Prince of Wales Llewelyn ap Gruffydd

• General Notes
  • Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (Y Lliw Olaf: Llywelyn the Last 1246-1282). Welsh custom meant that Llewelyn's kingdom would be divided among all four male heirs. Though Llywelyn the Great had tried desperately to ensure that his kingdoms would pass in entirety to his son Dafydd, it was not to be. Within one month of his accession, Dafydd was forced to surrender much of his father's gains to the new English King, Henry III. His premature death left Gwynedd to be divided between the sons of his brother Gruffudd, including Owain and Llywelyn. The infamous Treat of Woodstock had restricted their lands to Gwynedd, west of the River Conwy held as vassals of King Henry, but Llywelyn was not satisfied. He attempted to regain the lost territories and prestige of his uncle, Llywelyn the Great. Starting by depriving this brothers of authority, he began his campaign by attacking English castles and overrunning many.
    
    Recognized by other Welsh rulers, Llywelyn assumed the title of Prince of Wales in 1258, a date commemorated by all in Wales who detest the idea of the first born son of the English monarch assuming that role as a gift (in 1301, an odious and thoroughly bogus title was bestowed by Edward I to his eleventh child, son of Elinor and born at Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd in 1284). Troubles with Henry III's barons led him to accede to many of Llywelyn's demands and in 1267, at the Treat of Montgomery, the Welshman (and his heirs) was confirmed as Prince of Wales. The accession of Edward I however, as king of a united England, meant the end of the ambitions of Llywelyn.
    
    Yet again, an English invasion of Wales meant that its rulers were stripped of most of their possessions and The Treaty of Aberconwy restricted Llywelyn from all his territories east of the Conwy. At Climeri, near Builth in mid-Wales in December, 1282, Llywelyn was killed by English soldiers in a skirmish with the English 11 Dec. 1282 during the last Welsh rebellion. The head of the last native-born Welsh princes was sent to London to be mounted as that of a traitor. Yet another ballad by Dafydd Iwan poignantly expresses sorrow at the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.
    
    The royal house of Gwynedd was no more, and with its decease came the virtual end of the ruling families of the Kingdom of Wales.
    
    Source: http://www.britannia.com/wales/fam1.html.
    

Click here for details of Llewelyn's family with Eleanor de Montfort

¹ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=michaelrneuman&id=I023695&style=TABLE
Source/Citation http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=michaelrneuman&id=I023699

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