Rhys ap Gruffydd or ap Gruffudd was the ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south Wales from 1155 to 1197. Today, he is commonly known as The Lord Rhys, in Welsh Yr Arglwydd Rhys, although this title may have not been used in his lifetime. He usually used the title "Proprietary Prince of Deheubarth" or "Prince of South Wales", but two documents have been discovered in which he uses the title "Prince of Wales" or "Prince of the Welsh". Rhys was one of the most successful and powerful Welsh princes, and, after the death of Owain Gwynedd of Gwynedd in 1170, the dominant power in Wales.
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 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".
Rhys ap Tewdwr was a king of Deheubarth in Wales and member of the Dinefwr dynasty, a branch descended from Rhodri the Great. Following the Norman Conquest, he had to pay William the Conqueror to keep his kingdom, which lasted until the end of William's reign.
Maelgwn ap Rhys was prince of part of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south west Wales.
Llywelyn ap Seisyll was a king in the 11th-century who ruled over the Welsh kingdoms of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth.
Hywel ap Edwin was king of Deheubarth in south Wales from 1033 to 1043.
Gruffydd ap Rhydderch was a king of Gwent and part of the kingdom of Morgannwg in south Wales and later king of Deheubarth.
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.
The Royal House of Dinefwr was a cadet branch of the Royal House of Gwynedd, founded by King Cadell ap Rhodri, son of Rhodri the Great. Their ancestor, Cunedda Wledig, born in late Roman Britain, was a Sub-Roman warlord who founded the Kingdom of Gwynedd during the 5th century, following the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. As Celtic Britons, the House of Dinefwr was ruling before the Norman conquest, having to fight with their neighbors such as the Celtics, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, before struggling with the Normans afterwards. Many members of this family were influential in Welsh history, such as Hywel Dda, who codified Welsh law under his rule, and achieved the important title of King of the Britons, or Lord Rhys, Prince of Wales, who rebelled against Richard the Lionheart, and became one of the most powerful Welsh leaders of the Middle Ages.
Glywysing was, from the sub-Roman period to the Early Middle Ages, a petty kingdom in south-east Wales. Its people were descended from the Iron Age tribe of the Silures, and frequently in union with Gwent, merging to form Morgannwg.
Morgannwg was a medieval Welsh kingdom formed via the merger of the kingdoms of Glywysing and Gwent.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1001–1100 to Wales and its people.
Wales in the Middle Ages covers the history of the country that is now called Wales, from the departure of the Romans in the early fifth century to the annexation of Wales into the Kingdom of England in the early sixteenth century. This period of about 1,000 years saw the development of regional Welsh kingdoms, Celtic conflict with the Anglo-Saxons, reducing Celtic territories, and conflict between the Welsh and the Anglo-Normans from the 11th century.
Rhys ap Rhydderch was the brother of Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, king of Deheubarth from 1044 to 1055. Both were the sons of Rhydderch ab Iestyn, who had been able to take over the Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth from 1023 to 1033.
Morgan ap Hywel was Lord of Gwynllwg in Wales from about 1215 until his death in 1245, and for many years laid claim to the lordship of Caerleon, which had been seized by the Earl of Pembroke. For most of his life he was at peace with the English, at a time when there were periodic revolts by Welsh leaders against their rule. He may have participated in a crusade between 1227 and 1231.