‘Aergol Longhand’
Modern Welsh: Aergol Lawhir
A king of Dyfed (South Wales) in the traditional Arthurian period, c. 437 – c. 515.
Son of King Triffyn Farfog and father of Vortipore, he was a legendary king of Dyfed, ruled from about AD 500. Some sources claim he was born as late as around 480.
Agricola is one of the few persons spoken of with favor by Gildas. Several sources say he may have liberated Demetia (Dyfed, South Wales) from the pagan Irish Uí Liatháin clan, which had previously ruled there, driving them out of Britain.
His court was at Lis Castell, todays Lydstep Haven in Pembrokshire, near Din Bych. He was a patron of the bishops of Glywysing, the saints Teilo and Euddogwy, as well as the church at Llandaff. When Euddogwy’s father, King Budic II of Brittany, was expelled from his land, Agricola took him in.
He may have been one of Arthur’s commanders, a general, or an ally, of a historical Arthur. Agricola had an enemy – King Cynan Garwyn of Powys – and they met in battle at Crug Dyfed.
His name is the Welsh form of the Latin Agricola, the Cambrian form of “tribune”. His father’s name was Tribunis, which may have been a title, not a personal name. He is the father of Vortipore.
Sources
Welsh Medieval Law | Arthur Wade-Evans, 1909
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae | Gildas, c. 540