Chapter Six
Despite the largely peaceful and prosperous rule of Cundiarn not everyone in the north appreciated being under Reget's thumb. Eidyn vap Cerdik, one of the sons of the king of Elvet, rebelled in 632 AD. Eidyn's motives in this aren't told to us by the Chronica, but the old antiquarian notions of it arising from his dissatisfaction with Cundiarn's reconcilary policies with the north angles can be dismissed on account of the Mercian and Powisian support he received. The most popular theory among current historians is that the rebellion arose over a dispute to the succession of the sub-kingdom, as the regnal list of Elvet have Cerdik dying at about this time and succeeded by his son Predour, who has appeared in Cundiarn's charters and was likely the over-king's favored candidate to succeed. Alternatively, it could be as simple as an independence movement. In either case Merce and Powis were quick to lend their support, and the combined warriors of the south once again faced off with the warriors of the north at a location northeast of Cairleon on Deverdewr.[1]
The southern forces made use of the wooded landscape to secure their flanks and gave a pointed reminder of why the shield wall endured for so long as a viable tactic. Javelins were thrown and blocked, the cavalry charged repeatedly but was repulsed each time. Eidyn, along with kings Cearl of Merce and Eluit of Powis, didn't allow them to break the shield wall to pursue. Then the infantry of the north moved in and met the southern line. Fights between shield walls are essentially a pushing match as spears and swords and axes attempt to get around (or break) the protection of the shields. The casualties at this point of the battle were relatively low; the real slaughter only really took place once a line broke, and so every fight greatly depended upon the moral of the warriors. When the heir to the north, Cinuit, was killed the northern line faltered, and when King Cundairn himself was cut down the shield wall collapsed completely and the army was routed.
The death of a ruler is an unstable and uncertain time for a kingdom of this era, which was why many of them designated the heir apparent to take the throne immediately, known as the Tanais in the British realms. With the loss of both however Reget was thrown for a loop. Cundiarn did have another son, Arthwal, but british succession customs tended to prefer adults over children (Arthwal was fourteen) which meant that some thought the crown ought to go to Reyth son of Elffin, a cousin to Cundiarn. And contrary to later developments, matrilineal relatives weren't barred from the kingship so Coustentin of Alt Clout also had a valid claim to press. Late in 632 the Queen Acha, exercising a surprising amount of royal authority even after her husband's death, stepped in to prevent civil war and called for a cumgor to determine the way forward. The cumgor was not, as some earlier historians had supposed, a legislative institution that directly prefigured the modern Senadh. Rather it was an informal body of important lords, clergy, and jurists assembled in an ad hoc manner to provide legal advice to the king, to show their support for the king's edicts and charters, or on very rare occasions choosing the monarch. It does not appear to have had the power to pass laws on its own authority. We're not told of all the political wrangling that must have gone on behind the scenes, but judging by the cumgor's neutral location of Penroudh[2] and that it was held almost four months after Cundiarn's death, it could not have been an easy task.
The Election of Penroudh, as this event came to be known as, considered each claimant in order of proximity of blood; first Arthwal, then Reyth, and then Coustentin[3]. Coustentin attempted to improve his chances with a marriage proposal to the widowed queen, but her cousin Hereric as head of her household conditioned his approval on Coustentin immediately naming Arthwal as his Tanais, which the sub-king of Alt Clout rejected. Reyth likely emphasized his connections with the king of Dal Riata and the fact that his holdings were in Din Prys, the heartlands of Reget. Arthwal probably relied upon the precedent set by his forefathers; the crown had passed to the eldest surviving son for the last three generations; from Cunvarch to Urien to Ewen to Cundiarn. Arthwal also would have had the support of Bernice and Dere as he was more likely to continue the favorable integration scheme of his father and mother, given his half Angle ancestry. In the end the cumgor did decide in Arthwal's favor, unknowingly further entrenching the tendency towards primogeniture.
We are given a description of the coronation ceremony of a later monarch of Cumbria and it is supposed that Arthwal's ceremony would have been much the same, as similar practices among all the Britons as far south as Cerniw imply a common origin.
The king would travel to the royal center of Ardhwall[2] and fasted for the three days before the ceremony. The day of the ceremony would begin with a celebration of mass at the local church, during which prayers and blessings for the king's reign would be made, after which the bishop would place the royal diadem upon the king. Then the king would make a procession on horseback up the hill to the citadel where he would dismount. A sword owned by the last king, which had been placed inside of an anvil, would be withdrawn by the new king to symbolize his full assumption of royal power.
[1] Believed to be near Cinuidryd, "Cinuit's ford" (OTL knutsford)
[2] "Red Top" (OTL Penrith); "walled hieghts" (OTL Trusty's hill)
[3] When the laws of Cumbria would be written down decades later matrilineal relatives would be regarded as more distant than patrilineal ones for legal purposes, though we cannot be absolutely certain this was true at the time of the first Cumgor of Penroudh.