Gruffudd ap Llewelyn , Prince of Gwynedd 
Gruffudd ap was born about 1206 in Gwynedd, Caernarvonshire, Wales. Gruffudd ap's father was Llewelyn ap Iorwerth , Prince of Wales and his mother was Tangwystl verch Llywarch. His paternal grandparents were Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain , Prince North Wales and Marared verch Madog. He had a sister named Margaret verch. He was the younger of the two children. He had four half-sisters named Gwladys "Ddu" verch, Angharad verch, Helen Ellen verch and Helen verch. He died in fall from Tower of London, Middlesex, England.General Notes
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd. [Burke's Peerage]
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The following post to SGM, 17 Feb 2003, by Becky Thill is mostly about Gruffudd's brother Dafydd, who was a disastrous Prince of Cymru for 6 years, but it had the following excerpt on Gruffudd:
But Davydd was not the only son of Llywelyn. There had been another, Gruffydd, a handsome giant of a prince, born of a Cymric Mother. Llywelyn had weighed his two sons in his mind as to which would be the better ruler for the land. Davydd's mother was sister of the King of England - surely the King of England would be less the enemy of his nephew than of Gruffydd. So thought Llywelyn, and accordingly he made Davydd his heir; the one tragic mistake which undid all that he had accomplished in his own strenuous life. Gruffydd, with his turbulent valour, could not have brought his country lower than his brother's smoothness brought it. He might have saved it.
Davydd had handed over his brother Gruffydd to the King of England as a prisoner. The king sent him to the Tower of London. One night Gruffydd made a rope of his clothes and began to let himself down out of his window to escape. The rope broke, and Gruffydd was killed, his neck being broken by the fall. But he left four sons, Owen, Llywelyn, Davydd and Rhodri.
Owen and Llywelyn seized the crown of Gwynedd between them when their uncle Davydd died. Now King Henry claimed all the land as his own, for, amongst the rest of Davydd's doings, he had agreed that, if he died childless, Henry should be his heir and take the country. It would be hard to find words severe enough to describe such a transaction as that. [Flame-Bearers of Welsh History, "The Sons of Cunedda" by Owen Rhoscomyl, School Edition, 1905 The Welsh Ed. Pub. Co. Merthry Rydfil, part one, p. 177 XLIX, THE RISE OF LLYWELYN III]
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Ancestor Pedigree Chart
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- b.~ 1100 in Aberffraw Castle, Angelesey, Wales d.Dec 1169 in Bangor Cathedral, Is Gwyrfai, Caernarvonshire, Wales
- b.~ 1129 in Aberffraw Castle, Anglsy, Wales d.~ 1174
- b.~ 1098 in Pembroke, Montgomershire, Wales d.< 1155
- b.1173 in Aberffraw Castle, Aberconway, Wales d.11 Apr 1240 in Aberconway, North Wales
- b.~ 1097 in Powys, Wales d.1160 in Winchester, Herefordshire, England
- b.~ 1129 in Powys-Vadoc, Wales
- b.~ 1098 in Caernarvonshire, Wales
- b.~ 1206 in Gwynedd, Caernarvonshire, Wales d.1 MAR 1243/44 in fall from Tower of London, Middlesex, England
- b.~ 1178 in Rhos, Denbighshire, Wales d.~ 1206
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