Maelgwn ap Rhys

Maelgwn ap Rhys (c. 1170–1230^[1]) was prince of part of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south west Wales.

Maelgwn was the son of

Giraldus Cambrensis travelled through Wales raising men for the Third Crusade

, Maelgwn is recorded as having taken the cross, though there is no record that he actually went on the crusade.

Maelgwn was described as being short in stature and a turbulent character, who caused his father much trouble in his later years and maintained a lengthy feud with his brother

John of England and sold Cardigan castle to John, taking possession of the remainder of Ceredigion himself. The annalist of Brut y Tywysogion

commented:

In that year, about the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen, Maelgwn ap Rhys, for fear and hatred of his brother Gruffydd, sold to the English for little profit the key and keeping of all Wales, the castle of Aber Teifi [Cardigan]

Gruffydd died in 1201, enabling Maelgwn to seize Cilgerran Castle, but in 1204 he lost it to William Marshall. In 1204 Maelgwn's men attacked his brother Hywel, leaving him with wounds of which he later died. In 1205 according to Brut y Tywysogion, Maelgwn caused a certain Irishman to kill Cedifor ap Gruffudd and his four sons with a battle-axe after they had been captured. The chronicler of Brut y Tywysogion again disapproved, describing Cedifor as "a praiseworthy man, gracious, strong and generous".

In 1207 Maelgwn's ally, Gwenwynwyn of Powys fell out with King John and his lands were taken into the custody of the crown.

Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd took advantage of this to annex the northern part of Ceredigion from Maelgwn and to give the lands between the River Ystwyth and the River Aeron to the sons of Gruffydd. Maelgwn helped King John to force Llywelyn to come to terms in 1211 but these lands were not returned to him, and this induced him to throw in his lot with Llywelyn instead of the king. However, when Llywelyn held a parliament at Aberdyfi

in 1216, at which he redistributed the lands formerly under the rule of the Lord Rhys, Maelgwn was still only allowed the southern part of Ceredigion.

Maelgwn died in 1230 in Llannerch Aeron and was buried at Strata Florida Abbey. His territory passed to his son, Maelgwn ap Maelgwn, called Maelgwn Fychan. In the late 1230s, the latter agreed a treaty with Gilbert Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke, whereby Maelgwn Fychan's son, Rhys, would marry Gilbert's illegitimate daughter, Isabel, and receive the cantref of Is-Aeron, except the commote of Is-Hirwen (which contained Cardigan Castle), as dowry;^[2] in return Maelgwn Fychan and Rhys would become vassals of Gilbert (so far as it didn't compromise fealty to the king).^[2]

References

^ von Redlich, Marcellus Donald Alexander (1978). Pedigrees of some of the Emperor Charlemagne's descendants, Volume 3. Order of the crown of Charlemagne. p. 190.
^ ^a ^b Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy: Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt, ed. George Garnett & John Hudson, Cambridge University Press 1994, p. 316

John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.)

[1] von Redlich, Marcellus Donald Alexander (1978). Pedigrees of some of the Emperor Charlemagne's descendants, Volume 3. Order of the crown of Charlemagne. p. 190.

[holt-2] Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy: Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt, ed. George Garnett & John Hudson, Cambridge University Press 1994, p. 316

[1]

[2]