Maelgwn Gwynedd.—Page 476.
This king suooeeded his father Caswallon Lawhir in the sovereignty of Gwynedd, about the year 517. He is the subject of a most violent invective by Gildas, who accuses him of being a most cruel and profligate character; which is rather confirmed by its being recorded that he was rebuked by St. Padam, for certain injuries committed by him in Ceredigion; and that he oppressed Tydecho, one of the Armorican Saints, who had settled in his dominion; but in consequence of some miracles said to have been performed by that Saint, he was compelled to make ample amends. He afterwards founded a College at Caergybi, and a Priory at Penmon, and also endowed Bangor, and erected it into a Bishopric. His reign was more powerful than most of those we read of in those unsettled ages; about the year 546 he was elected to the nominal sovereignty of the Britons, and, according to the Brut, he added six islands, Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, Orkney, Llychlyn (Norway), and Denmark to the British possessions. He died of the Yad Yelen, or Yellow Pestilence, usually called the Yellow Plague of Rhos, which was said to have been caused by the number of unburied bodies of the slain that remained on that spot, and whoever went within the reach of the effluvia fell dead immediately.
To avoid the effects of this pestilence it is said that Maelgwn retired from his castle of Dyganwy, to the church of Llanrhos, where he hoped to remain, shut up in the sanctuary, safe from all danger; but being impelled by curiosity, he looked out through the keyhole of the door, and thereby caught the infection, thus fulfilling the prediction uttered by Taliesin,—
"A most strange creature will come.
From the sea marsh of Rhianedd,
As a punishment of iniquity,
On Maelgwn Gwynedd;
His hair and hb teeth.
And his eyes being as gold;
And this will bring destruction
On Maelgwn Gwynedd."
