The Howells of Wales and of the west of England are surrounded in the Cymric annals by legends as varied as those which compose the Nibelungenlied or the Arthurian circle. Amid the strains of martial music and the clang of arms in the wrestle for supremacy among the various Welsh tribes (temp. 900 et seq.) Howel Dda, or Howel the Good, stands out as the most famous of the early Welsh kings, and he is described in William of Malmesbury’s Chronicle as “King of all the Welsh.” The son of Cadell, the son of Rhodri the Great, his pedigree was traced by a tenth century genealogist to Cunedda, thence to Ann, cousin of the Blessed Virgin.* Howel succeeded his father circa 909, and, though subject to the lady of the Mercians, Æthelflæd, and her husband, Æthelred, as well as their successor, Edward the elder, became Lord of the North Welsh in 922, and King of the West Welsh in 926. He attested charters drawn in the reign of Athelstan as “Howel subregulus,” in the reign of Eadred as “Howel regulus,” and in 949 as “Howel rex.” He is styled by Simeon of Durham, a contemporary, “rex Brittonum.”
