Dafydd ap Llywelyn

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Dafydd ap Llywelyn (c. March 1212 – 25 February 1246) was Prince of Gwynedd from 1240 to 1246.

Birth and descent

Though birth years of 1208, 1206, and 1215 have been put forward for Dafydd, it has recently been persuasively argued that he was born shortly after Easter 1212^[

to strengthen Dafydd's claim.

Conflict

There was considerable support for Gruffydd in

father's

death in 1240.

Although

Louis IX of France. In August 1241, however, the King invaded Gwynedd, and after a short campaign, Dafydd was forced to submit. Under the terms of the Treaty of Gwerneigron, he had to give up all his lands outside Gwynedd, and also to hand over to the King his half-brother Gruffydd, whom he had imprisoned. Henry thereby gained what could have been a useful weapon against Dafydd, with the possibility of setting Gruffydd up as a rival to Dafydd in Gwynedd, but in March 1244 Gruffydd fell to his death while trying to escape from the Tower of London

by climbing down a knotted sheet.

Later reign and death

This freed Dafydd's hands, and he entered into an alliance with other Welsh princes to attack English possessions in Wales. He enjoyed several successes in the north: by March 1245 he had recovered the castle of Mold along with his former possessions in modern-day Flintshire, and it is possible that the castle of Dyserth also fell to his men in the summer. In August 1245 King Henry again invaded Gwynedd, but his army suffered a defeat in a narrow pass by Dafydd's men. Undaunted, Henry proceeded as far as the river Conwy, and began building a new castle at Deganwy.

Dafydd also began diplomacy with

Since Dafydd's marriage to Isabella de Braose, daughter of William de Braose, had failed to produce an heir (though some early modern genealogists record him as having sired sons, including Dafydd^{[citation needed]}) the two elder sons of Gruffydd, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Owain ap Gruffydd, divided Gwynedd between them and continued the war with King Henry until April 1247, when Llywelyn and Owain met the King at Woodstock and came to terms with him at the cost of the loss of much territory. The pair would continue to rule over Gwynedd jointly until Llywelyn's victory over Owain at the battle of Bryn Derwin in 1255.

References

• Cussans, Thomas, The Times Kings & Queens of The British Isles,
  ISBN 0-00-714195-5
  .
• Edwards, J. G. (ed.), Calendar of Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales (Cardiff, 1935).
• Stephenson, David and Craig Owen Jones, 'The date and the context of the birth of Dafydd ap Llywelyn', Flintshire Historical Society Journal 39 (2012).