Earl of Belesme. The Complete Peerage vol.XI,p.689-696.

Robert de Belleme, Earl of Shrewsbury, whose chief strongholds were in t he
Welsh Marches, was an exceptionally sadistic man and not popular with t he
English people. Although he lost several castles in the process, Hen ry
successfully expelled Robert de Belleme with enthusiastic support.

Robert inherited Alcenon in Normandy from his father. His brother, Hugh, i
nherited the English lands, but when Hugh died without an heir in 1098, Ro
bert succeeded to the, becoming Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury. All of h is
English honors and estates were forfeited to the Crown when he was exil ed in
1102.

Antenor concluded a peace with the Gauls. He abolished the custom of sacri
ficing his enemies' children.

d. 143 BCE

b. Abt. 77 BCE; d. Bet. 37 - 34 BCE
Cause of Death:  Killed by the Gauls in battle

Bassanus Magnus, primarily a figure of legend, married a daughter of the
Norwegian King of the Orcades.  D. 250 BCE

d. 74 BCE

Died ca. 232 BCE

Died ca. 125 BCE

Died ca. 159 BCE in Battle

Died ca. 300 BCE

Following this line using the LDS format leads to Priam of Troy and Hecuba.
Since this appears largely as mythological with no support data and since I
have already used the format to link to Priam previously, I will not follow it
out further along this line of descent. 11/17/99 JCT

b. Abt. 57 BCE; d.11 BCE

Same person listed as King Francio of the Sicambri in the book "The
Illustrated Bloodline of the Holy Graiil; The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed"

Died ca. 198 BCE

Death: Abt. 95 BCE
Merodacus fought the Gauls and resettled their former lands.

Death: Bet. 198 - 195 BCE

Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (November 1165 - September 28, 1197) was ki ng of
Germany as Henry VI 1190-1197, and Holy Roman Emperor 1191-1197.

Emperor Henry VI was crowned king of Sicily in Palermo in 1194, entered Ro me
in 1196, and was crowned by Pope Celestine III. His accession to the th rone
of Sicily united the northern and southern lands of the empire and de eply
alarmed other Mediterranean powers.

Source: Fettes, Ian. Genealogical Royalty Database. .

Earl of Caithness and Sunderland

See information in Snorre's Saga and the Icelandic Landnamobok (settleme nt
book) possibly pure mythical from this point forward.

The greatest period of colonization occurred in the latter half of the nin th
century and the beginning of the tenth. They began again for a ti me in the
early part of the eleventh century. During this period, large pa rts of
northern France, England, and Ireland, were occupied and ruled by t he
Vikings. Invasions were usually led by men of high rank whose leaders h eld
equal power (i.e. no one supreme commander). Invasions of this kind pe
netrated Hamburg and Paris, and under the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok, eventual ly
reached England. King Horik wanted any Danish Viking raids to be und er his
direction. In 845 he sent several hundred vessels up the Elbe to ta ke
Hamburg, and at the same time sent Ragnar Lodbrok with a smaller fle et up the
Seine to capture Paris. In 865 Viking attacks were launch ed in a more
northerly direction and based on East Anglia. This was the st arting point of
an attack by a united army led by the three sons of Ragn ar Lodbrok: Ivar the
Boneless (a strategist), Ubbi, and Halfdan. This ar my captured York on
November 1, 866. Around 860 AD, under the leadersh ip of Bjorn and Hastings, a
fleet of sixty-two vessels set out for Brittan y. This time, however, they
were only able to sack Algeciras just inside t he Straits of Gibralter. From
here they crossed to Nekor in Morocco, and e ight days later sailed north past
the Balearic Islands to the southern sho res of France, where they set up camp
on the island of La Camargue in t he Rhone delta. Around 851 AD, the chieftain
Olaf the White from Norway, r econquered Dublin, restored Norwegian supremacy,
and finally chased the Da nes out of Ireland. For the next twenty years Olaf
ruled in Dublin, and h is brother Ivar the Boneless, ruled in Limerick. In 870
Olaf the White w as recalled to Norway, and the government of Dublin was taken
over by h is brother Ivar. The rest of the century the Norwegians spent in
fightin g; partly among themselves, and partly against the Danes under King
Halfd an Hvidsaark in northern England.

THE MONGOL INVASION

    Soon after the German conquest of Livonia, and only a few years befo re
the Teutonic Knights moved into Prussia, East Central Europe receiv ed a first
warning that another wave of Asiatic conquerors was approachi ng from the
East. The huge Eurasian Empire created by Jenghis Khan ear ly in the
thirteenth century was supposed to include all peoples of Mong ol origin, and
it therefore attacked the Polovtsy who for more than a hund red years had
controlled the steppes of Eastern Europe. Although they h ad been a permanent
plague for the Kievan State, and although the Russia ns were proud of their
fight against them (which is described in the mu ch discussed Tale of the Host
of Igor), some Russian princes whom the Polo vtsy asked for help in the
critical year of 1223 sided with them against t he Mongols, only to share in a
crushing defeat at the Kalka River. Asiat ic problems, and the death of
Jenghis Khan four years later, delayed the r evenge of the Mongols who were,
however, resolved to take the place of t he destroyed Polovtsy in Eastern
Europe and to secure the domination of th at whole region by bringing the
neighboring Russian principalities under t heir control also.

    The new colonial Russia in the Volga Basin was first invaded and conqu
ered in 1237—1238. But instead of advancing in the direction of Novgoro d,
which was never taken by the Mongols, the leader of their European expe
dition, Jenghis Khan’s grandson Batu, turned in 1240 against Kiev, which w as
destroyed. After also occupying the whole south of Russia, the followi ng year
he entered both Poland and Hungary. Even Western Europe was seriou sly alarmed
when one Mongolian army defeated the Poles, first near Crac ow and then at
Lignica in Silesia, while another gained a great victory ov er the Hungarians
at the Sajo River and advanced as far as the Adriatic. B ut again Asiatic
developments, including the death of the Grand Khan, ma de the Mongols
withdraw. They never returned to Hungary, and after being s topped at Lignica,
where Prince Henry the Pious of Wroclaw gave his li fe in defense of
Christendom, they henceforth limited themselves to occasi onal raids into
eastern Poland, sometimes forcing the Russian prince to pa rticipate in these
invasions as well as in those directed against Lithuani a.

    On the contrary, almost all the Russian lands, with the exception of N
ovgorod and the White Russian principalities in the northwest where Lithua
nian influence proved stronger, remained for a long period under Mongol ru le.
Indirectly they were under the suzerainty of the Grand Khan who resid ed in
faraway Karakorum, in Mongolia proper. Directly they were under t he Golden
Horde of Kipchak, as the European part of the Mongol Empire w as called. That
autonomous unit founded by Batu Khan, with its capit al at Sarai on the lower
Volga, included both the peoples of Asiatic orig in in the steppes north of
the Black Sea, usually covered by the name of T artars, and the various
Russian principalities under the overlordship of t he Khan of Kipchak.

    That Mongol domination was indeed a major catastrophe in the histo ry of
Russia. It was that Asiatic impact that alienated her from Europe an d, much
more than the earlier Byzantine influence, made her different fr om and
opposed to the West. There were, however, important differenc es in the
position of the various parts of Russia. In general, her princip alities were
left to their former rulers, to the various lines of the Rur ik dynasty whose
members were simply made vassals of the Khan. Only in exc eptional cases where
no hereditary line was established, as in Kiev itse lf and in the lowlands of
Podolia, Tartar officials were at the head of t he local administration.

    In such cases only the church remained as a guardian of the old tradit
ion, and it was a metropolitan of Kiev who soon after the destruction of t he
glorious capital went to the Council of Lyons in 1245, asking for he lp from
the Catholic West. Pope Innocent IV was indeed deeply concerned wi th the
Mongol danger at the gates of Catholic Europe. He was also fully aw are of the
possibilities of religious reunion which any real assistance gr anted to
Orthodox Christendom would open in Russia as well as in the Ne ar East where
he negotiated simultaneously with the Greeks of Nicaea. B ut absorbed by the
conflict with the Western Empire, the papacy was powerl ess against the
Mongols, who time and again were even considered possib le allies against
Arabs or Turks. The papal missions, sent as far as Karak orum with illusionary
hopes of conversion, collected precious informati on about the devastated
Russian lands which they had to cross, but on ly in the case of Halich and
Volhynia did any prospects of cooperation, bo th religious and political,
appear.

    In this section of the old Kievan State which continued to have clo se
ties with Catholic Poland and sometimes Hungary also, Tartar dominati on was
opposed from the outset whenever it proved possible to do so, and T artar
influence remained negligible. The state of Daniel, a son of Roma n, and his
successors must therefore be considered an integral part of t he European
community, as in the past, and its role in the history of Ea st Central Europe
deserves special attention. But Daniel’s earlier hop es of uniting Kiev with
his patrimony no longer had any chance of succes s. On the contrary, the Kiev
region, which during the following centu ry of immediate Tartar control
completely lost its traditional significanc e, was separating Daniel’s realm
from the eastern parts of Russia, call ed Great Russia in the Byzantine
sources, in contradistinction to Little R ussia, i.e., Halich and Volhynia.

    Since the petty principalities into which the Chernigov (Severian) reg ion
was divided were of limited importance, the new Great Russian State, w hose
formation is the main feature of Eastern European history in the thir teenth
century, was constituted by the principalities of the colonial Vol ga region,
where Vladimir-on-the-Klazma now supplanted Suzdal as the ma in center.

    Among the descendants of Vsevolod Big Nest, who ruled in that vast reg
ion, Yaroslav, whose brother George had been killed when fighting the Mong ols
in 1238, occupied after him the leading position and inaugurated a shr ewd
policy of appeasing the new masters of Eastern Europe. Twice he undert ook the
perilous and exhausting journey to the Grand Khan’s Asiatic reside nce, only
to perish on the return in 1246, as did so many other Russian pr inces of the
Mongol period during or after such visits. It now became a ru le that the Khan
would decide who would occupy the position of grand prin ce in Russia, and
after a few years of trouble that decision was tak en in 1252 in favor of
Yaroslav’s son, the famous Alexander Nevsky. B ut he no longer had any
pretension to claim, as his predecessors did, t he ancient throne of Kiev
also. On the contrary, he definitely limited h is Russia to the new body
politic around Vladimir.

    It is true that before ruling there he had been accepted as prin ce by the
people of Novgorod, and his very surname recalled his victory ov er the
Swedes, gained in 1240 at the Neva River, where he defended the rep ublic
against the Scandinavian masters of Finland. Two years later he al so defeated
the German Knights of Livonia in another battle on frozen La ke Peipus. But
since these early contacts with the Catholic West had be en exclusively
hostile, he turned decidedly toward the East, showed no int erest in papal
appeals in favor of ecclesiastical union, but on the contra ry tried to
strengthen his position by loyally cooperating with his Tart ar overlords.

    Such cooperation resulted in the privilege of collecting the heavy tax es
which the Khan required from all Russian princes. It was convenient f or the
Tartars to receive the whole amount through the intermediation of t he Grand
Prince, who in turn used that rather unpleasant task for the purp ose of
controlling the other princes and uniting the new Russia under h is own
authority. After his death in 1263 such a policy was continued by A lexander’s
less prominent successors, the main problem being which prin ce would receive
the supreme power connected with the possession of Vladim ir in addition to
his hereditary apanage. In the absence of any recogniz ed order of succession,
their rivalry could only lead to continuous Tart ar interference, which was
particularly evident in the long-lasting strugg le for supremacy between the
princes of Tver and those of Moscow.

    The first of these two main principalities, which seemed to have a rig ht
of seniority, succeeded in controlling Vladimir with few interruptio ns until
1319. But Moscow, not mentioned before 1147, which first appear ed as a
separate principality a hundred years later but was not really con stituted as
a hereditary apanage of one of the lines of the dynasty befo re the turn of
the thirteenth century, rapidly rose to leading power und er a succession of
extremely efficient rulers who enlarged their territo ry and gradually
supplanted their cousins from Tver as real masters of a ll dependencies of
Vladimir.

    That whole story, which is comparatively well known, no longer has any
thing in common with the history of East Central Europe. The acceptan ce of
Mongol domination, which was to last more than two hundred years, w as
probably unavoidable, but in any case it decided that the new coloni al Russia
Eastern Europe in the geographical sense would develop outside t he European
community. Connected with an empire whose major part and bas ic nucleus were
in Asia, it was at the same time cut off from European inf luence and wide
open to Asiatic.

    It is to the credit of the East Slavic, Great Russian settlers in th at
originally Finnish territory that they preserved not only their langua ge and
customs, that they not only continued to absorb various alien peopl es, thanks
to their cultural superiority, but also remained faithful to th eir religious
tradition which in spite of the conflicting trends represent ed by pagan
elements survived under extremely difficult conditions. This w as to a large
extent the result of an unbroken continuity of ecclesiastic al organization,
under the distant but respected authority of Byzantium, a nd particularly of
the decision made around 1300 by the metropolitan of Ki ev to transfer his
residence to Vladimir, whence it was moved in 1326 to t he promising center of
Moscow.

    But neither that ecclesiastical link, nor the dynastic link with the K
ievan past, was sufficient to make the Muscovite State a continuation of t he
Kievan State with merely a shift of the center. It was a new politic al
creation where the local autocratic tradition was reinforced by the gov
ernmental conceptions of the Mongol Empire. That empire was much more desp
otic than the Christian Empire of Constantinople had ever been, and at t he
same time much more aggressive, with an unlimited program of expansio n. As
soon as Muscovite Russia, trained under such an influence, felt stro ng enough
to liberate herself from the degrading yoke of that disintegrati ng empire,
she took over its role in Eastern Europe, later to include i ts Asiatic part
also by means of another process of colonization.

    But for that very reason Moscow under her “czars,” as the grand princ es
later called themselves like the Tartar khans, became a threat to all f ree
peoples of East Central Europe, who soon found themselves placed betwe en
German and Russian imperialism. The first to be threatened were those E astern
Slavs who had remained in their original settlements, in the old Ru ssia of
the Kievan Rus—the Ruthenia of the Latin sources—including also t he Great
Russians of Novgorod, all of them soon to be claimed by the rule rs of Moscow
in the name of the unity of all the Russias. The question whe ther those
peoples, particularly the ancestors of the White Russians and U krainians of
today, would be able to save their individuality and ke ep in contact with
their western neighbors was an issue of primary importa nce for the whole
structure of Europe which the consequences of the Mong ol invasion had already
raised in the thirteenth century.

Died 74 CE

Relinquished Crown in 36 CE. Was previously the Arch Druid of Siluria before
converting to Christianity

BRAN THE BLESSED SOVEREIGN [bran], also known as Bren and Cunobelinus, was the
son of Llyr and Penarddun. He lived around 36 CE and was considered "old" in
60 CE. (Wurts, 1942; Morgan 1911)

Brân married a sister of Casswallan (who was his mother's brother). Casswallon
was a British king in 62 BCE and was made Commander in Chief of all British
forces at the time of Caesar's first invasion, 55 BCE. He was forced to pay
tribute and died in 48 BCE. (Wurts, 1942; Morgan 1911)

Brân resigned his crown to his son Caradoc and became Arch-Druid of the
college of Siluria where he remainined some years until called upon to be a
hostage for his son. During his seven years in Rome he became the first royal
convert for Christianity and was baptized by the Apostle Paul, as was his son
Caradoc and the latter's two sons Cyllinus and Cynon. Henceforth he was known
as the "Blessed Sovereign". He was the first to bring the faith of Christ to
the Cymry. He is also attributed as introducing the use of vellum into
Britain. (Wurts, 1942)

Regarding the death of Brân there is this from the 'The Mabinogion': And
Evnissyen said, "Why does my nephew, the son of my sister, not come to me ?"
"Let him go gladly," said Brân, and Gwern went gladly. Evnissyen rose and took
Gwern by the feet, and at once, before a man in the house could lay a hand on
him, he thrust the boy headfirst into the fire. When Branwen saw her son
burning in the fire, she made as if to leap after him from where she was
sitting between her two brothers, but Brân seized her with one hand and his
shield with the other. Everyone in the house sprang u p, and there arose the
greatest commotion ever caused by a host in one hou se as everyone reached for
his arms. As each men went after his weapons, Brân protected Branwen between
his shield and his shoulder. Seven escaped, though Brân had been wounded in
the foot by a poisoned spear. Brân commanded them to cut off his head. "Take
my head," he said, "and carry it to the White Hill in London and bury it there
with the face turned toward France." They landed at Aber Alaw in Tal Ebolyon
and sat down and rested, but Branwen looked at the Island of the Mighty, and
said: "Alas, woe that I was ever born, for two good islands have been
destroyed on my ac count." And with that her heart broke. They made a
four-sided grave and buried her on the bank of the Alaw....so ends this Branch
of the Mabinogi, a bout the blow struck at Branwen, and about the Assembly of
Brân, wherein t he hosts of 154 districts went to Ireland to avenge that blow.
(Mabinogion )

Cunobelinus [Roman name] died c. 42 CE, was the ruler of a large area of s
outheastern Britain from about CE 1- to 42. He is Cymbeline in Shakespeare 's
play of the same name, though the plot bears no relationship to the events of
his career. He succeeded his father as chief of the Catuvellauni, a tribe
centered north of what is now London. Either shortly before or after his
accession, he conquered the territory of the Trinovantes, in modern Essex. He
made Camulodunum (Colchester) his capital and the seat of his mint. His power
and influence were so widely felt in Britain that the Roman biographer
Suetonius called him "Britannorum rex." In about 40 CE Cunobelius banished his
son Adminius, who fled to Rome and persuaded the emperor Caligula (Gaius
Caesar) to invade Britain. The expedition was assembled, but it never left the
continent. After Cunobelinus' death, his two other sons, Caratacus and
Togodumnus, displayed hostility toward Rome and gave Claudius an excuse to
impose Roman rule on the island. (M organ 1911)

Quote attributed to Bren: "Let him who is a chief be a bridge." (Wurts, 19 42)

Welsh Mythology regard Brân:
In the tales, Brân's sister Branwen the Fair Bosomed was married to King M
atholwch of Ireland. Due to various affronts of Branwen, not to mention t he
later death of Branwen's son, the Welsh crossed the Irish Sea to attack
Ireland. Those on the east coast of Erin saw an eerie vision of a mount ain
and a forest on the water. Branwen informed King Matholwch that the mo untain
was Brân walking across the sea, and that the forest was a multitude of masts
from Welsh naval ships coming to bring her just relief.

The Welsh landed and fought furiously against the Irish. The warriors of I
reland seemed to have the upper hand. This was because they had the cauldron
of Brân, which was given to Matholwch as a wedding present. The Irish needed
only to plunge their slain warriors into the cauldron, and they wou ld be
brought back to life. The Welsh discovered this and successfully destroyed the
cauldron.

The warriors of Wales proceeded then to defeat the Irish. But there were only
seven Welshmen left unhurt, including Pryderi, Manawyddan, Taliesin the Bard,
and four others. The high drama of the situation was that Brân himself was
seriously wounded, pierced in the foot with a poison arrow. He was in agony.
Brân asked his seven fellow warriors to cut off his head, carry it to London,
and bury it there with his face towards France. This was so that Brân in his
death could stand watch against any foe that tried to invade Britain.

So Brân's head was removed, and at this point proceeded to become famous in
Celtic mythology. The seven bearers of Brân's head began the journey to
London, but stopped for a feast and to be serenaded by the three birds of
Rhiannon. These birds sang so sweetly that the men slid into a state of
oblivion and lost all track of time. For seven years the men drank and ate,
and conversed in an agreeable and pleasant fashion with the head of Brân,
which behaved like it was very much alive. Then they journeyed further, only
to stop and have an eighty-year feast, again losing all sense of time, and
talking amiably with the animated head of Brân.

But then one of the seven head bearers realized that 87 years had passed s
ince their journey had begun. And upon seeing Cornwall, they all resolved that
their mission must be completed. So Brân's head was buried in Lond on facing
France, only to be disinterred by King Arthur in a later myth. Brân is often
called in legend "the Blessed," and he is considered alternately to have had a
Noble, Venerable, and Wonderful Head!

CARADOC ap BRAN also known as Caractacus, Caratacus, Caradawg "Strong Arm"
[ka'ra.daug]. He was the son of Bran. Caradoc was born at Trevan, Llani lid
(Glamorganshire). His main residence was at Abergwaredigion ("the Meet
ing-Place of the Saved/Released Ones"). (Wurts, 1942; Morgan 1911)

Children: Cyllinus (Linus), Eurgan (Claudia), Cynon, Cawrdav (Wurts, 194 2;
Morgan 1911)

Tacitus, describing the stand made by the Silurians under Caradoc ap Bran at
Caer Caradoc, near Knighton, county Radnor, states: "The intrepid countenances
of their whole army and the spirit which animated them, struck the Roman
commander, Ostorius, with astonishment...The chieftains of the various tribes
were seen busy in every direction. They raced along the ranks of their army.
They exhorted their warriors, they roused the timid, they inured the valient,
and by promises inflamed the ardour of all...Caractacus was seen alternately
in every part of his army. He galloped along the lines, exclaiming aloud:
'This day, my comrades, this very day, decides the fate of all Britain!' "
Caradoc was expecting Gwyn to arrive wi th reinforcements, but they missed
each other and while General Gwyn was conquering Caerwent, Caradoc was
captured by Argwedd Voeddig (Queen Cartism andua of the north of England -
a.k.a Brynack of the Britons and Brigante ), the wife of Gwyn. In chains,
Caradoc was handed a captive to the Roman General Ostorius Scapula. Caradoc
and his son Cyllin (Linus), and his daughter Eurgain (Claudia of Caesar's
household), were afterwards placed in Rome in the care of Pomponia Graecenia,
wife of the Roman Regent, General Plautus (commander in the invasion of 43
CE). Pomponia was later charged at Rome with having "embraced a foreign
superstition". (Wurts, 194 2; Morgan 1911)


"The men hastened out, they galloped together; short-lived were they, drunk
over the clarified mead, the retinue of Mynyddawg, famous in stress of battle;
their lives were payment for their feast of mead. Caradawg and Madawg, Pyll
and Ieuan, Gwgawn and Gwiawn, Gwynn and Cynfan, Peredur of the steel weapons,
Gwawrddur and Aeddan, charging forward in batt le among broken shields; and
though they were slain they slew, none returned to his lands." — Welsh (about
600)

Caratacus' kingdom covered the Atrebates of Hampshire and probably the Dobunni
of Gloucestershire. At the time of the Roman invasion of Britain during the
reign of Claudius, he led the native resistance against Aulus Plautis (43-47
CE) and after being defeated, withdrew into south Wales. He was finally
defeated by Ostorius Scapula in 50 CE, somewhere in the Welsh marshes, in the
territory of the Ordovices. He himself fled to the Brigantes, whose queen,
Cartimandua, delivered him to the Romans. He and his family were featured in a
victory parade of Claudius, who granted them pardon and life. (Wurts, 1942;
Morgan 1911)

A quote attributed to Caradoc is: "Oppression persisted in brings on death ".
(Wurts, 1942)

"Bloodline of the Holy Grail" lists his name as Arviragus who died 74 CE

Name is noted as Marius in some journals. Most specifically in the book
"Bloodline of the Holy Grail". However, I am doubtful that Marius ever existed
and the Cyllin is the rightful father of Coel I. Cyllin, King of Siluria was
sainted by the early Church of Britain. He, first of the Cymry, gave infants
names, which previously were not given except to adults, and then from
something characteristic in the bodies, jobs, minds, or manners. Linus and his
sister Claudia (Eurgan) visited St. Paul in his cell (2 Timot hy iv. 21). For
some years after the death of St. Peter in 66 CE and St. P aul in 68 CE, both
Linus and Clement led their respective schools of Christians at Rome.
Eventually Linus departed and joined his royal kindred in Glamorgan. (Wurts,
1942; Morgan 1911)

There is considerable confusion at this jucture as the Sangrael lineages list
this person as Marius, son of King Arviragus of Siluria and his wife the
daughter of Bran the Blessed, whereas most genealogies, put the female as the
daughter of Bran and not his daughter in law.