Rhys ap Gruffydd, commonly known as The Lord Rhys, in Welsh Yr Arglwydd Rhys was the ruler of the Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth in south Wales from 1155 to 1197. It was believed that he usually used the title "Proprietary Prince of Deheubarth" or "Prince of South Wales"; however, two documents have been discovered in which he uses the title "Prince of Wales" or "Prince of the Welsh". Rhys was one of the most successful and powerful Welsh leaders of the Middle Ages, and after the death of the king of Gwynedd, Owain Gwynedd in 1170, he was the dominant power in Wales.
Deheubarth was a regional name for the realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to Gwynedd. It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under the House of Dinefwr, but that Deheubarth itself was not considered a proper kingdom on the model of Gwynedd, Powys, or Dyfed is shown by its rendering in Latin as dextralis pars or as Britonnes dexterales and not as a named land. In the oldest British writers, Deheubarth was used for all of modern Wales to distinguish it from Hen Ogledd, the northern lands whence Cunedda and the Cymry originated.
Nest ferch Rhys was the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last King of Deheubarth in Wales, by his wife, Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of Powys. Her family is of the House of Dinefwr. Nest was the wife of Gerald de Windsor, Constable of Pembroke Castle and son of the Constable of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, by whom she was the ancestress of the FitzGerald dynasty.
Rhys ap Tewdwr was a king of Deheubarth in Wales and member of the Dinefwr dynasty, a branch descended from Rhodri the Great. He was born in the area which is now Carmarthenshire and died at the battle of Brecon in April 1093.
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, sometimes spelled Blethyn, was an 11th-century Welsh king. Harold Godwinson and Tostig Godwinson installed him and his brother, Rhiwallon, as the co-rulers of Gwynedd on his father's death in 1063, during their destruction of the kingdom of Bleddyn's half-brother, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. He became king of Powys and co-ruler of the Kingdom of Powys with his brother Rhiwallon from 1063 to 1075. His descendants continued to rule Powys as the House of Mathrafal.
Llywelyn ap Seisyll was an 11th-century King of Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth.
Maredudd ab Owain 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.
Wiston Castle is a motte and bailey castle in the Pembrokeshire village of Wiston in south west Wales and is one of the best examples of its type in Wales. The castle and village were founded by Wizo, a Flemish settler who was granted the land by Henry I of England after he had wrested control from the previous owner, Arnulf de Montgomery. The castle was captured by the Welsh on several occasions but on each occasion it was retaken. It was abandoned during the thirteenth century when the then owner moved to nearby Picton Castle.
Brycheiniog was an independent kingdom in South Wales in the Early Middle Ages. It often acted as a buffer state between England to the east and the south Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth to the west. It was conquered and pacified by the Normans between 1088 and 1095, though it remained Welsh in character. It was transformed into the Lordship of Brecknock and later formed the southern and larger part of the historic county of Brecknockshire. To its south was the Kingdom of Morgannwg.
Picton Castle is a medieval castle near Haverfordwest in the community of Uzmaston, Boulston and Slebech, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Originally built at the end of the 13th century by a Flemish knight, it later came into the hands of Sir John Wogan. The Castle and estate is now run by the Picton Castle Trust, a registered charity, and is no longer occupied by Wogan's descendants, the Philipps family. It is of unusual construction and has been remodelled several times during its history. It is a Grade I listed building.
Rhain ap Cadwgan was an 8th-century king of Dyfed and Brycheiniog in Wales of the Early Middle Ages. He succeeded his father Cadwgan, who succeeded his father Caten ap Cloten.
The Kingdom of Dyfed, one of several Welsh petty kingdoms that emerged in 5th-century sub-Roman Britain in southwest Wales, was based on the former territory of the Demetae. The Normans invaded Wales, and by 1138 incorporated Dyfed into a new shire called Pembrokeshire after the Norman castle built in the Cantref of Penfro and under the rule of the Marcher Earl of Pembroke.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1001–1100 to Wales and its people.
Wales in the Middle Ages covers the history of the country that is now called Wales, from the departure of the Romans in the early fifth century, until the annexation of Wales into the Kingdom of England in the early sixteenth century.
The history of Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th through the 13th centuries. Gwynedd, located in the north of Wales, eventually became the most dominant of Welsh kingdoms during this period. Distinctive achievements in Gwynedd include further development of Medieval Welsh literature, particularly poets known as the Beirdd y Tywysogion associated with the court of Gwynedd; the reformation of bardic schools; and the continued development of Cyfraith Hywel. All three of these further contributed to the development of a Welsh national identity in the face of Anglo-Norman encroachment of Wales.
The House of Aberffraw was a cadet branch of the Kingdom of Gwynedd originating from the sons of Rhodri the Great in the 9th century. Establishing the Royal court of the Aberffraw Commote would begin a new location from which to rule Wales. The cadet branch achieved the recognised title of Prince of Wales, and were sometimes named King of Aberffraw.
Einion ap Collwyn, was a Welsh prince and warrior supposed to have existed in the eleventh century. Not mentioned in medieval chronicles, he is the subject of possibly legendary or fictional writings from the sixteenth century onwards, the oldest surviving report being that of the Tudor antiquary John Leland. Some Welsh family genealogies claimed descent from Einion.
Owain son of Maredudd was a king of Dyfed who ruled briefly at the beginning of the 9th century between his brother Rhain and his nephew Triffyn. His death was noted by the undated Annals of Wales. Phillimore's reconstruction places the entry at AD 810.
Rhain son of Maredudd was a king of Dyfed. He ruled following his father Maredudd ap Tewdws and was succeeded by his brother Owain. His son Triffyn then succeeded Owain.
