Llywelyn was the son of Seisyll, a man of whom little is known. Llewelyn first appears on record in 1018, the year he defeated and killed Aeddan ap Blegywryd,[2] along with four of his sons and obtained Gwynedd and Powys.[3]
In 1022, a man named Rhain the Irishman was made king of Deheubarth; he claimed to be a son of Maredudd ab Owain, whose daughter Angharad had married Llywelyn. Llywelyn made war against Rhain, they fought a battle at Abergwili in 1022, and, after a “slaughter on both sides”, Rhain was killed, allowing Llywelyn to take control of Deheubarth.[2][3]
Llywelyn, after his success against Rhain, died in 1023. The Brut y Tywysogion portrays Llywelyn's reign as one of prosperity saying “complete in abundance of wealth and inhabitants; so that it was supposed there was neither poor nor destitute in all his territories, nor an empty hamlet, nor any deficiency.” Llywelyn was called "King of the Britons" by the Annals of Ulster.[3]
Llywelyn's son, Gruffydd,[2][3] did not succeed his father, possibly because he was too young to do so.[4] Gruffydd went on to become the first and only true King of Wales (the only one to rule over all the territory);[2][3] however, he was killed by his own men in 1063. Gruffydd's own sons Maredudd and Idwal died in 1069, fighting at the Battle of Mechain.[5]
As Llewelyn's grandfather is not known, some scholars have said it was a man named Ednowain or Owain, others Rhodri, although a Seisyll son of Llywelyn of Buellt is mentioned in a tract of the Jesus College Ms.20 as a son of Ellelw daughter of a man named Elidir ap Llywarch of which Gruffudd ap Llywelyn and Llywelyn ap Seisyll are named in the latter part possibly implying Seisyll's father was a man named Llywelyn from Buellt and due to the connection of the family of Tegonwy ap Teon to said area e.g. the Iorwerthion it is plausible this Llywelyn is Llywelyn O'r Trallwng.
Leofric de Blackwell and Aelfgar son of Leofric.
Ælfgar married Ælfgifu,2 5 daughter of Æthelred II, King of England and Ælfgifu, of York,. Ælfgifu was born about 997 in Wessex, England. Another name for Ælfgifu, Princess of England. Edith daughter of Aelfgar became queen consort of Gwynedd.
married Into the Kingdom of Gwynedd Edith had two daughters Nest and Guenta.Then when the family had to flee in 1066 After the Battle of Hastings, Morcar and his brother arrived at London, sent their sister Ealdgyth-Edith, king Harold's widow, to Chester, and urged the citizens to raise one or the other of them to the throne. Her daughters Nest and Guenta lived. Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans and William of Normandy and was the capital of the former kingdom Gwynedd,Chester is thought to once have been in North-east Wales early 10th century and 11th Century become part of Gwynedd.
one of her daughter's Guenta who married Fleance son of Banquo. A few words concerning the origin of the House of Stuart might be apropos: Fleance, son of Banquo mentioned in "Macbeth," fled to England after the murder of his father, and there married Guenta, a daughter of Griffith, Prince of Wales, whose wife was Eadgyth aka Edith (afterwards the wife of Harold II., King of England, "The last of the Saxons"), a daughter of Aelfgar, Earl of Mercia and son of Leofric de Blackwell and the celebrated Lady Godiva. Alan, son of Fleance (or Flaald, as he was also called), was the father of Walter Fitz-Alan, who became Lord High Steward of Scotland, from which dignity he took his family name of Steward (or Stewart). His descendant, Alexander Stewart, married the Princess Marjory Bruce, daughter of Robert I., King of Scotland, and their son succeeded his maternal grandfather as Robert II., of Scotland. From him came all the succeeding Kings of Scotland and of England.The FitzAlan family shared a common patrilineal ancestry with the House of Stuart an indirect line of the House of Aberffraw) Edith married Gruffydd ap Llywelyn who was a member of the (House of Rhuddlan dynasty-a cadet Branch of the House of Dinefwer) Edith and Gruffydd had two daughters Nest and Gunnta.In genealogy and wills, a person's issue is all their lineal descendants. Edith's son Maredudd ap Gruffydd,Idwal ap Gruffydd,Nest ,Harold,Gunnta and Ithel ap Gruffudd who died between 1069 and 1070 at the age of 28 ,son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, and Edith of Mercia
It was presumably in the year of her father's appointment (c. 1057) that Ealdgyth married his political ally, King Gruffudd ap Llywelyn. William of Jumièges describes her as a woman of considerable beauty.Walter Map also wrote of a beautiful lady much beloved by the king and so he may have had Ealdgyth in mind. On Edith's marriage, she was given a modest amount of land in England, though the only estate which can be identified as having belonged to her is one at Binley, Warwickshire. The chronicles also record two of Gruffudd's sons, Maredudd and Ithel ap Gruffudd died in 1070 age 28 He Died at the hands of Rhiwallon and Bleddyn ap Cynfyn,Idwal.
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 the Great. 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.
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was King of Gwynedd and Powys from 1039 and, after asserting his control over the entire country, claimed the title King of Wales from 1055 until his death in 1063. He was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll king of Gwynedd and Angharad daughter of Maredudd ab Owain, king of Deheubarth, and the great-great-grandson of Hywel Dda. Gruffydd was the first and only Welsh king to unite all of Wales albeit for a brief period. After his death, Wales was again divided into separate kingdoms.
Deheubarth was a regional name for the realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to Gwynedd. It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under the House of Dinefwr, but that Deheubarth itself was not considered a proper kingdom on the model of Gwynedd, Powys, or Dyfed is shown by its rendering in Latin as dextralis pars or as Britonnes dexterales and not as a named land. In the oldest British writers, Deheubarth was used for all of modern Wales to distinguish it from Hen Ogledd, the northern lands whence Cunedda originated.
The Kingdom of Gwynedd was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
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 here, and this region is referred to in later Welsh literature as "the Paradise of Powys".
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, sometimes spelled Blethyn, was an 11th-century Welsh king. King Harold Godwinson and Tostig Godwinson installed him and his brother, Rhiwallon, as the co-rulers of Gwynedd on his father's death in 1063, during their destruction of the kingdom of their half-brother, king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Bleddyn became king of Powys and co-ruler of the Kingdom of Gwynedd with his brother Rhiwallon from 1063 to 1075. His descendants continued to rule Powys as the House of Mathrafal.
Maredudd ab Owain was a 10th-century king in Wales of the High Middle Ages. A member of the House of Dinefwr, his patrimony was the kingdom of Deheubarth comprising the southern realms of Dyfed, Ceredigion, and Brycheiniog. Upon the death of his father King Owain around AD 988, he also inherited the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, which he had conquered for his father. He was counted among the Kings of the Britons by the Chronicle of the Princes.
Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig was a Prince of Gwynedd and Powys. He was also referred to as "King of the Britons" in the Annals of Ulster.
Caradog ap Gruffydd was a Prince of Gwent in south-east Wales in the time of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and the Norman conquest, who reunified his family's inheritance of Morgannwg and made repeated attempts to reunite southern Wales by claiming the inheritance of the Kingdom of Deheubarth.
Maelienydd, sometimes spelt Maeliennydd, was a cantref and lordship in east central Wales covering the area from the River Teme to Radnor Forest and the area around Llandrindod Wells. The area, which is mainly upland, is now in Powys. During the Middle Ages it was part of the region known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren and its administrative centre was at Cefnllys Castle.
Angharad is a feminine given name in the Welsh language, having a long association with Welsh royalty, history and myth. It translates to English as much loved one. In Welsh mythology, Angharad Golden-Hand is the lover of Peredur in the myth cycle The Mabinogion.
The Battle of Mechain was fought in Powys, Wales, in 1070, for rule of the Welsh kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys. The battlefield may be near Llanfechain in northern Powys. A written account is included in the Brut y Tywysogion, the medieval Welsh chronicle of the princes. It is also referred to in the work of medieval poets such as Lewys Glyn Cothi.
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 1001–1100 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 901–1000 to Wales and its people.
The history of Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th through 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 deplomacy and representation; not only with the Angevine kings, but also the king of France and the Papal See. Distinctive achievements in Gwynedd include further development of Medieval Welsh literature, particularly poets known as the Beirdd y Tywysogion associated with the court of Gwynedd; 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 of Wales.
Ealdgyth, also Aldgyth or Edith in modern English, was a daughter of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia, the wife of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, ruler of all Wales, and later the wife and queen consort of Harold Godwinson, king of England in 1066. She was described by William of Jumièges as a considerable beauty.
The Royal House of Mathrafal began as a cadet branch of the Welsh Royal House of Dinefwr, taking their name from Mathrafal Castle, their principal seat and effective capital. 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.
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