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Caergwynn: Difference between revisions
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==History== | ==History== | ||
===Early History=== | ===Early History=== | ||
The origins of Caergwynn and of the Caeric people are shrouded in dispute. For centuries, two notions have been prominent, although most Caeric people tacitly accept both on some level. One is that the Caeric and their distinct non-Gaelic language are in some way autochthonous to the territory of Caergwynn, with the region perhaps being a remnant of a formerly much more extensive pre-Gaelic culture that once peopled the entire north of Levantia, and from which the modern Caeric state emerged. The other, embodied in the epic tale of the ''Tywysog o Llongau,'' is the idea that Caeric leaders and their followers, with Madoc "The Farsighted" first among them, fled other lands in response to war and tyranny, carrying an existing culture with them when they landed their great ships on what is now the Caeric coast on a February morning in 937. There is evidence to support versions of both stories. A local origin for Caergwynn is plausible in light of the para-Caeric groups near the borders of modern Caergwynn such as the Gvergoles of southern [[Vithinja]], who are not included in any colonization narratives, but have nearly-intelligible languages, and are regarded (and regard themselves) as peoples closely connected to Caerics proper. On the other hand, the settlement theory is supported by the very existence and huge importance attached to the ''Tywysog o Llongau'' and related tales, as well as archaeological evidence of a sudden rise in material sophistication in the early 10th century, and the (sketchy) documentation of a Caeric maritime presence in contemporary records. These dueling conceptions have inevitably become politicized over the centuries, with the Caeric government increasingly emphasizing Caergwynn's "indigenous" nature and close kinship with Para-Caeric peoples in [[Faneria]] and [[Vithinja]], while rival nations impugn Caergwynn as a "migrant nation" that displaced existing Gaels and Goths (casting Gvergoles, etc, as recent Caeric migrants or Caericized indigenes). | The origins of Caergwynn and of the Caeric people are shrouded in dispute. For centuries, two notions have been prominent, although most Caeric people tacitly accept both on some level. One is that the Caeric and their distinct non-Gaelic language are in some way autochthonous to the territory of Caergwynn, with the region perhaps being a remnant of a formerly much more extensive pre-Gaelic culture that once peopled the entire north of Levantia, and from which the modern Caeric state emerged. The other, embodied in the epic tale of the ''Tywysog o Llongau,'' is the idea that Caeric leaders and their followers, with Madoc "The Farsighted" first among them, fled other lands in response to war and tyranny, carrying an existing culture with them when they landed their great ships on what is now the Caeric coast on a February morning in 937. There is evidence to support versions of both stories. A local origin for Caergwynn is plausible in light of the para-Caeric groups near the borders of modern Caergwynn such as the Gvergoles of southern [[Vithinja]], who are not included in any colonization narratives, but have nearly-intelligible languages, and are regarded (and regard themselves) as peoples closely connected to Caerics proper. On the other hand, the settlement theory is supported by the very existence and huge importance attached to the ''Tywysog o Llongau'' and related tales, as well as archaeological evidence of a sudden rise in material sophistication in the early 10th century, and the (sketchy) documentation of a Caeric maritime presence in contemporary records. These dueling conceptions have inevitably become politicized over the centuries, with the Caeric government increasingly emphasizing Caergwynn's "indigenous" nature and close kinship with Para-Caeric peoples in [[Faneria]] and [[Vithinja]], while rival nations impugn Caergwynn as a "migrant nation" that displaced existing Gaels and Goths (casting Gvergoles, etc, as recent Caeric migrants or Caericized indigenes). | ||
Though these are not wholly compatible, valiant (if not ham-fisted) efforts have historically been made to reconcile these two myths, and in recent years, the scholarly consensus is growing for a more nuanced combination. This centers around the idea of an existing proto-Caeric population and society transformed by the seaborne arrival of small groups of military adventurers, (perhaps of a different culture that was later assimilated). In this view, these warriors and their ships came to dominate trade and political networks, incorporating local leaders into their service, and turning the area's polities into congealing states, until finally Madoc was able to assert his authority above the rest (probably through more maritime connections), and become Prince of the wider region. Helpfully, the beginnings of this transition (and thus, the Caeric migration to Caergwynn from cis-Vandarch lands) has been dated to somewhere between 850 and 900, leaving roughly enough time for consolidation under Madoc to happen "on schedule" in 937. | Though these are not wholly compatible, valiant (if not ham-fisted) efforts have historically been made to reconcile these two myths, and in recent years, the scholarly consensus is growing for a more nuanced combination. This centers around the idea of an existing proto-Caeric population and society transformed by the seaborne arrival of small groups of military adventurers, (perhaps of a different culture that was later assimilated). In this view, these warriors and their ships came to dominate trade and political networks, incorporating local leaders into their service, and turning the area's polities into congealing states, until finally Madoc was able to assert his authority above the rest (probably through more maritime connections), and become Prince of the wider region. Helpfully, the beginnings of this transition (and thus, the Caeric migration to Caergwynn from cis-Vandarch lands) has been dated to somewhere between 850 and 900, leaving roughly enough time for consolidation under Madoc to happen "on schedule" in 937. | ||
=== The Principality of Caergwynn === | === The Principality of Caergwynn === | ||
The land that Prince Madoc and his followers united (or conquered) in the 10th century consisted of scattered settlements, with little evidence of literacy or deep connections to the wider world away from a few coastal entrepôts. This rapidly began to change, as the Prince and his men established the rudiments of administration, seeded a Catholic religious infrastructure (in a land previously only lightly Christianized), and subdued outlying potentates. The ''Tywysog o Llongau'' recounts these exploits (along with more dubious accomplishments such as taming local water spirits and destroying various monsters in line with Madoc's status as a | The land that Prince Madoc and his followers united (or conquered) in the 10th century consisted of scattered settlements, with little evidence of literacy or deep connections to the wider world away from a few coastal entrepôts. This rapidly began to change, as the Prince and his men established the rudiments of administration, seeded a Catholic religious infrastructure (in a land previously only lightly Christianized), and subdued outlying potentates. The ''Tywysog o Llongau'' recounts these exploits (along with more dubious accomplishments such as taming local water spirits and destroying various monsters in line with Madoc's status as a culture hero), but they are also recorded in external sources, and the emerging monastic chronicles that he sponsored. By the time he died in 964, Madoc left behind a legitimate Principality, an increasingly prosperous realm, and a sumptuous hall at what was already becoming known as Dol Awraidd. He also left a single son, Meirion. Although Madoc had built a promising foundation for the rule of Caergwynn, the shoes he left to fill were commensurately massive, and the transition to Meirion I did not go smoothly. The young man's two uncles, both territorial lords with their own retainers after Madoc had given them vast holdings, each launched rebellions for the fledgling throne. An unmartial Prince, Meiron's efforts to retain his crown required 12 years of grinding war before his wayward kinsmen were brought low, with the uncles packed off to monasteries and their lands confiscated. After this rocky start, the Prince preoccupied himself with centralizing the administration of Caergwynn to better control his realm, and focusing on Caergwynn's trade to rebuild its shattered prosperity. Haunted by the familial strife of his early reign, Prince Meirion also used his unchecked power in the wake of victory to enshrine primogeniture as the law of his house: All succession would be defined from him passing on his title to his eldest son, and so on, with collateral relatives having no claim. Never popular, Meirion nevertheless had an impact on Caeric fortunes second only to his father's immense legacy, which by this time was already being recorded in the earliest versions of the ''Tywysog o Llongau''. | ||
After the Prince's passing in the last year of the millennium, Meirion's immediate successors hewed to the principle of straightforward father-son inheritance, and spent the 11th century fending off marauding Goths and Gaels by sea while further tightening their grip on the Land. Indeed, this budding centralization led to several rebellions by local lords in the interior (most probably descended from Madoc's companions, but some perhaps representing the remnants of previous polities), chafing under the rule of the Princes. For several decades, a pattern of rebellion, suppression, overreach, and further rebellion played itself out, but the mostly unfortified strongholds of the magnates slowly fell before the levies of the Princes, who gave their soldiers good weapons (paid for by coastal trade/plunder) and portrayed themselves (as recorded in the accounts of the churches they also subsidized) as naturally linked to their subjects by common "shipboard" descent, and defending their rights from over-mighty lords. Finally, in 1077, the reigning Prince Hywel defeated the last of his recalcitrant subjects, and tried for a fresh start by breaking up all of the rebel territorial holdings and redistributing the land into scattered, more vulnerable estates in the hands of loyalists, enforcing this new system with decennial land surveys run by royal bureaucrats. As a basis for his reforms, he promulgated the Cyfraith Hywel ("Laws of Hywel"), that established a Caergwynn-wide system of courts that were open to any free man, enforcing a single lawcode across a realm now divided into Cantrefs, each under a magistrate appointed in Dol Awraidd. Hywel "the Lawgiver" thus decisively ended threats to Princely authority while creating the foundations of modern Caeric justice and administration, and he is well-remembered. | After the Prince's passing in the last year of the millennium, Meirion's immediate successors hewed to the principle of straightforward father-son inheritance, and spent the 11th century fending off marauding Goths and Gaels by sea while further tightening their grip on the Land. Indeed, this budding centralization led to several rebellions by local lords in the interior (most probably descended from Madoc's companions, but some perhaps representing the remnants of previous polities), chafing under the rule of the Princes. For several decades, a pattern of rebellion, suppression, overreach, and further rebellion played itself out, but the mostly unfortified strongholds of the magnates slowly fell before the levies of the Princes, who gave their soldiers good weapons (paid for by coastal trade/plunder) and portrayed themselves (as recorded in the accounts of the churches they also subsidized) as naturally linked to their subjects by common "shipboard" descent, and defending their rights from over-mighty lords. Finally, in 1077, the reigning Prince Hywel defeated the last of his recalcitrant subjects, and tried for a fresh start by breaking up all of the rebel territorial holdings and redistributing the land into scattered, more vulnerable estates in the hands of loyalists, enforcing this new system with decennial land surveys run by royal bureaucrats. As a basis for his reforms, he promulgated the Cyfraith Hywel ("Laws of Hywel"), that established a Caergwynn-wide system of courts that were open to any free man, enforcing a single lawcode across a realm now divided into Cantrefs, each under a magistrate appointed in Dol Awraidd. Hywel "the Lawgiver" thus decisively ended threats to Princely authority while creating the foundations of modern Caeric justice and administration, and he is well-remembered. | ||
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Madoc V, last (and theoretically current and future) Prince of Caergwynn, is a man so shrouded in legends that it is difficult to piece together the underlying history of his life. Tales are told of how he mysteriously left his father's court, and spent years traveling the realm as an anonymous soldier, righting wrongs, damning a small river with his bare hands, and becoming a hero without ever identifying himself (indeed, so many miracles were attributed to him that the Caeric government spent centuries trying to get him officially canonized). What is known more firmly is that, by the time he ascended the throne in 1209, Madoc was only in his mid-twenties, and was exceptionally brave, bold, and charismatic. Fired with a determination to finally win the endless war with Faneria, he took a small army into the western borderlands and routed superior enemy forces over and over again, rolling back decades of Fanerian conquests in the space of months. Within a year, he had battered down Fanerian hosts all along the northern coast, and then evaded the desperate counterattack by a daring march southwards, bathing his horse in the Vandarch. Barely pausing to flatten the confused enemy army on the way, he spent the next few campaigning seasons on the other end of the war, driving a wedge to the inland sea between the Chain and the suddenly cooperative Fiannrians. By the summer of 1214, eyeing total victory, Madoc headed towards the Fanerian capital of Oirthidùn. | Madoc V, last (and theoretically current and future) Prince of Caergwynn, is a man so shrouded in legends that it is difficult to piece together the underlying history of his life. Tales are told of how he mysteriously left his father's court, and spent years traveling the realm as an anonymous soldier, righting wrongs, damning a small river with his bare hands, and becoming a hero without ever identifying himself (indeed, so many miracles were attributed to him that the Caeric government spent centuries trying to get him officially canonized). What is known more firmly is that, by the time he ascended the throne in 1209, Madoc was only in his mid-twenties, and was exceptionally brave, bold, and charismatic. Fired with a determination to finally win the endless war with Faneria, he took a small army into the western borderlands and routed superior enemy forces over and over again, rolling back decades of Fanerian conquests in the space of months. Within a year, he had battered down Fanerian hosts all along the northern coast, and then evaded the desperate counterattack by a daring march southwards, bathing his horse in the Vandarch. Barely pausing to flatten the confused enemy army on the way, he spent the next few campaigning seasons on the other end of the war, driving a wedge to the inland sea between the Chain and the suddenly cooperative Fiannrians. By the summer of 1214, eyeing total victory, Madoc headed towards the Fanerian capital of Oirthidùn. | ||
The misty morning of the Fifth of September saw a Fhain army arrayed a few miles from the city, hoping to block the advance of the seemingly-invincible Caeric men by positioning themselves in a wood by the main road to Oirthidùn. Madoc and his army advanced into the foggy tangle, and though the fighting was fierce, they slowly pushed the Gaels back towards their own distant walls. A few hours later, Madoc, sensing victory at hand, charged on horseback into the enemy van, when the fog once more lowered onto the forest. When it began to clear a few minutes later, the enemy King was dead and his forces scattered, but Madoc and his companions were nowhere to be found. Searches over the next three days proved fruitless, even with every last inch of woodland scoured. The Prince, who in his haste to win glory had never married or fathered an heir, had disappeared without trace. Though their ruler was not officially dead, | The misty morning of the Fifth of September saw a Fhain army arrayed a few miles from the city, hoping to block the advance of the seemingly-invincible Caeric men by positioning themselves in a wood by the main road to Oirthidùn. Madoc and his army advanced into the foggy tangle, and though the fighting was fierce, they slowly pushed the Gaels back towards their own distant walls. A few hours later, Madoc, sensing victory at hand, charged on horseback into the enemy van, when the fog once more lowered onto the forest. When it began to clear a few minutes later, the enemy King was dead and his forces scattered, but Madoc and his companions were nowhere to be found. Searches over the next three days proved fruitless, even with every last inch of woodland scoured. The Prince, who in his haste to win glory had never married or fathered an heir, had disappeared without trace. Though their ruler was not officially dead, confusion descended on his army, and after a desultory siege led to a surrender from the still-terrified Fhain, the Caeric army began a sullen, sodden march homewards in the autumn rain. Their Prince was gone, but such a man as he could not simply be replaced without knowledge of his death, let alone without any proper successor. As the great men of the realm met in Dol Awraidd that bitter winter to argue as to how the realm should be ordered in Madoc's absence, the time of the Princes drew silently to a close. | ||