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
#Wales #welsh #welshhistory #medieval #medievalhistory #history #historynerd
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
erring on the side of "Owain was a prick". The abduction of a woman of Royal Welsh blood, the wife of a Norman lord with connections that ran to the very highest levels of Welsh and english society, caused a scandal and Owain was universally condemned and declared an outlaw.
His father Cadwgan appealed to him to surrender and return Nest but was ignored. His inability to control and restrain his son left Cadwgan politically vulnerable, without allies, and was deposed by Henry I and stripped of his lands which were offered to his nephews and siblings if they would bring his son to justice. Nest and her children were eventually returned to Gerald of Windsor and Owain was forced to flee to Ireland to escape his cousins Madog and Ithel ap Rhirid who were hunting him.
Cadwgan was fined and some of his lands in Ceredigion eventually returned to him on the promise that he would offer his son no further aid or support.
Madog ap Rhirid eventually fell out with the Henry I over harboring english fugitives and even murdered his uncle Iorwerth who had been sent by Henry to secure northern Powys after Cadwgan's deposition and seeing his opportunity, Owain allied himself with the fellow outlaw, the past forgotten in the face of survival and political expediency.
@mochynbrwnt
Jesus, Pobl Y Cwm has picked up since I last watched it.
@andycymro haha I would pay everything I have for a soap based on these events
@mochynbrwnt Not a soap though, a proper big budget drama!