Owain Gwynedd (in English, "Owen") (c. 1100–November
28, 1170), alternatively known by the patronymic
"Owain ap Gruffydd" and also as Owain I of Gwynedd and occasionally Owain I of Wales on account of his claim
to be King of Wales. He is considered to be the most successful of all the north Welsh
princes prior to his grandson, Llywelyn the Great. He was known as Owain
Gwynedd to distinguish him from another contemporary Owain ap Gruffydd, ruler of part of Powys
who was known as Owain Cyfeiliog. Owain Gwynedd was a member of the House of Aberffraw,
a descendant of the senior branch from Rhodri Mawr.
Early life
Owain's father, Gruffydd ap Cynan, was a strong and long-lived ruler who had made
the principality of Gwynedd the most influential in Wales during the sixty-two years of his reign, using the island of Anglesey as
his power base. His mother, Angharad ferch Owain, was the daughter of Owain ab Edwin. Owain was
the second of three sons of Gruffydd and Angharad.
Owain is thought to have been born on Anglesey about the year 1100. By about 1120 Gruffydd had grown too old to lead his
forces in battle and Owain and his brothers Cadwallon and later Cadwaladr led the forces of Gwynedd against the Normans and against other Welsh princes with great
success. His elder brother Cadwallon was killed in a battle against the forces of Powys
in 1132, leaving Owain as his father's heir. Owain and Cadwaladr, in alliance with Gruffydd ap
Rhys of Deheubarth, won a major victory over the Normans at Crug Mawr near Cardigan in 1136 and annexed Ceredigion to their father's
realm.
Accession to the throne and early campaigns
On Gruffydd's death in 1137, therefore, Owain inherited a portion of a well-established kingdom, but had to share it with
Cadwaladr. In 1143 Cadwaladr was implicated in the murder of Anarawd ap Gruffydd of
Deheubarth, and Owain responded by sending his son Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd to strip him of his lands in the north of Ceredigion. Though Owain was later reconciled with Cadwaladr, from 1143, Owain ruled alone over most of north
Wales. In 1155 Cadwaladr was driven into exile.
Owain took advantage of the civil war in England between King Stephen and the
Empress Matilda to push Gwynedd's boundaries further east than ever before. In 1146 he
captured the castle of Mold and about 1150 captured Rhuddlan and encroached on the borders of Powys. The prince of Powys,
Madog ap Maredudd, with assistance from Earl Ranulf of Chester, gave battle at
Coleshill, but Owain was victorious.
War with King Henry II
All went well until the accession of King Henry II of England in 1154. Henry
invaded Gwynedd in 1157 with the support of Madog ap Maredudd of Powys and Owain's brother Cadwaladr. The invasion met with mixed
fortunes. King Henry was nearly killed in a skirmish near Basingwerk and the fleet accompanying
the invasion made a landing on Anglesey where it was defeated. Owain was however forced to come
to terms with Henry, being obliged to surrender Rhuddlan and other conquests in the east.
Madog ap Maredudd died in 1160, enabling Owain to regain territory in the east. In 1163 he formed an alliance with
Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth to challenge English rule. King Henry again invaded
Gwynedd in 1165, but instead of taking the usual route along the northern coastal plain, the king's army invaded from Oswestry
and took a route over the Berwyn hills. The invasion was met by an alliance of all the Welsh princes, with Owain as the
undisputed leader. However there was little fighting, for the Welsh weather came to Owain's assistance as torrential rain forced
Henry to retreat in disorder. The infuriated Henry mutilated a number of Welsh hostages, including two of Owain's sons.
Henry did not invade Gwynedd again and Owain was able to regain his eastern conquests, recapturing Rhuddlan castle in 1167
after a siege of three months.
Disputes with the church and succession
The last years of Owain's life were spent in disputes with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Becket, over the appointment of a new Bishop of Bangor. When the see became vacant Owain had his nominee, Arthur of Bardsey, elected. The
archbishop refused to accept this, so Owain had Arthur consecrated in Ireland. The dispute
continued, and the see remained officially vacant until well after Owain's death. He was also put under pressure by the
Archbishop and the Pope to put aside his second wife, Cristin, who was his first cousin, this relationship making the marriage
invalid under church law. Despite being excommunicated for his defiance, Owain
steadfastly refused to put Cristin aside. Owain died in 1170, and despite having been excommunicated was buried in
Bangor Cathedral by the local clergy. The annalist writing Brut y Tywysogion recorded his death "after innumerable victories, and unconquered from his
youth".
He is believed to have commissioned the propaganda text, The Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan,
an account of his father's life. Following his death, civil war broke out between his sons. Owain was married twice, first to
Gwladus ferch Llywarch ap Trahaearn, by whom he had two sons, Maelgwn ab Owain
Gwynedd and Iorwerth Drwyndwn, the father of Llywelyn the Great, then to
Cristin, by whom he had three sons including Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd and
Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd. He also had a number of illegitimate sons, who by
Welsh law had an equal claim on the inheritance if acknowledged by their father.
Heirs and Successors
Owain had originally designated Rhun ab Owain Gwynedd as his successor. Rhun was Owain's favourite son, and his premature
death in 1147 plunged his father into a deep melancholy, from which he was only roused by the news that his forces had captured
Mold castle. Owain then designated Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd as his successor, but after his death Hywel was first driven to seek
refuge in Ireland by Cristin's sons, Dafydd and Rhodri, then killed at the battle of Pentraeth
when he returned with an Irish army. Dafydd and Rhodri split Gwynedd between them, but a generation passed before Gwynedd was
restored to its former glory under Owain's grandson Llywelyn the Great.
According to legend, one of Owain's sons was Prince Madoc, who is popularly supposed to have
fled across the Atlantic and colonised America.
Altogether the prodigous Owain Gwynedd is said to have had the following children from two wives and at least four
mistresses:
Fiction
Owain is a major character in The summer of the Danes by Ellis Peters, and also
appears in other novels in this writer's Brother Cadfael series.
References
- John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the
Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.)
- K.L. Maund (ed) (1996). Gruffudd ap Cynan : a collaborative
biography. Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-389-5.
- Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 176B-25,
239-6
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