Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/92

 a share of Gwynedd, but whatever portion he secured was lost to him in 1174, when his elder brother, David, possessed himself of the whole region. In 1175 David imprisoned him; he succeeded, however, in escaping, and before the end of the year had driven his brother out of Anglesey and the adjacent districts, making the Conway the boundary between them. He now entered into an alliance with Rhys ap Gruffydd, prince of South Wales, and married one of his daughters, a union against which Archbishop Baldwin in vain protested, on the score of consanguinity, when he visited Anglesey with Giraldus Cambrensis in 1188. In the interval between this visit and the transcription of the first edition of the Welsh ‘Itinerary’ of Giraldus (1191), Rhodri was dispossessed of all his territory by his nephews, the sons of Cynan ab Owain. In 1193 he was for a short time reinstated in Anglesey with the aid of Godred, king of Man, an episode afterwards remembered as ‘the Gaelic summer’ (Red Book of Hergest, Oxford edit. ii. 405), but before the end of the year he was again driven out by the sons of Cynan. In 1194, when Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and the sons of Cynan overthrew David, he appears to have taken his brother's side, and probably led the forces which were defeated by Llywelyn at Coed Aneu in Anglesey. As a result of his nephew's victory, he was left with a bare livelihood. He died in 1195. The ‘Myvyrian Archaiology’ contains one poem to Rhodri by Gwalchmai (2nd edit. p. 146), one by Elidyr Sais (p. 241), and four by Llywarch ap Llywelyn (pp. 201–3).

[Annales Cambriæ; Bruts in the Myvyrian Archaiology; Itinerarium Kambriæ by Giraldus Cambrensis.] 

RHUN MAELGWN (fl. 550), British king, was the son of Maelgwn Gwynedd [q. v.], whom he succeeded as ruler of North Wales about 547. The mediæval romance known as ‘Breuddwyd Rhonabwy’ introduces Rhun as ‘a tall man with curly auburn hair,’ whose privilege it is to give counsel to all comers, and to whom Arthur accordingly brings his counsellors (Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, pp. 159, 160). This conjunction of Rhun and Arthur is an anachronism, but what is said of the former suggests that he inherited from his father not only North Wales, but also the authority of ‘gwledig,’ or overlord of the other Kymric princes. According to a ‘cyfarwyddyd’ or popular tale, quoted by Iorwerth ap Madog, who in the early part of the thirteenth century compiled the Venedotian code of the laws of Hywel the Good, Rhun invaded the north in order to avenge an inroad into Arfon (the region between Bangor and the Rivals) of the northern princes Clydno Eiddyn, Nudd Hael, Mordaf Hael, and Rhydderch Hael (fl. 570), whose comrade Elidyr Mwynfawr had been previously slain in the district. The men of Arfon led the van of Rhun's host, which was so long absent from Wales that on its triumphant return Rhun granted to Arfon fourteen perpetual privileges (Ancient Laws of Wales, ed. Owen, i. 104–6). Rowlands speaks in ‘Mona Antiqua’ (ed. 1723, p. 164) of other laws made by Rhun, contained in an old manuscript styled ‘Laws of Rhun ap Maelgwyn;’ this, however, was probably only a copy of the Venedotian code containing ‘Breiniau Arfon.’ Rhun appears in the Triads as one of the three ‘blessed rulers’ of the Isle of Britain (Myv. Arch. ser. i. 9, ser. ii. 8, ser. iii. 25), and also as one of the three ‘golden-shackled’ princes of the island (ib. ser. i. 22, ser. ii. 43, ser. iii. 28), which is explained as meaning that he was too tall to ride any horse with stirrups in the ordinary way, and therefore had a chain of gold slung across the crupper of his steed to support his ankles. That he bore the surname ‘Hir,’ i.e. the tall, is known from the pedigrees in Jesus Coll. MS. 20 (Cymrodor, viii. 87) and the poetry of Meilyr Brydydd (Myvyrian Archaiology, Denbigh edit. p. 140). Rowlands asserts, without authority, that he gave his name to Caer Rhun, the ancient Conovium (Mona Ant. ed. 1723, p. 148). In the late ‘History of Taliesin,’ printed in Lady Charlotte Guest's edition of the ‘Mabinogion,’ Rhun is represented as a gallant sent to try the virtue of Elphin's wife, an attempt in which he is baffled by the substitution of maid for mistress.

[Harl. MS. 3859, and authorities cited.] 

RHYDDERCH HAEL, i.e. the Liberal, or, i.e. the Aged (fl. 580), British king, was the son of Tudwal Tudclyd ap Clynog ap Dyfnwal Hen (Harl. MS. 3859, as printed in Cymrodor, ix. 173). The seventh-century tract known as the ‘Saxon Genealogies’ mentions ‘Riderch hen’ as one of four British kings who fought against Hussa, king in Northumbria, about 590 (, ed. Mommsen, 1894, p. 206, in Mon. Germ. Hist.; Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 75). Adamnan says that ‘Rodercus filius Tothail, qui in Petra Cloithe (i.e. Alclud or Dumbarton) regnavit,’ was a friend of St. Columba, and on one occasion sent to him to inquire privately whether he would fall a victim to his foes. The saint replied that he would die in his bed, and this prophecy, says his biographer, was fulfilled