Person:Iago ap Beli (1)

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Iago ap Beli (c. 540 – c. 616) was King of Gwynedd (reigned c. 599 – c. 616). Little is known of him or his kingdom from this early era, with only a few anecdotal mentions of him in historical documents.

Iago ap Beli (Latin: Iacobus Belii filius; ) was the son and successor of King Beli ap Rhun, and is listed in the royal genealogies of the Harleian genealogies and in Jesus College MS. 20. The only other record of him is the note of his death, which occurred in the same year as the Battle of Chester, with no connection between Iago's death and the famous battle, and with no evidence that Gwynedd had any part in the battle. He would be succeeded as king by his son, Cadfan ap Iago.

The 1766 publication of Henry Rowlands's Mona Antiqua Restaurata says that the archives of the cathedral at Bangor mention Iago as having founded a deanery there ('Iago ap Beli Rex Decanatu Ecclesiam ditavit'). However, the correctness of the archive's assertion is challenged in Haddan and Stubbs' authoritative Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, where it is noted that "the earliest historical testimony to a Dean at Bangor is 1162".

In the medieval Welsh Triads, the death of King Iago ap Beli is described as the result of an axe-blow by one of his own men, a certain Cadafael Wyllt. In his Celtic Britain, John Rhys notes that the Annals of Tigernach mention Iago's death and use the word dormitat (or dormitato, meaning sleep in the sense of a euphemism for death), contradicting the notion of a violent death. Further, as the word dormitato was generally used in reference to clerics, it is possible that Iago resigned his kingship and thereafter led a clerical life.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Iago ap Beli, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   Baldwin, Stewart. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth ancestor table. (GEN-MEDIEVAL/soc.genealogy.medieval)
   Generation 20.