Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd

Common card · No. 410621

Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd (died 1136) was a 12th-century Welsh noblewoman. The daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan, who reestablished the rule of Second Dynasty of Gwynedd over the Kingdom of Gwynedd, she would eventually be married to Gruffudd ap Rhys of the Dynasty of Deheubarth, the ruler of what remained of that southern kingdom. Gwenllian was the mother of all the children of Gruffudd ap Rhys, including Rhys ap Gruffudd. She is remembered for leading a battle against the Normans near Kidwelly in 1136. Gwenllian is remembered for her actions in 1136. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Normans engaged in campaigns in Wales, and for decades the native Welsh princes and the Normans were engaged in sporadic warfare over land in the country. Gwenllian's own father had been gaoled by Hugh d'Avranches in Chester for over a decade, while the family of her in-laws recovered lands in Deheubarth from the Normans only two decades prior. At the beginning of the twelfth century, Norman...

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