Rhodri (ab Owain) ab Owain Gwynedd (1135 - 1195)

Born 1135 in Nant Gwynant, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Name

Rhodri ab Owain of Gwynedd

Rhodri ab Owain of Gwynedd (c. 1135 – 1195) was prince of part of Gwynedd (Northern Wales), one of the kingdoms of medieval Wales. He ruled from 1175 to 1195.

On the death of Owain Gwynedd in 1170, fighting broke out among his nineteen sons over the division of his kingdom. Rhodri and his brother Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, Owain's legitimate sons by his wife Cristina, defeated and killed their half brother Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd at Pentraeth that year. The other sons were largely killed or exiled between 1170 and 1174.

Captured and imprisoned by Dafydd.

1175 Rhodri escaped from captivity and was able to gain enough support to drive Dafydd out of the part of Gwynedd situated west of the River Conwy. Dafydd and Rhodri then agreed to the partition of Gwynedd between them, with Dafydd retaining only Gwynedd east of the Conwy and the island of Anglesey.

Llywelyn the Great ap Iorwerth, had begun to put pressure on his uncles, Rhodri and Dafydd. Rhodri also came under pressure from his nephews Gruffydd and Maredydd ap Cynan, who drove him from Anglesey in 1190. ^[1]

Marriage and Issue

Rhodri made an alliance with Ragnald, King of Mann and the Isles, and possibly married Ragnald's daughter. In 1193, with the help of a Manx contingent, he briefly regained Anglesey, but was ejected again the same year by Gruffydd and Maredudd.

Rhodri had three known sons;

1. Tomas, Lord of Rhiw Llwyd
2. Gruffudd
3. Einion

The descendants of Prince Tomas were claimed by Sir John Wynn as his ancestors (a claim he would later have proven in court) and by the Anwyl of Tywyn Family. Rhodri died in 1195.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia entry for Rhodri ab Owain of Gwynedd
2. ↑ Wikipedia entry for Rhodri ab Owain of Gwynedd

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p40495.htm#i404944
• Wikipedia entry for Kingdom of Gwynedd
• The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis; The Itinerary of Wales and the Description of Wales, Translated by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare (1894), p.445