belled against Prince Gruffudd. King Trahaiarn however, although conquered and a fugitive, perceiving this, went to Powys and implored the chiefs to aid him with an army to avenge the death of his blood-relation (consanguinei sui) Cynwrig ab Rhiwallawn. Upon this, Gwrgan ab Seisyllt ab Ithael ab Gwrystan ab Gwaethfoed, King of Powys, joined his forces with those of Trahaiarn, and marched their army to Gwynedd. On their arrival they were joined by the three sons of Merwydd ab Collwyn, and all the men of Lleyn and Evionydd, and two chieftains of Mon, Tudor and Collwyn, who were brothers. Gruffudd immediately assembled what forces he could from Mon and Arvon, and with the Danes and Irish who were with him, he met the army of Trahaiarn, and a cruel and bloody battle ensued at a place near Harddlech, called Bron yr Erw, or Erw yr Allt, in which neither party gave any quarter to the other, but fought it out to the bitter end. In this battle heiress of Madryn, married John Wynne of Wernfawr, Esquire, whose line is now represented by Thomas Love Duncombe Jones Parry, of Madryn, Esq., F.S.A., J.P. and D.L.; Owen of Pen y Coed or Plâs Dû in Llanarmon in Lleyn; John ab Hywel Fychan of Y Perkyn in Llanystundwy in Eivionydd, now represented by W. W. E. Wynne, of Peniarth, Esq.; Vaughan of Beaumaris, Evans of Bwlch Coed Dyffryn, or Tan y Bwlch, now represented by the Oakleys of Plâs Tan y Bwlch; Prytherchs of Tref Gaian in Cwmmwd Menai, whose heiress and representative, Margaret Lloyd, married Thomas Parry Jones. Parry, of Llwyn On, in Maelor Gymraeg, Esq., second son of Thomas Parry Jones Parry, of Llwyn On, and Madryn, Esq., by whom she had a son and heir, the late Robert Lloyd Jones Parry of Tref Gaian, Esq., who assumed his mother's name of Lloyd, upon succeeding to the estate of Tref Gaian, and married Mary Isabella, only daughter of Edward Owen Snow, Esq., by whom he had issue, one son, Thomas Edward John Lloyd, and two daughters, Mary Evelyn Mailland, and Mabel, who married John Aspinall, of Standen, Esq. The cantref of Eivionydd contains the parishes of Beddgelert, Crûgaeth, Ynys Cynhaiaru, Treflys, Llanfihang] y Pennant, Llangybi, Llanarmon, Pen Morfa, and Dol Beumaen. The cantref of Ardudwy contains the parishes of Ffestiniog, Maen Twrog, Llanaber or Abermaw, Llanelltyd, Llandanwg, Llanbedr, Llanenddwyn, Llanddwye, Llanfair, Llanfihangl y Traethau, Llandecwyn, Llanfrothen, Penryhn Deudraeth, and Trawsfynydd. Gruffudd was defeated, and being desperately wounded was carried off the field of battle by Gwyn, Lord of Môn, to his ships, which were lying in the port of Aber Menai. From thence they made for the island called Ynys y Moelrhoneaid (Insula Phocarum), from whence they sailed for Llwch Garmaw in Ireland. About this time Goronwy and Llywelyn, the sons of Prince Cadwgan ab Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, led an army a second time against Rhys ab Owain ab Edwyn ab Einion, Prince of Dinefor, who met them, and a severe battle took place between, at a place called Pwll Gwttig, in which the sons of Prince Cadwgan overcame Rhys ab Owain, who fled, and Trahaiarn ab Caradawg pursued him so closely that he captured him, and his brother Hywel besides, and put them both to death, in revenge for the slaughter of his uncle Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, which was a merciless action, as they were princes by privilege and right.1 In 1079 Gwrgeneu ab Seisyllt, King of Powys, was slain by Tudor, Elidur, and Iddon, the sons of Rhys Sais, lord of Chirk, Whittington, Oswestry, Maelor Saesneg and Nanheudwy. In 1080, Gruffudd ab Cynan, who had been staying a year in Ireland with King Diarmid, equipped a fleet and set sail from that country, with an army of Danes, Irish, and Britons, in the hopes of regaining his principality of Gwynedd. He landed at Porth Clais, near the Archiepiscopal See of Mynyw (St. David's), where he was met by Rhys ab Tudor, Prince of South Wales, who implored his assistance against his enemies, who were devastating his territories. When Gruffudd found out that the enemies of Prince Rhys were his own also, he determined to aid him with all his might, and they immediately marched their united armies against their common enemy. After a long march they came, towards the evening, near some hills called Mynydd Y Garn, where the army Brut y Tywysogion. 2 Brut y Saeson, Cae Cyriog MS. of King Trahaiarn and his men of Arwystli (cum suis etiam Arustlianis), his nephews, Caradog, Gruffudd and Meilir, the sons of Rhiwallawn ab Cynfyn ab Gwaethfoed, with the army of Powys and Caradawg ab Gruffudd, King of Gwent, were encamped. Although the evening was drawing on, and in consequence Rhys ab Tudor wished to put off the attack till the following morning, Gruffudd overruled him, and they immediately commenced the attack, and one of the most bloody battles in our annals was fought, in which the army of King Trahaiarn was totally defeated, and he himself was pierced through his body, so that he lay on his face dead on the ground, with his arms by him, and his teeth bit the grass, and Gwcharis, an Irishman, made bacon of him like a hog. And on that same spot there fell around him, of his own retinue, five-and-twenty knights, while others of them were slain in the front of the battle. Many thousands of them were killed, and the rest turned their backs on the men of Gwynedd and betook themselves to flight. Amongst the slain were the King's nephews, Caradog (according to the Brut y Saeson), Gruffudd, and Meilir, the three sons of Rhiwallawn ab Cynfyn ab Gwaethfoed. Then Gruffudd, after his accustomed manner when victorious, pursued them, he and his company, through the woods and glens, and swamps and mountains, all that night by the light of the moon, and all the following day, and scarcely one of them escaped from the combat to their own country. After devastating that country, and having taken great spoil, Gruffudd marched his forces to Arwystli, which he devastated by fire and sword, destroyed and massacred the common people, and burnt their houses and carried away their wives and maidens into captivity, and thus he exacted retribution from Trahaiarn ab Caradog. From Arwystli he marched into Powys, which he devastated in like manner, and spared not the enclosures of the churches. TO TRAHAIARN AND MEILYR. Meilyr, the bard, sang this ode during the campaign in which were slain Trahaiarn, the son of Caradawg, and Meilyr son of Rhiwallawn, son of Cynfyn." "I will adore my God, the King of Heaven, The Lord who knows my affliction. With trouble am I troubled sorely For my Lord, the ruler of many a homestead. Verily the second time are they come, the savage people, The Gwyddelians, black dæmons, The Scots, half men, half brutes! In Carn Mountain is a battle, And Trahaiarn is slain, And the son of Rhiwallawn, lord of the seas, From the conflict will not return. On Thursday, at the end of three weeks, Trahaiarn ab Caradawg had issue by his consort, the Princess Annesta, five sons : 1. Llywarch ab Trahaiarn, of whom presently. 2. Meurig ab Trahaiarn, who was slain in the spring of 1105, by Sir Owain ab Cadwgawn ab Bleddyn. 3. Gruffudd ab Trahaiarn, slain with his brother Meurig by Sir Owain ab Cadwgawn. 4. Ednowain ab Trahaiarn, who married Jane, daughter and heiress of Iorwerth ab Howel Fychan, descended from Elystan Glodrhudd, Prince of Ferlis, by whom he had a son, leuaf ab Ednowain, the father of Howel ab leuaf, lord of Arwystli, of whom presently. 5. Madog ab Trahaiarn, who bore argent, a lion rampant, gules. Annesta, one of the daughters of King Trahaiarn ab Caradawg, became the wife of Bernard de Newmarch, the Norman lord of Brecon, who bore gules, five lozenges conjoined in fess, or. Howel ab Ieuaf married Merinedd, daughter of Gruf 1 This elegy was translated by Howel W. Lloyd, Esq., and is to be found in the Mont. Coll., vol. 1x, ii, October 1876, p. 302. 78 HISTORY OF POWYS FADOG. fudd ab Cynan, King of Gwynedd, who took possession of Arwystli when he defeated and slew Trahaiarn ab Caradawg at the bloody battle of Mynydd Y Garn; and Gruffudd ab Cynan gave Arwystli as a marriage portion with his daughter to Howel ab Ieuaf, who thus became lord of Arwystli.' Howel bore gules, a lion rampant argent, crowned or, and langued azure. The arms of his father-in-law, Gruffudd ab Cynan, who died in 1136, aged 82, and was buried in Bangor Cathedral, were gules, three lions passant in pale argent, armed and langued azure. In the year 1162, Howel ab Ieuaf got possession of the Castle of Tafal Wern, in Cyfeiliog by treachery. And for that cause, Owain Gwynedd was so grieved, that neither the beauty of his kingdom, nor the comfort to be derived from anything else, could soothe or take away his regret. And yet, while suffering under so painful a sorrow, Owain took comfort in the providence of God who had raised him. Because the same Owain marched an army to Arwystli as far as Llan Dinam, and having taken great spoil from them, the men of Arwystli, to the number of three hundred, were obliged to join Hywel ab Ieuaf, the Lord of Arwystli, to retake the spoil. And when Owain saw his enemies coming suddenly, he ordered his men to fight them at once, and the enemy was driven to flight, being killed. by Owain and his men, and it was by a narrow escape that any of them reached home by flight. And when the joy of this victory filled the mind of Owain, then, after being freed from his sorrow, he returned to his usual state of mind, and rebuilt his castle immediately. Hywel ab Ieuaf died in the year 1185, and was buried in Strata Florida Abbey. He was the ancestor of the Powells of Ednop in Llan Ieuan, the Griffiths of Sutton, near Montgomery, and of several other families in Carno, in the Lordship of Arwystli. After the death of Trahaiarn ab Caradawg in 1080, 1 Lewys Dunn, vol. ii, p. 207, art. Mwssoglen. |