Margred ferch Madog (abt. 1130 - abt. 1201)

Born about 1130 in Powys, Wales

Ancestors

Wife of Iorwerth ab Owain — married 1163 in Aberffraw Castle, Ynys Mon, Gwynedd, Wales

Descendants

Died about 1201 at about age 71 in Kingdom of Gwynedd

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Biography

1130 Birth and Parents

Charles Cawley asserts that Marared ferch Madog was born about 1130. ^[1]

Stewart Baldwin refers to her as Margred ^[2] In various records she was called Margred, Marared, Marget, Marred, Marret, and Marvred.

Cawley notes that her parentage is recorded in a manuscript now at Jesus College which states, "Marareda merch Madawc m Maredud" or, "Marared the daughter of Madog the son of Maredudd. Cawley further notes that her father, Madog ap Maredudd, who died in 1161 and was buried in Meivod, was the son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn and his first wife, Hunydd, daughter of Eunydd (Efnydd) ap Gwernwy. Her father suceeded his father in 1132 as Prince of Powys. ^[1]

Marared's mother is shown by Cawley as Susann of Gwynedd, daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, and his wife Angharad of Deheubarth. ^[1]

Stewart Baldwin ^[3]questions whether it is possible to know which of Marared's father's wives or mistresses was her mother. Boyer who generally follows Bartrum shows Margret as one of Madog's children for whom the mother is unknown. ^[4]

Cawley notes that Marared's grandfather, Maredudd, who died in 1132, was son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, King of Gwynedd and Powys, and his third wife Haer of Gest. Maredudd succeeded his father in 1075 as Prince of Powys. ^[1]

Siblings

Marared grew up in a family comprised of:

1. Llywelyn (-killed 1161). The Annales Cambriæ record that "Lewelinus filius eius [Madoc filius Maredut Powysorum princeps]" was killed in 1161[754]. The Chronicle of the Princes of Wales records that "Madog son of Maredudd Lord of Powys" died in 1159 and "shortly afterwards that his son Llywelyn was killed"[755]. ^[1]
2. Gruffydd "Maelor" I (-1191, bur Meivod). Prince of Northern Powys (Fadog). ^[1]
3. Marared ^[1]
4. Gwenllian who married Rhys ap Gruffyd Prince of Deheubarth, son of GRUFFYD ap Rhys King of D|eheubarth & his wife Gwenllian of Gwynedd ([1132]-1197). ^[1]
5. Owain Brogyntyn, an illegitimate son by an unknown mistress. Cawley reports two additional illegitimate sons, not named. ^[1]

1163 Marriage to Iorwerth ab Owain

Margred married Iorwerth Drwyndwn, the "flat-nosed", ^[5] the only surviving son of Owain Gwynedd regarded as legitimate by the Church. ^[6]

Cawley shows Margred marrying, about 1163, Iorwerth "Drwyndwn (flat nose)" ab Owain "Gwynedd" who died iin 1174. ^[1]

Death

The date of Margred's death is not known.

Issue

Margred and Iorwerth had two children:

1. Llywelyn "Mawr" ap Iorwerth "Drwyndwn", Prince of Aberffraw, Lord of Snowdon, "Llywelyn the Great", b. ca. 1173. Llywelyn was born Dollyddelan, 1173 and died Aberconwy, 11 April 1240. ^[5]
2. Adda ap Iorwerth "Drwyndwn", b. ca. 1170. Adda had issue. ^[5]

Research Notes

Did Marared have a second marriage to Hugh Corbet?

Historians at one point speculated that the mother of Llewelyn the Great was a Corbet.

Stewart Baldwin ^[3] in his table of Llywelyn's ancestry discusses this speculation:

"Llywelyn refers to a certain Walter Corbet as frater Willielmi Corbet avunculi mei [leading to the suggestion] that Llywelyn's mother was a Corbet. . . . However, as the source of JC.29 [for Margred ferch Madog] appears to have been written during Llywelyn's lifetime, and there are others ways in which an uncle-nephew relationship between William Corbet (an obscure individual) and Llywelyn could be explained, there seems to be no good reason to reject the statement of JC.29 regarding the identity of Llywelyn's mother."^[3].* JC: Jesus College (Oxford) MS. 20, in EWGT, pp. 41-50. The manuscript itself is from the fourteenth century, but since the latest individuals mentioned in the manuscript are Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and some of his contemporaries, its source appears to date from the early thirteenth century (or perhaps a bit earlier - see the sources cited in EWGT, p. 41). ^[7]

One of those other ways is that Margred married a Corbet who raised Llewelyn, as suggested by Sharon Kaye Penman. In her novel, Here Be Dragons, she has Llewelyn raised by a Corbet stepfather, with the following explanation in her author's note:

"Historians have long been cognizant of his kinship to the Corbet family; he often stayed his hand, spared Corbet lands, and a letter of his addresses William Corbet as 'uncle'. In researching the Corbet family, I was able to eliminate Robert Corbet without difficulty. His brother William was the 'uncle' of Llewelyn's letter. Walter Corbet was a monk. By the process of elimination, Hugh Corbet had to be Marared's second husband, Llewelyn's stepfather."^[8][9]

Sir Arthur E. Turner-Thomas, whose Celtic Royal Genealogy is posted online in Rootsweb, includes the following on the entry for Llywelyn Fawr:

"He [Iorwerth ab Owain] married Marared ferch Madog ap Maredudd of Powys. and it is possible their son Llywelyn was brought up largely outside Gwynedd (which in the 1180s may not have been a safe environment for a child with a claim to a share of land and power). Charter evidence suggests that Marared remarried into a Shropshire Marcher family, the Corbels [sic] of Caux. The Corbet lands abutted on Powys, and a Corbet might have seemed a suitable husband for a widowed Powysian princess. If Marared did marry into the Corbets, then Llywelyn may have received part of his upbringing and education in the March. Throughout his life. Llywelyn would show himself adept both at dealing with the Marcher lords, and with negotiating the complex world of English court politics. This could well be a by-product of an education in the mixed Anglo-Welsh world of the March.'"^[10]

Did Margred have a relationship with Walter Corbet?

Stewart Baldwin notes that "it has been suggested, on the basis of a statement in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (6:497), in which Llywelyn refers to a certain Walter Corbet as "frater Willielmi Corbet avunculi mei", that Llywelyn's mother was a Corbet. (See, for example, Meisel's Barons of the Welsh Frontier, which, however, does not even mention the Welsh version of Llywelyn's maternity in JC.) However, as the source of JC.29 appears to have been written during Llywelyn's lifetime, and there are others ways in which an uncle-nephew relationship between William Corbet (an obscure individual) and Llywelyn could be explained, there seems to be no good reason to reject the statement of JC.29 regarding the identity of Llywelyn's mother. ^[2]

A Corbet Daughter who married Iorwerth ab Owain?

A duplicate profile (for Corbet-168), that duplicated much of the information already in this profile (ferch Madog-1), was merged 1 January 2018. It had marriage as married 1168 in Pontesbury, Shropshire, England and the following:

Many genealogies show a daughter of Simon Corbet who married Iorwerth ab Owain, father of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. For instance, Augusta Corbet wrote in 1915: "One of (Thomas Corbet's) sisters became the wife of Jowerth, the father of the Great llewellyn ap Jowerth." ^[11]

This supposition appears to be based on a reference by Llywelyn to a certain Walter Corbet as frater Willielmi Corbet avunculi mei. If William Corbet was Iorwerth's uncle, then surely Iorwerth's mother was William's sister, an unnamed Corbet, as reflected in Augusta Corbet's conclusion. But there are other ways an uncle-nephew relationship can be established.

It is now well established that Llywelyn ap Iorwerth"s mother was Marared ferch Madog. Cawley reports that Marared ferch Madog was born about 1130 and was called Margred, Marared, Marget, Marred, Marret, and Marvred in various records. ^[12]

Yet there were clearly other signs of some Corbet connection. "Historians have long been cognizant of (Llywelyn's) kinship to the Corbet family; he often stayed his hand, spared Corbet lands, and a letter of his addresses William Corbet as 'uncle'. ^[13]

Penman concludes that in order for Llywelyn's reference to William as an uncle to be correct, Marared must have made a second marriage after Iorwerth's death in 1174. ^[14]

Who would Marared's second husband be? "In researching the Corbet family, I was able to eliminate Robert Corbet without difficulty. His brother William was the 'uncle' of Llewelyn's letter. Walter Corbet was a monk. By the process of elimination, Hugh Corbet had to be Marared's second husband, Llewelyn's stepfather."^{[13] [15]}

See also:

• The Bartrum Project (digitization of "Welsh Genealogies AD 300- 1500" by Peter C. Bartrum)

• • Gruffudd ap Cynan 3, Owain Gwenydd

• • Gruffudd ap Cynan 4, Iorwerth Drwyndwn

• • Bleddyn ap Cynfyn 3, Madog ap Maredudd

• Becky's Genealogy Family Tree, Rootsweb, entry for Iorwerth Drwyndwn

FamilySearch Welsh Medieval Database shows Bartrum not naming a mother for Marared. ^[16] Lloyd gives Susanna as her mother^[17] as does Dwinn.^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} Charles Cawley, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Medieval Lands Database Marared m Iorwerth Drwyndwyn, accessed Dec. 20, 2016
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Stewart Baldwin. Ancestry of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. [http://sites.rootsweb.com/~medieval/llywelyn.htm Margred is in Generation 2, #3. Accessed 1/16/2019 jhd
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Stewart Baldwin, compiler. GEN-MEDIEVAL/soc.genealogy.medieval. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth Ancestor Table No date. Accessed 1/15/2019 jhd
4. ↑ Carl Boyer, 3rd. Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans. By the author: Santa Clarita, California, 2004. Madog ap Maredudd ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn is #26 on pages 14-15.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Carl Boyer 3rd. Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans. By the author: Santa Clarita, California, 2004. Iorwerth Drwyndwn is #28 on page 296.
6. ↑ Dictionary of national Biography, 14:1288, cited by Boyer, 296
7. ↑ EWGT: Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, edited by P. C. Bartrum (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1966).
8. ↑ Gen-Medieval 1999 Rootsweb post, AJones
   

   Note - the Rootsweb post correctly quotes the author's note that calls her (incorrectly) "Marared ferch Meredydd", but when introduced in the novel (page 7), she is "Marared, daughter of Prince Madog ap Meredydd."

9. ↑ see also Stewart Baldwin's Gen-Medieval 1999 Rootsweb post in the same thread.
10. ↑ source one of the following (the first followed the entry; the second preceded it), probably the first one:
    • Kari Maund, The Welsh Kings, The Medieval Rulers of Cymru, Tempus, Stroud, 2002
    • Davies J, 1990, A History of Cymru, Penguin, London, ISBN 0-14-014581-8
11. ↑ Augusta Elizabeth Brickdale Corbet. The family of Corbet, its Life and Times. London: The St. Catherine Press, 1915. Volume II, page 218 Jowerth Accessed October 23, 2017. jhd
12. ↑ Charles Cawley. Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Marared m Iorwerth Drwyndwyn Marared, Accessed Dec. 20, 2016).
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Rootsweb: Gen-Medieval Archives Gen-Medieval 1999 Rootsweb post, A Jones
    

    Note - the Rootsweb post correctly quotes the author's note that calls her (incorrectly) "Marared ferch Meredydd", but when introduced in the novel (page 7), she is "Marared, daughter of Prince Madog ap Meredydd."

14. ↑ Sharon Penman, Author's Note, Here Be Dragons. As a writer of historical fiction, does substantive research to make sure that the settings for her stories are as factually accurate as possible. Cited by A. Jones. Gen-Medieval List {http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/1999-10/0939744900 Llywelyn'd daughter Margaret and the de Braose Family] 12 October 1699. Accessed October 13, 2017. jhd
15. ↑ see also Stewart Baldwin's Gen-Medieval 1999 Rootsweb post in the same thread.
16. ↑ See FamilySearch Welsh Medieval Database, FS Welsh note - FamilySearch reorganized its records and the link no longer works; as of June 23, 2017, the following FS biographies were found that pertain:
    • Madog ap Maredudd (her father)
    • Prince of Wales (her son)
    • Owain ap Gruffudd (father of her husband, Iorwerth Drwyndwn [son of Owain's first wife, Gwladus ferch Llywarch ap Trahaearn])
17. ↑ Lloyd, Jacob Youde William. The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fodog and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen and Meirionydd. London: T. Richards, 1881-1887. HathiTrust Vol. 1, Pages 119ff
18. ↑ Lewys Dwnn, transcribed and edited with notes by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick. Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches Between the Years 1586 and 1613. Llandovery: William Rees, 1846. InternetArchive , Vol. 2, Page 54