Cadwaladr of Gwynedd

Cadwaladr was king of Gwynedd in Wales in the second half of the seventh century and died in 682. In Orthodox tradition he is venerated as a saint in the Synaxis of the Saints of Britain and Ireland, on the third Sunday after Pentecost. In the Middle Ages he was venerated as a saint in Wales, especially at his church on the island of Anglesey. Little is known of his reign, and the records from his time have not survived.

He was the son of King Cadwallon ap Cadfan, killed in 634 in the battle of Heavenfield, near Hadrian's Wall, fighting Oswald. It is said he was only one year old when his father died. The throne was usurped by Cadafael, and the infant was taken to Brittany. He stayed there even after the usurper's death in 655. Gwynedd was then suffering from famine, plague and internal strife. Cadwaladr returned a few years after Cadafael's death. He fought the Anglo-⁠Saxon expansion westward, but an expedition into Somerset in 658 ended in defeat at Peonnum. He cared for the Church, especially the monastery of Clynnog Fawr. According to some accounts, at the end of his life he retired to the monastery of Eglwys Ail and died on pilgrimage to Rome, perhaps of plague, his body being brought home and buried there, the monastery being named for him Llangadwaladr. The Welsh Annals say he died of plague in 682.

In the twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth portrayed him as the last king of the Britons, who gave up the throne in 689 and went to Rome, after an angel foretold that only so would the Welsh regain their patrimony. Scholars say this story merges him with King Cædwalla of Wessex, and for later Welsh writers the myth gave hope. In the Wars of the Roses the supporters of Edward IV and Henry Tudor said they would fulfil the prophecy. The banner of the red dragon, used by Henry Tudor, was linked to his name. The discovery in the 1570s of a tomb thought to be his at Saint Peter's Basilica fed a dispute at the English College in Rome.