| Notes |
- Kings of Deheubarth
A Pre-Conquest Listing
www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/kingdoms
Hywel Dda (the Good) 909-950
Rhodri ap Hywel 950-953 (joint)
Edwin ap Hywel 950-954 (joint)
Owain ap Hywel 950-987 (joint)
Maredudd ab Owain 987-999
Cynan ap Hywel 999-1005
Edwin ab Einion 1005-1018
Cadell ab Einion 1005-1018
Llywelyn ap Seisyll 1018-1023
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Maredudd ab Owain ap Hywel Dda (d 999), king of Deheubarth, He succeeded his aged father as sole ruler of Deheubarth in 986, and in the same year repeated the achievement of his grandfather by reuniting Gwynedd and Deheubarth for the period of his reign. In spite of domestice disharmony, he impressed contemporaries by his bold and aggressive leadership against Saxon and Dane. His greatest claim to fame rests, perhaps, on his relationship to Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, whose mother, Angharad, was Maredudd's daughter. [Dictionary of Welsh Biography p615]
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Maredudd ab Owain (d 999?) Welsh prince, was the son of Owain ap Hywel Dda. According to the sole authority, the contemporary 'Annales Cambriae,' he lived in the second period of Danish invasion, a time of great disorder in Wales as elsewhere, and first appears as the slayer of Cadwallon ab Idwal, king of Gwynedd, and the conqueror of his realm, which, however, he lost in the ensuing year. In 988, on the death of his father Owain, he succeeded in his dominions, viz. Glower, Kidwelly, Ceredigion, and Dyfed, the latter probably including Ystrad Tywi. His reign, which lasted until 999, was mainly spent in expeditions against his neighbours (Maesyfed was attacked in 991, Morgannwg in 993, Gwynedd in 994) and in repelling the incursions of the Danes. On one occasion he is said to have redeemed his subjects from the Danes at a penny a head.
Maredudd's only son, so far as in known, died before him. But so great was the prestige he acquired in his brief reign that his daughter, Angharad, was regarded, contrary to ordinary Welsh custom, as capable of transmitting some royal right to her descendants. Her first husband, Llywelyn ap Seisyll, ruled Gwynedd from about 1010 to 1023, their son, the well-known Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, from 1039 to 1063. By her second marriage with Cynfyn ap Gwerstan she had two other son, Rhiwallon and Gleddyn, of whom the latter, with no claim on the father's side, ruled Gwynedd and Powys from 1069 to 1075 and founded the mediaeval line of princes of Powys. [Dictionary of National Biography XII:1015]
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Ruled Deheubarth 986-999. From www.castlewales. com/debarth.html.
Maredudd brought the northern and western kingdoms once more into a transitory unity. But his death opened a period of prolonged turmoil in which internal conflicts were complicated and intensified by Anglo-Saxon and Norse intervention. The established dynasties were challenged by men who asserted themselves within the kingdoms and exercised ephemeral supremacies. Of these the most successful was Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.
After Maredudd's death the combined kingdoms of Gwynedd and Deheubarth were ruled from Gwynedd by Cynan Ap Hywel from 999-1005.
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Maredudd became King of Deheubarth in 986 and directly proceeded to conquer Gwynedd. In 990 he raided and plundered Maes Hyfaidd (Radnorshire) which was then in the possession of the Mercians. In the same year the Saxons devastated his territory and in 993 it was wasted by the plague. Both the Danes and the Saxons caused him much trouble during his entire reign. His nephews also tried to regain Gwynedd, but he was successful over all his enemies. It is said that he obtained Powys through his mother which made him King of all Wales. In the Bruts he is acclaimed as the "most famous King of the Britons" (Lloyd). He died in 998 or 999 leaving an only daughter and sole heiress, Angharad. She married Llewelyn ap Sesyll, who assumed the reins of government. They had one son, Gruffydd. LLewelyn died in 1023 and the kingdom was held by others until 1039 when the son, Gruffydd, succeded to the throne. Angharad took unto herself a second husband, Cynfyn. [The Weaver Genealogy]
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Maredudd was a skilled military leader. He successfully controlled a Viking invasion of Anglesey and allowed some Viking settlement there - enabling him to use Viking forces for a raid on Morgannwg to his southeast in 992. He pushed the Saxons back across the generally recognized border between Welsh and Saxon lands.
He was, however, nagged by the designs of his nephews Tweder, Edwin and Cadell, sons of his brother Owain, who wanted some of the southern territories for themselved. Tewdwr was killed in one of these skirmished in 994.
While Maredudd ruled for thirteen years, after his death the kingdoms more or less fell apart with several competing claimants. Cynan ap Hywel, his 3rd cousin once removed, apparently ruled the combined kingdoms until his own death in 1003. They Llywelyn ap Seisyll took control of Gwynedd, and later, through marriage with Maredudd's daughter Angharad, controlled Deheubarth
Maredudd ab Owain (died c. 999) was a 10th-century king in Wales of the High Middle Ages. A member of the House of Dinefwr, his patrimony was the kingdom of Deheubarth comprising the southern realms of Dyfed, Ceredigion, and Brycheiniog. Upon the death of his father King Owain around AD 988, he also inherited the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, which he had conquered for his father. He was counted among the Kings of the Britons by the Chronicle of the Princes.
Maredudd was the younger son of King Owain of Deheubarth and the grandson of King Hywel the Good. Owain had inherited the kingdom through the early death of his brothers and Maredudd, too, came to the throne through the death of his elder brother Einion around 984. Around 986, Maredudd captured Gwynedd from its king Cadwallon ab Ieuaf. He may have controlled all Wales apart from Gwent and Morgannwg.
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938 - 1010 (72 years)
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