General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> King of Wales
REFN: HWS8195
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> FLH5-T7
OBJE: C:\LEGACY\PICTURES\c_crown.gif





[Direct Linage1.FTW]

Reign: 844 - 878 Driven out by Vikings, Killed in battle.

Rhodri Mawr was able to do something which no other ruler in Wales had been able to do: forge a kingship which extended over much of Wales. he was able to accomplish this through some timely deaths of relatives and marriage alliances. In the end, when he died in 877, he was ruler over Gwynedd, Powys (through marriage allaince), and Seisyllwg (the southern cantrefi and Ceredigion, through the death of his brother-in-law).

However, Rhodri earned his title of Mawr (the Great) through his victory over the Vikings in 856, during which he killed the Danish leader Gorm. This victory was celebrated throughout Western Europe, with a legthy poemby Sedulus Scotus, an Irish monk living in Carolingian Frankia.

Rhodri died in 877, while fighting the English. His kingdom was divided amongst his six sons, in accordance with Welsh tradition. Despite this failure of the Welsh to maintain unity, Rhodri's rule left a deep impression on the Welsh, not only for what he accomplished against the Vikings, but also in terms of the unification whcih he achieved. Once this achievement has been made, a precedent is set for future leaders, and one could say that it is the first step for a region to become a unified kingdom in permanence. Over the next 200 years, Wales would be unified three more times. Additiionally, it would henceforward be a prerequisite of Welsh kings in Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth to demonstrate a pedigree which included Rhodri Mawr.

The first leader of importance to emerge among the Welsh was the warrior king Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great). In 855 he became king, not only of Powys, but through skillful alliances and marriages, of a great deal of the rest of Wales as well. Successful in warding off attacks, killing in battle the Viking leader Gorm, Rhodri gave his country a remarkable period of unity and stability. Unfortunately for the future of an independent Wales, his death was followed by a period of internal strife, and the alliance of his sons with the English monarch, Alfred, led to Wales's dependence upon the English monarch for protection. This was perhaps the first sign that the future of Wales was forever more to be dependent upon its stronger neighbor to the East.
[mdraper.ged]

The first leader of importance to emerge among the Welsh was the warrior king Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great). In 855 he became king, not only of Powys, but through skillful alliances and marriages, of a great deal of the rest of Wales as well. Successful in warding off attacks, killing in battle the Viking leader Gorm, Rhodri gave his country a remarkable period of unity and stability. Unfortunately for the future of an independent Wales, his death was followed by a period of internal strife, and the alliance of his sons with the English monarch, Alfred, led to Wales's dependence upon the English monarch for protection. This was perhaps the first sign that the future of Wales was forever more to be dependent upon its stronger neighbor to the East.

Note:
REFN: 6357
Rhodri Mawr, (Rhodri the Great, 820-78) is remembered as the first to claim the title of king of the Welsh. He was the first to unite most of Wales under his rule, 844-78. Professor Davies points out that the title
"great" was bestowed upon only two other rulers in the same century: Charlemagne(Charles the Great) and Alfred the Great. All three contributed greatly to the growth of statehood among their respective
nations. Rhodri, son of Merfyn Frych, became King of Gwynedd in 844, following the death of his father; of Powys following the death of his uncle in 855; and of Seisyllwg (including Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi)
following the death of his brother-in-law in 872. He was most successful in keeping out the Danes and the English from settling his territories. By uniting the three principal kingdoms of Wales under his rule, Rhodri showed that an independent Wales could exist that need not be subservient to the rule of English monarchs. Gwynfor Evans cites Nora Chadwick, calling Rhodri "the greatest of all the kings of Wales." His success was mainly due to his creation of a consciousness in the Welsh-speaking people of Britain that they could act together as one. Gwynfor Evans also laments the fact that this great king had no biographer to properly record his achievements, unlike Alfred of Wessex, who had a biographer Asser, a Welshman from St. David's. Rhodri was killed in 878 fighting against the English of Mercia.

Note:
Rhodri Mawr who, by inheritance and marriage re-uniting the states of North Wales, South Wales, and Powys, became King of All Wales, A.D. 843, 5th in lineal succession to his memorable progenitor, St. Cadwallader Bendigelig (the Blessed), "as well saint as monarch," crowned King of the Britains, A.D. 676, whose standard displayed the "red dragon" transmitted as the distinctive cognizance of his royal race. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 113, Cherlton, Barons Cherlton of Powys]

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The existence of Offa's Dyke may well have deepened the self-awareness of the Welsh people, for, in the generation following its construction, kingdom was linked with kingdom with the result that the greater part of the inhabitants of Wales became the subjects of a single ruler. If the genealogies, almost the sole evidence for these developments, are reliable, it appears that it was through marriage rather than through conquest that the kingdoms of Wales were united. The heir of one kingdom married the heiress of another, although it is probable that there would have been fewer heiresses had there not been considerable slaughter among their male relations. A chain of marriages begins around 800 when Gwriad, of the lineage of the Men of the North, married Esyllt of the line of Maelgwn Fawr; their son, Merfyn, became king of Gwynedd in 825 on the death of Esyltt's uncle, Hywel ap Rhodri. Merfyn married Nest of the house of Powys, and their son, Rhodri, married Angharad of the house of Seisyllwg (Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi). Rhodri became ruler of Gwynedd in 844 on the death of his father, of Powys in 855 on the death of his uncle, Cyngen, and of Seisyllwg in 871 on the death of his brother-in-law, Gwgon; he died in 877, king of a realm extending from Anglesey to Gower. (A History of Wales, John Davies, Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, London, 1993]