Madog ap Gruffydd Maelawr Lord of Bromfield

  Information about this person:

• Web Reference: Madog ap Gruffydd from Welsh Biography Online. ¹⁰¹²
Madog ap Gruffydd, lord of Powys was the eldest son of Gruffydd Maelor I and his wife Angharad, daughter of Owain Gwynedd. Madog had five sons, Gruffydd Maelor II, Gruffydd Iâl, Maredudd, Hywel and Madog Fychan. He was buried at Valle Crucis, a Cistercian monastery he was the founder of.

• Background Information. ⁹²⁶
Madog ab Gruffudd Maelawr succeeded his father as the Prince of Powys Fadog in 1190. In 1200, Prince Madog, the monks of Ystrad Marchell, the ville or township of Llynheguestel, where they built a monastery. In 1202, Madog granted the monks of Valle Crucis the townships of Linneguestel, Lanegeinel, Halltyn, Cwm Kefil and the half of the ville of Mistwir and Cefn Luestyn. According to The History of the Princes, the Lord Marchers and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, Vol. I, Madog married Ysota, sister of Rhiwallywn Llwyd, and daughter of Ithel, King of Gwent, son of Rhys ab Ivor ab Hywel ab Morgan of Ewias ab Morgan Hir, a younger son of Iestyn ab Gwrgant, Prince of Glamorgan.

Prince Madog died in 1236. With Ysota, he had four sons. They were:
Gruffydd, his successor
Maredudd, Lord of Rhiwabon, where he resided at a place called Watstay (Wynnstay). He married the Princess Catherine, daughter of Gruffudd ab Llywelyn ab Iorwerth Drwyn Dwn, Prince of Wales.
Hywel, who died without issue and his lordship went to his brother Gruffudd.
Madog Fychan

Madog ap Gruffydd Maelawr also had an illegitimate son named Iorwerth Dud, who had lands in Whittington. He was the father of Gruffudd ab Iorwerth, the father of David Salop.

~ History of the Princes, The Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, Vol. I, pp. 156-163

• Background Information. ⁹⁵⁵
Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor, prince of Northern Powys, probably succeeded on the death of his father, Gruffydd Maelor, in 1191, to the greater part of that principality, and in 1197, by the death of his brother Owain, became ruler of the whole. It was in the latter year that Gwenwynwyn inherited from his father, Owain Cyfeiliog, the southern half of Powys, so that the two regions, remaining for some twenty years in the hands of these two princes, came naturally to be known as Powys Fadog and Powys Wenwynwyn.

Madog was a contemporary of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, and is at all times found acting with the minor princes whom that great ruler controlled and occasionally drove into rebellion. He joined Llywelyn, Gwenwvnwyn, and the South Welsh princes in writing to complain to Innocent III of the ecclesiastical tyranny exercised by England over Wales [Giraldus Cambrensis, De Jure et Statu Menevensis Ecclesiæ, Dist. iv.] In 1211, when John invaded Wales in order to humble Llywelyn, Madog was one of the band of princes who seized the opportunity to cast off the yoke of Gwynedd. Like the rest, he returned in 1212 to his old allegiance. His name appears in a list of Llywelyn's allies drawn up on 18 Aug. 1214 [Bridgeman, Princes of Upper-Powys, document 9], and his household troops were with the Prince of Gwynedd in the South Welsh expedition of December 1215. In 1223 he was one of the princes who undertook, in case Llywelyn did not observe his promises to the king, to make good the default [Rymer Fœdera ed. 1739, tom. i. pt. i. p. 89].

Madog died in 1236. He was the founder of Valle Crucis (or Llan Egwestl) Abbey, the building of which began in 1200. The 'Myvyrian Archaiology' contains one poem in his honor by Llywarch ab Llywelyn [2nd edit. p. 209] and two by Einion Wan [pp. 232-3].

[Sources cited by author: Annales Cambriæ, Rolls edit.; Brut y Tywysogion, Oxford edit. of the Red Book of Hergest, vol. ii.; poems in the Myvyrian Archaiology.]

~John Edward Lloyd, Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXXV, 1893 Edition, pp. 303-304

Madog married Isotta.⁹²⁶