Coel Hen
Coel Hen, the eponymous terminus of the Coeling dynasties of Northern Britain. The traditional dates for Coel have always placed him too far back in my opinion, and often assume that he fell in battle around 420ad. This is incongruous with most of the information we have about him regarding who he interacted with, and with the accepted chronology of his easiest dateable descendants, Peredur and Gwrgi of Ebrauc, Urien of Rheged, and Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio. Urien’s chronology is linked to Peredur and Gwrgi’s because his sister Efyrddyl was the twin-kings mother. Peredur and Gwrgi were active at least from 573-580 when they are recorded in the Annales Cambriae as first fighting The Battle of Arfderydd against their cousin Gwenddoleu. Peredur, Gwenddoleu, Gwrgi (PG&G) all line up right around 540, and Urien 20 years before at 520. PG&G are all 6th generation Coeling, and as such we can use the handy simplified 30 year calculation to help dial in Coel’s date.
Peredur (540) - Eliffer (510) - Arthwys (480) - Mar (450) - Ceneu (420) - Coel (390)
These are rough approximations, and I suspect that Eliffer’s generation was particularly long, pushing things back by roughly 10 years, but these birth dates are generally acceptable within 5-10 years in my opinion.
This places Coel’s floruit roughly around 410-440. This is perfectly timed for him to be impetus behind the reclaiming ‘Brigantian High King’ that Ken Dark proposes.1
Coel
The obvious choice here to depict Coel is of course as a Late-Roman warlord. He wears a Late-Roman style tunic with Clavi sewn on for high-status decoration. He ‘wears the purple’ as mentioned by Gildas of Ambrosius’ family, here in the form of his cloak, pinned at the shoulder with a commonly found Crossbow Brooch. He wears the same sword that his descendant Arthwys would wear 50 years later in his wars, my suggestion at a ‘proto-Caledfwlch', as well as a knife typical of late roman style seen with the Dura-Europos finds. He wears simple pants, and high calcei typical of colder climates.
Coel gets the works for his wargear. The same sword and dagger, with this time with the addition of ornate scale armour, patterned with lines of iron scales amongst the copper-alloy scales. He wears a high-status helmet of the Budapest style, with an expensive feathered crest. Under his armor he wears an (unpictured) padded subarmalis upon which leather pteruges are attached. He wears copper alloy greaves to protect his lower leg under his shield (unpictured). He carries a spear typical of the early 5th century, used as the primary weapon in formation, and from horseback.
You can find my other reconstructions below:
Arthur:
Late 5th early 6th century Brythonic Warlord
Peredur:
Late 6th century Brythonic Warlord
Domnall Brecc and Eugein ap Beli
A 7th century Dal Riatan warlord, and a 7th century Brythonic Warlord.
If you are interested in any figures/time periods that you would like to see a reconstruction of let me know in the comments.
