25 Facts About Owain Gwynedd

Owain Gwynedd was called Owain the Great and the first to be styled "Prince of Wales".

Owain Gwynedd is considered to be the most successful of all the North Welsh princes prior to his grandson, Llywelyn the Great.

Owain Gwynedd became known as Owain Gwynedd to distinguish him from the contemporary king of Powys Wenwynwyn, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Maredudd, who became known as Owain Cyfeiliog.

Owain Gwynedd was a member of the House of Aberffraw, the senior branch of the dynasty of Rhodri the Great.

Owain Gwynedd's father, Gruffudd ap Cynan, was a strong and long-lived ruler who had made the principality of Gwynedd the most influential in Wales during the sixty-two years of his reign, using the island of Anglesey as his power base.

Owain Gwynedd was the second son of Gruffydd and Angharad.

On behalf of his father, Gruffydd ap Cynan, Owain Gwynedd directed military operations to the "cantrefs of Meirionydd, Rhos, Rhufoniog, and Dyffryn Clwyd to Owain Gwynedd proper", and it was against the Normans, with Rhys ap Gruffydd he secured a victory at the Battle of Crug Mawr and the temporary occupation of Kingdom of Ceredigion.

On Gruffydd's death in 1137, Owain Gwynedd inherited a portion of a well-established kingdom, but had to share it with Cadwaladr.

Henry's forces ravaged eastern Owain Gwynedd and destroyed many churches thus enraging the local population.

Owain Gwynedd's men ambushed the royal army in a narrow, wooded valley, routing it completely with King Henry himself narrowly avoiding capture.

Ultimately, at the end of the campaign, Owain Gwynedd was forced to come to terms with Henry, being obliged to surrender Rhuddlan and other conquests in the east.

Forty years after these events, the scholar Gerald of Wales, in a rare quote from these times, wrote what Owain Gwynedd said to his troops on the eve of battle:.

Madog ap Maredudd died in 1160, enabling Owain Gwynedd to regain territory in the east.

Henry did not invade Gwynedd again and Owain was able to regain his eastern conquests, recapturing Rhuddlan castle in 1167 after a siege of three months.

The last years of Owain Gwynedd's life were spent in disputes with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, over the appointment of a new Bishop of Bangor.

The archbishop refused to accept this, so Owain Gwynedd had Arthur consecrated in Ireland.

Owain Gwynedd was put under pressure by the Archbishop and the Pope to put aside his second wife, Cristin, who was his first cousin, this relationship making the marriage invalid under church law.

Owain Gwynedd died in 1170, and despite having been excommunicated was buried in Bangor Cathedral by the local clergy.

Owain Gwynedd is believed to have commissioned The Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan, an account of his father's life.

Owain Gwynedd had a number of illegitimate sons, who by Welsh law had an equal claim on the inheritance if acknowledged by their father.

Owain Gwynedd was married, firstly to Gwladus daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaearn, and then his cousin Cristin verch Goronwy.

Altogether, the prolific Owain Gwynedd is said to have had the following children from two wives and at least four mistresses:.

Owain Gwynedd is a recurring character in the Brother Cadfael series of novels by Ellis Peters, often referred to, and appearing in the novels Dead Man's Ransom and The Summer of the Danes.

Owain Gwynedd appears as a minor character in novels of Sharon Kay Penman concerning Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Owain Gwynedd's focus with respect to Owain is on the fluctuating and factious relationship between England and Wales.