Cynan ap Hywel († around 1242)

This article describes the Welsh Lord Cynan ap Hywel († around 1242). For the Prince of Gwynedd of the same name, see Cynan ap Hywel († 1005).

Cynan ap Hywel († around 1242) was a lord from the Welsh principality Deheubarth from the Dinefwr dynasty .

Live and act

Cynan was a son of Hywel Sais († 1204), one of the younger sons of Lord Rhys , the Lord of Deheubarth. Hywel Sais had received rule of St Clears from his father . When there was a bitter inheritance dispute between his descendants after the death of Lord Rhys in 1197, Hywel Sais supported his brother Maelgwn ap Rhys until he was killed in 1204. Cynan ap Hywel is first mentioned in 1210 when he was captured by his cousins Rhys and Owain during the ongoing inheritance dispute in the wake of Maelgwn ap Rhys when they raided the Maelgwn camp near Cilcennin . After that he is mentioned again only in 1223, when he was still an opponent of Prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth of Gwynedd and therefore had allied himself with the Anglo-Norman marcher Lord William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke . He supported Marshal when he invaded South Wales in the Anglo-Welsh War . Cynan sacked Is Aeron , the northern part of Ceredigion south of the River Aeron , which Marshal then left to him. In addition, Marshal gave him Emlyn and Ystlwyf , the area between the Cynin and the Cowin, as a thank you for his support . On November 18, 1223, the English King Henry III confirmed. that Cynan had paid homage to him and that he was the rightful owner of these estates.

In June 1225, Cynan continued to own his lands in south Wales when Marshal and Lord Llywelyn were to make a fair division of the lands of Maelgwn, Owain, and Cynan. In March 1238 the king forbade him to pay homage to Dafydd , the son of Lord Llywelyn, as his potential successor. After Prince Llywelyn's death in 1240, he is said to have supported Prince Dafydd in his wars against the English crown, which is why Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke, withdrew his dominions Emlyn and Ystlwyf from him. His further fate is unknown. In 1244, the bard Dafydd Benfras mentioned in an elegy that Cynan was dead.

Web links

• John Edward Lloyd: Cynan ap Hywel , Dictionary of Welsh Biography, The National Library of Wales