King of Deheubarth Maredydd Ab Owain

Other Events:

• Name: Maredudd ab Owain
• Reference Number: 15979

Notes:

Maredudd ab Owain (died 999) was a King of Deheubarth, and through conquest also of Gwynedd and Powys, kingdoms in medieval Wales.

Maredudd was the son of Owain ap Hywel and the grandson of Hywel Dda. His father was king of Deheubarth before him. As Owain grew too old to lead in battle his son Maredudd took his place, and in 986 captured Gwynedd from Cadwallon ab Ieuaf. On Owain's death in 988 Maredudd also became ruler of Deheubarth. He may have controlled all Wales apart from Gwent and Morgannwg.

He is recorded as raiding Mercian settlements on the borders of Radnor and as paying a ransom of one penny a head to rescue some of his subjects who had been taken captive in Viking raids. Danish raids were a constant problem during Maredudd's reign. In 987 Godfrey Haroldson raided Anglesey, killing one thousand and carrying away two thousand as captives; Maredudd is supposed to have paid a huge ransom for the freedom of the hostages. Maredudd died in 999 and was described by the Brut y Tywysogion as "the most famous King of the Britons". Following his death, the throne of Gwynedd was recovered for the line of Idwal Foel by Cynan ap Hywel.

Maredydd — . [Group Sheet]

1. Angharad

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 15980

Notes:

Owain ap Hywel (died 987) was king of Deheubarth in south Wales and probably also controlled Powys.

Owain was the son of Hywel Dda, originally king of Deheubarth but by the end of his life king of most of Wales. On Hywel's death in 950 Deheubarth was shared between Owain and his two brothers, Rhodri and Edwin. The sons of Hywel were not able to keep hold of Gwynedd, which was reclaimed for the traditional dynasty of Aberffraw by Iago ap Idwal and Ieuaf ap Idwal, the sons of Idwal Foel.
In 952 Iago and Ieuaf invaded the south, penetrating as far as Dyfed. The sons of Hywel retaliated by invading the north in 954, reaching as far north as the Conwy valley before being defeated in a battle at Llanrwst and being obliged to retreat to Ceredigion.

Rhodri died in 953 and Edwin in 954, leaving Owain to rule Deheubarth alone. Owain did not again try to reclaim Gwynedd, but instead he and his son Einon turned eastwards to attack the kingdom of Morgannwg (modern Glamorgan) in 960, 970 and 977. Owain was now aging, and it appears that Einon took over the rule of the kingdom on behalf of his father. On a further raid on the east in 984, Einon was killed by the noblemen of Gwent.

Following Einon's death, Owain's second son, Maredudd, took over the leadership in war, and in 986 did what his father had failed to do by seizing the throne of Gwynedd, ousting Ieuaf's son Cadwallon ab Ieuaf. The following year Owain died and Maredudd became king of Deheubarth as well as Gwynedd.

The Annales Cambriae were compiled at Owain's instigation.

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• Name: Hywel the Good
• Reference Number: 15981

Notes:

Hywel Dda (c. 880 - 950), (English: Hywel the Good;, sometimes anglicized to Howell the Good) was a well-thought-of king of Deheubarth in south-west Wales, who, using his cunning, eventually came to rule Wales from Prestatyn to Pembroke. As a descendant of Rhodri Mawr through his father Cadell, Hywel was a member of the Dinefwr branch of the dynasty and is also named Hywel ap Cadell. He was recorded as King of the Britons in the Annales Cambriae and the Annals of Ulster.

He is remembered as one of the most responsible native Welsh rulers of all time. His name is particularly linked with the development of the Welsh laws, generally known as the Laws of Hywel Dda. The latter part of his name ('Dda' or 'Good') refers to the fact that his laws were just and good. The historian Dafydd Jenkins sees in them compassion rather than punishment, plenty of common sense and a sense of respect towards women.

Hywel Dda was certainly a well-educated man, even by modern standards, having a good knowledge of Welsh, Latin, and English.

In April 2008 a merger of Pembrokeshire & Derwen, Ceredigion and Mid Wales, and Carmarthenshire NHS Trusts was named the Hywel Dda NHS Trust in his honour.

Hywel was born at around 880, the younger son of Cadell, himself the son of Rhodri the Great. In 905, Cadell, having conquered Dyfed, gave it to his son to rule on his behalf. Hywel was able to consolidate his position by marrying Elen, whose father Llywarch ap Hyfaidd had ruled Dyfed until his death. Following his father's death in 909, he acquired a share of Seisyllwg, and on his brother's death in 920, he merged Dyfed and Seisyllwg, creating for himself a new kingdom, which became known as Deheubarth. Following the death of his cousin Idwal Foel in 942, he also seized the Kingdom of Gwynedd.

Hywel's reign was a violent one, and he achieved an understanding with Athelstan of England. Athelstan and Hywel ruled part of Wales jointly. Such was the relationship between the neighbouring countries that Hywel was able to mint his own coinage in the English city of Chester. He was the first Welsh ruler to produce coinage for at least a thousand years, since the coinage of his Celtic predecessors. His study of legal systems and his pilgrimage to Rome in 928 combined to enable him to formulate advanced ideas about law. A comparative study of law and lawmaking at the time reveals a deep concern for law and its documentation throughout Europe and also the Islamic world, the Cordoba Islamic Law translation schools being a fine example, from Greek to Arabic to Latin. The Hywel 'Law' book was written partly in Latin, about laws of court, law of country and the law of justices.

Opinions vary as to the motives for Hywel's close association with the court of Athelstan. J.E. Lloyd claimed Hywel was an admirer of Wessex, while D.P. Kirby suggests that it may have been the action of a pragmatist who recognized the realities of power in mid-10th century Britain. It is notable that he gave one of his sons an Anglo-Saxon name, Edwin. His policies with regard to England were evidently not to the taste of all his subjects. Athelstan and Hywel had similar interests. They both developed a coinage; they both had a kingdom; both were attributed a Law book. Hywel was aware of the greater power and acceded to it.

A Welsh language poem entitled Armes Prydein, considered by Sir Ifor Williams to have been written in Deheubarth during Hywel's reign, called for the Welsh to join a confederation of all the non-English peoples of Britain and Ireland to fight the Saxons. The poem may be linked to the alliance of Norse and Celtic kingdoms which challenged Athelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. No Welsh forces joined this alliance, and this may well have been because of the influence of Hywel. On the other hand neither did he send troops to support Athelstan.

The conference held at Whitland circa 945, was an assembly in which Welsh law was codified and set down in writing for posterity. According to tradition, much of the work was done by the celebrated clerk, Blegywryd. Following Hywel's death, his kingdom was soon split into three. Gwynedd was reclaimed by the sons of Idwal Foel, while Deheubarth was divided between Hywel's sons. However, his legacy endured in the form of his laws, which remained in active use throughout Wales until the conquest and were not abolished by the English Parliament until the 16th century. A surviving copy of a Latin text of the Law (ms Peniarth 28) is held at The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth and can be seen online. More than 30 manuscripts were recently selected for a discussion of the "Law" of Hywel, by a Welsh professor of Medieval studies, Hywel Emanuel. Only five of them were considered to be of sufficient antiquity, dating back to the 13thC or earlier, to merit serious attention. Three of them were in Latin and two in Welsh.

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 15982

Notes:

adell ap Rhodri (854-909), was the son of Rhodri Mawr ("the Great"). He inherited the kingdom of Seisyllwg from his father in 878, and passed it to his son, Hywel Dda ("the Good"), on his death in 909. Cadell and Hywel had previously conquered Dyfed in 904/905, establishing Hywel as the king in that region. After his father's death, Hywel merged the two kingdoms to establish Deheubarth.