Christina ferch Gronwy (abt. 1120)

Born about 1120 in Tegeingl

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Christina of Deheubarth^[1]

Daughter of Gronw ab Owain ab Edwin.^[2][3] In 1122 or 1124, her father was killed by his nephew, Cadwallon ap Gruffudd ap Cynan. Gronw and his wife, whose name is not known, had only one child.^[4]

Owain and Christina were 1st cousins, making their marriage invalid according to church law.

Married Owain, King of Gwenydd,^[1] as his second wife. Owain ap Gruffydd, son of Gruffydd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, & his wife Angharad of Deheubarth,^[5] was born about 1100.^[6]

The church did not recognize her marriage to Owain, as they were first cousins: her father and his mother were siblings, children of Owain ab Edwyn and his wife Morwyl ferch Ednywain.^[5]

Children

• Dafydd, Prince of North Wales (died cMay 1203)^[2][7]
• Rhodri, Lord of Anglesey (died c1194/5)^[1]
• another son ~ "by Christina, his second wife he had three sons"^[8][9][10]

In 1170, her husband was interred in Bangor Cathedral, despite having been excommunicated because of the church's objection to their marriage: "Beckett, with the support of the Pope, objected to Owain's second wife, Christina, the daughter of Gronw ap Owain, who was his first cousin, this close kinship rendering the marriage invalid under church law which led to his ex-communication when he refused to put his wife aside."^[8]

After Owain's death, civil war erupted among his sons.^[8] In a battle near Pentraeth in 1170, Dafydd and Rhodi attacked and killed their half-brother Hywel ab Owain. In 1173, Dafydd attacked another half-brother, Maelgwn ab Owain. By 1174, Dafydd was ruler of all of Gwenydd and in that year he married Emma of Anjou, sister of Henry II of England. In 1175, an attack by his brother Rhodi drove him into the eastern half of Gwenydd.^[2]

Christina supported her sons Dafydd and Rhodi in their attack against Hywel, and an "unknown poet, playing upon her name, speaks bitterly of her unchristian behaviour."^[11]

Research Notes

Given Name, Christina: "The Welsh form of her name is Cristin; the 'Crisiant' of the Gwentian Brut (The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, ii, 572) is a fancy of Iolo Morganwg."^[11]

Estimated Dates:

• Birth, now estimated as c1120, had been given as 1105, which was unlikely coupled with an 1145 marriage date (but that date is unsourced). Her father's profile speculates that his children were born c1130, which works with a marriage in 1145 (and even an earlier marriage),^[12] but not a son born c1135, and not with her father's death in 1122 or 1124. Based on her father's entry in Cawley's MedLands, which has his death as 1124,^[4] the estimated birth year was changed from 1105 to c1120, which works with a child born c1135 (just), but the question of when Owain's first wife died remains.
• Marriage in 1145 is unlikely, considering the profile for Owain's first wife has her death in 1155 (but unsourced); both Christina's marriage in 1145 and Gwladys's death in 1155 conflict with the c1135 birth given in the profile for Christina's son Rhodri (also unsourced). The profiles for Iefan and Margaret (attached as children as of 6 April 2022) have birth years of 1128 and 1141, respectively, but that they are Christina's children is disputed.^[10] Gladys's two children were Maelgwn and Iorwerth (Iorwerth's profile has his birth c1130). Iorwerth was the father of Llywelyn the Great, who was born in 1173.^[13]
• Death: When Christina died is not known; she was alive after her husband's death in 1170.

Additional Marriage

Her father's profile lists two Cristins among his children, citing Bartrum (as relayed by Boyer): Children, born, say, 1130, listed by Bartrum: ^[14]

1. Rhael, m. Llywarch ap Bran
2. Cadwgon, lived 1132
3. Cristin, m. Owain Gwynedd
4. Cristin, m. Hywell ap Maredudd ap Bleddyn

The profile for Hywell says that "Hoelus filius Maredut filii Bledint" was killed by his own men in 1142.^[15]

Additional Children

collaborating sources needed

• Cadwallon^[9]
• Angharad - listed as her daughter on Owain's profile but her profile says that she "was a daughter of Owain and an unnamed mistress" (as of 6 April 2022)^[16]

Disputed Children

• Iefan^[10] detached 20 April 2022
• Margaret^[10]

Detached Profile of Spouse

Removed Gruffudd-37 as spouse based on entry for Cristin ferch Goronwy in thepeerage.com (which cited Burke's Peerage).^[17]

Locations

"Cymru" is "Wales" in "modern Welsh".^[18]

Tegeingl: A cantref in northeast Wales in the middle ages. "It was incorporated into Flintshire following Edward I of England's conquest of northern Wales in the 13th century."^[19] Birth place data field had been "Tegaingl, Flint, Clwyd, Cymru"; it is now just "Tegeingl, Cymru".

"The cantref formed the eastern part of Perfeddwlad (or Y Berfeddwlad) on the northern coast of Wales between the River Clwyd and Deeside. The territory is roughly equivalent to the modern county of Flintshire today.... Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd recovered it [from "Mercian (or English) control"] in the 12th century."^[19]

Aberffraw, Anglesey: "Aberffraw was the capital of the Kingdom of Gwynedd from c.860 AD until c.1170". It is "a small village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey".^[20]

Kingdom of Gwenydd

The Kingdom of Gwenydd was in northwest Wales. "In Latin, Gwynedd was often referred to in official medieval charters and acts of the 13th century as Principatus Norwallia (Principality of North Wales).^[18]

"In the early Middle Ages the region was divided into three cantreds, or districts (Arllechwedd, Arfon, and Llyn). The cantreds eventually became part of the principality of Gwynedd, ruled by the prince of Aberffraw and lord of Snowdon, whose domain was protected from the west by the natural barrier of the Snowdon range."^[21]

After England's conquest of Wales in 1282, Gwynedd was divided "into three counties, of which Caernarvonshire was one. He [King Edward I] built castles, founded English boroughs at Caernarfon and Conwy, and conferred borough status on the native settlement near the old Welsh castle of Criccieth."^[21]

Today's Gwynedd is a "county of northwestern Wales, extending from the Irish Sea in the west to the mountains of Snowdonia in the east. It encompasses most of the historic counties of Caernarvonshire and Merioneth. Caernarfon is the administrative centre of the county."^[22]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Charles Cawley. Rhodri, Lord of Anglesey, entry in MedLands (accessed 5 April 2022).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry (2013), volume I, pages 22-23 ENGLAND 3.ii.
3. ↑ Sources do not include the name of her mother; the duplicate profile, Goronwy-3, had Genilles ferch Hoedlyw attached as her mother (merge completed 6 April 2022).
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Charles Cawley. Gronw ab Owain, entry in MedLands (accessed 6 April 2022).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Charles Cawley. Owain, entry in MedLands (accessed 5 April 2022).
6. ↑ Darrell Wolcott. "The Children of Gruffudd, Nephew of Iago", Ancient Wales Studies, accessed 6 April 2022.
7. ↑ "CRISIANT . . . The Gwentian Chronicle names 'Crisiant daughter of Goronmy son of Owain son of Ednywain' as the mother of 'David son of Owain'." ~ Owain, entry in Cawley's MedLands (accessed 5 April 2022).
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} Owain Gwynedd, "The Native Princes of Wales" (accessed 6 April 2022). Copyright © 2004 - 2005 www.englishmonarchs.co.uk.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Owain's profile lists four children: Dafydd, Cadwallon, Angharad, and Rhodri (see Children of Owain and Cristen on his profile, accessed 6 April 2022).
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3} The duplicate profile, Goronwy-3, had profiles attached for Dafydd and Rhodri, as well as unsourced profiles for a son named Iefan (born 1128) and a daughter named Margaret (born 1141) (merge completed 6 April 2022). Iefan and Margaret are listed as disputed children on Owain's WikiTree profile.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} Sir John Edward Lloyd. Christina, Dictionary of Welsh Biography (accessed 5 April 2022).
12. ↑ See Darrell Wolcott's article, "Generational Gaps and the Welsh Law" (accessed 6 April 2022).
13. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry (2013), volume V, page 298 WALES 6.
14. ↑ Carl Boyer 3rd. Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans. (By the author: Santa Clarita, California, 2004). Gronwy ab Owain is #5 on page 114.
15. ↑ Charles Cawley, citing the Annales Cambriæ, in the entry for Hywel, which does not mention a marriage (accessed 6 April 2022).
16. ↑ Angharad ferch Owain (abt.1135-): The wikidata DBE suggestion that Owain's wife "Cristin verch Goronwy" is Angharad's mother was was based on Q17270029, but it had no source for Cristin being her mother as of 20 April 2022 & the suggestion was marked as false.
17. ↑ Darryl Lundy. Cristin ferch Goronwy entry in thepeerage.com (online database). Note that thepeerage.com is not considered a reliable source, nor is Burke's.
    • C. Mosley. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 4188, (Wilmington, DE: Genealogical Books Ltd. : 2003).
    See the Databases section of the Magna Carta Project's Reliable Sources page.
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1} Wikipedia: Kingdom of Gwynedd (accessed 6 April 2022).
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Wikipedia: Tegeingl (accessed 6 April 2022).
20. ↑ Wikipedia: Aberffraw (accessed 6 April 2022).
21. ↑ ^{21.0 21.1} Britannica: Caernarvonshire (accessed 6 April 2022).
22. ↑ Britannica: Gwynedd (accessed 6 April 2022).

• Cawley, Charles. "Medieval Lands": A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families © by Charles Cawley, hosted by Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG). See also WikiTree's source page for MedLands.
• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Salt Lake City: the author, 2013. See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry.

See also:

• Wikipedia: Cristin verch Goronwy. Note that this article lacked reliable sources as of 6 April 2022.

WikiTree profile Edwin-26 created through the import of Ellis Anwyl Delong_2013-01-13.ged on Jan 13, 2013 by David Ellis-Anwyl. See the Changes page for the details of edits by David and others; see also the Changes page for Gronowy-3.