Cynllibiwg (or some variation) was evidently a

place name Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Often ...

in early medieval

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The earliest surviving reference to it is in the ''

Historia Brittonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British (Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Bri ...

'', which describes a marvelous spring in the ''regione'' of ''Cinlipiuc'' that has an abundance of fish despite not being fed by a stream.

John Edward Lloyd Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian, He was the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (1911). Ano ...

notes that this ''Cinlipiuc'' appears to be one of the various district names created by adding the element ''-wg'' to a personal name, in this case an unknown Cunalipi or Cynllib. The ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' refers to a place called ''Calcebuef'', which rendered ten

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...

s; one editor suggests this is a corruption of Cynllibiwg and that it derives ultimately from the name of Saint

Cynllo Saint Cynllo () is a British saint, who lived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries, generally described as a brother of Saint Teilo. Cynllo was known for "...the sanctity of his life and the austerity of his manners." Life Cynllo is various ...

.''Domesday Book: Herefordshire'' ed. Thorn and Thorn (Phillimore 1983), A10 (f.179b) and notes on it. However, Lloyd connects this name instead to the cantref of

Buellt Buellt or Builth was a cantref in medieval Wales, located west of the River Wye. Unlike most cantrefs, it was not part of any of the major Welsh kingdoms for most of its history, but was instead ruled by an autonomous local dynasty. During the No ...

. The

Red Book of the Exchequer The Red Book of the Exchequer (''Liber Rubeus'' or ''Liber ruber Scaccarii'') is a 13th-century manuscript compilation of precedents and office memoranda of the English Exchequer. It contains additional entries and annotations down to the 18th cen ...

, a mainly 13th-century compilation, mentions a region of seven

cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which were ...

s between the

Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

and the Wye that had been known as ''Kenthlebiac'' during the time of

Rhys ab Owain Rhys ab Owain (died 1078) was a king of Deheubarth in southern Wales. Rhys was the son of Owain ab Edwin of the line of Hywel Dda, and member of the Dinefwr dynasty. He followed his brother Maredudd as king of Deheubarth in 1072. Together with ...

Deheubarth Deheubarth (; lit. "Right-hand Part", thus "the South") was a regional name for the realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to Gwynedd (Latin: ''Venedotia''). It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under the House of ...

(died 1078).''Red Book of Exchequer'', ed. Hubert Hall (3 vols. HMSO, 1896: Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 99) II, 762. This would place Cynllibiwg in the region later known as

Rhwng Gwy a Hafren Rhwng Gwy a Hafren ( en, Between Wye and Severn) was a region of medieval Wales, located in the Welsh Marches between Powys to the north and Brycheiniog to the south. It was bounded by the rivers Wye ( cy, Gwy) and Severn ( cy, Hafren). It covered ...

, but reveals nothing about its extent and nature. The editor suggests that seven cantrefs should be amended to three, perhaps

Arwystli Arwystli was a cantref in mid Wales in the Middle Ages, located in the headland of the River Severn. It was chiefly associated with the Kingdom of Powys, but was heavily disputed between Powys, Gwynedd, and the Norman Marcher Lords for hundre ...

Maelienydd Maelienydd, sometimes spelt Maeliennydd, was a cantref and lordship in east central Wales covering the area from the River Teme to Radnor Forest and the area around Llandrindod Wells. The area, which is mainly upland, is now in Powys. During the ...

, and

Elfael Elfael was one of a number of Welsh cantrefi occupying the region between the River Wye and river Severn, known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, in the early Middle Ages. It was divided into two commotes, Is Mynydd and Uwch Mynydd, separated by the chain of ...

; these are mentioned earlier in the list as part of

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

in the time of 'Meic Menbis', but no longer such. It has been postulated as an early kingdom,Paul Remfry, "Discovering the lost kingdom of Radnor", British Archaeology, no 34, May 1998
/ref> but is not mentioned by the great majority of historians.Standard works on Welsh history and early/medieval Wales which do not mention Cynllibiwg at all include the following: John Davies, ''History of Wales'' (Penguin, 1992); Sir

J. E. Lloyd Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian, He was the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (1911). An ...

, ''A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (revised ed., 1937), the classic survey of the period; R. R. Davies, ''Conquest, Coexistence and Change: Wales 1063-1415'' (Oxford University Press, 1991), probably the most comprehensive and authoritative single volume survey of the period;

Wendy Davies Wendy Elizabeth Davies (born 1942) is an emeritus professor of history at University College London, England. Her research focuses on rural societies in early medieval Europe, focusing on the regions of Wales, Brittany and Iberia. Career Da ...

, ''Wales in the Early Middle Ages'' (University of Leicester Press, 1982), (refers once to Cynllibiwg as a named early ''region'', based on Nennius); J. Beverley Smith, ''Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Tywysog Cymru'' (University of Wales Press, 1986), the most detailed history of the reign of

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes written as Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, also known as Llywelyn the Last ( cy, Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, lit=Llywelyn, Our Last Leader), was the native Prince of Wales ( la, Princeps Wall ...

, a period which saw him leading several campaigns in the area claimed as a kingdom of Cynllibiwg. The word is not mentioned in contemporary or near-contemporary sources such as the ''

Brut y Tywysogion ''Brut y Tywysogion'' ( en, Chronicle of the Princes) is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Bru ...

'' or the works of

Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...

References

{{Reflist History of Wales