Welsh Journals

THE CAMBRO = BRITOE APRIL, 1820. NULLI QUIDEM MIIII SATIS ERUDITI VlDEJNTUR, QUIBUS NOSTRA IQNOTA SUNT. Cicero de Lembus* THE TRIADS.—No. VIII. TRIADS OF THE ISLE OF BRITAIN*. XXXVIII. JL HE three Conventional Monarchs of the Isle of Britain : first, Prydain, the son of Aedd Mawr, when a systematical regality was established over the Isle of Britain and the adjacent islands; second, Caradawg, the son of Bran, when there was conferred upon him the war-supremacy over the whole of the Isle of Bri¬ tain, to resist the incursion of the Romans; and Owain, the sou of Macsen Wledig, when the Cymry resumed the sovereignty, agreeably to their natural rights, from the Roman Emperor. That is, they were called the three Conventional Monarchs, from these rights being conferred upon them by the convention of country and border-country, within the whole limits of the nation of the Cymry, by holding a convention in every territory, commote, and cantrev in the Isle of Britain and its adjacent islands. [According both to Csesar and Tacitus, and particularly the latter, the inhabitants of this island, upon their discovery by the Romans, consisted, like the Gauls and Germans, of several inde¬ pendent tribes governed by their own chiefs. Yet, when influenced by the prospect of a general advantage or a common danger, these separate states became united in one body. Upon these occa¬ sions a chieftain or monarch was chosen from amongst a conven¬ tion of the whole country as stated in this Triad f. It was thus, * Arch, of Wales, vol. ii. p. 63. Tr. 34—36. f One of the Institutional Triads of Dyvnwal Moelrmnl (Arch, of Wales, •vol. iii. p. 290. Tr. .59) describes particularly how this convention was holden, and in his Tfiodd y Cl?idauf before noticed, it is reckoned ns one of the " three conventions fay sound of trumpet." See Arch, of Wales, vol. iii. p. 283. VOL. f, 2 o