The Welsh Princes 1063-1283

i

THE WELSH PRINCES

ii

THE MEDIEVAL WORLDEditor: David Bates

Already published

CNUT

The Danes in England in the early eleventh centuryM.K. Lawson

THE FORMATION OF THE ENGLISH COMMON LAWLaw and Society in England from the Norman Conquest

to Magna CartaJohn Hudson

KING JOHNRalph V. Turner

WILLIAM MARSHALCourt, Career and Chivalry in the Angevin Empire 11471219

David Crouch

ENGLISH NOBLEWOMEN IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGESJennifer C. Ward

BASTARD FEUDALISMMichael Hicks

CHARLES THE BALDJanet Nelson

JUSTINIAN

John Moorhead

INNOCENT IIILeader of Europe 11981216

Jane Sayers

THE FRIARSThe Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on

Western SocietyC.H. Lawrence

MEDIEVAL CANON LAWJames A. Brundage

THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS 12001500The Struggle for Dominion

David Abulafia

iii

THE WELSHPRINCES

THE NATIVE RULERS OF WALES10631283

ROGER TURVEY

iv

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First published in Great Britain in 2002

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v

CONTENTS

EDITOR S PREFACE vii

PREFACE ix

ABBREVIATIONS xi

GENEALOGICAL TABLES AND MAPS xiii

INTRODUCTION: OUTLINES AND SOURCES 1

chapter one FAMILY, DESCENT ANDINHERITANCE: THE PRINCES ANDTHEIR PRINCIPALITIES 14

chapter two CONFLICT OR COEXISTENCE:MARCHIA WALLIE AND PURAWALLIA 39

chapter three CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE:ENGLISH KINGS AND WELSHPRINCES 65

chapter four THE GOVERNANCE OF NATIVEWALES: THE PRINCES AS RULERS 101

chapter five CONQUEST AND CONSOLIDATION:THE PRINCES AS WARRIORS 125

chapter six CULTURE AND RELIGION:THE PRINCES AS PATRONS 158

chapter seven CONCLUSION: THE PRINCES AFTERCONQUEST 194

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 202

INDEX 205

vii

EDITORS PREFACE

The history of Wales before Edward Is conquest in the 1280s hasbeen the subject of much research and stimulating interpretationin recent times. Yet until now, there has not been a book publisheddevoted specifically to the countrys ruling elite. As a historian who hasalready contributed a major study of one of the most important of theWelsh princes of this period, the Lord Rhys, Roger Turvey is supremelyqualified to write such a book. The result, the first in the MedievalWorld series to be devoted specifically to the history of Wales, fills acrucial gap in the historiography of Western Europe and the British Islesin the Central Middle Ages, and in a vigorous and lively style presents apositive assessment of the Welsh princes.

From the outset of the book, Roger Turvey makes it clear that thehistory of the Welsh princes is a part of the history of European aristo-cracies. The princes participated fully in the vast cultural and socialchanges which are identified with the developments known collectivelyas the Twelfth Century Renaissance. Like their contemporaries else-where, they consciously evolved new courtly life-styles and consolidatedtheir power in their principalities through violence, administrative re-organisation and political symbolism. They responded to and adoptedthe religious changes of the time, patronising the new religious orderswhich spread across western Europe, and become steadily more inte-grated into the life of western Christendom. Yet at the same time princelylife drew on a powerful Welsh ethnic consciousness and on culturaltraditions which were distinctively Welsh. At the same time it was influ-enced (some might say was imprisoned) by local economic and socialconditions. At all levels the actions of the princes interacted not justwith each other, but with the mighty military and cultural presence ofthe English kingdom, itself in the process of absorbing the changeswhich followed the conquest of 1066. Yet although these influences andthe military might of the English kingdom and its aristocracy might attimes threaten to overwhelm not just the small principalities of theWelsh rulers, but also the culture of the land, they did not do so. Theresoluteness of the princes, epitomised by military skill and politicalastuteness, was central to this resilience.

viii

There is a school of thought which sees the history of Wales in thisperiod in terms of tragedy or failure, or both. That the princes of Walesdid not, or more accurately could not, unite to form a single Welshpolity as many of their contemporaries elsewhere in western Europewere apparently doing is seen as a disaster. In rejecting such argumentsas anachronistic and by concentrating on princely achievement, RogerTurvey successfully portrays this period as a vibrant and dynamic one inthe history of Wales. The paradox or so it now seems is that theviolence and dynastic conflict which characterise princely politics werecentral elements to an ethos and to attitudes which were intensely con-structive. Central to the long-term achievement of the princes was asense of honour and dignity which drove them forwards, a particularismimbued by self-interest and long-standing independence, and a sense ofethnic difference which ultimately derived from a belief in their descentfrom the earliest inhabitants of Britain. All who write on Welsh Historyin this period do have the inestimable benefit of the writings of GiraldusCambrensis to draw on. Not the least of Roger Turveys achievements isto bring his subject alive through many other types of evidence, includ-ing charters, chronicles, poetry and archaeology. The result is an impor-tant contribution to the history of Wales, of Britain and of westernEurope.

DAVID BATES

EDITOR S PREFACE

ix

PREFACE

In a recently published survey of medieval Welsh history A.D. Carrconcluded thatthere are so few working in this field and so much basic work is still to bedone that . . . much opportunity remains for individual historians to makesignificant and original contributions. With so much fresh ground still to bebroken there has been little scope for the kind of debates which have developedin other fields.1

Clearly, the field is a fertile one and no more so than in the study of theWelsh ruling class the princes. The subject matter is of great intrinsicvalue for those seeking fresh insights into the role and influence of asignificantly powerful group of individuals and their families. Therefore,one of the primary aims of the book will be to provide a synthesis of thehistory of an important and influential ruling elite during a significantperiod in Welsh history by incorporating the results of the latest scholar-ship. It seeks to provide those readers with little or no knowledge of thehistory of pre-conquest Wales, much less its princes, with a relativelybrief and generally broad-ranging introduction to the subject of the latemedieval rulers of Wales which, it need hardly be stressed, is deservingof further and more detailed study. This is not to imply that the historyof the native princes is in any sense a neglected field of study, a Cinderellatopic. Far from it a glance at the select bibliography will bear testi-mony to that. Indeed, such has been the explosion of interest in the pastthirty-five or so years in the history of medieval Wales that a number ofprinces and their dynasties have been fortunate enough to find theiracademic champion which has resulted in the publication of some classicstudies, among them Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Tywysog Cymru (1986),republished in a substantially revised English-language edition in 1998,Yr Arglwydd Rhys (1996) and Gruffudd ap Cynan: A CollaborativeBiography (1996), and some fine theses such as that entitled The NativeWelsh Dynasties of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, 10661282 (1989). Carefulreading of the bibliography will reveal the extent to which we owethese, and a host of other works, to a relatively small group of industri-ous and committed historians whose dedication to elucidating the his-tory of pre-conquest Wales is deserving of our gratitude. Nevertheless,much remains to be done, and in spite of the labours of these historians,

x

it is probably true to say that, hitherto, piecemeal studies only have beenpublished on the princes. This study is modest in comparison to themany outstanding works listed in the bibliography but it has the virtueof being the first publication to focus specifically on the princes, provid-ing for the first time a scholarly overview of their activities and theircontribution to the history of Wales.

This book developed out of my interest in and work on the LordRhys and twelfth-century Deheubarth in respect of which Ifor Rowlandsdeserves special mention for his encouragement of my research. I amgrateful to David Bates, the general editor of the series, and AndrewMacLennan, former editorial director of the academic department atLongmans, for giving me the opportunity to take my interest a stagefurther by studying the native ruling class as a whole. I only hope thisbook is worthy of their faith and support. I would also like to thank thefriends and colleagues with whom I have discussed parts of this book,but my greatest debt is to my wife and fellow historian Carol for hersound advice and unfailing support.

Roger TurveyNovember 2001

Note

1. A.D. Carr, British History in Perspective: Medieval Wales (London, 1995), 24.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyrightmaterial:

Map 1 G.A. Williams (1985) When Was Wales? (London).Maps 2, 4, 6, 7 and 11; Tables 1, 2 (bottom) and 3 (bottom) R.R. Davies(1987) Conquest, Coexistence and Change in Wales 10631415 (Oxford).Maps 9 and 12 T. Herbert and G.E. Jones (eds) (1987) Edward I andWales (University of Wales Press, Cardiff ).Tables 2 (top) and 4 J.E. Lloyd (1939) A History of Wales fromEarliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (London).Map 8 J.B. Smith (1998) Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Prince of Wales (Cardiff ).Maps 3 and 10 A.H. Williams (1948) An Introduction to the History ofWales (University of Wales Press, Cardiff ).

In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of copyrightmaterial and we would appreciate any information which would enableus to do so.

PREFACE

xi

ABBREVIATIONS

Ann. Camb. Annales Cambriae, ed. J. Williams ab Ithel(Rolls Series, 1860)

Autobiog. H.E. Butler, The Autobiography of GiraldusCambrensis (London, 1937)

BBCS Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies

BT. Pen. Brut y Tywysogion or The Chronicle of thePrinces. Peniarth Ms 20 Version, translatedwith introduction and notes by Thomas Jones(Cardiff, 1952)

BT. RBH Brut y Tywysogion or The Chronicle of thePrinces. Red Book of Hergest Version, translatedwith introduction and notes by Thomas Jones(Cardiff, 1955)

B. Saes. Brenhinedd y Saeson or The Kings of theSaxons, translated with introduction and notesby Thomas Jones (Cardiff, 1971)

Cal. Anc. Corr. Calendar of Ancient Correspondenceconcerning Wales, ed. J.G. Edwards (Cardiff,1935)

CW Cronica de Wallia and other documents fromExeter Cathedral Library MS 3514, ed.T. Jones, BBCS, 12 (19468)

DWB Dictionary of Welsh Biography (London,1959)

Journey & Description Gerald of Wales, The Journey through Walesand the Description of Wales, trans. LewisThorpe (Harmondsworth, 1978)

Litt. Wallie Littere Wallie preserved in Liber A in thePublic Record Office, edited with introductionby J.G. Edwards (Cardiff, 1940)

xii

ABBREVIATIONS

Lloyd, Hist. Wales J.E. Lloyd, A History of Wales from EarliestTimes to the Edwardian Conquest (2 vols, 2ndedn, London, 1912)

Mediaeval Prince D.S. Evans, ed. and trans., A MediaevalPrince of Wales. The Life of Gruffudd apCynan (Llanerch, 1990)

Medieval Welsh Society T. Jones Pierce, Medieval Welsh Society, ed.J.B. Smith (Cardiff, 1972)

PBA Proceedings of the British Academy

TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

WHR Welsh History Review

xiii

GENEALOGICAL TABLES AND MAPS

Genealogical tables

1. The dynasty of Gwynedd xiv2. The dynasty of Deheubarth xvxvi3. The dynasty of Powys xvii4. The lesser dynasties xviiixix

Maps

1. Medieval Wales xx2. Regional and local divisions of medieval Wales xxi3. The expansion of Gwynedd, 11061202 xxii4. Powys, 11601282 xxiii5. Deheubarth under the Lord Rhys, 116697 xxiv6. The partition of Deheubarth, 1216 xxv7. The boundaries between pura Wallia and marchia

Wallie by c. 1200 xxvi8. The principality of Wales under the terms of the treaty

of Montgomery, 1267 xxvii9. Wales under the terms of the treaty of Aberconwy, 1277 xxviii

10. The gains and losses of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, 125577 xxix11. The dioceses and monasteries of Wales c. 1250 xxx12. Wales under the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan, 1284 xxxi

xiv

HYW

EL (

d. 1

170)

(poe

t-pr

ince

)C

YNA

N

(d. 1

174)

RH

OD

RI

(d. 1

195)

DA

FYD

D

(d. 1

203)

MA

EL

GW

NIO

RW

ER

TH

DR

WYN

DW

N

GR

UFF

UD

D

(d. 1

200)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

212)

CYN

AN

(d. 1

174)

LL

YWE

LYN

FAW

R

LL

YWE

LYN

FYC

HA

N

OW

AIN

GW

YNE

DD

(d.

117

0)C

AD

WA

LL

ON

(d. 1

132)

CU

NE

DD

A

HYW

EL

(d. 1

216)

GR

UFF

UD

DO

WA

INL

LYW

EL

YN A

B IO

RW

ER

TH

(d. 1

240)

(LL

YWE

LYN

FA

WR)

[at

leas

t 4

daug

hter

s]D

AFY

DD

(d. 1

246)

GR

UFF

UD

D

(d. 1

244)

OW

AIN

GO

CH

DA

FYD

D

(d. 1

283)

LL

YWE

LYN

AP

GR

UFF

UD

D (d

. 128

2)(Y

LL

YW O

LA

F, T

he L

ast)

RH

OD

RI

TH

OM

AS

OW

AIN

LA

WG

OC

H

(d. 1

378)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

255)

LL

YWE

LYN

(d.

126

3)

MA

DO

G (

lead

er o

f rev

olt

of 1

294

5)

CA

DFA

NR

HIC

ER

T

MA

RE

DU

DD

CA

DW

AL

AD

R

(d. 1

172)

GR

UFF

UD

D (d

. 113

7) A

P C

YNA

N A

B I

AG

O (

d. 1

039)

CYN

AN

(d. 1

039)

ME

IRIO

NYD

D

GW

EN

LL

IAN

= G

RU

FFU

DD

AP

RH

YS

Tab

le 1

The

dyn

asty

of

Gw

yned

d


xv

OW

AIN

(d. 1

105)

LL

YWA

RC

H

(d. 1

118)

ME

ILYR

(d. 1

124)

GR

ON

W

(d. 1

124)

RH

IRYD

(d. 1

124)

A

NG

HA

RA

D

= G

RU

FFYD

D

A

P C

YNA

N

GR

UFF

UD

D (d

. 113

7)= G

WE

NL

LIA

N, d

au. o

fG

ruff

udd

ap C

ynan

HYW

EL

NE

ST

= G

ER

AL

D O

F

WIN

DSO

R

RH

YS A

P T

EW

DW

R (

d. 1

093)

= G

WL

AD

US,

dau

. of R

hiw

allo

n ap

Cyn

fyn

AN

AR

AW

DC

AD

EL

L (d

. 909

?)M

ER

FYN

RH

OD

RI M

AW

R (

d. 8

78)

CL

YDO

G (d

. 920

)H

YWE

L D

DA

(d. 9

50?)

= E

LE

N, d

au. o

f Lly

war

ch a

p H

yfai

dd

RH

OD

RI (d

. 953

)E

DW

IN (d

. 954

)O

WA

IN (d

. 988

)

EIN

ON

(d. 9

84)

AN

GH

AR

AD

,

= L

LYW

EL

YN A

P SE

ISYL

L

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 9

99)

GR

UFF

UD

D A

P L

LYW

EL

YN

(d. 1

064)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

070)

IDW

AL

(d. 1

070)

NE

ST

= O

SBE

RN

FIT

ZR

ICH

AR

D

ED

WIN

TE

WD

WR

(d. 9

94)

CA

DE

LL

GR

ON

W

TE

WD

WR

ED

WIN

HYW

EL

(d. 1

044)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

035)

OW

AIN

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

072)

RH

YS

(d. 1

078)

HYW

EL

(d. 1

078)

GR

UFF

YDD

(d. 1

091)

UC

HT

RYD

RH

YDD

ER

CH

= H

UN

YDD

, dau

.of

Ble

ddyn

ap

Cyn

fyn

MA

RE

DU

DD

OW

AIN

CH

RIS

TIN

A

= O

WA

IN G

WYN

ED

D


Tab

le 2

The

dyn

asty

of

Deh

euba

rth

xvi


Tab

le 2

The

dyn

asty

of

Deh

euba

rth

(con

td

)

GR

UFF

UD

D

(d. 1

201)

= M

AT

ILD

A

B

RA

OSE

MA

RE

DU

DD

DD

AL

L

blin

ded

by H

enry

II,

116

5m

onk

of W

hitla

nd

(d

. 123

9)

MA

RE

DU

DD

arch

deac

onof

Car

diga

n(d

. 122

7)

GR

UFF

UD

D

arch

deac

onof

Car

diga

n(d

. 124

2)

HYW

EL

SA

IS

(d. 1

204)

CYN

AN

MA

EL

GW

N

(d. 1

231)

MA

EL

GW

N F

YCH

AN

/IE

UA

NC

(d. 1

257)

RH

YS

(d. 1

255)

LL

YWE

LYN

(d. 1

230)

LL

YWE

LYN

(d. 1

265)

RH

YS F

YCH

AN

/IE

UA

NC

(d. 1

302)

MA

EL

GW

NG

RU

FFU

DD

RH

YS

MO

RG

AN

(d. 1

251)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

201)

RH

YS G

RYG

(d. 1

233)

RH

YS M

EC

HYL

L

(d. 1

244)

HYW

EL

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

271)

RH

YS F

YCH

AN

/IE

UA

NC

(d. 1

271)

RH

YS

(d. 1

292)

RH

YS

WYN

DO

D

(d. 1

302)

HYW

EL

GR

UFF

UD

DL

LYW

EL

YN

CYN

WR

IG

(d. 1

237)

RH

YS IE

UA

NC

(d. 1

222)

OW

AIN

(d. 1

235)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

265)

EFA

GR

UFF

UD

DC

YNA

NO

WA

IN

(d. 1

275)

grea

t-gr

eat-

gran

dson

OW

AIN

GL

YND

WR

RH

YS A

P G

RU

FFU

DD

TH

E L

OR

D R

HYS

(d

. 119

7)

= G

WE

NL

LIA

N, d

au. o

f MA

DO

G A

P

M

AR

ED

UD

D o

f PO

WYS

YST

RA

DT

YWI

EA

STE

RN

DYF

ED

CE

RE

DIG

ION

xvii

OW

AIN

GL

YND

WR

OW

AIN

FYC

HA

N

(d. 1

245)

BL

ED

DYN

AP

CYN

FYN

(d.

107

5)

RH

IRID

(d. 1

081)

MA

DO

GIT

HE

L

(d. 1

124)

GR

UFF

UD

D (d

. 112

8)

OW

AIN

CYF

EIL

IOG

(d. 1

197)

ME

UR

IG

SOU

TH

ER

N P

OW

YS W

EN

WYN

WYN

GW

EN

WYN

WYN

(d. 1

216)

= M

AR

GA

RE

T C

OR

BE

T

CA

DW

AL

LO

N

IOR

WE

RT

H G

OC

H

MA

DO

G

MA

DO

G

(d. 1

081)

CA

DW

GA

N

(d. 1

111)

OW

AIN

(d. 1

116)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

124)

EIN

ION

(d. 1

123)

MO

RG

AN

(d. 1

128)

IOR

WE

RT

H

(d. 1

111)

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

132)

MA

DO

G (d

. 116

0)

GR

UFF

UD

D (d

. 128

6)= H

AW

ISE L

EST

RA

NG

E

OW

AIN

DE

LA

PO

LE

(d. 1

293)

(five

oth

er s

ons)

GR

UFF

UD

D D

E L

A P

OL

E

(d. 1

309)

HA

WIS

E =

JO

HN

CH

AR

LT

ON

CH

AR

LT

ON

S, b

aron

s of

Pow

ys

GR

UFF

UD

D

MA

EL

OR

(d. 1

191)

NO

RT

HE

RN

PO

WYS

FA

DO

G

LL

YWE

LYN

(d. 1

160)

EL

ISE

MA

DO

G (d

. 123

6)

GR

UFF

UD

D

(d. 1

238)

HYW

EL

(d. 1

268)

MA

DO

G

FYC

HA

N

(d. 1

269)

GR

UFF

UD

D

MA

EL

OR

(d. 1

269)

= E

MM

A

A

UD

LE

Y

MA

RE

DU

DD

(d. 1

256)

MA

DO

G

(d. 1

277)

LL

YWE

LYN

OW

AIN

GR

UFF

UD

D

FYC

HA

N

OW

AIN

FYC

HA

N

(d. 1

187)

ME

CH

AIN

LL

YWE

LYN

LL

YWE

LYN

FYC

HA

N

(d. p

re-1

277)

MA

RE

DU

DD

OW

AIN

OW

AIN

BR

OG

YNT

YN

PEN

LL

YN, E

DE

IRN

ION

BL

ED

DYN

GR

UFF

UD

DIO

RW

ER

TH

OW

AIN

GR

UFF

UD

DE

LIS

ED

AFY

DD

The

maj

or r

egio

nal d

ivis

ion

of P

owys

acc

ordi

ng t

o th

e pa

rtiti

on e

ffec

ted

afte

r th

e de

ath

(116

0) o

f Mad

og a

p M

ared

udd.

The

se d

ivis

ions

pro

ved

to b

e pe

rman

ent.

Fur

ther

sub

-div

isio

ns, t

empo

rary

or

perm

anen

t, w

ere

effe

cted

in e

ach

gene

ratio

n,no

tabl

y in

nor

ther

n Po

wys

(Po

wys

Fad

og)

in 1

236

and

1269

(re

vise

d 12

77)

and

recu

rren

tly in

Pen

llyn

and

Ede

irni

on

GR

UFF

UD

DM

AR

ED

UD

D

Tab

le 3

The

dyn

asty

of

Pow

ys


xviii

GWLADUS,= OWAINGWYNEDD

MEURIG(d. 1106)

GRIFFRI(d. 1106)

LLYWARCH OWAIN

IEUAF(d. 1130)

HYWEL(d. 1185)

OWAIN OR BRITHDIR(d. 1197)

IORWERTH(d. 1130)

MAREDUDD(d. 1129)

MADOG ROBERT(d. 1171)

MAREDUDD(d. 1244)

OWAIN (d. 1261)= MARARED, dau. of Maelgwn Fychan

RHWNG GWY A HAFREN

TRAHAEARN AP CARADOG(d. 1081)

ARWYSTLI AND CEDEWAIN

ELSTAN GLODRYDD

LLYWELYN(d. 1099)

IDNERTH GORONWY(d. 1101)

MADOG(d. 1140)

= dau. of Rhys ap Tewdwr?HYWEL

(d. 1106)

EINION CLUD(d. 1177)

HYWEL(d. 1142)

CADWGAN(d. 1142)

MAREDUDD(d. 1146)

CADWALLON(d. 1179)

= Efa of Powys

WALTEREINION OR PORTH(d. 1191)= dau. of

Rhys ap Gruffudd

HYWELMAELGWN(d. 1197)

CADWALLON (d. 1234)

SENGHENYDD

IFOR AP MEURIG= NEST, dau. of Gruffudd ap Rhys

CADWALLONGRUFFUDD (d. 1211)

RHYS (d. 1256)

GRUFFUDD

GWRTHEYRNION

EINJON APRHYS= dau. ofRhys apGruffudd

MAELIENYDD ELFAEL

CADWGAN

Table 4 The lesser dynasties


xix

RHYDDERCH AB IESTYN(d. 1033)

GWYNLLWG

GRUFFUDD(d. 1055)

CARADOG(d. 1081)

OWAIN

CARADOG (d. 1035)

RHYDDERCH (d. 1076)

MAREDUDD(of Cantref Bychan)

HYWEL (d. 1141)

MORGAN(d. 1158)

DYDDGU= SEISYLL AP

DYFNWAL

IORWERTH= ANGHARAD, dau. of

Bishop Uchtryd

OWAIN PENCARWN

RHYS(d. 1053)

MEIRCHION

OWAIN(d. 1172)

HYWEL

MORGAN (d. 1248)

GWERFYL = GRUFFUDD

MAREDUDD (d. 1270)

IESTYN AP GWRGANT

MORGANNWG

CARADOG= GWLADUS, dau. ofGruffudd ap Rhys

RHYS

MORGAN CADWALLONMAREDUDD OWAIN

GRUFFUDD

LLEISION MORGAN FYCHAN(d. 1288)

GORONWY

MORGAN GAM(d. 1241)

HYWEL MORGAN

MORGAN

Table 4 The lesser dynasties (contd)


xx

+

++

+ ++

+

+

++

+

Caergybi(Holyhead)

Aberffraw

Caernarfon

Dinas Emrys

BangorRhos

Deganwy

Llanelwy(St Asaph) Chester

Llangollen Bangor on Dee(is-Coed)

ShrewsburyWroxeter

Mathrafal

Llangurig

Manafon

Llanbadarn

Llanddewi Brefi

Dinefwr

Llandeilo

St Davids

LlanilltudLlancarfan

Llandaff

Caerwent

Hereford

R. Teif i

R.T

ywi

R.U

sk

R. Wye

R.T

ernR. Clw

yd

Caldy

Bardsey(Ynys Enlli)

Mn(Anglesey)

Rhufoniog

Mei

rion

ydd

Ce r

e di g

i on

Brycheiniog

D y f e d

Gw

e n t

Ystrad Tywi

Buellt(Builth)

Ergyng

M O R G A N N W G

(GLYWYSING)

D E H E U B A R T H

G W Y N E D D

PO

WY

S

Land over 600 ft (180 m)

Ecclesiastical sitesR

.Con

wy

R. D

ee

R. Severn

Offa's D

yke

0

0 15 30 km

10 20 miles

N

RHWNGGWY

AHAFREN

Gwyr


Map 1 Medieval Wales

xxi

1

1 Gwynedd Uwch ConwyRegional names

2 Gwynedd Is Conwy; Y Berfeddwlad3 Powys4 Rhwng Gwy a Hafren5 Dyfed6 Ystrad Tywi

2

3

4

5

6

R. Teifi

R. Tywi

R. Usk

R.R

hymni

R. Wye

R. Severn

R.M

awddach

R.Dyfi

R.Dee

R. C

onwy

R Clwyd

Penfro

Rhos

Pebidiog

CemaisEmlyn

Cydweli

DauGleddau

CantrefGwarthaf

Morgannwg

Brych

einiog

GwentIscoed

GwentUwchcoed

Ewias

Talga

rth

Buellt

Maelienydd

Arwystli

Elfael

Cantref Mawr

Can

tref B

ycha

n

Mn(Anglesey)

Maelor(Bromfield)

Rhos

Arfon

Eifionydd

NantConwy

Arllechwedd

Maelor Saesneg

ArdudwyPenllyn

Mochnant

Nanheudwy

Caereinion

Cedewain

Meir

ionyd

d

C er

e

di

gi

on

Ceri

Cyfei

liog

Gw

rtheyrnion

Tegeingl

Rhuf

onio

g

Dyffryn-Clwyd

Cynllaith

Edeirnion

Il

Gor

ddw

rMechain

Llyn

Gwyr

Gw

ynllwg

0

0 15 30 km

10 20 miles

N

Ergyng

(Archenfield)


Map 2 Regional and local divisions of medieval Wales

xxii

1106

1118

1123

1124

1160

1202

P O W Y S

TEGEINGL

0 10

0 15 30 km

20 miles

N


Map 3 The expansion of Gwynedd, 11061202

xxiii

+

+

+

+

+ ++

+

+

+++

+

+

Chester

Malpas

Hope

Mold

Forden

Shrewsbury

Caus

Montgomery

Overton

BangorIs-coed

Llanidloes

Meifod

Dolforwyn

Talgarth

Glyndyfrdwy

DinasBrn

Hawarden

Pool

MathrafalTafolwern

Machynlleth

R. Sev

ern

R. Dee

CEREDIGION

MAELIENYDD

ARWYSTLI

CEDEWAIN

CERI

CAEREINION GO

RD

DW

R

CYFEILIOG

MOCHNANT

MEI

RION

YDD

ARDUDWY

GWYNEDD

RHOSTEGEINGL

DYFFRYNCLWYD

RHUF

ONIOG

CHESHIRE

SHROPSHIRECarreghwfa

Chirk

EllesmereWhittington

Oswestry

MAELORSAESNEG

MAELOR(BROMFIELD)

PENLLYN

SOUTHERNPOWYS

(WENWYNWYN)

MECHAIN

EDEIRNION

NORT

HER

N PO

WYS

(FAD

OG)

The boundary of Powys English castle

Welsh castle

Claimed or annexedby Powys

Boundaries of major internaldivisions of Powys

Annex

ed By

Gwyne

dd 120

2

Sycharth

Border between north and southPowys

0

0 10 km

10 miles

N

CYNLLAITH

IAL


Map 4 Powys, 11601282

xxiv

Cardigan

Cilgerran

(Crown territoryCarmarthen)

Cydweli

Pencader

LlanegwadDinefwr

Llandovery

Ammanford

Aberdyfi

Llanbadarn

Ystradmeurig

Penweddig

Is Aeron

Emlyn Cantref Mawr

Cantref Bychan

UwchAeron

Earth and timber castles

Stone castles

0

0 10 km

10 miles

N

C e re d i

g io n

Gwyr


Map 5 Deheubarth under the Lord Rhys, 116697

xxv

+

+

+

+

++

Cardigan

Cilgerran

Llandovery

Nantyrarian

Carmarthen

2

3

1

1

1

2

3

Lands assigned to Maelgwn

Lands assigned to Rhys Gryg, brother of 1

Lands assigned to Rhys Ieuanc and Owainap Gruffudd, nephews of 1 and 2

Castles mentioned in the partition

0

10 km0

10 miles

N

Gwyr


Map 6 The partition of Deheubarth, 1216

xxvi

Land above 600 ft (180 m)

Norman castlesFormer Norman castles now in areasunder Welsh control, indicating degreeof Norman retreatAnglo-Norman domination of the areas to the south and east of this approximate line secure by 1200

Anglo-Normans exercised spasmodic control or overlordship of the areas to the south and east of this approximate line

Aberlleiniog

Caernarfon

Bangor

DeganwyRhuddlan

Basingwerk

ChesterHawardenMold

Oswestry

Shrewsbury

Caus

Montgomery

Radnor

Hereford

Wigmore

Richard'sCastle

Clun

Castell GwallterMoatLane

DinasPowys

CardiffLlantriddyd

Caerleon

Kenfig

AfanNeath

SwanseaChepstow

Monmouth

EwyasHarold

AbergavennyTretower

Clifford

BronllysBrecon

Painscastle

WistonHaverford

Pembroke

LaugharneCarew

TenbyManorbier

Cardigan

Cilgerran

Cydweli

Llandovery

Carmarthen

RhydygorsLlansteffan

Llanbadarn

YstradMeurig

Cymaron

Builth

0

0 15 30 km

10 20 miles

N

MoatLane


Map 7 The boundaries between pura Wallia and marchia Wallie by c. 1200

xxvii

+

+ +

+

+

St Davids

Haverford

Pembroke

Narberth

LlanstephanCydweli

Cardigan

Carmarthen Dryslwyn

Newcastle

Dinefwr

SwanseaNeath

Llandovery

Shrewsbury

Montgomery

Llanbadarn

Bangor ChesterHawarden

CoityLlantrisant

LlandaffLlanilltud Cardiff

Morlais

Hereford

Caldicot

Usk

Newport

Strigoil

Abergavenny Monmouth

Builth

Brecon(Bohun)

Radnor(Mortimer)

Wigmore(Mortimer)

Clun(Fitzalan)

Oswestry(Fitzalan)

Knockin(Lestrange)

Dolbadarn

Dolwyddelan

Aberffraw

LlanfaesSt Asaph

Deganwy

ARFON

EARLDOMOF

CHESTER

RHOS

TEGEINGL

MN

G W Y N E D D

MEI

RION

YDD

PO

WY

S

FA

DO

G

P OW

YS

WE

NW

YN

WY

N

GLAMORGAN(Clare)

CE R

E DI G

I ON

CANTREFBYCHAN

0 10 20 miles

0 15 30 km

(i) The family lands of Gwynedd

Territories subject to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd:

(ii) Conquests by Llywelyn in the March

(iii) Territories held from Llywelyn by Welsh lords

Territories of Clare

Territories of the Crown

Lordships and castles

Other castles

Bishoprics

}

N

CANTREF MAW

R

GWYR

LLYN


Map 8 The principality of Wales under the terms of the treaty ofMontgomery, 1267

xxviii


+

+

+

+

++

Crown

Lands held by:

Llywelyn

Independent Welsh chieftains

David

Clare

Other Marcherlordships

St Davids

Cardigan

Haverford

Narberth


Other castles

Bishoprics

Pembroke

Newcastle

Llanstephan

Cydweli

Carmarthen

Dryslwyn

Swansea

Neath

Coity

Dinefwr

Llantrisant

Llandaff Cardiff

Morlais

Usk

NewportCaldicot

Strigoil

Llanbadarn

Radnor

Wigmore

Llandovery

Hereford

Builth

Brecon

AbergavennyMonmouth

Dolwyddelan

Bangor St Asaph

Oswestry

Knockin

Shrewsbury

Montgomery

Clun

Deganwy

Chester

Hawarden

GLAMORGAN

POWYSWENWYNWYN

POWYSFADOG

CERE

DIG

ION

MN

ARFON

20 miles0

0 15 30 km

10

LLYN

N

GWYR

Map 9 Wales under the terms of the treaty of Aberconwy, 1277

xxix


Llywelyns lands in 1255

Llywelyns lands in 1267treaty of Montgomery

Llywelyns lands in 1277treaty of Aberconwy

Vassals of Llywelyn

Brycheiniog

Elfael

Llwythfnwg

Builth

Ceri

Cedewain

MaelienyddCwmwd

Deuddwr

Gw

rtheyrnion

0

0 15 30 km

10 20 miles

N

Map 10 The gains and losses of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, 125577

xxx


++

+

++

++

++

+

++

++

+ ++

++

+++ +

++

Neath

Ewenni

LlanilltudFawr

Margam

Monmouth

Chepstow

Tintern

GraceDieu

LlancarfanCardiff

Basaleg

Goldcliff

UskLlantarnam

Abergavenny

Llanthony

Llandaff

St Davids

BangorSt Asaph

Haverford Whitland

Pill

Pembroke

Cardigan

St Dogmaels(Llandudoch)

Cydweli

Llangenydd

St Clears

Carmarthen

LlanbadarnFawr

Tywyn

Cwm Hir

Strata FloridaLlanllyr

Dore

Brecon

Llandovery

Llandeilo

Talley(Premonstratensian)

Enlli(Bardsey)

AberdaronCymer

Llandinam

Strata MarcellaLlanllugan

Meifod

Beddgelert

Aberconwy

Valle Crucis

Clynnog

Caergybi Ynys Lannog

Penmon Basingwerk

1

1

1

2

3

4

1 Bangor (with detached enclaves)Boundaries of dioceses

2 St Asaph 3 St David's 4 LlandaffAnglo-Norman monastic foundations

Cistercian monasteriesNative Welsh mother churchesor monasteriesNative Welsh houses convertedinto Augustinian priories

0

0 15 30 km

10 20 miles

N

Map 11 The dioceses and monasteries of Wales c. 1250

xxxi


Coity

Llandaff Cardiff

LlantrisantNewport

Caldicot

StrigoilUsk

Neath

Swansea

Brecon

MorlaisAbergavenny

Monmouth

Pembroke

HaverfordSt Davids

Narberth

CardiganNewcastle

Carmarthen

Dryslwyn

Dinefwr

Llandovery

Llanstephan

Cydweli

Hereford

Llanbadarn

Builth

Radnor

Wigmore

Clum

Montgomery

Shrewsbury

Knockin

Oswestry

Bangor

Deganwy

Dolbadarn

Dolwyddelan

Chester

HawardenSt Asaph

BRECON

GLAMORGAN

CARMARTHENSHIRE

SHROPSHIRE

CARD

IGAN

SHIRE

CAER

NARF

ONSH

IRE

MERIO

NETHSH

IRE

ANGLESEY

DENBIGH

FLINT

PO

WY S

HER

EFO

RDSH

IRE

Clare

Other Marcher lordships


Other castles

Bishoprics

Crown

Lands held by

0

0 15 30 km

10 20 miles

N

GWYR

Map 12 Wales under the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan, 1284

INTRODUCTION

1

INTRODUCTION:OUTLINES AND SOURCES

The history of Wales in the two centuries between 1063 and 1283 isin essence the history of its rulers and their systems of governance.Who and what they were, what they did, and the nature and extent towhich they influenced and were influenced by those, and by things,around them, are among the questions that this book attempts toanswer as it explores the key features of native rulership in medievalWales. It is a book about people who, by their status, wealth and powercame to dominate the social, political and economic life of medievalWales, while having a decisive hand in shaping its religious and culturallife also. It is not possible, even if it is desirable, to write a full biographyof a medieval person, even someone as powerful as a Welsh ruler. In thecases of those individual rulers who were written about, we may havea general idea of their character but little in terms of their personalappearance. There are no portraits, no death masks and no contempor-ary tomb effigies; but even if there were, they would need to be treatedwith circumspection, since it was customary to portray important figuresas it was thought they ought to look, rather than as they actually were.This applies equally to written descriptions and contemporary estima-tions, particularly those penned by the bards and poets which tend toportray their subjects in an idealised way. Consequently, much of whatwe learn about the Welsh rulers comes to us by means of what they didand how they did it. It is how and why they reacted to events, pressuresand problems that offer the best insight into what they were like.

Land, lordship and local acknowledgement were among the key deter-minants of a rulers status but war was his badge of honour. The nativerulers were a warrior elite who, unlike the majority of their subjectswhose social and political horizon was bounded by the structures oflocal life the village, its church and the seigneur took a supraregionalview of the world that involved kingships and kingdoms. By a processof expansion, definition and development, particularly in the agenciesof coercive authority, they, like the rest of western Europe, workedtowards creating coherent territorial principalities. The more successfulrulers were those who most effectively wielded power, not just over thebond or peasant element of the population, but over the free or nobleelement also. By endeavouring to create an administrative infrastructure

THE WELSH PRINCES

2

for their respective polities they were attempting to make real and tan-gible their power and authority. The exceptional among them succeededin broadening their power by exercising a form of hegemony over theother native rulers of Wales.

Defining and evaluating the size of this exclusive aristocratic group ofnative rulers is difficult, if not impossible. Contemporary understandingsinevitably change over the two centuries under study, and there are,moreover, no forms of record-keeping that are sufficiently standardisedor consistent to offer appropriate norms. In truth, this period is poorlydocumented from a Welsh point of view so that historians are forced todepend heavily on the records generated by their enemies, the agents ofthe English state. Equally difficult is appreciating, let alone understand-ing, the disjointed nature of medieval Wales, particularly after the arrivalof the Normans in 1066, the various kingdoms, territories and lordshipsthat consisted native-controlled Welsh Wales and Marcher Wales. Theconfusion in their size, number and name is eased somewhat by thetwelfth century, after which a measure of stability is attained. Clearly,medieval Wales was not so much a country as a collection of regions andlocalities, of ever shifting boundaries, hegemonies and loyalties, so thattheir history is as much the history of their rulers.

Outlines

Wales was a fragmented land of many kingdoms and many dynasties, theprincipal divisions of which, at least by the middle of the eleventhcentury, were the four major territories of Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarthand Morgannwg. Unlike Gwynedd and Powys, which had a historystretching back to the departure of the Romans, Morgannwg andDeheubarth were relatively new creations dating to the eighth and tenthcenturies, respectively. Only three of these kingdoms survived into thetwelfth century, Morgannwg falling by the wayside late in the eleventh,of which Gwynedd alone emerged enlarged and strong enough to dom-inate the Welsh political landscape in the thirteenth. There had, in thepast, been various lesser kingdoms, principal among them Brycheiniog,Dyfed, Gwent and Gwynllwg, but most of these had gradually beenabsorbed by their more powerful neighbours or, more likely after 1066,had succumbed to alien conquest. Remarkably and exceptionally, theminor royal dynasties of Maelienydd, Gwrtheyrnion and Elfael, togethermaking up the region known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren (literally, be-tween the rivers Wye and Severn), largely survived absorption by theirWelsh neighbours in the twelfth century only to be conquered by theEnglish in the thirteenth. The minor rulers of Arwystli and Meirionydd

INTRODUCTION

3

too enjoyed brief periods of independence when they either resisted ortemporarily strayed from the control of their respective parent kingdomsof Powys (by annexation) and Gwynedd.

For much of the period under review, the rulers of these variouskingdoms were selfishly engaged in their own, almost endless politicaland military competition. Rulers and kingdoms vied with each other forsupremacy, pursuing objectives that were, for the most part, instinctual.Thus did successive rulers of Gwynedd make war on their native con-temporaries, the rulers of Deheubarth and Powys in 11503 and in1202, in order to annex, respectively, the bordering territories ofCeredigion and Penllyn. Arguably, it is not until the thirteenth centurythat there developed any real sense of a Wales, a Cymric nation oflinguistically and culturally like-minded people who shared a commonheritage. Whether it was due to a maturing self-awareness of themselvesas a people alone that united the Welsh or simply the deepening of theshared experience of their being threatened from without, by Anglo-Norman lords and English kings, is open to debate. On the other hand,it was, in part, a Wales manufactured by war, fashioned by the ambitionsof a ruler bent on uniting under his command the territories of hisdissident Cymric neighbours whom he sought to make his vassals. It wasa Wales that had at its territorial core the kingdom of Gwynedd andat its political heart a prince of Gwynedd, so that it was a Wales unitedless by idealism, much less the anachronism of nationalism, than byconquest and coercion from within. Nor was this competition confinedto rivalry between kingdoms but it involved dynastic struggles withinkingdoms also: between 949 and 1066 no fewer than 35 rulers werebutchered at the hands of their compatriots. Membership of the dynastiesof Deheubarth and Powys seemed to be among the most precarious,with some 14 of their number suffering death or maiming at the handsof their dynastic rivals between 1076 and 1160. Only when there emergeda leader of exceptional authority and skill could a kingdom transcendthis internal violence and make its mark on the wider political stage.Consequently, the twin elements of territorial fluidity and political fra-gility predominated, so that political unity was invariably transient andephemeral, achieved by military might alone.

On occasion, the balance of power in this fragmented land turned onthe intervention of English kings, all of whom were concerned to main-tain Welsh recognition of their hegemony without necessarily having tophysically enforce it. At no time before the reign of Edward I (12721307) did the Crown contemplate the conquest of Wales, being contentto visibly demonstrate its power by means of spasmodic, if mainlyimpressive, military expeditions. In all, 21 royal expeditions were launched

THE WELSH PRINCES

4

in Wales between 1081 and 1267, some of the more successful beingthose led by William I (106687) in 1081, Henry I (110035) in 1114and 1121, Henry II (11541189) in 11578, John (11991216) in1211, and Henry III (121672) in 1241 and 12456. Arguably, besidesEdward I, one king only may be said to have played more than just apassing part in Welsh affairs, namely Henry I. He was a dominant figurewho manipulated the destinies of the dynasties of Deheubarth, Gwyn-edd and Powys, and was the first to establish significant royal territorialholdings in Wales. Apart from their dynastic wrangling, royal interven-tion generally caused the native rulers some of their periods of greatestturmoil, in that they almost inevitably led to disruption and destructionor, in some instances, their demotion, and in the worst cases, theirdeath. Equally tumultuous were the periods when royal rule was at itsweakest, as in the reign of Stephen (113554), at its most indifferent,as in the reign of Richard I (118999), or at its most distracted, as itwas for short periods in the reigns of John and Henry III in 121517and 125865, respectively. These periods enabled the more enterprisingWelsh rulers to reshape, to their advantage, the map of political powerin Wales.

The Crowns generally fitful interest in Welsh affairs before themid- to late thirteenth century meant that the balance of power in Waleswas more often likely to depend on the emergence of outstandinglyable or ruthless native, and after 1066, Marcher leaders. The demise ofMorgannwg in the 1080s and 1090s at the hands of Marcher baronsserves to highlight the new and permanent element that was introducedto the history of Wales by the coming of the Normans. While it mightbe argued that they came to Wales as much allies as enemies, takingadvantage of domestic squabbles to side with one dynastic faction againstanother, they were, above all, conquerors, freebooting barons intent oncarving out for themselves territorial enclaves in this region of theAnglo-Welsh frontier or March. The Marchers free-enterprise and land-grabbing expeditions along coasts and river valleys, staking their claimby erecting earth and timber castles as they went, transformed the powerstructure in Wales. By dint of their conquests, the eastern and southernparts of Wales were occupied by Marcher lordships that ranged in sizefrom great earldoms like Pembroke and Glamorgan to lesser entitieslike Brecon and Gower. Indeed, great Marcher families like Clare,Braose and Mortimer were no whit less dynastic in outlook than theirnative counterparts with whom they contended for control of Wales. Itwas the conflict arising from this political, territorial and jurisdictionaldivision between Marcher lords and native rulers, a pattern establishedthat was to last in its basic outlines throughout the twelfth century and

INTRODUCTION

5

for most of the thirteenth, that provided the native rulers, who hadconstantly to live on the edge of conquest, with some of their sternestchallenges.

Before 1063 only four native rulers had been able to extend theirpower over a substantial part of Wales: Rhodri Mawr (d. 878) andGruffudd ap Llywelyn (d. 1063/4) of Gwynedd, and Hywel Dda (d.950) and Maredudd ab Owain (d. 999) of Deheubarth. Whether any ofthem had a sense of unity or were merely war-leaders seeking domina-tion, is open to debate. Indeed, what exactly Wallia or Cambria meant,in conceptual terms, to the Welsh of the period is not easy to answer.

A country geographically and politically fragmented, the first largelydictating the outlines of the second, did not make for easy internalcommunications, and in the absence of an accessible heartland whichmight serve as a focus for unity, it was almost inevitable that loyaltieswould be intensely local. That said, there is sufficient evidence fromcontemporary literature to suggest that the Welsh were self-aware andthat they tended to express their sense of identity by looking back to thepast when, as Britons, their ancestors had ruled the whole island ofBritain. In the opinion of Michael Richter, it is in the two centuriesbefore the Edwardian conquest of 12823 that the Welsh people ex-perienced an enlargement of their view of the world, when graduallythey came to know each other as fellow-countrymen by being fellow-sufferers.1 Their coming together was indeed a slow and painful pro-cess, made harder by the petty squabbling that not only bedevilled relationsbetween the nations political leaders, but also marred family relationshipswithin their respective dynasties.

After 1063, two rulers only succeeded in extending their hegemonyover the greater part of Wales: Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (c. 11941240)and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (124782). That both hailedfrom Gwynedd reveals the extent to which this kingdom, with its naturallydefensive core of Snowdonia, realised its potential to be the most power-ful element in Welsh dynastic politics. The key to the success of thetwo Llywelyns, besides their military muscle, was in bringing to heelthe other native rulers within a political framework that tolerated butexcluded the Marcher lords, while simultaneously seeking acknowledge-ment of the English Crown of their status as the undisputed masterswithin a separate and unitary principality. Coexistence and cooperationwith their Marcher neighbours and royal overlords became as much afeature of their policies as conflict and conquest had been. Consequently,under their capable and enlightened leadership, the prospect of creatingan united native polity gradually turned into a practical proposition andwas, briefly, realised between 1267 and 1277.

THE WELSH PRINCES

6

The credit for establishing Gwynedds primacy in Welsh affairs isdue, primarily, to the work of two earlier rulers, Gruffudd ap Cynan(c. 10751137) and his son Owain ap Gruffudd or, as he is more com-monly known, Owain Gwyned (113770). They withstood the externalpressures of Marcher ambition and royal intervention while repairing thedynastic fissures within that regularly threatened to tear their territorialpower apart. Between them, they created a stable and prosperous king-dom by strengthening their hold on church and state and by wiselyacknowledging English suzerainty. They were also responsible for origin-ating and promoting the idea that a ruler of Gwynedd possessedauthority over Wales as a whole, and, as if to emphasise the fact of theirprimacy, to Owain Gwynedd goes the credit of being among the first ofhis countrymen to cultivate a diplomatic friendship with a foreign ruler,Louis VII of France (113780).2

The composite kingdom of Deheubarth, formed by the enforcedmerger of three lesser kingdoms, Ceredigion, Dyfed and Ystrad Tywi,had its share of talented rulers during this period, namely Rhys apTewdwr (c. 108193) and his grandson Rhys ap Gruffudd, popularlyknown as the Lord Rhys (115597). Between them they kept alive apolity which might otherwise have disintegrated long before it actuallydid so in the early thirteenth century. By sheer force of personality theyheld together a kingdom that had been manufactured by military mightand political will but which was subject to almost overwhelming pres-sures as much from within as from without. Crushed and dismemberedby the Anglo-Normans after the killing of Rhys ap Tewdwr, it was leftto the Lord Rhys to resurrect the kingdom in the second half of thetwelfth century, only for it to impolde after his death amid a complextangle of domestic squabbles. Thereafter, its territorially embarrassedprincelings, Maelgwn ap Rhys (d. 1231), Rhys Gryg (d. 1233) and Rhysap Maredudd (d. 1292) principal among them, became subject either tothe rulers of Gwynedd or England depending on the prevailing politicalsituation.

Geographically locked between the native kingdoms of Gwynedd andDeheubarth on the one side and the alien Marcher lordships on theother, Powys was surrounded by hostile powers willing and eager toseize on any moment of weakness. Its rulers had the unenviable task ofmaintaining a balance of power that required a political skill and dexter-ity which only the most talented possessed and in Madog ap Maredudd(c. 113260) the Powysian dynasty had found its champion. During histwenty-eight year rule, Powys entered a period of prosperity and relativestability which was shattered only on his death with the partition of thekingdom into Powys Wenwynwyn (or southern Powys) and Powys Fadog

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(northern Powys). Although gravely weakened as a result of this parti-tion, particularly in the case of Powys Fadog which suffered furtherdynastic subdivisions in 1236 and 1269, senior segments of the Powysiandynasty continued to play a role in national affairs. Two of the mostsignificant, by reason of their talent and instinct for survival, hailed fromPowys Wenwynwyn, namely, Owain Cyfeiliog (116097) and his grand-son Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn (121686). Between them, they man-aged to keep alive the hopes and aspirations of their dynasty, and theirsuccess may be measured in as much as their principality was the onlyone to survive the Edwardian conquest.

Sources

The Welsh ruling elite of the later Middle Ages, living in the periodbetween the mid-tenth and the end of the thirteenth century, are moreelusive than their English or continental counterparts. Chronologically,geographically and familially, the sources simply do not have a great dealto say about the medieval rulers of Wales much before the thirteenthcentury, or much beyond the borders and dynasty of Gwynedd. Con-sequently, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd alone, the last native ruler of a largelyunited Wales, has been able to command sufficient source material forthe kind of book, some 664 pages long, that is relatively commonplaceon chronologically comparable rulers in England such as Henry III andEdward I.3 Indeed, unlike its English counterparts, the magnum opusthat is Professor J. Beverley Smiths Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Prince ofWales, is a recent one, being published in 1998. Although its author wassurprised that his book was the first attempt to make extensive use ofthe source materials in a study centred on the prince, we can but envythe rich source material available to our English colleagues such asProfessor Michael Prestwich who initially thought, sometime back in thelate 1960s, that Edward I was simply too large a subject for a bio-graphy.4 In the event, his magisterial biographical volume on Edward cameto a not inconsiderable 618 pages and is as vital a work today as when itwas published. It is unlikely that books on this scale can or will bewritten on the Welsh princes, which is why some scholars have adopteda new approach, namely the collaborative biography. This technique hasresulted in separate studies of two twelfth-century rulers, Gruffudd apCynan (1996) and, in Welsh, Rhys ap Gruffudd (1996), and thoughthey are not biographies in the traditional sense but more a focusedstudy of particular aspects of their respective reigns, they have proved tobe very effective.5 That this approach may prove to be the way forwardfor similar works on Welsh rulers who reigned before the mid-thirteenth

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century depends on the use made of the available source material which,though far from considerable, is not inconsequential.

If England is rich in twelfth- and thirteenth-century chronicles, Walesis not. The principal narrative sources for the history of the Welshprinces are the Brut y Tywysogion or The Chronicle of the Princes.Compiled sometime in the second half of the thirteenth century byanonymous monastic scribes and copyists, the Brut is based on earliermaterial which survives in more than one version and is, therefore, likethe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,6 itself a useful peripheral source for Welshaffairs, a multiple source. Taking their name from the manuscripts fromwhich they are identified, the two most important vernacular variants ofthe Brut include Peniarth Ms 20 and the Red Book of Hergest. A thirdand closely related version, the Brenhinedd y Saesson or Kings of theSaxons, is a composite source the first half of which, up to and includ-ing the year 1197, represents an independent variant that incorporatesmaterial from English annals, but which after 1198 follows almost exactlythe Peniarth Ms 20 version. They have been edited and translated in aseries of volumes by Thomas Jones and published by the University ofWales Press for its History and Law Series (Cardiff, 1952, 1955 and1971).

That the twelfth-century redactions of the Brut have a Deheubarthprovenance is well attested and the portions of the chronicle that referto the events surrounding the lives of its princes are thought to hailfrom the cathedral church of St Davids and the monasteries of LlanbadarnFawr and Strata Florida. Consequently, the Brut has a great deal moreto say about Deheubarth and its princes than about their rival counter-parts in either Gwynedd or Powys. That there was an annalistic traditionpeculiar to Gwynedd is suggested by the survival of a tract known as OOes Gwrtheyrn Gertheneu (From the Age of Vortigern) which consists of aseries of chronologically arranged notes recording events in north Wales.7

Unfortunately neither it nor the other chronicles say very much on themore significant events such as the rise to power of Llywelyn ab Iorwerthwhich, as A.D. Carr rightly pointed out, is surely a worthy theme forthe historian of the Welsh princes.8 Two further chronicles of import-ance are the Latin Annales Cambriae and Cronica de Wallia (the lattercovering the period from 1190 to 1266). Both are thought to be closelyrelated to the lost Latin exemplars upon which the versions of the Brutare based. Imperfectly published in 1860 by J. Williams ab Ithel (RollsSeries), a new edition of the Annales is currently being undertaken. TheCronica de Wallia, on the other hand, was not published until 1946,some seven years after its discovery in Exeter Cathedral Library. Thevalue of each of these chronicles together with a discussion of their

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textual problems is provided by Thomas Jones in Cronica de Wallia andother documents from Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3154, Bulletin ofthe Board of Celtic Studies, 12 (19468), 1744, and by Kathleen Hughesin The Welsh Latin Chronicles: Annales Cambriae and Related Texts,Proceedings of the British Academy, 59 (1973), 23358.

Few historians would question the value of these chronicles as sourcesfor pre-conquest Welsh history since they were written by Welshmenwho would have had a greater understanding and appreciation of Welshaffairs than their English or European counterparts. However, they arenot without their problems for they were written and translated in thesecond half of the thirteenth century by monks far removed from thetime they were describing and, although some of the evidence they usedand copied from may date from an earlier time, a lost Latin archetype,we cannot be sure of the accuracy of their transcriptions or where hind-sight has influenced the text. Nor are they, and this applies to othercontemporary sources also, unbiased or objective, being often subject toreworking in the interests of politically dominant dynasties and insti-tutions. Again, when different versions of the Brut are compared forinformation they can occasionally prove contradictory, though thiscan sometimes be a benefit by offering a different perspective. Therefore,although Professor J.E. Lloyd was not far short of the truth when hesaid that the Brut is a sober, pedestrian chronicle, occasionally waxingeloquent, but as a rule content to record the simple facts, it can bedemonstrated that some of the facts are perhaps not so simple to inter-pret, especially in those instances where the Bruts wax eloquent andthe distinction between fact and opinion becomes blurred.9

If the rulers of Gwynedd did not benefit from frequent reference inthe native Bruts, they did at least attract the interest of English kingsand, by implication, their clerks who were responsible for compilingroyal records. Consequently, these records, particularly those datingfrom the thirteenth century, are rich sources for many aspects of Welshhistory including the ruling princes. Among the more useful records,besides the calendars published for the History and Law Series, areCalendar of Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales (Cardiff, 1935)and Littere Wallie (Cardiff, 1940) edited by J.G. Edwards, and TheWelsh Assize Roll, 127784 (Cardiff, 1940) edited by J.C. Davies. Thenative rulers were no whit less productive, albeit on a much smallerscale, in issuing charters, letters and other acts, the sum total of whichthe History and Law Series has pledged to publish. In the meantime,historians will have to make do with a recently issued but no lessvaluable Handlist of the Acts of Native Welsh Rulers 11321283 (Cardiff,1996) edited by K.L. Maund.

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Fortunately, a fair number of princes attained sufficient eminence orinfamy to attract the attention of English and continental chroniclers.Among the more important of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century chron-iclers were Orderic Vitalis (d.c. 1143), Herbert of Bosham (d. 1186),Roger of Howden (d.c. 1201), Ralph of Diceto (d.c. 1203), Ralph ofCoggeshall (fl. 1210), Roger of Wendover (d. 1236) and Matthew Paris(d. 1259) and, to a lesser extent, Robert of Torigny (fl. 115080s) andGervase of Canterbury (fl. 116090s).10 Their usefulness lies in the factthat they were well-informed contemporaries with a sound knowledgeof much of what they wrote while some were closely connected with, oremployed by, the English royal court or, in Boshams case, as chaplainto Archbishop Thomas Becket. Matthew Paris, for example, makes animportant reference to Llywelyn ab Iorwerths stroke in 1237, an eventwhich escaped the pens if not the notice of the native chroniclers. Theodd nugget of valuable information notwithstanding, Paris and his con-temporaries were foreigners, both English and French, with little, or atbest peripheral, knowledge of Welsh affairs and much of the informationthey supply on Wales is often incidental and occasionally distorted.Indeed, Robert of Torigny is a good example, visiting England buttwice, in 1157 and 1175, so that his judgement on Welsh affairs maylack authority. The same cautionary note must be applied to those fewanonymously written monastic annals and chronicles of the reigns ofvarious English monarchs that make reference to Wales and its princes.On the other hand, monastic cartularies are a rich and sober sourceof information on church property and related matters which mightinvolve the princes often in some conveyance, dispute or damage. Takenin conjunction with the evidence culled from the native chroniclers,these various sources do at the very least provide some rounding in thepicture of the native rulers of Wales.

The twelfth-century renaissance witnessed the beginning of one of thegreat periods of vernacular, or non-Latin, poetry, and in Wales thereforethe works of the court poets or Gogynfeirdd (poets of the princes)cannot be ignored for, archaism and hyperbole apart, if used withcaution they provide much historical information not forgetting valuablesocial and political perspective. In a fitting tribute to their work, theUniversity of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies atAberystwyth is in the process of editing the works of the Gogynfeirdd inseven Welsh-language volumes, four of which have been published. Closeon forty court poets have been identified and the majority of their workcan be found in the following principal manuscripts: National Library ofWales MS Peniarth 1, The Black Book of Carmarthen, (c. 1250); MSPeniarth 3 (c. 12501300); MS NLW 6680B, The Hendregadredd

INTRODUCTION

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Manuscript, (c. 130030). As the dates of their composition suggest,the texts of the poems survive only in later copies so that they must beapproached with a degree of circumspection, though in the majority ofcases it can be shown that they were faithfully reproduced from theoriginals. The most useful guide in English to their works, though sadlylacking an index, is J.E. Caerwyn Williams, The Poets of the Welsh Princes(2nd edn, Cardiff, 1994).

Of equal if not greater importance were the literary compositions ofwriters who were not content just to record events in annalistic form butwere keen to describe their experiences, travels and opinions, especiallyof those they knew and others they had met. Two such writers WalterMap and Gerald of Wales tower above their contemporaries and bothwere either wholly or partly Welsh. Walter Map (d.c. 1210) served Godand the Crown in a number of capacities during his long life. He was acleric by vocation but a royal clerk by profession, but above all he wasa scholar who left behind him a rich catalogue of tidbits of informationwritten under the apt title of De Nugis Curialium or Courtiers Trifles inc. 11812.11 Hailing from what is today Herefordshire in England butwas then very much a part of Welsh-speaking Wales, the WelshmanMap, a sometime student in Paris, served King Henry II loyally fornearly twenty years between c. 1170 and 1189. During his time in andaround the king and the court, he met several foreign dignitaries ofwhom Rhys ap Gruffudd (d. 1197) of Deheubarth was one. That hewrote of this Welsh prince is strongly suggested by a piece entitled Ofthe King Appollonides, in which he deliberately used a pseudonym inorder not to be too direct in criticising a living contemporary. He wasless circumspect when writing of the departed and vented his spleen onGruffudd ap Llywelyn (d. 1063), the outstanding ruler of a largelyunited Wales, whom he ridicules as a bloodthirsty tyrant. Composed forthe delectation of the Angevin King Henry and his court, The De Nugisis not only very entertaining; it is a rough inventory of the mentalfurniture of a learned and witty 12th-century clerk.12

The writings of Gerald of Wales are perhaps among the most frequentlyused and potentially the most valuable sources for the history of twelfth-and early thirteenth-century Wales. The significance of his volumousworks lies in the fact that they originated in the mind and emanatedfrom the pen of a contemporary who knew well the people and countryhe was describing. As the son of William de Barri, an Anglo-Normanlord of Manorbier, and Angharad, the grand-daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr(d. 1093), king of Deheubarth, Gerald was a product of the twelfth-century March who lived his life torn between two worlds never fullyreconciling himself to either, though in his heart, one might suspect, he

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was more Anglo-Norman than Welsh. Thus, being of mixed race butnoble parentage, holding a respected position in the church and, byvirtue of his contacts, with the courts of Welsh rulers and English kingsalike, Gerald was well placed to comment on the political, social andreligious scene. He knew well his kinsman Rhys ap Gruffudd and wasacquainted with many of the leading Welsh and Anglo-Norman nobilityof his day. Among his many works, the most significant in respect toWales and things Welsh are his Itinerarium Kambriae [The Journeythrough Wales] (travelled in 1188 but written in 1191), DescriptioKambriae [A Description of Wales] (1194) but there is much also to begained from the following selected works De Rebus a Se Gestis [Auto-biography] (1208), Speculum Duorum [A Mirror of Two Men] (1216), DeJure et Statu Menevensis Ecclesiae [The Rights and Status of St Davids](1218) and De Principis Instructione [The Instruction of a Prince](1218).13

Unfortunately, the princes did not share in the good fortune thatattended Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd (d. 1137), of whom a bio-graphy was written, a Welsh translation of a Latin original, some thirtyyears after his death. Approved, if not commissioned, by his son andsuccessor Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170), the Historia Gruffud vab Kenanis the only near-contemporary biography to be written for a Welshprince, or at least the only one to have survived.14 There is some evidencedating from the seventeenth century to suggest that biographies werecomposed for the Gwynedd dynasts Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d. 1240) andhis son Dafydd (d. 1246): they were known to the eminent antiquariesEdward Lhuyd and Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt and were thought tobe preserved in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge but that the manu-scripts have subsequently been lost.15 Loss, destruction, accident andsheer bad luck together with the good intentions of the unwitting andthe unweary has conspired to reduce much of our written history topriceless fragments. Nevertheless, from the evidence that does survivehistorians can, at the very least, begin to reconstruct the lives and careersof men who played such a dominant role in the history of Wales untilthe end of the thirteenth century.

Notes

1. M. Richter, The Political and Institutional Background to National Consciousnessin Medieval Wales, in Nationality and the Pursuit of National Independence,ed. T.W. Moody (Belfast, 1978), 38.

2. H. Pryce, Owain Gwynedd and Louis VII: The Franco-Welsh Diplomacy ofthe First Prince of Wales, WHR, 19 (1998), 128.

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3. M. Prestwich, Edward I (London, 1988); D.A. Carpenter, The Reign of HenryIII (London, 1996).

4. J.B. Smith, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ix; M. Prestwich, op. cit., xi.5. N.A. Jones and H. Pryce, Yr Arglwydd Rhys (Caerdydd, 1996); K.L. Maund,

ed., Gruffudd ap Cynan: A Collaborative Biography (Woodbridge, 1996).6. The most recent edition is that translated and edited by M. Swanton and

published in London in 1996.7. See J. Rhys and J. Gwenogvryn Evans, eds, The Text of the Bruts from the Red

Book of Hergest (Oxford, 1890).8. A.D. Carr, Medieval Wales, 6.9. J.E. Lloyd, The Welsh Chronicles, PBA, XIV (1928), 370.

10. Ralph of Diceto, Radulfi de Diceto Decani Lundoniensis Opera Historica, ed. W.Stubbs (2 vols, Rolls Series, 1876); Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H.R.Luard (7 vols, Rolls Series, 187283); Roger of Wendover, Chronica, ed. H.O.Coxe (4 vols, English Historical Society, 18414).

11. Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium (Courtiers Trifles), ed. and trans. M.R. James(Oxford, 1983).

12. Ibid., xix.13. Geralds Speculum Duorum, ed. M. Richter, Y. Lefevre and R.B.C. Huygens,

trans. B. Dawson (Cardiff, 1974); Journey & Description; Autobiog.14. Mediaeval Prince.15. R.T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford 14: Life and Letters of Edward Lhwyd

(Oxford, 1945), 371.

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chapter one

FAMILY, DESCENT ANDINHERITANCE: THE PRINCESAND THEIR PRINCIPALITIES

Who and what were the Welsh princes? Put simply, and as their titleimplies, they were men of status and of power. In a hierarchicaland stratified society where status was important, theirs was the mostimportant of all, for by birth, lineage and blood they were royal. Theirpower too was derived in large part from their royal status but wasdependent also, as befitted a warrior caste, on their courage in combatand leadership on the battlefield. Heroic in deed, dynastic in ambitionand rulers by intent, the princes were the elite of a privileged aristocraticclass. Yet in spite of these shared characteristics, it is difficult to categor-ise the Welsh princes as a group, for although they were royal and theywere rulers, they were not necessarily equal. Most were rulers of a singlekingdom; some, by dint of conquest, more than one; but the excep-tional among them were able to extend their hegemony over the greaterpart of Wales. However, such successes could usually be measured in thespace of a generation since the gains made by one ruler were, moreoften than not, lost by another. This continual shifting of the dynasticand political balance of power is reflected in the use by contemporariesof a bewildering array of titles to address or describe their rulers. This isperhaps unsurprising in a period spanning a little over two centuries,10631283, since change is inevitable and, in respect of the rulers ofmedieval Wales, the evolution in the nomenclature of their authoritymay usually be taken as a fair reflection of the winners and losers in thedynastic battle for supremacy, for while some prospered and increasedtheir power, others suffered a diminution in theirs. However, while wemay refer to them as princes, contemporaries were not so consistent intheir use of the title, so that some justification, and definition, is neces-sary. Consequently, it is in terms of their identity, status and title,individual and territorial, together with a discussion of their kinship,descent and inheritance, that this chapter is concerned.

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Kings, lords and princes: the nomenclature of authority

The nomenclature of authority was important to contemporaries since amans status and power was regulated by law and custom, so that thetitle he assumes can be taken as a public recognition of one and publicexpression of the other. Indeed, their titles provide virtually the onlyevidence of the way in which the rulers of native Wales viewed them-selves and, in what was evidently a conscious and calculated move, it wastheir way of interpreting their status for the outside world. This had notalways been so since for much of the period before the tenth century,the rulers of Wales had no, and often did not use, any formal or consist-ent titles. It is not until the native law texts were assembled during thetwelfth and thirteenth centuries that the issue of titular nomenclaturewas seriously addressed, with the result that a measure of definitionand hierarchy was gradually introduced into the titles of native rulers.According to those who framed the Welsh laws, Latin-educated juristswho were familiar with concepts of royal office and royal government,supreme power was vested in the title and office of king or brenin (rex).Kingship was compounded of military, civil and religious authority, varyingin proportion and strength according to the qualities and fortunes ofindividual kings. The chief court or prif lys was the seat of the kingspower and it was from here, together with its itinerant satellite courts,that he ruled his subjects.

However, from about the middle of the twelfth century a change canbe discerned, the reasons for which have yet to be properly investigated,for as J. Beverley Smith has pointed out, the evidence which surviveshardly provides the means for any elaborate study of the Welsh princestitles,1 so that only a cursory examination can be attempted here. Thenature of the change in nomenclature can most closely be followed inthe chronicles, both English and Welsh, the poetry, charters and even insome of the romance tales of the period since these sources, despitetheir often later and copied provenance, reflected far more vividly thereality of daily political life than the precepts of the native laws. Whereonce the rulers of dynasties had been described as kings they were nowcalled princes (tywysog, princeps) or even lords (arglwydd, dominus). Thechange was neither immediate nor absolute for there continued to beapparent inconsistencies in the application of titles, an example of whichmay be instanced from the three versions of the Brut y Tywysogion or TheChronicle of the Princes reporting on the death of Maredudd, ruler ofDeheubarth in 1155. The Brut [Peniarth Ms 20] calls Maredudd lordof Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi and Dyfed, the Brut [Red Book of

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Hergest] calls him king, while the Brenhinedd does not ascribe himany title, he is merely of Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi and Dyfed.2 Ofcourse, there is no guarantee that the titles employed by the variouseditions of the Bruts in respect of the rulers of twelfth-century Wales areanything other than later embellishments, for the chronicles as we havethem today are essentially late-thirteenth-century copies in Welsh of lostLatin originals.

Commenting on the death of Maredudds grandfather Rhys ap Tewdwrin 1093, the English chronicler John of Worcester was moved to declarethat from that day kings ceased to rule in Wales.3 Nor was this merelyempty rhetoric for the Welsh chroniclers appear to have been in agree-ment, stating with unaccustomed unanimity that with the death of Rhysthe kingdom of the Britons fell.4 Thereafter, from 1094 to 1137, titlesof any description, let alone that of king, are almost entirely absent fromthe texts of the Bruts. Indeed, in contrast to the chroniclers of old whowere apt to use the terminology of kingship more freely, those of thetwelfth century appear reluctant to accord the title of brenin or king torulers, often sons of kings, whose patrimonies were either much reducedor facing extinction. Henceforth, the tenth and eleventh-centurybrenhinoedd or kingdoms of Ceredigion, Dyfed, Gwent, Morgannwg,Gwynedd and Powys referred to in the Bruts, were to be replaced in thetwelfth, by those of Deheubarth, Gwynedd and Powys, along with ahost of lesser lordships, while the title king was given to only fourrulers after 1137: Gruffudd ap Cynan (d. 1137) and his son Owain (d.1170) of Gwynedd, Maredudd ap Gruffudd (d. 1155) of Deheubarth,and Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160) of Powys.

The contrast in the titles employed by the Welsh chroniclers betweenthe eleventh and latter half of the twelfth century is quite marked; thetitle of king was gradually giving way to those of lord and prince. Thismay reflect the changed political conditions of the twelfth century, aresult of piecemeal Anglo-Norman conquest and the spread of feudalinfluence, for the Welsh rulers would have been nothing more than palereflections of their Angevin neighbour, King Henry II (d. 1189), hadthey retained the increasingly meaningless title of king. The late T.Jones Pierce suggested that the change may have been due to pressureexerted by Henry II on the leading rulers of Wales to drop the title ofking thus enabling him to assert the principle of the English Crownssuperiority and its political overlordship.5 The Welsh chronicles wouldseem to support this assertion, for after 1155 the title is applied butonce more to a native ruler, Owain Gwynedd, and then only at hisdeath in 1170.6 On the other hand, David Crouch has argued that the

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abandonment of kingship was a native decision and that the Welsh werenot forced into it.7 In stark contrast to their counterparts in Wales, theEnglish chroniclers, with one notable exception, Ralph of Diceto, seemto have taken a different view since they were according native rulers likeRhys ap Gruffudd (d. 1197) of Deheubarth regal status consistentlycalling him variously, rex Walensium [king of the Welsh], rex Sutwalliae[king of south Wales] or simply rex [king Rhys].8 Once only is heacclaimed rex Walliae or king of Wales in the late-thirteenth-centuryAnnals of Tewkesbury.9 So why was Rhys so called by contemporaryobservers from across the Severn who, from their experience of Euro-pean kingship, knew perfectly well, or should have known, what regalstatus entailed. A clue to their attitude on the nature of Rhys regalstatus is afforded by Roger of Howden who consistently styles Rhysregulus which may be translated as petty or little king, thus stronglysuggesting the superiority of Angevin kingship over that of its Welshvassals.10 This accords well with the view that Rhys and his fellow rulers,at the behest of Henry II, set aside all pretensions to regal status inreturn for confirmation of their landholdings. It seems that during thetwelfth century the native chroniclers were tending increasingly toacclaim only their greatest rulers brenin or rex and then only as an epithetof greatness to be dispensed at death as a mark of respect and for pastdeeds should they warrant titular distinction. By the thirteenth centurythis practice had ceased completely and the title of king is henceforthonly to be found in the texts of the Welsh laws, or at least in thosecopies that have survived.

Gerald de Barri (d. 1223), as he should more properly be addressed,though known to posterity as Gerald of Wales, or in Latin, GiraldusCambrensis, was in no doubt as to what they were and how they shouldbe addressed. Being related to some of the native rulers, he either knewwell or knew of the others, there was no dispute in his mind but that thegreatest of them were princes, and it was with great pride and by meansof his mixed ancestry that he declared that he was sprung from theprinces of Wales and from the barons of the Marches.11 His eloquenttestimony bridges the gap somewhat between the views expounded bynative writers and the opinions expressed by their English and contin-ental counterparts. Of course, we have no way of knowing whether Geraldsdefinition of the title, dignity and authority of prince matches thatdescribed by the native chroniclers or that used by the native rulersthemselves. Certainly in the surviving, though admittedly late and oftencopied, charters, letters and other acts issued by the Welsh rulers it is asprinces that they present themselves, the styles of which vary and were

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intended to imply a personal, in terms of status, a political, in terms ofan ill-defined leadership of the Welsh people, or a territorial authority.Thus was Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth styled or referred to bycontemporaries between 1165 and 1197 as Prince Rhys (Principis Resi),Rhys, prince of south Wales (Reso principi Suthwalliae) and Rhys princeof the Welsh (Resus Walliarum princeps).12 It is important to note thatthe adoption of the title and style of prince did not necessarily mean adimunition in status and power for as J. Beverley Smith has said inrespect of Owain Gwynedd he did not cease to be king of Gwynedd inorder to be prince of Gwynedd, . . . he chose to present himself as princeof the Welsh (princeps Wallensium).13

If the changing nature of the relationship between the Crown ofEngland and its native vassals, the rulers of Wales, was, arguably, at theroot of the change in their nomenclature in the twelfth century, in thethirteenth its cause was as much the ambition of the princes of Gwyn-edd as pressure exerted by successive English kings. In their efforts toextend their hegemony over native Wales, the princes of Gwynedd wereseeking to define the nature of their relationship with the other nativerulers whom they attempted to make their vassals. Their success in thisendeavour can be measured in respect of the progress they made via thereigns of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (11941240) and Dafydd ab Llywelyn(12406), towards the defining moment, as encapsulated in the terms ofthe Treaty of Montgomery of 1267, in which Llywelyn ap Gruffuddasserted his right, with the cooperation of a reluctant king of England,Henry III (d. 1272), to the exclusive use of the title prince of Wales.Equally grudging in their recognition of Llywelyns hegemony was thenative aristocracy, the elite of whom, the rulers of a dismemberedDeheubarth and a sundered Powys, were forced to set aside any preten-sion to royal status and accept their lordly vassalage. This is reflected inthe Brut y Tywysogion which shows a marked tendency to restrict to afew and thereafter during the thirteenth century, to reduce the use ofthe title in so far as the princes of Wales mentioned in 1216 hadbecome the barons of Wales in 1240 and the magnates of Wales in1256.14 In the opinion of David Walker, modern writers, unsurprisingly,find it easier to avoid concepts of rank, preferring instead to refer tothose rulers outside of Gwynedd, particularly from the early thirteenthcentury, either as princelings or of the lineage of princes.15 In spite ofhaving

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The Welsh Princes 1063-1283