Kingdom of Rheged: Map & History
Rheged was one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages.
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Rheged was one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and bardic sources, although its borders are not described in any of them. Archaeological work from 2012 onwards on a site in Galloway in Scotland is interpreted by the excavators as showing that it is a royal centre of Rheged. Rheged possibly extended into Lancashire and other parts of northern England. In some sources, Rheged is intimately associated with the king Urien Rheged and his family. Its inhabitants spoke Cumbric, a Brittonic dialect closely related to Old Welsh.
Modern Countries Once Part of Kingdom of Rheged
At its mapped extent, Kingdom of Rheged covered territory in 1 present-day country. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Kingdom of Rheged's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Kingdom of Rheged in Depth
Genetic legacy
According to the University of Oxford's People of the British Isles project, the original population of Rheged has left a distinct genetic heritage amongst the people of Cumbria. The research compared the DNA of over 2000 people across the British Isles whose grandparents were all born within 50 miles (80 km) of each other, and found a number of cases, including Rheged, where genetic clusters of people matched the location of historical kingdoms (other examples included Bernicia and Elmet).
Location
The name Rheged appears regularly as an epithet of Urien (a late 6th-century king of Rheged) in a number of early Welsh poems and royal genealogies. His victories over the Anglian chieftains of Bernicia in the second half of the 6th century are recorded by Nennius and celebrated by the bard Taliesin, who calls him "Ruler of Rheged". He is thus placed squarely in the North of Britain and perhaps specifically in Westmorland when referred to as "Ruler of Llwyfenydd" (identified with the Lyvennet Valley). Later legend associates Urien with the city of Carlisle (the Roman Luguvalium), only twenty-five miles away; Higham suggests that Rheged was "broadly conterminous with the earlier Civitas Carvetiorum, the Roman administrative unit based on Carlisle".
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Rheged (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Kingdom of Rheged: Key Facts
| Capital | Carlisle |
|---|---|
| Official language | Cumbric |
| Form of government | monarchy |
| Founded | 5th century |
| Dissolved | 650s CE |
Succeeded by
Facts from Wikidata Q633573 (CC0).
Kingdom of Rheged Map Over Time
Dated world maps on which Kingdom of Rheged appears, with the other states of the time.
Kingdom of Rheged Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 11,953 km² in 645 CE.
Kingdom of Rheged: Frequently Asked Questions
When did the Kingdom of Rheged exist?
The Kingdom of Rheged is dated to 592 CE – 646 CE, in the Early Middle Ages era.
What was the capital of the Kingdom of Rheged?
The capital of the Kingdom of Rheged was Carlisle.
How large was the Kingdom of Rheged at its peak?
At its peak in 645 AD the Kingdom of Rheged covered about 11,953 km².
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