Powys
This page describes the lineage from
Rhodri Mawr (the Great) ap Merfyn (died 878), Prince of Wales through the
Kings of Powys to Llywelyn Fawr "the Great" ap Iowerth (1173 - 1240), Prince
of Wales.
Generation
One
Rhodri Mawr (the Great) ap Merfyn, Prince of Wales
Died in 877 or 878, killed in battle with the English
as was his son Gwriad.
Rhodri Mawr ap Merfyn became King of Gwynedd in 844 on
the death of his father Merfyn Frych; King of Powys in 855 on the death
of his uncle Caell ap Brochwell; and King of Seisyllwg in 871 on the death
of his brother-in-law Gwgon. Rhodri Mawr was the first ruler recognised
as Prince of Wales. He defeated the Danish leader Horn in 856.
Rhodri Mawr ap Merfyn married Angharad, daughter of Meuric
ap Dyfnwal ap Asthi, King of Seisyllwg, and they had the following sons:
-
Anarawd ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd. Click on Gwynedd
for his descent.
-
Cadell ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Seisyllwg had a son:
-
Hywel Dda (the Good) ap Cadell, Prince of Deheubarth who
united much of Wales. Click on Deheubarth
for his descent.
-
Merfyn ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Powys.
-
Gwriad ap Rhodri Mawr, killed in battle in 877 or 878, as
was his father.
-
Two sons.
Generation Two
Merfyn ap Rhodri Mawr, King
of Powys
Died in 900
Merfyn ap Rhodri Mawr had the following children:
-
Llewelyn ap Mervyn
-
Triffyn ap Mervyn
-
Yarthyr ap Mervyn
-
Avandreg
Generation Three
Llewelyn ap Mervyn
Llewelyn was excluded from his crown by his uncle Cadell,
and his cousin, Hywel
Dha.
Llewelyn ap Mervyn had a daughter:
Generation Four
Angharad Ferch Llewelyn
Angharad Ferch Llewelyn married her second cousin Owain
ap Hywel Dha, King of Deheubarth. Click on Deheubarth
for the descent of Owain ap Hywel Dha.
Angharad and Owain had a son:
-
Maredudd ap Owain, Prince of Deheubarth
Generation
Five
Maredudd ap Owain, Prince of Deheubarth
Maredudd succeeded his father Owain ap Hywel Dha as ruler
of South Wales/Deheubarth in 986. Maredudd conquered Gwynedd and
temporarily united Wales once more, but his reign was a troubled one.
From their strongholds in Dublin and the Isle of Man, the Norsemen ravaged
the coast of Wales. It was recorded in 987 that two thousand men
of the island of Anglesey were seized and sold as slaves. In 989
Maredudd was obliged to raise a penny poll-tax to bribe the Norsemen to
stay away.
Died in 999.
Maredudd ap Owain had a daughter:
Generation Six
Angharad Ferch Maredudd
Angharad married first to Llywelyn ap Seisyll, Prince
of Deheubarth (1018 - 1023) and they had a son:
-
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn who inflicted a series of defeats on
the English, and made alliances with the enemies of King Edward the Confessor.
Gruffydd fought a long campaign against rival kings to win overall control
of Wales. By 1055, he had become master of Deheubarth and had expanded
his rule to the lesser kingdoms of Morgannwg (Glamorgan) and Gwent.
In 1063, Earl Harold Godwinsson (later Harold II) and his brother Tostig
made a joint attack on Gwynedd. At the same time, Deheubarth rebelled
against Gruffydd’s rule. Gruffydd fled and was murdered by his own
men. Gruffydd married Ealdgyth,
a daughter of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia. Ealdgyth married second in
circa 1064 to Harold Godwineson, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.
Ealdgyth and Gruffydd had a son:
-
Maredudd ap Gruffydd who was excluded from the throne by
his uncles Bleddyn ap Cynfyn and Rhywallon ap Cynfyn.
Angharad married second to Cynfyn ap Gwerystan of
Powys, a lord in Powys about whom little is known. Angharad and Cynfyn
had the following children:
-
Rhywallon ap Cynfyn
-
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn
-
a daughter who married Owain ap Edwin, Lord Tegaingl, and
they had a daughter:
-
Angharad who married Gruffydd ap Cynan, Prince of Gwynedd
and/or King of North Wales from 1081 until his death in 1137. Click
on Gruffydd ap Cynan
for this line.
Generation Seven
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Prince of Powys and Gwynedd
Died in 1075, assasinated at Powys Castle
Bleddyn was Prince of Powys and Gwynedd from 1063 to 1075;
he acknowledged the overlordship of King Edward the Confessor and later
resisted William the Conqueror. He married to Haer, daughter and
heiress of Cilin ap y Blaidd Rhydd, Lord of Gestyn-Efionydd. Bleddyn
and Haer had a son:
-
Maredudd ap Bleddyn, Prince of Powys
Generation Eight
Maredudd ap Bleddyn, Prince of Powys
Died in 1132
Maredudd ap Bleddyn married Hunydd and they had a son:
-
Madoc ap Maredudd, Prince of Powys
Generation Nine
Madoc ap Maredudd,
Prince of Powys,
Died on February 9, 1160 at Winchester, England
Madoc ap Maredudd was a strong and stable ruler. He married
Susanna, a daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan, Prince of Gwynedd.
Click on Gruffydd
ap Cynan for this descent.
Madoc and Susanna had a daughter:
Generation Ten
Margaret
Margaret married Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd and
they had a son:
-
Llywelyn Fawr "the Great" ap Iowerth, Prince of Wales, b.
1173
For the continuation of this line, click on Llywelyn
Fawr "the Great" ap Iowerth
Sources
-
Sewell Vincent Sample (1928 – 2005): Letters
(perhaps based on John Edward Lloyd: A history of Wales: from
the earliest times to the Edwardian Conquest, Longmans, Green &
Co.,1911.)
-
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Everyman Press,
London, 1912
-
David C. Douglas: William the Conqueror,
Berkeley, California, 1964
-
John Davies: A History of Wales, London,
1993 (published in Welsh as Hames Cymru in 1990)
-
Norman F. Cantor (ed.) The Encyclopædia of the
Middle Ages, New York, 1999
-
Frederick L. Weis and Walter L. Sheppard: Ancestral
Roots, 7th Edition, Baltimore, 1999
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