Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd ap Cynan, King in Wales

Male - 1172


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  • Name Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd ap Cynan 
    Suffix King in Wales 
    Gender Male 
    Death 1172  [1
    Burial Bangor Cathedral, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Person ID I29575  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
    Last Modified 13 Aug 2020 

    Father Gruffydd ap Cynan ab Iago, King of Gwynedd,   b. Abt 1055   d. 1137 (Age ~ 82 years) 
    Mother Angharad ferch Owain   d. 1162 
    Marriage Abt 1095  [3
    Family ID F5548  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Aliz de Clara 
    Marriage Bef 1151  [4
    Children 
    +1. Richard ap Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd ap Cynan,   b. Abt 1170
    Family ID F17642  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 13 Aug 2020 

  • Notes 
    • "Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd ap (d. 1172), king in Wales, Owain's younger brother, is first mentioned in 1136. On Owain's accession in 1137 he was granted, or confirmed in possession of, Anglesey and Meirionydd, and the following year he received the northern half of Ceredigion after its conquest from the Normans. Until 1157 his relations with Owain were strained: on the one hand, he may well have nursed ambitions of supplanting his brother as king of Gwynedd, while, on the other, Owain's sons Hywel and Cynan sought to occupy their uncle's lands. In 1140 Cadwaladr joined with his brother in complaining to Bishop Bernard of St David's about the election of Meurig to the see of Bangor, but by the beginning of the following year Cadwaladr had allied himself, quite possibly to strengthen his hand against Owain, with Ranulf (II), earl of Chester (d. 1153), leading a contingent of Welsh troops alongside the latter at the battle of Lincoln against King Stephen on 2 February 1141. Cadwaladr greatly angered Owain in 1143 on account of his apparent complicity in the murder of Anarawd ap Gruffudd ap Rhys, to whom Owain had planned to give his daughter in marriage, and as a result he was driven out of northern Ceredigion by Hywel ab Owain and also, apparently, from Anglesey, until restored after threatening Owain with a military force hired in Ireland. However, Cadwaladr's position in Gwynedd remained precarious. In 1147 he was driven out of Meirionydd by his nephews, Hywel and Cynan; in 1149 he transferred his portion of Ceredigion to his son, Cadfan, and in the following year Cadfan was seized, together with his land and castle of Llanrhystud, by Hywel ab Owain; and in 1152 he was expelled from his only remaining territory of Anglesey. Meanwhile the alliance with Ranulf continued, as is shown by charters of the late 1140s and early 1150s in which Cadwaladr witnesses as king of Wales ((rege Waliarum)) and king of north Wales ((rege Nortwaliarum)). These styles suggest that Ranulf encouraged his ally's regal ambitions in Gwynedd so as to make trouble for Owain, whose expansion into Tegeingl and Ystrad Alun by 1150 posed a threat to the earl's authority. By 1153 Cadwaladr had married Aliz de Clare, quite possibly to be identified with Adeliza, widow of Richard de Clare (d. 1136), the former Norman lord of Ceredigion, and thus Ranulf's sister; the marriage may have been intended to strengthen Cadwaladr's claims to Ceredigion, control of which passed to the sons of Gruffudd ap Rhys of Deheubarth by 1153. This was not his first marriage, however, for his son Cadfan was already an adult by 1149; indeed, the late medieval genealogical tract referred to above states that Cadwaladr had children with four women in all. The support given by Cadwaladr to the Angevin cause in Stephen's reign stood him in good stead after his expulsion from Gwynedd in 1152, for by 1155 or 1156 he had been granted the estate of Ness in Shropshire by Henry II, who ensured that he was restored to his lands in north Wales following the campaign of 1157 (in which Cadwaladr fought on Henry's side). These Angevin connections probably explain why Cadwaladr patronized the Augustinian abbey of Haughmond in Shropshire, to which, as early as the 1140s, he granted the church of Nefyn in Ll?n, for Haughmond (situated only 10 miles away from Ness) received benefactions from Ranulf of Chester and other Angevin supporters. After 1157 Cadwaladr remained loyal to Owain Gwynedd for the rest of the latter's reign. Together with his nephews Hywel and Cynan he took part in Reginald fitz Henry's expedition against Rhys ap Gruffudd in 1159, he participated in the campaign against Henry II in 1165, and he fought alongside his brother in the campaigns which led to the occupation of Tegeingl in 1167. Famed, according to Gerald of Wales, for his outstanding generosity, Cadwaladr outlived Owain by about fifteen months, and was buried beside his brother in Bangor Cathedral in 1172." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, citation details below]

      But see the entry for his wife (probably his third wife) Aliz de Clara for Peter Stewart's comment on the assertion that Aliz was the widow of Richard de Clare.

  • Sources 
    1. [S3215] Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2004.

    2. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing.

    3. [S903] The Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales, 2007 and ongoing.

    4. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.