Below is a list of real historical people who appear or are mentioned in the Wolves of Dumnonia series. It should be noted that a catalogue of Dumnonian kings is one of the hardest of the major Dark Age kingdoms to accurately compile, because of the extremely limited contemporary documentary evidence, most especially in the period covered by the Wolves. (It isn’t called the Dark Ages for nothing!) So much was lost thanks to numerous Viking raids and various invasions from Wessex. The picture is further confused by the influence of Arthurian legend and complicated by strong associations with the kings of Wales and Brittany (the latter having kingdoms of the same name as their original counterparts – both the land and royal individuals).

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A note on pronunciation: The Saxon name Ecgberht is pronounced as "Edge-bair-kt". Ecg-: This is pronounced like the modern English word "edge" / -berht: This element is pronounced similarly to "bair-kt," with a guttural "ch" sound at the end, like in the Scottish word "loch". 

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B = Brythonic. F = Frankish. L = Latin. OE = Old English (Anglo-Saxon). ON = Old Norse. (m) = Male. (f) = Female.

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Beorhtric (m)

Beorhtric was the king of Wessex from 786 to 802. He contested the throne with Ecgberht, whom Beorhtric (with the help of Offa of Mercia) drove into exile. Beorhtric married one of Offa’s daughters, Eadburh. According to the annals, Beorhtric died from being accidentally poisoned by Queen Eadburh, who subsequently fled to a nunnery in Francia. It was during Beorhtric’s reign that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded the first Viking raids in England. OE.

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Beornwulf (m)

Beornwulf was the king of Mercia (roughly the Midlands of England) from 823 to 826. His brief reign saw the collapse of Mercia’s supremacy over the other kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. OE.

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Charlemagne (m)

King of the Franks (born 742 AD), ruler of the Carolingian Empire (769 to 814) and Light of the West, Charles the Great (or Charlemagne) was a high point in the otherwise bleak Dark Ages of Europe. He established the Holy Roman Empire and brought stability and learning to Europe. His Royal seat was in Aachen (present-day Germany), and the kingdom extended across most of what is present-day France (which takes its name from the Franks), Belgium and parts of Germany. F.

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Eadburh (f)

Eadburh (also spelled Eadburg) (fl. 787 to 802) was the daughter of King Offa of Mercia and Queen Cynethryth. She was the wife of King Beorhtric of Wessex, and, according to Asser’s Life of Alfred the Great, she killed her husband by poison while attempting to poison another. She fled to Francia, becoming an abbess until she was eventually expelled from the monastery and ended her days begging in the streets of Pavia. OE.

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Ealhstan (m)

Ealhstan was a pivotal 9th-century Bishop of Scirburne (Sherborne). The date of his consecration is unclear due to conflicting sources. He is thought to have come to office sometime between 816 and 825. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he died in 867 after holding office for fifty years. A conflicting document, however, implies that he was not appointed until 824. The huge diocese of Sherborne in the 9th century stretched over Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. As a result, it was enormously wealthy and influential in matters of both state and church. Its head, Bishop Ealhstan, was thus a politically powerful force in the southwest and one of the most influential magnates in all Wessex in the 9th century. He was a close ally of King Ecgberht, and remained Wessex’s dominant ecclesiastical leader throughout the subsequent reigns of King Alfred and Æthelwulf. OE.

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Ecgberht (m)

Ecgberht (r. 802–839) was the king of Wessex who transformed it from a regional power into the leading English kingdom. Exiled in youth, he spent time in Francia before reclaiming the throne in 802. He went on to conquer all the southern kingdoms during his reign, including Dumnonia, shattering Mercian dominance with a key victory at Ellendun (825), bringing Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and Essex under West Saxon control and taking the homage of East Anglia. In 829 he received the submission of Northumbria at Dore, and thereafter declared himself bretwalda (overlord) of Britain. Within the next decade, he finally secured the southwest after defeating a joint Cornish-Briton and Viking force at Hingston Down (838). OE.

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Hopkin (m)

Hopkin (Hopkyn) in Cornish tradition is a legendary ruler—usually styled a duke or king of Cornwall—thought to be crowned in the c810s. He is named as the son of Hernam (c 790s) and father of Mordaf (c 830s) in later genealogical compilations (notably the Book of Baglan tradition). He does not appear in contemporary early-medieval records; modern historians treat him as a figure of later pedigree lore rather than a verifiable monarch. Hopkin thus belongs to the legendary lists that bridge folklore and local lineage claims, not to the securely attested Cornish kings (the last of whom is generally taken to be Donyarth/Dungarth in the late 9th century). B.

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Kenstec (m)

Bishop “in the Cornish race in the monastery which in the language of the British is called Dinuurrin.” He professed obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury, marking a stage in the incorporation of Cornwall into the English church. Consecrated sometime between 833 and 870, and he died before 893. B.

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Morvan Lez-Breizh (m)

A 9th-century Breton chieftain who was declared king after the death of Charlemagne, considered the first Breton king. He led a rebellion against Frankish rule in 814 following Charlemagne’s death. He was the first to be known by name, to be described as a Breton “king” and it is likely he ruled a war-band with members drawn from throughout Brittany.

During his lifetime, he was a faithful follower of Charlemagne, having sworn oaths to him, although the Bretons rose in rebellion in 811. His own rebellion against Frankish lordship in 814 threatened the integrity of the empire recently inherited by Louis the Pious. While the Bretons may have contended that the elevation of Morvan on the death of the incumbent Charlemagne was legitimate, the Franks viewed it as a usurpation. Louis sent a negotiator asking him to remember his oath to Charlemagne. But after this failed to bring the new Breton king around to accepting Frankish rule, Louis prepared an army to invade Brittany. In the spring of 818, the army, composed of forces from all the Carolingian regna, assembled at the westernmost point of Frankish control. The Franks launched a series of attacks on various Breton fortresses and, after Morvan was killed in battle, resistance collapsed. [https://footsoreminiatures.co.uk/products/morvan-lez-breizh]

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Guyomarc’h (m)

Guyomarc’h (Wihomarc/Wiomarc’h) was a 9th-century Breton chieftain who led a major revolt against Frankish overlordship under Louis the Pious (first rising in 822, renewed in 824). Frankish forces campaigned hard in Brittany but failed to crush him; in 825 he went to Aachen to make peace and swear loyalty. On his return, he was killed at home by Lambert of Nantes—later tradition says for having made terms while Vikings threatened the region. His name (Guyomarc’h/Guihomar) was later borne by the viscounts of Léon, suggesting a remembered lineage. B.

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St Aldhelm (m)

St Aldhelm was a prominent Saxon nobleman, cleric, scholar and writer, who was appointed first Bishop of Sherborne (705 to 709AD). He was known as the “apostle of Wessex” and had a particular bee in his bonnet about Dumnonia’s obstinate adherence to the old Celtic Christian ways, which in St Aldhelm’s mind verged on pagan. His claim to fame was that he forced the recalcitrant Dumnonians into the papal line and adopt the correct practices. (See Easter controversy) entry in the Glossary of Terms for more on this). L.

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St Columba (f)

St Columba (also named Columb in some sources) was a 6th-century virgin-martyr venerated in Cornwall, traditionally said to be of royal birth (often placed in Lothian) who fled an unwanted pagan marriage, embraced Christianity, and was finally beheaded at Ruthvoes. She was beheaded because she refused a pagan suitor and would not renounce her Christian faith. After fleeing to Cornwall, she was seized near Ruthvoes and executed there; later tradition links a holy well to the place of her martyrdom. Her cult centres on the two parishes that bear her name—St Columb Major and St Columb Minor—where later medieval tradition preserved stories of her martyrdom and miracles. Her feast is kept in mid-November, and she is typically depicted with a palm, a sword, and a dove. L.

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St Guron (m)

St Guron (Goran, Goranus) is a Cornish hermit-saint of early medieval tradition, active in the mid-500s. Hagiography says he dwelt at Bodmin before the arrival of St Petroc; when Petroc came, Guron yielded his cell and well to him and withdrew south-east to found a new hermitage on the coast—remembered in the parish of St Goran (Gorran). He is venerated locally as a model of humility and hospitality, linked with holy wells at Bodmin and Gorran, and is commemorated in place-names and church dedications across the area. B.

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St Petroc (m)

St Petroc (6th century) is Cornwall’s premier missionary saint, traditionally a Welsh-born noble who studied in Ireland and sailed to Cornwall with companions. He founded an early monastery at Padstow (“Petroc’s-stow”) and later made Bodmin the chief centre of his cult, evangelising across Kernow, Dumnonia, and into Brittany; legends credit him with gentling wild beasts and working cures. His relics at Bodmin became a major shrine—famously stolen to Brittany in 1177 and returned the next year—and his feast is kept around 4th June. B.​​​

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