Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr was the firstborn son of the Prince of Gwynedd, Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great) and a mistress, Tangwystl Goch ferch Llywarch from Rhos. Under Welsh law, Gruffydd was just as eligible to inherit his father’s lands and title as any ‘legitimate’ son, but Llywelyn Fawr’s need for an alliance with King John of England was put ahead of Gruffydd’s rights.
Llywelyn had ambitions to be more than just the Prince of Gwynedd; he wanted to unite North Wales as the Tywysog Cymru – the Prince of Wales. To do that he needed to keep the English, and the powerful Anglo-Norman barons of South Wales (Marchia Wallia) known as the Marcher Lords, off his back while he attacked his neighbors. For that reason Llywelyn made a peace treaty with King John in 1205, sealing the deal by marrying the king’s illegitimate daughter, Joan (or Joanna).
As part of the marriage contract it was agreed that Llywelyn’s natural son Gruffydd was to be disinherited in favor of any sons Joan might bear, and to assure this, Gruffydd was to be “given to the king’s custody and placed entirely at his will.”
Gruffydd was packed off to London to be held hostage, much to the chagrin of many Welshmen. The Welsh were appalled that Llywelyn would throw out the laws and traditions of Wales to appease an English king they hated with a purple passion. It was seen as a monstrous thing to do to a son, and sending the boy off to live with aliens was the sick icing on the cowpat cake.
Llywelyn wed Joan, and they had children – including a son and heir, Dafydd ap Llywelyn. The arrival of a legitimate boy did not mean the Welsh became understanding about what had been done to Gruffydd. If anything, they were even more in favor of Gruffydd taking his rightful place as eldest son since Dafydd was half-English. Lywelyn made things worse when he started moving in on the kingdoms bordering Gwynedd; the Welsh were never ones to be bullied into consolidating and the idea of being annexed to Llywelyn’s lands so that Dafydd could one day be Tywysog Cymru left a bitter taste in their mouths.
In 1211, King John invaded Northern Wales, and most of the powerful Welsh princes and landowners allied themselves to him in order to bring Llywelyn down a peg or two. Isolated by his ambitions and losing battles because he was so outnumbered, Llywelyn had no choice but to sue the king for peace that summer.
Llywelyn’s councilors advised him to send his wife, Joan, to negotiate with her father, in the hopes that she could get the best possible deal for her humilated husband. This was a good plan, in that Joan was able to talk her father out of destroying Llywelyn, but in spite of all his wife could do or say Llywelyn still had to forfeit all his lands west of the River Conwy. Moreover, the humbled Prince of Gwyndd had to pay a significant fine to King John, and to give up the lands he had taken from Powys and other Welsh principalities.
Luckily for Llywelyn, King John’s hubris and stupid attempts to get Normanesque fealty from Welsh princes soon turned them against the king to such an extent that they were willing to ally themselves to Llywelyn once more. Whatever issues they had with Llywelyn, at least he wasn’t an English lord trying to foist English law onto Wales!
Thus, in 1212, less than a year after his ignoble defeat, Llywelyn formed alliances with the three major princes of Wales — Gwenwynwyn ab Owain of Powys Wenwynwyn, and the two strongest landowners in Deheubarth, Maelgwn ap Rhys and Rhys Gryg – and led his former enemies in a rebellion against King John. The rebels had the support of Pope Innocent III, “who had been engaged in a dispute with John for several years and had … released Llywelyn, Gwenwynwyn and Maelgwn from all oaths of loyalty to John.” According to the Brut y Tywysogion (Chronicle of the Princes), Llywelyn and his allies were “able to recover all Gwynedd apart from the castles of Deganwy and Rhuddlan within two months”.
After he won back his lands, Llywelyn, who was now widely seen as the chief of the Welsh princes, allied himself with Philip II Augustus of France and a group discontented English barons. Llywleyn and King Philip aided the rebel barons when they rose against King John in the summer of 1215, and John was resoundly defeated. The king, although bitterly unwilling to do so, was forced to sign Magna Carta.
From his new position of strength, Llywelyn was able to secure the return of his son, Gruffydd, from English control and to “insist on the consecration of Welshmen to two vacant sees that year, Iorwerth, as Bishop of St. David’s, and Cadwgan, as Bishop of Bangor.” Shortly before Christmas, he also led his Welsh allies in the capture of the castles of Carmarthen, Kidwelly, Llanstephan, Cardigan and Cilgerran, reconquering Pura Wallia.
Although Llywelyn Fawr didn’t want his son Gruffuydd to rule, he did his best to give the young man a comfortable future. Gruffydd was given lands and castles in Ardudwy and Merioneth, and wed to Senana ferch Caradog, the daughter of the Lord of Anglesey, Caradoc ap Thomas ap Rhodri, and the great-great-granddaughter of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of Gwynedd. Senana and Gruffydd fell in love with each other, had a happy marriage, and were blessed with several children, including four sons — Owain, Llywelyn, Dafydd and Rhodri.
It’s good that Gruffydd had such a happy marriage, because his relationship with his dad remained sterained. In 1220, Llywelyn got the regent government of young King Henry III to acknowledge Dafydd as his heir in exclusion of Gruffydd, and when his elder son was unhappy about it, Llywelyn took away the administration of Gruffydd’s lands from him. The matter seemed to be somewhat resolved in 1222, when Pope Honorius III supported Dafydd’s succession in spite of the “detestable custom… in his land whereby the son of the handmaiden was equally heir with the son of the free woman and illegitimate sons obtained an inheritance as if they were legitimate”.
Gruffydd and his father seemed reconciled,in 1223 Llywelyn trusted him to command Welsh troops against William Marshal. However, Llywelyn’s fears that Gruffydd would disputed Dafydd’s inheretance spurred Llywelyn to imprisoned his son in 1228. It was a gentle confinement, and his wife and children were allowed to visit, but Gruffydd was nonetheless held captive by his own father until 1234.
Gruffydd wasn’t released until Llywelyn made the Pact of Middle and was able to finally gain peace between Cymru and the Marcher Lords. King Henry III had formally recognized Dafydd as Llywelyn’s heir, and Llywelyn had secured several intermarriages between his legitimate children and the Marcher lords: Dafydd was wed “to Isabella de Breos ; Gwladus to Reginald de Breos and as a widow to Ralph Mortimer ; Margaret was married to John deBreos and afterwards to Walter Clifford ; Gwenllian m. William de Lacy , and Helen m. John , the nephew of her father’s closest ally, Ranulf , earl of Chester.”
It seemed safe to let Gruffydd have his freedom again. Gruffydd was given lands of his own once more, gaining control over most of the commotes of Llŷn, Ceri, Cyfeiliog, Mawddwy, Mochnant and Caereinion. In 1238 Gruffydd was additionally given the rest of Llŷn and a big chunk of Powys, but he and the other magnates of Wales had to swear fealty to Dafydd at the council of Strata Florida Abbey.
Dafydd, however, didn’t trust his brother. Either shortly before or after Llywelyn Fawr ‘s death in April of 1420, Dafydd moved against Gruffydd, taking away all his lands and imprisoning both his brother, and his brother’s eldest son, Owain “Goch” ap Gruffydd, at Criccieth Castle.
Gruffydd’s wife, Senana, grabbed her remaining minor children (her 16 year old son, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, stayed in Wales) and made tracks to see King Henry III in Shrewsbury, hoping to arrange her husband’s release and the restoration of his territories. King Henry seemed to take her side, and even went so far as “to write up a charter dividing Gwynedd into two equal portions, one for Dafydd and one for Gruffydd”. In turn, Senana “agreed to pay Henry 600 marks … and to hand over her two youngest sons, Dafydd and Rhodri, to the king as hostages to ensure that she kept her part of the bargain.”
Alas for Senana, the king’s agreement was a ruse. When Dafydd came to swear fealty to the king at Gwern Eigron and released Gruffydd and Owen, the king took them hostage himself and transported them, along with Dafydd and Rhodri, to the Tower of London. The devoted Senana refused to be separated from her family, and joined them as a prisoner in the Tower. Only Llywelyn remained free.
On Saint David’s Day of 1244 Gruffydd tried to make a daring escape from his prison, hoping to join his second son and fight for their rights under Welsh law. He supposedly made a rope of torn and knotted sheets and attempted to climb down from the Tower, but the makeshift rope broke, and he fell to his death.
Gruffydd and Senana got the last laugh, however. Dafydd ap Llywelyn died without an heir in 1246, leaving Gruffydd’s sons as the successors to the principality of Gywnedd.
In 1248, Gruffydd’s body was returned to his native Wales, where he was reburied beside his father and younger brother at Aberconwy Abbey in Conwy. Unfortunately, their gravesites were destroyed when King Edward I of England compelled the monks of Aberconwy to relocate to Maenan so he could build a castle and enclosed town for English colonizers at Conwy.
Thanks darling xxx