Riderch I of Alt Clut

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Riderch I of Alt Clut (fl. 580; died c. 614), commonly known as Riderch or Rhydderch Hael (the Generous) was a ruler of Alt Clut (the region around modern Dumbarton Rock) and the greater region later known as Strathclyde, a Brythonic kingdom that existed on the valley of the River Clyde in Scotland during the British Sub-Roman period.

His father was an apparently tyrannical king called Tutagual of Alt Clut who is mentioned both in the works of Adomnan and The Miracles of Nynia. He is believed to have been a descendant of Dumnagual Hen. Outside of these pedigrees Riderch's kinsmen appear only in Welsh texts, chiefly the heroic poetry and the fragments of saga preserved in the Welsh Triads. One such kinsman, Senyllt Hael, is credited in the poem Y Gododdin with him seen presiding over a royal court famed for its liberality. Another, Senyllt's son Nudd Hael, appears with Riderch in the triad of the "Three Generous Men of Britain".

In a curious tale preserved in the 12th century Welsh law code known as the Black Book of Chirk, Riderch accompanied by the aforementioned Nudd Hael and another as yet unknown character called Mordaf Hael (perhaps a brother) go on a military expedition to north Wales to avenge the killing of their kinsman Elidyr Llydanwyn by king Rhun ap Maelgwn Hir of Gwynedd. The tale says that they travelled by sea and ravaged the territory of Arfon. In a revenge attack Rhun attacked Strathclyde and ravaged as far as the River Forth.

Here Elidyr Muhenvaur, a man from the north was slain and, after his death, the men of the north, came here to avenge him. The chiefs, their leaders, were Clyddno Eiddin; Nudd Hael, son of Senyllt; and Mordaf Hael, son of Seruari, and Rydderch Hael, son of Tudwal Tudglyd; and they came to Arvon, and because Elidyr was slain at Aber Mewydus in Arvon, they burned Arvon as a further revenge. And then Run, son of Maelgwn, and the men of Gwynedd, assembled in arms, and proceeded to the banks of the [River] Gweryd in the north, and there they were long disputing who should take the lead.[1]

The textual uncertainties suggest that the story of the Arfon expedition and Rhun's response is likely to be apocryphal, its creation owing less to actual sixth century events than to later north Welsh propagandists who, in seeking to glorify their own kings, portrayed Rhun as an ancestor of those kings and as a mighty warlord who could wage war far beyond his own lands and against figures whose fame may already have become enshrined in Welsh tradition.

Welsh tradition regards Rhydderch as one of the northern British kings who fought against the early Anglo-Saxon realm of Bernicia. The Historia Brittonum depicts him as an enemy of several Bernician kings of the late sixth century, but the theatre of the wars between them is not identified. It is said he joined with Urien of Rheged and Morcant Bulc in their ill-fated alliance:

Four kings fought against them, Urien and Riderch [Hael] and Gwallawg and Morcant. Theodoric fought vigorously against Urien and his sons. During that time, sometimes the enemy, sometimes the Cymry were victorious, and Urien blockaded them for three days and three nights in the island of Ynys Metcaut. But during this campaign, Urien was assassinated on the instigation of Morcant, from jealousy, because his military skill and generalship surpassed that of all the other kings

—Historia Brittonum, chapter 63

The war with Bernicia is one of only two military campaigns in which Riderch Hael is said to have been involved, the other being a raid on the Strathclyde court by Áedán mac Gabráin, king of Dál Riata and a fellow-contemporary of Saint Columba which is recorded in the gloriously named Three Unrestrained Ravagings of the Island of Britain in the Welsh Triads:

…when Aedan the Wily came to the court of Riderch the Generous at Alt Clut; he left neither food nor drink nor beast alive.

Apart from this work there are no other supporting texts to prove the accuracy of these events. However, in a broad context it is indeed not unlikely as Alt Clut and Dál Riata were neighbours and fought many times during the Sub-Roman and Early Medieval periods. Dál Riata was a relative new comer to the politics of Britain and raids by the Gaels, as the Scots of Dál Riata were commonly known, on the Brythonic border kingdoms around Hadrian's Wall had been typical since the time of Vortigern and before. Furthermore, Áedán mac Gabráin is known to have been a particularly belligerent warlord whose campaigns extended from Pictavia to Northumbria. It is tempting to ascribe the ultimate origin of this material to Strathclyde court-poets of Riderch's own time. One Triad mentions Rhydderch's horse Rudlwyt, meaning "Dun-Grey," while another poetical fragment names his sword Dyrnwyn, "White Hilt," as one of the legendary Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain.

Aside from the Welsh sources, the other main repository of information on Riderch Hael is the Latin hagiography surrounding Kentigern, the patron saint of Glasgow, whose most complete surviving Life was written in the late twelfth century by Joceline, a monk of Furness Abbey in modern Cumbria, on behalf of the Bishop of Glasgow. Attempts have been made to identify possible archaic elements and indeed it now seems likely that it draws together several strands of very early Strathclyde tradition, possibly originating in the seventh or eighth centuries. Riderch Hael appears as "King Rederech" and is portrayed as Kentigern's royal patron and benefactor, from whom the saint received land at Glasgow upon which to establish the principal bishopric of the greater Strathclyde region.

Another possibly authentic early Brythonic name is Languoreth, the name of Riderch's queen. The Aberdeen Breviary, a sixteenth century collection which includes brief accounts of various Scottish saints, does not name Riderch's wife but calls her the "Queen of Cadzow", a district corresponding roughly to the area around Hamilton to the south of Glasgow. The source of this information is unknown, but if it has any basis in historical reality then we can probably assume that Languoreth, like Rhydderch, was a Briton of the Clyde valley, or that Riderch maintained a royal centre at Cadzow. In the Welsh Triads Rhydderch is credited with a daughter, Angharad, who appears in the delightfully named Three Lively Maidens of the Island of Britain and is given the epithet Ton Velen, meaning "Tawny Wave," possibly in the sense of "Blonde Curls," which implies the existence of traditional poems or stories in which she played some kind of role.

We do not know when Riderch died, although the Life of Kentigern places his death in the same year as the saint's which, according to the Welsh Annals, occurred in 612, which is adjusted by historians to 614. This date is supported by Adomnan who refers to Riderch as a contemporary of Saint Columba who died in 597. Adomnan's assertion that Riderch did not die in battle can probably be taken at face value: the fulfillment of Columba's prophecy was the important issue for Iona and there was nothing to be gained by producing a fictional end for a king whose life and death were presumably already recorded in Glasgow and Dumbarton traditions.