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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1999-10 > 0940469667
From: Reedpcgen< >
Subject: Re: The hitherto unknown marriages of Llywelyn of North Wales
Date: 21 Oct 1999 01:34:27 GMT
[LAST PART:]
The sons and grandsons of Owain Gwynedd [son of Gruffudd ap Cynan], ruler over
Gwynedd [North Wales], who died 1170 [Bartrum says he was b. ca. 1100], are the
main players in this story. Owain had matches with at least nine women.
Christina/Cristin f. Gronwy was considered a legitimate wife. The following
children are given in the _Handbook of British Chronology_, after which are
additional children listed in Bartum's Welsh Genealogies [Gruffudd ap Cynan,
various charts]:
(1) Rhun, d. 1146.
(2) Hywel, killed 1170 [son by Ffynnod Wyddeles ("an Irish woman"); issue:
Caswallon].
(3) Iorwerth Drwyndwn [flatnose], son by the first 'wife' Gwladus f. Llywarch,
was father of LLYWELYN ap Iorwerth [both the _Handbook of British Chronology_
and Lloyd's _History of Wales_ state that Llywelyn was born in 1173] and Adda
ap Iorwerth. He married the daughter of Madog ap Meredydd, Prince of Powys.
One account states that Iorwerth was excluded from his share in the succession
because of his deformity, and was driven out of Gwynedd, meeting an untimely
demise in Powys. But an elegy upon him by Seisyll Brffwrch calls him ruler of
Arfon, and his grave is said to be in the church of Llandudclud [now Penmachno]
at the head of the Conway Valley. Lloyd also thinks there is good reason to
believe he held the commote of Nanconwy with the castle of Dolwyddelan. Wynne
says Iorwerth received the hundreds of Nanconwy and Ardydwy as his inheritance,
and that he dwelled at the castle of Dolwyddelan, where it is though his son
Llywelyn might have been born.
(4) Maelgwn [son by Gwladus], who received Anglesey as his portion.
(5) David ap Owain [son by his second wife Christina] eventually won Gwynedd
from his other male relatives in 1175, was dispossessed in 1194, and died in
exile in 1203. David had married, 1174, Emma, natural daughter of Geoffrey of
Anjou.
(6) RHODRI ap Owain [son by Christiana], married (1) a daughter of Rhys ap
Gruffudd of Deheubarth, and (2) the elder daughter of the King of Man. Rhodri
died in 1195.
(7) Cynan ap Owain [mother not known], died in 1174. He had sons Gruffudd ap
Cynan [d. 1200] and Maredudd [d. 1212].
(a) Angharad [daughter by Cristin], married Gruffudd Maelor.
(b) Gwenllian [Gwenllian I, daughter by Gwladus], married Owain Cyneiliog.
[other children listed by Bartum, order not known:]
(8) Rhirid, married a daughter of Iarll Desmond [Desmond, in Ireland?]
(9) Iago [son by Mofudd f. Elfan ap Sandde].
(10) Philip [son by Mofudd f. Elfan ap Sandde].
(11) Madog.
(12) Einion.
(13) Cynwrig [I].
(14) Cynwrig [II]
(15) Cadell.
(c) Gwenllian [II].
Bartrum shows that Rhodri ap Owain Gwynedd married, in 1188, Gwenllian ferch
Arglwydd Rhys, by whom she had two sons, Gruffudd and Cynan. Bartrum states
that Rhodri then married, in 1193, a child, daughter of Reginald, King of Man,
but they had no issue. Bartrum also attribues two other sons to Rhodri, Thomas
and Einion, but the identity of their mother is unknown (concubine).
Sources for the following chronology and events:
Sir John Edward Lloyd, _History of Wales_ (1948, first published 1911)
2:549-54, 564-6, 587-90, 617.
_Brut y tywysogion; or the Chronicle of the Princes_ (London, 1860), ed. John
Williams ab Ithel, 238-41.
_Handbook of British Chronology_ (London, 1986) [Royal Historical Society], 51.
_Medieval Anglesey_ (Llangefni, 1982), A. D. Carr, 44-7.
_The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, A.D. MCLXXXVIII [Spring,
1188], by Giraldus de Barri [Geraldus Cambrensis]..._, Sir Richard Colt Hoare
(London, 1806), v. 2.
Sir John Wynn, _History of the Gwydir Family_,e d. J. Ballinger (1927), 7.
DNB; and Dictionary of Welsh Biography [under Rhodri ab Owain].
.
1170:
Owain Gwynedd dies. His sons dispute his lands. His son Hywel is defeated and
killed at the battle of Pentraeth by his brothers Dafydd and Rhodri. Gwynedd
[North Wales] was divided and the share of Anglesey fell to their brother
Maelgwn.
1172:
Owain Gwynedd's brother Cadwaladr dies on 29 February, increasing the lands
claimed by Owain's sons.
1173:
Dafydd drives his brother Maelgwn from Anglesey and forces him to flee to
Ireland.
1174:
Dafydd expands his ambitions and attempts the conquest of all of Gwynedd. The
death of his brother Cynan helps remove one opponent. Iorwerth may also have
been dead by this time. Maelgwn returns from Ireland, but is imprisoned. This
left only his brother Rhodri and his nephews to oppose him. Dafydd conquers
the whole region, displacing the others.
Having not been necessarily unloyal to Henry, King of England, in the upheaval
of 1173-4, Dafydd sends a special envoy to ask the king for the hand of his
half-sister, Emma, illegitimate daughter of Geoffrey of Anjou, "famed for her
beauty, and now, it would seem, a widow." The marriage took place in the
summer of 1174.
1175:
Rhodri, as his most important rival, is imprisoned by Dafydd, but escapes from
captivity and drives Dafydd out of Gwynedd west of the Conwy [before the end of
the year], establishing a balance of power. The sons of Cynan also recover
their father's lands. Dafydd, unable to overcome this defeat, agrees to the
partition. Rhodri was to hold these lands peacefully through the next decade.
Rhodri enters into an alliance with Rhys ap Gruffydd, Prince of South Wales,
and marries one of his daughters [Gwenllian].
1177:
Rhodri and the sons of Cynan are absent from the Council of Oxford, before the
King of England. Dafydd was in attendance, as were the rulers of South Wales.
1188:
Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, tours Wales [accompanied by Giraldus]
recruiting for the crusade [Jerusalem had fallen to enemies the previous year].
He preached at a place in Anglesey, possibly Porthwaethwy. Rhodri and his
men, in the audience, declined to take the cross. Rhodri is chastised for his
marriage to his cousin [the daughter of Rhys ap Gruffydd] which fell within the
prohibited degrees (this would indicate his first wife was still very much
alive).
Gerald relates: "From Bangor, we crossed over a small arm of the sea to
the island of Mona, distant from thence about two miles, where Roderic
[Rhodri], the younger son of Owen, attended by nearly all the inhabitants of
the island ... came in a devout manner to meet us. Confession havingbeen made
in a place near the shore, ... many persons were induced to take the cross, by
the persuasuve discourses of the Archbishop, and Alexander, our interpreter
.... Many chosen youths of the family of Roderic were seated on an opposite
rock, and not one of them could be prevailed upon to take th ecross, although
the Archbishop and others most earnestly exhorted them, but in vain, by an
address particularly addressed to them. It came to pass within three days,as
if by divine vengeance, that these young men, with many others, pursued some
robbers of that country; being discomfited and put to flight, some were slain,
others mortally wounded, and the survivors voluntarily assumed that cross they
had before despised. Roderic ... who a short time before had incestuously
married the daughter of Rhys, related to himby blood in the third degree; in
order, by the assistance of that prince, to be better able to defend himself
against the sons of his brothers, whom he disinherited, not paying attention to
the wholesome admonistions of the Archbishop on this subject [was eventually
dispossessed of his lands]. [Itinerary, 101-2]
Lloyd says that Llywelyn ap Iorwerth attained his majority in 1188 [at age 14]
and began to make trouble for his uncles [2:565]. Lloyd specifically states
that he was born in the early part of 1173 [2:587]. It appears that Llywelyn's
father, Iorwerth, died while Llywelyn was an infant, and that Llywelyn was
raised in his mother's land of Powys.
1190/1:
Rhodri is driven out of Anglesey by his nephews, the sons of Cynan ap Owain.
He seeks the aid of Reginald, King of Man, and pledges to marry his daughter.
Lloyd says "about 1190," some accounts say 1190, and another 1191. Godred,
king of Man, had died in 1187, and his minor son Olaf was displaced by Godred's
natural son "Reginald."
1193:
Rhodri ap Owain "subjugated the isle of Mona [Anglesey], through the aid of the
sons of Godrich, king of Man; but before the end of the year he was expelled by
the sons of Cynan, son of Owain Gwynedd, his nephews." [Brut, 238-9.]
The victory by Rhodri was known as 'Haf y Gwyddyl.' It was apparently called
'the Gaelic summer' because of the influx of Gaelic-speaking men from the Isle
of Man that had accompanied Rhodri into Gwynedd.
1194:
"And king Richard returned from Jerusalem. And then Llywelyn, son of Iorwerth,
and Rhodri, son of Owain, and the two sons of Cynan, son of Owain, combined
against David, son of Owain Gwynedd, and oppugned all the territory of David,
except three castles." [Brut, 240-1.]
But conflicting accounts indicate that Rhodri sided with David and was
defeated by Llywelyn at Coed Aneu in Anglesey, and that Rhodri's defeat left
him with almost nothing. DWB says it is unknown if Rhodri "returned from exile
and shared in his brother Dafydd's humiliation in 1194". Lloyd makes reference
to the various conflicting sources [2:588-8].
1195:
Rhodri dies, and is buried at Holyhead/Caergybi.
DNB states there are several poems to Rhodri:
The 'Myvyrian Archaiology' contains one by Gwalchmai (2nd ed., p. 146 [in which
Rhodri is called the "great rampart of his people"]), one by Elidyr Sais (p.
241), and four by Llywarch ap Llywelyn (pp. 201-3).
This appears to agree with the information in the second and third letters from
Innocent III. It would seem Rhodri properly married the daughter of the King
of Man in 1193, sleeping with her from 1 May to 15 June [the feast of St.
Vitus]. It would make sense that having fulfilled and consumated his marriage
pledge, the King of Man sent forces with Rhodri to reconquer his lands in
Anglesey in the summer of 1193. If the testimony in the third letter is
correct, it would help us narrow down the date of Rhodri's death. If he
married her shortly before 1 May 1193, and was bound to him for another 2
years, 2 months, 15 days, he would have died sometime about 16 July 1195. Of
course, this is speculation based on the accuracy of the testimony of the
information sent from Innocent III, but it helps narrow things down a little.
So, what think ye of all this?
Paul
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