 Abt 1100 - 1169 (69 years)
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| Name |
Owain Gwynedd Ap Gruffudd Of Gwynedd |
| Prefix |
King |
| Birth |
Abt 1100 |
Aberffraw Castle, Angelesey, Wales  [2] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Dec 1169 |
Bangor Cathedral, Is Gwyrfai, Caernarvonshire, Wales [3, 4] |
| Person ID |
I71108 |
Cecilie Family |
| Last Modified |
2 Mar 2009 |
| Father |
King Gruffydd Ap Cynan, b. 1055, Of, Caernarvonshire, Wales d. 1137, Caernarvonshire, Wales (Age 82 years) |
| Mother |
Angharad Verch Owain, b. Abt 1065, Tegaingl, Flintshire, Wales d. 1162 (Age 97 years) |
| Marriage |
Abt 1082 [5] |
| Family ID |
F23331 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
- Notes for Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd:
Prince of N. Wales; Owain I Gwynedd
Owain ap Gruffydd originally earned the surname Gwynedd to distinguish him from another prince of the same name who became known as Owain Cyfeiliog, but the name was even more apt, as Owain built upon the achievements of his father, Guffydd ap Cynan, to establish Gwynedd as a power in the land, one which aroused respect, and not a little concern, in the English king Henry II. By the end of his reign, Owain was being called Owain the Great.
At the start, though, it seemed as if Gruffydd's achievements might be split by the inevitable enmity arising among the sons of strong monarchs, as his lands were partitioned between his various heirs. But in fact the sons acted with one accord, realising that between them they had the strength to dominate Wales. This had started to happen even before Gruffydd's death. Owain and his elder brother Cadwallon (who died in 1132) had systematically extended the borders of Gwynedd to incorporate the territories of Merionydd, Rhos, Rufoniog and Dyffyn Clwyd, thereby establishing their power throughout northern and north-west Wales. On the death of Henry I in 1135 there was a general uprising amongst the Welsh princes to regain their territory from the Normans, taking advantage of the political uncertainty in England which resulted in the civil war between Stephen and Matilda. None was more powerful or better placed to gain from this anarchy than Owain. In 1136 the Norman lord Richard de Clare (whose father had been given the lands of Ceredigion in 1110) was ambushed and killed by Welsh renegades. Soon after there was a significant battle at Crug Mawr, in northern Ceredigion, taking the northern territories, and extending their hold the following year. Their attempts to break into Dyfed in 1138 failed, but Cadwaladr sought to consolidate his hold upon Ceredigion, which he maintained until 1143. Then Carwaladr's involvement in the murder of Anarawd ap Gruffydd led to his expulsion from Wales and his exile in Ireland for a year until he was temporarily restored by his brother in 1144.
Meanwhile Owain was gradually extending his control over the territories of northern Wales, taking over one district at a time so that by 1149 almost all of the old kingdom of Powys was under his control, and the boundaries of Gwynedd once again extended from Anglesey to the estuary of the Dee. Although Owain continued to plan for further territorial expansion, the next few years saw a period of strengthening his existing domain, and it was much his qualities as a politician as an expansionist which made him one of Wales's greatest rulers.
His only setback occurred in 1157. By then Henry II had come to the throne and restored political strength in England. Pope Adrian IV had granted Henry authority over the whole of Britain in 1155, and with this as his passport, Henry despatched his forces into Wales. Although Owain lost some ground, Henry did not force the king into submission. Nevertheless Owain was sensible enough to know that he needed to negotiate with Henry. Henry agreed to cease any further incursions into Gwynedd, provided Owain accepted Henry as his overlord. Henry had also taken under his wing Owain's brother, Cadwaladr, who had been exiled into England, and had become an ally of the Norman earls of Chester and Shrewsbury. Henry required that Owain accept Cadwaladr as his partner in government in Gwynedd, which Owain did, becoming, at last, reconciled to his renegade brother. Owain accepted all these terms freely. His great strength was in recognizing the benefits that came from being allied to Henry II and his great Angevin empire. It meant that the Welsh prince was regarded as a significant feudal monarch rather than as a tribal chieftan, and it was thorugh Owain that the sovereignty of Gwynedd was recognized. Owain was regarded as the premier ruler in Wales, and was officially styled "Prince of the Welsh" (subject to Henry as overlord), though he was still called king of Wales by his subjects. Henry publicised this at a ceremony in July 1163 at Woodstock, where all the Welsh rulers and the Scottish king assembled to pay homage to Henry. Amongst their numbers was Rhys ap Gruffydd who was still hostile to Henry, and it required Owain's authority and skills as a negotiator to convince Rhys that he should submit to Henry.
Although he maintained his fealty to Henry for the rest of his life, this did not stop Owain ensuring that the rights and status of the Welsh were acknowledged by the Normans. The ceremony of 1163 unsettled many of the Welsh princes, seeing it as domination by the Normans, and in 1164 a series of uprisings broke out all over Wales. Henry decided that a show of force was necessary and brought together a mighty army from France, Scotland and Ireland, but he mismanaged the whole operation. Owain united the Welsh armies and stood fast at Corwen, on the river Dee, awaiting the Norman onslaught. It did not happen: undone by the weather, the terrain, and the sheer size of his force, Henry retreated, taking only a few hostages. The Welsh drove home their advantage, with Owain and Cadwaladr regaining the territory they had lost ten years earlier and re-establishing the borders of Gwynedd.
Owain had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the church. Whilst he was strongly religious he had no wish to be dictated to -- a trait he shared with Henry II! He incurred the displeasure of the church when, as his second wife, he took his cousin Christina. Such a close marriage was not regarded as lawful in the eyes of the church, but Owain did not falter, and indeed his deep love for his second wife became legendary. Owain saw the authority of the see of Canterbury over the Welsh church as just as much a sign of domination of his submission to the Norman king, and whilst he saw the advantages in the latter, he did not so willingly concede the necessity for the former. He refused to accept the authority of Canterbury in appointing his local bishops, especially at Bangor, where he did not replace the bishop for thirteen years.
At the time of his death in 1170, Owain was thus master of all of North Wales, the premier prince of Wales, and was held in high regard throughout Europe. If his sons had similar qualities, they might have avoided the civil war that broke out between them upon Owain's death and, once again, sundered the kingdom. It was left to his grandon, Llewelyn the Great, to restore the kingdom to its final days of glory.
Mike Ashley, 'British Monarchs'
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| Sources |
- [S1484] Ashley, Mike, Ashley (1998), (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998.), p. 331 (Reliability: 3).
- [S1631] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th, 239-6 (Reliability: 3).
- [S1625] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, UK-Wales Macropaedia p 124 (Reliability: 3).
- [S1631] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th, 176-5 (Reliability: 3).
- [S1631] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th, 239-5 (Reliability: 3).
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