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While all Welsh Royalty traces their ancestry back to the great Rodri
Mawr, then further back to Beli Mawr, King of Britain 100 years before Christ,
and then with various traditional pedigrees even back to Adam; we will only
concern ourselves with the ancestory of the immediate Princes of Powys during
the era of the Princes of Wales when Wales was ruled as North Wales or
Gwynedd, Powys, and South Wales or Dinefor by the Prince rulers of such.
Kynvyn/Cynvyn ap Gwyston, King of Powys
= Anghard, vch. Mdd. ap Owen, Prince of S. Wales and Powis
Anghard was first wife of Llewelyn ab Seissylt ab Ithael ab Gwrystan ab
Gwaethfoed, thus nephew of Cynfyn ab Gwrystan King of Powys, which Llewelyn was
only 14 years old at such marriage. This Llewelyn was son of Princess Trawst,
daughter and heiress of Elissau, second son of Anarawd, Prince of North Wales,
and eldest son of Roderick the Great. In 1015 Llewelyn ap Seissylt asserted
his claim to the principality of Gwynedd or North Wales as derived through his
mother. He led an army against Aeddan ab Blegwryd, who by usurpation reigned
there. He slew Aeddan and his four nephews/sons and thus became King of all
Wales or at least Prince of North Wales. Llewelyn was assassinated attibuted
to the treachery of Madog Min, bishop of Bangor. Llewelyn left only one son,
Gruffydd who reigned from 1037 to 1064, when Gruffydd was treacherously slain
by his own subjects at the instigation of Harold of England and Caradawg ab
Rhydderch ab Iestyn, lord of Iestyn, son of Owain ab Hywel Dda. It is
recorded that Gruffudd was also betrayed by Madog Min, bishop of Bangor, for
three hundred head of cattle, which were promised him for his treachery by
Harold King of England. After succeeding in his treachery, Harold refused to
pay the cattle and Madog lost his life as the sole victim in a ship wreak
upon sailing to Dublin, Ireland.
Queen Anghard married secondly, after her husband's death in 1023, Cynfyn ab
Gwrystan ab Gwaethfoed, Lord of Cibwyr in Gwent the uncle of her dead husband.
Thus Cynfyn became styled King of Powys. They had two sons and Princes of
Powys, Bleddyn ab Cynfyn and Rhiwallawn ab Cynfyn.
Bleddyn ab Cynfyn son of Queen Anghard
and Haer, dau. and h. of
Cilin ab y Blaidd Rhudd, Lord of Gest in Efionydd.
As son of Cynvyn ab Gwyston, King of Powys and Anghard Queen of Wales, and
after the death of his half brother King Gruffydd in 1064, Bleddyn ab Cynfyn
and his brother Rhiwallawn in a move to recover thier father's right, took the
Principality of Powys from the Princes Maredudd and Ithael their nephews.
In 1068 the Princes Maredudd and Ithael led an army against Bleddyn and
Rhiwallawn. Bleddyn and Rhiwallawn met them at Maechain accompanied by a
great host of Saxons as the Saxons inhabited Powys in equal numbers with the
Cymru, under their protection, whither they had fled from the intrusion of
the Normans under William in 1066. In the battle Rhiwallawn was slain on
the one side and Ithael ab Gruffydd was slain on the other. Meredudd ab
Gruffydd was obliged to flee before Bleddyn to the most desert mountains in
Wales, where he too perished from hunger and cold.
Bleddyn ab Cynfyn therefore became sole monarch, King or Prince of Powys and
Gwynedd, and Mareddud ab Owain ab Edwyn ab Einion became Prince of Dinefor
or South Wales. In 1072, Rhys ab Owain ab Edwyn ab Einion ab Owain ab
Hywel Dda came from the Isle of Manaw where he had been concealed to revive
the claim of the family of Hywel Dda ab Cadell ab Rodri Mawr to the Welsh
lands. He collected a great host of the men of Ystrad-Tywi and Brecheiniog,
and fought a battle with Bleddyn ab Cynbfyn, and killed him.
Bleddyn and Haer had a number of children among whom was Guladys who married
Rhys ab Tudor Mawr, Prince Meredydd who married Hunydd dau. of Efnydd Lord of
Dyffryn Clwydd, and Prince Cadwgan whose sons Goronwy and Llywelyn continued
the fight for Powys (see below).
Upon his death, Bleddyn ab Cynfyn was succeeded or supported in his claim by
his nephew Trahaiarn ab Caradawg ab Gwyn ab Collwyn ab Ednowain ab Bleddyn
ab Bledrws, Lord of Arwysti. Trahaiarn had married Angharad the heiress after
the deaths of her two full brothers Prince Maredudd and Ithael of Gwynedd,
and that of her two half brothers Prince Rhiwallon and Bleddyn of Powys.
By this time them many, many factions of Welsh Royal decent continued to war
amongst themselves for the thrones of Wales as well as to content against the
English. Of Prince Bleddyn's own family, the two sons of Prince Cadwgan ab
Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, led an army against Rhys ab Owain ab Edwyn ab Einion,
Prince of Dinefor (South Wales) at Pwll Gwttig and overcame them. Prince
Cadwgan was forced to flee and Trahaiarn ab Caradawg pursued him so closely
that he capture him and his brother Hywel and put them to death in revenge
for the slaughter of his uncle Bleddyn ab Cynfyn. Yet many stories and
relationships will continue to go unspoken here.
Meredith/Meredydd ab Blethyn/Bleddyn, Prince of Powys
and Hunyth, dau. of Eunydd.
Maredudd ap Bleddyn (1047 - 9 February 1132) was a prince and later King of Powys
in eastern Wales. He was son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn who was King of both Powys and
Gwynedd. When Bleddyn was killed in 1075, Powys was divided between his three sons,
Iorwerth, Cadwgan and Meredudd. Maredudd married first Hunedd ferch Einudd, who
bore him two sons, Madog ap Maredudd and Gruffydd ap Maredudd. He later had a
relationship with Cristin ferch Bledrus, who gave him the who have been termed
two base sons Hywel ap Maredudd and Iowerth Goch ap Maredudd. Maredudd ap Bleddyn
was succeeded by his son Madog ap Maredudd.
Madog/Madoc ap Maredudd or Meredith/Meredydd
Last Prince ['king'] of
the entire Kingdom of Powys/Wales
And for a time Madog also held the Fitzalan Lordship of Oswertry as well as Powys.
The set of volumes of 'A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the
Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 1, by John Burke, Esq.
and John Bernard Burke, Esq., on page 606-607, presents that Madog ap Meredith ap
Bleddyn, Prince of Lower Powys did marry and have as his wife Princess Susanna,
daughter of Griffith ap Cynan, King [Prince] of North Wales, and did have issue
by her of:
I. Griffith Maelor ap Madoc, Lord of Maelor ...
II. Owen Vychan ap Madoc, Lord of Mechain Iscoed, ...
III. Owain Brogyntyn ap Madoc, Lord of Edeirnion, Dinmael and Abertanat, in Powys
Fadoc, and inherited from his father the Royal Armsof Powys, "Arg., a Lion, rampant,
sa., armed and langued, gu.," which have been transmitted to his descendants.
and thus making Susanna the mother of both Owen Vychan and Owain Brogyntyn. Some
other sources agree that Owain Brogyntyn was the son of Susanna, of which some
also make him the same as his brother Owen. But most do make Owain Brogyntyn a
separate natural born son of Madoc/Madog ap Meredith/Meredudd by another, a daugher
of the Maer of Rug, and thus they keep the two 'Owen--Owain' separated and the
offspring of Owain Brogyntyn as 'non-legal' royal heirs of the last Prince of
Powys. So enbedded in past history and perhaps even with the intent of
dis-enfrancisement, removing any others of Wales from any Welsh claims to Royalty,
which the institution of Great Britain had had enough of in their 'Tudor' kings
and such as Owain Glendower; who is to know for sure the true state of such past
affairs? Thus all who may find Owain Brogyntyn to be their ancestor are to
understand, by the majority of historians, that the coat of arms of Owain Brogyntyn
is to bear the bar sinister of illegitemacy though often it does appears without it.
And it is for sure that Owain Brogyntyn was the brother, 'if but half' brother, and
co-heir with Gryffydd Maelor the ancestor to Owain Glyndwr, which Owan Glendower
was the last to rise up and claim the title of being a true Welsh Prince of Wales.
But one would have to understand the Welsh tradition and prophecies of a one day
Welsh deliverer to free the people of Wales from the invader kings of William back
to a true Cymru King of Briton.
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