by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Wales was divided into several separate kingdoms. The largest of these was Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in east Wales. Gwynedd was the most powerful of the Welsh kingdoms. For one man to rule all of Wales during this period was rare. This was because of the inheritance system practiced in Wales. All sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of territories.

The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi when it was agreed by Llywelyn the Great and the other Welsh princes that he was the paramount Welsh ruler and the other Welsh princes would pay homage to him. Although he never used the title, Llywelyn was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn dominated Wales for 45 years and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great”, the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. Llywelyn was succeeded by his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and then by his two grandsons who were the sons of his illegitimate son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

The campaign of King Edward I of England in Wales (1276 – 1284) resulted in Wales being completely taken over by England. It ended with the deaths of the last two native Princes of Wales: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who was ambushed and killed in 1282 and his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd, who was the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1283. To ensure there would be no further members of the House of Aberffraw, the English imprisoned Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two young sons for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle and sent his daughter and the daughter of his brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to convents. To further humiliate the Welsh, King Edward I invested his son and heir, the future King Edward II, with the title Prince of Wales. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

• Unofficial Royalty: Principality of Wales Index

Note: In Welsh, “ap” means “son of” and “ferch” means “daughter of”.

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Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the last native and independent Prince of Wales from December 11, 1282, until his execution on October 3, 1283, on the orders of King Edward I of England. Born on July 11, 1238, in Gwynedd, Wales, he was the youngest of the four sons of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and Senana ferch Caradog. Dafydd’s paternal grandparents were Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd, also known as Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great), and his mistress Tangwystl ferch Llywarch Goch. His maternal grandparents were Caradog ap Membyr Ddu and Eva ferch Gwyn.

Dafydd had three brothers and three sisters. Information on his siblings is sketchy, including birth and death dates and marriage information.

• Margred ferch Gruffydd (1221 – 1261), married Madog II ap Gruffydd, Lord of Dinas Branof Powys Fadog, had two sons
• Owain Goch ap Gruffydd (circa 1225 – circa 1282)
• Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales (circa 1228 – 1282), married Eleanor de Monfort, had one daughter
• Rhodri ap Gruffydd (circa 1230 – 1235 to circa 1315), married (1) Beatrice, daughter of David of Malpas (2) Unknown, had one son
• Gwladys ferch Gruffydd (circa 1225 – 1261), half-sister, married Rhys Fychan
• Catrin ferch Gruffydd (circa 1234 – ?), a half-sister, married Iorwerth Fychan ab Iorwerth Hen, had two children

Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s father Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great. Even though Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was illegitimate, according to Welsh law, all sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of assets. However, Llywelyn the Great wanted his legitimate son Dafydd ap Llywelyn, the son of Llywelyn the Great’s wife Joan, Lady of Wales, an illegitimate daughter of King John of England, to be his sole heir. In 1220, Llywelyn the Great managed to convince Dafydd ap Llywelyn’s maternal uncle King Henry III of England to recognize Dafydd ap Llywelyn as his sole heir, and in 1226, Pope Honorius III officially declared Llywelyn the Great’s wife Joan to be the legitimate daughter of King John of England, strengthening Dafydd ap Llywelyn’s position. In 1238, at a council at Ystrad Fflur Abbey, the other Welsh princes recognized Dafydd ap Llywelyn as Llywelyn’s sole legitimate heir.

On April 11, 1240, Llywelyn the Great died and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn succeeded him as Prince of Gwynedd. In August 1241, King Henry III of England invaded Gwynedd, and after a short war, under the Treaty of Gwerneigron, Dafydd ap Llywelyn was forced to give up all his lands outside Gwynedd and hand over his imprisoned half-brother Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s father, to King Henry III who imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Since Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was a rival claimant to the Principality of Gwynedd, King Henry III put limits on Dafydd ap Llywelyn by threatening to set up Gruffydd as a rival in Gwynedd. However, on March 1, 1244, Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s father Gruffydd ap Llywelyn fell to his death while trying to escape from the Tower of London by climbing down a knotted bedsheet.

Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd and his wife Isabella de Braose had no children. Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s elder brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was in the entourage of their uncle Dafydd ap Llywelyn and appeared to be his designated heir. However, shortly after Dafydd ap Llywelyn died in 1246, the 1247 Treaty of Woodstock divided Gwynedd between Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, his elder brother Owain ap Gruffydd, and his younger brothers Rhodri ap Gruffydd and Dafydd ap Gruffydd.

In 1255, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd defeated his brothers at the Battle of Bryn Derwin and established himself as the sole ruler of Gwynedd. He received the homage of the Welsh princes and assumed the title Prince of Wales. Llywelyn imprisoned his brother Dafydd but released him the following year and restored him to his court. In 1263, Dafydd joined King Henry III of England in a campaign against Llywelyn. After Llywelyn was recognized by King Henry III as Prince of Wales via the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery, Dafydd was once again restored to Llywelyn’s favor.

Dafydd ap Gruffydd married Lady Elizabeth de Ferrers, daughter of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby and his second wife Margaret de Quincy. Dafydd and Elizabeth had two sons and one daughter, and all were ill-fated:

• Llywelyn ap Dafydd (circa 1267 – 1287)
• Owain ap Dafydd (circa 1275 – circa 1325)
• Gwladys ferch Dafydd (? – 1336)

In March 1282, Dafydd ap Gruffudd attacked and captured Hawarden Castle, near Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales, starting the final conflict with King Edward I of England that would lead to the end of an independent Wales. On December 11, 1282, Dafydd’s brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, was one of 3,000 Welshmen killed by the English army under King Edward I at the Battle of Orewin Bridge near Builth Wells, Wales. Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was ambushed, horribly murdered, and beheaded. His head was sent to London for public display, and it is thought that the rest of his body was interred at Cwmhir Abbey in Abbeycwmhir, Wales. As Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales only had an infant daughter, Dafydd ap Gruffydd took over as his brother’s legitimate successor and leader of the resistance against King Edward I of England.

King Edward I’s massive army surrounded the Snowdonia base of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, who had limited manpower and equipment. Dafydd kept moving and finally, in May 1283, he was forced to move to the mountains above the Welsh royal home in Abergwyngregyn. On June 22, 1283, Dafydd and his younger son Owain ap Dafydd were captured and brought to King Edward I’s camp in Rhuddlan, Wales that same day. Dafydd was taken from Rhuddlan to Chester, England, and then to Shrewsbury, England. Dafydd’s wife Elizabeth de Ferrers, his daughter Gwladys, and his infant niece Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn were also captured. Dafydd’s elder son Llywelyn ap Dafydd was captured on June 28, 1283. On that same day, King Edward I issued writs to summon a parliament to meet at Shrewsbury, to discuss Dafydd’s fate.

On September 30, 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for high treason against the King. King Edward I’s sense of outrage was so extreme that he designed a punishment for Dafydd harsher than any previous form of capital punishment. Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the first person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. On October 3, 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury, England attached to a horse, then hanged alive, revived, then disemboweled and his entrails burned before him. He was then beheaded and his body was cut into four quarters. Dafydd’s four quarters were sent to different parts of England: the right arm to York, the left arm to Bristol, the right leg to Northampton, and the left leg to Hereford. His head was placed on a pole in the Tower of London near the head of his brother Llywelyn.

The days of an independent Wales were over. King Edward I of England had completed a conquest of Wales that resulted in his annexation of the Principality of Wales. After the brutal conquest of Wales and the destruction of the ruling family, Wales was stripped of all royal insignia, relics, and regalia. King Edward I took particular delight in appropriating Aber Garth Celyn, the royal home of the defeated dynasty. He then took their title, Prince of Wales, and bestowed it upon his heir.

King Edward I of England wanted to make sure that there were no more claimants to the Welsh throne. Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s young daughter Gwladys ferch Dafydd was sent to the Sixhills Convent in Sixhills, Lincolnshire, England, where she spent the rest of her life, dying circa 1336. King Edward I ordered an annual payment of 20 pounds for Gwladys’s upkeep.

Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two sons 15-year-old Llywelyn ap Dafydd and 7-year-old Owain ap Dafydd were imprisoned for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle in England. Much of the time they were kept in cages. Llywelyn died in 1287 under mysterious circumstances when he was about twenty years old. Owain was last reported to be alive in 1325 when he would have been in his fifties.

Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, the 18-month-old daughter and only child of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Dafydd’s brother, was confined at Sempringham Priory in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England where she lived until her death on June 7, 1337, a few days before her 55th birthday. An annual payment of 20 pounds was also arranged for Gwenllian’s upkeep.

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Works Cited

• Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/dafydd-ap-llywelyn-prince-of-gwynedd/
• Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/llywelyn-ap-gruffydd-prince-of-wales/
• Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/Gruffydd-ap-Llywelyn-Fawr/6000000006727931003
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Dafydd ap Gruffydd. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dafydd_ap_Gruffydd
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). Dafydd ap Gruffudd. Wikipedia (Welsh). https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dafydd_ap_Gruffudd
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruffudd_ap_Llywelyn_ap_Iorwerth
• Williamson, David. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary. Cassell.