Prince of Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffydd

• General Notes
  • Owain Gwynedd
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    
    Owain Gwynedd (in English, "Owen") (c. 1100–November 28, 1170), alternatively known by the patronymic "Owain ap Gruffydd". He is occasionally referred to as Owain I of Gwynedd, or Owain I of Wales on account of his claim to be King of Wales. He is considered to be the most successful of all the north Welsh princes prior to his grandson, Llywelyn the Great. He was known as Owain Gwynedd to distinguish him from another contemporary Owain ap Gruffydd, ruler of part of Powys who was known as Owain Cyfeiliog. Owain Gwynedd was a member of the House of Aberffraw, a descendant of the senior branch from Rhodri Mawr.
    
    Early life
    Owain's father, Gruffydd ap Cynan, was a strong and long-lived ruler who had made the principality of Gwynedd the most influential in Wales during the sixty-two years of his reign, using the island of Anglesey as his power base. His mother, Angharad ferch Owain, was the daughter of Owain ab Edwin. Owain was the second of three sons of Gruffydd and Angharad.
    
    Owain is thought to have been born on Anglesey about the year 1100. By about 1120 Gruffydd had grown too old to lead his forces in battle and Owain and his brothers Cadwallon and later Cadwaladr led the forces of Gwynedd against the Normans and against other Welsh princes with great success. His elder brother Cadwallon was killed in a battle against the forces of Powys in 1132, leaving Owain as his father's heir. Owain and Cadwaladr, in alliance with Gruffydd ap Rhys of Deheubarth, won a major victory over the Normans at Crug Mawr near Cardigan in 1136 and annexed Ceredigion to their father's realm.
    
    Accession to the throne and early campaigns
    On Gruffydd's death in 1137, therefore, Owain inherited a portion of a well-established kingdom, but had to share it with Cadwaladr. In 1143 Cadwaladr was implicated in the murder of Anarawd ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth, and Owain responded by sending his son Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd to strip him of his lands in the north of Ceredigion. Though Owain was later reconciled with Cadwaladr, from 1143, Owain ruled alone over most of north Wales. In 1155 Cadwaladr was driven into exile.
    
    Owain took advantage of the civil war in England between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda to push Gwynedd's boundaries further east than ever before. In 1146 he captured the castle of Mold and about 1150 captured Rhuddlan and encroached on the borders of Powys. The prince of Powys, Madog ap Maredudd, with assistance from Earl Ranulf of Chester, gave battle at Coleshill, but Owain was victorious.
    
    War with King Henry II
    All went well until the accession of King Henry II of England in 1154. Henry invaded Gwynedd in 1157 with the support of Madog ap Maredudd of Powys and Owain's brother Cadwaladr. The invasion met with mixed fortunes. King Henry was nearly killed in a skirmish near Basingwerk and the fleet accompanying the invasion made a landing on Anglesey where it was defeated. Owain was however forced to come to terms with Henry, being obliged to surrender Rhuddlan and other conquests in the east.
    
    Madog ap Maredudd died in 1160, enabling Owain to regain territory in the east. In 1163 he formed an alliance with Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth to challenge English rule. King Henry again invaded Gwynedd in 1165, but instead of taking the usual route along the northern coastal plain, the king's army invaded from Oswestry and took a route over the Berwyn hills. The invasion was met by an alliance of all the Welsh princes, with Owain as the undisputed leader. However there was little fighting, for the Welsh weather came to Owain's assistance as torrential rain forced Henry to retreat in disorder. The infuriated Henry mutilated a number of Welsh hostages, including two of Owain's sons.
    
    Henry did not invade Gwynedd again and Owain was able to regain his eastern conquests, recapturing Rhuddlan castle in 1167 after a siege of three months.
    
    Disputes with the church and succession
    The last years of Owain's life were spent in disputes with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, over the appointment of a new Bishop of Bangor. When the see became vacant Owain had his nominee, Arthur of Bardsey, elected. The archbishop refused to accept this, so Owain had Arthur consecrated in Ireland. The dispute continued, and the see remained officially vacant until well after Owain's death. He was also put under pressure by the Archbishop and the Pope to put aside his second wife, Cristin, who was his first cousin, this relationship making the marriage invalid under church law. Despite being excommunicated for his defiance, Owain steadfastly refused to put Cristin aside. Owain died in 1170, and despite having been excommunicated was buried in Bangor Cathedral by the local clergy. The annalist writing Brut y Tywysogion recorded his death "after innumerable victories, and unconquered from his youth".
    
    He is believed to have commissioned the propaganda text, The Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan, an account of his father's life. Following his death, civil war broke out between his sons. Owain was married twice, first to Gwladus ferch Llywarch ap Trahaearn, by whom he had two sons, Maelgwn ab Owain Gwynedd and Iorwerth Drwyndwn, the father of Llywelyn the Great, then to Cristin, by whom he had three sons including Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd and Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd. He also had a number of illegitimate sons, who by Welsh law had an equal claim on the inheritance if acknowledged by their father.
    
    Heirs and Successors
    Owain had originally designated Rhun ab Owain Gwynedd as his successor. Rhun was Owain's favourite son, and his premature death in 1147 plunged his father into a deep melancholy, from which he was only roused by the news that his forces had captured Mold castle. Owain then designated Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd as his successor, but after his death Hywel was first driven to seek refuge in Ireland by Cristin's sons, Dafydd and Rhodri, then killed at the battle of Pentraeth when he returned with an Irish army. Dafydd and Rhodri split Gwynedd between them, but a generation passed before Gwynedd was restored to its former glory under Owain's grandson Llywelyn the Great.
    
    According to legend, one of Owain's sons was Prince Madoc, who is popularly supposed to have fled across the Atlantic and colonised America.
    
    Altogether, the prolific Owain Gwynedd is said to have had the following children from two wives and at least four mistresses:
    
    Rhun ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Iorwerth ab Owain Gwynedd (from first wife Gwladys (Gladys) ferch Llywarch)
    Maelgwn ab Owain Gwynedd, Lord of Ynys Môn
    Gwenllian ferch Owain Gwynedd
    Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (from second wife Cristina (Christina) ferch Gronw)
    Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd
    Angharad ferch Owain Gwynedd
    Margaret ferch Owain Gwynedd
    Iefan ab Owain Gwynedd
    Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd, Lord of Meirionnydd (illegitimate)
    Rhirid ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Cynwrig ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Gwenllian II ferch Owain Gwynedd (also shared the same name with a sister!)
    Einion ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Iago ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Ffilip ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Cadell ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Rotpert ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Idwal ab Owain Gwynedd (illegitimate)
    Other daughters
    
    Fiction
    Owain is a recurring character in the Brother Cadfael series of novels by Ellis Peters, often referred to, and appearing in the novels Dead Man's Ransom and The Summer of the Danes. He acts shrewdly to keep Wales's borders secure, and sometimes to expand them, during the civil war between King Stephen and Maud, and sometimes acts as an ally to Cadfael and his friend, Sheriff Hugh Beringar. Cadwaladr also appears in both these novels as a source of grief for his brother.
    
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    Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd from 1137 until his death in 1170, took advantage of the troubled reign of King Stephen of England and seized some neigbouring territories. In 1157, Henry II led an army into Wales and Owain acknowledged Henry II as overlord. Owain kept all the territory he had gained with the exception of Tegeingl in the extreme north east.
    Owain died on November 28, 1170 and was interred at Bangor Cathedral.
    
    Owain married Gwladys, a daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaearn ap Cardogog whose father Trahaearn ap Cardogog had been killed in 1081 by Owain's father Gruffydd ap Cynan. Apparently, our ancestors didn't hold long grudges over killings and murders, perhaps because these events were so common.
    
    * _FA1: Acceded: 1137. Interred: Bangor. 9 10
    * _FA2: Target of Henry II's campaign(s) in Wales.
    * _FA3: Threatened Madoc ap Maredudd Prince of Powys.
    * _FA4: Excommunicated by Thomas a' Becket when he didn't abjure his 2nd wife Cristin. 11
    * _FA5: AKA Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd. 12 9 3
    * _FA6: Expanded borders & took back districts lost to the English & other Welsh Princes 13
    * _FA7: Able to do so because of King Stephen's pre-occupation with English civil war. 13
    * _FA8: Prince of North Wales. 14
    * Note:
    REF: "Yale Genealogy and History of Wales", 1908, Rodney Horace Yale p. 40: During King Stephen's reign of 17 years in England, he left Wales much to
    itself and Owain materially added to the resources of his country & re-occupied several districts, which the Welsh had lost in former years. In the meantime however, he and Cadwaladr quarreld and the latter fled to England. Also during these years (C25) Rhys ap Gruffydd, a son of Gruffydd ap Rhun, who was son of Rhys ap Tewdwr, had won several comparatively important engagements and successes in the south.