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Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon or Cadwaladr Fendigaid ('Blessed Cadwaladr', , â 664 or 682) was the king of Gwynedd from about 655 to 664 or 682. Little is known of Cadwaladr's reign, but he later became a mythical redeemer figure in medieval Welsh literature following his depiction in the De gestis Britonum by Geoffrey of Monmouth. In Geoffrey's narrative, Cadwaladr was the last native Briton to be King of Britain, and renounced his throne in 689 to go on pilgrimage to Rome in response to a prophecy that his sacrifice of personal power would bring about a future victory of the Britons over the Anglo-Saxons. Geoffrey's story of Cadwaladr's prophecy and trip to Rome is believed to be an embellishment of the events in the life of Cædwalla of Wessex, whom Geoffrey mistakenly conflated with Cadwaladr.
For later Welsh writers, the myth provided hope in a period where the native order was increasingly finding itself encroached upon by and subject to English authority and customs. However, because of Geoffrey's popularity in England, the legend was also used by both the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions during the Wars of the Roses to claim that their candidate would fulfil the prophecy by restoring the authentic lineage of Cadwaladr to the throne of England. From the sixteenth century onwards, the Welsh Dragon has sometimes been conflated with Cadwaladr's legend and referred to as "Red Dragon of Cadwalader" because of the importance of both Cadwaladr and the dragon in the ideology of Henry Tudor's supporters which helped to justify his claim to the throne.
There are no contemporary records of Cadwaladr or his reign, and those which do survive are confused and contradictory. Peter Bartrum suggested that he may have been born about 633 AD, shortly before his father's death at the Battle of Heavenfield. The earliest Welsh genealogies contained in the ninth-century manuscript Harley 3859 record him simply as and trace his ancestry back to Cunedda Wledig. However, later genealogies give him a sobriquet, with the genealogy of Gruffudd ap Cynan in the twelfth-century Vita Griffini filii Conani calling him , and the genealogy of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth in the Llywelyn ab Iorwerth Genealogies referring to him as , both meaning 'Blessed Cadwaladr'. The Llywelyn ab Iorwerth Genealogies also assert that Cadwaladr's mother was a daughter of Pybba and sister of Penda, though this may be under influence from Geoffrey of Monmouth's fictionalisation of Cadwaladr's life.
Cadwaladr's name is invoked in a number of literary works such as in the Armes Prydein, an early 10th-century prophetic poem from the Book of Taliesin. While the poem's "Cadwaladr" is an emblematic figure, scholars have taken the view that the Cadwaladr of Armes Prydein refers to the historical son of Cadwallon and that already at this stage he "played a messianic role" of some sort, but "its precise nature remains uncertain". He is typically paired with Conan Meriadoc, the founder of British settlements in Brittany. Conan and Cadwaladr are identified as warriors who will return to restore British power. Armes Prydein says, "Splendour of Cadwaladr, shining and bright, defence of armies in desolate places. Truly he [Conan] will come across the waves, the promise of prophecy in the beginning."
According to Elissa R. Henken, Cadwaladr was well established as a "prophesied deliverer" of the Britons before Geoffrey's version of his life altered its ending. This may be because he was seen as the man who would carry forward the achievement of his father Cadwallon, the last great war leader of the Britons: "it is quite likely that the father and son became confused in folk memory, a fusion enhanced by Cadwaladr, whose name is a compound meaning 'battle-leader', also having assumed his father's epithet Bendigaid (Blessed)."
Cadwaladr figures prominently in Geoffrey of Monmouth's romantic account of the Historia Regum Britanniae (). As such, the Cadwaladr of Geoffrey is a literary invention that used the name of a historical person to advance the plot of the story. In Book XII, Chapter XIV of the Historia, Cadwaladr is given as the last in a line of kings that began with Brutus of Troy. Chapters XV â XVIII have him leaving a depopulated Britain for Brittany, where the British people have resettled. Britain itself has been almost emptied by plague; for eleven years the country was "completely abandoned by all the Britons" except for parts of Wales. Cadwaladr is received as a guest by Alan Hir, King of Brittany. Taking advantage of the depopulation, the Saxons invite more of their countrymen to join them as soon as the plague abates. From this point, they become completely dominant in Britain, and the British come to be called the "Welsh".
At the same time, in Brittany, Cadwaladr intends to return to take back the island and asks Alan to provide him with an army. The Breton king agrees, but Cadwaladr hears a prophetic voice which tells him that he must sacrifice personal power for the sake of his people. If he renounces the throne, his sacrifice will eventually lead to the restoration of British control of the island in the future, as predicted by Merlin to Vortigern: "the Voice added that, as a reward for its faithfulness, the British people would occupy the island again at some time in the future, once the appointed moment should come". Cadwaladr is told that if he lives a penitent life he will become a saint. His bones will be hidden to protect them. When his sacred bones are found and returned to Britain, the Britons (Welsh and Bretons) will be restored to full possession of their homeland. Cadwaladr and Alan then consult the prophecies of Merlin and rejoice that this prediction will be fulfilled in future. He then travels to Rome as a pilgrim, where he dies in 689 after meeting the pope.
Thus Cadwaladr becomes a messianic figure who sacrifices himself to redeem his people and restore them to their promised homeland. Cadwaladr's penitence assures his sainthood. His son Ivor and his nephew Ynyr return to Britain with an army, but, as predicted, are not successful in restoring British control of the island.
In another passage in the book a list of Merlin's prophesies contains the prediction:
This seems to correspond to the pairing of Cadwaladr and Conan as restorers of Britain in Armes Prydein. The merging of the Welsh and Breton peoples is linked to an alliance with "Alban" (which probably means Scotland: Alba). The occupation of the English will be at an end and Britain will be restored to its true identity as the territory of the descendants of Brutus of Troy.
During the Wars of the Roses the prophecies connected to Cadwaladr were used by various contenders as part of their claim to the throne. This was linked to the story of the struggle between the Red Dragon and the White Dragon, part of the myth of Merlin, interpreted as warring Celtic and Saxon peoples. Edward IV claimed to be restoring the authentic ancient lineage of Cadwaladr, thus fulfilling Merlin's prophecy of the victory of the Red Dragon. His chancellor gave a sermon asserting that "the British line, which perished with Cadwallader's exile in 689 was restored by the arrival of Edward the king prophesied by Merlin and others."
The Tudors also claimed descent from Cadwaladr to legitimize their authority over Britain as a whole. Owen Tudor claimed descent from Cadwaladr and used a red dragon badge. When Henry Tudor landed in Wales in 1485, he adopted the Red Dragon flag and claimed to be returning in fulfilment of the prophesies of Merlin as recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth. After his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field Henry was greeted at the gates of Worcester with a poem asserting:
The Welsh Dragon (Red Dragon) came to be known as the "Red Dragon of Cadwallader" and used as Henry's personal emblem. Tudor historian Thomas Gardiner created a genealogical roll that gave Henry's son, Henry VIII, a pedigree showing his descent from Cadwaladr, referred to as "the laste kynge of that blode from whome by trew and lynyall descensse" the Tudors descended.
Geoffrey's account of the pilgrimage of Cadwaladr is believed to derive from a confusion between Cadwaladr and his near-contemporary Cædwalla of Wessex (reigned 685 â 688). He also conflates Cadwaladr's son Ivor with Cædwalla's successor Ine. According to Bede Cædwalla, king of Wessex, renounced his throne and went to Rome in 688 to be baptised by the pope, dying soon afterwards. Ine took the throne in 689.
The argument that Geoffrey confused Cadwaladr with Cædwalla acquired significance in the late 1570s. At that time, when St. Peter's in Rome was being rebuilt, the tombstone of Caedwalla was found, confirming Bede's story that he had died in Rome. Welshmen in Rome, seeking to validate Geoffrey, claimed that the tomb was that of Cadwaladr. This raised the prospect that his sacred bones could be returned to Britain in fulfilment of the prophecy.
The English critics stated that Geoffrey had simply mixed up the two kings and that Cadwaladr's pilgrimage was thus pure fiction. According to Jason Nice, the Welsh "attempt to "prove" the legend of Cadwaladr in Rome belonged to a longstanding tradition that held that Wales' special relationship with Rome could reinforce Welsh identity and protect Welshmen from English aggression", a belief that was grounded in the supposed prophecy given to Cadwaladr. Raphael Holinshed summed up the English view in his 1577 Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland: