Owain
"Prince of Wales"
Glyndŵr
formerly ap Gruffudd
Born in Rhiwabon, Maelor Gymraeg,Denbighshire, Wales
Ancestors 
Son of Gruffudd ap Gruffudd
and Elen ferch Thomas
Brother of
Lowri (ferch Gruffydd) Puleston, Isabel ferch Gruffudd and Tudur (ap Gruffudd) ap Gruffudd Fychan
Husband of
Marred (Hanmer) Glyndŵr
— married
1383 [location unknown]
Descendants 
Father of
Elizabeth (ferch Owain) Scudamore, Jonet (Owain) Croft, Gruffydd (ab Owain) Owain, Katherine (Glendower) Mortimer, Alice (ferch Owain) Scudamore and Myfanwy ferch Owain
Died
at about age 62
in Monington, Herefordshire, England
Profile managers:
I. Speed 
[send private message], Jack Day [send private message], Michelle Brooks [send private message], and Wales Project WikiTree [send private message]
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Contents |
Biography
Owain (ap Gruffudd) Glyndŵr is Notable.
Owain Glyndŵr was the leader of a widespread rebellion against English rule in Wales and was the last native-born Welsh person to hold the title Prince of Wales.[1]
Birth, Parents, and Early Life
Owain Glyndŵr (anglicized as Owen Glendower) was born of aristocratic stock around 1354, the son of Gruffydd Fychan II, Hereditary Tywysog of Powys Fadog and Lord of Glyndyfrdwy and Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn of Deheubarth. He could claim descent from all three of the major royal houses that had dominated Wales before the English conquest of 1282.
Owen ap Gruffydd was born about 1348, his birthday said to be May 28. [2]
He was surnamed Glyndwrdu. [2]
He was the son of Gruffydd ap Gruffydd. Gruffydd Fychan, his father, was lord of Lyndwfrdwy in Merionydd, and of Cynllaith, in y Perfeddwlad. Gruffydd, his grandfather was the native sovereign of Powys Isaf and lord of Dinas Bran. [2]
His mother, the wife of Gruffydd Fychan, was Helen, daughter of Eleanor Goch and grand-daughter of Catherine ferch Llewelyn, the last Cymric prince of Wales. Hence it appears that the only hereditary claim which Owen could assert to the throne of Cymru Oll was maternally derived, for the royal blood of Powys and the estate of Glyndwrdwy were his only patrimonial inheritance. [2]
On the death of his father, when Owain was around sixteen years old, he went to live with David Hanmer, a lawyer, who sent the young Owain to London to study law at the Inns of Court.
He was educated at one of the English universities, subsequently entered himself at the Inns of Court in London, and became a barrister.[2]
Heir of Cadwaladr
Glyndwr is viewed as an heir of Cadwaladr. [3]
On his father's side, Glyndwr was a member of the dynasty of northern Powys. On his mother's side, he was descended from that of Deheubarth (Dinefwr) in the south.
The family had fought for Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Ein Llyw Olaf, in the last war and regained their lands in north-east Wales only through a calculated association with the powerful Marcher lords of Chirk, Bromfield and Yale and the lesser family of Lestrange. They thus rooted themselves in the Welsh official class in the March and figured among its lesser nobility.
Lordships
Glyndwr was comfortably placed. He held the lordships of Glyn Dyfrdwy and Cynllaith Owain near the Dee directly of the king by Welsh Barony. He had an income of some L200 a year and a fine moated mansion at Sycharth with tiles and chimneyed roofs, a deerpark, henory, fishpond and mill. He was a complete Marcher gentleman and had put in his term at the Inns of Court. He must have been knowledgeable in law; he married the daughter of Sir David Hanmer, a distinguished lawyer who had served under Edward III and Richard II. He had served in the wars and retinues of Henry of Lancaster and the earl of Arundel, and served with distinction in the Scottish campaign of 1385.
But he was more than a Marcher. He was one of the living representatives of the old royal houses of Wales, an heir to Cadwaladr, in a Wales strewn with the rubble of such dynasties. Wales in the late 14th century was a turbulent place. The brutal savaging of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Last and Edward I's stringent policies of subordinating Wales had left a discontented, cowed nation where any signs of rebellion were sure to attract support. In 1399-1400 Glyn Dwr ran up against his powerful neighbor, Reginald de Grey, Lord of Ruthin, an intimate of the new king, Henry IV. The quarrel was over common land which Grey had stolen. Glyndwr could get no justice from the king or parliament. This proud man, over forty and grey-haired, was visited with insult and malice. There are indications that Glyndwr made an effort to contact other disaffected Welshmen, and when he raised his standard outside Ruthin on 16 September 1400, his followers from the very beginning proclaimed him Prince of Wales.[4]
Research Notes
Children
Lloyd (1881) names the following children of Owain Glyndŵr:
With his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir David Hanmer of Hanmer. six sons and four daughters:
- Gruffydd ab Owain; Madog; Maredudd; Thomas; John; and David. All six sons were either taken prisoner by the English or died on the battlefield, without children. Lloyd notes that the son David "is said by Lewys Dwnn to have been illegitimate."[5]
- Alice, heiress de jure to the Principalities of Powys, South Wales and Gwynedd. She married Sir JohnScudamore of Kentchurch in Herefordshire.[5]
- Jane, wife of Henry, Lord Grey de Ruthin[5]
- Janet, wife of Sir John de Croft of Croft Castle in Herefordshire[5]
- Margaret, wife of Sir Richard Monnington, of Monnington n Herefordshire[5]
Illegitimate children:
- Ieuan[6]
- Gwenllian, wife of Philip ap Rhys ap Philip Fychan, of St Harmons[6]
- Myfanwy, wife of Llywelyn ab Adda ap David ab Ieuaf ab Adda ab Awr, of Trevor[6]
Death
Lloyd (1881) records that Glyndŵr died on 30 September 1415 at the house of one of his daughters and that it is traditionally said he was buried in the churchyard of Monnington on Wye.[5]
Glyndŵr Rising
| 16 Sep 1400 | Unable to obtain justice from Henry IV, Glyndŵr raised the standard of rebellion at Ruthin and was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his small band of followers.[7] |
| 19 Sep 1400 | The De Grey stronghold of Ruthin Castle was attacked, the town was burnt to the ground and only the castle left standing.. Denbigh, Rhuddlan, Flint, Hawarden, and Holt followed in quick succession. |
| 24 Sep 1400 | Owain's forces were attacking Powis Castle and sacking Welshpool. Simultaneously, the Tudor brothers from Anglesey, (maternal) cousins of Owain, launched a guerrilla war against English rule. These guerilla warfare tactics were to prove highly effective.
In response Henry IV declared war on the Welsh rebel. Declaring Owain's estates forfeit to the English crown, he marched a large army into north Wales arriving in Bangor in early October. Glyndŵr staged a series of guerilla attacks, ambushing the English army and eventually forcing the king to retreat to London. The English king responded by introducing even more draconian legislation. The Welsh were no longer allowed to hold public office and mixed Welsh/English marriage was not tolerated. |
| 1401 April - All Fool's Day Coup | Glyndŵr's allies, Rhys and Gwilym ap Tudor of Anglesey, ancestors of Henry VII, with a force of only 40 men, boldly took Castell Conway and in June Glyndŵr gained his first military victory at Mynydd Hyddgenon, Pumlumon. In response Henry IV launched another army into Wales through Powys toward the Strata Florida Abbey (Ystrad Fflur, meaning Valley of (the river of) Flowers), when the abbey was destroyed and its monks executed, but hampered by bad weather and guerilla attacks, the English army was forced to retreat to Hereford. |
| 1402 June - Battle of Bryn Glas | Glyndŵr's forces met with an army led by Henry IV's cousin, Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle of the Earl of March, at Bryn Glas, near the village of Pilleth, a few miles from Presteigne. Mortimer's army was defeated and Edmund Mortimer (would marry Owain's daughter) himself captured, Bryn Glas was a bloody battle that ended, according to rumour, in Welsh women mutilating the dead English soldiers. |
| 1403 | Prince Henry at 16 is appointed royal deputy in Wales, Llandovery is attacked and Llandeilo burnt by Glyndŵr’s army. Glyndwr, Prince of Wales is about to invade England. Dryslwyn Castle, Newcastle Emlyn and Dinas Powis Castles attacked. Prince Henry marches into Wales and destroys Sycharth and Glyndyfrdwy. Owain Glyndwr at St. Clears- Hotspur raises the standard of revolt in Chester.[8] |
| 1404 | By the end of 1403, Glyndŵr controlled most of Wales. In 1404 he took the castles of Aberystwyth and Harlech, negotiated an alliance with the French and held a parliament[9] at Machynlleth, where he was possibly crowned Prince of Wales in the presence of envoys from France, Scotland and Castile. He probably chose Machynlleth for its central location, in an area now under his control. Glyndŵr sought to strengthen his position by establishing alliances with foreign powers, both with the Scots and the French. His letter to Charles VI of France, the famous "Penal" letter which survives to the present day, yielded some financial and military support. |
| 1405 Year of the French | On the continent the French pressed the English as the French army invaded English Aquitaine. Simultaneously, the French landed in force at Milford Haven in west Wales. They had left Brest in July with more than twenty-eight hundred knights and men-at-arms led by Jean de Rieux, Breton lord and Marshal of France. Unfortunately, they had not been provided with sufficient fresh water and many warhorses had died. They did though bring modern siege equipment. Joined by Owain's forces they marched inland and took the town of Haverfordwest but failed to take the castle. They then moved on and retook Carmarthen and laid siege to Tenby. What happened next is something of a mystery. The Franco-Welsh force marched right across South Wales (according to local tradition) and invaded England. They marched through Herefordshire and on into Worcestershire. They met the English army west of Great Witley, just ten miles from Worcester, with Henry IV's army arrayed on Abberley Hill facing south towards Owains army facing north on the defensive Iron Age hill fort of Woodbury Hill, still known locally as Owain's Hill. The armies took up battle positions daily and viewed each other from a mile without any major action for eight days. Neither initiated battle. Then, for reasons that have never been clear, both sides withdrew. Henry's strategy was to prolong the stand off and weaken and intimidate the Welsh army. The Welsh and French army cut off from resupply withdrew at nightfall back through Wales.
More French were to arrive as the year went on but the high-point of French involvement had passed. The main theory why both sides withdrew from their positions and headed homewards is as follows. The English force on home ground, well supplied and inside England, were able to lay 'siege' to their opponents by surrounding them, thereby preventing vital supplies of food and drink reaching the "invading" Franco-Welsh army. This, slowly but surely, weakened both the body and spiritual resolve of the Welshmen in continuing the struggle isolated so deep into their enemy's territory.[10] * 1405 May - Pwll Melyn |
| March (1406) The Pennal Letter |
With French aid, an attack was made on Caernarfon Castle by Glyndŵr's supporters. In response, Henry of Monmouth, the sixteen year old son of Henry IV and the future Henry V attacked Glyndŵr's homes at Glyndyfrdwy and Sycharth. The fiery Harry Hotspur Percy threw in his lot with Glyndwr and raised the standard of revolt against Henry IV, to be defeated and slain leading an impulsive charge at the Battle of Shrewsbury. In 1404, Glyndŵr was at the peak of his power. He took the castles of Harlech and Aberystwyth and held Court at Harlech. A French expeditionary force landed at Milford Haven and joined with a Welsh army to attack Worcester, capturing several important castles as they went. The English, however, started to regain control of Wales, and support for Glyndŵr's revolt began to fade. The heart had gone out of the Welsh resistance movement. |
| 1410 | Glyndŵr launched a raid on the Shropshire border in 1410, which resulted in three of his leading supporters being captured and executed, these included his cousin Rhys ap Tudur of Penmynydd in Anglesey who was executed in Chester. Glyndŵr himself managed to evade capture. The French left in 1409 and Harlech Castle surrendered to the English. |
| The Final Years | Glyndŵr disappeared from the pages of history, thereafter a fugitive in the Welsh mountains. He is believed to have spent his last years at Kentchurch, in Herefordshire near the manor of his son-in-law, Sir John Scudamore, Sherrif of Herefordshire and to have died in around 1416, the location of his grave is unknown.
The Owain Glyndŵr Society's president Adrien Jones, claimed in 2006 "Four years ago we visited a direct descendant of Glyndŵr, (Sir John Scudamore), at Kentchurch Court, near Abergavenny. "He took us to Monnington Straddel, in Herefordshire, where one of Glyndŵr s daughters, Alice had lived. (He) told us that he spent his last days there and eventually died there. It was a family secret for 600 years and even (Sir John's) mother, who died shortly before we visited, refused to reveal the secret. There's even a mound where he is believed to be buried at Monnington Straddel." The author Alex Gibbon, however claims in his book 'The Mystery of Jack of Kent and the Fate of Owain Glyndŵr', that the body of Glyndŵr was returned to Wales after his death in Herefordshire and buried at St Cwrdaf Church, in Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire.[12] |
Sources
- ↑ Llinos Smith, "Glyn Dŵr [Glyndŵr], Owain [Owain ap Gruffudd Fychan, Owen Glendower] (c. 1359–c. 1416)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online edn, 2004.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Jane Williams. A History of Wales, Derived from Authentic Sources, 1869. Republished by Cambridge University, 2010. page 435 Accessed 4 June 2020 jhd
- ↑ [[Wikipedia: Kings_of_Wales_family_trees |Heir of Cadwaladr]
- ↑ Owain Glyndwr Castles of Wales; Gwyn A. Williams 1985; Wales: The Rough Guide, 1994. entered 2013-12-10 by Michelle
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 J. Y. W. Lloyd, The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, London, 1881, vol.1, p. 211-6. Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 J. Y. W. Lloyd, The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, London, 1881, vol.1, p. 216-7. Internet Archive.
- ↑ Owain Glyndŵr - Early Life ~ The Native Princes of Wales] Entered 2013-12-08 by Michelle Brooks
- ↑ © Copyright 2005 - 2013 The Harlech Medieval Society. Owain Glyndwr. All rights reserved
- ↑ The revolt of Owain Glyndwr A national parliament at Machynlleth, 1404. entered 2013-12-10 by Michelle
- ↑ excerpt from Glyndŵr Rising. entered 2013-12-10 by amb
- ↑ Pennal Letter CADW and the Welsh Assembly Government
- ↑ Owain Glyndŵr - Early Life ~ The Native Princes of Wales.© 2004 - 2005 www.englishmonarchs.co.uk® entered 2013-12-08 by Michelle
See also:
- J.E.Lloyd, The Battle of Pwll Melyn, in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 88 (1933), p.347-8.
- Memoirs of Owen Glendower, (Owain Glyndwr): With a Sketch of the History of the Ancient Britons, from the Conquest of Wales by Edward the First, to the Present Time (Google eBook), Thomas Thomas. Joseph Potter, 1822 - Wales - 240 pages. accessed 16 April 2014 amb
- Wikipedia: Owain Glyndŵr
- Wikidata: Item Q317279, en:Wikipedia
- Castles and Town Walls in Gwynedd
- the Castles of Wales
- Cymdeithas Owain Glyndwr (The Owain Glyndwr Society)
- Harlech Medieval Society.
- History of Powys; Powys Digital History Project; Powys County Archives
- Owain Glyndŵr's Wales ©Canolfan Owain Glyndŵr Cyf, 2010
- Owain Glyndŵr - Early Life ~ The Native Princes of Wales.© 2004 - 2005 www.englishmonarchs.co.uk®
- Time Team: Season 20, Episode 11 "An Englishman's Castle" (Upton Castle, Pembrokeshire)
- Darrell Wolcott, "The Ancestry of Owain Glyndwr", Ancient Welsh Studies.
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A > ap Gruffudd | G > Glyndŵr > Owain (ap Gruffudd) Glyndŵr
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Owain Glyndwr is reported to have had three illegitimate children: Ieuan, Gwenllian and Myfanwy. They are recorded in The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog (1881), vol.1, p. 216 (link) which cites the sources as Harleian MS 2299 and Cae Cyriog MS.
This book records that his daughter Myfanwy was the wife of Llywelyn ab Adda ab David ab Ienuf ab Adda ad Awr, of Trevor. Trevor or Trefor is in the ancient parish of Llangollen in Denbigshire.
There is a pedigree for Trefor of Llangollen in Llyfr Silin, published in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 5th series, vol. 6, pp. 155-6 (link). It records that Myfanwy and her husband had five sons and a daughter: Ieuan, Thomas, Meredydd, Howel, Rys and Gwenllian.
Their children Ieuan, Thomas, Meredith, Howell and Gwenllian are also recorded in a pedigree attributed to Welsh genealogist John Davies (1652 – aft. 1716) and published in Bye-Gones' (1908), pp. 260-1 (link).
I would like to create profiles for Myfanwy and her husband. Are you happy for me to go ahead and do this or do you have concerns about the reliability of these sources? I propose that her LNAB be "ferch Owain" and her husband’s LNAB be "ab Adda".
Any other feedback would be welcome too.Thanks!
Ian
Then create the pages for Myfanwy and Llywelyn. As a descendant of Tudor Trefor, I'm looking forward to seeing the profiles you create going back to Trefor.
With your skills and the thoroughness of your research I am very happy for you to carry on as you suggest. A couple of points. - there is also a Trefor in Caernarfonshire, although I am confident you are right about it being the Llangollen one. - I have a note that he had 4 illegitimate children, an additional one called David. I cannot find my source for this although it is mentioned in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glynd%C5%B5r#Marriage_and_issue. There as a long reference to him in The history of the princes, the lords marcher, and the ancient nobility of Powys Fadog. He is referred to as Owain Glyndyfrdwy. On book page 199 his sons by Margaret Hanmer are listed...
I have just been rereading it and on book page 211 David is mentioned. Third paragraph reads:-
Owain Glyndyfrdwy, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir David Hanmer of Hanmer, knight, had issue six sons, — .1, Gruffydd ab Owain, who was unfortunately taken prisoner by the English, and confined in Nottingham Castle, and from thence he was sent to the Tower of London in 1410; 2, Madog; 3, Maredudd ; 4, Thomas ; 5, John ; and, 6, David, who is said by Lewys Dwnn to have been illegitimate^ — but all of whom were either taken prisoners, and were mercilessly put to death, or fell valiantly on the field of battle, and died without issue. Probably another Research Note
Ian
wikitree-wales-project[at]googlegroups[dot]com (replace [at] and [dot])
Thanks!
[1]
[2]
This tallies with these sources:
Memoirs of Owen Glendower ... with a sketch of the history of the ancient ... By Thomas Thomas, Owen Glendower, p. 169 [3]
The Marches of Wales: Notes and Impressions on the Welsh Borders, from the ... By Charles George Harper, p128 [4]
edited by Monica (Edmunds) Kanellis
http://www.castlewales.com/glyndwr.html
-His mother was Elen Ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn of Deheubarth