Gruffydd ap Llywelyn

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Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (* around 1000; † August 5, 1063 ) was ruler of all of Wales from 1055 until his death and thus one of the few Welsh people who managed to do so. He was a member of a line of cadets for the House of Mathrafal de Powys and was a great-great-grandson of Howell the Good .

Lineage and Early Life

Gruffydd was the only son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll who could bring Gwynedd and Powys into his possession. After Llywelyn's death in 1023 , Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig became a member of the traditional ruling house of Aberffraw , ruler of Gwynedd. Gruffydd was said to have been a lazy adolescent, but one New Year's Eve he was chased out of the house by his angry sister. Leaning against the wall of a house, he heard a cook cooking pieces of beef in a cauldron, complaining that a piece of meat kept popping up every time he pushed it down. Gruffydd took the remark in an applied manner and set out to gain power.

King of Gwynedd and Powys 1039-1055

In 1039 Iago from Idwal was killed by his own men (his son Cynan ap Iago went into exile in Dublin) and Gruffydd, already a usurper of Powys, managed to become king of Gwynedd. Soon after his seizure of power, he surprised an army from Mercia near Rhyd y Groes near Welshpool , defeated them and killed their leader Edwin, the brother of Count Leofric of Mercia . Then he attacked the neighboring Principality of Deheubarth , which was ruled by Hywel from Edwin at the time. Gruffydd defeated Hywel in a battle at Pencader in 1041 and abducted his wife. Gruffydd appears to have succeeded in chasing Hywel out of Deheubarth around 1043, when according to some sources, Hywel returned to the mouth of the River Tywi with a Danish fleet in 1044 to reclaim his kingdom. However, Gruffydd defeated him and killed him.

Gruffydd ap Rhydderch von Gwent was able to drive Gruffydd ap Llywelyn out of Deheubarth in 1047 and became king of Deheubarth himself after the nobility of Ystrad Tywi suddenly attacked and killed 140 guards of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. In the following years he withstood several attacks by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was working on the Welsh border in 1052 when he attacked Hereford and repulsed a mixed army of Normans and Anglo-Saxons near Leominster .

King of Wales 1055-1063

In 1055, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn killed his rival Gruffydd ap Rhydderch in battle and got Deheubarth back. He then allied himself with Ælfgar , the son of Count Leofric of Mercia, who had been stripped of the dignity of East Anglia by Harold Godwinson and his brothers . They marched to Hereford, where they met an army led by the Earl of Hereford, Ralph the Fearful . This army was mounted and armed in the Norman fashion, but on October 24th Gruffydd defeated them. Then he took control of the city and destroyed its castle. Count Harold was tasked with a counterattack, but he did not go very far. Shortly thereafter, Ælfgar was given back its county and a peace treaty followed. Gruffydd married Ælfgar's daughter Ealdgyth .

Around this time Gruffydd brought Morgannwg and Gwent under his rule, along with large areas along the English border. In 1056 he won another victory over an English army at Glasbury . He now called himself ruler over all of Wales and was recognized as such by the English.

Death and aftermath

Gruffydd reached an agreement with Edward the Confessor , but the death of his ally Ælfgar in 1062 made him more vulnerable. At the end of the same year, Harold Godwinson received the king's permission to launch a surprise attack on Gruffydd's farm in Rhuddlan. Gruffydd was nearly captured, but was able to escape at sea in one of his ships after a warning, although his other ships were destroyed. In the spring of 1063, Harold's brother Tostig led an army to North Wales, while Harold led a fleet to South Wales, only to meet his brother's army in the north. Gruffydd was forced to seek refuge in Snowdonia but was killed there by his own men ( according to the Chronicle of Brut y Tywysogion on August 5th). His head was sent to Harold along with the figurehead of his ship. Gruffydd had likely made numerous enemies in the course of his endeavors to unite Wales under his rule. Walter Map passed on a comment by Gruffydd:

Speak not of killing; I but blunt the horns of the offspring of Wales read they should injure their dam.

Do not speak of killing; I am only trimming the horns of the children of Wales so that they do not harm their mother.

After Gruffydd's death, Harold married his wife Ealdgyth, but she was known to be widowed again three years later. Gruffydd's realm was again divided into the ancestral kingdoms. Bleddyn ap Cynfyn and his brother Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn reached an agreement with Harold and were granted control of Gwynedd and Powys. Thus, when the Normans advanced into Wales after defeating Harold at the Battle of Hastings , they encountered the many ancient kingdoms there instead of a single king. Gruffydd left two sons who challenged Bleddyn and Rhiwallon in the Battle of Mechain in 1070 to regain part of their father's kingdom. However, they were defeated; one fell in battle, the other froze to death shortly afterwards.

children

See also

literature

  • John Davies: A history of Wales . Penguin Books, London 1994, ISBN 0-14-014581-8 .
  • John Edward Lloyd: A History of Wales. From the earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest. 2 volumes. Longmans, Green & Co., London 1911.
  • Kari Maund: The Welsh Kings. Warriors, Warlords and Princes. The History Press, Stroud 2017, ISBN 978-0-7524-2973-1 .
personal data
SURNAME Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (alternative Welsh spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rulers of all of Wales
DATE OF BIRTH around 1000
DATE OF DEATH August 5, 1063