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Pre-Roman Welsh kingdoms or tribes. The modern Anglo-Welsh border is also shown.

Ergyng (Welsh: Erging) was a Welsh kingdom located in present-day southern Herefordshire, southwestern Gloucestershire, and northern Monmouthshire. It flourished from the time of the Roman departure from Britain until the ninth century. Along with the Welsh kingdoms of Glywysing and Gwent, Ergyng emerged from the territory of the pre-Roman Silures, and those three kingdoms acted cooperatively and in concert in all matters of any consequence, with histories that are very amicably intertwined.

As a border kingdom facing the Anglo-Saxon advances of the sixth and seventh centuries, its territories were steadily eroded, and by the ninth century its remainder was absorbed into the lands that would become the southern Herefordshire area of Archenfield. Unlike some other areas where Britons were supplanted by Anglo-Saxons, the region that was once Ergyng has retained the heritage of both peoples, including the survival of Welsh place-names, and even the Welsh language into the eighteenth century.

As Archenfield (variously spelled) the region would be often-mentioned in discussions on ancient Welsh law, and as a digression in discussions of English law, due to a quirk of history. The Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 abolished Welsh law. However, by that time the area was a part of England, and as these laws applied only within Wales, local law and custom in Archenfield continued as before. This was an unusual survival of ancient Welsh law into the twentieth century, of particular interest to scholars studying the histories of both Welsh and English law.

Southern Wales and Southwestern England prior to the Roman invasion.

The kingdoms that emerged from Silurian territory following the Roman withdrawal were Glywysing, Gwent, and Ergyng.

Ergyng at the opening of the seventh century.

Ergyng at the opening of the eighth century.

The name

The name Ergyng first emerges onto the historical stage in the wake of the Roman departure from Britain, when it appears as a kingdom in the former territory of the pre-Roman Silures, along with the kingdoms of Glywysing and Gwent. Its phonetic similarity to the former Roman town of Ariconium implies a connection, and since Roman custom was to name towns after the local inhabitants, it may be assumed (without solid foundation) that the name of the town referred to the people who were then living in that place. The name survives to the present day as the southern Herefordshire area of Archenfield, which was once a part of the Kingdom of Ergyng.

In modern Welsh it is properly spelled Erging, and the spelling has varied in historical references, to include Ercing, Ergic, and Ercic. It is spelled a variety of ways in the Book of Llandaff, including Ergin and Ercicg. The Historia Brittonum of Nennius spells it Erging and Geoffrey of Monmouth refers to it as Hergin.

The name Archenfield has similarly undergone a variety of spellings, including Urchenfield and Irchenfield. One source claimed that its etymological origin was from the name Ircingafeld, described as an Anglo-Saxon compound of ircinga (of hedgehogs) and feld (field).

Location

The kingdom lay mostly in what is now western Herefordshire in England, its heartland between the River Monnow and River Wye. However, it also spread into modern Monmouthshire and east of the Wye, where sits the old Roman town of Ariconium (Welsh: Din Aricon) at Weston under Penyard from which its name may derive; it may have been the first capital. Some maps show Ergyng extending across what is now the Forest of Dean to the River Severn.

Monarchy

After the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain in 410 AD, new smaller political entities took the place of the centralised structure. The area was originally part of the Kingdom of Glywysing (modern Glamorgan) and Gwent, but seems to have become independent for a period under Gwrfoddw Hen in the late 5th century, and again under King Peibio Clafrog in the mid-6th century. Peibio was the grandfather of Saint Dubricius or Dyfrig, the first Bishop of Ergyng and an important figure in the establishment of Christianity in South Wales. He founded large teaching monasteries at Llanfrother near Hoarwithy and at Moccas, and a bishopric seems to have been based at St Constantine's Church at Goodrich.

Dubricius' cousin, Gwrgan Fawr (the Great) was one of its most important monarchs and may have obtained sway over Glamorgan as far as the River Neath. In the middle of the 7th century, Onbraust of Ergyng married Meurig of Gwent, and their son Athrwys became king of both kingdoms. Ergyng eventually became a mere cantref, the Welsh equivalent of a hundred.

Later history

See also Archenfield

By the 8th century, the expanding power of Mercia led to conflict with the native British, and by the 9th century the Mercians had gained control over the area and nearby Hereford. The sites of old British churches fell to Mercia, and the British became foreigners - or, in the English language, "Welsh" - in what had been their own land. The rump of Ergyng then became known to the English as Arcenefelde or Archenfield. Although its Welsh-speaking inhabitants retained special rights, the area was unequivocally incorporated into England in the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542.

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

Bibliography

• British Archaeological Association, ed. (1871), Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XXVII, London: British Archaeological Association: 536–541 http://books.google.com/books?id=KhIpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) — notes that "all the churches of Ergyng or Archenfield have Welsh names in the Book of Llandaff"; the same page mentions a trip to Ariconium that was written up in the journal previously.
• Caradoc of Llancarfan (c. 1155), Owen, Aneurin (translator) (ed.), Archaeologia Cambrensis, Third Series, X, London: Cambrian Archaeological Association (published 1863): 1–143 http://books.google.com/books?id=osE1AAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help); |editor-first= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth (1155), Giles, John Allen; Thompson, A. (translator) (eds.), The British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth (New ed.), London: James Bohn (published 1842) {{citation}}: |editor2-first= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• Gerald of Wales (1194), Rhys, Ernest (ed.), The Itinerary and Description of Wales, London: J. M. Dent & Co (published 1908) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help) - see the TOC's
• Ingram, J., ed. (c. 1100), The Saxon Chronicle, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown (published 1823){{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Lloyd, Jacob Youde William (1882), The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, vol. III, London: T. Richards{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - search for erging; pages 264, 265
• Lloyd, John Edward (1911), A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, vol. I (2nd ed.), London: Longmans, Green, and Co (published 1912){{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) — search for erging
• Lloyd, John Edward (1911), A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, vol. II (2nd ed.), London: Longmans, Green, and Co (published 1912){{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) — search for erging
• Nennius (c. 795), Gunn, W. (ed.), Historia Brittonum, London: John and Arthur Arch (published 1819) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• Newell, Ebenezer Josiah (1895), A History of the Welsh Church to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, London: Elliot Stock{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) — search for ergyng, et al
• Newell, Ebenezer Josiah (1902), Llandaff, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - search for ergyng, et al
• Rees, William Jenkins (1840), The Liber Landavensis, Llyfr Teilo, Llandovery: William Rees{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) — from MSS. in the Libraries of Hengwrt, and of Jesus College (English translation)
• Seebohm, Frederic (1883), The English Village Community Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. (published 1905) — search for ergyng and archenfield; mentions the Domesday Book; and also mentions Gwent as a part of Gloustershire. A number of interesting hits.
• Williams, Edward (Iolo Morgannwg) (c. 1810), Williams (ab Iolo), Taliesin (ed.), Iolo Manuscripts, Llandovery: William Rees (published 1848) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• Williams (ab Ithel), John, ed. (c. 1288), Annales Cambriae (444 – 1288), London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts (published 1860) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• Wright, Thomas (1853), Wanderings of an Antiquary, London: J. B. Nichols and Sons (published 1854) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help) - search for Ariconium

• Ergyng (or Erging) not mentioned by Ussher (in either vol V or VI)
• Bede ?
• Gildas ?

• Wendy Davies. (1979). The Llandaff Charters.
• Wendy Davies (1982). Wales in the Early Middle Ages.
• G. H. Doble. (1971). Lives of the Welsh Saints.
• John Morris. (1973). The Age of Arthur.
• Raymond Perry. (2002). Anglo-Saxon Herefordshire.
• A. L. F. Rivet & Colin Smith (1979). The Place-Names of Roman Britain.