Lost princes

The Annales Cambriae for the year 1212:

“Llywelyn the leader of the North Welsh with his confederate leaders, that is Maelgwyn and Gwenwynwyn, and others of small name but powerful leaders, captured the castles the king had strengthened throughout North Wales and Powys, one after another by the strong hand. Of their garrisons part they killed, part they ransomed and some they scattered”.

The grant by King John to Owain and Gruffydd

This describes the efforts of Llywelyn the Great to destroy royal garrisons in the Perfeddwlad and parts of Powys. King John had earlier attempted to curb Llywelyn’s power by granting the cantref of Rhos except for Degannwy castle within the commote of Creuddyn to Owain ap Dafydd and Gruffydd ap Rhodri. Owain and Gruffydd were the sons of two of Llywelyn’s uncles: he had driven Dafydd into exile and framed Rhodri on charges of what we would call child abuse. The latter was done so Llywelyn could cast aside his first wife and marry Joan, King John’s daughter. Thus he was now at war with his cousins and his father-in-law.

A digital rendering of Degannwy castle

John had also granted Rhufoniog and Dyffryn Clwyd to Dafydd and Gruffydd. Llywelyn’s summer campaign in the Perfeddwlad was aimed squarely at wiping out their power. He managed to retake much of the territory from his kinsmen, though three castles - probably Degannwy, Rhuddlan and Denbigh or Basingwerk - held out. This was in spite of King John, who sent no aid to help Owain and Gruffydd repel Llywelyn’s invasion.

Owain ap Dafydd and his unnamed wife and son are never heard of again, so it is likely they were slaughtered in the conflict. Only a year later, John instructed the Bishop of Winchester to build a house of religion in the manor of Hales in Shropshire. This became known as Halesowen or Halas Owen and was named after Owain ap Dafydd, who had been lord of the manor. It is possible that the religious house was founded in memory of Owain after he perished fighting Llywelyn.

Llywelyn the Great

Gruffudd ap Rhodri pursued an interesting career. In 1214, two years after Llywelyn’s conquest of the Perfeddwlad, Gruffydd is recorded as a captain of Welsh troops in the king’s service. A man of the same name appears as prominent in the service of Llywelyn in the 1220s and 1230s, and may well be identical with the English partisan of 1212 and 1214.