Lloegyr
Encyclopedia
Lloegyr is the medieval Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 name for that part of Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 south and east of a line extending from the Humber Estuary to the Severn Estuary
Severn Estuary
The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. Its high tidal range means it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy.-Geography:...

, exclusive of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 and Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

. The people of Lloegyr were called Lloegyrwys without notice of their ethnicity, whether in reference to Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...

 or to Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

.

The modern form of the word is Lloegr and it has become generalised through the passage of time to become the Welsh word for "England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

" as a whole, and not restricted to its original, smaller extent. The word has been anglicised
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...

 and Latinised
Latinisation (literature)
Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet...

 into such forms as Logres, Logris, and Loegria, among others, and is perhaps most widely recognised as the name of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

's realm in the body of literature known as the Matter of Britain
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the body of literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and its legendary kings, particularly King Arthur...

. The word is known to date from the 10th century or earlier, as it appears in the literary Armes Prydein
Armes Prydein
Armes Prydein is an early 10th-century Welsh prophetic poem from the Book of Taliesin.In a rousing style characteristic of Welsh heroic poetry, it describes a future where all of Brythonic peoples are allied with the Scots, the Irish, and the Vikings of Dublin under Welsh leadership, and together...

.

Limit of Lloegyr

The limit of Lloegyr has long been known to historians and writers, and is described as roughly a line from the Humber Estuary, continuing southwestwardly and connecting to the Severn Estuary
Severn Estuary
The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. Its high tidal range means it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy.-Geography:...

. The line continues south across the estuary, crossing South West England
South West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...

 such that Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 and Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 are excluded from Lloegyr. The division is mentioned in literature (e.g., the Welsh Triads
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...

) and is supported by the works of respected historians such as John Rhys
John Rhys
Sir John Rhys was a Welsh scholar, fellow of the British Academy, celticist and the first Professor of Celtic at Oxford University.-Early years and education:...

' Celtic Britain
and John Edward Lloyd
John Edward Lloyd
Sir John Edward Lloyd , was a Welsh historian, the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, 2 vols...

's A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest.

While Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...

 invented fanciful characters and places in his stories of Loegria
Logres
Logres is the name of King Arthur's realm in the Matter of Britain. It derives from the Welsh word Lloegr, a name of uncertain origin meaning "England"....

 and its eponymous king Locrinus
Locrinus
Locrinus was a legendary king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the oldest son of Brutus and a descendant of the Trojans through Aeneas. Following Brutus's death, Britain was divided amongst the three sons, with Locrinus receiving the portion roughly equivalent to...

, he also showed that he was aware that the actual boundary of Lloegyr was known to run between the Humber and Severn estuaries, and that Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 was distinct from Loegria.

Correlations

There is nothing known to connect the word 'Lloegyr' with any political or social entity earlier than the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, nor can it be said to be the medieval Welsh name for an earlier political or social entity.

However, its boundaries agree quite well with limits of the Romanised part of Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

. Inside those boundaries was a heritage of Romano-British society, laws, and customs that had evolved in the 350 years of Roman rule. Outside of those boundaries Roman rule was largely a matter of coexistence with the Roman military, without the same Roman contribution to local society, politics, laws, and customs. At the end of Roman rule, there were two societies with different histories, customs, and laws, which is not to suggest any substantial difference in cultural mores.

Roman era

From the time of the Roman arrival in AD 43, economic development progressed quickly, and political and social development (as opposed to military occupation) was a natural consequence.

While Rome exploited the mineral resources of Britain wherever possible, the development and implementation of industrial production was largely restricted to the southeast of Britain. This was a matter of practicality, as that part of Britain contained the resources needed for industrialisation, and the lowland areas were more amenable to development than the mountainous regions to the north and west.

The reasons for a lack of industrialisation in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 and Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 are unclear but likely reflect local preference, at least in part. The Dumnonii
Dumnonii
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British Celtic tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall in the farther parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period...

 had made their peace with Rome early, and there are no indications that the Roman army campaigned against them. Their homeland was not planted with forts nor overlaid with roads, save for those needed to supervise tin production, as mineral rights belonged to the emperor and all extractions were state-sponsored and under military control. In addition, the region was not central to the military control of Britain, as can be argued was the case for the territory of the Atrebates
Atrebates
The Atrebates were a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain before the Roman conquests.- Name of the tribe :Cognate with Old Irish aittrebaid meaning 'inhabitant', Atrebates comes from proto-Celtic *ad-treb-a-t-es, 'inhabitants'. The Celtic root is treb- 'building', 'home' The Atrebates (singular...

 in southern coastal Britain, who had been allied with Rome prior to the invasion. Consequently the Dumnonii likely retained a greater degree of political autonomy than the forcibly conquered tribes living to the east.
Roman rule lasted for 350 years, over which time the social and political landscape evolved to produce a society that was different from the one that had existed earlier.

Archaeology provides a measure of the level of Romanising acculturation that had occurred in Britain by the end of Roman rule, based on such things as the presence of Roman villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...

s and towns. By this measure, Romanisation was greatest in the southeast of Britain, the same region where the greatest political and economic development had occurred. The level of Romanisation was less but still substantial moving west and north, and minimal or non-existent further to the west and north. In the south, evidence of Romanisation abruptly ends east of Devon and Cornwall.

Pre-Roman era

Reaching back further into the past, an agreement with both the limit of 'Lloegyr' and the Romanised region of Britain can be observed in regard to the territorial limits of the pre-Roman societies of Britain.

Twentieth century archaeology and historical analysis provide a partial picture of British society in the pre-Roman Iron Age
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...

. The tribes of southeastern Britain were actively engaged in commerce with the Continent
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....

, urbanising their societies, and minting coinage. The same distinction between these tribes and the rest of Britain is made by historians such as Christopher Snyder
Christopher Snyder
Christopher Allen Snyder is Professor of European History and Director of the Honors Program at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. He is an expert in Roman, Sub-Roman, and Medieval Britain, and specifically King Arthur.- Biography :...

 (The Britons, 2003), based on both archaeological research and classical accounts such as that of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 in describing his two invasions of Britain.

It was this region that attracted Roman attention, and the invasion and the campaigns of the first Roman governor of Britain, Aulus Plautius
Aulus Plautius
Aulus Plautius was a Roman politician and general of the mid-1st century. He began the Roman conquest of Britain in 43, and became the first governor of the new province, serving from 43 to 47.-Career:...

, show that the first priority was to gain control of this region, consisting of the most politically organised of the British tribes and containing the commercial wealth of the island.

That other tribes did not engage in commercial trade, or urbanise their societies, or mint coinage, is probably a combination of circumstance and choice. Their territories were more mountainous and less amenable to urbanisation, and their resources were not suitable for large-scale organised commercial trade, so these options was not available to them. However, the Dumnonii in Cornwall and Devon had substantial deposits of tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

, and the Demetae
Demetae
The Demetae were a Celtic people of Iron Age Britain who inhabited modern Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales, and gave their name to the county of Dyfed.-Classical mention:...

 in southwestern Wales were extracting gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 at Dolaucothi, and both likely could have developed a commercially-oriented society had they wanted to do so.

Etymology

The origin of the word is uncertain and there is no definitive source, only conjectures and speculations, both rational and fanciful. To the Welsh, Lloegyr was a foreign land with a foreign populace, distinct from the lands and peoples of the Cymry. Cymry is the Welsh word for themselves, and historically included all of the Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...

 living north and west of Lloegyr, south of the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 firths of Clyde
Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...

 and Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

, and not including the people of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 and Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

.

The most recent etymology of the name is that by noted linguist Eric Hamp, who suggested in 1982 that Lloeg(y)r could be derived from a Proto-Celtic compound *(p)les-okri-s, meaning 'having a nearby border, being from near the border'. The suffix -wys found in numerous Welsh folk names, including Lloegrwys, is derived from the Latin suffix -ēnsēs.

James Henthorn Todd
James Henthorn Todd
James Henthorn Todd was a biblical scholar, educator, and Irish historian. He is noted for his efforts to place religious disagreements on a rational historical footing, for his advocacy of a liberal form of Protestantism, and for his endeavours as an educator, librarian, and scholar in Irish...

, in a footnoted discussion of the Historia Britonum
Historia Britonum
The Historia Brittonum, or The History of the Britons, is a historical work that was first composed around 830, and exists in several recensions of varying difference. It purports to relate the history of the Brittonic inhabitants of Britain from earliest times, and this text has been used to write...

 as it relates to northernmost Britain, does not offer an etymology but argues that the names of 'Lloegyr' and 'Cymmry' both date from the post-Roman period, as neither is mentioned by ancient geographers.

A number of dubious and fanciful etymologies have also been proposed. In a 1797 letter published in 1818 in the Cambrian Register, the Reverend Edward Davies of Sodbury
Chipping Sodbury
Chipping Sodbury is a market town in the county of South Gloucestershire, south-west England, founded in the 12th century by William Crassus . The villages of Old Sodbury and Little Sodbury are nearby...

 suggested:
The Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...

 of Flavia Caesariensis
Flavia Caesariensis
Flavia Caesariensis was one of the provinces of Roman Britain.It was created in the early 4th century under the reforms of Diocletian and it has been suggested that its capital may have been at Lincoln...

 was established c. 300 in a reorganisation of Britain. The exact locations and boundaries of the Roman provinces of Britain are uncertain, notwithstanding considerable modern speculations.

The ongoing popularity of the pseudohistorical
Pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to a type of historical revisionism, often involving sensational claims whose acceptance would require rewriting a significant amount of commonly accepted history, and based on methods that depart from standard historiographical conventions.Cryptohistory...

 works of Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...

 makes his etymology well-known. He derives the names of Cambria, Loegria, and Albany from the sons of the fictional Brutus of Troy
Brutus of Troy
Brutus or Brute of Troy is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Æneas, known in mediæval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain...

: Camber
Camber
Camber may refer to a variety of curvatures and angles:* Camber angle, the angle made by the wheels of a vehicle* Camber thrust in bike technology* In the steel industry, the concavity of rolls...

, Locrinus
Locrinus
Locrinus was a legendary king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the oldest son of Brutus and a descendant of the Trojans through Aeneas. Following Brutus's death, Britain was divided amongst the three sons, with Locrinus receiving the portion roughly equivalent to...

, and Albanactus
Albanactus
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Albanactus was the founding king of Albania or Albany. He was the youngest of three sons of Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas of Troy. According to legend, upon their father's death, the eldest son Locrinus was given Loegria, Camber was given Cambria and Albanactus...

, respectively, and makes them the eponymous kings of Wales/Cambria (Camber), England/Loegria (Locrinus), and Scotland/Albany (Albanactus).

Separately, there have been suggestions that Lloegyr was somehow related to Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...

, in coastal northwestern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, based solely on a perceived phonetic similarity. Some works that note it also dismiss it in passing, perhaps mentioning its lack of credibility.

Invented meanings and etymologies continue to the present day, particularly in non-historical works, for example in a novelist's assertion that Lloegyr actually means 'lost lands'.
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