Rheged, kingdom of

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Rheged, kingdom of. A 6th-cent. British kingdom round the Solway Firth and southern Galloway, its capital was possibly Carlisle. In Roman times the inhabitants of the area had been the Novantae. Its best-known ruler, Urien, much praised by Taliesin, was said to have attacked the Bernicians c.580 and to have been killed some ten years later besieging Bamburgh. Rheged disappeared in the 7th cent., but Oswiu's first wife was said to have been a descendant of Urien, which might have facilitated a Northumbrian take-over.

J. A. Cannon