Cadafael Ynfyd of Cydewain

CADAFAEL YNFYD OF CYDEWAIN

By Darrell Wolcott

This 12th century man of Powys appears to occur nowhere except in pedigrees given by the Meyrick family. Two branches of this family gave pedigrees[1] to Lewis Dwnn the Welsh deputy herald, near the year 1600. In those charts, Dwnn refers to him as "Lord of Cydewain". The 1846 editor of Dwnn's manuscripts added a note saying he was "judge of the Court of Powys then held at Castell Dinas Bran". Neither man adds any descriptive nickname after Cadafael, but the editor's note indicates he believed him to be "y ynad", or "the judge".

J.Y.W. Lloyd does call him Cadfael yr ynad both times he mentioned the man[2], and repeats the claims that he was both Lord of Cydewain and Judge of the Court of Powys. But the earliest Meyrick family pedigree, that of Edmond Meuric of Ucheldref in Corwen in Ederynion, was penned by Gruffudd Hiraethog in the mid-1500's.[3] He rendered his name as Cadafael Ynfyd or "fool" The word also denotes "mad" as in "insane". Apparently the later writers misread that as "ynad" and assumed he was a judge.

The only source to attempt to give the ancestry of Cadafael was Llyfr Silin, a manuscript written c. 1645-1728.[4] That source confused him with Cadfael ap Lludd, the c. 945 ancestor of Marchweithian and Collwyn ap Tangno. But the marriage matches which the earlier sources cite for him and his descendants point to a birthdate near 1160 for Cadafael, and place him in Montgomeryshire, Powys not in Gwynedd. This late manuscript does, however, give his nickname as Ynfyd, not Ynad.

Cadafael is said to have married Arianwen ferch Iorwerth ap Trahaearn ap Iorwerth ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd[5], called an heiress of Cydewain. But her family held no land there and Cadafael could not have obtained either a manor nor a Lordship in Cydewain from that marriage. It was among the holdings of Trahaearn ap Caradog of Arwystli who served as king of Powys 1075-1081. According to the same source, Arianwen's mother was Sian ferch Maredudd ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. Such a lady would occur much too early, so Bartrum excludes this marriage from his charts, together with her alleged mother. But we suggest that Sian was the daughter of Maredudd ap Bleddyn[6] ap Madog ap Cadwgan of Rhos, with her father being a brother of Cadwgan of Nannau, a family consistently but wrongly attributed to Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. Such an identification easily fits this marriage into the timeline for a Cadafael Yfnyd born c. 1160:

1015 Cadwgan Elystan Glodrydd 990

l l

1045 Madog Cadwgan 1020

l l

1075 Bleddyn Iorwerth 1060

l l

1105 Maredudd Trahaearn 1090

l l

1140 Sian======Iorwerth 1125

1165 Arianwen===========Cadafael 1160

Trahaearn's Lordship of Arwystli was granted to his eldest son, Owain, when that son reached his full age. The Lordship of Cydewain as given to another son, Llywarch, after that man had grown up. At the death of Llywarch, the Lordship eventually passed to Robert even though he was not the eldest son[7]. That Robert ap Llywarch was succeeded by his eldest son, Maredudd ap Robert, who had no legitimate sons. The Lordship of Cydewain was confirmed to his nephew, Maredudd ap Robert ap Robert. The mother of that Maredudd ap Robert ap Robert is cited as "Sioned ferch Samuel ap Cadafael"[8]. However, Robert ap Robert was born c. 1145 and requires a wife born c. 1155/60. She thus appears to be a sister of the Cadafael at the top of the Meyrick pedigrees, not a granddaughter. Thus:

1100 Cadafael Ynfyd

1130 Samuel

______________l___________

l l

1160 Sioned 1160 Cadafael==Arianwen

= l

1145 Robert ap Robert 1190 Samuel

ap Llywarch

Although the extant Meyrick pedigrees begin with the c. 1160 Cadafael, the misplacement of Sioned which lead us to the above construction also provides an explanation for why Robert ap Llywarch was made Lord of Cydewain when he apparently was not the eldest son. We suspect the chart of that family looks like this:

1035 Trahaearn ap Caradog

1070 Llywarch

________________l______________

l l

1100 First son 1110 Robert

___________________l

l l

1143 Maredudd 1145 Robert==Sioned 1160

1175 Maredudd obit 1244

If that "first son" was Cadafael, and he is the one who was called "the fool", we suspect that when Llywarch died, the King of Powys would not confirm the Lordship of Cydewain to him (due to his mental disorder) but later settled it instead on his younger brother, Robert ap Llywarch. Thus, we think Cadafael held his lands in Cydewain by inheritance but was never its Lord. Nor was he a judge at the Court of Powys. While it is possible that his same-named grandson was a judge, we think this notion only came from those who distorted "ynfyd" into "ynad".

The c. 1190 Samuel ap Cadafael married a lady distantly related to his mother: Eigr ferch Madog ap Maelgwn ap Cadwallon ap Madog ap Idnerth ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd. From the Ceri branch of that family, Eigr was born c. 1205. Their son Madog was born c. 1220 and he married Efa ferch Maredudd Fychan ap Rhys ap Maredudd Hen ap Hywel....that Hywel being a younger son of King Maredudd ap Bleddyn of Powys.[9]

Lewys Dwnn, ignoring the family timelines, claims that Madog ap Samuel ap Cadafael "sold" the Lordship of Cydewain to Maredudd ap Robert "his nephew". But not only did Madog not ever hold the Lordship, he could not have been past his mid-20's when Maredudd ap Robert died. Even his father was younger than Maredudd. It was Madog who was a great-nephew of Maredudd...his father's aunt Sioned was the mother of Maredudd. Apparently, Dwnn was conjecturing a reason why the Lordship of Cydewain was historically known to have been held by Maredudd, not someone descended from Cadafael.

When we look at the pedigree of this Maredudd, a careless genealogist might assume his wife's brother was the father of Madog's wife; both ladies were called "Efa ferch Maredudd Fychan":

1065 Maredudd ap Bleddyn

1101 Hywel

1128 Maredudd Hen

_______________l____________

l l

1160 Maredudd Fychan 1170 Rhys

l l

1190 Efa 1205 Maredudd Fychan

= l

1175 Maredudd ap Robert ap Robert 1235 Efa

1220 Madog ap Samuel

The actual text of the pedigree which Dwnn cites for the wife of Madog ap Samuel reads "Efa ferch Maredudd Fychan ap Maredudd ap Rhys ap Maredudd Hen"; if Dwnn thought her father was a brother of Maredudd ap Robert's wife, then he should have said Madog was the nephew of Maredudd ap Robert, not the reverse. In fact, the men did nothing more than marry ladies who were first-cousins once-removed. There are several reasons why we delete Maredudd as the father of Maredudd Fychan ap Rhys, all shown by the timeline:

Maredudd Fychan (the father-in-law of Madog ap Samuel) married Lleuci ferch Hwfa ap Iorwerth ap Ieuaf ap Nynnio of Hafod y Wern[10], a lady born c. 1220. The son of Maredudd Fychan, Hywel, married Mali ferch Gronwy ap Iorwerth ap Hywel ap Moriddig ap Sandde Hardd[11], a lady born c. 1250. Lleuci, daughter of Hywel ap Maredudd Fychan, married Madog Goch ap Ieuaf ap Cuhelyn ap Rhun ap Einion Efell[12], a man born c. 1270. These marriages date Maredudd Fychan c. 1205, Hywel c. 1240 and Lleuci c. 1270 and confirm there was no generation between him and Rhys ap Maredudd Hen. Rather than weigh in on the dispute, Peter Bartrum simply says Dwnn added "fictitious material" to Cadafael's pedigree, and wholly ignores Rhys ap Maredudd Hen and his descendants from his charts.

To confirm our timeline for the family of Cadafael, we shall continue for several generations after Madog ap Samuel. His son was Tudor born c. 1250, who married Nest ferch Tudor ap Llewelyn ap Caswallon ap Hywel ap Owain Gwynedd[13], a lady born c. 1265. Their son, Iorwerth, was born c. 1285 and his son Dafydd c. 1315. The son of Dafydd was Iorwerth born c. 1345 and he married Annes ferch Robin Fychan. His family is unknown, but Annes' mother was Lleuci ferch Gruffudd ap Madog ap Iorwerth Goch descended from Cilmin Droed Ddu[14], a lady born c. 1325, and her daughter Annes would follow c. 1350. This Annes, and her husband, Iorwerth ap Dafydd ap Iorwerth ap Tudor, were the parents of Dafydd ap Iorwerth, a man born c. 1375.

The son of this c. 1375 Dafydd ap Iorwerth was Einion Sais of Bodorgan, born c. 1405. Early writers claim he was "usher of the palace of Sheen in the early part of the reign of Henry VI".[15] This king's first reign was 1422-1461, so an Einion Sais in his 20's is consistent with that claim. And his nickname is consistent with a Welshman who served an English king.

Heilyn ap Einion Sais, born c. 1435, was the father of Llewelyn, a man born c. 1465 who is said to have fought at Bosworth for Henry Tudor in 1485, and whose son Meurig was captain of the bodyguard of Henry VIII[16]. That king ruled from 1509 to 1547, so a Meurig born c. 1495/1500 would fit that role.

Accordingly, we date Cadafael Ynfyd to c. 1100, his grandson Cadafael to c. 1160 and his male descendants follow in normal sequence down to 1500. Our only deviation from the Meyrick pedigrees comes in the 14th century where the cited marriage data identifies two omitted generations. The usual pedigree of Einion Sais omits one pair of 'Dafydd ap Iorwerth' in his correct ancestry of Einion Sais ap Dafydd ap Iorwerth ap Dafydd ap Iorwerth ap Tudor ap Madog ap Samuel ap Cadafael.