Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn

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Powis Castle near Welshpool, founded by Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn

Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn (* before 1216; † 1286 or 1287) was a lord of the Welsh principality of Powys .

Origin and youth

He was the older son of Gwenwynwyn and his second wife Margaret Corbet of Caus. His father's empire had been conquered by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1216 . His father had to flee to Cheshire , where he died in 1216. Gruffydd grew up in exile in England, and Llywelyn occupied his father's realm until his death in 1240. However, Llywelyn gave him income from his father's lands; He also lived on his mother's estates and on occasional donations from the English king.

Welsh ruler of Powys

As Llywelyn's son and successor Dafydd ap Llywelyn in 1241 after a rapid campaign by King Henry III. had to submit, the King of Dafydd demanded that Gruffydd get his father's lands back. When Dafydd agreed, the king appointed Gruffydd for a fee of 300 marks as feudal vassals in his family estates in Arwystli , Cyfeiliog, Mawddwy, Caereinion, Y Tair Swydd and Upper Mochnant. That same year, Gruffydd vouched for Senena, wife of Dafydd's half-brother Gruffydd ap Llywelyn , who paid a large ransom for her husband's release from captivity by the king. Despite paying the ransom, Heinrich III. but not free her husband.

Gruffydd, however, remained a loyal follower of the English king. In 1244 he was, alongside Gruffydd Maelor ap Madog of Powys Fadog and Morgan ap Hywel of Caerleon, one of three Welsh rulers who sided with the English during the war of Dafydd ap Llywelyn against the English king . He was besieged at Tafolwern Castle , and although he repelled the siege, many of his followers defected to Dafydd. After Dafydd's death in 1246, Gruffydd was one of the leaders of a South Welsh army that in return sacked Gwynedd. Even under the rule of Dafydd's nephew and successor, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd , Gruffydd was loyal to the king, which is why he received numerous privileges and gifts from King Henry III. received. However, when the war between Gwynedd and England broke out again in 1256 , Llywelyn led a campaign against Powys and in 1257 drove Gruffydd from almost all of his empire. After the British defeat in the Battle of Cymerau , he completely lost his empire and had to flee to England. Gruffydd continued to fight for the English against Llywelyn, but his loyalty to the English king was shaken by an argument with his relative Thomas Corbet of Caus over a mother's inheritance. Since the king did not support him in this dispute, he reluctantly ran over to Llywelyn in 1263 and paid homage to him as Prince of Wales . Llywelyn then gave him back part of his land, but he had to give up Cyfeiliog north of the Dovey. In the Treaty of Montgomery of 1267, in which Llywelyn was recognized by the English king as Prince of Wales, Gruffydd was also recognized as the Prince's vassal, but he finally lost his English fiefdom. In the next few years he supported Llywelyn, among other things, on his campaign to Glamorgan , during which Caerphilly Castle was destroyed. However, the construction of Llywelyn's Dolforwyn Castle in Cedewein was a threat to Gruffydd's residence, Powis Castle, and in 1274 Gruffydd, along with his son Owain, was involved in the conspiracy of Llywelyn's brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd . Together they wanted to murder Llywelyn and Dafydd should become Prince of Wales. As a reward, Owain would marry one of Dafydd's daughters, and Gruffydd himself would receive the territories of Ceri and Cedewain. When Llywelyn learned of the failed conspiracy, he sent a delegation to Gruffydd. Gruffydd, however, locked the delegation in the dungeon of his Powis Castle and fled again to Shrewsbury. His castle was then destroyed by Llywelyn and his empire ravaged.

English baron of Powys

Together with Dafydd, who had also fled, Gruffydd undertook raids from Shrewsbury to Gwynedd and thus created a pretext for the war that Edward I began against Llywelyn in 1276. Gruffydd took part in the successful campaign in 1277 , and after the Treaty of Aberconwy , Llywelyn Powys was handed over to Gruffydd. Edward I reinstated Gruffydd as the feudal Baron of Powys. Gruffydd started a lawsuit against Llywelyn through Cantref Arwystli. As an English baron he claimed Arwystli under common law , while Llywelyn claimed Cantref under Welsh law. This dispute gave rise to a renewed English campaign of 1282 , in which Gruffydd participated as the leading Welsh supporter of King Edward. After the conquest of Wales, Gruffydd remained a loyal vassal of the king. He was part of the court that sentenced his former ally Dafydd ap Gruffydd in Shrewsbury to death as a traitor in 1283. He died between February 21, 1286 and the end of 1287.

His life illustrates the remarkable change from an independent Welsh prince to an English feudal baron.

Family and offspring

He married Hawise, daughter of John III , around 1241 . Lestrange . His wife, six sons, and a daughter survived him. His eldest son Owain received Cyfeiliog and Arwystli as the main heir and took the name Owen de la Pole after his residence in Welshpool , he died in 1293. Since Owain's only son Gruffudd died in 1309 without an heir, Powys fell to his sister Hawise . In the same year she married the English nobleman John Charlton , who was promoted to 1st Baron Charlton of Powys.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Edward Lloyd: A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest . Vol. 2. Longmans, Green and Co., London 1912, p. 750
  2. ^ TF Tout / AD Carr: Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn (Oxford DNB). Retrieved October 25, 2013 .
  3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 205
personal data
SURNAME Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lord of Powys (Wales)
DATE OF BIRTH before 1216
DATE OF DEATH 1286 or 1287