Clemen ap Bledric (also known as Clement or Clemens) was a 7th century King of Dumnonia (now the English West Country).
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Described as being born in c. 580 and the son of Bledric ap Custennin, Clemen ruled following the death of his father, killed at Battle of Bangor-is-Coed (Bangor-on-Dee, Powys Fadog) by King Æthelfrith of Northumbria in c. 613, until possibly c. 630. He married the daughter, ferch, of Guitoli ap Urbgen, likely a great grandson of former monarch King Gerren Llyngesic, and they had one known son, Petroc Baladrddellt (“Splintered Spear”).
Some authors have Tewdwr (or Teudu) son of Peredur ruling as king in the fl. 620s, descended from a different line of Dumnonian kings from Gerren Llyngesic's son Cado ap Gerren.[1] This is as given in the Jesus College, Oxford, MS 20,[2] although this line ends with a Judhael as Tewdwr's grandson, almost certainly Judicael ap Hoel, High King of the Bretons, and king of Domnonia in Brittany.[3]
It is thought that Clemen was king when the Britons fought the Battle of Beandun (possibly Bindon near Axmouth in Devon[4]) in 614, when the Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells us King Cynegils and his son Cwichelm of Wessex invaded Dumnonia, possibly taking advantage of the death of his father.
Bindon, on the Devon side of the Dorset border suggests that the Dumnonian army was invading Wessex using the Roman road eastward from Exeter to Dorchester and was intercepted by a West Saxon garrison marching south.[5] 614 is also the year that which the peace was broken on the borders of Glevissig (Glywysing), suggesting the Dumnonians co-ordinated their efforts with the kings of South Wales,[5] such as Nynnio ap Erb who was probably ruling Gwent and Glywysing at the time.[6]
The West Saxon army was said to have slewed 2,065 of the Welsh.[5] The Britons were badly defeated and thought to have withdrawn west to the city of Caer-Uisc (Exeter). Exeter in the early 7th century was still occupied, as shown by the archaeology of surviving Roman buildings.[7]
Clemen could also have been reigning in c. 630 or 632 during the Siege of Exeter by King Penda of Mercia, until the exiled British High King Cadwallon, king of Gwynedd, arrived to defeat the Mercians. The three kings were said to have made an alliance and marched north to face the armies of Northumbria which were then occupying Gwynedd. Exeter was in the kingdom of Dumnonia, and Cadwallon is said to have made an alliance with the British nobility, but Clemen is not mentioned in person[8] Geoffrey of Monmouth also paints a particularly colourful account of the siege in his pseudo-historic Historia Brittonum,.[9]
In alliance with Gwynedd and Mercia, Clemen may have next fought in Gwynedd to relieve the Northumbrian domination at the Battle of Cefn Digoll (Long Mountain near Welshpool) in 630.[10] It is not known whether the Dumnonians were part of the British army that went on to ravage Northumbria over the following years.
According to the Welsh Bonedd y Saint (Genealogies of the Saints), Clemen was the father of St Petroc. Other authorities state that this saint was the princely son of King Glywys of Glywysing,[11] making it likely Clemen was actually the father of Petroc Baladrddellt.
He is also given in Llyfr Baglan (Book of Baglan) as a Duke of Cornwall, son of Bredrice (eg Bledric) and father of Pedroc (eg Petroc).[12]
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Bledric ap Custennin |
King of Dumnonia c. 613–c. 630 |
Succeeded by Petroc Baladrddellt |