Murky Mortimers

A charter dated 1 May 1281, in which the abbot of Tal-y-Llychau pledged the abbey’s lands of Brechfa in Gothi and and the land of Brechfa except for Llanegwad to Rhys ap Maredudd for eighteen years.

The first name on the witness list to the charter is Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, the only ‘Englishman’ among the otherwise Welsh names. The Anglicised form of Mortimer’s name is deceptive: he was a grandson of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and a nephew of Dafydd ap Llywelyn, as well as third cousin to Rhys ap Maredudd and first cousin to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.

Mortimer involved himself deeply in the affairs of Pura Wallia at this time. A few months later, on 9 October, he met Prince Llywelyn at Mortimer’s castle at Radnor and entered into a ‘peace treaty and unbreakable agreement’ with his kinsman and old rival. This was probably on Llywelyn’s instigation and meant to secure Mortimer’s support against Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn. Or was there more to it?

Llywelyn was the son of Gruffydd, whom Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth had barred from the succession to Gwynedd on the grounds that he was the son of a ‘slave girl’; this was so Prince Llywelyn could put aside his first wife and marry Joan Plantagenet, daughter of King John. Roger Mortimer, on the other hand, was the grandson of the illegitimate but legitimised Princess Joan, which meant he had the blood of the English and Welsh royal families in his veins.

 Roger was also the eldest surviving direct heir of his uncle, Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth had deliberately excluded Grufydd and his brothers from the succession while Prince Dafydd and his bodily heirs lived. Dafydd had died in 1246 without an heir, but he left six uterine sisters. All but one of these had male heirs, of which Mortimer was the eldest. Under Welsh law it was technically impossible for a female to inherit land, but it was not impossible for a member of a royal family to stake a claim through the female line.

There is also the question of how Llywelyn ap Gruffudd rose to power in Gwynedd in the first place. There was no ‘coronation ceremony’ in 1246: instead Llywelyn and his brother Owain Goch seized power after the death of Prince Dafydd. Since they were both sons of a man who had been declared a bastard by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, neither had any automatic right to inherit.

This may explain why Llywelyn had no male heirs of his body, and made efforts to mend fences with Mortimer in 1281. Did Llywelyn intend to hand the crown of Wales over to his cousin Mortimer? His brother Dafydd was an outcast at this point, while Owain was in prison and Rhodri had sold off his rights to the principality.

Prince Rosser ap Ralf ap Llywelyn of Wales?