Importance of the petty Kingdoms of Ergyng and Ewias.

The importance of the Kingdoms of Ergyng and Ewias, successor to the Earls of Ewias and Urtchingfilde and Governors of North Cambria (Wikipedia links).

Image courtesy of Wiki Commons, attributed to Notuncurious, map of Wales, post-Roman; Anglo-Saxon.

Some of the Welsh Kingdoms lie in what is now western England but kept their status as Brythonic Celts. The best example of a petty Kingdom in ancient Wales now found in England is the Kingdom of Ewyas. 

The historical beginnings of Ewias started with the emergence of the titular King of Britain and the first King of Cambria (Wales), Camber circa 1,000 BC. He was the son of Brutus of Troy, the legendary founder of the Kingdom of Britain (Albion), and the man who divided the main island of Great Britain into Wales, Scotland, and England. His sons were given provinces to rule as Governors and titular royals. Camber's eldest son, Gorbonian became the Duke of Cornwall and Governor of Cambria. Then, Camber's second son, Albon became the Governor of North Cambria and Earl of Ewias and Urtchingfild. The descendants of Albon settled the now English/Welsh border as a family of Earls and Governors for a millennium before the Roman invasion of the British Isles. His descendants have been recorded as the family of the Iron Age, Celtic tribes of the Silures amongst 4 individual tribal territories in the British region of Wales. The generations after Albon were (Book of Baglan); Avyn, Dingad, Gridion, Kereint, Merion, Arthe, Keidio, Keri Hir, Parar, Llyr, Bran, Karadowc, Endaf, Kenan, Elen. The list has 16 generations spanning a thousand years, missing potentially dozens of entries. It is therefore likely the people shown are representing a family for a generation as the Earl and the title would be passed several generations each time, this could eventually mean skipping hundreds of years of descendants. Therefore, the list is not as detailed as the legendary Kings of Britain compilation (Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain- Wiki source). Today, the Earl's family descendants are represented by the Welsh Herbert family as the Earl of Pembroke.

The royal family connection of the Kings of Dumnonia (Cornwall) and their northern adversaries across the Severn estuary in nearby Wales was suddenly severed by the Anglo-Saxons after the battle of Deorham in 577. From then on, 2 separate Celtic languages were created, that was the last time the connected families aligned themselves as one entity of the same people, the Brittonic Celts.

The once Earldom of Ewias and Urtchingfild (Ewyas & Ergyng) still has placenames in use today. The placename Ewias derives from the Welsh Kingdom of Ewyas (c. 5th century), which became part of the Kingdom of Gwent (Southeast Wales). Ewyas Lacy became a Norman hundred (county) ruled by the de Lacy family, they were Welsh marcher Lords. The area is now a part of Herefordshire in England and is represented by the village Ewyas Harold on the England–Wales border. Nearby in Wales is the Vale of Ewyas at the Black Mountains where the ruins of the Llanthony Priory exist today, first founded by the De Lacy family (c. 1100s). Then, in comparison, the placename Urtchingfield (Irchenfield) is now named Archenfield. Irtchingfield was once in the surrounding area of a Roman fort named Ariconium. Later, Irchenfield became part of the post-Roman Welsh Kingdom of Ergyng at the same time as Ewyas, around the 5th century, during the early medieval ages. Again, today, the town named Archenfield (Irchenfield) is now a part of the English county of Herefordshire on the Welsh border. Another Welsh petty Kingdom now in England was in Shropshire, the Kingdom of Pengwern then in East Wales was absolved at the beginning of Wales royal houses after the 9th century from Powys.

The petty Kingdom of Egryng thrived for centuries and its leaders were direct descendants of the Welsh Christian Saint Dubricius, one of the founding Saints of Wales. Earlier ancestors of the Earls of Ewias and Urtchingfilde included a famous Welsh dynasty during the era of Mabinogion. The dynasty of Llŷr (sea God, circa 60 BC) was written as a story into the tale of Branwen ferch Llŷr. The story is a mythological Welsh prose and tells of the King of the Silures tribe (area of Ewias) who held a resistance against the Roman army. The jumbled storytelling documented in the medieval ages identifies Caradog ap Bran as Llyr's grandson (ancientwelshstudies.org), albeit, in Latin sources, the individuals are listed differently. Other sources claim Caratacus (Caradog), who had led the Silures into battle against the Roman Legion and beat them in Wales. Caratacus was also the leader of the Catuvellauni (the tribe of Boudica) in England, making him King of Britain by leading multiple Kingdoms at once. Centuries after the battle, it was documented that the final Earl and Governor of this region was King Eudaf Hen. He was living at the Roman fort of Segontium near present-day Caernarfon. His daughter married a Roman Emperor (Mabinogion dream of Macsen Wledig- Wiki Source), and his heir was his nephew (Conan Meiradoc), whose descendants became the leaders of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. A grandson of Octavius was Vortigern, founder of the Kingdom of Powys, his life was remembered on the Pillar of Eliseg erected during the 9th century. Vortigern first invited the Saxons, specifically Hengist and Horsa (noted by Gildas) to defend his Welsh and English territories as King of Britain against the marauding Picts from the north in Scotland. 

Eudaf whose Roman name was Octavius was considered a King of Britain, that title was then permanently transferred from England and the Roman Empire to Wales and the Kingdom of Gwynedd for the final foray for its rulers of the British Isles before the closing of the Welsh medieval Kingdoms by the 13th century. The Royal title of Prince of Wales by the 1300s left Wales to be held by the heir apparent of the ruler of England ever since, despite some Welsh condemnation to date. Later when Owain Glyndŵr the Prince of Wales fled Wales and disappeared in 1412, it was to Ewias on the England/Wales border he retired in hiding as a chaplain named Siôn Cent. This goes to show the affiliation the Welsh had with the historic former petty Kingdom.