Ebrauc or Caer Ebrauc is the Welsh name for the modern city of York. It is thought that Ebrauc was originally a Brigantian settlement before it was incorporated into the Roman Empire (c.80AD) and renamed Eboracum.
At the end of Roman rule the city briefly flourished as the capital of an independent realm. The Kingdom of Ebrauc came into existance when the great "Kingdom of the North" split in c.420 between the sons of it's last High-King; Coel Hen. Sometimes this new realm was called Deifr meaning "waters" (perhaps referred to the kingdom's coastal location) but was more usually named for the capital itself; Ebrauc.
Independence for Ebrauc was not to last long, for the native Britons of what the later Welsh bards were to call "the old north" or Y'r Gogledd Hen were disasterously fractious and were far happier to fight amongst themselves than to confront their common foes.
In 573 the men of Ebrauc went to war with what remained of the Selgovae tribe further to the north. At the Battle of Arfderydd (close to modern Arthuret in Cumbria) the joint-kings of Ebrauc were victorious in slaying their rival (King Gwenddolau ap Ceidio) and destroying his fortress of Caer Gwenddolau. Merlin himself is supposed to have been present and was said to have been one of the few survivors.
This was a pyrrhic victory for Peredur and his brother Gwrgi as only seven years later when his weakened forces moved against the Angles of Bernicia (formerly called Bryneich) they were defeated and he and his brother were killed.
Panic spread accross the land as the pagan Angles ravaged the kingdom and attacked the city of Caer Ebrauc. After what by all accounts was an heroic last battle the new king was able to escape into exile and the city fell. Once Ebrauc had been captured the territory of Deifr became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom renamed Deira.
Peredur is named as one of the last kings of this realm and scholars identify him with the Sir Percival of Arthurian fame.
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