11th century Norse raids; Aberffraw dispossessed The latter part of the 10th century, and the whole of the 11th century, was an exceptionally tumultuous period for the
Gwyneddwyr, Gwynedd's Welsh populace.
Deheubarth's ruler
Maredudd ab Owain deposed Gwynedd's ruler
Cadwallon ab Ieuaf of the
House of Aberffraw in 986, annexing Gwynedd to his enlarged domain, which came to include most of Wales. In 989 Maredudd ab Owain bribed the Norse not to raid that year. However, the Norse resumed significant raids on Môn in 993, as well as on other parts of Wales for the remainder of the century. However, Cynan himself was deposed by
Aeddan ap Blegywryd in 1005. Llywelyn ap Seisyll married Anghared, daughter of Maredudd ab Owain of Deheubarth, and ruled Gwynedd until his death in 1023, when
Iago ab Idwal recovered the rulership of Gwynedd for the senior line of the Aberffraw house. Iago reigned over Gwynedd until 1039, when he was murdered by his own men, perhaps under the direction of
Gruffydd of Rhuddlan, Llywelyn ap Seisyll's eldest son. Gruffydd's decisive defeat of the Mercians at the
Battle of Rhyd y Groes on the
Severn (location unknown) neutralised Mercian incursions on Gwynedd and Powys's eastern borders as many of Mercia's leading magnates were also slain alongside Edwin of Mercia. On 24 October 1055, Gruffydd, Ælfgar, and Ælfgar's Hiberno-Norse mercenaries attacked the Norman settlement at
Hereford, defeating Ralph, Earl of Hereford, and razing
Hereford Castle. Gruffydd defeated Bishop Leofgar on 16 June in a battle in
Dyffryn Machawy, with the bishop among those slain. Bleddyn ap Cynfyn allied with the Anglo-Saxons of
Northern England to resist the threat from
William the Conqueror following the
Norman conquest of England in 1066. Trahaearn allied with
Caradog ap Gruffydd of
Gwent against Deheubarth. Gruffudd recovered Gwynedd for the second time.
Norman invasion, and the Aberffraw resistance; 1081–1100 However, Gruffudd's victory was short-lived as the
Normans launched an invasion of Wales following the Saxon revolt in northern England. Shortly after the Battle of Mynydd Carn in 1081, Gruffudd was lured into a trap with the promise of an alliance but seized by
Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester in an ambush at Rug, near
Corwen. Earl Hugh claimed the Perfeddwlad up to the
Clwyd river (the
commotes of Tegeingl and
Rhufoniog; the modern counties of
Denbighshire,
Flintshire and
Wrexham) as part of Chester, and viewed the restoration of the Aberffraw family in Gwynedd as a threat to his own expansion into Wales. In his effort further to consolidate control over Gwynedd, Earl Hugh of Chester had forced the election of
Hervé the Breton upon the Bangor diocese in 1092, with Hervé's
consecration as
Bishop of Bangor performed by
Thomas of Bayeux, the
Archbishop of York. It was hoped that placing a prelate loyal to the Normans over the traditionally independent Welsh Church in Gwynedd would help pacify the local inhabitants. However, the Welsh
parishioners remained hostile to Hervé's appointment, and the bishop was forced to carry a sword with him and rely on a contingent of Norman knights for his protection. Additionally, Hervé routinely
excommunicated parishioners who he perceived as challenging his spiritual and temporal authority. Owain ab Edwin transferred his allegiance to Chester following
the defeat of his ally Trahaearn ap Caradog in 1081, a move which earned him the epithet , '
traitor', among the Welsh. Author and historian John Davies notes that the border shifted on occasion, "in one direction and in the other", but remained more or less stable for almost the next two hundred years. Alarmed by Gruffudd's growing influence and authority in north Wales, and on the pretext that Gruffudd sheltered rebels from Rhos against Chester, Henry I launched a campaign against Gwynedd and Powys in 1114, which included a
vanguard commanded by King
Alexander I of Scotland. The usurpation and conflict it caused eroded central authority in England. Gwenllian was the youngest daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan of Gwynedd, and after she
eloped with the Prince of Deheubarth she joined him resisting Norman occupation in south Wales. With Gruffudd at his deathbed were his family, but also leading church figures, including the diocese bishop and trusted advisor
David the Scot, the archdeacon of the diocese
Simon of Clynnog, and the Prior of
St Werburgh's in Chestor. Gruffudd bequeathed money to many notable churches throughout Gwynedd and in other lands, including the Danish foundation of
Christ Church, Dublin, where he had worshipped as a boy growing up with his mother's people. who survived Gruffudd by twenty-five years, he left an estate and the profits from the port and ferry of
Aber Menai, "the scene of many of his youthful adventures". So many
limewashed stone churches, the
Eglwys Wen or
White Churches, were built across Gwynedd that the principality "[became] bespangled with them as is the
firmament with stars". Later historians refer to Owain ap Gruffydd as
Owain Gwynedd to differentiate him from another Owain ap Gruffydd, the Mathrafal ruler of Powys, known as
Owain Cyfeiliog. Cadwaladr, Gruffudd's youngest son, inherited the commote of Aberffraw on Ynys Môn, and the recently conquered Meirionydd and Northern Ceredigion, that is Ceredigion between the rivers Aeron and Dyfi. By 1141 Cadwaladr and Madog ap Maredudd of Powys led a Welsh vanguard as an ally of the Earl of Chester as partisans for Empress Matilda in the
Battle of Lincoln, and joined in the rout which made Stephen of England prisoner of the empress for a year. Owain, however, did not participate in the battle, keeping the Gwyneddwyr army home. Owain followed a diplomatic policy of binding other Welsh rulers to Gwynedd through dynastic marriages, and Cadwaladr's border dispute and murder of Anarawd threatened Owain's efforts and credibility. Between 1148 and 1151, Owain I of Gwynedd fought against
Madog ap Maredudd of Powys, Owain's brother-in-law, and against the Earl of Chester for control of
Iâl (Yale, near
Wrexham), with Owain having secured Rhuddlan Castle and all of Tegeingl from Chester. "By 1154 Owain had brought his men within sight of the red towers of the great city on the Dee", wrote Lloyd. Henry II raised his feudal host and marched into Wales from Chester. However, Owain continued to further Gwynedd's expansion without rousing the English crown and maintaining his 'prudent policy' of
Quieta non-movere (''don't move settled things''), according to Lloyd.
Great Revolt of 1166 In 1163 Henry II quarrelled with
Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, causing growing divisions between the king's supporters and the archbishop's supporters. With discontent mounting in England, Owain I of Gwynedd joined with Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth in a second grand Welsh revolt against Henry II. England's king, who only the previous year had pardoned Rhys ap Gruffydd for his 1162 revolt, assembled a vast host against the allied Welsh, with troops drawn from all over the Angevin empire assembling in Shrewsbury, and with the Norse of Dublin paid to harass the Welsh coast. However, when Henry II returned to England he found that the war had already begun, with Owain's son Dafydd raiding Angevin positions in Tegeingl, exposing the castles of Rhuddlan and Basingwerk to "serious dangers", wrote Lloyd. However, the new prince was immediately confronted by a
coup d'état instigated by his
step-mother Cristin,
Princess Dowager of Gwynedd, possibly leading an anti-Irish faction at court. The dowager princess plotted to have her eldest son by Owain,
Dafydd,
usurp the Crown and Throne of Gwynedd from Hywel; and with Gwynedd divided between Dafydd and her other sons
Rhodri and
Cynan. Dafydd himself landed his army on the island and caught Hywel off guard at
Pentraeth, defeating his army and killing Hywel. However, by 1174 Iorwerth and Cynan were both dead and Maelgwn and Rhodri were imprisoned by Dafydd, who was now master over the whole of Gwynedd. During the upheavals of 1173–74 Dafydd had remained loyal to Henry II, and as if in reward for his loyalty, but also in recognition of Dafydd's apparent supremacy in north Wales, Dafydd married the king's half-sister
Emma of Anjou. Henry II did not approve of the match, but needed a Welsh ally to distract from the resurgent Welsh of South Wales under
The Lord Rhys, Prince of Deheubarth and rebellious marcher lords. Though Henry II continued to recognise his brother-in-law Dafydd as Prince of Gwynedd he did not send aid to him, and Dafydd effectively had to content himself with the rule of lower Gwynedd, the Perfeddwlad, establishing court at Rhuddlan Castle. By 1187, on reaching his majority in Welsh law at age 14,
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth began asserting his senior claim as
Prince of Gwynedd over those of his paternal uncles Dafydd and Rhodri, harassing their positions with the aid of
Gruffydd Maelor, lord of
Powys Fadog and Llywelyn's maternal uncle; as attested to by
Gerald of Wales who was travelling through north Wales in 1188 recruiting soldiers for the
Third Crusade. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth was raised in exile with his mother's Mathrafal family in Powys, primarily in the court of Powys Fadog in
Maelor. While Dafydd maintained his alliance with the English Crown, Rhodri allied with The Lord Rhys, Prince of Deheubarth, who was now the pre-eminent prince in Wales and now styled himself
Princeps Wallensium, or
Prince of the Welsh, in the tradition of Owain Gwynedd. Rhodri was beset by his nephews Gruffudd and Meredudd ap Cynan, the two brothers ejecting Rhodri from Môn in 1190. That same year, Rhodri allied with
Ragnvald Godredsson, King of the Isles, solidifying their alliance with a diplomatic marriage. The allies continued to win victories at
Porthaethwy on the Menai and at
Coedeneu on Môn.
13th century Llywelyn, John, and Magna Carta; 1200–1216 In 1200 Llywelyn ab Iorwerth recovered upper Gwynedd on the death of his cousin Gruffudd ap Cynan, with Gruffudd's son Hywel swearing fealty to Llywelyn as his lord and receiving Meirionydd as his portion by 1202. As Llywellyn ruled over all of Gwynedd by the end of 1200, the English crown was compelled to endorse all of Llywellyn's holdings that year. However, England's endorsement was part of a larger strategy of reducing the influence of
Gwenwynwyn ab Owain of
upper Powys, who had filled the power vacuum left with the death of the Lord Rhys, Prince of Deheubarth, in 1197; and with Gwynedd divided over the past generation.
John of England had given
William de Breos licence in 1200 to "seize as much as he could" from the native Welsh, particularly from Powys. De Breos held lordship over
Abergavenny,
Brecon,
Builth, and
Radnor, and was one of the most powerful Marcher barons. Llywellyn's expansion was a "bold demonstration of the determination of the ruler of Gwynedd to be master of
Pura Wallia", and echoed historic Aberffraw claims as primary rulers of Wales since
Rhodri the Great in the 10th century, argued John Davies. In his expansion, the Welsh prince was careful not to antagonise the English king, his father-in-law. In 1209 Prince Llywelyn joined King John on his campaign in Scotland, a "repayment of an old debt", argued Davies, for Alexander I, King of Scots, had joined Henry I on his campaign against the Welsh in 1114. Many of Llywelyn's Welsh allies had abandoned him during England's invasion of Gwynedd, preferring an overlord far away rather than one nearby. These Welsh lords expected an unobtrusive English crown, however King John had castles built in Ystwyth in Ceredigion, and John's direct interference in Powys and the Perfeddwlad caused many of these Welsh lords to rethink their position. John's policy in Wales demonstrated his resolve to subject the Welsh, argued Professor John Davies. Llywelyn's revolt caused John to postpone his invasion of France, with
Philip II of France so moved as to contact Prince Llywelyn and propose that they ally against the English king King John ordered the execution by hanging of his Welsh hostages, the sons of many of Llywelyn's supporters The prince used the structures of feudalism to strengthen his position, and between 1213 and 1215 received oaths of allegiance and
homage from the rulers of Powys Fadog, Powys Wenwynwyn, Maelgwn of Deheubarth, and the Welsh in Gwent and the uplands of Glamorgan, and the Welsh barons in the region between the Wye and Severn. At Aberdyfi, Llywelyn held court and presided over the division of Deheubarth between the descendants of
Rhys ap Gruffydd, with the rulers of
Pura Wallia reaffirming their homage and oath of allegiance. The election
Honorius III as pope, an ally of the
House of Plantagenet, transferred the full weight of ecclesiastical Roman power away from the baronial party in favour of the royalists, with the pope now excommunicating all the barons who had previously sided against King John. "Each one", wrote Lloyd, "an ally lost to Llywelyn in his contest with the [English] Crown". Nor was Llywelyn able to restore his ally
Morgan ap Hywel to his ancestral seat of Caerleon in Gwent. However, because Powys' new lord
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn was himself in his minority, Llywelyn would be able to govern Powys and Maeliennydd until Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn came of age. That same year
Hubert de Burgh,
justicar of England, ordered a more defensible castle to be built in
Montgomery. The question of succession came to occupy much of Llywelyn's domestic and foreign policies following the 1216 Council of Aberdyfi. However, the now defunct 1211 treaty, in which the English crown would only recognise legitimate issue born of Llywelyn and Joan as heirs of Gwynedd, demonstrated to Llywelyn the value the wider Western polity placed on legitimate birth. Additionally, Llywelyn's own successes, chiefly overcoming his usurper uncle, could be viewed as a triumph for legitimacy, argued Lloyd. Shortly before 1238 Llywelyn, now aged 65, suffered a slight paralytic stroke. In an effort to assure a smooth transition from his rule to that of his son's rule, the prince assembled his vassals and bishops at the Assembly of
Strata Florida in Ceredigion. The choice of Strata Florida as the venue for the ceremony was significant as a gauge of how complete the Aberffraw victory was in their claim as the primary princes of Wales and heirs of Rhodri the Great. The
Cistercian abbey, founded in 1164, was under the patronage of the Dinefwr family, dynastically junior rivals (but also, at times, allies of necessity) of the Aberffraw family. In a ceremony rich in feudal pageantry and with an act of homage reminiscent of
Capetian France, the leading magnates of Wales swore fealty and allegiance to Dafydd as their future feudal overlord, suzerain, and prince.
Llywelyn's death and legacy at his death in 1240, with his sons
Gruffydd and
Dafydd mourning.
Llywelyn is spelt
Léolin above his head in the French manuscript. In weakened health, on 10 April 1240, Llywelyn abdicated in favour of his son Dafydd, had taken the monastic habit and entered into the Cistercian Abbey at Aberconwy. The next day Llywelyn died, with a Cistercian annalist writing "Thus died that great
Achillies the Second, the Lord Llywelyn [...] whose deeds I am unworthy to recount. For with lance and shield did he tame his foes; he kept the peace for the men of religion; to the needy he gave food and raiment. With a warlike chain he extended his boundaries; he showed justice to all [...] and by the meet bonds of fear and love bound all men to him". The prince was an experienced and astute politician, according to Professor John Davies, whose legacy for Wales in law and government included the continued refinement and sophistication of his government's administration and with the legal system within the principality. Though the principality's archive has disappeared, what remains of Llywelyn's correspondence with English and French counterparts reveal that the prince's
chancery produced documents of high quality in both Latin and in French, the
lingua franca of the era, with the volume of documents increasing substantially after 1200. As with much of Europe, Wales remained predominantly rural at the turn of the 13th century, but Llywelyn encouraged the growth of quasi-urban settlements within the Welsh principality which served as centres of trade and commerce. However, by 1216 Llywelyn's influence in Wales was so wide that he encouraged the election of Iorwerth,
abbot of Talley (
Abaty Talyllychau), as
Bishop of St David's in 1214, Dafydd's half-brother
Gruffydd was closely guarded, and his supporters were all but silenced with the exception of his wife Senena and of Bishop Richard of Bangor who spoke publicly on Gruffydd's behalf. The lesser Welsh lords again swore fealty to Dafydd as their liege lord, including the Dinefwr lords in Deheubarth.
Woodstock, Montgomery, and Pipton 1246–1265 Brother versus brother; 1246–1255 As soon as he heard word of his uncle Dafydd's death, Owain the Red raced to Gwynedd to press his claim as prince as the senior dynast of the House of Aberffraw. According to Hurbert Lewis (The Ancient Laws of Wales, 1889), though not explicitly codified as such, the edling (or heir apparent) was by
convention, custom, and practice the eldest son of the prince, who would inherit the position of head of the family. And there were other claimants to the principality as well, for according to the 1241 treaty between Henry III and Dafydd II, if Dafydd failed to produce a legitimate heir then his lands would pass to the English crown. Additionally, there was the claim under
Marcher law of
Ralph II Mortimer of Wigmore, husband of
Gwladys the Dark (and later their son
Roger II), who
pressed Gwladys' claim to the principality as she was then the nearest living
legitimate descendant to Llywelyn the Great and a full sister of Dafydd II. The brothers agreed to put the matter of division aside and for the remainder of the conflict they acted in concert. From the fall of 1246 through to the spring of 1247 no royal army attempted the hazards of Henry III's last campaign, but a Marcher vanguard led by
Nicholas of Meules, seneschal of Cardigan and Carmarthen castles, pressed into Gwynedd. into truce negotiations in the late fall and early spring of 1247. as the rightful rulers of upper Gwynedd in exchange for the services of twenty-four knights and one hundred foot soldiers, but had to abandon all claims to lower Gwynedd; namely the four cantrefs of Rhos, Rhufoniog, Tegeingl, and Dyffryn Clwyd; and also to Mold. Of the treaty, Matthew Paris wrote in 1247 that
Wales had been pulled to nothing. With the Woodstock treaty, royal and Marcher authority had been reasserted and expanded upon in almost all corners of Wales, with significant gains for the English crown in Northern Ceredigion (particularly around Llanbadarn Fawr), Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Builth. In 1254 Henry IIII invested his16-yearold son
Prince Edward with all the crown possessions in Wales. John Davies wrote, "Henry III made strenuous efforts to strengthen his hold upon Wales, efforts upon which Edward I would build twenty years later."
Rise of Llywelyn II Between 1255 and 1256 the people of lower Gwynedd were chafing under the heavy tax burden imposed by
Geoffrey of Langley, a royal favourite and lieutenant in the region who sought to extend the English shire system there. Within one week Llywelyn II swept eastwards almost as far as Chester itself, stretching Gwynedd's princely domain "to its old bounds," wrote Lloyd. And the English crown was abandoned by yet another ally against Llywelyn, the Marcher lords, who "sympathized with the insurgents as victims of a common tyranny, and the very barons of the March, hereditary foes of the Welsh, viewed their rebellion with toleration, if not actual friendliness," wrote Lloyd. recovered for Gwynedd the royal holdings of Lanbadarn and
Builth, then took
Gwerthrynion from his cousin Roger II Mortimer. In South and West Wales, Llywelyn ejected Rhys Fychan from the
Ystrad Tywi region and restored
Maredudd ap Rhys Gryg to both
Cantref Mawr and
Cantref Bychan. Llywelyn held his 1256 Christmas court at
Aber, one which was "certainly not wanting in elements of festivity," wrote Lloyd. Pushing into
Glamorgan, Llywelyn campaigned between the rivers
Towy and
Tawe where he enlisted the Welsh of the
Gower,
Kidwelly, and
Carnwyllion to his side, thereby undermining the Marcher authority of the barons Patrick Chaworth and
William de Braose. ==See also==