General Notes

REFN: 3069AN
Alias:<ALIA> The /Great/
REFN: P3070
Prince of Gwynedd & Aberffraw
Lord of Snowdon
Reigned as Prince from 1194 - 1240
In Gwynedd, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth had come to power in the classic way of W
elsh princes bedeviled by the dividing rule of Welsh inheritance - he seiz
ed it from his uncle. He proved to be the greatest and most constructive W
elsh statesman of the Middle Ages. In his long career he succeeded, by con
stant warfare, by tactful yielding under pressure and by masterly resilien
ce the moment that pressure was relieved, in bringing under his control mo
st of Pura Wallia. When he died in 1240, full of honor and glory, he le
ft a principality which had the possibility of expanding into a truly nati
onal state of Wales. There was a moment when an independent Wales seemed a
bout to become a reality.
Llywelyn deliberately set out on a policy of reconstructing the whole bas
is of Welsh political life, and not every Welshman was happy about it. Lly
welyn lived in an age which saw the emergence of the centralized feudal st
ate. Both France and England presented the spectacle of societies elaborat
ing their administrative machinery, putting their taxation on a new and so
under footing and systematizing their codes of justice, but Llywelyn's pri
ncipality was small and lacking resources. Hostile English observers cou
ld wax satirical about its pretensions to international status.
Gwynedd had always been the core of the power of the princes, and the expa
nsion of Llywelyn's territory gave him the ability to do many things beyo
nd the power of previous Welsh rulers. We find Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (the G
reat) and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (the Last) developing castle buildi
ng on a considerable scale. The remains of Castell y Bere or of Ewloe, Dol
badarn and Dolwyddelan even show distinctive Welsh style. The princes ga
ve charters to the small towns growing in their domains. They supported t
he abbeys and the friaries. We sense a new Wales coming into being, an
d, at the moment, it was basically an independent Wales. The great questi
on was, would this new Wales be able to develop to its full potential with
out interference from without or protests from within? Looming over it w
as the king of England.
For over all this hung the vexing yet vital question of the exact ter
ms of Llywelyn's homage to the king. The king was always acknowledged as b
eing at the head of the pyramid and by the 13th century Welsh rulers al
so accepted the principle that homage should be paid to the King of Englan
d. Hywel Dda had done do, far back in the 10th century, and both Owain Gwy
nedd and the Lord Rhys had done homage to Henry II. The problem was that L
lywelyn claimed that the status in relation to the King of England was t
he same enjoyed by the King of Scotland - that barons were to pay their ho
mage directly to him and not the king, but King John took a different vie
w. He felt that the barons should also do their homage to him. This gave h
im the right of continual interference in Welsh affairs. At times the rela
tionship between Llywelyn and the king were mutually supportive, in part b
ecause Llywelyn managed to marry Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King J
ohn, in 1205. But even this family tie soon broke down over the questi
on of homage and disputed territories.
When the Welsh princes were strong they could enforce a grudging acknowled
gement of their position from the king. When they were weak, the king gran
ted treaties firmly maintaining his view of homage. Llywelyn the Great h
ad sought to solve the problem before his death. He had two sons, Gruffy
dd by a Welsh lady and the younger, David, by his wife Joan. Welsh l
aw at the time said that both sons should inherit - a law which had been t
he cause of so many of those disputed successions which had brought ru
in to Wales in the past. Llywelyn made a bold and successful attempt to p
ut this dangerous Welsh law aside in