Rodney Castleden - The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts

Queen of the Brigantesin the first century AD. Her kingdom was in northern England and she ruled from about AD 43 until 69.

Little is known about her, though she was clearly influential in Roman Britain. Unlike Boudicca, who opposed the Romans, Cartimandua was an ally of Rome. In fact she formed a large tribal alliance that was loyal to Rome. The inscription on the triumphal arch of the emperor Claudius declared that 11 “kings” of Britain surrendered to Rome without fighting, and Cartimandua may have been one of them. She was of noble birth and probably ruled by hereditary right rather than by marriage. Her husband was Venutius. The couple were seen by Rome as loyal and, in return, they were “defended by our [Roman] arms.”

In AD 51, when Caratacussought refuge with Cartimandua after he had been defeated by Ostorius Scapula in Wales, she put him in chains and handed him over to the Romans. In return for supplying Claudius with the prize exhibit for his triumph, she was rewarded with enormous wealth.

Eventually Cartimandua divorced Venutius and married his armor-bearer, a common soldier called Vellocatus. She took the precaution of holding Venutius’ brother and other relatives hostage, but Venutius still made war against her, building alliances against her. In about 55, he invaded her kingdom, but the Romans anticipated this and supplied Cartimandua with troops for her defense. There was some inconclusive fighting until Caesius Nasica appeared with a legion to defeat Venutius and the rebels. Rome recognized its debt to Cartimandua and helped her to keep her kingdom.

In 69, the year of four emperors, she was less lucky. During the instability Venutius mounted another revolt, aided by other tribes. Cartimandua asked the Romans for help, but this time they sent only auxiliaries. Cartimandua was evacuated and Venutius took over the kingdom of the Brigantes.

From this moment, Cartimandua vanishes from history.

A great Celtic chief, and the earliest British Celt whose name we know. He was known as Caswallawn by his fellow Britons; the Romans knew him by the Latin form of his name, Cassivellaunus. He was king of the powerful Catuvellauni tribeand led the British resistance to Julius Caesar’s invasion of 55 and 54 BC. Caesar mentions him by name in his reminiscences. Cassivellaunus killed the King of the Trinovantes, whose son Mandubracius fled for his life to the European mainland to seek Caesar’s protection. At that time, Caesar was engaged in the conquest of Gaul and some of the British tribes had been supporting Gaulish tribes in resisting him, which explains his interest in invading Britain.

The Roman legions landed in Cantium (Kent) and their focus of attention was on the Thames estuary. Cassivellaunus’s strategy was to draw the Roman columns into the interior, with a view to mounting an attack on their landing-site, perhaps to cut off their retreat. His difficulty was in persuading his fellow kings to collaborate with his strategy. His ancestral tribal base was at St. Albans, but he had an ongoing feud with his neighbors to the east, the Trinovantes, who gave in to Caesar without a fight. Cassivellaunus also failed to rally the Cantii. Alone, the Catuvellauni were no match for the heavily armed legionaries of the Roman army. On the other hand, Cassivellaunus’s 4,000 chariotswere able to harry the Romans very effectively as they tried to ford the Thames River, and the Catuvellauni put up a good fight in pitched battle.

Cassivellaunus and his soldiers fled north, perhaps first to St. Albans and then to Camulodunum, hoping for an attack on the Romans’ rear from Cantium. When he saw that it was not going to happen, Cassivellaunus surrendered hostages to Caesar, who made him promise to leave the Trinovantes in peace and agree to pay Rome an annual tribute. Caesar also allowed the Trinovantes to appoint Mandubracius as their king.

After Cassivellaunus’s submission, Caesar considered that as far as Rome was concerned Britain had been conquered, and sailed away.

Cassivellaunus was the grandfather or great-grandfather of Cunobelin.

See Cassivellaunus ; Myths: Branwen .

See Religion: Druids .

A very powerful British tribein the first centuries BC and AD. Its territory extended across the modern counties of Hertfordshire, south Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, but the Catuvellauni reached out to control their neighbors. Their kings were very strong and the lack of hillforts within their borders shows that they had their petty kings and local chiefs firmly under control.

There was a long-term power struggle between the Catuvellauni and their neighbors to the east, the Trinovantes. It was probably pressure from the Catuvellauni that led to the expulsion of the Trinovantian prince Mandubracius. He went to appeal to Julius Caesarin Gaul. Rome found political refugees like Mandubracius useful, especially when they were looking for an excuse to intervene; disaffected princes must also have been a useful fund of intelligence.

Other British tribes who feared the Catuvellauni joined the Trinovantes, including the Iceni. This was a great bonus for Caesar, because they brought with them exactly the information he needed—the whereabouts of Cassivellaunus’s headquarters. Cassivellaunus was King of the Catuvellauni, but he had adopted the Trinovantian capital, Camulodunum, as his base. It speaks highly of the loyalty that he inspired that he was able to keep this secret for so long. Caesar marched on Camulodunum at once.

The defenders ran away and it seems that Cassivellaunus escaped. He appealed for peace through Commius, King of the Atrebates, and the resistance to Caesar was over. Surprisingly, Caesar had already decided to withdraw from Britain to Gaul for the winter, because he had intelligence of an imminent uprising there. Perhaps Cassivellaunus should have gone on fighting; Caesar could scarcely have coped with a continuing British insurrection and the large-scale Vercingetorixrising that was about to erupt.

At the pinnacle of their power, the Catuvellauni achieved the confederation of south-eastern England in an informal Southern Kingdom ( See Tasciovanus , Trinovantes).

Cauus or Caw of Alclud (see Places: Alcluith ) was the father of Gildas. He lived in the upper Forth valley, perhaps 20 miles (30km) north of Glasgow. In about 495, he and his family moved to Wales. Legend gives him a second son, Cuil, who stayed in Scotland and died fighting against Arthur, but legend also makes Cauus a giant, because the word “cawr” in Welsh means “giant” ( See Funeral Odes ).

See Cauus ; Funeral Odes.

There has been a surge of renewed enthusiasm for all things Celtic in modern times. It began in the early eighteenth century with the awareness that there were links between the ancient languagesof the Atlantic Celts, and intensified with the growing awareness that these languages were in retreat.

The surge of interest in tartanand Celtic artin the nineteenth century and Celtic musicin the twentieth century were further symptoms of Celtomania. There has recently been a political dimension too, as people have become aware that peripheral regions of Europe could lose their cultural identity as the hub of the European Union develops and strengthens ( see Part 6: Celtic Twilight and Revival).