Philip de Braose's Conquest of Elfael, c.1095
Who Fought
History & Significance
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 Norman era it was associated with Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, a region independent of the Welsh monarchies and controlled by Norman Marcher Lords. In the 16th century, it was reorganized as a hundred and joined with the former kingdom of Brycheiniog to form the county of Brecknockshire.
The name Buellt, also rendered Buallt, comes from the Welsh words bu, meaning "ox", and gellt (later gwellt), meaning pasture. This was later anglicized to Builth, as in the modern town of Builth Wells.
Situated in the valley of Afon Irfon, Buellt's boundaries were roughly the Cambrian Mountains to the north, the River Wye to the east, the Mynydd Epynt range to the south, and Ceredigion to the west. It was closely associated with the territories of Gwrtheyrnion, Elfael, and Maelienydd, and as such was often considered part of the region known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren (English: Between Wye and Severn) despite being west of the Wye. The cantref was divided into four major commotes, whose boundaries are unclear: Treflys, Pebuellt, Dinan, and Is Irfon. Most of Buellt's major sites were located along the Irfon, including the courts of the commotes and the major church at Llanafan Fawr, dedicated to Saint Afan Buellt, the cantref's chief saint.
It is unknown when Buellt began to emerge as a distinct political unit. Its organization as a cantref seems to have developed along the earlier tribal boundaries of a gwlad ("people") or tud ("tribe"). During the Early Middle Ages, Buellt and Gwrtheyrnion on the other side of the Wye formed a small regional kingdom. This kingdom's rulers traced their descent back to the legendary 5th-century warlord Vortigern (Welsh: Gwrtheyrn, from which Gwrtheyrnion was named.)
The kingdom is known from the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, whose author, possibly a native of southeastern Wales, focused particular attention on it. The Historia recounts that after Vortigern had invited the Anglo-Saxons to Britain and then been forced west, his son Pascent ruled Buellt and Gwrtheyrnion as a grant from Ambrosius Aurelianus. Whatever the reality of this story, another section attributes descent from Pascent and Vortigern to Ffernfael ap Tewdwr, a 9th-century ruler of Buellt and Gwrtheyrnion known from other sources.
The Historia further includes Buellt in its mirabilia section, or list of marvels. According to the text, Buellt is the location of the "Carn Cabal", a (since lost) petrosomatoglyph: the imprint of a dog's paw. This marvel is attributed to King Arthur's dog Cavall, who supposedly left the print while chasing the boar Troyt. Afterward, Arthur placed this stone on top of a cairn, and anyone who tried to move it would find it back in its place the next day. The placename survives as Carn Gafallt near Rhayader, though it is unlikely the modern hill is the same one mentioned in the Historia. The prose tale Culhwch and Olwen contains a more elaborate version of Arthur's hunting of the divine boar, here known as Twrch Trwyth, however, in Culhwch the boar's detailed itinerary does not take him through Buellt.
The ground they fought on
The site of Philip de Braose's Conquest of Elfael, c.1095 lies on Ludlow Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ludlow. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
Philip de Braose's conquest of Buellt formed part of a swift Norman advance into Rhwng Gwy a Hafren in 1095; he promptly raised a wooden motte and bailey castle on the hill east of present-day Builth Wells to anchor his control, a fortification that would eventually be replaced by Edward I's stone Builth Castle following its destruction during the later Welsh wars.
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