Llywelyn "Fawr" ap Iorwerth the Great" Prince of Wales

  General Notes:

Weis" "Ancestral Roots. . ." (27:27), (29A:27), (132C:29), (176:7), (184A:9), (236:7), (254:28), (260:31).
¹¹⁶

  Noted events in his life and other information:

• Dates & Events: ¹¹⁶
-According to the rules of primogeniture, Llywelyn was the true heir of his grandfater, OWAIN. In 1194, at 22 years of age, he defeated his Dafydd near the estuary of the Conwy. He took possession of the Perfeddwlad. When his cousin, Gruffudd, died in 1200, Llywelyn became ruler of all Gwynedd.
-About this time, King JOHN of England. was having problems with Gwenwynwyn, the ruler of the Powys Wenwynwyn, who was then the most powerful ruler among the Welsh. JOHN thought it good policy to seek the friendship of Llywelyn. Llywelyn swore an oath of allegiance to JOHN and married JOHN's illigitimate daughter, JOAN in 1205.
-In 1208 Llywelyn took advantage of complicated personal conflicts between King JOHN, Gwenwynwyn, and WILLIAM DE BRAOSE to take possession of Powys Wenwynwyn. About this same time, he siezed northern Ceredigion from Gwenwynwyn's ally, Maelgwyn. Llywellyn was careful not to antagonize King JOHN. He accompanied his father-in-law on his invasion of Scotland in 1209.
-By 1211 King JOHN, nonetheless, considered Llywellyn to be one of his most dangerous enemies and invaded Gwynedd and compelled Llywellyn to restrict his authority to Gwynedd Uwch Conwy and to recognize King JOHN as his heir should JOAN fail to bear him a male heir. At first the other Welsh lords preferred to submit to JOHN rather than to Llywelyn. When, however, it became apparent that JOHN would not be content to rule Wales from a distance, but would be personally involved, they gave their support to Llywelyn.
-In 1212 Llwyleyn led the Welsh in revolt. He attacked the marcher lordships. It appears that Llywelyn had managed some sort of alliance with JOHN's archenemy, King PHILIP AUGUSTUS of France. Because of the Welsh revolt, JOHN had to postpone his planned attack upon PHILIP in France. Because of the discontent of his barons, JOHN was unable to raise an army to resist Llywelyn's advances. In fact, the barons and Llywelyn were united in their call for JOHN to submit to the provisions of the famous Magna Charta in 1215. Llywelyn's seizure of Shrewsbury in May of 1215 was a major factor in persuading JOHN to submit to the great charter. Between 1215 and 1218 Llwyelyn and his allies captured several important marcher strongholds.
-Llwyelyn aimed at a status superior to that of a mere war leader and he used the structures of feudalism to strengthen his authority. He consolidated his power over the other Welsh lords by several moves in 1216.
-When King JOHN died in 1216, the coalition that had resisted him collapsed. In 1218 the advisors of the eleven year old King HENRY III entered into the treaty of Worcester with Llwyelyn. Llwyelyn's pre-eminence in Wales was recognized, but he was not allowed to retain the homage of the lords of Deheubarth and Powys. The years following the treaty were marked by a strong attempts by the crown to limit Llwyelyn's influence to Gwynedd.
-In 1228 and 1231 Llwyelyn struck back with significant military victories. HENRY III had to enlist the assistance of Irish knights efforts to limit Llwyelyn's growing power as his own barons were turning against him because of his favoritism towards foreign advisors and genaral ineptness. Llwyelyn again, as in 1215, joined with the Norman barons against THE KING and, as a result of the peace of Middle in 1234, he succeeded in winning the same status he had during the reign of King JOHN. Perhaps in order to stress that he was not ruler merely of Gwynedd, Llwyelyn adopted the title of Prince of Aberffraw and Lord of Snowdonia, a style which emphasized his unique position among the rulers of Wales.
-Llwyelyn's eldest son Gruffudd, was born to his first wife, Tangwystl, before his marriage to JOAN. Llwyelyn and King HENRY III cooperated in disenheriting Gruffudd and insuring that Dafydd - Llwyelyn's son by JOAN (and HENRY's nephew) - would be the heir to Gwynedd. This was accomplished in 1222. At this same time, the Pope freed JOAN from the stigma of illigitimacy.
-There was a very close relationship between Llwyelyn's family and that of the Braose family - one of the marcher lordships. Llwyelyn's son and heir, Dafydd, married Isabella, the daughter of WILLIAM DE BRAOSE. Another of Llywelyn's children, MARGARET, married WILLIAM's father's nephew, John de Braose. WILLIAM's father, REGINALD DE BRAOSE married Llwyelyn's daughter, GWLADYS DDU . In 1030 Llwyelyn had WILLIAM hanged for, as John Davies puts it in his "A History of Wales", "excessive familiarity" with his wife JOAN.
-GWLADYS DDU married RALPH DE MORTIMER after the death of her first husband. It is through this union that our line is the lone exception of Gruffudd, all of Llwyelyn's children married into the families of the marcher lords.

• Web Reference: <a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~medieval/llywelyn.htm">Llywelyn ap Iorwerth</a> Ancestor Table.

• Web Reference: <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llywelyn_the_Great">Llwelyn "the Great"</A> King of Wales.

Llywelyn married Tangwystl verch Llywarch Goch of Rhos, daughter of Llywarch Goch "the red" ap Iorwerth Lord of Rhos and Tangwystl verch Llywarch. (Tangwystl verch Llywarch Goch of Rhos was born about 1168 in Rhos, Denbighshire, Wales and died on 11 Dec 1282.)

Llywelyn next married Joan Plantagenêt, daughter of John Lackland Plantagenêt King Of England and Clemence (?) "Mistress of John Lackland." (Joan Plantagenêt was born about 1188 in London, England and died in Feb 1237 in Arlechwedd Isaf, Aberconwy, Caernarvonshire, Wales.)