Ceretic of Elmet (or Ceredig ap Gwallog) was the last king of Elmet, a Britonnic kingdom that existed in the West Yorkshire area of Northern England in

sub-Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hint ...

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

records that Hilda of Whitby (born 614), a member of the Deiran royal family, was taken to the court of King Ceretic, after fleeing from the Northumbrian usurper, Æthelfrith of Bernicia. Bede describes Ceretic as "

King of the Britons The title King of the Britons ( cy, Brenin y Brythoniaid, la, Rex Britannorum) was used (often retrospectively) to refer to the most powerful ruler among the Celtic Britons, both before and after the period of Roman Britain up until the Norma ...

", perhaps meaning just the Britons of that area. When

Edwin of Deira Edwin ( ang, Ēadwine; c. 586 – 12 October 632/633), also known as Eadwine or Æduinus, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christia ...

returned to power in 617, Ceretic was expelled, supposedly due to complicity in the poisoning of Hilda's father, and his kingdom was annexed to the Kingdom of Northumbria. He is probably the Ceretic whose death is recorded in the '' Annales Cambriae'' in 616 (which should be corrected to 617 or soon afterwards).J. Morris (ed.), ''Nennius, British History, and the Welsh Annals'' (Phillimore, 1980), p. 86: ''616 an: Ceretic obiit.'' He is generally thought to be identical to Ceredig ap Gwallog, a ' Man of the North', whose father,

Gwallog ap Lleenog Gwallog ap Lleenog (Old Welsh ''Guallauc'', Middle Welsh ''Gwallawc''; his father's name is spelled variously ''Lleinauc'', ''Lleynna '', ''Lleenawc'', and ''Llennawc'') was a hero of the Hen Ogledd. He has long been considered a probable sixth-cen ...

, is associated with Elmet by the poet, Taliesin.

References

{{Reflist 617 deaths Monarchs of Elmet Year of birth unknown People from Yorkshire 7th-century English monarchs