Cadafael Cadomedd Ap Cynfeddw - Blame

Blame

It is not known when Cadafael's reign ended, but it is customary to assume that it must have been shortly after Penda's defeat. There is no contemporary account of the events, but writing some 250 years later Nennius would say that Cadafael had left for home the night before the battle, in his ally's hour of greatest need, implying it was a deliberate decision (i.e., by calling him the Battle-Decliner). It is unlikely that Cadafael would have been chosen king, or would have reigned so long, or that Penda would have engaged in a 20 year alliance with him, had this been his character.

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 (English: Cadafael the Wild). 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.

In the Dialogue between Myrddin and his sister Gwenddydd (Welsh: Cyvoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd y chuaer) of the Red Book of Hergest, a succession of future kings is given in a prophesy, listing them correctly up to Cadwallon ap Cadfan, but then omitting Cadafael and listing Cadwallon's son Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon as following his father on the throne.

Whether deserved or not, disaffection for Cadafael and his name seems to have been genuine. An American contributor to an 1874 publication, in an article on Welsh names, noted that "Cadafael is still a name of opprobrium", adding that he was unaware of the reason.