Gruffydd Maelor II (died 1269) was a Prince of Powys Fadog. He reigned for thirty-three years and married into the House of Stanley. Following the Anglo-Welsh Treaty of Montgomery, he submitted to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales.
He was the eldest son of Prince Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor and inherited his father's lands and title in partial succession along with his four brothers Gruffydd Ial, Maredudd, Hywel and Madog Fychan. The Kingdom of Powys Fadog had previously been unified under one leader but now had five and was subjected to outside forces as well.
His father's policy of alliance with the large and powerful Gwynedd changed over his thirty-three year reign (1236-1269); pressure from Gwynedd, and Gruffydd's marriage to the daughter of an English landowner, caused him to seek support from the English king.
However, support from England failed to arrive and in 1258 he was forced to submit to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Llywelyn was recognised as Prince of Wales under the terms of the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery and Gruffydd was confined to his castle for the rest of his life.
He married Emma (1224 - c. 1278), daughter of Lord Henry de Audley and Bertrade Mainwaring, members of the House of Stanley. His brother-in-law, Sir James Audley, was Chief governor of Ireland from Dublin Castle, and a companion of Richard of Cornwall, King of the Romans. [1]
His sister-in-law, Ela Longespée, was the daughter of crusader William Longespée the Younger. [1] Longespée's brother, William, also married Maud de Clifford, granddaughter of the prince of North Wales, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. [2]
He died in 1269 (or 1270) leaving issue:
Powys Fadog was divided, in accordance with Welsh custom, between his sons:
Owain ap Gruffudd was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great and the first to be styled "Prince of Wales" and the "Prince of the Welsh". He is considered to be the most successful of all the North Welsh princes prior to his grandson, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. He became known as Owain Gwynedd to distinguish him from the contemporary king of Powys Wenwynwyn, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Maredudd, who became known as Owain Cyfeiliog.
The Kingdom of Powys was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern two-thirds of the modern county of Powys and part of today's English West Midlands. More precisely, and based on the Romano-British tribal lands of the Ordovices in the west and the Cornovii in the east, its boundaries originally extended from the Cambrian Mountains in the west to include the modern West Midlands region of England in the east. The fertile river valleys of the Severn and Tern are found there, and this region is referred to in later Welsh literature as "the Paradise of Powys".
Madoc is a variation of the Welsh name Madog.
Madog ap Maredudd was the last prince of the entire Kingdom of Powys, Wales. He held for a time, the FitzAlan Lordship of Oswestry, family of the Earls of Arundel, of Arundel Castle. His daughter married Lord Rhys, prince of Wales.
Powys Fadog was the northern portion of the former princely realm of Powys. The princes of Powys Fadog would build their royal seat at Castell Dinas Brân, and their religious center at Valle Crucis Abbey. Some of its lordships included those of Maelor, Mochnant, Glyndyfrdwy, Yale, and Bromfield and Yale. Following the division of Powys, their cousin branch, the princes of Powys Wenwynwyn, would build Powis Castle.
Gruffydd Maelor was a Prince of Powys Fadog in Wales. He married a daughter of King Owain Gwynedd, first Prince of Wales, and was a brother of Prince Owain Brogyntyn, ancestor of the Barons of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion.
Madog ap Gruffudd, or Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor, was a Prince of Powys Fadog from 1191 to 1236 in north-east Wales, and Lord of Powys. He was the founder of Valle Crucis Abbey in the Lordship of Yale.
Madog II was a Prince of Powys Fadog from 1269 to 1277. He supported the Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, who had married the daughter of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester.
Gruffudd Fychan I, was a Prince of Powys Fadog from 1277 to 1284. He paid homage to Edward Longshanks for the Lordship of Yale, and fought the War of 1282–1283.
Gruffudd Fychan II was Lord of Glyndyfrdwy and Lord of Cynllaith Owain c.1330–1369. As such, he had a claim to be hereditary Prince of Powys Fadog, and was a member of the Royal House of Mathrafal. His son, Owain Glyndwr, started the Welsh Revolt and became Prince of Wales.
Madog Fychan was a member of the family of Princes of Powys Fadog, though he never gained the title, being brother of Gruffydd Maelor II. He was an ally to Dafydd ap Llywelyn in his campaign to attack English possessions in Wales in 1245 and sided with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1258 in his claim to the title of Prince of Wales. He died in December 1269.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1201–1300 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1101–1200 to Wales and its people.
Ial or Yale was a commote of medieval Wales within the cantref of Maelor in the Kingdom of Powys. When the Kingdom was divided in 1160, Maelor became part of the Princely realm of Powys Fadog, and belonged to the Royal House of Mathrafal. Yale eventually merged with another commote and became the Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, later a royal lordship under the Tudors and Stuarts.
The history of Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the history of Wales spanning the 11th to the 13th centuries. Gwynedd, located in the north of Wales, eventually became the most dominant of Welsh polities during this period. Contact with continental courts allowed for Gwynedd to transition from a petty kingdom into an increasingly sophisticated principality of seasoned courtiers capable of high-level diplomacy and representation, not only with the Angevin kings of England, but with the king of France and the Papacy. Distinctive achievements in Gwynedd include the further development of medieval Welsh literature, particularly the work of the princely court poets known as Beirdd y Tywysogion and the reformation of bardic schools; and the continued development of Cyfraith Hywel. All three of these further contributed to the development of a Welsh national identity in the face of Anglo-Norman encroachment on Wales.
The Royal House of Mathrafal began as a cadet branch of the Welsh Royal House of Dinefwr, taking their name from Mathrafal Castle. They effectively replaced the House of Gwertherion, who had been ruling the Kingdom of Powys since late Roman Britain, through the politically advantageous marriage of an ancestor, Merfyn the Oppressor. King Bleddyn ap Cynfyn would join the resistance of the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, against the invasion of William the Conqueror, following the Norman Conquest of England. Thereafter, they would struggle with the Plantagenets and the remaining Welsh Royal houses for the control of Wales. Although their fortunes rose and fell over the generations, they are primarily remembered as Kings of Powys and last native Prince of Wales.
Fychan is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Owain Fychan ap Madog was styled Lord of Mechain Is Coed and one of the sons of Madog ap Maredudd. His mother was Susanna, daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan.