Benlli
{{Short description|British king}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
King Benlli ({{langx|cy|Benlli Gawr}}) was a probably legendary Brythonic king who ruled part of what is now Wales in the early fifth century, traditionally Powys. He is theorized to have been of, possibly, Irish ancestry.{{cite journal |last1=Coplestone-Crow |first1=Bruce |title=The Dual Nature of the Irish Colonization of Dyfed in the Dark Ages |journal=Studia Celtica |date=1981 |volume=16 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVRiAAAAMAAJ |access-date=31 March 2025 |publisher=University of Wales Press |language=en}}
Recognition
Benlli was notorious in early Welsh sources for opposing Saint Germanus and—if he existed—may have been a follower of Pelagianism and thus a heretic in the eyes of Germanus and the Catholic Church.{{Cite book |last=Baring-Gould |first=Sabine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PVE4AAAAYAAJ |title=A Book of North Wales |date=1903 |publisher=Methuen & Company |pages=179–180 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5io3AAAAYAAJ |title=The Gentleman's Magazine |date=1789 |publisher=E. Cave |pages=986 |language=en}} The story of his admonishment by the saint and eventual demise by "fire from heaven" is recorded in the ninth century Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius, chapters 32-35.{{cite book |author1=Nennius |author1-link=Historia Brittonum |editor1-last=Giles |editor1-first=John Allen |title=Old English Chronicles: Including Ethelwerd's Chronicle, Asser's Life of Alfred, Geoffrey of Monmouth's British History, Gildas, Nennius, Together with the Spurious Chronicle of Richard of Cirencester |date=1901 |publisher=George Bell & Sons |location=London, UK |pages=397-399 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2UNAAAAIAAJ |access-date=31 March 2025 |language=en |chapter=History of the Britains, chapters 32-35}} Also according to the Historia he was succeeded by Cadell Ddyrnllwg, formerly one of his servants, who had given shelter to Germanus and his party after Benlli refused to admit them to his stronghold. The hill fort at Foel Fenlli is traditionally considered to have been his castle.{{cite book |author1=Bartrum, Peter C. |title=A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to about A.D. 1000 |date=1993 |publisher=National Library of Wales |location=Aberystwyth |isbn=978-0-907158-73-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pRrQgAACAAJ | page=45 |access-date=31 March 2025 |language=en |chapter=Benlli Gawr}}