Cynan from Owain

Cynan ab Owain († 1174 ) was a Welsh ruler of a partial principality of Gwynedd .

He was the illegitimate son of Owain Gwynedd , nothing is known about his mother. He took part in an attack on Cardigan in 1145 with his brother Hywel from Owain , in which the town was sacked, Cardigan Castle , but the castle of the Anglo-Norman Lord Robert FitzStephen could not be conquered. Two years later the two brothers drove their uncle Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd from Meirionnydd when they were conquering the country from different directions. Cynan was now lord of Ardudwy in northwest Wales, but was imprisoned by his father in 1150.

In 1157 he and his brother Dafydd set an ambush at Coleshill in the woods of Hawarden , in which part of King Henry II's army suffered heavy losses during their campaign against Gwynedd . In 1159 he was one of the Welsh princes who, together with five Anglo-Norman earls, tried to overthrow Rhys ap Gruffydd von Deheubarth . After the death of his father, Gwynedd disintegrated in succession wars between his sons, Cynan was able to assert himself in Eifionydd , Ardudwy and Meirionnydd.

After his death in 1174, his older son Gruffydd ap Cynan took over the rule in Meirionnydd and Ardudwy, his younger son Maredudd ap Cynan inherited Eifionydd. Together with Owain Gwynedd's grandson Llywelyn from Iorwerth, they beat their uncle Dafydd from Owain in 1194, who was captured in 1197 by Llywelyn. In 1195, after the death of their uncle Rhodri from Owain , Maredudd and Gruffydd took over his lands west of the Conwy . Gruffydd ap Cynan died in 1200 and his lands fell to Llywelyn. In 1201 Llywelyn annexed Eifionydd and the Lleyn Peninsula and became the sole ruler of Gwynedd.

Web links

• John Edward Lloyd: Cynan ab Owain (d. 1174) , Welsh Biography Online, The National Library of Wales, [1] , accessed June 30, 2014