was ravaged by the Saxons, who took the young children from their mothers and brought them up as Saxons-a proceeding customary with the Saxons. The same year they burnt Teganwy. In 838 the battle of Cyfeiliog was fought between Merfyn Frych and Berthrwyd, King of Mercia; and in this battle Merfyn was slain. In Merfyn's time the Britons residing in England were obliged to turn Saxons, or quit the country and their homes in three months.

In 843 RODERICK THE GREAT, the son of Merfyn Frych, became King of Gwynedd, Powys, and South Wales. In 870 the action of Llangollen took place, and there was a great slaughter. Roderick divided his kingdom. into three parts; to his eldest son, Anarawd, he gave the kingdom of Gwynedd; to Cadell, his second son, he gave the principality of South Wales, or Ceredigion, and to Merfyn, his third son, he gave the principality of Powys. Roderick bore gules, a chevron inter three roses argent, and was slain, together with his brother Gwriad, in battle against the Saxons in Môn, on a Sunday, in the year 873.

In 876 Anarawd ab Roderig became King of Gwynedd; Cadell ab Roderig, King of Ceredigion; and Mervyn ab Roderig, King of Powys.

then ruled over Powys and South Wales. Mervyn was slain in 900, and left issue three sons, 1, Llywelyn; 2, Triffin; and 3, Iarddur, who was drowned about the year 950; and a daughter Avandreg, who married Idwal Foel, King of Gwynedd. The eldest son, Llywelyn ab Mervyn, who was excluded from the crown of Powys by the usurpation of his uncle Cadell, and his cousin Hywel Dda, successively Kings of South Wales, was father of a daughter and heiress, Angharad, who married Owain ab Hywel Dda, King of South Wales, by whom she had issue two sons, Maredydd and Llywarch.

OWAIN AB HOWEL DDA, commenced his reign over South Wales on the death of his father in 948. In 962, he, with other Welsh Princes, was compelled to pay tribute to Edar, King of England. This tribute consisted of the yearly payment of 300 wolves' heads, by which means the wolves were gradually extirpated. Owain married twice; by his first consort he had two sons, Einion. and Cadwallawn, the last of whom died in 961. Einion ab Owain, the eldest son, was slain in the battle of Pen Coed Colwyn, in Gwent, in his father's lifetime, in 983, and left issue three sons, 1, Edwyn ab Einion; 2, Tudor ab Einion, who was slain at the battle of Llangwm, in Dinmael, in 993; and 3, Cadell ab Einion, whose son, Tudor ab Cadell, married Nesta, daughter of the Earl of Devonshire, by whom he had issue two sons, 1, Tudor, ancestor of the sovereign Princes of South Wales, and 2, Goronwy, who became Prince of Tegeingl, in Gwynedd. He married Ethelfleda, daughter and heiress of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and relict of Edmund Ironside, King of England, who bore azure, a cross patonce inter four crowns, or, by whom he had a son and heir, Edwyn ab Goronwy, Prince of Tegeingl, who was slain by Rhys ab Rhydderch ab Owain, in 1073.

Edwyn, the eldest son of Einion ab Owain, had issue three sons, 1, Hywel ab Edwyn, who was slain in the battle of Abertywi, by Gruffydd ab Llywelyn ab Seisyllt, in 1043; 2, Maredudd, who was slain in the battle of Machwy, in 1032, by the sons of Cynan, the brother of

VOL. I.

5

Llywelyn ab Seisyllt, in revenge for their uncle's death; and 3, Owain, the father of Rhys ab Owain, who defeated and slew Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, Prince of Powys, in 1072. Owain ab Edwyn died after a long illness.1

Owain ab Howel Dda married, secondly, Angharad, daughter and heiress of Llewelyn ab Merfyn, Prince of Powys, or, a lion's gamb, bendways, gules, the third son of Roderig the Great, by whom he had issue two sons, Maredudd, and Llywarch who was taken prisoner with two thousand troops, and had his eyes pulled out by Godfrey, the son of Harold, in 986. Owain

ab Howel Dda died in 987, was succeeded by his third son,

MAREDUDD AB OWAIN, King of all Wales. Maredudd had conquered Gwynedd in 985, in a battle that he fought with Cadwallawn ab Ieuaf, who had usurped the throne of that country, and his brother Meurig ab Ieuaf. In this battle Cadwallawn was slain, and Maredudd took Gwynedd and ruled over it. In the following year he was driven from Gwynedd by Godfrid, the son of Harold. The Principality of Powys he got from his mother, the Princess Angharad, and he possessed himself of South Wales on the death of his father Owain, in 987, to the exclusion of the sons of his eldest brother, Einion ab Owain. In this same year, 987, Maredudd was so harassed by the Danes that he consented to pay a tribute to get rid of them; this was a penny for every man in his territories, which was called the tribute of the black army. After this, his eldest nephew, Edwyn ab Einion, having obtained assistance from the Saxons and Danes, laid waste the territories of his uncle Maredudd, but a reconciliation was soon afterwards effected between Edwyn and Maredudd, which was probably completed by the death of Cadwallawn, the only son of Maredudd, who was slain at the battle of Cors Einion, in Gower, in 990,3

1 Brut y Tywysogion.

2 Ibid. In this battle the Royal Castle of Penrhyn, in Arvon, was destroyed.

3 Ibid.

in which year he had devastated Maes Yved and Gla

morgan.

In 992 the Black Danes invaded the island of Mon, and devastated it as they pleased; for Gwynedd at that time had neither head, nor owner, nor court, nor government, nor anyone who would go up on behalf of the country against strangers and spoliation. On that account, in 992, the Cymru took Idwal, the son of Meurig, one of the sons of Idwal Foel, King of Gwynedd, who died in 943, and made him prince over them, and they received assistance from Ithael, King of Glamorgan; and they put the Danes to flight with a great slaughter. Idwal was a praiseworthy and just Prince, and established government in Gwynedd, and the dispositions proper in peace and war.

In this same year, 992, the battle of Llangwm in Dinmael took place, by which Maredudd hoped to reconquer Gwynedd, but Idwal defeated him, and in this battle, Tudor ab Einion, the nephew of King Maredudd, was slain.

Soon afterwards, Edwyn, the eldest son of Einion ab Owain, was slain in the battle of Clunog, where his monument is still to be seen, bearing this inscription, "Edwini Occisio" (the slaughter of Edwin). He left two sons, who long strove for the possession of their kingdom, but only obtained possession of it for a few years. Maredudd was slain in 1033, and his brother Howel in 1042. In 994 the battle of Pen Mynydd, in Mon, took place between Idwal ab Meurig, Prince of Gwynedd, and Swayn, son of Harold, King of Denmark, in which battle Idwal was slain. Maredudd ab Owain died in 994 or 998, according to the Brut y Saeson, leaving an only daughter and heiress,

ANGHARAD, Queen of Powys and South Wales. This Princess married first Llewelyn ab Sitsyllt, one of the most celebrated Princes of Wales. The mother of Llewelyn was the Princess Trawst, daughter and heiress of Elissau, second son of Anarawd, Prince of North Wales, the eldest son of Roderick the Great. Angharad was

married to Llewelyn in the year 994, when that Prince was only fourteen years of age. In 1015 he asserted his claim to the principality of Gwynedd, as derived through his mother, and having led an army against Aeddan ab Blegwryd, who by usurpation then reigned there, in the battle which ensued Llewelyn slew him, as well as his four nephews, or sons, according to the Brut y Saeson, and thus became King of all Wales. Aeddan, who was said to have been a grandson of Morgan Mawr, King of Glamorgan, had conquered Dinefor, or South Wales, in 1000, and afterwards conquered Gwynedd. From this time the wise administration of Llewelyn was productive of the greatest prosperity to his country, and it is stated in the Welsh Chronicles that during these years the people increased wonderfully in wealth and numbers. Having thus governed Wales, in peace and prosperity, until the year 1021, an army of Irish Scots, under Awlaff, invaded South Wales, and having advanced to Caerfyrddin, were there joined by Hywel and Maredudd, the sons of Edwin ab Einion, whose family had for some years been set aside in the succession of the principality of South Wales. Llewelyn, however, obtained a decisive victory over his enemies, but soon after fell by the hand of an assassin, and his death is attributed to the treachery of Madog Min, bishop of Bangor. He left only one son, of the name of Gruffydd, who reigned from 1037 to 1064. Llewelyn erected the Castle of Rhuddlan, in which palace he usually resided, and which afterwards continued to be the royal residence during the life

of his son.1

Queen Angharad married secondly, in the year 1023, Cynfyn ab Gwrystan ab Gwaethfoed, Lord of Cibwyr, in Gwent, by whom she had two other sons, Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, and Rhiwallawn ab Cynfyn.

GRUFFUDD AB LLYWELYN AB SEISYLLT, succeeded his father as King of Gwynedd and Powys, in 1021. He several times defeated the English and Danes, and he

I Williams's Eminent Welshmen.