Dyfed and Deheubarth

Dyfed and Deheubarth

This page describes the lineage from Rhodri Mawr (the Great) ap Merfyn (died 878), Prince of Wales through the Kings of Dyfed and Dehuebarth to Maredudd ap Owain, Prince of Deheubarth (died 999)

rhodrimap Generation One
Rhodri Mawr (the Great) ap Merfyn, Prince of Wales
Died in 877 or 878, killed in battle with the English as was his son Gwriad.

Rhodri Mawr ap Merfyn became King of Gwynedd in 844 on the death of his father Merfyn Frych; King of Powys in 855 on the death of his uncle Caell ap Brochwell; and King of Seisyllwg in 871 on the death of his brother-in-law Gwgon. Rhodri Mawr was the first ruler recognised as Prince of Wales. He defeated the Danish leader Horn in 856.
Rhodri Mawr ap Merfyn married Angharad, daughter of Meuric ap Dyfnwal ap Asthi, King of Seisyllwg, and they had the following sons:

Anarawd ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd. Click on Gwynedd for his descent.
Cadell ap Rhodri Mawr
Merfyn ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Powys. Click on Powys for his descent.
Gwriad ap Rhodri Mawr, killed in battle in 877 or 878, as was his father.

Generation Two
Cadell ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Seisyllwg in South Wales
Died in 909.
Cadell followed the lead of his brother Anarawd ap Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd, abandoned an alliance with the Danish Kingdom of York and acknowledged Ælfred the Great as overlord. The precise nature of this overlordship is not known, and there was an attempt to portray this submission as a desire for unity among Christian rulers against the pagan Danes. However, this recognition by Welsh rulers that that the King of England had claims upon them would be a central fact in the subsequent history of Wales.
Cadell ap Rhodri Mawr had the following children:

Hywel Dda (the Good) ap Cadell, Prince of Deheubarth
Clydog ap Cadell

Generation Three
Hywel Dda (the Good) ap Cadell, Prince of Deheubarth, acquired the Kingdom of Dyfed on marrying Elen, the daughter of the King of Dyfed. He may have ordered the killing of his brother-in-law, Llywarch of Dyfed in order to secure the kingship of Dyfed for himself (John Davies: A History of Wales, London, 1993, pg. 87). He is remembered as "Hywel the Good" and was responsible for sponsoring a compilation of Welsh Law, making St. Davids in Dyfed the ecclesiastical centre of Wales, and for issuing the first Royal coinage of Wales. However, there is no evidence that coinage was used in any scale in Wales before the time of Hywel's grandson Maredudd ap Owain.
Disorder reigned after Hywel's death, with Viking raids and English incursions spreading havoc, which the rivalries of competing petty kings and princes did nothing to mitigate. No fewer than 35 violent deaths of rulers are recorded in the Brut y Tywsogion (Chronicle of the Princes) between 950 and the Norman Conquest.

Died in 950.
Hywel married Elen, the daughter of the King of Dyfed, and they had a son:

Owain ap Hywel Dha, King of Deheubarth

Generation Four
Owain ap Hywel Dda, King of Deheubarth was a man of historical interests. A great deal of genealogy and the Annales Camriae were compiled at his request.
Died in 988
Owain ap Hywel Dha married his second cousin Angharad Ferch Llewelyn, Queen of Powys.
Click on Powys for the descent of Angharad Ferch Llewelyn.
Owain and Angharad had ta son:

Maredudd ap Owain, Prince of Deheubarth

For the continuation of this line, click on Maredudd ap Owain

Sources

Sewell Vincent Sample (1928 – 2005): Letters (perhaps based on John Edward Lloyd: A history of Wales: from the earliest times to the Edwardian Conquest, Longmans, Green & Co.,1911.)
John Davies: A History of Wales, London, 1993 (published in Welsh as Hames Cymru in 1990)

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