Meldred is a character who appears in literary accounts of

post-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 hin ...

. He is identified as a chieftain in part of what is now southern

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

for a period in the 6th Century. A twelfth century text references a petty king named ''Meldredus'' who had ruled in

Tweeddale Tweeddale (Scottish Gaelic: ''Srath Thuaidh/Tuaidhdail'') is a committee area and lieutenancy area in the Scottish Borders council area in south-eastern Scotland. It had also been a province in the Middle Ages. From 1975 to 1996 it was a local gov ...

. MacQueen, W. and MacQueen, J. (eds.), (1989), ''Vita Merlini Sylvestris'', in ''Scottish Studies'' 29, pp. 77 - 93, at 81 The village of

Drumelzier Drumelzier (), is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders. The area of the village is extensive and includes the settlements of Wrae, Stanhope, Mossfennan and Kingledoors. To the north is Broughton an ...

in Peeblesshire may take its name from him and his seat of power may have been the fort of Tinnis Castle. He is of interest as a character in the source texts on which the Arthurian romances are based and potentially the first named political leader associated with the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

in the post-Roman period.

Death of Lailoken

In ''Vita Merlini Silvestris'', a twelfth-century source text for the literary character

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

, Meldred features as the captor of

Lailoken Lailoken (aka Merlyn Sylvester) was a semi-legendary madman and prophet who lived in the Caledonian Forest in the late 6th century. The ''Life of Saint Kentigern'' mentions "a certain foolish man, who was called ''Laleocen''" living at or near the ...

, a warrior so traumatised by the scale of the slaughter he witnesses at the Battle of Arfderydd (Arthuret) in 573 that he retreats to the Great Wood of Caledon, where he lives as a wild man. Lailoken's madness endows him with the gift of prophecy and Meldred holds him captive in his fortress at Drumeller in the hope of extracting prophecies which he can use to his advantage. During negotiations over his release, Lailoken draws attention to a leaf caught in the queen's wimple which he claims is evidence of an assignation with her lover in the king's garden. Lailoken secures his release, but the queen takes revenge on him for revealing her affair by arranging to have him ambushed and killed by a gang of shepherds. Meldred has Lailoken buried in the churchyard to the east of his fortress, close to where the Powsail Burn joins the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the R ...

Maldred of Allerdale

The sixth-century literary Meldred of Arthurian romance may have been inspired by a much later historical figure, the eleventh century Maldred (Gaelic: ''Máel Doraid'') of

Allerdale Allerdale is a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council is based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census. The Bor ...

, referred to by ''

De obsessione Dunelmi ''De obsessione Dunelmi'' ("On the siege of Durham"), is an historical work written in the north of England during the Anglo-Norman period, almost certainly at Durham, and probably in either the late 11th- or early 12th-century. Provenance The ...

'' as a son of 'thegn Crínán', possibly Crínán, abbot of

Dunkeld Dunkeld (, sco, Dunkell, from gd, Dùn Chailleann, "fort of the Caledonians") is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The location of a historic cathedral, it lies on the north bank of the River Tay, opposite Birnam. Dunkeld lies close to t ...

, which would make him a younger brother of King

Duncan I of Scotland Donnchad mac Crinain ( gd, Donnchadh mac Crìonain; anglicised as Duncan I, and nicknamed An t-Ilgarach, "the Diseased" or "the Sick"; c. 1001 – 14 August 1040)Broun, "Duncan I (d. 1040)". was king of Scotland (''Alba'') from 1034 to 1040. H ...

. Maldred and his wife Ealdgyth, a daughter of

Uhtred the Bold Uhtred of Bamburgh (sometimes Uchtred); died c. 1016), was ruler of Bamburgh and from 1006 to 1016 the ealdorman of Northumbria. He was the son of Waltheof I, ruler of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg), whose family the Eadwulfings had ruled the surrou ...

and granddaughter of King

Æthelred the Unready Æthelred II ( ang, Æþelræd, ;Different spellings of this king’s name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern diale ...

, were the parents of

Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria Gospatric or Cospatric (from the Cumbric "Servant of aintPatrick"), (died after 1073), was Earl of Northumbria, or of Bernicia, and later lord of sizable estates around Dunbar. His male-line descendants held the Earldom of Dunbar, later known a ...

and progenitor of the

earls of Home Earl of Home ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1605 for Alexander Home of that Ilk, 6th Lord Home. The Earl of Home holds, among others, the subsidiary titles of Lord Home (created 1473), and Lord Dunglass (1605), in ...

and the

earls of Dunbar The title Earl of Dunbar, also called Earl of Lothian or Earl of March, was the head of a comital lordship in south-eastern Scotland between the early 12th century and the early 15th century. The first man to use the title of Earl in this earldom ...

.McGuigan, Neil (2021), ''Máel Coluim II 'Canmore': An Eleventh-Century Scottish King'', John Donald, Edinburgh, pp. 74 - 79,

References

{{reflist Medieval literature