Gruffud ap Gwenwynwyn

• General Notes
  • son of Gwenwynwyn ap Owain and Margaret Corbet
    Griffith, elder son, Prince of Powys and Wenwynwyn. He married Hawys, daughter of John le Strange, feudal Lord of Knockyn and Cheswardine, and by her, who had a royal grant of the Manor of Strettondale, he had 6 sons and 1 daughter.
    (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 310)Griffith, elder son, Prince of Powys and Wenwynwyn. He married Hawys, daughter of John le Strange, feudal Lord of Knockyn and Cheswardine, and by her, who had a royal grant of the Manor of Strettondale, he had 6 sons and 1 daughter.
    (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 310)
    
    Griffith ap Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powis. On July 15, 1223, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, was ordered to see that the constable of Bridgenorth, Shropshire do send the sons of Gwenwynwyn to Gloucester; and in the 19th, the King being at Gloucester, the Earl certifies their arrival. Griffiths country was taken by Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, as a penalty of disaffection. Later he joined Llewellyn, and then changed again to Edward I, whom Llewellyn complained had received and protected his rebel subject Griffith ap Gwenwynwyn. Griffith married Hawyse, daughter of John le Strange, feudal lord of Knockyn and Cheswardine, and by her had a royal grant of the Manor of Strettondale, and the wardship of the lands in capite of her grandson Griffin de la Pole. They had six sons: Owen (who received the Castle of Powis from his father in 1277, and who resigned his title as Prince of Powis, and became a baron of Powis when Edward I overcame the Welsh). Llewellyn, John, William, Griffith and David, and a daughter, Margaret.
    (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 361)
    
    Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn also known as Griffith de la Pole (died c. 1287) was a Welsh prince who was lord of the part of Powys known as Powys Wenwynwyn.
    Gruffydd was the son of Gwenwynwyn ab Owain and Margaret Corbet. He was still a child when his father, who had been driven out of his princedom by Llywelyn the Great, died in exile in 1216. He spent his youth in England, maintained by the king, and did not return to Wales until after Llywelyn's death. When Dafydd ap Llywelyn was forced to come to terms with King Henry III of England in 1241, Gruffydd was given most of the lands formerly held by his father, paying homage to Henry for them. Around this time he married Hawise, daughter of John Lestrange of Knockin.
    When Llywelyn the Last increased his power in Wales after 1255, Gruffydd continued to support the crown, and in 1257 he was again driven into exile. In 1263 he agreed to transfer his allegiance to Llywelyn under threat of being stripped of his lands, and this was confirmed at the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267. In 1274 Gruffydd, his wife Hawise and his son Owain were all involved with Llywelyn's brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd in a plot to assassinate Llywelyn. Dafydd was with Llywelyn at the time, and it was arranged that Owain would come with armed men on February 2 to carry out the assassination; however he was prevented by a snowstorm. Llywelyn did not discover the full details of the plot until later that year, when Owain confessed to the Bishop of Bangor. He said that the intention had been to make Dafydd prince of Gwynedd, and that Dafydd would then reward Gruffydd with lands. When Llywelyn discovered the details of the plot he sent envoys to Welshpool to summon Gruffydd to appear before him, but Gruffydd fled to England. He settled in Shrewsbury and used it as a base for raids on Llywelyn's lands, probably encouraged by the king. After the war of 1277, when Llywelyn was forced to cede his lands outside Gwynedd, Gruffydd was again given his lands back. He became embroiled in an increasingly bitter dispute with Llywelyn over lands in Arwystli. Llywelyn wanted the issue resolved by Welsh law while Gruffydd wanted English law used and was supported by King Edward I of England.
    Gruffydd supported King Edward in the final war of 1282, and there have been suggestions that he may have been involved in the killing of Llywelyn at Cilmeri in December that year. He died some time between February 1286 and the end of 1287, and was succeeded by his eldest son Owain, also known as Owen de la Pole.
    (Wikipedia)
    
    Griffith ap Wenwynwyn, afterwards known as Griffith de la Pole, had succeeded his father as a minor about 1218 in the principality of Upper Powys, which lay round the head waters of the Severn, to the south-east of Llewelyn's country of Snowdon, affording, therefore, convenient access for attacking the latter territory; it was, moreover, immediately contiguous to the great fief of fitz Alan, and to le Strange's own castle of Knockin. Griffith did not come into possession of his principality until 1241, when he did homage for it to Henry III; next year he married Hawyse, daughter of John le Strange, and had a special grant allowing him to assign her dowry in his Derbyshire manor of Ashford, under conditions which showed the great favour of the King to the family of le Strange, and the importance attached by him to this marriage; the dowry was assured to Hawyse for life if she survived her husband, even if Griffith should abandon [as at one time he did] the service and fealty of the King.
    The year 1283 is generally given as the date of his death, but Professor Tout has shown that he was alive on February 27, 1286, as is shown by a deed of his dated at Bottington on Ash Wednesday, 14 Edw. I.
    (Le Strange Records, page 114, 163)
    

Click here for details of Gruffud's family with Hawise le Strange

¹ http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=arciek&id=I18332&style=TABLE
Sources/Citations http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=jdp-fam&id=I25533&style=TABLE, http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=arciek&id=I06918

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