Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/318



into North Wales to obtain the assistance of his brothers-in-law, while his wife Gwenllian, 'like an Amazon and a second Penthesilea,' commanded his followers in the south. She was slain in battle by Maurice of London, lord of Kidwelly; Morgan, one of her youthful sons by Gruffydd, perished with her, and a second, Maelgwn, was taken prisoner (ib. 78-9). But Owain and Cadwaladr, sons of Gruffydd ab Cynan, now came down from the north, destroyed Aberystwith Castle, and in the second week of October they fought along with Gruffydd ab Rhys a great battle near Aberteivi (Cardigan), in which they won a decided victory over Stephen, constable of Aberteivi, 'all the Flemings, all the marchers, and all the French from Abernedd to Aberteivi' (Brut y Tywysogion, sub an. 1135; Ann. Cambr. sub an. 1136; . ii. 97;, vi. 118). No help came to the vanquished from England (cf. Gesta Stephani, p. 13, Engl. Hist. Soc.), and Gruffydd ab Rhys seems to have been restored to considerable portions of his ancient inheritance. 'After the recovery of his lands,' says the 'Gwentian Brut' (p. 111), 'Gruffydd son of Rhys made a noble feast in the vale of Towy, and provided every dainty, every disputation in wisdom, and every amusement of vocal and instrumental music, and welcomed the bards and minstrels. And Gruffydd ab Cynan and his sons came to the feast. And after the feast Gruffydd son of Rhys convoked the wise men and scholars and took counsel and established courts in every cantrev and cymmwd. And the French and English were sorry and complained to King Stephen; but as Stephen did not know what to do he gave no answer.'

In 1137 Gruffydd was slain through the treachery of the new wife that had replaced Gwenllian ( ii. 98). ' He was, says the 'Brut y Tywysogion, 'the light, the strength, and the gentleness of the men of the south.' In recording his death the monks of the Glamorgan abbey of Margam describe him as king of the men of Dyved (Annales Monastici, i. 14). His sons (d. 1175 [q. v.], Anarawd, Maredudd, and the Lord Rhys [q. v.], succeeded to his precarious and doubtful power.

[Annales Cambriæ and Brut y Tywysogion (Rolls Ser.); Gwentian Brut y Tywysogion (Cambrian Archæological Association); Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Kambriæ, in Opera, vol. vi. (Rolls Ser.); Florence of Worcester, vol ii. (Engl. Hist. Soc.)]   GRUFFYDD RHYS (d. 1201), South Welsh prince, was the son of the Lord Rhys ab Gruffydd [q. v.], and was grandson of Gruffydd ab Rhys (d. 1137) [q. v.] His mother seems to have been Gwenllian, daughter of Madog, son of Maredudd, prince of Powys (, Itinerarium Kambriæ, in Opera vi. 15, Rolls Ser.) In 1188 he was already grown up, and was with his father when he received Archbishop Baldwin at Aberteivi (ib. p. 113). He accompanied the crusading party as far as Strata Florida ib. p. 119). The family of the Lord Rhys was broken up by fierce domestic quarrels. Maelgwn, his eldest son, was in 1189 imprioned by his father. Gruffydd now without his father's knowledge handed him over to the custody of his father-in-law William de Braose [q. v.] (Annales Cambriæ, sub an.) Deadly hostility henceforth reigned between the two brothers. In 1191 Gruffydd got possession of the castle of Llanhyver or Nevern in northern Dyved, which his father, on his instigation, had treacherously taken away from his brother-in-law, William Fitz-Martin (, vi. 111; Annales Cambriæ, sub an.) In 1192 his quarrel with Maelgwn, now again reconciled to his father, caused Rhys to fail in his siege of Swansea. A little later Nevern fell into the hands 'of the man he hated most in the world, his brother Maelgwn.' Two years later Maelgwn put his father into prison.

Rhys died on 28 April 1197. Gruffydd now paid a hasty visit to the English court, and obtained the recognition of his title. He won Peter de Leia, bishop of St. David's, to his side by submitting to be scourged as a penance for an outrage of his father on the bishop, for which Rhys had died excommunicated ('Ann. de Winton ' in Ann Mon. ii. 66). But the exiled Maelgwn soon came back, captured Aberystwith, and conquered all Ceredigion. Gruffydd at last fell into his brother's hands, and was handed over to the custody of his ally [q. v.], prince of Powys, who sold him to the king, who imprisoned him in Corfe Castle (ib. p. 68). In 1198, however, Gruffydd was released when Gwenwynwyn deserted the English. Gruffydd now managed to wrest from Maelgwn 'his share of his territory, excepting the two castles of Aberteivi and Ystradmeurig,' which Maelgwn, despite the most solemn oaths, persisted in retaining. The war of the brothers still continued. In 1199 Maelgwn got hold of Gruffydd's new castle of Dineirth, but Gruffydd possessed himself through treachery of Cilgerran, and in 1200 pressed Maelgwn so hard that he sold Aberteivi to the English rather than let his brother have it. On 22 Nov. 1200 he was at Lincoln witnessing the homage of William, king of Scots, and the funeral of St. Hugh (, iv. 142). In 1201 Gruffydd