- Kingdom of Gwent
Gwent was one of the kingdoms or principalities of
mediæval Wales , in theWelsh Marches .Emergence
The area has been occupied since the
Paleolithic , withMesolithic finds atGoldcliff and growing activity during theBronze Age ,Iron Age and Roman period.The
Dark Age Welsh kingdom of Gwent was traditionally the area between the rivers Usk, Wye and the Severn Estuary. It came into being after the Romans had left Britain andRoman Wales , and was a successor state drawing on the culture of the pre-RomanSilures tribe and ultimately their Iron Age territories. It took its name from the "civitas " capital ofVenta Silurum , meaning "Market of the Silures". In the post Roman period, the territory around Venta became the small successor kingdom of Guenta, later Gwent, deriving its name directly from the town through the normal sound change in theBrythonic languages from "v" to "gu". The town itself becameCaerwent , "Venta fort". [http://www.cpat.org.uk/research/seemed.htm South East Wales in the Early Medieval Period] ]Early history
According to one
Old Welsh genealogy, the semi-legendary founder of the kingdom was Caradoc Vreichfras. A later monarch was KingTewdrig who was mortally wounded repelling a Saxon invasion. Some believe his grandson,Athrwys ap Meurig , may be the origin forKing Arthur .The centre of the kingdom may have been at Caerwent or
Caerleon . The latter had formerly served as a major Roman military base. Welshsaint s likeDubricius ,Tatheus andCadoc Christianized the area.Norman partition
The
Normans partitioned the area into the Lordships ofAbergavenny ,Monmouth ,Striguil (Chepstow ) andUsk , where they built and fortified large permanent stonecastle s from a network of earlymotte and bailey castles. The density of castles of this type and age is amongst the highest in Britain and certainly the rest of theWelsh Marches with at least 25 castle sites remaining in Monmouthshire alone today.The castles protected new settlements and enabled older settlements to prosper under Norman rule despite the subjugation, taxation, conflicts and rebellions that affected this part of south east Wales over the centuries.
The Lordships, overseen by powerful
Marcher Lords , were the basic units of administration for the next 450 or so years, until Henry VIII passed the Laws in Wales Act 1535. This Act abolished the Marcher Lordships and established the County of Monmouthshire out of them — combining the Lordships ofNewport , (Gwynllwg ) or Wentloog and Caerleon [http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Wood-NuttallEncyclopaedia/c/caerleon.html] east of theRiver Usk and Abergavenny, Monmouth, Usk and Chepstow to the west of it.Recent times
In the 19th and 20th centuries, writers began using the name 'Gwent' in a romantic literary way to describe Monmouthshire, and in the local government re-organisations of 1974/5, many new administrative areas in Britain were named after
medieval kingdoms — such asCumbria ,Strathclyde and within Wales: 'Gwent',Dyfed , andGwynedd .References
External links
* [http://www.castlewales.com/gwent.html Early Gwent history and rulers from Castlewales.com]
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