| DNB* | | Rhys ap Gruffudd (1131/2-1197), prince of Deheubarth, was the fourth and youngest son of Gruffudd ap Rhys (d. 1137) and Gwenllian (d. 1136), daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan.
Early career
Before becoming sole ruler of Deheubarth in 1155 Rhys had already joined with his elder brothers Cadell [see below] and Maredudd in expeditions against both the Normans in Dyfed and his kinsman, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, in Ceredigion. Thus in 1146 Rhys assisted Cadell and Maredudd in capturing Llansteffan Castle, while in 1150 and 1151 he took part in the campaigns that resulted in the conquest of almost the whole of Ceredigion. After Cadell had been seriously injured by a force from Tenby in the latter year, Rhys co-operated with Maredudd in an attack on Gower. In 1153 Rhys and Maredudd completed the conquest of Ceredigion and attacked the castle of Aberafan; Rhys also ravaged Cyfeiliog in Powys. On Maredudd's untimely death at the age of twenty-five in 1155 Rhys succeeded to a kingdom comprising Ceredigion, Ystrad Tywi, and Dyfed; the maintenance and consolidation of this restored kingdom of Deheubarth was the principal objective of his long reign.
Relations with Henry II, 1156–1171
During the first decade of his rule Rhys's fortunes were mixed. In 1156 he built a castle at Aberdyfi in order to defend the northern border of Ceredigion against his uncle, Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170). However, Rhys faced a new threat from Henry II, recently established as king of England, who was determined to support the marcher lords who had been dispossessed by the Welsh of their lands in Deheubarth. After an initial show of defiance following Henry's first Welsh campaign of 1157 Rhys submitted to the king the following year, giving homage for Cantref Mawr and some other dispersed lands and surrendering Ceredigion to Roger de Clare, earl of Hertford (d. 1173), and Cantref Bychan with its caput of Llandovery to Walter de Clifford (d. 1190). However, following a raid by Clifford on his territory Rhys captured Llandovery Castle, while the prince's nephew, Einion ab Anarawd, attacked ‘Humfrey's castle’ (renamed Castellhywel) in Ceredigion. In response to these attacks Henry II led a further expedition to south Wales to secure Rhys's renewed submission before departing for the continent in August 1158. In 1159 Rhys campaigned against the Flemings and Normans in Dyfed and besieged Carmarthen, prompting an expedition against him led by Reginald, earl of Cornwall (d. 1175); the forces confronted each other without engaging in battle at Cefn Rhestr Main and Earl Reginald retreated, offering a truce which Rhys accepted.
Rhys captured Llandovery Castle again in 1162, calling forth another campaign against him by Henry II the following year. The prince submitted to the king at Pencader and was taken as a prisoner to England where, together with Owain Gwynedd and Malcolm IV of Scotland, he formally submitted to Henry at Woodstock on 1 July 1163: Rhys gave homage for Cantref Mawr with its castle of Dinefwr, the ‘principal seat’ of the kingdom of Deheubarth according to sources of the late twelfth century and later. This setback proved only temporary, however, for in 1164 Rhys reconquered nearly all of Ceredigion, in revenge for the killing the previous year (probably during the prince's captivity in England) of his nephew and chief of his retinue, Einion ab Anarawd, at the instigation of Earl Roger de Clare. Then, in the words of the Welsh chronicle Brut y tywysogyon, ‘all the Welsh made a pact to drive out the garrisons of the French’ (Brut: Hergest, 145). In August 1165 Rhys joined Owain Gwynedd and other Welsh princes at Corwen to resist Henry II's last campaign against them, which, owing to heavy rain, ended in disaster for the king who was compelled to retreat to England. Later in the year Rhys completed his conquest of Ceredigion, capturing Cardigan and Cilgerran castles together with the constable of the former, his cousin Robert fitz Stephen, the son of Rhys's aunt, Nest (fl. 1092–1130). The prince remained in possession of Ceredigion for the rest of his reign. But Rhys's military activities were not confined to Deheubarth: in 1166–7 he joined Owain Gwynedd in campaigns that led to the conquest of Tegeingl in north-east Wales and in 1167 the two princes also attacked Owain Cyfeiliog (d. 1197) and captured his castle of Tafolwern, which was given to Rhys.
Cordial relations with Henry II, 1171–1189
Up to 1171 Rhys's relations with Henry II were marked by defiance and hostility punctuated by brief periods of reluctant compliance induced by the exercise or threat of military force. From 1171, by contrast, Henry adopted a fundamental change in his policy towards Rhys, who had become the most powerful native Welsh ruler after the death of Owain Gwynedd in November 1170. This change was closely linked to developments in Ireland which had already served to strengthen Rhys's position in Deheubarth, namely the departure of marcher lords and knights from the region in 1169–70 to assist Diarmait mac Murchada in the recovery of his kingdom of Leinster; Rhys had released Robert fitz Stephen, for example, on the explicit condition that the latter should go to Ireland in Diarmait's service. Aware that military solutions had failed to achieve stability in Wales, and fearful of the increase in marcher power as a result of the conquests in Ireland, Henry II adopted a policy of détente with Rhys which lasted for the rest of the king's reign. On his way to assert his authority over the Anglo-Normans in Ireland in October 1171 Henry met Rhys at Pembroke, confirmed him in possession of Ceredigion, Ystrad Tywi, Emlyn, and the commotes of Ystlwyf and Efelffre in Cantref Gwarthaf, and released his son, Hywel Sais, whom he had held hostage. On his return from Ireland after Easter 1172 the king met Rhys again, at Laugharne, and according to Brut y tywysogyon appointed him ‘justice in all south Wales’ (iustus yn holl deheubarth; Brut: Hergest, 158) , thereby probably delegating authority to Rhys, not over his own principality of Deheubarth (of which he styled himself ‘proprietary prince’ in a charter of 1184), but rather over the native Welsh rulers in Gwynllw^g, Gwent, Glamorgan, Maelienydd, Gwrtheyrnion, and Elfael. As a result of the agreements of 1171–2 it appears that Henry committed himself to uphold Rhys's territorial gains against marcher claims in return for a recognition of his overlordship by the prince, who was furthermore expected to help prevent the Welsh rulers to his east from attacking royal and marcher lands.
1171–2 marked a major turning point in Rhys's reign, opening a period of largely uninterrupted peace with the English crown and also the marcher lords of south Wales which lasted for almost twenty years. The prince's loyalty to Henry is demonstrated by his sending his son, Hywel Sais, to assist the king in France during the revolt of 1173–4, and by Rhys's leading a force of his own on behalf of Henry at Tutbury in 1174. The following year Rhys appeared at the head of the native rulers of south Wales, most of whom were related to him by marriage, to give fealty to Henry at Gloucester (29 June 1175); he appeared likewise at Oxford in May 1177, where he was, in addition, granted Meirionydd by the king. (Rhys may have occupied Meirionydd in support of his son-in-law, Rhodri ab Owain, who rose to dominance in Gwynedd by 1175, a hegemony resisted by, among others, the sons of Cynan ab Owain, who attacked Rhys in 1178.) The agreement with Henry was also subject to strains, however. In 1184 Rhys sought peace for himself at Worcester and later at Gloucester following two years of Welsh attacks on royal lands—including a revolt led by the prince's nephew, Morgan ap Caradog, native ruler of upland Glamorgan, following the death of William, earl of Gloucester, lord of Glamorgan, in 1183—and Ranulf de Glanville was sent to restore peace between Rhys (and other Welsh rulers) and the people of Herefordshire and Cheshire late in 1186. The détente with Henry II held despite these tensions, and in Lent 1188 Rhys met Glanville together with Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, at Radnor at the start of the latter's journey round Wales to preach the third crusade, and later welcomed the archbishop again at Cardigan.
Gerald of Wales reports that Rhys would himself have taken the cross in 1188 had he not been dissuaded by his wife and first cousin Gwenllian, daughter of Madog ap Maredudd of Powys (d. 1160), who, according to later medieval genealogical tracts, was the mother of three of his sons and two of his daughters. The prince is also recorded by the same sources as having had as many as thirteen other children with other partners, including his own niece, the daughter of his brother Maredudd.
Troubled declining years
Henry II's death in July 1189 marked the end of the largely peaceful coexistence inaugurated in 1171–2. The last years of Rhys's reign were dominated by renewed attacks on marcher and royal lands and castles in south Wales, attacks that were in turn quite possibly motivated in large part by the need to satisfy the ambitions of Rhys's sons, whose struggles with each other and with their father are the other main theme of this period. Rhys evidently considered his agreement with Henry II to have been personal and no longer felt obliged to adhere to its terms upon the king's decease. By September 1189 his attacks on royal and marcher strongholds provoked a royal expedition against him under Richard I's brother, John, who concluded a truce with Rhys and escorted him to the king at Oxford. However, since Richard refused to see him, the prince returned to Wales to continue his assaults on marcher lordships in Dyfed, capturing St Clears by Christmas 1189. In the same year Rhys imprisoned his eldest but illegitimate son, Maelgwn ap Rhys (d. 1231) [see under Gruffudd ap Rhys], afterwards transferring him to the custody of William (II) de Briouze whose prisoner he remained until 1192. Further attacks followed: for example, Rhys took Nevern Castle from his son-in-law William fitz Martin in 1191, and the castles of Llawhaden (belonging to the bishop of St David's), Swansea, and Wiston fell to him the following year. In 1194 the prince rebuilt the castle of Rhaeadr (which he had first erected in 1177), but later in the year was himself captured by his sons Maelgwn and Hywel Sais, and briefly imprisoned in Nevern Castle. In 1195 Rhys suffered further setbacks, as Roger Mortimer of Wigmore conquered Maelienydd, the Flemings recaptured Wiston Castle, and William de Briouze took St Clears. However, the prince succeeded in capturing his sons, Hywel and Maredudd, who had established themselves at Dinefwr and Llandovery respectively, and in 1196 led his last major campaign, in which he burnt Carmarthen, defeated Roger Mortimer, and captured Briouze's castle at Painscastle. Rhys died, aged sixty-five, on 28 April 1197. He was buried in St David's Cathedral after penance had been administered on his corpse to absolve him from a sentence of excommunication incurred for his complicity in an assault on Peter de Leia, bishop of St David's, shortly before his death.
Religious benefactions and historical reputation
Despite his conflicts with Bishop Peter during the last years of his life Rhys's relations with the church were amicable on the whole, and the prince patronized a wide variety of religious houses in Deheubarth. He confirmed and augmented the lands of the hospitallers at Slebech and the Benedictine cell of Chertsey Abbey at Cardigan and also protected Malvern Abbey's cell at Llandovery. Most importantly he was almost certainly the first native Welsh ruler to patronize the Cistercians and played a crucial role in encouraging the spread of the order in native Welsh society. As a result of his conquest of Ceredigion in 1165 he acquired the patronage of Strata Florida Abbey, founded by Robert fitz Stephen the previous year, and endowed it generously; he likewise made benefactions to Whitland Abbey, and established a Cistercian nunnery at Llanlly^r. In addition the prince founded the Premonstratensian abbey of Talley, very probably under the influence of Ranulf de Glanville in 1184–9. Rhys was also generous to poets, and Brut y tywysogyon describes a festival of music and poetry, often regarded as the first recorded eisteddfod, held by the prince in 1176 at Cardigan Castle, which he had rebuilt in stone in 1171.
Surviving contemporary opinion of Rhys is almost entirely favourable: Gerald of Wales praised him for his generosity, energy, and wit, and his skill and success in warfare were hailed in both the Welsh and the Latin poetry composed in his honour—according to Cynddelw (fl. 1155–1195) the prince was an ‘excellent protector’ who ‘defended the greatness of Deheubarth’ (Gwaith Cynddelw, no. 9, l. 37), while a Latin elegy on Rhys calls him the ‘glory of Wales’ (Brut: Peniarth MS 20, 77) and a second Alexander. A Latin prose lament preserved in the later thirteenth-century Cronica de Wallia likewise lauds his martial exploits as ‘the unconquered head of Wales’ (T. Jones, 31). From the early modern period onwards historians have stressed Rhys's pivotal role in restoring and defending the kingdom of Deheubarth, over which he was the last native prince to exercise unitary rule. In addition, twentieth-century scholars have suggested, on the basis of later evidence, that the prince organized an administrative reform of his lands and have highlighted his readiness to imitate Anglo-Norman fashions in castle building and religious patronage.
Cadell ap Gruffudd (d. 1175), an elder half-brother of Rhys, is first mentioned in 1138, when he participated with his elder brother Anarawd, ruler of Deheubarth, and Gruffudd ap Cynan's sons Owain Gwynedd and Cadwaladr in an attack on Cardigan, then in Norman hands. After Anarawd's murder by Cadwaladr's men in 1143 Cadell succeeded to the kingship of Deheubarth and led campaigns, often in conjunction with his younger half-brothers Maredudd and Rhys, in Dyfed, Ystrad Tywi, and Ceredigion. In 1146 his forces captured the castles of Dinwileir, Carmarthen, Llansteffan, and Gwyddgrug; the following year they took Wiston Castle. In 1150, in the words of Brut y tywysogyon, he ‘repaired the castle of Carmarthen, for the splendour and strength of the kingdom’ (Brut: Hergest, 129) and then ravaged the district of Kidwelly. Later in the same year he occupied the whole of Ceredigion south of the River Aeron, and went on to conquer the rest of the region, apart from the castle of Pengwern in Llanfihangel, from Hywel ab Owain in 1151. However, later in 1151 Cadell was severely injured while hunting by the Normans of Tenby, who left him for dead. The injuries he sustained probably incapacitated him as ruler and may explain why in 1153 (or 1156 according to the Annales Cambriae) he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, relinquishing his lands and authority to his brothers, Maredudd and Rhys, until he returned. (Cadell had earlier demonstrated his piety, while king, by granting St Peter's Church at Lampeter to Totnes Priory.) His abdication proved to be permanent, for though he returned to Deheubarth, he never ruled again. Cadell died and was buried at Strata Florida Abbey, where he had taken the monastic habit in his last illness, in 1175. Referred to in two charters as ‘king of south Wales’, Cadell played an important role in the restoration of the kingdom of Deheubarth, helping to lay the foundations built upon by Rhys ap Gruffudd.
Huw Pryce
Sources
J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 3rd edn, 2 vols. (1939); repr. (1988) · R. R. Davies, Conquest, coexistence, and change: Wales, 1063–1415, History of Wales, 2 (1987) · N. A. Jones and H. Pryce, eds., Yr Arglwydd Rhys (1996) · D. Crouch, ‘The earliest original charter of a Welsh king’, BBCS, 36 (1989), 125–31 · J. Gillingham, ‘Henry II, Richard I, and the Lord Rhys’, Peritia, 10 (1996), 225–36 · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Red Book of Hergest (1955) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Peniarth MS 20 (1952) · J. Williams ab Ithel, ed., Annales Cambriae, Rolls Series, 20 (1860) · T. Jones, ed., ‘Cronica de Wallia and other documents from Exeter Cathedral Library, MS 3514’, BBCS, 12 (1946–8), 27–44 · P. C. Bartrum, ‘Plant yr Arglwydd Rhys’, National Library of Wales Journal, 14 (1965–6), 97–104 · W. Stubbs, ed., Gesta regis Henrici secundi Benedicti abbatis: the chronicle of the reigns of Henry II and Richard I, AD 1169–1192, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 49 (1867) · Gir. Camb. opera, vols. 1, 4, 6 · Ann. mon., vol. 2 · Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, ed. N. A. Jones and A. P. Owen, 2 (1995)
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press
Huw Pryce, ‘Rhys ap Gruffudd (1131/2-1197)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23464, accessed 23 Sept 2005]
Rhys ap Gruffudd (1131/2-1197): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/234642 |
Sancho of Castile1