Tewdwr Mawr

Tewdwr Mawr (Breton for "Theodore the Great";[1] Cornish: Teudar Maur or Teudaric; Latin: Theodorus; French: Thierry; mid-6th century) was an early medieval king in Brittany and Cornwall.

Life

Tewdwr was a member of the royal family of Cornouaille in Brittany. His father was Hoel Mawr, who figured in Welsh legends about King Arthur and Tristan and Iseult. While Tewdwr was still young, his grandfather Budic II was overthrown and forced into exile at the court of King Aircol Lawhir of Dyfed. Budic successfully restored himself in the 540s but Hoel seems to have predeceased him. The king attempted to protect his succession by negotiating with a neighboring ruler, Macliau of the Veneti, so that whichever lived longer would protect the young heir of the other. Upon Budic's death, however, Macliau invaded and annexed Cornouaille[1] (r. c. 544–577).

Tewdwr fled to Cornwall and ruled over Penwith from Carnsew near the mouth of the Hayle. He became infamous for his hostile reaction to Irish missionaries.[1] He opposed Saint Breaca's mission (although Baring-Gould placed its arrival around 500[2]), first compelling them to land at Reyvier instead of Carnsew[2] and then later martyring several of its members, including Saint Ia.

After decades of exile, Tewdwr returned to Brittany and defeated Macliau and his oldest son Jacob in 577. He permitted Macliau's younger son Waroc to rule around Vannes.[1]

Legacy

Having made martyrs of the Irish missionaries he opposed, Tewdwr became so infamous for his oppression that he began to appear in the hagiographies of saints he could not possibly have known, such as the 4th-century Meriasek. The early 6th-century Saint Kea supposedly protected a deer Tewdwr was hunting; losing his oxen in retaliation, the saint simply yoked the wild animal to plow his fields. Koch suggests that Tewdwr's appearances in Cornish literature—particularly the Tudor dramas Beunans Meriasek and Beunans Ke—were satirical treatments of Henry VII following his suppression of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ford, David Nash. "King Tewdwr Mawr" at Early British Kingdoms. 2001. Accessed 1 Dec 2014.
  2. 1 2 Baring-Gould, Sabine. Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain: "Saint Breaca". Chas. Clark (London), 1908.
  3. ↑ Koch, John. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 204 f. ABC-CLIO, 2006.


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