BLEDRI (died 1022), bishop of Llandaff

Name: Bledri

Author: John Edward Lloyd

He is only known from ’ Liber Landavensis.’ There it is said that he was chosen in 983 by the sons of Morgan Hen (died 974) and other princes with the concurrence of the clergy and people of the diocese, and (no doubt later), confirmed by king Ethelred and archbishop Elfric of Canterbury. Only one incident is recorded of his long episcopate. During a conflict between his men and those of king Edwin of Gwent, in an attempt to pacify the parties, he was wounded; the king and his troops were forthwith synodically excommunicated and the land laid under an interdict. Peace was finally restored on terms which included the gift to Llandaff of a royal vill conjectured to be Undy.

In the ‘Gwentian’ Brut, Iolo Morganwg gives Bledri praise as a scholar and the title of ‘the Wise’ and adds withal an account of his orders for the institution of schools in every parish of his diocese. Later biographers copied without hesitation this obvious fiction.