Hen Ogledd

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Yr Hen Ogledd or 'The Old North'. Part of northern Britain before the Anglo-Gaelic conquest

The Hen Ogledd, or Yr Hen Ogledd, is a Welsh term meaning 'The Old North' which refers to the sub-Roman Brythonic kingdoms of what is now northern England and southern Scotland.

These kingdoms flourished during the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries in the area south of Pictavia. The people of these nations, and most often their kings, are referred to as the Gwyr y Gogledd or 'Men of the North'. A series of Old Welsh pedigrees under this title appear to show the descent of many of these monarchs. Almost all of them begin with a common ancestor, Coel Hen, and John Morris has suggested that this man was the last Roman Dux Britanniarum with military control over all of Northern Britain at the time of the Roman withdrawal. After his death, his large and powerful 'realm' would thus have been divided, as was the custom, between his sons or, more probably, subordinate commanders, to be ruled by them and their successors. The names of many of these realms have been lost to history, but the ones that are known to us are listed:

Bryneich
York (exact name uncertain)
Elmet
Gododdin and its probable sub-kingdom Manau Gododdin
Rheged
Strathclyde

These states were all extinguished or brought under other kingdoms following successive attacks or diplomatic takeovers from the 6th Century onwards by the Angles of Bernicia and Deira (which merged to become Northumbria), and by the Kingdom of Alba which also absorbed the Kingdoms of the Picts.