Cadwallo within Ludgate

The church above, of St Martin within Ludgate, in the City of London, is a typical seventeenth-century rebuild of its medieval predecessor, which would itself have replaced a plainer wooden affair. It was in its first incarnation that the claim made on the noticeboard applies:

"Cadwallo King of the Britons is said to have been buried here in 677"

Cadwallo, or Cadwallon ap Cadfan, was a British chieftain who charged around the country in those ‘dark’ ages between the Roman departure and the Saxon unification. Too much of his life seems legendary, lost within time’s mists and the dullness of ancient memory. So was this enigmatic, mysterious king given Christian burial in the remains of Roman London? We cannot know. What we can know, upon the authority of God’s word, is that this king will answer to the greater King for the deeds done in the body. Whether he truly believed in Him and the gospel, or whether he just thought that being buried on Christian land was enough, we cannot tell. Indeed, the location of your burial is irrelevant, it’s what you do with King Jesus that counts.