Revisiting the career of one of the most interesting figures from medieval Wales, outlaw prince of Powys: Owain ap Cadwgan. The first takeaway is that after the death of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, first and only king of all Wales, Wales was left in a bit of a position. Gruffudd's brothers Rhiwallon and Bleddyn, who had conspired against their brother and abetted in his destruction, were left in control of Gwynedd/Powys...1
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Rhiwallon died shortly after and so it was Bleddyn and his descendants who would go on to rule Powys for the next few centuries while the native dynasty managed to reestablish itself in Gwynedd under Gruffudd ap Cynan. Bleddyn's death resulted in a massive power vacuum that plunged Powys into a mess of civil war and general chaos as multiple branches of the family fought for control.
This absolute mess of a family would spend two generations engaged in a wild, fratricidal war for control of the kingdom and the royal dynasty would near wipe itself out through their passionate obsession with murdering and mutilating one another. Bleddyn's son Cadwgan emerges as the most prominent member of the dynasty and it was Cadwgan's son Owain who would throw all of Wales into chaos with one very famous event: the abduction of his cousin, the Princess Nest, known as the Helen of Wales for
For her beauty after the famous Helen of Troy. Helen was a prominent figure, daughter of the Royal dynasty of Deheubarth, the wife of the Norman lord Gerald of Windsor and the lover of the english king Henry I to whom she had birthed at least one illegitimate son. Nest and her husband were staying at Cilgerran when Owain attacked and kidnapped the princess and her children, forcing Gerald to flee down the toilet. There is some question over whether Nest had consented to her "abduction" but im
@mochynbrwnt I know you were in the area recently, did you visit Cilgerran?
@nic I didnt get the chance! Was a busy few days!