Gruffydd ap Madog (1195 - 1269)

Born 1195 in Montgomeryshire, Wales

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 7 Dec 1269 at about age 74 in Ludlow, Shropshire, England

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Biography

Gruffydd ap Madog is Notable.

Name

Gruffudd ap Madog was known as Gruffyd Maelor II to distinguish him from his grandfather Gruffydd Maelor I. ^[1]

Gruffudd ap Madoc was of Bromfield, Chirk, Glyndyfrdwy, Nanheudwy, and Yale (or Dinas Bran), Lower Powis (now Denbighshire, son of Madog ap Gruffudd, by his wife Iseult. ^[2]

Lord Griffin of Brumfeld^[3]

His name is alternately presented as Gruffydd ap Madog or anglicized to Griffith ap Madoc.

1236 Succeeded father

He suceeded his father in 1236. ^[2]

Gruffudd ab Madoc, Prince of Powys Fadog, and styled also Lord of Dinas Bran, possessed all the lordships that his father had, and whome he succeeded in 1236. ^[4]

Castell Dinas Bran

He was the last of his line to live in Dinas Bran Castle [yaledavid.FTW]

Dinas Brân is in what was once the ancient Kingdom of Powys.

When Gruffydd Maelor, the last Prince of Powys, died in 1191 the kingdom was divided into Powys Fadog in the north and Powys Wenwynwyn in the south. ^[5]

Gruffydd Maelor's son, Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor, lord of Powys Fadog, founded the nearby Valle Crucis Abbey.

Some records suggest Madog ap Gruffydd ruled from Dinas Brân. ^[6]

If a structure did exist it would have been a wooden fortification probably consisting of a wooden palisade surrounding a hall and other buildings. These early records further say the castle was destroyed by fire, following which a new castle was built on the same site, therefore little prospect for finding any archaeological evidence of the early building remains. ^[5]

The castle visible today was probably built by Gruffydd II ap Madog son of Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor sometime in the 1260s. At the time Gruffydd II ap Madog was an ally of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Prince of Wales, with Powys acting as a buffer state between Llywelyn's heartland of Gwynedd and England. Dinas Brân was one of several castles being built following the signing of the Treaty of Montgomery which had secured Wales for Llywelyn, free from English interference. ^[5]

Gruffudd died in 1269 or 1270 and the castle passed down to his four sons. Madoc the eldest son was the senior, but each of the sons may have had apartments at the castle. The peace between Llywelyn and Edward did not last long and in 1276 war started between England and Wales. Edward's larger armies soon invaded Wales and the support for Llywelyn crumbled. Two of the brothers made peace with Edward, the second brother Llywelyn and Madoc. However, the castle was not in Madoc's control as the surrender document with the English refers to conditions relating to the recapture of Dinas Brân. ^[5]

Meanwhile, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln arrived in Oswestry with forces to capture Dinas Brân. As soon as he had arrived he was told that the defenders of the castle, probably the younger brothers Owain and Gruffudd - who were still allies of Llywelyn Prince of Wales, had set fire to and abandoned the castle. ^[5]

Following the end of the war in October 1282 and the death of Llywelyn, most of Powys Fadog including the castle was granted to John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. Rather than rebuild Dinas Brân, de Warenne chose instead to build a new castle at Holt on the Flintshire, Cheshire border and Dinas Brân continued till the present day a picturesque and romantic ruin.^[7]

Marriage to Emma de Audley

Gruffudd ap Madoc married, as her second husband, Emma de Audley, daughter of Henry de Audley and his wife Bertrade de Mainwaring, a descendant of William the Conqueror. ^[2]

Prince Gruffudd married an English lady, Emma, daughter of James, Lord Audley,and after this marriage he sided with henry III against Prince llywelyn ab Gruffudd. ^[4]

Emma de Audley had married first Henry Tuchet prior to her marriage to Gruffudd ap Madoc, of Bromfield, Denbighshire. ^[8]

1249 Pardoned by King

In 1249 the king pardoned him 24s, which his men of little Saredon, Staffordshire, were amerced before the justices last intinerant to take the pleas of the forest in Staffordshire. ^[2]

Griffin, lord of Bromfeld, Witnessed Grant to Deulacres Abbey

Howel, the son of Eynoun the son of Llywelyn of Burton, gave to the Abbot and Convent of Deulacres all right and claim which he had in Pulford and Pulenhale, witnessed by Lord Alan de la Zouch, then Justiciar of Chester, Sir Roger de Montalt, Lord Griffin of Brumfeld, Sir Robert de Pulford, Wrennon and Howell, sons of Llywelyn de Burton, Griffin son of Meredic of Pulford, and others.^[3] This was between 1250 and 1253 when Alan de la Zouch was Justiciar of Chester.^[9]

1257 Battles

Lloyd reports that in 1257, Gruffudd assisted the English against Prince llywelyn ab Gruffudd when he was advancing to Chester to punish Edward the eldest son of King Henry III, who was the earl of that county, for the extortions he practised upon the Welsh in the neighborhood of the city; but in1258, Prince llywelyn revenged himself by laying waste Maelawr Gymraeg with fire and sword, and Gruffudd failing to receive the succour he expected from the English king, submitted himself to Prince Llywelyn, and was obliged to confine himself to his castle of Dinas Bran. ^[4]

1269 Death

Gruffudd ap Madoc died in 1269. His widow, Emma, was living 22 Dec, 1270.^[2]

Gruffudd, confined to his castle of Dinas Bran, died there in 1270, and was buried in the church of Valle Crucis Abbey. ^[4]

Children

Sourced Children

Gruffudd and Emma had four sons, Madoc (or Madog), Llywelyn, Owain (Rector of Blanckebir) and Gruffudd, and one daughter, Ankaret. ^[2]

1. Madog
2. Llywelyn
3. Owain (Rector of Blanckebir)
4. Gruffudd, born Powys 1225
5. Ankaret born Ludlow, Shropshire, 1245

Other Children Linked on WikiTree

1. Sabina. born 1244
2. Margaret, born Powys 1261

Sources

1. ↑ Gruffydd Maelor I
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry. Volume IV, page 282, "Oversley"
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Chartulary of Dieulacres Abbey with an Introduction and Notes by Major-General The Hon. Wrottesley, (London: Harrison and Sons, 1906), 321-22, e-Book Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/collectionsforhi94staf/page/322/mode/1up : accessed 31 May, 2022). #44.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Jacob Lloyd. The History of Powys Fadog (T. Richards, London, 1881) Vol. 1, Page 168-170 Accessed 3/25//2019 jhd
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4} Wikipedia: Castell_Dinas_Brân Accessed 1/6/2019 jhd
6. ↑ Cathcart King, Two Castles in Northern Powys: Dinas Bran and Caergwrle", Arch. Camb., CXXIII (1974), 39. Cited by Wikipedia: Castell_Dinas_Brân Accessed 1/6/2019 jhd
7. ↑ Kightly, Dr. Charles (2003), Dinas Brân Castle, Denbighshire County Council. Cited by Wikipedia: Castell_Dinas_Brân Accessed 1/6/2019 jhd
8. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry. Volume I, page 200,
9. ↑ George Ormerod, "Containing the Introduction and Prolegomena, the County of the City of Chester and Bucklow Hundred", The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester; Compiled from Original Evidences in Public Offices, the Harleian and Cottonian MSS, Parochial Registers, Private Muniments, Unpublished Ms Collections of Successive Cheshire Antiquaries, and a Personal Survey of Every Township in the County; Incorporated with a Republication of King's Vale Royal, and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities, 2nd Edition, Ed. Thomas Helsby, 3 volumes, (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1882), I:61, e-book HathiTrust (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924088434034?urlappend=%3Bseq=157%3Bownerid=13510798902306474-185 : accessed 31 May, 2022).

See also:

• Wikipedia: Gruffydd II ap Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran

• Wikidata: Item Q2618264, en:Wikipedia