The Mysterious Story of a Missing Medieval Kingdom
1,309,392
Published 2022-12-27
Hardly anything on the lost kingdom of Rheinwg has survived, and exactly no information on precisely where this missing medieval kingdom was located has survived either. This place left a mark on Welsh history, and the history of Wales, and indeed Britain, proceeded without it. Merely a century after one of it's last mentions, writers and historians were already beginning to forget the location of Rheinwg, and today I aim to reverse that.
In this video, I'm going to be examining all of the information we have on the lost kingdom of Rheinwg, we will seek to uncover its medieval records, examine what more contemporary historians believed, and finally look at what modern historians have theorised.
Sources:
Secondary, current research:
Guy, B. (2019). Rheinwg: The Lost Kingdom of South Wales. Peritia, pp.1-31. doi.org/10.1484/J.PERIT.5.120982
Bartrum, P.C. (1993). A Welsh Classical Dictionary : People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000. The National Library of Wales, pp.189, 366-367, 630, 633.
Charles-Edwards, T.M. (2013). Wales and the Britons, 350-1064. Oxford: OUP, p. 20.
Secondary, outdated/no longer supported research:
Lloyd, J. E. (1911). A History of Wales, Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green and Co., pp.281-282.
Phillimore, E. (1890). The Publication of Welsh Historical Records. Y Cymmrodor, XI(1), p.141.
Morris, L. (1778). Celtic Remains. Cambrian Archaeological Association, pp.171–172.
Bartrum, P.C. (1948). Some Studies in Early Welsh History. Y Cymmrodor, pp.296–299.
Primary:
Philimore, E. (1888). The Annales Cambriae and Old Welsh Genealogies. Y Cymmrodor, IX, pp.141–168.
Ingram, J. (1912). The Annals of Wales.
Owen, A. (1841). Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales: Comprising Laws Supposed to be Enacted by Howel the Good, Volume 2. London: G. E. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode.
Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae. ed. A. W. Wade-Evans. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1944.
Llwyd, H. (1573) Commentarioli Descriptionis Britanniae Fragmentum
Camden, W. (1586) Britannia
Maps:
© OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA: www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
www.floodmap.net/
Music:
'Direct to Video', 'Reappear', 'Divider', 'Angie's Sunday Service' are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: chriszabriskie.com/dtv/
Artist: chriszabriskie.com/
Images from, and of:
'Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville', Snails, Moles: CC0, via the British Library
Caernarvon Castle, Dinas Bran, Chepstow, Margain Abbey, Brecknock, Goodrich Castle, Snowdon: CC0, via the Yale Centre for British Art
Hywel Dda, The Historie of Cambria, Cynan: CC0, via the National Library of Wales
Offa: CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/, via the Portable Antiquities Scheme
#wales
All Comments (21)
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I could easily locate this place if I put my mind to it.
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Maybe the real Rheinwg were the friends we made along the way?
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Scholars: "Hey where did Rheinwg go?" King Offa with a conspicuously Rheinwg-shaped belly: "Erm, no clue"
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It's important to remember that kingdoms in antiquity often were named by not just land occupied, but also through vassalage. Rome, for example, was any land that came under the sway of the city of Rome. So Rheinwg could have overlapped several other kingdoms.
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honestly I thought this was going to be about that one mythical welsh kingdom that was supposedly where the irish sea is today, but good to hear of something I never knew about before
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as rheinwgian i confirm not even we remember where we are
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What if there were more writings about Rheinwg that were kept in monasteries but were destroyed when they were dissolved by Henry VIII?
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I kinda like the idea of "Rheinwg" as the name of a region rather than a specific kingdom. It would better explain the weird variety of it's criteria. Remember back when "Asia" was just used to refer to Turkey or something? Now "Asia" refers to the entire continent. Region names are much more flexible than the names of actual kingdoms/places and thus it makes sense to look at Rheinwg that way.
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Honestly I just admire the dedication you put into finding the information and making this video of an obscure yet fascinating piece of Welsh history
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My theory is that it was considered to be most or the entire of southern Wales, and many lesser lords called themselves kings of Rheinwg as a form of laying claims to many more territories than they actually controlled.
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Your explanation is quite reasonable. Remember Holland was once part of the kingdom of Spain. Some French and German kingdoms moved hundreds of miles as the king moved their center of power to a new and more strategic location only to loose the land of their ancestors to other invaders. Poland is also a nation, people and culture that has moved greatly. Once it reached from Lithuania through Belarus to Ukraine on the black sea but controlled very little of what is now Poland today. That was Prussia at the time.
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« Kidneys : 14 » I love that you take the trouble of hiding hilarious Easter eggs within a engaging and well-written story. Very nice job.
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Great work again, especially the way historiography is portrayed. A lot of this vague "we're not 100% sure" sort of history often comes down to Occam's razor, doesn't it? Can't wait for what comes next!
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I was planning on doing a Welsh campaign in ck3 but I couldn’t decide who to start as so I came here hoping to see which region had the coolest history lol
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Can I just say that for me, as someone with an MA in history, it's so nice to see someone doing some actual historical research on YT, someone actually explaining a method and reasoning rather than the usual "15 things wrong with Braveheart that you didn't know about" type of nonsense. Perhaps I would have liked to have seen a bit more background about the sources and their authors (if at all possible, which, let's be fair, it probably won't be). All-round top effort!
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An example of different geographical areas which came under the same name (or the designation moved) later in the medieval period is Burgundy. Not only was there a separate County and Dutchy of Burgundy, but the lands were both in what is now eastern and south-eastern France and also areas of modern Belgium. The location could vary by hundreds of miles depending upon when and whom you asked. Very much enjoy your videos.
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This has given me an existential crisis about being forgotten and not making a difference in history enough not to be thought of and that I will eventually fade away like I never existed. On a serious note great video lmao
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The key to finding a missing medieval kingdom is the same as finding anything else. It's always in the last place you look.
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As a proud Welshman I am soo grateful for this channel. Thank you for shedding some light on my ancestors' amazing history.
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Honestly, I think it's amazing we know enough to even have conjecture about these vague one time mentions in documents over a thousand years old. Fascinating, though.
