Hermígio Mendes de Azevedo1

M, #3062

Father*Mendo País Bofinho1
Mother*Sancha País1
Hermígio Mendes de Azevedo||p103.htm#i3062|Mendo País Bofinho||p103.htm#i3065|Sancha País||p103.htm#i3066|Paio Godins de Azevedo||p103.htm#i3069|Gontinha (?)||p103.htm#i3068|Paio Curvo||p103.htm#i3067||||

Marriage* Principal=Elvira Viegas1 
Living*1121 1 

Family

Elvira Viegas
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Elvira Viegas1

F, #3063

Father*Egas Moniz1
Elvira Viegas||p103.htm#i3063|Egas Moniz||p103.htm#i3064||||||||||||||||

Marriage* Principal=Hermígio Mendes de Azevedo1 

Family

Hermígio Mendes de Azevedo
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Egas Moniz1

M, #3064

Family
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Mendo País Bofinho1

M, #3065

Father*Paio Godins de Azevedo1
Mother*Gontinha (?)1
Mendo País Bofinho||p103.htm#i3065|Paio Godins de Azevedo||p103.htm#i3069|Gontinha (?)||p103.htm#i3068|||||||Nuno Soares Velho||p103.htm#i3071|Ausenda Todereis||p103.htm#i3070|

Marriage* Principal=Sancha País1 
Living*1121 1 

Family

Sancha País
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Sancha País1

F, #3066

Father*Paio Curvo1
Sancha País||p103.htm#i3066|Paio Curvo||p103.htm#i3067||||||||||||||||

Marriage* Principal=Mendo País Bofinho1 

Family

Mendo País Bofinho
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Paio Curvo1

M, #3067

Family
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Gontinha (?)1

F, #3068

Father*Nuno Soares Velho1
Mother*Ausenda Todereis
Gontinha (?)||p103.htm#i3068|Nuno Soares Velho||p103.htm#i3071|Ausenda Todereis||p103.htm#i3070|||||||Toderedo Fromariques "Cid"||p103.htm#i3072||||

Marriage* Principal=Paio Godins de Azevedo1 
Living*1108 1 

Family

Paio Godins de Azevedo
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Paio Godins de Azevedo1

M, #3069

Marriage* Principal=Gontinha (?)1 

Family

Gontinha (?)
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Ausenda Todereis1

F, #3070

Father*Toderedo Fromariques "Cid"1
Ausenda Todereis||p103.htm#i3070|Toderedo Fromariques "Cid"||p103.htm#i3072||||Fromarico Abunazar "Cide"||p103.htm#i3073||||||||||

Marriage* Principal=Nuno Soares Velho1 
Name Variation Adosinda1 
Living*1092 1 

Family

Nuno Soares Velho
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Nuno Soares Velho1

M, #3071

Marriage* Principal=Ausenda Todereis1 

Family

Ausenda Todereis
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Toderedo Fromariques "Cid"1

M, #3072

Father*Fromarico Abunazar "Cide"1
Toderedo Fromariques "Cid"||p103.htm#i3072|Fromarico Abunazar "Cide"||p103.htm#i3073||||Abunazar Lovesendes||p103.htm#i3074|Unisco Godins||p103.htm#i3075|||||||

Name Variation Trutesendo Abunazar1 
Living*1040 1 
Living1070 1 

Family
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Fromarico Abunazar "Cide"1

M, #3073

Father*Abunazar Lovesendes1
Mother*Unisco Godins1
Fromarico Abunazar "Cide"||p103.htm#i3073|Abunazar Lovesendes||p103.htm#i3074|Unisco Godins||p103.htm#i3075|||||||||||||

Family
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Abunazar Lovesendes1

M, #3074

Marriage* Principal=Unisco Godins1 
Note* he may be of Muslim (Ummayad?) ancestry 
Living*978 1 

Family

Unisco Godins
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Unisco Godins1

F, #3075

Marriage* Principal=Abunazar Lovesendes1 
Married Name Lovesendes1 

Family

Abunazar Lovesendes
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S203] Nathaniel Taylor, Abunazar to Ayala to England in "Abunazar to Ayala to England," listserve message 31 Jul 2002.

Gueda (?) "the Old"1

M, #3081

Last Edited9 Mar 2003

Citations

  1. [S204] Todd A. Farmerie, de Ayala and de Vasto connections in "de Ayala and de Vasto connections," listserve message 3 May 2002.

Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd1,2

M, #3082, d. circa 1174

Father*Owain Gwynedd3,4 b. c 1100, d. 28 Nov 1170
Mother*Gwladws ferch Llywarch3,4 b. c 1098
Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd|d. c 1174|p103.htm#i3082|Owain Gwynedd|b. c 1100\nd. 28 Nov 1170|p103.htm#i3088|Gwladws ferch Llywarch|b. c 1098|p103.htm#i3087|Gryffydd ap Cynan|b. 1055\nd. 1137|p103.htm#i3086|Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin|d. 1162|p112.htm#i3349|Llywarch ap Trahaearn|b. c 1070\nd. 1128|p103.htm#i3089|Dyddgu of Builth|b. c 1060|p104.htm#i3091|

Marriage* Principal=(?) Corbet5 
Marriage* Principal=Marared ferch Madog3,4,2 
Birth* of Dolwyddelan, Nanconwy, Wales4 
Marriage* Principal=Angharad verch Uchdrud6 
Death*circa 1174 3,4 
Name Variation Iorwerth Drwyndwn7 
Title* Prince of Gwynedd1 

Family 1
Child

Family 2

Angharad verch Uchdrud
Child

Family 3

Marared ferch Madog b. c 1134
Child

Last Edited11 Jun 2005

Citations

  1. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  2. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.
  3. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
  4. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  5. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 62.
  6. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 2.
  7. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 129.
  8. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 129.

Marared ferch Madog1,2

F, #3083, b. circa 1134

Father*Madog ap Maredudd of Powys1,3,4 b. c 1091, d. c 9 Feb 1160
Mother*Anonyma (?)2
Marared ferch Madog|b. c 1134|p103.htm#i3083|Madog ap Maredudd of Powys|b. c 1091\nd. c 9 Feb 1160|p103.htm#i3084|Anonyma (?)||p457.htm#i13694|Maredudd ap Bleddyn|d. 1132|p112.htm#i3357|Hunydd ferch Eunydd ap Gwernwy||p112.htm#i3358|||||||

Marriage* Principal=Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd1,3,4 
Birth*circa 1134 of Aberffraw Castle, Anglesey, Wales.3 
Name Variation Margred ferch Madog5 
Married Name Drwyndwn1 
Name Variation Marared of Powys (?)3 

Family

Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd d. c 1174
Child

Last Edited11 Jun 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
  2. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.
  5. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 129.

Madog ap Maredudd of Powys1

M, #3084, b. circa 1091, d. circa 9 February 1160

 

Father*Maredudd ap Bleddyn2 d. 1132
Mother*Hunydd ferch Eunydd ap Gwernwy2
Madog ap Maredudd of Powys|b. c 1091\nd. c 9 Feb 1160|p103.htm#i3084|Maredudd ap Bleddyn|d. 1132|p112.htm#i3357|Hunydd ferch Eunydd ap Gwernwy||p112.htm#i3358|Bleddyn a. C. (?)|b. c 1025\nd. 1075|p112.htm#i3359|Haer ferch Cillin ap y Blaidd Rhydd o'r Gest yn Eifionydd||p112.htm#i3360|Eunydd a. G. (?)||p113.htm#i3361|Eva f. L. (?)|b. c 1024|p113.htm#i3362|

Marriage Bride=Susanna ferch Gryffydd 
Marriage* Principal=Susanna ferch Gryffydd1,2,3 
Birth*circa 1091 of Powys, Wales2 
Marriage* Principal=Anonyma (?)4 
Death1160 5 
Death*circa 9 February 1160 Winchester, Hampshire, England1,2,4 
Burial* Meifod Church, near Mathrafal6 
Title Prince of Lower Powys6 
Note "One who feared God and relieved the poor." -Welch chronicle.6 
DNB Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160), king of Powys, was the son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (d. 1132) and (according to genealogical sources from the later fifteenth century onwards) Hunydd, daughter of Einudd ap Gwenllian.
Early career
Madog succeeded his father as sole ruler of Powys on the latter's death in 1132 and sought to strengthen the kingdom not only by maintaining control over the sons of his elder brother, Gruffudd (d. 1128), as well as over his own younger brother, Iorwerth Goch, but also by defending its northern limits from the ambitions of the dynasty of Gwynedd and by expanding it eastwards, especially at the expense of the Normans in Shropshire. Madog married Susanna, daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan. In 1132, shortly before Madog's accession, Cadwallon ap Gruffudd ap Cynan was killed in the commote of Nanheudwy when he led an attack on Powys. Thereafter no further hostilities from Gwynedd are recorded until 1149, when Madog's brother-in-law, Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170), occupied the commote of Iâl and built a castle at Tomen y Rhodwydd. Towards the end of the same year Madog revealed his own capacity for territorial expansion with the capture and refortification of the Norman castle of Oswestry, while he sought to neutralize any threat to his authority from his nephews, Owain Cyfeiliog (d. 1197) and Meurig, sons of his brother Gruffudd ap Maredudd, by granting them the commote of Cyfeiliog (which had formed part of the kingdom of Powys since their father had occupied it in 1116). By 1151 Madog had also established his overlordship in Arwystli in central Wales, for the only surviving charter in his name, issued no later than that year (in which he is styled ‘king of the Powysians’), records that he granted land belonging to the region's ruler, Hywel ab Ieuaf, to St Michael's Church at Trefeglwys.

Although a force from Powys had ravaged Maelor Saesneg in 1146 until it was heavily defeated by Robert of Mold, steward of the earldom of Chester, on 3 September of that year, the renewed threat from Gwynedd in 1149 prompted Madog to ally himself with Ranulf (II), earl of Chester, whose lands were likewise the object of Owain Gwynedd's ambitions. However, a joint campaign against Owain by the king of Powys and the earl ended in victory for their adversary at Coleshill in Tegeingl in 1150, allowing the ruler of Gwynedd to maintain his possession of Iâl. This set-back did not halt Madog's plans for territorial consolidation and expansion, for two years later his son, Llywelyn, killed Stephen fitz Baldwin, constable of Montgomery Castle, and the military campaigns in Shropshire and Maelienydd celebrated by the court poets Gwalchmai ap Meilyr and Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (fl. 1155–1195) may also have taken place in the 1150s. In 1156 Madog built a castle near Cymer in the commote of Caereinion: the precise location of this fortification is unknown although it may have been situated at Castle Caereinion, about 4 miles west of Welshpool. The Welsh chronicle Brut y tywysogyon also records under the same year that Madog's nephew, Meurig ap Gruffudd, escaped from prison. This event almost certainly inspired the composition of the poem Hirlas Owain—ascribed, probably incorrectly, to Meurig's brother, Owain Cyfeiliog—which describes an expedition by Owain's retinue to free his brother from captivity in the district of Maelor. Who was responsible for the imprisonment of Meurig and where precisely he was imprisoned are uncertain, although it has been suggested that he was held at the castle of Wrexham, which belonged to the earldom of Chester by 1160–61. Significantly, Owain's court appears to have been situated at Welshpool by the time of this expedition, suggesting that his authority was not confined to Cyfeiliog, which had shown itself to be vulnerable to external attack when it was ravaged in 1153 by Rhys ap Gruffudd (d. 1197) of Deheubarth.
Ascendancy in Powys
Madog's territorial expansion owed much to the opportunities created by the weakness of the English crown and marcher lords in Shropshire during the reign of Stephen. However, after Henry II's accession to the English throne in 1154 these opportunities were severely curtailed. The following year William fitz Alan, a marcher magnate who had formerly supported the Empress Matilda, was restored to his Shropshire lands and appointed sheriff of the county, and probably soon recovered Oswestry. The ruler of Powys responded pragmatically to the changed situation by forming an alliance with Henry II in 1157. Madog may have already given support to the Angevins in 1141, for Orderic Vitalis reports that two brothers, ‘Mariadoth’ and ‘Kaladrius’, fought on the Angevin side against Stephen at the battle of Lincoln in February of that year: it has been assumed that the names refer to Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd ap Cynan and his brother-in-law Madog ap Maredudd (the former is not known to have had a brother called Maredudd). What is clear is that Madog, together with his brother Iorwerth Goch and Hywel ab Ieuaf, ruler of Arwystli, joined in Henry II's successful campaign against Owain Gwynedd in the summer of 1157; the king's Welsh allies also received payments from the English exchequer in that year.

In the aftermath of Henry's campaign Iorwerth Goch captured and destroyed the castle of Tomen y Rhodwydd, thereby depriving Owain Gwynedd of his authority in Iâl. How far Madog benefited directly from this action is unclear. The medieval Welsh prose tale, ‘The dream of Rhonabwy’, composed possibly as late as the early fourteenth century, claims that relations between Madog and his brother were strained, since Iorwerth held no lands in Powys during Madog's reign and refused an offer to serve as his brother's penteulu (‘chief of the military retinue’). If true, this stands in contrast to Madog's treatment of the sons of his elder brother, Gruffudd, to whom he granted the territory of Cyfeiliog and one of whom, Owain, also possessed a court at Welshpool (although whether as a result of a grant by Madog is not known). His lack of lands in Powys could explain Iorwerth's readiness to accept the estate of Sutton near Wenlock and other Shropshire manors in serjeanty from Henry II in 1157 for performing services as Henry's latimer or interpreter. Nevertheless, in that year Iorwerth clearly co-operated with Madog, if only on the basis of common support for Henry II's campaign against Owain Gwynedd, and it is likely that his capture of Tomen y Rhodwydd met with the approval of his brother even if the expedition was undertaken independently of him and, perhaps, resulted in Iorwerth's subsequently holding Iâl under Madog's overlordship.
Death, family, and assessment
No further events are recorded of Madog's reign until his death in 1160, which, according to the poet Gwalchmai, took place ‘at the beginning of Lent’ (Gruffydd, vol. 1, no.7, line 136), and therefore about 9 February. The version of Brut y tywysogyon in NL Wales, Peniarth MS 20, states that Madog died at Winchester, but the accuracy of this report has been questioned. All versions of the chronicle agree, however, that Madog was buried at the church of Meifod, Powys, a pre-Norman foundation, ‘where his burial-place was’ (Brut: Peniarth MS 20, 61), a statement which may be compared with Cynddelw's description of Meifod as ‘the burial-place of kings’ (Gruffydd, vol. 3, no. 3, line 48). Shortly afterwards Madog's son, Llywelyn, was killed. Described in Brut y tywysogyon as the one ‘in whom lay the hope of all Powys’ (Brut: Peniarth MS 20, 62), he was quite possibly his father's designated successor to the whole of the kingdom, and his death marked the end of unitary rule in Powys, which was divided between Madog's three remaining sons Elise, Gruffudd Maelor (d. 1191), and Owain Fychan (d. 1187), his brother Iorwerth Goch, and his nephew Owain Cyfeiliog (d. 1197).

Late medieval genealogists claimed that Madog's wife, Susanna, was the mother of two of the king's sons, Elise and Gruffudd Maelor, and she may well also have been the mother of Owain Fychan. Madog also had at least two other sons, Llywelyn (d. 1160) and Owain Brogyntyn [see below], as well as two daughters, Gwenllian, who married Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth, and Marared, wife of Iorwerth Drwyndwn ab Owain and mother of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d. 1240) of Gwynedd. The genealogists, however, name as many as nine sons and four daughters altogether, and identify two extra-marital partners as mothers of three of the former together with a fourth partner, Arianwen, daughter of Moriddig Warwyn.

According to the court poets Gwalchmai and Cynddelw, Madog excelled in his bravery, generosity, and appreciation of fine poetry. Gwalchmai emphasized the king's success in expanding Powys to encompass a territory extending ‘from the summit of Plynlimon to the gates of Chester’ (Gruffydd vol. 1, no. 7, line 73) and from Bangor Is-coed to the borders of Meirionnydd. Cynddelw was likewise fulsome in his praise of the victorious campaigns led by Madog and his band of warriors and also celebrated the feasts, drink, and warhorses he bestowed on poets at his court. Of the king's relations with the church very little is known: Madog authorized a grant of land to the native monastery of St Michael at Trefeglwys by 1151, and may well have made donations to his burial place of Meifod, at which a new church was consecrated to the Virgin Mary in 1156. There is no evidence, however, that he patronized any of the reformed religious orders of continental origin. The church of Meifod lay near Mathrafal, which was believed by the thirteenth century to be the chief court of the princes of Powys, and which is mentioned as the site of one of Madog's battles in a poem by Cynddelw; it is therefore possible, but by no means certain, that Mathrafal was the king's principal centre of authority. According to the ‘Dream of Rhonabwy’, Madog ruled all of Powys ‘from Pulford [just south of Chester] to Gwafan in the uppermost part of Arwystli’ (Breudwyt Ronabwy, 1), and modern scholars are agreed that he was one of the most powerful native rulers of twelfth-century Wales whose greatest achievement was the expansion and consolidation of his ancestral kingdom. However, this achievement barely outlasted his own lifetime and his failure to ensure a unitary succession meant that Madog was also the last Welsh ruler whose authority encompassed the whole of Powys.

Owain Brogyntyn (fl. 1160-1215), referred to in contemporary sources as ‘Oenus de Porchinton’ (or various spellings thereof), was an illegitimate son of Madog ap Maredudd who took his name from Porkington, a village near Oswestry which by the sixteenth century was known in Welsh as Brogyntyn. Later genealogical sources state that Owain's mother was a daughter of the Black Reeve of Rug in Edeirnion. After the death of his father and half-brother, Llywelyn, in 1160 Owain inherited lands and authority in Dinmael, Edeirnion, and Penllyn. From 1160 to 1169 he received regular and substantial payments from the English exchequer, indicating that he maintained the rapprochement with Henry II begun by his father and other kinsmen in 1157. Owain was a benefactor of three Cistercian monasteries. From his lordship in Penllyn he granted lands, pasture rights, and Tegid (Bala) Lake to Basingwerk Abbey; in addition, he granted lands to Valle Crucis Abbey in 1207 and made two sales of land to Strata Marcella Abbey. Owain had five sons, Gruffudd, Bleddyn, Iorwerth, Cadwgan, and Hywel, and later genealogical sources also name a daughter, Efa. The identity of their mother is uncertain: the genealogists identify her as either Sioned, daughter of Hywel ap Madog ab Idnerth, or Marared, daughter of Einion ap Seisyll of Mathafarn. Owain probably died between 1215, when he witnessed a charter in favour of Strata Marcella, and 1218, when his son, Bleddyn, submitted to Henry III. The suggestion that the inscribed graveslab at Valle Crucis Abbey bearing the name of Owain ap Madog is that of Owain Brogyntyn cannot be accepted, since the style of the stone dates it to the late thirteenth century. In the later middle ages Owain's descendants continued to exercise rights of lordship in Dinmael and Edeirnion, which they held after the Edwardian conquest by the tenure known as pennaeth or Welsh barony.

Huw Pryce
Sources

T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Peniarth MS 20 (1952) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Red Book of Hergest (1955) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brenhinedd y Saesson, or, The kings of the Saxons (1971) [another version of Brut y tywysogyon] · J. Williams ab Ithel, ed., Annales Cambriae, Rolls Series, 20 (1860) · R. G. Gruffydd, ed., Cyfres beirdd y tywysogion, 7 vols. (1991–6), vols. 1–3 [the Poets of the Princes series] · Breudwyt Ronabwy, ed. M. Richards (1948) · J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 3rd edn, 2 (1939) · K. L. Maund, Handlist of the acts of native Welsh rulers, 1132–1283 (1996) · P. C. Bartrum, ed., Welsh genealogies, AD 300–1400, 8 vols. (1974) · J. Y. W. Lloyd, ‘History of the lordship of Maelor Gymraeg [pt 13]’, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 4th ser., 7 (1877), 97–116 · A. D. Carr, ‘An aristocracy in decline: the native Welsh lords after the Edwardian conquest’, Welsh History Review / Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru, 5 (1970–71), 103–29 · C. A. Gresham, Medieval stone carving in north Wales (1968)
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
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Huw Pryce, ‘Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17762, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17762
Owain Brogyntyn (fl. 1160-1215): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20980

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     Site credits7 
Name Variation Madog ap Maredudd5 
Arms* Ar. A lion rampant sable.8
Title*between 1132 and 1160 Prince of Powys4 

Family 1
Child

Family 2
Children

Family 3
Children

Family 4

Susanna ferch Gryffydd
Children

Family 5

Anonyma (?)
Children

Last Edited23 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 127.
  4. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  5. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 129.
  6. [S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 113.
  7. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  8. [S295] Sir Bernard Burke, General Armory, p. lxii.
  9. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.

Susanna ferch Gryffydd1

F, #3085

Father*Gryffydd ap Cynan1,2 b. 1055, d. 1137
Mother*Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin2,3 d. 1162
Susanna ferch Gryffydd||p103.htm#i3085|Gryffydd ap Cynan|b. 1055\nd. 1137|p103.htm#i3086|Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin|d. 1162|p112.htm#i3349|Cynan ap Iago|d. c 1060|p112.htm#i3350|Ragnhildr Olafsdotter|b. c 1025|p112.htm#i3351|Owain a. E. (?)|b. 1058\nd. 1105|p112.htm#i3352|Morfydd (?)|b. c 1048|p112.htm#i3353|

Marriage* 1st=Madog ap Maredudd of Powys 
Marriage* Principal=Madog ap Maredudd of Powys1,2,3 
Name Variation Susanna of Gwynedd (?)2 

Family

Madog ap Maredudd of Powys b. c 1091, d. c 9 Feb 1160
Children

Last Edited11 Jun 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 127.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 129.

Gryffydd ap Cynan1

M, #3086, b. 1055, d. 1137

 

Father*Cynan ap Iago2,3 d. c 1060
Mother*Ragnhildr Olafsdotter2 b. c 1025
Gryffydd ap Cynan|b. 1055\nd. 1137|p103.htm#i3086|Cynan ap Iago|d. c 1060|p112.htm#i3350|Ragnhildr Olafsdotter|b. c 1025|p112.htm#i3351|Iago I. ap Idwal|b. c 974\nd. 1039|p158.htm#i4737|Afandreg ferch Gwair|b. c 984|p158.htm#i4738|Olaf of Dublin|d. 1034|p159.htm#i4741|Maelcorcre o. L. (?)||p159.htm#i4742|

Birth*1055 Dublin, Ireland2,4 
Marriage*circa 1095 Principal=Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin2,4 
Death*1137 Carnarvonshire, Wales1,2 
Burial* Bangor Cathedral2 
Title King of North Wales5 
DNB* Gruffudd ap Cynan (1054/5-1137), king of Gwynedd, was born in Dublin, the son of Cynan, son of Iago, king of Gwynedd, and Ragnhildr, daughter of Olaf (Amlaíb) Sihtricson (d. 981), king of Dublin. Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig (d. 1039), Gruffudd's paternal grandfather, succeeded Llywelyn ap Seisyll as king of Gwynedd on the latter's death in 1023 and was killed, perhaps by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, in 1039; nothing else is known of his reign. Iago's wife is named in later medieval pedigrees as Afandreg daughter of Gwair; their son, Cynan, may well have been the ‘son of Iago’ who killed Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in 1063.

Gruffudd is the only medieval Welsh secular ruler for whom a near contemporary biography survives, namely Historia Gruffud vab Kenan, a text written in Welsh in the early thirteenth century based on a Latin work, now lost, probably composed during the reign of Gruffudd's son and successor, Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170). The Historia provides the fullest account of Gruffudd's family background and life and, while some of its information and especially interpretations are incorrect or misleading, it is an invaluable source for its subject.

According to the Historia, Gruffudd had not only inherited the right to rule Gwynedd by virtue of his paternal descent from Rhodri Mawr (fl. 844–878) but had inherited royal status from his mother, who was related both to Scandinavian kings and to several Irish dynasties. Fostered at the monastery of Swords, near Dublin, Gruffudd is said to have been informed of his entitlement to rule Gwynedd by his mother and sought assistance from an Irish king—probably Muirchertach Ó Brián (d. 1119), ruler of Dublin under his father, Toirrdelbach, from 1075 to 1086—to recover his patrimonial kingdom. Thus began twenty-five years of struggle to achieve mastery in Gwynedd against other Welsh dynasties and, above all, the Normans.

In 1075 Gruffudd—described as ‘the grandson of Iago’ in Welsh annalistic sources, presumably reflecting the obscurity of his father, Cynan—sailed from Dublin to Anglesey in a bid to seize Gwynedd from Trahaearn ap Caradog (d. 1081) and his ally Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon. Supported by the men of Anglesey, the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan, and the leading nobles of the western peninsula of Lly^n, Gruffudd led a force that defeated and killed Cynwrig near Clynnog Fawr; it then marched south to Meirionydd, where, at a place called Gwaederw, it defeated Trahaearn, who fled to his native region of Arwystli in central Wales. These successes were followed, according to the Historia, by a raid on Gruffudd's erstwhile Norman ally, Robert, at Rhuddlan. However, Gruffudd soon faced a revolt in Lly^n and was then defeated by Trahaearn at the battle of Bron-yr-erw, above Clynnog Fawr, and forced to flee to Anglesey and thence to Wexford.

Although Gruffudd harassed him from the sea, Trahaearn remained in control of Gwynedd until 1081. However, in that year Gruffudd sailed to Porth Glais near St David's with Hiberno–Scandinavian forces from Waterford and, in alliance with Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth (d. 1093), defeated and killed Trahaearn (along with his allies Meilyr ap Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn and Caradog ap Gruffudd) at Mynydd Carn. Gruffudd advanced north, ravaging Arwystli and Powys en route, and established himself in Gwynedd. Again, though, his ascendancy was only brief, for Hugh, earl of Chester, and his Norman associates, clearly aware of the threat he posed to their ambitions to conquer the region, inveigled him to Rug in Edeirnion where he was captured (by Robert of Rhuddlan, according to Orderic Vitalis) and taken to the earl's prison in Chester. There Gruffudd remained, it seems, for at least the next twelve years. The Historia provides a colourful account of his escape and subsequent wanderings in Wales and Ireland; his unsuccessful attempt, with the help of Godred, king of Man, to dislodge the Normans from the castle of Aberlleiniog on Anglesey; and his capture of the Norman castle of Nefyn in Lly^n. These last events appear to be related to the Welsh revolt of 1094, but the extent of Gruffudd's involvement in that is uncertain; the only leader mentioned in the Welsh chronicles is Cadwgan ap Bleddyn (d. 1111). Orderic Vitalis names a ‘Gruffudd king of the Welsh’ as the leader of the raid that led to the death of Robert of Rhuddlan on the Great Orme, almost certainly in 1093, but the identification is open to question, for the event is not mentioned in the Historia, which would surely have trumpeted its hero's part in such a significant blow to Norman power in north Wales (Ordericus Vitalis, Eccl. hist., 4, 140).

The Norman hold on Gwynedd was only finally broken in 1098. In the summer of that year the earls of Chester and Shrewsbury mounted a campaign to recover the region. This compelled Cadwgan ap Bleddyn and Gruffudd ap Cynan to withdraw, with all their people, to Anglesey, which they sought to defend with the aid of a Hiberno–Scandinavian fleet. The latter was suborned by the Normans, however, and both Welsh leaders fled to Ireland. But the killing of Hugh de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, by Magnus Bareleg, king of Norway, who suddenly appeared with a fleet off Anglesey, led to the Normans' abandoning their attempt to conquer the island, and the following year the Welsh leaders returned from Ireland and Anglesey was granted to Gruffudd, possibly under the overlordship of the earl of Chester.

After 1099 Gruffudd gradually built up his power in north Wales, first over Gwynedd west of the River Conwy, and then over territories to the east and south. Surviving details of this achievement are few: the bulk of the Historia focuses on the turbulent years in which Gruffudd sought to establish his authority in his patrimonial kingdom, and references to the king in Welsh chronicles and other sources are scanty. Yet there can be little doubt that the initial phase of consolidation owed much to the minority in the earldom of Chester from 1101 to 1114 together with the goodwill of Henry I, who, according to the Historia, granted Gruffudd Lly^n, Eifionydd, Ardudwy, and Arllechwedd. However, by 1114 Gruffudd's power was such that Henry I felt it necessary to lead a major campaign against him, which compelled the latter to submit to the king and pay a large tribute. Thereafter Gruffudd was careful not to provoke Henry, refusing shelter to the fugitive Gruffudd ap Rhys of Deheubarth (d. 1137) in 1115 and to Maredudd ap Bleddyn of Powys (d. 1132) in 1121. Within north Wales, however, Gruffudd's power grew apace. He was able to keep the see of Bangor vacant following the translation to Ely in 1109 of the Norman appointee, Hervey, and then to secure the consecration as bishop of his nominee, David the Scot (d. 1139), in 1120. From the 1120s Gruffudd embarked on a policy of territorial expansion, providing a channel for the ambitions of his sons, who led the campaigns and whom he set over the annexed lands. Thus in 1124 Cadwallon and Owain were sent into Meirionydd, over which they appear to have established control by 1136; in 1125 Cadwallon killed his three maternal uncles, rulers of Dyffryn Clwyd, thereby exterminating the only powerful dynasty in north-east Wales, and himself perished near Llangollen in 1132 while attacking Powys; and in 1136 Owain and his younger brother, Cadwaladr, led attacks against the Normans in Ceredigion.

Gruffudd was afflicted by blindness in his last years. He died, aged eighty-two, in 1137 and was buried in Bangor Cathedral. His passing was mourned in an elegy by the court poet, Meilyr Brydydd, who praised the king's ferocity in war. Among those present at Gruffudd's death, according to the Historia, was his wife, Angharad (d. 1162), daughter of Owain ab Edwin of Dyffryn Clwyd, whom he had married c.1095. She was the mother of Gruffudd's sons Cadwallon, Owain Gwynedd, and Cadwaladr [see under Owain Gwynedd] and his daughters Gwenllian, who married Gruffudd ap Rhys (d. 1137), Marared, Rainillt, Annest, and Susanna, who married Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160). In addition, later medieval pedigrees state that Gruffudd had five sons and three daughters with at least three other partners. These conventional sexual mores were matched by conventional piety. Gruffudd was present on Bardsey Island at the first stage of the translation to Llandaff of the relics of St Dyfrig and the hermit Elgar in 1120, and made deathbed bequests of money to major churches in Ireland and Wales as well as to the Benedictine priories of Chester and Shrewsbury; furthermore, he apparently consented to the translation to the latter church of the relics of St Gwenfrewi (Winifred) from Gwytherin.

The Historia also relates that the king ‘built large churches in his own major courts’ in a passage praising the peace and prosperity which resulted from his rule ‘with an iron rod’ (Evans, A Mediaeval Prince of Wales, 81, 82). Notwithstanding its rhetorical exaggeration, the passage reflects a view shared by modern scholars that from 1099 Gruffudd brought stability, and with it economic recovery and advance, to Gwynedd after the disruptions—caused principally by Norman attempts at conquest—of the later eleventh century. Above all, he succeeded in re-establishing the dynasty of Rhodri Mawr, excluded from power in north Wales since 1039, as rulers of Gwynedd, a position maintained by his successors until the extinction of native rule in 1283.

Huw Pryce
Sources

Historia Gruffud vab Kenan / Gyda rhagymadrodd a nodiadau gan, ed. D. S. Evans (1977) · D. S. Evans, ed. and trans., A mediaeval prince of Wales: the life of Gruffudd ap Cynan (1990) [Eng. trans. of Historia Gruffud vab Kenan, with orig. Welsh text] · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Peniarth MS 20 (1952) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Red Book of Hergest (1955) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brenhinedd y Saesson, or, The kings of the Saxons (1971) [another version of Brut y tywysogyon] · J. Williams ab Ithel, ed., Annales Cambriae, Rolls Series, 20 (1860) · Ordericus Vitalis, Eccl. hist., vol. 4 · Gwaith Meilyr Brydydd a'i ddisgynyddion, ed. J. E. C. Williams (1994) · J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 3rd edn, 2 vols. (1939); repr. (1988) · R. R. Davies, Conquest, coexistence, and change: Wales, 1063–1415, History of Wales, 2 (1987) · K. L. Maund, ed., Gruffudd ap Cynan: a collaborative biography (1996) · K. L. Maund, Ireland, Wales, and England in the eleventh century (1991) · S. Duffy, ‘Ostmen, Irish, and Welsh in the eleventh century’, Peritia, 9 (1995), 378–96 · B. T. Hudson, ‘The destruction of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn’, Welsh History Review / Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru, 15 (1990–91), 331–50
Wealth at death

exact sum unknown; some bequests: Evans, ed., Historia Gruffud vab Kenan
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
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Huw Pryce, ‘Gruffudd ap Cynan (1054/5-1137)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11693, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Gruffudd ap Cynan (1054/5-1137): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11693
Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig (d. 1039): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/143456 
Name Variation Gruffudd7 
Arms* Gu. 3 lions passant in pale ar.8

Family 1
Children

Family 2
Children

Family 3
Children

Family 4

Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin d. 1162
Children

Last Edited23 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 239-4.
  4. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 239-5.
  5. [S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 113.
  6. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  7. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 127.
  8. [S295] Sir Bernard Burke, General Armory, p. lxi.
  9. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 128.

Gwladws ferch Llywarch1

F, #3087, b. circa 1098

Father*Llywarch ap Trahaearn2,3 b. c 1070, d. 1128
Mother*Dyddgu of Builth2 b. c 1060
Gwladws ferch Llywarch|b. c 1098|p103.htm#i3087|Llywarch ap Trahaearn|b. c 1070\nd. 1128|p103.htm#i3089|Dyddgu of Builth|b. c 1060|p104.htm#i3091|Trahearn (?)|b. c 1044\nd. 1129|p103.htm#i3090|Nesta of North Wales|b. c 1057|p91.htm#i2709|Idnerth (?)|b. c 1020|p112.htm#i3355|Gwenliann f. A. (?)||p112.htm#i3356|

Marriage* Principal=Owain Gwynedd4,3,1 
Birth*circa 1098 of Pembrokeshire, Wales3 
Name Variation Gladys5 
Name Variation Gwladus of South Wales3 

Family

Owain Gwynedd b. c 1100, d. 28 Nov 1170
Children

Last Edited11 Jun 2005

Citations

  1. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 128.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-4.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-5.
  5. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.

Owain Gwynedd1,2

M, #3088, b. circa 1100, d. 28 November 1170

Father*Gryffydd ap Cynan3,4 b. 1055, d. 1137
Mother*Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin3,4 d. 1162
Owain Gwynedd|b. c 1100\nd. 28 Nov 1170|p103.htm#i3088|Gryffydd ap Cynan|b. 1055\nd. 1137|p103.htm#i3086|Angharad ferch Owain ab Edwin|d. 1162|p112.htm#i3349|Cynan ap Iago|d. c 1060|p112.htm#i3350|Ragnhildr Olafsdotter|b. c 1025|p112.htm#i3351|Owain a. E. (?)|b. 1058\nd. 1105|p112.htm#i3352|Morfydd (?)|b. c 1048|p112.htm#i3353|

Marriage* Principal=Gwladws ferch Llywarch5,3,2 
Birth*circa 1100 3,6,2 
Marriage* Principal=Cristin ferch Gronwy3,6 
DeathDecember 1169 Carnarvonshire, Wales3 
Death*28 November 1170 7,1 
Burial* Bangor Cathedral, Bangor, Wales1 
Arms* Vert. 3 Eagles displayed en fess or8 
DNB* Owain Gwynedd [Owain ap Gruffudd] (d. 1170), king of Gwynedd, was the second son of Gruffudd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd (d. 1137), and his wife, Angharad.
Early conquests
Before his father's death in 1137 Owain had already gained considerable military experience, contributing to the expansion of Gwynedd in the 1120s and 1130s. He is first mentioned together with his elder brother, Cadwallon, as leading an expedition against Meirionydd in 1124. In 1136 Owain, together with his younger brother, Cadwaladr [see below], led two campaigns against the Normans in Ceredigion, on the second of which they were joined by Gruffudd ap Rhys (d. 1137) of Deheubarth. Since Cadwallon had been killed in 1132 in the commote of Nanheudwy, leading an attack on Powys, Owain was the eldest surviving son of Gruffudd ap Cynan on the latter's death in 1137 and succeeded to the kingdom of Gwynedd, which he ruled until his own death in 1170. In 1138 he completed the conquest of Ceredigion, which was divided between his eldest son, Hywel ab Owain, and Cadwaladr. Owain sought to continue the alliance between his dynasty and that of Deheubarth, cemented earlier by the marriage of his sister, Gwenllian, to Gruffudd ap Rhys, by arranging the betrothal of his daughter to Anarawd, Gruffudd's son and successor. However, Anarawd was murdered by Cadwaladr's men in 1143, prompting Owain to dispossess his brother of his lands, although the brothers were reconciled the following year after Cadwaladr obtained military assistance from Ireland. By 1149 Owain had resumed the policy of expansion to the north-east that had been a hallmark of the later years of his father's reign, for in that year he occupied the commote of Iâl, building a castle at Tomen y Rhodwydd. His control of Iâl, together with Tegeingl and Ystrad Alun, was reinforced the following year by his defeat, at Coleshill, of Madog ap Maredudd, king of Powys, and forces supplied by Ranulf (II), earl of Chester. Two events in 1152 underlined Owain's determination to maintain the territorial integrity of the kingdom of Gwynedd and to protect the interests of his branch of the royal dynasty: his brother Cadwaladr was driven from Anglesey, his last remaining lands in the kingdom, while Owain's nephew, Cunedda, son of the king's deceased elder brother, Cadwallon, was blinded and castrated.
Prince of Wales
Owain's ambitions were checked, however, by Henry II's first campaign against Gwynedd in the summer of 1157. Although Henry suffered military reverses, particularly in the seaborne attack on Anglesey, his show of force was sufficient to persuade Owain to submit and give homage to the king, surrender his conquests in Tegeingl (where Henry built castles at Rhuddlan and Basingwerk), and restore Cadwaladr to his lands. Later in the year Owain also lost control of Iâl, following the destruction of his castle at Tomen y Rhodwydd by Madog ap Maredudd's brother, Iorwerth Goch. These setbacks proved to be only temporary, however, for the opportunity for further expansion presented itself on the death of Madog ap Maredudd in 1160. Owain seems immediately to have occupied the Powys commotes of Edeirnion and Cyfeiliog and in 1162 he led a punitive raid against Hywel ab Ieuaf, ruler of Arwystli. True, Owain continued to be circumspect in his dealings with Henry II. Thus after Einion Clud, ruler of Elfael, had been handed over to the king of Gwynedd following his capture by his brother, Cadwallon ap Madog of Maelienydd, in 1160, Owain gave his prisoner into the custody of Henry, and on 1 July 1163 he gave homage to the English king at Woodstock following the latter's second Welsh campaign. However, by 1165 Owain was at the head of a Welsh alliance including the rulers of Powys and Rhys ap Gruffudd, ruler of Deheubarth, which successfully defied Henry, whose third campaign in Wales in that year was a disaster, coming to grief in August in the rain and mud of the Berwyn Mountains. Indeed from 1165 Owain was the undisputed leader of native Wales, a supremacy placarded in his adoption of the new titles, prince of Wales (Waliarum princeps) or prince of the Welsh (princeps Wallensium), which replaced the title king of Wales (rex Walliae or Walliarum rex) used from possibly as early as 1140. He sought to strengthen his position by offering fealty to Louis VII, king of France, whom he urged to make war on Henry II following the latter's ill-fated Welsh campaign of 1165. In Wales, Owain resumed his expansion in the north-east, capturing Basingwerk Castle in 1166 and securing the whole of Tegeingl the following year after taking, together with Rhys ap Gruffudd, the castles of Rhuddlan (after a siege of three months) and Prestatyn. The fragility of the unity achieved by the Welsh leaders in 1165 was illustrated by another campaign in 1167 in which Owain and Cadwaladr joined Rhys in attacking the Powysian ruler Owain Cyfeiliog and capturing his castle of Tafolwern. Yet the prince of Gwynedd clearly realized that Henry II remained the greatest potential threat to his territorial gains, for Owain was doubtless one of the ‘kings of Wales’ who sent messengers to Louis VII in 1168 to forge a military alliance against Henry, thereby continuing the diplomatic contacts with the Capetian king established earlier in the 1160s.
Church policy
Owain's power in the last five years of his reign is also demonstrated by his successful defiance of Archbishop Thomas Becket and Pope Alexander III with regard to the vacant bishopric of Bangor and his own marriage. Owain was later praised by Gerald of Wales for his respect for churches, and it is very likely that he patronized rebuilding work at Penmon and possibly at other churches in Gwynedd. But he also demanded, and to a great extent obtained, the loyalty of the churchmen in his kingdom. However, at his consecration at Worcester in January 1140 Meurig, or Maurice, bishop of Bangor, had given fealty to King Stephen, despite having been prohibited from so doing by Simeon, archdeacon of Bangor; this probably explains why Owain protested to Bernard, bishop of St David's, that Meurig had been unlawfully intruded into the see. Yet although he was exiled for some years at the beginning of his episcopate, and again for a period in the 1150s (prompting an appeal on his behalf by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury to the pope), Meurig remained bishop until his death on 12 August 1161. Owain was determined that any successor should not do fealty to the king of England, and exploited Becket's exile from November 1164 by requesting permission, probably in the autumn of 1165, for his own candidate to be consecrated by another bishop and also by asserting that obedience would be given to Canterbury as a favour rather than as of right. Becket refused to countenance these proposals but the candidate, Arthur of Bardsey, may nevertheless have been sent to Ireland for consecration. Although Becket enlisted papal support in his efforts to ensure the election of a bishop acceptable to him, the bishopric remained vacant (unless held by Arthur of Bardsey, who was recognized by neither archbishop nor pope) until 1177. Attempts to resolve the dispute through the mediation of Louis VII came to nothing. Indeed, by c.1169 archbishop and pope had intensified their opposition to Owain by attacking his marriage to Cristin, or Christina, ferch Gronw ab Owain ab Edwin—which had already attracted criticism from Archbishop Theobald in the mid-1150s—on the grounds that she was the prince's cousin and thus related within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. However, here too Owain defied his ecclesiastical opponents by refusing to separate from his wife and, although as a result of this he was excommunicated by Becket, the king of Gwynedd was nevertheless given an honourable burial in Bangor Cathedral. Gerald of Wales reports how he and Archbishop Baldwin ordered the body to be exhumed and buried in unconsecrated ground on their visit to Bangor while preaching the crusade in Wales in 1188, but it is extremely doubtful whether their instructions were heeded.

It seems that Owain had married Cristin by c.1140, for her son Dafydd was old enough to fight Henry II in 1157. Owain and Cristin had three sons and a daughter, but Owain had numerous other children with possibly as many as eight other partners, to judge by a late fifteenth-century genealogical tract. These included Iorwerth Drwyndwn, to whose mother, Gwladus ferch Llywarch ap Trahaearn, Owain appears to have been married before his marriage to Cristin, for Gerald of Wales believed Iorwerth to be Owain's only legitimate son. However, it is very likely that many of Owain's other children were the result of extramarital unions, including his eldest son, Hywel, said in the genealogical source referred to above to have been the son of an Irish woman, Ffynod (or Pyfog). Two other sons died in their father's lifetime, namely Rhun in 1146 and Llywelyn in 1165.
Assessment
Owain himself died in November 1170, probably on the 23rd, and was described (retrospectively) by the author of the Welsh chronicle Brut y tywysogyon as ‘a man of great renown and of infinite prudence and nobility, the bulwark and strength of Wales, unconquered from his youth’ (Brut: Hergest, 151). Although Gerald of Wales condemned Owain for his incestuous marriage, he praised him for his justice, wisdom, and moderation as a ruler; Gerald also refers, as do some charters issued in favour of Haughmond Abbey, to the prince as Owain Magnus—‘the Great’ or, perhaps, ‘the Elder’. (The appellation, like Owain Gwynedd, may have served to distinguish Owain from his younger contemporary and namesake, Owain ap Gruffudd ap Maredudd of Powys, known as Owain Cyfeiliog.) The most fulsome praises of Owain Gwynedd occur in the poems to him by the court poets Gwalchmai ap Meilyr—for whom the prince was ‘the fairest of the kings of Britain and the most royal’ (Gruffydd, 1/8, ll.59–60)—and Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr: both of these emphasized that Owain possessed in abundance the military virtues deemed essential to any successful Welsh ruler of this period, and proclaimed that he was an eminently worthy successor to earlier kings of Gwynedd such as Maelgwn and Rhodri Mawr. There can be no doubt that Owain considerably strengthened his kingdom, not only preserving its territorial integrity but expanding it to embrace all of north Wales from the Dee to the Dyfi, thereby paving the way for the achievements of his grandson, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. Although details are sparse, he may well also have undertaken important territorial reorganization and commenced the policy of endowing favoured freemen with estates in order to secure their support. However, while he seems to have contained the ambitions of his sons during his lifetime, he failed to ensure a smooth unitary succession: shortly after his death his eldest son, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, who may have been his chosen heir, was killed by his half-brothers Dafydd and Rhodri at the battle of Pentraeth in Anglesey. There followed almost three decades of struggle for the control of Gwynedd among Owain's sons and grandsons, a struggle finally resolved with the ascendancy of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth.
The prince's brother
Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd (d. 1172), king in Wales, Owain's younger brother, is first mentioned in 1136. On Owain's accession in 1137 he was granted, or confirmed in possession of, Anglesey and Meirionydd, and the following year he received the northern half of Ceredigion after its conquest from the Normans. Until 1157 his relations with Owain were strained: on the one hand, he may well have nursed ambitions of supplanting his brother as king of Gwynedd, while, on the other, Owain's sons Hywel and Cynan sought to occupy their uncle's lands. In 1140 Cadwaladr joined with his brother in complaining to Bishop Bernard of St David's about the election of Meurig to the see of Bangor, but by the beginning of the following year Cadwaladr had allied himself, quite possibly to strengthen his hand against Owain, with Ranulf (II), earl of Chester (d. 1153), leading a contingent of Welsh troops alongside the latter at the battle of Lincoln against King Stephen on 2 February 1141. Cadwaladr greatly angered Owain in 1143 on account of his apparent complicity in the murder of Anarawd ap Gruffudd ap Rhys, to whom Owain had planned to give his daughter in marriage, and as a result he was driven out of northern Ceredigion by Hywel ab Owain and also, apparently, from Anglesey, until restored after threatening Owain with a military force hired in Ireland. However, Cadwaladr's position in Gwynedd remained precarious. In 1147 he was driven out of Meirionydd by his nephews, Hywel and Cynan; in 1149 he transferred his portion of Ceredigion to his son, Cadfan, and in the following year Cadfan was seized, together with his land and castle of Llanrhystud, by Hywel ab Owain; and in 1152 he was expelled from his only remaining territory of Anglesey. Meanwhile the alliance with Ranulf continued, as is shown by charters of the late 1140s and early 1150s in which Cadwaladr witnesses as king of Wales (rege Waliarum) and king of north Wales (rege Nortwaliarum). These styles suggest that Ranulf encouraged his ally's regal ambitions in Gwynedd so as to make trouble for Owain, whose expansion into Tegeingl and Ystrad Alun by 1150 posed a threat to the earl's authority. By 1153 Cadwaladr had married Aliz de Clare, quite possibly to be identified with Adeliza, widow of Richard de Clare (d. 1136), the former Norman lord of Ceredigion, and thus Ranulf's sister; the marriage may have been intended to strengthen Cadwaladr's claims to Ceredigion, control of which passed to the sons of Gruffudd ap Rhys of Deheubarth by 1153. This was not his first marriage, however, for his son Cadfan was already an adult by 1149; indeed, the late medieval genealogical tract referred to above states that Cadwaladr had children with four women in all. The support given by Cadwaladr to the Angevin cause in Stephen's reign stood him in good stead after his expulsion from Gwynedd in 1152, for by 1155 or 1156 he had been granted the estate of Ness in Shropshire by Henry II, who ensured that he was restored to his lands in north Wales following the campaign of 1157 (in which Cadwaladr fought on Henry's side). These Angevin connections probably explain why Cadwaladr patronized the Augustinian abbey of Haughmond in Shropshire, to which, as early as the 1140s, he granted the church of Nefyn in Lly^n, for Haughmond (situated only 10 miles away from Ness) received benefactions from Ranulf of Chester and other Angevin supporters. After 1157 Cadwaladr remained loyal to Owain Gwynedd for the rest of the latter's reign. Together with his nephews Hywel and Cynan he took part in Reginald fitz Henry's expedition against Rhys ap Gruffudd in 1159, he participated in the campaign against Henry II in 1165, and he fought alongside his brother in the campaigns which led to the occupation of Tegeingl in 1167. Famed, according to Gerald of Wales, for his outstanding generosity, Cadwaladr outlived Owain by about fifteen months, and was buried beside his brother in Bangor Cathedral in 1172.

Huw Pryce
Sources

J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 3rd edn, 2 vols. (1939); repr. (1988) · J. B. Smith, ‘Owain Gwynedd’, Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society, 32 (1971), 8–17 · H. Pryce, ‘Owain Gwynedd and Louis VII: the Franco-Welsh diplomacy of the first prince of Wales’, Welsh History Review / Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru, 19 (1998–9), 1–28 · J. C. Davies, ed., Episcopal acts and cognate documents relating to Welsh dioceses, 1066–1272, 2 vols., Historical Society of the Church in Wales, 1, 3–4 (1946–8) · R. R. Davies, Conquest, coexistence, and change: Wales, 1063–1415, History of Wales, 2 (1987) · H. Pryce, ‘The church of Trefeglwys and the end of the “Celtic” charter tradition in twelfth-century Wales’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 25 (1993), 15–54 · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Red Book of Hergest (1955) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Peniarth MS 20 (1952) · R. G. Gruffydd, ed., Cyfres beirdd y tywysogion, 7 vols. (1991–6), vols. 1, 2, 4 [the Poets of the Princes series] · A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, eds., Councils and ecclesiastical documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 1 (1869) · Giraldus Cambrensis, ‘De invectionibus’, ed. W. S. Davies, Y Cymmrodor, 30 (1920) · The letters of John of Salisbury, ed. and trans. H. E. Butler and W. J. Millor, rev. C. N. L. Brooke, 2 vols., OMT (1979–86) [Lat. orig. with parallel Eng. text] · Gir. Camb. opera, vol. 6 · The correspondence of Thomas Becket, ed. and trans. A. J. Duggan, 2 vols., OMT (2000)
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Huw Pryce, ‘Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20979, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20979
Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd (d. 1172): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/43159 
Name Variation Owain I Gwyned7 
Note* He helped his father to extend the power of Gwynedd and as king himself he consolidated his hold on Church and State in North Wales and exploited English dissensions to advance into Ceredigion; he even had authority later as far east as the Dee. His only major reverse was at Henry II's hands in 1157, after which Owain acknowledged English overlordship over Gwynedd. Ambitious, farsighted yet prudent, Owain was much lauded as the pre-eminent ruler in Wales. - Leo van de Pas1 
Title* King of Gwynedd1 

Family 1
Child

Family 2
Child

Family 3
Children

Family 4
Child

Family 5
Child

Family 6

Cristin ferch Gronwy
Children

Family 7
Child

Family 8
Children

Family 9

Gwladws ferch Llywarch b. c 1098
Children

Last Edited25 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  2. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 128.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 127.
  5. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-5.
  6. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 239-6.
  7. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
  8. [S295] Sir Bernard Burke, General Armory, p. lxi.
  9. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  10. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 129.

Llywarch ap Trahaearn1

M, #3089, b. circa 1070, d. 1128

Father*Trahearn (?)1,2 b. c 1044, d. 1129
Mother*Nesta of North Wales2 b. c 1057
Llywarch ap Trahaearn|b. c 1070\nd. 1128|p103.htm#i3089|Trahearn (?)|b. c 1044\nd. 1129|p103.htm#i3090|Nesta of North Wales|b. c 1057|p91.htm#i2709|Caradoc ap Cynfyn||p160.htm#i4772||||Gruffydd ap Llywelyn|b. c 1011\nd. 5 Aug 1063|p91.htm#i2712|Aldgyth of Mercia|d. a 1086|p91.htm#i2713|

Marriage* Principal=Dyddgu of Builth1,2 
Birth*circa 1070 Arwystli, Montgomeryshire, Wales2 
Death*1128 2 

Family

Dyddgu of Builth b. c 1060
Child

Last Edited27 Aug 2006

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-4.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Trahearn (?)1

M, #3090, b. circa 1044, d. 1129

Father*Caradoc ap Cynfyn2
Trahearn (?)|b. c 1044\nd. 1129|p103.htm#i3090|Caradoc ap Cynfyn||p160.htm#i4772||||Cynfyn ap Gwerystan||p159.htm#i4770|Angharad ferch Maredudd|b. c 982|p160.htm#i4771|||||||

Birth*circa 1044 of Arwystli, Wales2 
Marriage* Principal=Nesta of North Wales2 
Death1080 Battle of Carno2 
Death*1129 1 
Name Variation Trahearn ap Caradoc (?)2 

Family

Nesta of North Wales b. c 1057
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-4.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
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