#22 - Collwyn ap Tangno

#22 - COLLWYN ap TANGNO

While Bartrum insists on the revisionist spelling "Gollwyn", he offers two pedigrees for this man:

(1) "Gollwyn ap Tangno ap Cadfael ap Lludd ap Llew ap Llyminod angel ap Pasgen ap Urien Rheged"

(2) "Gollwyn ap Tangno ap Cadfael ap Lludd ap Beli ap Rhun ap Maelgwn Gwynedd"

In his note of the pedigrees, he tells us"

"He was born c. 1025 and was ancestor of a tribe in Eifionydd and Ardudwy which was one of the Pymtheg Llwyth Gwynedd. In HL 9 his pedigree is only carried back to Lludd. It appears that some genealogist, not knowing the version of pedigree #1, misidentified Lludd with Lludd ap Beli Mawr. The next stage was to identify Beli with Beli ap Rhun of the royal line of Gwynedd, whence the version of pedigree #2.

"The claim by a South Wales family to be descended from Pasgen ap Urien Rheged is of respectable antiquity, for it is found in JC 33-4, where we are told that the wife of Llewelyn ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd was Ellylw, seventh in descent from Pasgen. This family is associated with Abergwili in Ystrad Tywy, but no other descendants are recorded. However, later pedigrees give another tribe descended from Pasgen, that of Einion ap Llywarch, in the same area. Two tribes in North Wales, those of Gollwyn ap Tangno and Marchweithian, were also traced to Pasgen ap Urien.

"All these four lines point to a date of birth about 850 for Pasgen. Is this accidental or does it point to a historical person named Pasgen who was mis-identified with Pasgen ap Urien of the sixth century? There also seems to have been a family in Iscennen claiming descent from Cadell ap Urien, but the male line evidently ended in about 1450 and the result is that the full pedigree has not been preserved."

PEDIGREE #1:

We would place the birth of Collwyn ap Tangno near 1010, but agree the Pasgen in his ancestry was born c. 850. As discussed in our earlier paper[1], we would replace "Llew ap Lyminod angel" with a single man and his nickname, i.e. Llewelyn Llyminiog Angel. We also suggest "Lludd" is merely an abbreviated version of Lluddoca. Finally, we would delete "Rheged" since this was clearly not the 6th century Urien Rheged.

PEDIGREE #2:

We agree with Bartrum that this is a corrupt version penned by a medieval man who must have believed there was only a single Lludd and a single Beli found in Welsh pedigrees. We disagree with his throw-away comment describing Beli ap Rhun as "of the royal line of Gwynedd"; that man was the grandson of Maelgwn Gwynedd ap Cadwallon Lawhir whereas the royal line of Gwynedd descended from Beli ap Einion ap Owain Ddantgwyn[2].

COMMENTS:

Although the cantrefs of Eifionydd and Ardudwy were part of Collwyn's lordship in Gwynedd, he and his eldest son Merwydd Goch lived in Llyn where his ancestors had resided for four generations before his birth. We have previously suggested his ancestor, Llewelyn Llyminiog Angel, obtained the lordship once ruled by Merfyn ap Rhodri Mawr by marrying a daughter of Merfyn following Merfyn's death[3].

The South Wales families who descended from Pasgen represent lines of his younger sons, Gwrgan and Ynyr, who were yet children when Pasgen fled from Rhos to Ceredigion about the year 893. When Hywel Dda assembled his kingdom of Deheubarth in the early 10th century, Pasgen was granted the Lordship of Gower.

It is our belief that Urien, the father of Pasgen, was a younger son of Hywel ap Caradog of Rhos and brother of the 9th century Caradog Freich Fras. While it is possible that Pasgen had a brother named Cadell ap Urien, the single mention of such a man in a brief Iscennen pedigree is inconclusive. He was omitted from Bartrum's charts and indexes, and the pedigree may have been a family related to one of the Einion ap Llywarchs known to live in Iscennen in the 13th century[4]; that extended family descended from Mor ap Ynyr ap Pasgen.

We chart the ancestry of Collwyn ap Tangno as:

740 Caradog, ob 798

780 Hywel, ob 825[5]

820 Urien

850 Pasgen

878 Llewelyn Llyminiog Angel

910 Lluddoca

945 Cadfael

980 Tangno

1010 Collwyn

NOTES:

[1] "Pasgen ap Urien 'Rheged', Lord of Gower" at the link below: