N A N N A U

Under the Auspices of The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion

MERFYN FRYCH (died 844), king of Gwynedd

He was the son of GWRIAD, probably a Manx cheiftan and a reputed descendant of LLYWARCH HEN, by ETHYLLT, a princess of Gwynedd. On the death, in 825, of HYWEL AP RHODRI MOLWYNOG (q.v.), his mother's uncle, he became king in Anglesey, and later, on the death of HYWEL AP CARADOG, appears to have acquired the kingship of the adjacent mainland cantrefs. Thus were united in the inheritances of the last direct descendants in Gwynedd of the line of CUNEDDA WLEDIG. He married NEST, daughter of CADELL AP BROCHWEL of Powys. RHODRI MAWR (q.v.) was their son.

RHODRI MAWR ('the Great') (died 877), king of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth

He was son of MERFYN FRYCH (q.v.) by NEST, daughter of CADELL AP BROCHWEL of Powys. He succeeded his father as king of Gwynedd in 844. In 855, on the death of his uncle, CYNGEN, he became king of Powys, and in 872, when GWGON, king of Seisyllwg (Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi) and brother to his wife, ANGHARAD, died, the southern realm came under his rule. There was thus created for the first time a loose union of at least three major Welsh provinces, and though dissolved at Rhodri's death, this temporary association gave birth to an aspiration which coloured the outlook of successive generations of Rhodri's descendants as rulers of Deheubarth or Gwynedd down to the loss of Welsh independence. In his life-time Wales was gravely menaced by the Danes, and evidence exists pointing to bold and vigorous leadership during the crisis. It would appear that he died in battle against the Saxons, leaving six sons of whom two became founders of medieval dynasties, ANARAWD (q.v.) of the house of Aberffraw, and CADELL (q.v.), father of HYWEL DDA (q.v.), of the house of Dinefwr.

CYNAN DINDAETHWY (died 816), prince

He was, according to the oldest pedigree, the son of RHODRI, a grandson of CADWALADR (died 664) (q.v.). Inasmuch as Rhodri (usually found with the epithet of 'MOLWYNOG') died in 754 and CYNAN is first mentioned in 813, this descent is open to question. His brief appearance in history gathers round a struggle with a certain Hywel, whom dr. David Powel treats as his brother, for the possession of Anglesey. In 814 Hywel was the victor, but cynan won back the island in 816, only to die in that year. According to the life of GRUFFUDD AP CYNAN (q.v.), his descendant, he was of Castell Dindaethwy, which has been identified with the hill-fort near Plas Cadnant, in the parish of Llandysilio ('Inv. Anglesey', xciii). He left a daughter, ETHYLLT (for the form see Rhys, 'Celtic Folklore', 480, n.), who became the mother of MERFYN FRYCH (died 844) (q.v.) and thereby foundress of the royal houses of Gwynedd and Deheubarth in the Middle Ages.

RHODRI MOLWYNOG (died 754), king of Gwynedd

He was son of IDWAL son of CADWALADR (died 664) (q.v.) of the line of CUNEDDA WLEDIG (q.v.). He was succeeded by two sons, HYWEL (died 825) (q.v.) and CYNAN.

HYWEL AP RHODRI MOLWYNOG (died 825), king of Gwynedd

He was great-grandson of CADWALADR (died 664) (q.v.), and the last king in Anglesey of the line of CUNEDDA (q.v.). The blood of Cunedda was transmitted, on hywel's death, to a new royal house through his neice, ETHYLLT (grandmother of RHODRI the Great) (q.v.), daughter of his brother, CYNAN (died 816), with whom he had long contested Anglesey.

GWGON AP MEURIG (died 871), king of Ceredigion, and the last of the line of CEREDIG.

According to the Chronicle of the Princes he was drowned in the year 871. His sister, ANGHARAD, married RHODRI MAWR (q.v.). On the death of Gwgon this gave Rhodri a sufficient pretext for intervening in the affairs of the state of seisyllwg, formed rather more than a century earlier by the union of Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi.

CADWALADR (died 664), prince

He was the son of CADWALLON AP CADFAN (q.v.). on his father's death in 633, Gwynedd fell under the power of an adventurer, Cadafael ap Cynfedw, whose rule seems to have ended with his ingnominious retreat from the battlefield of Winwed Field in 654. Cadwaladr then came to his own, but fell a victim to the great pestilence of 664. Uneventful as was his reign, he became a great figure in later bardic lore. In the prophecies of Merlin, for instance, as handled by Geoffrey of Monmouth, it is foretold that Cadwaladr will summon Cynan and will make a treaty with Alben (Scotland). That Cadwaladr would return to lead the British race to victory over the Saxons became a commonplace of the cywyddau brud, the darkly phrased poems in which the bards shrouded their incitements to national resistance. Henry VII claimed descent from the popular hero 'in the twenty second degree' (Wynne, 336) and the red dragon of Cadwaladr was one of the three standards which he offered up at S. Paul's in 1485. But he also appears in a very different character, as Cadwaladr the Blessed, the patron saint of Llangadwaladr in Anglesey, Llangadwaladr in Denbs., and Bishton, formerly, Llangadwaladr, in Monmouth. In the oldest form of the 'Pedigrees of the Saints', the saint is said to be the uncle of Iago ap Beli (Br. SS., iv, 369), i.e. great-uncle of the prince, and it is possible that two members of the same family have been confused. Geoffrey of Monmouth winds up his 'History of the Kings of Britian' with his own fanciful version of the doings of Cadwaladr and ends by tacking on to the story the particulars recorded by Bede of the death of Cadwalla of Wessex.