History of the Princes of South Wales
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HISTORY OF THE BY THE REV. THE HON. GEORGE T. 0. BRIDGEMAN, M.A. PRINTED BY THOMAS BIRCH, 32, MILLGATE, WIGAN. 1876. MY DEAR As the following pages would never have been printed but for your encouragement and valuable assistance, I hope you will allow me to dedicate them to you. As you are aware, the subject was taken up by me many years ago when my time was more at my own disposal than it has been of late years. I have now availed myself of a short period of comparative rest to finish what I then began. My original purpose had been simply to identify the representation of certain princely families through the perplexing era of the Conquest of Wales, and, as far as I could, to rectify sundry errors with respect to their descent. In the course of time, however, I found myself possessed of a considerable number of original deeds bearing upon their earlier history and carrying me back to the time of their greater power when they ruled their respective dominions as indepen- dent sovereigns. This caused me to study Welsh history more closely, and induced me to trace their chequered fortunes through a longer period. In so doing I have endeavoured to separate the history of that portion of South Wales in which their territories lay from the general history of the Principality. During the earlier part of the narrative my information has been mostly taken from the Brut-y- Tywysogion or Chronicle of the British Princes, verified and supple- mented by the accounts of such contemporary writers as treated of Wales and the Borders. During the latter parf it has been chiefly extracted from original records. From this it will appear that the work pretends to no originality, being little more than a compila- tion of facts recorded by early historians or preserved in MS. among 2201 8K 111. the Eoyal Archives. Experience has taught me that the sources from which derive our information are different in value I we very ; have, therefore, given copious references to my respective authorities, so that the reader may judge for himself of the amount of credibility due to them. To "Welsh eyes the orthography will doubtless appear defective in from the correct Welsh ; but, departing spelling, my object has been to bring the names of persons and places into better accord- ance with the official language, as made use of in the Latin medieval documents, and at that time of common acceptance between the English and the Welsh. This explanation may serve, perhaps, as a sufficient preface to the work. But I cannot conclude without expres- sing to you my most sincere thanks for the kind interest you have taken in its preparation for the press. Believe me, Very sincerely yours, GEOEGE T. 0. BEIDGEMAN. THE HALL, WIQAN, SEPTEMBEB 15, 1876. THE EEV. EGBERT W. EYTON, IWEBNB HOUSE, BLANDFOBD, INTRODUCTION. The history of the subjugation of Wales has received such a very partial consideration from those who have written upon it as a detached page of British history, that it seems desirable to investigate it more closely, and to compare it with such original documents as we still possess. The chief difficulty which meets the student of Welsh medieval history is the scarcity of official deeds. The writings of the early chroniclers, though singularly faithful on the whole, cannot always be implicitly trusted, and it is not often that the facts they record can be authenticated by contemporaneous documents. Heraldic afford but little indeed often serve Pedigrees help ; they rather to mislead than assist the for enquirer ; thougli many of them have been preserved by their owners with praiseworthy care for several hundred years, they have been drawn up from the first with palpable inaccuracies and without any regard for dates. The Royal House of Dynevor is the subject of our present enquiries. The history of this eminent race of Princes, who so long baffled all the efforts of the English monarchs to reduce them to subjection, has never been fully or separately written. I have here arranged such notes of their doings as I have been able to collect. Such notes were too scanty to have assumed the preferable form of but I have endeavoured to personal biography ; follow these Princes through their highest and lowest estate, and afterwards to trace their descendants, from public records and other credible sources, to a period subsequent to the conquest of Wales by King Edward I, when they ceased to exist as independent rulers and are gradually lost sight of in general history. Where more authentic documents have failed I have chiefly followed the Brut-y-Tywysogion : and as this is the source from which those who have written on the subject appear to have principally derived their earlier information, I have thought it advisable to adopt the phraseology of the ancient chronicler whenever it seemed to convey more accurately the true meaning of the original compiler. But whereas the first portion of this yi. INTRODUCTION. memoir was nearly completed before the late accurate rendering of the Brut was given to the public, under the 1 I have in some cases auspices of the Record commission, retained the quaint language of Dr. Powel's version where no undue liberty appears to have been taken with the original. Dr. In his preface to the History of Wales Powel says that one of the things which made him the more willing " to publish his work was the slanderous report of such writers as in their bookes do inforce everie thing that is done by the Welshmen to their discredit, leaving out all the causes and circumstances of the same : which [writers] doo most commonlie not onelie elevate or dissemble all the injuries and wrongs offered and done to the Welshmen, but also conceale or deface all the actes worthie of com- mendation atchieved by them." There is doubtless much of truth in these remarks. The want of faith with which the Welsh have been charged, by English historians, in dealing with their victorious rivals may fairly be attributed to the continued violence and oppression of those Norman adventurers, who first settled upon their lands and then availed themselves of every pretext to wrest them from their native owners. Nor were the Normans on their part a whit less scrupulous in breaking their treaties with the Welsh. We cannot be too thankful that England and Wales should have been thus early united under one common rule but it does not become us as ; Englishmen to depreciate the conduct of a brave people in their long continued struggle for independence, nor to stigmatize them as mere rebels and truce-breakers, because they would not tamely submit to the tyranny of foreign oppressors. Nor yet must we lose sight of the fact that the unjust spoliations and robberies of the latter, if not actually encouraged, were generally overlooked and pardoned by the English monarchs, who professed to administer impartial justice, whilst the wrongs of the Welsh remained unredressed, and their just complaints too often unheeded. l Brut-y-Tywysogion, Edited by the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, Eector of Llanymowddwy. 1860. Another version of the Brut, The Gwentian Chronicle, has been more recently published by the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1863. In my future references, where the Brut-y-Tywysogion is quoted, the former of these versions is ordinarily intended, and the other will be referred to as the Gwentian Chronicle. HISTORY OF THE PRINCES OF SOUTH WALES. CHAPTER I. On the dissolution of the Roman power in Great Britain, at the close of the fourth century, the governments reverted to those Reguli who were descended from the ancient sovereigns. They had been but little interfered with, indeed, by the Romans, who, with a policy peculiar to themselves, permitted the kingly office, in the full extent of its ancient authority, to remain in 1 many of the British provinces. Thus Wales continued to be governed by several chieftains or petty kings who ruled over different portions of the country, until the whole was nominally united into one kingdom under the dominion of Roderic the Great, in the 9th century. Roderic was the son of Mervyn Vrych (or the Freckled), the son of Gwyriad or Uriet, the son of Elidur, and so upwards in the right line to Belinus the brother of Brennus 2 King of the Britaines. His mother was Esylht the daughter and heiress of Conan Tyndaethwy King or Prince of Gwyneth, the son of Roderic, the son of Edwal Ywrch, the son of Cadwalader last King of the Britaines. 3 And his grandmother Nest, the mother of Mervyn, was the daughter of Cadell, Prince of Powis, the descendant of Brochwel Yscithroc, King or Prince of Powis. Mervyn is said to have been slain in battle with Berthred of Mercia which Roderic succeeded King ; upon to the dominion of North Wales. This battle is placed the and Annales Cambriae'in 844 by Brut-y-Tywysogion ; by the Gwentian Chronicle about 838. The Principality i 2 Warrington's Hist, of Wale*, Vol. I. p. 33. Powel's Hist, of Wales 3 (ed. of 1584), p. 19. Ihi.l. 2 PRINCES OF SOUTH WALES. of Powis fell to him soon after in right of his grandmother Prince Nest, the sister and heiress of Concenn ap Cadell, 1 married of Powis, who died at Rome in 854. And having the daughter of Meyric ap Dyfnwal, and sister Angharad, 2 and heiress of Gwgan ap Meyric, King of Cardigan, who 3 was drowned in 870 or 871, Roderic acquired the king- dom of Cardigan in her right, and thus became sovereign of all for the lesser chieftains of Wales ; Dyvet, Gwent, Brecheinoc, and Morganwg are said to have acknowledged his supremacy.