to have witnessed a charter at the English Royal Court in 934. along with huel da foremost Welsh King of the time [Music] who'd Incorporated Brecken into his own kingdom very nearly unifying whales under a single Monarch [Music] it's not known for certain but given this situation of vassalage to the English crown it's possible that Welshman from Brecken fought alongside athelstan at The Great Battle of brunenburg in 937. after this point independent breckenog 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 dayabath and subsequently the next king to nearly unify Wales and the only one to be fully successful originating in gwenath Griffith app Llewellyn [Music] soon after though Griffith died in battle against Harold godwinson in 1063 years later an entirely new Force arrived in Britain [Music] it was time for Saxon and Welshman alike to make common cause [Music] 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 edrick the wild his was one which only worked because of significant support from across the border in Wales [Music] 70 however a reckoning was on the way [Music] when William Fitz Osborne the first Earl of Hereford crossed over the border to mop up the rebels his Norman forces would never leave [Music] three Welsh kings were overthrown and a permanent presence established a presence that still very much be seen today hundreds of years to come these french-speaking martial Lords would dominate Brecken [Music] building immense castles developing nightly retinues and learning how to do War faced with periodical uprisings against their rule this was the training ground of their Warriors staging ground for an invasion of Ireland by the end of the 12th century and a new age for Britain [Music] but that's a story for another day [Music] 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 [Music] [Applause] let me know where you'd like to see me visit next in the comments and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Pete Kelly

Views: 259,614

Keywords: history, travel, visiting history, ancient monuments, stone circles, visiting ancient history, ancient Britain, in search of ancient Britain, history time, archaeology, mythology

Id: nTh9W9Ki3Iw

Length: 46min 16sec (2776 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 13 2023