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 the representatives of the Roman tradition in Britannia [that is, the gwledigs] to the House of Cunedda, which stood for the predominance of the Cymric kindreds. For in Maelgwn we seem to discern the progress of a policy which aims at bringing all the royal stems, from Anglesey to the river Wye, into subjection to the main stem of the family of Cunedda. This continues until in the first quarter of the ninth century there begins a new policy, which will bring almost the whole of Wales under the sole and immediate rule of this main stem of Cunedda. The many royal stocks are to give way to one royal stock, and in this manner is the unity of the Cymric Britannia to be achieved.

In 816 the main stem of Gwynedd ceased on the male side with the death of King Cynan Tindaethwy, the great grandson of Cadwaladr. His daughter, Etthil, had married Gwriad ap Elidyr, King of the Isle of Man, and now their son, Mervyn Vrych, comes from that island to claim the throne of Gwynedd. Mervyn is ominously surnamed in Welsh tradition Camwri, that is, Oppression. He is bent on asserting the old overlordship of Cunedda, Maelgwn, and Cadwallon over the whole of the Welsh kin from Anglesey to the river Wye. But in addition to this, he proceeds by diplomatic marriages to bring the