Kingdom of Brycheiniog

Brycheiniog was the small Welsh kingdom of the middle south, a buffer between England east and Deheubarth west from 450 to the Norman coming. Probably founded by Irish raiders, the Uí Liatháin, late in the fifth century, stubbornly Welsh in speech and law, it held the Beacons and the Usk vales while greater neighbors wrote the chronicles. Legend names Brychan, son of Irish Anlach by Marchell heiress of Garth Madrun, father of saints across Wales and Cornwall, with Rhain following him. The Normans conquered and pacified it between 1088 and 1095, unmaking the kingship but not the people: Brycheiniog became the lordship of Brecknock, then the southern half of Brecknockshire, To its south lay Morgannwg. The main legacy of the kingdom is etymological: its name lives in Bannau Brycheiniog, the Beacons' national park, in Brecknockshire, the shire of Brycheiniog, and in Brecon town. Of all its history, geography kept the most.