#11 - LLYWARCH HWLBWRCH
Bartrum
offers 5 pedigrees for this man:
(1)
Llywarch howlbwrch ap Pill ap Kynan ap Einion ap Gwrydr goch ap Helic ap Glannoc
(2) Llywarch
howlbrwch ap Gwrydr goch ap Rawt ap Gwgawn ap Kyriadawc ap Meiriawn ap Aeddan ap Maic ap Gwaithvoet ap Gwgon gleddyfrudd (hwnw
oedd vn or pedwar porthor ar Berllan Bangor Vawr yMaelor) ap Kriadoc vreichvras
(3)
Llywarch olbwrch ap Gwrydr goch ap Helic ap Glanoc ap Gwaith[v]oed ap Gwgon gleddyddrvdd ap Kyriadoc vreichvyras
(4)
Llowarch holbwch a fv yn amser Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Seyssyllt ac oedd wr pena o saimbyr y twyssoc hwnw, a thressorer iddo,
a Thanglwst oedd i wraig a chares i Gruffudd ap Kynan
(5)
Llowarch holbwrch....ai wraic oedd Tangwystl. Kares oedd honno i Ruffydd ap Kynan. Modryb oedd Tangwystl vchod
i Gruffydd ap Kynan, chwaer i dad vnvam vndad
In
his notes to these pedigree, Bartrum says:
"born
c. 1020? was ancestor of a tribe in Denbichshire. He is presumably the Llywarch Olbwch mentioned in Hanes Gruffudd
ap Cynan as chief chamberlain and treasurer to Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Seisyll (d. 1063). His wife, Tangwystl,
described as a prophetess, greeted Gruffudd ap Cynan, her relation, on his arrival in Wales from Ireland in 1075. (Ed. Arthur
Jones, pp 113-5). Llywarch Goch, of this tribe,
appears to have been born c. 1150. His daughter, Tangwystl, was the mistress
of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and mother of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (b. c. 1195). Other descendants agree with this date, but
most genealogists make Llywarch Goch the son of Llywarch Howlbwrch. This would lead one to suppose that there were two
persons named Llywarch Howlbwrch. However, a few authorities give 'Llywarch Goch ap Iorwerth ap Cynan ap Llywarch Howlbwrch'.
One more intervening generation would have been preferrable, but this version is possible."
"The
names Kryiadawc ap Meiriawn and Aeddan ap Maic appear to have been drawn from 'Gwehelyth Rhos'. See
ABT 25"
PEDIGREE 1:
This is the most corrupt of the five
pedigrees offered. Llywarch Hwlbwrch did have a great-grandson named Pyll ap Cynan[1], but there was no Einion within
the first 6 generations. Delete those three names and you correctly arrive at "Llywarch Hwlbwrch ap Gwrydr Goch ap Heilig
ap Glannog". Despite Bartrum's question-mark, Llywarch Hwlbwrch was born c. 1020.
PEDIGREE 2:
Another conglomeration of correct
and incorrect names, this version inserts, out of sequence, some early ancestors of Llywarch Hwlbwrch. Caradog ap Meirion
and Aeddan (sic) ap Meig can be found in the ancestry of Heilig ap Glannog, but the latter as Cyngen ap Meig.
The line which Bartrum would delete says, speaking of Gwgan Gleddyfrudd, "that
one was one of the four gates at the orchard of Bangor Fawr in Maelor". The reference is to Triad #40 where a Gwgan
Red Sword is called one of the three gate-keepers at the battle of Bangor orchard[2]. Supposedly this was the 613 battle
of Chester and could not have been the c. 850 Gwgan in the pedigree of Llywarch Hwlbwrch.
PEDIGREE 3:
This is the correct pedigree
of Llywarch Hwlbwrch. The Caradog Freich Fras[3] with which it ends was probably the son of Hywel ap Caradog ap Meirion,
the man who took Anglesey from an elderly Cynan Tindaethwy in 816 only to be expelled by Merfyn Frych.
PEDIGREE 4:
Here, we are told that Llywarch
Hwlbwrch lived in the time of Gruffudd ap Llewelyn ap Seisyll, and served in the royal court of that prince as treasurer.
And that his wife was Tangwystl, a seeress who was kin to Gruffudd ap Cynan. The lady would have been born c. 1035;
his service at the court of Gruffudd ap Llewelyn would have been after 1039.
PEDIGREE 5:
This pedigree adds that Tangwystl
was the aunt of Gruffudd ap Cynan, the sister of his father by the same mother and father. Other sources identify her
as a daughter of Iago ap Idwal, which makes her the aunt of the Gruffudd ap Cynan born c. 1070 who died in 1137. The
tale contained in 'Hanes Gruffudd ap Cynan' says she met a Gruffudd ap Cynan as he came from Ireland to Wales in 1075.
This would have been Gruffudd nephew of Iago[4], the first cousin of Tangwystl:
975 Idwal
___________l__________________
l
l
1005
Iago
1014 Cynan
_____l________
l
l
l
l
1035 Cynan 1035 Tangwystl (a)
1041 Gruffudd (b)
l
1070 Gruffudd (c)
(a)
Wife of Llywarch Hwlbwrch ap Gwrydr Goch, aunt of Gruffudd whose obit is recorded in 1137
(b)
The Gruffudd ap Cynan who was born in Ireland where his father fled after Gruffudd ap Llewelyn killed his uncle Iago in 1039.
He attempted to retake the kingship of Gwynedd in 1075 and again in 1081 but thereafter disappeared from history. Tangwystl
was his first-cousin
(c)
The Gruffudd ap Cynan who became Lord of Anglesey in 1099 and later King of Gwynedd; he died in 1137. Tangwystl was
his aunt.
Llywarch Hwlbwrch (the
nickname was probably his manor in Rhos) was the Lord of Rhos, whose father had sent him at age 14, in accordance with Welsh
law, to the court of interim King Cynfyn ap Gwerystan. There, he lived and trained with future king Gruffudd ap Llewelyn
who included Llywarch when assembling his cabinet of chief advisors.
We have previously suggested
that Llywarch had a younger brother named Cadwgan who was ancestor to the Cadwgan ap Bleddyn who was later granted lands in
Ardudwy and became known as Cadwgan of Nannau[5].
Llywarch Hwlbwrch did
have a son named Llywarch Goch, but it was a later man of that name who Bartrum mentions as having a daughter who was a mistress
of Llewelyn Fawr. That lady, born c. 1180, was a daughter of Llywarch Goch ap Iorwerth ap Cynan ap Llywarch Goch ap
Llywarch Hwlbwrch. The extra generation which Bartrum would have preferred is included in our construction. It
was the c. 1055 Llywarch Goch whose father was named Llywarch Hwlbwrch, not his same-named descendant.
